Colony Z: The Complete Collection (Vols. 1-4) (29 page)

Marcus Phillip Junior was a terrible man.

Terrible, diseased in the brain, horrid.

But genius.

Marcus Phillip Junior was a genius.

And he knew it, as he pranced around his living room with the two small boys trapped in his basement. Sure, the extra one had been excessive. But that only made his chances that much better.

When his brother had first complained to him about his ‘special assignment’, Marcus knew what he had to do. Why couldn’t his brother see opportunities for what they were? He always squandered them. It was idiotic enough that he’d told his brother, who’d spent 5 years in a mental hospital. And now he was just going to waste the gifts handed to him.

And when, after Marcus paid the right people, bugged the right computers, and got eyes in the right places, Marcus saw that the official eye was set on some little boy who lived in Kansas, he saw the more than just an opportunity. He saw his future.

He saw the ability to make himself comfortable in a large house with a yacht and an RV. He saw the chance to make something of himself. Something even more than his stupid, perfect brother had become.

The phone rang, and, as jolly as anyone getting a phone call from the President of the United States, he answered with a big, happy, ‘
Hello! And what can I do for you?’

“You know damn well what you can do for me.” The voice on the other end of the line said, and Marcus’s heart sank horrible. Like when child first realizes that there’s more to Santa Claus than meets the eye. This wasn’t who he’d wanted to talk to. This was just another middleman playing a game with him. Trying to get him to talk.

Well he wasn’t going to talk.

“
15 million or you never see the boy again.”

“You don’t understand how important that ‘boy’ is.”

“I don’t really think you understand the gravity of the situation. I’ll spill his blood all over the floor of my basement if I don’t get the 15 million in four days.”

“…you heartless son of a…”

“Don’t test me.”

Marcus slammed the phone down angrily. This wasn’t going at all like he’d planned. Trying to control himself, but failing miserably, Marcus slammed his fists into the stained glass window that stood between his living room and his kitchen. It shattered into a thousand pieces, and Marcus groaned when he looked at his sliced up hands. The window had been a gift from his mother, but he really didn’t care. No, all he cared about was getting his money.

The boys would be lucky if they survived that long.

Marcus picked up the phone again with his bleeding hand and dialed the number that he’d come to know by heart. The gruff voice picked up the phone on the second ring.

“You got it yet?”

“He’s coming again tonight. Gonna give it a shot then.”

“You better not screw this up.”

“Ransom not going well?”

“I mean it, kid.”

“You got it, boss. You got it.”

The line went dead. Marcus slammed the phone down on its holder again and began to pace the room.

If anything went wrong again tonight, they were running seriously low on options.

“That was a lovely wedding, wasn’t it, Owen?” Hannah said as she tidied up the cabin after the evening festivities.

“Indeed it was, dear.” Owen nodded in amusement at his wife’s pleasure. She was always so happy when her children were moving into the next stage of their lives.

“…Owen?”

“Yes, my darling?”

“Do you remember the funeral we had for Judith Marie?”

The pain came so suddenly that even Owen’s strong body could not handle it. He jumped in shock at the mention of his daughter’s name. The fact that his wife, who could not handle the thought of the memory, was bringing it up herself was beyond him. What could she mean by it? Most of the time, the two liked to pretend that she was simply off somewhere, playing a game. Not at home, but would one day come back.

Finally, Owen found it in him to answer her.

“…Of course I do, Hannah. I buried my first born that day.”

“Do you think she would have been proud of how this island has grown since she was buried here? Do you think she would have been happy to have her sister’s wedding over her burial ground?”

“I absolutely do, Hannah. I absolutely do.”

And as the couple tucked the baby in for the night and fell asleep, a shadow was cast over the quiet island. Questions unanswered, but a kind of serenity from the secrecy, remained.

But Owen could not help but think to himself about a secret far more terrible than that which he had told his son. One secret that his wife would never permit him speak of again. And the question that hung more over the night than anything else remained fresh in his mind.

What if they all knew the truth?

And, while his wife continued to clean the cabin, and Isaac slept on in his crib, he  voiced his concern for the first time since they were fifteen years younger.

“Hannah, we have to tell them.”

She snapped back so quickly that Owen knew she’d known what he was going to say. She’d simply seen it coming by the look in his eyes. That’s how long they’d been together. That’s how well she knew him.

“We’re not telling anyone anything, Owen.”

“Hannah, if you don’t want to tell them, fine. I’ll tell them that you weren’t there. I’ll tell them I grabbed you on my way out of town. I don’t care. But my daughter is married, my son is grown, and we’re raising another beautiful boy. Hannah, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life hiding things. I’m done. I’m getting old, Hannah. I’m getting too old for these secrets.”

“…Owen, they may very well throw us off the island. Have you ever thought about the amount of people who died because of what we released? I know it isn’t our fault…I know the government shouldn’t have started the damn thing in the first place. But Owen, we can’t risk our childrens’ futures here by playing games.”

“I’m not playing games.” Owen sighed, and pulled his shaking wife close to him. She was scared, and he could hardly blame her. After all, they’d lost everything just to get here. Would their people accept them for what they were? He wasn’t all that sure. But he did know that he couldn’t keep this secret for much longer without going insane himself. He needed to at least tell part of the truth to somebody.

He’d never wanted this for his family. He’d never wanted this for the world. He’d never wanted this for anyone. But everyone here wanted to know how this thing started, and it wasn’t fair of them to get the monopoly on the information. It just wasn’t fair.

They’d have to come clean.

At least, partially clean.

“…when do you want to tell them, Owen?” Hannah sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to win no matter what she said. And maybe Owen had a point. Maybe the time had come to say something, even if it hurt to admit that. Maybe the time had come to trust that they’d made strong enough bonds with these people.

Strong enough even for them to accept that they were the ones who set the Zero-Hour loose on the world?

Hannah wasn’t so sure. But, to be fair, neither was Owen. No one was sure of anything right now. But the one thing it seemed Owen could promise her was this: they would be able to stay here. Even if they lived in complete infamy and everyone hated them, no one would have the heart to throw them off the island.

And that was all she had to cling to.

“I’m not sure, Hannah…I know that we have to do it. I know that I feel like we have to do it. I’m just not sure exactly when. The wedding just ended, everyone is really happy right now…I don’t want to ruin Helen’s happiness. Not yet.”

“Then are you sure it’s a good idea to ruin her happiness at all? Owen, maybe they’re all better off not knowing the truth. Did you ever stop to think of that?”

“…how can they be better off not knowing? How is it fair for us to allow our children to go on living life thinking everything is fine? Hannah, twenty years ago we stood in the woods and I asked you to marry me. Now maybe that was never made official, but you have that ring on your finger. And you said yes to me. You said yes because you trust me. You stayed in that truck with me all those years ago after I ran over some punk kid’s foot because you trusted me. You loved me because I was that man. What kind of a man am I…what kind of a father am I…if I can’t tell this company the truth about how we knew so much?”

“Owen…”

“I’m sick of being a coward, Hannah. And something else? That man never pointed a gun at me. At that school, all that time ago. No, Hannah, that was me. I shot a guy who was coming through the fence looking for shelter for his company. I shot him because I thought he was one of them. And then, when I realized he wasn’t, you wanna know what I did?”

“Owen, stop.”

“I shot right through that fence again and killed someone else. Eva’s father, actually. Shot him. Dead. Boom. Gone. Why? No particular reason. Mostly? Because I wanted to keep my family safe and I was terrified they would hurt you. And you wanna know the worst part?”

“Owen, enough!” Hannah was crying now.

“We are
thirty five years old now
, Hannah. We can handle the truth. I might as well tell you the truth.”

“Owen…please.”

“I scared them off. I shot a guy, I scared them off, and they ran. They ran off into the zombie-infested woods and never came back. I accepted them as dead. I did. I thought they were
dead.
I told our whole colony to hate people because I was scared. I was scared that, somehow, they’d survived and they would find us again.”

“…who are you?”

“And they did, Hannah. They found us. The night Judith Marie was bitten, the night he met that girl in the woods, that little red-headed girl whose name just happened to be
Eva,
I met a man. A man who was the new Alpha of the same damn colony whose men I killed. One of whom just happened to be our daughter-in-law’s father.”

Even Owen was crying now. Hannah was standing in the corner of the room in front of where the baby slept, staring at him like he’d lost his mind.

Who was this man?

Hannah didn’t really feel like she knew anymore.

“Michael, I’d really like to go home now.”

“But, Eva, we just got comfortable out here and…are you alright?” Michael looked at his girl and realized that something looked very wrong. She was starting to get pale and she looked incredibly worn-out. Had he not noticed that the wedding did this to her? Or had this all happened that quickly?

The thought that she might be infected never even crossed his mind. Michael had never actually dealt with an infection other than his sister, and even then he had been too young to really pay any attention to it. This was actually the first time he’d ever noticed anyone fall ill so quickly. It scared him a little bit.

“Eva, what’s wrong?”

“I’m just…feeling really tired all of a sudden, Michael. Will you please take me home? I’m not sure…if I can walk there…by myself.” Eva tried to stand up from the sand and fell back down again. Michael immediately caught her and wrapped one of her arms around his shoulders. He picked her up and began the walk back to the cabin.

He didn’t realize how close he was cutting it every second he held her close to him. If she so much as kissed his lips…

“Michael…”

“Eva, it can wait.”

“No, Michael, please, listen to me.”

“Eva, it can
wait.”

Michael reached the cabin and kicked the door open with his foot, searching through the moonlight that came in through the windows for the bed. When he finally made his way to it, he set Eva down gently and immediately left to get her a wet washcloth for her head.

It had occurred now to Eva what might be happening to her, but Michael was still blind to the situation at hand. Or maybe it was that Michael didn’t want to see what was happening right in front of him.

When he returned, Eva was standing up in the corner of the room, holding her balance with the wall. She would make him listen, because everything was happening so fast, and she wasn’t sure if she’d ever have the chance to say a rational thing to Michael ever again.

“What are you doing? Eva, lay back down.”

“Michael…you…need…to listen..” She panted, trying to get the words out, even though they didn’t want to come. “You…need…to kill me.”

“Eva, stop.” Michael laughed a nervous laughed and crossed to the love of his life, taking her hand and trying to lead her to where she could rest. She was being ridiculous. She hadn’t been bitten. There was no reason for her to be talking like she was infected.

“Michael…locket…”

Eva couldn’t fight him as he dragged her and laid her back down, but he heard what she said about the necklace. She attempted to motion to it, and he looked at it, as she said. There was nothing wrong with it. He didn’t understand what she wanted from him.

“Will you stop being ridiculous, Eva? There’s nothing wrong with the necklace and there’s nothing wrong with you. Just get some sleep and you’ll…”

“Michael!” She said, as loudly as she possibly could. “You…have…to…kill...”

“I’m not hurting you, damn it!” Michael yelled, his voice shaking. He sounded terrified. “Eva, I just got you back and I’m not going to lose you now. What’s wrong with you? You were fine! What changed? Eva, please talk to me!”

“…blood…on…necklace…Uncle’s…”

“But it doesn’t matter. The blood didn’t go into your system, Eva. You’re going to be okay, alright? Everything is going to be…”

Eva lifted up her hand, her thumb sticking up. Her sliced thumb. The one that was very quickly turning a nasty shade of red. It was infected.

She was infected.

“No…” Michael whispered in disbelief. “No…no, no,
NO!”

Tears came to Michael’s eyes as he tried to get Eva to come back to her normal self. It had all happened so fast. But it wasn’t doing him any good. She was falling, and he couldn’t bring her back up. He was too late. She was going to turn.

…she was going to turn.

And what the hell was his plan for when she turned?

“Eva, please don’t…” Michael sobbed. All rational thought was gone now. Eva’s eyes slowly closed, her lips parted, and she was gone.

“No…no,
help! Someone help me!”
Michael screamed these words and left the cabin, running blindly, crazily, rapidly. Praying he would find someone who could help him, who could fix her. There had to be something someone could do. There had to be someone who would be awake.

And so, even though he distrusted his father with all of his heart, and even though he wanted nothing more than to crawl into the ocean and die, Michael ran to his home of nearly fifteen years to find the only man whom he believed could truly help him.

And as he did so, a changed woman raised herself from the bed in the new cabin on the island and stretched herself out like an animal ready to hunt for its prey. She was hungry. She was angry.

And she was going to find a victim, no matter what the cost.