The Zombie Awakening (Complete 6 Volume Series, plus prologue)

by Melton, Cynthia

  “Don’t give up hope,” Colton said. “We’ve come out of that horde unscathed twice. We’ll make it. We will.”

  She left him to his delusions and stared out the window into the trees. A deer darted across their path, on hits tail a sprinter. Colton sped forward, mowing the undead under the Hummer’s tires. He let out a whoop of triumph. How could he cheer at a time full of despair?

  “That’s how we do it. One-by-one.” Colton grinned.

  She rolled her eyes and kept looking away, not caring that she had a bad attitude. One-by-one is how the undead picked off the living.

  Clouds rolled in, thick and heavy with rain. Perfect. The dark sky suited her mood. Lightening slashed the sky. “Remember when we couldn’t see the sun?” she asked. “When the rain smelled of fire and brimstone?”

  “Rain washes everything clean,” the doctor said.

  “But it won’t bring back those we’ve lost.” She glanced in the back seat and instantly regretted her words at the sorrowful look on his face. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, you’re right, but to give up hope puts us in the same boat as that poor young man who ran to meet those zombies. I may be on the downhill slope of my life, but I’m not going to give up the fight just yet. You shouldn’t either. This group of survivors need you. The world needs you.”

  “Because I’m of breeding age.” All she was needed for was to repopulate the earth.

  “Oh, it’s more than that. You and Colton are the figure heads of this group. After all, it’s the two of you who have given the rest of us a new lease on life.” The doctor closed his eyes and leaned his head back.

  Maybe he was right. Chalice met Colton’s concerned look. She gave him a sad smile. It wouldn’t do to give up hope. She’d done that once, thinking her mother was dead, then Mom returned with Colton after a supply run. Anything could happen in the months ahead. The zombies could die off. The survivors could build an immunity to the new virus. She would focus on the positives, even when confronted with the impossible.

  Two military jeeps blocked the road ahead. Buster and Lady woofed low in their throats.

  *

  Colton stopped the Hummer and sighed. “Hush, you two,” he said to the dogs. Did the opposition never let up? He stared through the windshield at a young man around his age wearing fatigues.

  The soldier approached the vehicle. Colton rolled his window down just enough to speak through.

  “Where y’all headed?” The man glanced down the line at the other vehicles. “You’re heavily loaded. We could use folks like you.”

  “We’re just moving on, trying to survive.” Colton kept one hand on the pistol at his hip. “There’s a horde following us.”

  The soldier’s eyes widened. “How far back?”

  “Maybe ten minutes. They count in the hundreds.”

  His face paled. “Any of that new breed?”

  “Quite a few.”

  “We have orders to bring in any survivors.” The man glanced down the road.

  “Well,” Colton tightened his grip on his gun. “We can sit here and discuss why we want to continue on our own or wait until the undead find us. Then, we’ll all be outnumbered. You want to risk that?” Already the cloud of dust began to show above the trees. “See that? It takes a lot of shuffling zombies to make a dust cloud that size.”

  He didn’t want to shoot the soldier, but he would if the man insisted on taking them in. Maybe someday they’d join up with stronger firepower, but that day wasn’t today. Not until they were able to determine exactly what the military group’s strategy was. Considering how they burned the town, Colton wasn’t impressed.

  “You’d be safer with us,” the man insisted. “We’re holed up at a nearby military base. We have barbed wire all around the place.”

  Colton chuckled. “We thought we were safe, too, until that group back there knocked over our fences with their numbers. Instead of conversing with me, it might be better for you to head back to your base and prepare everyone. Seriously, dude, we need to move.”

  “Okay. I lied. There is no military base. Just a group of soldiers who were on weekend drills. We’ve been separated from them. Let us come with you.”

  “How many?”

  “Two. One in each truck. We had five, but the others were…uh…you know.”

  “Those guns on the jeeps loaded?”

  The man nodded. “Yes, and we have extra. Want us to take out a few? Will you wait for us?”

  Colton glanced at Chalice. She nodded. “Okay. Get back there and start shooting, but only what you have loaded. Ammo is precious and hard to find. Watch out for the sprinters.”

  The man nodded and dashed back to his truck. They moved the jeeps to the side of the road and turned them around to where the machine guns were facing toward the approaching undead.

  The convoy moved past them and waited. Colton stepped from the Hummer as the first of the nightmare turned the curve in the road. The soldiers opened fire, mowing down the front line. Most of their shots only took out the zombies at the knees, but a few made it through their skulls. Still, the horde continued, unmindful of their fallen, consumed with the alluring smell of fresh meat.

  By the time the guns on the jeeps were out of ammo, the zombie horde had been cut down to half. Colton let out a whoop and climbed back into the Hummer. “These guys might be useful after all.” He started the group back down the road.

  “I hope we can trust them,” Doctor Hooper said. “What if they radio back to their friends and set a trap?”

  “I don’t think they would have wasted their ammo if they weren’t set on saving us.” Colton increased his speed as the road turned to asphalt, letting the jeeps take up the rear. “Those big guns will come in handy.” Especially if they mounted them on the top of the mall where he planned on setting up watch points. They could take out any unfriendlies before they got close enough to cause trouble.

  Dusk was falling by the time they hit the outskirts of town. “The mall is only about a mall up the freeway,” the doctor said.

  Colton maneuvered through burned out cars. A few undead shuffled among the debris, lifting their heads and sniffing the air. The closer they got to the mall, the more he relaxed. They were almost home. Hopefully, the jobs he’d assigned Rachel and Eric were done. He grabbed the walkie-talkie. “Bill? We’ll pull into a straight line as close to the main entrance as possible. Get the children inside first, then the animals. The rest of the supplies can wait until morning.”

  The undead didn’t care about crates of canned food. They only wanted blood. Colton didn’t want to attract them to their new home. The block walls of the mall should hide the scent of those living inside. He hoped. But, if the horde of non-breathers found them, the group would be well protected.

  He parked the Hummer in front of the door Eric had fixed. The man and Rachel met them outside. “Everything all right here?”

  “Right as rain,” Eric said. “I see you picked up a few more friends. The army guys good?”

  “They are.” Colton waved the other vehicles forward. “We were overrun by hundreds of non-breathers this morning. They seem to be following us. I’m hoping we can get these trucks unloaded in the morning.”

  “There are lights on top of the mall that shine into the parking lot. If we turn them on, we can unload tonight. If the zombies find us, we may not be able to in the morning.”

  “Good point.” Colton clapped Eric on the shoulder. “Let’s get busy, folks. Company is coming sometime tomorrow.” This time, they wouldn’t have a cloud of dust to warn them of the approach.

  Colton told the soldiers to devise a way to mount the guns on the roof. The others could handle the animals and supplies. He stepped back and glanced in both directions, looking for weak spots in the mall’s perimeter. For what it was worth, they were home. For now. Someday there might come a time to move on. He prayed it wasn’t any time soon.

  A shuffler came from behind a parked van. Colton grabbed his spear from th
e back of the Hummer and put the freak out of its misery. He laughed at the sight of the children all armed with spears of their own. They would all be fine. Without hope, there was no life.

  The End

  THE BAD COME FORTH

  The Awakening, Book 5

  By Cynthia Melton

  1

  Chalice Hart sat on top of the Westview Mall in the mountains of Missouri and watched as two decaying zombies stumbled, then fell. The parking lot was full of the ones whose body had decayed beyond the point of walking, yet their brain refused to die. The air was filled with the stench of them. Her ears rang with their undying groans.

  “We’ll have to send a team out to finish them off,” she told Colton Morgan, her boyfriend. Despite the horror of the world they lived in, love did, indeed, flourish. “Remember when you kept a zombie in a cage to see whether they would deteriorate over time?”

  He laughed. “The ones your sister, Hanna, kept freeing? All we have to do is look around to see my theory was right. But, it sure takes them a long time to finally die.”

  Not to mention the new breed that seemed to spring up overnight a few months ago. A faster, more aggressive zombie. Chalice shook her head and got to her feet. “I’ll take Mychal and Eddy out to clear the parking lot.”

  “Be careful. They can still bite.”

  She nodded and climbed down the ladder leading to the second floor service area of the mall. Finding their new home had been a godsend. Two floors of living space, water towers on the roof to catch the rain, and more than enough toys to keep the little ones occupied during the day and clothes on their backs. Food was their one on-going main concern. It hadn’t taken long for their small band of survivors to clean out what was edible in the food court.

  They’d built a small pen for chickens, pigs, and a couple of milk cows in the outside atrium, and planted a small garden, but even that couldn’t keep up with the demands of feeding an ever-growing group of people. The responsibility weighed heavy on her shoulders. At eighteen and nineteen, she never would have thought a year ago that she and Colton would be the leaders of a rag-tag group of survivors during a zombie invasion.

  She found her adopted brother, Mychal, and his friend, Eddy, playing cards at a table in the food court. “Y’all ready for some work?”

  “It’s about time.” Mychal jumped to his feet, grabbing his scabbard which contained his pride and joy; a samurai sword Chalice had found him a while back. She adjusted her own sword across her shoulders. “Gear up. We need to clean the parking lot again.”

  “I want to come.” Faith, a thirteen-year-old who thought she was eighteen, stepped from behind a pillar.

  Chalice shook her head. The girl had a way of sneaking that couldn’t be matched by anyone. “Are you sure? This isn’t the same as stabbing spears through holes in the chicken truck. This is face-to-face.”

  “I’m sure.” She squared her shoulders.

  “Head to the Harley Davidson store and gear up. No one goes outside unless they’re covered in thick leather. You, too, boys. Meet me, with weapons in hand, by the west doors in ten minutes.”

  Chalice headed down the non-working escalator to the bottom floor. Rachel Moore, one of the people responsible for the virus that had leaked from the government facility she worked at, studied dozens of papers taped to a wall. Next to her, Eric King, the man whose blood was the only hope for mankind, leaned against a table.

  When Rachel had first appeared, telling them about how the virus had leaked when the facility took a direct hit from a meteor, Chalice had wanted to send her away. It wasn’t until they discovered that Eric was immune to the virus, did she relent. Their doctor, Robert Hooper, spent hours trying to find a way to take Eric’s blood and create an antidote.

  “Good morning, Chalice.” Rachel glanced her way. “The doc is looking for you.”

  “On my way.” She strolled to the mall’s clinic. “Doc?”

  “In here.”

  She followed his voice and found him peering into a microscope. “I think I’m ready to try this on a human guinea pig,” he said.

  “Where in the world am I supposed to find one of those?” She sure in hell wasn’t going to use one of their group.

  “You’ll find a way. I need a living person and one of the undead.” He never looked up from his work.

  Bringing him a zombie was not a problem. The only way he’d get a living person was if one tried to attack and kill one of Chalice’s group, and that was a long shot. They hadn’t seen any other survivors in weeks, and most of those had been passing peacefully through.

  She then went to the section of a department store she shared with her family and donned her protective gear. By the time she arrived where the others waited, she was late.

  “Sorry. I had to stop by Doctor Hooper’s. Ready?” She put a hand on the lever that would unlock the barred front doors. “Remember … keep your eyes, ears, and nose open. You can usually smell them coming.” Which wasn’t always the case. Until they had moved into the mall, they all smelled so bad they couldn’t smell the non-breathers over their own body stench.

  The doors groaned as they opened, attracting the attention of three zombies still able to move on stiffening legs. Mychal and Eddy rushed forward, thrusting short spears through their heads. The zombies fell with a splat.

  “Faith, you come with me,” Chalice said. “You boys take the other end. Work this way, disposing of anything still moving. Once we’re done, we’ll drag the corpses into the ditch.” The air on that side of the mall stunk of death.

  Colton had suggested burning the bodies, but Chalice was afraid to attract attention, living or dead. After the horrendous months following the meteor shower that had destroyed the government facility where Rachel had worked, Chalice enjoyed her new life. The constant struggle for survival had worn her down to the point she had wondered whether it was all worth it.

  Faith marched toward a fallen undead and thrust her spear into his gaping mouth. Black blood splattered her new white Keds. “Gross. These shoes were new! Grandma Hart said I can’t have another pair until I outgrow these.”

  Chalice shrugged. While they had a lot of shoes and clothes, they couldn’t afford daily changing. Everyone had two outfits, that was it. You didn’t get another until one didn’t fit or was too worn out to wear. “I’ll talk to Grandma. Maybe you can keep those for jobs like this. Once you become a worker, like the boys, you get a few perks.”

  She grinned. Her grandmother had taken over inventory with all the seriousness of an army sergeant. Her one-armed boyfriend, George, helped by doling out guns and ammos when needed. The two made a formidable team.

  Mychal and Eddy sprinted in their direction. Mychal pointed behind him. “Three heavily armed men coming this way.”

  “Get back inside. We’ll finish up here later.” Chalice led them back inside and locked the door. She leaned against it. Did the violence ever stop?

  *

  Colton turned as Chalice rejoined him on the roof. “Those three don’t look friendly.”

  “Maybe they’ll move on. With all the discarded cars in the parking lot, maybe they won’t think anyone lives here.”

  “Or maybe, they’ll decide this is a good place for them.” He tightened his grip on his rifle. He’d always been a loner, but the last year had increased the need to stay away from outsiders. So many of the survivors they ran into wanted only what they could take. The strongest will survive was no longer just a saying. It was a way of life.

  The three men stopped behind a van and peered up where Chalice and Colton looked down. They wouldn’t have a good line of sight. The mall was too tall, but Colton wagered that they knew someone was up there.

  “What should we do?” Chalice asked.

  “I think we need to head downstairs. If they approach the doors, I don’t want anyone else to greet them. Larry might just open the doors and let them in.” He shook his head. The former security guard didn’t always know danger when it stared him i
n the face. Other than walking the mall, complaining about how life had changed, and not for the better, the man did little else.

  They hurried to the first floor and stationed themselves by the door, sending Bill and Sarah to guard the garden area. Since they’d long ago blocked up any other entrances, these took priority.

  The three strangers approached the front doors. The iron bars stopped them, but the busted out glass offered a clear view of Chalice and Colton.

  “Hey.” One of them, a man in his early twenties, grinned. “Mind if we come in?”

  “We do mind.” Colton shifted his rifle. “We don’t take in strangers.” Not until they proved they could be trusted anyway, and these three gave off bad vibes.

  “Look. We don’t mean any harm. We’ve been traveling for days and just want a safe place to hunker down for a night or two.” He held out his hands. “My name is Jim. This is Robbie and Keith.”

  “You’re free to sleep in one of the vehicles.”

  “Come on. We’ll be live bait out here.”

  Colton shrugged. “That’s the best I can offer. Be sure and lock your door.” As he talked, George, Eric, Rachel, Amos, and several of the other adults had moved to stand behind him. They’d agreed a long time ago to show a strong force when strangers approached. “I’d move on if I were you.” He motioned behind them. “We’ve got company.”

  Jim cursed and turned as more than ten of the undead shuffled toward them. “You’re going to leave us out here to die?”

  “No, we’ll provide cover from in here.” Colton raised his rifle and took aim. His first shot took a woman between the eyes. Within minutes, the others had raised their own weapons. Soon the undead lay on the ground. Damn those men. He hated wasting ammunition.

  Jim whirled back toward him, a pistol in his hand. “If you won’t let us in, we’ll take the place by force.”