Strain by Amelia C. Gormley

Author:Amelia C. Gormley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2014-01-20T23:00:00+00:00

Willamette University had a haunted feel about it, and after the squad’s last experience on a college campus, everyone was understandably tense. What had likely once been a broad lawn overlooked the capitol. Rhys could imagine it once upon a time as a picturesque place to study, as he’d seen characters do in videos before the plague. Now, it was a nearly impassable tangle of weeds, brambles, and saplings. A stone sculpture that had formed the centerpiece of a fountain had toppled, probably during an earthquake, and the fountain itself was nothing more than a dry pit filled with dirt and matted, half-rotten leaves. A quintet of massive sequoias towered on one of the lawns defiantly, as though they alone were untouched by all that had befallen the world and its population since their planting.

“We’ve got survivors here,” Rhys heard Toby murmur as they approached the first building. “Or there were not long ago. Look.”

He pointed to the basement windows nearly buried in the tall grasses. One of them had been wiped free of grime in a hasty circle.

Darius gave a tight nod. “If we find anything human, Joe and Xolani, you get Rhys and Houtman out. Until they’re confirmed positive for Alpha, we have to assume whatever they do have is airborne.” He turned his grim gaze to Rhys and offered the slightest hint of an encouraging smile. “Remember that: Beta’s airborne. Just to be safe, you keep a distance of at least twenty yards until we get the survivors on the boats and headed back to base.”

“Okay.” Rhys nodded with a tense, jerky motion.

The basement with the peephole was empty, and the disappointment settled like a weight on the company. The murmured chatter dropped away to grim silence as they braced themselves to leave empty-handed.

“Dining hall next.” Darius looked up and down the empty passages. “If they’re not here, that’s where they’ll be.”

A discovery on the quad made Kaleo break into a wide grin. “Whoever it is, they’ve left us a bread-crumb trail.”

Scraps of industrial-grade terry cloth too pristine to have been in the open for long formed a path across the weed-eaten field.

“They’ve been holing up in the laundry.” Toby began smiling.

Darius nodded, studying the scraps. “Probably nesting there to keep warm in winter.”

Rhys frowned. “Why leave a trail?”

“He probably heard the gunfire.” Darius pushed himself up and continued leading the way, wading into the tall grasses. “Like we saw last time, survivors can be skittish. If they’re alone they might be suffering isolation psychosis. They’ve been holed up so long, they don’t like being in exposed positions. So most likely, he came to see what was going on, but he didn’t feel safe out in the open, close to the action, and went back to his hidey-hole. He really didn’t want to be missed, though, and he doesn’t know we have the infrared scanners, so he left a trail, hoping it would be us who found it, not the revs.” He looked around, as if hoping to see the survivor emerge from somewhere.

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