Surviving The Virus | Book 9 | The Final Strain

by Casey, Ryan

  “What the hell are we gonna do with you?” Noah said. “What—”

  And then he opened his eyes and spoke.

  “My people. They… they destroy. Destroy everything. They have to be stopped. It’s not over. I…”

  Noah frowned. The hairs on his arms stood on end. His people? The destroyers?

  Did that mean…

  “You’re from the helicopters?” Noah asked.

  The man closed his eyes. Looked like he was drifting in and out of consciousness.

  “Hey,” Noah said. “Stay with me, fella. Not now.”

  The man opened his eyes again, just lightly this time. Jaw shaking. Teeth chattering.

  “Your people,” Noah said. “What’s the deal?”

  “They… they destroy. Destroy the virus. Destroy everyone with it. But we can’t just… we can’t just…”

  A sickly taste filled Noah’s mouth. He didn’t know what to make of this now he knew this guy was from the helicopters. He was one of the destroyers, whether he wanted to admit it or not. He was the enemy.

  And yet there was something about him that made Noah wonder.

  Noah leaned in close. “Your people,” he said. “You say they can be stopped. That it isn’t over. How?”

  The man closed his eyes again. Opened his lips, just a little.

  “Hey,” Noah said. “Stay the hell with me. Please.”

  And then the man opened his eyes again. But this time, there was a total clarity to his gaze. A total presence.

  “You can’t trust them. You can’t let them rule. You…”

  He stopped talking.

  But this time, it wasn’t because of his fading consciousness.

  Or at least that’s not what Noah heard.

  This time, it was because Noah heard footsteps.

  Footsteps right behind him.

  He looked around and saw two more people dressed like him. Rifles pointed. Dressed in the grey outfit. Narrowed eyes.

  “Step away from him,” the woman said, leading the way. “Step away from him if you want to live.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Get away from him, pal. Right this second. And… hand where I can see it.”

  Noah stared into the man’s drifting eyes. Saw the blood trickling down his face, tarnishing the bright white snow. His heart began to race. Four fucking weeks barely seeing a soul, and already he’d seen three within the space of a few minutes? All wearing this same silvery gear?

  It was too much to be a coincidence, that was for sure.

  They were here for this guy. They’d been trying to locate him. Trying to hunt him down.

  Which meant he really was important. He really was wanted for some reason.

  A runaway? He wasn’t sure. Only thing he was sure about was that he trusted the guy on the ground more than he trusted the woman and the man with the rifles pointed at him right now.

  “Seriously,” the woman barked, her voice deep and punchy. “This isn’t something you want to mess around with, friend. You’re lucky to be still standing. Take that luck and run with it. Our people will have someone distributed to wherever you are living soon to discuss future living arrangements. As well as doing the necessary tests.”

  “Me and my people are just fine where we are, thanks,” Noah said.

  He looked around at this duo. At the coldness on their faces. The glassiness to their eyes. He wondered what they’d seen. What they were capable of. He knew they were the helicopter people at this point, which meant they were responsible for the slaughter of so many—of those infected, by the looks of things, from what he could deduce.

  And he didn’t want to go following orders from these people. He didn’t want to be a part of whatever new world they were building.

  He craved connection, sure. Craved rebuilding. But not from some superpower on the outside. He craved rebuilding from within.

  Not some old-world dictatorship. That wasn’t him. That wasn’t the future he wanted.

  The woman’s frown narrowed. She was short, muscular. Didn’t look impressed by Noah’s resistance. “Staying where you are ain’t an option. Not if you want to survive.”

  “I’ve been surviving just fine. Thanks.”

  She sighed. Shook her head. Clearly pissed at this point. “Look. Frankly, on a personal level, I don’t give a shit what you do. Just that you have someone right here who belongs to us. And if you don’t step aside, I’ll be forced to play dirty to get to him.”

  “What are you going to do with him?”

  “Huh?”

  “This man. What are you going to do with him?”

  “Why is that any of your business?”

  “I want to know why one of your people is hanging themselves in the middle of nowhere. Especially when he’s telling me you’re the ones destroying the virus and everyone who might’ve been in contact with it.”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed. A smile turned at the corner of her mouth, just a little. “So he’s been speaking, huh?”

  It was the way she said it that Noah didn’t like. The coldness with which she spoke that reassured him this woman wasn’t to be trusted. None of these people were to be trusted.

  She lowered her rifle, just a bit. Walked towards Noah. Slowly. Feet crunching through the snow.

  “I’ll tell you exactly what we’re gonna do with him,” she said.

  She walked right up to him. Looked him in the eye.

  “We’re gonna take him back to our base. And we’re gonna look after him. Look after him real closely. Because that’s what kind of people we are. We look after our own.”

  A smile stretched up her face.

  And then she raised her rifle.

  Pointed it at Noah’s chest.

  “So step aside. Or believe me, I’ll make you.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” the man spluttered. “She’s… They’ll torture me. Let me die. Kill me. I…”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed again. That viciousness across her face. Enough to convince Noah not to trust her. To convince him that the guy in the ground wasn’t going to be safe if he went back with her—wherever he went back.

  “You have no business sticking your nose in any of this,” the woman said. “So step aside. Do as you’re told. Or I’ll remember you.”

  That threat. Those words laced with such venom.

  Noah knew these people weren’t to be fucked with. And they certainly weren’t to be trusted.

  He tried to close his eyes. Tried to sink into that void. Tried to reach that place within; that strength he knew he had. That tingling sensation. That openness. That ability…

  “What you doing? Fucking meditating or something?”

  He opened his eyes. Fuck. It was no use. He was too weak as it was.

  “Seriously now,” the woman barked. “You get the fuck back. You get back, and you get away from our colleague, or I will blow you the fuck away. Understand? I will…”

  He didn’t hear the rest.

  He felt himself falling into that void.

  No. Not falling.

  Being dragged into it.

  He didn’t understand. That sudden strength. Out of nowhere. A strength he hadn’t felt in a while.

  And he didn’t feel alone.

  He felt like someone else was present.

  Like he used to with Iqrah.

  Like…

  A bang.

  A bang inside.

  Spreading outwards.

  He fell back. Hit the snow. Tasted blood. Copper at the back of his mouth. Ears ringing. Heart racing well over a hundred beats per minute.

  He lifted his head. Saw the man lying there beside him. Eyes closed now. Blood trickling down his face.

  He frowned. Looked around, looked ahead. Looked over at…

  Shit.

  The two people from the helicopters.

  They stood there.

  Heads burst.

  Standing there like headless chickens.

  And then they wobbled to the g
round and hit the snow.

  “That,” a voice said.

  Noah looked to his right.

  The man had his eyes open again.

  Bloodshot.

  Dark red.

  “That’s… that’s how we stop them. That’s how…”

  And then his eyes rolled back into his skull, and his head hit the ground.

  Chapter Eight

  “So what do you think?”

  Noah stood at the doorway to the medical bay. Kelly had cleared it of the final body a couple weeks back. A man called Amir. Always seemed friendly whenever Noah came to see him. Always polite. Always in good spirits. Sad to lose him. The last of the survivors. The last one still standing. Kelly buried him. She seemed to like burying them. Seemed like she saw it as some kind of moral duty. Like she had a responsibility to the people here to make sure they got the send-off they deserved.

  But Noah definitely wasn’t expecting to find someone else in here. To find someone out there. For this room to be occupied.

  And with someone so… special.

  “Noah?”

  Noah looked around. Saw Kelly standing by his side, Bruno at her feet. Shel was outside somewhere, hunting. Suddenly, he felt a protectiveness over Shel, mostly now he knew these people were around—the people who were after this man he didn’t even know the name of.

  Maybe they’d come here. Maybe they’d try to trace him down. Maybe they’d attempt to avenge the helicopter people—the Greys—he’d taken out just before.

  That void.

  Opening up.

  Feeling like there was… a connection somehow. From somewhere.

  “I’ve only felt that way with one person before,” Noah said.

  Kelly narrowed her eye. “Sounding a bit romantic to me.”

  “Iqrah,” Noah said, ignoring her. “We had this… connection. Like we could control the virus. Like we could… channel it and choose its path, somehow. I’ve only ever felt it so powerful just once before, with one person before.”

  “So you think he’s…”

  Noah swallowed a lump in his throat. “I’m not sure. Not yet. But like I say. I’ve only felt it with one other person.”

  Kelly nodded. Looked like she’d eased off the jokes now, at least.

  “And if he can?”

  “Huh?”

  “If he can do what you can do,” Kelly said. “What does that, like, mean? Really?”

  Noah hadn’t really thought about it. He hadn’t had time to. Mostly he’d just been thinking back to that moment. Finding this guy. Hearing what he had to say—about stopping these people. About how it wasn’t over yet.

  And he couldn’t stop thinking about the hope it had sparked inside of him.

  The hope that there could be another way.

  A way he didn’t know yet. A way he didn’t understand yet.

  But a way. That was enough.

  “We won’t know,” Noah said. “Not until he wakes.”

  “If he wakes,” Kelly said.

  “Yeah. If.”

  “He’s not in a great way. Heartbeat a lot slower than I’d like. Breathing not great. Super cold to the touch. Those wounds around his neck, too. Damage could already be done. Just managing expectations, you know? Just in case.”

  “Not like you.”

  Kelly rolled her eye. “There he is with the sarcasm again. Want me to make you false promises? To build this up like he’s out of the woods?”

  “No. Sorry. I just…”

  “What? Come on. Get it off your chest. Rather not have you moping in silence the rest of the day.”

  “It’s just… I don’t understand yet. None of us do. But I have this feeling, Kelly. This feeling that… that if he wakes up—if—there might be some hope. There might be something we can do. Some way of… of not reversing the damage already done, sure. But of stopping any more damage being done.”

  Kelly raised an eyebrow. “Sounds awfully hypothetical.”

  “I know how it sounds,” Noah said. “I know I’m probably mad for even having any hope at this stage. But it’s just how I feel. This has to work. Right? Because if it doesn’t… I don’t know what else we’ve got. Nothing but waiting.”

  Kelly shrugged. “It’s cool. Kind of nice to see you like this. Beats the miserable dude, anyway.”

  “I’m not miserable.”

  Kelly raised her eyebrows. “Really? You’re… you’re not being, like, sarcastic when you say that?”

  “I’m not miserable. How am I miserable?”

  “I’m not going to answer that.”

  She looked around at the man, lying there on the mattress on the floor. Noah looked at him, too. He couldn’t explain his hope. But it was laced with fear, too. A sense that this could go wrong. That it could all be ill-placed.

  But they needed something.

  Maybe this was it.

  “Shel’s got a lot to catch up on,” Kelly said.

  “Where is she? Shouldn’t she be back yet?”

  Kelly puffed out her lips. “You know what Shel’s like. Itchy feet. But she’ll be back. Always comes back.”

  Noah heard the wind batter the building they were in—this makeshift medical bay. A place where so many had died. Where a sourness clung to the walls. The smell of death.

  Hope laced with fear.

  With trepidation.

  “Come on,” Kelly said. “Better leave the guy to it. Doubt he appreciates our yapping.”

  Noah looked around.

  He didn’t want to leave the guy. Didn’t want to let him out of his sight.

  But as he saw him lying there, sleeping, he knew there was nothing he could change by being here.

  He took a deep breath and went to walk out of the room.

  That’s when the man gasped, coughed, and opened his eyes.

  Chapter Nine

  The man opened his eyes, and he coughed.

  Noah looked around. Heart started racing. Time stood still. Thought he was imagining things at first. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d imagined crazy shit since the world went tits up.

  But this man. Sitting upright. Coughing and hurling into his hands.

  Specks of blood splattering everywhere.

  Kelly looked over at the man, wide-eyed. Bruno tilted his head like even he was curious about all this.

  “Is he…” she started. And Noah knew what she was getting at. Infected. Is he infected?

  But something told Noah he wasn’t. Something told Noah he wasn’t infected at all. That this was just from the wound around his neck.

  At least he had to hope so, anyway.

  He rushed over to the man’s side, Kelly close behind him. The man didn’t look good. Certainly didn’t look in any state for a conversation right now. Eyes bloodshot with the coughing. More blood splattering out over his hands as he writhed around, heaved his lungs out.

  “It’s okay,” Noah said, patting him on the back. “Hey, pal. It’s okay. We’ve got you. We’ve—”

  “Get off me!”

  He noticed an accent now. Too caught up earlier to really notice. A hint of something European. He looked kind of Eastern European, come to think of it.

  Confusion in his bloodshot eyes as he scanned from Kelly to Noah and back again. Looked slightly intimidated by Bruno, too, as if he’d never seen a bloody dog before.

  “It’s okay,” Noah said. “We’re here to help you. Helped you once already. It’s safe here. Seriously.”

  The man opened his mouth, went to say something. And then he just descended into another heaving coughing fit.

  Noah looked at Kelly.

  “Water?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Grab him some.”

  “You sure you’re alright alone with him?”

  “He’s practically on death’s door. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

  Kelly didn’t look convinced. But she got up, ran out of the medical bay, Bruno following closely and barking.

  And suddenly Noah found himself alone with this man
. Alone with this man he’d saved. This man he’d inexplicably rescued.

  The man he was pretty much certain he’d tapped into joint abilities with. Just like he used to with Iqrah.

  Only with this guy, it felt stronger. It felt even more powerful.

  The man stopped coughing. There didn’t seem to be as much blood in his saliva now, which was a good sign.

  He looked around the room. Eyes wide. Rancid sweat pooling down his face.

  Then he looked at Noah again. Narrowed his eyes like he didn’t recognise him at all, like he hadn’t seen him before.

  Noah lifted his hand. “It’s okay. Seriously. No threat. Unless you’re a threat. In which case, I might have to have a rethink.”

  The man narrowed his eyes. Rubbed his neck, winced. “What… what happened?”

  “You don’t remember?”

  The man shook his head. Looked pretty pissed off about his lack of knowledge.

  “You tried to hang yourself from a tree. I helped you down. Brought you back. Then some friends of yours—I’m assuming they’re friends of yours from the uniforms you were wearing—they turned up. Said they wanted you. And then… You don’t remember what happened next? Seriously?”

  “I remember… a lightness. And then… and then this feeling of power. This feeling of strength. And…”

  He looked at Noah, then. And his eyes widened.

  “You are him.”

  “What?”

  “The one they speak of. The one with the abilities.”

  Noah’s cheeks flushed. “I…”

  “We thought you were just a myth. Thought you were just… just a rumour. A lie. But I saw it. I felt it. You are the one, aren’t you? You are the light.”

  Noah cleared his throat. “Not sure how comfortable I feel about all these weird mythical cliches being thrown my way. Feels kind of cheesy.”

  “Cheesy or not. I saw it. I felt it. I… Do you have any idea how valuable you are? How powerful you are?”

  “I’ve been told that a few times now. I’m guessing your bunch are interested in me too?”

  “They are interested in you, in a way,” the man said. “But not in the way others might’ve been.”