Riposte (The Redivivus Trilogy Book 2) Page 2

  Nothing.

  All the chaos, horror, and agony of the last two seconds were finally gone, leaving only an impenetrable blackness that was mercifully devoid of everything.

  2

  October 2, 2015

  Dobbins Air Reserve Base

  Marietta, GA

  Heat seared across her cheek as she listened to the guttering sound of a nearby fire. Is the campfire still burning? Expecting the familiar outdoor smells of dirt and wood smoke, she was nonplussed by the acrid odor of burning rubber and something more pungent that she could not identify. While she heard the incessant droning of nocturnal insects, the anticipated popping and crackling of over-moist kindling she recalled from camping trips as a child were conspicuously absent. Instead the rhythmic, whirring sound of something spinning at high speed, rubbing and scraping against metal with each revolution, resonated in her ears.

  Confused and cloaked in darkness, Dr. Lin San felt as though she had just awoken from a deep sleep and now struggled to break free from its tenacious grasp. As though finally managing to unzip her sleeping bag and poke her head out of the blissful nocturnal realm, her mind cleared, and it became all too apparent that she was nowhere near the campground of her dreams.

  As she glanced around in a futile attempt to escape the scorching rays of the sun beating down upon her upturned face, she realized that the campground was in fact the scene of a grisly accident, and the fire raging all around her was anything but a lazy campfire. Thick plumes of black smoke billowed up from a smoldering tire, filling the air with an asphyxiating mixture of volatile chemicals that seemed to crowd out all of the atmosphere’s vital oxygen.

  In that moment, a gut-wrenching shriek like that of an animal caught in a trap, pierced the sky and violently jerked her back to the present. Turning toward the source of the caterwauling, the identity of the previously unrecognizable smell became sickeningly clear as Lin’s gaze fell upon the writhing, flaming body of a man pinned beneath an overturned vehicle. His flesh was so badly scorched that she was unable to determine who it was. She swallowed hard to avoid vomiting as she watched the skin of his desiccated face split like an overcooked baked potato, his ever-tightening integument giving way to the rapidly expanding fluids and gases inside. A barely audible pop was followed by a low sizzle that sounded like a pot of water boiling over. Her own screams hung in her throat as she imagined the excruciating pain the man must be experiencing. Where the hell am I? Maybe this is the dream. She could only hope that were true.

  Lin rolled to her side and slowly eased up to her hands and knees. Still feeling dazed, she desperately tried to block out the burning man’s agonal cries as she crawled away from the inferno. In that instant, Lin did not think it possible to witness anything more horrifying. As she rounded the corner of the wrecked truck, however, she realized just how wrong that sentiment had been. Mouth agape, she stared at the source of the droning sound. A far cry from the buzzing insects she envisioned, over twenty walking abominations swayed and groaned, jostling one another for position as they tried to find a way around the wall of fire and debris standing between them and their quarry.

  Bit by bit, the details of her situation slowly filtered into her addled brain, falling into place like the pieces of a puzzle. The infected—the monsters—are the victims of an engineered pathogen called the lyssa-niuhi virus, and we are trying to find a cure. Her thoughts instantly shifted to the small USB drive she had been given by General Montes. Buried somewhere in the cryptic pattern of ones and zeroes was the key to unraveling the wretched plague. Above all else, including her own survival, she knew she had to protect that drive and the secrets it held. Where the hell is it?

  Despite the dangers all around her, Lin crouched motionless, midway between the horde of infected and the burgeoning fire. As though recorded on a film reel, the events of the last twenty-four hours played through her mind at high speed. She saw herself in her lab with General Montes and the two imposing soldiers. Snapshots of Dr. Marcus Johnson’s chilling journal entries followed visions of boarding the massive Brazilian Embraer KC-390. Next came chaotic images aboard the plane just after landing at the air reserve base in Georgia. Her mind immediately focused on the small black briefcase containing her documents and laptop. She scanned the area, frantically searching for the bag that was nowhere to be found. Where could it be? She remembered carrying the briefcase as she fled the plane with General Montes and his men; now she had a sickening feeling the bag and its precious contents were somewhere in the raging pyre behind her. Without the data from the experiments responsible for the creation of LNV, she doubted she had any chance of finding a cure in time to make a difference. I can’t believe I didn’t back up something so important! How could I have been so stupid!

  With both the fire and the infected gaining ground on her, and the USB drive nowhere to be found, Lin lowered her head as her hands fell to her lap in defeat. When her right hand came to rest on her thigh, a final image—dredged up from the far recesses of her brain—raced through her mind. Once again she was aboard the KC-390 and people were running in all directions. A cacophony of voices punctuated by gunshots from the rear of the plane made it hard to know what was happening. Above the din of noise, General Montes’ voice boomed, telling her to get her things and follow him. As she slung her briefcase over her shoulder, she realized she had not placed the USB drive inside so she slid it into her pocket, making a mental note to place it back in the security of her bag as soon as possible. Now her hand slid across the fabric of her pants, feeling the small lump inside. With an unimaginable sense of relief, her hand closed around the miniscule drive nestled safely in her pocket. Thank God for small miracles!

  Lin’s head jerked up with the renewed hope that all was not lost. Unfortunately, what she saw before her begged to differ. With the fire blazing ever stronger at her back, she found herself boxed in by the advancing mob of infected. Petrified, she searched for a way out and saw a narrow space immediately adjacent to the burning vehicle. Despite the dangerous proximity to the fire, she knew it was likely her only real chance of making it out alive. Turning, she scrambled back around the overturned truck and dove headlong through the tight space immediately in front of it. The unbearable heat of the burning vehicle seared her back, and her arm scraped against the scorching metal, sending a bolt of pain tearing through her as the flesh blistered on contact. The rancid smell of burnt skin and hair once again permeated her nostrils, only this time there was no question about what—and whose—it was. Although she wanted nothing more than to cry out in pain, she struggled to remain quiet knowing that to do so would seal her fate at the hands of the infected.

  As she emerged on the other side she faced yet another gruesome scene. My God, when will this end? I can’t take much more! One of the infected was hunched down less than ten feet away from her, by the rear of the overturned truck. To Lin’s horror, the thing was greedily consuming the flesh of a dead soldier pinned under the vehicle. She wondered if the mangled legs she saw were the other half of the trapped and burning soldier she had seen when she first regained consciousness. Either way, she uttered a quick prayer that the poor man was dead before the vile monster began tearing into him. As she stared helplessly at the macabre scene around her, she caught a glimpse of movement just inside one of the truck’s shattered windows immediately adjacent to the infected thing.

  Strapped in one of the rear seats was a soldier, suspended upside down by his seatbelt. Lin noticed he was not moving except for his head, which he shook back and forth furiously. His eyes were closed but his mouth moved as though he was silently muttering to himself. Despite the fact that the soldier was within arm’s reach of the infected thing, he remained out of view and had gone unnoticed thus far. Lin wondered if this was simply because the monster was otherwise occupied. From her position about ten feet away, the sounds of flesh and muscle rending free from the legs of the pinned corpse was nauseating, and she could not imagine being as close as the trapped soldier. Hav
ing not seen him move anything aside from his head, Lin wondered if he had been paralyzed in the accident. That would explain why he has not freed himself or made any apparent attempt to help his fallen comrade.

  At that moment, the soldier seemed to sense her gaze upon him, and his eyes flicked open to lock on hers. The sheer terror she saw in his eyes made her want to give up. The bravery and courage the soldiers had displayed was beyond measure, and seeing one of them so terrified left her feeling as though she did not stand a chance. Not knowing what else to do, Lin held her finger to her lips to signal the man to remain quiet as she struggled to muster a reassuring look. She knew both of their lives depended on his ability to remain silent, just as she knew there was nothing she could do to help him. The soldier gave a terse nod of understanding in reply, and Lin tried not to think about everything that little action conveyed.

  Without warning, a low growl came from above. One of the infected peered down at the feeding frenzy before losing its footing on the twisted truck and trundling over the side. As the thing fell, the flesh of its soles pulled free from the bones of its feet, having fused with the scalding hot metal door. An image of cheese sliding off a slice of pizza popped into Lin’s mind, and the taste of bile filled the back of her throat.

  Struggling to its feet, the thing appeared to have been a young male. Its hair had burned away, and its lips and eyelids were retracted due to the intense heat, giving it an eerie, bug-eyed, skeletal appearance. It wore the tattered remains of a U.S. military uniform; pants shredded to reveal an even more shredded leg beneath. When it turned toward the ravaged corpse, a thick flap of calf muscle, fat, and skin—tethered only by its Achilles tendon—flopped through the shattered window and smacked the paralyzed soldier in the face with a sickening, wet thwack. Despite his impressive resolve up to that point, this proved more than he could handle. His ensuing screams made those of the burning man seem mild by comparison.

  The only sound Lin heard over the soldier’s panicked cries was that of many more footsteps scrambling in her direction.

  Finding herself trapped once again, Lin shrank back against the vehicle, despite the searing hot metal that urged her to move farther out into the open. All of a sudden, a volley of automatic weapons fire erupted from somewhere above her head, and a hot metal torrent of spent shell casings rained down all around her. The monsters pitched and spun under the barrage, with many collapsing to the ground. When the gunfire ceased, she heard a familiar voice cursing in Portuguese, and looked up to see Corporal Rocha holding a massive machine gun. She watched in awe as he manipulated the jammed weapon, pleading with it to rejoin the fight. Unsure if he was aware of her position, she was about to call to him when she spotted the arm of one of the infected reaching for Corporal Rocha’s leg from just outside his field of vision.

  “Look out behind you!” Lin screamed. Not wasting a moment, Rocha spun, wielding the machine gun like a club. He brought the butt of the gun down viciously on the thing’s head, and the reaching hand instantly disappeared from view. Heedless of the action above, Lin’s eyes remained fixed on the shiny, colorful object she watched­ fall from Rocha’s pocket as he turned to face the attacker. Although she had no idea what it was, she was no less entranced as she thought about how out of place it seemed amidst the otherwise ugly, gruesome scene spread out around her. Her trance was broken when Corporal Rocha yelled her name, goading her to action. “Dr. San! As soon as the General clears a path, push through the horde. I’ll meet you on the other side.”

  The few infected that survived Corporal Rocha’s brutal assault continued their relentless advance. When she peered out from behind the debris, she saw two figures rush into the fray: General Montes followed by another soldier whom she had seen on the plane but whose name she could not recall. Awestruck, Lin watched as the General and the other soldier dispatched the remaining infected with remarkable skill using makeshift melee weapons. A jagged piece of metal, a heavy rock, a thick length of pipe, and even a four-foot long 2 x 4 were all employed with equally lethal results. In any other setting, the General could have been someone’s grandfather, but here, he was a brutally efficient killer.

  Seeing her opening, Lin stood and raced toward General Montes’ position. As she ran past, she caught sight of the strange object that Corporal Rocha dropped and quickly scooped it up. Perplexed, she turned the multi-colored plastic object over in her hand and wondered why Corporal Rocha had a suncatcher in the shape of a unicorn.

  As she drew near to the two men engaged in savage hand-to-hand combat with the horde of revenants, she watched in horror as the unknown soldier slipped in a pool of tainted blood left by Rocha’s machine gun barrage. He hit the ground hard, landing right on top of an immobilized but still snarling monster. It wasted no time sinking its teeth deep into his neck. An audible spray of arterial blood erupted from his carotid artery, spewing around the thing’s gnashing teeth as though it had just bitten into a Coke can that had been shaken for five minutes. With no more apparent thought than if had he been squishing a cockroach, General Montes brought his weapon down on the back of the soldier’s skull before bludgeoning the infected thing that had been his demise. Both went immediately still.

  Choking back her fear, Lin charged forward like a running back shielded by the defensive line. She pushed through the carnage in the wake of General Montes, all the while desperately trying to clear her mind of the horrors around her. When they emerged into a clearing, they were relieved to find Corporal Rocha and an American soldier, Sergeant Garza, already waiting for them in a large crew cab truck. The General hoisted Lin into the cab of the Light Service Support Vehicle, or LSSV, before jumping in behind her. With the remainder of the horde trailing behind them, they wove through the mayhem, narrowly escaping the base that was rapidly being overrun.

  Only once they finally pulled away from the air reserve base did the tension in Lin’s body begin to dissipate. She leaned forward, tapped Corporal Rocha on the shoulder, and handed him the little suncatcher she had recovered. Although she was not sure why, the incredulous look of gratitude and raw emotion that flooded his eyes caused an intense lump to rise in her throat.

  Nearly at a loss for words, Corporal Rocha said, “Where did…? Thank you. I—I can’t begin to tell you…” While the other two did not seem to notice the exchange, Lin sensed that the depth of meaning behind his few words went far beyond that of the words themselves.

  As the four bone-weary survivors continued to distance themselves from the hell at the air reserve base, Lin struggled to wrap her mind around the insanity they had experienced. Her mind reeled when she considered that less than twenty-four hours ago she had been sitting quietly in her lab. Tears flooded her eyes as she stared out the window, thinking of the sacrifice the soldiers made as they fought and died to protect her in the hope of saving their country, and possibly the world. I only hope it turns out to be a worthwhile sacrifice.

  Lin’s tears only intensified as she thought of the paralyzed soldier. The painful awareness of everything his simple nod conveyed proved nearly too much for her to cope with. She thought she had seen understanding in his eyes, but now she recognized that the strange calm had really been acceptance. What truly threatened to push her over the edge was what she saw running just beneath the surface of his calm veneer—an overwhelming sense of pleading. Although unnoticed at the time, it was there as plain as day when the images replayed in her mind repeatedly. It seemed clear that the soldier had accepted death and had been asking her for mercy. That she was unable to give the soldier that mercy filled her with an unimaginable sense of sorrow and failure. Huge sobs racked her body as she cursed the bitch the world had become.

  When they stopped a few miles outside of the base, Corporal Rocha sat next to Lin as she stared at the USB drive, slowly turning it over in her hand. General Montes and Sergeant Garza stood next to the truck scrutinizing a map spread across the hood, and discussing various routes in hushed voices.

  “My Luisa made that li
ttle suncatcher you recovered,” Rocha said as he stared into the distance at something only he could see. “She was four years old.” Fighting to maintain his composure, he continued despite the sadness in his eyes and the strain in his voice. “She was killed by those monsters, you see. I wasn’t with her. I was off fulfilling my military obligations. I should have been there.”

  Lin wanted to tell him it was not his fault, that there was nothing he could have done. Instead, she said nothing, realizing that anything she could cobble together would ring hollow and meaningless against the weight of his words. Corporal Rocha did not deserve that, so she simply sat quietly and listened.

  “When we received the orders to evacuate you to the U.S., General Montes agreed to accompany me to my house to pick up my wife and daughter first. Even though it was not allowed, he insisted that we bring them with us. The General is a great man, and a great leader. I have fought by his side for years and would gladly give my life for him. Anyway, what we discovered when we arrived at my house…”

  Corporal Rocha broke off, no longer in control of his voice. After several moments, he sighed, and with a deep breath, he continued, “In addition to my little Luisa, there were three others there including my wife. General Montes told me to wait outside in the truck, that he would release them from their torment. For that small mercy alone, I am forever indebted to the General. As I was leaving the house, I found that little suncatcher hanging on the window by the door next to a note.”

  Corporal Rocha handed Lin a worn scrap of paper he retrieved from his pocket. On it were three words, scrawled by the hand of a child:

  Wellcom home dady!

  3

  October 22, 2015

  Marengo County, AL

  Staring out across the boundless sea of revs in the distance, John Wild could not help but wonder if the rest of his life, however long that may be, would look like this. Since his return to Alabama nearly a month ago, he had spent nearly every moment searching for his daughter, Ava, and fighting to stay alive. During that time, he had come close to death on more occasions than he cared to recall. He had lost everything, and he was tired of running. Now, as he looked upon the seething mass of infected things marring the distant countryside, his body trembled, and his hands clenched with rage and hatred. You bastards have taken too much already! When will enough be enough? Although his loathing for the revs burned like an inferno deep inside him, he realized that they were merely victims of the plague as well. Arguably, they had lost as much or more at the hands of the merciless infection; the injuries littering their ravaged bodies were proof of that fact. Still, that understanding did little to mitigate the unbridled anger he felt toward the infected.