Necrose Beginnings: Books One and Two

by Tim Moon

  “You’re keeping secrets from us.” Ty tossed the phone at Ben. He caught it and set it on the coffee table.

  “I have nothing to hide. My dad sent me cryptic messages. I don’t know why or what he knows.” Ben glared at Ty. His heart was racing and he clenched his hands into fists.

  “Why does he want you in Colorado? What’s there?” Ty asked, accusingly.

  Ben stood up, rising slowly to his full height. He faced Ty squarely, fire burning in his eyes.

  Ty looked at him with contempt. “All this talk about your mom, but you just wanted to run to daddy.”

  “Enough you guys,” Anuhea said, standing up.

  “What else did your dad say?” Chadwick asked. His question was innocent and genuine.

  Ben ignored it. His gaze firmly fixed on Ty. There was no reason behind this.

  “My conversations with my dad are my business. What the fuck are you doing?” Ben took a step toward Ty.

  Though he was smaller and not a fighter, he crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at Ben.

  “Did your dad cause this infection?”

  “How the fuck should I know?” Ben shouted, throwing his hands up. “We barely talk. We hadn’t spoken in months before I received those messages. I have no idea what they mean.”

  “It sounds like he was a part of this. He’s the reason I’m hurt, the reason Travis and Kathy died, and the reason-”

  Ben slugged Ty for the second time, right in his mouth.

  Anuhea leapt between them as Ty stumbled back and fell into the wall. He was slow to stand up. One hand covered his mouth while the other steadied him against the wall.

  “Fuck you, man. Fuck all of you,” Ty mumbled. Blood trickled down his chin. He pointed at Ben. “This is all your fault.”

  “Shut up, Ty!” Anuhea shouted at him.

  Ty turned and walked away. Charlotte stood and put a comforting hand on Ben’s arm. He realized how tense he was under her touch. His chest heaved and his hands began to shake a little from the adrenalin.

  “Sit down,” Charlotte said softly.

  He just shook his head. Ben resumed pacing. Just then, a door slammed.

  Anuhea’s head cocked to the side. “Seriously? Did he just leave?”

  51

  Oliver sat up. “Why did Ty leave? There are bad people outside.”

  “He probably just needs some space,” Kaholo said.

  “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be back soon. He’s just upset,” Ben said. He glanced down and saw Oliver process the answer. It must have satisfied him because he went back to alternating between playing and watching the TV.

  “So, you want to share with us what that was all about?” Charlotte asked.

  Ben sighed and sat down. He wasn’t sure where to begin. What was relevant to tell them? When he received the messages, he meant to bring them up at some point. Not like this, but he was planning to tell them. Then everything was moving so fast. His dad didn’t actually say much in the messages, although he was curious why his dad apologized. How could he possibly be involved?

  Ben sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall. Chadwick sat just a few feet away. He leaned forward and watched Ben.

  “I’m not sure what there is to say, really. Ty read the messages. I have no idea what they really mean. You know, beyond the obvious.” Ben shifted his position to get comfortable. “My father and I don’t really talk much. Not since he left me and my mom.”

  “But why would he apologize?” Charlotte asked.

  Ben just shook his head. He had no idea.

  “What does he do for a living?” Kaholo said.

  “He works for a defense contractor doing biotech research or something. Just boring science stuff,” Ben said.

  Kaholo slowly sat up in his chair and leaned forward, with his elbows on his knees. He fixed Ben with a serious gaze. “Which defense contractor?”

  Under the scrutiny, it took Ben a moment to process the question. Keanu’s tone of voice was ominous, like he knew, or suspected, something.

  “Um, Black Tide. I worked for them too, for a while. At least until I learned my father worked there and had asked their HR department to recruit me,” Ben said.

  Kaholo’s eyes widened.

  “What?” Keanu asked, staring curiously at his brother.

  The big man blinked a few times and slowly sat up straight.

  “The other day, there were news reports that documents had been leaked online linking Black Tide to the infection,” he said. “Serious shit, man. It included documents, photos, and videos of experiments. I mean, the company is under some heat.”

  “No way, man. They do normal contracting stuff, things that other contractors do too; like security details, transporting cargo, surveillance, and whatnot,” Ben said. He didn’t like to hear that there might be a connection. It was unbelievable.

  “What did you do for them?” Kaholo asked, eying him suspiciously.

  “Come on, you can’t think my father had something to do with this.” Ben was shocked. Everyone stared at him with strange looks in their eyes.

  “What did you do for Black Tide?” Keanu said, echoing his brother’s question.

  “I worked in the acquisitions department. We would look at other companies and see who had technology we could use or might be interested in buying out or licensing the rights to,” Ben said. “It was mostly boring stuff, ordering parts for Humvees, infrared technology, drones, and whatnot.”

  He took a deep breath.

  “No disrespect, mate. But it sounds like it could be possible that your father was unwittingly involved on some level. Maybe not directly, but if the company is linked to the infection then….” Chadwick’s voice trailed off.

  “Guilty by association,” Ben finished. His shoulders slumped in defeat. He truly had no idea.

  “This is important to know and I hate to interrupt, but…” Charlotte said tentatively. “Did we want to do anything about Ty?”

  “I’m not going after him. That fool walked out on his own, just like he did before,” Anuhea said with a whole lot of attitude and rightfully so, in Ben’s opinion. “I can’t justify risking the group for someone who clearly doesn’t want to be a part of it.”

  “He buggered the phone situation, but isn’t that a little harsh?” Chadwick asked.

  “It’s not the first time he’s walked out on us. He did it when we were still in a burning airplane,” Ben said. He suddenly felt very tired. It was still relatively early, but he was bushed. Despite the betrayal, he felt torn about going after Ty.

  “I agree with Anuhea. He chose this, let him live with the decision,” Charlotte said.

  “I’m hungry,” Oliver said, sitting up. “Can we make lunch?”

  Ben smiled at his slightly whiny voice. The kid had timing.

  “What sounds good little man?” Keanu asked.

  “A sandwich or a hamburger. Oh, can we make hamburgers, please?” Oliver asked, getting a little excited.

  Keanu looked over at Kaholo.

  “Check the freezer for meat.” Kaholo smiled. “Cook them inside on the Foreman grill. Don’t want to attract the infected.”

  “Let’s go have a look in the freezer and see if we can find some meat.” Keanu stood up and led the way to the garage.

  “You can. I don’t want to go out there,” Oliver said.

  Ben was grateful for the distraction. It was uncomfortable to answer questions like that about his dad. He had a hard time believing that he could have helped create this infection.

  If he were a part of it though, Ben would have plenty to say about that.

  52

  Several hours had passed. Kaholo was fully on board with the plan for borrowing his unit’s ship, the US Coast Guard Cutter Kiska. A plan was formulated for getting downtown and making it to the Coast Guard office so Kaholo could grab stuff they needed for their trip.

  Kaholo also wanted to check again and see if there were any survivors from his unit. Once abo
ard the ship and away from the docks, the brothers would give them some training so they could help. Kaholo estimated that it would take them several days to travel across the Pacific to the Columbia River that separated Washington and Oregon.

  Inside the kitchen, Keanu and Charlotte were orchestrating something that smelled glorious. They even managed to recruit Oliver to help. Ben walked into the kitchen for more juice and laughed when he saw the boy peeling potatoes. Oliver had his tongue out as he concentrated on carefully slicing off the potato skin without slicing his fingers.

  “Get out of here. It’s crowded enough as it is,” Charlotte said.

  “I’m thirsty though. Just let me get some juice.” Ben tried to reach for the fridge, but Charlotte slapped his hand away.

  “Go get water.”

  Ben sighed and left.

  Chadwick was watching the news in the living room. Ben plopped down on the couch while mouthwatering scents wafted out of the kitchen.

  “Anything new?”

  Chadwick shook his head. “I get the feeling it’s on a loop.”

  “So, you’re okay with our plan?” Ben asked.

  Glancing at Ben, Chadwick nodded. “If I can see my parents again, I’ll be happy. Staying on the mountain would have been safe, but what is life without risk, or family?”

  Ben nodded. He totally agreed. They could hole up somewhere and hope things improved, that their families would be safe, that the infection would be contained and cleaned up. Or they could face the challenges head on, and make things happen. When it came down to it, Ben realized he would rather die taking action than wither and die sitting around waiting for others to fix his problems.

  “Dinner time,” Keanu shouted from the kitchen.

  “Thank God, I’m famished,” said Chadwick.

  They sat around a large round table in the dining room. On platters set in the middle of the table were two dishes that Ben didn’t recognize along with a bowl of spaghetti.

  “What are these? They look delicious,” Ben said.

  “This one is called beef hekka and the other is huli huli chicken. They’re two of my favorites. No one can cook’em like mama could, but it’s close,” Keanu said with a grin. “Since this is our last supper before we head out on a crazy ass mission, I wanted to have a good ‘ole family meal.”

  Kaholo came in and smiled. “This kid is a genius in the kitchen.” He pointed at Keanu.

  “That’s so true. I felt like it was my first time in the kitchen,” Charlotte said. “This is all you. I barely helped.”

  “You were great, Charlotte.” Keanu beamed at her, his cheeks took on a pinkish glow from all the attention. “Please, you guys, dig in.”

  Everyone ate their fill, laughing and talking the whole time. Ben and Oliver had a noodle-slurping contest, much to Charlotte’s horror. One noodle wriggled up and slapped Oliver in the nose, leaving a streak of tomato sauce that made the boy fall apart in glee.

  There was a small hole left by Ty’s absence, but they didn’t let it dampen their mood. He had been acting distant for several days now and his attitude pushed people away. Ben sat back and sipped tangy pineapple juice. He wistfully thought back to his own family dinners. It felt like ages ago, when he’d been young, just a little older than Oliver was.

  Kaholo burped loudly, setting off a wave of laughter from Oliver who tried his best to match the rumble. A small squeak emerged instead.

  “Nice try,” Kaholo said. He shot a wink to Oliver.

  Anuhea made a tsk-tsk sound. “Is that how you behave at the dinner table?”

  Oliver and Kaholo looked at each other, then at Anuhea.

  “No, sorry,” Kaholo said. Then he turned to Keanu. “You want to show them PMCS on the weapons, while Oliver and I clean up?”

  “Sure.” Keanu wiped sauce from the huli huli chicken out of the corner of his mouth and stood up. He licked his fingers off and wiped his hands on a clean paper napkin. “Folks, if you’ll follow me out into the garage, please.”

  Keanu led them through the breezeway, into the garage and had them spread out a sheet. He went out to the Humvee and un-mounted the machine gun. He carried it inside the garage, then went back for the ammo, and set it on the ratty old sheet they had spread out on the floor.

  “Time for weapons maintenance, or PMCS as we call it. Preventative maintenance, checks and service, good old fashioned cleaning,” Keanu said. “We’ll also take stock of our weapons and ammo.”

  Everyone laid out their rifles and magazines. Each of them would be responsible for cleaning their own weapon. Keanu was more the weapons expert, since he had spent several years in the US Army. He showed them how to do each step, while he espoused the virtues of keeping weapons in top shape, just in case they ran into any trouble in town.

  The garage was bigger than it looked from the street. Ben was impressed. Although it was only two cars wide, it was deep and could fit three or maybe four vehicles. Kaholo had parked his truck inside. The body had bullet holes all over and a shattered rear window. It seemed miraculous that Charlotte was the only one grazed by a round.

  A pair of kayaks hung from the ceiling, above where they were organizing their weapons. Tools hung on pegs above a large workbench that sat along the wall beside them. A refrigerator and a big freezer were near the door to the breezeway for quick access. The back corner of the garage held an assortment of sports equipment. Ben spotted a dusty baseball bat and some badminton rackets standing up in a bucket.

  Finally, a large portion of the rear section of garage was devoted to gym equipment, including a nice weight bench, a squat rack, a dip stand with a pull-up bar, and a barbell on the floor, along with an assortment of dumbbells and a few kettle bells. The equipment looked well cared for and heavily used. No wonder Kaholo was stacked like The Rock.

  The machine gun, an M249 SAW or Squad Automatic Weapon, lay on the sheet with belts of ammo lying next to it. Next to the SAW were the three M4s that Anuhea, Ben, and Chadwick carried, along with Keanu’s M203. For ammo, they had almost six hundreds rounds for the SAW, twelve magazines for the rifles, and eight rounds left for the M203 grenade launcher.

  Kaholo brought out his personal stash, which included the shotgun he carried since they arrived. He also had an AR15, the civilian version of the M4, two 9mm pistols, a .45 caliber pistol, and a .308 hunting rifle with a big scope. Kaholo had almost a full case of ammo for the AR15, which could be shared their M4 rifles, and the SAW, if necessary. He had four hundred rounds for the 9mm pistols, two hundred for the .45, and almost two hundred for the .308.

  Ben whistled when he saw it all laid out. “I’d say we’re pretty well set.”

  “You might be surprised how fast you can go through it all,” said Kaholo. “Especially when shit hits the fan. I’m betting we’ll run into a lot of the infected out there.”

  Ben nodded. “I’m sure.”

  “And if we see those impostors again, well, then you’re gonna see me light some shit up.” Kaholo flexed his jaw.

  Ben didn’t doubt for a second that those guys would be in trouble if they decided to mess with their group again. With Kaholo, they’d added another able-bodied, well-trained fighter to their group. The vigilantes had lost at least three in the most recent fight.

  How many more bodies did they have left to spare?

  53

  Ben handed the M249 up to Keanu who was in the Humvee’s turret.

  “Thanks,” Keanu said. He took the machine gun like it was a paperweight and reattached it behind the curved steel plate that served as armor.

  Ben looked out into the street. It was dark, the sun having set about an hour ago. None of the streetlights were on, which seemed odd because Kaholo’s house had electricity.

  “Do you hear that?” he asked.

  Keanu stopped doing whatever he was doing. He held still and cocked his head to listen.

  They both heard it. It was the sound of footsteps slapping against pavement as someone ran.

  “Shit, get me
the ammo belts,” Keanu said. “Then get the others.”

  Ben ran inside the garage and grabbed the long links of ammunition for the SAW. It was surprisingly heavy and awkward to carry, but he ignored that, running outside to deliver it. He hoped they wouldn’t need to shoot. They didn’t need the attention right now.

  After the weapon, Ben handed up the ammo. Keanu took it and began to load it into the machine gun. Glancing out into the street, he saw a dark form moving from the street to the sidewalk in the distance. Cursing softly to himself, Ben ran into the house to get the others.

  Everyone was sitting in the living room, watching a movie from Kaholo’s extensive Blu-Ray collection. Ben noticed that they’d draped blankets over the curtains. Smart.

  “Someone is coming,” Ben said. “Grab your weapons and come outside.”

  “No rest for the weary,” Charlotte muttered.

  “Too right, mate,” Chadwick said.

  “Hurry!” Ben said. He turned to leave. The person would be close by now.

  “They’re coming,” a voice outside shouted.

  “Shut up and stop right there,” Keanu shouted back.

  Ben looked at Anuhea. “Is it Ty?”

  She just rolled her eyes, as the group followed closely behind him. They poured out into the breezeway with their freshly cleaned rifles. Ty was limping his way up the driveway, breathing hard.

  “I’m so sorry! I’m sorry, please. Please help.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” Ben asked.

  “They’re coming. I was escaping from infected and they saw me,” Ty said between breaths.

  “Who?” Anuhea asked.

  “The gang from the road block. They’re pissed.” Ty bent over and put his hands on his knees. “We need to get inside and hide.”

  “Gang?” Keanu asked.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Ty said. “Can’t we go inside? Shit, man.”

  “Tell us what happened?” Ben asked.

  “And why you led them back here,” Anuhea said before she walked away.

  “You guys go inside. I’ll stay here and watch the street,” Keanu said. He gestured at the workbench. “Wait, hand me the 203 first.”