The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (30 page)

“That
works for me,” said Chlöe. “You’re the captain. God help us to survive this
trip. Will you allow me one short broadcast about New Zealand? I’ll make it
less than five minutes.”

“That’s
the last broadcast that this ship will make. When you’re done, shut everything
down. Have someone pump the fuel out and move it to the ship’s main tank.”

With
the news of New Zealand sinking in, everyone was in a state of shock. Knowing
that there might not be enough fuel, food or water on board to get to Tasmania had
everyone scared.

As
they headed to Tasmania, the seas started to pick up. The wind was blowing
towards them at a 15-degree angle to the bow. It was pushing them away from
their destination, towards Antarctica. This used more fuel than they had for
the trip. They ran out of fuel nearly 750 kilometers from Tasmania. They were
now adrift at the mercy of the seas.

It had
now been some five months, nearly six since they first broadcast their report
about the first zombie killings back in Melbourne. It felt like it was so long
ago. They had been drifting for three months now. The captain had rigged a sea
anchor. This would help keep the ship’s bow turned into the wind. By doing
this, they would be taken where the sea or the wind wanted to take them. The
only good thing about the sea anchor was that it made it less likely that the
Melbourne
Star
would be capsized by the waves.

By now
the ship and crew had drunk all but about twenty gallons of the water. They
were down to only two small cups a day each. The food was in the same state. They
caught fish to supplement their food. It was the water that made it a living
hell. When it rained, they caught the rainwater using all the canvas they had
and stored it in barrels on the deck.

While
at sea, several people had died. They were buried at sea, wrapped in canvas
with a weight sewn in, and dumped over the side into the sea. Now, with the
last of the water being rationed, the rest of them were not long for this
world. They huddled in small groups. They talked about anything and everything.
At times, some would agree that to be killed by the zombies would have been
more welcome than to die at sea for lack of food and water. They drifted. They
rocked on the waves. The ship felt so small with so much water around them.

They
had taken most of the broadcast equipment and thrown it overboard. They wanted
to make room to stay out of the sun. They wanted to have room to see if a
passing ship was coming to help them. What they didn’t know was that their
course was following the ocean currents.

They
had missed Tasmania by only 89 kilometers. They drifted out into the Indian
Ocean. Their only hope would be if they drifted close to one of the three small
islands ahead of them. Unfortunately, the islands were either sparsely
inhabited or not at all. The next closest land mass would be the southern tip
of Africa. However, they wouldn’t live long enough to see it happen.

So
they continued to drift. With no help forthcoming, they could see that the end
was not too far away. No one was coming to rescue them. Soon their ship would
be a ship of death. They would just be another statistic in the global battle
against the zombies.

New York

They’d
been walking for three days since being scammed. They had found a little food
that kept them going. Water was easier to deal with; it was starting to cool
down, and with the cooling of the summer came the rain. They had the ability to
collect rainwater. They even found more containers to carry the water in. If
only it was that easy to find food, they would be fine.

On the
fourth day since they had been robbed, Jerry noticed another group ahead of
them. They followed them most of the day, staying out of sight. It looked as if
they were going in the same general direction. They had made it through Garden
City. When the other group set themselves up in a building for the night, the
four found a secure building nearby. That night, from the building that the four
had chosen, they saw a small fire where the other group was cooking. Jerry
counted five people. They appeared to be a little older — perhaps in their
early 20’s, Jerry guessed.

That
night, Mike asked Jerry, “Have you been watching the other group?”

“Yeah,
I’ve been keeping my eye on them. It looks like there are five of them.
Somehow, they seem different than anyone else we met from the city. Should we
take a chance and try to talk to them?”

“If
you feel okay with it, Jerry, I guess I don’t have too much to say. I think we
need to keep the girls out of sight until we know them a little better. Maybe
take a walk with them, but I want to keep the street between us.”

“All
right. Here is what I think we can do. I’ll go to the other street behind us.
From there I’ll catch up with them. You guys can come down this street, but
keep yourself far enough behind so they can’t see you,” said Jerry. “When I get
ahead of them, I’ll come back to this street, coming out ahead of them. From
there I can talk to them without you guys being seen. What do you think?”

“I
think that’ll work,” Mike said. “I’ll find a place where the girls can hide
out. I can come up behind them on this side of the street in case you have a
problem with them. I won’t be very far away in case you need anything.”

“We’ll
be up at first light. We should get everything packed up and ready to go. As
soon as they leave, we’ll leave too. We can stay a few blocks behind them out
of sight while you can do your thing on the other street. I’ll come up behind
them as soon as you start talking to them.”

“I
think that just might work. In fact, that’s a great plan. I’ll have the last
girl on watch wake me an hour before the sun comes up. Let’s get some rest.
We’ll need it tomorrow if this goes sideways on us. Who knows. They might turn
out to be our next best friends.”

“Guys,
we have a little food,” said Jennifer. “Let’s all eat a bite. Then we can start
our watch while the others get to sleep.”

“Thanks,
Jennifer. I’ll grab a bite and take the first watch,” said Mike. “Mary can
follow me in two hours. Will that work for everyone?”

Everyone
nodded in agreement. When the meager dinner was ready, Jennifer divvied out the
food. They all ate in silence. Then everyone except Jerry got their bedding
ready. Tomorrow would be a good day or a bad day. It all depended upon the
unknown group.

As the
sun rose, Jerry was getting everyone up so they could get ready. Mike was on
watch, looking for the other group to leave the building where they had slept.
A little way up the street, the other group left their building and started on
their way.

Mike
snapped his fingers. Jerry helped the girls load up what little they had to
carry so they could get out on the street and start on their way. Jerry walked
with the group for an hour or so. Then he kissed Mary, nodded at Mike and Jen,
and crossed over to the side street. He was able to make good time using a
parallel street to get ahead of the other group. They had walked another half
an hour before Jerry came out ahead of them.

Jerry
could see that there were five young people: three men and two women. They
didn’t look much older than he was. Cautiously, Jerry stepped into the middle
of the street ahead of them. He held both of his hands away from his body at
waist height with his palms facing toward them, showing them that he did not
have a weapon. Jerry called to them, “Hello there. I’m not here to hurt you.
All I want to do is talk. I’ve been following you for a while. My name is
Jerry. I’m trying to get to back home to East Norwich, out on Long Island. How
are you doing?”

The
man that appeared to be the other group’s leader walked forward to talk to
Jerry. As he stood face to face with Jerry, he held out his hand to shake
Jerry’s. As they shook hands, the other man announced, “Hi, Jerry. My Name is
John Eddyson. It’s good to meet you. Just to let you know, we’ve been watching
your group following us for the last two days. We were wondering if and when
you’d come up and say hello. We don’t mean you any trouble, either. We decided
to leave it up to you as to when we’d finally meet.”

“Wow!
I thought we were doing a better job of staying out of your sight. I guess we
aren’t as stealthy as we thought.” Jerry smiled. “We’re trying to get to East
Norwich, near Oyster Bay Harbor. It’s on the northwest side of Long Island. I
guess since you know about us, if you’ll give me a minute, I’ll call the rest
of our group to come out.”

“Hey,
we’re from Massapequa! And sure, that’s fine. We know there are four of you.
You might as well call them now.”

With
that, Jerry waved to Mike to come on out. As Mike walked up to them, Jerry
explained to him what was going on.

“Mike,
this is John. They know that we have been following them for a couple of days.
Go back and get the girls. Tell them it’s okay. These guys are good people. You
can wait next to that building on this side of the street, all right?”

“Sure,
Jerry. No problem. Is everything good?”

“Everything’s
fine. They’re from Massapequa, on the other side of Long Island from us. They
just want to get home, like us.”

Mike
trotted back to the girls. “Jerry says they’re okay. He wants us to come up
there with him.”

The
three started up the street to meet the others.

“It
sounds like it’ll probably be better than those guys from last week. Just the
fact that they’re not from New York City makes them better in my book.” They
continued on their way. Mike noticed that Mary seemed a little somber. “Mary,
are you all right?”

“I
just don’t want to go through the same thing we did last time,” said Mary. “We
were really lucky that time. All I want is for Jerry to go slower with them.”

The
girls followed Mike to the building on their side of the street. As Mike
waited, he gave Jerry a thumbs up. Jerry nodded back at him, smiling. Mike
thought to himself,
This might just turn out better that that last bunch we met.
John continued talking to Jerry.

“As I
was saying. We’ve walked here all the way from Harlem. All we want to do is get
back home. With no cars, no trains, no buses or even cabs, the only way left
for us is to walk. We live in Massapequa out on Long Island. My name is John
Eddyson. My wife, Sally, is that tall blonde over there. She’s 21 and I’m 22.
The short, stocky guy with the Marine buzz cut is Peter Anderson. His
girlfriend is next to him, the one with the long, brunette hair. Her name is
Alice Hasselbald. They’re both 21. And the last guy is Sid Valdez. He’s the
short, wide guy, our resident nerd” — he grinned — “and he’s also 21, and is
single by choice, not because of the zombies. All five of us came to New York
City for Peter and Alice’s wedding.

“We
were in our hotel rooms by the American Museum of Natural History, next to
Central Park on the east side — on Columbus Avenue near 79
^th
Street
— when the shit hit the fan with the zombie thing.

“It
had started to get dark, and we heard a scream outside, down on the street. We
all rushed to the windows and saw this zombie killing somebody down on the
sidewalk. That was our first indication that things were changing. From that
point on, nothing was ever going to be the same again.

“Peter
and Alice were supposed to get married the next day. They’d even put a deposit
down on one of the buildings on the museum grounds for the ceremony. After the
killings started, we figured that they weren’t gonna be able to get married,
nor were they going to get their deposit back,” he laughed.  

“We
started trying to get home the next day. Nothing was running, no cabs, no
buses... We’ve been walking towards home ever since. All we want to do is get
home back to Massapequa. Nothing else. We just want to go home. The people in
the city are too violent for us, and I’m not talking about the zombies.”

“We
know what you mean about the locals,” said Jerry. “We’ve run into some of them
a couple of times now. We got robbed of all of our food and water a few days
back. We’ve been working hard to find enough to eat since then, without much
success.” He stopped, shaking his head.

“We’re
all in high school. This is gonna be our senior year! We came to the city for
an end-of-summer fling before our last year of high school started. Now we just
want to get out of this shithole of a city. The day we got here we took a
shortcut through the subway tunnels. That’s when two of our friends got killed
by the zombies.”

He
heaved a heavy sigh. “Just like you, all we want to do is go home. That’s all.
As far as the New Yorkers go, we’d sooner deal with the zombies than with some
of them. At least you know right up front that the zombies want to kill you…
you can never be sure about the city people.”

He
continued, “Just to let you know, we are not looking to join another group. We
got burned pretty bad recently. But we don’t mind walking the same direction
with you. We’re just on edge right now. I hope you understand.”

“I do
understand, Jerry. We don’t want to run into any more gangs from the city
either. It seems like they’re all gangbangers or thugs. They’d rather kill you
and take your stuff than search for their own. We understand if you don’t warm
up to us right away. We can keep our distance, and just going the same
direction.”

“John,
I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Could you hold on for a minute, please? I
want to go talk to my people and let them know what’s up. I’ll be right back.”

“Sure,
Jerry. I’ll go talk to my group, too. We can meet back here in fifteen minutes
or so.”

Jerry
walked back to the other side of the street to bring his friends up to date.

“Hi,
guys. That guy’s name is John Eddyson. They’re all from Massapequa, on the
other side of Long Island.” He explained about the cancelled wedding, and said
“They’d like to walk along with us, not too far from us, since we’re all going
in the same direction. Is that all right with you guys?”

“You
remember what happened to us about a week ago, right?” said Mike. “I don’t want
to go through anything like that ever again. If they follow us, that’s all
right with me, but they’ll have to find their own place to sleep, and we still
stand our night watch.”

“That
sounds good to me, Mike,” said Jerry. “If they stay on the other side of the
street, it’ll be okay for now. We have a hard time finding enough to eat. Maybe
they might have other ways to find food that we’re missing out on. What do you
think, Mary?”

“I’d
like to see how this works out first before we start being best buddies with
them,” said Mary. “They’re not from the city, which is good thing as far as I’m
concerned. They want to get back home just like us, and it’d be easier to do
that with more help. I’m all for letting them walk near us as long as we sleep
in different places. Other than that, I’m okay with it, Jerry.”

“All
right, it sounds like everyone is good with this. Let me go back and have a
talk with John.”

Both
men — John from his group and Jerry from his — came back out to the middle of
the street. John carried a flat piece of wood, like a roof shingle, holding it
like a tray, with a piece of cloth covering something on it. He handed it to
Jerry as they met again.

“Hey,
John. What have you got there?”

“Well,
you told me that you guys haven’t been eating much lately. We have some food.
It’s not much, but we’re willing to share it with you. If you want to take it
over to your friends, I’ll wait for you here.”

Jerry’s
surprise was evident on his face. “John… this is great, but, you know, you
don’t have to do this.”

“We
want to. Take it to them so they can eat, and then come back and we’ll talk
some more. I’ll wait for you right here.”

“Okay,
I’ll be right back. Thank you.”

Jerry
took the food and walked back to his group.

“Look
at this, guys. They gave us some food so we can eat tonight. I’ve gotta go back
to talk to him. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Jerry
handed the food to Mike, then he walked back out to finish talking to John.

“Thanks
again for the food. You’ve got no idea how much that means. I talked to my
people, and they agreed that we can travel together, just on either side of the
street for now. We’re all going in the same direction. But for now, at night,
it’d make us feel better if we slept in different buildings. Will that work for
you? Just so you know, we were scammed really bad about a week ago. We lost
everything. Please don’t think we’re judging you because of what someone else
did. We’re just trying to be more careful. And thanks again for the food. We
really needed it. Sometimes we’ve gone a long time between meals.”