Outpost Season One Read online

  Copyright © 2012 Finnean Nilsen Projects llc

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this work may be reproduced, in print or digitally, without Finnean Nilsen Projects llc expressed consent. This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are creations of the author’s imagination and not based in any way on the living, dead, or otherwise. References to actual films, fiction, or games is done in reference to the genre and do not imply any claims of ownership.

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  Used with permission.

  Table of Contents

  Finnean Nilsen Projects 13

  PILOT EPISODE 14

  One 15

  Two 17

  Three 19

  Four 21

  Five 23

  Six 24

  Seven 25

  Eight 27

  Nine 29

  Ten 31

  Eleven 32

  Twelve

  34

  Thirteen 35

  Fourteen 37

  Fifteen 38

  Sixteen 40

  Seventeen 42

  Eighteen 44

  Nineteen 46

  Twenty 48

  Twenty-One 50

  Twenty-Two 52

  Twenty-Three 53

  Twenty-Four

  55

  Twenty-Five 57

  Twenty-Six 60

  Twenty-Seven 61

  Twenty-Eight 63

  Twenty-Nine 65

  Thirty 66

  Thirty-One 67

  Thirty-Two 68

  Thirty-Three 70

  Thirty-Four 71

  Thirty-Five 73

  Thirty-Seven 82

  Thirty-Eight 84

  EPISODE 2: 86

  OUT OF THE DARKNESS 86

  One 87

  Two 90

  Three 92

  Four 95

  Five 97

  Six 99

  Seven 103

  Eight 105

  Nine 107

  Ten 109

  Eleven 111

  Twelve 113

  Thirteen 114

  Fourteen 116

  Fifteen 118

  Sixteen 122

  Seventeen 123

  Eighteen 126

  Nineteen 128

  Twenty 130

  Twenty-One 132

  Twenty-Two 134

  Twenty-Three 136

  Twenty-Four 138

  Twenty-Five 140

  Twenty-Six 142

  Twenty-Seven 144

  Twenty-Eight 145

  Twenty-Nine 147

  Thirty 149

  Thirty-One 150

  Thirty-Two 151

  Thirty-Three 153

  Thirty-Four 155

  Thirty-Five 156

  EPISODE 3: 158

  THE BURNING MAN 158

  One 159

  Two 160

  Three 163

  Four 166

  Five 167

  Six 169

  Seven 171

  Eight 172

  Nine 174

  Ten 176

  Eleven 178

  Twelve 181

  Thirteen 183

  Fourteen 185

  Fifteen 187

  Sixteen 189

  Seventeen 191

  Eighteen 193

  Nineteen 195

  Twenty 197

  Twenty-One 200

  Twenty-Two 202

  Twenty-Three 204

  Twenty-Four 205

  Twenty-Five 207

  Twenty-Six 209

  Twenty-Seven 210

  Twenty-Eight 211

  Twenty-Nine 213

  Thirty 215

  Thirty-One 217

  Thirty-Two 218

  Thirty-Three 219

  Thirty-Four 221

  Thirty-Five 223

  EPISODE 4: 226

  THE CRIMSON RIVER 226

  Before… 227

  One 229

  Two 230

  Three 232

  Four 233

  Five 234

  Six 235

  Seven 236

  Eight 238

  Nine 240

  Ten 242

  Eleven 244

  Twelve 246

  Thirteen 248

  Fourteen 250

  Fifteen 252

  Sxteen 253

  Seventeen 254

  Eighteen 256

  Nineteen 258

  Twenty 262

  Twenty-One 266

  Twenty-Two 267

  Twenty-Three 268

  Twenty-Four 270

  Twenty-Five 272

  Twenty-Six 274

  Twenty-Seven 277

  Twenty-Eight 279

  Twenty-Nine 281

  Thirty 282

  Thirty-One 284

  Thirty-Two 286

  Thirty-Three 288

  Thirty-Four 290

  EPISODE 5: 292

  WHISPERS IN THE DARK 292

  One 293

  Two 294

  Three 296

  Four 299

  Five 301

  Six 303

  Seven 305

  Eight 306

  Nine 308

  Ten 310

  Eleven 312

  Twelve 314

  Thirteen 317

  Fourteen 322

  Fifteen 324

  Sixteen 327

  Seventeen 329

  Eighteen 330

  Nineteen 332

  Twenty 334

  Twenty-One 336

  Twenty-Two 339

  Twenty-Three 341

  Twenty-Four 346

  Twenty-Five 347

  Twenty-Six 349

  Twenty-Seven 351

  Twenty-Eight 353

  Twenty-Nine 355

  EPISODE 6: 361

  WITH A VENGEANCE 361

  PART ONE 361

  One 362

  Two 365

  Three 367

  Four 369

  Five 371

  Six 373

  Seven 375

  Eight 377

  Nine 379

  Ten 381

  Eleven 383

  Twelve 384

  Thirteen 388

  Fourteen 389

  Fifteen 390

  Sixteen 392

  Seventeen 394

  Eighteen 396

  Nineteen 397

  Twenty 399

  Twenty-One 400

  Twenty-Two 402

  Twenty-Three 404

  Twenty-Four 406

  Twenty-Five 408

  Twenty-Six 410

  Twenty-Seven 412

  Twenty-Eight 413

  Twenty-Nine 415

  Thirty 417

  Thirty-One 419

  Thirty-Two 421

  Thirty-Three 422

  Thirty-Four 424

  Thirty-Five 426

  Thirty-Six 427

  Thirty-Seven 429

  Thirty-Eight 431

  Thirty-Nine 432

  EPISODE 6: 434

  WITH A VENGEANCE 434

  PART TWO 434

  One 435

  Two 438

  Three 440

  Four 442

  Five 444

  Six 446

  Seven 448

  Eight 450

  Nine 452

  Ten 454

  Eleven 456

  Twelve 458

  Thirteen 460

  Fourteen 461

  Fifteen 463

  Sixteen 464

  Seventeen 465

  Eighteen 467

  Nineteen 469

  Twenty 472

  Twenty-One 474

  Twenty-Two 475

  Twenty-Three 476

  Twenty-Four 477

  Twenty-Five 479
/>
  Twenty-Six 480

  Twenty-Seven 481

  Twenty-Eight 483

  Twenty-Nine 485

  Thirty 487

  Thirty-One 489

  Thirty-Two 491

  Thirty-Three 493

  Thirty-Four 495

  Thirty-Five 497

  Thirty-Six 499

  Thirty-Seven 500

  Thirty-Eight 501

  Thirty-Nine 503

  Forty 504

  Forty-One 506

  Forty-Two 508

  SPECIAL FEATURES 509

  CREATOR COMMENTARY 510

  PILOT EPISODE 511

  EPISODE 2: 607

  OUT OF THE DARKNESS 607

  EPISODE 3: 687

  THE BURNING MAN 687

  EPISODE 4: 767

  THE CRIMSON RIVER 767

  EPISODE 5: 840

  WHISPERS IN THE DARK 840

  EPISODE 6: 916

  WITH A VENGEANCE 916

  PART ONE 916

  EPISODE 6: 1000

  WITH A VENGEANCE 1000

  PART TWO 1000

  DELETED SCENES 1080

  Gunshop 1081

  Maurice 1083

  Mercedes and Jessie 1085

  Camp 417 1089

  Finnean Nilsen Projects

  Camp 417: Prequel to the Outpost Series

  Outpost Season One

  Outpost Season Two

  Outpost Season Three

  By Bill Pryst

  Fist Full of Brunettes: A Multiple-Choice Thriller

  By Damien Wright

  The Contagion

  The Nest

  Follow us on Facebook, our blog, or at finnilpro.com

  PILOT EPISODE

  One

  The day started like shit and ended worse.

  Sam Watkins washed his hands in the bathroom sink, the water turning pink as he rubbed them together. Behind him, through the doorway, in the kitchen, the small TV blared:

  “…the CDC is recommending all citizens use caution when traveling in commercial aircraft and using public transportation. Surgical masks are encouraged. This is not a drill. Scientists are likening the 417-B outbreak to the Bubonic Plague…”

  Sam turned off the faucet, dried his hands, and left the bathroom. He flicked off the TV as he passed by it, killed his coffee, and looked down the hall to the bedroom. It was quiet now. To the right of his front door was the coat rack. He took his belt off of it, the service pistol cleaned and ready in its holster, and put it on. Went out, closing the door behind him.

  The afternoon was crisp and the air smelled of distant snow. A breeze – sharp, even if lazy – burned his face. The long driveway ended in a single oak tree, reaching for the sky with skeleton limbs in the frost. He squinted down the gravel road, trying to make out the form sitting on a branch. A crow, he decided, though he couldn’t imagine one out this late in the year.

  The car was cold and tired, and it took two tries to wake it. Once it hummed to life, he cranked the heater and got it moving. The crow took flight as the car crept forward. He turned on the radio and looked for a station:

  “…information out of China is slow, but the reports we are getting is that it is of biblical proportions…”

  “…the Russian Military has been placed on full alert, as a second nuclear submarine is rumored to be missing…”

  “…speaking from an undisclosed location, the President had this to say: My Fellow Americans, in this trying, frightening time, I urge you all to stay in your homes, take proper precautions, and do not hesitate to seek immediate medical attention if you begin to show symptoms…”

  Sam killed the radio and pulled on to the main road, thinking. He was sick to death of it all. Every six months to a year he had to deal with another SARS or Swine Flu or Bird Flu or Whatever-the-Hell Flu and he didn’t believe a fucking word of it anymore.

  He had bigger things to worry about, anyway.

  Two

  “Request denied,” Warden Bowers said, stroking his round belly with his fingertips. On the other end of the phone, a doctor or scientist or something-or-other with a really long title said:

  “Warden, the Federal Government has declared a medical emergency. We must be allowed to inspect your facility and verify the health of the inmates.”

  “Oh no,” Bowers sneered, “not a medical emergency. Is it almost as bad as the Pig Flu? Because I let you assholes run around my prison, drag my people all over hell, and give these animals all kinds of check-ups – that my state had to pay for – because of that fucking thing, and it ended up all anyone needed was chicken soup and a weekend’s rest…”

  “I assure you this is nothing like that. This is serious…”

  “I’m being serious. This is a state run facility. My budget comes from my state. The federal government - and the CDC - have no jurisdiction to do a damn thing in my institution. This is a maximum security prison, and every time I let someone in here that isn’t either on my payroll or in chains, I risk my guard’s lives. And the citizens of this state, for that matter.”

  “But Warden…”

  “But nothing.” Bowers sat forward and leaned on his right elbow, pressing the phone hard into his ear. Said: “You want to know the health of my inmates? They’re alive. Which is more than I can say for their victims. I have fifteen hundred men and women – all violent criminals – in this prison. I’ve got a lady in here that cut her husband’s head off and left it in his girlfriend’s mail box.”

  “I read about that.”

  “I’m sure it was light reading,” Bowers snapped. “Now, here’s the deal I’m making: my inmates haven’t had a chance to catch your new bug, because we’ve been locked down three weeks after a near riot. There’s no reason to assume they could have come into contact with anyone who might have contracted it…”

  “Your guards could have contracted it, or their wives, and spread it…”

  “I admit it’s possible, but highly unlikely. Still, you haven’t listened to my deal.”

  He waited, it sounded like the caller was listening, because for once he wasn’t talking.

  “My guards and their families, you can examine at their homes or in their personal doctor’s offices. Not at my prison. My inmates will remain where they belong: in their cells. If one of them gets the sniffles, my doctors will check them out. If they need outside assistance, we’ll talk then. Sound good?”

  “No, it does not sound good! I am trying to protect your guards, your community, and this country. You have no idea the epidemic we’re dealing with. It is a perfectly reasonable request to ask us to see your guards and inmates!”

  The Warden smiled. “Request denied,” he said, and hung up.

  Three

  Doctor Maximilian Van Pelt the Third, Head of the Center for Disease Control’s Command Control and Stability Department for Violent Offenders, sighed and lowered his head.

  Why couldn’t that man understand the risks? he wondered. Warden Bowers was a bastard, he decided, nothing more. Of the hundreds of prisons he had contacted, everyone had cooperated – well, all but a hand full, and the others would come around – but not Warden Bowers. He was too stubborn, and too inclined to spit in the eye of the federal government.

  Max looked around his office at the scrappily stacked papers. Everything was computerized, yet he preferred the feel of the paper in his hand. Every single sheet represented – not just a single life lost to this disease – but dozens, hundreds, as many as they could fit with size 8 font.

  Thousands of people. Millions. If the recent shutdown of all communications with Russia and China were any indication: possibly the entire continent of Eurasia. Billions of lives lost.

  “More research,” he assured himself. “We have time if we can find a cure.”

  He jumped up from his wobbly chair and darted out of his office. Made it ten feet down the hall and stopped.

  He could have sworn he heard something. From behind him.

  He turned around, but the
re was nothing there. He shook it off and continued toward the lab.

  The halls were all built in straight lines and ninety degree angles. He made a right and a left. Stopped at a door with a sign that said “DONATIONS” and went in. Closed the door behind him and stopped again, dumbfounded.

  Something was wrong. It was all wrong.

  Fifty empty beds. Where there should have been fifty bodies donated to science to find the cause of their death. Instead: fifty empty beds.

  He backed himself against the door as his gaze flicked from dark corner to dark corner. He could smell something now. Something coppery in the darkness. Blood. A lot of it.

  “Hello,” he tried to call – it came out a whimper. Louder now: “Hello?”

  Shadows on the far wall.

  A scream rang out behind him, through door and drywall. From far down the hall. Max turned at the sound, and felt the air shift around him.

  Something touched his shoulder. Rough. Something else had his left leg. Then another had the right. He wasn’t on the ground anymore. He felt something sharp enter his stomach and screamed as pain surged through him. A florescent flashed behind him as it burst, and he saw a corpse pull out his intestines and shove them into its mouth.

  He screamed again, but it was too late. His last thought, he mumbled aloud: “It’s too late. Far too late.”

  Four

  “What do you mean ‘late’?” Chris Reed asked, running a hand through his short, cropped, blond hair. “Like for roll call? Because you know the Warden loves your ass, he wouldn’t punish you.”

  “What are you,” Mercedes asked, “in sixth fucking grade? I mean I’m late.”

  She watched that register on his face. It went from total disbelief to confusion and back, and then snarled up in anger.

  “Well,” he said, “what the fuck do you want me to do about it?”

  She stared at him, hating him almost as much as she had the man that had brought her there.

  “Well,” she mocked him, “I expect you to be a man. You certainly like fucking like one!”

  Chris recoiled like he had been slapped by a complete stranger. He looked her up and down, her naked ebony body glistening with sweat in the fluorescents of the ladies shower room. Finally, he laughed and shrugged.

  “I don’t know what you think’s supposed to happen. I mean, I’m a guard and you’re a convicted killer.”

  “And?”

  He shook his big, blocky head. “And you stabbed a man to death.”

  “He was a pimp,” she growled, “and he raped me.”

  “Is it really rape when the girl’s a whore?”

  Mercedes swallowed that little thing that made her want to tear him limb from limb. It wouldn’t be right for her, or her baby. She smiled at him, and hissed: “Yes.”