Instinctively, I put my arm under his to help him balance on his one good leg. The walk back was going to be difficult. We traveled through the forest and Michael carried himself well, but the terrain was hard on him as we moved through the slopes and crevasses that were hidden in the underbrush. We eventually came across a small trail running through the woods.
“What is this?” I asked.
“It takes us back to the road leading to the garage,” Michael said. “It will save a little bit of time if we take it, but we’ll stay in the woods once we get close to the road.”
“Okay,” I said with a nod. “Do you need a break?”
“Maybe,” he said, slowly lowering himself next to a large tree and pulling his mask off his face.
“Michael.”
“Don’t worry,” he said, pulling me close to him, “I have the cure.” His lips fell upon mine and I wrapped my arms around him. He eased me over his lap, but I made sure not to put my weight upon his legs. He began kissing my neck, his hands moving down my arms. I fought every sensation, every emotion that I wanted to express. I ducked my head and kissed him again, sharing our breath, making me feel as if we were the only ones in the world.
“I love you,” I said, out of breath.
“I love you, too.”
He buried his face into my neck as tears began to fill my eyes. I never knew I could feel this way after everything I had been through. There we were, in the middle of nowhere, but together we carried the strongest hope that things could get better and the world could find its way back to where it needed to be.
“We better get going,” Michael said after a while, smiling up at me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I couldn’t help but smile as I slowly pulled myself to my feet, holding out my hand to help him up. As he took it, we looked up the road to see a large, black vehicle coming in our direction. Michael pulled himself to his feet quickly and hoisted his gun to his shoulder.
“Go!” Michael grunted, as the truck rolled closer and closer.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Jennifer! Go!”
The bullets hit the ground right in front of us and I pushed Michael behind the tree that we had just been laying against. He rolled us over where his body was between me and the vehicle, the squealing of the brakes telling us it was coming to a stop.
“Get up!” shouted the woman’s voice. I saw her for the first time since my escape, the raven-haired beauty who’d kissed Alex so passionately to give him the virus. I shivered, knowing that Damien had to be with her.
We slowly stood, seeing her pointing the machine gun out of the passenger side window.
“Can I kill them?” she asked.
The door on the opposite side of the car slammed shut, and the figure that came around the front of the car sent shivers down my spine. Damien glared at us both with his vicious eyes.
“They’re mine!” he yelled, holding a pistol in his hand. He stomped toward us. “Hello, girly girly.” He grinned, pointing the gun toward Michael.
“Wait! Please!” I jumped in between them. “Please, let him go! It’s me you want. I’ll do anything, just don’t hurt him!”
Damien stared for what seemed like an eternity, but I could only look at the pistol.
“We don’t have time for this,” an older voice said from the second seat of the truck. The window rolled down and the mayor glared at Damien and us. “Kill them and let’s get going.”
“Shut up, old man!” Damien yelled back. “I got all my people killed following your damn idea today. You do what I say now!” He then turned his attention back to us.
“You’ll do what I say too, girly girly, and he’s going to listen to all of it, right before I kill both of you.” Damien grabbed at me, but Michael quickly pulled me behind him.
“You think you’re bad because you have a gun on us?” Michael shouted back. His eyes bore into Damien.
“What was that?”
“You want to show how strong you are? Why don’t you fight me like a man? Or are you just the piece of trash chicken I took you for when you got out of the truck?”
Damien paused for a moment then grinned at us both right before his fist jabbed forward, but Michael caught it before it hit his face.
“If that’s the best you can do you might need a gun after all.”
Damien growled and quickly came forward, giving Michael little time to react. He pushed me out of the way before taking two quick punches to the gut. Michael retaliated, punching Damien in the jaw, but it didn’t seem to faze the raging beast. Michael tried to protect his injured leg, but was fighting off-balanced when Damien rushed him again.
I noticed Damien’s pistol laying a few feet in front of me as the two continued to fight.
“Get down! Get down!” the girl said, stepping out of the car. She stood over me as I knelt to the ground, but we both concentrated on the fight at hand.
“Get him, Damien,” she yelled as he elbowed Michael across the lip. He punched him again in the ribcage and Michael wobbled on his feet.
Recovering, Michael was able to wrap up Damien’s arms when he attacked again, then punched his side multiple times before Damien began kicking Michael’s injured leg.
I hated watching it, thinking I was watching the last few moments of Michael’s life. There was no escaping Damien’s brute force, and Michael took another shot to the side, which spun him around like a top.
“No!” I cried.
Damien grinned his devilish grin, again going on the attack. Michael blocked another shot to his side, but took a punch to the chest. His injured leg gave way and he fell to one knee.
“No, please!” I begged loudly, but only got a bloody smile from Damien.
“Now, you’re going to watch him die,” said Damien.
I looked at Michael, begging him with my eyes to do something, anything, that would delay the inevitable. His head wobbled back when Damien slapped him across the face, adding more insult to his losing struggle. He then grabbed Michael’s head with both hands and leaned over.
“Kill him,” the mayor demanded, now out of the car and standing close to us. Damien spit blood in his direction.
“I’m going to make her scream,” he said to Michael where we all could hear. Michael’s head wobbled again, and I waited for the quick turn that would put him out of his misery. Michael’s head leaned back and his arm fell behind him.
I must have blinked. When I saw them again, Michael’s hand was shoved hard against Damien’s torso. With his other hand, Michael grabbed the demon’s shoulder and slowly stood up. Damien was no longer in charge. He was no longer fighting.
They turned just enough where I could see the handle tip of Michael’s dagger. He pulled the blade upward, cutting a deeper path through Damien’s body.
“You’re not going to bother anyone ever again,” he noted as Damien’s body became less resistive. Michael pushed him off the blade and Damien staggered, clutching the large wound. The maroon blood covered the dark tattoos painted across his body, and he finally fell to the ground, unmoving.
A shot rang out causing me to hit the ground. I saw Michael stumble, but he kept to his feet. When he looked back at me again, he smiled with such rage in his eyes. The virus was taking his body again.
He came toward us as the girl shot again, knocking him backward, but not stopping him. Another shot hardly fazed him as each step brought him closer. A fourth shot did nothing as he forced the rifle from her hands.
She only stared at him, unable to bring to words what she was witnessing. Michael should have been killed, and yet he stood there and slowly turned the rifle around. He grinned at her as he raised his shirt, showing again the Kevlar jacket that had kept him alive.
The single shot ripped through the girl as she flipped backward, her black hair covering her face as she hit the ground.
“We’re going to have fun,” he pointed at me, “once I get rid of this one.” Michael glared at the mayor and soon
had him by his shirt, pinned up against the truck.
“No, please!” he begged, “I’m not one of them! I’m not one of them!”
Michael put the tip of the rifle under the man’s chin.
“Say cheese!” Michael grinned.
* * * *
I hit him as hard as I could in the back of the head with the butt of the pistol. Michael’s head tilted, but he turned to look at me, when I hit him again right in the temple. He fell this time, knocked out.
“Don’t move! Don’t move!” I yelled at the mayor, who continued to hold his hands up.
Slowly, I reached down and pulled Michael’s rifle away from him, never taking an eye off the mayor.
“Kill him,” the mayor said. “Kill him before he gets back up again.”
“No. I can save him. I can save all of you.”
The mayor shook his head. “Not me.”
“What do you mean? What did you mean you weren’t one of them?”
The mayor’s fear dimmed as he slowly smiled at me.
“I’m resistant,” he said.
My mouth must have fallen open, but I didn’t know what to say. If he was telling the truth, the mayor had been living in disguise, acting as a Deracine although the virus had never taken over his mind or his body.
I didn’t know what to do. If he was actually resistant, he was as important as I was to actually finding a cure to the virus. I couldn’t kill him, but I couldn’t let him go either.
“Open the door and put him in the second seat,” I demanded.
“Why? He means nothing. Now, put him out of his misery.”
“Put him in the truck!” I demanded, pushing the gun into his face. “And then you will drive us to a safe location. Do you understand?”
The mayor said nothing, but only nodded. He slowly picked Michael’s limp body up and shoved him into the seat as I requested. As he did, I quickly grabbed Michael’s mask. I motioned for the mayor to move around the car and told him to get in the driver’s seat.
“And just where are we heading, girly girly?” he asked, a slight smile on his face from the antagonistic words that Damien had used for me. I wasn’t going to let him get to me though, not now. Pointing the pistol at his left foot, I fired.
“Ahh!” he yelled, hitting the ground next to the vehicle, grabbing his boot in pain.
“The next one is going to be in your head if you don’t do what I say. Now, stand up and drive!” I commanded.
Even through the pain, his eyes bore into me, like he was trying to figure me out or already had done so. Slowly, he got into the driver’s seat and I sat behind him, keeping the pistol pointed at his head.
“Take the path to the road and go north.”
“The garage?” he questioned.
“Yes.”
“My pleasure,” he said sarcastically, putting the car in drive and starting forward. I leaned down and opened Michael’s mouth, breathing into him before I put the mask back on, hoping that I could bring him back once again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“You should have waited,” the mayor said, “The virus would have healed him much quicker than being normal.”
“How do you know?”
“I told you, I’m resistant. I’ve lived years out in the open watching what the virus does and can make people do, and you probably just cost him weeks of healing.”
“I’m saving his life.”
“If you insist.”
The mayor drove slowly, watching me in the rearview mirror as he did.
“What do you want?” I asked angrily, waving the pistol around where he could see it.
“I was just wondering why you don’t wear a mask like the rest of your kind?”
“My kind? You mean humans?”
“The uninfected,” he corrected, “we are all humans.”
I stared at him in the mirror, his eyes tearing into me.
“Do humans kill each other like what you saw back there? Is that what you call humanity?”
“Yes.”
I sighed, shaking my head, thinking there had to be some sort of compassion past Michael, Dr. Swanson, Wellstone, and even Clarissa. There had to be somewhere in the world that wasn’t infected, somewhere people lived free to care for each other.
“Turn here,” I said, only hoping this was the road that took us back to the garage. The truck tires crunched along the rock, and I sat waiting with anticipation to see what would be the situation there, or even if the people had made it out alive.
“You can’t help them, you know,” the mayor said.
“What are you talking about?”
“These people. You may lead them to safety, but you’ll never be able to help anyone even though you are resistant.” He nodded toward Michael. “There’s no actual cure. You can delay the inevitable, but you and I, we are just the lucky ones that get to watch the world die around us.”
“What you are is a monster, whether you’re resistant or not.” I saw a slight smile in the mirror, but he said nothing to my rebuke of him.
The road gave a couple of twists, but eventually we hit the clearing where hundreds of people were. I smiled, happy we were able to get them out alive. The soldiers closest to the road immediately pointed their weapons at us.
“Stop here!” I commanded and the mayor slowed to a complete stop. “Now, get out of the truck and walk toward them.”
“As you command.” We both opened our doors and I walked him forward, his hands in the air. Three soldiers met us, their weapons still on us both.
“He’s the leader of the Deracine forces. Take him under guard, please.” The soldiers didn’t move.
“You heard her, now get to it!” the sharp voice commanded, jolting the soldiers into action. I looked through the mask and saw the cool eyes of Clarissa. She was holding a pistol up in one hand, the other rested upon the side in which she had been shot. The soldiers tied the mayor’s hands behind his back and helped him limp away.
I was so happy to see Clarissa on her feet and I wanted to hug her, but was more concerned with why she wasn’t resting.
“Where’s Michael?” she asked.
“In the truck. He’s unconscious.” She nodded and quickly called a couple of other people over for their assistance, and we walked back to the truck together.
“You saved all of these people but hardly any of them are soldiers,” she started letting me know the situation, “especially any who know how to actually guard a perimeter.”
“How is everyone?”
“Cuts and scrapes coming down our tunnel, but nothing serious. Wellstone is seeing to them. Everyone was able to keep their masks on, so nobody turned. Stevenson is being held under guard behind the garage.”
I nodded, opening the door to get Michael, but Clarissa stopped me.
“Jennifer, I just wanted to say thank you,” she said. “These people would be dead without you.”
I smiled, but didn’t say anything. Clarissa wasn’t the emotional type anyway, so I know her just saying that was a big step in repairing any future friendship.
Someone offered a large blanket and slowly we lowered Michael onto it. As we walked through the crowd of people, they began to stand, looking down on the man who had done so much for them, a solemn gesture of gratitude.
The garage was dark, only lit by a few candles. We placed Michael on the cot that Clarissa had used.
“Where is he hit?” Wellstone asked as he took vitals.
“He’s not. He got knocked out on the way back. And he’s wearing Kevlar, so you might not get a reading.”
Wellstone nodded and lifted up his shirt, revealing the dents in the bulletproof vest. Wellstone unfastened it and we were shocked to see the deep, penetrating bruises across his torso.”
“One shot should have knocked him down, but I don’t know how a man could take five of them.”
“He turned,” I said, explaining the fight with Damien and the gunshots he was blasted with. “The only way I could get him he
re was to knock him out.”
Wellstone nodded.
“Well, the only way we are going to be able to tell if he had any internal injuries is just to wait,” he said, “so hopefully he’ll wake up soon. If either of you want to stay with him, you’re more than welcome to.” Wellstone stood and placed a gentle hand upon my shoulder before walking across the room to check on the others.
“Why don’t you take a break and stay with him for a while,” Clarissa said, “You need to get some rest.”
I couldn’t argue with her. She walked away as I sat down next to Michael, placing my hand into his.
“I love you.”
* * * *
A shake of my arm caused me to stir.
“Somebody’s coming,” Clarissa said.
I immediately jumped up, coming outside with her to hear the sound of engines, moaning loudly in the distance. The people were gone.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“I had them hide in the woods.”
“Good plan.”
“I know.”
“How much time do we have?”
“A few minutes, tops. I posted most people willing to shoot out front here. The younger soldiers are in the woods protecting the people, and I have a few across there to get whoever is coming into a turkey shoot. I think this is what Michael would’ve done.”
I looked at Clarissa. “He’s going to be fine, you know?”
“Yeah,” she said, but I know she didn’t believe me.
The whine of an engine was louder now.
“Kneel. Do not fire unless I order.” Her soldiers followed the commands and we waited to see what would come out of the tree line. I feared it was the Deracine cars and motorcycles we had seen at the compound. Maybe their survivors had found Damien dead on the path and were coming to kill us instead of licking their wounds. I pulled the pistol from my back waistband.
“Buses! It’s buses!” someone shouted.
We saw the beaten up grill of an old, yellow school bus, as the thing rambled down the rock path. Sheet metal had been placed over some of its windows to act as reinforcement against attacks. Behind it was another beaten up bus, this one a commercial one with a dog symbol on its side. Eventually, three more buses rolled up in front of us.
Resistant, no. 1 Page 21
