The Ark of Attrition

By Scott Kotrous

A catastrophic biological terrorist attack has struck the United States, bringing about a rabies-like plague that's turning many citizens into creatures that resemble zombies. Further attacks have triggered World War III and left only the prepared and fortunate alive.

John Angelite and his family are among them as they bunker down in a hollowed-out space in the mountains, but they choose to leave their safe haven to rescue his niece Maggie and her friends.

Simon, an ex-military biologist, grapples with the question of why some zombies are faster, more aggressive, and able to adapt and survive. After a zombie bites one of his family members, Simon races tirelessly to find an answer. The military wants his secrets—supposedly to find a cure—but Simon doubts their intentions.

Soon a devastating snowstorm freezes the zombies—giving them the much-needed time they need to take action. But will it be enough, or is it already too late?

The Ark of Attrition, the second book in The Ark Series, is a suspenseful story of the fight for survival against insurmountable odds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scott Kotrous
• Release date: Mar 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781519304407

Scott Kotrous

Scott Kotrous is a resident of Denver, Colorado, where he spends his time writing, snowboarding, mountain biking, and composing music.

Book preview

The Ark of Attrition

by

Scott Kotrous

The Ark Series

Book 2

Edited by

Carol Thompson

This is an original work of fiction by Scott Kotrous, who holds the sole rights to all characters and concepts herein. Names, characters, events and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

ASIN: B017PS0U2C

ISBN-13:978-1519304407 

ISBN-10:1519304404 

26th Avenue Publishing

Copyright © 2015 Scott K Kotrous

All Rights Reserved

Chapter 1

John opens his eyes and turns his head toward his family who are all kneeling and praying. They remind him of Russian nesting dolls lined up in a row, and it forces a tiny smile that doesn’t last long. Markus drops his hands, looks up at his father, and then reaches his hand out, which John takes and grasps. He smiles at his son just as someone places a hand on his shoulder. John quickly turns to look up just as the minister leans in and whispers in his ear. He thanks the minister and then turns around in his seat and sees Adam waiting in the last pew, immediately making eye contact.

John kisses his family and gets up to shake the minister’s hand, thanking him for a wonderful sermon. After one last glance at his family, he quietly walks to the back of the chapel and nods to Adam as he walks by. Adam quickly gets up and follows John out the door and into the corridor.

John turns to look at Adam while placing his hands on his hips. What’s up?

John, I apologize for interrupting you; I was trying not to but I guess the minister felt the need to inform you of my presence. Adam crosses his arms and looks at the ground.

No worries, so any new news I should be aware of?

Not really. Ever since the nuclear war started our communication lines have been down, and for all we know the whole world has basically gone dark; hell, we’re not even sure what’s left of the world. He tilts his head and exhales loudly. It’s almost like something’s blocking all forms of communication because we can’t even link up with any satellite in existence. At the very least we can usually tap into any non-military satellite, but we can’t connect with anything. It doesn’t make any sense. So far, the only form of communication that’s worked are our fuckin’ Two-Way radios, and that’s it! He drops his head obviously frustrated and stressed. And I just assume the military’s having the same issue with their sat feeds, but we’re not sure; but of course that’s under the assumption that the military, or any branch of the government for that matter, even still exists!

John motions toward the elevators and they walk in that direction. Alright just calm down, let’s try not ’ta jump to conclusions . . . let’s try to relax and come up with a solution because I’d really like to make contact with Maggie before we head out on the this rescue mission, wouldn’t you agree?

They get on the elevator and Adam presses a button. Of course I do, and my men are working around the clock trying to make contact with her. But we still have plenty of time before you leave, so let’s just focus on what we have to work with right now and what we can do today. Like ramping up our training and education and prepare those going on this journey in every possible way.

John turns his head to look at him. Was that your way of telling me I need to spend more time in training?

Of course not, John . . . because I know your wife will make sure of that. He gives him a quick smile just as the elevator stops at their floor.

John grins while bobbing his head, and they exit the elevator and walk down the hall and into security after quickly passing through ID check. John leads the way as they move into the main area with a disappointing amount of images displayed on the screens. Just a handful of perimeter shots surrounded by blank screens.

Holy crap! Are these the only feeds we have? Where’re the drone feeds?

Chris spins around in his chair. Hey John, Adam, ah—well good news is our resident computer specialist slash hacker, Isla, has been able to link with a satellite, but we quickly lose connection soon after. But she can explain it in more detail.

Isla stiffens her body and hesitantly turns around in her chair, obviously nervous. Ah—ah, hi—ah—yes, I’ve successfully linked with multiple unknown satellites, but it’s only for a matter of seconds before someone on the other end overrides my hack and shuts me down. I can only assume it’s the military, but it’s hard to say. Whoever this is has impressive skills and has just downright out-hacked me. But by contiguously switching to different satellites and staying one step ahead of them, I’ve been able to download small chunks of data. She spins back around in her chair and goes back to lightening fast typing.

John turns and looks at Adam, raising his eyebrows and offering a questioning gaze. Well, at least we know that there are others who survived. He waits for Adam to respond but instead is met with intense staring at the screens. Well lets just keep trying to establish communication with the outside world, which I know you’ve already been doing.

Adam covers his mouth with his hand, taps his lips, and finally breaks his intense stare with a gentle head nod. That’s a damn good sign that there’s life out there—damn good sign.

Isla breaks the intensified silence that has succumbed everyone in the room as she continues to hammer at the keys. I’ve been able to download more drone footage, and I should have the last of what’s available soon.

Chris looks up at John with a look of reassurance. You should know that we tried to connect directly with Maggie’s bunker when we flew over, but we were unsuccessful.

John looks at the ground and sighs but then quickly looks up just as drone footage begins to appear on the screen. But after about an hour of footage with no explanation of what they were looking at, it all starts to look the same to John—just large herds of infected roaming and with no human life in sight. John furrows his brow and shakes his head. Where was this taken—it all looks the same—is this just a loop of footage?

Chris clears his throat. This is footage taken from circling the Denver area and then all surrounding rural areas. Sadly, it all looks the same because that’s pretty much the condition everywhere in our state. And once this drone is done circling the state it’ll head out east. But the other drone we sent west is almost done uploading its footage, so we should have that momentarily. Unfortunately once the drone got just a few miles from the Rocky Mountains, it detected the presence of radiation. He turns toward Isla. Hey, Isla, how’re we lookin’ on retrieving that west-coast footage?

Working on it, she responds.

John scratches his chin and turns to Adam. Okay, so—so far pretty much once the Rocky Mountains stop the radiation is detected. But since the one heading east still hasn’t detected any radiation, I think it’s safe to assume that our state has not been affected by nuclear fallout, but most likely is at least partially destroyed by the infected. Does that sound about right?

Yep, that sounds about right. I do think it’s safe to say Colorado has not been affected. John turns and projects toward Chris and Isla. So are they still on their pre-programmed routes, or have we been able to send anything out to either one of them?

Chris spins around in his chair. So far we’ve only been able to download data and are unable to upload anything. So they’re still flying their preprogramed routes.

Isla announces the new footage coming up on the monitors and the room goes silent. The aerial footage shows nothing but ash and ruble—death and destruction. The images of a scorched earth that’s reminiscent of the aftermath of a devastating forest fire visually stuns everyone. The room remains completely silent, except for the gentle buzz of the electronics humming. It’s a reassuring reminder of their safety.

The overwhelming feeling of hopelessness overcomes John, and he imagines most likely everyone else in the room is feeling the same. But hour after hour and the footage stays consistent; nothing but complete annihilation of anything that even resembled the possibility of civilization.

My god, there’s nothing left. John bits his upper lip to help keep his composure. Chris, what part of the country are we looking at?

This footage is—hold on, ah—well we should actually be coming up on the coast believe it or not, and as you can see . . . doesn’t appear to exist.

The image cuts out and the screen goes black, leaving everyone in a state of shock. Chris breaks the silence with the explanations of how the drones have landed and need a couple days to recharge. But once they are back in the air, the western drone will be heading north and then east, and once the eastern drone hits the coast it will be heading south and then doubling back.

Adam thanks Chris, then puts his arm around John and slowly turns him around and walks him out the door. After Adam assures John that he’ll be notified as soon as they receive more footage, he suggests he should possibly head to the training facility and try to get his mind off the country’s unfortunate demise.

Chapter 2

Maggie wipes Mike’s forehead, but as soon as she dries it, the sweat beads almost immediately form again. He’s been in a comma for about a week now with very little signs of life, just the occasional nightmarish outbursts that usually wake them throughout the night.

She drops her head and looks over at Jennifer passed out on one of the beds; she’s been taking care of her boyfriend around the clock and the lack of sleep has obviously taken its toll. Maggie slowly raises her head just enough to prop it up on her balled up fist when a tear begins to form in her eye. With relentless fearful thoughts tormenting her mind and devouring her soul, the fact that she still had another tear in her body was mindboggling.

Her inability to contact the Ark was tearing her down day by day. She didn’t know if her family was even still alive and thinks to herself that there’s a real possibility they were one of the last living humans still alive, and that they’ve only postponed their transformation. Is that even possible? Is this like all the zombie movies and books we grew up watching and reading? Can these infected people pass this disease to others, and, if so why hasn’t Mike changed yet? He was bit multiple times and he doesn’t look like any of those psychos outside—like the one who killed Heather.

Maggie’s thoughts are interrupted as Eric walks into the room surprisingly appearing in a good mood. He pulls up a chair and tries to get close to her.

Hey you, you’ve been in here a while so I just thought I’d see how you were holding up.

Hey. I’m fine. Just tired that’s all. How’s everyone out there? Is Sam doing any better?

Not really, she just sits in front of the TV watching old movies and having inappropriate outbursts at odd times. I don’t think she’s mentally stable, like she can crack at any moment. But anyway, how’s Mike doing?

Same. He’s sweating profusely and going through bags of saline at an alarming rate. His heart rate and blood pressure are abnormally high, and his wounds just aren’t healing properly, even the ones I stitched.

Eric looks over at Mike’s lifeless body with a confused look on his face, uncertain what to say or do. He grabs Maggie’s hand and looks at her waiting for her to say something. She pulls his hand toward her and gently kisses it, then brings it to her cheek.

I know that look, Eric. It’s not one of your best. What we’ve been through no one should ever have to go through. But we survived, and we’re going to survive. Because as much as we want to run and hide from the world, we just don’t have that choice anymore. So I need you to wipe that scared, helpless look off your face and man-up because if we don’t people will die, and I refuse to let that happen; we’re not going to lose any more of us, got it.

Eric says nothing, he only bobs his lowered head up and down and then looks up at Maggie, trying his best to fake the look of confidence. But Maggie can see right through him and she knows he knows it, which isn’t helping the situation. She gives him a reassuring smile and then looks away and back to Mike, and his diminishing bag of saline. She gives his hand one last kiss and then gets up to change the saline bag.

Suddenly, the heart rate monitor alarm sounds as Mike’s heart rate spikes, and his body begins to softly shake. Maggie turns to check the machine just as Jennifer leaps off the bed and bolts over to her boyfriend’s side. Eric joins Jennifer at the bed, and they both attempt to hold Mike’s now violently shaking body. Foam sprays from his mouth showering the three of them just as his blood-red eyes open, prompting them all to take a step back. Everyone from the other room rushes into the bedroom just as Mike’s chest lifts off the bed, and he lets out a scream that forces Nate to throw his arms back to stop Kristie and Samantha from getting any closer.

His screams abruptly stop as his body collapses back to the bed and his shaking stops, leaving a lifeless body in its place. His last cough is immediately followed by blood trickling from his mouth as he flat lines.

Jennifer’s face blanches while she grabs his hand and cries out. Mike, Mike! Wake up, Mike! Maggie, do something, he’s dying!

Maggie doesn’t hesitate and instantly starts CPR. Eric quickly moves around Maggie, grabs Mikes head and pinches his nose, but Maggie stops him. Stop, wait! Use the BVM, not your mouth!

Eric looks at her confused. What the hell’s a BVM!

The bag valve mask—the fucking manual resuscitator! She points toward it.

Eric freezes for a moment but then looks up and sees the football-shaped bag with an attached mask hanging on the wall. He rushes over and grabs it off the wall and quickly gets back to Mike’s side. He grabs a towel and wipes Mike’s face and then proceeds to pump air into his lungs with the BVM. Jennifer continues to cry while Maggie presses on his chest, trying desperately to start his heart, but with no luck.

The solid beep of the heart rate monitors audible alert of a flat line finally takes its toll on Maggie’s confidence to continue on, and her compressions slow from exhaustion. Eric presses the bag one more time, but then stops and looks back at Maggie still continuing on while tears rain down on his chest. He drops the bag and grabs her, gently trying to pull her back, but she doesn’t want to stop.

Jennifer collapses to the ground sobbing uncontrollably. Kristie rushes over to her and drapes herself over her in an obvious attempt to hold and comfort her.

Eric reaches around Maggie’s waist, lightly pulling her back. He’s gone, Maggie, you can stop now.

One—one thousand—two—one thousand, not yet, we can still save him—one—one thousand, she counts as she continues chest compressions.

Jennifer gets off the ground and grabs Maggie’s arm. It’s okay, Maggie, you can stop, he’s gone . . . he died last week, and we all know that.

Maggie falls back and into Eric’s arms and continues to cry. Dammit, dammit, dammit. She turns toward Eric and hugs him. He responds by hugging her back and lays his head on hers.

Nate slowly walks over to the body and pulls the sheet up over his head, then walks back over to hug his very upset girlfriend.

After a few silent moments, Jennifer walks up behind Maggie and Eric and taps her on her shoulder. Maggie quickly wipes some tears before she turns to hug her. After a heartfelt embrace, they walk hand in hand into the other room, both still crying.

No one says a word as they spread out around the living room. Maggie and Kristie sit with Jennifer to comfort her, and Sam goes back to watching TV while Eric and Nate walk over to the control panel and go back to starring at the outside cameras. They’ve been fascinated the entire week by how the undead keep circling the house, almost like they remember where the ‘food’ went.

Nate hops up out of his chair and walks over to the supply shelves and grabs a handful of water bottles, and then proceeds to hand them out to everyone. He walks back over to Eric, hands him a water bottle, and sits down next to him.

How you holdin’ up, bro?

Eric takes a swig of water and then caps his bottle. I dunno, sometimes I’m not sure if I’m holdin’ up at all, and just fakin’ it really well. How ‘bout you, how you holdin’ up?

I dunno, it’s almost like I feel like a died a little inside, like all of us already died and we’re just ignoring the truth. Nate drops his head and immediately tries to change the subject to avoid an awkward situation. How crazy is it that after years of watching zombie movies and now we’re actually living the nightmare and coexisting amongst actual live zombies—it’s fuckin’ crazy!

It is fuckin’ crazy, I mean, just look how different they all are, how some move faster and seem more aggressive than others? He points at the screen. But then there’s some that move all slow and mindless, like a typical zombie.

Yeah, yeah. You’re totally right, there’s a huge difference between some of ‘em. Why do ya think that is?

"I dunno, man. But I don’t know ‘bout you but I really need to puff, what we really need to do is figure out a way to get