by Tristan Vick
Jennifer raised her hand, but didn’t wait to get picked before she asked her question. “Does that mean the pandemic has spread to other countries as well?”
Greer shot her a sharp look as if that was the wrong sort of question to be asking. Every crease of anger which wrinkled upon his brow said he didn’t want to answer that question, but his moral duty compelled him to try. “Correct. I haven’t gotten the updates yet, but the last update I received mentioned reports coming in from every major airport from Tokyo to Seoul, Hong Kong to Berlin, and back again. The only place we had no reports of the viral strain were Moscow.”
Mitch put his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat. The general looked at him as he solemnly shook his head in the negative.
“Correction,” the general informed. “It seems that Russia has been infected too.”
Gasps of exasperation broke out across the crowd.
A large burley man, with two full sleeves of tattoos, a leather Harley Davidson sleeveless biker vest, and a salt and pepper beard stepped forth. “I have two kids in college. Is there any chance in hell I can contact them?”
“I have kids too!” a woman shouted.
“I’ve got grandchildren.”
“What about our children?” Soon the roar of the crowed drowned out the general’s pleas for everyone to calm down.
Rachael Ramirez stepped forward and took her place next to Greer. Her bright yellow biker jacket caught everyone’s attention. Although, Rachael mused, it might have been the skimpy dress with her breasts bulging out that equally did the trick. She turned to the audience and raised her hand. The gesture was both authoritative and concise enough that the chatter died down to a low murmur.
“We’ve all lost loved ones. I’m sure you all have been through hell and back, but we’ve made it this far. Let’s just take a deep breath, calm down, and get something to eat. We’ll regroup later when we have our heads on straight and can hash out a plan.” Spinning back around she looked at the general. “Does that sound all right to you, General Greer?”
“I couldn’t have put it better myself.”
Linda put her fingers to her lips and blew. A sharp whistle shot out and everyone’s eyes snapped toward her. “Listen up folks. Rooms are limited, so you’ll be randomly assigned a roommate. If you find your bunk mate incompatible and have a problem we will do our best to work something out. Until your rooms are assigned, I invite you to join us in the mess hall and get some chow. If you’d prefer to take a hot shower first, that’d be fine. So if you’d just follow me, we can get ya’all situated.”
The train of survivors followed Linda as she made her way to the entrance of the main base. The entrance was built right into the cave wall and looked like something out of an episode of Star Trek. Before Rachael could enter the base, she caught the sight of a tall man with medium brown hair, staring at her with his mouth wide open. Rachael caught him out of the corner of her eye and turned to see who was so interested in her.
“Rachael, is that you?”
“Levi? Levi Hurley?!”
Levi ran up and hugged her. “I don’t believe this. I never expected to ever see anybody I knew ever again.”
“If you think this is amazing, wait until you turn around.”
Levi looked at her with a bout of confusion stamped across his face. “What do you mean?”
Rachael raised her finger and pointed. Levi turned around to see his estranged wife Jennifer staring at him with eyes full of tears ready to overflow at any moment.
“My God!” Levi exclaimed. “Jen? Is it really you?”
Zanato shot Jennifer a quick glance. Feeling a tinge of green-eyed jealousy, as it was yet another man he had to compete with. “Do you know that wanker?”
“I ought to,” Jennifer said with a soft voice which made her sound a million miles away. “He’s my husband.”
“Your husband?!” exclaimed Zanato, half beside himself.
Levi ran up to Jennifer, picked her up by her waist, spun her around, and as she slid back down his chest their lips met in passionate reunion.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” Levi said, tears rolling down his dirt stained cheeks that plowed away the suit and left clean streaks of untarnished skin.
Jennifer felt as though she were dreaming. She had no idea how to process the moment. She wasn’t even sure if she was relieved to see him again. Part of her was glad he was alive. But another part of her, a darker part of her, wished he hadn’t survived the outbreak. One part of her wanted to take him to his room and give him an end of the world shag he would never forget, while at the same time the other part of her wanted to strangle him alive for being so goddamn unrelenting. Why couldn’t she escape him? Jen brushed her hair behind her ear as she thought of what to say. “I… uh…”
“Well, aren’t you going to say something?” Levi asked.
“I… it’s just that… well… fuck it!”
Levi raised an eyebrow.
Jennifer suddenly threw her arms up, leapt onto her husband, and wrapped her legs around him. Grabbing large swaths of his hair in her fingers she yanked his head back so his face stared up at hers and mauled him with hot wet kisses.
Zanato snorted and mumbled vindictively under his breath, “Harlot.”
Alyssa was within earshot and she gave Zanato a cold look and muttered, “Asshole.” With that she stormed off and followed the rest of the group as they all filed into the entrance of the base.
30
Some R & R
Josh Hemingway slowly made his way back to his room down the long corridor. The corridor looked like the long corridors on the starship Enterprise. Smooth surfaces, touch panels on the walls, high definition monitors built into every surface, and it was all clinical white. Light flooded the hallways jetting out from inset paneling on both the ceiling and floor. On top of all this, the doors slid open and shut automatically like on Star Trek, too. He half expected to take a wrong turn and suddenly find himself on the bridge standing next to Captain Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard.
As exciting as Sector Twenty-Seven was, and as much as he’d love to explore every crevice of the facility, his heart felt heavy as he grappled with the recent loss of his mother. He didn’t know how or why, but all they said was that her emergency evacuation failed when her chopper went down. He heard that General Greer had made it out alive somehow, so he was meaning to pry some answers out of him—like why he survived but his mother didn’t.
Using the keycard to unlock his door, he walked into his room only to behold two beautiful breasts staring him straight in the face. The girl saw him standing in the doorway, mouth agape, and quickly pulled a light shirt over her girls. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry. I was just changing and…”
“No, it’s okay,” Josh answered. “They said we’d be getting roommates.”
“Well, you know what they say?” the girl chuckled, “First impressions are the most important.”
Josh rubbed his fingers through his hair and laughed. “Yeah, I guess so.”
The girl put on her dark rimmed glasses, which provided contrast to her red flushed cheeks. She had a wiry frame, but Josh thought her skinniness looked just right.
“Hi, I’m Lindsey Olsen,” she chirped, holding out her hand. “Nice to make your acquaintance.”
“Uh, yeah.” Josh replied. “Ditto.” Ditto? He instantly kicked himself. Who even used that word anymore?
“Are you okay?” Lindsey inquired, sensing he was a little bit off. “You sound bummed out. Usually when a guy sees a girl’s tits he’s ecstatic. Amped up on all the happy juice flooding his brain. But I’m not getting that ‘I wanna bone you’ vibe that I get from most guys.”
“Maybe I’m not most guys,” Josh said defensively.
“Are you gay?”
“What? No! Why would you even assume—”
“Never mind. If you’re not gay, then you’re probably just depressed.” Eyeing him up and down, she asked sarcastically, “So who died?”
“My mother.”
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like … what I meant was…” She stopped talking and just stared at him for a few moments. Unexpectedly, Lindsay stripped her shirt back off, grabbed Josh, and pulled him into her.
“W-what are you doing?” Josh stammered.
“Take your clothes off.”
“What?!”
Lindsey shot him a look which showed she was serious. “You’re obviously grieving. But you’re not the only one. I lost everyone important in my life too, and for all I know I’ll end up dead tomorrow. If not, then the next day, or the next. It’s only a matter of time. I don’t want my last memories to be me making the depressed kid even more depressed than he already was. That’s a shit memory to have rattling around in your head as you shuffle off. So I’m taking destiny into my own hands—I’m creating a new memory. A happy one.”
“But…” Josh began, but Lindsey stopped him with a kiss.
“Pants,” she whispered. “Off.”
“Uh, yeah.” Josh unfastened his belt and let his trousers drop to the floor. Lindsey slid down and peeled off his boxer-briefs and looked at his taught erection.
“Nice,” she whispered deviously. Then she took him in her hands and wrapped her lips around his protrusion. She could feel his entire body tense up as she went to town on him.
“My name is Josh, by the way.” Josh tried to think of something else to say, but his mind just drew a blank.
Lindsey merely looked up at him with eyes that smiled.
Suddenly he felt himself about to lose control when Lindsey stopped, stood up, and pushed him back down onto the bed. Lindsey threw herself onto him and asked, “How’s the new memory coming along?”
“It’s great, excellent, I mean, please don’t stop.”
She laughed, climbed on top of him and looked deep into his eyes. “Relax,” she said. Lindsey reached down and grabbed a hold of Josh’s dumb-stick and guided it into her. With a lusty moan she slowly slid her way down onto him until he was completely inside of her. Everything else became second nature to them. Natural. Effortless. Josh moaned and Lindsey let out a hot and heavy sigh. As their mouths met they fell into the moment.
Unable to muster up an appetite, which was strange considering she hadn’t eaten in days, Rachael dismissed herself from the mess hall and left the rest of the group to themselves. Barnes and Noble were busy catching up with their fellow marines about all that they had been through. Zanato was busy hitting on the single mother who was totally giving him the cold shoulder. Alyssa was sharing funny animal stories with a group of children gathered around her. And Jennifer Hurley was, well, she wasn’t anywhere to be found.
What Rachael really wanted was to find the general and have a word, but he had left early and she didn’t know where to find him. So she decided to head back to her assigned room instead of hanging around in the off change he might return.
Rachael took the keycard out and stared at it for a while contemplating whether she should enter the room. She really didn’t feel like dealing with anyone right now. Ever since she lost Hector she just felt so detached from the real world. Like a specter haunting the earthly realm in an attempt to hang onto the material memories of a bygone time. Sighing, she put the keycard in and swiped it.
Rachael stood in the doorway looking at Levi Hurley hump his ex-wife. Fitting, she mused, that she would be paired with her client and apparent nymphomaniac.
“Oh, sorry, I, um…” Rachael blurted out.
Startled, the two lovers looked up as if she was the unexpected parent who had come home early from work only to stumble upon the couple having sex on the parent’s bed. Levi’s face was priceless. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic. The funny part was that he didn’t know what to do. Instead he just kept doing what came naturally, the whole while with that god-awful look of stupid panic frozen onto his face.
Amid the throes of passion, Jennifer politely asked, “Can we get just ten more minutes?”
“Yeah, of course,” Rachael said, quickly diverting her gaze. She had already seen way more than she wanted to. “Don’t mind me. You two love-birds keep doing, well, what it is you’re doing.”
Backing out into the hall Rachael pulled the door shut behind her and let out a pent up sigh. She contemplated going back to the mess hall, but there was nothing to do there but listen to the soldiers entertaining one another with gruesome stories of near death and bloody victory. Not exactly her cup of tea, all considered. So instead she decided to go knock on Alyssa’s door and see if she was doing alright.
Alyssa set her purple diary on top of the dresser and then went into the bathroom to draw a hot bath. Turning on the hot water, she cupped her palms under the faucet, and splashed water onto her face. Blinking at herself in the mirror, she seemed to look much older than she really was. It had been a long week. What she needed now was some peace and relaxation. She looked over at the full-sized Jacuzzi bath beside her and a great big smile broke out across her face.
“Oh, hell yes,” Alyssa said aloud. Slipping out of her clothes, she stepped into the steamy hot water. Just as she started to relax she heard a knock at the door.
“Hell no,” she said, slipping down under the water as if it would somehow hide her. She decided to ignore it. If it was important they’d knock again. She listened intently, dreading a second rapping at the door. But to her pleasant surprise, they went away. She sat back up, stretched out, and then closed her eyes.
Rachael shrugged. It didn’t appear that Alyssa was back yet from dinner, so she decided to take a stroll instead and headed down toward the end of the long corridor. Coming around a corner, she saw a large room which looked like an observation deck. There were no locks on the glass doors so she entered the room. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could find a vending machine and get herself a Coke.
The glass doors swooshed shut behind her. Set up like a waiting lounge, the room had rows of soft padded benches lined up facing a glass wall which overlooked a cavern with a turquoise lake fed by a natural underground aquifer. Blue hues rippled and danced along the cavern walls giving it a peaceful and serene quality. It was soothing. The small cavern reminded Rachael of the Lechuguilla cave she saw once on a trip to New Mexico.
“Mesmerizing, isn’t it?” a voice said.
Rachael spun around to see Linda Sheridan, the buxom administrator with dark eyes sitting in the back corner of the room. She was holding a medium sized crucifix that dangled from a necklace in her hand.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know anybody was in here.”
“It’s no problem. I come here all the time. Mainly to clear my mind. Sometimes to pray. It’s my one quantum of solace. You couldn’t sleep?” She tucked the necklace back into her shirt and smiled at Rachael.
“Actually, I haven’t had the chance. It would appear a couple of horny primates have overtaken my quarters.”
“Damn dirty apes,” Linda said in her best Charlton Heston imitation.
Rachael laughed then turned back toward the dancing blue and green hues of the glistening pool.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Linda asked, breaking the lingering silence.
“Sorry. I just have a lot weighing on my mind.”
“I know the feeling.”
Briefly pausing, Rachael continued, “It seems…”
“Go on,” urged Linda.
“It seems like I’m cursed. Everyone I’ve ever loved has been taken from me.”
“These are trying times, but we must never give up hope,” Linda said in a consoling voice. “Just know that you’re never alone. We have each other. As long as there is a beating heart in our bodies we shall have a bond more sacred than anything. After all, it’s was separates us from them.”
“Them?” Rachael inquired.
“The living dead.”
“Living dead seems like the biggest oxymoron of all time.”
“Maybe,” Linda chuckled. She got up and mov
ed toward the window to share the view. “But whatever they are … they used to be us.”
Rachael turned to look at Linda who had come up beside her. Linda grew silent and looked out of the window down at the iridescent green pool. She reached down and found the cross around her neck and began to twiddle it between her fingers.
“Do you think there is a cure?”
“I pray to God there is.”
Rachael snorted, although she hadn’t intended to. But with her recent experience with the cult of Perry Campbell, she was a little burnt out on all the God business.
“I take it you’re not a person of faith then?” Linda asked.
“I’m afraid not.”
“Do you mind if I ask why?”
“If you value your faith Ms. Sheridan, you won’t want me to answer that question.”
Linda smiled warmly and put her hand on Rachael’s shoulder. “Well, I’ll be praying for you anyway.”
Rachael wanted to smile back, but for some reason she just couldn’t manage it. It was better to let her cling to her faith. At least that way she could find comfort in the belief that somewhere, somehow, this terrible nightmare would end for the better. But Rachael had no such expectations. Everywhere she went hope crumbled to ash.
“Do you mind if I ask what it is you guys do down here, exactly?” Rachael inquired. She felt it best to shift the topic of conversation. Maybe she could pry some answers out of Linda.
“Well, most of what we do is classified. Science stuff generally.”
Rachael looked at Linda with an expression of amusement. She hated it when people were deliberately vague. Not satisfied with the fuzzy answer, Rachael cocked her head and gave Linda an exacting look. “What kind of science?”
“Various kinds. Most of it was the work of Dr. Hemingway. You’ll understand that I can’t really go into any details seeing as it’s all classified.”
“I guess it must be some pretty seedy stuff if you can’t mention anything about it.”
