The Salvation Plague | Book 6 | Monstrum, page 1
part #6 of The Salvation Plague Series
Monstrum
by A.L. Masters
For
BC of Bixby, a wonderful reader
&
Yellowstone National Park and everyone who works to keep it beautiful and accessible.
Content Warning:
Everything you would now expect from one of my books.
A little behind-the-scenes trivia- As spring progressed, I found it difficult to stay in the right frame of mind to write this book. The ominous winter setting was hard to capture when flowers were blooming, and birds were chirping right outside my window. Luckily, YouTube had the answer. I closed my curtains, found a wonderfully immersive video, and listened to it on repeat for weeks.
I don’t generally add playlists to my books because I feel that the reader should conjure their own atmospheres for the story, but this was just too horrifically perfect not to pass along.
The Shining (1980) Music & Ambience by Mister Ambience.
Go ahead and play it when you start chapter ten…I dare you.
Copyright © 2022 A.L. Masters
All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Reunion
Jared
“I took Red back down to the base. I think we’ve got most of them torched, but there will probably be some stragglers.” Tor said, bringing an incredulous Red along behind him.
“They reproduce!” Red yelled at Storm. “The freaks reproduce!”
Storm and Kate looked startled, and more than a little disgusted.
“Gross,” Kate muttered.
“They replicate,” Tor corrected.
“You have to burn all the pieces, or they’ll regenerate,” Jared added. “It’s a real downer.” Hugh hovered at his side where Stew had ordered him to stay during the action. He wasn’t sure if he was the babysitter or the babysittee.
“And you know this how?” Kate asked, with a confused look at Storm. ‘We haven’t seen it.”
“Because we saw it. When’s the last time you sat and watched a mutie for twenty-four hours or so? I’m guessing never, or you would have known this by now. It’s old news, Katie-bug.”
“Don’t call me that,” she murmured. “Mom used to call me that.” She sighed. “Jar, we need to talk about Mom.”
“Yeah, like the fact that we have a new dad now? That’s freaking weird, let me tell you. Imagine shacking up with some dude at her age,” he said with a shudder.
“Jared, what the hell are you talking about?! Mom’s dead! I watched her die,” Kate said, springing up.
The Gundersons pulled their swords out threateningly at her abrupt action, and then Kate’s soldiers scrambled for their weapons.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake! Calm down!” she said pacing.
Everyone slowly went back to their tasks, but Jared knew everyone was watching.
“Kate, listen to me. I don’t know what you saw, but Mom is alive. She showed up at my house after the stadium fell. I moved her and the others in my group over to Papa Anderson’s community.”
Bradley covered his face and looked at his feet while Anna snorted.
“Jared, I swear that I am going to send you home if you don’t stop being stupid.”
“Uh, I don’t think he can stop that. It’s who he is,” Tor pointed out helpfully.
Jared scowled at him. “Thanks, Tor. You’re just lucky Anna is tired right now, or your ass would be toast,” he said, squeezing Anna more closely to his side. She smiled at him, and he got caught up in her beauty all over again. She was still breathtaking even wearing the stinking, hideous clothes and not showering.
“Jared! Answers. Now!” Kate snapped.
“Harry Anderson and Mom are shacking up at Rolling Hills. She sent me out here to find you and bring you home.”
Kate walked off and Jared couldn’t imagine what was going through her head.
She’d thought their Mom was dead?! Is that why she left home?
The big guy walked over and grabbed her arm. He whispered something in her ear, and she nodded before coming back over. Jared noticed that the man didn’t release her arm.
“Jurgen, can you take Stew, Bradley, and a few of Kate’s men to release the other prisoners? Bring them here,” Jared ordered as Kate and Storm watched warily. Storm gave him a look but motioned for a few of his guys to go along.
“I’m not sure I like you ordering my men around,” Storm finally said.
“Bradley and Stew are my men,” Jared snapped, serious for once. “They stay with me.”
Red seemed to be in a state of suspended disbelief, and the guy called Storm just looked…blank. Jared couldn’t read him, and he was usually very good at reading people.
Storm shot Jared a look but didn’t say anything. Jared wasn’t sure he liked his sister hooking up with a man like that. He looked cold, and more than a little insane.
“Kate, are you sure you want to be with that guy?” Jared asked, needing to be sure. “He looks like he eats cereal from the skulls of his enemies.”
“You’re one to talk! You’ve hooked up with an oversized, Norwegian black-metal band,” Kate spat.
“Yeah, but I’m not sleeping with them,” Jared pointed out. “Well, I mean, technically we all sleep together, and sometimes there are instances where—”
“Stop talking,” Tor sighed.
“Anyway. You tell me if you have any problems,” he said, narrowing his eyes at Storm. “I’ve got a clan and I’m not afraid to use them.”
Red snorted and Tor growled and stepped in, dwarfing the large man.
“Red, please,” Kate begged.
“We all obviously need to catch up and get on the same page, but first we need to get Colonel Clausen up here. I wouldn’t put it past the OGFs to have some hybrids in reserve,” Storm stopped and looked around. “Where’s Kim?”
“She went to get Joe and Wes,” a woman said, walking into their inner circle. She was pale and had a bloody bandage around her arm. She looked at Jared and held out a hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you…too much probably. I’m Dana.”
Jared shook. “Well, Kate is a pathological liar. Most of it probably isn’t true.”
Kate smiled tiredly. “How’s Tricia?” She asked, looking around worriedly.
“She’s holding on, but she needs a doctor.”
Storm looked around. “Red, take Warren’s two squads and whoever Jared can spare. Clear the hospital and transport our wounded there.”
“Roger.”
Jared stood as people started walking out of the tunnel entrance. They squinted at the bright light of day and many of them were so pale…it was obvious they’d been underground for a long time.
“Which one is Clausen?” Jared asked.
Storm came forward and met the man in the lead. Jared joined them. The man was haggard-looking and scruffy, but he had an air of command that Jared recognized. He reminded him of his dad.
“I guess I have you and your people to thank for ending this thing,” Clausen said, holding a hand out to Jared, then the others.
He shook it and smiled. “We had help.”
“Well, let me have an hour to shower and eat and we can get to work. We’ve got problems that can’t wait.”
◆◆◆
“So, they transported the refugees to California? How?” he asked.
“Not sure. I was underground the whole time,” Clausen said, standing next to the window. It was cold, but he seemed to not want to let the sky out of his sight.
“Primarily by land. They couldn’t trust the pilots,” Kim spoke up.
Jared wasn’t sure what to make of Kim. She was a vigilante—a tracker— and therefore she was immediately suspect in his mind, but he would give her the benefit of the doubt. He wouldn’t want people judging Stew just because he was a creepy mutie.
…which reminded him of Hugh and Drew.
He needed to see if Hugh could run the perimeter of the base and make sure there wasn’t a battalion of muties massing on their borders, and Drew…he hoped he was free and happy somewhere.
“…pilots of their own?” Sten asked, clutching his side where he’d taken several swipes of the hybrid’s claws in the general’s office…well, the fake general’s office. Jared had ordered Sten to find a medic, but he’d just dumped some peroxide on it and called it good. After this meeting, he was going to insist that Stew stitch him up.
“They are low on personnel. Their hybrids are good worker bees, but they don’t have many in skilled positions for some reason. The OGFs seemed to have decided not to bolster their forces with their human troops. Perhaps they’re preparing them for an offensive somewhere else.”
“Or they’re dead. The hybrids they teamed up with don’t seem especially friendly,” Jared said.
“OGFs?” Anna asked.
“Old Government Forces,” Kim answered.
“So, we need to get some satellite intel on their location. Send out our assets and get a good overview so we can plan out the op,” Joe said, rubbing his chin. “I wish we had more analysts.”
“Can we get a satellite out there within the next few hours?” Clausen asked Kim.
“Maybe. I’m not sure of the state of our ops center since the firefight,” she said.
“Go check it out. Take Joe and Storm. Jared, I need your men to handle base security. Link up with whoever is left and cover every checkpoint. Kate, I need you to coordinate activities while we work on reestablishing a chain. Some of the others are going t
o need some downtime before they’ll be fit for duty,” Clausen said. “I want someone to get me a list of every servicemember and civilian left on base and their capabilities.”
“We’ll get that ASAP, sir,” Joe said.
Jared looked at Bradley and he nodded, knowing immediately what Jared wanted. He and Stew left the bloodied office. Personally, Jared thought that a lot of the former prisoners were going to want revenge, not R&R.
“I’m going to clean up and I’ll be over in about an hour,” Clausen said, looking at his clock. Storm nodded and everyone began to leave.
“Jared, Kate, I need to speak with you both before you start your tasks,” Storm said, coming up behind him and Anna in the hallway.
Everything was still and he pulled them into a nearby room.
Anna crossed her arms and they waited for him to speak.
“I think we should keep our outpost operational,” he murmured to Kate. “In case there’s trouble in the future.”
“What outpost?” Jared asked.
“COP Victory,” Kate said with a smile. “A little place we holed up while the base was occupied. We ran ops out of there. It’s a good place.”
“We could use the hotels and we still have food and supplies. I think we could move some of our people there to hold it. As long as we don’t linger on the streets it should be safe from aerial reconnaissance. They won’t be looking there and even if they do, they likely won’t care about a small group. I’m thinking they have bigger things to worry about right now.”
“We don’t tell Clausen?” Anna asked.
“We don’t tell anyone except our immediate inner circle,” Storm said. “Our people, Sten and his core leadership, and your people.”
Jared nodded. “It’s a good idea. Let’s get going on that. Figure out who to send and when. We’ll need to stagger their leaving, so they don’t draw attention. I can send Stew out to get a feel for the place before we start,” Jared said.
Storm nodded. “It’s a plan.”
◆◆◆
He kicked at a chunk of something on the grass as he wandered through the milling crowd of Halvorstedians mixed with Storm’s troops.
Stormtroopers, he thinks with a grin.
He had sent a small contingent of his people out to man the security checkpoints and help with the roving patrols, but most of his people were here. It felt good to be together, though they were missing Fletch and Joar. The fire in the barrel in the center of the barracks courtyard glowed dimly, just enough for him to make out the happy faces on their people.
They had won yet another battle. They were alive. They were mostly whole. He felt like he could finally relax just a little. The weight that he had carried with him since the beginning had lessened substantially.
He searched the crowd for Anna and Kate and found them speaking with the inner circle—their closest friends.
He bent down, picked up the mysterious object, and grimaced when he realized it was. He held it gingerly as he walked over to his friends. They stopped talking when he was close enough to wave it in their faces.
“It must go back to the fiery chasm from whence it came…and one of you must do it!” he pronounced.
Anna smashed her lips together before letting out a very put-upon sigh. She squeezed his waist and patted his arm a few times.
“What?” he asked.
“It’s a damned freak’s finger, Jared,” Kate scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Idiot,” she murmured. She snatched the minutely growing finger from his hand and tossed it in the fire with the other pieces they were still gathering up. She sat back down as Jared noticed Storm standing a little way back and watching them.
Storm looked at Kate, then Jared, Bradley, Sten, Tor, and Anna in stony silence before shaking his head and turning to go back the way he came.
“Humorless asshole,” Jared muttered under his breath. He wasn’t sure it would ever work out between them.
“I really like that guy,” Sten said, crossing his arms and breaking the silence. Tor nodded in agreement.
“I didn’t do anything wrong…” Jared said, seeing Kate’s disgusted look. “…yet.”
“That! Red crowed, pointing a Jared with a grin. “That right there…pure Bubba.”
“You know, it’s really weird that you call my sister Bubba. If anyone calls her Bubba, it should be me.”
Red just raised his eyebrows.
“Give it up, Jare. You’re now extremely outnumbered,” Bradley said, smiling.
“Not true,” he said, holding up a finger. “Sten joined my war clan, and since he’s the Jarl of Halvorsted, that means his entire community falls under my jurisdiction. So technically, I outnumber all of you,” Jared said, spreading his arms to encompass the bustling barracks courtyard.
"Dritt,” Sten cursed. “I did join his stupid clan, didn’t I?”
“’Fraid so. Only way out now is to kill him and take over,” Tor commented idly.
They narrowed their eyes at Jared.
“You people don’t know who you’re dealing with,” Jared replied with a condescending shake of his head. “Hugh! Come!” he ordered, snapping his fingers. Hugh looked sour but followed. He had no choice, after all. He walked a short distance away to eat a Twinkie in peace. He could hear them talking over the crackling of the fire. Hugh stood guard as Jared unwrapped his sugar bomb as quietly as he could. He put his clawed hands on his hips in an eerie imitation of Bradley. He was picking up mannerisms so quickly that it was scary, but his words were still lacking. He only had a few that Jared was aware of and most of them were curses.
“I can’t tell if the plague has affected his brain, or if he’s always been a few batteries short,” Tor said.
He glanced over at them, narrowing his eyes at the big man. Storm’s people were looking at Anna.
“It wasn’t as bad back when we were working together. He had things to occupy him, and you know, he had to stay somewhat normal to make a living...” She trailed off and looked around at their skeptical expressions. “He’s just tired. Once he gets a good rest, he’ll go back to his usual self,” she defended.
That’s my woman, he thought proudly.
“He’s always been that way. Sorry,” Kate broke in before her weird friend Red pulled her away.
“He just needs rest,” Anna whispered to the rest of Storm’s people.
Jared yawned. He could use some rest.
A wavery, stringent old lady's voice shattered the peaceful conversation. “Give him a slug of this. He’ll sleep like a babe,” Meg promised.
He heard someone snort and looked back again.
“And likely go blind,” the one-armed soldier said.
He was probably right.
“Hugh, you’re free,” Stew called from somewhere above him. He squinted and looked up. It sounded like he was halfway up the building. “Return to Jared in the morning.”
Hugh bounded away without a backward glance. Jared settled his back against the brick wall and crossed his legs as he ate his snacks. He was running short. He was running short on a lot of things. They would need to make a run soon. He wanted to let Anna settle in, and Sten and the other wounded get some rest and have time to heal. They deserved it, every one of them.
He was proud and grateful to have such good friends…more than friends.
Family.
Chapter Two
A New Mission
Kate
“I don’t like this place at all!” Meg said, scowling at the chow hall. “It’s riddled!”
Kate looked around the innocuous room, seeing base personnel leisurely eating their lunches. “They’re just soldiers, and most of them weren’t even in when the shit hit,” Kate explained. “They aren’t feds.” She’d learned more than she wanted to know about the old woman in the time that they’d known each other. Way more.
“I don’t like the way they’re looking at me. Seems suspicious.”
“Meg, you’re wearing sunglasses and a trench coat indoors and carrying a large briefcase. You are the suspicious one here,” Kate said, taking two trays and carrying them to the table nearest the wall.
“It was my Lonnie’s briefcase. He was partial to it. I have to have something to carry my things in,” Meg sniffed disdainfully as a young soldier in uniform waved politely for her to pass.
