The Ark Series (Book 3): The Ark of Alliance

by Kotrous, Scott

  Peter grabs his forehead and can feel blood. He pulls his hand down, looks at it and sees it’s covered in red, even through his blurry vision. He again shakes his head and then wipes the blood from his eyes as the anger begins to rage inside of him . . . and he knows what’s coming.

  Just as he regains his sight, the creature comes into focus as it stands up and turns toward him. The Incipient lunges at him again just as Maggie screams behind him, heightening the rage brewing from within.

  He again dodges the Incipient, but this time follows it with an elbow to the back of its head, which slams it to the ground. He stomps on its back when it attempts to get back up, right as two more Infected burst through the door.

  Maggie screams again, drawing one of the undead to her, which tackles her.

  Peter moves out of the way of the other Incipient that’s thrust itself at him, and he follows it with another blow to the head; he can feel its skull crush under his foot.

  He doesn’t even acknowledge the undead that’s fallen behind him, and dives toward the one on top of Maggie, who’s fighting for her life. He falls short of the Incipient, but then leapfrogs off the ground and slams into the creature, sending them both to the ground.

  Another beast dives on Peter’s back as he fights the one off, and it sinks its teeth into his shoulder. Peter jerks his head back and screams out in pain, followed by an elbow from his opposite arm that rips the creature from his back while pulling a chunk of flesh with it.

  He then spins in mid-air, landing another elbow to its skull, that bounces off the metal grate. Peter pushes himself up right when he lands, grabs the creature’s head, and snaps its neck in one fluid motion.

  He quickly turns and plants a fist on the other Infected’s back right before it gets up, which sends it to the ground again. He pulls a knife from its sheath and buries it in the back of its head, relieving it of its life.

  Peter gets up on his knees and looks at Maggie, but then hears another screech coming from down the hall. He looks in that direction and sees two Infected that seem to hit an invisible barrier before they fly sideways and slam against the wall, followed by their necks snapping.

  Peter feels his head again and then looks around. “Where’re Nye and Tye?” He slowly turns his head toward Maggie, who’s curled up against the wall in the fetal position. He shakes his head again and then moves toward Maggie. “Are you alright? Maggie, are you okay?!” He gets up next to her and gently shakes her. “Maggie, speak to me. Are you injured?”

  Maggie sits up and then looks up at him. “I can’t do this anymore. They’re everywhere . . . I can’t take it anymore.” She drops her head and starts to cry, then leans into hug him.

  Peter puts his arm around her and can instantly feel his heart rate and pulse slow down. He looks behind him and sees Nye and Tye seem to appear from out of nowhere. “Where the hell were you guys! We almost died over here!” He grits his teeth as he looks at Nye and Tye, who look at each other when they get close.

  “We had to take care of the Infected flanking our position. Our weapons are currently offline, and so we had to resort to a stealth attack.” Nye notices his shoulder and she moves toward it. “Your shoulder. We must get to Medical as soon as possible. Please, we must hurry.” She turns and looks into the stairwell.

  Peter looks at Maggie gazing up at him with tears in her eyes, appearing so helpless. “Are you okay to move?”

  Maggie wipes her eyes and flings the water on the ground. “She’s right. Let’s go. We’re not going to make it curled up on the ground crying. I apologize for my moment of weakness, and I’ll try not to let it happen again.”

  Peter’s taken aback by her words and hesitates before responding. “Maggie, you’re still a human being, and you’re allowed to get emotional from time to time.”

  Maggie stands up and then picks her rifle up. “People die when they’re emotional. We’ve gotten this far, and I’m not about to give up now. But your shoulder needs attention, so let’s move out.” She checks her rifle and then gets behind Nye, who’s waiting for them at the door.

  Peter soon follows behind, after checking the hallway one last time. They race down the stairs and get to the door that leads to Medical. Tye waits at the door for everyone to get to the landing before pulling the handle.

  Peter puts his hand on the door and stops it from opening. “I got this.” He steps in front of everyone and positions himself at the door.

  “Peter, your shoulder. Let me take it.” Maggie raises her rifle and stands, looking ready.

  “I’m fine.” He pulls the handle, slowly opens the door, and raises his rifle with his other arm. He plants his foot against the door, aims his rifle down the hallway, waits, and listens. Once satisfied, he slowly walks forward, weapon trained down the hall, eyes taking in everything.

  He lowers his rifle about halfway down the hall and stops at the door at the end of the hallway. He looks back to make sure everyone’s behind him before slowly opening the door, then follows the same routine clearing the next few hallways.

  They get to the doors leading to the residences, but they are locked. Maggie steps in front and puts her ear to the door. She then steps back and knocks on it.

  “Identify yourself,” the voice says from the other side of the door.

  “It’s Maggie, John’s niece. It’s safe. Please let us in.” Maggie looks back at everyone.

  The door unlocks and then opens up to a group of people pointing guns at them. They quickly lower their rifles once they realize it’s safe.

  The four of them enter the room and someone quickly slams the door behind them. They welcome them in and then apologize for the precaution, which Maggie immediately disregards to tell them that they need to get to Medical.

  Maggie attempts to draw everyone’s attention toward her as she moves through the people, but then hears someone yell out what she was dreading she’d hear.

  “Hey, this guy’s bleeding . . . kinda looks like he got bit?” The tall man backs away from Peter while chatter amongst the group escalates.

  Maggie turns around and grabs Peter’s hand. “Ah . . . it’s just a gunshot wound, and that’s why we’re heading to Medical. So if you’d please step aside so we can get there, that would be great.” She pulls his hand and leads them through the crowd with Nye and Tye trailing behind with closed mouth smiles on their faces.

  The chatter grows louder when someone yells out that it definitely looks like a bite mark, but Maggie just continues to lead them through the crowd while gingerly disregarding the accusation, which does the trick in getting them through everyone.

  They finally get past the crowd, but with a group of armed men tailing them as they enter the hall leading to medical.

  Once they arrive, the men following them seem to stay back when Maggie closes the door behind them once they’re all in. She turns around and sees a waiting room with only a handful of people in it. She’s grateful that it’s not full of injured, but then quickly reminds herself they’ll be coming soon.

  Maggie walks across the waiting room and through the double doors. She asks one of the nurses darting around where she can find her Aunt Kate, and she graciously point in the direction she last saw her in, but explains she’s pretty much been all over the place ever since wounded started coming in.

  Maggie thanks the nurse and walks down the hall with the three of them behind her while she looks for her aunt. She asks a few people who pass by, but only gets the same unsure response in conjunction with pointing in the general direction where Kate could be.

  They continue looking in each room and, finally, she sees her beautiful aunt standing over a patient while holding a stethoscope to their chest. She pulls the stethoscope off just as Maggie enters the room, and then turns toward the door and recognizes her niece.

  Kate rushes over and gives her a hug, then asks where John is. Maggie tries to explain how he went with Ena in an attempt to end all of this without anymore bloodshed.

  “What doe
s that mean . . . how is he going to end this without anymore bloodshed?” Kate’s eyes darts back and forth between the four of them.

  “That’s part of why we’re here, but first, someone needs patch up Peter . . . and try not to be alarmed by his injury.”

  Kate leads everyone to an open room where she tells Peter to remove his shirt and sit down.

  Peter proceeds to remove some of his gear while Nye and Tye move to the other side of the room and set their bags down on a table in the corner of the room. Kate walks up to Peter as soon as he sits down and puts on gloves while he finishes removing his shirt.

  “Aunt Kate, wait. There’s something you need to know about Peter.” But when she sees the look on her face, she knows she spoke up too late.

  Kate slightly jumps back and then takes a few steps back as well. “Is that what I think it is?” She points at the wound and then walks over to the supply cabinets, pulls out a few masks, and tries to hand them out while attempting to put one on at the same time.

  Peter turns around and looks at Kate. “It’s okay. I’ve been bitten before and it had no effect on me.”

  Kate drops the masks and looks around the room at everyone and then back to Peter. “What do you mean, it doesn’t affect you?”

  Just as Peter tries to respond, Nye interrupts. “May I please interject and save a lot of time by explaining the situation? Peter here is a very special young man who may or may not be holding a cure for the infection. We need to take a blood sample so we can test it to determine whether or not he does indeed carry the proper antibodies needed to create a cure.”

  Kate gives up on putting the mask on and lets her arm drop to her side while her mouth gapes open.

  Peter looks at Kate and then back at Nye and then back to Kate. “I was bitten a while ago and, as you can see, it has no effect on me. Can you please just stitch me up so I don’t bleed to death?”

  Kate closes her mouth, looks at everyone standing around the room, and then grabs the materials needed to patch him up. While she proceeds to clean the wound, Nye walks over holding a syringe.

  “Please hold out your arm. I need to test your blood.” Nye holds up the needle.

  Peter holds out his arm and Nye proceeds to pull a small amount of blood, then removes the needle and holds it up. She walks over to her bag and inserts it into her tablet.

  “Wait, I thought you needed to charge your gear?” Maggie asks.

  “We did.” She turns back to the tablet, as does Tye.

  “Huh? How did you do that? I didn’t even see you plug something in.”

  “We just needed to be near an outlet . . . we should have the results within a few minutes.”

  Chapter 34

  John stares at Ena in anticipation for news of what just might save everyone. The quiet throughout the massive arena-sized room tells him most are waiting with anticipation as well.

  Ena finally looks at John with a slight smile growing on her face. She nods and says “copy that” into her comms and then stands up. “Commander, I’ve just received word that Peter Timmons has just tested negative as a possible antidote carrier. So then we are requesting an immediate troop withdraw from the Ark.”

  John looks at the multiple screen shots of the woman sitting center chair in between several other women and men, each person in a discussion with those around them. The other camera shot is from the US desk, and the president is also amidst conversing with the person next to her.

  He looks up at Ena, still standing and waiting for a response from the person she referred to as the commander, and who’s still in a discussion with the person sitting next to her. She finally sits up straight and then taps on her tablet a few times before looking over at the US desk.

  “Well, Madam President, it appears as though your military is illegally occupying private land . . . what is your response?”

  The president continues to speak with the people sitting next to her as she ignores the commander’s request.

  “Madam President, may I hear your response?” She waits a little bit before asking the same question.

  The president eventually turns back to face the commander while bobbing her head at what appears to be the person still talking in her ear. She puts her hand up and toward the person still talking before she speaks. “I apologize for the delayed response. At this time I would like to request a forty-eight-hour time period so I can discuss the matter with the joint chiefs.”

  Before the commander has a chance to respond, Ena speaks up. “Ma’am, let me remind you that it’s also believed that the military’s involvement in the Ark has to do with their personal interest in determining if Peter is a successful candidate for a non-sanctioned experimental program. May I also add that the longer we wait, the more will die. So if, in fact, the only reason why they’re in the Ark is for a possible antidote candidate . . . well then, forty-eight hours is unnecessary, and could be even more bloody then they’ve been already.”

  The commander swipes her tablet while the silent room waits for her response. “Twenty-four hours . . . we will rejoin at that time.”

  Both Ena and the US president say her name almost simultaneously, but the commander ignores both of them while she packs up her things before stepping down from her raised desk, followed by the others around her.

  The room begins to depart when Ena finally looks down at John, who looks dumbfounded and confused.

  He shakes his head in a quick burst while Ena sits down and faces him. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get this taken care of today, but we should be able to tomorrow.” She looks at the ground.

  John exhales through his nose and chuckles a little. “Well, can’t say I’m surprised . . . meanwhile, more people will die while they figure out a way to lie about the reasoning behind them being in my house . . . so typical.” He sarcastically laughs again while shaking his head.

  “Just be patient, John. Just be patient.” Ena looks up at him and smiles.

  They wait until most of the crowd leaves before getting up and exiting the room.

  Chapter 35

  Jason slams a new clip into his rifle and quickly rejoins his brother and the others holding off the military; but with each body that hits the concrete, he knows that task will soon become improbable.

  The barrage of bullets that’s disintegrating the concrete wall behind them looks stable for now, but for how long is unknown.

  Dave recoils backwards and then drops his rifle on the ground, forcing Jason to stop firing and take notice.

  Jason hears a bullet zip by his ear and then another hits him and forces him to crouch down just as a stinging sensation begins to radiate from the side of his head. He grabs the side of his head, but doesn’t feel anything. “Oh, fuck!” He looks at his bloody hand. “What the fuck! My ear’s gone. Motha’ fuckers shot off my damn ear! Fuckin’ cocksuckers!” He looks at his brother clutching his shoulder. “Hey, bro, are you alright? Are you hit?”

  Dave just continues to hold his shoulder and doesn’t say a word. Jason gets closer, grabs his brother’s arm, and pulls on it. Dave growls at him and shows his teeth.

  “Let me look at it, bro!”

  “I’m fine; just help the others,” he says through clenched teeth.

  Jason looks up at another group of people huddled behind a few cars. He makes eye contact with one of them right as a bullet hits him in the forehead, forcing it to snap back and then fall to the ground. Another person gets hit twice in the chest, which sends his body flopping on top of the other.

  All of a sudden, the gunfire completely stops, followed by shouting and more gunfire, but not at them.

  Jason takes another look at his brother still holding his shoulder and starting to look a little pale. He reaches for his brother’s arm again, but Dave just shakes his head and then points it in the direction of the other people.

  Jason rips the shirt off one of the corpses, then rips it again to get rid of the blood-soaked side, and ties it around his head. He then cranes his neck an
d looks over the blown-out car, but can’t see anything.

  He crouches down next to Dave again and says in a very low voice, “If you’re not going to let me help you, I’m going to try and get a better look at what the hell’s going on up there and why they stopped firing at us . . . but I have an idea of what it could be.”

  “We . . . need to . . . get outta here,” Dave says in between breaths.

  “You’re not going anywhere until you let me look at that; you look white as a ghost.” He feels blood drip down his shirt.

  “You don’t look so good yourself.” Dave coughs and then cringes, obviously in pain. “What happened to you . . . why you bleedin’?”

  “It’s nothing, merely a flesh wound. Now let me look at your shoulder.”

  Dave looks at his shoulder and then slowly pulls his hand away, revealing a hole that’s seeping blood.

  “Holy fuck, dude! That don’t look good. I need to patch you up like now . . . like right now.” He reaches over, grabs a pack off the ground, and starts rifling through it.

  Dave coughs and grabs his shoulder again. “I’ll be fine. Just—” He takes a few shallow breaths followed by more coughing. “Just leave me be. I’ll be fine.”

  “Shut the fuck up and turn around so I can see it.” Jason finds what he was looking for and sets the bag aside. He then grabs a bottle of disinfectant and uncaps it, then slightly lifts the wrap around his head and pours some on his ear.

  The pain is overwhelming and almost causes him to pass out. “Ahhhh . . . motherfucker! Sonofabitch, cocksucking mother fucker! Holy shit, that fuckin’ hurts like a motha’ fucker!” He presses his hand hard against his head until the pain subsides a bit.

  He grits his teeth and tries to focus his wobbly eyes on his blurry brother. He shakes off the haze and gathers his supplies again, then grabs Dave’s other shoulder and helps him turn around.

  He rips his shirt, which reveals a shoulder that’s barely holding onto its arm.