The End Time Saga (Book 5): The Holding

by Greene, Daniel

  The crowd flooded into the barn to eat, and Jake came to her. He came from the other side that Steele was on as to avoid contact with the man. She didn’t know if it was fear or disappointment or some kind of shame of not being the man she’d chosen.

  He hugged her. “Good ceremony. Not a dry eye in the place.”

  Gwen wiped a tear from hers. “Nope. Why don’t you grab some food?”

  “Suppose I will, Mom and Dad are already in there.” He looked inside the open-doored barn as if he was trying to figure out the best way to say something.

  “You know,” he started.

  She put a hand on his chest. He looked down at it for a moment.

  “No. Not today.”

  He pursed his lips. “All right, Gwen.” He looked away again and then back at her. His eyes pierced hers with a thousand unsaid words. “Time for that food. Merry Christmas.”

  “Merry Christmas, Jake.” She watched a man that she had loved walk away and into the barn.

  “Did you let him down easy?”

  “Yeah, I think so.” She felt a hand on her hip.

  “Nobody is going to take you away from me. Not now. Not never.” He nuzzled his cold nose into her cheek and kissed her. “Why did we wait so long?”

  She gave him a playful gaze. “You never asked.”

  He nodded his head in mock realization. “I guess you’re right. Probably should have asked earlier.”

  “Probably before this.” She rubbed her belly. They had added pieces of white fabric on the sides of her grandmother’s wedding gown in an attempt to create space for Baby Steele.

  “Yeah, we got that cart before the horse.”

  They walked to the edge of the barn. The sounds of people eating and drinking along with the revelry created a loud din. Jessup’s fiddle slowed to the beat of “We Three Kings.” Gwen stopped and listened as he played, remembering the words.

  She eyed the people as the somber tune flowed from his instrument mesmerizing her.

  “What’s the matter?” Mark said, squeezing her hand.

  The words from the myrrh verse played in her head: Breathes a life of gathering gloom.

  “Nothing, love.”

  He smiled. “Let’s grab some food. I’m starving.”

  Hank came up and handed Mark a beer after popping the top. He slugged it back. “Damn, that’s good.” He glanced at her and took her hand. “Come on.”

  But it was the final words that stuck in her mind as if they were on repeat: Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying.

  She gulped back her fears and they walked inside.

  JOSEPH

  Cheyenne Mountain Complex, CO

  Joseph nodded to the guards. He put his ID card to the top right corner of the proximity scanner, and it flashed lights, granting him access. He entered the cell room. The same two soldiers sat hunched over their single table playing cards.

  “Greer, you’re cheating.”

  Greer slapped his cards down on the table. “I ain’t cheating. You’re just a terrible player.”

  The other guard whined. “I always win at solitaire.”

  “‘Cause you’re prolly doin’ it wrong.”

  Joseph cleared his throat. The two men looked at him. “I’m here to check the sick prisoner.”

  “You’re late.” Greer stabbed a finger at his partner. “No cheatin’.” And he grabbed his submachine gun off the table.

  Gulping, Joseph steadied himself. I’m cool. I’m cool. I’m a fancy doctor with tons of science things to do. “I’m busy making the vaccine. You know the one that will save your life if you’re bit.”

  Greer cocked his head. “Figures they would make you waste your time with this lot.”

  Joseph shrugged his shoulders. “Government bureaucracy at its finest.”

  A smile cracked Greer’s thin lips. “You can say that again.” He flicked on his flashlight and they walked to the hole in the ground leading to the prisoners below. He lazily adjusted the ladder, letting it drop below with a crunch.

  “They been quiet today. Guess they were hungry.”

  “They must have been.” Joseph grabbed the ladder.

  Greer stuck out a hand. “Wait.”

  Joseph blinked. “Yes?”

  “I can’t let you down there without looking in your bag.”

  “Of course, I forgot.”

  Greer laughed under his breath. “Don’t want you bringing any weapons in.”

  Joseph removed his pack from his shoulder and handed it over to the soldier. “I understand your concern.”

  The guard opened the bag and jammed his hand inside, using his flashlight to illuminate the insides. He dug around forcefully, flinging contents like a monkey trying to use advanced tools.

  Glass clanked and Joseph cringed. “Please, be careful. Those vials are fragile.”

  Greer slowed his rummaging. “Looks safe enough.” He thrust the bag back in Joseph’s hand. “Holler if they get frisky.”

  Joseph shouldered his pack and climbed down into the cave-like cell. He clicked on his flashlight, revealing the faces of over twenty prisoners.

  “Byrnes?” Joseph said.

  “Yes.” The slender colonel stood shielding his eyes from the light.

  Joseph hurried to him. Setting his bag on the ground, he glanced up at the man. “We don’t have much time. We’re getting you out today.”

  “How?” Byrnes breathed, his face a dour with the weight of weariness cloaking him.

  Joseph crouched removing a vial and needle. He stuck the needle into the vial and filled the syringe. “Modified tetrodotoxin, courtesy of Dr. Desai.”

  Byrnes’s scowl deepened. “TTX is extremely deadly.”

  A sigh escaped Joseph’s throat, trying to calm his jumping jack insides. “You’re correct.” The two men eyed each other for a moment. “There’s no other way. Desai says the dosage will work.”

  “I have enough for five of you.” He spun his flashlight from side to side, and the tired beaten faces of the prisoners gazed back. He bent down, preparing more syringes. “The rest will be quarantined, and as we inject them, we will remove them from the complex.”

  “The longer this goes on the more likely we are to fail.” Byrnes clasped his wrist with one hand, contemplating the situation.

  Another syringe was prepped, and he set it next to the others. “Choose wisely. You either have a chance to live, or you will be executed. Your terms or theirs. Pick.”

  Byrnes eyeballed the needles, judging his morbid options for himself and the other prisoners. Two men and two women joined him. “They will execute all of us. They promised us that. But you have a choice now.”

  Each of the four people nodded.

  “We’ll do it,” whispered a woman with a bun drooping off the top of her head. Age lined her face, and a permanent angry crease lined the center of her forehead. She wore a camouflaged blue and gray navy combat uniform.

  Folding the sleeve of his soiled uniform, Byrnes nodded. “Good, Ava. It’s decided.”

  Greer’s voice echoed through the hole like a malevolent creator from above. “How they looking, doc?”

  “Very sick. Give me another minute.”

  “Er, what’s wrong with them?”

  The slender colonel’s lips tightened, and he gave him a slight nod. The needle poked into the bluish vein in his arm, and Joseph injected his fellow doctor. He set the needle back in his bag and picked up the next one.

  The voice from above came again. “Doctor?”

  Joseph made sure his voice carried. “It’s just as I feared.” He waved the next person closer. “Looks airborne.” He rubbed a tiny alcohol wipe on the woman’s arm.

  “Do it,” she said. “It’s better than dying in a hole.”

  Joseph injected her and moved on to the next prisoner.

  The faint curses of the guard from above trickled down in the underground cell. But Joseph was already on to the la
st prisoner. He whispered softly. “Better sit down.” The others laid down on the cool rocky ground.

  Quickly, he counted those that wanted to escape and only four had chosen to be left behind. It would take three separate trips to gather all the injected bodies. Joseph repacked his supplies and slipped a surgical mask over his face.

  He walked to the ladder peering upward. “This doesn’t look good.” A flashlight beamed down on him like he was about to be abducted by a UFO, forcing him to shield his eyes. “The disease has spread like wildfire through them. I don’t suspect most to make it much longer.” Joseph eyed the fading prisoners. “Not much longer down here anyway.”

  “Dead?” Greer said. The light scanned away for a moment. “Fuck.”

  “I would say this whole area is contaminated.”

  “Contaminated?”

  Rung after rung, Joseph climbed out of the hole. He dusted himself off and Greer took a step back in fear. “Most will die within an hour or two.”

  Greer wiped his face. “Must be why they’ve been so quiet.” He turned toward his partner. “Jay, get over here.”

  The other guard sauntered to where they stood as if any extra effort would cause him extreme discomfort. He had a broad nose and blocky brow. “What is it?”

  “Doctor here says they’re sick and gonna die.”

  “So what? They’re gonna die either way. What’s the difference if they die down there?”

  “Shouldn’t we call it up?”

  “Nah, let the next shift deal with it.”

  “Help,” came a voice from the hole. “He’s dead.”

  “I’ll call my team down to retrieve the body. We’ll need the HAZMAT suits for these ones. Real contagious disease. Stuff horror movies are made out of.”

  Greer took a step back. “Jesus. Do whatever you have to do.”

  Joseph gave him a quick scrutinizing look. “We’re going to have to test you both for symptoms.”

  Jay shook his head. “They don’t pay us enough for this shit.”

  “I’d really stay out of the way here. Even with medicine, I’m not sure many of those people will survive.”

  “You don’t think we got it, do you?” Greer’s eyes rounded in fear.

  “We won’t know for a few days. I’ll need you to collect your stool samples daily and keep track of your temperature. If it goes up more than .2 degrees, I’ll need you to come in.”

  Greer looked at Jay. “I was sweating last night. Woke up this morning, and my sheets were soaked.”

  “Not a good sign,” Joseph said, shaking his head.

  A pounding came on the door. Jay left to answer it. “Yeah, let ’em in. There’s some sort of outbreak. No, not Zulus, but a few of them died.”

  A blue HAZMAT suit crinkled as Dr. Desai walked through the doorway.

  “Doctor,” Joseph said.

  “Doctor,” Desai replied with a nod.

  “They’re over here.” He led her with the rolling stretcher to the hole in the ground. He waved at the guards. “We’ll need your help getting the body up.”

  “Are you sure? Aren’t they infectious?” Greer hesitantly held his ground away from the hole.

  “I can’t lift them without help.” He removed latex gloves from this pocket and tossed them at the soldier. “Put those on.”

  Joseph climbed back inside the cell. Byrnes was lying on the ground like a corpse. For all intents and purposes, he was. His lips had a bluish hue fitting his normally dour state. His breathing was so light and his heartbeat so scarce that it would be difficult to detect even with medical devices.

  “Help me,” Joseph said to the prisoners. Two men picked up Byrnes and walked him over to the ladder. A rope was tossed down, and they tied it around Byrnes’s body.

  “All right, pull him up.”

  The guards grunted and heaved the body upwards. The colonel’s head slumped forward as they hauled him out, a limp piece of meat.

  “There’s more,” Joseph shouted.

  A head poked in the hole. “What do you mean more?”

  “These people are dead too.” He gave Greer a dirty look. “I told you. You needed to take better care of them.”

  “Bullshit.” Greer climbed into the cave covering his mouth with his shoulder and trained his MP5 on the prisoners. “Everyone on the wall.” The captives moved with sullen reserve to the wall and stood aside. “Hands on it.” Grimy hands rested on the rough surface. Four bodies lay unmoving on the rocky ground.

  “You better put on a mask if you are going to be down here.

  “I don’t have a mask. There’s no way these ones are dead too.” He shined a flashlight, illuminating Ava in her naval uniform.

  “I told you they were sick.”

  A prisoner coughed near the wall. Greer aimed his light in that direction. “Shut up.” He went back to the nearest body and gave her a tap with his boot. Her leg shook, the foot coming to a rest. “Get up.”

  The woman didn’t move.

  “I told you they’re dead.” Joseph crouched next to the body and stuck his fingers into Ava’s neck. “No pulse.”

  Greer gave her another kick, still covering his mouth. This time he directed the kick at the center of her thigh, a common pressure point that would give her severe pain if struck. Her body rocked. He kicked her again even harder. Her head lolled to a resting place.

  “I’m telling you. In my expert medical opinion, she is dead, and you shouldn’t be down here.”

  Greer took a step backward. He trained his submachine gun on the prisoners. “One move and I’ll finish you all off. Nothing fishy.” He skipped up the ladder rungs.

  Joseph put his arms under Ava’s armpits and dragged her over to the hole. They tossed him the rope, and he tied it around her body. He wouldn’t know if the injection worked or not for a few hours when the toxins wore off. Then it was only a matter if they woke up or stayed dead. He repeated this process with the other bodies. “I’ll be back later to pick up the others.”

  He followed the last hanging corpse through the hole. The two guards rolled out body bags and placed them inside. Then the guards piled the bodies atop one another on the rolling stretcher. When they were done, they stepped away. Their arms covered their mouths as they tried not to breathe in the invisible particles of disease circulating in the air.

  Joseph pointed at them. “Remember what I told you. You must report your symptoms to me tomorrow. Keep all your stools.”

  Dumbly, the two soldiers bobbed their heads.

  “Come, Dr. Desai. We must get these bodies out for processing. Then we will come back and grab any we couldn’t fit.”

  They wheeled the stretcher out the door. The guards on the outside gawked at the pile of body bags.

  “What the fuck happened?” one said.

  “Airborne methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Nasty, nasty business.”

  “Goddamn. Get that shit out of here.”

  “Wait,” said the other guard.

  “Who is it? Sergeant is gonna want to know when they ain’t down there.”

  “You said yesterday. No names.”

  “Oh fuck.”

  “Feel free to take a look.” Joseph opened a palm over the bodies. The body bags were indiscriminate and unmarked.

  The guards stared at the bodies in disgust. One reached a hand for Byrnes’s bag.

  “I’d . . . “Joseph started. He held out a hand.

  The guard glanced at him. “What?”

  “I’d use gloves. This is a deadly strain. Sticks to everything.”

  His shorter partner leaned back into the wall. “Come on. Let them leave. We don’t want to catch that shit.”

  The other guard eyed them. “All right.” He waved them off. “I should have stayed on the outside.”

  Pushing the stretcher down the tunnel, the wheels ground and dug into the rocky uneven floor. Desai grunted as she pushed alongside him.

  Her voice came at a whisper. “Do you think they bought it?”
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br />   “They aren’t following, are they?”

  Desai looked behind her. “No.”

  “Hurry. Let’s get them to the docks.”

  TESS

  Camp Forge, IA

  She soaked her crumbling brown bread into the meat juices left on her plate by a generous portion of crispy roasted pork flank. Gregor belched loudly and lifted a beer at Hank. They clanged cans.

  “Cheers!”

  “Merry Christmas, brother.”

  Hoisting their beers back toward the ceiling, they shouted. “And a happy New Year!” They pressed beverages to their lips and greedily guzzled them down their gullets.

  She ripped a piece of pork with her fingers and tore off a chunk of bread, shoving them both into her mouth.

  Trent picked his teeth with his fingernail and stared across the table at her. “Best eatin’ we had since Sable.”

  She swallowed her food. “Best eatin’ I had since the outbreak. But nothing beats a midnight Beefy Taco run.”

  He gave her a grin and pulled out a can of chewing tobacco. He slapped the tin between his fingers and used a finger to pry it open.

  “Come on, man. We’re at the dinner table.”

  He smiled at her. “Lucky for me, we aren’t the ones getting hitched.” He shoved a wad of chew into his goateed mouth.

  She raised her eyebrows at him and knocked back a glass of whiskey. The man was transforming into a more handsome devil by the hour, but his tobacco habit turned her surge of attraction down a notch. A few more drinks and she wouldn’t care what he did or didn’t do, just that he was a living, breathing man. With urges and needs that matched hers even if he wasn’t Pagan or Steele, he was still a man. He licked the chew on his lip back into his mouth, and scooped up a beer can, and spit into it.

  The fiddle and the banjo were almost drowned out by the clamor of people. The pastor had left early in the night, paying his respects to both Mark and Gwen. His Chosen followers retired in clusters generally devoid of any real celebration.

  Tess tossed back shots with Trent. Shotgunned beers with Gregor. Sang carols with Harriet at the top of her lungs and ate more food with Larry when she was feeling the alcohol too much.