The Search - A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (ROT SERIES Book 5)

by Damon Hunter

The eight of them grabbed as much gear as they could carry. They had two transponders, a device which put out a sound wave that signaled to the drones patrolling the borders of the quarantine not to target them. Vance took one, since without it they would never get out of the QZ alive.

  Before they shut the door, Donna said, “Text me every hour if you can.”

  “I will.”

  As Reg took off, Vance looked at Fan. “I hope you have some kind of plan.”

  Fan smiled. “I’m a highly trained intelligence officer. I always have a plan.”

  Chapter 3

  Cam Carson’s Helicopter - The Mojave Desert

  Reg looked at Donna. “For a second I thought you were going to go too.”

  “I thought about it.”

  “You made the right decision.” Reg said, “Keeping people alive is my business, literally. I’m a bodyguard. In my professional opinion, the best chance at staying above room temperature is to get the hell out the QZ.”

  “I agree, I just wanted everybody to make it. Though I suppose it is too late for that.” Donna said, thinking about the people she had befriended and then lost over the last couple of days.

  “It will be worth it if they make it, I guess, but that kind of thing is above my paygrade.”

  Donna looked below them. They had cleared Escondido and the foothills leading into and out of Valley Center, but there was no checkpoint set up. They were nearing the desert.

  “How far do you think we’ll have to go?” Donna asked.

  “To Palm Springs?” Reg said.

  “Do we have enough fuel?”

  “We should.”

  As they reached the desert city of Palm Springs, however, there did not appear to be a stronghold set up to stop the spread of the rot. In fact, they were quite the opposite of a rot-free stronghold. The freeway below them was a mess of wrecked vehicles. Fires burned in sporadic locations.

  Reg lowered the altitude of the chopper, saying, “Maybe it is not as bad as it looks from up here.”

  As they got lower and cruised just above the city, it became clear things were much worse. The infected roamed the streets, moving aimlessly across the city. If there was anyone not infected by the rot, they didn’t see them.

  Cletus, who finally seemed to be becoming alert, looked down and said, “Damn.”

  “That about sums it up,” Bo replied.

  “If the two TMRT who were at the checkpoint were telling the truth, there is no way it could have spread from there to here this fast. There is too much open space in between,” Reg said.

  “A separate outbreak?” Donna asked.

  Reg shrugged. “Doesn’t matter how. Either way, we can’t land here. We may have to go all the way to Arizona.”

  “Can we make it that far?”

  Reg checked the fuel gauge and said, “I hope so.”

  They kept pushing east, following Highway 10. The interstate was empty once they got away from the city. No more wrecks or abandoned vehicles. Reggie stayed fairly low as they went along the highway. If there was some sign of life they wanted to see it.

  “Do you think the empty road means people made it out? Or does it mean they didn’t?” Donna asked.

  “Could be either one, but if Palm Springs went down like the other cities did once the rot took hold, I have to lean towards didn’t.”

  Donna was about to reply when there was a loud cracking sound above her head. The chopper shook as the rotors keeping them in the air began to sputter.

  Chapter 4

  Palomar Medical Center Rooftop - Escondido, CA

  Fan looked towards the remains of what had been the edge of quarantine before the rot had somehow gotten into the camp the TMRT had set up. Once the camp was infected, it did not take long for the rot to get into town.

  Only those who left on their own accord would have escaped. There would have been no time for an organized evacuation.

  “It’s less than two miles away,” Fan said.

  Novak looked through his own binoculars, focusing on the streets leading to the failed checkpoint.

  “With that horde blocking our way, it might as well be two hundred miles. Even if we had a car, I don’t think we could just casually get through. Just like everywhere else, people panicked. The first fender bender turned into a ten car pileup and turned every major road into an instant junk yard.”

  “That’s why I thought we would take the helicopter,” Fan said.

  “Who’s going to fly it?” Ben asked.

  “I am,” Fan said.

  “You’re a pilot?”

  “What part of I’m a highly trained intelligence officer did you miss?” Fan looked at Dr. Talbot. “What are the chances I can set it down close?”

  “I don’t know,” Dr. Talbot said. “I never looked around to see if a helicopter would have enough room to land nearby.”

  “We might be able to pull up to the door,” Novak said. “Even if we can’t, there are plenty of places to land.”

  “Excellent,” Fan said as he headed for the cockpit. “We can work out the details on the way.”

  They were loading the gear aboard when Fan said something in what Vance thought sounded like Chinese. Vance did not know any Chinese, but the tone and cadence of Fan’s words made him think the spy was cursing.

  “What’s wrong?” Vance asked.

  “No fuel,” Fan told him.

  “I don’t suppose we could just get some gas from that station up the block and fill it up,” Chase said.

  “Nope, not unless they have Jet A,” Novak told him.

  “Unlikely,” Ben said. “I’m starting to think this hero thing was a huge fuck-up on my part.”

  “No one said it would be easy,” Fan replied. “There has to fuel somewhere nearby. They aren’t going to store any reserves in the basement.”

  Vance pointed to a small outbuilding with a door on the other side the roof. “I guess we have to go inside.”

  Novak took his Sick Slaying Stick (SSS) off of his back and said, “It could be a mess in there.”

  Vance did the same and said, “Only one way to find out.”

  Fan picked up the SSS that had belonged to Clay.

  “You know how to use that?” Vance asked.

  Fan found the button on the side which released the blade on one end. He then pressed on the button which released the spikes on the heavy ball end. He gave the long staff a couple spins to see how it felt and then did a few practice thrusts. “Seems self explanatory.”

  Vance looked at Chase. “Why don’t you wait out here with Talbot?”

  “You don’t think I can handle myself in there?”

  “No, I don’t think Talbot can handle himself out here if things go sideways. Once we open the door, things can come out just as easily as they can come in. We need him to find this stuff. Fact is, I just gave you the most important job.”

  “Oh, cool. Can Ana wait with me then?”

  “That’s actually a good idea,” Vance said. He looked at Ana and asked, “You good with that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You want to wait with them?” Vance asked Ben.

  “I’m good going in,” Ben said. “Besides, you need someone to carry the fuel back while all you assholes are playing with your cool sticks.”

  “Good point,” Vance replied.

  They were pleasantly surprised to find the door unlocked. The four of them went down a stairway and found themselves on the hospital’s top floor. It looked like instead of housing patients, this floor was used for offices.

  “Somewhere is a storage room,” Fan said. “If they have fuel reserves it will be in there. If we split up, we should find it faster.”

  “I’ll go with Sir Limp-Along,” Ben said.

  “Don’t worry, I can keep up,” Vance told him.

  “Good, because I won’t wait,” Ben replied.

  Fan looked at Novak and said, “I guess he’ll do.”

  “I was going to say the same thing about you,”
Novak replied.

  Fan pointed and he and Novak went that direction while Ben and Vance went the other.

  Fan and Novak moved down the hallway. They skipped offices, figuring an administrator or a doctor would not store fuel in their office.

  The first door they came upon without someone’s name on it was not unmarked. With what appeared to be lipstick, someone had written on the white wall next to it.

  “Do not open,” it said in big letters, with an arrow drawn to point at the door to make sure people knew what the writer was saying not to open.

  “Should we follow the advice?” Novak said. “Probably nothing good on the other side of the door.”

  “Unless the chopper fuel in is in there.”

  “We could do this one last, maybe we get lucky and find it without having to open this one.”

  “Or we waste time searching how many other hazardous rooms just to end up having to go in here anyway?”

  Novak thought about it for a second before he said, “Fuck it.”

  “You’re better with these things than I am,” Fan said. “I’ll bust the door and you be ready for what comes through.”

  As an answer, Novak raised his Sick Slaying Stick.

  Fan busted out the lock with the ball end of his SSS and then kicked it open. He stepped back and got ready to either bash or slice anything coming through.

  Nothing came through.

  “There could be vampire rotters inside,” Novak said. “They’re smart enough to try to ambush us after we go on the room.”

  “We still need to go in.”

  “I know. I’m just saying watch you back.”

  Fan nodded and went inside quickly. Novak followed.

  They found themselves in some sort of conference room. As far as they could tell, it was abandoned.

  Fan pointed to the busted windows on the outside wall. “It looks like they found another way out. Probably fell to their deaths.”

  “Probably, though I wouldn’t put it past them to learn how to fly,” Novak said.

  They didn’t see anything looking like chopper fuel. They still circled the room and even looked under the table just to be sure.

  Fan was moving along the busted window when he said, “Looks like a zero all around. I guess we keep going.”

  “Yeah,” Novak said. He was turning to the door when a vampire rotter came through the window and jumped on Fan’s back.

  Novak jumped up on the table and ran across it to Fan, but he was too late. The rotter had already sunk two rows of teeth into the shoulder of the foreign agent. It lifted its face from Fan and took a spiked ball to the forehead. Novak spun the Sick Slaying Stick and used the blade end to remove the vampire rotter’s head. As it was falling, Novak saw another one come in from outside.

  Novak jumped off the table, leading with ball end of his weapon. He and the rotter met in midair. Novak’s Sick Slaying Stick helped him get the better of the encounter. The spiked ball hit the surgical scrub-wearing vampire rotter in the chest and sent it back the way it came.

  Novak moved to the window to make sure it made it all the way to the sidewalk. Looking out the window, he saw another one climbing his way, using its extra long fingers and sharp nails to scale the side of the wall as it jumped from window sill to window sill.

  Novak jammed the blade side through the top of its head as soon as it got within range.

  Novak turned from the window and looked at Fan. His eyes had turned a sickly yellow and huge sores were growing like someone was blowing up a balloon on Fan’s face. Fan grabbed Novak and leaned in with his mouth open.

  Novak brought up the Sick Slaying Stick and got it between him and Fan’s new teeth. Fan’s teeth shattered as he got a mouthful of a spike-covered iron ball. Novak pushed him away and then finished him with a jab of the blade end to the neck.

  As he watched Fan bleed out on the carpet, Novak realized he just killed the only person they had who could fly the chopper. There was no reason to be looking for fuel anymore.

  He was raising the two way radio to let the others know when an arm came through the window and pulled him to the edge. Novak tried to twist and use his weapon but felt the jagged teeth of another vampire rotter penetrate his armor and find the flesh on his back.

  He still twisted free of the bite and swung his SSS at his attacker. The bite must have slowed him, because the vampire rotter caught the staff with both hands before Novak could do any damage.

  Novak knew he couldn’t overpower it, and as he felt the itch of a sore forming rapidly under his skin, he knew it wouldn’t matter. In seconds he would join the ranks of the brain dead and drooling. Novak pushed hard, getting his legs into it. The vampire rotter did not really have good leverage, being half outside. They both went out the window. About halfway down, Novak lost himself completely to the infection. Seconds later, he and the vampire rotter took an organ-crushing bounce off the sidewalk.

  Chapter 5

  The Mojave Desert, CA

  Gil handed the binoculars back to Givens and said, “I think you fucked up.”

  “You are kidding, right? That was one righteous shot. I told you a bullet to rotors could bring one of them down.”

  “I’m not talking about your shooting. I’m talking about your target. I don’t think that was a TMRT chopper. It looks like the ones I’ve seen in Vietnam movies. I don’t think the TMRT, or any government agency for that matter, is flying around in shit that might be fifty years old.”

  “You don’t think they’ll have this transponder thing Ella was talking about?”

  “Probably not. All you did was save one of them drones a missile.”

  “In that case, they are probably still on the right side of the line. Dude flying did a good job setting them down. I can’t imagine the drones wouldn’t have finished them off if they were in the kill zone. We might as well go check it out.”

  The pair of thieves started walking towards the downed chopper.

  They stopped when a big man dressed like he was on his way to a wedding emerged from the cockpit. Despite his clothes, the big man was carrying an oversized pistol as he walked around the helicopter. He seemed to be looking for the reason his rotors stopped working. He moved away from the chopper, backing up so he had a good angle to look at the big rotor Givens hit with his rifle. Once he was about twenty feet away, there was a whooshing sound and then an explosion where he was standing. Less than a second later, the big man and his nice clothes were nothing but a flaming pile of body parts.

  The two thieves turned and walked back to where they were before. They were fairly certain they were safe there.

  “I guess they are past the line after all,” Gil said.

  “Yeah, but this is good news.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Old chopper or not, they must have this transponder thing on board. Otherwise, the drone wouldn’t have waited for the dude in the nice clothes to step away.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re right, but how are we going to get it?”

  “That part I don’t know.”

  Givens raised the binoculars again. “Looks like there were passengers.”

  “You think they’d hear us if we yelled at them?”

  “No. What would you say anyway?”

  “Come over here?”

  “I think they see us anyway.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Turns out we aren’t the only ones with binoculars.”

  Chapter 6

  Cam Carson’s Helicopter - The Mojave Desert, CA

  Since they had been cruising at a low altitude in an effort to determine if the Palm Springs area was safe or not, Reg was able to put them down while the rotors’ momentum kept it spinning enough for him to have some control.

  The landing was still rough and they were bounced around pretty good. Everyone would get some fresh bruises, but no one broke any bones and the only person with a concussion was Cletus, but he had that before the rotor quit working.

  “
What happened?” Donna asked, once she was sure everyone was okay.

  “No idea,” Reg said.

  “Someone shoot at us?” Bo asked.

  “Maybe,” Reg said. “Could be something mechanical. I’ll get out and take a look.”

  Reg got out and started looking the chopper over.

  “Should I go help him?” Bo asked.

  “You know what to look for?” Donna replied.

  “No.”

  “We should get out anyway,” Katelin said. “Just to stretch our legs.”

  Donna nodded. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

  Bo opened the big door on the side just as Reg blew up.

  “I take that back,” Donna said. “That looks like it hurt.”

  “What just happened?” Jennifer asked.

  “Drone strike?” Donna said.

  “That would be my guess,” Katelin replied.

  “We must have been getting close to getting out of Quarantine Zone,” Bo said.

  “So, if we get out, will we get blown up like that man?” Gavin asked.

  “I think so,” Donna told him.

  “We’re trapped?” Jennifer asked.

  “Looks that way,” Donna said.

  “Good news is we know the transponder works,” Bo said. “Otherwise we would all be like Reg right now.”

  “Then we’re not trapped,” Katelin said. “We can carry the transponder until we are out of range.”

  “Except isn’t that only going to work for one of us?” Donna said.

  “No,” Bo told her. “We go two at a time, side by side with both holding the transponder. Once we are clear, one person goes back and repeats the process until we’re all clear.”

  “Should work,” Katelin said.

  “Except we don’t know where the line is,” Donna told them. “It could be ten yards away or ten miles. They covered a big area outside of Escondido when they sealed off Oceanside.”

  No one had the solution for that problem.

  “Do we still have a pair of binoculars?” Bo asked.

  “Yeah,” Katelin said as she found a pair with the gear the landing party had left behind.