Outbreak (Book 3): Endplay Page 19

  “I-I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” Jennie said as her eyes fluttered among all the monitors. “Are these really alien creatures?”

  Between the shock of what they looked at and the fact no one had any idea what was going on, nobody said a word.

  “Josef,” said Wilder as he broke the silence. “You said you might know what’s happening. Please share your thoughts, because my brain is spinning like a tire caught in mud right now.”

  “I must warn you that my theory is a little… how should I say… unorthodox,” Josef warned.

  “Joey,” Steele said without taking his eyes off the monitors, “aliens just hatched from big, gooey eggs. Be as unorthodox as you like.”

  Josef walked away from the monitors and took everyone’s attention away from the scene that unraveled above.

  “The things walking around up there,” Josef said, “are no longer human. I’m almost one-hundred percent certain of this.”

  “Then what the hell are they?” asked Cheryl.

  “Aliens,” Josef said without a hint of doubt. “The same aliens that orchestrated the extinction of humankind.”

  “With all due respect, that doesn’t make any sense,” Howard said. “If these were the aliens that caused all of this, then they’d have been here for the last two years.”

  “But they have been,” Josef pointed out. “They have been here the whole time, just in a different form.”

  Josef held up his hands, and before anyone asked any questions, he continued, “The engineered virus they created was more than we thought it was. If they just wanted humanity wiped out, they could’ve easily engineered a plague to do so. But they wanted and needed human beings.”

  “For what?” Stefan asked.

  “For that,” Josef said as he pointed to the monitors. “The bio-nano virus was designed to create more of them, more of their species.”

  “But why?” Jennie asked. “Why would they need to create more of their race?”

  “Perhaps they came from a dying planet,” Josef said. “Who knows. It may already be dead. The aliens that floated around in the crafts above us may be the last of their species.”

  Josef paused for a second, then continued. “Look at the course the infection has taken. First the animals were infected, then humans. Then the yellow-eyed creatures appeared. Now the yellow-eyed creatures have become those monstrosities before us.”

  “Wait a minute,” Wilder interrupted. “There’s aliens in spaceships above us?”

  “They are hovering right outside Earth’s atmosphere,” Josef said.

  “Why?” Wilder asked. “Why don’t they just come down here and finish the job already?”

  “They will, soon enough,” Josef said as he looked to the ground, “but it seems something is keeping them away. For now, at least.”

  “That’s enough,” Rickard said angrily as he walked toward Josef. “You have a big mouth, Josef. I was warned about that.”

  “Warned about that?” Cheryl asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Yes, Rickard,” Josef said as he turned to the man and smiled. “Why don’t you tell them?”

  Rickard looked at the others and silently turned around. Wilder grabbed Rickard’s wrist and twisted him about.

  “I’ve had about enough of your bullshit,” Wilder said. “I know you. We’ve met before. Afghanistan, right? You caused a lot of death there. You seem to cause a lot of death wherever you go.” Wilder pushed Rickard’s sleeve up his arm.

  “And this,” Wilder said as he exposed the area on Rickard’s forearm where a tattoo used to be. “I’m guessing you used to be in Special Forces, but whichever organization owns you now made you and everyone else erase your tattoos as a symbol of allegiance to your new treehouse organization, right?”

  Rickard pulled his arm free of Wilder’s grasp and smirked. “So smart and yet so narrow-sighted. You’d keep playing for the same losing side. Well, guess what? Soon there won’t be a losing side to fight for anymore. Me? Well, myself and others figured out a long time ago which side would be victorious.”

  “You’ve known about this invasion for years, haven’t you?” said Wilder as he felt his anger rising. “You sold this planet out.”

  “We didn’t sell anything out,” Rickard said. “There was nothing we could do to prevent the imminent invasion. They wanted this planet, and there was nothing we could do about it.”

  “We could’ve fought back,” Wilder said. “Humanity could have organized and collectively fought the aliens back when there was a chance.”

  “You and your self-righteous attitude,” Rickard said. “Where has it gotten you? You and Butsko’s actions at the Sils facility did nothing to thwart this invasion. All those people who died fighting with you because they believed in you, they died for nothing.”

  “They died doing what they believed in, what they thought was the right thing to do,” Wilder said. “They died because they fought to try and correct things, but I can see now that that was futile. How long have you known about this invasion?” Wilder locked his eyes on Rickard’s.

  Rickard broke Wilder’s stare and turned to walk away.

  “How long!” Wilder shouted.

  “A very long time,” Rickard finally said.

  “And you did nothing to try and stop it,” Wilder accused.

  “What do you think I should’ve done?” Rickard asked rhetorically. “Should I have run to the White House and warned them about a pending alien invasion? They would’ve carted me out of there in a straitjacket. There was nothing we could’ve done to prevent this invasion, so we did what we could to prepare for it.”

  “You,” Wilder said as he turned to Josef. “You knew about this as well, didn’t you?”

  “We used Josef,” Rickard said nonchalantly. “He had the technology and the space, so we used him to build us our safe haven until the endgame was in play.”

  “This ‘endgame,’” Wilder said. “Is this the same thing as what you called ‘The Convergence?’”

  “One in the same,” Josef said.

  “I think we need to all sit down and back up a little bit,” Wilder said in a calm tone. “I wanna hear everything from both of you, and if I think either one of you is holding any information back, I’ll shoot you both.”

  The look in Wilder’s eyes told Josef and Rickard that he wasn’t joking around anymore.

  “And maybe you can explain what these are,” Stefan said as he stepped forward and held four metallic vials in his hands.

  Rickard’s eyes widened. “Where did you get those?” he asked.

  “I swiped them when we were in the craft upstairs,” Stefan said. He looked at the expression on Rickard’s face. “Shit. Are they dangerous?”

  “Dangerous?” Rickard repeated. “You may have just killed us all.”

  3

  City of Round Rock, Texas

  “We’ve got to get Emily and then get the hell out of here,” Riker said. “These things are gonna start popping out of those pods any minute,” he continued as he pointed to the shaking cocoons.

  “How do we know she isn’t already dead?” Hector asked.

  “We don’t,” Stewart said. “That’s why we need to go after her.”

  Hector nodded.

  “Hector,” Riker said, “you, Stewart, Teagan, and myself are going after Emily. Get some extra magazines.” Stewart ran on the bus and grabbed spare ammo for the others.

  “Kimberly and Braden,” Riker continued, “You stand watch here. If any of those things start to come out of the cocoons, waste them. Murphy,” Riker said as he turned around, “you stay behind the wheel and keep the engine running. Where the fuck is Noonan?” Riker asked as he looked around.

  Everyone shrugged.

  “We can’t wait for him,” Riker said. “Let’s get Emily.”

  Riker, Stewart, Hector, and Teagan ran toward the building they’d seen Emily run into. All around them, more arms punched through the membranes and made the st
reets look like a nightmarish landscape right from the mind of Hieronymus Bosch.

  Riker and Stewart grabbed the Sig rifles while Hector took one of the new shotguns.

  The four entered the building.

  “Emily!” Teagan shouted. “It’s us! You’re safe now!”

  “Stop screaming,” Hector hissed. “You’re gonna let every one of those things know where we are.”

  “Something tells me they already know,” Teagan said. “Besides--Emily has a Sig, and I don’t feel like getting shot by accident. Sneaking up on someone who’s scared and armed is not a good idea.”

  “Where the hell did she go?” Stewart asked.

  “Shit,” Riker said as he ran toward the stairs. “Blood, and it’s still wet.”

  “Upstairs?” Hector asked.

  “Upstairs.”

  *

  The man heard Teagan shout out Emily’s name. Shit, he thought as he looked down at Emily’s body. I wasn’t done with her. Then out loud, “We were having so much fun, weren’t we?”

  Emily’s battered body lay on the ground, motionless. Her breathing was so shallow it was barely noticeable.

  “Looks like we’ll have to skip to the end,” the man whispered as he lowered himself next to Emily. He roughly grabbed Emily’s hair and pulled her head back. He removed the dirty rag from her mouth, but Emily couldn’t scream. She’d already screamed her throat raw.

  “You were, baby,” the man said as he licked up the side of her cheek. “I could’ve played with you for hours, but our time is up.”

  The man leaned in, placed his mouth over hers, and kissed her. It wasn’t sexualized, but more of a goodbye.

  As his mouth covered hers, he brought his knife up and pressed it on her throat. Emily seized up, but the man kept his mouth over hers as he pressed the knife harder and sawed the blade back and forth.

  Jets of blood shot from Emily’s neck as her eyes widened. The man continued to kiss her, but now it was time. It was time for his reward.

  The man stopped kissing her, and instead started to inhale.

  The man had stolen her final breath.

  *

  “Emily!” Teagan shouted as they made their way up the stairs. “Come on, sweetie. We know you’re scared, but we really need to get out of here.”

  Teagan, Riker, Hector, and Stewart heard the gunshots outside.

  “We need to separate,” Riker said as they got to the top of the stairs. There were three doors at the top of the stairs across the hallway.

  “Let’s find her and get the fuck out of here,” Riker said. “If you find her, do whatever you need to do to get her out of there. Carry her if necessary.”

  Riker, Stewart, and Hector each walked to a door while Teagan stood guard in the hallway.

  Riker took the door in the middle and opened it cautiously. Inside he saw more blood on the floor. The blood trailed off into the room.

  “Emily!” Riker called out. “It’s Riker. I’m here to help you and get you out of here. Where are you, Emily?”

  Riker looked around the room and guessed it was some kind of research room. Piles of books lined the desks and bookshelves. There were open books all over the tables as well.

  As he walked clear of the tables, he saw something on the ground in front of him. He raised his gun, but quickly lowered it as he got closer.

  In front of him was the naked body of Emily. Her body was beaten and covered with bruises and deep lacerations from a large blade. She lay on her stomach with her arms tied behind her back. A stack of books was placed under her belly to raise her lower half off the ground. Blood seeped from both her vagina and anus.

  Riker looked away quickly and took a few deep breathes of air.

  Emily had been tortured, raped, and killed, and it wasn’t one of the infected creatures who’d done this.

  Toxic was right.

  Riker heard Hector and Stewart shout that they hadn’t found Emily in the rooms they’d searched.

  “Where the hell is she?” Riker heard Teagan ask.

  “I found her,” Riker said as he closed the door behind him.

  “Well, let’s get her,” Teagan said as she reached for the door.

  “Don’t,” was all Riker said.

  “Oh no,” Stewart said. “They got her?”

  “No,” Riker said. “A monster got her, but not the monsters we’ve been fighting.” Riker then told the others the conversation he’d had with Toxic on the bus.

  “No!” Stewart shouted as he pushed Riker aside and ran into the room. The others heard him scream as he found Emily’s body.

  Stewart ran from the room. “Who the hell could do something like this?” Stewart was pale and had vomit on his shirt.

  “Somebody that we’ve been traveling with,” Riker said coldly. “Whoever did this is someone we probably all sat next to on the bus.”

  *

  Braden and Kimberly walked around the bus and shot any cocoon with an arm sticking out of it. They both used shotguns and watched as fluids and alien-looking body parts splattered around them.

  “I wish they’d hurry back,” Braden said. “We can’t keep up with these things. They’re hatching all around us.”

  Kimberly fired the shotgun into the pod by her feet. “That’s so disgusting,” she said. Then she turned to Braden, “Do you really think we’re killing aliens right now?”

  “Is it any crazier than the zombies we’ve been killing the last two years?” Braden asked. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I think Stewart’s been right all along.”

  Kimberly knew Braden looked up to Stewart. Stewart was the kind of man who enjoyed mentoring the younger generation. Stewart had gotten Brian to appreciate books and learning. He’d opened Braden’s eyes and showed him the world was a much bigger place than what was taught in school. There’d been times Kimberly had rolled her eyes at some of Stewart’s theories, but as she blasted another cocoon with two alien-looking arms sticking out of it, it was hard not to think that Stewart may have been onto something.

  “Over there,” Braden said as he pointed to the buildings. “They’re coming back.”

  “I don’t see Emily,” Kimberly said.

  Braden ran to the bus and told Murphy to get ready to move out. Greg slipped back into the bus from the entrance on the roof and Braden saw Noonan walk out from behind some broken-down vehicles.

  “Where were you?” Braden asked Noonan.

  “What are you, my parole officer?” Noonan barked back.

  “Where’s Emily?” Kimberly asked as Hector, Riker, Teagan, and Stewart ran to the bus.

  “She didn’t make it,” Riker said. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”

  Before any of them could get on the bus, the creature that’d attacked Braden in the Hummer let out a high-pitched screech and tossed the Hummer aside like it was a cardboard box. The alien-thing looked at them as they stood by the bus. The holes Braden had shot in its chest were gone.

  Kimberly leveled the shotgun at the creature, but Riker pushed the barrel aside. “Don’t,” he said. “It’s too far away for that to be any effective. We just need to get the hell out of here.”

  In a flash, the creature raced toward them. The alien-thing moved so quickly that it didn’t even seem to move among the vehicles. It looked as though it ran through them.

  A gun fired out of the side of the bus and hit the creature a handful of times. It slowed the alien-thing down a little, but by no means stopped it.

  Kimberly ran onto the bus, followed by Braden and Teagan. They opened the windows and shot at the creature.

  “Look over there!” Braden shouted. “Beyond the creature!”

  They all saw what Braden pointed to. More creatures had emerged from their cocoons and were standing. Some looked as though they were waking up, and others looked like they were getting accustomed to their new forms.

  Hector and Riker got on the bus, but before Stewart even turned around, the creature was on top of him. With its
clawed hands, it swiped at Stewart and cut his left arm off at the elbow. Stewart screamed as blood painted the bus and he fell to his knees.

  Stewart looked into the creature’s eyes and saw nothing remotely human. In that second, as Stewart looked the creature in its black eyes, he knew he’d been right. The creature before him was no longer human. All the cryptic books and classified reports he’d read over the past decade had been correct. An alien invasion of Earth was coming, and he stared at the proof of it.

  Stewart started to feel light-headed from the trauma and blood loss as the alien-thing swiped its hand toward Stewart’s head. The sharp talons sliced effortlessly through his skull like a hot knife through butter. Stewart’s skull separated into three segments and fell away from his neck in three different directions. His body fell forward and continued to squirt blood everywhere.

  Murphy didn’t need an invitation, and he stepped on the accelerator before he even closed the bus’s door. The bus roared to life and hurtled forward. Luckily, the Hummer they were unable to move was partially out of the way from when the alien-thing had tossed it aside. Murphy saw the vehicle and floored the gas pedal to build up more speed. He swerved slightly to the right, clipped the Hummer on the side, and pushed it out of the way. It caused no damage to the bus.

  Teagan, Braden, and Greg closed the windows they shot out of and leaned back in their seats. They all knew they’d barely gotten away with their lives. The game had just dramatically changed. They all sat in silence as the image of the alien-thing splitting Stewart’s skull as though it was an overripe melon played through their heads.

  Over the last two years, they’d survived because they’d knew that, even as frightening and strong as the zombies were, they could be beaten. They may have been altered by some kind of infection, but at the end of the day, they were human. They had the same vulnerabilities as all human beings. They no longer had that advantage. The creature’s “humanity” had worked to their advantage. As the bus drove away, they all looked back and knew that advantage was gone.