The Complete Lethal Infection Trilogy

by Tony Battista

  “Go, go, go!” he yelled, the top half of his body out the window, still firing to clear their way.

  Karen floored it and, tires squealing they sped down the street back toward the substation.

  When the mob was well behind them, Ethan began thumbing bullets back into the empty magazines. He looked at her and saw the relief on her face, the tears streaming down her cheeks.

  “Well, that was a first date you’ll never forget,” he said, deadpan.

  She turned to stare at him and suddenly broke out laughing.

  “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

  “Yeah, maybe for our second date we’ll just stay home and watch a movie.”

  “Second date? Pretty confident there, aren’t you?”

  “Well, we did see each other naked, so I thought it went pretty well.”

  Karen blushed and Ethan laughed.

  Luckily, the trip back to the substation was mostly uneventful, with only a few infected on the road. Ethan had her stop by one of the last houses they passed and he jumped out, grabbed a big plastic trash barrel, emptied it onto the sidewalk and tossed it into the back of the truck.

  “I’ll run the downspout off the roof into it. Next time it rains, we’ll have water to wash up with,” he explained.

  Karen smiled and drove to the gate, waiting for him to get out and open it before driving in and parking next to the other vehicle.

  “Thank you for saving me,” she said, stopping him as he reached the door. “What happened to that speech about not stopping and trying to help?”

  “That’s the kind of thing I was trained for,” he replied. “We never left anyone behind. I couldn’t ask you to risk your life that way. You’re a civilian.”

  “Hah! Are there any civilians anymore? It’s just predator and prey now. I’d be dead at least twice now if not for you, so don’t ask me again to leave you behind.”

  Ethan gazed into her eyes and moved closer to her. Karen tilted her head back, looking up at him, but at the last moment, he backed away and said there were a number of things they should get done before dark. She agreed resignedly and went into the building. Ethan watched her walk away and stared at the doorway for a few moments before going back to the truck for the barrel.

  . . .

  It took less than half an hour to rig up the rain barrel and clear his rifle and he spent the time afterward cleaning and oiling it and his .45. Karen did the same with the shotgun and her Beretta and sat at the small desk bolted to one wall and tried to imagine what her life was going to be like from now on. She still hoped they’d eventually find a place where civilized society still existed, a place safe from infected and outlaw alike, but realized that it could be a long time, if ever, until that happened. Both thought about that moment in the doorway and both, reluctantly, thought their lives were complicated enough already.

  She came out of the structure to find Ethan building a fire in the camp stove and she slipped back in to bring out a few canned goods. Neither spoke a word as they opened the cans and set them on the grating. Ethan made a quick scan with his binoculars when the uncomfortable quiet continued and Karen was the first to break the silence.

  “I do feel much better having been able to wash up.”

  “Yeah, I do too.” He answered, relieved to be talking to her again. “I didn’t realize how bad I smelled until I got clean again.”

  “You were getting pretty ripe,” she smiled. “I guess daily baths are a thing of the past now.”

  “And manicures and trips to the hairdresser,” he smiled back.

  “I just can’t believe everything went to hell so fast! I mean, I know they talked about this infection on the news every night, but it seemed so far away, like something that couldn’t happen here in America.”

  “I knew a couple guys at the warehouse who got sick just a few days before everything fell apart. I never connected it to the plague, though. Then it seemed like people all over the city suddenly turned on each other, like someone threw a switch.”

  “Do you buy that stuff about how this started off as some kind of biological weapon?”

  “God knows there are some seriously deranged people in positions of power around the world. We’ll probably never know the real story. Whatever it was, we’re stuck with it now.”

  “I could think of worse people to be stuck with,” Karen said in an almost inaudible voice.

  “What’s that?” Ethan asked.

  “Nothing. I just said our food looks hot enough.”

  She scooped portions onto paper plates and they ate with plastic forks, drinking hot soup from tin cups and juice from paper ones. The food was tolerable and filled their stomachs, but they would have sent it back had it been served in any restaurant they’d ever gone to. When they were done, Karen dropped the paper and plastic into a hole Ethan had dug earlier and he turned the stove over, dumping the dying embers on top of their trash before shoveling a layer of dirt over it all.

  “A couple more days and I’ll have to dig another hole,” he commented.

  “How long will we stay here?”

  “Maybe another week or so. I don’t want to get too comfortable here. That fence will keep out the stray infected or maybe small groups, but if they come by in any kind of numbers and locate us here, it won’t keep them back for long. We couldn’t stay in the building for more than a few days after that and, let’s just say things would get real ugly real fast.”

  “So, where do we go then?”

  “I have no idea. You know as well as I do from what little we’ve seen that the cities are overrun and some of the small towns that survived are full of frightened people who don’t want anything to do with outsiders. Then there are people like the ones at the crossroads or at the farm. We need to avoid them, if possible.”

  “There must be some sort of civilization left somewhere, some kind of civil authority,” she implored.

  “I’ve seen what happens when this kind of chaos hits,” Ethan looked her in the eye. “When the established civilization breaks down, there are always people who take advantage, people who set themselves up as petty tyrants who have just enough charisma to attract like-minded followers. No doubt, there are still decent people out there trying to rebuild, but we have to be careful. You can’t just take anyone or any situation at face value anymore.”

  “I’ve never been this alone. I don’t like it,” Karen admitted. “I’ve always had people around. The bar was usually crowded the whole night; I had girlfriends and movie nights, neighbors, friends, dates in crowded restaurants.”

  “Now you’re stuck with just me.”

  “That’s not how I meant it. What about you? You had friends and co-workers. Don’t you miss being around other people?”

  “I’ve pretty much been a loner since coming back from overseas. Once in a while, I’d have a few beers with some of the guys after work, but I didn’t have any real friends. My friends were the men in my squad, my platoon. Most of them were still deployed overseas when I came back; more than a few came home in coffins, if there was enough of them left to bury. I’ve spent more time with you these last few weeks than with anyone else in the last two years.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Hey, I don’t mean to make it sound like I’m feeling sorry for myself! I’m one of the lucky ones; I got out without getting killed or crippled or driven out of my mind, though there are people who’d dispute that last point. I don’t have any complaints about my life; it’s the life I’ve made for myself. There were some issues I needed to work out, but I’d have gotten there eventually.”

  “Okay. I guess I’ll never be able to understand what you went through, but you don’t have to go it alone.”

  “I’m starting to make speeches,” he muttered, turning away uncomfortably.

  Karen put her hand on his shoulder and he allowed her to turn him back. She put her arms around his neck and stood on her toes, pressing her lips to his. Ethan was momentarily stunned, the
n put his arms around her and drew her close.

  “So much for avoiding additional complications,” she thought to herself as they moved together through the doorway.

  . . .

  The sun had set by the time Ethan walked out of the building, content and actually happy for the first time in years. He stopped short, seeing a group of eight infected only a few feet from the fence. The first one ran into the chain link and bounced off, then walked into it again and bounced off a second time. Two more did the same thing and it wasn’t long before all eight of them were crowded against the fence, seemingly confused, unable to understand why they couldn’t proceed. He slowly drew his .45 and approached them from an oblique angle until he was off to their left side some thirty feet away.

  They didn’t seem to notice him in the dim light and he was pondering the implications when Karen appeared in the doorway and softly called his name. All eight of them let out throaty moans and reached toward her, fingers grabbing at the chain links, trying to claw their way to her. Ethan motioned for her to stand still and he worked his way to the gate, unlocking and opening it as quietly as he could. He worked his way around the group then searched until he found a small stone, which he threw, hitting a tall, husky man in the back of the neck. The infected man turned and stared blankly until Ethan began to wave his arms. Spotting him now, the man staggered toward him, attracting the attention of the infected on either side of him. Ethan called out and the rest turned toward him and with all following the sound of his voice he slowly led them a couple hundred yards down the road before trotting ahead. He moved off the side of the road and stood perfectly still, watching them continue, passing within yards of his position and moving on along their way.

  Karen was outside the gate when he returned to the substation, armed with two pistols and a shotgun, in a panic over his going out alone amidst the infected.

  “It’s okay,” he reassured her. “I found out something valuable. They don’t seem to have any kind of night vision beyond a few yards. As long as I kept quiet and still, they didn’t even notice me.”

  She threw her arms around him, burying her face in his chest, then suddenly backed up and slapped him sharply on the cheek.

  “Don’t ever do anything like that again! You scared the hell out of me!”

  “This is what I do, remember? This is the kind of situation I’ve been trained for.”

  “Nobody’s been trained for a situation like this!” she insisted. “Nobody ever imagined a situation like this!”

  “You’d be surprised. Come on. Let’s get back inside the fence.”

  “What do you mean I’d be surprised?” she called after him as he went back through the gate. “Ethan?”

  Chapter 7: Unwelcome Memories

  Karen woke the next morning to the smell of coffee wafting through the open door and yawned, stretched and headed out to say good morning to Ethan. She was pleasantly surprised to find he had a pot of real coffee brewing on the camp stove and gladly accepted the cup he offered her.

  “Oh, my, this is good,” she announced after her first sip. “You remembered how I like it, too.”

  “Two sugars and lots of cream, or in this case, artificial sweetener and powdered milk. How’d you sleep?”

  “Mmm. I slept like a baby,” she smiled. “I could get used to you.”

  Ethan laughed, then drained his own cup and climbed up on the roof with his binoculars.

  “We’re going to have company,” he called down almost immediately. “A lot of company!”

  “Infected?” she asked, only mild concern in her voice as yet.

  “Hundreds, maybe thousands. I can only see the ones who are already over the hill but more keep coming. We need to move!”

  Karen kicked the stove over, dumping out the hot coals and ran back into the building to gather their supplies. Ethan joined her a minute later and they had the truck and car loaded inside of ten minutes.

  “Where are they all coming from?” she asked once he’d locked the gate behind them and started back toward his car. He answered with a shrug and led off down the road away from the herd. They stopped after about a mile and he got on the roof of the car and looked back with his binocs for a few moments, then handed them to her after she climbed up next to him.

  “Good Lord!” she uttered. “You’re right! There must be thousands of them! There aren’t any big cities close, so where did they come from?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they’ve been on the move for a while after exhausting the supply of victims up north. Wherever they came from, we need to get out of their path. I say we head west. The map shows a river or a stream out that way and I’m pretty sure they aren’t coordinated enough to swim. If we get water between us and them, we should be safe.”

  Again leading the way, Ethan followed the few east-west roads in that area until crossing a bridge over a swiftly running stream. He used his own car to push some abandoned vehicles onto the bridge, blocking it but puncturing his radiator in the process. After transferring the supplies from his car to the back of the truck, he hopped in beside Karen and they resumed their westward flight.

  “Do you think that will stop them?”

  “Maybe,” he answered noncommittally. “They all seemed to be headed south but at least some of them might veer off onto the side roads. If they do, they’d actually have to climb over the roadblock and I’m hoping they’re just following the path of least resistance. If nothing else, it’ll slow them down.”

  “Good. Okay, so where to?”

  “Ahh, map shows a little town called Lipton a ways up the road, if we’re on the road I think we are. We might be able to find a spot there or at least find some more gas and supplies.”

  “You’re not sure what road we’re on?”

  “Well, I never was much good at navigation. I can find my way around a city easily enough, but out in the countryside, well, I have a tendency to get lost sometimes.”

  “Yeah, that’s just what I wanted to hear,” she said, pulling over. “Show me where we are on the map.”

  “Well, we’re either on this road or this one. Both of them cross the same stream and it looks like both of them lead back to the main road near the substation.”

  “Are you kidding me?” she stared at him in disbelief. “These two roads are three miles apart.”

  “We’re bound to come up on a road marker sooner or later. The important thing is that we’re heading away from the herd. We don’t know what we’ll find up ahead anymore no matter what road we take.”

  “I hope this doesn’t turn out like our first date,” she teased.

  “I don’t know,” he smiled back at her. “I kind of liked the way it ended.”

  Miles later she drove up to an open gate in another chain link fence surrounding a small factory. With Karen backing him, Ethan pushed open one side of a double set of swinging doors and entered the building. The smell of death and decay was present, but not overwhelming, at least to Ethan’s nose, and there was enough light streaming through windows and skylights to make it easy to see.

  “Cardboard boxes,” he whispered and, at Karen’s questioning look he added, “They made cardboard boxes,” and waved his arm to point out pallets of folded boxes stacked against the walls. Some were large enough to hold refrigerators or deep-freezes and ran the gamut from there to ones the size of toasters.

  A sound alerted them and Ethan placed his hand on Karen’s shoulder, urging her to keep still.

  “Take my rifle,” he told her. “I’d rather you back me up with that than the shotgun. The safety’s off and there’s a round chambered. If you move this, it’ll fire three-round bursts but it’s set to semi-auto right now.”

  Karen nodded and took the rifle, handing him the shotgun. Ethan checked the safety and moved across the room toward a pre-fab office at the other end of the small warehouse area. Looking through one of the windows, he spotted an infected man picking through the remains of one of his former co-workers. Ethan leaned the
shotgun against the wall and drew his combat knife before carefully turning the doorknob and easing open the door. Despite his caution, the infected spun around and lunged at him, only to have the knife driven up through his bottom jaw and deep into his brain. Ethan eased the corpse to the floor and braced his foot on the skull to pull out his knife, wiping it on the man’s coveralls. He quickly searched the room, finding nothing of interest, and went back out to join Karen.

  “We’ll go through those double doors over there,” he pointed to the left of the office, “into the cutting and assembly area. This was the easy part; everything is wide open and there aren’t many places they could be hiding, but there’ll be machinery and stacks of material in the other part. Be on your toes.”

  Ethan put his shoulder to one of the doors, eased it open slightly and peered inside. After only a few seconds, he let the door close again gently and shook his head.

  “It looks like the whole shift was in there when the infection hit. There must be twenty or more milling around. Luckily this is an old building and these heavy wood and metal doors take a lot of push to open so they mainly stayed put.”

  He looked around, climbed up on an electric fork truck, and used it to stack loaded pallets against the doors, effectively barricading them. They went back outside then and made a circuit of the entire building, taking down another three infected on the grounds. He then used the truck to stack material and equipment against the two remaining outside doors, figuring the big rollup garage doors were beyond the capability of the infected, trapping them inside the manufacturing area. One man-door he left unblocked for now as it led into the plant locker room. Leaving it propped wide open for light, he found that the door leading from there into the plant had a sliding bolt lock and he fastened it before checking the lockers. Most of them were locked, but yielded to his crowbar and he came out again with a dozen sets of keys before blocking the outer door.

  Thirty-two cars, pickup trucks, minivans and SUVs sat in the parking lot and one set of keys fit a big Dodge 4x4. Using a rubber hose to siphon from some, setting a large pan on the ground and poking a hole in the tank of others, he collected enough gas to fill that, Karen’s truck and all the gas cans they had with them and parked the Dodge next to Karen’s Ford.