All places and names are fictious. Any resemblance to persons or places past and present is coincidences. All work is the imagination of the author and therefore copy righted material.
For the Night Stalkers
Prologue
In the year Twenty-twelve the world under went a global shift. This fifteen-degree shift was the direct result of an nine point nine earthquake in the South Asian Sea. It seemed to Mother Nature that wasn’t punishment enough for the humans so she sent a wall of water. The tsunami that followed in the quake’s aftershocks damaged four nuclear power plants on a small but densely populated island country. Two of the nuclear plants did not survive the ocean’s fury and started the slow descent of melt down despite the efforts of the scientists who tried in vain to stop the catastrophe. It resulted in ten years of chaos on a global scale and a readjustment of lifestyles.
In the year Twenty-twenty-two the world had a different map from the turn of century. Rivers cut the landscape down different valleys while dams that once held back their natural flow sat dry. Toothpicks stood where once a forest flourished and parts of the Great Desert became tropical paradises. Countries once hot and dry were wet and cold. Some were lucky enough to have the temperate weather it envied of its Southern neighbours, some of which didn’t survive. Some countries remained in tacked whilst others lost limbs, coast lines and major cities.
Inland, civilization managerd to carry on but only just so. It was up to the new generation to make sense of the choas the world had just survived. They maintained the infrastructure left standing from the past, and tried to improve upon it bearing in mind the sensitivity of their new eco-system.
While the scientists of the world mapped the change of migrations, reversed ocean currents, and the shift of air currents, they ignored a corner of what was once a Northern Pole. Prior to the melting and the dawn of mankind, an asteroid crash landied. After the Great Shift, the site had been exposed to the warm rays of the sun. They were oblivious to the black rock that slowly weeped into the melting ground water as it and the surrounding terrain warmed. If they had they may have had the skills and technology to avoid what lay ahead for the future of mankind. For what lay weeping was a mixture ready for the right microbial to find and merge, thus becoming one of the biggest threats that mankind would know.
It was in the year Twenty-twenty-four the reports started to leak out although; Countries not wanting to admit they had a problem denied them; repeatedly. A zombie-like disease did existed and it was affecting humans. Scientists were frantically tracing its DNA in the attempts to understand and stop the disease. They had learned it mutated from a bacterial virus that caused arachnid insects to become drones as the bacteria sought out nutrients for its survival. With global warming, exposure to nuclear radiation and whatever other elements that laid within the black rocks made for a lethal biological weapon engineered for the human brain; Bactirious Zombus was the new pandemic that nobody could stop.
In the year Twenty-Twenty-six the previous reports denied by countries first affected, were being confirmed as the epidemic grew and could no longer be hidden. Borders closed around the globe and imposed a mandatory quarantine on all recalled citizens. The old Twentieth Century iron curtain was back but this time it draped worldwide. Still the epidemic grew.
The Western Americas from the South to the North decided to handle hit the good old fashioned way; Decapitation followed up by a good ol’ dose of torching. Studies had shown any engagement with persons infected with Bactirious Zombus that resulted in decapitation instantly starved the Bacteria of oxygen and nutrients thus retarding the virus. The torching of the victims’ head and body ensured the disinfectant and eradication of the bacteria. In the Americas it became a military matter and not a medical one.
To the military the victims were already dead without a chance of survival. The human brain was the perfect environment for the bacteria to breed while the body possessed the nutrients for the bacteria to feed and the means to seek out such nutrients.
Military Zombie Squads became a fact of life in every community no matter how big or small. A squad was essential in both defence and evacuation. Larger cities took it upon themselves to start civilian squads working with the military to bolster both confidence and security. Companies with facilities on the outskirts of towns and cities also formed squads that worked with both the community and the military. The Federal Government funded them all. Zombie Squads were no longer a laughing matter for the lunchroom; they had become part of company training for night crews all over.
Part One
Section One
Dorian sat in the quiet of the white walled lunchroom lined with lockers waiting for her shift to start. Birthday streamers from a celebration long forgotten hung in a corner by the coat rack holding empty coat hangers. The cat faced clocked ticked above the door to serve a reminder of shift changes and breaks. Beside the clock, a calendar hung displaying the wrong month in the year Two Thousand and Thirty-two. The rectangle tables lined up to form an “H” with the chairs spaced for the human comfort level of three feet apart until the right hand upper corner with six chairs mashed as close together as they could be. Above hung a banner with the company name, logo and one-liner.
“Alleymart” in once bright green against a faded black back drop with “We bring Back Alley Prices to Main Street” in a dulled vibrant orange underneath. It was trashed and tattered, reminding only the veterans of the grand opening of days gone by.
It was in this corner that Dorian sat drumming her fingers on the bleached surface of the food and coffee stained table. Her long dark hair was held back in a ponytail. Perched on her perfectly rounded ears were tear drop pearl earrings. Long slender fingers rubbed her temples as a tense sigh release from her rose petal lips. She closed the lids shielding her sapphire blue eyes and wished her night were over with before it had even begun. She didn’t like the reports coming in.
Voices came down the hall breaking the peace and quiet of the moment for Dorian. The door swung open with zest as two others of Dorian’s crew entered in.
“Evenin’ Girl.” A short curvy woman came in. She headed straight for her locker with a second glance.
“You look like hell. You sleep?” Dark brown almond shaped eyes framed with thick lashes peered over at the slumped figure.
“Yeah, I did.” Dorian rolled her eyes; “I’ve been called into the office.”
“Uh oh.” Brindle turned back to her locker. “What did you do?”
“Knowing Dorian it could be anything.” The third quipped taking off her jacket. “I’m so sick of black. Just once I’d like to wear lime green and daffodil yellow to work.”
“Of course you would Helena, and then we can all play in the sandbox together.” Brindle looked over to Dorian, “Could it have to do with those dudes over in corner of the parking lot?”
Dorian shook her head hoping she was right. “It’s just a change of guard. They’ve done it before without notification. It’s the Military, they do what they damn well want, when they want without any regard to anybody.” Her last words she spat out.
“Whoa Girl” Brindle raised her hands. She grinned to Helena, “I think somebody is a little bitter.”
“Not bitter just sick of the red tape when I need to get something done from all sides.”
“Dorian Gray to the front office please,” came over the intercom of the building, “Dorian Gray to the front office.” The voice sounded urgent.
“That was your full name twice. Must be pretty important. You better get your sorry ass butt down there before they come looking for you.” Brindle grinned. Her white teeth gleamed in contrast against her dark coffee complexion that hid her age.
“She’ll just find a nook and disappear.” Helena sat down beside Brindle and started to undo her waist long braid. “Just bring us back the details of what we aren’t allowed to do anymore.”
“Ah” Brindle chimed up, “That would be everything we do for training. No bats, no blades, and now no fire. What next? No strings and buttons?”
“To be fair, we did accidentally burn the security shed down.” Helena shot at her as she began rebraiding her hair.
“Nobody got hurt, and besides we needed the fire practise. We put it out.” Her deep husky voice rose an octave.
“Explain that to the guys in the shack.” Helena grinned at her.
“Yeah, well they screamed like little girls so I don’t gotta explain nuttin’ to those guys.”
Dorian let the shut the door behind her before she could hear Helena’s retort. Normally she would have stuck around for the entertainment the two provided but she had a date with the front office. Something in the back of her brain told her it wasn’t going to be work related. She tried to shake the feeling as she made her way to the front of the store.
“Hey Dorian.” A soft voice from the glass entrance met her. “Gotta second?”
“What’s up Dawn?”
She was taller than Dorian by four inches and was heavier set with a soft brown tone. She was as fast and quick on the draw as she was lovely. But her wit and aim with a blade were deadly. She smoothed back a tendril of coal black hair and looked out the clear doors.
“A convoy showed up just as I was coming in to work.” Dawn glanced back to Dorian. Her chestnut coloured eyes were narrowed and her lips pursed together. “That can’t be good.”
“How many trucks you figure?”
“About five. They park over where the guard shack used to be.”
“There you are Dorian.” A male voice from behind her. “I need to speak with you.”
“I’ll find out what’s going down.” She gave a nod to her friend before turning around with a grim expression.
The look on her store manager’s face was equally grim. “Come for a walk with me.” His voice was low and whispered. She didn’t miss the fear in his words.
Dark blue eyes glanced over to her boss. “Omar you are scaring the crap out of me.”
He stopped a few feet away from the cosmetics counter, “You should be. Sitting in my office waiting for you is the lead of Prairie Town’s Zombie Squad and some Leftenant Major Cambell Blake.”
Dorian’s heart leapt to her throat making it hard to breathe. She felt like she had been kicked hard in the stomach. Let there be two men by that name, she silently prayed to herself.
“They won’t tell me what is happening and just insist they talk with you. They have only given me some papers saying that my store is now under the control of the military but I am to operate as normal.”
“Maintain the status quo.” Dorian muttered. The reports were true and she knew she was going to put on alert, which meant her boss had to listen to her before making any decisions.
“Omar.” She gave him a reassuring smile, “Let’s find out what they have to say and what I can tell you they say before we start jumping to any conclusions.”
“So what they said was true on the net, that Zombies have reached the Americas?”
“I don’t know. Maybe that’s why they’re here.” She shrugged, “but I had better not keep them waiting any longer.”
Dorian took a deep breath turning to face the dingy white closed door of her manager’s office. She didn’t know what to expect or how she would react to him. It had been a couple years and in that time her grief turned into anger. It was in the remaining three feet of the walk that she chose to ignore the fact he was the only man that ever made her scream from the passion of his love-making. And then ripped her heart out when he just left without a word after three years of togetherness. Dorian wasn’t angry, she was seething. It was best, she decided to be as professional as possible.
***
The office door pushed open a little to easily and hit the wall with a loud bang startling the two men inside. Dorian hadn’t expected the door to move when she gave it the customary shove open past the sticky point. She made a mental note to thank Tom, the head of maintenance.
“Apparently somebody fixed the door.” She said coming through.
A tall blond greeted her with an extended hand. “Hi, I’m Jacob Jackson, Squad Captain of Prairie Town’s Zombie Units. It’s finally nice to meet you. We’ve heard a lot about your squad.”
“And you said that with a straight face. Thank you Jacob, Dorian Gray at your service.” She shook his hand trying to ignore her heart beating inside her throat.
Steeling herself against all emotional onslaughts she turned to the large figure leaning against the desk with his arms folded across his chest. He hadn’t changed. Same piercing grey eyes, same cropped dark hair and same smug, arrogant look. Dorian fought the urge to walk up and slug him.
His chiselled features were observing watching her; sizing up her reaction to him; and wondering at the same time how much she hated him. Cambell admired her self-control but the flash of her eyes gave away her emotions. Her fury was a good sign. At least she still cared about him.
“Leftenant Major Blair.” She addressed him coolly.
“Dor…” He glanced to the other gentleman in the room, “Ms. Gray, thank you for coming. Please take a seat.”
“I prefer to stand, thank you.” She stepped over the side of the door and leaned against the wall.
“As you wish.” He stood up and picked up a file off the desk.
He handed them each a file folder with an official seal stamped on the top of the hemp papers inside. There was a lot of fine print with too many columns for Dorian’s liking. And her file was a lot thicker than her city counter part.
“As of now, you and your squads are no longer citizens, you are now part of the military and will conduct yourselves as such. Those are your orders. You and your squads are under my command,” The Leftenant Major was avoiding looking at her.
“Since when?” Dorian went rigid.
“Since our Government and the rest of the Americas’ have declared a Stage One Alert.”
“That was an hour ago.” Jacob informed Dorian.
“Shouldn’t there be others in on this conversation?” She glance over to the Leftenant Major, “What about the other side of Tramlaw?”
“Their Quadrant Commander are having this conversation with them as we speak?” He paused and glared at Dorian. “Please let me continue and I will explain everything that you need to know.” He walked around behind the desk and pulled down a map of the community and surrounding areas sectioned off into four sections.
“Great,” she let out a disgusted snort, “we are operating on the Military’s need to know basis.” She wanted to spit.
“You have a problem with that Squad Leader?” Grey glinting blades met sapphire ice.
“Yeah, I do.” Her voice was cold and harsh addressing him, “I have a real problem with that. I don’t like the unexplained or being sent into a situation being only half informed. I don’t operate on blind faith any more. Sir.” She straightened herself to her full height of five feet and three inches in defiance.
“I’m not asking for blind faith just some measure of trust. We don’t want panic.”
“Well your going to get panic if people don’t have answers. Their reasoning alone will drive the fear. You bloody well know it.” Dorian hotly debated. “The military assumes we are all idiots and can’t handle things like the truth.”
She didn’t stop as she pointed to the map behind him.
“According to that, Jacob’s teams are all internal and we are it for the outpost for the lower right corner. If that convoy of five trucks are all the men you’ve got outside then your going to need and want our help. You can decide here and now how you want to play this out. If its on a need to know basis then you will get, I promise you only minimal support from my squad. They don’t like to operate that way. You bring us in on every stage and you will get one hundred and ten percent from us.”
“And don’t forget,” She hissed adding, “after you guys slip away in the middle of the night without so much as a good bye,” she quietly spat the words at him, “we are the ones left behind to pick up the pieces and put our lives back together. This our turf, military or not.”
The Leftenant Major knew he should have expected some kind of backlash from her. Some where in his simple alpha male brain he had hoped that she would have forgiven him; that time had tempered the wound. The furious woman scowling at him made him realise she was owed an explanation. Cambell also knew if he didn’t get the upper hand of the moment, she would make his life a living hell.
The tall blond man cleared his throat in the attempts to interrupt the deadlock of anger glares.
“Perhaps we should hear the Leftenant Major before engaging in forward procedures.”
“Fine.” Dorian leaned stiffly back against the wall and put her nose in the air.
“As Ms Gray pointed out we are the scout post for this sector and the first line of defence from this direction. At this point of the Alert we are asking that all Squads and their captains ensure the security and safety of their families so that we can have their full attention during training and possible engagement if it comes to that.”
“And after that?” Dorian asked.
“We prepare for the worst. At this point we are maintaining the status quo. The store and community will operate as normal but we will be stepping up security and training.”
“Where’s the breach Leftenant?” was her next question.
“What makes you think there is a breach?” Cool grey eyes met hers.
“To begin with it’s all over the net and we wouldn’t be having this conversation if there wasn’t a breach.”
“Port City Washington. Two cases but they think there was more. And before you ask how, its thought the bacteria was in the water system of a freighter that docked for twenty-four hours in Swimmer’s Bay. It refuelled and picked up supplies, among them water.”
“Then we don’t have much time to prepare; what’s the rate, three per mile and add two for every five?” Jacob questioned. “I know we are central but we are still only talking a matter of weeks.”
“Which is why we are having this conversation. So I take it all traffic on the roads will be minimal?”
“Except for necessities. Water, food, bedding and what ever else is under the category.”
Cambell watched as Dorian’s mind began to race. He knew the signs. Her head tilted to one side; hypnotic blues eyes fixed on one spot in the room; her fingers drummed against what ever they rest on. In this case, it was her shapely thighs, as she remained leaning against the wall.
Dorian was adding up the stores supplies in the back room and sitting on the shelves out front. She was trying to remember the number of trucks anticipated for the week and their loads. Once the word was out that Zombies were a clear and present danger, people were going to want to stock up or bug out while they had a chance.
“And when is the public going to be alerted?” Dorian frowned.
“Once we are all in position. We’ve been given forty-eight hours before they raise the alert. We are requiring the internal squads to prep for evacuations or evacs as we call them, also back up if needed.”
He looked to Jacob “Can you have all teams gathered by ‘o’ two hundred?”
The blonde head glanced to his watch and gave a nod and then responded with a smile, “If I start now.” He stood up and headed for the door. “I will have everybody at the Main Town Bunker.”
“We’ll talk in twenty-four and touch base with each other.” He stopped in front of Dorian who gave him a nod as he left.
She took a step forward catching the door to follow Jacob out the door. She wanted out of the office and back to the security of her lunchroom. There she could deal with the impact of the night’s punch.
Cold hard words smacked her in the back of the head.
“You were not dismissed Captain.”