Zwarm Book 3: Within: Book 3

By Andrew Eppeldauer

The solution to restore Earth seems within their grasp. New breakthroughs present themselves, and they begin to learn how to fight back. Jimmy makes new friends in the least likely places, and with their help, he orchestrates a new and final effort. Everyone feels the end, whatever that may be. It is near, and they ready themselves the best way they can in the circumstances they find themselves in. The imagery and the acute representation of the characters and their survival is the real strength of this final chapter of the Zwarm trilogy.

Captain K. Hutchison, genuine apocalypse aficionado:
The Zwarm trilogy has been a must-read for me whenever I need a good book to tickle my imagination and to get me thinking about what may come for us all.
Many of us who spend time thinking about the real possibility of societal breakdown are always on the lookout for insightful answers to the big questions: What will happen? How will it start? What skills can I draw on to get me through when others cannot?

Eppeldauers story has the answers! This insightful, inventive, and introspective trilogy on the struggle against the odds of survival is absolutely mind-blowing. It is a truly new and interesting take on postapocalyptic dynamics!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984534378

Andrew Eppeldauer

Andrew lives in Maryland with his wife, daughter, and two dogs. This is his second published novel in the Zwarm trilogy. With his friends and family, he shares the love of using his imagination to come up with ideas regarding what may happen to us all after civilization ceases to exist. Andrew works full-time and started writing most evenings as a way to relax and better himself.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Andrew Eppeldauer.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2018906918

ISBN:                  Hardcover                        978-1-9845-3439-2

                            Softcover                          978-1-9845-3438-5

                            eBook                               978-1-9845-3437-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 06/20/2018

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There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.

Niccolò Machiavelli

I would like to acknowledge the following individuals for helping me through this sometimes painful, but always rewarding process:

Theadora Eppeldauer

Douglas Graham - editor in chief

Douglas McComb - front cover design for all three books

J IMMY’S DREAM IS

beyond strange. He is frantically searching through a drawer full of dildos and cigarettes. None of it makes sense and when he finally opens his eyes he is relieved.

Being a prisoner has been okay. He slept and ate copious amounts of the strange gelatinized food that periodically materializes on the smooth metal floor of his cell.

He dips his finger into the green creamy substance and slowly licks it off enjoying its alien texture and taste. He finds small amounts of the stuff is enough to fill him up and feels great after.

During what he believes to be the third day of his imprisonment he begins to exercise. On his first try he easily cranks out 200 pushups without stopping and he thinks he has put on 10 pounds of muscle when he checks his reflection in the smooth metal image of the cell wall.

Whatever I’m eating must be like a superfood. After a few bites I’m not hungry anymore and the pushups didn’t even wind me in the slightest. How can something green taste like a combination of filet mignon, avocados and ice cream. My favorites all in one. That must be on purpose so I eat it…

He decides to do another set of pushups and this time he does two for every one second and in 100 seconds he has done another 200 pushups.

Barely out of breath Jimmy rolls over onto his back and stares at the metal ceiling and misses his friends, especially Desirae. He wonders what they are up to and if Akhenaton or whomever has kept his promise and has left them alone. He knows Desirae is sharp enough to know when to bail and he’ll know where to find her when the time comes.

Suddenly he has the urge to use the bathroom and almost immediately a metal toilet materializes out of the floor and he is impressed. Thinking about what he wants and then have it appear is a very nice luxury Jimmy can get used to. After he urinates he does another 300 pushups when finally his muscles begin to burn forcing him to slow down. Next he does 500 burpees and he is covered in sweat and he feels great.

Jimmy eats another handful of the green mush and he realizes his body stinks like four day old sweat and right away a shower head appears with the perfect temperature water flowing out at the exact right pressure.

As he showers he sings one of the only songs he knows how to - Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon - and he feels happy. No towel appears although he imagined one and so he drip dries and he wonders why he is so happy. He imagines a big soft towel, still nothing, and he figures only metal objects can be made from a metal cell. Then it occurs to him how food will materialize and it’s not metal, but he is interrupted because gentle warm air begins to blow across his cell drying his body and his surroundings.

Suddenly, he is sleepy again and wonders how long he has been awake. Feels like only minutes. His internal clock is off and once again he tries to calculate the amount of time in lock up so far. On his first attempt he arrives at the nice round number of 90 hours and on his second attempt he arrives at less than 65 hours. Such varying results bewilder him and he is sure he is asleep because there are suddenly three Desirae replicas in front of him and they are slowly coming over to him in his corner of the cell.

The three women are perfect metal replicas and they circle around a highly excited Jimmy who is dumbfounded and unsure. They come closer and closer and Jimmy lets them and they have their way with him. He loves it but inexplicably afterwards he can’t recall much of what actually happened. Later, when is awake his arms are sore and as he massages the areas he notices tiny specks of blood and a few small bruises around the basilic veins on his upper arm.

Strange. I don’t remember. Did they do stuff to me while I was asleep? Were the metal Desirae replicas up to something? How come their metal bodies felt so wonderfully warm?

Suddenly he is very sad. He takes time to ponder why he feels this way and he realizes he is missing something. There is a hole in the middle of his chest, the feeling comes on so powerfully he cries. He decides to think about this and files through his options of what he may be missing - not my friends - not my woman - not the sun or the night moon nor the fresh air caressing my skin. He has the time and he spends it pondering each emotion but the truth eludes him.

Then suddenly it hits him and he cannot quite believe it. He is ashamed at first but just the act of thinking about it lessens the breadth of the hole in his chest.

Leadership. The absence of being chief deputy! That’s the cause of the hole!

A desire builds within him, the need to be free, to return to his army to take charge. The feeling intensifies to the point where he has to get up and get moving. He wants to find a way out and he paces around the cell touching the walls, feeling for anything but after three passes around the perimeter he gives up.

How can every surface be smooth metal? Where does oxygen enter the room? Think Jimmy! Think! Their technology is superior but there are simple rules of physics that cannot be discounted. Or can’t they be? Did I not tele-transport up here which is impossible within our laws of physics?

Feeling confused Jimmy nevertheless continues his search. He moves his hands slowly across the wall looking for anything that may indicate an exit. He is thinking he may find an insect or a dustball or a slight breeze and along those human lines he conducts his examination.

The first scouring around the entire parameter is at eye level. After that he goes about 1 foot lower until on the sixth go around he is by the 90 degree angle where the floor meets the wall. Here his fingers finally feel an undulation - slight sinusoids. He rests his fingers on the area and slowly runs his index back and forth. He closes his eyes to concentrate and that is when he realizes he has been going at it the wrong way.

I am thinking like a human in an non-human environment. This thing is an alien macrocosm just like the metal boxes Thea’s MPs found while hunting. The walls react to my touch. Especially here by this slight imperfection. I’ll have to experiment and hopefully not alert anyone or any thing.

Jimmy presses his right hand palm on the slight uneven area by the base of the wall and wonders if it’s a glitch or purposeful design. Either way, he senses strong impulses through this area. As a test he removes his hand and presses it against the wall a few feet higher and feels nothing at all. He is elated. Progress!

Before he continues his tests he lays back on the floor and closes his eyes and tries to figure out the amount of time he has spent up here and each time he arrives at radically different numbers confusing himself once again. He quits the activity and tries to reign in his anxiety by picturing his army and deputies. He knows the longer he is gone the higher the possibility they will be eliminated, dispersed or absorbed.

He wills himself to relax and he finds the slight sine curve once again. He presses as much of his hand as he can onto it and the visions begin to flow immediately. For him they are terrible and he hates every second but he persists. He wishes Davey was here because the boy could easily handle this and right away the boy’s image floats across his mind’s eye and he feels slightly better.

Oh! So maybe I can control what I see!

Progress!

Jimmy eases the tension in his hand and he relaxes. He settles in for a long learning process.

He lets the images parade on and when he can’t take anymore he thinks of one of his friends and as the friendly face flashes he feels better. He cycles in this manner for as long as he can tolerate it and when Jimmy takes his first break he realizes he is covered in sweat. He sits up and decides to ignore the sweat and lays back down onto the smooth metal surface. Surprisingly the floor is dry and he feels better and his body relaxes. As he presses his hand back onto the irregular surface, the visions in his mind’s eye are less intense.

Okay. That’s one more thing. Being wet helps.

As he gets to work his sweat builds up.

With the sweat the visions cycle faster and he has a hard time zeroing in on any one clearly and he begins to work on this. He tries to pick one image out and concentrate on it but that doesn’t do anything. He squeezes his eyes tightly shut, he hums a tune, he presses his head onto the floor hard. He zones out, he zones in, he tries to interject his own images and so on but to no avail.

Frustration mounts but Jimmy keeps his hand on the undulation. Time passes and the flow of unpleasant images cycle on uninterrupted. After a while his mind relaxes and he is able to have other thoughts besides the images from the undulation. His first independent thought while his hand is connected is how the unceasing negative images may be like being ill with a major depressive episode or with some type of schizo paranoid bipolar something or other. He read somewhere that a bipolar person may have up to 400 negative thoughts per minute while a healthy person may only have 40 to 60 positive and negative thoughts.

After he is finished with this coherent thought he is pleased. Jimmy knows this is somehow a breakthrough and may end up helping him down the line.

Still he keeps his hand pressed firmly on the uneven part.

Still the horrid images keep coming.

He persists.

After a while he is blessed with a second independent thought. If the images turn positive would he then be able to control the metal of his cell and possibly items outside of his cell?

After this thought once again right back into the flow of negative images and he works hard to slow them but it is too difficult and he is becoming somewhat morose.

But he persists. He finds himself pressing his hand harder into the metal when he is upset so as his third independent thought he thinks quickly about easing his hand away and he does so carefully until he is barely touching the metal surface.

Another breakthrough!

As his hand eases back the images slow down and he finds he can actually think while they cycle. So naturally he decides to think about things that he likes as a human being. He thinks of mountains, water, fishing, Earl, swimming, the beach, funnel cakes with lots and lots of powdered sugar, girls’ smooth legs, hunting rifles, summer, and so on.

Eventually he feels in control of his thoughts and he attempts to control the images and he succeeds by and large.

Jimmy makes an effort to remember what he must do next time: wet body, a soft touch, allow for the negative to phase into the positive.

He wonders, on the periphery of his subconscious, of what his first real action should be.

Should I try to figure out where I am or how long I have been here or should I make a door or a weapon or what?

This is complicated brainwork to keep on the margins of his mind but he thinks he is doing a decent job of it. Between an image of Desirae rear end and a massive funnel cake he makes up his mind. He is going to figure out where he is.

He pulls his palm and fingers away from the metal surface until he can barely feel it. He knows this is all right because he can feel the tiniest electronic connections between his skin and the floor and he recognizes this as the most optimal for him to begin his experimentations.

He imagines his cell and its walls and he pulls his mind through it like he is turning a pair of socks inside out and he is ready to see past the walls. He is ready.

He is past the wall!

He sees nothing!

Wait! I know I just got past the walls! Why is there nothing? What the fuck? What am I doing wrong?

Jimmy knows he has made it outside and he wonders why there is only darkness in his inner seeing. He focuses harder careful not to upset any of the established patterns and still there is nothing. He continues to look and look and he has an epiphany. He travels in darkness away from his metal cell and turns to look back towards it and his eyes pop out of his head and he screams.

________________________

Desirae is the de facto chief deputy. At first reluctantly, but after her fiftieth decision in the matter of hours after Jimmy was taken she gives in and rolls with it. It’s not that Stuart or any of the other deputies didn’t have the wherewithal to step into Jimmy’s shoes. That was not case at all. Brock and Stuart were ready to go. The decision was made by the people. They stood around aimlessly encircled by the massive zwarm and ignored Stuart and the rest of the deputies until she said something.

She recalls now as she is resting.

She said,

Move down the line see if the zwarm moves out the way.

Immediately the survivors reacted and picked up the M60s and other small arms, almost all spent, and pushed back towards the cliffs by the lake. She stood there, amazed, and watched the zwarm allow a narrow passage as Jimmy’s army left the field of battle.

Sitting on the rocks, Evan by her side as usual, she wonders why they listened to her and not the others. She arrives at a concept she learned in history class: Divine Right.

Evan hasn’t made a sound, not a peep, since Jimmy dematerialized into space and he does not let Desirae out of his sight. She allows the tiny boy to shadow her. She is comforted by his presence somehow. They are both missing the man they love.

Carefully she recalls the concept best she can remember. There is no rush. They are in wait mode. The boulders hiding her lake are surrounded by the largest zwarm they have ever seen. Maybe 25,000 strong. Maybe more. No way to tell.

The bloodheads in the zwarm are not flocking. They are at peace and are milling around aimlessly bumping into each other. Only the pricker bushes and areas of thick vegetation are spared their jittery circles. She listens to them grind their jaws and drag their stubs around on the rocky ground. They are by now all used to the horrid sounds they make. They never sleep or rest. She spends time thinking about how to eliminate every last one around her lake, but hasn’t had any success coming up with anything. She has discussed it with Stuart, but he is at a loss too.

She talks to herself as usual to sort things out and Evan listens. His small angelic face lights up every-time she talks to herself.

Ok, so divine right is the concept. Jimmy somehow had the right to lead, or to rule, from God or in this case from a supernatural power beyond their understanding. And as his de facto wife carrying his child the power was transferred to me when he was taken prisoner by Akhenaton, the agent of the dark side or of the Devil.

She smiles. She is happy with her conclusion and she holds up her right hand and immediately four of Theadora’s MPs step into her space jumping to attention, reporting for duty.

Desirae orders,

Find Stuart.

The lead Military Police, a fierce giant of a woman, salutes crisply and is off.

The other three wait rigidly in case she has more but Desirae dismisses the trio with another small motion of her all powerful hand.

She has noticed how everyone has grown sterner and more military like but before she can delve deeper in this Stuart is sitting next to her.

He says,

I heard you wanted to see me. Are you looking for me?

Yeah! How’s your morning?

My morning was busy. Running around being busy. Making sure the lake stays secret. The lake needs to stay a secret.

She noticed how in the last three days since Jimmy’s been away Stuart has started repeating his statements or restating them as if he is afraid that somehow his meaning would be lost.

Are we good? Has anyone found the way in?

We are solid. We are good.

Glad to hear that Stuart. Do you have any new hypothesis on how to get rid of this massive zwarm?

Stuart looks down from their perch with a disgusted look on his face. He nods to himself and she sees this as a good sign. She waits on him patiently and after a while she is rewarded.

I have two plans. They are simple. Two uncomplicated plans.

Ahumm…I’m listening.

I have been building a noise machine. It’s simple really. I found some large speakers and I believe they were part of an 8000W system and so would require a 10kW generator off the ground so the GFCI protection won’t trip over and over.

Aha…

Yeah. And we will play loud music or other sounds through the speakers and the zwarm will flock towards it leaving us alone.

Oh, I see. Sounds good. How will you get the sound system far away enough? You think you can move it through them? They are packed in like sardines around the boulders.

Exactly! That’s the second part of the plan! The second part is good too. The second part!

All right!

I’m willing to bet we can just walk through them now. They’ve been deactivated.

You willing to bet your life on it Stuart?

Yes! The boy declares without hesitation.

All right, but I’m not a fan.

It’ll be all right. It’ll be all good. You’ll see. And as we pass through we’ll kill as many as we can.

Wait. What for?

So as to have less coming for us when they get reactivated.

She has to stop and think about everything. Her friend, per usual, has introduced a bunch of new concepts.

She rubs her forehead and asks,

Look. I hear you on the deactivation and all. So let’s say your plan works and they’ll flock towards your noise machine. Then what?

What do you mean? How do you mean?

What?

What do you mean when you said - then what?

Oh yeah. When the flock is gone and we are here then what do we do? Just sit and wait for Jimmy?

Are you serious? Are you being for real?

She stands up and paces back and forth as she is thinking very hard to see what she missed but she can’t think of anything.

Look Stuart. You have to break it down for me. I don’t know what we’ll do when they walk off. I can’t think of anything…

Now Stuart is the one to wait and he stands up too. He taps above his right eyebrow and he says,

Then we order the army to disperse and we jet.

What?!!

We take off. We gotta get out of here!

Are you out of your fucking mind Stuart?! What about Jimmy?!

Stuart taps faster. He is not used to curse words, especially not from her. Still he perseveres,

Look. I know how it sounds, but it’s logical. When they reactivate they will either kill us or we’ll be absorbed somehow. They aren’t gonna keep a hostile army around…

She searches the pocket of her army issue overalls and she digs out a stale crumbly Oreo cookie and eats it. She has been extremely hungry lately and she is craving all kinds of unusual items like Oreos, pickles, deviled eggs and sardines. For the most part her army has been able to provide everything she asks for except pickles. She often wonders about the PickleMan and if they will ever see him again and if maybe he has collected every last jar of pickles in West Virginia which would explain why her soldiers can’t find any even in their still significant supply depot they moved up into the boulders. Maybe he was in the caves after all and somehow infiltrated the Sponge Man’s supply of pickles.

Stuart prompts her out of her digression,

Yeah. So that’s what we’ll have to do. No choice. That’s what we must do.

Her body jerks and she swallows the Oreo.

She says,

You’re right. It’s so obvious. Makes me wonder why I didn’t see it.

Yeah…

Okay. So you make noise and when they leave we disperse the army. Where do you and I go? Who do we take with us?

Well. I have been thinking about that too. I’ve arrived at how the three of us - Davey, you, me - stay together and everybody else can go where they wish.

Stuart is not sure she heard him. Her hand is back in her pocket and she pulls out a hard boiled egg. She takes a massive bite and half of the egg disappears. He waits a while and then repeats,

You, Davey and I. We stay together. The rest of the army can go where they think is best.

Aha.

Okay. So back to one other thing. I need your help. You have to remember something. I do have a question about something Jimmy said but never had the chance to finish. He was telling us when we were sitting around in a circle that night trying to decide what to do with Mr. Lowald, or it may have been a different night. I’m not sure when he said it but he had a eureka moment and he said something about Bob’s place. Do you know who this Bob is?

What about Bob?

Yeah. Bob! Have you heard Jimmy speak of a Bob?

Bob?

Yeah. Someone called Bob and his house. Jimmy said that’s where everything is. At Bob’s is everything.

Desirae plops the second half of the egg in her mouth and she chews slowly. She is scaring Stuart. He is unsure so he repeats himself,

I’m hoping you know who Bob is because we could then head that way and —

Was.

Huh? What’s that?

Bob is no more. He was. He was chopped up with a samurai sword.

Oh I see. Yes, I understand. Great! Errr, I mean I’m sorry to hear about his passing, but if you know who he was… that’s great. I’m grateful you know of him. I’m happy you recognize the name. Do you by any —

Do I know where he lived?

Yes!!!

Yes I do.

Okay! Great! This is incredible. We will go there and spend the winter there.

What about Jimmy?

Oh. Oh!

You didn’t get that far?

Yes and no. I’m sorry. But that should be an easy fix assuming he will tele-transport back to this location.

How so?

We leave a note where only he knows how to get to besides us three.

Together they say,

At the lake!

Stuart has enough sense to wait and let her digest everything but he is smiling. He realizes that earlier she wasn’t out of it - she was more like in a trance or a zone where she needed every ounce of brain power to deal with the information.

Processing everything they sit in silence surrounded by Evan and the four MPs.

Later, the deputies return from their daily duties and they eat a hardy meal together and there is friendly talk and some subdued laughter.

Suddenly, down below the jaw grinding, body rubbing and feet pulling cease and there is complete silence. Every last bloodhead in the massive zwarm has stopped all movement. The humans up above peek down and watch with interest.

Davey declares,

Aiiiight. Someone is resetting ’em.

As usual the boy’s perspective makes the most sense.

How long will this go on for? Brock wonders aloud.

Pretty much everyone is wondering the same so silence is all he gets as an aswer.

Desirae sees a leadership opportunity and she says,

Stuart. This may be the best time to set up your noise machine and whatever else you had in mind.

Without a word Stuart is up and Davey is right behind him and behind him are his scouts.

What are they up to? Deputy Thea asks.

He plans to draw away the zwarm to give us some space to operate. Desirae says and waits for what she knows will come back at her especially from someone as sharp as Thea. She doesn’t have to wait long.

Why do we need space to operate? I thought we’re in waiting mode until Jimmy gets back.

_________________________

Mr. Lowald feels right. He has burrowed into the epicenter