Side Effects (Book 1): First Days Read online

  Side Effects

  Book One: First Days

  Dusti Dawn Rose

  Copy Right © 2017 Dusti Dawn Rose

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13 978-1545343012

  Cover Art by Janielescueta Designs

  No part of this work may be reproduced in any way without the written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters and events described herein are a work of the authors imagination and are not intended to refer to specific places or to people alive or dead.

  For Sebastian. Have the courage to dream big, and the determination to make those dreams come true.

  Table of Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  sneak peak

  1

  Mitch

  Authors Note

  1

  Emily gazed out the window through a slot in the boards they had nailed up when they arrived last night. The past eighteen hours had been unlike anything she had ever experienced in her life, the end really, of everything there ever was before.

  The amount of concentration it took to maintain a regular heart rate alone was exhausting, not to mention trying to keep her breaths steady. What was out there lurking in the pre-dawn light was absolutely terrifying.

  The morning had started the same as every other morning for the last three months. College was an endless stream of late night study sessions followed by early morning classes. She had been up late the night before cramming for her biology final. The one class she just couldn’t seem to wrap her head around, she had been struggling with it since the beginning of the year. Science in general, was not her forte but biology was a killer.

  She was stumbling through the fourth problem, drumming her pencil quietly as she reread the question. Again. She jumped in her seat at the sudden static that filled the room as the loudspeaker came to life. "Attention all students and faculty members, the whole campus is being placed on lockdown, please report to your dorm rooms or personal residency immediately, wait there for further instructions."

  “Woohoo!!” Emily shouted, while the majority of the class turned to gape at her like the freak she suspected she was. She was just relieved to be excused from the torturous test, no matter the reason. She felt the familiar heat hit her cheeks as she quickly gathered her things and followed the masses out into the courtyard.

  The walk from class, to the dorms was uneventful, she tried not to glance up at the worried expressions on the faces of her peers walking by. It was very unsettling to not know what the problem was, it could be a shooter for all that she knew, although as soon as she had that thought she dismissed it. If that was the case they would’ve remained where they were.

  She made it into her dorm room with purposeful strides, dropped her backpack onto the bed, pulled the zipper on the front pocket and reached in to find her phone. Nervously running her hand through her long dark waves, she thought about how she needed to assess the situation. Impatiently tapping the google icon she waited until the screen opened and quickly typed in current events. She held her breath waiting to see what the search revealed, each of the photos that filled the screen showed people bleeding, missing limbs. Her green eyes shifted to the headline under a particularly gruesome photo and she felt her pulse quicken “The dead return to take us all!” it read, the photo lending truth to the statement.

  Emily jumped when the door suddenly swung open. Her roommate Anna came rushing in backing up against the door to close it. Her blue eyes were as big as saucers and she had a smear of blood on her face. She stood for a moment just bracing her body against the door as if she expected someone to try and push through it at any moment. Emily gulped as she noticed the way Anna’s body was trembling.

  She hadn’t really spoken to Anna in the three months they had been living together. The girl seemed a bit too much like a live Barbie for Emily’s taste, her long blonde hair always done up just right. Always quick to bat her lashes and give a plastic smile, not to mention the bubbly personality she had. Emily wasn’t a fan of bubbly or sweet and Anna seemed to have an overabundance of both running through her veins. She had to swallow back the little bit of puke that crept into her throat just thinking about it. She would put money on the fact that the girl was here on a cheerleading scholarship if there was such a thing.

  Anna, satisfied that no one was going to push through the door behind her walked quickly to her dresser and started to change. Off came the short skirt and heels as she slipped into a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a well-worn hoodie. Huh, who would have thought the princess actually had normal clothes. She sat down on her bed to finish off the outfit with warm socks and a pair of hiking boots when she finally glanced up at Emily. For a quick moment, Emily almost felt sorry for her, the stricken look on her face made Emily’s belly did a little flop, she knew whatever the girl had to say it wasn’t going to be good. She bit the bullet and asked the question. “So, what happened out there?”

  The sudden sound in the quiet room made Anna jump, her nerves clearly on edge. “Why would you want to know? You’ve barely said five words to me since we met.”

  Wow, Impressive. Emily hadn’t expected to hear the bite that was in Anna’s voice. Maybe Barbie had a backbone after all.

  Taking a deep breath, she looked Anna in the eye “Listen Barbie, don’t take it personally, I don’t really like anyone. But whatever you just went through must have been traumatic so you might as well start talking before the shock kicks in and you can’t.” oh snap! Did she really just call her Barbie out loud? While that was totally normal for her internal dialogue, she was generally better at holding her tongue. She didn’t like to be the cause of unkindness.

  She reached for the tissue box on her night stand and grabbed a kleenex, when she went to wipe the blood smear off Anna’s face the girl jumped, and Emily could see the tears starting to pool in her eyes. “Mr. Baird just ate Seth’s face off. One minute we were walking back to the dorms, and the next he was gone! Then when I walk in here you’re what? Taking selfies? I hate to break it to you Emily, but the world as we know it is being ripped out from under us by vicious jaws and angry teeth! We’re going to need a plan if there’s any hope of making it through this.” she finished in a voice so broken Emily had to take a step back.

  Anna was right and she knew it, this wasn’t the time to be researching the problem. This was the time for action. She had been preparing for this or something like it since she was six, when her dad had come home from his final tour in whichever country doing who knows what. That was the thing about Navy Seals, they could never say anything about well, anything. It was all just part of the code.

  Her dad Mitch was what some people would call a doomsday prepper. Although if they called him that he better not be close enough to hear it. He hated the term. She had always thought of him as more of a survivalist, if something was going down then he and his family were going to make it through it. He had been trained to withstand just about anything and

  he had passed that training on to both Emily and her little brother Micah after circumstance had brought him home. Emily picked up her phone and sent a quick text to Drew, her best and oldest friend “Meet me at the Jeep in five, heading to the cabin.”
Her Jeep, a vintage 73’ Wagoneer had been painstakingly restored to near mint condition by her dad. He had finished the project just before her sixteenth birthday. Sometimes she thought there was nothing the man couldn’t do.

  Thinking of him, she tried his cell. Listening to the rings she watched as Anna grabbed a backpack and started packing the essentials needed to sustain herself for a few days in the wild. When she started putting books into the bag Emily knew she would need to say something.

  Her dad picked up on the third ring " Hey Em, glad you called.”

  “Dad, things are getting pretty crazy.”

  “You know the drill, you’ve got this, just head to the cabin, I'm picking up Micah now, we’ll meet you there. Everything you need is in the pack, stay smart and be careful.”

  “Thanks Dad, Love you.”

  “I love you too kid.”

  Emily ended the call before glancing over at Anna, “No need for a plan, I already have one, and if you’d like to come with me I can try to keep you alive, really that's going to depend on you though.” she said walking over to where Anna was packing her bag, she reached inside and started pulling out the books.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” Anna cried smacking her hand away.

  “These aren’t going to keep you alive, it’s just wasted space. You have to be smarter than this if you want to make it. Think about the food that you could fit in there, I mean really Anna, books?”

  Anna looked down for a moment at the books in her hand. “Ugly Love and Mud Vein are going in the bag Emily! You know nothing about me! If you did you’d know that if I had to choose between words or food, then I would rather starve. Things like this may not be essential to you, but I know what’s important to MY survival.” she finished in a huff shoving the books down into her bag.

  Emily just shook her head as she reached underneath her bed and pulled out her bug out bag, if Anna wanted to deal with the extra weight that was her problem, she had wasted enough time on it already. She placed the bag on the bed and went over to the closet where she grabbed her hiking boots and her warmest ski jacket, the weather was still pretty mild here in Tacoma, but she knew White Pass was getting snow already, the trip to the cabin would likely prove to be difficult. “Make sure you wear a warmer coat, and bring gloves and a hat if you have them.” She told Anna.

  When she was confident that she had what she needed she pulled the rope ladder out of the bottom of her closet and attached it to the hooks her dad had installed under the window when she had moved in. Unzipping the hidden pocket at the back of her pack she reached in and pulled out two large hunting knives.

  She would have liked to have kept them both for herself, but she knew that Anna wouldn't stand a chance unarmed. She turned to Anna “Listen up, I don't have a lot of time to prepare you for this, so we will stick to the basics; I want you to either aim for the eyes or up under the chin, you’ll have less resistance there when you pull the knife back out.” Anna reached out for the knife giving a small nod. “Whatever you do, don't drop my knife, you'll be dead out there without it.”

  Taking a deep breath, she unlatched the lock and gave the window a firm push upward before dropping the rope ladder out. Their room was on the backside, so they would land in grass. The window opening allowed the screams of terror to seep inside. Emily rubbed at the goose bumps that were covering her arms as a shiver ran up her spine. This thing was spreading fast.

  “Are you ready for this? You haven’t seen what’s out there.” Anna asked the shaking in her hands becoming more intense.

  “As ready as I'll ever be.” Emily replied with a faint smile.

  She held the knife in one hand and used the other to make her way down the ladder. She had seen enough zombie shows to know, you never put your weapon down, even for a moment. She landed on the ground with a soft thud, just as Anna placed a shaky foot on the ladder they heard a loud screeching sound around the front of the building.

  Anna dropped down beside Emily. “Stand behind me, if we’re back to back, nothing can sneak up on us.” Emily cautioned. Anna gave a silent nod before stepping behind her. The Jeep was only about a block away from where they were. They slowly crept around the side and could see the source of the screeching.

  Mr. Baird was still at large, and he had Jennifer from Emily's Biology class trapped behind a row of large garbage cans. Emily made a split-second decision to help the girl out. She ran towards the old man whose body looked as though he had been hit by a car, and buried her knife in his left eye. With a little effort, she pulled it back out and he fell lifeless to the ground.

  The screeching didn't stop, Anna turned to Jennifer with a quiet hiss “You need to stop, your drawing them in.” Jennifer's screeching just got louder, “He bit me!” She squealed.

  Anna raised her knife right up under Jennifer's chin, thrusting it up into the flesh before yanking it back out, the quiet was instant as the girl landed with a thud on top of their English 101 professor. Anna let out a nervous giggle, as she glanced at Emily, “What, she was dead already and you know it. You can thank me later.”

  They had nearly made it to the edge of the parking lot when Seth, Anna's boyfriend came stumbling at them from behind a building, he was missing half of his face, just as Anna had described, as well as most of one arm, although it didn’t seem to be slowing him down at all.

  Emily raced over and put him to rest with one quick movement. “I'd say we're even now.” She said to Anna who had frozen in place a few yards back.

  “Anna, you have every right to fall apart but you have to stay with me until we make it to the Jeep.” Emily said. Turning to where she was parked, she could see that her Jeep was moving toward them.

  Good, Drew must have made it and used the hide-a-key. He pulled up and reached across to open the passenger door for them. Looking at Emily with a cocky grin he said “Hey Em, I believe you owe me twenty bucks.”

  2

  Emily took a deep breath as she got herself situated in the Jeep. She certainly wasn't used to riding in the passenger seat, but there was no one she trusted more completely than Drew. They had been best friends since the beginning of time, and their moms had been best friends before that.

  One terrible night when they were both six her mom and his parents had been involved in a head-on collision with a drunk driver and none of them had survived. The months after had been incredibly difficult for all of them, the Navy had to track down her dad and get him clearance to come home since he was the only living relative she and her brother had left.

  During that time, Drew’s grandma moved in to his parents’ house and they all stayed there together. Nana Kate was what she insisted they call her, and she was the sweetest woman Emily had ever known. In that month, the bond that formed between Emily and Drew had become unbreakable.

  “What do you mean I owe you 20 bucks?” Emily asked, her eyes taking him in. His favorite Seahawks cap pulled down tight on his head, stray dark blond curls sneaking out from under it.

  “You were dead set on it being a tsunami that took us out, and I ever so logically guessed zombies, look around Em, I don't see any big waves, do you?” she just shook her head at him. Only Drew could joke around at a time like this.

  He leaned over and quietly asked “So, what's with our girl in the back seat? Because if we’re being totally honest here, the whole vacant stare thing she has going for her is totally creeping me out.”

  “Oh.” For a moment, Emily, had completely forgotten that Anna was even with them, that's the way it was for her when she was with Drew, the rest of the world didn't exist. “She just lost her boyfriend. Twice really and I think the shock of it all has kicked in. I'm sure she’ll snap out of it soon though. Honestly Drew, the girl has turned out to be a bit of a badass, I'm kind of impressed, if you can believe it.”

  They had just made it out of the parking lot, the roads still looked pretty clear, but Emily knew that it wouldn’t take long for that to change, one bad accident and a whole road
could be blocked off. “We’ll have to avoid the freeways, and any major roads, I think we should be prepared for this three-hour trip to take a few days at least. Hopefully the Jeep will be able to make it through any obstacles we come across.”

  Drew continued toward South Hill where things looked remarkably unchanged except for the occasional scream that seemed so completely out of place on this beautiful sunny fall day. “So, did you get the chance to talk to Nana Kate?”

  Drew let out a big sigh, “Nope, she’s terrible about charging her phone, it went straight to voicemail. You know your dad though, leave no man behind, or in this case little old lady. I’m sure she’s with them, and fine.”

  Emily reached over and squeezed Drew's hand, “I bet you're right. So, since you were so certain that the apocalypse would be zombie related, what kind of supplies did you bring on this little adventure?” she was really hoping that he had something that could be used as a weapon. After giving Anna one of her knives she was feeling a little unprepared.

  “Well, I was able to get my bug out bag, and you know your dad packed that himself. Plus, I had my crossbow for the archery tournament that was supposed to be tomorrow. I threw together a few changes of clothes before I came down to the Jeep.”

  “Nice, I knew I could count on you friend.” Emily replied.

  “Oh please, you two make me sick.” Anna said from the back seat.

  “Welcome back to the land of the living Anna, I wasn’t sure if you’d ever be rejoining us.” Emily countered.

  “I need you to tell me what this little plan of yours is. I don’t even know where we’re going, who we’ll be meeting when we get there, I don’t even know if anyone that I love is still alive, I mean what happened back there? One minute Seth and I were just walking back from the Language Arts building, we had just spoken with Mr. Baird as he was coming out, he seemed almost frantic to get out of there. He said we needed to take this seriously and get inside as quickly as possible and then Justin Adams, you know the kid with the blue hair and terrible taste in clothes? Well he came out of nowhere in this huge truck just as Mr. Baird was crossing and well you saw what happened to him, Seth and I ran over to see if we could help, and he just grabbed him and bit him. Seth screamed at me to run, and I just ran! I ran back to the dorms, and when I made it in you were just sitting there acting as if it was just an ordinary day and as if nothing had happened and the world wasn’t going crazy! What is the matter with you? How can you be laughing and joking around with each other and just pretending that nothing is wrong! You're disgusting!”