Free Omega Pathogen: Despair by J. G. Hicks Jr, Scarlett Algee Page A

off-guard, like had happened to a member of a scavenging party. A former police officer before the plague was attacked by two infected as she walked around the outside corner of a building. Responding members of the scavenging party had killed the infected quickly. However, within thirty minutes the former police officer had begun to turn rabid and was shot.
    Many of the group tried to lift the other’s spirits and be more festive despite recent events. Christmas was around the corner and it seemed ingrained in most to have some semblance of normalcy for those that observed the holiday.
    More people had arrived from the surrounding area. Some people left the Yates’ compound to try to seek out family and loved ones they’d become separated from since the plague. Contact with other pockets of humanity continued to be established and then sometimes lost. Most of the time, when communications had been lost, no one heard from them again.
    Jim’s headaches had decreased over the weeks. When he did have one, he attributed it to the sinus problems he had always had. He figured his problems had been exacerbated by his facial bone fractures, courtesy of Luther Vance. Jim’s eye and facial swelling had left long before the extreme headaches and bouts of dizziness. The sclera of his left eye that had been filled with blood had cleared as well. He was left with two new scars, one that traced through the length of his left eyebrow, and another that ran vertically along the outside of his left eye just in front of his temple.
    While not out with one of the scavenging parties or on perimeter guard duty, Jim helped where he could in the daily chores and projects on the Yates’ farm. Only those incapable were not encouraged to work and help out. Everyone that was able-bodied did something to assist however they could. With everyone doing some share, the work for the most part was easy, other than venturing outside the compound.
    They had finished work on a new building that would mainly serve as the schoolhouse for the nearly thirty children that made up the residents. Judith had divided almost all her time between helping with meal preparations and helping with the children’s education.
    On one foray north of the farm, the scavenging team had struck a goldmine. The team had located two large tanker trucks about fifteen miles apart. One of the tankers held diesel and the other gasoline. They had developed a system of taking a generator to fuel stations to supply electricity to the pumps and retrieve fuel. When the tankers were emptied they could collect nine thousand gallons of gas and diesel and store the fuel close by at the farm.
    The latest mutation of the persistent flu virus found its way to the residents. Most of the residents’ immune systems fought the strain of flu without major health issues, though it had caused a slow-down in almost all aspects of the farm’s activities. A couple of residents fared worse than most, and the flu caused bronchitis.
    The doctor had enacted restrictions to prevent the spread of the flu. Some of the reduced manpower they had needed to be diverted to help Dr. Shultz care for the sick. Until the virus had passed, Dr. Shultz recommended not having the sick mingle with the other residents. Residents wearing masks and gloves delivered food, water and medicine to those that were ill.
    Two days before Christmas, Jim and Jeremy were on a scouting mission with other residents to the north, in Perry, Florida, when they came across other survivors heading south. The group of twenty men, women, and children had fled the outskirts of Jacksonville, Florida, where the infected had overrun the city and surrounding area. The travelers had escaped in a Greyhound and a school bus. As per the custom of the Yates’ farm residents, the group offered the travelers a safe place to rest, or to stay if they chose. The scavenging mission was cut short so the two buses could be led to the farm.
    Dr. Shultz met with the