Last Pandemic (Book 3): Escape The Chaos

by Westfield, Ryan

  This time when Jamie woke up, she remembered her last moments of consciousness. She remembered the man coming toward her. The man with the mustache in a white space suit. He’d plunged a needle into her arm and she’d lost consciousness.

  This time when she woke up, the pain was still there and her leg still twitched bizarrely. The way a dreaming dog’s leg jumps and moves, as if he’s running.

  This time when she woke up, the man was still there.

  “You bastard,” she hissed, jamming her head up, struggling against her restraints. “You coward. What are you doing with me?”

  To her absolute surprise, the man answered. His voice came through with static and hisses, because of the respirator apparatus that he wore in front of his face. “I’m just doing my job,” he said.

  “Your job? What’s your job? To abduct strange women and inject them with drugs?”

  The man shrugged, then turned around to face something on the wall, some type of machinery.

  How long had she been out? She didn’t know. Since the last time she’d been awake, it could have been minutes, or it could have been hours.

  Could it have been days?

  Well, she wasn’t hungry and she wasn’t thirsty.

  But she wouldn’t have put it past these bastards to feed her through a feeding tube, or give her an IV that somehow kept her satiated.

  “You can’t do this to me!” she cried out.

  No response. No reaction whatsoever. The man in the suit was playing with his machinery.

  Shit.

  Okay. She needed to think.

  She was still alive. That was good. That meant there was still some chance she could survive this.

  It seemed completely impossible. But of course it wasn’t.

  There was always some overlooked recourse. Always something to do. Always some action to take.

  Trying to get a better sense of her surroundings, Jamie again craned her neck, this time carefully surveying the large room she was in.

  In one corner, she recognized the vehicle that had kidnapped her.

  On the other side of the room, there was another figure. Another white space-suited person. They were heading toward her, walking in a plodding sort of way, as if the suit partially impeded momentum.

  “Hey!” shouted Jamie, waving her head back and forth, since it was the only part of her body she could move. “Hey. You. The other one!”

  To her surprise, the suited figure came over to her. It got pretty close, close enough to touch her if it wanted to. Then it leaned down and Jamie caught a glimpse of its face, the same way she’d seen through the visor of the man who was ignoring her, with only his back to her.

  To her surprise, it was a woman.

  A pretty woman. With plucked eyebrows and hair pulled back into a ponytail.

  Her eyes had a sort of kindness to them as they looked into Jamie’s eyes.

  And it was then that Jamie developed her plan. She was stuck. Completely physically immobilized. She had no chance of fighting her way out of this situation.

  But she might be able to manipulate her way out of it.

  Maybe it was a cliché, but women were more empathetic than men. Far more so. Jamie could use that to her advantage.

  Jamie said nothing, deciding to hold her tongue until she had a solid plan.

  “What are you doing?” said the woman, turning around to the man.

  “Running the sequence.”

  “You got a good sample?”

  “I think so.”

  “You think this is going to work?”

  Jamie stayed silent, listening, hoping to hear of a hint of some sort of conflict between the man and the woman. After all, they were humans, and humans always had conflict. Conflict that could be used as a wedge to separate them from one another, weakening their position.

  “It’s got to work.”

  “It didn’t work on the last one.”

  “Weak sample.”

  “Weak? They seemed fine.”

  Jamie felt a lump in her throat. It sounded as if there was a good chance she was going to die as part of whatever sick experiment this was.

  “We’ve got to do it.”

  “I know. I know. But can’t we just analyze her blood? Can’t we find the immunity factor that way?”

  “No, there isn’t enough time.”

  “Time? The majority of the population’s already dead. What difference does it make?”

  “The further we get from the event, the harder it’ll be to rebuild the government, to rebuild society.”

  “You’re probably right. I just wish there was another way. There’s no risk to her if we just analyze blood and tissue samples.”

  “There’s no risk to her, but we’ve already tried that and we found nothing. Who knows, it might take ten years working that way. But if we inject her with material and watch the reaction, then we’ll get a good sense of what her body’s doing to the virus. It’s doing something to inactivate it. We just need to find out what.”

  “But it just seems so cruel to keep her strapped down like this.”

  There it was. There was the empathy and understanding that Jamie was looking for. Sure enough, the woman was full of it.

  Jamie could use it.

  A spark of hope filled Jamie’s chest and it felt good as she took a deep breath. It felt like she had some hope. It felt like she might be able to get out of this somehow.

  “Cruel?” retorted the man. “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, I’m serious,” said the woman, her voice coming through between the hisses of her breathing apparatus. “Why can’t she come to the break room with us? It seems awful to strap her down like this.”

  “Cruel!” shouted the man, more a statement than a question. “Are you kidding me?” He didn’t wait for her to respond. He just started screaming, his voice sounding horrible and ghostly through the machinery that he breathed through. “I can’t believe you’d even suggest that! Have you lost your mind? What the hell? We don’t even know whether she can spread the virus or not! And you’re suggesting she casually hang out with us so that she can be a little more comfortable. Well, I’ll tell you what. This isn’t about her! This isn’t even about us! This is about our government. This is about the human species!”

  The yelling didn’t stop. He just kept going and with each word he seemed to gain a new sort of angry energy. His voice kept rising and rising, never seeming to stop.

  “Hey, calm down,” said the woman. “Let’s not get...”

  “Let’s not get what? Let’s not get what! Are you seriously going to pull this kind of shit with me! I’m your boss. Have you forgotten that?”

  He was screaming as loudly as he possibly could. As loudly as anyone could.

  Now his words weren’t even making any sense.

  And then it happened.

  He swung at her.

  It was so fast it was hard to even see it.

  His white-suited arm lashed out, the back of his hand hitting her somewhere on the torso. From her angle, Jamie couldn’t see where it had hit exactly.

  But it had been a hard hit.

  “Shit, McGregor, what the hell is wrong with you?”

  Here it was. Here was the drama. Here was the tension. This was perfect, thought Jamie. She’d be able to use this. She’d be a fool not to use it. To not find some way to exploit this weakness in this group.

  “Shit,” shouted McGregor. “Look what you made me do! Look!”

  “You’re the one who hit me. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Look! My glove is torn! I’ve been exposed.”

  “Come on, stop freaking out. You’re going to be fine. You didn’t even touch her.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  The man in the suit who had the mustache was apparently named McGregor. He seemed to be losing his mind. And quickly. Or, at the very least, losing his temper tremendously. He was also the boss. Jamie was making mental notes of all these things, trying
to get everything in the right place in her head, already trying to come up with strategy.

  “I don’t know that? You’re forgetting that I’m a biologist too. Just because I haven’t worked in the lab for a few years, you think I don’t know how anything works all of a sudden? Well, listen to me, I’ve been in this game since before you were even born and...”

  “What’s going out there?” came a voice, apparently piped through a loudspeaker system. “Everything okay? Did one of you hit the silent alarm by mistake?”

  The man turned rapidly, whipping his head around. “You hit the alarm?” he hissed. There was a frightening viciousness to his voice.

  “No...I...it must have been an accident. I wouldn’t do that.”

  “Guys?” came the voice on the loudspeaker again. “Guys? Come on, if you don’t answer me then I’m going to have to come and investigate...and I was just getting comfortable. Come on, I really don’t want to have to put the suit on.”

  “Let me answer him,” said the woman. “I’ll tell him it was an accident.”

  “Was it though? Was it an accident? Don’t you have any respect for me? Don’t you have any respect for your boss? What the hell?”

  His voice was rising rapidly.

  “Look, McGregor,” she said. “Let’s just forget it, alright? If you’re worried about being exposed, then you’re going to have to get out of here.... Come on, let’s get you out of this suit.”

  “No,” hissed McGregor, his voice really sounding crazy now. “I know it’s just a trick. Just another dirty trick. You want my job, don’t you?”

  “Your job? What the hell are you talking about? No one’s even paying us anymore.”

  “But it’s not about the pay, is it?” hissed McGregor. “You want the position. You want the power. You want the authority.”

  “Did you stop taking your meds again, McGregor? ’Cause you’re sounding really nuts. You’re freaking me out. I’m going to get out of here and go get...”

  “You’re not going anywhere until you’re just as much at risk as I am. You want to tear my suit, eh? Well, let’s see how you like it.”

  He rushed her, his body colliding into hers. They both fell to the floor.

  She screamed out in pain. “Help! Rory!”

  But there was no one else there.

  There was nothing Jamie could do. She couldn’t even watch, because the two were on the floor and she could only strain her neck against the restraints so much.

  And even if she could have, would Jamie have wanted to help?

  She didn’t know which one she should root for. After all, they both wanted to keep her strapped down, running experiments on her.

  Maybe the woman would be easier to deal with. Or maybe not.

  11

  Matt

  Brian had agreed to show him the way to the laboratory. Its location wasn’t something that he could easily explain to him, or even draw on a map. It was that way by design, since no one was really supposed to know about it.

  “How long do you think it’ll take to get there?”

  “Walking?”

  “We have vehicles.”

  “What? Sedans?”

  “Trucks. Some four-wheel-drive SUVs.”

  Brian shook his head. “That’s not going to do it,” he said. “The terrain is tough. It’s part of the security measures.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “Like I said, everyone who’s been in this area for a while, a few decades in our case, knows about it. It’s common knowledge. They asked us not to talk about it...and for the most part no one did. You won’t find many people in Santa Fe proper who know about it, unless they worked on its construction...and those guys are usually smart enough to keep their mouths shut.”

  “So we’re going to have to walk?”

  “We can get partway there in a truck...after that, we’ll walk...then you’re on your own.”

  “Fair enough,” said Matt.

  “I’ve got to be there in case my son returns,” added Brian, as if feeling that he needed more of an explanation.

  “I get it,” said Matt. “So tell me more about the overall setup. There’s got to be a road there, right? I mean, there were employees that lived in the city, right?”

  “Yeah, sure, plenty of them. They had a big parking lot for them. A sort of shuttle system of these little ATV-type things that took them there. I mean, I never saw that part myself, but that’s what I heard from some neighbors. Joe actually saw it once. He’d go on these long hikes for days, I guess...”

  “I thought you two didn’t like each other.”

  Brian shrugged. “We still talked sometimes. Not often.”

  They were walking side by side, headed back to Joe’s property. They could see Judy there, waiting, her arms crossed in front of her.

  “That’s his cousin,” said Matt, nodding in Judy’s direction.

  “Ah,” said Brian. “Never met her.”

  “I think they hadn’t seen each other in a while.” As briefly as he could, he explained that Judy was his friend Damian’s mother. He explained how Damian had died, how Mia had died as well, and how they’d barely made it out of Albuquerque, only to discover that the safe haven they thought they’d find had been completely overrun by dangerous individuals.

  “I had no idea that was going on over here,” said Brian. “A tank, you say? That sounds crazy.”

  “Not a real tank,” corrected Matt. “Sort of more like a weird homemade contraption. We still have it, of course. I mean, what are we going to do with it?”

  “Any plans to use it?”

  “If we have to,” said Matt. “We haven’t gotten that far.”

  They’d reached Judy now.

  “I’m guessing this man didn’t do anything to Jamie?” she said.

  Matt shook his head. “Turns out he was your cousin’s neighbor.” He told her how they had reason to believe that Jamie may have been taken to a secret government lab that could only be reached by hiking in, or with a specialized vehicle.

  Judy’s eyebrows rose and her face showed nothing but skepticism.

  “Can I talk to you over here for a moment?” she said, adding, “In private.” She glared at Brian out of the corner of her eye as she and Matt walked several steps away and began speaking in whispers.

  “Don’t worry, Judy,” said Matt. “He’s fine. I thought…”

  “How can you tell?” she interrupted him. “How do you know he’s telling the truth?”

  “It’s a vibe,” said Matt. And when that answer didn’t seem to suffice, he added. “I guess it’s a judgment call.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “It’s a total judgment call. You’ve got to realize that you don’t really know who this guy is, or whether he’s telling you the truth. This whole lab thing? You know what it sounds like to me?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like some tall tale. Like a big pile of bullshit.”

  “You don’t think it’s true?”

  “Come on, Matt. A secret government lab that no one else knows about? Are you serious?”

  “Why not? There are all sorts of labs in the area. I mean, look at Los Alamos.”

  “Yeah, sure, but do you really think that some secret government lab kidnapped Jamie?”

  Matt shrugged. “Makes more sense than her just disappearing.”

  “Does it?”

  “Think about it,” said Matt. “What’s she got that a secret lab would want?”

  Judy shrugged. “Nothing,” she said.

  “No,” said Matt. “She’s got immunity.”

  “Immunity?”

  “Yeah. What if that secret lab is trying to figure out a way to combat the virus? What if they need tissue samples or something from someone who’s managed to somehow beat the virus? So they drive out in their little vehicle and grab the first person they see who’s still alive.”

  “That’s a pretty cynical view of our government,” said Judy. “You think they’re just out t
here working in secret, trying to beat the virus?”

  “Not everyone,” said Matt. “But there have to be holdouts, don’t you think? It’s not fair to say the whole system is corrupt, right? Or wholly good?”

  Judy shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just don’t know.”

  “You think I should go?”

  “I guess I don’t see what other choice you have. It doesn’t seem likely that Jamie’s just going to show up on her own. But Matt...”

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful. Watch your back. Even if this guy is telling the truth, I wouldn’t trust him...he has that desperate look in his eyes.”

  “He lost his wife. That’s why he looks like that. It’s sadness. Maybe desperation.”

  “That may be true,” said Judy. “Or it may not be. But look, even if it is true, you’ve still got to be careful, because he’s still desperate.”

  “So I take it you’re not coming?”

  “Was that ever an option?” said Judy. “It sounds like a hard hike. I’m doing okay now. But if I have another episode, I’m not going to make it. I’ll just slow the whole thing down.”

  The two of them fell silent. Matt glanced over at Brian, who was sort of standing there looking off at the mountains in the distance with a vacant expression on his face.

  “He said he’s waiting for his son to come back.”

  Judy said nothing.

  “Well,” said Matt. “You locate anything good to eat in that cellar?”

  “Sure thing,” said Judy. “Lots of good stuff. Joe may have been half-crazy, living out here like this...but he certainly had the right idea when it came to food.”

  “I wouldn’t say he was crazy. I mean, we’re hoping to live off his hard work.”

  Judy nodded. “Come on, I’ll show you what I pulled off the shelves. Some good stuff. Plenty of protein and carbs. Perfect for a long hike. You’ll have to eat up.”

  “Brian,” called Matt, gesturing with his hand. “Come on, we’re going to get some food before we head out. I figure you’ll want to eat, right?”

  Brian sort of shrugged as he wandered over, that dazed look still all over his face.

  “Thinking about your wife?”

  Brian nodded.