I Dream of Zombies Read online

  Acid ate at my gut. “Allan?”

  “Yeah. He’s been—”

  “No.” Dammit, I didn’t want to know what happened to him. After all, he’d gone off and left my mother and sister to the tender mercies of…

  “J, I need you on this.”

  I wrenched myself out of the chair and stalked to the door. “I don’t want—”

  “Dammit, Julia. There’s more to this than meets the eye, and trust me, you’re going to want to be in on this one.”

  I wrapped my fingers around the door handle.

  “I can make it an order if you prefer, Julia. You need to lead this team. For everyone’s sake.”

  I closed my eyes at his tone of command. “Please…”

  “Julia?”

  I gave a nod. I understood exactly what he was asking. I didn’t like it. “I really don’t want—”

  “Julia. I won’t say it again.”

  “You don’t have to, sir. I understand.” I did, although I didn’t have to like it. I needed to be a professional and shove the knowledge of that no-good creep from my mind. I had a team, and they relied on me.

  “Good.”

  * * * *

  Leroy

  1500

  The woman the others called J was sitting at the table. In between terse answers to her team, she shot me hostile looks, and the rest of those assembled were sharing unsettled glances between themselves. If their actions were anything to go by, this wasn’t the norm. She was the clearly established leader here and the one I needed to work with; otherwise it would be impossible to fulfill the role I’d agreed to play.

  If she couldn’t accept me, I’d need to move on, but I needed to replenish my stocks, which had become perilously low. It was an unwritten rule that in order to request provisions, you had to offer some kind of service, and this was the kind of thing I was best at. Killing and vermin eradication.

  I wriggled my butt in the vinyl booth, holding the mug between my hands. Before the virus this had been a major hospital for the region, and the existing resources had been repurposed.

  “So, Leroy. What’s your story?”

  I didn’t pretend to misunderstand her. I placed the mug on the scarred tabletop. “It’s true that I’m itinerant. I don’t like to stay in any one place too long. I’d rather do a month or two then move along.”

  The smile she shot at me didn’t warm the ice in her gaze. “So you don’t stay anywhere long enough to fit in. Yet I’ve been informed you’re an ace sharpshooter with wicked skills and now you’re to join our team.”

  Ahh, we were getting to the crux of the matter. She didn’t want me to make a bad decision that would affect any of the members of the group. “Look. I’ve seen enough blood and zombies to fill a sea. I’m not looking to short-change anyone. I’m good at what I do and don’t intend to see anyone in the group left behind.”

  “But when the chips are down—”

  I’d heard this argument before too. “I don’t leave people behind. If necessary, I ensure they won’t reanimate.”

  Now the others at the table shifted uncomfortably.

  The man nearest me cleared his throat. “You’ve done that before?”

  “Yeah. A time or two.” At the general sound of concern, I settled on a conciliatory tone. “I don’t know anything about you.” I pointed at the unknown woman. “I might have concerns of my own.” I didn’t, but she exuded such an air of disapproval that the words just slipped out.

  “What?” The woman—J—surged up, her face a mask of anger.

  This wasn’t going well. I grunted, “Look, I don’t know your name, how many zombies you’ve faced, or how long you’ve led this team. I don’t know anything about you, yet you question me like I’m some kind of ‘innocent’.” Yeah, I couldn’t resist the air quotes, and she loosed a strangled noise that I knew meant I’d jerked her chain, just a little. “You want to know about me? Well, turnabout’s fair play.”

  The fury in her eyes flashed to a hot, heated emotion, which if I’d had to name it was in the region of hatred. Waves of rage licked at me, rolling off her like a tangible, scorching tsunami.

  “Fine. The team calls me J. I’ve been leading them for just under a year, and yes, I’ve killed a lot of zombies. I couldn’t count them.”

  “Great, J. Would you introduce me to the rest of your team?” I kept my voice mild. I really didn’t want to needle her further, and clearly, she needed time to back down off the flare of temper she’d been surfing.

  “This is Reg. He’s married with two surviving children.” She patted the hand of the man who’d held her back. “Dove here was a priest, and he’s an awesome lookout and medic.”

  Dove was the close-cropped, dark-haired guy sitting closest to her. I wondered briefly about his name but knew now wasn’t the time to ask.

  “Van joined us when the train he was on was attacked. He lost his sister, mother, and brother that day.” She pointed to the Eurasian guy who nodded. “Jack, who’s sitting beside you, was in the army. He’s our grunt and a damned fine tactician. He prefers the Steyr rifle.”

  “It’s a hangover from my military days.” Jack held out a hand, his pale blue eyes searching my face before giving the first genuine smile I’d received since arriving at Camp Queanbeyan.

  “Hi.” I gave him a small grin before turning back to J. “What’s your story?”

  Her lips thinned as tiny, white brackets appeared. “I don’t have one.” Now she rose. “We meet in the commander’s office tomorrow at 0700. I have some details on the mission, but it’s best to hear it and the rest of the intel from the commander.”

  With that the woman stalked from the room while I sat there, wondering how I could feel battered from such a short encounter.

  “J has some issues. She lost most of her family in odd circumstances.” Dove shrugged and pushed away from the table. “This isn’t the way she normally is. She’s good at her job, and a fair leader, willing to give everyone a chance. Just give her a go, okay?” He spoke quietly, every word measured, then turned and walked slowly away from the table.

  Dove’s words made me frown. If she was acting out of the norm, that might not bode well for whatever mission we were about to embark on. Given she had an issue with me at first sight, it was clear I needed to work with the others, to have them accept me.

  “Okay, so what do we do while we wait?”

  Jack grinned at me. “Do you play poker?”

  Chapter 2

  Julia

  At 0700 I waited outside the commander’s door. I’d let my personal anger get in the way of my instincts in front of my team. There was something about Leroy that got under my skin. There was a niggle about him. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew I needed to let it wash away for everyone’s benefit.

  As the team assembled around me, I wondered how I could best get Leroy by himself so I could somehow approach the fact that I’d acted inappropriately. I didn’t like having to own up, but if I let it continue, it would fester and affect everyone. If this mission was half as dangerous as any we’d recently undertaken, we’d need our wits about us just to stay alive. I’d already lost far too many good people in the last three months.

  As the door opened, we all stood then filed into the small room.

  I scanned the room, but the chairs that had sat against the walls were missing. In the center was an old card table. Rickety as they always seemed to be. Rolled up on top was a map. We gathered around it as the commander took position, unfurled the parchment, and weighed it down.

  “Your mission is to extract five survivors. One is Allan Anterrum, and two are civilians. Their identity is unknown. The other two have been assisting Anterrum at that location. We received a communiqué that leads us to believe the information they’ve obtained might assist in halting the virus from mutating further. Personally, and totally off the record, my early information suggested that researchers were working on a vaccine to inoculate the masses.”

  “Like a child’s vaccine?” Van leaned forward hopefully.

  “Yes, but even if that were to exist, I don’t believe it can undo the damage, Van. It can’t be used to save family members who’ve already succumbed, because we’ve seen the reality, that these individuals’ brains are in a state of decay that cannot be halted. And there is no way to reverse the damage.”

  The commander cleared his throat, and for a moment a flash of pain lanced me. I too had hoped, for the tiniest of an instant, for a cure. Perhaps then, if I could find my mother and sister—

  Van exhaled, the sound echoing in the silence. A look at his face, the bleached white and wide eyes, showed just how totally he was devastated at this pronouncement. I understood that myself, along with the majority of my crew.

  “This is a top-priority mission. Any and all resources required will be extended to the team.”

  I gnawed on my lip. If what the commander was saying was correct, why was this mission being kept secret?

  “Sir? Why the secrecy then? Why not throw everything at it?” Leroy asked the question before I could, and I felt a grudging respect for the man.

  “This information is volatile. There are those who don’t want it made public. To do so would lead to…”

  We leaned forward. This mission was taking on the stench of week-old prawns.

  “Sir?” I prompted the commander in the growing silence.

  “People have already been killed to keep this information secret. There were machinations in the government before the outbreak.”

  I straightened. “What do you mean?” There was clearly more to this mission than Allan and secrets. I needed to know everything before I took my team out there. Knowledge was power, and I’d need every possible drop of intel so we had a fighting chance.

  “In the days before everything happened, I got wind of a covert mission, the direction from high up in government. That they’d accessed some new weapon and were using unsuspecting soldiers to spread it. One that did things to people. Turned them into mindless killing machines. By the time I got around to checking things out, it was too late. The illness had spread. From there it went downhill rapidly. We’ve been working in crisis mode until now. Some months ago, Allan approached me. Told me the little he knew before the outbreak.”

  The vicious acid in my stomach roiled once more, as it always did when Allan, and what he knew, came to the fore.

  “Allan had contacts. He left to investigate, but as you know, that was months ago. We presumed him lost until we received contact two days ago.”

  Allan had left nearly two months ago from what I understood. I’d been out on a long-range mission when he’d left, and he hadn’t exactly left me information, so I had no idea where he’d gone. And why the hell hadn’t he been in contact with anyone else long before now?

  “Sir? What has he—”

  “We agreed he’d head to the government laboratory. The problem is…” He shrugged.

  “It’s thick with the eternally damned.” Dove spoke quietly, summing up the problem as we saw it.

  “True. He managed to track down some of the people he needed to talk to at other bases and encampments. He’s been searching for others who had information or heard snippets. None of my normal contacts survived the initial wave, which is why it’s taken so long.” The commander pointed to the location of the lab on the map. “After his arrival, he and those who he collected around him had to hunker down in a building in midtown. There was an attempt to clean out the nest, and while he lost most of his crew, he did find two survivors and some laboratory technicians who had holed up inside the building.”

  I frowned. Two survivors in a nest of zombies? How could that possibly be?

  Opening my mouth to ask just that was met with a stern, “Don’t ask me, J, because I don’t know about the civilians. What I do know is he’s found files and serums on-site. Normally, we’d ask the nearest camp for assistance, but it’s critical we don’t tip off anyone with a vested interest in keeping this silent at this point. Given the sheer volume of data and samples he’s found, he can’t get back here on foot by himself. This is where we need him. We’ve got the resources and some of the staff necessary to hopefully find out what’s going on.”

  It was true. Camp Queanbeyan was based out of the old Canberra General Hospital, but still…

  “We need those serums and files. We don’t have a working vehicle, but we have an alternative.” The commander smiled, and the pit in my stomach yawed wider.

  “What?”

  “We found an old dray over at the brewery. One of you, surely, would know how to make it work.”

  Leroy started laughing. “Cute, sir. But we’d need horses.”

  I’d been ordered to hunt for and retrieve some horses on my last mission. It all made sense now.

  “Already under control, right, J?”

  I sighed. “Yes, sir. Now I know why you were so insistent.”

  “Well, the dray will be back here later today. We’ve made provisions for the horses—constructed a steel cage to protect them, and before you ask, we’ve constructed wheels for the front so there isn’t too much weight and the chance of it falling on the mares. As soon as we can get it attached to the dray, you’ll be ready to roll. I have a provisioning team working on your needs. We don’t have time to fit a cage to the dray itself, so you’ll need to be eyes wide open.”

  “Sir?” I felt trepidation about this mission as my stomach was curled into tight knots.

  “J, we aren’t going to get another shot at this. I need my best. That’s you and your team.”

  I swallowed and stepped away. “Yes, sir.”

  * * * *

  Leroy

  The group assembled outside the commander’s door.

  “So now what?” I asked.

  J gave me a look, a stare with a hint of question. “Get whatever you need in a backpack. I’m going to find the requisition staff and check on med supplies and munitions. I have a feeling we’re going to need as much as possible.”

  She stalked away and left the rest of us standing there. The team, except for Dove and myself, broke away and headed in various directions, likely about to gather their belongings.

  I took a moment to size up the quiet, dark-haired man. “You’ve worked with her for how long?”

  Dove shrugged. “A year or so. She’s good.”

  I pinned him with a stare. “You’re a priest, right?”

  “Yeah. Or I was.” He grimaced, clearly discomforted but soldiering on. Whether it was because he felt the need to connect or for absolution I couldn’t guess. “I don’t kill unless I have to. I’m a medic, radio operator, confessor, and much more besides.”

  “What about the others?”

  He gave me an inscrutable look. “What do you mean?”

  “Tell me about their personalities.”

  “Look, I see others as I find them. That works for me. I would advise you to do the same.” He stretched his back then turned, leaving me alone with sure footsteps.

  I shook my head. I’d made a rookie mistake.

  Heading for the mess, I readjusted my backpack. Where I went, so did it.

  No one questioned my attachment to it as I entered the catering area and snatched up a cup which I filled with coffee.

  The pack carried all the things that were important to me except the tiny talisman stashed in a pocket. Carefully, I placed the bag beside my feet as I sank to a seat with drink in hand, then lay my rifle across my lap.

  I opened the pouch in my pants and reached for the linkages of gold. Hanging at the end of the chain was a ring, the wink of a diamond flashing. For the first time in a long while, I let myself focus on the memento in my hand. It represented the life I’d lost, the one stolen by this plague.

  I knew Katrina would never be human again. Couldn’t be. The last time I’d seen her the flesh of her face was shredded and gray-green tinged, her hair a grim matting of strands, blood, and other unidentifiable globs. No, she’d never be human again.

  I allowed myself to accept that even if I’d been there, I couldn’t have saved her. We all knew that once bitten it was only a matter of time. I breathed deeply, the scent of cinnamon and ground beans filling my nostrils.

  A hand touched my shoulder. “We’ve all lost someone close to us. Whoever she was, however important to you, the most integral thing to remember is we are still alive.”

  J. I clenched my hand into a fist around the necklace and ring, hiding it from view, because it was private. My personal yoke. “Yeah.” I stashed them back into the pocket and rose.

  “Sit. Finish your coffee, while I drink mine.”

  J settled herself on the opposite side of the laminate table from me. I stared for a moment or two and subsided back into the squashy padding.

  “We got off on the wrong foot, and I need to uh…”

  I blinked as she spoke quietly and with conviction, wondering where this was going to go.

  “…apologize. I was unprofessional when you turned up.”

  Straightening in the chair, I thought fast. “Look, I’m here for a while. Long enough to be able to re-provision. I’m not looking for a home, just a way to pay back the camp.”

  Her lips thinned, and for a moment I was sure I’d said the wrong thing and made it worse, then she gave a curt nod. “Fine then. So we’re clear, I’m in need of a sharpshooter for the team. As long as you fulfill that role, everyone will be happy.”

  Okay. Confusion cascaded at her words. This wasn’t quite the outcome I was looking for, but I’d take it, except, what had I expected? Without any answer, I shrugged. “When do we head out?”

  “As soon as I finish my coffee.”

  Slowly, she lifted the cup to her lips, and I watched, fascinated, as her throat moved. I didn’t realize I was staring until she cleared her throat.

  “Everything okay?” she asked.

  With an inaudible sigh I pushed up from the table, feeling downright foolish. “Yeah.”

  It had been a long time since I’d felt anything for a woman, and right now? It was hugely inconvenient that my libido found the time to grow some interest.