The Omega Protocol Chronicles (Book 1): Exodus (27 page)

Still, she couldn’t ignore the fact that her thoughts were not on the injured Craig or the lost Travis. They were on Malcolm and whether he would make it back to them. Her worries bounced around her head but soon her eyes grew heavy as she stared into the fire.

The sound of voices jerked Kim from her doze, jostling Trey awake as she scrambled to get to her feet. She had no idea how long she had been dozing but it was enough to leave her groggy as she clicked on her flashlight to search out who had come into the camp. She hadn’t heard an engine but it was possible the others had been forced to make it back on foot.

Her heart sank when she saw it was just Jenny and Janet walking back to the camp. She silently berated herself for thinking that it could be the others. Craig was injured, they wouldn’t try to walk him here and they wouldn’t leave him behind.

“Don’t worry too much,” Janet reassured Jenny as they walked up to the camp fire. “Malcolm knows what he is doing. He’s cautious and if it wasn’t safe for them to come back, he would find somewhere for them to wait it out. I bet they will be back first thing in the morning.”

Kim held on to Janet’s reassurances, reminding herself that Malcolm was capable. He would be back and he would bring the others with him.

“Everything quiet here?” Janet asked and Kim nodded.

“Jose and Ana went to sleep in the station a little while ago. I told them to take the cots, Jose looked exhausted. He still made me promise to wake him up for watch so we could get some sleep.”

“That sounds like him,” Janet said with a smile that only lasted a few moments before turning into a frown. “But I don’t think I’ll be getting much sleep tonight.”

“Me neither,” Jenny said, lowering herself into one of the lawn chairs. “I’m scared of what I’ll dream.”

“Probably doesn’t help that pregnancy hormones seem to give you the strangest dreams,” Janet said. “When I was pregnant with the twins, I kept having this recurring nightmare that I gave birth to them and they were Gremlins and they kept getting wet and multiplying until the entire house was filled with them.”

Kim and Jenny laughed while Trey looked at them confused. “What’s a Gremlin?”

“Oh, you are making all of us feel old, son,” Kim quipped and the women shared another laugh. It eased the tension that had been lurking amongst them, taking the edge off a bit. They needed moments like these, a chance to forget for a second all the horrible things that had happened and just share a laugh. They had to find some sort of joy in this world or they would go crazy.

Their laughter was broken when the radio at Kim’s feet beeped, signalling that its battery was running low.

“I better go switch it out for a freshly charged one in the station.”

Janet stood up after her. “I’ll come check on the kids.”

They walked over to the station and Kim opened the door quietly. She had left a lantern on in the station and it glowed dimly in the corner, casting the room in large shadows. The children were curled up in a pile of pillows and sleeping bags, Claudia cuddled up with them in the nest. In the opposite corner, Ana and Jose had pushed the two cots together, the shadows barely revealing their silhouettes.

A watery gurgle sounded from the cots and Janet swung her flashlight around, the beam dancing over the corner, revealing a scene out of a horror movie.

Ana lay on the cot closest to them, lifeless eyes staring blankly as Jose hovered over her, face buried in her throat, blood everywhere. Janet screamed and Jose looked up at them, milky eyes flashing in the light.

Janet’s scream woke the children and their own screams joined hers. The thing that had once been Jose turned in their direction, scrabbling over Ana’s body towards them. Kim fumbled for the gun she had stuffed in the back of her pants, cursing as the thing caught on her belt.

The sound of a single gunshot split the air and, for a second, Kim thought she had accidentally pulled the trigger on her own but then Jose crumpled to the floor with a resounding thud.

Across the room, Claudia was sitting up, her arm extended out with a gun held steady in her hand. She had the twins behind her back and her other arm was over Ruth, keeping the little girl’s face tucked in her lap. Claudia did not take her gun off Jose, even as she softly stroked Ruth’s hair while the little girl trembled in her lap.

Janet was at the kids’ sides in a flash, pulling the twins into her arms, where they buried their heads into her shoulders, sobbing in fear. Janet reached out to touch Ruth and Claudia let her go, the little girl scrambling into her mother’s embrace.

Claudia watched the family for a moment before she looked back at Kim and nodded once before putting her gun back under her pillow. None of them had thought to check Claudia for weapons when she arrived and Kim was grateful they had slipped in security. If they had found her armed, they would have insisted she give up the gun and the scene here in the station would have turned out much differently.

Kim realized that Trey and Jenny were at the door when she heard Trey begin to retch. Kim was immediately at his side, a hand rubbing over his back as he tossed up his dinner onto the grass outside.

“What happened?” Jenny asked in a soft whisper.  

“Jose. He was infected,” Kim told her, watching as Trey took several deep breaths as the nausea passed.

Jenny’s hand went to her throat as she gasped. “When did he get bit?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say anything about a bite.”

“He wouldn’t have lied to us, would he?” Jenny asked, her voice trembling. Kim shook her head. There was no way that Jose would have lied. He knew what would happen if he was bit.

“If he had any idea that he was infected, he never would have allowed himself around the children,” Kim replied confidently, “And he definitely wouldn’t have slept next to Ana if he knew.”

Kim could not stop her gaze from drifting over to Ana, an arm dangling off the bed, blood trailing down the limb to pool on the floor below. Her face was turned towards them, her eyes lifeless and her mouth open in a silent scream. Kim could not take looking at her anymore and she quickly crossed the room, intent on pulling a blanket over Ana’s body.

“Mom, stop!” Trey called out. “It’s the blood. You can’t touch it.”

She took a step away from the cot, eyeing the blood pool suspiciously and from the corner of her eye she saw Janet pull the kids further away from the cots as well.

“Jose was covered in blood and spit from infected people when he got back,” Trey said. “Maybe he got it in his mouth or nose or eyes. We learned in biology that the easiest way for a virus to spread is through the mucous membranes. If he didn’t get bit but still got infected, it probably came from bodily fluids like the blood. We can’t touch it.”

Well, score one for her son. She knew those tutoring sessions she had gotten him would eventually pay off. His theory made as much sense as anything else.

“Then we’ve got to get everyone out of here,” Kim ordered as she looked around at the blood that was splattered around the cots. Thankfully none of it had sprayed in the direction of the children but she wasn’t going to take any chances. “We sleep outside tonight. We’ll deal with the bodies by the light of day. I don’t want to take any chances.”

They followed her orders, Janet ushering the kids out, Claudia following behind them, gun in hand. Kim put her arm around Trey’s shoulder and led him away as Jenny closed the station door behind them.

Jenny lay her hand on the door and closed her eyes. “Rest in peace, friends. I know you will be together watching over us in Heaven. May the Lord’s arms welcome you into His peaceful embrace. Amen.”

“Amen,” Kim echoed and they walked to join the others around the fire.

Subject File # 742

Administrator - You carry a lot of guilt around with you.

Subject - Everybody does. Isn’t that a good thing? I thought the only people who don’t feel guilt for what they’ve done are sociopaths.  

Administrator - Feeling guilty for things you’ve purposefully done is completely natural but you carry the guilt of things that were out of your control.

Subject - Nothing is completely out of your control. You can always find something that you could have done different. You don’t know if it would have changed much but you’ll always wonder and that’s where the guilt comes from.

As Malcolm turned the station wagon onto the dirt road that led to the camp, he sent up a prayer that Travis and Jose were here with the girls. If they hadn’t made it back safely, they were gonna have a bad situation on their hands with the doctor. When the camp appeared, he let out a relieved sigh when he spotted the police cruiser. They’d made it back.

He parked alongside the cruiser, looking at the group that had started to gather at their arrival. He saw only one strange face in crowd, a teenage girl with red hair standing with Janet and Ruth. When he couldn’t spot the others the sinking feeling returned.

Both Alan and Quinton quickly climbed out, Alan going to Jenny and Quinton going to the girl. Malcolm turned to Lorraine, who hadn’t moved from her spot at Craig’s side.

“Best you stay in here with him,” Malcolm told her. “I don’t see the others so things are about to go south out there.”

He got out of the car and Janet was there to greet him hugging him tight.

“Where are the others?” she asked when she stepped back.

“We thought they were here with you,” he said. “How did the girl make it back here?”

Janet exchanged a pained look with Kim before answering him.

“Jose showed up with Claudia yesterday afternoon. He told us Travis and Claudia’s sister were right behind him but they still haven’t showed.”

“Shit!” Malcolm ran a frustrated hand over his face. They had left two of their own behind. “Okay, we have to go back for them. Where’s Jose? I need to ask where he last saw them.”

Kim shook her head sadly while Janet’s eyes filled with tears.

“He came back infected. We didn’t know, not until it was too late to save Ana. Claudia had to put him down in front of the kids.”

Malcolm rubbed a hand over his face, his heart clenching in his chest at the thought of what had happened to Jose and Ana. He had failed them. Knowing the children had to see it…
fuck
, everything was falling apart.

“Evans!”

Malcolm turned to see Quinton stalking towards him, his face dark with anger.

“You said both my sisters would be here!”

“I know and I’m sorry. Veronica was with Travis on their way back here but something must have happened.”

“You fucking think?” Quinton yelled at him, closing the distance between them. Malcolm could see his knuckles turning white as he balled his hands into fists. Malcolm took a step to the side, putting himself between the doctor and the women. “This is all your fucking fault. You took me away from them! I should kill you for that!”

“Hold up there, doc,” Malcolm said, “I get that you’re tore up and I know the part I played in what’s happened so you get some leeway with me but don’t push it. There are children here and I’m not going to let you scare them. You don’t threaten me or any of my people, you understand?”

“We’re not
your
 people,” Alan sneered at Malcolm as he came to stand next to Quinton. “He’s right. This is your fault, you fucked up. Left his sister and my brother behind. You didn’t give a shit about them so don’t pretend you give a shit about any of us here.”

Great, just what he needed. Asshole Alan leading the charge.

“Instead of wasting time throwing around blame, why don’t we focus on coming up with a plan to find them?” Malcolm suggested. He watched some of the tension in Quinton disappear, placated by the idea. Alan, however, was having none of it.

“You really think I want your fucking help finding my brother? You’ll just end up leaving more of us behind. Ever since you joined us, everything has gone to shit. I don’t think it’s a fucking coincidence.”

“You’re right, things have gone to shit all because you met me, it’s got nothing to do with the fucking world ending,” Malcolm replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. “You know Alan, you aren’t just an asshole, you’re a fucking idiot too!”

Alan hissed in a breath, his face twisting up with rage before he put his rifle to his shoulder, taking aim at Malcolm. Frightened gasps rose up around them and Quinton stepped away from Alan, positioning himself between Alan and the others. Malcolm heard Jenny call out to Alan but he didn’t take his finger off the trigger.

Yeah, he was
definitely
 a fucking idiot.

“Put the fucking gun down, Alan,” Malcolm said, his words even and his expression unflinching. “You aren’t going to shoot anyone.”

“You don’t fucking know that,” Alan sneered, bracing the rifle tighter against his shoulder.

“I do because I can have that thing out of your hand before you even move,” Malcolm told him. “Now you can put it down yourself or I can take it from you, but I warn you, it’s gonna hurt when I do it.”

Malcolm counted to five in his head, giving the man a chance but he didn’t take it. Malcolm moved quickly to shove the barrel of the gun harmlessly up into the sky. His other hand curled into a fist that he connected with Alan’s ear and the man dropped to his knees like a sack of bricks, crying out in pain. Malcolm took the rifle from him and pulled out the gun holstered on his hip, disarming the asshole.