The Ashleigh Rhodes Chronicles (Book 1): Dark Rhodes

by Michael Canon

Dave spoke quietly, “That room is full of women’s clothes.” pointing to the door to our right. Bending down to pick up his last kill, he said, “I’m going to clean up a bit, then I’ll be outside in the middle of the parking area. Call me, if you need to.” as he handed me a set of keys and pointed to end of the hall.

  I walked as quickly as I could to the door. I tried three keys before I found the right one.

  I spoke into the room, “I’m here to help, I’m coming in,” as I opened the door.

  I used my flashlight, washing the light beam across her legs and the floor so I wouldn’t blind her. A beautiful woman of medium height, in her 30’s, stood against the back wall; she had long black hair and green eyes. She was naked; except for a thin bed sheet she had shredded and tied around herself. The sheet did nothing but accentuate her magnificent figure.

  I found myself instantly attracted to her. I cerebrally cursed my silent partners’ interests and desires that were now mine. It drove me crazy, not knowing who I was anymore. It scared me that my desires seemed to be getting stronger, and harder to repress.

  The woman stared at me and said “Who the hell are you and how did you get here? You’ve got to go, there’s over thirty of these assholes here.”

  I tried to calm her down as I spoke, “It’s okay, there’s no one left here that can hurt you. We’ve taken care of all of them. I’m Ashleigh, what’s your name?”

  She looked completely amazed at what I just told her. “My name is Marie Turner, wait, you took care of all of them?”

  I nodded and said “Yes, my partner and I have neutralized the entire compound. Let’s get you some real clothes, and help the other women.”

  As we walked down the hall, the women in the other rooms started talking.

  Marie spoke loudly, “Give me a minute ladies, we’ll have you out of the rooms ASAP.”

  The voices got louder, but less demanding after hearing Marie’s voice. I opened the room that held the clothing, letting Marie in to search for something to wear. She stripped off her shredded sheet as she searched the large pile of clothing. I traded looks between Marie and the front door. I could see Dave out in the courtyard, still on alert. Marie exited the room wearing a set of bright blue work overalls and green high-top sneakers. “I’ll go for fashion after my girls are safe,” she exclaimed.

  We opened the other rooms, setting the other six women free. Marie quieted them all down as she led them to the clothing room. I agreed with Dave leadership assessment of Marie as she helped the women get dressed. She expertly steered them towards getting covered vs. whether colors or patterns matched.

  She said in a firm, but motherly voice, “Annie, please just get your ass covered, the girls in the warehouse need us Darling,” to the last of the women. Looking embarrassed, Annie grabbed the first thing that fit and put it on.

  True dawn was about a half hour off, as we moved outside. I waved to Dave as I exited the building, but the women still tensed up. One even let out a stifled scream. Marie whispered loudly over her shoulder, “Hush girls, not everything with a set of balls is bad.”

  Dave yelped out a laugh and smiled in our direction. Marie looked surprised that he’d heard her. He stood his ground, his rifle across his body, barrel cradled in his left arm. He was waiting to be invited into our group.

  I stepped away from the women, towards Dave and said, “Ladies, this is my friend David Walker. He single handedly sent over 20 of these bastards to Hell for what they did to you, and the others.”

  Marie looked at Dave with a new level of respect, “Thank you for your help, I’m not sure how much longer we could have held out.”

  Dave bowed deeply, and said, “It was my honor, ma’am.” Marie walked over to him, hugging him tightly and said, “Put that ma’am bullshit away, call me Marie,” as tears coursed down her cheeks. The both of us were inundated with hugs and questions for the next ten minutes.

  Marie turned to the both of us and asked, “Did you happen to kill a wiry, old bastard with white hair and a beard?”

  Dave and I looked at each other and smiled. Dave said, “Would you do the honors for these ladies, Ms. Ashleigh?” I nodded and walked to the back of the deuce we left him in.

  Chet was awake and stared at me with evil looking eyes, cursing through his mouth gag. I punched him in the face and threw him over my shoulder. I walked back to the ladies, watching as some hid behind Dave and Marie as I approached with their living nightmare. I shrugged Chet off my shoulder, letting him fall to the pavement with a muffled, “oomph.” Dave rolled him on his back, letting him see the women around us. As Marie leaned over him, I saw a flash of fear cross his eyes. It was the first time I saw anything but pure evil from him.

  “Hi there Chet, guess this changes everything, now doesn’t it?” said Marie, her voice dripping with anger.

  “You know him?” I asked Marie. Still staring him down, she said, “Oh yes, I know this sorry piece of shit. He worked for my husband until he was caught stealing. Both he and his nerdy little son Arthur have been warts on the ass of this whole area for years. It’s too bad the little shithead isn’t here, too.”

  “Don’t worry Marie, we took care of Arthur too. That big explosion last night was Arthur’s last hurrah.” I informed her.

  She looked at us both with genuine appreciation and said, “This day just keeps getting better and better, and the sun ain’t even up yet!”

  Chet swore through his gag at us, his face beet red with anger. Without warning, Annie kicked Chet in his already abused balls as hard as she could. “Shut the Hell up you piece of shit!” she screamed.

  Marie pulled her off and scolded her, “Annie, stop that! Girl, you don’t get to have all the fun by yourself.”

  Chet screamed and looked like he was going to throw up. Dave quickly removed his gag to keep him from choking. “You will all fucking die! You killed my boy! Let me go, and I’ll kill you all!” Chet screamed, between coughing, gagging, and choking.

  Dave put the gag back in his mouth to the relief of us all, then picked him up and returned him to the truck. He said, “We’ll get to him later,” as he returned.

  61

  Dave addressed everyone, “I know your first thought is to run in and get them out of the hell they’re in, but we can’t do that until we can clean them, treat them, clothe them, and feed them. Do any of you ladies have any advanced medical experience?”

  Marie nodded and said, “I was trauma nurse before the world circled the drain.”

  A small Asian woman raised her hand and said, “I was an EMT.”

  Dave nodded thankfully and asked, “What is your name, please?”

  “My name is Mia Anderson,” she replied.

  “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mia,” said Dave with profound respect, and a genuine smile.

  Dave turned to Annie and asked, “Annie could you and the other ladies, please bring all the remaining clothes to the upstairs barracks?” Annie nodded, as she and the other women left immediately.

  He then turned and said, “Marie, Mia, there are a lot of dead men upstairs, Ashleigh and I will clear them out, but we could use some help with the cleanup. We need to get the beds ready for use.”

  Marie nodded knowingly, “We know where the cleaning supplies and clean linen is, we’ll meet you upstairs.”

  As we walked to the barracks, I told Dave, “I’m so glad you are here to help. Even if I could have rescued them on my own, I have no idea how to help the women in the warehouse.”

  Dave thanked me with his eyes, “Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of experience repairing the damage of human villainy.”

  Dave and I cleared the barracks room quickly, loading the corpses into one of the deuces that happened to be equipped with a dump bed.

  We headed to the downstairs room that held the men I dispatched and Dave immediately reprimanded me.

  “Oh, Ash, we need to work on your tactics,” as he surveyed the damage I wrought.

  I was confused and a little hurt
, “What did I do wrong?”

  He checked the hallway and closed the door.

  “You need to stop thinking like you’re just human. What do you remember about all the bodies we just took to the Deuce, compared to these two?”

  I thought about it for a moment but didn’t put two and two together until I looked at all the blood on the floor. “No blood,” I said with understanding.

  Dave nodded, “You are at least 20 times stronger than these men, use that to your advantage. Snapping neck is just as effective as cutting it, but the latter is much messier.”

  It was beyond surreal to me to be discussing how to properly kill another human being with a man I knew less than… forever, I thought while shaking my head. But he was completely right. We cleaned up my mess as best we could. Marie and Mia joined us in the hall.

  Marie looked into the room, and said, “Mia, can you grab the cleaners and rags for me, I need to talk to Dave.” Mia nodded and headed upstairs.

  I was returning from a trash run and saw Dave and Marie talking. She seemed to be pointing to different areas around the compound while they talked. He thanked her and turned to leave when she hugged him again. Dave got stiff for a moment, then returned the gesture.

  Carrying a folded white bed sheet under his arm, he walked up to me, “I’m going to get rid of the bodies and get some supplies for Marie and the girls, care to tag along?”

  I nodded and said “Let’s roll. Oh, we need to swing by the furniture store for the rest of our gear, too.”

  On the way to the truck, Dave grabbed a ten foot 2x4 from the alcove with the drums and put it in the truck bed. We jumped into the truck, and Dave hit the starter. The big diesel cranked once, then started right up. A couple of the women opened the gate for us, shutting it as soon as the rear bumper was clear.

  After we grabbed our gear from the furniture store, we headed for the town dump to dispose of the bodies. I thought it was a fitting place for them.

  As we drove through the town, Dave continued our interrupted conversation. “From what we could gather, the Chinese have had the 1945 logs and notes from the Japanese scientist, a Dr. Kenda, who started this whole shit storm, in their possession for years. Kenda was using the virus in an attempt to create an army of super-soldiers for the Japanese war machine, in an attempt to stave off a loss to the Americans. The Chinese just never did anything with the information until recently.

  I asked, “The Chinese must have had a spy in with the Japanese?”

  He nodded yes, and said, “Most likely. Records say that two squads of Marines were sent to gather information on the camp just before the Navy bombed the shit out of the area. The bombing was part of the battle to take Okinawa Island. Neither the intel people, nor the jarheads, had any idea what the Japanese were up to; the intelligence weenies just thought the compound might be important.”

  He switched thoughts and continued, “For the last two years, the Chinese were having the same issues that the Japanese did in 1945. They could create zombies, not sentient, thinking, un-killable super soldiers.”

  He took a small break from talking to survey the surrounding area, sipping water from a canteen, before he continued. “We started getting worried around last June when we found out that their lead virologist had been working on making the virus stronger and more virulent. I guess the dumb son of a bitch thought he could overcome the virus killing the host if it took over more quickly. Infection times in 1945 were measured in half days or more, but this fool dropped it to a minute or less.”

  I was shocked, and I guess my face showed it because Dave nodded in agreement to my expression.

  “It gets worse, much worse. In late September all but one of my sources went crazy and then disappeared. The main research lab outside Beijing had a breach. Something about faulty equipment or protective suits - I never got a straight answer. The military was able to hold the outbreak in check for a few months with sheer manpower. My last source sent me an urgent message on December 30th; she said that the Chinese government was in the final stages of “Project SE Global.” I spent the next month contacting every source I had around the world trying to figure out what the Hell Project SE Global was. On February 4nd, I realized there was nothing I could to stop the upcoming apocalypse.”

  I interjected, “February 4nd was the day I arrived in Boston for my procedure.”

  He nodded, “I know. By then, I already had confirmation that you had the genetic trait I was looking for. I wanted to be there to help you leave, and keep you safe. I wanted to keep this from happening to you. But the world went ass-up too fast. I left about the same time as you arrived to try to get as much in order as possible.”

  “Did you ever find out what Project SE Global was?” I asked.

  He nodded, “The “SE” stands for Scorched Earth. The Chinese High Command was scared, the virus was out and spreading. They were throwing a massive amount of men and firepower at it, but couldn’t contain it. For a while I guess they thought it could be controlled. The high command was worried that if their enemies found out about an internal pandemic, they would take advantage of China in its weakened state. They were also concerned that if the world community found out how dangerous this pandemic was, they would attack China with nuclear weapons. The plan was to make it appear as if this was a global pandemic, but not their fault. The thought was if other countries were too busy dealing with their own outbreaks, they wouldn’t have the resources to attack China.”

  “Within hours of the lab breach, they had teams of eight to ten individuals travel alone to different population centers around the globe. London, New York, Paris, Mexico City, just about every major city in the world was on the list. On a prearranged date and time – February 5rd to be exact, these eight to ten agents were instructed to travel to heavily populated areas and to ingest a capsule, not knowing it contained the virus.”

  “The problem was they were too thorough in their targeting. They hit Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, as well as Boston, New York, and Chicago, along with other cities. It was the same around the world. London was hit, but so were Dublin, Liverpool, and Glasgow. The sad thing is one or two cities in each country would have been more than enough to lock down a country’s military and resources. If they had stopped with just one or two major cities per country, we might have been able to contain this before it got out of hand.”

  “When I realized how many cities worldwide had been hit, I knew it was too late to stop or contain the virus. I switched to survival mode. Which is why I needed to leave just as you got to the Davron building,” Dave said, finished for the moment. He took a huge breath, looking relieved, and pained at the same time from the story he just told me. I was about to ask another question but thought it better to give him a break.

  Arriving at the city dump, we were both perplexed by the sturdy, tamper-proof lock and the massive tubular steel gate that barred our access to the dump. “Guess there is a whole lot of valuable garbage in there that needs protection from the end of the world,” said Dave, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

  He backed the truck into the empty lot across the street, put the truck in park, and jumped out. I heard and felt the dump body start to lift, as I climbed out and onto the hood to scan the area for threats.

  The surrounding area was quiet and peaceful, almost as if we were getting some time off for ridding the world of some very evil men. I was climbing down as Dave retrieved the bed sheet and his pack from the truck cab. Spreading the sheet out on the hood as best he could, he motioned me to hold it in place. Taking a large black marker out of his pack, he scribbled large, fat letters reading, “Not with Chet, looking for Ethan.” on the sheet.

  He put the marker away and produced a roll of duct tape. I stared at his pack with mock awe.

  “Damn, is there anything you don’t have in there? You’re like that old TV show guy that can fix anything my Dad talked about all the time, Mc-something or other.”

  I got punched in the arm for
my comment.

  “Hey! Watch it gorilla boy, I’m still stronger than you! Don’t make me whoop your ass!”

  Dave cringed in fake fear as he taped the sheet to the 2x4 and stuck the board into one of the rectangular slots on the dump bed.

  “Let’s see if we can find some help, if not, we still need supplies.”

  62

  We headed back into town and across the river. By his purposeful driving, I figured Marie must have been giving Dave directions while I took out the trash. We turned a corner towards the big box store that was our destination when I spotted a figure on the roof of a building to my right.

  I was about to respond when Dave said, “We’ve got company.”

  Two large pickups were blocking the road in front of us. Approximately 10 heavily armed men were pointing guns at us from behind the trucks. Dave stopped the Deuce 30 feet from the other trucks.

  A stocky, black man bellowed, “You in the truck, step out and drop your weapons.”

  Dave opened the door and motioned for me to follow suit.

  Dave yelled, “We’re coming out, but we won’t give up our weapons. Let’s not kill each other until you hear us out.”

  The men talked among themselves for a moment then one replied, “Fine, keep your hands up, you move wrong and we’ll drop you where you stand.”

  We exited the Deuce with our hands up and walked to the front of the truck. Dave spoke first, “My name is Dave Walker and this is Ashleigh Rhodes; we are looking for Ethan Turner.”

  “What do you want with Ethan?” said a very large man approaching from our right.

  He was at least 4 inches taller than Dave, with short brown hair, strong blue eyes, and a neat goatee. Even though his clothes fit well, he was so large it seemed he might shred them if he moved the wrong way.

  Dave smiled, “I have a message from Marie. She said her apple pie is better than your mother’s and you know it.”

  The big man’s face ran through expressions of apprehension, shock, and elation in less than a second. He was in our faces just as fast, almost yelling.