Deadlocked 4 Read online

  "Billy!" Levon rushed to the kitchen where Billy was lying silently on the floor. He reached his arm under Billy's head and pulled his torso into his arms. "You okay?"

  Billy's head rolled to the right and he looked up at his friend as he tried to breath. His mouth was open, and his eyes flitted as they explored the room. "Ouch," he finally said with a forced smile.

  Levon sighed in relief. "You scared the fuck out of me, man. Come on, we can use Kim's collar that they had her tied up with to wrap around a towel and keep that wound from bleeding." He pulled his arm out from under Billy's shoulder and turned his attention to Kim. The girl was unconscious and a stream of her blood had worked its way to the center of the table and collected in the crease where the leaf could be placed. It seeped through the slit and dripped to the floor.

  "Come on, Billy. We've got to get out of here. Help me out."

  "Get the collar wrapped around the towel," said Billy as he stayed on the floor.

  Levon tenderly lifted Kim's body and slipped one side of the collar through while keeping the towel in place. He wrapped it around her waist and was able to buckle it, barely, in the last notch. "Got it! Come on, let's get out of here."

  "Here." Billy held his pistol up for Levon to take.

  "You hold that, I'll carry the girl."

  "Hero," Billy was still on the floor, propping himself up with his left arm while holding out his right as he offered the pistol to his friend. "I can't move my legs."

  The zombies that raided Hailey's End screamed from outside the house as Levon stared in shock down at Billy. "No."

  "You've got to get her to the boat. It's up to you, Hero."

  "No!"

  A pane of glass near the front of the house shattered as a zombie's arm reached through and clawed at the wall inside. Levon was frozen in shock as he stood over Billy's paralyzed body and the powder-ravaged zombies began to crowd the yard in front of the house.

  "There's no time to argue." Billy tried again to give Levon the gun, but his friend wouldn't take it. "You've got to save Kim."

  Levon looked around the house, hoping a solution would present itself. A shambling corpse wandered through the threshold of the open front door and caught sight of them in the kitchen. It was a black man, about Levon's height, with a gash in its head that stretched from his brow, across his face, to his other cheek. His clothes were bloody and shredded, and a slop of sizzling drool rolled off his lip. The mixture of blood, flesh, and spittle drooped to the floor like maple syrup spilling off a breakfast table.

  It snarled and ran at them.

  Levon took the pistol from Billy and quickly took aim. He fired once and the creature toppled to the floor as brain matter sprayed out across the living room behind it.

  "Save the girl."

  "I can't leave you, bro."

  "Hero, stop trying to fuck up my plan. Get her down to the boat."

  "Fuck you, Billy." Levon set the gun on the table as he scooped Kim up gingerly. "It's my turn to come up with a shitty plan."

  Levon set Kim down in Billy's arms. "You hold her, and I'll carry you both."

  "I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to move someone with a back injury."

  Hero squatted and slipped his arms beneath Billy. "Oh yeah, well I'm pretty fucking sure you're not supposed to leave them to get eaten by a zombie either. Come on, bro, it's about time we got the fuck off this island."

  He grunted as he hoisted Billy up. "You fat fuck."

  "You should just take Kim. You're going to have to run across an island full of zombies."

  "Shut up and grab that gun." He used his head to motion to the pistol on the table.

  "Are you sure about this?"

  "Fuck no," he laughed as Billy grabbed the gun with his left hand while holding onto Kim with his right. "This is a terrible plan!"

  Something screamed from the front of the house, but Levon didn't turn to look. He kicked open the back door and ran out into the yard. The amusement park's water slide was visible over the tree line and Levon headed that way. There was a thin, blacktop road meant for golf carts that snaked through the island, but its path was long and scenic. Levon decided to run through the overgrown grass instead, on a direct path to the shore where Clyde was waiting with the boat.

  The barge's air horn still blared in the distance, but the screams of the living dead were far louder. He didn't want to look at them and continued to press forward. His legs wobbled beneath him in the thick grass and Billy was screaming at him to hurry.

  He could hear the zombie's breath from behind him, but he refused to look at them. The most important lesson he'd learned when he was on the track team in high school was to never, under any circumstance, look back at your opponent. He stared at his objective and continued moving forward.

  Billy reached around Levon's side and fired the gun. He cursed, and then fired again before yelling at Hero to move faster.

  There was a concrete moat ahead that had been used as a Lazy River when the amusement park was open. The water had long ago been drained, but stagnant rainwater had collected in the bottom of the five-foot trench. It was putrid and green, with a collection of rotting plant material stuck along its edges.

  Levon planted his right foot at the bank and leapt with every bit of strength he could muster. He brought his long legs out in front of him as they flew over the four-foot deep moat and a mix of terror and hope knotted his stomach.

  His bare feet slammed onto the pavement on the other side and he struggled to hold onto Billy and Kim. The weight, combined with the jump, was too much to bear as his knees buckled. He fell, but was able to lean back to keep Billy and Kim from falling forward. His bare knees skid across the pavement, tearing open his skin and leaving streaks of blood behind.

  The zombies crashed down into the water at the bottom of the trench behind them. They'd been far closer than Levon thought, and he was spurred by the realization that it would only be a matter of seconds before they were able to climb out again.

  Blood poured out of his fresh wounds as he stared out at the distant ocean. There was a helicopter ahead, rising over the amusement park and headed their way. The military had arrived, which didn't make Levon any more hopeful as he panted and held Billy tighter.

  "Hero!" A familiar voice called down from the helicopter's PA system. "Move your ass."

  It was Reagan!

  Hero ran forward, across the paved walkway that led to a row of abandoned game booths. Regan lowered the chopper and the air around them began to swirl as leaves and twigs were caught up in the maelstrom. Billy put his hand over Kim's eyes to protect her and Levon tucked his head down over Billy's eyes to do the same.

  The mounted machine guns on the side of the chopper began to whirl and the sudden burst of gunfire was a sound that Levon would never forget. He dared to turn and watch as the guns ravaged any zombie that tried to climb out of the trench.

  Wind and debris smacked against Levon's face and he had to turn away. He looked down at Billy who was laughing uproariously with unadulterated joy.

  "We made it!" Billy screamed over the sound of gunfire and the roaring blades of Reagan's helicopter.

  Levon nodded and glanced at Kim's pale face as she lay in Billy's arms. She smiled up at him and he knew it would all be okay. They'd won.

  Reagan landed the chopper and Clyde ran out to help Levon bring Billy and Kim to the helicopter. Laura cried out in elation as she pulled Kim into her arms. She kissed her daughter over and over and touched her face as if testing to make sure she was real.

  "Kimmy!" Annie screamed to her sister as they got into the back of the helicopter and the family was reunited.

  Reagan peered over his shoulder at them and gave a thumbs-up as he smiled at Hero. Then he screamed out over the roar of the chopper's blades, "How do you guys feel about living in the mountains? I've a got place I think you'll like."

  "Sounds good," said Levon. "But hold up a sec. I need to grab something."

  Hero climbed bac
k down, out of the helicopter, and ran across the pavement to one of the game booths. He slid over the counter and searched for the largest stuffed cat he could find.

  He took two.

  THE END

  AUTHOR'S NOTE

  "He took two."

  I've always marveled at the last words of novels. As a reader, we spend hours upon hours tucked into bed, or a bath, or a bus seat, with these characters spinning their tale as we watch over them. They live their drama out for our entertainment, and in the best cases we find ourselves drawn into their story as if it were our own. A good book demolishes any other form of entertainment simply by the way it allows us to become so intimately involved. When you watch a movie, there's little left for your imagination to do. Same with video games, or sports, or most other forms of entertainment - but books are different. With a book, when we get invested in the story and characters, we're allowed the freedom to dream up so many of the details and our imaginations go wild. I don't think I'm the only one that gets inexorably drawn into a good book. Then, as the end sneaks up on me, I read that final sentence, and it's all over.

  That's why the last sentence of a story is incredibly important to me. I want that final sentence to encapsulate as much of the story as possible, and I've never written one that I feel does a better job than this one.

  Each of the Deadlocked stories have been a tale unto themselves. The first told David's story, the second told Laura's, and the third allowed us to get to know Billy. Part four is an amalgam of each character, but I always felt like the most important story arc belonged to Levon (our Hero.)

  Levon is a black man, raised in a lower class family, with a multitude of challenges that stood in his path. He looked to his family (Mark) for strength and depended on that to carry him through. At the beginning of this part of the series, he loses what's most important to him. The entire series has been a thinly veiled analogy to the importance of family, and the theme of Levon's story is the struggle to carry on after your family is lost. This is a theme I did not try to push throughout the story, but rather bookended it with. My goal for the final book in this series was to push the idea that what defines a family isn't always blood. In fact, when we are faced with a situation where an important member of our family passes away, it's often our friends that lift us back up again. That's part of what the entire Deadlocked series has been about.

  The other theme, that I'm pretty sure became blatantly obvious in this book, was the importance of protecting our children. As a family, there should be nothing in the world that is more important than our children. Their safety, both physically and emotionally, should be the driving force for all of our decisions. It is never okay to hurt a child, and that can always be used to determine who is good and who is bad. In the entire Deadlocked series, all of the "Good Guys" are concerned about the safety of the children involved.

  So, when Levon steps out of the helicopter and goes to the game booth to grab the stuffed animals, he takes two because he is a part of their family now, and he cares about those two little girls. He takes two because he wants them both to be happy - because he's more than their Hero, he's part of their family now.

  There's a lot of symbolism in this book, and I doubt I need to touch on most of it. I tried to bring a few of the themes from the last stories back into this one, and the most obvious is probably the role that water plays in it. This time, the most important relationship with water comes from Kim's story. At first, she's terrified of it and even refers to her reflection as the 'Devil' at one point. Kim doesn't want to go underwater because, symbolically, there's never been any turning back for the characters who are forced under. She fights the 'baptism' but eventually must face what becomes the worst of all the evil characters in the series: Trev, who is also the one that is most clearly an enemy to children. When she rises up from the bathtub, she has changed, and the very first thing she does is stab her attacker in the eye.

  One theme of Deadlocked 4 is the degradation of childhood innocence, which is why the finale takes place on an island (a place surrounded by water) that houses a decrepit amusement park. Certainly, Annie and Kim have seen or done things that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, but even in the worst places they find themselves in, their family (Levon) can find something to make them happy.

  Reagan's story is also an important part of D4, not just because I used his conversation with Covington to reveal a huge part of the plot, but also because we are witness to the unraveling of a bond similar to the one Billy and Levon share. For Reagan, the revelation of what Richard has done is enough to destroy their familial bond. I debated making Richard and Charles actually related, but I felt like that would be driving the symbolism home a bit too hard.

  Before I get to the big news at the end of this Author's Note, I'd like to let you know that many of the conspiracy theories I mention in Deadlocked are actually true. Keep in mind, these are all conspiracy theories, and I am not saying I agree or disagree with them, but they sure are fun to craft stories around. You can find more information on all of these things at my site, www.arwisebooks.com.

  The Georgia Guidestones (they're real! Go check it out!), the plastic coffins (FEMA Coffins), the empty prisons (FEMA prisons), and Alpha-77 (patent # 5676977) are all taken from true life conspiracy theories.

  Okay - let's get to the big news that I promised to the fans of Deadlocked would be revealed at the end of this book…

  There will be a Deadlocked 5.

  Now, before you get the wrong idea, let me explain that Deadlocked 4 was the end of this series. Billy, Reagan, Laura, Levon, Clyde, Kim, and Annie are headed out to Reagan's mountain home to live what they hope will be a quiet life. I'm not leaving this story with a cliffhanger and then revealing that there's going to be another one. This book is closed.

  Deadlocked 5 is going to start 20 years in the future, after the plague has turned into something far worse than it was here. Courtland's experiments didn't just develop a super-cure, it also created a super-zombie. Toby was infected with a strain of the experimental antibody mixed with the virus. This mixture killed him, but as was stated in this book, the antibodies continue to work post-mortem. When Toby was reanimated, he carried with him the mutated antibodies and they have helped to create a zombie who's body fights the bacterial and virus growth and slows down the death process. Any zombies that are created from him will go on to spawn other, undying, undead monstrosities.

  In this book, we met a child named Ben who saved Annie in the lab, but he disappears at the helipad and we never see him again. All we know is that he waited to ambush the surgeons that left Laura and went to investigate the Blue Med room. He brutally murdered them, after murdering the scientists, and then set off to locate the person he wanted to kill.

  Deadlocked 5 will focus on Ben, and will tell his story as he survives in a world that has moved far beyond the apocalypse described in the first 4 parts. To see the reveal of Deadlocked 5's cover and plot, go to www.arwisebooks.com!

  Will any of the characters of the first 4 books make an appearance in part 5? Well, I don't want to give anything away… but yes!

  Also, make sure to check out my newest series, Vampire's Prey. If you enjoyed the Deadlocked series, I know you'll LOVE the Vampire's Prey books. Also, make sure to join the arwisebooks Facebook page for the most recent updates on upcoming books.