Genetic Flux (Phase One Book 1)

by Eckrich,Jeremiah P.

  “Alright,” Ronnie called back. “Let’s go to the top of that big hill and sit up there.”

  The three boys got to the top of the hill and shut their equipment off.

  “Man look at this view.” Ronnie looked around. While taking in the beauty of the surroundings something caught his attention. “Hey guys look at that!”

  “What?” Jim squinted.

  “Over there.” Ronnie pointed to a house off in the distance.

  “What about it?” Jim asked, “It’s just some kids playing in the yard, who cares.”

  “No, not them. That has to be Missus Bragden’s house from Windsor Middle School.”

  “So what?” Tyson was still feeling lost.

  “I’m fresh out of water and I’m still thirsty. Let’s ride down there and see if she will hook us up with a couple bottles of water.”

  Jim looked over at Ronnie. “Yeah that’s cool she has always been one of the nicest volunteers I have ever had to deal with. I’m sure she won’t mind, let’s go.”

  The boys took off down the hill towards the house. As the three boys approached the dogs started barking. Emily turned around and saw two four wheelers and a dirt bike approaching the house.

  She yelled at the two girls, “Get inside, hurry up!”

  The three boys were in close proximity to the girls. Tyson stepped off his four wheeler and yelled, “Hey what’s wrong with those girls?”

  “Nothing.” Emily yelled back, “They are playing dress up.”

  Talking to the two girls Emily said, “Go inside.”

  Emily yelled at the boys, “You need to leave immediately.”

  Jim spoke up. “Listen lady we don’t won’t any trouble but we all three saw them.” After a slight pause he added, “What’s wrong with you? Are you all some kind of freaks or something?”

  Emily glared at the boy, “Listen, we are out here on our property playing dress up, it’s really none of your business what we decide to dress up as.”

  “Lady you’re not fooling anyone, you would have to be a Hollywood makeup artist for that to be fake.” Ronnie yelled back.

  “Get off my property right now!”

  Daniel, Bob, and Kaden came around the side of the house carrying guns.

  Daniel looked at the boys and his shoulders slumped. “I guess the jig us up, huh?

  “Yeah, I guess so.” Tyson replied.

  “Well, then I can’t let you leave this property.”

  Daniel, Bob and Kaden all sighted in on the boys with their riffles.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, why do you have to point guns at us man?” Tyson yelled nervously.

  “Because you saw something you weren’t supposed to. If I let you leave here with the knowledge you have, you boys would be putting my family in danger.”

  “Sir, listen,” Tyson pleaded. “Just let us go and I swear that we won’t tell anyone.”

  “Sorry boys, but I’m going to have to kill you.”

  Ronnie gunned the throttle on his dirt bike, tearing up patches of the yard as he made a break for it. Shots started ringing out. Ronnie started swerving side to side to make it harder to shoot him.

  After seeing Ronnie being shot at, Tyson and Jim screamed and hit the gas on their ATVs, but it was too late. More shots are fired, this time with deadly accuracy. Their bodies tumble from the still running four-wheelers.

  Daniel ran over to the two boys now lying on the ground. He stared numbly at their lifeless, blood covered bodies. Oh God! Why did you have to come here? He dropped to his knees and began to sob.

  Crying hysterically, Emily ran over to Daniel and knelt down next to him. She wrapped her arms around her husband and kissed the top of his head.

  Daniel lifted his head up and quickly regains his composure. “Listen everyone, we need to pack up as much as we can and get the hell out of here. Somebody had to of heard the gun shots and that boy got away. I know he will go tell people what he saw and that we just killed his friends, we need to leave now.”

  They all went into the house. Sue listened as Daniel and Kaden explained what had just transpired. She couldn’t stop the tears as they fell from her face. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself. “Daniel, I know of a hunting cabin out in the woods by Washington State Park, no one knows it is even there. Your dad used it as his getaway spot when he needed to relieve some stress. We never told anyone we had it. The whole point of going there was to get away from everyone.”

  “I can’t believe you kept that from us, Mom.”

  “Well, your dad worked hard all his life. It was just a place he could go to when he needed time alone. After he came back from Vietnam he needed a place he could go off to by himself.”

  Kaden stepped between his mother and brother. “It’s okay. Let’s pack up the horses and four wheelers with everything we can. We will have to travel through the woods since the military has all the roads blocked.”

  Emily, still sobbing, was barely able to get the words. “How will Austin know where we are, he thinks we are staying here.”

  “Don’t worry Emily. I bought a prepaid cell phone so it couldn’t be tracked to me, just in case I ever needed to contact him. I’ll text him our coordinates so he will be able to find us. I think when all this plays out they are going to put things together and he will need to get out of that lab anyway.”

  The family began getting everything ready for the move.

  ***

  Ronnie made it back to one of the main roads and followed it until he found a military blockade. Riding toward them he yelled, “Hey over here, help!”

  The troops pointed there weapons at the boy. One of them called out, “Stop or we will open fire.”

  Ronnie, having firearms pointed at him a second time in one day, got nervous and didn’t want to get killed like his friends. He turns and lands the bike on its side and slides across the pavement. When he stopped sliding he stayed motionless, hoping they weren’t going to shoot him.

  The troops approach Ronnie and barked orders at him. “Don’t move, stay on the ground.”

  One of the men handcuffed Ronnie and frisked him for weapons.

  “What are doing out here? You know you’re not supposed to be out this far.”

  “I’m just a kid! I need help! Please, help me.”

  One of the military personal looked at Ronnie’s bio on his watch. “He is telling the truth he is only thirteen years old. What’s going on son? What do you need help with?”

  “These freaks back at a house killed my two friends Tyson and Jim! Three ladies had messed up faces, but one was different than the other two. They tried to tell us they were playing dress up, but we knew they were lying. So three guys come out and said since we found out their secret they would have to kill us. I was behind my two friends so I made a break for it and got away while they gunned down my friends.”

  Ronnie was frantic having to relive what had just happened.

  “Alright son, you’re pretty banged up from dumping your bike. Let’s get you medical treatment and more info on where this house is.”

  ***

  An investigator with the U.S. Army was sent to talk to Ronnie while he was in the hospital.

  “Hello Ronnie, I am Chief Warrant Officer William Stattson with the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command. My job is to investigate any new changes that occur with the flux so I need you to tell me everything you can remember from today, can you do that for me.”

  “Yes, I hope you catch those assholes who killed my friends and tried to kill me!”

  ***

  Back at the immunity compound it was the ceremony day for the six new Army Rangers. Each one in turn was called up and presented with the Ranger tab by Captain Munez.

  “Alright soldiers you have officially evolved from maggots into Army Rangers. I am proud of each and every one of you. You just went through twelve weeks of hell and came out the other side the most elite fighting machines the Army has. All six of you made it through a process mos
t start and can’t finish. I have complete confidence that when we have to handle a situation my life is in good hands and your lives are in good hands with me.”

  Captain Munez gave each new Army Ranger a watch that could be used to contact one another and would have access to top secret information. The watches would also be used to alert them of any security breaches or situations.

  “You are dismissed.”

  The whole group yelled, “Wooah!”

  When they sat down for their first hot meal in twelve weeks they had steak, lobster, shrimp and some wonderful desserts.

  Ben got up from the table. “Man I can’t eat another bite after nearly starving to death for twelve weeks my stomach shrunk. If I eat any more I’m going to barf.”

  “Me too!” Dillon added.

  When they had all finished it was time for the real party. They all went into a conference room that had been set up and decorated for the Rangers graduation and had the first real party since they had arrived at the compound. It was a wonderful evening for everyone, but especially for Tracy and Ben. They had their first chance, outside of Ranger training to spend time together.

  Those in the compound had put on a great graduation ceremony for the six Rangers and made sure there was a great celebration and dancing through the evening. Everyone congratulated the new Rangers and made them feel as though they had accomplished a great deal.

  ***

  Two days after becoming Army Rangers, around 0300 hours, everyone’s watch gave an alert tone. Ben checked his watch. To his surprise he saw that there was a report of two people nearing the compound on foot. “Guys, get up and get dressed! Hurry!”

  “What? What’s going on?” Randy asked.

  “I said get up and get your gear on now!” Ben repeated.

  Everyone got suited up. This included black boots, bdu pants, oxygen mask and flak jacket. They grabbed their semi-automatic pistols and fully automatic rifles. The group, led by Captain Munez, would be able to track the two suspects with their watches.

  It took less than six minutes to get dressed, get their weapons and meet Captain Munez out front. “Okay Rangers, our first mission. There are two people trying to sneak onto our compound. Our objective is to find these two individuals and eliminate the threat.”

  Tracy raised her hand. “Sir, are you saying we are supposed to kill these people.”

  “Yes, Tracy, that is our orders.”

  “Why can’t we take them into custody if possible, sir?”

  “These two individuals would be a threat to our safety if they ever leaked information on our whereabouts. They are in violation of the state of emergency restrictions. This is a military operation, let’s go do our jobs and come home alive.”

  The group left the compound and started tracking the suspects. They found the two men on the south side of the compound lying on the ground taking pictures.

  “Well look at that, their taking pictures of the compound.” Captain Munez looked over at Tracy with a smirk. “Okay, we are going to go around and flank them so they don’t see us coming. I want two shots fired, Ben you take one and Dillon you take the other, got it.”

  “Yes, sir, one shot one kill.” Dillon replied.

  “Ben?”

  “Hooah, Captain.”

  “Alright, for the rest of the group if they miss, and they won’t, we make sure they get taken out.”

  The group got into positon, Ben and Dillon set up to take the shot. Ben looked at Dillon, “Ready.”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay on the count of three I got left target you got right target. One, two, three.”

  Both men fired. The prone figures in the distance jerked a few times then lay still.

  Captain Munez walked to where the bodies lay and called out, “Two confirmed hits. Good job gentleman. We need to grab anything they have on them so we can try to figure out why they were taking pictures of the compound.”

  The group recovered two cameras, two cell phones, two wallets, a backpack and two automatic rifles.

  “Good work, let’s go home.”

  “Captain.”

  “Yes, Randy.”

  “What do we do with the bodies?”

  “That’s not our job. I’ll call it in and they will send out a unit to extract the bodies. If it wasn’t so close to the compound we would just leave them.”

  “Good enough for me. Let’s go home.”

  “Sir.”

  “Yes, Tracy.”

  “Why couldn’t we just have locked them up at the compound?”

  “First off, that wasn’t our orders. Secondly, we aren’t sure if we are immune to the changes the flux has made over the past few months. We would be putting every person inside the compound at risk by doing just that.”

  “Sir, yes, sir.”

  ***

  Back at the lab, Austin received a text from a number he didn’t recognize. He did however get the jest of what was being communicated. The color in his face faded away as he read the message. His phone rand and he almost leapt out of his skin.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey Austin it’s Irene.”

  “Hi Irene what can I do for you.”

  “I received a phone call this morning from Chief Warrant Officer William Stattson with INSCOM. It appears that there might be a possible mutation of the flux that we haven’t seen yet. Some young boy reported it. He and two of his friends came upon a house where some changes were different. The occupants killed his friends and tried to kill him, but he got away.”

  “Oh okay, um what kind of mutation are we talking about?”

  “We are not exactly sure, that’s why I want you to go to Barnhart, MO and meet with Stattson. The two of you will be working this lead together.”

  “No problem Irene, I’ll get my bags packed and head out as soon as possible.”

  He knew who they were going to see. From the text he had just received he knew exactly what would be found, too.

  “Great thank you, oh and one more thing.”

  “Yes.”

  “Stattson thinks he might be close to figuring out who patient zero is. They have been making sure everyone is chipped. A few just didn’t want to do it and the military had to go to their homes and make them, but, there are only a handful of people left who haven’t been chipped. As it turns out one of them named Emily is a flight attendant who just happened to be at the Bangor International Airport on the day everyone first got infected. Then there are two families who live in Great Falls that are also missing. And finally a man named Daniel who they are still researching to see what his background is all about. The odd thing is that none of these people can be located. Emily and Daniel both live in the St. Louis, MO area. Daniel and Kaden actually have the same last name of Bragden. It is just too coincidental for them not to be related. There are a few others who still haven’t been chipped yet, but it doesn’t appear that they could have had anything to do with the other group or the virus. This other group seems like a really solid lead, two of them live in the same city, and then Kaden and Daniel are related. The kicker is all their homes have been vacated for quite some time. I think once we find these people we might get the answers everyone has been searching for. Great news, huh?”

  “Yes, Irene that is fantastic news.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot, the military is dispatching an Army Rangers unit to clear the house and see if they can take anyone alive.”

  “Very good.”

  “Alright, I will let you go so you can get packed and head out ASAP.”

  “Thank you Irene, I will update you when I know something, goodbye. “

  Austin immediately called the mysterious number he got the text from.

  ***

  “Hang on guys, it’s Austin calling. Hello.”

  “Daniel?”

  “Yes, it’s me Austin.”

  “Listen I just got some intel and they are very close to putting the pieces together about how the virus got out and that you, me, and Emily
were involved. They already know about Kaden and his family and that you are related to him. They know Emily was at the Bangor International Airport the day the virus was spread. They have discovered that all of you vacated your homes. Once they run your background and tie you to me and figure out what we were working on, it’s game over my friend.”

  “What are you going to do Austin? You have to get out of there.”

  “Don’t worry it worked out perfectly, they are actually sending me to your mom’s house to investigate some possible weird mutation. I am getting packed now and when I leave I will meet you at the coordinates you sent me. I have authorization to travel so it won’t take me to long to get there. When I leave here I’m throwing out my cell and you need to get rid of the one you’re on. They will be able to trace it once they see I called it.”

  “Alright Austin, I’m glad this worked out the way it did for you and we won’t have to worry about you getting hauled off to prison over my mistake.”

  “Yeah, I hear you loud and clear. How is Emily doing?”

  “She is doing alright. She is still shaken up from me, Kaden, and Bob having to shoot those kids.”

  “Yeah, I bet she is, poor thing. Okay, I am getting off here so I can get the heck out of Dodge.”

  “Great, we will see you soon.”

  “Goodbye.”

  ***

  Back at the compound Tracy and Ben are hanging out at his place.

  “You know what?”

  “What?”

  “I just thought I would let you know you are so much hotter when you’re not covered in filth and all stanky, just sayin.”

  “You are such an ass, but I’m lucky that you’re my ass.”

  “Um speaking of ass, I remember them saying we might be the only ones left to repopulate the world with some ethnicity. You want to get an early jump on that?”

  Ben jumped on top of her and kissed her passionately. He starts peeling of her clothes while she is peeling off his. “I have waited twelve weeks for this!”

  “I know baby, it was torture sleeping next to you every night and not being able to sneak into your sleeping bag and rock your world.”