Omega Pathogen: Mayhem (5 page)

“Don’t fucking sneak around like that, Chris!”

Chris, smiling, gives his brother a light jab in the chest and offers a half-hearted apology. “Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Enjoy it, Chris. I’ll get your ass back for that one. Keep an extra eye out; those crazy things are all around the neighborhood and the house tonight.”

Chris’s watch goes much the same as Jeremy’s. He observes more than the normal amount of the infected they’ve been seeing, roaming around and in and out of homes in the neighborhood.

Jim relieves Chris after his three hours of watch. Chris gives his dad the same report; more of the infected are around. Dawn arrives, and Jim hears Arzu shushing Berk and Kayra as they wake and argue over the use of the toilet. Soon after, Chris and Jeremy join him on the landing, both waiting for their turn at the toilet.

Like Berk and Kayra, Chris and Jeremy are arguing about who will use the toilet first, although they’re much quieter than their younger siblings. To conserve their water, they only flush after bowel movements, or after the last member of the household has emptied their bladder. For now, they have enough water.

After everyone has finished answering the call of nature and washing the sleep from their faces, they perform their new ritual of gathering around the upstairs landing to have some breakfast.

Chris is the first to speak of his observations from the previous night.

“Dad, we already talked about more of those . . . uh, people being around last night, but a couple of times while I was watching I saw some just squat and take a dump. Well, that’s what their faces looked like anyway.”

“Thank you, Chris,” Arzu says, with a look aimed at him that leaves no room for mistaking her disgust.

“Hey, Dad said to watch their behavior to see what we can learn about them,” Chris says, in defense.

“True, I did. I’m not sure yet how that will be of help, but you never know,” Jim says, with a poor attempt to conceal his grin.

“Enough about pooping. I saw them doing some other stuff that we haven’t seen before last night,” Jeremy offers.

“Let’s grab some chow and talk about what we’ve been seeing,” Jim says as he stands and turns toward Berk and Kayra’s rooms at the front of the home.

“All right, last night I was watching them eat all kinds of stuff. They had pieces of animals, and were even eating bags of potato chips. I saw one eating what I think was a loaf of bread, and by that I mean eating through the plastic bag to get to the bread.” Jeremy finishes reporting what he saw, describing how the infected worked together to hunt down a dog and afterward would fight over it periodically. He describes their inspection of their barricaded home.

“OK, good observations from both of you. I saw some of the same last night. It’s good we’re learning about them, but I don’t like the reason we are. And it’s because there’re more of those fuckers around here. Let’s finish eating and double check to make sure everything is ready to go when it gets a little brighter outside.”

Chapter 6

Present

After waiting until the afternoon sun is at its zenith in the Texas sky, Jim has Chris head to the attic with a radio to stand by to launch the fireworks.

Jim has Jeremy come to the door leading from the house to the garage; Jeremy has their second and only other radio.

“Just to talk through it one more time, Jeremy, when I have Chris fire off the jar with fireworks, your mom is going to be watching from the window in front of the house, letting us know what those things do. If it’s clear, I’ll tell you when, and you open the garage door.”

“I know, Dad. We talked about it; I got it.”

“Son, I’m not repeating it because I don’t think you, Chris, and Mom don’t listen. It’s because the more we do discuss it, when there’s time, the better we’re prepared and the more likely it is someone can think of something better.”

“I gotcha, Dad.” Chris replies. “I’m ready to do this. Hey, what if the garage door motor battery is too dead to close the door again?”

“See? That’s why we talk about this when time permits. I hadn’t thought of that, because there should be enough juice in it since we haven’t opened it since the power went out, but who knows if it’s a shitty battery.

“I’ll stop and wait. You hit the close button as soon as I clear the door. Don’t look and see what happens, get the door locked. If it doesn’t close, I’ll get out and yank it down and get it closed.”

“How are you going to get back in if those things are close by?”

“Well, I’ll figure out a way to lure them away; they seem to follow sounds, so I should be able to come by slowly in the car and draw them away.”

Jeremy checks with Chris to make sure he’s ready, and Jim looks to Arzu to see if she’s ready.

Arzu gives him a nod and says, “Don’t do any of your stupid shit out there.”

“I love you, too, Arzu,” Jim replies with a smile. “All right, Jeremy, tell Chris to fire when ready.”

Jeremy relays the information to Chris, and Chris responds for them to get ready: “OK, I’m going to light it and shoot it right now.”

A couple seconds go by and then Chris calls on the radio to report he’s fired the jar of fireworks. A few more seconds go by, and finally the sounds of the fireworks popping and whistling are heard.

“They’re going down the street,” Arzu informs them, while keeping her eyes locked on the small crack in the blinds. “Go!” Jim yells to Jeremy as he sits in the driver seat of the Nissan.

As soon as he yells for Jeremy to open the garage, he starts the engine and puts the transmission in drive. Gripping the steering wheel, his knuckles blanching white from the force, Jim sees the bright light from the sunny November afternoon illuminate the garage in front of him.

After what seems like an eternity, the door swings up enough for the vehicle to get out without damage. He’s not worried too much about damage to the Pathfinder; he doesn’t want to damage the garage door so that it won’t close.

Jim presses the accelerator hard enough to get out quickly, but not hard enough, causing the tires to squeal and bring attention to the escape, if it isn’t already noticed.

His vision is split between his direction of travel forward out of the driveway and then to the right – the fastest route to his destination--and the rearview mirror to make sure the battery in the garage door motor has the power to close the door.

Jim sees the door close all the way down without any unwanted guests making their way inside. Looking to his left, Jim sees a large number of infected gathered near an intersection, with fireworks going off inside their growing circle. They seem afraid and angered by the sounds.

Jim continues straight until he reaches a three-way intersection with a stop sign. More than bending the traffic law requiring a complete stop, Jim slows enough not to turn over the Nissan while making a left turn.

Coming to the next intersection, Jim makes a right and heads toward his next turn on his route. Making a right near the 99 feeder road, he makes out a couple of vehicles in the road ahead and some on the shoulder. All seem to have been parked in a hurry with no regard to impeding other traffic.

Approaching the on-ramp for the 99, Jim notices several law enforcement and emergency vehicles on I-10, just east of the intersection of the 99 and I-10. Deciding to make a slight detour from his original route, Jim quickly hits the brake and enters the on-ramp for the 99.

Shortly after entering the ramp, the road intersects with I-10, going east and west. Jim takes the left lane heading east toward Houston, and to the police vehicles.

Reducing his speed to appear as unthreatening as possible, Jim looks for any sign of life--well, non-infected life. He can only see human figures lying on the concrete roadway. Some of the figures are in civilian clothing and others in law enforcement uniforms.

Jim continues to approach with caution, even though he’s seen no movement, except for large and small carrion-eating birds hopping around, taking flight and then settling back down on their meals. Stopping about thirty feet from the closest human remains, he pauses for a moment, looking and listening for anything posing a threat before continuing forward.

Taking in the scene, it appears the vehicles were responding to one of the numerous calls for help that had been received by dispatchers, who must have been inundated with panicked appeals for help. It’s difficult to know for certain, but it looks like the lead emergency vehicle, a police cruiser, struck several pedestrians on the interstate.

Either they were the infected, running toward the noise of the approaching vehicles, or non-infected, being chased by the infected; the terror of their chase was abruptly ended by the oncoming emergency vehicles. The convoy of emergency vehicles is made up of four police cruisers, an ambulance, and a fire-rescue engine. All four of the police officers are outside their vehicles.

The dead officers are in the front of the line of vehicles, in what seems to have been a stand against their attackers. Like their uniforms, the officers are mangled; their bodies are ripped and torn in varying degrees and locations.

What appears to Jim to be an EMT or paramedic is lying on the road between the second and third cruisers. The body is lying prone, the upper portion of the body toward the direction of the ambulance, with blood and bowels trailing towards the front of the vehicles. There is a trauma/medical ‘jump bag’ nearby the remains.

It appears the medical provider attempted to render aid, witnessed the carnage, and then unsuccessfully attempted to make her way back to the ambulance. Searching the wreckage further, Jim locates the second ambulance attendant half in and out of the patient area of the ambulance, his condition much the same as his partner’s.

Jim locates two firefighters locked inside the front cab of the engine. They were attacked, and apparently succumbed to their injuries locked in the cab. Looking around and then glancing over the concrete retaining wall, he finds two more firefighters, along with several other human forms at the bottom of the overpass.

Trying to put the feeling from his mind of desecrating the dead, Jim checks the pistols near the police officers. All the semi-automatic pistols are empty, except for one with two rounds remaining in the magazine and one in the chamber.

Opening the first cruiser’s trunk, he finds a black duffle bag. Reaching for the bag that was shoved forward by the force of impacting those running on the road, Jim immediately recognizes the feel of an AR-15. Opening the bag, Jim finds his tactile senses were correct; he finds a Colt semi-automatic AR-15, along with eight full magazines. He removes the duffle and places the four pistols inside. Jim then removes two magazines from each of the four fallen officers’ duty belts, and also removes the stainless steel handcuffs from each of the four belts and places them in the duffle.

Rising from his position, Jim pauses for another look and listen at his surroundings. Looking further into the distance, he notices the nearby hospital. The front, or south side, and the east side are visible. From this distance of about a mile, Jim can make out several civilian and emergency services vehicles in and around the parking lot. It’s packed. It makes sense, of course, where else would people go or take loved ones if they’ve been bitten or attacked by the infected?

Jim notices one of the vehicles seems like a shape he’s seen before; he’s only seen them the color of desert tan, but the shape from this distance looks like an . . .
No way in hell, an
Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected
vehicle
? Jim hadn’t seen an MRAP in person since leaving Iraq. Aware the U.S. Government had been issuing surplus to law enforcement agencies. Jim hadn’t thought of finding one to use now.

Shaking off the thought, he goes back to the grim but necessary task of scavenging from the dead emergency responders.

Jim finds three more AR-15s, along with eight magazines for each one. He also finds four twelve-gauge shotguns, with eighteen rounds each, from buckshot to slugs. Jim collects flashlights, medical equipment from the advanced life-support ambulance, and two Halligan bars and pick-head fire axes from the fire engine.

Finally, after collecting everything he can think may be of value for survival, he realizes he hasn’t tried the radios in the vehicles. Jim tries the four police cruisers, the ambulance, and then breaks into the fire engine without a response on the radio from any.

Chapter 7

Present

Jim thinks about taking the hand-held radios with him but, without also taking the repeater equipment in the vehicle, the radios will be much the same as any he can grab at most sporting goods stores, plus the emergency responder’s radios require a specific charging station.

Although his investigation and scavenging hasn’t taken a lot of time, he feels he’s been exposed for too long. Jim makes a quick U-turn and retraces his path back to the on-ramp. Entering the 99 from the on-ramp to I-10, he takes a left turn to the south. The route takes him past the hospital on his right.

Slowing the Pathfinder, Jim looks closely at the parking lot of the hospital, concentrating on looking for movement, and to confirm if his eyes were deceiving him. He notices no movement; that’s good. He then sees what he still can’t believe, a black MRAP with ‘Police’ and ‘SWAT’ in white lettering on the side.
This could be a fucking great thing!