The Last Outbreak (Book 1): Awakening (22 page)
He couldn’t quite place his surroundings. It was dark and his feet were heavy, the wind on his face much cooler than he remembered. There was a brilliant pain at the top of his head, a constant pounding that radiated down into the base of his skull and between his shoulders. He sensed that he was being dragged, his boots skipping off the asphalt and moving toward a pair of glowing beacons somewhere off in the distance.
“Ethan, were going home.”
The voice was crystal clear, but he had yet to recognize its owner. Attempting to speak, he only managed a few words. “Where is my friend?”
“Come on, Ethan, keep moving. We’re almost there.”
Another voice, this time speaking to the first. “Is she okay? What did you tell her?”
A woman… he knew this person, but not well. Her tone was familiar, but the memory still clouded.
Her voice again. “How’d they clear the streets?”
“That kid standing at the door—Ben, he’s been driving up and down the block for hours. Those things finally all followed the truck away from the building.”
As the lights ahead merged into one, Ethan closed his eyes and breathed in deep. The sting of spent fuel burned the back of his throat, and the idling engine brought him back to the present. “Where is he?”
There was no response.
Turning away from the glare of the armored vehicle’s headlights, Ethan opened his eyes. He had one arm slung over Griffin and the other rested atop Shannon’s shoulders. They dragged him to the rear of the truck and sat him on the extended rear bumper. “What’s going on, where’s David?”
As the words left his mouth, Carly had turned the corner and appeared from out of his field of vision. She sat next to him on the bumper, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him in close. “Ethan, he’s gone. David was bitten at the hospital and—” The moment took her. Carly began to sob heavily, thick tears running down her face and onto his shirt. “He attacked you.”
She folded into him, the two held each other and cried like they’d never before. As the memories began to come back to Ethan, he wiped his wet face and looked up. Griffin and Shannon stood ten feet away in the shadow of the full moon. With their backs to the truck, they watched as the two bank employees strode to their vehicles and drove off.
Ethan kissed Carly on the forehead and asked her if she would check on Ben and Cora. He knew if she felt like she was needed, her mind wouldn’t have much time for anything else. As she walked to the side of the truck, Ethan turned back to Griffin and Shannon. “What the hell happened in there?”
Half expecting this, Griffin said, “You know what happened, you were there. Except for the difficult part, where you hesitated and left it up to us to clean up the mess.”
“Mess?” Ethan said. “Putting a bullet into the head of someone I’ve known for my entire life, is that what you’re referring to as my mess?”
“Listen,” Griffin said, “You’re still here because of us—so maybe a little gratitude wouldn’t hurt.”
“Who did it?”
“Who did what?”
“Who killed David?”
“He was dead before he walked into that bank, you know that.”
“No,” Ethan said. “Who took my gun and actually put a bullet in his head?”
Griffin looked directly into Ethan’s eyes. “I did—there was no other way. You’d be dead right now if—”
Shannon looked at Griffin. She shook her head, turned, and walked back toward the truck.
“He was my friend,” Ethan said. “My only friend, so excuse me if I don’t thank you and shake your hand just yet.”
As the truck continued to idle, Ben appeared at the side door. “Listen guys, we’ve got to go. The last wave we cleared out is headed back this way, and I didn’t spend the last three hours clearing them for nothing. Let’s go.”
Griffin nodded. “Ethan, I understand. And I’m sorry, but I didn’t have a choice. I hope that you can trust me on that.”
“I’m trying to.”
Griffin started for the side door and Ethan followed. They climbed into the rear cabin and moved in beside the others. Ethan’s vision still a bit blurry, and the pounding in his head not yet subsiding, he took a seat against the wall as Griffin remained standing near the door.
All eyes turned to Carly as she used the sleeve of her uniform jacket to wipe away the tears and began to compose herself. “This thing… whatever it is, has the ability to wipe out all of us—every last human on this planet. The reason I say this
Thing
, is because no one yet knows what it is. When I got to work this morning, the emergency room was full and there were at least twenty deep waiting. To say that we were overwhelmed would be the understatement of the year.”
As Ben pulled the armored truck out into the street, Ethan sat forward. “Those people from the Chili-fest?”
“Some,” Carly said. “But also some locals too. Most were complaining of something happening out at John’s farm when they were setting up. They said they were being attacked. We just figured the drunks from the night before were getting a bit rowdy. That was until the first one passed. Bed number three, the older gentleman stopped breathing and no one even knew. He was bitten in the back and because we were so busy, no one thought to go check on him.”
Cora reached for Carly’s hand. “He ended up like the others?”
“Yes, as one of the other nurses wheeled him out of the ER, he sat straight up and—”
“So,” Griffin said, “it looks like these people that are bitten are infected somehow. Any ideas what could cause something like this?”
Shaking her head, Carly said, “It doesn’t make sense. Nothing about it does. It’s not viral, it’s not bacterial, and it doesn’t present as an antigen.”
“How do you know?”
“Well this is the part that may make your skin crawl. After about the first hour, hospital administration contacted the CDC. We were told that they were already aware of the situation and that we may need to turn away anyone showing signs of infection. They said we should have a police presence at the entrance and take whatever precautions were necessary.”
“What did they want you to do, just let people die?”
“They never really gave us specific instructions, but we found out later that they’d been dealing with this for almost a week. The scary part is that they still had no idea what it was.”
“Had no idea?”
“After about ten this morning, they stopped answering their phones, although we received a broadcast email shortly afterward that said we should take whatever measures were necessary to survive. They called this a Global Event.”
Rubbing his temples, Ethan said, “What does that mean? For us, right here right now? Could this thing eventually just run its course?”
“We just don’t know. The best thing we can do right now is to find others and get somewhere safe. Somewhere secluded maybe. But not here.”
“Why not?”
“Have any of you heard of the Xavier Brevin Mental Health facility? The one about an hour north, just outside Thomasville?”
“The insane asylum?” Cora said.
“Well… yes. When all this happened earlier today, they were overrun and as the gates came down, all six-hundred criminally insane patients spilled out into the streets. Last we heard, they’d completely destroyed Thomasville and were headed here.”
“So,” Ethan said, “we leave. All of us, we drive out—”
Ben pulled into the shadows and parked the truck at the end of Old Bridge Road. He turned from the driver’s seat and said, “Ethan, your phone has been blowing up. You have like a million messages.”
“It’s Emma… excuse me.”
Ethan joined Ben in the cab and pulled his phone from the charger. Sixteen text messages and eight voicemails. All but one from his sister.
He scrolled first through his text messages, the majority were simply Emma questioning his whereabouts. However, the last few described the same hell he and his friends were going through and that his sister was scared. She’d lost her job and someone named Richard Daniels was helping her.
Switching to his voicemail, it was much of the same. Before finishing the calls from his sister, he keyed up the only message that wasn’t from her. His mother called and asked if he’d seen the news and said that she and his father were going to stay put. His dad hadn’t been feeling well and getting in the car in his present condition, “
Wasn’t something he wanted to do
.” She said that the streets near the house were a bit noisy and asked that he call her when he could.
Returning to the last voicemail from his sister, he pressed play.
Her voice was different. It was something he couldn’t quite describe. Not anger, and not quite stress. Her words came quicker as if she was racing to get them all out at once. This was an Emma he’d yet to meet.
“
Ethan, please. I need you to let me know somehow, that you’re okay. I got a few weird texts from mom this morning and I think maybe her and dad need some help. I’m back in California now, so please let me know
—”
The sound of brakes locking, and then the squeal of tires gripping the roadway. He pulled the phone away, looked at the display and then pressed it back to his ear.
The next sound, his sister taking a deep breath.
Twenty seconds of nothing and then she was back, but not speaking into the phone. “
Bret… Chad
?”
Not another voice.
The familiar sound of shattering glass and then a distant growl.
Turning into the rear cabin, every eye rested on him. The group of five collectively held their breath as Ethan stared down at his phone.
“I’m going to California—to find my sister.”
DEVASTATION
Book Two…
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Also by Jeff Olah
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