Contagion: The Rising (5 page)

The
shadow sat back on the log as Mark struggled with his balance and the loss of
his gun. He waited to see if the shadow would attack once again.

“Mark,
it’s me. It’s Emma,” Emma got closer to Mark and touched his shoulder.

His
eyes widened, “Emma?”

Emma
motioned for him to calm down. He reached for his lighter as he regained some
composure. “You’re supposed to be dead.” Mark shook as he held the lit lighter
next to her face. “Your eyes are still normal,” he stared at her eyes and
suddenly hugged her. The abrupt scrape from his facial hair to her face shocked
her. She winced from the pain of her injured shoulder and pushed him away.

“Is my
sister okay?” She continued to wince as Mark slowly moved away from her.

“Yeah,
but it might not be that way pretty soon,” he motioned to her shoulder. “Is
that where….”

She
held her shoulder and sighed, “Yes.”

“Can I
see?” he turned his attention to her shoulder. She crouched down as he brought
up his lit lighter to inspect her shoulder. “Who bandaged it?”

Her
eyes dropped, “Some people found me. Soldiers. Actually, a family. They took
care of me and well, gave me a few things to get back out here.”

“Are
they here?” he looked over her shoulder and back towards the forest.

“No,
they’re not bad people,” Emma wiped her face with her sleeve. “You know them,
Tony, Kayla and Dani.”

Mark
smiled, “I did a long time ago. I’m glad they’re still around. I’m sure they’re
willing to help us out right now. We need it. You need to see your sister.” He
motioned for her to follow, but she stayed still and shook her head. He walked
back to her, “Why not? She’s been a wreck without you.”

“Brady
will hurt her as soon as he sees me.”

“I’ll
sneak you in.”

“He
already knows about you helping us, I’m sure he’s got Trevor watching you all
day.”

“What?”

“Tony
and Kayla told me of what you were doing.”

“Oh,” Mark
sat back, “Yeah, then what do you want to do?”

“Bring
her back here.”

“I’ll
bring them, but where will you hide?”

“I’ll
be around. Just stay close to the ground. The broken fence let a few in but I
took care of the one earlier.”

Mark
hugged her carefully and kissed her forehead. She smiled as she watched him
disappear into the forest. He made his way to the edge and walked to the house.
Sarah opened the door as Mark was about to knock.

“Hey Mark,
is everything okay?” Sarah said suspiciously because his face was flushed.

“We all
need to meet up in the forest. Five minutes, okay?”

Mark
walked off as Sarah looked confused and called Rory over. “Mark wants us to
meet him in the forest.”

“Did he
say why?”

“No,
but he looked shook up.”

Brady
slowly sat back in his broken chair and attempted to sleep. The pain from his
arm grew worse and bothered him as he tried to get comfortable. He suddenly
jumped up and started screaming as his body contorted.

Trevor
pulled Parker outside and motioned to keep his voice low, “She can’t hear
this.” Parker smirked and followed his brother over near the barn.

“What
is it? Is he ready to go on the plan?” Parker crossed his arms and rested
against the barn.

Trevor
smirked, “Yeah, all we need to do is set her up.”

Parker
hit Trevor’s arm, “Are you sure you can go through with it?”

“Yeah,”
Trevor’s voice cracked. “Yes, we need to. Brady has been stock piling all of
the supplies and thinks we can head out in a day or so.”

“I’m
hoping that you’re right, even though I don’t trust him. He still might double
cross us.”

“Yeah,
well we have a backup plan.”

“The
Risers?” Parker raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah,
I’m sure a few of them got in when we busted the fence open,” Trevor shifted
his feet and watched Chloe approach the barn. “What the hell is she doing?” Chloe
saw the twins talking and instead walked over to the silo. “She’s just going
inside to go to sleep, probably.”

Parker
looked at Trevor, “So you’re not hooked on her, right?” He smirked as Trevor
walked over to the barn. Parker followed as Trevor stopped short of the
entrance.

Sarah
walked slowly with Rory right behind her until she spotted Mark near the edge
of the forest. “What are we doing out here?” She squirmed and shifted her feet.

“Sarah,
okay,” Mark motioned for her to stay there and hurried into the forest. He
stepped out with Emma.

 Sarah
fell to her knees as Rory stood in shock. “Emma…is that really you?” She
stuttered as she continued to stare at Emma.

Emma
approached her and helped her up. Sarah instantly hugged her, which caused Emma
to yelp out in pain.

Sarah
let go of Emma, “I’m sorry.”

“No,
it’s okay. It’s healing,” Emma smiled and hugged Sarah who started to
cry. 

“You’re
alive,” Sarah sobbed as she held onto her.

Emma
nodded, and Sarah finally loosened her grip on her. Rory got closer to her and
hugged her slowly.

“Where’s
Ryan?”

Sarah
looked down, “A Riser got him.”

Emma’s
eyes widened, “What the hell happened?”

“They
were on patrol and a Riser attacked them. Brady was able to get free and he
left him out there without a weapon.”

“That
son of a bitch!” Emma yelled as Sarah attempted to calm her down. She looked
down and covered her face as she continued swearing.

Sarah
hugged her again, “We’re going to be okay. You’re alive.” She kept touching her
uninjured arm to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

Mark
smiled as Sarah held onto Emma. “We have a huge problem going on with Chloe and
Brady.”

Emma
looked at Mark, “When?”

“Tonight.
Trevor should be preparing Chloe on a rampage. She’ll go off on your sister and
Rory then Brady will kill her.”

“Wow,” Emma
said.

“What?”

“That
plan really sucks,” Emma shook her head as Rory chuckled and Sarah smiled.
“What? It’s dumb. I mean granted, it is Brady thinking of this shit. Nevermind.
Anyway, so what are we doing?”

“I’ve
stashed a few things around the house and near the back of the barn, so we can
take that with us.”

“We’re
going on foot?” Rory asked.

“Yeah, Emma
met some of my friends to the North.”

“They
were on the bay for a while, but they’ve been near the farm for a short time,” Emma
explained. “We were right about the outpost but we were about two months too
late. I think they’re moving somewhere else now.”

“Will
they help us?” Sarah looked to Mark.

“Yeah,”
Mark sighed. “It’s just getting to where they’re at now. I’m sure you’ll
remember the area, Emma.”

“Yeah,
I do,” Emma agreed. “I’m sure they’ll help. They didn’t really like Brady
either.”

Trevor
walked closer to the entrance of the barn and was met with complete darkness.
The fire was out and there wasn’t a sign of Brady anywhere. Parker and Trevor
rushed in and lit the fire barrel. They searched through all of the stalls and
found nothing.

“He
left us, he fucking left us!” Parker started to freak out and grabbed a shovel.
He started to stab the nearest hay bail and yelled at it.

“No,
man. He has to be here,” Trevor looked confused.

Parker
dropped the shovel and walked over to the last stall. “He. Left. Us. I fucking
told you, he’d double cross us again.”

“He
didn’t exactly promise us that Dad wouldn’t get killed. He did warn us of
making him go there with them.” Trevor pulled at his blonde hair and hit the
sides of his head. Parker searched the back room of the barn and found the
supplies they horded within the month.

“It’s
still here,” he showed the room to Trevor, who carried a single torch over from
the fire barrel.

“Then
where the hell is Brady?” they turned towards the fire barrel and found a dark
figure standing near it. “Brady?” Trevor slowly approached the figure. It
appeared to roll it’s neck side to side and turned to face them.

“What’s
up, man? Is the plan still on?” Parker said as Brady’s face became visible with
Trevor’s makeshift torch. His eyes were completely white and part of his face
started to droop. He smiled and jumped onto Parker. Brady constantly kept
biting on Parker’ head until Trevor was able to pull Brady off. He threw him
against the far barn wall and picked up a pitchfork. He watched as Brady reared
his head and wailed. He shoved the pitchfork into Brady’s head and impaled him
against the wall. Parker was bloodied and dizzy but managed to grab a shovel
and helped his brother separate Brady’s head from his body. The body twitched
as the head made expressions of anger.

 “Trevor!”
Parker yelled as he held onto his head. His ears rang as his eyes rolled back
into his head. Trevor grabbed onto Parker as he fell down to the ground.

“Oh
god, Parker! Please, keep breathing,” Trevor held his brother as he twitched
and writhed in pain. “Parker, keep breathing!” Parker eyes remained still and
the rest of his body stopped moving as he lay in his brother’s arms. Trevor
held on to Parker’ body and began to cry. He slowly rocked with his body in his
arms for a few minutes and quietly placed Parker’ body down on the ground. He
walked over to Brady’s semi-Riser body as it was still trying to piece it’s
body together. Trevor grabbed the shovel and impaled Brady’s head. The rest of
the body parts to suddenly ceased their movements. He kept stabbing until there
was nothing left but blood, tissue and broken bones. Trevor sat in silence as
the blood from Brady’s and his brother’s bodies covered him from head to toe. Trevor
stood up as Parker stirred, “It’s okay, Parker. You stay here. I’ll get the
rest of them back here.”

Sarah
led the group from the forest with Emma walking a few steps behind her. Mark
quickly noticed that something didn’t seem right when they arrived at the house.

“Does
it seem quiet to you?” Mark looked around.

“Yeah,
too quiet, you mean?” Emma searched in the dark and found the silo in darkness.
“Hey, they don’t have their usual fire outside.”

“The
farm doesn’t either,” Rory pointed towards the farm entrance. “It looks like
smoke it coming out of the door.” Smoke from the recently extinguished fire
barrel quickly billowed out of the entrance.

“Go
grab your weapons,” Mark directed Rory and Sarah as Emma followed after him
with her machete out. They walked over to the barn entrance and peered in. The
darkness of the barn stopped them from venturing closer as Mark decided to
light the barrel. The fire quickly grew huge and smoke flowed out before the
fire settled down. They heard noises toward the rear barn wall.

“That’s
close enough,” Trevor’s voice bellowed throughout the barn. “I’ve got a rifle
here, and I’m pretty good at shooting as you may have remembered.”

Rory
and Sarah inadvertently flash their flashlight towards Trevor’s voice. Parker
wailed behind him. “Holy shit!” Rory jumped back and pulled Sarah away from
view. Mark flicked his flashlight on and off to divert the attention over to
him. A single shot rang out and it destroyed Mark’s flashlight.

“Quit
with the damn flashlights,” Trevor sounded more annoyed than angry. “Parker
doesn’t like the lights.” Mark threw his broken flashlight at him. “Real
mature. Throw out all of your weapons.”

Sarah
threw out her machete as Chloe grabbed her and held the machete to her neck.
“You didn’t think I’d forget about doing this.”

Rory
thought about lunging at her, but Sarah shook her head. “Listen to your
girlfriend, unless you want to have a headless one.”

Emma
hid behind Mark and inched closer to Chloe.

“You
better wait there, Mark, or else Parker isn’t going to be very happy,” Trevor
looked at his Riser brother, who sneered at Mark but looked domesticated
towards Trevor.

Emma
motioned for Rory to grab Sarah as soon as she would be able to rush Chloe. She
watched as Chloe grew tired of holding the machete too high and lunged at her.
The hit separated the machete, Sarah and Chloe with a loud bang. As Rory pulled
Sarah away, Emma continued to punch Chloe. Emma finally raised the machete to
kill Chloe, which triggered Parker to jump at her. Sarah grabbed a nearby
shovel and cleared Parker’ head from his body.

“No! Parker!”
Trevor cried as he shot wildly at them as Emma shielded her sister.

Mark
was able to locate Brady’s rifle on the ground, lying next to Chloe. He waited
for a muzzle flash from Trevor’s rifle and shot at the flash. Trevor suddenly
cursed and climbed to the top of the barn.

Mark
and Rory both ran towards the last spot where Trevor was shooting from, but
only found a few spent casings, a small blood trail and his rifle.

“He
dropped his rifle after I shot him,” Mark looked at the blood. “It looks like I
winged him pretty good.”

Sarah
and Emma looked up at each other and smiled. Emma made an unusual face and
coughed as blood spilled from her mouth. She looked down at the blood pooling
on the floor below her and fell forward. Sarah’s eyes widened, “Emma!”

Mark
quickly turned around as Rory ran toward Sarah and Emma. Sarah sobbed, “It’s Emma.
She’s shot.”

Emma
lay still and lifeless on her side. Her eyes continued to stare at Sarah and
pleaded with her for help. “Help her, Mark. Please!” Rory tore off his jacket
and applied pressure on her stomach as blood oozed out.

“I’ll
get the truck and we can take her over to Tony, okay?” Mark grabbed Sarah and
shook her. “You have to keep pressure on her stomach, just like Rory is, once
we get her in the truck.”

Sarah
nodded as she stared at Emma, “She’s not blinking. Why isn’t she blinking?”

“Sarah,
put pressure on her stomach,” Mark looked at Rory who applied pressure as well.
He ran over to the truck and started it in one go. Rory and Sarah pulled Emma
closer to the entrance of the barn as Mark drove the truck over.