Z-Day Chronicles: Genesis

Chapter 15

The sun was setting over the vacant city of Dallas. Tyrese and Malachi went back to the ground floor of the mall, while Jake stayed on the rooftop in silence. His head was resting on his clenched hands, as if he was praying. He then picked up the radio.

"Private Stone," Jake started.

"Anything you need, Chief?" Stone responded.

"You don't have to call me 'Chief' right now, bud." Jake responded. "Just 'Jake' will do."

"Yessir," Stone responded. "So is there anything you need, Jake?"

"Does anyone over there have any records containing the remaining soldiers and survivors?"

"I have the records with me. Want me to look up someone?"

"Yes I do. Cassandra Carter Riley?"

"Yessir, I can do that."

There was static on the other end of the line for a moment.

"Mrs. Riley is on this list, Jake. Is she your wife, Sir?"

"She is," Jake answered. "Can you get someone to locate her? I just wanna talk to her; let her know that I'm ok."

"I can arrange that. It will take a few minutes."

"Thanks, Private."

Nick and Dylan checked up on Jake. Brandon followed them, using his sniper rifle as a crutch. Tyrese followed Brandon, bringing a few cooked MREs with him.

"Chief," Brandon said as he proceeded to salute Jake.

Jake stopped Brandon from doing so. "You don't have to salute me," He replied. "Plenty of time for that when we make it to civilization."

"You look like you could use a bite," Tyrese said as he handed Jake a hot meal.

"Thanks," Jake replied. "What's the Sit-Rep on this area?"

"All is clear for the moment, but there is a chance of activity in the general area. You try to contact your wife yet?"

"Yeah, they're looking for her right now."

The group heard some gunshots in the distance.

"That's a lot of bullets," Brandon replied.

"It's Dallas," Jake answered. "Bound to be some survivors. Hate to not be able to do anything about it at the moment."

"Alright, I'm gonna post up at the ledge."

Brandon took his rifle, and left Tyrese and Jake alone.

"Tyrese," Jake continued. "I'm assuming Dallas was our first priority as soon as everything at Fort Worth was set up?"

"Yeah, that was the plan," Tyrese answered. "Set up a boundary in Fort Worth and contain it, then branch out from there, increasing the borders and ridding the area of undead, burying or burning who or what we need to."

"Until the U.S. becomes a safe haven. Then keep branching out throughout the Western hemisphere. Me and Cassandra were talking back in Benning about something like that. I told her that I would find a place for the two of us, or make one."

"Good plan," Tyrese agreed. "At least with this strategy, you won't have to worry about that place being small."

"Yeah, I know right," Jake laughed. "Might just build a house right by the beach. Probably the West Coast to watch the sun set."

"Man, you can have that. I'm sticking with high altitudes. I'm going to find a small place in the Rockies. Maybe Colorado."

"Never would've guessed that from you. Thought you liked the sand and sun."