Ground Zero (Patient Zero Book 1) Read online

  Ground Zero

  Patient Zero

  —Book One—

  By: Adrianne Lemke

  Copyright © June 2017 Adrianne Lemke

  All rights reserved

  Cover design by: Christian Bentulan

  Edited by: Brittany King

  Also by Adrianne Lemke:

  Earthshaker Series:

  Tracker

  Kindred

  Hunter

  Oblivion

  Earthshaker

  Secrets of Sacorria:

  Secret Power

  Anthologies:

  Bite-Sized Offerings: Tales and Legends of the Zombie Apocalypse

  When Disasters Strike

  Other Works:

  Fear

  Prologue

  The end of the world came at my hands.

  Well… to be honest, it wasn’t exactly my fault. Although, it has taken a while for me to come to that conclusion.

  About a year ago, when I was twelve, I was abducted as I walked home from school. Once I was returned to my family, I was told I’d been missing for several weeks. Despite not knowing exactly what happened, I was met with such a tearful reunion that I found myself bawling like a baby. It was only a couple days later that everything I knew changed.

  “You all right there, Zero?” a voice interrupted my thoughts. “We’ve got activity outside. We may need you to do your thing.”

  Shaking free of my thoughts, I answered, “Yeah, gimme a minute, Rex.”

  Since the outbreak, several children had gathered together. Children whose parents had been turned into… something else. Something I had only ever seen in the movies and never thought were overly scary. I don’t often call them by name. Normally, we simply say there is “activity,” or that “something is approaching.” Everyone knows what they are. Using the word zombie makes it sound so… fake. Like a cheesy horror flick you laugh at instead of getting scared by. But call them what you will—zombies, the undead, the walking dead, walkers, etc.—they are the enemy.

  Rex waited impatiently, fingering the bow and arrow he held at the ready. “Anytime, boss,” he muttered.

  Grabbing my lightweight hunting crossbow, quiver of bolts, and the push lever, I headed out of the old prison guardhouse where we had set up shop. “Where?” I asked Shanti. The fourteen-year-old was on guard duty at the west end of the prison and nodded in the direction of the tree line behind the compound.

  “Something was moving just inside the woods,” she answered. “I was going to send a patrol, but Rex wanted to wait for you.” Shanti chafed at being led by a girl who was younger than her, but accepted that I had dealt with more of the creatures than anyone.

  “Rex made the right call,” I said, closing my eyes and reaching out with all of my other senses. “There is a lot of activity in the woods. You guys would have walked right into a trap. Staying here is our best option.”

  Shanti took a quick step back and gave me a strange, squinty-eyed look. “I’ll never understand how you seem to know where these things are.”

  Rex was one of two people I trusted with everything. The other being the one adult we had with us, who I never turned. “Where’s Jake?” I asked, ignoring Shanti’s comment. “We should prep our wall defenses in case they try to attack.”

  “That might be coming up here soon, Z,” Rex warned with a nod toward the woods.

  Aiming my gaze toward the edge of the trees, I caught my first glimpse of the current threat. It had been a female once. Now the hair hung limply from grey skin, one eye was missing its lid, and she limped along as if she was missing some of the ligaments in her legs. She, unlike many of those who had been dead much longer, was mostly clothed. This one wasn’t familiar to me, so it was unlikely I was directly responsible for her turning.

  “They’re about to swarm,” I confirmed after stretching my senses to them again. “That one jumped the gun a bit.”

  Turning back to Rex, I ordered, “Get Jake here, now! This many of them at once… I don’t…”

  Apparently sensing my uncharacteristic fear, Rex put his hand on my shoulder briefly and ran to find Jake.

  For whatever reason, the zombies seemed to have a hive mind. Since I was the cause of the outbreak, it would stand to reason that I would be in control of that hive, right? Wrong. Sure, I could access it when I concentrated, but my ability to influence them was limited. So far, they had been unable to influence me either, but when there were a lot of them at once, it was harder to ignore their desires. This many…

  “They’re going to rip us apart. They’ll bite, and shred, and maim, and then you’ll all be turned,” I muttered, staring toward the woods.

  “Zero, pull back.” A deep masculine voice interrupted the thoughts and I turned, baring my teeth and hissing. “It isn’t you, kid. These things are messing with your brain. You need to pull your thoughts back to us and knock them away.”

  Jake put his hands on my shoulders to help ground me, and I finally saw him. Not the potential victim, but the twenty-one-year-old man who was my hero. The man who had stopped some creatures from tearing me apart a few days after the outbreak began.

  Blinking, I realized I felt on the verge of tears. “You need to move away,” I cautioned, a tear escaping, despite my best efforts.

  Tears. Normally not something to worry about, right? A normal teenage girl has to worry about her mascara running, or red blotches all over her face. Me? I have to make sure no one gets even a trace of my tears on them. Not even a drop, or they turn.

  My frustration grew; the creatures influencing my mind, my friends rushing to move away from me as I cried, and memories of my parents all built up until I felt such overwhelming emotion that I could no longer restrain it. Turning away from my friends and toward the woods, I screamed.

  It doesn’t sound like much does it? A scream in the face of undead evil… what could that possibly accomplish? But after the outbreak, under the right conditions, my scream can repel the undead. Unfortunately, the effect is brief.

  “Nice work, kid,” Jake said, patting my shoulder.

  Shanti watched, a wary look in her eye as she looked between me and the retreating enemy.

  “You’re new,” Jake told her quietly. “You’ll get used to it before long.”

  The creatures had backed off. For now. “I’m going to go get cleaned up,” I said, needing the toxic tears off my face. “Make sure you keep a close eye out. They’ll be back before too long, but maybe not all at once this time. We should be able to handle them.”

  They were going to kill us. Against such a huge number of enemies, we didn’t stand a chance. My slight advantage—extraordinary though it may be—would not last long against so many. The scream would grant us only temporary safety.

  Ignoring the suspicious look Shanti shot my way, I rushed to my private bathroom and washed my face with a clean bucket of water I would later dispose of where no one could come into contact with it.

  I stared at myself in the mirror, water dripping from my face. My dark eyes were ringed by dark bags. Sleep—even in a relatively safe location—was hard to come by. Patting my face dry, I took a deep breath. The coming battle would not be easy. We had been through it before, but I wished we could find a truly safe place to stay. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail. Having it loose would impede my vision, and I needed every advantage I could get.

  I took only a few minutes, but by the time I finished, Prati was already rushing toward me, a panicked look on her face. “Zero! They’re coming!”

  Clenching my eyes closed, I forced back my instant flash of dread. “Sound the alarm and make sure everyone is armed. With the number of them out there, we don’t need to worry a
bout stealth.”

  It may be surprising that a girl my age could give orders to anyone, but my “special” status has earned recognition among the kids in our group. Besides, I have great advisors in Rex and Jake.

  I joined said advisors at the guardhouse and stood silently behind them, watching the movement within the tree line. “They’re surrounding us,” I muttered. “They know there aren’t very many of us here.”

  “But they also know you’re here, right?” Rex asked hopefully. His face showed none of his anxiety, but his warm hazel eyes searched mine for any reason to be confident.

  Even being one of my closest confidantes, Rex has a bit of an overblown idea of what I am capable of. “I pushed them away once. It’s unlikely to work again.” I left it unsaid that I was beginning to tap into the hive mind more strongly as they approached. It would do them no good to worry about me suddenly being out of commission or convinced to leave the safety of the fence to deliver myself into a slow and painful death.

  Okay, that probably won’t happen. I’m new at this stuff, so I have no idea how far it could potentially go.

  “So, what’s the plan, boss?” Rex asked.

  “I told Prati to gather everyone. Did she?”

  “They’re all at the armory, Z,” Prati answered from behind me.

  “Ask them to come here once they’re done. I believe we have a little time before the attack. Is Kane down there too?” I waited for her nod and continued, “I need him to get the electricity hooked to the fence. With this many attackers, the fence by itself may not be enough.”

  Nodding eagerly, the girl, one of the only kids actually younger than me, answered, “Got it, boss!”

  After Rex and I saved her when her parents had turned, Prati became one of my best runners. Always willing and eager to help out wherever she could.

  “We’re all here now, Zero,” Jake informed me. “What’s the plan?”

  I considered our defenses: twelve children, one Jake, seven small hunting crossbows, three hunting rifles, two handguns, and Jake’s longbow. For close-up work, I had my sword and dagger, and several of the others had knives and daggers as well.

  Kane entered the room as I finished my mental inventory. “Kane?” I raised my eyebrow curiously.

  “Done, boss,” Kane said with a thumbs up.

  Okay, electric fence is now added to the defense list. “From what I can tell, all of them are on this side. They are smart enough to know we’re here, but not quite smart enough to come around the back,” I informed them.

  “So, concentrating our defense along the fence line here?” Rex asked, pointing toward the fence.

  “Especially focus on the gate,” I ordered. Made out of heavy wood, it was strong, but wouldn’t be electrified. “Jake, you and Shanti take the gate. Prati, I want you and Kane to watch the back in case some of them wise up and sneak around. Rex, take the right guard post. I’ll take the left. The rest of you, spread out along the fence and pick off any of them that get close. Got it?”

  Everyone nodded and moved to their assigned areas.

  The grunts and groans were drawing closer, the sounds not helping my feeling of being caught in a cheesy horror flick. How was this my life? Shaking off the feelings, I focused on my task. The guard houses were another weak spot, although there was metal criss-crossing in front of them so the electricity kept flowing. However, there were windows. Bulletproof, but I’d seen these creatures rip through concrete and metal, given enough time.

  At first the zombies approached slowly, but they sped up as they reached the gate. “Hold!” I heard Jake shout from the gate.

  Being kids, none of us were great at long distance shots, but most of us were able to stand our ground at close range. A sudden gunshot caused the enemy to speed up, mostly focusing on the gate, where Jake had opened fire on the leader of the pack.

  It dropped, the rotten flesh finally succumbing to death. Unless it was truly a virus that could be cured.

  Shaking off my thoughts, I aimed my crossbow at the nearest putrid creature, readying the deadly bolt. The groans had turned to excited rumbling, and I could see their desire to destroy all of us. “ATTACK AT WILL!” I yelled, realizing the creatures were at the fence.

  I pulled the trigger, sending the projectile into the zombie nearest to me. I watched the front line of creatures falling to the gunfire and arrows being sent their way. Each crack of a rifle made me flinch. Loud noises were not our friend, but it was a necessary evil with this many enemies rushing at us. The crossbows, while silent, were not the fastest to reload.

  Loading my recurve crossbow again, I took down a young zombie, then closed my eyes for a moment when I realized the kid had been younger than me. Even in her undead state, the girl clutched an old, ripped up teddy bear. She should have been spared. None of these… these… things deserve to die.

  It wasn’t a new realization, but I couldn’t shake the guilt. I’d started this.

  “Z! Watch yourself!” Jake yelled from the gate.

  Raising my crossbow again, I took out the creature who was trying to break through the window. I missed seeing the one who climbed the side of the guard building and appeared on the wall beside me. Giving a slight screech, I dropped the crossbow and drew my sword. “You can’t have them!” I growled, wielding the sword confidently. This I’d been practicing since I was nine. My parents wanted me to be able to protect myself, so I had basic martial arts training and some weapons training. My sensei had called me one of his best students.

  The zombie attacked, and I swung the sword, removing the rotting hand as it attempted to grab me. Wrinkling my nose at the smell of dead flesh, I grumbled, “Not bad enough you’re attacking us… no, you have to kill my sense of smell too.”

  The creature ignored the stump of his hand and rushed forward, backing me toward the edge of the wall over the guardhouse. I risked a glance down and saw a swarm of the dead waiting for my inevitable fall.

  Attempting another scream would only buy us a couple minutes, but it might allow us to pick off more of them as they ran away. My fear grew, as did my anger that these things were trying to kill the people under my protection. I allowed myself to feel all the emotions I usually attempted to block, and screamed.

  Immediately, the zombie in front of me clenched its hand and the stump of its arm over its ears and stumbled away, falling from the wall to crush one of the slower dead. Both lay broken as I gasped, tears falling down my face unchecked. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean…”

  “Zero!” Rex’s voice broke through my anguish, and I was able to take a deep breath before he reached me.

  As he rapidly approached I held my hand up to stop him. “Don’t… don’t come closer. I’m not hurt.”

  “This isn’t your fault, Z,” he insisted. “If you want to blame someone, blame the people who did this to you. They are the cause, not you!” He held his arm as if he wanted to grab me and shake sense into me.

  Sniffling loudly, I pulled a rag from my pocket and wiped the tears from my eyes. “I’m good. The emotions are hard to ignore when I need to scream.”

  No longer trapped in my own emotional storm, I noticed the gunfire had stopped.

  “Are they going to come back?” Rex asked.

  Reaching toward the hive mind, I was surprised to note we had cut the number by almost half. Whatever consciousness controlled the creatures had pulled them back.

  They knew where we were, so they would be back. “It’s time for us to scout for a new safe spot,” I answered. “They won’t be coming back for now, but it’s only a matter of time.” Rex turned away. “Rex?”

  “Yeah, Zero?”

  “Keep Shanti and Kane on patrol for now. You and Jake meet me in my room in ten minutes. We’ll discuss our next step.”

  Nodding, Rex headed down to do what I’d asked, leaving me to face what we’d just done.

  Death littered the ground outside the fence, and the bloody, rotten hand still rested near me. Black blood covered my swo
rd, and I used my rag to wipe it down before sheathing it and running back to my room.

  Ten minutes later, Jake and Rex joined me.

  “We need to find a cure,” I started when they sat on the edge of my cot. “Don’t touch the pillow, by the way,” I reminded them absently.

  “Right,” Jake answered. “How do you propose we find a cure?”

  “We need to find the people who kidnapped me. They made me this way; they caused this. Maybe they know how to reverse it.”

  “Zero…”

  That name. My curse. “I can’t stop trying, Jake,” I insisted. “They made me into patient zero, and that is all I am now. This… zombie thing? It’s a virus. They made me the cause of a massive outbreak, and now I am killing my own victims!”

  “Z, please settle down. None of us like this either, but what you’re asking…” Rex trailed off.

  “Not asking, Rex. I’m telling you. I will not stop looking for a way to reverse this. Maybe those affected can be cured!”

  Jake shook his head. “You can see their bodies, Z. You know they’re effectively dead. Even if we can find a cure, I don’t know if they can be saved. You shouldn’t get your hopes up.”

  I fingered the hilt of my sword. “You don’t have to join me. None of you. I would love to be able to stick together, but it would mean traveling back to the original outbreak area. I… It might be better if I search alone.”

  “Not happening,” Rex shot me down. “You will not go into this alone.”

  “He’s right,” Jake agreed. “If you’re going there, then so are we.”

  Allowing myself a small smile, I let go of the sword. “Thank you.”

  “You’re our leader, Zero. How can you be our leader if you wander off on your own?” Rex asked with grin.

  Jake’s answering smile faded. “Where are we headed to next? You know we can’t get to your hometown right away.”

  “No. It will take quite a while to get there with all the outbreak areas we need to go through. But we will find a cure.”