Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel Paperback

by Kristal Stittle

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Abby nodded. “That’s Tobias and that one is Cender.”

  The women and the boy clearly had no interest in being friendly. They shied away, grouping closely together.

  “I’m Misha,” the cuffed guy said after seeing the video. “And yeah, I definitely got these from your friend.”

  “What happened to him?” Tobias spoke slowly, as if he didn’t really want to know.

  “I found him washed up on the shore of some river,” Misha told them. “He had been stabbed, once in the face and once in the gut. He died.”

  Tobias nodded and looked at his feet.

  “Who’s the dog?” Abby asked attempting to lighten the mood, even though her gut clenched. “He’s a little cutie.” She leaned forward and patted the dog’s head. His tail thumped on the floor.

  “That’s Rifle. I picked him up back in the city, and he’s been helping me out ever since.” Misha smiled down at the dog. He had clearly bonded with him.

  “Where do you think we’re going?” Abby asked no one in particular.

  “Nowhere good,” Misha grumbled. “But when we get there, I’m going to find a way to take them out. I’m not going without a fight.”

  39:

  Little Brother

  Danny fidgeted with the straps of his backpack. He didn’t like sitting in the back of the truck and it was obvious that no one else did either. He sat at the front end, next to Mathias and across from Riley and Alec. The soldier who said his name was James sat alone near the rear doors.

  “So what were you doing out on that road?” Mathias asked James.

  “Just out looking for survivors,” James answered.

  “Seems like a random place to be looking,” Riley brought up. “It was in the middle of nowhere.”

  “We found you, didn’t we?” James retorted.

  “Seems fishy if you ask me.” Alec leaned his head back on the side of the truck, closing his eyes.

  “Good thing no one asked you then.” James rolled his own eyes.

  “Hey, McGregor.” Mathias turned to Alec with what Danny knew to be his shit-eating grin. “What do you think about Keystone stumbling upon us in the woods?”

  Alec grinned as well, then opened his eyes and leaned forward. “Why Cole, I think it’s mighty fishy.”

  Mathias smiled smugly at James.

  “You guys should be more grateful,” James told them with a scowl.

  “Grateful for what?” Riley scowled back. Danny thought she was kind of scary when she did. “Grateful that you caused us to go off the road? That you could have killed us and destroyed our ride? That you stopped us from getting to our destination and insisted we come to your supposedly safer location?”

  “It is safer.” James stuck to his guns. Literally, actually, he still had his rifle in his hands.

  “And how would you know how safe the place we were going to is?” Riley kept grilling him.

  James stopped bothering to argue. He seemed to focus on a point in the doors and decided to ignore them.

  All the hostility made Danny feel uncomfortable, but he wasn’t going to say anything about it. He went back to fidgeting with the backpack straps.

  * * *

  Shoes started pacing back and forth, chuffing and whining.

  “What’s wrong with the dog?” James asked.

  “I think he needs to pee.” Danny may never have owned a dog, but it certainly looked to him like he needed to pee.

  “Actually, I kind of have to go as well,” Riley spoke up.

  “Likewise,” Mathias nodded.

  James sighed in a very irritated manner. He pressed a button on the wall next to him.

  “Guys, we need to make a pit stop. Pull over when it’s safe to do so.” James didn’t speak toward anything in particular.

  Danny looked around the truck’s interior, but he couldn’t see anything that looked like a microphone. Other than the straps, the walls and ceiling of the truck were completely smooth surfaces. The floor was made of tread plate so it was even less likely to be built in there. Maybe it was in the seat near James, on the wall right next to him where his body blocked Danny’s line of sight.

  They drove on a while longer with no indication that the guys in front had even heard them. Shoes began to get really impatient. He pawed at Alec’s leg, whining even louder. Eventually he barked and the sound rebounded extra loud off the walls causing everybody to wince.

  “You know, he’s going to start howling soon, and in here that could burst your ear drums,” Alec told James.

  Danny wondered if that was true. It seemed possible.

  “We don’t know what’s out there. There could be twenty zombies closing in on our position,” James explained, trying to be patient. “They’ll stop when they know it’s clear.”

  Just as he finished saying this, the truck came to a slow stop. They all remained seated, waiting for James to open the doors. He never did. Eventually, another soldier opened them from outside. Danny really hoped that didn’t mean that those doors couldn’t be opened from the inside. He didn’t like the idea of being completely trapped with no way out. What if something happened to the guys up front and no one came along to free them?

  Shoes hurried to the open door and leaped out, his rope leash trailing through the air behind him. Mathias and Riley both got up to follow after him.

  “Do you need to go too?” Alec asked Danny.

  “Do you?” Danny replied.

  “It’s probably for the best we both go,” Alec suggested. “I think James here might blow our heads off if we asked to stop again.”

  James was not amused by that comment. Danny was thinking Alec was probably right.

  He helped Alec slide down the bench toward the door where he propped himself up against the tailgate.

  “Watch your feet,” Danny heard Alec tell the soldiers as he unzipped his pants.

  Danny walked away before that happened, finding his own spot along the side of the road. He could hear Riley somewhere off in the bushes. She was extremely angry with a soldier who would not leave her alone to do her business. Danny thought that if that soldier didn’t leave her alone soon, he was going to get slugged.

  He pulled down his shorts only as much as he needed to and tried to pee, but he couldn’t. He had his own soldier standing right behind him, guarding him. Despite the considerably full bladder, he just couldn’t go.

  “Come on, Danny.” Mathias walked past behind him.

  “In a minute.” Danny felt heat rush to his face.

  “What’s the hold-up?” his brother asked, a small amount of concern in his voice.

  “I can’t go while he’s watching,” Danny admitted. It was creepy.

  “This will go a lot faster if you turn around,” Mathias said. Danny assumed it was to the soldier.

  He heard a grunt and a shuffle. He looked over his shoulder to see that the guard had turned, but now Mathias was standing there.

  “You too,” he frowned.

  “Right, sorry.” Mathias threw up his hands in a defensive posture and turned.

  It was still another minute, but eventually, Danny’s bladder released itself. Once done, Danny quickly pulled his shorts back up and made sure his pistol was still jammed into his pocket.

  “All right, get your asses back in, please,” James called from the back of the truck. His attempts at a polite manner were getting worse every minute.

  Everyone moved back towards the truck. Alec had already hauled himself up inside. Danny was about to climb in when he noticed someone was missing.

  “Shoes!” He turned around quickly to find the dog.

  Shoes was sniffing at a tree near the side of the road, the rope lying on the ground next to him. Danny ran over to grab him.

  “Hey kid! Get back here!” James yelled at him.

  Danny didn’t care; he was going to grab Shoes. He scooped the hound up in his arms.

  There was a shriek from the forest ahead of him and Danny snapp
ed his head up. A zombie came charging at him. Danny bolted for the truck, Shoes barely staying in his arms.

  A solider was ready though, and put down the zombie with a single shot. Another one came walking out of the woods. Another shot put it down. Then there were more and more shrieks and groans and howls from the trees, and even more shots from more soldiers.

  Danny didn’t even have time to toss Shoes into the back before Mathias was hauling them both up inside. As Danny lay panting on the floor, he looked back and saw a whole flood of zombies coming out of the trees. The soldiers were putting them down with expert shots, but more and more just kept coming. Danny wondered where the hell they could all be coming from.

  One of the soldiers shut the doors as he made his way back toward the front of the truck, cutting off their view of the outside world. Before the engine could be started up again, things began pounding on the back. Danny remembered that trapped feeling. He hoped the soldiers outside were okay.

  At least one of them must have been, because they began moving forward once more. The ruckus of banging continued along the sides, back, and even top of the truck for some time. Danny didn’t move an inch until it stopped. Behind him, neither did Mathias. Eventually though, a general silence returned to the truck. Mathias got to his feet and dragged Danny up with him. They both returned to their seats without saying a word.

  “You dropped this,” James got their attention. He held out the pistol Danny had been keeping in his pocket. It must have popped out when Mathias had dragged him up.

  Danny hurried over, grabbed the pistol from him, and hurried back to his seat.

  “I find it strange that you’re letting us keep our weapons despite the obvious hostility,” Mathias commented.

  “Why would I try to take them?” James simply stated. “That would only create more hostility I would think. Besides, we want you to be able to protect yourselves. Again, we’re only trying to keep you safe. Part of that means letting you keep yourselves safe.”

  “But what if we decide that killing you will keep us safe?” Mathias lifted his rifle up and pointed it at James.

  James didn’t raise his own back. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even twitch. “Go ahead, but then you wouldn’t be able to get out of here. There’s a camera in the corner. See the glass bubble near the crates? The guys up front can see what’s going on back here. If I’m splattered and gooey, they don’t open the doors.”

  “So we could be trapped in here?” Danny’s fear had been proven.

  “There’s an emergency exit that’s kept unlocked unless the guys up front decide to lock it.” James gestured to the crates indicating it was behind them somewhere. “Again, that would only happen if I were suddenly under duress.”

  Danny still didn’t like it. Although people had been helping him along the way, there had still been the option of running off on his own if he felt like it. Take things into his own hands. Right now, his life lay completely in the hands of people he didn’t know; people who didn’t even trust him to pee on his own.

  Mathias finally lowered his rifle again, but did not look happy about it.

  “We’ll be there shortly.” James leaned back and closed his eyes. “I suggest you get some rest if you can.”

  No one did. While James sat back, looking like he might be asleep, Alec took his GPS out of his pocket. He and Riley looked at it, muttering quietly to each other. Danny couldn’t make out what they were saying, but he guessed that they were trying to figure out where they might be going.

  The ride was long, quiet, and dull. Shoes got up and wandered around the truck a few times, but never with that insistent look he had before. He didn’t bark or whine at anything or anyone. Just sniffed.

  Danny looked at the crates next to him, trying to figure out what was in them. They were all labelled with letter and number combinations that made no sense to him. Mathias probably knew what they meant, or at least some of them, but asking would take the occupational therapy out of it. It was something to do.

  Next to him, Mathias did nothing as far as Danny could tell. Danny didn’t know how he could stand it, just sitting there. Usually when they went on long trips, like when they moved, he would be driving while Danny played a Gameboy. They would also have the radio on, tuned to whatever rock station they could find. Both of them liked rock, especially the classic stuff. They were both known to start belting out tunes at the tops of their lungs if the mood struck them. Danny missed those car rides; driving in the middle of nowhere, just the two of them. They would stop to eat junky fast food whenever they needed to, or braved gas station bathrooms if that’s what was called for.

  In contrast, this ride sucked. It sucked hard. Not only was Danny trapped in the bland, white truck, he was also trapped with his thoughts. He couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened: Emma, the dog Tugg, Nelly. The run-away car, the zombie being trapped by the garage, the zombie in the window. Michelle’s head being blown off in front of him. Walter, Kara, Alice, all dead. Even LeBlanc. He also thought about those whose outcome he didn’t know: Luca, Beth, Holly, Joan, both John with an H and Jon without. He thought about his online friends too. This had probably spread to their parts of the world or was at least on the way. The world suddenly felt like a much bigger place. Bigger, emptier, and a hell of a lot more dangerous.

  Danny still had his big brother though, and that counted for something. That counted for a lot actually.

  * * *

  The ride suddenly got bumpier and there was banging all around the sides of the truck. It was similar to when the zombies swarmed them earlier; they were probably being swarmed again. Although, it seemed that this time they were running over a few as well. The truck came to a halt before the zombie attack stopped. Danny was about to have a panic attack when they heard the sounds of gunfire outside. Everyone looked at each other nervously. Except James, who seemed oddly calm. Eventually the banging stopped, and shortly afterward, so did the gunfire. The truck moved forward again, but stopped once more only a moment later.

  “We’re here,” James told them, setting their minds both a little less and a little more on edge.

  They waited nearly a full minute before the back doors were opened. Danny knew, he had counted. It took fifty-six seconds.

  James hopped out and looked in at them. “Get your stuff.”

  The four of them set to unloading their things from the truck. Danny was the last one out, taking it upon himself to shove the bags to where the others could reach them, so he didn’t get to see where they were.

  Finally, after helping Alec get out and into his chair, Danny put his backpack on and got out of the truck. He looked around to see an unpleasant sight. They appeared to be in a prison yard.

  All around were chain link fences, with high stone walls beyond them. Workers were on top of the walls, welding something to them, probably making them even harder to get over. All of them had rifles with them. In the centre of the fencing was a big stone complex with bars in the windows. A large sign read North Leighton Correctional Facility. People moved around inside, but it was hard to make them out. In one corner stood a large tower. Several people walked around the top section of it. They looked like they had very powerful guns, like Alec’s.

  “Move out of the way,” James ushered them to the side.

  The truck started up again and began to back up. James was the only soldier from the truck who stayed with them. The truck backed up through a pair of large steel doors. Looking through the doors, Danny could see another perimeter wall, which also had big steel doors. Between the two sets of doors, the ground was littered with corpses, which were riddled with bullets. A pair of squat towers sat to either side, with three men in each who packed some serious firepower; here was the source of the bullets. There certainly were a lot of guns in this place.

  The truck backed over the bodies as if they were nothing, torsos and skulls being squished and popped. It stopped between the two sets of doors and the inner ones began to
close. Everybody watched silently. Once they shut, they could hear the outer doors begin to open, followed by the screaming of some zombies. Danny flinched.

  “Don’t worry, they can’t get in,” James assured them. “Come on, we need to get you processed.”

  “Processed?” Mathias frowned.

  “Well, we like to know about everybody here.” James led them to a door in a chain link fence. “And we can’t just take your word that you’re not infected.”

  “There’s no decontamination protocol, is there?” Mathias frowned some more.

  James laughed. “No. That’s only for the big underground facility.”

  They walked down what was essentially a hallway made of chain link fencing. Mathias walked next to James up ahead, but Danny grabbed hold of the handles on Alec’s wheelchair again. Riley walked next to him holding Shoes’s rope leash. The dog tried to sniff at everything.

  “I don’t like it here,” Danny whispered to Alec and Riley.

  “I agree with you, kid,” Alec nodded.

  “These walls can only keep people safe for so long,” Riley shook her head. “They’ll eventually come through, and this place will be a prison again.”

  “How are we going to get out?” Danny wondered.

  “I don’t know,” Riley shook her head again.

  Alec said nothing.

  Danny scrunched up closer to them as they neared the building’s entrance. It was a plain-looking, metal door. James knocked on it twice and waited roughly five seconds, then he knocked again. The door swung open, and an old and very serious-looking man stood there. He looked each of them up and down and then stood aside. James walked past him without a word and the others followed. Danny looked at the old man as they passed. The man simply looked back and shut the door. Soon they turned a corner, and he was out of sight. It was all rather strange.

  They entered a room that had a glassed-in guard’s station across from them and two doors on either side. There were several folding chairs here, like a waiting room. Another soldier sat in the guard station. He only glanced up at them once, then looked back down at something he was reading.