Omega Virus (Book 1): Surviving the Horror

by Mendonca, D. Manuel

  “Who would let children play with zombies everywhere?” Connor asks disturbed.

  “We don’t know the circumstances,” Penelope says her face showing disgust at Connor’s lack of respect for the dead, “maybe they were here before they got infected.”

  “Now may not be the right time to discuss this,” Kennedy reasons.

  Everyone agrees and we slowly start off again. Birds can be heard off in the distance, each of us stop in our tracks, Connor and Penelope each reach for their guns. We begin to pick up the pace looking for any kind of shelter. Above us we can see a flock of birds flying our way. My eyes become so engrossed with the birds above us, I don’t see the hands coming out of the tall grass until it’s too late.

  A strong hand grabs me firmly by the ankle, knocking me to the ground. I begin to kick wildly, my hands clawing frantically at the sidewalk, anything possible to get away. I finally manage to get to my back, I can see the rest of my friends fighting off other Zombies. I turn my attention back to my ankle and the hand still firmly wrapped around it. Another hand reaches for my face, the pale white hand is missing small portions of flesh throughout the arm, dried blood staining the finger tips. I push the arm out of the way catching my first look at the Zombie’s face. Its face is a grimy gray color, with the nose missing. Most of its scalp has fallen out revealing skull and parts of its brain. Its eyes are glazed over becoming a milky white with a slight blue tint showing underneath. It has no legs, its body stopping after its stomach, intestines squishing on the hot sidewalk. I fight back with my free foot kicking the zombie in the chest. I know I need to get back on my feet or I’m going to die. I push the zombie backward just enough so I could swing my foot hard, hitting it right in the face. The Zombie growls and groans at me, I know it can’t feel pain but it seems to growl worse each time I kick it. Nothing seems to stop the Zombie, I can feel it overpowering me and my malnourished body. I try to cry out, but nothing comes out of my mouth. The Zombie moves its way on top of me, out of reach of my legs, its arms holding me down as it dislocates its jaw. Slowly its enlarged jaw makes its way toward my throat. I tremble slightly, as I close my eyes tightly. I can feel tears rolling out of my eye sockets as the warm breath from the zombie beats down on my face, almost like the creature is taunting me. Growling and groaning, but never attacking me. I slowly open my eyes, still scared and confused. I can make out the head struggling to reach me, unable to get any closer.

  “I can’t continue holding on,” Connor calls out.

  I wriggle my body again. This time I manage to slide out thanks to Connor’s help. As soon as I clear the body I hear a gunshot come out of Connor’s gun. I pull my katana out of its sheath and turn back to the shaking Zombie and slice my blade downward until I hear the blade making contact with the gravel sidewalk.

  “Thanks,” I say turning back toward Connor as I wipe the congealed blood off the blade of my sword before re-sheathing it.

  I look back at the others. Penelope’s right arm has been gashed around the shoulder and Kennedy is trying to patch it up. I can tell Kennedy is ignoring her own wounds by the look of pain on her face. I can see the fresh blood dripping from her shirt. Nate is standing beside them both petrified.

  “You ok?” Connor asks, his eyes checking me over.

  “Yeah, I’ll live,” I reply dusting myself off, “how about you? And the others?”

  “I’m fine, bastards couldn’t get more than a couple of fingers on me. The kid did pretty well protecting himself too, especially being unarmed. The girls both have a couple of scratches. Penelope ended up cutting herself pretty badly on a tree branch,” Connor answered.

  “Guess we were pretty lucky,” I say with a monotone voice.

  “Yeah. I guess if you count being ambushed as lucky,” Connor retorts sarcastically.

  “You don’t honestly think they planned this do you?” I ask concerned.

  “I’m not sure,” Connor says looking back at Kennedy, Penelope, and Nate, “what I am sure of is most of our group is injured, and we only have a few hours of sunlight left. We need to keep moving and find ourselves some shelter.”

  I nod my head in agreement and we head over to the others. Kennedy has finished patching up Penelope’s shoulder. I can see that the blood on Kennedy’s shirt isn’t hers. I feel slightly more relieved.

  We head out on our way, each one of us slightly more on our guard than before. Connor, Penelope, and I each have our handguns out. Penelope watching our front and Connor watching the rear. Kennedy has her machete drawn and Nate is gripping Penelope’s machete with both hands. We each agreed it was better to have Nate with a weapon than to continue on unarmed. The sun slowly begins to set, a cool breeze wafts across our faces as Connor examines the sky.

  “Looks like rain,” He says as another breeze rolls in, “we might want to find shelter quickly.”

  We manage to find shelter just as the dark clouds roll in, darkening the sky just as the sun sets. Thunder rumbles in the sky above us, causing me to jump a little. I have never been scared of the thunder or lightning, but then again I was never afraid of walking through a park during broad daylight either… I guess that’s just not the world we live in anymore. Connor and Penelope agree to perform the rounds, checking the outside perimeter of the house. I wait out front with Kennedy and Nate watching the street for anything that might want us dead.

  “All clear,” Connor’s voice calls out as he and Penelope finish rounding the house.

  A joint sigh is heard as Connor turns the handle and the door and the door squeaks open. It’s such a relief when we find doors that were left unlocked, the alternative being making our own way in which usually involves breaking in through a window or kicking the door in. Both tend to make a lot of noise, which leaves us vulnerable, especially at night when those creatures have the upper hand on us. We all enter the house one by one. A dank smell enters my nostrils, almost choking me as we make our way through the inside of the house.

  “Oh my goodness, something smells terrible,” Penelope says, her hand waving trying to rid the smell from her nostrils.

  “Let’s try to figure out what that smell is,” Connor replies slowly, “maybe then we’ll be able to get rid of this smell.”

  We all agree and slowly begin the search through the house. The first room we search is the living room. This room looks like it hasn’t been touched in years. There is an old antique sofa against the back wall wrapped in plastic. In front of the old couch is an older looking coffee table. The coffee table looks as if it is made from thick wood.

  “This looks like it will do well up against a door,” Penelope says knocking on the table.

  “I’m not barricading myself in here if we can’t find the source of that smell,” Kennedy says jokingly.

  “I think I know where that smell is coming from,” Connor says leaning his back against a door, his eyes focused on a trail of blood leaving the living room and entering the next room. I walk over beside Connor, my eyes following the blood trail. I can’t see anything clearly, the room is too dark. I remove my flashlight from my pocket and power it on, much to Connor’s dismay. The light beam brightens up the next room just enough for us to see the half-eaten body decomposing on the floor of the dining room.

  “This doesn’t look good,” Penelope says, poking her head between Connor and myself.

  “Do you think it’s really dead?” Kennedy asks cautiously.

  The beam from my flashlight catches a quick glimpse of a black blur before we here a soft thudding noise, Connor’s machete blade severing the corpse’s head from its body, “If it wasn’t, it is now.”

  Connor and I wrap the corpse up in a rug before dragging it through the kitchen and out the back door. Connor nods at the fence and I nod in agreement. We manage to get the dead carcass to the fence where Connor and I pick it up as high as we can, slowly rolling it over the top of the fence. It feels slightly disrespectful, just throwing a body away like garbage. I can feel a few rain drops hitting the to
p of my head, thunder rumbling once again in the sky.

  Chapter 4

  August 27th,

  2037

  It’s been raining steadily the last few days forcing us to stay inside. Kennedy and Penelope sit on the floor beside the fireplace playing cards. Neither one of them look to fond of their game. Connor has been working out with Nate, he was really impressed with the way he handled himself at the park the other day. There wasn’t a lot of food worth taking in the kitchen, just a few cans of tomato soup. Luckily there was a few bottles of water tucked away in the refrigerator. There is a staircase to the second floor in the hallway that seductively calls to me. None of us dare to go up to the second floor, a rule we set into place the day after Connor rescued me. The day passes by slowly, the rain still continuing to fall outside, the wind rattling the house from time to time. I agree to do first watch again, Kennedy agrees to join me. Connor, Nate and Penelope each curl up on the floor around the fireplace. Their shivers and sounds of being cold can be heard as Kennedy and I gear up for our perimeter search.

  “I hope this rain stops soon,” Kennedy says cocking her gun.

  “Yeah, me too,” I agree walking toward the door, “Although it does have me thinking. This rain has had us trapped here the last few days, what are we going to do when winter hits?”

  “You know I never really thought that far ahead,” Kennedy replies stopping in her tracks, her face showing signs of worry.

  I feel bad adding to Kennedy’s fears, “let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s just focus on getting through the night.” She nods, but her face still shows fear.

  We start our search, the rain slows us down slightly but we still manage to search the house thoroughly. We do hear a slight noise come from the second floor, we watch from the bottom of the staircase for a few moments with no results. We figure a window must be open, or broken. The wind has been terribly strong during this storm. We finish our search and head back into the living room with the other. Each of them is asleep, Connor snoring loudly once again. Nate is sprawled out on his stomach, Penelope’s legs laying crossed over his as she lays with her head close to the fire. I sit down on the floor, my back against the wall furthest away from the others. My eyes shifting focus from the others, and back to the stairs in the hallway. I watch Kennedy rummage through her bag, she pulls out a thick medical book before settling herself down beside the roaring fire. I can almost make out words she is muttering to herself as she studies the book, trying to piece together whatever she facts and information she can on her own.

  The night seems to drag on, my eyelids feel like they weigh a hundred pounds. Even Kennedy has started to drift off into her book, and she usually finds all that stuff interesting. I put my journal away and get back to my feet. I still have three hours left in my shift and I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay awake if I just sit there writing. I stretch my back as I start to look around the living room. We’ve been in the house about two days and none of us have actually stopped and actually looked at any of the more personal items. I think it would make it harder if we looked at all the pictures when we stay in a house, make this nightmare a little bit more real knowing the faces of the people that have died. Knowing that the few of us that remain are all that remain of our species. I can’t stop myself, boredom has over taken my mind. There are a few dusty photos on the mantle, most showing a little girl, she looks to be about eight or nine. There are pictures of her playing soccer, with a dog, and photos of her just being a child. Something that was taken from her the day that virus hit.

  I reach out to the middle of the mantle, a photo has been knocked over. I take the photo and take a few extra moments looking at it. The little girl is also in this photo, with her curly blonde hair and innocent smile. She is surrounded by a happy looking couple that looks to be her parents. The man in the photo looks familiar, I can’t figure out where I’ve seen him before. Then it hits me, that’s the man Connor and I wrapped up inside the carpet and tossed over the fence when we first arrived here. My heart sinks a little as I toss the picture into the fireplace, as I try to burn the image of the little girl and her family out of my head. I walk away from the fire place, my mind still thinking about the family that used to live here. I turn my attention back to Kennedy, who is now completely passed out, her face laying in the middle of her book. I can’t help but smile as I pull the book out of her hands and lay her down gently on the floor.

  I hear a crashing noise come from the second floor. I make my way over to the staircase and shine my flashlight as far as it will go. I can’t see anything beyond the top of the staircase. I look back into the living room, everyone is still asleep. Another sound from upstairs. I pull out my gun and cock it as I head back to the staircase. I still can’t see anything from the bottom of the stairs. I can feel my heart pounding as I let out a sigh. Slowly I start walking up the stairs, breaking protocol. I take each step slowly, listening to everything as I move higher and higher.

  “Hello?” I call out softly when I reach the top of the stairs.

  No answer. I shine my light through the hallway. There are two doors on the right side and three on the left with one directly in front of me. I start down the hallway trying the first door on the left first. I open the door slightly, using my foot to push it open the rest of the way, my light and gun aimed straight ahead. With the door wide open I can see a small office. There isn’t much in the room with the exception of a desk, computer, and printer. I leave the room after determining there is nothing of value inside. I make my way toward the next door. My heart is working its way up to my throat as I turn the door knob. Slowly I open the door, not knowing what to expect, only to find towels and blankets shoved inside the linen closet. I shuffle through the closet contents and pull out a few of the blankets inside. It may be August but it would feel better underneath us than the hardwood floors. I line the blankets on the floor before heading down the hallway to the furthest door. I can see light shining through a crack in the door. Whoever was in here last didn’t close the door all the way. I push the door in with the outside of my foot, each of my senses tingling, my stomach twisting as I step inside the master bedroom.

  I shine my light throughout the room. There is a large set of windows and a glass door that leads out to a balcony. The silver light of the moon shines past the rain clouds helping to light up the room. I check on the door, it’s locked firmly. I turn around, my flashlight flickers as I walk around the room looking for anything useful. There is a set of doors against the back wall, back near the door that I walked though. One door is open, I can tell before I get there that it is the master bathroom. I use my light to brighten up the floor where I see a pool of blood. I don’t want to go any further. The smell of dry blood gets stronger the closer I get to the bathroom, but I know I have to check to make sure there is nothing dangerous in there. I almost throw up when I look inside, pieces of what used to be a human are scattered all around the floor. I can’t hold it in any longer, I begin to vomit all over the bathroom. I drag myself out of the bathroom, closing the door as I back up. I drop to my knees gasping for air as I try to pull myself together. I can’t believe that I let that get to me. I grab a pillow from the king sized bed and shake it out of its casing. I use the pillow case to wipe the rest of the crud out of my mouth before getting back up to my feet. It takes me a moment to get back on my feet, and when I do I still feel a bit dizzy and queasy. I manage to stumble across the floor, over to the dresser against one of the side walls. I hold myself up right looking at my face in the mirror. I’ve always been pale, but I can see that I look even whiter than normal. I close my eyes and take a couple of deep breaths, anything at all to clear my mind. I manage to settle my nerves and stomach after a couple of minutes. I can still feel my body shaking but I know I have to continue, I made the choice to come up here. I start rummaging through the drawers of the dresser. There isn’t much in any of the drawers, but I do manage to collect some clothes for us. The top drawer is fu
ll of junk. Wires and miscellaneous tools, I pocket some of the items, maybe Connor can finally fix that radio he’s been working on for months. Underneath the wires I spot a black and red Mp3 player with a small portable black speaker attached to it. I haven’t heard music in months, haven’t even thought about it really. A piece of me knows I shouldn’t even bother with it, that it is just a luxury item but I pocket it anyway. I contemplate not opening the closet, I worry about what might jump out and attack me, or worse more pieces of a body. I fight against my more logical side and open the closet door, my light focused straight ahead. The closet is very well organized, rows of shoes on the bottom with coats, dresses, and shirts hanging above them. I shuffle through the clothes on the hangers, nothing functional for our day to day lives on the run. Even the shoes aren’t what we need, most of them high heel shoes, with a few men’s dress shoes.

  I close the closet door and gather the few items of clothing I took from the dresser drawers and piled them on top of the blankets I secured from the hall closet. I hear another noise, this time it sounds like scratching. I drop the clothes and walk over to the last two doors. I kick the first one in, my gun ready to fire. The room is mostly empty, the floor is lined with a tarp paint cans along the edges of the room. A sign hanging on the far end wall, ‘Nursery’. I close the door, my heart feeling heavier than before. There is only one door left, whatever was making all the noises I heard before has to be coming from inside that room.