V Plague (Book 17): Abaddon

by Patton, Dirk

  “We’ve gotta go,” he barked at Viktoriya. “Cops are probably already on the way.”

  She grabbed the duffel off the floor and hurried into the hall. Black was right behind her, watching their backs as she led the way to the fire stairs.

  Crashing through the heavy steel doors, he stepped around her and headed down with the pistol extended, ready to fire if they were threatened. She kept several steps between them and together they moved fast.

  Despite their rapid descent, it took seemingly forever to reach the ground floor. They began hearing a faint wail of sirens as Viktoriya took the lead, still heading down.

  Six floors below ground, she came to a stop. Both of them were breathing deeply from the exertion, but neither were winded.

  “We’ve got a minute, if we’re lucky, before there’re enough cops here to start sealing the building,” Black said.

  Viktoriya nodded and after a shared look to ensure readiness, pulled the door open and stepped through into an echoing parking garage. Black was on her heels, quickly scanning around them with his pistol. They were alone. For the moment.

  “There,” she said, gesturing at a parked SUV.

  It was nothing special, painted a neutral tan color. A vehicle that wouldn’t attract attention and wouldn’t be remembered.

  Hurrying across, she fumbled briefly under a fender for the keys. Unlocking the doors, she tossed her bag in, got behind the wheel and started the engine. Black jumped into the passenger seat and put his hand on top of hers before she could shift out of park.

  “We aren’t shooting cops,” he said, eyes locked with hers.

  She didn’t fail to notice that he held his weapon tight across his body, aimed at her. Despite the severity of their situation, she smiled.

  “Only if they shoot first,” she said, removing his hand and yanking the lever into gear.

  33

  I sat on a low hill overlooking a moonlit Coober Pedy. Despite the progress of the herd, I’d decided the best course of action was for me to continue on to town. The main factor in that decision was that there wasn’t a vehicle at Lucas’s that could evacuate everyone. Sure, the keys for the van were probably somewhere in his house, but the vehicle wasn’t built for escaping across open desert. It had little ground clearance and wasn’t four-wheel drive.

  This complicated what I had to accomplish in town. Not only did I have to raid the hospital, I had to find a vehicle large enough to accommodate everyone and sturdy enough to withstand the torture of the outback.

  Shutting the engine off, I stepped clear of the machine with my attention focused on the streets below. Infected were visible on almost all of them, roaming about as they searched for prey. This was a good indication there might still be survivors, or at least something had made the infected believe there was fresh meat to be had.

  Smyth had done his best to describe the location of the hospital for me. It was near the northeast edge of town in a low, single-story building. I’d found what seemed to be it, or at least something that matched the description and was in the right place.

  Taking a moment, I adjusted the weapons on my body, ensuring the rifle was tightly slung down the middle of my back. I was significantly outnumbered and firing it, even with a suppressor, would bring too many infected down on top of my head.

  The best option was to sneak in and out without being detected, but the likelihood of that was about nil. Knowing I’d need to fight at some point, I drew the knife and began walking down the hill.

  Within a few steps, I could feel the change begin to come over me. My heart raced and my skin grew hot. My senses sharpened to the point that I could smell the musk of the females in the town below and hear the distant yap of a dingo. The ground before me was barely lit by a pale moon, but I could see as well as if it were midday.

  But something was different this time. I wasn’t surging ahead in anticipation of a fight. The berserker wasn’t pushing me to find a foe to battle. There wasn’t a desire to bathe in my enemy’s blood after I had killed them. Instead, I was moving stealthily and seeking a route that would avoid contact with the infected.

  I didn’t understand what was going on, but after what I’d experienced with the bats, I was grateful to have my wits about me. Relieved that I was acting like a soldier, not an uncontrollable, bloodthirsty beast.

  But, enough of that. I needed to focus on the task at hand. Reach the hospital, retrieve the needed medicine then find transportation out of here. Just another day at the park.

  Reaching the first building at the edge of town, I stuck to the deepest shadows on the side away from the moon. I moved confidently, able to clearly see even small pebbles and twigs that might make a sound and give me away. As I advanced silently, it occurred to me that the infected could almost certainly see as well in the dark as I could. So why the hell was I worrying about sticking to the darker areas?

  I didn’t have a good answer for that, but when you’ve been doing something a certain way your entire life, you tend to stick with it unless there’s a compelling reason to change. So, I assumed there was a tactical benefit and dismissed any more thoughts about the best way to move at night.

  Pausing at the front corner of the building, I eased my head out. A pair of males stood a couple of yards away, seemingly zoned out. I’d seen this behavior before, from the females as well. It’s like they go into power saving mode or something. Instead of constantly running around looking for prey, they kind of shut down and wait for something warm and juicy to come along.

  Now, I could be full of shit. It might not have anything to do with conserving energy. It could just as easily be a dozen different things that I’d never understand. Well, I hope I’ll never understand. I’d come too damn close out in the desert and didn’t want to experience that again.

  In fact, I’d scared the hell out of myself. The thought of losing control; being unable to reason or rationalize what I was doing, well… that had been a sobering experience. One I was not very willing to put behind me. All I had to do was find a way to get to Hawaii, then hope and pray Joe was able to work some kind of miracle.

  Barring that, Rachel was right. How could I be trusted to be around her and Mavis and the baby? Hell, how could I trust myself? I couldn’t even begin to imagine a scenario in which I’d harm any of them, but when it comes to the virus and its effect, even the unimaginable becomes possible. And if there was even the slightest of chances…

  Shaking my head, I pulled it back around the corner. This was most definitely neither the time nor place to be thinking about this. Get the medicine and find a ride. There’d be plenty of time on the drive back to Lucas’s to consider the situation I was in.

  Gripping the hilt of the blade tightly, I stepped silently around the corner. Neither male detected me and I stabbed up into the back of the closest one’s head. Right into that little soft spot where the spine meets the skull. He collapsed instantly and I wrapped him in my free arm to gently lower the body to the ground.

  There wasn’t much noise, certainly not enough to draw in any infected, but the second male was alerted. He turned to face me, the beginning of a gurgling snarl coming from his bloody mouth. I silenced him with a quick thrust of the blade up through his throat and into his skull, giving it a sharp twist to ensure his brains were properly scrambled.

  I supported the second body on its way to the ground, wiped my blade clean on the male’s shirt as I looked around, then took off at a fast run. Two buildings flashed past as I raced down an alley, then I pulled to a stop where it opened onto a wider road. A couple of businesses and half a dozen abandoned vehicles was all of the town I could see, but more than a dozen females were slowly milling about.

  There was an initial urge to charge forward and engage them and I pushed it down quickly before it had a chance to become a desire. There was no way across the street without coming into full view of the females, so I began to fade back into the alley with the intent of finding another way around. But the fickle l
ittle gods of fate had different ideas. Generally, the bastards usually do.

  I hadn’t gone ten feet before first one, then several female voices screamed out behind me. Whirling, I spotted them a block away where they had entered the alley from a cross street. Five of them, delighted to have stumbled across fresh meat.

  For an instant, I was frozen between two overwhelming impulses. One was to wade in with the blade and kill each female with my bare hands. The other was to bring my weapon around and drop them at a distance. It shouldn’t have been a decision I had to make. This was clearly the right circumstance for a rifle, but the berserker inside was making his presence felt again. And he much preferred to feel his enemy’s breath on his face as he spilled their blood.

  By the time the reasoning side of me won the internal battle and I reached for my rifle sling, it was too late. The infected were almost upon me. Leaping with black lips skinned back over bloody teeth. I was left with no choice other than to meet them with nothing but the knife.

  34

  I made quick work of the females who had come up behind me. Throats were slashed, hearts and heads stabbed, and skulls crushed beneath my boots. And it felt good!

  I was losing control and I could feel it. And didn’t want to do anything to stop it. My heart pounded a frenetic drumbeat in my ears as I turned to face the females that were racing in from across the street. With a laugh, I moved forward to engage them. I was too impatient to deliver more death to wait a few seconds for them to arrive in the alley.

  Charging in, I led with the blade, striking hard enough to decapitate the lead female. Barely slowing, I waded into the group with a scream and set about cutting, stabbing, kicking and punching any and everything that moved. The blood in my veins was singing as I tore through the group which fell before me like straw in a strong wind.

  Whirling, I sought another enemy but only a few shambling males were visible. Dismissing them as unworthy of my time, I bellowed a challenge into the night as I ran for the hospital. I still had a mission, that wasn’t forgotten. But if I could satisfy the burning lust to mete out punishment on the infected in the process… well, who could blame me?

  Rounding a corner at a fast lope, I lowered my head and smiled when I saw the largest group yet of females. They were responding to their dead sisters’ screams and my challenge. And there were a lot of them. I recognized their numbers but wasn’t deterred in the least. After all; I was invincible!

  As I raced ahead, something fluttered past my head. Then another. Then several more. By the time I recognized what they were, a veritable storm of bats was swirling around me, thousands more rushing in to create a vortex that quickly filled the width of the street.

  None touched me. I could feel the wind from their wings on my face as they paced me toward battle with the infected. Then, a solid mass eclipsed the moon as hundreds of thousands of bodies passed overhead.

  For the first time, it became difficult to see with almost zero light. Slowing, I watched as the massive swarm descended upon the attacking females which vanished beneath a writhing mass that had to be at least two feet thick. Pulling to a stop, I smiled as the bats shredded my enemy, overwhelming them with the sheer weight of their numbers.

  More infected raced in, attracted by the noise. They were instantly enveloped, quickly falling to the ground beneath a smothering blanket of black horror. The entire time, thousands more continued to swirl about me as if they were protecting me. They were, and I was now their master!

  It wasn’t long before no more infected were charging in to be slaughtered. I had stood there, roaring in delight at the savagery of seeing their flesh shredded from their bodies until they were no longer moving. It was a blood orgy, a feast for the beast inside. And in only minutes, it seemed that every female in the town had been wiped out.

  There were most certainly still males stumbling blindly about, but they were no more concerning for me than a gnat. They couldn’t harm me, and if they stood in my way they would die.

  With a spring in my step, I moved forward, swinging the knife in my hand. I hadn’t cleaned it since personally battling the infected and blood flew off the tip, spattering on the ground and onto the bats which were swirling around me as I walked.

  As if of one mind, the heaving mass of bodies that covered the street ahead rose into the air as I approached. Well over a hundred females lay on the pavement, unrecognizable as anything other than a vaguely human form. Blood slicked the asphalt, forming sticky pools in the potholed road, and bone glinted in the moonlight as the swarm spread apart in the sky above.

  I pushed through the carnage, a feeling of supreme power surging through me. Thousands of bats accompanied me, maintaining the protective vortex around me. Far above, what had to be millions more filled the sky from horizon to horizon. And as I moved, so did they.

  We encountered several males on the way to the hospital. They were instantly set upon, falling to the ground within seconds of being attacked. When they stopped moving, the bats would fly back up to rejoin the main body. As with the females, what they left behind was almost unrecognizable. The corpses looked like they’d been run through a thresher.

  Walking up to the hospital entrance, I pulled one of a set of large double doors open. Immediately, thousands of the bats from the vortex broke away and surged into the building. They filled the air as they raced ahead, searching for any threat that needed to be eliminated.

  Ignoring them, I stepped inside, leaving the door propped open behind me. Thousands more followed until it seemed as if a flapping body occupied every cubic foot of space within the building.

  I was supremely confident that nothing could touch me while I was under the protection of the bats. For that matter, I was supremely confident that nothing could harm me even without their presence. So, I hurried deeper into the building, following signs until I reached the pharmacy.

  The door was heavy, solid wood with a wire reinforced window in the upper half. A stout lock controlled by a key card kept it secured. Grasping the handle, I twisted and tugged, but it didn’t budge. With a grunt, I used both hands and the mechanism snapped, the steel lever coming free in my hand.

  I threw it aside and slammed my shoulder into the door. The remains of the lock fell free as it sprung inwards to strike the wall with a resounding boom. Again, bats preceded me inside, whirling through narrow aisles formed by chromed-wire shelves.

  Digging out the shopping list Rachel had given me after speaking with Joe, I stared at the writing. Recognized it for what it was but was unable to decipher what it meant. It was kind of like trying to read a language you don’t understand. The characters may be familiar, but nothing else is.

  For what felt like hours, I stood there staring at the paper. Tried to make heads or tails of it. Part of me knew I should instantly understand what Rachel had written, but it remained out of reach.

  It finally occurred to me that I’d successfully read signs to find the pharmacy. But I hadn’t been making an effort to read them. I’d simply glanced, already knowing what I expected to see. Was that the difference? And how the hell did that help me figure out what to get?

  As I struggled to understand the words on the paper, adrenaline began burning off. My blood pressure suddenly dropped so fast that I swayed as the world around me turned gray and fuzzy. It felt as if I shrank in that moment as blood and testosterone infused muscles returned to normal.

  There was a moment where I felt the overwhelming urge to throw up, then I swayed again, dropped to my knees and toppled to the hard tile floor. For a few beats I lay in the middle of the pharmacy, gulping air, then I realized the bats were gone. As quickly as they’d appeared earlier, they had vanished.

  Glancing at my hand, I blinked a couple of times in surprise. What had been an indecipherable jumble of letters was now a clearly written list of specific antibiotics, vaccines and immunoglobulins. Shaking my head, I tamped down the feeling of despair over having lost control again and climbed to my feet. Gave the lis
t another look and began searching for what I’d come here for.

  35

  Ten minutes later I walked out of the hospital with a bag of supplies slung over my shoulder. I’d found everything that was on Rachel’s list, but was concerned about the rabies treatment. Both the vaccine and immunoglobulin had been in a glass fronted refrigerator that wasn’t working due to no power. I had no idea how quickly they would spoil, but there was no choice. They were either still effective, or they weren’t.

  As I strode across the eerily silent parking lot, I looked around at the corpses left behind by the bats. Felt a sense of horror and dread as I remembered laughing as I watched the infected being torn to ribbons. Not that there wasn’t a great satisfaction in having them wiped out, it was just… well… difficult to put into words.

  I thought about that as I headed down the street toward the center of town. Replayed the whole event in my head and finally settled on what was so disturbing. Was I losing my grip on sanity? A couple of times now I’d lost control, but what if the next time I didn’t come back from the brink?

  And there was most certainly a line that I hadn’t crossed. A boundary between light and darkness that some part of me recognized and had pulled back from, despite the desire to cross over. I knew if I ever allowed that to happen, there would be no coming back. I’d be nothing more than another mindless, raging infected running around.

  But it was so tempting. Alluring. The darkness called out. Whispered to me. Promised me that all of the pain and sadness I carried would be washed away if only I would stop fighting against it. It was growing harder to resist. To ignore the siren’s song that offered blissful unawareness of everything that had and would transpire in this world.