The Service Centre (Zombie Transference Book 1) Read online

  Sometimes things go wrong. A driver is too tired after a long night of partying, or perhaps the truck drivers have been pushing too hard on a long haul. After a long military exercise with bad weather and not much sleep, the rear party should have stopped instead of pushing for home. The workers in the roadside service centre curse their luck that they were stuck on a night shift instead of partying or studying.

  It isn’t always their fault when something goes wrong.

  Sometimes bad things can’t be prevented.

  That’s what happened that dark and dreary night on a small highway winding through some hills in the middle of nowhere.

  Everything was normal and then it shifted and the worst times were happening.

  Written and Published by Tom Germann

  Copyright 2016

  Licence Notes

  Thank you for reading this book. A great deal of effort went into the creation of this book. So if you would like to share this with a friend please have them visit one of the stores carrying this book. This work is not to be reproduced, copied or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

  If you enjoyed this book please visit www.tgermann-sf-guy.com to discover other works by this author.

  If you would like to stay informed of coming announcements click http://eepurl.com/bYnxvD

  Thank you for your support.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s twisted imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living, dead, or undead is entirely coincidental. It would also be very worrying.

  Edited by: Mia Darien www.miadarien.com

  Cover by: www.10dollarcovers.com

  Other Books by This Author

  The Corporate Marine Series:

  Video Game Recruiting 2016

  Welcome To The Marines 2016

  First Deployment 2016

  Stories From The CM Universe

  Virtual Reality Start 2017

  Virtual Reality Nightmare 2017

  A special thank you to those who helped out with this. Being able to suspend a bit of disbelief is always a good thing when reading Science Fiction, or really any other fiction works. This story wrote itself mostly. There were only a few things that I had to add in (mostly names). Zombies don’t exist. We all know that. Yet what would you do if you were dropped into a zombie apocalypse having read books and watched movies about it while everyone around you is blinking dumbly? A definite leg up over all the rest that have no clue.

  For those who read this and talked to me you helped make this story a reality.

  Army guys should always have long flowing hair. It looks horrible sticking out from under the beret. Trust me.

  If you enjoyed the book in any format, reviews are always helpful for an author to get feedback on how they are doing.

  The City, book two will be out by spring 2017. The other two books will be out before end year 2017.

  Table of Contents

  The Rest Stop

  Tracy And Susie

  Salvatore

  Richard

  The Soldiers

  Tracy

  Jimmy And Sam

  Sam

  Lights Out

  Steven And Janice

  Janice

  Steven

  Inside The Service Centre

  The Workshop

  Back Inside The Service Centre

  On Patrol

  Recce

  Stockchecking Inside The Service Centre

  The Edge Of The Forest

  In The Service Centre

  In The Gas Station

  Clearing The Road

  Working On The Vehicles

  The Night Shift On Sentry

  Night Shift

  Let’s Go To The Mall

  Game Over

  On The Road Finally

  The Trading Post

  The Army Post

  Army Post Perimetre Sweep

  The Reserve Base

  Outside

  The Slow Horde

  Time For A Meeting

  Contact

  On The Road Again

  Zombie Transference Book Two: The City A Look Ahead

  Authors Notes

  August 24th 2016

  The skies are threatening to open up and drench the area in rain. Again. For now though, Mother Nature has been kind and held off. Of course, given what the summer has been like so far, it’s going to be bad when it does start raining.

  The Rest Stop

  This rest stop was built a long time ago just. outside of town. The idea was that with a booming economy, the town would eventually become a small city. The planners were well intentioned, so they approved the construction of a truck stop well outside the proposed town limits. In the future, when the town was a city, the area around the truck stop would be zoned commercial with some light industrial parks. All just far enough away that good jobs could be had with a short drive, but the future city wouldn’t have the pollution or industrial mess that came with growth.

  Those planners had done a good job of it, but that was the early seventies. The economy had soon gone into the toilet and growth plans had died quickly. The small truck stop was used, and was updated occasionally, but the highway just didn’t have enough traffic and any future growth headed for the bigger cities and massive urban sprawl. That small building sat all on its own in the middle of nowhere.

  It was lit up and the staff were about to undertake the regular inventory, but the universe is not always about counting bottles of pop and product on the shelf…

  Tracy And Susie

  “Oh my God, Susie, Richard is SUCH a dick! How did he ever make shift manager, or anything else?”

  Susie giggled at her friend’s red face and flailing arms. They were out back having a quick smoke break before going inside to tackle the inventory, which included having counts done of all stock by morning so the day manager could put together his reports for the head office.

  “Gee, Tracy, you would think after the first year of college that you would be able to deal with power tripping monsters. What did he do? Ask you out? Did he tell you that your scores were based on sex with him? Oh GOD! Are you having sex with your teachers at school?”

  Tracy glared at Suzie. They had been best friends since first grade, and Susie had always been like that. Susie was kind of ‘friendly’ with people she liked and was always smiling.

  Tracy, on the other hand, with her tie-dyed hair and extreme politics never seemed to smile much and was always chasing after some cause or another.

  “Susie, I do NOT have sex with teachers. This was important! The meeting is tomorrow night and they need every person out they can get. The increases in tuition are going to drive more and more poor kids out of the whole education system. Can’t you see how in a few generations, the only people making any money or getting good jobs will be the rich and the flunkies that work for them?”

  Susie took a drag on her smoke.

  She shook her head, sending her blonde curls dancing across her face. “Nope. I only see that I won’t be screwing Tony tomorrow night, and he’s a lot of fun. WAY more fun than going to some sort of borderline diesel dyke protesting ceremony with people who haven’t washed in weeks and want to protest everything.”

  Susie flicked the ash off her cigarette. “Sorry. I guess that you just got the news from Richard that we are all doing stock check today and tomorrow night if necessary? He wouldn’t give you the time off?”

  Tracy started pacing ba
ck and forth, looking angry as always. Susie sighed. Tracy had always been the uptight political one. She used to stand up to bullies when she was younger, and regularly won. College had just made it worse, and Susie wondered if maybe she would be throwing rocks or bombs at the cops one day.

  Better to let her work it out till she had vented the anger.

  Susie knew that Tracy was cute. Lots of guys liked her, but she wasn’t interested in normal guys. Just guys that were smelly, unwashed, and spoke out at rallies. She giggled and then shuddered when she thought about what it would be like to get it on with someone who hadn’t washed in weeks. Nope, that was gross and Susie had standards.

  Tracy kept pacing. Susie lit another cigarette and watched her friend pace. Something was wrong.

  Tracy was about five-foot-five with short, dark hair that she had dyed over the school year so it was like a tie-dyed shirt now. She had a couple of piercings and was kind of skinny, but some guys were into that now. Heck, lots of guys were into that now.

  Susie looked at her friend and said, “Tracy, I think I finally figured out what your real problem is.”

  Tracy stopped pacing and put her hands on her hips, glaring at Susie. “Go ahead and tell me what my problem is.”

  “Well, I look at it this way. You keep chasing all these causes of big business or government stepping on the little people. You go to these rallies and meetings and sign petitions. Can you tell me ONE thing that you have successfully changed? Have you frozen tuition? Is police brutality over? Do people respect the police now? Are the rules for recycling or carbon emissions changing and getting better? Can you tell me ONE thing that counts that you have accomplished?”

  Tracy huffed and puffed then looked at her shoes. When she looked up, she looked a bit lost. “Just because we haven’t changed anything yet doesn’t mean that we won’t change something later. We have to stand up and fight for what’s right. If we don’t, who will? You never told me what my problem was.” She cocked a leg and pulled her cigarette pack out of a back pocket. Susie gave her a light and waited for her to get the cigarette going before answering.

  “From everything I have seen about you, Tracy, the answer seems pretty simple. Go meet a realistic guy who actually has a job and washes himself sometimes and get your brains fucked out of your head.”

  Tracy choked on her cigarette and Susie laughed.

  When Tracy finally got the coughing under control, she tried talking. “Susie, you are such a slut! It’s all about sex for you!”

  “No, it’s about fun, and I don’t do things unless they pay off in some way. If I thought you would get any real results, then I would march down the street with you. But those things do not work. So why bother when you could be out doing something fun and accomplishing something?”

  Tracey growled at her friend, “How can you come across as so wholesome?”

  Susie stood up and pirouetted in the alcove. “Sweetie, I am five-foot-eight and have long blonde hair. I have a nice rack and a great ass. I help out on my cousin’s farm all the time, so I’m fit and I know what I like and what I like to do, and with who. What guy wouldn’t want to have sex with me? Do you remember our phys-ed teacher in the last year of school?”

  “That jerk gave me a sixty-two and I was way better than you! How did you ever get an eighty-seven?”

  “Tracy, I wore short, tight work-out shorts to class and batted my eyes a lot. I’m amazed I didn’t get in the nineties like I did in other classes.”

  “God, Susie, you are such a slut.”

  “Nope, I just know what works. Whenever you want to compare how much better you think your way is, let’s look at how well I did against how much work you put in for lower grades.”

  “But what are you doing now but staying in small town nowhere and doing nothing with your life!”

  Susie giggled at her. “Tracy, I have a few more credits to go for my business administrator certification. That translates to receptionist or secretary. I’m going to go to work in a bigger company, meet some good looking guy climbing the corporate ladder, and marry him. I’m going to work out a lot, maybe have a kid, and fuck his brains out so he stays with me. Everyone says I have my mom’s looks…”

  Susie stood up and butted her cigarette out. “Come on. If you want a chance to have tomorrow night off so that you can go and protest with smelly people, then we need to get the work done now.”

  Tracy watched her friend stride inside with a frown and thought about what a slutty bitch she could be. Susie was a good friend, but her notions of right and wrong were all messed up. Probably came from living with her grandma for all those years and always being dressed up nice.

  Salvatore

  Sal walked from the front of the store to behind the counter. He wondered where the chicks were. Probably wasting time in the back smoking, doing their nails, and talking about guys.

  Bitches didn’t know what work was like. Sal had always known that he was a good worker. He had never gotten good grades in school, but that was okay. He used to like just hanging out with his friends and having a good time. Now, he’d been stuck out here in the boonies. ever since he had gotten a little drunk and driven his dad’s truck. It wasn’t his fault he had hit that fence, but that bitch cop had made a big deal of it and his parents had been really pissed.

  His own dad had looked like he was going to hit him. His own son! Mom had calmed Dad down, but. obviously not enough. Here he was shipped off to nowhere, and he had to get a job or the family here would cane him.

  At least he was working in this loserville far away from where the few people he knew could see him. Even better? He had to drive to work, so the family let him use one of the vehicles. It wasn’t much but it was better than walking or biking.

  He stopped and admired himself in the mirrored display stand. He was only about five-foot-seven and maybe weighed a hundred and forty pounds,. but hey, he was sixteen and people should know how lucky they were to be around him. He dressed well and could talk to the ladies.

  Now if he could only talk that jerk Richard into letting him go, he could go to town and check out that dance. There would be some good looking, stupid chicks there, and. he wanted to practice the lines his brother had given him that worked on the girls at college.

  Heck, he was only here for another few weeks, even though the summer had been hell. His own girlfriend had dumped him for another guy right after he got here. Stupid bitch.

  Hell, if Richard wasn’t a good friend of the family who would rat him out, he would have just said he was sick and taken tomorrow off. Who cared about stocktaking? He didn’t.

  Sal grimaced when he saw both girls walking in the back door from where they had been smoking. He had asked them both out when he first got there. Tracy had looked grossed out, while Susie had said no the first time. The second time he asked and told her how good he was, she laughed at him. LAUGHED AT HIM! Bitch.

  Sal ignored the girls and walked past the counter and into Richard’s office. He was amazed that the fatty wasn’t already passed out at his desk in this crappy little office. Maybe he hadn’t gorged himself on about-to-go-stale sandwiches yet.

  Sal stopped just inside the door. “Umm, sir? I was wondering if maybe if you didn’t need me for this stocktaking? Both Susie and Tracy are already working on it and I think they’ll be done in the next few hours…”

  Richard looked up from his desk where he was typing slowly on the keyboard. “Sal, your family asked me to get you this job and you’ve done a good job over the summer. The quarterly stock check has to be done. What is going to happen is that we’ll almost be done and then a tour bus with thousands of people will pull in. Then we won’t get it done because we are short-staffed. It happens every time. If the stock check is not done, I look bad. I have worked here for years and want to get moved one day, so I have to do a great job.”

  Richard sighed. “I am sorry that yo
u cannot have that time off. Maybe we get lucky and nothing goes wrong on this stock check and you leave early. That’s as good as it gets, Sal.”

  Sal nodded and mumbled something at Richard, then ducked out of the office cursing wildly in the back of his mind.

  The front door jingled as it opened, but he didn’t look as he headed to lock up the side doors. He was already an hour late doing that. Maybe if he worked hard and fast, they would be done tonight. That dance was calling him.

  Richard

  He hated this office and he hated this damn service centre. Susie and Tracy were probably laughing at him outside during one of the smoke breaks they weren’t supposed to take.

  Susie was a hot blonde that every guy in school had ogled, and even most of the younger guys who were out of school. Corn-fed did something right for her, and she ran track and worked on a family farm. She was fit and hot. And she worked here in a service centre. He knew that she was taking some courses and maybe heading off to college and a real job. Good for her. She smiled and tried to be nice. At least she wasn’t a snarky bitch like Tracy.

  Tracy had worked here before. It was one of the few places paying decently in the sleepy town, and the work wasn’t hard. But ever since she had gone to college, she was an angry lesbian waiting to happen. Man, he really wished the day shift manager hadn’t hired her. She kept going on about the workers and their rights. Go work in a factory then and save their lives. But he couldn’t say that out loud.

  At least with those two, they mostly worked. Sal. Eh… The family was very involved in town. Sal was from the branch that had gone off to the city, but the grandmother knew everyone and pulled a few strings. The day manager and he had been talked to and Sal was hired on for the summer…. Of course Rod on day shift had been able to shift the lazy bastard to nights. Maybe Sal was a good kid, but so far, all Richard had seen was him being a rude, lazy punk. . . Richard knew that Sal had propositioned both Tracy and Susie, but neither had complained.