Zombie Battle (Books 1-3): Trinity by Jacqueline Druga Page A

asked, then received his answer. Joining Carlson he saw the reason for his concern. A goat with a stick protruded through his mouth lay there. The goat’s fur was half off, its ribcage exposed, the flesh appeared to have been torn, and the body had already entered into a putrefaction stage.
    Jack gagged and covered his mouth.
    “See what I mean?” Carlson said. “Something ate it alive. Then it came back. Someone had to kill it.”
    Jack swallowed the lump and turned around. “Keep your eyes open. We may have infected in these woods.”
    For a while, Jack thought his worry and his wanted to forewarn his wife was premature. Until he saw that goat. Carlson was right it either broke the perimeter or was beyond the perimeter long before the virus was discovered to be deadly.
    Mid stare at the goat, and whispering questions of the men, a ‘bleep’ caught Jack’s attention. He didn’t need to look. He knew what it meant. He had caught the scope of a signal and his message had been sent. Now he hoped she would figure it out.
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    Despite the fact that Jack told her to get it all together, Lil couldn’t bring herself to dig up his military papers that he had in the event of his death.
    That told her something was wrong, but not as much as Jack calling her three times in the middle of the night to say he loved her and she had to know that in case he didn’t come back.
    She asked him three times what was going on, he said he couldn’t tell her. He would figure out a way to tell her more.
    That she understood.
    The last conversation was twenty-nine seconds long and Jack said to her, ‘You of all people are more prepared than anyone I know.’
    Prepared. What was Lil prepared for? Jack’s death? No, it couldn’t be that.
    She went on the internet and looked up Peru. The place Jack had gone. The news talked about a meteor causing mass hysteria illness. Maybe Jack went down to help restore peace. But a conspiracy site said it was more, it was illness out of control. Lil thrived on reading, watching and learning about end of the world scenarios. To her, that was what she was most prepared for.
    Was Jack trying to tell her a virus was about to wipe man into extinction.
    Just as she had that thought, in the midst of trying to find more internet information on the Peru illness, she heard the beep of her phone.
    She lifted it.
    Jack sent a text? Was that his way of saying what was going on?
    She clicked on read and drew more into confusion.
    It wasn’t much. It was three letters. Three letters that added more to her mystery. What was Jack trying to tell her with the text, ‘WWZ’
    Immediately, still in front of the computer, she typed the three letters into the search engine.
    Lil wanted to kick herself when the results returned. She of all people should have recognized the three letters without a second thought, without confusion.
    Jack had to be mistaken. But of all people, Jack wouldn’t joke and would be the last to admit to what he was witnessing.
    If Jack was meaning in his text to refer to zombies, then that was what jack believed he was dealing with.
    On that, Lil got up, locked all the doors and sought out her shotgun.
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    Saul wasn’t expecting the midflight phone call. He was just leaning back, reviewing documentation when the call came. He feared the worst. It had to be bad news. “This is Dr. Klein, what can I do for you, Col. Manning.” Saul asked.
    “We’ve located Dr. Riesman.”
    Saul exhaled. “Great. Where is he?”
    “Are you ready? About three hours outside of Berlin, thirty thousand feet above the ground.”
    Saul sprang forward. “You’re joking, right?”
    “I wish I wasn’t.”
    It took Saul aback. He had to grasp a moment and reason. Hans on a plane. There was no way he was infected. He knew better. He needed to be sure. Saul ended his call with Col. Manning, both men agreeing to use their resources to get in touch with that plane.
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    Marian hoped she’d get fifteen