Resistant, no. 1

by Ryan T. Petty

  “Released? You mean back out there? Back into that mess where I will be killed or worse?” I took a step forward, but stopped myself. This man was still armed and could kill me in a second if he wanted to. I looked at him, through his mask, into his green eyes.

  “Do you agree with them? I mean, do you want me to go too?”

  “I can’t risk the lives of everyone in the compound. No matter how astounding your story was about being out there for weeks, I can’t let you in because you may kill everyone, and I won’t let that happen.” He opened the door again to leave.

  “Please, Michael, wait.”

  “Good night, Jennifer.” He shut the door again, but this time it was more of a slam. I heard the door lock while I slammed my hands against it, begging for him to return.

  * * * *

  My night was full of being awake and crying. I had been tough while on the road and in the city, but this seemed too much for me. When the sun came up, I was to be taken out of this room and away from normal people, back out into a world of viruses, killers, and cannibals. I didn’t know if I could do it all again or where I could go. The journey had taken so much out of me, and now, on the edge of being with what was left of society, I was going to be cast out again.

  When the first few rays of orange light burned through the openings at the top of the cell, I heard the lock on my door click. The captain entered, followed by two guards. He sighed.

  “It’s time,” he said coolly.

  I could only look at him. So much had passed through my mind that night. If I fought back, my begging and pleading would’ve been ignored. The only real thing I could do was find my inner strength again, the little burning light that gave me the power to live on. I faced the masked guards, determined not to shed a tear as I was led away.

  “We have gathered some provisions for you to take. Are you going to come quietly?” the captain asked.

  “I might as well. I’m the only one I depend on anyway. I guess I misjudged you. I thought you had strength, but you are just like those things in the city. You’re no better than Damien.”

  With the shallow remark, I saw the captain’s eyes sink to the floor. He looked at both men on each side of him.

  “Gentlemen, I’ll do this myself.” They didn’t move, but looked at him through their masks. “Out, men,” he barked, “and shut the door behind you.” With little hesitation, both men followed Michael’s orders. When the door shut, he locked it from the inside.

  “Well, I’m always good for a laugh. How am I just like the man that tried to—”

  “You are a coward!” I shouted, much to his dismay. “A coward always finds the easy way out, and rather than run more tests or get to the bottom of my diagnosis, you are simply sending me out to the wolves.”

  “It’s not my call,” he said with no emotion.

  “And what would your call be?”

  “I hadn’t made up my mind until you compared me to an SA7. Now, I guess I’m good with you leaving,” he said with a hint of sarcasm, but sighed quickly afterward. “This is nothing against you, Jennifer. This is about the safety of our compound. The unknown is a big warning sign here.” He turned to the door, unlocking it. “Now, you wanted your freedom, and we’re here to give it to you.”

  It wasn’t something I had planned, it was just the anger coming out of me, but by the time he had turned around again, I had gotten close enough to slap him with enough force his mask tilted off to the side.

  What came next, I wasn’t expecting. He kicked the door shut behind him and grabbed me by the wrists, pushing me all the way across the room, and pinning me against the wall. I started to kick or knee him, but he pressed his body up against mine forcefully, his mask was almost pressed against my face.

  “Calm down! Calm down!” he commanded, and with his strength, I knew there was no reason to continue fighting. “Don’t you understand? You could kill us all!” he yelled at me. “This isn’t just about you. It’s about everything we have worked six years for, and you could end it just like that.” There was a hard knock at the door.

  “Captain?” It was Clarissa’s voice. “The door’s locked from the inside. Want us to break it down? Answer in three seconds or we are coming in.”

  “No!” he shouted back, pushing my wrists hard again before releasing me and stepping away. “I’m fine. It will just be another moment.” He looked at me, like he had done before, with stern yet compassionate eyes. “No one is going to win if you are infected, and there’s no way we will know without putting someone’s life in jeopardy.”

  “So get on with it then, pull out your pistol and put a bullet in my head, because if you take me back out there, you are killing me anyway. You might as well get it over with now! Just kill me because I will die out there!” I approached him and pushed his chest, taunting him, reluctantly punching at him, but again, he simply wrapped me up in his arms and easily held me in the center of the room as I began to cry.

  “Hush...just hush for a moment,” he said softly, holding me, but in a secure way as tears rolled from my eyes against his chest. Another penetrating knock at the door separated us.

  “Captain?” Clarissa questioned.

  “Just another moment,” he answered through the door, placing his hand on it, but looking back at me. I went back across the room and melted in the corner, waiting for the inevitable.

  “So what are you waiting on?”

  He gave me a hard stare before grabbing the door’s handle, but slowly, he released it and ran his hand against its smooth metal.

  “Well,” he sighed, “I just hope I’m right.” He gave the door a tap with his hand before he reached up to his mask and slowly unsnapped the sides and pulled it off his face, taking a deep breath of air as he did.

  Chapter Seven

  “What are you doing?” I asked, shocked. He approached and sat down next to me before I could stand. It took a moment for him to answer.

  “Sometimes it’s difficult being a leader,” he mumbled.

  “Sergeant, my mask has come off.” The door was instantly being beaten against from the outside.

  “Captain! Captain! Michael, what did she do to you?”

  “Clarissa, I took my mask off myself. Now, follow these orders. If she is infected, we shall know in less than a couple of hours. At that time, I want you to break in and do what needs to be done. Is that understood?” There was no answer for a moment. “Sergeant?”

  “Yes, sir,” she said reluctantly from the outside.

  Michael looked at me and slowly unholstered his weapon, placing it in my lap.

  “Here. I’m SA7 too, so when I start to turn, do me a favor and kill me. I don’t want it to be a bother for my troops out there.”

  I couldn’t believe any of this. Every time someone had entered the cell with me, they had always worn a mask. Even though the tests were inconclusive, they had told me because I had been out so long that I was probably infected. Still, Michael was taking a chance with me, putting his own life in jeopardy to save mine, someone he hardly knew.

  “Why?” I questioned, “Why are you doing this?”

  He only shrugged, revealing his slight smile as he did.

  “Seemed like the right thing to do,” he lamented, “and you were right. It would’ve been cowardice to send you out without knowing. So if I’m right and you’re not infected, we both live; but if I’m wrong, then we die together.”

  I couldn’t say anything, but I immediately felt a lump in my throat. Michael could’ve easily shot me or drug me out of his compound for the safety of others or left me to die out in the woods. However, here he was, sitting next to me, actually handing me his gun in case he turned into something I knew deep down he was not.

  Looking at him, probably longer than I should have, I saw that behind his mask were not only his deep, green eyes, but a chiseled jaw-line and a slender nose which flared when he breathed in and out. He looked at me suddenly, causing me to turn away.

  “If you’re goin
g to stare, please look at my good side.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, embarrassed.

  “It’s alright. I usually only get stared at by infected killers, so you’re a step up.”

  I smiled, but wanted to change the subject.

  “So the woman, the sergeant outside, seems to really care a lot about you.”

  Michael nodded. “Well, she better. She’s my sister.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, when this all happened years ago we were able to find shelter and masks. I was just about to go back for my second tour of duty, and she had just started high school. We went on one last weekend trip together, just us, before I was being shipped overseas. When we drove, I remember hearing about the virus as a minor thing on the East Coast and didn’t think much of it. No one knew how fast it would spread, if it was airborne, or how it affected people. The next thing I knew the sickness was just hours away. Panic had struck every major city. Quarantines were happening, mass killings in hospitals to try and stop it, and different rumors were spreading about any new thing.”

  “How come you weren’t infected?”

  “The masks.” He picked his up and shook it. “Not this one specifically, but just some gas masks that I actually had in the duffel bag I had picked up during my stint in the service. We put them on, but said our goodbyes, not thinking they were going to save us. However, we woke up the next morning, so we continued to wear them and found others who had them. Eventually, we found our way here.”

  “Where is here?”

  “This is actually a small, federal prison that was built just before the virus had started. They called it Tri-state, because it’s so close to the borders of all three states. It’s a white-collar prison. Seems like they were actually starting to crack down on bankers and businessmen who stole from everyone. By the time we got here, it was deserted. All of the prisoners were released...I guess on good behavior.”

  “Right...”

  “Well, I guess it was the right thing to do. It has given us a home for a while.”

  “So how do you survive here in a prison? I mean, don’t you—”

  “Just save all those questions until later,” he said. “No reason getting ahead of yourself.” He stood up and walked around the room, taking small steps to make the walk last longer or the time go by faster.

  “I’m sorry we weren’t able to offer you better accommodations. This is usually a catch-and-release room. We don’t expect to hold people in it as long as you have been here.”

  “Catch-and-release?”

  “Yeah. If we find people that are questionable, we bring them here. Usually a test won’t take any more than twenty-four hours, like I told you in the beginning. After we find out what they are, we release them back where we found them. Unless they become violent...then,” he made a slicing gesture across his throat.

  “There’s nothing you can do for them?”

  “No. There’s nothing,” he said, falling back to the less than emotional voice. “There’s no cure for this. In fact, the only real reason we brought you in was because of the necklace you were wearing.”

  I pulled it from my shirt and looked at the ∞ on the small piece of metal.

  “It means infinity or forever. In the first few months of the pandemic, it was a way for survivors to tell each other there was a safe place nearby. It just means we are going to survive this. I guess everyone was trying to be positive. A lot of us have it.” Michael rolled up his sleeve and showed me his forearm, revealing the same symbol tattooed on him. “We are going to get through this, Jennifer. We have to,” he said, a smile on his face, a gleam of hope in his eye. But I didn’t share his enthusiasm.

  “I saw someone that...that changed.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “They tore off his mask and he turned in what seemed to be only a matter of minutes into a...a monster.”

  “That’s SA8. They are just blood thirsty pieces of—” he stopped himself and smiled. “They are cannibals and eat anything moving they can get their hands on. They don’t have a mind anymore, just living to kill and eat.”

  “Yeah, I sensed that when they tried to run me down and devour me,” I said, thinking back to being trapped in the car, waiting to die then like I was now. I looked up at Michael. “How have you survived so long?”

  He began with a sigh. “Luck for the most part. When we survived the first night, it was just like a weight off our shoulders. I remember being in a cheap motel room we had broken into, hearing the things going on outside, sitting there, barely sleeping, thinking this was it, we were going to die. But when the first ray of light hit me and Clare-bear turned over and was still alive, I knew we had to continue each and every day to live,” he said with his slight smile. “And look at you. You’ve made it through a lot.” He gave me a nudge with his foot. “At least until now.”

  I looked at him again, still trying to figure out why he had done what he did, but not questioning him anymore.

  “How do you feel?”

  “So far I feel fine. How about you?”

  “Fine, besides being locked in this room for the past four or five days.” He smiled, but it was forced.

  “Well, I could have left you out in the woods,” he shot back.

  “No, these accommodations are just...fine.”

  * * * *

  The last few minutes of the two hours ticked away and Michael still seemed like he had not changed. He placed his mask back on when we heard them call in.

  “Captain, we’re coming in,” cried Clarissa, but before they destroyed the door, Michael opened it for them and gave them a nod, stepping back toward me as they came in, guns ready and pointed at me.

  “Put that weapon down,” commanded Clarissa, which I did quickly. She pulled it away with her foot and quickly turned to her brother.

  “Why did you take your mask off?”

  “I had to see,” he said simply.

  “See what? She could have killed you, you know that, right?” He didn’t say anything. “You know you have to be put in quarantine now, don’t you? You have to sit out in another room for the next twenty-four hours until your tests clear. All for this.” She pointed at me violently.

  “Clarissa—”

  “Don’t Clarissa me. It’s sergeant right now. Captain, I have been ordered by the Council to put you under quarantine. You will go now or you will be removed from the defensive leadership of the compound, is that understood?” Michael only nodded. “I will need a blood sample from you after you get away from her.” She pulled out a syringe from a container on her belt.

  “I can do that, now, Sergeant,” he said, taking it from her and sticking his own arm, drawing a vile of blood from it before handing it back to her.

  She handed him a cotton ball to place over the wound. “Men, take the captain to Q2. Start rations for him as well.” The soldiers only hesitated slightly, but Michael gave them no reason to. He casually walked out of the room and vanished from sight.

  “And because of the actions of my brother saving your life twice now, the Council has reversed their decision. As long as he survives, which he is expected to, then you will be welcomed into the compound,” she said angrily. She tossed a gas mask into my lap. “Put that on and don’t take it off until we are inside the compound tomorrow morning.”

  “Thank you,” I said, but it probably sounded more sarcastic than I had planned since Clarissa turned around and knelt down next to me, her pistol in my face. I was watching it and wasn’t prepared for her other hand, which drove into my neck, cutting off most of my air. I grabbed her hand, but she was too strong for me. I kicked and gagged as I tried to breathe.

  “And if for some reason my brother doesn’t survive, I’ll make you wish you were never born.”

  She pushed me down and I immediately began coughing and sucking in as much air as possible. I wasn’t ready for the kick in the side that practically flipped me over, but me holding my ribcage in utter pain was enough for Clarissa to stop
the sudden assault. She looked back at me before shutting the door, locking me in. Her cold, steel blue eyes cut through me as a warning sign, letting me know that even though I was invited in the community, I definitely needed to stay away from her.

  Chapter Eight

  Even though I had been locked in the cell for days, the last few hours seemed to last the longest. Like before, none of the guards who brought me food spoke to me, but gave me a warning to only remove my mask for seconds at a time while I ate. It was after a long night of restlessness wearing the mask when the door swinging open awakened me.

  “Are you ready?” asked the soldier, one I recognized that had brought me food, but I never knew his name.

  “Yes, thank you.” He only gave me a nod as I stepped through the metal door, then into another plastic-enclosed room finally and onto the sidewalk, covering my eyes from the dim morning rays of sun. Razor wire ran along the top of the outside fence. There were a couple of watchtowers on this side of the compound; both had men with weapons standing at their posts, both of them wearing masks as well.

  On the flagpole at the center of the courtyard waved the United States flag, its end tattered and torn. Underneath it was a much smaller white flag, which had a black infinity symbol on it.

  “Go toward Block A,” the soldier motioned, and we both followed the sidewalk to its entrance.

  “Step in. This will clear any outside air from entering with you. Once the number hits one hundred percent and the light turns green, you’re clear to go inside.”

  “Are you not going with me?”

  No, Block A is for women. Block C is for the men.”

  “And I guess Block B is for the cannibals?” I tried to joke, but the soldier didn’t even crack a smile.

  “Block B is for the children and small families,” he said simply, waiting for me to enter. I did, stepping through the glass doors that shut hard behind me. A rush of air blew around the small room and I watched on the opposite wall as the number began to climb, starting at zero and quickly getting to fifty, seventy-five, and then one hundred percent. When I turned around to look at the soldier, he was gone. The green light turned on and the opposite glass doors slid open, allowing me to step into a short hallway. Two female guards stood on each side of the door, but it was the large infinity symbol on the front of a desk that caught my eye. The older lady sitting behind it smiled at me.