Date: 2018-08-27 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Zombies; Horror; Young Adult
Description: **Short Story Prequel to the Jane Zombie Chronicles Series**One young intern. An experimental medicine. A clinic full of feral patients. The zombie apocalypse is about to begin. I just don’t know it yet. As a college freshman, I can’t wait for my first day of class. But when my routine health exam turns into a medical emergency, my dreams become a nightmare. And as my past tumbles back into the present, I’m horrified when patients devolve into animals and attack the medical staff. Desperate to find my way back to consciousness and safety, my anxiety holds tight and doesn’t go away. Will my lif

Strange Start

Jane Zombie Chronicles

Book 0

Gayle Katz

In Your Face Publishers

Blue Bell, PA

Copyright © 2018 Gayle Katz

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission from the author. For permissions contact:

gayle@gaylekatz.com

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

Visit the author’s website at GayleKatz.com

Table of Contents

________________________________________

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

About the Author

Chapter 1

________________________________________

College Orientation

“Ouch! That hurts!” I complain to the school nurse taking my blood.

“I’m sorry, but you have to relax,” she replies. “It’s difficult to get a sample when you tense up like that. Your veins collapse, and I can’t do anything.”

She’s been trying to take my blood for the past ten minutes. I’m told this torture is to fulfill some random health assessment for college. Needless to say, it isn’t going well. She keeps jabbing me and I’m starting to get a little…err, a lot dizzy.

“Gah. That’s way too much information,” I blurt out. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Maybe you should lie down,” the nurse suggests as she helps me out of my chair. “Maybe we can get you to an exam table.”

“Uh-huh.” I nod. Then I stand up. And a nauseated feeling washes over me. Seconds later, light-headed and wobbly on my feet, I feel something cold on my back. I think it’s the floor. Completely disoriented, I can’t move.

“Jane? Jane! Can you hear me?” the nurse shouts from above me.

I hear her, but she sounds so far away. Her mouth is moving, but the words coming out of it are muffled. I feel as though I have cotton balls in my ears.

“Jane!” The nurse then shouts out into the corridor. “I need some help here. I’m losing her. She’s becoming unresponsive.”

Despite the chill on my back, I’m starting to sweat and my vision is fuzzy. The room is spinning. Everything goes dark.

Seven Months Earlier - Second Semester Senior Year

“Time to wake up, Jane!” my mom shouts into my room. “Are you up?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Sure,” I reply, still snuggled under the covers.

“You didn’t forget, did you?”

“Forget what? Wh-What time is it?”

“It’s 6:00 a.m. and you’ve got your field trip to the clinic today.” She then comes in and steps up to my bed. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

“No. Uh. No. I didn’t.”

“OK, then. Get out of bed already,” she sings as she rips the covers off me. “Get going! And make your father and me proud! It’s your first step into premed!”

“Uh-huh,” I groan.

“‘Uh-huh’ nothing. We’ve always wanted to have a doctor in the family.”

I roll to the edge of the bed and plant my feet on the floor. It’s still dark outside, and I want to go back to sleep, but I force myself to get up. First stop, the bathroom.

There I turn on the shower, wait for it to get warm enough, and hop in. The water blasts me straight in the face. Some people drink coffee, but for me, a good shot of water to the face is enough to wake up. That, plus the fancy lemon verbena soap helps energize me.

After the shower, I brush my teeth, style my hair, and pop on some makeup. Now I’m definitely awake and ready to start my day. I run downstairs to greet my parents.

“There’s my girl,” Dad says. “Big day today?”

“Yeah, totally,” I reply. “A few of my classmates and I are spending the day at a clinic. We’re going to interact with doctors, nurses, and patients. Get a taste of what a job in medicine is really like.”

“Your little girl might just be the first doctor in the family,” Mom says, beaming with pride.

“Mom, stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”

“That’s my job as your mom, am I right?”

“Very funny. I gotta go.”

“Oh! I almost forgot,” she says as she holds out a steaming package wrapped in aluminum foil. “I made a little egg sandwich for you so you can eat on the go.”

I take the sandwich and pop it in my backpack. “Thanks, Mom. Bye, Dad.”

“Bye, honey,” he says.

My mom hugs me good-bye.

***

As I walk to the bus stop, I see everyone else in the neighborhood warming up their cars, grabbing newspapers off their lawns, and generally getting ready to head off to work or school. And no one looks enthusiastic about it, including me.

Getting up this early in the morning is tough. While I’m not really looking forward to going away to college next semester, I’m never going to schedule any classes before 10:00 AM when I do.

After waiting at the bus stop for a couple of minutes, I hop on the yellow school bus, like I’ve done for the past three and a half years, and my fellow classmates and I arrive at school fifteen minutes later. Once there, Anne, Bobby, Jean, and I all go into the building and gather outside of our biology class to meet up with our teacher and a handful of other students coming along on the field trip.

The general consensus among our group is unanimous. While we’re thrilled to get out of class for the day, we’re not particularly excited for the field trip to some medical clinic.

“I still can’t believe we get to cut an entire day of class for this trip,” I say.

“Well, it’s not just to get out of class,” Anne says. “It’s to see if we really have an interest in biology, premed, and all that medical stuff.”

“Whatever. Going from class to boring class is such a snoozefest. At least today, maybe there’ll be some excitement in our lives,” Bobby replies.

“It’ll be something different for sure. And we’ll have a chance to help people, too,” Anne adds.

“Yeah, that, too. I guess that’s a good thing,” Bobby says.

Jean just nods and yawns. It still might be a little too early for her.

As we’re talking, Mrs. Jones, our honors biology teacher, comes over to us. She’s going to be our chaperone on the field trip.

“How is everyone this morning?” she asks. “I hope you’re all looking forward to shadowing the staff at the clinic today. Not many high school students get an opportunity like this, but South Mountainside High School has such a great reputation, they couldn’t say no.”

I see some of my fellow students nod their heads in sheeplike agreement. I’m not into it either, but I feel like I should at least try to feign some interest. Only a few students were chosen for this experience so I might as well make the most of it. I may want to pursue a career in medicine. I may not. I really don’t know. I try to show interest, even if it isn’t exactly genuine.

“Are we just shadowing them or will we be able to help them in some way?”

“Good question, Jane! I’m not exactly sure to be honest. We’ll have to see what they need when we arrive. I’m sure there’ll be something for us to sink our teeth into. The main takeaway is to get familiar with the environment and ask lots of questions,” Mrs. Jones says. “All right everyone, let’s go outside and meet the bus. We don’t want to be late!”

As we all file out of the school and huddle around one another at the curb, we see another yellow school bus pull up beside us. I climb the steps to get into the bus and find a seat. There aren’t many of us going on this field trip, so I have a seat to myself and I’m able to sprawl out and chill before our day of medical adventures.

Chapter 2

________________________________________

Our bus pulls into the parking lot of the clinic. The building seems pretty plain in design. Red brick exterior, lush green grass in need of landscaping, and a sign that simply reads “Cancer Care Clinic.”

As the school bus doors whoosh open, we all funnel out, walk across the parking lot’s blacktop, and open the front glass double doors. Once inside, we congregate in the lobby until a young woman greets us and introduces herself as Dara.

“Hello and welcome to the South Mountainside Cancer Care Clinic! Thank you all so much for taking time away from your studies to learn about what we do here. I think you’ll find it’ll be a rewarding experience.

“Why don’t we head over to the conference room so you can watch the orientation presentation? Just follow me.”

As we fall in line behind Dara, we pass by a larger area with a few tables and chairs, possibly a waiting room, as well as several doctors’ offices and nurses’ stations. Deep inside the building, we finally reach the conference room. It has a large wooden table and one of the interior walls is made from a clear material—maybe plexiglass—so it’s easy to see inside. There’s also a big screen TV hanging down from the ceiling and a laptop labeled, “Conference Room,” across the top of the monitor screen. It’s sitting in front of the first chair closest to the conference room door. We each take a seat as the light in the room dims and the video presentation begins.

The presentation opens by talking about the history of the clinic and how it was founded the previous year by a team of professors and other educators from around the country. Their objective: to tirelessly research, pursue, and one day cure the most deadly forms of cancer so people can live happy and healthy lives.

In the video, they feature interviews with several patients that tug at the heartstrings. They also have clips of doctors and nurses talking about their commitment to this worthy cause. Throughout the video, the name “Scrycor” pops up several times—a company I’ve never heard of. Strange name. It was on the introductory screen of the video and I spotted their logo in various spots around the clinic as we walked through.

After the video comes to an end, Dara moves to stand in front of the screen and asks if we have any questions.

I guess Jean finally woke up because she’s the first to ask a question, “What types of cancers does this clinic specialize in treating?”

“Very good question,” Dara says. “We’re making progress with some of the most aggressive cancers like bone, bladder, lung, and various blood cancers, such as Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, just to name a few. We still have a lot of work to do and a long way to go.”

Silence.

“Any other questions? That’s why I’m here.” Dara smiles.

I raise my hand.

“Yes, go ahead,” she says, looking at me.

“What’s Scrycor?”

“You have a good eye for details,” Dara replies. “I love that. To answer your question, Scrycor is our primary donor. It’s the company behind the clinic that keeps the lights on, funds our research, and allows people to seek treatment at no cost.”

Another long silence.

“OK, if there aren’t anymore questions,” she says, “let’s get you suited up into scrubs so you can begin the most exciting part of your day. Follow me.”

She leads us out of the conference room and down the hall to a couple of changing areas. “Inside each of the stalls, you’ll find scrubs just like the doctors and nurses wear on TV. Find your size and get changed. If you have any valuables, you can leave them here with me and we’ll store them safely until you’re ready to go home.”

***

After changing into a pair of blue scrubs, I emerge from the dressing room to join the rest of the class. Dara leads us down another hallway and one by one she assigns each of us a doctor or a nurse to shadow. I’m handed off to a Dr. Michael Lively. A little nervous, I barely manage to eek out a shy, “Hello.”

I watch as the rest of the group keeps walking down the hall and I’m left standing in the doorway of Dr. Lively’s office.

“What’s your name?” he asks.

“My name is Jane.” I can feel my heart beating a million miles an hour. I’ve never helped a doctor before. The work they do here is so important. I don’t want to mess up by doing something stupid.

“Nice to meet you, Jane.” He extends his hand. I quickly do the same and we shake. He’s got a serious death grip.

“What can I help you with, Dr. Lively?” I ask.

“For now, we’re going to make the rounds to all of my patients, get their vitals, and check in on their progress. Basically, get the scoop on what’s going on with them. I usually do this first thing in the morning, but I knew you’d be coming, so I delayed it. I thought you might enjoy the experience.”

“I appreciate that. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Of course. You can hold my clipboard for now and just observe. You really want to jump in with both feet, huh?”

“Yes!” I say with a little too much enthusiasm. “Well, I’m considering a major in biology when I go to college and then going premed, so the sooner I can get into it, the better.”

“I like your energy, but you need to relax. I also have to warn you that being a doctor in the real world may not be as glamorous as you see on TV. I’ll do my best to impress, though.”

“OK, Dr. Lively.”

“No need to call me Dr. Lively. Dr. L or just L for short—either is fine.”

As we leave his office and proceed to the first patient’s room, I am beyond nervous. What if I say something dumb? I can feel my stress sweat starting. I can’t remember if I put on deodorant this morning. And when I’m nervous, it manifests itself through sweat and a bad habit of picking the skin around my fingernails. Yeah, it’s gross, but it helps to diffuse my anxiety.

Dr. L enters the first room. The patient is an old man. He seems unresponsive or maybe he’s just asleep for now. He’s bald and wrinkly. Though the most unusual thing about him is his skin. It looks a light gray and you can clearly see his dark veins showing through. It’s as if his skin is somewhat translucent.

“What’s wrong with him?” I ask.

“It’s a little bit of a mystery, but we believe he has bone cancer. Basically, we think his blood is sucking the life out of his bones and we don’t know why. And the worst part is that it’s spreading. We can’t seem to stop it no matter what treatment we administer.”

“Oh no,” I put my hand over my mouth in shock. I don’t know why I didn’t realize the patients here would be in such grave condition.

“We’re not giving up, though,” Dr. L continues. “He’s a fighter and we’re not going to let him down.”

“Is he in pain?” I ask.

“If he is, he hides it well. We’re doing all we can to keep him comfortable.”

As Dr. L reviews his chart and takes his vitals, like blood pressure and such, I just stand there, watching the patient. He seems peaceful until his eyes suddenly pop open.

I’m spooked. My body jumps, and I take a step back. He sits up quickly and makes a horrible hissing sound, then reaches out, grabs my scrub top, and pulls me close enough I can see the veins pulsing through a gray haze covering his eyeballs.

“Kill me,” he mutters.

“Charlie!” Dr. L shouts. “What are you doing? Don’t frighten her! Stop it!” He unhooks Charlie’s hand from my top, helps the patient back down onto the bed, and tries talking to him to get him to calm down.

“How are you feeling today, Charlie?” Dr. L asks.

There’s no response. Charlie’s just lying there in bed with his eyes wide open, staring at nothing in particular.

“Charlie?” The doctor snaps his fingers in front of his face.

Nothing.

Dr. L grabs his phone out of his pocket and punches in a few digits. “Nurses’ station, please.” There’s a pause as he waits for an answer. “Yeah. Hi. It’s L. I’m in room 1027. Send up an orderly, all right? Our patient has become a little more unpredictable. He needs to be restrained.”

“Dr. L…” I ask, still recovering from the patient scaring me.

“Yes?”

“Is this guy going to be OK?”

“That’s tough to say, Jane. We’re an experimental clinic, so all of the hospitals send us their toughest cases. Just know that we’re doing everything we can to help him.”

Moments later, an orderly rushes through the door with straps. He wraps them around Charlie’s arms and ties them to the bed frame. He does the same with his legs. He even puts a couple straps over Charlie’s torso.

“He shouldn’t cause any more issues,” the orderly says. “He’s in there pretty good now.”

“Thanks, Dave,” Dr. L says. “We have to continue our rounds. Could you stay here with Charlie for a few minutes and just watch him? I want to make sure he’s all right.”

“Sure thing, L,” Dave says as he pulls up a chair and sits down. “I’m not gonna complain when the boss wants me to take a break.”

As we leave the happy-go-lucky orderly to his babysitting detail, we move to the next room, where Dr. L and I visit with a young woman who’s conscious, but she appears to have some nervous and quite disruptive facial tics.

“How are you doing today, Shelly?”

“F-Fine, D-Doctor L. H-how are y-you?” she replies. As she speaks, it looks as if her jaw is having trouble following along with her words, like it’s moving involuntarily. And it keeps happening over and over again. It’s as though she’s chewing on something that isn’t there.

“I’m doing well, Shelly. I want you to meet Jane. She’s shadowing me today. She’s from the local high school and she thinks she wants to be a doctor someday.”

“N-Nice to meet-meet y-you.” Shelly’s neck is jerking uncontrollably so she can’t keep eye contact for long.

“Nice to meet you as well,” I reply, keeping a smile on my face to keep the mood light.

“M-Maybe y-y-you can help-p D-Doctor L f-figure o-out wh-what’s w-wrong w-with meh-me?” She tries to smile, but her face contorts into a creepy smirk instead.

“I’ll do my best,” I tell her as I watch Dr. L check her chart. He takes out his stethoscope and walks to the other side of her bed. He gently takes her arm and puts the flat side of the instrument onto the inside of her wrist and listens. He then checks her blood pressure.

“Can you lean forward, Shelly?” he asks. “I want to check your breathing.” With his help, she scoots forward. “Inhale deeply for me, all right?”

She inhales.

“Go ahead and exhale.”

She complies.

“Again.”

She inhales again, but this time she coughs a phlegmy, deep bark.

“Exhale.”

There’s that disturbing cough again.

“Inhale one more time for me,” Dr. L says.

She concurs. Her breathing goes back to normal this time.

“You did good, Shelly. Ring the buzzer if you need anything, all right?”

“OK, D-Doctor.”

We take our leave from Shelly, exit her room, and begin to walk farther down the corridor. Right before we make it to the third patient room, there’s an ear-piercing scream.

Chapter 3

________________________________________

“AHHH! Help! Somebody! Help us!” a woman shouts.

Dr. L runs down the hallway and I follow close behind. As we arrive on the scene outside of a nearby patient room, we find a flock of frightened employees hiding behind the nurses station and a young woman in a cloth gown on top of a nurse. The woman on top is half naked and biting viciously at the nurse’s neck. The nurse on the floor isn’t moving. I pray she’s just unconscious and not dead. Blood is splattered on their clothing and quickly pooling underneath both of them.

Dr. L grabs the female patient by the waist and pulls her off of the nurse. Her mouth is clamped onto the nurse’s neck. She isn’t letting go.

“Jane! Go to the janitor’s closet behind the nurses station,” he orders. “Grab a broom or a mop. Anything with a long handle and come back. Hurry!”

I take off, run behind the nurses station, and fumble through the closet. I find a broom, grab it, and run back to Dr. L. “Here!” I shout.

“Good! Now see if you can slide the broom handle in-between her mouth and the nurse’s neck. Don’t get too close.”

“OK!” I say as I try to poke the long broom handle in the small open area between this crazy woman’s teeth and the nurse’s neck. “It won’t go!”

“Push harder,” Dr. L replies. “Don’t worry about hurting her. We just need to separate them.”

With all of my strength, I get a better grip on the broom handle and, with my shaky hands, jam it into her jaw. I hear a cracking sound from the wood hitting her teeth. At the same time, the crazy woman looks at me with her wild eyes. She finally releases the nurse and then reaches out for me. Scared, I drop the broom and back up immediately. At the same time, Dr. L is able to pull her away.

I look at the nurse’s neck and see her huge gaping wound. The bite is grotesque and still bleeding profusely. The patient’s mouth is plastered with blood. It covers her entire mouth and drips down her chin and neck. I’m overwhelmed and frozen in place watching the scene unfold. I begin to smell her blood wafting over me. I think I’m going to be sick.

“Get her out of here! Now!” Dr. L commands. Some of the medical staff leave the safety of their station, rush over, and surround their wounded colleague, quickly wheeling her away on a gurney.

The patient is still flailing around in Dr. L’s arms. Her arms and legs feverishly kick and flail as she tries to break free from his grasp. Her jaw is chomping constantly, attempting to lock onto his arm.

“Jane, grab the broom handle at both ends and push it into her mouth so she bites down on it!” he says.

I do as instructed and grab the broom again.

“Stick it in her mouth, but don’t let her bite you.”

“Uh-huh,” I choke out, fearful of what may happen if she’s able to latch onto me. With all my strength, I shove the broom handle into her mouth so she can’t bite Dr. L, me, or anyone else.

In the process of doing it, though, a few of her teeth come loose and fall onto the floor. For a second, I stare at them. I want to help people, and I just failed on my first day.

Dave the orderly rushes in and helps Dr. L wrestle the woman down to the ground. She’s screaming at the top of her lungs, her arms and legs still thrashing about wildly. They try to get her back into her room, but it’s a fight because she’s got a death grip hold on the doorframe. Dave holds her as tight as he can while Dr. L pries back her fingers. Eventually, they drag her back into her room and strap her down. Even secured to her bed, she’s still going nuts.

Dr. L runs out of the patient’s room and returns a moment later with a syringe. “I’m going to sedate her,” he tells Dave. “Acting like this isn’t going to help anyone.”

As he injects her, Dr. L asks Dave, “Did she bite you?”

“No, I’m good. You?”

“Just a scratch. Nothing serious.”

“Maybe you should get that looked at?”

“I’m a doctor. I think I can handle it.”

With the ruckus over for now, I lean against the doorframe and sink down to the floor, shaking. All I can do is stare at the now dark red, almost black, pool of blood coagulating on the hallway floor. When I look the other way, I see the crazy patient, now sedated and unconscious. And the smell—the putrid smell permeates every square inch of the clinic. The odor is foul at best and getting worse.

With so much happening, I didn’t even notice Mrs. Jones and my friends scattered around the scene watching everything unfold. They look scared and confused, but I don’t have the energy to explain what happened, not that I know myself. Anne in particular has her hand over her mouth like she’s going to throw up. Sounds like a good idea.

I get back up on my jelly legs and run to the bathroom, but the rancid smell of blood follows me. I can’t get away from it. I check each stall to make sure I’m alone and then lock the door behind me. I open one of the bathroom stalls, drop to my knees, and vomit into the toilet. I see remnants of the egg sandwich my mom made me for breakfast floating in the toilet. I start to cry. That woman almost bit me. I vomit again.

Medicine might not be the path I’m destined to go down. My parents are going to be so disappointed in me. Hell, I’m disappointed in myself, too.

There’s a knock at the bathroom door.

“Jane?” It’s Mrs. Jones. “Jane? Are you in there?”

“Yeah,” I answer.

“We’re going to cut our trip a little short. I think we’ve all had our fill of this clinic for today. Can you open the door?”

I stand up, rinse my mouth out as best I can, and open the door for her.

“Dr. L said you did a great job today,” she says.

“That’s good,” I reply.

“Are you all right?”

“I think so. Just a little shaken up, I guess.”

“Considering everything that happened today, that’s pretty good. Why don’t you come along and join us on the bus? We’re going to get everyone home.”

Chapter 4

________________________________________

Back on the bus, I’m sitting alone, still shaking.

Mrs. Jones sits down next to me. “Do you want to talk about what happened today?”

“No. Not yet. I think I just want to chill out and forget about it.”

“OK, but if you need to talk, just know I’m here for you.”

She gets up and leaves me alone as she tends to other students.

With the seat now empty, I stretch out my legs, lean my upper body against the side of the bus, and close my eyes, which are dry, burning, and have seen some crazy things today. If I close them for just a couple of minutes, it might help me relax.

I clear my mind of everything and consciously try not to think about anything. I feel myself calming down. Then something changes.

I see myself in the hallway at the clinic. The lights are dim and I’m alone. My breathing starts to get faster and my pulse begins to race.

Suddenly, I hear a shrill howl. Which way is it coming from?

I whimper and cover my mouth so whatever is out there doesn’t hear me. I quiet down.

The screams are getting louder. They’re all around me. I want to run and escape, but I don’t know which way to go. I have to do something. I have to get out of here.

I run ahead to see if there’s an exit, but there are no doors. I continue down the hallway and hear the screams again. They’re even louder so I turn around and go back the way I came.

To my dismay, I run straight into the crazy woman from earlier.

She’s taller and hovering over me. Her hair is all greasy and matted down. Her face is pale and scarred. Her mouth is still dripping with the nurse’s blood. And her eyes look dead, covered in a haze of some sort.

I back away from her slowly so as not to startle her. As soon as I’m out of arm’s reach, I bolt down the hallway, frantically looking for an exit. I stop and try every door I find, but none of them open. Dammit!

Farther down the corridor, losing hope of finding an exit, I feel someone watching me. I turn around and it’s that woman again. Crying, I bang on one of the door windows in the hopes of breaking it, but no luck.

I try to duck around her, but she catches me in her claws. She knocks me down, and I see her blackened and bloody teeth up close. Holding on tight, she chomps down on my neck.

I scream and wake myself up. We’re still on the bus. Mrs. Jones is sitting next to me again, trying to comfort me and find out what’s wrong.

“Are you OK?” she asks. “What happened?”

“I’m sorry. I-it was just a dream. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. When we get back to school, I’ll call your parents to pick you up. Maybe going home on the bus isn’t a good idea today.”

“No. No. I’m fine. Really, I am. I promise.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

Chapter 5

________________________________________

Back at home, it’s dinnertime and my folks are asking about my day.

“So? How was the field trip to the clinic?” Mom asks.

“It was…uh, strange.”

“How so?”

“So many sick people.”

“That sounds about normal. What did you think you’d find in a clinic or a hospital?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. Today was just a shock to my system. I didn’t expect it.”

“Anything you do for the first time is scary. When you go back, you’ll be able to cope better.”

“Go back?”

“Of course! You’re going to be the first doctor in the family. You can’t give up after one strange experience, as you call it.”

“Ummm. I don’t know about that. Listen, I’m finished eating. I’m gonna go upstairs and get some sleep. I’m exhausted.”

“Wait, honey…” Dad says.

I rush upstairs to my room. I don’t want to hear anything else from them right now.

***

I brush my teeth and hop into bed, snuggling up under the covers.

Maybe Mom’s right. I can’t let one strange day throw me for a loop. Dr. L looks as though he enjoys his job, and he’s trying to help people get better. His job certainly isn’t easy. Other doctors and medical professionals transfer the cases they can’t solve to him. Every day is a challenge, and my guess is that he’s never bored. And if he’s part of the team that one day cures cancer, that would be a life-changer for so many people suffering around the world.

I fluff my pillow and turn on my side. With both hands under my pillow for support, I fall asleep.

I’m sitting across from Dr. L. This time I’m wearing a white doctor’s coat just like his, although mine is shorter in length.

“Now that you’ve examined the patient, what’s your diagnosis?” he asks me.

I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what he’s talking about. “Uhhh…”

“What’s your diagnosis, Doctor?” he asks again. “Without your diagnosis, the patient will die. You don’t want that, do you?”

“No. Of course, not.”

He’s looking at me. I stare into his eyes. Something is definitely wrong.

“Look!” he says.

“Look at what?”

“Here! Where she scratched me!” His face starts to twitch. “What should I do?”

“I thought you took care of that,” I say. “Let’s get someone to look at it.”

“No! They’ll only run tests and strap me down. No one can help me now.” His jaw starts to make a clicking sound.

“You don’t know that.” My breathing gets faster. I get up from my seat and start to back out of the room.

“Where are you going?” he asks.

I bolt to the door, but it’s closed. I try to open it. No luck. It’s locked. I lean my head against the door and close my eyes.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he says.

He gets up from his seat and slowly slithers his way over to me. Frightened, I turn around. He’s an inch from my face. He inhales deeply and then exhales in my face. His breath smells worse than awful. I think I’m going to throw up.

His head jerks forward. I try to protect myself by putting my arms in front of my face. His teeth bite into my arm.

I scream myself awake.

***

I’m back on the floor in the school infirmary at college. The nurse is waving smelling salts under my nose. Yuck. The smell of ammonia mixed with a hint of lavender is not my signature scent, much too overpowering, but I guess that’s the idea.

“There she is,” the nurse says.

“Wha-what happened?” I ask, coming out of my fog.

“I was trying to take your blood for the college health assessment. You passed out. We couldn’t wake you up. You scared the hell out of us,” she answers.

“How long was I out?”

“Just a couple of minutes. You’re OK now. Don’t worry.”

I sigh, dejected from being so squeamish. “Has anyone else passed out like this?”

“A few people… I guess you’re not going premed,” she jokes, trying to lift my spirits.

“Probably not,” I reply.

I look up and see what seems to be the entire staff of the school infirmary looking down at me. What a way to start off my freshman year at college. I’m so embarrassed—mortified is more like it.

“Can you get up?” the nurse asks.

“I think so.”

“Don’t over do it,” she says, helping me up. Then, to someone else in the crowd of people staring at me, “Someone get her a wheelchair. We want to make sure she doesn’t fall down again. The last thing we need is her hitting her head on the floor.”

Flustered, they lift me into the chair, roll me across the room, and get me onto an exam table. I then turn to the nurse, “Did you get the blood sample? Are we done here? I’d like to go now.”

“No. Quite the opposite. We’re just getting started.” A sly smile creeps across her face.

“Oh no.”

Thank You

________________________________________

For reading the prequel to the Jane Zombie Chronicles series!

I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you did, I'd love for you to check out the official first book in the Jane Zombie Chronicles series, Closed Campus.

If you have time, one of the best ways to help me write more books is to leave a review on Amazon. It would mean the world to me. Tap here to rate and review Strange Start on Amazon.

Also, I encourage you to tell your friends, family, and anyone else who would enjoy a good zombie story!

Again, thank you so much for buying my book and supporting me!

Best,

Gayle

CONTINUE THE ADVENTURE

SNEAK PEEK! Below is an excerpt from the first book in the Jane Zombie Chronicles, Closed Campus.

Already have it? Check out the rest of the series!

Just then Jayce starts to freak out on the couch. He’s moaning. Crying. His body is flailing and contorting in a variety of odd positions worse than any seizure. It can’t be comfortable for him.

Frightened, we all look at him. We don’t know what to do, except stare.

“What’s wrong with him?” I ask. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone go this nuts from a bite unless they had rabies or something, but don’t ask me. My medical knowledge is limited to what they show you on TV.”

Despite the heat and the blanket, he isn’t getting any better. Abigail stoops down and tries to talk to him.

“Jayce, hon, try to relax, OK?”

He isn’t even looking in her direction or ours.

“Jayce, can you hear me?” she asks.

He doesn’t respond.

She looks down for a moment and then at us. “He still feels really cold. Aw, man. This can’t be good. Plus, look at his eyes. They’ve got a white haze over them. I think we need to get him to the hospital, like, right now.”

“I agree,” I say. “We need a doctor, but this doesn’t feel right. We need to do something, but if the people who did this are still out there waiting for us, we’d all be at risk if we go outside.” I think for a moment. “The police and ambulance should have been here by now. Are they even coming?” I ask, feeling my stress level rising and my anxiousness returning in full force.

With that, Jayce makes more strange noises, weird, high-pitched, shrieking ones I’ve never heard a human being make before. I can’t stay in here listening to him anymore. Just as I turn to leave the lounge and return to Studio One and Wyatt, Jayce jerks his head forward and bites Abigail’s forearm. She cries out in pain and screams. Stunned and in shock, she kneels there, dazed. It happened so fast. I turn around.

“Ow! What the hell is that? He bit me!” she says.

I look at Jack. He looks back at me, and we both look at Bill. We all had the same expression. Get out. Now.

Abigail and Connor quickly follow us out as we run to the door. We lock it behind us right before Jayce—or whoever he is now—runs right into the door with a hard thud. He almost knocks the door off its hinges.

Connor stays at the door to hold it secure while we search for something to block it. Abigail just stands there holding her arm, crying.

She is hysterical. “Why’d he bite me? I was only helping him! What's gonna happen? What am I gonna do?”

Jack, Bill, and I run to grab something, anything to block the door. We find a chair, run back, and barricade it.

Even with the chair blocking the way, the door and its hinges shudder every time the body on the other side bangs against it. That plus the horrific sounds he is making are frightening and freaking me out.

We all look at each other. He doesn’t seem to be getting tired or stopping his attack. What’s going to happen when he breaks through the flimsy wooden door?

Want more zombies? Click here to check out Closed Campus, the first book in the Jane Zombie Chronicles.

Already have it? Check out the rest of the series!

If that link doesn't work, click here: http://geni.us/booksbygayle

About the Author

Born and raised outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gayle discovered her passion for zombies when her husband introduced her to video games in 2009.

Gayle writes about the undead because they scare the bejesus out of her and she likes it! She’s also an advocate for always facing your fears as she’s an author of self-help, nonfiction books too.

STRANGE START is her prequel to the Jane Zombie Chronicles. If you enjoyed reading it, go ahead and check out CLOSED CAMPUS, the official first book in her Jane Zombie Chronicles series.

Table of Contents

- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- About the Author