Dead Drop Series (Book 1): Dead Drop (Rise of the Elites)

by K. S. Black

  The gloves and boots were a simple matter of finding the ones that fit him the best, taking them apart to create a pattern, and reassembling them with the desired materials. The helmet design was more complex—four different tactical helmet elements were incorporated into his final design.

  Chewing on his lip, he stared at the tan and brown suit. Now that he actually had a reason to wear it, he started to doubt himself. Christ, it looked like a costume for Comic-Con.

  After he placed all his gear back in the bag, he put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and laced up his hiking boots.

  * * *

  Dressed from head to toe in black biker leathers, Kevin was in the kitchen shoveling eggs onto three plates.

  “Morning, Daddy. Doesn’t Kevin look hella cool?”

  Cooper winced at Hayley’s remark and took a plate from Kevin. “Where’d you find those? You look like a Hells Angels wannabe.”

  “Dad!” Hayley’s mouth tightened as she shot him an angry look.

  “No worries, Hayley. Your dad wishes he could look this good,” Kevin nudged her shoulder with his as he handed her a plate. “My friend was really into Harley’s and choppers and must have twenty sets of leathers. Found this one in the closet upstairs. Thought it would be smart to have some protective gear on if we’re going to go take a look around town. I’m surprised you didn’t think about that. There might be something that’ll fit you.”

  “That’s ok, I have my own gear.”

  Hayley sat down next to Cooper sporting an expensive brown leather biker jacket with a black collar and black trim on the cuffs and waist. It was too large for her, although it was obviously cut for a woman.

  “Kevin says it’s handmade. And it’s horse hide—that’s the best kind of leather for jackets.” She touched the sleeve.

  Kevin joined them at the table. “I can’t remember who it belonged to, but it looks good on Hayley.”

  She started to blush. Cooper looked down at his eggs pretending not to notice the rosy flush creeping across Hayley’s face. “Is there any coffee?”

  * * *

  As Cooper came down the stairs, Kevin was carrying in two AK-47s from the Humvee and did a double take when he saw him. “You’ve got to be shitting me! Where did you find that get-up? You’re like the dude from Splinter Cell.”

  “Who?”

  “Seriously, dude? You know—the video game.” Kevin set the rifles on the table and fished magazines out of several pockets.

  “Oh, the video game. I’ve played Halo and a few other games with Hayley, but that’s about it.”

  “So where’d you find the suit?”

  “I made it,” Cooper described the research and the materials that went into the construction. He had left the helmet upstairs.

  “Damn.” Kevin examined the suit more closely, “You’re a visionary.”

  “Maybe by prepper standards, but if you knew what the military was working on . . .”

  “I believe you. So tell me about these AK-47s. Why do they look different? Why are they so light?”

  “Nice, aren’t they? They’re a custom design made mostly out of Titanium—less than half the weight and quiet. You won’t find a better design anywhere.”

  Kevin scrutinized the workmanship.

  “Where can we look for ammo?” Cooper asked.

  “There’s a sporting goods store we could try on the south end of the lake about five miles away.”

  “Is that it?”

  “I don’t remember anything else.”

  “I guess that’s better than nothing. I don’t want to take the Humvee. It might draw attention. I’m not sure it’s such a great idea to go out in the day time, but night time is not safe either. I’ll take Hayley with me. We’ll see what we can find since you’re in no shape for walking. There should also be a dead drop heading into town. I want to check that too.”

  “I’ll go. I know the area. We can take the quads—they’re electric, but I need to make sure the batteries are charged first.”

  “Your crew was prepared for all sorts of stealthy activity,” Cooper said with a raised eyebrow.

  Kevin ignored the comment and hobbled off to garage. Cooper followed him out.

  “I’m going to take a look down the road to see if anyone else is around before we leave. How many other houses are on your road?”

  Kevin raised three fingers in the air.

  * * *

  With the Kimbers holstered and his Tavor slung over his shoulder, Cooper headed to the nearest cabin. No sign of people inside or out. The same held true at the next place. When he reached the farthest cabin, he found a yellow Dodge Challenger parked on the semicircular driveway out front. He ran a finger over a thin layer of dust that covered the car and guessed it had been sitting untouched for a few days. No fingerprints.

  He stepped onto the porch and knocked on the door. “Is anyone home?” The door was locked. One of the windows was open a few inches, so he pulled off the screen and slid it open. The now familiar odor of decomposition assaulted him through his mask. He fixed the seal before he climbed inside and hurried to open the front door to get the air circulating. Dozens of flies buzzed around the room, some flew out the open door.

  A gray haired man sat in a recliner at the other end of the room, dead for a couple of days from the looks of him. Down the hallway, he found a woman in the largest of the three bedrooms. Fluids from her body had oozed onto the bed sheets and dripped onto the floor creating a dark stain on the throw rug next to the bed. She had died first.

  On his way out, he spotted the man and woman in a photo inside a silver frame with Happy Fortieth Anniversary engraved on the bottom. He picked it up and examined it more closely. They looked so happy and reminded him of his parents. He closed his eyes for a few moments to regain his composure.

  He stepped back into the living room and found a blanket on the couch. He covered the man and went back into the bedroom and covered the woman with a robe he found hanging on a peg inside the closet.

  Before he stepped off the porch, he pulled out a small bottle of hand sanitizer and squirted the clear liquid on his gloves, not that it would do much good against an airborne virus, but it made him feel better.

  * * *

  When he returned to the cabin, Hayley and Kevin were outside with the puppy. Kevin was showing Hayley how to operate the quads. “So was anyone home?” Kevin asked.

  “No. We should head out soon. Hayley, you need to stay here with the puppy.”

  “But Dad, I can’t stay here by myself.”

  “Yes you can. Kevin’s going to close up the house and set the alarm before we go. You’ll be safer inside than with us. But don’t turn anything on—no TV, no lights, nothing to indicate that someone’s inside. We’ll only be gone for a couple of hours. Signal us on the walkie-talkie if you need anything. Understand?” He grabbed his everyday carry bag filled with emergency supplies and set it inside the quad nearest to him.

  Hayley glared at him and scooped the puppy in her arms and went inside.

  CHAPTER 14

  May 9 – Lake Arrowhead

  Except for the slight hum coming from the electric quad motors, Cooper and Kevin traveled in silence and kept a good distance apart for safety reasons. They had gone about a mile on the main road heading west to Lake Arrowhead when he signaled Kevin to pull over and park near a house with a large white X spray painted on the road.

  “What’s that?” Kevin pointed to the X.

  “It’s a FEMA Search Assessment Marking. They get spray painted on houses during disasters to show that it’s been searched and what was found. I guess they marked the road because you wouldn’t be able to see it on the house from here.”

  He studied the assessment on the road. The top quadrant designated the time and date. The left identified the examining team. The right middle quadrant signified cause of death, and the bottom quadrant indicated how many were dead. “It looks like a Homeland Security team was here at 0930 on May 5th. They found two
people dead from a biohazard. I assume it’s the Rapture virus.”

  That information was enough to keep them away from the house. They adjusted their respirator masks, got back on their quads and drove about a hundred yards before they stopped in front of another white X. In the right quadrant were the letters T-E-R-M, in the bottom quadrant the number three. No biohazard indicated. The date and the team designation was the same. “I’m going to take a look inside the house.” Cooper said.

  “I’ll go with you.”

  The door was unlocked. Standing on the porch, Kevin took a breath through his mask and gagged.

  “You need to shave that beard so you can get a good seal on your mask. Or you need to deal with the smell.” Cooper said.

  Kevin ignored the comment. “Dude, I don’t know if I can go inside. I think my breakfast is coming up,”

  “You can wait here if you want. I’m going in.” He stepped through the doorway leading with his Tavor. In the middle of the living room, he found a man in his mid-thirties, his body peppered with bullet holes. The muscles across his chest tightened as an icy wave crept up his neck and to his face. He wanted to leave but pushed himself forward.

  As he climbed the stairs, the smell and the large number of buzzing flies alerted him to the presence of at least one body in this part of the house. In the bedroom at the end of the hall, a young woman sat on the floor of the closet holding a little girl of about five in her arms. Bullet holes riddled their bodies. He pulled the blanket off the bed and covered them. “Rest in peace.” The icy shock he felt minutes earlier had turned into a burning rage.

  He went back to the man and covered him with the table cloth he took off the kitchen table.

  * * *

  “T-E-R-M means terminated.” Cooper closed the front door behind him.

  Kevin stood on the front lawn.

  “I found three bodies. It looked like they were hit with automatic fire. One of them was a little girl, and none of them looked like they’d been sick.” His voice was rough with anger and unshed tears for the dead.

  “What the fuck?”

  They passed several more FEMA markers with terminated designations before they reached Lake Arrowhead. The shops lining the road were closed and the streets deserted.

  They neared the Lake Arrowhead Resort & Spa but stopped about fifty yards short. Four black Humvees and two camouflaged ones filled the parking spaces nearest the front door. Kevin pointed to two large trailers sitting off to the side in the parking lot. The camouflaged Humvees still had their trailers attached. He signaled Kevin to pull over. They lowered their voices when they spoke.

  “Let’s park the quads and take a quick look around. We’ll go to the sporting goods store after this. Do you think you can manage with your leg?”

  “I’m good, but don’t expect me to run to fast.”

  “We’ll take it slow.”

  “Man, it’s so quiet—like a ghost town.”

  Cooper rounded the corner towards the back of the resort with Kevin trailing behind him. “Shit.”

  Kevin caught up to him and let out a gasp.

  Bodies were stacked like firewood in the employee parking lot—a familiar but still gruesome sight. “Try to stay close and keep an eye out behind us. Keep your voice to a whisper if you have to talk.”

  “Dude, how can you stay so calm? I don’t know whether I’m going to vomit from the stench or shit my pants because I’m so scared.”

  Cooper moved towards the side door. It was ajar. Opening it just enough to get a quick look, he stepped inside the building and motioned for Kevin to catch up.

  With their rifles in front of them, they checked each room and found blood splatter on some of the walls. No sign of anyone—live or dead. But the smell of death hung in the air.

  Kevin’s face was pale and beaded with sweat. Bent over with his hands against the tops of his thighs, he dry heaved.

  Cooper’s unsettled stomach lurched, the sour taste of stomach acid in his mouth. He listened for footsteps, but didn’t hear anything except for an irritating buzzing noise.

  Kevin straightened up. “I think I’m good now.”

  Both men stepped into the lobby prepared to see dead bodies but didn’t expect to find dead soldiers among the civilians. The buzz of hundreds of flies took up space in the room.

  A bloody trail led away from the lobby and into the dining room. With Kevin behind him, he entered the dining room. The body was near the corner closest to them.

  Kevin wretched; what was left of his breakfast splashed against the floor. He wiped his mouth on his jacket. “What the hell happened to him?”

  “Looks like some animals ripped him open. Maybe coyotes or dogs. I’m not sure.”

  “Where the fuck is his arm?” Kevin walked to the bar on the other side of the room and took a bottle of bourbon off the highest shelf and stuffed it into a pocket inside his jacket. “That’s for later. I’m going to need it.”

  Limping slightly on his way back to Cooper, he turned his head in the direction of movement in the hallway outside the dining room and signaled for Cooper to move out of sight. Using the tables as cover, he made his way to the dining room entrance. When he reached the doorway, he brought his rifle up and peered down the hallway. Quickly, he sidestepped behind a wall. “It’s a woman—a naked, old woman.” Kevin whispered.

  “Are you sure?” He mouthed the words.

  “I’m positive. I’ve seen naked women before—not that old though. I wonder if she’s okay.”

  Before he could tell him not to make any more noise, Kevin called out to her. “Ma’am, are you all right?”

  Cooper flattened himself against the wall. This was no time for good Samaritans.

  The old woman jerked her head around. She spotted Kevin and took off in a sprint towards the dining room. Kevin moved backwards trying to get away. She slammed into the doorjamb with a loud grunt but stayed on her feet as she ricocheted into the dining room.

  “Cooper!” Kevin’s injury was making him clumsy. He fell on his hurt leg and dropped his rifle trying to get away. The old woman dove onto him while he scrambled to get off the floor. She had him pinned to the ground. Knocked on his back, he used his arm to protect his throat. "Hurry! I can feel her teeth!”

  Cooper ran behind the old woman. He grabbed her around the waist and heaved her through the air. Her shrieks followed her to the ground until the air was expelled from her lungs with a loud humpf. She landed several feet away and rolled several more feet with her arms slapping the floor. She sprang up like a coiled spring trying to get back to Kevin. Cooper fired two shots into her shoulder, knocking her backwards. Her butt smacked the ground, but she was on her feet within seconds. Her excited shrieks filled the room.

  “Shoot!”

  She came at Kevin again.

  The bullet entered the old woman’s left eye and exploded out of the back of her skull as another hit her in the chest. She fell to the floor with a thud.

  “We have to get out of here, now!” Half carrying Kevin, he rushed out the side door and back to the quads.

  He made sure that no one followed them out before removing his respirator. Kevin threw his on the ground. Both men took in ragged breaths of warm air.

  “I shouldn’t have made you come in with me. It was a bad idea, but I wanted to see if we could find out anything.” He grabbed Kevin’s jacket sleeve by the cuff to get a closer look at the impression the woman’s teeth had left in the leather. Blood had seeped through his leather pants which were also drenched with pee.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  CHAPTER 15

  Cooper headed towards the house with the yellow Dodge Challenger parked in the driveway and motioned for Kevin to follow. Then he motioned for him to wait while he went inside. After a few minutes, he walked out of the house with a paper bag filled with paper towels, a jug of watered down bleach, hand sanitizer, pain killers and an elastic bandage to wrap around Kevin’s leg.

  “Take off your j
acket, but leave your pants on. Let me see your arm again.”

  Kevin pulled off his jacket and bent his arm at the elbow so he could see the bite mark.

  The meaty section on the back of Kevin’s forearm was red, the indentations from the old woman’s teeth still visible on his skin.

  “You’re going to have an ugly bruise tomorrow. She bit right through the leather. If it wasn’t for those protective plastic inserts in your sleeve, her teeth would have broken your skin.”

  Kevin’s face was pale, his eyes glued to his injured arm.

  “I want to disinfect the area with a little bleach water in case there’s any saliva on your skin. Let me know if it starts to burn.”

  Kevin remained silent.

  After he disinfected his arm, he wiped down Kevin’s riding gear with paper towels soaked with bleach water. When he finished, he took another look at the bite mark on the jacket sleeve. He didn’t mention the urine soaked pants.

  He handed Kevin a couple of paper towels soaked with bleach water. They disinfected their hands and respirator masks. He wiped down his own suit as a precaution. He used some hand sanitizer as an added precaution and passed the small bottle to Kevin.

  * * *

  After Cooper’s quick foot recon around the cabin to ensure no one was on the property, they pulled into the driveway and parked the quads in the garage. He got on his walkie-talkie to let Hayley know they were back and that it was safe to turn off the alarm and open the door. He passed the hand sanitizer to Kevin again and wiped down both quads before they headed towards the cabin.

  They had returned in two hours as promised, but Hayley looked as angry as she did when he and Kevin had left. Her frown faded when she saw him helping Kevin up the porch steps. The smell of bleach followed them into the house.

  “Is Kevin okay? What were you guys doing? You smell awful.” She pinched her nose closed.

  “I’ll tell you after I help Kevin get to the shower. Get the first aid kit and put it on the kitchen table. See if you can find some hydrogen peroxide. I need to clean up his wound again and pack it with some gauze.”