The Walking Plague Trilogy

by J. R. Rain

  “You’re gonna have a scar, and I’m sorry about that,” Jack said.

  “Hell, it will be something to tell the grandkids.” Mike spoke lightly, but wondered grimly whether he would live long enough to have grandchildren.

  They all slept in the Los Feliz house that night. Jared on the floor of Anna’s room—he gave his word to Jack, no funny business—Carla and Jack slept together. They were so tired they fell asleep instantly. Joe and Mike crashed in their respective guest rooms. But before they did, they hashed out a plan to stop the Agent in Black and Stetson.

  If the household in Los Feliz had known what was happening outside of their tight-knit world, they might not have slept so soundly. They had no idea that the homeless people Mike had infected had extremely low immune systems. It wasn’t their fault. But this sad fact would speed up their process of transformation, tenfold. No one would figure that out until much, much later.

  So they slept soundly, for the last time in a long time. And it was a good thing, too. Because if they hadn’t slept, they might not have had the strength to deal with what was coming...

  Chapter Twenty-one

  During the whole Jack ordeal, and even before that, Dr. David Stetson had plans of his own.

  He’d come to think of himself as the Master Planner, in fact. He’d devised the idea to bring Cole, the head Agent in Black, back to the base. He’d decided to use Joe Carter to discover what was really going on in the world—a world that hadn’t allowed the media to publicize exactly what was, indeed, going on. They were good plans.

  Stetson and Joe had decided earlier to search out any wandering souls together, to watch each others’ backs as they fed—and thus fulfill their insatiable appetites. Feeding, Dr. Stetson assumed, would also aid their thinking, and thus their planning.

  Yes, feeding.

  Feeding.

  Flesh.

  The Agent in Black was still in what Stetson called the mindless state, but he would soon come out of it. Stetson needed the Agent on his side for his plans.

  But the best-laid plans, Stetson knew, often went awry. He’d had a bad feeling about Mike wanting to join them, but Joe would hear none of it. Army buddies were for life and all of that.

  Well, Stetson hadn’t trusted Mike from the get-go.

  Something was up. Stetson just hadn’t been able to put his finger on it.

  Not yet, anyway.

  So far, Stetson had controlled his urge to feed, but he couldn’t hold out for much longer. And his thoughts were becoming a little fuzzy. What was he going to do with Agent Cole again? It took him a moment to remember. Yes, back to the base.

  So hungry.

  Starving.

  What was he waiting for? For Joe Carter to return. But why? Why should he, Stetson, wait when he was so goddamn hungry...and where the hell was Carter anyway?

  He snarled. He tried to stop himself. But his mouth had started to open and close, open and close, as if he were chewing on something. What was he waiting for? He slammed down his fist on the coffee table, breaking a leg, and causing it to lean down.

  Maybe if I eat, I’ll be able to think better, Stetson reasoned. Yes. I have to eat.

  His jaws opened and snapped shut.

  What was he waiting for?

  He couldn’t remember.

  The last semi-coherent thought he had was to eat from a handful of people. Just a bite here and there. That way, the disease would spread faster and he could make new friends.

  Stetson had no way of knowing that he didn’t have that much time left for sanity. So, he went out the sliding glass door and into the night to find food.

  Living food.

  * * *

  The next morning, Agent Cole felt much better.

  He could think clearly. He was now strong enough to wrestle his way out of his bonds. He was hungry, but he wanted to wait for Stetson to return before he made any move.

  Cole had no way of knowing that Joe and Mike were coming for him with a plan to cure him. Joe and Mike had decided to be ready for anything, and packed heat accordingly. So, Cole was seated on the couch, flipping through the TV channels when they let themselves in, guns drawn.

  Among other things, Cole was a trained killer, but Lieutenants Carter and Mendoza were aware of this. They had the element of surprise on their side. They moved quickly and aimed at Cole’s head.

  “On your knees,” Mendoza ordered.

  Cole complied. “Do you mind telling me what the hell you’re doing?”

  As before, Joe and Mike had agreed to speak as little as possible.

  “Yeah,” Joe answered. “We do mind. Where’s Stetson?”

  “I don’t know,” Cole answered truthfully enough. “I was better this morning, but he wasn’t here. I had to free myself. I’ve been waiting for him, or for you, to come back.”

  “Lie down now,” Mike told him.

  “Look,” Cole said as he did as he was told. He could fight, but so could these two. And both had guns trained on him. “What are you doing? We had a plan.”

  Joe kept his gun on Cole as Mike scouted out the small cottage. He soon returned. “Stetson’s gone.”

  “I told you he was gone,” Cole snapped.

  Mike looked at Joe, silently questioning. Joe shrugged and nodded. Cole was starting to get a bad feeling about this. He barely had time to register that neither man had any red in their eyes whatsoever when Joe Carter ordered him to put his head down.

  Immediately, Cole felt Carter’s heavy boot on his neck. At the same time, Mendoza yanked one of Cole’s hands into a hand-cuff, then the other. As soon as he was cuffed from behind, a blindfold was tied around his eyes.

  Cole knew he was in trouble now. He didn’t know what would happen next. His fear showed. Now, he knew how it felt to be on the other side, all the people he’d interrogated through his many years as head of the CREW. Even his new strength couldn’t get him out of those cuffs—and now, he couldn’t see, either.

  “Get up, slowly,” Mendoza ordered.

  Cole felt the cold barrel of a gun at the back of his head. He rose carefully. “What...look, when we get back to the base, I’ll promote the both of you. We can work together...just let me go...”

  “Shut up.” That was Joe Carter, from behind.

  Mendoza pushed him from the other side. “Move.”

  They shoved him through the hallway and into the bathroom. Cole had no idea what was coming, so it was fairly easy for former Lieutenant Commanders Joe Carter and Mike Mendoza to shove his face into the toilet and start flushing.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  I had to work early—the morning shift—while Joe and Mike drove down to Seal Beach. Carla had a later shift, so I left her sleeping and wrote a note to have Anna call me. I didn’t like leaving like this, but I absolutely had to get to work. I didn’t want to attract attention with my prolonged absence, and I needed contact with others. Information.

  When I got to the zoo, Brice was waiting for me. “Jack! Where on Earth have you been?”

  “I’m so sorry, Brice,” I said. “We had a real family emergency. I’m sorry I didn’t call.” It was the truth.

  We strolled up the northern road where the zebras, elephants and other African animals made their homes. “It’s all right, I guess,” Brice said, “You never take time off. But I was worried about you. I called, you didn’t answer. Want to talk about it?”

  “I’d rather talk about anything else,” I answered. Understatement of the year. “Maybe some other time.”

  “You got it.”

  “So, anything interesting happen while I was out?” I asked.

  “You really have been out of touch.” Brice frowned at me. “Haven’t you been watching the news at all?”

  “I really haven’t had time,” I answered. “Why, what’s up?”

  Brice’s voice took on a serious tone that I seldom heard. “Slaughters,” he said. “As of this morning, twelve.”

  “What do you mean, slaughters?”

>   “I mean someone, or maybe a group, has broken into the zoo the last couple of days and slaughtered our animals.”

  I stopped in my tracks. Jesus and Mother Mary. Brice kept his pace so I hurried after him. “What? How?”

  “Whoever they were, they were sneaky. Most of them. Police caught one, and he was described as completely deranged. Unable to speak, extremely violent. They shot him—had to—several times, I hear.”

  I had to hold onto a hand rail. It’s spreading. They’re feeding on animals and then they’ll get humans. Mike. He’d admitted to biting someone up in Griffith Park. Suddenly, I remembered a TV commercial that said, “And they’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends...” I suddenly understood the magnitude of how this disease could spread.

  “I didn’t mean to spring it on you like that, bud,” Brice was saying. “I know how you love the animals. We all do. Everyone is just sick about it.”

  “What...which ones?” I asked, still holding on to the rail. Anna. She would be heartbroken.

  “Well, at first, the farm animals, it seemed. The petting zoo was hit the hardest, a few nights ago. Goats, lambs, a couple of llamas. But then last night, things escalated past the barnyard animals. A zebra was—ripped apart. And then a couple of koalas. All of them had their brains torn out...gone. Don’t know how the bastards got in. News says there’s some sort of infection spreading, and everybody should stay in at night and lock their doors. Call the police if they see anything suspicious at all. Because...”

  I was already wondering what Carla would learn when she got to work. “Because what?”

  “Because, a few people have been attacked, too.”

  * * *

  I was still trying to process all of what Brice had told me. I was just about finished with my rounds at the zoo. I’d seen some tracks the police hadn’t found, and called them in to Brice. Then Carla called me.

  “Hey,” I said from my truck, exhausted. I was gulping down my second cup of coffee, preparing for my rounds at the observatory.

  “Jack!” Carla’s voice was urgent.

  “If you’re calling to tell me about the animal attacks, I already know.”

  “Okay, what do you know?” she asked. I could tell she was in a hurry.

  I explained everything Brice had told me.

  “So, you know what the media has officially let out,” she said. “Jack, there’s more. Much more.”

  I sighed. Of course there was much more. “Tell me,” I said simply.

  “Jack...besides the zoo animals, there have been at least two dozen murders. All of the victims had their skulls bashed in and their brains consumed. Or missing.”

  “Jesus.”

  “And two of our officers were outnumbered and attacked. Bitten. They said they fired several times, but the perpetrators didn’t stop until they were shot in the head.”

  I rubbed my temples with one hand, and felt for my gun with the other. I locked the truck’s cab doors. It got worse.

  “They’ve been treated at the local hospital and released.”

  I paused. “Carla, you know what this means.”

  “I know. But I can’t say anything, Jack. I can’t say anything that would compromise you and your brother. Anna. Even Jared.”

  “Honey?” I didn’t realize I’d used the term until it was already out in the open. “How can you not say anything at this point? Your force has to know what’s going on. And how can it be that they don’t have information on the meteors and the infected?”

  “I’m not sure. Perhaps the Chief knows and he’s keeping it under wraps to avoid mass panic. It’s L.A. Can you imagine the pandemonium if this became public?”

  That made sense. A couple of dozen reported crimes could mean that many more had gone unreported. As of yet. How was this spreading so quickly? This infection could blow up in a matter of days. Hell, it was mushrooming right now.

  I thought for a moment. “How about if I put in an anonymous tip?”

  “Good idea,” Carla sounded relieved. “But from a pay phone. And you have to keep the call to under a minute. Can you go somewhere like Sunset Boulevard? That’s a hard area to trace.”

  I thought of my daughter. And her boyfriend. Alone at my house. I didn’t like it, for more reasons than one. “I’ll get Anna and Jared first.”

  “I don’t think your home is safe yet,” Carla said, referring to the fact that I had been questioned by the goon squad here at the park, that maybe someone was following me.

  She was right, of course. Griffith Park Observatory might not be the most popular attraction L.A., but there were plenty of cars in the parking lot now. Any one of them could be the agents.

  So, how to get to Anna and Jared without being seen, without leading the bastards to a home they knew nothing about, a home that was in my ex-wife’s family’s name? I had an idea.

  “Carla, can you do me a favor?”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “Oh, those poor animals!” Anna cried into the phone. She and Jared had strict orders to stay at home; they had been studying when I called. Or so they said.

  “I know, angel, I know.” I tried to calm her. “I want you to come here. I don’t want you two alone.” I knew Carla had gone to work around one in the afternoon, and I’d wanted the two kids to get as much sleep as possible. It was now late afternoon and it looked like I would have to work a double.

  “You want us to come there?” Anna was shocked.

  “Not really,” I answered, “but I’d rather have you close to me.” I looked at my watch. It was getting late. Dark. And the fog was rolling in. “Carla’s on her break right now. She can’t come to the house, because, you know...” I didn’t need to explain the obvious. We were both worried that we hadn’t heard from her Uncle Joe all day. One thing at a time, I told myself. To Anna, I said, “She’s going to meet you and Jared at the Greek. She will take you up to the observatory, that’s safer than the zoo. I’ll meet you there. I have to do something.”

  “Do what?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll meet you on the Hill.”

  “Okay, but...”

  “No buts, Anna. You do exactly as I say, okay?”

  “Ookkaayyy,” she was irritated. Probably scared.

  I hesitated. “Put Jared on the line,” I said.

  She called him, and a moment later a squeaky, hesitant voice came on the line. “You wanted to talk to me?”

  “Jared. I don’t want to scare you or Anna any more than I have to.”

  “All right,” he said bravely.

  “But there’s real trouble. We don’t have time to mess around here. You and Anna need to leave now.”

  “Of course.”

  “And, do you know how to use a gun, son?”

  “Uh, yeah, I do.”

  “All right,” I said. “I want you two to take the streets. Not the trails. To the Greek Theatre. You understand? No trails. Stay where people can see you.”

  “Okay.”

  “If, for any reason you come across someone like...like I was, or feel in danger, you have to use the gun, okay?”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  I could hear Anna asking in the background what was going on.

  “Keep this between us, Jared. You understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just shoot and run. You have the gun?”

  “Not with me.”

  “Anna has it?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Get it from her. It makes me nervous her having the gun.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And Jared?”

  “Yes?”

  “When you shoot, aim for the head.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Jared ended the call in a haze.

  Had he heard right? Aim for the head. By now, after everything they had been through, he trusted Jack almost like a father. Hell, more than his own father. But Jared wished like crazy that he’d just wake up from this horrible nightmare.

&n
bsp; Of course, Anna was impatient. “What did he say? Jared, you have to tell me!”

  Jared looked at the phone a little stupidly, and handed it back to her. “He told me to protect you at all costs,” he told her, which was a version of the truth. And he would, too. “Look, we have to go. Now. Carla is waiting, and it’s getting dark.”

  Anna glanced out the window. “It’s fogging up,” she said.

  “I’ll be with you.” Jared took her hand. He kissed her gently. She returned his kiss with passion. She made him dizzy when she kissed him like that and he wanted to...No. He had to keep his head clear. Jared couldn’t help but press a few more kisses on her soft lips, then stopped. This was wonderful, but it wouldn’t protect her. Or him.

  “Give me the gun,” he said, pulling back.

  “Why?”

  “Because your father wants me to have it.”

  “But why? Jared, I’m the better aim. We both know that. Why?”

  Jared sighed. “Anna, sometimes you just have to do what you’re supposed to do. And not ask questions. I didn’t ask your father why and I don’t know. But I trust him. Don’t you?”

  Anna nodded, her eyes round with worry.

  “So, if your dad wants me to have the gun, I’m taking it. And we’re going to meet Carla at the Greek. Now. Before it gets dark. Don’t argue with me, babe.” He liked calling her babe. It made him feel like they were in a real relationship. A grown-up relationship. Jared added, “I’m following your dad’s orders and you want your dad to be happy with me, right?”

  The passionate moment had passed. She pulled the gun out of the back waistband of her jeans and handed it to him.

  “Does he have any extra bullets?” Jared asked her. She was about to ask why, he could tell. “Just to be on the safe side. We don’t know when we’ll be back.”

  “All right,” Anna couldn’t stop thinking about the animal killings. Those poor, beautiful animals that depended on the zoo staff to take care of them. She fought down her anxiety. She wanted to be good. She knew her father wanted her safe. And Jared, too.