The Zombie Chronicles - Book 2 (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series)

by Peebles, Chrissy

  The Zombie Chronicles - Book 2 (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series)

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  The Zombie Chronicles

  Book 2

  Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series

  by

  Chrissy Peebles

  Copyright © 2012 by Chrissy Peebles

  http://www.chrissypeebles.blogspot.com

  Cover design by: Patrick Griffith

  The Zombie Chronicles Book Trailer for book 1: http://youtu.be/ociUHiL1g70

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

  Dedications:

  This is dedicated to my wonderful God and Jesus.

  To: Alex, Faith, and Matthew

  To: My editor, Autumn Conley

  To: My cover artist who makes me the coolest covers.

  Another big thanks to my crit group: Jayde, Trish, Irene, and Carol. You guys rock!

  Chapter 1

  How could things have gone so wrong? I stood on the airstrip with my backpack flung over my shoulder, the early-morning sun beating down on my face. “I-I can’t believe this, Nick,” I said to my brother.

  “Neither can I, Dean.”

  Initially, we’d had two Jeeps loaded with supplies and weapons. One was lost in a zombie attack, and the other we lost during the night, because we stupidly picked up a drifter named Tahoe. I suspected he was nothing but trouble, but the girls insisted he was just an injured conman who needed our help; in the end, I was right. Tahoe was nothing but a slimy traitor.

  The scoundrel even took my black leather bag that contained the precious vials we needed to save my sister’s life. Val had been bitten by a zombie. The serum was experimental, but the doc swore it would work. We couldn’t give it to her until she actually turned into a zombie. Now, her time was close, and without those vials, she was doomed.

  Claire and Jackie, who’d been with us since we’d found them in the woods not far from our helicopter crash, ran back upstairs to give the airport control tower one last sweep. We’d spent the night there to catch up on some much-needed sleep.

  My brother’s best friend, Lucas, and my sister, Val, followed to make sure we didn’t forget anything.

  Minutes later, Val’s voice suddenly cut through the air. “We got everything. Let’s go!”

  We’d made our way onto the road and walked for what seemed like miles. After climbing a hill, we all slowed down for a minute to catch our breath.

  “Hey, Jackie,” Claire said. “Scout it out before we go any further.”

  “On it.” She grabbed the binoculars she was wearing and climbed on top of a giant granite rock, combing her gaze over the area in front of us. “Looks all clear to me,” she said. Slowly, she spun around and peered into the trees and down the hill behind us. “Wait a minute… Oh crap!”

  “What?” I asked. “You see something?”

  Sucking in a deep breath, she glanced down at me. “We got an angry mob of zombies on our butts!” She quickly handed me the binoculars.

  I climbed up on the large rock so I could get a good headcount. Scanning the area, I could see the freaks, limping through the trees with their half-rotted bodies. “She’s right! There must be twenty or more.”

  Val motioned me down. “Then what are we doin’ stickin’ around here? Let’s get moving!” She led the way for a moment, then stopped, pointed, and wiped the sweat off her brow. “We can lose them in the city ruins. C’mon!”

  “Yeah, and maybe we can hotwire some wheels while we’re in town,” Nick said.

  “I like that idea,” Lucas agreed, “a lot.”

  The streets were filled with debris, splintered wood, and smashed chunks of concrete from the surrounding half-destroyed buildings and other collapsed structures. I walked onto the crumbling sidewalk that was littered with glittering shards of glass and shell casings. A piece of red paper fluttered in the air past me. It was like walking into a war zone or the aftermath of an earthquake. Huge concrete blocks, pockmarked by bullets, were piled up vertically on top of one another, like a crooked, life-sized game of Jenga, spreading across the distance in front of me. I wondered if anybody had survived. Deep down, it hurt to think about it, but I knew I had to learn to endure shock and heartbreak if I was going to survive in this zombie-infected world. I looked up at the others. “What the heck happened?”

  “The city’s been bombed,” Nick said as we passed by the blackened wreckage of a smashed, overturned car and a bus that had rammed into a collapsing telephone pole.

  Lucas nodded, climbing over shards of steel. “Good…er, I mean, only because…well, I hope it took down the majority of those dead freaks.”

  I stared at the grim aftermath. People had been crushed under tons of concrete blocks and debris. Thoughts raced through my head, and I swallowed hard. Is this what the island looked like when it was bombed? I still had no idea whether my parents and my grandma had made it out safely, and my heart ripped in two at the thought. Finally, when I could bear to look up from the destruction again, I met Nick’s gaze. “Think Mom and Dad could have survived something like this?”

  His lips pressed into grim lines as he pondered. “They’re survivors, Dean—just like us.”

  A moan echoed through the trees, jolting me from my reverie, and I shuddered, reaching for my gun. I’d never get used to their undead groans.

  “They can’t climb,” Claire said, making her way up the rectangular blocks and tangled rubble. “Follow me!”

  Jackie obediently followed behind her. “All right, guys and gals, let’s lose those things. Watch your footing up here though. A broken ankle can mean possible death in this day and age. Running is key to our survival.”

  “Gotcha, loud and clear,” I said, putting my gun away. I’d grown up hiking and rock climbing, so I was sure it’d be a breeze for me to out-climb a bunch of groaning, oozing undead.

  “Watch for snakes too,” Lucas warned.

  “And loner zombies,” Val added. “One can burst out of nowh
ere and take a bite out of you in a split second. Trust me on that.”

  I nodded. My shirt was glued to my back with sweat—both from nervousness and exertion—and I was half-tempted to take it off. “Everybody be careful and keep your eyes open.”

  I hiked through the ruins, my boots slipping through the unstable layers of broken rock and soil. I swatted at a fly that buzzed by my ear, and it flew off. There was an eerie silence, and none of us talked—until a skittering noise made us all jump.

  Whipping out my gun, I aimed at the noise that was coming from behind a big slab of granite. Something squeaked and scurried into the narrow crevice.

  Nick let out a long sigh. “It’s only rats, man.”

  Val laughed, trying to break the tension. “Well, thank goodness for rats, huh?”

  “Yeah, I’d rather deal with rodents than undead corpses,” Jackie said.

  I shot her a tiny grin and put my gun away. Every little noise had my nerves on edge. I couldn’t help but imagine one of those zombies jumping out at me, biting into my flesh.

  “Look, Nick! There’s that set of wheels you wanted.” Lucas chuckled, pointing to the left.

  Glancing over, I could see an upside-down red car balancing on slabs of concrete and metal. “Very funny, Lucas.”

  “You know, at this point, I’m half-tempted to get that thing running, come hell or high water,” Val said with a chuckle.

  One thing I loved about my sister was that she wasn’t a crybaby. Rather than whining and pouting like some girls do, she always faced her predicament head on and with a good sense of humor.

  I climbed up the large blocks and twisted steel, crawling through whatever tiny spaces were left between the concrete, inching my way through. I was sure there was no way the zombies could maneuver through that three-dimensional maze of rock, but I also knew there could already be some up there. Surely many people had died when those buildings came down, and any that were stuck up where we were climbing were probably undead now. So, my senses were on full alert. I coughed from dust of the crumbling concrete that was breaking underneath my feet. Wires dangled loosely as I squeezed through a narrow space. I walked over the piles of broken bricks as more broken glass crunched underneath my boots. After a moment, I caught Jackie’s gaze, and she smiled.

  “Some adventure, huh?” she asked.

  The wind blew and stirred up the smell of pulverized concrete, dirt, dust, and something else…death. “Definitely keeps the adrenaline pumping,” I said, covering my burning eyes.

  She shot me one of her most adorable smiles. Even covered in the fine dust, she still looked hot. She made me forget about the pain and destruction and heartbreak and fear, if only for a minute. Meeting her had been the only good thing about the entire dreadful experience.

  Squeezing between two stone structures, I said, “I used to beg Nick to let me go along on his military adventures, but I guess now I’ve learned my lesson.”

  “And what lesson is that?”

  “It’s not all fun and games to be hunted.”

  “No, but it’ll make us stronger,” she said, jumping off a giant chunk of black asphalt.

  “Yeah. I can’t wait to tell the guys back on the island about this.” I climbed up another block and reached my hand down to help up Jackie and Claire. Slowly but surely, we made our way over cracked slabs and busted-up cinderblocks.

  Suddenly, unexpectedly, without any warning whatsoever, our ascent was interrupted when a moan pierced the air and a bony hand reached out from behind a tattered pillar and grabbed Claire’s ankle.

  I gasped. A zombie!

  The grotesque, half-decayed thing slithered on its stomach like some kind of snake. Dark liquid dripped from gaping wounds all over the zombie’s green, torn flesh. The muscles and black veins in its back tightened and contorted as it thrashed.

  “Claire!” Jackie yelled, pulling out her gun.

  “Don’t shoot!” Val motioned. “It’ll only draw more of them.”

  Before I even had a chance to do anything, Val had sprung into action and brought her heel straight into its ribcage. Bones crunched, and rotting guts sprayed. I could see its blackened lungs, green slime oozing out. The thing was completely naked and so disgusting that it made me want to vomit just to look at it. Its skin was so decayed that it seemed to be dripping off in chunks. Reaching down, Val wrapped her fingers around a metal pipe lying in the rubble. A crunching sound filled the air as she smashed the rusty pipe into the zombie’s mouth, snapping in two what was left of its gnarly jaw.

  Claire let out the breath she’d been holding and scrambled back from the zombie. “Thanks, Val.”

  Jackie rushed over and hugged Claire. “Oh my gosh! Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Claire placed her hands over her chest. “But my heart’s still racing a million miles a minute.”

  “Not bad, sis,” Nick said.

  Val shrugged. “Meh, cop instincts, that’s all.” Dropping the slimy pipe, she wiped off her hands on her pants. “A gun might’ve been easier, but attracting more of those freaks is the last thing we wanna do.”

  “Exactly,” Lucas said.

  Nick bent down to examine Claire’s ankle. “Looks like it didn’t get you. Thank God for that.”

  “Yeah, we can’t have one of its long, dead fingernails scratching you, now can we?” Jackie said.

  Claire playfully slugged her. “No, we can’t. No matter how bad you think your life is, stuff like this makes you realize that you really do want to live another day. I thought about that thing biting into my ankle before I could get loose. I thought, No, I’m not gonna let it. I’m going to fight. I’m going to live!”

  “Nobody understands those words more than me,” Val said.

  Claire met her gaze. “You’re one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met, Val. Really. I’m so sorry this happened to you, but you know we’ll never give up. You’ve got a family here…in us.”

  “Thanks, Claire,” she said. “Bad things happen. It’s life, and it sucks but sometimes in tragedy, we find our life purpose. If this cure works, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to help people.”

  “That’s very admirable,” Jackie said.

  The sun beat down hard, and droplets of sweat rolled down Lucas’ face. He glanced up and met Val’s gaze. “Well, like Winston Churchill says, ‘If you’re going through hell, keep going.’”

  “All right then,” Val said. “Let’s get our butts moving.”

  We kept walking; all of us hoping to reach flat land soon. We didn’t know what might be hiding in all that rubble, and we didn’t want to find out. Forcing those grim, worrisome thoughts to the back of my mind, I kept a steady pace.

  Chapter 2

  Just as I took a few steps around a giant cinderblock, I slipped; the earth seemed to be sinking out from under me. I threw out my hands to catch my balance, but I landed with a thud, facedown, loosened debris raining down on top of me. I moaned, rolled over, and spat out a mouthful of dirt. I could hear the concrete and metal shifting above, but my vision was blurred by colored spots, neon lights, like florescent amoebas dancing all over the place. The air felt a few degrees cooler, and a damp, dusty smell filled my nostrils. When my eyes finally adjusted to the dimness, my first thought was, Oh crap! I’ve fallen into some kind of death trap…by myself! I covered my head as large sheets of dirt and rock fell from the ceiling.

  “Dean!” I heard the others shouting down. “Are you okay?”

  “Did you break anything?” Nick yelled, shining a flashlight through a long crack in the ceiling.

  Sunlight spilled in, and tiny dust particles hung in the air. I coughed. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt, but it sure smells like something died down here.” My eyes were burning from all the dust I’d stirred up in the fall, and I bit my lip hard at the sound of snapping ropes and creaking metal.

  “Um, okay. Just don’t panic, Dean,” Lucas said. “We just have a little problem.”

  “Little?” Nick’s vo
ice echoed.

  “What?” I yelled back, fearing the answer.

  “There’s a metal beam blocking the opening you fell through,” Lucas said.

  I glanced up at the mangled steel beams jutting from the rubble. “Great. Just freaking great.”

  “Don’t worry,” Jackie said, trying to make me feel better. “We’re looking for something to use as a crowbar. Meanwhile, do you see another way out?”

  I peered around in the dim light that filtered through the cracks above me. “It’s kind of dark down here, but from what I can see, there’s no way out but up.” The place had an eerie feel to it, or maybe it was because I hated being trapped in that dark, isolated place, separated from the others.

  My eyes locked on the ceiling. The creaking sound of metal told me the place wasn’t stable. My tangled heap of concrete and steel jail cell could collapse at any second, burying me beneath it, only to be a snack for a zombie that might happen by or—worse—to become one of those suckers. Tiny pebbles and streams of dirt rained down on me, and I could taste dirt in my mouth.

  “You have a flashlight in your backpack?” Claire called down.

  Glancing up, I could barely make her out amidst the tangle of debris that had shifted to trap me. “No. Lucas and Nick have ‘em,” I said, coughing again.

  “All right. We’re gonna throw one down for you,” Jackie said.

  “That’d be wonderful!” I called back.

  I could hear my brother arguing with Lucas, and that didn’t do my nerves any favors.

  “Digging him out through solid rock on shaky ground that’s about to collapse will never work. Besides, we don’t have the proper equipment!”

  “I know that, Nick,” Lucas said, “but we have to try. He’s trapped under tons of concrete and steel that might crush him any second.”

  “I’ll try to squeeze through an opening,” Nick said.

  “That little slit?” Claire said. “I don’t think so.”