The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (29 page)

The
next day they started with breakfast. Then it was off to search the rest of the
house, now that they had more light. They found a hidden gun cabinet with long
guns and handguns, with enough ammunition for both.

“Sergei,
Dmitry, everyone, come look what I have found in the master bedroom.”

The
other two smiled at the treasure he had found.

“Grigori,
if we take these weapons, then we will have to keep them out of sight while we
travel. They might bring us more trouble than we need if we do not keep them
hidden.”

“I
think you are right about that point Dmitry. Guns in an argument push the
argument out of control quickly. I think we should take them but use them only
when we absolutely have to.”

“I can
accept that Sergei. You are right. We need to inventory everything we have
found. We cannot take everything. We need to decide what we will take and what
we will leave.”

The
only other thing they found was a stock of cigars. They made a list of
everything they had discovered. From their list, they decided what they would
take.

Food,
water, and gasoline for the truck were the first things they selected. Some of
the weapons and ammunition were loaded as well. The clothing was new, so everyone
changed into the new clothes and each selected two more changes of clothing.
Everything was going great, when suddenly Tasha let out a scream.

“Oh,
no! No! They cannot be moving! Oh, my God! Look, everyone! The bodies in the
back yard… they are
moving!”

“Tasha,
what are you talking about?”

“Grigori,
look. The bodies.
Look…!”

Grigori
ran to the window that Tasha was looking out of. He could see that one of the
dead from last night had started to move. It had rolled over onto its back and
was trying to sit up. As everyone else got to the windows, the dead man struggled
to its feet. Once it was upright, it simply walked away. The other two bodies
were moving now as well. In a short while, they too had stood, walking away,
following the first one. Everyone in the house stood there staring blankly at
the dried blood on the ground. Their mouths were hanging open, but no words
were coming out. They were afraid that if they tried to speak, they would begin
screaming.

“I
think we have just seen where zombies come from. The dead do not stay dead.
This is why we have seen so many dried puddles of blood, with no bodies.”

“Dmitry,
someone needs to find a cure for all of this before everyone in the world has
been turned into a zombie.”

“Grigori,
we are not the ones that will find a cure for this. all we are is gun-toting
security men.”

“Fine.
We need to load everything up today. We will work into the night if we must. I
want us out of the Czech Republic at first light. We need to get to Africa as
fast as we can.”

They
continued loading the truck or trailer. One thing they found was an old ham
radio. No one really knew how to operate one, but as they drove, they could use
the truck to power it. From today forward, they would have one person on watch
at all times.

After
dinner, no one was able to get much sleep. The next morning, they ate breakfast,
then they opened the basement door to drive the truck and trailer out. They
headed down the road towards Germany. Sergei was driving, and Dmitry was
fiddling with the two-way radio.

“Sergei,
listen to this. I’ve got someone on the radio. This is Dmitry in the Czech
Republic, who am I talking to? Over.”

“This
is the Spanish Survivor Stronghold. Where did you say you were? Over.”

“This
is Dmitry. We are in the Czech Republic. We are heading to Africa. What is the Spanish
Survivor Stronghold? Over.”

“We
are a safe camp for survivors that have gathered to live without fear of the
zombies. We have a large camp. We are able to take up to 5,000 survivors.
Anyone is welcome. You are welcome to join us. Over.”

“Spanish
Survivor Stronghold, this is Dmitry in the Czech Republic. Let me talk to the
rest of our group about you. We will call you back within one hour. Over.”

“Sergei,
what do you think? Should we go? I know that the others are tired of running,
and I am getting tired as well.”

“Dmitry,
I think that this might be better than Africa for us. It sounds as if there are
no zombies there. It is not far from us, now that we have a vehicle. It sounds
like it is in Spain. We were already going to go through Spain. We can look at
them while we are close. Do you think you can live under someone else’s rules?”

“If it
means we can stop running, I could. Do you want to stop for a minute to talk
about this with everyone? I think we can make a decision to go or not to go.”

“Dmitry,
Sergei, I know the ladies and myself would welcome the ability to stop for good
if that is what this is.”

“Boleslav,
I believe that if this is place is what they say it is, we can go to them and
look at the camp, and if it does not look good, we can always keep going. I
vote to see what they have to offer. Does anyone disagree with me? No? Then I
will have Dmitry call them back now and get directions to their stronghold. We
will go.”

With
everyone ready to go to the Spanish Survivor Stronghold, Dmitry called them for
directions. He wrote down everything they told him and read the directions back
to them to make sure he had them correct.

They
were happy to be on the way to a safe camp where they could stop running. They
would have to get there first, but they’d had plenty of experience running. Now
they had a vehicle with enough supplies to get them there quickly. So they headed
for Spain in a hurry. Now they had a purpose to run.

Australian
Associated Press

Melbourne, Australia

ADZ +170d

It had
been eighteen days since the zombies’ first kill in Melbourne. It was such a
horrific event that, years from now, the world would still refer to that day as
Australia Day Zero to mark when events occurred in connection with the zombie
outbreak.

On the
eighth day since Australian Day Zero, the station had recalled all of their
mobile news crews to return to the station to keep them safe. When the station
recalled all of the mobile broadcast vans, two of them never returned to the
station nor did they report in. Chlöe Knetes, the station director, assumed the
crews were either dead, had given up the vans going on the run on foot or had used
the vans to flee Melbourne. On that day, the station began broadcasting the
news by connecting to leased traffic cameras owned by the government or other
sources. They also used cameras that the station owned that were mounted
throughout Melbourne. This was how they broadcasted the news for anyone who was
watching.

They
kept this up until the eighteenth day after ADZ. Everything was working fine
until Australia’s electrical generating plants failed, throwing the entire
country into darkness. The studio was nearly out of food and bottled water. The
toilets had stopped flushing. The entire building started to smell like an open
sewer. They knew that they had to get out of the building. The only thing that
was still running was the huge backup generator for the studio. It had enough
fuel to run for 30 days.

After
18 days, there were nineteen people remaining inside the studio. These included
station manager Chlöe Knetes and William Pike, head of security, along with his
security staff of four.

After eighteen
long days in the building, as everything gradually stopped working, Chlöe knew
they had to get out of the studio or they would die there. She picked up the
phone — which, miraculously, still worked — and dialed the security chief.

“William
Pike here, what can I do for you, Chlöe?”

“William,
do you know if the
Melbourne Star
is still in its berth at the docks?”

“I
don’t know for sure, but it should be. They usually go through my office to let
me know that they are taking it out. Did you want to use it?”

“I
want to know whether anyone in our studio can pilot that ship. I’ve been
watching news feeds from around the world, and it seems that the only place
nearby that has not reported about the zombie killings is New Zealand. If we
can find someone to sail the Star, I want to take the two ten-passenger buses
out so we can leave for the harbor. We have 19 people in the building, counting
the two of us. I want to move our people from the studio to the ship as fast as
we can. I know that the
Star
is an ocean-going ship; I want to get everyone
on it and sail to New Zealand as quickly as possible. We can’t stay in this
building any longer. The water has been off for days, and the sewer has backed
up. We need to get out of here. We need to go somewhere else, and New Zealand
looks like our best choice at this time.”

“Chlöe,
I can pilot that ship. I was a mate on it years ago. I worked my way up through
the ranks to head of security. The captain took me out on my days off so I
could learn. He’s coming up for retirement, and I wanted his job anyway,” he
grinned.

“That
ship is well maintained. It’s always fueled up and ready to go at a moment’s
notice. We could easily cruise to New Zealand with what it has on board, and you
can broadcast from the onboard studio if you so desire.”

“If
the weather is not against us, it should take perhaps 100 hours to get there.
Running at the best speed we can get out of that ship, we should be able to
hold a top speed of 15 knots. That’ll give us about five days of running hard.
If we get bad weather, it could cut us down to eight knots. That would mean an
additional two or three days at sea, is all.”

“Okay,
William. Get the buses ready to go, and we’ll leave in 30 minutes.”

The
Melbourne
Star
was a 175-foot vessel that needed a crew of four plus the Captain. It
was an ocean-going vessel that was powered by two large diesel engines. It
carried 1,000 gallons of fuel, 800 gallons of drinkable water and enough food
for a party of fifteen for 20 days on the water without replenishment. There were
four passenger decks with the engineering and crew spaces below that. The
lounge on the second deck had been turned into a broadcast studio. It could
broadcast a signal to anywhere in the world via satellite.

William
rounded up everyone in the studio and got them loaded into the buses, and they
left the station building for the last time. They were driving to the dock
where the
Star
was docked. Chlöe was in the lead bus with William. As
they were driving, he told her, “I will use the staff as my crew. Of course,
I’ll have to show them what their jobs are, but I think they’re mechanically
qualified for the jobs that need to be done. This ship will nearly run itself.
We need to put out to sea now, before we can’t go at all.”

“All
right, William, you’re the captain. On board, your word is law. You pick the
people you need, if there are any problems, tell them to talk to me. No, better
yet, do we have a radio that we can contact the other bus with?”

William
reached down to grab the radio. He contacted the other bus telling them to stand
by for an announcement. He handed the mic to Chlöe.

“This
is Chlöe Knetes in the first bus. I want you to put me on speaker so everyone
can hear me on both buses.” Once he did so, she continued: “This is Station
Manager Chlöe Knetes. You all know that I do not play. We are in a desperate
situation. Our lives will depend on what we do from here on out. I need
everyone to pull their weight when asked. When we get to the
Melbourne Star
,
William Pike is the captain.
He’s in charge. His word is final. Whatever he tells
you to do is
what
he needs to be done. Period. If you’re asked to clean a toilet, then you’ll be
cleaning a toilet. I don’t want to hear of anyone disobeying his orders.”

On the
way to the docks, they could see zombies out hunting. The mutated bodies
littered the streets. There was blood everywhere. From the van, they could look
back to see that parts of Melbourne were on fire. The fire looked as if it had
been burning for days.

As
they arrived at the dock facility, the gate was locked, but no guard was on
duty. Chlöe told William to ram the gate, and they drove directly to the
Star
’s
berth.

Once
they got to the dock, they saw about a dozen zombies coming towards the noise
that they had made by ramming the gate. Chlöe told William to run them over.
The buses had to get to the dock. There was no other choice. They got to the
ship eighty meters ahead of the zombies.

“We
don’t have much time to get the ship out into the harbor. William, you’re in
charge.”

“Ok, I
don’t need everyone to run to the ship. I need four strong men to help slip the
lines off of the dock. I’ll come to the bridge after we get the engines
started. We all have station-issued radios. I need you to tell everyone that if
they do not have a job to do then stay the hell out of the way. Keep the radio
traffic to ship operations only. No grab ass, no playing no nothing except to
sit on their butts out of the way. This is not like a car. You don’ just get
in, start the engine and go. It takes a bit of work. Ok.”

The
four men that William selected to slip the lines were working together to get the
Star
away from the dock. William pointed at four other men and told them
to follow him to the engine room. With their help, they could get the engines
started and ready to power the ship out of the harbor.

After
assigning each man his job, he showed them how to start the engines. He also
told them what to do to the engines as they were under way. William ran back to
the bridge and signaled the men on the dock to release the ship from its
moorings.

With
everyone on board, William headed the
Melbourne Star
out of the harbor.
It was hard work, but they were able to get it done before the zombies had gotten
too far down the dock. When they were clear of the harbor’s sea wall, he put
the station broadcast board manager at the helm, telling him what he needed to
do.

William
went back down to the engine room to make sure everything was in order. He
showed the men what was expected of them on their jobs. He told them that if
any problems arose, to use the onboard hailer to call him. Then he went back to
the bridge.

Since Chlöe
had been on the ship before, she was in charge of assigning cabins. Everyone
would have to double or triple up as there were too many people on the ship for
everyone to be comfortable.

Chlöe
told the broadcast personnel to get the studio online and ready to transmit as
soon as they could. She wanted to be on the air in 30 minutes or less for an
announcement to the world. Chlöe returned to the bridge. As she looked back
towards the city she was shocked at what she saw.

“William!
Look at the city! The fires have spread. The entire city is on fire! If the
fires aren’t put out, Melbourne will burn to the ground.”

“Chlöe,
without running water or firefighters to fight the fires, our city is lost,”
William said. “We’re witnessing the end of Melbourne. It’s up to us to stay
alive to report what we see. With this ship, it will take about eight to ten
days to get to New Zealand. That is, if we don’t have any rough weather. The
only harbor that’s deep enough for us to enter is Christchurch. It’s on the
other side of New Zealand, so starting now, we are going to ration our food and
water. The
Star
was outfitted with enough provisions for fifteen people
for 20 days. We have 19 on board. It should only take us ten days to get there,
so we should be fine, but just in case, we’ll start rationing now, so we won’t
miss what we never had. Waiting until we are low on food or water to ration will
mean all we accomplish is to starve everyone.”

Sailing
through the Tasman Sea to New Zealand, they ran into some rough weather the
next day at sea. The storm front was against them, pushing them back towards
Australia. William had to run at full power to overcome the weather. It took
everything that the
Melbourne Star
had to get to New Zealand. The closer
to the island they got, the more the island acted as a wind break for them. The
Star
had been at sea for a full fourteen days when they rounded the
southernmost point of New Zealand on the way to Christchurch. It was ADZ +33
days, and things were no looking too good.

Passing
the southern point, they could make out several of the cities or larger towns
from the sea. William called Chlöe up to the bridge to point Owaka, Dunedin,
and Moeraki as they passed them. He showed her that they were currently on fire
or had burned to the ground.

As
they rounded the Akaroa point to enter the port at Christchurch, they could see
that Duvauchelle on the ridge was burning. To make matters worse, as they
neared the port of Christchurch, they could see thick columns of smoke rising
before they could even see the city. The closer they got, the better they could
see that the city was on fire, and it was raging out of control.

Christchurch
was lost, just as Melbourne had been. Chlöe was on the bridge with William. She
said, “Christchurch hasn’t answered our signal, and now I know why. The whole
city is burning. From what I can see from here there is no one in the city. Everyone
is either dead or has fled. What do we do now, William?”

“I was
truly hoping that we could refuel as well as restock our supplies of food and
water, but we can’t even enter the harbour. The docks are on fire. There is
nowhere we can go. We do not know what may have been sunk that is lurking
underwater waiting for us. If we strike a submerged object, we could rip a hole
in our hull. We’d be stuck here with no way to get out.”

He
looked out over the water. “Our only option is to return to Australia. Right
now we don’t have enough fuel on board to make it all the way back. To get more
fuel, we’ll need to stop in Tasmania. To make our food and water last as long
as possible, we need to ration everything. You’ll have to shut down your studio,
as it runs on a separate generator. We need that fuel. We’ll take the fuel from
the lifeboats as well. If we have rough weather, we might not make it anywhere,
so we’d better hope for good weather.”

He
looked at the radar display on the bridge’s control center. “If the severe
weather is at our back, it will blow us towards Tasmania rather than away. The
only other option, if we miss Tasmania, is Antarctica, but this ship does not
have the hull for the ice, nor do we have the clothing for the cold weather.
I’m going to shut down everything not essential to the ship so we can try to make
Tasmania. Help me shut down everything that’s non-essential to making this ship
move. No showers, no cleaning. No anything that doesn’t help us get to
Tasmania. We’ve run the ship pretty hard. I want to anchor offshore for the
night so we can get some maintenance done before we leave for Tasmania.”