by Newman, AJ
He helped Barbara sit up in bed and adjusted her pillows. The orderly left the room. Barbara’s bed was only four feet away, and she whispered, “What happened? How long were we unconscious?”
“Believe it or not, we’ve been asleep for a week. Now we get fattened up before they begin the experiments.”
Her jaw dropped, and her eyes grew large. “They were experimenting with improving the nutrition and blood doping before taking the blood.”
Jon’s face squinted. “What’s blood doping?”
“You know how athletes would have their blood taken weeks before an event. Then they’d have the red blood cells separated and transfused before an event, which would give them the ability to hold much more oxygen in their blood. This gave them more stamina.”
“I kinda remember that was made illegal for sports.”
Barbara said, “Correct, but the CDC found increasing the number of red blood cells in an immune donor supercharges their ability to pass the immunity on to more than one person.”
Jon scratched his jaw. “Does that mean one of us could make a lot of people immune?”
“Yes and no. Yes, if they took your blood at a slow rate and built up a large supply. This would only make maybe four or five people immune within six months to a year’s worth of blood taking. No, because they’re greedy and would take all of your blood to make two of our corrupt political leaders immune. They’d be afraid to wait and take a chance of catching the Coronavirus or whatever damned virus this is.”
Jon cursed. “Damn. That means nothing changed for us.”
“Right, we still have to escape.”
“One of the orderlies said there would be an escape in two days. I assume that means some of the staff is joining us on the lam.”
Jill lay still with her eyes closed, waiting to determine what was going on around her. Her mind was foggy, and she felt sick to her stomach. She heard silence for a few minutes, and then her monitor beeped until the nurse came in to reset it.
“Okay, sunshine. Behave, or I’ll knock your ass out again.”
Jill glared at her and said, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good girl. We don’t want to hurt you, but management doesn’t want any problem children. Supper will be served as soon as we draw some samples for the lab.”
Jon and Jill joined their friend as soon as the nurse left. They stood together and held Barbara’s hand. Jon filled her in on what he’d learned but had to whisper in case the room was bugged. Jill hummed a tune to help cover Jon’s voice.
Barbara whispered, “We need to be gone before they start the experiments.”
Jon said, “I know. I’ll talk with the orderly and pump him for details on his escape plan after supper.”
Barbara asked, “When did they take your IVs out?”
“This morning, about an hour after we woke up.”
They talked for another few minutes before the nurse and orderly returned. The nurse removed Barbara’s IVs and helped her stand up while the orderly set their table. He placed their food on the table and watched the nurse leave. Jon started to speak with him, but the man motioned for all of them to gather around him.
The orderly said, “I’m Jim, and the nurse is Alice. Tomorrow evening, we won’t give you the sedatives that make sure you don’t try anything during the night. There are only two guards. I’ll need your help in disposing of them so we can escape. We have a safe house with a hidden basement. We’ll hide out there until things calm down and then escape by water. I’ll bring you some clothes just after dark tomorrow. Be ready then. I have to go.”
He left them dazed and looking at each other for answers. Jon said, “I don’t trust him or the bitchy nurse, but we have to escape now or never. Let’s go eat.”
They woke up late the next day with sore arms and several Band-Aids in the crooks of their elbows. Their water had been drugged to make them easier to control, just as Jim had told them. Jon woke up, groggy with a dry mouth. He looked at the girls and was shocked to see they were now wearing bright orange hospital gowns instead of the sweat-pants and t-shirts they’d been dressed in the night before. He sat upon the cot and almost fell. Jill was on the floor, yelling for help. He was so dizzy, his head swooned. He was wearing one of the orange hospital gowns also. He wondered why Jill was panicked, and he couldn’t think straight.
Barbara woke up last. She was bleary eyed and half-asleep when she saw the orange gowns. She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Jon and Jill froze when they heard the scream behind them. A voice came over a hidden speaker, “Shut the bitch up, or we will!”
Jill turned and hugged Barbara and tried to yell over her screams. “Barbara, what’s wrong?”
“We’re dead! The gowns …,” Barbara yelled before breaking down into sobs.
Jon joined them just as Jill shook Barbara by the shoulders and said, “Bitch, calm down and tell us what scared the shit out of you.”
Barbara blubbered for a minute and then said, “They must have taken samples of our blood before exposing us to the virus and then injected the virus into our veins. Anyone not immune will be dead in a week to two weeks. I’m not immune. They will take all of your blood. Leave me and get out of here now while you have the strength.”
Jon and Jill pulled the bandages from their arms and stared at each other. Jill said, “Jon, she’s right. You’re pale and weak. We have to escape now.”
Jon heard the footsteps and told them to be quiet. Jim came running through the door and called them together. “Shut up for a minute. Alice put something in your food to mimic the effects of the drugs they give to the donors to prep them for the trials. It’s harmless. Alice didn’t expose you to the virus as was planned. Your reaction to the orange gowns and sickness were needed to fool the guards and the doctor. It worked. The doctor laughed and went home to his girlfriend.
It’s Saturday, and we are alone with the four guards on dayshift. Keep acting scared and sick until dark. Be ready to escape about an hour after dark. You’ll have to take out the two guards. They’re two dumbasses, so it shouldn’t be hard. Any questions?”
Again, the orderly filled their ears like a firehose spraying a fire. Jon said, “We’ll be ready. Where are our clothes, and how will we know when to take out the guards?”
“They’re hidden on the bottom shelf of the food cart. I’ll bring it in in a few minutes. You won’t feel like eating but do it anyway. A rock will break one of the windows. Bye.”
Later that evening, Jon saw the sun had set, and the night approached quickly. He asked Jill and Barbara to stand up and hide him from any hidden camera and then used his foot to bend one of the steel legs on his cot. He flexed the leg back and forth until the thin wall tubing snapped. He now had a jagged edge on one end of the foot-long pipe. He broke another leg off and gave it to Jill. Now, he just needed the signal.
“Barbara, you were scared shitless when you saw the orange gowns. Are the guards and staff just as afraid of getting infected by us?”
“Of course they are. These guards were probably forced or bribed to watch us. They would rather fight a bear with a switch than get any of our bodily fluids on them.”
Jon said, “Here’s my plan. I know it’s a bit thin, but we can make it work if you play your parts like I say.”
The night was cloudy, and without the moonlight, it was dark outside. Only two guards watched the end of the school, where they were detained. A guard made a round every hour and shined a light into the room to check on them.
Jon heard the crash of glass, and they all sprang into action. He yelled that one of the girls was dying. Suddenly a light shined through the glass in the door, and Jon heard the guard’s excited voice. “One of the subjects has slit her wrists! Come, help me!”
Jon and Jill clung to the wall on either side of the door and waited for the men to enter the room. The guard unlocked the door and shinned the light on the three cots. He saw Barbara hanging off her cot with blood on her wrists. Jill and Jon�
��s cots were overturned with blood on the sheets.
“Son of a bitch! The crazy asshats killed themselves. Go check on those two while I check on the woman on the cot.”
Just as Jon started to swing his club, the other man said, “They will probably kill us for this. Let’s run while we can.”
Both men ran away, and Jon could hear their footsteps clattering down the hallway. “Come on, girls. Change clothes, and let’s make tracks and get the heck out of here. Follow me!”
Jon’s arm hurt where he’d cut it with the cot leg’s ragged edge, but it beat dying from being a guinea pig. All three had supplied the blood needed to fool the guards, even though they didn’t have much of it to spare.
He snuck down the hallway and out an emergency door into the dark night. They stayed in the shadows when they saw two men running down the middle of the street. Jon said, “The chicken shits are running like the devil is after them,” he then added. “Where are Alice and Jim? Let’s go. Screw them. We’d better pick up the pace, or we’ll be back in a cell before dawn. Let’s go!”
Jill said, “If they don’t have bloodhounds, we have a chance.”
Jon moaned, “Speaking of dogs, I guess Bo is long gone. I was getting fond of the mutt.”
Chapter 20
Daphne, Alabama – July 2038
They barely made it to the street when they heard a shout come from behind a truck. “Come on. Follow me.”
It was Jim, and he told them to stay in the shadows and follow him to the safe house. He led them north through backyards, forests, and empty streets only a short distance from the bay. Jon and Jill kept a grip on their steel bed legs, but both felt naked without their weapons. Jon had planned to kill or disable the guards and take their weapons. Jon tugged on Jill’s sleeve and held her back. “Jill, I hope these guys don’t get mad when we head on south to find a boat. I don’t want to stay here and hide until they stop searching for us like Jim suggested,” Jon said in a low voice.
“I’m with you on that. I like our chances better getting the hell out of here.”
They continued until Jim stopped in the backyard of a large home on the bay. He whistled, and the nurse, Alice, walked out of the shadows. She said, “Hurry up. There was a roving patrol a few minutes ago.”
They went into the home, and Alice walked toward a set of bookshelves. She reached into one of the shelves, and a five-foot-wide section of the ceiling-high shelves opened like a door. She said, “Follow me,” and disappeared into the darkness. Suddenly, a faint light illuminated stairs that headed down into a basement.
They heard Jim pull the bookshelf door closed, and the room was flooded with light. Alice still had her nurse’s uniform on, and Jon saw something that scared the shit out of him. Alice’s pocket held several hypodermic needles like those she had used to inject a sedative into Jill’s IV. Jon nudged Jill. She did a double take and nodded.
Jim wheeled around with a pistol and said, “Drop those pipes.”
Jill struck Alice on the neck in one motion and knocked Barbara backward. Jon pounced on Jim, knocking his gun hand away. The gun belched fire and stunned Jon for a second before he took Jim to the ground with one hand holding the barrel of the Berretta and the other beating on Jim’s side with the pipe. Jim tried in vain to shoot again, but Jon’s grasp on the slide pushed it out of battery. It couldn’t shoot as long as Jon held a firm grasp on the barrel and slide.
Jim rolled on top of Jon, pinning him down, but he screamed in pain and dropped dead on top of poor Jon. Jon had gouged Jim’s stomach until the jagged edge of the pipe split his belly. Then the twelve-inch long pipe passed on up to his lung and heart. Jon rolled Jim away and saw Alice slumped down on a couch with a large red stain expanding on her chest.
Alice begged. “Please, get one of the hypodermic needles out of my pocket and give me a shot in my arm. The pain is horrible.”
Jon walked over to her. “First, what were you going to do with the sedatives?”
“You know what we were going to do. We deserve to live as much as you do. Give me the damned shot.”
Jon sneered. “Do you know what NFW stands for, bitch!”
Jon took the hypodermic needles and tossed them across the room. She grabbed for Jon but was too weak to reach him. Jon said, “Die in pain. You were going to kill us for our blood. Now, yours is flowing down to the floor. I hope you rot in hell.”
Barbara patted Jon on the back. “We can’t trust anyone.”
Jon stood up and said, “Girls, let’s get any weapons, food, or water we can pack and unass this place before any of their friends show up.”
They kept in the shadows and worked their way down to the bay. They saw several docks, but no large boats. Jon found a small boat with oars and said, “Ladies, let’s get out on the water and as far south of here as we can before daybreak.”
Jon’s body was weak and exhausted, but he rowed for an hour before collapsing. He slumped over and slept for two hours while the boat gently rocked with the waves. The boat shuddered, and there was a loud thump when the boat bounced against one of the docks extending out into the water. Jon woke, startled by the noise, and could see the dock and several hundred feet to the next boathouse.
He cursed. “Damn, it’s almost daylight.”
He surveyed the dock and saw it had a large boathouse where they could hide. He rowed under the house and tied the boat off in the darkness provided by the large structure above them. He used a life jacket for a pillow and slept until Jill woke him up hours later.
“Jon, wake up! Jon!” she said as she shook him awake. He woke up and rubbed his grainy eyes of the fitful sleep from the night.
“Turn your heads,” Jon said while he held on to one of the dock’s pilings and unzipped his fly. He peed over the side of the boat without falling into the water.
“Asshole, that was cruel,” Barbara said.
“Sorry, but I had to go.”
“No shitting, Sherlock. So do we, and we can’t just stand there and cut loose. Take us to the shore now.”
Jon untied the rope and rowed with depleted and sore muscles to the shore in front of a huge home. He helped the ladies out, and they disappeared behind some bushes. They returned and found Jon hiding the boat.
Jill said, “We need some clothes and medical supplies. We also need a safe place to stay for a couple of weeks.”
“No way, we have to get across the bay before they find us.”
“Jon, we were all exposed to the virus. Barbara could be dead before we get to your parent’s home. We are going to have to give her transfusions of our blood.”
“Do what? Doesn’t our blood have to be the same type as Barbara’s? Mine is O positive.”
Jill said, “Mine too. Barbara, what is your blood type?”
Barbara had a weak smile of relief on her face. I’m O positive also, but that wasn’t a big concern. The risk of a major problem was small in comparison to dying from the ‘plague,’ as you call the virus.”
Jon stood there with his mouth agape and said, “Isn’t there another way?”
Jill replied, “She’s been infected. We can’t take her home if she’s going to die and kill your family.”
Jon cursed under his breath as Jill fumed, and Barbara cried. Jon gathered them and had a group hug. “Ladies, our mission is to find medical supplies and a safe place to hide while we give Barbara transfusions. Barbara, I hope you know what we need and how to perform them, because I don’t have a clue.”
Barbara said, “We can get what we need from any Walgreens or CVS drug store. Even a clinic or doctor’s office should have what we need.”
Jon said, “Barbara, my guess is you should hide here in the boathouse while Jill and I go for the supplies. I’ll check both the home and the boathouse while you give Jill the list.”
The boathouse was actually part boat storage below with a fancy apartment above. It was well stocked with booze and snacks. Jon didn’t open the large refrigerator but did search the pan
try. There wasn’t much food, but it did have a few canned goods. Jon told the girls the building was safe and went on to the house.
The home was also deserted, and the entire place must have been a summer home for some wealthy family. There weren’t any bodies, but the cupboard was well stocked. The wine cellar was full and had a great selection of vodka and whiskey. He looked for a gun cabinet to no avail but had some luck in the master bedroom. There was a Berretta 9mm in one bedside table and a small .22 revolver in the other. There weren’t any extra bullets. He desperately wanted better firearms and would search for them in town.
He found some clothes that would fit everyone and took them back to the girls after dressing himself in some shorts and a t-shirt. Jon saw the girls watching through the windows and waved the clothes at them. They met him at the door and weren’t happy with his selection of outfits.
Jill said, “These are men’s clothes.”
Jon laughed, “I’m not good at guessing sizes. There are plenty of women’s clothes in the house. You can get what you want after we get Barbara taken care of.”
“Okay. Barbara made a list for us, and we need to hit the road.”
Jon handed the .22 revolver to Barbara and said, “Barbara, stay hidden and don’t go near the windows while we’re gone.”
Jill and Jon walked around the home to the long driveway. They walked east along the driveway, keeping in the bushes and trees until they saw a road. They hid in the bushes, watching for any movement on the road. After they were satisfied, there wasn’t anyone close by, they walked north on Sea Cliff Drive until they came to old Highway 98.
Jon said, “I’ve been up and down old Highway 98 many times, and there’s not much more than a bunch of houses. We’ll cut across the Highway 98, where there should be a handful of pharmacies and doctor’s offices. We also need to look for more weapons. Let’s go.”
As Jon told her, there weren’t any stores on the old road. They walked on to the main highway and saw a multitude of stores and shops. They stopped at the first drug store and found all but a couple of the items needed. Jill saw a medical complex with several buildings, and there they found the rest of the supplies they needed. One of the buildings was an emergency medical center. They found a case of saline solution and half a case of Ringer’s solution. These would be perfect for helping refill them after giving blood.
