The Redemption Trilogy

by A. J. Sikes

  He rounded the corner into an empty hall with two doors at the end. His people came around with him.

  “Mehta, McKitrick; keep an eye on our six. Keoh, on me. First door.”

  They were at the door when a shriek burst from deeper in the building. It was a sound that only a Variant could make, and it was followed by frightened voices and shouts.

  Jed breached the first door and pushed into an empty office with Keoh close behind him.

  “McKitrick; second door. We’re on your six.”

  He heard the door open and his people rush inside. He and Keoh stacked and followed the others in.

  They’d come into the area behind the reception desk. An office to their left had been converted to a makeshift surgery. Two closets faced them from the opposite wall. An X-ray room and offices were down a hall to their right. The light was dim, with fewer windows letting in what was left of the sun.

  Another scream split through the building, and this time it was a human scream of agony. Shouts of fear and horror followed.

  Jed led his people toward the sound, down the hall. He swiveled to check the X-ray as they passed it. The room was empty. The second was the same.

  The third room was a waiting area that extended off the back of the nurse’s station. Kipler was on the ground, hunched over a body in scrubs. And he was feeding.

  Jed and Keoh lit him up, sending him spiraling away trailing blood and viscera from the nurse he had killed. It was one of the women. Jed stalked forward, maintaining aim at Kipler’s still twitching body. He double-tapped him as he got closer. Kip’s clawed hands curled up over his chest, like he was a dead spider. His legs continued to spasm, clicking as they jerked in and out for a moment before his body relaxed and went still.

  “Shit,” Keoh said. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. I fucking knew it.”

  “They’re back,” McKitrick said. “But how did he—He fucking turned at will. He—”

  “The virus is adaptive,” Jed said. “The scientists I talked to on Plum were always saying that. It changes to survive, and it’s made a big change now. It can hide until it’s ready to strike.”

  The other nurses poked their heads out from an office further along the hall.

  “Told y’all to get outside,” Jed said.

  None of the nurses said a word. They just stared at the dead Variant.

  “You need to quarantine this building now,” Jed said. “This floor is off limits.”

  “You can’t make that call,” one of the nurses said.

  “No? Then who can?”

  “Doctor DuBois. Her or another member of the council.”

  “She the lady from downstairs? Where is she now?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll call her,” the nurse said and grabbed for an intercom on the wall.

  “Doctor DuBois!” she yelled into the mic.

  “What is it? What’s happening up there? Are those men shooting people?”

  The nurse looked at Jed. Her finger was frozen above the intercom button.

  “She’s inside, in her office?”

  The nurses all nodded. “Probably, yeah,” the Asian man said.

  “Go downstairs, all of you,” Jed said. “Let her know what happened and get outside. We’ll be right behind you.”

  The nurses scrambled to be the first through the doors and down the stairs. Jed grabbed the mic from Mehta’s radio and hailed Greg.

  “Six Actual, Shorewatch 1, over.”

  “You finally ready to go?”

  “No, we lost another man. But I got your proof. Call the council and tell them we’re doing a partial evac and lock down here.”

  “What? Why—and why partial?”

  “Because our people they fished out of the bay may be carrying a new form of the original virus.”

  The radio was silent for a few beats. Then Greg came on.

  “Okay, Sergeant. You got your wish. But the council wants to verify your proof. Can you bring it out?”

  “Negative. We’re not touching it. Doctor DuBois will verify it for them. After that, this second floor gets locked down and nobody comes in without PPE.”

  “Good luck with that. Nobody has that kind of gear around here, and they’re not going to like taking orders from a military man. These people are mostly civilians who survived on their own. If we’re being honest, they don’t trust you any farther than they can throw you. Most of them blame the military for what happened.”

  “Well they can un-blame us because we just saved them a whole lot of hurt. Be sure you tell them to watch their own people. Anybody acting weird, standoffish, hanging around the fringes. They’re probably carriers and need to be quarantined. Yellow eyes are a dead giveaway, but don’t freak them out. Stress could trigger them to change.”

  “Okay, I’ll relay the message.”

  Jed motioned for his people to follow as he went back the way they’d come. They stopped in front of every room in the ward, checking the comatose Marines for any indication they were about to wake up as Variants. Each man slept like the dead as far as Jed could tell.

  Keoh was nearby, looking in the window beside him while the others maintained security.

  “Should we kill them, Sergeant? For mercy?”

  Jed thought about it for a second, then tried the door. It was locked, just like the doctor said.

  “Guess that’s our answer. For now, anyway.”

  Jed wanted to give Kip’s squad the mercy they deserved. Providing they didn’t wake up, it would just mean a quick double tap to save those men from the hell of being consumed by the Hemorrhage Virus. The remaining biohazard would be a threat though, and he couldn’t see any way to address that without burning the place to the ground.

  He signaled the team to head for the stairs. They needed to get Garza and the others out of this building.

  — 25 —

  The shooting upstairs stopped almost as soon as it started. Emily’s brother had come running into the room to stand watch. He was by the door, looking out the slim window.

  “What was that, Chava?” she asked. “Why were they shooting?”

  “Only one reason, and it ain’t a good one. Shit! I knew we should have stayed together. Bunch of bullshit letting that nurse stick us in here.”

  He backed away from the door and turned to face her and Danitha. “You need to be ready to move, and grab a weapon. Anything you can use. Fire extinguisher, scalpel, whatever.”

  “Already looked all over this room,” Danitha said. “Ain’t nothing worth taking that won’t slow us down except maybe the IV stand.”

  She grabbed it and flipped it over. The base was bolted onto the stem, making it hard to balance as a spear. But she could use it to push a monster away. Emily knew it was foolish to think they’d survive with that as their only weapon, but it was what they had for now.

  Her brother was about to open the door when it was flung open, pushing him backward. He brought his gun up and aimed at a cluster of people charging into the room.

  “Chava, no!” Emily yelled.

  It was Doctor DuBois and two nurses. They stumbled into the room, nearly knocking Danitha over as they bustled into the farthest corner from the door.

  “What are they shooting at?” Doctor DuBois asked, looking at the ceiling.

  “My guess is a Variant,” Chava said.

  They stayed in the room like that, clustered in corners and staring at the ceiling and door. Emily feared any second that it would burst open, spilling a mob of snarling monsters into the confines of their shelter.

  When footsteps sounded in the corridor outside, Emily’s heart jumped. Her brother waved everyone to stay behind him and took a stance opposite the door with his weapon raised.

  Emily could hear doors opening and closing in the hall. Someone knocked on the door, but she couldn’t see anyone through the little window.

  “Variants don’t knock,” Danitha said. “Guessing that’s your friends from upstairs, right?”

  Chava took a step t
oward the door. “Who is it?” he called out.

  “It’s us, Garza. We’re good,” a man’s voice said. Chava went to the door and opened it with one hand, then quickly stepped back with his gun aimed at the door. It swung inward gently and his sergeant, Jed, looked into the room.

  “Good to see you, too, Garza,” he said, motioning for Chava to lower his gun. Jed came in, with his people at the door behind him. The two women stayed outside with Mehta.

  Doctor DuBois asked what happened upstairs. Jed told them they had found one of their people. Only he had been infected by the virus, and it reactivated when they approached him.

  “He changed and killed a nurse before we could stop him. We had our weapons on him. That could have spooked him, stressed him out enough that the virus took over and forced him to change.”

  “True,” Doctor DuBois said. “The virus might be triggered by stress indicating a threat to the host organism. But it could also be that he was always going to change, no matter what. We don’t know for sure if it’s simple latency we’re dealing with. And we don’t have the facilities to test the virus to determine what it is or how it operates. The best I can do is test for its presence.”

  “So, what do we do?” Emily asked. “We can’t stay here. What if the virus is airborne?”

  “Then we’re all infected anyway and should just kill ourselves,” one of the nurses said.

  “The hell we will,” Chava said. “What’s the plan, Sergeant?”

  “We lock down the second floor. Nobody goes in without security and PPE, and only if it’s essential to the community’s survival. We have to write off the sick people upstairs.”

  “You got more people inside this building with the virus in ’em?” Danitha demanded “Goodbye, y’all. I’m out. The hell with this.”

  She moved to leave, but Chava put an arm out to bar her exit. She tried to push past, until the other Marines blocked her as well.

  “Fine,” Danitha said. “Y’all motherfuckers keep us here like prisoners. I hope I change first so I can fuck you up.”

  Emily went to her and put her good arm around her shoulders. “We are with the right people, Dani. They’re not like the militia.”

  “Sure look and act like it,” she said.

  Chava and Jed started talking in quiet voices. Mehta went back outside, then Chava followed him. He looked back at Emily and motioned for her to stay put. When she frowned at him, he relaxed his face and said, “We’re just keeping watch in the hall. Y’all are safer inside than out here.”

  Chava’s sergeant asked Doctor DuBois, “When did Kip wake up? What time? And how long was he out?”

  “He—it must have been an hour ago. He was semiconscious when we found them yesterday, but slipped into a coma overnight. I’d say he was unconscious for at least sixteen hours. Maybe a little less.”

  “And the other guys have been out cold since they got here?”

  “Yes, but they had all nearly drowned. Their boat was overturned just off shore. Mr. Kipler had pulled two of them from the water himself. He was going back for a third when our people arrived to help.”

  “So, you don’t know how long any of them have been unconscious. Which means they could change at any minute,” the sergeant said.

  “Or they could just be carriers of the virus.”

  “Keep talking like that, doc, and you’ll get a chance to know for sure. Only it won’t matter because we’ll all be dead. The men upstairs are infected, just like Kip was, with the original virus. Only it’s evolved so that it can hide until it wants to attack.”

  “The original virus?” Doctor DuBois asked. “If that’s true—”

  “How do we fight against it?” one of the nurses demanded. “If the virus hides now, how do we know who is a carrier and who isn’t? We could all be carriers, right?” The nurse grew more frantic with each word that passed his lips.

  Doctor DuBois looked the man in the eye. She crossed the room to stand in front of him and slapped him.

  “Go on,” she encouraged him. “Your turn.” When he didn’t move to strike her, she went to Danitha and smacked her across the face. Danitha had a hand raised in a flash, but held back.

  “Go ahead, but remember I might be saving your life someday,” Doctor DuBois said.

  Danitha struck her with enough force to make a sound and turn the woman’s head to the side. After a few seconds, Doctor DuBois regarded the room.

  “I think it’s safe to say that neither Nurse Ray, this young lady, nor myself are infected. If stress or threat to the host is the trigger that activates the virus, we should all be growing claws and tearing the rest of you to pieces.”

  “What if you’d been wrong?” Emily asked.

  “Then I’d have been very foolish, and also very dead. I’m not suggesting we all take the same test, but I do think we have a good indication of how to assess a person’s susceptibility.” She looked from the nurse to Danitha as she spoke. “Anyone displaying signs of emotional distress and anger is probably just frightened, and who wouldn’t be? But people acting like they’re under threat of harm at inappropriate times or under illogical conditions—those are people we’ll want to be careful around. I don’t see anyone here acting strangely, so I’m going to assume we’re all clean.”

  “Sounds like a good way to get people killed,” Danitha said.

  “Yes, it does. That’s why I’m going to insist on blood tests for everyone in this building. My office is down the hall. We’ll compare the samples to those already taken from the persons on the second floor.”

  “What about the body up there, Doctor?” one of the nurses asked.

  “We’ll block off the stairwell as best we can. Sergeant, I assume you and your people won’t continue to take orders from me, being only a civilian, but I was at one time a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. If that suffices, I’ll ask that you proceed to complete the supply run the council asked of you when you arrived, providing you leave two people here to assist with security in the building. Alternately, you can all go, and I’ll inform the council that you cannot be relied upon to help protect the community.”

  Emily waited as Jed faced off with Doctor DuBois. Finally, he said, “I’m not sure whose orders I should be following, ma’am. At some point, I’ll probably just go with feels right to me, but I’ll do what you ask. After we’ve dealt with our brothers upstairs.”

  Emily released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Danitha slumped against the bed. “We gon’ die in here,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “You’re welcome to stay here,” Doctor DuBois said to her. “But I’m moving all nonessential personnel to the fire station next door. There’s a day room with beds and a kitchen there. You both look like you could use some—”

  A scream cut her off. Everyone in the room tensed, and the Marines spilled into the hallway with their weapons up. Emily stayed with the doctor and the others inside the room.

  “It came from down the hall,” McKitrick said.

  Jed called for them to follow, but he left Keoh and Mehta behind. They stayed inside the room, on either side of the door, watching the hallway.

  Gunfire erupted, echoing through the building and Emily slapped her hands over her ears, praying for her brother’s safety and for all of their lives.

  — 26 —

  The screams came from the end of the hall, around the corner where the LT was supposed to be. Jed ran forward with his M4 up and ready. He felt McKitrick and Garza behind him. The screaming cut short with a gurgling sound and a shriek. Banging followed, like doors being slammed open and closed. At the corner, Jed spun right and darted to the opposite wall. A sucker face crouched on all fours with its back to him, half in and half out of the door at the end of the hallway. Jed fired a burst at it as he ran forward. He missed and the monster raced away, disappearing deeper into the clinic. Jed pulled up short a few steps from the LT’s room.

  The door to the room was open, and blood-splatter staine
d the walls and floor of the hall. Trails of gore showed the path the monster had taken a door at the end of the hall. Without PPE, Jed wasn’t going anywhere near the mess. He backed up a step, but kept his weapon trained on the door straight ahead as it slowly swung closed with a heavy click.

  “Somebody upstairs woke up.”

  “So, they’re all infected,” McKitrick said. “We have to—”

  “We don’t know that,” Garza said.

  Jed wanted to believe they could save some of Kip’s squad. Having more Marines around him meant more security. More safety.

  “Let’s get back to the others,” he said. “Maintain three-sixty security. Move out.”

  They shuffled back down the hall with McKitrick leading the way and Jed covering their six. Garza stayed in the middle, rotating his view front to back. When they reached the room with the others, Jed called for them all to exit.

  “We’re going outside. Everyone stay close and tight. Mehta, Keoh, take point. McKitrick, back here with me.”

  “We’re saying LT’s gone?” Garza asked. “Do we confirm?”

  “Negative. Nobody goes near that room. Nobody stays in this building. We torch it. Everyone out.”

  The doctor had something to say about that. “You’re going to burn my clinic down? Do you have any idea how long it took to rebuild this place and get it even halfway functional as a sterile facility? You can’t—”

  “Were you a doctor when the virus broke the first time?” Jed asked.

  “Yes, I was. In Houston. I saw—”

  “Then you know how fast one of those things can tear through a building. You had five of them sleeping upstairs. That number is now down to four, and there’s no telling when they others are going to wake up. They might be awake and busting out of their rooms right now, just like the first one did.”

  Jed paused. He hated the words that found their way to his tongue, but he knew he had no choice.

  “We need to put them down before any more of them come back as sucker faces, and then we need to burn this building to the ground. You have biohazards on both floors now, and no way of dealing with them. More importantly, you have a sucker face loose down here. The longer we wait, the more likely it finds a way outside. We need to kill it while it’s contained, and the best way to do that is to torch this building.”