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Prologue
Bailey – Age 10
2hourseastofNashville, TN
My heart was thundering in my chest. Daddy told me to run to the garage and not to look back. Mommy was sick like those people from the news, and she tried to get me and Matty. Daddy told me to run. I silently watched the door that led into the house, wishing Daddy would come through it with Matty.
Finally, I heard Matty’s cries getting closer, and relief flooded me as Daddy came barreling through the door with Matty, slamming it shut behind him. A loud thud on the other side of the door told me Mommy was still after us. Daddy handed me my fifteen-month-old brother and barricaded the door as best he could. He came down the few steps and held me by my shoulders, ushering me towards the big roll-up door, the clicker for it in his hands.
He pulled a walkie-talkie from his pants pocket and held it to his mouth. “House two sixty-six is ready for extraction, threat still active.” Someone answered him, and their words sounded jumbled to my ears before Daddy put the walkie-talkie back in his pocket and knelt before me. “Ok, Buttercup, listen to me. Some people are going to come to get us. I need you to be a big girl and care for your brother. Can you do that? Can you do that for Daddy?”
“Yes, sir,” I whispered, flinching from another loud bang from the door. He pulled me and Matty into his arms and squeezed tightly.
“Good girl, I knew I could count on you. I love you both so much.” He kissed my forehead, then Matty’s. I heard a loud truck pull up outside before three loud knocks rang on the aluminum door. Daddy went over to the button, his hand slapping it in haste. The door started to rise as wood splintering filled the garage. Fear paralyzed me as I watched Mommy start to bust through the door.
Daddy grabbed us and shoved us under the rising door, crawling out behind us. He wrapped his arms around us and lifted us into a pair of waiting arms. He stood up on the tire and held my face in his hands. “I’m sorry, Buttercup, be strong. I love you so much; don’t ever forget that.” He jumped off the truck and turned back to the garage. Mommy was halfway through the hole she had made in the door.
“Hal, what the fuck are you doing? Get in the God damned truck! Carrie is gone, Hal! You can’t help her anymore, but you sure as fuck can help your kids!”
“Take care of them, Jordan. She’s the love of my life. I can’t just leave her,” Daddy said, not sparing us a second look.
I felt the truck shift into gear, the engine’s roar drowning me out. “Daddy!” I screamed. He didn’t look back, and the last thing I saw before we drove out of view was the blood shooting from his body from Mommy tearing into him as he held her tightly in his arms. He chose death with her over life with us.
That was the first lesson the zombie apocalypse taught me. Love is a weakness, and it makes you do some really dumb shit.
Chapter one
Iwasstartledawakeand lay there trying to control my breathing as the remnants of the familiar nightmare washed over me. I had been having that nightmare for the last seventeen years. You would think that it would have stopped affecting me by now. Though, I’d take that nightmare over the other ones I have regularly. I listened to the sounds of the house, trying to pinpoint what had woken me, when I heard the slight squeak of the screen door hinges as it was quietly opened and shut.
I shook my head as I smiled to myself. Matty. He thought he was sneaky with his secret relationship with the girl who lived a few miles away, but he wasn’t. His relationship with Anna was the worst-kept secret around. Her parents and I have discussed it several times while laughing at how they thought they were being slick. My smile faded as I thought about the fact that he was over eighteen and would be leaving soon. Anna’s parents told me they would invite him to live with them as they weren’t comfortable letting their daughter go and had plenty of room. They ran a much bigger operation than I did. They offered to let me move in, too, but that wasn’t something I could do. Never again would I live in someone else’s house.
After that fateful day, Uncle Jordan cared for Matty and me for about six months until he went on a scouting mission and never returned. After that, a couple, Jenn and Scott, took us in, and I was relieved that I would have help taking care of Matty. I was relieved until Scott came into my room one night and almost every night after that for seven years. I told Jenn what was happening, and she laughed. “Better you than me,” she had said. “What? Did you think living under our roof, eating our food, and benefiting from our protection wouldn’t cost you anything?”
That was when I learned the second lesson of the zombie apocalypse. Nothing is freely given, not anymore. Every kindness comes with a price, and you better make sure you can pay it. So, for seven years, I endured. It kept Matty safe and fed. I wasn’t old enough to care for him alone; I needed their help. Plus, it allowed me to learn how to shoot and fight, survive in this apocalyptic nightmare, and make sure Matty survived it. It wasn’t until Matty turned eight and I noticed Scott paying more attention to him that the price became too much. I wouldn’t let that man touch my brother. It was time for us to leave and make it on our own.
I had been going on scouting trips for the past two years. Before its official fall, the government had built massive concrete walls around the bigger cities, containing most of the infected population. There were still plenty of zombies around, but they tended not to be in numbers so big that one or two people couldn’t easily kill them on their own. On one of my trips, I located a pharmacy. Most useful medications were cleaned out, but I stumbled upon a nice little stash of sleeping pills. I took and hid them, knowing they might come in handy one day.
It took me a week to solidify my escape plan and squirrel away as much as possible, hidden in a bag in the barn. I would do a final sweep the night of as we were leaving. The plan was set. All I had to do was wait for my opportunity. I had already ground up the pills into powder. Finally, one night, my opening came. Jenn and Scott were celebrating their anniversary, ironic, considering he’d spent the last seven years of their wedded bliss raping a child. Because they were celebrating, they got drunk early in the evening and began having me fetch their drinks. I slowly put more and more of the sleeping powder into their drinks until it was all gone and lights out for them.
I wasted no time gathering food and packing the rest of my and Matty’s things. Quietly, I took him to the barn, fetched the rest of the supplies, then saddled up my favorite two horses and took off. I had an idea of where I wanted to go, the most critical factor being as far away from Jenn and Scott as possible. To this day, I have no idea if they ever woke up from their drug-induced slumber or not, but I do know they never found us. After traveling for several days, we came across this abandoned house, still in great shape, and moved in. It had a barn, a paddock for the horses, and the capabilities to provide us with a decent living. Eventually, I met more of the neighbors around us, and while I would never fully trust anyone, I did need to trade with them for livestock and other essentials.
Ten years later, here we still were. I had a farm that provided more than enough for us, and we didn’t see zombies too often. The house had solar panels, so we were lucky to have hot water, heat, and lights, and our stove was electric. All the top-notch amenities one looks for in the zombie apocalypse. I managed to raise Matty to be a brave, intelligent, sweet, capable young man, and now he wanted to leave me. I couldn’t blame him as much as I wanted to. He deserved to find happiness in life. Knowing this day is coming doesn’t make it any easier.
I heard the scraping of the kitchen chairs on the floor and what definitely sounded like more than one set of feet. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my knife and shotgun, opening my door quietly and creeping down the hall. Maybe it wasn’t Matty coming home after all. Whoever it was, they made a mistake coming into my home. I rounded the corner and silently took in the scene before me. Matty was here, as well as four other men. I tried to figure out precisely what was happening as they spoke to each other in hushed, excited voices.
That was when I saw a fifth man being held between the others, blood dripping from a wound in his leg. “Here, put him on the table,” Matty instructed them. They placed him on the table as I cocked my gun and pointed it at the injured man’s head. They all froze at the sound.
“What the fuck is going on, Matty?” I said evenly. “Who are these men, why did you bring them here, and more importantly, has he been bitten?” Matty jumped between the man and my gun, causing me to lower it instantly.
“B, don’t shoot anyone. They’re with me, well, I found them anyway. He hasn’t been bit. He broke his leg in a gopher hole.” I gave him a long, hard stare, making him gulp.
“And why did you bring them here instead of Anna’s?”
“Anna- why would I- how did you- I- None of that is important right now,” he said, flustered. “I brought them here because we have the room, and everyone knows his best chances are with you.” I gave a long sigh and looked up at the ceiling. He wasn’t wrong. I spent most of my free time as a child learning everything I could about how to help people. I was lucky enough to spend time with several doctors and nurses through the years who happily taught me everything they could. I had to learn as much as possible to take care of Matty.
“Fuck. Fine. Get his pants off, and then everybody wash their hands. Matty, start a pot of water to boil. I’ll grab out my kit. This won’t be pretty, and I can’t make any promises on the outcome, but I’ll do what I can.” I placed the gun and knife on the counter and pulled my hair into a messy bun.
“Ummm, Bailey,” Matty said, keeping his eyes on my face.
