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

by Damon Hunter

  “Let’s try it anyway,” Talbot said as he tapped the pistol lightly on his thigh to remind Carter that shooting him was still on the list of options.

  Carter swung the helicopter around and headed back towards the hospital.

  “You know, if I wreck this thing saving them, you won’t get your research.”

  “I doubt the two of us will be able to get it without their kind of help,” Talbot said. “Plus I do owe them. They saved my ass when they would have been justified in leaving me behind.”

  “They high enough on your list of vile, horrible shit you’ve done to make the first page?”

  “I would say so.”

  Carter slowed the chopper as he got in as close as he could to the edge of the roof. “You’re going to have to open the door.”

  Talbot went back and pulled the big door open as Carter brought the chopper to a stop right behind the three survivors.

  “Can you hold it steady?” Talbot asked as Ana turned to look at them.

  “I’m doing my best.”

  Talbot put the gun and bat on the seat and found a handhold by the door, probably put there just for this kind of thing. He moved as close to the open doorway as he could and yelled out, “Come on.”

  Ana holstered her twin axe blades and climbed on the lip of the roof. She looked unsure if she could make it. It was not just the span she had to cover, but the way the chopper was swaying back and forth. She would have to jump into a moving target.

  “Get closer,” Talbot yelled to Carter.

  “I’m trying,” Carter said, but he nudged the chopper a little bit closer to the edge.

  “I don’t think I can make it,” Ana yelled to him.

  Talbot wanted to tell her to go for it, but he felt she had a point.

  “Can they get on the roof of the entrance?” Carter yelled back from the front. “It’s flat enough I can put enough down they could climb in.”

  Talbot point to the roof of the outbuilding which served as an entryway and said, “Get up there and we can get you.”

  Ana turned and looked. The small building was higher up than her five foot two frame could manage to reach. She was about to tell Talbot no when Ben turned and said, “Yes.”

  While Vance covered them, Ben put down his Sick Slaying Stick and interlocked his fingers, giving Ana somewhere to step while he gave her a boost. She was able to grab the lip of the second roof and pull herself up. Ben handed her up his SSS and then by launching himself off the short pony wall at the edge of the roof, he was able to get his hands on the lip of the top of the small outbuilding and pull himself up as well.

  He turned and grabbed the Sick Slaying Stick, he pressed the buttons to retract the blade and the spikes before he held it over the edge. He yelled at Vance, “Come on, grab hold. I can pull you up.”

  Vance took one more swing of his SSS and then put it in the holder behind his back. He stepped up and grabbed the staff with both hands. As Ben pulled Vance used his good leg to push himself up the wall. Between the two of them, he was quickly up and onto the small roof.

  The three of them looked down to see the horde piling into each other against the outbuilding. They were already starting to climb on top of each other and all three had seen the infected scale much higher distances than the roof they were standing on using this pile on top of each other method.

  Talbot was well aware of this as well. He shouted to Carter, “Get us up there.”

  Carter started pulling away when something hit them and the chopper tilted downward. Talbot was able to hang on and avoid falling out. He peered over the side and saw what had hit them.

  The vampire rotter climbing for the top floor did not share Ana’s fears about jumping for the chopper. It was climbing up the landing skids.

  Talbot went to the seat to grab the gun and saw that it and the bat were no longer there. He looked over and saw the gun had slid by the open door but was still in the helicopter. He took a step toward it when the claw-like hand of the vampire rotter reached inside and landed right next to the pistol. Talbot paused and that was all it took for the vampire rotter to climb inside the chopper with him.

  “Grab something now,” he heard Carter shout back.

  Carter did not even give him a second to find something as he tilted the chopper hard towards the open door and then brought it immediately back to level. Talbot was lucky to get his hands on one of the seat belts to keep himself from tumbling out. The gun and the vampire rotter were not quite as lucky. The gun was gone for good but the vampire rotter caught the edge of the door and was pulling himself back into the chopper.

  Talbot saw the baseball bat on the floor and grabbed it as the rotter climbed back inside. Talbot swung and gave the thing a faceful of nails. Talbot tried to pull the bat free, but the vampire rotter knocked him away.

  Talbot hit the other side of the chopper and bounced back towards the vampire rotter. He saw the beast pulling the spiked bat from its face. Talbot lunged forward feet first, kicking the rot-fueled predator in the chest with both feet. With its hands on the bat, it could not keep itself from falling out the door this time.

  Talbot watched it bounce off the rim of the short wall and fall to its death. He turned to the front of the chopper and said, “He’s gone. Go get them.”

  Carter moved the chopper to the edge of the outbuilding and then lowered it until the landing skid was sitting on the edge of the outbuilding’s roof.

  The three on the roof were busy knocking amblers who had climbed over the top of the mob of infected bunched up against the building until the wind generated by the chopper got their attention.

  “Go,” Vance yelled at Ana as he kicked over an ambler who was almost on the roof.

  Talbot helped her aboard.

  “You’re next,” Vance said to Ben.

  “After you, old man,” Ben said as he swung his Sick Slaying Stick and sent one tumbling back into the horde minus his head.

  “We don’t have time to argue about this,” Vance told him. “I can survive a bite.”

  Ben took out another one and said, “Fine,” before turning and running into the chopper.

  Vance knocked another one back with the spiked ball and turned to join them. He took a step and realized the climb up the wall had further damaged his leg. The moment he put any extra weight on it, the leg gave way. Vance caught himself with his hands and pushed himself to his feet. He dragged his damaged leg behind him as he went for the chopper.

  He felt something grab him and turned to just in time to see the ambler come up and put its teeth into the back of his damaged leg. Vance stabbed it with the blade end of the Sick Slaying Stick. With the ambler dead, he spun the Sick Slaying Stick and knocked the dead ambler off his leg.

  He could see another ambler come over the wall, getting between him and the chopper. Ben stepped out of the chopper and bashed in the ambler’s skull with his Sick Slaying Stick. He grabbed the dead ambler and threw it into an infected nurse who had just breached the roof of the outbuilding, sending them both tumbling back down.

  Holding the Sick Slaying Stick in one hand, he grabbed Vance under the arm and helped him move to the chopper. They made it two steps before Carter pulled up on the stick and left them.

  “Are you fucking serious?” Ben said as he watched the helicopter fly away.

  “You should have left me,” Vance said. “But since you’re here, quit watching the chopper and help me defend this roof.”

  Chapter 24

  Interstate 10 - Quartzsite, Arizona

  Bo slowed the Humvee as they came into the small Arizona border town of Quartzsite. There were still some amblers on the road. With the infected still out, they knew they were still a ways off from the end of the Quarantine Zone.

  He took the first exit and pulled into the first gas station that sold diesel fuel.

  “Are we running low?” Donna asked as he pulled up next to the pump.

  There did not seem to be any infected around. Bo got out and could
hear a steady thumping coming from the store. He looked over to see an infected teenager with a name tag and a red smock with the name of the gas station imprinted in big letters walking into the glass door leading out of the store. He bounced off and walked into it again, then repeated the process. Bo wondered how long he had been banging up against the door. He watched it walk into the glass a few times and then turned back to Donna.

  “No, but there may not be another opportunity anytime soon,” Bo replied.

  “We have to be almost out of the quarantine,” Jennifer said. “We’ve been driving for miles.”

  “Do we?” Bo asked her. “They could have dropped back all the way to Phoenix or farther. For all we know, the quarantine zone doesn’t end.”

  “It couldn’t have happened that fast,” Jennifer replied.

  “People have been saying that from the beginning,” Bo said. “And they’ve been wrong every time.”

  “You sound like you’re giving up,” Donna said.

  “No, I’m just thinking we should be ready for the worst.”

  “He’s right,” Katelin said. “While he tops off the tank, we should scrounge up whatever we can from the store.”

  Bo nodded. Even though the place had been taken over by the infected, he still had to use his credit card to get gasoline. Considering the station could have been shut down, he didn’t mind having to pay for his gas.

  Donna pulled the door open and the clerk stumbled out into Katelin’s katana. She yanked the blade from his throat and they all stepped back to avoid the spraying blood. Once he fell, they stepped over him and went inside.

  Bo finished filling the tank and found a gas can in the trunk, which he filled as well. They loaded the back of the Humvee with bottled water, beef jerky, candy bars and potato chips. Other than candy and beer, there wasn’t much else to get.

  Donna went back in and brought out a six pack of light beer, saying, “I figure in memory of Bar, we ought to drink one,” as she took one and handed the rest to Bo.

  “I’m driving,” he said.

  “I won’t tell,” Donna told him.

  Bo took a beer and handed it off to Jennifer.

  “I’m not asking for I.D.s either.” Donna told the teenager.

  When Jennifer passed it on to Katelin, she took one without asking. Katelin expected her mother to protest but she didn’t say anything.

  “Gavin, why don’t you run in and grab whatever soda you want?” Donna said. She was fine with teenagers drinking at the moment but not ten-year-olds.

  Katelin made a face after taking a long drink from the can and then said to Donna, “You should try to call Dad.”

  Donna set down her drink and called. No one answered.

  The five drank in silence by the gas pumps. Once they had all downed their beers and Gavin had finished off about half of a liter of Mountain Dew, Bo said, “I think there is a sporting goods store in town, maybe we could get some bullets, even more guns.”

  Everyone thought that was a good idea, but when they got there, they saw so had someone else. There were a few bolt action rifles on display, but every shotgun, pistol, and bullet had been cleaned out. Bo picked up a baseball bat and Gavin found a decent pocket knife, but otherwise the trip seemed a waste.

  While the others continued to check out the store, Donna stepped out to send Vance a text. His not answering the phone could mean many things, but most of them were bad and she was starting to worry.

  She texted, “Let me know if you are still alive.”

  Donna was putting the phone back in her pocket when it vibrated in her hand. She looked at the face and saw he had replied with a simple, “Yes.”

  “Hey, Katelin,” Donna yelled into the store, planning to tell her daughter her dad was still among the living.

  Before anyone answered, Donna heard something above her. The sporting goods store was an old brick building and what Donna heard seemed to be coming from the roof. She looked up as the vampire rotter pounced. Donna went for the rifle slung on her shoulder, but the vampire rotter was on her before she could bring it around.

  Chapter 25

  Palomar Medical Center Life Flight Helicopter - Escondido, CA

  “What the hell are you doing?” Talbot said as Carter lifted the chopper away from the edge.

  “He was bit. We can’t have him on board. He could infect us all.”

  “Go back.”

  “I’m doing what needs to be done, just like you were when you killed my wife and my mother.”

  “Go back. I’m not asking.”

  “You don’t have the gun anymore,” Carter said, “You don’t even have the bat.”

  Ana reached around the seat, put a bloody hatchet blade to Carter’s throat and said, “I can kill you just as well with this and I ain’t asking either.”

  “Kill me and we all die,” Carter said.

  Ana moved the axe and slid through the gap between the seats. She raised the axe as she said, “I don’t have to kill you instantly. I bet I cut you up pretty good and you can still fly this thing. I bet I can cut you just enough so you land this thing before you bleed out. Go back.”

  “You could do that to someone?”

  “Yeah, easy.”

  “I’m trying to keep everyone rot free here.”

  “He’s immune, you asshole,” Ana told him. “Three seconds to turn around or I start chopping. Three.”

  “She’s right. Go back,” Talbot said.

  “Two.”

  “There is no such thing…”

  Ana chopped down, opening a small gash in Carter’s shoulder.

  “Are you going to argue with a doctor in the TMRT?” Ana asked him as she removed the blade.

  “I can’t believe you cut me,” Carter said.

  “You should have. Three more seconds and I cut you again. Three.”

  “We need them,” Talbot said.

  Ana raised the blade and said, “We don’t leave people if we don’t have to, and we don’t have to. Two.”

  “Jesus, put that thing away, I’m turning around.”

  Ana did not chop on him again but she did not lower the weapon as Carter swung the chopper back around and headed for the roof.

  “You really fucked up my arm,” Carter said as he swung the helicopter around so they were over the outbuilding roof and lowered the chopper.

  The infected had begun to get on the rooftop on the far end. Ben stepped forward to deal with them while Vance stayed where he was and kept knocking infected down as they reached the edge of the roof.

  Vance turned as the helicopter landing skid hit the roof he was standing on. Ana stayed next to Carter with the axe raised as Talbot jumped out and provided support so Vance could climb in the chopper without putting any weight on his damaged leg.

  Vance turned back to yell at Ben to get on, but Ben was already running past them. He hopped on the chopper and turned to help Vance and Talbot climb aboard.

  “Everyone is on,” Talbot yelled to Carter. “Go.”

  Seeing everyone was inside the chopper, Ana lowered the hatchet and told Carter, “Get us in the air.”

  Carter nodded and the chopper gained altitude as the infected swarmed up onto the outbuilding roof.

  “If you weren’t flying this thing, I would kick your ass,” Ben said as he found somewhere to sit and buckled himself in.

  “If it makes you feel any better, your friend here chopped my arm with her axe,” Carter said.

  “It actually does,” Ben replied.

  “Don’t be too hard on him,” Talbot said. “He didn’t know Vance was immune. If any of us were in a similar position, we would have done the same.”

  No one could dispute Dr. Talbot on that point.

  “Look, I’m sorry,” Carter said.

  “Fair enough,” Vance replied.

  “What is it you guys like to say? Team Human,” Ben said. “I’m already over it.”

  Carter looked at his arm and then at Ana.

  “I told you I
was going to do it,” Ana told him. “I don’t feel bad about it, so I’m not apologizing.”

  “Can we get out of the quarantine now?” Carter asked.

  “One more thing to do,” Dr. Talbot said. “Head for the checkpoint, I’ll direct from there.”

  Carter started to protest but saw Ana was still sitting next to him with the hatchet in her hand. Instead, he turned the chopper so they were headed for the checkpoint.

  Talbot looked at Vance’s leg and said, “I can patch up the bite.”

  “You’re being awfully nice to a guy not too long ago you wanted to grind to pulp and store in an aluminum box,” Vance said.

  “I need you to get this done.”

  Vance pointed at his leg and said, “I’m glad you feel that way, but I don’t know how much good I can do.”

  “You’re still the last one of us who can think like a soldier,” Talbot said. “We need a way to get into an area crawling with infected and get my research, and we need to do it without bullets, because I don’t think we have any left.”

  “So you want me for my brains?”

  “Yes.”

  “I hope you think fast,” Carter said, “because we’re here.”

  “We may have finally caught a break,” Vance said as Carter brought the chopper in close to the abandoned checkpoint. The area around the medical center where Talbot had to abandon his laptop and samples appeared clear of infected.

  “All that shooting we did probably drew them all to the hospital,” Ben said.

  “We won’t have to worry about gunfire drawing them back,” Ana said as she held up her empty AR-15.

  “There should be plenty of ammunition down there,” Vance said, pointing at an abandoned TMRT armored transport. “Those transports should be stocked, but it would better if we could get in and out without firing a shot.”

  Vance turned to Carter and asked, “How close can you get us to the medical center?”

  “Is that the one with the collapsed roof?” Carter asked.

  “Yes,” Talbot replied. “We had to leave quickly last time.”

  Carter pointed to an area about a city block away. “I can put us down there.”