Jordan Rose Duology (Book 1): Break Away

by J. Michael Favreau

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  It was now about midday, but the sky was mainly overcast creating a grey gloom. That probably meant rain in the next day or two. Not that it mattered. Rose was destined for a laboratory somewhere. If the CDC were still around, she was sure that would mean her death. It was almost funny to Rose, she’d come so far and survived for so long only to be done in by a hit on a computer system.

  The inner circle of the base was mostly unoccupied. There were the usual guards up on the catwalk, but they didn’t seem to be paying her any attention. She hadn’t been able to hear it inside the dining hall, but once outside, Rose became distinctly aware of gunshots. They were sporadic and were coming from all different areas of the wall, but the high frequency struck Rose as odd. Escorted by the group of four soldiers and Lt. Drisco, Rose couldn't really look around at the activity. The men seemed to be focused on their escort and uninterested in the gunfire as they began to cross the grounds of the base. They were headed toward the lone building on the outer wall with the one door and no windows Rose had seen before. It now made sense to Rose that these were likely the holding cells for the base. Leave it to a military base to build a makeshift stronghold and use precious materials to make a jail. Rose almost let out a laugh at the absurdity, smirking instead. It wasn’t a long walk across the grounds, but they’d only made it about halfway when the gunfire seemed to pick up substantially. For the first time, this seemed to get the attention of Lt. Drisco, however his men continued, intent on their escort. As they approached the jail, the gunfire had increased to steady fire and not just one or two places around the wall. All the pillboxes had begun to fire and every guard that Rose could see was shooting, focused mainly on the southern half of the base.

  Lt. Drisco stopped in his tracks followed quickly by his men. Something was very wrong. They knew it, and Rose knew it. The alarm klaxon began to wail confirming Rose’s suspicions. Lt. Drisco glanced at Rose and then looked away toward the command post. He then looked back to Rose, the wheels turning behind his eyes. Over the blare of the alarms, Lt. Drisco yelled to his men “Two of you come with me, and two of you continue to the cells!” Lt. Drisco then ran off toward the command post with two of the men not giving her another look.

  Rose was surprised the two soldiers left with her weren’t continuing to put her into their jail; they just stood there frozen. There was a police term for this that Rose had seen several times at the police academy when people’s stress levels maxed out their brains: the two men were “Vapor-Locked.” Looking into the faces of the two men, Rose realized that they were terrified, wide-eyed and rooted to the spot. At risk to herself, she put her hand on the shoulder of one of the soldiers. He seemed to snap out of his trance and looked at Rose surprised, as if he’d just remembered she was there. Rose could hear the constant clinking of bullet casings as they tumbled down off the metal catwalk and onto the roof of the jail below like metal raindrops. Rose yelled over the noise to the soldier, “We need to get up there and help out!” By the look in his eyes, Rose could tell the soldier was torn between disobeying the order to jail her and helping out what was quickly sounding like a dire situation on the wall. “I’ll be right behind you! Let’s go!” She screamed, throwing as much authority behind her voice as she could muster.

  The soldier elbowed his partner and motioned toward the wall. His partner nodded and they both ran off with Rose following close behind. Rose couldn't blame them for being scared. They’ve been reading and hearing about the horrors of the infected for weeks as they babysat these VIPs in the middle of nowhere. Soldiers barely old enough to buy a drink were now running toward their first major combat situation ever.

  The two soldiers, followed closely by Rose, quickly made their way up the closest stairwell to the top of the wall and out onto the catwalk. The alarm had called everyone in the base to action and this was evident from who was manning the walls. While many were soldiers, there were also many who were not. Housewives, farmers, teenagers, and the elderly stood side-by-side with soldiers firing guns of all shapes and sizes off the wall.

  From where Rose reached the top of the wall, she could see the Canadian side of the base as well as the American side. Rose knew instantly that coming up to the top of the wall had been a mistake. She couldn’t help but gape, open mouthed at the sheer number of infected that were swarming the American side of the wall. From where Rose was standing near the middle of the base, she could see that there were hundreds, possibly thousands of infected at the front gates where she’d come inside only an hour or two before. It was like a writhing sea of humans, a mass of bodies so thick Rose couldn’t even see the road.

  Chapter 10

  Rose had never seen so many people in one place before; much less a writhing mass of infected attempting to get in the base and kill everyone inside. The front gates were holding despite the press, but the wall itself was starting to bend before her eyes from the sheer weight of the bodies now starting to pile up on it. Rose couldn’t help but compare what she was seeing to ants swarming over an anthill. The infected were just piling higher and higher on top of each other creating a heap of sinuous bodies that was slowly scaling the walls.

  Rose was completely alone at the top of the stairs. Her two guards had left to go join the fight, the thought of guarding Rose now the furthest thing from their minds. Rose looked around at the base all around her. There were soldiers and civilians firing their weapons on all sides, but the majority of the soldiers were concentrated near the southern gate on the American side. The Canadian side of the wall was thick with infected as well, but appeared virtually empty by comparison to the sheer volume of infected coming at them from the American side. For a brief moment, Rose considered joining the fight. If the infected kept piling up on top of each other, they’d undoubtedly reach the top of the wall soon and they’d need everyone to hold them back. However on second thought, Rose was currently unarmed and the forty or fifty people inside the base could never hope to hold off this onslaught for any lengthy span of time. Eventually this base would be overrun just like the Green Forks PD had been and Rose was all too familiar with the aftermath of that.

  Rose took one more quick glance around to make sure she wasn’t being watched then ran back down the stairs she’d just come up. Upon reaching the floor of the base, Rose found it completely deserted. There was still the cacophony of gunshots and the constant rain of bullet casings clattering down the metal walls and falling on the roofs of all the base’s structures, but all personnel were up in the catwalks now. Rose could also feel the vibrations in the ground from the horde outside the gates. The front section of wall was now visibly bending from the weight of bodies pushed against it and Rose could hear the occasional creek and moan of metal under tension.

  Remembering the vehicle depot, Rose ran over to the closest Humvee and found it unlocked. Rose rifled through it quickly but couldn’t find a key. Moving on the next two, she couldn’t find a keys in either. Finally, in the overhead visor of the fourth Humvee, Rose found an ignition key. Pocketing it, she ran over to the command post. Peeking in a window, she could see several military officers, huddled around a taller man with short white hair. The man had a hard, wind-blown and leathery face and dark eyes. He wore the oak leaf pins of a Major so Rose assumed it was Major Plant. Major Plant was in deep conversation with Chief Hill as well as several other seemingly high-ranking officials. Knowing that she couldn't enter here without great personal risk, Rose moved on to a building next door. This appeared to be a storage shed and Rose found her backpack and guns in a neat pile outside the door. Cracking open the door and peeking inside, Rose found the shed to be full canned goods.

  As Rose strapped on her backpack, she could now start to hear the screams of the infected, loud and piercing over the sound of the gunfire. They’d likely reached the top of the wall now. It’d only be a matter of time now before the base was overrun and Rose needed to hurry. Slinging both her AR-15 and her shotgun over her shoulders and sliding her
handguns into her waistband, Rose sprinted out of the shed and over to the Humvee. Rose opened the back hatch, threw in her gear, and slammed the hatch closed. Taking stock of the far walls, it was clear the battle wasn’t going well. The screams of the infected were now deafening, almost overpowering the sounds of gunfire completely. Rose could distinctly hear the screams of soldiers as well and the occasional soft thud of a body falling from the catwalk. Knowing it was only a matter of a few minutes before the infected began to pour over the top of the walls, Rose decided to make one more supply run. Rose sprinted over to the supply shed and searched quickly for a sack or bag to put things in. Rose located a stack of spare pillows and grabbing one, pulled out the pillow with one hand and took the case with the other. Rose then began to indiscriminately thrown any canned goods she could grab into the bag. When the case was almost full, Rose ran out of the shed and made for the Humvee. Rose had only been in the shed for a minute or two, but the battle on the catwalks had changed dramatically. The soldiers were still fighting, shooting the infected as they came over the walls in several different locations, but there were just too many. For every one infected they shot, five more would take its place, and those five were either falling to the ground inside the base or attacking the remaining soldiers.

  Rose ran for the Humvee, her pulse pounding in her ears as exertion strained her lungs. The ground was littered now with bullet casings and blood stains. As Rose ran, a body fell from the sky ahead of her. As she approached, she realized it was an infected man. Apparently uninjured from the fall, he was now rising to its feet facing Rose. As Rose approached, the infected man crouched, hands up, teeth exposed ready to pounce on her. Rose slipped the pillow case of canned food off her shoulder and heaved it around. As the man lunged for Rose, the sack of cans connected with his face and he staggered aside with a grunt as Rose continued past him. The momentum of the hit carried Rose in a pirouette causing her to stumble but luckily not fall. Looking over her shoulder, she could see the man was now lying face-down and not moving. Heaving the bag over her shoulder, Rose continued on. As she reached the Humvee, she could see that the battle was all but lost. The infected had now started to pour over the walls at less-defended locations and the soldiers near the front walls were being surrounded on the catwalk. Her would-be jail had been almost crushed from the force of the falling infected as they streamed over the walls and set to destroying the base. Luckily for Rose, the vehicle depot was at the northern end of the base opposite the front entrance and backed up to the Canadian side of the wall. Rose rounded the Humvee to the driver’s side and threw the sack of cans into the back seat.

  Jumping into the driver’s seat, Rose realized she would need to back out the Humvee as it had been driven into its spot before driving it away. As Rose backed out the Humvee and threw it into drive, it became apparent to her that leaving out the front gates wasn’t going to happen. The front half of the base was now completely swarmed with infected and more were pouring over the wall every second. Even driving over them, there were just too many infected standing in her way and she’d never make it out the front gate. The infected mob was advancing toward her and the command post. With the doors closed and the windows up, Rose doubted if she’d be able to hear any gun shots anyway, but even if she could, there likely were very few. The air was dominated by the screams of the infected as they began to ravage the base.

  Desperate now to escape, Rose hammered the gas and cranked the wheel of the Humvee completing a 180 degree spin in a cloud of dust. Rose was now facing the northern wall, but it was just that, a wall. “Maybe there is another access to the Canadian side just like the American side,” Rose thought to herself quickly. Rose could see the mass of infected drawing close in her rearview mirror and knew she had to make a decision. Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw movement near the passenger side door. Rose unholstered her Glock as the front passenger side door flew open and Lt. Drisco jumped into the passenger seat, sweat and fear plain on his face. Lt. Drisco was bloody but didn’t appear to be wounded and he was panting, out of breath.

  “This place is fucked, we have to get out of here!” Lt. Drisco exclaimed, right hand still on the open passenger door. Rose just looked at him in stunned silence.

  “Fucking drive!” Lt. Drisco leaned out the door and fired a few shots. “The gate’s right in front of us. It’s just two layers of steel this thing will slice right through it.” Lt. Drisco yelled, motioning to the wall in front of them while ducking back into the passenger seat.

  Despite the situation, Rose paused a second to think. “It might be easier to survive as a team-have someone to share the load,” Rose thought to herself. “But, he is a fucking asshole and an asshole is the last type of person I want to spend the next few years with alone in the woods.” Rose smiled at Lt. Drisco who cocked his head to the side and gave her a confused, half smile in return. “Sorry Lieutenant, I only travel alone, rules are rules.”

  Lt. Drisco cocked his head frowning at Rose’s words and didn’t even see her right hand tilt the Glock up toward his face. The bullet shattered Lt. Drisco’s teeth and then burst out of the back of his head. The blast made Rose’s ears ring as Lt. Drisco’s blood sprayed all over the still-open passenger side door. Even before Lt. Drisco’s body tumbled from the Humvee and hit the ground, Rose had floored the gas lurching toward the wall. The infected had just begun to reach the back of the Humvee as she sped away from them kicking up a huge trail of dirt and burnt rubber. The passenger side door slammed closed from the force of the acceleration after expelling Lt. Drisco’s body. Rose aimed right for where Lt. Drisco had pointed and seconds later, sheared through the wall, bursting out into the street on the Canadian side of the border. Several unsuspecting infected on the other side of the wall slammed into the front of the Humvee; one rolled up and over the top before sailing off the back of the truck and slamming into the road while others bounced off the sides or were crushed under her tires.

  Rose didn’t slow down for many miles beyond the base, panic and shock keeping her in a speed-fueled trance. Rose found herself feeling almost no regret or remorse for killing Lt. Drisco, the passenger side window still covered in a red sheen of his blood. She’d done what she thought best for her survival, but Rose was a little surprised how easily she’d come to that decision. Rose was becoming less and less troubled with each life she was forced to take. But she’d done what she had to, Rose told herself. Some people were likely to drown in this rising tide of death, but not her.

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  The battery on Rose’s phone was flashing and she knew that she didn’t have much power left. Rose had been driving north for a long time and it was getting near dark. Using the GPS on her phone would drain the battery she knew, but Rose only had a very vague idea of where she was going. Rose had a pretty good idea the area she wanted to get to, but what, if anything she’d find in that area, she didn’t know. Rose decided to pull over and search the Humvee for a map so when her phone died, at least she’d have some kind of direction. The area Rose was in now was further north than she’d ever traveled when hunting and everything was completely unfamiliar to her. Rose confirmed she was driving through northern Quebec between the New Brunswick border and the Gulf of St Lawrence. The closest town to where she was currently at was called “Paimpol” which was east of a larger town called “Amqui” which appeared to be about the size of Green Forks. This worried Rose as she needed to avoid any place where concentrations of people lived. The last thing she wanted to do was stumble into another situation like Green Forks or the base.

  Rose knew that she needed to take some sort of risk though. Her Humvee wasn’t exactly fuel-efficient and she was down to about a quarter tank of gas. Eventually Rose would either have to abandon the Humvee or find a place to get some gas and abandoning her only mode of transportation was just not an option. Paimpol seemed less of a risk since it likely had fewer people and appeared more secluded, so Rose decided she’d go there. Being a military vehicle, R
ose was able to find several maps of Northern New England and Maine that gave her a very basic idea of the area she was in but nowhere near the detail the map on her phone had. The area she was in was on the periphery of the maps, not the focus of them. Rose made as many notes as she could that might be helpful once her phone eventually died. Rose decided that after finding gas in Paimpol, she’d then continue east into the deep woods of Quebec. Far to the east of Paimpol Rose found a large park called the Parc National de Gaspesie. Chancing a quick internet search, Rose found through the park’s website that they offered a cluster of cabins for year-round camping. Something finally seemed to be going Rose’s way. With a little luck, these cabins would be unoccupied and could serve as her sanctuary for the winter. If they were occupied...Rose decided she’d deal with that when she had to.

  Continuing her trek north, it was fully dark by the time Rose was about twenty minutes outside of Paimpol. She’d started to see the occasional abandoned car in the road, and got excited after the first one at the prospect of gas, but that excitement quickly turned to disappointment. Every abandoned car she’d come across had been burned. They were just charred hulks of steel in the shapes of the cars they used to be. Rose had no idea why this had happened but it wasn’t random, it was every car she came upon. The closer she got to Paimpol, the more frequently she came across these burned cars. They were positioned in ways that blocked the road in patterns so vehicles would have to slow way down and navigate around them. This pattern only seemed to get tighter the closer she got to town. Having her headlights off, it was becoming harder and harder to navigate the road. When Rose got close to what she thought was the outskirts of town, she parked and went forward on foot. Rose found the road into town was completely blocked by a large pile of cars, four or more cars high and all burned, blocking the entire width of the road as well as onto the green space on either side of the road. The barriers only ended at both wood lines preventing any vehicle from driving around it. Rose’s first instinct was to go and investigate further, but on second thought, she went back to the Humvee, did a careful U-turn in the road and drove back the way she’d come.