by Evans, Mike
“I was also going to ask, sir, do you need one of those things to verify that the cure works, how will testing on something like this go?”
“Phelps, unfortunately, I don’t feel that finding a test subject is going to take very much work in the immediate future. I don’t have much more to tell you soldiers other than good luck and watch each other’s backs; you’ll be the only ones who will be. Do you have any questions?”
Phelps looked at his men. Clare raised his hand. “So send you the information when we find it and bring back Frank Fox. Did you want a video chat with him before we come back?”
“We would be very interested in speaking to Frank Fox the minute he is found. He is going to be vital to speeding along the research with our team of scientists that we have been collecting over the last few hours. He can hopefully help us dissect what his drug does and what it was supposed to do. We have already tried gassing these things at the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and nothing happened. They came through fully charged and ready to kill and eat. If there is no cure, we do not have enough bullets readily available to take these things out. They are almost impossible to kill. One way or another we want confirmation on Fox.”
Phelps stood up, saluting the television mounted to the wall and pressed the button to turn it off. He collapsed into the seat and looked up at the roof of the plane, thinking of his wife and that there was a great chance he wouldn’t see her again. Without thinking, he stared at the no smoking sign on the side of the plane and pulled that lone smoke from his pocket. With a flick of the lighter he always carried with him, he lit it up. When McClellan cleared his throat, Phelps looked at his men. With the cigarette clenched between his teeth, he said, “Smoke ’em if you got ’em, boys; fuck it.”
Gowland and Clare looked at each other, neither of them smokers. Clare said, “We don’t smoke, sir.”
Phelps closed his eyes, sucking down a huge drag. “Well, if you have a problem with it, son, then head on up to the front of the plane. Maybe the captain will give you a tour. Maybe you can check with him how long it’s going to be to get to Iowa. My guess is less than three hours.”
Chapter 9: Truth
Shaun and Greg got the packs set to go to town and they started the long hike down the hill. Mike couldn’t leave well enough alone, and as he was trying not to lose his balance, he ran up a few steps to fall in place next to Shaun. “So, can you tell me, since Greg refuses to say anything, why all of a sudden we need to go back down the hill?”
Shaun thought about the repercussions of anything he might say; he would for sure be blamed until his dying days for being the son of the man who set the world on fire. “I don’t really want to get into it right now, Mike. Maybe we can talk about it some other time.”
Mike walked a little slower for a step, not done trying to interrogate the answer out of him. “So do you think there is a cure for whatever happened to those things, Shaun?”
Everyone watched Shaun as he thought of the answer. “Well, from what I saw yesterday, the people who don’t have giant limbs missing and holes through their bodies might have a chance at being cured. I think the ones who were just brutally eaten aren’t going to have any other options but to be shot in the head.”
Mike nodded, walking faster now. “So where are we going to go look for these answers you guys are talking about? I mean, you have to know something, right?”
Shaun nodded his head without answering. Mike was losing his short patience again, and when he looked back over his shoulder, Greg met his eyes with a shake of his head. Mike thought about it and decided it was worth the risk. “Well, I think that it’s your duty to tell us what is going on, don’t you guys?”
No one else spoke up. Shaun stopped walking and shrugged. “Oh, to hell with it; you aren't going to like the news. Do you totally and one hundred percent understand me? Like, there is no upside to this other than we have an idea where we might find information the government would probably deem useful. We might be able to find the key to the cure that the CDC is so confident they can create.”
Mike slowly nodded his head. “Yeah, what am I not going to like?”
Greg stood nearby, fists clenched. They were all looking at Shaun. “My dad was responsible for creating this drug.”
Mike laughed. “Bullshit—there’s no way.”
Shaun’s face was solemn. “Yeah, he did, Mike. I’m sorry that he did, but he did. He was trying to cure Ellie’s mom. Apparently, he thought something he did while he was in the Army was something he could use to come up with a cure.”
Ellie’s eyes began to fill with tears and her lower lip began to quiver. “Shaun… Shaun please tell me you're kidding, that this is all some sort of sick joke.”
Shaun looked at Ellie and then at the ground, not able to handle the look on her face. “I’m sorry, Ellie; I wish it was. I wish none of this would have ever happened. It’s all my fault… if I’d never tried to stick up for you they’d have never met.”
Greg said, “Dude, we already went over this. It isn’t your fault, man. Your dad thought he was doing something great. He wouldn’t have tried to end civilization as we know it.”
Tina started crying, thinking of her brother. “If it's anyone’s fault, it’s Lucas and his friends. Had they just left Ellie alone, there would have been no reason for your to stick up for her.”
Patrick pushed up his glasses, clearing his throat and spoke up. “It’s like a butterfly effect, don’t you see? It’s freaking perfect, actually. Lucas picks on Ellie, Shaun sticks up for her, they get sent to detention, their parents come to get them from the principal's office, and they meet and fall in love… then cancer strikes her mom.”
They all looked at him blankly, and Patrick started to blush and kicked at the leaves on the ground. “I read it somewhere, all right? Would you quit staring at me?”
Mike set his pack down, thinking hard for a minute. Prior to this, he thought he could not feel any worse; he was wrong. He looked up at Shaun and said, “I’m not going with you. I’m going to go back up, pack some things, and leave. I don’t think that I can be around you for a while.”
Patrick smacked him on the shoulder. “It isn’t like he designed the drug or whatever it was. It was his dad, and he was trying to save someone. Don’t be a prick about it.”
Shaun nodded his head. “Yeah, I understand, and this goes to everyone of you. I don’t want people telling anyone about this. If people knew it was my dad, they’d probably kill me out of spite. I am sorry, and I’m only going to say it once; there isn’t anything I could have done to prevent this.”
Tina said, “It’s just a lot to take in, Shaun. Christ, why didn’t you tell us yesterday?”
Shaun shrugged and pulled out the note that his dad wrote to him. “Probably because I didn’t know yesterday. My dad slid me a note right before he started to turn, and I didn’t have it in me to read it yesterday. Once Greg and I started to talk, it all kind of hit home.”
Shaun was staring at Mike, who was staring at his shotgun with determined, wet eyes. Tears slowly rolled down his fight-bruised cheeks. He was squeezing his shotgun so tight his knuckles were white. Shaun looked at Greg but his full attention was on Mike as well. Kristy spoke up and said, “Well, look at it on a positive note—”
Mike didn’t let her finish; he started to walk back up the hill, saying over his shoulder, “There is no bright side here other than him maybe saying there could be a cure. Patrick, are you coming?”
Patrick shook his head no. “I’m going with them man. If we can do anything to try and get a cure or the data they need to work on one, then I am totally going. This is like one of those epic things that you only get one chance at.”
Greg yelled, “Hey, the cabin is locked. You sure you don’t want to come? It could be a long night if we don’t make it back.”
Ellie slapped his stomach. “Don’t be an ass, Greg; we are going to make it back, and we’re going to do it while it’s still light out.”
Mike stopped walking and turned around, slinging his shotgun over his shoulder. With fists clinched, he screamed, “You know, if your dad didn’t try to be God, he wouldn’t have fucked up all of our worlds, asshole!”
He turned and started his endless march up the hill; they watched him until he disappeared. Greg was actually a bit shocked that he didn’t do anything stupid. He squeezed Shaun’s shoulder and said, “Hey, we know that your dad didn’t do something like that on purpose, and we sure as hell aren’t going to hold it against you. You already have enough things wrong with you. Mike’s just being a dick.”
Greg could hold a straight face for only a few moments, trying keep from laughing at Shaun’s expense. Shaun fished around in his pocket as he held up a finger for Greg to wait. He then pulled out a fully extended middle finger, saying, “Hey, I’ve been saving this for you; thought you might be interested in getting it back.”
Greg did a jerking motion with his right hand and motioned for everyone to get back moving again; they still had a long trip ahead of them. “We better get moving; Ellie doesn’t want to get stuck in the dark.”
Tina laughed, pointing at Greg. “Oh man, you are so full of it, Greg. Are you telling me that you wouldn’t be just the littlest bit scared about being out in the dark by yourself after yesterday?”
Greg firmly shook his head no. “Hell no. I don’t want to be out here in the dark by myself. We don’t know which way all those Turned at the buses went yesterday or what they’d do… well, we know what they’d do, but I don’t want to try and think about that right now. Now let’s get moving.”
As they walked slowly down the hill, Ellie caught up with Shaun, matching his stride. “Hey, are you all right? Like, are you okay?”
Shaun had been quiet since Mike left and he just shrugged. “I don’t know how ‘all right’ I could be; everything’s pretty effed up right now. All of our parents are gone, it’s my dad’s fault, and it’s just because of stupid things like helping someone.”
Ellie said, “You seriously can’t tell me that you would be able to predict something like this would happen. It’s probably the worst thing that could ever happen, yes, but at least we have a chance to try and help everyone. You can’t blame yourself.”
“Yeah, I can. I don’t want to; it's just kind of coming pretty naturally at the moment. I think the only thing keeping me going is the fact that we might be able to help the people.”
“What do you want to do once we get the information for the government?”
“I’d like to come back to the cabin and wait it out. We can last up here six months if we need to. We need to make sure we survive… we’re already breaking what my dad asked of me. Of course, I don’t think he could be too pissed off at this point.”
“I think that’s a pretty safe plan. What are you going to do about Mike?”
“I don’t know what to do about him. I honestly don’t care. Do you realize how many people will be after me or hate me if this comes out?”
She kicked at some branches as she walked, not really having a great comeback to try to make him feel better. “If they can’t cure those things, how long do you want to try and stay at the cabin?”
Shaun looked at her. His eyes looked sadder than they’d ever been. “If we can’t save them, then I think the best thing to do would be to clear them out.”
“You just want to kill them all? But they are so fast and so strong.”
“Yeah, but we can learn. They aren’t that smart—at least it doesn’t look like it. They are horrible in numbers, but if we can take them out from a distance, I think we could be okay. We would just need to make sure we don’t stay in one place too long. I don’t want to think about there not being a cure though. Not now… not so soon.”
Ellie reached over and took his hand in hers, squeezing it, and instantly making Shaun feel a little bit of love that he so much needed at the moment. Tina watched this. She had been thinking that this was over between the two. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it; she wasn’t sure how she felt about Shaun, but the fact that he had saved her life multiple times since yesterday was not an unattractive thing. She thought about Ellie just two days before saying that she wasn’t ready to be in a relationship with Shaun because of her mom and that she didn’t care if Tina went after him. She could see that Ellie seemed to be coming around pretty quick now that he was the only thing left in her life that she cared about.
Tina ran down to catch up with the two of them, putting her arm around Shaun and moving in between them. “You two doing okay? What a day, right? If you’d have told me last week that this was going to be my Monday and that I wasn’t going to be sitting in algebra and thinking of the beach and swimsuits and parties all summer long, I’d have told you that you were insane.”
Shaun laughed nervously, feeling Tina up against him. “Yeah, this is the first time in my life I’d rather be in school and worrying about making it through the end-of-the year finals. Having something normal to complain about.”
Ellie didn’t like the intrusion to her still trying to make Shaun feel better. “Yeah, same with me. It’s amazing how stuff happens. I wish I’d have known the truth about my mom though. It would have been easier to deal with knowing this over the last few months than finding out about it all at once. It was a blow to the gut, and then to find out about the disease and the outbreak and everything else. It was a relief having Shaun there to help me through it. I wouldn’t have gotten through yesterday alive if he wasn’t there.”
When Shaun saw the truck, he fumbled with the keys, feeling uncomfortable between the two girls and off-balance from walking so long with all of packs and the rifle. He was never not on the lookout for the Turned.
Greg watched this with a smile as they walked down the hill, amused by Shaun’s growing discomfort. He looked at Kristy, who saw him smiling. She leaned in close and said, “What do you look so guilty about?”
Greg shrugged still smiling. “You just never know how things are going to end. The world comes to an end. Shaun is caught up with two girls’ affection. It couldn’t really be more ironic how things turned out. Look at our generation; we were guaranteed to do worse than our fathers and forefathers, looked at as nothing but lazy losers. And we are the ones who made it through day one. We are the ones who weren’t eaten alive. We made it—we survived.”
Kristy stopped walking and let what he said sink in. She thought about how lucky she was to make it through yesterday. She thought about everyone who didn’t and realized that no matter how horrible the circumstances were in front of her, that despite everything, she was truly lucky. She was one of the chosen ones saved to try to do something bigger with herself. “Do you think that we were saved, like, for a reason? Like we have a higher calling because of this?”
Greg stopped walking to look back at her, trying to take everything in that she had just said. He bit his lip, holding in the smile, and nodded his head. “You know, I think that it’s God's work. I think he saved us to save everyone who is left.”
Kristy ran up, gripping his shirt. “Are you kidding? Do you really think that too? I mean, it’s possible, right? It could have happened… he could have chosen us, you think?”
Greg started laughing hysterically. He didn't not believe in God, but he sure as hell didn’t think he would be one of the few chosen to help save the world. “I’m just screwing with you. I’m sorry… I couldn’t help myself. I have no self-restraint.”
Her face turned three different shades of red, bouncing back and forth from anger, to embarrassment, and then a mixture of the two. “Oh, won’t you please grow up?”
Greg laughed and Patrick, who’d been quiet almost the entire walk down, s
tarted to let a few laughs slip out as well. Kristy shot daggers at him, and he held up his hands in defeat to her. “It was funny… what do you want me to do? I mean, hell, look at what we are going to go do. If we can’t laugh at anything, we are going to snap. Let it go; I’m sure there will be some really stressful stuff we're going to go through, and you can think back to this and have something to laugh about.”
No longer in Tina’s grip, Shaun looked over his shoulder, saw the two boys laughing and the look on Kristy’s face, and realized that he’d probably missed something great. “Hey, Greg, can you guys get moving? We want to get back as soon as we can, and we still need to figure out how we get the information to the government if we find anything.”
Kristy perked right back to her normal self, knowing the answer. “Hey, um, that’s actually easy; we can just send it through email. I wrote down the address to send it to. I don’t know if I needed to do it, though. I’m pretty sure the address would be all over the internet.”
“Did they actually say all of that this afternoon?”
Kristy smacked Greg on the shoulder. “Christ, were you not listening to the newsfeed, Greg? It was, like, probably the most important government broadcast ever… except maybe when the moon landing happened or when Kennedy got shot. But that’s beside the point; you need to pay attention.”
Greg smiled at her with nothing but bad intentions, saying, “Oh, I was paying attention to something, Kristy. It just might not have been fully on the guy talking. I had better things sitting right next to me to keep my attention.”
Tina made a gagging sound. “Greg, do you have one shy bone in your entire body?”
“At my age? Are you kidding me? Us guys are doing good just to be able to put one foot in front of the other.”
Kristy pulled on his shirt. “Come on, sex-crazed male.”
Greg draped an arm around her. “You know, it really is a disease, and there isn’t a cure yet… well, at least not one that can be openly distributed.”
