by Damon Hunter
THE SEARCH
Copyright © 2018 by Damon Hunter
All right reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
WHAT'D YOU THINK?
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Chapter 1
Given’s Apartment - Palm Springs, CA
“When everyone is trying to get the hell out of town, no one gives a damn about alarms,” Givens told Dennis and Gil when the rumors about quarantines and evacuations first started in the Palm Springs area.
The only reason Dennis and Gil were in Palm Springs in the first place was because they fled Los Angeles when the rot outbreak turned the City of Angels into the City of the Rot. They were staying in the massive refugee camp just outside the city at first, but they had looked up an old pal they both did some prison time with. Givens and his new girlfriend Ella were kind enough to take them in. Their apartment was not anyone’s idea of luxury, and it wasn’t built for four, but it had air conditioning, unlike the tent they had shared with six other strangers at the refugee camp.
The early rumor was that the rot victims starved to death after about two weeks; apparently, this was what happened in China. Unfortunately, it sounded like they would be widening the evacuation before they could find out if the two week thing had any truth to it.
“Seems we ought to stay,” Givens had said one evening as they drank cheap beer and smoked good weed while crowded in the living room watching the talking heads on the television discuss the Oceanside Disaster, which quickly became the San Diego Disaster as the rot moved unchecked down the coast.
“Are you serious?” Dennis asked.
“It will be a thief’s paradise,” Ella said. “No cops, hell, no store owners. Just shit for us to steal.”
“Yeah,” Gil said, “except instead of cops and clerks you’ve got vampire rotters. Trust me, those motherfuckers are way worse than cops.”
“We’re all pros here, right?” Givens asked.
Everyone nodded.
“Then we are used to getting in someplace, taking care of business, and then getting out quick. This won’t be any different. We hit them and then we are out of there, we don’t give any of the infected time to find us.”
“And go where? Once they declare an area quarantined no one gets out,” Gil asked.
“Yeah, I heard, drones and shit blowing up anything that gets close,” Dennis added.
“It’s true,” Gil said. “My cousin got incinerated coming up the I-Ten.”
“Which is why we aren’t leaving,” Givens said. “I’ve got a place out in the desert to hole up. I’ve been stocking shit away there for years just in case I needed somewhere off the grid to lie low. You’ve got to go offroading to get there, but my Wagoneer can handle it.”
“That old thing actually runs still?” Gil asked.
“Hell yeah it does, got a big hidden compartment under the trunk for all our loot.” Givens told him.
Ella added, “I’ve already scouted our mark, there’s enough diamonds and gold in there for us all to retire.”
“Who are we going to fence it to in the quarantine?” Gil asked.
“Two to three weeks,” Givens said. “We can make it easy.”
“What if that’s bullshit?”
Givens shrugged and said, “There is always going to be a little risk. That’s what makes it fun.”
They were all in agreement on that point.
The day everyone was clearing out of town, the four of them went into town to visit the jewelry store Ella scoped out. The alarm sounded when they used a battering ram to bust in the back door, but Givens was right, no one cared. They came in hard, everyone had a shotgun except Givens, who sported an AK-47 he had fixed to go full auto if necessary. No one was inside. They had the place cleaned out in a matter of minutes.
Gil shot a vampire rotter dead as they came back into the alley, blowing its head clean off as it sprung at Ella. Givens even had them out of there before the report of the shotgun could draw any more attention.
“I thought the idea was to evacuate before the infected showed up,” Ella said, pointing to a large group of amblers wandering the street as Givens drove them out of town and into the desert.
“Looks like they fucked that up again,” Gil told her.
Givens’ hiding place was an old, dilapidated resort a good thirty miles out in the desert. The idea for the resort was that it would be a luxury spot for those who really wanted some isolation. Turned out not many people want to be that isolated and it didn’t last long. The structures still up were mere husks for the most part, but they weren’t any worse than the tents and cots which would have awaited all of them if they had evacuated. Dennis and Gil knew this firsthand.
The road leading to the resort was built just for the resort. When it went under, there was no reason to maintain it. Only the last ten miles or so were actually still almost like a road. Givens took four wheel drive trails until they could pick up what was left of the abandoned road.
“Stop the car,” Gil said as he saw the smoking husk of another vehicle ahead of them.
Givens stopped his Jeep. He found a pair of binoculars and got out to take a look.
“That what I think it is?” Gil asked as he joined Givens on the road.
Givens handed over the binoculars without saying a word.
“Looks like someone else was planning on waiting this shit out up here,” Gil said.
“Yeah, I should have known I wouldn’t be the only one. They didn’t make it, though,
did they?”
“Nope, which is a problem.”
“Drone?”
“That would be my guess.”
“Should we chance it? Maybe we can make it to the resort if we leave the Wagoneer behind. Maybe they won’t be able to target us on foot.”
“I don’t think it works that way.”
Before Givens could answer, they heard the rumble of an approaching vehicle. They turned to see two pickup trucks loaded with gear had worked their way to the old road. Whoever it was had packed for the long haul. Not only were both beds loaded with gear, the second one was dragging a trailer. The trucks went around them and kept going. If they saw the burning vehicle, it didn’t slow them up.
The lead truck was only a hundred yards away when a missile fired from a robot in the sky struck them.
The second truck braked hard upon seeing its travelling companion incinerated. The two passengers got out and ran, heading for the abandoned resort. The driver threw his truck in reverse and started backing away.
None of them made it far. The truck was engulfed in a ball of fire as the driver tried to swing it around so he could go forward. The blast sent the trailer flying through the air. The suitcases and camping gear packed in it flew out and rained down on the road in front of Givens’ Jeep as the trailer pinwheeled through the sky. It went over their heads and landed just behind the Jeep. The two runners were reduced to wet spots on the sand soon after the trailer hit the ground.
“So much for going in on foot,” Gil said.
“How close do you think we are to the line?” Givens asked. “Ten feet? Less?”
“I’m not taking a single step forward,” Gil told him.
Ella and Dennis joined them on the pavement. Ella said, “What are we going to do now?”
No one had an answer for quite a while.
Finally, Gil said, “Unload the gear. I guess we are camping here until we can figure something out.”
“You want to stay here?” Ella asked.
“I’m not going back to town, that shit was already rotter central,” Gil said.
“He’s right,” Dennis added. “If it is anything like it was in L.A., that shit is only going to get worse.”
“I guess we’re camping then,” Ella said.
Chapter 2
Cam Carson’s Helicopter - Escondido, CA
“It’s pretty simple, guys,” Reg said as they flew above the city of Escondido. “Unless one of you can fly this thing, we are doing what I want.”
They had narrowly escaped the disaster at conspiracy-driven radio host Cam Carson’s compound and were anxious to get on the right side of the quarantine line. All of them except Dr. Talbot, who wanted to go back to his makeshift lab and retrieve his research.
Dr. Talbot was about to say something when Reg interrupted, saying, “Unless you’re going to say you can fly this thing, I don’t want to hear it.”
Dr. Talbot could not fly a helicopter, so he shut up.
Vance, a former soldier in the Tactical Medical Response Team and a rare person immune to the rot, looked at Talbot and said, “Maybe it’s for the best. Novak, yourself and I are TMRT, the rest are not. The three of us can go back somehow and get your research. The others need to get to safety.”
Talbot had no argument for this, other than that he feared with the chaos of the southeastern checkpoint getting overrun by the infected, quickly followed by the city they were flying above meeting the same fate, they wouldn’t be able to get back. Of the dozen people crammed into the chopper designed to haul troops in the Vietnam era, only three were soldiers, though if they made it this far, the others had proven to be tough survivors. Dr. Talbot, despite his status in the Tactical Medical Response Team, did not really qualify since he was in the research end of the TMRT. Two were teenage girls, though Katelin Vance had proven herself to be as deadly as any of them, and one, Gavin, was a ten-year-boy.
“I take it things are settled then,” Reg said.
“No, they are not,” the man known as Fan said. He was an agent of an undisclosed Asian nation. He snuck into the Quarantine Zone to prevent a planned nuclear exchange, designed to evaporate the infected, that the undisclosed intelligence agency feared would get out of control. With the help of Vance and some of the survivors from his group, they had succeeded. It did not come without a price. Vance’s group lost a member, another TMRT deserter named Clay, and the two twins, Cletus and Chase, lost their father.
Fan squeezed through so he was sticking his face between the two seated in the front of the chopper.
“Land on the hospital, it has a pad on the roof,” Fan said.
“I don’t think so,” Reg replied.
Fan stuck his pistol in Reg’s ear. “I’m not asking.”
Donna, sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, drew her pistol and leveled it on Fan. From behind, everyone with a gun, which included Vance, his fourteen-year-old daughter Katelin, Ben, the son of a survivalist Vance knew from his marine days, Ana, the last surviving member of the ill-fated South Western Apocalypse Response Team, both the twins, and Novak, the other TMRT soldier, drew a weapon and leveled it at Fan.
Of the ten people in the chopper who were not Fan or Reg, only four were not pointing a pistol at Fan. Those being an immune surfer named Bo, immune teenager Jennifer, ten-year-old Gavin, and Dr. Talbot.
“Put it down,” Donna told him, adding, “I’m not asking.”
“Take a moment to think things through,” Fan said. “I put a gun on the pilot. If I pull the trigger, I kill us all. I’m willing to die over this. Are you?”
No one had an answer.
“Set us down. Then we will discuss our options,” Fan said.
“Have you looked down there?” Reg said. “The city has gone to hell. Infected are everywhere.”
“I’m well aware.”
“Why are you doing this?” Reg asked. He did know Fan was a foreign agent.
“Things won’t go well if the TMRT gets ahold of me.”
“I could take us to the desert and drop you off there.”
“Just land.”
Reg steered the chopper to the roof of the hospital and set it down. The hospital roof had enough space for two helipads and while it was not smooth, Reg got them down onto the empty one. For the moment, the roof of the hospital was clear of any infected, although they all knew that could change in a split second.The only other thing on the roof was the life-flight helicopter. No one took the fact it was still there to be a good sign.
“You know, now that we are down, there is no reason not to shoot you,” Novak told him.
Fan removed the gun from Reg’s head and put it in his holster before turning and saying, “Let me out.”
“Are you serious?” Donna asked him.
“I’m not much on the American humor, is this the type of thing you find funny?” Fan replied.
“You know, once you are off the chopper, I’m getting the hell out of here,” Reg told him.
“Of course.”
“You won’t make it,” Vance said.
“That is my problem,” Fan replied. “I like my chances better than yours. Anyone care to join me? Dr. Talbot?”
“You want me to come along?”
“I wouldn’t mind picking up your research.”
“To take back to Korea?” Vance asked him.
“Did I say I was from Korea? But yes, to take back to where I come from.”
“You want me to help a possible hostile government gain our information we fought so hard to obtain?” Dr. Talbot asked.
“What is it Vance and his group like to say? Team Human. Do countries matter? I know the quarantine policies. You should all go to the desert, they will kill you all.”
Dr. Talbot got off the helicopter.
“Seriously, Doc?” Novak asked.
“I, actually we, did monstrous things to get that information. If it can’t be used for good, then we are absolute monsters.”
Novak thought on that for a second and
then followed him out of the chopper.
Vance looked at Reg and said, “Get my family to safety,” before hopping out of the chopper himself.
Ben and Ana followed him.
“You’re not soldiers,” Vance said.
“The hell we aren’t,” Ana replied. “It would be nice to make all the shit I’ve gone through worth something. If I help to do this, maybe my friends didn’t die for nothing.”
Vance looked at Ben, who shrugged before saying, “I thought I’d give this hero shit a try.”
Chase Junior got off the chopper as well.
“Being part of an idiotic militia does not make you a soldier,” Fan told him.
“No, it doesn’t, but no matter what you think of us, we came to help, so I’m fucking helping.”
His brother Cletus moved to join them, but Chase held up his hand to signal for him to stay, saying, “You’ve got a serious head injury. Even if we both make it, Mom would kill me if I let you out of the chopper with a concussion.”
Cletus nodded and sat back down.
Vance could see his daughter Katelin getting ready to join them and said, “No. You’re only fourteen.”
“I think to give me orders you need to actually be a dad. You know, be around and shit.”
“Language,” Donna told her daughter before adding, “I’m your mother and I’m around all the time. I agree with your father. You’re staying on the chopper.”
Ana, who wasn’t too much older than a teenager herself, said, “You’re not out of the QZ yet. They may need your guns.”
“Yeah,” Bo added. “Except for your mom and the pilot, the rest of us can’t shoot for shit.”
Katelin nodded and sat back down.
“I get back and maybe I’ll try to be around and shit this time,” Vance told his daughter. She did not look like she believed him at all.
Novak looked at Vance’s bad leg. “Maybe you should join them. Not to be mean, but you may slow us up.”
“I’m not asking anyone to wait for me if I fall behind,” Vance said.
“I prefer he come along,” Fan said. “I’ve seen him in action. Even on one leg we may need his skills.”