Wildfire- Destruction of the Dead Read online

  Wildfire

  Desctruction of the Dead

  Shaun Harbinger

  Contents

  Copyright

  Books in This Series

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Epilogue

  Mailing List

  Copyright © 2015 Shaun Harbinger

  All rights reserved.

  BOOKS IN THIS SERIES

  RAIN: Rise of the Living Dead

  STORM: Survival in the Land of the Dead

  LIGHTNING: Fighting the Living Dead

  WILDFIRE: Destruction of the Dead

  For all survivors everywhere.

  1

  The morning sun peeked through the high clouds and cast a cold light over the distant cliffs and beaches. Standing on the deck of The Big Easy, the metal of the safety railing cold against my palms and the boat rolling easily on the gentle waves, I felt a heavy dread in the pit of my stomach. I was trying to remember why I had volunteered to distribute the antivirus to the survivors on the mainland.

  I should run from the danger that lurked beyond those cliffs, not willingly go toward it. Any sane person would turn the boat’s nose out to the open sea and give the engines full throttle until the coastline was nothing more than a bad memory.

  If it weren’t for the fact that my brother, Joe, and my parents were alive somewhere on the mainland, I wouldn’t hesitate to flee to the relative safety of the sea.

  But as long as there was a slim hope of finding my family, I couldn’t run. I had to fight. I had to risk my life in a land infested with zombies and hybrids until I found the people I loved. Leaving Joe and my parents to their fate was not an option.

  A few yards from where I stood, a big seagull dropped into the water with a splash, then took to the air again with a small fish wriggling helplessly in its beak.

  I turned away from the sea and distant cliffs and went through the door that led to the boat’s living area. Lucy was still asleep in our bedroom below deck so I decided to surprise her with breakfast. After all, today was the day we were due to return to Apocalypse Island. They should have made the first batch of antivirus by now and have it ready for distribution.

  I might as well make our final morning pleasurable in some small way, even if that small pleasure was just a plate of hash browns, canned tomatoes, and sausages. For the past three days, we had tried to enjoy ourselves by lounging on the deck, eating meals with Sam and Tanya either on the Easy or the Escape, and singing along to Survivor Radio.

  Listening to the radio was bittersweet; on the one hand it provided us with music and a reminder that there had once been a time that was more carefree. On the other, it reminded me that Johnny Drake was dead, his body ripped apart by Vess at Site Alpha Two.

  And although none of us mentioned Apocalypse Island or the job ahead of us, it seemed to hang like an unspoken secret in the air, always present and fast-approaching as the days passed too quickly.

  I turned on the radio as I reached the kitchen area. Don Henley was singing about the boys of summer. Taking the hash browns and sausages from the freezer, I sang along. I was way out of tune but didn’t care.

  The frying pan clattered on top of the stove as I set it down too heavily. Hoping it hadn’t woken Lucy because I wanted her to get as much sleep as she could, I then added a little oil and turned up the electric ring beneath the pan.

  When the oil was hot, I added the hash browns and sausages. They sizzled in the pan and the smell made my mouth water. There was once a time when I would have cooked this much food just for myself, and then spent the rest of the day sitting in front of the TV watching movies or playing games. I had fought digital zombies in The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, and Day Z. I had “died” many times in the games but there had always been another life, another chance.

  Now I was living the harsh reality of what had once been a pleasurable pastime. There was no second chance, no reset button.

  The world had gone to hell, or at least this part of it had. According to Sam and Tanya, the virus hadn’t reached America. If that was true, and only Britain was affected, I wondered what the rest of the world was planning to do about the situation.

  They must know what was happening from satellite images. Those images would show the zombie hordes and the destruction and death they left in their wake. They would also show the military encampments and positions that had been set up by the army as they tried to take control of the chaos.

  Would the foreign leaders try to help us, or would they think, To hell with it and bombard us with nuclear weapons instead, killing everyone and everything, alive or undead, just to be safe? They couldn’t risk the virus reaching their shores. If protecting themselves meant killing innocent people and turning Britain into a nuclear wasteland, I was sure they wouldn’t lose much sleep over it.

  Lucy appeared at the doorway and waved at me. Her expression and posture as she came into the living area said that she was still sleepy. Her blonde hair was pinned up into a messy bun. She wore the oversized ‘Sail To Your Destiny’ T-shirt that she sometimes slept in. As she padded barefoot across the carpet to the sofa, she said, “That smells good.”

  “I thought we should have a good breakfast,” I said, “since we don’t know when we’ll get a chance to eat properly again.” I wanted to add, “If ever” but I restrained myself. Lucy knew as well as I did that this could be the last time we both stood here on The Big Easy. We had seen too much death to take anything for granted.

  She nodded and dropped onto the sofa, turning her head away from the morning light streaming in through the windows, her eyes half-closed.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “I’m just not a morning person. You know that.”

  I did. I also knew that she had recently been bitten by a zombie and had been in danger of turning into one of the undead. She’d been injected with the faulty vaccine and then with the new antivirus. It was understandable that she might suffer side effects from that experience.

  As if reading my mind, she looked over at me and said, “I’m fine, Alex. Really.” She got up and came into the kitchen. “I’ll make coffee.” She turned on the electric kettle and began to spoon instant coffee and sugar into two mugs.

  On the radio, Don faded out to be replaced by 10cc singing “I’m Not In Love”.

  I sighed and concentrated on the hash browns and sausages sizzling in the pan. Unlike the singers in 10cc, I was finding it difficult to deny my feelings for Lucy.

  I had always liked her, and she was the reason I had gone hiking in Wales with Mike and Elena. But my feelings for Lucy then were no more than a powerful physical attraction. Powerful enough to get an out-of-shape gamer-geek like me onto the Welsh mountains, sure, but still only a physical attraction.

  We had been through a lot together
since the day the zombie apocalypse began and now shared a strong emotional bond. I hadn’t realized just how strong until we had been separated. I had risked my life to get a message to Lucy, and then risked it again to get the chemical that was needed for the antivirus that could save her from being turned. And it had all been worth it.

  She turned away from the boiling kettle and poked me in the ribs playfully. “Why are you up so early, anyway? You don’t like mornings any more than I do.”

  “Ouch,” I said, moving aside to avoid her jabbing finger.

  “That did not hurt, Alex.”

  “It did. Stop poking me and concentrate on making the coffee,” I joked.

  She raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been chased by zombies, shot at by the army, and almost eaten by patient zero but you’re afraid of my little finger?”

  “Yep,” I said, nodding and backing away.

  She held her index finger in front of my face, a mischievous look in her eyes. “This is what scares the brave Alex Harley?” Lunging forward, she tried to jab me in the ribs again.

  I stepped backward quickly, slapping her hand away. “I’m not brave,’ I said, continuing to back into the living room.

  “Yes, you are.” She jumped at me, poking me again. It really did hurt.

  I tried to move away but my leg connected with the corner of the coffee table, tripping me. I reached out and grabbed Lucy, pulling her down with me. She squealed.

  We landed on the carpet, me on my back, Lucy on top of me.

  She was breathing hard and laughing. “I win.”

  I looked into her blue eyes. “Do you really think I’m brave?”

  She narrowed her eyes for a second, as if trying to decide if I was being serious or joking with her. When she decided I was being serious, she said, “Of course you’re brave, Alex. You saved my life. I don’t know anyone braver than you.”

  A moment passed between us and we moved our heads closer to kiss.

  But before our lips touched, the smoke detector in the kitchen began wailing its high-pitched alarm.

  “The breakfast!” I said.

  We scrambled to our feet and Lucy ran to the stove, taking the smoking frying pan off the gas ring. I grabbed a hand towel and waved it beneath the smoke detector mounted in the ceiling near the door to the aft deck. “How bad is it?” I shouted above the alarm.

  “Not too bad,” Lucy said, flipping the hash browns with a spatula. “They’ll just be well done.”

  I opened the door to let some fresh air inside and continued clearing the smoke with the towel until the alarm stopped. I went back to the stove and continued cooking breakfast while Lucy poured the coffee.

  We stood in silence, me flipping the hash browns, which were very dark brown on one side, and pouring the canned tomatoes into a pan while Lucy watched me, taking a sip of her coffee every now and then.

  After a few minutes, she said, “Alex, I’m scared.”

  “So am I.” I turned off the gas and used the spatula to place the hash browns and sausages onto two plates on the counter. As I added the tomatoes, I looked at Lucy and said, “Sometimes I think that going back to Apocalypse Island is a stupid idea. We could just sail out to sea and live on the boat like we did before.”

  “Before you heard your brother on the radio,” she said. “I know there’s no way you can sail off into the sunset until you find him. You didn’t abandon me and you wouldn’t abandon him either. Or your parents.”

  She was right. If we sailed away now, I would always wonder what had become of Joe, and our parents. And I would always wonder if I could have saved them.

  “Hey,” I said to Lucy. “We might find your family while we’re delivering the antivirus.”

  She shook her head and tears pooled in her eyes. “You heard your brother’s voice. You have a glimmer of hope. I’ve already accepted that my family is dead. We know what it’s like on the mainland. I just hope that they are actually dead and not…you know.” The tears spilled onto her cheeks.

  I put my arms around her and held her tight. She cried against my chest for a few moments and then pushed away, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Come on, let’s eat breakfast before it goes cold.”

  We took our plates to the dining table and ate quietly. Heavy drops of rain began to spatter against the windows and onto the deck.

  As we finished eating, I heard a shout from outside. Stepping out into the rain, I crossed the foredeck to see Sam on the deck of the Escape. He was wearing his Savatage tour T-shirt and jeans and was grinning while he held out his hands to catch raindrops. “Hey, Alex, it’s a great day to go into zombie territory,” he shouted.

  I nodded but didn’t share his enthusiasm. There were no great days anymore; all the great days were behind us.

  All I could see ahead of us were days of pain and sorrow.

  2

  An hour later, we were heading back to Apocalypse Island, sailing through the pounding rain and rough waves. I sat in the pilot’s chair on the bridge, peering through the water-streaked windows at the gray sea and sky as I followed the Escape across the waves toward the island.

  Every now and then, I glanced at the coastline hidden in mist and drizzle. Somewhere on the mainland, Jax was loose and probably leaving a path of destruction in her wake. For all I knew, Vess, the other Type 1, had escaped the confines of Alpha Two and was also roaming the land.

  I had blamed myself for Jax’s escape from the boat but Lucy had made me see that, if not for being injected with the pure virus at Apocalypse Island, Jax would never have turned into the monster she was now. It was Hart’s fault, not mine, that Jax was on the mainland wreaking havoc.

  And now I was going to be working for the organization that ran Apocalypse Island. It didn’t sit well with me.

  All my life, I had distrusted and rebelled against authority of any kind. In my shitty job, before the apocalypse, I had hated the bosses simply because they controlled me. I had sold my soul for a crap wage and they knew I needed the job to pay the rent. So they could give me the mind-numbing tasks and I would accept them without a complaint. As far as they were concerned, they had me for life.

  The zombie outbreak had changed all that. Most of the people I had worked with were probably now dead, or shuffling around with blue skin and yellow eyes searching for prey.

  And I was alive.

  But now I was going to work for yet another company and follow their orders. And I wasn’t even getting paid.

  And as far as shitty tasks went, traveling through a zombie-infested country to deliver an antivirus beat anything I had ever been asked to do in my old job.

  I had to remember that I was doing this for myself, so I could find my family, and help the other survivors. I might be working for the scientists that had caused this mess, but I wasn’t part of their organization. Once the job was done, I was taking Lucy and my family, if they were still alive, and sailing out of here. I wouldn’t look back.

  In the distance, beyond the Escape, the dark shape of the island appeared against the backdrop of gray sky.

  My stomach roiled. It was all very well deciding to sail away after the job was done, but surviving that long wasn’t going to be easy.

  * * *

  Apocalypse Island loomed over us as we moored our boats alongside the others at the dock. The rain was still coming down in full force, hissing off the island’s rocky cliffs and the concrete blocks that formed the dock.

  We were all dressed in waterproof jackets from the storeroom. They were dark blue with the ‘Sail To Your Destiny’ motto embroidered in small avocado-green letters over the right breast. They were fine for keeping the rain out but the waterproof fabric was noisy whenever we moved. The jackets were equipped with hoods but we didn’t use them; we needed to be alert and aware of our surroundings. Apocalypse Island was just as infested with zombies as the mainland.

  The four of us waited on the end of the dock. It was too dangerous to walk up the asphalt path that cut through the c
liffs to the woods beyond. Sam and I had learned that lesson the last time we’d come here.

  “How will they know we’ve arrived, man?” Sam asked.

  “They’ll see us on the cameras,” Tanya said, indicating a camera bolted into the cliff face. The red light on top of the cylindrical steel body was glowing.

  We stood close enough to the boats that if zombies or hybrids came down that path, we should be able to cast off before they reached us.

  The rain bounced off the dock, the boats, and our waterproof jackets. Except for the splash of raindrops hitting the sea, there was no other sound.

  “Maybe there’s nobody here,” Lucy said softly.

  I knew what she was thinking. Maybe Site Alpha One had been overrun by zombies and hybrids. It was possible. The compound was protected by a fence and they had Hart’s security team to protect them from the nasties, but his team wasn’t that big and if an infected person got inside the perimeter fence, all hell could break loose.

  Site Alpha Two had fallen, so why not Alpha One as well?

  If that was the case, if there was nothing left on this island except a building full of zombies, all hope of distributing the antivirus was lost.

  “This could be zombie island, man,” Sam said, obviously following the same train of thought.

  “We were here only three days ago,” Tanya said. “There’s no way the facility has fallen that quickly. Besides, they would have vaccinated themselves with the antivirus. They’re like us; they can’t be turned.”

  “But they can still be killed,” I said. “Just like us.”

  She looked at me and nodded solemnly.

  We stood in the cold, hissing rain for another five minutes before Lucy said, “I don’t think anyone is coming to meet us.”

  “Agreed,” Tanya said.

  I sighed. They were right; Hart and his team should have been here by now. We were wasting our time standing on the dock in the pouring rain. We either had to go up to the facility on foot, or leave.