Z Island Series (Book 2): War After Z Island Read online

  WAR AFTER

  Z ISLAND

  TERRENCE OSBORNE JR.

  Copyright © 2017 by Terrence Osborne Jr.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  First Printing: 2017

  ISBN: 979-8644016181

  Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, educators, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the above listed address.

  U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers: Please contact Terrence Osborne Jr; email [email protected].

  Dedication

  TO ALL OF MY READERS, FAMILY, AND FRIENDS!

  I

  BEGINNING OF THE END

  Waking up to the beautiful scenery and sound of nature, Sam opened his eyes and gazed out of the window. He yawned as he crawled out of the bed and walked up to the window, watching the birds chirp and fly around the tree. He thought about how the birds interacted with each other and the family they had within the nest. The birds were at peace. Sam was younger at this moment. His facial hair was gone and his eyes were full of hopes and dreams. Suddenly, a knock on the door turned Sam’s attention. Sam quickly rushed to the bed and put his pajama pants on, but he looked around for a shirt.

  “Yeah?” Sam said.

  Tina walks in with her long hair wrapped up in a ponytail and looks at Sam, “Hey. Matthew and Dad are leaving now. They wanted to see you.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, Sam. Come on.”

  Tina walks away and Sam focuses on the door closing. He wondered what he could say to them before they left. The last conversation between him and Matthew didn’t end so well. He found a shirt in his drawer and slipped in it quickly. Sam walked out of the room and peeked downstairs, but Matthew was already looking up at him.

  “I can see you Sam.” He laughed.

  Sam exhaled loudly and proceeded downstairs. When he came down, Matthew and Trey, Sam’s father, was smiling at him with luggage next to them.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Trey asked.

  “I’m positive. Really, I’ll be okay.”

  “Sam, you could still go. It’s not too late.” Matthew says.

  “Matthew, it is. The cruise is today and in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t want to go!”

  Matthew exhaled and smiled, “Why not?”

  “You know I have homework and…stuff.”

  “Come on Sam. Just this once! I promise this will be fun!”

  “Sorry man. I can’t. Maybe next time.”

  “Dad, try to convince him.” Matthew whispers.

  “No, I won’t. He made up his mind. He doesn’t want to go so…he doesn’t have to.”

  Sam looks at him with relief, “Thanks Dad.”

  Trey smiled and patted him on the shoulder, “You will come next time though. If I have to drag you there myself.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.” Sam laughs.

  Tina looks at Sam while Trey and Matthew gathers their luggage and placed her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her and smiled. He knew deep inside why he didn’t want to go and he kept it to himself.

  “Sam., Can I speak with you for a moment?” Matthew asked.

  Sam followed Matthew into his room and closed the door. Sam sat on the edge of Matthew’s bed while Matthew leaned against the chair by his desktop,

  “I know why you really don’t want to go.”

  “I’m sorry, but you know Mom can’t handle herself right now.”

  “But you know she can! Look at her. She’s doing fine.”

  “I just don’t feel safe going right now. I don’t even feel like you should be going either since you had the surgery the same day.”

  Matthew looks down and quickly replied, “I’m fine Sam.”

  “Almost losing a kidney is not fine. You almost died during surgery!” Sam said.

  “I know, but I’m okay now and she is too.”

  “Sorry Matthew.”

  “I understand. Just take care of her okay?”

  “Always.” Sam replied.

  “Well, we’re off!” Trey yelled from downstairs.

  Trey leans over, kisses Tina, and walks up to Sam as he walked down the stairs, “I guess I’ll see you later Sammy.”

  “Yeah.” Sam murmurs as he hugs Trey.

  Sam steps away from Trey and looks at Matthew, “Goodbye Matthew.”

  “Come on Sam. It’s never goodbye. It’s see you later.”

  Matthew hugs Sam and doesn’t let go. Sam felt bad for rejecting Matthew’s invitation, but he wasn’t sure that he should go. He didn’t like ships. At all. Plus, he wanted to make sure that Tina was alright. Trey had Matthew so he knew he would be fine if something were to happen.

  “I love you little brother.” Matthew whispered.

  Sam closes his eyes and hugs Matthew closer, “Love you too man.”

  One week later, Sam was staring blankly out the windows in his classroom. The teacher's voice was muffled and students were paying attention. He worried for Matthew. He just had a hunch that something was going to happen to Matthew dealing with his kidney.

  “Sam?” the teacher yelled.

  “Yes?”

  “What’s the theorem we would use for this equation?”

  “Uh, you would use the Pythagorean Theorem.”

  “Good. Focus next time.”

  The teacher turned away from him and continued teaching, but a couple of minutes into the lecture, the principal walks in and asks to speak with the teacher. She walked towards him and led him outside to speak. He whispered in her ear while everyone stood quiet. The teacher looked at Sam and asked him over and to grab his things. Sam grabbed his bag and proceeded towards the principal.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Come with me Sam.”

  Sam was uncomfortably nervous. He began sweating, but he wiped his forehead and sighed loudly. The hallway was too quiet for him. The sound of the teacher’s shoes tapping the ground and his heavy breaths he took with every step put Sam in a corner of uncertainty. The principal led him to the office where Tina was, but she was not smiling. In fact, she was shedding enough tears to fill a bucket. Sam immediately dropped is bags and rushed to her.

  “Mom! What’s wrong?”

  “Sam,” the teacher said. “There was a news broadcast about the ship your father and brother was on.”

  “What happened?”

  “Sam…the shipped crashed. There were no survivors. I’m so sorry.”

  Sam couldn’t swallow due to the shocking news of his dad and brother gone. He peeked into Tina’s eyes with denial, but her facial expression suggested otherwise. He tried to fight his emotions, but before he knew it, he was crying into Tina’s arms. They both cried aloud while the principal stood quiet. Sam blamed himself for what happened. What if he didn’t put so many bad thoughts into his head? What would have changed?

  Three years later, the earth had shattered. What was once a calm and somewhat peaceful planet disappeared with the innocence of many lives. The earth was now a horrific and disastrous surface for demons. Zombies grew larger by the hour and the hope for humanity was at question. No one could control what was going on, but all they knew was how to fight back. Even that wasn’t enough. Sam,
however, was no longer afraid of these zombies. He fought them continuously since the island and had become used to them. That was until he watched the nail from the gate fall from its place and struck fear back into his heart once again. Sam pushed away from the gate and watched the other nails to make sure they were still intact. He was afraid. Much more lives were at stake this very moment.

  “Get away from the gate! David, get in the truck and drive it against the gate! Hurry!”

  David nodded and ran towards the truck. The others still held the gate up while Sam told the others what to do to keep each other safe.

  “Prepare to get the injured out of the houses! Just in case the plan goes south!” He demanded.

  While they ran into the houses, David pulls the truck up to the gate and pushed the gate upward. The zombies were on the other side making very loud roars that scared the civilians trying to keep the gate closed. David put the truck in park and jumped out. Everyone stepped away from the gate and started smiling. The zombies were stopped. They kept the zombies from entering, but for how long? Sam turned his back to the gate and made more demands.

  “We all know this gate isn’t going to hold much longer. I suggest we all try and find another way out of the neighborhood while we can. I don’t want anyone else to die and I know you want the same thing. They won’t win!”

  David looks above Sam’s head and saw a zombie, but his eyes widen with terror, “Sam!”

  Sam looked behind him and noticed the zombie crawling over the gate and pulled out his gun. He shot the zombie, but more zombies started appearing above the gate.

  “How are they doing this?” Sam yelled.

  Trace climbed up the post near the gate to see how they were climbing across, but when he peeked over the gate, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

  “They’re climbing on themselves!” He shouted.

  The zombies were jumping and crawling on each other while the other zombies were reaching for the top of the gate. One of them was staring dead into Trace’s eyes as it growled and crawled over the zombies. Trace jumps off the post and ran up to Sam to try and figure out what to do.

  “Trace, get Jessica and the others out of the house and get them from inside the gates. That truck isn’t going to hold much longer.”

  “But where do we go?”

  “I don’t know, but we can’t stay here.”

  “There is nowhere to go. This is a one-way neighborhood.”

  “Then we climb the gates. We have to do something.” Sam said.

  “Okay. There’s a wall at the back of the neighborhood that leads to an open field and a road. We could go there.”

  “Yeah. That’ll work.”

  Sam looked over Trace’s shoulder and saw more zombies coming inside and the civilians pulling their guns out, but Sam stopped them quickly.

  “Stop!” Sam shouted, “Use your knives. It attracts less attention to us. Don’t use guns unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  The civilians put their guns away and pulled out their knives. Two zombies managed to get inside the gate, but they killed them off as soon as they touched the ground. Trace burst inside the house and found that Jess and the others were already preparing to leave, but they were all physically exhausted from their injuries.

  “Sam said I have to get you guys out of here as soon as possible.”

  Jess moaned with pain and moved towards the window. As she looked outside, she had seen why. They were about to be attacked all over again. She noticed the truck in front of the gate, but by the looks of it, it wasn’t working. The truck slowly started to move backwards and the gate starting bending. Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth in shock. Trace grabbed her arm and ran out of the door along with everyone else.

  Across the street from the neighborhood, the men inside of the house were staring at the zombies surrounding the gate, but they were impatient. Except for the man standing behind them.

  “How long will it take for those zombies to get in?” one man asked.

  “Patience. It will happen. When it does, we will be ready.” The man responded.

  “They seem to be fighting back, though. Hell, they may even kill all of them.”

  The man smiled, “Not that easily. Most of them will die and the ones left over will die by our hands. This is their last day on earth.”

  “You sound just like him with your ‘patience’ bullshit!”

  “Patience got us this far.”

  “Not going to be too far now.”

  Sam noticed the truck moving back and the gate bending. He knew the gate was coming down any minute and most people were not ready. The anxiety within him grew and he didn’t know what to do. Should he just take the injured and run with the others or should he try to keep the gate up? Questions rambled up in his mind as the gate continued to lean forward and the zombies rushing in. Sam instantly gave up on everything and chose the best thing to do.

  “Get away from the gate! Run to the back! Go!” Sam shouted.

  The truck was pushed back and the gate came crashing down, pushing dust in front of the entrance as zombies came running out of the dust and unto people. Sam jumped with shock and started running towards Trace and the others.

  “Go!” Trace told everyone as he pulled out is gun and started shooting the zombies.

  Zombies swarmed all over the neighborhood and it was hard to run away from them. A couple of citizens were captured and devoured by the zombies as they screamed for help, but no one stopped running. A few people came to help the others as they swung their weapons and shot their guns. Only a few were fast enough to grab ahold of the people needed saving and ran away. Others tried, but they were split up and eaten alive. If they stop for one second, it could cost their lives. Sam looked around for Jess while running, but he couldn’t find her. He shot the zombies out of his way and kept looking for her, but no one could see where she ran.

  “Where is she?” Sam yelled.

  “I don’t know!” David replied.

  Sam looked again and saw the nurse inside one of the houses with all the injured people and ran towards the house. Zombies were right behind them, but Faith and Tina grabbed their guns and shot at them. Faith shot a couple of zombies in the head, but Tina had difficulty shooting them in the head, so she shot their legs and made them fall. Sam ran to the front door to open it, but the nurse had already opened it and rushed them in. The zombies ran right behind them, so the nurse threw a Molotov in front of the house, causing them to scream and run away from the door. Everyone is breathing heavily, but Sam continued looking for Jess. He didn’t see her and thought of the worse possibility.

  “Where’s Jess?”

  “She’s upstairs.”

  Sam rushed upstairs calling her name, but he couldn’t hear her response. He looked inside of the rooms, but they were empty. He went to the final room and opened the door forcefully to spot Jess looking out of the window. He made no sound as he stared at her gazing out, but she looked over her shoulder and noticed it was Sam behind her.

  “I thought this was it. I thought we were safe. We had the wall, lights, food! Now it’s all gone to waste.”

  “I know how this suck right now, but it’ll suck more if we continue to stick around any longer.”

  “Sam!” David yelled from downstairs.

  Sam and Jess rushed down and noticed that the fire was beginning to spread around and inside the house.

  “We have to go!” Trace demanded.

  Everyone rushed to the back of the house, but Sam slowed everyone down to make sure there were no zombies around. He peeked around both sides of the house and gave the signal for them to come outside. While running, they saw many people fighting back against the zombies. They were shooting at them like they weren't afraid of them anymore.

  “Follow me! I know a way out!” Sam shouted.

  The civilians noticed Sam shouting and they began falling back and started running alongside him. Running and shooting was the only thing they could do now. No s
topping for cars. Just running. Sam had Jess’s arm around him to make sure she could keep up while the rest of the injured were being helped. Sam immediately stopped the group when many zombies ran in front of them. The whole group was surrounded. Sam pulled out his gun and shot the front zombies while Trace led the others to fight the zombies behind them. Sam managed to push the zombies back in front of them, but more and more kept coming.