The Infected (Book 1): Jim's First Day (3 page)

“Yeah?
What’s up?” she has no idea.

“Turn
on the news!” I have a hard time keeping calm.

“What’s
happened?” I hear the TV fire up. As she does that, I jog over to one of the
windows that gives us access to the roof above the showroom. I crack it open.

“Holy
shit! Is this for real? What happened to these people?”

“What
does it say?” I climb out the window and head for the edge of the building. Sam
and Devon follow after me onto the roof.

“It
says...people that were dead are getting up and if they bite you...I don’t
know? There is also something about an infection spreading from the hospitals.
It must be a prank?” her voice shakes.

“Baby,
lock the front and back door. Try and put something heavy in front of them,” I
hear our toddler trying to get her attention.

“Baby,
be quiet Daddy’s trying to tell me something!” Karen’s voice says it all. She
is more than panicked. She has never yelled at the kids like that before. Robin
cries in the background.

“Karen?
Lock the doors!”

The
three of us have made it to the edge of the building and it is chaos down on the
streets of Portland. Two of the burnt guys have smashed their way into the
school and the others have broken down the doors at the adult store. Both buildings
are now on fire. Screams fill the air. An ambulance hauls ass down the street.
It swerves all over the road and bounces from one parked car to the next. It
hits a curb and then a telephone pole. The sirens keep going as smoke pours out
of the engine block. Something is tearing the driver apart!

“Baby,
lock down the apartment. Keep the lights off. Don’t let anyone in. Don’t let
them know you’re there. Get the kids dressed. Then pack up some food and stay
in the bedroom. Get the gun, it’s in the closet. I love you and the girls. I’m
coming home soon.”

“We
love you! Hurry!”

I
don’t want to hang up but I need to save my battery. I turn off my phone and
put it back into my slacks. I feel the car keys in my pocket. Thank God.
Sometimes I leave them in my desk. My apartment is over ten miles from here,
across the river, and in the state of Washington. If this is happening
everywhere the roads will be gridlocked. I am going to have to walk home. Walk
ten miles and over a river to get to my girls while the world is losing its
mind. First things first, I have to figure a way off this roof.

We
climb back into the warehouse. There is a stack of flat panel TVs close to the
window we climbed out of. I pull out my Swiss Army knife and cut the box open.
I get the TV out and prop it up against the wall near a power plug.

“Grab
an antenna.”

Devon
picks up a box from a stack of accessories and pulls out an antenna. He hands
it to me and I screw the cord into the back of the TV. I hand the remote over
to Bill who pops the batteries out of the wrapping and drops them into the
remote. He hits the power button, tells the TV to skip the setup option, clicks
it over to the antenna connection and dials in our local channel eight.

“...reports
stream in from all over the Northwest. There is a deadly infection spreading
across the Portland and Vancouver metro area. People that were reported dead
are coming back to life. I am having a hard time believing this myself folks,
but I have seen the footage. All of the reports we have tell us that once a
person’s heart has stopped, within minutes they will come back...and every
report we have received is very clear on this. After they come back they feed
on human flesh. You heard me correctly, they feed on human flesh. I warn you
the footage you are about to see is very graphic.”

The
news cuts to footage of a cameraman under attack. He uses the camera as a
weapon and smashes the lens into the face of an infected man. The five of us
flinch with every impact. Our stomachs turn as we watch this horrifying scene.
Most of the skin is gone from its face and an eyeball hangs from its socket.
The monster is relentless, it scratches and claws, teeth bared and snapping. It
looks just like Linda downstairs. The camera’s microphone distorts and peaks
from the screams. The camera falls to the ground. It lands on its side. The
young cameraman lies on his back fighting the infected human. The monster
overpowers him and tears into his flesh. It bites down on his face, then his
neck, and his forearm. Whatever gets close to its mouth is bit and torn from
the young man’s body. He succumbs to the attack and goes limp.

“This
is disgusting! How can they show this on TV?” Tracy cries and tears trickle
down her cheeks. My hands shake as adrenaline pumps through my body. My armpits
sweat and I think I am going to puke. I look over to Sam and his face is white.
Bill pukes. Even the super horror movie fan, Devon, can’t look at the TV
anymore.

The
monster takes a few more bites then stops, lets go of its victim, stands up and
walks out of camera frame. The cameraman’s body pumps blood onto the ground.
Within a minute the cameraman’s body moves again. It sits up, gets to its feet
and shuffles off. The footage stops and cuts back to the news anchor.

“Early
reports are indicating that the hospitals were hit first and have been overrun.
The police are outmanned and the infection is spreading fast. As you saw in the
footage, once you have been bitten, or if you die, you will come back as one of
them. The authorities request that you stay in your hom...” From the TV we hear
a loud explosion and then the TV goes to static.

“What
do we do?” Sam whispers.

I
turn away from the TV and head back out the window onto the roof. I look down
at the streets and it is carnage. Blood covers the windows inside the school
and one by one newly infected shuffle out of the building. The gifted already
had a hard time getting around when they were alive. Now it will take them
forever to get anywhere. The ones that had spent their lives in a wheelchair
are crawling out onto the sidewalk. It is a very messed up thing to see a dead
disabled kid, covered with blood and guts, pull itself around on the ground.

It
is a busy intersection and cars are flying up and down it. One of the infected
steps out into oncoming traffic. A minivan slams on its brakes but it is too
late. The infected body destroys the hood and is upended, shattering the
windshield. The driver pulls into the next lane and hits a truck head on. The
sound of crushing metal, glass and bones breaking is worse than anything you
hear in the movies. The vehicles twist and spin around each other. Both cars
come to a screeching halt. The driver is laid out on the horn. Gore covers both
cars. Everything that makes us human splayed out on the hoods.

Seconds
later, cars coming from both directions crash into the wreck. The infected
swarm the cars and smash in the windows. I can hear women and children crying
from their cars. People try to help, but they are overtaken and torn to pieces.

A
topless woman from the adult store runs screaming into the street. She has been
bit on her legs and back. A group of half-naked women follow her. The fire from
the Jiffy Lube has spread to the trees that separate it from a million dollar
home. A man stands in his front yard with a garden hose and tries to put out
the fire. Everyone joins me at the edge of the roof.

“Look,”
I point to the man.

“He
has no idea what’s happening,” Sam states the obvious.

We
watch as the topless woman runs right for him. He drops his hose and she runs
into his arms. It is like he can only see her boobs and not the infected
chasing after her. We can’t hear what he is saying to her, but it looks like he
is telling her to calm down. The other girls are in his yard now. He holds up
his hand and tells them to stop. The topless girl lets go of him and runs for
his front door. The group is on him and tears him to the ground.  

The
people that were bitten in their cars have changed and now join the other
infected out in the street. It is a small horde already and it has only been
ten minutes since the helicopter hit the Jiffy Lube.

We
hear sirens from a police car, it pulls onto the street and stops next to the
man getting torn apart on his front yard. Two cops get out of the car and draw
their weapons. They scream for the infected to stop and put their hands into
the air. They leave the dead man on the grass and run right at the two
officers. They open fire and empty both of their clips in seconds. Two of the
girls are hit and sent to the ground. The officers are aiming for the chest, like
they are trained to do, but it does not stop the infected. The man on the
driver’s side is attacked. The second officer changes his clip as he runs
around the front of the car to help his partner. The officer under attack
throws punches and kicks, trying to keep the women off him, but they keep
coming. The two women on the ground get up. This time he puts a few rounds into
their heads and they fall to the ground. Dead. Really dead.

The
man lying on the grass has turned and he gets to his feet and runs for the
officers. Again the cop fires at the head and the newly turned body fall to the
street. The other officer has been bitten a few times now, but finally gets off
a few rounds and shoots the last of the ladies in the head. He is hurt bad and
his partner helps him to his feet. They climb back into their squad car and hit
the gas. The car backs down the street leaving a trail of smoke behind them.

A
red Volvo skids to a stop and runs over three infected. It high centers on the
corpses, its tires spinning in the air. The driver gets out and runs to the
back door, she gets her two-year-old from its car seat. She takes the baby and
sprints away from us. She turns a corner. We can’t see her anymore but we can
hear her screams. My hand covers my mouth, the mental picture making me gag.
All around us we hear screams. Breaking glass. More screams.

A
big truck scoots quickly down the street. Thick metal rails hold its cargo into
place. Its cargo, thirty plus aluminum tanks, rattle around in its open truck
bed. On the side of the vehicle is a sign that reads “flammable.” As it enters
the intersection it is t-boned by another fast moving vehicle. The big truck is
set off course and heads straight for the burning Jiffy Lube. The truck
explodes seconds after it enters the flaming structure. The heat from this
explosion almost melts my eyebrows. I duck down below the edge of the building.

“We
have to get out of here!” I can’t watch any more carnage below. The group ducks
down with me.

“How
do we get down? There’s no fire escape,” Sam sounds defeated already. One of
the tanks from the back of the big truck explodes and shoots high into the air.
The damn thing lands dead center of the roof we are standing on. We all drop to
the ground and cower for our lives. It begins to burn the roof right away.

“Oh
good. That’s what we needed,” I say sarcastically. I pop up and run across the
roof and look at the back of the building. Our company sits next to an animal
hospital and we also share the same parking lot. I look down and there is a van
parked right next to our building. Its roof sits around twenty feet below us.
Sam is right behind me.

“We
jump.” 

“It’s
too far! We’ll break our legs,” Sam shakes his head. He is right. We will not
make the jump. My car is parked only a hundred feet away, on the street behind
the building. Right now I do not see any of those things back here. Yet.

I
look back at the tank that is setting the whole roof on fire. “It’s better than
burning to death. Don’t worry. I have an idea!” I climb back into the
warehouse, Sam is right behind me. The rest of the group follows behind him.

“Guys
we have to jump,” I say with conviction.

“We
can’t jump from here!” squawks Bill.

“We
don’t have a lot of options and we have to move fast. There aren’t any of them
at the back of the building right now. Help me with this?” I walk over to a
large stack of twin-sized mattresses; grab one off the stack and head back for
the open window. Devon and Sam grab one each and follow me onto the roof. Bill
and Tracy grab one together. I guess they are going to go along with this. God,
I hope it works. I stand at the edge of the building. Boom! Boom! Boom! Tanks
explode one after another. Each one lands in a different spot. It only adds to
the chaos. More buildings are burning down. The cars closest to the Jiffy Lube
are all set ablaze. Another tank explodes and lands on our roof. It is only ten
feet from where we are standing. We drop to the ground and duck behind our
mattresses for cover. The heat coming off it is intense. It is so hot that the
plastic bag that incases the mattress has begun to melt and shrink.

“Goddamn
that was close!” I fight to get back up, “Sam, grab the end of this.”

Sam
lets go of his mattress and picks up the end of mine. Almost half of the roof
is on fire. We lift the mattress over the edge and aim for the top of the van
in the parking lot.

“Ready?”
I ask. Sam nods. “Drop it.” We both let go and the mattress hits the top of the
van perfectly. A sigh of relief...then the vans alarm goes off.

“SHIT!
Lets move!” We drop the other three mattresses on top of the van as fast as we
can. The fire creeps closer and closer to us. One tank after another blows
apart and sends its aluminum torpedo flying into the air. “I’ll go first,” I
throw my leg over the side of the building. I hate heights! I really, really
hate heights. I am not a fan of climbing up a six-foot ladder. That is how much
I hate heights. I pivot on my butt and bring my other leg over the side. I take
a deep breath. I want to close my eyes but I know that is a really bad idea. I
push off and try to land on my back. I fall ten feet and land hard on the stack
of mattresses. I cave the top of the van in when I land. I do a quick body
check and nothing has broken.

“You
okay?!” Sam yells down to me.

“I’m
fine,” I sit up and climb down onto the hood and drop to the pavement. They
send Tracy over next and she lands it perfectly. She climbs off and joins me in
the parking lot.

“Hurry
up!” I yell up at them. Sam goes next, then Devon. The van’s alarm blasts.

“Linda?”
Sam pulls at my shoulder. I turn and see her stumble out of the backdoor of our
building. That demon woman has spotted us and runs as fast as she can with a
busted knee. Not too far behind her is a group of infected kids from the
school. They are on the other side of the parking lot and moving fast in this
direction. 

“Bill,
jump!” He sits on the edge of the building and shakes his head.

“Stop
thinking and jump!” shouts Sam.

“I
can’t!!” 

“They’re
coming! We have to move!” I yell up at him. I have my keys in my hands ready to
go. More of them creep around the side of the building. They file into our
parking lot.   

“FUCK
IT!” Bill lets go of the building. His body twists in the air. He jumped too
far. He is not going to land right. Goddamn it. Bill slams down on the edge of
the mattresses, falls off immediately and lands hard. He puts his hands out to
break his fall and both wrists snap in the wrong direction. He lands face first
on the asphalt. I roll him over to his back. His nose is broken, his lips are
cut and two front teeth are knocked out. He is out cold.

“Sam,
grab him.” We grab Bill by his arms and drag him towards the street. His hands
flop around as we pull him by his forearms. The bones grind on each other
inside his wrist. Linda leads the pack of infected over the fence that
separates the two parking lots. Bill’s body is too heavy and they gain on us
with every step. I click the unlock button on my key fob, Devon and Tracy climb
into the back seat. We get Bill to the street, but the infected are right
behind us. There is no time to pick up his body and force it into the back of
my car. They are too close. This shit can’t be happening. I lock eyes with Sam.
He is thinking it too. I close my eyes in despair and let go of Bill. Sam lets
go as well and within seconds Linda is on him. She’s quickly joined by the
other infected. When her first bite cuts into his skin it wakes him up. Bill
howls like an animal. His body turns over and he looks up at me. His eyes are
like an abandoned child. Hurting, disbelieving, how could I possibly leave him
for dead? I pop open the door to my car as Sam runs around to the passenger’s
side. Bill reaches out for me to save him. His hand flops around on the broken
joint.