Humanity's Hope (Book 1): Camp H

by Greg P. Ferrell

Then he let out a startled yelp when he saw the shoes move and realized they were occupied.

  Still stooped over, Kyle ran the light upward to see who was in the shoes. As he did he saw the very nice dress pants of a man, and he became even more confused. What the hell is a person in a business-suit doing back behind my house? As the flashlight lit up the torso of the intruder, he noticed the top was not as well-groomed as the bottom. The shirt was un-tucked, and it looked like steak sauce or something had been smeared on it. Kyle then shined the light up to the head. Once illuminated, he noticed rather large chunks of flesh and tissue were missing from the face. Suddenly, he was hit hard from behind. He flew sideways and landed flat on the ground.

  Kyle realized it was David who had knocked him down. “What the hell was that for?” Kyle brushed himself off and scrambled to get the flashlight.

  “He was reaching for you as you were taking your precious time getting up, dumb ass,” David responded. With that said, David, Kyle, and Ron returned their attention to the stranger. Even as Storm continued to bark and slam at the fence, Kyle shined the light on the stranger again. That’s when all three men got to clearly see the disfigured man in front of them.

  The guy stood about five-foot-six and looked to be about 35- to 40-years-old, which, with all the damage and blood, was their best guess. On the stranger’s face were two massive wounds. One of which was so severe you could see straight through his cheek and into his mouth, which created an eerie glow as Kyle shined the flashlight directly into the hole.

  “Whoa, dude, are you okay?” Kyle grabbed Storm again by the collar and motioned for Kenny to come over and take the dog away. As Kenny accepted the hand-off, Kyle whispered to him, “Get her inside and call 911.” Kenny struggled with the white Shepherd and had to drag her all the way back to the house as she continued to growl and bark. Kyle approached the stranger again. “Hey, man, are you all right? You look pretty roughed up.”

  As Kyle was about to take another step closer to the fence, Ron grabbed him by the arm. “Whoa, man, something don’t sit right. Look at him. His eyes are all buggy-looking.”

  Kyle tentatively took a closer look and noticed the guy’s eyes were cloudy over the pupils, and the sclera was blood-shot. He also didn’t appear to be in shock or pain; instead, he looked as if he were trying to figure out what he was looking at, as if he couldn’t understand what was right in front of him.

  The stranger’s confusion didn’t last long. A moment later, his head started bobbing back and forth and then he started going beserk, reaching over the fence and clawing at Kyle and his friends.

  “Holy shit!” all three men said in unison as they leapt back a couple of feet from the fence. Dale, the closest to the house, turned to head back inside, but not before yelling for them to do the same.

  The stranger, getting more and more frantic, slammed at the fence as if he wanted nothing more than to get a hold of the three men standing in front of him. With more and more force, the stranger kept at the chain-link fence with such anger that the fence was starting to bow inward. Kyle yelled at David to hit him with the pellet gun he was holding. David quickly raised the gun and fired a pellet into the stranger’s face.

  “No, Dummy, hit him!” Kyle yelled. “Swing the damn gun!”

  Realizing his mistake, David cautiously approached the stranger with the rifle in his hands. He drew back and did his best home-run swing into the man’s head. The stock of the gun shattered as David connected squarely against the side of the crazed man’s jaw. The stranger went down, but, just as quickly, jumped right back up and continued his onslaught against the fence.

  Kyle yelled to David, “Go to my nightstand and grab my pistol. I’ll hold it back.”

  David looked over at Kyle who had by then picked up a yard rake and was jabbing it at the human creature with the handle. As David took off into a full sprint, Ron took off, too, yelling that he had a shotgun in the truck.

  As David slipped through the back door, Dale remerged with a fire extinguisher, sprinted over to Kyle and yelled, “Should we use this?” Kyle looked quizzically at first, then snatched it from Dale’s hands and approached the attacker while being careful to avoid the stranger’s flailing arms. He caught a gap in between the arm swings and slammed the fire extinguisher into the man’s forehead. That blow seemed to have a little more effect as the man tumbled to the ground and started quivering like he was having a seizure. But this time, at least, he didn’t get up again. Kyle and Dale moved to another part of the yard and doubled over, hyperventilating, like the both of them had just finished running a marathon.

  “Oh shit! Oh shit!” Kyle said with his hands on his knees as he tried not to completely collapse. He looked over at Dale who was as white as a ghost as he rested his butt on the fence to hold himself up.

  “Did you kill him?” Dale hollered.

  Kyle looked at his friend. “I don’t know, but that was freaking crazy.”

  David showed back up with Kyle’s pistol in hand. “Oh, man, did you kill him? What the hell happened?” David looked at the body that was previously trying to attack them and found it shaking and trembling on the ground.

  Kyle turned to Dale as he pulled the slide back on his handgun and checked to make sure the safety was off. “Did Kenny call the cops?” Dale who was still bent over and leaning on the fence.

  “Yeah, they said it’s kind of crazy right now, but they would get someone here ASAP.”

  Kyle was about to remark on that, but the words died in his throat as he watched something slam into the fence behind Dale and start to reach over to grab his friend by the head. Before Kyle could yell out a warning, he watched as Dale was lifted almost completely over the fence only to have the attacker bury his teeth into the side of his friend’s skull. The sound of teeth meeting bone was a sound that Kyle and David had never heard before. Just as Dale let out a bloodcurdling scream, a very loud 12-gauge shotgun blast drowned it out. Kyle watched as the head of the attacker exploded, spraying blood everywhere. He turned to see that Ron stood only feet behind it, on the other side of the fence, with the shotgun in his hands. Looking at the body as it fell, Kyle realized it wasn’t the same attacker he had been fighting with earlier. The new stranger was wearing white tennis shoes and shorts. He spun around and checked on the first one to make sure it was still quivering on the ground behind the fence. It was, the body still on the ground, still shaking, and giving no indication it was still a threat.

  Kyle stood in the middle of his yard fighting the urge to go into shock as he tried to figure out what the hell had just happened.

  CHAPTER 8

  LATE NIGHT, JUNE 8TH

  Martin

  Prime time Thursday night rush hour, and the arrival/departure lanes stood booming, with cars, taxis, and shuttles busily loading and unloading travellers as quickly as possible. None of that, however, mattered to Martin. What did matter, was the smell of fresh meat, and it was with renewed vigor and an immediate desire to feed that Martin continued forward even faster.

  As he stepped out onto the arrival lane from the cover of the shrubbery, he was almost flattened by an incoming shuttle bus. The driver swerved at the last second to avoid him, but still managed to clip him in the shoulder, throwing him to the ground. The wheels locked, and the bus screeched to a halt, only yards past Martin. The driver of the bus bolted out the side door to check on him.

  The bus’s mirror had shattered Martin’s collarbone, but the injury went just as unnoticed as all the previous ones, and he paid it no mind as he clamored back to his feet.

  The driver approached Martin. “Hey, buddy, stay down. I’ll get you some help.” The words held no meaning. The only thing Martin realized was that it was time to eat.

  The driver grabbed Martin by his good arm and repeated the offer to help. In mid-sentence, Martin sprang onto his rescuer and sunk his teeth into him, ripping the flesh into a horrible wound. Just like a killer shark, the taste of fresh blood and meat excited him into a feeding fren
zy.

  Then, just as quick as he’d started feeding on the poor shuttle driver, he stopped and turned his attention to the buffet of people entering and exiting the airport. With an unquenchable hunger residing within, he rushed the sidewalk and grabbed the first unsuspecting person he came across. This time his victim was a woman who was exiting a cab with a homemade sign she’d intended to hold up to welcome home a loved one. Before she could even get both feet on the pavement, she was snatched and bitten on the back of the neck. Her long-blonde hair quickly became matted with the wet and sticky blood that dripped onto her flowered full-length dress. Her screams alerted the people around her to the danger approaching. As they turned to see the horror before them, a stampede ensued as hundreds of people rushed into the airport building to get away from the attacker. Some braver souls, however, tried to intervene and help the lady. They approached Martin, yelling and screaming to divert his attention from the helpless woman.

  Unfortunately, their plan worked and Martin released the woman in the flower dress only to dive into the mass of would-be saviors. He tore into the mob and inflicted bites on several of them, which caused the group to quickly disperse as they tried to run away. Martin became more enraged with each bite of flesh swallowed, and he gained more strength and speed by the second.

  By then the airport police were trying to make their way through the crowded interior of the airport to see what was happening. The outer walls of the airport entrance were huge 15-foot-tall windows, which allowed those inside to view the massacre taking place outside. Some people screamed at the carnage before them while Martin inflicted damage on others as he moved from victim to victim, attacking anybody who was unfortunate to be within reach. Others recorded the attack on their cell phones and video cameras as thoughts of Internet celebrity danced in their heads, when they uploaded the images later. Others yet, tried to get farther away from the horror, but were blocked by all the spectators in their way. Finally, the police made it to the doors through the crowd and were horrified by the crime they witnessed before them.

  As the glass doors swung open and the police with guns drawn, made their announcement to get on the ground, Martin turned his attention to them. He took full advantage of the opening created by the cops to blast through the doors and into the interior of the airport, but not before being hit by a few shots from the officer’s guns.

  As he entered, the human stampede renewed and complete chaos ran through the crowd as Martin attacked anybody close enough for him to grab. He lashed out with gnashing teeth and clawinghands to take a bite from one victim and then, just as quickly, latching onto another that tried to run by.

  The cops found it almost impossible to reach the attacker due to the sheer volume of people as they panicked and tried to get away from the madness. Yet, with a determination second to none, they finally squeezed through the crowd and leapt onto the madman creating the nightmare before them. The four officers naively tried to subdue the attacker instead of just shooting him. With the chaos and crowd in a panic the danger of hitting a civilian was too great for them to risk.

  Martin bit three fingers off of the first officer as the man tried to put him in a chokehold and then latched onto the face of another, biting off a sizeable portion of his cheek in the process. Martin, crazed and energized from the fresh meat, found himself tackled by the last two officers, but after a chaotic roll on the ground, found himself on top of the men. Grabbing one of the cops by the scalp, Martin was about to bite into the man when a loud gunshot echoed across the airport lobby, and Martin found his hunger gone, forever.

  Then the officer passed out from shock.

  Within minutes of the attack, every available paramedic and emergency personnel in Kansas City was on hand to treat the wounded. The ones with minor injuries were treated and released to their planes. The more serious ones were taken by ambulance to the hospitals. It took several hours before flights were again cleared for take-off.

  The first flights allowed to depart were the larger planes with destinations like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Not too much later, the smaller planes followed, with destinations like Denver, Houston, Orlando, and Tallahassee.

  Almost every plane that left that night had passengers that were treated for some minor injuries. Most of them made it to their destinations before any sign of a larger problem became apparent.

  CHAPTER 9

  NIGHT, JUNE 10TH

  The Boys

  David and Kyle stood frozen above Dale, two grown men who had never shown the slightest bit of fear throughout their friendship, each of them the other’s guy’s guy.. However, the bloody sight of their friend had them now completely terrified.

  Kyle was the first to regain his composure. Dale needed his help. He ripped off his shirt and wrapped it around Dale’s head, covering the wound that was pouring blood down the side of his friend’s face. Then David gathered his wits, and he, too, leapt into action.

  “Kyle, take care of Dale. I’m going to get help and grab your first aid kit.” David turned to find Ron and saw he was still standing on the other side of the fence. “Ron, make sure they stay down.” He glanced towards the attackers lying on the ground.

  Ron nodded and proceeded to walk towards the first attacker. David headed inside, and as he shut the door behind him, he heard the distinct rack of the 12-gauge followed by another large blast from the gun.

  By then, the wives and children were all in a panic, either crying or screaming or both. David barged into the room and grabbed Sam and told her to keep the kids and themselves inside and to call 911. “Tell ’em we’ve been attacked and have shot two of the bastards. That should get them here quicker. Also, tell them we have injuries.”

  “Who’s hurt?” Sam screamed back. “Not Kyle?”

  David looked at the woman. “No, no. It’s Dale. He got bit in the head. I think it’ll be okay, though. Where is the first-aid kit?”

  “In the laundry room.”

  David turned to Kenny and Brian, who had remained surprisingly calm during all the chaos. “Ya’ll keep an eye on the kids and women. As soon as the cops show up, come get us.” David headed back across the house, stopping by the laundry room to get the first aid kit before running back outside.

  When David got back, Kyle was still trying to stop Dale from bleeding and going into shock. Ron had returned to the yard and was assisting in keeping Dale calm. David opened the kit and pulled out some field dressings to apply to the wound. He removed the shirt wrapped around Dale’s head and was completely shocked by the size of the wound. There’s no way a normal person should be able to break through the skull like that. After he applied the wrap around the large wound he leaned down and held Dale steady, telling him help was on the way.

  After what felt like an eternity and still no paramedics, David sent Kyle to make sure help had been called. Dale began to go into shock, and David knew if help didn’t arrive soon Dale’s chances weren’t good. After some more torturously long minutes, he could finally hear the distant wail of approaching sirens. Thank God.

  As the cops and paramedics pulled into Kyle’s yard, they heard the voices of Kenny and Brian telling the paramedics to follow them. David tried to tell Dale to hang on, that help was coming. That’s when he noticed Dale was no longer breathing. He checked for a pulse. Nothing. Then the paramedics arrived and David jumped up to let them get to work.

  David, Ron, and Kyle stood off to the side and watched, but all three friends had the sinking suspicion that it was over for Dale.

  Through the blinds in the back window of Kyle’s bedroom, Hope peeked out and watched the chaos taking place. She was 17 and didn’t realize the gravity of the situation happening right in front of her eyes. It wouldn’t be long before she realized how crazy her world was about to become.

  CHAPTER 10

  THE AFTERMATH

  News Report, June 10th

  Good evening, and welcome to the nightly news. Our top story tonight focuses on the airport a
ttack two nights ago in Kansas City. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issused a notice describing a new form of rabies that the attacker may have contracted and which possibly could have caused him to become violent. As a result, the CDC has speculated that the attacker may have spread this illness to the victims on that horrible night. They are urging anyone who came in contact with the man, or was present the night of the attack, to call the number at the bottom of this screen. An official with the CDC will answer your questions and will send someone to speak to you and to collect blood samples to ensure you are not infected, and to assist with treatment, if you or your loved ones fall ill.

  News Report, June 10th

  Breaking News! An official for the White House has confirmed that earlier today, the President was attacked by a member of his staff. Further information led to the discovery that the attacker was previously present at the airport attack in Kansas. The President apparently suffered only minor injuries due to quick reactions and intervention by the Secret Service.

  More on this as it develops.

  In other news, police are responding to a large riot tonight at Madison Square Garden. Apparently, a riot broke out before the concert of pop star Britney Spears as concertgoers were lining up to enter the event.

  News Report, June 13th

  A Chicago coroner reported to police that the bodies in the morgue rose up from the tables and began attacking the staff. He was quoted as saying, “The bodies on the slabs just stood back up and tried to eat everyone in there. The damn slabs just got up.” We have not been able to verify if this latest attack was related to the violence in Kansas, but we will be investigating further. We will be sure to keep the public informed as the situation develops. As a side note, we have been hearing many reports of people referring to these strange victims as ‘Slabs.’ If you’re out in public, be aware that this term may refer to someone infected with the human rabies virus.