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

  “It’s too many!” Sam shouted.

  Jess stood behind him and shot at the zombies weakly, but she put the gun down when she noticed there were too many of them. Sam looked around for an alternate route while fighting, but he couldn’t find anywhere to go. He noticed the zombies in front of him wearing down, so he kept pushing forward. Trace stabs one of the zombies in the head and shoves the body away from him, but one of the men on side of him became too courageous. He pushed forward on one of the zombies and killed it, but the knife got stuck in its head. The man tried to pull the knife out, but it wasn’t long until the zombies caught up to him and dragged him into the crowd. The zombies peeled the skin off his face and dug into his chest as he kept trying to fight back weakly. Trace gasped and kept swinging.

  “Sam? What now?” Trace yelled.

  Tina killed the last zombie in front of them and they started running again.

  “We’re almost there! Just a little more!” Sam shouted.

  “Look!” Faith screamed.

  She pointed to a mother and her two children, a boy and a girl, trapped in a vehicle surrounded by zombies. Faith looked at them and felt horrible about what she would have done. She didn’t want to leave them, but she just couldn’t go save them on her own either. Sam and David looked, but Sam was busy with the injured. Trace nodded at Faith and they both ran for the vehicle. The mother saw them coming, so she tried to wave at them to get their attention. Her two children were crying and screaming to the top of their lungs, but that didn’t help the situation at all. Faith and Trace got their melee weapons out and killed the zombies while the mother braced her children to run as soon as it was clear. Faith killed the last zombie and opened the door wide.

  “Come on!” She shouted.

  The mother rushed her kids out of the car, but Faith saw other zombies approaching.

  “Hurry!”

  Trace got the two kids and rushed towards Sam, but the mother was still crawling out of the car. Faith grabbed her and pulled her out of the car, causing her to fall.

  “Sorry, but I need you to move!” Faith shouted.

  The mother yanked away from Faith and started crying. Faith looked at her troubled and noticed blood dripping from her leg. She had been bitten. The mother looked into Faith’s eyes and whispered, “Take care of them.”

  Before Faith could say anything else, zombies had already come and pulled her down to the ground, scratching her skin and eating at her flesh. Faith gasped and ran away from the sight. Her thoughts were flooded with questions and concerns. What was going to happen to the children now that their mom is gone? Who was going to take care of them?

  The wall was in their sights. Right in their grasp. All they had to do now was get over it. It wasn’t high, which was a good sign, and Sam looked around for something to give to the injured to make climbing easier. When they turned around, the zombies were closing in fast. Luckily, the nurse had another Molotov in cases like this. She lit the towel up with a lighter and threw it in front of them. The flames burst in front of the zombies, striking fear into their face and forcing them back. Some of the zombies were caught in the fire and it spread all over their body. They ran away, but soon they dropped dead. The zombies on the other side of the fire was screeching and snapping at the fire, wishing they could run through and eat the group.

  “Alright. There isn’t much time. Hurry Jess! Give me your foot.”

  Jess put her foot on Sam’s hand and he lifted her up on top of the wall as she looked on the other side to make sure nothing was there. She jumped over the edge, but fell on her wound. The others were screaming her name, but she grunted as she stood up slowly and called for more people.

  “Hurry!” Sam says as he lifted Tina over the wall.

  David tapped Trace and focused his attention on the fire that started to go away. Trace got out his knife and prepared for the zombies to come through, but they still didn’t budge. They just stood there screaming at them; waiting for the fire to disappear and eat them alive. David got on side of Sam and assisted more of the people over the wall. The fire went away enough for a couple of zombies to come through, but Faith and some others fought them off.

  “Hurry up! The fire's going away!” Faith screams.

  Sam lifted the two children across the wall and rushed Faith and Trace to get over the wall also. Faith ran first while Trace slowly backed up, but facing the zombies to ensure their safety. Faith flipped over the wall and Trace ran towards Sam as he put his foot on his hand and jumped over the wall.

  “Give me your foot!” Sam told David.

  David took no time and got on top of the wall, but he didn’t jump over. He stopped at the top and reached for Sam. David looked surprised as zombies ran through the fire and headed for Sam. David quickly grabbed his hand and yanked him up on side of the wall, but a zombie grabbed Sam’s leg and pulled him down.

  “No!” David shouted as he held on tight to Sam.

  Sam screamed with fear and kicked the zombie, trying to get free from its powerful grip. Trace was scared on the other side of the wall. He knew what was going to happen.

  “Hold on!” David yelled.

  “Sam!” Jess and Tina yelled as they tried to go to the wall, but Trace and Faith held them back from getting close. Sam looked into David’s eyes with grievance. He was ready to survive, but he was still afraid to die. Sam began to let go of David’s hand, but David did not let go. Suddenly, the zombies were being shot in the head and they let go of Sam’s leg. David pulled Sam up to the top of the wall. Trace looked at Sam and smiled. (He had climbed up and shot the zombies off him.) Breathing heavily, Sam sighed with relief and looked at the neighborhood. Zombies took over it and there were too many of them to kill. They had lost. Sam jumped over the wall and hugged Jess and Tina. He heard them screaming from the other side and he knew he had scared the both of them. He apologized to them and listened to the cries that overlapped their happiness. They cared for him too much to lose him so soon. He looked around them and saw the others looking with worried faces. He scared more than Jess and Tina. He scared them all. He let them go and approached David and Trace.

  “Thanks for saving me. Both of you.” Sam said, but he mostly looked at David. He gave him a look that lets him know what he meant. David automatically knew he was talking about Sam giving up and wanting to die for that moment.

  “I know you didn’t want to.” David replies.

  “I didn’t.”

  The little girl, being the oldest, looked around for her mom and got worried, “Where’s my mommy?”

  Faith looked at her and her eyes started to water. She bent down to the girl and boy and sighed weakly, “Your mom is gone.”

  “Mommy?” The girl cried.

  Faith gave into her emotions and hugged them while crying hard for their lost. Trace watched her reaction to telling the kids and felt horrible too. Not just him, but the entire group.

  Sam tapped his body looking for his gun, but it wasn’t around his waist. He suddenly sighed and grabbed his knife.

  “We have to keep going. The neighborhood is gone.”

  A few of the people were staring at him, but they all knew they were on their own until they could find somewhere else to go.

  “Where do we go from here?” one of the civilians asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think none of us know.”

  “Well, you’re supposed to be the leader, right?”

  “Look, that was back when we had something. Look at the neighborhood now! There is nothing to lead, but us. I can’t tell you where to go from here, but you can either join me or travel solo.”

  The man nodded lightly and stood silent while Tina came forth, “Uh, I think we need to keep going. You know, if we don’t want them coming across this wall too.”

  “Yeah, um…let’s go.”

  Sam started walking away from the wall, but he noticed the others straying away from him and his group. He wanted all the people he could have to protect themselves, b
ut it wasn’t up to him to declare whether they should stay. He respected their decisions, but he felt it was the wrong one. Around the corner was a long street with other houses around and another open field.

  “We can search the houses. People seemed to get out of here in a hurry.” Sam said.

  “Yeah, this started happening and the terrorists started killing people. No one wanted to be here anymore.”

  The man’s comment struck a moment of memory into Sam’s mind and he remembered there were still some terrorists lurking around the city. As the group walked towards one of the houses, Sam saw someone hiding behind one of the vehicles across from them.

  “Wait!” Sam shouted.

  Bullets came flying in front of the group, causing them to quickly dodge away from each other and hide on side of the houses. One of the survivors had been shot multiple times in the chest and fell to his death. David and Trace pulled out their guns and shot back at the men, but they couldn’t see them anywhere. The bullets kept coming. It wouldn’t stop. The noise. The fear. It ran in all of them. Sam kept his confidence. For himself and the others around him that were afraid. Sam looked over the vehicle to see if he could see anyone, but the bullets stopped and the street got quiet.

  “Do you see anyone?” David whispered.

  “No.” Sam responded, “Jess, hand me your gun!”

  Jess threw him the gun as he looked around for any sights of them. It remained quiet, but they all knew the men were still lurking around.

  “It looks clear for now.” Trace said to Sam.

  The sound of zombies started to approach them and Sam wanted to kill them and the men trying to kill them.

  “Get in the van over there!” Sam whispered as he pointed ahead.

  The nurse grabbed Jess and Trace and led the others by the van while Sam and David watched out for any of the men that would show up. Breathing heavily, Sam backed away slowly, but he had a hunch. Why did they stop shooting? What were they up to? Sam gripped his gun harder and proceeded to back up, but suddenly, he stopped David and told him to listen. David leaned down and gave in to the surrounding sounds. They listened slowly and carefully for anything, then David could hear what Sam was hearing. It was slow, steady steps that advanced around the house, but they didn’t shout or anything. Sam waited for the sound to approach the side of the house and he stood patiently leaning against the front of the house. Once he heard the steps, Sam jumped from the front and fired his bullets blindly at the men, killing one instantly and injuring another in the leg. The other man shot a couple of rounds and hid behind the house. Trace crank the van and honked the horn for Sam to get in.

  “I’m not coming!” Sam shouted.

  “What? No way! You’re coming with us now!”

  “No! Just go to the nearest safe spot and radio me when you get there. David and I will catch up.”

  “Sam?” Tina asked.

  “I’ll be right behind you!”

  “Come back!” Trace yelled as he backed up and drove out.

  Tina yelled for him, but Sam ignored her. He had unfinished business.

  The man tied string around the other wounded man’s leg and he told him to be quiet. He peeked around the corner, but he couldn’t move fast enough before Sam hit him over the head and shoots the other man in the stomach. Sam tries to shoot the other man, but he jumped up and hit him in the face, sending Sam plunging to the ground and dropping his gun. David pulled the trigger on his gun, but it was empty. David grunts and throws down the gun, running after the man. David swings at him, but he dodged David’s hit and punched him the stomach and the face. David falls to the ground and the man reached for the gun, but Sam tackles him down and starts punching him constantly. The man head-butted Sam and pushed him away while reaching for the gun, but David grabbed his leg before reaching it. The man turned his attention to David and kicked him in the nose. When the man looked back up, Sam had already gotten up and grabbed the gun.

  “Son of a-”

  Sam knocks the man out and stares at his body. He helps David up and looks at his nose. It wasn’t broken, but it was very bruised. Blood poured from his nose, but David ignored the pain and wiped his face.

  “What do we do with him?” David asked.

  “I have an idea.”

  The man wakes up inside of a house, tied up to a chair in the living room and nothing else remained. It was just him, Sam, and David alone in the house. The man looked around for a little bit and instantly started laughing. Sam smiled with sarcasm, “What’s so funny?”

  “I didn’t think it would be this hard for me to kill you all. I just thought it would be simple.”

  “You thought wrong.” David replied.

  “Yeah, no shit.”

  “You’re not afraid?” Sam asked.

  “Of what? Death? Oh, no. See, I accept death as mercy-”

  “You don’t deserve mercy!”

  “Oh, but I do! We all deserve a little mercy.”

  “Not murderers.”

  “What that makes you?”

  “Someone who defends himself.”

  “Why am I really here?”

  “What?”

  “You kept me alive. Why?”

  “I just want to know why are you doing this.”

  “You people. Never just accept things as they are. Always have to find some kind of answer-”

  Sam runs up to him and pushes the gun to his head, “Don’t bullshit me! Tell me what I want to know!”

  “Fine, but there is no answer. We just wanted the world to end. It’s been hard times…for all of us. Then this group comes up to me and offers me this deal. The world gone. Just us. Do what we want. When we want. However, we want. But things turned for the worst.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The virus was never supposed to get this bad. We tested it every time and each time it didn’t get this bad.”

  Sam looked at David and almost felt bad for the man. For some reason, Sam lowered the gun and listened to the man continue his talk about the virus.

  “There. That’s everything. Can we just skip to the part where you kill me?”

  Sam sighed, “I promised myself I wouldn’t kill again unless it was necessary.”

  “Wow. I’m touched.” The man laughed sarcastically.

  “Oh, I’ll make an exception for you.”

  The man stopped laughing and looked at the object in David’s hand. It was a rope that lead to the back door behind the man and Sam smiled.

  “You get what you deserve.” Sam said.

  The man tried shaking out of the string that tied him together, but it was no use.

  “You were supposed to kill me bitch!”

  Sam smiled and walked away. He opened the front door while David pulled hard on the string and opened the back door. Sam and David quickly exited the house and the zombies burst into the house and charged after the man.

  “No! You were supposed to kill me!” He shouted.

  The zombies started chewing away at him as he screamed and shook his body trying to get free, but the zombies grabbed him and pulled the flesh off his body. Sam listened by the door and knew for sure that the man was dead. David looked at Sam and walked away. Sam grabbed the radio from behind him and turned it on.

  “Trace, where are you?”

  We’re just a couple of minutes away from you. Near a gas station. We’ll find you when you come.

  “Okay. We’ll be right there.”

  Is it over?

  “For now, yes.”

  Sam puts the radio away and heads out to the gas station. Sam listened to the man’s yelling vanish within the house and the zombies wandering inside, sniffing for someone else to eat. Sam gazed back at the house while running and gave himself a promise. He was going to do whatever it takes to protect his loved ones.

  “Sam, are you okay?” David asked.

  “I'm okay. Just…thinking.”

  Arriving at the gas station, Sam looked around for the van, but it was hidden
on the side of the building for their safety. Sam walked over and peeked inside the store where he saw Trace and Faith looking for something to drink or eat for the moment. He started to walk inside, but Tina came around the corner and ran to him. She hugged him tight and rubbed back of his head gently.

  “You scared me.” Tina whispered.

  “Sorry. I’m not going anywhere anymore.”

  He unwrapped his arms from her body and headed for the van. He opened the door and discovered Jess sitting up, holding her wound. She looked into Sam’s eyes and smiled.

  “How are you?” Sam asked.