Read Online Forest Park: A Zombie Novel by Jamie Marks - Free Book Online Page A

home.
    Steve began to reverse the Dodge Ram from his driveway, but then paused for a moment, leaving the truck to idle. He reached out and stroked Kathy’s hand as they stared at their new home, complete with a white picket fence and a large oak tree, which stood in their front yard; one day, they both thought, the oak tree would make the perfect place to hitch up a tyre swing. Not far from their new home was Kathy’s school, Hendrix Elementary, where she would teach. Whilst Steve’s new job was only a few minutes’ drive away at the local hardware store --- a job Kathy had found for him on the internet.
    “I know we could both stare at the house all day, but maybe we should get going,” Steve said as he had begun to reverse again. “Any ideas on a destination?”
    “I don’t care where we go, but can we eat soon? I’m starving.”
    “I don’t think I have ever said no to food, but as much as I am going to regret asking this, honey, would you like to visit your sister before we both begin our new jobs? You know, once we start, we won’t have a great deal of free time, even with your sister living so close by nowadays.”
    Kathy’s sister, Amanda, lived in Macon with her husband Craig and their three children Tarin, Sophie and David; all three of them were monsters in the Japanese tradition.
    Steve wasn’t particularly fond of Amanda or her husband Craig.
    “I don’t think so, honey, it maybe a little too soon...” Kathy said, and continued speaking in reference to when Steve and Kathy hosted a small family barbecue shortly after they had moved to Forest Park. The beers and wine flowed easily, and for once, the kids were relatively quiet, but with Steve being a painfully honest type of guy when he was drunk, the night suddenly took a dramatic turn for the worse and ended in tears.
    Steve had little recollection of what had happened that night, but he did remember Craig telling him to go and fuck himself and the horse he rode in on. Steve then replied exuberantly, “That it was a fine horse and Craig wasn’t fit to kiss its ass.”
    The next day Steve woke up on the living room floor with a sore jaw and an angry wife.
    “How about we have a picnic in the park instead?” suggested Steve.
    “Sounds great,” Kathy said, as they leisurely cruised by the gates of Fort Gillem.
     
     
    THE CAPTAIN
     
    As Steve and Kathy drove by Fort Gillem, an army-green Humvee came to a stop at the front of the gates. Its driver removed his cap and wiped his brow --- it was warm out.
    The driver was Captain Louis Tyler of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the man responsible for the removal of any remaining ordnance from the grounds and the surrounding acres that encompassed Fort Gillem.
    Tyler joined the military at the age of eighteen; he was a tall, lanky, southern boy who had a history of misbehavior, and a love for poor science fiction and B-grade horror movies.
    Tyler’s first assignment after joining the USACE, was during the crisis in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina had destroyed the old jazz town. Tyler was one of many set to work rebuilding New Orleans’ smashed levees. Then after New Orleans, Tyler completed two tours in Iraq.
    In Iraq, Tyler’s assignment was to restore power and water services to a small hamlet just outside of Baghdad, but in reality, being in country saw him spending much of his time bribing officials, and setting up hidden cameras to detect insurgents attempting to plant IEDs.
    The days were long and it was tough and thankless work, with little reward. What advances his team had made were normally short-lived, either because of the insurgency, or because of cost. At best, Tyler could only manage to achieve a restricted power supply for a few hours of the day, while water services ran at a trickle.
    His time in Iraq was disheartening. He found the people either resentful or at best eerily over-friendly. Tyler found it difficult to trust anyone who was not American, and it was