by B. T. Wright
“What if we see something out here?” Tyler said.
“Shoot as a last resort. If you see something, all of you get to the house so we can fight together.” Jake gave everyone in the group a look until each of them gave him a nod of understanding. “We’ll be right back.”
“Be careful, boys,” TW said. “Hard tellin’ what could be up there.”
Jake took his axe from its loop and held it up. “Don’t worry about us.” Then he winked at Jess. She only gave him a faltering smile. There was a storm brewing between them—one he hoped would pass without catastrophic damage.
Jake turned and started the walk up toward the house. It was nestled into the hillside and completely surrounded by the woods. It was a miracle that he had seen it from the road. The sun had been hitting just right on the white siding. He shined his flashlight forward. They were still a couple hundred feet away, but Jake could make out a wraparound front porch and a black roof. One thing was certain: if there was something inside that house, whatever it was would have no problem hearing Jake and Bryan coming. There was just no way to keep from making noise with all the foliage underfoot.
Jake took his axe in his left hand and pulled his silenced pistol from its holster. He and Bryan started up the hill. It was no use watching where he stepped, because no path to the house would be a quiet one. Instead, Jake pricked his ears and focused forward. The steep incline rose quickly, and Jake slowed his pace as he made it to the steps of the porch. Whatever road lead to the house was obviously around back. Jake wanted to see that before he went in, and he wanted to check if there was a vehicle.
Bryan moved in behind Jake as he walked around the house. There were a couple of rocking chairs on the back porch, a pair of old work boots by the back door, and a few potted plants hanging over the rail. There was no sign of movement, but that didn’t mean the house was empty. Jake turned the corner and saw a row of bushes which lined the side of the house. There was a window about halfway down, but the curtains were drawn, so nothing could be seen. A slight breeze rustled through the trees and raised goosebumps on Jake’s sweat-covered skin. The smell of rain wafted along with it. A thunderstorm was normally something he would welcome, but tonight it would only make things harder.
Jake made it to the edge of the house. A driveway twisted up the hill in front of him. His flashlight found what looked to be a fairly late-model pickup truck in front of a one-car garage. Worst case scenario, they could pile in the back if they had to make a quick exit. As the two men walked to the front of the house, there was no sign of life. Jake tried the door of the truck, and it opened. The keys were dangling from the ignition, which wasn’t much of a surprise to him. The people that lived here didn’t worry much about neighbors. As far as Jake could tell on the way in, there weren’t any. He pocketed the keys and moved on. The driveway was gravel, and the front porch mirrored the back. It was time to go inside and see what the immediate future held.
Jake hoped their first night away from the university wouldn’t be nearly as eventful as the day had been. He looked at Bryan, then over at the front door. Good or bad, it was time to find out.
22
Emily could feel some sort of vibration affecting her body. But it was dark—zero light whatsoever. Where was she? Where could she have gone that was completely pitch black?
Emily felt the vibration again. A low rumble beneath her arms. Why only beneath her arms?
“Where am I? What’s going on?”
Emily wondered if she’d heard that correctly. It was extremely muffled. It sounded like a woman’s voice but like it was coming from the bottom of a well. Then the vibrating returned, only this time it was even stronger.
“Help me!”
Emily’s eyes shot open and she raised her head. She stared at Karen, the infected woman—alien—that she had injected with Beritrix some time ago. Karen was thrashing inside of her restraints. Emily had fallen asleep with her head resting on her hands at the foot of Karen’s gurney.
Then it registered that no one else was in the room, but she swore she had heard a woman’s voice.
Karen’s voice?
Emily jumped to her feet just as Karen shouted “help me, please!” and hovered over her. Emily was in shock, or maybe she was still dreaming. Nothing about what she was experiencing made sense. Karen’s skin wasn’t nearly as gray as it had been, and the black of her eyes had gone covering her eyeballs entirely to only the outer edges of the white sclera. It had to be a dream.
“Don’t just stand there staring at me! Get me out of here!” Karen shouted.
Out of instinct, or just complete fear, Emily took a step back. “How—How are you able to talk?”
“What am I doing here? Who are you?” Tears were building in Karen’s eyes. She looked . . . human.
Emily had no idea what to do. Her mind wanted to ask questions, but her body was paralyzed. Was this because of the Beritrix?
“Why aren’t you unstrapping me from this bed? What is wrong with you?”
Karen truly had no idea what was going on.
“You—You don’t remember? You really don’t know how you got here?”
Karen looked around the room as a tear fell from her eye. She took a deep breath. “What the hell is going on? Who is that man?”
Karen was referring to John Two, who as of yet was still lying on his bed staring blankly at the ceiling.
“Karen, I am Doctor Emily Fraser. If you take just a second and calm down, I promise I can explain everything. Okay?”
“Undo these straps.”
“I can’t do that. Not yet.”
“Undo the straps!” Karen shouted as she thrashed around, desperately trying to get free.
Emily couldn’t believe what she was seeing. This woman was an entirely different being now than she was—Emily checked her watch—three hours ago. Karen was lucid, she was communicating, but she didn’t seem to know anything about how she got there and why.
“Please, Karen, just let me explain.”
Karen fought against her restraints one last time before sighing a breath of surrender. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
“What is the last thing you remember?” Emily said.
“I—I was getting ready to check out at the grocery store. What happened? Did I have a heart-attack or something?”
“No . . .” Emily started to elaborate, but she didn’t have a clue where to start. After a moment, she just went with the truth. “There has been . . . an invasion.”
Karen raised an eyebrow and her face morphed into confusion. “You mean, like . . . terrorists?”
“More like aliens.”
Karen closed her eyes and was quiet. It was not the reaction Emily thought she would have to those words. The room was so quiet that Emily could hear her own heartbeat.
“Karen?”
Karen’s eyes shot open, and they were back to pitch black. Emily’s stomach dropped as she felt the sting of panic. She didn’t want to lose Karen. Not yet.
“Karen, I know you’re in there. Come back. Talk to me!”
Emily had no idea what to say. The words just came out. Karen, or the alien inside of her, just laid there perfectly still.
“Karen!”
When Karen didn’t move again, Emily ran over to the door. The two men that had served as her protection when Emily first injected Karen were there. She opened the door. “Can you two please come in here? Something’s happening and I’ll feel safer if you are.”
The two men rushed in, and Emily hit the COM button on the pad by the door, calling Shelley to come in and help her. Emily didn’t know what kind of help she needed, but she knew she definitely didn’t want to be alone.
“If you need us, we’re right here, ma’am,” the first guard told her.
Emily nodded and rushed back over to Karen. “Karen? Can you hear me? It’s Doctor Fraser.”
Nothing.
“If you can hear me . . . fight whatever it is that is trying to overtake you. Fi
ght it and work your way back to my voice.” Emily took a breath to calm herself. Her adrenaline was surging, and it was causing her mind to race. She needed to focus on pulling Karen back to her if it was remotely possible. Emily was flying blind and her ever-racing mind was getting the best of her. She began to question what else she could do when the door opened to the lab. Emily looked up, and a wave of relief rushed over her when she saw Shelley pushing Elaine inside in a wheelchair.
“Doctor Kendall! You’re okay!”
Shelley pushed Elaine over to Emily. Elaine looked like she had been through it, but it didn’t seem as though the vicious bite from John Two was going to turn her into one of them.
“I’m not sure okay is the word,” Elaine said. “But I wasn’t about to miss this. Shelley told me you injected the Beritrix. I’m assuming the urgent call means something happened?”
“She woke up,” Emily said. She looked back over at Karen—her black eyes still staring at the ceiling—then back to Elaine.
Elaine looked confused. “You mean the Beritrix made her sleep?”
“No—no I mean she woke up . . . from the alien state . . . She was Karen the human again for a moment.”
Elaine’s mouth dropped open. “What? You mean . . . the Beritrix . . . it works?”
Emily shrugged. “Worked. It worked for a minute. Her eyes only had a little black at the edges and she didn’t understand how she got here or anything that was going on. When I said something about aliens, she instantly shut back down. I think the alien is inside her, fighting for her consciousness with the Beritrix or something.”
“She was talking?”
“Yes. Fighting the restraints and clueless as to what happened. The only thing I managed to get from her was the last thing she remembers is being at a grocery store.”
Elaine rose from the wheelchair. She stumbled a bit, but Emily caught her arm and steadied her. Emily watched Elaine as Elaine watched Karen lying on the table motionless.
Emily walked over closer to Karen again. “She was just right here with me as her old self. I was so shocked it was hard to think what to say . . . or what to ask.”
“Of course. Well, it was still a major win, even if she doesn’t come back. Emily, there is now a chance that we can free the infected from the alien parasite inside them. We just have to find a way to make it stick.”
“Karen? Can you hear me?”
Karen’s eyes were still black. She made no movement at Emily’s call.
Emily looked back at Elaine. “What should I do?”
Elaine shook her head. “I don’t know. Tell her how much we need her help?”
Emily looked back at Karen and thought about it for a moment. She thought about the words that Elaine had said to Karen the first time after Emily had just arrived at Mount Weather. Karen had reacted to emotional words—words that stir every human’s emotions. Emily thought about how every human being could relate to love, and how she still believed that every person, deep down, wants to help others. She thought she would couple those things together and just see if she could get a reaction.
“Karen,” Emily said softly. She let her feelings about Jake being out in the wild with all the infected wash over her. She wanted Karen to be able to hear the honest emotion in her voice. “Karen if you can hear me, I really need your help.” Emily let the moment take her, and she placed her hand on Karen’s arm. Elaine moved to stop Emily, probably out of the fear that she could be hurt, but she caught herself and stepped back to let Emily work. “Karen there is a man, his name is Jake, and he is trying to get to me. He is out there right now and I don’t know where. I’m scared for him. Karen, I love this man and I’m afraid he isn’t going to make it here because the thing that is inside of you, the thing keeping you from talking to me––I’m afraid they are going to kill Jake and I will never see him again.”
Emily paused for a moment. Her words had brought emotions strong enough to choke her up. She stared down at Karen and watched as the black covering her entire eye slowly moved to only the edges. Emily took a deep breath as Karen blinked twice and turned toward her.
Then Karen spoke. “I’m sorry, Emily.”
Elaine gasped from the foot of Karen’s bed. Emily held her breath, not sure she wanted to hear what was to follow. The black returned to Karen’s eyes. Emily watched Karen close them, clench her fists, and even grit her teeth. She was fighting the alien. She was fighting against it because she had something to say. Karen turned her head back to Emily and opened her eyes. Once again, she was human.
Emily said. “Why are you sorry, Karen?”
“Because Jake is with Amy. And . . . and they want her.” Karen’s voice was strained. Her words were coming out as if there was someone sitting heavily on her chest.
“Karen, is Jake all right? Can you see him?”
Karen shook her head back and forth. She was violently fighting for her own consciousness. “They—”
Karen began to convulse.
“Karen!” Emily shouted. “Karen, they what? They what? Talk to me!”
Karen was still shaking. She forced her eyes open and gave every last bit of her energy for her final conscious thought. “They’ve been tracking her. And they think they’ve found her. They have the entire house surrounded.”
23
Jake walked up to the front door. The last of the dying light had faded, so his path was dark. The trees shaded the house from any embers the sun might have left. He had his axe and his flashlight in his left hand and his suppressed Beretta in his right. Bryan was on his heels, his AR-15 at the ready. Jake looked at the door in the yellow glow of his flashlight. A few days ago, entering a strange house in the middle of the woods without knocking would have seemed a ludicrous thought. However, four days into an alien apocalypse, the crazier thing would have been to announce they were there at all.
“Let me shoot if we have to,” Jake whispered. “Let’s keep things as quiet as we can, as long as we can.”
Jake saw Bryan nod in the glow of the flashlight. It was then that Jake noticed a familiar sound, one that almost brought tears to his eyes. The cicadas had begun to spin their tune, and the crickets added to the melody. It was as sweet a sound as he could remember hearing in a long time. It gave him a sense of normalcy. It was summers in Kentucky—playing sports and chasing girls that smelled just like the honeysuckles that blossomed all around them. His insides panged for those simpler days. Days when he wasn’t at war—with himself, or anything else. Just hearing the insects hum gave him a hope he wasn’t sure he possessed any more. But it was there, and the sounds that surrounded him were like a ripple in a pond, permeating all through him. He didn’t know what lay beyond that wooden door of the house in front of him, but whatever it was, he was ready to face it.
Jake reached for the knob with his gun-hand and gave it a twist. As was to be expected, the door gave an awful groan as he pushed inward. As soon as his flashlight found a hallway in front of him, he heard another sound he hadn’t heard in a while—a dog—and it sounded like a big one. And its growl didn’t sound like it was too happy someone had just opened his door. Jake froze and jerked the flashlight around, trying to find the source of the growl.
Jake knew he had a decision to make, and he had to make it fast. The last thing he wanted to do was kill that dog. He had always been an animal lover, but he had a special place in his heart for dogs. His golden retriever—Sandy—had almost singlehandedly got him through that first month after his parents died when he was just fifteen. It was when Sandy died two years later that Jake’s notion of joining the Army had turned into a reality. She was his very best friend.
However, right then, there were bigger things to consider. One: the dog could come out of nowhere and be ready to bite him. If Jake wasn’t prepared to shoot, or use the axe, the dog could do some serious damage before Jake could subdue it. Two: what Jake feared even more than that was that the dog might start barking. This would not only put Jake’s life in danger, but everyo
ne else’s too.
Jake stepped forward, still searching the dark for a set of eyes. The growling drew closer. Jake didn’t want to, but he was going to have to try to talk to the dog before it jumped him or started to bark. Talking was the last thing he wanted to do, but if it worked, it would be much better than a barking dog or him screaming after it sank its teeth into him.
“It’s okay. No one is going to hurt you,” Jake said, his voice just above a whisper.
The dog growled again.
Finally, at the far end of the hallway, Jake’s flashlight caught the dogs reflecting eyes. Its body was shadowed against the white wall behind it.
“There you are. It’s okay. Are you hungry?”
The dog took a step forward, only slightly lowering the volume of its growl.
Jake crouched down, placed his gun on the hardwood floor, then reached for the side pocket of his bag on his back.
“It’s okay. I’ve got some food for you. Are you hungry?”
Jake continued to try to speak in a calm and even tone. He felt the protein bar, grabbed it, and began to unwrap it. When the dog heard the crinkle of the package, it stopped its growl.
“That’s it. You know this sound. I’ve got a treat for you. You can have all of it.”
Jake pinched off the top third of the bar and tossed it down the hallway toward the dog. The dog didn’t hesitate. It gave a small whimper and leaped forward, nosediving at the piece of bar. Jake wasn’t sure if the dog chewed it at all, but he couldn’t have cared less.
“You want some more? I’ve got plenty. Come here. Come get another treat.”
The dog was close enough now that Jake could see it was a black Labrador Retriever. Big for its breed. The dog hesitated, sniffed the air, then slowly made a move Jake’s way.
“That’s it. Come on.”
The dog ran the last few steps, but instead of taking the bar from Jake’s outstretched hand, the dog ran right into him, knocked him down, and licked every inch of Jake’s face. It would have been impossible for Jake to describe how the love from the strange dog made him feel. But as he wrapped his arms around it and scratched behind its ears, the world at war faded away, and memories of him and Sandy in the backyard flooded over him.