GENERATION Z THE COMPLETE BOX SET: NOVELS 1-3

by Peter Meredith

  “Do something about her,” Stu whispered, urgently. The little sound she was making had attracted one of the dead: a seven-foot tall female with only a single swinging breast and a deformed head that was straight flat in the back. It paused, staring, swaying slightly trying to make up what was left of its mind as to what the odd blobs were next to the fence and what the sound had been.

  Mike gently put his hand over Jenn’s mouth, but this only caused her to moan louder.

  The beast let out a sound that was somewhere between a growl and a shriek as it charged straight into the forest of spears, impaling itself on three of them. This barely slowed it down. Although it was only four-hundred pounds or so, the spears snapped like twigs as it forced itself on.

  With every other step more spears stabbed up into it until its breast was punctured and her bowels ruptured. Black blood flowed and yet it didn’t seem fazed in the least as it began swinging its arms, swatting the spears aside. It came on so fast that Stu only had time to click one of the M4s from safe to fire and sight down its length.

  It was so dark that he could barely see the end of the black barrel and his aim could only be considered an approximation. The creature was little more than a monstrous shadow and shooting at it was almost the dumbest thing he could do, but what choice did he have? If they tried to escape back under the fence, the creature would certainly attack it and that would make even more noise and attract even more zombies. The complex was already ringed by them; there would be nowhere to run and few places to hide.

  Stu waited until the last moment to fire, but just before he did, the beast tripped over one of the spears and as it fell, another spear transfixed its neck in a manner that would have killed a normal human in seconds. It did not die that fast. It wiggled and gurgled, not knowing what was happening, as blood gushed down the shaft of the spear.

  They couldn’t wait for it to die. Mike began crawling, pulling Jenn along by the strap of one pack. When he passed the beast, it ripped open half its neck to stare at them. As they were both in ghillie suits, it couldn’t decide what they were. Stu was without a suit and knew that he’d be seen as soon as it turned back towards him. Quickly, he yanked one of the spears out of the ground and plunged it directly into the creature’s face, taking out its left eye and driving deep.

  What happened next was a complete shock. The zombie actually screamed as if in pain. It let out one long agonizing wail and then slumped, dead.

  “Huh?” Jenn asked, in a bleary voice. “What was that?”

  It was the sound of their luck running out and what followed was the sound of a stampeding pack of zombies charging right for them.

  Chapter 14

  Now they had no choice but to flee back under the fence and hope that the beasts would forget about them. It wasn’t likely. If nothing else, the dead were dogged in their determination to kill. They would tear gaping holes in the fence in seconds and then charge into the complex, attacking anything that moved.

  Stu would have to get Jenn and Mike to his apartment before that could happen. He left the duffle bag on the ground and grabbed Jenn’s right arm while Mike held her left. They had just begun pulling her towards the fence, when a sudden blaze of light spun them around.

  A hundred yards away a house was on fire. Its timbers had been slowly rotting for the last dozen years and an infestation of woodboring beetles had made them porous and easily combustible. The house had almost exploded into flame and, in its light, Stu could see fifty or sixty dead scattered all over the hill leading to the complex.

  He also saw the shadowy figure of a girl dancing in front of the flames. Mike, who was standing next to him, asked in amazement, “Did she just take her shirt off?”

  Stu nodded. It could only be Eve swinging her shirt over her head and whirling it around. “Let’s get out of here,” he suggested, dropping into a crouch.

  With the fire, the danger from the dead had decreased significantly, however the danger from the Hill People had grown and as they dragged Jenn through the spears, someone shot a crossbow at them, missing only by a few feet. The two began to drag Jenn along even faster as more bolts and whispered curses followed after them.

  Once past the spears, they were safe from the bolts, but not from the dead as more began to flock in. Eve had disappeared, probably running naked and mad, but to where Stu didn’t know. He didn’t have much time to think about that. Jenn was no longer conscious which was no wonder with the amazing amount of blood that gushed from her wound.

  Eve’s disappearance was the only good news. The dead were everywhere. Stu and Mike could only creep along on their hands and knees, both secretly frightened out of their wits. Zombies sometimes stomped by only a few feet away, sometimes they would rush right at them only to turn suddenly and attack the shadow of a tree or, more often, another zombie.

  When this happened, there would be a great roaring followed by the meaty sound of heavy fists crashing into skulls. Bones shattered, and blood flew as the fights escalated into an all-out war that seemed to shake the earth. In one second, it would be a battle to end all battles, then there would be a pause in which both creatures assumed a vacant-eyed recognition and the two would separate, forgetting the event ever happened.

  To keep away from them, they scurried to a chain-link fence that was so interwoven with weeds that it provided the perfect cover right up until a big bull of a zombie plowed right into it. Seven hundred pounds of undead meat bent it right over and as it thrashed about trying to get up, more zombies came to investigate and more zombies fell across it, trapping the three of them.

  Thankfully, none of the dead were right on top of them or they would have been crushed. Nevertheless, Stu felt like he was in a waffle iron being compressed down into the dirt and he was sure that if he lived and managed to get away he would leave behind a cartoon-like imprint of himself on the ground.

  The pressure and pain were hard to withstand in complete silence. Mike had his eyes clamped down and his teeth clenched, while Stu couldn’t take a full breath and found himself panting as lightly as he could, breathing only in the very upper part of his chest.

  Stu had never been claustrophobic before, but he was at that moment. The weight of the beasts was smothering him, and he had to fight the frantic desire to scream: Get off! I can’t breathe, damn it! And he probably would have if he could’ve sucked in enough air.

  Just as panic began to set in, one of the beasts managed to roll off the fence. Stu gasped, sucking in a loud breath. It went unheard. There was a new fire going and the dead were charging towards it.

  Eve had lit another house on fire. Like the last it went right up with a sweeping whoosh.

  The fire was a great distraction and for a second time Stu could thank Eve, assuming she had set it for their benefit. The fire burned bright and surprisingly loudly along the most direct route down to the harbor. They would have to go wide around it, which meant more time among the dead, more time in immediate danger, and less time to help Jenn.

  “We gotta do something for her,” Mike whispered. “We gotta at least stop the bleeding or she’ll have nothing left.”

  Stu agreed and the two pulled her into the closest house, one that sat in ugly dilapidation, its roof sagging and soft, looking as though it might collapse if a particularly fat squirrel were to scamper across it. They snuck in through the backdoor and gently lifted Jenn onto a narrow table in the living room which afforded them the most light.

  Mike hesitantly reached out to touch the four-inch gash along the side of her head, afraid that his finger wouldn’t meet any resistance and go straight through to her brain. Her skull seemed solid which was a relief. As well, the bleeding was already much reduced, although Mike attributed that to the fact she was probably getting low. “What sort of bandage should we use?”

  Stu didn’t know what kind they had and half-turned for the packs before remembering he had left the duffel bag behind, just outside the fence. “Damn! I forgot it. I’m sorry. But there are
other places we can get bandages. There might be some here.” Bandages really were not in short supply—antibiotics were, however, and Jenn would likely need them. He didn’t bring this up as he went in search of something to wrap her head.

  There was plenty of light to search by. Flames from the second house had spread to a nearby tree—a shagbark hickory that had died years before. Its strange peeling bark acted as the perfect kindling and the fire mounted higher and higher.

  Even with the light, Stu couldn’t find any bandages and had to settle for cutting up a sheet into long strips. Not knowing exactly what to do, he wrapped Jenn’s head round and round.

  Sometime after the seventh loop, Jenn’s eyes opened to slits. “Head hurts,” she whispered with all the strength she could muster. The room spun in lazy, undulating circles making her stomach sour; she was too weak to vomit although she felt the need.

  “You got shot,” Mike said, “but it’ll be okay. It was just a nick, barely a scratch. Do you think you can stand? Can you feel your feet and your toes and all that?”

  She tried to concentrate but found herself drifting off into a misty semi-consciousness where she was dimly aware of Mike’s anxiety. Stu was only a shadow revolving around her. With each pass of the sheet, her head felt heavier until it was a struggle to keep it upright.

  When he finished, it looked as though she was wearing a turban and felt like her head was three-times its normal size. “What happened?” After they explained, her only response was, “Oh.”

  Afraid that Eve would set the entire hillside ablaze, Stu tried to get them moving. Mike refused, saying, “She needs to rest for a few more minutes.” After twenty minutes, Jenn could stand though her face drained of all color and her head spun so badly, that walking was out of the question. She was trembling and her knees were buckling when Mike caught her before she fell and helped her to lie down.

  Stu wrapped her up in two heavy blankets so that she resembled a butterfly peeking from its cocoon. He then found a length of rope in the garage which he secured under her arms. With Mike and Stu hauling on it they left the house, dragging Jenn along. The ground beneath her was bumpy and the rope was uncomfortable, but she still fell asleep.

  They moved at an agonizingly slow pace, creeping along, sometimes hunched over and sometimes going on their hands and knees. After four blocks they had to change direction: Eve had lit another series of fires. An entire row of homes began to burn, merrily in front of them.

  Stu had them swing wide. Two blocks later another house suddenly burst into flames, again almost right in front of them. Eve wasn’t trying to help them, she was trying to trap them!

  They had to turn and work against the tide of dead, going back around to the right. Here they found more fires, dozens of them. These were smaller, however, and most had not yet been seen by the zombies. Stu pressed on faster now, going directly between two of them.

  Now the harbor was right below them and, to their surprise, most of the zombies had already been drawn up the hill.

  There were only a few buildings near the harbor that could accommodate the sailboat and one was an auto repair shop that was missing its roof. When they reached the building, Stu and Mike were wide-eyed and sweating freely, both expecting some sort of attack and, because of Eve’s warped mind, they figured it would be something horrible, and at the same time, something convoluted. Her mind was unfathomable which meant her designs had to be equally so.

  “Wait,” Mike warned as Stu was about to touch the door. “What if she’s inside?” He lowered his voice even further. “What if she set a trap?”

  “Why would I do that?” They both jumped. Eve had appeared around the side of the building and was casually leaning against it. “Why would I boobytrap a door after saving your skin three times?”

  Mike snorted. “You weren’t saving anyone. That was you…” He really didn’t understand why she had set the fires, but as he had started the sentence, he figured he should end it so he wouldn’t look stupid. “That was you getting your jollies off.”

  Stu expected some stinging comeback from her. She only shrugged. “Fires are fun, I won’t deny that.” She gazed up the hill where the flames were gradually spreading. Stu had never in his life seen a night as bright as this one. It was bright enough to see that her normally quick, insatiable eyes were drooping.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Me? Oh, no, I’m far from okay. How could I be? Jillybean has turned everyone against me. She makes me out to be some sort of devil. You guys think it. I know you do, so don’t bother trying to deny it. Why else would you think I was trying to trap you? I have my ups and downs like anyone else, but a trap? That doesn’t make any sense, not after I saved you…without being thanked, by the way.”

  That first fire had saved them, there was no denying that. And maybe the second had as well. The rest of the fires had definitely been set to hamper them at a minimum. “Thank you,” Stu said, with Mike echoing him in a mumble. Eve shrugged again, this time even more listlessly. Stu stepped a little closer, a part of him still wary. He put a hand to her forehead which was cool.

  “You look sort of sick. That was what I meant when I asked if you were okay.”

  Eve gazed at him for some time; long enough for Stu to feel self-conscious about asking. Then her eyes dropped away as she said, “I’m not alright. I am sick. It’s the pills. Jillybean has been trying to poison me for years. We have to stop taking them.”

  Stu didn’t like the sound of that and neither did Mike, who said, “Maybe we should let the real doctor decide that. She’s smart. She won’t kill herself just to get rid of you. I bet she could probably fix you both. So, maybe if we could just talk to her?” He waited expectantly for Eve to let Jillybean out. They all did, including Eve or so it seemed.

  She cocked her head for a few seconds as if listening to Jillybean’s approaching footsteps in her mind. As she did, her old devil-may-care, unhinged look stole back over her. “What’s that? Jillybean, I can’t hear you. You can’t come back? Why?”

  Mike found himself hanging on her words. “What did she say? Why can’t she come back? Is it math? Do we have to do something about math?” He was very much like Jenn when it came to math. Anything beyond simple adding and subtracting made him distinctly uncomfortable. He would turn mute and take to nodding knowingly whenever it was brought up.

  “Math, yes. That’s the only way,” Eve said, her eyes alight. “Jillybean says you have to tell her the biggest number you know.”

  Mike didn’t know the biggest number he knew. It wasn’t something he had ever tried to think up before. His mouth went instantly dry and his eyes took on a frightened look. “A thousand…I think?”

  “What about a thousand and one?” she asked. “Isn’t that bigger? You’re going to have to count. Out loud, probably.”

  Before he could start, Stu growled, “Stop it, Eve. Bring Jillybean back. We need her to look over Jenn. She was shot on the side of the head.”

  Eve grinned. “Why can’t I have any fun? You have to admit, it would’ve been fun watching Mike straining to get past eleven hundred. Do you think he even knows what I mean by eleven hundred?”

  Mike didn’t. He knew what nine hundred was, but there was no such thing as ten hundred, of that he was certain, so it followed that eleven hundred was some sort of made-up number designed to make him look stupid.

  She giggled at his anger which only made him angrier. When she saw his fists balled, she said, “Oh, so scary. What? Are you going to hit a girl? Maybe we should wake Jenn up and show her what kind of guy you really are.” Just as she knew it would, his anger dissipated in a blink; she was playing him, working him up and down.

  Stu stepped between them. “You two are like children, always bickering. Look Eve, please bring back Jillybean. It’s important.” He had his tricks to bring her back, but he was afraid to use them too many times, thinking that Eve would catch on, making the next time that much harder.

  Abusing Mik
e was her idea of fun and now that was being taken from her, she wasn’t happy. “You don’t even know what you’re asking. You’re asking me to die. You’re asking me to cease to exist. That’s what happens when Jillybean takes over my body and my mind. And you know what’s worse, is the way you ask. Like I don’t have feelings. Go away, Eve. No one wants you, Eve. Everyone hates you, Eve. How do you think that makes me feel? Do you think it makes me happy? Do you think that makes me want to do any favors for you?”

  “No,” Stu admitted. “I guess not.”

  “You guess?” she snapped, moving closer to him. She canted her head back and gazed fiercely into his face “Your entire simple, dull life has been about guessing. You drift through your days without a clue. That’s why you live on this crappy little hill, thinking you’re making a difference when you catch a fish or shoot a deer. You don’t have a clue what’s really going on all around you. You don’t even have a clue about Jillybean, but, oh won’t it be fun when you find out the real reason why she came with you.”

  Mike and Stu exchanged a look before Stu cleared his throat. “She came to save lives,” he asserted, though he did so without much conviction.

  Eve grinned, her teeth very white against her jaundiced face. She shook her head. “Wrongo. Damn, I’m so torn. I want to tell you, so I can see the look of shock and the disappointment on your face, but I want it to drag out. I want you to get so caught up in her that it just kills you when you find out what she’s really like. Then maybe you will realize that I’m the good one and she…she’s dirt.”

  Chapter 15

  Her words, for once filled with something very close to sincerity, jarred Stu, shutting his mouth just as he was about to tell Eve to shut hers. She didn’t need to be told to shut her mouth. She had spewed her poisoned words and now looked up at him in a grinning silence, enjoying the effect she’d had on him.