by CW Johnson
~~~
It had been hours since the president’s announcement. As far as Maria could tell, no one had even approached the locked hospital room door. She’d been lying on her bed crying, wondering if she might’ve been forgotten, left to starve. She had banged on the door relentlessly. She had pressed the nurse call button until it became painful. Still, no one had come to the door.
Finally, she thought she heard a slight commotion outside in the hall. She moved from her bed as fast as her advanced pregnancy would allow and pressed her ear against the door. “Todd,” she whispered, “Is that you?” She jumped back when the lock clicked. The door slowly pushed open. Steph, the big nurse, stepped through. “Oh thank God.” Maria moaned. “Where have you been? I’ve been trying—”Maria noticed the streaked mascara on Steph’s face.
“You’ve got to go!” The nurse said. “Everybody’s gotta’ go! We’re evacuating the hospital.”
“Where are we going?” Maria asked.
“I don’t know where you’re going. I’m going home!”
“But I don’t have—”
“Just get your things together!” the nurse yelled. “We gotta’ go now!”
Maria backed away slightly. “Ok,” she said softly. “Let me get some things from the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” She moved towards the bathroom and quickly turned back. “Oh but, I don’t have any clothes. All I have is this hospital gown.”
“I don’t care!” the nurse barked. “If you don’t hurry I’ll lock you in here and this is where you’ll stay. Do you understand?”
Maria turned back, moved to the bathroom door and closed it behind her. She found a bedpan and began collecting her personal things from the cabinets. She heard a commotion just outside the bathroom door. The nurse screamed. Then her scream was muffled as if someone had put a hand over her mouth.
“Where is it?” a man’s voice demanded.
“Where is what?” the nurse yelled back.
“The medicine, the drugs!”
“I don’t know.”
The nurse screamed in pain.
“Tell me or I’ll break it!”
“In the infirmary!” she wailed.
“Where’s the infirmary?”
“Behind the desk, at the nurse’s station.”
“Anyone else here?”
Maria quickly moved to the switch and turned the light off.
“No,” the nurse said.
Maria heard a loud pop, followed by the sound of a heavy body collapsing to the floor. She jumped and pressed herself against the wall next to the bathroom door. After a short time the doorknob began to move. She held her breath as the door slowly swung open against her. She heard the man step into the room, pause and quickly close the door behind him.
Maria held her breath as long as she could. She stood in the darkness, pressing herself against the wall. She waited in silence till she was relatively certain the intruder had left and gingerly pulled the bathroom door open just enough to peek out into the hospital room. She gasped when she saw the puddle of blood. She finally pushed the door open enough to see the nurse’s body lying face down on the floor.
She mustered the courage, stepped out of the bathroom and slowly made her way towards the door. She was relieved to see that it had been left slightly opened. She heard a new noise just outside the door and ducked behind the curtain. She jumped as two men burst into the room.
One of them pushed Steph’s body over and shoved his hands into her pockets. “She’s got nothing. Let’s get outa’ here!”
The man jumped to his feet and ran out the door. The other one quickly followed.
She heard them sprint down the hall towards the stairway. Slowly, she made her way towards the door but hit the floor when she heard the unmistakable sound of automatic gunfire erupting down the hall. “What’s going on?” she groaned, as she lay on the floor. She crawled towards the door and peeked out. Something passed by. She quietly moved to a spot where she could look out. A soldier was moving in the hallway. She jumped to her feet and pushed the door open. “Thank God you’re—”
Without warning, the young soldier whirled, brandishing his automatic rifle. Maria screamed and hit the floor as a volley of gunfire blasted the door to pieces just above her head.
“Hold your fire!” a voice rang out over Maria’s screaming. “That’s a patient, you idiot! Look, she’s even pregnant!”
Maria looked up at the three soldiers standing over her.
“Wow, she’s a pretty little thing,” one of them said.
“You a psych patient?” the sergeant asked.
Maria stared up at them gasping. She nodded, unable to speak.
“You better stay right here till morning,” he said. “Things are really crazy out there right now.”
The three soldiers turned and began moving away.
Maria pushed herself up to her knees. “Wait! Take me with you!”
“We can’t take you with us, lady,” one of the soldiers said over his shoulder. “If you stay here, you’ll be fine. You can leave tomorrow.”
“Wait!” she said. “There’s a nurse; she’s dead!”
The three soldiers turned when they reached the doors leading into the stairwell and were gone.
~~~
“What are we supposed to do now?” Todd asked Leland. The small group of men had made their way back to the rec. room. “We’re stuck here in prison. Ya’ figure they’ll let us out, or what?”
“I don’t know,” Leland said. “I don’t see ‘em letting us out. I guess it’s in the Lord’s hands now.”
Todd frowned. “In the Lord’s hands? We’re about to be annihilated and you say it’s in the Lord’s hands?”
Leland didn’t answer.
Tyrone sniffed and flicked Leland’s arm with the back of his hand. “Yeah, bro, why would the Lord let this happen?”
“The Lord works in mysterious ways,” Leland said. “We don’t know what He is, or isn’t, letting happen, we just know that all things work to the best for those who love Him.”
Todd glanced up. “Dude,” he said softly, “I’ve heard that before.” He looked around at the men. “Everyone here is Christian, Isn’t that right?”
“Aren’t you?” Tyrone said.
“I’m not sure why I’m telling you this but there’s something I think every Christian should know.”
~~~
Maria had just fallen asleep when a noise outside her hospital room made her leap from her bed. As the door slowly opened, she made an attempt to dive behind the curtain.
“Mrs. Rose? Mrs. Rose, are you in this room?” Dr. Oliver gingerly peeked into the room.
Maria rushed forward and embraced him. “Oh, thank God you’re here!” She pulled back when the doctor slowly ran it down the back of her long black hair. “So glad to see you,” she said. “I forgot myself, sorry.”
The doctor blushed. “Th-that’s…that’s quite alright.”
Maria noticed two men standing just outside the door. “Who’s this?” “They’re Vinces,” the doctor said looking around.
She sent them a black look. “Oh, of course.”
“We have to get you out of here to a safe place.”
“Do you know where my husband is?”
“Yes I do.”
“You do?”
“Yes, he’ll be joining us shortly, but first let’s get out of here. There’s a lot going on outside.”
“You know where Todd is?” Maria asked, breaking into tears. “Is he ok? Where has he been?”
“He’s been right here in the hospital. He’s waiting for you in the car, but we must hurry.”
Maria raced out of the room with Oliver in tow. As they moved, she turned and hollered over her shoulder. “I had to move out of my room because the army shot the door off and there’s a dead nurse in there.”
“Yes,” Oliver said, glancing back at one of the men trailing behind, “we noticed.”
She stopped at her original room, dart
ed in and returned sporting a bedpan full of odds and ends. “Ready to go.”
“But, what about your clothes?”
“This is them,” she said, shrugging. “Can we go now?”
Oliver glanced at one of the men now standing at her side and back at Maria. “Oh, ok then, let’s go.”
Maria immediately took the lead. Despite her advanced pregnancy the three men sent to escort her had to run to keep up. She moved to the stairway and began making her way down the three flights of stairs. “I can’t wait to see Todd,” she said. “I’ve been so worried!”
“Be careful Mrs. Rose,” Oliver yelled after her. “You mustn’t slip and fall in your condition.”
“Yes, you’re right, doctor. I’ll slow down….when I see Todd,” she added giggling.
They finally reached the main landing and moved into the reception area where they slowed to a stop. A body lay on the floor. It looked like one of the men who had gone through the nurse’s pockets earlier. Maria was glad he was dead. The three slowly moved around the body and continued out the front door.
“Oh, is this our ride?” Maria said, looking at the glistening black stretch limo waiting at the curb.
Oliver moved ahead to open the door. “This is it.”
“Todd!” Maria said, as she looked inside. A fat little man sat staring at her from across the limo. She stood and faced Oliver. “I don’t see my husband.”
Without warning one of the two men violently pushed her into the car.
“Hey! HEY!” Oliver hollered over Maria’s screams. “Be careful. You hurt her and I’ll filet the skin from your writhing body!”
“Ouch!” the fat man said chuckling, “sounds painful.”
Oliver turned his attention to the fat man. “Sorry Mr. Santana, it’s just that, she’s pregnant and—”
“Yeah, yeah, shut her up!”
Maria was screaming as Tanner wrestled her into the seat. Santana rapped on the window. “Let’s go!” The limo lurched forward, turned left at the end of the parking lot and moved west towards Downtown Nashville.
~~~
Leland twisted his head like a curious puppy. “Are you telling us they found some of the Lord’s blood and made a clone of him?”
The group of men sat quietly contemplating what they had just heard.
Anthony spoke up breaking the silence. “That can’t be true, can it? God wouldn’t let that happen, would He?”
“This…priest,” Todd said, “pulled a verse out of the Bible. It said ‘In the last days, the messiah’s own blood would re-new him.’”
Leland shook his head. “I haven’t seen anything like that, and I’ve read the Bible boo coo, but maybe this explains the asteroid. Maybe we've gone too far this time with this cloning business. Maybe this is judgment."
“The priest said it was from a papyrus they discovered recently.”
“We believe in the second coming,” Tyrone said thoughtfully, “We believe these are the very last days, but that don’t sound like the way the bible tells it…does it Leland?”
“No, no it don’t, that don’t sound like nothin’ I ever read.”
“How do you know it’s the very last days?” Todd asked.
“We know because Satan and his demons been cast to the earth.” Leland said. “It’s already started, homes. Could happen any time now.”
Todd shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m not following.”
“The big earthquake,” Leland continued, “that’s when Satan was cast out. He’s here now…on the earth.”
“Where are you getting all this?” Todd asked.
Leland sent Todd a blank look. “You didn’t hear it?”
“Hear what?”
“Woe to the inhabitants of the earth. How thou art fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning. How thou art cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations…. You didn’t hear that? That was full-on fly outa the Bible, Isaiah 14:12, probably the most buckest fulfillment of prophesy we ever got.”
Todd frowned and glanced around at his companions. “I didn’t know it had anything to do with prophesy, I just thought it was a weird thing that happened because of the quake. That’s what everyone was saying—”
“That’s because every time something unexplainable happens all the smart homeys crowd up to explain it to the rest of us. Think about it, you get enough smart homes together you could explain away anything, know what I’m saying?”
The group sat in silence for a long time. Eventually, Leland stood to leave.
“Blowin’ out?” Anthony asked.
“Going to the white house. Why? Why you all up in my business?”
“Goin’ with you,” Anthony said, standing up. “You tried em. They’ll be clockin’ you.”
“So?” Leland said. “I’m a man. We been here before, how ya gonna get funny now?”
“Not the same,” Anthony said. “It’s different. I’m watching your back this time. You down wit’?”
Leland smiled. “Whatever trips it, brother."
The two men pushed their fists together and disappeared around the corner.
Todd sat for a while, looking at Tyrone. “How long you been in here?” “Long time,” Tyrone said smiling, “about seventeen years.”
“How long have you known Leland?”
“Seventeen years.”
“Leland’s been here seventeen years?”
“Longer than that…in other prisons before he came here.”
“I been wondering,” Todd said. “Leland being a Christian and all, why was he in the go-slow with me?”
Tyrone raised his brows and smiled. “That was me. He stepped up and caught a shiv for me, got him in the arm. Those homeys ain’t here no more. Got transferred. Hacks probably thought we’d wet ‘em, which we wouldn’t. Leland wouldn’t ‘a let us.”
“What was it like when you first came here?”
“Same as you,” Tyrone said. “I was just another ding from Juneway… Chicago, probably just as scared as you. There was some bad men here in the day. The week I clocked in, I saw a man kill another man because he woke him up playing his guitar. Killed him with his own guitar string.”
“No kidding,” Todd said. “You saw that?”
“Close as me to you. There was one homey in particular, nobody messed with him. You didn’t talk to him unless he spoke first. If he didn’t like you, for any reason…you got on the other side of dirt… know what I’m sayin’? He’d either wet you, or a ding would do it for him. He ran the house…undisputed. He finally got so mean they put him in a boxcar cell at ADX Florence. You think the go-slow is bad? The go-slow is a Caribbean cruise next to Florence. He was there a couple months. I talked to one of the hacks put him in there. He said it took ten of them to put him in the cell. When he came out…he was a different man.”
Todd smiled. “You’re talking about Leland.”
Tyrone nodded. “That’s when he became the Rev. At first, everybody thought he’d gone crazy in that isolation cell, but it didn’t take long for people to see the Lord in him. He didn’t act different; he was different, you down wit’? It was so radical man, half the prison turned their lives over to Christ…me included.”
“It’s hard to figure Leland being that way,” Todd said, quietly.
Tyrone grinned. “Believe it.”
Todd’s attention was drawn to a commotion coming from the sleeping section. “What’s going on?” he said, looking around. “Sounds like a riot out there.” He stood just as Anthony walked around the corner.
“Hey, check it.” Anthony said, pointing at the Plexiglas front door. “We got company.”
~~~
“Who is this?”
“Who is this? You called me, remember?”
“This is Doctor Rossetti.”
“Who?”
“Doctor Rossetti—from the Vanderbilt Psychiatric hospital. Is this my secretary, Penny Lehman’s, residence?”
“Yeah, hold on....It’s the hospital!”
The secretary came on the phone. “Hello, Doctor.”
“Penny, why aren’t you at the hospital?”
She didn’t answer.
“Penny, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here, Doctor.”
“Why aren’t you at the—”
“Have you been to the hospital, sir?”
“No, I just got in. I’ve been in Branson—”
“Do you know about the asteroid?”
“Of course I know about the asteroid!”
“Doctor Rossetti, no one is at the hospital.”
“Why not?”
Again, no answer.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to call you?” The doctor said. “The phones aren’t working, and I’m on a satellite phone.”
“Listen, Doctor,” the secretary said. “I don’t work for you anymore. My family and I are gonna try to make it to the coast as fast as we can—”
“Where’s the girl?”
“What girl?”
“You know what girl!”
“Uh, that doctor, what was his name…Oliver…said he’d take care of her.”
“You let Oliver take her?”
“Of course!”
“Why?”
“Listen, Doctor, the last thing you told me was to let that little jerk have anything he needed—”
“Not the girl!” Rossetti yelled.
“Doctor, have you been to the hospital lately?”
“I told you, I just got back—”
“The hospital no longer exists. Families came and removed the patients by force. Hoodlums broke in and took all the food, drugs, anything they could get their hands on. They had guns. Trust me Doctor, there’s no more hospital. What you need to do is get your family out now. That’s my advice to you.”
The secretary paused a moment and hung up the phone.
~~~
Todd leaned forward so he could see through the window dividing the rec. room and the sleeping quarters. Standing just outside the cell, behind the Plexiglas, armed soldiers were milling about.
Tyrone stood up. “Do I hear dogs?”
Todd listened. He could just make out the sounds of barking dogs over the racket coming from within the cellblock.
Leland poked his head around the corner. “Looks like trouble.”
Todd, Leland, Anthony and Tyrone moved into the dorm area.
“Look at those idiots,” Tyrone said.
Inmates were pressed against the Plexiglas, taunting the armed troops. Some were spitting on the glass. Lieutenant King was standing just outside the Plexiglas door. He turned and motioned for the dogs to be brought forward.
