Absolution

by Mark Campbell

  “Yeah,” Teddy croaked. “I get it.”

  Satisfied, Vue stepped aside and allowed Teddy to pass.

  Through the windshield, Teddy saw that the bus was parked in front of a large courtyard. The Kansas State Capitol building stood prominently on the other side in the distance.

  Salguero gave Teddy a sideways glance from the driver’s seat as he passed. “You won’t last a week.”

  Teddy looked down at the unarmed driver—the man looked like a joke. He was dressed as if he were going to battle but he didn’t even have a pistol. “Just be a good chauffeur and keep it nice and warm in here.” He turned and started to walk down the steps.

  Salguero angrily shoved a foot against Teddy’s back.

  Teddy flew forward and landed hard on the asphalt. He coughed violently and wrapped his arms around his bruised ribs.

  “Careful on that last step,” Salguero said with a dark grin.

  Roger bent over and helped him up. “Oh for crying out loud… Stop ruffling their feathers. It isn’t a fight you’ll win.”

  “Is there a problem?” Parham asked as he walked over with his rifle ready.

  Teddy rose to his feet and shook his head. He pulled his mask down and spat a wad of bloody mucus onto the ground.

  “Then get your ass moving!” Parham ordered. He snatched Teddy by the back of his neck, and pushed him away from the bus and towards the courtyard.

  Roger hurried beside him.

  Teddy balled his fists and spun towards Parham.

  Parham stepped back and pointed his rifle at Teddy.

  Roger stepped between them and forced a smile. “Don’t worry, boss, I’ll keep an eye on him and make a decent laborer out of him yet!” He jaunted a thumb over his shoulder towards Teddy. “He’s still all schnookered from last night, that’s all!”

  Before Parham could answer, Roger led Teddy off of the road and onto a footpath into the courtyard.

  The courtyard’s frozen grass was dying and lay boxed in by overgrown hedges. Brown vines crept up the park benches—covering the broken marble Victorian fountain in the center. Barren trees rustled in the bitter wind, and a few lay toppled across the footpaths.

  Beyond the courtyard, sunlight glimmered off of the Capitol’s iconic dome but the rest of the building appeared to be in a state of severe disrepair. Most of the limestone along the lower levels was covered with graffiti. The glass in all but one of the windows had been shattered. Two marble support pillars had broken off and lay in pieces on the stone steps leading up to the entrance.

  “Thanks for that back there,” Teddy said once they were out of Parham’s earshot. “I’m not very good at keeping my cool.”

  “I can tell.” Roger chuckled. He turned on his flashlight briefly to ensure that it worked. Satisfied, he turned it off and stuck it in his back pocket. “You have to learn to bite your tongue… Those fools think they’re the Frozen Chosen and are itching for an excuse to pull their triggers.”

  “I’ve tried to be civil, but they all have massive power trips—especially that motherfucking sergeant.”

  “Parham? Yeah, most short men do.”

  “And what’s with that bullshit no talking rule that the Asian guy was going on about?”

  “It is exactly what you said it is—bullshit,” Roger said. “They’re just making rules up for the sake of making rules.”

  “Jesus… I would have been better off just staying where I was.” He looked over at a row of old-fashioned newspaper vending racks owned by the Kansas City Star. A yellowed, molding piece of paper dated months ago stood in one of the glass displays and had an image of corpses stacked outside a hospital like cordwood. The headline read: Harlem Flu Overwhelms Topeka Hospitals – Local Government Mum on Official Death Toll.

  “Where were you at before?” Roger asked.

  “Before what?”

  “Before the camp.”

  “A stadium,” Teddy said.

  “You stayed in a stadium? Hot dogs… Popcorn… You were lucky! Our shelter in Topeka was at an old high school.”

  “It wasn’t anything special.” Teddy shrugged. “It was just a dirty cesspool.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, what did you expect?” Teddy asked. “They brought people there by force.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good point,” Roger admitted. “If I had my druthers, I’d still be back at my ranch… Honestly though, the high school wasn’t so bad. It was cleaner than the camp and most of the folks were downright friendly. I sure miss some of them… I hope they’re doing well wherever they ended up.”

  As Teddy thought about his time in the stadium, his mind drifted to thoughts of Jane and Danny. Their memories had started to plague his consciousness even when he was awake.

  Teddy’s expression darkened as he kept walking.

  Roger glanced over at him. “What’s wrong?”

  Teddy didn’t respond.

  “Ah…” Roger said knowingly. He grew flustered and scratched his neck, embarrassed. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to pick at scabs… I shouldn’t have brought it up. I’ve lost people too, both before and after the high school.”

  Teddy thought about Ein and his mood soured even more. “Here lately, all I seem to do is lose people.” He gave a heavy sigh. “You’d think I’d get used to it by now.”

  “It never gets easy and you’ll never get used to it. All you can do is keep moving forward.”

  Teddy looked over at him. “I didn’t take you as the type that gave inspirational speeches, Roger.”

  Roger laughed. “Get some liquor in me and I’ll even preach the gospel to you.”

  Teddy grinned. Despite the grim surroundings and his even grimmer mood, he found a strange comfort in Roger’s goofy company.

  Roger, unaware that Teddy was looking over at him, picked his bulbous nose and crossed the street towards the Capitol’s steps.

  A black Humvee was parked in the clearing nearby, with an array of loudspeakers fastened to a pole on its roof. The doors bore the Homeland Security emblem and the words Topeka Federal Police were stenciled across the vehicle’s fenders. Blue lights flashed brightly from the bar across its roof. A voice boomed over the vehicle’s loudspeakers: Attention, any squatters in the area—this is the Topeka Federal Police Battalion. Surrender immediately for medical evaluation or you will be subject to detention. I repeat, surrender immediately or you will be detained by force.

  Two black police prisoner vans pulled up with their emergency lights flashing and came to a stop on opposite sides of the street. Riot police wearing helmets and gasmasks hopped out of the back of the vehicles, and ran up the steps into the Capitol with their shotguns ready.

  “It looks like they’re ready for war,” Teddy said as he followed Roger.

  “It always goes this way,” Roger replied with a shrug. “It doesn’t matter how peacefully they surrender—force is always used.”

  “And what if they are sick?”

  “Do you really have to ask?”

  “None of this is right,” Teddy said.

  “No, it’s not, but let’s keep moving.”

  A swarm of low-flying drones emerged out of the safe zone and converged towards the courtyard and the surrounding area. They flew low and fast as they scanned the rooftops and peered down alleyways.

  Teddy ducked and then looked up in the air, confused—he had been locked up a very long time and this was the first time he was actually witnessing a drone in person.

  “Come on,” Roger said, smiling. “They won’t hurt you. All they do is look for squatters and make sure none of us run off. ” He pointed up at one. “See the lens there at the bottom?”

  “Little flying cameras?” Teddy asked as he calmed himself, and slowly stood back up. He shook his head and started walking again. “Shit, I guess I really was better off at that awful stadium.”

  Teddy and Roger followed the other workers from the bus up the stairs and through the building’s massive wooden doors. A sign on the door r
ead: Public Building Closed by Order of the Kansas Department of Health.

  As they walked through the abandoned security station and past the old metal detectors, the building’s degradation became apparent.

  Loose trash littered the marble floor of the building’s grand hall and rotunda. Rogue strands of sunlight shone through the dome’s shattered skylights and cast long shadows across homemade encampments formed out of office furniture and tattered sheets. The Art Deco stylized murals on the walls were mostly covered with graffiti and were peeling away from their stucco due to exposure to the elements. A gigantic Lady Justice made of marble stood in the center of the rotunda with a Kansas flag draped over her scales—the sword in her other hand had been smashed to pieces by vandals.

  “Well, so much for the place being untouched ever since it was closed,” Teddy said as he looked around at the tents.

  The sound of people shouting and scuffling with the officers echoed through the rotunda.

  “Yep,” Roger said as he walked forward and stood next to Teddy. “It also sounds like the place isn’t abandoned after all.”

  One of the nearby restroom doors flung open and a riot officer dragged a screaming woman by her long red hair. He yanked her across the floor with one hand as she held onto his wrist and flailed her legs wildly, kicking off one of her scuffed tennis shoes in the process.

  Another officer escorted a frail-looking man out with his arms twisted behind his back and forced him to keep moving forward.

  Teddy watched the unfolding scene and frowned.

  “Come on.” Roger pointed towards a group of office doors under a brass placard that read: Public Records Division. “Let’s get away from the circus before we get stuck in the middle of the clowns.”

  “Good idea,” Teddy replied. He tried numerous doors until he found one that was unlocked and stepped inside.

  It was pitch black.

  Roger followed behind him and pulled out his plastic flashlight. He turned it on and scanned the room with its dim yellow light.

  A series of cubicles lined one side of the room while tall filing cabinets lined the other. Most of the cabinet drawers were pulled open and loose papers and folders were scattered across the floor. Office chairs and fallen ceiling tiles created something of an obstacle course along the narrow pathway down the center of the room.

  Teddy noticed that the dusty desks still had computers and many of the workstations even had purses, backpacks, and the moldering remains of unfinished breakfasts and snacks still sitting on them. “It just looks like everyone was in a hurry to leave.”

  “When people started realizing how bad it really was, a single cough could clear out an entire room,” Roger said. “The panic and paranoia was almost as bad as the flu itself. Folks were either jumping at their own shadow or hustling on the street selling snake oil cures just to make a few damn dollars from the sick and dying.”

  “I guess I was spared from the worst it, all things considered.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Never was much for watching the news and I didn’t buy into rumors. I kept my head down, but that came at a price—I didn’t even know what was happening until it was literally all around me.”

  “So you lived rural, huh?”

  “You could say so, yeah. I liked my solitude… I liked my routine. The truth is that I miss it—life was simple.”

  “No offense, but I never took you for a country boy,” Roger said with a grin. “Where are you from anyway?”

  “Texas, originally,” Teddy said as he started walking. “I was living outside Tucson when the bug hit. You?”

  “I’m country—through and through,” Roger said proudly. “Lived on my family’s ranch outside Topeka since I was knee-high in hog shit.”

  “A ranch in the middle of Kansas?” Teddy whistled. “I guess that the post-apocalypse lifestyle is an improvement for you then, isn’t it?”

  “Watch it, hoss,” Roger said, chuckling. “I know over a thousand insults about Texans, but I don’t want to hurt your feelings on your first day.”

  Both men laughed and walked deeper into the room.

  Roger’s flashlight revealed family photographs and small mementos that were tacked to the cubical walls—photographs of people who were most likely decaying inside a mass grave somewhere.

  Teddy lost his smile and plucked a photograph of a smiling family of four from one of the walls and stared down at it in the light with a frown. The boy in the photograph looked about Danny’s age. “It’s hard to believe just how fast things changed.”

  “It is,” Roger said. He patted Teddy on the back. “But it’s no use reminiscing. Let’s keep moving along.”

  Teddy pinned the picture back up on the cubical wall and looked over at the computer on the desk. “Shouldn’t we be unplugging all of the computers and whatnot?”

  “We should, but we ain’t,” Roger answered as he kept walking.

  “I don’t get it.” He gave him a quizzical glance and followed after him.

  “What’s not to get?” Roger asked. “They want us to do a lot of work and I’m not fond of working for free.” He scanned the room with his light. “Plus they don’t even give us lunch and that really doesn’t sit well with me.”

  “So what do you do the whole shift?”

  “If I get paired off with the right person, I try to find a quiet room that’s out of the way so that no nosey cops or other do-good workers disturb me. After that, I kick back until they blow the signal for us to return back to the bus.” He started walking towards a row of closed office doors past the file cabinets. “Like I told you on the bus, it’s an easy day since we’re working inside.”

  “I’m not a fan of laziness, but then again I’m not a fan of working for free either,” Teddy said with a grin.

  Roger chuckled. “I figured that we’d be in agreement on that.” He pointed at his RFID implant. “We’ll have to get up and move around every now and then so that it doesn’t look too suspicious on radar, but I doubt that the people staring at the screens are paying much attention. They’re more concerned about watching people leave the work zone. Escapes and all that, you know?”

  Teddy looked down at the bulge under his forearm where the implant was located and sighed. “Man, I feel so left behind with this technology bullshit.”

  “It isn’t hard to figure out,” Roger said. “If my old country ass can figure it out, then you can too.” He led Teddy around a corner and towards a larger area that had private offices and a break room. He focused his flashlight on the nearest closed door. “Do you think that this one is a winner?”

  “Let’s see.” Teddy sauntered over, turned the knob, and swung the door open.

  A musky scent of decay wafted from the darkened office. The decrepit remains of a man wearing a grey suit sat slouched in his chair behind a massive desk. He peered out at Teddy with hollowed eyes and a skeletal grin. Wads of used tissues covered the desk and were scattered on the floor.

  “Poor bastard,” Teddy said as he cupped a hand over his mask, tightening the seal. “Should we move him?”

  “We should, but we ain’t.” Roger pointed his light at another closed door. “Let’s try door number two.”

  Teddy shut the door, walked over to the adjacent room, and turned the knob.

  Roger pointed his flashlight inside.

  Tall beige filing cabinets lined the rear wall and a bundle of rolled up blueprints were stacked on top of a wooden desk in the middle of the room. A door with a tarnished brass sign that read ‘35mm slide storage’ was in the corner.

  The room didn’t appear to have been used for a very long time.

  “Winner, winner, chicken dinner!” Roger exclaimed happily as he stepped into the room.

  Teddy followed somewhat reluctantly, glancing over his shoulder.

  “Don’t be a hayseed and just stand there! Close the door before someone else finds this place,” Roger said.

  Teddy quickly closed the door and lo
oked at Roger with a frown. “Are you sure they won’t find us in here? I’m getting mighty tired of getting my ass kicked around by power-hungry goons.”

  “The only two things in life I’m sure of is that I’m not getting any prettier and I’m not getting richer. Anything else, I couldn’t tell you one way or the other,” Roger said with a shrug. “All I know is that I haven’t gotten caught yet so the odds must be in my favor!”

  Roger shoved the stack of blueprints off of the table and sent them tumbling down on the floor. A giant plume of dust rose up from the pile of papers.

  Teddy waved his hand in front of his face, coughing behind his ineffective mask.

  Roger left the flashlight powered on and sat it on the table. It lit up the room with a dim yellow glow. An uneasy quietness filled the room, but in the distance muffled shouts and cries for help could be heard as the officers apprehended squatters.

  Teddy found the tense atmosphere unnerving and unfortunately familiar. “So what do we do now?”

  Roger stood at the table and pulled out a weathered deck of playing cards and started shuffling them carefully. “Do you know how to play gin rummy?” he asked without looking up from the cards.

  “No.”

  “You’re gonna,” Roger said with a grin.

  CHAPTER 6

  Mark Hammond sat at a round conference table in what was once someone’s dining room. The dusty drapes were pulled shut across the windows and blocked out the afternoon sun. An ornate grandfather clock stood in the corner and its brass pendulum dutifully ticked away at the passing seconds.

  Of all the other rooms in the drab, depressing house, Hammond hated the dining room most of all.

  The dining room was where the higher-ups summoned him when they had bad news to share with him.

  When the red phone rang in his office on that day, November 25th, just after 1:00 PM, it was just as he expected—bad news had arrived.

  Hammond sat slouched at the only seat at the table which was surrounded by video conference monitors suspended from the ceiling.

  Two agents from his personal security detail stood solemnly behind him with their hands behind their backs.