Affliction Z (Book 3): Descended in Blood (18 page)

“Heard something out there,” Addison said. “The dog was acting sketchy, so I opened the door to take a peek. Turns out, Marley’s more fluff that fat, and a cracked door was all he needed to escape. None of us wanted to leave Barbara. But Jenny refused to let me go alone, and there was no way I was letting Emma stay behind. So we all went to find him.” She paused, then added, “Barbara’s in pretty bad shape. Have you seen her?”

Sean nodded, trying to keep from expressing the inevitable.

Addison continued. “Did you find anything?”

He pulled the messenger bag strap over the top of his head and held it out. “Not a lot, but enough for now.” He paused for a moment. “Did you see anything out there, or find the source of the noise?”

Addison shook her head. “Quiet out there. But, you know, it felt like someone watched us the whole time.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling.” Sean stepped through the doorway. “Guess it’s best you two watch the door while Emma helps me with Barb. Once I get her patched up, we’ll leave this place.”

“Hurry,” Addison said. “Like I said, feels like someone…something is out there. And it’s close.”

Chapter 19

“He’s close.” Phil wiped a bead of sweat off the LCD screen. The dot that indicated the position of Ryder’s GPS unit hadn’t moved in fifteen minutes. “In the woods, but looks like we might be able to get close before having to huff it on foot.”

Barton nodded as he shifted the truck into gear. They’d been stopped for close to half an hour, outside Chapel Hill. Waiting for Ryder to move. Watching the afflicted.

Phil glanced around. “Only concern is they’ll hear us coming from a mile away. Not like anything out there makes a sound these days. What once would have sounded like normal traffic now is a dead giveaway.”

“So we park these and walk. How far away is it?”

Phil calculated the distance. “At least three miles. Too far to risk walking. We might get halfway there and then he takes off. We’d fall behind. We gave him enough fuel that there’s no way he’s out already. And I doubt he wasted much because it’s obvious he knew the area from my camp down to Danville. He stuck to those old logging roads most of the way.”

“How do you know that?” Barton regarded Phil as though he thought Phil was in cahoots with Ryder.

“Ralph was able to tell when he pulled up their location. Showed the route they took. Besides the point, though. What I’m getting at is maybe Sean has knowledge of the trails and old roads that wind through these forests, too. A guy like that, with special forces training and advanced warning of the virus, I wouldn’t put it past him to have had multiple escape routes planned.”

“So you’re saying we walk from here, we might get caught with our dicks in our zippers.”

“Eloquently put.”

“I’m a redneck,” Barton said. “I only know one kind of eloquence.”

The men shared a smile. It happened so infrequently now that Phil took note.

“Okay,” Barton said. “Let’s drive as far as we can, then take the rest on foot.”

During the drive, they devised a plan to limit opportunities for Ryder to escape. The four men inside Barton’s truck would walk the path. The others would split into four groups of two and stalk the woods. They should all hit the location of the GPS at the same time.

They convened with the others and explained their roles. They split off, four to the right of the old dirt road. Four to the left. The rest stayed behind.

Phil, Barton, Ralph and Justin walked shoulder to shoulder down the path. Flattened grass indicated a vehicle had passed through recently. Twenty or so feet on either side of them were two teams, providing cover. Should someone approach from the front or behind, they’d have no way of knowing there were four additional rifles trained on them. Every ten steps or so, Phil glanced down to verify the location of the other GPS hadn’t changed.

They’d reached the half-way point. Phil estimated another ten minutes at their current pace.

Not a bird or an insect made a sound. The wind blew mercilessly through the trees. Leaves cascaded and swirled on a sideways path to the ground.

Storm coming. Everything took shelter.

The clouds made it obvious. But Phil had encountered a similar situation after leaving his camp, when they’d stopped near the woods and moments later a pack of afflicted had made their presence known.

Ice ran across his skin as unseen eyes stared him down.

“Tighten up, boys,” Phil said as much to himself as to the men around him. “Something’s out there.”

“Where?” Barton said.

“Somewhere. Just be on your toes.”

“Christ, Phil.” Barton cleared his throat and spit to the side. “Scared the tar out of me. Thought you’d seen something.”

“It’s not what I’ve seen. It’s what I’m
not
hearing.”

They pushed forward. Gusts rolled through like crashing waves. The grass along the edge of the path swayed. A tree branch fell nearby. The thunderous sound drove a few crows from their resting places. Their squawks sounded like screams through a bullhorn. A little tension eased from Phil’s shoulders knowing that the birds hung around. Although he had no proof that they normally left when there were afflicted nearby. Only a hunch. And a smart one at that. Kept him in line and his head on a swivel.

The doubled over grass led the way as the old dirt road curved to the right. Trees obscured their view. The men slowed to a shuffle. Ralph and Justin fell behind Phil and Barton. Stepping out from the cover of brush and trees, Phil raised his rifle.

The square concrete structure before him looked as though it had been painted multiple times over the years. Along the building’s chipped facade, Phil spotted yellow, tan, red, and green.

The other men fell in line. All clutched their rifles and scanned the building and surrounding area.

Phil glanced at the GPS. “This is the spot. The ATV must be on the other side of the building. Ralph, you come with me. You two take the other side.”

Phil pointed at the woods on either side and gestured for the men hidden in the shadows to keep moving.

The men split into two groups and went to opposite corners at the rear of the structure, with Phil and Ralph taking the left side.

“Stay right behind me, Ralph. When we reach the edge, I’m going to one knee. You come up behind me and we’ll move together with you covering ahead. Handle your assignment and we’ll be okay. Got it?”

Ralph nodded and said nothing.

They continued forward. Phil kept his right elbow in contact with the concrete building. Age had weathered the surface to sandpaper. It grated against his skin.

He stopped a few feet shy of the corner. The deserted clearing ahead of them led to a few old spots for campers, and beyond that, the woods. Straight across he spotted another path wide enough it might be a road like the one they walked in on.

“On three, Ralph,” he whispered. “One, two, three.”

Phil stepped forward, then dropped to a knee. He felt Ralph’s leg against his back. Saw the man’s rifle protrude above his head, sweeping across the clearing. Phil extended his weapon. Using the wall for leverage, he swung around and saw Barton at the other end of the building.

No one stood between them.

Phil rose and met Barton and Justin at the entrance. Ralph grunted as he pulled the dented door open. Mildew-laden air rushed out. The light filtering into the room through translucent windows gave it a piss-yellow glow. A wall with sinks on both sides split the space in half.

“Us right,” Phil said. “You left.”

He and Ralph made their way into the room. A bank of bathroom stalls lined the outer wall. The doors stood in varying stages of open to closed. They cleared each one, verifying no one hid within, then stopped in the rear, staring at the backs of Barton and Justin.

Phil cleared his throat.

Barton looked back. “Take a look.”

Phil stepped between the men and looked down at the puddle of blood on the floor. Torn scraps of paper and pieces of tin or steel thread rested on the short tiled ledge that separated the stall from the rest of the walkway.

Phil knelt down and placed his index and middle fingers into the pool. “Fresh. Hasn’t coagulated yet.”

“There’s more,” Barton said. “Leads out past the other showers.”

Phil turned his head to the left and saw the crimson line spanning the length of the room. “Or in. Ryder has medical training. I think he found this place and patched himself, or someone else, up.”

“Well, where is the son of a bitch now?”

Phil gripped the GPS and brought the screen to life. Shaking his head, he said, “That’s what I don’t get. He should be right here. At least the ATV should. We’re right on top of it, but I didn’t see anything out there.”

“Me either,” Barton said.

“Come on,” Phil said. “Let’s go check the surrounding woods.”

When they stepped outside, Phil adjusted the zoom on the GPS. The screen flashed black for a second, then zoomed in.

“Shit,” he said.

“What is it?” Barton said.

Phil handed the GPS to Ralph. “The hell is going on?”

Ralph grabbed the unit and stared at it. Finally, he shrugged and said, “I give. What?”

“It’s gone.”

“What’s gone?”

“The mark for the other unit.”

“Where was it?”

“Here.” Phil spread his arms and turned.

Ralph pressed the rocker button. “Maybe we’re covering it up since you zoomed in so close. Let me just take it back out.”

Phil studied the shadows in the woods while waiting for Ralph to finish. Four of their men hovered at the edge of the clearing.

“Dammit,” Ralph said.

Phil moved in closer to get a look at the display.

“They’re miles away.” Ralph turned and pointed to the southeast. “That way.”

“That trail over there.” Phil gestured toward the opening on the opposite side of the camp. “Where’s that go?”

“Doesn’t show up,” Ralph said. “I don’t think it matters. They’ve already made it to a road and are skirting alongside it.”

“How did this happen?” Phil slammed his foot into the soft earth.

“Hell if I know. Maybe we were only downloading partial data or something.”

Phil squeezed his rifle with both hands. Unleashing his fury on Ralph wouldn’t solve anything. It wasn’t the man’s fault this had happened. He looked up at the dark clouds and took a deep breath, allowing the oxygen to work its way through and clear his head.

“Barton,” Phil said. “How much gas do we have?”

“Enough to go a ways further before we need to turn back.”

“A ways?”

“Hundred miles, I guess.”

“Ok, then. Everyone to the trucks.” He turned to his old friend. “You had better find a way to reach them by the time we get back to the road.”

Ralph spit on the ground between him and Phil. “Or what?”

Phil shifted the rifle so that the muzzle pointed at Ralph’s midsection. “Don’t make me answer that question.”

Chapter 20

The surf pounded the shore, crashing like thunder. Turk had paddled out on the surfboard to a spot where the waves rolled underneath. It was still rough, and he knew why.

He regarded the dark swirling clouds with a mix of curiosity and dread. When the news played extended coverage of hurricanes impacting coastal areas, he’d often wondered how folks a couple hundred years ago had dealt with the storms. They had no advanced knowledge, unless there were markers present in nature that people today didn’t take notice of.

People today…

Didn’t mean the same as it did a few months ago. All due to an event Turk had advanced warning of. He could have done more before it happened. He
should
have done more. How many lives could he have saved?

“Stop it,” he muttered as chilled water splashed his face.

The government would have been all over him had he opened his mouth. They’d have put him and his family away. The world could never know about the government-backed program to develop a virus that could wipe a community out and then destroy itself before leaking out into the world.

The world found out.

Most perished without ever knowing what had happened to them. The survivors might find out in time. Or they wouldn’t. Turk bet on the latter. With groups so dispersed and still under attack by the afflicted, chances grew slimmer by the day of any rebuilding effort which would lead to large scale civilization. And winter would be here soon enough. How many who had survived the virus would perish in the cold?

Turk felt his body rise up and then tumble to the right. The surfboard was pulled from underneath him. He rolled in the murky water. Without time to prepare, he’d gone under without air in his lungs. Despite the urge to breathe, he kept his mouth shut and avoided drinking the seawater.

The wave passed and the water stilled. He had a few seconds before the next. The cord wrapped around his ankle tugged toward shore. At least that’s what Turk assumed. But it also seemed to be pulling downward. Was the board caught in a current? Turk kicked his legs to push himself upward. A force pulled against him.