Z Chronicles (Book 4): The Final Chapter

by White, A. L.

  “I brought half of what I found to Salvation. Who wants to be out here alone, if someone else does it for them? People have become sheep who think if they are not behind walls, they are not safe. The sheep need to worry more about the wolves inside than they do with what is out here.”

  “We all have seen what’s out here, so I don’t know if I agree with you,” Charlie said.

  “Either way, it doesn’t matter now. We should load this and get back on the move,” Jermaine replied.

  It took the better part of an hour to load the back of the truck, leaving room for one person and the lads. They opened some of the canned goods and heated them over a small fire that caused Charlie and Jermaine to grow uncomfortable. The worry about attracting anything unwanted was ever present in them. Virginia felt safe here; if she hadn’t, then she would have picked another spot. Plus, she knew if the lads heard or smelled any danger, they would alert them.

  Jermaine decided it was cooler to ride in the back with the lads, so Virginia rode shotgun with Charlie as the navigator. They followed the road for the next few hours until they reached the Old Plank Bridge, per the 1978 map she had found in the truck’s glove compartment. Bob’s map was newer but still missed things, like the bridge.

  Once they arrived where the bridge should have been, they realized why. The bridge had been torn down sometime between ’78 and when Bob had printed his map. Switching to using just Bob’s map, Charlie charted the course to another river crossing. They both hoped they wouldn’t have to follow the river too far.

  Chapter 4

  Lori’s head felt like she had been on a weekend bender. The skin around her wrist and neck burnt and felt like it had been rubbed raw. Her vision was clouded with just a little light penetrating. Struggling to adjust and see where she was left only the dull view of vertical lines. In the distance, a lone figure sat in a chair, watching her intently. On heavy legs, Lori attempted to stand from what she thought was a cot or old sofa with no cushion. Halfway up, the weight of her body proved to be too much for her legs, causing her to slump back onto the hard surface.

  “It may be too soon for you to try something like that,” the figure said.

  “Where am I?”

  “In a holding cell under quarantine.”

  “How did I get here?”

  “We’ll get into that later, if you pass.” His voice was calm and soothing. If danger was present, she wouldn’t know it by him. The figure stood and approached the vertical lines. “My name is Stuart Lockhart, and I suppose you could call me the welcome wagon—welcome wagon, fix-it man, and executioner when the need arises.”

  “My Name is Lori Lit—”

  “Your name is Lori Little, and the little fellow with you is Walter,” Stu replied. “We don’t know his last name, but we could soon enough, if it’s decided that it’s pertinent.”

  “How do you know my name?”

  “We have known your name since Rivers Crossing. Clarksville was what caught Marius’s attention though. You were something there, if half the reports were correct.”

  Lori tried to clear her head. Where was she, and why were these people watching her? How could they have been, and how could she, Walter, or the lads never once noticed them? “What happens to me now?”

  “Well, Doctor Katrina Newman will be by shortly to give you the once over, and then we will know which way the ball will drop.”

  A metal door opened behind Stu. Jermaine was the largest man Lori had ever seen; the shadow figure who just entered the room made Jermaine look about Lori’s size. Behind him, a woman roughly the same size as Lori walked in.

  “How’s the new arrival doing?” the man asked.

  “Let’s see,” the woman replied, approaching the bars. “Come closer, so I can examine you.”

  “I don’t think we need this cell locked. Stu, open it, so the doctor can do her job.”

  Stu pulled down his shirt off the shoulder and removed the bandage so Marius could see the large claw marks that slashed through his skin, like a knife through butter. “Does this look like we should unlock the cell, Marius?”

  “Sometimes they have a bad reaction to the first injection, Stu. Open up, and let’s give the new arrival a proper welcome.”

  Holding his hand toward Lori, Marius said, “Come, Lori. Walk with me. Maybe we can show you what we’ve been building here.”

  Stu unlocked the cell and motioned for her to follow Marius.

  Lori cautiously reached for his hand then grasped hold. She walked beside him as they left the detention area into the main lobby. Lori gasped at the sight of uniformed police officers busy at work. She paused until Marius’ gentle squeeze and tug got her moving again. Outside the large glass doors was a park filled with people flying kites, reading books, or what looked like picnics. Nowhere in sight were walls or heavily armed people keeping watch. Everyone looked so normal, so pre-apocalyptic. Time here had stood still from before. Lori wondered if she was having a dream, half expecting to see her mother and father arguing next to a grill about how to cook burgers.

  “Hard to take in all at once, isn’t it?” Marius asked.

  “Hard isn’t the word I would use. Unreal would be more like it.”

  Motioning to a bench facing the manmade lake, Marius sat and gestured for Lori to join him. “We’re here today because we’re standing on the shoulders of some brilliant men and women, a group of doctors and researchers who found the answer to the apocalypse too late to save the world.”

  “There is a cure?”

  Marius frowned. “There is no cure, not in the way you’re asking.” Marius signaled to the officers, and Stu followed at a safe distance. “Stu, show Lori the images from her own scan please.”

  Stu stepped forward, producing a manila envelope Lori hadn’t noticed before.

  Taking the image, she didn’t have a clue as to what she was looking at. Pretending to know, she asked, “This tells me what, exactly?”

  He pointed to a dark mass in the image—darker than everything else from what Lori could tell. “This blob is the cause of the outbreak and is responsible for the zombies and everything that followed.”

  “Can you remove it?”

  Marius sighed. “It’s been tried without any success.”

  A gut punch stung Lori hearing the answer she knew was coming. She or Walter never had a chance to join Charlie and Virginia again. “How long before the change completes? Do you know that, at least?”

  “Change? You’ve changed as much as you’ll ever change until you die. Once you die, the parasite—that’s what we call it—takes over completely unless it’s killed with you.”

  Lori looked at her shoes. “Then we’re all doomed to this life.”

  Marius laughed hard and loud, attracting the attention of others in the park. “Well, that’s one way of looking at it. We prefer to see it a little differently.”

  “Not sure how you could see it another way.”

  “Look around you, and tell me, what you see? Go ahead and tell me.”

  Lori took a long hard look at the people around them. She couldn’t tell if they were normal or like her. “I see uninfected people enjoying a beautiful day.”

  “You may think you see that, and you would be partially correct. What you are seeing in this park is a mix of the old and the new.”

  “Old and new?”

  “We’re the new human race. They’re the old. Some here believe only one or the other can survive when they first arrive. Here, we exist in harmony, due to our laws.” Marius paused and pointed to a family cooking on a grill. “They are old humans—or the before, as we call them. Over there are people like you and I—the new. It may surprise you, but those groups are close friends.”

  “Until the smell of fresh meat gets too strong.”

  “Doesn’t happen here. We gave your brain one of three injections when you first arrived. After that, you’ll take pills every day for the rest of your life. We can’t kill the parasite, but the folks I mention
ed earlier, the doctors and researchers, found a way to subdue the parasite. You keep the strength and the ability to call it forward when you need it.”

  “The attraction of human flesh?”

  “All but gone, maybe a little bit left but not enough for you to be mindlessly caused to act. Besides, as I have said, our laws are strict. To kill a before or new is punishable by death.”

  “I have killed zombies, 2.0s, and news.”

  “We’ve all done things during these dark times we’re not proud of.”

  “How do the normal ones—or befores, as you call them—come here?” Lori asked, thinking about Charlie and Virginia.

  “Well, they enter like you did, or they make it past the herds and walk in. You’re wondering about the party you were traveling with?”

  “Yes. My sister and friends are still out there.”

  “We’ll talk about that. I mentioned earlier that we’ve been watching you since Rivers Crossing. We know about Clarksville as well.”

  “Was Clarksville a part of this?” Lori asked showing concern.

  “Oh, hell no! Most of the new people who were part of Clarksville met their end out there or in Execution Plaza. As I said, we don’t allow murder of any type here. We consume the same food we ate before the fall.”

  “Anything I did before getting here is forgiven?”

  “Everything.”

  “Will that go for my friends?”

  “It will indeed. Your sister has become quite adept at killing. She’ll need to demonstrate that she can change before I allow her entry. I’m not saying we couldn’t use someone like her.”

  “Virginia only kills to survive, like everyone else.”

  “Virginia is a hunter. There is a little more to her than just surviving. I’ll offer her the same deal as everyone else, provided she stops hunting immediately.”

  “If she isn’t in danger, Virginia will not ‘hunt,’ as you say. I know my sister.”

  “That brings us to the boy who came with you.”

  “What about Walter?”

  “Children who have become new people don’t do very well with the treatment. The parasite has a solid hold on their young brains. The treatment could kill him if administered.”

  “If it isn’t given?”

  “Then we’ll have to execute him as a danger to the town. Enough talk for now. Stu will take you to your new home and let you rest up before your next injection.”

  Chapter 5

  When they first arrived, Tressa worried about Todd every time he was out of her sight. The people of Salvation would stop and stare at him. Tressa couldn’t say she blamed them; her uncle was 6’6’’ and nearly three hundred pounds. Todd had the body of a mountain without hardly any fat to accompany his mind of a ten-year-old. They would stop and stare while he played with the other children, but no one ever said anything mean or cruel to Todd. If they said it behind their backs, Tressa didn’t know it, and Todd was happy here. Unlike other places, mothers didn’t rush out and force their children to walk away from Todd, telling them he had something wrong and that if they played with Todd, they would catch it too. No, Salvation had been a great place for her and Todd from day one.

  The town leaders had given Tressa the job of ensuring they had enough food to go around and that every family got their fair share. That gave her the opportunity to get to know everyone on a higher level than if she had just met them in the street. Life was good for them, and there wasn’t any reason for them to ever leave this place.

  Something was off today, and, try as Tressa did, she couldn’t put her finger on it. Zeus didn’t come by for his morning snacks, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary. Some days she didn’t find him sitting outside the kitchen door waiting for her to arrive. Everyone she had passed on the way had said good morning to Tressa, like they did every other morning. Only, today no one seemed to be as genuine as they had on previous days. Tressa shook the thoughts from her head.

  Turning the corner onto Jefferson Street, she smiled and waved at the old man sweeping his porch next door to the kitchen. Old Mr. Lang stopped sweeping and set his broom against the doorframe. “I’m so sorry to hear what happened to Todd this morning. I always liked him.”

  Tressa’s head felt like it had exploded, and her lungs fought for air as her legs gave out.

  Mr. Lang grabbed hold of Tressa and guided her into his lawn chair on the porch. “I’m sorry, Tressa. I don’t think that came out right.”

  She fought to find the words and regain her composure. “What happened to Todd?”

  “That drunkard Leroy started hassling Todd this morning and backed the poor boy into a corner.”

  “Todd is okay though?”

  Mr. Lang looked away from her. “He took a bit of a beating from Leroy and his mob before security arrived.”

  “Was Todd hurt bad? Where’s Todd now?” Tressa asked, trying to understand how this could have happened here in Sanctuary.

  “I don’t know how bad it really was or how hurt Todd was at the end. I didn’t see it, or I would have stepped in and put an end to it. I heard the story from the boys when we met under the old elm tree for coffee this morning.”

  “I have to go find Todd. He’ll be scared out of his mind after something like this. It may take me months to get him back to normal.”

  “It won’t be too hard to find him. They have him at the lock up with Leroy and his bunch.”

  “At the lock up?” Tressa screamed. “Why in the hell would Todd be locked up if he was the one beaten?”

  “I wouldn’t know that, would I, Tressa? I wasn’t there, as I said.”

  Tressa found the strength to stand as the rage coursed through her veins like a fire burning out of control. She sprinted through the streets, passing everyone like she was deep in enemy territory and they were all out to harm her and Todd. She would get him out of lock up and go directly to Zoe’s house. Let’s see any one of them lay a finger on Todd with Zeus standing beside him. That would end up being that offender’s sorriest day since the apocalypse had happened. That dog loved Todd every bit as much as he loved Virginia, and no one here would want to mess with big Zeus.

  Tressa flung open the sheriff’s office door, and it slammed against the wall as she entered.

  Johnson’s feet were propped on his desk. “Miss Tressa, what can we do for you today?”

  Slamming her fist on the desk caused Johnson’s coffee to spill and him to sit upright. “You can give me Todd, so I can take him home with me.”

  “I can’t do that, Tressa. We’ve received complaints about Todd that I need to investigate.”

  “What kind of complaints?”

  Johnson grinned with his yellowed missing-teeth smile. “It has come to our attention that most of the parents in Salvation feel intimidated by Virginia.”

  “That has nothing to do with Todd.”

  “Oh, but it does have a lot to do with Todd. You see, they don’t feel it right for a grown man to play with their children. No one ever said anything for fear of Virginia and those damn dogs.”

  “Those are Todd’s friends. I talk to their parents all the time, checking on how Todd is doing.”

  “Friends or innocents forced to play with an overgrown freak?”

  “Give me my uncle, and we’ll leave Salvation.”

  “Now, let’s just settle down and see if we can’t talk this issue out. Please have a seat, and we’ll see if we can’t come to a compromise, Tressa.” Johnson motioned toward the chair next to Tressa.

  With reluctance, Tressa sank into the chair, fighting to contain the rage and tears building inside her.

  “That’s better, isn’t it? Just two responsible adults talking about the future. Would you like Hank over there to get you some coffee or tea?”

  “When can I take Todd and leave?” Tressa forced out, her voice cracking with each word.

  Johnson exhaled hard, swelling his cheeks like he was inflating a balloon. “Tressa, you’re sharp as a knife, beautiful,
and have a body that most men here would kill for.”

  “What the hell are you—”

  “If we were to fix your Todd issue, there’s a good chance some lucky fella would swoop you up and make an honest woman of you. You could do your part to repopulate the world.”

  “You piece of shi—”

  “I bet you could have five maybe six kids in as many years.”

  A tire screeched to a halt outside the office, causing Johnson to approach the door. He backed in slow and easy with his hands raised.

  Zoe followed him in with a double-barreled shotgun aimed at his chest. Old Mr. Lang and his friends followed Zoe in, all with a pistol or rifle drawn. They aimed at the security forces standing around.

  “I guess I’ll be taking the boy with me,” Zoe said as she shoved the barrel into Johnson’s chest.

  “Let’s all just settle down before someone does something they’ll regret,” Johnson said.

  “The longer you talk, the more I’m regretting not having shot you already,” Zoe replied.

  “You know this won’t end well for any of you,” Johnson said. “What did you think? You would storm in here and break the dummy free then just go about your day as if nothing had ever happened?”

  “I never liked the bastard, Zoe. Just shoot him, and we can move onto the next one,” Lang said.

  “Okay, okay. I can see you mean business,” Johnson said. “Let’s sit down and talk this out.”

  “You, there—the one with a neck like a turkey. Take me to where you have Todd,” Zoe said to a tall, slim security officer. “Lang.”

  “Don’t worry, Zoe. Anyone moves a hair and we’ll put them all down like rabid dogs in the street,” Lang said, moving to take her spot in front of Johnson.

  The officer led Tressa and Zoe into the cellblock containing four cells resembling something from a 1950’s movie or television show. The first three were empty, while the fourth held Todd, Leroy, and the bunch who had followed Leroy. Todd lay on the floor in a heap of blood and what Tressa thought looked like urine.

  “Well, looky here, boys. The cavalry has come for the moron,” Leroy stated, laughing.