The Cure

by Jeremy P Horgan

  ‘I’m with you girl,’ Chuck bawled at Tallulah.

  ‘Thank you,’ Logan mouthed towards Tallulah. ‘Let’s bury our friend.’

  ***************

  When Danny awoke, he was disorientated, and the night was drawing in around him. He pulled himself up against the motorcycle and squinting tried to put together the pieces of what happened before he passed out. His mouth was dry and sandy but as he went to put his water bottle to his mouth he instinctively stopped and instead of drinking he put the canteen to his nose and sniffed the liquid. The last thing he remembered was taking a swig of water and not long after passing out. The water didn’t smell out of the ordinary, but that wasn’t to say there was nothing wrong with it. Instead he took a half full bottle of Coca-Cola out of his jacket pocket on his bike and swilled the warm coke around in his mouth, spitting it out and then necking back the remainder of the bottle. His paranoia was kicking in and as he could think of no good reason why he would have passed out he had every right to be paranoid.

  Danny looked at his watch to see how far behind schedule he was and clacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in disapproval. ‘Never mind,’ he said out loud to himself. His part of the plan meant he had a bit of time on his side, but he needed to be in place when the call came, so he jumped to his feet and back onto his motorbike. The walkie talkie was tucked in the front of the bike and he pulled it out of its holder and turned it on.

  ‘Logan. Come in Logan, over.’ The radio crackled static.

  ‘Logan. Come in Logan, over.’ Nothing.

  He wiped the sweat from his forehead and listened to the walkie talkie. Other than the crackling he could hear a buzzing, but it didn’t seem to be coming from the radio. A bird perhaps? He switched the walkie talkie back off and looked around. It was feint but he heard something in the distance that spooked him. He switched the walkie talkie back on.

  ‘Logan. Come in Logan, over.’ Silence.

  He slumped over the handlebars dejected, when the radio feedback almost made him fall backwards off the bike. ‘This is Logan. Danny, are you there? Over.’

  ‘Thank God Logan. I thought this goddamn radio was busted. Are you ok? Over.’

  ‘We’re a bit busted up ourselves brother, but we’re still here, over.’

  ‘Are you at the city yet? Over.’

  ‘Not yet. We’ve had some transport issues. In that it blew up, over.’

  ‘Jeez! Is everyone ok, over?’

  ‘Brad didn’t make it man. Long story, but he’s dead. You ok?’ Logan let it hang in the air to give Danny a moment to take in what he just said ‘over.’ The radio went quiet.

  ‘You give him a good send off?’ Danny replied ‘over.’

  ‘Best we could. You not at the reservoir yet, over?’

  ‘Had a few issues of my own but getting back on track. Heading back on the road now, over.’

  Danny heard the sound again, buzzing behind him, like the sound of another motorcycle but a good thirty miles away but carrying in the emptiness of the vast wasteland.

  ‘We’re going to get a couple of hours rest and then get back on it. Hope to be in the city by tomorrow at eleven hundred hours and head for the prison, over.’

  ‘Got a plan to get in there yet? Over,’ said Danny.

  ‘Swing and a prayer Brother, over.’ Danny felt Logan’s smile through the airwaves.

  ‘Look man, I got to get on the road. I’ve got a bad feeling that I’m not going to be alone for too much longer. I’ll be in touch tomorrow before you hit the city, over.’

  ‘Take care Danny. Be careful. Some of those horror stories you heard aren’t just stories, over.’

  ‘They never are buddy, they never are, over and out.’

  Danny put the walkie talkie back into its holder, switched his headlight on and turned the key on the bike. He took one last look behind him and put his foot down on the gas.

  ***************

  Back on the base the war room was full of governors and board members stood around talking frantically trying to get an update on what had happened. They had been called there because of an incident which involved two of the soldiers guarding the base being drugged. That was the limit of their knowledge and, as yet, they were unaware that the group led by Logan were missing.

  The President pushed through the door flanked by Goldsmith and followed by Wanikiy. He looked flustered and stood behind his chair at the head of table, his brow furrowed, and his bottom lip pinched between his finger and thumb. He lifted his hand and without saying anything he signaled for everyone to sit. Goldsmith took his seat around the table whilst a soldier brought a chair for Wanikiy. The President coughed and took a long drink from the water in front of him. ‘We have some bad news I am afraid. During the night and early morning, a number of young adults on the base used tranquilizers to get passed our exit guards and have left the base.’ Everyone around the room looked at each other in shock. ‘Both my sons are amongst those who have left.’

  ‘Mr President,’ Pitkin stuttered. ‘Do we know why they have escaped the base?’

  ‘Escaped?’ Goldsmith interrupted ‘a strange choice of words.’ Pitkin visibly withdrew into himself.

  ‘At this time, we do not know why they left the base, but I can assure you that we are doing everything within our power using our surveillance and satellite imaging to find out where they are and if they are safe. I have already spoken with the parents of the other children missing and as you can see there are some noticeable absences from the room.’ Until now no-one had noticed the empty seats at the table but now each one of them was working out whose children had gone AWOL. ‘For now, I would ask that you give myself and the rest of the military search team some space to work out what has happened and how we can get them back. Please give them your utmost support. I will be addressing the rest of the base shortly and providing updates when I can. Please, for now, go back to your living areas until further notice.’

  The room stood and started to disperse, each one of them still in shock and whispering to the closest person to them for any kind of information that might shed more light on what the president had just told them.

  When the last person had left the room and just The President, Goldsmith and Wanikiy remained. Goldsmith closed the door firmly behind them and stood silently with his back to the other two men.

  ‘Now, tell me, what the Hell is going on?’ The President spitted through his teeth to Goldsmith.

  Goldsmith turned with both palms down in a motion for The President to calm down, which was not going to happened until he started to get answers.

  ‘Truthfully,’ he said, ‘We don’t know.’

  ‘Are you seriously telling me that nine children, left the comfort of a base with food and drink to experience living in a world of famine and violence. Let’s get this straight, we are not talking about any children either. These kids are clever, my boys included, not to mention your Tallulah. Did she say anything?’

  Wanikiy shook his head and Goldsmith held up his hand before the scientist could speak.

  ‘Look, at this moment in time we know as much as you do Sir and are working on getting them back as soon as we can. We can’t assume to know what is going on in a teenager’s head or why they have chosen to leave the base. I’ve got my best men on it. Trust me, I care about those kids as much as anyone on this base,’ Goldsmith feigned genuine sincerity.

  The President raised his eyebrows at this comment. ‘Make sure you have. I want regular updates every hour and I want a search party out as soon as you have pinpointed their whereabouts.’ With that he stormed past Goldsmith and out of the room.

  Goldsmith made a noise of disdain once the door closed and then beckoned through the window for the two soldiers standing outside the room to come in.

  ‘Are our men in place and do they have eyes on the target?’ Goldsmith snorted.

  ‘Sir yes sir. I believe Soldier M has eyes on target two and should make contact within a day, if requir
ed,’ said one of the soldiers.

  Goldsmith thought about this. ‘No. No contact until I say so. How’s the kid in the infirmary?’

  ‘Still out Sir,’ the soldier barked.

  Goldsmith nodded towards the door and both soldiers marched out.

  ‘So, still think everyone is onboard?’ Wanikiy spoke up.

  ‘We knew someone would oppose it. We just didn’t know it’d be the President’s own son. Oh, and did I mention your daughter?’

  ‘Maybe if you didn’t have me working 18-hour days in that laboratory I could have convinced her it was the only option available to us,’ said Wanikiy.

  ‘It’s fine, we have it covered. We know where Logan’s little group is and how close the younger Mathers is to Operation Nebraska. Everything is under control. McGregor has his end covered and this little prison scenario is a non-starter. For all we know your ex-partner Brittle was killed a long time ago in that place, as per the original plan,’ he tutted. ‘As soon as we knew their plan, we put the safety net in place. The operation to release the toxin into the water supply goes ahead as planned and nothing will get in our way.’

  ‘And the safety of those kids out there?’

  Goldsmith gritted his teeth ‘The second they decided to go against the board of the United States Government,’ he said waving his hand around the room at the empty seats ‘they put themselves at risk. That wasn’t a decision we made, but it’s one we now have to deal with.’

  Wanikiy looked now his glasses at Goldsmith ‘Have you even once consider that these kids know what they are doing and maybe, just maybe they could succeed.’

  ‘You’re delusional man. Brittle couldn’t have survived in there. Besides, as I told you, we have precautions in place to take care of anything unexpected,’ a smirk stretched across his face.

  ‘Like the boy in the infirmary?’ Wanikiy countered.

  ‘Collateral damage. McGregor can sometimes go overboard but he gets the job done.’

  ‘And keeping the president in the dark?’

  ‘All these questions Wanikiy? It sounds like you want this mission to fail. Do you have some kind of death wish? I told you. The less he knows the better. The second he knows that them leaving had something to do with the toxin he will put a hold on the operation, and we are effectively killing ourselves. Let’s get it done and worry about getting them back after we know we have somewhere for them to come back to.’

  ‘Don’t forget that my daughter is out there Goldsmith. I have more to lose than anyone.’

  ‘And don’t forget you and your daughter are only alive because I allowed it. It could easily have been you rotting in that prison too remember.’

  Wanikiy gave him a sideways glance and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose in disgust.

  ‘I hope you know what you are doing?’

  ‘What we are doing Wanikiy. What we are doing.’

  Chapter Ten

  Danny’s eyes were starting to blur in the dark and it felt like he had been riding for days, not hours. He needed to rest and pulled over to the side of the highway as a precaution, momentarily forgetting the complete lack of traffic. He had passed the odd car abandoned in the middle of the road, swerving last minute on several occasions as the parked cars came out of the pitch black. Out here everything was stationery. He took a bite from a chocolate bar which was now melted goo, but it gave him a much-needed boost. Whatever had made him pass out had seriously slowed down his ability to think on his feet and in honesty he was still a little groggy. Still he heard the buzzing from before, albeit it slightly louder now. He knew for sure now what he had thought before. It was another motorbike.

  He didn’t panic, but he was aware that he needed to do something to stop whoever was following him. Thoughts ran through his head. Maybe it was a scout sent ahead of the convoy with the toxin or maybe it was someone who had been living above ground who saw him and was trying to catch up with him. Could it be someone who could help him? He doubted this very much and again his paranoia led him back to the conclusion that not only did his father and the others now know they had left the base, but that they were aware of the plan to thwart the toxin getting to the reservoir. His heart skipped as he wondered if the others had already been caught. Would they be taken back to base and be disciplined, or would it be more serious. He knew that if Goldsmith had anything to do with it they’d be locked up in the base jails. Surely his father wouldn’t allow that. Danny felt they had a genuine grievance against the plan to annihilate half the remaining country.

  Previously the buzzing had been distant and looking into the dark Danny was positive he could see a spot of light on the horizon. It was hard to tell how far ahead he was, but he knew he still had an edge on his newfound friend. However, once he reached his destination, he would have to face whoever was following him head on. Something he didn’t relish, especially as his part in the plan involved being in a certain place at a very specific time. If he wasn’t there and the others failed, then they failed altogether.

  Danny took some wire from his backpack and started to stretch it across the road at waist height, securing one end to part of a dried-out tree stump and the other to a pile of rocks. It wouldn’t kill his pursuer, but it would seriously slow them down and potentially put their bike out of action. Once he’d set up his booby trap, he waited ten more minutes and then took off on his bike. Feeling refreshed he rode for another ten miles and then rolled the motor bike around to look behind him. He could hear the buzzing, louder still and the spot of light was becoming more of a beam. The other bike must have been close to the wire by now and Danny waited and waited and waited, but nothing.

  Had the wire fallen loose or had the person behind him seen it in time and driven around the trap. Danny started to panic and considered hiding out until the person had passed. It would mean giving away his advantage of getting to the reservoir first and finding a prime place to see the person approaching. His heart was thumping against his chest and he started to feel sick.

  Then the buzzing stopped, and the beam started moving from side to side. A louder noise like something mechanic grinding filled the air in the distance, and then nothing. It had worked. Danny let his head drop and breathed a sigh of relief. As he did, he heard a ‘whoomph’ noise and saw flames shooting thirty feet in the air. ‘Please God don’t let that be anyone on our side,’ he said to himself. For a split second he considered driving back to see what had happened but thought better of it.

  ***************

  McGregor had been following Danny for some time after Goldsmith had got wind of Logan’s plan for him to travel to the reservoir. He knew that, had Goldsmith known about the contingency plan for Danny to go to the reservoir earlier, he would have caught up to Danny hours ago, and as per Goldsmith’s instruction the problem would have been buried six-foot underground already. Still, McGregor enjoyed the chase and as much as he disliked the idea of leaving his nice comfortable home on the base, he knew that it was necessary to continue the life he had become accustomed to. He knew that a day or two on the road and killing a child was a small price to pay for another twenty to thirty years on the planet.

  McGregor knew that Danny would have to drink from his water bottle at some point, which had been drugged by Goldsmith’s mole before Danny had left the base. ‘Bloody kids think the world owes them. Live in the real world first and then see how you feel,’ he thought to himself as he sped down the highway. It was getting darker and without a helmet his eyes were starting to tear up with the cold cross wind. He didn’t know how far ahead Danny was, but he knew that he was in touching distance, and he rode through blurred vision, putting his foot down harder.

  It happened so fast McGregor didn’t have time to think or act. The wire across the road cut into the front tire and wrapped itself around the wheel. As the wheel buckled the bike crashed sideways and the wire wrapped around the handlebars. McGregor’s wrist was trapped as the bike slid to a stop pinning him to the floor.

 
McGregor’s face throbbed where a layer of skin had been removed by the road. He couldn’t feel his legs. He tugged at the wire wrapped around his arm. Thinking as quickly as he could, he reached for his knife and tried to cut at the wire, unsuccessfully. He looked at his wrist then back to the knife and quickly put out of his mind what he was thinking. ‘I’d rather die,’ he mumbled. He started to unravel the wire when he smelt gasoline leaking from the back of the bike. Jerking loose the wire he dragged himself from under the bike and up onto his feet. His legs felt numb, but he was ok. The bike caught alight and he stepped away from the fast-rising flames, now burning where he was laying not ten seconds ago. The flame caught the gasoline and went up to the sky and then it was gone, back down to nothing more than the flame from a match. McGregor shrugged. ‘Could this day get any worse?’

  McGregor turned back to the road to continue his journey by foot, but when he looked around he had been surrounded by three shabby wolves slowly starting to edge in. ‘Really? I mean really. You let me walk away from that and now this.’ McGregor reached for his knife.

  ***************

  Danny was close to the reservoir and he could hear water travelling ahead of him. Now it was a case of getting inside, setting up the explosives and sitting firm until he either heard from Logan, or he didn’t. The sun was starting to come up and the dam became visible in the distance.

  The past two days had felt strange with no-one other than himself for company and only the hum of his own motorbike filled the air. The odd bird flew high in the sky away from predators but for the most part only the world moved alongside him as he rode through wastelands and smallholdings. Passing empty towns only made him more aware of the situation and filled him with trepidation of what was really going on in the world. But the thought of meeting another human being in this apocalyptic nightmare scared him more and more as he realized the severity of being out here alone, with no-one else and with no food.