Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation (16 page)

The group agreed and settled in. Each person had their own nightmares playing on a continuous loop in their minds.

A shiver ran up and down Walt’s spine as he thought about Hector.

“I remember there being a lot of boxes down here,
”
Walt said as he broke the silence. “Let’s see if there’s anything useful in them.”

Darren pulled a package out of his backpack and opened it. Inside were six military-grade light sticks. They were the more durable versions of the glow sticks kids would have played with at nighttime. Darren distributed the light sticks, and soon the root cellar was bathed in a green glow.

They all tried to make as little noise as possible as they searched for the boxes.

“Found one,
”
said David with victory in his voice.

“There’s some boxes over here too,
”
Jonas said.

Sounds of boxes being carefully opened and sorted through filled the root cellar.

Walt couldn’t shake the image of Hector’s pale, dead skin and lifeless eyes. What’s more, he couldn’t get past what he’d seen in those eyes.

5

Lago Vista Golf Course

Lago Vista, Texas

Before joining the others, Mears, Jones, Hall, and Wilder conducted another sweep around the perimeter of the clubhouse. The perimeter was clear, and there were still no signs of any of the infected.

Wilder didn’t know what was worse—having zombies around to deal with, or there being an unexplainable void of the creatures around the clubhouse.

What the hell could possibly be scaring away the infected
? Wilder asked himself as he walked around the clubhouse.
Could Butsko be right? Is there a new player on the field
?

When Wilder met up with Mears, Jones, and Hall by the front doors, the three soldiers reported the same.

After going inside, they ate their MREs and the soldiers told the others what they had found on the golf course by the lake.

“How many bodies do you think were there?
”
asked Fisher.

“It was impossible to determine,
”
responded Wilder. “There was barely anything left.”

“Are you positive that those were human remains?
”
Melvin asked. “Maybe the infected tried eating some animals and didn’t like the taste.”

The others looked at Melvin.

“Maybe?
”
added Melvin.

“No,
”
Butsko answered. “They were definitely the remains of human beings. And from the looks of the few intact pieces, I’d say the remains were from infected humans.”

The group broke out in scattered discussion as they all pondered upon what the pile of remains could’ve been.

“Hold on everyone,
”
Wilder said loudly. “Let’s not get too worked up over this. We don’t yet know what we’re dealing with.”

“With all due respect, Sir,
”
said Wallack. “Isn’t that
exactly
why we should be worked up?”

“I gotta agree with Wallack, Sir,
”
Vasquez said. “I don’t think we should panic, but there’s something out there hunting down and obliterating the infected.”

“And whatever it is has also scared them away,
”
added Megan.

The group once again broke out into a loud discussion.

“Enough everyone!
”
Butsko shouted as everyone’s eyes fell on him. “I understand your desire and need to understand what’s going on out there,
”
Butsko added in a softer voice, “but the last thing we need is to whip ourselves into a frenzy over nothing.”

Mane began to say something, but Butsko continued before he got a word out. “Yes,
”
Butsko continued, “there’s something new out there that’s potentially more dangerous than the infected we’ve been fighting these last two years.”

“Maybe, maybe not,
”
said Melvin.

“Do you have a theory, Melvin?
”
Wilder asked.

“Well, let’s go through what we know,
”
said Melvin. “We know the infection is caused by mutated bio-nanotechnology whose only purpose is to infect others in order to continue its existence. We also know the nanites, as I believe you call them,
”
Melvin said to Butsko, “started off in animals, mutated, and then jumped to humans.”

“That’s correct,
”
said Butsko, as he knew where Melvin was going with his thinking.

“So the nanites have the capability to jump species,
”
continued Melvin, “and it appears they are jumping up.”

“Up?
”
Trunst asked.

“Up the food chain,
”
Melvin clarified. “So it seems rather unlikely that the infected would go back to infecting animals.”

“Not that there’s many animals around anymore,
”
Fisher chimed in.

“So what if,
”
continued Melvin, “the nanites mutated again?”

Melvin paused suddenly, as if he stumbled onto the answer.

“What if,
”
Melvin said in a more excited tone, “some of the nanites evolved into something higher than the current infected humans?”

A hushed silence fell over everyone.

“I once worked on a video game,
Alien Infection
,
”
Melvin explained, “and in it some aliens were captured by the military. The aliens infected the researchers and turned them into monsters.”

“Fiction mirrors non-fiction once again,
”
said Wallack.

“But what’s relevant here,
”
Melvin continued, “is that the alien infection kept mutating into bigger and fiercer creatures.”

“I’m afraid to ask this,
”
said Vasquez, “but how does the game end?”

“Not good, Vasquez,
”
answered Melvin, “not good at all. The final creature the aliens mutated into was a hulking, beast of thing that was very difficult to kill.”

“Okay, okay,
”
Butsko said. “I see the comparison you’re making, Melvin, but let’s not forget that that was only a video game.”

“What about this,
”
said Melvin, changing gears. “There’s no denying that over the last two years humans have gotten better at killing the infected. Maybe the nanites have adapted to that.”

“That’s crazy,
”
Steele said. “Those things are fucking crazy, and maybe one got territorial or something and attacked a few others.”

“It might be as simple as that, Steele,
”
Melvin said. “Unfortunately, the evidence seems to suggest that the nanites are able to learn.”

“That’s a good point, Melvin,
”
Wilder chimed in. “We kicked their asses, and it seems they’ve learned our strategy.”

“Yeah,
”
added Jones. “And they were able to warn other zombies hundreds of miles away.”

“Any way you look at this,
”
said Melvin, “it’s not looking good for us.”

“This makes what we’re doing out here even more important,
”
said Butsko as he stood.

“Yeah, about that,
”
said Cain. “What exactly is this mission that we’re on?”

“Why don’t we make some coffee,
”
Butsko said, “and Wilder and I will tell you everything.”

6

Schoepke Springs

Outside Spicewood, Texas

About ten miles outside Spicewood lay some of the most beautiful camping and hiking grounds in central Texas. Before the outbreak, one of the most frequently visited grounds had been Schoepke Springs.

Schoepke Springs was both a camping and swimming area. There were over thirty springs on the property and many of them fed into a huge man-made pool that eventually flowed into Lake Travis.

Schoepke Springs, though, was more than a just a family destination.

The Schoepke Springs property belonged to the Schoepke family and had for generations. Heinrich Schoepke, the family’s patriarch, moved to this area in early 1946 and bought up much of the land. Heinrich wasn’t a rich man, but he was intelligent, and more importantly, the U.S. government thought he was an asset in the post-WWII world.

Heinrich Schoepke was one of Adolf Hitler’s right hand men and was brought to America by the Office of Strategic Services
’
program known as Operation Paperclip. This program gave over 1,500 German scientists American citizenship after WWII. The rationale behind Operation Paperclip was that if America didn’t keep their eyes on these scientists, they would end up working for and help advancing the Soviet Union’s science and military research programs.

In March of 1946, Heinrich Schoepke and his wife, Ilke, were brought to Texas and given a thousand acres of land which included the springs.

Heinrich was especially important to the U.S. government because of his knowledge with bombs. Amidst all the battles fought in many different theaters during WWII, none was bigger than the battle being carried out in research laboratories. The United States and Germany raced to see who could build the first nuclear weapon and successfully use it.

Through the Manhattan Project, the U.S. successfully created atomic bombs which were then used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thereby ending the war.

German scientists, through the
Uranprojekt
, didn’t just work on their own atomic bomb but also made huge advancements on a hydrogen bomb project. An atomic bomb worked by splitting large atomic nuclei, such as uranium or plutonium. This is known as fission. There was a lot of energy released through the process of fission, but there was also a limit to the size you can make an atomic bomb. Atomic bombs usually blew themselves apart before all the uranium or plutonium was ignited.

This restriction is what led the Germans to research hydrogen bombs. Hydrogen bombs used an atomic bomb to ignite a nuclear fusion bomb. In these types of bombs, hydrogen isotopes were fused together to form helium, and the result was a release of a lot more energy.

The U.S. didn’t successfully develop and test a hydrogen bomb until May of 1956, well after the end of WWII, and its success was largely attributed to Operation Paperclip and the German scientists who were brought to America.

What wasn’t found in history books is that Germany was far more advanced in their research and were much closer to a hydrogen bomb. Officially,
Uranprojekt
was Germany’s secret atomic bomb development program. Unofficially, it was also their attempt to make the first hydrogen bomb.

The man who was the head of the hydrogen bomb research and development was Heinrich Schoepke.

Underneath the huge man-made pool at Schoepke Springs, a five-mile-by-five-mile research facility was built for Heinrich to continue his research under the close eye of Uncle Sam.

The facility, dubbed
Uranprojekt
2, was decommissioned in 1990. This was also the year that Heinrich and his grandson Josef started their own research. Through layers of paperwork and dummy corporations, Heinrich owned many patents to various procedures and methods he developed through his research. This made him and his heirs very wealthy and made it easy to continue and go beyond the research that Heinrich started.

Since the outbreak two years ago, there had been no visitors to the springs, and no one knew what became of Heinrich’s heirs. Only his son Heinrich and his grandson knew what kinds of weapons and research Heinrich’s heirs worked on.

Through his contacts in the darker hallways of the military-industrial complex, Butsko also knew what kinds of weapons were developed and stored at the underground facility at Schoepke Springs.

7

Will to Heal Center

Spicewood, Texas

The boxes proved to be a treasure trove of useful items. Dennis found a box full of candles which he and Samantha set around the cellar. Jonas found a box full of memories. There were faded photographs, an old WWII uniform, and an original M1 carbine wrapped in oily rags that was in surprisingly good condition. There was no ammo for the rifle, but Jonas smiled as he found the bayonet. He slid the blade into the lug and accustomed himself to the weight of the new weapon.

“That’s a classic,
”
said Darren, nodding toward the M1. “I’m sure it saved the life of its owner many times.”