The Last Outbreak (Book 1): Awakening (13 page)

Belted into the passenger seat, Ethan held David’s phone and read the rapid-fire texts that came through. “Carly’s going to meet us near the nurse’s station as soon as she can. But she said that you may have to help me pop this sucker back in, she’s a bit buried at the moment.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

They’d be pulling into the parking lot in less than sixty seconds, but were warned to come through the employee entrance along the back of the hospital. The events happening at the main entrance left the already overworked hospital staff without any additional resources.

Entering the staff parking lot, David slowed to a stop and nodded out the left side of the truck. “Uh… Ethan.”

Looking up from the phone as another text came through, Ethan understood why they’d stopped. “Keep going, we can’t help them now.”

Engine Two sat just shy of the next intersection, and less than one hundred feet from the main entrance to the hospital. Their rig had been, and was still being, attacked by more than two dozen out-of-towners. Men and women still wearing their chef’s hats and chili-fest themed t-shirts forced their way into the cab.

The group of deranged individuals had pulled the firefighters out into the middle of the street and were huddled in tight packs over the two obscured bodies. Fighting one another for position, the frantic visitors clawed their way to the downed civil servants, shredded their dark blue uniforms, and began attacking the areas of exposed flesh.

“Feeders,” David said. “It sure fits those things.”

“What?”

“That’s what they’re calling them—Feeders.”

“So that’s what stayed with you from those videos, the pointless name that they came up with? Yeah, I get it, they feed on people, so they’re Feeders. I’ll call them whatever you want. But, what about the fact that those things seem to be multiplying faster than rabbits in spring? You need to move this truck before they decide to come feed on us.”

“Ethan, we have to do something. We can’t just leave them here to—”

“You gonna do it alone?” Ethan said. “Because I won’t be any good to you out there.”

“They were our friends, our neighbors. How are you okay with—”

Again interrupting, Ethan said, “There’s what, thirty of them out there, maybe more? You really think we’d even have a chance? Listen, I’m getting my ass into that hospital, putting my shoulder back where it belongs, and getting the hell out of this city. You need to get Carly and do the same.”

“I don’t like it, but I guess you’re right. I’m just not cool with leaving them out there.”

“Those men—our friends—they’re gone and there isn’t anything we can do about it. Those other people, the ones attacking our friends were probably regular people too, but unless we want to end up like one of them, we need to think about us.”

Shaking his head, David looked away and pulled to the rear of the lot. Away from the other vehicles he stopped, cut the engine, and checked his mirrors. “You ready?”

Ethan looked up from the display and handed David his phone. “Change of plans. Carly is locked in the administrator’s office. She says it’s too late, they’ve been overrun. She’s hiding with someone named Ben. I texted her that we’re on the way and to stay put.”

“Okay,” David said. “But, I’m still gonna to need your help, so…”

Unbuckling his seatbelt, Ethan reached for the door handle. “So what?”

“We’ve got to do your arm right now, before we get inside. You good with that?”

“Sure, but after this, you’re going to help me. No questions asked. Are
you
good with that?”

Again checking the mirrors, David nodded and opened the door. “Let’s do this.” Looking back as he closed the door, he watched as Ethan also stepped out and headed toward the rear of the truck.

They met at the rear door as David checked his weapon, scanned the lot, and waited for Ethan to get in position. “Let’s go bud.”

Surveying his side of the lot, Ethan quickly holstered his weapon. He turned to David, rotated forward, and dropped his right shoulder. “We’ve got company. I’ll get my shoulder back in, just get over here and cover me.”

David stared at Ethan for a moment, offered a slight grin, and moved out around the passenger side of the vehicle. Turning back, he quietly said, “Maybe thirty seconds. We’ve got a pretty big group headed this way.”

“I only need five.” Arching his back and rounding his shoulder, Ethan clenched his jaw and breathed out forcefully through his nose. Beginning to externally rotate his right elbow, he closed his eyes and waited for the familiar jolt and the sound that could be heard three streets over.

“Ten seconds Ethan, it’s now or never.”

The pain nearly bringing him to his knees, Ethan yelped as his upper arm grinded through the last second of bone on bone before falling back into place. Spitting a small amount of blood out onto the pavement, he grabbed David, and pointed to the employee entrance. “Come on.”

As sensation intermittently flowed in and out of his right arm, Ethan started toward the building with David close behind. They weaved their way through the abandoned vehicles littering the employee lot and upon reaching the rear entrance, pulled open the doors.

Securing the entrance, David retrieved a few sheets from the supply cart and tied off the double doors. Peering back out into the lot, many of those that followed had gotten disoriented as they made their way through the vehicles and had begun walking in circles, no closer to the building than they were sixty seconds before.

“Where’d Carly say they were?”

“One of the offices, I think up front. Let’s find her and get the hell out of dodge.”

Through the second set of double doors, and into the main hallway, David pulled out his phone. “Okay, I know where she is. Let’s cut through the cafeteria and avoid the patient rooms altogether.”

Tapping his friend on the shoulder and pointing toward the end of the lengthy corridor, Ethan placed his hand over his weapon. “What do you make of this?”

Two rows of aluminum-framed cots lined the darkened hall, one on each side. As close as he could estimate, there were thirty-six in total, each supporting a lifeless corpse and draped over in white hospital linen. And near the end of the unnerving gauntlet, David detected movement. “Carly, didn’t mention any of this, but I have a feeling we’re about to become educated, like right now.”

The storm continued to grow. Pushing across the mountain in large flurries, it had nearly erased the foot shaped imprints left behind from their previous battle. Across the open glade, frosted treetops groaned under the burden of the snow resting innocently along its upper branches, releasing its overages back to earth with each new gust.

Their two yet unaccounted for pursuers had once again picked up the trail; however, they were now accompanied by three new friends. Punching out into the open, they now had a visual. Neither the terrain nor the inclement weather appeared to slow this new group.

Rubbing his head, Griffin leaned into Cora and stood. “Where’s your gun?”

Without running her hand along her back to confirm her suspicions, she knew it wasn’t there. Replaying in her head what she could of the previous thirty minutes, she figured it was either resting underneath the shrub she’d extricated herself from or buried beneath the new snow somewhere between here and there. “I don’t know.”

As the group of five again moved closer, Griffin turned back to the ledge. “We need to move, let’s go.”

“No,” Cora said, grabbing a fistful of Griffin’s jacket. “We won’t make it down that way.”

His head still in a fog, Griffin followed Cora as she cut a path through a dense row of mountain sagebrush. They stepped carefully away from the slick granite, finding their footing among the soft underbrush. Neither turned to check their progress, although as they advanced down the frozen hillside, using one another to stay upright, the distant footfalls grew closer.

Clutching the nine millimeter as if their being overrun was inevitable, Griffin motioned out of the next line of trees and to the left. With Cora’s pace beginning to falter, they needed another plan. Outrunning those at their back wouldn’t be an option for much longer. And for all they knew, this wasn’t the only group hunting them.

Slowing, but continuing to ignore those in pursuit, he waited for Cora to come to him. Sliding up under her right arm, he spoke to her as they again were on the move. “We can’t outrun them, and I’m not sure we’d do any better stopping to take them on with only one weapon.”

Less composed than her counterpart, Cora fought to get the words out between heavy breaths. “What then?” Swallowing air in big gulps, she tried again. “What do we—?” The hole above her left hip now exacerbated by the contractions coursing through her abdominals, her voice broke with each word. “Then. What. Do. We. Do?”

Leaning into her, Griffin guided them through a dense patch of Rocky Mountain Juniper, hoping to make up ground through the speckled maze. His feet now completely numb, thoughts of frostbite and losing parts he was still fond of ran at the front of his mind. “We have to get out of this damn weather. Either that or hide, and I don’t think—”

Her shoulders fell and as she breathed out into his ear, she stopped. Cora held tight to Griffin’s shoulder as he urged her on. She said, “I can’t feel my hands or my feet and if there was anything left in my stomach, I’d throw it up.”

Griffin continued to drag her for another twenty feet before he also gave in.  Out from under her arm, he turned and held her by the shoulders. “Can you stand?”

Tiny beads of sweat pooled at her hairline, then started down her forehead before evaporating into her thick black brows. Although now stationary, her breathing increased and as pale as the snow beyond, her face suddenly went flush. “I don’t—” Her body dropped out from under his hands before he could grab ahold.

“CORA.”

Nothing.

Down to his knees, her peered into her eyes and watched her irises fade into thin brown rings just before her lids dropped over them. “CORA, LET’S GO.”

Again nothing.

Scanning the narrow margins between the white fluffed Junipers, Griffin slid her upper body onto his thighs. Her body convulsed as he felt his way to her carotid and applied enough pressure to confirm she was still present. “Okay, stay with me. We’re getting out of here.”

As the first of their five pursuers trudged out into the open, Griffin had already pulled her another twenty-five feet. At his back, a row of Ponderosa Pine large enough to hide a small plane rose out of the earth nearly thirty feet.

Plowing through the snow blanketed lower branches, he flinched as buckets of the white powder slipped in between his last layer of clothing and onto his bare back. Shielding Cora from much of the deluge, he looked back one last time before disappearing into the treeline. “You gotta be kidding me.”

Two out in the open and both had seen them. He had five seconds, maybe ten to figure out what to do.

Propping her up against the base of the tree, Cora smiled. She was still here, at least for the moment. “Are we there?” she asked.

“Yes,” he lied. “Just say here and sleep. We’re almost home.”

Before heading back out into the unknown, Griffin quickly recounted the items left inside the jacket now draped over Cora’s diminutive frame. He unzipped the right pocket, withdrew a black Patagonia wool-lined beanie and slipped it down over her head. She didn’t react. Her eyes were still closed and with one last look at the rise and fall of her chest, Griffin pushed through the trees.

There were two, and then three. They moved slower than before, but came from opposing directions, essentially closing off any chance of exiting to the north. The first two, coming in from the left, were a few paces behind the leader as he made eye contact with each individually.

Pacing right, Griffin waited as they turned and started toward him. “Let’s go, that’s right just keep coming. I’ve got a surprise for each and every one of you.”

Continuing to follow his every step, the group trailed him out away from Cora’s shelter and into the next clearing. As Griffin quickened his pace and moved to the center, the leader growled. Baring her teeth, the former prison worker moved closer, exposing the jagged mess her teeth had become. Twisting her head curiously to the left, ragged pieces of flayed skin and an orange tinted mucus hung awkwardly from her mouth.

The group of three were now within a few feet of one another and less than a car length behind. His plan was to bring them out away from his traveling partner, use the open space to scatter the echoes from the three shots he planned to take, and then blow the backs of their heads into oblivion. In the off chance the other two were anywhere within earshot, they’d likely not find this location until he was back to Cora and off the mountain.

“Let’s go ladies, just a few more feet.”

Raising the Glock 17 nine millimeter pistol, Griffin sighted his first target. “Oh no.”

On the outer edges of the glade, weaving in and out of the giant pine, were two more women from the bus. Dead eyes and branded in blood, they obviously hadn’t come to help. They were also much closer to Cora than he was comfortable with.

“Here we go.” Firing three close-range head shots, Griffin turned and ran as the trio of faceless, blood-saturated bodies dropped into the ankle-deep snow.