The Last Outbreak- The Complete Box Set

by Jeff Olah

  Three others that were close behind tumbled over the former businessman and started a mini chain-reaction that caused Ethan to chuckle under his breath.

  “Never a dull moment.”

  The crowd continued to stream out into the street, now numbering in the dozens, and as Ethan pulled his right leg up under himself and started to stand, his pursuer finally made a move.

  Shuffling feet could be heard over the sounds of rapid breathing from somewhere on the opposite side of the white minivan. There was an odd cadence to the footfalls, almost as if the person or persons were sliding their feet along the damp grass.

  Ethan quickly moved to one knee, keeping an eye on the approaching crowd from his left. He shouldered the AK-47, slid away from the van, and waited as the individual rounded the right side of the van and stepped off the curb.

  Still unable to get a glimpse of his pursuer, Ethan held his breath as the footsteps suddenly came to a stop. The heavy breathing continued, although Ethan had second thoughts about lowering his head to street level just to take a peek under the van. Nothing to gain from leaving himself exposed.

  Ethan inched himself away from the van, grinding the Kevlar covering his right knee against the asphalt. He slowly leaned in and positioned the end of the rifle in line with the driver’s side front fender.

  Back over his left shoulder, he checked the growing crowd’s progress, but then quickly whipped his head back to center. Within the next few seconds, he was going to have to make a move. One way or the other, he was going to have to vacate his current position. He didn’t have the luxury of hiding out behind the van. That spot was already occupied.

  There was only one way that this could play out, and now that the horde was aware of his presence, he saw no reason to remain silent. His voice would draw the crowd toward him, but at the same time, he could attempt to pull his pursuer out of hiding. It wasn’t a great plan or even a good one, but without the luxury of time, it was all he had.

  “Hey …”

  Ethan waited for a response he knew wasn’t coming.

  “We’re both gonna have to move along in the next few seconds. I know you see them too. I say we both just go our separate ways and not look back.”

  Again he waited.

  Again he got nothing.

  “Listen, I can fire into the front of the van.” Ethan paused for a moment. “And most likely you’ll take a few before you can fire back. But if you come out now, we can handle this the right way.”

  Ethan continued to focus his gaze on the left front corner of the van.

  As he again leveled the weapon at the edge of the fender, he heard something being dropped and then the faint sound of movement along the asphalt.

  A small oval-shaped shadow appeared to be moving away from the van, only seconds before a white leather sphere with torn red stitching rolled out from behind the front tire. Speckled with dark brown and black flecks, it kicked up a tiny trail of dust as it drifted to the center of the street and came to a stop.

  Ethan stared curiously at the baseball and slowly began to shift his weight onto his left leg. He gripped the rifle and held his finger just above the trigger as his pursuer finally stepped out from behind the front of the van and reached for the ball.

  140

  This suite was an exact duplicate of the one she’d spent the better part of the previous three days hoping to escape. Emma Runner watched the street below as Tom paced near the door. She hadn’t slept more than an hour or two the night before, and again waiting for Cedric to return, she was ready to do the unthinkable.

  “Tom …”

  He continued to pace, wiping sweat away from his forehead as he let out a long exasperated breath. “Yeah?”

  “I’m ready.”

  “You realize—”

  “Yeah, I know. It may not work, but at least it’s something. We don’t know where he is or even what he’s doing. He’s late once again, and this time I seriously doubt that he’s even coming back.”

  Tom stopped. He turned away from the door and started toward the window. He looked past Emma and set his gaze on the south side of town. Running his right index finger along the dirty window, he traced a line from their building to where Sixth Street faded into the horizon. “There’s really only one way back. But without a weapon and having to constantly watch for Blake and his men, I’m not sure if that’s where we want to be.”

  “What about going around?”

  “Wait,” Tom said. “You mean going back the way we came?”

  “It’s something they wouldn’t be expecting.”

  “They who? Do you mean Cedric or Blake?”

  Emma turned away from the south facing windows and started across the suite toward those facing east. She scanned the streets below looking for something … anything. She was well aware that their options, as well as their time to make a decision, had already run out. She just couldn’t bring herself to accept it. “Both I guess. If we make it out of here and Blake comes back to question Cedric, he’ll be able to deny he knows anything.”

  “You think that Blake will believe anything Cedric says?”

  “It won’t matter either way; that psychopath is going to do whatever he wants. But at least this way, Cedric won’t have the burden of lying to him. He can honestly say he didn’t have anything to do with us running off.”

  Tom rubbed his hand over his face and shook his head.

  “I don’t like it. I mean I know we really don’t have a choice, but this is insane. The streets are still overrun, and without a weapon, we’re just running from one problem right into the next.” Again he shook his head. “But … I’ve been up against worse odds.”

  “What about another building,” Emma said. “This is a big city, there’s got to be somewhere else we can go, even for just a few days.”

  Still looking out over the city from their new spot on the fourth floor, Tom nodded. “Yeah, there is somewhere we can go, but …”

  “But what?”

  “We’re gonna have to backtrack a bit. Might take a while to get back to the car.”

  Emma narrowed her gaze. “And?”

  “And I’m not sure it’s going to be much safer than what’s waiting for us down there.”

  The window beyond the suite had begun to take on the first few drops of the coming rain as Emma again searched the streets below for something she may have missed. The time to make their move, to save their own lives, had already arrived and was now quickly slipping away.

  Tom paused for a moment. He then walked quickly to the opposite end of the suite, braced his left foot against the wall, and placed his hands atop the only remaining piece of furniture in the room. The steel-framed desk moved easily as he slid it into a corner and then turned to Emma, waving her over with a quick flick of his right hand. “You’re right, grab your pack. We’re getting the hell out of here.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, right now. We’ve talked this thing to death. There isn’t anything or anyone who’s going to help us. We have to do it ourselves.”

  Emma didn’t know what to make of Tom’s sudden burst of decisiveness, but she liked it. The man who saved her from certain death back in that parking garage, the one who literally pulled her from death’s door was back. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. “Okay,” she said. “Where to?”

  Tom quickly scanned the suite and then locked eyes with Emma. “Where’s the radio?”

  She thought for a moment and then pointed toward the desk. “It’s in my bag.”

  Emma moved around Tom and then to the desk. She reached into the corner, grabbed the dirty orange backpack she had carried for the last two weeks, and reached inside. Pulling out the two-way radio Cedric had given them, she turned to Tom and flipped the power switch. “It was off?”

  She phrased the statement as a question, as if it was someone else who’d forgotten to turn it on when they reached the suite. Holding her hands out at her side the familiar crackle sounded through the s
peaker, announcing an incoming transmission.

  “Hey … I need you to respond. This is serious. They are in the building.”

  It was Cedric’s voice and from the rushed tone with which he almost forced the words through the handset, Emma could feel his agitation. He was quiet, but nearly shouting. His face sounded as though it was being smashed into the receiver, anger dripping from each syllable.

  Emma keyed the handset just as Tom shouted. “NO!”

  She turned to him but spoke into the radio. “We’re here Cedric … what is it?”

  Static, and then a distant voice, almost inaudible. “Go find them!”

  Static again filled the receiver, but then quickly faded away.

  Emma turned to Tom and tossed her bag over her shoulder, starting toward the door. Her heart pounded in her chest as the thoughts of what the next few minutes would hold began filling her mind.

  That other voice, who did it belong to? Was is Blake? Had that psychopath or one of his henchmen really found them? And if so, what was the worst thing that could happen? Emma had no idea and that scared her more than anything she could possibly imagine.

  “Wait!” Tom slid the desk further into the corner. “Give me the radio!”

  Emma turned. “What? Okay, but I don’t think—”

  Tom moved to her, took the two-way radio and tossed it into the corner behind the desk. “We’re leaving it here. We don’t need it.”

  Emma nodded and turned back toward the door. She waited as Tom again re-positioned the desk and then jogged back across the suite, meeting her at the door and then stepping around her.

  Tom gripped the handle, and before opening the door, turned to Emma. He waited for her eyes to meet his and with his left hand pulled her in close. He spoke quickly, but almost in a whisper. “I’m going out first. If it’s clear, we’ll head to the stairs on the far side of the lobby.”

  Emma smiled nervously. “We’ll end up in the back?”

  “Yeah, behind the restaurant and then right out into the street.”

  This was really happening and although Emma didn’t like it, she knew he was right. No one in their right mind would run blindly out into the middle of the horde, and that’s exactly what they were doing. The only move that would keep them safe was also the one that may just get them killed. However, they had no choice.

  “Once we’re out there, stay on me. We’re gonna move fast and we are going to make it … I promise you.”

  As Emma readied herself for the unknown, Tom opened the door and checked both sides of the long hall. He then stepped out and waved her forward. “Let’s go,” he said. “Stay on my left and keep your eyes and ears open.”

  Before she could think about what was happening, they were sprinting toward the lobby. Her head on a swivel, she peered left over her shoulder and then right. Emma pulled her backpack under her right arm and held tight. She could feel the outline of her cell phone pressed up against her ribs, a reminder of why she was fighting to stay alive.

  They moved through the lobby, looking out through the floor-to-ceiling windows that gave a one-hundred-eighty degree view of the city below, and also momentarily opened them up to the world beyond.

  Emma followed Tom into the next corridor and through a maze of overturned trashcans. They stepped lightly and quickly as they made their way toward the door at the opposite end of the dimly lit hall. Within ten feet of the south stairwell, the faint sound of rapid footfalls and the familiar squawk of a two-way radio filled the space at their backs.

  Tom reached the end of the hall first and slid Emma in beside him. Leaning in close under the cover of darkness, he slowly pulled open the stairwell door and whispered into her ear. “They found us … we have to move.”

  141

  “We’re going after him.”

  Helen Runner sat at the round table situated near the window and watched as Griffin again used the high-powered binoculars to scan the city below. She folded her arms into her chest and shook her head as tears slowly rolled down her puffy red face.

  “I don’t understand, Griffin; why did my son leave? What was he thinking?”

  Griffin continued to move his gaze from one long city block to the next, and didn’t turn away from the window as he answered her. “I’m not too sure, but I’ll bet he figured we’d be safe here for the time being. He probably felt he’d be able to get to Emma and back without much of a problem.”

  Wiping her face, Helen straightened up in the chair and furrowed her brow. “I don’t care, he’s still my son and we are going to get him.”

  Griffin didn’t respond.

  “You agree right, that we need to go get him? There’s no way he’ll make it all the way to California on his own. He needs our help.”

  Exhaling loudly, Griffin pulled the binoculars away from his eyes and stepped away from the window. “I can’t find him. He had to have found a car and—”

  With the door to suite eleven-sixteen propped open, neither Helen nor Griffin had noticed that Shannon, Ben, and Frank had entered. Shannon’s eyes matched Helen’s in both color and the degree to which they were swollen. She wiped at her nose with a tissue and moved to the window.

  “Griffin, please tell me you didn’t know anything about this.”

  “You really think I would have let him go alone … without at least saying something to his mother? This was all him.”

  “And?”

  “And what?”

  Shannon turned from the window and motioned toward the door. “What are we waiting for?” And then turning to Helen she said, “We need to go find him.”

  Helen simply nodded and dropped her head into her hands.

  Frank slipped in behind Griffin and sat next to Helen at the round table near the window. He took her hands in his and waited for the moment to pass. He made sure to make eye contact with the others before turning and facing the distraught mother of two. “I agree, but we need to do this the right way. And I’m not sure we should all go.”

  “What?” Helen’s face tightened as she sat forward in the unforgiving leather-backed cantilever chair. “If you’re thinking that I’m staying behind, you are sorely mistaken. It’s my car, my son, and most importantly, my decision.”

  “Helen, I’m sorry. That’s not really what I meant. It’s just that we’ve already lost so much and have come very close to losing so much more. The more of us that go out there, the bigger risk we’re taking.”

  Helen slid her chair back and paused a moment before standing and joining Shannon near the window. She reached into the front pocket of her coat and pulled out a small folded piece of paper. Attempting a half-hearted smile, she handed the note to Shannon. “He left this.”

  Shannon unfolded the handwritten note and stared intently at the words Ethan had left for his mother. Her eyes began to cloud over as she read the first few lines, and swallowing hard, she reached out for Helen’s hand. She appeared to be contemplating her next thought, almost as if she were lost in this new reality.

  Shannon had begun to fall for Ethan just as he walked out of her life. And to avoid losing herself to the moment, she turned back toward the window, but spoke to Helen. “Would it be okay—”

  Helen nodded. “Yes, they all need to hear what Ethan had to say.”

  In the reflection of the floor-to-ceiling windows, Shannon noticed that Carly had also entered the suite and now stood between Griffin and Ben.

  Shannon paused briefly before turning to face the only family she had left in this new world. She held the handwritten note out in front of her, again wiping at her nose.

  Mother, I don’t want you to be upset and I don’t want you to worry. I don’t want you to have even one more second of heartache. But mostly, I don’t want to have to put you or any of the others at risk to do what I have to do.

  I am going after Emma and I am going to bring her back, no matter what. I hope you’ll understand why I had to do this and why I didn’t tell you.

  Please let Shannon and the oth
ers know that I will return.

  I love you.

  Ethan

  Griffin was the first to step forward. He scanned the faces of his friends, waiting to see their reaction to what was just read. He moved again to the window and turned his gaze back toward the devastated streets of Las Vegas. “I really don’t think you’re gonna want to hear my opinion on this, but he was right.”

  Shannon folded the note and laid it on the table. “I hope you’re joking? There’s no way Ethan is going to make it three-hundred miles by himself and then turn around and come back. I know we’ve had it easy here for the last few days, but I can’t imagine you’ve forgotten what it’s like outside these walls. He’ll never make it alone.”

  “Ethan is more than capable, and going alone means he won’t have to watch out for anyone but himself. I understand why he did what he did, and I’m sorry that you can’t see that.”

  Helen rested her hand on Shannon’s shoulder and calmly regarded the others, but her focus rested mainly with Griffin. “Ethan is capable, but that’s not the point. If he runs into trouble, he’s going to need help. He’s going to need our help, because we are all that’s left. And I hate to say this, but it is my car and I’m going after my son. I may not be as much help to him as the rest of you, but I can’t just sit here and—”

  Carly interrupted. “Wait, Ethan left the SUV?”

  Frank nodded. “Yeah, it looks like he went out on foot. I think he knew he’d find another vehicle pretty easily and wanted to get through that mess down there before he committed to a route back to the interstate.”

  Griffin waited for Frank to finish and stepped away from the window. “Helen, if we’re going to do this, we need to be smart about it. Even though Ethan has a head start on us, I think there may be a way we can catch him before nightfall.”