Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation (31 page)

Not much at all
, Wilder thought.

After the gear was packed and the gas was siphoned from the vehicles being left behind, Butsko and Wilder gathered the group together.

“We sustained some heavy losses,
”
said Butsko in a somber tone. “They were our friends, and they were our family, but we cannot let these losses defeat us. We’re still in the battlefield and are still in harm’s way. Myself, Wilder, and many other soldiers tried to teach the civilians as much as we could about combat. We taught you how to shoot and clean guns, the basics of hand-to-hand combat, and fighting with weapons. The one thing we couldn’t teach you was how to handle losing friends in the field of battle. As a soldier, when you lose a fellow soldier, there’s no other choice but to carry on. If you stop to mourn, even for a second, then you die.”

“We know it’s not easy,
”
Wilder added, “but we’re asking you all to push the pain down. There will be time to properly mourn, but if you become distracted by that pain now, you endanger yourselves and the others around you.”

“Push down the pain and focus on the mission,
”
Butsko said. “We’re leaving this place and heading to Spicewood. There, we will find Schoepke Springs, fight whatever is waiting for us, and successfully detonate one of the experimental EMP bombs. We’re not out here to escape from what’s behind us. We’re headed towards something big that could potentially change the tide of this war.”

“What about those new fuckers?
”
Megan asked.

“What about them?
”
Butsko answered with his own question.

“You saw them,
”
Megan said. “You know what they can do. They’re faster and deadlier than the other infected.”

“These new yellow-eyed players don’t change our mission at all,
”
Butsko said. “It is safe to assume they are similar to the other infected humans and will be affected by the EMP blast the same way.”

“Besides,
”
Wilder said. “In war, you never change your strategy over the unknown.”

“I think they’re mutated zombies,
”
Melvin suddenly blurted out.

All eyes turned to Melvin.

“Why do you say that, Melvin?
”
Butsko asked.

“I agree with you that these new creatures are infected with the same bio-nanotechnology,
”
Melvin said, “and we’ve seen the infected getting stronger and faster, and they’ve even learned our patterns. But what if the nanites themselves mutated and evolved into those things we saw?”

Silence swept across the foyer.

“That still doesn’t change our situation,
”
Butsko finally answered. “If they did evolve or mutate, then we’ll adapt and find a new way to kill them. The mission hasn’t changed.”

“What bothers me,
”
Melvin continued, “is that the yellow-eyed creatures didn’t seem interested in infecting, just killing.”

“That’s a great point,
”
Mears said. “Those three bastards walked right up to us, sniffed us, and ran off. They could have infected the three of us as effortlessly as one of us swatting a fly.”

“And don’t forget about what those things did to Cain and Mane’s bodies,
”
added Fisher. “They certainly didn’t intend for Cain to come back, and I’m guessing if that other one had just a little more time, Mane’s body would’ve looked exactly the same.”

“I agree,
”
Butsko said, “and I understand your concerns, but the bottom line is that our best chance of fighting these bastards, all these bastards, is waiting for us at Schoepke Springs. Wilder, Fisher, Mears, you’re in the Growler. Wilder, you drive. Mears, you’re on the fifty-calibre. Fisher, you’re their eyes. The rest of us are in the truck.”

Everyone grabbed their gear and headed to their assigned vehicles.

“And be sure to not waste ammo,
”
Butsko warned. “What you’re carrying is all we got. We need to make every shot count. If we pass any of those fuckers on the way, leave them be. Save every round for Schoepke Springs. That’s where the real battle is.”

5

Hollingsworth Corner

Spicewood, Texas

Fi walked along Hollingsworth Corner and looked in the various stores. She wandered among the general store, a place that sold boats, another that sold used cars, and Ritchie’s Bar-B-Que restaurant.

Fi had faint memories of similar places in a different location, but those kinds of things no longer meant anything to her.

Fi walked among friends. Not friends in a human sense, but ‘friends
’
in the sense that the others were like her. As she looked at the others, she noticed that no one had any visible scars or wounds from when they were first infected. As with Fi, whatever they all carried inside had healed them.

And, of course, there were the yellow eyes.

Everyone who walked around Hollingsworth Corner had those feral, yellow eyes. All the creatures looked at each other and they all wondered the same thing.

How did I get here? What am I doing here
?

The first question was easy enough. The nano-biotechnology that coursed through all the creatures evolved a hive intelligence. What was known by one creature was known by all the creatures. This is how the zombies in Florida knew about the running missions before they experienced it.

None of the creatures understood how they knew the things they knew. It was like whispers that echoed in the backs of their heads urging them to do or not do certain things and go to certain places. If Fi concentrated hard enough, she could hear the thoughts of the other creatures. Most of the voices were meaningless babbling, but every so often an important piece of information would stream through the hive consciousness and stand out like a beacon against the usual white noise.

The same beacon in the hive intelligence that drew Fi to this place drew the others as well.

The streets were full of the yellow-eyed creatures. Fi guessed their numbers swelled in the thousands. Fi also noticed that no regular infected creatures walked around. She wasn’t surprised. The infected were afraid of her and ran off when they sensed her around. She guessed there weren’t any of them around for miles.

In other places she’d been to, Fi would panic if she didn’t sense or see any of the infected around. Now, though, the anger had all but disappeared. The closer she got to her destination, the less anger she felt in her body. But she knew that it wasn’t the town itself that drew her. There was a particular place that had drawn her and the other yellow-eyed creatures.

Fi had taken a long journey to get to this place, and she knew she was close to her journey’s end. If she resisted the pull, the anger would overwhelm her.

But Fi didn’t want to resist the pull. She and all the others knew they were different from the infected. They didn’t act on base instincts. They all knew they had a higher purpose, and that when they got to the source of what guided them, they would discover why they were different.

They would discover their purpose.

Fi, and the thousands of other yellow-eyed creatures, headed north.

It wouldn’t be long before they reached their destination.

6

Abandoned Gas Station

Spicewood, Texas

Walt continued to fill the duffle bag with cans of food, beef jerky, and anything else that had a long shelf life. He looked over at Cheryl as she leaned on the counter by the cash register.

“Find anything good?
”
Walt asked.

Cheryl looked up from where she was wrapping duct tape around the bottom part of the crowbar she’d found.

“Just upgrading my weapon again,
”
said Cheryl as she flashed Walt a wicked smile. “The duct tape will give me a better grip.”

“Anything else useful back there?
”
Walt asked.

“Found a box of wooden matches,
”
Cheryl answered. “There’s about thirty matches in there, and a few lighters.”

“I found some lighter fluid!
”
Samantha yelled from across the store. “There’s also a ton of charcoal over here, but I’m not carrying that!”

Darren walked in through the front door holding up two red metal cans of gasoline.

“Found these cans right out front,
”
Darren said. “I went around and siphoned the gas from all the cars around the gas station.”

“Be careful out there, Darren,
”
said Walt.

“I didn’t hear or see anything out there,
”
Darren said. “It was so still and calm that it was downright creepy.”

“Just because you can’t see them,
”
Walt started to say
,
“doesn’t mean they aren’t out there,
”
Darren finished. “I got ya. How are you all doing in here?
”
The others told them about their finds, and they all relaxed a bit and dug into bags of junk food for breakfast.

Just as Walt opened up a bag of nacho cheese chips, David walked back into the main part of the store.

“Whatever happened around here must have happened fast,
”
David said as he approached the others. “There’s a ton of bottled water in the coolers and in the storage room back there.”

“Good,
”
Walt said. “We’ll all load our bags full of water as well.”

“How’s Joe doing?
”
Cheryl asked.

“He’s out back looking for fuel,
”
David answered.

“I have us covered,
”
Darren said as he tapped the cans of gasoline with his boot.

The room was full of crunching sounds as the group feasted on pretzels, corn chips, potato chips, and cookies.

“If it wasn't for the fact that I was so damn hungry,” David said, “I’d be worried that none of this food is stale yet.” He and the others laughed between mouthfuls.

“I’ll head back there and get him,
”
said Darren around a mouthful of pretzels.

Darren glanced around at the items on the shelves as he walked toward the storage room. David was right. There was a ton of water and other basic staples still in the coolers. The coolers had long since broken down, but the bottled water would be fine.

“Joe!
”
Darren called as he approached the back door. “Hey, Joe! It’s Darren! I found a bunch of fuel out front. Come join us for a healthy breakfast.”

Darren heard some noises outside and stopped walking. Darren was about to call out Joe’s name again but caught himself as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

Outside the back door, Darren heard the sound of something shuffling around and silently pulled the Beretta from its holster.

One of the things that had kept Darren alive was his ability to use all his senses to his advantage. Besides hearing or seeing the infected, Darren had also learned what they smelled like. It was an easy smell to detect.

The infected smelled like death.

As Darren reached for the doorknob, he couldn’t smell anything but the pretzels he ate for breakfast.

Darren walked outside and quickly turned in case something was waiting to jump him from behind.

“Joe,
”
said Darren barely above a whisper. “Where are you, buddy?”

Darren felt something under his foot and saw it was Joe’s M1 carbine with the bayonet attached.

“Not good,
”
Darren whispered to himself.

He approached a chain-link cage that fenced in a huge, white propane tank.

Darren didn’t see any signs of Joe or a struggle, and was about to call out Joe’s name again, when he heard something move on top of the chain-link cage.

Before Darren could look up, the creature on top of the cage leapt toward him and knocked the Beretta from his hands.

Darren immediately brought his knee up into the zombie’s stomach with no effect. The zombie grabbed Darren’s hand and pushed against him. Darren stumbled back and tripped over the carbine on the ground.

As he fell, Darren twisted his body away from the creature’s mouth. As his back slammed onto the concrete, the air rushed out of Darren’s lungs.

The zombie pushed down on Darren and opened its mouth.

Darren pushed back as hard as he could, but the zombie was strong, and Darren was weakened by having to gasp for air.

Darren pushed against the creature with one arm and fumbled around in his pocket for one of the syringes.