The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (35 page)

The
winter camp was secure, with a decent fence completely around the main camp.
The camp sat on five acres of farmland with several buildings. It looked like
it might have once been a summer camp for children. There was a large, three-story
dormitory for everyone to stay in. They had a building for storing, cooking,
serving meals or holding meetings in. There were several outbuildings for
tractors or other machinery. A small lake with clean water was behind the
dormitory. With the number of people in the camp, there were enough people to
patrol the fenced-in grounds.

Wayne
led them into the dining hall. As they entered, Wayne stopped just inside the
door so they could see the room. He turned to speak to them.

“Right
now we’re getting ready to serve dinner. Afterwards, we’ll be holding a camp
meeting. The meeting isn’t about you. We hold a meeting every week on Friday
after dinner. It keeps everyone up-to-date with what’s going on with the camp.
You’re welcome to stay to listen. If you do stay, you cannot participate
because you are not yet a member of our group. Let me take you over to
introduce you to some people here, however. When the meeting starts, I’ll
introduce you to everyone who’s here. The members of our group will introduce
themselves to you after the meeting is over. Please follow me.”

As
they made their way through the dining hall following Wayne, he stopped at a
table. He held his open hand out towards a woman as he introduced her.

“Please
let me introduce my wife to you. Her name is Betty. She followed me from Salt
Lake. Betty, these are the people that I told you about last night. This is
Kimberly, next to her is Floyd, and next to him is Eddie. They’re from
Riverside, California. They were on their way to Eugene or Salem to make a
winter camp. Sitting next to my wife is Donnie Dodge and his wife, Mildred.
They’re from Phoenix. On this side of the table is Derek Beasley and his wife,
Jewel. They are from Boise, Idaho.”

“We’re
so glad to meet you,” said Kimberly. “Thank you for inviting us to your camp.”

“You
are more than welcome. Wayne has been telling me so much about the three of
you. I hope you enjoy what you see. I would be so pleased happy if you chose to
join us.”

“I
told them that dinner will be served soon. Betty is such a good recruiter for
us. I think that’s why I married her so many years ago. She must have recruited
me. Donnie, Jewel and I are not on the leadership council, but Betty, Mildred
and Derek are.”

Wayne
continued, “There are a total of six people on the leadership council. They
serve for three months. Each person is selected from a random drawing held once
a month. Each month we change out two people on the leadership council. This
way we have new blood every month on the council. To be on the council, a
person must be 18 or older. No one serves more than once every twelve months.
If a spouse served at any time in the last twelve-month period, the other
spouse cannot serve until that twelve-month period is over. Everyone in our
group has a chip that has their name on it. The chips hang on a board in this
room. If a person does not want to be on the council, then they move their chip
to the smaller board. That is the non-qualified person board. Before each
random drawing, the board is checked to ensure that every name in our group is
there. It is a little clumsy but this is what we came up with as our group
grew. Come on, let’s sit down so we can eat. They serve by table. One table
will go at a time to the serving line. Each meal they alternate which table
starts the rotation.”

After
dinner was eaten, the dining room was cleaned up and they started to get ready
for the weekly meeting. The leadership council moved to the table in the front
of the room. Betty Locks stood to begin the meeting. As the business part of
the meeting was being handled and things like the minutes or closed requests
were being discussed, Kimberly and her crew sat next to Wayne. As the council
was ready for new business, Betty asked her husband to stand and introduce his
new friends.

Wayne
stood and cleared his throat to speak. “As everyone knows, we’ve been
monitoring the area around our camp. We came across these three people who are
sitting with me. I approached them yesterday, asking them if they would
consider joining us. They’re from Riverside, California and worked for the NBC
news station as a mobile news team. Their names are Kimberly, Floyd, and Eddie.
They are going to stay with us for a day or so. If you pass them, please
introduce yourself. Thank you, Betty, for letting me have the time to introduce
our new friends.”

As
Wayne sat down, Derek Beasley stood to be recognized so he could speak. Betty
pointed towards him, telling him the he had the floor. Derek stood, scratched
his head as he started to tell everyone what he had discovered earlier today.

“Betty,
I had a response to my broadcast on the radio that we found a month ago. With
Donnie’s help cranking the power, we had another group respond to our call.
They are like us because they have banded together from a number of other
groups. They have something to offer us if we so choose. They’re a large group
of survivors in Nebraska. They call themselves The Nebraska Survivor Camp. What
they have created is a permanent camp that can hold up to 3,000 people. They’re
inviting anyone who’s willing to follow their rules to join them. From what I
have gathered by talking to them, they run their camp much like ours. They have
a command council that is selected from a drawing to lead the camp. They are on
the council for six months.”

“If
anyone wants to join their camp, they must go through a quarantine of two weeks
before they are brought into the main camp. That is to ensure the people do not
have the zombie virus on them. I would like to know if this could be opened for
a group discussion. What do the members of the council think?”

“Derek,
I think this might be of value to us. With winter coming on hard, getting to
Nebraska now would pose a real hardship on us. We’d have to cross the Rocky
Mountains on foot in the middle of winter. If the cold doesn’t get us, the
zombies will. If they still have room for us in the spring, I think whoever is
on the council at that time would be willing to entertain the recommendation for
going. I won’t stand in the way of presenting this to our group. I’d like to
hold this for a later time. Please don’t hesitate to talk about it while you’re
among the members of our group. With any luck, we could find a running vehicle
or two to help us make the trip.”

“Thank
you for your presentation, Derek. I don’t hear any new business, so I move to
close this week’s meeting of the council. Our guests will be staying with us in
the dormitory tonight. Please make them feel welcome. Wayne, would you please
take our friends to the dormitory to show them their room?”

As the
meeting broke up, Wayne took the three of them to the dormitory to show them
their room.

“I know
it’s not much, but each room has four beds, at least until the families have
had a chance to make them their own. I know with one girl and two guys it isn’t
the best, but it’s all we have to offer right now for our guests.”

“Kimberly!
Look! Beds. With sheets and blankets. No, Wayne, this is just fine. We’ve all
slept in the same room for this long; another day or two won’t kill us. Wayne,
if we choose to join you, will this be our regular sleeping arrangements?”

“No,
Eddie. Single members sleep on one end of the building. Ladies on one floor,
the guys on another. Right now we don’t want to put you into a situation that
you’ll be uncomfortable with. We have a policy that when it’s dark outside, the
lights go off, except for interior rooms. All our lights come from candles or
lanterns. Both of those are hard to get, so if you don’t absolutely need the
light, we ask that you not use them. I’ll see you tomorrow. If you have any
questions, please look for me; I’m your sponsor. You can go anywhere that you
want. It’s just that someone has to be responsible for new people.”

“Wayne,
if we do decide to join you, do you have a training program or something of
that sort that we have to go through?”

“No, Floyd,
we don’t have one per se. We do have a set of rules that we’ll give you to look
at. We all follow those rules. Things such as the lights after dark thing. If
you guys are all good for the night, I’ll join my wife, one floor up. If you
need anything, we have a night watch that patrols the grounds. They also go through
the buildings on a regular schedule. If you see them, they’ll say hi.”

Once
Wayne left, Kimberly shut the door to their room. It was just starting to get
dark out, so they had a little time to get set for bed. Once they were settled
in, Kimberly was first to speak in a quiet voice to the guys.

“Wow,
guys. What do you think of this so far? As far as I’m concerned, I’m good to go
with this. I want to talk to some of the other people tomorrow, but if they
asked me right now, I’d have to say yes. Floyd, what about you? You always have
a good head on your shoulders. What do you think?”

“No
more fighting to find food. No more fighting with the zombies. A bed to sleep
in. What more could we ask for? Kimberly, I’m with you on this. I’m ready to go
for now. I want to see what tomorrow brings. I want to talk to other people as
well. If it still looks this good tomorrow, I think they have three new people.
Eddie, what about you?”

“You
know that I’ll go along with the two of you. I’m tired of walking. I’m tired of
hunting for something to eat. I’m tired of being wet and cold all the time.
Here we’re not wet or cold. These people look like they eat well. So as far my
answer, I’m here to stay. That Nebraska Survivor Camp sounds really good too. I’d
like to be part of that if and when it happens.”

“All
right, guys. Let’s sleep on this. I’m tired, and we have a warm, dry place to
sleep. We had a good meal; I’d still like to have a beer, though. Good night,
all.”

Kimberly
and the guys slept in warm, dry beds for the first time in many months. As they
were falling off to sleep, they knew that they would accept the offer to join
Wayne’s winter camp. They also knew that if they had the chance, they would be
going to the Nebraska Survivor Camp as soon as weather permitted.

In the
spring, they would be running again, but for now, their running was over for a
while.

Saudi
Press Agency

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

ADZ +232d

All
the remaining staff, including the remote crews, had returned to the station.
Kamal had the building security staff direct everyone into the large conference
room. Just before the meeting began, Waheb directed the station’s security officers
to lock down the building, allowing no one in.

As the
staff assembled, they were anxious about the zombie outbreak. Everyone on the
station staff had seen people slaughtered by the zombies as they killed anyone
that they could catch.

The
station personnel had either filmed the killings live, worked on the production
of the news reports or watched the killings from around the world that had been
broadcast. So that the station would not be broadcasting dead air, Kamal had
Ahmed relay the BBC news broadcast from London to the local station as they
attended Kamal’s meeting. Kamal was the last person to enter the conference
room.

Everyone
took their seats to hear what he had to tell them. Once everyone was present,
Kamal stood to address his staff.

“First,
please let me thank all of you for doing the very best job that you could for
the station during these difficult times. As you all know by now, the zombie
outbreak that has been reported around the world has struck our country. In the
last 24 to 48 hours, the majority of our daily activities has been reduced to simply
trying to avoid the zombies. I have been speaking with station managers around
Saudi Arabia, including competing stations in nearby cities. They are all
experiencing the same thing that we are here in Riyadh. The zombies are loose
on the streets, killing anyone that they come across. Every person that has
been killed suffered death in a horrible, brutal manner. These killings are not
intended to simply take a life; they are done in such a way as to inflict the
most brutal ravaging of the victim’s body. The zombies go into a blood rage
as
they kill their victims.”

He
continued, “The people that I have spoken with believe, as I do, that the large
cities are not the place to be. The zombies have or will soon have complete
control of the cities by keeping the people who live in them hiding in fear
behind locked doors, terrified to come out. I have met with the executive staff
to come up with a plan for all of us. They agree that our cities are not safe.
The largest numbers of the zombies are concentrated here.”

He
looked around at those in the room. “In order to have a chance to survive, we
must leave Riyadh behind; in fact, we must leave Saudi Arabia. We have decided
that we will commit all of the station’s resources to travel to Europe. Europe
has been selected because it is more advanced technologically and medically than
any Middle Eastern country. If you will, please let me turn this meeting over
to our station owner, Mr. Waheb Shalhoub, to speak to us.”

“Thank
you, Kamal. Please, from this point forward we no longer hold any stations of
authority over anyone. We are all in this together. From this meeting forward,
everyone can call me Waheb. Everyone in this station will use their first name.
No managers, no supervisors, no subordinates — everyone is equal to everyone
else. The first thing I would like to address is I want everyone to start using
first names from this point forward. This will remove the formality of who is
in charge and who does what work. To make this work, we are all in this
together.”

Heads
nodded around the room. He continued, “Right now there are 52 people in the
station. I am offering to all of you, including your immediate families, to
come with us. What I mean about your immediate family includes your wife and
your children. Parents, brothers, sisters or anyone else that are related to
you will not be allowed due to the limited resources that we have. With the
resources that we have at this time, we can only take so many people most of
the way, if not all the way. If you choose not to accompany us due to our
restrictions, please accept my highest wishes for your safety.”

He
paused a moment. “Our objective is to reach Europe. From listening to the
current newscasts, we feel strongly that if we go to Europe, we will have a
much better chance to survive this outbreak. It would be my desire to take an
aircraft, but the current state of affairs prevents us from using that method
of transportation. We are now reduced to over-the-road means of travel. Through
the rest of today into tomorrow, we will be gathering the vehicles we will
need. All of the remaining vehicles will have the gasoline drained from them to
extend the range of the vehicles we are taking. We will strip the vehicles of
everything that is not necessary for our journey. We will stock them with supplies
such as extra gas, oil, food, water, clothing, toiletries, medical supplies,
bedding and anything else we may need.”

“It is
now nearly 2:00 PM. We will be leaving in just over forty-two hours, on the day
after tomorrow at 10 AM. If you desire to go with us, you must remain here at the
station. If you would like to invite your immediate family to accompany us, please
contact them; they will have to get here somehow. Anyone who leaves the
building will not be permitted to reenter. By tomorrow at noon, we will need an
accurate count so we can prepare for the number of people we will have. If you
do
not
wish to go with us, it will be your choice. We will not attempt
to change your mind.” The staff members looked at each other. Most of them were
nodding in agreement.

“Once
we leave the station, any of you that have decided to stay here will have the
full use of any of the remaining resources in this building. If this sounds
harsh, it is, and I am sorry that it does. These are dangerous times. To
survive, difficult decisions must be made, and right now, no one knows how this
outbreak will end, or if there will be a human race left on Earth. All we can
do is the best we can. We will leave everything else up to Allah. Kamal, I turn
the meeting back over to you. Thank you for letting me speak with everyone.”

“Thank
you, Waheb. These decisions concerning your families were not easily made. We
have only a limited amount of supplies. At issue here is that we do not want to
begin our journey only to run out of supplies. That would put everyone at risk
of dying in the harsh elements of the desert, or being killed by zombies. Both
Waheb and I will be available if you wish to talk privately with us after this
meeting concludes. Please understand that the decision about your immediate
family will stand. Thank you all for your time and your dedication to the
success of this station.”

During
the rest of the day and into the night, staff members were frantically attempting
to call their families to let them know what was happening. It all came down to
whether each family could agree to the rules that had been set out by Waheb, or
whether they would decide to stay behind with their families. A few of the
staff chose not to call their families at all. Not everyone could make that
choice. They decided to stay on their own.

In the
end, the number of staff and family members that decided to go dropped from 52 to
only 21.

In most
Middle Eastern countries, the extended family
was
the family. It was the
tradition of their culture. It might include a husband and his wife, their
children, the parents on both sides, uncles, aunts, and cousins with their
children. Those with large families such as this knew that there were not
enough supplies to go around. They decided to remain in Riyadh.

Those
who chose to attempt the journey to Europe were mostly single men or women with
the station management.

They decided
to take three vehicles. The studio had two 16-passenger buses and one remote
broadcast van. They would strip out two rows of seats, removing eight total
seats from each bus. That would leave room for nine people in each of the buses.
The extra room would be used for supplies. The broadcast van was stripped of
everything that was not needed, including all of the station’s equipment. This
would allow for three people to ride as well as allowing the van to carry a
large amount of supplies. This was how the 21 people would travel. Each vehicle
had enough supplies on board in case they had to split up. When the time came,
42 hours later, the convoy headed out of Riyadh, driving towards Al-Hadithah on
the Jordanian border.

*****

It had
been nearly eight months since the group had left Saudi Arabia. During that
time, they had driven as far as Maan, Jordan before the fuel in their last
vehicle ran out. They walked through Jordan into Lebanon until they arrived at Buraq.

It was
late in the day before they found a small two-story building that they could
secure. They were going about their usual activities to set up their nightly routine.
Along their journey, they lost some of their group to the zombies. Those who
had been killed included Waheb, Arwa, Alohnim, Moiz, and Hamza. The remaining
sixteen were sitting at a makeshift table, eating a meager meal.

The
night watch would begin shortly after the meal. In Buraq, what they needed most
was food and water. Buraq was a new city for them. They planned to spend a
couple of days there to search for supplies.

At
sunrise, after breakfast was done, they sent out a five-member search team to
forage for supplies for their group. Ahmed was the team leader. Accompanying
him were Tetsuo, Husayn, Badr and Maana.

As
they waited for the door to be opened, Ahmed turned to look at them and said, “This
is a small town. We should not need more than a day, maybe two, to cover all of
the buildings. We desperately need food, but finding a source of water is
important as well. If we could find a larger building, that would be nice as
well. It is rather crowded here. The only requirement is that the building is
secure.”

He
looked each member of the search team in the eye. “All right, let’s go. Be sure
to keep your eyes open. The zombies have been more aggressive these last few
weeks.”

“That
sounds like a good idea, Ahmed,” said Husayn. “I think whatever we do, we need
to be both quick and accurate. If Allah is with us, we will find our supplies
quickly.”

“You’re
right, Husayn. Come on, now, we need to get started. Good hunting to us all, as
well as a safe return.”

They
had been out searching for two hours, looking into every building, house and
small shed that they passed. They had found some canned water, in survival containers,
that they packed up. They also found some canned food.

They
had not found enough to help their group go much further without finding more
food or water, however. Maana was walking in the middle of the search party
when he spoke.

“Ahmed,
we have been out here for two hours. Can we stop for a minute to listen to
this? I don’t know if the heat is making me crazy, or what, but I could swear I
hear goats. Do you hear them? They sound like they are over that way.”

“Maana,
I don’t hear anything, but you’re younger than I am, so your ears are probably better
than mine. We can go look for them if you like. Since you hear them, you lead
the way. We’ll follow you.”

Maana
started walking towards the sound of the bleating goats. The closer they got,
the louder it became. As they crested a small hill, they could see in the
distance a three-meter high adobe wall. The five members of the search team quickly
walked to a wall that enclosed the rear of a two-story house. When they climbed
the short wall, they got their first look at the goats behind it. They hung on
the wall, watching the goats, but they were also looking for whoever was tending
them.

Ahmed
took a small rock and threw it against the wall of the adobe house, trying to
rouse anyone inside. No one emerged. The house looked abandoned. As they were
looking at the goats in the yard, Maana spoke.

“Ahmed,
I was right. I
did
hear goats. The rock that you threw did not bring
anyone outside. The house must be empty. We need these goats. They will make a
difference for us. There must be 20 or more down there. Oh, they look so good.
I would love to have all of them.”

“Maana,
I see them. Let’s wait here for a short while to see if anyone is caring for
them. Husayn, take Tetsuo with you. Go around to the front of the house to see
what is there. See if you can get in.”

“All
right, Ahmed. Give us five minutes to get around to the front door. We will
whistle once when we are there.”

Husayn
and Tetsuo worked their way around to the front of the house. The same style
wall continued around the front of the house, forming a courtyard. The only
difference was that this wall had a gate, which was standing open.

Instead
of whistling, they walked through the open gate into the courtyard. From there,
they saw that the door of the house standing open. Looking into the house, they
couldn’t see anyone or anything. To them, the house looked empty. Slowly they
walked through the open door. As they stepped into the house, they still could
not see anyone or anything inside. They went through every room on the first floor.
The door to the rear courtyard was closed, and Husayn opened it. He stepped out
into the rear courtyard, smiling at the rest of the search team waiting by the
wall. Standing in the sun, Husayn shouted to them.