Novels by Zane Celmens

Zane’s POV I woke up to a nudge from Daniels’, I guess I had fallen asleep at some point in the Humvee. I looked over at him; tired as well as a little drowsy from sleep and asked, “What’s up?” “We are almost at an abandoned base a few miles away from boston. We had a hell of a night so it will be a great place to stock up and rest.” He said this very sadly. “What’s wrong?” I asked him directly. “Well I just lost my home man. I’m bound to be sad and depressed.” He said this very down and out. As if he had given up. He didn’t want to chat so I let it be. He had a point though. We were driving along the country backroads as highways would be congested in abandoned vehicles. I took in the beauty of the countryside. We were driving past a farm, the fields had overgrown and crops had either died or fought to survive against the weeds. Crops like corn and wheat were doing fine from what I could tell. It looked as if nature itself had taken over what was once tended to so tediousl

Smiths POV It was sometime after midnight when I heard the first Pales start to shriek. I didn’t know why the den hadn’t been cleared yet, this was the second night. The wall guards were tripled up this night, again I had no idea why. I was sitting inside the checkpoint station on a chair. My job was to sound alarms in emergencies, but none really ever happened. I stifled a yawn, it was going to be a long night. I couldn’t see anything eventful happening tonight. Except for the Pales being shot at. For the most part it should be a boring shift. The Pales shrieked and howled again, closer this time. It seemed they were approaching the base now. The guards up on the wall started shooting now. Letting out controlled bursts, the

Zane’s POVIt was a scary experience seeing an alpha for the first time. Those things were terrifying and seemed to be deadly. What I couldn’t believe the most was how massive it was. I was starting to doubt Daniels’ reassurances that the base was safe. We didn’t know how many Pales were in the mall in total; it could be hundreds or thousands. And that thought alone was terrifying.I was in my dorm stricken with these thoughts. I looked at the alarm clock and it was 5:20. I had eaten lunch earlier, with Daniels’ squad. There was a gag order issued on the topic of the alpha we encountered. The higher ups did not want to cause a panic I guess. I could understand that but all I wanted to do was talk about it, so I holed up in my dorm.I could handle an average Pale but this thing? Th

Daniels’ POV It was 04:30 when I stepped outside of my barracks. I had heard the Pales and gunfire coming from the perimeter wall. I had figured I’d check the wall out and see what was going on. I was walking past the tents when I saw Zane stumbling towards the barracks. I called out a greeting but he seemed to be in shock so I walked over to him. “Hey buddy, what's wrong?” I asked him. He stared at me for moment and spoke: “A Pale just took Talons from uptop the wall…” He said this very much in a daze. I could understand how shocking it is though. I have witnessed it happening myself a few times. “Yeah it happens from time to time when they come into town, I’ve lost a few friends myself.”I said glumly. “What use is a wall if they can just jump over it!” He shouted. “Hey, hey, hey calm down, it doesn’t happen often, just every few years. Besides they aren’t en masse enough to take the base out so don’t worry.” I tried to reassure him. “Are you sure this base is safe?” He asked.

Zane’s POV It was 9:00 now and Daniels had brought a crate of moonshine down from his dorm Carl, David, Anderson and Richards were all drinking moonshine from bottles. They were more like jugs than bottles but that did not matter to them they were getting as wasted as they could to drown their pain out. We were all in the common room of barracks A. It was very similar to barracks J. Couches and chairs were spread out in the area. We were all sitting down. There was a tv and a playstation and some games with movies near it. Anderson and Carl were sharing stories of Williams. They talked about his first deer kill. The time he got scared by a cockroach. The time he killed a turkey and how it was in mid-flight, like an old westerner cowboy. About another time that he got chased by a hive of bees. These stories made Williams seem like a badass.

I walked out the doors and accessed the scene that lay before me. There were bullet holes in the truck and as well on the transport. Most of the vehicle's bodies had been eroded away. Williams lay on the ground, dead. Anderson and Carl were slipping his body into a body bag. After they were done they loaded him into the back of the Humvee by the truck. It was a grim sight and very depressing, to see someone on your team being loaded into a body bag.“Alright, gather round everyone. Everyone, take a knee.” Daniels called out. We walked over to him, gathered in a circle and got on one knee. “Alright. I already contacted HQ and told them about the casualty and firefight, They said to come back to base, our patrol was pretty much over anyways. Tonight let's drink and celebrate his life.”With that we all