“If you say so.” Roger shrugged.
“I stayed at her place last night, and we didn’t do anything except drink and watch the round the clock news.”
“Does Jessica know you stayed with her last night?”
“Nothing happened!” I said defensively.
Weird that Roger was asking about Jessica. I doubted he had ever talked to her more than one or two times, and he hadn’t exactly been friendly toward her.
“Maybe you should tell Jessica that she should have a plan in case this whole city erupts.”
“I tried to. She thinks it’s all fake news,” I said with a shrug. “Anyway, Elizabeth is the one I told you about. She knows how the incident started.”
“Oh I have to tell you about that. See, some guys on 4chan are keyed into the whole thing. We’re talking people at the highest level of government here. Anonymous, of course, but they can’t exactly come out and tell us their real names. People get fired, or worse, for leaking stuff like that. So you know how ebola was such a big deal a few years ago, a million people were going to die…”
I crossed my arms as Roger ranted. Elizabeth had given up on her phone and come over to join us. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him, nor could she keep her mouth closed.
“Roger, I promised you some inside information…” I tried to get a word in.
“Right, right. So then the ebola virus was crossbred with a rabies virus, something called, fuck, I can’t remember the name, but it’s really long. Anyway…”
“Stop talking,” Elizabeth snapped.
“If only it were that easy,” I said under my breath.
Roger sucked in a breath as he looked Elizabeth up and down once again. “Yeah, bro. Its ebola for sure, but the way they managed to combine the rabies RNA, or something, is genius. Then they unleashed it near Emory to test how quickly it would spread, but then it spread too fast, and the government knew they blew it. So they’ve been sending in teams.”
“Stop this ridiculous stream of idiocy immediately,” Elizabeth said, much louder this time.
She wasn’t as tall as Roger, but she put her hands on her hips and somehow got right in his face. She completed the stern elementary school teacher look by pointing her index finger at his nose. “For one thing, that’s not at all how RNA works. That’s not how any of this works. Ebola is the best you can do?”
“It’s not like this stuff is on the mainstream media. This doesn’t fit their agenda, so it’s not being covered.”
“Actually, it is.” I talked over Roger because that was how to get a word in with him.
“Not the actual facts. Just rumors, and misdirection,” Roger said. “But I said I’d be here. I’m here. You said you had a scoop, so let’s hear it.”
It wasn’t that Roger was dumb; he was a smart guy, but he lived in an oblivion of online, and offline, conspiracy theories. The more outlandish, the more likely he was to try to find out all he could before either giving it his blessing, or his ire. Although I had to give him credit for immediately dismissing flat-earthers.
However, he thought there was truth to the conspiracy that the government had been the ones who actually brought down the twin towers on 9/11 even though he had been a little kid at the time. Personally, I didn’t give a damn what he thought, and I could even put up with some of his bullshit for short periods of time. The truth was that Roger and I had known each other since high school. We had shared classes, chased the same girls, and even gone off on a few hiking and hunting trips together. That’s how it was with a bud. You had to take the good with the bad. It didn’t hurt that he had started dealing pot back then, and had built it into a business, so now I always had a source.
For the next few minutes, the four of us took turns trying to tell Roger what we knew, and what we had observed with Frank Evans yesterday. Elizabeth, for the most part, remained silent, and interjected a few zingers when she could. She was clearly frustrated and wanted to get the show on the road, but we had to get Roger on our side first. One thing that Elizabeth said over and over was that she was under stringent security, and couldn’t reveal too much.
Roger was a conspiracy nut, but he was a well-armed and well-prepared conspiracy nut, and he was here because he had a lot of equipment that we might need.
“Alright. I’m going to give you all the benefit of the doubt and go along with this, but I want to go on record as saying that this whole thing seems a little contrived. Until I see evidence otherwise, I’m more of an observer,” Roger stated while staring at the ground, eyebrows creased as if giving us the benefit of the doubt. “If nothing else, I’ll be able to get some great video for my fans.”
“Do not include me in any video,” Elizabeth warned.
“Of course, but if you do decide to share what you know, I want an exclusive. In return I’ll go along and help out. We got a deal?”
“Fine. Certainly. We’re all going to get on splendidly,” Elizabeth said.
Roger had just met her and probably didn’t detect the subtle amount of sarcasm in her voice.
“Great. We’re all onboard now. Can we get on the road before I get any older? I may have to work tonight,” I prompted. “Unless the rage zombies overrun the city.”
“Zombies are not real,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes and muttered.
“Little over-dramatic,” Roger said. “It’ll be more like a slow loss of public services at first. Then power as people don’t go to work and the grid falls. There will be fires, for sure, because the fire department will stop showing up. Unless they’re all, like, rage zombies in their firemen outfits.”
“You can stop now,” I urged Roger.
It didn’t take much longer for us to get on the road. Elizabeth gave Roger an address which he input into his phone’s navigation app. I piled into the car with Elizabeth, while Mitch and Mindy went with Roger, opting to leave their car here for the time being. They probably felt safer in his big-ass truck, or maybe it was just the ride. I had been in his H2 Hummer a few times, and had been astonished at the comfort, as well as how much gas it drank. Seriously, one time he filled up and it was almost a hundred bucks.
Elizabeth sent a text message to someone before we left and after that she was quiet for the rest of the drive. I checked for a message from Jessica, but she hadn’t bothered. I surfed Instagram for a few minutes and even though I saw a lot of posts from my usual friends, I had the strangest feeling that not everything was there. Last night I had seen a few images from attacks, or of people acting crazy. Now Instagram was miraculously clear.
Before I could delve any deeper, my phone’s battery icon flashed and I realized I was down to about 20%, because I had, once again, failed to charge it all of the way.
Luckily we arrived a few minutes later. It shouldn’t have taken so long but there were a couple of detours. I tried to see what was going on, but it was all street crews directing traffic, which was actually cool. Seeing people in construction clothing, instead of military clothing, made me feel like maybe, just maybe, we were still ahead of this thing.
I should stay positive. Things were going to work out great. We would get her notes, samples, and all that jazz, then we would turn them over (after making copies, of course, a side job that Elizabeth didn’t need to know about). While I wanted to trust her, she had little reason to give a shit about what was going to happen to my town. Her plans involved going back to England at her earliest opportunity. Mine involved stopping what I may have been responsible for starting.
Despite what she had said the night before, and today, I still felt like she blamed me. Yeah, Frank may have flipped out, had he been in my shoes, and released Latimer, but I was the one who had hit the button.
We finally arrived at an intersection that led into a nondescript couple of tan office buildings that I wouldn’t have given a second look at, assuming they were filled with assholes in asshole suits and skirts.
“This is it?” I asked in disbelief.
There were even a bunc
h of perfectly coiffed little trees out front surrounding the small sign that was also about as exciting as everything else in this bland business block.
“What did you expect?” Elizabeth said with a shrug. “Think of it this way. Have you ever seen a building labeled Department of Homeland Security?”
“No. Why would I ever see one of those?”
“That’s my point. They don’t advertise their locations,” she said. “Now let’s get this over with. I’d like to enjoy some lunch before noon.”
“Works for me,” I said and tried to ignore my grumbling tummy.
That’s how we ended up at the Boyle and Garland office space. I hoped like hell we weren’t walking into a bad situation.
But you know what they say about hope: Don’t.
I’m sure someone besides me says that on a regular basis.
15
We pulled into a pair of parking spaces about fifty or sixty feet away from the back entrance. A large white security camera perched over the door, but we had angled our approach so we wouldn’t be picked up. Plus it didn’t move, and Elizabeth had assured me that it wouldn’t pick us up as we approached from the other side. Not much of a security camera if you ask me, but what do I know?
I kept my eyes peeled, expecting more cameras, but I didn’t see any. Of course, this place might be bristling with them in hidden places, and the big white one was a decoy. I also watched for more people who may be infected. It felt weird that we were aware of a few isolated incidents, and yet we were here instead of heading out of town.
That would all come later. I apologize in advance since this might be a spoiler. Might not be, since you know what the hell you got yourself into by reading this journal.
I guess it goes to show that the world doesn’t fall apart in a few minutes, a few hours, or even a few days. It takes a while for people to mingle, fly to other parts of the country, drive to destination weddings, and take Ubers to and from infection-town. Plus it was the weekend so most people didn’t mingle at work and on our public transit system, MARTA. We might have a little bit of time to get this mission done, even though I had been regretting it by the second. There was no doubt in my mind that we needed Roger to pull this off. It had probably been a mistake to bring along Mitch and Mindy.
We piled out and gathered around the back of Roger’s H2 Hummer to see what he had brought along. Well, Roger, being Roger, had brought enough equipment for us to either storm a small country or to start a war. He had handguns, long rifles, guns I’ve only seen in Call of Duty, a bunch of knives, and blunt force objects, all in long black military-grade cases that each had a padlock. He had boxes marked MREs and bottled water, as well as larger five gallon containers of water. I pointed at one of the bottles that had come loose and rolled around. Roger nodded, so I gratefully snatched it up, twisted the top off, and drank half of it in a go. Fucking hangover was still knocking around upside my head because I didn’t have a damn bit of sense. It was the dawn of the rage apocalypse, and what had I done? Gone and gotten plastered out of my brain.
Roger opened up a large black plastic box that had a distinct military vibe and extracted a folding knife the size of his palm. Inside the foam interior lay an assortment of assault rifles both long and short. I spotted an MP5 and an M4, or maybe it was an M16. Roger’s money came from dealing pot and he spent most of it on guns.
I ran my hand over my little hand axe knowing that if we ran into serious trouble I wasn’t going to get very far with the weapon.
“Where’s your gun?” Roger asked as he looked me up and down.
“That’s a sad story right there. I had to pawn my .32 a few months ago to help pay the electric bill,” I said with genuine regret. “Care if I borrow something?”
“That story is almost as sad as your clothes.” Roger stood over me and leered. “Ass or grass, bro. Nobody handles my guns without paying the price.”
I lifted my hand to my lips, made a fist, and then blew into my thumb while slowly raising my middle finger.
"I say we do a little recon before we break out the guns," Roger said after a short chuckle. “But not all of the guns. We’ll pack light and come back if we need to.”
"When did you get so smart?" I rapped Roger's shoulder with my knuckles.
"I guess it was right around the minute I stopped trying to have intelligent conversations with you." Roger clapped back. “But seriously. I don’t know that lady doctor from a hole in the wall. She may be telling the truth and she may be full of it. I’m here to help, but I’m not going to jail if this place is a CDC secret site or some shit. If it’s empty, and we can get in and out without anyone knowing, as quickly as possible, then it’s a go. It’s not like the entire city is going to turn today, give it another day or three.”
“I don’t care what you’re reading on the Internet. Dr. Breeze is the real deal. I was there at the start and saw how crazy this guy was. The second guy, actually my boss Frank, was even worse off when we went and dragged him out of his apartment yesterday.”
“Wait a second. You did what?”
“Long story,” I said with an exhale.
Although was it a long story? It had been a long day, but I could probably hit the highlights in a few minutes.
Elizabeth had been looking for something in the back of her Range Rover, but joined us a minute later carrying a small gun. Shit, she had one after all! But as I looked closer, I realized it was a taser shaped like a gun. Good thing I hadn’t done anything stupid last night, as she had advised me to avoid, because I would have ended up riding the lighting in the form of about 20,000 volts.
“I should only need ten or fifteen minutes to assess the situation. Once I return, we can all go in so you can help me gather my materials. Is that a deal?”
“How much are you paying Jake, here, to do your dirty work?” Mindy asked. “I mean, like, shouldn’t we all get paid to be here?”
“There’s no money involved, so you all are welcome to go home. Jake agreed to help me, and honestly, I can’t for the life of me figure out why he thought it was a good idea to invite company along. The situation today is nothing like yesterday. I’m going to evaluate how many of my people are inside, and if it’s clear, I’ll be back for Jake so he can assist me in retrieving my research notes,” Elizabeth said as she put her hands on her hips.
“Speaking of yesterday, what happened to Evans?” Mitch asked Elizabeth. “Not to mention that lady who might have been infected.”
“I have no idea. I dropped off Mr. Evans at a facility. I hadn’t thought to check on the woman, but as soon as we have my notes, I think it’s safe to call the police department and ask if they have any information they can release.”
“At a facility?” Roger perked up. “What kind of a facility?”
“Not the sort you think it is.” Elizabeth took up that school teacher tone of voice again. “It’s a special hospital where they care for infected victims. It was put to use while the CDC treated people for Ebola several years ago.”
“But you work for the CDC,” I said.
“Of course. I mean I didn’t work for them back then. I was still busy acquiring my doctorate.”
“Look at the big brain on Brad,” Mitch said under his breath.
“Pardon?” Elizabeth asked in a quizzical voice.
“Ignore him. He can quote entire Quentin Tarantino movies,” I said.
“Ah. An admirable skill, I should imagine.”
“No need to be a bitch about it,” Mindy said.
“Oh for heaven's sake. Can we get on with this? It may be hard to believe, but I have a life outside of running around with the youth of Atlanta,” Elizabeth said.
I frowned at that because she was my age or maybe a year older, but before I could call her on her bullshit Mitch got excited.
“Hey, guys. There’s some shit going down!” He had moved off a few feet and cupped his hand over his phone screen to shade it from the sun. I couldn’t see what he was looking at, but he cou
ldn’t tear his eyes away.
“What’s up, babe?” Mindy asked.
He held his hand up. Christ, but I hated it when people did that. Here’s a big thing, but shut the fuck up while I continue to stare at said thing and forget you ever existed.
Roger broke out his phone, a huge device that was almost the size of a small tablet. He opened up a browser, and then scrolled up and down a screen.
“What’s going on? My phone sucks, and I don’t know what you guys are reading,” I said as I tried to open something, anything on my phone.
He held up his hand and then extended a finger in the universal shush sign.
Elizabeth took out her phone and it was at that point that I seriously thought about grabbing all of their devices and hurling them against the wall.
“This is not ideal,” Elizabeth said and slapped her phone back inside of her bag.
“Would someone tell me what’s happening?” I asked again in frustration.
Mitch handed me his phone, but first he fiddled with the screen to restart the video. It was out of focus at first, but came into view in a couple of seconds. A line of police in riot gear confronted what appeared to be a mob of angry people. One of them appeared to have the same mucus stuff on his face, as I had observed on Frank Evans and Latimer. But as folks shuffled around, the infected faded from sight.
Someone else had a sign but I couldn’t make out all of the scribbled text, something eluding to a loved one being held in an unknown facility. I scratched my head at that one.
“They’ve been picking up infected and taking them somewhere,” Roger said, which completed the puzzle pieces I had been trying to put together.
“Most likely the same location as Frank Evans.” Elizabeth nodded. “You all do realize that this is good, yes? That means that our protocols have kicked in, and the threat to the city should be contained today or tomorrow.”
“Protocols. Right,” I said.
Christ on a scooter but I was getting really sick and tired of Elizabeth’s double-talk. Sometimes she sounded like she knew what she was doing and other times it sounded a lot like she was making this up as she went along. If I only knew then what I know now. And if unicorns were real I would have captured one and opened a petting zoo by now.
Dawn of the Rage Apocalypse Page 11
