Omega Virus (Book 1): Beta Hour

by Jake A. Strife

  “You'll have to tell me all about that one day as well,” I said.

  “When you're old enough.” He chuckled.

  “Asshole.”

  “I like you more and more every day, kid,” He said.

  I rolled my eyes. “We haven't even known each other a full 24 hours.”

  Wesley put his hand on the scanner and a green laser scanned his palm, down and then up. An unseen door lifted into the wall, and a blast of air hit us from the room beyond.

  We walked into the kitchen of Epic Impossibilities Games.

  “Is this the command center?” Kessa asked.

  “Command center?” Wesley and I both tilted our heads.

  “Where the UFOs come from. Ya know, the little green men?”

  Wesley laughed. “Sure, babe.”

  The more time I spent with her, the more marbles I knew she'd lost, or never had.

  As we made our way through the darkened rooms, the smell of blood wafted in the air. The power had failed through the entire building. Up the stairs we went, and left no room unturned. Each room led to new disappointment. We didn't find Dave. We didn't find Jeff. We didn't find Jessie. The building ended up being void of life, and even death. Only the bodies of slaughtered dead Corpses remained. The rest of the Gamer's Guilds were gone.

  LEVEL 11 – THE VAULT

  Hours passed after we found our way back into Epic Impossibilities Games. After a thorough search, we didn’t find a single hair of the Gamer’s Guild. Even though Wesley said better nothing than undead, I felt a terrible pain in my being. If we had found them as Corpses, I wouldn’t have been able to put them down, especially Jessie. I could never kill Jessie. Kessa remained quiet during the search and didn’t do much. I couldn’t blame her, she and Merlda must've been close.

  We left without me ever having a sense of closure. It would stick with me forever; the friends I could've had.

  Wesley insisted on burning down the building. I knew that would be his closure, so I agreed.

  Night came, and we watched from a distance, sitting on the roof of the tallest building in town, Milpeg National Bank.

  A strange feeling came over me; watching a building burn without any sirens, no fire trucks to come to extinguish the flames.

  Kessa held my bandaged hand, as we sat in silence, our legs dangling over the edge of the building. Wesley stood with his own kind of silence, his Zombie Killing Hat held to his chest; dramatic as ever.

  After more than an hour of silence, Kessa spoke up. “What do we do now?”

  I looked into her eyes. They changed shades, it seemed, every other minute. At that moment, they were a deep green.

  I squeezed her hand, although it hurt to do so, “I guess we just try to survive?”

  “Is there a point?” She asked, somberly.

  Wesley put his hat back on. “There's always a point.”

  “Not if ya can’t find one,” Kessa whispered as she stared at the fire below.

  Wesley replied, “You don’t need to find one. You need to make one.”

  She had doubt in her eyes, but for once, Wesley spoke words of wisdom. He gave himself a reason to go on, whatever that reason could be. Perhaps we could learn from him after all.

  Deep into the night we watched. At some point, after sitting back, by roof vent, Kessa leaned over and laid her head in my lap. I stayed silent, and eventually, she fell asleep, snoring lightly. Although she seemed to be holding up, it terrified me to think what she'd been through.

  That fanatic freak, Bernard had sexually assaulted her. That alone would've been bad enough, but adding the ZPoc on top? She had to be tough.

  I put my hand on the side of her head and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. She mumbled something but had a smile on her face. I didn’t touch her again. She seemed to be having happy dreams. There would barely be happiness left in the world. She deserved all she could get.

  A while later, Wesley spoke up. “What about Jessie?”

  “Huh?”

  He stared into the distance. “Did you love her?”

  “Why does it matter to you? I mean, if I loved someone or not?”

  “It matters because you have that girl on your lap, snoozing away.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “Isn’t it obvious? She has attachment issues. Some pretty serious ones, and you just so happened to be her guardian ‘angel’.”

  “Her angel.” I sighed.

  He stared at me hard. “Doesn’t that mean something to you? That she thinks so much of you?

  “I haven’t thought about it.” I looked at her, then back at him.

  He heaved a great sigh. “That’s the problem with kids. Y’all don’t think. You never do.”

  I frowned. “That’s rude.”

  He chuckled with closed eyes. “Well, it seems your decision was made for you.”

  “I really don’t catch your meaning,” I said.

  “Idiot. You had three girls, and you coulda had any of them!”

  “Not true!”

  Kessa shifted in her sleep, and I sighed. I needed to keep my head cool, even though the temperature had dropped drastically.

  “Moron! Jessie cared deeply about you! And what about Tiffany?”

  “You don't know anything,” I said, looking back at the burning building, which had caught another beside it on fire.

  He hesitated and reached into his pocket. For a moment, I thought he would retrieve something, but his hand came out empty. “Tiffany loved you, ya know.”

  “You have gotta be kidding me!”

  He shrugged, but anger lined his face. “You’re too young to understand any of this, still. One day. One day.”

  Wesley's annoyance took me by surprise. I'd been frustrated with him on an hourly basis, and now he had the nerve to be upset with me?

  “What do you know?” I whispered.

  “Way more than you, kid. Way more than you.” He turned to walk away.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  He stopped. “It's brick cold out here. You should wake up sleeping beauty. Gotta sleep in the vault tonight!”

  “How will we get out?” I asked.

  “It opens automatically in the morning, power or not.” He explained. “So come on already. Or do you want me to carry Kessa?”

  I shook my head. “I’ve got it covered.”

  Wesley disappeared inside the building, and I looked down at Kessa. Her lips were puffy and swollen. She had been chewing on them all night. Her eyes looked puffy too. Could I have had any of the three? Now, I'd been left with Kessa. Would she have been my choice?

  “Kessa? We have to go inside.”

  “Why? I’m comfortable,” she mumbled.

  “My lap can’t be that comfortable,” I said.

  She jolted awake, sitting straight up. “Huh? Your lap? How long have I been asleep?”

  “Just maybe twenty or thirty minutes.”

  “Oh.” She yawned, stretching her long arms and legs.

  I climbed to my feet and offered her my bandaged and useless hand. She smiled and then stood up on her own.

  “Can’t have my patient reopening wounds.” She pouted like a duck.

  I grinned back, “You’re right. I’m useless.”

  “I bet you're useful in plenty of ways,” she said.

  We smiled at each other for a long time, which might've been sixty seconds max, but still, it felt nice. She could easily have been a model, but I didn’t feel anything, not like when I thought about Jessie. I had to hold back crying as we walked down the stairs inside. In my mind, I kept repeating the words Wesley had said.

  My choice had been made for me.

  Kessa squeezed my arm as we descended into the building. I wanted nothing more than to feel something for her. She looked at me with eyes full of affection. Wesley had been right again; I'd become her crutch.

  My mind started to drift into the future. Every day there would be fewer and fewer living people, and eventu
ally the human race would be extinct unless the luckiest of us stayed alive and reproduced. I started blushing at the thought.

  We found the bank vault and teller stations on the third floor. It looked so clean, chaos free, almost as if the ZPoc had never happened. You’d expect to see shattered glass and dollar bills strewn about, but no one had even had the chance to loot.

  I motioned to Kessa, and she kept her gun drawn as we stalked around to the vault, but we found no sign of Wesley.

  “Is this really a bank?” I asked.

  Kessa said, “Doesn’t look like the hat guy is here.”

  “Where’d he go?” I wondered.

  The room began to vibrate, and I spotted the huge mechanical door of the vault, wide open, but closing slowly.

  “Come on; Wesley must already be in there!” I said.

  We rushed behind the teller stations, and darted into the vault, barely making it. The door closed with a huge slam, and I realized we were alone.

  “Did he trick us?” I asked. “Why the hell would he do that?”

  “Would your friend really do that?” Kessa asked.

  I sighed and began to open drawers. “Money. All so useless. I don’t know, honestly. He wasn't my friend.” I flipped through a bundle of bills.

  “Can we get out?” she bounced on the balls of her feet.

  A small air vent rested in the corner, but we couldn't fit. Maybe Wesley would meet us in the morning?

  I said, “All we can do is hope, but for now we’d better make the best of it.”

  The crisp bills smelled amazing. Just the morning before, I would've loved to start shoving them in my pockets. Instead, I dumped them on the floor against the wall. Kessa grabbed another and did the same. I sat down against the pile, took the Smith & Wesson out of my belt and laid it next to me on the floor. After breathing a sigh of relief, it dawned on me how tired I'd become. I hadn’t even slept well the night before. I'd stayed up all night playing a new game.

  Kessa scooted next to me and whispered into my ear. “Take off your shirt.”

  “W-what?” I gasped.

  “I need to see your wounds, silly,” She giggled.

  “Right! Ha ha ha.” I reached for the bottom rim of my shirt, but I couldn’t grab it properly.

  “Here, let me help.” she said and pulled it over my head.

  I sat there feeling vulnerable and cold. Kessa looked at my chest and leaned in, gently putting her lips to a specifically bad cut and started blowing. I felt tingles all over, and I had the sudden urge to grab her and pull her on top of me. I fought those feelings as best I could and tried to think of something to say.

  “What was your life like?” I asked. “Ya know like it was yesterday?”

  “I lived on the farm down on the 45.” She said. “I spent my days milking cows and tending to the chickens.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  She rolled her eyes and slowly ran her fingertips down my stomach. “No, silly.”

  “What are you doing?” I asked as the hairs on my arms stood on end.

  “You have cuts all the way down.” She said. “Even some I see below your waistband.”

  My face scorched red.

  “T-that’s o-okay!” I pulled her hands up to my chest.

  “Why don’t you want me to look?” She asked, “Has no one ever seen you in your boxers? Oh! Is it because you wear tighty-whities?”

  “Let’s not talk about my underwear!” I shook my head desperately.

  “Embarrassing boxers!” her eyes grew wide, “Lemme see!”

  “No!” I pleaded and grabbed her hands, which were fumbling with my belt buckle.

  She laughed and before I could stop her pulled open the button of my pants and revealed the top part of my boxers.

  She fell into a giggle fit. “Scooby Doo boxers! Ruh Roh!”

  Right about then, I felt like keeling over. “Stop it! I’m sure you like Scooby Doo!”

  “Of course, I do!” she smiled wide and started fingering the waistband of the boxers.

  “That’s enough!” I pleaded, “Please.”

  She giggled and leaned against my chest, putting her head on my shoulder. She unbuttoned her flannel, took off her boots and lowered the straps of her overalls. Part of me wanted her to take off even more, but the other part of me drowned in fear.

  “You're trembling, Mr. Angel.” she whispered into my ear.

  “I’m not an angel,” I said.

  “You’re an angel to me.” She said.

  I found myself wrapping my arm around her. More so I found my eyes trailing her from her cute little toes to her perfectly shaped nose only inches from mine.

  If some force or another had chosen this cute, sexy, fun girl for me, then maybe the apocalypse wouldn’t be so bad. I could see myself actually spending time with her and maybe even loving her.

  “Goodnight, Zach.” She whispered.

  “Goodnight Kessa,” I said and kissed her forehead. Her hair smelled like fruit.

  “Ruh roh, I rink I'm ralling rasleep.” She whispered, but before I could answer she snored softly once again, an unbearably cute smile on her face.

  LEVEL 12 - A DELICATE FILE

  There were no dreams to be had that night, only nightmares;

  Tiffany hating me, Wesley trying to kill me, and the Gamer's Guild being torn apart by Corpses.

  When I finally opened my eyes, I expected to be in my bedroom; yellow peeling paint, posters all over from when it had been my mother’s room, dust and cobwebs everywhere, and the ancient bed on which my parents conceived me. Instead, I found myself in a dimly lit white room with silver shelving. I also found myself lying in a pile of $100 bills, with a gorgeous leggy blonde curled up against me.

  In my daze, there were only two possibilities. Either A: My entire life had been the dream, and I happened to be some billionaire playboy sleeping in my treasure hoard with my mistress of the night. Or B: Outside existed an ever-expanding apocalyptic wasteland of zombies and crazy rednecks with guns, and I'd saved this amazing girl.

  The truth? Option B.

  I stretched one of those awesome stretches. Every inch of my body felt refreshed. I let out a loud yawn, and when I saw my bandaged hands, the pain flooded back in. Before I could cry out, luscious lips landed on mine and muffled my voice. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arm around Kessa. She rolled over and straddled me, still kissing me passionately. Just as she began to gyrate her hips, the pain caused me to reach my breaking point, and I screamed.

  Kessa scrambled off, crying out, “Oh m'Lord! I’m so sorry! I thought I was somewhere else. I thought you were someone else!”

  For some reason, her words felt like a sudden stab, sharper than any blade. She snuggled against my shoulder again, and I allowed myself to imagine a relationship between us. But did she have a boyfriend already?

  “Who did you think I was?” I asked, afraid to hear the answer.

  “N-no one!” she stammered.

  “You have a boyfriend, don’t you?” I sighed.

  Her silence told me enough. I climbed to my feet and adjusted all of my clothing, then put my gun back in my belt. I tried not to look at her, but the vault door had yet to open.

  “I didn’t mean it like that, my ang--”

  “Zach.”

  “Zach. I was confused. I thought it was the past! I didn’t know I was here. Or any of this was real!”

  I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”

  Her voice began to crack. “I’m glad this is real. I wanted it to be.”

  “The zombie apocalypse?” I scoffed.

  She climbed to her feet. “I wanted to be here with you. Ya saved me from that nightmare, and I don’t care if there are zombies out there!”

  I hesitated; did she want me or not?

  I faced her. “Let’s just focus on what’s at hand.”

  Tears poured down her face. “Ya saved me. I more than owe you my life and myself as a whole. You’re a good guy! I’ve never known a good gu
y. They’ve all been—”

  “Assholes?” I asked.

  She nodded, playing with her pigtail. She chewed her lip and shifted her weight between her heels and the balls of her feet.

  “So who did you think I was?” I asked.

  “His name was Mike.” She said.

  “An asshole?”

  She nodded. “I dated him for six months. He treated me alright, and even gave me a beautiful emerald ring as an engagement ring.”

  “So what happened? Might as well tell me, the vault isn’t open so we aren’t going anywhere.”

  She leaned against the wall, placing her bare foot against it.

  “Well, his roommate told me the truth about him.” She revealed. “Mike had been cheating on me with four other girls. Three of which were girls he met at conventions and on social media sites. The fourth was his actual girlfriend he had for years. He stole the ring her grandmother left to her and then put it on my finger. Can you believe it?”

  I shook my head. “Wow, that guy was something else!”

  “Well, I was stupid. I stayed with him.”

  I said the only thing I could, “Oh.”

  “But that’s all in the past now.” She said, coming off the wall, doing a sexy b-line towards me.

  “Where is he?” I asked as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

  “When the zombies came, he didn’t even wake me up. He left me naked in bed. I heard him yell something about hurrying up and leaving. Something bad was going down on the news. I didn’t know what, and when I got out of bed, I found Merlda, sleeping on the couch. I asked her where Mike went, and she said, he was going out for milk.”

  “What a lame lie!”

  She began to sob. “I know! We had a whole gallon in the fridge!”

  I stepped closer, feeling drawn to her. “Never came back?” I asked. I could smell her sweet breath; even in the morning, she remained perfect.

  “When we saw the news report we ran straight to Pa's church.”

  I shook my head. “Merlda was your roommate?”

  “Yes.” She whispered.

  I was about to respond when Kessa’s hands rested on my behind, and she roughly pulled me against her and put her finger to my lips. “We have some time. And I love mornings, don’t you?”