Omega Virus (Book 2): Gamma Hour

by Jake A. Strife

  “You’d do any better?”

  The idiot held his arms out again. “I would call them, Living Dead Animals, or L.D.A.”

  “It was rhetorical!”

  Above the tracks, ran the highway leading to Bellaire. Plenty of corpses were up there, and every so often a few heard the loud mouth and dropped in unexpected. One tried to bite him, but I’d pulled him to safety. An act I regretted every time he opened his mouth.

  Again, he turned, so I kicked a rock at him. It bounced off the track and missed his head by an inch; I failed at life.

  “Let me show you how to kick.” He grinned wide.

  “I. Will. Kill. You.”

  At that, he spun back, and we walked in silence, only hearing the corpses on the road.

  Minutes later, Garrett spun. “You know, I’ve been thinking—”

  “Thank the gaming gods it’s happened!” I raised a hand to the sky. “He’s had his first thought!”

  “Let’s run away together. Forget your friends. Forget this Sister chick. Just you and me! We’ll make little rug rats and repopulate the world.”

  I shoved the shotgun into his face.

  “Or not...” He turned back.

  “Just keep quiet, please!”

  “One last question.”

  I spoke through gritted my teeth. “What the hell do you want?”

  “Why does Sister want your locket? What’s inside of it?” He surprised me.

  “It’s just a picture of my friend. I have no clue why she wants it.”

  “You pissed her off somehow.”

  “I’ve never even met her!”

  “How do you know you didn’t do something?” Garrett shrugged. “You must’ve!”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Anything?”

  I shoved him hard. “I did nothing!”

  He stumbled and laughed, but continued walking.

  Sister gave me seven hours to walk to Bellaire, a nine-mile journey. My feet ached, and I needed to stop and rest, but to stop was to kill my friends. I looked up at the sun, trying to judge our time.

  As if reading my mind, he threw out, “We won’t make it in time unless you walk faster.”

  I summoned my remaining energy and pushed forward, walking past Garrett and marching faster. It was his turn to keep pace with me. Halfway through our trek, we reached the town of Shadyside. Three hours of walking stretched before us, cutting it way too close.

  “Hurry, assface!” I picked up the pace.

  When Garrett didn’t respond with a smart-ass comment, I turned back and didn’t see him anywhere. “You little asshole!”

  Trees and bushes were along the sides of the tracks, but none of them moved.

  “Assface?” Stupid! Why did I let him trail me?

  Garrett emerged from the bushes, zipping up his fly. “Nothing like draining the lizard! Let’s make out.”

  “Go to hell! I figured you—”

  “Left? Give me more credit than that, babe. I wouldn’t just run off and leave you hanging.”

  The look in his eyes screamed hurt. He shook his head, seeming to brood, and walked off ahead. He deserved credit. The jerk could’ve stayed in the pen and left me to my mission, alone.

  “Hey, listen.” I walked next to him, keeping up with his stride. “Hey, listen!”

  He glanced sidelong. “What? You sound like an annoying little fairy.”

  “Shut up, asshole. I wanted to make amends.”

  “No need to apologize, baby doll. I knew you’d come around to the freak show.”

  I scrunched my face. “No idea what you mean, but if we survive, let’s be friends.”

  “Oh, I’ll make it.” He gave an exaggerated nod. “Because I’m a skilled tactician; an expert at shooting. I’ve gone hunting every season for the past six years. Don’t worry about me, but you, you’re just a girl.”

  I stopped walking, and a stinging hit my chest. To think I’d considered making him a friend. Still, it hurt even to hear him reduce me to a girl. This guy’s level of being an asshole soared off the charts. I decided I’d care less if he died, and I’d never risk my neck for him. No more words; I zipped my lips and kept walking, feeling as if I was walking alone. In my heart, I missed my new friends more than I thought possible.

  With but an estimated half hour left, Bellaire came into view as we walked across a train trestle.

  Garrett pumped his fist. “We made it. You should thank me! We can be friends. Are you happy, now?”

  I walked across the wooden boards of the trestle and stepped onto the gravel road alongside the tracks.

  “Bellaire...” I looked at the rundown buildings in the distance.

  The town once bore fifteen thousand people. By the time I left, the population had declined to four thousand, making it safe and empty on doomsday.

  A warm, humid wind picked up, swirling my hair and blowing it in my eyes. The branches of the nearby trees creaked and fell to the ground. The breeze felt as strong as the one when we faced the tornado, but as far as I knew, Bellaire didn’t have storms so strong. Looking into the sky, the dark clouds rolled in, a river above our heads.

  Garrett glanced at the sky. “We’d better hurry. I don’t fancy dying. A tornado might come.”

  I closed my eyes, seeing poor Kiki and the Pretty Unicorn. “Don’t mention tornados.”

  “Hey, what’s that?” Garrett pointed to the top of a building not too far away.

  A figure stood atop it. At first, I thought it was an undead, but as we came closer, I realized a person stood before a gun turret. They aimed at the ground. “Why do they need that much firepower? We’d better stay out of sight, or we’ll end up Swiss cheese.”

  “I could have told you that!” I spied an old warehouse we could use as cover. “Over there!”

  “Good idea, big boobs.” They won’t be able to see us!”

  I shot him a glare and hoped he’d go into cardiac arrest. “I’ll pretend you did not just call me that.”

  Instead of dying, he pointed ahead. “Someone’s coming!”

  The approaching figure appeared to be a man wearing a trench coat. The Interloper? No. He didn’t wear a shirt and looked starved with stretched skin over his ribcage and a caved in stomach. At the end of each arm, his fingers were long claws. It was not Dante.

  I raised my gun. “That thing’s a corpse, but it doesn’t look like one I’ve ever seen.”

  “I don’t think we should try to fight that thing. Do you see those claws?”

  I searched for an alternate route. Through the warehouse? When I turned, the fearsome corpse had come within a hundred yards. It faced our direction, arms spread.

  “It sees us!” I backed away, and stumbled over a rock, which clacked into another few.

  The corpse walked our way.

  Garrett stepped backward with me. “You were too loud!”

  “It was your stupid mouth breathing that caught its attention!”

  We retreated, but I stopped as I bumped into something solid. Garrett turned and stared behind me, his mouth falling wide.

  A deep fear spread through every inch of my body. I lowered my voice to a whisper. “There’s another one behind me?”

  To my horror, he nodded.

  I took a quiet, deep breath; glad I’d drawn my gun.

  With the quickest spin of my life, I came around and fired the shotgun. The skeletal-corpse leaped away with such agility that not a single bit of my spread scored a hit. The monster skidded in the gravel and stood straight again. It opened its mouth and bared inch-long fangs. Seeing one up close had me pissing in my pants. It had sunken eye sockets, and slits for a nose.

  “Run!” Garrett flew around the warehouse, right into the open.

  “The turret!” I tried to warn him, but there came the loud humming of oversized gun. It came to life, and machine gun fire rang out. He’d just gotten himself decimated, but I wasn’t in a much better position. The starved corpse hissed, and I lifted my gun again.

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nbsp; The second corpse came running in and swung a clawed hand, but I jumped out of the way and retreated backward onto the train trestle. I held up the shotgun, ready to blow off the head of whichever came close enough. Both were coming in my direction, walking with their arms spread.

  My foot went through a board and I screeched. The shotgun slipped from my grasp and splashed thirty feet under the trestle. I teetered backward, flailing, and fell. My arms shot out, and I grabbed hold of a rusty beam.

  Machine gunfire still rang out, and I didn’t know if that meant Garrett was alive, or if they now fired upon the corpses.

  With my hands sweating, I couldn’t hold on much longer. I gripped the beam and tried my best to reach higher. A board stretched out above me, and I grasped it, but that too snapped. I screamed as I hung by one hand. I reached again, but I lacked the strength. The murky water below had me trembling. Before the ZPoc, I’d jumped off this trestle and into the river dozens of times. Now, I feared the aquatic zombeasts lurking beneath the surface.

  “Please, Garrett! I need your help!”

  They’d arrive at any second, forcing me to drop into the water. Something splashed in the river. A large fin circled the spot where my shotgun had dropped.

  Was it a shark? My mind screamed that couldn’t be possible. Sharks didn’t live in the Ohio River, but no one told that to this guy.

  “Help me!” I struggled, but my grip was failing.

  Garrett had caused this. I shouldn’t have trusted him. Not only had he slowed me with his annoying banter on the six-and-a-half-hour journey, but he’d gotten himself killed.

  “Garrett! If I ever find you alive, I swear I’ll—”

  “Booby doll!” Garrett appeared above me.

  I’d kill him later. For the moment, I seized his wrist. I couldn’t believe it. The arrogant bastard came to my rescue.

  He glanced back, then at me. “Quick, give me your other hand!”

  I nodded, and tried to reach, but I didn’t have the strength.

  “Keep trying!” Garrett gazed at me with those baby blues. “A little more!”

  A piece of wood snapped as I shifted. It splashed, sending the zombeast into a frenzy.

  “Your hand!”

  With every ounce of my strength, I threw my arm above my head. My digits came within range of his, and he moved to grab hold, but instead of me, he reached further, past my fingers and to my neck. The bastard yanked the locket away, snapping the chain. He climbed back to his feet, laughing.

  “What are you doing?” My jaw dropped.

  He flashed a wicked smile. “I said I wouldn’t just run away. First, I needed this life saving locket, booby cakes!”

  I watched in horror as he turned and ran away. Hope faded from my heart. The son of a bitch betrayed me. Without an ounce of energy left, my hand gave out, and I fell toward the hungry zombeast waiting in the murky, death-filled water.

  LEVEL 18:

  LOCKDOWN

  The water came up fast. I shut my eyes tight, screeching, and not wanting to witness the moment the zombeast’s jaws emerged to swallow me. I waited for assured death. But it didn’t come. In fact, I wasn’t falling any longer. It took everything to look, and when I did, I found the ground racing past at an incredible speed. Just as with the Gauntlet, I was being carried over someone’s shoulder; a Lonely One.

  “Put me down right now!” I kicked my legs as hard as possible.

  I must’ve caught the runner off guard because they tripped, and we hit the ground. The gravel cut up my arms as I tumbled; the world spun, and I stopped in a patch of grass.

  I tried standing but dizziness knocked me back onto my ass. The world continued to spin, and I couldn’t take anymore. Vomit came up my throat and emptied the contents of my stomach.

  “Tiffany, are you okay?” A man spoke from nearby.

  I tried holding still so that everything might stop spinning, but I gave up and fell flat.

  “Tiffany!” The Lonely came closer.

  “Back to being a prisoner.” I stared into the cloudy sky. “I’ll never see my friends again; they’ll all die. It’s my fault.”

  “Snap out of it!”

  I swung my arms in defiance. “They’re doomed!”

  “Why are you here?”

  I opened my eyes to find Mog’s slender face staring back.

  He put his hand behind my back and helped me into a sitting position. “It’s me, your guardian.” The spinning stopped. “Why did you follow me?”

  “I’m tasked with keeping track of you, remember?” He squatted and glanced behind him. “But why did you come here? We told you Bellaire was certain death.”

  I coughed and wiped my mouth. “That’s not what I remember. Didn’t you tell me it’s the happiest place on Earth?”

  “A sense of humor.”

  My friends! I grabbed Mog’s shoulders. “Listen! I need your help. She kidnapped my friends! Sister, that creep from G.O.D. Mode, told me to come here. She wants the locket, but now that asshole Garrett stole it!”

  Mog grabbed me under my arms and lifted me with no effort. “I’m confused.”

  “Long story short, I need my locket back so I can save my friends.”

  “It’s too dangerous.” He stepped back. “Level four undead are prowling. I saw two of them back by the trestle from which I saved you.”

  “Thank you.” I wrapped my arms around him, I might as well of hugged a snowman.

  “I don’t know how I can help you. The level fours are dangerous to battle.”

  “That’s what those things were? They evolve that far?”

  “If left unchecked, yes. Level four is the farthest we’ve seen.” He looked back over his shoulder. “This is why we destroy them.”

  “They cornered Garrett and me. Did he get skewered by one? Please, tell me he did!”

  “I saw no one else.” Mog cocked a brow. “But the level fours come. We must hurry and leave.”

  I kicked the gravel. “Didn’t you hear me? My friends are in trouble, and that locket is my only chance of helping them!”

  “If one of G.O.D. Mode has your friends, they’re as good as dead. It’s safest if we leave. I won’t make you go back to—”

  “I’m not leaving!” He held his hand out as if I’d take it. “They’ll kill you!” I put my hands on my hips. “I guess I’ll just have to die then.”

  Mog narrowed his eyes.

  “I’m serious. Don’t make me shout to tell them where I am.”

  “This game is juvenile.” My guardian crossed his arms, brows creased.

  I shrugged. “Life’s a game. This timer is about to ring.”

  “No.”

  “All right then.” I sucked in a deep breath.

  Mog slapped his hand over my mouth. “No screaming! Fine, I’ll do what I can.”

  “Good, because we have company.”

  The two skeletal corpses in trench coats stood a hundred yards away.

  He shook his head, worry etched in his features. “I don’t think I’m equipped for this.”

  “You can’t beat them?” I watched as they took slow steps forward.

  “I’ve never fought one alone.”

  Fear snaked its way through my belly. “What do we do?”

  Mog stepped before me. “You stand back.”

  “Mog, don’t! If you can’t win—”

  “I’m rather poor at taking care of you.” He sighed. “You’re always running away.”

  I threw out my hands. “But I’m not running!”

  “You are.” He turned to face the corpses.

  The first level four burst into a sprint, kicking up gravel behind it. Its empty eye sockets looked past Mog and locked onto me. It thrust its claws, and I gasped, but Mog snatched its wrist and bent it. Both of the undead regarded the Lonely One.

  Mog strained to hold back the undead. “Time to go!”

  “Watch out!” I screeched as the other level four came sprinting forward.

  “Run!”

/>   Mog had a slim chance of survival, and I didn’t want to leave him, but I did just that. The gravel road behind me, I ran into the western part of town. I never looked back, running along the streets, and up a hill.

  When I ran out of breath, I ended up overlooking downtown Bellaire. Train trestles blocked part of my view, but there was one multi-level building in town, and fort walls surrounded it; the old bank building. It boasted more turrets. A quick count told me there were four gunners, one per roof. Sister had to be there.

  I’d never get close. Did Garrett make it?

  “I must find a way...”

  If I’d ever cared for Bellaire, I might’ve been angry, but other things had me pissed. The survivor camp no longer existed; if it ever had.

  On my descent, I passed a fenced-off basketball court, where several corpses wandered. They saw me, and came to the fence, groaning. I ignored them and kept going. Once I reached a street, I found several more fenced off areas. Most held corpses, while others had devoured bodies.

  “What sick shit is this?”

  When I crossed under the train trestle, I found myself by a mortuary. I passed by, but a movement caught my attention. The front door was closing. I narrowed my eyes. The last I’d checked corpses and zombeasts didn’t open and close doors.

  “Garrett…”

  I marched straight to the entrance, pushed open the door, and stepped across the threshold. The building was windowless, so I couldn’t see much. Without my shotgun, I only had a knife. I slipped the weapon free of its sheathe and held it ready. No getting away this time, Garrett.

  A long hall stretched before me with old paintings; I couldn’t make out the actual artwork.

  The building stank of old flowers. At the end, I discovered a waiting section with a wooden desk. Plush couches lay in the middle of the floor, flipped.

  I could only imagine how many depressed families had sat on them back in the day, waiting to have viewings of their loved one’s bodies. I never liked that idea; everyone looked different in a casket.

  I found a few doors. Assface must’ve gone through one of them.

  The floorboards creaked behind me, then a click. I froze as something jabbed the back of my head.

  “So, you survived?” Garrett snickered.