deadheads by jade swiler (top 100 books to read TXT) 📖

something I have to do. I will be back. You all are safe here, we know I can’t get the virus, ill be okay. I want you all to get this place up and running better while I am gone.” I replied while looking at each and every one of them.

Seth was quiet while I talked.

“I don’t agree with you on this jade, but I’m not your boss either, we’ll hold the fort down here, do what you have to do, but please come back safe.”

Everyone looked at Seth in shock. They all figured he would stop me.

I nodded and the meeting broke up afterwards.

Later my door opened to my room and seth stepped in.

“I know I can’t talk you out of this, but I do want you to take a gun with you and some ammo.”

“Seth I know your worried but this is something I have to do. My parents are the key to everything. I want to show you something. “ I said as I got up and went to my dresser. I picked up the vase and smashed it on the floor.

Inside was a small folded paper.

“I saw this vase has a fake bottom, this is a map. I think its where my parents are.” I said , holding out the map to him.

Seth took it and smoothed out the wrinkled edges. It was a map of the game reserve almost 120 miles from us. A red circle was drawn in the south east part of it with my mom’s wirting.

Baby, if you have found this, I need you to head here. Hopefully Grizzly has found you and got you set up in the base camp. Please be careful. I love you.

“I’m leaving in the morning Seth.” I said finally. Seth nodded and left my room.

I knew he was upset but at least he wasn’t showing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7)

 

I had been on the road for a few days. My pack was heavy on my back but I was used to it. MRE’s and bottled water, a change of clothes, some ammo for the pistol in my belt and my sword in my left hand. I also carried 2 hunting knives at my side. I followed a secondary road so I hadn’t seen that many deadheads. I had killed 2 that morning but since then I hadn’t seen any close.

I found a huge shade tree at the edge of the road and decided to stop for lunch.

It was quiet here. The sounds of bugs and bird filled the quiet but it was strange not to hear cars or people from the houses I had pasted along the way. I was just finishing an MRE of mystery meat stew which wasn’t half bad when I heard the first moaning sounds of many deadheads coming my way from the road. I had to get out of here.

 

I took off in to the woods on the right side of the road and ran for all I had. From the sound of the moans, there had to be a huge horde coming my way. Deeper in the woods I came across a hunting blind in a huge oak. I quickly climbed up and sat in a corner and kept quiet.

 

I looked down between 2 boards that had a space and watched the horde move slowly by. Their gray skin, black bile blood and the horrible smell almost had me gagging but I kept quiet and swallowed it down. The cold air was getting colder and I worried I would freeze to death if I didn’t get somewhere warmer soon.

 

It seemed like hours before it was all quiet again in the woods, my hands were numb and my face felt frozen. I climbed back down and headed back the way I had come.

An inch or more had already fallen sine I was in that tree blind. I was so cold. I was shivering so much my teeth were rattling.

I hit the road and kept going the way the map told me to. I knew I was already in the area my mother had put on the map, I just had to find the lake. I was so cold. So very cold. I was so tired. My legs felt like a hundred pounds, my hands and feet were numb, my face numb. I kept falling down, after falling down for the 10th time, I just laid there in the faling snow and cold. I was just too tired to get up anymore. The last thing I remembered was the sound of a jeep when everything went dark.

 

I woke up realizing I was slung over some guys shoulder. I felt like hell and was still cold but warming up quickly because of a blanket wrapped around me.

When I heard my mothers voice, I almost flipped over the guys shoulder in my haste to look up to see if it was really her.

“hi baby.” my mom’s beautiful face came into view.

“just relax, we’re almost to the elevators. Grizzly will put you down in a minute.” mom said from behind grizzly.

“yeah light weight, if we hadn’t been out looking for some supplies at a local hospital, we would never of seen you and you’d be dead.” Grizzy’s rough voice said as he carried me in to an elevator.

I almost through up on his back when the elevator started to move, the motion made me get dizzy. It seemed we went down for a long time. I must of passed out again, because when I woke up again, I was in bed in a room with soft tan walls. It was small , like a single hospital room. An iv hung from a pole at my bedside. I felt weak but better. I was warm.

The door opened and there stood my dad.

“hey honey. How you feeling? Think you can eat?” dad asked as he walked towards me to set a tray of food next to my bed.

I nodded because I knew I couldn’t speak right now. I didn’t expect to find both of my parents alive. Maybe one of them but not both. My dad pulled up a chair and sat down next to me and took my hand.

“why didn’t you stay at the station honey?”

 

“why did you and mom lie to me all these years.” I asked right back. They were going to learn that I wasn’t the same person I used to be. I guess fighting zombies all the time can do that to someone.

“ I didn’t want to not tell you honey, we had too. Your mom and I worked in this lab way before you were born. We were told to keep it a secret for the safety of our family and friends. We had no choice.” My dad explained. He looked tired and worn out. Dark circles were under his eyes and his handsome face was haggard.

“Dad, what happened?” I asked as I sat up against the pillows behind my head.

“eat and ill explain it okay?”

I nodded and dug in to my breakfast of eggs and toast.

“Your mother and I stumbled on to the RT-84 virus. It was an air born virus that killed the lab rabbits so fast there wasn’t time to even record the first tests. It was unstable and as we worked with it in the early stages, we realized that it could mutate. We sent our findings to the milarty because this virus was going to be a weapon against our enemy’s. your mother and I felt this was not stable enough to be used. The government wouldn’t listen to us so we were given lots of money and help to figure out how to make it better. We were told to test it again. We used lab rabbits again and all died right away except for rabbit 65. It got sick but lived. We started to find out why. During a routine blood test on the animal. It bit your mom in the hand. She didn’t know at that time she was carrying you. The rabbit died the next day and the project was terminated due t the virus mutating. It was put in to a cold storage place and forgotten about. Your mom had you 9 months later, we did tests on you to make sure you were okay. Everything showed you were fine. We went on with our lives. 3 months ago, a group of people known as freedom USA, broke in to the storage facility and took the virus. They released it in to the air and the infection spread. Except in storage the virus had mutated in to something we had never seen before. It cause dead flesh to come alive again and attack anything that moved. We were sent back to the labs to try to find a cure. We heard from a soldier spy in Lt. Harris’s camp that you were bitten but survived. Somehow when your mom was bitten with the original virus, you received an immunity to the one we are dealing with now.” my dad sat back in the chair tiredly and looked at me. I sat there in stunned silence to absorb all that he told me. LT haris and Grayson was telling the truth, I might be the key to this whole thing. I said as much to my father.

 

“you might be right honey, but Lt Harris wants the cure or immunity from you to protect his own people, the freedom USA fighters. Not share it with anyone who is still alive and fighting to stay that way.”

Just then my mom came in to the room and we hugged and I cried. This was so much for me to take in. My parents wanted me to rest some more so they left me to sleep. My mind wouldn’t shut down. I was so normal once upon a time, went to school, had friends, hoped to get a boyfirend, now I could very well be the only person that could stop others from getting infected. It was a lot to deal with.

I fell asleep with thoughts of Seth and the others at the station and wondered if they were okay.

In the morning, I let my mom take some blood samples from me and my dad to make me breakfast. I had missed them so much. They showed off their labs and all the things they were doing. It was the last lab that had me cry out in fear, there chained to a wall was a deadhead child of about 12. It was a male, naked except for dingy underware, its bones shown through the things thin skin. It was aweful to see. Mucus and old black blood was running out of its mouth in a thin line and dripped off its chin. I knew this walker. It was one of the roger’s kids who Emily and I were going to watch the day after the virus hit our town of Haven.

 

My father walked up behind me.

“dad what is this doing here?”

“we are doing an experiment. We don’t know how this virus works fully. In fact we don’t understand how they can be dead but still move and kill people.” my father explained.

I still didn’t like it, they were using children because thy thought they were safer to handle. No deadhead, no matter how big or small, was dangerous. They weren’t people anymore.

 

I spent the rest of the week helping out in the labs while grizzly left again to spread the word to the other compounds. LT. Harris was still alive and making trouble all over. Killing anything or anyone that got in his way.

 

My mom kept a calender on the wall and everyday since the first day of the outbreak was marked off in red. If the days were correct, my 18th birthday was tomorrow. Since all this had happened, I realized my parents had never had time for me, when I was younger, they left me with family and friends, when I turned 13, they deicded