by Jack Hunt
Chapter Twenty-Five
C’mon, c’mon… he wouldn’t make it.
Josh saw them before he heard the engines. The heat of the day had turned the roads dry, cracking the mud. That worked in his favor. Through the trees, farther down the road, a plume of dust and grit rose above the trucks as they approached. They were hauling ass and fast. All he could think was someone had raised the alarm or the group had been tipped off to them entering the park. He felt safe where he was, as they were out of the way, off the beaten path, but Ryan wasn’t. He was in the lion’s den.
Think, think!
Lily looked as anxious as he felt. He got back on the walkie-talkie.
“Hurry up, Ryan.”
This time he didn’t get a response. He tried again. Nothing.
Shit. He scrambled over to the truck that was heavily shrouded by branches. He pulled two of the five-gallon canisters of gasoline out of the back and lugged them back over to Lily. He handed her the walkie-talkie. “If dad answers, you press this button and speak into this.”
“Why can’t you do it?”
“Because I’ve got to go and help him.”
“And leave me here?”
Josh looked again through the binoculars. “Lily. I don’t have time to do this. Just take this, press that to speak to him. But don’t do it unless he speaks to you.” With that said, he hurried, stumbling over large roots, and sliding down the grassy embankment. He took off at a full sprint toward a cabin that wasn’t far from where Ryan had gone in. He peered inside to make sure no one was in there before he unscrewed the cap off the gasoline container and entered. He splashed the contents up the walls, creating a trail that came out the front. He took out a lighter, and a scrap of rag. Josh lit the end, then dropped it.
He stepped back as the gasoline burst into color, a tongue of fire that crawled quickly into the cabin and up the sides. He didn’t linger. He ran to another, doing the same again. Within seconds he had three cabins engulfed in flames. Smoke billowed through the trees, dark and thick, swirling in the wind.
Breathing hard, he ran to the rear of the lodge with the second canister. He began dousing the back of the walls and creating a trail that led away into the woods, far enough that he wouldn’t be spotted.
He waited, lighter in hand, preparing to send the whole damn lodge up in a blaze of smoke.
C’mon, Ryan.
He closed the Zippo and took out the Glock.
On the western side, two guys came out with fire extinguishers in hand. It wasn’t going to be much use. The easterly winds had picked up, carrying the flames beyond the cabins to the overhanging trees.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Desperation kicked in with every failing key.
Ryan’s chest tightened at the thought that he might have to abandon her — that this might be all for nothing. He’d tried at least eighteen keys before the padlock gave way. He dumped it fast and twisted the handle, sending the door wide open.
It was a cramped space.
What he found inside was hard for him to see.
Jammed into that tiny room that couldn’t have been larger than a café’s storage area was a collection of people shackled. Young, old, middle-aged. There had to have been over thirty. They were being housed like cattle. Most cowered back. What were they doing to them?
Among the dirty faces of the scared, Ren emerged, moving toward him only to be yanked back by a shackle clasped around her ankle. The chain that restrained her was looped through hoops to the others like inmates on a transportation bus. It snaked away into the midst of them, the end looped around a huge iron hoop on the far wall and back out to the next group. When one moved, they all did. It was simple yet a clever way to keep them in check.
Ren beckoned for the huge set of keys in his hand.
The color codes were associated with small stickers on the restraints. Individual keys. No one key could open them all. This would take forever to get them out.
He tossed the keys and Ren quickly found her color and unlocked her ankle.
As she began working to unlock the others, loud shouting farther down the hallway alerted him to the arrival of the men. They were shouting to one another, something about a fire, and getting more extinguishers. Ryan closed the door behind him. “Ren, we don’t have time to get them out.”
“I’m not leaving them here.”
“Are they infected?”
She never answered. He scanned their faces, every bit of exposed skin. Unless he’d known them personally and seen them for days or saw blood trickling from their nose or the common rash, there was no way of knowing. “Ren. Let’s go!” She’d managed to unlock six people’s restraints before she understood. She tossed the keys to an older man to let him continue and then turned to leave. Ryan cracked the door open just a notch. When he saw it was clear, he exited and turned right down the hallway, heading for a secondary door at the far end of the hall.
“It’s locked,” a blond guy said.
“How do you know?”
“We passed it on the way in.”
“Then it’s only out the front,” Ryan added.
Loud voices made it clear that direction was out of the question.
“No, this way,” he said, guiding them down another passage into the huge lodge that would make any hotel chain seem small. Ryan was a little hesitant to follow. He didn’t know these people and he sure as hell didn’t want to find himself being indebted to them.
As they doubled back and crossed the hallway that led down to the main foyer, one of the men must have come in to collect the extinguisher he’d used earlier. It was no longer on the wall. For a second when they crossed that hallway, he looked their way. Whether it was shock to see the door open or fear, the man froze.
They didn’t.
“Go. Go!” Ryan said, beckoning them on.
Moving through the hallway, the blond guy led them to another doorway only to find that one locked as well. Though instead of having a chain on it as the previous one did, it was locked from the outside. “Now what?”
“Out of the way!” Ryan took out the SIG Sauer and fired at the double-paned window. The glass shattered, and he reached outside only to find the chain that was holding it in place was padlocked. An alarm rang out, and lights began flashing all down the hallway. The guy in the hallway must have alerted the others or pulled the fire alarm as it let out one hell of a shrill.
Undefeated, he was about to extend the gun outside the door and fire at the padlock when Josh came running out of the smoke that was drifting through the woods.
“I’ve got it. Out of the way.”
Ren, Ryan, two adults, and a child moved back as Josh fired several rounds at the padlock. A moment later, it was open. They burst out and turned right into heavy smoke. Wheeling around the corner of the extended portion of the lodge, Ryan was able to get a better idea of the fire. It was blazing out of control, chewing up cabins and the forest. It all crackled and popped, releasing a mass of smoke high into the air.
No sooner were they out than they heard rounds erupting.
They weren’t being fired at.
The other survivors, the ones in the room, had managed to free themselves and were making a break for it out the front. Adults and children darted between the trees on the far side, pursued by armed men.
Some were tackled. Others shot.
There was nothing they could do for them even if they wanted.
It was a chaotic scene.
People running. Screaming. Shouting. The blaring of an alarm. And a fire burning out of control. Heavy smoke moved like a wave through the woods, making them cough. “Which way?” Ren asked. Josh pointed but before he followed, he used his Zippo lighter and tossed it. Ryan saw it hit the ground, roll and then a second later a tongue of fire snaked quickly across the earth until it reached the lodge. A sudden burst of orange, yellow and red spread, eating into the wood like a billion termites.
With the world ablaze, they sprinted.
He jerked the wheel, stuck it in gear, and peeled out, coughing hard.
The truck tore through the woods, bouncing over the uneven ground until it swerved out onto the main road. In his side mirror, the reflection was an inferno.
The truck rumbled along Highway 29 south until he veered onto 26 heading east and leaving Wiggins behind.
Grateful to be alive, Ryan caught Josh looking at him. “Thank you,” he said.
“For what?”
“Helping her.”
“I didn’t do it for her.”
Josh stared.
Their faces were blackened by smoke. A heaviness fell over them at the thought of those that didn’t escape. How many were shot? He glanced in his rearview mirror, through the pane of dividing glass to the family in the back huddled together, a blanket wrapped around their child. The question he’d had earlier lingered in his mind.
Are they infected?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The truck aggressively swerved to the edge of the road, sending up a plume of dust.
Ryan slammed the brakes on and everyone lurched forward. They’d made it a few miles outside of Wiggins. He’d held off until he was sure they weren’t being followed before he addressed the elephant in the room.
He hopped out before Josh could ask why they were stopping.
Even at the lodge, he’d kept his distance. N95 mask on, sunglasses to protect the eyes, a bandanna around his throat, and blue latex gloves covering his hands.
“Get out,” he said, gesturing to the family.
“What’s the matter?” Ren asked.
“And you.”
When they didn’t move fast enough, he took out his handgun and gestured. “Let’s go.”
He wasn’t playing around.
Josh was observing it play out through the pickup truck’s rear windshield. He slid open the glass to hear. Lily was on the far passenger seat blocking the side door.
The four in the back climbed over the side, each having an expression of concern.
“Ryan, what is this about?” Ren asked.
“You already know. I asked you back at the lodge, you never answered.”
Ren looked at the family who he still didn’t have names for. There had been such a mad panic to escape, there was no time for introductions let alone to refuse to give them a ride. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t help, but with their lives on the line and the risk he’d already taken allowing Ren to tag along, he wasn’t going to take any chances.
“We’re not infected,” the father spoke up.
“Yeah? And how do I know that unless you strip out of your clothes, or I watch you for the next few days?” A rash showed up often on infected individuals, nosebleeds followed after. It was the clearest visual confirmation.
“They’re telling the truth,” Ren said, coming to their defense.
“And you would know that because?”
“I just do.”
“I’m afraid that doesn’t work for me. No one puts a group of strangers in a room and locks it unless they want something or are trying to protect themselves from something. So which is it?”
They offered back blank stares.
“Answer the question or I’m leaving you all here.”
Even Ren looked at a loss for words.
“Fine.” Ryan turned to get back in the truck, preparing to leave them in his rearview mirror when Ren spoke up.
“They’re immune.”
With a hand resting on the door, Ryan shot them a sideways glance. “All of you?”
The family nodded.
“And the others, in the room back at the lodge?”
“Yes. I mean, they were, too,” Ren said. He thought back to what he’d witnessed in the downtown of Wiggins. The lynch mob chasing that family, tearing the one boy away while killing the others who were showing the signs of the infection. Logically it made sense. They wouldn’t take him if he had been exposed to the infected.
But nothing about the way this event had unfolded made sense.
The aging shouldn’t have been able to slow in anyone, but spreading it to someone who didn’t have it, if the reports were to be believed, proved this was the case. It made him wonder who had created the virus.
Josh had mentioned that he’d heard it was a form of nanotechnology being used in medicine by companies in the health field. It had been reported that thousands of tiny microscopic machines were designed to travel through the body, repair damaged cells and organs, wipe out disease, cure cancer, restore memory, and slow aging. That it had been used to treat the very real Werner Syndrome, a disease that made people age fast for which there was no cure. However, in this case, something had gone wrong and instead of slowing aging, it sped up the process in those initially exposed to it, but then left or slowed in their body after they passed it on. Like pouring water from one cup into another, instead of copying, it left the original host which in turn slowed the process, allowing the once infected body to return to its normal state. It brought a whole new meaning to the term “spreading an infection.”
“Then why lock you all up?”
Ren looked at the couple. The mother had her arm around her child, the girl clung to her, distraught. She was covered with a gray blanket that went around her shoulders and was held in place by her small hands.
The father stepped forward, and Ryan took a few steps back.
“When a venomous snake bites you, it injects its venom which courses its way through your body, swelling limbs and changing the blood cells, preventing blood from clotting and causing blood vessels to leak. You can then experience all manner of organ failure. The treatment for a bite is anti-venom, a way to neutralize the poison. That’s why they were holding us.”
“What? As some form of anti-venom for the aging?”
He nodded.
“Yeah, right. An entire family immune. Sorry, I don’t buy it.”
“It’s true, Ryan,” Ren said.
Josh got out of the truck and made his way around. “That’s why you stayed at the house, wasn’t it?”
She nodded. “Once, my brother managed to touch me. I assumed that was it but when I didn’t begin to age, I knew something was different.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Ryan asked.
“Would you have believed me? You certainly wouldn’t have let me go with you.”
Ryan stared back at them, unsure of what to believe.
He sighed.
One thing he’d learned was not to take anyone’s word. Josh nudged him and jerked his head away from the group. He followed his son to the front of the truck a few feet away from the grille. Out of earshot, Josh leaned into him. “We can keep them in the back of the pickup truck. If they have it, we’ll know within a day.”
“I don’t know about this, Josh.” Ryan looked at them.
“We can keep our distance. Like we have since this kicked off,” Josh said.
“It’s not worth the risk.”
Josh pointed at them. “If they’re truly immune, this could be exactly what is needed to stop this event. Whatever is in their blood or DNA could be the key. Leaving them here might help us, but if it’s true, it won’t help the rest of the world. This is bigger than us now, Ryan.”
“God, I wish you would stop calling me Ryan. It’s dad.”
He breathed deeply and wiped his lips with the back of his hand.
Ryan took a moment to consider it then nodded. “We keep them in the back of the pickup truck. We keep our distance. Don’t touch them. Don’t go near them.”
Josh nodded.
“Be su
re to tell your sister.”
He turned and got back in the truck. Ryan made his way around and gestured for them to climb in the back. A look of relief followed.
“Thank you,” the father said. “By the way my name is Stephen, and this is Madeline, and our daughter Francine.”
Ryan nodded. He looked off into the distance, as heat waves shimmered across the road. There were still around three hundred miles left to go, a good five and a half hours remaining until they’d reach the Florida coast. With all that had happened so far, he accepted it would take longer with at least one or more stops to get gas and sleep. If everything went to plan, and they didn’t get a flat tire, they would arrive with at least two days to spare.
Ryan coughed hard, pulling a rag from his pocket. He took out his pills and tossed a couple back. Ren studied him.
He ignored her and climbed in.
“You okay, Dad?” Lily asked.
“As long as you two are safe, I am, kiddo.”
He stuck the gear stick in drive and peeled away, leaving behind a cloud of dust and the horrors of a snake-handling church that were using the event for their own strange purpose.
From that point forward they didn’t stop for anyone though they saw people along the highways thumbing a ride. Infected? Immune? Survivors? Who knew. It was a gamble he wasn’t willing to take again. He glanced in his rearview mirror at the family and considered what might be different in them that would allow them to resist the pathogen, and if it could be used to create a permanent cure for the infected.
A few hours later, after refueling with the gasoline canister they had, and collecting more water, they rolled into Alabama and pulled off Interstate 10 following a sign for a service station.
“Bucky!” Lily said, pointing to the bright yellow sign with a beaver on it. Buc-ee’s was a chain of travel centers offering convenience stores and gas across Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Josh opened the rear windshield window and told them they were going to stop there for the night as they veered onto Baldwin Beach Express. One last pit stop before the final stretch of the journey the next day. The huge parking lot was practically empty with only five vehicles dotted throughout. A couple had their windows smashed, and doors open as if someone had fished through them.
