“Yes, ma’am. We have the cabins ready for housing people,” Emma exclaimed.
“I’ll take them up and get them settled,” Cole casting a glance in Stacy’s direction. “Emma, take Brad and Patti up to the house and get them settled in, and we’ll see what Nana and Pop’s take is on the situation about our rising population.”
“We should put up a sign and change the population level whenever somebody comes or goes.” Patti winked at her cousins.
Word had spread quickly that there were newcomers and that we had made it back safely, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw Nana and Pop standing in the doorway holding my baby boy.
Being a man, I didn’t break into tears, but I did have this feeling that was completely unfamiliar to me, that I was going to blame on allergies.
I put an arm around Emma, grateful that I was home with my family.
The End…for now.
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Thank you for reading and your patience as I create my own zombie world. I hope you enjoy these stories.
If you enjoyed this story, please leave a review even if it is one short sentence. Do you want to know when the next book comes out or to get to know me better? Feel free to stalk me on all the social media sites. (No real-life stalking because that’s just not cool.) Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you.
-Alathia Morgan
Copyright: 2018 Alathia Paris Morgan
This is a work of fiction and in no way is meant to portray actual people, names, places, events or situations. The ideas were from the author’s own imagination and any resemblance to people living or dead is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in the case of quotations for articles and reviews.
Acknowledgements
Jackson Family Tree
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
A Word from the Author
To my editor. You do an amazing job and my make mine so much easier. Thank you.
Rebel Edit & Design
Book cover: Nicole Paris, thank you. You always get exactly what I’m thinking!!
Adobe Stock: cover photo purchased
The Against Zombies Series
Moms Against Zombies Book1—Emma Jackson and Trish Walsh’s story
Military Against Zombies Book 2—Brad Jackson, Patti Jackson, Linc Harris’ story
Co-Ed’s Against Zombies Book 3—River Weaver, Stacy Morris, Angela Richard’s story
River’s story.
I was sleeping in my tent when the screams erupted. This wasn’t normal.
I yanked on my shoes, just as more screams came from a few feet behind my tent. Grabbing up my backpack, I fled, running toward the path entrance that would take me to the campus. People were everywhere, running and screaming, but I never saw who was attacking us.
Some might call me a coward, but there was no way I was going to stick around if someone was raiding our camp.
The homeless camp that I called home was normally a safe place to stay during the warmer months, but when that many screams happened all at once, I didn't bother to think twice and ran to the one place where I could be safe.
I slowed down as I approached the well-lit building, checking to make sure no one noticed me as I tried to calm my breathing. Thankfully, it was still early, and the library didn't close until 11pm on weeknights. I made my way into the bathroom on the lower level and splashed water onto my face from the sink to help regain my composure.
“What the hell happened?” I muttered to myself.
I was a familiar face to those who worked at the library, but if I’d shown up, out of breath and with bad hair, they would have known something was wrong. The eyes that stared back at me from the mirror were ringed with dark bags. My dark brown hair was streaked with blue and green, and looked like it hadn't been brushed in days. I took out the brush from the front of my backpack and quickly ran it through the long strands as I pulled it up into a ponytail.
Taking a deep breath and releasing it, I immediately felt better. I didn’t look like I’d ran from the scene of… Well, I wasn’t sure what had caused those screams, but my past had always taught me to run first and ask questions later.
The stairs that led up to the library’s archives was deserted, and I made it to the top floor undetected.
I made a sweep through the shelves to make sure there were no lingering people around to see where I’d hidden my stuff. A quick glance at my watch confirmed that it was a few minutes after 10 pm. I had gone to my tent less than an hour ago, but it felt like it had been hours.
I pulled the key out of my backpack and stuck it into the door leading to the storage room.
At first glance, the space appeared to be stacked with boxes, as well as other odds and ends, all the way to the back of the room. But I knew better than that because I was the one who had placed them there.
Quietly closing the door, it revealed a space small enough for me to squeeze into and hide behind, three boxes deep. There was a small window at the back of the room, but it was dark, so it didn't provide much light. I felt my way into my safe spot and knelt down until my fingers reached the small lamp I kept hidden there.
I turned it on, wondering what would have caused such an uproar from the area under the bridge. There had been many who were sick over the past few days, but most chose to stay in their tents instead of going to the nearby hospital. The first few days, some had gone, but they’d been turned away for those who were more seriously ill and had insurance. The community I lived in was made up mostly of families who were down on their luck and needed some place to stay. It wasn’t exactly a place gangs would decide to raid. There had to be another reason for the attack on the camp.
Walking to and from school each day had become a chore, but I hadn’t seen anyone suspicious or out of place. While I despised myself for hurrying past those who were sick and needed someone to look out for them, I had done the best I could by helping out with meals and food that I had scavenged from the kitchen of the school cafeteria. Even the food that wasn't good enough for the college students seemed wonderful when added to a stew.
My efforts hadn't really helped, because those with slight coughs had turned into hacking coughs mixed with blood. While I really wanted to help, there was no way I could bring them relief as their pain and suffering grew.
If there had just been a single scream, I might have ran toward the sound instead of away from it. Instead, it sounded as if the entire community had been attacked. If anyone survived the situation, I would go back to help in the morning.
It was still too early for there to be a police report, but I couldn’t stop myself from wanting some kind of reassurance before I closed my eyes. I flipped open my laptop, hoping for some sort of news. But other than a few reports on social media of strange things happening, there was no mention of the screams I'd heard in the area.
I tried to settle in for the night and reached over to turn off the lamp. The moon was the only thing even semi-reassuring in an otherwise quiet world.
I pulled the sleeping bag up to my shoulders and quietly drifted off.
The next morning when my alarm went off, I quickly looked at my phone to see if there was any news. The only news updates were of the sickness spreading, and a warning that if you showed signs of coughing, fever, or vomiting, to make your way to a hospital. Due to the overflow of patients, only the sick would be admitted, and family were to return home after dropping them off for their own safety.
I stood up to look out the window that show
ed the west side of the campus. There were no signs of the terror from the night before.
Since it was daylight, I decided to return back to my tent to collect my stuff. I wouldn't be spending another night there until the sickness was done spreading.
Changing into fresh clothes, I was ready to make my way downstairs. I left out the fire exit, and since there was no reason to hurry back to Tent City, I swung by the cafeteria to grab some breakfast.
The few people who ventured out to the cafeteria were talking in anxious circles.
“Did you hear they’re canceling classes?” one girl cried to her friend.
“Why are you making it sound like it’s a bad thing?”
“Because I have to go home, and I have a date tonight with a cute boy. Surely, this is just another one of those stomach bugs. It can't be anything serious.”
“Well, it has to be kind of serious or they wouldn't be canceling classes. I'm sure it's just like flu season, and they don't want it spreading to everyone. Think of it like this, we get a free day, and it doesn't count against us,” the girl in front of me chirped.
“You're right. Just because they cancel classes doesn't mean we have to go home. Let me call Seth and see if he wants to go with us to my parent's lake house. They have a liquor cabinet, and no one will know that we were there.”
I just shook my head at their stupidity. This was one stomach virus, or flu, that they couldn’t easily treat, if the rumors were true. Ignoring them, I filled up my tray with warm food, knowing this might be my last hot meal for a while. I’d brought my empty backpack with me to fill with fruits and breakfast bars, along with anything that wouldn't spoil.
Anything I could take back to my library hideaway and store was a win in my department. Since it was spring, I hadn't restocked due to the fact that I spent most of my time in the homeless community when it got warm after being indoors all winter.
All the conversations around me were about which classes had been canceled and if their papers were still due. I knew if they canceled all classes, it would be the first sign that they would be closing the campus for a while. I shoveled the food into my mouth and five minutes later, I was placing my tray on the racks to be cleaned.
I made a detour to drop my backpack full of food off at the library, then headed down to Tent City, preparing for the worst.
The sounds of the river flowing under the bridge, and the materials from the tents were the only things I could hear as I approached. Turning the corner, I came to a complete halt. Half the tents were ripped to shreds, and the entire area appeared to be abandoned. Slightly uneasy, I moved toward my tent, keeping a close eye on the area around me. What I noticed first were the blood smears on the ripped tents and the absolute silence in an area that was normally teaming with voices and conversation.
My tent hadn't been touched, but I didn't want to be surprised by whatever had scared the other people away. In my haste to leave the night before, I hadn't shut my tent properly, so I opened the flap the rest of the way, leaving an escape route. While most of the people who lived in my community wouldn't dream of going into someone else’s tent, there were others who would, so I never left anything inside of real value. The two bags of clothes were sitting exactly where I’d left them, as was my softball bag, sleeping bag, and box of food. It would take me two or three trips to get my stuff back to the school. Instead, I unzipped my softball bag and pulled out my favorite wooden bat. Carrying it with me, I walked three tents over to borrow Judy's shopping cart. I could get everything back to campus with it in one trip.
I had just placed everything in the cart and was about to take down my tent when a loud rustling caught my attention. I placed the bat in my hands and cautiously walked toward the sound.
There was someone at the back, bent down behind one of the tents. I still wasn't sure who it was because I could only see their back from where I was standing.
“Hey! Who's there?” I called out.
The figure straightened and started to turn toward me. Only this person wasn't anyone I recognized. The front half of their face was gone, and it made a growling noise as it started for me. Their hand reached out, and the ring on the fingers sparkled, catching my attention. It looked like the same ring that Judy wore. How on earth was she still alive with half her face gone?
Instead of walking around the tent, Judy started to walk through it, getting tangled and falling over into its outer layers.
Thinking that she needed some help, I walked over to her. Just as I reached out a hand to pull her from the depths of the tent’s ropes, a growl right behind me caused me to turn.
What looked like a walking corps started to grab for me, and I ducked, causing it to fall into the tangled mess with Judy.
Looking around to make sure there were no other corpse looking things coming for me, I inched closer to the tent, but the only thing I could see were Judy's lifeless eyes covered by a filmy layer, staring at me from the skull bones in her face.
From what I could see, there was no way to help her, even if I had some way to transport her to the hospital. I started to leave them both there, but realized they needed to be put down so they were no longer suffering.
I had to do that to an animal I found lying on the side of the road once; the poor thing had been cut in half. So I’d taken a rock and put it out of its misery. That poor little kitten still haunted my dreams.
Not truly knowing what I was doing, but knowing it had to be done, I looked around to make sure no one would witness what I was about to do. I gripped the bat tightly with both hands and took a swing at Judy's head. The sound my bat made when it connected to with her skull caused me to vomit the breakfast I’d eaten a short time before.
She went still. The other person trapped in the tent continued moving, so I swung the bat in a downward motion, hoping to connect with its head. The growling continued as I made several more, unsuccessful attempts, but finally, I connected with something that made it stop growling and moving around.
The blood from both bodies started to drip onto the ground from my bat. I shook my head to clear the images of Judy's skinless face from my mind as I walked over to the edge of the river to wash the blood from my bat. I had barely gotten it clean when I heard more moans coming from the bushes and “swampy” area near our campgrounds. Holding the bat in one hand, I ran back to the shopping cart and started pushing it up the hill to the sidewalk.
Whatever had raided our camp last night might come back, but I wasn't going to be there if they did.
By the time I had pushed the shopping cart back to campus, it had become a ghost town. The students were leaving in droves to head back home, or using the time off for an extended holiday.
Feeling safer once I made it back on campus, I stopped to catch my breath, placing my almost dry bat into the cart. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and opened my email, waiting for my phone to connect with the Wi-Fi, when I saw the news story flashing across the Internet page.
Many more have come down with a virus that is sweeping through town. Take precautions and stay indoors to stop the spread of this horrible sickness. The mayor has issued a statement that all nonemergency and nonessential personnel stay home. All schools and daycares will be closed until further notice, due to the severity of this virus. He is hoping that it can be contained if people remain separated from each other.
This was turning into a major disaster. Very shortly, I would be unable to get into most of the buildings on campus because they would lock them up, so instead of continuing toward the library, I turned left and headed toward the Sports Center and the janitorial building where the keys to every building were located.
I had never been forced to use them before. Normally, when the school closed down for Christmas or the summer holidays, my student card would still allow me to get from place to place, but because this was affecting the entire city, I had no idea if the key cards would continue to work if the electricity went out. There were also several buildings, suc
h as the cafeteria and the library, where key cards wouldn’t get you in and real keys were needed. I had a single pair of keys that would get me into the janitor’s area.
As I stood staring into the key box, trying to decide which were the most important for survival, I saw the master keys to the outside doors and the library. I swiped both sets and closed the doors back to the way they were.
No one had bothered my shopping cart, which was sitting just outside. Any other day, if I was seen pushing a shopping cart across campus, I would've gotten dirty looks from the other students, but today there was no one around to make fun of my unusual mode of transportation for my stuff.
All the outside doors were locked, so I went to the back exit and prayed that my key would open it. As luck would have it, it opened, and sitting right inside were the library book return carts, so I was able to transfer all my stuff and shove the grocery cart behind a hedge of bushes.
The door shut behind me, leaving me in the semidarkness with only the exit lights to guide the way. Thankfully, the electricity was still running, and I could take the elevator up to the archive floor where I had made my little safety nest. Uncertain as to whether I should venture out to stock up on food, or simply hope there would be some left on the shelves if I ran out, I opted to stay inside so that the security detail charged with making sure the campus was empty wouldn't find me.
Even though the campus had shut down, I was glad that I had access to the Wi-Fi that came with my student account. I would still be able to listen to the news and find out what was going on.
Against Zombies Box Set, Vol. 1 | Books 1-4 Page 27