Blood Type Infected (Book 5): The Departed
Page 14
“Shut up, bus driver. And thanks, for everything. I hope you guys make it to England, but if you don’t, I can’t say I wouldn’t be happy to see you again.”
“We’re gonna be alright,” Norwood says. “I’ll make a man out of him if it’s the last thing I do. Hey Marty, man, I wish you had been my bus driver. That’s not some kind of sexual thing either, I mean, it probably is, but that’s not how I meant it. You know if it doesn’t work out, the whole England thing, you got a spot here with us. All of you.”
We all nod as if he can see us, and somehow I know, he knows. It feels good to have family. That safety net to catch you if you need it. You hope not to, but it makes the crazy stunt you’re about to pull off feel easier, knowing someone’s there to catch you. If we get to New York, and it’s too late, we have a home, and family, waiting for us. It makes failing a little less scary.
“Hey, Max, you’re alright, you know, for a woman in uniform. I want you to know, I woulda tapped that, and not just to piss off my father because you’re black. And Army, ya damn slacker.”
“Well, gee, thanks,” she laughs, shaking her head, but I can tell she’s at least a little bit flattered.
“They don’t make many girls like you, I mean that. You may not be able to tell, but I’m saluting you right now. Not because of your title, but because of you. Your heart and soul, your spirit. Respect is something people should have to earn, and you damn sure earned mine.”
“Thank you,” she whispers, trying to hold back tears. “You don’t know how much that means to me, to hear you say that, coming from you. You’re a hero Dustin, I truly do mean that. Stay safe, both of you. I don’t know if we’ll be able to come back here, after we leave the country. But if we can, we’ll come back for you, you have my word.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be alright. You guys better get going, you got a long way to go. I hope I never see any of you again, but then again, I kinda do. Family forever.”
“Family forever,” we all repeat in unison.
I wish we didn’t have to do this. I’m not ready to say goodbye. How is it that I’m okay losing my friends, but not them?
At least they have each other. If the two of us can patch up our friendship, I’m sure they can too. Norwood likes to pretend not to care, but he does, if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have risked his life to save Neil’s. They need each other now, because they’re all they have. And somehow I know, that’ll be enough.
They’ll find a truck and load up everything they possibly can, drive it back to the base and pick up where Norwood left off, clearing every floor until the building is theirs. A part of me wishes we were going to be there with them, which makes it so much easier to do what we’re about to do.
If it doesn’t work out. If something goes wrong, like it always does, all we need to do is find our way back to Fort Henderson. And I’m fully prepared for that. Cautiously optimistic.
We might be making a mistake. But we won’t know until we’ve made it. That’s the thing about choices, we make the one we think is going to be best, it’s not until afterwards that we know.
We’re every woman who’s ever been in an abusive relationship. Do you leave and face the unknown, or do you stay and accept what already is? People always say that it’ll be better when you leave, but that fear of the unknown can be paralyzing. Where will you go? Where will you live? How do you just up and change it all at once?
We’re leaving our abusive relationship in hopes that there’s something better out there. That we can live a life similar to what we’ve grown accustomed to. But we really don’t know what we’re walking into. If we’re not the heroes who rescued the scientists that started all this, we may very well be shoved into refugee camps and treated like animals. We could be forced to fight for whatever country we wind up in, soldiers in this war no one was prepared for. Where they’ll make us use guns against an enemy that doesn’t mind taking bullets. We might have to live this all again when the infection invades the safe part of the world, if it hasn’t already.
We’re leaving, based on the promises we’ve heard, when in actuality, there’s a good chance Buckley takes all the credit. Paul, Shane, the helicopter pilot that Maxwell was none too fond of, Collins was it? Do they get the accolades that should be ours? Does our story become theirs? Do we become the villains that they are in our eyes? Because that’s how the rest of the world, whatever’s left of it, will see it.
The world doesn’t need to be led by them. It never did. The world needs to be shown that there is another way. Not told, but shown. Shown that the ways of our past weren’t right. Law, religion, they failed us. They were never what we needed. We didn’t need to be governed by something greater than us. No, we needed to be greater than us. We needed to strive for something better. Not just for ourselves, but for the world as a whole.
That’s the story that needs to be told. And that’s the story the world will never get to hear, not as long as the men who are in charge today stay in charge tomorrow. Well, enjoy it while you can, because we’re coming for you.
CHAPTER 23
“Where the hell are we?” I mutter to myself, cresting the hill before the others.
Our flashlights were enough to get us through the trees but I was hoping to be able to see something from up here. The sun’s fully set, leaving us under nothing but the light of the stars. I thought we’d be able to see Sonny Valley, but I see nothing. I can’t even see the dam up the river. How far downstream have we come? Where are all the lights? Streetlights, porchlights, lamps in front of windows?
Unless, dammit, the power’s out. The death of modern amenities has begun. I can’t see a thing.
“I was hoping it would hold out a little longer,” Maxwell sighs, saddling up beside me. “We need a vehicle, on the double, these flashlights aren’t gonna be enough to see them approaching, not until it’s too late.”
“Which way is town?” Felecia asks, standing next to me, Sami’s hand in hers. She doesn’t need to say it for me to know, she’s being the big sister she always wished hers had been. And I don’t think Sami minds one bit.
“You guys gotta slow down for an old man,” Marty gasps, huffing and puffing his way to the top, bending over to catch his breath. “That is a lot of stars. Power must be going out everywhere.”
“Within the next three days, the country will be blacked out for good.” Maxwell takes a knee to rest, gazing out over the darkness blanketing the old world. “Without anyone to man the powerplants, they don’t sustain themselves for long. We’re gonna have to avoid the cities, sewage will start backing up, flooding the streets.”
“Ewww, what?” Sami shudders, grossed out by the thought of it.
“Sewage treatment plants, they need people to man the equipment. It’ll start coming right up through the sewers. Apparently, the gasses alone would be enough to kill us. I don’t know, this is all so far outside of my training. I’m just going off what they told me last night. It’s about to get real ugly though.”
“There,” I say, pointing to a gap between silhouettes on the horizon, lit up by more stars than California has seen since electricity. “I think that’s the mountain pass we came through. Sonny Valley’s gotta be directly under that.”
“Helluva long way to walk,” Marty grumbles, still trying to catch his breath. To be fair, the climb was a lot longer than any of us anticipated, especially in the dark. “We sure this is worth it?”
“I’m getting you out of here.” The assurance in Maxwell’s voice actually has me believing she might. “End of story. Victor’s Village is yours, not Buckley’s.”
“What’s gonna happen to you?” Sami asks, her young heart breaking for the woman we couldn’t do this without.
Maxwell lets out a long exhale before looking skyward. “I’ll get thrown back into combat. The Alps, most likely. They’re trying to guard them heavily right now, to stop the spread.”
Without a word, Felecia wraps Maxwell in a hug that she oddly accepts.
How many soldiers must have died already? If they’re imposing some kind of draft, it means mankind is desperate. They’re not going to let a trained soldier sit this one out because of the ordeal she’s already been through. You don’t prove your worth and then get to retire, they’re going to expect her to pull off the impossible, time and time again, until one time, she doesn’t.
“You know we’re hiding you in our spare bedroom, right?” I rest my hand on her shoulder, still held in Felecia’s embrace. “We’ll build a hidden room behind the closet or something.”
“You guys really are the best, all of you. How fucked up is it that I’ve never fit in, anywhere, then the world ends and boom, there you are? I’ve never had… people.”
She pulls out of Felecia’s arms, wiping tears from her eyes.
“When you’re little, you don’t think anything of the fact that your dad’s black and your mom’s white. It didn’t matter. Until everyone else made it matter. And then all of a sudden you’re the outcast. Black people think you’re too white and white people think you’re too black, and I’m stuck in the middle thinking it doesn’t matter. Wherever I went, I didn’t fit in. Until here, with you. I know I was sent here to rescue you guys, but I didn’t, it was you who saved me. From the second you two came onto that bus with your swords, I was like, damn, I wanna be on their team.”
“Woman,” Marty says, “and I mean that with the utmost respect, we are proud to have you.”
She smiles, wiping tears from her cheeks, determination in her eyes. “I’m getting you out of here. I can do this.”
But are we better off here? Can we put the kind of faith we have to in mankind? Can we trust them to protect the borders of whatever island we end up on? Do the benefits outweigh the risks?
I go back and forth so many times I get lost in the confusion. I don’t even know what I want anymore. If we beat them to that airfield, I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to board the plane. At this point, I don’t know if we’re trying to make it off American soil before it’s too late, or if we’re just going to get Caylee.
The life we’ve always known wins out. The amenities we’ve grown accustomed to, the future we earned, the promise of peace and stability. They outweigh the fear of the unknown.
“I’ll be okay if we don’t make it to Britain,” Sami says, out of the blue, as we sneak through the woods, keeping our lights low. “I guess I just, you know, wanted things to go back to normal. But there is no normal anymore, is there?”
“For you,” Maxwell says, peeking through the trees where the slowest of the infected stragglers are still making their way up the road, “normal might not be so far off. You guys’ll be isolated.”
“As in, politically correct term for quarantined?” Marty asks. “Max, what’re we getting ourselves into here? Honestly.”
“The truth is, no one’s survived like you guys have. Your knowledge and experience is invaluable. You’ll be consultants. They’re gonna turn to you for everything. They don’t know how to fight this war, obviously, they sent us in with guns. As of last night, they were still trying to shoot ’em.”
“Jesus Christ,” Marty grumbles, smacking his forehead. “And we want to put our lives in their hands?”
“The people making these decisions for us, they’re sitting in underground bunkers, they don’t know what it’s like out here. Soldiers aren’t making it back, we’re all dying in the field. They need help and they know it. When I told them about you guys, they damn near jizzed themselves. The survivors who have been extracted, and there aren’t many, they hid, and that’s how they survived. They haven’t done what you’ve done.”
“Are we gonna be their lab rats?” Felecia asks, not one to bite her tongue.
“Don’t get me wrong, they’ll take more blood than you want to give, and run test after test, especially at first, but no, you won’t be lab rats. They’re gonna want your story, every detail. They’ll have you training soldiers before they send them out in the field. And they’re gonna bend over backwards to keep you happy. They can’t risk you defecting to another country.”
“Wait, that’s a thing?” I clearly have no clue what’s going on in this new world.
“Yeah, apparently it’s a thing. I don’t know what’s going on but…”
“But we’re all still fighting for world supremacy,” Marty finishes for her.
“I don’t think that’ll ever change,” Maxwell says as we make our way through the roadside forest. “Countries are gonna be fighting for land now more than ever. They can only play well with others for so long. Soon as they know about saltwater, they’re all gonna be fighting for the islands.”
“So,” Marty sneers, “we’re nothing but pawns in their chess game?”
“They don’t put pawns in Victor’s Village,” Maxwell says with a smirk. “You’re a commodity. By the sounds of it, countries are already fighting over survivors, the ones who hid or fled and got rescued, not survivors like you. You’re a different breed. There’s a brigadier and lieutenant general waiting at that airstrip outside Yuma, and believe me when I tell you, they don’t wait for pawns. You’re weapons of war, with intel they desperately need.”
“Are we making a mistake?” Do I want to be a weapon of war? “We just want a cabin, with a fireplace made of river rocks, and a loft, and a styracosaurus skull over the mantle. Where we don’t need to fight, or worry about the next chance we’ll have to rest.”
“All the things you want, they’ll give you. I get your hesitation, but the world needs you. The amount of lives you can save. They are terrified out there, bracing themselves for what’s to come. Half the planet’s destroyed and the other half is frozen in fear.”
“Can’t we just tell them about the saltwater and call it good?” Felecia asks, taking my hand in hers.
“It’s about so much more than that. You guys don’t know, because you’re you, but you’re special. The things you do, they leave me speechless. To you, it’s just another day fighting to survive. But to the rest of the world, it’s hope. You are day one survivors, from the epicenter. You’re symbols of hope and inspiration.”
“You really are,” Sami says, nodding. “From the second I saw you out the window, I knew I’d be alright. I watched my dad die in front of me, my sister get taken, my mom leave, my brother fly away on the helicopter. And I’m alright, because I’m here with you. If we stay here, I’m fine with that, but I feel like we’d be hogging you when the rest of the world needs you too.”
“Squirt’s right ya know.” Marty taps my arm with a smirk. “You think if it weren’t for you two I’d have been hauling a bunch of kids around in my bus? Shit no, but you guys inspired me in ways I didn’t even wanna be inspired. And still, here we are, all hope lost, I mean clearly, and you somehow manage to find it. And get my old ass running up hills through the mountains in the middle of the damn night. The world needs you.”
“The world needs all of us,” I say, correcting him. “We didn’t do this alone.”
“No, you didn’t.” He points at me with both hands, grinning. “But you could have. And you both know it. You didn’t need us, but you inspired weaklings to find their strength, because everyone feels stronger when they’re standing next to you.”
Sami and Maxwell nod in agreement as we slow to a crawl, getting dangerously close to the road.
“We’d be fine here,” he continues. “I mean that, we would, but you’re needed elsewhere. Shit, man, I thought I wanted to see the world end. Until it did. Mankind deserves this, we had it coming. But mankind also deserves Nolecia, because without you two, what they’re gonna get is Joseph fuckin’ Buckley. Might as well kiss our sp
ecies goodbye after that.”
“We’re getting to that airstrip before he does,” Maxwell growls, peering through a pair of night vision goggles. “That bastard is not taking the credit. It’s a disgrace my kind are allowed to wear this uniform? Fuck you. There, that’s it, I knew it was somewhere over here. Dead ahead, other side of the road, there’s a car, half a dozen infects smooshed underneath it. I saw it on the way up, woman behind the wheel. It’s been at least two minutes since there’s been any activity along the road. Come on, let’s go.”
We emerge from the tree cover, exposed in the open road. Even without aiming the flashlight at it, I can make out the car, its front end hoisted off the ground by a pile of corpses. I’m just gonna pretend to know what we’re doing and roll with it. Cars aren’t exactly my forte, though I know more about them than I do boats. Or riding mowers.
The vehicle’s turned off, that much I know. Now, to me, that means one of three things, it either got damaged and died in the crash, the battery died after the crash, or the car idled there on top of a pile of bodies until it ran out of gas. How this vehicle is going to get us out of here is beyond me, but Max and Marty are walking towards it like it’s all good in the hood so I’m just gonna go along with it.
Maxwell holds out her hand to stop us from getting any closer. “Can you two, uh, you know, do what you do best and decapitate these things, without hitting the car? Sami, I need you looking up and down this road so many times it gives you whiplash. Use the night vision, you’ll be able to see further than with a flashlight. Anything moves, I mean anything, you let us know. Marty, help me get the driver out. We gotta find the manual and the inertial switch.”
“Noah, what the hell are they talking about?” Felecia whispers, bringing her sword down across the exposed throat of a trapped infect. I don’t mind them as much when they’re mangled in a heap beneath a car.
“Beats the hell out of me. Pretty sure they’re making up words.”