Dead and Dead Again: Kansas City Quarantine

by Dalton Wolf

  “You would still stop to check your vehicle, I think,” the Captain countered belligerently.

  Tripper snorted. “I drove six blocks with a broken tie rod and no steering so I wouldn’t have to get out of the car.”

  The Captain eyed him suspiciously.

  “You gotta remember, dude, we didn’t have guns. We didn’t have armor. We didn’t even have any of these nice steel melee weapons. We had our fists, our feet, and our car keys and suddenly half of the people around were trying to eat us.”

  “You should have stopped him.”

  “We didn’t have any way to do that.”

  “You should have shot the driver,” she stated heartlessly, with a set jaw. “You had the M-16 at that time, according to the doctor.”

  “That guy was alive. Or so we thought. We weren’t planning on doing any killing of living people. And thanks for throwing me under the bus, Doc,” he glared at the doctor, but quickly shrugged the blame away and shot a grimace of apology at the older man.

  “Individual people don’t matter,” Batmouche stated harshly. “The only important thing is the package.”

  “Wow, just like Calvin said you’d be; all orders and no emotion. Well, excuse me Captain Spock, but it wasn’t the package then,” he finger-quoted the words in the Captain’s face. “It was just some suitcase this crazy old man was carrying—sorry Doc. Once we had some proof that all of this was real, and Doc was who he said he was, then it became the package. We were planning to go out and get it sometime before we left, but we wanted things to calm down a bit first. And we would never have been so emotionless as to shoot an innocent person who had done nothing to us just to get the case back.”

  The captain turned to her men and said, “We’ll have to start with the blocks right off that road from where it finishes crossing the river and two blocks to either side, moving north.”

  “You don’t want to go down there yet,” Tripper informed her with a direct look. “Last time we checked, that area was crawling with Infected.”

  “We’ll handle it.”

  “Not with the few guys you’ve got out there,” Calvin countered. “Look…ma’am. You don’t know what it’s like out there. I mean, we’ve got it lucky here. We have the Hedgehog and the Paddy Wagon and the streets are pretty clear now. But several of us were on foot and without armor there for a while and it was a nightmare,” he spoke quietly, trying to put all of the emotion they’d gone through into that one look, just as his acting class instructors had tried teaching him. As with those classes, he failed completely. He could tell that the woman before him saw only a weak civilian, someone who hadn’t been trained to fight, a man who had already turned his back on generations of military heroes.

  Batmouche’ straightened and puffed out her sizeable chest, marking the opening scene in many daydreams Trip had had throughout the years. Somehow, he felt this meeting wasn’t going to go the way those particularly enjoyable fantasies had, however.

  “That reminds me, Mr. Hobbes. As I said earlier, we’ll be taking your vehicles with us.”

  Yup, that’s what I thought, Trip would have spat if his brain had let his emotions control his mouth.

  “The hell you will,” Calvin said with blunt acidity, fingers going to the safety on his rifle, but barrel safely pointed at the ground. “You’re the second group of people who said they were going to take something from us. Wanna take a guess what happened to the last group?”

  “I would imagine that is the story behind the bullet holes in your armor…but I’m afraid those are Military issue vehicles and I’ll have to appropriate them until I can track the numbers to make sure they weren’t stolen.”

  “The sixth Amendment forbids you from illegal search and seizure as well as from taking personal property without adequate payment,” Athena noted smartly.

  “We’ll be keeping the weapons and the vehicles and you’ll be leaving with the doctor now, Captain,” Calvin insisted firmly, giving a previously agreed upon signal by tugging on his ear.

  With the exception of Calvin and the Captain, everyone with a weapon raised their guns at that same time. Tripper aimed at the sergeant, and the others picked someone to shoot based on firing arcs. The group of civilians had more people, but the army had more training. Knowing this, however, Sarah now had her m-16 pointed at the Captain’s head, and Athena began a very slow, nearly imperceptible shuffle step towards the large red head, hoping to get within striking range for at least one swing on the arrogant bitch with her panabas. Unfortunately, two guns were trained on Calvin and one on Tripper and the girl private seemed to be a little too interested in her advance. She stopped. No sense causing anyone to get nervous, thereby getting her fiancé shot…again. Calvin would get them out of this.

  “Back door is secure, traps in place,” Scaggs announced. “On my way.”

  “And your rifles,” the captain added. “I believe the good doctor said you stole them from the Police Station—”

  “—Jesus, Doc,” Tripper complained to an innocent, apologetic shrug.

  “We could execute all of you right now as looters,” she promised.

  “You’ll be the first corpse hitting the floor,” Athena promised, brandishing her panabas, knowing full well she would never reach the Captain before the soldiers gunned her down. “What we did, we did to stay alive,” she exclaimed boldly.

  “Yes, but you still broke the law.”

  “You weren’t here,” Tripper argued. “You didn’t see it. There wasn’t any law here. There still isn’t. But we’re keeping it as close to the letter as we can.”

  “And yet you say you couldn’t shoot one man to possibly save everything?”

  The captain said this with such snide cynicism, Calvin had to step between her and Trip or things might have gone the wrong direction in a hurry…the kind of wrong that happens when two tense groups stand facing each other brandishing various weapons and someone does something silly and thoughtless but well-deserved like punching the leader of one side in her stupid face.

  “We don’t kill people who aren’t hurting us,” he explained. “It would be nice to be a bunch of trained killers with only one mission, to get the package out no matter who stands in the way. Or even to be standing on a wall knowing the continuation of the entire world might hinge on you shooting anyone coming from the other side. But in here it wasn’t quite that black and white. We have to consider how many innocent civilians will be hurt, left behind or unprotected because of our actions. Your people get to sit tight on the walls and watch from a distance while we’re living the end here.”

  “Stand down,” the Captain ordered, nodding to her people. With a sigh, she turned to Calvin as if she were about to have to explain something to a very stubborn child. “Mr. Hobbes, we aren’t just sitting tight. We have cordoned off a one-hundred mile radius around your city to protect the rest of this nation, possibly the world, at any cost.”

  “What does that mean?” Scaggs asked, walking in from the hallway with her rifle already pointing at the captain.

  “Along with the National Guards and numerous police forces and millions of private citizens of several states we have built a twenty foot manned wall throughout this region, one hundred miles from the center of your city, in every direction.”

  “Bullshit. There hasn’t been enough time,” Scaggs called what she had believed all along to be a bluff. “I thought all that was just to trick us into staying put.”

  “We started immediately after confirmation that the package had been diverted.”

  “Oh, so you came marching into the middle of hell and you think you’re just going to be able to waltz out unscathed?” the redhead said. “Pop off for a tea and crumpets with the vicar? Don’t ask me why I went British there, but the sentiment in the question remains the same. You think it’s going to be that easy?”

  “We came in here without any trouble. I think we can handle getting the doctor and his case out the same way. And I’m sorry that the govern
ment has decided to leave you and yours to your own devices, but that’s what Quarantine is. You cannot leave until the Quarantine is lifted, so it wouldn’t do any good for us to take you with us. You stayed too long. You should just sit tight and enjoy what you have here.”

  “Thanks for the advice Captain Buttmunch,” Trip snapped sarcastically. “But, we’re leaving. We may not be going through that wall, but we’re getting the hell out of here to someplace safe.”

  Calvin nodded.

  “Actually, Mr. Grissom. You and your people really should think about staying here for a while. As you have just exhibited to us, this building is very well-protected. The Red Cross and the military will be airlifting in supplies for your population throughout the quarantine. The Army Corps of Engineers and other departments will be sending in volunteers where needed to ensure that all city works continue operating, or at the very least ensuring that people already employed with the cities will do their jobs.”

  “How the fuck are you going to do that?”

  “Perhaps by giving supplies in lieu of pay to people already in here...”

  “That might do it,” Athena noted with a thoughtful expression. “For some of them, at any rate. But how do you get volunteers to go into a Quarantine Zone knowing they can’t come back?”

  “Orders. That is what worked for me.”

  “Civilians aren’t real good at following orders.”

  “That’s not my problem. Someone else is working on that. Someone much higher up the pay grades. Maybe even The President. I don’t know and I don’t care. I have my own orders, and I will follow them.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you again, you’re not taking any of our stuff without our permission. If you try, your mission is likely to fail.” Calvin said, fixing her with a cool, unwavering gaze.

  The Captain studied him evenly for a very long time, her icy sapphires challenging his sparkling emeralds. The civilian before her had a nice, friendly round face with an amiable quality that she had mistaken for complacency. She had believed him a man who would take the easiest road. But now she saw in Calvin’s friendly eyes an unyielding resolve to protect his people and his city at any cost. She did not believe she could bully this man and they were living in a veritable fortress with guns and full armor—full medieval armor. What the fuck are they doing in plate mail with swords and axes? Where did they even get that ridiculous crap? And judging from the way he favored one side, he had clearly already been shot once and lived. It would take every soldier she had to assault this building. No, the most important parameters were getting the doctor and case to the destination. Nothing else mattered.

  “We will not take any of your things,” the Captain agreed with a nod of agreement. “You are in the Quarantine Area. I believe you are correct and justified in your statements. We cannot judge what you had to do or what you will need to do in the future. We would ask for your help in our search, however.”

  “Again, anything you need that I can and am willing to spare, Captain,” Scooter conceded amenably.

  “We don’t need anything yet, but in case we do, thank you. Personally, I can’t see what we would need that you have other than vehicles, but I need to make sure we understand each other. This may very well be the most important mission in the world.”

  Calvin understood why the Captain was being such a hardcore bitch. In her mind, none of them mattered. The only things that mattered were things that could help the mission succeed as fast as possible. She’d likely planned on taking the vehicles as decoys, but if half of her troop was killed by his friends their mission would fail.

  “We’ll keep listening,” he promised. “You call and we’ll try to help, for the doctor if for no other reason. He wasn’t here long, but we like him.”

  “Very well. I am sorry for the initial tension. This is…I…”

  “No one has ever had to deal with something like this for real, Captain,” Calvin grimaced in understanding.

  “We’ll be going now. If we haven’t found the package by nightfall, may we return and stay here?”

  “You’d have to turn over your weapons,” Calvin suggested. “No military stationed on private property and all that. The laws still apply.”

  “We would never do that,” the captain promised.

  “I can’t let you bring your whole team in here armed after your initial threats to take our things,” he explained earnestly. “But I’m sure we can work it out.”

  “Perhaps if we came in shifts?”

  “I think if you sleep out there in the vehicles we could keep watch for you,” Calvin ignored her suggestion. “We could cover you out there in the streets from the balcony, but other than that, I don’t know…”

  “It’s ok, Calvin,” Sarah said. “We can separate the back rooms. There’s a heavy fire door halfway up the building on all floors. We’ll just let them in the back door and close it and keep someone on the security cameras.”

  “Oh. Ok great, then. It’s agreed,” Calvin nodded and Batmouche’ returned a sharp twitch of a nod that was oddly full of a grudging respect, and maybe even a little pride.

  I wonder how well she knew mom? Calvin wondered, wishing things were different. But they weren’t.

  “Ghosts,” the Captain said into her own microphone. “Move the vehicles to the street that heads towards the river. We are out in five,” the captain ordered.

  The sergeant and two privates backed out the door to stand guard on each side of the exit. Doc moved to the door and Tripper stepped after him, pulling him aside to talk.

  “Take care of yourself, Doc,” Tripper said.

  “You too, Tripper. Thank you for all of your help.”

  “Sure wish you were staying here with the rest of us.”

  The doctor gave him an oddly hurt look, shaggy gray brows scrunching together and deep grey eyes silently demanding a reason.

  “I don’t mean I envy you your chance to escape. Well, I do, but that’s not what I’m saying. I mean it’s usually members of the team that help ‘the science guy’ who get out of the disaster.”

  “I see what you mean. And now this military team will be getting your proverbial ‘science guy protection?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You realize those are just movies?”

  “I know, Doc, but life imitates art.”

  “True. But I think such imitations happen because people make them happen out of appreciation for their favorite art. This…this thing is too far out of control for any one person to repair.”

  “I reject our reality and substitute my own.”

  “Nice.”

  “You’re still the guy who can fix this and we’re losing you.”

  “Yes. I’m sorry. I will miss you all.”

  “But listen, maybe you can still help us. Here’s the frequencies we’ll be operating on as long as we can. If you get a chance, can you stay in touch? Let us know how you’re doing with the cure and what help we can expect and what-not, ok? And maybe if they’re going to drop the bomb, can you shoot us a warning so we can go to ground somewhere? That’s not too much to ask for saving your ass is it?”

  “Actually, you kept stopping me when I was trying to flee,” the doctor pointed out dramatically. “I could have been far from downtown in very little time.”

  “In what vehicle?”

  “I would have taken a taxi…”

  “Really? Did you happen to see any taxis at any time during this?”

  “Come to think on it, I didn’t. But I would have found a car or something.”

  “Sure…and you know how to hot-wire a car, don’t you? I mean, any Ivy league doctor knows that, right? They teach that at John’s Hopkins, Vehicular Theft 101?”

  “Well…”

  “And how about driving out of the parking garage. You didn’t even know that there were spikes that come out of the ground to flatten your tires.”

  “No one knows that.”

  “Everyone knows that, Doc.”

  “I’
m sure I could have found a ride…”

  “No one was leaving, yet. The parade had just started.”

  “I could have told them what was happening.”

  “First, you were running away from all of the people. Second, if you had told this story to anyone who hadn’t seen what happened at the crash site for themselves, they would have thought you were crazy or drunk. They certainly wouldn’t have given you a ride. And by the time they’d seen it for themselves, it would have been too late. People just aren’t that trusting of strangers anymore. What a world.”

  “That man Quinn believed Calvin,” the doctor pointed out adroitly.

  “True, but Calvin is special. Also, they had just given him fifteen thousand dollars. Do you have a bunch of cash to give someone?”

  “Well…no, I do not. Not with me, at any rate.”

  “See, we gave you a ride, and then a safe place to stay and sleep, and some food and after that, a phone to call for help,” Tripper rebutted.

  MacGreggor laughed and let out a conciliatory sigh. “Yes. Fine. You are correct. I apologize for being so ungrateful. Thank you, Tripper. And please pass that on to Calvin and the others. I appreciate everything you’ve all done. About the radio, I will do what I can. But I am not going to lie to you. It’s likely that they will keep the one-hundred mile quarantine radius in effect for a very long time, and it might increase to two-hundred or more. And there might never be a cure. This very well may be permanent or the end of civilization as we know it…yes, perhaps just the end period.”

  “You think she’s telling the truth about that wall?” Tripper asked.

  “Absolutely. That is part of the protocol in place, what I was explaining to Calvin before, a one-hundred mile radius around the epicenter of the outbreak. Every National Guard base has materials for their part of a wall and enough staff on hand to transport the supplies on very short notice.”