Life Goes On | Book 4 | If Not Us [Surviving The Evacuation] Tayell, Frank (classic books to read .TXT) 📖

showed him a video of some zom they say died just after infection. They’ve convinced him some samples from that corpse could prove the zoms are dying, and give a timeframe on the rest.”

“I doubt it,” Tess said. “But then I’m not the captain.”

“Renton made it clear he wouldn’t go north of New York, and wouldn’t attempt Savannah unless we can resupply before then. That’s why I placed my bet on us turning around when we reach Savannah.”

“How much is riding on this bet?”

“Twenty dollar-bars,” Clyde said. “Bruce put his money on the big U.S. navy base.”

“Which one?” Tess asked.

“Whichever we reach that hasn’t been destroyed,” Clyde said. “Because if it’s not been destroyed, we’re guaranteed to find some survivors there. When we find more than a few survivors, we’ll have to turn back to organise a rescue fleet. But he overlooked that the biggest U.S. naval base is in Norfolk, Virginia, and it’s not that far from Washington, D.C. Zach might win the bet yet.”

“Where do the scientists think we’ll get to?” she asked.

“New York,” Clyde said. “And if I were allowed to change my bet, that’s where I’d switch it to. That’s why they’re here, isn’t it, rather than being on the warship heading back to Oz to work on their weapon?”

“I don’t know,” Tess said. “They were useful in Colombia, and on Corn Island. Dr Avalon can double up as a ship’s medic, and Leo’s a decent engineer. But this is where they said they needed to be.”

“People like that, you’ve got to trust they know what they’re doing,” Clyde said.

“I keep telling myself that,” Tess said. “I do hope it’s true.” She finished her glass. “We’re not certain we found all the cartel on that island, but I don’t think they had a large ship capable of sinking that flotilla of yachts near French Guiana. If they did, they would have tried sinking us before we reached their island.”

“So maybe there’s some other group of pirates in these waters,” Clyde said. “But don’t worry about them. We’ve got thick armour, and the weapons systems we brought aboard can make any small ship change its mind.”

“And if it’s a large ship?”

“Large ships don’t need to play pirate,” Clyde said.

“I hope that’s true, too,” she said. “Okay, I won’t worry about pirates. I’m still worried about the sisters. I’m not convinced they’re dead. More importantly, nor do their followers. Look at what happened on Corn Island. Those people followed orders even after they must have thought, even hoped, their bosses were dead.”

“I’ve seen that level of devotion before,” Clyde said. “Usually hidden behind a false veneer of religion.”

“It’s more than that,” Tess said. “The sisters organised a trap for Lisa Kempton after the outbreak, and after the bombs fell, and flew a jet plane a quarter-way around the world. With prisoners. They kept those prisoners alive, and healthy, just so their bosses could better enjoy their revenge. These people won’t just give up or fade into the crowd.”

“We’ve done all that we can to stop them.”

“Have we?” she asked. “Are we? Let’s say the sisters’ plan was to seize control of the Panama Canal, and trade access for legitimacy to their empire. The sisters also suspected a betrayal from inside their organisation. What if that was why the canal was destroyed? The Vepr or the Adventure, or someone else, made sure this particular dream of the sisters would never come true. That’s why they never came south. What chance would some misguided billionaire have against those kind of people? The reason they didn’t come south is that they’re building a new empire up north.”

“Do you want to go look for them?” Clyde asked.

“Yes. But we don’t know where to begin,” Tess said. “I’m not being a gloom-monger. I’m thinking of what will happen after we get back to Australia. What people will talk about after my report is published. They will assume the sisters are alive.”

“You can’t change that,” he said.

“We can give them something else to think about,” Tess said. “This really will be the last voyage into the Atlantic for a long time. Nothing we’ve seen gives us a reason to survey the damage to the canal, let alone build the machines needed to repair it. No, this is the last voyage, so we should go to New York. We should find that corpse the scientists think died. Forget a weapon. What use would it be in South America or South Africa? We don’t need hope that the worst is over. We don’t need proof the sisters are dead. We need the certainty that the zombies will die. We should confirm the Northern Hemisphere is as lost as the evidence suggests. We should return to the Pacific with the news that the zombies are dying, that we are the last bastion of the old civilisation, and that our species’ future is entirely in our hands.”

“If not us, then who?” Clyde said.

“No one,” Tess said. “If not us, there is no one else.”

To be continued…

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Other novels:

Surviving The Evacuation & Here We Stand

The outbreak began in New York. Within days, it had spread throughout the world. Nowhere is safe from the living dead. Books 1-3 are the journals of Bill Wright, a political operative trapped in London after the city is evacuated. Books 4-7 follow Nilda, a mother searching the wasteland for her son, and Chester, a criminal in search of repentance. Books 8 onward recount how humanity’s last survivors build a new society out of the ashes of the old world.

Here We Stand is the story of Tom Clemens, Jonas