Outbreak (Book 1): Emerald City (6 page)

Clark knew enough to know it meant the patient was in incredibly bad shape. Maybe back before the outbreak a real trauma surgeon could have saved him, but with the limited resources they had to get by with these last couple of months, Clark was surprised the man lasted as long as he did. “Yes,” Clark replied. “Anything there on why he was resistant to the disease?"

“This is everything we have,” the general said and handed the report to Clark. It was not much, only a couple of papers. “There is something about blood type. This patient had some rare kind or something,” the general continued.

“Really?” Clark asked as he flipped through the report. There wasn’t much information, but enough that Clark was intrigued.
Maybe coming out here will be worth it after all,
he thought. Clark set the report down and looked at the general. “Where did they find the patient?” he asked.

“A recon patrol found him,” the general said. “We have special ops teams out in the city. A couple of our guys were clearing out a hospital and ran across this survivor. They found him in some kind of research laboratory.”

Clark looked out the window.
Maybe I should talk to the guys that found him. Ask what was special enough that they worked so hard to bring him in?
Plus he knew they might have detailed information on the conditions of the lab and how the patient was being treated. He turned to look at the general. “Can I talk to the soldiers who found him?” he asked.

The general nodded. “You can talk to one of them. His name is Rocha. Corporal John Rocha.”

“Just the one? I would think they could all give me useful information,” Clark said.

“Well, not much can be done about that. Rocha is the only one of them who made it back.”

Shit
, Clark thought. He had forgotten for a second that he was living in the middle of an apocalypse. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Maybe I will save that conversation for later. Can I examine the body in the meantime?”

“Yes,” the general said. “The body is still over in the medical facilities. Private Arnold!”

The same soldier who had met Clark on the baseball field showed up at the door to the office. “Yes, sir?”

“Escort our good doctor over to the gymnasium,” General Dodge said.

Clark got up and shook hands with the general before following the young soldier out of the office.

LUKE

They were running late and Luke knew Matt was pissed. The man had wanted to leave before first light, when the rest of the world was still asleep, but the four of them had been disorganized and slow in getting their stuff to the basement. Part of the problem was everyone grossly underestimated the amount of crap they would want to haul down the fifteen flights of stairs to the parking garage. Matt put a nix on the beds and mattresses, but they still had to carry down sleeping bags, clothes, food, beer, weapons, ammunition, and general supplies. Luke made two round trips with his gear, plus his entire stash of smokes, enough for a few days, and decided that whatever else was still his on the top floor could stay there.

As Luke sat smoking the last of a cigarette and waiting for the rest of them, he looked around at their vehicle. It was a crappy delivery van with double doors at the back and was the only thing in the parking garage which was easy to hotwire while still being big enough for the four of them and all their supplies.
A shame,
Luke thought looking around the large space at all the nice cars and SUVs. His eye landed on a new, midnight blue Ford mustang.
I’d much rather drive that one
, he thought.
Oh well. Beggars can’t be choosers.
He pulled another cigarette from his dwindling pack and made a mental count.
Seven. I really need to layoff. Screw it,
he thought and lit the new one with the butt of the old one, breathed in deep, and went back to contemplating the van. He could see why Matt wanted to put together a new ride before making the trip to Eastern Oregon. The van had seen better days. Still, it had worked well enough on their scavenging runs for the past three months. It had an extended ceiling, so a person could stand up in the back, and the engine ran as long as the driver took it easy. If not, the stupid thing would overheat and threaten to die, which was not good outside the hotel in zombie ground zero. Add in the four bald tires and Ted’s modification of cutting holes into the sides to shoot through, and the thing was quite frankly a piece of shit.

Should get us to the boatyard though
, Luke thought.
But I’m not taking any bets on it going any further.
He finished his cigarette, thought about having another one but talked himself out of it. He really needed to ration himself until he found a fresh supply. After a minute, he lit another cigarette anyhow before he sat back and closed his eyes while he settled in to wait for the rest of them.

Matt was the only one organized enough to have to make only one trip down, but he went back up to help Pete and Ted. Luke watched the three men come across the garage with arms full of stuff.
Holy crap, that is their third trip. What the hell are they bringing?
Luke hopped out of the cab and helped them load the final boxes and bags. Pete’s crap alone nearly filled the back of the van. Luke watched Matt shake his head in irritation but the man held his tongue.
Smart move,
Luke thought
. Getting Pete crying right now would not speed up the process
. Finally, everything was loaded. Matt got into the front passenger seat, what Pete called the “Boss's Seat”, and Luke started up the van. After a few backfires and a big plume of black smoke, Luke drove the van to the exit. Pete and Ted, walking along behind, opened the security gate and then jumped in the back. As Luke drove away, he looked at the hotel in his side mirror and wondered if they should have gone back and closed the gate one last time. He still had a couple weapons and supplies stashed inside and he didn’t really want any innocent people sneaking inside and blowing their feet off on one of their traps, but Matt didn’t seem to care and Luke didn’t want to sound like a wimp, so he drove on without saying a word.

There had been light rain earlier in the morning, but as Luke drove, the sun was bright and shining.
When was the last time I needed a pair of sunglasses?
he wondered. If someone had told him way back when that Seattle got so much rain, he’d never had made the trip in the first place. With a sigh, he pulled out a cigarette, lit up and navigated the tricky roads around the hotel. In general the streets in the area were clear of cars and other junk, but Luke had to work his way around a couple staggering zombies. Seeing them, Ted started a game with Pete to find out which zombie could run the fastest. Ted started pounding on the side of the van to get the zombies attention and Pete got to giggling as one zombie started chasing them. When the zombie ran itself into a telephone pole, the two in the back erupted in so much laughter that Luke wondered, not for the first time, how much negative influence Ted was having on the boy. Luke thought about saying something to Matt but then decided against it again.
What difference does it make to me anyway?
he thought.

Luke drove on and other than the occasional zombie on the road and a broken down car to get around, the first few miles were easy going. They had scavenged this area enough that Luke knew his way around. It changed once they were past the East-West expressway. He was not familiar with the new streets and he knew there could be anything from military outposts to nests of zombies to marauder blockades around each corner. Luke lit another cigarette from the previous to try to steady himself and drove along with the cigarette hanging on his lip and his hands gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white. He tried to ignore Ted and Pete, who were still screwing around in the back, and glanced at Matt beside him. Matt looked like he was out for a Sunday drive in the city.
Damn,
Luke thought,
he looks like he’s ready to just fall asleep.
Luke had no idea how Matt could be so calm when at any second they could be attacked. “We on the right track?” Luke asked, trying to get Matt to at least pay attention. Matt shrugged.

“Yeah. Another few miles. I tell you what, go ahead and take a left here. We can cut through on the city streets,” Matt said. Luke made the turn and suddenly the road became further congested as two lanes each way became two lanes total. Luke’s palms began to sweat. Trash, overturned cars, dumpsters, and decomposing dead bodies littered the road.

“Christ, what a mess,” Luke complained. He cut their speed as he navigated the bulky, unresponsive van around and over what he could.

“Relax,” Matt said. “We’re almost there.” Luke did not relax. He saw a lazy blind curve ahead and he did not like the looks of it. Anything could be around it. Driving even slower, he made the turn and then suddenly sat up straight in the driver’s seat and slapped the steering wheel. “Oh, shit!” he said and unconsciously threw out his half smoked cigarette. In the road ahead of them was a horde of zombies that appeared to be interested in something in the road.

Matt leaned forward and looked through the windshield. Ted and Pete were wrestling in the back and shouting at each other. “Hey!” Matt yelled at the two of them. “Shut the hell up!”

“What’s going on?” Ted asked from the back. Luke stopped the van and ignored him.

“Are we lost?” Pete asked.

“No,” Matt replied. “What the hell are all those bastards looking at?”

Luke looked closer and then realized what he was seeing. His stomach clenched. “There’s a car under that pile of zombies,” he said. “And I think there are people in it.” Luke stared at the car.
Those people are still alive,
he thought as he watched the zombies climb all over the vehicle, scratching and clawing at the windows. There were at least two people inside and it looked like the car had high centered going over some debris. There was no way it was driving away now. Luke knew they could help.
I could honk the horn, maybe drive through the mob and run down a few of the zombies
. His group had guns, a whole stockpile of ammunition.

“What are we going to do?” Pete asked.

“Not our problem,” Matt said.

Luke grit his teeth. He knew Matt was right but he still did not like it. It would be stupid to put themselves in harm’s way for some people that they didn’t know. In this world, no one did anyone favors.
But still …

“Let’s move,” Matt said.

Luke sighed and lit a fresh cigarette. “Which way?” he asked.

Matt looked around. “I don’t know,” he said and pointed down a side street. “Take a right.”

Luke hit the gas and followed Matt’s direction. The side road was cluttered, but Luke was able to pass through. He took the next left, drove a city block, and took another left. At the next intersection he could see the car again, this time from the other side. The driver’s side door was open and the zombies were climbing over each other to get inside.
Holy Mother,
Luke thought and closed his eyes.
That could so easily be us.

“Hey!” Matt snapped. “Pay attention.”

Luke popped open his eyes and saw two zombies sprinting straight at them from the right. Frustrated and pissed off, Luke floored the accelerator and turned toward the oncoming zombies.
I should have tried to do something to save those people.
“Watch this, Pete!” he yelled. Pete stuck his head between the two front seats just as Luke plowed into the two zombies. One of the heads ripped off and smashed against the windshield, splintering the glass.

“Awesome!” Pete said and started giggling.

“Yeah, awesome,” Luke muttered. Suddenly sick and tired of the life he was trapped in, Luke kept on the gas and drove hard down the narrow street with his cigarette clamped between his teeth. He pushed the van as fast as he could make it go, yanking the steering wheel left and right to get around trash and cars in the road. Matt still just looked bored.

“Take it easy, Earnhardt,” he said. “You want the next left.”

Screw you,
Luke thought and accelerated through the turn, squealing the wheels, and knocking Pete laughing into Ted in the back of the van. With the pedal to the floor, Luke drove as fast as he could past an old weathered sign that read Bowman Shipyard and knew they were there just in time as steam began to pour up from under the hood. Luke hit the brakes, bringing the van to a screeching halt. Before the engine had even died, he jumped out of the cab to suck the last puff off of his cigarette and light another. He heard Matt get out of the passenger’s side and walk around to him.

“We feeling better now?” Matt asked. Luke nodded. He did feel better actually.
Nothing like a little road rage,
he thought while taking a look around. He looked down the Westside Freeway and noticed for the first time that the bridge was out. It looked like someone had run a container ship into it when the bridge was down, probably in a panic to escape the apocalypse. Luke hadn't noticed the damage when they were driving in the van and he imagined how many people had driven up that bridge in the dark and drove right out into nowhere.
That would be one hell of a wakeup call
, he thought and wondered how long it would take to hit the water. Shaking his head at the image, he focused on the boatyard.

From what he could see, it was everything Matt had promised. The fence line was state of the art prison grade and completely secure. Cement blocks at each of the posts and triple coils of barbed wire ran along the top. The fence itself ran deep into the concrete so there was no gap below.
Working here must have felt like you were working in prison
, he thought. Walking the fence line, he was definitely impressed but immediately wondered how in the hell they were going to get inside. The fence was designed to keep people out. People just like him. He stuck his finger through one of the chain links. It was not even raw metal. It had been coated with something to make it harder to cut through.
Maybe if I got on top of the van I could climb over, but it has to be fifteen feet to the top and even if I could get through the razor wire, I don’t like the idea of jumping down to the concrete on the other side.
He walked over to the gate and found it was not going to be any easier to get through.
This Bowman guy must have had some issues
.

Finished with his assessment, Luke walked back to the van. Any plan he might have been forming to use the vehicle to bust through the gate was worthless. The van was as good as dead. The two zombies he had run into crushed the front end. Steam boiled out from under the hood and green antifreeze dumped into the street. Ted and Pete got out and came around to stand next to Matt and Luke.

“We ain’t going to make it to Zombie Free Country in this,” Pete said, clearly disappointed. “So now what?”

Matt put his hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It was never supposed to, remember?” Pete looked confused. “Never mind,” Matt continued. “Okay, next step. Into the boatyard.”

Luke looked at Matt. “And how are you going to pull that off? It’s Fort Knox.”

“I’ve got a plan,” Matt said.

“Good,” Luke said.

“All we need to do is find a rowboat or something and come in by the water,” Matt explained.

Luke looked out at the water. The fence extended along the side of the bay and wrapped around to a guardhouse. He looked down the length of the compound and could see another gatehouse at the far corner as well. A mini marina ran between the houses along the water’s edge. “I’m kind of surprised Bowman didn’t put another fence back there,” he said.