REVIVAL by Nick Venom (great book club books .TXT) 📕

talking about us or somebody else? And why was he saying this on a frequency that only the military used, which was off-limits for civilians? Or was he a soldier? So many thoughts spun themselves everywhere in his brain. He stayed in one of the bedrooms, not moving a muscle, and remained silent. He stayed like that for some time.

Downstairs, Archer checked in with Scout and Dawn’s condition every once in a while as he made his rounds. After doing his fifth check, he entered the kitchen and noticed something on the fridge that he hadn’t noticed during his earlier check. He earlier found out that the electricity was still working and the goods inside were still good, though not for much longer. However, he noticed something new. On the door of the fridge, he found a post-it note. He took the note off the fridge and read it to himself.

We went on a trip to Hawaii. We’ll be gone all summer. There should be enough food and water for you while we’re gone. Be good and clean up after yourself. Love, your grandparents.

“Hmmm,” Archer muttered to himself. “... Grandparents? Where’s the grandson?”

“Did something happen?” Scout asked, watching Archer. “What did you find?”

“Nothing important, just a note. It looks like this house belonged to grandparents and at least one grandchild. Though, I haven’t found the grandchild everywhere.”

Scout cringed. “Oh… then the grandchild must be among the horde right now or somewhere in this house that we haven’t found yet.”

“I checked through all of the rooms and haven’t found anything concerning a secret room, but who knows. I’ll do a double check on the first floor and tell Rogue to do the same for her floor.” Archer said. Scout nodded, watching Archer climb the nearby stairs to the second floor and inform Rogue of the plan before coming down a few minutes later and conducting a sweep. The sweep resulted in nothing new being found, the same fate as Rogue’s sweep. There were no secret rooms or anything that could house a grandchild, which they assumed had to at least be a teenager.

Blackhawk arrived a few minutes after the sweeps were done, calling everybody to the dining room, informing everybody of his plan. He appeared to be in somewhat better spirits.“We need to move before the end of tomorrow. Scout, I need you to use your nickname and scout out the surrounding area. We need to find a hospital or someone with enough expertise. We don’t know how much time Dawn has, so we need to move fast. Rogue and Archer will remain behind and watch over Dawn and this house while I will back peddle towards where the rocket was launched. I know it came from behind us, so I’ll head in that direction.” He ordered them, getting affirmative nods. “Good, now disperse!”

Unbeknownst to them, the zombies weren’t the only threat. Yeget was making his way towards them, giggling as he neared the crash. His plan of disposing of the government pigs would be acted on soon.

 

TBC…

Chapter 40 "Virus X S1 E5 - We Got A Problem"

The zombies banged on the door and first-floor windows, spooking the inhabitants. Blackhawk picked up his rifle and pointed it at the closest window being banged on. He approached it, carefully peeking out and noticing that the horde had diminished significantly. The zombies were getting bored of trying to force their way into the building, most of them deciding to leave and wander around aimlessly. Though, Blackhawk noticed something interesting. Some of the zombies were fighting among each other, dealing fatal damage to each other. Some scuffles led to the zombies leaving with wounds while others left with one party now finally dead. The zombies that won their battles left mostly bloodied but still alive. Nearby zombies would usually keep away from themselves, perking Blackhawk’s curiosity.

“Hey, Scout, you were talking about this being a zombie apocalypse, right?”

“Yes, sir.” 

“Tell me what you know about them. Do they fight among each other?”

Scout furrowed his brows. “Usually not, sir. They’re usually depicted as slow beasts who munch on brains and have little intelligence. However, their strength in numbers is what makes them dangerous.”

Blackhawk nodded. “So rarely anything about them fighting between themselves and killing each other?”

“Uh… I heard of some cases where there are fights, but usually, the media doesn’t depict them as doing that. But then again, any knowledge I have on zombies could be worthless. These zombies might play at different rules than we assumed.”

Blackhawk turned away from the window. “Get out there and begin scanning the surroundings while I’ll go and see if I could find the person who sent us crashing. Rogue and Archer, protect Dawn and make sure we can return here without zombies in the way.”

Archer and Rogue nodded, saluting Blackhawk. Scout followed suit. Blackhawk nodded at them before turning away. He headed to the front door, checking outside to see that there were very few zombies, before holding his rifle close to his chest. He then cracked the door open, giving him enough space to fit the rifle’s barrel and fire at the zombies in his way. He gunned down all of the zombies in front of him before slipping outside and having Archer lock the door before him. Scout did the same but with the back door and Rogue locking him out.

Blackhawk and Scout sprinted away from the building, firing off their guns whenever they needed to. Blackhawk relied on his speed to avoid the zombies that were now attracted to the gunshots, chasing after him. He sprinted past the helicopter crash and continued onward.

Scout, meanwhile, moved as far away as he could from the building, passing by blocks of houses as he got deeper into town, in search of a hospital or a clinic. 

Archer and Rogue, who remained behind, resecured the entrances before avoiding the windows and doors, waiting for the horde to die down. As they waited, they checked on Dawn whose condition was getting worse. She wasn’t bleeding out of external wounds, but they assumed that she could be bleeding internally. She had anywhere from a minute to six hours, and they already spent one hour on securing the house and organizing a plan. They now had even less time to save her. 

***

Blackhawk made his way past the crash site and in the direction of where the rocket was launched from. He passed by clumps and individual zombies everywhere, doing his best to avoid them. As he was sprinting in a straight line, he was met with an issue as a blockade of burnt and destroyed cars appeared in his way.

“Damn, what now?” He thought out loud. He didn’t want to return without results, but he couldn’t progress forward. Adding to his issue and cutting off his other routes, hordes on either side and from behind him appeared. They quickly pinned him down. 

“Damn,” He muttered to himself as he recognized the situation he was in. He popped the inserted magazine and checked his bullets. He had only a small handful of bullets left, not enough to deal with the zombies surrounding him. “Guess… Guess I gotta make some noise,” He remarked before grabbing at his belt where he had a grenade ready. He primed the grenade before throwing it at the skinniest part of the invading zombie platoons. The grenade flew into the crowd, bouncing off a zombie before landing on the ground with a big ‘thud’ sound. It was then immediately followed by a large explosion that devastated the zombie platoons. Since he targeted the skinniest part of the horde, he was able to take out the remnants using the last of his magazine before sprinting through them. When he was a decent distance away, he popped off the magazine and inserted a fresh one, now fully armed again.

Damn, I got nothing. Not even a clue of where we had been shot at. I need to find another way to locate that house. We- He interrupted his thoughts as he noticed a house that was boarded up, but didn’t resemble an abandoned house. The house was taken care of well and looked to still be in use, evident by the mowed lawn and freshly painted walls. Though, something else convinced him that this house was strange as he noticed an empty RPG-7 lying on the ground. He approached the explosive launcher, careful of being spotted by the inhabitants living in the building. He got a better look at the launcher, convinced that it was the same one that took down the helicopter. Unfortunately, he noticed that the horde was catching up to him, forcing him to head back. Even so, he found what he was looking for. He found the house belonging to the person who shot them down.

***

Scout made his way silently around the neighborhoods, crossing the main roads when necessary. His search bore more fruit initially than Blackhawk’s as he located the town’s hospital with ease. He made his way inside the hospital, careful to not cause a stir within the premises that would lead to all of hell raining down on him.

“Clear,” He muttered to himself, not realizing that he was speaking out loud. He scanned through the front of the hospital before venturing deeper. He reached the patient rooms, finding them empty and lacking the tools he needed. He continued his search, quickly finding a surgeon’s room, snatching the tools necessary. As he headed out, he noticed a paper schedule pinned to the back of the door. He looked at the schedule, noticing something interesting written on it.

“Ms. Rodman’s surgery prepped for 5 PM, high-risk.” He read out loud before skimming through a comment written in the column next to it. “This will be her third surgery, so please proceed with caution. Also, side note, make sure she’s comfortable this time, the last surgery resulted in worse pain for her.”

Scout shook his head, silently praying for Ms. Rodman’s good health, even though she could have been already dead by now, before leaving the hospital and returning. As he headed back, he felt something was off. He could sense something else was happening, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

***

“The clamoring softened up now,” Rogue reported.

Archer nodded. “Good, let’s hope that they leave before the others arrive. Keep on guard and report if anything else happens.” He instructed her.

Rogue nodded, beginning to turn around but stopped in her tracks. “Do… Do you think about Rex? About what happened to her?”

Archer stared at her with furrowed eyebrows before turning away from her. “... Of course, I do. I’m the one who put a bullet in her head. I can’t… I can’t just forget about her. If she was a bit more careful, she could be here with us right now. If I was a bit more careful… she would be here with us.”

“Don’t blame yourself. How could you know that we were dealing with zombies? Nobody could’ve expected that, it’s just something that we would never have fathom.” She told him. “Never blame yourself.”

Archer nodded, taking in her words. “T-Thanks… Lois.”

Rogue smiled. “Of course, Alfred.”

Suddenly, both of their ears perked up as the clamoring outside seemed to stop out of nowhere. They glanced at