Galvin nodded again.
“With no Internet and no way to confirm your story, how do I know you’re telling the truth?” Cliff questioned.
“You don’t,” Galvin replied, looking down at his coffee mug. “I don’t know what else to say. I’m sorry.”
Cliff took a drink and held the cup in his hand. Feeling its warmth, he pondered everything Galvin had told him. He was impressed with Galvin’s method to subdue the infected. Cliff didn’t know what to believe. There was nothing in Galvin’s body language to say he was lying. But he couldn’t validate Galvin’s story. It seemed plausible, but the truth may never be known.
Cliff gave his guest a cold stare. “Galvin, I trust you with my life after witnessing how you handled the guy. We are both in the same boat now. Infected vs. healthy, if you may. But if you ever so much as look at my children, I swear you won’t live to see the next day.”
Galvin felt Cliff’s stare piercing through his soul. He understood the seriousness of the subject and knew he would feel the same if he was in Cliff’s shoes.
Galvin swallowed. “I understand, and I swear you have nothing to worry about. I am not like that.”
“Good. Glad we understand each other.”
A loud crash followed by a scream came from the back bedroom, jolting the men from their chairs. Cliff and Galvin locked eyes, then rushed to the room.
Cliff barged into the room and froze. An infected creature had broken through the window and growled as it thrashed its arms at the children. Half of its body was inside the room. The only thing holding it back was the glass tearing into its gut. Cassidy stood in the left corner, holding Jonathan behind her, their eyes wide in fright.
Galvin bumped into Cliff’s shoulder as he entered the room. “Get the kids!” he commanded.
Cliff rushed in front of the children, shielding them from the thrashing creature. Its screams and hisses echoed in the room. It was a young boy; Cliff guessed he couldn’t be older than nineteen. His determination to climb through the window toward the children was unimaginable. The infected boy was so fixated on the children, he paid no attention to his skin being ripped from his belly.
Galvin rushed to the side of the window, looked, and snatched the curtain rod above it. He tried to use the curtain rod to push the creature out of the window, but it bent on his first try. He threw it to the floor out of frustration.
“Where’s your gun?” Galvin asked, yelling over the creature’s screams.
“I left it in the kitchen!”
“Wait here,” Galvin commanded.
Cliff blinked and smirked. “Where do you think I’m going?”
Galvin ran to the kitchen and scanned the counters for the pistol. He looked at the kitchen table; it was cleared, no pistol in sight. Galvin panicked.
“Where the hell is it?” he yelled.
Galvin paused and bit his bottom lip. Time was his enemy. He needed to act.
He rushed out of the house.
The blood-curdling screams the creature made sent chills down Cliff’s back. He cursed himself for being unarmed and swore to himself never to be unarmed again. Their mother wasn’t around to help; he had no weapon, and the only man he could count on was a convicted child porn peddler. He began to pray.
“Daddy!” Cassidy cried.
“It’ll be okay, hun. I’m here.”
The creature inched further in the room. Broken glass continued to tear into the young man’s abdomen, slowing his movement. Blood from the creature coated the window seal and pooled on the carpet below. Cliff stood in amazement at the beast’s relentlessness.
Its intestines began to fall to the floor. Cliff covered Cassidy’s eyes. Jonathan buried his face into Cliff’s shirt. He couldn’t comprehend how the creature wasn’t unnerved by losing its bowels. The undead creature continued to pull itself against the glass shards ripping into its pelvic area.
“Let’s go, kids!”
Cliff began to shuffle the kids to the hallway when it disappeared from the window. Cliff straightened himself. His mouth widened, and he stared at the broken window.
Cassidy tightened her grip around Cliff. “Where did it go?”
“I dunno, honey.”
He stood bewildered by the creature’s sudden disappearance. He could still hear the creature’s screams and hisses, but didn’t know why the creature was outside now. Then two loud thuds came from outside. The beast’s growling and gurgling ceased.
“Daddy,” Cassidy whispered.
“I …” Cliff began.
Galvin popped his head through the window. “Sorry I was late. I couldn’t find your gun.”
CHAPTER TEN
Jennifer turned the key of the Land Rover, and listened to its engine roared to life. She loved how the it looked, but she loved it more with its engine running. Jennifer nestled in the driver’s seat and slid the gear into reverse.
She looked over at Jake before sliding the gear into drive and asked, “You sure I can’t drive you somewhere?”
Jake shook his head. “No,” he replied in a soft tone. “I have no place around here now.”
She lifted her foot from the brake and let the SUV cruise forward. She made the first turn after leaving Brian’s before she decided to say something.
“I don’t know what is going on here. One moment, our lives were normal. We had plans. Now, this crap hits, and it turns our entire world upside down. What the hell is going on?”
Jake stared out the window as if he didn’t hear her. Jennifer waited a few seconds before shrugging it off.
Jake took a deep breath and began. “It’s an ancient virus.”
Jennifer snapped her head around to look at him. “Ancient? How do you know that?”
“I was invited to tag along on an expedition to Khatanga, Siberia last summer. Only it’s never really summer there,” Jake chuckled. “Doctor Benson, a colleague of mine with Preston called and asked if I would go with him and Doctor Brown from Berlin University to a dig site they just uncovered. It was there we uncovered an ancient tomb. It dated back to before the pyramids; that’s how old it was. We found a chamber inside the tomb. Above the door of the chamber was an inscription, like hieroglyphics, and we concluded it said, ‘One inside died, lived again, and craved his own blood.’”
Jennifer felt her heart stop. “What?”
“It said, “One inside died, lived again, and craved his own blood,’” Jake repeated. “The hieroglyphics had a beetle to describe the virus,” Jake said. “Even eight thousand years ago, they knew a sick person had a bug.”
“What does that mean?” Jennifer quizzed as she turned the wheel of the Defender onto Main.
“Well, basically, it says what we are seeing now,” Jake explained. “You will live again only to crave your own blood. I have concluded ‘your own blood’ meant human blood.”
“Like a vampire?” Jennifer questioned.
“In a simpler description, yes,” Jake answered. “But they don’t crave blood just at night, and this virus isn’t cured by a wood stake to the heart. The people who are infected are already dead; the virus kills you in seconds,” he explained. “I have known about this virus for almost a year now. Doctor Brown was the first modern human to be infected. We thought it was contained, but three weeks ago, a second person became infected. It was a fascinating virus from a medical viewpoint.
“Sadly, Doctor Brown cut himself. Ultimately, infected himself while drilling into the remains we found.”
Jennifer gasped. “You guys knew about this threat and didn’t tell the world?”
Jake felt the anger in her voice. He shook his head. “We didn’t know it was this bad. We didn’t know it was highly contagious. When Doctor Brown passed away after being bludgeoned to death by hospital security, we thought it was isolated. He went berserk, like what we saw on the streets of Whittaker.” Jake pointed out the window. “Apparently, it escaped into the world’s general population, and now, it’s here.”
Jennifer felt bre
athless. “What do you mean bludgeoned to death?”
“The rage,” Jake answered. “They subdued him, but he was too strong for the medical staff. I guess, during the melee hey had no choice but slam a fire extinguisher over his head.”
Jake turned to Jennifer and placed his hand on her arm. “I am as in shock as anyone else in the world. If we had known the severity of the virus, we would have covered the tomb in cement.”
Jennifer saw Jake fight back a tear.
“What happened last night?” she asked.
“My car was rear-ended while parked in my mum’s driveway. We were having a relaxing evening inside. We went outside after hearing the crash. The driver was infected. She died while driving and crashed into my car. When I went to check on the driver, the seat was empty. I heard my mum scream. I turned to see a woman biting my mother’s neck,” Jake explained. “I ran and kicked the woman away, then I rushed my mum inside. I tried to stop the bleeding. I tried calling 911, but she eventually passed. Minutes later, when I was sobbing on the couch, she stood, and looked around as if alive. She was white as a milk carton, her skin was skin pale, and there was no color in her pupils. Once she saw me, she tried to bite me. No matter what I did, she was unbelievably strong. I don’t think I met a man as strong as she was last night. It wasn’t until I took a bookend to her head that she stopped.”
Jennifer bit her lower lip, wanting to say something, but she couldn’t think of anything that could help soothe the hurt he was feeling.
She decided to change the subject. “Did any of these ancient writings tell you how they killed the bug?”
Jake let out a deep breath. “Kind of. There was one inscription on the wall that pretty much said fire was their only weapon against the virus. But the hieroglyphics showed men holding up severed heads next to a fire. So it’s our belief that they cut the heads off the infected and threw them on a bonfire.”
Jennifer laughed a little.
“What’s funny?”
“The heads,” she answered. “The Mayans and Aztecs!”
Jake gave her an inquisitive look. “Interesting, Jennifer. Do you mind elaborating, please?”
Jennifer gave him a smirk. “The heads! The Mayans and Aztecs used to behead people. Maybe they encountered the same virus or bug, and that’s why you see their cultural drawings depict severed heads?” she offered. “And maybe the same ancient virus killed off the Mayans? We still don’t know what happened to ‘em.”
Jake took Jennifer’s added comments to heart. “Maybe you’re on to something?” he wondered.
“It is true, they use to throw sacrifices into volcano pits. Maybe the experts have been wrong all this time, and it took your little discovery to change the way we look at South American history,” Jennifer countered.
“Turn here.” Jake pointed at a store.
Jennifer complied and pulled into the parking lot of the gas station and parked next to a pump. She retrieved the empty gas cans from the back and flipped the pump switch on. To her surprise, the pumps worked. She looked around while she filled the tanks and noticed there was a diesel station.
After loading the gas cans in the back of the SUV, she drove to the diesel pump and filled its tanks. Jake slipped into the gas station and had yet to return. Jennifer became worried. She looked around. There were two infected creatures across the street, but they were over a block away and oblivious to her presence. She made a mental note of their distance and calculated her reaction to flee in the SUV.
The gas handle flipped; its flow stopped. Jennifer returned the handle to the cradle and closed the Defender’s gas cap. She looked again for Jake, but he was nowhere to be seen. She walked to the double doors of the store and pushed them open. Jennifer saw Jake with a hand basket standing in the aisle, filling it with snacks and supplies.
“Hurry, grab a basket. We’ll need these supplies,” Jake said.
Jennifer looked around the store and smiled. She couldn’t believe she had access to everything in the store and didn’t have to pay for any of it. She had dreamt of shopping sprees all her life; she just didn’t expect her first spree to be under duress. She downed two energy drinks and snacked on a protein bar before she started to browse. She felt her energy return and grabbed two hand baskets from a stack by the counter. She didn’t care what she grabbed as long as it was something edible. She didn’t know when she’ll get another chance to visit a store.
Feeling happy with her loot, she returned to the SUV. She was about to return to the store when Jake exited with two baskets. He was struggling with one of his baskets.
“What’s in that one? It looks heavy.”
Jake waited to place the baskets in the Defender before answering. “Yes, it was. I found boxes of shotgun shells behind the cash register.”
“That’s great!” Jennifer smiled. “They fit the shotgun I have?
“Sure will.” Jake found the shotgun and began to load it.
Jennifer started the Defender’s engine and exited the gas station. She turned east, the same way she entered Whittaker. Three blocks from the gas station, they passed the truck where she left Dorothy. Jennifer’s mouth twisted when she saw her; she had managed to wiggle herself into the middle of the street.
“Poor lady,” Jennifer said.
“Who?” Jake asked looking at Jennifer.
“Her,” she pointed.
She slowed the SUV and with a slight turn of the steering wheel positioned the passenger side wheels in line with Dorothy. A smile formed across Jennifer’s face when the sound of the elderly lady’s skull crushed against the pavement.
Jake looked at Jennifer, looked away, then looked back at her, “That necessary?”
Jennifer looked in the rearview mirror with a slight smile, “Sure was. Call it a mercy killing.”
They approached the intersection where she had seen Beth earlier, and Jennifer felt her stomach knot. She shook her head and thought about how much the world had changed in twenty-four hours. Yesterday, she would have been in tears over Beth’s death. Now, she was intentionally driving over an elderly woman’s head. She prayed to God for forgiveness. The virus was real. The destruction it caused put everyone at risk. She wanted nothing more than to be the farthest from its destruction.
Jennifer reached for the radio knob and flipped it on. Static filled the Defender’s speakers. She pressed the scan button and watched the radio numbers flip in sequence for three minutes without finding a signal.
“So much for that,” she said, fumbling to turn the radio off. “Tell me about yourself. I’m taking you to meet my kids, and I don’t know anything about you. Can I trust you?” she asked.
Jake chuckled. “Yes, I’m safe. I love kids, but I don’t have any myself. I’m twice divorced. They both said they were married to me, but I was married to my work. I guess they were correct.” He shrugged.
“So what do you do? Eh, what did you do?”
“I’m a professor at the University of Oklahoma. I taught archaeology. I earned my undergraduate degree at Oxford. When I immigrated to the states, I got my masters at the University of Nebraska,” Jake began. “I’ve been working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the last twelve years, and—”
“NOAA?” Jennifer interrupted.
Jake laughed. “Every now and then, historic ruins are uncovered by the actions of climate change, and they call on an archeologist to investigate. We work together. I determine what it is and the age of these ruins that are uncovered. They determine how the weather was a factor in exposing the ruins. They call me when they need me,” he explained.
“So, what can you tell me about this virus? We know where it originated, but what else?”
Jake shifted his weight in his seat. “Nothing more than what I’ve already explained. It’s an ancient virus that we accidentally uncovered, and it has spread.”
“No,” Jennifer interrupted. “I mean, how do we subdue or kill the infected? You say they are already dead?”
“How do we kill them?”
Jake studied Jennifer. She looked like a normal mom, but had grown to be a warrior of survival over the past few hours. He remembered how complacent he was and how mild-mannered he and most people were before the outbreak.
“As the ancient tribe told us, and the Mayans,” he added, “we go for the head. Maybe they were right? The infection is in the head? Without modern scanning equipment, it’s hard to know how much the virus infects the brain. If it works, if that subdues the infected, then by all means, we aim for the head.”
“I think you’re right. You hit Sarah in the head with a shovel and I hit Brian in the head with a skillet.”
Jake nodded.
“What do you call these people who are infected, dead, and now walking again?” Jennifer asked.
Jake looked out the window and spotted a soaring hawk overlooking a field for its next meal. He thought for the right word. He had heard it before, but before Doctor Brown succumbed to the virus, he would have laughed it off as silly.
“The comic books, the scary stories meant to frighten children, referred to them as zombies.”
Jennifer swallowed.
“There’s a fungus in the ant world. It’s called Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis, the zombie fungus. Entomologists have labeled it, the zombie fungus, and they call the infected ants ‘zombies’. The fungus penetrates the ant’s exoskeleton where it manipulates the ant’s behavior.”
Jennifer swallowed. She thought about Jake’s explanation. After checking the clock above the radio, she realized it had been five hours since she left Cliff and the kids. She shook her head, knowing Cliff had to be worried sick.
The road curved to the left before the turn that led the house. She waited until they passed the last clump of trees before pointing to the farmhouse. “That’s where we’re staying. It isn’t much, but it’s secluded, away from town, and we have some supplies.”
Infected Chaos Page 7