Free The World's Next Plague by Colten Steele

Zombie Threat: The World’s Next Plague
    Spread of the Infection
     
     
    Published by Colten Steele - [email protected]
     
    Copyright 2014 Colten Steele
     
    Smashwords Edition
     
     
    Smashwords Edition, License Notes
     
    Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book
remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be
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    Before you read…
    This is the third short story in my Zombie series.
While it is fine to read this book first, I would recommend reading Zombie Threat: The Undead Arise and Undead Genesis: Zombie before delving into
this one. Both are available at most online bookstores.
     
     
    Table of Contents
     
    Introduction
    Prologue
    Chapter I
    Chapter II
    Chapter III
    Chapter IV
    Chapter V
    Chapter VI
    Chapter VII
    Chapter VIII
    Chapter IX
    Chapter X
    Chapter XI
    Chapter XII
    Chapter XIII
    Chapter XIV
    Epilogue
    Afterward
    Author Notes
     
     
    ~ Introduction ~

    Throughout my career as a journalist with the
Archive Channel I have had the opportunity to travel to many remote
and dangerous places. I remember almost all of these expeditions
fondly, but what I saw in the deep rainforests of the Amazon will
intrigue and disturb me for the rest of my life.
    Those of you as old as I am will remember the
mysterious disappearance almost two decades ago of survivalist Rock
Santana, host of the highly rated show New Worlds, along with his
entire crew. They disappeared in a stretch of rainforest
approximately the size of the United States and all attempts to
find or communicate with them at that time failed. Years of
searching for the crew produced no results and the attempt to
discover their fate ended over fifteen years ago.
    Many people today have forgotten Rock’s
disappearance, but those of us who worked with him at the Archive
Channel never will. This is partly due to the large portrait in the
Archive Channel’s foyer, but mostly due to his enigmatic
personality. Rock could be a complete pain in the neck, but nobody
was more entertaining. His charismatic storytelling was legendary
and people could not get enough of him.
    Rock and the members of his crew were
supremely gifted to survive in any environment. They had been
everywhere and seen everything. Had you locked them in an empty
bank vault naked they would have been cooking a snared rabbit over
a campfire within an hour. We never gave up hope of them one day
just walking out of the forest and calling the network.
    When I pitched the idea to the network of
taking another camera crew to search for the missing men, they were
understandably reluctant. It seemed suicidal to the higher-ups to
send any more journalists into a place dangerous enough to take
Rock. I had to assure them we would be travelling with the latest
equipment, including two items they did not have way back then: a
handheld GPS and a remote beacon so I could be easily located.
    I went in with the best team and local guides
available. We had enough weaponry to take out half the remaining
native population if necessary. Now that we are back, I am thankful
to tell you we never needed the weapons. We walked out unscathed
about four months after we walked in.
    You may have seen the resulting show the
Archive Channel broadcast after we returned. If not, I can
summarize it for you. The show details how we found no skeletons or
physical proof of what actually happened to the crew, but
unbelievably, after weeks of searching blindly, we stumbled upon
their equipment… literally. A guide we called Poppo tripped on a
pack frame buried in the brush. Many critics blamed the network for
faking this stunt for ratings, but I was there and it happened.
Anything made of cloth had rotted from the hot and humid
environment, but some of the hardier equipment, including