The Last Days (Books 1-3)

by Julie Cooper Brown

  Jack went into the bedroom littered with the bodies of the dead and up the ladder that was extended from the ceiling.

  Finding the body of another male, a mass of flies had gathered and spread about the room. A photo album lay on the floor so he picked it up and flipped through it.

  There were several pictures of Carl and his family.

  He found a picture of Carl and his daughter as well and pulled it out of the album. He had never seen her before and it would help to know what she looked like. He hoped that this would help him to recognize her dead, undead or alive.

  There was nothing left here, and no other sign of Carls' daughter.

  He went back down to the bottom floor where his companion waited, while they were inside the dead had all but surrounded the house.

  They made a run for it, shooting all the while and attracting more infected. Jack, his heart beating out of his chest as it he had not been subjected to so many at once, ran ever so fast to get to the helicopter. Upon reaching it and flinging open the door, he turned to see the guard being attacked by several infected.

  They had piled on top of him and Jack couldn’t even hear his screams. There wasn’t anything he could do to help him, it was too late.

  Jumping in the pilot seat and starting the engine, the dead that were around him began beating on the helicopter, some hanging from the feet as he rose in the air.

  The only other thing he could do is meet the others at the shelter and there they would remain until they ran out of provisions or fuel for the generators housed within, whichever came first. At least they had that option. Maybe he could figure out a way to disengage the lock on the control board, a manual override, maybe.

  He began flying north and was nearing Atlanta when he spotted a blue van moving at a fast pace on the freeway below, a mile or so ahead.

  He thought to follow them, but the fuel gage lit up and the buzzing that accompanied it let him know he was out of fuel. He had to land and soon. No better place than on the freeway, and although he didn’t see any dead below that didn’t mean they weren’t there.

  Upon landing he did not encounter any infected and searched the few vehicles that were on the road. Most were out of gas but after several hours of walking, he found an SUV with keys and a full tank. So, he headed north to see if he could catch up with the blue van. He thought it unlikely but it was worth a shot.

  October 25th

  2:30 p.m.

  Kate had been walking several hours and never found a vehicle that had gas, or keys or wasn’t housing some sort of dead or undead body. She had a few run-ins with infected and was able to take them down without injury to herself.

  It seemed that roads were becoming more clogged up the further north she had gotten and soon she may not be able to make it down the road, she would have to veer off into surrounding territories, and that would make the trip much longer and less predictable.

  At least on the open road she could see what dangers lie ahead and she would travel it until she could not get by.

  Soon she heard a slow approaching vehicle and turned around to see it as it pulled up and came to a stop behind her.

  The driver had his gun aimed out the window at her and she threw her hands up in the air to show that she was indeed alive and coherent. She did not want to get mistaken for the dead.

  The driver looked around before exiting the vehicle and she walked towards him at a slow pace, looking around herself for signs of more undead.

  They approached each other and held out their hands for a shake.

  “How far have you walked?” Jack asked.

  Oh, about forty five miles” she replied and he noticed that she looked worn out and tired, he could see that she was limping before he stopped.

  “Hurt yourself, I see. Jump in. Let’s get out of here.”

  Without another word she got in the SUV and felt exhausted suddenly. The walk and fighting had really taken it out of her and her ankle was on fire.

  “Where were you headed to?” He asked.

  “I’m going to Ohio to look for my friends. They had managed to escape the situation we were in and they were going there. I hope they made it. Where are you going?”

  “I saw a blue van travelling north a day or so ago. I was in a helicopter but had to land, I ran out of fuel. Then I walked a bit and found this vehicle. Thought I’d try to catch up to them. I am in search of a little girl.”

  “Your daughter or..?” She asked.

  “No, a friend’s daughter. She has something we need. I am a secret service agent, we have a shelter and a way to kill the infected, but she has a key that we need. I need to find her. I thought she might’ve been in that van.”

  “Where did you see the van?” Kate asked, knowing that Tank’s van was what he was searching for.

  “Back in Georgia.”

  “Well, I can tell you that I was in the blue van along with my friends and two little girls. One got attacked by birds and then mauled by some infected. I ended up killing her just hours ago. She had become one of them. The other little girl...” Jack pulled out the picture of Carl and Angel and showed it to Kate.

  “Is this one of the girls?”

  “Yes, that’s Angel. She was still alive when they left. I’m going to find her, too. I hope she is okay. I hope they’re all okay, but I think that might be asking a little too much.”

  “Where did you meet Angel?”

  “My friend…” And she dropped her head as she thought of him. “My friend Dave and I found her in a trapped in a house in Florida. We had to kill several of them. I was surprised to find her. We had to kill her father, too.”

  “I saw that he was beheaded and shot between the eyes. What happened there? Aren’t they supposed to go down with a head shot no matter what?” He asked.

  “Yea, they are. We were just as surprised when he got back up several hours after we shot him. Don’t know why that happened. Haven’t seen it happen to anyone else before or since. Anyway, I watched out for her until we came to a church where the Pastor had locked his congregation in a room infected people and allowed them to die. My friend blew the place up and the rest of us got away. I could have gone with them but I wanted to check on Dave. He was infected already but had not changed yet, so I had to find him. But I didn’t. So, now I am going to Ohio to find my other friends.”

  “Well, let’s hope we find them alive. I think we will. What are the chances of me running into you, looking for the same person? It will be okay. I have a son and a couple friends already inside the shelter. It’s back in Georgia, though. Hopefully we will make it. Without the key the girl holds, we won’t be able to kill the infected.”

  “I don’t think she has anything on her, Jack. Though, she does have a teddy bear. Maybe it’s in the teddy. What does the key look like?”

  “I don’t know. It could be just a regular key, maybe a card. If we find her we find the key. Gas will be difficult, but we are in Kentucky now and getting closer to them with every mile. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and get the girl and whoever we can carry and get back to safety.”

  Kate thought briefly about the little heart that Kimmy had shown her but did not say anything. She was comfortable for the moment and the trials of the day had taken its toll on her and she nodded off to sleep.

  Jack looked over at her thinking she was very attractive for a pale-skinned redhead, but quickly pushed those thoughts aside.

  They were on a mission and he would take whoever he could back to the shelter with him once he found Angel and the key. He drove on in silence and hoped that the roads didn’t become any more difficult than they already had and the rain began steadily falling, again.

  Part Three

  5:30 p.m.

  “Hey, wake up.” Jack said to Kate as he shook her shoulder to jar her. She woke and rubbed her eyes as she readjusted herself upright in the seat.

  “Where are we now?” She looked out the window and they were crossing a bridge and saw signs for Liberty
and U.S. 50.

  “We just crossed into Cincinnati from Kentucky. Dayton is still a little over and hour or so away, if traffic were normal. Hopefully we don’t encounter too many more road blocks.” Jack said as he slowly maneuvered his way through the clusters of cars on the bridge. “I thought you might want to wake up a bit before we actually get there.”

  “Yea, I do. We gotta be ready for anything. Thanks for letting me sleep. I must’ve needed it.” Kate said. “I sure wish I had a cup of coffee.”

  “Don’t have coffee but do you want a smoke?” He asked taking a crumpled pack of Marlboro out of his shirt pocket and offering them to her.

  “No, thanks. I don’t smoke often. Don’t think I want one right now, I might take you up on that later, though. All the roads been this clogged?”

  “Well, most of them. I’ve had to take a few detours and run over a few infected but it hasn’t been so bad. And we’re just about there.”

  “I’m hungry.” Kate said as she reached into the backseat to get her pack. “I have some extra rations. You want something?” She said and unzipped her pack to pull out a couple granola bars. She really liked those. They didn’t taste bad and gave her energy to boot. He was pretty hungry himself so he took the granola bar that held out to him.

  “Thank You.”

  “Not a problem.” She said and they ate their granola bars and rode in silence for several miles before Kate said “Some of them have a conscience, you know.”

  He looked over at her and saw that she believed what she was saying, though he really didn’t know about that.

  “No, I didn’t know that. How did you come to that conclusion?”

  “I’ve seen it.” Kate proceeded to tell him about what she read in Jillian’s’ papers and told him that he still had them if he wanted to read them. She told him about Jillian herself when Kate had called her name and how undead Jillian reacted.

  “I haven’t heard of that. It’s a first, but then we really don’t pay too much attention to what their faces and emotions are. We’re too busy trying to kill or run from them to stand and try to analyze their emotions.”

  He thought on this for a while as the road to Dayton seemed to open up and there weren’t as many cars to dodge and creep around. They got up to a steady forty miles an hour and cruised the rest of the way.

  7:45 p.m.

  “What time is it?” Belinda asked as she lifted her head up from the table where she had been sleeping and swiped the drool with escaped her lips with a grimace. She was a nice girl and had only started her job at Tank’s a month before the infection got out. She looked pretty silly with drool dripping from her otherwise very pretty face. Deep set almond shaped green eyes and a full mouth with a set of gorgeous teeth, Troy looked at her and laughed, handed her a napkin and said “Almost eight o’clock. Why? Got some where to be?”

  She slid him a sideways look and yawn, stretching her body out so that you could hear it crack.

  “Oh, I am too young for my body to be snapping like this!” And she laughed as well. “Stay off your back and the rest of your body will heel.” Mojo said from behind her and he flicked her in the back.

  “Ow. That kind of hurt.” She whined.

  “Quit crying. I’ve been thinking about this, Troy.” Mojo said. “We have to leave here sooner or later, I looked out the window over the tapestries and they know were in here. They’re starting to gather out front. We’re gonna have to use the big bus to get us all out of here.”

  Troy stood on a table to look out the window his self and counted twelve.

  “Yea, they are, but how we gonna get to it?”

  He asked.

  Kristen had been sitting at the bar with her head down and spoke from under her arms.

  “Tommy had the keys last, Mojo. We haven’t seen him, so how we gonna get it started? You gonna hot wire it?”

  “No,” he said and pulled a ring of keys from his pocket and dangled them in the air. “I have Tank’s keys.”

  “Oh, so what are we gonna do for gas, then? The pumps won’t work without electricity, if we can safely make it to a station. We took the bus to the Air Force Museum; the fuel was pretty low when we got back.”

  “We’ll burn that bridge when we get there. We can syphon, we just have to find a hose. I think we can use the line from the sanitizer in the kitchen; we have to find a way to rinse it out. Anyway, we gotta focus on getting out. They are gonna be trying to knock these doors down soon. Sure seems like they’re getting restless. Listen.”

  Everyone quieted and listened for the sound of the infected outside. They could hear the moans of the dead and an occasional screams of the soon to be. Kristen broke out in goose bumps and said “Oh my God, make some fucking noise. I don’t want to hear that.”

  “Smart, let’s make noise so we can encourage them to get at us. They already smell us.” Troy said.

  “I don’t mean be loud as fuck. I just mean keep talking so we can block it out.”

  Belinda rubbed her arms as it gave her the chills as well.

  “I will never be able to get those sounds out of my head.” She turned to walk into the kitchen.

  “Okay, let’s plan this out. It’s gotta be done right or we’re all gonna die sooner than later. John?” Mojo called out to him.

  “Yeah, I’m awake.” He said from the upper dining room. “I’m just listening.”

  “I’m gonna need your help. The first thing is we gotta figure out who’s gonna get to the bus. Now, it’s only across the alley, parked next to Tommy’s house. One of us has to stay by the door, the other two have to head to the bus, who’s gonna do what?”

  “I’ll go to the bus.” Troy said and John said he’ll go with him. “But I’ll drive.” He added.

  “Okay then. I’ll keep the door clear and provide cover for you. Kristen, you and Belinda gather all the stuff we need, but not more than you can run with. John will pull the bus up and open the doors. I want you two to stand inside by the door with Angel, one of you carry her, and wait for my signal. I’ll bang twice quickly. Then you run directly onto the bus. Don’t waste time, you drop something, leave it. Understand?”

  They all nodded their heads and had worried looks in their eyes. They knew they were going to lose somebody. Isn’t that how it always went in the movies when the trapped are trying to escape?

  “All right, let’s get the show on the road. You guys grab your guns and you girls get your shit together. We won’t have but a second to get on the bus. Let’s go.”

  The girls immediately broke into action gathering a few things and getting Angel up. She had been sleeping a lot, but none could blame her. She was traumatized. For a child of six she had seen way too much.

  The guys walked back to the kitchen and waited for the girls to get back there in their waiting positions before they exited the building.

  Mojo opened the door and peered around, only one infected in the back lot standing by Woody’s body only 25 feet away. John and Troy ran straight ahead across the alley towards the bus and Mojo waited as long as he could before he shot the infected. He didn’t want to attract the attention to the others in front sooner than he had to.

  He saw john climb into the drivers’ seat and he fired the shot, and it popped the head of the infected in a shattered mess. You could hear the carnage splatter onto the ground.

  John had started the engine and was not expecting any other persons on board. Unfortunately, Tommy had been bitten and must’ve got onto the bus for shelter. It was there that he died, in the seat directly behind the driver’s seat. And it was there that he had risen and his mouth opened so much further than it should have been able to, and latched onto John’s whole shoulder.

  John grabbed Tommie’s’ head with his left hand and he could not get him off.

  He stood with Tommy tearing into his shoulder and saw Troy aiming his gun to shoot.

  Straining to keep from screaming he said to Troy “Stop, Not on the bus.”

  He threw himse
lf and Tommy with all his might, down the bus stairs and out the door onto the ground. He looked at Troy and said “Do it, now. Troy shot twice quickly, one for each of them. And John was no more.

  He climbed into the seat and pulled the bus out onto the street. He had to turn it around to get the doors on the right side, and it was getting crazy now. He could hear Mojo’s gun firing and knew he only had just a minute to get there. Finally he pulled up and saw headlights on the rearview mirror as Mojo banged on the door to get the girls to come out.

  8:00 p.m.

  Jack and Kate had gotten there just in time and started firing out the window at the other infected that were trying to close in on the survivors that they saw trying to escape. She saw Angel being carried by a female she did not recognize.

  The male who stood at the doors of the bus looked in her direction and said “Hurry!”

  She looked to the right at the beautiful red Mustang that Tank and the others had escaped the church in, and noticed two familiar bodies on the ground along with a few others. She did not have time to think on who they were.

  They both exited the vehicle firing their weapons as the infected were growing ever so greatly in number, and headed right for the bus.

  Kate saw the last girl to exit was carrying supplies and as the door shut behind her and infected grabbed her by the shoulders, she dropped the box of supplies she was carrying and it pulled her down and began biting into her face.

  They made it to the bus and jumped on; there was no use in trying to save the girl outside. The driver shut the door behind them and put it in reverse, he would have to back directly out into the street.

  Before he could get more than five feet away, the girl was chasing the bus and beating on the side. Somehow, the virus had mutated and Belinda was now a fully undead infected.