Z 2135 (31 page)

Keller screamed again, “Echo 7, stop. Echo 7, stop.”

The orb continued to hover, but the whistling sound withered
to nothing.

“I am so disappointed,” the Chief said.

Adam could hear the man struggling to stand. The paralysis
had worn off.

Adam heard Keller lurch forward, one step at a time, as if
every step took all of his energy. Either the poison wasn’t as effective as it
was supposed to be, or the man was incredibly resilient.

Keller spoke through struggling breaths, “I … never saw
this … co … c … coming. I considered you a s … son, Adam, and …” allowed that affection to b … b … blind me.”

“I’m so sorry,” Adam said, daring to stand, seeing Keller
approaching, but unable to meet the man’s eyes.

“No, it’s me that’s sorry, Adam. I sh … sh …
should’ve known better. You are, after all … your father’s son.”

Adam finally met Keller’s cold, staring eyes as the man took
another two steps forward.

Keller said, “Once the cancer is in you, it
becomes
a … p … p .
. . part of you. And it stays there f … f … f … forever. Like it
did with your father. There’s no saving you, Adam. You’re gone now. Forever.
Just like my son.”

“Please don’t!” Adam cried out.

“Echo 7,” Keller said. “Stun.”

The orb shot Adam.

Ana and Liam had been in Hydrangea for four days. Still, her
father hadn’t shown. She wished Oswald had never said a word. Never interrupted
what Ana thought was her best ever moment with Liam—a spark they’d not
rekindled since, no matter how many hours she’d wished they could.

She wondered how many more times the world could be turned
upside down before she finally stopped believing in things altogether. A mind
could only take so many tumbles before the softer parts tore and everything
inside became something else. Eventually, no more rattles or shaking, just
nothing left inside.

Ana was careful not to let Sutherland know she was on to him
about Dr. Liza or her father. She let him think he was charming. If he knew Ana
had unearthed his secret, she would be dead. So would Oswald, Liam, and her
father. But it had been four days, and now Ana thought she was safe in asking
where her father was.

She asked Sutherland if they could talk.

“Of course. How about we do it during dinner,” he said,
inviting them to their largest meal at Hydrangea so far, with a giant turkey as
the centerpiece.

It was a private dinner, just Sutherland, Oswald, Liam, and
Ana. Plus four servant women who heeled to Sutherland’s steady commands.

“I want to know where my father is,” Ana said, edging anger
from her voice. Liam, sitting next to her, put his hand on hers beneath the
table. He squeezed her fingers as if to caution her cool. “Have you heard
anything? Do you have any idea where he is?”

Sutherland looked at his plate, studied the beast-sized leg,
then looked back up with sad eyes. “Yes, but the news is unfortunate. I was
hoping you’d wait a bit longer to ask, just in case better news came in.”

Ana felt a cold chill. “What?”

“I have reports, many and all corroborating, saying that
City 1 has been infected with the virus. Everywhere. The City is down and your
father was taken into custody.”

“Oh my!” Ana cried out. “What did he do?”

“He went into City 1, boarded a busy train, and unleashed a
virus so strong it makes the Original Plague look like the flu. Only those who
knew it was coming were spared.”

This
can’t be true.

“My father would
never
do something like that.”

“He would and did.” Sutherland smiled as if Ana should be
proud and was missing the point. “War is filled with such awful decisions, and
in case you didn’t realize, we’re at war with an old way of doing things,
trying to bring something new to this world. Your father’s a soldier for the
cause and will be remembered forever for his service.”

“This is crazy!” Ana cried. “What did you make him do?”

Sutherland pulled the pin from his topknot. A curtain of
hair spilled from his head. He opened his mouth.

Ana’s heart raced as she struggled to still her fists. She
had to keep cool, clamp her teeth together.

Liam met her eyes and shook his head with barely a twitch.

No. Not
Now.

Then Katrina—conspicuously absent during the meal—burst into
the dining room.

“Come with me,” she said to everyone. “Now.”

Sutherland’s face went from bothered to worse. Ana wasn’t
sure if he was annoyed by the interruption, or nervous about whatever had
spooked Katrina.

Sutherland’s chair scraped the floor as he pushed it from
the table, and in seconds he was on his feet and by Katrina’s side.

“Let’s go,” he said to the others.

Ana looked at Liam. He shrugged, then stood and followed
Katrina with Ana. They all stepped into the hallway. Ana’s fingers were slick
against Liam’s. She wondered where they were going and what horror was waiting
once there.

The walk was short, maybe two minutes, but because they had
spent days in isolation, every turn took them somewhere they had never been in
the underground labyrinth, until they were finally in a second, larger dining
hall.

Liam said, “So now it’s OK for us to be around all these
people?”

Katrina ignored him and kept walking fast, into the dining
hall and over toward the far wall where a swarm of people were huddled in front
of a wall screen, all staring. Ana’s stomach boiled.

Chief
Keller.

“What’s going on?” Ana asked.

A large bald man she hadn’t seen before looked back,
answering her in monotone. “City 1 has fallen. Chief Keller is being sworn in
as Acting Head. The State won’t admit that, though. They can’t. Too much
chaos.”

Sutherland turned to Katrina. “How long has this been on? Do
we know anything else? Any word on Jonah?”

“No. The Darwins were on until a few minutes ago, then The
Games cut out and they switched to a live message from The State. They
announced ten minutes to prepare. That was about how long it took me to get
you.”

Katrina nodded up at the screen as Keller, in his pure white
uniform—the same one Jack Geralt had worn for so many years—stood in front of
two tall boxes, draped in a single red curtain.

What the
hell?

Ana asked Sutherland what was in the boxes.

He said, “That’s the drama. I’m sure it’s a surprise. We’ll
wait on pins and needles to see.”

Keller had to be the only person in the world who looked
even uglier when he smiled, Ana observed, wishing she could bash his face in.
Keller then opened his mouth to speak.

“Citizens of The State. Three days ago, vile members of The
Underground raided City 1 and managed to infect some of its citizens.”

The screen then showed a video montage: security camera
footage of a massacre on a train. People turning on people. Infected people
tearing at one another. A little girl being murdered by her mother.

Ana couldn’t watch, her stomach churning.

Keller’s face and voice were back.

Ana looked up to see him speaking.

“Unfortunately, the same disgrace of a man who already spat
on law and order by murdering his wife also took advantage of The State’s
second chances. He was lucky enough to escape his deserved punishment. He won
The Games and was rewarded with a new start in City 7, but was so consumed with
a hate for freedom that he couldn’t even live his life in Paradise. Jonah
Lovecraft has committed a new atrocity, one we should have stopped with our
vigilance.” Keller lowered his voice to a hiss. “
This
is what we get for not knowing our neighbor.”

Ana watched in disbelief as Jonah walked up and down the train
aisle.

Keller’s voice spoke over the footage.

“Mr. Lovecraft walked by these men, women, and children,
looking each in the eye even as he quietly and cowardly murdered them.”

Ana’s knees buckled. Liam grabbed her, held her up, against
him.

She looked on, but only because she couldn’t look away.

Keller continued, “Unfortunately, former City Watch Major
Jonah Lovecraft’s betrayal was such a shock for our one true leader, Jack
Geralt, that he has fallen ill after suffering a mild heart attack. Don’t
worry, citizens. He is in recovery and we expect the best long term, but right
now we will be making some temporary adjustments.”

Keller smiled for the cameras. “More on that in a minute.
For now, we have some details to tend to.”

Ana’s heart was leaking beats like her lungs were losing
air. Keller paced in front of the boxes, speaking slowly and using his hands to
usher one sentence into the next.

“We’ve been too tolerant. Now we see the results of not
knowing our neighbors,” he repeated, “and have suffered the folly of watching
tolerance curdle to weakness. No more! We cannot allow this cancer to spread.
We’ve taken care of the situation on the ground, stopped the infection from
eating its way into The City proper. Now we must begin the healing. We must
show those who stand against freedom that they will be unable to stand at all.
We’ve arrested the two suspects who worked together, orchestrating this
attack.”

Two?

Keller yanked the curtain away with the flourish of a
magician, revealing both boxes.

Adam!

“What is Adam doing there?” she cried out.

Nobody answered—every eye on the screen.

The boxes looked like soundproof plastic or glass, like
those she and Liam were trapped in before Duncan saved them, when she learned
about Liam’s horrible lie and  chose to spare Liam’s life over an innocent girl’s.
Ana could see her brother and father with open mouths, screaming in silence,
not a note of torment heard.

Adam looked older than the last time she saw him. Taller and
stronger. Less like her little brother, and more like a man, less scared than
angry. She would have done anything, given anything, to tell him that
everything would be OK.

But it wouldn’t be.

Keller was a monster, and about to prove it to every
citizen, pretending to keep his sheep safe from the
wolves.

“As I said,” Keller resumed his pacing. “Rules and protocols
must be followed. As we all know, treason against The State gets you into The
Darwin Games.”

Even though Ana knew what was coming, she screamed. Liam
held her tight, pulling her mouth into his chest.

She looked up at the screen, helplessly.

“Unfortunately, we have another rule in The Darwins. No
repeat performances. Not that this has ever been an issue before. Every other
player has either perished, or had the sense to enjoy the good life in City 7.
But since Mr. Lovecraft was determined to forfeit his freedom, he must also
forfeit his life.”

“No!!” Ana screamed, pulling away from Liam.

He grabbed her from behind and whispered something in her
ear. She couldn’t hear it over her screaming, though.

Keller drew a blaster from inside his coat as her father’s
box was opened by two City Watchers.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Keller asked.

Her father stared into the camera. “Please, let my son go.
Please
. He’s innocent. He’s
a good boy who did nothing wrong.”

“I’m sorry,” Keller said. “Rules and protocols.”

Chief Keller’s smile returned, looking like that of a demon
as he stared at Jonah, basking in his power over Ana’s father.

Keller then raised the blaster, and took aim at Jonah’s
head.

Jonah’s eyes didn’t waver as he stared at the cruel bastard.

Keller pulled the trigger, disintegrating Jonah’s head into
a bloody, ashen pulp.

Her dad’s headless corpse stood for a few seconds as Ana’s
heart stopped along with her breath.

His body dropped.

Ana screamed as she fell to her knees.

TO BE
CONCLUDED

NEXT SPRING

IN Z 2136

If you leapt to the end of
Z
2135
to read this author’s note, you may want to wait and come back
after you finish reading the book. There are some major spoilers for this
season below, and we’d hate to ruin the awesome surprises.

First, we’d like to thank you for buying
Z 2135,
and making last
season’s serial,
Z 2134
,
such a success.

When we were in our earliest pre-production phase of
Z 2135
, deciding exactly what
we wanted to write, where we wanted to take the story, and in what specific
ways we wanted to expand the universe, we looked at what YOU, our dear reader,
had to say in reviews and email about
Z
2134
’s first season.

Reception was mixed. Some people loved the book, some had
legit criticisms, and plenty of haters wanted to hate for no other reason than
we dared to say we were writing
The
Hunger Games
meets
The
Walking Dead.

We were practically BEGGING people to trash the book by not
only using two recent smash phenomena as seeds for our story, but also
comparing ourselves to perhaps the greatest in their respective genres.

Thankfully, more people loved the book than didn’t, and
47North signed the serial for a total of three seasons. So, thank YOU, for
loving the first season enough to give us a chance to finish the story.

We returned to
Z’s
world poised to deliver something amazing to our loyal readers, address our
critics, and pretty much prove the haters wrong by writing the best damn season
we could. This season is bigger in size, deeper in character depth, and we
turned the tension up to 11!

One thing we wanted to do this season was delve more into
the zombies, both in how they came about, and remind you of their constant
threat. Last season, they were just sort of there, and could’ve been replaced
with any monster, really. This season, both Duncan and Ana brought us closer to
the true horrors of the zombie plague.

We also wanted to expand on the world created in Season One.
That meant going deeper into our characters, their pasts, and their sometimes
conflicting motivations. One of the things we most enjoy about
Z
, and that readers seem to
appreciate, is that good and bad isn’t black and white.

Even bad guys like Keller and Sutherland have motivations that
make sense to them. Keller was a good man turned to darkness following the
death of his son many years ago. We get a sense of him seeking some sort of
redemption in his enemy, Jonah’s, son.

Of course, that doesn’t go well.

In addition to morally gray areas, we wanted to push our
characters into serious dilemmas, where there was no easy solution: Adam was
forced to decide between his old friends and loyalty to City Watch (and his new
father figure, Keller); Ana and Liam both faced difficult decisions regarding
her infection; and Jonah was made to choose between his daughter and the lives
of an entire City.

It’s in these choices, and the actions our characters take,
where we truly learn what makes them tick.

And lastly, we wanted this season to have serious
repercussions.

That meant killing someone, someone you’ve come to root for,
or hell, maybe even love.

Originally, our plan was to kill Adam. But the more we
thought about it, and how next season will play out, we knew that there was
only ONE logical ending for this season.

We hope you enjoyed
Z
2135
.

We’re eager to writing the last book in the
Z
trilogy next spring with
Z 2136
, and look forward to
bringing you more killer cliffhangers, and one hell of a roller-coaster ride to
the end.

If you liked what you read this season, we’d love for you to
leave a review, at either Amazon or Goodreads, or both!

And if you loved
Z
,
we hope you’ll check out one of our other five serials.

With 47North, we also have
Monstrous.

Independently we’ve published the number one horror series,
Yesterday’s Gone, WhiteSpace,
Available Darkness,
and
ForNevermore,
and a collection of 18 short stories called
Dark Crossings: The Collection
.

Before the end of 2013, we’ll also have a standalone novel
called
Threshold
and
a new series called
Nomad
.

Visit our website
www.CollectiveInkwell.com
today and sign up
for our Goner’s Newsletter to get a free e-book, all the latest news, and free
short stories.

As always, thank you for reading,

Sean Platt & David W. Wright