Bloody Beginnings Read online

  Bloody Beginnings

  Laura Hysell

  Bloody Beginnings © copyright 2015 Laura Hysell

  Cover design by Fiona Jayde Media

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. 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 publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Isabella Howerton Series

  Bloody Beginnings

  Bloody Consequences

  Bloody Defiance

  Bloody Endings

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  About the Author

  Prologue

  The phone was ringing. I roused myself from a deep sleep and pulled the phone to my ear. “Hello,” I mumbled into the receiver, struggling to wake up.

  “Izzy? Oh, thank heavens! I was afraid this call wouldn’t go through.”

  “Justin!” I sat bolt upright in my bed, brushing a strand of blonde hair out of my eyes. Adrenaline was pumping through my body and I was immediately alert. “Where are you? Are you okay? I haven’t heard from you in months and now there are all these strange reports about your expedition all over the news! What’s happening?”

  “Shh, it’s okay. I’m okay. We…we were attacked, Iz. I can’t say over the phone, but I’ll explain everything when I get home. Just know that I’m okay.”

  “What about everyone else? Sarah? Kirk?” My heart thudded at the thought of my ex-fiancé, Kirk. We may have broken up, but he still held a place in my heart, and he was one of my brother’s closest friends.

  “Kirk’s been hurt but he’s going to live and Jared’s all right, but everyone else is dead.”

  Everyone was dead? “Sarah?” I asked timidly.

  There was a short pause before he spoke. “Sarah’s gone,” Justin said softly. His voice was strained, as though he was holding back tears. “Listen, I don’t have much time to talk. I just called to warn you. Whatever you do, Iz, don’t get the vaccine.”

  “Vaccine? What are you talking about? What vaccine?” The line went dead. “Justin? Justin?”

  I stared at the receiver in my hands for several minutes, listening to the incessant beeping indicating an empty line. I set it down and picked it back up, but there was still nothing there. I finally set the phone down and glanced at my clock, thinking five in the morning was too early to get up, but knowing I wouldn’t be able to sleep any more after that phone call.

  Slowly I pulled myself out of bed and wandered into the kitchen to start coffee. I felt numb all over. Justin was alive, but most of the expedition was dead. Sarah, Justin’s on-again off-again girlfriend was among the dead. I tried to wrap my brain around that. I had never been a big fan of Sarah, but I knew her death would crush my brother. He hadn’t sounded sad though, he’d sounded scared on the phone, or maybe he was just hurried. And what was this vaccine he was talking about?

  I grabbed my favorite mug and filled it with hot, bitter coffee. Then I lovingly dosed it with my favorite caramel flavored creamer. I held the mug to my face, breathing in the intoxicating aroma before taking a tentative sip. The coffee helped my brain to come awake, and my mind began wandering over all the strange things Justin had said in that short conversation. As I sipped and turned the conversation over in my head I realized I just kept coming back to the same thing. What vaccine was he talking about?

  It must be some vaccine his research company was making. Maybe it had something to do with the trip to Romania he and his team had gone on. Justin had been close-mouthed about the trip when they left eight months ago, but he had kept in touch through e-mails weekly. Then, about two months ago, the e-mails had stopped. About the same time news reporters had pounced on the story of the American research team missing from the Carpathian Mountains, near Brasov, Romania.

  I gulped down my coffee, wincing as it burned my throat before I headed toward the bathroom. I had just opened the door when the phone rang again. I rushed to it and picked it up before the second ring. “Hello!” I yelled into the receiver, hoping it was Justin again.

  “Hello, I’m looking for a Miss Isabella Howerton,” said the official-sounding male voice on the line. I glanced at the clock, seeing it was only 5:18. Who calls this early in the morning?

  I took a deep, steadying breath before I replied. “This is Isabella.”

  “Hello, my name is Agent Rodcliffe, and I need to speak to you regarding your brother, Justin Howerton. Have you heard from him?”

  My heart began pounding and my fingers tingled. I had learned long ago to trust my intuition, and my intuition was telling me not to trust this stranger on the phone. “Sorry, no I haven’t,” I replied. “May I ask what this is all about?”

  “I happen to know Justin called you about fifteen minutes ago. Now, let’s not play games, Miss Howerton,” Agent Rodcliffe replied, his voice dropping to a frightening deep bass.

  I shivered and stared at the phone in my hands. My heart was beating quickly and my palms were sweating. I pulled the phone away from my face and looked it over briefly. Was my phone bugged? The more I thought about it the angrier I became. “Well, since you started playing games in the first place, I’m going to end it. You either tell me what you want or leave me alone.”

  “Is your brother planning on meeting you anywhere? Is he back in the States?” the voice on the other line asked, ignoring me.

  “I think you know more about what’s going on than I do! He didn’t tell me anything. Now, what do you want?”

  “Miss Howerton, your brother is in extreme danger. I need to find him right away. I also need to find Sarah Ellister, Kirk Daughtry, Jared Bushing, Ronald Dawson, Jin Hao and George Brisby. Has he mentioned anything about them? Has he mentioned anything about his team or the events that took place in Romania?” Rodcliffe asked, his voice dripping with sincerity. I didn’t buy it for a minute.

  “Well, if you have my phone bugged you should know exactly what he told me,” I retorted.

  “You are Justin’s only family, Miss Howerton. I am sure he has communicated with you in other forms than just this phone call. Has he e-mailed you perhaps?”

  I powered on my laptop and waited for my e-mail to come up as I spoke to the man on the phone. “Look, all I know is what he told me on the phone. His team is dead, except him, Kirk, and Jared,” I added, dropping to sit on my couch. I felt drained already from this short conversation.

  “Oh, they’re not dead, Miss Howerton. Apparently your brother doesn’t tell you everything after all. Thank you for your time.” The line went
dead.

  I slammed the phone down and stared at my e-mail. I had no new messages from my brother. I grabbed my cell phone as well, but there were no new texts there either. My whole body was shaking now. I hadn’t felt this type of panic since the night of our parent’s death. Something big was happening. I just didn’t know what yet.

  Chapter 1

  “Hey, Isabella, what’s with the rush?” Mark asked as he hurried to catch up with me.

  I glanced at him, noting his usual attire of basketball shorts and a t-shirt, but continued as fast as my short legs would go without actually running. “I’m late for the staff meeting, Mark. Obviously you are too,” I added.

  “Oh, yeah, staff meeting… um, I’m not going.”

  I stopped suddenly and he had to skid to a halt to keep from running into me. His hands braced against my waist briefly before he immediately let go. I turned and flipped my hair over my shoulder and narrowed my pale blue eyes at him. “What do you mean? They made it seem serious. If you don’t go it’s an automatic suspension. That’s more than enough incentive for me to go. What makes you so special?” I placed my hands on my hips as I waited for a response.

  Mark shrugged and glanced in each direction down the hallway nervously. It was after school and there were no students in sight. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into a vacant classroom. I stumbled in my heels, bracing myself against a table. He shut the door quietly and leaned back against it. I noticed for the first time that he seemed to be perspiring even more excessively than usual. He ran a hand through his thick brown hair, a nervous gesture I was secretly very fond of.

  I sighed and adjusted my beige skirt. “What’s going on Mark? Are aliens attacking?”

  Mark frowned at me, crossing his arms across his very muscular chest. “That’s not funny,” he said dryly. Mark was quite the conspiracy theory buff. He fancied everything from aliens to ghosts and was convinced the government was behind all sorts of strange plots. He was lucky administration didn’t know about all his theories, or he would be sitting in a padded room instead of teaching P.E.

  “Look, Mark, I’m already late for the meeting and I don’t particularly want to be suspended. What’s so important?” I sighed, pulling my eyes away from his muscles. Oh, but the man was good to look at!

  “Have you been listening to the news?” he whispered, leaning toward me.

  I shook my head, my blonde hair falling across my eyes. When my brother had disappeared, I had watched the news every night, hoping for some clue as to what had happened. Then after he called I watched the news even more. A month after his mysterious phone call the news reported that the expedition team had all perished while hiking in the mountains. A bear attack, so they claimed. There had been a big memorial service, but no funeral. No bodies were recovered. I didn’t believe it, not after Justin’s weird phone call, but I still hadn’t heard from him. I stopped watching the news after that. That was five months ago.

  “Look, you said your brother warned you about some vaccine, right?” I nodded, and he seemed to gain strength, rushing on. “They want us to get some sort of vaccine here at work. They have doctors lined up at this meeting just for that reason. It’s the vaccine that’s been all over the news. Geez, Iz, you can’t shut out the world because your brother’s gone.”

  “I didn’t shut out the world!” I snapped. It was just too hard to listen to tragedies on the news anymore. “Just because I don’t watch the news doesn’t mean I don’t hear things. I heard about some vaccine that Petri Co. created that’s supposed to suppress every form of the flu permanently. That sounds like a good thing to me.”

  “Aren’t you worried that maybe this vaccine is the one your brother was talking about?” he pushed, moving his body closer to mine as he spoke.

  Mark was so close I had to take a step back to look up at his face. I shook my head in response. “My brother didn’t work for Petri. He worked for NuvaDrug, which I seem to recall went bankrupt just after Justin’s team disappeared. So I don’t think there’s any vaccine to worry about from them.”

  “Oh, Izzy, you’re ridiculously naïve for someone so smart. Petri bought NuvaDrug! They own all their work.”

  “No, Mark, Cascade bought NuvaDrug and shut down most of their facilities. See, not naïve at all!” I retorted angrily.

  “You really need to dig deeper, Iz. Petri owns all of it!” Mark’s voice rose in volume, but he quickly quieted, glancing through the small window in the door to check the hallway. He turned back toward me, his brown eyes soft. “Petri has a new owner, who bought out Cascade, NuvaDrug and Pharm Tech. Sure, Cascade and Pharm Tech still work under their original names, but Petri Co. bought all of it. They’ve done it secretly, but if you know how to look you can find the information.”

  I shook my head, growing tired of Mark’s incessant theories. I didn’t want to hear it, especially if this one concerned my brother’s company. Mark wouldn’t relent until I had heard him out. He was like a dog with a bone. “Look, Mark, I have to keep this job. If you have a point, please get to it!”

  Mark leaned up against the door and ran a hand through his hair again. He took a deep breath before speaking. “They are going to force us to get a vaccine, Iz! I overheard these men in suits talking to Principal Tourney about it. That should be illegal, but the government’s making it mandatory for everyone. They’re starting with anyone who is in contact with young children or elderly, who could be susceptible to transmit the flu to them. That means all hospital staff and all teachers, along with all government workers as well. I heard the military’s on board too! Parents are lining up to get their kids this vaccine, not even stopping to think about the repercussions. First there was the swine flu, then the Equine flu, and now this vaccine!”

  “People died because of those flus, Mark! People were killing their own horses in a panic that they would catch the Equine flu. Then what happened? One of the drug companies came up with a vaccine, and they saved people’s lives! Nothing bad happened!” I practically yelled, my irritation getting the better of me.

  Mark was speaking in a loud whisper as he leaned toward me. “Nothing happened you say! Nothing but people panicking and thinking they had to rush out to get the cure! People lined up for hours like a bunch of mindless sheep to get a vaccine that might work, or might not. Now they’re doing the same thing, only this vaccine has serious side-effects.”

  “What side-effects? Diarrhea, vomiting? I think most people will live with a temporary side-effect if it keeps them from getting the flu forever.” I was done. I tried to push past Mark to hurry to the meeting but it was like trying to move a brick wall. He shook his head and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, thrusting it into my face.

  I glanced at the top, noting it was just a copy of an e-mail. “Wow, Mark, you do know how to e-mail. Amazing,” I added sarcastically, as I continued trying to push past him. He moved the paper in my face and I swatted his hand out of the way.

  “It’s from Justin,” he whispered softly.

  I think my heart stopped. I looked up at Mark quickly, trying to see if he was joking or not. His eyes were soft and warm and completely devoid of deceit, not that Mark knew how to lie anyway. I swallowed hard and took the paper from him, unfolding it carefully. It was dated five weeks ago! My hands were shaking as I stared at the paper. Five weeks! Mark had received an e-mail from my brother five weeks ago and hadn’t told me. Why Mark? Why not me? I shook my head and smoothed out the paper, my hands shaking.

  Mark,

  I know you have a lot of conspiracy theories, so I knew this would be right up your alley. I can’t contact Iz. They’ll find out, or intercept it. They might intercept this, but I had to take a chance. Whatever you do you can’t get the vaccine. Make sure Iz doesn’t. She’s my only family, and I have to keep her safe. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to a computer again. I’m being tracked, but I’m trying to get home to her.

  This vaccine does do what they’re saying, but it has serious side-effe
cts they won’t mention. It’s corrupt. It’s not natural. It’s evil. I can’t explain any more, you’ll just have to trust me.

  Delete this email right away, and don’t tell Izzy I’ve contacted you. She needs to go on acting like she knows nothing, like she thinks I’m dead. It’s safer that way. Please! Take care of my sister. I’m counting on you.

  -J.

  Tears were leaking from my eyes as I finished reading the e-mail. My brother was alive, and he was trying to get to me. Why was it taking so long? What was stopping him? Who’s tracking him? And what is so damned important about this vaccine? He could have been a little clearer, or maybe he couldn’t. I swallowed hard and wiped the tears from my eyes. “So, you think this is the vaccine he’s talking about?” I asked Mark.

  He nodded slowly, taking the e-mail from my hands. He carefully folded the paper in half, and then proceeded to rip it carefully. My eyes widened in shock, but he shook his head and continued ripping. “It’s for the best, Iz. We need to get out of here. This meeting is mandatory so we can get the vaccine. Your brother said this thing is evil, and I certainly don’t want anything like that inside of me. Do you?”

  I shook my head and dried my tears. “Maybe we should talk to Principal Tourney first.”

  “What’s that old saying? It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission? I say we leave now and find out the whole story from the other teachers later.”

  I nodded my head in agreement and sniffled. “Okay, I suppose that would work. We could say I got sick or something. Let’s just go,” I said, turning towards the door. Mark nodded and followed behind me as I opened the door.

  I glanced out into the hallway, making sure no one was around, before striding purposefully towards the exit. Mark shadowed me as we walked hurriedly towards the large double doors. I pushed one door open and walked into the growing storm. There was no rain yet, but thick black clouds obscured the sun, making it ominously dark for only four o’clock. Wind whipped my hair into a frenzy. I shivered in my thin sweater and skirt, realizing I had left my jacket back in my classroom. Too late now.