State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4))

by Peggy Martinez

  “Madre de Dios,” Manuel muttered as he stood in the cafeteria doorway, making the sign of the cross. We began moving out of the storage room, pushing into the cafeteria behind him. The cafeteria was a slaughterhouse. We barely paid attention to the two zombies as they charged. One of them slipped on the gunge that coated the floor. Manuel dispatched both of them without any help. There had to be close to fifty bodies piled in the room.

  “No one touch any of the bodies and try to stay out of the mess as much as possible, we don’t know what we’re dealing with here,” Jude said in the silence.

  The carnage continued all the way out to the bus. Bodies and gore. Everywhere. We only had a dozen zombies near the school bus to take care of. It was all over in less than ten minutes and then we were piling onto our bus, everyone enveloped in the kind of shocked silence that follows massive devastation. I could see it on everyone’s faces. They were scared. They were not used to the rules changing. We were used to knowing our surroundings, knowing who our enemies were and how to defeat them. We’d all survived under the certainty that we knew how to beat the odds, how to adapt to our new environment. No one said a word when Manuel climbed onto the bus, shut the doors, and started the bus. No one said anything when we pulled off of the school property.

  Even when we drove through the city where the bodies now outnumbered the shambling zombies fifteen-to-one, no one said a thing. We were in shock. Was it possible that our world had changed again right before our eyes and without warning? Would it be possible for us to adapt again and to survive through even more changes?

  “What’s happening?” Nina whispered from a seat over as she stared out the window.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out. It will be okay,” I said, not sure if I was trying to convince her or myself.

  Jude walked over to my seat and sat down heavily next to me. We sat there for a few minutes as the bus slowly drove out of Gastonia. Jude picked up my hand and interlaced my fingers with his, squeezing them gently. I looked up into his face with so many questions on the edge of my lips. So many fears of what we would have to face in the near future. But I didn’t voice any of that.

  “We’re going to be okay,” I said matter-of-factly.

  “Yes we are,” he answered. I took a deep, steadying breath. When he smiled at me and leaned over to place a small kiss on my lips. I knew. I knew it would be okay. No matter what we faced … we would do it together. No matter how great the struggles we’d encounter on our journey, we would tackle them head on, knowing that our lives, however long or however short, would be better because we had each other.

  EXACTLY EIGHT WEEKS AGO, THE undead corpses that seemingly had overrun the entire globe began to collapse to the ground in droves, finally and truly dead in the most literal interpretation of the word. Many of them not only dropped, but their corpses, unable to contain all the putrid fluid their bodies had been hauling around, just … exploded. We’re still trying to figure out what happened. I’m sure that there will be a more scientific explanation provided at some point in time and by smarter people than I. But simply put—after eight hundred and sixty-six days, the earliest parasite-infested zombies, who had not fed on enough humans after that first, horrific day, could no longer support the ever-multiplying and ever-feeding parasites inside of their corpses. The result was an unbelievably messy demise, which included the skin of the undead bursting and the mushy, putrid innards exploding from the inside out.

  For four weeks we went topside to scout out all the surrounding areas and to keep an eye on what was happening. We were wary and concerned by what was occurring, scared that somehow the parasites would be able to survive on the outside of the bodies or had even evolved, making it possible to take on a new, living host by means that were new and unknown to us. We wore face masks for the first time since the outbreak, hoping we hadn’t been dealt an even shittier hand than before. The fifth week, we decided to take our chances by moving and burning a large quantity of the corpses in our area. We took precautions for our group, though, and stayed away from the base for days while we did so … just in case any of us became infected.

  When it was clear that none of us had contracted anything by coming in contact with the bloated corpses, we began the long and exhausting cleanup process in our area. The cleanup was not without its risks. The world was not zombie-free by any stretch of the imagination. From everything we knew, we could only deduce that those zombies who were first infected had been the ones to drop off in scores in the previous weeks. But if the zombies had fed often or if the zombies had been turned later … those were all still shambling around in search of their next happy meal, the next human they could sink their teeth into.

  The population of the living was still devastated by the sheer numbers of dead and undead. The living were still in the minority. But I could feel it in my bones that we wouldn’t be for long. Maybe I wouldn’t see the day that we were once again the majority. Maybe it wouldn’t happen in my lifetime, but it was going to happen. It was just a matter of time now. The plan was simple. Wait while the undead continued to die off, play it smart, don’t get killed, and take out as many of the bastards as you could while you still had breath left in you.

  Yeah, it was going to happen.

  So, as I helped throw another body onto the pile we’d made right on the outskirts of Midtown, I thought of all the things that had happened to us recently. We’d lost so many people that we cared about. We’d taken in more than thirty survivors since the day we came back to the base on the school bus from Gastonia. We’d cleared the entire area surrounding the base and had reinforced the perimeter fences. We’d also begun building brick walls around it—soon we’d be able to go topside just because we wanted to see the sunset and we wouldn’t have to worry about the undead overtaking the base.

  Earlier in the day we’d seen a very official group of soldiers enter the base and immediately shut themselves up in meetings with Major Tillman and Captain Parsons. Another sign that things were changing for the good. We’d grown as a group and we’d caught a teensy glimpse of what the future could be. And the future didn’t look quite as bleak as it had two months before.

  I wouldn’t go so far as to say that any of us were naïve enough to think that the days of death and sorrow were completely behind us, but I would say that we were all firmly on the very difficult road to believing that we had a chance. A chance was really all that anyone could ask for.

  We had so much work to do to make the world a safer place for our future, for our children’s future. And the absolute truth was that the world would never be the same as it had been before. Humanity would never be the same. But humanity had survived overwhelming loss and damning odds to come out on top. I could only pray that we would continue to do so.

  I wiped my brow and turned away from the pile of undead to stare at the “Welcome to Midtown” sign a few feet away with a small smile on my face. Jude came up behind me and followed my gaze to the sign.

  “What are you thinking, Mel?” he asked as he rubbed his hand along the back of my neck, lifting the ponytail off of my hot and sticky neck to let the air hit it.

  “I’m thinking how much has changed since the last time I saw that sign,” I said softly. “I’m thinking about how much has changed since I walked into town by myself three days after my dad died.”

  “He’d be so proud of you,” Jude said softly. I glanced up to the blue sky above me and heard a bird singing a sweet tune in the distance.

  “Yes he would be,” I answered softly. “And he’d have loved you.” I smiled over at Jude and as he smiled back at me, his eyes twinkling with love and happiness, I felt another one of the rips my heart and soul had suffered over the years mend itself. Oh, the scars would always be there, but they would be only a faded memory instead of a gaping wound. We both turned and got back to work making the world a little safer—a little more worth living for.

  We were no longer a people without hope—a people without the prom
ise of light at the conclusion of a seemingly never-ending tunnel filled with death and darkness.

  We were beginning to have hope again.

  And where there is hope, there is life.

  And that’s more than any of us had had in a very long time.

  Read on for a Sneak Peek of the first part of an all new novella serial, Unnatural Occurrence, by Peggy Martinez. Coming to a kindle near you very soon.

  I NORMALLY IGNORE the recently deceased. I definitely don’t stare at them openly or watch in awe and horror as the colors of their leftover aura meld into and out of them until they slowly fade away, leaving nothing behind but the slightest wisps of energy to indicate that they ever even existed. The dead can’t tell their side of a story. The living can’t see the dead like I can. Of course, I’m not normal. Never have been and never will be. Maybe I could have had a normal childhood. If it weren’t for the accident that killed my dad when I was three, if the very life hadn’t been snatched from my body for over seven minutes before I “came back” … maybe I could have lived a happy and ordinary life.

  But I knew … I knew it was just a matter of time before they came to lock me up in a padded room and threw away the key. I spent my entire childhood trying to avoid that fate, but it was just a matter of time before I could no longer hide the fact that I was different. Just a matter of time.

  On the day of my high school graduation I finally realized a simple truth. No amount of pretending and no amount of ignoring could change the fact that I was different. And it was high time I sucked it up and accepted it as the truth. It was actually a lot easier than I imagined it would be, but I guess that could have had something to do with fact that my momma’s ghost was hovering near her body with her aura already fading to the palest shades of gray as police and other officials walked around. They were taking notes and examining the body as I sat at the kitchen table, not hearing whatever it was they said or didn’t say.

  My eyes were riveted on my momma’s face, for the first time not hiding the fact that I was staring at something no one else could see, at something unexplainable. In that moment, I didn’t care what people thought of me. I didn’t care if they would question why I was staring at nothing. I only cared what it was my momma wanted to tell me, what it was she needed to let me know before she moved on from this world.

  “She didn’t kill herself,” I whispered through my tears.

  “Excuse me?” A young detective named Patterson, with dark brown hair, green eyes, and a dimple in his cheek stepped closer to the table, his eyes sharp and his voice low. He couldn’t have been more than twenty-four or twenty-five. Waves of blue aura poured off of him. Sympathy.

  “I said she didn’t kill herself. She wouldn’t have.” I didn’t let my eyes drift away from my momma’s ghost, afraid she’d disappear as soon as I let her out of my sight. After a moment, Detective Patterson’s eyes slipped away from my profile and glanced over at the spot above the body, where I was staring before turning them back to me with a frown between his eyebrows.

  “How do you know that, Anna?” he asked gently.

  “I know because I can …” Momma’s ghost shook her head sadly and placed a blurry finger near her lips. I clenched my jaw as more tears poured down my already wet cheeks. The detective’s eyes glanced between me and where momma’s ghost stood, the frown on his face deepening. “I just know,” I said softly. He sighed deeply before crouching down next to me.

  “I know this is extremely difficult for you, so I won’t tell you how it will all eventually get easier, because the truth is it never gets easier. But I will tell you that I’ll make sure your mom’s death is thoroughly investigated to the best of the city’s ability. To the best of my ability.” I sucked in a sharp breath, my head buzzing with a new realization—his ability would never be good enough. No matter how thorough he was, no matter how deeply he dug into everything he knew about her death, he would never come to the correct conclusion. He’d never be able to really know what happened to my momma, because the only person who had the ability to see past the normal, to look past the everyday explanation was … me. My momma’s eyes closed gently and a small smile graced her lips. Her form immediately began to disintegrate.

  As she disappeared before my eyes, I began making plans. I knew right then that if I wanted justice, if I wanted to know what had happened, I’d have to figure it out all on my own. There was no other way. There was no one else. I blinked back my left over tears and looked over to where Detective Patterson was still kneeling beside me. Still watching me. I met his gaze and gave him a small, tight smile.

  “I know you will, Detective. And I’ll do whatever I have to do too.” I stood up from the table and glanced down at my momma’s empty shell on the kitchen floor. I allowed myself full access to my special abilities like I had never dared to before. I opened my eyes wide, and … saw.

  I saw the tiniest flickers of my mother’s life force, her energy, her aura, floating about her body. But more importantly, I saw the strands that I knew would be there. Strands of black aura danced around my mother’s corpse. Death had been here and not the grayness that enveloped all of the newly dead, no, this was an inky darkness that coated my mother’s body, clung to it, reluctant to leave its prize. I heard the Detective calling my name, but I blocked out the sound of his voice as I pushed my ebony hair out of my face and exposed my “bad” eye, focusing it intently on the crime scene. Ah, yes. Something evil had been in my kitchen, something evil and not quite … human.

  In the back of my skull a tingling sensation crept across my scalp, prickling the hair on the nap of my neck. How could I know that? How could that even be possible? My head swam with the implications and I staggered from the awareness that it wasn’t really all that much of a surprise to me. Images, colors, and scents all flashed across my memory, all from the first few years after the accident. All those years I worked to suppress the things I saw with my “extra” consciousness to keep my mother from worrying, to keep my teachers from noticing, and to keep myself sane. The room spun.

  “Whoa there. Let’s get you out of here.” Detective Patterson murmured as he led me out of the kitchen and into our tiny living room with his arm around my shoulders. I sat down on the sofa and stared at the carpet. I knew I had other abilities, but I’d never realized that other things could have been a possibility. “Anna?” The Detective’s voice seemed more strained than before and I realized that he must have called my name several times. I put a hand out and looked up from the carpet to meet his gaze. His eyes widened slightly as he saw all of me. My eye wasn’t hideous … just surprising. His aura was glowing so brightly that I had to stop myself from shielding my eyes. His aura, light golden in color with a small smudge of black marring its perfection, was intertwining with blue waves of sympathy and helplessness. His feelings beat upon me mercilessly. I winced and looked away from him. I wasn’t used to opening myself so entirely to my “gifts”.

  “Thank you, Detective, I appreciate your kindness. I’ll be okay, don’t worry,” I assured him. He looked at me, watching my face and trying not to stare too long at my eye. I could tell he was concerned about me and just the smallest bit … intrigued. I’m not sure why I did it, but, I stood, raised a hand, and ran my palm lightly over his aura, hovering an inch from his face and then down and around the spot over his heart. I watched, fascinated, as his aura danced around the palm of my hand. “You are a good man, Detective.” He stood in front of me with his eyes wide and barely breathing. The tendrils of his aura caressed my wrist and intertwined with my fingers. I ran my palm back in front of his heart.

  “You’ve been touched by darkness,” I said sadly. He sucked a breath in through his clenched teeth. “That darkness will always be there, it has become a part of you now.” I held his stare and placed my palm flat on his chest. My hand vibrated from the contact. “But, it doesn’t have to be who you are and it doesn’t have to eat away at you as it does now. Search inside yourself and you’ll find the streng
th you need to move past your fears—past your doubts.” I stepped back from the Detective, suddenly so tired I could barely keep my eyes opened.

  I laid down on the sofa and listened as one-by-one everyone finished their jobs and left me alone in the house. Even though Detective Patterson was hesitant, he too eventually left me. I didn’t have any other family and I was already eighteen, so there really was nothing anyone could do for me. Besides, I knew that my life had already been altered the moment my mother had been killed. And the moment I decided to open myself to see without restraint since I was a child, I knew I could never go back to the way things were before.

  To go back would be bliss, but not without a cost. To go back would be serenity in darkness, but what kind of life could I lead without the illumination of the truth? To go back would be to choose ignorance over my new reality. No. I wouldn’t never go back … even if that meant moving forward into the unknown all alone.

  ###

  YA/NA TIME WARPER SERIES

  Contingency (Book #1, Now available)

  Relativity (Book #2, Now available)

  Brevity (Novelette #2.2, Now available)

  Eventuality (Book #3, Coming Spring 2014)

  NEW ADULT CONTEMPORARY SWEET ROMANCE

  Sweet Contradiction (Now available)

  Perfect Contradiction (Coming Spring 2014)

  ADULT FANTASY NOVELLA SERIAL

  Unnatural Occurrence (Part #1, Coming February 2014)

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  State of Decay Part 1

  Prelude

  The First Day...

  Seventy Two Hours Later...

  Two Years After The World Went To Shit

  Just Me And Bobby Mcgee...

  State of Decay Part 2