JASON C CONLEY: Five Things Learned Illustrating the TRANSPORT Covers

1.  Zombies are just as freakin' cool to draw as they are to watch. 

 

My first encounter with the undead was the 1968 George Romero classic, Night of the Living Dead.  I wasn’t even born until 78’ so it was on cable where I was introduced to this slowly-built-up dread that beat its way through your boarded up window.  Talk about suspenseful!  To be not really all that gruesome, it’s never really been beat to this day as far as zombie flicks go.  Its restraint is what is appealing and it’s exactly that restraint in gore that I brought to this piece.  Our over-saturation in violence has deadened (pun intended) our response to it.  I could have just as easily drawn entrails and eyeballs and blood spraying like a MMA fight.  But that would be like everything else we see today, and that just ain’t me punk!

 

2.  Military vehicles COMBINED with zombies are a cool way to go, baby! 

I remember when Peter and I were going over the cover concept together and he talked about this giant armored beast called the HURON.  I thought, “Cool!  I’ve never tackled a military unit before.  This will be fun!”  And then I start thinking…the engines churned and fire blew out my tailpipe like an old Tex Avery cartoon.  He said he had three covers.  This was a series.  So I thought, “why not make them connect like some of the comics from the 90’s use to?”  I pitched the idea to Peter and his publisher, not really caring if they said no, I was doing it anyways!  I already had the image in my head of what to draw, they just had to sit back and wait.  I did a rough draft, sent it out and then went full steam ahead.

 

 

3.  I almost bit off more than I could chew.  

 

Not only did the three covers have to work together, they also had to work as separate pieces when broken apart for their respective books.  No small task!  The HURON was the centerpiece of this story, so I wanted it on the first book to introduce the character of sorts.  Peter said he wanted a car crushed underneath it, zombies scattered throughout, and the Grand Rapids city skyline in the background.  But if this story was about military strike vehicles taking on the zombie apocalypse then why not add some really killer beasts of BOOM to go with it??  So along came the tank and helicopter, crowds of zombies, attacking military squads and crawling creatures of the undead.  Each cover now focused on a particular vehicle that wrecked carnage with brains to spare.

 

 

4.  Color ties things together nicely. 

I wanted a grimy, used, stepped upon and drug across look for this piece.  Zombies aren’t the cleanest things, and life gets a little messy when they’re being crushed or blown to pieces.  So I used an Earth tone color scheme, set at dusk, and went to work adding all sorts of cruddy textures to ground the piece in reality. 

 

 

5. Special effects rule! 

 

Sparks, flames, spotlights, broken glass, motion blur, all used where needed to really sell the work and make it interesting.  Photoshop was used for this entire cover from start to finish.  But what really sold it was a professional set of filters I used called Knoll Light Factory.  If you’ve seen a blockbuster movie in the past decade, then you’ve seen Knoll Light Factory at work.  It’s a highly customizable collection of light filters, lens flares, sparkles, etc. that can really transform a piece if used correctly. 

 

 

So there you have it.  Easy enough, right?  Whatever the subject matter, you have to tackle the piece with your own style, viewpoint, and skill set available.  It helps if you have killer subject matter to work with, too!  Thanks for that part Peter!

 

 

 

[No. Thank YOU, Jason. Your TRANSPORT covers ROCK! I couldn't be more fortunate working with a great talent like yourself. I can draw a mean stick figure, but nothing compared to you and the other TRANSPORT artist, Tim Holtrop. You guys hit it out of the park...which is probably good, because John Ball Park (Grand Rapids Michigan) in my TRANSPORT World is home of both the undead and some, er, strange mutations yet to be discovered.]

 

 

 

 

#

 

BIO:

Jason Conley lives in Chattanooga, TN with his wonderful wife and daughter.  He is a writer and illustrator, currently doing cover art/illustration work for Seventh Star Press.  His novel, The Kingdom of Vosh, was published in 2013 by Dark Oak Publishing.

http://www.thekingdomofvosh.com/

http://www.pinterest.com/jconley78/artwork-of-jason-c-conley/

Kingdom of Vosh on Amazon

Kingdom of Vosh on Barnes & Noble

 

Copyright 2013-2014 Jason Conley

Copyright 2013-2014 Jason Conley

 

 #

 

TRANSPORT (Book One), with cover art by Jason Conley and interior art by Tim Holtrop, can be found here:

 

 

AMAZON

Paperback

Kindle

BARNES & NOBLE

SCHULER BOOKS

Paperback

 

#

 

Uncaptioned art on this page copyright 2014 Jason Conley, Peter Welmerink

Werewolf Zombie wanders the streets of Grand Rapids

From the GRAND RAPIDS HERALD Sunday August 30 2026

 

 

"Something has been tearing into Grand Rapidians, both living and undead, causing a wave of panic among the surviving denizens of Grand Rapids and surrounding countryside.

 

"It is NOT the work of a horde of FZ's (Feral Zombies) or some sort of marauding band of violent Loyalists or any other group," Mayor Dennis Honeywell was reported saying.

 

The Mayor's statement was based on medical staff, escorted by Grand Rapids Central Command, looking at the remains of both living and unliving civilians found torn to literal shreds on the city's southwest side and bodies found severely mutilated in the UCRA.

 

"There have been no reports of Ferals within the city or within the Urban Civilian Retention Area. However, we haven't ruled out that something from the old John Ball Park Zoo hasn't emerged and escaped," Honeywell said.

 

The John Ball Park Zoo, on the city's west side and contained within its own protective fence line, was cordoned off years ago after it was found geneticists of Valley State University had been using its occupants for mutation experiments.

 

"We will continue to follow this story as more details come to light."

 

 

TRANSPORT to IMAGINARIUM

My panelist and moderator schedule for the forthcoming IMAGINARIUM Convention in Louisville KY this September is here!

I am looking forward to meeting the Seventh Star Press team (my publisher) and SSP authors, other writers and all sorts of new people and new friends.

My IMAGINARIUM Schedule:

Saturday      11:00 AM     Cover Lovin'

Saturday      7:00 PM        The Zombie Horde

Sunday        9:00 AM        Lone Hero Vs. Heroic Group

Sunday        11:00 AM      Into the Wastelands (M)

I will also be at the Seventh Star Press table/booth, hanging with the SSP crew and signing books.

Hope to see you there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 19-21 2014 Louisville, KY

at the Crowne Plaza Hotel

The Imaginarium offers a wealth of programming, events, and all kinds of fun for those who enjoy the world of creative writing!

The Imaginarium is open to all genres, and explores all kinds of creative writing, from books, to comics/graphic novels, screenplays, blogging, and much more!

The convention opens to the public at 4pm on Friday and runs through ...the close of the Awards Banquet on Sunday (which starts at 5pm). Programming begins at 9am on Saturday and Sunday, and for the most part panels end by 9pm on Friday and Saturday.

###

TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:

AMAZON

Paperback

Kindle

BARNES & NOBLE

SCHULER BOOKS

Paperback

  

Stranger in a Strange Place

Yeah, I can be a little weird at times. Fuck it. Go crazy!

 

 

Admittedly, I can be a little strange, a little bizarre, a little too intense, a little too wrapped up in my work. It is not a bad thing I suppose.

 

Not a bad thing, but sometimes I feel like I am all alone out there, in my crazy little writing world.

 

I spend my early morning hours with a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee before me, with the computer on and current manuscript pulled up on the screen, writing some, thinking more, trying to keep myself away from loading up MINECRAFT and playing for a bit...because I am subconsciously, or perhaps, very consciously, trying to avoid writing the words that I know are in me and wanting to come out, perhaps a little afraid of putting down that next written line, if it is good enough, if I am even pursuing something that is legit and worth reading let alone worth writing.

 

I think sometimes, when friends and family ask WHAT ARE YOU WRITING, and I tell them, I get the approving nod but also can see a glimmer of WHAT THE HELL? I don't expect anyone to GET IT, be you a reader of specific, Fantasy, whathaveyou. I know we all do not share the same interests (Thank God) and THAT can be what makes things work with this whole machine called living and life.

 

Whoever said WRITING CAN BE A LONELY PLACE wasn't kidding.

 

But, you know what, on the positive side, I am doing something I have ALWAYS ALWAYS enjoyed doing. It has always been therapeutic for a kid and guy trying to figure out the world on the outside, having a place to go on the inside and a means (talent?) to put it back on the outside (writing) and, wow! even being published and read. A dream come true? Hell yes. Being able to write and be read, hell yeah, a dream come true.

 

Not sure why the deep thoughts, maybe due to remembering my dad (Donald Welmerink 1933-2004), the passing of comedic artist Robin Williams, a full moon, some exciting good things in my life making me anxious, some stressful bullshit stuff making me anxious, the anniversary of a major anxiety attack which was NO FUCKING FUN at the time...I don't why the deep thoughts.

 

I'm going to turn this thing around now.

 

Life is good. It is big and good.

 

I got family, friends, a job, a writing gig. Got opportunities if I want to be a little crazy and pursue them.

 

And like the music artist SEAL sings: How we ever gonna survive unless we get a little crazy?

PETER WELMERINK: Five Things I Learned Writing TRANSPORT

 

The HURON, a 72-ton heavy transport vehicle and an army of four; tracked, racked and ready to roll, to serve and protect the walled metropolis of Grand Rapids — both her living and her undead. Captain Jacob Billet and his crew patrol the byways, ready for trouble.

 

William Lettner, the North Shore Coalition High Commissioner, has enemies from the mainland to the lakeshore. He needs to be covertly transported back home after a disastrous meeting in Grand Rapids. He has no love for a city that give unliving civilians the right to survive.

Assigned to bring Lettner home, Billet finds himself assaulted and insulted by the commissioner's venomous outbursts every mile travelled as they move through the treacherous landscape between Grand Rapids and the shore of Lake Michigan.

 

To complete the mission, Billet, the HURON and her crew will have to face domesticated zombies and the feral undead; marauders holding strategic chokepoints hostage; barricaded villages fighting for survival, and a group of geneticists who’ve lost control of one of their monstrous experiments.

 

Travelling through West Michigan was never so dangerous.

 

***

 

DREAM IT, DO IT
I have been writing stories about epic Sword & Sorcery tales and Military forays for as long as I could put pen to paper. When I got the idea pumping through my system about the TRANSPORT series, and wrote that first manuscript, and submitted it to a publisher, and got it picked up for publication; BAM! Dream come true.

 

If you have an idea, and it keeps burning in your mind, and you can't shake it from your system, or it simply doesn't fade away, then you HAVE TO DO IT! Set some time aside. Put your butt in the chair and your body to the drawing board, keyboard, paper napkin, in front of you and start getting that idea down. Make it happen, because, who knows, you might have a BAM! DREAM COME TRUE.

 

CLICHE? WHAT CLICHE?
I did not set out to write another ZOMBIE-engorged tale when I sat down to write the TRANSPORT series. It was first about writing a fictional, somewhat futuristic, post-apoc tale set in my old hometown GRAND RAPIDS and somehow mix a strong military presence into it with cool soldiers, big armored military vehicles and a lot of action. The zombie aspects were sprinkled in after a thought of: WHAT ELSE CAN I THROW IN THE STORY FOR ADDED CHAOS. I like zombies so, it was zombies.

 

But MY ZOMBIES ARE DIFFERENT.



Bob the zombie service station attendant

Illo by Tim Holtrop

I don't want my characters having to run away from zombies. No mass of brain-hungry rotters rampaging berserkly (new word) killing every living thing. Sure, I have the FERAL "wild dog" zombies on the outskirts of town, like giant biting pesky Horseflies always swarming about, but I also have "civilian" zombies...the unfortunate city folk who have succumb to the virus and trip-shamble about the large fenced-in retention area that is on the west side of Grand Rapids across the river from city central. There are laws to protect those undead, and they are fed doped meat to keep them "tranquil" while City Central tries to figure out what to do with them.

 

And then you have BOB the 1950's gas station attendant zombie.

 

IT'S EASY SOMETIMES WHEN IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD
TRANSPORT Book One was all in my head. The beginning, middle and end were all there right from the get-go. I knew what I wanted, when I wanted it, where to put it. I knew the characters though they came even more to life when I started writing them. Some characters and scenarios just POPPED ONTO THE PAGE when my main group entered their locale in the story stream.

 

Basically BOOK ONE was fully imagined before I wrote it. It was easy to write. It just flowed out of me onto the page.

 

Book Two (TRANSPORT: HUNT FOR THE FALLEN) was a bit harder to write. I think sequels are always a little harder to plop down on page because, it's like, you almost know too much about everything, how do you make this all fit now, what can you do to RAMP THINGS UP, escalate the story line, the plot line, to possibly make it even better than the first book.

 

I figured it out and after some heavy duty, thorough reviewing and revising, I really like how Book Two has come out.

 

Book Three (TRANSPORT: UNCIVIL WAR) harkens back to Book One. I know where I am going, where I am taking things, and it has been fairly easy to write, and I'm having fun doing it.

 

A COUNTRYSIDE FULL OF POSSIBILITY
I scaled my story down to mainly the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and West Michigan spanning an area on the west side of the state, from Grand Rapids then westward between Holland and Muskegon which are along the Lake Michigan lakeshore. If you look at this area on a map, you can see it isn't necessarily a HUGE area. IT IS ENOUGH FOR MY STORYLINE.

 

Besides having large cities and small towns peppering the region, there are also a lot of wild woodlands, farms, etc., scattered about West Michigan. Miles upon miles of opportunity for both urban and rural chaos.

 

And since I know this region very well, it made it the perfect place for the TRANSPORT series.

 

RESEARCH CAN YIELD NEW RESPECT AND KNOWLEDGE
I did a lot of research in the Military realm of things while writing TRANSPORT. I wanted realism even though the books and characters are works of fiction. I spoke with friends and folks who had either served in the Military or were currently serving. I read a lot of true real stories of battle across WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam and our more recent activities in the Middle East. They all added quite a bit of NEW RESPECT for the men and women in the field, for our veterans both past and present...and most likely, future.

 

I do have some worries about writing about the wins and losses of my fictional military characters as I am hoping I show no disrespect for our war fighters both past and present. I do not think I show disrespect, but when you have a new found respect for the real-life folks who forego a lot of pleasantries we take for granted, to serve and protect (this includes police and firefighters, etc.), sometimes I have a concern if I am doing this right. (I have gotten some feedback from some of these fine folks, and they say I am doing just fine. We all need levity from the real deal time to time.)

 

But then again, my military characters are honorable, fight for justice, serve and protect even in the most dire of situations and locals, just like the real-deal service folk.

 

I suppose, in a way, writing about my fictional MIL-characters, I am giving a respectful nod and salute to the non-fiction "characters" who are out there risking life and limb to assist and benefit our way of life.

A tank turret at the Russell Rd Military Museum

 

###

 

TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:

 

AMAZON

Paperback

Kindle

 

BARNES & NOBLE

 

SCHULER BOOKS

Paperback

 

 

  

###

Peter Welmerink (www.peterwelmerink.com) was born and raised on the west side of pre-apocalyptic Grand Rapids, Michigan. He loves his hometown and West Michigan, which is why he writes about it. He writes Fantasy, Military SciFi, and other wanderings into action-adventure. His work has been published in ye olde wood pulp print and electronic-online publications. He is the co-author of the Viking berserker novel, BEDLAM UNLEASHED, written with Steven Shrewsbury. TRANSPORT is his first solo novel venture. He is married with a small barbarian tribe of three boys.

TRANSPORT Helper - The Ken Campbell Interview

Ken Campbell is a friend of mine. We work at the same place. We have some of the same interests as far as movies, books and illustrated digests (comic books). Ken also appears in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT page of all three TRANSPORT books, so I thought it would be interesting to interview him.

#

GRA: Your name appears first in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page in TRANSPORT: BOOK ONE. A soldier with your last name also appears near the end of the novel as one of the Muskegon High Commissioner Holtrop guards. You have obviously been a part of story input on the TRANSPORT series. Inquiring minds may want to know more about you.

I got you involved on the TRANSPORT project because we have the same interest in action-packed tales and zombies. I’ve used you as a sounding board, kind of a Beta tester, on some of the story concepts, scenarios and plot lines to get your reaction—yay or nay—and input.

With these bouncing around of ideas, and some actually appearing in story, does this ruin the book for you if and when read? Why or why not?

KC: Nah, not any more than a movie preview to the actual movie.  The ideas bounced around are just points in the story.  When reading the finished story, and I’m in the ebb and flow, the "ideas" merge and I get to see the bigger picture.  Besides, it is always tweaked a little from the material/ideas discussed.

GRA: If your in-story character was played by an actor in the Big Screen, who would it be?

Jason Segel

KC: I had to think a long time on this, thank goodness my work is easy enough to allow me such time allowances.  I would have to go with Jason Segel.  He has that "innocent" outward appearance, but has that smirk and head bob that indicates otherwise, just like me! LOL

GRA: What type of books, movies, magazines, comics do you like to read, and why? Do you have some absolute favorites?

KC: I would say for books it’s the sci-fi/magic/steampunk stuff by Cherie Priest (www.cheriepriest.com) and Barbara Hambly (www.barbarahambly.com).  I like the escapism of those fantasy genres.  I also like the historic battles seen through the eyes of a fictional character series by Patrick O'Brian (www.wwnorton.com/pob/pobhome.htm) and Bernard Cornwall (www.bernardcornwell.net).  To re-live those epic battles, without getting hurt, from the prospective of a lowly frontlines man instead of a rich guy sitting in the back with the luggage is cool.

Picking a specific movie is hard.  I have favorites in most genres.  I guess for brainless, chest-thumping, manly action movies I would go with the Expendables trilogy, the Transporter trilogy, and Serenity.

For small budget, foreign movies with good, interesting plots I would go with Lawn Dogs, Amile, Let the Right One In, The Girl, Thale, Attack the Block and Chocolat.

For the "DUH" brainless lowbrow humor, it’s got to be the Harold and Kumar films and American Pie movies.

To round it out, anything from Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.

Comics would be superhero types.  Wolverine tops the list.  I also like Empowered by Adam Warren (adamwarren.deviantart.com) and The Devil's Panties (thedevilspanties.com) by Jennie Breeden.

GRA: A reviewer mentioned TRANSPORT “is far more than a rehash of the military elements that show up in Danny Boyle’s viral fast-zombie opus, Romero’s Day, Land, and Diary, Brooks’ World War Z.”

Would you agree? What are your thoughts on the TRANSPORT World?

KC: Oh, I agree.  Usually the military is the only thing keeping the zombies from taking over the world.  TRANSPORT has the military doing more humanitarian works, at least with the "docile" zombies.  They try and protect them instead of all-out extermination.  It reminds me of what the old Wild West is portrayed as: small pockets of humanity surrounded by wide tracks of wilderness where all matter of nastiness resides.

GRA: Do you think the whole ZOMBIE genre has run its course, or is there still a lot of UN-life left in this typically Horror milieu?

KC: I don't think the zombie genre will ever run its course.  The basic premise of a zombie - a being that is hard to kill in the usual way (shot in the torso, hack off a leg, etc.) and can turn you into one of them with just a scratch or bite goes to a primitive, deep seated, cavemen-sitting-around-a-fire-type of fear that can be used in multiple genres; from World War Z, to Shawn of the Dead and Fido, to name a few.

GRA: You are an avid runner and bicyclist. Which activity do you do more of? What are some of your biggest achievements relating to these? Is there anything on your BUCKET LIST relating to these you want to do before the zombie apocalypse?

KC: I started out as an avid bicyclist, but was introduced back into running when I started working at my current job (ran x-country and track in high school).  Some accomplishes would be participating in several 24hr bike challenges, several DALMAC rides, riding a century ride under 5 hours, running the Fifth-Third Riverbank Run, and being able to eat all the Twinkies I want knowing I will burn them off.  The only real thing on the bucket list would be to finish the Grand Rapids Zombie Dash with, at least, one life strip left.

GRA: Who would you rather meet on a darkened UCRA neighborhood street? Bob the 1950’s gas station attendant zombie, or front gunner of the M213 HURON, Sgt. James Stokes? And why?

KC: Hmmm, since I'm not good at learning new languages and would have a hard time conversing with Bob, I would have to go with Stokes.  The stories Stokes could tell...

[Welmerink comment: the lewd and crude Sgt. Stokes most likely does have a lot of tales to tell as his morals are a little… loose.]

GRA: What is one story in the TRANSPORT World that you haven’t heard discussed yet that you’d be interested in either reading about or understanding better?

KC: That's a toughie.  Since I actually went to college in Allendale, I think I would like to read more about the scientists at the university campus and what REALLY happened out there.

[Welmerink comment: There was A LOT of bull out there, that’s for sure.]

GRA: Thanks Ken!!

Ken Campbell as Rick Grimes from THE WALKING DEAD for Grand Rapids Zombie Dash 2013

 

 

###

 

 

 

 

 

TRANSPORT (Book One) is available and can be found here:

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Bob the 1950's Gas Station Attendant Zombie Short Short Story

Face the Face

by Peter Welmerink

**These events occur after TRANSPORT (Book 3) UNCIVIL WAR**

“Keep your eyes peeled. I don’t want other undead civilians thinking we’re laying down lunch for them,” Lieutenant Gil “Gillie” McPherson said as he watched four men wrestle the gurney from the back of the big armored MRAP parked at the street corner of Bridge and Indiana. “City spent enough cash on old Bob here, and I’m sure we’d take the blame if the old man got chewed up right after we re-planted him.”

 

 

The four soldiers huffed and puffed with the stretcher in tow. They glanced all about as they got the litter to ground level. A few locals teetered by but seemed more attracted to the gentle growl of the big Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle than the grunts and groans of the men.

 

 

“Not sure why they didn’t ‘plant’ the old dead fart,” young Private Leon Jansen said, skinny, all-muscle arms straining. Sweat ran down his brow in rivulets. “It would beat spending the cash on the rotter and lugging his carcass back out here.”

 

 

The other three grunts assisting Jansen rolled their eyes. One boasting DIETRICH on the name tape of his tactical vest, just loud enough to be heard, uttered: “Newb.”

 

 

On the olive drab canvas stretcher lay Bob the 1950s Gas Station Attendant zomb who was usually found rummaging about the defunct Marathon Service Station on the southwest corner of Indiana Avenue and Bridge Street. Bob, for short, had become a well-known local fixture within the confines of the Grand Rapids UCRA (Urban Civilian Retention Area) on the west side of town. Appreciated for his special ability as a SZ, “satellite zomb,” Bob, somehow able to mentally acquire and verbally communicate Intel on activities of the undead both within and outside the city limits, was looked upon fondly as a friend-of-sorts to the GRCC military personnel. They got a kick out of trying to decipher his grunting and snarling dialect, finding a majority of it revolving around his “memories” of the 1950’s.

 

 

A grievous blow to the head had almost sent him to the realm of the truly dead-dead.

McPherson didn’t answer the Private, instead he pointed towards the old brick and mortar gas station with the paint-peel white walls. “Set him indoors for now. We’ll hang out a bit, see if he comes around, and make sure none of the neighbors bother him.”

 

 

“Only another Zee could love a face like that,” Dietrich said peering down at the natural, red pock-marked side of Bob’s face. “Though they did a helluva job repairing the other side of his head.”

 

 

The undead gas station attendant’s injury left the upper right side of the man’s face and skull obliterated. The surgeons on Spectrum Hill used a series of skin grafts over a hard plastic polymer that replaced sections of damaged skull bone.

 

 

The four-man team carried Bob into the buildings front entrance. They cleared a spot to lay him, putting him behind the wood counter where a pyramid of rusty oil cans perched.

 

 

“So peaceful,” Jansen said peering very closely at the dead man’s reconstructed face. “How long do we have to stay here until the extra dope keeping him in sleepy time wears off?”

 

 

“As long as it takes,” Dietrich said as the other two men carried the empty stretcher out of the building.

 

 

“That can’t be soon enough. I hate this place,” Jansen said looking over his shoulder at the other soldier.

 

 

BOB by artist Tim Holtrop

(with some additions by me)

“Don’t let anyone in town hear you say that. They’ll throw you in the hoosegow for being a Loyalist or something.”

 

 

Bob emitted a groan.

 

 

Jansen looked back at Bob, finding rheumy eyes open and peering at him.

 

 

“Ah!” the young grunt screamed and ran from the building.

 

 

With hand on sidearm, Dietrich sniffed, smiled at the undead service station attendant, and said: “Thanks, old man. You won’t have to worry about that kid.” He stood, sniffed again, and backed out of the door, calling over his shoulder, “Jansen’s gonna need a change of underwear.”

 

 

#

 

 

They waited the rest of the day for Bob to get up and start shuffling about. The mission was not only to return the old one to his “residence,” but also see if he still “functioned” with his surgical modifications.

 

 

“I see blips of brain activity but none of the usual spikes when SZ’s are transmitting,” McPherson said as the team sat in the MRAP watching the service station and the neighborhood surrounding them.

 

 

“Probably nothing around to hone in on. The others seem to avoid this area since the plane crash and chemical spill.” Dietrich scratched at a spot under his helmet.

 

 

“HAZMAT crew cleaned that up good.” McPherson continued to watch the handheld device monitoring Bob. “Just goes to show, these folks retain memories to some extent,” he said referring to Grand Rapids local undead.

 

 

The handheld pings.

 

 

“Here we go. Bob’s up, starting to transmit.”

 

 

Jansen leaned forward to see what the Lieutenant was seeing. “Retina-Optic Nerve Image Defragging and Reintegration. How much did that cost the taxpayers?”

 

 

Dietrich thought perhaps the kid was pretty smart after all, until he saw the words scrolled below the small screen on McPherson’s handheld.

 

 

McPherson ignored the young soldier. “Bob’s coming outside.”

 

 

They watched as the old zomb teetered out of the service station door in his new duds: blue mechanic coveralls and a sky blue long sleeve shirt. He walked by the rusted gas pumps and halfway to the street corner. Stopping, he stood stock still and appeared to stare straight at the big MRAP parked a few feet in front of him.

 

 

“What’s he doing?”

 

 

“He’s just staring at us.”

 

 

McPherson’s screen showed a menagerie of fuzzy images: outlines of Cadillac cars, a group of women in poodle skirts, a group of hunch-back humanoid creatures skip-hopping through a field of tall grass.

 

 

“Is he picking up something? Is that what he is seeing or what his, what? Zombie ESP is satelliting to him?” One of the other grunts said looking at the Lieutenant’s handheld, then out the small rectangular visor next to him.

 

 

Jansen peered out the port slot next to him. “We’re just seeing the little reminiscences of what’s flitting around inside his rotted gray matter. What a waste of time and money.”

 

 

The grunt pulls a combat shotgun from the stanchion next to him, pushes the barrel out the window, and yells: “Hey, stupid, quit standing there and show us something good.”

 

 

Trigger is pulled.

 

 

The shotgun booms.

 

 

Jansen is gang-piled to the floor of the MRAP. Dietrich kneels on his chest while another soldier pulls the shotgun out of the Private’s hands.

 

 

“Dumb shit!” Dietrich snarls, fist cocked back ready to feed his fellow a knuckle bone, or four.

 

 

“What the--?” McPherson says, eyes on the monitor then out the window, then back to monitor. He grabs a pair of field glasses and looks through them, lowers them, looks at the screen, then back through the binoculars.

 

 

Bob bolted around the back of the gas station upon Jansen’s shotgun blast. Next, the old station attendant appeared on the flat roof of the garage. The zomb, now turned towards the west, again stood stock still except for his mouth which seemed to be moving as if he was speaking to someone.

 

 

On the monitor, a fuzzy image of a dark-haired soldier; a captain by the look of the twin bars on the patch of his tactical vest. Amazing as it was, the man’s name tape could be read: BILLET.

 

 

“What the hell? Bob seeing one of our own,” McPherson said as he looked at the monitor and then back to the old zomb on the station roof.

 

 

Bob turned to face them.

 

 

Dietrich took the field glasses from the Lieutenant and looked out and up at the Bob.

 

 

“Well, shit, that’s a new one on me,” Dietrich said, eyes glued to the binoculars.

 

 

“The image of one of our own guys?” McPherson replied.

 

 

“No,” Dietrich said lowering the field glasses and turning to the Lieutenant. “I think the old zomb is crying.”

 

 

###

 

 

“Your memory is a monster; you forget – it doesn’t. It simply files things away. It keeps things from you, or hides things from you – and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!”--John Irving

 

 

“The world shrieks and sinks talons into our hearts. This we call memory.”-- Tim O’Brien

###

TRANSPORT (Book One) is available and can be found here:

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