Affliction Z Series Books 1-3

by L. T. Ryan

  The beach was gone. The churning water came up to the base of the dune. But the worst had passed. In time, the surge would retreat. What bones would it drag up with it?

  He scanned the shallows for a boat or anything he could use as one. For a moment, the thought popped into his head that he should give up hope of ever finding a vessel that could make the journey. And with no way to communicate with Tim Lindley and Turtle Cay, he had to accept that he and his family were stuck.

  If they had made it through the storm.

  That was one thing he couldn’t allow himself to compromise on. Any thought of his family perishing would ruin him. He’d lose his will to push forward.

  “Glad to see you’re up.”

  Turk spun and slid down the dune, arms ready to lash out at a possible assailant.

  Instead, he saw Rhea standing there, a look of shock on her face. She flinched back as she brought something up in defense.

  “Shit, sorry.” Turk eased back. “That an oar?”

  She let go with one hand and covered her heart. “Thought you were gonna kill me.”

  “I was.” He smiled. “We’re cool now. Where’d you find that?”

  “Over on the other side of the spit.” She extended the oar out and Turk took hold. “There’s a kayak to go with it.”

  She held the oar firm enough Turk used it for support to pull himself up.

  “Why don’t you lead the way?”

  A few minutes later, they were back at the dune, kayak in tow. They climbed to the top and stared out over the churning water.

  “Not gonna be easy,” Turk said.

  Rhea nodded.

  “Gotta get past the fort, which means we need to head out into the ocean.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And we gotta clear those jetties.”

  “Okay.”

  “You think you can handle this?”

  She slid down the opposite side of the dune and stepped into the water. “Let’s go.”

  Turk dragged the kayak over the sand mound and into the ocean. Rhea positioned herself on top, while he towed them into the breakers. Five minutes later, they were more than a hundred yards off shore. Not far enough, though. They could still see the beach. The men at the fort had a vessel with an engine. If they spotted Turk and Rhea, the pair was dead.

  So they paddled further and further, until the beach was out of sight.

  “You comfortable out here?” he asked.

  She looked back and nodded. Her paddle dipped into the water. Turk matched it with his own stroke. The waves rolled beneath them like gentle humps. There was little risk of tipping, but Turk still felt uncomfortable. He had no idea of the woman’s skill level, and doubted she’d tell him if she was scared.

  “It’s about a mile,” he said. “Then we can start toward shore.”

  Turk used the glowing orb behind the clouds to keep his heading fixed. There was bound to be drift. But it wasn’t like there would be trouble figuring out which way to go. So he eased up a bit once he was certain they had passed the jetties.

  As the minutes slipped by, the sun burned through the clouds. Sweat beaded on Turk’s forehead and coated his body. The thick humidity worked against him, depleting his body. He had no fluids to refill it with.

  “Something’s been bothering me,” he said.

  She turned back toward him. “What?”

  “Why didn’t you see them coming? The guys that took you. How’d you miss them coming to shore. Should’ve been plenty of time to run off behind the dunes.”

  “They weren’t a threat,” Rhea said. “We’d dealt with them a couple times. By no means did I think they were saints or anything, but they hadn’t given us trouble. Rob had bartered with them a few times. I thought they were going to drop something off with me, or pass along a message.”

  “So what happened?”

  “Bastard hit me in the stomach and they dragged me away.”

  “Happened fast, huh?”

  She shrugged. “Guess so. Don’t remember it clearly. Blocked it, I guess.”

  “So Rob had dealings with them then?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Of what kind of nature?”

  “They kept me out of that—by the way, I never got your name.”

  “You hit your head, too? I told you already. Turk.”

  “Your parents hate you?”

  “What? Get out of here.”

  “So what’s Turk stand for?”

  “Charles Turksen. Folks called me Chuck. SEAL instructors called me Turk. It stuck.”

  “That explains it,” she said.

  “What?” he said.

  “You’re a SEAL. That’s how you pulled all this off.”

  He glanced around. Ocean spanned in all directions. “We ain’t out of this yet. As far as I know, those guys still have a damn boat with a motor and they might be out looking for us.”

  “They’ll go after Rob and Rose.”

  He considered this. Given the new information, Rob had a history with the people at the fort. They had to have known Rhea was his sister. Once it was discovered she was missing, the beach cottage was the first place they’d look. So why send him? Did they think with his background, Turk could neutralize the threat?

  “Can I stay with you, Turk?”

  “What? Me? I can’t even get my own family to safety.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m afraid I’m not going to have a family to go back to.”

  “Don’t think like that.”

  “You think I’m wrong?” She looked back. Her eyes glossed over.

  After a few seconds, Turk said, “No.” He paused again, then added, “But I can go find out.”

  “No. If you come back and hesitate even for a second, I’ll know. And I don’t want to know. I don’t want to see them like that. Do you understand? And if we get close enough, I won’t have a choice. We go to shore, I’ll have to go find out. Does that make sense?”

  Turk recalled walking down the tunnel that led to his bunker after it had been burned out. Seeing the shapes of his wife and daughter slumped together at the end. Dread filled him as he knew they had perished.

  But they hadn’t. What if Rhea’s family were still alive? Didn’t they deserve to know she was too?

  He stared at her. Saw the pain on her face. The pleading in her eyes. In those few seconds he weighed the pros and cons of returning to the beach house. Even worse than finding her family dead, he feared that the men from the fort would be there. He could walk right into a trap.

  “Okay, look,” Turk said. “I’ll bring you to stay with my family. We’ll take it from there. Maybe in a day or two I’ll return to the house on my own.”

  Rhea said nothing. She turned and continued paddling.

  Turk cursed under his breath. What had he committed too? He’d already taken on an extra person with Sarah joining his family. Now he had Rhea to look after as well. He gazed toward shore, now a thin film of grey. They were probably lined up with the house. He could turn the kayak, swim to the beach and investigate. Staring at the back of Rhea’s head, he decided to wait. Every second that passed cemented the fact that Rob and Rose were dead.

  Turk had left the enemy alive.

  They had to pay for his stupidity.

  Thirty

  Addison had awoken before sunrise. The rain continued to fall. Thunder shook the floorboard, sending endless layers of dirt and dust upon her and the others. But the winds had died down. The worst of the storm had passed.

  She woke Jenny, and together they opened the crawl access and verified that no afflicted were in sight. Jenny covered Addison while she raced for the woods and found the ATV. Summoning all her strength, she pushed it into the back yard, avoiding starting it and alerting anyone to their position before they were ready to leave.

  They woke Emma and Paige and helped them out from under the house.

  Addison had decided she would be the one to look inside. The guilt of leaving Barbara behind if she was alive would hav
e weighed heavily on her.

  There hadn’t been much left of the woman. The afflicted had torn her limbs off and stripped the flesh and meat from her bones. Addison had turned and vomited, a wretched event considering she had nothing to throw up.

  Worse than the dead woman was that Marley was nowhere to be found. She thought back and could recall hearing the dog when the men had taken Sean away. Hopefully he’d taken off before the afflicted arrived.

  Following the GPS, Addison navigated for two hours, keeping the rising sun to her left. After passing through light bands of rain, it had finally stopped.

  The world had seemed cleansed by the storm. Shimmering and wet. Baptized.

  Maybe it had rid the area of some of those afflicted. Or did that qualify as wishful thinking?

  If not the afflicted, she knew not all survivors had made it. Hell, people died in hurricanes when they had advanced warning and could take suitable shelter. What of all those who were staying alive, traveling on foot, living in tents or sleeping under the stars?

  Addison felt the temptation to let down her guard. They’d made it through the darkest hours, through the storm, and survived a horde of afflicted.

  She had to resist that feeling, though. According to the GPS, they had another four or five hours travel to reach Turk’s.

  There remained one last obstacle. I-40 loomed ahead. She had chosen a route that placed the crossing point fifteen miles due west of Jacksonville, North Carolina. To do it any further from the coast would have meant traveling in too far of an arc. There wasn’t enough gas for that kind of deviation.

  They crossed a wide-open field. Tall grasses glistened in the veiled morning sun. The clouds looked like silver. Peaceful, not menacing. On the other side, trees lined the interstate. Seemed to be a deliberate distraction, shielding travelers from anything interesting at all to look at.

  Addison’s plan had some risk to it. With Sean, they had been forced to use the on and off ramps to navigate across the I-95 and I-40 merger. Addison figured those preying on the weak would use the ramp locations to catch people who relied on a vehicle for transport.

  So Addison determined that the best plan of attack was to pick the middle point between two exits with the greatest amount of distance between them. If her theory were correct, then they would be at the most deserted spot of the highway. She had found a spot that stretched four miles in either direction with no asphalt egress.

  The one thing she couldn’t determine was what, if anything, separated the traffic lanes.

  She stopped the ATV and cut the engine. The vibrations continued through her legs and back. She grabbed her M40 and stepped down to the ground. The smell of wet earth reminded her of her grandparent’s farm.

  “Jenny, take my seat while I go look ahead. Anyone comes at you, don’t hesitate to go.”

  The other woman nodded and slid over. Her hand rested on the ignition.

  Emma opened her eyes and squinted at Addison. “What’s going on?”

  “I’ll be right back. You keep watch over Paige.”

  She jogged across the field, hunched over to avoid standing out and attracting attention. The woods consisted of ten or so lines of trees from where she stood to the interstate. She worked her way through, stepping higher than normal to avoid roots and vines. Her gaze remained fixed ahead, scanning for potential threats.

  A squirrel chattered as Addison drew near. She heard it scamper up a tree. Leaves shook as it launched from the branch of one tree to another. Though it had rattled her at first, she welcomed the sight of another animal.

  Hope filled her when she had a full view of the highway. It was empty as far as she could see in either direction. The perfect crossing point.

  Except for the heavy gauge steel guard wire that also spanned as far as she could see.

  With fuel as tight as it was, they couldn’t afford to backtrack to the north. Traveling south brought them closer to Wilmington. She wasn’t familiar with the town, but any center of civilization gave her reason for concern.

  She considered her options. As disheartening as the guard rail appeared, it could have been a concrete jersey wall. Of the two, steel wire was preferred. They might be able to get the ATV past the barrier. Plus, didn’t they build in breaks for emergency vehicles? Something so innocent, she hadn’t paid attention to over the years, yet they always existed.

  She backtracked through the trees, laying out the perfect path to fit the ATV through. Planned planting. Much better than the random pattern found in nature, where the woods were overgrown with brush that made navigating impossible. How Sean had managed when they weren’t on asphalt or old logging roads was beyond her. The guy had a second sense when it came to navigating through the mess. She figured he was a hell of a partner on a ten-thousand-piece puzzle.

  Jenny’s face changed the moment Addison stepped out from the trees. The woman took a deep breath and slid back to her seat. Addison jogged to the ATV, exposing herself. What did it matter? If someone was out there, they surely saw the ATV by now.

  Addison stepped up into the vehicle. As she spun to sit, she caught sight of a figure in the distance. She froze in place, one leg in, one out, hand on the wheel.

  “What?” Jenny said.

  “Nothing,” Addison said.

  “There’s something out there,” Jenny said.

  “What’s out there?” Emma asked.

  “Nothing,” Addison said again, turning the key in the ignition and struggling to remember the path she had laid out to get from the field to the road.

  She glanced back again and saw the figure moving. Slowly stalking through the grass, hunched over so only its back was visible.

  “Be ready,” she whispered to Jenny.

  The woman clutched her M40 in both hands, across her chest, muzzle aimed out the side.

  Addison pulled forward. The grass parted in her wake, leaving a trail behind them. She scanned the trees frantically in search of her entry point.

  Get it right, or we’re fucked.

  Ten feet out, she picked a spot and made a line for it. The sides of the ATV passed through the first couple trees with less than an inch to spare. The next pass required a hard right turn, followed by a left. The rear right fender and tire scraped against bark.

  Had she underestimated the size of the ATV?

  She continued to weave through the trees. It’s only a few feet, she told herself.

  “I see him,” Jenny said.

  Addison fought to keep from slamming on the brake. “Where?”

  “He’s about ten feet from the woods. Stopped there.”

  “Human?”

  “Of some kind.”

  “Armed?”

  “Don’t think so. Can’t see his hands. He’s kind of crouched.”

  “Like an animal about to lunge forward?”

  “I guess.”

  Addison stole a glance over her shoulder. She spotted the figure through the tangle of trees.

  “Shoot—”

  A loud slamming came from the front of the vehicle. The left side of Addison’s chest collided with the steering wheel, knocking the breath out of her. Her head whipped forward, mostly missing the wheel.

  They’d collided with a tree.

  Jenny said, “He’s coming.”

  Addison tried to speak but the result was a grating sigh.

  Jenny steadied her left arm on the seat back, extending the rifle over Paige’s head. The little girl was on her back, possibly thrown around when the collision occurred. She stared at the weapon with wide, wet eyes.

  The shot echoed through the woods and off the pavement. Addison’s gaze darted wildly in search of the body.

  “Get him?” she asked

  “I think,” Jenny said.

  Addison turned in her seat. Her left side burned. Every breath felt like sinking a knife deeper into her chest.

  “Are you okay?” Jenny asked.

  “I don’t know, but I can get us out of here.”

  She ba
cked the ATV up. Damage to the tree was minimal. Didn’t appear the vehicle suffered any either. She cut the wheel and continued.

  “He’s up,” Jenny said seconds before she fired again. After the echo faded, Jenny looked over. “Dead.”

  The relief Addison felt faded as fast as it arrived. They’d survived an attack, but in the process of doing so, alerted every afflicted in the area that they were there.

  “Was it one of them?” Addison asked.

  Jenny stared over the back of the ATV. “I don’t know. Maybe not.”

  “Hey, either way, he deserved it. Should’ve never got that close to us. We gotta defend ourselves out here. Dammit, we have a right to.”

  Jenny turned around in her seat. Her gaze drifted out, focused on nothing at all.

  Emerging from the narrow strip of woods, Addison had a decision to make. Simple in terms of choices, yet it might determine whether they live or die.

  “Right or left,” she said.

  “That a question?” Jenny said.

  Addison looked at her. She tried to smile.

  Jenny leaned forward, the rifle across her chest again. She turned her head left, then right, then settled with her gaze fixed straight ahead. “How much you suppose this thing weighs?”

  “More than you and I are capable of lifting. I already thought that. Even if we could get it up, we’d end up getting it stuck.”

  Jenny nodded as she considered this. “Guess you’re right. In that case, left is south, and that’s the direction we’re headed, so that’s where we should go.”

  Simple reasoning worked best sometimes.

  It felt wrong as Addison drove across the shoulder and turned left. A month ago she would have been driving in the wrong direction, most likely resulting in a head-on collision with another vehicle. Now the interstate was a modern day desert. Barren. Inhospitable. A place to avoid altogether.

  While driving, Addison heard shrieks from the woods.

  So much for a cleansing.

  The afflicted had survived the storm. Some, at least. Impossible to tell how many were left. Hell, she had no idea how many there had been. She assumed most people had died. Nature and the afflicted would take care of the rest. She tried to avoid letting her mind wander like this. The next question that would present itself would be how much longer she had until one or the other caught up with her.