I continued to feel nothing as I came fully awake and noticed where I was. I was lying naked under a hospital gown and blanket. Someone had bathed me, had disrobed me, had seen me naked, but I couldn’t muster the wherewithal to care. I was strapped to a hospital bed with an oxygen tube up my nose and an I.V. in my hand. From what I could see, the room I was in was huge and had more than a few beds lined around it, but I was the only person in it. A set of large double doors lay to my right, but even if I could feel my legs or somehow removed the straps from my arms, I didn’t want to try to escape. I couldn’t even remember why I would want to get away.
I lay in that contentment for a long time before the medicine started to wear off and memories of what had happened rushed over me. When I remembered that I was strapped to the bed, I began to jerk, causing the straps to cut into my wrists. That pain and the fact that I was again immobilized caused me to start panicking once more. I began screaming, jerking in the bed, crying, and then I lost my breath and nearly passed out again.
“Good God, woman, what’s wrong with you?” a man asked, rushing into the room with a syringe. “No one else is giving us this much trouble.”
He barely got the needle in my I.V. with the way I was jerking. I yelled at him. Called him names. Cursed him. Begged him. Pleaded with him to let me go. To tell me where Jason was. To tell me if he was okay. All the man did was stand over me and watch as the sedative did its job.
As I calmed, I tried to ask what the Germans were doing to us. Why they were doing this to me? Why they won’t just let us go home since they had the vaccine? I didn’t think my words came out coherently, but he answered me as if he understood them.
“We are sorry for taking you this way. We couldn’t take any chances that you were infected. Your people are still alive. They are locked up and will be for a while. We sent your doctors through quarantine, and they are talking to our doctors about the vaccine,” he said.
“You have it now, so let us go,” I said, my words slurring from the drugs.
“I can’t. We haven’t been given orders to do so.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. We’ll let you go, though, at some point, I’m sure,” the man said, patting my hand.
He went away after that, and I fell asleep.
I don’t know how long I slept, but when I woke, I didn’t do so with the same drugged feeling I’d woke with before. I also immediately understood that I was no longer alone. The rest of my people, as far as I could tell, occupied the beds around me. All of them were strapped down and asleep.
The fog in my head lifted as I frantically searched the room for Jason. I spotted him two beds down from me and started screaming his name, not caring whose attention I got or if I woke the others. I needed to know he was all right. I needed to know that he’d been just as worried about me as I was for him, and I needed him to know that the Germans hadn’t hurt me.
The man who’d injected me didn’t come running with another sedative, as I was sure he would. In fact, no one came. For a fleeting second, I worried over that, as I repeatedly said Jason’s name. He mumbled a few times, rolled his head back and forth before eventually waking. My screams also woke some of the others, but not all. The sedatives they’d given us were strong. I didn’t understand why they’d given them to us, though.
“Samantha?” Jason asked, sounding a bit drowsy. He’d raised his head off his pillow in an attempt to see me over the two people between us.
“It’s me. Are you okay?” I asked, letting my tears flow.
“I think so. Are you hurt?”
“No. Not really. I’m strapped to a bed, though. The doctors have been pumping me full of stuff. I don’t know what, if anything, they did to me while I was out. What happened to us? Why are they doing this?”
“I’m not sure. As soon as I got to the door of the building, a man grabbed my arm and told me to run. I tried to find you, but I couldn’t see you anywhere. I saw some of the others running alongside some of the military personnel down the hallway. The man who had my arm rushed me down another long hallway and into a room—a cell is more accurate. He turned his gun on me and demanded my weapons and pack before I could even catch my breath. Shocked and worried about you and the others, I tried to push past him to see what was going on, to help fight against the zombies. He shoved me back into the room, and that’s when I realized he wasn’t trying to protect me. I started to put up a fight, but another person appeared behind him with a weapon as well. Both looked ready to kill me. I decided a fight would just end up in my death. Hoping that they were putting us in quarantine and not taking us prisoner, I gave them everything I had on me. Without saying a word, they locked me in the cell and left me alone for a long time. How about you?”
“About the same, but they didn’t leave me in my cell long. I had a panic attack and passed out. I woke up drugged and strapped to this bed sometime later. They cleaned me and changed my clothes. Other than that and the random sedative they inject me with, I don’t think they’ve done or given me anything else.”
“Who cleaned you? They didn’t do that while you were awake?”
“No, but I don’t feel violated…much. I’m sure no one touched me sexually, but I’m not happy about the idea of a stranger seeing me naked without my consent.”
“Me either. When the Germans let us go, I’m going to have words with whoever ordered that and the person who did it.”
“You and me both.”
I wished I were closer to him, so I could at least hold his hand. I was beginning to desperately need his comfort at that moment. Also, I would love to be able to talk to him without having to speak above whoever was in the beds between us. I couldn’t tell exactly from their turned faces who they were, not that I knew or remembered all of the names of the people from Dayton’s group who’d come with us.
“What happened to you when they finally came back for you?” I asked.
“They drug me out of the room and to a shower down the hall. They ordered me to strip before turning some high-powered showerheads on me and had me scrub myself with this horrible, abrasive soap. After that, they draped me in a large housecoat, took me back to my room, and had me put on these clothes, then left me alone for a while. Eventually, a woman came to ask me a bunch of questions. Mostly she wanted to know how I’d survived, about Liberty Island, the vaccine, and what all we’d done to test the vaccine. I told her everything, but she was mostly interested in Trevor, as that apparently gave her the idea to do what they did to me.”
His last words sent a bolt of fear shooting through me, and I jerked to the best seated position I could and searched his form for damage or missing parts.
“What did they do to you?” one of the guys between us asked in a groggy voice before I could.
“They’ve injected me with the virus,” Jason said in a tone that showed that what he’d said was perfectly reasonable.
The man looked at him wide-eyed and scared. I was worried, but no longer afraid. I’d seen Trevor, so I didn’t worry that Jason would turn. That being said, we didn’t know what a full-on injection would do to us, so I took a closer look at his face and other exposed body parts. The injection should work the same as a bite, but there was a possibility that the virus shot straight into the bloodstream would be more potent than a bite.
“How long ago did they inject you?” I asked, thanking God for not letting my worry and fear show in my voice.
“About two hours ago.”
I slumped back on the bed. Surely, that was plenty of time for Jason to start turning if he was going to turn. I looked away from him and let a few tears slide down my face in relief before looking back at him.
“Did they inject anyone else,” I asked the room at large once I knew my voice wouldn’t crack.
Most people were still asleep, but a few answered in the negative.
“Are we all here?” I asked, wanting to be sure we weren’t missing anyone. “Is anyone missing?”
“Yes,” someone said from the back of the room. “At least I think so. I can’t see everyone, but I don’t think there are enough bodies here for this to be all of us.”
Jason sat up the best he could and strained to look around the room to count the bodies. After a minute he said, “You’re right. There aren’t enough of us to be the entire group. I don’t know what happened to the rest.”
“I don’t think we all made it inside,” another man said. That voice came from the other man lying between Jason and me.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“As they were dragging me inside, I’m pretty sure I saw Dayton and a few others still out there fighting the zombies when they started closing the doors. The bastards.” He yelled the last part at the unopened door, but no one came running. Chances were that they weren’t petty enough to get their underwear in a wad over an insult or didn’t care enough about what we thought of them to defend their actions.
“I’m sure they’ve taken the doctors somewhere else,” Jason said. “Judging by the questions they asked me, I think they have them working on replicating the vaccine. We brought more than enough for everyone on the base, I’m sure, so why they are doing so, I don’t know, unless they don’t trust what we brought.”
There was a long pause after that.
“Do you think the Germans will inject all of us with the virus in time?” I eventually asked. I felt confident that even if they did inject us, we’d be all right, but that confidence didn’t mean I wasn’t a little worried about it either.
“I have no idea. I would assume that if the doctors were going to, they would have,” Jason said. “On the other hand, they might be waiting for me to turn or not before making another move. We put people in quarantine for three days, and they know that. We haven’t been here for three days. I don’t even think we’ve been here twenty-four hours. And even if I turn or don’t turn that doesn’t mean the vaccine doesn’t work. I could simply be immune to it.”
“But we know it works,” I said.
“We do. But the Germans don’t. They just have our word, and they feel sure we’d say anything to save our world.”
“How long do you think they’ll keep us if you don’t turn,” someone asked.
“I have no idea. It will depend if they want to experiment with the rest of you, or if they trust their own version of the cure. I think it’s a good sign that they put us all in one place so quickly. They didn’t keep me in that cell long after they injected me, so hopefully they have more faith in the vaccine than they let on,” Jason said.
“Most people turn quickly after being bitten, so I have to imagine with a direct dose of the virus that you should have turned right away. They have to know that as well. Since you didn’t, they probably understand that it works,” the man next to Jason said.
“Then his not turning should prove the vaccine works. Why are we still restrained?” someone asked, sounding more than a bit frustrated.
“Just a precaution, I hope,” Jason said.
Precaution or not, I didn’t like being pinned that way. The only reason I wasn’t panicking more was because of the people around me talking and distracting me.
Chapter 33
~~~Samantha~~~
For the next hour or so, we talked amongst ourselves, throwing around idea after idea about what lay outside our doors—was there just a small group of German military and doctors or was the base full of their people?
Had their version of the cure worked? We feared not since they still had us locked up.
Had the zombies infected any of them while getting us inside?
Were they all now infected?
We were defenseless against the horde trying to break in building due to the overwhelming human smell coming off the place.
Did the Germans just up and leave us?
Would we starve to death?
Would Dayton and his people rescue us?
Had Dayton left us for dead? We couldn’t blame him if he did. Zombies surrounded the city. Surely, his people wouldn’t have been able to survive so long with so many. Even with the vaccine running through their blood not attracting the zombies, once the creatures understood the humans were still there, they’d attack.
How long had we been locked up?
Most of the conversations toward the end were distractions for those of us who were trying to panic over being strapped down for so long and for those of us feeling weak from hunger and thirst. I was the only one who’d lost it in the cells when we first arrived, but I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t handle the immobility, not after hour upon hour of the confinement. Hands were going numb, muscles were aching, and people were using the bathroom on themselves, as we had no other choice.
I was in the beginning stages of another full-blown panic attack when we heard an explosion from the direction of the double doors. The building shook, glass rattled, dust fell on us, and a few people inside the room screamed, but nothing happened for a long moment afterward. No gunfire or shouts came from outside the room.
Just as the group as a whole was starting to freak out, the double doors burst open to reveal Dayton and a few others. They looked haggard and pissed off, but unharmed. Dayton took one look at us, swore a blue streak, and ordered his people to get us out of there. At his command, they rushed the room. They began unstrapping us and helping us work feeling back into our limbs. Within minutes, we were all mobile. We were a bit unsteady and weak but moving. Once we were free, Dayton led us into the hall and toward the exit.
Jason stopped him and shifted our direction to the holding cells.
“What’re you doing?” Dayton asked, sounding annoyed and in a hurry.
“We have to change. We need our weapons.”
“We don’t have time.”
“We need to make time. Some of us really need to clean up and change clothes. We can’t run out into the middle of a horde in hospital garb. We’ll be dead in seconds.”
“We’ll be dead soon anyway if we don’t hurry.”
“Why? What’s going on?” Jason asked as we reached the cells. They were empty. He swore but continued to search the rooms. Some of the group split off to explore other hallways for our things or at least for something more appropriate to wear.
“In case you haven’t noticed, the Germans are all gone. As soon as they are far enough out to sea they’re going to bomb the city,” Dayton said, pointing in the direction of the ocean. “There is a carrier out there waiting for them. Once they’ve boarded and the carrier is far enough away, it’s game over for us, and by us I mean the entire continent.”
“Why would they do that?” a voice from our group asked.
“Maybe because they’re assholes. Or maybe because they are scared. I don’t know why, but I know they’ll do it. They started releasing missiles not long after they took you inside. I don’t know where they hit, but you’ll be able to tell by the darkened sky once we’re outside that some have hit close by,” Dayton said, as someone called out that they found clothes and weapons.
The stuff the person found wasn’t our clothes and weapons, but they were good enough for what we needed. Without a care as to who saw us naked, we all stripped, cleaned ourselves the best we could—we didn’t need to lure zombies to us with the smell of piss and blood if we could help it—and dressed.
“Most of the zombies have wandered off base over the last few hours. The second round of bombs the Germans sent into the city just before they left was a great lure. I’m not saying there aren’t some still milling about, but we should make it to the vehicles safely if we stick together and keep our weapons on hand.”
No one said anything else as we downed a few protein bars before making our way out of the building. The doors we’d entered through were gone. Dayton and his people had blown a massive hole into the side of the building to get to us. That explosion had drawn the attention of a few zombies, but the two men he’d left to guard it had kept them from entering.
The zombies
outside the building that we ran into were easy to take down, so we made it to the vehicles with only a few minor injuries. I thought we got lucky in that department. I felt slow and uncoordinated from all the sedatives they’d pumped into me and from being immobile for so long. I didn’t know how I’d been able to manage to kill the few zombies I had and wondered how the others had been able to fight as well.
Without planning it, we loaded into one vehicle. We couldn’t all fit into it comfortably, but we did our best. There wasn’t time to split up, not that we seemed to want to separate into two groups at that moment. That was a good thing though, as there wasn’t time to try to maneuver two or three cars through the smoldering city with zombies both fleeing toward the fire and smoke and toward the sound of our engine. We wanted out of the area together and fast.
“The Germans weren’t supposed to bomb us once they had the vaccine,” I said, curling myself into Jason’s lap and looking out at the skyline in front of us.
“No, they weren’t. They either lied, or they received orders to do so anyway,” Dayton said, driving like a bat out of hell off the base. It was a good thing the vehicle was made to take a beating because he plowed over bodies, sawhorses, and metal fencing as he did so. The movements shook us up, and we suffered a few bumps and bruises from the drive alone, but it was worth it.
He went south to avoid the biggest part of what was left of the horde and to get out of town quickly. I feared we wouldn’t get far enough away in time, but didn’t voice my thoughts as I could see it written on the faces around me.
“But their orders were to bomb every port and major city on the content, wasn’t it?” I asked, curling deeper into Jason.
“Yep,” Jason said, looking sick.
“Shore Haven?” I asked.
“Could be gone before we get there,” Dayton said.
Shore Haven Page 29
