Dead Last (Vol. 1): Dead Last

by Quaranta, Marc

  "No..."

  "Then shut up. Kiss me."

  She brought out a smile on my face before pulling it into hers. I kissed her a couple of more times, but I couldn't help notice there were people on the other side of the door staring at us.

  "Am I allowed past that door?" I asked with a hint of sarcasm behind my voice.

  "Come on."

  She held me by the hand and walked me over to the door. Neither one of us had our cards on us and we waited for the guy on the other side to open it. It was the same guy that was outside with Travis and I. He stared at us with a smug look on his face. Like he was teasing us by not letting us in. I didn't get it. I didn't say anything because I didn't know him. The look on Haylea's face was kind of priceless. I don't know how well he knew Haylea, but when people who did know her got that look from her, you get out of her way.

  The guy opened the door and let us in. Once I was in, I made sure to close the door tightly. I finally felt my heart beat begin to slow down. It had been a couple hours since I left my house and my blood was pumping quickly through my body ever since then. I finally had the opportunity to relax.

  "Kurt, this is Jack," Haylea introduced us.

  I reached out my hand and took his, "Thanks for opening the door."

  "We just had to make sure it was safe to let you in," he said to me.

  "You couldn't tell by the outfit I was wearing?"

  "You still never know."

  "I understand," unfortunately, I did understand. I had no idea what this group had seen and I didn't want to push any of the wrong buttons. People outside were sick and dying and they were contagious. That air could spread and kill anyone. They did the right thing by waiting to let me in. I'm sure Haylea demanded I be let in though, so they probably didn't have much of a choice.

  I looked around and saw some familiar faces that made me glad to see some people survived. There weren't many of them, though. I know not many people were at work for a Saturday, but there should have been more than this. There should have been more people in the building. I could only imagine that some of the people panicked and left the building to get home. They were probably dead.

  But I greeted each person I did know. I shook hands with the building manager, Scott, I waved to Dan, said hello to Sam and his family, I smiled at Travis and Jenny as they came walking up, and then I saw Heather. She had become one of my best friends since working at the station. We had a lot in common and always seemed to be on the same page. I helped her out a lot when she first started. Working overnights is grueling on the body, not to mention how tough it is on someone's mental state. Sleeping is tough, eating a regular diet is tough, and the lack of a social life is a hard thing to get used to.

  "Hi," I walked up to her and saw that she had tears in her eyes. I smirked at her because there was no reason to cry.

  "You look like hell," she said to me with a smile.

  "I've had a long weekend," I said to her. I probably did look like hell. I hadn't showered in three days and to make it worse I was stuck in a suit that had me sweating like I was in a sauna. I had better appearance days, I'm sure.

  I grabbed her on the shoulder and pulled her into my chest. I put my hand on the back of her head and put my face up against her hair. It felt nice to have her in my arms. It felt nice to know that she was alive.

  "Kurt," I felt Haylea's hand on my waist. "Come on, we'll get you cleaned up."

  I looked back at her to see she wasn't looking at me, but at Heather. It was nice to see that the two of them were getting along. They weren't close friends, but they did get along. Haylea was great for understanding my friendship with Heather. It was nice having a fiancé that wasn't a jealous mess. I trusted her and she trusted me.

  "Jack," I overheard Sam start a conversation with the new guy. "Where's Nick?"

  I connected eyes with Haylea, who immediately grew worried. The entire tone in the room grew dark. Everything was silent. Even all the noise that the equipment in the station made, seemed to shut up.

  "Jack?" Haylea said.

  Jack and Travis connected eyes. Travis didn't want to face the group so he stared down at the carpet. Jack stared into Haylea's eyes with his head tilted to the side. He looked dead serious. I was getting the feeling that Jack and Haylea had been calling the shots around here. I found that a little strange seeing as Scott and Sam were the oldest in the group and knew the building better than anyone.

  "Nick was with you?" I was looking at Jack, but was really hoping that anyone would start talking to clear up the confusion.

  "There was an explosion."

  "What explosion?" asked Scott.

  "We don't know. We couldn't see it. We just heard it."

  "It sounded like a truck down the road," Travis spoke but still couldn't look at the group.

  "Anyways, it spooked all of us. Nick must have been reaching for something or shifting his weight because he lost his balance and fell into a shelf...It, uh...his mask came off when he fell to the ground and the corner of the shelf cut his arm. He was bleeding," Jack spoke slowly.

  "You left him?" Haylea asked. "You left him there?"

  "We had to. He was cut. He was breathing in the air. He was going to get infected, Haylea, we couldn't bring him back in here."

  "You left him to die," Haylea spoke with anger.

  "I'm sorry. He was dead the second that mask came off. We all know that. We all agreed that if somebody was openly breathing the air, they couldn't come back in here. I'm sorry."

  Haylea and a few others in the group walked away from Jack. I think that as upset as they were, and believe me I was just as upset, they knew Jack was right. Nick was my supervisor. He and I got along perfectly and I considered him a good friend, but he was sick. Jack did the right thing and I was just glad that somebody weaker didn't have to make that decision. Jack seemed like a strong guy, a guy that could handle that burden. Or maybe he was a guy that just didn't care about Nick, or anyone for that matter.

  VIII

  Emily Clark

  A s much as I wanted to walk away from Jack with the rest of the members of the group, I felt that I needed more answers and... well...I didn't want to disrespect Nick's memory by not learning more.

  I looked back to see Haylea walk off in a similar manner of an eight-year-old girl stomping away from her parents when she doesn't get the toy she wanted. Sam walked away with his hands on his head like an athlete struggling to get more air into his lungs. Scott walked away, Heather walked away, everyone but Jack, Travis, Kurt, Jenny, and I walked away. I think Jenny would have if her and Travis weren't tied together by that invisible string of theirs.

  "Jack, what happened?" asked Kurt.

  I could immediately see Jack's reaction to being questioned by Kurt. We knew Kurt and we respected him, but Jack had absolutely no idea who he was. As much as Jack wanted to blend in with the group and be forgotten about, I think people really looked at him as second in charge. He was tough and strong and stern. He could make the tough decisions that nobody else could make, not even Haylea. That's why he left Nick. He did what was best for the group to keep us alive. Jack was second in command and I think a part of him felt threatened now that Kurt was here. Kurt would soon establish himself as our leader. That was the kind of person Kurt was; a leader.

  "Well...Kurt, like I said a minute ago, there was a loud boom...like an explosion, and Nick fell to the ground. It startled him like it startled the rest of us. He fell back, the shelf cut his arm, and his mask fell off."

  "There was nothing you could do?" was Kurt's follow up question.

  "Everything happened so fast," Travis said softly. Jenny hugged him from the side and shied her face away from us. I think she was crying.

  "Kurt, before you graced us with your presence, we agreed that anyone who was outside without necessary precautions to protect themselves wouldn't be let into this building. We almost didn't even let you in, bub," Jack stared into the eyes of Kurt.

  "Do you have a proble
m with me?" Kurt asked.

  "Not at all. I just want you to know that we have been stuck in this fucking station for almost four days with nowhere to go."

  "Jack...I was in a crumby basement for three days with nobody to talk to, no food, and the only water I got was from a leaky pipe in that basement. I was a few hours away from killing myself or starving to death. Don't stand there and even begin to talk to me about hard times. You saw my outfit, if you are truly unhappy here, I'll loan it to you. Put it on, get in your car, and drive to wherever the hell you want to go. But if not, do me a favor and shut the hell up. You think this is bad, I promise you that we have seen nothing yet."

  Jack nodded his head in, from what I was guessing was, pure frustration. I think it took all of his energy to refrain from dropping Kurt with a left hand right there. Jack kind of chuckled and then walked away. Kurt watched his every step until he was out of sight.

  "I'm sorry, Kurt," Travis said to him. Jenny looked up at Kurt now, too, and did in fact have tears in her eyes. Kurt said to Travis that there wasn't anything anyone could do and they shook hands before Jenny walked Travis away. He leaned on her like his body was completely fatigued. I imagined it was.

  "You've always been a straight shooter, Emily. Does that guy lighten up?" Kurt asked me.

  "Jack, you mean? Well...it's like living with a smoke alarm that goes off and continues to go off. You just kind of get used to it and don't hear it anymore even though it never stops to annoy you. The only way to ever get rid of a problem like that, though, is to smash it with a hammer until it stops."

  Now, when I said that, I did not mean for Kurt to take a hammer from the janitorial closet and smack Jack on the back of the head. Thankfully, it was Kurt I was talking to and he had more sense than most people in here so he knew the metaphor I was trying to reach at. Jack wasn't going to change. He wasn't going to become more social and more of a people person. He was going to be the thorn in everyone's side and I think he enjoyed playing that part. There are some people who just like to play the role of the villain; Jack was that guy.

  "I'm glad you made it, Kurt. You know she's been talking about you nonstop," I said to him with a smile.

  "She's the reason I'm not dead," he said to me.

  I turned to walk away from him, but at that moment I saw Heather and the two teachers carrying the bags of food and drinks to the kitchen area.

  "Well...make that two people who talked about you nonstop," I said to him in reference to Heather. I didn't turn around to see the expression on his face, but I think he knew. At least, I hope he wasn't dumb enough not to know that Heather had a thing for him and it was causing some tension between her and Haylea. He couldn't have been that blind...well...he was a man.

  I was going to go find my husband, but first I saw that Elyse was in the corner of the kitchen, digging through bags of water, talking to Jack. Both of them were grabbing waters and snack. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but Elyse was getting a kick out of it and laughing her butt off.

  "Elyse, come here," I shouted to her. I could see Jack wasn't too happy with me pulling my daughter away.

  "What's up, mom?" she asked me while walking up.

  "Are you okay?" I asked her.

  "Yea, I'm fine. Why?"

  "Don't get too comfortable with him. I don't trust him," I didn't feel like being subtle at this point.

  "Mom, I'm not a kid anymore. Maybe a week ago, sure, but not anymore. Not when the world is like this. You said we need to be civil with everyone in here...doesn't that include Jack?" she talked to me like she was such a mature woman...and I guess she was right. After everything that has happened, 17 was probably considered a mature adult, but I was still her mother and still wanted to make sure she would be okay.

  "Yea, it does include Jack. Just be careful."

  She rolled her eyes at me, of course, and I walked away to go talk to Sam. He seemed to be so upset about something. Without hesitation, I knew where to find him. He was sitting in his office tapping a pen on his desk like he had done so many days when he was upset about a potential client.

  "Babe, what's going on?" I closed the door behind me, but not all the way. Sam had an open-door policy when it came to work and I didn't want that to change. If someone needed us, they could still get to us.

  "I said no," he said to me. He was vague and quiet.

  "You said no to what, Sam?"

  "To Kurt coming in. Without a second to doubt myself, I told everyone that we couldn't let him in. That we needed to stick to our guns and leave him out there."

  "Babe, that's okay," I walked around the desk and rubbed his back. "You were looking out for the group. You wanted to keep us safe. Nobody blames you for that."

  "It's not okay. What if they listened? What if they left Kurt out there? Haylea would be alone."

  "But they didn't. He's in here. They're together. Everything is fine."

  "No! It's not!" he raised his voice and tossed his pen aside.

  "What are you talking about?"

  "They made the wrong choice...I don't want him in here. They shouldn't have let him in here. It's Kurt...I mean, I know this guy. He's a great guy, but they should not have let him in here."

  When he looked up at me, his eyes had a certain amount of hopelessness in them. I'd never seen that look in his eyes. He had regret, uncertainty, and fear in his eyes. I loved Sam with all of my heart and it hurt me greatly to see him with that look in his eyes.

  He didn't look good. I didn't mean the look in his eyes anymore, I meant physically. He was sweating profusely and breathing heavily.

  "Babe, are you okay?" I asked him.

  "Yea."

  "You're sweating a lot," I put my hand on the back of his neck and he was warm. "You feel like you have a fever. I'm going to grab you some water," I walked to the door and pulled it open.

  "Em," he called to me. "I don't feel well at all...don't tell anyone."

  He looked broken now. I didn't want to believe that he was sick and I didn't want to believe that it was Kurt that made him sick. From what we've been told, the sickness didn't act that quickly. It would take hours, sometimes days, for it to infect a body. This was something else. Maybe a lack of water or food, maybe it was a simple flu. But Sam wasn't feeling well. He didn't look well.

  IX

  Haylea Meyers

  F or all the students out there, do you know that feeling of over preparing for a test? When you pull an all-night study session with a couple friends and you cram for a test. You try to learn everything within a couple of hours before taking it. Then you realize, after you take the test, that it was your worst performance in the history of taking tests.

  You spend the next few days convincing yourself that you got a terrible grade, one of the lowest grades in the class. You convince yourself that it is okay that you failed but that it wouldn't ever happen again. One failing grade wouldn't ruin your chances of getting a solid grade at the end of the semester, but then something happens. You get your test back at the end of the week and you did better than most of the class. You got that A on the test and didn't even know how it was done.

  That's what happened with Kurt. For three and a half days, I told myself that he was dead. I didn't say it out loud. In fact, if someone asked me, I told them he was alive, but I didn't believe it. He was dead. I told myself every minute of every day that Kurt wasn't coming back, but then he did. I was hit with that feeling where I knew there was someone upstairs, some God above that was looking out for me. I got my A and he was in the most beautiful form possible. I didn't think it was possible, but when I saw him, every part of me that was dying inside WTIX came back to life. He brought me back to life.

  At such a great moment in our lives, being thrust back together when all the odds were against us, it was a dark time. Losing Nick was starting to settle into Kurt's mind. He sat at a table in the back unable to think about anything else. I stared at him unable to take my eyes off. It was great seeing him; it was indescribable
, but that feeling of love and hope was cut too short.

  "I wasn't even here to say goodbye to him," Kurt spoke. "You think if it had been one of us, someone that knew Nick, we would have been able to help? I mean, this Jack guy didn't," I didn't let him finish because I knew he was going to frustrate himself more.

  "Jack did what he had to do. I don't like the guy. He's an ass and never offers a helping hand; I had to beg him to go out and help find supplies and he didn't go until Dan volunteered."

  "Dan volunteered to help?" Jack finally laughed a little bit. Again, Dan was a sweetheart but he wasn't the hero type.

  "Yea, and Jack knew that wouldn't end well so instead he went out there. I know he didn't know Nick and probably doesn't care that Nick didn't come back, but Jack probably saved us all by making that decision. It couldn't have been easy."

  "That's the thing...I feel like he made the decision entirely too easy."

  "We'll never know. We've got to try to move on."

  Kurt tried to do that exact thing by changing the subject, but I knew it was still on his mind.

  "So, what's going on here? Has there been any change?" he asked.

  "We haven't heard anything. Our cell phones all lost connection late last night. We haven't been able to get in contact with anyone."

  "My phone hasn't been working, either. How many people are there?"

  "Well we haven't done a full count, but maybe around 18. We have four kids, as well."

  "Kids? Why are there kids?"

  "It's that tour that Brad set up for the weekend. There's two teachers and they brought four kids for Sam to give a tour. There's also an older couple; Janet and her husband, Barry. Barry is deaf so she does most of the communicating to him."

  "Jesus. Anything else I need to know."

  "No. Four kids. Deaf guy. No contact. That is about it," I nudged him on his knee and it forced a smile out of him. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before I heard someone clear his throat. I turned around and Scott was there a bit embarrassed that he interrupted.