The Uncivil War Series Box Set

by B. T. Wright

  The two of them wheeled their carts into the parking lot and over to the RV. Jake picked up the duct tape from the top of the pile in his cart, opened the door, walked in, and found Jess siting at the table nook holding her gun on the man sitting across from her.

  “Sorry I left you girls here alone.”

  “Don’t be.” Jess nodded toward her prisoner. “He wasn’t prepared for me.”

  Jake smiled. “How could he be?”

  Jess said to the stranger. “Told you your boys didn’t stand a chance in there.”

  The man’s dark hair was messy atop his head. His face was dirty with sweat, and he was much smaller than his bald brother. Younger too. “Where’s my brother?”

  “Tied up inside,” Jake said. “Where you’re going to be.”

  Jake started with the tape on his mouth. He didn’t feel like hearing the man beg all the way back into Walmart. When he finished with the man’s hands behind his back, Tyler surprised him.

  Tyler said. “I’ll take him in.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, you guys load all the stuff from the carts.”

  “All right. Just make sure you tape his feet too.”

  “Got it.”

  Jake didn’t know what to make of Tyler wanting to take him in. Maybe he was going to be more helpful than Jake originally thought. That, or he just didn’t want to load the stuff from the carts. That seemed much more likely. Either way, Jake watched Tyler go through the automatic doors, then began grabbing the food from the cart and passing it inside to Jess, who put it away.

  Several minutes passed. Jake and Jess, with a little help from Amy, loaded the last of the bullets inside the mini closet of the bedroom. They were stocked with everything they would need for a journey to DC, just in case they somehow missed the helicopter in Cincinnati. The thought that brought an urgent feeling to Jake. They needed to go––why wasn’t Tyler back yet?

  Just as Jake placed the last box of bullets in the closet at the back of the RV, a blast of music rocked the quiet parking lot. The music was so loud that Jake could feel the rumble all the way to the RV.

  “What the hell was that?” Jess popped up from putting a jug of water under the bottom bunk.

  Jake pushed past Jess, and that is when the real sound came. Feedback. That ear-piercing, high-pitched whine that goes all through you when a microphone is in the wrong place during a live performance. What the hell was going on?

  Jake opened the RV door, stepped outside, covered his ears to dampen that awful noise, and ran around the front of the truck. He couldn’t believe what he saw. For a moment, he was so caught off guard that he was frozen in place, staring at what his long-time friend had done. It wasn’t until he saw his chubby friend plodding toward him, the sound still blaring, that he snapped out of it.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Jake shouted.

  “Let’s go!” Tyler ran right by him and jumped inside the RV.

  Jake looked back at the building. The sliding doors were propped open, and it looked like Tyler had pulled a mass of speakers and sound equipment just outside. He was making the noise on purpose. Jake had to shut it off.

  Jake took three hard steps toward the entrance, then stopped dead in his tracks. About a hundred yards away at the edge of the building, the reason Tyler had created the loud noise, was coming straight for him. An ocean of infected. And they were coming fast.

  “Come on, Jake! Let’s go!” Jess shouted.

  He barely heard the shout over the feedback. There was no way he could get to the men inside before he was swallowed by the wave coming at him.

  “Jake!”

  Jess’s voice sobered him. As much as he wanted to help the men inside, he had to protect Jess and Amy. He turned away from the oncoming horde, jumped inside the RV, and slammed the door behind him. The RV spun its wheels as Tyler threw it into reverse, whipped the front end around, and launched forward, moving away from the army of infected. He turned out of the parking lot, then back onto Harrodsburg Road.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” Jake moved to the front of the RV. “Tyler!”

  “You made a mistake back there, Jake. Leaving them alive was the wrong call!” Tyler shouted, eyes fixed on the road.

  Jake shrugged off Jess’s hand from his arm and took his place in the passenger seat, scooting to the edge and getting right in Tyler’s face.

  “Wrong call? You just murdered three people! Do you realize that?”

  “Murder? They were going to take the RV and rape the girls. And you're worried about them?”

  Jake shot a look at Jess, but she had already turned Amy around, getting her to the back bedroom and shutting the door.

  Jake continued. “So this is how we are now? Not even a day has passed and we’re already without laws? Without humanity?”

  Tyler slammed on the brakes. Jake was thrown into the dash, and the girls screamed in the back.

  “Look around, Jake! Shit has changed! We’re being chased by monsters, our cell phones don’t work, and people are pointing guns at us in the middle of stores trying to steal our RV! Yes. To answer your question, YES! We are already without laws, and if we are the only ones left with humanity, then we are next on the dead list!”

  Jake was quiet. After a few seconds of heavy breathing, Tyler pulled forward and took the on-ramp to I-75 North. As crazy as what happened in Walmart had been, Jake couldn’t help but think Tyler might be right. Jake was always the man who did the right thing. Clearly, the right thing had a different meaning now. Mostly because everything was wrong.

  23

  Emily sat quietly at the long, rectangular wooden table in the meeting room. As she looked around at the President of the United States, the secretary of defense, and the heads of the FBI and the CIA, the same feeling that she didn’t belong in that room bubbled to the surface. But it was different this time. On the walk with Will, they’d passed several rooms where people were hard at work. On what, she didn’t know, but she did know that they weren’t sitting there feeling sorry for themselves––they were working to make a difference. That is exactly the mentality Emily needed to adopt, and fast. She was the one who had seen the first incidents of these things. The one who documented how their behaviors slowly changed, and the one who the president already said he trusted. She needed to buck up and trust herself. She needed to make a difference. She was one of the few sane members of humanity and there was no other choice. They couldn’t just quit; she couldn’t just quit.

  “You said you had a couple infected here in the complex and were running tests on them?”

  Everyone turned and looked at Emily.

  “I’d like to take a look at them.”

  “Of course,” the president said. “Anything in particular you are looking for?’

  Emily stood. “I was going over my notes back in the helicopter. The progressions I witnessed while the infected were quarantined on base, they were fairly slow at first. But the last of the infected went through the progressions much faster.”

  “Progressions?” Will said.

  “To put it plainly, progression from complete savages, to . . . Not as savage.”

  “You mean you witnessed them becoming less aggressive, and not more so?”

  “Exactly. It was almost as if they were learning a new system.”

  “They?” The president’s question hung there for a moment. “How will seeing the infected we have here, help?”

  “If your doctors here have made thorough notes, I’ll be able to see if the progression has moved along even faster.”

  “To what end? What’s your theory?”

  “Not a theory,” Emily said. “Just a notion right now. But what if––whatever this virus or pandemic is––what if it isn’t just accelerating by individuals, but as a collective.”

  Will spoke up. “You mean like a hive mentality?”

  “Right. Like these organisms, or whatever they are, can communicate. And maybe they are learning our brains
and functions. Getting better at them.”

  CIA Director Jerry Wesley cleared his throat. “This is ridiculous, Mr. President. Are we really going to let some medical doctor lead us down a rabbit hole where we are chasing hypotheses instead of using what force we have left to wipe the infected off the map entirely? So we can start to heal and rebuild?”

  The president started to speak, but Emily spoke over him to defend her position.

  “Coming from you I have to say I’m surprised. Your entire line of work focuses on intelligence. Hell, it’s in your acronym, for God’s sake. But you don’t want to apply it here? Even if we have the resources to wipe them out, what happens when we don’t learn what actually happened and why, and the virus, or organism just comes back stronger?”

  “Am I the only one hearing this?” Jerry asked, now laughing at Emily. “Have we lost our minds? Organism? You think, what, that some parasite has been able to take over our brains? Control us? They are nothing but savages out there. Chasing flesh and killing anything in sight. Come on, people.”

  “Sit down, Jerry,” Will spoke up. “What’s your plan? Sit back and wait? Emily was the first to watch these things. I, for one, want to hear what she has to say.”

  “Nobody gives a shit what you want, Will. You’re lucky to be in this room yourself.”

  Now both men were standing.

  “That’s enough!” the president shouted as he pounded his fist on the table. “Both of you sit down. Jerry, we are considering everything at this point. Use of force and use of science. We don’t have a feel for how many survivors are out there yet, so as we continue to assess, we will continue to try and learn.”

  Both Jerry and Will took their seats. Emily sat down as well. Now that she had asserted herself, she was anxious to speak with the people researching the captured infected.

  The president continued, “Now, we have been in contact with several bases. There are more military than we first thought. So we do have some positive momentum. Unfortunately, we are still completely in the dark about what started this thing, and what continues to drive it. The vice president is safe in Colorado, and so are a few top biologists and scientists from the West Coast. Emily, if you can get up to speed here, I’d like you to be the liaison between us and them with respect to this virus.”

  “Of course, Mr. President.”

  Emily looked over at Jerry, who was clearly not on board with that decision. At this point she didn’t care. The president’s faith in her was enough. And faith in herself was growing by the second.

  “What about the helicopter to pick up the professor in Cincinnati?” Emily said.

  Jerry spoke up. “You mean the kook who lost his mind when he heard there was a pandemic? Started making shit up as he went crazy?”

  “We don’t know that what he found doesn’t have relevance. Mr. President, we—”

  “I’m sorry, Emily. It’s just too dangerous to send a helicopter for one man. Daylight will help our men see danger if it’s present. Then maybe we can get the helicopter to him.”

  “But Mr. Pres—”

  “I know your friends were supposed to meet there too, but they’ll have to wait till morning as well. I’m sorry.”

  “But he’s a Special Forces soldier, Mr. President. Delta Force. We need him, possibly more than the professor. Do we have anyone here with actual high-level combat experience?” Emily looked over to the secretary of defense. “No offense, George. I mean someone who can possibly lead us out there on the ground?”

  “None taken,” George said. “But we do have soldiers here, Emily. Maybe not a Delta operator, but I’ll have to go over everyone's qualifications—”

  “I’m sorry,” the president said. “But it doesn’t matter. No helicopter is leaving here until dawn. If it is even able to leave then.”

  “But sir!”

  “Emily, this is Janice Wilkinson,” the President interrupted. “She will take you to the laboratory so you can get up to speed.” He then addressed the entire table. “If there is nothing else, I need to speak with the vice president.”

  Emily bit her tongue. A pit formed in her stomach as everyone exited the room. She had told Jake a helicopter would be waiting. Now that that wasn’t happening, he might possibly be stranded for good.

  24

  No one had said a word in over fifteen minutes. Tyler was busy trying to navigate around the mess of cars on the interstate while Jake attempted to work out the mess in his head. Though Tyler might ultimately have been right about how everything had indeed changed, including what was right, he could have at least untied those men stuck in Walmart and given them a chance.

  He also needed to talk to Jess. He knew some difficult road would be ahead for them, and he needed to get right with her. Talk to her about her sister, talk to her about Emily, and make sure everything was okay. They were going to need a united front going forward. The four of them left in that RV, regardless of current tensions, were all each other had left. And they needed to be a team.

  “You okay up here for a minute?” Jake asked.

  Tyler nodded. “You’re not going to tell Jess about this thing between you and the doctor are you?”

  “She needs to know.”

  Tyler slowed the RV. There were quite a few cars to navigate right in front of them now. “Look, dude. Clearly you have more experience with women than I do. I mean look at you––even I’d have sex with you. But you have to listen to me now. Okay?”

  “So now you’re an expert on apocalypses, and relationships?”

  Tyler smiled as he steered. “I’m telling you, man. You can’t tell her. Not now. That woman is on the edge as it is. She just saw her sister in full-on zombie mode. You can’t dump this on her too.”

  Jake pointed into the darkness on the right in front of them. “Watch out right there, the ditch is pretty steep.”

  Tyler corrected course and slowly pushed past three cars turned in different directions on the road.

  “Look, Jake. I know you’ve been through a lot. Losing your parents and then not really knowing the truth took its toll. Made you the brutally honest person you are. But you can’t do that here. I’m telling you, you just can’t.”

  Jake was frustrated. “What the hell do you know about my situation? Or about any situation, for that matter? All you do is smoke weed and play video games, for Christ’s sake. You’re psychoanalyzing me?”

  “Jake, I’m not the guy you left all those years ago when you joined the Army. I’ve grown up a lot in the last few years too. You just haven’t been here long enough to know. Why do you think me and Jess have gotten so much closer? We actually talk like adults now. And anyway, I happen to know everything about your situation, remember? I went through it with you. Your parents practically raised me. I loved them, too, you know.”

  Jake did know. When it happened, Tyler had been devastated. He coped by turning to drugs, while Jake coped by trying to save the world. Ironically, now the world actually needed saving and all Jake wanted to do was go back home and get to know the people he loved again. Because apparently all of them had changed so much that he needed to. He was definitely not the guy he used to be. Jake was growing tired of fighting. It’s all they’d been doing for almost an entire day.

  Jake smiled. “Look at you all grown up. Bout time.”

  Tyler laughed. “Right? Sorry I didn’t consult you back there. That could've went sideways.”

  “Sorry I made you feel like you couldn't have a say in things. You just have to understand that I’m not used to a democracy with my team. When men don’t take my orders in battle, they die. That’s what I’m used to.”

  “Speaking of war, what are we going to do? What if we get to the university and it’s crawling with these things and we miss the helicopter?”

  “We can’t think like that.”

  “Okay, then what do you think this is? I heard you say terrorist attack to your brother. You think that’s what’s happening?”

  Jake rubbed h
is face with both of his hands. “No. It just doesn't make sense.”

  “What, then?” Tyler turned on his high beams to find a hole through the cars. “Just a virus gone wrong? You think this is really like some zombie movie?”

  “Listen, something weird happened in Amy’s house when I was getting the RV keys.”

  Tyler looked over—intrigued, but concerned. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “Yeah, well, remember Emily saying these infected are evolving somehow?”

  “Not at your house they weren’t . . . Well, except when they were able to pull down the attic door, I guess. You think that’s what she means?”

  “I'm not sure what Emily meant, but I am sure that Amy’s parents coordinated an attack on me.”

  Tyler’s tone was skeptical. “Coordinated? Like, talked about a plan then implemented it, coordinated?”

  “I know it sounds impossible. But I’m telling you, the dad distracted me while the mom came at me from behind.”

  “No way. Come on. You let what Emily told you about how she thought they may be evolving play tricks on your mind. It was just a coincidence.”

  “Yeah?” Jake walked away, opened the refrigerator, and grabbed a couple of waters. He handed one to Tyler, then opened his and took a long drink. “What if I told you the mom said something to me?”

  “Bullshit. Don’t be trying to scare me. We have enough real shit to worry about without you making me piss myself.”

  “I’m telling you, before I shot Amy’s mom, she said ‘wait’. Like, she hissed it at me.”

  Tyler gave Jake a look that lingered. Jake could tell he was trying to make out whether Jake was lying to him, or if he was scared out of his mind.

  “You're serious.” Tyler finally said.

  “Dead serious. I thought I was hearing things at first, like maybe she just hissed in a way that sounded like it. But she said wait. And her coal-black eyes were looking right through me as she said it.”