Undead Ultra Box Set | Books 1-4

by Picott, Camille

  “Did you come up with all this while you were drunk last night?” Reed asks.

  “Yes?”

  “Raise your hand if you think Mama Bear should drink more often.” Reed sticks his arm in the air. His tone is light, but his usual big grin is dull. I can tell he’s trying to rally. A few others also raise their hands, smiles rippling around the room.

  “Let’s get to work,” I reply. “We’re burning daylight. We have a home to fortify.”

  29

  Shark Bait

  KATE

  I should be excited. After two days of hard clearance, we’ve managed to kill all the large packs of zombies on campus. After another four days of work, we’ve managed to relocate and install fencing between all the dorm buildings. And now, barely a week after we rescued him, Gary is conscious and well enough to meet all of us at Creekside.

  And while I am happy about all these things, I’m too exhausted to feel real enthusiasm. Ever since the alpha attack, sleep has been even more elusive than usual.

  I crunch on a few stale coffee beans, wishing for an intravenous injection of caffeine. A few people watch me critically as I pop the beans, particularly Ben and Carter, but no one says anything.

  “Hey look,” Reed says with forced cheer from his seat on the couch. “It’s Shark Bait.”

  I look up as Susan and Ash enter the main sitting room. Susan pushes a wheelchair in front of her, which Eric and Reed had found inside of a janitor’s closet a few days ago.

  In the wheelchair is Gary. He’s pale and gaunt, but his eyes are alert. From the smell of things, he’s just had his first shower since getting attacked by a great white. His dark brown hair is still wet, sticking up at wild angles.

  “Reed.” Jenna frowns at him. “Don’t call him that. Hey, Gary. Welcome to Creekside.”

  “Hey, guys.” Gary grins at us, a good-natured smile landing on Reed. “It’s cool. I like Shark Bait better than Shark Food.”

  “You’re in an awfully good mood for someone who almost died,” Ben remarks.

  Gary is cheerfully unapologetic. “Thanks to all of you, my wife and I are alive. If that’s not enough to put a man in a good mood, I don’t know what is.”

  “I like this guy already,” Jenna says.

  “Yeah, I’m glad we risked our lives to save him,” Caleb adds.

  “I know I can’t do much until my leg heals,” Gary says, “but I want to help. Give me a job to do. Maybe I can cook?”

  The sudden silence that descends is like a wet blanket. The good cheer Gary brought to the room is snuffed out. Ben’s face darkens into a scowl.

  No one has volunteered to cook since Lila died. Meals consist of someone picking out a bunch of canned goods from our supply room and heating them over the camp stove. My last meal consisted of warmed-up green beans.

  Gary, sensing the shift, looks from us to Susan in confusion. “I said something. Whatever it was, I’m sorry.”

  It’s not right to take out our collective sorrow on Gary. I throw back a few more coffee beans and cross the room to him.

  “I’m Kate.” I shake his hand. “We’re glad you’re finally awake.” I make introductions, going around the room.

  “Seriously, I owe you guys,” Gary says. “Thanks for everything. Susan says Ash worked day and night to fight off infection and keep me alive.”

  Caleb flashes a proud smile at Ash. “She’s good at what she does. We’re all lucky to have her.”

  I can’t tell if Caleb’s compliment has a deeper meaning behind it. I haven’t been able to figure out the extent of their relationship. As far as I can tell, things haven’t changed between them since Jesus died. They share a dorm room, but even when they sleep the door is always open. They’re never far from one another, but I have yet to see them touch.

  “We are lucky to have Ash,” I agree. “If you really want to step up and be in charge of the kitchen, the job is yours.” No need to tell him we lost our previous chef to zombies. I don’t think anyone is ready to talk about it, least of all me.

  “I’m in,” Gary says. “I was the cook for guests on our charter boat. I’m not a trained chef, but I can put stuff together that tastes good.”

  Eric and Reed start coughing. Small smiles pull at the lips of my people. Even Ben shakes his head as though amused by the comment. It’s nice to feel the tension of the past week slacken.

  “What did I say?” Gary asks.

  “We don’t eat much that tastes great,” I say as diplomatically as I can.

  “I’ll do what I can to remedy that. Just show me where the supplies are.”

  WE LEAVE GARY WITH several boxes of food stores, placing them on the floor to make it easy for him to sort. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, he eagerly sets about going through them. The rest of us head outside, returning to the fortification of our home.

  “For a man who almost died, he’s in good spirits,” I say to Susan as the two of us finish rolling a car into place in front of our fence. I’m so exhausted that all I want to do is sleep. Even Gary’s recovery isn’t enough to give me a boost of energy.

  “He’s always like this.” A happy smile spreads across Susan’s face. “It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with him. He always got great tips from people on our boat.” She taps her fingers on the hood of the car. “Do you think we should pop the tires now?”

  “Let’s wait until we’re finished getting all the cars in place.” We’re two-thirds of the way finished with this phase of the fortifications. “Come on, let’s go get the silver Mini Coop.”

  I plod beside Susan, steps heavy with fatigue. I have a few more coffee beans stashed in my pocket. I crunch on them as we walk a short way down Granite Avenue to the Mini Cooper.

  “Are those good?” Susan points to the beans.

  “Honestly? No. They’re stale.”

  “So you’re eating them because you’re so tired you could fall asleep standing up?”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  Susan nods. “No one would be upset if you took the afternoon off and napped.”

  Like I could nap even if I tried. I shake my head. “My place is out here with everyone else, making sure our home is safe.”

  Susan gives me a sidelong look but doesn’t say anything. We reach the Mini Coop. The doors are all locked, something we’ve run into more times than I can count. Susan pulls out a large rock wrapped in a T-shirt, which hangs from her belt; our official tool for our task of breaking into cars. She smashes the window and unlocks the doors.

  A few minutes the later, the Mini Coop is in neutral and the two of us are pushing it up the road.

  Three hundred yards away, a small pack of zombies stumble into view. Eric, Johnny, Caleb, and Ash stop what they’re doing and fan out to eliminate the undead. From the haphazard resistance the zombies put up, it’s clear none of them are alphas.

  After our initial clearance of the campus right after the attack, we haven’t run into too many zoms. It’s nice to know our destruction of the library and dorms wasn’t for nothing.

  “We owe you our lives,” Susan says as she watches our people. “I’ve never properly thanked you for what you’ve done for me and Gary.”

  “Let’s see,” I say, attempting to make light of the situation. “When we met you, your husband was unconscious from a shark attack. The day after you arrive at Creekside, we’re attacked by alpha zombie hordes and are forced to blow up some buildings.” I make it a point not to mention the wake, or the burial of our friends in the rubble of College Creek. “Then I make everyone relocate fence panels and reinforce them with cars. Oh, and somewhere in between all that, your husband wakes up.” I smile at her through the open car window as we continue to push the Mini Coop. “You’ve had a lot on your mind.”

  Susan shakes her head. “I could say thank you every day for the rest of my life and it still wouldn’t be enough. Can you steer at little to the left?”

  I adjust the steering wheel. The Mini Coop slides neatly into p
lace between two cars.

  Carter and Jenna roll up a few minutes later, pushing a beat-up Ford Mustang between them. Susan and I guide them into place.

  The Mustang completes the section of the wall around the Juniper and Creekside dorm buildings. I survey the barrier, knowing I should feel satisfied. All I feel is exhausted.

  “Good work,” I say. “Let’s try and finish this next section of the wall today.” I gesture to the gap between Fern and Laurel dorms. “I saw more cars down in the parking lot of the Jolly.” The Jolly is a big common area that used to be frequented by students.

  “So you and Gary ran a commercial fishing boat?” Carter asks as the four of us walk together down the road.

  “A charter boat. We took people out for fishing, whale watching, and kayaking. We were on our boat with two tourists from New York when the outbreak hit. One customer started eating his friend. Gary tried to separate them, but couldn’t. At the time, we didn’t know the guy was a zombie. We thought he was just some rich prick who bought some bad drugs.

  “Anyway, Gary ended up hitting him in the head with a fire extinguisher. He only meant to stun him, but accidentally hit him too hard. The other guy, the one who was bitten, bled out on the deck of our boat.

  “We were so scared. We thought we were facing manslaughter charges. We threw the bodies overboard. Our plan was to stay in the boat and sail down to Mexico before the authorities caught up to us.” Susan lets out a long sigh. “We hadn’t gone far when we heard about the outbreak on the radio and figured out what was really happening. No one was using the zombie word, but all the news reports talked about people going berserk and eating other people. We decided to stay put and live on the boat until everything blew over. You know how that worked out. And now here we are.”

  I try to imagine what it would be like to watch the world end from afar. It occurs to me that Susan and Gary haven’t spent much time in the world of zombies. That makes me appreciate their willingness to help and be a part of our community even more.

  I suppose there is some brightness in this fucked-up world.

  30

  Foot Soldier

  KATE

  I hike toward the Creekside common room, glancing at my watch. It’s time for a check-in call with Alvarez. We missed the last check-in due to the alpha attack, and he missed the check-in before that. I’m anxious to catch up with my young friend.

  Upon reaching the main dorm, I find Carter and Jenna there. They collect their library books to make room for me at the kitchen table with the ham radio. Carter gives me a firm hug, something he’s taken to doing every time he sees me. I hug him back, grateful for my son, then settle down in front of the ham radio.

  “Mama Bear to Foot Soldier. Are you there? Over.”

  “Mama Bear, this is Foot Soldier. Good to hear your voice. You missed our last scheduled check-in. Over.”

  Alvarez. I sigh in relief at the sound of his voice, tossing a few coffee beans into my mouth. “I wasn’t the only one to miss a check-in. You missed the one before that.” I dispense with the official radio jargon.

  “It couldn’t be helped. A few of my people were nabbed by some bandits that came through the area.” His voice turns harsh and brittle. “No way those assholes were going to get away with taking my people. I went back to the fort and pulled together a full platoon. We got them back.”

  “Is everyone okay?”

  Silence drags through the ham radio for long moments. “We lost two. Two more were shot, but they’re on the mend. On the bright side, we acquired a doctor. He was being held captive by the raiders.”

  “Maybe your doctor can talk to Ash, our medic. We have a man recovering from a shark attack.”

  “How did one of your people get attacked by a shark?”

  “He wasn’t one of mine when he was attacked. He and his wife own a charter boat. They were at sea when the shit hit the fan. Survived out there for months.” I lay out the rest of the story, including our rescue of Gary and Susan.

  “Shit. That’s bad luck. Shark attack during the zombie apocalypse. Let’s set up a time for our doctor to talk to your medic.”

  “Thanks, Foot Soldier. I owe you one.”

  “You can pay me back with another trip to the library. Can you find me a book on fish farming and fish management? One of the women in our group wants to start a fish hatchery. She used to work for fish and game and knows how to run one, but not how to build one.”

  I stare at the ham radio, not sure how to tell Alvarez that we lost the library. It hurts to think about all that knowledge buried in rubble. It doesn’t help that it was my idea to blow it up.

  “Mama Bear? You still there? Over.”

  “I’m here, Foot Soldier. I’m sorry to tell you this, but the library is gone.”

  “Gone? What do you mean, gone?”

  “We had a ... situation up here. It’s the reason I missed our last check-in call.”

  I relay an abridged version of the last week and a half. From the appearance of the alphas, to our battle to protect the university, and to our work on the new fortifications around the dorms.

  Alvarez lets out a long whistle when I finish. “And I thought things were fucked up on my end.”

  “Have you guys seen any alphas in your area?” I ask.

  “No. Not yet. I’ll be sure to warn my people and let you know if we see anything.” His voice sharpens. “Can you back up to the part where you guys blew up the library? That’s a big loss for all of us.”

  “I know. We didn’t have a choice. We created a barricade that buried half the horde and diverted the rest away from the campus.”

  “So you have a primary wall on the south end of campus? And you’re building a secondary fortification around the dorms?”

  “Yeah. We’ve been working from sun-up to sundown for the last week. We have another few days of hard work in front of us, but it’s getting there.”

  “Damn, Mama Bear. Sounds like you’re going to have your own fortress up there. Is everyone in your group okay?”

  My throat tightens as I think of Jesus and Lila. All I can bring myself to say is, “I lost two of my people, too.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I know how hard that is. Are you sleeping?”

  I snort. “Right.”

  His commiserative chuckle rolls out of the receiver. “I feel your pain, Mama Bear.”

  I close my eyes, comforted by his empathy. Like Ben, Alvarez knows how I feel. He’s lost people, too.

  It’s one of the reasons I look forward to our ham radio chats every three days. Alvarez and I both lead our small communities; it’s nice to have someone in my same position to talk to. He knows what it means to have people depending on him.

  “Don’t let the grief and the guilt distract you from your primary mission,” Alvarez says. “Focus on the living.”

  “Is that how you get through the days?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes, it’s the only thing that gets me through.”

  I inhale deeply, flinching away from the memory of my knife as it slid through Jesus’s skull. Of Lila’s ruined head when her body hit the ground. I summon a mental image of my living family: Carter, Jenna, Johnny, Eric, Reed, Ash, Caleb, and Ben. I let their presence fill me, pushing back the darkness.

  “Mama Bear?”

  “I’m here.”

  “I’d take your alphas over my bandits. You know when I said they kidnapped a few of my people?”

  A sick lump forms in my stomach. “Yeah?”

  “The people they took were women, one of them just a teenager.”

  “Shit,” I breathe.

  “We found them, but not before they ... it was a long forty-eight hours, Kate. The worst part is that two of the fuckers got away. I’d feel better if they were all dead. Knowing they’re still out there makes me uneasy.”

  I understand how he feels. I couldn’t live with the threat of Johnson hanging over us. If these bandits hurt his people, Alvarez must be chomping at the bit to even
the scales.

  “Don’t give up,” I say. “Double up on watch. They might show themselves again, especially if they’re short on supplies.”

  “I almost wish they would.” Alvarez’s laugh is hollow. “I’d like nothing more than to gut those fuckers with our fish hooks. Have I told you about those?”

  Even though I can’t see Alvarez’s face, I can tell by his tone that he wants to change the subject. “You haven’t mentioned the fish hooks.”

  “Big fucking things. Like, the size of a small baby. Apparently they’re used for tuna fishing. We found some on a scavenging run. We’re getting pretty good at fishing.”

  “My son and his girlfriend want to figure out a way to fish for oysters in Humboldt Bay.”

  “Oysters, huh? I wouldn’t turn my nose up at that idea.”

  “Yeah, except there’s no safe way to navigate downtown Arcata right now. We have no way of knowing how many alphas are out there.”

  “You’ll figure something out, Mama Bear. You always do. If you could figure out how to run two hundred miles through a zombie apocalypse, you can figure this out.”

  Alvarez and I talk for another few minutes before Johnny shows up. He’s been interviewing people from Fort Ross for one of the many books he’s writing. I say my goodbye to Alvarez and pass the ham to Johnny.

  As I exit the room, chewing on another few coffee beans, my gaze travels across the room to the shrine Jesus built to St. Roch. Reed hung his pendant inside. I stare at the pendant, something Alvarez said tickles the back of my mind.

  If you could figure out how to run two hundred miles through a zombie apocalypse, you can figure this out.