The Inner Fence: a dystopian post-apocalyptic young adult novella series (Remnants of Zone Four Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  The Inner Fence

  The Inner Fenceo: book 2 of the Remnants of Zone Four Chronicles

  by N. G. Simsion and James Roth

  ©2016 N. G. Simsion

  All rights reserved. The use of any or part of this publication, whether reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior consent of the publisher, is an infringement of copyright law and is forbidden.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, places, and dialogue are products of the author’s imagination, and are not to be construed as real.

  Edited by Chris White of C.P. White Media, Limited Company

  http://www.cpwhitemedia.com/

  Content Editing by Christian Jordan

  Beta readers and proofreaders: Luke Randall, Jenna Lovell, Melanie Elkins, JoBeth Morrison, Amber Christensen, Lori Collins, Cami Hurst, Nancy Farnworth, Betsy Polish

  Cover design by Veronica Brighton

  Interior ebook design: Russell Elkins

  Published by Inky’s Nest Publishing

  1st edition

  First printed in 2016 in the United States of America­­

  Chapter 1

  Zero turned around in his bus seat, studying the faces of the others. He wondered how everyone else could be so excited about their new lives when he felt so uneasy about his. The old life—the schoolyard, the crocodile-infested swamp, tests, professors—it was all behind them. Now they approached what was to be their home from this day forward. There would be no going back.

  He and his best friend, Lefty, had been drafted by the Quirigua city officials to work and reside there. Lefty viewed this as an awesome turn of fortune since before the draft he didn’t think he would be chosen at all. Zero was reserving his excitement at least until they could see for themselves what Quirigua was like.

  The city officials and the Elite who had showed up to the draft looked both pompous and important in their fancy robes and pristine clothes. But the two guys who had drafted Zero and Lefty didn’t look the least bit extraordinary. Zero and Lefty weren’t exactly ready to dance, either: both were dressed in standard issue clothes, and one of them had dried blood all down his front. Zero couldn’t help but wonder anyway what kind of city officials would waste their first draft picks on those who had scored lowest on their placement tests.

  The high-pitched squeal of brakes pierced both the air and Zero’s reverie as the bus slowed to a stop. It continued to vibrate as they sat idle on the road.

  Lefty bolted up in his seat next to him. “What’s going on? Why are we stopping? Are we under attack by Remnants again?”

  “Under attack?” Zero laughed. “No. We’ve reached the outer wall of the city.” He pointed toward the front of the bus. This city’s outer wall was even more impressive than that of the schoolyard.

  “How tall do you think it is?” Lefty asked.

  Probably because the trees were taller than what they were used to, the wall was so high Zero couldn’t see the top of it even as he smashed his face to the window to get a better look. “No idea. I bet it’s at least a hundred feet.”

  Zero expected the bus driver, Needles, to step off and open the gate, but instead he turned off the engine and leaned back. He interlocked his fingers behind his head and stretched out his legs.

  Lefty turned to Zero. “What’s the holdup? I want to see what Quirigua is like.”

  “Beats me.”

  “I’ll ask the driver.”

  Zero rolled his eyes but he was just as interested in the answer as Lefty was. Although his reasons were pessimistic, he was just as anxious to find out what Quirigua looked like. He was having a hard time sitting still.

  “We gotta wait for someone to come let us in,” Needles said. “This place isn’t like the schoolyard. I can’t park the bus, get off, open the gate, get back on, drive through, park, close the gate, get back on, and drive away.”

  “Why not?” Lefty asked. “Give me the keys. I could go unlock it for you.”

  Needles laughed. “Bad idea. This place is too dangerous for that.”

  Zero felt his stomach turn. They weren’t even within the gates of the city yet and it seemed like his worst fears had already been confirmed.

  “Why is this place so dangerous? It doesn’t look dangerous from here.” Lefty said.

  Needles pointed a finger out the front of the bus. Zero couldn’t tell what he was pointing at. He could only make out a few shapes in the shadows of the trees beyond the gates. But then Lefty gasped and clapped his hands like an excited child and Zero knew right away what he must have seen. He squinted his eyes until he saw it too.

  A black panther, barely visible in the shadows, was sitting about ten feet beyond the gate. It was watching them intensely, as if daring the bus to wander into its territory.

  Lefty grabbed hold of the bus door and flung it open. “I need a closer look.”

  Needles grabbed a fistful of the back of Lefty’s shirt. “Oh no you don’t. You’ll get us all killed.” He jerked him back from the door, pulling it closed again in a hurry.

  Lefty looked at the cat, then at Needles, and back at the cat. He laughed. “What’s the big deal? The gate is still closed. It can’t get me. It’s not like it can climb over the wall or something.”

  “It’s not the cat I’m worried about. Until we are safely through that gate, this area is still considered dangerous and part of the old world. There are all kinds of things roaming around in this jungle.”

  “There are?” Lefty’s eyes darted in every direction, squinting as he scanned the dark shadows of the tree line. “Is this area swarming with Remnants or something?”

  “Quirigua is a new city—only four or five years old. That means Remnants are still all over the place out here and it’s hard to know where they are,” Needles said. “It doesn’t take a whole pack of them to ruin our way of life. Even if there’s just one of them out here, he could jump on the bus and bite a bunch of us, infecting us all. And I’m the one who sits closest to the door, so stay away from it.” He pointed back and forth between Zero and Lefty. “If one of them bites me and I get infected with the virus, I’m going to bite you two in retaliation.”

  Lefty laughed, but Zero found he was a lot more hesitant to find humor in the thought of a Remnant latching on to his skin by the teeth.

  “Have you seen them here by the gates before?” Lefty asked.

  “Leave it alone,” Zero said. “He said to stay on the bus. That’s all we need to know.”

  “Fine. Fine.” Lefty shrugged his shoulders. “You’re all boring.”

  They waited and watched the black panther for about ten minutes before a voice crackled over the CB radio. Needles carried on a short militaristic and jargon-filled conversation with someone from the other end of the line. Shortly afterward a small pickup truck approached the gate from the opposite side. The driver of the truck rolled down his window partway and yelled for the jungle cat to “Git! Git!” When it refused to budge, a long pole protruded from the window. A short blue spark lit up at the end of the pole, splitting the air with a loud crackle. The black panther was apparently familiar with the painful sensation that zapper could create, because it jumped back, hissed and walked away.

  With the zapper
stick still in his hand, a man emerged from the pickup truck. He unlocked the gate and stood with it open long enough for the bus to pass through. He then closed it behind them. Then both vehicles drove on together for about half a mile until they reached the city’s inner fence. The man in the pickup opened that gate too, allowing them to pass through it before securing it closed again.

  “Take a look at that,” Zero said as the bus began to crawl forward into the city. He pointed at groves of large-leafed trees standing 10 to 15 feet tall. They sprawled out in row upon row in every direction around them. “What are they?”

  “Banana trees,” Needles said. “Quirigua grows other crops too, but it’s mainly a banana plantation.”

  “Amazing,” Zero said. His eyes were huge as he took in this never-before-seen view.

  Lefty laughed so loud that every head on the bus turned to look at him.

  “Why are you laughing at me?” Zero asked.

  “You always roll your eyes when I get excited about seeing a crocodile or jungle cat. Look how excited you are about a banana tree.”

  “I just think it’s cool how different they are. Look how big the leaves are.”

  Lefty patted him on the back. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll pick you a brand new banana leaf for you to hang up on your wall. It’ll be your own special banana leaf.”

  Zero smacked him on the shoulder with the back of his hand. “At least a banana won’t bite half my hand off.”

  Lefty laughed as he looked down at his right hand, which had only a thumb, index finger, and half of his middle finger. The rest of his hand was last seen in the jaws of a crocodile when they were young boys at the schoolyard.

  They drove on.

  After reaching full speed, they drove for fifteen minutes through the banana orchard before buildings began to come into view. They were similar to those they remembered from school—simple square-shaped cinder block structures—except that none of these were more than two stories tall. And there were a lot more of them.

  The trees between the buildings towered a hundred feet above the ground, spreading out near the tops to create a canopy over the city. Their leaves blocked out the sky. The tree trunks were covered in a brightly colored moss. Vines dangled down all the way to the ground. Everything was green except the buildings and roads. Even within the city limits it felt like they were out in the jungle. Zero’s eyes widened as he took it all in. He was at a loss for words. It was all so foreign to him, and yet he immediately felt like this was where he belonged. The worries that had been dominating his thoughts over the last few hours temporarily took a back seat to the novelty of what now surrounded him.

  The bus came to a stop in the center of the city. Needles killed the engine and stepped off the bus without a word.

  He was greeted outside by two men wearing the long purple robes of society’s Elite.

  Soon everyone formed a line in the aisle and began exiting the bus one by one. Zero bent down and reached under his seat. When he didn’t find what he was feeling around for, he knelt down and looked. But there was nothing there.

  “Looking for something?” A familiar voice asked.

  Zero’s head snapped back up. Flea was standing over him, one backpack on his right shoulder and another on his left. He looked as smug as usual.

  This was the last thing Zero wanted right now. There was no need to have a run-in over something as silly as a backpack—especially since the only thing inside it was his pillow. Granted, it was his favorite pillow, and it took him a long time to break it in the way he liked it, but his new dorm room would issue him a brand new one and he could break that one in. He tucked his chin to his chest, turned, and moved to exit the bus. He immediately bumped into Lefty, who, unlike Zero, wasn’t the least bit uncomfortable confronting jerks like Flea.

  “You don’t have your gang with you anymore, Flea Bag. None of your little tagalong friends got drafted to Quirigua. That means you’re all alone.” Lefty smiled. “I wouldn’t go starting fights with anybody now that you don’t have any muscle for backup.”

  “Oh, I’m not looking for any trouble. I just wanted to know something. Why is it you two felt the need to keep your old school backpacks? Did you think your new town wouldn’t give you a pillow?” He removed one of the bags from his shoulder and gave it a squeeze like he was testing the pillow’s fluffiness. “Or are you just attached to it like a little baby attached to his blanket?” He traced his finger over Lefty’s name scribbled on the front in black felt-tip marker. “How adorable.”

  Lefty swung a fist at Flea, making Zero wish he wasn’t caught between them, but Flea held up one of the bags and his knuckles squashed softly into the pillow. Lefty lunged again, grabbing for the bag and snatching it out of his hand.

  Flea chuckled and handed the other bag to Zero before holding his hands up as if surrendering. “I was just keeping an eye on your special little bags, okay? Just making sure nobody tried to take them. A simple thank you would have been nice, but—”

  Lefty and Flea exchanged dirty looks, making Zero feel even more uncomfortable standing between them, before they finally exited the bus.

  “How long do you think it will be before they assign us our living quarters?” Zero asked as he admired their new city. “Do you think we’ll be roommates again?”

  “I heard Professor Bird say we would each get our own room, but what does he know? He’s never been away from the school except for—”

  A loud shriek sounded above their heads. They looked up, and much to everyone’s horror, they saw a small man with dark skin crouched on top of the bus. Black saliva dripped from his mouth onto his tattered shirt. Everyone knew exactly who—or rather, what—this man was. He was one of the Remnants of the old world. He screeched gibberish and bit at the air, spitting black in every direction.

  Zero joined the wave of people running away from the bus. When the crowd began funneling through the door of the nearest building, he realized Lefty wasn’t at his side. He turned back and saw him standing by the bus. His eyes were fixed on the Remnant. He hadn’t moved one step from where they had been talking.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Zero yelled. “Get away from there.”

  When Lefty spoke, he did so with complete calm. “Someone has to do something.”

  Chapter 2

  Zero wanted desperately to run away—to hide safely inside one of the nearby buildings just like everyone else. But he couldn’t take his eyes off Lefty, who was standing next to the bus glaring at the Remnant on the roof.

  Lefty’s feet were spread a little wider than shoulder width apart. His hands were up near his face, palms out, ready to defend against anything that might come his way.

  “Come on, Lefty. Get away from there.” Zero’s voice trembled as he pleaded.

  Lefty ignored him. He kept eye contact with the Remnant as he bent down to feel around on the ground. When he found a walnut-sized rock, he picked it up and hurled it. The Remnant dodged to one side and hissed as he bared his yellow and black teeth.

  The Remnant turned toward the two purple-robed Elites standing nearby and jumped down from the roof. In one quick motion, he latched on to the back of one of the Elites, sinking his teeth into the base of his neck.

  Lefty reacted instinctively, bull-rushing the Remnant at full speed. Before he could reach him, though, the other Elite pulled something black from the pocket of his robe, pointed it at the back of the Remnant, and pulled a trigger. Two barbs sank into the Remnant’s back, followed by a loud crackling sound as the Remnant screamed in pain. He fell stiffly to his back. His muscles jerked. The back of his head bounced off the pavement.

  Lefty’s shoes slid across the asphalt as he skidded to a halt. The Elite paused for a moment, releasing the trigger. The Remnant curled into the fetal position. The Elite grinned before pulling the trigger again to administer another round of shock. The Remnant pull
ed tighter into a ball. His wrists curled inward as his body jolted and jerked. He continued to writhe until the sound stopped, and then he lay still. Unconscious.

  Feeling slightly safer now, Zero took a few steps back toward the bus, but didn’t dare come all the way.

  “What on earth was that?” Lefty ran to the Elite’s side, staring open-mouthed at the contraption in the Elite man’s hand.

  “I just sent fifty thousand volts of electricity through that Remnant’s body.” He smirked.

  Lefty’s eyes were enormous now. “I know how that feels. I stuck a butter knife into a wall socket when I was a kid once. Whew!” Lefty held out a hand, asking if he could handle it. “You have to tell me where I can get one of those.”

  “Yeah, right. I don’t think so.” He turned his back on Lefty, whistled loudly, and called for someone named Captain.

  A young man soon joined him. Zero recognized Captain as one of the two young men—the one who had not had blood down the front of this shirt—who had drafted him earlier in the day.

  The Elite man pointed at the Remnant and the injured Elite, instructing him to gather the security team and the doctor and “clean this mess up.”

  Zero watched Captain as he organized the people. It seemed clear that, other than the Elite man in the purple robe, this young man was pretty high in the pecking order—maybe even at the top. This caused Zero to look at the rest of the security team, and then around at everyone else walking the streets of Quirigua. The only people in sight who looked older than 25 were the two Elites, and they probably lived far away in some Elite city.

  Lefty tried to remain close to the scene and help with the unconscious Remnant, but he and the other new arrivals were soon herded toward a large building. Once inside, Lefty remained by the double doors and cracked them open to continue watching outside. Zero stood behind him and watched over the top of his head.

  The injured Elite man sat bleeding on the road as someone with long curly red hair in a white smock, who Zero assumed was a doctor or nurse, knelt in front of him. The doctor checked his pupils with a pen-sized flashlight before moving an index finger back and forth in front of his face. They both looked relieved as they stood and walked away together. Zero hoped that meant he wasn’t infected and was going to be okay, but that Remnant had sunk in his teeth pretty far. It didn’t look good to him, but what did he know? He had no idea how quickly the virus took effect or how easily it could transfer to another person.