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

by Osborne, Terrence Jr.

  “Did you know that person?”

  “No, but I should go see him. To pay my respects.”

  “Why?” Faith asks.

  “Because it’s right and I was there when it happened.”

  Minutes later, Sam walked into the house where the injured were being held at. He looked at some people suffering on the mattresses. The room wasn’t big enough for beds so they made the best of the situations. One man’s face was burned on one side and it caused a trail of baldness to swirl around his head. Sam looked for Alex and he found him being treated by a nurse and approached him. Jess and the others walked behind him.

  “What happened?” Sam questioned.

  The nurse finished stitching his wound, which was a medium-sized cut, and patted his back, “You’re good.”

  “Thanks,” he replied.

  “I’m sorry for what happened, I just-”

  “A lot of things happened. I don’t know if you’ve been through the thing I have been through, but it is all not pretty.”

  “What?”

  “My group. We were trapped on the roof of a store and things got ugly.”

  Hours ago, Alex and Chris looks around the building and seen many zombies surrounding them. They had to come up with a plan before more show up. Alex looks around and spots a truck nearby, but the people who were driving the truck were being eaten near it.

  “Shit!” Alex murmurs.

  “What are we going to do?” Tina says.

  Chris looks for a gap to get to the truck, but there was no way to get to it without engaging the zombies. Everyone tries to come up with a plan, but no one knows what to do. Chris finally gets an idea, but it wasn’t good.

  “Bill,” he whispers.

  “What?” Alex asked.

  “We use Bill. He’s already dead, so he could buy us some time.”

  “Are you crazy? We’re not using him!” Alex argued.

  “This is the only way! It’s either that or we sit here. Your choice.”

  Tina hates to agree, but she knew there was no other way, “I agree.”

  Alex looks at her with disagreement. However, Tina didn’t care, “It’s the only way, Alex.”

  “He was your friend. How could you be alright with this?”

  “I’m not, but…it’s the only way. I don’t know what else to do. This is hard for me, but he would want us to do whatever it takes to survive!”

  The others agree to the plan, but Alex continued to dislike it, “You cry over this man just to use him as bait! How are you going to live with yourself?”

  “By making sure I survive,” Chris replies.

  “Perfect!” Alex laughed sarcastically.

  Chris looks for the perfect spot to throw the body and he finds a gap on the side of the building.

  “Okay, we drop him there,” he points, “And then I will run for that truck. The people of the truck are dead, so the keys should still be in there.”

  Everyone agrees and pick up Bill’s body. Alex stands back, watches them carry the body to the edge of the building, and tossed it in the middle of the horde. The zombies start eating the body while attracting the others to run toward Bill’s body.

  “Oh my God!” Tina groans.

  “That’s horrible,” Alex said.

  Chris prepares to run for the truck and exhales. His breathing got heavy, but he tried to calm himself down. The zombies were swarming everywhere and fear struck Chris for a slight second. He continued to inhale and exhale as he watched an opening form itself. Many zombies moved out of the way and left an open gap.

  “Give me your ax.”

  Chris grabbed Tina’s ax and looked over the edge.

  “Here goes nothing.”

  Chris jumped down and ran for the truck while killing a few zombies in his way, but the ones in front of the truck gave him a problem. He tries to run around them, but they plunged at him, causing him to run away from the truck.

  “What’s going on? What is he doing?” Tina asked.

  “Don’t worry. He’s fine.”

  Alex and the others watched him with anxiety as he dodged the zombies and jumped in the truck. One zombie came after him, but he slammed the door, smashing its head between the door and the body of the car. The zombie’s brain and blood slipped off the car door and he kicks the zombie out and closes the door. Many zombies pile up around the car, but most of them were still focused on Bill.

  “Good! He made it!” Alex sighs.

  The rest of the group gets excited as Chris finds the keys and ignites the truck. The zombies tried to climb in the back of the truck, but Chris slams his foot on the pedal and drove away from them. He made a big circle around them and headed back towards the store.

  The radio sounds,

  Okay. It’s time. I’m going to run over most of them and that’ll give you guys enough time to get to me. Alex, you and Tina will jump down first and get in the front and then I will come around again to get the others. They will jump on the back of the truck. Got it?

  Alex grabs the radio and responds, “Alright. We’ll be ready.”

  Alex looks for another way down and luckily, he found a ladder on side of the store.

  “Okay, you heard the plan. Me and Tina then you guys. Alright? We will go down using that ladder.” Alex explains.

  Chris drives to the store and runs over a lot of the zombies, splatting bodies and blood everywhere. Alex and Tina jump down and falls on a couple of dead zombies. Chris stops the truck and yells for them to hurry up. Alex opens the door and hops inside, but Tina had a delay. The zombies started running towards her, tripping over the other dead zombies, but still coming after her at a fast pace. One of the zombies nearly catches her, but she managed to get inside of the truck just in time. Chris drives away and turns around to head back to the rest of the group. The others get ready to start climbing, but the wife worried about her husband. She knew he was going to be slow and she knew what was going to happen if he wasn’t quick enough.

  “What are we going to do about my husband!?”

  One of the survivors responded, “Lady. You better hope he can run fast with a broken leg. You see what’s out there! He has to be quick!”

  “I can do it!” the husband yelled, “I got this.”

  The man watched for Chris to pull up and he got them ready to move. Chris drove towards the building, ran over the zombies, and backed up against the ladder on the building. The survivors climbed down the ladder and hopped in the truck. The husband climbed down slowly, but his leg was in so much pain. He grunted each time he stepped down and his wife was above him.

  “Come on baby. You got this.”

  The others fought off the zombies while the husband took his time coming down.

  “Hurry up!” Chris yelled out of the truck.

  The husband finally got on the truck and the wife came fast behind him. One zombie reached over the truck for them, but they kicked at the zombie and stood close towards the center. The man hit the back window of the truck signaling Chris to go. Chris took off and they headed away from the store and the zombies. They tried to run at them fast, but Chris drove a great distance between them.

  “Yes! It worked!” the man cheered in the back of the truck.

  Alex exhales and laughs, “We made it you guys!”

  Chris and Tina start laughing along with him as they drove off in the streets. A couple of minutes later, Chris looks tired from the crazy day they’ve had and he pulled over.

  “What’s wrong?” Tina asked.

  “Hey why did we stop?” one of the survivors in the back asked.

  “Just…give me a second,” Chris replies.

  “Man, we don’t have a second. Let’s go!” the man shouted.

  Alex looks back, “Hey! Keep your voice down!” he whispered.

  The man smacks his lips and sits down in the back of the truck. Chris puts his head down and gives himself some time to settle down from driving. It was a rough day for all of them and Chris only wanted to relax
for once. The man in the back, however, kept complaining to himself,

  “Can we go now?”

  “Okay fine,” Chris agrees.

  Chris cranks the truck and starts driving again. Alex and Tina look at each other and starts smiling.

  “We made it!” Tina says.

  “Yeah, we did.”

  “Finally!” the man said, “It’s about time you-”

  A bullet shoots through the man’s head and makes him tumble off the truck. Everyone screamed with terror, but Chris and the others don’t know what just happened. The woman and her husband ducked down in the back of the truck and covered their mouths from screaming and making too much noise.

  “What the hell was that?” Tina yelled.

  Chris looked to the side and noticed a flash appear as if a gun was pointing right at them. Alex covered Tina as she leans down in the seat, the front tire blows out, Chris swerved to keep the truck balanced, but the other back tire busted and Chris lost control of the truck. The truck flipped over and the woman and her husband flew off the back of the truck. Chris and the others were passed out inside, but Chris suddenly woke up. When he looked around, he noticed they were upside down and Tina and Alex were unconscious. Tina’s head was bleeding from the head, but it was minor, while Alex had a big cut on his back. Chris struggles to move and he looks outside, but no one was there. He looked around to make sure no one was around to kill them or any zombies. Tina began to wake up,

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “We have to get out of here. Now.”

  Chris looked out of the truck as Alex began to wake up and noticed zombies screeching and running towards them. Chris yelled at Tina to get up, but the zombie dived at Chris inside of the truck. Chris grabbed the zombie’s head and shoved it back. The zombie continued to charge at him, but blood splattered over Chris’s face and the zombie falls next to him. A couple of men starts coming towards them with guns. Alex makes a loud groan, but Tina forced him to be quiet.

  “Get out the truck quietly and quickly,” Chris demanded.

  Alex got up and grabbed the door handle weakly. He tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t open.

  “It’s not opening!” he whispered.

  Chris frowned and looked back at the men. The men were getting closer and closer to them.

  “Just go. Hit the door. They’re coming!”

  Alex hits the door with his shoulder with massive force and finally opens the door. The men heard the noise and started running towards the truck. While climbing out, Alex gasped at the sight of one of the survivors dead. The truck had smashed his head. The others laid around the street, some with blood flowing out of their heads. One, however, seemed to be alive. The woman woke up crying aloud, alerting the men to go her direction instead of the truck. Chris looks at the men as they stood over the woman’s crying body and ended her life with a single pull. Chris and the others ran into the woods as soon as they had the chance.

  “Hey!” one of the men shouted.

  “Keep going! We’re almost there!” Chris shouted.

  They continued running through the woods, but the three men followed them and shot at them. Tina screamed as they dodged the bullets, but by the second, the bullets got closer to them.

  “Go!” Chris screamed.

  While running, Alex notices zombies approaching from different sides, but he didn’t say anything. He panicked and ran faster, reaching for Chris and Tina. Tina looked behind her and grabbed Alex’s hand. He struggled to run fast, but he tried anyway. The three men noticed the zombies and focused their fire on them instead of Alex and the others.

  “Shoot those sons of bitches!” one man shouted.

  The opened fire on the zombies, but one of the men ran out of bullets. While shooting, the man saw other zombies jump up from the ground, but many started appearing from the ground also. The men thought they were dead, but they didn’t know how the zombies behave.

  “They’re everywhere!”

  One zombie tackled the man to the ground and bit him on the neck, tearing the flesh off him and devouring it into its mouth. The other two men were shocked at their partner being eaten, so one man decided to leave his partner.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” the man shouted.

  The man ignored him and ran. He didn’t want to die and if sacrificing someone means he could survive, then he would do it. The other man turned around and shot at the zombies, but there was too many. They surrounded him and ate him alive. The other man turned around and noticed what he had done. His partner’s scream terrified him, but he couldn’t get over it. He kept shooting at the zombies, but they caused him to shoot blankly in the air. The man started to get weak in his legs and, but he ignored it. Alex and the others finally made it to the other side of the woods and spotted the neighborhood, which was about a mile away from them.

  “There it is. We’re almost there.” Alex sighed.

  Tina saw lights in the far distance, “Wait. Look.”

  She pointed in the area with a curious look on her face, “The place looks secure.”

  “Hopefully they have boats. I know you wanted to go see if you could find your son,” Alex replied.

  “I don’t know if he’s still alive. There is a slight chance he may even be alive.” She stares out at the neighborhood, “I’m staying in the neighborhood.”

  “You sure? I mean, don’t you want to know what happened to your son?”

  “Yes, but…I can’t keep going on like this. The ship crashed Alex. That means he’s probably stranded in the ocean somewhere. He’s probably dead now if he did survive.”

  “I don’t want you to go on like this. Thinking every second of every day about whether your son is alive. You must have some kind of answer, no matter if it’s good or bad. This could drive you insane. Then you’re going to be regretting your decision later on.”

  Tina looked at Alex proudly. She knew she wanted to go search for Sam, but she didn’t want to know the answer to the burning question that ran through her mind. Alex provided a safe answer for her, and it was even clearer now than it was before.

  “Ok.” She replied.

  They headed out to a home to rest for a minute. When they arrived at the house, it was messy. There was trash everywhere and glasses were broken. Tina walked and stepped on a picture. When she lifted her foot, it was a picture of a father and a mother holding their newborn baby. They looked so happy in the picture, but it was devastating to know that they aren’t smiling now.

  “Damn, they weren’t playing,” Chris said.

  Alex closed the door and he walked around closing the blinds in every room. Tina walks around and observes the house, but she quickly glances at another one of the family pictures on the wall.

  “They forgot their family photo,” she takes it off the wall, “they looked so happy.”

  Tina stared longer at the picture and thought about her family. Chris came behind her and tapped on her shoulder,

  “Hey, you okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine,” she puts the picture back on the wall.

  Alex walks back into the room, “Okay, we rest here for a couple of minutes and then we have to go.” He explains.

  As they sit down on the couches, they heard the back-window break. Alex and Chris jumped up, but Tina stays behind. Chris runs through the kitchen, looks at the door, but it was open, and no one was there.

  “Somebody’s in here.” Alex murmured.

  “Alex!” Tina yells in the living room.

  They run in the living room, but when they ran around the corner, a man was holding Tina with a gun to her head. It was one of the three men.

  “Stop right there!” he yelled.

  “Let her go!” Chris shouted.

  They both pointed their gun towards him, but he backed up and pushed the gun against her head. Alex stared into the man’s eyes with full hatred. He wanted to kill him right there at that moment, but that would mean Tina could die and he didn’t want that.

>   “I’m going to leave…with her. You or your little friend there will not come after me or she gets the bullet. Got it?”

  Alex held the gun up pointing to the man’s head, but Chris puts down his gun,

  “Okay,” he drops the gun to the ground, “Alex, put the gun down.”

  Alex continued to keep the gun up and the man squeezed the trigger lightly.

  “Put the gun down!” Chris screamed.