Life After The Undead (Book 1)

by Pembroke Sinclair

  “What are you doing?”

  “We had a visit from Florida. We’re trying to figure out who squealed.”

  Quinn knelt next to me and turned the chair so I faced him. “Who came from Florida?”

  “One of Olivia’s bodyguards and two other men I didn’t recognize.”

  “What did they say?”

  “They wanted to know why Liet hadn’t sent the supplies.”

  Quinn stood and thought for a moment. “This is exactly why I wanted to attack both places at the same time. Now it’ll be impossible to get supplies in.”

  “What’s done is done. We have to figure out what we’re going to do.”

  He stared at the pile of folders. “Why are you looking through the files?”

  “I’m looking for someone.”

  “Who?”

  “The woman who attacked me in Liet’s office.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she might be the person who escaped. If I know who she is and where she lives, then I can check to see if she’s there.”

  Quinn leaned on the desk and lifted a few files, but didn’t study them too hard. “What if it wasn’t her?”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but was interrupted when the door slammed open. Quinn and I turned to look at Pam, who approached the bench with a grim look on her face.

  “I think I might have our culprit.” She waved a folder in the air before slamming it down onto the desk. “All the soldiers are accounted for, except for one. Ben.”

  I opened the folder and stared at the picture. It took my exhausted brain a few minutes before I recognized the man. I stared at Quinn.

  “I guess he really didn’t like being handcuffed to the steering wheel.”

  “You sure about this?” I asked.

  Pam nodded. “Things got crazy when the workers attacked, but according to witnesses, he disappeared right after the first shot was fired. Some of the other soldiers cursed him for being a coward, but now we know where he was going.”

  My forehead wrinkled in confusion. “Why Ben? What ties did he have with The Families?” I flipped open the folder, but the only information in there was his transfer sheet.

  Pam shrugged. “Who knows? It’s possible he didn’t have any ties at all. He was smart enough to get out when the gettin’ was good.”

  I set the folder down and buried my face in my hand. I sat like that for a few minutes, then raised my head. “We have to find out what they know. We need to get some spies into Florida.”

  “How do you expect to do that?” Pam questioned.

  Frustration squeezed my chest, and I slammed my fist onto the desk. “I don’t know, but we’d better figure something out. Bill and Kyle made it down there. We can get someone else in.”

  Quinn placed a hand on my shoulder. “Even if we get someone in, how are they going to communicate with us?”

  “CB radio, telegraph, carrier pigeon. I don’t care. Just make it happen.”

  Quinn held his hands up in defense. “All right. We’ll figure something out. Right now, though, I think you need to head to bed. You’ve been awake for a long time, and I don’t think you’re thinking too clearly.”

  I stared at him and the heat rose to my face. I opened my mouth to speak, thought better of it, and stood from the chair. I stared at Pam and Quinn for a moment before heading upstairs.

  After I closed the door, I leaned against it for support. My head spun and I felt nauseous. It wasn’t supposed to be this difficult. After North Platte fell, it was supposed to be a quick overthrow of The Families. No one would get hurt and everyone would be thankful for the freedom. All we were trying to do was make the nation a better place to live. We needed to get rid of the zombies.

  My head ached, so I decided to take a shower and lay down. I stepped into the bathroom and then turned on the water. The heat massaged the back of my head, and I tried not to think about anything. We’d been lucky that North Platte fell so quickly. The people sent to work there had done something to piss The Families off. They were probably decent people, but their ideas didn’t mesh with their rulers. It wasn’t hard to convince them to retaliate because they had nothing to lose. Those who still lived in Florida had everything to lose. They didn’t know what it was like outside the state, they only knew what The Families told them. I realized we’d run into more Pearls than we would Tanyas, and that made our campaign that much harder.

  Plus, we were a threat to The Families, whose control was based on fear. Once that fear was gone, they were done. They wouldn’t like that, and that was why they’d sent the scouts. They needed to know for sure what they were up against. Sending back a truck would be a nice gesture, but it’d only buy us time. Eventually, we’d have to face the army of Florida.

  I stepped out of the shower and dried off. I pulled on a pair of sweats and a tank top, then headed for bed. Quinn sat on the edge and smiled feebly at me as I took a seat next to him. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and buried my face in his chest. His warm breath on the top of my head comforted me.

  “It was stressful enough when we had to worry about zombie attacks. Now we have to worry about the living, too. What are we going to tell the workers of North Platte?”

  “They knew what they were getting into when they revolted.”

  I took a deep breath. “What are we going to do?”

  Quinn sighed and pulled me closer. “The only thing we can do is prepare for war.”