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This will be the last post until the Undead Diaries Book 1 is available! It will have more content (beyond 26 days), have a list of characters and their roles in the back of the book, and have a more better understanding of what exactly the virus does to people.

If you like the blog, you’ll LOVE the book!

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As I was finishing telling the story of how everything has came to be so far, I noticed Alli was fidgeting a lot. I thought to myself how odd she was acting in light of everything we’ve gone through today. I was wore out, Susan went to bed a few hours ago, Annabelle and Jasmine were already asleep when we got back from out “adventure” as Alli kept referring to it.

Finally her fidgeting got to me and I asked her if she had to go to the bathroom. She shook her head, and tried to remain more still than before. She failed miserably. I could see her eyes looking towards the window every few seconds, as if she was waiting on someone. I walked over to the window and started to look out of the curtains when she said, “I think I know who the guy was that came to get you out of jail.”

I was intrigued, and she began telling me about all the court cases the control group had against them, and how their lawyer always won the case. “His name is Ramon, and he’s handsomely paid to make sure no one gets in the way of his clients. I even hear rumors that he got rid of some of his competition when the gang was looking for a new attorney. Their old attorney lost a case, and got in a tragic car accident the next night” she said.

“How do you know so much about the control group. You even know the lawyer’s name, which I didn’t even ask about. What aren’t you telling me?” I asked with my eyebrows raised.

Something was off about this situation, and I had a feeling it had to do with the chase we had today.

“How did those men know we were staying at the abandoned school last night?” I asked, and continued, “and don’t say it was your cell phone because I have a feeling that wasn’t the case.”

That is when everything became clear. She had originally said she had been at the school for weeks, but the school was too old to have any working electricity, and her phone lit up when I threw it out the window. She had lied to us about being there that long, but why?

“Your phone was lit up when I threw it out the window…” I said suggestively.

“Okay?” she accusingly.

“Okay…so you were out there for a few weeks. How was your phone still charged?” I asked.

She stopped fidgeting immediately and pressed her hand against her cheek like she had a sore tooth. I heard something crack in her mouth, and I jumped over to hear and pried her mouth open. She struggled against me and I saw something reflect light from the back of her throat. I tried to get the object by sticking my fingers in her mouth but she started biting me hard, but not hard enough to draw blood.

I saw she was trying to swallow whatever was in her mouth, so I turned her around and started the Heimlich maneuver on her, to push the air out of her lungs preventing her from swallowing. After three pumps, she spit out the object and I pushed her away from me. I scrambled to the floor and grabbed up the object. It was some sort of electronic device. It looked like it was still activated, because there was a little light that was blinking.

“You fucking bitch…this is how they tracked us isn’t it? You’re fucking working for them aren’t you?!” I yelled.

She quickly looked down the hall and yelled for Jasmine. That stopped me right in my tracks. How could Jasmine have anything to do with this?

Jasmine came out of the back bedroom with Annabelle laid out on her chest. Jasmine raised her finger to her lip and shushed us.

“Jacob, I know this may come to a surprise to you, but I’m going with Alli. The control group says they have a cure for us! Can you imagine being able to eat anything you wanted again? I’m taking Annabelle with me, she’s too young to make these decisions. Jacob, you can still join us. You haven’t done anything wrong, we just have a disease” Jasmine said.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. After everything that happened with Emanuel and the way Jasmine saw it happen, I didn’t know what to say.

“But they killed Emanuel, they almost killed us today. How can you turn your back on your pack and go with the people that killed him!” I yelled at her.

Susan came trudging down the hallway, and looked at all of us.

“What…what’s going on in here, I heard a lot of yelling” Susan asked sleepily.

“Alli works for the Control Group, and has convinced Jasmine to take her and Annabelle with her. They say they found a cure. Wait…Alli you just got here a few hours ago. You didn’t even talk to Jasmine…” I said pointedly.

“Jasmine didn’t tell you the whole truth about what happened the day Emanuel died, did you Jasmine?” Alli said.

“No…listen Jacob, what I told you was true. I saw them execute Emanuel after he went crazy on them, but I froze. They came into the house and tied me up. They had a gun pointed to my head, and I had no way to get away from them. They told me they think they found a cure, but would need people that hadn’t been documented in the hospital. I immediately thought about our pack. None of us had been to the hospital, but they said I wouldn’t be enough. They could only make a mass amount, and it was very costly to do so. They put me on your trail to try and convince you to get the cure” Jasmine said.

“So you’re with them too, the ones that have been chasing us is actually only following us because you made a deal with them. Susan…do you hear this bull shit?” I asked.

Susan’s eyes were a million miles away. She shook her head and said “A cure? How can you be sure Jasmine? I mean they haven’t been very trustworthy.”

“They got Jacob out of jail knowing he was infected. They told me he was the reason they wanted to find infected that hadn’t killed out of hunger. They said after that point it’s useless. I had to try Susan…I denied that I had killed before. If it could cure you, why couldn’t it cure me? So I lied to them, I told them I’d never killed before, and I told them that you guys hadn’t either.” Jasmine said.

“Susan, I don’t believe that they found a cure. If they did it’d be all over the media! Instead of scanning people’s eyes they’d be giving out injections! Don’t listen to Alli…Jasmine, think about what they told you. There’s no way it can be true. If it was, wouldn’t Alli already be cured? I mean it’s their own fucking kid!” I said in increasing volume.

“They can’t cure me,” Alli said softly. “They can’t cure me because I was never infected. I lied to you to get you to stay with me. I’d been following your group since San Diego. I called those guys to come get us with the farmer’s truck. I didn’t think we’d escape them, but I will admit that your ditch affect was a surprise to everyone. The device I was trying to swallow was a transmitter. Everything you’ve said to me has been relayed to our group. I’m sorry Jacob, but I had to make sure that you weren’t crazed. Let my dad help you by giving you the cure. It’s not on the mass market because they don’t trust the government to distribute it.”

I stopped Alli from talking by holding up a hand. “Listen Alli, we were friends once, right?” I asked her.

She nodded, and I continued, “Give me this one favor. Let us all go, and don’t follow us. We will disappear and you can tell them that we forced you to stay behind. Hell you can even tell them we were raving mad and tried to eat you but you locked yourself away so we couldn’t get to you. I don’t give a fuck. Just let us go.”

Annabelle started stirring and looked at me smiling, “Hi Jacob, what are we doing out here? Is it morning already?”

Jasmine put her down, and kneeled down to her level. “Listen hunny, Alli is a friend of ours. Her daddy found a cure for the virus! He can let us eat anything we want again. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Annabelle looked up at me and smiled, “Is it true Jacob? Can they really cure us?”

I shook my head no, and said “No Annabelle, they are only telling us what we so desperately want to hear. We want to be considered normal again, but if they had a cure why would they have told people it was okay to hurt us, like they did your mommy and daddy? Jasmine is confused, if you leave with her, they might hurt you too.”

Annabelle looked lost and confused, so I continued saying, “Annabelle, I’m sorry you have to make this decision, but as your friend I need to let you. If you want to go with Jasmine to get the so called cure then you can, but I will warn you, if you go I will miss you forever because I will never see you again. If you come with me, we can run away together with Susan and be in hiding for the rest of our lives. It’ll be an everyday adventure, but you have to make the decision.”

Annabelle frowned, and Susan coughed, then said, “Jacob…I’m going with Alli and Jasmine. I appreciate everything you’ve done for us since we left Indianapolis, but I can’t keep living like this. Even death sounds more appealing to me than surviving on our own for years, not talking to anyone but ourselves. I can’t do it. Annabelle, you should come with us. You wouldn’t want to have to hide every night would you?”

I looked back at Alli and said, “Just give me a day head start, then you can start tracking me…please. And Annabelle, maybe Susan’s right. This is no life for a child. Always hiding, always scared, always looking over your shoulder for a danger that may not be there…but I can’t choose the easy path and give up. I have to be my own person and not fall for the lies our enemies tell us.”

Alli nodded and said, “24 hours is all you have. I’ll even let you use your car. But be forewarned we will not extend this offer again to you. Next time we see you, it will be shoot to kill. I’m sorry we couldn’t come to an agreement Jacob, I really am. I liked you and hoped you’d listen to me like your friends did. Now go, the clock starts now.”

I grabbed up everything I could carry, and opened the side door. This was it, I was alone again. Susan and Annabelle were crying, Jasmine had her arms folded over her chest. I opened the screen door, and started to walk outside.

“WAIT!” Annabelle yelled, and came running after me. “I want to go with you. I feel safer with you. If you don’t want the cure, then neither do I.”

We walked out together without looking back, got in the car and drove away.

“Annabelle, you didn’t have to come. I meant it when I said this is no place for a child to live.” I said looking over at her.

“I know, but you can’t go out here alone. Who will you talk to? You’d go crazy talking to yourself. Plus I don’t like Alli, she is scary” Annabelle said. “So where are we going?” she continued.

“Somewhere safe” I said looking at the road.

“Where’s that?” she asked.

“That, Annabelle, is something I don’t know” I said, and she didn’t reply.

I turned onto the southbound interstate, and my mind started reeling for places to go. We needed somewhere that we would be able to eat easily, but also some place that would require a lot of work for someone to track us.

I put on cruise control, and drove south for hours. I knew we only had a limited time to get into hiding, and we both would be hungry tomorrow. Just as we crossed the Louisiana border I remembered a friend of mine telling me that there was a closed amusement park after a massive storm struck New Orleans. It had been abandoned for nearly 7 year. It was condemned due to the fragility of the roller coasters and buildings after the storm, and no one has used it since.

It sounded perfect. I followed the signs towards New Orleans and took the exit. I could see one of the roller coasters from afar, and pointed ourselves in that direction and drove towards it.

When we rolled up it was already dark, and Annabelle was getting restless.

“Is this where we are going to live?” Annabelle asked.

“As far as I know we will be staying here for a while. Some parts of it may be a little scary, so we’ll just go somewhere quiet tonight, and do some looking around tomorrow.” I replied.

We parked in back of an old building, the car hidden from the front of the park and broke into the building. It was dark in there, but I had just enough moonlight entering from the doorway to see my way around without bumping into too many things.

We settled down to go to sleep, and within minutes Annabelle was snoring. I covered her up with my jacket, and turned over to go to sleep. My last thought was I couldn’t wait until morning to find out what this place was.