The Z-Day Trilogy (Book 3): Plague of the Living Dead

by Mark Cusco Ailes

  “This whole situation is my fault,” he said. “I’m the one who tried to play God. Look where it got me. Look where it got Indiana and Illinois. And now it’s spreading. Look where it’s eventually going to get the rest of the world.”

  He stared at the giraffe hoping it would give him reassurance. His stomach felt as though it was going to explode. He knew his time was almost up. He stood up and immediately sat back down. A wave of dizziness overcame him. He reached into his lab coat and grabbed a small notepad and pen. He wanted his last act as a human to confess what he had done. He wanted the world to know how sorry he was the virus got out of control. He wanted the world to know he had done everything with good intentions. Most of all, he just wanted the world to know he was sorry. He heard growling coming from across the room. He knew what it meant. Another scientist had died and now had turned. His hands shook as he realized he might not have enough time left to write what he wanted. He forced himself to his feet, fighting off the feeling to pass out.

  The last thing he wanted was to get eaten alive; he’d rather turn into a zombie than get eaten by one. He left the giraffe and ventured slowly farther inside, as far away as he could get from the growling. He hoped the zombie would focus on his animals and not pay any attention to him. He knew if he could make it to the store room on the other side of the building, he could safely lock himself inside.

  He made it to the store room, went inside and closed the door behind him. He looked around. There wasn’t anything inside that drew his attention. In fact, it was almost empty except for a couple of spare park benches and a few piles of discarded cardboard boxes. He sat on one of the benches and closed his eyes. He was going to take a short break and then try to write the note he wanted to leave for whoever found him. He never had the chance. He fell into darkness.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Screams of terrorized people echoed throughout the streets. They were desperately trying to find somewhere safe to hide from the growing hordes of zombies, who were undead eating machines leaving nothing left alive in their path.

  A small group of survivors were making their way down the street, popping off shots left and right, making it a game by killing as many zombies as they could. They continued down the street as vehicles lay abandoned and silent, and loose trash fluttered about in the breeze. Electricity was still running through the wires overhead, a good sign the power stations were still operational.

  “Come get some you rat-eating pieces of half-decayed monsters!” screamed Travis as he popped off a couple of shots, bringing another zombie down. “I can do this all day if I have to.”

  His buddy, Worthy, breathed heavily, gasping. Unbeknownst to him, he was slowly succumbing to the airborne virus. He figured he had caught a bad strain of the flu or something like it. It wasn’t going to hamper his efforts to play in the game. The winner was going to take all. There were hundreds of dollars and a keg of beer going to the man who killed the most zombies in a single day. He was determined he was going to be the winner. He had the most hunting experience of the eight of them playing the game. He held his Winchester repeating rifle tightly in his hands and fired several more shots, bringing down three more zombies. He was running out of steam, though. It was getting harder to keep up with the others and he needed to. He needed witnesses to how many zombies he was killing. It didn’t help he was constantly coughing. He had downed a bottle of cherry cough syrup before he had set out for the hunt, but he didn’t think it was working. He felt like a truck had run him over. He continued slowly behind the group, looking left and right for more zombies to send back to the darkness for which they had come.

  They came to an alleyway between the buildings and turned onto it. It was as though they had struck gold. A large concentration of zombies was shambling in a large horde. Worthy was gritting his teeth as he joined them. His head felt as though it was going to explode.

  “This is going to be like shooting targets at the carnival,” said Travis, popping off a shot. He watched as a female zombie toppled face first to the ground. “That’s number sixty seven.”

  Worthy could hear the rasping moans filling the air as the zombies turned their attention toward them. They slowly shambled toward them with growls of fury. Worthy was determined to surpass Travis’ score. He was almost at sixty and the group heading toward him could surpass Travis’ sixty seven, unless he was allowed to fire first.

  The first of the infected drew near enough for him to take it out before Travis had a chance to react. He fired a shot. “Sixty,” he shouted as Travis fired two more shots of his own. “Sixty nine.”

  Worthy was agitated. He couldn’t believe he was losing to his deadbeat friend. He had the experience. He should be at double the number of kills than he was. He blamed his illness on his low score. He fired several shots. One hit its mark and the other went wide, shattering brick on the nearby building.

  “If you keep firing like that, I’m going to have plenty of beer to drink later.” They both reloaded as their friends brought down a few more zombies. “Don’t worry; I’ll share it with you.”

  Worthy was getting dizzy, but he was determined to outshoot his friend. He wanted the beer for himself. He knew it would make him feel better. Whenever he felt under the weather, he knew he could count on a cold beer to ease his suffering. He fired another shot and watched number sixty two slump to the ground. He set his sights on another larger zombie who was staring at him. He stared at it with hatred. It growled a low, rumbling sound deep from its throat. Worthy had lost his parents to these creatures when the outbreak first happened. They were on a date at the local fancy restaurant, having steak and lobster. It was the one thing his parents, in their ripe old age, did consistently on a monthly basis. They told him it was their way of keeping their marriage alive. They told him if they went on monthly dates, it would help them have years of marital bliss. He laughed; it sure didn’t help him with his marriage. His wife had left after two sorrowful years, because she felt he didn’t earn enough money to keep her interested. It always comes down to money.

  He was amazed how it worked for his parents. They had been happily married for forty years. He thought it would have been much longer, but they were attacked by zombies while they ate dinner at a local restaurant. They were bitten and they turned into the creatures he was out hunting. Somehow, by instinct or something like it, they both made it back home and attacked him, and he had the wound on his chest to prove it. He kept it a secret from his buddies. He didn’t want any of them trying to put a round through his head. He managed to fight off his parents long enough to put them out of their misery. He then put an antibacterial cream on the wound and bandaged it. He didn’t think he was going to turn into a zombie because he learned from TV that people who were bitten turned rapidly. It now had been nearly four days and he still hadn’t turned. He didn’t know why he hadn’t, but he felt fortunate. He didn’t want to become one of the creatures. He coughed and looked around. He heard Travis shout he was now at number eighty three. He fired a shot bringing another zombie down. He now had a lot of ground to make up. If he didn’t, Travis was going to go home with the prize.

  Another shambler came into his view sniffing at the air. He fired another shot. A moment later its head snapped back. It slumped to the ground, blood pooling around its skull. He stared at it. How could it have come to this?

  “Come on, you slackers!” screamed Travis. “Get your head in the game, Worthy, you’re falling way behind.” He reached out with his foot and tipped over a garbage can. It toppled onto the ground, spilling its contents on the pavement.

  Worthy stared at him as if he had lost his mind. His friend was enjoying the killings too much. It was as though it was something he had always wanted to do, but before now, it was against the law. He was losing trust in him. He wondered if he would start shooting humans if he ran out of zombies to kill.

  Two more zombies shambled toward them intent on feasting on their bodies. Both Travis and Worthy stood there fo
cused on them.

  “These ones are mine,” said Travis, firing, but nothing happened. He was out of ammunition. He looked at Worthy and shrugged.

  “I’m spent as well.”

  They looked back at their friends. It was the same for them. They all had run out of ammunition.

  “Crap!” screamed Travis. “We need to get out of here and find some ammunition.” He looked behind them. More zombies were coming from behind. They were now cutoff from making a hasty retreat in either direction.

  “What do we do now?” asked Worthy. “They have us surrounded.”

  Travis looked over his shoulder, looking for a doorway or perhaps a manhole they could escape into. Today was not the day he wanted to be eaten alive. He saw a door directly behind him that was slightly opened. “Follow me.”

  The others followed him inside a building and closed the door and locked it. They were inside a candle store. Travis searched it looking for anything they could use to help them get through the horde outside. He picked up a box containing several red candles and tossed it aside.

  “Great! This is exactly what we need, a bunch of useless candles!”

  “Relax,” said Worthy. “At least we’re safe inside here.”

  Travis stared at him in disgust. “Worthy, you should have a look at yourself in the mirror. You’re beginning to look like one of those things out there. Are you sure you feel all right? I thought you said you had the flu.”

  “It’s nothing. I just need some rest. I haven’t had any sleep since all this started.”

  Travis stared at him suspiciously. “I don’t know, Worthy, I think you’re turning into one of them. I’m sorry, dude, but I don’t think we should take a chance with you. I think we better throw you outside with the rest of them.”

  Worthy held up his weapon and pointed it at him. “Don’t you touch me, Travis.”

  Travis laughed. “What are you going to do with that? You’re out of ammunition like the rest of us.”

  He kept his weapon pointed at him. “Maybe I was lying about being out of ammunition. Maybe I wanted to keep one last shot for an occasion like this. Do you really want to find out?”

  “All right, you win. Just relax, Worthy. Nobody is going to toss you out of the store. But I need you to tell me one thing.” He paused for a moment before asking what he wanted to know. “Has one of those things bit you?”

  The sound of pounding on the back door echoed throughout the candle store. Travis turned to look. He felt trapped and he didn’t like the feeling. He turned to look back at Worthy. “I’m warning you, Worthy, if you turn into one of those things, I’m going to take you out myself.” He moved past him and went to the front of the store. He wanted to get a glimpse out the front window to see what the situation was outside. It was as he feared. The streets were teeming with the undead. The only way they would be able to escape was if they had ammunition to shoot their way out. He moved away from the window and looked around him. Everywhere he looked were candles.

  “Who on this planet needs this many candles,” he said, knocking several of them onto the ground. He picked another one off of the shelf and looked at the price on it. He threw it across the store, shattering it into several large pieces. “It’s no wonder there are so many of them in here. You have to be rich to afford one of them.” He looked at Worthy. “It’s your fault we’re stuck inside here. You hesitated out there. What’s wrong with you? You’re really scaring me! Really! Go look at yourself in the mirror!”

  Worthy didn’t want to. He knew he probably looked as bad as he felt. He didn’t know what to do. He obviously couldn’t inform the group he had been bitten. If they knew, he knew they would throw him out of the store to be ripped apart and feasted on by the zombies outside. He couldn’t risk that happening to him. He didn’t need any reflection staring back at him, reminding him of what could happen…what would eventually happen to him. He was now on his own to deal with his problem. He felt like collapsing on the floor and sleeping for eternity. He looked at Travis who was busy tossing candles on the floor. His best friend was soon going to be his worst enemy.

  “We can’t stay here!” yelled Travis. “We need supplies. There isn’t anything we can use in this store. We need to get out of here and get to the mall area. They have a gun shop inside there. If we can manage to get inside, we can get what we need.”

  “How are we going to do that?” asked one of the men. “The zombies are pounding at the back door.”

  Travis looked out the front of the store. There weren’t many zombies hanging out front at the moment. He looked across the street and saw a flashing light. It was an ambulance with its lights flashing. He turned to look at the others. “There is an ambulance across the street. I think it’s abandoned. If we can make it to it, we can use it to get to the mall.”

  “The roads are blocked,” said Worthy, joining them, feeling as though he was going to pass out. “How are you going to drive the ambulance anywhere with the roads blocked?”

  “I’ll figure it out once we get to it. I like my chances out there better than I do being locked inside a useless candle store.”

  “How do we even know it will start?” asked Worthy. “What happens if it’s out of gas? Then what are we going to do?”

  Travis approached him and glared at him. “You don’t have to go with us if you don’t want to! As a matter of fact, why don’t you just stay here! I don’t trust you. Something is definitely going on with you, and I’m not sure I want to stay here and find out what. You should do the rest of us a favor and keep away from us.”

  Worthy stared back trying to find the right words to respond. He looked away knowing Travis was right. Perhaps he should stay away from them. He was posing a threat to them. He looked at the others. It wasn’t right for him to put their lives at risk. He looked at Travis. “All right, I’ll stay here. I need a chance to rest anyway.”

  Travis continued to glare at him wondering why he had given in so easily. It wasn’t like him. He knew he was hiding something significant from him. He turned back to the front of the store and looked out again. If they left now, he knew they would have a shot at getting to the ambulance before the zombies had a chance to react to them. “Let’s not waste any more time. The sooner we can get to the ambulance, the sooner we can get out of here.” He looked at Worthy again. “We’re leaving now, so lock the door behind us. You don’t want any of them getting inside with you. And for what it’s worth, I hope whatever is wrong with you doesn’t kill you or turn you into one of those things. We’ll be at the mall. I hope to see you there.” He unlocked the front door and ran out into the street followed by the others.

  Worthy made it to the front door and locked it as fast as he could. He sat down on a chair next to the door and watched as the group made it to the ambulance and got inside it. Soon after, the ambulance left with several slow-moving zombies following behind. He closed his eyes and let himself fall asleep. He awoke several hours later after passing in his sleep. He was now cursed to move inside the candle store alone as one of the walking dead.

  Travis was determined to get around the burning cars and feasting zombies to get to the mall. If they were going to survive, they needed to get there and get supplies. They needed food, water, guns and ammunition. Without them, they wouldn’t be strong enough to keep alive during the zombie outbreak. It was slow moving. Zombies were appearing from burning cars engulfed in flames, they were appearing from nearby businesses, they were appearing from every direction he looked. He did his best to keep them from being permanent hood ornaments, but they weren’t making it easy for them. They were attracted by his moving ambulance, as if they sensed dinner was hidden inside it.

  He soon passed a sign informing them the mall was coming up the road. This was the first time the sign held any meaning for him. Before, it held no significant meaning, but now it meant they would soon find the weapons they needed. He continued to maneuver the ambulance down the road until he finally made it to the mall. He bro
ught the ambulance to a halt and stared at the mall. Getting closer to it looked almost impossible for it was completely surrounded by large hordes of zombies. His heart sank. He feared they weren’t going to be able to get inside to get the things they desperately needed. He slammed his fist on the steering wheel and looked around the ambulance. He was hoping to see something that could help them, but he didn’t see anything that would. There has to be something we can do. We came all this way for nothing? I refuse to believe it. There has to be a way to get inside. He decided the only way they were going to find a way to get into the mall was to drive around it until they found a way to get inside without being attacked by a hundred zombies. It was the only thing they could do. He slowly made his way across the parking lot hoping for the best. If they couldn’t find a safe…he dismissed the thought. There wasn’t any if…they had to find a safe way inside.

  Chapter Twenty

  The mall was cleaned and all the dead bodies had been moved to a secluded area. Brinke and the others were finished cleaning the floors and were now resting as Captain Spanner was trying to get in touch with his superiors with no success. All communications had been cut off from the rest of the world leaving him to believe the zombie outbreak may have spread across the Illinois state line. He felt helpless; he didn’t know what was happening beyond the mall area. He knew more soldiers were being deployed to him, but he didn’t know where they were or how long before they reached him. The only thing he could do was hold the command center and defend it against the growing horde of zombies outside. Brinke interrupted his thoughts. He turned to look at her.