Zombified (Book 1): Hudson Place

by Char Robinson

  Reggie slowly nodded his head as he thought it over. “That’s what Dad said, that we were needed here, but I’m worried about him going off like that – we’ve always done things together - always.”

  “Things are different now though, we gotta be tougher. Don’t worry, your Dad will be all right, Charlie said the roads are clear so they’ll have no problems getting to Shady Oaks.”

  “I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about what happens after they get there,” Reggie grumbled as they reached the second floor and went through the door. “They’re planning on hunting those things and that’s so dangerous.”

  “He’ll be ok,” Parker said in a reassuring voice. “I know you haven’t met Charlie and Darrell, but they’ll make sure he’s fine. They’re really good guys and they won’t let anything happen to any of them.”

  Reggie looked somewhat doubtful but gave a slight nod. “They’d better.”

  “I have an idea,” Parker said with a smile at his friend. “Why don’t we man the radio for awhile and maybe we’ll hear from Charlie and we can be the first to know they made it.”

  Reggie’s eyes lit up at the thought. “That would make me feel better. Ok, let’s ask.”

  Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t locate Dave. They stopped and asked Mick, who was rolling out play dough for the little kids on one of the dining tables, if he knew where Dave was.

  “Tell ya what,” Mick said as he stood with a grin. “You two take over here for a bit and I’ll see if I can find him. Deal?”

  The two boys looked at each other before nodding. “Ok, thanks I guess,” Parker said with a laugh. He sat down at one end of the table and Reggie took a seat at the other end. Mick watched for a moment then headed downstairs in search of Dave.

  He decided to start at the bottom and work his way up. Once on the first floor, he glanced around and was about to leave when he noticed a faint glow coming from under the door leading to the basement. He opened the door and peered down the stairs. Unable to see anything clearly, he slowly descended.

  “Dave?” he called out as he looked around. He passed the water tank and heater, further down shelves on his left held surplus electronic equipment and the opposite wall was lined with boxes of more supplies. As Mick walked deeper into the room, he frowned. Obviously someone had been careless and left the lights on. He had almost reached the wall at the end and was about to turn around when he heard a soft hum. Startled, he took a step back. To his surprise, a door appeared in the wall and Dave stepped through it.

  Dave glanced up and froze in place, his face turning beet red. As the two men stared at each other, Dave grinned sheepishly.

  “Looks like you might want an explanation.”

  Mick’s eyes flicked past Dave into the dimly lit room behind, where he could make out the glowing screen of a computer monitor. Wordlessly, he looked back at Dave and slowly nodded.

  Chapter 14

  Charlie filled everyone in on his conversation with Dave as they gathered together the supplies they felt would be needed to find Gordon. The news that more help was coming was welcomed by all and after a brief discussion, it was decided that a scouting party should go out to see if Gordon could be located. Seeing Jenny’s worried look, Charlie opted to stay behind and wait for Sean, Scott, and the others. Dexter, as Charlie knew he would, proclaimed he would lead the party and quickly picked two men to join him.

  “All set?” Charlie asked Dexter as he walked outside to where the group was rechecking their gear and weapons.

  “Yep, think so,” Dexter replied with a grin. “We’re going to take the SUV back up to the soccer field to take a look around first and see if we can spot any activity.”

  “Good idea. Don’t forget to check around the high school and the grocery store thoroughly, these things might be congregating together and those are about the only two places big enough around here to hide that many bodies.”

  “Will do. You have everything covered here while we’re gone?”

  Charlie scratched his head as he glanced around. He could see two figures on the roof of the apartment building and a few more people spread out around the grounds. “I think so; we’ve got everyone lined up who’s supposed to be on watch.”

  Charlie smiled at his daughter as she crossed the yard to join them. “Here Dex, some sandwiches and bottles of water,” she said as she handed him a backpack.

  “Thanks, I hope we’re back before we get hungry though,” Dexter said as he slung the backpack over one shoulder.

  “Well, I hope you’re back soon too,” she replied with a smile.

  “We’ll be glad to have it, just in case it takes longer than we think.”

  Charlie held up a walkie-talkie. “Got yours?”

  “Yep,” Dexter said as he patted the left side of a tan jacket someone had given him. “There’s a large pocket on the inside and it fit perfectly, and before you ask, I put fresh batteries in it, too.”

  “Make sure to keep checking in to let us know what’s going on.”

  Dexter chuckled. “No worries there, you better be listening if we get into trouble.”

  “We will be and we have everything ready to go if you need us in a hurry.”

  “Ok, we’re off then,” Dexter said as he took a deep breath. Turning to the two men waiting behind him, he gave them a big grin and clapped the closest one on the shoulder. “Let’s go!”

  Charlie put an arm around Jenny as they watched them head across the street. “I hope this works,” he said in a low voice.

  “I’m keeping my fingers crossed they can find Gordon and get that key without too much trouble,” Jenny responded.

  “That would be the best case scenario,” Charlie said thoughtfully. “We’ve been lucky so far, let’s hope our luck holds.”

  ****

  “This totally blows big time!” Sean growled as the SUV crawled to a stop on the shoulder of the road. He glanced at his twin sitting next to him in the passenger seat. “How could this thing possibly get a friggin’ flat tire?”

  Scott shrugged as he undid his seat belt and turned to look around them.

  “We’re going to have to unload stuff to get to the spare, aren’t we?” Mark said from behind. He also took a good look at their surroundings. “Doesn’t seem to be anything or anyone around, so I guess we’d better do this and do it fast.”

  Jacob was the first out, and he quickly scanned the area as he went around to the back of the vehicle. Sean popped the hatch and as it rose automatically, Mark and Scott joined him and they began to pull out supplies. Sean hopped out and jumped onto the hood and after another small leap, cleared the windshield easily and stood on top of the car.

  “Good thinking,” Jacob said as he glanced up at Scott.

  “I can see quite pretty far and it looks clear,” Scott said softly as he raised binoculars up to his eyes and turned slowly. “I’m going to keep my eyes peeled, when you need me to get off let me know.”

  Fortunately they were able to get to the spare quickly and Sean was relieved to see that it was a real tire and not a tiny “jiffy” wheel. “Scott, get down now, we gotta jack ‘er up,” he puffed as he drug the wheel up and out.

  Mark had already removed the lug nuts on the flat, and as Scott jumped to the ground, Sean quickly set the jack into place and the vehicle began to rise. As soon as it was high enough, Mark jerked the wheel off and Sean handed him the replacement. Jacob paced back and forth behind the SUV, once again holding his rifle as he scoured the area for any movement. Scott did the same only he paced back and forth in front of the vehicle.

  “See anything?” Mark asked as he finished tightening the lug nuts and sat back on his heels to look at Jacob.

  “No, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing out there,” Jacob replied as he motioned toward the other side of the road lined with a thicket of small tress and weeds.

  Sean grabbed the flat tire and threw it into the tire well; he’d already lowered the jack and put it back. “
Let’s get this stuff back in pronto,” he said nervously.

  As Sean, Mark, and Jacob began repacking they heard Scott jump back up top and he immediately began swearing.

  “What’s up?” Jacob asked worriedly as all three of them picked up speed and began throwing things in the back.

  “Pack of dogs, a big one – hell!” Scott said in a loud whisper as he crouched down. “They haven’t seen us yet, but they may smell us first. They’re not on the road, but they’re trotting alongside it.”

  “We’re almost done, go ahead and get in Scott,” Mark whispered back. “Be ready to get us out of here.”

  “I will as soon as I see you put that last ammo can in,” Scott said and he crouched lower as the dogs got closer. “Hurry, they’re gonna be able to see us any second!”

  Scott’s eyes shifted rapidly back and forth and he could feel the sweat popping out on his forehead. As he glanced toward the dogs, one of them in the lead suddenly stopped and thrust his nose into the air. “No more time guys,” he hissed as he dropped onto his stomach and slid down the side of the SUV. “Shut the hatch and get in now!”

  As he jerked the driver’s side door open and jumped inside, he heard the dogs begin a frantic barking. He looked into the rear view mirror and as Mark slammed the hatch shut, Jacob and Sean jerked their doors open and dove in with Mark right behind. Before Mark could shut his door all the way, Scott started the SUV, jammed it into gear, and spun gravel as he shot out onto the road. In the rear view mirror, Scott could see the dogs tearing after them.

  “That was close,” Mark said shakily as he tried to catch his breath. With the rest of them he watched the dogs give chase. Jacob sighed with relief as the dogs eventually gave up and stood in the road barking and milling around.

  “Did we have to leave anything behind?” Scott asked as he glanced into the rearview mirror again. Turning his attention back to the road, he rounded a gentle curve to the right and glimpsed a bit of the bridge that Charlie had told them about through the trees that lined either side of the road up ahead.

  “No, we managed to get everything in, but I can’t guarantee we didn’t break anything,” Sean said as he turned around to look at his brother. He was startled by the look on Scott’s face and followed his brother’s gaze out the windshield. “No way!” he yelled as Scott stomped on the brakes, throwing him forward into the dashboard. He pushed himself up and stared in disbelief. “Oh man, we have a problem,” he breathed softly as they took in the scene before them.

  Chapter 15

  Around midnight, Mick followed Dave downstairs into the secret room in the basement.

  “You understand that no one – and I mean absolutely no one – know about this,” Dave said as he reached up and pushed against a stone block in the wall.

  “Understood,” Mick replied curtly as he watched the door swing open. He followed Dave inside and stood quietly while Dave closed the door and flipped on the lights.

  Dave pointed toward the computer. “This is a direct line to a laboratory and other places like this, but I won’t get into all that right now.” Then he motioned toward another ham radio. “I’ve been in contact with Bill and some other people, but I’ve had to keep it secret, it was part of the deal.”

  Mick frowned. “What deal is that?”

  “When I told Bill about this place, he thought it was a great idea, so several places like this were set up all over. Took a lot of coordination and work, but we got it done.” Dave looked at Mick as though imploring him to understand. “There are a lot of survivors out there Mick, not just us and that is a good thing.”

  “I agree, it’s a good thing,” Mick said with a nod of his head. “But why keep it secret?”

  “Well, that wasn’t my idea, Bill and some others insisted on it, they said it was the only way to protect what we had.”

  Mick looked around for a moment, chewing his bottom lip before replying, “Ok, I can see that, but why did you not tell me about it? Your best friend?”

  “I’m sorry, I meant to tell you, I really did, but something happened and then I was afraid to tell you.” Dave sighed and sat down in the large office chair in front of the computer. “We’ve had some problems.”

  Mick walked over to a smaller chair on wheels in front of the ham radio and sat in it, then turned to face his friend. “What problems?”

  “The military got wind of what we were doing and wanted to help us. At first we thought that was a great idea, they’re the ones who buried the dedicated lines so we would be in contact no matter what. They’re also the ones who supplied us with some of the weapons and ammo we have. But now they’re not so helpful and they’re actually demanding some things from us. Things we’re not willing to do.”

  “Go on,” Mick replied, although he was beginning to think he didn’t want to hear what Dave was going to tell him.

  “It’s the military who let the cat out of the bag, Mick. I’m not privy to all that they did, even Bill doesn’t know, but they messed with the virus and it got away from them. They thought this thing was figured out and they sent their results to labs all over the world that had received the same first batch of samples from those vials and tissue samples from victims and asked everyone to try and duplicate the experiment to see what results they achieved. They thought they had found a solution to the problem, that they had a cure of some kind.”

  As Dave paused to rub a hand over his eyes, Mick bit and asked the question. “They didn’t have the cure, did they?”

  “The stuff in the vials, it wasn’t supposed to be lethal Mick, it was supposed to be watered down versions of stuff like mustard gas for training purposes. Of course they knew something had happened to change the composition, but they weren’t sure what. They didn’t take the proper precautions and a lot of people became infected, especially after they tried to reproduce the results requested by the military. They tried a combination of things to reproduce the changes and they thought they succeeded. The chemical compounds they saw in tissue samples seemed to be rendered harmless in the experiments, so they thought they knew what was going on. What they didn’t realize was that within seventy two hours the virus became twice as lethal as before – and well – you can guess what happened next.”

  Mick sat back in his chair and stared at Dave. “You’re telling me that they unleashed an even more lethal version of what we experienced here?”

  “That’s it in a nutshell,” Dave acknowledged with a grim nod. “The worst thing is, sending it to labs all over effectively spread this thing like wildfire to almost every part of the globe. Like I said before, precautions were taken, but the level of security wasn’t high enough and this stuff escaped the labs.”

  “Damn,” Mick said softly. The last news he had heard was that there were hotspots and he’d held onto hope that it would be contained and eventually help would arrive. That hope was now dashed. “So what’s going on now?”

  “Nothing good. The military has decided that they must find a way to stop this and they’re making some pretty hard demands.”

  “Sounds like they’re in no position to make demands on anyone,” Mick said angrily. He smacked a fist on the arm of his chair. “How dare they!”

  Dave looked at Mick with troubled eyes. “Yeah, how dare they. They thoroughly screwed up and the terrible thing is they want to do more.”

  “Like what?”

  “They want to use everyone who took shelter as guinea pigs, Mick. They’re working on a new vaccine and they want to use it on us when it’s ready.”

  Mick jumped out of his chair. “What! That’s insane! They’ve already pretty much wiped out most of earth’s population and they want to what – wipe out the rest of us?” Mick stared in disbelief at Dave, his chest heaving. “I’ll be damned if they touch my family, or anyone else here! You hear me!”

  “Whoa there!” Dave cried as he stood up, placing a hand on Mick’s shoulder. “That’s what Bill, myself, and others have been talking about; we’re not going to let th
em near us, no matter how hard they try.”

  Mick realized he was trembling with anger and took a deep breath. “How do you intend to stop them? We’re talking about the military here!”

  Dave nodded. “I know, and that’s why Shady Oaks is so important, for us at least. Bill and the others are also trying to find places to move to so the military will have a tougher time finding us all.”

  Mick lowered his head, deep in thought. “So if we can secure Shady Oaks and get everyone there, it might buy us some time to figure out what to do.”

  “That’s it exactly,” Dave affirmed as he sat back down, motioning Mick to do the same. As Mick lowered himself back into the chair, Dave continued. “We can’t let them get their hands on us or we’re as good as dead. Things have gotten so serious that now do you see why I was afraid to tell you what was going on?”