Omega Pathogen: Despair by J. G. Hicks Jr, Scarlett Algee Read Free Book Online

more so as he felt the man’s blood spilling onto him and soaking his abdomen from the large laceration to his groin.
    Jim could hear the wet gasps of air from the man as he tried to breathe with his right lung collapsed, the space now filled with blood. Jim passed the knife to his right hand, careful not to let it slip away due to the blood that covered it. Jim struck again at the man’s chest to damage his left lung, and then sliced again at the man’s groin to cut the left femoral artery. The man fell limp on top of Jim and everything went black.
    Jim woke and gasped for breath under the man’s bulk. Although he was no longer having his neck crushed, he couldn’t take full breaths because of the weight of the lifeless body on top of him. Jim heard the sounds for a few seconds before his fogged mind registered what they were. They were sounds of infected growling close by.
    He struggled to free himself of the dead man and reach his AR-15, but couldn’t. Jim heard the sound of a rapidly approaching vehicle. With the glare of the headlights he saw at least five infected close by. The infected changed their course and focused on the oncoming vehicle instead of Jim.
    The vehicle screeched to a stop. Jim heard the sounds of suppressed pistol fire along with the sound of Royce calling out his name.
    “I’m here,” Jim strained the words out from his painful throat and heavy chest. Within a minute or two Royce had reached his side and started to pull the dead man off. Jim tried to help and pushed as hard he could, but he felt like his efforts did little.
    Once Jim was freed from the huge corpse that had crushed him to the ground, Royce helped Jim to his feet and steadied him by holding his arm. “Are you okay?” Royce asked.
    “Yeah. Good to go,” Jim replied. Royce let go of Jim to take a two-handed aim with the pistol and shot an infected man that was running at them. Jim saw the NVGs on the ground and bent to pick them up. His head and then body followed his hand to the ground.
    Royce pulled Jim back off the ground and toward the red pickup’s enclosed bed. Jim swayed and stumbled as Royce pulled him along. Jim held his grip on the NVGs and struggled to get his rifle up to help defend them. He fired four shots at three infected that had gotten close to them, but missed. Royce shot the infected and pushed Jim into the bed of the truck and followed.
    Royce slammed the heavy steel door closed and latched the bar to lock it. Jim was lying on the bed of the truck, still trying to catch his breath and reaching for his head. Jim felt it odd that he found it difficult to find his head with his own hand. Royce looked around the inside of the truck bed and noticed the open roof hatch. He stood, slammed it shut and then locked it.
    “Thanks, Royce,” Jim said in a slurred voice as he squinted and widened his eyes to try and focus on Royce’s form. He was finally able to connect his hand to his bleeding head and tried to slow the blood. A battery-powered Coleman lantern that had illuminated the back of the truck had begun to grow dim. His hearing seemed as though he was wearing earmuffs. His field of view began to shrink and blackness took its place. He thought he heard Royce call his name but sound was so distant it was hard to tell. His narrowed vision failed completely and was replaced by total blackness.
     
    Chapter 5
     
    Jim covered the woman’s mouth and nose to deprive her of air and to keep her from crying out to alert the others. He stabbed her through the right side of her neck to cut her spine and put an end to the struggle.
    He felt remorse in his dream or nightmare. Should he have closed in and offered them the chance to surrender? Why didn’t he do that? He knew the answer; he knew why he didn’t do that.
    He began to feel. He felt intense pain in his head; his brain ached. He started to feel pain in his neck and then throughout his body. The headache was the worst of it. He opened his eyes, or right eye;