Catharsis (Books 1-4): Outbreak Z

by EM Roberts

  Ella’s biggest fear was that she would become pregnant with Hector’s child. She’d told him as much, and it made him want her even more.

  “The next town we come to, please go to the pharmacy and see if you can find some condoms or some emergency contraceptive,” she’d begged. She couldn’t have this monster’s baby.

  “Huh, I ain’t putting my cock in no rubber,” he’d grumbled, and that had been her answer. Still, she’d persisted.

  “Just look for some Plan B. It’s the morning after pill. Please.” She’d beg because at this point, self-respect just didn’t matter anymore.

  “I kind of like the idea of having a little Hector running around somewhere. What’s the matter? You think you’re too good to be having my baby?” Hector had asked, a knowing little smile on his face.

  That had been it. No condoms and no birth control. She prayed like she’d never prayed before. Please God, don’t let me get pregnant! Please God, I’ll never doubt you again. She knew she’d had her doubts about God before, but there was nothing else left. She’d sent up her prayer, hoping for the best.

  Today the car came to a screeching halt. Shortly after the car stopped, the trunk was opened and the bright sunlight temporarily blinded Ella. She closed her eyes and opened them a couple of times trying to acclimate herself to the light.

  “We’re here, darling. We’re at the entrance of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository,” Hector announced reading a sign on the fence.

  Ella looked around. She’d never been to this part of the United States before, and for some odd reason she’d been expecting a mountain like the ones back in Tennessee. She didn’t know why when she knew Nevada was known for its deserts. This place, she knew, was located between Death Valley and Sequoia National Parks, so she’d been expecting the desert. She just hadn’t realized the Mountain was more like a tall mound of earth with smaller types of foliage growing on it. It was still a mountain, just not the type she was used to.

  “I wonder why this place is so deserted? There’s lots of buildings in the distance, and you know the government had supplies here?” one of the men asked in bewilderment.

  “Fish, you’re an idiot,” Red replied, “Read the sign---Nuclear Waste Facility—would you knowingly come to a place that you thought was a dump for radioactive material?”

  Fish scratched his head, and Ella felt like she was in the twilight zone. Fish and Red were just two of the idiots Hector had picked up in his merry band of henchmen. They’d bickered every time she’d been allowed out of the trunk of the car. She’d never felt as much hate and violence for any group of people as she did for this group.

  Although it had technically just turned fall, the temperature was still pretty high, and having been transported in the trunk of a car, Ella had almost succumbed to heat stroke. She felt weak, nauseated, and generally just worn out from not only the helicopter crash but also the last couple of days. She was worried the cut on her face was becoming infected, never mind the fact that her arm needed a splint on it.

  “We’ll set up camp here and wait for Mr. President to make an appearance. I don’t know the exact coordinates of the entrance, but this is the main road in. He may have already arrived here, so we’ll need to scout around the place,” Hector announced to his men who were already unloading supplies from the vehicles.

  Hector grabbed Ella by the hair and forced her back into the trunk of the vehicle.

  “In you go. I’m going to scout around and look for your friends, and I can’t take you with me. I’ve learned this is the safest place for you,” Hector smiled down at her as he threw a bottle of water in beside her and slammed the lid of the trunk.

  Ella thought she would probably die in the trunk. The heat was unbearable and she could barely breathe. Along the way, she’d learned she felt better if she sporadically place her lips up against the holes in the trunk for fresh air. She did so now, and felt some of the dizziness abate.

  An hour later, Ella could feel herself becoming delirious. She’d been taking small sips of the water, but the heat and humidity had caused her to constantly perspire so her output was greater than her intake causing her to feel dehydrated. Although, she constantly kept trying to breathe in the fresh air through the holes in the trunk, she still felt like she couldn’t get enough oxygen. She thought she might be dying.

  She curled up into a small ball in the trunk and thought of all of the things she’d wanted to do but had never done. She’d always wanted to go to Ireland and Scotland since that was where her ancestors had lived. It had been her dream to walk into an Irish pub and drink a pint with the locals. Maybe she’d glamorized that, and it was just something she’d seen in the movies. Either way, she would probably never get to see either place.

  She’d always wanted to have a big wedding. Before she’d met Roe, she’d always envisioned a country themed wedding maybe with sunflower centerpieces and the bridesmaids and groomsmen wearing cowboy boots. But, Roe had kind of made her long for a more sophisticated wedding. She would have the girls wear short, elegant lilac creations and the men would have matching cummerbunds. There would be lovely flowers and grand centerpieces. Hell, she might even have sushi on the menu. But---there would be no father to walk her down the aisle.

  As Ella drifted off into unconsciousness, her last thought was of her father:

  Every now and then a leaf crackled underneath their feet. But eight year old Ella Johnson trudged after her father mimicking his footsteps and swagger. She loved her father more than anything in the world, and she wanted to be just like him. Some girls she knew talked about being teachers and nurses, but Ella wanted to be a farmer like her father.

  Theo Johnson knew everything about everything. Every time he took Ella out into the woods, she learned something new. He would identify the trees in the woods and would let her know which ones could be used for what. For example, her father had shown her the sassafras tree and shown her how to strip bark from it to boil into a tea. Ella loved sweet sassafras tea. Her father also knew which mushrooms were edible and which were poisonous. It was something, he told Ella, he’d learned from his own father, and he was proud to pass the knowledge on to her.

  Ella was glad that her twin brother Eli hadn’t come with them today. All he would have done was complain anyway. Eli was more interested in reading and doing science projects than he was going into the woods and hunting. She knew her father was a little disappointed that his son wasn’t more interested in these things, but her father would just smile and tell her to let Eli be.

  Her father turned to her and motioned for her to come squat behind some bushes.

  “Every time I’ve been out here the last few months, this big ten point buck has been coming by here. Hopefully, he’ll come by here today and then you’ll be able to get your first trophy, but Ella always remember, we only hunt animals for food,” her father whispered as he took his place beside her.

  It was a frosty November morning, and the ground and leaves were crisp and cold beneath her. She was dressed in camouflage and was wearing a face mask with black and green paint covering her skin. Her father had told her she didn’t really need it, but she’d wanted it. It made her feel like a true hunter, like the men on those hunting shows she liked to watch.

  Ella was starting to fidget from boredom when her father touched her arm and motioned for her to look in the distance. Sure enough, the big buck had made his usual appearance. Ella’s heart started to race wildly in anticipation. Her father had told her she could take the shot. Looking over at him, he smiled in encouragement. Ella knew she could hit the deer. She’d practiced before, and she was confident in her ability.

  She slowly and quietly lifted the shotgun and looked through the sites. She’d begged her father for a scope, but he’d told her he’d never used one in his life and that a real hunter could do just as well without one. Ella slowly breathed through her mouth and prepared to pull the trigger when a strange thing happened. The deer looked directly at her. She hadn
’t made a sound or anything—she knew she hadn’t.

  In a panic, she pulled the trigger and watched as the deer took off running, its white tail bouncing and mocking her. She knew she’d never have another chance this season at the deer. Chances were it wouldn’t come back. She didn’t want to look at her father—she didn’t want to see the disappointment on his face.

  “It’s okay. Don’t beat yerself up, kid. We all have times when it’s just not our day,” her father said lifting her chin up to look at him.

  Tears seeped from the corner of hers, and she started crying.

  “But, daddy, you gave up your chance to kill it so I could, and I let you down. I missed the deer!” she wailed and felt ashamed of her behavior. She was acting like a girl. She didn’t want to be a crying sissy.

  “Hey, I don’t care about that deer. There’ll be other chances. Ya ain’t always gonna be perfect, and ya ain’t always gonna win at everything.”

  “But I want to be, daddy, for you,” she whispered, using a fist to wipe away the dratted tears.

  “But, see I don’t expect ya to. Nobody is perfect. It’s good to try yer best. Don’t give up—never give up, but always realize that nobody’s perfect and nobody’s gonna win all the time,” he smiled, taking her hand and pulling her up into his arms.

  ***********

  She was sixteen years old, and her heart was broken. Literally, she could feel pain radiating from her chest to her throat, and she’d cried so much she couldn’t stop crying. A soft tap at the door made her wipe her eyes and swallow the pain.

  “Come in,” Ella called.

  “Hey, sweetie, how are you feeling?” her mother said as she came and sat on the edge of Ella’s bed.

  “Awful, mom, just awful. My best friend is dating my boyfriend, mom. How could she betray me like that?”

  ‘Well, she’s not much of a friend to do that,” Ella’s mother replied softly as she pulled her daughter into her arms and patted her head.

  ‘I loved him so much,” Ella whispered. She’d even thought of having sex with him. He’d been pressuring her to do it, but she’d been afraid. She guessed that was one of the reasons for what had happened.

  ‘I know, baby, I know,” her mother murmured.

  “Will the pain ever go away?” Ella asked, swallowing the lump in her throat.

  “Yes, sweetie, it takes time. It takes time to heal from pain, but you just have to remember that it will get better. Think of good things. Always think of the good things….”

  Ella jerked awake in the hot trunk. The dream had been so real, and for a moment she could imagine she felt her mother’s hand on her hair. Was she dying? Was this really the moment of truth? Just as she was about to close her eyes and wait for the darkness, the trunk popped open, and she looked up into Parker Wallace’s concerned eyes.

  Chapter 7: An Unlikely Rescue

  He was finally here—at Yucca Mountain. He pulled the small envelope from his pocket. It was sweat-stained and worn from its travels, but he could still read the directions and the coordinates on it. This was the moment of truth. He would finally find out if this whole thing was real or a hoax perpetrated by a long line of Presidents. Adams, however, had been convinced the facility existed, and that made Parker think it might be real, too.

  He pulled the Jeep to a stop in front of a Do Not Enter sign. He pulled the small GPS device from his pocket, convinced it wouldn’t work because nothing worked anymore. He knew next to nothing about technology, but he was pretty sure a satellite was needed for the device to work. However, the instructions in the envelope had said that such a device would work, and he hoped this was proven true. He powered up the handheld unit and entered the coordinates.

  Searching….searching….location found. Holy mother fucker, Parker thought, the thing worked. They were .5 miles from the entrance! He retrieved his weapon from the vehicle, and petted the dog Max when it jumped from the vehicle and stood beside him. The dog had been such a good companion for both Izzy and the young girl Carly—really everybody. Max was spoiled, and Parker thought that was okay.

  He looked at the four vehicles behind them. Jax and Carly had been his companion in the Jeep. Jem and Amos were still driving the flashy red convertible. There really wasn’t much room in the car to haul anything since Amos seemed to take up most of the room. A truck held Izzy and her new friend, a handsome young man whom Parker was sure was crazy about the girl already. The last vehicle held a family with two children. It’d been amazing when he’d taken over Adams’ group because there’d been so many people which made the future seem more real. He’d thought they would all make it here, but then there’d been that crazy attack in the middle of the night, and they’d been separated. He knew a lot of those people probably hadn’t made it. He still had hope those who’d survived would make their way here.

  “Okay, there’s really not enough of us to break up into groups. We’ll all go together. Adams may be somewhere here lurking about. He did take off in the helicopter. Be on your guard everyone,” Parker ordered even as all of the group checked their weapons and ammunition.

  Just as Parker was about to take off, three men stepped from behind a boulder. He didn’t recognize any of them, and they looked pretty tough. All three were aiming automatic weapons.

  “Well, if it isn’t the President of the United States of America,” a man with short red hair drawled, spitting into the dirt. If the situation weren’t so serious, Parker would have laughed. It seemed so cliché and straight out of a bad movie.

  A taller man built like a pro-wrestler looked at the red-haired men in disdain and stepped forward.

  “Well, Parker, here you are. You have something I want, and I have something you want,” the man stated, a smirk on his face.

  “I doubt that,” Parker replied.

  “Oh yeah, she’s a fresh little red-head who has a tight, sweet…” The man trailed the words off suggestively.

  “What are you talking about?” Parker asked angrily, his finger tightening on the trigger of his weapon.

  “Ella, of course, isn’t she your lover? Don’t you want her back?” the man asked still smiling as if he knew he had the upper hand.

  “What do you know about her?”

  “I know I have her in my trunk just over the rise from here and if you want here, then you know what I want. You can call me Hector, by the way.” One of the other men chuckled at this, and Hector sent him a strong look.

  “Where’s Adams?” Parker asked.

  “Adams is probably buzzard food by now. The fool. He underestimated your girl. She shot him in the head. Too bad she counted me out. That was her mistake,” Hector warned Parker.

  “I don’t believe you. I want to see her,” Parker said firmly. He needed to stay strong, and he needed to show no weakness. Except, Ella was his weakness. At this point, he wasn’t really sure what he was going to do.

  “Don’t be expecting the pretty girl you saw last, though. I’ve had to take her down a peg or two,” the man drawled.

  “It’s just over the rise, there. We’ll head back now, and when you’re ready, you just come find me, and we’ll trade,” Hector threw over his shoulder as he walked back toward the rise.

  Parker turned and looked at the group. He was in a dilemma. He knew how Ella was, and he knew she would give her life for these people, but he didn’t want her to. She shouldn’t have to.

  “Izzy, I know you’re not going to agree with this, but I want you to do what I say,” Parker ordered, grabbing extra clips for his weapon.

  “Parker, what are we going to do? We can’t just leaver her with those men.” Izzy exclaimed angrily.

  “I’m going after her, but I want you to go to the facility. I want you to take this GPS, and I want you to open the door. Take everyone with you. I’ll pretend I left you back here for your safety. At least, you’ll have a head start.”

  “No, Parker. You’re coming with us. We’ll all go get her together,” Izzy exclaimed. Parker knew it was ha
rd for her because he and Izzy had been together for a long time. They’d become very close. He loved the girl like a daughter, and he knew she loved him like a father.

  “Listen, they think we’re stupid. As soon as I give them the codes, they’re going to kill us. They don’t want us following them, and I don’t want any of you dying for this. You have a better chance of getting there first. Maybe you can lock the door and barricade yourself in there, somehow,” Parker ordered, raising one hand and caressing the young woman’s face. He knew this may be the last time he’d ever see Izzy again. He’d miss her spunk, that was for sure.

  “Go, and I’ll leave in a couple of minutes, Take care of Carly and Max--Izzy. They’re your responsibility now,” Parker ordered.

  Jax walked up to him, and Parker smiled. He knew what the man was going to say. Jax would want to go with him. In just the short time, Parker had known him, Jax had become a strong, reliable person.

  “No, Jax. This is not your fight. It’s mine. I want you to go with Izzy. Sometimes, she can be a hothead and do things without thinking. You need to be there to talk her down. I know I can rely on you.” Parker gave the man a slap on the back, cutting off his protests. The man looked like her wanted to argue, but Parker held up a hand.

  “I mean it guys. Amos, I know you love Ella, and I will bring her back to you if I can, but I want you to head out there. If it doesn’t go well with us, then at least you guys will have a chance,” Parker ordered, swallowing the knot in his throat.

  He turned his back and waited for them to leave. After a couple of minutes, there was complete silence, and Parker looked around. There was no sign of the group. He hoped they got to the facility and were able to barricade themselves in the place.