When he left his personal armory he only had one thing in mind. Find his daughter, and get to the bottom of G.O.D.’s intentions.
Chapter 16
Great Smoky Mountains
July 2027
The Dead Zone Alpha Squad Base Camp
The sun began to set and both remaining squads parked on a deserted dirt road that led up the Smoky Mountains. A few soldiers were putting up Government of Defense security measures for outdoor use, which even Joshua had to admit wasn’t much at all. Their supplies were limited even more after losing the Beta Squad on the way through the red clay desert space of the Dead Zone.
Joshua and Mark built a fire as the sun went down, setting up makeshift pallets for them to sleep on. The ground was hard, but Joshua knew that wouldn’t bother him much. Not after living in the Dead Zone for a year or two without even a sleeping bag. Now they stood in front of their vehicle, leaning with their elbows on the hood and maps spread out in front of them. They knew the whereabouts of the bunker within the mountain, but not how to get there without scanning over the multitude of maps that outlined old roads, even though most of them were too broken to navigate anymore. Joshua scrubbed his oily, stubble-covered jaw with his palm and sighed. Their camp was their post, the other two of their squad having gone out with the others to scan their surroundings.
“I have no idea how we’re gonna to cover such a large area with our limited supplies,” he admitted.
What they had been given to begin with was limited enough, but after losing the Beta Squad and then the Zeta Squad splitting off as planned, they were down to barely even the necessities. All of them knew that, if they didn’t find the Head Hunter within a few days, they would be finished. Done. Lost.
“We need more people. Maybe we should go back,” Mark suggested as he looked at his friend, barely scanning the map anymore because it was nearly useless to him. He wasn’t a soldier. Well, he was barely a soldier, having only worked on the wall mounts of Station Four for a limited time.
“Are ya kidding me? You saw the herd out there. We barely made it past them. It would be suicide to go back now,” Joshua chided.
“This whole mission is suicide, but we’re out here anyways, aren’t we?” Mark replied sarcastically.
Both men heard a buzz in their earpieces, signaling that they were about to receive a transmission from the other two members of the Alpha Squad. Joshua placed his index finger against his earpiece so he could hear better and listened intently.
“Alpha scout to base,” came the scratchy voice.
“Base to Alpha scout, go ahead,” Joshua replied.
“Vehicles approaching our sector. Looks like Zeta Squad cleared their sector.”
Mark looked over to Joshua with a wide grin on his face. “Thank God,” he praised as he clapped Joshua on the shoulder.
“All right, Alpha scout. Lead them back to base,” Joshua replied to the other two of their team. To Mark, he stated, “Let’s see what they’ve got first before we get too excited, huh?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Mark said back to him as he began to walk to the edge of their camp, waving Joshua’s question away with a dismissive movement. “Stop being such a worry wart. You’ll get premature wrinkles.”
Joshua followed his friend with his hand on the butt of his sidearm at his hip. “Yeah, because that’s totally what I’m worried about.”
They both came to the edge of the camp and watched for the other two soldiers from the Alpha Squad, the setting sun throwing gorgeous oranges and pinks and crimsons into the sky. They were still shrouded by trees since the encroaching forest had overtaken most of the back road they had traveled on, the G.O.D. issued vehicles navigating the rough terrain without issue. Joshua didn’t even think the other soldiers saw them yet, their camouflage blending them into the surroundings nearly perfectly. A Humvee that looked exactly like the one they had driven up the mountain, assuming it was the Zeta Squad, bounced up the road as it moved over small fallen saplings and crushed existing plant life.
“Yup, definitely looks like Zeta Squad to me,” Joshua said as he squinted through the coming dark at the approaching squad.
The others still hadn’t noticed them. That was when the Humvee stopped, and the Alpha scouts approached it slowly. Words were exchanged, but Joshua and Mark couldn’t make them out. Mark reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Joshua’s shirt, stopping him and pulling him back slightly.
“Something’s off,” Mark whispered with a hiss.
“Oh come on, man. It’s gotta be Zeta Squad. No one else knows where we are.”
Mark raised his hand as if pleading his friend to wait. “Let’s give it a minute. Something is definitely off. You see? Why haven’t they gotten out yet?”
As they watched silently, hidden seamlessly amongst the foliage, the dynamic between the scouts and Zeta Squad changed drastically. It wasn’t that the way they interacted had changed. There was a change in the air as power shifted and the engine of the Humvee roared.
“Zeta Squad, your status?” they heard the younger of their two companions say, knocking on the driver’s side window of the vehicle. “Your status, please,” he said again, glancing at the older gentleman that stood five feet in front of the Humvee.
An ATV pulled up behind them. Its rider slid off it and onto the ground, walking slowly toward the two men who had barely noticed him at all. His gait was stiff, his back straight as if something held it that way. A mask covered his face except for his eyes, nose, and mouth, and that was enough for them to realize that he wasn’t human at all.
“Who is that?” Mark muttered almost to the point where Joshua couldn’t hear him.
“Oh, God, it’s a—” Joshua began before pandemonium broke out.
The engine of the Humvee roared, the driver slamming his foot on the accelerator and running over the older soldier who had accompanied them into the Dead Zone. There was an audible crack of bone and a deep, male scream as the heavy metal box rolled over him, coming to a stop only after both sets of tires had rolled over his body. The younger man jerked backward, his eyes wide with terror as he quickly drew his sidearm from the holster on his hip. The soldier who had pulled up on the ATV removed his pistol and aimed, shooting the young man in the back.
Joshua and Mark shrunk into the darkness, taking cover behind the large trunk of a pine tree and watching as best they could. Fascination took hold over the both of them as fear and confusion flooded their systems, both wide-eyed and ready to run at a moment’s notice if spotted. The doors to the Humvee opened and three occupants slipped out, two males and one female. Their skin had a jaundiced look to it, and Joshua recognized them instantly but remained quiet to keep from being heard as they observed. It was no secret that the soldier they had run over was deceased, but the man they had shot in the back was still alive, his moans and cries drifting up to them and closing the distance effortlessly. The female moved to the back of the vehicle and removed what Joshua thought was a metal cylinder canister dotted with squares of yellow glass. A tube came out of the top, and she wrapped it in her palm to keep it from dragging along the forest floor.
“We need to help him,” Mark hissed, placing a hand on Joshua’s shoulder. He began to rise, but Joshua grabbed his arm and pulled him back before he could round the tree’s massive trunk.
“I think it’s a little too late for that,” Joshua replied as quietly as he could. “We’ve got Stage One Barbarians on our hands.”
He pointed toward the female and the canister in her hand. He had no idea what it was, but when she set it on the ground beside the soldier whose name he hadn’t caught who was still alive, trying to crawl away, there was a flash of silver at the end of the tube.
“Please, no!” the soldier cried out to her as the other three stood watch.
She laughed and kneeled next to him, glancing up at one of the males with her bright yellow eyes. “You should’ve just killed him too, Macomson. That way I don’t have to hear him beg. It’s annoying.”<
br />
One of the males smirked and replied, “Sorry, ma’am.”
The female went back to work, flipping the soldier onto his back as he sobbed and pleaded for his life. She raised the massive needle above her head and struck down, the needle thick and long enough to break past the breastplate and pierce his heart beneath it. The man went silent, even the birds and crickets had stopped singing their song once his life ended, like they knew. The sudden silence sent a chill up Joshua’s spine. The female Barbarian reached back toward the cylinder and pressed something on the top of it, a button that they couldn’t see from their vantage point. The soft sound of a vacuum filled the silence then, as blood began to move through the tube and into the cylinder. As he watched, Joshua assumed that the yellowed glass boxes were in place to see how much of the life force was within the cylinder without having to expose it to the air or the sunlight. It was all just conjecture, though, but he was willing to bet that the yellowed glass saved the blood from the horrible effects of ultraviolet rays.
“Bring me another canister,” the female ordered, standing to walk toward the other man’s crushed body.
She knelt beside him, and one of the three males approached her with another metal cylinder with a tube and needle attached. Repeating the same process, she drained both bodies of their blood, or whatever was left in them. This was a process no one had ever seen before that very moment. The scientists with the Government of Defense had always wondered how they harvested blood from the humans to help in the process of infection, a three-fold transformation every Barbarian went through to turn into the large winged creatures that haunted the skies. And Joshua hadn’t truly seen one until then. Well, not this close and not when they were still within Stage One of their affliction. So he was in awe, and even that was putting it lightly.
One of the males sniffed the air, the one that had shot the younger soldier in the back, and said, “We’ve got more bait out here.”
Joshua’s heart skipped a beat in his chest, and his breath caught in his throat as if he were choking. He swallowed down the sensation and dared not move.
“What makes you think that?” one of the others with slightly darker skin and a bald head questioned as he adjusted his standing position.
The female ignored the conversation as she focused on the task of draining both bodies.
“When they left Station Four I counted four humans per squad. We already got the other two squads out of the three they sent. And we have two of the last here. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out we’ve got two more out there somewhere,” the one that had rode in on the ATV explained with a sarcastic tone.
Removing the massive needles from the chests of each body, the female picked up the canisters and handed them to the male nearest to her.
“He’s right,” she agreed as the male took the canisters to the Humvee, placing them inside. “You two go out and check the perimeter. Their camp has to be close.”
“Crap,” Mark hissed.
The both of them turned and began to run as they heard the female give out orders on who was going to chase them down, stating that she and the other male would take the cylinders back to their headquarters. They took off as fast as their legs could carry them, knowing that the Barbarians were much larger and most likely a lot faster than they were, even if they were only in the first stage of their transformation.
Joshua’s legs pumped furiously, his thighs carrying him as quickly as they could despite being weighed down by the specialized Kevlar and weaponry. And now, they weren’t just running for Jenny and Misty. They were running for their lives.
***
Abandoned Memphis State Penitentiary
July 2027
Interior Control Station
Jenkins walked into the small control room of the abandoned Memphis prison that had been held by the Revenants since Jenkins had been turned all those years prior. He had turned it into a stronghold, making it a haven for those to follow as well as a control station for missions and a prison for their enemies. He typically used the larger cells in solitary for other Revs who caused problems in their ranks, but he decided the human, the Head Hunter’s daughter, would be placed in one as well. Humans, he felt, deserved to be as confined as possible, but not her. While he wanted her to suffer, he had plans to turn her if the Government of Defense did not follow through with his demands. And he would leave her in that room. She would need the space during the transition.
He walked with authority toward the small desk at the front of the room located in the old warden’s office, each pair of eyes in the room watching him carefully, choosing not to meet his or suffer the consequences.
“Any word on the Head Hunter yet?” he shouted over the commotion in the room.
A newly transitioned Rev’s eyes shot up to him and then back down at his computer. While he was young, he was valuable, having had Area 51 military experience far beyond his years on the Earth. He cleared his throat as the light from the screen reflected off his gray eyes.
“Nothing yet, sir,” the young Revenant replied. His eyes moved back to the computer screen in front of him, blue text reflecting off his eyes as Jenkins studied him.
“Well, it’s only been twenty-four hours roughly. And we can’t go out long enough before having to come back to find him ourselves.” Jenkins paused, placing his hands on the surface of the young male’s desk. “How are the sick?”
“They seemed to be improving slightly with the blood from the humans we took from the other Stations, but they revert rather quickly. This virus isn’t like anything we’ve seen before, and our scientists are stumped. Not even a vaccine would be helpful because the virus just revives itself.”
“So it’s safe to say that the virus came down with the meteorites?” Jenkins probed.
“It’s likely, but . . .” the male trailed off.
“But?” Jenkins pushed. He did not like having a ‘but’ at the end of any sentence that could mean saving their kind from the ravages of disease.
The young Rev cleared his throat and looked up at Jenkins again, his face solemn and lips set in a straight line. As Jenkins watched, he saw his jaw clench and unclench, over and over again as if angered by something. His hand sitting on the surface of the desk did the same thing.
“Spit it out, soldier. Or face the sun. We don’t have time for your silence,” Jenkins shouted as he slammed his closed fist down on the desk’s wooden surface.
“I’m s—sorry, sir,” the youth stammered. “Our team believes that, if this wasn’t brought to Earth by the meteorites like the Sycs were, then it is an invention of the Government of Defense. That the humans created it to take us out.”
“And there aren’t any other possibilities?”
The male didn’t say a word, only shook his head without looking away from Jenkins’s cold stare.
“Why didn’t the team notify me of this?” Jenkins questioned.
“I’m not certain, sir. Maybe they wanted to wait until they were sure where it came from. That’s the only explanation I can come up with.”
Jenkins nodded and closed his eyes in frustration, gripping the edges of the desk so hard that his knuckles turned gray under his blue-tinted flesh. When he opened them again, he looked at the soldier sitting in front of him.
“I’ll be speaking to them after I get an update on the human,” Jenkins stated as he moved around the desk to look at the computer screen on the desk. When he finally saw the video feed coming from the holding cell where she was located was playing on the top left-hand corner, he added, “Seems like she’s doing all right for now.”
“Yes, she is fine. She is in great health from our observations and would make a great addition to our ranks.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Jenkins praised as he slapped the young soldier on the back in obvious approval. “Has she been fed?”
“Umm, no sir. We do not have the necessary sustenance for a human since we don’t normally keep them this long.”
&n
bsp; As Jenkins watched the screen, Jennifer Meldano, the daughter of his greatest enemy, sat in silence. She blinked and stared at the wall. She had no one to speak to and nothing to do, tied to a chair and miserable. Just like he wanted. And he had to admit that she was a lot stronger than he would have given her credit for. But her father was the infamous Head Hunter. The man so many of their own feared more than anything else their new world created and spat out, feeding into the insanity that was Earth. But Caesar Meldano was a part of his world. The same type of creature nearly except for the Syc infection that took hold inside of Jenkins's heart when turned into what he was. He still didn’t fully understand how the Revenants inherited the Syc infection, but Meldano had not when he injected himself with the ‘Faith’ serum. This was still a mystery despite the caliber scientists that who worked for his people, some of the most intelligent people outside of G.O.D. labs.
And now here he was. Holding the head Hunter’s daughter at his mercy, which wasn’t advantageous for anyone considering how the moods of a Revenant could change without warning. They had their dopamine levels to blame for that, and even Jenkins was shocked they could ever keep control over themselves in any situation. He had had an outburst with the Meldano girl when she hadn’t shown fear in the face of the man who held her fate in his hands, and it had infuriated him. But this was what the humans taught themselves now. Do not show fear. Fight against all the odds, but never show the enemy how terrified you were because they would use it against you. Granted, she had flinched away from him, but he had a feeling it had more to do with his blood-scented breath more than anything else. Even though she was a prisoner, he knew he couldn’t let her starve. Especially since he would turn her regardless, at this point.
He was going to exchange her safe return infection-free when the Head Hunter crossed the threshold, but he had since changed his mind. He would be turning her either way, and she would need all the nutrients she could get to make it through the transition. Then Caesar would have no choice but to stop hunting their kind for the sake of his daughter or kill her, solidifying the monster he had become without his family at his side. Without someone to keep him grounded as a human being instead of whatever the serum had changed him into. And Jenkins would revel in the day this would take place.
Zombified (Book 1): The Head Hunter Page 23
