by B. T. Wright
Emily sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “It still seems like a nightmare I’m hoping to wake up from.”
“My assistant tells me you were one of the first to see this thing blossom. I’d love to hear more about it, and I’m sure you want to know more about Karen in there.”
“Karen?” Emily said.
“She still had her purse on her when our men captured her on the street, if you can believe it. ID, credit cards, driver’s license and all.”
“Guess there’s no worry of identity theft at this point,” Emily joked.
She felt at ease around Elaine. It was nice. They shared a laugh.
“How did this happen? Were you able to trace anything back to the first sign of infection in Syria?”
“It wasn’t like Karen, I can tell you that,” Emily said.
“In what way do you mean?”
“I got called in from the cafeteria that one of the soldiers was acting strange. ‘Wigging out’ were the exact words. He wasn’t talking, but was pacing the room aggressively and lunging at other soldiers without touching them. I was lucky they had decided to strap him down. Otherwise, he probably would have killed me. I began running tests, but nothing seemed strange in his blood. Nothing viral was occurring, and I was beginning to chalk it up to a mental breakdown.”
“Not even a fever?” Elaine said.
“Nothing. Until the convulsions. They weren’t violent, almost more like tremors, I guess you could say. I gave him a sedative and he fell asleep for a few hours. Overnight, in fact.”
“Any change in vital signs at all?”
Emily thought it over. “His heartrate was increasing slowly, but nothing significant.”
“When did you realize there was a problem?”
“When I was woken up at four in the morning by military police. Three more soldiers had begun showing the same symptoms. But the convulsions had manifested faster. It was then that we started wearing masks, guarding against infection. At that point, though, it was too late. And of course I didn’t know it at the time, but if I hadn’t been on Beritrix, I would have already been infected myself.”
Elaine walked over and took a seat beside Emily. “So others were becoming infected. What then?”
“I had the MPs quarantine the infected, and those who had come in contact. It was too late for that as well, but it did slow the process. I knew we were in trouble when patient zero awoke about an hour later that morning.”
“He was more aggressive?”
“Yes, but that wasn’t what scared me.”
“Was it his eyes?” Elaine said.
“Yes,” Emily said. A chill ran down her spine just thinking about it. “It started at the outsides of his eyes and slowly moved inward until they were completely black.”
“Wow.”
“Right? After that, each soldier that became infected, it happened faster and faster. Like whatever infected them was getting better and better at bypassing the immune system.”
“And now it’s evolved to the point where the aggression is slowly beginning to subside. At least that’s what we’ve seen in the three infected we have here. Were you able to watch Karen’s reaction to any words?”
“Hungry,” Emily said. “She leaned in when you said hungry.”
“Yeah, it’s creepy. She only reacted to emotional words. But we have a serious flaw in being able to determine the level of evolution.”
Emily already knew the problem. “We don’t know when and how long anyone has been infected.”
“Right. The only way we could know is if we infected a few people and watched from the beginning. Oddly enough, no one has volunteered as of yet.”
They both laughed.
Their moment of levity was interrupted when Elaine’s assistant burst into the room. “Doctor, you have to come quick!”
Elaine stood up, and Emily’s heart began to race.
Elaine said. “What is it?”
“She spoke . . . Karen . . . she spoke!”
Elaine looked at Emily––both of them were shocked to hear it.
Emily couldn’t help but ask, “What did she say?”
Elaine’s assistant had a bewildered look on her face when she answered.
“Amy.”
31
Jake wanted to make it to the riverbank, but at the last minute he figured unless he was willing to swim across, it would probably be best to be careful not to trap himself in that direction. The infected had only been chasing from behind him before, but they could also come from other angles. If the only way out was to swim, that left him with no options and a possible ruined radio in the process. So instead of potentially trapping himself by the water, there was one last parking lot before the hill ran down to the river, so he decided to make a quick right behind the hotel and jump in the back of a pickup truck to wait and see where the infected would go. It was a dangerous play, but so was continuing to run blindly around the corner of buildings or straight to the edge of the water. He needed to see their habits when things were quiet. He silenced the ring on his radio.
The worst part about being in the bed of the truck was hearing them moan and hiss as they ran by. He felt like he was in the middle of a movie scene where the hero was about to expire. He also had a lot of things on him that made a lot of noise when he moved against the aluminum truck bed, making it very hard to ease upward to take a look at his surroundings. But he had to look.
Jake first rolled over onto his side. He held his axe in place with one hand, and the AR-15 with the other. He made no noise, success number one. He then propped himself up on his left elbow, keeping his head low for the moment. Again, no noise. He was almost there. The sounds of the savages continued to swirl all around him. Inch by inch he raised his head, slowly moving it from left to right and ensuring he could see all angles. What he saw shocked him. It was as if the infected were a pack of wolves, moving together while hunting him.
Some of the pack were searching along the riverbank, the parking lot’s tall lights glowing over them. Some of them were going back up the hill where he’d come from the RV. He supposed they were trying to make sure Jake didn’t go back there, and probably to see if the RV was still trapped. There were also several wandering the parking lot itself. These few obviously concerned him the most, as they were the most imminent threat. Any wrong move now and they would be on him. And he would be forced to shoot them, which would once again attract the horde and put him directly back to start without passing GO. Whatever he decided to do, he had to do it quietly. His life depended on it.
“Jake! Can you hear me? We don’t know what to do! We’re trapped on the road by other humans!”
Because Jake’s entire reason for running from the RV was to be a distraction, he had set the radio’s volume as high as it would go. When he’d jumped into the back of the pickup truck, he’d killed the test ring and the strobe light, but he’d made his first major mistake of the day by not turning the radio off entirely. Tyler’s shouts through the speaker nearly echoed out of that truck bed.
Jake didn’t have to look to know they were coming. He switched the radio off, stuffed it in his pocket, rose to his feet, and hurdled over the truck’s gate. As soon as his feet hit the blacktop he ran right, heading toward an adjacent neighborhood while he looked left and watched the infected in the parking lot race toward him. He didn’t have to shoot, which was lucky, but he had no idea what he was running toward. This was a heavily populated area of Northern Kentucky, so the number of possible infected would be in the tens of thousands. His best bet out of there would be to find a car and make a drive for it. But finding enough time to escape the infected long enough to not only find an unlocked car, but also one that had the keys in it, was going to take some finesse. His combat skills were as good as they get. What separates a Delta operator from all the other soldiers is the ability to also outsmart the enemy. To find a way to beat them by taking advantage of their biggest weakness. And though they were obviously getting
better at putting things together, they were still way behind the curve.
Jake jumped a chain-link fence separating the parking lot from the neighborhood. He glanced over his shoulder and saw what looked to be a half-dozen infected giving chase. The time it took them to either go over the fence, or through it, might give him the window needed to get into a house. He thought it fitting to use their own tactics against them. They’d set a trap for someone coming across the bridge. He was going to set a trap for them.
As he approached the first of a row of houses, he wanted to radio Tyler, but there was nothing he could say to help. If they were trapped, Jake just had to hope the people were still reasonable, and not like the men they’d encountered in Walmart. Radioing now would be a mistake. It would have to wait until he made it to a car and was on his way to the university.
Behind him, the infected had evolved enough to climb a fence. What a difference a few hours makes. He’d probably showed them how to do it just now. All it meant was that he was going to have to be fast, so he ran up the driveway of the first house and tried the door. Locked. He bolted for the second house––the infected were over the fence, but still about a football field away. The second house was locked, and so was the third, but the fourth knob turned and the door opened. He rushed inside, his axe at the ready, just in case it was like Amy’s house and the owners were still home.
In front of him was an open entryway, a staircase going up the right side, a second-story balcony that overlooked the front door, and what he assumed was a living room of some sorts on the other side. It was a lucky break. He rushed up the stairs and pulled out his silenced Beretta. At the top, he had a perfect view of the front door, and if one of the infected happened to get by his bullets, he would be able to shoot it in the back of the head on the other side.
Jake pulled back the slide to load a round from the magazine, went down on his right knee, rested his elbow on his left thigh, placed his gun hand in his propped left hand, and waited for the first of the infected to come running through the door, all while tuning his ears to the house, making sure nothing was already in there with him. It was quiet, so he felt confident he was alone.
The infected that were coming for him didn’t stand a chance.
32
Jess watched as Tyler slowed the RV and anxiously awaited a response from Jake. If she had known Tyler was going to radio him, she would have stopped him. God only knew what predicament Jake was in after making the infected chase him. She was trying not to think about it, because she knew if anyone could handle himself out there it was Jake. But the last thing she wanted to do was make it harder for him. However, now that it had already been done, she anxiously awaited his voice to chime in.
Waiting for that, coupled with the danger that surrounded them, was enough to make her sick with worry. She racked the slide on the twelve-gauge shotgun, but at the same time prayed she wouldn’t have to use it.
“What are we going to do, Jess? What if they try to kill us?”
“Just stop the RV and keep the doors locked. I’ll do the talking.”
She had no idea what that meant, but she thought better her than Tyler to speak to the strangers. When he got skittish, a lot of dumb shit had the tendency to roll out of his mouth. The two trucks up ahead of them that were turned parallel had both sets of headlights on, but she couldn’t see anyone outside of them yet. She rushed back to the bedroom. Amy pulled off her headphones and sat up with a frightened look when she saw Jess with the shotgun.
“Everything’s going to be okay. We’re blocked on the road, but not by infected. People we can actually talk to.”
Amy’s face turned even more scared. “Like the man at Walmart? Are they going to hurt us?”
“Not like the man at Walmart. I promise. We’ll be fine, okay? Just stay in here until I talk to them.”
Jess didn’t like lying to Amy, but some lies were necessary. What she told her could be true. But just as likely, Amy’s fears would be correct, and while they may not want the RV itself, they could want the food and Beritrix that was inside. And God willing nothing more than that.
Amy nodded, but continued sitting up. Jess moved to the window over the bed and peeked through the blinds. The large SUV behind them had stopped, and someone was walking toward them. Jess’s heart began to pound and she had to swallow the rising fear when in the red glow of the RV’s taillights she made out a large man carrying an equally large gun.
“Stay in here, Amy. No matter what. Understand?”
Amy nodded. Her expression told Jess everything. She believed the worst was about to happen. Jess’s hands were shaking as she held tight to the shotgun. Apparently her subconscious felt the same way. She tried a few in-through-the-nose, out-through-the-mouth deep breaths. Ever since she began teaching yoga over the past year, she had become better at centering herself and controlling her impulse emotions. She was going to have to Namaste the hell out of the next few minutes, just to avoid a gun fight.
As she approached the door, she’d made up her mind that she was going to go ahead and step out of the RV. It was dangerous, especially with a shotgun in her hand, but she didn’t want the man coming inside and realizing how good they had it. And stepping out would also help keep Amy safe, and Tyler from shooting off his mouth. But she really didn’t want to get out. She really just wanted to crawl under the bunk bed and let Jake do the talking. If only Jake were there. He had already saved their ass once. Jess mustered up all the courage she could find inside her, because it was her turn to take one for the team.
“Stay in here and protect Amy no matter what, you hear me?” She tried to say it with as much steel in her voice as she could, even though she was a quivering mess just below the surface.
“What? You can’t go out there. You can’t—”
“I can’t let them in here. They’re either going to try to rob and kill us, or they aren’t. If they shoot me, plow right through those trucks and drive like your life depends on it. Because it will.”
“Jess, you—”
“Just be ready,” she cut him off and opened the door.
Jess wanted to just rip off the bandaid, and before she knew it, she was standing outside holding the gun over her head as the man stopped at the back of the RV.
Jess made sure her voice wasn’t shaky. “My shotgun is above my head, but make no mistake. There are three more guns pointed at you from inside the RV if you try anything.”
The man raised his gun and Jess’s stomach dropped to the ground.
“Don’t move,” he said.
The man was big. Real big. Like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson kind of big. Bald like him too, and the gun he was holding looked like Jake’s AR-15. These guys weren’t messing around. Jess’s instinct was to put the shotgun on him, but she fought it, because she didn’t want to make the situation seem hostile if there was a chance it wouldn’t be.
Jess said. “Take your gun off of me or they’ll shoot you. I don’t want that to happen, but the people in the RV don’t know your intentions.”
Jess felt herself literally shaking in her boots. Though it wasn’t all that hot, she was sweating. The fumes from the RV’s exhaust were wafting her way, and the sickness of the day was finally setting in. She’d been strong for so long. Her sister and nephew were gone, she hadn’t been able to get ahold of her parents––so they were most likely gone––she’d watched Tom get his neck chewed to pieces, Jake was all alone with a horde of infected on his heels, and now this. She had a very large man with a very large gun holding her hostage in the middle of a road where she didn’t know if there was any way out. Just because some woman that clearly had feelings for Jake says so? Her head was starting to spin. If she didn’t calm down she was in trouble. She took a deep breath, but it felt like a penny in a well. Empty.
“I don’t know your intentions,” he said. He took a big step forward.
“You stopped us. Not the other way around. We don’t—”
Jess’s legs wobb
led.
She tried again. “We don’t—”
Everything went dark, and oddly enough, the last thing she thought before her body gave out on her was that she should have had something to eat.
33
They should have been here by now.
Jake maintained his pose, gun held toward the door, finger on the trigger. It hadn’t been very long, but it had been long enough. The infected that were after him had been on their way over the fence when he opened the door to the house. Even at a slow pace, it shouldn’t have taken more than twenty seconds for them to arrive. It had been over a minute.
His mind was telling him to move to one of the windows that looked out over the neighborhood and see what was happening. His heart was telling him they would be running through the open door below him at any second and to hold position and end the bastards. However, the seconds kept ticking by, and not only did he not see them, he couldn’t hear anything from them either.
What if they went back to get the others?
Jake shook that thought from mind. It was outrageous to think they would double back for more support. Wasn’t it? He felt his pulse quicken just thinking about it. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Jess and Tyler flashed in his mind. He wasn’t good at letting the thoughts of them being in trouble leave him. But he could not afford to have a split conscience. Not now. Something was definitely going on, and it was time to find out what.
He eased out of his crouch, never moving the gun from the front door. He raised it up over the banister and continued walking to the right on the balcony. It was dark in the house, but there was enough light from the street, and the moon gave him walkable visibility. He hadn’t heard a sound from inside the house since he’d been in there. At least he didn’t have to deal with that. He came to a wall and finally moved his gun. He took one look back around the wall toward the front door. Just in case. There was nothing. He was starting to get antsy, and he could feel a small pit forming in his stomach.