The Alpha Plague - Books 1 - 8: A Post-Apocalyptic Action Thriller

by Michael Robertson

  When Rhys felt Larissa shake next to him, he rolled over and tapped on her slim shoulder. “Are you okay?” he asked in a whisper.

  She turned around and her eyes were bloodshot. Her damp face glistened with tears. “We’ve let our boy down. We’ve come this far only to let him down.” Her lip buckled as she shook her head. “I don’t want to imagine a life where I’ll never see him again.”

  The flow of diseased that passed the car thickened. They couldn’t lie there and wait it out. If they went that route, they’d be waiting all day. A shake of his head and Rhys said, “Me either. It’s not going to happen though. Come on, we can work this out. We can find a way.”

  Chapter 30

  About thirty minutes ago

  Brendan’s deep laugh echoed off the walls of the alleyway. “You thought you could get away from me?” He continued to laugh, his mania flitting through the changing tone. “From me?!”

  Vicky watched the wounded man for a few more seconds before she shoved Flynn down the alley.

  When they got to the wall at the end, she kneeled down so she was at eye level with him and gripped both of his slim shoulders. “Now, Flynn, I know this man. I know he’ll never give up. I need to send you over this wall while I deal with him.”

  Flynn shook his head and looked from one of her eyes to the other. His breath sped up and he trembled in her grip. “No, I can’t go over there alone. Please don’t make me.”

  Vicky looked behind to see Brendan and his evil grin as he got closer. She turned back to Flynn. “I need you out of the way. If you’re here, you’ll take some of my attention away from dealing with him and I may fail. I have a better chance without you around.” Vicky lifted her ear to the air. “I can’t hear any of the diseased over there. There’s also something else I need you to do for me.”

  Although he looked at her, Flynn didn’t respond.

  “I need you to wait for five minutes and no longer, okay? If I’m not over this wall in five minutes’ time, you need to head south. Your mum and dad will be at Biggin Hill Airport so you need to go that way.”

  A violent tremble ran though the boy and he shook his head. “I don’t know where that is.” His eyes glazed.

  “Back past the drawbridge. Back the way we came.”

  The sound of Brendan’s laugh got closer and he called out. “Little pig, little pig, let me in.”

  A chill snapped through Vicky and she lifted Flynn up. The boy felt heavier than he ever had, as if her guilt made him harder to pick up. She lifted him onto her shoulders and walked closer to the wall. “I need you to stand on my shoulders, Flynn.”

  The boy shook his entire body rather than just his head. “I can’t. I can’t do this.”

  A lump, too big to swallow, swelled in Vicky’s throat. She had to fight to get her words out. “You’ll die if you don’t.”

  So close now Vicky heard the sound of Brendan dragging his foot up the alley. She turned to the large man. Limp or not, the sight of him damn near paralysed her with fear.

  “Hurry up, Flynn.” Vicky strained to lift him higher and she felt his little feet find her shoulders. “Now reach up to the top of the wall.”

  When she glanced up, brick dust, or something similar, rained down and stung her eyes. She had to blink several times for her vision to clear. As Flynn reached for the top of the wall, she grabbed each of his feet and fought the weakness in her arms to push him even higher.

  Flynn grabbed the top and pulled himself up. He sat up there for a second and peered over the other side.

  “How does it look?” Vicky asked. “Any diseased over there?”

  But Flynn didn’t look at her. Instead, he focused on Brendan who had moved to within about five metres of the pair.

  “Flynn! Are there any diseased over there?”

  The boy looked back over and shook his head. “No.”

  “Good. Now jump and go and hide.” Her words cracked in her throat at the desperation of their lot. “I’ll be over in five minutes.”

  Flynn lifted his leg over the wall and Vicky watched him through her watery eyes. He still had the police baton in his tiny grip. Tears ran hot streaks down her cheeks as she saw the embodiment of innocence vanish over the top. The boy didn’t stand a chance. Baton or not, he probably wouldn’t be able to beat any of the diseased. But she didn’t have any other choice. The wall stood too high for her to climb and no way could she beat Brendan. At least with the boy over the other side, she may be able to do something. Highly unlikely, but some chance was better than none.

  With Brendan just a few metres away, Vicky snapped her telescopic baton open and blinked her tears away. She clenched her jaw and stared at the wall of a man.

  Chapter 31

  Rhys laid his cheek against the cold road beneath the car. The diseased shuffled past them on either side, the air thick with their rancid reek. There seemed to be no end to the dense crowd. If they waited too much longer, they’d miss Flynn and Vicky completely. Impatience twitched through Rhys and the desire to move sat balled in his leg muscles.

  After he’d rolled over onto his back, Rhys rested his head against the hard road surface and looked up at the underside of the car. A large panel covered the bottom and was dirty from where all the crud on the road had kicked up beneath it.

  A deep breath and he let out a long and slow sigh. They’d come all this way to get fucked over at the last minute. Without a plan, they’d have to remain stuck beneath the car until the fuckers passed. They’d be there for hours.

  When Larissa shifted next to Rhys, he looked across to see her pick up a rock about the size of a tennis ball. She motioned for him to move out of her way but he resisted. Her next action could kill them both. When he looked into her green eyes, she glared back at him. It seemed clear that nothing would stop her. Rhys shifted down toward the back of the car.

  The smell of the dirty exhaust fought for his attention over the reek of the diseased, and Rhys tried his best to breathe through his mouth. Although better than rot, he’d rather not have either scent around him.

  Now he’d moved low enough he watched Larissa press her cheek to the ground and look along the bottom of the cars as if to check how level the road was. She clutched the rock in one hand, pulled it back close to her chest, and frowned with concentration.

  No, surely she won’t …

  But before Rhys could stop her, she slid the rock away from her like a curling stone. It missed the first lot of legs immediately next to them and shot beneath the first car.

  Rhys’ world slipped into slow motion as he watched it pass beneath three more cars. He flinched every time it narrowly avoided a diseased foot and listened to the dry whoosh as it slid along the ground. When it came to the fifth car, it hit its alloy wheel with a bright ting. The sound seemed to ring all the way to London.

  As one, the diseased halted and Rhys nearly pissed himself.

  Screams came to life around them and the pack sped up and changed direction as they cut across the car park and headed toward the sound.

  After about thirty seconds, Rhys looked the other way, in the direction of the woods. The amount of diseased on that side had thinned considerably. A second later, Larissa poked her head out from under the car and commando crawled to the vehicle next to them.

  With his heart in his throat and his mouth so dry he nearly heaved, Rhys gulped, rolled over onto his front, and shuffled along the ground after her.

  Once beneath the next car, another rush of diseased sped past them. Surely they only had a short window before the creatures realised they had nothing to chase after, not that he needed to tell Larissa to hurry.

  With his veins flooded with adrenaline, Rhys watched Larissa repeat the process to get to the next car along. One more and maybe she could run to the woods.

  Rhys followed, but just as he stuck his head out, the foot of a diseased slammed down in front of him. Fear stabbed through his chest and he snapped his head back as the clumsy monster shuffled past.


  As he lay beneath the car, he shook and he waited for the call that would give him away to the other diseased.

  But it never came.

  Rhys watched the feet that nearly stood on him. They headed toward the sound Larissa’s thrown rock had made.

  Another check and Rhys saw it was clear. He followed after Larissa again.

  Larissa had already moved to the final vehicle in the lot. A Ford truck, it had a little more room beneath it than the other vehicles.

  Rhys followed quickly after.

  When he got across, Rhys looked at the woodland just ten metres away and gasped for breath. Not that the escape had been particularly strenuous, but it had fried his nerves.

  Larissa studied the underside of the truck and spoke in a whisper. “I refuse to give up on our boy.” As she said this, she moved down toward the back of the vehicle.

  A round plastic panel held the spare tyre beneath the bottom of the truck. Larissa started to unscrew it.

  Rhys shifted so he lay next to her and pushed against the panel. Whatever she’d decided to do, she needed help.

  The screw came more easily without the weight of the tyre against it, and Larissa spun it free.

  After she’d pulled the screw away, Rhys let the plastic cover slide down and took the weight of the heavy tyre with him. They didn’t need the noise of that to pull the diseased back over to them

  Larissa moved back and Rhys let the tyre down to the ground, his arms sore from the weight of it. A glance across at the diseased and he saw they’d all stopped near the rock Larissa had thrown. How long could that amuse them for before they worked it out?

  When Larissa pulled the tools away from the inside of the wheel, they made the slightest pop.

  Rhys held his breath and watched the mob’s feet over by the rock.

  None of them seemed to hear it.

  Larissa continued on. She pulled the jack and the tyre iron free and found a screwdriver.

  When she held it up at Rhys and grinned, he didn’t know what to say. Unless it was a sonic screwdriver, what did she hope to do with it?

  After she’d gently discarded all of the other bits, Larissa crawled over to the edge of the car by the woodland area. She looked both up and down the road, and then up at the side of the truck.

  When she came back in, she grabbed Rhys’ arm and spoke in a whisper. “This is our opportunity. There’s no diseased this close to the woods. I need you to trust and follow me, okay?”

  If it meant they had a chance to save Flynn, Rhys would crawl through hellfire. He nodded.

  Larissa rolled out from under the vehicle and Rhys followed her.

  Exposed without the truck for cover, Rhys hopped up into a crouch and looked up and down the lot. The outer two rows of cars had no diseased around them anymore. While there had been, and continued to be, plenty of the fuckers in the car park, the road that ran parallel to it was packed dense with bodies. They’d only had to deal with the overflow so far.

  Rhys watched as Larissa wedged the screwdriver into the petrol cap cover on the side of the truck. She banged it once with the heel of her hand to force the blade in place. She then pulled on the screwdriver until a slight ping rang out. The cap cover snapped open. Rhys flinched in anticipation of an alarm, but none came. They dodged a bullet there. She couldn’t have known that would happen.

  The temperature had dropped and fear had Rhys in its icy grip as he looked around. The noise they’d made hadn’t been loud, but it sounded like a gunshot when silence meant the difference between life and death.

  When Rhys glanced back at Larissa, he watched her unscrew the petrol cap and pull it free. She then pulled her top off so she stood there in just a bra. Despite the tension of the situation, Rhys’ eyes wandered to her breasts. Familiar, but completely forbidden, he stared at the body he once knew so well. When he looked back up to see her eyes on him, he winced an apology, but she didn’t seem to care.

  She rolled her shirt up and stuffed the arm end into the petrol tank.

  She fed the rolled up garment in until just a few inches poked out.

  The smell of petrol fumes wafted out of the tank and Rhys’ mouth watered. A smell he’d never tire of and a damn sight better than the reek of disease.

  Larissa opened up the Zippo lighter she’d found in the pocket of the man in the town. She struck the wheel and the flame shimmered in the slight breeze. After she’d checked around, she lit the small part of her top that still poked out.

  Rhys didn’t need to be told what to do next.

  As one, the pair watched the flame bite into the shirt before they both turned and ran for the woods.

  Chapter 32

  About twenty minutes ago

  Tears ran warm tracks down Vicky’s cheeks as she stared at the crazed man who came toward her. A twisted and hellish version of the person she’d loved, he seemed to fill the tight alleyway with his wide and tall frame. Her pulse raced, her throat dried, and she shook where she stood. Her life would end in that alley, but what about Flynn? Six years old and she’d just condemned him to death. So much for the promise she’d made to Rhys. Hopefully when he fell to the diseased, the pain would be nothing compared to what Brendan had in mind for him.

  With her baton held in a tight grip, Vicky watched the lunatic limp toward her. She looked down at his thigh and saw his jeans were soaked from where he’d clearly lost a lot of blood. Another look at the man and she suddenly saw his crazed glare as something else. Sunken sockets in his pale face, she then noticed the shake that ran through his weak body. Maybe he didn’t have long left. Maybe he only kept going for revenge, and once he’d achieved that he’d fall flat. Maybe she could get out.

  As if he knew she’d seen his frailty, Brendan laughed. The deep boom of his voice echoed in the alley and vibrated against her chest. “When we pulled away from The Alpha Tower after we’d freed the virus, I thought I’d seen the back of Summit City. But then we found out about how the city had been set to incinerate. You knew about that, didn’t you?”

  Vicky shook her head. “No.”

  Brendan said something Vicky didn’t understand. It sounded Chinese. He smiled. “Didn’t know I was fluent in Chinese, did you? There’s a lot about me that you don’t know. I’ll repeat what I just said, shall I?”

  She gulped but said nothing.

  “I said, ‘don’t lie to me, bitch’.”

  Vicky stared at the man and clenched her jaw tight. She didn’t need to argue with him. It didn’t matter if he believed her or not.

  After several deep breaths, his brow soaked in sweat, Brendan said, “They sent me back to override the order. Just in case I didn’t manage to do it, they airlifted the diseased from the city and dropped them first in London, and then around the country. They even sent a few over to mainland Europe. That’s why the streets are infected now.”

  The cries of the diseased filled the air and Vicky kept her ears open to the noise. A spike in their frenzied calls would tell her that maybe Flynn had fallen. Nothing yet. She stared at Brendan. “Good job they did that, eh?”

  “Huh?”

  “Well, you clearly failed in your task. The city has gone up in flames.”

  “Your new boyfriend stopped me. He tied me in the room with a lab coat bound to the handles. But I managed to pull a strip of metal away from the point where the bottom of the wall met the ground. It was slim and sharp enough to both slip through the gap in the door and cut the lab coat.”

  With only a couple of metres between them now, Brendan continued to shuffle forward. When Vicky noticed his piercing eyes roll in his head, she drew another deep breath. She could get past him. The longer this played out, the weaker he became.

  “You know …” Brendan had to pause to catch his breath. “I would have left you alone if Rhys hadn’t been such a cunt. If I’d have been allowed to complete my task and get out of the city, I would have done that and moved on. But because of Rhys, I’m going to make sure everyone he holds dear pays. You first, t
hen his little shit of a boy. Then I’ll hunt Rhys down.”

  The man obviously didn’t have it in him. Despite the front, Brendan had no fight left.

  “I’m going to torture his little boy when I find him, diseased or not. Nice trick sending him over the wall, although I doubt he’ll last two minutes on his own. Even if he does manage to hide from the diseased, I’ll find him and make him suffer.”

  When just a metre separated the pair, Brendan lunged at Vicky. He moved as if in slow motion, his injury slowing him down. In one fluid movement, Vicky dodged his long arms and jabbed her baton into his thigh.

  Brendan yelled out and fell to the ground. With his hands clamped to his leg, he roared like the diseased that surrounded them.

  Without the room to swing her baton Vicky jabbed him again, this time across his chin. When Brendan fell to the ground, she hopped over him and ran off down the alley.

  As soon as she’d left the alley, Vicky found Flynn on the side of the road. He’d huddled in a ball as he waited. Good job she’d come out and not Brendan.

  When she went over and touched his shoulder, he jumped and snapped his head up. Bloodshot eyes stared up at her, red from tears rather than the disease.

  The groans of perpetual suffering came at them from every direction. Before long, the diseased would find them again.

  A quick glance around and Vicky saw a truck with its door wide open. The lights were on as if it had been abandoned.

  She pulled on one of Flynn’s tiny hands. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”

  At first, the boy didn’t budge. Shock and fear seemed to have paralysed him. After another tug, he got to his feet.

  The sounds of the diseased grew louder so Vicky picked the boy up. Too heavy to carry any great distance, she managed to lift him over to the truck. A quick check and she saw the key sat in the ignition like she hoped it would be. She twisted the key and the large vehicle shook and then roared to life. After she’d dragged Flynn around to the passenger seat, she slammed the door. When she looked up, she saw a horde round the bend at a full sprint.