The Next World (Book 3): Resurgence

by Olah, Jeff

  As Ava dropped her head, and again wiped her face with her sleeve, Kevin rested his hand on her shoulder. “Your dad’s going to be okay—he’s strong. We’ll get him back into that kitchen, fixing us all breakfast burritos in no time, whether he likes it or not.”

  Before he was finished, Ava tilted her head and looked up toward the second floor only a second before the others. The doors to the former mattress store parted and Natalie ran to the railing. She was searching the floor below and came to a stop when she spotted Ava.

  “Sweetheart, I need you to come up here, it’s your dad.”

  32

  Day ninety-six...

  “Welcome to Harbor Crest.”

  The man seated in the chair six feet from his bed smiled. He was familiar, although Owen couldn’t recall from where. He was tall and good looking, had the jawline of a movie star, and the shoulder width of someone who was familiar with the weight room. He wore a black long-sleeved t-shirt, blue jeans, and dusty brown leather work boots. He looked like there was more that he wanted to say, but he appeared to be waiting for a response.

  “Hello?” Owen’s voice came out thick, his throat sore, and his mouth warm. He took in a slow breath and looked around the room. It was also familiar, but again he didn’t know why.

  “Where am I?”

  The man sat forward and leaned his elbows on his knees. “Give it a minute, it’ll come to you.”

  Owen looked from the beds on his left and on his right, to the medical supply cart at the foot of his bed, and then to the doors.

  And it hit him, but not all of it, only bits and pieces. The most horrible images coming one right after another. His wife, his children. The men in the street, a severely disfigured Jerome Declan. The weapons firing all at once. The concrete and asphalt peppering the side of the pickup. The men bound in the bed of the truck being slaughtered by their own, and the faces of his family as they watched him die. “I don’t understand.”

  “You’ve been in and out for the last few days, but …” the man paused, looking toward the doors. “You know, this would probably be easier if I brought them back in.”

  “Who are you?”

  The man had begun to stand and walk toward the door, but then paused and shook his head. “I’m sorry, where are my manners?” The man offered his hand, waiting for Owen to remember how to use his own. “My name is Ethan Runner, it’s good to meet you … again.”

  “Again?”

  “Yeah, how about we bring the others back in here and get you up to speed?”

  He wanted to ask, but wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer. “My wife, Natalie?”

  Ethan Runner reached for the door, pushing it open as he turned to look back. “Just give me a second.”

  As the man disappeared to wherever it was that he went, Owen again tried to recall the memories. He may not like what he found, but he liked surprises even less.

  There was the bed of the truck and Gentry’s warning. The long ride in the backseat of Lucas’s SUV and then the last few images of the woman he loved more than anything, and the pain that was there one second and gone the next.

  It was a puzzle for which he wasn’t sure he had all the pieces. He could feel his heart beating in his chest, a dull ache along the left side of his head, and a pulling in his armpit, but he was wondering if it was even real, if this was just another level of his own personal hell he had yet to explore.

  Owen closed his eyes, attempting to call up an image of her face. “Nat, what is this? Where am I?”

  A whoosh and then quick footsteps. “Baby?”

  Owen opened his eyes, his heart skipping at the sight of her. She looked good, healthy. Her face had color and her eyes looked brighter than he remembered. She smiled big, her full lips framing her perfect teeth. He wanted to touch her, to hold her. He wanted to talk to her, hear her silky voice and swim in her beauty. And although he’d seen this woman more than a million times, it was like he was looking through a new set of eyes.

  “Nat, I love you.”

  “I love you too baby, how do you feel? Your head, your arm?”

  “Probably about as good as I look.”

  Now Gentry walked through the set of double doors. He was followed by a woman. She looked serious, but kind. She was petite but looked like she could hold her own. Like she knew who she was, confident, smart, maybe someone in charge. She had shoulder length dark hair, steel blue eyes, and hands that looked strong.

  “Owen,” Gentry said. “What do you remember?”

  “Wow, okay, right to it huh?”

  Natalie took his hand and stepped to his side. “It’s okay, he’s just—”

  “I’m sorry, Owen, it’s just that time is short and we’ve been through this a few times. I just need to get a read on how much of this you’re getting, how much is staying with you.”

  Natalie squeezed his hand, but spoke to Gentry. “How about I go through it with him this time, let you and Emma get back to the kids?”

  “Kids,” Owen said, “What about the kids?”

  Gentry nodded. “Thanks, but I’d still like to observe for a few minutes. I think we’re out of the woods, but I just want to be sure.”

  Natalie pulled a chair to the side of the bed and sat. “Okay, if you start to feel tired, like you’re going to fall asleep, just let me know. There’s quite a bit that’s happened since last week.”

  “Okay,” Owen said, “But start with the kids. I have to know that they—”

  “Ava and Noah are fine, in fact better than fine.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Downstairs eating with the others. They’ve been up here every single day with you. Noah’s even been reading to you.”

  “Downstairs?” He looked around the room. “What is this place?”

  Gentry turned to the woman with the steel blue eyes and then back to Owen. “This is Emma Runner, you’ve met her brother.” He waited for Owen to acknowledge her and then continued. “She’s a good friend of mine, from before the outbreak, and she’s also part of the reason you’re still here. I’ll let Natalie fill you in on the rest. And I apologize for the bad timing; there are just a few things that need our immediate attention. We’ll be back in a few hours. We can go over any of the details then.”

  Owen nodded, said thank you, and watched them hurry back through the doors. He didn’t care. His children were safe, he had his wife by his side, and for the moment he was still breathing. The details were just a luxury.

  “So,” Natalie said, “there’s quite a bit I need to tell you, how do you want to do this?”

  33

  Owen felt like he needed to get out of the bed. His body ached, but in a good way. He now sat upright, more pillows than he could count, stacked neatly behind his back and neck, and under his arms. It was comfortable, almost too comfortable. He wanted to get out of the bed, felt like he should, although the dizziness and the nausea told him that maybe he should wait.

  Natalie now stood near the door. “You good with everything?” She had finished running back the last several days for him. He had a few questions, needed to get some context for a couple of the darker moments, and at one point even made a joke about missing most of his left ear, and how he may not be a very good listener anymore.

  But now, he didn’t want to talk about any of that. Nothing from the past few weeks held any interest for him. All he needed to know was right here in this room, seated in a half circle and staring back at him.

  Ava and Noah sat between Lucas and Harper, and they looked good. Travis and the tall man from the street, Thomas, were off to their left. Kevin sat near the door, with Zeus at his feet. And there was one he didn’t recognize.

  Not completely.

  The young man looked to be a few years older than Lucas, maybe twenty or so. He was clean shaven, had dark hair, dark eyes, and tanned skin. He was probably just under six feet and looked like an athlete.

  Owen nodded. “Hello.”

  The young man stood o
pposite Natalie, just inside the doors. “I’m glad you’re back.”

  “Have we met? You look familiar, but I just can’t place it.”

  There were snickers from his family and friends. They watched as he tried to put the pieces together, as he studied the young man’s face.

  “I told you.” Kevin turned to Travis and then to the young man. “That facial hair, gets ‘em every time.”

  “We’ve never officially met,” the young man said. “My name is Devin—”

  “Fletcher.” Owen finished it. “And yes we have, I just wasn’t at a hundred percent when we did. And my friend is right, you look a whole lot different without the beard.”

  “Better?” Devin smirked, sounded like he had a slight accent.

  “Sure,” Owen said. “You look younger than I remember, but again, I wasn’t all there.”

  “You look better now too.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Sure thing.”

  “No,” Owen said, “thank you, really. My family and my friends wouldn’t be here without you and yours. We owe you our lives and I’d personally like to make it up to you somehow. However, at the moment—”

  “Not necessary. We’re as happy to have you here as you all are to be here. You know, strength in numbers. This place is nothing without the people. And having Gentry working with Emma means everything.”

  Kevin could see the look on Owen’s face. He turned quickly to Natalie, and then to Devin. “I’m not sure how much detail he has just yet.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Kevin turned in his chair, ran his hand over Zeus’s back. “That’s why we’re here.”

  The room went quiet, as if the others knew what was coming.

  Owen pulled at the bandages on his left arm, winced as they caught on his injury. “Why we’re here?”

  Kevin motioned toward Devin. “Why he came looking for us, for him.”

  Owen thought back, remembered bits and pieces. “Gentry?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And?”

  “And,” Kevin said, “long story short is that he knew that Declan and his people were also searching for Gentry. He just followed them to us.”

  Owen looked to Devin. “That’s it?”

  “Not very elaborate, but it ended up working out. The risk was definitely worth the reward.”

  “So far,” Travis offered.

  “Reward?” Owen asked.

  “The details are something Dr. Gentry and Ms. Runner will have to explain, although there’s a good chance we can fix this, all of this, get the world back the way it was. It’s not going to happen overnight, but now we’re not running away from this thing—we’re going after it, head on.”

  “What about this place, are we safe here?”

  “As safe as anywhere we’ve found,” Devin said. “We’re hidden for the most part from the highway, tons of plant growth since the mall closed down a few years ago. Most people never even knew this place existed. Those that did probably forgot about it and wouldn’t remember how to get here anyway.”

  Owen looked from Kevin, to Travis, and back to Natalie and his children. “So, this is it, we’re staying?”

  Natalie bit at her upper lip. “Yes, I think so. But I still want you to talk to Dominic, Ethan, and his sister Emma. This is going to be your home as well … and this time, I want us to make the decision together.”

  34

  His legs were stronger than he would have thought. He felt like he could run, well maybe jog, but he wasn’t too far off. He was probably at about sixty-five percent, seventy-five to eighty if you got rid of the injury to his left arm and the fact that he was missing half an ear.

  Owen held the frame of the door as he stepped into the small dark room and looked for a place to sit. “Hey.”

  Travis moved aside and motioned for him to take a seat near a bank of computer monitors. “You look good, almost human.”

  “I appreciate that, but coming from you I’m not so sure I should.” Owen smiled. It was good to be out, even if he still felt a bit lightheaded and his left arm had gone numb.

  The room was small, looked like it was encased in concrete. Ten feet deep and maybe fifteen feet from end to end. There was a bank of one foot square lockers along the back wall, painted an awful green and bolted to the white linoleum floor.

  As Owen slumped into a brown, faux leather office chair, he scanned the oversized desk and the row of monitors. Devin sat with the man he’d briefly met earlier that morning and one other he didn’t recognize. They watched a video feed on the center monitor. It was black and white, grainy and running in slow motion.

  “Owen …” The man he remembered as Ethan Runner turned back toward him for a brief second. “Just give us a moment.”

  The man beside him pointed at the screen. “If they’re trying to stay hidden, they aren’t doing a very good job.”

  “He’s not hiding.” Devin sat forward, leaned on the desk. “He wants us to know he’s out there, that they’re out there. He thinks he can intimidate us, get us to run or to bring Gentry out and surrender.”

  The man between Devin and Ethan started to speak, but then looked back at Owen. “Sorry, I don’t think we’ve been introduced, not properly anyway. My name is Bryce, Bryce Young.”

  Owen stared past him for a moment. He was watching a light colored vehicle move slowly across the screen. There was something that told him it was important, but he didn’t know why. When he finally looked up, Bryce was holding out his hand. “Oh, yeah. I apologize. I’m Owen Mercer, it’s good to meet you.”

  Devin now pointed to the monitor on the right. The video feed was also in black and white and filled the screen, top to bottom. “You can see that other car came to a stop here, like they’re waiting for something. They stay for a minute or two and then just drive away. They do that like five or six times. You think they’re trying to—”

  “Looks like they’re dropping people off.” Owen sat forward in the cheap office chair. “Can you zoom in on the rear windows at all?”

  Ethan began to nod. “Yeah, I think you might be right, wait a minute.” He stepped around Devin and reached for the mouse. He dragged it to the monitor in the center and then turned to Bryce. “What’s beyond those trees, can you get to the fences from there?”

  “That’s camera four …” Bryce looked to the side, at no one in particular, like he was trying to remember. “Uh, if you go back up the hill and then cross the …” His voice trailed off as he looked to Devin and then back to Ethan. “There’s no way, they couldn’t. It would take them like what, two, maybe three hours?”

  Ethan ran the video back thirty seconds and then paused the recording. He zoomed in on the rear of the light colored vehicle just before it pulled in behind a row of head-high Manzanita. Ethan then jumped back to the first monitor and zoomed in on the same vehicle, but this time as it pulled away on the opposite side of the road. “Owen’s right, look.”

  In the first video there were at least two men on the passenger side. It was grainy and the faces were blurred, but they were there. In the feed where the vehicle pulled away and left the area, the windows were dark, only the reflections of the side of the road.

  Owen let his mind complete the picture. He knew what this was, but didn’t want to admit what was coming, or what that meant for his family or his friends. “Declan?”

  Devin shook his head, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, I should have just killed him.”

  “You didn’t?”

  Bryce looked toward the door and then back to the center monitor. “It’s not your fault kid, we knew this was going to happen at some point.”

  Owen sat forward in his chair. He couldn’t think of a question that would cover what his mind was having a hard time comprehending, at least not in a way that he thought would be constructive. All he could think to do was stare back at the center monitor and not let the voices in his head take control.

  “Then what?” Travis was standing now. H
e had taken a step back toward the door, but eyed Ethan. “You don’t have the numbers for something like this.”

  Ethan looked up from the monitor. “We don’t have the numbers, that’s what you—”

  The two-way radio on the desk sparked to life. “Ethan, you seeing this?” It was a voice Owen didn’t recognize. “You got eyes on the back gates?”

  Owen turned back to the monitors as did the others.

  “With you guys out there, we’ve had camera six powered down to cut the drain on the solar.” Ethan quickly ran through a series of commands, the screens intermittently going black and then slowly coming back to life. “We know Declan’s back and it looks like he’s got something planned.”

  The unfamiliar voice came again. “Not planned, already in progress.”

  Ethan was already facing the monitor on the far left, and as the picture came into focus, he slowly began to shake his head. He let out a heavy sigh, cursed under his breath, and just stared at the black and white images that now filled the screen.

  Feeders, more than Owen had ever seen grouped together in one place, pushed into the rear gates. Probably a few hundred, maybe more, maybe a whole lot more. They stood one behind the other, tightly packed from one side of the monitor to the other.

  But there was something else, something Owen hadn’t noticed as his mind first attempted to make sense of what he was seeing. Beyond the crowds, and set back from the side of the road were six vehicles. They sat facing the horde, three on each side, the last, a silver electric sedan that sent a frozen barb up through his spine and into the base of his neck.

  “Declan.”

  Ethan had turned away from the screen and now held the walkie to the side of his mouth. “Okay,” he said. “Pull the trucks out and set up thirty feet from the gates. We’ll have Bill and Erik running cover from the towers.”

  Travis had moved away and was starting toward the hall. “What’s the plan?”