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

  Sam keeps running until he hears her screaming.

  “Sarah!”

  Sam kept running and finally spots Sarah being attacked by the infected. Sam grips his stick, tackles the infected off Sarah and bashes its head in with his stick. Sarah gets up and hugs Sam crying, “It almost bit me.”

  “Sarah. Why did you leave?”

  “I can’t be around those things! It’s not my fault you want to help others,” Sarah said.

  David and the woman come running at them panting.

  “Hey. Do you mind if we hang around you people for a bit? We obviously have to stick together now,” David asked.

  “Yeah, sure. Where’s-”

  Melissa comes running away from Mike and runs behind Sam and the others.

  “Get your ass back here now!” Mike comes along and forcedly pushes Sam and David out of the way.

  “Hey! What are you doing?” David said.

  “Move out of the way! She thinks she can just up and leave me?” Mike yelled.

  Mike shoves David out of the way, but Sam and Sarah start to hold him back. Mike strikes Sam on the cheek with his elbow and tries to push Sarah out of the way, but Sarah grabs his arm and twists it, which causes Mike to fall to his knees. Sarah then kicks Mike in the face and sends him tumbling to the ground.

  “Stop this shit right now!” Sarah demands.

  The woman suddenly fell to the ground moaning in pain and started having the effects of the poison. David tries to help her by lifting her up, but he clearly had seen how weak she had gotten.

  “You can make it. You’re going to make it. Just breathe.” He relaxed her on the ground as she looked up at the sky, struggling to breathe.

  David lays her on his lap and calms her down. Soon, her body stopped moving and her eyes closed.

  “Come on! We have to go!” Sam rushes.

  David lifts her off him and stands up. “Can I have your stick?” he asked Sam.

  “Yeah.” Sam hands him his stick and looks at the woman, “What are you about to-”

  David walks up to the woman and stabs her in the head.

  Shocked at the event, Sam responds his action, “That’s harsh.”

  “What? The head?” Sarah asked.

  “Yes. I’ve tried to kill it through the chest, but apparently, it only works if you kill them by stabbing their brain.” Sam explains.

  “Well, we have to lay low for a while so we won’t have to worry about them,” Sarah mentions.

  “I see something,” David points out.

  The group walks up to a deep cave formed by the rocks where they could hide from the infected.

  “Well, we need to figure a way to cover up the opening so it’ll be harder to spot us,” David suggests.

  Sarah looks at Mike, “Are we going to have a problem?”

  “No, we won’t, but don’t put your hands on me again. You’ll end up like one of them!”

  “Don’t be so sure!”

  “Okay. We need to hurry up. It’s getting dark.” Sam says.

  Hours later, they had set up a blockage made of sticks and switches that prevented any infected from seeing them. David made a fire with the woman in the midst of it. Sam walks out of the cave and confronts him by the fire.

  “Hey, it’s almost dark.”

  “I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t even know her name. I had seen that she was bitten and I figured, ‘I’m a doctor, I can fix her’, but I can’t do anything.” David said.

  “It’s not your fault. You did what you could. No one could prevent what happened after she was bitten. What matters now is keeping each other alive from now on. Now we just know the consequence of getting bitten,” Sam explains.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Name’s David.”

  “Sam.”

  During the night, the group is sitting around each other talking about their past lives with a fireplace in the center.

  “I was a doctor,” David explains, “I was on a cruise to basically cope with my mother’s death. It’s kind of stupid because whenever I get emotional, I go out and spend money like crazy. I don’t even know what I am doing half of the time. I’m pretty much regretting my decision now.”

  “We all are,” Sam agreed. “So, who are you guys?” he asked Mike and Melissa.

  “We’re married and I wanted to go, so…here we are.” Melissa laughs, but no one else laughed.

  “What do you do?” Sarah asked.

  “Oh, I’m a clerk at an office in New York. Mike is…well…”

  “I’m a drug dealer.” Mike interrupted.

  “Makes sense.” Sarah shrugs.

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you’re an asshole!”

  “You know what? I don’t have to say shit to you.”

  “Good!”

  “Hey. We won’t start this now. Shut up before they come!” Sam said.

  “So, what do you guys do?” Melissa asks.

  “We’re both graduates, but we wanted to take the cruise because we were all separating after graduation, but there was one more, Dylan. He went missing when the ship wrecked.”

  “He’s dead.” Sarah figured.

  “We don’t know that.”

  “Sure we do. You’re just afraid to admit it.”

  “And you’re not?”

  “No.”

  Everyone looks at the both of them, but Sam cut the silence short, “I really didn’t want to go on the cruise.”

  “Then, why did you?” David asked.

  “Well because of the whole separation thing and the fact that my brother and dad died in a shipwreck accident, but their bodies were never found. Ever since then, I have refused to get on any ship, but this time I figured, you know? Now I’m here.”

  “Sorry,” David responds.

  “I’m good.”

  “So, we’re just going to forget the main issue?” Mike sarcastically laughs.

  “What?” Sam asked.

  “How in the hell do we get off this island because I refuse to die on this goddamn island.”

  “How in the hell am I supposed to know. We don’t even know where we are besides this island. And if we did, do you think we’ll be here doing nothing?” Sam says.

  “Look we will figure it out in the morning, but until then, we better get some sleep. We have to also figure out how we are going to get food and water.” David suggests.

  The sound of the infected attracted everyone’s attention, but Sam looks away, “We’ll be okay.”

  Everyone lays down and David kicks dirt into the fire until it goes out.

  CHAPTER THREE

  NO ESCAPE

  In the morning, Sam and Sarah are talking about Dylan while David looks outside and wonders to himself. Mike stares at Sarah with a mean expression on his face while Melissa just stared…at nothing.

  “Why do you still think he’s alive?” Sarah asked.

  “Because I have to. I mean, I bet you were sure I was dead after the accident, but I’m here now. The same thing goes for Dylan. He could be alive.”

  “Yeah, could be.”

  “We have to find food. Something has to be on this island, right?” David asked.

  “Yeah. There has to be something to eat.”

  David goes outside and looks around for any infected that may be outside. Sam and Sarah walk behind him and checked around.

  “Okay. It’s clear. We can go now before any more of them show up.” David suggested.

  “Yeah, but what are going to use. We have no weapons or anything. All we have is Mike’s weapon that he got from the ship.” Sarah responded.

  “Wait. The ship?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “We can search the ship. Isn’t there something we can use?”

  “Yeah, but it’s only part of the ship that’s reachable. The other half is…well…under water. Plus, some people already searched it. There’s probably nothing in it.”

  “Damn! We need something to kill
them. Like a weapon of some sorts. I’m going to the ship. They may have overlooked it.”

  “That’s crazy!”

  “Well, it’s worth a try.”

  David looks at him and shakes his head, “I barely know you, but I can say you’re crazy. You have a point though.”

  “See? So…”

  Sarah shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t care, but I’m coming too.”

  Sam walks into the cave and speaks to Mike and Mellissa to make sure if they wanted to come. Mellissa nodded and said she was fine, but she kept looking at Mike. Mike glanced at Sam and smiled something creepy. Sam walked away and put the barrier in front of the cave.

  “Okay. Let’s go.” He picks up a stick that they used for the fire and carried it with him.

  Hours later, they walked along the shore and gazed at the back half of the ship, which was not far out. The peak of the back of the ship stuck out of the water as Sam kept walking towards it.

  “I can’t believe this part of the ship is still here. I thought it was all gone.” Sam said.

  “I can’t either. There’s no escaping this island now.” David said.

  As they kept walking, they heard one infected come up behind them.

  “Oh shit!” Sam yelled as he gripped the stick, hit the infected onto the ground, and forced the end of the stick into its chest. Sam gagged as the blood poured onto the stick, but the infected didn’t die.

  “What the hell!”

  The infected kept reaching for him and scared Sam as he pulled the stick out. The infected grabbed his leg, but David and Sarah pulled it off him.

  “Stab him in the head!” David yells.

  Sam screams and shoves the stick into its head. Sam let go of the stick and puked next to it. Sarah covered her mouth and closed her eyes to prevent from puking also. David pulled the stick out and looked at the blood on the end of the stick.

  “Well, the good thing about being a doctor is being used to seeing blood and gore. It still scares me though. This is different.”

  “I knew it was in the head!” Sam grunts.

  “Then why didn’t you do it?” Sarah asked.

  “I freaked out. I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted it dead.”

  David walks over the infected and stares at it. Its teeth had flesh in between them and the eyes had turned a light yellow. The flesh on it also started to peel off as if it burned recently.

  “Gross. Is this all that it does to you?” David asked.

  “I guess so. It’s scary if you ask me.” Sarah said.

  David gives Sam the stick and Sam stood up and continued walking towards the ship. They began walking into the water, but they all stopped when a dead body floats in front of them. Sarah gasps and looks away as Sam walks up to it and pushes it to the side. Sam grunts and keeps calm from freaking out. Their trouble became worse when many more bodies appeared in front of them, blocking their way to get to the ship.

  “No, I can’t!” Sarah freaks out.

  “Come on Sarah. We have to. We’re already here.”

  Sarah looked at the bodies and slowly began walking behind Sam close as they moved through the bodies. While walking through the bodies, Sarah looks at them to make sure that Dylan wasn’t one of the dead bodies. They continued past the bodies and the water slowly rose to them. Once they finally got past the bodies, they were already deep into the water, which meant they had to swim from now on.

  Sam starts swimming towards the ship and Sarah closely behind him. David looked at them swimming and hesitated for a moment. Sam crawled on the side of the ship and he helped Sarah get up also, but David wasn’t around.

  “Where is he?” Sam asked.

  David appeared above them inside the ship and waved. “You know there was a huge hole on the side of the ship, right?”

  Sam slaps his hand on his face and climbs up to David as he helped him and Sarah inside. Sam shakes some of the water off him and grunts, “I hate being wet.”

  Sam looked inside of the ship, but it was barely noticeable. There were electricity lines everywhere and tables and chairs filled the ship as the water took up most of the space inside. Sam knew it was going to be hard getting around the ship and he wanted to be careful.

  “Come on, we can do this,” Sam said.

  They started walking past the objects within the ship, but as they looked around, they all knew there wasn’t going to be anything to find.

  “Sam, there is nothing. Look at this!” David said.

  “No, something has to be here!”

  “Look around Sam. There is literally nothing! At least in this part of the ship.”

  “Okay, but we should at least try.”

  “Yeah, but hurry up. I don’t want to be here!” Sarah cries.

  In front of him was a big metal object that seemed unusual to them. Whatever it was, it was a part of the ship once and it blocked their way from getting to the other side.

  “What part of the ship is this?” David asked.

  “It looks like the main part of the room. The front of the ship.” Sarah replies.

  “So, the main room should be on top, right?”

  “I guess, but I’m pretty sure everything else is…under water.”

  “So are we if we don’t hurry!” David murmurs.

  The ship suddenly starts to shake and the water started rising. David lost control and fell into the water. Sam and Sarah looked down and tried to find him, but he suddenly popped out of the water and looked around.

  “Hold on David!” Sam yelled.

  Sarah looked for a way he could go and saw the opening across from him. “Swim out of here!”

  David looked at the opening and swam towards it.

  “Come on! We have to go!”

  Sam grabbed Sarah’s hand and they ran towards the opening, but the ship shook again and caused the both of them to fall also. The ship came down on them slowly and Sam’s eyes got big and he rushed them to get out of the ship, but before they were able to get outside the ship, the ship completely fell inside of the water and they all fell in the water. Sam opened his eyes and looked around. They were still on the ship and it was quickly sinking, which could drag them down if they did not hurry. Sam started panicking and left Sarah and David, swimming as fast as he could out of the ship. Sam burst out of the water and started breathing heavily, but Sarah and David weren't there. Sam looked around and started getting scared. He felt bad for what he has done and got scared before Sarah and David came from underwater. Sam got excited and swam towards them, but Sarah was carrying David. Sam instantly got frightened and helped Sarah carry David on shore. Sam looked around and watched the ship sink into the water. The chance to find anything that could help them get off the island was lost. It sank with the ship along with their hope. Arriving on the shore, Sam dragged David on his back and placed his ear on his chest to see if he was breathing.

  “Place him on his side!” Sam suggested.

  Sarah rolled him over on his side, but it was useless. David had already woken up and coughed water up while gasping deeply. Sam exhaled loudly and started laughing.

  “Man, you scared the hell out of me!”

  “I scared myself too!”

  “I didn’t see you guys, so I figured you had already got out, but you weren’t.”

  “No worries. We are all alive. That’s what matters most.”

  “Yeah.”

  David and Sarah laughed along with him, but the sound of the infected echoed through the island.

  “Yeah, it’s time to go.”

  Sam got up and walked back to the island with Sarah and David. Hours later, they are all sitting inside of the cave, just sitting there thinking about what to do. Sam holds his stomach and listens to its growl. Everyone else feels the same way and David gets an idea.

  “Hey, why don’t we go out and find something to eat. I mean, there should be something out here, right?”

  “Yeah, but that’s a tough call to make. We just don’t know.” Sam repli
es, “But we won’t know for sure. I say it’s worth a try.”

  Mike starts laughing at their plan, “You guys are dumbasses.”

  “What are you talking about?” Sam asked.

  “There is no way off this island. As much as I want to get off this hellhole, I don’t think there is no possible way. You’re wasting time. There is no food here.”

  “You’re the dumbass. We are talking mostly about food. So how about you just sit there.”

  Mike stands up, “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

  “You apparently!” Sam yelled as he walked up to Mike. Sarah and Melissa jump in between them and separates them to prevent a fight.

  “We cannot do this right now! We need to keep our heads together and stop trying to fight each other over every little thing. Mike, stop being an asshole and Sam, do not get him started again. You got that?”

  Sam and Mike stared at each other with hatred and Sam walked to the other side of the cave as Mike snatched away from Mellissa and sat down. Sam thought about David’s plan and approached him.

  “Yeah. We could go find food, but just me and you.” He faces Sarah, “You’re going to be okay?”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

  “Well, we might want to hurry if we want to beat the sun,” David mentions.

  “Alright, let’s go.”

  Sam and David head out and Sarah locked themselves in the cave. Sam and David are walking, but they don’t have any weapons to defend themselves. They look around for any infected lurking around, but the island was silent. There was no noise from anywhere. All they heard was their footsteps crunching the leaves at each step they took. Sam listened for anything that they could eat, without them being eaten. David stopped in front of Sam and threw his arm up.

  “You hear that?”

  Sam stopped and listened, but he didn’t hear anything. Then he listened again. Suddenly, he heard birds chirping around. Sam was excited to hear life on the island, but it also worried him.

  “I hear them, but how are we going to get them if they can fly?” Sam asked.

  David grunts and rubs his hand on his head and thinks of another idea. While they stood there and thought about it, they heard branches breaking ahead of them. David and Sam squatted down and crept upon the sound, but when they looked, it was a rabbit. Sam smiled and David chuckled in a low tone as he approached the rabbit. The rabbit kept eating, not being aware of its surroundings and David nearly plunged at it, but an infected came from around the corner and snatched the rabbit from its hands. David screamed and jumped back, alerting the infected. It sunk its teeth into the rabbit and the rabbit screamed in pain, but the infected kept chewing away at it.