by Lowry, C. L.
THE
SCAVENGER
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
THE
SCAVENGER
By
C.L. Lowry
Creedom Publishing Company
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Copyright © 2017 by Creedom Publishing Company
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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The Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress.
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For,
HUMANITY
Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
About the Author
Creedom Publishing Company
CHAPTER 1
Holding his baby girl’s lifeless body was one of the worst feelings Kyle had to endure in his life. He couldn’t help but reminisce on the first day he laid eyes on her in the Labor and Delivery room at Penn Hospital. She was the spitting image of him. Now, it was fourteen years later and she was no longer with him. Tears poured from his bloodshot eyes and pain masked his face. Pulling her tight into his body, he buried his nose into the top of her head, engulfing in the aroma of her shampoo. He immediately recognized the strawberry scent of the Herbal Essence shampoo Chloe would always beg him to pick up from the market. It all had to be a bad nightmare; this couldn’t be a reality. No parent should ever have to outlive his or her child. “It’s all over now princess, you don’t have to suffer anymore,” he whispered before puckering his dry lips and kissing her on the forehead. “I love you.”
It was humid and muggy. The summer heat was blaring through the small attic window. Kyle looked over at his wife, Jacqui, who was still in shock. Her soul looked as if it was ripped from her body and thrown into the pits of Hell. “Why? Why did it have to be her? She was so young and so innocent,” Jacqui murmured.
Unable to console his wife, Kyle pulled his daughter in close again. Her thin body was wrapped in his stocky arms. After brushing her hair away from her face, he leaned in and kissed her forehead once more. He had no answer for his wife and no remedy for their pain. What could he possibly say to her? In the back of his mind, he knew she was partially responsible for his daughter’s death. How could he comfort someone he felt so much anger towards? Keeping space between them would be best for them both. If she knew how he truly felt, she would be devastated.
“We should have left when we had the chance,” Kyle said while avoiding making direct eye contact with Jacqui.
“Don’t say that.”
“I’m serious; we should have just —“
Jacqui cut him off, “I said don’t fucking say it. We didn’t know those monsters were coming here.”
The consistent tears magnified Jacqui’s gray eyes. They were like two chrome faucets that someone had turned on, as tears pooled in her eyes. There was nothing but fear and grief running through Jacqui’s body. She crept up to the window and scanned the exterior of their house. The scan was brief, once her teary eyes locked on the two dead bodies that were left to rot in front their home. Jacqui knew her husband’s military experience would come in handy one day, but she never fathomed the idea of witnessing him take a life. The barrel of the rifle was still smoking as it was propped up against the window.
“Kyle, do you think more of them will come?”
“I know more will come,” he replied sternly. “I just need to know that you will be ready when they do.”
“You know this is hard for me. Everything is so different now and we lost so many people —”
“— and we will lose more. Especially if we aren’t prepared. We must prepare for the worst.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You were a fuckin’ Marine for God’s sake. I was just a school teacher. I never shot a gun and I damn sure never killed anyone.”
“You just killed our fuckin’ daughter,” Kyle barked. A mixture of saliva and tears spewed from his mouth with every word he spoke. His pain quickly turned into rage and it was all aimed towards his wife.
“Really Kyle? Are you fuckin’ serious?” Jacqui was heartbroken and dropped to her knees. “I didn’t mean for it to happen,” she mumbled through her sobs.
“All you had to do was put your mask on and you couldn’t even do that. I told you not to take it off before those two assholes threw in those gas canisters and the first thing you did was put it down.”
“I didn’t ask Chloe to give me her mask. I told her not to and she did anyway. Now my baby is gone.” The sobbing increased greatly as Jacqui came to grips with the fact that her negligence caused her daughter’s death.
Seeing his wife in such turmoil calmed Kyle down a tad bit. He laid Chloe’s lifeless body on the bedroom floor and embraced Jacqui. Her tears soaked through his torn t-shirt. Swallowing back the emotional bulge in his throat, Kyle looked away from Chloe’s body; tears flowing from his eyes. Although it was the perfect time to console Jacqui, there was still an urgency to stay alive. The danger was still lurking.
Kyle did his best to seal the gaps around the bedroom door and the air vents, to prevent the deadly gas from seeping through to the room they were held up in. He picked up the skills during the time he served in Iraq. Kyle usually made due with a cot and a blanket in his outdoor camp in Baghdad. When it was time for him to spend nights in small shacks, it was his responsibility to seal the doors to prevent sand and dust from entering the clear air he had indoors, so sealing a small bedroom was nothing to him. If the gas reached them, they would face the same fate as their daughter and half of the country. A chemical gas that was created by the U.S. Government for the purposes of fighting the war on terror had wiped out fifty percent of the United States population. Not only did the chemical gas kill many people, but it also worked its way onto the black market and was now in the hands of criminals and thugs like the two men Kyle shot dead in front of their house.
“I knew this day would come. I told you this all would happen,” he muttered. “Everyone thought I was crazy for stocking up on MRE’s, can goods, and ammo. Oh and not to mention these gas masks,” he stated while gripping the mask that was dangling from his neck.
Kyle literally prepared for the worst and that is exactly what occurred several months prior. Protests had become a common occurrence all across the country. They went from peacefu
l, to combative and finally reached the level of full out violence. Citizens were attacking police officers during the protests and line of duty deaths nearly quadrupled across the country. America never experienced incidents of such magnitude before. The military had to be brought in to assist local police departments. At that point, the police stopped policing and that is when it all went downhill. Martial law, criminals running wild, and the massive attack on the white house. It was complete chaos across the country. To make matters worse, the military put out a warning for everyone to stay indoors and that is when the chemical attacks began taking place. The very weapons that were created to fight against the enemies overseas were now being used on American citizens. The intention of the gas attacks was to eliminate all threats, which were said to be anyone violating Martial Law. Therefore, if you were on the streets after ten o’clock at night, you were considered a threat to the government. Those weaponized chemicals wiped out almost half of the United States population, including children. Some families looked at it as the government overreacting, so they did not follow the specific orders that were given out regarding sealing up their homes. Millions died in their sleep, unaware the gas had worked its way inside their homes. There had been rumors of some casualties mutating as an irreversible effect of some of the experimental gas the military used, but no one knew for sure.
CHAPTER 2
The sound of loud engines and blaring heavy metal music could be heard coming from outside. Kyle crouched down and peeked out the cracked glass in the window. He saw two black Ford F-350 pickup trucks driving up the street, along with a large U-Haul truck. His nerves were jumping through his body, as he glanced over at the silver Ford F-150 that was parked in the middle of the street. The occupants of that truck were in front of his home, with their brains splattered all over the sidewalk. A result of two perfectly placed headshots. Kyle had a feeling that the gang pulling up was associated with the two miscreants that tried breaking into his home. This would not end well once they spotted the bodies. They would surely want revenge, so he had to be ready for them. He dropped the magazine from his rifle to check his remaining ammo. He had about ten rounds left in the thirty-round magazine and that was not going to be enough. There was plenty of spare ammo in the basement, but Kyle did not want to risk opening the door and possibly letting the lethal gas seep in the room. Ten rounds were more than enough ammo to take on a few more scoundrels, but if they were armed, he would need a lot more ammo to be effective in a gun battle.
As Kyle suspected, they pulled up directly behind the silver F-150. Based on the urgency in which they exited their vehicles, it was obvious to Kyle they spotted the bodies of their associates. There were eight of them total and they had their guns pointed in every direction. Their movements were fluid as if they trained regularly, but did not appear to be military. Kyle sized up each miscreant and the weapon they possessed. They were all toting handguns, except a tall woman who was handling an AR-15. She seemed very familiar with the weapon based on her posture.
“Find out who the fuck did this,” the mysterious woman ordered.
Her fierce grimace and commanding voice had the group scattering like roaches.
“What’s going on?” Jacqui asked once she noticed Kyle lingering at the window.
“Shhhh,” he replied. He slowly grabbed his rifle and aimed it towards the woman, who was now standing in the bed of the silver F-150. The sun rays soaked into her dark skin, which was visible because she was only wearing an off-white tank top that was riddled with blood splatter. She was probably around five foot nine inches but looked taller than six feet if you took into account her large afro. The mirrored Ray Ban sunglasses she sported sat perfectly on her round face. Although one of the lenses appeared to be cracked, she still rocked them as if they were fresh out the store.
“Search every single home and kill anyone inside. Start with this house,” she barked as she pointed to Kyle and Jacqui’s home. It was an obvious choice, seeing as though the rotting bodies rested in front of the three-story row home.
Three men worked their way to the front door and the others started walking towards neighboring houses. Kyle carefully watched as the three approached. One of them had his gun aimed at the bedroom window but never noticed Kyle looking down at them. The cracks in the glass obstructed his view of the shadowy figure lingering in the corner of the window. Kyle’s aim drifted towards one of the men and he slowly squeezed the trigger on his Springfield Saint. The shot rang off and another successful headshot was executed. The man fell to the ground and blood began to pool around his head. The other members of the small militia took cover and their eyes were now focused across the street from Kyle’s home. His plan actually worked. He shot one of the goons across the street, which made the rest of the gang believe the assault was coming from another home, leaving them vulnerable. Kyle felt a little bad and hoped an innocent family was not inside the home the body dropped in front of because they would surely become the militia’s new targets. If there was a family still at the residence, they probably would not survive an attack from the militia. Hopefully, they made it out during the evacuation warnings a few days prior.
Shots began to ring off and Kyle backed out the window. Jacqui ducked down and stayed away from the exposed area of the room. Kyle waited a few seconds, then peeked back out and noticed the gunshot holes that decorated the house across the street. The woman with the broken Ray Bans was nowhere in sight, but the other members of the militia began making their way to the home. Kyle lifted his rifle again and let off two more shots, dropping two more members.
“Get back, get back,” one of the men yelled. Each of the miscreants began making their way back to the trucks. Kyle only had seven shots left and had to make them count. He took up aim at one of the F-150s and let off a shot meant for the occupant in the driver’s seat. The rear windshield shattered but no one exited the truck.
“Fuck,” Kyle yelled, disappointed at the fact he didn’t know if his shot attempt was successful. If he had his ammo from the basement, each truck would look like a slice of Swiss cheese. About five minutes went by and there was no movement from the militia.
“What’s going on out there?” Jacqui asked, noticing how quiet the outside became.
“I have no idea.” A stern look was on Kyle’s face as he watched diligently for any type of movement.
Finally, one of the men exited the passenger seat of the U-Haul truck and climbed on top. Kyle had the opportunity to attempt a shot at the male but was too focused on what he was doing on top of the truck. He crawled to the rear of the truck and grabbed a rope that was affixed to the roof. The rope was also attached to the door latch. The woman suddenly appeared from the F-150, but she was not wearing her sunglasses. She had a red, green, and black bandana tied around her face that covered her nose and mouth. She toted a pistol-grip shotgun and blasted the front door of the home, four times. The door was literally ripped off the hinges. After blasting the door, she threw a gas canister into the home. The canister contained the chemical gas that stole the lives of millions of citizens, including Chloe. The same gas was finally dispersing from the lower level of the couple’s home, but he still ensured it did not make its way into the bedroom. Kyle recognized the canister as being similar to the one the initial miscreants tossed in his home. Once the woman reentered the F-150, the man on top of the U-Haul pulled the rope, which opened the rear door. Kyle looked to see what was inside the truck. He figured they had more personnel to carry out their heinous assaults on the innocent. However, what he witnessed was much worse as his mouth dropped to the floor.
Some type of creature crawled out the rear of the U-Haul truck and was nothing like any animal he had ever seen. Once it was set free, the trucks pulled off. The creature lingered in the street for a while. It was very hairy with large claws. It had mannerisms similar to a gorilla, using its knuckles for stability as it roamed the unfamiliar territory. Kyle could not get a good look at its facial features, but its shoulder
s and back were extremely broad. The creature began sniffing the ground as it brushed past parked vehicles. Its strength was unreal and Kyle watched it climb on the hood of the car and crush it. This made Jacqui extremely nervous, as she peeked out the window and saw a beast that possessed so much strength. The beast caught the scent from the chemical gas currently dispensing from the canister. The orange gas was escaping from the broken window and doorway that occurred when the militia began its assault on the home. Suddenly the hideous creature took off running into the home.
“What the hell was that?” Jacqui asked as she backed out the window.
“I have no fucking clue. I really don’t know what the hell that was.”
“Where did it come from?”
“The back of that U-Haul truck.”
“How the hell did they get it in that U-Haul?”
“I don’t know, but whatever it is we better hope we don’t have to deal with it.”
“Kyle I’m scared. We should have gotten out of here when we had the chance. When they sent out those evacuation warnings.”
“Where would we have gone? This shit is a national epidemic, not local. National.”
“I don’t know where we would have gone, but we wouldn’t be prisoners in our own damn home.”
“Yeah, you would probably be dead.”
Jacqui felt the sarcasm in Kyle’s last remark and crawled over to Chloe’s body. When she heard Kyle say dead, she sat back and thought of all the warnings he gave her.
CHAPTER 3
Kyle couldn’t help but stare at Chloe as she brushed back her sandy brown hair from in front of her face. His baby girl was growing up too fast. Although she was just about to enter into ninth grade, her face was buried in catalogs from colleges in the area. She was already picking out the colleges she was interested in attending, with Penn State and Temple Universities leading the pack. With all the time she spent away from her dad while he was overseas, there was no way she was going far from home.
