Omega Pathogen: Despair

by J. G. Hicks Jr

  “Is there another room next door?” Jim asked and pointed to the wall.

  “Yeah. Why?” Erika asked.

  “I think we can get out that way,” Jim answered.

  “Did you guys go over there and scavenge stuff? Do you know if the hall door is closed?” Jim asked.

  “It should be empty,” Sean answered.

  “Why?” Erika asked again.

  “If we can get in that room we can break its window and get out. We can drop down to the lower roof and then onto the MRAP,” Jim replied.

  Before Jim finished his plan he had already started swinging the Halligan tool at the wall. Soon he had a hole made through to the other room. He looked through and saw no infected, and saw that the room's door to the hall was closed.

  The door the others were trying to hold gave way more, and probing fingers reached through. The infected seemed spurred on by the noise Jim had to make to try and get them out. He continued to bash through the wall more frantically.

  He felt like it took forever before he had finally made a hole big enough for them to crawl through to the other room. He bent over with his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. Sweat poured off his face and down and into his eyes. Still breathing heavily, Jim called Kathy and quickly told her the plan.

  Jim crawled through the hole to the adjoining room. The window wasn’t a type meant to be opened, so with a swing and then a few jabs of the Halligan tool, he had broken out most of the glass. He hastily cleared away as much of the glass as he could to try and lessen the chances of anyone slicing open their flesh on the way out. He went back to the room where the others desperately braced the door.

  Jim asked the others for ideas but they had exhausted any that they had long before he arrived. He looked for a way to jam the door closed with the Halligan tool but nowhere would hold it long enough.

  “Drop one of those HE and a frags in my lap and you guys get going, Jim.” Frank said as he looked up at Jim.

  Jim looked at Frank, his expression questioning his logic.

  “Leave the pins in. I’ll take those out myself.” Frank said.

  Jim shook his head and kept looking for options. “Not what I was thinking, Frank. Let me look for another way," Jim said.

  “I’m bit, Jim. I already feel it. It happened not long before you climbed up here,” Frank said.

  Jim looked Frank over head to toe and noticed the blood seeping through Frank’s jeans on his left shin. “

  Well. Shit. Okay, Frank,” Jim said.

  Kathy radioed that she was ready.

  Jim braced the door and told Erika and the two other men to get to the next room and out the window to the MRAP while he and Frank held the door.

  “You better go too, Jim,” Frank said. The door was forced inward another foot. They tried but Jim and Frank only pushed it back only about four inches. More hands reached inside, probing for someone to grab.

  Jim moved closer and leaned his shoulder against the door as he pulled out a high explosive and a fragmentation grenade and placed them in Frank’s lap. It was then that Jim noticed the Eagle, Globe and Anchor tattoo on Frank’s left forearm.

  “Thank you, Frank,” Jim said and rushed for the hole in the wall.

  Jim got to the window and saw Erika, Sean, and Josh still on the roof below.

  “Go!” Jim yelled down at them as he climbed out and lowered himself before dropping another four or five feet to the next roof. Jim was rising from a squatted position when he heard Erika shriek and Josh and Sean yelling.

  Jim turned around and saw Erika lying on her front on the wet angled roof with her head toward the infected below. Sean had her by an ankle and Josh held onto the peak of the roof with one hand and the other held Sean by his waistband.

  Chris and Jeremy stood on the roof of the MRAP and continuously fired at infected. There was nothing else they could do.

  Jim moved toward them as quickly as he could without sliding off the roof himself. As he got closer to Josh, he jumped the remaining few feet and reached for him as Josh started to slide. Jim grabbed air.

  Josh’s grip on the roof had failed. He fell on top of Sean and Erika, on top of the infected on the pavement below. Their bodies were quickly obscured as the infected attacked. Hands and mouths tore at them as they screamed. Before Jim could get to his feet, the screaming had stopped.

  Jim jumped down to the roof of the MRAP, where Chris and Jeremy waited to catch him. As he regained his balance from the landing he thanked his sons.

  “We couldn’t do anything for them,” Chris said as he motioned his head to where the three had fallen.

  “I know, son,” Jim said and he hurried them down into the MRAP.

  The concussion from explosions a second apart shook the MRAP. Kathy had already been rolling forward as they climbed inside.

  Jim sank into a seat in the back of the vehicle. “They’re all gone. Let’s go home,” Jim said. He slid off his cap and held his bowed head in his hands.

  Chapter 28

  “You’re all wrong!” George shouted. He rocked back and forth on the small sofa in the RV. His hands shook as he twisted open the bottle of risperidone.

  “You’re weak, that’s why you need the pills,” the voices repeated and then faded.

  George tapped out some pills and gulped down four tablets before he replaced the cap.

  He searched for the lorazepam in the box of medicines that lay at his feet. That one had helped him relax before.

  “They all want to kill you! They are all sick with the infection! You stupid shit! You’re blind! You’re ignorant! You can save the whole word but what do you do? Nothing!” The voices yelled at him. Jumbled, overlapped and repetitive.

  George squeezed his eyes closed and clasped his head in his hands. After awhile, he didn’t know how long, the voices faded. They became barely audible, mumbled screams in the back of his brain.

  George still heard them, but they grew more indistinct.

  He concentrated hard to keep them at bay. He told himself he needed the medication to help him.

  The others told him he didn’t. They told him how it clouded his ability.

  George finally succeeded in muzzling them, at least for a while. They were quieted.

  He opened the second bottle and dumped two tablets in his hand and then into his mouth. I can control them, George thought. He stood and quickly paced the floor of the RV.

  Arzu and Linda hovered over Marlene’s small desk in the Yates’ home. They waited anxiously for another update from their family. They had overheard the radio traffic on the Ham radio between Jim and those trapped in the hotel before he had gone in, but nothing since.

  In an attempt to occupy their minds, Linda and Arzu, with the help of Royce, started preparations for dinner. They were busy doing something and still close by the radio.

  Arzu watched the children, especially Berk and Kayra as they played outside as she helped make dinner. Will a day come when I won’t have to worry about the ones I love surviving through the day? She thought.

  Arzu turned her head from watching the children play on her left to resume cutting the vegetables. As she turned her head back to the right she caught a glimpse of George inside the RV.

  Arzu watched for a moment as he passed the window, pacing back and forth inside. She felt a little guilty, like she had intruded, violated his privacy as he coped with the stresses of the condition they all found themselves. Who can blame him? Everyone is stressed, she thought and went back to her work.

  Royce, Linda and Arzu heard Marlene gasp from the kitchen. The three hurried into the living room by her side. Marlene wished whomever she had spoken with a safe trip.

  “Marlene, what is it?” Linda asked.

  Marlene removed the headphones and lowered her head.

  “Well?” Arzu asked with an impatient and irritated tone to her voice for the delayed response to the question.

  “Kathy, Jim, and Chris and Jeremy are all okay. The group in Spring Hill
are all dead,” Marlene said.

  “What happened?” Arzu asked.

  “They didn’t say. Here, Jim wants to talk to you,” Marlene said. She handed the headphones to Arzu and got up from the chair.

  Arzu spoke briefly with Jim and then passed the headphones to Linda. Linda kept her conversation with Chris and Jeremy short as well and signed off.

  Arzu, Linda and the others stood silently for several long seconds. Arzu walked back into the kitchen, Royce and Linda followed and resumed making dinner.

  Chris and Jeremy had told them on the radio that they hoped to be back not too long after dark. No one knew actual numbers of infected that had been encountered on the attempted rescue in the MRAP. But those at the Yates’ home knew, from hints during conversations overheard between the MRAP and the hotel, that Jim and Kathy and Chris and Jeremy faced many. And they were far from safety.

  Brent and Chelsea had finished a circuit of the farm and began to work on installing more cameras. The exterior system was all set up and these were for the interior of the compound as an added security measure. Brent planned on setting up a camera facing the inside of the Hesco barriers of each wall and at the gate. In the event anything were to possibly climb over anywhere and be missed by one of the cameras that faced outside the compound, they should be able to pick up the breach and respond.

  The added security would make the lives of the residents easier; one person could observe everything from the monitors he’d already set up for the exterior. If a threat were present the other residents would be notified and then react.

  “Do you see now? They don’t trust you! They’re putting up more cameras to watch you!” The voices warned him.

  George peeked through the window and watched Brent and Chelsea working outside.

  Why else would they put the cameras up? George thought.

  “I told you,” a voice said. “I told you,” another said. “I told you!” a third said.

  “We told you! We told you!” Legions screamed at George.

  “You work for the government. You know you have to protect the world from those things! Soon everyone here will be one of them and then it will be too late to act! It will be too late!” the voices said.

  “Where are they from?” George asked those only he could hear.

  “Demons. You idiot! They’re demons from another world! You sit on your hands while they take over our planet and consume all life. You are a worthless piece of shit!” The voices berated and insulted him.

  George quickly left the window when he thought Brent had seen him. He rummaged through the medications and found some haloperidol, another medicine he’d heard of somewhere. He drew up ten milligrams in a syringe. His hands shook as he lowered his pants and injected the medication into his thigh.

  How can I save the world from the alien demons? George thought as he lay on the bed in the fetal position. He covered his ears and lay there rocking. He rambled incoherently.

  George sprang to a seated position as the clap of thunder shook the RV. Lightning flashed outside the windows and his mind registered the sound of rain hitting the roof. He stood and wiped drool from his cheek as he looked out the window. It was nearly dark outside.

  George checked his watch and the analog hands showed 5:57. He wasn’t sure if it was morning or evening. He wasn’t sure how long he had slept.

  “You’ll sleep through your death and the death of the world if you keep taking the drugs. You're an imbecile! Don’t take their poison!” the multitude of voices repeated over and over again.

  I have to stay alert, he thought.

  “That’s right! Don’t take any more of their poison, you idiot!” the voices said.

  George felt the pangs of hunger and searched for something to eat in the RV. As he looked for food he noticed the battery-powered digital clock on the nightstand near the bed he just got out of, 6:00 PM. Okay. It’s nighttime, he thought. He stared unblinking at the clock, waiting for it to turn to 6:01 PM before he resumed his search for something to eat.

  George found a packet of freeze-dried eggs. He read the directions several times before he comprehended their meaning. He used a flashlight and magnifying glass to look for signs of tampering on the packet. Any sign of a needle puncture. It could have been poisoned and left for him to find. Once satisfied, George retrieved a bottle of water he would need to boil and add to the contents of the packet to reconstitute the meal.

  He checked the ingredients on the label and then conducted the same arduous task of checking that the bottle was sealed. He squeezed it to check for leaks from punctures and then used the flashlight and magnifying glass again. George carefully removed the bottle cap as he listened and felt for the plastic seal as it cracked and broke free.

  The rain had brought an early end to the children’s outdoor playtime. The kids ate a little earlier than normal, and then colored and drew pictures after dinner. Soon that lost its hold on their attention. As the others washed dishes, Arzu had the kids circle around her and she read them a couple of Dr. Seuss books. As the clean up finished in the kitchen, Jen and Linda helped to make sure teeth were brushed and the children readied for bed.

  With a little while longer before their actual bedtime, a video was selected and the kids gathered around the TV. They watched the video for probably the hundredth time, but they still had outbursts of the giggles at the same scenes in the movie. They seem so resilient. But what will the horrors of this new world do to their minds as they grow older? Arzu thought.

  Linda had given Marlene a break. Marlene limped slightly as she made her way down the hallway and then to the right, where her room and another larger room for the children were. An hour or two nap and Marlene would be right back at her post.

  Royce went outside to do his shift on security watch.

  Arzu made some tea for herself, Linda and Jen. The hot tea grew cold as they discussed the seemingly never-ending plans for improvements around the compound and made small talk.

  Arzu and Linda’s tension was obvious as they impatiently waited for word from Jim and the others. They tried to call the MRAP but received no reply. They hoped that it was just the storm front that interfered with the communications again.

  Chapter 29

  “Yankee Charlie, this is Raptor. Do you copy? Over,” Jeremy called over the Ham radio.

  The residents had taken to calling the Ham radio base station at the Yates’ farm turned compound Yankee Charlie.

  Chris and Jeremy had picked the designation of Raptor for the MRAP.

  “It’s probably this damn storm, son. We’ll try back later,” Jim said.

  Chris had taken a turn driving the MRAP as Kathy tried to rest. The rain came down in thick sheets that high winds blew diagonally across their path. Debris flew into the vehicle and tumbled across the road. With having to avoid the objects that suddenly appeared in their path and the torrential rain, visibility was dramatically reduced and slowed their speed to a crawl.

  Jim stood between the driver and the passenger seats. Jeremy was sitting in the front passenger seat. They provided extra sets of eyes on the road to try and help Chris.

  Chris was continually forced to slow down and then pick up speed again, but overall the speed kept declining.

  Jim looked out the windshield as he weighed their options. “Let’s go ahead and stop under the next overpass we come to. We’ll see if we can wait until it clears out,” Jim said.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Chris replied.

  About four miles later, Chris spotted an overpass and began to slow the vehicle even more. “Here we are,” he said as he pulled to the right and came to a stop under it.

  “Fuel?” Jim asked.

  “Half a tank,” Chris replied and shut off the headlights.

  The black curtains were pulled down over the windows and they prepared for dinner. None of the MREs or the freeze-dried foods seemed appetizing, so they elected for some canned meat and crackers for a meal instead.

  Kathy had been
drifting in and out of sleep. Although her brother and nephews had tried to be quiet, their movements and whispers kept her from a good sleep. She gave up her attempt and decided she’d join them for dinner.

  “Still no radio?” Kathy asked as she sat up and rubbed her tired eyes.

  “Nope. The storm,” Jeremy answered and pointed up toward the ceiling of the MRAP.

  As they ate they decided to wait until morning before they resumed the drive to the farm. The storm could break before then but they were all exhausted. They would transfer fuel from their extra tank in the morning and then siphon more on the way.

  They tried later, but their attempts to reach the compound were still unsuccessful. So after they ate, the weapons were cleaned and the engine shut off as they settled in for the night. The entire time the rain fell and the wind howled. The gusts were so forceful that they sometimes caused the MRAP to rock slightly.

  They lay in the dimmed interior. Their only light was a green Cyalume light stick. Each of them fought away visions of things they had seen or done since the infection had destroyed all normalcy. The world they had lived in before had not been without some tribulation, but now it seemed to offer little other than despair.

  Around 4:00 AM the wind and rain began to dissipate. Soon after the storm had slackened, they began to wake in the back of the MRAP. Once pillows and sleeping bags were stored, Jim made coffee while Kathy tried to contact the Yates’ compound. The calls still went unanswered. Concern crept into their minds.

  “We’ll check our antenna. Maybe the storm knocked it off. Or maybe the base antenna is down,” Jim said. He tried to ease their minds as well as his own.

  They transferred fuel from the spare to the main tank. Kathy checked and found the antenna still mounted to the roof. She saw no obvious problems in the cable. Their radio seemed fine.

  They cleaned out the trash from the morning and the previous day before they resumed their drive north on U.S. 19. Further radio calls as they traveled went unanswered. They had to make a couple of stops before they had siphoned enough diesel to nearly fill the MRAP’s tanks, then continued their trek north.