by Levi, Casey
* * *
Kristen looked at the man from across the fire. Her eyes narrowed as she watched him. Studied him. She did not trust this man. He had tried to kill her and her friends. Just the thought had her cheeks flushing with anger, and her breathing grew rapid. This man left them to die, intentionally tried to kill them. She wanted nothing more than to return the favor, but she knew that they needed him. He was hiding something, and she was going to find the underlying cause of it.
Finally, irritation took over her, and she abruptly stood to her feet and rounded on Brady. “You’ve had long enough to sit here and cozy up, so start talking.”
She watched him tense up but then he relaxed. He was testing her patience, and she could tell he was beginning to enjoy himself a little too much. She so did not like this man, but he knows something about what was going on. What exactly, she did not know.
When he still did not answer her, she took in a deep breath and asked. “Why did you try to kill us?”
He continued to stare at the fire and watched as it slowly burned. “You wouldn’t understand.” He finally looked up at her.
She narrowed her eyes. “Try me.”
“It’s not that I was trying to kill you-”
Aran spoke up this time. “Bullshit you didn’t try. You want to go back to Barstow and tell that to the people that died?”
“Look. I didn’t think any of you would’ve made it this far, and if you really want me to answer your question, don’t you think you should be a little nicer?” Brady sat back and crossed his arms over his chest.
No one said anything for a moment, and then Reed sat forward. “Okay, so answer me this then. Who exactly are you? And what are your plans?”
Brady stared at him. “And who are you?”
“I asked you first, and from the looks of it, you’re in no position to be asking questions.”
“I suppose your right.” Brady took in a deep breath and relaxed again before speaking. “My name is Brady Odin, and I worked at a science facility in downtown Los Angeles. My plan is to simply get to the Las Vegas science facility. Nothing more.”
“And what kind of work did you do at the facility? Are you a scientist or something?” Julie asked.
“In a way yes. We mostly just researched.”
“What kind of research are we talking about?” Aran leaned forward, narrowing his eyes.
“We did all kinds of research.” He simply said.
Kristen stood up and began pacing back and forth. This was not making any sense to her. “Do you even know what’s happening?”
“No.”
She stopped pacing and stormed over to Brady. She crossed her arms behind her back and leaned into his personal space. “Do not lie to me. You said that you saw it happen to your lab partner.” Kristen narrowed her eyes and leaned so close that their faces were only inches apart. “How would the infected get inside your facility when its security is almost as tight as the presidents?”
“We should just kick his ass, then maybe he’ll talk.” Aran muttered under his breath.
Kristen did not move from Brady’s personal space, and she knew it was beginning to make him uncomfortable. Her patience with him was starting to grow thin. She did not know why, but she had a feeling that there was something much bigger going on than Brady was telling. But what? What was he hiding? And how are they to trust a man that tried to kill them? They could not, but they needed to on some level. Whatever he was hiding, they would find out eventually. Hopefully, the latter.
“Do you think I can get some personal space?” Brady cut into her thoughts, and she had forgotten she was only inches away from the man’s face. The thought disturbed her.
She closed her eyes and stood up. “Look, we were just six friends taking a trip for the weekend and woke up to this shit. Two of our friends are dead, and in the last few days we have seen a lot of people die. So, don’t take it personally, but if we are going to survive you need to start being honest with us.”
Brady rubbed his hands over his face and let out a sigh. “We were doing some lab testing on rats. The facilities have been trying to work on a way to stop cancer with just one shot. We thought that we had possibly found a cure.”
“A cure for cancer?” Kristen, Julie, and Reed said in unison.
“Yes, a cure.” Brady looked at them, and Kristen could see the despair in his eyes.
“I don’t understand. How?” Kristen knew it was possible to find cures for things, but a cure for all cancers with just one shot. That was big.
“We were injecting rats with different types of stage one cancer cells, and then tried to mix it with different bacteria. Diseases that we thought would at least slow down the infection…” Brady paused for a moment before continuing. “We thought that by doing this, we would stop the fast spreading cancer and it would give us more time to find the cure to stop cancer all together.”
Kristen took a few minutes to let this information process. “Well that would make sense, but what went wrong?”
“We didn’t know that one of the rats was already infected with a virus that has no known cure.” Brady grew quiet, and he looked as though he was in deep thought.
“What do you mean by infected?” Kristen pressed.
“We had a shipment come in about a week ago from Western Europe. We think that one, possibly more, have some kind of disease. I’m not sure what kind-”
Reed cut Brady off. “What the hell do you mean you’re not sure what kind?”
“Things went down before we could do some testing on the rats, but we think that it’s a common disease that lives within a rodent. Something that is caused by urine, saliva, or feces.”
“Well if that’s true, how would it cause something like this to happen? I mean, I’m assuming that this is worldwide.” This was not making much sense to Kristen, and while she may not know much about the disease, it did not seem that something like that was possible.
Brady took in a deep breath. “My intern was handling the rats when one of them bit him. Usually something like this takes a few weeks to infect the person fully, but he had started acting crazy and attacked another employee.” Brady stood up and began pacing.
“Is that the man you were talking about at the store?” Julie asked in a whisper.
“Yes…” He let his voice trail off, and they all grew quiet.
Kristen did not know how to take the information that Brady had just told them, and she was not sure how something so small could cause something like this to happen. A worldwide breakout that was killing the entire population off, and then causing them to come back as something else. How was that possible? It did not add up. He had to be lying. He had to be.
“Okay, so let’s say that you are telling us the truth. How can one bite cause all of this? It’s not adding up.” Kristen needed more answers from him.
“That is what we don’t know.” He stopped pacing and looked at all of them.
“What do you mean you don’t know? You were there.” Aran stood, and got in Brady’s face.
Brady stepped back away from Aran. “Look, I’ve told you everything I know.”
“You’re lying you son of bi-”
“Stop it! We are not going to get anywhere by fighting. Aran you need to calm down.” Kristen was just as confused as everyone else, but they needed to keep a level head here.
“Don’t tell me to calm the fuck down Kristen. Two of our friends are dead because of this asshole. He’s hiding something.” Julie tried to grab at Aran, but he shrugged her off. “What are you not telling us professor?”
Brady backed up away from him more. “It’s more complicated than you think.”
“You better start explaining.” Aran’s words held a threatening tone, and it made Kristen shiver.
“You have to understand that I am still uncertain of what I had seen… My intern, Owen was his name. He was also my friend. We had studied together at North State University. So, as you can imagine, I know how it feels t
o lose a friend.”
Brady ran his hands through his hair before he continued. “That day was just like any other day. Owen did more of handling the rats. He was just an intern. It was around noon when he started to act different. We had just come back from lunch when he collapsed. One of the other employees along with myself had rushed to his aid, but he was already gone.”
Kristen could tell by the look on his face that he was in agony. She knew this because she felt the same lose from her friends. Everything had happened so fast, and it was all becoming such a blur to her. Brady began to speak again, and she focused her attention on him.
“We took his body into one of the empty laboratories, and while we were waiting for the police to show up, Owen came back… before I knew what was going on, he attacked Allisa… he… he just tore her apart.” Brady was in tears now, and Kristen rested a hand on his arm.
“I’m sorry about your friend.” She said softly. “What happened after that?”
“Before the police showed up, all hell broke loose. We couldn’t get the infection under control in time.” Brady wiped his face and looked down at Kristen. “We were able to collect some samples, and we had faxed them over to Vegas. We did not have time to get everything. The building had caught fire in the chaos… I nearly made it out alive myself.”
“Well what do you plan to do in Vegas? How will you stop this?” Aran stepped forward.
“Try to find a cure.” Brady simply said as he sat back down.
18
Chapter Eighteen
Kristen stared up at the night sky. The darkness lit up by millions of tiny stars. She could not make out a single thought, and she honestly wished she could turn her mind off. She was still puzzled that they had found Brady. But with all this added information that he had told them, she was not sure she was ready for the answers. What were they going to do once they got to Vegas? Would they even be allowed inside? She was not sure. She was not sure about anything right now. Her head was beginning to throb, and she let out a sigh as she turned over on her side and pulled the blankets up around her. She watched Reed’s chest rise and fall to help distract her and noticed that he was looking up at the sky.
“Reed.” She placed her arm around his stomach.
“Hmm?”
“Do you think Brady was telling us the truth?”
Reed let out a sigh and looked down at her. “I don’t know Kristen, but he’s not going anywhere this time.” He looked back up at the night sky. “I guess we’ll see when we get to Vegas.”
“Yeah, I guess…” Her voice trailed off. She was not sure what would happen next, but she hoped that they would be able to find the truth behind Brady’s words.
Reed shifted beside her and pulled her into his arms. “What’s really on your mind?”
“To be honest, a lot. I don’t know how to sort through my thoughts. So much has happened.” She looked up at him, and he leaned down slowly before brushing a soft kiss to her lips.
“I know, but we have to be strong.”
Kristen shifted herself so that her head rested against his chest. “I don’t trust him.”
Reed was silent for a moment. “None of us do.” He left his words at that.
Taking in a deep breath, she closed her eyes. She really needed to pull it together, but how much could she take? She needed more answers, but how? Who was to trust other than her friends? What if they got to Vegas and there was nowhere to go? Kristen seemed to have a million questions running through her mind, but no answers. At least for now, they had the one person who could lead them to the truth.
She pushed all the thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on Reed. His strong arms were tight around her waist, and his chest rose and fell against her head as she listened to the steady beating of his heart beneath her ear. Kristen thought about the memories of her and Reed when they had first met, and how they had ended up being here. Her eyes began to drift close, and she fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
“Shit! Kristen wake up!”
“What…”
“Dammit Kristen, Brady’s gone!”
Kristen’s eyes shot open, and she jumped up from her deep slumber. Her eyes were a haze of fog, and as her vision focused, she looked up to see Reed pacing back and forth.
“Brady’s gone? How?” She was confused, and would have to admit, this was not the best way to wake up.
“Fuck if I know. Aran found Jesse knocked out by the trees.” He stopped and ran an agitated hand through his hair.
Kristen hurried to her feet and began to pack their stuff up. “We got to find him. He couldn’t have gotten that far.”
Reed stopped and took her by the shoulders. “Aran and Julie already left to go look for him.”
“Are you shitting me?” Kristen was beyond infuriated. She pushed away from Reed and began throwing things around their makeshift camp.
“Kristen stop. We have no choice.” He grabbed her by her shoulder to stop her from throwing things.
How could this happen? Their only chance was now gone, and not to mention two of their friends. She thought about Julie, and her heart felt like it was tearing open. She knew that Aran would protect her, but what if that wasn’t enough? What if they got hurt? Or worse, killed? She needed to find her friends, and soon.
* * *
While Kristen hurried and packed everything up, Reed drifted off to wake Jesse up. Brady knocked him out cold, and he had not stirred once. Jesse sure had been hit hard, and it had left a nice gash on the side of his face. Reed tried tapping Jesse on the cheek, but still he would not budge. Reed’s frustration grew after failed attempts at trying to calmly wake him and had to use more force.
“Sorry about this kid.” Reed slapped Jesse across the face, and the kid’s eyes flew open.
Jesse was in a daze of confusion and looked up at Reed with shock. “What happened?” He sat up holding both sides of his face.
“That’s what I need to ask you. Where’s Brady?” Reed tried so hard not to grab the kid and shake him.
“I don’t…” Reed could tell that he was really confused and helped Jesse to his feet. He placed his hands on both of his shoulders to help steady him.
“Do you remember anything that happened before now?”
“I…”
“Jesse you need to try and remember. We have to find Brady.”
“Reed could see the defeat in Jesse’s eyes. “I’m sorry… everything is a blur, and I don’t remember anything.”
He let out a deep breath. “Alright. Just sit here for a minute. I’ll be back to get you.” Reed stood up and walked over to Kristen.
* * *
Kristen just finished packing everything as Reed appeared from the trees. She could feel his agitation as he got closer, and the power of his emotions made her want to slink down and hide from him.
“Jesse doesn’t remember shit!” Reed began pacing back and forth again. His anger rising with every step.
She stood in silence watching him, and she was not sure what she could say to help their situation. With Reed already in a bad mood she had not wanted to say something that would only make it worse. This was a side of Reed that she had not seen. With Aran she knew he was a jerk, but with Reed it was different.
Kristen could feel her own anger rising as she continued to watch Reed pace. How could Brady screw them over again? She was beginning to hate that man for all the pain and suffering he was bringing to her and her friends. She hoped that they could find him again before anything else bad happened, but when and if they did find him, let’s just say Kristen would not be doing too much talking with the man.
“Is everything packed? We need to get going.” Reed said bringing her out of her dark thoughts.
“Yes.” She simply said to him.
It felt like they had been searching for Brady all morning, and Aran and Julie. Kristen tried not to panic, but she hoped that Julie and Aran were okay. Jesse still had not said anything, and Kristen made sure to k
eep an extra close eye on him. She was not sure why, but something about Jesse was throwing her off, and she did not like it.
As they continued to walk down the highway in silence, a sign appeared on the side of the road up ahead. Kristen picked up her pace, and as the sign came into view, she could not help but beam with excitement.
“A half mile till the next town.”
They picked up their pace, and she knew that they were all eager to get there. She could only hope that Aran and Julie would be there waiting for them, and with any luck Brady would be with them too. She did not know what they had planned for him once they found him, but she was going to make sure that he did not get away from them again.
With her thoughts keeping her mind distracted, she realized they had reached the next town, Jean, NV. They were not too far from Vegas at that point, and hopefully they could find Brady before they lose sight of him for good, and he was gone forever.
19
Chapter Nineteen
As they began to near the first few houses off the side of the highway, Kristen stopped to let the rest of the group catch up to her. She noticed that they were entering a small cul-de-sac with a few houses. She felt eager to find Aran and Julie, and she did not like the fact that they had left to chase after Brady. That was the last thing they should be doing was splitting up, especially after Brady knocked Jesse out. Who knew what the man was capable of?
“So, what’s the plan?” Kristen asked as Reed caught up, and they continued to walk.
“We should probably find a car and some supplies to stock up on.” Jesse commented as he appeared on her other side with Zac in hand.
“Well let’s start here and work our way down the street.” Reed pointed to the first house and began walking towards it.
Inside Kristen had not paid much attention to the house as she made her way from room to room. She packed her bag with some first aid supplies she had found in the bathroom, and a few flashlights and batteries she found in the kitchen drawers. The house looked to be wiped clean. From the owner’s or other passerby’s needing things. After she finished going through the house, she made her way back to the front door to meet Reed, and head to the next house.
