The Next World (Book 3): Resurgence

by Olah, Jeff

  The man on the left of Devin continued to plead with Travis. “Come on man, we aren’t here to hurt you.”

  “Then you drop yours.”

  Kevin stepped around Travis and motioned for him to lower the rifle. “Let me do this.”

  The rain was again coming down harder. It soaked through his jacket and sent a chill down his back. He was only twenty feet away, but would need to get much closer for any real back and forth to happen.

  “Listen,” Kevin spoke as he walked. “We have one that’s hurt pretty badly and we need to get him some help. There is someone with us that can help, but we need to get inside. And sooner rather than later.”

  The man on the right began to slowly lower his rifle and now looked from Kevin to the truck and then back. “Dr. Gentry … are you serious?”

  Kevin made a show of slipping the pistol into his waistband as he continued to within ten feet of Devin and the two men. “Yes, Dr. Gentry is with us. But nothing happens until the two of you put those rifles away.”

  The man on the right slipped his weapon back over his shoulder, looked past Devin, and motioned for his friend to do the same. “We need to get moving.”

  The second man shot Kevin a look that said he wasn’t completely convinced, but then quickly complied. He looked to the vehicles, and then to Devin. “We can get them inside, but we’re gonna have to split up.”

  Travis had grown curious and now stood alongside Kevin. “Split up?”

  The man to the right, the one Devin had referred to as Alex, nodded. He looked back over his shoulder, blew out a long slow breath, and seemed to lose an inch or two. “It was Declan. His men rolled through here an hour ago. Davis confirmed it was them. They torched two vehicles and ran them through the front gate.”

  Kevin was still stuck on split up. And at the moment he had only one priority. He looked to Travis and then back at the men. “We’re willing to pitch in however we can, but right now we need to get our friend somewhere safe … so Gentry can help him.”

  Alex again nodded, turning to Devin. “Okay, you take them around back.” He handed over a two-way radio. “Let Davis know you’re coming, and tell him we’re gonna go check the gate, come at it from the highway, see if we can get it secured. We’ll go on foot, and it might take us a few hours, but we’ll be back before lockdown.”

  And then to Kevin, Alex said, “You want to help?”

  “Sure,” he said, motioning to his left. “I’ll help you, but my friend Travis here, he goes in with the others.”

  26

  Owen opened his eyes. He felt worse. The pain wasn’t so bad, but he was tired. More than tired. It was like the day after a heavy workout, although it was everywhere. Liked he’d worked every single muscle to complete exhaustion. Like he hadn’t eaten and was running on no sleep. The only thing that didn’t hurt were the injuries to the left side of his head and his arm.

  And at the moment that scared the hell out of him.

  He tried to speak, but it came out as a cough. There were lights and then they were gone. He sat in the rear seat, reclined and staring up at the tattered roof of the SUV. They slowed and started multiple times. He could hear his son and his daughter, had the sense that they were behind him. They kept their voices low and spoke in short, quick sentences.

  It sounded like Lucas was behind the wheel and he could smell Natalie to his right. Although he tasted blood and his nose felt like it was packed with cotton, the sweet citrus of her perfume somehow drifted through.

  In his ears, or maybe inside his head, he could hear what he imagined to be his heartbeat. It sounded deep and slow. He wondered if that was because he had been immobile for … how long, he couldn’t remember. Or if he was just slowly dying.

  He didn’t have a frame of reference, never really had much of an interest in the exact process related to leaving this world. He always figured it would happen quickly, in the blink of an eye. He always thought he’d die heroically, like being shot protecting a complete stranger or defending those he loved.

  Not like this, not in the back seat of a dusty fifteen-year-old sport utility vehicle. Not due to a bloody ear or an injury to his arm, no bigger than his pinky. And especially not with the world the way it was now. No, he couldn’t just drift off quietly as he sat beside the only woman he ever loved. That wasn’t him.

  Or was it?

  “Owen?” It was Harper. She sat on the opposite side of the seat. She leaned over Natalie and smiled at him. “How are you?” Her face told him she regretted the question even as it was leaving her mouth.

  Natalie turned toward him and held his hand. She motioned out through the front of the SUV and began to break down as she also regarded him with a smile. “We’re getting you help, baby.”

  Owen couldn’t think of a proper response. His mind told him to say thank you, but that didn’t seem to fit, it wasn’t enough. He opened his mouth, but only managed what he thought sounded like a brief, high pitched whistle, similar to slowly releasing the air from a balloon. And he couldn’t be sure whether it came from his throat or his nose.

  In the front passenger seat, Gentry gathered his pack from the floorboard. He turned in his seat and reached for the handle. “We’re here.”

  A second later, the door beside him was pulled open and the man in the dark hoodie reached for his arm. Gentry had rounded the front of the SUV and now stood with Lucas and Travis.

  “Okay,” the man said, “we can take him to the second floor. You’ll have everything you need.”

  Owen’s eyes were heavier now. He felt like he wanted to sleep, like he no longer had a choice. “Nat?”

  He was out of the SUV and again being carried. There were four of them now and although he felt like he was floating, the flare in his left armpit had returned. It still wasn’t enough to cause any real pain, but it was there. It sat behind multiple layers of confusion and fatigue, but it was there. And that made him happy. It meant that he was still alive.

  But then just as quickly everything started to change.

  Owen tried to take his next breath, but couldn’t remember how. The voluntary in and out seemed foreign. Felt like he was doing it for the first time, like his throat had been narrowed to the size of a straw.

  He tried to swallow, but tasted more blood, felt like he was drinking it now. Where his vision had been a bit blurry, he could feel the haze turning a dark shade of grey and then drifting toward black. The sounds of the night air rushing by the side of his face slowly faded and then dropped away all together.

  All that was left was a low hum and the nearly muted voices of his family and friends.

  Natalie. She was there, breathing hard and holding his hand. He could feel the vibration of her voice against his right side. They were inside now, felt like he was being carried up a flight of stairs, the angle sending a wave of muted pain into the side of his head.

  She was shouting, but with each word sounded further away.

  “HURRY, PLEASE HURRY! WHAT’S HE DOING, WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM?”

  And then they were back on flat ground. His body was moving faster, beginning to convulse as the hands on him clamped down.

  “Nat …” He spoke, but only into his own head. “I love you, tell Ava and Noah that I love them.” He felt like he was falling. Faster into the darkness. It enveloped him, pulled him in, and finally swallowed him whole.

  “Goodbye.”

  27

  Kevin used the light from his phone to illuminate the narrow footpath. His boots were soaked through and his feet frozen stiff more than thirty minutes before. The rain came sporadically now, harder and longer with each passing wave.

  Bryce had taken the lead, with Alex close on his heels. Their pace was quick and choppy. Neither had spoken in more than ten minutes and Kevin was beginning to think they may be lost.

  “You sure about this?”

  Bryce laughed. “Yeah, it’s cold, I get it. But we’re almost there.”

  Alex turned back, his face holding
more rain than Kevin knew was possible. He looked like he was coated in Vaseline, his eyebrows and short beard reflecting the moonlight. He cupped the left side of his mouth and mimicked whispering, although his voice came out at full volume. “I think we’re lost too.”

  “Yeah,” Kevin said. “How do we convince your friend here that—”

  Bryce came to a stop. He put his left hand above his head and balled his fist. “We’re here.”

  Alex moved around to Bryce’s right side. Stayed on his shoulder and spoke into his ear. “Looks like the fire’s out, but there’s something over to the left … near the Buick.”

  Kevin slipped his phone back into his pocket, readied the Glock 17, and crouched on the opposite side of Bryce. “What is this place?”

  “Used to be a shopping mall, now we like to think it’s our home. It was abandoned well before the world went to hell, a friend of mine knew about it and knew that Dr. Lockwood had a place here, figured this might be a good place to start to rebuild.”

  Kevin pulled aside a low-hanging branch and nodded toward what looked to be a pair of torched vehicles, the one on the right like a post-apocalyptic version of the first car he ever owned, a 1969 Ford Mustang.

  “A damn shame.” He grinned, an attempt at lightening the mood. “We should hunt them down for that alone.”

  Bryce looked in the other direction, a long narrow drive, only wide enough for two vehicles, side by side. Lined with a thick stand of elm, and only one way out, the road into the abandoned shopping mall couldn’t have been less inviting. “They’re long gone, but we knew this was coming. Let’s get this cleaned up and secured. We can add some detail when the sun comes up and we have a few more hands. For now, keep your eyes and ears open. We’ll get it done quickly and get back inside.”

  As Bryce started toward the road, Kevin put his hand on the smaller man’s shoulder. “Wait.” He pointed to the area between the burned vehicles and the leading edge of the gate. “Looks like there’s at least a dozen or so.”

  Alex stepped away from Bryce, dropped to one knee and shouldered his rifle. He squeezed off a single round, the silencer partially covering their location in the trees.

  As the round slammed into the melted tail light of the Buick, a pair of female Feeders stumbled out from between the vehicles, pulling the rest of the small crowd with them.

  “Ten, eleven …” Bryce counted under his breath as they slowly ambled out away from the gate. “Twelve, thirteen, uh … fourteen?” He then turned back to Kevin. “Good eye.”

  Alex looked up at Bryce, still on one knee, and then turned back to his scope. “We good?”

  Bryce nodded. “Quick, and don’t hit anything else.”

  The first four shots came almost at the same time. Four rounds, four headshots, four motionless Feeders. Alex then stood as Bryce backed away, and took out six more before Kevin could ask.

  “He’s done this before?”

  Bryce grinned. “Yeah, the dude just doesn’t miss.”

  Alex dropped an empty magazine into a pocket on his backpack, pulled a fresh one from his hip and slammed it home. He quickly fired two more rounds and then paused as a pair of male Feeders dropped backward beside the Mustang. “They look like twins to you?”

  Kevin shook his head, and watched as the last two Feeders moved from the left of the Buick and started toward the edge of the road. The first, a female wearing a security uniform, looked to be somewhere close to six feet tall. The male, only a single stride behind, was maybe an inch or two taller, his face still mostly intact, but it looked as though he was missing a large portion of his stomach.

  As they approached, now less than twenty feet away, Kevin took a step forward and began to raise the Glock. “Is there a reason why—”

  “Hold on,” Bryce said, “Watch this.”

  Alex moved in closer to the road and again dropped to one knee. He slipped his eye in behind the scope and gently fingered the trigger. As if in slow motion, the round left the barrel of the automatic weapon and rocketed through the night. It entered the female’s head, straight through the center and only an inch above her brow. A fraction of a second later it exploded out the back, brain matter and skull fragments peppering the male’s face as it tore through his temple and caused his eyes to pop out of their sockets.

  And without turning, Alex said, “Twofer.”

  “Doesn’t count,” Bryce said. “You were supposed to say it first.”

  Kevin thought he knew, but wanted to hear him say it. “Twofer?”

  Bryce stayed low, moving toward the road and watching the trees further on for movement. “You know, two fer one, like when you only have to shoot once and—”

  “Yeah,” Kevin said, “I get it. I just had to hear how you were going to try to explain it.”

  Alex strode back quickly, his eyes darting from the gates to the downed Feeders, and then to the pair of torched vehicles. “Let’s get this done and get back in there. I’m starting to have a bad feeling about all of this.”

  Kevin stepped out and looked down to where the road bled into the highway. The rain had slowed considerably, although he still wasn’t able to see much beyond fifty or so feet. He was now thinking that firing the weapon, as entertaining as it was to watch, may not have been the best plan. “Your guy inside, he see Declan and his men leave?”

  Bryce looked to Alex, held his gaze for a moment, looked like he was going to say something to his friend, but then turned back to Kevin. “Declan wasn’t here, but his men were, and they’ve done this before. Eight days ago, and then five, and yesterday … and then tonight.”

  “If you knew they were coming, couldn’t you have stopped them?”

  Alex shook his head. “They got numbers on us, there’s just too many of them.”

  “Wait, why didn’t you mention this before, out on the road when you stopped us?”

  Bryce took in a breath through his nose, blew it out slowly. “Because Devin was with you.”

  “Devin?”

  “Yeah, he’s the reason they did this.”

  28

  Noah sat between his sister and his mother. He’d never seen anything like this, an entire mall with no one shopping. And there were other people, more names than he could remember, even a few children. He liked it here, and now just wanted to stay.

  He began to smile, thought that he was happy.

  But then it hit him. He remembered where he was and why. “Mom?”

  Natalie was a mess of tears and distraction. She hadn’t stayed in the same spot for more than a few minutes. Asking Ava to watch her brother, attempting to stay strong for them, and acting interested in whatever the new people had to say. “Yes, Noah?”

  “Is Dad going to be okay?” He’d asked her at least five times and not once had he gotten a different answer.

  “Yes, he’s going to be fine.” She stood and started toward the room just like she had the last time and the time before that.

  Ava clamped down on his hand and leaned into him. “She needs us to be here for her right now. I know you want Dad to be okay, and so do I, but if you have any more questions, just ask me. Let’s let Mom have a minute.”

  Noah thought he knew what she meant. He could see his mother was having a hard time, but he didn’t know how to act, what to say. He thought he needed to say something, but maybe he was better off just being quiet.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “No,” Ava reached for his chin and lifted his head. “It’s okay, Noah. Mom just needs us to be strong for her. She’s trying, but no one is telling her anything and she’s worried. Like I am.” She leaned in closer, looked into his eyes. “Like you are.”

  Noah nodded, his eyes filling and his lower lip beginning to quiver. “Okay … I’ll be—”

  The doors to the store thirty feet ahead began to open. The sign above had big letters and fancy writing. Noah thought that before, when the mall was open, that it would have lit up in blue and white. It was a mattress store and when they took hi
s father in, he thought the beds looked comfortable, better than the one he had at home.

  Dr. Gentry appeared. “Natalie …”

  His mother was wiping her face and tucking her hair behind her ears when the doors opened. She had her back to the mattress store and only turned when she heard her name. “Yes?”

  “I need you,” Gentry said. He was holding the door and looking back over his shoulder. “We have to hurry.”

  Natalie turned back and looked at Ava. She mouthed something, but Noah didn’t understand. He though she said be good, but it was too fast. He only saw that her tears were flowing now, like when his grandfather had died.

  Ava stood and faced the short man with thick grey hair. His shoulders were big and round, his belly even more so. He wore light colored jeans and a blue jacket that said maintenance across the back. And he seemed to smile more than the other people.

  Noah was trying to remember the man’s name, he thought it was Martin.

  “Sir,” Ava said, “Can we go downstairs?”

  The man looked back toward the mattress store, and as their mother disappeared inside, his face changed. He pressed his lips together really hard and turned to the woman in the orange sweater. He looked like he didn’t know what to say, but then, “Can you, uh …”

  The woman was older. Older than his mom or his dad. She looked like she was someone’s aunt or maybe grandmother, or somewhere right in between. Noah remembered her name, because she was someone very important.

  Her name was Mary Lockwood.

  At least that’s what Ava had said.

  The woman smiled, like she was trying to help the man. She turned to Ava and gave a quick nod. “How about I give you and your brother a quick tour, get you something to eat, and then maybe you can watch a video or read a book if you’d like.”