Omega Pathogen: Despair (25 page)

Chris let Kathy know as they neared the intersection of the eastbound road and she made the turn. They made their way east toward the next turn to the north without incident. The area was sparsely populated before the outbreak and only a few walkers were seen.

Shortly after Kathy had turned the MRAP to the north, the bridge came into sight. Jim stood in the turret as they neared the bridge. He looked through a pair of binoculars for structural damage to this bridge. He could see no obvious threat so he kept silent as Kathy drove them across.

As they neared the other side, they saw three men hanged by the neck dangling from the last support cross member of the bridge. The first thing that entered Jim’s mind was anger with himself. He should have seen the figures that hung above their path. The next thing that entered his mind and quickly overrode the first was a question.
Is there a threat?

As they passed the three bodies, they were able to read the signs that each man had around their neck and rested on their chest. Painted in bright red letters on each of the signs was the single word
RAPIST
. By the condition of the bodies Jim guessed they had probably been hanging there for more than a day or two.

Jim anxiously resumed his scan of three hundred and sixty degrees around the MRAP. As he turned, he caught movement behind them. Instinctively he crouched to present a smaller target while he swung the turret-mounted machine gun toward the two pickup trucks that closed in behind them.

Before he could say anything Kathy called over the radio, “We’ve got vehicles out in front and people flagging us down,” she said.

Jim turned to the front to see a van and two more pickup trucks. A man walked away from the vehicles and stood in the center of the road with a rifle slung over his shoulder. The man in the road slowly waved his arms.

“What are we gonna do?” Chris yelled up at his father in the turret.

The vehicles were spaced wide enough apart that the MRAP could drive right through. The strangers didn’t appear to be trying to block them. Not that they could slow the bulk of the armored truck with the vehicles that they had. The vehicles behind them kept their distance.

“Stop here. I’ll talk to them,” Jim said as he stepped inside from the turret.

As Kathy brought the MRAP to a stop, the trucks behind them did the same about twenty-five yards away. Those occupying the trailing vehicles remained inside and watched as Jim exited the rear of the MRAP.

“If something happens to me, you guys get the hell out of here,” Jim said. He looked up at Chris and Jeremy from the pavement and then closed the doors. He doubted they would listen and leave him as he had asked.

“Jim?” Kathy called over the radio.

“Go ahead,” Jim answered.

“We got you covered,” Kathy said.

Jim looked back and saw Chris and Jeremy both squeezed into the turret. Jeremy had one M249 machine gun aimed up but in the direction of vehicles to the front and Chris manned the other aimed at the trucks behind them.
Guess they won’t listen and drive away
.

Jim kept his rifle slung as he approached the man in the road. Unlike the man he walked toward, Jim’s rifle rested against his chest so he could bring it quickly to bear. He knew he stood no chance if they decided to shoot him. He was vulnerable out in the open. He probably wouldn’t even have the chance to take any of the strangers with him. But Chris and Jeremy seemed like they had that part covered just fine. 

The sky had seemed as though it would clear a few hours ago, but had started to turn gray again. As the wind increased, the droplets of rain stung Jim’s face as he approached the man in the road. Moving only his eyes, Jim looked over the other men and women behind the vehicles in front of him and the MRAP. They seemed nervous. Probably not scared of him but of the machine guns on top of the MRAP that idled behind him.

“Cooper. Sam Cooper,” the man said in a calm deep voice, and extended his right hand.

The man looked to be in his sixties. His face was full of lines carved by time but his bluish-grey eyes were sharp. As Jim shook the offered hand, he noticed Sam was missing his pinky and half his ring finger.

Jim introduced himself and motioned with his thumb to the three corpses dangling behind him, “That you guys' work?” Jim asked.

Sam looked toward the three bodies suspended from the bridge. “Yes it is, Jim. And yes they were. Damned rapists. So are y’all just passin’ through? Scavenging, or what?” Sam asked.

“We’re passing through,” Jim replied.

As the men spoke, the others in their groups shot infected that walked toward them. Jim went on to explain they were returning from further south after attempting to rescue survivors. He was intentionally vague about the location of the Yates’ compound when he came to that part.

“Well, I’m truly sorry those folks didn’t make it. Seems like there ain’t much of us left,” Sam said.

“It won’t be too long and we’ll have those fast ones coming to investigate,” Jim said as he looked up to the gray sky.

Sam looked around and agreed with Jim. The visit was over. Sam wished them well and gave Jim the Ham radio frequency he and his group used.

“We’re holed up in the Wal-Mart in the north part of town. Good luck to you and yours, Jim,” Sam said. The men shook hands and parted ways.

They were about five miles out of town traveling west when they felt the engine RPMs drop.

“Shit,” Kathy said. She scanned gauges.

The MRAP’s engine RPMs picked up and then dropped.

“What’s wrong?” Jim asked.

Kathy didn’t hear the question or ignored it. Her facial expression was mixed between concern and concentration. Her head was slightly canted to the left as she listened to the engine’s sound; she looked like a physician listening to a patient’s defective heart.

Jim asked again and was answered by Kathy, Chris and Jeremy nearly simultaneously. All diagnosed the problem as the fuel filter, fuel pump, or both.

“We can change both of them, but to be safe, we should drain and replace the fuel, too,” Kathy said.

“Shit. How much time to do that?” Jim asked.

“I’m guessing a couple of hours. It’s just a big diesel engine. But the more hands, the better,” Kathy replied.

They had to have a secure location to do the work. He didn’t doubt his sister or his sons when it came to mechanical issues, but knew as well as they did that something additional to what they suspected could be wrong. With no other choice, Jim contacted Sam Cooper’s group and asked if they could use their location to safely work on the vehicle. They received permission to come for repairs.

Kathy was leery of the engine stalling out, so she waited until she could turn around in a wide arc while keeping the speed up.

They entered the town they had left not a half hour ago.

“Keep alert inside their place. We don’t know them, so we don’t completely trust them,” Jim said.

Just before they arrived at the Wal-Mart, Marlene called them over the Ham radio. Chris gave an update on their location and mechanical problems. Linda and Arzu had listened in as they stood beside Marlene and then briefly spoke to those in the MRAP before they signed off.    

Chapter 30

Brent and Rob had worked on returning the antenna to its place on the power pole since the high winds and lightning had slackened around 8:00 AM. By the looks of the sky, they didn’t have much time until they were hit again.

The power pole that had been repurposed as the antenna’s tower swayed with almost each gust of wind. It would take a lot more wind to dislodge the pole. They had placed concrete around it when they set the pole weeks ago. It still moved too much for Brent, though.

Each time Brent felt the pole move the slightest; he stopped working and held on. He rechecked the rope that secured the ladder on which he stood as each gust died down. Brent didn’t particularly like heights. Actually, he was deathly afraid of heights and he considered the thirty-five foot pole higher than he should be on a wobbling ladder.

“They’re fixing it. They’ll be able to talk to them again. You’re an idiot!” The voices berated George as he peeked out the blinds of the RV and watched the two men as they worked.

He let go of the blinds, closing the small slit each time it seemed that the men looked over at him.
They’re watching me
.
They know I know
, he thought.

“Okay, got it bolted down. Tie the cable to the end,” Brent said. He shook as he nervously held a death-grip on the ladder and dropped one end of the small diameter rope down to Rob.

Rob quickly tied the end of the cable to the rope. “Pull it up,” Rob yelled up to Brent. Rob shielded his eyes with his left hand from the sideways raindrops that pricked his face.

Brent braced himself for the task. His arms encircled the power pole. He always kept one arm hugging the pole as he pulled a small length of the rope. He realized he was holding his breath and focused on remembering to breathe. His mouth grew dry. He had transitioned from rope to cable and pulled up several feet before he had noticed he had passed the cable end that he needed to attach to the antenna.

Brent stopped and hugged the power pole again as he caught his breath. He forced himself to close his eyes and tried to steady his breathing. When he thought he had a little more control on his acrophobia, he opened his eyes and let out some cable to locate the male end of the coax. The wind blew again and the pole rocked, but he clenched his teeth and continued his work.

“They’ll fix it and communicate with the rest of the aliens. The demons will come. The demons will come in and take control. The demons will come in and take control. The alien demons will come in and take control! You stupid fuck!” The throng of voices chastised George over and over.

I just need some medicine
.

“Medicine! That’s what got you in this situation! You stupid shit. You stupid shit. You stupid shit!” the voices yelled at him.

“It’s true. The medicine clouds my judgment. Dulls all my senses. Makes me less alert. Less aware,” George reasoned. He paced.

With the arrival of another band of rain and an increase in the wind, Brent and Rob hurriedly finished attaching the cable to the re-mounted antenna base. The cable was laid out on the ground from the tower to the house and into the window closest to the radio.

Marlene stood near and pulled the cable through the window into the house.

“We’ll run it through PVC pipe and burry it when the weather isn’t as bad,” Brent yelled over the gusting wind.

Rob nodded and followed Brent inside the house.

“Do it now. Do it now! Go cut the cable. Cut it!”
the voices told George.

“Okay. Okay. I’ll cut it but I have to wait. They’ll see me,” he responded to the secret ones only he was special enough to hear.

The cold damp air that followed Brent and Rob through the door made it obvious to those inside that another cold front was arriving with the rain.

Marlene was signing off with
Raptor
as the two men entered.

“I guess the Ham is working,” Rob said as he and Brent removed their rain-soaked jackets.

“Yes. I hooked it up and it’s just fine. Thank you both,” Marlene said and smiled at the two men.

Jan gave Brent and Rob each a towel to dry off. They both filled a mug with coffee while Marlene filled them in about the mechanical problems with the MRAP.

The clouds had only slightly begun to clear as the day progressed and the sun made its way down toward the horizon.

After dinner Arzu tried to be pleasant and join in on the conversations, but found it difficult to keep her concentration. They had been in radio contact again from the MRAP, and Kathy informed them that it was taking longer than expected to complete the repairs.

When the other children went to bed, Arzu gathered Kayra and Berk and they wished everyone goodnight before making the short walk to their camper behind the house. After reading them two books, Arzu tucked Berk and Kayra into her and Jim’s bed for the night. As the kids drifted off Arzu lay there beside them, listening to their faint breathing, but found sleep fleeting for herself.

George paced. Peeked out through the blinds then paced some more. His voices kept telling him to do it now, but he was smart. He knew he had to wait. In a few hours Marlene would finally go to sleep. Linda would come and relieve her. Marlene would take her hour and a half to two-hour nap. That would then leave only him and Linda and Royce as the three likely to be awake. He would just wait for Royce to be near one of the far barriers away from the house. He would have plenty of time to do what needed to be done.

George rummaged through drawers, cabinets, and closets for something to use. He would pick up something and examine it, then toss the discarded items. He sometimes stopped his frantic search and paced the floor. Peer out the blinds for a while and then begin searching again for what he needed. He didn’t know what it was but when he finally found it he would know. 

He realized he was hungry. He wasn’t sure when he’d last eaten, but figured he would need his strength for what was to come. Thoughts of food vanished from his mind as soon as they had appeared when he spotted the metal toolbox on the floor of the RV under a shelf near the door.