The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (13 page)

“Please,
follow me. I have them in the largest suite so they can get some rest from
tonight’s terrors. Sofya, will you grab the bottles of water for me, please?”

“Certainly
I will,” said Sofya.

Nataliya
walked into the room, followed by Sergei, Grigori, and Dmitry, with Sofya bringing
the water. As they entered, Tasha looked at her security staff. She sat down on
the couch, beginning to cry again. Tears were running down her face. Grigori
walked over, sat next to her, and placed his arm across her back. As he held
her, he whispered to her, “Tasha, everything will be all right. I don’t know
how, or what I can do to make it better. All I know is that all of us are here
together. I understand that you lost Ivan and that Dunyasha has lost
Vyacheslav. We need to do more than just survive what is out there. We need to
prevail over whatever those things are. I do not know who is attacking Russia,
but whoever it is can have it. We need to get the hell out of here before
whoever is attacking Russia finds us again. That might be the end for us.”

“Here
is what I have been thinking. I believe another country has attacked Russia
using some sort of chemical to make these creatures. I don’t know what they
started with, but what they have is a nearly indestructible beast that kills
everything they come across. Because of this, I think we need to get out of
Russia so we don’t get caught up in what is going on. Once everything settles
down back to where it was, we can come back and take our rightful places that we
had before. What do you think, Sergei? Does my plan make any sense?”

“Grigori,
you have always made the best plans. But how do we know if another country is
attacking us? If they are, then what?”

“Sergei,
we have been together for many years. Yes, I make most of our plans. I do this
because I am usually right. If this is not an attack on Russia, what else could
it be? Did our own country create something that went horribly wrong? Either
way, I do not want to be caught in the middle of this and wind up dead. Dmitry,
do you agree with me?”

“I don’t
know what those things were tonight,” said Dmitry. “All I know is that I don’t
want to be in another fight with them. They cannot be killed easily. What is
your plan, Grigori?”

“I
think that we need to get as much rest as we can tonight. As Luka was taking me
around the theater, he showed me the tunnels that run from one theater to the next.
Tomorrow we will take one of those tunnels to a different theater. From there
we can steal a car, or maybe two, and drive to the border. One thing that Luka
told me was that they almost did not have the show tonight because so many of
the actors and theater staff did not come in. The manager had his secretaries
calling everyone, but no one answered their phone. They simply did not come to
work tonight. Something tells me this is not an isolated event. This may be
happening in most of Moscow, if not all of Western Russia.”

Everyone
was settling in for the night. The three security men went into the dining room
to talk, while the theater workers took over another dressing room.

Tasha,
Dunyasha, Evdokiya and Boleslav ate some of the snacks that were brought in
before they pulled the beds out and lay down.

The
three bodyguards sat at the same table. Dmitry, leaning over the table to be
heard, whispered, “I did not want to say this in front of the others, but on my
drive over here I saw many strange creatures out there. There were many people
on the ground that the creatures had killed. All the deaths were clearly violent,
gruesome attacks. The way the creatures attacked the people, it was clear that there
was no way anyone could survive once they started. I passed 25 to 30 bodies on
my drive over here. All the bodies were torn to shreds. It was the most
horrible, gruesome thing that I have ever seen in my life. These creatures kill
with a blood rage.

“The
creatures were killing several people right in front of me. They using the claws
at the ends of their arms to kill them. They swung their claws, ripping and
slashing their stomachs open or ripping into their faces or necks. Wherever they
killed someone, there were pools of blood with bits of flesh or internal organs
lying in the street after they had moved on to the next kill.

“I tried
to help the victims by shooting at the creatures, but it seemed to have no
effect on them. There was nothing I could do to help. As I drove here, more of
them were coming out of the shadows. They looked like they were hunting for
their next victims. There was no method to who they killed. They just went from
person to person, killing anyone that they could catch. I don’t want to go back
out there again. Not at night, not while those creatures are out there.”

Grigori
shook his head slowly. “Dmitry, that is a very vivid picture of death. We are
glad you made it here. We can use your help. Sergei has secured the building.
Vyacheslav and Ivan are dead. They were killed by a pair of those creatures in
the alley across the street. And you are right, our guns do nothing to stop
them.”

“We
need to see how far this has spread,” said Grigori. “Tonight we need to make a
plan for what we will do tomorrow. This is not going to be good for anyone in
Moscow or Russia I believe. We need to do whatever is necessary to stay alive.”

“This
building is safe for us now,” said Sergei. “We can only stay here for tonight.
Maybe tomorrow. No longer than that. We need to get out of Moscow as fast as we
can. In fact, we need to get out of Russia altogether.”

“Sergei,
I don’t know what we need to do tomorrow. Right now there are too many
creatures out there. Like you said, this might be an attack on Russia from
England or America. I don’t know. Whatever is happening, it is not safe for
anyone. There is too much death outside right now. Tomorrow, in the light of
day, it might be better. I hope it is for our sake.”

“Dmitry,
what I know now is that we need to get out of Russia as fast as we can before
this gets so bad that we can’t get away. When Luka took me around to secure the
building, he showed me several tunnels to other theaters. The one that sounds
like the best for us runs under Tverskoy Boulevard under the park. It ends at
the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theater. Luka told me that all of the other tunnels
branch off to more than one theater. This one is the only tunnel that has a
single destination. If the other theater has not been breached, it should be
empty. Luka told me that that theater did not have a show tonight so it should
be locked up.”

“Tomorrow
we take all of the food and water that we can carry, and take the tunnel to the
other theater,” said Grigori. “From there we find a car or two to steal, and drive
out of Moscow to the border with Belarus. On the way, we will stop at the first
bank that we can find. We will take as much cash as we can get from the bank
accounts. If this continues, their credit cards will stop working. Tonight we
sleep in shifts. One of us will be on watch at all times. I will take the first
watch. Dmitry, you can relieve me in three hours. At 8:00 AM we will begin preparations
to leave. I want to be out of this theater by 10:00 AM.”

Grigori
stood the first shift. With their plans set, they would rest tonight. Tomorrow
they would begin looking for a place or country where this is not happening. In
the back of Grigori’s mind, he did not think it would be as simple as leaving
Russia to find another place without the creatures. Tomorrow would be the start
of many hard days. They would need their rest, or what they could get tonight.

Tomorrow
they will be following their plan.

They
would start running from Russia and the creatures.

They
would run like their lives depended on it.

Australian Associated
Press, Melbourne, Australia

Australia
Day Zero

Monday,
August 18, 2036

Thirteen
years ago on this date was when the nations of the world began adopting what
was eventually dubbed Neo-Isolationism. As the isolated countries became the
accepted norm, it became easier for them to communicate with each other. There
was a kind of peace after the dust settled. The countries of the world were getting
used to relying upon themselves for existence. International trade had ground
to a small fraction of what it was prior to the first country having declared
isolationism. Countries that could not produce various products themselves made
the cost to import those products prohibitive for the majority of their
citizens to own except for the wealthy or for the government itself.

As a
result of this, many countries purchased large, Jumbotron-style display
monitors that they mounted in public places in order to keep their citizens
informed. They broadcast new laws or restrictions. They broadcast local,
national and even international news when it was deemed necessary for their
citizens to be made aware of events.

The
majority of the citizens of the world became aware of the outbreak as it became
national or international news through these monitors, mounted in public
gathering places. Many citizens had heard of an attack or a killing by one or a
few creatures in their own countries by word of mouth between others within
their own city. These isolated or random killings would start out being
reported by local news stations as the number of attacks grew.

On
Monday evening, August 18, 2036, a news report from Melbourne, Australia would
be the first report to make its way around the world. Sadly, it would not be
the last.

From
that day forward, August 18, 2036 would be remembered as Australia Day Zero.
This would be the day that the outbreak of the virus was announced worldwide.

The
person responsible for making this announcement was a reporter called MacKenzie
Hayden, reporting for The Australian Press-Melbourne. She brought the first
international news report of the outbreak of the virus to the world.

MacKenzie
Hayden was a beautiful, ravishing lady. She looked like the typical TV
personality; tall for a woman, she stood 1.86m tall. Her slender body weighed
just 55 kilos. Her good looks came from her dedication to her workout routine.
She ran up to 32 kilometers a day, rain or shine. While she was at work on the
road, she did specialized cardiovascular/aerobic exercises that she had developed
for herself. MacKenzie was an exercise fanatic. She got this way by caring for
her mum who had cancer. She laid in bed, withering away as she waited for death
to take her. MacKenzie vowed to herself that she would not die that way. That
was her motive for her extreme exercise routine.

She
was just as obsessed about her looks. Anyone, at any time of day, could see her
exercising, doing her cardio routine, brushing out her hair, washing, plucking
an errant hair from where it did not belong or straightening her clothes or any
of another dozen other tasks that she did daily for herself.

MacKenzie
never knew her father. He abandoned her and her mum when MacKenzie was only six
months old, never to be seen again.

Her
mum died when she was 19, the same year she began an internship with a local
news station. When the internship was over, the station offered her a full time
job in the office, from which she worked her way up to being their lead
reporter. She loved being on the road rather than being stuck in the studio. In
the field she could control how the report was shot. She controlled how
everything was accomplished when she was in the field. On Australia Day Zero,
otherwise known as Monday, August 18th, 2036, she was out in the field reporting
on a news story in Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne. MacKenzie had just
celebrated her eleventh year with the company. She had just received an offer
to become the station’s news anchor. She had been offered this position many
times in the past. As in all of the other times that this had been offered to
her, she turned it down. She liked working in the field and wanted to stay
where she was. In the past, reporters who accepted the lead reporter’s desk usually
were retired in less than two years. MacKenzie wasn’t ready to retire; not now,
at least. “I’m MacKenzie Hayden with the Australian Associated Press-Melbourne,
reporting from the Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne. We are in front of the
Fitzroy Town Hall on Moor Street, where a monthly town hall meeting took place
earlier this afternoon. Our news desk received several frantic calls about the
events that occurred here earlier, and we came to investigate. I have Reggie
James with me, who lives in Fitzroy. Reggie, could you tell our viewers exactly
what happened tonight?”

“Well,
MacKenzie, like I was telling the guy on the phone, our town meeting was moving
along fairly quickly, as we didn’t have nearly so many people as usual. We
still had enough make a quorum, but just barely.” He stopped and coughed.

“Anyway,
as I was telling the guy on the phone at your station, we took a break, so me’n
a coupla mates went out back to have a quick nip with our smokes. You know they
passed a law years ago that don’t allow no smokin’ in the hall anymore. These
meetings tend to run long, so we had ‘em add a couple of breaks so we could
catch a smoke. Anyway, we was standing here smoking, when Skip — we calls ‘im
Skip because his name is Rodney Skipperson — he had to take a quick leak. So he
steps into the alley to get on with his business. I guess he was pissin’, an’
he let out a God-awful scream.” He stopped for a moment, catching his breath.

“We
all just stood there a minute because we thought he had zipped up his junk in
his pants, but he kept screaming. We ran around the corner to the alley to see
what he was yelling about. We could see that there was some sort of ’orrible
thing… it ‘ad Skip on the ground, kneeling next to him. It was just tearin’ at
him with its claws, ripping him apart. We already knew that Skip was dead. We’d
all froze, right there, standing, watchin’ that thing tearing Skip all to hell.
Then from
behind
the thing that had Skip come another one of those awful
things shuffling towards us! Joey Adamson was the closest to Skip. ‘E was just
standing there with ‘is feet frozen to the ground in fear, not movin’ and such.”

He
stood shaking his head in disbelief. “Everything in the middle of his body was
ripped open, falling into the dirt. Joey fell in a heap on his knees. Whatever
that thing was, it was mean. It didn’t have no reason to kill ‘im. It looked
like it mighta been half human. It had ripped up clothes on. The fuckin’ thing
shuffled upright like a human, but it was an animal. It was like a dog that got
the taste of blood in its mouth. Once a dog knows the taste of blood, it’ll
kill every sheep in the field in one night. This damned thing’s body was all
torn up. We could smell what one of me mates said was like a sewer. Anyway, the
bloody damn thing squatted down next to Joey. He was dead and all, but it kept
digging his guts out of his belly, throwing them all over the place. Please
believe me when I tell ya there was nothing that we could do for ‘im. He was
already dead.” He looked back and forth at the television crew as if trying to
make sure they believed him. “We all turned ‘round an’ we started running like ‘ell
back into the meeting hall, slamming the door behind us. We was a-comin’
through the ‘all, yelling like ‘ell for everyone to get out. We didn’t stop. We
just kept running through the ‘all out ‘ere to the street. Everyone inside got
up and followed us out. We all just stood there waitin’ for those God-awful
creatures or whatever they were to come ‘round the front of the ‘all. They
never came. Right now I don’t know where they are.”

“Thank
you, Mr. James. It sounds like it was a terrifying sight to see. We’re sorry
that your buddies Skip and Joey were killed. It’s good that everyone else made
it out safely. The constable is here now. He’s told us that the alley behind
the meeting hall is now a crime scene. Our cameras will not be allowed back
there at this time. When we have more information, we will bring it to you as
soon as it is available. This is MacKenzie Hayden reporting for the Australian
Associated Press-Melbourne, in the Fitzroy, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
Back to you in the studio.”

“Thank
you, MacKenzie. It sounds like it was a horrible incident at the Fitzroy Town
Hall. While we are waiting for your next assignment, I want to have our viewers
look at some footage that we obtained from our sister affiliate in Sydney. They
had been reporting on similar events in their city as well. We are switching to
the live footage from Sydney while Makenzie is being dispatched to another
attack taking place in Melbourne. Once Makenzie is ready to broadcast we will
return to her. For now, we will watch the events in Sydney.”

With
that, the control board manager switched to the Sydney footage.

“This
is Wayne Petterson in Sydney. Our remote camera is sending the current video
feed to you. In the distance, you can see the six creatures attacking the
people on the ground. From what I can see, it appears that these things are
ripping the victim’s bodies apart. They have torn off an arm from one. A leg
from another, tearing into the chest of the third… We are purposely keeping our
camera a bit out of focus so the images will be blurred. The creatures are
vigorously tearing their victims apart in an absolute attempt to kill them.
There is so much blood, not to mention the body parts that these creatures have
gouged out of their victims… All of this, the blood and the body parts, are
scattered in a six-meter circle around the bodies of the people that they’ve
killed.

“Now,
wait — the creatures, which had been kneeling next to their victims, have risen
to their feet. It looks like they’ve finished killing those people. They’re
looking towards us now. Oh, my god — they’ve started to come this way. They
don’t walk well, however… what they do is kind of a slow stagger or lumbering
towards us. We’re shining our spotlights on them now. If you look closely, you
can see that they’re wearing clothes like humans. The clothing is ripped, torn and
shredded… stained with blood. Please wait just a moment… My equipment man just
signaled me. We need to wrap this up. We have a new assignment that we must move
to. We will be reporting to you again once we reach our assigned location. This
is Wayne Petterson, with the Australian Associated Press-Sydney, reporting from
behind the Gladesville Hospital off of highway A40.”

MacKenzie
and her remote crew were traveling to the Melbourne Central shopping center on
Swanston Street near LaTrobe Avenue. The trip should have only taken ten
minutes to drive there. This evening the trip took over 45 minutes. On the way,
she had her cameraman filming the sights on the streets, using a handheld
camera.

“MacKenzie,
do you see the number of people out on the streets? It looks like a lot of
people are out for a Tuesday night. I don’t think what happened back at the
Fitzroy Town Hall is an isolated event. We need to be on our toes, watching out
for whatever is out there killing people.”

“Okay,
Mr. Farthing. Jacob, keep driving, please, and we all need to keep our heads up
so we can see what is out there. We need to get to the shopping center quickly.
They’re waiting for us.”

The
news van arrived at the shopping center. They’d been filming their entire route,
sending the signal back to the studio as they drove. What they could see from
their news van was confusion mixed with chaos. When they arrived, they simply sat
in the van for a moment, looking at the sight in front of them. They were
trying to make sense of what they were seeing. People were running in every
direction. Where there should have been booths set up to sell handmade crafts
or farm produce to the public, the booths were knocked about. Items for sale were
scattered everywhere. They could see bloody, shredded bodies lying on the
ground in pools of blood. The bodies had been grossly mutated. They had pieces
of flesh ripped from them. There were deep gouges torn in their bodies. Some of
the dead had been so horribly damaged that it looked as if an animal had done
the killing. There must have been at least eight or ten bodies that they could
see at a casual glance. What they did not see were the creatures that had
killed all of these people — not yet.

“Okay,
we’re here. Let’s just sit for a short while to get an idea of what’s
happening. Mr. Grainger, Xavier, keep filming with your handhelds. Please film
out the side windows if you can.”

“I
will, MacKenzie. It’s been tight up front. I’ll keep filming.”

“Xavier,
let me just step out of the van so you can have more room to work.”

“Jacob,
don’t open that door!” MacKenzie shouted.

“MacKenzie,
I don’t see much of anything out there other than people running in every
direction. It looks like whatever did this to those people has moved on. It
looks safe to me. I’m stepping out to give Xavier more room.”

Jacob
opened the driver’s door and stepped outside. He took a step toward the back of
the van. Standing next to the open driver’s door open, Xavier didn’t see
anything wrong. Xavier, with camera in hand, slid into the driver’s seat, still
talking to MacKenzie.