The Last Outbreak- The Complete Box Set

by Jeff Olah

  Entering the staff parking lot, David slowed to a stop and nodded out the left side of the truck. “Uh… Ethan.”

  Looking up from the phone as another text came through, Ethan understood why they’d stopped. “Keep going, we can’t help them now.”

  Engine Two sat just shy of the next intersection, and less than one hundred feet from the main entrance to the hospital. Their rig had been, and was still being, attacked by more than two dozen out-of-towners. Men and women still wearing their chef’s hats and chili-fest themed t-shirts forced their way into the cab.

  The group of deranged individuals had pulled the firefighters out into the middle of the street and were huddled in tight packs over the two obscured bodies. Fighting one another for position, the frantic visitors clawed their way to the downed civil servants, shredded their dark blue uniforms, and began attacking the areas of exposed flesh.

  “Feeders,” David said. “It sure fits those things.”

  “What?”

  “That’s what they’re calling them—Feeders.”

  “So that’s what stayed with you from those videos, the pointless name that they came up with? Yeah, I get it, they feed on people, so they’re Feeders. I’ll call them whatever you want. But, what about the fact that those things seem to be multiplying faster than rabbits in spring? You need to move this truck before they decide to come feed on us.”

  “Ethan, we have to do something. We can’t just leave them here to—”

  “You gonna do it alone?” Ethan said. “Because I won’t be any good to you out there.”

  “They were our friends, our neighbors. How are you okay with—”

  Again interrupting, Ethan said, “There’s what, thirty of them out there, maybe more? You really think we’d even have a chance? Listen, I’m getting my ass into that hospital, putting my shoulder back where it belongs, and getting the hell out of this city. You need to get Carly and do the same.”

  “I don’t like it, but I guess you’re right. I’m just not cool with leaving them out there.”

  “Those men—our friends—they’re gone and there isn’t anything we can do about it. Those other people, the ones attacking our friends were probably regular people too, but unless we want to end up like one of them, we need to think about us.”

  Shaking his head, David looked away and pulled to the rear of the lot. Away from the other vehicles he stopped, cut the engine, and checked his mirrors. “You ready?”

  Ethan looked up from the display and handed David his phone. “Change of plans. Carly is locked in the administrator’s office. She says it’s too late, they’ve been overrun. She’s hiding with someone named Ben. I texted her that we’re on the way and to stay put.”

  “Okay,” David said. “But, I’m still gonna to need your help, so…”

  Unbuckling his seatbelt, Ethan reached for the door handle. “So what?”

  “We’ve got to do your arm right now, before we get inside. You good with that?”

  “Sure, but after this, you’re going to help me. No questions asked. Are you good with that?”

  Again checking the mirrors, David nodded and opened the door. “Let’s do this.” Looking back as he closed the door, he watched as Ethan also stepped out and headed toward the rear of the truck.

  They met at the rear door as David checked his weapon, scanned the lot, and waited for Ethan to get in position. “Let’s go bud.”

  Surveying his side of the lot, Ethan quickly holstered his weapon. He turned to David, rotated forward, and dropped his right shoulder. “We’ve got company. I’ll get my shoulder back in, just get over here and cover me.”

  David stared at Ethan for a moment, offered a slight grin, and moved out around the passenger side of the vehicle. Turning back, he quietly said, “Maybe thirty seconds. We’ve got a pretty big group headed this way.”

  “I only need five.” Arching his back and rounding his shoulder, Ethan clenched his jaw and breathed out forcefully through his nose. Beginning to externally rotate his right elbow, he closed his eyes and waited for the familiar jolt and the sound that could be heard three streets over.

  “Ten seconds Ethan, it’s now or never.”

  The pain nearly bringing him to his knees, Ethan yelped as his upper arm grinded through the last second of bone on bone before falling back into place. Spitting a small amount of blood out onto the pavement, he grabbed David, and pointed to the employee entrance. “Come on.”

  As sensation intermittently flowed in and out of his right arm, Ethan started toward the building with David close behind. They weaved their way through the abandoned vehicles littering the employee lot and upon reaching the rear entrance, pulled open the doors.

  Securing the entrance, David retrieved a few sheets from the supply cart and tied off the double doors. Peering back out into the lot, many of those that followed had gotten disoriented as they made their way through the vehicles and had begun walking in circles, no closer to the building than they were sixty seconds before.

  “Where’d Carly say they were?”

  “One of the offices, I think up front. Let’s find her and get the hell out of dodge.”

  Through the second set of double doors, and into the main hallway, David pulled out his phone. “Okay, I know where she is. Let’s cut through the cafeteria and avoid the patient rooms altogether.”

  Tapping his friend on the shoulder and pointing toward the end of the lengthy corridor, Ethan placed his hand over his weapon. “What do you make of this?”

  Two rows of aluminum-framed cots lined the darkened hall, one on each side. As close as he could estimate, there were thirty-six in total, each supporting a lifeless corpse and draped over in white hospital linen. And near the end of the unnerving gauntlet, David detected movement. “Carly, didn’t mention any of this, but I have a feeling we’re about to become educated, like right now.”

  24

  The storm continued to grow. Pushing across the mountain in large flurries, it had nearly erased the foot shaped imprints left behind from their previous battle. Across the open glade, frosted treetops groaned under the burden of the snow resting innocently along its upper branches, releasing its overages back to earth with each new gust.

  Their two yet unaccounted for pursuers had once again picked up the trail; however, they were now accompanied by three new friends. Punching out into the open, they now had a visual. Neither the terrain nor the inclement weather appeared to slow this new group.

  Rubbing his head, Griffin leaned into Cora and stood. “Where’s your gun?”

  Without running her hand along her back to confirm her suspicions, she knew it wasn’t there. Replaying in her head what she could of the previous thirty minutes, she figured it was either resting underneath the shrub she’d extricated herself from or buried beneath the new snow somewhere between here and there. “I don’t know.”

  As the group of five again moved closer, Griffin turned back to the ledge. “We need to move, let’s go.”

  “No,” Cora said, grabbing a fistful of Griffin’s jacket. “We won’t make it down that way.”

  His head still in a fog, Griffin followed Cora as she cut a path through a dense row of mountain sagebrush. They stepped carefully away from the slick granite, finding their footing among the soft underbrush. Neither turned to check their progress, although as they advanced down the frozen hillside, using one another to stay upright, the distant footfalls grew closer.

  Clutching the nine millimeter as if their being overrun was inevitable, Griffin motioned out of the next line of trees and to the left. With Cora’s pace beginning to falter, they needed another plan. Outrunning those at their back wouldn’t be an option for much longer. And for all they knew, this wasn’t the only group hunting them.

  Slowing, but continuing to ignore those in pursuit, he waited for Cora to come to him. Sliding up under her right arm, he spoke to her as they again were on the move. “We can’t outrun them, and I’m not sure we’d do any better stopping to
take them on with only one weapon.”

  Less composed than her counterpart, Cora fought to get the words out between heavy breaths. “What then?” Swallowing air in big gulps, she tried again. “What do we—?” The hole above her left hip now exacerbated by the contractions coursing through her abdominals, her voice broke with each word. “Then. What. Do. We. Do?”

  Leaning into her, Griffin guided them through a dense patch of Rocky Mountain Juniper, hoping to make up ground through the speckled maze. His feet now completely numb, thoughts of frostbite and losing parts he was still fond of ran at the front of his mind. “We have to get out of this damn weather. Either that or hide, and I don’t think—”

  Her shoulders fell and as she breathed out into his ear, she stopped. Cora held tight to Griffin’s shoulder as he urged her on. She said, “I can’t feel my hands or my feet and if there was anything left in my stomach, I’d throw it up.”

  Griffin continued to drag her for another twenty feet before he also gave in. Out from under her arm, he turned and held her by the shoulders. “Can you stand?”

  Tiny beads of sweat pooled at her hairline, then started down her forehead before evaporating into her thick black brows. Although now stationary, her breathing increased and as pale as the snow beyond, her face suddenly went flush. “I don’t—” Her body dropped out from under his hands before he could grab ahold.

  “CORA.”

  Nothing.

  Down to his knees, her peered into her eyes and watched her irises fade into thin brown rings just before her lids dropped over them. “CORA, LET’S GO.”

  Again nothing.

  Scanning the narrow margins between the white fluffed Junipers, Griffin slid her upper body onto his thighs. Her body convulsed as he felt his way to her carotid and applied enough pressure to confirm she was still present. “Okay, stay with me. We’re getting out of here.”

  As the first of their five pursuers trudged out into the open, Griffin had already pulled her another twenty-five feet. At his back, a row of Ponderosa Pine large enough to hide a small plane rose out of the earth nearly thirty feet.

  Plowing through the snow blanketed lower branches, he flinched as buckets of the white powder slipped in between his last layer of clothing and onto his bare back. Shielding Cora from much of the deluge, he looked back one last time before disappearing into the treeline. “You gotta be kidding me.”

  Two out in the open and both had seen them. He had five seconds, maybe ten to figure out what to do.

  Propping her up against the base of the tree, Cora smiled. She was still here, at least for the moment. “Are we there?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he lied. “Just stay here and sleep. We’re almost home.”

  Before heading back out into the unknown, Griffin quickly recounted the items left inside the jacket now draped over Cora’s diminutive frame. He unzipped the right pocket, withdrew a black Patagonia wool-lined beanie and slipped it down over her head. She didn’t react. Her eyes were still closed and with one last look at the rise and fall of her chest, Griffin pushed through the trees.

  There were two, and then three. They moved slower than before, but came from opposing directions, essentially closing off any chance of exiting to the north. The first two, coming in from the left, were a few paces behind the leader as he made eye contact with each individually.

  Pacing right, Griffin waited as they turned and started toward him. “Let’s go, that’s right just keep coming. I’ve got a surprise for each and every one of you.”

  Continuing to follow his every step, the group trailed him out away from Cora’s shelter and into the next clearing. As Griffin quickened his pace and moved to the center, the leader growled. Baring her teeth, the former prison worker moved closer, exposing the jagged mess her teeth had become. Twisting her head curiously to the left, ragged pieces of flayed skin and an orange tinted mucus hung awkwardly from her mouth.

  The group of three were now within a few feet of one another and less than a car length behind. His plan was to bring them out away from his traveling partner, use the open space to scatter the echoes from the three shots he planned to take, and then blow the backs of their heads into oblivion. In the off chance the other two were anywhere within earshot, they’d likely not find this location until he was back to Cora and off the mountain.

  “Let’s go ladies, just a few more feet.”

  Raising the Glock 17 nine millimeter pistol, Griffin sighted his first target. “Oh no.”

  On the outer edges of the glade, weaving in and out of the giant pine, were two more women from the bus. Dead eyes and branded in blood, they obviously hadn’t come to help. They were also much closer to Cora than he was comfortable with.

  “Here we go.” Firing three close-range head shots, Griffin turned and ran as the trio of faceless, blood-saturated bodies dropped into the ankle-deep snow.

  25

  The sweet stinging stench of antiseptic crept into his nasal cavity, partially blotting what drifted from the three dozen corpses lining the rear hall. What did make its way through forced Ethan’s hand up over his mouth and nose, gagging as he looked back at David. And finally nodding toward the end of the hall, he slowly lowered his hand. “The last cot on the right, looks like we’re gonna have some company.”

  The blood-speckled white linen sheet shifted from side to side, as whatever it covered attempted to free itself. An arm dropped off the side of the cot and then both legs. The sheet folded into itself and then slipped into a heap next to the wall, as the man with less than half a face pushed away from the wall and attempted to right himself.

  The overhead fluorescent lights flickered, illuminating the man who stood slightly above six and a half feet tall. Summer Mill’s largest resident moved slowly into the center of the hall, turned toward Ethan and David, and sniffed at the air. The skin along his severely disfigured face hung in thick swatches and his eyes… had both been eaten out of their sockets.

  Stepping into the recessed doorway to the right, Ethan motioned for his friend to follow. “Isn’t that Franklin?”

  . . .

  They’d known the gargantuan beast, still clad in his shapeless denim overalls and shredded flannel long-sleeve shirt, for nearly their entire lives. The slender young man who initially strode into their first grade classroom carrying a lunch sac fashioned from a discarded pair of his older brother’s trousers somehow grew into the biggest human Ethan or David had ever laid their eyes on.

  As a youth, the son of a millet farmer came to be known by only his last name. Leslie Franklin had only ever answered to his given name once. In front of eighteen other snickering six and seven year olds, he corrected Mrs. Belzer. From the second morning he attended Summer Mill Elementary school, the boy with the abnormally long torso was just “Franklin”.

  As gentle as a mother hen, and without a callous cell in his body, the younger Franklin was nearly invisible to his peers. He stepped through adolescence without so much as raising his voice to his classmates or teachers. He blended in and never spoke first. He wasn’t embarrassed by his given name, he just “liked Franklin better.” And no one, including those who normally would, questioned it.

  The giant man who’d never used his imposing size or strength in an aggressive manner stepped slowly through the draped cots. He continued forward with his nose in the air as heavy trails of black blood ran from the holes in his face. He bit at the air and growled as his right foot caught the leg of cot number twelve. Reaching down with one hand, the angered beast who was once the most reserved boy in town gripped the makeshift bed and tossed it, along with its occupant, nearly fifteen feet backwards and into the wall.

  . . .

  Leaning out of the shadows and into the hall for a second look, David said, “Yeah, that’s Franklin alright, at least it used to be. Uh, and I think we’re gonna need to find another way.”

  “What?”

  Taking Ethan by the collar and holding his head out into the hall, David said, “You wann
a try to get past him?”

  Holding up his pistol, Ethan said, “He can’t see us, he doesn’t even know we’re here. You could take him out from here. Put one into his head and then let’s go get Carly.”

  As the behemoth stepped to within twenty feet, David stepped back into the alcove and gripped the door knob. “Of course, it’s locked.”

  “David, just shoot him.”

  “No. We do that and every single one of those things knows exactly where we are. If it were just him, maybe. But we don’t know what the rest of the building is like. Carly said she is hiding and I’m sure she’s not doing it just to play games. We need to get to her without making ourselves another target.”

  “But—”

  “And now that you bring it up, what’s wrong with your weapon?”

  “No, you’re right,” Ethan said. “We need to move through here without too much racket. So—”

  “That’s not what I meant and you know it. Back there in the street, you hesitated. You know what those things will do to you and to me if they get ahold of us.”

  “Yeah, but I—”

  “That’s not all,” David said. “You also missed at least two shots.”

  “Yeah so, it happens.”

  “Not with you. You never miss. I’ve seen you uncap a bottle of Jack at fifty yards. You know that, so why now? What’s with you?”

  “I don’t know,” Ethan said. “I just can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that these people aren’t actually people. They were living breathing humans less than a day ago, and now what, we’re just supposed to kill them? Just put a bullet between their eyes and walk away?”

  “If we’re lucky.” David leaned out once again and then looked at his watch. By his estimation, they had less than ten seconds to decide what they were going to do and how they were going to avoid their old school mate as Leslie Franklin staggered toward them. “Listen, I have no idea what’s happened here and why people are acting the way they are, but as much as I hate saying it, we need to worry about us, and no one else. I would have thought that after the year you’ve had, it wouldn’t be so hard to pull the trigger.”