The Complete Lethal Infection Trilogy

by Tony Battista

  “Anyway, maybe two weeks later, maybe longer, I lost track of time, they brought Kim and another girl to the diner, screaming and pleading for mercy. They didn’t show them any.”

  “You don’t have to tell me this, Kate. I can see in your face how painful it is to relive it all.”

  “I need to get it out. It’s been eating away at me ever since that first day. Talking to you did more to help Kim than you realize. She never really faced up to what happened before then.

  “Poor Kim was out of her mind. I was the closest person to her when they finished and she fell into my arms, crying hysterically. I hugged her to me, tried to soothe her, as if anything could have helped at a moment like that. She clung to my side from then on, like I could do something to protect her, to make it all stop. I couldn’t, of course, but we grew closer as the days and weeks went by. I’d never considered a relationship with another woman and Kim certainly had never imagined doing anything like that, but it happened. The circumstances, the – the trauma, it just happened. We never had the privacy to do anything but hold each other at night after everyone else was asleep and if one of them didn’t wake up and want… We came to realize we needed each other, loved each other.

  “That night that Jake and Pete and Vickie came to the diner, we didn’t know what was happening. There was an explosion, gunfire, so much blood, so much screaming. We didn’t even realize the nightmare was over until we reached the farmhouse and you and Vickie, Liz and Eve took charge of us. We thought there weren’t any decent people left, only the kinds of monsters who held us prisoner. I still don’t know how to say thank you for that, for all of this.”

  “It is over, Kate. That kind of thing can never happen again now that you’re with us.”

  “We won’t ever be victims again,” she proclaimed, a hardness edging into her voice. “I realize now that Kim was right. We should have killed those two we found with the cars by the farm. Brooke and I should have killed those men on the road. They’re still out there and they will be back, you know that! If they ever come into my sights again, I won’t hesitate to kill them. If Kim ever gets her hands on one of them, God help him because it’ll be anything but pretty.”

  “We can’t know what sort of people we might run into, Kate. Surely you’ve seen that not all men are like the ones at the diner.”

  “I know that, and I don’t hate all men. I don’t even know how to express my thanks to Jake and Pete for rescuing us, and Tom is a wonderful husband and father both. I don’t really know any of the Hollington people all that well, but there have to be some good men among them, too. Brooke tells me Joaquin is a good man, but he just doesn’t understand about Kim. I’m afraid of what might happen if he pursues her. All of you know about the bond Kim and I have, but I don’t think he understands that the way you do.”

  “Well, it’s not like yours was the first relationship like that in our little household,” Carolyn smiled.

  “I… I suppose I should mention a conversation I had with Brooke the other day, too.”

  “Oh?” Carolyn arched her eyebrows.

  “It seems that the night of Jake’s surgery, she, ah, she saw the two of you together, you and Vickie.”

  “Oh,” Carolyn said again. “Well, so what? Neither of us is ashamed or embarrassed about our relationship. We’ve never tried to hide the fact that we were once involved. Vickie needed someone that night; she was so distraught worrying about Jake she couldn’t stand the stress. It’s not as though this is something that happens all the time, but occasionally… Sometimes we just need each other.”

  “I understand that, and I don’t want to give the impression that I disapprove; far from it. The thing is, she thinks she has a shot with Jake now.”

  “Oh, that’s just absurd! If she thinks that way, she’s just going to be disappointed. Don’t worry about it; nothing is ever going to come of it.”

  “I know that, I just wanted you to be aware. So were you and Vickie together before Jake came along?”

  “No, they met some time before I joined them. Vickie actually rescued me from a bad situation. I was captured by four men. I hate to even use the word men to describe what they were. They killed poor, sweet Benny, the nicest, most harmless guy I’d ever met. They butchered him like an animal and were about to rape me. Vickie happened along and killed all of them. I’ve been with her and Jake ever since.”

  “I’ve always suspected there was a lot more to her than she lets on. So, you were married, then got together with Vickie, then with Pete? I don’t mean to pry, but I can’t imagine myself ever being with a man again.”

  “I was very happy with Harold, my ex, but I’d always been attracted to women, too. Harold knew that when he married me. He certainly did nothing to discourage it; fact is he was always a little too curious about the details and that’s what ultimately led to our parting. That’s just the way I’ve been all my life. Vickie now, never had that kind of relationship before. We fell in with each other because of circumstances, but she’s been in love with Jake from the moment I first met them. It just took a long time for Jake to get past what happened to his wife and son before he was able to accept that he loved her, too.”

  “What a strange, fucked-up world this is now,” Kate sighed.

  “Don’t let Jake hear you using that kind of language,” Carolyn teased.

  “What are you two talking about?” Eve asked as she approached the well.

  “We were wondering where you and Owen disappeared to the other night after dinner,” Carolyn said, winking at Kate.

  Eve’s face blushed bright red and she turned and walked quickly back toward the house. Carolyn and Kate smiled at each other, then finished filling the water containers and headed for the house themselves.

  . . .

  Vickie and Kim were still out behind the big barn with their bows. They’d set up pinecones on a rail fence and Kim was picking them off, one after another, at fifty paces without a miss.

  “You’re a natural. You’ve never taken archery lessons?”

  “Only the ones I’ve taken from you. I’ve practiced a lot on my own since then. It just feels right, like the bow belongs in my hands.”

  “Well, let’s see just how good you are,” Vickie laughed. As a joke, she picked up a large pinecone and threw it up in the air as hard as she could, never for a moment suspecting her friend would actually be able to hit it. Kim immediately drew back her bowstring and tracked the cone, releasing the arrow just before it reached the top of its arc. The arrow struck true and the pinecone shattered. Vickie stared at her, eyes wide, mouth hanging open in amazement. Kim smiled sheepishly and turned away as her face began to redden.

  “That’s it!” Vickie enthusiastically announced. “There’s nothing I can teach you! I should be taking lessons from you! I never saw anyone take to a bow the way you have! It should have taken you months or years to be even half that good!”

  “I don’t know what to tell you. As I said, it just feels right in my hands.”

  “Well, I think it’s time you and I tried some hunting. There are deer tracks all around that pasture up the road. Some morning this week, we should see if we can bag some fresh meat.”

  “I was a vegetarian before all this began, Kim said. “My family was never big on serving meat anyway. After the infection though, I was glad to have anything to eat at all. I led what you would call a sheltered life, I suppose, before the infection.”

  “I never had to look out for myself until this happened either,” Vickie said softly. “I would have been dead over a year ago now, if not for Jake. It’s funny the way I always took life for granted, how I just assumed that every tomorrow would be just another day of going to work during the week, hanging out with my friends at night, how every weekend would be party time. I had a boyfriend, Chuck. That last day before everything fell apart, all I could think about was being with him for the weekend, never leaving the bedroom, how wonderful and romantic it was going to be. I think he was going to propo
se to me that weekend, but he was killed on his way to pick me up. He wouldn’t have survived, though; none of the crowd we hung out with would have. None of us would have had the slightest idea of how to survive something like this.”

  “Jake was prepared, though,” Kim added after a few moments of reflection.

  “No. Actually, he was really no better prepared than the average person was. He’s a fast learner, though, and a good teacher. I was as helpless and clueless as a newborn kitten when he found me. He could have taken advantage of me, used me, but he didn’t. He treated me like a person, an equal, no matter how much trouble I was, how many times I screwed up. He got frustrated more than once, and I know a lot of other guys would have given up on me, but he was patient and gentle and helped me to build up my confidence. Everything I’ve learned about surviving in this world is thanks to him.”

  “No wonder you fell in love with him. I owe my life and my sanity to Kate. I would have died if she wasn’t there in the diner with me. I couldn’t have stood it alone. If you and Jake and Pete hadn’t showed up when you did, I don’t know how much longer I could have survived; I didn’t want to go on living. You’re in love with Jake, but I love him, too, in a different way, for rescuing me, all of us, and for taking us in like he did. That is a debt I’ll never be able to repay.”

  “You don’t have to repay anything,” Vickie told her, touching her hand. “You’re a valued member of our family now and that’s the only thing that matters.”

  Smiling, Kim gave Vickie a warm, appreciative hug, then hesitated a moment before saying, “I think I should mention something about Brooke.”

  “Brooke? I really don’t want to talk about that… woman!”

  “Kate has told me she thinks Brooke intends to continue pursuing Jake.”

  “Not if I have anything to say about it!” Vickie answered angrily.

  “It could happen that she disappears, that she is never seen again. Such a thing could be arranged.”

  “No, Kim,” Vickie was shocked, “what are you saying? I’ll deal with her in my own way.”

  “It would be no trouble, if you change your mind.”

  “I’ll handle this myself, Kim. Don’t do anything, okay? I think we’re done here; I don’t see how you could possibly get any better with a bow and arrow.”

  Kim nodded and they collected the undamaged arrows and headed back toward the house. Vickie was worried over how seriously Kim was taking this all but Kim was calmly running a few scenarios through her mind, none of which boded well for Brooke.

  Chapter 21: Kim’s Vengeance

  Tad’s last remaining alpha died less than a mile from the substation. Loss of blood from a bullet wound in the abdomen finally did him in and the female and the drones feasted upon his remains. Tad didn’t mourn his death or the deaths of so many drones in the failed raid; he was incapable of feeling that kind of sorrow. He did feel, however, a sense of loss in the reduced capacity of his depleted band to carry out anything more than quick, hit-and-run raids against individuals or very small groups.

  His instincts told him that he had a better chance of gaining recruits by heading south, toward the heavier concentrations of infected who’d survived the winter, but that they would have better hunting if he remained in the north, where the uninfected were more numerous. To the south he could also count on finding more alphas to challenge his authority, perhaps even to rob him of his leadership altogether. That was not even the greatest threat posed there. Already that spring, when he’d started on his journey north, the infected there were fighting amongst themselves more and more often. The lack of prey, both human and animal, increasingly drove larger bands to attack the smaller ones and, with disturbing regularity, even to attack others within their own groups to assuage their ravenous appetites.

  Memories of the previous winter weather which slowed, then killed infected in ever increasing numbers sparked the realization that the time left for hunting was limited and he knew from experience that prey to the south, human or animal, which survived that winter were rarer and much more elusive than in the north.

  So Tad’s band continued along the road that would eventually lead them to Hollington, the survivors’ farm and Gabe’s band of renegades.

  . . .

  Nate survived for four days, in and out of consciousness, delirious most of the time he was awake and with the prospect of never being able to walk by himself again even if he did eventually recover. Verne, the man Kate shot in the stomach, was sinking fast and not expected to survive the night. Gabe walked into the tent, which served them as a temporary infirmary, and, after Doc Henry informed him of the men’s conditions, perfunctorily proceeded to strangle each of them in their cots, saying that they had neither the time nor resources to waste on useless cripples. Henry briefly considered protesting, but decided that he had enough to worry about attending the less seriously wounded and, at any rate, had not been particularly fond of either man.

  Twenty-seven men remained under Gabe, one of them barely able to walk with a bullet wound in his thigh and another nearly useless with a weapon due to his crippled right hand. These were all the forces he was able to muster for an assault on Hollington or the farmhouse. Having lost so many men assaulting the empty house earlier, he was not anxious to take on any well-manned defenses, but their provisions were beginning to run low.

  The men remaining, the dregs of a former civilization, were too unruly for him to implement successfully any workable system of rationing the ever-dwindling supplies of food or water and they cared little for the need to preserve and maintain other simple items such as clothing, shoes, blankets, tools or even weapons. Without Dan to maintain and repair their weapons, they long ago would have been reduced to knives and clubs. This reason alone made him Gabe’s second most valuable asset next to Frank.

  The men used what they needed or wanted with no thought to future requirements and tossed aside whatever was left, rationalizing that there would always be more for the taking. This flagrant disregard for prudence was especially true of ammunition and particularly of drugs. Even Doc Henry was wasted on morphine or whatever other narcotic he could lay hands on as often as not, trying to cope with the demands of surviving in the midst of a group of violent, undisciplined, increasingly desperate men.

  It had been much easier only months ago, when the shelves in most stores were still stocked. His men had taken only what they considered the best of the food then; canned meats, stews and the like, leaving behind cans of vegetables, boxes of cereal, bags of flour, cartons of powdered milk, grains and anything that couldn’t simply be opened and eaten on the spot. They never left behind a can or bottle of beer or alcohol, but almost never took any other drink that might be considered even remotely healthy. Sometimes they took great pleasure in destroying anything they didn’t carry away, leaving nothing useful to return to or for anyone else who might happen along. Now, when their supplies were running low, others had already visited the stores they hadn’t wrecked, leaving behind nothing but bare shelves and the band was restless and increasingly desperate to make another big score.

  If his ego would have allowed it, Gabe might have tried to pass himself off as a refugee and sought shelter at Hollington, but he’d been a petty tyrant for too long now; he couldn’t subordinate himself to anyone else’s authority. The only option left to him, the only way of life he and his men knew now, was to raid, to pillage and to murder those who had the things he needed or wanted.

  Frank returned from his latest run with a large briefcase filled with maps he’d looted from the county office building, using these, he and Gabe studied the road net and the lay of the land around Hollington and the farmhouse. Since lookouts had already spotted them approaching from the southeast, they mapped out a route which would bring them well north of the compounds in a roundabout manner. A narrow graveled track leading off the main road was marked on one of the maps as once having been an access road to a long abandoned oil well. This route wound around the farm
from north to west and would allow an approach to within a mile of the main house from either direction.

  Gabe decided they should attack the farmhouse with two separate, converging groups. From the north, Gabe would lead most of the band in the main wave, making an attack aggressive enough to draw all the attention of the defenders. At the right moment then, Frank would lead a secondary wave of five men to approach quickly, quietly and, hopefully unnoticed from the west, intending to catch the defenders off guard and gain entry to the house. Two others would wait along the road to Hollington to delay any rescue party. The two wounded men would be left behind with Doc Henry to care for them and to keep an eye on the road from the south. He gathered his small company around the map and he and Frank explained the plan to them, making sure everyone knew the part he was to play.

  They got a late start the next morning, after Doc Henry grudgingly parceled out a few medical supplies to the larger group. They would maneuver into positon, wait until late afternoon when, it was supposed, the defenders would be winding down at the end of the day, getting ready for supper, and when the sun would be in the defenders’ eyes as the second group moved in.

  Clint, the man with the missing fingers, waited for fifteen minutes after the others left, then, with a theatrical flair, produced the jar of moonshine he’d found in one of the farms the gang raided earlier and passed it to Doc. He took a long swig and fought down the urge to choke and cough over the potent liquid while Clint grinned and chuckled. Dave, heavily dosed with morphine for his leg wound already, declined his turn.

  An hour later, the jar was over half-empty, the two men were laughing and bragging, loudly and obscenely, about what they were going to do to the women once they overran the farmhouse. Clint raised the jar to his lips again and heard a ‘thwup’ and a loud gasp from Doc. He turned and saw a polished, feathered shaft sticking out of one side of Henry’s neck. The razor edged head of the arrow had broken through the skin on the other side and blood streamed freely from both wounds. He took a couple of drunken, staggering steps, gasping for breath, and crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. Clint whirled around, eyes wide with shock, just in time to see Kim, standing in the open barely twenty feet away, release her bowstring to send a second missile into his own body, just below the ribcage.