Zf-1

By J. J. Wilder

Humanity was threatened to near extinction when a new viral outbreak occurred. The only ones who survived did so by working together and fighting back for the future of mankind.

These are selected tales of the endurance of the human spirit against the infection ravaging the world. Several interlocking pieces of a wider puzzle. A man on a mission to find other survivors as well as keeping himself alive; A group of preppers taking in others in a make-shift shelter in an abandoned fallout shelter; One man searching for a military or government plan to somehow stop or reverse the spread of the infection; and a group of medical professionals trying to figure it all out.

Was this just a test of nature to bring us to the next plateau of humanity? Or will it happen again?

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. J. Wilder
• Release date: Dec 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463896952

J. J. Wilder

J. J. Wilder was born and raised in Wisconsin and still currently lives there. He makes his living doing content editing for a further education college and writes his heart out at night. Much like many other authors, he takes whatever time there is spare in the day to write. While he has not won any major awards or certificates as of yet, he continues looking forward to the future when such a time comes. He started writing at a young age, though he didn't know it at the time, just thinking it was an over active imagination. When he read 'Jurassic Park', he set out to write the sequel and still hangs on to those first six pages of single-spaced writing done on an old typewriter. In high school and college his passion became Journalism. His senior year of High School, he was presented with an award in Journalism from his local FFA Chapter, which he had been a member of since 7th grade. In college he spent the first semester of his first year writing on the newspaper staff, and soon was training with the student editor. His second year of college, J. J. Wilder became the student editor of the paper. Once graduated, he went on to focus on his fiction writing and has since published two novels, the first being 'Freaks, Geeks and Scary Things' a collection of his short stories from the last decade. Second was 'Life Coin', a fully realized novel inspired by a short story he had written.

Book preview

ZF-1

By:

J.J. Wilder

ZF-1

Jeremy Wilder

Copyright © 2016 Jeremy J. Wilder

Cover Designed by Gregory R. Lynch

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. The people, events, circumstances, and institutions depicted are fictitious and the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance of any character to any actual person, whether living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Other books by J.J. Wilder:

Life Coin

Dark Awakening: Evil Council: Book One

Freaks, Geeks, and Scary Things Vol. 1

Table of Contents

Technical Information

Preparation

Fair of the Dead

Fair of the Dead: Earl and Lana

The Festival

The Mall

Promotion

Wandering Ghost

Shortage

Fight for Humanity

The Infection Question

About the Author

Technical Information

The room was silent and that was just how he liked it. The best times to be able to sit and not worry about having to answer a question or get saddled with another project that would take forever. This is what Stu loved about the server farm.

He came here whenever he needed a break from the rest of the office. All he needed to do was grab his laptop, IPod, and security badge. With one quick stride and a swipe of the badge, he was in his fortress of solitude.

The room was dimly lit and hummed with life from the servers that were the backbone of the company. Stu sat on the floor in the middle of the wall opposite the door. At this distance he couldn’t hear a thing from the outside world. He just sat and listened to his music while keeping up with whatever email and projects needed him the most.

It was bliss.

He closed his eyes and imagined the beach. He wasn’t much of a beach goer or a surfer or any other stereotype you usually saw at the beach. The only reason he went was to listen to the waves lap up onto the sand and to stare out over the seemingly endless ocean to the horizon. One day he knew he would be able to get out and explore the world, as soon as he was able to get away from the mundane office life, that is.

A light crept over his eyelids, breaking his concentration and forcing him to open them again. The door had opened and the outside fluorescent lighting was shining in for a brief moment while someone entered the room.

The one downside of taking refuge in a room still within your office space, there were others who had access as well.

Stu watched as the shape moved through the room until he was able to focus on who exactly it was.

Hey, Jorge. Stu spoke from his position in the darkness.

Jorge jumped back, nearly dropping his tablet and straightened his glasses. Jesus, don’t do that. Why the hell are you always hiding in the dark? You know you’re not Batman, right?

Stu chuckled, Even if I was, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Oh for the love of… what are you doing in here anyway?

Taking a break. Needed to get away from the usual suspects out there. Stu said as he motioned to the door.

Yeah, I hear you. Jorge checked a couple things on his tablet while looking over a shelf of servers.

You dare come in my sanctuary and do work?

Hey, some of us have to actually put in the time to get the money. We’re not all lucky enough to actually be on the payroll.

Truer words have never been spoken. How are things out there, Jorge?

So far today? Same shit, different fire.

Stu sighed. As much as he wanted to get out of the server room to help, he just couldn’t. There were days where he felt like the world was collapsing and only he saw it coming.

You know, Stu, I swear the world is going nuts. Jorge said as he locked his tablet and slung it under his arm. You hear about all this shit coming out recently?

What now? Another celebrity breakup? Or let me guess, another politician going against what they said three weeks ago?

Nah, man. Last I heard, some old school diseases are supposed to be coming back into the air from melting glaciers. Top that off with the crazies taking some drugs or something that make them psychotic and start ripping other people or themselves apart. I heard about this one guy, went so nutso he literally ran down a parking lot and jumped through the back window of a parked SUV. Climbed right out like nothing.

Jesus, Jorge, what are you watching? The conspiracy network?

Shouldn’t they all be called that?

True.

Jorge sighed and leaned up against the wall. The real sad part is what is going on with that new virus down south in the tropics. You hear about that one?

No.

Damn thing is infecting pregnant women and causing birth defects. Even staying in the blood stream for months, supposedly years. Men are getting it as well so they pass it along when they, ya know.

Stu shook his head, End times, man. This world is coming apart.

Jorge crossed himself quickly, You don’t gotta tell me. Anyway, I’m out, need to run a few more numbers for the dumbasses. He pushed off the wall and waved a short goodbye to Stu.

Take it easy, man. I’ll see you later.

Stu watched as Jorge left the room and put his eyes back on his computer. It really did feel like the end times. People were starting to lose any sense they had in just about every aspect. The number crunching at work, the near paranoia of the different people making their way into the countries, even the state of the political affairs were more upsetting than they had ever been.

He queued up his RSS feed for national news on the laptop as he plugged his earbuds back in to zone out again. As he closed his eyes, the comforting tones of the Celtic group slowly entranced his mind. It wasn’t planned, but a few seconds later, Stu was asleep.

A loud crash outside the server room and the buildings fire alarm awoke him. He quickly ripped out the earbuds and heard only the siren. The red emergency light was on and flashing towards the doorway.

What the hell is going on? Stu spoke aloud as he got up and made his way to the door.

There was no smoke and he didn’t feel heat on the door when he tested it. He tried to open it and it wouldn’t budge. Something was blocking it. He shoved harder with his shoulder but the extra weight of the server room door being a fire door didn’t help matters.

He quickly moved around the room trying to find another way out or some kind of notification of what was going on when saw a blinking light on his computer. He tapped the keyboard to wake up the laptop and sat down in front of it.

Half the page was filled with RSS feed updates. Stu started to click through them and as he did, his stomach dropped. There may be a bigger problem than just him not being able to get out of the room.

Psychotic Man Fights Through 30 Police After Being Cornered – Bites 5 In Rampage

5 Accidents On Freeway Cause Major Traffic Jam

Local Power Grids Experiencing Random Outages

Two Men Shot After Attacking Family In Park – Father Had Throat Slashed Open By Hand

CDC Announces Possible Outbreak of New Virus – Main Sign of Infection Is Hallucinations

Stu didn’t know what was going on out there since earlier that day but somehow things had gotten much worse since he had fallen asleep.

The one thing he knew he had to do was get out of the server room before something worse happened and there was no one left to find him.

He looked around for something to help with the door and when he found nothing, he tried again to shove the door open. A couple pushes and the door opened about an inch before slamming closed. He leaned back on the door and sighed as he