Z-Day Chronicles: Rising Up

Chapter 8

Jake abruptly opened his eyes, revealing a deserted town in front of him. There was no grass on the ground; only sand and stone.

'Where am I?' Jake thought. 'Where is everyone?'

The light was bright; so blinding that Jake had to force himself to squint, even while using his arm to add some shade to his view. The heat was beating down upon his head.

'Is it raining?' Jake thought as he wiped the water from his face. 'Why is it so hot?'

Jake began moving forward, hoping he would find water to douse his head in and cool off. As he proceeded, the light began to dim, and dark clouds appeared all around him.

'Oh no! The outpost!'

Jake reached for his sidearm, but could not find it. He reached around his back to grab his rifle, but it was gone as well. Even his knife was nowhere to be seen.

'Dammit!' Jake thought. 'No time to look for my weapons.'

Jake rushed towards the ruins and the decaying bodies lying around. The rotting odor was much stronger than the zombies that Jake battled against. He soon began to recognize some of the bodies.

'Wait a second,' Jake realized. 'These people aren’t the ones at the outpost. These bodies.... Are the ones that died a year ago. Where the hell am I?!'

Jake slowly moved forward, until he came across a large pile of wallets. They were neatly stacked, and there were blood stained pictures scattered around the wallets. There was also licenses, dog tags, and other keepsakes. In front of the pile, there was small sign that was hammered into the dirt and dust; a wooden sign that was horrendously recognizable.

“No,” Jake whispered.

There was only three words handwritten in that sign: Fort Worth Shrine.

After gazing in shock, a still small voice was heard.

“Jake... Jake...”

The small whisper began growing louder.

“Jake! Jake! JAKE!”

The voice was now screaming Jake’s name; so loud and deafening that as Jake covered his ears, he felt wet liquid ooze trickling down his arms, showing a crimson color. He began to hyperventilate, and quickly sealed his eyes shut.

“JAKE!!”

Jake opened his eyes again, inhaling a shuttering breath. He was laying down in his tent under his covers. His ears and face were covered in sweat.

"Jake.”

As Jake shot up out of bed, he turned to the open end of the tent, seeing Tyrese standing there.

“HR-Team Alpha is heading out in about thirty minutes,” Tyrese reported. “Want me to tell them to wait for you?”

“Yeah,” Jake sighed, rubbing his eyes and reaching for his shirt laying on the desk next to him. “Go ahead and let Kyle know. I’ll be up in a minute.”

Once Tyrese left the small tent, Jake slipped on his shirt and body vest. He then equipped himself with his sidearm, knife and rifle. After wrapping his bandanna around his head and his tactical scarf around his neck, he exited the tent.

'I was dreaming,' Jake thought. 'That was intense.'

Jake met up with Joseph, who was hanging out with the other former recruits at the northern gate, nearby the two helicopters. Each of the recruits, including Joseph, had a new set of dog tags, along with their infantry patch and their name and rank patches. Joseph’s first and last name was on his tags. On One’s tags was the name, Adam Lee. On Three’s tags was Hector Trejo, on Four’s tags was Brittany Lowry, and on Nine’s tags was James Bass.