The Scavenger Series | Book 2 | The Scavenger Hunt

by Lowry, C. L.

  “I’m not lying. I can ensure your safety and the safety of your daughter. Nothing will happen to you two. Lori, make the smart decision. Think about your future. Think about her future.”

  “I can’t. I can’t let you do this.”

  “So, what are you going to do? Shoot me?” Jin asked, walking up to Lori. He raised his hands and stepped forward until the barrel of the gun was pressed against his chest. “Do it. Pull the trigger.”

  The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Before Lori could decide, Jin sidestepped and gripped the outside of her wrist. Lori slammed on the trigger. The shots hit the back wall of the room. She kept slapping the trigger until the gun locked back. Once it did, Jin tossed Lori to the ground. Maintaining his grip on her wrist, Jin put Lori in an arm lock. Her screams traveled through the halls as he snapped her arm, breaking it at the elbow.

  “Throw her in the other room with that mutant and let’s go find that kid.”

  CHAPTER 20

  The smell of death lingered in the air. Kyle could barely open his eyes. His eyelids seemed as if they were being held shut. It felt like the weight of the world was spinning him down to the ground. Gunshots rang off in the distance, and suddenly, his eyes popped open. Orange smoke surrounded him. The smoke was the vessel for the toxic gas that caused the mutations. Kyle could not locate the source of the smoke. He coughed, trying his best not to inhale the smoke. His eyes began watering, making it difficult for him to see. Kyle pushed himself up, barely able to stand to his feet. He continued coughing. Kyle staggered as he tried to escape the smoke. Surprisingly, the wounds that left him crippled seemed to not affect him in the moment.

  Kyle was able to get his legs under him and took off in a full sprint. In his mind, it was a full sprint, but in all actuality, it was a light jog. The gunshots rang off again. They seemed to be getting closer to him. His heart was racing out of his chest. Even though he was jogging, Kyle could not escape the toxic smoke. It was getting thicker and began filling his lungs. Kyle stopped in his tracks, coughing up a lung. His stomach turned, and he vomited. His body began to heat up. Kyle felt like his skin was on fire.

  The world was closing in on him. Kyle dropped to his knees and vomited again. This time, blood came up, along with the contents from his stomach. Everything began to spin. Kyle fell face first into the pool of vomit. His body slammed against the hard concrete as he began violently seizing. The seizure lasted about two minutes.

  After the seizure subsided, Kyle tried to get up off the ground. He placed his hands under his chest to push himself up. He watched as his fingernails began to slowly grow, ripping away from his cuticles. The hair on his arms thickened, completely covering his skin. The gas that once choked him up, was now having no effect on him. A sudden craving for meat came over Kyle. His mouth began to water. A mixture of saliva and blood dripped out of his mouth. A sharp pain shot through his mouth as his teeth began growing in his mouth. Kyle screamed.

  “Hey, are you okay?” a soft voice asked.

  Kyle popped up from an obvious nightmare. He tried to sit up in the bed, but his back was aching. His body still felt like it was on fire. Sweat poured down the side of this face. He was panicking. Kyle’s head swiveled from left to right as he surveyed his environment. There was no sign of the thick smoke and no gunshots going off. He also looked down at his body, relieved to see that his hand was normal and no longer a furry claw. Kyle was grateful to be alive.

  The dusty window curtain was blowing back and forth as a cool breeze crept through the cracked window. A woman placed her hand on Kyle’s forehead. He was burning up. She placed a cool, wet rag on his forehead and walked over to open the window more. After making sure everything in the room was to her liking, she stepped out of the room. Kyle turned over on his left side to alleviate the sharp pain that was shooting through his back. With the window fully open, the breeze was alleviating.

  “You need to rest,” Maverick said.

  Kyle never noticed that Maverick was standing at the head of the bed. “Where am I?” Kyle asked.

  “You are in a safe place.” Maverick walked over to the window and looked out.

  Kyle stared at the man, who he was not familiar with. Kyle spotted the shredded, thin, blue-line, American flag tattoo that draped Maverick’s arm. He knew if he ever met the man before, he would remember that tattoo. The tan man continued looking out of the window. A red Phillies baseball cap covered his head, and a thick, brown beard almost hid his lips. The flag tattoo represented the two things that Maverick dedicated his life to, which were his country and his career.

  After the military, Maverick jumped right into the police academy. From the moment he sat in his first class at Valor Hall to the moment he received his first bravery accommodation, he shined like a star. Maverick was fearless and stood up to every challenge that came his way. He was born to be a leader, and it showed as he navigated through the new world. If it were not for him, the current safe haven that they were in would not exist.

  “I wanted to be here when you got up, but you really need to get some rest. You are pretty banged up. It’s going to be a while until you get back on your feet.”

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to rest for a while,” Kyle responded. Between the back pain and the high-grade fever, he was very uncomfortable.

  “Take this.” Maverick walked over to Kyle and placed a prescription bottle in his hand. “The kid you were with in the hospital gave them to me. He said they were helping with the pain.”

  Kyle nodded. He struggled, trying to open the pill bottle, which was a task that Levi took over during their short stay in the hospital. Maverick was quick to pick up on Kyle’s body language. He took the bottle out of Kyle’s hand and cracked it open. He placed two of the painkillers in Kyle’s mouth and followed up with a glass filled with cloudy water to wash them down.

  “Thank you,” Kyle muttered in agony.

  “Listen, get some sleep, and when I return, I would like to ask you a few questions.”

  “Ask me them now!”

  “Are you sure?”

  Kyle nodded.

  “I wanted to know if you could tell me more about the place you are from. I tried to ask the boy, but he said he didn’t know much about you. Is that true?”

  Kyle nodded again. “The place that I came from is called The Association. I don’t know much about them. I was only there for a short time. Their group is up in the northeast.”

  “What else can you tell me about them?”

  Kyle scooted himself up a bit. “The Association are monsters. They killed my family.”

  “And by the looks of it, they tried to kill you too. I’m assuming they are the ones that did this to you.”

  Kyle nodded his head once again, confirming Maverick’s suspicions.

  “The boy said there were some people looking for you back at the church. Was that The Association?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. The last thing I remember is being in the truck and then seeing . . .” Kyle paused, thinking about Jacqui.

  “Seeing what?”

  “Nothing. I don’t even remember.”

  “It’s okay, my friend. Just tell me why The Association did this to you. What did you do to them?”

  “I killed one of their leaders.”

  Maverick let out a deep sigh. It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out how much heat was now going to be on Kyle. This is exactly what the other members feared would happen. It was bad enough defending their territory against The Underlings and other small militia groups but being on the radar of another enemy is the last thing they wanted to do, especially when it was an outsider that was causing the tension.

  “Why’d you kill their leader?” Maverick asked suspiciously.

  “I did it because she is the one that had my family killed. You don’t understand who these people are. They are terrorists.”

  “Kyle. I hear everything you are saying. But I just can’t afford to take your word on this
type of situation without some sort of explanation behind it. For you to kill a leader of any group, there must be a particular reason for it. It sounds like the death of your family was that reason, but how do I know that you aren’t the terrorist in this situation? How do I know that I won’t be the next leader that you try to kill?”

  Kyle watched as Maverick pulled out a hunting knife and clenched it while resting his hand on his lap.

  “You can put that away. I’m not your enemy. I can tell you all about their operation. You can make the determination yourself.”

  “Well, you better start talking.”

  “So, the day I met these monsters, I was home. They had a small group and were raiding our neighborhood. House by house, they would go in and take what they wanted, including innocent lives. I was in the house with my wife and daughter when they attacked our home. I tried to fight them off in a gun battle, but they had weaponized that chemical gas that caused the evacuations.”

  Maverick frowned. “What do you mean they weaponized it?”

  “They had it filled in canisters. Tossing it in different houses, including mine. They pumped the gas into my home, and my daughter mutated.” Kyle paused, and his head dropped. Taking a deep breath, he continued, “Once my daughter mutated, she killed my wife, and I was forced to kill her to protect myself. I ended up finding my way into their headquarters. At the time, I didn’t know that it was the same group. Once inside, I saw everything. They have a doctor in there that is experimenting with the gas and mutating our troops. He had soldiers locked in cages, and they are killing them one by one. These people are sick. They are operating out of the old Northeast High School.”

  Maverick sat back in his chair. “Northeast?”

  “Yup. The school and the blocks surrounding it. They have it blocked off pretty good too.”

  Maverick tucked his knife back in the holster and hurried out of the room. Kyle tried to turn his head to see what Maverick was doing, but the sound of the door slamming let him know that his guest had left. Kyle returned to his most comfortable position as the painkillers began kicking in and doing their job.

  Maverick busted back in the room moments later, and this time, he was accompanied by Dr. Lee. Maverick plopped back into his seat, but instead of having his knife, he held a map in his hand. He held the map up and showed it to Kyle.

  “Are you telling me that the people you are talking about are stationed at this location?”

  Kyle took a look at the map and saw The Association’s territory marked off. He sat up despite the agony it put him through and grabbed the map from Maverick. “Give me a pen.”

  Maverick handed him a marker. Kyle tried to remove the cap from the marker but was unsuccessful. “Here, give it to me,” Maverick said before taking it back. “Show me what you were about to mark.”

  “That’s the entrance,” Kyle said, pointing to Cottman Avenue on the map. Maverick marked it. “It’s heavily guarded,” Kyle said. “All of this right here is nothing. I think they burned the buildings down so they can be occupied.”

  “That’s dumb. If they burned those buildings, that eliminates their chances of expanding their footprint. Why would they do that?”

  “It’s for visibility. They don’t want to give their enemies the opportunity of getting that close to them. Plus, they aren’t focused on expansion. They want to eliminate everyone else, including the innocent.”

  “If that’s the case, then I can only assume that they have burned everything that surrounds them, not just in the front. Can you show me how far their reach goes on here?”

  Kyle and Maverick spent the next thirty minutes going over the map. Kyle accurately pointed out The Association’s borders and their interior workings, such as the location of the lab, vehicles, and everything else he remembered. Dr. Lee hovered over the two men in amazement. She was impressed by Kyle’s recollection of the territory but also to the sophistication of The Association’s operation.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Kyle, this is Dr. Lee. I asked her to join us because I wanted her to take a look at your injuries, but I also told to her that you mentioned that this organization had a doctor on scene.”

  “Yes, they did.”

  “What was the doctor’s name?” Dr. Lee asked.

  “I can’t remember.”

  That wasn’t the answer Dr. Lee was looking for. She needed to know if her suspicions were correct.

  “Can you describe the doctor?” Maverick asked.

  “Umm. He was a short, Asian man. He had like salt-and-pepper hair. He was annoying. I wanted to put a bullet in him once I found out about the troops.”

  “I think that’s him. That’s Jin,” Dr. Lee said to Maverick.

  “Wait, you know him?” Kyle asked.

  “Something like that,” Dr. Lee replied. “So, what exactly was he doing with the troops?”

  “I think he was the one that weaponized the gas and was testing it on them. He had them all locked in cages like animals. By the time we saw them, they were all mutated. He was studying them, but I don’t know what exactly he was doing. Like I said, he was annoying, and I wanted to kill his ass.”

  “I need that research,” Dr. Lee whispered to Maverick. “If he is doing tests, I’m sure he’s doing them both ways. He has to have the cure for the mutation. That’s probably what his studies were focused on.”

  Maverick took a minute to process everything he was hearing. To the other two in the room, this information wasn’t shocking, but Maverick was a bit in disbelief. “So, you mean to tell me that they can control the mutations?”

  “No. I wouldn’t say control the mutations. They just found a way to bottle up the gas that causes the mutations. They put them in the form of smoke grenades.”

  “Have you ever seen them cure anyone? Has anyone turned back human after being mutated?”

  “Not that I know of. They didn’t seem like the type of people that were concerned in that type of research anyway. But like I said, I wasn’t there that long.”

  “We’ll be right back,” Maverick said, standing up and walking to the door with Dr. Lee.

  “What do you think?” Maverick asked.

  “I think we need a way into that place so we can get Jin’s research. It could possibly speed up our process. If we can do that, then that’s one less problem we have to worry about. We wouldn’t have to worry about the mutations at all. Imagine if one of our teams comes in contact with one of the mutated creatures, and they had a way to transform that creature back to a human being. That would be revolutionary.”

  “What if they don’t have the cure? You heard what Kyle said. He never saw them reverse the mutation.”

  “He also said he wasn’t there that long. They could have done it and just never made him aware of it.”

  “We don’t even know if they have anything that would help us. We don’t even have a way in to their compound. Kyle said that the leaders of that group don’t want to expand, so showing up to their doorstep would be a death wish.”

  “You don’t know that. They could welcome us if they knew our value. Together, we could change the world. I’m sure if I saw Jin, I could just talk to him, and we can work together to find a cure.”

  “We already tried this. We’ve sent people out there and never heard from them again.”

  “This time would be different.”

  “You may be willing to risk lives on a hunch, but I’m not. They won’t care about our value. They are probably just going to try and take what we have.”

  “Well, what if we gave them something they wanted? Maybe then they would let us into their place to get the research.”

  “What makes you think we have something they would want? I’m sure they have everything we have. Shit, they may even have more than us. If they are doing this type of research, that means they must have built a lab of some sort. There is probably nothing we have that they don’t.”

  “They don’t have him,” Dr. Lee said, pointing to the room that Kyle was in.


  Maverick was initially speechless. He walked over to the room and peeked in, making sure that Kyle hadn’t miraculously gotten up from the bed and overheard their conversation. Seeing the battered man still in the bed cleared his conscious. “Absolutely not,” Maverick muttered. “I’m not sending that man back to that place. They are going to kill him. I don’t want that type of guilt on my heart.”

  “Why not, Mav? This is one man. One man that we don’t know from a can of paint. He could be the key to us returning this world back to normal. We can go back to law and order and stop living like savages. Why pass up an opportunity like that?”

  “Because that’s not who we are. If that’s the case, we might as well go in that room and kill him ourselves because that’s exactly what they’re going to do. We can’t just send a man to his death and not think there won’t be any repercussions.”

  “How many people have you killed, Mav?”

  “Too many.”

  “Exactly. There is already blood on your hands. Blood that you will never be able to wash off. That’s how death works. It stays with you forever. But in this case, you won’t be doing the actual killing, and it would be a sacrifice to save humanity. That won’t be guilt. There would be nothing to feel guilty about.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. You are a doctor. You sit back here and do the easy work, while my team and I fight every day to protect this place. All you have to do is say you need something, and we are the ones that go out and get it for you. So, I don’t want your lecture about sacrificing for humanity because some of us do it every day.”

  “So, you’re saying that I don’t do anything. No, I may not walk around toting guns like you, but I have had to make very tough decisions. How dare you try to downplay my contributions to this place!”

  “I’m not downplaying anything. I appreciate your work. I appreciate everything that everyone does here. I just don’t agree with you on this matter.”

  “Maybe this is something we take a vote on because this is bigger than me and you.”

  “Why are you assuming that those people are going to give us anything if we turn him over. His death won’t guarantee us anything.”