“Are you for real? Surely you aren’t so naïve?”
“No one asked you to open your trap,” Walt yelled at the soldier who spoke. “Don’t open it again because I’ll be more than happy to shut it. Permanently.”
“Enough!” Regina yelled. She focused on the solider, squinting to read his name tag. She couldn’t make out his name so she counted Chevron’s and tried to remember what rank two stripes signified. “Corporal, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. Corporal Gary Bennett.”
“I’m Regina Parker, Chief of Police in Rockport. No time for games or to pussyfoot around. Be straight with me, and I promise the same. Is that the plan? To kill innocent people and then scurry out of town?”
Cpl. Bennett nodded, unwilling to look Regina in the eye.
Anger boiling, Regina brushed Martha’s hand away and stood. “Would Lt. Pack be the one who gave the go-ahead to slaughter the residents of my county?”
“That’d be the one,” Cpl. Bennett replied in a gruff whisper.
Regina turned her gaze to Reed and Walt, afraid if she looked at the corporal any longer she’d snap. “Where is this upstanding man?”
“He’s at the high school. All personnel are to report there to help. They want to leave the county by noon.”
Regina looked over at her daughter then to Reed. They were her reasons for living. She knew hundreds of other people crammed inside the high school felt just the same for their loved ones. There was simply no way she could just leave. If she abandoned them now, so much blood would be on her hands she’d drown.
She wouldn’t leave, even if that decision meant the red clay of Hot Spring County would be her final resting place. The first dilemma cleared, Regina focused on exactly what their next moves should be.
Regina walked over to the bars and peered at all of the men. “I’m not gonna let my town, my county, go without a fight. It’s as simple as this: you’re with us or against us. Which side are you on?”
All but two, including Cpl. Bennett, raised their hands. Regina gave them a curt nod and turned back to the rest of the group. Motioning for them to move to the front door, out of earshot of the others, she waited to speak until they were far enough away.
“Walt? You’re the tactical one, and have the most experience in dealing with the military and their procedures. Any ideas?”
“Yeah, get the hell outta dodge.”
“We ain’t gonna leave our town to be slaughtered like sheep!” Martha whispered.
“Two hours ago we were,” Walt countered.
“Things have changed dramatically since then. We’re stayin’,” Martha insisted.
Walt huffed. “I know, I know. I’m just blowin’ steam here. Okay, so we’ve got about an hour to do this. We can each take a Humvee and head to the school, grab as many people as we can hold, get them to safety, and continue the extraction until ain’t none left.”
“What if the other guards start askin’ questions, or try to stop us?” Reed asked.
“We’ll just tell them the orders changed, and we are to take them to the morgue to be incinerated. I guarantee you right now, those soldiers inside are just as scared and freaked as we are. The less people they have to worry about on their plate the better.”
“So where are we really takin’ them?” Turner asked. “We can’t take them all home. Too time consuming and risky. Are we bringing them back here, or maybe the hospital?”
Walt smiled for the first time in hours. “Actually, I have a better idea. The place is big, insulated, has food, water, medicine, clothing, and bathrooms. It’s a perfect spot to keep everyone.”
Regina returned Walt’s smile. “Walmart?”
Walter nodded. “Every southerner’s second home, right?”
Regina looked at Reed, who was staring out the front window. “What do you think, brother?”
“I think that’s the best plan I’ve heard all day. I’m afraid we aren’t going to have time to change clothes, though. Company’s coming.”
The rest of them turned and looked out the window. A large group of infected, maybe one-hundred or more, stood in the parking lot across the street. They weren’t moving yet their attention seemed to be on the jail.
“Jesse—you and Susie come with me. We’ll get to Walmart and secure the front glass doors. We’ll lock the back bay doors until we hear one of you drive up.”
“You’ll need help movin’ stuff. I’ll come too,” Turner added.
“We’ll need all the help drivin’ we can get, Turner. You need to come with us. Chief Parker can handle things on her own,” Martha added.
“Mom, I need to help them.”
“It’s okay, babe. We got this,” Jesse added.
“Fine. We got our instructions. Time to quit yakkin’ and move! They’re comin’,” Reed yelled.
“Keys are all in the ignitions. Scatter!” Walt yelled.
“What about us? You can’t just leave us here!” Cpl. Bennett yelled.
Regina turned and said, “Don’t worry. The bars will keep you safe. If we survive, we’ll be back. That’s a promise. Unlike your folks, I took my oath to serve and protect to heart.”
Bailey opened the glass doors and the group scattered, each running to a Humvee. The sounds of the screaming men from inside faded away as Regina, Jesse, and Susie made it inside a vehicle and closed the door.
“This is never going to work, Mom! Never!”
Regina cranked up the Humvee and gunned the engine. Gripping the steering wheel, she held on tight while dodging the dead descending on the parking lot. “Before today, the dead risin’ and walkin’ around was never a consideration either. The word doesn’t hold the weight it used to now. Put your seatbelts on. This will be the craziest trip to the store. Ever.”
Jesse shook her head and muttered, “Guess I won’t be late for my shift after all.”
SNEAK PEEK AT TAINTED REALITY -
BOOK TWO OF THE REMEMDIUM SERIES
RELEASE DATE OF APRIL 11, 2016!
PARALYZED - Saturday - December 20th – 10:15 a.m.
Everett sat on the cold chair in the lab while staring at all the dusty, ruined equipment. Though he’d been to the facility twice to clean up since Daryl Riverside kidnapped him after killing the rest of the staff and test subjects, the area was still messy. Riverside had destroyed all the computers, leaving piles of crushed plastic and metal innards strewn across the room. Everett breathed a sigh of relief when he did an inventory and discovered the only items Daryl ruined were the computers. With no human inhabitants to care for what was left of the workspace on a daily basis, dust had accumulated over all the shiny metal and glass surfaces.
Even though Dirk Kincanon and the others had removed the bodies of Dr. Thomas and Dr. Flint, along with the twenty-five former addicts, the entire underground haven retained the rancid odor of death. The worst of the stench emanated from the lab. Dirk had been preoccupied with giving a proper burial to the twenty-seven innocents slaughtered, neglecting the lab. When Everett returned to the facility for the first time three months after the nightmare in Laredo, he’d been greeted by carnage. Rows and rows of cages housing hundreds of mice for testing were full of rank, rotting little corpses.
Though the stench had faded over time, traces of it remained embedded in every crevice of the workspace. When the small group arrived earlier and the doors were unlocked, the odor nearly made Everett puke.
He was exhausted. Mentally and physically spent, no reserves left to get up and find a pen or figure out what to do next. Everett’s mind was awash in a buzz of white nothingness. Everything around him was familiar yet seemed out of place. Vials, beakers, syringes, cages, computers, all of it. He felt just like he did as a prepubescent boy. One who’d spent countless hours looking through his father’s stash of porn, and then actually seeing his first naked girl. The sensation of not having a clue what to do next left Everett dazed and confused.
The nightmare of the fact dead people walked around eating the livin
g made Everett feel like he was the star of the most colossal horror movie ever conceived.
“Dr. Berning?”
Without raising his head, Everett answered, “Yes?”
Dirk walked across the room and sat down on the other side of the counter. “Have you eaten or drank anything yet?”
“No.”
“I figured. Here,” Dirk said, sliding over a bottle of water and a protein bar.
“I’m afraid you’d be wasting precious supplies, Dirk. I’d just throw it up. My body’s reaction to the unreal chain of events won’t be pretty.”
“If you don’t eat, you’ll pass out. I’m the only one here qualified to start an IV, and believe me, that’s not saying much. Haven’t done it in years. I’m rusty, so it would be painful.”
Everett blew out his breath as he grabbed the bottle. He took two small sips. “There. Happy?”
Dirk’s lips curved into a snide grin. “First thing that’s made me smile all day.”
Everett looked up into Dirk’s face and saw the worry and stress behind the man’s dark eyes. “Huh. Guess we won’t take even the smallest of things for granted anymore, right?”
Dirk leaned across the counter and picked up an empty vial, rolling it around with his fingers. He studied it with mild curiosity. “Nope. Now, stop moping around and tell me what you need from me.”
“And us.”
Everett and Dirk both turned at the sound of Kevin Warton’s voice. The former soldier stood in the doorway, cheeks flushed and hands clasped in front of a slender waist. Everett could see the rest of the men were behind him.
“I…I don’t even know where to start. All this is just too unreal to even grasp at the moment,” Everett whispered. “I’m at a loss as to what to do next. My mind is in total gridlock. Overstimulation of my neurons had rendered me useless.”
“Getting the lab cleaned up and ready to use seems like a good place to start,” Kevin said. In seconds, the lab was full of six men, all of them staring at Everett and waiting for instructions.
“Excellent idea. This place stinks,” Thomas Porterfield added, “I hate the smell of death.”
“If we don’t want to keep smelling it above ground, then we need to get going. We’ve got faith in you, Doc. None of us would have signed up for this gig if we didn’t,” Kevin offered.
The comment snapped Everett out of his funk. He pulled his gaze up from the dusty table and stared into the eyes of Kevin Warton. “Your loyalty was sorely misplaced, Mr. Warton. As I told Mr. Kincanon earlier, my contribution to mankind was to wipe out addiction. That’s been accomplished, but it certainly doesn’t matter now. The world has been hit—no, invaded—with some sort of biological contagion never seen or heard of before. I can’t fix this. We can’t fix this. It’s over, don’t you get that?”
Thomas moved closer, his bright green eyes full of anger. He stopped less than five feet from Everett and glared down at him. Everett felt the familiar, childhood fear of a burly bully ready to pounce on him.
“Pull yourself together, man! Fall apart later, after you figure out what sort of contaminate we’re dealing with! At the very least, we need to know how it’s transmitted and how to protect ourselves from getting infected!”
“Thomas—please. Anger isn’t going to help either. Dr. Berning? I know you’re upset—we all are. But we’re safe here. No one knows the location and the doors are secured. No one will get in here unless we let them in. We have plenty of food and supplies to last for a year—longer if we ration wisely. Treat this nightmare as your degree thesis. Figure out what in the hell we are dealing with first and then formulate a counterattack. You’ll be graded on your success.”
Everett tried to stop the anger from seeping into his voice. It didn’t work. He focused his attention to Dirk and yelled, “We…we left those people out there and didn’t even check on them! What if they survived the crash and needed our help?”
Kevin started to speak but Dirk motioned for him to remain silent. “Trust me, they didn’t survive. They came in too fast and no one ejected before the jet slammed into the ground.”
“You can’t possibly know for sure! If I recall correctly, you were on top of me plus the cloud cover blocked any visibility. What if one of them did? We condemned them to death without even batting an eye!”
“Dr. Berning, I realize you have no combat experience but we all do. No one could have lived after crashing at such a high rate of speed. With all the shit going on at the moment, that’s what you’re worried about?”
Everett stood and paced the floors. “Yes! It took us what—less than two hours—to turn into selfish creatures? Ones unwilling to help save lives? We just walked away so we could save our own asses, and now all of you are looking to me to save the remainder of the human race? Hypocrisy at its finest! You’re all government grunts for sure!”
“I don’t recall seeing you turn around and run to their aid, Dr. Berning,” Thomas snapped, “nor do I remember hearing you ask any of us to render assistance. Congratulations, Doc. You just discovered you’re as human as the rest of us, and when it comes down to brass tacks, you save your own ass first.”
In a fit of rage, Everett grabbed the closest beaker and threw it against the wall. “You’re right, Mr. Porterfield. I’m a selfish bastard. Which is why I won’t do a fucking thing to solve this—not because I don’t want to—but because I simply can’t.”
The room fell silent after Everett’s tirade. Without looking at any of them, he stormed out of the lab and limped toward his old room. Terror, fury, and shame jockeyed for control of his mind.
By the time he reached the door to his room, terror took control. Everett succumbed to the fear and collapsed onto the old cot, body quaking as the magnitude of the situation swept through his mind.
He sobbed, wishing Dr. Flint and Dr. Thomas were still alive because he had no clue what to do in this strange, new reality.
About the Author
Award-winning and International bestselling author Ashley Fontainne is an avid reader of mostly the classics. Ashley became a fan of the written word in her youth, starting with the Nancy Drew mystery series. Stories that immerse the reader deep into the human psyche and the monsters lurking within us are her favorite reads.
Her muse for penning the Eviscerating the Snake series was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Ashley's love for this book is what sparked her desire to write her debut novel, Accountable to None, the first book in the trilogy. With a modern setting to the tale, Ashley delves into just what lengths a person is willing to go to when they seeking personal justice for heinous acts perpetrated upon them. The second novel in the series, Zero Balance. focuses on the cost and reciprocal cycle that obtaining revenge has on the seeker. For once the cycle starts, where does it end? How far will the tendrils of revenge expand? Adjusting Journal Entries answered that question: far and wide.
Her short thriller entitled Number Seventy-Five, touches upon the sometimes dangerous world of online dating. Number Seventy-Five took home the BRONZE medal in fiction/suspense at the 2013 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards contest and is currently in production for a feature film.
Her paranormal thriller entitled The Lie, won the GOLD medal in the 2013 Illumination Book Awards for fiction/suspense and is also in production for a feature film entitled Foreseen.
Ashley's decided to delve into the paranormal with a Southern Gothic horror/suspense novel, Growl, which released in January of 2015. The suspenseful mystery Empty Shell, released in September of 2014. Ashley teamed up with Lillian Hansen (Ashley calls her mom!) and penned a three-part murder mystery/suspense series entitled The Magnolia Series. The first book, Blood Ties, released the Summer of 2015, and was voted one of the Top 50 Self-Published Books You Should Be Reading in 2015 at www.readfree.ly.
Whispered Pain released in October of 2015 and Night Court released December 13, 2015.
Connect with Ashley:
Website: http://www.ashleyfontainne.
com – Sign up for Ashley’s newsletter and receive a free ebook!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ashleyfontainne
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashley.fontainne
Movie site: http://www.foreseenmovie.com
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – The Discovery
Chapter 2 – Another Day at the Office
Chapter 3 – Prepping
Chapter 4 – Ready to Roll
Chapter 5 – Starting Over
Chapter 6 – Showdown in Laredo
Chapter 7 – The End Begins
Chapter 8 – Bad Batch
Chapter 9 – Collapse
Chapter 10 – On Target
Chapter 11 – This is Not a Drill
Chapter 12 – Attempted Containment
Chapter 13 – Testing Commences
Chapter 14 – Time to Leave
Chapter 15 – Addressing the Nation
Chapter 16 – Escape
Chapter 17 – Breaking Out
Chapter 18 – Discovering the Truth
Chapter 19 – Painful Choices
Chapter 1 – Paralyzed
About the Author
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – The Discovery
Chapter 2 – Another Day at the Office
Chapter 3 – Prepping
Chapter 4 – Ready to Roll
Chapter 5 – Starting Over
Chapter 6 – Showdown in Laredo
Chapter 7 – The End Begins
Chapter 8 – Bad Batch
Chapter 9 – Collapse
Chapter 10 – On Target
Chapter 11 – This is Not a Drill
Chapter 12 – Attempted Containment
Chapter 13 – Testing Commences
Chapter 14 – Time to Leave
Chapter 15 – Addressing the Nation
Chapter 16 – Escape
Chapter 17 – Breaking Out
Chapter 18 – Discovering the Truth
The Rememdium Series (Book 1): Tainted Cure Page 18