Caldera 10: Brave New World Read online

  Caldera 10

  Brave New World

  Heath Stallcup

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  From the desk of Heath Stallcup

  About the Author

  Also by Heath Stallcup

  Also From DevilDog Press

  You might also be interested in

  Caldera X Brave New World

  ©2019 Heath Stallcup

  * * *

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living, dead, or otherwise, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  * * *

  This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

  * * *

  Printed in the U.S.A.

  * * *

  ISBN—

  Created with Vellum

  To my twin girls.

  You both love zombie stories and this is a different twist on the genre for you.

  It may not be what you’re used to, but if the ‘zombie apocalypse’ ever really does come, it most likely will be some kind of rage virus versus the slow, shambling, walking dead.

  Rule #1: Cardio…

  1

  Buck stared at Simon wide-eyed. “Tell me…how did you survive? You were bit by a Zulu.”

  Simon chuckled, still holding his hand up. “Yeah, the Rager bit me. And yeah, I turned.” He did his best shrug with his wounded arm in a sling. “I went through the whole deal. The pounding headaches, the anger, the…” he glanced away then turned back to the young man, “the cannibalism.”

  Buck’s face twisted. “You’re a fucking monster.”

  Simon nodded slowly. “I was. I can’t deny that.” He looked up at Buck and shook his head. “But something happened. I’m not that man anymore.”

  “Bullshit,” Buck growled. “You were just shooting at us. Now I’m supposed to believe that you’ve changed?”

  Simon’s face hardened. “I didn’t hit any of you, did I?” He nodded toward the rifle. “That’s an AR10. It has a Leupold scope. It’s a flat shooter out to about two hundred yards.” He raised a brow at the young man. “You really think I couldn’t have plugged both of you fuckers before you even knew what hit you?” He shook his head and gave him a tight-lipped smile. “I just wanted to scare you away.”

  “To protect what’s yours, right?” Buck held his pistol tighter and stepped towards Simon. “You deserve this.”

  The shot that fired startled Buck, and he nearly pulled his own trigger.

  “That’s right,” the voice behind him stated firmly. Buck froze as soon as he heard the woman’s words over his ears ringing. “Drop the gun or so help me god, the next one goes in your head and blows your damned brains out.”

  Simon held his hand out, holding her back. “Lana…” She met his eyes and he shook his head. “He’s just a kid.”

  “A kid holding a gun on you, Simon.” She gripped the weapon tighter and stepped closer. “I’m not telling you again.”

  Buck held his hand out to the side and let his pistol swivel on his trigger finger. He bent slowly and dropped it to the floor. “Done.”

  “Step away,” she said. “I don’t want to get blood on the carpet.”

  Simon stepped forward, his eyes locked on her. “I said, don’t.” He reached for her gun and she stepped back.

  “No! Simon, he was going to kill you.”

  Simon glanced at the kid. Even with a gun trained on him, he held his head high and his shoulders back. His jaw was clenched and he looked angry. But his hands didn’t shake.

  “Something tells me this kid has already seen too much.” Simon slowly reached out and put his hand on her pistol. He pressed down, gently lowering it. “There’s been enough death.”

  She turned and stared at him, her jaw quivering. “We won’t get away.”

  He smiled at her. “Sure we will.” He wrapped his hand around her gun then swung for Buck’s head. He felt the butt of the pistol connect and the boy folded, crumpling to the carpet.

  She stared hard at his still form. “Is he…?”

  Simon bent low and pressed his fingers to the kid’s neck. “He’s alive.” He looked up at her. “You ready?”

  “The car’s loaded.”

  “Let’s get the hell out of Dodge.”

  Hatcher patted his pockets, searching for a spare magazine. “Always be prepared, I say,” he mocked as he came up empty. He huffed, sat back, and glared at the pistol in anger. “Maybe if he gets close enough I can throw it at him?”

  A muffled shot startled Hatcher. He knew that it had to have come from inside the house. He swallowed hard and slowly rose to his full height. He peered over the wall, expecting to see Buck in the window, waving at him.

  “Come on you little shit,” Hatcher mumbled. “Show yourself….” He felt his mouth go dry as the house remained silent; his stomach dropped and his hands began to shake as he stepped towards the corner of the wall. “Come on, Buck.”

  He stared at the pockmarked house with the shattered windows and willed Buck to appear. To be okay. To show up with a huge shit-eating grin on his face.

  Hatcher stumbled as he rounded the corner, uncaring that he was open to the sniper. He heard an engine turn over and fire to life, and his head turned toward the open garage.

  Tires chirped before a sleek red rocket burst across the driveway and through the front gate. The car swerved hard to the left, tires screeching on the dry pavement as the driver shifted gears, shooting out of the housing complex and onto the main road.

  Hatcher barely caught the silhouette of two heads in the rear window of the car, and neither looked like it could be Buck.

  He lowered his pistol and sprinted across the street, hopping the ruined wrought iron gate and running into the garage. He hit the door leading to the house at full speed, bouncing off the door jamb as he entered into the kitchen.

  “Buck!” he yelled as he ran through the kitchen and into the dining room. Hatcher froze when he saw the legs extending past the couch and his heart stopped.

  He fell to the floor next to the young man and rolled him over. “Buck!” He pressed a hand to the boy’s neck and tried to feel for a pulse. He sighed and collapsed to the floor, tears forming in his eyes as his brain collated the data and realized that the kid was still alive.

  “Is he…?”

  Hatcher looked up to see a haggard looking Will Stanton standing in the dining room. He nodded slowly. “He’s still with us.”

  “Holy hell.” Will approached shakily and bent down, patting the boy’s cheeks. “Buck? Buck, wake up.”

  Buck’s eyes fluttered open and his whole body jerked as if startled. He looked at Will then to Hatcher. “It was Simon.” He tried to sit
up and pressed his hand to the back of his neck. “Son of a bitch.” He looked at his hand to check for blood then turned to Hatcher. “I swear to god, it was Simon.”

  Hatcher stared at him, unbelievingly. “He’s a fucking cockroach.” He sat down hard on the carpet and tried to make sense of everything. “First we capture him, then he escapes. Then he attacks us.”

  “Multiple times,” Will shook his head.

  “Yeah.” Hatcher looked at Buck. “Then he’s bitten…but somehow he’s still Simon?”

  Buck nodded slowly as he tried to come to his feet. “And he has a woman with him.” He groaned as he leaned on the back of the couch. He looked to Hatcher and raised a brow. “She kind of looked like a Zulu, but…not.”

  “Cured,” Hatcher said as he came to his feet. “Of course.” He threw his hands into the air. “Simon gets bit just before they release a cure.”

  “And now he’s in the wind.” Buck pushed off of the couch and rubbed the back of his neck as he walked toward the front door. “But something tells me we haven’t seen the last of him.”

  Dr. Broussard looked at the armed guards then back to Dr. Higgins. “You can’t be serious. There are so few people left in the world, and you tell us that if we don’t perform the impossible, you’ll have us executed?”

  Higgins smiled and it didn’t reach his eyes. “Not on my order, oh no, no, no.” He looked at the guards and raised a brow. “No, that order comes from much higher up.”

  “Because the president and the vice president were besties,” Carol quipped.

  “Yes.” Higgins took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “So, would you like to begin now or are you tired from your trip?”

  Broussard glanced at Carol and she shook her head. “I’d like a little time to wrap my head around this whole mess.” She glared at Higgins. “It’s not every day that we save the human race then get told we’ll be shot if we don’t go this little extra mile.”

  Broussard stepped forward. “Who on your team will be made available to us?”

  Higgins shrugged. “Whomever you decide you’ll need.”

  Broussard nodded. “Get me their dossiers. I need to know what their specialties are before I can build a team.”

  Higgins smiled. “So you feel you are up to the challenge?”

  Broussard groaned as he looked back at the men holding guns. “We have a choice?” he scoffed. “Just get me their information.” He turned and walked toward the steel door. “We’ll start first thing in the morning.”

  Simon gripped the dash with his good hand and clenched his jaw as Lana ground the gears on the Ferrari’s transmission. “Easy, sweetheart. I don’t think they’re following.”

  “I’d rather be safe than sorry.” She jerked the wheel, shooting them down another side road.

  Simon really wished he had tried the seatbelt, regardless of how his arm felt. “Slow down.” He turned and raised a brow at her. “It does us no good to survive the Cagers only to die in a fiery wreck on the side of the highway.”

  She released the death grip she had on the steering wheel and lifted her foot from the accelerator. “Fine.” She swallowed hard as she stared into the rearview mirrors. “Where are we going, Simon?”

  He exhaled long and hard while he tried to think. “We head to the RV place. We find something that we can live with and…disappear.” He turned and gave her a sideways grin. “The world is ours, sweetheart. Wherever you want to go.”

  She sighed and turned back onto a main road, avoiding the cars parked in the street. “I think I want to go home.” She glanced at him. “The house we just had actually felt like…like a home.”

  “We can’t go back there,” his voice was low and soft, “but there are literally hundreds of thousands of houses we can choose from. Preferably far from that one.” He reached across and gripped her hand. “Home is where the heart is.”

  She nodded, her face betraying her emotions. “You told that kid that you weren’t trying to kill them.” She didn’t look at him as she spoke. “So you did miss on purpose.”

  Simon shook his head. “That’s just what I told the kid.” He released her hand and tried to settle back in the stiff seat. “I missed because they were moving and I’m not that great a shot—even when I’m not wounded.”

  She considered his explanation and found it wanting. “I don’t think I believe you.”

  He turned and stared at her, his face a mask of surprise. “Lana, I would never lie to you.” He leaned forward, trying to move further into her line of sight. “Ever.”

  “Simon, they were sixty feet away.” She glanced at him then turned back to the street ahead. “Sixty. Even I could have hit them at that range.”

  Simon sighed as he sat back. “You probably could have.” He turned and stared through the side window. “But I wouldn’t lie to you. I was shooting to kill, mostly because you were scared of the results if I didn’t.” He turned back to her, his face stoic. “I’ve done enough wrong in my life. I don’t intend to carry on with those wrongs.”

  “So…you weren’t trying to kill them?”

  “That’s not what I said.” He leaned forward again, his voice firm. “I’m saying that I would never lie to you. That’s not what this relationship will be built on.” He reached for her hand again and she pulled away from him. “I’d rather tell you the truth and have you be pissed at me than to lie to you.”

  She continued staring through the cracked and broken windshield, avoiding his gaze.

  Simon sat back and sighed. “I was shooting to kill. I just couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with my bad arm.”

  She slowed the car and pulled under an overhang at an old gas station. “You’re telling me that you’d rather me be mad at you than to tell me a lie and make me happy?”

  He nodded slowly, staring straight ahead. “I gave up drinking for you.” He turned slowly and shook his head at her. “Brown liquor was my only love, and in the old days, I’d kill someone before I’d let them come between me and the bottle.” He sat back and sighed again. “I gave it up for you. Because I…” He paused, not wanting to say the ‘L’ word again. “I care too much to screw this up.”

  “And you mean it? You’d rather piss me off than lie to me?”

  He nodded. “You’ll get over being mad. If I lied to you, that could destroy our trust. I won’t have it.” He swallowed hard, expecting her to give him an ear full.

  She reached over and took his hand. “Let’s go pick out that RV.”

  2

  Roger winced. “You’re sure it was Simon?”

  Buck gave him a hard stare. “It was him. He didn’t have that old leather biker jacket, but it was him.” His features softened momentarily. “He had his arm up in a sling. I’m guessing he got wounded.”

  Roger smirked and turned to Hatcher. “I’d bet it was Savage. The other guys on the wall said that he was pretty sure he shot him.”

  “Regardless,” Hatcher stated, coming to his feet. “He bailed with another person in tow.” He looked to Buck. “I’m assuming it’s the woman you said was with him.”

  Buck held the cold compress to the back of his bead and nodded. “Good assumption.”

  “She was a Zulu?” Roger asked.

  “Except she could talk.” Buck shook his head. “But she was just as angry.”

  “Another assumption is that she’s cured, and didn’t have whatever our two guys caught.” Hatcher poured a cup of coffee and stared at the wisps of steam rising. “Where would he go?”

  Roger slid off the corner of the desk. “Who cares? He’s gone, and that’s all that matters.”

  Hatcher shook his head. “He swore revenge.” He turned and faced the other two. “We had most of his people with us, so I blew off his threat, didn’t take him seriously. Then after a break, he attacks. Again, I think he’s done, his resources exhausted, only he comes back later with a bunch of Zulus. I assume he’s done this time, but he rallies and attacks. Again.” He glanced at Buck. “This
time I am fairly certain he’s dead, and the lunatic shows up again, only now he’s leading the Zulus.” He shook his head as he took his seat. “I can’t assume anything anymore.”

  Buck pulled the compress from his head and checked for blood once more. He set it down on the table and slowly came to his feet. “Hatch, you know me. You know I want Simon dead as much as anybody.” He glanced to Roger then back to Hatcher. “And I know this is going to sound crazy, but I can’t shake it from my head.”

  “What?” Roger asked, adjusting his arm in the sling.

  “Simon had me dead to rights.” He looked to the other two men and sighed. “The woman was holding me at gunpoint and she definitely wanted to kill me.” He leaned on the table and slowly shook his head as he replayed the events. “I honestly thought I was about to die.”

  “You were lucky, kid,” Roger stated.

  He shook his head again. “Simon wouldn’t let her shoot me.” He looked to Hatcher. “He told me that he’d changed. That he wasn’t the guy he used to be, and I basically told him to fuck off, that I didn’t care. But when it came to nut-cuttin’ time, he stopped her from shooting me.”

  “He beat you unconscious,” Hatcher stated matter-of-factly.

  “He knocked me out so they could escape. He knew I wouldn’t just let them walk out of there. Not if I was still breathing.”

  “What are you thinking, Buck? That’s he’s found Jesus? A kinder, gentler sociopath?”