Catharsis (Books 1-4): Outbreak Z

by EM Roberts

  Until then, he pretty much did the same thing he’d done all of his life. He’d planted, hunted, and protected the farm. He’d never been very smart when it came to book learning. Counting and reading was hard for him to comprehend, but he was smart in other ways, though. His grandmother had reminded him of this over and over when he got frustrated with his lack of education. He could hunt, grow things, and make things, and according to her, that was all he really needed for his simple life.

  He was thinking about going into town and seeing if he could find some soda pop—cherry cola. He knew his mammaw wouldn’t like it as she’d never given it to him when she was alive. She’d always sworn it would rot his teeth out. So, he’d always had milk, water, or unsweetened tea. More and more often, he’d been thinking about that soda pop. One time, that nice girl Betsy down the road had given him one, and he’d just about died from the taste of the sweet cherry cola. But, he’d always respected his grandmother’s advice. Today, though, he kept thinking about that soda pop more and more often.

  He was gonna do it, by golly! He was gonna walk the two miles into town and find him a cherry cola soda pop. Or lemon-lime—he liked that flavor too. He’d also had it once before when he’d been sick at his stomach. He didn’t think his grandma would mind if he broke the rules—just once. Carrying the sickle in one hand and sticking the other in the pocket of his bibs, he started out for town, whistling a song he remembered from his childhood.

  By the time he arrived, he’d worked up a powerful thirst and thought he might drink two of the soda pops. He didn’t come into town too much because people looked at him funny, but now that didn’t matter because there were no people left in town. They’d all died, turned into the creatures, or ran away. He made his way to B & B’s Country Store. The door to the store was unlocked with the glass broken out. He walked inside and looked around.

  Everything was grimy and dusty from almost a year of abandonment. There were a few canned goods left on the shelves, and the products in the coolers and freezers had long since rotted. He looked around for the object of his desire. Nothing. He’d walked this whole way, he thought angrily. What a pisser, he thought and was then ashamed. He’d never used that kind of language before even though he’d heard it from other people. He didn’t need to start now.

  He walked out and looked around. And then, he had a bright idea. The soda machine. It probably still had pop in it. But, how would he get to it? Hmm. A crowbar! That was the answer. He walked over to the feed store and scrounged up a crowbar. He returned to the soda machine and pried the side open with ease. Looking inside, he was excited to see several cans of soda pop. There was no cherry cola, though, and that made him sad. But, there was a lemon-lime. He grabbed it and popped it open, not even concerned that it was expired.

  He guzzled the drink down in five seconds flat. That wasn’t enough, though. He’d promised himself two of them, and that’s what he’d have. He rapidly swallowed the second drink and let out a loud burp. Abashedly, he looked around. He might be slow and a country boy, but he had some manners. He knew better than to burp like that. His mammaw would have slapped him in the back of the head for that.

  He threw the empty containers in a trash can and started to make the trek back when suddenly he felt his stomach start to roil, and he became sick. The contents of his stomach came flying up out of his mouth and nose. He retched and retched until he was dry heaving. He needed to sit down for just a minute or two. One minute became two and two became three, and before he knew it, he’d dozed off. Jerking awake a little while later, he looked up and into the eyes of an angel.

  Chapter 1: Baby on Board

  The creature came out of nowhere and at the most inopportune time. Parker Wallace, former President of the United States, literally had his dick in his hand. He’d paused for a second on his rounds to take a leak, and without warning, the creature had come stumbling out of the tree line, its wild hair frantically moving in the breeze. Missing one arm and half its lower jaw, the pitiful thing had no idea its handicap wouldn’t allow it to even bite Parker. But, it’d tried, the top half of its jaw working madly.

  Instead of using his gun and bringing an entourage to witness his embarrassment, he left his dick hanging on the outside of his pants, grabbed his knife, and stabbed the remnants of the human in its temporal lobe. The creature fell like a sack of potatoes, nothing graceful in its descent. Parker continued his previous task and placed himself back into his pants. For a moment, he’d thought about masturbating, but this wasn’t really the time or place. However, with that said, he was thinking more and more about sex lately. Probably because he hadn’t had any in over a year and wondered if he would die without ever being inside of a woman again.

  Lately, anytime he thought of sex, it wasn’t his wife’s beautiful face he saw. Instead, it was a face sprinkled liberally with freckles and framed by red-blonde hair. Ella Johnson had captured his heart and his libido in the three months he’d known her. She’d never given any indication she returned his favor, however. Instead, she’d treated him like a platonic friend or cousin. He was pretty sure if he’d stayed at the farm longer, he’d have lost his heart completely to her and said or done something stupid. She was everything a man wanted in a woman. She was beautiful without even trying, kind to a fault, and could probably hold her on in a fight with any man.

  But, they’d had to leave because he was on the New Army’s Most Wanted list, and Ella had become an enemy of the state as well with her refusal to serve in the military. She, however, had stayed behind because her father hadn’t wanted to leave his farm or his wife’s grave. Parker wondered how Ella and Theo were faring. He’d come to really like the old man and hoped they’d escaped Adams’ wrath. He knew there was a good chance he would never see either of them again.

  Now as he stood guard in the darkness, he wondered if they would ever make it to Nevada. He had the codes and coordinates to a Human Survival Facility there. He assumed it would contain everything humans needed to make a new start. He’d received the information upon taking the office of President, but he hadn’t really believed it existed. Now, he knew better. And, he wasn’t the only one. Lt. General Ford Adams also knew the facility existed, and he wasn’t above killing or torturing to take control of it. Parker had suffered torture at the hands of Adams until Izzy and Theo had rescued him.

  He laughed when he thought of Theo blowing up the Apache helicopter with dynamite. Two of the most unlikely characters had pulled off a rescue of epic proportions. Twenty-one year old Izzy and Seventy-four year old Theo had hatched a plan to rescue not only Parker but also Ella. They’d accomplished this and also rescued another prisoner in the process—Jax Blackstone. Jax, who’d been detoxing during that time, was still having a rough go of it, but Izzy and Roe were keeping him on track. He almost felt sorry for the guy having to constantly be harangued by those two, but if anybody could get Jax on the right path, it would be the two of them.

  “Looks like we had a visitor,” a voice came from the darkness.

  Parker turned and recognized the first friend he’d made on this journey. He’d rescued Izzy James from two would be rapists back in West Virginia, and they’d become rather close. He looked upon her as a daughter. She was a tough young lady, and some people didn’t get her attitude, but he knew it was just a layer of protection. Getting close to someone in this war often resulted in heartbreak. They were all aware of that.

  “Shouldn’t you be in bed? You’re my relief in about five hours,” he smiled.

  “I’ll be here, don’t worry about that,” Izzy responded, squatting down and inspecting the remains of the creature. She poked at its shriveled skin and grimaced.

  “What are you doing down there? An autopsy?”

  “No, I was just looking. Seeing if there was anything new. I still don’t get it. I still don’t understand how these creatures can be walking around. This one has no blood, and it’s pretty much a walking pile of bones,” Izzy replied, puzzlement in her voic
e.

  “I don’t know. It seems like there’s still just as many as there were in the beginning.”

  Parker had thought the creatures would have starved to death by now, but they were pretty much walking corpses, and they didn’t care what they ate, as long as it was living when they started eating it. He’d seen them eating cats, dogs, and even wild animals. Anything they could catch was fair game.

  Right now, the group was cooped up in a house just off I-70 out past Salina, Kansas. He’d gotten off the interstate and driven down the highway a piece before the dark had settled in. He’d spotted the two story farmhouse from the road. It’d been sitting all by itself with land all around it. He figured it would be okay to stop there for the night. He didn’t like camping by the side of the road because of the creatures. It was better to be in some kind of shelter at night.

  They’d had to kill the occupants of the house, an elderly man and woman who’d been in the upstairs master bedroom. It’d been easy enough. A bullet to the head for each of them. They’d carried the emaciated bodies out back, and Parker planned on burying the two in the morning. It was the least he could do to pay them back for the use of their house. Plus, he felt sorry for them. No one should have to walk around in that state, let alone almost ten months of it.

  Izzy slapped his shoulder, turned, and walked back into the house, leaving Parker alone with his thoughts. What did the future hold? That was the big question. On one side of the spectrum was Adams who wanted control of the facility, and Parker knew he didn’t want it from the kindness of his heart. Adams was all about power and greed. On the other side of the spectrum were people like Ella and Theo who were good people and just wanted to help everyone else survive. Parker knew he didn’t want to be a leader anymore. He wanted to be on Ella and Theo’s side. What would happen when they reached Nevada? He guessed that was something they would address when it happened. He didn’t want to think about it just now.

  The next day

  Parker squatted beside the woman as she panted and gasped. Her husband stood aloofly in the background washing his hands of the ordeal, and quite frankly Parker wanted to punch the man in the mouth for his callousness. They’d come upon the man and woman after they’d returned to the interstate and resumed their travels. They’d been driving and weaving in and out of abandoned vehicles when they’d noticed the man frantically waving.

  Parker was a little leery of stopping, but then the woman had stepped out into view. Heavily pregnant and holding her belly, her eyes had pled for Parker and the rest to stop. Roe, who was riding with him, demanded he stop. She said there was no way she was leaving a poor, pregnant woman alone on the highway. He’d radioed back to Jax and Izzy, cautioning them to have their guns ready in case it was an ambush. It hadn’t been. The woman was in labor.

  When Parker asked Roe if she’d ever delivered a baby, thinking it a valid question since she was a nurse, she looked at him like he had two heads.

  “When would I have ever delivered a baby? I’m a geriatric nurse, not a midwife. I’ve had a baby before. I can tell you where it comes from, but that’s it.”

  “Okay, well it looks like the husband is no help, so it’s gonna be you and me, sister,” Parker had replied, looking for a comfortable area.

  “I’ve a sleeping bag in the car,” the woman gasped pointing to a small Honda Civic.

  Parker retrieved the bag and started barking out instructions.

  “Izzy, you make a small fire. Nothing to draw attention—just big enough to boil water and sterilize anything we might need.”

  “Jax, stand guard and let me know if you see anything---creatures or otherwise.”

  “Roe, time her contractions and try to calm her down.”

  Parker had never delivered a baby before. He’d seen his daughter born, and he tried to remember everything he could about the birth. He knew his wife had been given an epidural which eased the pain, and she’d also been given an episiotomy which had prevented tearing. This was not available for the poor woman lying at his feet. She’d have to suffer in the same manner his own mother had when she’d given birth to Parker at home. He figured he could cut the baby’s umbilical cord and tie it off. Other than that, he hoped the woman could deliver the child without any complications.

  “Um, Parker, man, you’ve got to see this,” Jax yelled, waving his arms frantically.

  From the urgency in the young man’s voice, Parker knew it wasn’t good. He hurried to the man’s side. In the distance, a horde of creatures were marching. There was no other word for it. They shuffled along, soldiers of the undead, their tattered clothes whipping in the wind. They were about a quarter of a mile down the road.

  “We have to move, dammit. Everybody pack up, we have to move,” Parker shouted the urgency in his voice.

  “She’d in the middle of having a baby. I don’t think we can move her,” Roe yelled back, fear evident in her voice, “Her contractions are two minutes apart, Parker.”

  “Izzy, Jax, get your guns and all the spare ammunition. Carly, you stay in my truck and don’t come out for anything.” Parker shouted orders, even as he checked his own weapons.

  He looked for the man. Motherfucker. Parker wasn’t the type to use vulgar language, but this situation called for it. The motherfucking coward was gone. Not only had he abandoned a pregnant woman, the coward had run off at the first sign of trouble. He’d better be glad he left because at this moment all Parker wanted to do was beat his ass.

  “Roe, it’s either deliver a baby or kill the infected. Which is it?” Parker asked, his voice urgent.

  “Well, I have my trusty AK47 and at least a hundred rounds left, so I’m gonna go to the front lines,” Roe, announced standing and sprinting for the vehicle leaving Parker alone with a screaming woman.

  Parker was going to have to deliver the baby. And, he was pretty sure it was coming soon. The woman’s contractions were two minutes apart, and Parker was confident that was a sign of imminent childbirth. What did he need? Well, first he needed to calm the hell down and think.

  He unsheathed his bowie knife and dropped the blade into the boiling can of water Izzy had placed over a small fire. The water was already bubbling and Parker figured the knife would be sterilized by the time the baby came.

  “Are we going to die?” the woman asked tearfully through her pain.

  “No, we’ll be just fine. Those three are pretty good shots, and they know their business. I’d trust them with my life,” Parker replied with a confidence he didn’t really feel. It was true, he had confidence in Roe, Izzy, and Jax, but they were only three against an army of creatures out there. Where the hell had all of them come from? Why were they together? He was pretty sure they couldn’t communicate, so what made them gravitate to each other? Those were questions he didn’t have the time or knowledge to answer.

  Blocking out the sound of gunfire in the background, Parker concentrated on the woman and delivering her child.

  “Ahhhhhhhh! I have to push! I have to push! I think the baby is coming,” the woman screamed, beads of sweat popping out on her forehead.

  “Okay, hold my hand, and push when you feel a contraction,” he requested not even sure that was what he was supposed to say, but he assumed the female body had a way of naturally expelling a child when it was time. At least, he hoped that was the case. He glanced over at his three comrades. They were still firing on the advancing creatures.

  Parker looked down between the woman’s legs. He could see faint glimpse of a baby’s head among the blood and mucus coming from the woman.

  “I can see its head,” he told the woman excitedly, “You have to push really hard with your next contraction.”

  The next push ripped the woman’s flesh causing more blood to pool onto the sleeping bag and run in little rivulets out onto the pavement. With this push, the top of the baby’s head was clearly visible.

  “Okay, on the next push, you have to give me all you have. You’re almost there. I promise.”

&
nbsp; With a scream and yell, the woman pushed again, and Parker was able to grab the child by its shoulders. From there, it was just a matter of minutes before the child was born. Cradling the baby in his arms, Parker reached over and grabbed the clean towel Izzy had fetched for him. He wiped the blood from the baby’s face and listened for its cry.

  The cry was more of a garbled, pathetic moaning sound. Parker looked closely at the child. The first major indication that anything was out of the ordinary came when the child opened its eyes and looked at Parker. The baby’s eyes were red. A sick, nauseous feeling bubbled in the pit of his stomach. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just the eyes that indicated something peculiar. The child’s skin was mottled and gray.

  The woman had just given birth to a baby who was obviously infected with the virus. But why wasn’t she infected? She and the baby had been a unit for nine months. He didn’t understand it. He looked down just as the woman expelled the placenta. Grabbing a string, he tied off the child’s umbilical cord and used the disinfected knife to cut it. Maybe, he was wasting his time doing this; he didn’t know.

  He wrapped the child in a towel and carried it over to Roe’s Jeep, placing it on the seat. Returning, he grabbed the woman, sleeping bag and all, and placed her in the vehicle as well. He would have to wait and deal with this situation once they got to a safe place. Right now, he needed to get his friends and get the hell away from this infested area.

  “Guys, come on! Let’s get the hell out of here!” he yelled even as he jumped into Roe’s Jeep. She would have to drive the truck. He didn’t have the time to explain the baby’s defect, so he would monitor it himself.