The Outbreak Series Boxed Set

by Thomas Baker

  "Everybody freeze!" Dusty shouted, to no effect.

  Two MPs arrived on either side of him and raised their pistols. Dusty was shocked when he saw them. He hadn't had time to call anything in.

  He was grateful though, as the civilians kept right on coming. An old man in flannel, limping along with what was probably a broken leg. A father and mother, dragging their little son so fiercely Dusty thought they would rip the poor kids arm off. Three teenage girls, jeans and tee shirts ripped and stained with what looked like blood. They were all crying and holding hands as they ran from their car. Behind them, more and more. All seemed oblivious to the fact that guns were pointed at them. That rattled Dusty the most.

  That is when the true chaos began. He was not sure who fired first, the MP or possibly one of the civilians. All he knew, as he ducked behind the carrier with his soldiers, was that a firefight had broken out. Dusty was stunned, wasn't he just having a peaceful run a few minutes ago?

  "Alright listen up! I want you men to haul ass back to HQ. Once you arrive, I want you to report in. The commander will be in charge now."

  The men sat there staring back at him with blank expressions on their faces.

  "What are you waiting for, to get shot? I gave you orders. NOW GO!"

  Dusty regrouped his thoughts while his troops retreated. When they were safely gone, Dusty peeked back around at the breech. Dead civilians laid scattered around their cars. Close by laid one of the MPs. More people were streaming in through the hole in the fence. Some turned back when they saw the carnage. Dusty was shocked it wasn't all of them.

  What the hell...Dusty thought to himself. What could possibly be going on to make people act this way? Was some kind of terrorist attack going on?

  He ran out, scooped up the dead MP's firearm and got back into cover. He scanned the area. He couldn't make out where the other MP had gone. It was like looking through a vast herd of animals, running this way and that in blind panic from a predator.

  If it was an attack, he wondered why he had not heard any alerts. Even now his radio was silent. He was about to check it, making sure it was still functioning correctly, when the screaming and yelling reached an even greater volume.

  Civilians who had ran off at the sight of all the dead bodies, were now turning again. Pouring back in through the breech in the fence. So much dust had been kicked up that Dusty couldn't make out what they were running from.

  He let the civilians run past him further into the base. He wasn't going to start shooting innocent people. Even if he was ordered to, what would be the point? The base was already compromised. Now he was more interested in what they were running from.

  The stream of civilians turned into a trickle. There was a pause in the pandemonium. The clouds of dust began to settle. A second group of people emerged out of it, through the gap. They weren't running. They were all just ambling along at a stroll. They didn't even really seem that focused on where they were going. It was like watching all those asshole soldiers who couldn't hold their liquor, stumbling out of the bar at closing time. Except multiply that threefold. Dusty wished he could see them better, everything was still too obscured. It was like looking through a dirty pane of glass.

  Something was very off about this new group of civilians, Dusty could tell that much. Except for the moans of people that were hurt, it had become quieter. He noticed he could hear the wind again, the footsteps of the hundreds whisking through the grass, and his own ragged breath.

  What the newly arrived civilians did when they reached the scattered dead and wounded made Dusty just about lost his breakfast. He watched the silent figures drop to the ground and start feasting on anyone who was still alive. Tortured screams filled the air as Dusty watched the flesh of the living being devoured. The attackers were like those predators he had thought of earlier. They ripped and tore away at their prey with their teeth and their hands. Except these weren't African lions hunting gazelles. This was a group of people, eating other people.

  Am I really seeing this?

  As unnerving as it was for Dusty to watch, it was their deathly silence that almost unhinged him. He had seen war and violence. He had seen dead bodies before, both on his side and his enemies. This was much, much worse.

  Dusty couldn't stand it, he had to take action, take control. He shot the man closest to him, who was wearing a business suit. His torn yellow and black striped tie dangled around his neck. The man was munching on a boy's leg like it was a KFC drumstick. He knew he hit the man, but he didn't even flinch, he hardly even paused from tearing another chunk off the child's leg. Dusty fired again. This time the man reacted, as far as looking up for a second, a bloody tendon hanging from his mouth. He went right back to work. Dusty noticed then that the man wasn't bleeding from his gunshot wounds.

  I don't understand? Is he wearing a vestfor some reason?

  This time, Dusty aimed at the man's head and fired. The business man dropped to the ground and didn't move. Dusty moved a little closer firing head shots at each of the cannibalistic terrorists, or whatever the hell they were. He stopped firing when his clip was empty and took a few steps back. That's when he saw the little boy Mr. Business Man had been munching on began to move. The wound in his leg was no longer bleeding and his skin had faded to the color of ash. He rose to his feet unsteadily, not making a sound. Dusty looked into his eyes. They were dead. No spark of life remained in them. It was like looking into the eyes of a computer generated simulation.

  No way this could be happening. His mind refused to pull up the word zombie. It started towards him, dragging the one damaged leg as it walked. Some of the other people who had just been on the lunch menu also began to stir and rise. It's time to go. I'm not prepared to handle this.

  A world filling sound of crunching metal and breaking glass came from outside the fence. A tractor trailer came plowing through the wreckage of vehicles, running over everyone and everything in its path. The truck continued on, crossing the base, until plowing into one of the barrack buildings, exploding in a fiery ball.

  This is unbelievable. There was no warning. It's...it's time to think about survival.

  Dusty took off towards the armory. The rest of the men and women on the base were running around like angry ants whose hill had just been kicked over. Troop trucks zoomed by in front of him, full of soldiers. Two choppers whooshed overhead, blades beating the air. Civilians were running all over the areaas well, adding to the confusion. Floods of people kept pouring in. Dusty couldn't take a step without bumping into someone. There seemed to be no order, no one in charge at all.

  Next the screaming started again, followed by pushing and shoving. Gunfire began to fill the air now. With everything he had seen Dusty knew that the base was gone. The command staff had no chance of getting control of the situation. It was FUBAR. He really couldn't understand how it had happened so fast. He wrestled with his decision of what to do now. It really came down to what was the most important thing to him. His skin or his duty? Dusty decided he was out. The shit has hit the fan. It's over. Later, if someone wants to charge me as an AWOL deserter, at least I'll be alive to face the charges.

  A jeep raced in, mowing down the crowd indiscriminately. It crashed into the side of the Armory, the driver slumped over the steering wheel, bite marks on his face and arms.

  Dusty rushed over to the jeep, zig zagging through the crowd. This was his chance to get away. He jumped in, pushing the dead soldier out the other side. The soldier hit the ground, began to twitch and then roseup. Dusty continuously laid on the horn as he backed up far enough to turn around. Once pointed forward, he floored it. People both alive and dead desperately reached for the jeep as he past. He ignored them all. All of his focus was on driving.

  Maybe I can even come back, when I feel like I can make a difference. That's what he told himself as he looked back in the rear-view mirror, seeing a reflection of his base descending into madness.

  Hannah woke at 6:30 am to the harsh buzz of her alarm cloc
k. She slapped it with one hand,stumbled out of bed, and went into the bathroom.

  Oh, why did I stay up so late last night? She thought to herself, as she readied the shower. She was beginning to realize that even though she was just a few months into college; it wasn't going to be the breeze that high school was. Even after taking a year break in between, to prepare.

  Once she was freshened up, dressed, and ready to go get some breakfast, she glanced at her phone.

  7:30?! Shit! I better get going or I'll be late for my first class. Living off campus is loads cheaper, but boy is it a pain in the ass.

  It took her so long to travel back and forth to campus but that was what she could afford. She was in such a hurry she ended up leaving her phone on the kitchen table. She didn't realize it until much later.

  Hannah was in her own little world as she began her walk to campus. She was thinking of her day's schedule. Her English class and the quiz she had stayed up most of the night cramming for. After taking that and after speech class, she would grab lunch with Ashley. More classes, then the grueling cheerleading practice she had tonight. The college had a great team that had gone to Nationals three times in the last five years. That was one of the main reasons she had chosen this school.

  It was a beautiful spring day. When she met Ashley for lunch, maybe they could eat out on the patio of the restaurant.

  The sound of tinkling glass broke her internal monologue. Hannah looked up. A man was in his front yard, swinging a baseball bat at a woman. The man with the bat she had seen before, though she didn't know his name. He lived at the house. He was middle aged, with short black hair and glasses. Right now his glasses were hanging askew on his face. He looked frightened as he waved the bat in front of him in threatening motions.

  Another man, one she didn't know, was in the yard. He was dressed in a robe like he had just gotten out of bed. He was hanging head first, half in and half out, of the bat man's broken front window. A large piece of shattered glass was sticking out of the back of the robe. The tip of it was covered in a red crust that looked like dried strawberry jelly. The woman kept coming at the bat man. Her movements were slow and jerky. It reminded her of watching a girl trying to walk in her mom's high heels. The attacker was also covered in something red. It was on her clothes, a nice floral print dress, her hands, and around her mouth. Hannah started walking closer, reaching into her pocket for her phone, planning to call 911.

  She looked down, not believing that she couldn't find her phone. She was so distracted she hadn't register that the town sirens were going off, or the sirens of the police cars that jetted by. The homeowner was shouting something. She looked back up and saw him unload strike after strike with the baseball bat, leaving a dent in the attacking woman's skull. She watched as the floral print woman barely stumbled backwards, instead of being knocked out cold.

  Hannah didn't remember screaming, she just suddenly found herself yelling hysterically. The homeowner jerked his head towards her, raising the bat up to his shoulder. He relaxed a little when they made eye contact and even gave her a little smile. Like he wasn't trying to bash some woman's brains in. That is when the man hanging in the window started twitching, got back down on his feet, and ripped into the home owner's shoulder with his teeth. A geyser of blood erupted from the bat man's neck. Red splattered on the white house. Hannah felt that image would haunt her dreams for weeks. Red splattered on the white house.

  Hannah stopped thinking of the attacker as a person after what she just saw. It just kept tearing and chewing, tearing and chewing. It never stopped eating, even as they both sank down to the ground, embraced like passionate lovers. Once the homeowner was on the ground, floral dress woman joined in the feasting.

  Everything else was a blur. Hannah pulled her keys from her purse, fumbling with the small can of pepper spray. She held it up in front of her, like someone holding up a cross in a vampire movie. She walked backward as quickly as she could before turning around into a dead sprint. When the flip flops she wore slowed her, she kicked them off, ignoring the harshness of the ground on her bare feet as she raced for her apartment.

  Hannah was at her apartment door, fumbling with keys that shook in her hands. Her breath was ragged and she couldn't remember how she got there. Before she could get her keys in the door, it swung open. Hannah screamed.

  "Geez, chill out Hannah," Ashley said, standing in the doorway.

  Hannah pushed her way in without a word and slammed the door behind her. Thunk went the dead bolt.

  "Ashley, grab the other end of the futon."

  "Hannah, what the hell..."

  "Ashley, just shut up and do it," Hannah said, her tone harsh.

  Ashley looked into Hannah's eyes and complied without another word.

  With the futon covering the door, Hannah ran to each window like a mad woman, making sure all were locked. She had been angry when moving in that her apartment was on the third floor. She thanked God now thatit was.

  Hannah paced around the apartment, mumbling to herself. She was finding it hard to gather any thoughts together. Minutes crawled by and she found she couldn't stop herself. She looked up at Ashley, who stood fidgeting with her sleek, blond ponytail.

  "Oh shit, I just realized I dropped my books. I left them on the sidewalk," Hannah said, before she sank down to the floor, sobbing.

  "Alright, I am officially totally freaked out. What in the hell is going on Hannah?" Ashley rushed to her friend's side.

  Hannah's sobbing cut off as she bolted up.

  "Ashley, what the hell are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be in class?" Hannah said, just coming to the full realization that Ashley was in her apartment.

  "I could say the same thing about you," Ashley said, deflecting the question.

  Hannah gave her a look. Ashley shrugged her shoulders then continued.

  "Wellll, since you were going to be gone, I decided to take the day off. I skipped and told Dillon to come over here."

  "Oh my God! I give you a key to my place so you can have some privacy from the dorms! Then, while I was going to be in class, you invited your boyfriend over and you guys were going to screw in my apartment?! I trusted you with my spare key, in case you had an emergency or something. Not so you would use it as your personal fuck palace. God I should have known better than to trust you with that responsibility. It's the same as when we were kids, you always..."

  A door shaking thud interrupted Hannah's tirade. Both women covered their mouths with their hands. Time seemed to go on forever as they waited for another thump, but it never came.

  "Hannah," Ashley whispered through her fingers. "You never did tell me what is going on. How about you stop the holier than thou shit and fill me in?"

  "I don't, I don't think I can talk about what I saw right now. It was...gruesome. Let's go in the bedroom and get out the laptop. Maybe we can find out what's going on."

  They both sat on the edge of the bed as Hannah booted up her computer. She went to the local news website. The first image that came on was like something from a movie. She actuallyhad to visit a few more sites before she had to accept it was real, it was the same thing wherever she searched.

  On YouTube they watched mobs of people fighting each other and the military. Groups of regular people being gunned down mercilessly. Run over, knocked down, blown up. Switching back to the local news website, the anchor gave a warning that what they were about to show next was even more graphic than anything shown before. Those with kids or weak stomachs should turn it off now. What followed were horrific images that caused Ashley to run to the bathroom and be sick. She returned, looking paler than usually. Hannah could feel her stomach threatening to do the same. It was like seeing the man with the bat being attacked over and over again. They watched in silence, people being eaten alive, by other people. Young, old, black, white or brown. It didn't seem to matter. Scenes like a pretty, young newscaster being torn apart in a sea of attackers before they turned on the camera person, the world flipped
and the image became static. The newscaster came back on. He apologized for the graphic nature of the videos but they felt the need to stress how dangerous things had become. He said that attacks like this were being reported all over the United States. All Homeland Security measures, and the National Guard, were being deployed. Along the bottom of the screen was a scroll that just repeated over and over again. Don't travel, stay inside, don't answer the door. If you have a medical emergency call 555-873-4951. Hannah turned to Ashley and saw the look of shock and panic that was mirrored on her face.

  Ashley let out a horrified whisper. "This can't really be happening."

  Hannah didn't want to watch anymore. She closed the screen of the computer. The apartment was still for a while, broken only by the occasional siren from outside. They both just sat there, stunned.

  "Mom!" Hannah suddenly shouted. "Damn, I dropped my purse with my books. My phone was in there."

  "No," Ashley said, rising. "I saw it out on the table. You left it behind. You are always in too much of a hurry, leaving things behind."

  "That's right. I couldn't find it earlier when-" Hannah ran out and grabbed it. She tried to get through to her Mom, Ashley's Mom, and then her other friends. She got nothing but busy signals.

  "I can't get through. How about you?"

  "Nope. I even messaged Dillion on Twitter. Got nothing back from him yet. Twitter is blowing up though. #Zombie. #Outbreak. I thought it was some sort ofjoke. Or marketing thing."

  Hannah opened up the apps on her phone. Ashley was right, people were posting all kinds of crazy stories on Facebook and Twitter with #Zombie or #Outbreak. Was this some kind of biological warfare attack?

  "I don't know what to think. Everything is happening so fast. I just hope our Mom's are together, and safe."

  "I'm sure they are together," Ashley said, putting an arm around Hannah. "Just like us."

  After double and triple checking all the doors and windows, the two stayed the rest of the day and into the night huddled in the bedroom. Ashley tried and tried calling her Mom on her cell, but an automated voice kept telling her that service was busy, try again.