“Jump across!” Tina yelled.
The warehouse was a little bit taller than the store, which gave the other survivors a chance to jump. The distance between them was scary and risky, but it was worth the try.
“No! That’s too dangerous!”
“You can do it! Just come on! You’ll be safer up here!”
The man looks at his wife and she backs up.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Surviving!”
The woman runs to the edge, jumps to the other building, and falls on the hard roof. She was okay, but her knees were bloody and her body hurt. Tina rushes to her aid and helps her up, but the woman was limping.
“I’m okay. That was scary!” she cried.
“You made it. That’s all that matters.”
Her husband was breathing nervously due to his wife’s actions and he decided to make the same risk. He ran up to the edge and jumped, but the impact injured him. He fell on his right leg and broke it. They flinched with fear when they saw his leg bent backward and the sound of his bones breaking made his wife scream.
“Shit!” he screamed.
His wife screamed and ran to him, ignoring her pain. She looked at his leg and held it still while the man struggles to be quiet. His pain was too painful to bear. Chris and Alex held the door closed while the other three men jumped. Two men made it, but the last man tripped over the edge and fell to his death. Tina and the others gasped as they watched him fall. They heard a hard, loud slam to the ground, causing blood to gush everywhere.
“Oh my God!” the woman yelled.
“Chris! Alex! Come on!” Tina yelled.
Chris and Alex struggled to keep the door closed, but Chris made him go,
“Go! I got this!”
“What? No! We go together!”
“I’m not asking!”
Alex nods his head and runs away, jumping to the other building and landing perfectly fine. When he tried to get up, his leg was hurting a little bit.
“You okay?” Tina asked.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
Alex looked up and waited for Chris to come running from the warehouse, but he didn’t show.
“Come on Chris.”
Chris lets go of the door and begin running, but the zombies quickly ran after him. When Chris got to the edge, he jumped, but one of the zombies grabbed him and they both flew across the building.
“Chris!” Alex yelled.
Luckily, Chris landed on top of the zombie, crushing it as Chris rolled off it. Alex helped him up and started checking him to make sure he had no bites.
“I’m good. It didn’t bite me,” Chris said.
“Holy shit!” the man said.
They all looked at the zombie behind them still alive and making a low growl at them. It started to crawl towards them, but Alex pulled out his machete and cut its head off. Chris walked up to Bill and tried to wake him up. Blood kept coming out, which made a bad sign for him. He was losing too much blood.
“Bill?” Chris whispered.
He tried checking for a pulse, but he instantly stopped. He stood there quietly and everyone knew what happened. Bill didn’t make it. Alex and the others stood there, not making a sound as they watched Chris stand over him.
“People were going to die,” Chris said, “But I never knew it would be him.”
“I know his death hurts right now, but we have a bigger problem.”
“What?” Chris asked.
“We’re trapped,” Alex replied.
Chris walked to the edge of the building and gazed at all the zombies surrounding them. Their chances of surviving now had become less possible.
Sam woke up with Jess sleeping next to him, but he moved quietly so he wouldn’t wake her. He quietly moved his shoulder and felt her head slip off him as he stood up and looked down at her. She was sleeping peacefully. More peaceful than he ever seen. He walked outside the room and approached the sunrise. It reminded him of the day he received the tickets for the cruise. How the sun felt then versus now had a different feeling to him. It felt as if the sun had also been affected by the events that tortured him day after day. It felt warm but dark. Alternatively, maybe it was just him. Faith was already up and looking out at the sun just like him.
“Hey,” Sam said.
“Hey.”
“We made it, right?”
“Yeah. Just glad to be alive.”
“Same. We’re going home though, so being alive should be a little less complicated.”
“For you at least.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t supposed to be on this cruise. I snuck on it to get away from my family. This abusive family adopted me and I just couldn’t take it anymore. Every day I wondered if I would live to see the next day. That’s how horrible it was. Then I heard about this cruise. Therefore, I got on the cruise and I was going to settle somewhere else. The Bahamas, but…I knew it was going to be hard to live there. It seems expensive.”
“Yeah.” Sam chuckles.
“But it’s somewhere I knew I would be safe.”
Sam sighed, “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. This experience taught me there is something else far worse to fear.”
Sam’s wound starts to hurt again and he grunts.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Michael walks up to him and sighs. Faith smiles at Sam and walks away.
“How are you?” Michael asked.
“Good. Just ready to go home.” Sam replied.
“That was some crazy shit we got into, huh?”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“See over there?” Michaels pointed in the distance, “That is home.”
Sam gazed at the vivid outline of the city and his heart filled with excitement a little bit on the inside. However, the noticed another boat approaching rapidly towards them.
“Hey. What’s that?” Sam asked.
Michael squinted his eyes, “That’s another boat!”
Michael assumed it was other members who created the virus and he yelled to wake everyone up. Jess and the others woke up but quickly moved when they heard he was yelling. Everyone came out with their weapons and got into cover in case the people on the boat had guns. The boat approached them and it slowed down next to them, suddenly stopping. Michael told everyone to stay down as he got up and approached the boat, but when Michael looked over into the boat, it was empty.
“Come out! Now!” Michael yelled.
“Wait!” a voice screamed from the boat.
Everyone kept their weapons up, but when the people came from the boat, it was a man and his family. They seemed afraid and Michael told everyone to put down their weapons.
Sam didn’t want anything to happen, so he walked forward with Michael to clear things up, “It’s okay! We’re survivors!”
They began to come out and they started to see that what Sam was saying was true. They looked tired and their clothes were dirty and torn. The man smiled with hope in his eyes and he laughed back at his family.
“Thank God sir! We need help!”
“So do we,” Michael replied.
“Where are you coming from?” Sam asked.
“We came from the city. It’s bad out there. The monsters, they killed everyone. We ran out of gas. We stole the boat.”
“It’s that bad out there?” Trace whispered to Faith.
“I guess so.”
Sam realized that the city was swarming with zombies and he was scared to ask any more questions.
“We’re going back to the city! We are survivors of the ship crash.”
“The ship crash?”
“Yes. We have been dealing with the zombies on the island too. We took the boat from the terrorists.”
The man looked at his family and decided to change his mind. The look on his son’s face reminded him that he should try to do what’s best for him, even though it may be the end.
“Can we
come back with you?”
“What? Why? I thought you were leaving?”
The man sobbed and grabbed his son’s leg. When he pulled up his pants, the boy had a bite mark on his leg. Sam gasped and backed away. Michael frowned and stood at the end of the boat.
“No way. He’s bitten! We can’t let you on! Sorry!”
“Please! I know he’s bitten, but we’ll take care of him, but not now.”
“I’m sorry.”
Sam pulled Michael back, “Michael. Come on. It’s already bad enough that they have a son that’s bitten. Let them on. Please?”
Michael looked into the child’s eyes and sighed, “Fine, but take care of him before nightfall.”
“Oh, thank you!”
Sam walked across the boat and helped the people on the boat, but his vision got blurry. Sam shook his head to stay focused, but he suddenly got weak and fell over the boat, falling into the water.
“Sam?” Jess yelled.
Michael jumped into the water and grabbed him. Jess and Faith reached out to him as Michael pushed Sam towards them. They helped him up and laid Sam down. Jess removed Sarah’s shirt from around him and looked at his wound. It had been infected and Michael took immediate action.
“See if there’s a medkit!” he demanded.
They spread out and searched for a medkit while Michael and Jess tried to keep him awake.
“Damn. Why don’t they have a fucking med kit?” Trace yelled.
Faith searched inside one of the rooms and found one inside of a drawer.
“Found one!”
Faith ran and handed Michael the med kit and he started healing Sam’s wound. Jess sits next to him while he helped Sam. Sam was still awake, but he could barely keep his eyes open.
“Is he going to be okay?” Jess asked.
“He should be. We got to him just in time, but he needs rest now.” Michael said.
Jess sighed with relief and rubs his head, “It’s okay now. We’re going home.”
“I don’t know about that lady,” the man replied.
“What are you talking about?” Michael asked.
“All of the states have been attacked by this group who released the virus. I’m pretty sure you already know that because of the boat and island situation. The cities you think you’re going to is no more.”
Jess looks at everyone and they all looked frightened. They hoped that the city would be safe. No matter what they heard, they wanted to believe that the city could be saved, but they were frightened that they are not yet through with survival. The island was just the start.
CHAPTER NINE
TRAPPED PART 2
Sam woke up to screaming. He jumped up and looked around him. He was inside of a room with others who appeared to be injured. They were screaming in pain and others were asleep, but Sam wondered how they could sleep during all of this, but he first tried to figure out where he was. When he looked more closely, he knew he was inside of a house and the living room was set up like a medical center. He tried to get up, but one man came in and ran to him,
“Whoa, Sam. You sure you want to do that?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Where am I. Where're the others?”
“Relax. Their alive and well.”
Sam exhaled loudly and stood up, feeling better than he did before. He rubbed his wound and felt no pain, but he had no idea what happened. Sam walked outside and gasped as he looked at what the city had become. The sky filled with smoke, but not the red smoke from the virus, and there were gunshots heard all around. The world was dead and Sam knew what was happening. The neighborhood was big with many houses around. The gates were covered with huge wooden boards and there was constructed posts around each corner of the gates. The people were looking as if they’ve been living this life forever. Some were behaving as if they were having a mental breakdown of the whole situation. Others were keeping watch over the gate to make sure no zombies were close enough to them. Upon walking, he ran into Jess and David. He smiles as he yelled at them,
“Jess!”
She turned around and ran to him.
“Hey!”
She hugs him tight.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah. What’s going on?”
“We’re in a neighborhood. People around here immediately started boarding up the gates and others…well…they left. We have one person that came up with the idea, but he left the gates with others to look for more supplies. Sam, in just an amount of days this city has literally gone to shit. The televisions and power in the houses are still working, but all the stations are down. They say the terrorists are at war with us.”
“How many of them are there?”
“A lot! They were everywhere. In the white house, pentagon, people who controlled government, military. They made sure we had nothing to fall back on. That way they could kill us as fast as they could.”
Sam automatically thinks about Tina, thinking about what could have possibly happened to her. Wondering if she’s still alive or not. He had to find her.
“Come with me!” he said.
“What are you talking about?”
“Come with me to find my mother. I have to go back home. It’s not that far from here.”
“Sam, you just woke up. Don’t risk your life going out there. It’s worse than the island.”
“I’ll go,” David said.
Sam nods his head, “Okay, but we need more people.”
“Need more people for what?” Faith asked.
“Hey, Faith,” Sam said.
“Hey, you’re finally up. What are you guys doing?”
“I’m going to find my mother and I need help.”
“Well I’m going with you then,” she said.
Sam walks up to Jess and grabs her hand, “Please come with me.”
Jess looks at him and exhaled, “Fine, but there and back, okay?”
“Alright.”
“Well, we better get going. They have a tent filled with supplies and weapons. We need to head there first before we head out.” Jess says.
Many people ran to the front of the camp towards the gate, where a man was seen dangling on the gate, holding on to something on the other side. Sam looks at the man and runs to help him.
“Sam!” Jess yells.
Everyone started screaming and yelling, but the man wouldn’t let go of something. Sam arrives and starts climbing up the post. While climbing, he hears the man screaming,
“Don’t let go! I got you!”
Sam automatically knew he was holding on to someone and he hurried up the post, but when he looked over to help, his heart was beating hard. It was Chris on the other side and Alex was the one holding his hand trying to pull him up. Chris looked up at Sam crying,
“Help me!” he yelled.
Sam reached his hand out to him, “Grab my hand!”
“Come on Chris!” Alex yelled.
He nearly grabbed his hand, but one of the zombies grabbed his leg and pulled him down with them. Alex struggles to hold on and his hand slipped from his grasp. Chris fell into the horde and screamed loudly as the zombies devoured him, but he disappeared into the horde. All they heard was his scream and all they saw were the zombies tossing around blood and gore. Alex yelled and cried when Chris fell, but Sam zoned out, imagining everything that has happened to him and why he always seems to experience loss. He gets inside the gate and pulls Alex away from the sight of Chris dying. Alex screams and fights back with Sam, blaming himself for what happened to Chris.
“It’s my fault! This is all my fault!” he shouts.
Sam continues to carry him away from the gate, but Sam finally puts him down. Alex falls to the ground and lays there, crying aloud and screaming. Jess and the other survivors circled around him, but some other people came and carried him away. Alex stopped crying, but he didn’t move as if he was already dead. Sam looked back at the gate and heard the infected scratching at the gate trying to get in. He smacks his lips and turns a
round,
“Damn!”
“What?” Jess asked.
“The zombies. They’re at the gate. We can’t go now.”
Z Island Series (Book 1): Escape From Z Island Page 13