deadheads by jade swiler (superbooks4u TXT) 📕

“My name is LT. Harris, sorry but we have to make sure. This virus is a nasty business.” Seth shook his hand and we were invited in to the camp.

“what about the food? Oh and I want to keep my sword with me.” I asked the LT.

He turned and looked at me.

“you can keep your weapons, in fact I insist on it. As for the food, we’ll send out some grunts to empty the truck. Right now we’ll show you to your camper. food is served in an hour. We have medical staff on hand if you need to be seen.” he stated and turned on his heel and walked towards the gate. We all hurried to catch up with him.

Inside the walls it was beautiful, rows and rows of campers were set up. Fema signs were posted on the trailers. each trailer had a number painted on its side. A young woman Named Helen took over for Harris and escorted us to trailer 1346. “You’ll have to bunk together. There are rules here, if you come in together, you stay together. There is a building over near the food building where clean clothes are kept, you are allowed 5 outfits each. Take care of them. Its all you get for a while.” Helen said quietly as she pointed to a big trailer in front of us.

“what about our clothes in the truck?” I had to ask because my own stuff from my house was in there.

“oh you can keep those as well, I was just letting you know that from the clothes dispensary, you are only allowed 5 outfits.” Helen explained.

We went in. this trailer was big with 2 slide outs in the kitchen and living room. A bunk room in the back had bunk beds and the front bedroom had a large bed. The living room had a pull out couch bed and the kitchen eating area pulled out in to a small bed as well. Since jess and the two kids wanted to stay together, we gave them the large bed. I wanted to sofa bed and Seth took a lower bunk bed in the back room.

There were curtains in the windows of the trailer and I kept staring at the fresh white material.

“what’s wrong jade? “ Sammy asked me while look towards the windows.

I laughed and turned towards him to hug him to my chest. I had grown to love this little guy.

“ nothing bud, just haven’t seen really white curtains in a long time.”

Sam laughed and rolled his eyes like he was saying “girls”.

We got settled in and put our meager belongings in dressers and closets. It would be time to leave for the food building soon. I was amazed that the water worked in the trailer. No hot water but at least it was something to wash in.

But the stove and frig were electric so we could heat water up and wash with that. I smiled and thought I had found heaven.

We went to the building and fell in to line behind all the others and got our trays. It was set up like a lunch line in school. Kitchen help would put a plate on our tray and we would move down the line for other things. There was even cake for desert! Real milk in plastic glasses were served or cold pop of any flavor. I picked a pop while the others had milk. I found out there were cows in camp that were milked twice a day.

This place was amazing.

(3)

It took a couple of days for us to get used to this place but we settled in pretty good. To stay here, you were asked to help out with any jobs that were posted on the main building’s wall. Thee were gardens that needed care, there were soldiers jobs on the wall. Burn duty to burn the bodies of the deadheads. There was clothes duty, making clothes and taking care of the dispensary. Trash duty. Around the camp, there were huge barrels that had to be emptied and the trash burned. I saw at the bottom that there was a job for a helper in a lab. I was a grade a student in science so I signed up for that. Seth signed up for wall duty of course, he was in the army after all and a good shot. Jess wanted to help in the school where Sam and rain were sent during the day.

Helen came by with everyone’s place sheet the next morning except mine.

“umm I signed up yesterday Helen, do you have my sheet?” I asked.

“no jade, but you did get it. Report to the building 8.” she said with a strange look in her eyes.

Building 8 was away from the camp, still behind the walls but protected on the outside by many soldiers. I was nervous but curious at the same time.

After showing the guard my badge that Helen had put around my neck with a string, I was led inside to another door, he used a keycard and the door made a ping sound. They had power here as well as we did in the trailers but I was still surprised.

The room I was led to looked like a waiting room of sorts. Chairs lined the walls and a few pictures of nature scenes adorned the walls.

I was told to sit down and that someone would be with me shortly.

I waited for hours. It was quiet in the room and when I tried both doors I found them to be locked. My sword was in my trailer so I had no weapons on me.

The door open suddenly and in stepped a tall man.

He wore a white lab coat and had broad shoulders. A shadow of a gray beard had started to show on his square face. Hazel eyes looked in to mine and his mouth was a grim line across his face.

“jade sorry to keep you waiting, My name is Grayson, Whitmore. Before we get started and I show you around, I need to explain what we do here. In order to understand our enemy, we have to study these creatures.” He paused at saying this.

“deadheads” I mumbled.

“what was that, that word you just said.” he asked me

“we call them deadheads sir. It seems to fit better then calling them zombies.” I explained.

Grayson seemed to think it over for a minute and smiled for the first time.

“ I agree, it does fit.” Grayson smiled and turned and opened the door leading away from the outside door.

The labs were like out of this world, something alien and had machines I had never before seen. There were many people in these labs, each one was separate from the other. But the walls were glass so you could see in every lab no matter what. Grayson handed me a white coat to wear over my clothes and he explained my job.

“you have simple things to do. You’re my go to girl, go for this and go for that. You told Helen you were a science geek in school. You can also help read out reports on compounds and other things as well. “ I nodded and he put me to work.

We were served lunch right in the building so I didn’t get to see the others all day. But it was good work and I loved what I was doing.

It was late when I was sent home for the night.

Jess was up waiting for me. Seth was still at the wall and the kids were in bed so it was just her and I in the living room.

She seemed nervous and upset.

“hey jess, how did your day go?” I asked as I took off my shoes at the door.

Jess grabbed my arm and led me outside away from the trailers.

“hey what the..” she turned on me and put her finger to her lips.

I nodded that I understood and we walked away from the trailers.

she stopped and looked around before she began.

“jade there’s something going on here. Something not right. I think the trailers and building are bugged too.” I could hear the fear in her voice. She was scared to death.

“what do you mean?” I asked.

She took a deep breath and began.

“today I had school duty. I met a real nice woman named penny Goodman , another school helper like me. She seemed hollow, broken. So I figured she needed a friend to talk to. So at lunch, I told her how much I liked this place, how you and Seth had found us. She made a remark under her breath like “yeah right, nice place.” then she acted all weird and stuff, started looking around like she done something terrible. All of a sudden, we heard foot steps like someone running and she made me get in the closet. Soldiers came in and asked her where I was. She lied and said I had got mad and went back to my class. They took her jade. They said that LT. Harris warned her not to say anything to us.” Jess was breathing hard and almost in tears from telling me this. I pulled her close and hugged her. We were going to find out. I needed Seth home right now. We headed back to the trailer and went inside.

Seth still wasn’t home so I sent her to bed. I stayed up and waited for him. Around 3 in the morning Seth came in the door. He was in full army uniform and for a minute I had to stop and stare at him.

“hey baby, want to go for a walk and be alone?” I asked in my sexiest voice. I needed him away from the trailers like Jess had done to me.

Seth stared at me like I had grown another head. I put my finger to my lips and then pointed to my ears. He nodded and understood me.

“sure baby, let me change my clothes first okay, easier to get out of them then this uniform.” he laughed wickedly.

It only took him a few minutes to change and then we walked towards the back fences where it was more darker.

“what the hell is going on.” Seth demanded.

Seth listened to the story and let me finish before he said anything.

‘ I don’t trust anyone in this camp except you and jess. If you feel there is something wrong, then there’s something wrong. I just don’t know what it is. “ Seth said quietly.

We decided to keep our eye’s more open and watch things a little better from now on. We headed back to the trailer and went to bed.

The next morning Grayson had me shifting through a bunch of reports of blood work. He wanted all blood work on a subject numbered #659 to be put in a file and set on his desk.

Just then my door opened to the office I was working in,

“you ready for lunch?” Rosa levy was a lab tech and had been with Grayson way before the outbreak. She was an heavy set black woman about my mom’s age. She had taken to me at the beginning and had me under her wing so to speak.

“sure if you are.” I said smiling. She nodded back and we headed for the small room away from the labs to eat the lunches that soldiers brought to the labs everyday.

Just as we were finishing up, Grayson came in and stood before me.

“jade we have meetings today so your free to go home. Tomorrow there will be no labs working so you can work something else if you want to or spend the day resting. “ Grayson said and walked back out of the room.

“I wonder what that was about?” I mumbled and Rosa patted my arm .

“its just normal meeting, grunts are not invited, sorry jadey, but at least you get 2 days to do what you want.” Rosa