State of (Book 1): State of Decay

by Martinez, P. S.

I swallowed slowly, understanding where this was headed.

  “Once the parasite had been exposed to the chemo, it mutated inside its host. Though the parasite needed to be ingested before, now it could excrete itself through its host’s sweat glands, through skin and hair follicles, and it was most concentrated in saliva. The parasites became more aggressive and every single person or object Patient 001 had any sort of contact with immediately became infected.”

  Major Tillman took over from there, nodding in Manuel’s direction.

  “Instead of years, Patient 001 lived exactly one week. Unfortunately, the mutated parasites were able to live outside of his body for forty-eight hours until they found a new host.”

  Forty-eight hours is a long time, I thought. Exactly enough time to destroy my life.

  “When Patient 001 finally died, he had unknowingly spread the parasites all over Chicago. Every person he came in contact with and everything he had touched in those seven days had carried the parasites to hundreds and hundreds of hosts, who in turn carried them to thousands. Forty-eight hours of passing the mutated virus from person to person. A forty-eight-hour window in which the parasite was able to be passed on by almost any means.”

  The Major grimaced.

  “The infected were dead within twenty-four hours, instead of the week it took to kill the original host.” Jude added in.

  Manuel nodded his head.

  “At first government officials and the CDC had no idea what was causing the hundreds and thousands of deaths spreading from city to city and then other countries. Fortunately, the parasites—not only charged by the chemo but also receiving a boost from the electromagnetic pulses in the city—could only survive while their host was alive.”

  “Unfortunately for the rest of us, once the host died the parasites were able to act as a stimulus in the corpses’ brainstem, causing the host to “reanimate” and take on the parasite’s lust for flesh and blood. The only thing lost in the reanimation process was how the parasite was able to transfer from one host to another. The corpses no longer sneezed, produced sweat, or any other bodily functions, other than saliva. Even though the parasites were concentrated in the zombie’s saliva, the zombie had to bite into flesh and excrete saliva directly into the bloodstream of a victim for the parasite to infect someone and take on a new host.”

  When they were done relating to me what they knew, I sat there in stunned silence trying to process everything I’d heard. I kept trying to wrap my brain around the fact that it all boiled down to technology. Technology was what had spread the infection.

  I stood abruptly, causing Jude and Manuel to flinch in their seats. Only the major sat unmoving. I held up a finger. I really needed a moment to process.

  Technology and the Peace Corps. Seriously?

  By the time the plane had crashed in our backyard, the parasites had spread beyond what anyone could have ever imagined or controlled, killing their hosts and then taking them over when they were dead. Now all that was left was millions of parasite-animated corpses who lusted for the flesh and blood of the few remaining uninfected humans.

  “How bad is it out there?” I asked. I knew he understood what I meant. How bad off was the human race? How bad had it gotten while I was hiding in the forest and fighting to survive for the past six months?

  “Last we heard from anyone else, it was estimated that over eighty-two percent of the human population was killed or infected with the organ eating parasite,” he said with a weary sigh.

  My hand flew to my chest.

  Eighty-two percent?

  That meant that out of a hundred people, eighty-two were either dead or zombies now. Good God. What did that put the death toll at in the United States alone? Two hundred million? Two hundred and fifty million? The numbers were staggering. My legs wobbled slightly, and I sank back down into my seat.

  What did this mean for Jess and her family? I wondered.

  The odds, well, they were so bad. I shook my head. She had to be okay. She just had to.

  “Is there some kind of government in place?” I asked.

  The major’s jaw clenched, and his eyes hardened. “We’re no longer sure. We were receiving and sending communications to the base out of Charlotte, from Jude’s uncle, Major Parsons, but the last we heard from them was over three weeks ago.”

  I glanced between the Major’s frowning face and the bleak faces on the two soldiers sitting in front of me. This wasn’t good.

  “How often did you usually hear from them?”

  It was Jude who answered me.

  His voice was tight, the only emotion I could detect. It had to be hard for him to be cut off from his uncle, not knowing if things were ok where he was.

  “We normally meet their person halfway and exchange information and supplies once every two weeks,” he explained in clipped, official tones. “Our man has been at the rendezvous point two times in the past few weeks, but they never appeared.”

  Something had happened, and if I knew anything at all, I knew it couldn’t be anything good.

  “We’re going to send a small team into Charlotte. The city, from what our contact told us, is completely overrun by the undead, but we have to see what is going on. They were our only link to anything on the outside of here.”

  His eyes frosted over and he stood abruptly, causing Jude and Manuel to jump from their seats. I got to my feet belatedly.

  “We are running out of supplies and we are starting to run low on ammunition. We were not prepared to be underground for this long. We’re going to have to make a supply run to Gastonia before we decide what to do about Charlotte,” the Major said decidedly.

  He ran a hand over his clean-shaven face and sighed.

  “I’d like to be part of the team that goes to Gastonia, Major.”

  Something that sounded suspiciously like a snort came from across the table. I ground my teeth together to keep from snapping at the meatheads there.

  “Look, I appreciate that you are a tough young woman who has done rather well taking care of herself in the worst of situations, but I can’t send you out with my soldiers. You’re not military and I couldn’t send you with a clear conscience,” he explained.

  I gave the Major a small smile that was not really meant to reassure anyone of anything and placed my hands on my hips.

  “Major, I appreciate the concern, but my daddy made sure I could shoot better than any man in this room on their best day. I could kill both of your men right now without them even realizing I’d made a move for my gun.”

  Major Tillman stiffened slightly, his eyes narrowing.

  “I haven’t just survived, I’ve taken out hundreds of zombies, looted for food and supplies in neighboring towns, and lived in the woods attuned to my own surroundings for six months.”

  I let my words sink in the room for a moment before continuing on.

  “Name one soldier under your command who has done the same,” I challenged. His eyes glanced over at his men, before coming back to rest on me.

  “I’d be an asset to this mission, Sir,” I clipped.

  He scrutinized my face, studying me until I felt twitchy under his scrutiny. He nodded once and turned to face Jude and Manuel.

  “Looks like you’ve gained another team member, Agent Harrison,” he said with a wry smile.

  I blinked at him in surprise. Agent?

  Jude crossed his arms over his chest and a smirk worked its way across his handsome face, brown eyes twinkling in the low lamp light.

  “Guess I have,” he answered coolly, his eyes pinning me with their intensity.

  I swallowed and glanced over at Manuel. His deep brown eyes watched me, but they, unlike Jude’s, gave nothing away.

  I was suddenly unsure of myself, but very sure of one thing, neither of them were your ordinary soldier.

  Aww crap.

  PART THREE

  Risks and Rewards

  At exactly 0700 hours the next morning, I was standing awkwardly in the stark, white co
mmon area with Jude, Manuel, and several other guys for company.

  I’d put my own clothing back on since someone had freshly laundered and left them in my room the night before. My gun was strapped to my leg, my knife was in hand, and my rifle was slung across my back.

  It felt good to get moving. I was already feeling a little twitchy from being underground for over twenty-four hours. Safe, but twitchy.

  When I’d headed toward the Army base less than twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t think I’d be heading back out into the zombie-infested world again so soon after finding survivors and running water, unless I was going to try and find Jess or to head back to my spot in the woods.

  But I was glad.

  Maybe even excited. Ever since I’d talked to Thomas the day before, I knew that I wanted to do something more to help. More than just merely surviving. I wanted to live. And the only way to live was by helping others to survive first.

  “Okay, so here’s the thing,” Jude said. “This won’t be a regular supply run.”

  I glanced around the room and realized immediately that no one else had known this. “Major Tillman didn’t want to alarm anyone, but we are extremely short on supplies. Not only are we low on medical supplies, but we are dangerously low on food supplies too.”

  “How low?” A man asked.

  “There is probably enough food to hold the entire base over for another two to three weeks if we drastically cut all our portions to the bare minimum.”

  A couple of guys muttered beneath their breaths and we all understood what this meant. Higher risk for larger quantities of food and supplies. It wasn’t easy to care for almost a hundred people in the middle of the zombie apocalypse.

  “As some of you know, we also have another slight problem.” He cleared his throat before continuing. “We have been doing supply runs in this area and surrounding areas for over six months now and the places we’ve scouted, the places we’ve foraged before have basically been picked clean.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means we are going to have to go into a larger city. It means this could be a very dangerous mission,” I answered.

  Jude nodded.

  “That’s exactly what it means. We need to go out of our normal range and find larger quantities of food, larger quantities of supplies, which means going into zones that we haven’t scouted before and probably running into a lot more of the undead while doing so.”

  “On top of all of that,” Manuel cut in. “Most of you know about little Ava.”

  Heads nodded and several men made the sign of the cross. I raised a brow.

  Who was Ava?

  Jude saw the question on my face and answered.

  “Ava is a little girl in our group. She’s eight years old, so one of the youngest survivors here. However, Ava has Type 1 Diabetes and has been without her medication since yesterday.”

  Manuel nodded.

  “We lucked out previously and were able to find and stock up on her meds, but as of last night, she’s very ill. We need to find not only her diabetes medicine but also a better antibiotic. She’s in critical condition and can’t wait much longer. Every hour at this point counts.”

  I gripped my knife in my hand tightly. We had to help that little girl.

  I looked around the room into the faces of the people I found there. I knew they were all thinking the same thing that I was. We had to save Ava.

  Jude glanced around the room once again. “If you don’t want to do this run, we won’t hold it against any of you and we won’t think any less of you. The risk will be great.” Jude paused.

  “If there’s anyone who wants to stay, now would be the time to jump ship,” he said seriously.

  No one made a move.

  We moved up a flight of stairs in silence and when we stepped out of the darkness, we were back in the large office I had been searching before. Jude pushed in a lever that caused the bookcase to swing back into place and hide the secret passageway.

  It was all so very government spy-like, that I almost giggled despite the fact that I was once again topside with parasite infested zombies looming right outside of the office building.

  That wiped the grin off my face.

  As we stood top-side, I took the time to really look around the room. I looked into the faces of some of the most dangerous looking men I’d ever encountered.

  Manuel wore an army green tee shirt and camouflage pants with tons of pockets and a backpack, which held essentials, just like everyone else. My black tank top and camouflage pants almost matched. I looked like one of the guys.

  I felt a small smile lift the corners of my lips.

  A tall man, topping six foot easily with the deepest brown skin I’d ever seen, sported a tattoo of an outline of the American flag on the side of his neck. He smiled Cheshire cat-wide when he caught me staring at him. His perfectly straight, bright white teeth stood out starkly in the dark room. I liked him immediately.

  I grinned back and gave him a thumbs up.

  Manuel glanced up and made some motion toward the heavens like he was still trying to figure out how they’d gotten stuck with me, muttering something in Spanish beneath his breath, his short mustache moved with his lips.

  Jude motioned to two guys I didn’t know to take point and then we were all silently moving through the building.

  I could tell immediately that the men were used to the way we were going. Their movements were precise, their boots never making a sound and all of them moving in a wave of synchronicity that only a group that had worked closely together for a long period of time could pull off.

  “Alright, everyone, let’s get going.” Jude’s eyes locked onto mine as the men filed pass him and he crooked his finger at me. I bit back a remark as I made my way over to him.

  “Listen, Melody. I know you are pretty much a soldier like any of my other men.”

  My jaw unlocked and I barely held it in place.

  He was… complimenting me?

  He ran a large, calloused hand over his face and met my gaze with one of steel.

  “You’re tough. I have no doubt about that. But you were also all alone and taking care of only yourself for the last half year. I need you to do exactly what I tell you without hesitation.”

  He held up a hand when my mouth flew open.

  I snapped it shut and tightened my grip on my knife.

  “Your actions won’t only affect you when you step out those doors this time. Everything you do—or don’t do—could cost me the life of one of my men. I’m not asking you. I’m telling you,” he said with all the authority of someone who was used to having people snap at attention when he entered a room.

  “If you can’t follow my orders once you step out those doors, just say the word and you stay here.” His deadly serious eyes never left mine. “Are we clear?” he asked.

  I took a breath and nodded sharply.

  “Good. Now let’s go.”

  When we approached the front doors of the building, everyone stopped and waited for Jude to give the signal to go on. He glanced through the blinds on the window and held up four fingers and pointed to the left. He held up three more and pointed to the right. Seven zombies total in his line of sight between us and the building we were headed into.

  All of the men were so still, I could barely make out that they were breathing while we waited for him to give the go ahead. My heart pounded loudly, and I adjusted my grip on my knife.

  Jude pointed to the huge, red-bearded man in the front and before I could blink, we were all running through the front door and back out into our new world of death and decay.

  I followed them through the door without a backward glance at the only safety I’d felt in a very, very long time.

  I blinked rapidly, suddenly blinded by the harshness of the morning sunlight, wishing with all my might I had a pair of sunglasses on me. I was also nervous. Jude’s words reverberated through my mind.

  He was right. I had only ever worried a
bout myself. Anything I did would only affect me and now it was different. I wasn’t sure I could handle the weight of someone else’s life being put in danger because of me.

  Zombies were on us before we made it a quarter of the way across the open asphalt.

  One by one and faster than I ever thought possible, the men dropped nine corpses like that were swatting away flies and without using a single bullet.

  The stench of the putrid bodies, hot and bloated by the summer sun, slapped me in the face and I barely held down the contents of my stomach.

  No matter how many times I’d been up close and personal with the zombies, no matter how many times I would have to stick my knife into the skull of the undead until rotten fluids seeped out, I’d never get used to the stench.

  I stepped over bodies and we all kept moving, and then entered another building as easily as we had exited the last one. Jude and the men spread out and searched the large shed-like space. It was secure. Jude walked to a side door and we all followed suit. When I approached, he motioned me over to him.

  “Right outside this door are three vehicles fully gassed up and ready for us to go. We need to move fast, slide into the vehicle and keep sliding to make room for everyone.” His eyes held mine. I nodded my understanding and he addressed the group.

  “Manuel will drive the SUV, so he goes first with Big Ben riding shotgun. Next will be Zach, Ghost, Melody, and then me bringing up the rear.”

  Everyone nodded curtly.

  “The other two vehicles are smaller, inconspicuous cars and team two and three know their formation.” The guy in charge of team two nodded in affirmation. Team three did the same.

  Altogether, our party numbered fourteen.

  I glanced at the door and realized we would be running blind. No windows were on this side of the building, so we’d literally not have any idea what was waiting for us. I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants and reached for my gun.

  Jude’s hand stopped mine and I lifted my eyes to his. He shook his head and I stiffened under his grip. His hand tightened around mine.

  I set my jaw and relaxed my stance.

  Fine, no guns, I thought. I raised a brow and he removed his hand from mine.