Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation

by Shoyer, Scott

  Samantha, Cheryl, and Darren scanned the area around the church bus as the noise of the engine disturbed the silence. David ran over to join them.

  “Over there!” Cheryl shouted as she pointed to the right. “I see movement over there!”

  Before Darren could say anything, three zombies ran from behind a semi-truck parked in the street.

  “Get in, everyone,” Walt said as he appeared from the door of the church bus.

  “Go!” shouted Darren. “I’ll take care of these bastards!”

  Darren aimed his weapon at the quickly approaching zombies and squeezed the trigger. The zombie in the middle staggered and fell to the ground. Darren knew he didn’t have enough time to aim at the two remaining creatures. They were spread out too much.

  A few feet in front of the zombies, Darren saw a Subaru Forester turned over on its side. He took aim at the exposed gas tank and hoped there was gas in it. He squeezed the trigger and the car exploded just as the zombies ran past it.

  Darren was about to turn and head into the bus when he thought he saw movement through the flames. Darren squinted, but saw nothing.

  Don’t go getting paranoid now, Darren thought.

  As he slung his carbine over his shoulder, both zombies caught in the explosion ran through the flames directly at Darren. It took Darren a second to react, and he fumbled with his carbine.

  Darren swung the butt of his rifle at the zombie on his left and hit in on the side of the head. The creature fell to the ground as the flames consumed it. The other zombie jumped on him and threw Darren off balance. Darren tried to push the zombie off him, but the flames and smoke that billowed off the creature disoriented the soldier. Darren and the flaming creature fell to the ground. He wrestled with the creature as he felt his clothes catching fire. He reached into his shirt pocket, removed two of the syringes, and thrust them into the creature’s chest. Darren waited, but after a few seconds, realized the drugs were useless against this monster.

  Walt swung Stevie at Darren’s attacker and realized the futility of his action. The flames from the zombie had engulfed Darren, and the soldier screamed as he tried to get away from the fiery creature as the flames kissed his skin. Walt watched as Darren tried, uselessly, to put out the flames and heard the pitch of Darren’s voice get higher. Darren was being burned alive. Walt did the only humane thing he could think of and slammed Stevie onto Darren’s head.

  Cheryl exited the bus just as Walt delivered his blow and turned her head in horror.

  Tears filled Walt’s eyes as he pried Stevie out of Darren’s skull and watched the two bodies as they burned. Walt looked down at Darren’s clenched fist and saw the two empty syringes.

  “We need to get out of here, Walt,” said Cheryl softly as she placed a hand on Walt’s arm. “There was nothing you could do.”

  The six zombies were about thirty feet away when Walt looked up. He and Cheryl ran into the church bus. Walt jumped behind the wheel, put the bus into gear, and drove off.

  Out of the side window, Cheryl, Samantha, and David looked at Darren’s body, now completely in flames, as they drove off.

  “Holy shit,” Samantha finally said as she broke the silence. “Those things came out of nowhere. What the hell are we gonna do now?”

  “We’re going to do exactly what we planned,” Walt said as he wiped a tear from his eye. “We’re going to Schoepke Springs. That’s our best chance.”

  Walt believed this was their best chance, but he couldn’t ignore the voice in the back of his head as it shouted, What if it wasn’t?

  9

  Along TX-71 E

  Spicewood, Texas

  Fi looked around as she walked along TX-71. There were thousands of similar creatures who she figured were on the same journey as herself.

  The large group of creatures walked in silence, but they all knew they were headed to the same destination. Fi realized that the closer she got to the mysterious destination, the better she felt. All that anger and pain that used to well up inside her stomach was gone. Each step brought her closer to the place she had searched for.

  Fi had no idea what to expect when she reached the location, and she suspected that none of her fellow travelers did either. The only thing she knew for certain was that she was headed in the right direction.

  Besides her pain and anger ebbing, Fi also noticed that the closer she got to the mystery location, the better she felt. Her limbs were no longer stiff, and her head was clear. She could remember things from her past. She remembered when she was first infected. Back then, she couldn’t think or plan her actions. Fi remembered how she’d acted purely on the instincts to feed and infect others. Then, after the first time she’d experienced the anger, she’d been transformed. Her wounds had slowly repaired themselves, and her mind had gradually cleared.

  Fi was one of the yellow-eyed creatures.

  Fi was the first of the yellow-eyed creatures.

  Fi still didn’t know exactly what she’d transformed into, but she knew she was different from the masses of the infected. They were mindless monsters who existed to fulfill one purpose—to infect others.

  Even though she didn’t know what her and the other yellow-eyed creatures’ purpose was, Fi knew it was something loftier than just the simple propagation of their new species. The yellow-eyed creatures were there for something even more important.

  Something bigger.

  Up ahead, Fi saw the weather-beaten sign and knew that was where she and the others were headed.

  A small smile crossed her lips as she saw the words, Schoepke Springs Two Miles Ahead. This was the destination. She felt it in her bones.

  She looked around at the others and saw the same looks on their faces. They all knew this was the place they needed to go. This was the place they would discover what they were and what purpose they would serve.

  All around her, Fi saw the reflected glow of thousands of yellow eyes in the early morning sun. The eyes looked focused with the promise of finding the answers to what they were and what they were to do.

  The yellow-eyed creatures continued on to Schoepke Springs.

  10

  Schoepke Springs

  Spicewood, Texas

  The short trip to Schoepke Springs was uneventful, and Walt and the others were grateful for that. Losing Darren hit everyone hard. Darren hadn’t been with the group for long, but in that time he’d proven to be a friend and a leader. Without Darren’s knowledge as to the nature of the infection, Walt would’ve never developed another defense against the creatures, and Darren had saved them all several times.

  Walt turned off of FM-71 and headed north on Texas Spur 191. As they drove by the Spicewood Community Library, he felt that things were too quiet. The last zombies they’d seen had been in the parking lot of Opie’s Barbeque.

  Something doesn’t feel right, Walt thought.

  Cheryl took a seat at the front of the church bus.

  “I’m sorry about what happened to Darren,” Cheryl said.

  “Me too,” Walt said, emotionless. “I should’ve never left him alone out there with those things.”

  “Don’t do that to yourself, Walt,” said Cheryl. Then, after a few seconds, she added, “Darren was a good man, and none of us will forget him.”

  Darren’s burning corpse flashed through Walt’s mind, and then Walt remembered the syringes in his hand.

  “They didn’t work!” Walt blurted out. “The damn things didn’t work.”

  “What didn’t work?” Cheryl asked.

  “The antipsychotics,” Walt answered. “I saw two empty syringes in Darren’s hand.”

  “You don’t know that, Walt,” said Cheryl. “Maybe he didn’t use them until it was too late.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Walt repeated. “But what if…”

  Walt never got to finish.

  From the side of the road, a bloodied deer darted out from behind some bushes. Walt swerved the bus to the right to avoid hitting the animal.

  �
�Holy shit!” David yelled from the back. “Was that a deer?”

  “Yeah,” said Walt as he got the bus back under control, “and from the looks of it, I’d say something was making a meal of it.”

  As the bus approached Mike Wall Lane, Walt slammed on the breaks.

  “What the hell, Walt!” yelled Samantha from the back.

  But Walt and Cheryl stared at the sight before them.

  Hundreds of the infected walked in the direction of Schoepke Springs. Everyone on the bus held their breath as they watched.

  “Something’s not right,” Walt whispered to Cheryl. “Look at the way they’re walking.”

  “And look at their bodies,” Cheryl added. “None of them have any wounds on them. Hell, they’re in better condition than us.”

  “Oh my God,” Samantha said from the back. “Look at their eyes.”

  Of the hundreds of infected that walked in front of them, they all saw what Samantha saw. All of them had yellow eyes. It wasn’t just some yellowing of the whites of the eyes—the entirety of their eyes were a bright, almost fluorescent, yellow.

  “What the fuck is going on here?” David asked as he scanned the infected.

  Walt put the bus into reverse and backtracked to the Spicewood Community Library.

  “Where the hell do you think they’re headed?” David asked once the bus was parked at the library.

  “I have no idea,” Walt said, “and I hope we don’t find out.”

  “What the hell are we going to do now?” Samantha asked. “We’re stuck inside this bus at a library with no place to go.”

  “Our plan hasn’t changed,” said Walt. “Only the way we’re gonna get there has changed.”

  Walt looked through the glove compartment and found a map.

  “This is where we are,” Walt said as he pointed to the map, “and this is where we need to go,” he said as he dragged his finger northeast.

  There was no road in the direction Walt traced, but this was Texas, however, and chances were, the land would be flat and dusty.

  “Looks like we’re about to go off-roading,” David said.

  Walt drove through the library’s parking lot, hopped the bus over the cement parking markers, and headed behind the library to Schoepke Springs. Walt wondered how many of those yellow-eyed creatures there were and hoped to Hell he didn’t encounter them again.

  11

  Ten Miles Outside Schoepke Falls

  Spicewood, Texas

  Butsko saw the billboard for Schoepke Springs. They were ten miles from their destination. The billboard had a picture of the fresh water springs with happy, smiling families enjoying their vacations. Little did those families know that underneath their favorite vacation spot were some of the most cutting-edge weapons the world had ever seen.

  What lay underneath the springs might also be the solution to saving the world.

  “Come in, Butsko,” crackled the CB radio.

  “I’m here, Wilder,” Butsko said into the handset.

  “We’re ten miles out, Sir,” Wilder said. “What’s our approach? Are we going straight to the front gate?”

  “If Spicewood is anything like Marble Falls,” Butsko answered, “then this place will be pretty empty. Let’s take it to the front gate and see what the conditions are.”

  “Roger that, Sir,” Wilder said.

  Butsko expected the journey through Marble Falls to be a dangerous one. The town had a population of about 7,500 people. Butsko was worried they would have to fight their way through the city and waste valuable ammo they didn’t have.

  As they approached Marble Falls, they soon realized that the city was abandoned. There weren’t any humans or zombies roaming the streets. Marble Falls was a ghost town.

  The only thing the soldiers saw as they drove through were random piles of mangled bodies. They assumed the piles were the infected who’d gotten in the way of the yellow-eyed creatures. The piles looked the same as the pile of flesh they’d found on the golf course at Lago Vista.

  Nobody said anything, but they all thought the same thing.

  The yellow-eyed creatures had definitely been through Marble Falls.

  Butsko hated not having the correct intel before going into battle. He knew what to expect from the infected—they’d been fighting them for years. These new creatures, however, were an unknown element.

  An unknown enemy.

  The yellow-eyed creatures had ample opportunity to kill Mears, Vasquez, and Fisher back at the pro-shop, but they’d let them live. But then they’d gone on to butcher Cain and Mane. Butsko couldn’t connect the dots.

  The trucks continued down TX-71 toward their destination. Up ahead was the turn off onto the road which would then take them right to the campground’s front gates.

  The condition of the roads slowed the two military vehicles down, but Butsko expected to be at Schoepke Springs in about twenty minutes.

  12

  Schoepke Springs

  Spicewood, Texas

  Walt had guessed correctly and sighed with relief that the off-road route to the springs was flat with no barriers in the way.

  Walt wanted to be sure they wouldn’t encounter any of those yellow-eyed creatures, so he drove past the Springs’ front gates and flanked the far right side of the property.

  They all noticed that the iron fence that surrounded the property was intact, but that was also their biggest problem. There was no place they could enter the Springs except through the front gate.

  “What if those things are all over the place?” Samantha asked.

  “I know this is not the perfect scenario,” Walt said, “but we’ve been in worse situations, right?”

  Walt looked at David, Cheryl, and Samantha. He knew they were scared. There was something unsettling about those yellow-eyed things they’d seen along the road.

  “At least we haven’t seen any of those things around here,” said Walt as he tried to find something positive to say.

  Walt pulled the church bus around and drove slowly to the front gate. The bus sounded like a tank rolling through a china shop and worried that the noise was attracting all the creatures to their location.

  The entrance was a large iron gate with two rock pillars on either side of the opening, which stood around fifteen feet tall. Walt would feel better after they were on the other side.

  They exited the bus and walked to the gate.

  “How the hell are we going to get in there?” asked Cheryl.

  “This thing is locked tight,” said David as he pulled in vain on the gate.

  Walt looked at the bus, but before he could say anything, he heard noises off in the distance.

  “What the hell?” Walt asked as he walked toward the sound. There was a wide dirt road that led from the main road to the front gate. This was the only way to or from the Springs.

  “Everyone get back in the bus,” said Walt, almost whispering. The noise became louder, and he realized it sounded like a stampede.

  “Back in the bus!” Walt shouted. “Now!”

  The others ran to the bus and Walt shut the doors behind them. He jumped behind the steering wheel and twisted the screwdriver he had jammed into the ignition, but the engine wouldn’t turn over.

  “Dammit!” Walt yelled.

  “Come on, buddy,” David said, obviously trying to remain calm. “Get this thing started.”

  The bus’s engine roared to life just as the first zombie ran down the dirt road. Walt studied the creature for a second and realized this was one of those yellow-eyed things.

  Walt’s eyes grew wide as he saw at least twenty more of those things running behind the first creature, right toward the bus.

  “Holy shit,” Cheryl said.

  Walt quickly moved the bus in front of the gate and shut the engine off.

  “What the hell are you doing, Walt?” Samantha asked.

  “We’re getting over that gate one way or another!” Walt barked back. “If we just drive away, we’ve got nothing and
have nowhere to go. We need to get inside this property.”

  “How the hell do you propose that?” David asked.

  Walt saw the yellow-eyed creatures quickly approaching.

  “I bet this bus is about ten-feet tall,” Walt said as he stood from the driver’s seat. “We get on top of the bus and jump over the gate.”

  “Okay,” Samantha said, “but what’s gonna stop those things from following us?”

  Walt’s face sunk. Before he could say anything, Cheryl spoke.

  “This,” said Cheryl as she held up the remaining can of gasoline and a pistol. “We’ll get over the gate and then we’ll blow up the bus with these.” Cheryl emphasized her point by shaking the gas can and pistol.

  “That plan didn’t work out too well last time,” David said as he remembered Darren’s fate.

  “We’ll be safe behind the gate and far away when it blows,” said Cheryl. “Or you could always take your chances and fight those fuckers off hand-to-hand.”

  The first creature slammed into the bus.

  “Come on!” Walt yelled. “We can get to the top of the bus through here.” Walt pointed to the sunroof-like feature in the ceiling. Around the sunroof was written, God is always looking down at you.

  Cheryl closed her eyes and turned her head as she thrust the crowbar into the sunroof and shattered the glass. After removing the shards from the window frame, she tucked her crowbar into the back of her waistband and pulled herself through the hole.

  The others handed her their backpacks and weapons just as more yellow-eyed creatures joined the first one and started rocking the bus.

  "These bastards are getting stronger,” David said to no one in particular.

  Samantha was the next one through the roof and screamed as she tried to keep her balance.

  David followed Samantha and threw the backpacks over the gate.

  “Come on, Samantha!” David yelled. “I’ll help you over the gate.”

  Samantha grabbed the iron bars and placed her foot against the gate. David pushed against her buttocks to hoist her up higher, but Samantha’s foot slipped and she fell. Samantha managed to grab hold of the iron bars, but now she was dangerously within reach of the creatures below.