Omega Pathogen: Despair (17 page)

After a deep breath to try and calm himself, Jim pulled the ring but still held down the safety lever in his closed right hand. He had time to try and aim his throw, as long as he kept the safety lever connected by his grip. Jim did his best to imitate a quarterback as he positioned his body and tossed the flash-bang grenade toward the exterior doors. He pinned his back against the hallway wall and waited for the grenade to go off. He couldn’t remember if it was a three second fuse or more, but it seemed like it took forever before the blast was heard.

It went off with a deep boom and a flash of light that reflected off the opposite wall. Jim immediately readied the first of the two fragmentation grenades. He pulled the pin on one and tossed it underhanded to the right, a rolling bounce across the floor where the emergency room doors were. Then immediately pulled the pin on the second. He moved to get a better view of the lobby and tossed it overhand among the wad of infected that had moved toward the flash-bang.

Jim sprinted down the hallway toward his sons and George for several feet and then jumped to the floor in a prone position. As his chest and abdomen hit the floor the air was knocked out of his lungs from the hard impact and the first grenade went off. Jim couldn’t see it, but it did as designed and blew out shrapnel that sliced through flesh and bone, killing the dead again that were close to receive shrapnel to the brain, and maiming those living and dead infected that were hit by fragments in non-fatal areas of the body. The second grenade went off quickly after the first; it too maimed and killed as designed.

Jim tried to hop up quickly, but he was still trying to get his breath back after hitting the floor. He grabbed another fragmentation grenade and pulled the pin. He tried to decide whether to throw it to the left into the lobby or to the right toward the emergency room doors. Jim was forced to postpone his decision when a fast moving infected man wearing nothing but black socks charged at him from the hallway on the right.

Jim quickly began backing away as he switched the live grenade from his right to his left hand and reached for his pistol, but the runner closed the distance too quick. Jim got his pistol un-holstered and was raising it to fire as the infected grew nearer. He doubted he could get a shot off before the naked black-sock-wearing infected man reached him.

As the infected man closed in, he slipped on the tile and crashed to the floor. His slippery black socks betrayed him. Given the extra time by the luck of being pursued by a runner wearing socks, Jim fired two rounds into the infected man’s head as it tried to get up from the floor. He re-holstered his pistol and decided to toss the grenade to the right side, toward the ER where the sock-man had come from. As soon as it left his hand, he hit the floor and dug around for another grenade. As he found one, the most recent exploded and he stood and pulled the pin.

Jim checked the lobby and saw infected going toward the last sound, the ER entrance. This would bring them closer to him. He lobbed the grenade at the mass coming from the lobby and began lowering himself under control to the floor to prevent pounding his chest into the floor and knocking the air from his lungs again, and he hoped miss the blast. He looked up in shock and couldn’t believe his bad luck when he watched the grenade hit and bounced off one of the heads of one of the infected in the front of the pack and back towards him.

The grenade bounced from the thing’s head, hit the floor and rolled back down the hall. Jim felt like he was moving in slow motion as he struggled to get up from the floor and to his feet. It just didn’t seem fast enough. Jim sprinted away in retreat down the hall. Feeling it would be any second and the grenade would explode, he hit the floor again and landed near the elevators. The blast went off.

Jim rolled to his back to try and be prepared for any infected that may have made it through the blast. As he made a mental check for pain from shrapnel he also saw he had no immediate threats coming towards him and started to get up to get and throw another grenade toward the lobby. As he rose, the decayed hand from the thing in the elevator latched hold of his rifle sling and caused him to lose his balance and fall back to the floor.

Although their numbers were thinned from the grenades, there were still many and the infected from the lobby now entered the hallway toward Jim. He struggled to get away from the grip of the hand that protruded from the elevator, but he saw some of the infected now running towards him as the runners pushed away and knocked over the walkers in their way.

“Stay down, Dad,” Chris or Jeremy yelled out. He did and both opened fire from down the hall.

Jim struggled and was finally able to un-holster his pistol. He began firing at the infected closing in. Jim freed himself from the grip of the infected in the elevator as his sons thinned the ones that entered the hallway.

He backed up and joined Chris and Jeremy’s sides and fired at the infected. As they fired, they advanced toward the lobby. Jim considered another fragmentation grenade but only a few slow infected remained standing. Most of the SCAR virus victims crawled along the floor toward them while others staggered toward the lobby from the outside.

“I’ll get George, you guys wait here,” Jim said over the suppressed but still loud gunshots. “How’s it look?” Jim asked as he and George joined Chris and Jeremy.

“We’ll need to be careful of the ones still crawling around, but it looks good,” Jeremy answered.

“Okay. Give me just a second,” Jim said. He walked back down the hallway, stopped at the elevator where the hand still reached out. He turned the light on his M4 and aimed it inside the elevator and fired six times. The probing skeleton-like hand dropped to the hallway floor outside the elevator doors.

Jim rejoined his sons and George and they made their way as quickly as they could through the lobby. Several infected in their path that still moved had to be finished off. By time they had reached the exit, the slow moving infected outside had gotten closer, but their numbers were low and they were easily removed as a threat or outdistanced with a light jog.

Once back at the MRAP, they closed themselves inside. They unloaded the burdens of the heavy backpacks full of lab equipment they had carried from the hospital. Jim, Chris, and Jeremy took off their tactical vests with what remained of their magazines and grenades and relaxed for a few moments and hydrated. Although the temperature was in the mid-seventies, the toll of adrenaline on all their bodies had soaked them with sweat.

They wiped down with wet wipes that served as their bath until they made it back to the farm. Jeremy took notice of the sun’s position. “Do you think we should call the farm and give them a sitrep?” Jeremy asked his father.

Jim looked at his watch and he stood from the rear seat and moved toward the Ham radio. “Yeah, Jeremy, you're right,” Jim said. He collapsed into the driver's seat, turned on the battery switch and then called the farm to give a situation report. Marlene reported on the radio contact with another group of survivors and then handed the microphone off to a waiting Arzu.

Jim assured Arzu they were doing okay and they would be departing soon, he wanted to get the trailer they had loaded down with supplies. Jim added they would try to get fuel as well before they set off for the Yates’ home. He signed off, started the MRAP and drove them back to the vehicle maintenance garage and located a couple of diesel-fueled vehicles to siphon from.

With tanks topped off, Chris backed the MRAP to the trailer. The MRAP was equipped with a Pintle hitch system, as was the military trailer. Hooking up was easy enough, then after they rechecked to make sure the load was tied down. As they worked they were forced to shoot several of the slow infected that had drawn too close.

Jeremy located a tractor to haul one of the trailers loaded with Hescos. The engine sputtered and started after several attempts. After too many times of missed attempts by his father, Chris took over and backed up to a trailer of Hescos and mated the slider and fifth wheel on his first try.

They departed Camp Blanding en route to the Yates’ compound. Jim led their two-vehicle convoy accompanied by George in the MRAP pulling the trailer. Chris drove the tractor-trailer and Jeremy rode with his brother. He couldn’t put his finger on it or point to a specific reason, but Jim wanted to keep an eye on George.

Self-preservation was a good thing, but he was concerned that George’s desire for it could cause him to make irrational decisions and put people around him in bad situations. Making the right choice when it came to the fight or flight response was imperative to survival. However, Jim suspected George could be the type that always chose to flee, even at the cost of all others, without recognizing the risk to his own life.

Like the day before on their trip to the military base, most of the obstacles in the road were easily avoided and they didn’t have to slow too drastically. Unlike the day before, there was more of the slow moving infected out wandering around. Jim checked his watch and estimated they should arrive at the farm around 5:00 PM. If nothing went wrong.  

Chapter 20

Kathy, Brent and Steve made their last turn before they would reach the farm in a few short minutes. Throughout their trip back, Kathy and Brent had called several time over the walkie-talkies to make sure Steve was still okay. Almost everything they had heard thus far, even confirmed by the laboratory assistant that had worked with the CDC, told them Steve should be fine.

The infection was spread from the saliva when it penetrated flesh from a bite or to a lesser degree, if it entered mucous membranes like those in the mouth or eyes. They also had heard that the infection now took over the victim quickly, but it still weighed on Kathy’s mind. She had no doubt it was on Brent’s, and especially Steve’s.

Kathy called the Yates’ home so they could let the gate guard know they would be in view soon. Chelsea acknowledged the call and warned them of several infected in the area. As Kathy, Brent, and Steve approached in the three trucks, they could see the infected in the vicinity of the gate.

They noticed those closest to the gate were dropping as Chelsea went about thinning their numbers to prevent them from entering the farm. The three trucks grew closer and swerved to avoid some of the walking and the bodies of infected that lay on the road. Chelsea had the gate opened as the trucks turned off the road. As soon as the last truck cleared the gate, she quickly closed and locked it.

With the fence posts placement stopped for the day, Royce, Rick, and Rob were preparing what they needed to continue the work the next day. The three were in the process of loading posts onto the large flatbed, along with sacks of ready-mix concrete into the bed of a pickup truck.

Royce and the three men greeted Kathy and the two Cutler brothers as they arrived. Steve brought up the incident at the CCTV shop. As Steve had suspected, every resident except for the children wanted to see where he’d been bitten. The group examined the site where Steve was gummed by the infected man. The others came to the same conclusion; there should be nothing to worry about since the skin was not punctured.

Linda arrived to relieve Chelsea on gate security. She told the others in Jim’s last transmission he had said they were on their way and should be back around 5:00 PM. The others broke up in their groups to finish up their work before dark. Linda remained at the post at the gate.

Rick, Royce, and Rob finished loading the trucks for the next day’s work and covered the truckload of ready-mix cement in case of rain. Rob wiped sweat from his face as he went to get them some rubber gloves. Royce and Rick checked over the front-end loader and dump truck. It was time to go out and clear the area of the corpses from the day. It never stayed clear for long.

Steve and Brent unloaded the CCTV equipment while Kathy worked on the forklift that was attached to the large Home Depot flatbed truck. Able to examine the forklift closer since she had time, Kathy noticed a hose that led from the propane tank to supply fuel was badly dry-rotted. She found a suitable replacement and the forklift started. Kathy drove it to their large propane storage tank and topped off the low one on the forklift.

Kathy returned to begin offloading the supplies they had collected. She, Brent and Steve decided to transfer the fencing supplies from the pickup to the flatbed. The larger capacity of the big flatbed truck would mean less time spent reloading the smaller pickups. Kathy operated the forklift while Brent and Steve helped by positioning rolls of fencing and posts for easier access.

With the offload and transfer of material completed, Kathy topped off the forklift with propane again while Brent and Steve fueled the vehicles they had used that day. Their plan for tomorrow was to check more home improvement stores in Ocala. Like Gainesville, Ocala was a larger town than Chiefland. It was just over fifty miles to their northwest. They hoped to find the rest of the chain link fence they needed at some of the stores there.

The three met back at the vehicles and walked to where the others were preparing to go out and collect corpses. “We’ll give you guys a hand when you go out,” Kathy said as they approached. Kathy and the Cutler brothers helped Royce and the others finish checking the equipment and then assisted in the grim task of daily corpse collection and disposal detail.

The group on corpse disposal came back inside the gate and used hand-pump sprayers to coat the front-end loader, backhoe, and bed of the dump truck with bleach and scrubbed the machines. Once they finished with the detail, they all immediately went to shower. Kathy felt like she was never fully clean anymore.