Survive (Book 1): Salvation

by Veronica Smith

  “You bitch! Your husband’s a traitor and I’ll kill him along with these intruders.”

  She blanched and Izik thought she would faint.

  “No,” he said, bringing down the axe on his head, “you won’t.”

  “Almost there!” Izik told the woman who was now crying freely.

  “Zombies!” she cried and pointed with a finger under the baby.

  Izik saw that Antonio was right; The explosion had brought the undead. He could see the human zombies shambling closer, but worse were the animal zombies, who were much faster. They were headed straight for Em and the refugees.

  “Run!” Izik yelled, “Run now, straight for the other side of those rocks! Don’t follow me!”

  He veered off to intercept the animals; now that they were closer, he could tell they were wolves, three of them.

  “Em!” he yelled, “Incoming!”

  Em jumped out from behind the rocks and ushered the woman and baby to the others then started to run to help Izik.

  “No!” he yelled, waving his hand at her. “Stay there in case any get past me!”

  She nodded and stood her ground.

  “Give me a knife. I can help.” She heard someone from behind her say.

  It was the woman Izik had just brought. She gave her baby to a woman with a toddler. Two other women sent their children to the same woman and stepped forward, forming a protective line, echoing the same. Em’s heart surged. They might have a chance!

  Izik ran at an angle to cut off the lead wolf. As he ran, he pulled his machete out and held both it and his axe as he turned to face the wolf head on. A second wolf had caught up to the first and they ran neck and neck as if in a race. Izik got both arms swinging and hit both wolves in the head with both weapons. The heavy bodies of the wolves knocked him down and landed on his legs, pinning him to the ground. One was dead, even for a zombie, but the other was still trying to bite him. He let go of his axe and pulled out a knife, slamming it into its head. As he was pushing the bodies off, he heard another growl and looked up to see the last wolf had caught up to him.

  “Izik, I’m coming!” Em was screaming.

  He could hear her boots pounding the earth even as he was screaming at her to go back.

  Em hadn’t gone very far when a human zombie lurched from around the side of the rocks.

  They were coming from everywhere!

  She swung her machete, decapitating it. She heard screams and glanced behind her. Another zombie had come around and even as she watched, the newest refugee jumped on the rock next to it and jammed her knife down, straight into its brain.

  “Go!” she yelled to Em, “Get him!”

  With a quick nod, Em continued running. Every zombie that she had to stop to kill took precious time away and she howled in frustration. As far as she could tell, the only animals were those three wolves. If she could just get to Izik in time!

  Izik dropped the machete; it was too large and ungainly for this close-up fighting. He pulled out another knife and managed to slam both knives into the sides of the wolf’s head, the jaws snapped less than an inch from his nose. Neither blade killed it, but he couldn’t let go of either of them, or it would eat his face. He heard Em scream his name as she fought three more zombies less than twenty feet from him. He angled the knives as hard as he could and the wolf’s snapping slowed down. He was doing it! He pushed even harder, slicing the wolf’s head open as his blades reached for the brain. He knew they hit home when the wolf froze and dropped its head. He knew he was just as dead when he felt a biting pain at his leg and Em screamed “No!”

  “How many zombies were in that cage?” Zach asked Tamar.

  She, Zach, and Jim had just killed over a dozen zombies themselves and yet they still kept coming. Obviously, some were the newly resurrected. The Z.E.D.s that were bitten by the released zombies were reanimating and joining their ranks.

  “They must have had a lot of them crammed in the cage,” she replied with a decapitating swing.

  Blood splattered Zach’s face as he said, “But even if they were saving them for the arena, that’s still a lot. It’s as if they were saving them for something else.”

  “We’ll never know,” said Tamar, “and I don’t care anymore. As long as they’re all dead.”

  “Behind you, Jim!” Zach yelled, pushing off a zombie before it could take a bite of his shoulder.

  He finished it off with a blade straight through its face. This was a cage zombie so it was more decayed and its head split easily in two. Jim spun around to see a zombie come out from behind a tent. He swung his machete and decapitated it like a pro.

  “Damn! You should be in Sabaton!” Tamar grinned at him.

  “Not too bad for a tracker,” he smirked then ran after a zombie that was trying to tear into a tent.

  He could hear a woman screaming inside in terror as well as a baby crying.

  The fighting was slowing down. Chuck finally had a break from zombie attacks and resumed his attack on the door unsuccessfully. He was about to get the truck and drive it through the damn wall but he heard a voice inside.

  “We surrender!”

  He backed up and stepped to the side in case it was a trick. Two men in Z.E.D. uniforms stepped through the door. They were both captains. He was suddenly aware that all the fighting Z.E.D.s, both current and deserters, had stopped fighting and were watching carefully. The shorter one had a familiar smirk on his face and laughed cruelly when he glanced down at the stump of Chuck’s arm.

  “So this is what became of you? I thought you’d become a zombie meal but it looks like something else ate on you. Ha ha!”

  Chuck roared and swung his hammer, twisting his wrist to reveal the multi-spiked side. He slammed it into the side of the captain’s head and he went flying. He was bleeding profusely as he landed on the ground next to a crawling zombie who was missing legs. He was within arm’s reach and the zombie tore into his throat only seconds after he landed. Chuck snarled and swung back to the other Z.E.D. He heard several men scream “No!” and was surprised to find that Antonio was one of them.

  “No! Not him,” he said to Chuck, as he laid a hand on his arm, staying the hammer.

  “Why not?” Chuck asked, looking directly into Antonio’s eyes.

  He noticed Antonio nodding to the deserted Z.E.D.s.

  “He’s the resistance,” Antonio answered quietly, tilting his head at the Captain, “This is Captain Goodard. He’s the one who recruited the Z.E.D.s who are helping us. He’s the one who recruited me.”

  Chuck looked around disbelievingly. All the ex-soldiers, who had discarded their uniform shirts, smiled at him.

  “Oh no no no! Izik!” Em screamed as she dropped next to him, pushing the wolf away. She had killed the zombie that bit his calf and two others that were closing in. She yanked the two wolves off him and quickly wrapped up his leg.

  “How bad is it?” he asked her with a weak chuckle.

  She laughed back at him, horrified that she could, “I should’ve gotten here faster.” Tears poured from her eyes.

  “You were a little busy,” he replied. “What about the women and kids?”

  She turned back to see several dead zombies on the ground and a woman crying but she waved and shot her an OK sign with her hand.

  Izik put his knife in Em’s hand. “You have to do it, Em,” he said, “You know I’ll turn. I’d rather die than turn on anyone in Sabaton.”

  That’s when they both heard several roars and the women behind them screamed and frantically pointed. Em stood up and saw a cloud of dust in the distance. Izik struggled to get up. As the cloud got closer, they were able to see it was a group of at least six or seven huge zombie mutants. Each held weapons and were running straight for the camp.

  Tamar, Jim, and Zach worked their way closer to the armory tent and stopped next to the tank. The tent was a smoldering pile of poles and canvas.

  Tamar put her hand against the rough steel of the tank, “It’s cold. It hasn�
��t been moved.”

  “Look at the weeds growing up around the tracks,” Zach said. “This hasn’t moved in a long time.”

  Suddenly Jim sprinted into the ruins and dropped to his knees crying. Tamar and Zach followed and halted suddenly when they saw what stopped Jim. There was a hand attached to part of an arm lying in the debris. It was only partially burned and Jim was able to recognize a scar on the hand. It was Paul.

  “He must have been in the tent when it blew up,” Zach told Tamar quietly.

  They quickly turned as three more zombies lurched in their direction. All three of these had been Z.E.D. soldiers.

  “I’m starting to see less of the caged zombies and more of these,” Tamar said as she turned and rammed her favorite blade in the center of one zombie’s face.

  “I think we’re getting the upper hand now,” Zach replied as he decapitated first one zombie, then another.

  “Jim look out!” Tamar screamed.

  Jim looked up to see a zombie trying to walk through the debris. Its foot caught on a pole and it fell on its face a couple feet from him. Without a word, he slowly got up and slammed his machete into its head. As he turned back to Tamar and Zach, he saw JJ and Rodrigo working their way toward Chuck and Antonio at the center of the camp.

  “Where’s Edd?” he asked, just as Zach looked past him and saw two more blackened arms in the debris.

  Izik stood up and tested his weight on his bitten leg. It would have to do.

  “Go back and protect the women and children,” he told Em, as he picked up his machete and axe.

  Abruptly he turned, wincing as he twisted his leg, and ran straight at the mutants.

  “What are you doing, Izik?” Em called out but she knew.

  She ran back to the rocks and got prepared to face anything else that came at them.

  Izik adjusted the grip on his weapons as he got closer to them. They were huge, and he was only twelve years old so he wasn’t very big himself. Hell, even the regular zombies were bigger than he was. This was the first time in years that he even though of himself as such a young age. Tears threatened as he thought Dammit, I’m just a kid. Why am I thinking of that now?

  He shrugged it off. Not a damn thing I can do about it now.

  As he closed the distance between him and the mutants, he saw that it was six not seven of them.

  Like that matters. One against six, one against seven—what’s the difference?

  He yelled at them and saw he had their complete attention. They roared again and changed direction to intercept him. He put on a burst of speed, his leg burning in pain, and cut them off. They turned as one and followed him. He was happy to see that all of them followed him instead of splitting up as he ran beyond the edges of the camp and kept going. He had a destination in mind.

  Izik panicked for a moment, afraid that he missed it and was lost, when he saw the thick rope that led into the pit. He could feel the virus already running through him. He was feeling feverish and began sweating even more than was caused by his running. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the mutants were close but the dust cloud gave him some cover. He skidded to a stop and jumped behind a rock and ducked down, hoping they didn’t see him hide. The ground shook as all six ran past him and stopped. He held his breath and put a hand on his forehead—hot as hell.

  Nothing happened. Oh shit! What if it doesn’t attack other mutants?

  That hadn’t even crossed his mind when he started this crazy plan. One turned around and spied him and he almost pissed himself. He had nowhere to go so he stood taller and prepared to defend himself. It took only one step, then exploded into a bloody mess as a spiked tentacle flew out of the pit and flattened it. The others growled and waved their weapons at the increasing number of tentacles that followed. Three of them were pulled into the pit immediately. Their bellows followed them until they cut out abruptly. Another found itself grabbed up and it hacked at the tentacle tightening around its body. Another tentacle rose up, and with a strong swipe, took off its head. The last one seemed much more coordinated as it dodged and ducked the tentacles that attacked it. It seemed to be able to avoid them all.

  Izik noticed how close to the edge the mutant had been driven to. He stood up straight, gearing up the courage to do what he knew he needed to do. He ran at the mutant, which had its back turned to him. Izik was afraid he would just bounce off its massive back but it was already leaning in towards the edge. He jumped, pain shooting up his bad leg, and turned his shoulder towards the mutant just before impact. The momentum toppled them both into the pit. As he fell, he saw a tentacle wrap around the neck of the mutant and rip its head off. The fall felt long and graceful, as if time had slowed down. He saw a tentacle coming swiftly towards him and he laughed defiantly. Then he knew no more.

  Tamar, Jim, and Zach ran to Chuck and Antonio, who were arguing over what to do with two Z.E.D. officers. Chuck suddenly hit the shorter one with his hammer. Once they got closer, Zach stabbed the downed Z.E.D. through the head to keep him from rising while Tamar decapitated the one that was eating him. They stopped short when they heard Antonio yell at Chuck. They were now close enough to hear their exchange and Tamar looked at the man they now knew was the leader of the resistance. Looking past him, she could see Z.E.D.s and ex-Z.E.D.s fighting each other. She knew the men in white shirts had to be following this man because the Z.E.D. soldiers turned all their rage on the traitors.

  With the zombie threat at a minimum, the members of Sabaton fought in earnest with their new allies. Tamar and Zach used the skills they were taught as Imperials to sneak up and kill the attacking Z.E.D.s. The irony of this was not lost on the two as they moved fluidly around the enemy as well as their own team. Tamar recognized one of them as the man who was in charge of the caged zombies when she scouted the camp. Her Arena memories burned in her mind and she offered him no chance of surrender. The resistance stared at both of them, surprised at their skill for being so young. Zach swung around with a blade in each hand and sliced the throats of two Z.E.D.s that had the misfortune of getting too close to him. Tamar turned around after killing one, to see another Z.E.D. about to swing his axe at one of the ex-Z.E.D.s from behind. She quickly threw her blades, both flying right past the sides of the startled resistance fighter’s face. Shaking, he turned around to see the soldier with a blade in his right eye and another in his throat. He smiled nervously as he turned back to her. The young girl grinned and nodded to him. He nodded back and gulped. Shortly, there was no movement but for Sabaton and the resistance fighters.

  Susan had been herding woman and children to the edge of the camp and sending them out to Em. When she went back, there were no more so she was about to join Antonio and was stopped by the sound of whining. Lying along the base of a tent was a still zombie, its head almost torn from its neck. She saw the injured dog a moment later. It lay between the zombie and her puppies. She had protected them with her life. The bitch snarled at Susan as she came closer.

  “I’m not going to hurt your babies,” she said to her in a soothing voice.

  She glanced around to make sure no one would sneak up on her and reached out hesitantly. The dog snapped weakly at her hand then laid her head down and whined again.

  Susan saw the bite mark on the side of the dog’s face and spoke gently to her, “I’ll take care of your babies.”

  She positioned herself over the dog and held her machete out, “And I’ll release you.”

  It was as if the dog understood for she let out a shuddering breath and howled weakly. Susan had tears in her eyes when she brought the blade down. She turned around and saw the squirming pile of fur. She counted them while checking them for wounds or infection. Six puppies, all uninfected! She didn’t know how many were male but they could check that later. She ducked into a tent and found a discarded duffle bag. She quickly gathered them up and hoisted the heavy bag over her shoulder.

  It seemed the fight was over so Antonio sent Rodrigo and JJ to get Em, Izik, and the others. The
members of Sabaton passed around bottles of water and jerky. It turned out Gary was correct about the number in the resistance. There were eight total and they all stood together, identical in their dirty and bloodied t-shirts. When their families showed up, more than one of them shed tears of relief. Carlos openly sobbed as he placed his hand on his wife’s huge belly while he kissed her. At eight and a half months pregnant, she couldn’t move very fast and he was so afraid she had been killed. She was the only reason he stayed in the Z.E.D.s. Neither of them approved of the way they ran things but they felt they had no choice. It was suicide to roam the wasteland alone and once she became pregnant, he was trapped. He looked her in the eyes and she nodded to him, smiling. He turned away, reluctantly trailing his fingers away from her belly, and walked up to Chuck.

  “You saved Angela and our baby,” he said, “My life is yours. If you’ll have me I’d be honored to be a part of your team.”

  Chuck saw the other men nodding and heard similar comments from them all.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. Before he could say or do anything, a Z.E.D. who had been hiding, sprung out, and grabbed Angela by her hair and yanked her to the ground. Carlos tried to lurch at him but Chuck held him back; the point of the Z.E.D.’s knife giving him pause, it was poised on her belly.

  Oh Shit! He noticed the bleeding bite mark on the Z.E.D.s arm.

  “You damn traitors!” the man yelled, gripping her hair harder as she tried to pull away. “We had it good here! We were in control of the wasteland. We could take anything we wanted! You fucked it all up! Well, I know what I’m taking next. I’ve got nothing to lose. Threaten to kill me, I don’t care. I’m dead already!”

  Tamar, who was the closest to them, ran up to the angry Z.E.D. from behind, and before he could react, grabbed his knife arm with both hands and yanked up. She couldn’t reach for any of her blades without letting go of him. She saw several of her team running at them even as Angela struggled to pull away, the soldier clutching her hair. Antonio was going to reach them first but suddenly he changed direction and ran next to Tamar.