“You’ll be undercover and gather information for me so that we can keep our country safe. Can you do that?”
“Certainly, sir,” Mike responded enthusiastically.
“Wonderful. Meet me at my office after dinner tonight. Now, I’ve got to stop the bombing of all our important cities.”
“Yes, sir.”
I took a deep breath and went in to fight for the lives of our living citizens.
Brad
The last few miles to Jackson Mountain were always the longest because I was ready to be home again. This time was worse because it’d been several weeks since I’d seen Emma and my baby boy, Pierce.
I stepped over the trampled down fence that was in dire need of repair. The infected didn’t follow me, but I’d need to send someone out to take care of it once I knew the family was safe.
The brush was thick, since this wasn’t a part of the mountain that many people came to, even when we had to defend it.
I heard a branch break, but knew that anyone that had lived on the mountain wouldn’t make that kind of mistake.
Ducking behind a large tree, I was counting on my camo uniform, making whoever was out there continue walking.
“Come out. I saw you come over the fence. The rest of the patrol will be here shortly,” a familiar female voice warned.
“Don’t shoot. You might not like me with holes, darling.” I added a little drawl to my voice as I held my hands up in a gesture of surrender.
“Brad? Is that you?” Emma let her rifle drop, swinging back into place across her body.
I could feel the grin as it spread across my face. Holding out my arms, I thought I’d been prepared for a hug, but Emma’s flying leap knocked me over and we both landed on the ground.
“Emma, you’re not supposed to attack intruders,” Cole chuckled as he stood there watching me try to get my breath back.
“We’ve been training her as an attack dog. I think she has great potential, don’t you?” Dawson spoke from his perch, leaning against a tree.
“Down, Emma, let the poor boy breathe.” Cole ambled over to offer a hand to her as she rolled off of me, not that I minded really.
“I tell you to go to the mountain where it’s safe, and then these two hoodlums start training you?” I took the offered hand that Cole held out. “Although, I’d assumed that I would be able to sneak in and make it all the way to the house before I was discovered.”
“Good thing we have well taught people because we already found your diversion.” Dawson picked up the pack that I’d dropped when my wife tackled me.
“Sorry. I had to know if things were being looked after properly.”
Emma slapped the back of my head.
“Ow! What was that for?” I yelled.
“For being stupid. Of course they’re looking after things properly,” Emma scoffed.
“Boys, what did you do to my wife? This is not the woman that was afraid of guns, and only comfortable in a city atmosphere just a few weeks ago.” I took in the camo fatigues and the way she held her weapon. It showed that she had certainly changed in the short time I’d been gone.
The radio crackled softly. “Cole, we have intruders on the south side. There’s a truck approaching with about ten people in the back. Looks like they’re headed toward our gate. What should we do?”
Cole lifted the radio to answer Allen, but I interrupted. “Cole, they’re part of our group. Patti and I brought a few extras home with us.”
Cole sighed. “Allen, hold them at the gate and we’ll be right there.”
Emma let go of me and walked back toward where Dawson was standing.
“What? Just because you arrived doesn’t mean I can abandon my post.” She gave me a look for being dumb.
“Hey, Emma, go ahead with Cole and Brad. I’ve got this.” Dawson shot a glance toward me.
He was taking his normal shift, and Emma had been along for training. I appreciated that the guys hadn’t just sent her out to keep watch all by herself.
“If you’re sure. I can take an extra shift tomorrow to make up for it,” Emma offered, standing between us.
“I brought a few extras with me that can help take a few shifts so you won’t have to do it anymore,” I informed her, holding out my hand.
“That’s it. I’m staying, Dawson.” Emma spun around and started walking fast to catch up to Dawson, who was now walking in the opposite direction of the gate.
“Emma.” Cole’s voice stopped her before she’d gone five feet. “Ignore your jackass husband for a minute and come with us. You can make up with him later, but I need you to see what he’s brought us.”
My wife completely amazed me, because she turned and walked over to Cole without a word of argument.
Shutting my open mouth, I followed behind the two of them and wondered what else I’d missed being gone the past few weeks.
The truck waiting at the gate held ten people, and I knew that there would have to be good reason for them to be allowed into Jackson Mountain. While the clan believed in being very charitable, they also didn’t want to stretch our resources too thin during the trials ahead.
My second cousin, Patti, hopped out of the back of the truck with her gun in the safety position. “Cole, tell these overzealous yahoos to let us through the gate. We’ve traveled hours to get here, and I’m not going to let them die now that we’ve made it to a safe place.”
Patti’s small frame didn’t keep her from coming to a stop in front of Cole, and I smiled at the no arguments stance she took to make her point. There was a reason that she was an Army Corporal.
I watched as Cole simply ignored her and engulfed her in a hug. “Not exactly the hello I was expecting from a person I had no idea was alive until a few minutes ago.”
“So are we letting these people in just because she says so?” Clayton interrupted a very welcome homecoming.
“That’s not the way you talk to your commanding officers, Clayton. She has more seniority than you do, even if she hasn’t been here the whole time.” I couldn’t let his attitude continue, and had no idea how Cole put up with his crap all the time.
I received a scowl for my effort. Not engaging Clayton further, I walked over to the gate and popped the lock open to pull the chain off the pole. No one made a sound as I lifted the corner up and walked the gate across the dusty driveway, leaving it open so that the truck could make its way through.
Emma was standing to the side with a smile on her face, watching me put Clayton in his place as I waved the truck through. Stacy, Doug’s sister, was driving, and started the truck forward gently so that the other people sitting in the back weren’t jerked around.
“How do we know they’re not carrying this sickness around?” Clayton mumbled.
“None of them have been bitten by one of those things. We had a nurse check everyone out before we left Nashville, and no one here is showing signs of being sick at the moment,” Patti assured those gathered around the gate as the trucked made its way slowly through. “Let’s close the gate, and let Clayton get back to guard duty. Are the cabins still empty up the mountain?”
“Yes, ma’am. We have the cabins ready for housing people,” Emma exclaimed.
“I’ll take them up and get them settled,” Cole casting a glance in Stacy’s direction. “Emma, take Brad and Patti up to the house and get them settled in, and we’ll see what Nana and Pop’s take is on the situation about our rising population.”
“We should put up a sign and change the population level whenever somebody comes or goes.” Patti winked at her cousins.
Word had spread quickly that there were newcomers and that we had made it back safely, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw Nana and Pop standing in the doorway holding my baby boy.
Being a man, I didn’t break into tears, but I did have this feeling that was completely unfamiliar to me, that I was going to blame on allergies.
I put an arm around Emma, g
rateful that I was home with my family.
The End…for now.
Co-Ed’s Against Zombies
By Alathia Paris Morgan
Andi Jackson
I watched the reunion between Brad and Patti and knew that tonight, the information they brought with them would allow me to head out first thing in the morning.
No one would be expecting me to sneak out, and I had to get back to my friends that were having a hard time with the whole infected situation. They were holed up in a movie theater/mall in Nashville. They’d made it three weeks, but I didn’t know if they could make it longer without a little help.
If the military came in, then they would have to do what the Army told them to do, and these weren’t the type of guys anyone could boss around.
The guy I was secretly in love with, Matt, was with this group, and he had no idea what they were capable of since he was such a nerd. For the moment, they were keeping him around since he was good at making technical things work, but he would outlast their patience and I needed him to survive. Something good had to come out of this whole fucked-up situation.
I was going to provide him with a rescue and reverse roles for a change. The woman riding in to save the man, but I would need to take someone with me and they couldn’t tell my dad. This was something I had to do on my own without his help.
For now, I needed to go find out as much as I could about how to get to Nashville the easiest way, that wouldn’t cause my death.
The endings in my books have been called cliffhangers, and there is a reason for that; it’s the zombie apocalypse and anyone can die. My hope and goal is to end each book in the series with all of our main characters in a safe place. That doesn’t mean they won’t die at a later date or have tragic things happen further down the road, but I won’t leave you wondering if someone makes it out of a live or die situation at the end of a book. I hate when that happens and I want each of you, my readers, to continue wanting the next story in the series. So thank you for reading and your patience as I create my own zombie world. I hope you enjoy these stories.
Alathia Paris Morgan
Military Against Zombies (The Against Zombies Series Book 2) Page 13