Okay, so forget this contrived prepared bullshit speech. Time to speak from the heart.
I take a deep breath, “For years we have been safe. Protected by the fences of the zone in which we lived. Scared to go outside. Scared of zebs. Scared of the nozos.” I glance apologetically at Connie. She nods and gives me a reassuring smile.
“Each and every one of you has now survived outside. You have faced zebs and come out on top. You’ve met the nozos, and they are not the monsters we thought they were, are they?”
I stare out at the crowd, surprised to hear a loud chorus of ‘Nos.’
“But we have suffered massive losses because we were unprepared. Nearly seven thousand men, women and children died, because we were not taught to fight. They died because we became lazy and complacent.
We assumed that our greatest threat was the zebs. Despite humankind's history of war, we did not expect to be attacked by another zone..." I pause to let my words sink in.
“That man took everything from us, and we let him because we were not strong enough to beat him,” I stop again. The crowd were silent, some of them cry, others cling to their children as though to protect them from the truth.
I take a step forward, “I stand here today as your leader and I will make you three promises. One…” I hold one finger in the air, “We will find a new home,” I pause and look out, some of the crowd are smiling, lifting their heads a little higher.
“Two…” I hold a second finger up in the air. “We will rebuild and become stronger than ever. We will never again let anyone destroy our way of life.” A few people cheer, and now everyone is smiling.
“Three." I put my third finger in the air, “I will find Brian Crowe. And I will make him pay for what he has done.”
The crowd erupts. I lower my arm and smile out at the refugees from Zone E and sneak a glance at those from G, grouped together, not fully integrated into our society just yet.
They smile, clap and cheer with as much, if not more, gusto than those from E.
Joe joins me at the front and gives me a big hug. “Listen to them, you’ve won their hearts,” he releases me and grins, “So do you have any idea how you are going to do all that?”
“Not a clue,” I say and let out a desperate laugh. I’ll figure it out. I have to. I look back at the crowd, at the first sign of happiness I have seen on their faces in days.
All that I know right now is that I’ll keep my promises or I’ll die trying.
Epilogue
The journey home seemed to take forever, something that Brian was grateful for. Out of the thousands that had followed him from Zone G, less than fifty percent remained. For him, those numbers were good. He had expected to sacrifice more. But then, he had also expected to be coming back victorious.
His ruse of ordering his zoners to flee when it became too risky had worked perfectly. Not only had it minimised casualties, but it had also allowed the time for Zone E to celebrate their triumph and relax, confident that the battle was over. So, when Gary let the zebs in at the other side of the zone, he was certain that they could cause maximum damage before their existence was even realised.
Of course, that bitch Sammie must have somehow found out about his undead army. Thinking back on his conversation with Sally, he now suspected that they had evacuated the zone. Loss of life may have been minimised. But a zone with five thousand zombies wandering around, can in no way keep the title of “Safe”.
It was funny, he mused, his party would return triumphant.
At least in the eyes of the zone. Revenge had been wrought. Zone E had been destroyed. But for him, the plan had failed. He had meant to bring them to their knees. He had intended to take over the leadership and make slaves of the survivors. Had Sally surrendered, he would have called upon his own troops to fight the undead. But as it was, he had found himself fleeing, too angered at the loss of the vials to think straight.
As he had escaped the zone, he had given no thought to his own wounded being treated in the battlefield by Zone E first aiders. It simply had not occurred to him to look for his own men. It was only when they called him by his name and begged to be rescued that he had paused and looked at the carnage that remained.
Bodies had littered the fields, but it seemed there were more injured than dead. As the first man called out his name, others had joined in with their desperate pleas. Some of the first aiders looked over at him with curious expressions, but quickly went back to their task.
In the distance, he had heard the groans of the undead calling for their prey.
The bone-chilling noise instantly eradicated the brief flicker of any suggestion that maybe he should stop and help. Without even a backwards glance, he had fled the scene, Matty and the other bodyguard hot on his heels.
He felt no guilt. No pity for those that he left behind. He did, however, feel a slight glimmer of relief. With the losses they had suffered, he would be able to increase the rations.
Winning the battle, destroying their enemy, lifting the rations. He would return a hero.
The only cloud to his silver lining was the loss of the vials. They were out there somewhere. He hadn’t mentioned to Sally what they contained, maybe if he had told her they were nothing but water, she might have relented and told him where they were. Maybe she would have laughed and told him that he had been tricked.
He would never know. The silly cow had killed herself. Water or not, she would have known that the mere possession of them was threat enough to send other zones quivering.
The mere possession.
The threat.
A flash of inspiration. A smile. A plan.
He didn’t need the actual vials.
He could just make his own.
THE STORY CONCLUDES IN SAFE ZONE 3
Authors Note/ Acknowledgement
Thank you for reading Safe Zone: The Descent, I hope you enjoyed the strange and warped little world I created. The story is a lot darker than The Greater Good, and I thought long and hard about whether to include about some of the things Brian got up to, but they say a character writes their own story and Brian certainly did that.
Safe Zone 3, which will be the last in the series, is in progress, and I hope to have it finished and published before the end of 2017.
Please forgive me while I indulge in a few words of thanks.
Firstly, to Susan, for the editing and Claire at Spurwing Creative for another fantastic cover.
Thank you to David at DHP Publishing for his encouragement to just get on with it and get writing. I can honestly say without David’s support the second book would have taken a lot longer.
To my sister, Joanne and my awesome friend, Nicola, thank you for being my personal cheerleaders. I’ll never say it out loud, because you know, urgh feelings, but your support and positivity means the world to me.
Lastly to Adam, my motivation and inspiration. Thank you for just being you.
Safe Zone (Book 2): The Descent Page 27