After Zombie Series (Book 2): Before Read online

  Before

  After Zombie Series Book 2

  Samantha Gregory

  Copyright.

  Samantha Gregory

  ©2016, Samantha Gregory

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book, including the cover and photos, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher. All rights reserved.

  Any resemblance to persons, places living or dead is purely coincidental. This is a work of fiction.

  Prologue

  Tom

  Just keep moving, don’t make eye contact with anyone.

  I jogged down the steps to the subway, avoiding looking at the sea of faces that were heading up. The bag I carried bounced off my hip and I thought of the contents inside and what would happen if they broke. I couldn’t slow down though, so I placed my hand on the bag, holding it firmly against my body.

  Several people bumped into me, none of them bothering to apologize. If they knew what I was carrying they would definitely keep their distance.

  The train hadn’t arrived yet; a small crowd filled the platform. I moved as close to the edge as I dared; eager to get out of here.

  I was breathing heavily, sweat dripped off me. My shirt was soaked through. A blonde girl, about my age, gave me a disgusted look and inched away from me. I didn’t blame her.

  What have I done?

  I had just ruined my entire life. Working at Gene Pharm was my dream. I’d done my time as an intern, earned my promotion and here I was one week in and I had stolen research. I was in the lab, going through old projects and cataloging them. A message had appeared on my computer screen, an instant message with a file name. There was no sender, so I just assumed that it was an internal memo for me on which file I should work on next. The file was buried deep and once I read it, I could understand why.

  Maybe I could still fix this. If I took the bag back, explained the situation…

  No. If I took it back, they would kill me. And if this stuff ever got used…that didn’t bear thinking about. I wasn’t naïve, I know that a lot of pharmaceutical and research companies work on some deadly stuff, but this was beyond anything I’d ever seen. It had the potential to wipe out most of the world if it got loose.

  I heard the distant rumble of the train. I just needed to put some distance between me and Gene Pharm. Then I could decide what to do next. My parents owned a cabin up north, before they died. It was in my mother’s maiden name. I could go up there and lay low for a while. There was no way they would think to look there.

  As the train pulled up, I saw them. Two suits, about twenty feet away, searching the crowd. I knew they were from Gene Pharm.

  Keeping my head down, I boarded the train. It was only a matter of time before they caught me. I quickly took a seat and opened my laptop. Inserting the flash drive, I opened up my email. There weren’t many people who would understand what I was sending them, but one person sprang to mind. Jack Wylie. We were in college together, chemistry specifically. He would know what the formula was and what it could do.

  I typed Jack into the mail recipient box and his email address came up. I glanced around for any sign of the two goons in suits. They were two cars back, searching every passenger.

  “Damn,” I muttered. I attached the file, typing a quick message to Jack.

  I need you to take a look at this. Gene Pharm was working on it and I think they are going to test it on humans. If you don’t hear from me again – make sure the media gets this.

  I prayed Jack wouldn’t think it was a hoax. Ripping the flash drive from the laptop, I slipped it down the side of the seat. It was better not to get caught with the evidence on me.

  They were only one car away now. I couldn’t let them get the virus or the antivirus. The car I was in only held five other people. An old couple, a woman carrying groceries, a middle aged man and a teenage boy.

  He was about eighteen, with dark hair, wearing a black hoodie and baggy jeans. He stood by the doors, ear buds in place. I could make out the faint sounds of Paint it Black playing.

  He was going to get off the train. I unzipped the bag to reveal the two injector pens inside. I wasn’t about to risk exposing the virus, but someone else should have the antivirus. Someone with no ties to Gene Pharm.

  Gene Pharm could destroy it or at least keep it for themselves. I pulled out the antivirus, set the bag on the seat and stood up. The train was slowing down. This could be my only chance to make sure the antivirus survived.

  When the train lurched, I pretended to stumble into the boy, while injecting the contents into his hip. He ripped the buds from his ears and glared at me.

  “Watch it man,” he snapped.

  Realizing what I had done, I looked into his green eyes, “I’m sorry.”

  He was thrown by the sincerity of the statement.

  “It’s cool,” he shrugged. The train stopped and he got off. I watched him go as the doors closed. He headed up, out of the subway and I lost sight of him. Taking a step forward, I thought I could follow, but a hand clamped down on my shoulder. I didn’t need to look to know they had reached me.

  The train moved off again. One of them led me back to my seat and sat beside me. The other stood close by. They couldn’t make a scene here. That was the one thing they knew how to do well – cover their asses.

  “I believe you have something that doesn’t belong to you,” the one beside me said. His dark hair was shaved close to his head and his nose looked like it had been broken a few dozen times. His buddy was shorter, but equally intimidating.

  “Please, if it gets out, millions could die.” They had to understand why I was doing this.

  The one beside me glanced at his partner looking amused, “I don’t give a damn about the details. We’re just here to return what was taken.”

  I looked around the car. No one was going to help me. My hand tightened around the bag.

  “We’re getting off at the next stop. Mr. Breton wants to see you.”

  I swallowed hard. No one ever came face to face with Breton. He was an enigma, always shut away in his office on the fourteenth floor. Of course if I was responsible for the production of a deadly virus, I’d want to keep my face hidden too. He had the power and the influence to make me disappear.

  We stood up, ready to leave. I still held the bag.

  I threw an elbow at the goon next to me. I caught him in the nose and he stumbled back. I took off running towards the back of the train.

  Someone pulled the emergency brake as I reached the final car. It was empty. I fell to my knees, the bag shooting across the floor. It was still unzipped and the virus rolled out.

  I scrambled after it, but they had caught up to me.

  With a final glance back, I crashed through the car door and down onto the tracks. I started running, certain I would never stop.

  *

  The kid disappeared into the dark tunnel. He wouldn’t get far; we had people covering the exits. We had what we came for. I picked up the bag and reached for the injector pen, which was lying in the aisle.

  “Should we go after him, Russ?” my partner Wayne asked.

  “No, let the B team chase him down. We need to get this back to the lab.” The little jerk off broke my nose again. I couldn’t wait to get hold of him once he was in custody. I would break more than his nose.

  As I picked up the pen, something pricked my finger. Su
cking my breath in through my teeth, I tried to see what had caused it. I hadn’t touched the needle; it was still capped.

  I lifted it higher, into the light. Liquid trickled down my hand. It was broken and the contents were seeping into my open cut. That’s not good.

  “What’s wrong?” Wayne asked.

  I quickly tucked the pen into the bag and zipped it up, “Nothing. Let’s get out of here.” I could go to the hospital once this was returned. I wasn’t about to tell anyone at Gene Pharm, they would have me strapped down and tested on in minutes.

  As we walked back through the car, I suddenly felt very hot.

  “Did they jack up the heat in here?” I asked.

  “It seems fine to me,” Wayne said. Wayne never complained about anything. His nickname was Neutral because he never showed any emotion up or down.

  It was stifling. I needed to get off this train and disinfect my hand. I had no idea what we were transporting, but I doubted it was anything good. The kid had sure looked scared of it.

  I paused as a wave of dizziness washed over me. I tugged at my tie, which suddenly felt like a noose around my neck. There was tightness in my chest and I struggled to breathe.

  “You okay, man?” Wayne asked.

  I tried to nod, but instead dropped to my knees. The world began to spin, before the floor rushed up to greet me.

  Chapter One

  Jack

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I said, staring at the computer screen, “How can this be?”

  “Jack!” TJ, my boss, snapped in my ear, almost making me leap out of my chair.

  I quickly minimized the screen that I had Dragon Steal open on. I was still pissed at being beaten by an ogre.

  “Have you finished those algorithms?” TJ asked, his round face flushed red. I had never seen any other look on his face other than exasperated when he looked at me. I guess I had that effect on him.

  “Yes, I emailed them to you. Didn’t you get them?” I said.

  He looked at me suspiciously, before going to check. I hoped he hadn’t seen the game. I was beta testing it for a friend of mine, which went against company policy. No personal projects. He couldn’t get too angry though, since I’m his best programmer. I’d be his best employee too, if it weren’t for my online gaming addiction.

  I was in good company; I was surrounded by cyber geeks in here. After checking that TJ was occupied, I opened up the game again. As fantasy games went, I’d give it a C+. It was no World of Warcraft, but it was entertaining. I zapped a few more dragons before calling it quits.

  Taking a sip of my diet soda, I searched my desk for the rest of my files. I was such a slob. My desk was cluttered with food wrappers; empty coffee cups and action figure bobble heads. I was a collector. Mostly Marvel superheroes. TJ called it junk, but we were allowed to personalize our desks any way we liked.

  If Jean, two cubicles over, could cover every surface with pictures of her kids then I could have my collectables. They were like my children.

  Unlike Jean, I had no pictures tacked to the cubicle walls. The only picture I had was the one stuck to my computer. It was of my mom and me when I was eight years old. It was the only picture I had of her. She died a year later and my aunt, her sister, raised me.

  I touched the photo, running my finger over my mother’s freckled face. She was where I got my red hair from. No matter what I was doing or where I was, I always liked to feel that she was still part of my life, even though with every passing year, my memory of her faded a little more. When I was little I used to escape into my own fantasy world, one where she didn’t die and the two of us were superheroes that went around the world saving people who were in trouble. I guess that was why I loved all this junk so much.

  Sighing, I finally unearthed my next assignment. It wasn’t too complicated; I could probably squeeze it in before lunch. I hoped they had bacon cheeseburgers in the cafeteria today.

  The computer pinged to announce the arrival of an email. The sender was sciboy13. I didn’t recognize it. I ran an antivirus program on it to check it wasn’t infected.

  When I opened it, I was surprised to find an attachment, containing some kind of formula. Why would anyone send me something like this? I was a computer science major, not science science.

  A few checks and I discovered who the sender was. Thomas Hill. That was vaguely familiar. Hadn’t we gone to college together? I barely knew him though. I’d spoken to him at a few parties, but that was it. Why would he send me this? Why did he want it released to the media? Gene Pharm? They were that big pharmaceutical company in the city. Apparently they were years ahead of other companies.

  Human testing.

  That didn’t sound good. I grabbed a flash drive and copied the files onto it. He must have sent it to me by mistake or as a joke, although if it was one, I didn’t get it.

  Glancing around, I checked that no one was looking and then I hacked a few files and came up with a phone number for Thomas. The phone went to voicemail. I tried pinging it instead. It was in the subway, a few stops from here. If he was that close, why bother with an email? This had to be a prank.

  “Hey, Jack,” Rudy called, hanging out of his cubicle. “Check this out.”

  Rudy was a bigger nerd than me, with curly hair and glasses. He was wearing one of his many slogan t-shirts, this one read Bazinga.

  Checking TJ wasn’t watching, I rolled myself over on my desk chair.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “A buddy of mine just posted this. It’s a fair for rare comics.”

  He showed me the webpage, “Nice,” I said. I felt a sick day coming on.

  “Oh my God, look at this,” Nancy exclaimed. She was pointing at the flat screen on the wall, which was on mute. It was on the news channel, which was all TJ let us watch. The headline read: unknown virus released on subway train.

  “Hey turn it up,” I said, moving closer to the screen.

  “…reports are still unconfirmed, but it is believed that at least a dozen people are dead in a subway train. It is still unknown as to what was released. Police believe this could be a terrorist attack.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The location. That was where Thomas’ phone was. It really wasn’t a hoax.

  I stumbled back to my desk. I needed to do something. If the files showed what the virus was, then the police and the doctors needed to see them. I threw the flash drive into my purse and grabbed my keys.

  “Jacqueline, where are you going?” TJ yelled after me.

  “Sorry, it’s an emergency.”

  *

  Danny

  I gripped the sink feeling a wave of dizziness wash over me.

  That jerk stuck me with something.

  I lifted my hoodie to check the puncture wound on my hip. A purple bruise surrounded it. I hadn’t really felt it back on the train; I just thought he had bumped into me.

  What the hell was it? A roofie? Some experimental drug? The pervert was probably waiting for me to pass out. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  Whatever it was, I felt like I had a major dose of the flu. I considered going to the hospital, but I didn’t have any money. I just needed to sleep for about a month and I would be fine.

  Leaving the subway bathroom, I headed downtown. I knew a place I could crash in for a while. I looked around as I walked for any sign of him, waiting to jump me.

  As I walked I was aware of a lot of sirens. I mean it was New York, so there were always some, but this seemed like more than usual.

  My head began to spin and I stopped, leaning against a store window so I wouldn’t fall over. A few people glanced my way, but none of them stopped to ask if I was okay. I didn’t expect them to.

  I ducked into an alley and pulled out the two wallets I had acquired on my daily commute. One of them belonged to the guy who had stuck me. Usually I did the bumping into people routine and lifted their wallets. He had done the job for me, which was why I had let it go. If I had known
what he was up to, then I wouldn’t have.

  I opened the wallet and took a look at the ID. Thomas Hill. The address was all the way up state. He must have one hell of a commute in the mornings. I stared at his face, memorizing it, in case I ever ran into him again. He didn’t look like a psycho and he wasn’t much older than I was. But people were unpredictable. Crazy. I knew that from experience. I debated whether or not to take it to the police. All my instincts went against it. How would I explain why I had it? Plus they weren’t my biggest fans. I would just have to ride whatever this was out and hope it didn’t kill me.

  If I did collapse, I didn’t need to be caught with the wallets. I removed the cash, not even a hundred bucks between them, and chucked the wallets into a dumpster.

  I pocketed the cash, wondering if it was a good idea to eat something. I didn’t think I could stomach it. I just needed to keep moving.

  Half an hour later, I struggled to climb the fire escape of an apartment building. Sweat poured off me, but I managed to reach the third floor. I opened the window and climbed inside. Well, fell inside. I landed with a thud on the wooden floor.

  “Ow!” I muttered.

  The apartment was empty. I half crawled to the nearest bedroom and collapsed onto the bed. I was asleep in seconds.

  *

  Tom

  I came up out of the tunnel and climbed onto another platform. I was still haunted by the screams that had followed me into the dark. It was loose and it was my fault. I should have left it where it was or moved faster back there.

  When I reached the street, I saw more of them. The men from Gene Pharm, standing near the exit. One of them was pretending to read a newspaper and the other stood against the railing. I took off my glasses and tucked them into my pocket. Keeping my head down, I walked up past them. I made it a few steps before one of them said, “Is that him?”

  I ran, weaving through the crowds of people. My vision was blurred without my glasses.