Z Island Series (Book 1): Escape From Z Island

by Osborne, Terrence Jr.

  “Go!” David yells.

  Sam stood up and started running back to their safe spot. The infected threw the rabbit down and screeched in the air. Once it did that, many other infected came running around it and they all ran after Sam and David. While running, Sam had seen a big stick and grabbed it. He looked behind him to see if he could handle them, but there was too many to handle. There were at least eight of them and that was one too many for any of them to fight.

  “Where do we go?” Sam asked.

  “Not towards the camp. It’s too dangerous!”

  They kept running and got close to the safe spot, but Sam knew they needed help.

  “Mike! Sarah!”

  Sarah heard Sam yell and ran outside. Mike walked up behind her and they both had seen Sam running towards them. Mike grunts and goes back inside to get his weapon while Sarah just stared. She didn’t know what to do. Her heart was pounding out of her chest and the sound of her heartbeat was the only thing she heard. The sound of Sam yelling finally got through her heartbeat and she looked up at the infected. They were coming rapidly and she acted quickly. She grabbed a rock near her and she threw it at one of the infected, hitting it on the head and made it tumble down, which makes most of the infected fall also. One ran up to Mike, but he sliced the top of its head off. Sam grabbed his stick, swung the stick, and hit the infected on its head. Sarah grabbed another rock and hit the infected on their heads. The last infected ran after them, but Mike killed it. They all were panting hard and they looked around at all the infected.

  “I’ll tell you what; there is no way I’m picking up any of those bodies!” David groans.

  David slammed the infected on top of the rest of the other ones but nearly threw up because of all the blood. Not everyone except Mike was okay with the smell or anything in that manner. They piled up the bodies behind the safe spot uphill. Sam looked around for any more infected, but the area was clear.

  “I can’t believe any of this is happening. What did they do?” David asked.

  “Or how they did it.” Sam murmurs.

  “What?”

  “What the hell is it? We know it’s a virus, but you know…what is it?”

  “That, I don’t know,” David replied.

  Mike looked at all the bodies and walked away. Sam looked at him and knew he was troubled. When the time comes, it was him over us, but that applies to everyone, including Sam. It was a ‘strongest survive’ type world now and Sam wanted to be one of the strong ones. They headed back to the cave and Sam looked back at the pile of infected one last time.

  In the cave, they are all looking tired and dead in the face. Their stomachs cried aloud for food and their tongue felt like dry sand. Trying to survive was harder than ever now, but they at least knew there was another life on the island besides them and the infected. The moon had shined through the trees, placing little white spots on the island ground, but in the cave, there remained darkness.

  Sam woke up and looked around the cave, but he could not see anything. The cave was pure black. It was also quiet. Sam didn’t hear anyone breathing, and usually, Mike would be snoring, but this scared him.

  “Sarah?” Sam tapped on side of him where she slept. Instead, he tapped solid, cold rock. Sam jumped and his heart started to hurt, but suddenly he heard something coming from the other side of the cave. Sam stared into the darkness trying to figure out what that noise was, but an infected jumped out and attacked him. Sam held it back, but it was too strong for him. The infected bit his arm and snatched the flesh from it. When he looked into the eyes, he noticed it was Sarah.

  Sam jumped up and exhaled loudly. He started panicking, but he quickly felt for a bite, but there was none. It was a dream, but it felt so real. Sarah woke up next to him in shock.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I’m fine. I’m going back to sleep okay?”

  “Alright.”

  Sam lays down and closes his eyes, trying to forget about the dream, but every second it haunted him until he finally fell asleep.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SURVIVAL

  The next morning, David stands next to the woman’s old pile of ashes. Sam wakes up and sees that the blockade was open and looks at the group. He notices that David is missing and goes outside to confront him.

  “You okay?”

  “What did we do to deserve this? I mean, I know they always mention the ‘wrong place wrong time’ scenario, but sometimes I really question it.”

  “Anything could have happened to us yesterday and anything could happen to us today, but we experience these things so we can learn from it. Not all of them are going to be good though,” Sam says.

  “I burned her body so she won’t have to be here anymore. I mean physically. She would have become one of them. I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. At least we know how to tell if someone is infected.”

  Sam flashbacks to the ship when he notices the letter ‘Z’ on the containers. “Z.”

  “What?”

  “The letter ‘Z’ was on those containers the terrorists had.”

  “What does ‘Z’ mean?”

  “I have no idea. I’m pretty sure one of them survived the wreck.”

  “That’s one hell of a probability.”

  “It is, but it’s an option to think about.”

  “Yeah. What do you plan on doing if we find one of them?”

  “We’re going to start asking some questions.”

  “And if they refuse?”

  “We kill them.”

  Sarah walks out of the cave and yawns.

  “Shit, I forgot we were here for a minute,” she laughs.

  “Yeah, me too. We need to figure out what are we going to eat while we’re out here,” Sam said.

  “Well, we won’t have to worry about that anymore,” David moves out of the way and shows them three rabbits, “We’re going to have to share.”

  Sam and Sarah smile, but Sam began to wonder, “Wait. When did you get this?”

  “This morning, why?”

  “I could have gone with you. It’s dangerous out here now.”

  “I had it. Trust me, I can take care of myself.”

  “I know, but I think it would be safer and wiser to have a partner with you next time.”

  “Alright. Well, let’s eat.”

  Moments later, they are all enjoying the rabbit, but Sam never ate a rabbit before, so it was somewhat disgusting to him.

  “You’ll get used to it.” Sarah smiles.

  “I know I will. I don’t have a choice.”

  David finishes and stands up, “So, that felt good to my stomach. Let’s go get some more!”

  “Hold on David. We need to wait. Let that food sit in for a while. Moreover, we need water too. There has to be some kind of waterfall here. As big as this island is.”

  “Glad you said that. I need you to come with me to look for more.”

  “Now you ask!” Sam joked.

  “Yeah. We need this stuff. And I want to kind of stay in this cave until we figure some way of getting off this island.”

  “Alright, but we’ll do it later.”

  Two hours later, Mike and Mellissa are sleeping and Sam and David are getting ready to leave.

  “Ready?” David asked.

  “Yeah. One second.”

  Sam looks at Sarah, “I need you to keep a lookout for the infected and please, don’t kick Mike’s ass.” he laughs.

  “Yeah. I got it,” she responds.

  “Ok, let’s go.”

  David finishes setting up the fireplace, “Well, the fire is set up, but we have to wait until we can find something easier to skin those rabbits with. Damn, I forgot about that.”

  “We can use Mike’s weapon. That could cut them open.” Sam suggested.

  Sarah walks into the cave and grabs Mike’s weapon while he was still sleeping. She then walks out of the cave and heads the weapon to Sam. “Go find some water and clean it. We don’t want to be infected
.”

  “Yeah,” Sam said as he grabbed the weapon from Sarah.

  “Alright, let’s go.” Sam gives David his weapon.

  Sam and David head out to find food and water while Sarah stayed behind and looked out for infected. Sarah stares at the dead rabbits and sighs, “Poor rabbits. You died for a noble cause.”

  While walking, Sam looked around nervously and listened for anything. There was complete silence and an unknown feeling settled inside Sam.

  “This is too quiet,” Sam said. “Where are they?”

  “They may be wandering around the island somewhere. No telling how big this island really is. They may be there.”

  “I’m not complaining.”

  David looks unsettled but forces himself to seem calm about the situation. He observes the scenery to remind him of the beauty of nature and life, but they ran across a pool of blood flowing from a dead body that erased all of David’s feelings.

  “Jesus!” David gagged.

  “Well, they’re near. We know that much. Come on, let’s keep moving.”

  “There’s more than one though, right?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Look at the body. It’s barely noticeable.”

  Sam looked at the body and disgusted himself. The body was covered in blood and there was gore all around it.

  “Well, that’s a better reason to keep going. Come on.”

  David walks away, but that image of that body remained trapped in his mind as a constant reminder of what’s out there. The infected were getting larger by the numbers, which put a question into David’s mind. How many infected were there?

  Sarah sits down against the rock outside and stares at the fire. Melissa wakes up and screams loudly. Sarah jumps and runs into the cave.

  “Melissa, what’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I’m so sorry. I had a nightmare. I want to go home,” Melissa starts crying, but Mike wakes up and slaps her.

  “Shut the fuck up before they hear us!”

  “Hey!” Sarah yells.

  “What! You going to twist my arm again?”

  “Leave her alone. She has enough to deal with as is.”

  Melissa gets up and walks towards Sarah and they both walk outside. Sarah looks back at Mike and rolls her eyes.

  “Why are you still with him?”

  “He threatens me a lot. You didn’t know him back at home. He was a lot more violent. He will hurt you. That’s why I run. To protect me…as well as others.”

  “Well, we’re not at home. So that means he will not be messing with you anymore as long as I’m here, okay?”

  “You can’t promise that.”

  “I’ll try.”

  Melissa nods and looks at Mike staring at her with a deep and dark expression on his face. He smirks and looks down. Before Sarah and Melissa walked back to the cave, a scream roars through the forest, which causes Sarah and Melissa to panic.

  “What was that?” Melissa asked.

  “They’re close.” Sarah murmurs.

  Sam and David also heard the screams around them. They both paused and made no sudden movements. Sam then looked at David with uncertainty,

  “We have to go back.”

  “Are you sure it’s that way?”

  “I don’t know, but we have to get there and get in the cave. I’d rather go there than face them out here.”

  Sam and David start running to save the group, but it was too late. Sarah rushes Melissa into the cave and asks her help to put the blockade up, “Help me!”

  Melissa and Sarah grab the sides of the sticks and lifts it up to block it, but the infected were closing in. They barely managed to put it up in time before the infected came running around the corner. There were five of them and they stopped moving right in front of the cave. Melissa starts to cry, but Sarah holds her and covers her mouth.

  “Shh,” Sarah says very quietly.

  The infected walked slowly around, making very low growls as they crept around the area. They listened for any sounds of movement. The sticks were able to block the sight of them, but they didn’t leave and there were parts of the area that they could see inside. One infected walked in front of the sticks and screeched inside of the cave, but they kept calm. Melissa was freaking out heavily on the inside, but Sarah looked at her to make sure she wouldn’t cry out loud. Sarah noticed what was happening. This was a way to bypass the infected. If they were quiet, they were going to be fine. Mike looks around and starts moving a little too much.

  “Shit!” Mike said in a low tone.

  Meanwhile, Sam and David comes up to the cave, but Sam pulls David back and points,

  “Look. They’re already here.” Sam whispers.

  “What are we going to do then?”

  “We have to distract them from the group.”

  David looks at Sam puzzled, “Are you crazy?”

  “That’s the only way. I’ll do it, but you should stay here. We can’t risk the both of us being spotted.”

  David exhales and nods his head, “Okay.”

  Sam sneaks around the cave and starts creeping to the other side. The infected still lurked around the cave, but they stopped making noise. Mike, being the ignorant person he is, stands up and walks quietly to the front, but Sarah tries to stop him by grabbing his arm. Mike snatches away from Sarah and peeks through an opening through the sticks. The infected were still wandering around and two of the infected were eating the rabbits.

  “Damn,” Mike said.

  Mike’s response triggered one of the infected and it runs up to the blockage and starts punching through it, making noise and attracting the others.

  “Shit!” Mike starts shoving the blockade back to prevent them from getting in and Sarah helps. Melissa stays behind crying, covering her ears and wishing they would go away. Sam comes around the corner and yells at the infected to get their attention.

  “Hey!” Sam yelled.

  The infected looks at him, but only two runs after him. David takes that as an opportunity to help, but he hears rapid footsteps approaching behind him. He doesn’t turn around fast enough before one of the infected charges after him and bites at his arm. David manages to jerk away from it, but it kept coming back at him. David puts his stick in its mouth, throws it around, and jumps on top of it. David grabs it by the neck and stabs it in the head. David falls next to it, breathing heavily and stares at the sky as if he has nothing else to lose.

  The infected starts running after Sam and he leads them away from the group.

  “David!” Sam yells and snaps David out from his ‘daydream’.

  David jumps up and runs to Sam, “What do we do?”

  “Run!” Sam runs past David and he sees the infected behind him, so he runs along Sam.

  Mike kicks down the blockade and runs outside.

  “They’re gone.”

  The group walked outside and noticed how quiet it had gotten again. Sarah, on the other hand, is the only one that happens to be panicking,

  “Where’s Sam?”

  Mike walks up to Sarah with no compassion and yells at her, “Where is my weapon!”

  “I gave it to Sam while you were sleep. I didn’t know-”

  “Do you know how idiotic that was? Giving my weapon up without my consent.”

  “Well we were going to be alone and they were going to be out there with nothing to defend themselves with, and I think you of all people shouldn’t be left alone with her.”

  “This has nothing to do with her!”

  Melissa turns around while they were arguing and her eyes widen with fear and points, “We have to go! There’s more of them coming!”

  More infected starts running towards them and they started running away from the infected. They were quicker than last time, and Sarah makes note of that in her mind as she continues running. There were two infected running behind them and Mike runs past a rock, but quickly turns around and grabs it.

  When the infected got close enough, Mike hits th
e infected across the head. The other infected knocks him down and causes him to drop the rock. He starts wrestling with the infected, “Fuck…you,” he grunts. Sarah picks up the rock and hits it across the head, making the infected fly off Mike. Sarah stands over it and starts beating its head in. Blood starts splattering everywhere and Mike watches Sarah braveness and gives that view a long thought. She wasn’t scared of them, so that told him she wasn’t scared of him.

  “We need to keep going. I’m pretty sure more are coming,” Sarah tells them, but they quickly noticed that Melissa is gone.

  “Where’s Melissa?” Sarah asked.

  “Melissa!” Mike yelled.

  They hear a distant scream nearby that sounds like Melissa.

  “It came from over there,” Sarah pointed behind Mike.

  Mike runs ahead of Sarah to find Melissa, but she stops screaming, which throws off his concentration on finding her.

  “Melissa!” he yells again.

  Melissa screams again, but she was even closer this time. When Mike runs around the bushes, he sees two infected surrounding Melissa on a big rock. Melissa glimpsed at Mike and yells for his help.

  “Mike! Help me!” she yells. Mike and Sarah run to the two infected and Mike slams its head against the rock until it died while Sarah does the same thing.

  “Ugh! Get your ass down here,” he yells.

  Melissa reaches for his hand, but he grabs her arm and slangs her down from the rock, making her fall hard to the ground. Sarah shouts at him but he pushes her down.

  “Both of you will follow me from now on. Got that?”

  “No! I’m not doing shit you say, and neither is she!” Sarah screamed. Sarah grabs another rock behind her cautiously so Mike can’t see her.