The Z-Day Trilogy (Book 4): Zombie World

by Mark Cusco Ailes

  He landed on top of the mound of sand and rolled to the side. He stood up and looked around. He could see glowing lights down a short hall leading inside a room. He couldn’t believe there was a secret area of the tunnel that nobody had discovered before. He stood listening. He couldn’t hear anything, so he cautiously made his way to the room to see if he could find anybody inside. He followed the footprints on the ground into the room that had a table, a chair, and an empty cot in the corner. He made his way over to the cot. A blanket was lying on it in a ball. Somebody had been sleeping on the cot recently. He was about to turn away from it when he heard someone enter the room.

  “Turn around and toss your gun over to me,” ordered the voice.

  Captain Jonas slowly turned around until he saw who was speaking to him. He immediately recognized the man. “Julio Rojas.”

  “So you know who I am. How unfortunate for you. Toss your gun over to me.”

  He tossed the gun and watched as Julio kicked it behind him. “You shouldn’t have come to the island. You’re not welcomed here.”

  Mr. Rojas laughed. “I’m not welcomed anywhere. I’m considered public enemy number one in most countries.” He took a couple steps toward Captain Jonas. “You shouldn’t have followed me. You already know I can’t let you leave here alive. It’s not personal; it’s just business.” He took another step closer. “Who else knows you’re here?”

  Captain Jonas stood staring at him. “A lot of people do. I gave them my location before I came inside.”

  “That’s unfortunate for them. I will have a trap waiting for them. That is after I kill you. This island was mine before it was stolen from me. I’m here to take it back. Nobody crosses Julio Rojas and lives to tell about it.”

  Captain Jonas’ radio crackled and a voice came over it. “Where are you, Captain Jonas? The supplies have been unloaded and the ship is leaving.”

  Mr. Rojas stared at him curiously. “So you lied to me. It doesn’t sound like your men know where you are. Toss me your radio before I decide to shoot you where you stand. Come on. I don’t have all day.”

  Captain Jonas was reluctant to relinquish his radio. He knew the minute he tossed it to Mr. Rojas, he would smash it and shoot him. On the other hand, he knew if he didn’t comply with his request, he would shoot him. He was in an uncomfortable position. He hadn’t any choice. Without warning, he brought the radio up closer to his mouth. “Bring the men to the tunnel; we have an intrud…” He didn’t have time to finish his sentence. He took a shot to his arm, causing him to drop the radio. Mr. Rojas glared at him.

  “That was a foolish thing to do.” He waited to see if anybody was going to respond to the plea for help, but the radio remained silent. “I don’t think anybody heard you. I don’t think anybody is going to be coming to your rescue. Now back away from the radio and sit on the chair behind you. I have some questions needing answers.”

  The captain took a few steps backward and sat on the chair by the table. He looked at his captor curiously. He didn’t know what kind of answers he could provide for him. He waited as Mr. Rojas picked up the radio and tossed it across the room.

  “Now you’re going to tell me everything you know about this place, and trust me, I will know if you’re lying to me.”

  “There isn’t anything to tell. I work security on the beach. I don’t know what’s happening inland.”

  Hearing this angered Mr. Rojas. He knew he was being lied to. He approached Captain Jonas and stuck his thumb inside the wound on his arm and twisted. Captain Jonas squirmed in pain. He looked at Mr. Rojas in frustration.

  “Now, let’s try this again, captain. I want to know everything you know about this place. I already know about the zombies, which is just a cover story. What I want to know is what’s really happening on the island.”

  He stared at him in disbelief. “I don’t understand what you’re implying. There isn’t anything happening on the island but a zombie park. This place is a tourist attraction, nothing more.”

  Mr. Rojas smiled and pushed on the wound once more. “Liar! I’m aware of all the homeless people being brought here. What are they doing with them? Are they being used to manufacture drugs? Are they trying to put me out of business?” He moved his thumb away. “This is your last chance to tell me the truth.”

  “I’m telling you the truth. This place is nothing more than a zombie park, a tourist attraction, a vacation island. There isn’t anything relating to drugs going on here.”

  Mr. Rojas took a step backward and stared at him. Something deep inside him told him he was telling the truth. No ordinary man could withstand the pain he had afflicted on him. He sighed heavily. “I guess I don’t have any further use for you.” He raised his weapon. “I can’t have any witnesses. Normally I don’t use a gun for an execution, but I’ll make an exception in your case.” Static coming from the radio caught his attention. “Captain, where are you?”

  Captain Jonas sprung to his feet and rushed Mr. Rojas, intent on killing him. He crashed into him, sending them both into the wall. Mr. Rojas dropped his gun and tried to catch it as the captain delivered a blow square across his nose. He continued to rain down a flurry of blows until Mr. Rojas managed to push him away and fall to the ground on top of the gun. He looked up at the captain with blood flowing freely from his nose. The captain took a step toward him as he raised the gun and fired a single shot. A gushing hole was stitched across the captain’s forehead. He toppled over and barely missed Mr. Rojas as he hit the ground. Once again a voice was heard over the radio.

  “Captain, where are you?”

  Mr. Rojas looked at the captain’s dead body. He knew if he wanted to keep his location safe, he had to go back and put the branches back in place in front of the tunnel and then close the trap door above. He could escape the room from the other secret door covered by a large rock. He knew he was strong enough to remove it when the time came. He went over to the radio and picked it up. With the radio, he knew he could keep tabs on where the soldiers were. He wasn’t worried about them. He knew they wouldn’t find the entrance to the tunnel. He did have one problem he needed to attend to. He had to get rid of the captain’s body. He knew he couldn’t bury him outside. He couldn’t take the chance of the body being discovered. He went back inside the arms room and retrieved a shovel. The only thing he could do was bury him inside the room so his body would never be found. He stood over his motionless body. “You have caused me a problem, captain. It won’t be long before the island knows you’re missing. They will be all over the island looking for you. I’m going to have to be extra careful from now until opening day. Don’t worry, captain, you haven’t ruined my plans.”

  Once again he heard the voice over the radio. “Captain, where are you? If something has happened to you, stay where you are. We’re on our way to find you.”

  He stared at the radio. “Go ahead and try. You’re never going to find him.” He put the radio on the table and looked at the sand in the middle of the room. “Nobody is ever going to find him.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Cheng took a stroll through the zoo located near the amusement park. He was proud of the creatures he had perfected. The animals were now more ferocious than the ones at the original zombie park. He wanted the animals to put fear into the guests that would soon roam the streets. He stood in front of the gorilla exhibit. One of the gorillas was watching his every move, probably contemplating ripping him to pieces and devouring his flesh. He thought about how General Milkwood wanted to create an entire army using animals in a smart zombie program. He wasn’t thrilled about General Milkwood’s idea of an animal army. He had a better plan. He secretly had been developing smart weapons that could be linked to the animals. He was developing helmets that could be attached to selected animals and through a computer interaction, he could fire lasers with precision. The technology would have to be tested, but he was positive he could achieve it. The only thing he needed was further funding and General Milkwood could be his
saving grace. He knew the general could get all the money he needed to continue his research. He continued past the gorilla until he came to the tigers. He had two of them and they were his favorite animals. He loved all the big cats. As a matter of fact, he wanted to use mainly tigers in his new army. He stared at them. They were special to him. They were going to be the perfect weapons. Even without his helmet weapons, he knew they were going to be perfect. He stared at them wondering if they could think, what would they be thinking right now as he stood in front of them. He wished he could climb inside the cage with them and pet them, but he knew what the outcome would be. He didn’t want to be their snack for the day. He left the tigers and made his way to the aquatics building. He knew about the shark they had in Valparaiso, Indiana, and he wished he had one here. The biggest aquatic life they could get was an Orca. He had spent a great deal of time perfecting the formula to turn the whale into a zombie. It was originally supposed to be the main attraction until Mr. Franks and Ted changed their mind and decided to make a super human zombie instead. He knew the guests at the park were going to be thrilled with the aquatics building, especially the whale. He made his way into the building and was met by two park employees running toward him in a panic. Behind them he saw a giant zombie crab making its way toward them.

  “What the…” he started as they pushed him out of the way as they ran out of the building. He was left staring at one of his creations. Behind it, he saw two more park employees with shotguns aiming at the creature. He focused his attention both on the creature’s claws and the shotguns being aimed in his direction. If he made the wrong move, he knew one or both of them would end his life. He watched in horror as the claws were poised to rip at his body. He looked around trying to find something he could defend himself with, but there wasn’t anything within his reach. He suddenly heard shots fired and dropped to the ground just as the claws snapped together above him. It made an eerie sound as if it were in pain and turned around to look at the employees who had fired at it. They both had failed to bring the large beast down. Cheng rolled out of the way as it scrambled toward the employees and snatched one of them with its claws and crushed him. It then turned its attention toward the other employee, and with claws clacking, it scuttled forward, trying to crush her. She screamed and made a mad dash down a hall with the creature close behind.

  Cheng sprang back to his feet and ran down another hall where he knew a fire ax was located. He snatched it from its box hanging on the wall and hurried to where he knew the giant crab was heading. He had to stop it before it had a chance to escape the building. He was learning quickly how easy it was for the zombies at the park to get free. He didn’t know how the crab got free, but he knew how to kill it. It didn’t matter if he killed it, he knew he could easily secure another one for the exhibit.

  He followed the sound of clacking claws down the hall until he came upon the creature snatching the employee in its claws and crushing her. The walls were showered in her blood. He knew this would be the only opportunity he would have to kill it. He raced toward it and at the last second, jumped onto its back, and in one swift motion, brought the ax down on its back near its head. It snatched him with one of its bloody claws and tossed him aside like a rag doll and turned to face him. He could see the creature was furious and took a threatening move toward him before slumping forward and crashing to the floor. A large pool of blood formed around it flowing down the hall. Cheng sat there breathing heavily. He looked over at the employee who had been cut in half. Her eyes were staring upward toward the ceiling in shock. He fought to get back to his feet, slipping in the creature’s blood. He looked around at the carnage. He now had to find out how the creature got out in the first place, and then have the building cleaned from all the blood.

  He stood in front of a giant glass enclosure that had been smashed. Glass shards of various sizes littered the floor. It hadn’t been strong enough to hold the engineered giant crab. He knew when they had altered the sizes of the animals, some of them could become stronger than anticipated. The giant crab in essence had grown much larger than they were anticipating, and it posed many problems when moving it to its enclosure. Two people had lost their lives during the move. Now more people had died as a result. As he stared at the shattered glass, he heard moaning coming from down the hallway. He turned to look. To his dismay, the female employee who the crab had cut in half was dragging herself toward him, leaving a long blood smear behind her. He stood frozen in terror as she moved closer to him. Deep down he knew this was why America had fallen. They had made too many mistakes and let the beasts roam freely through the streets. Now he was making the same mistakes. He did realize something vitally important. The crab hadn’t bitten the employee; it cut her in half with its razor-sharp claws. It was crucial information to note. He stood watching her as she pulled herself closer to him. He couldn’t break his trance as he stared into her milky-white eyes. He couldn’t look away; he didn’t want to look away. His trance was suddenly broken by the sound of a shotgun. He snapped out of his trance and saw that the crawling zombie had ceased to exist. A large man wearing black stood above her making sure she was dead. He walked away from her and approached Cheng.

  “Are you all right? Have you been bitten?”

  He didn’t immediately answer. Instead, he kept his gaze on the dead zombie. He heard the man ask him the question once more. He looked at him and in a dry voice said, “No, I haven’t been bitten.”

  The man looked at the glass on the floor and then at the shattered enclosure. “That thing must have broken through its enclosure.” He looked at Cheng. “I’m Sergeant Buckley. You’re lucky I was making my rounds when I did. I saw several employees rush out of the building a moment ago, so I decided to come inside to investigate. I killed another zombie on the other side of the building.”

  Cheng looked blankly at him. “I didn’t hear any gunfire.”

  Sergeant Buckley showed him his hunting knife that was still covered in blood. “I used this. It didn’t give me much time to react, so I didn’t have a chance to shoot it.” He looked around. “Do you know if there are any more animals roaming around? I don’t want any of those things getting out of the building.”

  “I don’t know. I killed the crab with an ax. I saw it kill that young lady. It cut her right in half.”

  “Don’t keep staring at it. It will only sicken you. I saw too much of this in Indiana. I’ve seen the things nightmares are made of.”

  Cheng stared at him curiously. “You were at ground zero?”

  “Well, not exactly ground zero, but my unit was deployed to Valparaiso after the zombies had escaped the park. We were deployed to a grocery store off of the main highway leading into town.” He paused for a moment to reflect on what he had witnessed inside the store. “I remember when we first walked in; we encountered two zombies fighting over a grocery cart. We quickly eradicated them and moved farther down the first isle where we encountered a zombie baby sitting in a cart trying to stand up to get out of the cart. I think most of us stood there in disbelief, none of us having the nerve to shoot a baby, even if it was a zombie. The inside of the store played out like a video game. The farther we moved inside the store, the more ferocious the zombies became. One zombie stood out in particular. It was a medium-sized, bald man holding a box of yogurt in his hand trying to hand it to another man. It was wearing blood smeared glasses and blood was dripping from the tie it was wearing. I think it was a manager, and I think he was trying to hand the box to an employee. I, for a brief moment, felt sorry for it. Even in death, it was still trying to do its job. After relieving it from its duties, we continued across the store, bringing down as many zombies as we could find. Before long, the floors were flowing with blood. It took us some time, but we eventually cleared the store.” He looked at Cheng. “Isn’t it ironic I was hired to work at this park after all I have been through with these creatures?”

  “Why did you take a job working here? I mean, I figure you would be leery of
working around zombies.”

  He smiled and stared at Cheng. “Our unit met up with an officer in the downtown area. His name was Jonas. You probably know him. He’s our captain here at the park. He’s the one who hired me to work here. I guess you can say he can count on me.” He looked around for a moment. “I saved his life in Valparaiso. You see, not everybody in Indiana wanted to be evacuated from their homes and taken to safety. They didn’t understand what our orders were. All they knew was we were there to force them from their homes. Some of them resisted, became violent, and killed some of our unit. I didn’t blame them. I understood how they felt, but they should have let us help them. Captain Jonas faced the meanest woman I’ve ever encountered. She kept yelling at us that she was a business owner and worth millions of dollars, and she was paying our salaries. She was holding a butcher knife in her hand and waving it at the captain. I stood wondering what she was going to do with it. She continued screaming at us. She kept screaming ‘Don’t you know who I am! I’m Pamala Andreotti!’ The captain tried to forcibly remove her, and I anticipated her reaction. She raised the knife in a threatening manner, and I put a round between her eyes before she had a chance to harm him. We became good friends after that.”

  He was interrupted by a voice over his radio. “Sarge, something has happened to Captain Jonas. He’s not answering his radio.”

  “When was the last time he was seen?”

  “He was last seen walking down the beach. Something must have happened to him.”

  “Don’t jump to conclusions just yet. Did you send a team to check out the beach? Surely he must have left footprints.”