The Outbreak Series Boxed Set

by Thomas Baker

  "We need to get out of here now!"

  Hannah turned and looked towards the plane, then turned back to JT. She worked back towards him through the snow, following the path her legs had just plowed. When she reached him, he could see ice crystals around her eyes and on the scarf pulled over her nose and mouth. He took her hand and pulled back to Gus and Linda.

  JT kept glancing back at the wreckage as it fell further behind them. The zombies, he was sure that's what they were; he didn't need his scope to confirm it, tried to follow. Luckily the snow seemed to slow the undead down even more than it did the four of them. Hannah picked another direction and on they went.

  Later in the afternoon, still in the middle of nothingness, Gus fell down in the snow not once but three times. On the third time Linda had finally had enough and broke down.

  "Are you trying to kill him!" she screamed at Hannah. "We need to go back."

  Hannah froze. She turned around and ripped off her scarf. She looked rocked to her core. Her cheeks were red and cracked, like she had been crying all day.

  "I know, don't you think I know!" She shouted back. She dropped to her knees, her scarf brushing the snow pile. "What do you want me to do?"

  "Come on, Hannah," JT said, keeping his distance, like she was a deer he would spook. "I know you're not dumb."

  Hannah looked ready to shatter. JT thought he would have to step upafter all. Back into a position he didn't want to be in.

  "I-I don't think I can, JT. After Tyrone-Ashley-"

  JT took a step closer. "I know, Hannah. For fuck sakes I know. This isn't the place for a therapy session but if you can't live with the guilt now, then how are you going to go on if Gus dies out here."

  Hannah looked down at her knees. She gathered back up the scarf and wrapped it around her mouth and nose again. That done, she pounded at the snow with both of her fists, as hard as she could. JT watched her get swallowed up in a blizzard of her own making. When the flying snow cleared, Hannah was standing back up again.

  "JT, help him up. We'll turn around."

  "I just hope it's not too late. Who knows how many days it may take to get back," Linda spoke softer. She went to Hannah to try toembrace her but Hannah held her hand out, gloved hand palm up.

  It shocked JT, that the impulse remained inside of him. He wanted to go to her, tell her he would protect her. He had thought those feelings had died. The thought of Tyrone then jumped up in his mind. Instead of going to Hannah, JT helped Gus struggle to his feet. JT was a little scared, it felt like he was lifting a child. How could Gus deteriorate so fast in three days?

  It ended up being four more days before they got back to Dr. Childs' settlement. For most of those days JT thought they were lost and would never find it. The heavy snows had erased all traces of their previous path. He never thought he would hate a color, but he found himself hating white. He breathed a sigh of relief at the site of the cobbled wall of Child's makeshift colony.

  Hannah pounded on the gate while JT and Linda held Gus between them. It was a long wait while the person at the gate got the doctor but they were eventually let in.

  "Nice to see you back," Childs said, a little too smug for JT's taste. "How was the weather out there?"

  "We need to get Gus to your clinic and get some IV fluids into him right away," Linda said. "One more day and I'm not sure he would have made it."

  Childs seemed unfazed by this. "Sure, go ahead. I'll be there in a moment. The rest of you, pick out an empty place, we have got plenty of vacant dwellings. Get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we can talk about what we'll do with you. After you do some work, I'll check the rest of you over. It would be fucking lucky if one of you didn't get frostbite."

  Dr. Child's got Gus situated on the same table he had been on a little over a week ago. Gus was unresponsive. He must have passed out.

  "It's a good thing you brought him back. I'm not sure he would have made it if you stayed out there any longer. What were you thinking, listening to the girl?"

  Linda, who had been worried about hypothermia the last two days, now added frostbite to her list considering Childs had brought it up. Why hadn't she thought to check his extremities?

  "I'm the only person within a hundred miles who could help him. You want to strip off his coat, hat, and gloves?"

  Linda ignored the doctor's arrogant manner and focused all of her attention on Gus. It wasn't the first time she had to work with and ego driven doctor. She sighed relief when she saw no signs of frostbite herself. However, she wouldn't stop worrying until Childs finished his examination.

  "Linda, I assume you'll want to stay here with your friend?"

  "You assumed correct."

  "I expected no less from a professional. Can you get an IV drip started? You will find supplies over there," Childs pointed to a wall with cabinets, "along with hand sanitizer."

  Linda rushed over and scrubbed up as best she could. She rummaged through the supplies as fast as she could. She rubbed sanitizer up to her elbows once again before practically running back over. Finding a vein she got the drip started.

  Childs finished looking at Gus' hands and toes. Next he looked at Linda's work. She rolled her eyes.

  "It's nice to have an assistant again." That was as much praise as she got. "No one else in this town was bright enough to train as one." Childs continued examining Gus. "Lucky for, Gerry wasn't it?"

  "Gus."

  "Right yeah, Gus. He has no frostbite damage. You take his temperature, blood pressure, and pulse. I'll be back."

  Child's stopped and spoke to a woman standing at the counter on the other side of the drawn curtain. The woman scurried out of sight then returned with pillows, blankets, and a small green cloth lunch bag piled in her arms. She transferred everything to Childs, who returned to Linda and Gus.

  "What are the results?" he asked, standing there with his hands full.

  "All are low but not dangerously so." Linda let herself feel relieved. Pressure, like two enormous hands which had been holding her down, gave way in her chest.

  "Right. Again good. I've got your friend now Linda. Take these." Childs held out his arms. Linda scooped them up without thinking. "I don't think there is more you could do here right now. If you need anything, I'm sure one of the town people could help you. Go find an empty place and get settled in. Know that Gerry is in good hands."

  Linda found herself somewhat taken aback by his generosity so she didn't correct him. "I don't know Childs. I don't want to leave him. What if he needs me?"

  Childs gave her a stern look. "Lidia. You might not be as in bad a shape as your friend but your body needs rest, hydration. As a nurse you should know that you can help your patient if you can't help yourself. I'll be here all night. you go."

  Reluctantly she had to admit Dr. Childs had a point. She gave Gus a kiss on the cheek and looked down at him. Taking him in. Trying to stop that thought she would never see him awake again. She stopped at the door that led outside the clinic. She undid the Velcro on the bag to find a bottle of water, a box of raisins, a granola bar, and small can of Vienna sausages. There was even a plastic spork.

  Linda chuckled to herself. Boy Gus, just wait until you wake up to this. I can only imagine how many small weenie jokes must be in that dirty old brain of yours.

  JT barely spoke to Hannah as they settled into the little place they had chosen for their nights stay.JT wasn't even sure why he agreed to share a space. Habit he guessed. JT watched Hannah unpack. He could tell she was clearlyswallowing anger. Wasn't he the master at that according to Randall? He watched her as she changed out of her grubby clothes and into the fresh fleece hoodie that lay on the bed. He felt nothing.

  He threw his stuff down and went over to the fireplace. It already had wood in it. He searched around and found some matches.

  "Thanks for getting the fire going, you're getting really good at it..."She trailed off, probably realizing a comment like that wasn't going to help the current situation.

  "Yep,
yay me." JT angrily threw the words out as he rummaged through a trunk for blankets and tossed them onto the sofa along the wall.

  "I can sleep on the couchif you want," Hannah offered. "Or we can share the bed. I'm ok with that idea too."

  "Nah, I'm good." Not that long ago they had done that verything. It had been thrilling. Now, he just wanted to be left alone. Christ, my head hurts. "I need some time to unwind. Enjoy having the bed all to yourself, fearless leader." Shit, JT thought to himself as the words rolled off his tongue, he hadn't meant to be a dick to her like that. Hannah quickly turned away and crawled into the bed without another word.

  Later in the night, as JT lay on the couch staring into the fire, all the grudges he carried flipping through his mind, he could hear the distinct sounds of muffled sobs from Hannah. He could go over there, try to comfort her. Every time either of them tried, it always seemed to end in disaster. She would be better off without him. He hated himself right now. First thing tomorrow he would look for something to soothe his feelings; something of the liquid variety.

  Someone drumming on the door awoke JT and Hannah the next morning. It was a persistent lite knock. JT rushed to the door and yanked it open in complete annoyance. He was ready to rip someone's ass for the undue wake up call until he saw the teenage girl standing there looking timid and nervous.

  "Um, hello sir, Dr. Childs, he um, he asked me to bring you these, you're uh, you're JT and Hannah right?"

  "Yeah, that's us, kid." JT was trying to dial it back.

  The girl handed JT two envelopes, one for each of them with their names written on the outside. As soon as she handed them over to JT, she simplywished him a good day and hurried away.

  "Awkward." JT let the word hang and drag out, high toned and extra sarcastic. He watched the girl turn a corner and closed the door.

  "Mail call!" He exclaimed and tossed Hannah the envelope addressed to her. "He misspelled my name. Says JD. How good of a doctor is he if he can't remember two letters?"

  JT plopped down on the edge of the bed where he and Hannah opened their envelopes in unison. Both of them looked at each other and rolled their eyes at the penmanship of Dr. Childs. Emblazoned on the paper were orders from Childs on what job JT would do and where he should report to. Peeking over at Hannah's, he saw she was given a different job.

  "Great. Now we've gone from running from zombies to being potential slaves for doctor know it all." JT scoffed as he said the words.

  "What exactly is it you expect from me JT? Do you think I have the answers you need to hear or something?"

  Her ridicule of him brought heat to his face. He stood up quickly and spun to face Hannah.

  "You know Hannah, I don't think anyone knows what they should expect from you anymore! Have any of us asked you for answers? Not by my count. Stop blaming yourself for Ash and stop playing the victim with the church bullshit! That song and dance has been on repeat for weeks and it's gotten old."

  JT took notice of the tears welling up in Hannah's eyes from his sudden outburst. I'm an ass.

  "Hannah, look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-. You know how I feel about you and it drives me crazy to see you blame yourself for everything that happened to us. You know what I mean?" Shit. Why did I say that?

  Hannah's eyes became plates. She got out of the bed and brushed past him. She grabbed her shoes, put them on, grabbed her pack and headed for the door. She made a mad show of it all.

  "Come on Hannah, don't do this, I'm sorry." JT pleaded with her.

  Hannah stopped in the doorway as she left. "Which part didn't you mean JT? The part about me pretending to be a victim? The part about me being scarred for life by the fact my best friend got murdered by a crazy motherfucker in the woods? Or the other part where we found ourselves in a place which turned out to be a real prison? Sorry, I don't feel totallycomfortable here? I'll spare you my feelings and just go. Meanwhile, you just go find another bottle to be your friend. At least then you can only hate yourself." Hannah stormed out bursting into tears as she did.

  "FUCK!" JT screamed as he grabbed a vase of fake flowers and threw it against the wall shattering it into colorful confetti.

  "You reallyscrewed up this time asshole." JT said to himself as he leaned headfirst against the wall, slapping it for good measure.

  Hannah had an instant disliking for Roy from their first interaction. It wasn't like he was off-putting, like Harold. She sure wouldn't be taken in by him like Albright. Roy simplymade no effort to hide what a dick he was.

  She had been asked in her letter from Dr. Childs to see if she could help Roy, whoever that was. Childs had wrote Roy's crew of workers were short handed and they were trying to finish some repairs on the town's makeshift schoolhouse as soon as possible.

  She puzzled over what Childs wanted her to do; she had no experience, but what the hell; she was eager to be doing something. She couldn't stop thinking about the fight with JT.

  On the way to meet Roy, she had stopped in at the clinic to see Gus. Anger at JT was replaced by worry about Gus, even though he was stable and Linda was by his side. Gus was still sleeping so after giving him a gentle kiss on the forehead, she had gone on, following the crude map given toher.

  At the schoolhouse she found Roy leaning against the side of the building, smoking a cigarette, while the other three men were ripping off siding riddled with bullet holes.

  Roy wore a black cap, backwards. His curly brown hair came out the back down to about his shoulders. He wore a flannel button up top with jeans. A chain came from his belt around front to his wallet, which was poking out of his front pocket. He gave her a sneer as she approached and blew smoke out the side of his mouth.

  "You one of the new people Childs sent over?" He asked, in a tone that said he couldn't care less.

  "Yes, I'm Hannah," she said, sticking out her hand.

  Roy looked at it, took another hit off his cigarette and then pointed with it to the workers. She noticed had black gloves on, with the fingertips cut off.

  "You have any experience, doing work in construction?" Roy sneered down at her.

  "No. I learn prettyfast though."

  "I thought not," Roy said with a laugh. It was not a humorous one. "That's not a mistake my Dad would have made. Childs may be a doctor, but my Dad was way more qualified to be in charge. Why didn't he send you over to the kitchens?"

  Hannah stood there, thinking she couldn't care less if there was any drama between Childs, Henry, and Roy, who she guessed was Henry's son. She said nothing, she just stood waiting for more direction. Roy's raised eyebrows and straightened stance seemed to dare her to argue with him about it. She didn't rise to it.

  "Fine," he said, throwing the cigarette butt to the ground and stomping on it with his boot. "At least tell me you can use a hammer."

  "I've helped my Dad hang some paneling before. Pictures too."

  Roy sneered again, adjusting his hat."Grab a hammer and some nails from the tools over there. You can go right at it, you old pro you." Roy stomped off.

  Hannah was left to look at the piles of tools and supplies spread out on a tarmac. The hammer was easy to find, but she didn't know which size nails she was supposed to use.

  "Need some help?" she heard over her shoulder.

  A man walked up beside her. "This stuff isn't my thing either. Computers and IT were. Not much use for that now, huh?" He laughed nervously. "Still, I picked up some things working in the town. Name's Josh."

  Josh wore a ball cap that looked like a stormtrooper's helmet from Star Wars. It was the first thing she noticed about him. His hair was long, black waves of it escaped from under it. His voice was soft and kind, as were his eyes, which were behind glasses that had seen better days.

  "Finally, someone who isn't a jerk around here," Hannah said.

  Josh laughed nervously again, looking around her but not making much eye contact. Hannah checked her annoyance. This guy didn't deserve it.

  "No problem," Josh said, pointing to the nails Hannah
needed then grabbed the side of his glasses to adjust them up. "You haven't met most of the people around here then. Roy is the exception."

  "Does he always come off like that?"

  "The nerve right?" Josh was hard to hear over the hammering. "He complains about everything. We have all heard it multiple times. Guy's sure butthurt. You would think it had happened to him and not his dad. Follow me, I'll show you what we're working on."

  Josh let her over to a pile of lumber, sitting on the concrete that was the school's playground. Hannah tried not to think about where the kids who went to this school were now. They worked away the rest of the day without even a sighting of Roy. The two other men working on the building were more welcoming. Hannah soon learned their names were Emilio and Kevin.

  They quit as it got dark. Hannah was tired, her hands frozen and numb. Her arms felt as if someone had hammered them. She was putting her tools away when Roy showed back up. He looked over the wall then walked away. Hannah was no expert, but she thought it looked good.

  "First day here, you know where dinner is served?" Josh asked.

  "No, I didn't even know they served dinner. So far I've just been eating what I brought in with me."

  "Oh yeah, they have a buffet every night, up in the old casino. Since every house can't have power to cook, Henry set it up so that at least one place could make everyone some hot meals."

  Hannah rubbed her hands together. "Makes sense. I can't even remember the last time I ate something resembling a meal. Never thought I would be living off of Spam, even back when I was in college and couldn't afford much."

  Josh laughed. It was as soft as his voice. "I've eaten more bags of chips in the last few months than probably my whole life. That's saying something. Jerky sticks for sure. I never even thought about eating those until after the Outbreak."

  They walked along the sidewalks cleared off while they were working on the schoolhouse. Hannah didn't enjoy feeling she impressed by what the people had here. She didn't want to get comfortable, she only wanted to move on.