SHTF (NOLA Zombie Book 0)

by Zane, Gillian

  A spinning box appeared as if I lost internet connection and I hit pause and then tried to hit play again. The box went black, content removed. The government was censoring the videos of the infected, it was the only explanation that made sense. I hated being paranoid, but I knew how they operated; I had been on a few black missions myself and trained on bases that didn’t exist.

  There was some serious shit going down and from what I could tell most people had no clue, they were just going about their lives. The television flashed to some party-goers celebrating the latest blockbuster release that had filmed in New Orleans, the ladies in their pretty dresses, the men in their tuxedos. What I saw today, was that real? Or was what I was seeing on the television real?

  Had the world gone mad? Or just my little corner of it?

  Eight

  Seven A.M. Reveille

  I must have fallen asleep because the ringing of my phone had me shooting off the sofa and fumbling for it on the coffee table. The television was muted and was now showing some infomercial for a vacuum cleaner that washed and waxed the floor at the same time.

  The clock on the television said seven in the morning. Too early for anyone to call me unless it was an emergency. I glanced at the read-out and clicked accept when I saw it was Barbara.

  "Did she sleep at your house last night?" she said before I could even say a word. No hello, how are you, she went straight to the point.

  “Alicia? Did she sleep here?" I asked even though I knew what she was talking about. Who else could it be?

  "Yes!" she said frustrated. "Who else? She didn't come home last night," Barbara sighed and I could hear the strain in her voice.

  "No, she didn't come here. She called me, but I told her she had to stay with you guys." I ran my hand over my face to try and rub away the cloudy feeling in my head. I puttered to the kitchen and began to make coffee. I would need caffeine to make it through this drama. I didn't need Alicia's shit on a day like today.

  I heard the door of the second bedroom open and then the sound of bare feet on my hardwood floor. Lena poked her head around the corner of the kitchen, drawn by my voice. Her hair was mussed and all she wore was an oversized tee that I suspected was one of mine. It was ridiculously sexy. I never brought women to my house and I certainly didn't let them wear my clothes. I don't know why this was attractive to me, but it was.

  Focus, idiot.

  I pushed back the attraction and tried to pay more attention to some of her unattractive qualities to get me thinking about other things...okay, there weren't any. Shit.

  I pointed down the hall and mouthed "bathroom" and she nodded gratefully, puttering back down the hallway. Barbara was still bitching about Alicia when I tuned back into the conversation.

  "This is wonderful," she said sarcastically. "I just don't get this girl. We don't put a lot of rules on her, but still she has to push the envelope. She left a note that she was staying at your house, which I didn't believe for one-second since I knew you were on a job. Now I don't know where the hell she is," Barbara sighed.

  "She mentioned some guy, Mark or Marcus, I think." I was going to kill her if she spent the night with a boy.

  "Dammit, I don't need this shit now, Romeo."

  "I'm right there with ya, sis, have you seen the news? Last night I saw one of these infected up close and personal and it was all kinds of fucked."

  "Language," she corrected, but only half-heartedly.

  "Whatever, this is some bad sh–stuff. I think it might be a good idea to get out of the city for a bit."

  "We can't leave, Hank and I have work. You could go with Alicia, she's out of school now."

  "No, you guys have vacation days, you can come, and you don't want to play with this stuff. At least for a few days, if it gets worse they won't expect you to come in any way. It's Saturday, if it's blown over by Monday we'll come back."

  "I think you're being paranoid, Romeo," Barbara scoffed. I heard Hank in the background and she covered the phone and said something to him that I couldn't make out.

  "Put Hank on the phone," I said loudly so she could hear me over her muffled conversation.

  "Tim, I have a ton of work on Monday, I can't just blow town because of a virus," he sighed when I told him the same thing I was telling Barbara.

  "This isn't a virus, Hank. This is an outbreak and it's in New Orleans. Things are going to get ugly, real quick. We don't have to go far, just to the facility my company has by Lake Catherine. If you sleep there Sunday night, you can still make it to work in the morning. Trust me on this, when have I ever jumped the gun?"

  "We've been watching the news, it's only a few people at the hospital,” Hank argued.

  "They have a media blackout in place like they did for the weaponized anthrax attack, every time a new report comes out on the web they shut it down. I've been through this before, Hank. If you've never listened to me before, now is the time. We need to get the hell out of the city."

  "I believe you," Hank said, resigned.

  "You can't trust the news now, you understand that, right?"

  "Yeah, we gotta find Alicia, as soon as possible," he said.

  "That's the plan. You know this Marcus kid?"

  "He's the Trevalia's kid, the middle one," Hank said, relaying it from Barbara.

  "You know where he lives, I'll just go get her from there, embarrass her, but at this point I don't give a rat's ass."

  "Thanks, Tim. If we show up she'll freak out, she thinks we're the enemy now. That we're just out to ruin her life or something. She never used to be this way, she used to love Barbara, now it's a constant war."

  "I know," I sighed. "I'll talk to her. Text me the address."

  Nine

  Tearing a New Ass

  "SO your little sister didn't come home last night?" Lena asked. She had pulled on a pair of shorts and stood in the doorway to the kitchen with a concerned look on her face. She had straightened her hair out a bit and was looking more put together, but still a little ruffled.

  "No, she didn't. She told my brother's wife that she was sleeping here. Obviously that didn't happen." I slammed the door to the refrigerator a little too hard and winced as all the glass jars clashed together.

  "That's not good. You're going to try and track her down?" she asked.

  "Yeah, but I want to talk to you about your plans first and set you up with anything you need. I'm not going to just leave you. You think about what you're going to do yet?"

  "I was thinking about that this morning. Since they shut down the airports in the infected cities, I'm pretty sure New Orleans will be next. Not to mention I don't want to be at ten thousand feet with someone like that woman last night. Not my idea of safe travel. My best bet is to rent a car and drive to Colorado. I can make it in two days. I'm used to staying up for long periods I wouldn't have to stop. Plus, it would be good for me to have a little alone time, I haven't done that in a long time."

  "It's logical, but I don't like the idea of you driving alone like that. Especially on just a little sleep. A lot can happen on an open road by yourself and you'll be crossing through a lot of desolate areas. Maybe we can get you a train ticket or something. At least with that you’re a bit safer."

  "I think it might be just the same as an airplane, just not as high up. I can do this, I can make the drive. I've done it before. I drove from Colorado to L.A. when I was eighteen. By myself, with five hundred dollars in my pocket and a suitcase of all my worldly possessions."

  "You really want to do this? You can come with me and my family, you know that, right?"

  "I can't do that, you're not responsible for me, Romeo." She smiled but looked away quickly.

  "I don't feel responsible for you, Lena, but I do feel like I have to help you out, it's that pesky hero complex I have."

  "Hero," she laughed. "Is that what it is?"

  "Something like that," I smirked. "But, really, Lena, I talked my brother and his wife into going with me to the MJ training compound. It's out
in the swamp and secluded. Zach and Blake would put you up in one of the client houses, no questions asked. You don't have to leave the city by yourself."

  "Thank you, really, Romeo. But I want to go home. I can’t think of a better place to be if the world is going to Hell.”

  "Okay," I relented. "But if things get bad, avoid the major highways. On back roads you should be fine, use print maps in case you are out of range. I also want you to take one of my firearms. Do you know how to shoot?"

  "You're making me paranoid now. Do you think it's going to be that bad?" she asked.

  "I just keep seeing that girl from last night. She tried everything possible to get at me. If there was a group of them–well, it would be chaos." I shook my head and handed Lena a coffee mug, steaming hot with the brown liquid. She took a grateful sip and sighed.

  "I'm trying to not think about that woman. That definitely topped my list of the scariest thing I've ever experienced. Was she really trying to bite you?"

  "It took all my strength to keep her back. Now that I'm thinking back on it, she wasn't in there anymore. It wasn't her, just some driving need to attack and bite. I've never seen anything like that."

  "Damn," Lena cursed. "Well, let's go get your sister and then could you bring me to a rental car place? Then I'll be out of your hair."

  "I don't mind you being in my hair, sweetheart. Don't worry about being an issue or asking for help, I'll get you to where you need to go and if that doesn't work, we'll come up with another plan," I promised.

  "Well, thank you." She touched my arm and smiled at me again. I was sort of getting used to her smiles and not so dazzled. Or so I told myself.

  "I'll get dressed and then we can go. I'm sure you want to find your sister." She turned around and left me in the kitchen. I did want to find my sister, but I also wanted to help Lena out.

  I was so pissed at Alicia right now for putting my brother through this, but, on the other hand, I was worried out of my mind. When I found her I didn't know what I would do to her– tear her a new ass or hug her and not let her go. I was tired of Alicia's bullshit, her typical teenage rebelliousness. I wanted her to get a clue, grow up, but stay young and naive. If she witnessed something like I did last night, she would be freaking out. She didn't handle stress and disaster very well.

  I was also as much to blame for her actions as she was. I coddled her and I was pretty sure Hank and Barbara did too. The death of my parents had affected Alicia the most, being the youngest. We didn't want her to suffer, so we gave her whatever she wanted and let her rule us. It was fine when she was younger, but now that she was a teenager, doing whatever she pleased had serious consequences.

  Serious consequences like pregnancy and venereal diseases and being labeled a slut and shunned by her peers to name a few. I might want to be the cool brother, the one that didn't lay down the law when she stayed over, but I drew the line at boys. I was a teenage boy once. I knew what was going through their heads at all hours of the day. At fifteen I wasn't an angel, or a virgin for that matter–so I knew exactly the kind of boy she needed to avoid. The boys like me.

  Ten

  Fear of God

  BARBARA texted me with the address of the Marcus kid. I wanted to put the fear of God into this brat, so I dressed like I was on the job. Not a job where I had to wear a suit...but one where I was going for intimidation and mind-fucking. And technically I was since I was still escorting Lena around the city and then I would be escorting my family out of the area.

  I was focused on confronting a boy that might or might not have put the moves on my little sister, I was seething. I didn't want to think about the infected, or the fact that she might not be at this house, she might have been caught out in the city and stumbled upon someone infected. That thought couldn't take root in my head or I would lose my shit. Nope, this was all about a boy and the fear of God I was about to put into him.

  The kid lived in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, so it took me ten minutes to get there. At eight on the nose I was pounding on his door. It was a hell of a way to wake up on a Saturday morning, but if Alicia was in there I wasn't playing nice.

  A young teen, no older than sixteen, opened the door. He wasn't wearing a shirt and if I breathed on him wrong he looked like he would fall over. Skinny ass mother– what did my sister see in this sapling?

  "Are you Marcus?" I asked. I stuck my foot forward so he couldn't close the door on me.

  "Yeah, who are you?" he asked with a bit of defiance in his tone. Ballsy fucker. I already didn't like him.

  "I'm Tim Voiter, Alicia's older brother. You know Alicia, right? Is she here?"

  "Um, no, she's not," he said, but he looked down and away, so I knew he was lying.

  "Alicia, get out here now!" I hollered into the house. If his parents were home, screw it, they shouldn't let a young girl sleep over anyway.

  The boy backed away and held his hands up. He knew he was busted. "She just slept in my little brother's room, man, she was pissed at her brother, the other brother, not you," he hedged, looking at me with fear in his eyes.

  "Go. Get her now," I said, steel in my tone. He tripped over his baggy pants and nearly fell on his ass trying to get away from me. I hoped he pissed his pants. He righted himself and scurried back, leaving the door wide open for me. I walked into the hallway and looked around.

  "A-A-Alicia," he called and I heard their murmured voices in the background. I would give her sixty seconds before I rushed into his house and dragged her out.

  "What do you want?" She came to the door wearing jeans and a tee so I felt a modicum of relief. At least she wasn't half naked like dick for brains.

  "Alicia, you've made your point. This has gone too far, get in the car, I'm taking you home."

  "I'm not going anywhere." She stomped her foot like the spoiled brat she was.

  "So, what? You’re moving in with this kid here? What do you think his parents will say about that? Are they here?" I looked at the boy. "Are your parents here, Marcus? Can you go get them now?"

  "They aren't here, sir," he said, looking guilty.

  "Fabulous. I'll be sure to let them know that Alicia spent the night here while they were away. Alicia, get in the car." I went to grab for her arm and she pulled away, glaring daggers at me.

  "I hate you!" she screamed and rushed out of the house. Her sense was somewhat intact though because she made a beeline for the car. She stopped when she saw Lena in the passenger seat and then looked at me with a haughty look. "And now I have to hang out with one of your sluts? Great. Way to set a good example, Tim."

  "She's a client, Alicia, reign it in." I marched to the car and opened the back door, glancing behind me and pointing a finger at the boy who was still hanging in the doorway. I made sure my jacket opened and he got a good look at what I was packing.

  "If this happens again, kid, I won't be so friendly." I opened the door and slammed it after Alicia slid in. Teenagers.

  Eleven

  French Kissing for Dummies

  ALICIA was subdued as we made our way across town. She sat in the back of the car and sulked. I much preferred sulking to the glaring accusations and backtalk that I had been getting from her lately.

  My head was spinning, caught between worry over what was going down in the city and worry over my sister going down the wrong path. I was all over the place in my head and not much for conversation. Lena spent most the time on her phone, texting back and forth with people. She was probably making plans with her family in Colorado. I didn't want to pry, she had made her decision. She would be fine. Or so I hoped.

  I was going to drop Lena off at the rental car place and make sure she was settled and ready to go. Then Alicia and I were going to go to Hank and Barbara's and head out of the city. I was hoping that it would be an easy transition, just grab and go, but my logical brain was doubtful. It was never easy with my family. Things always got complicated.

  We pulled up in front of the car rental place and I uneasily asses
sed our surroundings. The place was dead. There was hardly a car on the street. It was early on a Saturday morning, but there was always movement in this city.

  "Come with us," I said to Alicia, not trusting that she would stay put as I secured a vehicle for Lena. We had pulled right up into the driveway of the rental agency and I held the door as both girls shuffled in. There was only one clerk and her eyes were glued to the television when we walked in. At first she gave us some trouble about renting a car since Lena was only twenty-two and they had a policy of twenty-five or older to rent, but when she pulled out her black Amex and flashed her grin, the clerk put two and two together and started stuttering when she realized who Lena was.

  In under five minutes, the clerk had a fancy SUV idling at the front of the storefront and Lena was all set to go.

  "I'll make arrangements to have your luggage forwarded to your L.A. address," I said as I walked her to the front of the store. I waved Alicia off when she started making faces at me and jumping up and down behind Lena's back, she had just realized who my client was. I had to teach that girl to be more aware of her surroundings.

  "You don't have to do that, I'll have one of the assistants pack me up. You've done too much already, Romeo." Again that dazzling smile. If we had a few more hours I would have thrown that bodyguard-client issue out the window.

  "Alright, but please, I want you to call me when you get to Colorado. Hell, call me when you make your first stop." I pulled one of my business cards out of my wallet and then thought of something. I scribbled the address of the company compound, a place where we trained personnel and ran drills for MJ Security. It was where I was bringing my family and one of the most secure locations I could think of. "This is a secure place. I'm spending the whole weekend there with my family, just to be sure. If you run into any issues, come here. It's out of the way and there is plenty of room. James and Miller have this island off of Lake Catherine, it was slated to be a new subdivision, but the money ran out and they scooped it up. They have a few luxury houses on it, so you'll be comfortable. Please, go there if you can't get to Colorado. And here,” I handed over a lockbox with my extra .22 in it.