GENERATION Z THE COMPLETE BOX SET: NOVELS 1-3

by Peter Meredith

  Diamond was going to die a slow, lingering death. Not even Jillybean could have helped her. No, the only thing Jillybean could have done was to help her die as painlessly as possible. She was good at killing.

  Jenn was not. She hated the whole idea. Just the thought of killing Diamond had her sweating. Guilt sprang up. It was so thick in her chest that she couldn’t take a full breath or swallow or…

  “J-Just a second,” she said to Diamond, giving her the fakest smile she had ever worn. “I just need something from outside.”

  Jenn headed for the door and the moment the blackout curtains swung shut she ran.

  Chapter 8

  Jenn Lockhart

  It was a setup. The whole thing. Donna was in on it and so were Stu and Miss Shay. They all knew what being queen really meant. There’d be no lavish parties or gem-studded tiaras. It would be guilt and blame and terrible decisions with no right answers. Everything would be her fault.

  Starting with Diamond.

  She would have to die, and it wasn’t something Jenn could delegate. There was no way she’d be able to just order Miss Shay to slice open Diamond’s throat. Make sure you go good and deep on the first try. You wouldn’t want to have to do that a second time.

  This flashed through Jenn’s mind in half a second as she sprinted away. She had no idea where she was going, she only knew she couldn’t be the one slitting throats and making the wrong decisions that would get everyone killed. No, that would have to be someone…

  “Jenn? Queen?” It was Shaina Hale. The poor, abused woman had come out right behind Jenn and now was hurrying after her. “Is there something I can get for you?”

  “Nope,” Jenn called over her shoulder as she headed down the hill toward the cove. She could swim just fine. In an hour she could be done with all of this. What was keeping her on the island anyway? Her love was dead. Her best friend had turned out to be an evil bitch, and she was dead. And chances were, if she stayed, Jenn could expect to be tortured in the most gruesome manner for her role in opposing the Corsairs.

  Nothing was keeping her there and nothing was going to stop her from leaving—a second later she turned her ankle on a rock. Screaming, hot pain shot right up her leg as she stumbled and fell.

  “Are you okay?” Shaina asked as Jenn writhed, her teeth gritted against the possibility of making a sound.

  “Mmm! Son of a…Do I look okay to you?”

  Shaina’s shadow shrugged, and Jenn wanted to scream at the weak gesture: The answer’s no! But she didn’t. The gesture was weak and so was the woman. Through no fault of her own, Shaina was weak and needed compassion, not anger.

  “Just twisted my ankle. It’s nothing.” But was it nothing, or was it a sign? Maybe she was meant to stay. “Not that I can leave now, anyways,” she muttered under her breath. Louder, she asked Shaina, “Could you help me up, please? I-I wanted to go get the rest of Jillybean’s supplies, and I tripped and…” She trailed off, not knowing why she was explaining anything to Shaina, who was quite ready to believe Jenn was “great” no matter what she did.

  Shaina had not been the only one to follow Jenn out. Aaron had as well. “Oh, we got everything. Jillybean thought of everything.” Jenn bit her tongue at this and Aaron didn’t see the look of anger that swept her face. “She had us going back and forth to the city for all sorts of supplies. You think you can use ‘em all, Jenn?”

  “It’s Queen Jenn,” Shaina said in a warning tone.

  Jenn was taken back by the fierce loyalty in her voice. “It’s okay, Shaina. I’ve known Aaron since he was a baby. He saved my life once.”

  “Okay,” Shaina said. “That’s great, then.”

  “It sure was,” Jenn replied. “Now, let’s go back inside.” So, I can kill Diamond. Jenn knew she wasn’t good enough to help Diamond and she just wanted to keep on limping past her, only Diamond was waiting, her face twisted in misery.

  “Forget something?” Miss Shay asked with just the right amount of snark.

  Jenn had been trying to keep a warm, positive smile on her face for Diamond’s sake; it turned into an icy stare. “I forgot how useless you were. What did you do for her? Anything?”

  “I did what I could. I don’t claim to be a doctor. Or a healer for that matter. I would love to see you work your magic, however.” She looked to Donna for confirmation that her jab was properly witty. The ex-leader of the Coven only seemed somewhat embarrassed and for good reason.

  For nine years, the Coven had been the main source of medical advice and treatment to be found in the bay area. They had never been any good. They knew basic first aid and could splint a leg or an arm, or clean and wrap a cut. While the medicine was still effective, they gave out antibiotics like it was candy and doled out pain meds left and right.

  But they had zero experience in any sort of surgery beyond amputation. If antibiotics failed, they resorted to the saw and the torch. It was why they so frequently liked to assume that someone who came to them was being punished for having committed some sort of sin. It put the blame of their failing health or death on them and not on the Coven.

  “So, you’ve done nothing,” Jenn snapped, “and now you plan on standing around watching me work? I don’t think so. Go find Stu and have him put you to work. Shaina, go with her and make sure she follows orders.”

  Miss Shay looked like she wanted to lay into Jenn, however Shaina had an intense anger about her that seemed on the verge of boiling over. Shaina basically stalked Miss Shay out the door. It was a brief, but satisfying moment; then Jenn had to turn back to Diamond.

  She took one more look at the ghastly wound and knew that killing her quickly and mercifully was the only thing she could do. It’s what Jillybean would have done. In fact, it’s what Jillybean had done. She had killed a slave woman named Kim Marino; Jillybean had stabbed her in the heart with Jenn right there, and she had killed over thirty people back in Sacramento, including a child. Jenn had secretly condemned her as heartless and now she was in the same position.

  She didn’t have to climb down off her high-horse, she was bucked off by reality.

  “What sort of pain meds do we have?” she asked Tammy Easterling, another of the Coven.

  For years, Tammy had been the quietest member of the Coven and had never said much to Jenn, good or bad. She bore terrible scars on her face that she usually tried to hide behind a scarf or her hands. Now they stood out white; she was afraid. It seemed smart.

  “They’re over there.” She pointed at a cardboard box that was filled with all sorts of bottles. “They don’t seem to be working all that well. It just sort of makes some of them sleepy.”

  Jenn knew that One Shot Saul had died from an overdose of opioids. It had stopped his breathing and, judging by his corpse, it didn’t seem like a bad death. “I need some for IVs. Bring me all that we have.” Diamond wasn’t the only one who was beyond Jenn’s limited ability. At least three others bore similar wounds, while two others had been shot in the chest and two more in the head.

  She inspected each of them, her “everything’s going to be alright” smile tight and fixed on her face. Of the worst of them, only two of had the tiniest possibility of survival, the others had no chance at all; she wondered why they weren’t dead already.

  Nine others had lesser injuries, though at least four were on death’s door simply from blood loss. There was so much blood everywhere. It gathered in shallow puddles or ran in tiny rivers and decorated every surface in strange splotches. Soon Jenn was covered in it. Some of it was even in her hair. It was horrible.

  When Jenn checked on Amanda Quiroz, she found herself inadvertently kneeling in her blood. Amanda seemed to have bled enough for three people and it all came from an ordinary hole in her leg that was just big enough for Jenn to put the tip of her finger in it. She was tempted to do just that, except she worried that Amanda’s leg would swell like a balloon.

  “It’ll be alright,” Jenn said, giving Amanda a wooden smile. On the inside Jenn was close
to panicking and only her hurt ankle kept her from running out of the room once more. “I’ll be right back.”

  “No,” Amanda said, grabbing her arm with soft, weak fingers. She did not possess much of a grip. Her fingers sagged and Jenn could have broken away with a twitch, only that would have taken the moral courage to make a decision and Jenn was perfectly overwhelmed. She had no idea where to begin. There was just too much blood and too many moans, and everyone was looking at her for help…especially those that were completely beyond anyone’s help.

  Diamond even held out a pleading hand and Donna cast a drooping eye at her, and Amanda said, “No, don’t leave me.” Jenn was torn in fifteen directions at once and began to spin slowly and might have spun herself into the floor if Tammy Easterling hadn’t come up with a box of vials.

  “These are the ones for IVs, but no one knows how to do IVs, except for Jillybean and she’s gone.”

  “I know how. I just need the stuff. Can you get it for me? I’ll need these needles called catheters and…”

  Tammy interrupted, “I got it!” She ran to one side of the room and was back in seconds with a plastic grocery bag. “She had us put together sets of the stuff up yesterday. I think she knew it would be like this. She knew they would come and she knew what would happen, and how it would happen. I think she knew everything. Didn’t it feel like that to you?”

  Jenn took the bag and nearly made a biting remark about how much Jillybean knew. Instead, she only sighed. “She didn’t know everything. She probably didn’t know she was going to end up as fish food. Either way, that’s done. We have to forget her and worry about these guys. Here, watch me.”

  Despite her suggestion to forget Jillybean, Jenn showed Tammy how to get an IV going in exactly the same manner that Jillybean had taught her. Jenn started with Diamond and then, still with Jillybean’s instructions haunting her, she went to Donna next. In Jenn’s mind, triage meant saving those who could be saved first, then mercy-killing the rest.

  Tammy, who was known for her knitting, proved adept with a catheter as well, and soon the pair had started thirteen IVs. Two of the patients had died while waiting their turn. One of whom was Amanda. Without someone plugging the little hole in her leg, all of the blood had drained right out of her and now she laid on her bed of blankets, surrounded by a pool of blood, looking more like a statue carved of softest alabaster, than a corpse.

  The other newly minted corpse lacked the serenity that Amanda had managed to capture in death. He had been one of the Sacramento men and he too had bled what seemed to be gallons of blood, though it had not come from a single hole, but from a gaping wound on the side of his head. And he had not died with the same gentleness. Seizures had wracked him and during his contortions, he had twisted himself through his own gore.

  “Cover him,” Jenn said, “but not her.” Amanda wasn’t just the poster-child for death, her resemblance to art had a calming effect on Jenn and she found herself drawn to her and snatched glimpses of the body as she tied off three different wounds.

  “I hope I go out like that,” Tammy said. “It’s like she bled out all her fear and pain along with the blood.”

  Even Donna had to agree. “Maybe it’s the drugs talking, but Amanda never looked so good. Even her hair looks good now. She never had good hair but look at it now. It’s perfect. You…you’ll make me look good too, won’t you Jenn?”

  Jenn was just cutting away her shirt, so she could get a better look at her arm. “I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about that today. You have a pretty clean wound. It goes right through the muscle.” Despite saying that, the blood coming from it pulsed. It didn’t pulse in great fountains, and yet it didn’t leak, either.

  “I just have to open this up a bit to make sure, okay?” She made it sound so simple that Donna agreed without reservation. It was far from simple. How deep should she cut? Where exactly was that artery that had been nicked? And what about nerves? Jillybean said nerves didn’t grow back, what if she cut one of them, too?

  Tammy ran for a surgical kit and was back before Jenn could come close to preparing herself. “Here,” Tammy said, thrusting the kit into Jenn’s hands as if it were burning her fingers.

  “It’ll be fine,” Jenn said to Donna as she opened the kit. “It should be fine, you know? It’s just, I’ve never done exactly this, and I don’t want to get your artery, you know? It’ll make things worse.” She bit back adding “you know” for a third time, but just barely.

  Donna seemed beyond fear. “It’ll be okay. Just hurry. I don’t feel too good. Like I’m not all here. Like I’m drifting away.”

  “Turn up the IV all the way,” Jenn ordered Tammy, hoping she didn’t sound as panicked as she felt. If Donna was drifting anywhere, it would be into death. She was still with it enough to wince when Jenn made her first, far too shallow incision. “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry,” she said with every light cut. Her paranoia was causing Donna to suffer. “I just don’t want to cut too…deep.”

  A good deal of blood gushed from the wound and Jenn nearly cried out, thinking she was killing Donna. A second look showed her that it was dark blood, somewhat older blood that had filled a pocket and was now running down onto the floor.

  “I can’t see, Tammy. Can you soak some of that up?” Retractors opened the incision further and with the blood being dabbed away, Jenn gently cut and cut until she saw the pulsing artery. It was going fast and weak. “I think I see the problem. Get me a candle and clear out more of that blood.”

  “I only have the two hands, don’t I?” Tammy snapped. She was looking green around the gills and an unhappy green, too.

  “Aaron!” Jenn barked. “I need you to hold a can…” Just then gunfire rattled, making her jump. It came from south of them. It went on for barely a minute and then there was a long, still silence in the room.

  “Are we under attack?” one of the patients asked.

  Jenn had no idea. “Maybe. It kinda sounds like it. Does anyone know if we have soldiers guarding that part of the island?” Those that could shrug, did so. Jenn wanted to ask Donna what she thought Jenn should do, only she couldn’t. Jenn was queen and that meant everyone was looking to her with the same question on their lips.

  “Okay, we should, uh, sit tight, I think. Stu’s looking after the defenses. We can trust him to, you know, respond rightly.”

  “Properly,” Donna whispered.

  “Properly, I mean. Everyone should just relax, and I’ll get to each of you in turn. Aaron, can you do me a favor and do a quick check to see if anyone needs more pain meds? Thanks.”

  It would turn out that relaxing was impossible. More gunfire occurred in jarring, frightening spurts over the next two hours. At one point, Stu rushed in to tell Jenn that the Corsairs were only testing the island’s defenses and not to be alarmed. Jenn didn’t think that was a possibility.

  “And how are our defenses?” She almost didn’t want to know the truth and it was obvious he didn’t want to tell her. She saw the lies beginning to form and she pulled him aside. “Just tell me.”

  “Everything’s a mess. We’re low on ammo. We’re scattered and weak. There’s little fight left in us.”

  Jenn waited for him to go on, but he only slumped, looking dejected. “Annnnd?” she hissed. “And what do you think we should do?”

  A tired laugh escaped him. “I don’t have a clue and why are you asking me, anyway? She did all this right under my nose. She played me, Jenn. She played me like a damned violin, and I believed it all. I’m an idiot. I’m a…”

  “Stop it!” Jenn cried. “She fooled us all, okay? That’s done with. That’s the past. What do we do now? What kind of defense can we put together?” He started to shrug, and she punched him in the arm. She was tired of shrugs. “No. Stop it. Instead of shrugging go down to the cove, take out your gun and start shooting those kids. Start with Lindy Smith, because if you won’t help us, no one will, and those kids are better off dead.”

  His face twisted into a
n impotent snarl which gave way to a look of pain that was all too familiar. “I know what you’re feeling. You fell for Jillybean as hard as I did for Mike, but, but, but, like I said, that’s in the past. We, the both of us have to get over our pain for their sakes.”

  She pointed around at the room where the air was filled with the copper smell of blood mixing with the harsh bite of bleach. The dying men and women, those that were conscious that is, were watching them through half-lidded eyes.

  A new, tired sigh escaped Stu. “Okay, yeah we have to do something. I guess we can do some things. I can set up some mobile teams that will move toward any sign of an attack. It’ll help throw any attack off balance, but what we really need is Gerry the Greek. He has the only scoped rifle left. With it we could hit those boats prowling around. If we could drive them off, we’d stand a chance. The only problem he’s stuck on Treasure Island.”

  Jenn had forgotten the scope. “With a thermal scope he could, what’s the word? Break out?”

  Stu made a face. “First off, he says the batteries are dead. Second, we think the Corsairs have at least a hundred guys guarding that little stretch of land.”

  Connecting Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island was a seventy-yard causeway that was relatively open and easily defended. If they were well-supplied and dug-in, a handful of stalwart fighters could hold off a small army.

  It would be a slaughter to send the rags of their army up against a well-defended position. But what if it wasn’t well-defended? Jenn had to wonder if the Corsairs were guarding against an attack at all?

  Probably not, she thought. They probably think we’re whipped. “Could we attack them?” Stu immediately shook his head. She bit her lip for a few moments as she pictured the causeway. “What if we could attack from the front and back at the same time? What if we got Gerry’s group to attack, too?”