Plague of the Living Dead (The Z-Day Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  Plague of the Living Dead

  By

  Mark Cusco Ailes

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  Prologue

  Officer Ronda fought hard against his attacker. He was determined not to end up like his partner. He punched General Poe square in the face, hoping to knock him several feet backward to give him some time to retreat.

  General Poe stared hungrily at the police officer and growled. He moved toward him with glaring, milky-white eyes and an insatiable hunger only Officer Ronda’s living flesh could satisfy. He grabbed at his body, but Officer Ronda kept pushing his hands away. A low, frustrated moan came from General Poe. He reached out with his fingers splayed out and grabbed Officer Ronda’s uniform shirt and forced him closer. He opened his mouth, biting at the air, and drew him in even closer.

  Officer Ronda frantically pounded on the general’s chest trying to free himself, but to no avail. The first bite ruptured his jugular. A crimson rain burst from his neck and he went limp in the general’s arms.

  As he feasted on Officer Ronda’s body, an ambulance arrived and two paramedics exited and ran toward the general, not realizing what was happening. They approached him and stopped dead in their tracks. The general was feasting on the officer like the main course at a four-star restaurant. They backed away from the scene, sickened by what they were witnessing.

  They turned to retreat back to the ambulance, but were stopped by Officer Cartwright who had returned from the dead, missing most of his face. The paramedics looked at each other in disbelief. What was happening? They tried to push past him, but he grabbed one of them by the throat and forced him to the ground. The other paramedic turned to flee. As he did, he heard his partner’s flesh being torn apart and his cries for help. He looked around. Several zombies were shambling toward him. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was about to die. He looked at the two zombies, dressed like pilots, leaving the scene of a helicopter crash. Both of their bodies were mangled, but somehow, they were still able to move.

  He bowed his head to pray and turned to run, crashing into General Poe who grabbed him around the neck and forced his head toward his mouth and bit down.

  Chapter One

  Brinke Taylor filled her coffee cup with her morning cup of French Roast coffee and sat down at the table across from her husband, Owen. She was running ahead of schedule and figured it would be the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time with him. She stirred in two teaspoons of sugar while staring at him as he read the sports section of the morning paper. Usually watching him read the paper didn’t annoy her, but today it was different. She felt as though their marriage was going stale. She felt as though he was taking their marriage for granted. She slammed the spoon on the table and glared at him.

  Owen looked over the top of the paper. She was sighing heavily, alerting him to the fact something was bothering her.

  “All right, you have my attention,” he said, putting the paper down on the table. “What’s the problem?”

  She took a sip from her coffee. “Oh, nothing.”

  He had been married to her long enough to know when something was bothering her. He also knew ignoring her would only lead to an unwanted quarrel between them.

  “I put the paper down. I’m all ears. Please fill me in on what’s going on.”

  “It’s work. I guess it’s become routine. It’s the same thing day in and day out. I go in to the coffee shop, make coffee, serve the coffee, do the books, and then come home to make you dinner.”

  “I can make my own dinner.”

  She looked at him for a moment. “That’s not the point I was trying to make. I hate it when you do that. I don’t need you to make comments; I just need you to listen. As I was saying, when I bought the coffee shop, I thought my life would get interesting. I thought owning a coffee shop at the mall would be fun. Instead, it has become a routine job. I don’t want routine; I want excitement.”

  He looked at her too scared to respond. She was staring at him as if she was expecting him to say something about her situation. He searched his thoughts. He kept his gaze on her as she put her head down on the table.

  “I’m sorry; I don’t know what you want me to say.”

  She glared at him. “How about I understand how you’re feeling or why don’t you take a vacation or anything to show me you’re listening. Sometimes I wonder why we’re still married.”

  “Because if we weren’t still married, you would miss me.”

  She showed a hint of a smile. “Is that what you think? You don’t think I could find someone else who would make me happy?”

  “Why? Is there somebody else I don’t know about? Let me guess, it’s the coffee delivery guy.”

  She took a sip of her coffee. “Juan? I’ve never considered him before.”

  Owen shook his head. “Maybe you do need a vacation. Maybe we should take a trip to Disney or some place exotic.”

  “Thank you,” she said. She stood up and kissed him on top of his head and retreated to the bedroom with her cup of coffee. She heard the newspaper being picked back up as she left. She was used to it. Their marriage was routine. Every morning she got up, showered, got dressed, and went to the kitchen for her coffee. Every morning her husband would be sitting in his spot at the kitchen table, eating breakfast and reading his morning paper. She sat down on the bed and put her cup on the nightstand. She opened the nightstand drawer and pulled out a stack of papers. She looked at the top sheet. All I need is for him to sign the divorce papers, and I can have a new life. She placed them back in the drawer and closed it. She wasn’t quite there yet. She was willing to salvage what was left of their marriage if he would put some effort into it.

  She suspected he was cheating on her with his secretary. She couldn’t prove it, but her intuition was telling her something was going on behind her back. He worked a lot of late hours during the week. He was the president of a major firm, so she knew it could be one reason for the long hours, but she couldn’t explain his late night calls, his sneaking around, and his last minute meetings he had to attend for the weekend. She had considered hiring a private detective to follow him, but she was afraid of the results. Suspecting your husband is cheating was one thing, but actually knowing he’s cheating was another.

  She only had the divorce papers drawn up behind his back because she needed to know she had options. If the situation went beyond tolerable, or if she did find out he was cheating on her, she could serve him with the papers.

  She walked into the bathroom and stared at her image in the mirror. Where had the years gone? Twelve years of marriage had riddled her face with wrinkles. She did a good job of covering them with makeup, but it was only a band aid. She knew she was getting older, and no amount of makeup could change that fact. She fixed her hair and left the bathroom.

  All she had left promising in her life was her coffee shop. It was the one place that kept her sane. That was until it became routine. She needed to make a change. She had thought about adding a bakery. It would have to be small, but it could make the welcome change she needed in her life. She thought about it. Could making doughnuts and cakes make my life exciting again? She didn’t know for sure, but she knew one thing for sure–something had to change.

  Driving to work each day had also become routine. Sometimes she wished for some major construction forcing her to detour around the familiar streets she drove
every day. Every now and then, an accident slowed her down, but accidents weren’t the type of things she wanted changing her routine. She didn’t want innocent people getting hurt because of her boredom.

  She pulled into the parking lot of the mall and ventured inside. She was met by one of the guards she encountered every morning.

  “It’s time to make the coffee,” he said, as she walked past him.

  “Are you stopping by this morning, Terrance, for your free cup of coffee?” She really liked him. He was always polite, and she could tell he enjoyed her coffee. She never charged him for it. She figured it was her payment to him for helping keep the mall a safe place.

  She stood inside the shop. She enjoyed the way it always smelled inside. It made her feel like a kid in a candy store. She went into the back area and looked at the numbers from the previous day. Soon the shop would be showing enough profit she wouldn’t need her husband’s money any more. If she wasn’t dependent on him, she wouldn’t need to be married to him any longer.

  The day began as she expected. She saw the same customers, made the same coffee, and listened to her morning shift employees complain about the same things. Then something suddenly changed.

  Terrance entered the coffee shop looking alarmed. He approached the counter and looked at her.

  “Did you hear the news? There was a terrorist attack in Indiana. They dropped a nuclear bomb in some place called Valparaiso.”

  “What are you talking about, Terrance?”

  “It’s all over the news. Thousands of people have been killed. President Thomas Andrews is supposed to address the nation in an hour. I have to go and tell everybody in the mall.”

  She stood frozen in place after hearing the news. She looked around the coffee shop. Everybody was discussing it while they drank their morning coffee. She thought about calling Owen, but what good would that do? He probably already knew about it. She was unsure of what she should do. Should she continue her morning as though nothing had happened? People were still going to want their morning coffee. She saw one of her employees watching the news on her smartphone.

  “What are they saying?” she asked, approaching her.

  Her employee turned her smartphone so she could see the report. A reporter was standing there, warning people to stay away from Valparaiso and the surrounding areas.

  “They’re reporting that Valparaiso was attacked by terrorists, and they don’t expect anybody survived the attack,” said Christina, her front counter server.

  “When did this happen?”

  “Yesterday evening.”

  Brinke looked confused. “I didn’t see anything about this on the news last night.”

  “It’s because the military was dealing with the situation all night. They wouldn’t let the reporters near the area until they assessed the situation.”

  Brinke thought about all the people who lost their lives in the attack. She decided she was going to give a free coffee to all mall workers today. It was the least she could do for everybody stuck at work today.

  “The president is about to speak,” said Christina, continuing to watch the report. “We’re finally going to find out what happened.”

  President Andrews’ image appeared on her smartphone. He had a saddened look on his face. Standing next to him was General Milkwood. He looked silently at the camera for several seconds before speaking.

  “My fellow Americans, yesterday evening our country suffered a great tragedy. Our enemies of freedom have committed an unthinkable act against our country. A nuclear device was detonated in Valparaiso, Indiana affecting not only the city, but several areas surrounding it. The death toll is expected to reach in the thousands. The military, led by General Milkwood, is investigating this tragedy, and they are on a rescue mission searching for any survivors of the attack. Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. Through this loss, America will unite and stand against the terrorists who have committed this unspeakable crime against the American people. Freedom will sharpen its claws and fight back, strong and brave. God Bless America.”

  He stepped back and let General Milkwood take center stage. He thanked the president for his speech and turned to face the camera. He shuffled through a small stack of papers and thought about how he was going to address the nation.

  “I’m General Milkwood, and I have been put in charge of the search and rescue efforts occurring in Valparaiso, Indiana. It is our hope we find survivors, but Valparaiso is ground zero and we’re not expecting those numbers to be favorable. Once rescue efforts have been exhausted, a wall will be constructed around the entire affected area. Highways will be built around these areas to bypass the walls. Your patience will be greatly appreciated since this process will take some time. Valparaiso and the surrounding areas will be considered restricted to non-residents. This will be enforced by the military and violators will be arrested. Information about the attack on Valparaiso is still filtering in. To date, we don’t know who is responsible for the attack nor has any group come forward taking credit for the attack. I urge citizens not to venture to Valparaiso and hamper search and rescue efforts. Reporters will not be allowed inside the affected areas. There will be a special hourly briefing session for reporters in an area set up by the military. Now I must head to Valparaiso. I will answer any questions at a later date.”

  Christina looked at Brinke. “I have this feeling they’re not telling us the whole story. You can tell they’re leaving important information out.”

  She looked at Christina. She was probably right. The government often kept pertinent information from the public. She thought about calling Owen to see if he heard the news. She quickly dismissed the notion. She didn’t feel like discussing anything with him. She was sure whoever he was cheating with was discussing the topic with him at the moment. She felt anger bellowing inside her. She had to keep her composure; she had to attend to brewing more coffee. If she was going to provide free coffee to the mall employees, she had to make sure she had plenty on hand. She looked around the shop. Customers were already lining up for their morning coffee. She sighed. It was going to be a long day.

  Chapter Two

  Two paramedics hurriedly brought a gurney into the emergency room, followed by another. They had just left the sight of a helicopter crash where they found two police officers who had been attacked and killed. They had found no other bodies at the scene. It puzzled them. They located more pools of blood than the two officers combined had lost. Neither of the paramedics could fathom where the other bodies had vanished to. They knew for sure they were missing some other paramedics because there was an ambulance abandoned at the scene.

  They rushed both gurneys into the ER and were met by a doctor on duty.

  “What do you have?”

  “We have two police officers who were attacked by something.”

  “Do you have any idea by what?” asked the doctor. “Are we talking something like a wild animal?”

  “We don’t know, Doctor Crownover,” said one of the paramedics. “Whatever it was may have killed two paramedics. We found blood around their ambulance, but they were missing.”

  “Are you suggesting they got attacked by a wild animal?” asked the doctor.

  “I don’t know what I’m suggesting. All I know is we couldn’t locate their bodies.” He showed them the bite on one of the officer’s heads. “This looks like an animal did this.”

  “The doctor couldn’t believe the wound he was staring at. He looked at the paramedics. “Get them behind curtains one and two. I want to look at them more closely. If we have a wild animal loose killing people, we need to inform the proper authorities.”

  They wheeled the gurneys behind curtains one and two and moved the bodies to hospital beds. Once they had finished, they left the emergency room to head to their next call. Neither of them discussed the possibility of a wild animal being loose in the area.

  Five minutes away from the hospital they received another call about a young girl be
ing bitten by a pilot. The pilot had been killed by the girl’s father. Apparently, the pilot looked as though he had been dead for a while. The two paramedics looked at each other. First it was wild animals and now it was zombies.

  They arrived on the scene twenty minutes later to see a man frantically screaming a girl’s name. “Amanda, where are you?”

  They immediately saw the body of the pilot lying on the front lawn with a large gaping hole through his head. They rolled the gurney to him and examined the body. His face was in an advanced stage of decay. They looked at each other. The man was wearing a pilot’s uniform ripped to threads as if it had been in a terrible crash.

  “He has to be our missing pilot,” said Sean Koontz, one of the paramedics. He had been a paramedic for three years, and he had never encountered anything like he was witnessing on his shift today. His partner, Norman Sykes, tapped him on the shoulder.

  “The man over there is the one who must have called this in. I’m going to see what he knows.” He approached the man who didn’t acknowledge him, trying to get his attention. “Sir, where is the girl who got bit?”

  The man stopped yelling long enough to answer. “She was right here a minute ago. The pilot bit her. He took a large chunk out of her arm. She was bleeding profusely. I don’t understand it; she was right here a minute ago.”

  A squad car stopped in front of the house and a police officer approached Sean by the dead body.

  “Hey, Sean, is he dead?”

  Sean looked at the officer. “Hey, Jamie, get your notebook. The father over there shot him in the head. The pilot here took a chunk out of his daughter’s arm.”

  “How is she?”

  “She’s MIA. The father keeps calling for her.”

  Norman joined them. “She has long, dark hair and is wearing a white nightgown. She’s roughly twelve years of age. Apparently, she was attacked by this man here while she was getting the morning paper for her father.”