DEAD Series [Books 1-12]

by Brown, TW

  “Where would you get an idea like that?”

  “The pictures. That movie 28 Days Later—”

  “Those weren’t really zombies,” Vix interrupted as she started across the road. “Those people were infected by monkeys and went raving mad.”

  “And then there was that show…Dead Set…I wonder if Davina finally got it for real?”

  Great, Vix sighed inwardly, I am facing the end of the world with a Now magazine junkie. She reached the middle of the road and looked around. She had to peel her hood back and remove her glasses because the steady, cold rain was making it almost impossible to see. Up one way, she saw a nasty traffic snarl blocking most of the road; down the other were fewer cars…and several dark figures that were moving in their direction.

  “What do we do?” Gemma asked as she came up beside Vix.

  “We follow Hackwood until we get to War Memorial Park. It is a long bit, but we can hide in the college once we make it,” Vix explained.

  “But I thought we were going to Wickes?”

  “Maybe we are, but in case you haven’t noticed, none of the busses or taxis are about. We will be on foot the entire way. This rain is worse than the snow. I don’t know about you, but I am already soaked to the skin.”

  Without another word, Vix crossed the M3 and quickly found herself in the parking lot of a huge fitness center. In one window, a woman stood with her face pressed to the glass, a gruesome rip across her throat giving away the cause of her demise. Her form-fitting exercise clothing still showed off a physique that Vix imagined hadn’t seen too many candies or bags of crisps.

  Lot of good that was doing her now, Vix thought.

  ***

  “You think old Pitts had the right idea?” Danny stood at the door. Inside the gymnasium were all the women and young children.

  “What do you mean?” Jody asked.

  “Well…he grabbed his girl and headed for the hills. You think he had a line on what the captain was up to?”

  “No…I think he ran because of the immunity thing and not wanting her cut up like sushi so that a bunch of halfwit military and government doctors could try and guess at what made her the way she was. He ran to protect his private piece of ass.”

  “Not much of a romantic?” Danny scoffed.

  “Romance has nothing to do with it,” Jody explained. “I am not entirely sure that the captain realized what he had with Slider until recently. The locals acting out gave him an excuse to act. Slider gave him the right weapon.”

  “So what are we gonna do?”

  “Right now we are gonna go inside and get these women on our team,” Jody said with a shrug.

  “What good will that do us?”

  “Don’t be so sure,” Jody cautioned. “You endanger a mother’s child and you better be ready to reap the whirlwind.”

  Danny followed Jody inside. The first thing that they noticed was the smell. These people hadn’t been allowed to wash, and their bathroom facilities consisted of a row of mob buckets behind a few roll-away classroom partitions.

  “Holy Je—”

  “Stow it!” Jody hissed.

  He looked around the room at the faces that were all staring back at him and saw a lot of variations of fear in those faces. However, in a few…he saw something else. Jody Rafe saw anger. Not just the run of the mill public display of outrage and injustice that soldiers had endured over the years when called in to control the sometimes unruly citizens of the United States. Nope, this was the seething hatred that was commonly seen on television when footage of anti-American protests were taking place in countries like Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

  “Can I have your attention, ladies?” Jody handed his weapons over to Danny and nodded that he stay put. He walked into the center of the room where these women could easily mob him if they chose to do such a thing. “I realize that you are all probably angry, scared, and confused. I am here to—”

  “Where have you taken all of our people?” a woman snapped, cutting Jody off.

  He gave her a second look. This room had a wide variety of ladies and young girls. Any of the women deemed fit for service had been plucked from the mob and sent to what was being called “indoctrination” by the captain and Slider. Jody knew better. There seemed to be nothing wrong with this lady. She appeared to be in her mid- to late twenties. She was fairly tall, easily able to look him in the eye without craning her neck which put her a scant few inches under six feet. Most noticeable were her dazzling blue eyes and long blonde hair. She had that girl-next-door pretty in full effect complete with a splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know any of your names.” Jody turned all his attention to this woman figuring that if she was bold enough to speak out, then she might just be what he needed.

  “Selina,” she said through clenched teeth. “Now…can we dismiss with the crap, and how about you tell me where my dad and brother are…as well as everybody else?”

  “They are safe,” Jody started. He had come in with an idea of how he was going to address the crowd but hadn’t anticipated a confrontation this quick. “But I won’t lie to you…they are not going to be treated fairly and all of you are the leverage that will be used to ensure that they do exactly as they are told.”

  Gasps and murmurs of dismay circulated throughout the room. All of the emotional outbursts triggered the younger children. In seconds, the room was awash in tears.

  “I’m not asking you to trust me.” Jody took a step closer to Selina so that only she could hear him. “However, I think I can help. It is gonna be risky, but I don’t trust your chances otherwise. I will help, but I need you to keep quiet for now and convince everybody to do as I ask.”

  “And how do I know this isn’t just part of the game?” Selina shot back in a voice just above a whisper.

  “Why would I do this? Can you even remotely think of one reason for me to pretend?”

  “So what are you planning?”

  “Actually…it is still a work in progress,” Jody admitted. “But I have a question for you if you don’t mind.”

  “I have alopecia,” Selina said and pulled off her wig.

  “Is it terminal?”

  “Hair loss? Not likely, but if you tell the goon squad that went through and started picking off every able-bodied person in town that you have terminal cancer…”

  Jody was confused. He had no idea what the hell alopecia might be. It sounded terrible, but her comment made it clear that he was missing something.

  “Umm…”

  “I have a condition that makes my hair fall out. When your soldiers came door to door, I pulled off my wig and told them that I have cancer.”

  Jody looked at Selina in disbelief. She was a fast thinker and obviously held no love loss for the current regime. She might very well be exactly what he was looking for.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Danny leaned forward and whispered.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Does that condition affect you everywhere?” He wiggled his eyebrows and flashed a smile as his eyes travelled down the length of her body.

  The slap made a loud echo in the room, causing every head to turn in their direction. All the crying had stopped.

  ***

  Major Wanda Beers stepped out of her tent. The cold was already seeping into her body and that pissed her off to no end. She’d had a sweet deal going when they had happened across the country club. Now, here she was, back to camping out in the elements. Sure, her tent had a woodstove, but that did little more than take the edge off of cold days like today.

  She went about the daily business of organizing her camp. She was a little disappointed in her soldiers. A few had gotten themselves killed by being careless. That had done nothing to heighten their vigilance which was how this man Kevin and who knows how many others were able to wage a successful campaign of terrorism against the 371st.

  Lately, there had been a few deserters to compound the problems. This
morning’s muster had revealed the largest desertion to date. She was starting to reconsider a few of her edicts. There were two points that seemed to rub the soldiers the wrong way—the first being the fact that she had forbidden anybody from ‘taking liberties’ with one of the original residents of this compound. Not being too fond of the current trend in music (she preferred real music like the Stones or Pink Floyd), she’d had no idea who Shari or her bratty little sister had been in the world before all hell broke loose.

  She’d been unimpressed when it was revealed that some tabloid cover girl was in their midst. However, apparently some of the men had offered her all sorts of ‘perks’ in exchange for a bit of intimacy. The girl had refused…as was her right under Wanda’s rule.

  That had been the big surprise. When they’d initially taken over this location and the current residents had been presented, Shari and her sister were deemed practically useless. However, when a possibility had been raised that would involve getting rid of the retarded girl—Down’s syndrome! She heard Shari’s voice growl in her mind even now—it was like a switch had been flipped. Now, Shari was usually one of the first people awake in the camp. She worked from before sun up and went well after sunset.

  Wanda had forbidden any of the soldiers from forcing their will on any female. She had been called a lot of things since the dead began to walk. Most of them were deserved. She didn’t really care. However, one thing she would not condone was rape. That was still an offense punishable by death. When a few of the troops decided to test that rule and had trapped not only Shari, but the one named Aleah as well, and had their way forcibly with the young ladies...Wanda had shown her resolve.

  The hangings had been conducted immediately following the tribunal where two of the men had quickly offered up the other three members of this little gang of miscreants during testimony in exchange for leniency. The three were declared guilty and executed. The other two were given leniency. She had them tossed over the wall with nothing but the clothes on their back.

  Yet, there was still the problem of Kevin and his band of terrorists. They seemed to strike at will. Her guards were turning up dead almost every day. Obviously this guy had some serious training. He was managing to slip in, put an arrow through two walking sentries and escape with little trace…in three feet of snow!

  She knew that the killings were a single person because of the few clues they had managed to glean. But it was the torching of the huge golf club’s main building that made her realize that she was dealing with a well-organized group. The thing was, up to that point, she had been willing to offer the man amnesty. He obviously had a good head on his shoulders. He was a definite step above the normal ground-pounders under her command. However, now she just wanted his head. He was too dangerous to keep alive.

  She had eavesdropped on a few of the conversations with the members of his group that she had, for all intents and purposes, captured and conscripted. They spoke of this Kevin Dreon person like he was some sort of perfect combination of genius, saint, and messiah. A person like that would eventually be a threat to her authority.

  Walking through the camp, she could feel the tension. It was bad enough that she was trying to ensure the survival of all of these ungrateful bastards…but now the insubordination was something she was going to have to deal with directly. Her attempt to lure this Kevin in to her grasp by staging the execution of the young lady with Down’s syndrome had failed to produce; further proof that this individual was savvy and a force to be dealt with as soon as possible.

  “Excuse me, Major Beers?” a female voice interrupted her mental ranting.

  “What is it?” she snapped as she turned to face the person bold enough to address her before her morning cup of coffee. It was that damned pop star.

  “I was told that my rations are being cut?”

  “You don’t eat all your food,” Wanda said with an indifferent shrug. “In case you haven’t noticed…food is in short supply. Especially after that latest stunt by your beloved little friend, Kevin. Most of the stores that you put away were destroyed in that fire in case you don’t remember. You are now relying on our stores for your meals and there isn’t enough to waste.”

  “But I am only taking what everybody else is allowed…no more and no less.”

  “And you aren’t eating it all.”

  “Because you completely cut Valarie off from the food line! We had a deal. You said that I could give her mine.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be on the wood cutting detail?”

  “We had a deal!”

  “There is a line in one of the Star Wars movies…not those horrendous so-called prequels, but the originals. I think it was Darth Vader who said, ‘Pray I don’t alter it further.’ So get your skinny little ass back to work before I throw both of you over the wall,” Wanda growled.

  “He’s gonna beat you, ya know,” Shari whispered just loud enough to be heard. Whether on purpose or not, it still earned her a backhanded slap that sent her to the ground.

  Wanda stood over the supposed pop star—she’d heard her singing to that damn retarded girl and hadn’t been impressed—with clenched fists. She was on the verge of making an example of this one once and for all. The girl was sprawled on the frozen ground with a trickle of blood coming from the corner of her mouth. She was staring up with a defiant glare sparking with tears.

  Several thoughts crossed her mind as the two looked deep into each other’s eyes. She could give this one to the men. The rationale was simple: she was a way to reclaim the loyalty of her troops. Also, many of her men and women had expressed discomfort at the crazed ramblings of the retarded girl. She supposedly saw ghosts, she talked to thin air, and she had a serious problem with her sanitary habits. Tossing that one over the wall would ease a lot of minds.

  “Kevin,” Shari whispered.

  Wanda waited. Obviously the girl had another smartass comment to make about how this man would ride down from the clouds in a flaming chariot and save the world…or at least her and her friends. What the…? She thought as she realized that the girl was no longer looking at her. Glancing over her shoulder, Wanda couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

  Coming through the camp was a man with his hands laced behind his head. Obviously, according to Shari’s reaction, this was the elusive Kevin. She’d expected…more.

  9

  Surviving Ain’t Livin’

  Dr. Zahn sat beside me in the cat as we waited for Jon to come back out of the woods from his bathroom break. I could tell for a while that she’d had something on her mind. I figured the best way to find out was to just ask.

  “What?” I let that one word hang in the air. I knew the doctor well enough to know that she was not one for small talk.

  “I killed that poor little girl,” Dr. Zahn whispered. “And before you start running at the mouth about all the things I’ve done, or how I shouldn’t have simply known or whatever else you all have been yammering on about…I specialized in infectious diseases for almost a decade. I had a position with the CDC in the Eighties and saw it all. Aids. Ebola. Things that would scare you into taking full body dips in anti-bacterial liquid.”

  “Okay,” I said after she sat quiet for a second, “but this isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen.”

  “Still, there are simple rules that you always follow.”

  “So…like you told me not so long ago…don’t make the same mistake twice.”

  “It’s not that—” she started, but Jon running for us through the snow ended that conversation in a hurry.

  He kept looking over his shoulder as he ran. I’d never seen him so visibly shook. Whatever it was, it was bad. And then I saw them. Wolves.

  We’d dealt with them before and they were just disturbing. It wasn’t that they were super fast or anything. It all boiled down to the eyes and the creepy groan they managed to produce that was like nothing I’d ever heard before and after that one time, hoped to never hear again.

  I climbed int
o the driver’s seat and turned the key. Popping into gear, I got us rolling as Jon came up alongside. The doctor opened the door and held out a hand. She recoiled so fast that she almost ended up in my seat.

  “Dammit!” the doctor cursed. I glanced over as Jon climbed in…with a huge rip in his hand.

  “Just drive,” the ever-stalwart Marine snapped (I will never say former because Jon still serves as a Marine despite the lack of any formal government to answer to any longer).

  I kept my focus forward because I couldn’t look him in the eyes. I didn’t want to ask. I didn’t need to.

  As we continued down the general direction of the road—basically I drove between the canopies of frosted pine trees that bordered the path—Jon worked at cleaning and bandaging his hand with the basic first aid gear that he had obviously had the foresight to put behind the seat. I did mentally slap my forehead when he pulled the metal box out because something so obvious had once again slipped my mind.

  I drove for an hour before the doctor nudged me. Jon was leaning against the door with his eyes closed. I pulled the big knife from my belt and handed it over. Doctor Zahn accepted it like it might turn into a snake and bite her.

  “Don’t be so hasty,” Jon said. He opened his eyes and shot a sideways glance at the two of us.

  I wanted to be relieved. So far there was no sign of the black squiggles. That didn’t necessarily mean that we were out of the woods yet, so to speak. It was encouraging, but there was still the possibility that he could be infected. Maybe a bite from a wolf or dog took longer to cause a person to change. We really didn’t have any idea.

  “How are you feeling, Jon?” Dr. Zahn asked.

  “I feel like rancid oil is running through my veins and my stomach is doing flips, but other than that…”

  “I need you to do me a favor.”

  “Sure thing, Doc.”

  “I need you to stay awake.”