The Complete Lethal Infection Trilogy

by Tony Battista

  “There'll be time for questions and answers later,” Carolyn took charge of the situation. “Right now, let's get him back to the house and get him cleaned up and let me tend to his wounds.”

  There was no argument from the others and, with Pete and Tom supporting him, they got Jake back inside the house. Carolyn cleaned the bite on his arm, putting in eleven stitches there and five more to close up another bite on his shoulder before starting in on the various scratches, gouges and cuts on other parts of his body, cleaning and bandaging each one.

  “Those bite wounds are going to leave nasty scars forever,” she told him, “but at least you’ll have an interesting story to tell your grandkids.”

  “Not that we’re not glad to see you again,” Pete said after he'd been cleaned up and had something hot to eat, “but, why are you still alive, Jake?”

  “Warfield,” Liz spoke up. “He said the virus was engineered to be short-lived. It was supposed to devastate the population where it was released, then die out to allow a conquering army to move in and take control of the area. It must have run its course.”

  “That must be it!” Carolyn agreed. “It's over, then! There won't be any new cases of infection, no more of these ghouls or zombies or whatever you want to call them!”

  “Yeah, just the ones that are already out there,” Tom added. “That's more than enough for me!”

  “Don't you see?” Carolyn persisted. “This is the first real ray of hope we've had! Yes, they’ll continue to try to kill and feed, but their numbers can't grow any larger now! All that can happen now is that they'll decrease! We can actually win!”

  “How about that,” Pete's voice was filled with wonder. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

  “Let's not celebrate yet,” Jake wheezed. “There's still a long road ahead of us.”

  “You just lie back there and rest,” Vickie told him, holding his face in her hands. “We’ll travel that road together once you get better.”

  . . .

  After getting a full belly and feeling safe and comfortable for the first time since the attack on the farmhouse, Jake slept the rest of the afternoon and all that night, waking up a little before noon the next day. Vickie was at his side, of course, and spoon-fed him some thick beef soup. He was still spent from days wandering the roads, hiding out from the infected, but he was obviously beginning to recover.

  Carolyn was satisfied with the way his wounds were healing over the next few days, but he was still weak from exposure and deprivation, not to mention the injuries inflicted on him, so she made sure he did absolutely nothing to exert himself while his strength built up again. For her part, Vickie was only too happy to attend to him and he thoroughly enjoyed all the attention she lavished upon him.

  For the next week, they put down anywhere from three to a dozen infected each day, either at the grove where they cut firewood in the mornings or in the afternoons near the farmhouse while building barriers and obstacles. They did so quietly whenever they could, using machetes and hatchets, sometimes Vickie's bow and once Pete took one down with his chainsaw, though it had made such a mess he regretted it immediately, spending an hour cleaning up both himself and the saw.

  When Carolyn finally pronounced him well enough, Jake, using a cane that had belonged to one of the old couple who previously owned the farmhouse, took a walk around outside and stared in wonder at the small mountains of cut wood the others had stacked near the house.

  “Good Lord,” he told Tom and Pete, “are we moving to the Arctic Circle? You have enough firewood for three winters here!”

  “Told you,” Pete said to Carolyn.

  “I like being warm,” she smugly replied.

  “Don't I keep you warm enough?”

  “Oh, get a room, will you?” Vickie laughed.

  Jake sat on the porch steps and lit a cigarette, disregarding the frown from Carolyn. Pete hesitated for a moment, then took out his own pack and lit one up himself, trying to ignore the glare she gave him. Just to pile it on a little more, Vickie took a hit from Jake’s cigarette, at which Carolyn gave an exasperated sigh and stalked off into the house.

  “Filthy habit, don't you know?” Jake smiled.

  Chapter 31: Change of Seasons

  The days passed, becoming noticeably cooler and shorter as they continued to make the house more comfortable and secure. The generators were placed in the nearest shed, ready for use when needed, pipes directing the exhaust out and away from the building and cables lain in a shallow trench leading to a pair of disconnect switches on the side of the house. The first floor windows were covered on the outside with sections of chain link fencing taken from an enclosure in the back yard and securely fastened with heavy screws through oversized washers and framed over with one by four boards. The house was thus not as gloomy in the daytime then as their previous abode, but the windows could still be hung with heavy blankets at night to keep any light from escaping. The doors could now each be barred with a pair of two by fours set across heavy steel brackets, easily removable from the inside if a quick escape was necessary.

  Most of the work Jake simply oversaw with minimal physical input, still suffering bouts of weakness and dizziness from his many ordeals. The rest of the group prevented him from doing the hardest work; very aware of everything he'd gone through and appreciating the planning that went into turning an empty house into both a home and a fortress.

  Most nights now it was desirable to build a fire against the chill, fall air and the numbers of infected began to taper off, sometimes three or four days passing without seeing any close enough to be of any concern. The morning they woke to find the first frost on the ground was cause for cautious celebration.

  “Isn't that a beautiful sight?” Jake commented as they all congregated on the porch to look over the thin blanket of white that covered the grass.

  “Yes it certainly is,” Pete chuckled, gazing at Carolyn's chest.

  She kicked him in the shin as she realized the cold was making her nipples stand out against the thin nightshirt she wore and covered herself with her hands.

  “No nude sun-bathing today, I suppose,” Pete added recklessly, to be met with a scowl and a more severe blow to his shin before she turned and went back into the house.

  “You like living dangerously, don't you?” Tom laughed.

  Pete only smiled and, while Tom headed off to grab an armload of wood to carry inside, mentioned to Jake that it was good to see Tom laughing, since he seemed to have been somewhat depressed lately.

  “Hey! Come take a look at this!” Tom shouted and Jake and Pete each drew a pistol and went to see what was up, the rest of the group also arming themselves and taking up positions to cover them and defend the house as they'd practiced.

  Two infected lay on the ground about twenty feet away, both covered in frost, both having died of exposure. Tom prodded one with his foot, finding the body to be stiff and lifeless.

  They loaded the bodies into the back of the 350 while Jake stood guard and then Tom and Pete carried firewood into the house.

  “Froze to death?” Vickie asked as they came through the door.

  “Yep. They looked pretty bad off anyway, like they'd been half-starved so I don't think there's been a wide-spread die-off yet, but it's a start,” Jake said with a smile on his face. “It's only going to get colder from now on. The worst may just about be over now.”

  But that afternoon the temperature rose to the mid-50s and almost three dozen emaciated infected had to be dealt with and disposed of before sunset. The overnight low was still in the lower forties and the weather pattern held for another six days. On the seventh day, which Tom calculated to be a Wednesday, it never got much above forty and the overnight low was well below freezing. Tom and Pete took a drive with Carolyn to Greenfield, about thirty miles away, to hit another small-town hardware store, picking up odds and ends of hardware and plumbing as well as two kerosene heaters and twenty five gallons of kerosene among other supplies. They
hit the drug store there for more medical supplies and all the toilet paper, non-perishable food and bottled water they could find then hit a Dollar General and loaded more of the same. They didn't see a single, living infected the whole way out or back, but found scores dead from exposure, mostly huddled together in masses.

  When they returned with the supplies, they reported what they found and the news brought a general sigh of relief from their fellow survivors.

  “Do you think it's really over now, Jake,” Vickie asked hopefully.

  “Well, not that I'm making any comparisons between the two of us, but, as Churchill said after the Battle of Britain, this isn't the end, it isn't even the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning.”

  “Gee, thanks. I feel much better now,” Carolyn put in, sarcastically.

  “I'm not going to lie to you. I don't think we'll have much trouble with the infected over the winter, but it doesn't freeze everywhere. Some of the more southern states don't often see snow or freezing temperatures. That might even be why so many of them seemed to be moving toward the south all this time, some kind of instinct pulling them toward warmer temperatures. Closer to the equator, it never freezes except at higher altitudes and there won't be any kind of general die-off at all. Come spring, the infected could very well start to migrate north again, having exhausted their food supplies. And there are probably still a number of people like the ones that threw up the roadblock that will be more likely to be on the move now that the infected are temporarily out of the picture. We may yet have trouble with them.”

  “Oh, you're just full of good cheer today, aren't you?” Pete complained.

  “It's better to know what you might have to face than have it surprise you. I still think we have a good position here, back from the road like we are, clear fields of fire all around. We've plenty of food and water, weapons and ammunition, fuel, medical supplies... I think we'll still be around when the infected are finally wiped out. Like Carolyn said, their numbers can only get smaller as time goes by now. We can outlast them.”

  “I wonder what it’s like further south,” Eve wondered, “where it doesn’t freeze. With so many of them headed that way, I can’t even imagine what the survivors there must be going through.”

  . . .

  The next morning, after breakfast, Jake asked Vickie if she'd like to take a short walk with him. He was definitely feeling better as time passed, but Carolyn suspected, though she didn't say anything to him, that he'd never again be as healthy and fit as he was only months ago. Too many wounds, too much blood-loss, too much trauma had taken its toll on his body, and she wasn't a bit surprised when Vickie confided to her that they'd never yet been able to consummate their relationship, despite her efforts.

  The sun was bright in the clear blue sky, helping to mitigate the thirty-degree weather a bit. Still carrying his cane, more out of habit now than need, Jake slowly ambled down the road with Vickie for only a hundred yards or so before he had to stop and rest a bit, sitting on an ancient tree stump just to the side of the road.

  “I'm really sorry, Vickie,” he told her.

  “What? What do you have to be sorry about?”

  “I'm sorry I haven't been of much use to you lately.”

  “Jake, what are you talking about? You've always been the leader of our group, you've kept us safe, risked your own life for us, for me! How can you even think that?”

  “I mean, well, I just don't seem to have the energy, I don't have the ability. I know you've tried, and I do appreciate all the effort, all the things you've done, but I just don't seem to be able. I know it hasn't been easy on you and it hasn't been fair to you, but it's not like I don't want it more than anything else in the world.”

  “Oh, shut up, would you,” she told him, tears welling in her eyes, kissing him on the mouth. “This isn't going to last forever. You're going to get better and we're finally going to be together, I know we will!”

  “We’ve walked barely a hundred yards and I’ve already had to stop and rest! I'll have to stop and rest again on the way back to the house. Do you think I haven't noticed that Pete has been following us at a discrete distance to make sure we don't run into any trouble? I'm a mess. If we did run into trouble, I don't even know if I could protect you.”

  “So who says I need someone to protect me?” she asked, defiantly. “Maybe I'll be the one to protect you! You said yourself that I'm not the frightened, helpless little girl you rescued by the bridge last summer. I can take care of myself, and, if need be, take care of you, too!'

  Jake smiled at her and regained his feet to hold her in his arms. “You're right. You're able to take care of yourself, and me too, if need be. Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

  “Not often enough,” she teased, kissing him again.

  “Well, we'd better start back. Pete only wore a light jacket. He must be shivering something fierce by now.”

  “Don't worry about Pete. Carolyn's been keeping him warm.”

  “Yeah, how about that? Didn't see that one coming,” Jake mused.

  “Kind of took me by surprise, too. ...Jake, was there a reason you wanted to take this walk with me?”

  He stopped and looked into her face, letting out a sigh. “I just wanted to be alone with you, away from everybody and everything, just for a little while, at least. But, I'm guessing it's going to be a while before they let me go anywhere unchaperoned.”

  “You know,” Vickie looked up at him, holding his hand in both of hers, “Carolyn didn't just pick up vitamins and antibiotics at the pharmacy. She picked up some other rather interesting pills that might help with your, ah, problem.”

  “What kind of pills?” Jake asked, genuinely puzzled.

  “You know...” Seeing the confused look on his face she added, “Oh, for- she picked up some boner pills.”

  Jake stared at her for a few seconds, then a smile broke out across his face and he began laughing.

  “Leave it to Carolyn,” he managed to say at length. “I guess I'm a little slow on the uptake right now. Is that why Pete's been so happy lately?”

  “No, she didn't get them for Pete; he doesn't need them. They're for you.”

  Jake stopped laughing, looked at Vickie, and then glanced over toward Pete and back to Vickie again.

  “So, I suppose everyone knows about that then?”

  “Well... I didn't mean for you to-, I didn't mean to embarrass you, I just, well, Carolyn and I talk about everything and this was like a medical problem, so I told her, hoping she could offer some advice, give me an idea about how to help you along.”

  “Wonderful. Is she the only one who knows?”

  “Of course! I would never mention this to anyone else, and she told me it was going to stay between the two of us! She didn't even tell Pete!”

  “What you tried last night, was that one of her suggestions?”

  “It's not like I haven't tried to do that for you before,” Vickie smiled, laying her hand on his chest, “but, yeah, she did suggest it.”

  “Remind me to thank her when we get back.”

  Chapter 32: The Diner

  Three days later the group awakened to a beautiful, pure white landscape, everything covered with an inch of snow. Pete made a couple of snowballs, tossing them playfully at Carolyn, who returned fire much more vigorously. Vickie went out in the middle of the front yard and called for Eve to join her in making snow-angels, a suggestion that was met with a roll of the eyes and a protestation that she wasn't a little kid anymore. After seeing how much she was enjoying herself, though, Eve glanced around quickly at the others, then flopped on the ground beside Vickie, moving her arms and legs over the snow, the two of them giggling like schoolgirls.

  Watching them, Jake lit a cigarette, ignoring Carolyn's frown, and offered the pack to Pete, who cast a glance at Carolyn and shook his head with a sigh.

  “Just as well,” Jake shrugged. “It's a filthy habit anyway.”

  “I don't know why
I haven't thrown them all out yet,” Carolyn said sternly.

  “Well, you know if you did, I'd just have to make a run into town to find some more.”

  “With everything that's already happened to you, I'd think you'd want to take better care of your health.”

  “There are so few things I can enjoy anymore,” Jake said, gazing wistfully at Vickie cavorting in the snow with Eve. “A man ought to have at least one or two vices to indulge.”

  The stern expression melted from Carolyn's face and she smiled. “Okay, as long as you don't overdo it. But I'm still not telling you where I hid that bottle of whiskey!”

  “Oh, you're a cruel woman, Carolyn, to be sure. But, at least now I know you didn't pour it out!”

  . . .

  Pete carried in another armload of wood and built up the fire in the stove in the kitchen and the wood burner in the living room. With a seemingly endless supply of powdered eggs and powdered milk, most breakfasts consisted of scrambled eggs or pancakes or sometimes cereal or oatmeal. Potatoes with whatever canned meat was handy, along with dried or canned fruit and, of course corn, usually rounded out the meals. Vickie and Liz had been experimenting with the wood stove and had gotten the knack of keeping an even temperature, so there was usually homemade bread or corn bread available. All in all, though hardly an idyllic life, they were comfortable and content. They discovered that Carolyn was able to play the piano in the great room and Pete could handle a guitar fairly well. Tom mentioned that Eve played clarinet in the high-school band and, despite her protestations, they decided that the next time they made a run to town they'd look for one.