Extinction Level Event (Book 1): The Turn

by J. Walker

  They were observed to consume anything and everything from a feral dog to a stray cow. Those who had become infected seemed to have a hive mentality and were observed to move in small groups or herds. A grunt or groan from one infected person would attract other infected individuals. Only one purpose had taken control over these disease ridden creatures, to continue spreading the contagion.

  Eventually I finished reading all of the entries and a few of the classified documents. A few members of his unit had become infected during the mission. The infections were the result of bites or scratches from a run in with someone who’d been exposed to the disease. Upon their initial encounter with the infected, they believed the individual to be harmless because it was a young child trapped in the muddy banks of a partially frozen stream.

  One soldier had been scratched. He eventually succumbed to the fever and accompanying illness. When the infection had completed its hostile take-over of the soldier’s body, he eventually ‘turned’. He then proceeded to attack two others in the group who ended up losing their lives and in due course, they also ‘turned’. In the span of a mere twenty-four hours, three of their group had perished.

  They had been given orders to remove dog tags only and bury their dead immediately. At first, they’d laughed at the orders, believing that it would never come to that. With the death of the three men and their subsequent ‘turn’, they were no longer laughing.

  I’d reached the conclusion that Derek and the few surviving members of his dispatch had reached a small village. He had managed to wrap up a few more entries and bribe a villager to send the package to his wife. What happened to him after that, I would probably never know. Tragically, his wife might never know the truth either.

  John was right. This was no bird flu but it was sounding more outrageous with each entry I opened and read. I was beginning to get the feeling that this was nothing more than a deceptive hoax or trick on the Ex’s part. My face reddened, I began to feel angry and embarrassed that I had allowed myself to get caught up in all of this. I closed the folder containing all the journal entries, hoping it was exactly that – a hoax.

  Marcus still wasn’t home and I’d finished eating my dinner in a bag. I went to the kitchen to toss the remnants in the garbage. Putting on a fresh pot of coffee, I tidied up while it brewed. The cats were meowing for food and I needed a short distraction while waiting for my coffee.

  With coffee in hand and about half an hour to spare until my husband was expected home, I tried to find a movie on TV. I settled for whatever was on Showcase when I remembered I’d left the flash drive in the computer. The main folder was still open and the two folders I hadn’t looked at caught my eye. I decided to open the ‘videos’ folder. Again they appeared to be in chronological order.

  I allowed my curiosity to once again reign victorious. I doubled clicked on the video file that had the same date as the entry detailing the run in with the infected child. This particular entry bothered me more than any other. How could a child survive being half frozen in a stream? As a mother I couldn’t begin to comprehend even seeing such a horrible thing but then again, I was not a seasoned soldier who’d probably seen far worse.

  The video loaded and began to play. It was no more than a few minutes long. The image was pitiful. The camera zoomed in on a child, likely around seven or eight years of age. The child appeared to be trapped in the frozen mud and ice that formed at the edge of a stream. Guttural, throaty sounds issued from its mouth, sending a chill down my spine. There was a horrible lesion on the area between the shoulder and neck. The wound, although it festered terribly, looked like an older injury. It resembled a vicious bite, as though something or someone had been chewing voraciously on the child’s neck. Torn muscles and snapped tendons were bulging from the site and thick, black ichorous fluid hung in stringy, frozen strands. I was beginning to feel ill and my Big Mac meal threatened to come back up.

  “We got one!” A voice called out from behind the cell phones camera.

  It must have been Derek’s voice. There was a slightly familiar ring to it.

  One of the men went closer to the child’s injured body and seemed to delight in teasing the poor thing. There was laughter and friendly teasing between the men. Yet I was relieved when someone finally spoke up, telling the men to stop and have a little respect.

  The unidentified man leaned in closer to the child but at this comment turned to face the camera. He was grinning and laughing. The child’s mouth snapped at the soldier and somehow it managed to wrench its arm free from the frozen muddy banks of the stream. The arm snapped at the wrist exposing ragged, white fragments of shattered bone. The ruined arm reached out and raked the face of the grinning soldier, drawing thick, dark lines of blood.

  The soldier staggered away from the body still writhing in the frozen mud, his hand holding the side of his face. Still, the child continued trying to wrench itself free. With a sickening pop, its legs broke free at the knee joints. Even then, despite such a grievous injury, it crawled across the ground towards the injured soldier.

  Finally another man stepped into view. He placed a booted foot on the face and plunged a large, serrated knife into its chest. Even this did not stop the infected child from continuing its advance. Only now it reached out to claw at a new victim. The soldier turned and placed his foot on the head this time and again, the large knife came down. This time plunging deep into the child’s skull. It did not move again. Its milky white eyes continued to vacantly stare balefully into the camera. That was the image that shook me the most, the staring milky white eyes.

  Derek spoke again. “Yeah, bird flu.”

  I was sickened by what I was seeing but despite the shocking images, I continued to watch. My hands shook terribly as I tried to sip my coffee but I forced myself to think that I was watching a horror movie and nothing more.

  “Come on!” I cried out loudly, desperately wanting a cigarette even though I’d quit while I was pregnant with the twins.

  Unconsciously, I had moved to the very edge of my seat and the sound of my own voice startled me yet again. I leaned back heavily against the sofa, completely shocked by what I was seeing. The breath I’d been holding in escaped with a loud rush and my heart jumped in fear.

  Suddenly, I was filled with anger at John for playing such a cruel trick on me. I was also angry at myself because I had clearly fallen for it. There was no way this had really happened. It simply wasn’t possible but it had looked so real and of course there was Derek. I’d recognized his voice and I knew that he was real. It just didn’t make sense and my mind reeled from the grotesque images in the footage.

  “Hey hun!” I had been so engrossed in the thoughts racing through my mind that I hadn’t heard Marcus come in. “Where is everyone?” He asked. “It’s too quiet.”

  “You scared me!” I exclaimed, rushing to close all the open windows on the computer but forgetting to remove the flash drive. “And I sent everyone away for the night.” I replied a little flirtatiously, with a wink and a smile.

  My heart was still racing because of the images I’d seen and everything I’d read in the last hour or so. I was shaken and angry but quickly covered up my emotional state, not wanting Marcus to know I was upset. I didn’t want him to see the contents of the flash drive and believe that I’d been duped into believing yet another ridiculous conspiracy theory. I wanted to forget everything about it and simply enjoy this quiet night alone with my husband. Jumping up from the sofa, I gave Marcus a warm embrace and a long, lazy kiss.

  “Mmmmmmm.” He said slowly, eagerly returning the kiss. “Nice. Very nice.”

  Chapter Four

  I woke up in the middle of the night from a horrible nightmare about zombies. Stretching out sluggishly in the huge bed, I stared at the dark ceiling for a moment or two before reaching across the bed to curl up beside Marcus.

  The bed next to me was cold and empty, Marcus wasn’t there. I sat up slowly, trying to collect my bearings and wearily tried to piec
e together the night’s events. With a groan. I began to think that maybe Marcus and I were getting a little too old to be smoking pot. Occasionally he got the late night munchies and liked to binge on cookies in the middle of the night. I assumed that’s what he’d been up to.

  I tossed the warm bed covers aside and stared blankly at the digital clock on the bedside table. It was only three-thirty in the morning. Sitting at the side of the bed, I stretched and yawned before finally forcing myself to actually get out of the comforting warmth of the bed. I made a quick detour to the bathroom before heading downstairs to see where Marcus was.

  It was quiet downstairs but a small light was still burning brightly in the living room. Marcus had fallen asleep on the sofa with the computer on his lap and his tablet on the floor. I smiled wistfully to myself and gently removed the laptop from its precarious perch. My heart stopped when I noticed the flash drive still in its port. I quickly turned the laptop around to see if he’d viewed any of the folders. With dismay it looked as though he’d been watching the videos. My heart began to sink.

  Marcus was a sound sleeper so I was able to return both the computer and tablet to the desk, reconnecting them both to their chargers without disturbing him. As I quickly closed all the open windows on both devices and removed the flash drive, I heard his voice come from behind me, just as I was in the process of shutting everything down.

  “Hey.” He said groggily. “What are you doing?”

  I slipped the flash drive into my pocket before I answered. “Just putting everything away. You fell asleep on the couch again.”

  I turned to him and smiled. “Come back to bed.”

  Marcus was the most down to earth person I knew. I wanted to avoid the embarrassment I was sure to face if he wanted to discuss what he’d seen on the flash drive. He was always the strong one, the stable one. He was firmly grounded while I lived with my head in the clouds. While Marcus was logical, he could be a little too skeptical at times. He observed everything carefully and looked at every possible angle before accepting anything as fact. Marcus wasn’t one to make hasty decisions.

  On the other side of the coin was me. I was the one who fell for the conspiracy theories, believing in the supernatural and going to the psychic fair twice a year. I never missed reading my daily horoscope. I loved a good horror movie but then had bad dreams at night. Regardless of Marcus’ skepticism, he always supported my belief in something and did so without ridicule or contempt. I had to give him credit for that.

  “Who gave you that thing?” He asked in a sleepy voice.

  “What thing?” I asked, quickly heading back to the stairs, hoping to avoid the conversation.

  “The flash drive in your pocket.” He said, sneaking up the stairs behind me and putting his arm around my waist.

  He reached into my pocket and pulled the flash drive out. “Where did this come from?”

  I stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to look at him with an embarrassed grin. “I know, it’s stupid but I’m not getting sucked into this one!”

  “Who did you get it from?” He asked again.

  “John and Amy gave it to me last weekend.”

  “Do you know the soldiers in the videos?”

  “Did you watch the videos?” I returned his question with one of my own, still hoping to avoid this discussion.

  His eyes widened a little bit and he sighed heavily before answering. “Yeah, I did. That’s some messed up shit. Did you watch them too?”

  “I only watched one. I couldn’t watch any more. But it’s not real. There’s no way.” I answered, avoiding eye contact.

  “Do you know any of the soldiers in that video?” He asked again.

  “Yes, I know who one of them is. He was an old online gamer buddy of John’s back when we were married.”

  “Maybe we should talk to John and Amy about it. Maybe they know more than what they’ve already shared and are just gauging our reaction. I think we should look into what they might have to say.”

  I gave him a strange look and headed into the bedroom. I didn’t want him to see the surprise on my face. He couldn’t be serious. I didn’t want him to be serious because in reality, I was frightened by what I’d seen.

  Logic and rational thought denied something like this could happen but I knew Derek. I’d known him for the few years that John and I had been married. We’d shared conversations over the phone, I’d become email buddies with his wife. Over the course of a few years, our two families had grown to be quite close.

  “You’re kidding.” I said, sitting apprehensively on the edge of the bed.

  He sighed as he sat down on the bed beside me. “Let’s just see what they have to say.”

  I took his warm hand in mine and felt a cold finger of fear wind its way down my spine.

  “Sure. I’ll message one of them.” I answered quietly, my voice small and uncertain but it still seemed far too loud in the oppressive silence of the room.

  “There are videos and blogs online that might actually support this, you know. It took a lot of digging but I did find a few things to back this up. It could be nothing but these days, I don’t trust governments anywhere and if any government knew this was happening, the last thing they’d do is tell us. Even if it was happening in our own back yard.”

  “Then why isn’t anything on the news?” I demanded, my voice sounded a little louder than I would have liked. “Why wouldn’t this guy have sent it to the media instead of his wife? Like Edward Snowden or some other real whistle blower would do!”

  “Number one, it’s looks as though it’s happening in remote regions of very distant foreign countries and at least one communist country. That’s the most understandable reason for no media attention. Although not too long ago there was some talk about a bird flu outbreak. That might just be a cover up story by the governments of the countries affected.” He replied in his reliable and sensible manner.

  I fidgeted nervously with the bed covers. He looked at me and smiled, giving my hand a comforting squeeze.

  “And could you imagine the civil unrest that would be happening? We’d all be living under martial law. It would be anarchy. And if this outbreak happened here, in those circumstances, it would spread like wildfire. There’d be no containing it. So while the going is good, it might be in our best interest to at least look into this. To prepare for the worse while hoping for the best. To be safe. We have to think about the kids and their well-being. Whatever needs to be done, will be done. It’s best to be prepared. For anything and everything.”

  “I’m just…..I don’t know.” I couldn’t find the words to explain the thoughts racing through my mind in that moment.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Emily. It’s scary. But we can do this and if we’ve already got this heads up, there is a lot we can do. It sounds like the cold winter has stopped the spread for now but it’s only a matter of time before it possibly picks up again. With spring and then summer around the corner, the potential for it to spread beyond its current borders is huge.”

  I remained silent and fearful. My mind carefully digested everything he was saying as I considered the ramifications of an outbreak like this. The consequences could be dire if the government remained idle.

  “We have the means to prepare for almost anything. And on the bright side, if nothing happens, we’ll have a hell of a yard sale this summer!”

  Marcus was trying to make light of the situation in an effort to subdue my unease. I looked around the bedroom, studying the results of our combined efforts over the years. Our hard work together, as a family, was present in every nook and cranny of this house, our home. I knew without doubt, the decisions and the sacrifices we were going to make based on the contents of one small flash drive were going to be huge. I wasn’t sure if I was mentally or emotionally prepared for what lay ahead. I knew one thing for certain. An outbreak like this one in a city this size was nothing short of a death sentence.

  “Hand me my phone.” I said. “Y
ou’re closer.”

  Marcus reached across to the bedside table for my phone and handed it to me. I sent a quick text message to both John and Amy.

  ‘We’re ready to talk about our options.’

  The message was quite simple and there was no turning back.

  Chapter Five

  The weeks and months that followed were a flurry of activity. While Marcus and I had the financial means to undertake such a huge project, John and Amy did not have the same kind of assets from which to draw. Marcus and I carried the bulk of the financial burden and I argued with him about this but he maintained his stance. He reasoned that it was a fair arrangement, considering that John and Amy had chosen to include us in this revelation.

  They sold their small farm house and were ready to take on a much larger property about four and a half hours northwest of the border city. It was the perfect location to bug out to for a short time. Everything hinged on the progression of the outbreak and if it ever appeared within our borders. We were all hopeful that we would never see it.

  The four of us had taken a recent weekend trip to visit the property. No matter how often I went there, I was always amazed by how large the farmstead truly was. The property had at least six to seven acres of land and it was definitely more than adequate for both of our families. I couldn’t believe it had been purchased at such an amazing price but the property had been a foreclosure. The bank simply wanted such a large and essentially useless parcel of land off their hands. They eagerly accepted the low offer we made.

  Marcus and I made sure that we were all on the necessary legal documents. It was done this way in order to protect our financial contribution if the project turned out to be in vain. We had to cover our asses no matter what. We would all be shelling out a small fortune to get this operation off the ground. There was a lot of work to be done and a short period of time in which to have everything completed.