Contents

  Title page

  Copyright

  Disclaimer

  Phil Maxey Books

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Thank you

  DEADWOOD

  Infernal Contagion Book 8

  by

  Phil Maxey

  Copyright © 2024 by Philip Maxey

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  The Work of Phil Maxey, aka Philip Maxey, may not be used or accessed in any manner which could help the learning/training of artificial intelligence technologies.

  First Printing, 2024.

  https://www.philmaxeyauthor.com/

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is purely coincidental.

  OTHER BOOKS BY PHIL MAXEY

  Cascade Universe (In order)

  Cascade Prequel Book 1: Encounter

  Cascade Prequel Book 2: Extinction

  Cascade Complete Series Box Set: Books 1 - 8

  Earth Clash Complete Series Box Set: Books 1 - 4

  Cascaders Book 1 (on going series)

  Other Series

  The Scourge Complete Series Box Set: Books 1 - 6

  Extinction Gene Complete Series Box Set: Books 1 - 6

  The Glitch Complete Series Box Set: Books 1 - 4

  Blood and Power Complete Series Box Set: Books 1 - 5

  Infernal Contagion Book 1: Deadfall

  Infernal Contagion Book 2: Deadweight

  Infernal Contagion Book 3: Deadrise

  Infernal Contagion Book 4: Deadlier

  Infernal Contagion Book 5: Deadlock

  Infernal Contagion Book 6: Deadhead

  Infernal Contagion Book 7: Deadeye

  Infernal Contagion Book 8: Deadwood

  Infernal Contagion Book 9: Deadend (Coming March 2025)

  CHAPTER ONE

  Location: USA. New Hampshire. White Mountains.

  Day Twenty-three.

  9: 24 p.m.

  Clara looked across the faces, looking back at her. Within the enclosed circle were perhaps two hundred people, all lit by large flickering torches at the periphery.

  Man, did she hate public speaking.

  She took another sip of water and stood. “Um, most of you have no idea who I am. Other than what Ron’s already told you.” She looked at her side, at the middle-aged man who was in charge of this ramshackle collection of tents and hastily made huts in the middle of the woods. He smiled with a nod and she looked back at her audience. “As… you can—”

  “Speak up! We can’t hear you!” shouted someone from the crowd.

  “Oh, sorry.” She cleared her throat a little. “As you can tell, I’m from England. As are some of the people at this table around me. We came here some days ago on a fishing trawler. From Scotland, just before the bombs dropped… We came ashore in Connecticut, and found a place, but I was taken. Kidnaped by a woman you know of as Olive…”

  Whispers flowed around the people seated at the various tables.

  “She and her family are… were working for the government. By finding women only I think, and taking them to an island off the south coast, where experiments are being done on them…”

  The whispers became gasps and some people started to shout questions.

  Ron held his hand up, and the crowd fell silent again. “Let her finish her story.”

  “I… know that sounds crazy to say, and I know you have no reason to trust me, but it’s the truth.”

  “What kind of experiments?” a woman shouted.

  “They are making a vaccine—” the ripples of conversation started up again. “— which makes people, in this case, females, invisible to the dead…”

  This time the cacophony quickly became too loud for her to keep talking, and Ron needed to stand.

  “Quiet!” It took a few seconds before the din quelled to an expectant silence. He looked at the woman next to him. “I know it’s hard, but tell them exactly what they are doing in the facility.”

  She looked down. She did not want to. It took most of her strength throughout the day to push away the memories which came with sickening sounds and sometimes odors. But then Ellie’s face came to her. A strong woman whose story deserved to be told, so Clara did so to those in front of her, and of what happened to her and the other women. By the end, most in the crowd were shaking their heads, some were crying, others, looked visibly ill.

  Ron’s hand landed on her shoulder, and with a nod, she sat back down. He looked out to the crowd once again. “We had to bring some of you here against your will initially, but that’s because we needed you to make this place work. And that’s not changed. There are perhaps a hundred people at the facility, women that are being experimented on, that could be living here, helping us keep this camp working. And, you heard Clara, there’s a vaccine. If we had that, we could live here, free of the dead!”

  Some in the crowd cheered in agreement.

  “So, I say, we free those people from that place!”

  This time the crowd was less enthusiastic in reply.

  “I know… I know, fighting is the last thing any of us want to be involved with. We’ve all suffered and lost so much already. But, this is an opportunity for us to expand the camp and secure our futures. And that’s worth fighting for.”

  “But it’s a government run place,” said a thirty something man, seated at one of the closer tables. He looked at Clara. “Haven’t they got soldiers and stuff?”

  Ron shook his head. “They got people. Armed, but Clara doesn’t remember any soldiers. From what’s she’s told me, we’ve got the numbers to get this done. And...” He looked at Jenn. “We have a bona fide British General here, to help organise our sorry asses.”

  All eyes fell on the General, seated next to Clara.

  “Do you think this is doable?” he said to Jenn.

  She nodded. “If we prepare properly, and I’ve been told you have weapons? Then yes.”

  Ron smiled while nodding, then looked back to his people. “But what we don’t have right now is fuel. So tomorrow, Kelly and some others are heading west to find what we need.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  LIZ

  The room smelt of damp. Perhaps not unusual for a bedroom in a farmhouse, but it was a small price to pay for finding a place that was so well stocked. After Greg took the soldiers away, they managed to quickly find an abandoned van, and once the sun fell below the horizon, continued their journey into the mountains, finding the spot where the General, Lauren and the rest were meant to have met with the other group. There was no sign of either when they arrived, but the home had obviously been lived in fairly recently, with copious amounts of food stored in the outbuildings, including weapons which they found hidden in a padlocked chest. Aaron said it was some kind of outpost, and she had no reason to doubt that was true. So the plan was simple, wait for whoever owned the place to return, and then find out what they did with the General and those with her.

  She was sitting on a bench near the window, moonlight illuminating the thin stretch of road which they drove in on. Behind her in one of the single beds was Tia And Hope, while Fran was in another. Joe was in a similar bed in Grace’s room so she could monitor him constantly. She said his condition hadn’t worsened despite the extra strain that had been placed on his back, and that gave her hope that he was on the mend.

  Liz’s head fell forward a little, the impact with the pane of glass waking her up. She shook her head. This was not the time to sleep, d
espite the old clock on the wall saying it had gone past midnight, and every part of her wanting to do nothing but collapse in a space on one of the beds. They had no idea if they had been followed from the skies or roads, and even though Aaron and Aiden said they would keep watch throughout the night, she wanted to add her eyes to theirs, even if she kept nodding off between recollections of the past few weeks.

  She sat back against the alcove the window was within, trying not to think about those that were no longer with them. No more dying, she whispered to herself…

  She awoke with a start and swore. She had been dreaming of being on a tractor, which was throwing seeds into a field of fresh soil, but instead of plants beginning to grow, it was the dead, slowly emerging from the piles of dirt.

  She turned and looked out into the…

  Lights sparkled to the farm’s left. Somewhere further down the hill. She blinked, hoping they would reappear but the darkness remained unperturbed. She had to be sure, so she grabbed her cane and stood, then as quietly as she could, made her way out of the room, along the landing then down the creaking stairs. Aaron was standing at the bottom.

  “You saw the lights?” he said.

  “Yeah. I thought I imagined them.”

  “Definitely a vehicle.”

  Footsteps came from the kitchen, Aiden appearing. He looked at the soldier. “We doing this?”

  She looked between them. “Wait. Shouldn’t we wake the others? What’s if it’s the government again?”

  “If it’s the government,” said Aaron. “There won’t be any point waking them, because we’re in no shape to escape this time.”

  She nodded and the two men slipped into the darkness of the kitchen, then out the back of the property.

  CHAPTER THREE

  AARON

  Aaron’s hands touched the leaves and bark he was passing. He had no idea what else was around him, such was the richness of the void, but he could see the moonlight glinting off the hood of a large, wide truck, almost as if it was a…

  His heart beat faster. How did they find them? He knew the shape. It was definitely military. But he couldn’t see any others. Was this a lone patrol that had gotten lucky? Maybe if he—

  The unmistakable sound of pressure on the dry forest floor pierced the silence. Something or someone was close by, probably no more than twenty-feet from his position. Did they know he was there? He doubted it, but if it were one of the undead they could probably smell him and he wouldn’t know they were on him until it was too late.

  He looked back at the farmhouse, the roof of which was its only recognisable feature against the light sky. The right thing to do was go back and warn them, but he could also nip the problem in the bud, right here and—

  The sound from before repeated, and now he was sure it was a living, breathing person. The undead would have already rushed him, and unless the soldier nearby had night vision goggles, he was going to see them before they saw him.

  He crouched low behind a tree as the crunching increased in volume. They were walking right towards him. Any moment…

  He pivoted, grabbing them from the neck and taking them to the ground before…

  The woman screamed, shouting for him to get off of her, the noise being so distracting that he didn’t notice the other set of footsteps behind him…

  The cold blade of a large knife on his neck, made him freeze.

  “Hey,” said the man with the weapon. “I know you…”

  “Greg?” said Aaron.

  Greg let go of the knife and stepped back.

  “Next time, you’re the bait!” said Groves, who was still on the ground.

  “I could have killed you!” said Aaron.

  “Had to be sure you were all—”

  Illumination suddenly blinded everyone from roughly ten-feet away. Aiden just being visible behind the glow. He smiled. “Had a feeling you’d survive the shitshow back at the gas station.”

  Greg returned the compliment. “Yeah, you too.” He leaned forward, offering his only usable limb to Groves who got back to her feet, brushing off dead leaves and twigs.

  “You think we can continue this inside,” she said. “Where there’s less chance of being eaten alive?”

  Aaron nodded, the four of them making their way back to the farmhouse.

  The old Australian looked at the rectangular dark shape of the building up ahead. “You got coffee?”

  Aaron laid a hand on his shoulder. “All that and more.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  JOE

  Joe’s dream was full of joy. A party of all the people in his life, including those that had perished. Smiles, laughs, everyone enjoying eating…

  Strips of flesh hung from their fingers as they bit into the carved human pieces. The virus now affected those that breathed as well, turning everyone into a cannibal…

  He jolted awake, an action that sent a jolt of pain into both thighs. It took him a moment to realise that the pain only made it to his knees. It took him longer to realise that there were voices, multiple, coming from somewhere below in the large house. Not a party, but definitely a gathering of some kind. There was no possibility of shouting, in case he awakened those that were still asleep, but he had to know why there was a group having a discussion during the early hours. Making plans perhaps.

  He turned just enough to see that the other bed, Grace’s, was empty. So she was perhaps involved as well. He looked down at the sheets and his useless body beneath, and despite the fatigue, anger overwhelmed him.

  Pulling the sheet to the side, he gritted his teeth and holding the side of the bed, pivoted, swinging his feet off of the mattress, knowing that the impact with the floor could mean him losing consciousness. Instead, the pain, when his feet touched the wooden floorboards was bearable, and memories of being able to walk again after his last serious injury, years before, came back to him.

  Such was the wave of emotion in getting this far, that he did not hear the footsteps on the landing outside the bedroom door, which then quietly opened.

  “What are you doing!” said Grace, standing in the doorway, candle in hand. There were others behind her, which he couldn’t quite make out.

  “You have a way of surviving,” said a man with an Australian accent.

  “Greg?”

  Grace came inside, immediately kneeling in front of Joe and touched his toes. “Can you feel this?”

  He nodded while smiling. “Yes! Yes I can!”

  She smiled. “I think you’re going to get through this.”

  Greg, Groves, Arron and Aiden joined her, most with steaming mugs in their hands, each finding a place to sit or stand.

  Joe took a breath, letting the news that he might be able to walk again sink in then looked at the two newcomers. “How the hell did you end up in this country?”

  They exchanged a look, Groves answering. “I was useful to them, because of the work we did with Hope. That was the forerunner for the vaccine—”

  Grace and Joe weren’t the only ones in the room to repeat the word at the same time, but it was Greg that spoke next.

  He unslung a small pack from his shoulder, dropping it to the floor. “In there. It’s what the soldiers were taking.”

  Grace picked up the bag, pulling out a small black plastic box, which she unlatched and opened, then held it up. It contained four small bottles of purple pills.

  Groves continued. “Those pills were developed from my work, but they don’t have a lasting effect, maybe three days from what I’ve been told, and they don’t work as well on females.”

  “Can children take them?”

  Everyone looked at the doorway and Liz standing within it.

  Groves shook her head. “I have no idea. Perhaps.”

  The doctor examined the bottles closer. “What’s the dosage?”

  “I don’t know. All I do know is that it was meant to be enough for six people for three days, and they had already used a day’s worth.”

  Liz hobbled inside, sitting next to her husband, who she exchanged a smile with, seeing that he was sitting up.

  “So because of my expertise the NATO forces brought me to this country, to the wall to be exact.”

  Joe nodded. “I’ve seen some footage of it, and the wasteland beyond.”

  “Yes, it’s impressive… it’s just a shame that it’s primary purpose was to keep millions out, stop them from moving too far west.”