The Complete Lethal Infection Trilogy

by Tony Battista

  He soaped his face and ran a straight razor across a strop several times before scraping away his overnight growth. After rinsing off and toweling dry, he studied his reflection in the mirror. As always, he felt his physical appearance was in sharp contrast to, in his mind’s eye, the near-perfection of Vickie’s and he frowned at the sight of his own disfigured form. The scar on his cheek from the firefight at the truck stop was still quite noticeable and the two bite wounds still inflamed and discolored, skin looking dead and withered. The gunshot wound on his lower right side, the nasty gash on his thigh, the uncounted lacerations, punctures and abrasions left him looking distorted and, to his eye, rather grotesque.

  Less than a year earlier, he’d been a prime physical specimen with a solid, muscular chest, six-pack stomach and arms that many a body-builder would envy. Now most of that muscle had dwindled away, his stomach was showing the beginnings of a paunch and he had to admit he was only a shadow of his old, vigorous self. But Vickie loved him with her whole heart and soul, despite the differences in their ages, their backgrounds and their physical appearance. Another smile brightened his face at the thought of this young and vibrant woman, sweet and innocent in so many ways, yet strong and independent, capable not only of taking care of herself, but of defending those she loved. And he was the one she loved most.

  He took a deep breath, letting it out in a quiet sigh, cleaned up after himself, dressed and made his way downstairs to the kitchen to find Hannah already sitting at the table with a cup of coffee.

  “Good morning, Jake,” she greeted him with a smile.

  “Hello, Hannah. You’re up early this morning.”

  “Had to pee,” she answered, matter-of-factly. “I didn’t feel like going back to bed, so I made a pot of coffee.”

  “That would really hit the spot right now.”

  “Sit down. I’ll fetch you a cup,” she told him and she went to the wood-burning stove and filled a mug from the big pot resting there.

  Jake smiled in satisfaction at the first sip.

  “I always enjoy the coffee more when you make it. What’s your secret?”

  “Confidentially,” she whispered while looking around conspiratorially, “I put a few drops of LSD in every pot.”

  Jake just stared at her uncertainly for a moment until she broke out into a big grin and he realized she really was just teasing him.

  “You have the strangest sense of humor,” he laughed. “Half the time I don’t know whether to take you seriously or not.”

  “Actually, I’ve always made coffee in a percolator. We never had an electric coffee maker. John...” here she stopped, her voice faltering for just a moment. “John had this thing about percolators. Do you have any idea how few people used those anymore? You have to use just the right amount and know just how long to let it steep so it doesn’t turn bitter and sprinkle a bit of cold water on top to settle any grounds that might have worked through the screen before pouring it.”

  “I wish you’d teach Vickie how to make a good cup of coffee,” Jake said after taking another sip.

  “Oh, I don’t think her coffee is all that bad. A little sugar, some creamer and it’s almost respectable,” she said with a chuckle. “But I never could understand how anyone can drink it black.”

  “Yeah, I guess some people are just weird. Cream is okay if the coffee is bitter, but I’ll pour it out before I’ll drink it with sugar. Who’s on watch?”

  “Tom’s out on the porch. I was going to take him a cup here directly.”

  “I’ll take it to him,” Jake offered. “I need a smoke anyway.”

  “Filthy habit,” Hannah grinned.

  Jake smiled back at her and headed for the front porch.

  “Morning, Tom,” Jake announced as he handed the cup to his friend.

  “Morning, Jake. I’ve been smelling that coffee for a while now, thanks,” Tom answered, accepting the proffered cup. “Mmm, Hannah?” he asked after tasting it.

  “Well it sure wasn’t Vickie,” Jake chuckled.

  “Yeah, I’m guessing her coffee isn’t what keeps you two together. The Kays are off somewhere on patrol. They should be getting back any time now.”

  “Patrol? Pretty early for that, isn’t it?”

  “I think they’re off ‘communing with nature’, if you know what I mean,” Tom grinned.

  “I don’t like that,” Jake said, frowning. “They have their own room here, and everyone tries to respect each other’s privacy. It’s dangerous to go off away from the group and let your guard down.”

  “Hey, if you want to tell them that, you go right ahead. Kim is the last person I’m going to try to tell what to do!”

  Jake nodded in reluctant agreement, set his cup down on the porch railing near the steps, lit a cigarette and leaned against one of the pillars.

  “It’s been almost too quiet, too peaceful,” he remarked after taking a couple of puffs while scanning the countryside. “I feel like something’s looming right around the corner.”

  “It can’t be too quiet or peaceful for me,” Tom came back. “I like peace and quiet. Anyway, you haven’t got a teenage daughter who keeps bugging you about making another trip to Hollington so she can see her boyfriend.”

  “Well, can you blame her? Everyone else here has a mate except Hannah, and she’s happy to stay single after what happened at the diner.”

  “She’ll get past that someday. She’s a strong woman.”

  Jake reached for his coffee cup with his left hand and stopped suddenly; wincing and drawing it back, tucking his elbow against his side. Tossing the cigarette into the bucket of sand he kept on the porch, he picked up the cup with his right hand and took a sip, trying to hide the fact that his teeth were clenched against the pain.

  “It’s getting worse.” Tom made it a statement rather than a question.

  “It can be bad sometimes right after I get up, until I’ve had a chance to move around a little and loosen it up,” but the strain in his voice was detectable, no matter how he tried to disguise it.

  “Uh-huh.” Tom drained his cup and stood up to stretch. “I’m going in for a second cup. Can you keep an eye out until I get back?”

  “Sure, Tom; you’d better hurry before Vickie wakes up and tries to make a pot herself.”

  “Hey! I heard that!” Vickie admonished from the doorway.

  She stepped out with her own cup of coffee and lightly kicked Jake’s shin before sitting on the porch swing as Tom retreated, smiling, into the house.

  “Good morning, beautiful.”

  “Don’t try to butter me up now, Jacob Lee Harper,” she said with mock sternness. She started to take a sip but stopped short at the sound of a shot. A second shot rang out, and then two more, but both of them were already off the porch, weapons drawn, running toward the sound.

  Tom reappeared and took up position behind a barricade made of railroad ties at the front of the porch. Pete and Carolyn were on the balcony, rifles ready, and Liz and Eve were at the upstairs windows at the back of the house. Hannah crouched near a side window with her own rifle.

  By the time Jake and Vickie reached the end of the driveway, Kate and Kim appeared on the road and waved that everything was okay. Kim’s big Bowie knife was still in her hand, dripping blood, and droplets spattered her face and the front of her blouse and soaked her hand and forearm.

  “What happened?” Jake questioned them.

  “Infected,” Kate said simply. “They’re back. There were three of them down near the big elm and another five coming through the brush on the other side of the road.”

  “Great. I was hoping I was wrong about it being too quiet.”

  “Did any of them look to be alphas?” Vickie asked.

  “No. It looked like they were just wanderers. Kim scanned the area with the binoculars before I opened up on them. There weren’t any others in sight.”

  “Well, we’ll have to get the bodies moved; if there are any others around, the smell will draw them in like fl
ies.”

  “We should step up the patrols,” Kate suggested. “If they’re really coming back, we need to be aware of what’s going on near the farm.”

  “I agree, but I don’t like the idea of you two slipping off by yourselves without letting someone know when and where you’re going.”

  “We can take care of ourselves,” Kim protested, eyes glaring defiantly.

  “I don’t doubt that for a minute under ordinary circumstances, but what if you’d run into a herd instead of only eight? What if you’d gotten into some real trouble and we didn’t know where to look for you?”

  Kim wanted to argue, but she knew he was right.

  “Okay, we’ll run it by you before we go out from now on.”

  “Did you find anything useful on the bodies?”

  “We haven’t checked yet,” answered Kate. “I thought it would be better to let the house know what happened first.”

  Vickie turned and waved her arm at the house, Tom stepping out from behind the barricade to return the gesture, and the four of them moved off toward the scene of the skirmish. Upon arrival, Jake noted that though three of them had been shot, the other five had obviously been taken down by Kim’s knife. Two of them were female and their throats were slashed but the sight of the massive injuries to the males was unsettling. Each of those had been disemboweled and heavily mutilated and all of the men, even the ones Kate shot, had been castrated most viciously. He turned to look at Kim, who was calmly wiping her knife clean against one of her victims’ pants leg, for all the world as if this was simply a routine occurrence and he couldn’t help but shudder.

  One of the dead still wore the scraps of a police uniform and another looked to have been military at one time. Their clothing was rotted and beginning to disintegrate. One had worn through the soles of his shoes and his feet were raw and bloody, in a state that only an infected could ignore for any length of time before unendurable pain stopped it and putrefaction or blood-loss led to death.

  They found nothing of any real note on any of the corpses; one cheap pocketknife and a couple of disposable lighters, but took the time to drag them all close together to make disposal easier, Vickie not failing to note that Jake pointedly avoided using his left arm.

  “That’s good enough,” she finally said when his face began to bead with sweat and his eyes couldn’t conceal the pain any longer. “Let’s get back before the others start to get nervous.”

  Jake agreed and started to turn back toward the house when he noticed the way Kim was looking down at the male corpses, a cruel smile of satisfaction on her face. Not for the first or last time, he felt an icy quiver crawl up his spine. Kate was also staring at her with concern and touched her arm, speaking softly to her.

  “Kim? Are you coming with us?”

  The sound of Kate’s voice seemed to bring her back to the present and she smiled affectionately at her and turned away from the grisly scene.

  Chapter 3: Sniper

  Brooke spotted movement from her position atop one of the guard towers, lowered her binoculars and took up her rifle, peering through the powerful scope. Two infected had just emerged from the tree line some six hundred yards distant. They seemed to be wary of each other, on edge, snarling if they came too close together, as if they were ready to fight at the least provocation. Focusing on the male first, she carefully aligned the crosshairs on the center of its head, then led it just a bit. She squeezed the first trigger until it clicked, then slowly applied light pressure to the second until the rifle spoke and the recoil pad kicked hard at her shoulder. The infected dropped limply as its head exploded under the impact of the heavy projectile, showering the female with blood and brain. Her second shot took half the female’s skull off and she too fell. Brooke made a mental note that the female was her one hundred seventy fifth long-range kill since coming to Hollington.

  Ted called up to her a few moments later and she told him what she had seen. Other sentries were scanning with binoculars for signs of additional unwelcome visitors but no one else saw any more infected. Forty minutes later, her relief scaled the tower and Brooke quickly briefed him, slung her rifle and climbed down, heading for the dining hall and a cup of coffee. She was one of the few residents permitted to go armed while in the compound, though technically, she should have turned in the rifle after cleaning it at the end of her shift. Right now she cared more about the coffee than the rules.

  “So, they’re back,” Phil stated as he sat across the table from her, glancing at the rifle hung on the back of her chair.

  “Only two so far. I didn’t see any sign of any others.”

  “We’ll still have to send a patrol out, drive around in a couple of four-wheelers, check out the area and dispose of the bodies. I guess I always knew they’d be back once winter ended. At least they waited until we finished planting.”

  “Those barricades and obstacles should channel them into narrow lanes if they come back in any kind of numbers again,” Ted added as he and Susan joined them with trays of food.

  “It sounded like they worked pretty well when they tried to overrun Jake’s farm house,” Phil agreed. “I’m glad we were able to talk the committee into implementing his suggestions. They didn’t seem all that excited about letting anyone else have any say in our affairs.”

  “You mean Wyckoff and Morris, don’t you?” said Susan. “I think the rest of them were glad to have his input.”

  “Let’s not start this argument again, all right?” pleaded Phil. “Ron’s the reason this place even exists and has kept all of us alive throughout this whole situation.”

  “I wonder when he’s going to pay us another visit,” put in Brooke to change the subject. “I mean, when they are. Maybe we should look in on them. You know, just to compare notes, see if they’ve had any infected show up there yet?”

  “Brooke, honey, you’re just asking to be disappointed,” Susan assured her. “He and Vickie are an item. Trust me.”

  Brooke frowned and then shrugged and took another sip of coffee, obviously unconvinced.

  “It actually might not be such a bad idea,” Phil threw in. “In fact, I’d feel better if they were closer, for mutual protection. They obviously know how to take care of themselves, being on their own out there for so long with such a small group. You know, we could help them get set up at the old Wilson place off Wolf’s Run Road. It’s got a nice, big house, barns and outbuildings, sits on high ground.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Ted agreed. Turning to Susan he said, “We scouted it out before you joined us, figuring it would be a place to eventually expand as our population grew. Unfortunately, there are actually fewer of us now than when we started.”

  “They’ve already had to abandon one place, two if you count the island,” Susan reminded him. “They’ve put a lot of planning and hard work into the place they’re living in now. They might not want to relocate again.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Ted said. “They seemed pretty excited about the possibility of moving to Cincinnati.”

  “Well, yeah, but there’s an organized government and a military unit there. It’s secure against infected and bandits alike. I’d like to move there myself if they had room for us.”

  “Funny how, with so few people left in the whole country, the whole world, space still seems to be at a premium,” Ted mused.

  “Jake definitely seems to have a practical mind,” Phil said. “He might agree with me that it’s better to be closer to friends, even if it means starting from scratch again. We could at least feel him out; have them take a look at the place. Now that the planting is done, we could spare a few people to help them prepare the site. They might agree to it if they knew they’d have all the help they needed getting it set up.”

  “Well, we’ve already done a lot of preliminary work,” Ted came back. “We’ve cleared the ground for at least a hundred yards all around the buildings and done some repair work on the main house. And all the planted fields were across the road so ther
e’s a clear line of sight for a couple of miles there.”

  “No harm in at least asking, is there?” Brooke looked around at the others.

  “Alright,” Phil decided. “I’ll present it to the committee at tomorrow’s meeting. We could probably head out in a couple days, after we’ve had a chance to scout around and make sure the infected aren’t massing for another attack. Ted, why don’t you take a couple people with you and check out that farm again, just to see if the house is still in decent shape and hasn’t been fouled by the infected?”

  “I’ll do that today. It shouldn’t take more than an hour or so.”

  “It’ll be so nice having… all of them close by,” Brooke sighed.

  “Brooke, the last thing we need is for you to have a school-girl crush on the guy,” Phil admonished. “Promise me you’ll dial it down.”

  She frowned again and turned her attention to her coffee cup.

  “All right, just go get something to eat now while I get a detail together to take care of those bodies.”

  “Darrell and Randy need something to do,” Ted suggested. “Melanie can go along to watch their backs.”

  Phil agreed and went off to notify them. Brooke took a tray through the serving line and sat down again with Ted and Susan.

  “You know, I’ve seen the way Mitch looks at you,” Susan began.

  “I’m not interested in Mitch,” she answered, dismissively. “Oh, he’s a nice enough guy, but he just doesn’t do it for me.”

  “But Jake does,” Susan stated.

  “Why is it that the only guy you’ve been interested in since I’ve known you is the one guy you can’t have?” Ted wondered.

  “Hey!” Susan poked him in the arm.

  “I didn’t- That didn’t come out exactly the way I meant it to,” Ted back-pedaled. “I meant, well… You’re a good-looking woman and there are lots of guys here who’d like to be with you. Why don’t you give one of them a chance instead of pining after someone who’s already taken?”