Deadrise (Book 2): Blood Storm

by Siara Brandt

  In the beginning, there were fears that the virus would mutate and become air borne or even more virulent. But it was already too late for that. The half-assed morons who had created the virus had arrogantly, or maybe carelessly, thought they could control it, but they had been dead wrong. Mutations were a normal progression in any plague. The more people were infected, the more chances for mutations. You couldn’t contain something like that. Sooner or later, if they kept playing with fire, the world was going to get burned.

  Whatever this disease was, as far as he knew, it had already gotten a foothold in most other countries around the world. Here it had started on both coasts simultaneously at the same time that it was ravaging the interior of the country. The 1918 flu pandemic had infected some 500 million people across the world. Today, with modern transportation systems, they were looking at a recipe for disaster.

  Thanks to the jihadis, the virus had travelled faster than anyone could have imagined. The bastards were like walking time bombs. Using their own bodies as bio-weapons, they had been spreading their poison insidiously before anyone was even aware of what was happening. They would have done their research. They would have studied maps and they must have looked at the dead center of America like the hub of a wheel that had many spokes.

  Road blocks weren’t going to stop it. And so far, forced quarantines hadn’t slowed it down, even though those orders still stood. Thanks to government scientists playing God, the delicate balance of nature had been tampered with and now something apocalyptic in nature had been created. And despite his assurances to Rafe, the infected weren’t just sick. He’d also heard the rumors, as unlikely as they sounded, that the infected were coming back to life to attack and then cannibalize the living. Which was scary stuff.

  “I don’t think that Rafe is so far off,” one soldier began. “About zombies- ”

  “Hell, Taggart. Zombies?” another soldier interrupted him. “You don’t believe that. Right, sir?” he asked as he turned to Eli.

  Maybe not zombies, Eli thought to himself. But something. He’d heard stories about zombie alligators and zombie cats. Even zombie bugs. There were documented cases of diseases that affected the brain and caused neural involvement that led to unusual feral aggression. Maybe this was something along those lines.

  “I heard Murphy say that the woods are crawling with- whatever they are.”

  “Zombies.”

  “I talked to my brother-in-law in Houston right before the phones went down,” Taggart said. “And you know what? That’s just what it sounds like. This epidemic has spread much faster, and much farther than we’ve been told. Even he said there were reports of the dead coming back to life and then murdering and eating people.”

  “You believe him?” Eli asked.

  “He wouldn’t lie. He said he was taking his family and bugging out to a hideaway in the mountains. He told me to get down there with some guns and ammo as soon as I could.”

  Desertion talk again. And by tomorrow Willow Grove would look like the ghost town that Arundel was. Either that or a battle zone.

  “Hell, we’re out here in the field,” Taggart went on. “Don’t we have a right to know what we’re fighting?”

  “Whatever it is,” Eli told the men. “We’ll figure it out later. Right now we have to do what we can to get this situation under control.”

  Before it became another Arundel. Or worse. Because he knew things were already reaching the critical stage. Willow Grove was like a powder keg and all they needed was a single match to set it off.

  Eli tilted his head back and squinted at the bright afternoon sky.

  Sonofabitch.

  The damned black helicopters didn’t help. Whirring overhead like giant locusts, they had an immediate effect on the already-agitated crowd.

  A soldier was in the middle of the main street addressing the frightened people. In an effort to be heard over the helicopters, he raised his voice till he was shouting, “ . . . and you’ll be taken to a refugee camp where you’ll be safe.”

  “Safe from what?” someone in the crowd called out.

  More people started firing questions at the soldier.

  “Where’s this refugee camp?”

  “How come we don’t know about it?”

  “We’re not leaving our homes.”

  “This isn’t Russia or China. We’re American citizens. We have a right to know what is going on.”

  “The government is on top of this,” the soldier tried to assure them. “They’re looking out for your- ”

  “You mean they’re looking out for themselves,” someone interrupted him. “How can we trust the government? Look at Benghazi. And the IRS. It’s been one cover-up after another. And we’re the ones being screwed.”

  An angry murmur of assent rose from the crowd. This was, after all, the Midwest. Those very people who held to their guns and their Bibles.

  “Look!” Someone pointed, getting everyone’s attention. The crowd was silent for a moment as everyone turned to look in the same direction. Small groups of soldiers were going from building to building pounding on doors and forcing people out into the street.

  “What the hell is this?” someone shouted. “A police state?”

  The soldier held his hands out before him, trying to calm the restless crowd down. “We have to secure this section- ”

  “Section?” a man bawled out. “What exactly do you mean by section? The town? The county. Or the whole damned state?”

  “Maybe they mean the entire Midwest,” someone else suggested.

  Then came the angriest shout of all. “We’re not going anywhere without our kids.”

  The crowd surged slightly forward, galvanized with that one uniting sentiment. It was an emotional sentiment, one that most could identify with.

  “You’ll all be reunited with your children,” the soldier tried to assure them as he took a step backward. “Just- ”

  “Why did you cut off our communications?” someone wanted to know. “That’s why nothing’s working, isn’t it? You’ve got no reason to lie to us. Unless you are hiding something.”

  There was an almost threatening murmur from the crowd.

  A woman stepped forward and spoke out, passionately addressing the entire group of people. “Just go along with them peacefully. These are our soldiers. They’re only here to protect us. Mob mentality isn’t going to help anything- ”

  “We’re not sheep, Enid.” A man in a gray suit coat interrupted the petite, gray-haired woman. “We have a right to know what is going on and where they intend taking us.”

  “It’s – for – our – own - good,” Enid insisted, speaking distinctly to make sure that everyone understood.

  “Yeah?” Another man, this one in overalls, detached himself from the crowd. “That’s just what the Nazi’s told the Jews when they started shipping them to concentration camps. Hell, Enid everyone knows you’re a damned Democrat. You’ll believe anything no matter what they tell you. You go along with them if that’s what you want to do. But don’t try and lead everyone into the same trap. They know where they’re taking us. There’s no reason for them not to tell us.”

  “They are hiding something.”

  A tall man with torn, disheveled clothing stepped out in front of the crowd. It was Hollis Clayburn and he was still wearing his Union infantryman uniform. The people gasped when they realized it was stained with blood. There was a large cut over one of Hollis’ eyes and his voice quavered with emotion. “And I can tell you what it is.

  “They’ve already been over to Arundel.” He pointed to indicate the soldiers. “What they’re not telling you is that the disease has already infected people over there. And the infected that escaped have reached as far as Crevyn Ridge. At least.”

  You could hear the crowd draw a collective breath.

  “Another thing they’re not telling you is that the infected are dangerous in more ways than one,” Hollis went on. “I saw it for myself. I was attacked by two of them.
I barely escaped with my life.”

  “What are you talking about, Hollis?”

  “I saw what the soldiers did over in Arundel. Whoever was sick, the soldiers shot them down in cold blood.” He pointed to the soldiers again. “They called them zombies. I heard them myself.”

  Things were going downhill fast. Eli could see the change in the people’s faces. Their natural inclination would be to listen to one of their own. Things had gotten out of hand in Arundel but this crowd was bigger and far more agitated.

  “Sir, what do we do about those people heading for the bridge?” a soldier asked Eli. “If this gets out of hand like it did in- ”

  But confusion added to confusion as the crowd surged forward. Like a locomotive without brakes, it seemed unstoppable.

  A soldier ran up to him with new orders. “You need to get those people back from the bridge,” he panted.

  “How?”

  “By whatever method it takes. We’re behind schedule. We need to get these people out of here now. They’re already starting to drive the infected this way.”

  Eli stared at the speaker as if he hadn’t heard him right. “What? Drive the infected? Drive them how?”

  “They’re going to herd ‘em to the river and then take care of them there.”

  “What do you mean take care of them?” Eli wanted to know. “And why is this the first I’m hearing about this?”

  “You’ve already been told. Don’t question orders. These things- these infected aren’t like anything we’ve ever seen. They’re not just dying. They’re coming back to life. So we don’t have dead bodies to contend with. We’ve got living corpses. Dangerous living corpses. If you’d seen them back at Arundel, you would understand. They were feral. Hell bent on ripping apart anyone who came into their line of vision. I saw three of them rip a soldier to pieces in a matter of minutes.”

  He didn’t give Eli time to ask any more questions. “You’ve got your orders. Just obey them. That’s your job. Help get these people on the trucks. Now.”

  Another out-of-breath soldier ran up to them. “The helicopter pilot just told me he spotted some of the infected about fifteen minutes east of town. If they reach these people, all hell is going to break loose.”

  “That’s why they need to be quarantined,” the soldier giving the orders said. “Get these people rounded up. We’ve got twenty minutes tops, maybe less, to get it done or we’ve got a problem.”

  “Are they even sure the river will stop them?” Eli heard someone ask.

  No one had an answer.

  “How do we know some of these people haven’t already been infected?” another soldier wanted to know.

  He heard the same soldier who was giving orders say, “We don’t. But we don’t question orders, either. Just clear out any threats.”

  There wasn’t time to question anything. Those were his orders. That’s what he would do.

  Only, Eli thought as he directed his men, these people, the possible threats, were regular people. Men, women and children. American citizens.

  Eli held his hand up. That’s when the sirens went off. He ignored the sirens, pumped his hand up and down in midair and gave the command to hurry. So they hurried.

  Chapter 6

  _______________

  He’d known about what happened at Arundel because he’d witnessed it firsthand. Delivering legal papers to the courthouse there, he had seen the deliberate shooting of the infected. And now those same armed soldiers were here in Willow Grove.

  Before the phones went down, he had talked to his brother who worked at the CDC. Even before they realized what they were dealing with, the disease had already spread like wildfire. There were protocols in place. Measures were going to be taken to contain it, his brother had warned him. Extreme measures.

  They now knew that it was the work of terrorists. And that the disease was an actual bio-weapon that had been developed at the Arennes Research Facility. It wasn’t just a stealth virus. It was a hybrid cross between a virus and a bacteria. Something they were calling a viteria. But that was about all they did know. At least that was all they had been told. There was probably a lot more to it, Steve had told him. When the government was involved in something like this, there was always more going on behind the scenes. As always, they’d try to cover their tracks.

  The biggest problem was the incubation period. Symptoms could show up in a few short weeks, or it could be as much as a month, depending on how fast the organism latched onto the genetic coding of its host, because apparently it had actually developed that frightening ability. So in some cases there was a long period before anyone even knew there was a problem. A long period in which to infect more people. For jihadis wanting to infect as many people as possible before anyone even had a clue what was going on, it was the perfect weapon. Get the virus started. From there, all they had to do was to let nature take its course. With today’s population and international travel, this pandemic was going to be worse than anything the world had ever seen, Steve had warned him. A helluvalot worse.

  Athan Clune had been preparing nonstop since he had talked to his brother, and he had hoped that he would have time to put everything in order. But he had been wrong.

  The truth was that until this morning, the whole thing had seemed surreal to him. But seeing people shot dead right before his eyes had changed everything. Even more, seeing what the disease actually did to people had scared the living hell out of him.

  From the doorway of the reception area, his wife asked him, “What do you want me to do?”

  “Just come and help me fill these backpacks. We need to get out of town as soon as possible.”

  Getting out of town was his priority. His only priority at the moment. They had to do that first before they could even get to the kids. No one knew better than he did, that they should have left Willow Grove a long time ago. If not for the water pump going out in his car, they would be long gone.

  Rietta Clune gazed around uncertainly at the doorways to the empty legal offices. He knew what she was thinking. He was thinking about the same thing. That they would have to turn their backs on everything they had spent most of their lives building. But if they were going to have any chance at surviving, they would have to do just that.

  “What about the cash?” she asked.

  “I already grabbed some of it,” he told her. “But I don’t know if it will do us any good,”

  All the money in the world was useless if they weren’t alive to spend it, he thought to himself.

  Athan Clune saw that his wife had the office keys in her hands. “Don’t worry about locking up,” he said. “That’s not going to make any difference.”

  He picked up the two bulky backpacks and repeated the plan, “We get the kids out of school and then we head for the cabin.”

  “Are you sure this is the right thing to do? The soldiers. Maybe they- ”

  He shook his head. “No.” His voice was sharper than he had meant it to be. “The soldiers don’t know any more than we do.”

  “I heard them say that they would reunite everyone with their children.” She was desperate, grasping at straws and hoping for the best. But she hadn’t seen what he had seen.

  He didn’t look at her. “If that’s the case, then it should be easy to find them later.”

  He had had a bad moment earlier when he very nearly couldn’t find her. He wasn’t going to lose sight of her again. And when they found Zachary and Sisha, he wasn’t going to let them out of his sight either.

  After Rietta put her backpack on, she stood there wringing her hands nervously. “They’ll be afraid without us.”

  “That’s why we need to find them as soon as possible.”

  Athan stopped what he was doing. He pulled his wife into his arms. She yielded immediately, seeking comfort in his embrace as she rested her cheek against the white, striped fabric of his shirt.

  “Listen, Etta,” he said as he stroked her hair. “You have to trust me. You have to do
what I say without asking any questions, because things are probably going to get pretty confusing from here on out. Can you do that? Can you trust me?”

  She looked up at him and nodded. She did trust him. They had been together for twenty- two years and he had always taken his job of caring for her and their two children seriously.

  “Good. Because it isn’t just me who needs you to be strong. The kids need you to be strong, too.”

  She nodded again, watching him strip off first his tie and then the white-striped shirt to change into a darker one, knowing that he was doing it so he wouldn’t be so visible.

  “They’ve cut us off from communicating with each other,” he said as he buttoned up the new shirt. “There’s a reason for that. But I know this town, Etta, and they don’t. That gives us an advantage.”

  He picked up his backpack and peered out from behind the curtains of his private office. “We have to go now. Keep low and stay behind me. We’ll take the alley and head for the fenced yard behind Elthea Tullitt’s house. When we get there, we’ll hide out in the bushes there and then head west when it’s safe to do so. We need to stay away from the roads because they’ll be watching them.”

  He handed her the other backpack and saw that her hands were shaking.

  “Hell, Etta,” he said. “I know you. You can do this.” She was a strong woman. Especially when it came to her kids.

  He turned and led the way through the hallway to the back offices.

  Somewhere on the other end of town there was an explosion, one big enough to make the whole building shake on its foundation. The windows rattled. Glass shattered in one of the offices. Maybe in several of them.