RECTIFY 3
A Novella
Jacqueline Druga
Rectify 3 - By Jacqueline Druga
Copyright 2019 by Jacqueline Druga
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any person or persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Thank you to Paula Gibson, with all that you had going on in your life, I can’t believe you helped me with this.
Cover photo provided by: Alexandru Zdropa - Upsplash
ONE – OF MICE AND PLANS
This is not the end.
Those were the thoughts of James Ung. He thought them the second he arrived on the roof of that inner-city apartment.
This is not the end. It can’t be.
He had been in a bubble and it broke. But his bubble wasn’t caused by denial, it was caused by society’s delegation of safety while in the crisis.
Rich, poor, middle class … it did matter.
He was the head physician in the emergency department of Mon Valley Hospital. Had been for years. It was a cushy job in a hospital that rarely saw much of anything.
Until the CO-D4 virus.
He saw the beginning, the panic, the chaos, and he saw the world dust off, get it together and loudly declare with one voice, “We will not be defeated.”
Essential services were restored, and not only were people encouraged to return to work, they were required. Life had to proceed as it always had. The only difference was the curfews and the soldiers on the street eliminating those who caught the virus and revived.
Life returned to normalcy.
Well, as normal as it could get.
He lived in the suburbs, in a nice house, in a perfect housing plan. Even at the height of the first outbreak, James had never seen more than a few infected at one time. That was because of where he lived. They were highly policed, and when the world began putting itself back together, they created teams. They called them R Teams. Highly trained, specialized teams when called, infiltrated homes or buildings with suspected infected. There they would remove the threat or … rectify them. They were part of a network making life safe. Although, at night there was never a guarantee, but James worked that shift at the hospital.
When last he went to bed, everything was close to being normal. As normal as it could be with the Codies, as they called them, out there. But there was hope, albeit short lived. An inoculation had been distributed and delivered to a lot of the public. At least in James’ area. And while a warning had been issued for possible side effects, James didn’t think much of it. After all they had rushed production and vital testing.
Life would resume shortly, and all would be fine.
Society was on the road to recovery.
James himself needed to recover. He was without sleep going on two days straight.
So, with the combination of exhaustion and inebriation, James slept over twenty-four hours with no interruptions.
When he woke up everything was different.
It was as if the world was on pause.
He didn’t realize how fortunate he was until that moment. James could’ve been killed by his naivety. He ventured out from his home never realizing the dangers ahead.
The side effect of the inoculation was more than the typical ones. Those who received it fell ill, slipped into a coma and had yet to waken. The world was quiet.
Vulnerable.
Those exposed when they dropped from the immunization were nothing but an easily had dinner bell for the infected.
No one was around to control the infected anymore.
Now James was trapped, or so he thought, in a ten-story apartment building. He was there with new friends. Friendships formed by circumstances.
Ella was one of them. A woman who lived across the river. She came from a compound completely engulfed by the infected. Yet, as if she had some sort of thrill seeking addiction, she would make her way out of the compound every week to get supplies for her people going through the infected unscathed. She was good at what she did, but her last trip was one without a return ticket. Her route back had been totally blocked.
Major Tom Leland, the commanding officer of the R Team in the city, was with them as well.
Ella and James were good ones to have around, they knew how to handle infected.
James only knew how to handle the sickness and wounds.
They sheltered in Rhonda’s apartment. A woman who not only just gave birth but was bit and turned. Major Tom gave her an inoculation knowing the chances of it working were slim, because it had to be delivered rather quickly to work as an antidote, as James had done with Ella after being bitten.
It worked.
James still didn’t know why.
The old saying ‘safety in numbers’ wasn’t going to hold true for long, because the number of infected grew by the hour outside of Rhonda’s apartment. Moving about the streets below, almost as if they knew lunch was in the building.
They needed an exit plan. Getting out of the apartment building at least into the sub or were there was less affected might work. But James needed a better view than from the fourth-floor apartment door, so he made his way to the roof.
Once there the stench of the dead carried up to him, but the air was cooler than in the apartment. He didn’t feel comfortable he would know how to determine a better way to go. It all looked hopeless to him.
He took a moment in the quiet and pulled out his phone. He locked onto the battery indicator in the right hand corner staring.
“Are you wanting to be alone?” Ella asked as she stepped onto the roof.
“No, no. I …” James cleared his throat. “I came up to see if there is a better way out.”
“Good idea.” Ella walked over and joined him. Her eyes shifted to his phone then back to James. “This side isn’t working.”
“Nah.”
“How about over that way?” she asked.
“I didn’t check.”
“Then I will.”
When she walked away, James fiddled with his phone. “How are you feeling, Ella?”
“I’m good. Fine. I have some energy today.”
“And the surgical site?” he joined her.
“Fine.” She peered over the edge. “This way is good. Doesn’t look bad at all.”
James looked down. “There are infected down there.”
“Yeah, but less than the other side. Only a couple dozen. I’ve dodged more when I was at Sanctum and left for a booze run.”
“Which was often,” James joked.
“Uh, yeah. It’s the apocalypse. Who wants to be sober? Not me.” She walked over to the other side. “No, this is in no way as good as the other side,” she rejoined him. “This is the doable side.”
“Okay, what does that mean?”
“This is the way out. At least, I can try. There are trucks at the Med camp. Big ones. I can go get one and bring it back here close to the fire escape. We need to get out of this area. Further away. How were the suburbs when you were there?”
“Not like this. Wait. Ella, the field hospital is over run.”
“Not so bad that Tom couldn’t make it. Besides, they’re slow as fuck. I’m pretty fast. I’ve made it through far more over on the South Side.”
“I’m not sure I like this plan.”
“It’s the only one we got, but we’ll talk to Tom and Rhonda first.”
James nodded.
“James? Why do you keep looking at your phone?”
Almost embarrassed, James smiled. “It’s almost dead.”
“I’m surprised it’s not.”
“I had it on the charger before the power went out.” He sighed. “Truth is … my wife and son were overseas, back home in China when this all started. I stayed in contact, even when things got back up again. Then I lost contact. I tried every day … no answer. It started going straight to voice mail. But … Jana … my wife, her mom called me three days after I last spoke to Jana. She left a message. That was months ago. I … I haven’t listened to the message. Call it fear, call it avoidance, whatever. Waiting until I was strong, I suppose, or ready to hear what it was. Now … now I have eight percent battery and I am scared that if I don’t listen to it right now … I’ll never get a chance.”
“And you’ll never know.”
James nodded. “You’re the first person I have told this to.” He clutched his phone.
“Are you telling me just to tell someone or are you wanting my advice?”
“Both.” He glanced over at her. “What would you do?”
“Me, personally, I would have listened to it right away. Good or bad, get it over with. The suspense would kill me. I was terrible with TV shows. I was that person who looked for spoilers or went online while watching a movie because I couldn’t wait for the end.”
“That’s terrible.”
“That’s me ... you don’t seem the type … obviously. You could listen to it and know. Or not listen to it and never know. So, my advice is, follow your heart. I think you know what the message says even if you never listened to it. If you believe in your heart, they are still alive, then you don’t need to listen to a voicemail to tell you. But if you don’t know their fate, or are unsure, then you can’t possibly move on without the confirmation. That’s the best advice I can give you.”
“Thank you.”
Ella ran her hand across his back as she stepped back. “I’ll leave you be. I’m going to go talk to Tom and Rhonda and see what they say.”
“I’ll be right down.”
Ella said nothing further, she slipped away quietly leaving James alone with his thoughts.
James looked again at his phone and to the voicemail log. Then after a deep breath he hit ‘play’ and brought the phone to his ear.
TWO – STILL A DISTANCE
They called it Sanctum. A place where one hundred and three people took refuge when they couldn’t cross the river. It was a section of the industrial park which was completely surrounded by a sturdy fence. In that area were three buildings. A storage unit that served as their housing, along with a kitchen remodeling center and a restaurant supply store.
During their months there, they lifted sections of the concrete lot to expose soil and plant a garden. Most of the food came from what was already there and from what the government dropped to them in the beginning along with what Ella scavenged for.
She had a keen ability to make it through large groups of Codies quickly and safely.
Sanctum was located at the South Side of town. It was a place that thrived with business during the day and an out of control nightlife on weekends for the rowdy alcohol warriors.
It was always busy.
After the fall, it was still crowded. Only this time with the infected. They swarmed the entire area. More so than anywhere else, it was as if they were led there on purpose to cleanse other areas.
The compound was located a mere fifty yards from the river, but it might as well had been a thousand. Getting out was useless.
Grant led Sanctum. An unwanted honor that was placed on his shoulders, but he took it on with his entire being. He would keep those in Sanctum alive.
At first, when the government learned about those trapped in Sanctum, they dropped food and water, they also kept the power on and provided a radio.
“We’ll get you out,” they said.,
No one ever came.
Then it turned to, ‘you can’t leave, you all are carriers now.’
Grant knew it was bullshit, but he went along with it. Until he was told the truth there was no way to get them out. Sanctum was a beacon of sorts for the infected. If they left, so would the Codies and it would be game over for the entire city.
Too many Codies with too few to kill them.
So, Grant held onto that lie and told his people it was the reason they couldn’t leave.
They wouldn’t take it well to find out they were in place to be nothing more than a magnet.
Grant looked at it as his sacrifice for humanity.
Even though they had a surplus for food, Ella and a few others would go out. A few diverted the Codies while Ella ran. The infected had no need for food, they dined on the living. The huge chain grocery store had been stocked fully along with all the other businesses in the area when they were trapped.
Eventually they’d run the gauntlet on the food in the area, or the amount of infected would grow to the point they couldn’t leave, but Sanctum planned ahead. They were gardening and building a water purification system.
Eventually the Codies would die out.
Eventually.
But would Sanctum survive until then? It was growing more obvious the longer a person was Codie, the more violent they became.
At least from Grant’s perspective, he didn’t have any hardcore scientific or medical facts, only what he saw and perceived.
When they first revived, they were docile, almost as if they retained a part of who they were. As their bodies decayed, along with their brain, any trace of humanity remaining was gone and replaced with sheer animal brutality.
He received a broken radio transmission from a man who identified himself as a Major. He told Grant Ella was still alive. Grant was relieved, he feared they had lost her when she didn’t return from a run and was gone overnight.
Before the radio went silent, he assured Grant they’d do their best to get to them. They’d figure something out.
Grant didn’t doubt they would try. He held onto his hope.
Their chance of survival hinged on outlasting the Codies. But as more and more of them power housed against the fences, Grant wondered how long they could hold out.
He had to keep hoping this Major would pull through. If the Codies broke the fences getting through, they were done. They had no defenses that could match an invasion of thousands of them.
It would no doubt be a horrible way for them to die.
THREE – LET GO
Moundsville, West Virginia
The shortest distance between two points wasn’t always the wisest route when it came to running from infected. Clay Owens knew this, but he also knew time was limited for the woman and her husband who made the distress call for help from a trailer park not even a few blocks from where he and his camp were safely located.
Using a child’s walkie talkie, Clay only by chance heard the call.
Clay and the others didn’t take refuge in the historic West Virginia State Penitentiary to hide, they went there for safety and to help others.
He had brought at least a dozen people into his camp.
Cathy and Talbot would be no different.
Or so Clay thought.
He drove over, which was the smart thing. He told them to stay put in the rental office, after all that was where they had called from.
When he got there, the building was overrun.
He estimated in Moundsville, before the weird post immunization thing, there were about a thousand Codies. Too many to shoot, but not enough that they were worried. Never were they in the same place at the same time. It just so happened that two dozen of them were relentless at that trailer office.
He stayed a distance away and radioed, “Cathy. Hey, it’s Clay, come in. Over.”
“Clay.”
Something about the way she said his name, just sounded off.
“Cathy, you’re gonna hear a car horn. I’m gonna divert them. When I do, I need you to come out and run across twelfth street to the church. It’s clear over there. I’ll swing around and pick you up.”
“We’re not
in there.”
“You’re not in there? Is someone else in there?”
“No. We ran.”
“Where?” Clay asked.
“To the pit.”
“Goddamn it, stay put.”
Clay knew what the pit was. It was a part of the trailer area where they expanded, but it was underdeveloped. Why they ran there he didn’t know. Probably scared. He knew the second he hit the gas and drove down the main, and only road into the park, the infected would see him and pursue.
They did.
All would have been fine timewise had they been in plain view when he made it there. But he had to look for them, calling for them on the radio, however they wouldn’t come out.
Finally, Clay threatened then over the radio. “If you don’t come out now, I’m leaving.”
They emerged from behind a bulldozer at the edge of the pit. They moved slowly as if they were exhausted. Clay made the mistake of going down to get them. He knew it was risky, the road was gravel and sand.
When he slid the car to a stop, he then pushed open the door for them. “Get in. Hurry.”
“Thank you,” Cathy breathed heavily when she got into the back seat, Talbot, just as winded, got in the front. As soon as he closed the door, Clay hit the gas.
“Why did you run down here?” he asked.
Talbot answered. “We thought it would be safer to go to the creek. Get across it.”
“This isn’t a vampire apocalypse, the infected can cross water.”
Clay drove up the main road and as he came up the crest, he could see the group of infected. ‘I can make it, I can make it,’ he thought. As soon as he gunned the gas pedal, the wheels spun, and he was stuck.
Cathy screamed.
“We’re gonna have to run,” Clay told them. “We’ll head across the field to the woods hitting the main road.”
“I can’t. I can’t,” Cathy cried. “My legs.”
Clay didn’t get it. Cathy didn’t look like a damsel in distress, she looked like she just got back from a hunting trip. Rough and rugged. “You don’t need to run far,” Clay told them. “A good hundred yards ahead and we can slow down. Got it. But we have to run and do so now.” Clay pushed open his car door, bolted, and noticed quickly they weren’t following him.
The Rectify Series (Book 3): Rectify 3 Page 1
