Read Online Contagion: The Rising by John Carter - Free Book Online Page B

head, “I’m sure they’ll try something, just not sure what or how.”
    “Well,
all we can do is prepare and wait it out,” Tony gave the binoculars back to Mark.
    Mark
looked at the dark valley below. The moon remained full and lit up the entire
highway. The various cars that were lined up on the sides of one of the bridges
were still as visible as were many parts of the road that were torn up and
uneven. It appeared that the forest attempted to take over the land it once
owned so long ago before important people decided to take over and make it
theirs. There was a slight breeze hitting them as they sat up above the land.
Tall grass and overgrown weeds swayed with the breeze and attempted to lull
them to sleep as the music of their swaying grew louder. Mark sat back and
listened to the slight movements of the grass around them. The distant howls
and screeches reached them, but Mark couldn’t decide if they were coming from
the North or Southeast directions. Tony yawned and stretched.
    “You’re
not helping, man,” Mark copied Tony and yawned. “They’re contagious.”
    “They’re
the only thing worth catching nowadays,” Tony smiled.
    The
uneven land gave them an advantage to see everything that happened below
without being detected. A small crevice in the hill allowed for two people to
easily walk up and down quickly and quietly. The land sat still as the night
became mid-morning, and part of the sky remained nearly jet black as the light
of the sun colorized portions of it.
     
    Trevor
kept sniffing around trying to get a scent for people. Dead, alive, reanimated
wandering dead heads, whichever came first. Chloe remained a few steps behind
as she regretted the moment she agreed to go on this hunt. She stopped and
checked her boots, “Ugh, can’t we stop for a second? My feet hurt from these
damned boots.”
    Trevor
turned around quickly, nearly swivelling on his heels. “No,” he sniffed the air
and recognized a familiar smell. “Shut up!” He motioned for her to get down.
She groaned and crouched to the dirty forest ground. Chloe made an ugly face at
Trevor as he was facing away from her attempting to find something. “Don’t do
that or your face will stay that way.” She slowly stopped making the face and
sat back onto the ground.  He walked over to the tree furthest from them
and looked down at the valley in front of them. “Chloe, look!”
    She got
up and sulked over to where he was standing, “What?”
    He
rolled his eyes and moved her head, “There. Bandits ahead.”
    “How do
you know? That looks like a military flag.” The outpost consisted of four green
tarps covering makeshift tents and two fire barrels. The entrance had a huge
pallet of wood with barbed wire loosely draped on it as well as a rotting
corpse. One of the three tarps looked like it had partially caved in and it was
being secured with something inside, most likely a wood plank. The awkward
shape of it’s roof made it stand out to Trevor. He allowed himself to smile and
thanked his luck.
    “That’s
what they want you to think so you can be “saved”, when they end up robbing and
killing you. Great plan,” Trevor salivated with rage. “I can’t wait to see what
they’ve got in there.” Trevor searched for a way down to the outpost and found
a slight drop from the edge of the forest to the valley floor. “Come on.”
    Chloe
groaned again and picked herself up, “what did I do to deserve this?” By the
time she reached the edge, Trevor was already half way to the outpost. A Riser
suddenly came out of the entrance of the makeshift camp. She froze mid step as
she watched Trevor approach it calmly. It stood still as it sniffed at him,
most Risers didn’t have expressions but the look of confusion on the Riser’s
face was nearly impossible to miss. Chloe made a step toward them and the Riser
quickly switched to aggression.
    “I
really understand, but you can’t eat her,” Trevor coaxed the Riser as it stared
at