Z.E.D.S. Series (Book 1): Z.E.D.S. Rising

by Botts, Bradley

  “Guys, this way,” I yelled to the rest of the group.

  They followed me into the doorway and we ran to the cubicle I saw Logan standing at.

  Shaun was standing next to me and he asked, “Why are we stopping here?”

  “This may sound crazy, but I saw Logan.”

  Shaun looked at me with a confused look.

  “You saw Logan?”

  “I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve been seeing him since we arrived. He followed us into this building and then I saw him standing next to this computer. I don’t know why but I have a feeling he’s still with us and he was telling me to come into this room.”

  Brock placed his hands on the table and said, “Atlas, Logan is dead. How can he be here with us?”

  “I can’t explain it. I know it sounds crazy I know.”

  Shaun placed his hand on my shoulder and assured me, “I believe you Atlas.”

  I turned on the computer and it was password encrypted.

  “Shit, you need a password,” I said slamming my fist into the table.

  Zora pushes me out of the way and begun typing on the keyboard.

  “Shaun. Brock, guard the door in case someone tries comes in.”

  I see Zora press the keys on the keyboard and in an instant the main screen appears.

  “How did you do that?”

  Zora smiled and said, “Five years hacking school files as a teenager to change my grade taught me a couple of things.”

  We began observing all of the icons on the screen and one caught our eye. It was labeled Bio. Zora grabbed the mouse and clicked on it. A video popped up of a helmet camera showing the foot travel of a soldier. I familiar voice came across the speakers.

  “We are going in there and destroying this weapon. Any tangos get in the way you take them out. Our mission is to search and destroy isn’t that clear!”

  A group of men and women responded, “Sir yes sir.”

  In the back of my mind the voice came clear to me.

  “That sounds like Captain Riggs.”

  The voice came over the speakers again.

  “Atlas, the compound is just over the hill. Our orders are to find and destroy the weapon.”

  “What about the civilians inside? We can’t just leave them there.”

  “Screw it. We save as many as we can and we get out now!”

  “Zora. That is Captain Riggs. That was the day we destroyed the Bio weapon inside the compound.”

  The video stopped shortly after we set the compound on fire. Why would they have the video stashed on this computer? After the video went off Zora exited out of the file and there was a another file attached to it labeled Project Rev.

  “Zora, click on that. That’s what Riley said he overheard the soldiers say.”

  Zora clicked on the file and it had my city’s name on it along with the entire Z.E.D.S. team. The file had recent pictures of us along with the town we lived in, living family and our military records. They didn’t have our safe houses on file which gave me some relief considering all of the information they had on us. It even had my nieces name on the list of living family but next to their name it said location unknown. We came here to save them and find answers. The answer we came here to find was still in a far reach, my nieces aren’t here to rescue and now I found out that we were being watched. Why was it us being watched? The footage from Captain Riggs’ helmet, a profile on each of us and we were labeled under Project Rev; what exactly was going on?

  Shaun and Brock ran back to us from the door.

  “They are coming we have to go.”

  “We need to take this file with us and figure out why they have this. We also need to figure out who they are.”

  I was searching around the desk looking for something that I could save the file to.

  Shaun stood next to me and asked, “What are you doing? We have to go now.”

  “There’s a file on all of us in this computer and I want to know why.”

  I opened the last drawer and found a portable flash drive still in its packaging. I tore it open and handed it to Zora.

  “Copy everything you can to that.”

  Zora placed it inside the computer and began downloading the files.

  Brock turned around at us and yelled, “They’re here.”

  Brock and Shaun began shooting at the door keeping the people hunting for us busy. I grabbed my weapon off the table and started shooting with them. The bullets were going through the door weakening it as both sides were being fired upon.

  Zora jumped out of the chair and yelled, “It’s done. Let’s go.”

  Zora tossed me the flash drive and led us to the door on the other side of the room. I aimed my weapon at the computer and destroyed it with bullets entering the tower while running towards the door. Call it wishful thinking but I figured if I destroyed that computer then maybe there was a chance our files were erased. As soon as we went through the door they busted down the other one. We began to run down the stairs until we heard an eerie roar coming from the bottom. A smell filled the stairwell and we knew it wasn’t the angry personnel heading from the other side.

  “We need to go up,” I said to the others while trying to guide them in the other direction.

  We ran further up the stairwell and broke down another door that led into a dark room. The lights weren’t completely off but they were dim enough to where you had to really focus to see. We had ventured into another room filled with more computers, what seemed to be lab equipment and a tall object with a black tarp covering it. There was a slight banging on the box from inside the tarp. I pulled my Beretta from its holster and aimed it towards the sound. I cautiously stepped towards it and gripped the tarp. What was behind the tarp was something I didn’t expect. They were trapped in a glass box. They were huddled up inside this tall glass box with cameras in every corner. The box contained what we have been fighting since it started. Zombies were herd like cattle and placed in front of cameras inside of a tall box. Some of their arms were dangling from what little skin kept them attached. Others were naked roaming around without a clue and when they saw us staring at them they became angry and hungry. They beat on the glass trying to reach us but couldn’t.

  “What in the Hell is this,” I asked with a terrified crackle in my voice.

  Zora, Shaun and Brock were speechless. We heard the door swing open behind us but before we could aim our guns at them a voice began spitting commands at us.

  “Don’t move. Stay right where you are.”

  The voice paused for a moment then barked another order to us.

  “Put your hands in the air and turn around.”

  I had my gun still in my hand once it went in the air. I let it go for the frame of the trigger to catch my index finger as I turned around. Five more personnel in suits and guns appeared through the door and closed it behind them. The front man, the one that seemed to be leading this small group of minions stood there staring at me.

  His dark voice aimed a question towards me.

  “Atlas is it?”

  I stared at him trying to figure him out, but I had never seen the man before. He knew my name but I knew nothing of him.

  “How do you know my name?”

  As he shrugged his shoulders and chuckled towards my question he began walking around us taking slow footsteps.

  “We know all about you and the, what do you call yourselves, the Z.E.D.S.; we have all kinds of information on you. We thought we had you taken care of with our strike on your town but somehow you managed to escape it.”

  I didn’t take my eyes off of him as I watched him pace around us like a hawk stalking its prey.

  “Why would you want to kill us?”

  He smiled at my question because he knew answers we didn’t.

  “Now Atlas, I can’t tell you that. That’s a question you will never find the answer to because now that you are in front of me I can just kill you now. I will probably start with Shaun here considering he is your wingm
an. Then I will move on to his brother Brock. After Brock I will go for your military friend here Zora. We may have some fun with her first and then kill her. The entire time you are going to watch your entire team die in front of you. Wait a minute I know there are a couple of you missing. Are Mark, Riley, Chase and Justin still in our south building?”

  He knows about us he knows who is here. Who is this guy?

  “It doesn’t matter where they are. They should be dead by now. Aren’t you missing someone? What was his name? Logan I believe it was. Where is he?”

  Hearing his name forced me to feel an anger that I hadn’t felt since the day he died.

  “Listen here you son of a bitch. You mention his name again I swear I will place a bullet in your head.”

  The smug laugh that exerted from his throat wasn’t only obnoxious but fueled me with more hatred than I ever felt before.

  “So he did die? We didn’t know if we had gotten at least one of you or not. Now once we take care of your group here and then find your safe house and take care of it, all that we have planned for can proceed without a hitch. We can finally do what we are supposed to do.”

  Shaun put his hands down to his side and walked to the man.

  “You better wipe that dumbass smile off your face before I shoot it off.”

  The man signaled the soldiers to come closer to us. I looked at Zora and Brock while nodding my head signaling them to get ready to shoot.

  “Grab their weapons from them and kill them all. Start with this cocky meat suit.”

  I could see Shaun’s fist clinch at his side and then he let out a scream that would shake the core of any man standing in his way. Shaun lunged to the man taking him down to the floor. As they went to the ground, I knew an opportunity to escape was present. I turned my back to the enemy, gripped my gun and shot at the glass surrounding the box. Zora and Brock took my que and fired towards the other five suits as they scattered around the room. The glass began to crack but it wasn’t completely broken. Shaun’s focus wasn’t on escaping but only on shoving his fist into the man’s face over and over again. With every punch Shaun threw at him the more he laughed. He never told Shaun to stop, he just kept laughing. As Zora and Brock provided me cover a ran to Shaun and tried to pull him off of the man.

  “Shaun, we have to go. Come on.”

  Through the blood the man began to speak.

  “Yea Shaun, you need to go before you die like your friend Logan did.”

  He spit blood on Shaun’s boots while laughing once more. I knew what Shaun wanted to do from the look in his eyes.

  “Shaun we have to go.”

  I hear the gun fire stop which I knew meant Zora and Brock were reloading. The other suits began firing towards us. I turn around and aim my gun to the glass box one more time and fire three shots. The glass cracked from my bullet hole to the ground. Shaun stood there staring at his beaten enemy not moving. I look back at the box and a zombie slammed its fists against it. The glass shattered all around us and they began stepping out of their cage. I was yelling at Shaun to run but he couldn’t hear me. Shaun pulled his gun from his holster and fired a shot into the man’s head. I turned around and shoved the zombies that were getting close to us. Shaun started to turn around when we heard something we couldn’t explain. The man began to laugh again. Shaun had just placed a bullet in his head and yet he was laying there laughing.

  “You have failed. You all will die,” he said lying there with blood flowing from his skull.

  We didn’t know how to comprehend what was happening. Before we could ask the obvious question to him we saw the door behind the other suits break open and more zombies came into the room. The dead from the box were becoming more deadly as they began to surround us. The men that Zora and Brock were holding off became a feast for the invading zombies. I grabbed Shaun and shoved him to the side as I pushed the zombies away from us. They ventured to whatever that thing was on the floor and began feasting. As they ripped open into his body he didn’t even scream. He just still tried to talk to us.

  “You will not survive what is coming. You will die along with this world like you’re supposed to.”

  I hear Brock and Zora yelling for us to follow them. We run out of the room following Zora and Brock up the stairs.

  As we were running I yelled to Zora, “Why are we going up? We will be trapped.”

  Zora stopped us for a moment with a reply, “Do you remember after the 9/11 attacks the government issued an evacuation plan for all government buildings over forty stories tall?”

  “Do you believe they still invested into that protocol considering this building was a headquarters for the apocalypse?”

  Zora looked up the stairs and looked back at me with a reply, “I guess we will find out.”

  Zora began running up the stairs again and we followed her. We approached the last floor of the building before reaching the roof top. We ran to a door that connected to a small room.

  “Hopefully this building followed protocol,” Zora said while trying to catch her breath.

  She kicked open the door and felt around the corners for a light switch. Fast paced footsteps began making noise behind us. Even though the sound was distant I knew it wasn’t going to be long before it caught up to us. A light shined in the room when Zora found a way to turn on the light. When I looked in the room I felt relieved that for some odd reason the people of this building did in fact follow protocol. We each picked up a bag and strapped them to our backs.

  Shaun asked us while strapping his self in, “Parachutes is protocol?”

  “The protocol was any personnel working above a certain floor of a tall building was to be issued a parachute in case of another plane crash into a building or any type of disaster in a building where you needed to get outside but your access was compromised if the floors below you were also compromised.”

  The footsteps became louder and the roars of the zombies became louder with it. I knew they were close and we were going to have to climb one more story to get to the roof. I had my parachute applied to me first and I aimed my gun down the stairs watching for the ugly cannibals to show their faces. I stared down the stairwell and here they came. A mob of them was running towards us.

  “They are coming. You guys ready,” I asked as Zora placed her final strap between her legs.

  “Let’s go.”

  My gun began firing down the stairwell as they became closer and we were running to the roof.

  Zora went to open the door but yelled, “It’s freaking locked Atlas. It’s locked from the outside.”

  I knew I was going to have to buy us some time so they could access the door.

  “You guys work on the lock and I will hold them off.”

  Shaun began to run with me but I stopped him.

  “You help them get that door unlocked. Let me worry about the dead.”

  He ran back towards the door and they opened fire on the door as I opened fire to the mob chasing us. With every bullet I sent to them they still climbed over each other getting closer.

  “Atlas, come on!”

  I looked above me and saw them holding the door open.

  “Go! I’ll be right behind you,” I yelled as they stood there watching.

  I gripped a grenade from my belt and tossed it in the middle of the crowd. I knew it wouldn’t take care of all of them, but it would buy me some time to get to the roof. I took off running to the door and stepped out into the sunlight with a hot breeze hitting my face. I access the roof and I see the rest waiting for me at the edge.

  “Jump,” I yelled to them crossing the roof top.

  As soon as they see them leave my sight I look behind me and notice I’m being chased by an uncomfortable amount of zombies that sprint almost as fast as I can. I began shooting while running towards the edge taken care of as many of them as I can before I took my leap of faith. I approach the ledge and I push off of the roof praying we would be safe enough to land on the ground unharmed. My body felt li
fted soaring across the air. I turned my body to try to take out a couple more dead before I free fell too far. A couple of them fell on the roof top as well as many of them ran off of it. With the wind pressing against my back I forced my body back around to see the roadway becoming closer. I observed three parachutes deploy and a feeling of relief came over me as I knew they were going to be safe. My right hand grazed across the pack trying to feel for my release cord. I felt it going against wind waving uncontrollably beyond my grip. After my struggle with obtaining the release cord I was finally able to clamp it between my middle and index finger. I moved it to the palm of my hand and pulled it as hard as I could. I heard the pack open and the chute catch wind. The force jerked my body to a floating stand still and I hovered in the air. Zombies were falling all around me from where they chased me off of the roof. I could see their bodies splatter onto the road as I glided down. I became closer to the road and allowed my legs to relax before connecting to the road. My body slid across the pavement and my chute was being caught in the wind Before it drug me to far down the asphalt I gripped my knife and I slit the strings from my pack while the shoot followed the wind. I had a burning sensation across my arm where it had been formally introduced to the pavement. Zora, Brock and Shaun ran up to me as I estimated the damage to my arm.

  “You guys alright,” I asked as they approached me.

  “Yeah, we’re fine,” replied Zora.

  “Shaun, get on the radio and contact Mark and the rest of the group to tell them we need to leave. Meet us back at the parking garage immediately. Zora do you still have the flash drive?”

  Zora reached into her pocket and pulled the flash drive out of her pocket. I noticed her arm was bleeding pretty horridly as it was stretched to me.