Survival - 02 Read online

  SURVIVAL

  Invasion of the Dead

  Book 2

  By Owen Baillie

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright 2014 Owen Baillie

  Edited by Monique Happy Editorial Services

  www.indiebookauthors.com

  Cover design by Jason Gurley

  www.jasongurley.com

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real persons, events, or places are purely coincidental; any references to actual places, people, or brands are fictitious. All rights reserved.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thank you to Vinnie Orlando and Michiko Malcolm for their continued thirst for the story and ongoing excellent feedback. To newbies Joe Barker and DeLinda Jiles, your observations were simply outstanding, and far beyond my expectations.

  To a fabulous team of first time beta readers–Shannon Sharpe, Wendy Johnson, Karen Dziegiel, George Velos, Erica Hill Strauss, Alana Sullivan, Rob Stevens, and Lisa Hillman–thank you for your time and generous comments. You all helped to improve the story, and I’m so grateful for you were part of the process.

  A big thank you to Monique Lewis Happy, my editor at MHES, who did a super job under challenging circumstances. Her ongoing support is tremendous, and without her, I’d receive a ton of reviews and e-mails about poor grammar and bad word choice.

  Thank you to my wife, Donna, for her endless support and encouragement, and for always doing the dishes (amongst a million other things). To my three daughters, sorry my writing time sometimes meant I couldn’t spend time with you, but I am making it up.

  Last but not least, thank you to all the readers who purchased Book One, who left a review or sent messages on Facebook or via e-mail. Never underestimate your generous words and encouragement. You are helping my dream come true.

  WARNING: Adults only. This book contains high-level violence and coarse language.

  PREVIOUSLY

  Survival is the second volume of a much longer series called Invasion of the Dead, a post-apocalyptic zombie tale set in the south-eastern states of Australia.

  The first volume, Aftermath, tells briefly of a high-ranking army official and a government scientist in an underground defense department facility in Canberra. As the final survivors, they consider their options to counteract the virus that has killed millions across the globe.

  Nearby, five friends in their late twenties return from a camping trip in the Snowy Mountains to their hometown of Albury. Callan is trying to bridge the gap with his girlfriend of two years, Sherry, a self-centered and tactless beauty. Kristy, Callan’s sister and a doctor, grows closer to her old friend, Dylan (who was somewhat of a nemesis to Callan in high school), and Greg (a beer drinking country boy, also Callan’s best friend) who has fancied Kristy since they were children.

  At a remote gas station, Kristy finds an old newspaper that reports a virus has killed millions of people along the east coast of Australia. Concern grows when they discover the old couple who own the place have committed suicide.

  An encounter with a sick, elderly man on the roadside leads to a conflict, where he snatches a gun from Callan and shoots himself dead. At a toilet stop on a back country road, Greg asks Kristy if she has feelings for him, but she explains she thinks of him as a brother. They find another abandoned store along the dirt road, where Sherry tells Dylan she slept with Callan’s best mate, Johnny.

  Back on the main highway, they find an army roadblock and an infected soldier eating through a pile of bodies. The soldier attacks Kristy as they try to escape. Greg saves her, and Kristy is lucky not to have been scratched or bitten.

  Reaching Albury, they suffer a flat tire and must change it. Seeing a house with a faint light on inside, they request help, but are denied. They bungle through the tire change, and as they escape in the car, a horde of zombies wanders down the road towards them.

  In the town center, they discover another mob of undead, and the pathway towards Callan’s parents’ house is thwarted. A dog taunts the zombies, then runs off into the night. They alter course towards Dylan’s parents’ house.

  After reaching the property, Dylan is attacked by several zombies as he opens the gate. Greg saves the day. They enter the house in darkness and find it deserted, although it is clear that Dylan’s parents were there recently. Unloading supplies from the Jeep, Greg goes missing, and Callan rushes out to find him. A tap on the window draws Dylan and the girls; his mother looks in with the twisted face of a zombie.

  Looking for Greg, Callan kills a zombie and saves Greg, who is fighting off another inside the shed. Greg is wounded though. Dylan confronts his mother, but fails to kill her, and she attacks him. Callan arrives and finishes her. Kristy stitches up Greg’s wound. Dylan and Callan start the generator, electrifying the fences, and Callan helps Dylan dig a grave for his mother. Kristy discovers Sherry is pregnant.

  The next day, Callan wakes to find Sherry throwing up, and happily learns of her condition. Greg’s injuries find him confined to the couch, where he drinks heavily. Concerned, Callan and Greg have a heart to heart where Greg reveals his worries.

  Callan and Dylan check the other houses and gather supplies. Sherry’s parents are gone, and so are Callan’s, but at the latter house, surrounded by zombies, they must fight their way back to the Jeep. They reach the car, but Dylan is attacked and Callan saves him; then Callan is attacked, and Dylan repays the favor. They abandon the swarmed Jeep and run through the streets as a posse of undead give chase.

  Sherry and Kristy prep the house, but a type two zombie approaches up the driveway. Kristy fires a rifle but misses and the zombie attacks. Greg appears, takes the gun and kills it. He is ill though; the girls soon discover Greg collapsed on the lounge room floor.

  Callan and Dylan reach the town center. They find Kevlar motorbike gear and are forced to hide from a mob of zombies at a gas station. They replace their lost Jeep and see an identical one driving by on Main Street, but don’t acknowledge it. Kristy investigates a noise, and Sherry is attacked by a zombie. Kristy stabs it through the eye, saving Sherry.

  At Greg’s grandparents’ house, they find a loving note, and the old couple wandering the yard, infected. Callan shoots them both, and orders Dylan not to tell Greg what happened. Last stop for the boys is the supermarket. They collect groceries, but are attacked and separated. Both are lucky to survive, and Dylan is saved by an anonymous man in army gear. They escape as dozens of zombies chase after them.

  They reunite at the house, where they decide to leave the next day. After dark, the lights of a vehicle slow past the property. Callan and Sherry make love, and Callan sleeps with a smile on his face for the first time in a while.

  The next morning, Sherry is ill, while Greg’s fever has spiked. The boys decide to return to the town center to obtain antibiotics for Greg. They debate whether they should all leave, but Sherry has severe morning sickness.

  As they drive away, Dylan kills the several zombies lined up at the fence, but sees more in neighboring properties. They break into the hunting store and load up on guns and ammunition. Zombies attack and they flee. Callan is saved by the dog they saw earlier.

  As they reach the drugstore, they encounter the identical Jeep. Two dodgy men they knew from Albury talk to them. Their presence and actions leave Callan and Dylan unnerved. In the drugstore, Dylan finds his father’s N.Y. hat.


  Back at the property, a long line of wandering zombies stretches down the road, and more zombies appear at the fence. Kristy shoots several, but others cross into the neighbor’s property and she decides it’s time to wake Greg.

  Dylan and Callan drive around looking for his father. They discover signs of the other men heading in the direction of the property and suspect they have gone there. Heading back, they find Dylan’s father and another man chased by a pack of zombies. Callan keeps driving, desperate to get back to the others.

  Feeders overwhelm the property boundaries as the girls run inside. Three other cars appear and smash down the front gate, and the occupants begin firing randomly. Kristy sends Sherry to the BMW in the garage while she fetches Greg. He wakes, still ill as more zombies swarm the property. Kristy helps him towards the garage, but Johnny, Callan and Greg’s friend, bursts through the front door and tells them to run.

  Dylan yanks on the steering wheel and pulls the car off the road. Dylan’s father makes it to the Jeep, but the other man dies. The dog that helped them at the gun store also appears and they take it with them, learning that Dylan’s father, Bob, knows the dog, which he calls Blue Boy. Dylan realizes something is not right with his dad.

  Kristy saves Johnny, and they race up the stairs as other zombies pour in. Johnny saves Greg as they reach a back bedroom with a window leading to the garage roof. Johnny escapes first, Kristy second, leaving Greg to follow with the zombies closing in.

  In the Jeep, Bob confirms he has been bitten. Callan wants him out, but Dylan persuades him otherwise. As they reach Silvan Road, they find the property overrun with zombies and men fighting.

  Kristy saves Greg using the tomahawk. Steve Palmer fires at them as they stand on the garage roof. Callan and Bob creep inside to find Sherry. Dylan helps Kristy down and puts her into the Jeep. Greg joins Dylan as Steve and his cronies appear. The numbers are three against two.

  Callan heads to the back of the house, and Bob goes upstairs. Callan finds a feeding type one zombie, but has run out of ammo. It attacks. He runs, but is caught and faces certain death until Blue Boy distracts it and Bob kills the zombie.

  Outside, Steve Palmer and his boys prepare to kill Dylan and Greg, who can barely stand. Johnny appears at the final moment, evening the numbers for a tense confrontation. Steve and his group agree to depart. Smoke appears from the house.

  Finding Sherry dead in the garage, Callan is attacked by the type three that killed her. Bob arrives and kills it, but Callan must face Sherry’s death. Bob reveals he is not going with them. Zombies bang on the door outside. They realize the house is on fire and a large explosion occurs.

  Dylan goes inside the house. He finds zombies attacking Callan and his father, and shoots two. Callan departs in tears. Dylan and his father hug, then Dylan flees, the house now completely on fire.

  They leave the property as several type threes wait at the bottom of the driveway. They drive through them as they attack the Jeep. As they drive down Silvan Road, another explosion shakes the ground, sending a second plume of smoke into the sky. Kristy lifts her chin and drives on towards town, wondering if things could get any worse …

  ONE

  KLAUS WEINSTREM THREW THE glass beaker into the sink. It smashed into pieces, the sound splintering his ears in the silent confines of the laboratory. He went to the laptop on the bench and entered another set of failed data into a spreadsheet, punching his fingers down on the keyboard.

  “Rubbish,” he mumbled under his breath.

  Each day brought more of the same frustration and failure. He wasn’t accustomed to such challenges. The concept of not being able to solve a puzzle infuriated him. Solutions normally presented themselves easily, but not this time. He had deliberately told Major General Harris that it might take months to devise the vaccination, but in truth, that had been a lie. He had never expected it to take long. Under promise and over deliver, a genetics teacher at university had once taught him. That had always served Klaus well.

  The plan had been to deliver a manufacturable vaccine in a week, two at the most, and knock the socks off Harris. Although it hadn’t happened yet, Klaus felt he was close to a discovery. He had profiled the virus’ behavior and introduced countless agents to pacify its effects. Most had done nothing, but some caused a slowing of the virus’ replication, only to accelerate shortly after. He had pushed aside the notion that someone had tampered with it to cause the more aggressive subjects, instead focusing on a tangible solution.

  After preparing for the next lot of tests, Klaus keyed his code into the security pad and the triple-thick glass door slid back. He stepped into an air-locked room where jets of a powerful sanitizing agent sprayed over his impenetrable suit. When the voice-over stated that he was sterile, another door opened. Klaus walked into the preparation room and removed his suit.

  Each time he left the security of his laboratory, Klaus felt the stirrings of worry. The prep room was still remarkably well-protected, but beyond the walls, outside the locked doors, they were roaming. There had been battle after battle inside the facility. Klaus was lucky, in a way, having the sanctuary of the lab and his important work on which to focus. The vaccine drove him; it was all he thought of, aside from his survival. He buried thoughts of his old friends deep, his parents, deeper, and Lana, his one and only love, in a place he could only find in the quiet time before sleep.

  He kept on, infecting cultured cells with the virus, adding potential antivirals, and analyzing readings. Sometimes he felt the distance to discovery was greater than ever. It frustrated him more than any project before, but he refused to surrender. And he wouldn’t. Couldn’t. To every problem, he would find a solution. Klaus needed to know.

  He emptied the coffee machine he had tucked in behind a series of expensive apparatus. Before the outbreak, he’d never have kept it in the room, but now there was nobody to police the rules. That part was good. He filled the hopper with fresh-smelling beans and readied it for his brew, thinking about other angles of approaching the problem. It should have been a simple fix–the government and various drug manufacturing companies should have been able to develop a vaccine fairly quickly. For reasons to which Klaus was not privy, they hadn’t. Major General Harris, whom Klaus hadn’t seen for a week, suspected the government’s reaction was too slow, diverted by a number of major foreign political issues that had occurred just before the outbreak. Either way, the vaccine hadn’t happened, and Klaus didn’t know who was still alive to make what.

  He’d been lucky that the installation had a small disease control section. They kept a range of pathogens, in addition to many of the components required to formulate antivirals and low-level vaccines. The government, in building the deeper levels of the facility, had taken into account a number of potential catastrophic events, including a pandemic. The one shortcoming Klaus now faced was the inability to produce a quantity of any vaccine or serum he might manage to formulate.

  He had abandoned the idea of creating a vaccine though. Instead, he had diverted his attention to developing an antiviral drug. He had access to the components required for this and felt they offered the best hope of success. Viruses were smart, mistakenly incorporating antivirals into their genomes during cell replication, but with the right antiviral, the virus could be halted from developing any further.

  The coffee machine beeped, and Klaus took the hot brew, sipping the frothed milk from the surface. His process has been simple, growing cultures of cells and infecting them with the zombie virus, then introducing the other antivirals that he thought might inhibit viral activity. He then had to observe whether the level of virus in the cultures rose or fell. He had tried Acyclovir, used for the herpes virus, and Lamivudine, for HIV, as well as a multitude of other antiviral drugs to target different stages of the virus’ life cycle. None had worked though. The idea behind the antiviral was to identify parts of proteins within the virus that could be disabled. Klaus could then use existing drugs to prevent its replication. Before the out
break, he’d have been able to design candidate drugs at the molecular level using powerful computers, but he was back to simple methods now. All he had left was to try a new class of protein called an interferon. The next tests would use these. He already felt an eagerness to return to the lab and start the process again.

  The air door at the front of the room opened, and Admiral Gallagher staggered through the entrance holding an almost empty bottle of booze. Klaus felt himself bristle. Stubble covered the admiral’s face; even Klaus had continued shaving to keep a semblance of normality. Not Gallagher, though.

  “What is it?” Klaus asked abruptly.

  Gallagher fell against the desk, the bottle clunking on the hard surface. He burped and chuckled. Klaus could find no humor in his actions. Here was a man with one of the highest ranks on the base, yet he had essentially abandoned his post and taken up with grog almost immediately after the outbreak had occurred.

  “I don’t have time for idle chat,” Klaus said. He knew they were possibly the last people alive on the base, but he couldn’t resist. The former Naval officer wasn’t worth his time in conversation. He turned, placing his cup on the bench beside the coffee maker. “And are you stupid? Walking around out there. I’m surprised they haven’t torn you apart.” A thought struck him. “You’re not bitten, are you?”

  “French is dead.” Gallagher’s voice was thin and raspy. His cheeks and nose were red. Klaus had to force his mouth to stay closed. French. The public relations woman who had gone crazy and locked herself up in the food hall on level four. “Shot herself.”

  No surprise. “Is that all?” Klaus asked.

  “You found a cure yet?” Gallagher hiccupped.