Infected Chaos Read online

  It had played out that way in the school parking lot. Cliff worried the that behavior was just the beginning. The gut-wrenching feeling of seeing fiction come to reality was too much for him. His stomach began to churn and he lurched forward and braced himself on the cellar door. He turned and vomited.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  David Roberts was shaking—all three hundred pounds of him. He was tense and just took his frustration out on his wife and children. He saw the chaos and horror unfold at the school. He couldn’t believe how a young girl, around twelve-years-old, jumped on a teacher, pulling her to the floor by her long, black hair. In all his forty-eight years, David had never seen someone attack another person like that. The vivid imagery was fresh in his mind; he stared off into the distance, replaying the attack in his head. The turbulent scene was unreal, and he was still wrestling with the reality of it. He grabbed his son, Thomas, and ran from the school building pushing his large frame as quickly as he could. He worried that if he had been ten to twenty seconds later, he and his son might have been the wild child’s next target.

  David crushed the aluminum beer can with his right hand and walked to the kitchen. He threw it into the trash can and grabbed another one; it was his fourth since he had returned from the school.

  His weight radiated throughout the entire home when he took a step. His youngest child, Thomas, complained more than once how the walls creaked when he walked. David yelled at him to go outside and leave him alone.

  The three pit bulls he kept outside the trailer started barking. The front door swung open; Thomas peeked in. “Dad, it’s Montgomery!”

  David grunted as he stood from his chair. He ran his hand through his reddish-blond hair and walked to the door. He peered through the glass window in the door to see his cousin, Montgomery, rub the top of the boy’s head.

  David opened the door. “Mont, you want a beer?”

  Montgomery smiled. “Yeah. Sounds great! Though if you saw what’s going on in town, you’d want something stronger.”

  David stopped and turned around. “Has it gotten worse?” David’s voice cracked.

  “Oh, yeah. Better stock up; this could be a bumpy ride. The kid who infected the class was just the start. Those dumb parents just wanted to get out of there, and some left with the virus, or whatever it is.” Montgomery chuckled. “It was a mad dash. This one woman was dragging her crying daughter across the parking lot; the mother was bent on getting out of there. I saw her get in her car and drive off. Later, I see them on the side of the road with that kid leaning over the seat, attacking the mom. I just kept going. I wasn’t about to get myself hurt.” Montgomery took a gulp from the can. “We better be ready to hunker down till this blows over.” He stared at David

  David returned to his worn, leather recliner and rubbed his chin, staring at the floor. If what Montgomery said was true, he should prepare for the worst and try to survive. The images of people growling, hissing, and biting others made him shiver. He saw how vicious those folks were once they were infected.

  He ran a mental note of the supplies he had, and firearms he kept in the closet. He didn’t feel safe. They would need more supplies. He had no idea how long the outbreak would last. He thought of FEMA coming to town, followed by mandatory quarantines. He couldn’t imagine what they might force people to do when they take over.

  David broke the silence. “We all need to meet up at Dane’s. If this outbreak is bad and FEMA comes to town, I’d be dammed if they lock us up with all those infected people. We’ll need to hold out as long as we can.”

  Montgomery nodded.

  David cocked an eyebrow. “You talk to Dane yet?”

  “I’ve tried calling, but I can’t get my calls to go through.”

  “Drive up there, and tell him we’re all coming. We need to stick together.”

  Montgomery finished the last ounces of beer in the can and called for Joanne, his wife.

  “Yeah? Here in the back?” she answered from the rear bedroom.

  “Load up, we need to get everyone up to Dane’s. Just to be safe. All Hell is breaking out and I want to make sure the family is safe,” David explained. “Get the kids, I’ll meet you in the truck.”

  Joanne rushed to gather their two sons and met David in the truck.

  “Where we going, Dad?” Thomas asked smiling as he climbed the seats.

  “Uncle Dane’s.”

  “We going to be safe, dad?”

  “Yes,” David answered. “Don’t worry about a thing.”

  David, his brother Dane, and his cousin Montgomery lived on the same fifty acres, but in separate homes. Dane lived in their parents’ home. They left him the house after their mother died two years before. David’s trailer sat in the middle of the property. A small creek ran the length of the property, separating the two brothers.

  Montgomery had moved his trailer onto the property three months before when he forfeited on his land loan. David always preached family was the most important thing in the world and that it was their duty to take care of each other. He took the role of the family’s patriarch after their mother died. He enjoyed having his family close, and their kids could grow up together.

  At Dane’s home, the three families huddled around the living room. Joanne, hustled the children to the empty bedroom to keep them occupied as best she could while the adults discussed their options.

  David looked around the room and took a head count. Dane, his wife Patricia, and their two oldest sons were present, and he remembered their young daughter had gone with Joanne. Montgomery and his daughter, Bridgette, were seated on the sofa. Bridgette’s two children, Jacob and Britany, were with the other kids.

  “Anyone hear from Allen?” David asked the room.

  “He should be coming,” Dane answered, looking at his watch. “If he didn’t get off work early, his shift is just ending. He should be on his way.”

  David leaned forward over the sofa in the middle of the room, placing his hands on the back of it. He nodded and took a mental note of the time. He hoped his brother was right and Allen was safe.

  “How bad is it out there, Dane?” David started.

  “It’s not good. I saw someone attack and bite someone in the school’s parking lot. That woman,” Dane laughed, “didn’t know what to think. She was scared beyond belief. Then she began to shake like she was having an epileptic shock or something. Within a few seconds, she was standing and attacked the closest person. I don’t think I ever saw a fat woman move that fast. Her eyes went totally white. Her face looked pale, like she was on her death bed. It was awful.”

  “So what do we know?” David asked looking around the room.

  No one answered. They looked at each other, waiting for the others to speak.

  “This infection—or whatever it is—causes the person to grow angry and beat up other people?” Montgomery asked.

  “Well, I think it’s more than that,” Dane blurted. “It causes you to go into a rage and bite other folks. I’ve never seen or heard of any thing like it. I don’t know what it is.”

  “It’s not good, whatever it is,” David added. “We have to be prepared, then. We stay here as long as it takes and keep an eye on each other. No one goes to work or school; we keep everyone here. Understood?”

  “What about the kids?” Patricia asked.

  “They stay close,” Montgomery answered. “They stay close, and only go outside if they’re with one of us.”

  “He’s right,” David added. “We need to keep the kids safe and close by at all times.”

  “What about food and water?” she asked again.

  David liked Patricia. She was his favorite sister-in-law. She had a good head on her shoulders, he would tell others. She was a big woman, too. She wasn’t obese, but tall, and carried her big frame well. She impressed him last winter when she cut and split two racks of wood by herself when Dane was laid up with a broken foot.

  “I want everyone to look at what they have in their pantry. Let
’s all bring what you have here to Dane’s and make a list,” he began. “Pat, why don’t you be in charge of our food supplies? See how long it will last. We can always fish and shoot a deer for food if we have to.”

  Patricia nodded.

  “Anything else?” David asked the room.

  Montgomery raised his hand. “Little Jacob has a cold. I take it we can’t just go see the doctor if he gets worse. What should we do?”

  “Does Bridgette have cold and sinus medicine?” Dane asked. “If that doesn’t help, I guess we can run and see what the pharmacy in town has in stock. We can break in if we have to.”

  “And the liquor store!” David laughed, prompting Patricia to throw a wad of paper at him.

  David heard an engine rumble outside the house. He walked to the window and pushed the drapes to the side; it was Allen’s truck. He watched Allen step from the vehicle and walked to the house. When Allen stepped through the door, David could see the concern written across his brother’s face.

  “It’s pretty bad out there. People are eating people and growl like they’re mad,” Allen muttered.

  “I hear,” David said.

  Allen was David’s younger brother—the bright one, as David called him. David may have been the family’s patriarch, but it was Allen who David relied on in many cases. David felt closer to Allen than Dane. David was three years older than Allen and five older than Dane. Allen was looked upon by the family as the reliable one who everyone leaned on when they had a tough decision to make.

  “Where’s Dane?” Allen asked wrinkling his forehead.

  David pointed and watched Allen walk over to his brother, then lean down and whisper in his ear.

  “What is it?” David asked, raising his chin.

  Allen held up his finger without taking his mouth from Dane’s ear. Dane rose from his chair and motioned David to follow them to the master bedroom.

  Dane kneeled by his bed and removed eight rifle cases from under it. He laid them on the bed and unzipped each case.

  “It’s all I have except two pistols I keep in the closet,” Dane pointed.

  David studied the eight rifles before him. They were bolt-action deer rifles, except one semi-automatic AR-15 and one lever-action thirty-thirty caliber rifle.

  “What’s the rush?” David asked as he picked up a Remington bolt-action rifle and looked over the scope. He admired it. It was David’s favorite deer rifle, and he had lost it to his brother over a football bet eight years prior. The rifle was sentimental to him; he shot his first eight-point buck with it twenty-three years ago. He was proud of his brother for taking good care of it.

  “Allen said there’s an infected woman at the stop sign about a block from here” Dane explained.

  “It’s coming here?” David asked, pointing at the floor.

  Allen nodded. “It looks like it. Damn thing started following me when I passed it.” He paused and swallowed. “It looks like Cindy, but I can’t tell with all the blood covering her hair and face.”

  “Cindy? The woman three acres over with all them cats?” Dane asked.

  “Yep.”

  “She’s on the road walking this way?”

  “Looks like it. Last I saw in the rearview mirror, she was.”

  “Okay then,” David stated. “Let’s go look for her.”

  Allen and Dane locked eyes.

  “Go after her?” Dane questioned.

  “Yea, that’s too close to home. She could be anytime, and then what? Hope she’s not creeping around, ready to hurt the family? That’s too close in my book,” David explained.

  Dane shrugged. He went into his closet and returned with a Glock 19 and a Smith & Wesson three-fifty-seven. He holstered the Glock inside the waistband of his jeans and handed the revolver to Allen.

  “We do this quietly, without causing alarm to the family. It will only make things worse,” Allen suggested.

  “I agree. What do you recommend?” David asked.

  Allen grinned.

  David asked Montgomery to remain in the house with the family as they went after their infected neighbor. Montgomery agreed and wished them luck.

  Dane climbed in the bed of Allen’s red Chevy truck, and David took the passenger’s seat. Allen started the truck, drove it forty yards down the driveway until they met the gravel road, and turned right. He spotted her the moment he completed the turn.

  “There she is!”

  “She’s walking like she’s drunk,” David said.

  She was wearing a blue blouse with denim jeans. Her blonde hair was dark from the blood covering half her side. He never liked Cindy. She had called the sheriff numerous times on the Roberts family for being loud. She had threatened Dane once when one of his dogs bit one of her horses. He had apologized and paid for the veterinarian bill, but she was never a happy person. David always thought she was grumpy because no man would have her.

  “Pull up, and get close,” David instructed, adjusting himself in the seat and feeling tense.

  Allen continued toward the woman, his heart racing and knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel. His breathing increased, and he felt the blood rush to his face. The thought of pushing the accelerator down to the floor and running her over crossed his mind.

  “This is close enough,” David instructed.

  Allen slowed the truck to a crawl, turned the steering wheel, and parked the truck perpendicular across the road.

  “What do you have in mind, Allen?” David asked.

  Allen didn’t say any thing as he stepped from the truck and asked David to exit as well. He glanced over his shoulder to see Cindy seventy yards away. She screamed and tried to run, but her right foot was turned ninety degrees. Allen was surprised to see her ignoring her leg as she tried to speed toward them.

  Allen reached for a case behind the bench seat then returned to see Cindy growing nearer. He placed the hard case on the ground, flipped the locks up, and threw the lid open. He pulled out a compound bow and held it in his left hand, then pulled out an arrow with a three-blade arrowhead and loaded it. He looked up at the grotesque form of Dane’s neighbor rushing toward him. He slid the bow string into the arrow nock and pulled it back to his cheek. He found the peep sight entwined in the bow’s string and located the three-colored pins in it.

  He peeked through the bow aperture and aligned the yellow pin right on the woman’s blood-soaked head. He could see her blank, white eyes. She snapped her jaws at him, exposing her black teeth.

  Allen took a deep breath and held it. He found his target and released his fingers from the bowstring. The arrow flew, bending in mid-air then straightening before it found its target. The arrow pierced through Cindy’s left cheek bone. Allen stood with a gaping mouth when Cindy froze, her screams stopped. A few seconds passed; then, she fell on her back as if an invisible hand pushed her over.

  “That was awesome!” Dane cheered from the back of the truck.

  David rapped his hand on the truck’s hood and cheered.

  Allen’s throat tightened, his mouth went dry from the realization he had just shot someone with his bow. He didn’t know what to think. He was happy the threat was neutralized, but at what cost? He killed his neighbor. He felt his stomach churn and his face turned green. He took a deep breath to calm himself.

  Dane jumped from the truck and ran to the body. His feet slid on the loose gravel when he stopped. He stood over her and stared. The colorless eyes, sunken cheekbones, pale skin, and blood-caked hair made his stomach churn.

  David approached with determination, placed his foot on the dead woman’s throat, and grasped the arrow. He pulled on the arrow and twisted it between his fingers as its broad head snagged against her occipital lobe. When the arrow cleared her skin, David held the arrowhead up, looking it over as blood and brain matter fell to her chest.

  “Gross, man!” Dane blurted.

  David laughed. “It’s kinda neat, ain’t it?”

  “What do you think made her this way?”


  “I take it,” David started, pushing her shoulder with his boot, “this infection, or whatever it is, causes people to rage and eat other folks. I actually think the virus kills you, and then it takes over your body, like you read in those comic books.”

  “Like a zombie?” Dane asked cocking his head.

  “Yep. I think we got the zombie apocalypse on our hands,” David answered in a calm voice as he wiped the arrowhead on the infected woman’s clothes.

  Allen approached his brothers and studied the woman he shot. His gut knotted in disgust.

  David smiled and patted his brother on the back. “Great shooting, Allen!”

  Allen held his hand to his mouth. “Geez, do they all smell rotten?”

  “It is kinda repugnant, ain’t it?” David smiled.

  Allen glanced at his brother; he didn’t share the same excitement. He agreed the woman was infected and a danger, but he wished he didn’t feel bad. What if she had snuck in the house at night or surprised one of the kids? It was the right thing to do, he told himself.

  David turned and looked down the road and at his surroundings. It was quiet except for the light wind whistling through the tree branches lining the road. He pictured the worst: hundreds of infected zombies emerging from the tree line, walking into their homes, and devouring everyone. His hand shook knowing they were ill prepared for an outbreak of any magnitude.

  The world had changed in an instant. They would have to adapt to the new world if they wanted to survive. How desperate would they be for food when it became scarce? Would others kill him and his brothers if it meant they could survive? He felt his stomach in his throat.

  “We have a problem, guys,” David stammered, clearing his throat.

  Allen and Dane turned.