The Road to Perdition

by SJ Morris

  The only thing protecting us from the infected that were eagerly pawing at the chain link were a set of barred fences that swung out like French doors, virtually attaching the entire truck to the main gate. From where I was standing, I could see there was also a huge plow at the front of the truck that was completely covered in thick, black infected muck. So that’s how they safely traveled here and still managed to bring the infected with them. They were herding the infected to use as weapons wherever they went. I already knew Brigantine was crazy but wow. She was turning out to be more sick and sadistic than I imagined.

  The soldiers cut my hands free and re-secured them in my lap, so they could sit me down and secure me in the five-point harness bucket seat the garbage truck contained. They really weren’t messing around. It was more than a little frightening to be tied to a chair, inside a metal box, since I could hear the infected banging on the outside of the trucks thick walls as they tried desperately to get inside. Unfortunately, Jack sat next to me, and Dr. Brigantine sat across from me with that disturbing yellow smile plastered on her face.

  Soon enough, the other soldiers were loaded inside with us, and the huge monster of a truck roared to life. The rear doors closed, the infected pushing at each other still attempting to get at us. The bright blue lights that lit up the massive truck inside and out clicked off, and I was left looking outside at the orange glow of fires inside the gates of what used to be my home. The eerie silhouettes of the infected milling around inside the gates and walking slowly towards the truck made me rethink my decision to give myself up. Maybe if I pretended to give up and came out with guns blazing, maybe I could have made a difference and saved the cabin. Or maybe I would have gotten myself shot in the process, and everyone at the cabin would have ended up dead anyway.

  I leaned my head back and contemplated my choice over and over. I concluded that the only way this surprise attack by Brigantine and her men turned out with a positive ending would be if I had a grenade in my pocket, and I pulled the pin incinerating everyone inside this stupid tin can. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a grenade right now.

  The drive seemed to take forever, and I was glad for the five-point harness with the amount of infected and other objects they ran over. It was a wonder they didn’t flip the damn truck. Brigantine attempted to talk to me numerous times during the drive, but each time, I closed my eyes, tilted my head back, and tuned her out. Ignoring her outright really pissed her off, so I enjoyed doing it as much as possible.

  The truck began to slow, and I was instantly nauseous. The sudden urge to vomit hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn’t know if it was because I was used to the rocking and jerking of the truck as it sped along, and now that it was going slower my equilibrium was thrown off, but I was definitely going to be sick.

  “I’m going to puke. I’m warning anyone near me just in case you’re a sympathetic puker.” I said turning to Jack who I already knew was.

  “It’s the high electromagnetic field I had installed around the perimeter of the laboratory. I found that with a high enough EMF, the dead, or the infected as you call them, stay away. Like sharks and magnets. It’s absolutely wonderful, but it does make some people nauseous. Personally, it makes my ears ring, and that’s about all. I had a device installed on the trucks too that emits an extremely high EMF, so when I want the dead to go away, we just switch it on. Unfortunately, due to the side effects on the living, we can’t leave it on constantly. It’s genius really.” Dr. Brigantine boasted as she unbuckled herself from her seat. “Welcome to your new home sweet home, Abbigail. We are going to have some fun times. I can feel it!”

  I bent as far forward as I could, puked all over her shoes, wiped my mouth on my shoulder and smiled. I casually leaned my head back, closing my eyes and began ignoring her again as she danced around trying to get my vomit off of her feet. I had no idea what I was in for next, so I was going to get my shots in whenever I could.

  Chapter 15

  Dawn was just breaking when we pulled up to Dr. Brigantine’s laboratory compound. I say compound meaning mini city. This place was huge. I could see through the back of the truck that we were passing rows of buildings that looked like housing for the soldiers. Oh, and soldiers, they were everywhere, hundreds of them. I was certainly glad we didn’t try to find one of the black sites on our own before. Everyone would have been killed for sure.

  The grounds were so well taken care of they looked like a scene from a futuristic movie. I guessed when you had the number of soldiers she did, and you ruled like a dictator, things got done.

  We finally stopped, and almost in unison, all of the soldiers inside the truck unbuckled their harnesses and stood to exit. The ones to the rear exited first in a seemingly highly coordinated effort. Dr. Brigantine stood glaring at me as she kicked more of my throw up off of her shoes. I smiled back at her and pretended to choke back vomit again, and she rushed to exit the truck.

  “You need to control yourself, Abbigail,” Jack said to me quietly as he leaned in to unbuckle me.

  “What the fuck do you care? It’s not like she’s going to do anything to me. I’m carrying two babies that may very well serve whatever sick and twisted agenda she has, so I’m untouchable, fuck you very much.” I said glaring at him. “Watch out. You’re stepping in some vomit there, Captain Dick.”

  Jack looked down and pulled up his boot as a thick strand of bile and food particles stretched from the puddle he was standing in. He grabbed his mouth and ran to the back of the truck to throw up in the grass.

  I was going to use Jack being distracted for the moment as an opportunity to see what kind of security we were talking about at this facility. No doubt, it was top notch, but I would kick myself if I didn’t have a look for myself at how things worked.

  I stood quickly and ran past the still vomiting Jack. I looked over my shoulder and saw him bumbling with his radio as he tossed his cookies. I was sure he was radioing for troops to retrieve me, but I was going to give this impromptu escape plan everything I had left.

  I kept running as fast as my legs would carry me down the road we came in on, and sure enough, in front of me, one of the barrack doors opened. At least a dozen soldiers poured out running toward me. I quickly changed direction, but there was another barrack with more soldiers coming from it, so I decided to stop.

  I stopped running, and my abrupt halt took the soldiers by surprise. They all skidded into one another in front of me, almost toppling into each other like some kind of cartoon. I had to stop myself from laughing at them. They turned and looked at each other to see who was going to grab me.

  “Somebody had better come and get me, or you’re going to make me run again. Don’t give me a chance, guys. I don’t feel like another jog today seeing as I haven’t slept much in the last three days. I’m pregnant, exhausted, and cranky.” I said looking each of the soldiers in the face as they slowly closed in on me.

  “Mam, with all due respect, could you just turn around and start walking the way you came from please?” The closest soldier to me asked politely.

  “What? Did Dr. Brigantine tell you all not to hurt me? Oh, that’s totally it! She said if anyone of you hurts me, you’re going to be in some serious shit.” I laughed. “I’m sure serious shit with ol’ Dr. Coo-Coo-For-Brains means something way overboard, like turning you into a test subject for the Perdition Virus! How close am I? Blink twice if I’m right.” I said taunting them. I could only imagine how afraid of Brigantine they all were. She was certifiable.

  “Mam, please just turn around and walk calmly back to the main building.”

  “Do you all realize who you’re working for and what she’s doing? She started all of this. All of your friends, family and loved ones are dead, or the walking undead is more like it, because of her. She thinks she’s cleansing the earth of the unintelligent and in her mind unworthy percentage of the human race! She told me so herself; those were her words! Are you all okay with that? How do you sleep at night knowing you are partly
responsible for the possible extinction of the human race? There are way more of you guys than her and her batshit crazy scientists. If you guys all band together, you can take her out or detain her and stop this madness!” I pleaded.

  I was pleased now thinking I may have a captive audience that I could turn against Brigantine. I wanted to appease the human side of the soldiers that I knew still existed somewhere deep inside of them. They couldn’t all be mindless followers in Brigantine’s war against civilization. I saw the looks on some of their faces and knew I had planted a seed. Now, if I could only help it grow and quickly. Unfortunately, just like that, my group therapy session was over as killjoy Jack finally walked up.

  “I’ll take it from here men. Dismissed!” He ordered.

  The soldiers turned to walk back to their barracks, but I saw a few of them turn back to me, and I saw the questions in their eyes. I might still get out of here, and I might just have some help from the locals. I now had hope. And I was going to hang onto it as long as it took to get the hell out of here.

  “I’d tell you to control yourself again, but you’d just make some stupid joke, and you wouldn’t listen anyway,” Jack said quietly as he grabbed my arm and led me to the main building.

  “Why should I listen to you? You rescued me from this crazy bitch a week ago, and now here you are, turning me over to her. What is wrong with you? Do you have any idea what she’s going to do to these babies and me? How could you have not said anything about them before when we were at the safe house together? I was pregnant, you knew it, and you said nothing!” I shot questions out at him quickly since my restraints negated my ability to punch him in the face like I wanted to.

  “I didn’t know you were pregnant while we were at the safe house. I didn’t know until after I told her where the cabin was.”

  “Why the hell would you tell her where the cabin was in the first place?”

  “I couldn’t bear the thought of you and Chris together. I knew you were angry, and you didn’t believe me when I told you what actually happened when we first met and when they faked my death, so the only thing I could think of was to have Brigantine bring you back to me. Maybe, over time, you would see the truth and then we could break out again…together.”

  “Are you fucking serious? You are just as insane as she is. Allycia is dead, by the way. Your daughter is dead, and it wasn’t quick or painless, I promise you that. I should know because she died in my arms.”

  “What? No...” Chris stopped walking and pulled me closer to him.

  “Don’t touch me! You disgust me. The virus this bitch created is killing everything I love, and you are handing me over to her trying to say it’s somehow a way for me to understand what happened to you and to fall back in love with you? That’s just not going to happen. In the last 24 hours, I watched a six-year-old boy, a seventeen-year-old girl, an eighteen-year-old boy, and our daughter get either torn to shreds by the infected or become infected themselves by being bitten to die slowly and in excruciating pain. Nothing you could ever say to me could justify what you did. Oh, and Justin, he was bitten. He turned, and before I could kill him, he infected Tom who blew his brains out before he could turn. All of this went down while Justin’s kids watched. They watched me shove a scalpel into their father's brain, and they will never look at me the same. How could you expect me to see what you did as anything other than a complete and utter betrayal? Take me wherever the hell Brigantine wants me to be. I can’t stand the sight of you.” I demanded as I began walking back towards the main building by myself.

  Our very loud conversation had happened right in front of the barracks the soldiers I had spoken to earlier had retreated to, and I could see some of their faces in the windows. I knew they heard everything. Hopefully, our argument helped some of them decide for themselves that maybe working for Brigantine wasn’t the best idea anymore. I wiped away my tears as best I could with my hands still secured and marched defiantly away.

  Chapter 16

  I was eventually escorted to a big white room with a bed, two-way mirror, a table, two plain plastic chairs, a sink and a toilet. That was it. Well shit, I wasn’t expecting the Ritz but jeez, talk about bare bones living. This was not going to be pleasant.

  The walls were all white, but the table, bed linens, and curtains over the two-way mirror were a lovely shade of bluish grey, for just a splash of color I guess. After all, we all couldn’t be decorators.

  Oh yay, a change of clothes had been laid out for me. Drum roll please, they are…you guessed it…white scrubs. Ugh, how cliché.

  There was a soft knock at the door, and with a beep of the card scanner-controlled lock, Jack entered the room. He handed me a cloth bag and told me to grab the scrubs from the bed and follow him. I didn’t want to have any interaction with him, so I did as I was told.

  He led me by the arm to a large room with showerheads all along the far wall. There were no dividers or curtains, just a big open room with showerheads. Well shit again, this was not going to be pleasant either.

  Jack cut the zip ties around my wrists, handed me a pair of white flip-flops and took the cloth bag and my scrubs from me.

  “Take off everything you’re wearing and put it in the bag, including your shoes,” he said as he held the bag open for me.

  I knew he wasn’t going to turn around or give me a private place to follow his instructions, so I again did as I was told. It was nothing he hadn’t seen before, right? Knowing he was watching every move I made and seeing parts of me I didn’t want him ever to see again still made me feel disgusted though.

  Jack watched me carefully, but as I took my pants and underwear off, I stood up and found him with a torn, almost sad look on his face. He was looking at my slightly enlarged belly. I could only imagine what was going through his mind right then, but I hoped he was feeling regret, self-hatred, and guilt for everything he had done. I covered my belly and my privates with one hand and my breasts with the other.

  “Now what?” I asked coldly.

  “Over there. I’ll turn the water on, and there’s some soap and a washcloth by the middle shower,” he said, pointing to the wall now refusing to look me in the eyes.

  I walked over slowly and squatted down to pick up the soap and washcloth. No matter how much I tried to make jokes about the situation I found myself in, I felt tears begin to fall from my eyes over how unexpectedly humiliating this moment was.

  As I stood, the water came on next to me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dr. Brigantine watching me from the other end of the room with that yellow smile of hers. I thought this humiliation couldn’t get any worse, but here she was making it a thousand times more awful. It takes a pretty sick person to watch gleefully while trying to break someone mentally, but I already knew she was a sociopath. Why would I expect anything different from her?

  I showered quickly under her and Jack’s watchful eyes. When I was done Jack handed me a small towel, I dried, and he handed me my scrubs.

  “Is it going to be like this every day? Are you my babysitter, or can I request one of those hot soldiers from outside who were actually nice to me?” I said trying to hurt him as much as possible.

  “Get dressed. Dr. Brigantine wants you back in your room as soon as possible. She has a few tests to run and wants to make sure you get something to eat before she, well...you’ll find out.” He said still refusing to look at me.

  I dressed, and when I looked to where Brigantine had been standing the entire time while I showered, she was gone. All I wanted to do was go to sleep, but I knew she probably had something entirely different planned. Shit is the word of the day...yet again.

  Jack took me back to my room and instructed me to sit at the bland table, which I did. Another soldier walked in shortly after and placed a tray of macaroni and cheese in front of me. I looked up at the soldier, and he was one of those I had seen outside earlier.

  “Is there any way I could get something else, sir? The last time I was pregnant every time I a
te macaroni and cheese I threw it up less than ten minutes later.” I asked politely, knowing he just might be an ally to me in here.

  “I can check, mam, and I will let the kitchen know not to prepare this for you again.” He replied courteously and took the tray back. He even gave me a little wink, making sure Jack couldn’t see him do it.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Yes! Happy dance in my head. I had a friend in here. My stomach fluttered with the hope that I would be able to get out of this place and find my kids, Chris, and anyone else from the cabin that might be left alive.

  Jack gave the soldier a dirty look as he left with my tray. I guess I wasn’t supposed to be treated nicely while I was here or maybe my comment earlier about requesting a hot soldier babysitter instead of Jack planted its own seed of jealousy his brain. Hell, let him drive himself crazy with his own personal green monster. It’ll make him treat the other soldiers with disrespect and, in turn, make it easier to pull them over to my side. Now, who is playing psychological head games?

  Speak of the devil. The happy dance in my head ended quickly, for there was another beep at the door, and Brigantine entered the room, followed by another doctor pushing a cart full of non-fun looking gadgets and utensils.

  “Well, my dear, I hear you haven’t eaten yet. Macaroni and cheese not to your liking?”

  Looking in the opposite direction from where she was standing, I replied curtly, “Not unless you want to see it all over your shoes again.”

  “You don’t have to look at me, darling. It doesn’t bother me. As long as you’re talking to me, it’s an improvement.”

  “I figure you’re going to pester me until I talk to you anyway, so I might as well shorten the nails on a chalkboard feeling I experience when you are near me and get it over with quickly. Do your tests and get out, please. I’d like to get some sleep.”

  “Right to the good stuff, huh? You were right, Captain Norrington. She is all business and no foreplay.” She snickered.