The Complete Lethal Infection Trilogy

by Tony Battista

  “Hello, Jake,” Ted smiled as he shook the other man’s hand. “You know everybody here with me, I think.”

  “Owen,” Eve called happily as she joined the group. The two of them started their own conversation as they drifted off by themselves.

  “Well, maybe she won’t be so mopey now, anyway,” Tom allowed as he came up to shake Ted’s hand.

  Introductions were made all around and the two groups gathered on the big front porch, Kate standing watch on the upper porch with a rifle and binoculars.

  “So, is this a social visit, Ted?” Jake asked after everyone who wanted one had a bottle of beer in hand.

  “Yeah, mostly. Phil wanted to know how well you were getting along. I see you’ve done a lot of work here, setting up the defenses. Looks like you’ll have a nice crop this year too, from what I can see.”

  “We’re doing all right,” Pete put in. “Now, what’s the real reason you’ve come all this way?”

  “The infected are back,” Ted sighed. “We had our first sighting a few days ago. There were only two of them and they were both put down, but the next day seven or eight of them turned up.”

  “We’ve had to deal with them, too. So far, they haven’t come in numbers large enough to be a real worry, two or three or so almost daily, but it’s probably only a matter of time,” Jake told him.

  “We have a proposal to make you,” Ted continued. “Phil thinks it would be safer for all concerned if you were to set up a lot closer to Hollington. We’ve scouted out a big farmhouse on Wolf’s Run Road, looks to be some bigger than this place. It sits up on a small hill, has a big barn and a number of outbuildings, a good well. We’d help you to get things set up there, make the place secure, defensible. It’s only two miles, maybe a little less, from Hollington, so we’d be close enough for mutual support.”

  Jake stood up and walked over to the railing. He lit up a cigarette and looked out at the crops they’d spent so much sweat getting into the ground, at the concentric lines of obstacles and barricades they’d built, at the house they’d made into a home for all of them and considered the people who’d become his family. Even though he was the one who’d earlier mentioned the possibility of moving should the need arise, now that it was formally proposed, he was uncertain. Ted didn’t say anything, waiting patiently while Jake mulled over his offer.

  “We could at least have a look, Jake,” Vickie said at last. “No harm in looking it over. It might be an even better place than we’ve got now.”

  “I suppose,” he agreed, however reluctantly. “What do the rest of you think? It’ll be a lot more hard work, pulling up stakes yet again and getting set up on a new site. Even with help from Hollington it’ll be a long time before we can make it into a home like the one we have here.”

  “I think we should look it over,” Liz gave her opinion.

  “I go along with that,” Hannah put in. “But Jake is still the head of our family. No offense to you, Ted, or Phil either, but Jake is the one we all trust. If we decide to move, it would have to be with the understanding that Jake, not Phil, is still in charge.”

  “I agree,” Kim stated, the striking tone of her voice capturing the attention of all. “We will not submit to anyone’s authority, not allow anyone to absorb us!”

  “Phil never said anything about taking over your group,” Ted quickly put in. “Anyway, he isn’t so much our leader as our, I guess, our coordinator. He feels out the people of the community, carries their concerns and needs to a committee of seven people who make all the important decisions. Phil just sees to it that they’re carried out.”

  “I have no problem with it as long as Jake remains in charge,” Hannah declared. “This is the way we all want it, am I right?” she asked while looking over each of her friends’ faces. “We need to be part of something larger, part of a real community if we truly want to rebuild a civilization.” Everyone nodded or spoke up in agreement, Kim maintaining an expression of suspicion.

  “It’s really up to you, Jake,” Pete put in quietly. “You were just telling me the other day how hard it’s been pulling up stakes so often. We’ll go along with whatever you decide.”

  Jake looked out again at the planted fields, the tall trees, the flower gardens so carefully and lovingly tended by Liz and Eve and Vickie. He turned back to study the faces of the people he’d struggled to protect, to provide a safe home for, knowing that the decision had to be the right one for them, not just for him. He took a last drag from his cigarette and dropped it into the sand bucket.

  “We’ll at least look it over. If it’s a viable site, a place we can not only defend but a place where we can feel comfortable, make into a home, then we’ll talk it over and see what we want to do about it. That’s as much as an answer as I can give you until we see it.”

  “That’s fair enough,” Ted agreed.

  “I hope you do decide to do it,” Susan said, taking Hannah’s hand. “I’m very happy there with Ted, but I miss you guys so much.”

  “I, too, think it would be good for you to move closer,” Joaquin said, looking at Kim, smiling. “I think you would be happy there.”

  Kim looked back at him briefly and narrowed her eyes slightly, then ignored him.

  “How many people are there at Hollington right now?” Hannah switched topics.

  “There are sixty-seven of us now,” Susan answered, “thirty-eight men and twenty-nine women.”

  “No children?” Carolyn asked.

  “Not many children seem to have survived,” Ted let out a sigh. “Owen is our youngest resident by at least five years. I understand that there are quite a few younger children in Cincinnati, though.”

  “There’s some hope for the future then, isn’t there?” Liz smiled.

  “There’s always hope,” Ted agreed.

  “Infected heading this way,” Kate called from the upper porch and the entire group armed themselves and took up positions in a smooth, almost choreographed routine.

  Five infected, loosely grouped together and followed by more than a dozen others in ones and twos were approaching from the east. None of them were obviously alphas, but the first group seemed to be trailing one male in the lead. Vickie put an arrow into his chest at a hundred paces and the four with him stopped to stare at the twitching form writhing on the ground. She and Kim each dropped another with their bows before Kate called down that there was no sign of any others in the vicinity and Pete, Tom and Kim advanced on the remaining infected. Ted and Joaquin started as well, only to be held back by Jake who quietly informed them that they’d only be in the way. Between Pete’s machete, Tom’s crowbar and Kim’s very impressive Bowie knife, all the infected were dispatched in under a minute. Pete and Tom took down three and two respectively, using enough force to kill then moving on to the next. Kim slashed wildly with her knife, disemboweling, nearly decapitating, and savagely ripping flesh apart in an orgy of violence until she stood alone among them, spattered with blood and panting for air, eyes actively seeking more victims. Tom took a step in her direction and she whirled on him, knife at the ready, a feral snarl issuing from her lips and he hastily backtracked, holding his palms out toward her. She turned back to the eviscerated corpses, her intention to castrate the males, mutilating and removing their genitals completely, but Kate, having moved quickly to within a few yards, called out to her as she bent over the first and she looked up to see all eyes focused on her in disbelief.

  “Madre de Dios!” Joaquin was obviously impressed with the way Kim had taken out more than half the infected herself with ruthless efficiency. “Remind me to stay on your good side!”

  Kim, spattered with blood from her face to her knees, stared intensely at him for just a moment before she wiped the knife on what remained of the shirt one of the infected wore, but that brief glance sent a chill down his spine. It was a few more minutes of work to search the bodies and load them into the bed of the 350. Tom and Pete, with Carolyn riding along to cover them, drove off to dump the corpses
while Kim carried a motley collection of pocketknives, lighters and other odds and ends to the porch, placing them on a small table. She pointedly ignored Joaquin as she passed within inches of his admiring gaze, heading around behind the house to clean up.

  “You certainly know how to entertain guests,” Ted commented after the truck drove away. “I have to say, I’m impressed as hell by how organized that all was. We could learn a thing or two from you at Hollington.”

  “Necessity is a good teacher and the will to survive makes you a good pupil.”

  “This Kim, she is a truly impressive fighter,” Joaquin commented, “she seems very enthusiastic.”

  “She seems like someone you should be frightened of, Joaquin,” Ted came back. “I know I’m going to give her a wide berth!”

  “Such a tiny, delicate looking woman,” Joaquin sighed.

  “I wouldn’t get any ideas about her,” Kate warned him.

  “We have only just met,” he smiled back, “but she has already made quite an impression.”

  Kate scowled but refrained from further comment.

  “We really don’t have much in the way of accommodations for visitors,” Liz’s voice was apologetic, “but we can set up some cots in the living room.”

  “Susan can stay with me tonight,” Hannah offered. “I don’t need that whole room all to myself.”

  “Cots will be fine for us,” Joaquin said, not able to keep himself from glancing at the corner of the house around which Kim had disappeared. “We have all slept on floors and in alleys and on rooftops since this infection began.”

  “All right. Let’s get some lunch and you can tell us a little more about this other house,” Jake said.

  Lunch consisted of a stew made with venison, potatoes and carrots along with some wild onions and mushrooms and was as good as anything the Hollington kitchen served. Joaquin tried several times to strike up a conversation with Kim. She was coolly polite, answering his questions as briefly as possible and offering no additional comments until he finally got the idea that she simply was not interested in talking then; there would be time to try again later. Kate was annoyed initially, mostly concerned about how Kim would react to this unsolicited attention, but was amused when she saw how Kim handled it, almost feeling sorry for Joaquin.

  Bellies full, the visitors sat out in the yard with Jake and Pete while the rest attended to guard duty and other chores. The new place, as Ted described it, seemed a very likely site with a larger main house, outbuildings, a good well and easy access to the road that lead back to Hollington. Jake made no comment one way or the other about it, preferring to see it for himself first.

  “What is the story with Kim?” Joaquin asked during a lull in the conversation.

  “There’s some history there,” Jake reluctantly answered. “Nothing I feel I can discuss without her initiating it. Let’s just say she’s had a rough time.”

  “So. We’ve all had it hard since this infection began. So we all have something in common. She is involved with any of you?”

  “Joaquin,” Jake said in a low, serious voice, “If you’re entertaining any ideas of a relationship between the two of you, stop now. Tread lightly around her, my friend. Kim is a very dangerous woman.”

  “But this only intrigues me all the more!”

  “If you pursue this, both of you will get hurt; she, emotionally and you, physically. She may or may not offer you a warning first, but if she does and you don’t heed it I can promise the very least she’ll do is see to it you’re never of any use to a woman again. And I am deadly serious about that.”

  Joaquin chewed his lower lip for a moment before nodding reluctantly. All the same, he was even more fascinated with her.

  Chapter 7: Bandits

  “Damn! They made more improvements!” Gabe Thomas was not happy as he scanned the Hollington walls with his binoculars from a shallow ditch behind a low, weeded berm. “I wonder where the hell they got all that barbed wire!”

  “So let’s just hit one of the smaller places! I don’t know why you’re so damned obsessed with taking this place down. It’s a fucking fortress!”

  “Shut up, Cy! I’m running things here!”

  “Yeah, you’re running things. Only we lost six men the last time we hit this place and we didn’t get nothin’ out of it!”

  “He’s right, Gabe,” Dan put in as Gabe raised his arm up to backhand Cy. “Smackin’ us all around ain’t gonna change nothin’. We lose any more men on this place and you ain’t gonna have a gang to lead anymore! Some of the men are already grumbling about needing a new leader.”

  “Who’s doin’ the grumbling? That asshole Parker has to be one of ‘em!” Gabe barked out.

  “I ain’t sayin’ any names. It’s not just any one person; a lot of the guys are unhappy. They’re fed up knocking their heads against a brick wall for no return!”

  Before Gabe could snarl back a retort, Nate Allen, careful to keep low, out of sight of the walls, rushed up to the group, out of breath, and clearly agitated.

  “Found what looks like nine or so dead infected in a ditch over by that old burnt down cabin.”

  “Dead how?”

  “Shot. All of ‘em. Most of them right through the head.”

  “That damned bitch in the tower!” Gabe spat, looking back toward the walls again. “Same one that took down most of our guys last time we hit! I ever get my hands on her…”

  “That’s not all the bad news, Gabe,” Nate persisted. “They’ve been fed on, too, so there’s got to be more around!”

  “Shit! I was hoping we’d seen the last of them,” Bernie said gloomily.

  “Nah, it ain’t all bad,” Gabe countered. They found the dead bodies so they’ll be hanging around now looking for more and they’ll find this place. Once they smell the fresh meat inside they’re gonna want in and maybe they can cut their numbers down some and make it easier for us.”

  “Oh, shit,” Dan blurted out while studying the towers through the binoculars. “Those ain’t all ARs them tower guards are carrying anymore. Now at least some of them’s got M-4s!”

  “Gimme those glasses,” Gabe snarled, grabbing the high-end military binoculars from Dan. He brought the guards’ weapons into as tight focus as he could, but still couldn’t pick out the difference. “How the fuck can you tell?”

  “I’m the gun expert, remember? You tell me often enough that’s the only reason you let me keep on breathin’!”

  Gabe shot him a glare, but had to admit that what Dan didn’t know about firearms wasn’t worth knowing.

  “So, where the hell did they get them? Last time we were here, they had all semi-autos and hunting rifles!”

  “Ain’t got a clue. Maybe from the military up in Cincinnati?” Dan wondered.

  “Not a chance. That new Major is a real hard-ass, from what that Pvt. Wright tells me. There’s no way he’d hand out weapons to any civilians. Hell, he even wants his men to go out and confiscate any military equipment they can find. It’s almost like he’s on our side. There’s no way he’d give out that kind of firepower.”

  “Well, they damned sure got ‘em from some military unit somewhere! Hey, remember that river island? Some kind of militia group there, from the looks of it. Maybe they came from there.”

  “Uh-uh. That place got overrun last year some time. This is the first time we’ve seen Hollington with M-4s. Besides, that’s an awful long ways away from here. It might’ve been that refugee camp where we found those broken down Army trucks. Too damn bad we didn’t get there sooner! No tellin’ what else they found there!”

  “Okay then,” Dan looked straight at Gabe’s face. “There ain’t no point in attacking Hollington with the weapons we got! We got three AKs, your Uzi, three M-16s and eight ARs, a dozen odd rifles, a few pistols, a shotgun and not six hundred rounds between all of ‘em.”

  He thought for a moment that Gabe would strike him, but he just slumped his shoulders and nodded in resigned agreement.

  �
��Okay. For the time being, we forget about Hollington. But just for the time being. We’ll clear out of this area, head south for a while, make ourselves scarce for a few weeks and allow time for nature to take its course. They got food and fuel and guns and they got electricity and I want it all!”

  “And they got women, too,” Dan grinned.

  “Why do we need women when we got Bernie?” Cy laughed.

  “Shut up!” Bernie shouted. “I ain’t doin’ that no more! Anybody tries it again; I’ll cut your balls off!”

  Gabe did swat him with the back of his hand this time. Then he slapped him twice more for good measure.

  “You’ll do what you’re fuckin’ told, Bernie! Keep mouthing off and you’ll be sorry you were ever born!”

  “I been sorry about that for a long time,” the man mumbled to himself as he walked dejectedly away.

  “Too damn bad we got rid of them women,” Dan sighed. “If we’d only known it was just temporary.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Gabe said. “They were only good for one thing anyway, and they were mostly used up by then. Now we don’t have to feed ‘em anymore or listen to their cryin’ and bellyachin’. We’ll get us some more. Right now get everybody together and let’s get the hell out of here.”

  It took the better part of an hour to gather up the men planted at intervals all around the country club and load them into a motley collection of beat-up cars and pickups. They drove back to their temporary encampment where they collected the remaining men and vehicles. Gabe had an RV for himself and his trusted lieutenants but the rest crowded into cars and pickup trucks that had seen much better days in much happier times.

  Along the way, they did overrun a couple of individual houses and one small, poorly situated settlement, all of which yielded enough food to last them another couple of weeks, a handful of guns and a small amount of ammunition. They also took five women, ranging in age from fourteen to sixty, none of whom survived the next few hellish days.