Omega Pathogen: Despair (13 page)

“Good idea. But we’ve got the same kind of trailer hitch on the MRAP and can hook to it. We’ll leave it here for now and get it before we head back. I want to check out more places for things we need,” Jim said.

They rejoined George in the MRAP. Jim called the farm on the Ham radio and gave a situation report. He let them know that they would be searching the base for useful things they could bring back. Jim signed off on the radio as they left the garage to continue searching the base.

The tractor-trailer with supplies was left, with the plan it would be picked up prior to their departure from the base. Jim drove as they traveled away from the vehicle maintenance building and deeper into the base.

They slowed as they looked at different areas on the base and then continued on. All the time, the number of walkers slowly increased and followed them. Jim slowed and then came to a stop. He stared at some tractor-trailers parked in a large paved area on their left. “You see those?” Jim asked his sons as he pointed to one of the seven trailers parked beside each other.

“What?” Chris asked.

“The trailer with the forklift near it,” Jim said.

“Yeah, what is it?” Jeremy asked.

“It looks like a shit-load of Hescos,” Jim answered.

Jim explained that Hescos were simply containers made of pliable material and reinforced with thick wire. The Hescos were transported collapsed or folded on themselves, and could be transported and set up quickly. Once unfolded and placed on leveled ground, they were filled with dirt. They had proved very useful for quickly constructing walls around U.S. and Coalition military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We can use those for at least part of the perimeter of the farm,” Jim said. 

On the move again after their stop near the Hescos, they come across a logistics and supply building. To their pleasant surprise they found a trailer loaded with MREs backed up to the loading dock at the rear of the building. Something else that was placed on the list of things they would need to bring back.

They drove to the base’s hospital and as much as Jim loathed the idea of going inside, they needed more medical supplies. As a paramedic he knew it was nearly impossible to have too many medical supplies. It was already nearly 4:00 PM; Jim and his sons discussed it and decided they would spend the night and then enter the hospital after sunrise tomorrow. George politely disagreed.

Jim called the farm and gave them an update of their plans. He signed off feeling a little relief that Arzu hadn’t been near the radio. She would have surely protested the decision. He didn’t like being separated and spreading their numbers, but it was the only way to scavenge for the things they desperately needed, or could need in an emergency.

Jim pulled the MRAP away from the hospital front entrance and to a nearby parking lot that offered a better field of view. Chris and Jeremy began to prepare meals while Jim set aside some of the flash-bang and fragmentation grenades that they had recently obtained. Jim made sure that Chris and Jeremy were educated about the grenades, especially the fragmentation variety. He explained the casualty distance for the fragmentation grenades was fifteen meters. An almost certain kill radius was five meters.

Jim kept an eye on George. He had seemed distracted and dazed most of the time. Jim didn’t know if the man’s normal behavior was like this. He thought maybe it was from lack of sleep and added stress, or a combination. Either way, he didn’t feel comfortable around him, much less giving him a weapon.

As the shadows grew longer, they closed up the MRAP. “George, were you and that team of yours able to learn anything about this infection while you were stuck in Mexico?” Jim asked.

George remained quiet and continued to eat. He nibbled at his food.

Jim thought the question didn’t register, and opened his mouth to ask again when George answered.

“We learned a lot I guess. But like most science, you learn one thing and then find out there are ten more things you don’t know,” George said.

Jim, Chris, and Jeremy sat quietly eating and waited for George to continue. He didn’t.

Impatient and unable to wait any longer, Chris broke the silence, “What did you learn about the disease?” He asked with a hint of impatience to his voice.

George finished chewing some food and swallowed it. He took a drink of water and then cleared his throat. He looked each of them in the eye and began to tell them the same story he had when they first met earlier that day.

George stopped and took a long drink of water before he continued. “One of the infected was killed, it was shot and killed by the guards. The guard had been bitten and he shot it. I mean he shot him.” George’s hands shook and his voice trembled as he spoke. After a pause and another drink of water he continued. “The body the guard killed was checked. It was dead. No heartbeat. Nothing. The body was placed in a body bag and isolated. The guard was placed under observation. The next day we went to conduct an autopsy, but when we opened the drawer, the body bag was moving. We opened the bag and it was alive again. It tried to attack us, but a guard shot it in the head and it died again,” George said and resumed eating.

The men in the MRAP were silent. Jim, Chris, and Jeremy continued to look at George. He just stared blankly at the interior wall across from where he sat and took bites of food. Slowly Jim and his sons looked at each other and then back to George. “People have been pronounced dead before and found to be alive later,” Jim said.

“We killed two more by shooting them in the fucking heart! One never went unconscious until shot in the brain and that killed it. The other went unconscious and came back four minutes later,” George, now red-faced angrily said.

Jim pointed out that he, his sons, and many others had killed numerous infected without them rising from the dead.

“The longer they’re infected the more likely it is to happen. It has to do with the virus mutation. How much it spreads into the brain,” George answered in a calmer voice.

“How long?” Jim asked.

“It seems they have to be infected for about two weeks, they become slower and don’t have the aversion to daylight any longer,” George answered.

Jim stood and moved over to George, his forehead nearly touching George’s. Jim tried to speak calmly but the tension in his voice couldn’t be hidden: “Are you sure about the time? My mother turned infected and was not shot in the head. She was shot in the heart. Are you sure that she’s not in her grave trying to dig her way out?” Jim said.

George’s face grew red again, his expression now turned from anger to fear. He slid back and down in his seat away from Jim, nodding slowly, “Yes, Jim. I’m positive. They have to be infected for two weeks or more. At first, before the SCAR virus mutated from its state when it was first released, the virus took three days before the newly infected person was contagious. After the three days, the newly infected person could then infect others. The virus in its pre-mutation form took two weeks before it mutated into what we all saw happen throughout the world. Two weeks and then those infected went rabid. Now, since it’s mutated the infection turns people mad in minutes.” George explained. His speech increased in speed as he spoke.

“What about a vaccination or a cure?” Jeremy asked.

George shook his head. “No vaccine, and no cure. Someone else may have found something I don’t know about,” George said.

“You know, this shit already scared the shit out of me. Now we’ve got these, these . . . undead fuckers,” Chris said.

Jeremy looked at George, his brother, and then his father. “Fucking zombies,” Jeremy said.

Jim flopped in a seat and rubbed his face. “I need some Jack Daniels,” Jim said.

Chris and Jeremy agreed.

George chimed in, “Me too. I have some.” With a smile, he pulled a bottle out of his beat up backpack.

Jim called the Yates’ home on the Ham radio and gave them a brief version of what George had told them. The news was met with silence at first, then some doubt. Jim and the other residents of the farm had been hearing what they had thought were rumors about the infected being killed and coming back to life. Some had talked about not being able to kill the infected.

As it grew dark, they closed the MRAP turret and shut off the engine in hopes to attract less infected and lose the attention of those that had started to gather around.

Courtesy of Arzu, black fabric curtains now hung near every window. Jim, Chris, and Jeremy unfurled them to prevent interior light leaking out. Jim and his sons talked quietly for a while before they tried to sleep. George would answer questions when asked, but he kept any conversation to a minimum.

Jim woke with the rest still asleep. He quietly moved to the side window of the MRAP and donned a set of NVGs. Hundreds of infected surrounded them. It looked like thousands wandered further away throughout the military base. He checked the turret and the doors to confirm they were locked and then laid back down and tried to sleep.

Chapter 13

The scavenging mission returned earlier than expected to the farm. Arzu met with the returning team that had included Kathy and Royce. They had found some of the larger equipment Arzu had requested for fortifying and re-expanding the perimeter. The quick return was due to their good luck and to the large amount of items they had collected. She had given a specific and general list of items she had needed to work on improving their security fence.

“Hi, Kathy,” Arzu said as she, Berk and Kayra approached the group after they pulled through the gate and stopped.

Kathy climbed out of the driver seat of the Mack tractor-trailer and smiled. “Hi guys,” she replied as she stepped from the cab. “Any word from Jim?” Kathy asked.

Arzu’s happy expression turned to a mix of irritation and worry. “Yes, they radioed and said they found someone from the plane we saw and they were trying to gather more supplies before they come back,” Arzu said.

Kathy motioned with her head toward the trailer. “Check out what we got,” she said. Arzu followed to the rear of the vehicle.

Arzu had requested materials so she could construct molds to make large concrete blocks use to build the walls. Kathy and the scavenging team had returned with plywood, 2 x 4s, rebar, and several rolls polyethylene plastic sheeting. The residents and probably most survivors had learned by now that the infected were drawn to noise and movement. They hoped the solid walls would reduce the noise and light from the compound. And in turn they hoped to reduce the infected from being drawn in.

The tractor-trailer was moved away from the gate and offloaded. Arzu and others in the group started immediately on preparing for constructing molds for the concrete walls. Kathy, Royce, and the others on the scavenging team took a short break and departed the farm again to continue their search for supplies.

Arzu had also given the teams a list of things she needed to reconstruct a better gate system. The way it worked now, they had to try to draw away any infected near the gate by using human bait, then hurry the vehicle out or in and shoot any infected that were too close.

Her plan was to make a double gate system. Arzu planned on using an electric powered system with battery backup for the first gate, that they had found at a farming supply store. Once the vehicle was in the vestibule, they could close the first gate then dispose of any infected that got in. The second gate could be opened manually.

With a limited supply of some materials, she knew would need to make use of what she had and integrate them to construct the best barriers she could. It didn’t have to be aesthetically pleasing; it just had to protect them from the infected.

While Arzu and the others worked on frame designs for the molds, Berk and Kayra did their best to help out by holding tape measures, keeping track of their mother’s notepad and pencil, and fetching tools.

Arzu thought of the other children that were still in quarantine. She felt terrible that they were separated from the rest of the people. What else could they do? Everyone felt terrible about having to put the children through the ordeal, but it had to be done. They did make sure that they made it as comfortable as possible and an adult was always nearby. 

While in the process of assembling molds for the walls, Rick Yates drove up in a pickup truck to see how the molds for the walls had progressed. Quick but polite hellos were exchanged as Rick approached the group. “A lot around today?” Jen asked her uncle.

“Not too many, they’re coming in small waves. All of them are those slow ones, though. I took care of about ten of them so far. Since they were right up on the fence, I saved ammo and just put one in their heads,” Rick replied as he examined their work.

“Looks like it’ll work just fine, Arzu,” Rick said.

“I hope so,” Arzu replied.

“See y’all later. Going to check more of the fencing,” Rick said as he walked to the truck and drove away.

Jen noticed Arzu looked at her wristwatch frequently while they worked. The concern on Arzu’s face was obvious. “Jim said they would call us again to report on how things were going,” Jen reminded her.

Arzu looked up from her watch at Jen and gave a smile that poorly hid her concern for Jim and the boys. She did her best to bury her worry and concentrate on the tasks at hand. Improving the perimeter fence was of high importance. It would give more security to her children and everyone else at the farm.