Surviving The Virus | Book 9 | The Final Strain

by Casey, Ryan

  Noah smiled. Shook his head, even though it ached to do so. “So you just want to use me as a weapon. Use me as your nuke. That’s it, isn’t it?”

  George sighed. “I’m sorry. It must be strange to know just how important you are in the grand scheme of things. It must be difficult dealing with this sudden sense of importance. Of responsibility. But believe me when I tell you that we will do everything possible to make sure you maintain as much personal autonomy as you possibly can. Without putting us at risk, of course.”

  Noah narrowed his eyes. He didn’t want to query what that meant. But it made him shudder. Reminded him of the labs, right back at the beginning. The way they talked about him like he was some kind of guinea pig. “So you’re just going to keep me as your lab rat? As your pet? What about when I die?”

  George smiled. “We’ll make sure you have a successor. If it’s the last thing we do. And of course, we’ll treat him or her to a wonderfully pampered life.”

  Forcing him to have a kid. Using his entire family line as lab rats. Was this what his life had led to? Was this what he—what his family—were destined to become? He thought of Mum and Dad. Thought of Jasmine. Thought of all the paths his life could’ve taken. He’d never once seen this coming. Nobody could possibly have predicted it. Nobody.

  “The question is… are you willing to comply?”

  Noah looked into George’s eyes. “Do I really have a choice?”

  George smiled. “Free will is an illusion, I suppose. But I’m sure this will help.”

  He walked over to Noah’s side. Tapped a tablet computer. Held it up to Noah.

  Noah wasn’t sure what he was going to see.

  Not until he squinted at the grainy grey screen.

  The back of a van.

  Kelly. Bruno by her side.

  “They are safe,” George said. “And if you give us your word… they will stay safe. But one wrong move, and I promise you, they are gone. Finished. How is that for an offer?”

  Noah looked up at him. Narrowed his eyes. “How do I know you won’t just kill them anyway?”

  “You don’t,” George said. “But believe me. We could. So what’s it going to be?”

  Noah felt torn in two directions. He wanted to fight. He wanted to resist.

  But if he did, Kelly and Bruno would die.

  The two beings he cared about most in this world would suffer.

  And even though he knew what Kelly would say—to resist anyway—he wasn’t sure he could do that.

  Especially as he was trapped as it was.

  No. He had to be intelligent here. He had to play some kind of long game.

  He had to try something else.

  He looked up into George’s eyes. Took a deep breath. “I’ll do what you want. I’ll help.”

  George studied him for a few seconds. Eyes not wavering.

  Then he smiled.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “What?”

  “I said I don’t believe you.”

  He walked over to Noah, slowly.

  “I think you’re biding your time. Waiting for your moment. And then I think when somebody in my ranks gets complacent, that’s what you’re waiting for. Hoping for. Your moment.”

  He stopped.

  “The good news for us is, we’ve found a way to neutralise your threat to us. To make ourselves less susceptible. So that’s not going to be something you want to be trying any time soon.”

  Noah narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t going to give up without a fucking fight, that was for sure.

  “But we don’t get complacent, Noah. And I’ll show you exactly what I think about liars.”

  He tapped a button on the tablet screen.

  And then he turned it to Noah.

  He couldn’t hear, but he could see.

  Kelly clutching at her throat.

  Bruno on the floor.

  Kicking out.

  Coughing.

  “What the fuck?!”

  “The gas I just released will kill them in thirty seconds,” George said.

  “Stop it,” Noah said. “Fucking stop it!”

  “Are you with us?” George said.

  “Please. Just let them live.”

  “Are you with us, Noah?”

  “I… I—”

  “Twenty seconds and they die. Are you with us? Are you going to serve us?”

  “Yes!” Noah shouted.

  It was a loud shout. But he’d never felt so beaten down. Never felt so weak.

  “Yes,” he said. “I’m with you. I’m… I’m with you.”

  He watched George’s smile falter, just a little.

  And then he tapped the button on the screen.

  Bruno stopped twitching. Got up to his feet. Cowered in the corner.

  Kelly got to her knees, coughed some more, then stood up, walked over to Bruno.

  And then George turned the tablet away and walked across the room.

  “Think very carefully about what just happened there, Noah. And remember. You serve us. Remember where the true power lies. Regardless of your little party tricks.”

  He walked past the spotlight, which burned into Noah’s eyes, blinding him.

  And then he stepped out of the room and slammed the door shut.

  And all Noah could think about was Kelly, Bruno, and what they were going through, all because of him, all over again.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Kelly clutched her throat and tried to breathe.

  She lay on the floor of this truck she’d been bundled into. It’d all happened so fast. First, the bullets slamming into Kev, the Two Harrys. And then Noah falling, twitching away on the ground. Having some kind of violent seizure.

  And all she could do while this went down was stand there. Try to drag Noah back to his feet. Try to stay out of the way of the impending gunfire.

  And then one of those greys had approached from behind.

  He’d knocked her to the ground. Cracked her, right across the face. Left her in a daze.

  And then the next thing she knew, she was being dragged to her feet and carried away somewhere. And they kept on reassuring her that Noah was okay. That everything was going to be fine. That they were heading towards something better. Something new.

  And as Kelly was dragged along, Bruno by her side, still in this weird daze, she couldn’t help wondering. She couldn’t help believing.

  Maybe there was something better ahead.

  Maybe something better really did await her, off in the distance.

  Maybe there was a better world...

  She’d woken up in the back of this vehicle. She knew it was a vehicle right away. Some kind of van. She could hear the engine. Feel it moving.

  She wasn’t cuffed. Bruno was by her side, totally free, sitting there and staring up at her. She felt a weird sense of comfort. A sense that everything was going to be okay. That she was exactly where she needed to be.

  And then she heard the voice.

  Through a speaker somewhere. So loud, so grainy, that it made her squint; that it made her ears ring.

  “Kelly, right?” the voice said. A male voice. Nondescript. Hard to place accent-wise. Sounded a little robotic. “First of all, I’m sorry about your rough handling. We all are. But you’re safe. Believe me when I say that. You’re safe. So relax. Please. Soon, everything will become clear.”

  Kelly looked around. Heart racing. Tensed her fists. She could taste blood in her mouth. She’d been captured. Noah... Where the hell was Noah?

  How long had passed?

  Was it already too late to stop Phase Three?

  Too late to act?

  “Noah,” she shouted. “What the hell have you done with Noah?”

  “Noah is fine,” the voice said. Something inhuman about it. “I know you’ll find it hard to believe that right now. But really, he is. He’s in the best place for himself. And he’s in the best place for everyone else. That’s all you need to know.”

  A silence fo
llowed. A tense, drawn-out silence. Kelly scanned the inside of the van for a crack in the vehicle. For some kind of light.

  But there was nothing.

  No cracks in the foundations. No way out of here that she could see.

  Nothing.

  “I know we’ve got off on something of a wrong foot,” the voice said.

  “That’s one fucking way of putting it.”

  “But you have to believe me when I tell you we have your best interests at heart here.”

  “Like I said. Hard to believe when you’ve just massacred God knows how many people. When you’re about to do the same to so many others.”

  “We’ve done what we’ve done to stop the virus in its tracks. To end it, once and for all. Something we haven’t been able to achieve throughout the whole of history. And now we have Noah... we have another chance. A chance to maintain our order. A chance to keep people safe from outside threats. A chance to research. To study. Noah is the safest man on the planet right now. And because you are of such value to him... so too are you. Well. Unless...”

  The line crackled.

  Sounded like the connection had dropped. Just for a moment.

  And it unsettled Kelly. Unnerved her.

  “Hello?” she said.

  The next thing she knew, she heard a fizzing noise from somewhere above.

  And that’s when her throat seized up.

  She lay on the floor. Beat the solid metal of this van she was inside. Bruno cowered in the corner. Alternated between wagging his tail and coughing, spluttering. Whining.

  And as Kelly lost her breath, as all energy drifted from her body, as she drowned on the air itself, she wondered whether this was it. Whether this was what it’d all come to.

  Lying on the floor of a van. Choking to death.

  All the work she’d done. All the strides she’d made in this world.

  And it wasn’t going to end heroically. Nothing like that.

  It was going to end in misery.

  It was going to end with an asterisk rather than a full stop.

  It was—

  She coughed.

  Air filled her lungs.

  The noise stopped.

  She rolled over onto her back. Bruno ran over to her side. Tucked his head under her arm like he was scared too.

  She gasped for breath. Struggled for air.

  But she was breathing.

  She was breathing.

  “Good lad,” she said, her breath wheezy, her throat raspy. “Good lad, Bruno. It’s okay. It’s okay.”

  She sat there. A tear rolled down her cheek. She shook, adrenaline surging through her body. She just wanted to curl up into a ball. Just wanted to disappear. Just wanted all this hell to end.

  And then the crackly voice cut through the system again.

  “Kelly,” he said.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  Silence.

  She stood up. Looked up to where she thought the voice was coming from. Up in the corner, right in the darkness.

  “I asked you a question. What the fuck was—”

  “That,” he said, as matter of fact as ever. “Was what happens when Noah doesn’t behave. When he doesn’t comply. And now he’s seen it we won’t have to do anything of the sort again. At least, we’d hope not, anyway. Not if he truly cares about you. Now rest up. Settle down. I’ve no doubt you need to.”

  “What—”

  The crackle stopped.

  The voice vanished.

  And all Kelly could do was stand there and stare into the darkness, totally trapped.

  Because this wasn’t death.

  This was a fate worse than death.

  And she wasn’t getting out of it.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Noah sat in the chair, strapped to the wall, and he knew deep down he wasn’t ever moving from this chair again.

  He didn’t know what time it was. Just that in this unlit room, it was dark and timeless. He didn’t know what the weather was like out there. All he could see was darkness. Grey metal walls. Every now and then, he heard an engine. Something like a propellor. And he could hear footsteps, too. Signs of life.

  Enough signs to him that Phase Three hadn’t yet begun.

  But fuck. What was he supposed to do about Phase Three?

  What could he possibly do while he was strapped here? While if he did anything at all untoward, while he was being watched, something would happen to Kelly and Bruno? To the two people left in the world he truly cared about?

  He didn’t know anymore. He didn’t have any solutions.

  All he knew was that he was trapped in here. He was going to be the Greys’ guinea pig. Their experiment. And ultimately, their nuclear weapon.

  What was he supposed to do?

  He felt that void, so close. Felt himself dancing on it, almost. So close to sinking into it. So close to letting it consume him.

  And he wondered if he could make it? If there was time?

  And he wondered if he could break past the barrier that he’d been told about?

  The barrier that the Greys had against him.

  And whether he could do it in enough time.

  He swallowed a lump in his throat. Sighed.

  He didn’t know what he was going to do. Only that it was too risky. Far too dangerous.

  He couldn’t do anything that endangered Kelly. That endangered Bruno.

  He couldn’t do anything that hurt the ones he loved.

  He closed his eyes. Felt himself drifting off into sleep. Into an altered state of consciousness. He wasn’t sure how many times he fell into that state. How many times he drifted back out of it again. But he dreamt of all sorts of things. He dreamt of the helicopters taking off and pouring their chemicals all over the rest of the globe. He dreamt of children, tears pouring down their blood-soaked faces, crying for their mothers and fathers.

  He dreamt of so much pain, so much misery.

  And then he dreamt of someone else.

  Jasmine.

  Eddie.

  They stood there. Together. As real as the day. As clear as could be.

  They looked at him with something on their face. Something like disappointment. Something like they were let down.

  “What?” he asked them. He wanted to go over to them. Hold them. He wanted to wrap his arms around them and feel their comfort, feel their warmth, make sure they were okay. He wanted to be with them, wherever they were, and he wanted to stay there. Because he was done here. He was done with this world. He was ready for a new one. Ready for a new fate. Ready for...

  “You’re a quitter,” Jasmine said. And she said it with such malice, too. Such venom.

  Noah frowned. “What?”

  “You’re a quitter,” Eddie echoed. “That’s your problem. You give up way too easily, buddy.”

  “But I’ve never stopped fighting. I’ve never stopped trying.”

  “Then why stop now? Why stop now when you need to fight more than ever before?”

  He heard those words, and he felt a spark of energy, then. A desire. A determination.

  Because he was the one with the power to do something. He was the one with the power to make a change.

  So he was just going to sit here?

  He was just going to accept his fate?

  No. He couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

  But...

  “Kelly,” he said. “Bruno. They... they’re relying on me. If I do anything, they get hurt. They suffer. And I can’t have that. I can’t allow that. I can’t let anybody else down. Not again. Not after everyone else.”

  Jasmine appeared before him, then. Right before him. So close, he could smell her sweet perfume. So close, he could feel her warm breath against his face.

  She looked at him with those beautiful green eyes, and she smiled.

  “You need to stop feeling like you are responsible for everyone,” she said. “Because the people who are with you... they are with you, Noah. Kelly is with you. And Bruno? Hell,
Bruno is with you too.”

  She leaned in. Put a hand to his face. So soft. So warm. So calming.

  “You know what you need to do.”

  He heard those words, and then he watched as Jasmine stepped away. As she drifted out of sight. As Eddie faded, too, smiling at him.

  “You know what you need to do, Noah,” she said. “You know what you need to...”

  Noah opened his eyes.

  He sat there. Trapped in the darkness.

  But he didn’t feel weak.

  He didn’t feel stamped on. He didn’t feel suffocated. Beaten down.

  Not anymore.

  He took a deep breath, tensed his fist, and he forced a smile across his face.

  “I know what I need to do,” he said, a tear rolling down his cheek.

  That’s when he closed his eyes and felt that energy surge inside him.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  George stood by the window, stared out at the helicopters, and listened to his watch ticking away.

  The blizzard had eased. It was late, but the skies were clear. The winds had slowed. Really, it’d all fallen into perfect place. It’d all worked out just fine. Just right.

  And now, they were ready to begin Phase Three.

  Now, they were ready to start.

  He looked at the helicopters. Then glanced at his watch. 6.55. Five minutes before the grand departure, a slight change the initial schedule, but not by much. Before they left these shores, once and for all, and moved on to the next step. It had all gone perfectly. Sure, a few hiccups. But in the grand scheme of things, those hiccups had proven somewhat fruitful. They’d proven beneficial somehow.

  Because Noah. He’d begun as a problem. And in the end, he’d turned into an asset. The greatest asset of all.

  He thought about the woman and the dog. Kelly and Bruno they were called. He felt sorry for them, sure. They seemed like decent people. Innocent people, at the end of the day.

  But just like so many others, they were necessary sacrifices. Cogs in the machine of something greater. History would remember them. Hopefully, anyway. He really, sincerely hoped that.