Surviving For Humanity (Book 4): Tides of Humanity

by Nelson, Kip

  Jessica and Morelle began putting makeup on Tillman and Greg, while Penelope took care of herself. They already had decided that Fernando and Ana would be the ones to go without makeup, and they thought it best to let Tanya rest given what she had been through. Combined, Morelle, Jessica, and Ana had a variety of makeup and they used as much of it as they could. Tillman was determined to make this a convincing act.

  Their faces became pale, and their eyes dark. Tillman picked at his lips, peeling away the skin until blood began dripping out of the torn areas. He scratched with his fingers as well, pulling at whatever loose skin he could find to add to the appearance. The makeup was applied to his hands and wrists as well as his neck. Ana and Fernando soon joined them, curious to see what exactly was happening.

  Tillman asked Ana to go to the kitchen and bring him back some scrubbing sponges. Ana looked puzzled but did as her son asked. When she handed one to him he scrubbed at the areas of skin that had not yet been covered with makeup to bring out the appearance of a rash. It struck the others as a good idea, and they all did the same. Even Ana and Fernando joined it, suggesting that perhaps the rash could be seen as one of the symptoms.

  While Tillman was getting made up, Major was sitting at his feet, looking inquisitively at his master. He tilted his head and seemed perturbed at Tillman’s new appearance, but the scent was enough to tell Major that, yes, this was still Tillman.

  The entire process took some time. Tillman constantly was looking into a mirror to make sure there were no obvious mistakes. If the mercenaries thought for one moment this was a façade, there wouldn’t be another chance to fool them.

  Once it was all done, Tillman looked at the others with pride. The girls had done a wonderful job at creating the appearance of sickness. He hoped his neighbors were equally adept as Penelope, Morelle, and Jessica.

  “I think we look suitably ill,” Tillman said.

  “You’ve never looked worse,” Greg joked.

  The two of them and Penelope had a sickly pallor about them. The rashes on their skin had yet to fade, and Penelope and Greg both had copied Tillman by picking at the skin around their fingernails and on their lips.

  “Remember to act like you’re sick. Groan, shamble along, be tired and weak, and commit to the part. We can’t allow them to doubt us for an instant,” Tillman said. “Now then, let’s go meet the rest of our diseased neighbors.”

  Tillman heard Penelope take a deep breath. As soon as it was eight a.m. they left the house and shambled out. Once they stepped over the threshold the three of them gave themselves to the performance. They groaned and winced. Tillman made his hands shake. Greg seemed to be enjoying it too much. Tillman had to warn him in a low voice to tone it down a little. Penelope let out a hacking cough, and for a moment Tillman actually was afraid she was going to cough up blood.

  A group of mercenaries were sitting around a crate in the middle of the neighborhood, sharing a stolen breakfast. Tillman looked at them and his heart was filled with rage. They were eating food they had taken from the neighborhood, food that wasn’t rightfully theirs. Their presence wasn’t wanted or needed, and he felt a twisted sense of glee that they were playing this trick on them. Tillman winked at the others and continued walking. He let his head hang down. Intermittent groans and grunts emerged from his throat. He sniffled a lot too. Each of them brought their own unique quirks to the performance, and they took hints from each other as well.

  Tillman glanced toward the other doors, but as yet they were the only three who had come out. Tillman desperately hoped the others hadn’t gotten cold feet.

  It didn’t take long before the mercenaries noticed the three of them. They rose and lofted their weapons, but quickly relaxed when they saw Tillman and his friends weren’t going to put up any sort of a fight.

  “Excuse me,” Tillman said, coughing violently as he approached the mercenaries.

  Tillman couldn’t see the look on their faces through the masks, but the one closest to him backed away. Tillman let his legs wobble and then fell forward to close the distance between them. His hands clamped onto the man’s shoulders and he coughed so hard spittle flew from his mouth and settled on the black mesh of the armor. Tillman groaned and apologized profusely. Greg swayed as though he was going to faint and slammed his hands down on the crate that had served as the breakfast table.

  In a convulsing fit of coughs, Greg sprayed saliva all over the food. The mercenaries jumped up immediately, making disgusted sounds. Tillman let his eyes roll into the back of his head and coughed again, using this motion to hide his laughter. Penelope looked light-headed and started to say a random string of words, then burst into laughter before she doubled over and made like she was going to vomit.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” the mercenary near Tillman yelled, pushing Tillman away. Tillman jabbed his cane into the ground, keeping himself steady.

  “Do you have any medicine?” Tillman asked in a croaking voice.

  Greg sat down beside one of the other men, who rose immediately. Penelope placed her hand on the third man’s shoulder. He rose too. The mercenaries finally looked scared. For all their armor and their masks, they could not defend themselves against a virus like this. The masks they wore couldn’t filter the air, much to Tillman’s relief. Tillman had wanted to scare them, and he had done exactly that.

  “What do we do?” one of the mercenaries said to the other. Tillman could hear the worry in his voice.

  “Please, help us,” Penelope said before she coughed again. She reached out a hand forlornly, hoping to get some aid, but the mercenary stepped away. Penelope fell to the ground with a cry of anguish. Tillman moved toward her and helped her up.

  “What are you doing? Can’t you see she’s sick?” he said. “You might not care that much about us, but you have to take pity on us. We’re in so much pain.”

  The mercenaries glanced at each other. Greg leaned forward and clutched their food.

  “So hungry,” he said, and wolfed it down.

  “Please, don’t you have any medication? We need something,” Tillman said.

  It was at this point that other people emerged from their houses. Tillman looked up and was delighted to see the efforts that people had gone to. They looked like a hoard of zombies as they all came roaming out of their houses, taking cues from each other about how to act. They groaned and shambled along, much like Tillman and the others already had done. They looked like the living dead, with pale faces, and some had even gone to the extent of putting drops in their eyes to make their eyes bloodshot.

  The mercenaries gasped as they saw these people coming toward them, and they turned to each other, forming a small triangle.

  “What the hell is going on?” one of the asked, raising his weapon.

  “Don’t shoot! We’re just sick. We just need help,” Tillman said.

  “I don’t like this,” one of the mercenaries said.

  “Try being infected with it. You’ll know what true pain is. Oh God, I need to go back inside,” Greg said, holding his stomach. Then he shuffled away, his hand over his butt as he ran. The neighbors came toward Tillman and ignored the mercenaries.

  “I knew this would happen. We couldn’t go on like this. I told you we should have left before it got worse,” Tabitha said.

  “I thought we could be stronger. I guess we’re not strong enough to fight this. No man could be,” Tillman said, punctuating his words with another violent cough. The mercenaries seemed worried. The diseased neighbors were closing in on them and there seemed no way to escape.

  “It’s in the air,” Tillman added.

  The mercenaries looked around each other at the air, pointing their guns at it as though they could riddle the air with bullets and destroy the virus that way. That was not an option, though, and their useless guns remained silent. Tillman was glad to see they weren’t cutting down people mercilessly.

  “It hurts!” Penelope wailed.

 
“We need to be taken care of,” Tillman said. “Is there nothing you can do?”

  Tillman looked back to see that Greg had reached the house. Fernando soon came out afterward, making a beeline for Tillman.

  “What is there for us to do?” one of the mercenaries said.

  “Get them some drugs,” another growled.

  “But we were told not to--”

  “Get them the damn drugs! Get them quarantined! I don’t want them to spread this thing!”

  Tillman bowed his head in an effort to hide the smile that formed on his lips. Everything at the moment was going according to plan. The neighbors were playing their parts well too, moving around the neighborhood slowly. Some of them even crawled. They did indeed look like monsters who were losing themselves to a mad disease, their health and strength being sapped from them. Tillman looked up at the bright blue sky and was glad for the weather. There seemed to be no chance of rain, which may have wrecked their plans. The mercenaries weren’t touching them either, nor were they inspecting the people too closely, for they were disgusted by them.

  Tillman knew the mere appearance of disease symptoms wouldn’t be enough. The deciding factor would be the performance they all gave, and they were giving ones that would have been worthy of an Oscar. The groans and moans created a cacophony that filled the neighborhood.

  “Tillman, Penelope, you really should come inside,” Fernando said. “It’s not good for you all to be out here like this.” He wore a concerned look on his face as he looked at the others who were shambling around.

  “Who are you and what’s going on here?” one of the mercenaries said.

  “I’m so sorry for this inconvenience. I can imagine it’s not something you want to see. Please, Tillman, come on in and stop hassling these men.”

  “I only was asking if they had any medicine that could help us,” Tillman said.

  “I’m sure if they have anything, they’ll share it. They’re going to need it just as much as we will. But come on, you should be resting. I don’t know why you’re all out here,” Fernando said. Then he raised his voice and shouted to the rest of the neighborhood. “Please, all of you, go back to your homes and rest. I know there is much to do around here, but we cannot allow ourselves to get weaker. You only are making yourselves worse. If you carry on like this, you never will recover.”

  “Dad, please, we still can work. It might go a little more slowly than usual, but we’re not invalids. Besides, we have to work hard if we’re going to give these men what they want. They need to eat, so we need to collect food for them,” Tillman said, and this time blew his nose so snot dribbled down his face. It was very demeaning and nothing he usually would choose to do, but he thought it best to disgust the mercenaries as much as possible.

  “Get them back indoors,” the mercenaries said, not liking the idea of these sick people gathering food for them to eat.

  “Are you sure you don’t want us to work?” Tillman asked.

  “Don’t argue with him. You know this is for the best. Come on, we’ll have to get you all inside and you can have some good rest. It’s not good for you to be up this early. You need sleep,” Fernando said.

  Tabitha, Liam, and Declan came up to them and were coughing hard again.

  “I have to apologize to you, Tillman. You were right to believe Khan. We should have listened to you when he told us about this,” Tabitha said.

  “You mean Khan knew about this? What is this virus?” one of the mercenaries asked.

  Fernando shook his head and huffed with exasperation, as though all he wanted to do was get these people back indoors.

  “I’m surprised you haven’t encountered it yet. It’s a virus spreading around the nearby area. It hangs in the air. We’re surrounded by it now, in fact. There’s no escaping it. Some of us didn’t believe it at first. We just thought it was a scary story made up to make us run away, but we stayed, not believing it. Now we’re paying the price. Look at how many people are infected already. I’m hoping some of us are immune to it, but it’s impossible to tell,” Fernando said, ushering Tillman back to the house. The mercenaries weren’t done with him yet.

  “What happens to the victims?” one of them asked, a worried tone creeping into his voice.

  “That’s just it, we don’t know. Khan said that nothing good happens. People have died from this. We’re hoping we can find some cure for it. But without doctors around we don’t really know what we’re doing, other than getting people to rest,” he said, his words directed toward Tillman. “He called it The End. We all thought it was a rather dramatic claim, but it seems to be quite accurate. There’s just no telling when it’s going to strike either. We all thought today just was going to be another day, but no, suddenly everyone is all...”

  “None of you thought to leave?” the mercenary asked.

  “Leave where? These are our homes, and our families are here. Besides, we couldn’t very well leave the sick people here. They need our help. We’re all infected anyway. Like I said, the virus is airborne. We have no idea of the incubation rate, but you must understand that you’re suffering from the same thing as well. You’re breathing the same air,” Fernando said.

  The mercenaries turned to face each other.

  “I guess you got here at the wrong time,” Tillman said. Then he groaned again, mimicking Greg’s last movements. He made an uncomfortable grimace.

  “The symptoms aren’t pretty. There’s not enough clean water to go around, you know? There’s diarrhea and vomiting. Then the fever dries you out. From what we’ve heard, only a few have survived.” He turned to his father. “Dad, don’t you see? There’s no hope for me. The chances are I’m not going to make it through this. I’d rather be spending my last days doing something useful. Please, I don’t want to be in bed while I feel this thing tearing me up from the inside out. Before too long this place is going to be a ghost town. Let us at least make it seem alive for a little while longer.”

  “Tillman…” Fernando said, but he was interrupted by one of the mercenaries.

  “What do you mean this is going to be a ghost town?”

  Fernando’s shoulders slumped.

  “We did our best. We tried, but I guess this is the end of the world for all of us. There’s no hope for anyone now. Even if we did get meds, we wouldn’t have enough to fight this disease indefinitely. A new era has dawned, and I suppose it’s time we faced reality. We have to make our peace. I didn’t want to admit it, but I suppose I can’t look around and blind myself to the obvious,” Fernando said.

  “This place was supposed to be the beginning of a new civilization, but the world got the better of us. Maybe humanity’s time has come. For all our glory and our hubris, we’re no better than the dinosaurs. If you have any loved ones, I suggest you go spend time with them now,” Fernando said.

  “Come on, Tillman. Let’s leave these men in peace and go home.”

  Fernando, Tillman, and Penelope all turned their backs on the mercenaries. The other people in the neighborhood followed their cue and went inside as well, although a few stragglers continued the performance. Tillman shambled along, dragging his feet along the ground, resisting the temptation to look back. He put on a defeated air, even though inside he felt victorious.

  As soon as the door was closed behind him the others met him with a round of applause. Penelope took a bow, and quickly rubbed her eyes.

  “I’m sorry I had to leave, I just couldn’t take it any longer. I was on the verge of breaking down in laughter,” Greg said. “I know they were wearing masks, but I can imagine the looks on their faces. The others all did a great job too,” he said.

  “Oh yes, they all were very convincing, and you sold the part,” Tillman said, turning to Fernando.

  “To be honest, I just wanted to see what was happening. They seem terrified. I guess they know how to deal with people, but they don’t know how to attack a virus,” Fernando said.

  “Did I hear something about a virus?” Tony said,
being helped down the stairs by Tanya. Tillman was delighted to see the man on his feet, and quickly explained everything that was happening. Tony wore a grim smirk.

  “You’re a clever son of a bitch, aren’t you? I’m glad you’ve found some way to fight them. They’re ruthless, and what they care about most is their own survival. I think they’ll be too frightened to stay here.”

  “We can hope,” Tillman said, and then moved to look out the window.

  Everyone else joined him. They watched as the few remaining members of the community returned to the homes, and more mercenaries were called out. They all gathered in the middle of the neighborhood. The one in charge inspected the food that Greg had ‘contaminated,’ and gestured wildly to the air around them. They seemed to be having a heated argument and Tillman watched them with relish. He couldn’t imagine any reason for them wanting to stay after this, not when they were in fear being infected, if they hadn’t been already.

  “What if they actually do decide to help us?” Morelle asked.

  Tony scoffed at this. “These men won’t help anyone apart from themselves.”

  Tillman was forced to agree. From what he had seen of these mercenaries, they only were looking out for themselves and tried overpowering easy targets. Like any bully they went for those who they thought could be intimidated easily, but in this instance, they had lost. Tillman watched them with glee as they packed up all their stuff and left the neighborhood, this future ghost town.

  The occupation had ended, and the true plague had been eradicated.

  “What happens when the mercenaries discover they’re not getting sick?” Greg asked.

  “By that point I’m hoping we will be able to defend ourselves better. But I don’t think they’ll risk coming back. They’ll probably just count their lucky stars that they weren’t infected. We’ll have to be on our guard, of course, but I’m hoping they’ll just leave this entire area alone for the time being. At least we can get back to our regular lives, though, as regular as they can be anyway.”