Severed 2: The Rapture

By Rob Ruediger

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 25, 2010
• ISBN: 9781469121338

Rob Ruediger

About the Author Rob Ruediger lives in a small town in southern Wisconsin with his wife and two children. His biggest dreams in life were to be a father and to publish a novel. With both completed, he plans to devote the rest of his time to the care of his children and writing the next installment of Severed.

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Copyright © 2010 by Rob Ruediger.

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4535-4075-6

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4535-3805-0

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-2133-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without

permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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59916

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1

The Revelation Of Truth

Chapter 2

New Infestation

Chapter 3

The Escaped Coyote

from Alcatraz

Chapter 4

Revised Battle Plan

Chapter 5

Western Alpha

Chapter 6

The First Family

Chapter 7

New Research

Chapter 8

Sin City

Chapter 9

The Mark of the Beast

Chapter 10

Full Circle

Chapter 11

Death . . . 

is only the beginning…

Chapter 12

Family Reunion

Chapter 13

Metal in the Microwave

Chapter 14

Las Vegas… 

The Glass Parking Lot

Chapter 15

Fourteen Verses One

Chapter 16

A Cure for Jake

Chapter 17

Rapture

Chapter 18

Love Conquers All

Epilogue:

This book is dedicated to Heather, Chris and my dad. Heather, you are a terrific girlfriend, and I hope that someday you’ll be my wife. Thank you for all the support through troubled times. Dad, you are my most loyal fan and I hope you’ll continue to be. And Chris, what can I say? Thanks for all the inspiration and help with ideas. Thank you all from the bottom of heart.

___________________________

"Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday."

—Psalms 91:5-6

___________________________

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Prologue

THE DARK JAIL cell suddenly became light as the door was finally opened revealing the three light sensitive, orange jump-suited individuals that were held captive before the destruction of Hampton, Virginia. They were all still huddled together on the floor, shuffling into the darkest corner of the cell in fear of what was to come of them next.

All three were violently pulled from their cell.

They were bound and gagged, but their eyes were not covered. It was almost as if they were meant to see where they were. They were put into a six wheeled golf cart type of vehicle and driven away from their holding cell. They were carted outside briefly into the hot Nevada sun but drawn back into another mountain side.

When their eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lights inside the mountain, they found themselves in a giant airplane hangar. Only there was not a single airplane in the hangar. The aircraft that were in it were all of futuristic variety. None of them had ever been seen by civilian eyes and the frightened individuals being carted through it were increasingly aware and afraid of that fact. They thought that they were on their way to being killed and never would have guessed that they were being used for something far greater.

The hangar door opened on the opposite side of the mountain revealing the bright Nevada sun once again. The cart moved forward into the desert heat to a large awaiting helicopter on the concrete tarmac.

All three people began being unbuckled from the shackles that held them in the cart. The two boys were unbuckled first. As soon as they were unbuckled, they were hurriedly escorted to the helicopter.

The woman was unbuckled last, and as she was being rushed to the helicopter, a man in a gray suit grappled her from behind and injected her with a familiar yellow liquid in the neck. The boys in the chopper watched her fall to her knees clutching the wound on the right side of her neck.

She stood up and glared for a moment at the security team that drove them through the air force base and at the man that injected her. She glanced for a moment at the helicopter. The boys saw her eyes dry and yellow out as her skin began to lose color.

She looked at the boys waiting in the helicopter and silently mouthed the word, Sorry, to them.

Her last conscious human thought was, run.

She immediately turned to the north and began running down the runway with her hand still on her neck.

The security response team that escorted them to the helicopter rose up their weapons to kill the fleeing woman, but were immediately ordered to stand down.

The man who injected her turned to the security team and said, This is a test of the inbound and outbound security of this installation. That disease was created for just this purpose and you have acted perfectly. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve passed the test by reacting the way you did.

The sharply dressed man turned away from the security personnel and started walking to the other side of the helicopter, Inform the north gate security team that we have one outbound on foot and deadly force is authorized.

He pulled the door open on the starboard side of the helicopter and sat down next to the pilot, Get us airborne. We’re due in DC in only a few hours. He then turned to face the worried boys in orange jumpsuits behind him, Enjoy the flight boys because it’s going to be a long one.

The engines of the large helicopter roared to life. As it lifted off the ground, it veered east. The boys leaned to the port side window to watch as Misses Megan Hoffman turned from a frantic woman looking behind her while running two legged through the desert to a four legged run resembling a lion chasing its prey.

The helicopter increased its speed and altitude. In a manner of moments, the detailed landscape of Area 51 looked like all the other terrain features of the Nevada desert.

• • •

The sounds of the F-18’s flying over continued for quite a while.

Sounds of the napalm detonating on other parts of Hampton were amplified through the hollow expanse of the sewers. Every explosion shook Sarah and Jake.

They sat on a ledge.

Sarah was crying.

Jake wanted to, but thought it would have seemed weak to Sarah. Sarah needed him to be strong for both of them. With every explosion that shook them both to their cores, Jake would squeeze Sarah tighter and assured her that everything was going to be fine from this moment on.

Noises were dwindling out.

Jake had put the flashlight in the backpack earlier and dumped the empty shotgun into the murky water thinking that the destruction was over and that he was not going to need it.

The tanks had stopped rumbling through the streets when the F-18’s came through. The military was left with no other option. The majority of the military presence in Hampton became infected before the sun had even come up on the first day, Saturday, the fourteenth.

Cars, guns, explosions and fires all seemed to quiet down as well. The F-18’s were moving out of town. Anyone not fortunate enough to get to some sort of shelter was burned. That saddened Jake whenever he thought of it, but then again, that also meant that the zombies were dead too. That much of it made him feel a little more confident to ask what needed to be asked of Sarah.

Sarah, are you ready to get up and go?

What kind of question is that? Those things are still up there! So is the Army! I’m done fighting. I’m so scared and tired! she yelled.

There’s nothing up there anymore but the ruins of Hampton. No one’s alive including the zombies. Everything is burnt, he answered back.

Then what’s up there to go to? she asked.

Daylight, he whispered as she looked up at him, "There’s daylight up there and I have been looking forward to seeing it all night. The bombings have moved to the other side of town and the military is going to send ground troops back through here to make sure that they didn’t miss anything. Eventually they’re going to look down too, Sarah. We need to get out of town while we’re being given an opportunity."

Alright, she sniffed, We’ll go. But if something happens, I’m blaming you if I don’t react properly. I’m a little emotionally distressed right now.

Jake looked at her while standing up, abandoning his grandfather’s modified 12 gauge shotgun in the water and slinging his backpack over his right shoulder. He whispered very softly, Yeah, me too.

Sarah stood up and said, What?

Nothing, he answered, I came in over here. It’s probably closer than where you came in. But I must warn you, this is where Adam is.

It’s okay, she said, I think I can handle it. I spent the whole night trying to get a hold of him on the phone and online without any luck at all. I think I owe it to both him and myself to see him one last time.

As long as you’re sure, Jake said, He’s not in the best condition for an open casket.

They walked up to the ladder that led to their possible freedom. Sarah walked warily until they reached the ray of light that was coming down at them. Sarah looked around for her fallen boyfriend near her feet without any luck.

She sighed and asked, Where is he? You said he was right here.

Part of him is, he answered shakily while setting his backpack on a ledge near the ladder. He stepped toward the ladder revealing a shoe protruding from the water at the bottom of the ladder.

Sarah recognized the shoe immediately as Adam’s.

She screamed in horror at the still steaming, burnt black flesh in the water.

Jake began to climb the ladder and when he reached the top, he yelled down at Sarah, Move away from the ladder. Take my backpack and turn away from the ladder for a second.

The top half of Adam was still hung upside down by his other leg near the top of the ladder. His hair, flesh and clothing were all burnt black. His eyelids had even melted away revealing what the heat had done to his eyeballs.

The heat melted the eyelids away and boiled the fluid in his eyeballs until the pressure became too great. Adam’s left eye popped from the iris and had sent bubbling, boiling eye fluid into his burning hair. The right eye must’ve had a stronger tensile strength than the left because as the pressure built up in it, it forced the eye to pop out of the socket. It finally ruptured on Adam’s forehead as the external heat was higher than the internal. However, the right eyeball was still basically intact and Jake felt as though his best friend’s soul was staring back at him in disapproval. Jake felt as though he had put Adam into this situation.

Keeping to his word that he was to escape the sewer tunnels under Hampton, Jake allowed the tear to roll down his cheek as he tried to dislodge the rest of his upside down friend’s corpse from the rung of the ladder.

Jake pushed on Adam’s other shoe in order to hopefully knock it loose to see what was left of the city.

The shoe was not cooperating though. It remained lodged into the ladder and the more Jake pushed on it, the worse off it got. Jake didn’t even notice that Adam’s knee was twisting from all of the force. The knee gave way leaving the bottom half of Adam’s leg behind as his complete upper body fell into the vile water below.

The splash startled Sarah and she turned around to make sure that Jake hadn’t fallen instead of Adam. Jake managed to release Adam’s leg and dropped it. The splash caught Sarah off guard and she fell backwards into the murky sewage.

You asshole! she yelled.

Sorry, he said calmly, But I didn’t tell you to turn around yet.

He then climbed the rest of the way out on to the street and looked around for any other survivors.

Confident that he was alone for the meantime, he turned back to the sewer and yelled down, Sarah, maneuver around Adam and come on up with the backpack. Everything seems okay up here.

Sarah somehow managed to find the courage to walk through the sewage, past her recently and morbidly deceased boyfriend and up the ladder that would possibly lead to a worse sight than any of that.

The courage had come from Jake.

Call it luck or call it great leadership, but she climbed up the ladder because of him. She climbed up because she didn’t want to be down in the rotting sewage alone.

When they were both out of the sewer, they got their first look at the devastation that befell the town of Hampton. Fires and black smoke consumed the morning sky. The smell of burning houses and dead people nearly caused Jake to regurgitate the food from the backpack that he and Sarah had ate in the sewer only moments ago.

Jake looked at the smoldering pile of black ash and partial framework that used to be his house and his eyes moistened once again.

Sarah walked up and put her arm around Jake’s shoulder and asked, What now?

He sniffed in all his emotions at once and responded, We have to get out of town first. Then we have to get my father’s journal to a civilian lab for research. I need some answers.

Sarah kept her arm around him as they slowly started to walk to the northern edge of town to the military checkpoint that Sarah had witnessed her father’s murder at a few hours earlier.

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Chapter 1

The Revelation Of Truth

___________________________

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

—George Washington

___________________________

DOCTOR JOHN DIXON instantly snapped back to life. Well, it wasn’t technically life, but more of a subconscious death. His eyes were yellow and his entire body was covered in blood… his own blood.

His only thoughts were of his one son and consuming flesh. He knew he was infected. He remembered that he needed to become a zombie in order to ever see his son again.

The thought of blood was consuming his brain though. He could do nothing but think of its flavor. He even tried to suck his own blood out of his shirt with no luck.

Doctor Gary Wyatt stood up next to John. The point at which he was killed was still confusing to him. He could remember stumbling in on Doctor John Dixon injecting General David Hoffman in the eye with the Pro-K: OSS. And he could remember being attacked by both as he almost unloaded an entire magazine from his stolen M-16 into both of their chests without any real effect.

How is it that John is still standing after that? And where is General Hoffman?

The confusion was masked by the pain of the hunger growing inside of him. He looked in confusion at John Dixon one last time and ran outside to try to eat.

At that moment, John caught a smell.

It felt strange to him because he was not used to relying on his sense of smell for anything. Oddly enough, though, he could tell that this was General Hoffman’s scent. It was faint, but it was definitely his.

The General was the reason he had his only child taken away and the reason why he agreed to be the General’s first meal. He agreed to it so that his only child would be safe. Since he had become infected, his only goal other than eating was to find out where his son was to ensure his safety.

For some reason, the power and love he felt for his son’s well being had kept the disease away from keeping John from attacking a fellow zombie. It had also kept him from completely turning himself over to the powers of the disease. He was only a bitten zombie, not an Alpha, but the motivation of getting his son to safety had somehow given him near Alpha like abilities. John was somehow able to have conscious, human thoughts and emotions because of his strength. He had it set in his mind that if he caught up to General Hoffman and he couldn’t guarantee the safety of his son, that he would rip him limb from limb in order to get some sort of retribution for the inconvenience of dying.

John followed General Hoffman’s scent downstairs to the tunnel to the White House. He ran as fast as he could on two legs determined to catch up to the General.

Just as John made it safely to the tunnel, an F-18 flew overhead dropping the last of the napalm payload on Hampton. The last measure of Operation Haywire was to destroy Langley Air Force Base as well.

Ignoring the thirst was the hardest part to do, but the thought of dying in vain aggravated him enough to press on. If General Hoffman still had blood in his veins, Doctor Dixon was going to drink it straight from his neck just to watch him suffer.

• • •

The zombie who was formerly known as Doctor Gary Wyatt looked up at the gray, twisting, wobbling tube of destruction falling towards him. The look of it fascinated and frightened him. It crashed into the concrete directly in front of him and detonated. The wall of fire was welcomed by Gary who now understood what he had become. He threw his arms to his sides and tilted his head back as the wall of fire engulfed and consumed him.

• • •

The tunnel felt like it took an eternity to traverse.

The thirst had grown so badly in General Hoffman that he could feel the dried parched sensation in his throat. The feeling was unbearable. It was almost as if he had swallowed a cup full of salt and sand after chewing on broken glass. If he did not consume flesh soon, he would surely die on the spot.

His long trek was nearly complete and he soon reached his objective.

The ladder was extremely tall. It needed to be. After all, this tunnel was designed for rail traffic and it did run directly below the White House.

What was left of his yellow irises widened in anticipation of what was to come next. He was going to finally confront the man that put him in such an awful predicament. He was going to make sure that his wife and child were safe, and most importantly, he was going to eat.

You better be right about this Dr. Dixon. This is awful risky.

I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you, General.

How could you be so blasé? This is the President’s house. He has twenty four hour security. All crack shots and the best of the best.

But you have me. They don’t have the strength, stamina, hunger and will power that you possess through me.

I’m still not sure about this.

Do you want your family to be safe? You know what the plan is for you and me. If you don’t follow your orders, your family will be killed. Now move!

The yellow darkened in the General’s eyes as he began scaling the nearly infinite rungs into the destiny that was thrown at him.

When David reached the top, he paused.

He could see light through the cracks in the beautifully detailed hardwood door. Along with the stunning beauty of the mahogany door, he could hear a familiar voice. It was the President beginning another address to the nation.

"My fellow Americans. The recent terrorist attack in Hampton, Virginia was not only devastating, but was down right… disturbing," he paused and took a swallow of saliva and to fake hiding a tear.

He then continued, "It appears that the events in Hampton were actually a diversion. After studying the footage from the newscasters and internet sources, my advisors and I have come to the conclusion that some sort of biological or chemical weapon was unleashed there and the tanker trucks were used to distract us from it. I am deeply sorry for dismissing that footage as fake. Given that the entire town of Hampton was destroyed by those fires, we can safely assume that the nuclear, biological, and/or chemical threat was destroyed in that area; however, being that we live in a post nine eleven world, I am increasing the threat level to Red and the DefCon level to two until we can be sure that no one in this great nation of ours is in danger of other or continuing terrorist attacks."

General Hoffman couldn’t take it anymore.

The lies that President Cooper was feeding the nation infuriated him. He conjured up all the energy he had left and exploded through the mahogany door. By the time anyone turned around to see what happened, he had already landed in a three point stance with his right leg extended to his side.

The splinters of the door were landing on the floor around him.

He took a moment to gather information about the room.

It was