Last Man Standing (Book 2): Zombie Annihilation Read online

  Zombie Annihilation

  A Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Survival - Last Man Standing Book 2

  Max Lockwood

  Illustrated by

  Christian Bentulan

  Edited by

  Valorie Clifton

  Copyright © 2018 by Max Lockwood

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Christian Bentulan

  Edited by Valorie Clifton

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the authors’ imagination.

  Contents

  Mailing List

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  About Max Lockwood

  Also by Max Lockwood

  Excerpt From Point Of Transmission

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

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  1

  Matthew’s eyes locked on the road ahead as Carl cruised down deserted streets. He drove down the center of the street, letting the painted lines bisect the Jeep. After a few hours, the pavement began to blur before Matthew’s eyes, causing him to rub at his aching eyelids. He looked away, trying to stave off car sickness. They weren’t really in a position where they could pull over and rest.

  The soldiers’ expedition hadn’t gone as quickly as they’d originally predicted. They assumed that in such a populated area, there would be plentiful sources of laboratory equipment. They were only partially wrong with their assessment—while they had already passed several hospitals and schools, most of them had been burned to the ground or had been taken over by zombies.

  In fact, Matthew was shocked at how many zombies they saw along the way. He knew that the business district of a city would yield large numbers of victims, but it seemed like there were far more zombies than could have been naturally turned. He knew it sounded stupid, but it was almost like they were arriving by the truck-full, transported from one city to the next. Of course, that was impossible. In reality, there had just been way too many zombie attacks in a short amount of time. No one could have prepared for the onslaught of terror.

  As one zombie let out a particularly horrifying shriek, Matthew looked to the backseat to see if Sergio had woken from his nap. Much to Matthew’s surprise, he hadn’t. He remained curled up on his side with his hands underneath his head. It hadn’t taken Sergio long to grow tired of navigating the streets. The first shift behind the wheel had been particularly tough. There were just too many bodies to swerve around.

  So, Carl took over once Sergio started showing signs of fatigue. What initially started as a brief mental break turned into a physical one once he closed his eyes and let the road disappear. The other two didn’t mind. The streets were starting to clear the farther they went from the city center.

  “I thought I had a decent idea of where I was headed, but I really think I’m just getting us lost,” Carl admitted as he made a turn down a back alley.

  “It’s fine,” Matthew replied. “We’re just headed in the opposite direction of where we came from. I think that’s good. Any forward progress is progress.”

  Carl chuckled. “I don’t know about that. I haven’t seen much besides apartment buildings in some time. It’s probably good to have a clear direction of where we’re headed.”

  “Just keep driving the way you’re going,” Matthew reassured him. “Eventually, we’ve got to run into a hospital or something. I’m assuming every neighborhood has one.”

  “I think that depends on the part of town we’re in,” Carl replied. “Some areas might not have much more than an urgent care clinic or a hospital that’s not equipped to handle more than general trauma stuff. We need a university hospital or somewhere where research happens.”

  “So we need to get to a wealthier part of town?” Matthew asked.

  Carl shrugged. “It might help. The only problem is, I’m not exactly sure where that would be.”

  As far as Matthew could tell, their current location wasn’t it. Dark, rectangular apartment buildings stood secluded like prisons. Small parks and basketball courts were filled with burning rubbish bins and the occasional dead body.

  He wondered if this was part of the reason there were so many zombies in the area. If people didn’t have the resources to get out of town and find a safe place, then they were basically waiting to be slaughtered. It made him feel queasy to think about all the people who were let down by their country. The police and military should have been there to defend the defenseless.

  “I can’t wait until we find a well-stocked hospital,” Matthew mused. “I’m really eager to see what the girls can do with some lab equipment.”

  “I wish I could be excited,” Carl said, his voice dropping. “I’m hoping we find a warehouse full of equipment first.”

  “Why?” Matthew asked. It seemed a bit far-fetched that they would ever find such a place without clear directions.

  “I was in a hospital the night this thing started.” Carl sighed. “I think you heard the story about how we were all at Pip’s for her welcome home party.”

  “Yeah, I remember hearing about that,” Matthew replied. “You came home to find Pip trying to fight off a zombie by herself.”

  “Yep. I didn’t tell you why we had left in the first place, though. Weird things were happening, but we didn’t know what yet. Jennifer was a little freaked out and wanted to check up on her parents. We were walking this drunk girl home when she got attacked. She was bleeding but not in grave danger. We took her to the emergency room to get her stitched up, but the place was packed. Everyone had similar injuries.”

  “From other zombie attacks?”

  Carl nodded. “But we didn’t know that at the time. We just thought it was a strange coincidence. A full moon kind of night, you know?”

  Matthew had heard that saying before. Whenever Rebecca’s students were especially boisterous, she’d blame it on the full moon. Neither of them believed that the lunar cycle had any effect on human behavior, but they also couldn’t explain why strange things happened.

  “As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for things to get really bad. The girl we were with started feeling really sick, so we tried to convince the nurse to see her. Unfortunately, everyone else started feeling really sick, too. The place eventually erupted into chaos. People began to turn right before our eyes. Poor doctors and nurses were being torn apart on the scene. Jennifer and I booked it back to the apartment and didn’t look back. Just thinking about going back into a hospital gives me the creeps. I
f I could make it the rest of my life without stepping into one of those places, that would be fine by me.”

  Matthew looked down at his hands. Carl’s feelings about hospitals were not unlike his feelings about restaurants. At least Carl wasn’t studying to become a medical professional. If Matthew ever made it through culinary school, he’d have no choice but to work in fancy restaurants. He wondered if he’d ever be able to push the bad associations away.

  The more he thought about it, the more he realized that it was such a cruel irony that his wife was murdered in one of his favorite places on earth. A kitchen was the place that he felt most at home. It was his safe haven. Whenever his mind was too busy, he’d start chopping vegetables just to enter a calming rhythm. He felt stillness in the gentle boiling of stock or the sizzling of oil.

  But the last time he stepped foot in a kitchen, it was because there was an awful commotion coming from inside and his wife wanted to help. She knew that something terribly wrong was happening and sprang into action. Even Matthew, who had dedicated his life to jumping into the most horrible scenes, was hesitant. When the door swung open, his life changed forever. Nothing was good or sacred anymore. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to cook in a professional restaurant without hearing the screams of the dying as the zombies wreaked havoc on a place where he felt at home. He would have to settle for arranging convenience food snacks on paper plates to get a semblance of the calmness he felt while preparing a meal.

  “I’m not saying I won’t go into a hospital,” Carl added after a long pause. “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. If that’s what we have to do, I’ll help. I just hope it doesn’t come down to it. I have a feeling that every hospital in the country is packed to the gills with zombies. That, plus the inherent creepiness of the place really puts me off.”

  “I think it’s really our best bet if we want to find all the things Ellie asked for in once place,” Matthew said gently.

  “I’m afraid you’re probably right,” Carl said glumly. “Don’t worry, I’ll bring the same effort I bring into any zombie-smashing situation. I’ll help you clear that place out faster than it takes to gather everything we need to make our own lab. Do you even know what she asked for?”

  “She gave me a list,” Matthew said, patting his pocket. “Between her awful handwriting and my lack of scientific knowledge, I hope I get it right. To be honest, I don’t know if I’ve even heard of some of the things on that list. I know what a microscope is, and I know what beakers and test tubes are. But she’s got a whole bunch of chemicals written down that I’ve never heard of.”

  “I’m not much of a scientist myself.” Carl frowned. “We’ll do our best. If we have to clean the whole lab back and fill the truck to the brim, then that’s what we’ll do. I want to do this right the first time. It’s nice being on the road, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t eager to get back to the others.”

  “I know. Sometimes, I feel like a worried parent.”

  Carl laughed. “I can tell that you don’t have destructive younger siblings. I often feel like a worried parent. Honestly, sometimes, I feel less worried about Pip when she’s fighting zombies than I did when she was partying.”

  “Really?” Matthew asked incredulously.

  “Yeah. When you think about it, she’s far more in control of herself when she’s fighting. When she’s off her ass on drugs and drink, other people are in control of her. At least I know she’s capable of kicking zombie butt when she’s sober.”

  “I guess. I bet you’re still worried, though.”

  “Of course I’m worried,” Carl said. “Now that she’s with Sergio, there’s a whole new kind of worry for her. At least I know he’s a good guy. It’s still very weird for me, but it could always be worse.”

  “I can’t even imagine.” Matthew chuckled. “I’ll just stick to worrying about the safety of a bunch of people I’ve known for less than a month. I’m not sure if I could handle much more.”

  “Consider yourself lucky.” Carl yawned. He had been circling one area of town for a while after seeing a sign for a hospital. However, it turned out to be a small clinic located on the third floor of a building that also housed a pawn shop.

  Matthew didn’t find the fact that he was without a romantic partner “lucky”. In fact, it caused him daily pain. It was a shock to go from waking up every morning next to the same person to waking up alone. The worst was that he couldn’t even contact her, just to know how she was doing or to ask for advice. Even when he was a world away from her during his time in the army, at least he could write letters and make calls.

  “If you’re tired of driving, I can take over,” Matthew said. “There aren’t a lot of zombies out here, so I don’t imagine that we really need a lookout. Besides, we’re driving slowly enough that I can pick out a hospital from the street.”

  “Would you mind?” Carl asked reluctantly. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t sleep at all last night. Or it was the weak coffee we had before we left. I guess I could just chug an energy drink. I have a few in the back.”

  “No, natural energy is best,” Matthew argued. “Sleep is generally better than drugs. Besides, those drinks will mess up your insides and make you jumpy. I’ll drive while you rest. I’ll let you guys know if anything changes, but I think we’ll just be driving around for a while. I’ll give you a full update when you wake up.”

  “Thanks,” Carl said, stopping the car. He got out and ran to the passenger’s side while Matthew shifted around and slid to the driver’s seat. When Carl got in, he reclined the seat as far as it could go and propped his head against the door.

  Carl was clearly struggling with his role but was doing a good job of keeping it together. As much as Matthew was having a hard time with the losses that came with the zombie outbreak, he knew that Carl had it just as bad. At least with Matthew, he couldn’t lose anyone who was truly close to him. Carl had his sister to watch out for. Given their history, it would be tragic to support her for so long, only to lose her to the disease.

  Then, there was Sergio, who was clearly in love with Pip. It couldn’t have been easy to say goodbye to her just as things were heating up. Matthew certainly understood how that felt, and he didn’t wish it upon anyone else. So, maybe Carl was right when he said that Matthew was lucky not to have someone special waiting for him at home. It only caused pain.

  Matthew gripped the steering wheel, a small surge of energy coursing through his body. It had been quite some time since he had driven a car and it felt much better that he would have imagined. He felt so free, so in control of the situation. It took all the restraint he had not to peel out of the spot on the street and stomp on the gas. Instead, he put the car into drive and gradually built up speed until they were back to their cruising speed. He felt powerful in the large vehicle, much more powerful than the decaying zombies who poked around corners and appeared in the windows of abandoned buildings. He could blast through their weakened bodies if need be. They couldn’t touch him. For once, he was able to move freely without being in fear for his life. It was the freest he had ever felt.

  2

  While common sense dictated that another soldier should be awake to keep watch while the driver navigated the streets, Matthew didn’t care. After all, he felt secure in his current role. If the lifted frame of the Jeep couldn’t protect him from measly ground-dwellers, then the shotgun beside his seat would.

  Matthew enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow service members but could admit that it was nice to have a little alone time, if only in a mental sense. With the other two snoozing away, it gave him a little space to breathe, to make sense of the world around him. Without the other two talking, he could go into his own mind and tend to the thoughts he didn’t share with the others.

  As he drove, he was struck with the same sense of confidence that came to him in his later days of combat work. While it took him some time to feel comfortable in the military, once he
got into the swing of things, he’d really enjoyed himself. The general apprehension about being in a new place really grated at his confidence when he’d arrived at camp. That, and everyone seemed to make a point that they were tougher and stronger than the next soldier. When he realized that everyone was just as nervous as he was, living in a new country got easier.

  In fact, it was downright exciting experiencing new cultures and seeing sights he’d only seen in books. Everywhere he went, he picked up a little bit of the native language, which he promptly forgot once he no longer needed to use it. But he spent time with a lot of kind civilians who taught him a lot about their way of life, and it broadened his understanding of the world outside of where he grew up. Hell, just talking to other soldiers in his platoon widened his world view.

  Even though Matthew was driving through the streets of New York with a specific destination in mind, he was reminded of the days he and his colleagues would go out on patrol through their designated areas. Most days, there was no trouble to be found, and they enjoyed the fresh air and light conversation. He was lucky to work with a lot of great men and women who always made him feel like he was with family. Being able to crack jokes and shoot the shit with friends definitely reduced the sting of being away from Rebecca.