THE

ZOMBIE

BOOK

Zombie Book One

By Diana Graves

Kindle Edition

♦

License Statement

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.

Disclaimer

This book is a work of pure fiction. Characters, places and incidents are creations of the author’s imagination, and any similarity to people, living or dead, businesses, events or places is purely coincidental.

Acknowledges

To Erin, my best friend.

Chapter Four:

“Here,” Pane said, and he handed Christopher to me before entering their base. Chris was still sleeping. I guess his little body just couldn’t handle anymore.

I took him into my arms and moved away from the stairs so Pane could come in. He shut the door behind us and locked it. I kept my eyes on him, hoping that I didn’t just fuck us again. I was hoping that he wasn’t going to go all crazy evil on my ass now that the doors were locked. He looked at me in the soft light with a shy smile. His protruding eyes looked bigger and brighter in the new light. Before I thought they were brown, but now I could see that they were a dark blue, like stormy skies.

“Come on,” said Derek. He was walking ahead of us, down a long hallway. The hallway was tall and wide with cement walls and light bulbs hanging from the ceiling every few feet. He took off his black hat to reveal his shaved head. His big black eyes and eyebrows stood out dramatically against his soft brown skin.

“We built this place a while back. Way before the disease spread.”

“Why? Did you use it for hunting?” I asked.

“No, they were prepared for ZA, as they like to call it; the zombie apocalypse. They had inside information, you see. They knew what was going to happen years before it did.”

“How?”

“Karen,” said Derek as we reached the end of the hall.

What we walked into was a huge round room with an open layout. To our right was a living space with a big screen television, leather furniture and bookcases full of books, movies and video games. Straight ahead of us was a kitchen with two fridges and plenty of shelves full of food. To our left was a hydroponic garden growing strong under the constant heat of lamps. There was a long dining table with five laptops sitting open in front of each chair at the table. One of the chairs was occupied by an older woman with long white hair and striking blue eyes. She was wearing a worn grey tank top that showed off her lean muscular arms. She didn’t look like any grandma I’d ever known, especially as she stood from the chair with force and swiftly walked up to me. Her eyes weren’t angry as much as they were guarded. I gave her the same look she was giving me, strong and mistrusting.

“Karen, this is Erin and her son,” said Pane. “They’re good people.”

“Hush, Pane. Men are too trusting because they’re too confident.” She looked past me and the other men. “Where are Will and Gerald?”

“They’re hunting a corpse. They should be back soon,” said Derek.

A flash of fear crossed Karen's face and then it was gone. She gave me her back and started gathering her long sleek white hair up into a ponytail on top of her head as she made her way to the table. “Then I’ll monitor the hatch while you two show our guest the showers and take one yourselves. I don’t need you stinking the place up,” she said before she took her seat. She looked up at me and her eyes shot to Christopher and then softened. “You can put the boy on the couch while you get cleaned up.” My reluctance must have been obvious, because she smiled at me. “He will be fine, Erin. I’ve raised a few babies myself. William is my grandson.”

Pane put a hand on my shoulder and I reluctantly made my way to the couch. Slowly I laid him down and Pane put a blanket over him. I didn’t see where he got it from but I said, “Thank you,” and let him guide me past the kitchen.

It wasn’t obvious before, but there was another hall just behind the kitchen. It diverted off into several directions, but we kept straight. “The storage rooms are down that hall,” Derek explained. “And, the bedrooms are down there, but the restroom is just up here.” He opened a heavy door. I marveled at the door. It looked like something that belonged on a submarine.

“Is every door a big metal solid thing with locks and whatnot?” I asked.

“Yeah, and every room has a hidden exist to the surface,” Pane said.

I shook my head, not because I found that strange or anything. Having each room capable of keeping out a horde of the undead and also providing a way of escape was incredibly smart thinking. No, I shook my head because Karen had been right. These men were too trusting. They’d only known me for maybe two hours, I’d tried to kill one of them and still they were this forthcoming with information.

The restroom was designed like a gym locker room. There were toilet stalls and sinks, large lockers full of clothes and long mirrors for dressing in front of. The showers were in the middle of the room, four shower heads attached on each side of a column and only one large drain in the floor. A soap dispenser was attached to the column.

“Just put your clothes in the red basket and they’ll get washed,” said Pane. He was already stripping down. He set his weapons on a counter. Gone was his heavy brown jacket, belt, black tee-shirt, boots, pants—wow, I had to look away.

“We don’t have hot water today,” said Derek. “We can only heat it on sunny days when the solar panels are charged. There’s been too much cloud cover the past few days.” And, he too started taking his clothes off; weapons, black coat, belt, shirt, boots, pants, boxers—and crap, looked away.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. Why was I being so shy? I had to laugh at myself just a little. I shrugged and started taking off my coat, but I did it slowly. My body was still sore from the beating Jensen gave me. I had a hard go of pulling my feet free of my boots. I cursed at them and flung them across the room in frustration. I peeled my jeans off slowly. They were so caked with mud, they fell into the red basket with a heavy thud. I heard a quiet gasp from one of the men, but I didn’t look up. I knew what I looked like. My body was riddled with scars and bruises. If they thought my legs looked bad, they hadn’t seen anything yet. Keeping my eyes closed, I pulled my shirt over my head, revealing the worst of it. Deep and dark scars were splashed across my stomach, chest, arms and back. My stomach and back were colored in green and blue, courtesy of Jensen’s boots. I undid my bra and let my breast rest heavy against my chest before I slid out of my panties. I moved to put my clothes in the basket and in doing so, gave the men my back.

“Holy fuck,” said Derek. “Who did that to you? That Finn guy?”

“Yes, and a lot of other people,” I said. “But, if you’re referring to the fresh bruises, that was Finn’s son, Jensen. He’s the man I mentioned before. The man who didn’t want me leaving his daddy’s sanctuary from the devil,” I said quoting Pastor Finn.

“Bloody hell, why are they so keen on keeping people in?” asked Pane.

“They believe that this is the ‘end times’ and anyone who rejects them is accepting the devil, and should be killed, lest we add to the devil’s ranks…or some such bull shit”

“Crazy is as crazy does,” said Derek.

I nodded and covered my breasts as best I could while I made my way to the showers. I tried to look anywhere but at their nakedness. I saw nothing but smooth muscular chests and arms…and legs, but nothing else.

I approached the center tower and turned on the water. Pane and Derek both made noises of discomfort as they stepped into the cold water but I didn’t. I let it run all over my body with a smile before pumping the soap into my hand and dumping it in my hair. I massaged the soap in and it smelled sweet. I couldn’t remember the last sweet thing I smelt. Oh, yes I could. It reminded me of a time before my life went to shit. A memory of washing dishes surfaced. I’d worked a ten hour shift that day. My muscles were tired. My husband had gotten home hours before me and was just sitting in his chair watching football. I was five months pregnant with Christopher and exhausted and somehow it was still my job to clean the kitchen and make dinner. I remember being so angry with him. We fought that night. It was terrible...But I’d give anything to be there instead of here. I lathered the soap all over my body, scrubbing away every bit of muck I could find before rinsing it all away. I didn’t even realize the men were watching me shower until I turned the water off and asked for a towel. They were both done with their shower, wearing towels and staring at me.

“Sorry,” Pane murmured as he handed me a worn grey towel from a metal cabinet near him.

I wrapped the towel around me. “Don’t worry about it. I know how messed up I look.”

Derek gave me a black t-shirt and pajama pants. “You can wear my clothes until yours are clean.”

“Thank you.”

Derek and Pane got dressed while I dried myself off.

“So, what are the dynamics of this place. Karen's in charge and you four men do what?”

“Karen is definitely in charge,” said Derek. “This whole thing, this place was her idea. We’d all be dead if it wasn’t for her.”

Pane threw his used towel into the dirty clothes hamper. “As far as I can tell, we gents spend our days running patrols to keep the surrounding area clear of zombies and maintaining our home.”

“Interesting...And Karen?”

“Like I said. She’s in charge,” said Derek.

We came out of the restroom clean and were met by the wonderful smell of food cooking. I grabbed my stomach when it growled, anticipating the food that scent promised.

“Whatcha cooking?” asked Pane as he entered the large room ahead of Derek and I. “Smells great.”

“Potato soup,” We heard Karen answer. “You have impeccable timing. Three others need the showers.”

“Three?” asked Derek just ahead of me.

“We have another guest,” said Karen. “He says he knows Erin.”

I came around the corner last and saw him sitting next to my sleeping baby. He looked at me with a crooked smile that would haunt me for as long as I lived, however long that might be. I grabbed Derek’s forearm. He looked back at me.

“Erin?”

“Jensen,” I said with real fear in my eyes.

Derek and Pane’s posture changed at the sound of his name, from relaxed to alert. Derek put a hand on my shoulder.

Read Chapter 5