A week before the lock was scheduled to disengage, it was decided that Jack, Kate and Richard would be the first ones to go out and assess the situation. They would cover the area within a five mile radius and may be gone for more than a day. Kate packed survival kits for each of them, containing food rations, small fire arms and ammo among other needed supplies to take along, and sat them in the hall below the exit.
As the last few days passed, Montgomery reverted back to being snobbish and keeping to himself once again. The rest of the group thought that it was nerves and anxiousness about the opening of the doors. In reality, he was making plans to be in charge as he always desired to be.
Chapter Forty
October 6th 2015
“Well, tonight’s the night,” Jack said as he walked into the dining area. “You have everything ready to go?”
“Yes, it’s waiting at the door. I hope we don’t need any of it. If this worked like O’Dey said it would, then we have nothing to be afraid of.” Kate continued eating and looked over at Angel, who hadn’t even touched her plate.
“Hey, are you okay?” Kate asked her and Angel looked down at the floor.
“I don’t think you should go outside,” she said looking up into Kate’s eyes. Kate became a little worried because Angel had always been correct when she would say these types of things. So Kate asked her, “Why not?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t want you to. Let Mr. Mason go instead.” Angel said whispering for she didn’t want him to hear her.
“Mr. Mason is going to stay here with Pat and watch over you two. Now finish your breakfast, everything will be fine.” Having had her fill, Kate excused herself from the table and left to finish preparing for the night ahead. The lock wouldn’t disengage until 3:44 a.m., there was plenty of time to squeeze in a workout and a nap.
After dinner, Pat had taken the children to bed and everyone else gathered in the main living area. Jack, ever present behind the bar and Kate sat on the other side. Pat and Dr. Richards sat at the small table in the corner and Montgomery sat on the couch. Dr. Richards had gotten an apple for an after dinner snack and like to slice his pieces off one at a time. In between bites he said, “So, are we ready for this? Do you think they’ve been eradicated?”
“We can only hope so. I think that it probably did some good, but how much is the question. It may be a while before we can determine it safe to inhabit. Luckily there are so many supplies here. We’ll be able to live off of this stuff until we know for sure. Once we do, we are free to build.”
“And the first house will be built for me.” Montgomery added. Everyone’s eyes turned to him. “What? You don’t agree?”
“Actually the plan is to build one big house for now. There will be plenty of time to build individual houses later.”
“No, I said the first house will be mine. I am the President and I deserve precedence over your needs.”
“Montgomery,” said Dr. Richards. “Where is all this coming from? I thought you changed.”
“Changed from what? I just made our time more pleasant by pretending to be a nice guy. Did you really think that was going to last?” He asked Dr. Richards.
“I should have known it wouldn’t. You were heartless enough to throw your own wife to the infected to save yourself, I don’t know why I thought that you would be any different, but I did. My mistake,” he said while glaring at him.
“You threw your wife to the zombies? What a piece of shit! Let me guess… she was the one I shot to save your worthless life. I’m sorry that I took her revenge from her.” Kate screamed at him. Ignoring Kate, he continued to speak, “Indeed, Dr. Richards. Indeed. Now, I will hold the lovely Pat and those bothersome children, hostage until your return. If there is any foul play, I will shoot them all.” Montgomery pulled a pistol from his jacket.
“All weapons were supposed to be locked up in Dr. Richard’s office to keep them away from the children. Why didn’t you turn it in?” Jack asked.
“You didn’t think that I would give up my only form of protection, did you? How silly. Now, how long before the door opens?”
“Ethan.”
“What, Angel.”
“I need you to go to Kate’s room with me,” she whispered.
“For what? You know we’re not allowed in there.”
“I gotta get something. It’s really important! Please come?”
“Okay. Let’s make it fast.” Ethan threw the covers off of him and met her at the door. He slowly opened it to peer into the hall, making sure it was clear and took Angel by the hand. They quickly entered Kate’s room which was right beside theirs and shut the door. Angel went directly to the night stand beside Kate’s bed and opened the drawer.
“I’ll get the bullets and you get the gun,” she said to Ethan.
“Gun! No way, Angumpff” he yelled and she slapped her hand over his mouth.
“Be quiet!”
Ethan picked up the unloaded gun and Angel grabbed the three clips that lay beside it. They quietly snuck back to their room. Having seen Kate do it several times before, Angel quickly loaded the clip into the gun.
“What are you doing? That’s dangerous!” Ethan protested. “Kate is gonna kill us for messing with that, not to mention what Dad and Pat are going to say!”
“Just be quiet Ethan and trust me,” she said while putting the gun in the drawer of their own nightstand and got back into bed.
“We’re gonna be in so much trouble. And I am NOT taking the blame for you. Man!” Ethan complained as he climbed back in bed as well.
“We would be in trouble if we didn’t have it. Now we wait.”
“Wait for what? You got E.S.P. or something? I mean you know all this stuff.”
“What’s E.S.P.?” she asked him.
“When you know the future and it hasn’t happened yet. You can tell what’s going to happen.”
“No, I don’t have that. I can’t tell what is going to happen, but I do know things and I don’t know how I know. It’s like a dream sometimes, while my eyes are open and I just see pictures of things. I saw Montgomery’s face before I knew him, it made me scared, so I knew I should be scared when I met him. The gun is a picture, too. It is like a puzzle. I will see things and have to try to understand what they mean. Sometimes, the pictures come too late. It’s all very complicated.”
Ethan was very impressed with her manner of speaking and her use of the word complicated. He smiled bright at her, “You’ve been around me too long. I’m a pretty good teacher.” He was proud of himself for doing something good, he had worked with her all year long and it was paying off.
“Ethan, I don’t know if we’re going to be okay.”
“Why?” Ethan no sooner asked the question than they heard a shot ring out.
Chapter Forty One
The hour seemed to pass slowly and Jack couldn’t take anymore of Montgomery’s selfish ramblings. All the talk about presiding over a non-existent government was getting on his nerves. He wracked his brain trying to figure out a way to get to him before he could hurt anyone and came up with noting. All their weapons were secure besides the ones in the bags waiting for them in the hall. They couldn’t get to them and he hated that Montgomery held the upper hand. Finally growing tired of it, he marched up to Montgomery and gave him a piece of his mind.
“You sniveling little bastard! Do you think that pointing your gun at me intimidates me? I’ll break your fucking neck! You don’t have the guts to shoot me!”
“Yes, I do Jack. You have three seconds to step away from me or I will shoot.” Montgomery calmly responded. Jack remained still and would not move as Montgomery counted down from three. When he got to one and Jack was still standing in his face, he shot him once in the gut and once more in the head after he fell. Kate scrambled to his crumpled body, Dr. Richards moved to disarm Montgomery but he was too far away. Montgomery spun and aimed his pistol at him and ordered him to get down on his knees and face the wall. Pat remained in her seat
but had palmed the knife that Dr. Richards had been slicing his apple with. Kate was told to sit beside her.
“Okay, ladies. I guess we’ll all go out together. Once I take care of this nuisance,” he said pointing to Dr. Richards. “We’ll all have a great time if you just co-operate. Now, Pat. I am going to give you a choice. You can either sit and watch while I kill this man, that I KNOW you’ve been fucking. Or, you can die with him. Which is it?”
“I choose to die with him.” She responded in a strong voice. Dr. Richards turned to protest and Montgomery put the gun to his head and forced him to face the wall.
“Then come and take your place beside him.” He held out his arm in a sweeping gesture and invited her by. Pat rose from the table with her arms down at her sides, the knife now pressed against her leg and as she passed him, he turned to speak to Kate and Pat seized the opportunity and swiftly buried it in his thigh, causing him to scream and fall to the floor. She fell on top of him and struggled to get the gun away and Dr. Richards crawled to help but it was too late. The gun went off, taking half of Pat’s skull with it, blood and bone rained down into Montgomery’s face. A second later he turned the gun on Dr. Richards just as Kate moved in behind him to stop him from getting off another shot. But again, he managed to fire another round hitting Dr. Richards between the eyes.
Kate grabbed him by the wrist and slammed his hand until the gun skittered across the floor, and she began raining heavy blows down on his head. Knowing that she would beat him to death unless he could get her off of him, he pulled the knife from his leg and jammed it deep unto her left side, over and over until she rolled off of him, winded and bleeding. He forced himself up on his knees and was about to slam the knife down into her face when he heard a noise behind him.
He stood and listened for a moment, not hearing anything else he turned his attention back to Kate.
“Is it worth all this, Kate? Your friends are dead and I think you can guess where I’m going next.”
Weak and breathless, Kate struggled to speak but he began kicking her in her sides and relentlessly rained heavy blows down upon her until she fell unconscious. Out of breath now himself, Montgomery stood and ran his hand through his hair and adjusted his jacket. He walked over to the bar and finished the untouched glass of bourbon that Jack had poured earlier. He was in no hurry to get to the children; they would be plenty of time for that later. Where could they go? He laughed to himself, and thought that they were all stupid. Everything would have been fine if they had just agreed to cooperate. He didn’t ask for much and they made him kill them. Hopefully, there would be more cooperative citizens above who would recognize leadership when they saw it. He watched Kate for five minutes more to make sure that she was dead, and satisfied with his conclusion, he went in search of the children.
Chapter Forty Three
“Let’s go.” Ethan whispered. They’d been standing in the entrance to the west hall and had been waiting for Montgomery to head to the east hall to find them. Ethan had the gun pointed down to the floor, just like he’d seen in the cops and robbers shows. He held Angel’s hand and together they ran to Kate as soon as Montgomery left the room.
Angel slapped Kate’s face several times and finally managed to wake her, but barely. She mumbled to Angel about the necklace and a journal that she must get. Though it was hard for Ethan to understand, Angel understood perfectly. Ethan handed her the gun and she weakly grabbed it. She pushed it under her hip so it would be out of view if Montgomery came back. Ethan waked over to the bodies of his father and Pat. Though there were no tears, his heart was crushed and suddenly this young boy seemed to carry the look of a man. His face filled with grief and rage. Soon they heard Montgomery’s footsteps and he was calling their names, having discovered their room empty.
Kate feebly begged them to find somewhere to hide and Angel ran and slid underneath the large sofa, it did not serve very well for a hiding space but there was nowhere else to hide. Ethan remained standing next to his father’s body, waiting for Montgomery to enter the room. Kate became still once again and prayed that Ethan didn’t get too close to Montgomery.
As soon as Montgomery entered the room, Ethan ran at him headfirst, pummeling at his chest and legs. Montgomery laughed at him, grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him down in the recliner. He puts his hands on both arms of the chair and towered over Ethan.
“Where is Angel?” He asked Ethan.
“None of your business! You leave Angel alone!” Ethan began kicking out at Montgomery’s shins and his head spun from the vicious slap that Montgomery delivered.
Montgomery asked again only screaming this time, “WHERE IS ANGEL?”
“I’ll never tell you!” Ethan screamed back.
“Oh, really? You little shit.” Montgomery picked him up out of the chair and carried him to the sofa where he slammed him down flat and began choking him. Ethan’s hands and legs flailing out at him but having no effect.
Kate had lain there waiting for him to get in a position where she wouldn’t hurt one of the children if she fired and now he was positioned with his back to her. Angel stared at her from under the couch, her eyes wide with fear. Kate used the last of her strength to remove the gun from under her hip and struggled to aim the gun at Montgomery’s back. Her body shook from the effort and she could only see with one eye. Praying for God to guide the bullet she pulled the trigger and her shot was true. It hit Montgomery in the right buttock causing him to release Ethan and stand up straight. Mustering the strength to fire another shot, it entered the left side of his back and it burst out the front of his chest, Montgomery fell dead to floor. Kate’s arm flopped back down and the gun left her hand. The children ran to her and Angel rained kisses all over her face and told her, “You did good, Kate. You did good.” Kate squeezed Angel’s hand and uttered the word ‘journal’ before expelling her last breath.
Angel sat with her for a long time while Ethan gathered their shoes and clothes for them to change into. While he was gone, the time lock had disengaged and they were free to go. Taking Angel’s hand, Ethan led her out into the hall leading to the hatch and found the packs that Kate had packed for their exploration journey earlier. Ethan rummaged through them and put all of the food that he found into one pack and the weapons, he placed in another with only one of the first aid kits that he had found in them. Ethan carried the heavier of the two and led Angel to the ladder to the hatch.
“Wait here,” he told her. Ethan entered the code that he had memorized a year before when his father called it in to Pat. The light turned green and he pulled the handle and pushed the door open. The sunlight cast a bright shaft of light down into the shelter and they both shielded their eyes, squinting repeatedly until their eyes adjusted to the intensity of it. Ethan climbed out of the hatch and looked around. The trees were just as green, the air fresh and renewing and the sky a beautiful blue. At that moment it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
“Come on out, Angel! It’s beautiful!”
Angel seemed to hesitate and Ethan looked down the shaft and called for her again. She scrambled up the ladder, and Teddy fell from her hands, she turned and watched him drop to the floor and lay there face up smiling at her. Instead of going back down for him, she scrambled the rest of the way to the top.
“Shut the door! Shut the door. He’s back!” She cried.
“Who’s back?” Ethan said while shutting the door.
“Now lock it! Hurry!” she told him.
“Ethan lifted the patch of grass and entered the code again. They heard the lock engage.
“Who was it?” he asked her.
“Him! Mr. Mason! He’s a scary monster!” she said reaching to pick up the bag that was almost too heavy for her to carry. Ethan helped her pick it up and put the straps around her shoulders. “It’s much easier this way,” he said. Ethan put his bag on his back, too and they began walking away from the entrance to the shelter. They could hear Montgomery beating on the door every few se
conds. Though it was slow and weak, they could hear it still as they neared the entrance to the woods.
“I’m scared, Ethan! I don’t want to go into the woods!” Angel cried. Ethan thought about this for a moment, and said, “Well, we can’t go back. All we can do is move ahead.” They joined hands and entered the surrounding woods to find a path that led to the outside world, all the while unaware that the chem-bombs had been a failure.
Dr. O’Dey had created the formula in such a small time frame that the proper tests couldn’t be run. Though it served its purpose in the initial testing, they had no idea that it would lose its potency within days of being packed into the canisters. It had taken over a month to get them launched and at that point, could cause no harm, to even a fly. When the bombs exploded, it served only to cover the land in fine white dust and had no effects whatsoever on the infected. In fact, there were far more now than there were when they entered the shelter a year ago, and many were gathered on the other side of the woods, just a few hundred yards ahead of them.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading The Dead Live On.
I am currently working on the sequel and will be released at a time undetermined. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. If you have enjoyed this book, please share with your friends. Julie
Copyright©2013TheDeadLiveOnJulieCooperBrown
The Dead Live On Page 21