The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (27 page)

“Zeyad,
your last name sounds familiar. Could you have known my husband? His name is —
was
— Saho Daher. I kept my family name. He has talked about a family named Zeyad
that he was related to. He told me that they lived in Luxor.”

“Oh, yes.
I am sure that he is my cousin. I had lost track of him over the years. And now
here you are, his wife, and children. It is my honor to meet you at last. I only
wish it was under better circumstances.”

“Children,
come and meet your father’s cousin. His name is Zeyad Sarraf. Tonight we will
be safe with Zeyad.”

After
they had finished eating, the two women took their children to their room to
get ready for the night. Atef left the door slightly ajar. Usually, she would
have closed it with other men in the house, even at their home, but she felt
safe enough with Zeyad in the house.

The
three men cleaned up after the meal, and Sheref started the night watch. The
night was quiet. The cars that were driving by had slowed to a trickle, then
stopped altogether. The only thing that broke the stillness of the night was
the screams of the dying. But this had become a nightly issue since the
outbreak began. Tonight there were more screams because there were so many
people on the road that failed to reach safety before it got dark.

In the
middle of the night when Assem went to wake Sheref for his watch, he saw that Zeyad
was awake. He asked the two men to step outside into the courtyard to talk.

“That
was some good news for you, Zeyad. You found your cousin’s family. It would
have been much better had he not been killed before you found them. With the
news last night about Cairo I guess we don’t want to go that way. Now what
should we do? Go back to Luxor?”

“Well,
first things first. What do you think we should do concerning the women and
their children?”

“Zeyad,
they are your family,” said Sheref. “We cannot let them drive away to their
deaths. If we do that, they will surely die. They have never been out of Cairo.
They are lost. I say that they go with us.”

Zeyad nodded
his head. “I cannot let my cousin’s family leave without helping them. I owe
this to my family. If this will be a problem, then I will depart with them. We
will have to say goodbye tomorrow.”

“You
do not have to take such drastic measures, Zeyad, I am fine with your family
joining us,” said Sheref.  

“Yes,”
said Assem. “They are your family. By that measure, they are our family as
well. They must go with us. As far as where to go, I agree that Cairo is no
longer an option. What about down into Africa? With a sparser population, the
outbreak should not be as much of an issue. If anything, there will be fewer
people, so there should be fewer zombies to worry about, don’t you think?”

“Thank
you both on behalf of my family. Africa sounds like as good a choice as any.
Tomorrow we could go through Faiyum; from there we can go past Lake Qaroun.
Then we would have to cross the desert to the Al-Wahat Al-Bahreya Road, and take
it to Bawiti. From there we go to the Siwa Oasis, on to the Mediterranean Sea.
We will follow the highway to Morocco. It will be a long drive, but we will
bypass Cairo altogether. Somewhere along this path, it should be better than
here. What do you think?”

“As
far as I’m concerned, as long as we don’t go to Cairo, I’m good with that,”
said Sheref. “What about you, Assem?”

“As
far as I am concerned, as long as we can find a place where we can stay alive,
I’m fine with it. Anywhere other than Cairo is fine with me. If we can find a
place to wait this thing out, that’s even better.”

Zeyad
thought for a moment. “You are good with cars, Sheref. Will you look at their car
in the morning? I don’t think it is in the best condition. We need to know if
it’s going to make the journey with us before we finalize our plans.”

“I
looked at it after they pulled in,” said Sheref. “It is not in the best condition.
If we have to go into the desert, it will not keep up.”

“I was
afraid of that,” said Zeyad. “All right, then. We will simply have to make
enough room for everyone in the truck. If we take all of the gas cans out of
the trailer, we can strap them onto the roof of the truck or on the back of it.
That will open up a lot of room where we can put their things back there. If all
we have to do is stack things a little higher on the trailer, that will be fine.
We should have enough room for everyone inside the truck. It will be tight but
we can make it work.”

After
that, Sheref went on watch. Assem laid down to sleep, and Zeyad lay on his mat,
looking at the ceiling and thinking about the cousin he had lost.

At
first light, Assem, who was on the final turn of the night watch, woke everyone
up. Then he went to the kitchen to set out their morning meal. After they had
eaten, Zeyad leaned back in his chair. He tapped the table with his knuckles to
get everyone’s attention.

He
announced, “It pleases me to no end that I have found part of my family. With
everything that has happened, this is no small blessing for me. I am sorry that
my cousin was killed. Last night I talked with my two friends about what we are
going to do. Before yesterday, our goal was to go to Cairo. We thought that
with a larger military presence in Cairo, this zombie thing would be better
there.”

He
looked around at everyone at the table. “But seeing the number of people
fleeing Cairo last night made us rethink where we will be going now.” He explained
their plan to cross to the Siwa Oasis and then westward towards Morocco,
looking for a place where they could all can live without fear of zombies.”

He
smiled and continued, “I have come to realize that the five of you are part of
my family. Because of this, we are asking you to come with us. If we let you go
your own way, you will only drive to your death. Will you please accompany us
to Morocco?”

“Zeyad,
my husband has always talked about you with respect,” said Atef. “You have no
obligation to me or my girls. You have no obligation to my sister or her
daughter either. For the three of you men to so willingly accept us as your
family… it is we who are honored to be with you. Our answer is yes! We will be
pleased to join you all. May Allah be praised.”

“Thank
you, Atef. I now make my pledge, in the presence of my friends, to protect you,
your family, your sister and her daughter. I will not fail my pledge to you,
ever.”

“Zeyad,
I think we should think about staying here another day,” said Assem. “We need
to repack the truck and trailer so we can make room for everyone. We need you
to set everything that you want to take next to our truck. We will repack both
the truck and the trailer to make room for all of us.”

During
the rest of the day, they all helped repack the truck and trailer. That night
they had dinner as a family. The next morning, after they ate, they loaded up
in the Range Rover as they set out for Faiyum.

They
drove off towards Morocco, on the run once again, driving their truck towards
Africa.

They
would run until they found safety or died trying.

Moscow, Russia

ADZ +152d

It had
been five months since the night that Boleslav Volkov, Ivan Konstaninov and
Vyacheslav Orlov strolled out of the theater with their wives, Evdokiya, Tasha
and Dunyasha. They had walked down the street to have a late coffee, never knowing
that their lives would be changed forever. Ivan and Vyacheslav were savagely
killed by zombies.

Four
and a half months ago, their cars had run out of gas. At around the same time, the
major power generating plants in Western Russia, as well as the ones in
addition to the power plants in Central and Eastern Europe failed, knocking out
all of the electrical power. One week following the failure of Central and
Eastern Europe’s power grid Western Europe’s power grid failed. All of Europe,
including Western Russia, was without electricity.

Now,
months after incident after the theater, their security team of Sergei Utkin,
Grigori Sokoloz, and Dmitry Kuznetsov was leading the way.

With
them were the three custodians from the theater, Sofya Kozlov, Nataliya Alkaev,
and Luka Petrov. This group of ten had been traveling together since the
incident. Currently, they were in southwestern Poland. They were walking to the
border with the Czech Republic, several days away by foot.

It was
11 AM on a rainy fall day. All ten of the group were cold, wet, and tired, as
well as miserable. Adding to their suffering, they were hungry. Everyone was
always hungry. Food was hard to come by at this time of year. The only ones
openly complaining were the four survivors who had been among the elites of
Russian society. They griped, grumbled and basically bitched about anything and
everything with every step they took. They could care less who was listening.
They wanted to made it clear that they were unhappy with everything around
them.

It was
too cold. It was too wet. It was too windy. They had to walk too far. They were
hungry and tired. On and on they complained. Not once did a “Thank you for
keeping us alive” come out of their mouths. The three custodians, on the other
hand, were glad that they had been asked to join them as they trekked across
Europe. They knew that to find a better place, without zombies, they all had to
work to find it. If that meant they had to walk, then they were ready to do so
happily. They had sympathy for the way the elite treated their security men.
The bodyguards were leading the way through Poland.

Grigori
half-whispered to the other two guards, “If this goes on any longer I might use
my remaining ammunition to shoot them right here. We have worked for them for
many years. In all of that time, I have
never
heard them complain as
much as they are now. After all, we are taking care of them. The only thing we
are not doing for them is carrying them on our backs.”

He
shook his head. “They know how much food we have, but still they want more. We
found clothing so they would be warm but they groused about the fact that the
clothing was second hand, and had the nerve to tell us that the clothes were
dirty. They did the same thing with the boots that we found for them. I am
getting tired of this. Something needs to change before I decide to shoot them
and walk away.”

“Grigori,
I agree with you,” said Sergei. “Their mistreatment of us is getting old. I am
a guard, not a slave. They act like they’re the only ones that are walking. We
have all walked the same number of steps. In fact, we have walked
further,
if you add in the trips that we have taken to forage for food or clothes or whatever
else we need. The custodians help us look for food as well. I know you are
tired of them. I am as well. In my mind and under my breath, I have been
calling them the Spoiled Russian Walkers. We are nothing but pawns in their
game. I am nearly ready to let them try surviving on their own, without us.
They will be alone, with no one to boss around. If something does not change
soon, I am ready to leave them behind.”

“I
knew you were both upset about them. I’m not too far from dumping them too,”
said Dmitry. “Thinking of them as the SRW will help me get through the day. I
will be using that label for them from now on. If they should overhear me and ask
what it means, I’ll tell them that SRW stands for the Special Russian Wealthy.”

He let
out a snort. “On another topic, we need to think about a place to stay for the
night in the next two or three hours. If we can find some food, it would be
nice to eat tonight, as well.”

“You
are correct, Dmitry. There are a few houses on either side of this small road,
up ahead. Why don’t we have the SRW stay on the road with one of us? The
custodians can go with the other two to look for food. That should work for tonight.
What do you think, Sergei? Do you think the SRW will agree to wait for us?”

“No
matter what they want to do, Grigori, the SRW will have to do what we tell them
if they want to eat tonight. I will take Luka with me. Dmitry, you can take the
two girls with you. That way we can check the houses more quickly. I want to
walk for another few hours before we find a place to hide. The zombies are not
due to come out quite yet.” He looked at the houses ahead. “There are three
houses on your side of the road and two on mine. Grigori will stay with the SRW
on the road.”

As
they came to the five houses, Grigori turned to everyone to announce their
plan. “Okay, everyone. We have been discussing these houses ahead. We are going
to take a short break from walking to look for food for tonight. Dmitry will
take Nataliya and Sofya and search the houses on that side. Sergei will take
Luka with him and search the two houses on that side. I will stay with you here
on the road while we wait for them. Is that all right with you?”

“We
can do that, Grigori,” said Boleslav. “While we were walking, we overheard a
bit of your conversation. We could not hear everything that you said, but we
did hear you mention the ‘SRW’ as you motioned back at us. Are you making a
joke of us, Sergei?”

“No,
Mr. Volkov,” Sergei said quickly. “We have been walking for a long time — nearly
five months now. We still have a long way to go. We were just passing the time,
talking; you know in Russia everything has initials? We thought of you. It
would be an honor if we could refer to you as the Special Russian Wealthy or
SRW for short. Would that be all right, sir?”

“I
think, Sergei, that it would be nice to be referred to that way. It does have a
feel of elitism to it. Thank you for thinking of us while the zombies are
killing everyone around us. It is nice to still have a sense of humor.”

As
they broke into their assigned groups, they headed towards the houses to search
for food. Dmitry walked to the first house on his side of the road. The girls
told him that to finish more quickly, they would go to the next house, rather
than all three searching each house together. He thought
What could it hurt?

He
told the girls, “I’m all right with that, but don’t take any risks while you
are inside. You know that anything can happen at any time. Be sure to leave
yourself a safe path out in case of any trouble.”

“We
will, Dmitry. We will be back out with food faster than you can blink.”

Dmitry
went into the first house, while Sofya and Nataliya went into the second house.
The door was locked, but they entered through a broken window.

Sergei
was already into his first house with Luka right behind him. They were in the
kitchen going through the cupboards, looking for food, when they heard a
blood-curdling scream. Luka was the first one back out of his house, with Sergei
close behind him. Dmitry was running out of the back door of his house. The
screaming was coming from the house that the two girls were checking. As he was
running to that house, Dmitry shouted, “Sofya, Nataliya! What is going on? Are
you all right? Answer me dammit!”

Sergei
and Luka came running from across the road, and Grigori was standing guard in
front of the SRW. He shouted to Dmitry, “What is happening? Is that one of our
girls screaming?”

“I
don’t know who it is,” said Dmitry. “The girls wanted to search their own
house. They are both inside that house.”

Dmitry
kicked in the door of the house. Sergei was right behind him. Both men had
wooden clubs in their hands, ready for battle. Luka hesitated next to Grigori
in the middle of the road. Sergei was the first inside.

The
men stopped in their tracks when they saw what was happening. There were four
zombies inside of the house. They only heard one scream. Nataliya was on the
floor, dead. Her head had been torn off her body. It had rolled towards the
door that Dmitry had just kicked in. Nataliya’s head, eyes wide open, was lying
on the floor blankly staring up at Sergei. Sergei had come to a screeching
stop, looking at her head between his feet.

Though
they were trained security guards, they were stunned. They stood there, mouths agape.
Sofya screamed again, startling them. They both looked up in time to see
Sofya’s eyes rolling up in her head as she died. Sergei turned and shoved Dmitry
out the door, screaming, “Dmitry! Get out of the house now! We cannot help them
— they’re dead! Move! Out of the house, Grigori! Get those people moving now!”

Grigori
started moving the SRW back down the road that they had come from. Luka ran to
the door that Dmitry was coming out of. Luka was outside, screaming, “Sofya!
No! No! You must come out. I am here! I will help you. You cannot be hurt! We
are getting married soon! No!”

Dmitry
ran into Luka, knocking him on his ass. Dmitry grabbed Luka by his coat collar,
dragging him towards the road. Luka wrestled away from Dmitry’s grasp and tried
to run into the house. Sergei could not grab Luka fast enough; Luka ducked
under Sergei’s arm and ran into the house. He saw Sofya being torn apart by two
of the zombies kneeling on either side of her.

Luka
ran to the nearest zombie, trying to pull it away from Sofya. The two zombies that
were trying to follow Sergei out of the house turned on Luka. The first one
raked its clawed hands down Luka’s back and ripped two long strips of flesh away,
exposing his ribs. Luka turned to face his attacker, and it drew its claws
across his stomach, slicing him open. Luka died on his feet as the contents of
his belly spilled onto the floor. As he started to fall to the floor, the
zombie kneeling next to Sofya reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling his body
down, biting into the side of his head. It tore away his nose, his left eye and
a portion of his left jaw and cheek down to the jugular vein. He died on his
feet. He fell to the floor next to the love of his life. They died together, their
blood mingling together.

Back
on the street, the security guards were standing around the SRW’s in formation,
ready to drive off any attacks. It was over as quickly as it began. The three
custodians were dead in a flash, but for whatever reason, the zombies did not
follow them out of the house. Grigori was the first to speak.

“I
think the girls stumbled onto a place where the zombies hide until it is late
enough to come out to hunt,” he said. “We have lost three of our friends. We
need to learn from this. We cannot simply walk into a building or a house
without first checking for zombies inside. This is what happens when we are
tired or hungry. We must check the places that we go.”

He
shook his head sadly. “I did not know that Luka was so close to Sofya. They
were our friends, and I, for one, will miss them. But for now, we must make a
decision as to where we are going to go for tonight. Back the way we came, or forward?
It is about noon. We have another two or three hours of walking that we could
do to be closer to our goal. What do you think?”

“We
cannot stay here,” said Dmitry. “The zombies in that house will be coming out
later. The way we came could just as well have zombies hiding, waiting for dark
to hunt. They could be ahead of us, for that matter. This is not where I want
to stay for the night, and I know that I hate to walk the same road twice.”

“Dmitry
is right, Grigori. I don’t want to stay here. I don’t want to go back on a road
that we walked already. I say we move forward until we find a safe place. It
hurts me that we lost three good friends so quickly, but right now I want to be
away from this place. Forward or back, I don’t care. Grigori, it is your
choice.”

“All
right, then, forward we go. The Czech border cannot be more than one or two
days away.” Grigori led the group forward, away from the place where they had lost
three of their friends.

Their ultimate
goal was Mali, in Africa. To get there, they would have to go through Belarus,
Poland, and the Czech Republic, then through Germany and down to Spain. From
there, they would somehow find a way to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to
Morocco. They believed that because Africa had fewer people, there should be
fewer zombies, or none at all.

With
their friends lying dead less than a kilometer behind them, Evdokiya spoke. Her
voice had an agonizing screech when she was tired or complaining.

“Sergei,
when are we going to stop? I’m hungry. I want to eat. I’m tired and my feet
hurt. When are we going to stop?”

“Evdokiya,
we need to go at least another five or six kilometers today. If we don’t keep
up this pace, we will be walking in the winter. You know how much food we have
with us. That is all we have until we find more. That was what we were doing
when our friends were killed. They died trying to find us food.”