by RM Brewer
"Have I told you lately just how smart you are, Fester?"
Even in the dim light, she could see him blush.
"Not in the past day, at least," Fester said, smiling. "Be careful."
"Good luck," Claire said.
"See you soon," Jodie said as she waved at them and then took off running. Dawn had yet to break and she needed to make it to the installation under whatever cover the amber sky could still provide. Plus, she had to be in place when Chuck's plan went into action. That was when all hell would break loose.
* * *
Mei drifted in and out of awareness as she waited with the rest of the group in the docking bay. They'd pushed the gurney behind a pallet and locked the wheels to keep it from rolling. She was completely awake as Rita gave her another injection.
"She's turning fast," Dennis said.
Even though her eyes were barely open, Mei could see the apprehension on his face as he looked down at her.
"How much morphine do we have left?" he asked.
Rita rifled through the medical bag. "About one thousand milligrams."
"Is that enough?" Dennis asked.
"Yeah." Rita sighed. "Enough to put a horse down. I just hope whoever she's expecting shows up."
"Rita, you know we can't take her with us if no one comes to get her. You know that, right?"
Rita nodded. "I know. I know . . . and we can't just leave her to turn, either."
"Well, for now, we'd better leave her here and go over by the others," Dennis said. "We can't be far from the base."
Rita bent down closer to Mei. "I promise I'll help you whatever way I can if it comes to that," she whispered. "Don't worry."
Mei wanted to answer. She wanted to thank this woman for her kindness but found herself putting all of her energy into battling with her body. Rita ran to the other side of the docking bay to join the rest of the group and Mei felt her strength leaving her. The urge to lunge off the gurney and throw herself at the nearest human was almost too overpowering and all-encompassing to resist.
Clinging to whatever humanity she had left, Mei allowed Chuck into her head again. She felt his voice calm her as he told her they were waiting for her. All she needed to do was hang on. Mei listened to Chuck as he pleaded with her, begging her to be strong for her sake and for Jodie's, but no amount of will she could muster seemed like it would be enough to fight off what was consuming her.
Underneath the sheet that covered her came sounds of bones breaking and snapping. Mei groaned, feeling her fingernails pop off as claws began to extrude from her fingertips. The little hope she had left was starting to dissolve into a dream that could never become reality. Using the minuscule amount of sanity she still held, she told Chuck he was too late. She couldn't hold on any longer. The virus had taken all of her, save what she had left in her brain to say goodbye.
Mei sat up and looked around, seeing nothing at first. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement. A shadow flickered behind a wall of boxes. Time to pay Dennis a visit.
* * *
Chuck crept along the fence line, nearer to where he sensed the viral who called himself Jimbo was waiting. He read the confusion in Jimbo's mind, his thoughts jumbled with fear, hate, trepidation and aggression. Chuck wondered if Jimbo could be counted on when the battle was upon them.
Coming to a corner of the fence, Chuck turned north, feeling Jimbo's horde ahead. He couldn't see them, but knew they were out there, buried in the sand like snakes, waiting for prey to wander by.
Chuck called for Jimbo to come out and meet him. He stood and waited, hoping this wasn't a mistake. Then, the ground began to erupt, grotesque sand coated figures popping out everywhere. Their collective extrication from the desert floor created a dust storm that briefly obscured his vision, but Chuck could feel Jimbo coming at him. He stood firm, in a defensive posture, as Jimbo approached, crawling on all fours.
Chuck watched three other virals converging from both sides, effectively trapping him against the fence. As they crept closer, he could see Jimbo's virals each held something red in their hands. In his head, Jimbo explained they were deputies, having sworn their allegiance to him in Las Vegas. It was only then Chuck realized they were holding poker chips. If the imminent confrontation with the super virals wasn't so dire, Chuck would've burst out laughing. It was funny how impending doom could put a damper on even the most comical of situations.
Looking out at the expanding horde before him, Chuck counted what he thought were several thousand virals. They seemed to be not much of a match for the super virals, so much as a distraction. He directed his gaze toward Jimbo. "I need your help. The virals you fought earlier stand between us and bringing down Gypsum. They've laid a trap for us on the other side of the base and we need to defeat them before we can do our work. You have to fight with us."
Jimbo shook his head, his negative thoughts coming through loud and clear. He refused to fight.
"You don't understand," Chuck said. "You'll create a diversion while my horde comes at them from behind. Surprise is the only thing that will help us defeat them."
Jimbo appeared to contemplate the strategy, clawing at the ground. His deputies shuffled back and forth in the sand, seemingly anxious to stride over and try to take Chuck's head off. This wasn't going at all like he'd thought it would.
"Okay, you don't have to fight. But, if we lose, they'll come for you and we won't be there to protect you. Or, maybe my flock will win and then we'll come for you."
Jimbo raised his head and snorted as his deputies began to close in.
It's now or never, Chuck thought to himself as he pushed off from the fence and plowed through a blockade of surprised virals. He ran, feeling claws gouging into his back, teeth threatening to tear him to pieces. Behind him, the sound of snarling and spitting intensified as Jimbo's horde came together in pursuit. Chuck could hear Jimbo ordering them to kill, yet he could feel Jimbo's remorse as well. He wanted to laugh, wondering what it was like to be a schizophrenic viral. Could there be anything worse? But, virals were an expression of the hand they were dealt, of whatever mix of Helen's formula they were exposed to, combined with what kind of person they started out as. Just like uninfected human beings, the possible contortions of the virus were infinite. What Chuck was starting to realize is that he had no idea what these virals would do. He had no control over them.
Chuck picked up the pace, surprised to feel the horde still on his heels. Ahead, he could sense the presence of pure power growing as he approached the area where the super virals lay in wait. He ran faster, trying to gain some distance from the stampede behind him. The dimwitted virals chasing him couldn't keep pace. They screamed and screeched in frustration, announcing their presence to everyone and everything in the vicinity. Chuck knew that was his cue to exit. He turned another corner, out of sight of his pursuers, and accelerated, pushing off and flinging himself over the fence and onto the Air Force base. Chuck sprinted for the cover of a military vehicle and slid down behind it just as the pursuing horde raced around the corner. They ran as one unit, spreading out into the desert like an infection. Then, they stopped.
For a moment, they appeared confused, not knowing how their prey had disappeared. Then, something caught their collective attention and they plowed ahead. Chuck knew what was coming next and, although he didn't want to wait to see how it all turned out, he felt compelled to watch anyway.
As the horde came face to face with the super virals, the noise of their screeching rose several decibels. What sounded like a war cry came from the super viral side. Chuck felt the impact of the two hordes clashing in the new morning light and decided he'd seen enough. It was time to run. The Quonset hut where he was to meet Jodie was over a mile away. It would take him only a little more than a minute to reach her.
He brought his speed up to the maximum just as the entire base was flooded in light. Seeing movement to his left, he realized the military was mobilizing for a strike against the clashing viral hordes thr
eatening the perimeter of the base. He saw something else, too. A bright light shown in the sky above as Chuck skidded in the sand in front of where Jodie crouched. "Looks like I'm just in time."
Jodie reached out and hugged him, pushing her face into his shoulder as he crawled next to her, but she recoiled, pulling her bloodied hand from his back and feeling the wetness of blood on her face. "Oh my God, Chuck. What happened to you?"
"I'm okay. Just a little close encounter, is all."
"I didn't even know you could do that," Jodie said. "I mean, bleed this much." She pulled a bandana out of her pocket, covered a gash in Chuck's shoulder and pressed down.
Chuck winced. "That hurts. I didn't know I could do that, either," he said. "Kind of a bad time to start, don't you think?"
"Sorry about that and yes, your timing is bad altogether, Officer Wending," Jodie said, trying to lighten the mood as she pulled back the bandana, revealing the crevasse in Chuck's muscle. The sight left her wondering if he was reverting in some way back to the human he used to be. While that was a wonderful thought, now was not the time for something like that to happen. For now, she had stopped the bleeding, at least.
"Are you saying you love me just the way I am?" Chuck asked, smiling until the firing of automatic weapons caught his attention.
The whomping sound of helicopter blades filled the air. An offensive against the virals was being launched and Chuck felt his heart break a little as the helicopters hovered over the raging hordes. After all, they were human at one time and it wasn't their fault they had turned into such vile creatures. Streams of fire rained down on the horde from the deck mounted flamethrower. Viral torches fled in all directions, screeching and screaming as they ran.
Victory appeared to be on the side of the military until the first of several hundred saguaro cactuses were tossed into the air, slamming into the rotor blades of the helicopters. One by one, they were brought down, their occupants incinerated as they slammed into the ground in impressive fiery explosions.
Chuck looked over at Jodie, who appeared mesmerized by the sight. "Wait'll we tell Nick and Christy about this one," he said.
Jodie looked at him, tears in her eyes. "I'd almost forgotten about them . . . our friends . . . my dad . . . Noah. I bet Hunter would be peeing all over himself if he were here."
Chuck reached out and grabbed her hand. He didn't know how to tell her what else he knew. Glancing over at Jodie, he knew she could read his face as sure as he could read her mind.
"She's gone, isn't she?" Jodie asked.
Chuck nodded. "She changed. She said to tell you she loved you, but couldn't hold on."
Tears welled in Jodie's eyes. "She never really had a chance, did she?"
"No, not really." Chuck looked down at the sand. "I don't know if my blood would've saved her or not. I'm really sorry."
"I can't believe we came all this way . . . we just didn't have enough time . . ."
Chuck wanted to cry, too, but steeled himself. He'd failed Mei and Jodie, but they still had a mission. "Even though we were too late for her, we still didn't have a choice about being here. We still had to come. We still have to fight."
Jodie appeared to be unraveling and Chuck pulled her close. "You have to be strong now, Jodie. Mei told me there are other people on that ship who need to be rescued. Then, there's Fester and Claire who are waiting for us. If we don't get out of here, Fester will come and look for us. You know how stubborn he is."
Jodie nodded, using the back of her blood-crusted hand to wipe her nose. "That's disgusting, I know, but my bandana is covered in your blood."
As the words came out of her mouth, Chuck realized what they'd done. Jodie looked down at her hands, which were stained red.
"I've infected myself with your blood, haven't I?" Jodie asked as she held her hands up in front of her and backed away from Chuck. “Oh, God. I wiped it all over my face. Can you infect me? I don't even know."
"Wipe it off," Chuck said, looking around for something to help clean the blood off Jodie's face. He grabbed at his shirt, tearing a section off.
"Stop, Chuck. Just stop. It's too late and besides that, I don't care anymore."
Chuck found himself speechless. How could he have let this happen? His goal, all of his efforts, his entire reason for being, revolved around keeping Jodie safe. The irony was so cruel; that he would shelter her from everything else, only to infect her in the end. Before today, he hadn’t bled, though. Maybe that meant something. Maybe it meant she would be okay. “Oh, God, Jodie, I’m so sorry,” he said.
“We'll have to find that vaccine soon,” Jodie said.
“Well, it looks like we'll be having our chance,” Chuck said, pointing.
The outline of the craft above them came into view. It made no noise that could be heard over the battle raging at the far end of the installation. Parts of the craft appeared to be transparent, while other sections were almost iridescent. Chuck glanced at Jodie. She looked sad and defeated. He could hear her thoughts in his head and feel her disappointment to have come all this way and still have lost Mei.
“We have to remember what we still have, Jodie. We have friends and family and lives that matter.”
Jodie nodded, but Chuck could tell her heart wasn't in the battle anymore.
"They’re all counting on us and we need to see this through. We have no choice."
“Okay, Chuck . . . okay. We’d better get moving then.”
Chuck thought she sounded utterly defeated. He stood up and held out his hand, unwilling to let her crumble. “Let’s go help those people Mei told me about.”
CHAPTER 16
“Wow, Chuck wasn’t kidding when he said this would be hard,” Fester said. “I’d like to be over there, letting those Gypsum people have it.” He held up the gun to emphasize his point.
“I know what you mean,” Claire said. “Me, too. Those bastards killed my friends and family. I’d like to pay them back for their achievements.”
Something coming into his field of vision caught Fester's attention and he looked up, amazed by what he was seeing. He pointed. “Look. The spaceship. It’s here.”
Claire tilted her head back and they watched the craft approaching. “It’s kind of pretty, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, until the death ray comes blasting out of the bottom,” Fester said. “Then it won’t be so pretty.”
“Death ray?”
“Yeah, don’t they all have a death ray?”
“I don’t know,” Claire said. “You sound as if you’re more acquainted with this type of vehicle than I am . . . if you say so.”
Fester was just kidding, but deep down he wished it did have a death ray that would blast the Gypsum installation to smithereens. Provided Chuck and Jodie were out of the way first, that was. "Should we call them and find out what's going on?" Fester held up his two-way radio. "It's been a long time. Maybe they need help."
"Did Jodie turn her radio on?" Claire asked.
Fester wanted to kick himself. Jodie probably hadn't thought to turn her radio on and neither had he. How could he be so stupid? He wanted to scream but jumped instead when Jodie's voice came out of the radio he was holding.
"Come in Fester," Jodie said. "Bonnie and Clyde, here."
Fester searched Claire's face for some explanation. "Bonnie and Clyde?"
"I think my boss has gone whacko," Claire said. "Better answer."
"Okay," Fester said. "Godzilla, here. Go ahead, Bonnie."
"Hey, Godzilla, can you put Claire on the line?" Jodie asked.
"Sure," Fester said, a little hurt that Jodie didn't want to talk to him directly. He stepped closer to Claire and handed her the radio.
"I'm here, Jodie . . . I mean, Bonnie," Claire said.
"My attempt at humor," Jodie said. "Sorry. I need to talk to you alone, okay?"
Fester looked at Claire, who seemed uncomfortable, but excused herself, walking away from the truck. Fester wondered why he wasn't part of the conversation, but thought
maybe it was FBI business. Then again, was the FBI really still in existence? He couldn't answer his own question, so waited for Claire, watching the firestorm that was happening on the north side of the installation. From his vantage point, Fester couldn't tell who was winning or losing. He wondered why no one was using the equipment that was sitting idle, next to the runway.
He turned when he heard footsteps and saw Claire coming back to wait with him. The look on her face told him something awful was going on. Fester could tell she was trying very hard not to cry.
"What's going on? What happened?"
Claire looked away and then back at him. "They want us to leave." Tears began to roll down her face as she finished her sentence.
"What? Huh?" Fester asked. "I mean, what do you mean they want us to leave?"
Claire grabbed his hand. "Fester, Jodie's infected."
Fester felt his face grow hot. A distant ringing in his ears became louder and louder. He wanted to throw up. "But she can't be. She's like Chuck. He's got her DNA. She'll be like him, won't she? She won't be a viral. She'll be a super-soldier, just like Chuck, won't she?" Fester could feel the tears release from his eyes, too. "Won't she?" His voice grew a little louder.
Claire looked him in the eye. "I don't know. I really don't know what will happen to her, but she says she doesn't know if everything will work out okay and she wants us to be out of the way if it doesn't."
Fester felt a jumble of words tying up his tongue. "We can't just leave them here," he spat out. "What about Chuck? He's still alright."
Claire wiped her face. "Ugh," she stammered. "I don't know what to do. You're right. We have to help them . . . but, how? If we go running down there, Gypsum or, even worse, the virals will get us. Jodie and Chuck will be trying to save us instead of saving Mei and bringing down Gypsum. We have to figure out some other way to help them."
"Tanks," Fester said. "What do you know about tanks?"
"Wha . . . what? Did you say tanks?"
