Rain Must Fall Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Information

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Cover

  Title Page

  Rain Must Fall

  ...

  Deb Rotuno

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  RR Books

  Copyright Information

  Rain Must Fall, Copyright © 2016 by Deb Rotuno

  All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

  ...

  Published by RR Books, October 2016

  ...

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  ...

  Cover and Interior Book Design by Coreen Montagna

  Dedication

  This is for everyone who told me I could do it.

  Prologue

  April 10, 2016

  HURRICANE BEATRICE SETS COURSE FOR DISNEY WORLD

  Tropical Storm Beatrice has gained speed and strength as it sits off the west coast of Florida. It shows no signs of slowing down, and its path seems set to barrel through the Sunshine State.

  As a precaution, state officials, upon the order of President Parker, have ordered military backup and security to be brought in to not only secure military bases but to help with clean-up once the storm passes by. Troops from all over the country are being ordered into the tropical state.

  The Red Cross is asking for volunteers in the medical and construction professions to lend a helping hand.

  ***

  April 15, 2016

  CATEGORY 5 STORM DESTROYS MOST OF CENTRAL FLORIDA, MILITARY BASE IN CRUMBLES

  Due to the sustaining hundred-and-fifty-mile-per-hour winds, several beaches, towns, and ports along the west coast of Florida were destroyed. Hurricane Beatrice’s strength built over the course of two days, stirring up waves in the Gulf of Mexico that rivaled that of a tsunami. Tampa Bay—mainly Bayshore, Davis Island, and MacDill Air Force Base—are in crumbles. The military base is now partially under water, with very little hope of salvaging any of the buildings. Most aircraft were evacuated several days prior, and the ones unable to fly were damaged or underwater.

  From Panama City, south to Port Charlotte, the damage is unimaginable. Power and phone-line outages are scattered throughout central Florida, and communication is down at Dexter Air Force Base on the east coast. While the Atlantic side of the state didn’t have any high waves or flooding, they did receive high winds and several tornados.

  There are rumors of security breaches at Dexter AFB, which is in conjunction with a military research laboratory, but government officials say the base is under control.

  ***

  May 2, 2016

  REPORTS OF UNTREATABLE FLU-LIKE SYMPTOMS FROM JAPAN, GREAT BRITAIN, AND THE US

  The CDC—the Center for Disease Control—has issued a warning of a new global flu. It’s been reported that a highly contagious virus is making its way around the world. The new strain has caused a few deaths in Japan, Great Britain, Brazil, and the US. Citizens are being warned to cancel any travel plans and to stock up on supplies.

  “Staying home and out of the public is the best way to avoid catching this new influenza,” states a member of the CDC, who wishes to remain anonymous. “It spreads quickly. The symptoms are high fever, nausea, even death.”

  May 5, 2016

  ALL AIR TRAVEL TEMPORARILY SHUTS DOWN TO CONTAIN VIRUS

  Airline officials called a press conference yesterday, stating that all flights in and out of the US are canceled, with no date in sight as to when they will resume.

  Military officials stated that due to the damage inflicted by Hurricane Beatrice and the recent influenza scare, the entire state of Florida is quarantined. No flights are allowed in or out of the state, and roadblocks are stopping any traffic. People are being urged to stay home.

  ***

  May 7, 2016

  PRESIDENT PARKER SUCCUMBS TO VIRUS, VP NOW IN COMMAND

  Vice President Hawkins was sworn in as Commander in Chief yesterday, due to the untimely death of President Parker. No statements or autopsy reports have been issued, but according to anonymous tips, President Parker took ill with the flu that has claimed the lives of reported thousands around the globe.

  The Department of Defense has stated that contact with the governments of Japan, China, Great Britain, and Russia is down. According to satellite images, there are power outages across the globe.

  Religious groups, including the Vatican, have issued a worldwide statement that the end of days is near.

  ***

  May 10, 2016

  RUMORS OF VIRUS BEING A LEAKED BIOWEAPON CAUSES UPROAR IN DC

  Thousands of protestors outside the White House fence were urged to go home at gunpoint. Martial law has been in effect for several days in various cities around the country. Most communication has been lost, and power is out in the larger cities, from New York to Los Angeles.

  Congress, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense refuse to answer for what has now been dubbed the “Zombie Apocalypse.” The massive flu virus is rumored to be an escaped bioweapon that had been housed at Dexter AFB.

  Scientists have stated that the virus starts as flu-like symptoms, only to destroy the brain tissue. The result is something out of a horror movie. Most states have reported more deaths, fires, and these reanimated bodies, but since communication is down in over 85% of the country, there are no updates.

  Looting, riots, and fires have all but destroyed our city of Portland. Due to the fluctuating power issues, the Oregonian cannot continue to publish. We wish everyone the best, and may God have mercy on our souls.

  JACK

  Clear Lake, Oregon

  5 Months & 10 Days after

  Hurricane Beatrice

  I flipped the page of my son’s scrapbook, my heart hurting. He was so much like his mother in some ways that I couldn’t help but smile, despite the circumstances. He may have looked like me, but he was smart and meticulous like my Sara.

  Swallowing thickly, I gazed around the cabin. Nothing looked disturbed. They’d fortified the windows and doors, and there were enough supplies in the cabinets and stacked on the floor to get them through another week or so.

  I flipped another page or two, noting some tears, some vacant spots where something had been ripped off the paper. I sighed at the poem he’d stashed in there, not to mention a few pictures, some ticket stubs from a Trail Blazers game I’d taken him to, and a pass to the Oregon Zoo. Freddie loved the damn zoo.

  Setting the book down on the bed that had obviously been used by my son, I scoped out the rest of the cabin. Melted candles stood cold on the mantel next to pictures of my wife and me. There were lanterns scattered about the place, although they were low on oil. Two makeshift beds were set up in the spare room. The master bedroom hardly looked touched, which made panic rise up in me concerning my wife. She’d done exactly as I’d asked her, but…

  I’d spent the last several months trying to get to her, only to arrive to empty cabins. The entire camp looked abandoned in a hurry. Vehicles a
nd RVs were parked in various places, but there was no sign of life, no movement; not even the fucking birds chirped.

  However, the sound of rain pelted down on the roof, which caused my skin to crawl. Rain was never fucking good, and neither was the setting sun. The combination of the two would bring a long fucking night, and I wasn’t sure my group had any more fight left in them from the last hundred miles we’d traveled, especially after seeing our small town of Sandy.

  I stepped into the living room of the cabin I’d dreamed about more over the last few months than anything else. There was a part of my soul that was ripping in half, that was crumbling to the wood floor at my feet. My wife, my son weren’t here, and there was no way to know where they’d gone or even if they were still alive. That last thought almost brought me to my knees just as the door flew open and the sound of the telltale groans, growls, and snapping of teeth met my ears.

  “Get your ass outside!” Joel snapped, looking exhausted like the rest of us, but there was a spark in his eye. “We got a swarm moving through, and they’re focused on your dad’s cabin.”

  My eyes narrowed as I pulled out my weapon. “They smell something?”

  He smiled slowly, and it was evil and hopeful and determined all at the same time. “Doc says there’s a bomb shelter under that bad boy. Didjoo know that?”

  “Wha…Well, yeah, but I forgot about it…” I darted out the door and into the rainy night with him close on my heels.

  The sheer size of the swarm of foul, dead beasts brought me up short. There had to be well over two hundred of the putrid bastards.

  “Holy fuck! They’re migrating from Portland,” I breathed, shaking my head. They hadn’t noticed us yet, and they were scoping out my dad’s cabin like ants with a bowl of sugar. “Oh, they smell something, all right…”

  Joel and I moved slowly, quietly, until we reached the rest of our group parked at the edge of Clear Lake. They were from every walk of life, ranged in ages from toddler to the elderly, not to mention the giant Rottweiler panting in my face from the back of Dad’s pickup truck. We’d accumulated, lost, and accumulated even more people the entire way from the east side of the country to the west. They were good people merely trying to stay alive in a world that was determined to kill us all. And the dog…Fuck me if Sasha wasn’t a loyal-as-hell and deadly member of our group and had been since we set off on this fucked-up journey.

  Scratching her ear, I took a deep breath and let it out. “Sasha, draw ’em out. Everyone else? Get someplace high and safe. Make sure to take enough ammo with you inside the cabins. Go, go, go,” I ordered quietly, turning to Joel once everyone started to move. “You and me? We’re getting inside my dad’s cabin. As soon as Sasha draws them away, we’ll move in.”

  Joel grinned, though I noted it was weary as he wiped rain off his face and nodded. “Sasha, separate!” he ordered, and the large dog launched herself off the back end of the truck, hitting the ground at full speed. Her growl was low, menacing, as she bared her teeth.

  She moved quickly, smart enough to stay just out of reach of those not-so-dead bastards. The swarm banging around the cabin shifted their attention to her—something moving, something edible, something attainable. They moved quickly, their senses sharpening not only with the rain but with the night falling.

  My personal ammo was low, so I opted for my long knife, slipping slowly along the edge of the lake. Joel opted for his Marine sword—a weapon he’d grabbed at Dexter Air Force Base. What had once been a ceremonial symbol, something for show, had now become his favorite weapon. It was quiet, saved ammo, and did the job from a safe distance.

  Gunfire erupted across the camp, from the inside of my cabin, from the four-wheeler that was racing around the lake. But finally I noticed that some was coming from the windows of my dad’s cabin.

  “Watch for friendly fire,” I grunted as I slammed my knife through the eye of the closest biter. His teeth snapped once before he fell to the ground with a wet thump.

  We worked our way slowly, and I lost count of the kills I’d made by the time I dodged the gunfire coming out the windows. It was the arguing on the other side of the windows that made me finally speak.

  “Derek! Hold your fire!”

  Everything came to a standstill for a split second, but then I heard the shuffling of feet, raised voices, and finally, the lock on the door clicked. A rifle barrel was pointed in my face the second the door flew open. I froze at the same time Joel aimed his .45 inside the cabin.

  “Everyone…stop!”

  When the rifle barrel was lowered from my face, I saw Derek glaring at the man with his finger on the trigger. Brody Fucking Matthews sneered back at me, and I knew under other circumstances, he’d have pulled the trigger, whether I was a zombie or not. That bastard hated me. But it was the gasp behind him that caught all our attentions.

  “Sara,” I breathed, finally setting eyes on one of the most important people, one of two whom I’d been fighting to get to these last long fucking weeks.

  Her gun dropped to the wood floor and her hands covered her mouth as tears welled up in the prettiest blue eyes I’d ever seen. It looked like her knees were about to give out, and despite how weary I was, I was inside and across the room in a blur, catching her up in my arms.

  “Jack?” she sobbed, wrapping herself around me. “I knew it, I knew it! I knew you were coming…”

  Groaning, I held her closer, but she fought me, cupping my face. “You’re here. You’re real.”

  I couldn’t speak. I didn’t think that moment would ever come, so I could only nod, kissing her fingers as she muttered about waiting, about having to leave, about things that didn’t make sense.

  “Where’s Freddie?” I asked, but Sara’s gaze locked behind me at the same time the fight from outside met the front door.

  She scrambled down from my arms as the door collapsed inward. It was then that I noticed where she was standing—over the trap door in the floor. However, an explosion ripped through the night sky, sending all of us to the floor. Covering Sara with my body, I took the brunt of it, but a sharp pain caused my vision to blur.

  My last thought as I locked gazes with my wife was that at least I’d been able to see her one more time.

  Chapter 1

  SARA

  Sandy, Oregon

  2 Months after Hurricane Beatrice

  I PULLED THE TRUCK into the driveway and turned off the engine. My hands gripped the steering wheel as I took in my home, a lump forming in my throat at how it was almost unrecognizable.

  My beautiful home that was once pale yellow with white shutters now looked like something in a ghost town, with the first-floor windows boarded up. My street was clear, but that didn’t mean it would stay that way. My hedges and flowers were destroyed by trampling feet from securing the place and from those…other things.

  “Mom?”

  I turned to look at my son. He’d already seen too much since all this madness started, and I was damned certain he’d see more before it was all over. At least, I hoped he’d see the end of it.

  At seven, Freddie was the clone of his father. From the thick, dark hair that topped his head, to the silly-sweet smile he’d give me when he was in trouble, all the way down to his long legs. It didn’t end there. Even the way he fidgeted was like his dad—cracking the knuckles of his fingers, bending the long digits in ways that looked almost painful, although they both were double-jointed, so they assured me it didn’t hurt.

  Watching him at that moment, I’d never missed my husband more. I wouldn’t be making these decisions alone, and we sure as hell wouldn’t have to worry about our safety.

  “Ready, Freddie?” I teased him, trying to keep it light, but we were about to abandon the only home he’d ever known for a place he hadn’t seen in a few years.

  “Yeah, but…” He pointed out the window. “Grandpa Hank’s here. Is he still pissed we’re leaving?”

  I snorted. “Probably. And don’t say pissed.”

&nb
sp; “Dad says it.”

  Grinning in spite of it all, I nodded and opened the truck door. “Yeah, well…your dad says a lot of things he shouldn’t. C’mon, buddy. We’ve got to get loaded up.”

  The stench in the air wasn’t as bad as it had been a few days before, when Sandy had been hit with the worst of it all, so stepping out into the midday sun was bearable. Watching my father kneel down to Freddie’s level, I shook my head at their whispered secrets to each other.

  I started for the front door, leaving the two of them, but stopped when my dad called me.

  “Sara, wait!”

  I turned at the top of the porch steps, narrowing my eyes and waiting for another fight, but he merely grasped my son’s shoulder for a moment.

  “Freddie, you need to go upstairs to your room and pack your duffel bag. Make sure you take plenty of socks and undies.”

  “Okay, Grandpa.”

  I handed Freddie the key as he ran by, only to fold my arms across my chest. “Now you’re telling him to pack? Dad, four weeks ago, you told me I was crazy for heading up there.”

  My dad held up his hands in a surrendering gesture. “Four weeks ago, my town was safe and under martial law. Now, most of the town is either gone, dead, or…or…”

  “Turned.” The word I supplied was correct, but it landed between us almost with a heavy thud.

  He sighed wearily but nodded, reaching for his baseball cap to readjust it. He still hadn’t addressed the real reason I was pissed, so I stepped forward, speaking low enough that my son wouldn’t hear me.

  “You also said I was crazy for thinking Jack was still alive.” My lip twitched, but my eyes burned with tears I couldn’t shed—wouldn’t shed. Not yet.

  “Jesus, Sara…I didn’t mean it that way. Just…he’s so far away, and I just…Oh, baby girl, I just don’t want you to hold on to false hope.”

  I was shaking my head the entire time he spoke. “No. I’m not listening to this.”