“I’m here, Morgan.”
It took me over an hour with the screwdriver to get the muzzle off his head. Morgan held his hand the entire time, and she clenched it tighter when the point of the tool scraped against his neck. When I got the thing off, he exhaled gratefully, and his head felt to her lap. Morgan completely relaxed when she saw his face, and Neal took a few seconds for himself, for them, before he shifted his eyes towards me.
“Lana?”
I sadly shook my head, and Neal pulled me to the floor and wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“Sorry, Kid.”
So was I. Sorry for the day I woke up to this new life. Sorry for the bodies still falling and dying and turning when we were all just supposed to be able to go to class. But sorry only did so much. It could turn the tide with Tom, but where was he now ? And Lana? Sorry did nothing for her.
So much for sorry.
I wriggled away from Neal and helped him to his feet. We looked down at Morgan, and I told him what Ford had done to her. Neal gritted his teeth and moved to the far side of the room. He smashed his fist into the wall, and I pulled him away from the point of impact and hugged him close. He started to speak when I did the same to Morgan and helped her to her feet. Now we all stank of the carnage.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“Go? Kid---”
“I think… I think we need to hide.”
Neal started to protest when Morgan began to swoon. We both held her up and made our way to the porch.
It was chaos. Sirens or a sort I’d never heard before blared out, and I knew that Ford’s cover-up was about to take wing. The story would go that the campus was targeted. The memorials would ring out annually, and bells would acknowledge the names of the fallen. That Lana’s would be among them was a definite, but I decided to take cover and add our names to the list.
“Let’s move, Prof.”
This was crazy.
I sat with Morgan and Neal and an infantile cloned zombie. The thing tried to bite our fingers from our hands, although it couldn’t be teething yet. Not sure why I feel protective over this little creature, but for now I have to work on instinct. It was a week since Lana's demise, and I was still nursing Morgan back to health. Nearly the whole time, Neal held her hand and promised constant devotion as I tended to his wound in a forgotten cottage just beyond the campus now crawling with flash bulbs and military types.
As the clone grew at rapid speed, I could hear the recon just outside our door shooting everything that moved. I knew we should leave, but it became impossible with Morgan in her current state. Little by little, the shots died down, and when the power returned, I saw the reports as Ford had always intended. This was a terrorist act on an ordinary college campus, and the criminals responsible for the slaughter would never see daylight again if the powers that be had a say.
But they didn’t see the toddler.
Despite its origins, Morgan pampered the little zombie and fed it from a bottle. Neal forgot all fear at the promise of playing a proud Papa.
“She’s beautiful,” Morgan said.
“Perhaps in the proper lighting.”
Go, Neal. He was enough of a man to accept the critter because it was cloned from her tissue; it was her. He loved them both and would continue to love them. They concluded from Ford's notes that it would bear attributes similar to the parent's DNA, and Neal was ready to play father to the manufactured zombie spawn in service of his girl.
I was wrong. This wasn’t just a one-reel romance. Neal would stay by her side through whatever was going to come.
I finally stepped out on the porch and remembered the corpses sacrificed in service of the experiment. None loomed larger than Lana, but I had already seen her body dragged into a fiery pit via the revived newscast. She wasn’t coming back. It stung like shock treatment, and yet I had to come to terms with her absence.
Then a knock on the door brought another, older friend back into my midst.
“Saaaammmm.”
Tom got it. He already had his troops hidden, surrounding the house and the future that was Morgan’s child. I got it, too. If I was going to see this thing through, I’d have to play with the bad boys and keep the survivors safe.
I returned to Neal and Morgan. I took their hands in mine as the smallest zombie cried in hunger. The baby wanted blood, and Neal let it suck his fingers.
“Kid, we’re going to teach this kid to beware of enemies. To leave them where they lie. But…”
Neal nuzzled the little monster.
“He’s just getting started. He needs someone to show him where to go and what to strike.”
Neal held the baby and Morgan in a single embrace.
“Help us, Sam.”
I could do it. I could walk beside my friend and remember a lost love and give another little boy chance at freedom.
“Saaaammmm.”
I took Tom’s arm and walked into the night, ready to slay anyone who was anti the Kid.
END
***
Be sure to check out Trip's latest novel:
Game Alive
In the near future, virtual reality games are indistinguishable from the real world. Players can take on the role of a star quarterback or rule as the king of a virtual kingdom.
Thirteen-year-old Jake prefers to spend his free time building Xaloria, a virtual world he created from scratch where he and his two best friends, Des and Kari, spend their afternoons completing quests and collecting treasure.
However, all in Xaloria is not what Jake expected. When Jake discovers that the world he built is growing and changing on its own, he and his friends uncover a secret that could change the world forever...
***
A Personal Appeal from the Author, Trip Ellington
My name is Trip Ellington and I have an offer that I think you will find very favorable.
In my continued efforts to improve the quality of my works, I have created a group referred to as my ‘Beta Readers.’ I rely on my Beta Readers to read my as-yet-unreleased stories and provide me with much needed feedback and I keep them informed of my latest releases. There is no charge to become a Beta Reader.
For those of you who would like to help me in this cause and become a Beta Reader, I will send you a digital copy of any of my published stories for free.
To apply for the Beta Reader group, simply click or navigate to this link:
==> http://tripellington.com/beta/
Thank you for being a loyal reader and supporting an independent author.
Sincerely,
Trip
***
Cover by Trip Ellington
Table of Contents
Title Page
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
More From Trip Ellington
About the Author
Zombie University (The Complete Series): How I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse Page 16