by K. S. Black
He stopped the Behemoth fifty yards from the barricade. Who was out there? Slowly, he maneuvered the vehicle next to the retaining wall and took in the view to the southeast on Grant Road. The scene hadn’t changed from the day before. He turned the Behemoth around and backtracked to the closest exit ramp, maneuvering around a ten car pileup.
When he entered the intersection, the truck bucked and hopped forward. Sparks flew up from the road around his tires. Caltrops! At least a hundred more littered the road ahead of him.
The fuckers wanted to funnel him into a trap, but the Behemoth had military run-flat tires. He braked hard through the intersection and turned to avoid the other tire spikes.
After making a sharp left turn that took him under the highway, he drove past a small group of gangbangers, their weapons slung casually over their shoulders. Cigarettes dangled from a few open mouths. Two men sat inside an SUV, but the others were standing next to a couple of new pickup trucks that had been converted into technicals with machine guns mounted in the beds.
They screamed at Kevin to stop and pointed their AK-47s and AR-15s at the Behemoth.
“The hell with that!” He kept his foot on the accelerator, but it was like driving through six inches of mud.
Three gangbangers scrambled to get to their vehicles. They sped ahead of him on the shoulder. They were going to cut him off. Four rounds hit the windshield in front of his face, and three more hit the passenger side. Nothing was going to keep him from getting out of there. He plowed through the technicals crumpling them like paper. The SUV skidded into a cement barrier and crushed the driver and his passenger.
Several more rounds hit the back of the Behemoth. He spent the next forty minutes zigzagging his way across town. Only one technical managed to keep him in view and followed him as he headed east.
About six miles from the house, he tried both the walkie and the CB. He had no idea if Cooper or Hayley could hear him, but he gave them his location and warned them about possible unwanted guests.
Hayley’s voice came over the walkie. “Kevin—if you can hear me, my dad’s on his way. He said to tell you he knows exactly where you are. Stay on Broadway, and he’ll meet you coming from Tanque Verde Loop.”
“Copy that.”
Several minutes later, he spotted the Humvee speeding towards him. A minute after that, Cooper pulled up beside him.
“Where are those guests you were talking about?”
“I might have lost them.” He got out of the Behemoth with a pair of binoculars. “Damn it!” He pointed in the direction of a glint of reflected sunlight.
Cooper took down the Barrett M107 .50 caliber rifle clipped to the center of the headliner in the Humvee and got out. He set up the rifle on the hood of the Humvee and looked through the scope. “I see them. Cover your ears. This is going to be loud.”
Kevin put his hands over his ears, but the barrage from the Barrett still made him jump.
“They’re turning around.”
Kevin looked through the binoculars again. “Nice shooting, dude.”
“Unfortunately, they have a better idea of where we are.” Cooper jumped down from the Humvee and approached him. “Where‘d you find this thing?” He smacked the side of the Behemoth.
“Be nice to her. She’s been through a lot. Look at what those bastards did to her.” He pointed to the bullet impacts on the body and the windshield and pointed at the mangled tires.
“Are you going to be able to make it home on those?”
“I made it this far from the highway.”
“We better get back before they bring more of their friends.”
* * *
Hayley and Okami stood outside waiting for them. The puppy barked and whined until they got out of their vehicles. He ran straight for Cooper who bent down and scratched him behind the ear.
“What is that thing?” Hayley asked.
“This is the Behemoth, my new ride.” His teeth showed when he smiled.
“It’s ginormous!”
“You’re complaining even before you say hello to me. Did they teach you that in girl school, or does it just come naturally?”
“I wasn’t complaining. And hello, Kevin. I’m glad your back.” Hayley said in a mock monotone.
He grabbed her around the neck and gave her a playful Dutch rub.
“Hey! You’re messing up my hair!’ She giggled and tried to get away. Okami danced around their feet barking and wagging his tail.
“Let me park this thing. I have stuff to show you.”
CHAPTER 38
June 2 – Double J Ranch
Jake woke at 3 a.m. to glass breaking downstairs. He ran to Michele’s room and banged on the door. “They’re getting in! Grab your shotgun!”
He was halfway down the hall with his father’s Winchester 12-gauge, pump action shotgun when he turned to make sure she was following. She ran towards him with an identical shotgun and pumped a round into the chamber as they rushed down the stairs.
When he reached the living room, he used the butt of the Winchester to crush through the skull of the crazy in front of him. Another leapt from the broken window.
Michele shot the crazy out of the air, creating a hole in his chest the size of a saucer. “Jake! Move!”
Two more crazies came in behind him, legs and arms scraping against the broken glass. Blood splattered against the living room wall. Outside, others made strange yelping noises. Several pairs of bloody hands grabbed onto the broken glass and made the hole wider. The infected were now able to enter two at a time.
Michele had told him how hundreds of crazies would come out at night and swarm the campus in search of food. If he hadn’t shown up and gotten her out of there, they would have found her eventually. She was the one who kept pushing to prepare an escape plan and made him write down every step. They rehearsed it until they knew it by heart.
Each day, they saw more evidence that the crazies were trickling in. Their numbers were growing. They had to be coming in from Austin and other surrounding areas in search of food. With Michele helping, he could fend off small numbers, but they wouldn’t be able defend against a swarm. He knew they would eventually have to leave. But he didn’t think it would happen so soon.
Through the window, he saw at least fifty crazies pushing against the house trying to get inside. He and Michele had both been careful not to leave any food around the house. Maybe the crazies were learning.
He pumped three more rounds through the window not knowing whether he had hit anyone. “Run! I’m right behind you.”
Michele ran up the stairs two at a time with Jake on her heels. The distance to his parents’ room at the end of the hallway was short, but the crazies were fast. Two were almost within an arm’s reach.
“Hurry!” She turned to help him push the heavy oak door closed.
One of the crazies wedged herself in between the door jamb and the door. As they pushed, she struggled to free herself. She hissed and furiously clicked her teeth together. A clawed hand reached out for something to grab.
He and Michele braced themselves against the door. When Michele shifted her weight to re-position herself, the crazy was able to move her body out of the way. But the door slammed shut on the clawed fingers. Four of them dropped to the floor near Michele’s feet. She stifled a scream and looked at Jake with her eyes wide.
He grabbed the four-by-four post next to the door. “Help me with this.” They dropped it into to place so that it was cradled by two sturdy iron hooks attached to the door jamb. They placed another shorter four-by-four under the door knob and against a piece of angle iron he had bolted to the floor.
The crazies continued to throw themselves against the door. The chorus of yelps and screeches grew louder. Others had made it up the stairs.
He reloaded the shotgun and slid the barrel through a small opening he had carved out of the wall. He fired blindly into the hallway trying to scare them away. This did nothing to slow them down. The door creaked as the cra
zies pushed. Some tried to claw their way in through the wall.
Inside the room, he had set up everything they would need in case they were forced to bug out. They hurried to put on the protective clothing and sporting gear that he had found in the gym of his old high school.
When they finished dressing, they were covered from head to toe in a mishmash of sporting gear and military body armor, enough to allow them to still move freely but give them an edge if they came face to face with a crazy. Michele helped him put on his back pack and a bandoleer filled with double-ought buckshot. They both eyed the door. It wasn’t going to hold for much longer. The hinges rattled against the wall. A crack appeared down the center.
“Jake, hurry!” Michele’s focus darted from him to the door.
“We have three minutes to make it to the LAV. You ready to do this for real?”
“Yes.” Her voice was strong and unwavering, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off the door.
The livestock, three horses, eleven chickens, one Texas longhorn bull and four of the healthiest cows from the herd, were already packed tightly but safely inside his parent’s eight compartment horse trailer. He had gotten into the habit of loading the animals into the trailer each night after he had brought Michele back to the ranch. The trailer was inside the barn with the barn doors closed but rigged so that it could still be hitched to the LAV parked outside.
Michele climbed out to the roof with the shotgun slung across her back while Jake plugged five extension cords into a power strip. There was no turning back now. Five fire bombs with electric igniters would explode within ninety seconds. The screeching and yelping continued behind the door. The walls shook as the crazies made headway clawing through the drywall. A bloody eyeball stared back at Jake through the hole he had used as a gun port.
After he climbed out the window, he heard a loud crack.
“They’re getting in. Let’s go!” He pulled her closer to him.
Three crazies sprinted towards the house as the others broke through the door. He dropped two rappelling ropes over the edge.
“Jump!”
They made their way down the side of the house and dropped to the ground. The explosions burst the windows. A few of the crazies ran out of the house, their skin on fire.
“Move!” He pushed Michele in front of him. Halfway to the barn, a small group of crazies let out an ear-piercing alarm. One of them came toward Michele from the back of the barn with more trailing behind him. She took a shot.
Others came out of the darkness at lightning speed. Jake took several shots and made each one count. This allowed Michele enough time to climb onto the LAV. Jake fired a few more rounds and—click. Empty!
A crazy came at him at full speed and slammed him against the side of the LAV. This one was big. They stood eye to eye. The crazy threw him to the ground like a rag doll. Flat on his back, with his forearm jammed in the crazy’s mouth, he yelled out to Michele. “Shoot!”
“You have to push him away from you. I’ll hit you if I take a shot now.”
He wedged his foot against the man’s hip. With his free arm, he pushed the man sideways, giving her a clear shot at the man’s head.
Jake climbed up the side of the LAV and to the top within seconds. “I’m glad you didn’t miss.”
“I didn’t miss any of my shots.” Michele’s entire body shook. She pointed to the ground around them.
Between them, they had killed almost two dozen crazies. They sat on top of the LAV until they were both steady enough to climb inside.
* * *
The house was engulfed in flames. Jake drove slowly so he could take a final look. “Get in the turret. See if there’s anyone trying to hitch a ride.”
After a couple of minutes, Michele squeezed her way behind Jake. “All clear.” She paused for a moment. “Where are we going?” Tears ran down her face.
He didn’t answer. A lump had formed in his throat. He continued to look straight ahead. His dad had taught him to drive on this road when Jake was fourteen. In the glow of the soft red interior lights, he spotted Cooper Reed’s business card sticking halfway out of a crevice on the dashboard. He pulled it out and flipped it over. Then he put it back.
“My dad and I used to go fishing at Lake Amon G. Carter. It’s north of Dallas. We should go there for now.”
CHAPTER 39
June 2 – North American Continent Underground Headquarters for the World Federated Nations (WFN), Bluemont, Virginia
“Why didn’t our security scanners catch this?” General Hal Kiefer sat behind a large metal desk dressed in the crisp, black uniform of the World Federated Police, the global police force put in place under the banner of the World Federated Nations, the instigator and financial backer of Operation Rapture. Kiefer had been a loyal member of the secret globalist organization for nearly fifteen years. It’s ranks included top government and military officials, Global Fortune 500 corporate leaders, as well as elites with distinguished bloodlines and sizeable fortunes from mostly first and second world countries.
”It’s impossible to tell, sir. Our malware scanners overlooked a very small piece of polymorphic code during the first scan. This code is designed to do only one thing, but it kept changing, so that’s why we didn’t catch it at first.” The computer specialist’s hands shook against his legs. His uniform was similar, except it was navy blue with no insignia. The lanyard around his neck held an ID badge indicating his civilian status.
“You’re not telling me much. What does that mean to me?”
“Sir, its sole purpose was to search out key word combinations. If the virus found a key word, it opened a back door to send out a metamorphic code that camouflaged itself as part of the program. After that, it would go through every website, chat, document and email looking for whatever it was programmed to find.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Kiefer worked hard to maintain his composure, but the damn tick in his left eye wouldn’t stop.
“It means that the virus attached itself to any piece of information that left the system and infected the recipients as well. All the information the virus collected was sent back to the originator of the code whenever anyone here or throughout our network posted anything on a website or sent an email or chat.”
The specialist held out a shaky piece of paper. Kiefer snatched it from his hand and read the following:
Preliminary Analysis
(682.2 gigabytes)
Documents – 1,638,542
Websites – 104
Emails – 793,568
Posts –
Chat – 6,923
Facebook – 1,567
Twitter - 26
“Do you know what the key word searches are?”
“We’re figuring them out right now, sir. Even though the virus was self-learning and followed new paths, we were able get a list of every document, email, post, and website. We’ll have a complete list in about an hour.”
“How long has it been in the system?”
“It’s been working its way through our system for over two weeks, sir.” The specialist shifted from one foot to the other before looking down at the floor.
* * *
Four hours later, General Kiefer entered a lavish boardroom with faux windows that displayed outdoor scenes so real that he almost forgot he was four thousand feet underground. He placed three thick binders at the head of the conference table in front of the Secretary of Defense Intelligence.
“This is every piece of information sent from this facility since May 4th,” Kiefer said.
The Secretary of Defense Intelligence was a narcissistic sonofabitch. The only marker of age was the graying hair at his temples, but that only added to his air of superiority. He thumbed through the documents in the first binder before he spoke. “How bad is it?”
“If they’re still alive and have the ability to send out this information, they could be a real threat. They’ve collected enough information to figure out who we are, and why and ho
w everything happened. We’re almost positive they have all the other pieces of the puzzle. Whether they’ve been able to put all the pieces together yet, we don’t know.”
“I need some privacy, General. Step outside until I’m finished.” A mid-grade sergeant in a WFP uniform opened the door and resumed his post outside the door.
Twenty minutes passed before the door reopened.
“General Kiefer, secure this facility and all the others that have been compromised. Then you will locate every single bit of data that was stolen from us and destroy all the files. Kill anyone and everyone connected to it. We knew we wouldn’t be able to contain everyone, but this could become a problem if we don’t nip it in the bud.”
“Understood, sir.”
“We want this finished quickly. You have absolute authority and discretion to use whatever manpower and technology you need. This is your only mission until this issue is taken care of.”
Kiefer snapped to attention. “Yes, Mr. Secretary.”
CHAPTER 40
June 2 – Tucson
Since no one had any archery experience, Cooper gave Hayley all the information he could find about compound bows and crossbows and made her watch the archery DVDs that Kevin had brought back. Because it weighed less and would be easier for her to handle, he encouraged her to learn how to use the compound bow first.
While Hayley learned about the compound bow and took care of the animals, he helped Kevin make cosmetic repairs to the Behemoth. But the vehicle also needed new tires or it would be useless.
“There’s an Army National Guard compound off of Valencia near the Pima Air & Space Museum. I’ve passed it hundreds of times on my way to the airport. I remember seeing some large military trucks there,” Cooper said.
“We can give it a shot. I’m pretty sure the rims won’t fit or be the right blot pattern, but the tires might be the right size,” Kevin said. “Hey, after the tires, do you think you can take me to Jeff Stillson’s garage?