The Last Outbreak - SALVATION - Book 5 (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)

by Jeff Olah

  The rain from the previous night sat in low puddles that peppered the asphalt as Roland walked out away from the alley. He moved in short bursts, continuing to focus on the lone Feeder a quarter mile ahead. And while not necessarily concerned with any additional unwanted guests, he continued to maintain a safe distance.

  With three long city blocks behind him and the black canvas straps beginning to tear into his shoulders, Roland looked for a place to stop. He needed a few minutes. If his predictions were correct, it wouldn’t matter anyway. They were sitting ducks and he was the only hunter with a weapon.

  Ahead, the Feeder suddenly stopped. The beast in the torn jeans and a single boot now hunched forward. It vomited out onto the sidewalk and then just as quickly stood and again began hobbling forward. There was something familiar in the way it moved and as Roland bent to reach for the bags he began to grin.

  There he was, not more than three hundred yards away. The man from the yard. Not infected and not yet dead. Roland had the opportunity to kill him last night and didn’t. But now, out here on the street, on one of the most beautiful mornings in recent memory, he would get to watch the man with the limp take his final breath.

  34

  Bryce stood near the front doors watching the street as the others slept. He couldn’t get his mind to turn off and pacing the halls of the first floor stopped working less than thirty minutes after Ethan and his sister sped away in the massive dark-colored SUV. He’d just lost one of his best friends in this world and closing his eyes only made things worse.

  From what he could see, the street beyond the large glass doors remained clear, but he knew that wouldn’t last, not for long anyway. Those two groups would continue to fight for possession of the city and it was only a matter of time before they found their way here. It could be tomorrow, it could be next week, or it could be today. Bryce didn’t like their odds and knew there was only one place he’d feel safe.

  Slow footfalls from over his right shoulder and then Tom was at his side. He hadn’t seen his friend in more than a month and there was something different. There was a physical change—his thick short cropped beard—but there was something else. Hard to describe. Something about the way he carried himself. A stronger sense of self, a hardened exterior, emboldened ruggedness. It was slight, but it was there.

  “Hey.”

  Tom looked past Bryce out into the street. “Hey.”

  “So … you good?”

  “Yeah, I think so. You?” Tom winced, as if he realized his mistake the moment the words left his mouth.

  Bryce quickly let him off the hook. “Sawyer … he’d been with us for a bit. He was a good guy. Would do anything for anyone.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Bryce paused, looked back into the lobby. “Me too.”

  “We’ll get through it, we have to.”

  “Not what I meant.”

  Tom cut his eyes at Bryce. “What?”

  “We found your car, a few hints, but we had no idea where to even start looking. That garage was packed solid with Feeders for weeks. Thought we’d lost you.”

  “It’s all good. We found our way. Made a few stupid decisions, almost died more times than I care to count, but hey we’re still here.”

  Bryce grinned and felt the urge to laugh, but stopped himself. “We?”

  “Emma, she was alone when I found her in that garage. We made our way back to the highway a few days later. Ran across the others—her brother—at the church, somehow made it to the high school. Can’t say that I’ve ever met a woman like her.”

  “Wait,” Bryce said. “You’re not …?”

  A smirk started across Tom’s face. “Yeah, maybe just a little.”

  Bryce turned back to the doors. “Why didn’t you go with her?”

  “Yeah, I tried. She said it was something she needed to do alone with only her brother.”

  “You okay with that?”

  “I trust Ethan,” Tom said. “He’s probably the most capable man I’ve met out here; he’ll bring her back.”

  Bryce didn’t immediately respond. He continued to stare out into the street and thought about how to say what had been on his mind for the last hour. He didn’t need Tom or anyone else to buy in, but he also didn’t necessarily want to leave them here. People with real-world experience would be useful behind the gates of Harbor Crest.

  “So—”

  Bryce turned back. “We can’t wait.”

  “What?”

  “We have to go; this place isn’t safe.”

  “Yeah I get that, and we will. Just as soon as Ethan and Emma get back, we’ll pack up and head out.”

  “I don’t know man, we may want to think about—”

  “Tom.” A soft voice came from behind and she was there before he could respond.

  “Shannon?”

  “What’s going on?”

  Tom turned to Bryce and then back to Shannon. Her eyes lined in thick dark circles and her shoulders slumped forward, it was obvious she also hadn’t slept. “Just checking the streets.”

  Shannon shook her head. Looked to each man separately and dropped her voice. “You two need to learn how to whisper, I mean really.”

  Bryce wondered how much she’d heard. Thought quickly about how to change the subject to something else, anything else. And when nothing came, he noticed the look on her face. It didn’t matter, she knew. “So …”

  Shannon stepped closer and locked eyes with Bryce. “We aren’t going anywhere until Ethan gets back. I don’t care about anything you have to say on the matter. He’s the reason we are here and the reason we’re all still alive.” She reached for the door handle. “You can go if you want, but the rest of us are waiting. Do you understand?”

  Tom attempted to slip between the two. “Shannon, how about—”

  “No Tom, don’t even try it. You know Ethan and you know what this means. Don’t even try it.”

  Tom stepped away, turned his back to the doors. “I agree with you Shannon.” Then looked to his old friend. “She’s right, we have to wait.”

  Deep down, he knew what the right thing was, but he’d also seen this go another way too many times. The right thing usually ended with people dying and although he still didn’t like their odds, he could see there wouldn’t be any point in trying to talk them down. “Okay, we wait. But I just need to say one thing—”

  “No,” Shannon said, “there really isn’t anything you need to say. I understand you lost a friend last night, but we did too. None of us are thinking with a clear head, but we sure as hell aren’t leaving anyone behind.”

  Bryce knew when to cut it short, when he was swimming against the current. This was one of those times. “Got it.”

  Shannon looked embarrassed. Like she’d come out of the gates a bit too early. “Listen Bryce, I don’t really know you and I hope this is all just a misunderstanding, but that’s not how we do things. Our group doesn’t run.”

  He let her comment hang in the air. Waited a beat and searched his mind for a comment that would bring things back to center. Not make him look like a self-serving narcissist. The damage was done, he just hoped to avoid continuing the current narrative. “I’m sorry—”

  From somewhere east of their location, a single gunshot rang out.

  “What the hell was that?”

  35

  With the sun at his back and multiple lines of sweat beginning to form along his hairline, Ethan continued to dig his mother’s grave. He hadn’t spoken a word since arriving at the shore and now only wanted to finish what he’d come here to do. This wasn’t something he intended to rush, but he also knew there were other people who needed him, most importantly the woman sitting twenty yards away.

  Emma sat on the rear bumper of the SUV watching the shoreline and intermittently checking the roadway leading back toward the city. She hadn’t looked in his direction, nor had she vocalized any of what was currently pulling her further away. He didn’t need to ask, but he wanted her to
know that he was okay with being her sounding board.

  Another thirty minutes and he’d prepared a satisfactory final resting place for the woman who meant more to him than anything else in this world. He told himself that she would be okay, that she was in a better place. The things that everyone says, the words that although empty, helped those left behind. And although he didn’t like it, she was in a better place.

  One quick glance over to his sister and then Ethan carried his mother’s body to the place he’d prepared. High atop the grassy bluff overlooking the south swells of the Pacific Ocean, he laid her in the ground and waited for Emma to stand at his side. Together they carefully replaced the upturned earth and wept as their mother disappeared beneath the mound of dirt and rock.

  As a final touch, Emma dug a small hole and placed four flowers at the foot of the grave. She then stood, wiped the dirt from her knees, and said her final goodbyes. And before Ethan could move to her, she turned and walked back to the SUV.

  Cool air pushed in off the ocean as Ethan dropped his head and rounded his shoulders. He breathed in deep through his nose and thought of the moment he’d found his mother back in that gymnasium in Colorado. The look of joy she had and how quickly it faded only minutes later. He wanted what everyone wanted. He wanted to remember.

  “Mom, I’m going to miss you every single day. I wish that I could have done more, that I could have been who you and Emma needed me to be. But I promise that I’ll do better, that no matter what, I’ll keep Emma safe. Please tell Dad that I love him and that I’m sorry”

  He paused to wipe his face with his sleeve. “I love you.”

  With his eyes closed, Ethan now stood over his mother’s grave and listened to the crashing surf. He told himself that this was where she wanted to be, that she would have been happy to be buried in a place like this. He didn’t like how it felt to have these thoughts, but he also knew he didn’t have much of a choice.

  “Ethan …”

  Emma had started the SUV and sat behind the wheel with the driver’s window open. She waved him over and pointed through the parking lot and into the street beyond. “We have to go.”

  A small grouping of Feeders had worked their way into the area just beyond the entrance to the parking lot and more followed them in off the main boulevard. Ethan figured they maybe had two minutes to get back to the street.

  With Emma driving, Ethan sat in the passenger seat staring into the side view mirror. He watched as his mother’s final resting place faded into the distance. They’d be back to the city and his friends within minutes, but he didn’t really want this time with his sister to end.

  “Hey.”

  Emma stared at the road. “What?” Her voice came out cold and stilted.

  Ethan was thrown. He was prepared for sorrow, maybe even anger, but this seemed closer to indifference. “Uh, I don’t know, how are you?”

  Emma shook her head, looked over at him for a brief second, and then back at the road. “That’s it?”

  “What?”

  “That’s all you got … how am I?”

  “Uh—”

  “I’ll tell you how I am.” Now it was anger, no doubt. “I’m pissed … and there isn’t a damn thing my big brother can do to change that.”

  “I’m sorry Emma, you know I would change things if I could. I would trade places with her, with Dad.”

  Emma began to cry. “That’s not it. She was sick, Ethan, she was sick and knew she wasn’t going to make it since before leaving Colorado. It was only a matter of time. Her heart meds ran out a few weeks ago and with all the stress, she just couldn’t hold on.”

  “I didn’t … I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault, Ethan, but you’re here and I need to vent. She was better than this place, she didn’t deserve to have to live her final days here.”

  “Yeah,” Ethan said, “she was better than this place.”

  Emma ran her sleeve over her nose, paused a beat, and then nodded. “I’m just glad she doesn’t have to deal with this anymore. Cause this world sucks, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.”

  He thought he heard a change in her voice. Something a bit more upbeat, like the Emma he remembered from before all of this. “So … how do we do it?”

  “What do you mean, how do we do what?”

  Ethan forced a smile. “Make it so it doesn’t suck so much, if that’s even possible.”

  “Is that a serious question or are you just talking?”

  He turned and looked out the passenger window. They drove down the off ramp toward Sixth Street. “I’m serious, I mean I know you’ve been working with Zach and while I can’t say that I’ve been on my best behavior lately, I have heard a few things.”

  “Oh yeah?” Emma matched his half-hearted smile. “What kinds of things do you think you’ve heard?”

  “Come on Emma, you know I couldn’t remember my own name if it wasn’t plastered across my driver’s license.”

  “True.”

  “Okay, so what is it?”

  “Zach is special. He’s got something that’s keeping the infection from acting the same way it does in most everyone else.”

  “Whatta ya think it is?”

  “I’m not exactly sure, but I do have a hunch. There’s not much to back it up just yet, but it does seem possible.”

  “What?”

  “I think it’s his age.”

  “Could you be any more vague?”

  “Okay, so the way a child’s brain functions is very different than that of an adult. Typically, the mind of a child relies pretty heavily on a simplistic local network. However, in most adults those same networks have developed much more complex long-distance neural pathways. They connect to other areas of the brain and allow those same networks to coordinate different kinds of experiences to support more complex reasoning.”

  Ethan laughed. “You remember who you’re talking to, right?”

  “Okay, imagine that you want to find some information but all you have is the local yellow pages. That’s what it’s like in the mind of a child. Now compare that to having high speed internet access and the ability to gather information from anywhere around the world … now you’re in the mind of an adult.”

  “Yep, that clears things up.”

  “I told you it was a bit complicated. It was something I was looking at before Goodwin pulled me away from the project. I don’t remember everything, but I have enough information to keep moving forward. That is, if we can ever stop somewhere for more than a few days.”

  Ethan’s thoughts drifted back to the schoolyard. “What does all that mean for Zach?”

  “For now, it just means that his mind doesn’t know what to do with the information it’s receiving from the infection.”

  As they came to the intersection at Porter Avenue, Ethan again turned to gaze out the passenger window. “So, what was that last night?”

  “You mean how he was able to just walk through the crowd like that?”

  “I thought I was seeing things.”

  “Yeah,” Emma said, “I noticed it a few days ago out on the tennis courts. They don’t come after him, it’s like he’s invisible.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s simple, he’s infected.”

  Driving wide around a group of downed Feeders, Emma slowed the SUV. “Ethan, is that Griffin?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Then why does he have our bags?”

  36

  Bryce pushed aside a large table and three chairs before moving to the doors and peering out into the street. The shot had come from somewhere close. Possibly east, close to where Radar met Tenth, but he wasn’t sure. He’d come to find out over the past six weeks that the close proximity of the buildings in this part of the city made pinpointing sounds nearly impossible.

  He reached for the massive oak door handle, but then quickly stopped himself. Running out into the unknown was something that got you killed. As he
pulled back, stepped away from the door, and looked out toward the building that was once home to Simon’s Bagels, his pulse began to quicken.

  Thirty yards away and from the opposite sidewalk, a half dozen Feeders stumbled out into the street. At the moment, their attention was taken with something further to the west, but as he moved away from the door, Bryce caught his heel on the chair to his left and went down hard.

  As he slammed into the cold marble floor, he’d pulled the chair over and caused a chain reaction that brought down much of the barricade which secured the large glass doors. Quickly scrambling to his feet, Tom had returned from the lobby, now with Ben and Mayor Gil in tow.

  The three men went to work reshaping the makeshift barrier, although it was apparent before the first table was slid back into place that there wasn’t going to be enough time. The horde had begun to gain followers and now turned their attention to the movement behind the massive glass doors.

  Now making their way out of the lobby, the others were in a frenzy. All attempting to speak at once, it rapidly dissolved into a shouting match. Finally, Bryce stepped out away from the group of six and raised his voice to a level that called for attention.

  “Everyone, let’s show a little respect. Shouting over one another isn’t going to get anything accomplished.”

  Ben held tight to Mila’s hand. He stood beside Zach and tried to calm his voice. “Uh buddy, in case you haven’t noticed, we have a pretty big problem.”

  The group went quiet, Bryce motioning back toward the entrance. “We should be okay, they won’t get through for at least ten minutes. We have some time to put together a solid plan.”

  “No really, we don’t.” Ben’s eyes were wide and he appeared to be hyperventilating. “The exit on the other side of the lobby is blocked. Those things have us surrounded, I don’t think we’re getting out of—”

  Bryce started back toward the lobby. He began to gather his things from the chair, slipped his jacket over his shoulders, and turned back to the group. “There is one other way out.”