The Omega Protocol Chronicles (Book 1): Exodus (14 page)

The gate was chained shut from top to bottom, several large padlocks keeping it together. Even with the keys, that sucker would be a bitch to open. You didn’t lock up something like that if you were planning on going in and out. Only reason you did it like that was to keep whatever was inside from getting out.

Yet there were people inside, he could see them moving around off by the stadium. He put the van in park and took off his seatbelt as he picked up the revolver.

“Ya girls stay here,” he said as he opened the door. “Just gonna get a better look inside.”

He walked slowly around the van, gun at the ready, and approached the gate. The stench of rot hit him like a punch in the jaw and he gagged.

At the bottom of the gate, fingers were curled around the chain link, attached to an arm that ended in a bloody stump. The ground under it was covered in a large black-brown stain that stretched out into the parking lot showing where the body had been dragged off. It reeked like death warmed over and he knew this mess had been baking in the sun all day long.

The only way people would leave this mess here is if they weren’t people anymore. The bodies weren’t dragged away for burying, they were dragged off for dinner.

He knew he should get back in the van and beat ass out of here but something pushed his feet forward. He ignored the smell as he stood in front of the gate and looked out at the lot. He could still see what he had thought were people moving around in the lot. How many more were inside the stadium?

The chain rattled as he pushed himself away from the fence and movement nearby caught his attention. A man stood up between a Jetta and a Camry and stared in his direction. The guy had been in his fifties, a T-shirt with the Hayden Huskie mascot stretched over his beer belly. White foam flecked his salt and pepper beard as he snarled and suddenly he was running towards the gate, fat legs working overtime.

Jackson wondered if the guy had been able to run that fast before the infection and took a step back when it slammed into the gate, clawing and biting as it growled like a feral animal. Its bulging eyes were milky white, pupils tiny grey pinpricks and the sight had his stomach turning over. It slammed its face into the chain link again and again trying to get to him, not giving a shit as the metal cut into flesh.

It was a freak of nature, alright.

There was nothing human about this thing anymore. Nothing in it worth saving. No wonder the place had been locked up tight. Better to cut your losses and run. Christ, how many other places were like this? All these people had come here because they thought it was safe and it ended up being their tomb.  

The growls and fence rattling had gotten the attention of two more freaks and they came crashing into the gate. The Huskie fan turned on them and tackled the nearest one to the ground, biting down hard on its shoulder. It howled and the other one jumped into it, landing on the Huskie fan’s back, nails digging into its bald head.

Well, well, looked like the freaks weren’t above fighting each other when it came to dinner time. A couple more heard the fight and came running over. They tore at each other with nails and teeth, not holding anything back. Pain didn’t stop them, bleeding didn’t stop them. Only death would put them down for good.

“Yuck, it stinks!”

Jackson whirled around to find Audrey and Hannah standing behind him.

“The hell ya doin’ out here?” he yelled at them, pissed that they had disobeyed him. “Told ya to stay in the damn van!”

Audrey didn’t seem to care that he was yelling, craning her neck to see around him. “You were taking too long. And you weren’t even doing anything, just standing there, staring at them.”

“Ya shouldn’t see this shit,” he said, stepping up in front of Hannah to block her from seeing the gate. “And ya shouldn’t be bringin’ your little sister to see it neither.”

“I told her to stay in the van but she wouldn’t listen,” Audrey huffed.

“I’m not a baby,” Hannah said, her jaw set at a stubborn angle. “The monsters don’t scare me.”

“Is everybody in there sick?” Audrey asked, stepping closer to the gate.

“Looks like,” he replied, figuring there was no reason to lie to her. Girl had eyes in her head, after all. He knew it was a waste of time to try to stop them from seeing the shitstorm inside. They’d probably run into more places like this, they might as well get used to it. Desensitized, they called it.

“Why don’t you shoot them?” Audrey asked.

“Don’t have enough bullets for it to matter.”

Audrey turned back to the gate, watching the new freak that had stepped up to the gate while the others fought. It had been a young woman before all this, long blonde hair, the tips stained black like the front of her summer dress. He could still see some of the red polish on chipped nails as it clawed at the fence. Probably had been a right fancy lady once upon a time.

“Come on, we should go,” Jackson said. “Ain’t nothing’ here for us.”

“I wish we could kill them all,” Audrey told him, taking another step closer to the gate causing the freak to snarl even louder. “They killed my parents. They deserve to die.”

Maybe this had been a bad idea. The hell did he know about fancy shit like desensitizing anyway. He should have shooed them right back in the van the second they got out.

It took him a moment to register the glint of metal in Audrey’s hand. How the hell did the girl get a damn knife? Before he could reach out for her, she darted forward and plunged the knife through the chain link and into the belly of the freak.

Turns out his theory about freaks not feeling pain was wrong. They felt pain, it just didn’t slow them down. It egged them on instead.

It slammed into the gate, metal screeching with the force and Jackson grabbed Audrey by the shoulder, hauling her away from the gate. The freak pressed its face into the chain link, screaming as it fought to get at them.

The freaks screams got the attention of the rest of the freaks in the lot and Jackson could see at least a dozen starting towards the gate. The chains were thick but the fence could only take so much weight. If they weren’t careful, those things could break through.

“Come on, we gotta get outta here
now
.”

This time they listened to him and they ran back to the van without any sass. Soon they were back on the road, putting the damn stadium in their rear view.

“Everybody okay?” he asked, glancing back to see both the girls nodding. “Good. Now, ya wanna tell me where ya got that knife, Audrey?”

“I took it before we left the trailer.”

“And ya been hidin’ it all this time?”

“I wasn’t hiding it. I just had it.”

“Why’d ya take it?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and looked out the window. “I don’t know. Just because.”

Jackson knew that wasn’t the truth. She knew why she took it but maybe she didn’t know how to say it. “Did havin’ it make ya feel safer?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe.”

“Ya left it behind, stuck in that freak’s belly.”

He glanced in the mirror to see her head whip back to look at him with wild eyes.  

“It deserved to die! All of them are monsters! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Calm it down, wasn’t sayin’ ya did. What I meant was ya don’t have it anymore. Would ya feel better, ya know, safer, if ya still had it?”

He saw her glance at the bottle of water in her lap and then at Hannah, who was watching them both with interest.

“Yeah, I think so,” Audrey replied and he reached over for his rucksack, rooting around until he found it. He kept his eyes on the road as he stretched his arm into the backseat, holding out his hand to reveal the knife.

It was nothing fancy but the blade that was tucked into the lacquered hilt was sharp enough to get the job done. And if it made her feel safer, he was willing to part with it.

“Take it if’n it’ll make ya feel better,” he told her and after a moment of hesitation, she took it and slipped it into her pocket. “Thank you.”

“Can I have a knife?” Hannah asked and Jackson shook his head firmly.

“Ya got a couple of years to go before ya get one, Squirt.” Hannah stuck her bottom lip out, getting ready to go into a pout but Jackson was quick to head her off. “And don’t start with that quiverin’ chin shit, it ain’t gonna work.”

He could feel her little eyes glaring holes in the back of his head and he wondered what was going through that brain of hers.

“Can I say shit?” she asked and that word coming out in her young voice had him laughing.

“Sure, go nuts, Squirt.”

“Shit, shit, shit!” she chanted, dissolving into a fit of giggles and he caught a glimpse of Audrey rolling her eyes at her sister before looking at him.

“So where do we go now?” Audrey asked.

It was the million dollar question and he didn’t have an answer. He eyed the two girls in the mirror and figured he didn’t have anything to lose.

“Ya got any ideas where we should go?”

“I don’t know,” Audrey said, looking at him like he was crazy for expecting her to have a plan.

“Figured was worth a shot,” he said with a shrug of his shoulder.

“We should go on a boat,” Hannah piped up, looking to Audrey. “Like the one Mommy and Daddy took us on at the beach, ‘member?”

“We aren’t picking where to go on vacation, dummy,” Audrey said, shaking her head at her little sister.

“I’m not a dummy,” Hannah cried out. “Boats are on water so the monsters would have to swim and we’d see them coming,
dummy
.”

“That’s actually a pretty good idea, Squirt,” he said and watched the reflection of Hannah sticking her tongue out at Audrey. “Guess we’re headin’ to the beach.”

“Can we go to the big aquarium again?” Hannah asked, bouncing in her seat with excitement.

“‘Fraid it’ll be closed, Squirt,” he told her.

“But Nemo lives there, I want to see him.”

“Who the hell is Nemo?”

“He’s a fish from
Finding Nemo
.” That meant nothing to him and Audrey rolled her eyes. “It’s a movie. Did you live under a rock?”

“Sorry I ain’t up on kids movies,” he replied, “More of a
Die Hard
 or
Rocky
 man.”

“What’s a Rocky?”

“It’s a movie. Did you live under a rock?” he shot back and she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest before looking away from him and out the window.

“What’s it about?” Hannah asked.

“
Rocky
?” The little girl nodded. “It’s ’bout an amateur boxer who gets a chance to fight for the heavyweight championship.”

“Sounds boring,” Audrey butted in and Jackson shot her a glare.

“Ain’t borin’. It’s about how ya keep fightin’ no matter how many hits life gives ya. Rocky’s just some muscle for a loan shark when he gets the chance to fight the best boxer in the world and even though he knows he can’t win, he still fights. It’s inspirin’.”

“What’s a loan shark?” Hannah asked.

“Guy who loans people money. Rocky collected the money for him but he didn’t really like the job.”

“Why?”

“Well, it ain’t exactly fun. He liked boxin’ though.”

And as they continued down the road, he started telling the story of the everyday man overcoming adversity. Like he said, it was inspiring and he needed some of that right now as they headed off into the unknown.

Subject File # 750

Administrator - Tell me about the last night in your parent’s house.

Subject - I don’t want to talk about it.

Administrator - I think it might help to--Subject has left the room.

*End of Session*

It had been three hours since Veronica had first spotted the fire and it quickly became clear it wasn’t an isolated incident.

Not too long after she had told their father and he had given them their marching orders, the distant sound of gunfire cut through the night. Quinton had been right.
Looters
.

A wave of destruction moved through the town, more fires lighting up the sky as the looters rolled through main street and into the residential neighbourhoods.

An inferno was currently raging just five blocks to the south and was moving quickly in their direction. The occasional gunfire would sound, giving away the looters current location which was getting closer to their block.

When the fires had started, they had been put to work packing up what they could fit into Quinton’s Ford Explorer. Dad wanted them to be ready to bug out if anything went wrong. They stood a chance of defending the house from looters but if the fires swept through the block, there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Now all of them stood in their assigned spots, Claudia and Mom at the windows in the bedrooms, Dad on the roof with Quinton. That left Veronica in the living room, rifle resting between the boards over the open window.

Her earlier anxiety was nothing compared to what she was going through now. Her skin felt like it was too tight, every muscle in her body tense, as if ready to burst through her flesh at any moment. Sweat beaded on the back of her neck and her finger quivered on the trigger.