Extinction Level Event (Book 1): Extinction Level Event

by Jones, K. J.

  “Are you going to cry?” Peter mocked.

  “Have a punched you lately?”

  “No,” said Peter. “Want to try?”

  There was loud tussling sound.

  “Ow. Fuck me,” said Chris’s voice.

  Mazy opened the bathroom door. Chris was flat on his back on the hall floor. Peter stood over him, triumphant. Mazy laughed.

  “Motherfucker flipped me,” said Chris.

  Julio came down the hall to see what was happening. He saw Chris and burst out laughing.

  “What’s going on?” Jimbo asked from the living room.

  “Pete flipped Higgins,” Julio said.

  Laughter came from multiple locations.

  “Motherfucker,” Chris said. Peter reached down a hand and Chris took it to help him to his feet. “With all my weight, you still can do that.”

  “It’s not about weight,” said Peter. “It’s about leverage.”

  Chris continued into the living room.

  Peter stopped in the open doorway of the bathroom. His gaze on Phebe. He smiled. “Nice to see a face under all that.”

  “Are you gonna quote Aliens?” she said.

  “And a pretty one at that.” He winked.

  As he left, Mazy turned to her with a look. “Ooh, something’s happening there.”

  “Shut up.” Phebe smiled and laughed.

  “Come on, girl. Let’s join this motley crew. I don’t mean the band. Not enough hair. But certainly enough ego.”

  3.

  In the living room, Peter stood at the center. “People, let’s debrief. Matt, where are you?”

  “I’m with my patient.”

  “You need to hear this.”

  “I can hear you.” Matt stood in the hallway, close enough to the bedroom to hear Syanna.

  Everyone found seats.

  “Where’s Raven?” Peter asked.

  “On the roof,” said Jimbo.

  “Oh, of course. A sniper’s natural habitat. He’s probably made a ghillie suit out of roofing material by now. He needs to hear this. Somebody get him down, if you can see him. If he’s not too camouflaged.”

  “I’ll radio him,” said Julio.

  “You don’t have a special sniper owl hoot to call him down?”

  “We’re trying to cut back on that.”

  “Good. People, we’ll wait for Raven. As a rule, I try not to piss off Sioux warriors. Even when they don’t have the long flowing hair.” He looked at Phebe and Mazy, sitting next to each other on the couch. “Is that a turn on? The long flowing black hair?”

  “Dances with Wolves was pretty hot,” Mazy said.

  “Is Raven like Wind in His Hair?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him shirtless, mounted on a horse.”

  “Well, maybe we can work that out for you.” Peter looked at Jimbo. “Providing the Texan is all right with it.”

  Jimbo shrugged. “I’m not competing with that. My only background is Evangelical Christians.”

  “Well, that’s hot,” said Peter, repressing a smirk.

  Jimbo laughed. “Totally not, dude.”

  “If you’re an Evangelical Christian, it probably is.”

  Mazy said to Phebe, “You ever watch Big Bang Theory?”

  “I love that show,” Phebe answered.

  “His mother is like Sheldon’s mother.”

  “The Bible-beating mom in Texas?”

  Mazy nodded.

  Jimbo looked sheepish. “Pity me now?”

  “I’m sorry,” Phebe said.

  Peter said, “So that’s how you get the smart hot girls. You get them to pity you. Good move.” He looked at Phebe. “My mother’s a guilt-infesting Catholic that makes everyone feel unworthy of her. Do you pity me?”

  She said, “My father is narcistic Republican businessman who judges everyone by their net worth.”

  “He won’t like me then.”

  “You’re military. He’s all Support the Troops.”

  “Oh, the blowing the troops routine.” The guys cracked up.

  Peter continued, as the laughter died down, “So he’s one of those middle-aged men who has never seen war outside of a Netflix movie, who shakes our hands vigorously to thank us for our service, but won’t even buy us a beer or slip a one-legged vet a twenty?”

  “Yeah, pretty much.”

  “We love them, don’t we, people?”

  “A constant joy,” said Matt from the hall. “I hate wearing my uniform in public.”

  “Those hypocritical fuckers.” The guys turned and stared at Chris.

  “Who is he?” Peter asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Jimbo. “He used a big word.”

  “Can’t be Chris. I didn’t write the sounding-out version of that word for him.”

  “All y’all go fuck yourselves,” said Chris.

  Ben Raven came in, carrying the biggest gun Phebe had ever seen. It looked longer than the length of Syanna. He cradled it in his arms as he stood and looked at everyone. His dark-eyed gaze lingered on the people he did not know. He then homed in on young Mullen.

  “I’ve seen you.”

  “Who?” Mullen said. “Me?”

  “You were the one with the camera.”

  “Uhm, it’s my work.”

  “You’re a reporter?”

  “A blogger, actually.”

  “You violated a volatile crime scene.”

  Chris said, “Ease down, Tonto.”

  Peter said, “Oh crap.” He covered his face with his hand.

  “What the fuck did you say to me, inbred?” Ben responded.

  “Whoa whoa whoa.” Jimbo jumped up.

  “Who the fuck you calling ‘inbred’, motherfucker!”

  Meanwhile, Mazy said to Phebe, “Their sniffing each other’s asses. Ben’s a former Marine Corps scout sniper. He’s not part of the established pack.”

  “At least there’s a methodology going on here,” Phebe responded.

  “Very different from academia, huh?”

  “Actually, it’s just more straight forward. Academia’s a snake pit.”

  “Really?”

  A puffed-up Chris stepped forward, chin raised. Ben’s body language said he wasn’t intimidated nor going to back down.

  “Everyone to their corners,” Peter ordered. “We got business to attend to here.”

  Ben sat, glaring at Chris.

  Chris went back to his position of leaning on the adjacent kitchen counter, where he ate potato chips and drank a beer.

  Matt, leaning on the hallway wall, rolled his eyes and shook his head. .

  Mullen stayed quiet, not looking at Ben. He would only look at Peter, his protector in this alien world of high testosterone men. They were probably capable of shoving him up the fireplace chimney. He’d glance at Phebe and Mazy, but that was the limit. Animal Planet said making eye contact with apex predators can provoke an attack.

  “All right, people,” Peter said. “We’re facing a virus called R140. News says it’s something lyssavirus.”

  “Shit,” Matt said from the hall.

  “You recognize that?”

  “I wrote a paper for school on lyssaviruses. What else did the news say?”

  “Among their political bullshit platitudes that everything’s under control and it’ll all blow over within a week, they said it spreads by a bite that breaks the skin. Humans can give it to each other. It takes an animal within ten days to show symptoms.”

  Matt nodded.

  “And for humans, anywhere from twelve hours to twelve months.”

  “That’s the norm for lyssaviruses for us,” said Matt.

  “Okay. But they said this one has a special kick. People that aren’t showing symptoms can give it to other people. They said like meningitis.”

  “Holy shit!” All eyes went to Matt for his outburst. He paced the hall.

  “Meningitis is the kissing disease,” said Mazy.

  “That means,” Phebe said, “Becks gave it to
Spencer. But, wait, what about the flu connection? Both had the flu.”

  “So did my roommate,” said Matt. “We were told this flu strain gave blackouts. But that was a lie. It was this virus showing its first stage. That’s when Jeremiah attacked Tom. But then he went back to normal.”

  “Syanna’s monster,” said Phebe. “Remember, Matt? It was Becks’ first stage blackout or whatever. It showed she was starting to turn.”

  “You said she wasn’t drinking liquids.”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s a rabies symptom. They’re hydrophobic.”

  “Hydro is water. Phobic is fear of,” said Phebe. “It fits.”

  “Right. Human and animals alike become hydrophobic. Liquids would wash away the viral cells in the mouth. The virus makes them afraid of water to spread itself.”

  “How can viruses be that powerful?” asked Chris.

  “This one,” Matt said, “I swear to God, is making them break their teeth so their teeth are sharp.”

  “More efficient way to spread the virus,” said Mazy. “If breaking the skin is vital for spreading.”

  Peter asked, “What about other body fluids? Blood.”

  “No,” said Matt. “Apart from the saliva, the only other soft tissue carrying viral cells are brain tissue. But that too must enter an open wound or an orifice.”

  “What do you mean by orifice?” asked Chris.

  “Your eyes, nose, sometimes mouth. There are usually enzymes in the mouth that can destroy a great deal of invading viral cells. But if this virus spreads like meningitis, then it’s found a way to infiltrate through the mouth.”

  “What if one of these fuckers spits in your mouth?” Chris asked.

  “Then you have a good chance of getting infected.”

  “But he said it’s, what? Twelve months?”

  “Twelve hours to twelve months,” Peter repeated.

  “That’s a huge range. Doesn’t that mean we can be infected right now with it and not know it?”

  “That’s exactly what it means, Chris,” Matt answered

  “Oh, hell to the no.”

  “When did this start?” asked Ben.

  “They didn’t say,” answered Peter. “They carefully avoided all liability.”

  “They also didn’t mention the violence,” Mullen said, only looking at his protector.

  “Yeah,” said Peter. “They avoided that issue like champs.”

  “But,” said Phebe, “what about the flu connection?”

  “They said the two viruses cannot merge together. But if a person is carrying R140 dormantly and they get another disease, like the flu, it can make R140 come out of dormancy. Same with anything else that stresses the body. Injury. Stress. Basically what’s going on out there.”

  “Explains,” said Mazy, “why they’re suddenly everywhere.”

  “That means,” said Phebe, “if I have it, it’ll start to show within the next hours.”

  “Same with Syanna,” said Matt.

  “She and I were both living with a person who had it.”

  “I was too.”

  “Can close social proximity cause infection?”

  “Only time will tell, I guess,” said Matt. “Question is, were my stress levels high enough today to activate it? I don’t know. I can’t determine that anymore for myself.” He shrugged.

  “We can get it through kissing or possibly close proximity to another person with it?” asked Julio.

  Nods.

  “Then I’m clear. I haven’t kissed anyone since last I saw my wife. It’s here, not in Chicago. I live alone.”

  “Great,” said Peter. “We got one person clear. What about the rest of us?”

  They fell quiet.

  Matt said, “What about the rest of the intel, before we get all freaked out? That it’s fatal.”

  “Oh yeah,” said Peter. “They said once they are showing symptoms, it’s one hundred percent fatal. So they’re dead people walking. Don’t hesitate to kill them.”

  “Not a problem,” said Mazy. “Think we’ve all already gone there.”

  Matt said, “Hitting the brainstem seems the only way to drop them immediately.”

  “Does everyone know where that is?” asked Peter.

  “The apricot,” said Ben. He showed them on himself where the ‘apricot’ was. “Anywhere from the top of the Adam’s apple to just under the nose, when facing them, should do it in this situation. But a police issue sidearms, aim right at the apricot.”

  Phebe said, “When behind them, it’s under that knot at the back of the skull.”

  Mazy said to Jimbo, “We need to change up our ammo for explosive hollow-tips.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “These standard bullets will be a bitch to kill them with.”

  “Good,” said Chris. “At least we know how to kill ‘em. So if these girls could turn within hours, what do we do?”

  “Chris,” said Peter, “you could too.”

  “I ain’t stressed. And I had the flu already. Over Christmas.”

  “You kissed anyone since then?”

  “Nuh. I been trying to avoid that girl. You know that.”

  “Well, then,” said Peter, “we got another one cleared.”

  “What about you, Sul?”

  “Oh no, I’m totally fucked in this. I don’t get the flu.”

  “Never?” asked Mazy.

  “Nope. Knock on wood.” He knocked his knuckles on his head.

  “Do you get the shot?”

  “That helped people so much, huh? But, no, I don’t. Figure it would give me the flu.”

  “Why didn’t the flu shots work?” asked Jimbo.

  “Because,” said Phebe, “influenza is highly mutative. This strain caught the CDC off guard for what they had prepared for. It happens with viruses.”

  Jimbo looked to Matt for confirmation of what the untrusted new girl said. Matt nodded.

  “Is this some form of mutated rabies?” asked Mazy.

  “They said it wasn’t rabies,” answered Peter. “Only related to rabies.”

  “But they aren’t being honest. They haven’t been honest with us from the start. We trusted the CDC and they betrayed us. Our asses were out there with stupid masks and gloves. We were washing our hands. We were told these crazy assholes were on a new street drug. They lied to us. They lied to us!”

  She got up, visibly upset, and walked into the kitchen. “Do have anything stronger than beer?” she asked Chris.

  “Yeah, sweetheart. Cupboard there. I’ll clean a glass up for you.”

  Syanna screamed in pain from the bedroom. Matt rushed to her.

  The group fell silent.

  “Oh,” said Peter. “That’s gonna be a problem.”

  “Sure as shit,” said Chris. “Girl screams like a banshee.”

  “He’s gotta give her painkillers,” said Mazy. A glass of whiskey in her hand. “Knock that shit out. Sorry if it jeopardizes her life, but that jeopardizes our lives.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” said Peter. “Are we done here? Every up to date on what intel we got?”

  “We still haven’t talked of a plan,” said Chris. “Ain’t we going to the boat and bugging out of this bullshit?”

  “We’re taking this one step at a time, big man.”

  “Nuh! Let’s just high tail it out of this shit. If these girls turn or anybody else, we just plug ‘em in that brainstem and have done with it. We’re in a war, Sully. You need to fucking man up and lead us.” Chris turned a circle in the kitchen, punching air.

  Mazy looked at him like he was crazy. She skirted around him with her glass of whiskey and came into the living room where her boyfriend welcomed her back to the couch.

  Peter crossed his arms. His feet apart. His head cocked back. He glowered at Chris.

  “What was that?” he demanded.

  Mazy leaned into Phebe and whispered, “Now, it’s alpha male gonna reprimand beta male for the offense to his status.”

  “Come to
my face, Chris, you got a problem.”

  Julio said from the recliner, “Smoke him. Fifty on the floor. I got a twenty says fat ass can’t do it.”

  Ben said, “Sucker bet.”

  “Who the fuck are you talking about, you half-crippled Mexican,” yelled Chris.

  “Oh,” said Mazy. “That took a strange turn.”

  Christ stepped out of the kitchen, hot pink in the face. Peter stepped right in front of him. “Touch him and I will bleed you, Chris.” Peter stood strong in front of the wider, bigger man. “Love you, brother, with all my heart, but you do not touch him.”

  Jimbo leaned into his girlfriend and whispered, “You enjoying these dynamics?”

  “Absolutely,” said Mazy.

  Phebe whispered, “Do these men hate each other?”

  Julio heard her. He gave a slight nod.

  Mazy said to Phebe, “We racial not-so-minority minorities tend to be a bit sensitive to offenses. The Corps and the Army try to squash that shit. But it re-blossoms.”

  Jimbo said, “Chris isn’t a racist. He just doesn’t know any better. I come from the same shit. My mom called Mazy a colored girl and thought it was appropriate.”

  “Your mama’s not six three,” Mazy said. “With a temper akin to a bull shark.”

  Jimbo shrugged. “Yeah.”

  “Besides, she also said I’d burn in Hell as a Catholic and smiled.”

  “She doesn’t know any better. Just like Chris.”

  Chris had backed down to Peter and returned to the kitchen.

  Peter was now listening to what the three on the couch were whispering. “You got everything figured out there, sociology department?” he asked.

  “We’re working on it,” said Mazy.

  His lips split into a smile. “You’re assholes.”

  “We’re analytical assholes,” she corrected.

  “Oh. That makes you a notch above.”

  “I think,” said Phebe, “I’m going to check on my friend.”

  “You’ll miss the show,” said Mazy. She pounded down her drink.

  “It’s okay.”

  Phebe skirted around Peter, not noticing that he glanced at her, noting where she was and what she was doing.

  4.

  “Matt,” Phebe said upon entering the bedroom. Syanna writhed in pain on the bed. “You have to give her a painkiller.”