Viral Misery | Book 3 | Revelations

by Watson, Thomas A.

  Since the man had been crouched down and hiding behind his human shield, Jason had to shoot through the girl’s neck. All three rounds punched into the man’s head and he was dead before he hit the floor, but not the girl. Seeing his target was dead, Jason had scanned the room for threats, didn’t see any, and then looked at the young woman trying to breathe. His first instinct, as a doctor, was to yank out his first aid kit and get to work, but because he was a doctor, Jason knew he would only be wasting supplies.

  From across the room, Arthur had punched a hole between the girl’s eyes with his rifle. ‘Took your time pullin’ the trigger,’ he’d popped off at Jason. On the very first patrol with Arthur, he’d told Jason to never hesitate if a hostage got in the way. But Jason had been thinking, ‘I’m with the Caravan Man. What happens if I kill a hostage?’

  When one of the other female hostages started screaming that they’d killed Milly, Arthur calmly lifted his rifle and shot her in the face, then asked if anyone else had complaints. Most shook their head while the others just stared at the two dead females. What did shock Jason was when Arthur told the fourteen left to get in the vehicles and leave the state, he didn’t want to see them again. When Arthur had said that, all of them turned to him and Arthur coolly stated, “You’re all fucking worthless and nobody around here needs to waste their time on you.”

  It wasn’t until they’d gotten back to the ranch when Jason had realized that nothing that’d happened disturbed him. That was the first person he’d ever killed who wasn’t armed. Since he didn’t know how Samantha would react, Jason had omitted the fact that he’d killed the last gang member by shooting through a young girl’s neck. Now hearing his wife, Jason concluded he would tell her, but after Date Night. He wasn’t messing up freak nasty time for shit.

  Even though he knew the ranges because the laser range finder in the scope on his AR-10 told him ranges, “What’s the range?” he asked. The building looked like it had once been an old store. It was made of cinder blocks with two large boarded-up windows and a door on the front. Where he and Samantha had set up, the only blind area was directly behind the building.

  “Two hundred and thirty-two yards to the front of the building, two hundred and nineteen yards to the fire barrel,” Samantha told him. “Did you hear me? That bitch is sitting beside a loaded AK and isn’t doing shit. Hell, the two women in the gang who were cheering for her to scream louder when those two raped her aren’t even armed now. At the very least, the bitch needs to kill them!”

  “They’ve been cowed down, babe,” Jason offered. He was so proud of Samantha, even though he never would’ve believed what he was hearing coming out of her mouth.

  “You don’t think they’ll offer them a spot, do you?”

  Knowing what Samantha meant, “Babe, Arthur would never offer a spot to anyone like that. Don’t be shocked, but your buddy? She may just cap ‘em,” Jason told her. Even though he’d never been on patrol with Wendy, others had. Everyone had told Jason that Wendy was a badass, and Jason could see it. Arthur had told him that morning before they’d left, ‘Don’t be shocked by how Wendy acts on Date Night’.

  “Samantha, I was there when Wendy told you, ‘You have the power to throw people out’. They wouldn’t bring anyone back you didn’t like,” Jason told her. The fact he and Samantha had been moved to the upper echelon in rank with Arthur and Wendy unnerved him. What bothered Jason was if someone who was brought in became a problem, he and Samantha were as much at fault as Arthur and Wendy. He didn’t know about Samantha but if that happened, it would be like a kick in the balls that he’d let down Arthur.

  Just hearing it had made Samantha pause. She hadn’t wanted to be in charge of something this big. She loved being a part of it, but not one of the ones in charge. The five ruling members were Arthur, Wendy, Jason, Samantha, and LL. When Arthur had made the announcement just a month after they’d gotten there, Samantha had asked Wendy why Joseph wasn’t on the ruling board. “He still has to grow up,” Wendy had replied.

  “Jason, do you and Arthur kill people every time you go out?” she asked, peering through her scope.

  “Not gang members every time out, but we do kill,” Jason told her. “I haven’t been out with him when we didn’t kill at least two crazies. Last week, we killed like forty dogs that had run down two men.”

  Just hearing ‘crazies’, Samantha gave a shiver. “And you keep right on killing the crazies,” she told him. At the end of summer they had noticed crazies grouping together but after the weather turned cold, there was no denying it. Nobody spotted a crazy alone anymore. Jason had told her about the two men who’d been taken down by a pack of dogs. One had had a double-barrel shotgun and the other a Glock 17. The pack had numbered over fifty and they’d just swarmed the two men. Jason and Arthur had come upon the scene later. Scanning the area Jason figured from the bodies, they’d missed the attack by less than an hour.

  “That’s where we’re going after we hit this group,” he told her. “Spotted a group of crazies yesterday north of Lamar in a house that looks like it’s been vacant for decades.”

  “Maybe the dogs got ‘em,” Samantha stated, but she damn sure wouldn’t have a problem dropping a crazy. Reports on the radio had started coming in as the temperature dropped of crazies hunting and attacking people. Crazies never used guns. They attacked with bludgeoning weapons, knives, bare hands, and teeth.

  “You set?” Arthur called over the radio.

  Grabbing his PTT, “We’ve been set up, brother,” Jason answered. “Have eleven hostiles out front with four captives.”

  “Stupid ass captives,” Samantha mumbled.

  “We have two hostiles at the back east corner, can you see them?” Arthur asked and Jason didn’t even shift his aim because he’d already spotted them.

  “Yeah, they’re smoking. Need us to take ‘em?”

  “Nah, we have ‘em. If you can, those you hit out front, try to wound? Just make sure the wound is enough to take them out of the fight,” Arthur asked and Jason could tell he was grinning.

  Having a very good idea why, “We’ll try,” Jason replied.

  As Jason let his PTT go, “Um, babe? What’s ‘wound them enough to take them out of the fight’?” Samantha asked.

  “Chest and gut shots, but if any pose a threat, take their head off,” he answered.

  This attack was only Arthur’s third during the day. Gangs now knew from the stories over the radio from rescued prisoners that he loved attacking during the night, so that’s when they were most vigilant now. Arthur had told Jason if he’d still been working alone, he’d still be attacking only at night, but with Jason joining him, he wanted to let others know danger was also around during the day.

  “Moving,” Arthur called over the radio in a low voice, and Jason tried to keep his heart rate down by breathing steady.

  He soon spotted Arthur slinking out of the trees toward the building with Wendy behind him. Donald and Daisy were behind both. Watching Arthur move, Jason was reminded of a cat. Shifting his eyes to Wendy, Jason could instantly tell she’d been taught by Arthur, but didn’t have his grace. It was very apparent; Arthur was used to moving without being seen.

  At the corner of the building, the two smoking were looking at each other while they talked. Not realizing it, Jason let a breath out he didn’t remember holding. From where they were, Arthur, Wendy, and the dogs could be seen by the group at the front and the back corner. More than one at the front turned in their direction but didn’t raise an alarm, so Jason knew the hostiles didn’t spot them because they were talking and the camouflage blended in very well. “Have to love Multicam,” Jason mumbled because all of them were wearing it. When Arthur reached the back of the building Jason felt more at ease, since now only the two at the side could spot Arthur and Wendy. The two at the side kept talking, and Jason couldn’t hear it but could see them laughing in his scope.

  He gave a startle when Arthur lunged out taking one down. Slapping his hand over th
e man’s mouth, Arthur drove his knife into the man’s chest on the right then yanked it out and shoved it in the left side, collapsing both lungs. “Fucker knows how to kill with a knife pretty damn good,” Jason mumbled, then saw Wendy lunge at the other one with her right arm extended, holding the knife out like a spear.

  In slow motion Jason watched Wendy bury the blade in the man’s throat, right on his Adam’s apple. When the tip of her blade met his spine, Wendy pulled to the right with the cutting edge. Jason was sure the man would’ve dropped on his own, but Wendy kicked out his left knee as the man grabbed at the left side of his neck while blood pulsated out of his half-severed neck. Just as the man dropped to his knee, Wendy flipped the knife over in her hand so the blade was facing out and lashed out hard at the man’s throat again.

  “Whoa,” Jason mumbled as the head teetered on the only thing still connecting it to the body, the spine. Like she was proving it, Wendy grabbed the man by the hair and yanked back and down. The man’s arms started thrashing about as the back of the man’s head touched between his shoulder blades. Finished with her target now, Wendy kicked the man in the back. The body hit chest-first and then the head flopped back over like a hanging piece of skin, burying the nose in the dirt.

  “She made a ‘Nearly Headless Nick’ like on Harry Potter,” Samantha blurted out, then noticed Wendy was coated in blood and she could swear Wendy was smiling. “You remind me to never piss that bitch off.”

  “I will, and you damn sure better remind me,” Jason replied as Wendy and Arthur disappeared behind the store, heading for the back door. “Wait for the flash bang and remember Arthur and Wendy are inside, so check your shots.”

  “Duh,” Samantha droned out, but he could hear a quiver in her voice from the adrenaline.

  A muffled but loud ‘BLAM’ sounded in the store. Those at the burn barrel all jumped but before they could turn, two of them gave jerks and let out cries as 7.62 hollow points hit them in the chest. Before the others registered what had happened two more were hit, followed by others in the space of heartbeats.

  Now realizing they were under attack, the remaining three started to drop but two more were hit. The last gang member, a woman, hit the ground trying to hide behind the burning barrel. Samantha’s crosshairs rested on her hip. Squeezing the trigger, Samantha gave a chuckle watching the woman jerk and roll from behind the barrel holding her hip.

  “What the fuck?!” Samantha cried out, watching the hostage she’d watched being raped run to one of her rapists, trying to offer first aid.

  Seeing the captive in his scope trying to save one of her rapists, Jason shifted away to cover the side of the building in case any ran out the back. If any of the gang escaped and stayed right behind the store, he and Samantha didn’t have a shot until they got nearly eight hundred yards away.

  Hearing the ‘Ppfft” of Samantha’s suppressed AR-10, Jason shifted back and found the captive clutching her chest and falling backwards. “Ooops, my finger slipped. My bad, babe,” Samantha told him.

  Knowing Samantha’s finger didn’t ‘slip’, Jason gave a chuckle seeing some of those they’d shot were still rolling around, but none were going for weapons. Jason and Samantha both jerked when the front door burst open and partially dressed bodies began pouring out. “Don’t shoot until they get away from the building,” Jason called out.

  “I’m not stupid,” Samantha replied, following the group as they started to fan out in a dead run. She counted six men and one woman. None were wearing shirts and only half had on pants. Before Jason or Samantha could ponder the reason, Wendy appeared in the door with her pistol in her hand.

  Bracing in a classic weaver stance, Wendy started firing. ‘Pop, pop, pop, pop’ then she shifted to another, ‘pop, pop, pop, pop’. The unsuppressed shots were so fast it was hard to count them and they watched as Wendy kept shifting her aim and the group melted under her gunfire.

  “How many bullets does her fucking pistol hold?!” Samantha cried out in awe as the last one dropped to the ground nearly doing a cartwheel.

  Watching the scene, Samantha knew Wendy had shot each of the seven at least four times. Shifting her scope, Samantha saw Wendy ejecting a magazine and slapping in a new one before releasing the slide, letting Samantha know Wendy’s gun did have a limit.

  “Arthur made some extended high capacity magazines for her XD that hold thirty-two rounds,” Jason chuckled.

  “I want magazines that hold that many,” Samantha informed Jason as she watched Wendy calmly walk out the door. Some of the ones by the burning barrel were still moving but Wendy ignored them, breaking into a jog and shoving her pistol into her thigh holster.

  “Jason, Samantha, cover her please,” Arthur called over the radio.

  “We are,” Jason answered and saw Wendy yank her knife out. It was clipped to her vest at the left shoulder and hanging down. Before they’d pulled out that morning, Arthur had told Wendy she needed to move it because it could interfere with shooting from her left with her AR. Wendy had promptly replied, ‘fuck off’.

  With her scope on one of those Wendy had shot, Samantha noticed it was a man and he wasn’t moving his legs, then she shifted her sights to another and found the same thing. When the woman rolled on her side, Samantha saw four tiny entry wounds in the small of the back, right at the pelvis. The first thing in Samantha’s mind was, ‘Nice grouping’.

  “Ah, Jason? I think she shot all of them in the small of the back at the base of the spine to take out their legs,” Samantha reported.

  “Oh, she did,” Jason chuckled as Wendy reached the first one, grabbing the man by the hair and yanking his head back. Wendy lashed out with the blade across the man’s throat nearly severing the man’s head off. Letting his hair go, she trotted over to the next one.

  When Wendy was close the man reached out quickly and Jason nearly dropped his finger to the trigger, but Wendy didn’t need him. She grabbed the man’s arm at the wrist then drove her knee out as she dropped. Jason and Samantha heard the scream as they watched the man’s elbow bend the wrong way.

  “Oh, she is so teaching me how to do that,” Samantha exclaimed in awe. Hearing his wife say that made Jason happy because it was one area Samantha never bothered with, hand-to-hand. She would do guns, go to competitions and to the range, but Jason couldn’t get her to take hand-to-hand classes.

  Wendy moved over on top of the man with her knees on his shoulders, pinning him down. If the man could’ve moved his legs and his right arm hadn’t been destroyed, he might have been able to throw Wendy off because he was nearly twice her size. They both watched as Wendy leaned over his face and rested the tip of her knife over his heart.

  When they heard her voice in their earbuds, both jumped not expecting it. “Hey, you were shoving stuff in that little boy’s body. Tell me what it feels like when I do it to you,” Wendy told the man rather cheerfully.

  Agonizingly slow, Wendy shoved the blade down as the man howled. “It can’t hurt that bad, I still have more to put in,” Wendy told him when half of the blade was inside his chest and she could feel the man’s heart pulsating through the knife.

  “It feels good to me, doesn’t it feel good to you?” Wendy asked leaning over the man’s face. “Don’t you like my hot shaft in your body? Unlike you with that little boy, I went slow so it wouldn’t hurt, don’t you like this? Won’t you respect me tomorrow?”

  Shifting on her gun and nearly panting, “Jason, next Date Night, we’re taking the building,” Samantha informed him.

  “Babe, you have to know how to fight hand-to-hand before doing room assaults,” Jason told her, again. Quickly, Wendy yanked the knife out of the man as he howled, then Wendy put the knife over the man’s mouth like she wanted him to bite down on it. Jason gave a startle watching Wendy shove the blade across the man’s mouth, slicing through both cheeks.

  As the man’s jaw flapped open Wendy stayed leaning over his face, “You didn’t like my hot rod in your mouth? I went fast so I wouldn’t chok
e you,” she told him in a soothing voice.

  Shaking her head as Wendy watched the light slowly leave the child rapist’s eyes, “I don’t know how or why, but for some reason, I’m so fucking horny,” Samantha stated, and that got Jason to take his eye off his scope for a brief second to glance over at his wife. Somewhat in shock, he saw Samantha peering through her scope.

  “You couldn’t keep that to yourself? You just had to say it out loud,” Jason huffed, getting back on his scope. “Now my motor is really cranked up.”

  Wendy leapt to her feet and ran over to the woman, dropping on her chest. Jason gave a wince as Wendy grabbed the woman’s right tit, stretching it out and slicing it off at the base. As the woman screamed, Wendy shoved the nipple of the woman’s severed tit in her mouth. “Suck it, bitch!” Wendy screamed. “You were telling that boy to suck your tit while the fucker raped him! I heard you, whore! You were laughing while forcing that little boy to suck your tit!”

  “That does it,” Samantha said, jumping to her feet. Leaving her AR-10 behind, she pulled her AR-15 from her back and broke into a jog toward the building.

  “We’re on cover!” Jason called out to her.

  Turning to shout over her shoulder, “You’re a big boy and have two fucking dogs behind you! I’m watching this shit up close and hoping Wendy will let me help!” Samantha told him as the woman Wendy was holding down tried to get her own severed tit out of her mouth.

  Not wanting to ruin the freak nasty later, Jason didn’t say anything else and keyed his radio. “Arthur, is the building clear?” he called out.

  “Yeah, I have two hiding in a closet with a captive thinking I don’t know they’re in there,” Arthur replied. “You can move up because I feel Wendy’s going to need a minute. Donald is heading outside to Wendy.”

  Getting to his feet and grabbing his sniper rifle, Jason pulled his AR-15 to his front then grabbed Samantha’s sniper rifle, slinging it. “Um, you need me for any wounded?” Jason asked, seeing Donald running out the door heading over to Wendy.