The Uncivil War Series Box Set

by B. T. Wright

  Emily had had about enough of Jerry’s negativity. It had been nonstop since the minute she met him. Emily stood. “First of all, no one said Amy can talk to any of these things.”

  “Oh I’m sorry, she can understand them.”

  “Second of all . . .” Emily waited for Jerry to interrupt. When he didn’t, she continued. “It is clear they want to communicate with her too. You’ve seen the video, Jerry. All three of our infected here at the facility said her name. So the sooner we get her here, the sooner we can figure out why.”

  Jerry rolled his eyes.

  Emily continued. “Look, here’s the bottom line. Jake believes that Amy is this Element Zero that the aliens were conversing about on the intercepted transmission. The one where they also stated that this Element Zero is their only weakness. If you need more than that to convince you that she needs to be here ASAP, then I can’t help you.”

  Jerry shook his head. “Yeah, and my point is, you’re basing this entire thing on a ‘conversation’ that only one person in the entire world could supposedly understand. And we have no way of knowing if she made the entire thing up or not. Oh, and she’s only thirteen. You know their imaginations are wild at that age.”

  Emily was getting frustrated. “And she is immune to being infected without the help of Beritrix. And did we manufacture the video of the three captured infected that we have here all saying her name at the exact same time, in completely different rooms?” Emily turned to the president. “President Miller, this entire conversation with Jerry is a complete waste of time. We have already discussed this. Everyone but him has agreed we need to get her here so we can not only learn as much as we can, but to keep her safe until we can understand why she is the aliens’ weakness, and how we can use that weakness to get our planet back.”

  Jerry held up both of his arms, incensed. “Jesus, do you even hear yourself? Get our planet back? What is this, War of the Worlds for God’s sake?”

  Now the president showed his frustration and slammed his fist on the desk. This got everyone’s attention. “When are you going to wake up, Jerry?” he shouted. “If you don’t believe this is where we are as a society, then go up the elevator a few hundred feet, right now, and walk out of the building into the parking lot. Go on, I’ll make sure security doesn’t stop you.”

  The room was quiet.

  Emily felt validated. The President of the United States throwing his weight behind your argument tends to have that affect.

  The president took a breath and used a more even tone. “That’s what I thought. Whether it sounds like nonsense or not, it’s where we are. Emily knows this Jake, and if she trusts him, I do. And with the General speaking as highly as he has about Jake’s time in the military, then that should be good enough for all of us.” He turned his attention to General Ratcliffe. “That said, General, we need to get him help however we can. We’ve failed him by not getting him that helicopter. We can’t fail him if he runs into trouble on that river. We lose Amy, we may very well lose humanity. That’s the importance level we are putting on this. So tell everyone that we know of along that river to stay at the ready. When we call them, they need to go running to Jake’s location, however the hell they need to get there. Understood?”

  “Understood,” General Ratcliffe agreed.

  “Good. Emily, is there anything else?”

  “Yes, sir. Today I am giving Karen Beritrix for the first time.”

  “This is the first of the infected to be given the medicine?”

  Emily nodded. “It is.”

  “Any ideas what it will do?”

  “No, sir. But if it keeps us from becoming infected, I am awfully curious what it will do to someone who already is.”

  “I couldn’t agree more. Update me personally with any information. On that, and on Jake and Amy’s status.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  Emily left the room, and her heart rate quickened at the prospect of what might happen. There was a buzz inside her. And she couldn’t wait to quiet the burning curiosity.

  5

  Jake gave the nose of the boat a shove, and it began drifting back out into the river. Jess blew him a kiss from the bow and mouthed the words “be careful” to him as she floated away. Jake readjusted the strap of his AR-15 on his shoulder. Instinctively he ran his hand over the butt of his Beretta tucked inside its hip-holster and brushed the handle of the compact axe that dangled from the loop on his go bag just for reassurance. He was going to go on the search for vehicles without the bag, but Jess had reminded him that if he were to get into trouble and had to run, he might need some of the things in it before he could get back to everyone. And she was right. Can’t be too careful in this new world.

  Jess also gave Jake, Bryan, Mark, and Jason their daily shot of Beritrix before they got off the boat. Aside from water, it was the most essential thing to their survival at that point. Jake had no idea what, or when, something would happen if he missed a dose, but he sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

  There was a tree just up the rocky bank which to Jake looked like a white oak. He pointed to it and Bryan and the others fell in behind him, gingerly walking across the rock-covered shore. Jake made it to the grass of the bank and took the longest of the green blades in handfuls, helping him quietly pull himself up until he was behind the tree. He wasn’t sure what he had expected to see before cresting the bank, but he hadn’t expected what he saw would give him such a tug at the heart.

  Jake hadn’t been back to his hometown since he left for the Army over ten years ago. Early on, whenever he came back stateside he crashed at Jess’s dorm or apartment in Lexington at the University of Kentucky. Then he eventually got his own place there when Tyler and Jess decided to move there for good. Looking out over the green picnic area in the golden light of the morning sun gave him a nostalgic feeling of a time when worry never entered his mind. A time before his parent’s fatal car accident, and a time when he and his brother Colt were the star players on their baseball teams. Many of their away games were held just a street over where Greenup County High School sat.

  “See anything?”

  Bryan brought Jake down from the clouds.

  “No,” Jake answered as he scanned.

  “What do you make of it?”

  Jake thought about it for a second. “I don’t know. Maybe the infected have moved on to more populated areas?”

  Bryan nodded. “Makes sense. Damn it’s quiet.”

  Just then, a breeze rustled the leaves on the branches above them. Jake’s hand jerked to his pistol. The last few days had made the usually calm and collected Delta Operator a bit jumpy. He didn’t like it. He took a deep breath and steadied himself.

  Across a grass-covered field there were a couple of covered patios with picnic tables underneath. Beyond that, there were a few cars. More than likely the cars of some people who had been coming for some sort of family reunion or something. People clueless of what was about to become of their world, gathering to enjoy each other’s company, to enjoy some barbecue together, and maybe play some games. Now they were all dead. Or undead. Jake still didn’t know which. Seeing the cars beside the picnic area made the memory of Jake, Jess, and Tyler fleeing the baseball field a few days ago flash in his mind. It was a beautiful day—a great day just like this one—until it wasn’t.

  Jake pointed to the cars. “There’s where we’ll start,” he whispered. “Looks like more than a couple of SUVs.”

  Bryan nodded. So did Mark and Jason behind him. Behind all of them Jake could see the boat as it had now drifted out to the middle of the river. The current was pulling it northeast back toward where they’d just come from. TW would have to restart the boat soon or they might be too far away if Jake needed them in a hurry. Jess gave him a wave as she stood watching from the front of the boat. Tyler had joined her.

  That was when Jake saw something move in the water over Tyler’s and Jess’s shoulders, about twenty yards away from their boat. Jake turned his a
ttention toward the river and stood from his crouched position.

  “What is it?” Bryan said.

  Jake didn’t answer. He was too busy watching dozens of human bodies run into the water from the shore across the river. Bryan followed Jake’s gaze until he saw the same thing.

  “What. The. Fu—”

  “Jess! Behind you!” Jake shouted as he sprinted down the embankment. He slipped in the grass and slid halfway down on his ass. He stumbled on the rocks as he ran across them. “BEHIND YOU!”

  As Jake watched Jess turn to see what he was shouting about, He saw one of the infected pull himself up on the swimming platform at the back of the boat. Several more infected were right behind it, but too far away from the boat to climb aboard. The current had carried them away.

  When Jake reached the water, he had a decision to make. If he started swimming for the boat, he wouldn’t be able to shoot to help keep the infected from running at Tyler and Jess. But if he started shooting, he could miss. He was good with the AR, but the target would be moving, and it would also be close to Jess and Tyler, so his shooting would have to be even more precise. He watched as the infected man pulled himself up, then run toward Tyler. Jake’s instincts told him to pull his gun. He moved the rifle into shooting position, but he was too late. The infected man had already made it to Tyler. Jake’s stomach dropped as he helplessly watched his unarmed friend turtle into a defensive position.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  The sound of three gunshots echoed over the river. Jess was in a shooting stance, and the infected man dropped to the deck of the boat. Jess had pulled her sidearm and taken the alien down. Jake swung the muzzle of his rifle left toward the back of the boat. He saw another infected rising out of the water onto the swim platform.

  “Start the boat!” Jake shouted. “Start the boat and get out of there!”

  Jake squeezed the trigger on his AR-15 twice, and the infected dropped back into the water. Two more pulled themselves up. He fired five more times, but none of the hits were headshots, which was the only way to kill them. He was useless in actually killing them from that far away. Two men emerged from below deck, and one of them was immediately entangled with one of the infected.

  “You have to move. NOW!” Jake shouted again. His heart was thudding in his chest. Every ounce of him wanted to jump in that water to help, but the boat was too far. They had to get out of this on their own, and it was killing him to hang back.

  He continued to stare down the barrel of his gun and squeezed off some more shots, but the man that had become wrapped up in the infected man’s arms was a lost cause. Finally Jake heard the boat fire up just as Tyler and Jess made it to the back of the boat to help. Jess fired a couple more times and dropped one of the infected standing on the swim platform, but two more pulled themselves up in its place. That was when Jake saw something that nearly broke him. TW had started the boat and with the adrenaline he must have been feeling, he gave it full throttle all at once.

  “Jess!” Jake shouted as he launched himself into the water.

  The last thing Jake saw as the boat surged forward was Jess losing her balance and toppling off the side into the water. As Jake swam fiercely toward the dozens of infected in the water with Jess, the boat careened off the wall of the dam and bounced straight toward the shore. As he kicked and stroked with all he had, all he could see in the water in front of him was Jess’s head, and dozens of splashes around her, all of them getting closer to her by the millisecond.

  6

  “SWIM!” Jake shouted as he strained his neck to keep his mouth above the water. His arms and legs were propelling him forward as his heart raced at seeing what was happening in front of him. “Swim, Jess! This way!”

  After what seemed like an hour, but was actually only seconds, Jess began to splash about, but didn’t really move away from the infected that were right on top of her now.

  “Jess, you have to swim!” Jake coughed as he took in a bit of river water.

  Jake could hear shouting behind him, but none of the words were registering. He was almost to her when she finally began to move in his direction. Then she went under.

  “Jess!”

  Jake found another gear and rocketed forward. As he approached where Jess was submerged, he reached back as he dog-paddled and grabbed his axe. The infected woman that was right on top of Jess didn’t see Jake at all, and the splashing behind her looked like dozens of fish floundering around. But it was all too real to Jake that those were aliens trying to take his girl. And he wasn’t going to let that happen.

  Not today.

  He paddled in the water with his left hand and swung the axe down with his right. The blade landed on the back of the infected woman’s head. Jake pulled the blade free, used the axe to help him stabilize in the water by moving it back and forth, and he reached down with his left, desperately searching for Jess. Any part of her he could find. But there was nothing.

  He was forced to swing on the next infected that made it to them, and the blade sank into what used to be a man, right in his forehead above his coal-black eyes. Jake pulled the blade free and reached underwater once again. And again he found nothing. Panic began to seep into his nervous system, and his breathing was much too labored. He wasn’t going to be able to sustain a fight if he didn’t calm down.

  Just as he reached under the water again, a hand shot up toward his face. He was about to swing down on it, but he noticed the small rose tattooed on the wrist. Jake would never forget that tattoo as long as he lived. It was the one Jess got the weekend after Jake’s parents’ died. She told him it was so he would know that no matter how much time passed, she would never let him forget their wonderful memory.

  Jake swiped the axe at a different arm coming at his right side and cut it off, kicking madly with his legs to keep himself above water, then he grabbed the hand that was attached to that rose tattoo and pulled with all he had as he leaned his back onto the water. Jess’s terrified face surfaced from under the water, and she was immediately choking on what had made it into her lungs. He wrapped his arm around her waist, backstroked with the axe still in his right hand and then he felt something grab hard against the back of his neck.

  He dropped Jess and whirled around, wide-eyed, ready to thwart another attack, but instead, his eyes found Bryan’s big bald head. He had swum out to help. A pistol emerged from the water, and four loud bangs sounded by Jake’s ear. Jake let Bryan fend off the onslaught of swimming infected and retook Jess in his arms. She was still coughing up water, desperately trying to catch her breath. Jake found the loop at the bottom of his bag in the water and replaced the axe, freeing an arm to swim Jess to safety.

  His lungs were burning, but he fought against the pain. He had fought through pain like this many times in his training, so that didn’t bother him. It was what he saw on his left as he paddled for shore that brought the extra strain on his nerves. TW had run the boat ashore instead of being able to pull away back out into the river. They were going to have to come ashore eventually anyway, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that there were dozens of infected moving in the water toward them, so getting their supplies from the under-cabin of the boat was going to be impossible.

  He decided to focus on one thing at a time, and continued swimming toward shore. Jess’s coughing had lessened, but the fear inside Jake only grew. He had the realization that if the infected came down to shore on this side of the river, like they had the other side, there would be no way out. None of them would survive. For the moment, he didn’t see any such thing running down the banks, but he knew how quickly things could change. Then his worry shifted again when he thought of Tyler and whether or not he would be able to get Amy off the boat.

  Jake looked back over to the boat. It had gotten a little farther away because Jake had been pulled north by the current. He didn’t see anyone on it yet. His feet found ground below him, and he was able to walk in the last several feet. He held Jess at his side, but let go when
he noticed she was able to walk on her own. He turned to face her once they reached the rocky shore.

  “You all right?”

  She was breathing hard, but nodded.

  “Still have your gun?”

  She shook her head. “Lost it when I fell.”

  Jake removed the AR-15’s strap from around his neck. He reached back and took a spare magazine from the side pocket of his bag.

  “Change the mag just like I showed you. I have to get over to the boat.”

  “I’m right behind you,” Jess said as she put the rifle’s strap over her head.

  Jake removed his Beretta. He unscrewed the suppressor from the front and put it in his pocket. With this many infected about to run ashore, and all the other guns that would be shooting, the suppressor was useless. And it made his shots a little less accurate, so he decided it wasn’t necessary. He began walking the rocky shore to the boat. On his left he could see Bryan almost back to shore, the splashing of oncoming death not far behind him. In front of him Jake could now see Mark and Jason taking supplies being handed down by TW and Tyler. Amy was there waiting beside Tyler on the boat. But before a wave of relief had a chance to rush over Jake after seeing her, he noticed that Amy wasn’t paying attention to everyone moving the supplies. She was solely focused on something off in the distance. Jake followed her gaze, hoping against hope that maybe it was an animal she was seeing. Beyond the boat, up on the riverbank, and just barely in Jake’s sight, he saw movement. It was far enough away that he strained his eyes to see what it was, but his eyes only told him what his gut already knew.

  It was the infected. And they were coming right for them.