Stacy
There was the sound of another vehicle approaching us as we emerged from the empty movie theater.
It was River with Darren in a truck.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked, knowing my mouth was hanging open in shock.
“We came to help you rescue Jen. We figured you would need a few more guns if they were trapped,” Darren explained as he came around to scoop me into his arms.
“Are they safe?” River asked of Cole, who was standing there with a stunned look on his face.
“What’s wrong with you, big guy?” She placed her bat on her shoulder.
“I was just wondering if it hurt?” Cole responded.
“Huh? If what hurt?” River looked at me to see if he was making sense to anyone else.
“When you fell from Heaven, because you must be an angel.” Cole’s dazed look made everyone laugh.
“Nope, not an angel, just your worst nightmare.” She tapped him on the chest with the bat. “What I’m wondering, besides how long he’s been out of the loony bin, is where is Jen?”
“This is where she said she was, and Andi’s roommate. Sam was here as well.”
“The place is empty. We searched it top to bottom,” Cole answered, seeming to snap out of his trance.
The sound of creepy music filling the air echoed around the group. It was church music without the words, coming from what seemed like an ice cream truck.
“I guess we should follow the music and see where it leads,” Darren suggested.
Everyone piled into the trucks, but I wasn’t about to leave Darren’s side, and joined him.
In the middle of the street sat a truck blaring music and attracting the ZITs faster than it normally brought children running to it.
“Hey, this way!” a voice from above yelled as we sat in the intersection, wondering what our next move should be.
“Look, Cole. There’s your angel,” River taunted him.
“Follow me.” The young girl ran across the rooftop, away from the ZITs surrounding the ice cream truck.
Our trucks turned the corner and found an empty parking lot with a different girl standing in the middle of it.
“Down here.” She pointed to the sewer grate before climbing in herself.
“Well, I guess we might as well go down the rabbit hole.” River stuck the bat through her belt and climbed down the ladder.
“Pull the lid closed,” the girl said quietly, as the last of us made it to the top of the ladder.
The darkness was suddenly engulfed by a light.
“Welcome to the Church Against Zombies.” A voice echoed eerily through the tunnel. “Seek and ye shall find. What do you seek?”
The End
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Churches Against Zombies—Book 4 is available.
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Copyright © 2018 Alathia Paris Morgan
The Churches Against Zombies
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
A Word from the Author
Sneak Peek
To Dana, Every time you continue to go above and beyond. Thank you.
Rebel Edit & Design
Book cover: Nicole Paris, I was doubly blessed with you!
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
Churches Against Zombies Book 4—Cole Jackson and River Weaver’s Story, Carson Walsh’s story, Andi Jackson.
Three months since people first became infected.
Welcome to KLIVE Radio, the only radio station brought to you by the Church Against Zombies. If you’re hearing this commercial and feel that you’re alone, we understand. Churches are supposed to be a place of hope, and this is the only church radio station that will help you survive the zombies.
Those infected by the illness that came through the world have taken out many of the living in our cities and rural areas. If you are stuck in a home or building with a landline, please call 555-555-0000 for help relocating to a stable area that has been cleared of Zombie Infected Things, or ZITs. Most of those in our listening area can be rescued by one of our groups or the military that is operating in the area.
If you are forced to leave the place that you have been staying, then make sure that you have a weapon that can hit the brain on an infected body. This will guarantee that the infected is dead. It may take more than one hit to ensure that the ZIT isn’t going to bite you on the ankle.
Plans are in place to have things running again in the city in the next several months, and we can use everyone’s help in doing this. We need people who have knowledge in all sorts of jobs, or we can teach you so that we can turn the lights back on in our portion of the world.
Here’s some music to bring us all together in as a united force against the zombies. Stay tuned for updates on the hour, and with tips for how to survive during this zombie apocalypse every thirty minutes.
Back on the Farm
Trish
I loved my family, and enjoyed the time we were getting to spend on the farm, mostly worry free. But after weeks into this new world, it was starting to drive me crazy.
“Linc, I need to get off the farm. Is there any way that I can come with you when you go to get the solar panels?” I broached the subject several weeks after he moved into the main house with Jessica.
He blushed, and turned to find her unloading the truck full of vegetables into the barn.
“I was kind of hoping that you might let her go with me.” He looked so apologetic about asking again.
I knew they were in love, but I was ready to plead my case and give him no choice in the matter.
“Look here, I love that you and Jessica have found each other. It’s wonderful. I certainly don’t mind that you’re both wrapped up with each other and I’m on my own with six kids a lot. This isn’t about that. I need to get away. Cooper threw us into this situation, and while I’m sure he’s fine, I honestly need to find a way to do something that will keep my mind off of where he’s at and what he’s doing.”
“Makes sense, but you know he wants you to stay safe. Going with me would certainly not fall under that category.” Linc smiled, thinking that he’d made a valid argument.
“Yes, you’re so right. He would want me safe, and right now, my sanity is about gone. It’s time for someone to travel to the city and bring back a little piece of the world with them. We’ve managed to keep our kids and the ones in town busy with chores, yet they can only work the same puzzles or play the same games so many times.
“Beth can’t go because when she got back, all of her store would be empty. She’s given me a list, though, and I think I can get most of it at a couple different places. It’ll help with community spirit, and give the moms a chance to distract the children.”
“You’re not trained like the guys—” Linc started to protest.
“Uh-uh, no way. You know I can handle a gun or the backside of a hoe. You can’t take all the guys from the farm with you, and the guys fr
om town that you have going with you were businessmen that you’ve taught to take down infected.”
“Okay, but I want you to write a letter to Cooper in case you die that I protested and you overruled me.”
“Done. I’ll have it in your hands before we leave in the morning.” I refrained from jumping up and down.
“Jessica’s going to be disappointed that she’s not going with me.”
“You let me worry about her. The plus side of that is you don’t need to be distracted with having her there, and you’ll have a reason for making it home alive.” I left him standing on the porch so that I could pack my bag. If only explaining it to the kids and convincing them was as easy as Linc had been.
“Mommy, don’t leave us.” Trevor started to cry.
“I’ll bring you back some new toys to play with,” I promised, knowing that it would stop his fit.
“Can I make a list of stuff I need for you to get, Mom?” Joy’s face lit up.
“You may, but I might not be able to get everything you put on it, but I’ll do my best. I plan to find something that each of you will enjoy.”
“How long will you be gone? Is it still okay if I spend the night over at Katie’s house?” Nicole questioned.
“Aunt Jessica should be fine with that, assuming that you do all your chores and behave for her as well. I’ll be gone a few days, maybe a week. It will depend on where we have to go and how long it takes to load things up safely.”
Nicole and Joy both hugged me a little longer, but Trevor’s lip was still trembling. “Don’t you get deaded, Mommy. I loves you so much.”
Listening to the kids, I knew that they were concerned about this trip, and it only made sense. But in this new world, it was a necessity.
I tucked each kid in for the night and went to do the perimeter check before Tyler took over. I’d volunteered for the eight o’clock to midnight shift so that I’d be out of the house when Linc and Jessica were saying goodnight to each other.
Everything looked normal, so I stopped to rest on the fence that faced the road and our nearest neighbors.
Seeing Linc and Jessica in the first stages of love made me realize how much I missed my husband. He could be so annoying, but he was always there for me, and this was the longest we’d been apart in years.
We were blessed that he’d seemed to have an idea that this might be coming and prepared a safe place for us. The farm was so far out in the country that it had been ignored by most of the traffic coming from the cities.
There were still a few dead walking around that we’d find, but once the town had gotten rid of it’s horrible leader, they’d cleared out a good fifty miles around of single or groups of dead.
It hadn’t been easy, and we’d learned the hard way that farm work and infected dead trying to attack weren’t a good thing, but there was always a learning curve when something like this happened.
Linc had gotten the area farms back to running safely, and there were a few of the smaller towns in the area that had formed a militia of their own. This had helped when large groups made their way to the barriers, and extra people with guns were sent to contain the threat.
Cooper had always had that take-charge personality, but right now, I just wanted a pair of arms to hold me so I could let go for just a few minutes. I hoped that our little excursion would be enough to curb the restlessness that was starting to give me insomnia.
The buzzer on my watch beeped. It was time for another walk around the fences. At least we would be the generation of the fit because the zpoc had made us get off of our asses and exercise.
I didn’t want Linc to have any regrets in bringing me on the trip to gather supplies.
The backroads had been cleaned of all immobile cars so the roads were clear, until we reached the edge of the Backroads Coalition (as we’d begun to call our group). We knew there were other groups out there, but so far, we hadn’t found more than a person or two alive.
I was driving a large, white paneled van that had Freddie’s Fresh Bread painted on the side with a spray-painted line through it. We didn’t want anyone trying to highjack the truck for bread, not that it would stop a crazy person or any of the dead. It just felt safer.
A huge downside to this zombie apocalypse thing was that there were no radio stations playing. We had a lending library of CDs now that were passed around between everyone because it was really quiet when we had to drive without radios. There were some things that you never thought about being important until they were suddenly gone.
They had sandwiched my truck in the middle of three others that were going to bring back supplies other than solar panels. Our main goal was to get the staples: toilet paper, baby items, clothes, female items, canning jars, and puzzles.
If there was food anywhere available, we’d certainly take that, but those in the city would have taken most of it to survive. We had enough fresh food, but it would have to last all winter, and we needed to find a way to store stuff in case we didn’t get the solar panels installed.
We had about two more months of summer before it started to cool off. I was looking for things that weren’t on the list of necessities, like water balloons and water guns. We might be in the middle of a crisis, but kids still needed to be kids and have some fun.
The train of trucks moving through the last gate had me looking around for unexpected problems. Even though we were still about thirty miles from the nearest town, I guess I was certain that we’d just be seeing the dead everywhere now that we were past the safety net.
Instead, we rolled through several small abandoned crossroad stops with only a few dead wandering around.
The shops with heavy equipment and warehouses were on the edge of the larger town, and we pulled up to a closed gate.
Tyler had accompanied Linc, while we’d left Sam and Josh with Jessica to help keep an eye on things.
He motioned the empty trucks to park on the street so that we could pull out quickly if we needed to. The drivers were supposed to stay put, and the extra men and women who’d come along were going to go inside and load up a semi full of panels to be delivered to our small town.
I knew that Linc had put ours together and seemed to understand the complexities of how they worked and what parts were needed to get everything up and running. He’d taken a crash course when Cooper had told him to move to the farm.
There were a few trucks sitting outside the warehouse that were built to transport the panels without breaking them.
“Get these loaded up. Tyler will show you how to do it. Nolan, come with me and I’ll show you what I’m looking for inside.” Linc handed out orders, and unless there were dead inside, they shouldn’t have any problems.
Nervously, I scanned the roads in front and behind us. Even though I knew we had lookouts, it still bothered me that we were sitting out in the open like this.
Tired of listening to the CD, I hit the eject button and the truck cab was filled with music.
My hand dropped the CD in shock and I stared at the radio, hoping that I wasn’t hearing imaginary voices.
The music of a country song was so refreshing that I didn’t even notice the tears streaming down my face until an announcer came on.
“Well that will do it for this thirty minutes of survival tunes. We’re going to have our latest tip before we start the next half hour of tunes based on our current problems—zombies.”
The announcer gave a few common sense ideas about how to stay alive by only traveling during the daylight. Help others if you are able to, and call the Church Against Zombies to connect with your local community.
What the hell?
Franticly, I picked up the radio. “Linc, I have something important for you when you get done loading.”
“Zombies?” came the terse question.
“No, it’s not an emergency. I found a solution to something when you have a minute.”
I sank back against the seat, trying to process what I’d just heard.
&n
bsp; Sure enough, once the service announcement was over, the familiar refrains of the Cranberries brought a chuckle to my lips.
Not only did these people who were broadcasting seem to be alive, but they had a sense of humor.
A knock on the window startled me.
Linc was standing there, impatiently waiting for me to roll the window down.
“Seriously, Trish, this is a cute joke, but I don’t have time to listen to songs about zombies when they could be just a few feet away.” He looked so frustrated at the interruption to the plan.
I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.
“Linc, it’s not a CD. That is actually playing on the radio. Here, listen…” The song ended, and a quick introduction as the next themed song started had done its job.
Linc’s mouth hung open.
“Do you know what this means? There are other people out there, not only surviving, but starting over.” I was excited until I saw the look of caution on his face. “What? Aren’t we going to find them?” I asked.
“Not today. We need to get these back and the other supplies that you came for. If this is a legit station, then we have a few days to come up with a plan before we go running in and get caught up in something worse than having a Jim Danvers in charge of us.”
Swallowing back the happiness I’d felt only moments before, I could see the reasons why we’d need to keep this from the others. It was a good thing I hadn’t told everyone over the radio.
“Promise me that we’ll look into it soon.”
He nodded. “Trish, I want nothing more than for all the infected to be gone, but it’s going to take a lot of people working together to get things back in order. If Cooper is still alive in Washington, then we might have a chance for some order. So far, we haven’t heard from him, and the world keeps falling apart. Anything we do has to be planned out before contact is made, if we even want to make contact. It could be a trap to get us to bring resources to them and they kill us.”
Against Zombies Box Set, Vol. 1 | Books 1-4 Page 39