Point Of Destruction: A Post-Apocalyptic Epidemic Survival (The Morgan Strain Series Book 3)

by Max Lockwood

  “Oh, it’s probably just soot,” he said, reaching for a home improvement magazine Melissa’s grandma read religiously. He flipped through the pages without giving his dirty face a second thought.

  “Why are you covered in soot?” she asked. Her grandparents had a fireplace, but it was too warm outside to burn wood in the house. Perhaps they had an outdoor fire pit, but Melissa didn’t recall seeing one when she was out back picking vegetables from the garden.

  “From the fire. You know, the house fire in Colorado.”

  “What are you talking about?” Melissa asked. She was scared and confused by this statement. She was starting to remember something horrible that she had tried so hard to forget. The words were familiar, but she couldn’t quite grasp what he was saying. The meaning was just out of reach.

  “The house fire, silly.” Thomas smiled. “You know, the one where I died?”

  Melissa jolted back into consciousness, her eyes wet with tears. She was lying flat on the pavement, her face absolutely throbbing.

  “Thomas?” she asked.

  “Look what you’ve done, you crazy bitch,” a voice shouted. “You punched her so hard she thinks my name is Thomas. My name is Bobby Dean,” he said loudly and slowly, over pronouncing each syllable.

  “No,” she moaned, bits of her memory coming back to her. She knew that Bobby Dean was dangerous and that a girl was involved, but she couldn’t quite piece it together.

  She blinked her eyes open and saw two shadows hovering over her. One, she recognized as Bobby Dean. The other was a short woman with a row of piercings up each ear. She wore a pink tracksuit and chomped on a piece of gum. Melissa found the sound to be nauseating.

  Bobby Dean held a bandana to his battered face, trying to wipe away the blood from a series of lacerations across his visage. His eye was black and puffy. When he glared at the woman, his right eye was completely closed.

  His rifle was now in his hand, which made Melissa feel uneasy. It was her fault that they were in that state, and she knew that he was likely furious with her for causing the wreck.

  “You didn’t have to hit the poor girl,” Bobby Dean yelled at the woman.

  “I don’t trust anyone,” she replied. “If some person is coming after me, I swing first, ask questions later. You never know if it’s an infected person.”

  Bobby Dean groaned. “You stupid idiot. Ariel, why would an infected try to get you out of the trunk? Why would I let an infected ride shotgun with me for a few hours? You are dumb.”

  Ariel crossed her arms and swung her head away from Bobby Dean, causing her high ponytail to whip him in the face.

  “I’m sorry,” Melissa cried, trying to sit upright. “I heard a voice coming from the trunk and I was scared. Please don’t hurt me. I didn’t mean to cause an accident.”

  “See?” Bobby Dean said to Ariel. “She didn’t mean to hurt anyone. She was just trying to be nice.”

  Ariel ignored them.

  Bobby Dean crouched down so he was at eye level with Melissa. “I appreciate the apology. I just don’t know why you would do a thing like that. Didn’t I tell you not to worry about the voice from the trunk?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Didn’t I tell you that it was just a crazy woman and that we would be better off leaving her in the trunk?”

  “Yeah, but I thought—“

  “You probably thought I was gonna throw you back there too, huh?” He grinned. “How come? Don’t you trust me?”

  Melissa didn’t know how to answer that question. Instead of insulting Bobby Dean by telling him that she did not trust him and his wild ways, she gave a noncommittal shrug instead.

  “Your face looks bad.” He snickered. “I’ll give you some credit, Ariel. You know how to pack a punch. You may be small, but you’ve got some power behind you.”

  This seemed to improve Ariel’s sullen disposition. She turned back around to be part of the conversation.

  “You’re going to want to put a bag of frozen peas on that,” Ariel said.

  “Where are we going to find frozen peas, you idiot?” Bobby Dean hollered. “Think before you speak next time.”

  He smiled and shook his head at Melissa. “I bet you wish you’d never opened that truck, huh?”

  She didn’t answer, but he was right. While she didn’t believe that locking someone in the trunk of a sports car was right, it seemed justified in this one situation. If she had just listened to him, they would still be driving and the left side of her face would still be the same size as the right side.

  Bobby Dean and Ariel started to argue again and it was giving Melissa a splitting headache. She wanted a way out of the picture and didn’t care what she had to do to get away. She wondered if the car was still in good condition and if she could just hop up and drive away while they were busy fighting.

  Unfortunately, Bobby Dean had a gun and it would be too easy for the trigger-happy man to shoot out the tires as she fled. Even worse, she didn’t think he was the type to be careful about preserving the life of a healthy person. He loved that car too. It would be tough to steal it and get away in one piece.

  After a while, Melissa just hoped that Bobby Dean and Ariel would forget all about her and leave her on the ground. If they drove off together, then it would save Melissa the pain of having to hear their screeching voices. They were both clearly unstable, and Melissa couldn’t deal with both of them, especially in her concussed state.

  “Please stop,” Melissa moaned once she reached her breaking point. “Don’t you know that loud noises attract the infected? All of your shouting will make them come out of their dormant state and attack us.”

  “Bobby Dean,” Ariel said, “you didn’t tell me that we had a scientist on our hands. How do you know what attracts the infected?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? Have you noticed how things like gunshots and loud cars seem to bring the infected out of hiding? Otherwise, they just kind of wander around and keep to themselves.”

  “I’ve never thought about that,” Bobby Dean mused, scratching his head. This didn’t surprise Melissa one bit. He was so careless with the way he moved about. Still, they had to be pretty thick to not understand how the infected operated.

  “What else do you know about them?” Ariel asked.

  “I don’t know,” Melissa said, annoyed with their stupidity. “I just know that the best thing to do is to move quickly and quietly. Can we get back in the car?”

  Bobby Dean looked over his shoulder, looking dismayed. “We’ll have to push it out of the ditch first. I don’t even know if the damn thing will run now. Those cars are delicate, you know? You’ve screwed the pooch by driving it off the road.”

  Melissa knew that she had made a terrible mistake. But there was no way of knowing someone like Ariel was in the trunk. For all Melissa knew, she was saving herself and another innocent soul from Bobby Dean’s crazy self. Now, she knew that Ariel was perhaps crazier.

  “Well, why don’t we try to get the car back on the road?” Melissa suggested, climbing back to her feet.

  “I don’t want to get in the ditch,” Ariel complained. “It’s muddy down there.”

  “Well, we don’t have a lot of other options,” Bobby Dean said loudly. “Let’s go.”

  Melissa froze. Coming up the road, she saw three infected people ambling toward them. She knew that they were being too loud to stay hidden. Now, they were in trouble.

  She pointed toward the infected and Bobby Dean began firing his gun immediately. He fired wildly at the infected, eventually knocking all of them down.

  Like Melissa had predicted, the shots attracted more attention. Bobby Dean fired again, only to realize that he was out of ammunition.

  “Damn it,” he screamed, looking around wildly. Without his powerful weapon, he didn’t have any idea how to preserve his own life.

  “Run,” Melissa hissed, pointing toward the trees on the side of the highway. She was wobbly on her feet, but she managed to take off at a qu
ick pace toward the small forest.

  “They’re following us,” Ariel whined, struggling to keep up. “What do we do?”

  “Quiet,” Melissa whispered. “They will find us if they hear us.”

  “They’re going to destroy my car,” Bobby Dean complained.

  “They’re going to destroy all of us if you two don’t shut up,” Melissa asserted. She wasn’t going to let two idiots get her killed.

  Ariel’s observation was correct, though. The infected were now chasing them through the trees. Melissa could hear them running in the distance, from multiple directions. If they didn’t find an escape, they would eventually be surrounded. Then there would be no hope for survival.

  Then, Melissa got an idea. She grabbed a tree limb with her good arm and hoisted herself up by sticking her foot in a knot in the trunk.

  “Follow me,” she whispered. She continued climbing, just like her brother had taught her as a child. It was difficult to move quickly with her injuries, but once the adrenaline kicked in, she felt unstoppable. It wasn’t until she was nearly twenty feet in the air that she stopped to look down.

  Bobby Dean and Ariel weren’t far behind, both of their faces pale and clammy. They struggled to navigate through the branches but eventually came to rest on a thick branch near Melissa.

  Melissa held her finger to her lips, signaling to the other two that their survival depended on their ability to shut up for just a few moments. Luckily, the message came across clearly, and Bobby Dean and Ariel barely breathed while they waited in the tree.

  Having lost the scent of the healthy people, the infected became confused. They kept their distance, not even aware that it was an option to climb trees to look for their prey.

  Melissa smiled to herself. She had successfully saved herself and two others with her quick thinking. The infected were still milling about below, but they appeared to go into their dormant state. As long as the three were up in the tree, they wouldn’t become aggressive again.

  “I like this girl,” Ariel whispered. Melissa looked at the ground, expecting the loud whisper to bring the infected back into rage mode. Instead, they looked as lethargic as ever—some had even slumped over onto the ground. “She’s smart. Who would have thought that we could climb a tree?” She seemed absolutely delighted by this revelation.

  Melissa rolled her eyes. The girl had punched her out less than an hour ago, and now she was acting friendly? She couldn’t wait until she could ditch the crazy couple. Secretly, she fantasized about pushing Ariel out of the tree to sacrifice her to the infected, in hopes that it would satiate them. Melissa knew that it was wrong, but she couldn’t help but think about how much easier things would be without her.

  Bobby Dean snickered quietly. “I told you she’s crazy.”

  “I know,” Melissa replied. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.”

  “Don’t worry,” he said, patting her on the knee. “I’ve been down that road before. That’s how she ended up in the trunk. In the end, it was easier to let her take her pills and booze and have a little nap in the back while I enjoyed some peace and quiet. Once we get out of here, we’ll have to convince her to go back into the trunk.”

  Melissa lightly touched her face, feeling the swelling with her fingertips. She just couldn’t catch a break when it came to bodily harm. How was it possible for people like Thomas to survive ambushes without a single scratch on his body? Meanwhile, Melissa had been shot, burned, and now punched out. To make matters worse, these injuries had largely happened at the hands of healthy people.

  Ariel continued to chomp on her piece of gum and Melissa had the strong urge to yank it from her maw. Melissa didn’t care if Ariel wanted to be rude and practice bad habits, but she wanted her to abstain from being obnoxious as long as they were forced to share close quarters. She shook her head, absolutely baffled that she’d ever reached her current situation.

  She thought back to the strange dream she’d had while she was unconscious on the highway. For such a brief moment, she was in bliss, spending time in a place she loved with the first true friend she had made in recent memory. She hoped that wherever Thomas was, he was in a better place than she was. Though, as she perched on a tree branch with the most insane people she had ever met, she decided that it wouldn’t be too difficult for anyone to be in a better place.

  Chapter Thirty

  The next morning, Thomas still wasn’t able to come to a decision about joining the army. He had slept poorly, tossing and turning all night knowing that when the sun came up, he would be bombarded with tough questions. No matter what he chose to do, he would be letting someone down. No answer would be the correct one.

  He even dreaded having to get up to eat breakfast in the cafeteria because there would be so many soldiers around to pressure him into something he wasn’t sure he wanted to do.

  But when he thought about it, the new army wasn’t doing anything Thomas wasn’t already doing. From his understanding of how they worked, they traveled around, picking up healthy people and eliminating infected. While Thomas hoped that they would one day be cured, for the time being, they needed to be contained. It was just an unfortunate truth that no one wanted to think about until the crisis affected them.

  Thomas had to face the facts—he was without an ally. The rest of his traveling companions were either dead or had moved on to more important things. Perhaps he really could make a difference in the world after all. If he joined the new army, at least he would be taken care of. While the east was his primary goal, maybe fighting for safety on the west would be a worthy cause. It was the only home he’d ever known.

  On his way to the cafeteria, he was warmly greeted by his roommates and other soldiers he had yet to meet. Feeling like a part of something felt nice, especially when he wasn’t taken for granted. He strode up to the vending machine and ordered bacon, eggs, pancakes, and a big glass of orange juice.

  Mark immediately sat down next to Thomas with his own tray in hand. He gave Thomas a wide smile and patted him on the back.

  “How did you sleep?” Mark asked, digging into his egg white omelet.

  “Fine,” Thomas lied, not wanting to complain. “The beds are pretty comfortable here.”

  “I know. I had been sleeping on the hard ground most nights before I was rescued,” he replied. “Have you given more thought to what we talked about yesterday? I don’t want to rush you, but unfortunately, we could use more people.”

  “I’m still not quite sure,” Thomas said sheepishly. “I’ve just had a lot of bad experience with these kinds of groups. I’ve seen how a good concept can turn into a witch hunt without much warning.”

  “Hey, I get that,” Mark said, raising his hands in defense. “I wasn’t so sure about the new army when I came in. But once I saw what they were doing, I changed my mind. Why don’t you finish up your breakfast while I talk to my supervisor, and I’ll see if I can take you out of the general population area? I know you’re technically not supposed to be outside the rec room, but I think I can pull some strings.”

  “Okay,” Thomas said, tucking into his breakfast. Not long after Mark left, Bethany took his seat.

  “So?” she asked, nothing but a cup of black coffee in front of her.

  “I haven’t made any promises,” Thomas said defensively. “Can I ask you something?”

  “I guess,” she said, taken aback by his sudden boldness.

  “What is it that makes you distrust Mark so much? I assume you spent your whole life with him—has he done anything to betray your trust?”

  She blinked a few times as she tried to formulate a response.

  “Honestly, not really. He’s always been a fairly optimistic person, but he’s taken it to a whole new level here. He’s downright chipper. I think it’s weird.”

  Thomas frowned. “So you’re saying that you don’t trust him because he’s happy?”

  She shook her head, sending her long hair flying. “I’m telling you what I know—there’s somet
hing strange going on here. I’m warning you that this new army is nothing but trouble.”

  “But how can you be so sure?” Thomas asked.

  “I just am.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what else to tell you.”

  “Did you really fall asleep at the wheel when you hit us? How were you outside the cabin the moment it went up in flames? Did you fire off the shots in the woods that led to Melissa getting shot?”

  Bethany was visibly flustered. “Are you calling my character into question?” she squeaked. “I’m trying to give you life-saving information and you’re vilifying me.”

  Her face turned red. It was odd to see such a cool, unflappable woman lose her temper.

  “It’s just suspicious, that’s all,” Thomas concluded, taking another sip of the orange juice.

  Bethany looked like she was about to cry. She abruptly stood up from the table, sloshing coffee down the sides of her cup.

  “I tried,” she said before storming off toward the library.

  Mark returned to the table, nearly knocking over a middle-aged woman balancing a bowl of oatmeal on a tray.

  “Come on, some troops have returned from a mission. Apparently, they’ve gathered important samples for the science division to work on.”

  Thomas figured it didn’t hurt to gather intelligence so he got up from the table and followed Mark out the double doors.

  Outside, he saw a Humvee surrounded by several tired-looking soldiers. They opened the back of the vehicle and pulled out black body bags, letting each one carelessly fall to the ground with a thud.

  “I think these are the samples of the virus,” Mark said. “Want to take a look?”

  “I don’t know—” Thomas started, but Mark wasn’t listening. Thomas felt like it would be disrespectful to marvel at the dead infected, lying in body bags. At least, he hoped they were infected.

  Mark unzipped the bag a small portion to reveal something that Thomas’s brain didn’t quite register. He didn’t see the rotting flesh of the infected he had grown accustomed to but instead found a shriveled, blackened body.