The Morgan Strain Series (Book 2): Point of Proximity Read online

  Point Of Proximity

  A Post-Apocalyptic Epidemic Survival - The Morgan Strain Series Book 2

  Max Lockwood

  Illustrated by

  Hristo Kovatliev

  Edited by

  CM Editing

  Copyright © 2017 by Max Lockwood

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Hristo Kovatliev

  Edited by CM Editing

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the authors’ imagination.

  Contents

  Mailing List

  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

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  About Max Lockwood

  Also by Max Lockwood

  Excerpt From It Began

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

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  Chapter One

  In the dark, one could almost pretend that the world was peaceful and that nothing was out of the ordinary. The motion of the vehicle was soothing—forward motion gave the illusion that they were making progress and moving on. If it weren’t for the soft glow of the fires that burned the city, the drive would feel no different than a ride home from Grandmother’s house after a long holiday celebration, when a warm bed at home was the only goal. Wrapped under heaps of blankets, everything was safe, and everything was all right.

  In the back seat, Will snored softly, making Elaina envious that at least one of them was able to escape consciousness, if only for a brief moment. She knew that sleep would do her body good, but she was too nervous to lose control of her brain, even if it was just for rest.

  As they drove on in silence, Elaina made a mental log of her vital signs. Barring fear and anxiety about what was to come, she felt just fine. She closed her eyes and checked her pulse, counting and recounting the beats. She covertly examined her skin for any new spots or lesions. Her face felt cool and dry and her lymph nodes were normal.

  Though she knew it was futile, Elaina tried to give herself a basic psychological exam. She thought about everything that had happened to her and examined her thoughts as though she were leafing through file cabinets in her brain, stopping to pull out a particularly interesting document and read it. While she felt an incredible amount of stress, none of her thoughts seemed irrational, and they certainly didn’t seem violent.

  But even Elaina knew that her self-exam didn’t mean much. In fact, thinking too hard about it made her wonder if her brain was already trying to cover up insanity. She had to shake the thought out of her head altogether, or else it would consume her and perhaps drive her mad for real.

  Instead, Elaina focused on what she knew: it had been four hours since she was infected. As far as she knew, she was still okay.

  She was okay, despite the fact that her driver despised her. Alec refused to talk to, or look at, Elaina and kept his jaw clenched tightly. He hardly even blinked as he continued driving in the dark, speeding through intersections and weaving around abandoned cars. His face was locked in its stony expression.

  It didn’t feel good to have someone she once thought of as a friend furious at her, but she couldn’t let it consume her thoughts. Elaina knew that, with her future so uncertain, it would be best if she didn’t get too close to anyone. She didn’t know if she would be able to keep from spreading the infection to her traveling companions.

  Elaina knew nothing about the new kid, Will, but he seemed likeable enough. She didn’t feel any strong connection to him, so she was generally indifferent about where he ended up. Natalia, on the other hand, was a different story.

  Natalia and Elaina had been through a lot together. While Natalia clung to Elaina because she had been a source of protection, Elaina needed Natalia for a whole other reason—Natalia was the only person in the world who knew what Bretton was capable of and believed that Elaina was truly innocent. Allies were hard to find in this new world, and Elaina needed to keep Natalia safe.

  The silence must have been too much to bear for Alec, because, after a few hours of driving, he turned on the radio. At that time of night, there were few stations that actually employed workers. For the most part, music, and even talk radio, was prerecorded and set to play at certain times. Robotic employees handled requests and calls from listeners, but whatever information was being delivered was already old news.

  Sources from the military base near Seattle have told us that Elaina Morgan, creator of the Morgan Strain, has been captured and is currently being held by authorities. New information suggests that Morgan allegedly infected lab interns with her virus in order to bypass human trial regulations. While Morgan is no longer an immediate threat to the general population, her virus is still spreading at an exponential rate. Regardless of your distance from the epicenter, please use caution when interacting with others of unknown infection status. Also, sources close to the governor believe that the evacuation plan and travel ban will soon be enacted for the entirety of Washington state. If possible, avoid the Pacific Northwest region and those who have traveled from that area.

  Elaina didn’t look, but she felt like everyone’s eyes were on her.

  “I wonder when they’ll update the news,” Will said, suddenly awake.

  “I hope they don’t,” Natalia said. “If the world thinks that Elaina is being held by the military, then no one is going to notice her.”

  Elaina smiled toward the floor. At least someone was still looking out for her.

  “I’d like to hear about new breakouts, though,” Alec said gruffly. “The radio might be our only source of information while we’re out here. Let’s hope we get some answers soon.”

  The radio changed to smooth jazz and Alec turned the volume down to an indistinguishable level. The news had broken the spell of silence that had fallen over the vehicle. Everyone was awake and alert now.

  “Is it a good time to ask where we’re going?” Will tried. The others looked at Alec for an answer.

  “I’m not exactly sure. I don’t think we’ll be able to cross the border, especially with Elaina in the truck. I don’t want to go back to the city, because nothing is left there. I don’t know. I don’t know what our options are at this point.”

  Quiet fell over the passengers again. No one had any good suggestions. Elaina wanted to go to a hospital, but she didn’t want to give her reasoning away. If Alec knew she might be inf
ected, he’d shoot her on the spot.

  They drove past two men walking down the side of the road. They didn’t look at the car, but just kept walking.

  “Should we pick them up?” Natalia asked. “They could ride in the bed of the truck. I don’t think they look infected. In fact, they look more afraid of us than we are of them.”

  The two walked further away from the car and even stopped and waited for it to pass. They were thin and exhausted, but not skeletal, like the infected were.

  “I don’t think so,” Will said softly. “We can’t risk it.”

  “I’m with Will,” Alec said. “We already have a full car. I think we just need to worry about ourselves now.”

  Natalia looked sadly out the window at the people she knew would never make it to their final destination. Without a vehicle, it would be hard to get far before the infected swarmed.

  “Look at all of these people,” Will noted, pointing at the increasing traffic around them. “They’re all trying to get out of the city, too. I bet you that we’ll be able to escape without any problems. Just follow these people and we’ll get the hell out of here.”

  “Okay,” Alec said. “I’ll do my best.”

  Elaina tried to look into the other cars to see what the passengers looked like. There were apparently more survivors than the military had believed. They had made it seem like the four of them were the only ones, but there were a few hundred vehicles lined up, waiting to get across the bridge.

  “The traffic’s not even this bad during normal rush hour. I think they’re being held up by something up there,” Alec said, trying to look ahead.

  “I bet you wish you had your police sirens now,” Will chuckled.

  Alec looked ahead. “More than you know. Maybe people would actually start driving,” he grunted, stomping on his brake again.

  The cars, as if they had heard Alec’s grumpy request, started moving forward. One by one, they moved until their truck could slowly roll along with the others.

  “Finally,” Natalia breathed. “I think we’re really getting out of here.”

  Elaina felt hopeful. She knew that the virus existed outside of the city limits, but they were headed in the right direction. If other people were going to have the opportunity to live a new life, she might, too. All she needed was to stay healthy until she found a lab to continue her work.

  She checked her watch. She had made it another hour without any sign of symptoms. There was no way of knowing what the virus and the antiviral were doing inside her body, but if the antiviral kept the virus at bay for a few weeks, then she would be in the clear. She was itching to look at a sample of her own blood under a microscope.

  Elaina was about to marvel at the fact that she was the first human test subject of her serum when she remembered the woman in the hospice. By now, Elaina feared she was dead. Either her preexisting condition or the virus would almost certainly have killed her by now. She hoped for her sake, it was the former.

  Slowly but surely, the four made their way through the broken barricade. Bright orange traffic cones lay squashed and displaced from the original path that they had blocked off. Abandoned military vehicles had been pushed off the road, and several bodies lay face down in the ditch. Natalia turned her head, but Elaina looked on in horror, trying to piece together what had happened there.

  “If I could go the rest of my life without seeing another dead body, that would be enough for me,” Will said.

  Alec frowned. He clearly thought that they had only seen the beginning of it. His hands clutched the wheel, prepared for an altercation or attack that never came. Whether by choice or by force, the border was no longer guarded. Anyone could enter or exit as they pleased.

  That meant that all of the infected in the city had nothing stopping them from releasing terror on the rest of the world. But, it also meant that healthy people were no longer prisoners in their own hometown. Since there was no better solution, Elaina hoped that the healthy would all get out and run as far as they could go. No one else needed to suffer for Bretton Vincent’s weak attempts at fame.

  “Now that we’re out of there,” Alec said, looking back at the burning city through the rearview mirror, “I think we need to discuss where we want to go. I need to stop for gas here pretty soon, but afterwards we need to discuss this as a group. Everyone’s suggestions are welcome,” he said, moving his eyes toward Elaina for a split second.

  “Good,” Natalia whined. “I have to pee so bad. I’ve been holding it since we left the military base.”

  “I’m sure there are bathrooms at the gas station,” Alec said.

  “Hell no,” she retorted. “The last time I stopped at a gas station convenience store, we were almost killed. That was right before we met you, Alec. I’m not going to have a repeat experience.”

  “That’s fine,” Alec said casually. “I think I saw an empty bottle back there.”

  “Ugh,” she groaned. “Fine, but I’d like someone to guard the door for me. I know we’re out of Seattle, but I’m still not far enough away to feel safe.”

  “I’ll look out for you,” Will said brightly.

  Natalia gave him an unenthused look.

  “I’m not going to go in there with you,” he explained. “Unless you want me to,” he added quickly.

  “Then it’s settled,” Alec laughed. “Will can escort you to the bathroom and stand outside the door while I pump gas. Lainey will stay inside the car,” he said, using her nickname out of habit.

  Elaina was relieved by this arrangement. The more time she spent alone, the better. She would do whatever the group needed her to do to survive, but she didn’t want to do anything that would put them in more danger than she was already in.

  “Good,” Alec said finally after no one objected to his plan. “Why don’t you guys see if you can find any supplies while you’re in there. We should take whatever we can get from now on. Do you have any money?”

  Will looked at Alec as if he were speaking another language. Natalia dug around in her pocket and came up with nothing.

  “We may be venturing into territory that has yet to be abandoned,” Alec said, handing Natalia twenty dollars. I know there’s still some civilization out there. Don’t forget, if you act like a feral human, you’re going to be treated like one. Let’s just act as normal as possible. People will be very defensive about their health.”

  “Damn,” Will said under his breath. “I was hoping we could get a nice big bottle of champagne to celebrate getting out of Seattle.”

  “Let’s not celebrate yet,” Alec said, shutting down the teen’s attempts to seem cool. “Let’s get somewhere without infected people first.”

  He turned into the first gas station he saw on the side of the road, just as the sun began to rise above the horizon. Elaina looked out the window, afraid her nervous expression would give her secret away—they weren’t as far away from the danger as they might think.

  Chapter Two

  “Awesome,” Will said as he looked into the dark store. “This place has been abandoned. We can take whatever we want.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good thing,” Natalia replied, stepping over broken glass. “That means that the risk of virus is increased here. I’d almost rather have someone working, just so I know that we’re safe.”

  “Oh,” Will said softly, looking at the ground. “I guess I didn’t think of it that way.”

  They got closer to the store and looked for a point of entry. The doors were locked and didn’t budge, even when Will pulled them as hard as he could.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a perfectly intact building,” Will noted. “Find me a rock or a brick.”

  Natalia picked up a large, smooth, river rock from the landscaping around the building and held it out to Will.

  “I don’t like this,” she said. “Before, it just felt different. It didn’t seem so wrong to steal when we were always coming in for scraps. We never had to break into someone’s business b
efore.”

  “I know,” Will said, throwing the rock a few inches into the air and catching it. “We need supplies and you need to use the bathroom. If it makes you feel better, I won’t take more than we absolutely need, okay?”

  “Okay,” she agreed.

  With a quick throw, the glass door shattered into bits. Will grabbed a hold of Natalia’s arm and tried to escort her through the shards.

  She shook off his hold. “I can walk through it myself, thanks,” she said, raising an eyebrow at him.

  “Sure,” he said sheepishly. “I’ll just wait outside the bathroom door now,” he said, stopping short of the restroom.

  Once Natalia was in the privacy of the stall, she laughed quietly. Will had been obsessed with her since the moment he laid eyes on her. She wasn’t sure if he actually liked anything about her, or if it was the fact that she was available that drew him to her. She didn’t mind the attention, though, if it meant that another person was taking a special interest in her wellbeing. She was not in a position to turn away protection.

  When she was finished, she tried to flush the toilet, but there was no water. Annoyed that she wouldn’t be able to wash up in the sink, she checked her appearance in the mirror and returned to Will.