Omega Pathogen: Mayhem (10 page)

“It’s out,” Chris calls over the radio. Arzu echoes the same to Jim. He stands and grips the lift cord for the blinds, ready to snatch it down to open them when the street in front is clear.

Berk and Kayra stand next to their mother, too young to have any full understanding of the seriousness of the situation, but they do know there is stress in their mother’s body language and voice. They hear the same stress in their older brothers’ and their father’s voices as well.

Arzu can hear the popping and cracking of the fireworks from outside. Jim hears the same noises and keeps a steady gaze outside. He watches as the infected crouch and then head in the direction of the ruckus.

Some of the infected sprint toward the noise, some head that way in a more cautious manner, while others limp along due to either new injuries or a preexisting condition prior to their change into what they’ve become. The street in front has cleared out, but Jim can see other infected still heading in the direction of the noise, some of them on a path to take them by the family home, but the time is now.

Jim pulls down on the cord for the blinds, releases the grip, and is lifting up, opening the bedroom window before the blinds have finished their motion. He grabs the extension ladder and feeds it out the window onto the top of the MRAP below. He’s lengthened the ladder before pushing it outside the widow to make sure it’s long enough. However, the extra length makes it difficult to maneuver easily. It seems to take much longer than it does, but Jim gets the ladder out and set quickly.

“Ladder’s ready. Going out,” he yells. Arzu relays the information to Chris and Jeremy over the radio. Chris is already climbing down the attic ladder when he hears the call. Jeremy hears his dad, and then again hears Arzu repeat it to Chris on the radio.

Jeremy looks up to Arzu standing on the second floor above him and says, “I’m going to try to open the garage.” Arzu ushers Berk and Kayra toward Berk’s room, where the ladder is leaning against the window and the MRAP.

Chris is in the process of putting up the attic ladder out of the hallway when Arzu and the kids come up behind him. Chris moves against the wall, letting them pass, and then sprints to the stairs to back up Jeremy in opening the garage door by hand and, if needed, to keep infected away.

Chris hits the first floor running. The door to the garage is directly in front of him and he can see Jeremy on one knee with his rifle up and aimed toward the direction of the rolling door. Chris is relieved to hear the garage door rolling up under its battery power. He sees Jeremy shift his eyes to him, hearing his footfalls, and then immediately back to the potential area of threat.

Knowing Chris is joining him, Jeremy rises to both feet and, in a crouched position, moves forward a couple of feet and slides to the left to give Chris space. Chris joins his brother, and they both remain in a crouched position, with their weapons aimed at the garage door as it finishes opening.

They see their dad jump down from the roof of the armored SWAT truck and open the driver’s door. Jim’s eyes follow the aim of his rifle as he checks inside for any infected that may have found a way in. Seeing the inside clear, he switches the ignition halfway to start position to begin warming the glow plugs.

He points to Jeremy and signals with a hand gesture for him to come to him. Jim starts the starts the MRAP while Jeremy crawls across his lap and takes up position at the turret and opens it. “Clear,” Jeremy quietly calls down from the turret to his dad.

“OK, tell Arzu,” Jim instructs Jeremy and begins to back the vehicle away from the garage. Jeremy signals up at Arzu where she looks out and down at them, through the upstairs window. With a nod, she turns from the window and runs, herding Berk and Kayra in front of her as she heads back down the stairs.

Jim backs the MRAP up to the open garage door with all but a small portion on the right side of it remaining open, the passenger side of the large vehicle blocking the rest. Jim puts the vehicle in park and leaves the driver’s seat, giving Jeremy a single pat on his left thigh as he passes him on his way to the rear of the MRAP.

As Jim reaches the rear double doors, he sees Chris from the thick armored windows, moving in a crouch toward the passenger side of the vehicle, where there’s a gap between the garage doorframe and the MRAP’s bulk. Jim swings open the doors, careful not to hit Chris with the passenger side rear door, seeing Arzu standing near the bottom of the stairs with Berk and Kayra behind her.

Jim signals for Arzu and the kids to make their way to the MRAP. “Infected,” Jeremy yells out as he sees several infected approaching from the front and passenger side of the vehicle.

“Where?” Jim and Chris yell back, in near unison.

“Sorry, twelve and two o’clock; approaching our location.”

“OK, guys, cover us,” Jim instructs, while taking Berk and Kayra from Arzu.

Jim then grabs Arzu by the forearm and yanks her inside. “Driver’s seat, baby,” Jim tells Arzu as he follows behind and straps Berk and Kayra into the two closest seats to the cab of the MRAP.

“It’s like a very big and very heavy SUV, hon,” Jim says to Arzu, referring to operating the large armored vehicle as he heads to the rear doors.

Jim jumps when he hears the report of rifle shots as he is quickly walking past Jeremy’s legs, which are on an elevated platform inside the MRAP to give field of view and fire to the person in the turret.

“Update?” he asks, and then hears more shots from Jeremy and three followed by several more outside from the direction of Chris’s position.

“Twelve o’clock is full of them,” he hears Jeremy say with nervousness in his voice. He hears another two shots from outside and then Chris yells out, “Twelve to three has tons of them. They’re everywhere, Dad.” Jim hears the same slight tremor to Chris’ voice as well. Jim steps out and down from the MRAP’s rear doors and taps Chris on the shoulder. “I’m running in to get those supplies. You good, buddy?”

“Good, Dad. I think you should hurry,” Chris answers while continually taking out infected coming toward them. Jim would prefer to have Chris inside and in the turret with Jeremy, safe. But any infected coming from behind the house and from the east side of the home could easily be missed and overrun them. Jim makes seven trips in and out of the home. On the seventh trip out, he’s gasping for air. “OK, Chris, hop inside and let’s get out of here.”

“On my way,” Chris says and then, after ten or twenty more shots, he hops up from his stance and heads inside the MRAP. Jim follows and tells Arzu, “Pull a little forward,” as he slams the vehicle’s doors closed. He tells Jeremy to come down and close the turret.

“Tons of infected front and left side,” Chris yells out.

Jim looks for himself out the driver’s side rear compartment widows and sees numerous infected headed their way. “Shit.”

“Yeah, shit here, too, Dad.” Chris says, looking out the passenger side.

“OK, honey. Take us toward I-10 and the 99. No need to hurry, we’re good in here,” Jim says to Arzu, and she pulls away from their home.

Chapter 16

Present

After making their way to the 99 and I-10 onramp, Jim notices that their pursuers have mostly given up and are now walking, and some have stopped. Not seeing any infected around their immediate area, he asks Arzu to stop, and she puts the vehicle in park, leaving it idling.

“Everyone okay?” Jim asks.

“I have to go poop,” Kayra says with an uncomfortable look on her face.

“I already did in my pants,” Chris says, with nearly the same look on his face.

“I’m not gonna be able to crap right for a week,” Jeremy offers his bowel status.

“OK, enough for now, guys,” Jim says. “Kayra, use the potty over there,” Jim points out the empty five-gallon bucket toward the cab area of the MRAP. “Let me tie it down with the bungee cord first, sweetheart,” Jim tells his daughter.

“I’m not pooping in front of everyone,” she says.

“Sweetheart, no one will look. We’ll get a curtain for it later.”

“I’ll stand in front of you so no one can see, baby,” Arzu says while reaching down to release Kayra’s four-point harness.

“Good job, guys. I know some of the things that are going through your heads right now, and all I can say is you did what you had to do to protect yourself and your family.” Jim looks deeply into his sons’ eyes as he speaks.

Neither Chris or Jeremy replies; they hold his gaze and both give only a nod. “It’s not an easy thing to do what you’ve done. I wish I could tell you things will be easier, but I doubt they’re going to be. I think things will only get tougher as we go. We’ll not only have to deal with infected, but also survivors who want to take what we have just because they can.”

“You two refill your magazines. I’m going to check out these radios to see if we can use them,” Jim says and begins checking the cabinet that he hadn’t noticed, marked
Comms
, while he was inside the MRAP the first time. He’s pleased they may have better communications than the store-bought radios they’ve been using.

Opening the cabinet, he’s rewarded by the sight of eight handheld radios, each with headsets equipped with right or left interchangeable earpieces and microphones attached. Turning on two of the radios and switching them both to channel one, he keys one while listening to the earpiece of the other. He’s rewarded with the sound of a squelch and that of hearing himself blowing into the other radio’s mic.

Hearing the echo when keying and releasing the transmit button, he knows by the sound that the radios are using a repeating system located onboard the MRAP. Kayra finishes her business, and they all take seats in the rear area of the vehicle. Jim lays out his plan; he feels a high priority is to fill the MRAP with diesel, but decides, since they’re close to fuel supplies from nearby gas stations and tractor-trailers, they can spend some time trying to get more supplies.

He knows they’ll need to get some fuel cans and to fill them up as well, so they have spare fuel on hand. A good place for that and other needed supplies will be the Costco nearby. Jim points out that they can fit two or three five gallon containers on each side of the steps on the sides of the rear doors, securing them in place by strapping them to the handrails running beside each of the doors.

Jim had been able to get many supplies from the ambulance, and some weapons and ammunition from the police cruisers, before finding the MRAP. He had to leave those items behind in order to escape with the armored vehicle. Since they were left in the family vehicle at the nearby hospital, they’ll see if they can collect those things first and then scavenge further.

Jim asks for questions or comments but receives only ‘Sounds good’ from Chris and Jeremy and ‘OK, honey’ from Arzu.

“Arzu, I’ll drive us over to the hospital over there,” Jim says, pointing out the passenger side of the MRAP. “You sit up front with me so I can go over some of the handling characteristics of this beast.”

Chris and Jeremy buckle Berk and Kayra into their seats and begin to argue about who is going to man the turret. “Neither one of you is opening the turret right now,” Jim says to end the argument.

“Chris, you’re too damn short any way,” Jeremy throws another little verbal jab. “Height isn’t an issue, Jeremy. The platform adjusts up and down,” Jim says.

Chris responds to Jeremy by displaying his middle finger to his younger brother.

“Chris, you sit at the rear beside the passenger side door. If we need to get out the rear of the MRAP fast, we need someone there to open it up in a hurry.”

"Got it, Dad," and "OK, Pops," are the boys’ responses.

“And put on your belts,” Jim insists.

Jim and Arzu buckle in as well and Jim begins the trek to the right, off the road, onto the shoulder and over the lawn of the hospital. Throughout the short drive over to the hospital, Jim looks for and sees infected taking notice of the deep engine noise of the diesel. Other survivors are observed, many in the process of packing vehicles to leave, while others are fortifying their homes or businesses to try and stay put. Jim doesn’t share the latter’s optimism about remaining in an area with this high of a population. The infected exit from the hospital, not like they did before, but still in large numbers.

Jim talks to Arzu about the vehicle, informing her that it can get up to seventy miles per hour if it has enough of a straightaway. He informs her that when accelerating, the MRAP won’t respond as quickly as normal cars and trucks due to its massive weight of around seventy thousand pounds.

He cautions also that because the vehicle is tall and top-heavy, it’s prone to turning over on its side, as well as the propensity for it to flip when not taking a hill at the proper angle, even at low speeds. Jim gives brief instructions in the operation of the vehicle, loud enough for Chris and Jeremy to hear the lecture as well, since they’ll likely need to drive it at some time.

Chapter 17

Present

Arriving at the front of the hospital, Jim pulls past the Pathfinder and then backs towards the rear of the vehicle using the MRAP’s backup camera. The armored vehicle is so wide; it’s impossible to see the whole Pathfinder in the side mirrors.

Parking the MRAP, Jim asks Arzu to take the driver’s seat. He opens the weapons locker and removes an M-32 six-shot 40mm grenade launcher. Jim locates the Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) grenade rounds and fills it with six.