Testing Zero: a dystopian post-apocalyptic young adult novella series (Remnants of Zone Four Chronicles Book 1)

by Simsion, N. G.

  ***

  “I get to sit by the window,” Zero exclaimed as they climbed up into the bus.

  “Why do you get the window seat?” Lefty asked.

  “Because you’ve been for a ride in a vehicle before—when you got your fingers bit off and went to the Elite hospital.”

  “They took me in the back of a cargo truck. There were no windows. I didn’t get to see anything. Besides, you’re the one who says he can remember being three years old and what it was like on the bus ride.”

  “Still, I called it.”

  Lefty slapped him on the shoulder. “Fine. Just get on the bus.”

  Zero took his first step onto the bus and couldn’t help but smile. This bus ride was going to be the greatest thrill of his life. In no time at all they would be through the city gates, finally seeing the old world. This was living!

  They found an empty seat toward the back of the bus, stuffed their backpacks under their seat, and sat eagerly waiting for the bus to get moving.

  “Let’s get this show on the road,” Zero said. His eyes widened as the bus began to roll. He gripped the seat in front of him a little tighter once the bus navigated through the fence.

  The landscape beyond was overgrown and crowded with thick brush and trees, the ground covered with a layer of muddy water. He spotted some crocodiles bathing in the sun and more swimming in the deep parts. After about a hundred yards they reached the outer wall and the bus came to a stop. An adult who had been sitting directly behind the driver stepped out onto the road and walked in front of the bus to unlock the enormous wrought iron gate. Zero’s heart began pounding. He’d never seen the wall this close up before. He struggled to see the top, but from this angle he could only see about fifty feet up. The bus idled forward and then stopped again after it had cleared the gate. After the man locked the gate and climbed aboard the bus again, they were off, gaining more and more speed as they went. He gripped the seat in front of him until his knuckles turned white. Moving this fast was exhilarating!

  Within twenty minutes’ travel time on the road, the vegetation and swamp had changed dramatically. Mud and water turned into tall grasses. The trees weren’t as tall, and the forests weren’t so dense. The bus slowed as it climbed a tall mountain. As it crested the top, Zero’s jaw fell open and he inhaled deeply. His eyes grew large as he tried to soak in every bit of what he was seeing.

  “Breathe, Zero,” Lefty joked.

  “I—” Zero’s eyes scanned back and forth across the panoramic scene through the window. “I can’t help it. It’s just—I’ve never seen the horizon before. I mean, I’ve seen the horizon in picture books, of course, but that doesn’t do it justice. Look at it.”

  “It really is amazing. It’s a much nicer view than seeing only trees and a rock wall in every direction. As far as I’m concerned, they could stop the bus right here and just let me out. I could spend the rest of my life here just looking at this.”

  “Which wouldn’t be very long, I’m sure.” Zero laughed. “A jaguar would come out of the woods and swallow you whole while you sat mesmerized by the skyline.”

  Lefty shook his head back and forth, his eyes still bouncing from one point of interest to the next. “I had no idea the world was so different,” Lefty said.

  The bus began its decline down the back side of the mountain and the horizon disappeared again behind some trees.

  “Why do we have to go so fast? What’s the rush? All I can see now are trees zipping by,” Zero said.

  Over the next half hour, Zero analyzed every sight. He commented on every tree that looked different than those around the schoolyard. He gasped every time the horizon came into view, even when it happened for only a split second, often clapping his hands like an excited child.

  The bus driver stomped on the brake. A few people who had been standing in the aisles went tumbling to the floor. Others, like Zero, got their faces slammed into the back of the seat in front of them. The back of the bus slid partly to one side as it came screeching to a halt. Groans and curses echoed throughout the bus as people tried to figure out what was going on.

  Zero rubbed his forehead, wondering if he was going to have a bump or bruise where he’d just hit it. “Why are we stopping? This can’t be the place we go to take tests. There aren’t even any buildings around.” He looked confused.

  Lefty stood up and peered toward the front of the bus in hopes of seeing what was happening. “Uh-oh,” he said. “This can’t be good.”

  “What? What is it?” Zero stood and tried to see out the front of the bus, but now everyone was on their feet and it was difficult to see anything. It wasn’t until he heard a loud smack on the window next to him that he understood.

  A dark-faced man stood outside his window holding a machete against the glass. Black spittle dripped from his lip and down off his chin. His eyes were red. He slapped his open hand against the window, yelling incoherently. There was no doubt who—or what—this man was. He was infected with the virus—a Remnant from the old world. And there were many of them—too many to count as they poured out of the woods, surrounding the bus.

  Chapter 7

  Zero jumped away from the window. The Remnant’s black saliva drooped on the glass, oozing downward. He looked at Lefty, who took a closer look at the Remnant, placing both hands on the window and leaning forward. Their noses were less than an inch apart, separated only by the sheet of glass.

  Zero grabbed the back of Lefty’s shirt, jerking him away. “What are you doing? If that guy breaks the glass and bites you, you’ll be as good as dead.”

  “I’ve never actually seen one before.” Lefty kept his eyes glued on the Remnant. “They’re fascinating.”

  More of them continued to pour out of the woods until the layer of Remnants surrounding the bus was at least four people deep. Then every one of them able to reach the bus began to push. Those on the driver’s side pushed first, and then those on the passenger side. Back and forth, back and forth they shoved, causing the bus to rock farther with each thrust, to the point where Zero was sure the wheels were starting to come off the ground and he worried they might tip over.

  “They’re coordinated,” Lefty said, with a facial expression that made it clear he was more impressed than terrified. “I remember Director Keys saying they’re clever, but I underestimated them. Did you know they travel in packs? They’re like wolves.”

  “What do you know about wolves?” Zero said. “You’ve never seen a wolf.”

  “I’ve read about them in the history books.” Lefty leaned in closer to the window.

  “What are you doing? Don’t make eye contact.” Zero knew his friend had an appetite for living on the edge, but this wasn’t some brainless crocodile he was taunting.

  The Remnant closest to the window took one step back, creating enough room between himself and the bus to raise a machete. He struck the glass with a loud crack and the glass spider-webbed. Another swing of the machete split the glass even more.

  “Keep away from the window!” the bus driver commanded, his voice barely audible over the screams of the students.

  Zero and Lefty pulled away from the window just in time to escape the machete breaking through with the third strike. Glass sprayed in all directions, causing more screams to reverberate inside the bus. The Remnant placed his hands on the window’s frame and pulled himself up to the point where his entire head was now inside the bus. He bared his black teeth and hissed.

  Lefty jumped up onto the seat and with one mighty kick planted the heel of his shoe square on the Remnant’s nose. He lost his grip on the window and fell flat on to his back.

  “What are you waiting for? Drive! Just run them over,” someone yelled from the back of the bus.

  Every student began to yell in unison, “Drive! Drive! Drive!”

  The bus driver twisted the ignition key, bringing the engine b
ack to life, but just as he was about to jam it into gear, the doors at the front of the bus were pried open. All of the students left their seats and began pushing toward the back, cramming together so tightly nobody could move.

  The driver and the man who had been sitting behind him attempted to push the front doors closed, but it was no use. Three dark-skinned men in tattered clothes climbed aboard. All three of them held machetes and yelled gibberish at the top of their lungs.

  The students gasped in horror as they watched the Remnants grab and claw like wild animals at the driver. The bus went silent when one of them sank his teeth into base of bus driver’s neck. His eyes widened and rolled back into his head.

  Two of the three Remnants grabbed hold of him and pushed him out the door. He landed face-down on the road before rolling to his back. The two dark-skinned men grabbed his wrists and dragged him toward the trees.

  For a moment, Zero thought the driver was already dead, but he knew he was mistaken when his eyes rolled back to normal and terror flashed across his face. He began to scream as loudly as he could: “Someone! Help! Someone … Don’t let them …” They disappeared into the woods.

  Still packed in tightly with the rest of the students, Zero felt someone next to him pushing against everyone else. Lefty was trying to break free.

  “What are you doing?” Zero grabbed hold of his shirt.

  “We need to help him. He can’t be taken.” Lefty tried hard to push through, but there was no room to move.

  The third Remnant—the one that hadn’t exited the bus—turned his attention toward the students. The students packed in even tighter as he inched closer, his teeth bared, panting as if he had just run a long distance. Black spit dripped off his chin as he held a machete up in front of his face. He began rambling gibberish—the kind that made it clear just how scrambled his brain had become. With one swift whack, he brought the machete down into the top of one of the seats, splitting it and exposing the padding inside. He then looked Lefty straight in the eye and pointed to his own head as if to say, “I could stick this blade into your skull.” This only made Lefty struggle harder against the crowd.

  The Remnant turned his back, walked away from the students, and exited the bus. It wasn’t until this happened that Zero realized all of the other Remnants were gone. They must have slunk back into the woods when the bus driver was taken.

  The bus lurched forward. Zero looked up to see that the second adult—the one who had been sitting behind the driver during the ride—was now sitting in the driver’s seat.

  “No. You can’t drive away!” Lefty yelled. “We need to go after him.” Lefty looked around at the other students as if he was looking for their support. When no one offered any, he began to force his way through the mob toward the door, but by the time he got there the new driver was shifting into a higher gear. They were hundreds of yards away from the incident. “Stop! Go back!” Lefty yelled, but he refused.

  Zero waited for the other students to move and clear the aisles again before walking to the front of the bus to coax Lefty back to his seat. He placed one hand on his shoulder.

  Lefty spun around and looked him in the eye. “They’re going to kill him. We have to do something.”

  “There’s nothing we can do.” Zero grabbed him just above the elbow and attempted to pull him away from the front of the bus.

  “We can still get him back.” Lefty jerked his arm free.

  “They’re too powerful,” Zero said.

  Lefty turned his back on him, sitting in the open seat behind the driver. “You noticed how small they are. The largest one of them is no bigger than I am, and I’m the smallest person in our year. We could have done something.” He placed his hand on the seat next to him as if to say the spot was taken.

  Zero took the hint, walking back to where they had been sitting. He was careful not to cut himself as he gently brushed the glass shards off the seat. After sitting down again, the wind now blowing heavy on his face through the open window, he looked up at the back of Lefty’s head. Why did he have to be this way? He was easily the bravest person Zero knew, but he had a feeling it was going to get him killed someday—perhaps by a crocodile or a jungle cat, or maybe by some Remnant infected with the virus. The odds of Lefty dying of old age weren’t very high.

  Zero hardly noticed the scenery going by during the rest of the drive. His mind was too preoccupied with Lefty. How long would it take for him to cool off? Was he going to ignore him for the rest of the day—the day that could very well be their last one together?

  About half an hour after leaving the site of the attack, the bus slowed to a stop. Zero looked toward the front of the bus and saw wrought iron gates similar to those they had passed through when exiting the schoolyard. A stark difference with these, though, was that they weren’t much taller than the bus. The rock wall barely reached the height of the surrounding trees, making it no taller than about twenty feet.

  The driver left the bus idling as he opened the gate, and then he drove through. As the bus sat idle while the driver closed and secured the gate again, Zero glanced through the window next to him and saw that they were sitting on top of a small bridge traversing a murky river similar to the two rivers surrounding the schoolyard. Two eyes emerged from the water and seemed to be keeping tabs on them. He looked toward the front of the bus to see if Lefty had noticed the crocodiles, and just as he had expected, Lefty had switched seats so he could get a better view. Zero was glad to see a smile on Lefty’s face again. Zero looked back down at the water and saw another set of eyes pop up. Another crocodile, somewhere between eight and nine feet long, was stretched out in the tall grass on the bank to soak up the sun.

  The bus began to inch forward again, and after about a hundred yards, it slowed to a stop. This time the driver didn’t need to open the gate. Two guards were located just inside to take care of that duty. They unlatched it, swung it open in a wide arc, and the bus crept through to the inside of the enclosure.

  When the bus came to a final stop and the engine was shut down, Zero reached under his seat, pulled out both his and Lefty’s backpacks and filed out with everyone else. Much to his pleasant surprise, Lefty stood next to the front door. He was waiting for him. He wasn’t exactly wearing the same bright smile he’d had while admiring the crocodiles, but the anger he’d shown when everyone refused to help fight the Remnants seemed to be gone—mostly.

  “This place is a lot like the schoolyard,” Lefty said. “About the same size. Just not nearly as many buildings.”

  Zero nodded. The buildings were indeed both smaller in size and in number. The smell of the swampy river smelled even stronger than the one to which they had grown accustomed.

  Someone emerged from the closest building wearing a purple robe that nearly touched the ground. All of the students immediately recognized that robe as something an Elite would wear. Zero looked down at Lefty and laughed when he saw him puff out his chest—obviously hopeful of making a good tough-guy first impression. They had already met him, and while he was successful at scaring them, that didn’t mean they were impressed.

  “Allow me to introduce myself,” said the man in the purple robe. “My name is Cumulus.” He stood silent with both hands behind his back, his chin up in the air. It was as if he was giving the young group ample time to absorb and understand the magnitude of his presence.

  Cumulus waved a hand, beckoning them to follow after him, and he led them along the outside of a large building similar to the schoolyard’s cafeteria. When they reached the corner, a large cage came into view. It was elevated about four feet above the ground.

  “The fighting cage,” Lefty said, his eyes large and his mouth agape.

  Next to the large cage was a smaller one, which puzzled Zero at first. Then he realized it was probably meant to cage jaguars or panthers or whatever the fighters would have to face as their second and more dangerous match.r />
  The man in the purple robe stopped, turned to face the students, and cleared his throat. “Before we get started on your testing, we are presenting you with the opportunity to sign up for the physical battles. Anyone wishing to try out to become an Elite front line scout or an Elite guard at Exile Prison must prove his skills inside the cage—first against one of your peers, and next against a very… special… opponent.” He grinned with menace when he said the word “special.”

  Zero turned to look at Lefty, but he had already dropped his backpack at their feet and disappeared. He was pushing his way through the crowd, stopping only to smack Flea on the back of the head as he passed him.

  Chapter 8

  Zero cringed at the thought of Lefty fighting inside the cage, but since he also failed to come up with a better plan to appease the Elites and city officials, he knew he should do his best to support him. He was still worried that Flea wouldn’t accept the challenge. The entire plan hinged on whether or not Flea would step into the cage with him.

  Lefty was the first to emerge from the crowd, excited to scribble his name on the fighting signup list. Zero crept toward the front of the crowd but stood off to the side in case the situation got more uncomfortable than it already was. When he turned and saw Flea following close behind, he felt relieved, but only slightly. There was something about the look on Flea’s face that worried him—something unsettling in the air about him as he and a few of his cronies stepped forward.

  Whatever it was, Lefty did have a point when he said he had one thing going for him that Flea didn’t. Sure, he rarely got the best of Flea when they scuffled, but this fight had purpose. It had meaning. All the times Lefty had punched Flea in the mouth before were just because he wanted him to shut it. This time, he was fighting for his future. He was fighting against the fate of those who couldn’t get drafted. A win would pave the way to being an Elite.