The Next World Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Olah, Jeff

  Natalie turned toward him and held his hand. She motioned out through the front of the SUV and began to break down as she also regarded him with a smile. “We’re getting you help, baby.”

  Owen couldn’t think of a proper response. His mind told him to say thank you, but that didn’t seem to fit, it wasn’t enough. He opened his mouth, but only managed what he thought sounded like a brief, high pitched whistle, similar to slowly releasing the air from a balloon. And he couldn’t be sure whether it came from his throat or his nose.

  In the front passenger seat, Gentry gathered his pack from the floorboard. He turned in his seat and reached for the handle. “We’re here.”

  A second later, the door beside him was pulled open and the man in the dark hoodie reached for his arm. Gentry had rounded the front of the SUV and now stood with Lucas and Travis.

  “Okay,” the man said, “we can take him to the second floor. You’ll have everything you need.”

  Owen’s eyes were heavier now. He felt like he wanted to sleep, like he no longer had a choice. “Nat?”

  He was out of the SUV and again being carried. There were four of them now and although he felt like he was floating, the flare in his left armpit had returned. It still wasn’t enough to cause any real pain, but it was there. It sat behind multiple layers of confusion and fatigue, but it was there. And that made him happy. It meant that he was still alive.

  But then just as quickly everything started to change.

  Owen tried to take his next breath, but couldn’t remember how. The voluntary in and out seemed foreign. Felt like he was doing it for the first time, like his throat had been narrowed to the size of a straw.

  He tried to swallow, but tasted more blood, felt like he was drinking it now. Where his vision had been a bit blurry, he could feel the haze turning a dark shade of grey and then drifting toward black. The sounds of the night air rushing by the side of his face slowly faded and then dropped away all together.

  All that was left was a low hum and the nearly muted voices of his family and friends.

  Natalie. She was there, breathing hard and holding his hand. He could feel the vibration of her voice against his right side. They were inside now, felt like he was being carried up a flight of stairs, the angle sending a wave of muted pain into the side of his head.

  She was shouting, but with each word sounded further away.

  “HURRY, PLEASE HURRY! WHAT’S HE DOING, WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM?”

  And then they were back on flat ground. His body was moving faster, beginning to convulse as the hands on him clamped down.

  “Nat …” He spoke, but only into his own head. “I love you, tell Ava and Noah that I love them.” He felt like he was falling. Faster into the darkness. It enveloped him, pulled him in, and finally swallowed him whole.

  “Goodbye.”

  114

  Kevin used the light from his phone to illuminate the narrow footpath. His boots were soaked through and his feet frozen stiff more than thirty minutes before. The rain came sporadically now, harder and longer with each passing wave.

  Bryce had taken the lead, with Alex close on his heels. Their pace was quick and choppy. Neither had spoken in more than ten minutes and Kevin was beginning to think they may be lost.

  “You sure about this?”

  Bryce laughed. “Yeah, it’s cold, I get it. But we’re almost there.”

  Alex turned back, his face holding more rain than Kevin knew was possible. He looked like he was coated in Vaseline, his eyebrows and short beard reflecting the moonlight. He cupped the left side of his mouth and mimicked whispering, although his voice came out at full volume. “I think we’re lost too.”

  “Yeah,” Kevin said. “How do we convince your friend here that—”

  Bryce came to a stop. He put his left hand above his head and balled his fist. “We’re here.”

  Alex moved around to Bryce’s right side. Stayed on his shoulder and spoke into his ear. “Looks like the fire’s out, but there’s something over to the left … near the Buick.”

  Kevin slipped his phone back into his pocket, readied the Glock 17, and crouched on the opposite side of Bryce. “What is this place?”

  “Used to be a shopping mall, now we like to think it’s our home. It was abandoned well before the world went to hell, a friend of mine knew about it and knew that Dr. Lockwood had a place here, figured this might be a good place to start to rebuild.”

  Kevin pulled aside a low-hanging branch and nodded toward what looked to be a pair of torched vehicles, the one on the right like a post-apocalyptic version of the first car he ever owned, a 1969 Ford Mustang.

  “A damn shame.” He grinned, an attempt at lightening the mood. “We should hunt them down for that alone.”

  Bryce looked in the other direction, a long narrow drive, only wide enough for two vehicles, side by side. Lined with a thick stand of elm, and only one way out, the road into the abandoned shopping mall couldn’t have been less inviting. “They’re long gone, but we knew this was coming. Let’s get this cleaned up and secured. We can add some detail when the sun comes up and we have a few more hands. For now, keep your eyes and ears open. We’ll get it done quickly and get back inside.”

  As Bryce started toward the road, Kevin put his hand on the smaller man’s shoulder. “Wait.” He pointed to the area between the burned vehicles and the leading edge of the gate. “Looks like there’s at least a dozen or so.”

  Alex stepped away from Bryce, dropped to one knee and shouldered his rifle. He squeezed off a single round, the silencer partially covering their location in the trees.

  As the round slammed into the melted tail light of the Buick, a pair of female Feeders stumbled out from between the vehicles, pulling the rest of the small crowd with them.

  “Ten, eleven …” Bryce counted under his breath as they slowly ambled out away from the gate. “Twelve, thirteen, uh … fourteen?” He then turned back to Kevin. “Good eye.”

  Alex looked up at Bryce, still on one knee, and then turned back to his scope. “We good?”

  Bryce nodded. “Quick, and don’t hit anything else.”

  The first four shots came almost at the same time. Four rounds, four headshots, four motionless Feeders. Alex then stood as Bryce backed away, and took out six more before Kevin could ask.

  “He’s done this before?”

  Bryce grinned. “Yeah, the dude just doesn’t miss.”

  Alex dropped an empty magazine into a pocket on his backpack, pulled a fresh one from his hip and slammed it home. He quickly fired two more rounds and then paused as a pair of male Feeders dropped backward beside the Mustang. “They look like twins to you?”

  Kevin shook his head, and watched as the last two Feeders moved from the left of the Buick and started toward the edge of the road. The first, a female wearing a security uniform, looked to be somewhere close to six feet tall. The male, only a single stride behind, was maybe an inch or two taller, his face still mostly intact, but it looked as though he was missing a large portion of his stomach.

  As they approached, now less than twenty feet away, Kevin took a step forward and began to raise the Glock. “Is there a reason why—”

  “Hold on,” Bryce said, “Watch this.”

  Alex moved in closer to the road and again dropped to one knee. He slipped his eye in behind the scope and gently fingered the trigger. As if in slow motion, the round left the barrel of the automatic weapon and rocketed through the night. It entered the female’s head, straight through the center and only an inch above her brow. A fraction of a second later it exploded out the back, brain matter and skull fragments peppering the male’s face as it tore through his temple and caused his eyes to pop out of their sockets.

  And without turning, Alex said, “Twofer.”

  “Doesn’t count,” Bryce said. “You were supposed to say it first.”

  Kevin thought he knew, but wanted to hear him say it. “Twofer?”

  Bryce stayed low, moving towa
rd the road and watching the trees further on for movement. “You know, two fer one, like when you only have to shoot once and—”

  “Yeah,” Kevin said, “I get it. I just had to hear how you were going to try to explain it.”

  Alex strode back quickly, his eyes darting from the gates to the downed Feeders, and then to the pair of torched vehicles. “Let’s get this done and get back in there. I’m starting to have a bad feeling about all of this.”

  Kevin stepped out and looked down to where the road bled into the highway. The rain had slowed considerably, although he still wasn’t able to see much beyond fifty or so feet. He was now thinking that firing the weapon, as entertaining as it was to watch, may not have been the best plan. “Your guy inside, he see Declan and his men leave?”

  Bryce looked to Alex, held his gaze for a moment, looked like he was going to say something to his friend, but then turned back to Kevin. “Declan wasn’t here, but his men were, and they’ve done this before. Eight days ago, and then five, and yesterday … and then tonight.”

  “If you knew they were coming, couldn’t you have stopped them?”

  Alex shook his head. “They got numbers on us, there’s just too many of them.”

  “Wait, why didn’t you mention this before, out on the road when you stopped us?”

  Bryce took in a breath through his nose, blew it out slowly. “Because Devin was with you.”

  “Devin?”

  “Yeah, he’s the reason they did this.”

  115

  Noah sat between his sister and his mother. He’d never seen anything like this, an entire mall with no one shopping. And there were other people, more names than he could remember, even a few children. He liked it here, and now just wanted to stay.

  He began to smile, thought that he was happy.

  But then it hit him. He remembered where he was and why. “Mom?”

  Natalie was a mess of tears and distraction. She hadn’t stayed in the same spot for more than a few minutes. Asking Ava to watch her brother, attempting to stay strong for them, and acting interested in whatever the new people had to say. “Yes, Noah?”

  “Is Dad going to be okay?” He’d asked her at least five times and not once had he gotten a different answer.

  “Yes, he’s going to be fine.” She stood and started toward the room just like she had the last time and the time before that.

  Ava clamped down on his hand and leaned into him. “She needs us to be here for her right now. I know you want Dad to be okay, and so do I, but if you have any more questions, just ask me. Let’s let Mom have a minute.”

  Noah thought he knew what she meant. He could see his mother was having a hard time, but he didn’t know how to act, what to say. He thought he needed to say something, but maybe he was better off just being quiet.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “No,” Ava reached for his chin and lifted his head. “It’s okay, Noah. Mom just needs us to be strong for her. She’s trying, but no one is telling her anything and she’s worried. Like I am.” She leaned in closer, looked into his eyes. “Like you are.”

  Noah nodded, his eyes filling and his lower lip beginning to quiver. “Okay … I’ll be—”

  The doors to the store thirty feet ahead began to open. The sign above had big letters and fancy writing. Noah thought that before, when the mall was open, that it would have lit up in blue and white. It was a mattress store and when they took his father in, he thought the beds looked comfortable, better than the one he had at home.

  Dr. Gentry appeared. “Natalie …”

  His mother was wiping her face and tucking her hair behind her ears when the doors opened. She had her back to the mattress store and only turned when she heard her name. “Yes?”

  “I need you,” Gentry said. He was holding the door and looking back over his shoulder. “We have to hurry.”

  Natalie turned back and looked at Ava. She mouthed something, but Noah didn’t understand. He though she said be good, but it was too fast. He only saw that her tears were flowing now, like when his grandfather had died.

  Ava stood and faced the short man with thick grey hair. His shoulders were big and round, his belly even more so. He wore light colored jeans and a blue jacket that said maintenance across the back. And he seemed to smile more than the other people.

  Noah was trying to remember the man’s name, he thought it was Martin.

  “Sir,” Ava said, “Can we go downstairs?”

  The man looked back toward the mattress store, and as their mother disappeared inside, his face changed. He pressed his lips together really hard and turned to the woman in the orange sweater. He looked like he didn’t know what to say, but then, “Can you, uh …”

  The woman was older. Older than his mom or his dad. She looked like she was someone’s aunt or maybe grandmother, or somewhere right in between. Noah remembered her name, because she was someone very important.

  Her name was Mary Lockwood.

  At least that’s what Ava had said.

  The woman smiled, like she was trying to help the man. She turned to Ava and gave a quick nod. “How about I give you and your brother a quick tour, get you something to eat, and then maybe you can watch a video or read a book if you’d like.”

  Ava again took his hand and pulled him up. She quickly glanced back to the mattress store and then up at the woman. “Okay.”

  The woman smiled big and also glanced at the doors. “We’ll let your mother know, and make sure to bring you back once they’re all done.”

  “Okay.”

  Mary Lockwood led them to the escalator and motioned out toward the bottom floor. “See the yellow tape and the big trash cans down there?”

  Noah nodded. “Yeah?”

  “We don’t go past there without at least two adults, especially at night. That’s our safe zone.”

  He was going to ask, but then before he could, she continued.

  “We have twelve cameras, some inside and some outside. They work on solar power, but the interior lights aren’t working in that part of the mall. We’re trying to get them fixed, but one thing at a time.”

  Ava turned to her. “Okay.”

  “But,” Mary said, “This place is safe, you and your family are going to be very happy here.”

  Ava smiled. “Thank you.”

  Noah had a million questions. He wanted to ask about the escalators and why they weren’t running, and if they could turn them on. He wanted to ask about the stores and what kinds of things were still left. He wanted to ask about the rooms and the beds. He wanted to ask about the parking lot and if there were any shopping carts that he could use. He wanted to ask about the food and if they had spaghetti or ice cream.

  There were too many things, but mostly he just wanted to know if his dad was going to be okay. Without his dad, nothing else mattered. He wanted to ask, but thought he wouldn’t be able to tell if the nice woman in the orange sweater was lying.

  So instead, he didn’t say anything.

  And when the nice woman could see that he was struggling, she rested a hand on his shoulder and motioned toward the floor below. “How about we go finish the tour and get you both something to eat?”

  116

  They’d walked the road to the highway and confirmed that the gate was secured and that the cameras were again functional. Kevin was beyond exhausted. His feet felt like two frozen blocks, his nose had been running for the last ten minutes, and he was sure his lower back would be a problem for at least the next week.

  “Okay,” he said, “what’s next?”

  The sun would be up in a few hours, and he was hoping their answer would have something to do with heading inside and checking on the others. His only friend in the world was in bad shape, and now all he wanted was a bit of good news.

  “Uh …” Bryce looked at Alex. “We get a confirmation from Davis yet?”

  Before Alex could answer, Kevin motioned toward the two-way radio on his hip. “Any chance we could get an up
date on my friends?”

  Alex grinned. “Give me a second.” He then pulled the walkie from his belt and turned away. “Control, how are we looking?”

  There were a few seconds of just the night air and the rustling of leaves. And then static and a voice. “Can’t see much from up here, but that’s nothin’ new.”

  “Yeah okay,” Alex returned. “But we’re freezing our asses off out here and our new friend wants to check on his people.”

  The voice that came back was different. It was the same man, but sounded like he’d straightened. “Oh yeah, sorry man. The backyard is good and so are the gates, you boys can come on home.”

  “And our new friends?”

  “They’re all good.”

  Alex eyed Kevin, could see that he needed more. “All of them?”

  Another pause, this one twice as long. “We don’t know anything just yet, but so far no bad news. We’re all pulling for him up here.”

  Alex turned to Bryce and then back to Kevin. He was looking for help, but his expression said that he knew he was on his own. “Your friend, Owen, he’ll be okay. If even half the stories about Dr. Gentry are true, you’ve got absolutely nothing to worry about.”

  “Yeah,” Kevin said, “I hope so. We need him, his family needs him. This world needs him.”

  “Alright,” Bryce stepped in, motioned out toward the horizon. “Let’s get in there, the sun’s gonna be up soon. I’d like to catch a few hours of sleep.” And then to Kevin he said, “You’ll probably want to do the same?”

  “I’m alright.”

  Bryce checked the gate one last time. He adjusted the foliage near the top so that it hid a camera mounted just behind the outer frame and then turned and started across the massive parking lot. “Not for nothing my friend, but I’m just gonna say it. You look like hell and although you’ve done a pretty good job hiding it, I can see that you’re either nursing an ankle or a lower back injury.”

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  “No worries, we’ve got pretty much anything you need inside.”