Catharsis: Outbreak Z: Books 1-4

by Roberts, EM

  Turning, he made his way to the rise and walked down the small hill where he saw Hector and his group milling around. There were a couple of SUVS and a gray sedan, but there was no sign of Ella. Parker glanced around as he walked into the camp, looking for any sign of her.

  “Where’s the rest of your group? You were supposed to bring all of them!” Hector growled, menacingly.

  “They’re back at the vehicles. You don’t think I would bring them down here, so you could kill them, do you?” Parker asked, walking up to the man with a confidence he didn’t feel.

  ‘You wouldn’t be trying to double cross me, would you Mr. Pres-i-dent,” Hector warned, drawing out the title in a slow even drawl.

  “Of course not—where is she?”

  Hector walked over to the car, and that’s when Parker noticed the holes in the trunk of the car. His heart turned over, and a rage filled him. These men were animals, and they didn’t deserve to live. Hector popped the trunk, and the smell immediately wafted to Parker.

  Parker walked over to the trunk and looked down. At first he didn’t recognize the woman who lay there curled into a tight, small ball. She was dressed in only a bra and a pair of cargo pants. Her red hair was matted with sweat and lay in clumps against her pale skin. She had a three inch gash on her face that was red and angry looking, and one of her arms lay at an odd angle, indicating it was broken. It wasn’t until she murmured his name in her soft Southern drawl that Parker realized it really was Ella.

  “You bastard,” Parker ground out at the other man and bent to lift Ella from the trunk.

  “Not so fast. Put her back down. You have something I want before you can have her back,” Hector stated, motioning with his weapon for Parker to step back.

  “You don’t think I brought it down here with me, do you? I’m not stupid. I know you’ll shoot me as soon as you have it,” Parker gave a short, derisive laugh.

  “What’s your plan then?” Hector ground out impatiently, his finger tightening on the trigger. Parker assumed the only thing keeping the man from killing him was the thought that Parker might have truly hidden the coordinates.

  “I’m going to take you to the facility, but we’re going to leave Ella here with some water and supplies. That’s the deal take it or leave it,” Parker looked the man in the eye as he gave his ultimatum.

  “Fine, the bitch isn’t any use to me anyway now that I have you,” Hector motioned for Parker to follow him.

  “Just a minute. I want to talk to her.” Parker walked to the trunk, gingerly lifted Ella from its confines and placed her in the shade of the car.

  “Hey Ella Bella, it’s good to see your sweet face again,” he murmured, sliding a small handgun into her lap.

  Ella smiled up at Parker with a tired, defeated grin on her face. She place the palm of her uninjured hand on his face, and Parker’s heart pained him.

  “Hey…buddy,” she whispered.

  “Ella, I want you to try and get away from here as soon as I leave. There’s an abandoned house about five miles back down a road called Canyon’s View. Go there, okay?”

  “I’ll try, but I don’t wanna leave you.” Ella’s eyes blinked with the effort of battling exhaustion and injury.

  “I’ve got to go now, but I’m expecting you to try and get there,” he said, kissing her cheek and standing. It was hard for Parker to walk away, but he needed to get the men away from her.

  He didn’t put his gun away; he wasn’t going to do that, and he told Hector as much. The man simply nodded his head as if he were unconcerned with Parker’s pathetic attempts to have some control.

  Parker had a rough idea of the coordinates in the GPS he’d given Izzy, but he took a longer way around. Hector must have sensed something because he suddenly turned and gave Parker an angry glance.

  “I’m getting this sense of run around, Parker. I think you’re not being level with me. Now, I can go back and do away with your pretty girl if that’s what you want.”

  “What do you mean? I’m following the directions that were left to me,” Parker answered the man’s accusation.

  “Well, how about you give them to me?” Hector demanded.

  “I have them committed to memory. I don’t have them written down for this very reason, but you know what man? I just don’t feel like going anywhere just this minute. I’m tired, and I need a drink,” Parker stated, calmly walking over to a small tree and sitting down beside it.

  “You know what, Parker? I’m tired of playing this game. I’ll find the facility, and I’ll just break my way into it.” Hector raised his gun and aimed it at Parker.

  “I doubt that man. One, no one’s ever accidentally found this facility and two, come on man—think, you really believe you could just break down a door that would withstand a nuclear blast? Get real,” Parker stated condescendingly, trying to buy time for both Izzy’s group and Ella.

  “Maybe, I’ll take my chances….” Hector began and then flinched when a bullet kicked up the dirt beside him.

  Hector dove for cover just as bullets rained down around the group. Hector and his men immediately began firing at the gunmen—there was more than one shooter and Parker couldn’t help but wonder if Jax and Izzy had returned for him.

  Two of Hector’s men had been hit and lay dying. Hector attempted to flee with the other two men, but this was not to be as his path was cut off by several men and women who had emerged from the bushes. These people were not recognizable to Parker, but he was thankful as they had saved his life.

  “Parker Wallace, I presume,” a young, attractive man walked up and held out his hand.

  “Yeah. Thanks for the rescue,” Parker said, shaking the young man’s hand.

  “Well, you have Ella to thank for that. I’m Sully by the way. It was my family’s trading post that had the ham radio.”

  “Nice to meet you, man. Did you happen upon Ella?” Parker asked urgently. He wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries.

  “Yeah, my mom’s looking after her. I need to set her arm and stitch up and clean that cut, though. What should we do with these guys?” Sully asked, referring to the three men the others were holding at gunpoint.

  “For the time being, bring them with us as prisoners,” Parker commanded as he turned and loped back down the hill to Ella. Finally, things were looking up for them.

  Chapter 8: And, Here We Are

  Ella flinched as Sully’s needle bit into the flesh of her cheekbone. She didn’t really feel anything. He’d given her a local anesthesia he’d found in the medical center. She flinched from the tugging sensation he was making as he pulled the needle through the skin. He’d cleaned the cut and trimmed away the jagged edges. There was nothing he could really do, he’d said, about the scar that would follow. Hopefully, stitching it would eliminate some of the scar.

  She looked around at the medical facility. It was its own unit and about the size of a small hospital. The hospital held every type of medical device and machine a medical facility would need, or at last from her limited knowledge it did. There was also a pharmacy with a stockpile of medications. The survival facility had truly met and exceeded their expectations. The first thing she’d done after entering and exploring was to take a hot shower.

  After Parker had returned for her, he’d taken Sully’s group which consisted of about fifty people to the entrance of the facility. Izzy and the others had already entered the codes, but were waiting at the entrance because the codes were not enough to gain entrance. There was also a device that requested Parker’s thumbprint. After giving the thumbprint, the large door, disguised as a rock, had opened and allowed them to enter. They, however, could only access part of the facility.

  Once inside, a screen appeared taking up one side of the wall. A man’s face, unrecognized to anyone including Parker, had appeared. He’d welcomed them and given them some pertinent information regarding the facility. The first most important fact that had been delivered was the lockdown sequence.

  According to the
unknown man, the facility would automatically lock its doors in one week’s time from their opening. The doors would then remain locked for twenty-five years. At the end of this twenty-five years, the doors would open once again. The man explained that everything the humans needed to survive this amount of time was provided in the facility. However, they would not be able to access all of the facility’s supplies until the door looked.

  So for now, the survivors were only able to access a common room, a stocked kitchen, showers, and part of the medical facility. This gave the survivors time to decide whether they wanted to commit to a twenty-five year sentence. That was how Ella was currently looking at it---as a sentence. Some of the survivors had already made up their minds to stay. Ella wasn’t so sure. To not feel sunlight on her face or the ground beneath her feet for twenty-five years—Ella didn’t know is she could do it.

  She’d been whisked to the medical facility as soon as she’d arrived. Sully had reset her arm first and was now repairing her cheek. She’d asked him to look in the pharmacy for some emergency contraceptive, still concerned about her rape by Hector. The bastard. She wondered what his fate would be. She would have to talk to Parker about it later. Sully had found the medication and Ella had taken it, anxious for that part of her past to be over. She knew, though, it was something that would stay with her forever.

  It was a little awkward being around Sully now since they’d had sex once upon a time. It wasn’t that long ago, but it sure seemed like it. Ella still thought the man was insanely attractive with his brooding good looks, but it was Parker she was drawn to. It was Parker whose face she saw when she closed her eyes. It was Parker she wanted to see now. And Roe, of course. She hadn’t seen Roe with the group, but she was sure her old friend was somewhere bossing people around.

  “There you go. Like I sad, I’m not a plastic surgeon, but it should heal pretty nicely. You need to take the antibiotics. Parker’s outside waiting for you. I think he’s pretty crazy about you Ella. I hope my being here isn’t going to present a problem for you,” Sully said seriously.

  “We aren’t even together, Sully, so there’s no problem. I’m okay with it if you are.” Ella started to stand, and dizziness overtook her.

  “I think you should just stay where you are, right now. I’ll send him in.” Sully disappeared through the door, and Parker appeared. Pulling up a chair, he sat down beside her bed.

  “Hey you…looking better now,” Parker smiled his brilliant smile, and Ella’s heart melted a little. She wanted to talk to him, but she was suddenly shy. She felt like a sixth grader at her first dance.

  “So, how’s everybody? Roe bossing them around?” Ella asked anxiously.

  “Ella, there’s something I have to tell you,” Parker began, and from his tone Ella knew it wasn’t good.

  “What is it? Parker, what happened?” Ella cried with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

  “Roe became infected. I’m so sorry, Ella, I know you guys were like sisters,” Parker trailed off.

  Ella sat in silence. An ache began in her chest and spread outward to her whole body. It traveled to her throat and stayed there as a lump of something she couldn’t swallow. Roe, the one person she had left from Tennessee, was gone. Her champion, her confidante, and her loyal friend was gone, and Ella hadn’t been there to say goodbye. She hadn’t been there to save Roe.

  “She left a diary by the table. I think you should keep it and read the last entry,” Parker stated, handing over a leather bound journal.

  Ella took it and placed it beneath her pillow. She would read it while she was alone. The tears slowly slid down her face into a damp pool on the hospital gown Sully had insisted she wear.

  “The others? I saw Izzy and Jax from a distance, but what about Carly, Jem, and Amos? Did they make it?” Ella didn’t know if she could take it if they didn’t. She needed some kind of good news today. Reaching the facility hadn’t been nearly enough to assuage the heartache and pain she’d suffered this last year.

  “They’re fine. Izzy’s taking care of Carly, and she’s met a boy. Imagine that, right?” Parker smiled. “And Jem is taking care of Amos. Jax is staying out of trouble and doing okay.”

  “How are you?” Ella looked into his eyes and couldn’t imagine what he saw when he looked at her. Did he feel sorry for her? Was he disgusted?

  “I’m okay now that we’ve found this place. At least, it’s a choice to be had, right?” He murmured shifting in his chair.

  “Yeah, there is that.” Ella replied, closing her eyes.

  “You want me to leave so you can go to sleep?” Parker asked softly.

  “No, I want to talk. I just don’t know where to begin,” Ella said, as tears slid from her closed eyes. She’d cried so much today. She knew what Theo Johnson would tell her. First, he would tell her it was okay to cry—to let out her emotion. Then, he would tell her that she could either feel sorry for herself, or she could look forward to a new phase in life. She needed to take his advice.

  “Hector raped me several times. I couldn’t do anything about it even though I tried,” Ella said, opening her eyes and looking at Parker.

  “I don’t know what to say to try and make you feel better. You’re still the same person. You’re still a good, kind person,” Parker responded, and Ella still couldn’t tell if he was disgusted by it or not. She decided she would just shoot for the moon as her mother liked to say.

  “Does it matter to you? Parker, could you get past it if you were with me? You know—with me?” Ella asked, anxiously.

  “Ella, of course, I could. If two people really care for each other, they have to come together to get over the bad things that happen to them.”

  “And, do you care about me in that way?” Ella asked searchingly.

  “Well, ask Izzy, and see what she says,” Parker laughed.

  “I’m asking you, though.”

  “I’m crazy about you. You stole my heart when you had your dad make me slop the hogs,” Parker laughed, grabbing her hand and squeezing it.

  “You had my heart when I heard your voice on that radio. That was when I realized what I felt for you was more than affection,” Ella smiled as she touched his face with her hand.

  Although she knew it would take a while to recover both mentally and physically, she also felt a sense of relief and happiness. Adams was dead, albeit by her own hand, but at least, they no longer had to worry about a crazed, power hungry, mad man. Hector was confined in a room under locked guard, so she didn’t have to worry about him. The only thing she really needed to worry about was whether she wanted to stay in the facility or not. She supposed her decision also depended on Parker.

  “Are you going to stay? In the facility?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. If I do, I’ll be abandoning the people out there, but if I do stay, then I’ll have a chance at an almost normal life. I feel almost selfish saying I want to stay.”

  Ella knew what he meant. If they stayed, it meant leaving other survivors behind to battle the creatures on their own, but didn’t they owe it to the human race to stay and try to survive? She’d have to do a lot of soul searching the next week.

  “I met your friend Sully and his mother. They seem like nice people.” Parker brought up the one subject that had been troubling Ella. Should she tell him or not? If they all stayed inside this facility, he needed to know. She didn’t need to start this thing with him, whatever it was, off on the wrong foot.

  “Parker, there’s something you need to know about Sully and me.” Ella paused and gauged his reaction. He sat silent and waiting, a serious look on his face. “We slept together. It was a crazy moment, and we both needed comfort. I don’t know how to explain it. I understand if you want to just opt out of whatever this is between us because of that.”

  Parker sat in silence after her announcement, and Ella couldn’t tell what he was thinking. She wished she could go back and have a do over, and she never would have slept with Sully. But, as she’d learned, there were
no do overs.

  “How do you feel about him now?” Parker asked, his eyes searching her own.

  “I feel like he’s just a friend, and he feels the same way,” she replied, knowing this was true.

  “How do you know he feels the same way? I can’t tell you that I’m cool with it. I’m a man. I’m as jealous as hell,” Parker confessed.

  “He’s still in love with his dead wife, and I pretty much told him I care about you.”

  “We weren’t together then, so the logical part of me is saying that he is your past, but I just want you to know, that I might act a little crazy and macho around him in the future. He’s a good looking dude. I won’t be able to help myself,” Parker replied, leaning over and kissing Ella on the lips.

  “Parker, I’m crazy about you. You’re funny, sweet, and so kind,” Ella said, returning his kiss.

  “Sexy, too. Don’t forget that.”

  Down the hall and to the left

  Amos stood outside the door and looked through the glass. It was his turn to stand guard over the bad man. Amos felt the slow burn build in his gut, and it worked its way up to his face. He thought that if he touched his face right now, it was probably hot enough to fry an egg on. He wasn’t sick; he was angry. This was the third time this last year that he’d been angry, and right now, he was angrier than he’d ever been.

  He’d overheard Izzy and Jax talking about this monster and how he’d hurt Ella. Amos was naïve and simple, but he knew about the birds and the bees. He knew what women and men did together to make babies. He knew that the bad man had forced his friend to try and make a baby with him. He knew that Ella was hurt because of it, and Amos didn’t like it one bit.

  He’d asked Parker what they were going to do with the bad men, and Parker had told him he wasn’t sure. Izzy, he knew, was all for taking them out in the desert and putting a bullet in their heads, but Parker wouldn’t let her. So, Amos had volunteered to guard the men because Amos had a plan. He turned the key and opened the door.