Jacob's Odyssey (The Berne Project Book 1) (32 page)

I checked my watch again. Only three minutes till Raj would check to see if the streets were clear. The group on Apollo had thinned, but there were still too many of them for me to try to run through them. And for the first time, I was afraid I might not make it back in time.

I decided if I ran as hard as I could, I could make it to the house in two minutes. I got myself mentally prepared to run the moment there was any kind of break in the infected trudging down Apollo. But they just kept coming. And then I knew I'd have to leave now if I wanted to make it back in time.

The infected on Apollo slowed to a stop and turned in the general direction of the house where Sarah and Becky and Raj were located. The moans from the infected fell into silence and they craned their heads as if they were listening attentively. I listened too, and then I heard it. A faint grunting sound—Raj.

I didn't hesitate. I sprinted through the gate and into the front yard. Their heads were all turned away from me as they focused on Raj's emphatic grunts. I ran out into the street and ran right past them. They stood like scarecrows wavering in the wind. A few of them heard me and turned their heads, but I was past them before they could move. I headed for the fourth house down and they did the same. But I was moving too fast for them. I ran through the gate at the fourth house and into the backyard. It was empty like the others. I was to the back fence in no time. I climbed over it, and as soon as I hit the ground, I reached into my pocket for the lock pick set.

I was at the back door working with the rake pick when I heard Raj scream, a terrified howl that in a few seconds faded into a groan. And then there was silence. I had the pins in place. I turned the tension wrench and opened the door as quietly as I could.

I looked around the kitchen. I needed a weapon. I found a butcher knife in the wooden knife block on the counter. It wasn't ideal but it would have to do. The house was dead silent. I walked cautiously into the dining room. I was hyperaware of the slight squeaking my hiking shoes made on the wood floor. When I was halfway through the dining room, I could see that the front door was open. A tall figure walked away from the house with a decided limp. He held a hand on the outer side of his thigh as if to help carry his leg along with him as he walked. His left leg was stiff as he limped along and he walked with a half skip. It seemed to help him walk faster. He limped into the street, and then he must have heard me or sensed me because he stopped in his tracks and turned. The Swimmer eyed me passively, his face flat and expressionless. Fresh blood lingered on his chin. Then he let out the same high-pitched quavering sound he'd made the first time I'd seen him—an atavistic cry, ancient and primal. When he finished, he glared at me with a challenge in his eyes before he turned and limped across the street.

A skinny infected man lay in the entryway with noticeable trauma to his head and face. He wasn't much more than a collection of bones inside baggy clothes. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling and his mouth was wide open. I walked slowly into the living room area and that's where I found Raj. He wasn't alone. Two more infected, a short stocky man and a woman in a badly soiled sundress, lay on the living room floor, their skulls bashed in.

Raj lay flat on his back on the living room floor, his legs spread comfortably apart as if he were sound asleep. He didn't move. His head was propped up against the bottom of the recliner at a sharp angle as if he'd fallen against it. Bright arterial blood pulsed rhythmically from a bite wound in Raj's neck, adding to a red pool of blood on the floor next to him. I thought about trying to stop the bleeding, but I knew it was too late.

Raj's eyes drifted to me without his moving his head and his lips trembled as if he wanted to say something. The smooth brown skin of his face had paled and was remarkably still. I leaned down to see if I could hear him. He raised his head and tried to speak, a look of anguish in his eyes. A small eruption of blood sprayed from his mouth when he tried to talk. He looked at me desperately as if he wanted me to understand something.

And I thought I did. "I'll take care of them, Raj," I told him.

I could hear blood gurgle softly in his mouth and throat. And for a moment, I thought he may have nodded at me. Then suddenly Raj was quiet and his eyes became still.

My bat lay next to him on the floor with flecks of blood on the fat end of it. He had used it to bash their heads in, but Raj was no match for the Swimmer even with a bat. A part of me couldn't believe he was gone, and I kept thinking there had to be something I could do to change the outcome. But it was too late. There was nothing I could do.

I had trouble concentrating and was at a loss as to what I should do. I knelt there woodenly. Too many incoherent thoughts fought for my attention and I couldn't seem to sort them out. The one thing I was sure of was that the Swimmer's shrill howl would draw the infected from the neighboring streets to us. But it would take time for them to get here. I figured I had at least several minutes before any of them showed up. I just needed to focus and figure out what I needed to do.

I avoided looking at Raj's body. I didn't need the distraction. The only thing I was sure of was that I needed to get Sarah and Becky out of the house and do it quickly. Get them to the research facility.

And then it struck me that something didn't quite track, as if there were something out of place. But that wasn't exactly it. And then it hit me. The picture window was intact. Not a crack anywhere. I glanced over at the door and it was perfectly intact as well. And I realized the infected hadn't broken into the house, Raj had let them in.

I didn't want to think about it. I couldn't. I got busy. The first thing I did was to close the front door and lock it. Before I closed it, I took a peek outside. The Swimmer had disappeared into one of the backyards across the street and South Fortuna Way was predominantly clear of the infected. There were two of them down the street heading our way, but they wouldn't be a problem, not with the Tundra.

I went to the stairs and called up loudly to them. "Sarah, we have to go. Throw the backpacks down and I'll be up in a minute to get you and Becky." Making noise at this point didn't matter.

I ran to the bathroom and turned on the cold water and splashed some of it on my face. I toweled off, then went into the living room and used the towel to wipe the bat clean. I could hear the backpacks hit the hallway floor upstairs with a thump. The infected man by the front door was near the bottom of the stairs. He was in the way. I used the towel to grab him by the foot and drag him into the living room with the others. Then I went into the garage and started the Tundra. It started right away and I could feel the power of its engine.

I hustled up the stairs and felt the soreness in my thighs. I went into the bedroom and grabbed the chair and took it out into the hallway and set it below the attic. I stepped onto the chair and helped them get down from the attic. Becky first, then Sarah. Sarah carefully lowered herself and I helped guide her down with my hands on her hips.

After I stepped down from the chair, Sarah lightly touched my arm below the wound. A dark spotting of blood had seeped through to the outer t-shirt. But my shoulder wasn't what was preoccupying her mind.

"Raj?" Sarah asked. But she already knew. They both knew. I could see the pain in Sarah's eyes. She was simply looking for confirmation. And Becky's face had already slackened into sadness.

I found I couldn't say the words. I didn't even know what they would be. Instead, I briefly shook my head and looked down at the floor.

Becky started to cry and Sarah pulled her daughter close to her. I knew we needed to go. There wasn't time to grieve. Not yet. It would have to wait.

I set the bat into its place in the backpack, then I gently touched Sarah on the arm. "We have to go. They'll be coming soon."

Sarah nodded. I slipped my backpack on and asked Sarah if I could carry Becky downstairs. She agreed. I picked Becky up and asked her to close her eyes. I didn't want her to see the carnage downstairs. She closed her eyes and buried her face in my shoulder, and I placed my hand on the back of her head. Sarah grabbed her backpack and Becky's and we went downstairs.

Sarah glanced at Raj as we passed through the living room. It wasn't more than a cursory glance. I kept my hand on the back of Becky's head as we passed by.

I got them settled in the back seat of the Tundra. "This will only take a minute," I told them.

Sarah looked at me quizzically, but I didn't want to explain.

I grabbed the matches from my backpack and tossed the backpack on the passenger side in front. A red plastic gas can sat on the floor on the other side of the garage near the lawnmower and the snowblower. I'd spotted it when Raj and I had been in the garage yesterday. It was half full, but it would do.

I took the gas can into the living room. The first thing I did was to pull Raj away from the recliner. He looked so uncomfortable with his neck bent so sharply. I poured the gasoline all over his body and on the wood floor around him. I stepped back and lit a match and tossed it on his body. The flame spread quickly over Raj's body and the floor. It was a yellow flame and it danced and licked upwards at the air.

For a moment, I thought about saying something, but I didn't know what would be appropriate and we needed to get going.

Once in the garage, I headed to the garage door. When I got there, I reached up and grabbed the red handle for the bypass switch and pulled it, and I heard the lever lock into position. The bypass would allow me to open the garage door manually. I grabbed the door handle and lifted the garage door quickly. I took a peek outside and checked to make sure we were clear, then made my way back to the Tundra.

I shifted the truck into drive and could feel the anger rising within me. A part of me hoped the Swimmer would be out in the street so I could run him over. I scanned the street, but there was no sign of him. The two infected I'd seen earlier were lumbering toward us. I simply drove around them and accelerated.

I glanced in the rearview mirror as we approached the curve in the road and then I saw him. He'd come back out into the street in front of the house we'd just left. He stood there for a moment watching us and then he began to hobble after us. I didn't mention his presence to Sarah and Becky. They had enough to deal with.

I could see a couple blocks down Fortuna Way before the road curved again. It would be four blocks before we got to Brockbank Drive and then two blocks down to the facility. About a block ahead, a handful of infected stumbled about in a front yard. But they'd be no hindrance to us. We'd be by them before they could get out into the street.

I glanced in the rearview mirror and could see Becky leaning into her mother. She was crying softly. Sarah stared vacantly ahead. I hated to interrupt them, but I knew we had to contact the facility.

"Sarah, could you text them and let them know we'll be there in about three minutes?"

She didn't say anything but reached into her backpack and grabbed her phone. I could see her texting. I checked my watch and it was a little after six. I couldn't help but notice the gates to the homes were closed this far down Fortuna Way. The Swimmer had apparently opened the gates for about a block and a half down from Jupiter.

We passed the infected out on the lawn. They turned and stared at us as we drove past. A spattering of fresh blood brightened their dusty clothes. A couple of them chewed slowly on something in their mouths. They had broken into four successive homes on the east side of the street. They started to amble after us, but they were no threat.

We went past the last curve in the road and ahead of us I could see the stop sign where Fortuna Way intersected with Brockbank Drive. We were still clear. I had no doubt the majority of the infected in the East Bench were back in the area where I'd fired the shots, or headed in that direction if they weren't there already.

I slowed at the stop sign and turned right and headed down the hill. The Salt Lake Valley opened majestically in front of us and offered a breathtaking view. A month ago it would have been a beautiful morning. People would have been jogging and bicycling on Wasatch Boulevard.

The morning sun had poured its brilliance into the valley all the way up to the Holladay area. In another five minutes, it would light up the East Bench area too.

Brockbank swung sharply to its left right before it intersected with Wasatch Boulevard. I followed the curve and the Jorissen Research Building came into view, a three-story brick building with long, narrow dark windows. The building took up nearly half a block and was built into the lower slope of the mountain. The first thing I noticed was a large black helicopter sitting atop the building.

I was surprised to see it. Sarah hadn't mentioned anything about anyone other than the scientists being here. I looked back at her and I could see the surprised look on her face.

She looked at me and shrugged. But the presence of the helicopter didn't really matter. We had nowhere else to go. And then I wondered if the helicopter had something to do with the secure location that had been mentioned in the text.

I turned into the back parking lot, a decent size lot with plenty of parking spaces. A Hyundai Elantra was parked in the middle of the lot not far from the back door. I drove near the back door and swung the truck around so it faced the parking lot exit, just in case.

We stayed in the truck while Sarah texted them again. About ten seconds later, the back door opened. A man in black military-type garb held the door open. He didn't pay any attention to us but scanned the area and kept his eyes peeled down the street.