by Tim Moon
It looked like he wanted to say something else, but he left it at that.
Ben nodded. “Sure thing, man.”
It was about ten minutes before Keanu and Anuhea found something to siphon the gas. Charlotte took over watching the corner. Ben and Oliver went to use the bathroom.
Chadwick helped Keanu with a green tube, which looked to Ben like a piece of hose from someone’s house. Such a big hose might be difficult to make work. He was glad he didn’t have to do it.
When Ben was done in the bathroom, he escorted Oliver back to the Humvee and then resumed his spot on the corner. Lookout duty was boring and it gave him too much time to think about things that he didn’t want to think about, like the deaths he’d witnessed and fear about his mother.
With his mind running free, his stomach filled with a sense of dread.
46
Kaholo’s house turned out to be much larger than Ben expected.
It was set back behind tall bushes. A two-tiered retainer wall ran around the front of the yard, and like all the lawns in the area, it was lush green and manicured. The driveway was shorter than he would have liked, but it led to a large covered area and a two-door garage. The house itself was single-story, painted tan, with a pair of big windows facing the street. The curtains were drawn.
Anuhea pulled forward, staying in the road. Keanu jumped out to direct them into the covered area.
“Will it fit?” Ben asked.
“It’ll be tight, but I think it’ll fit just fine.” Anuhea pulled forward, just beyond the driveway.
“Hold on, let me get out.” Ben ran out to the street, keeping an eye out for the vigilantes in case they wanted to make a showing.
Anuhea shifted the Humvee into reverse and backed into the driveway just in case they needed a quick getaway. After she had moved back into the covered breezeway, Keanu walked to the side door and pulled out his rifle. He motioned for Ben to get out of the street. Everyone else climbed out of their ride and stood around, waiting to be led into the house by Keanu. They were eager to meet his brother.
Keanu stepped up to the door and knocked a strange pattern: three quick knocks, a pause, and two slow knocks.
A deep voice inside the house said, “Come in.”
“Let me go first,” Keanu said, as if they were eager to rush in.
“Kaholo, it’s me,” he said as he slowly opened the door. He raised his hands and stepped across the threshold, letting the door swung open on its hinges.
“Everything good?” said the voice.
“Yeah, they’re with me,” said Keanu, grinning.
“Great. Then get in here and shut the door.”
Everyone filed into the house. The door opened to a big laundry room that was connected to the kitchen. Inside the kitchen, was a big Hawaiian holding a nasty looking shotgun with a pistol grip. He looked like a super-sized version of Keanu, but with shorter hair that suggested military service.
They hugged and spoke in a language Ben didn’t understand. The group stood in the kitchen, watching respectfully.
After the two brother’s bear hugged each other, Keanu turned and faced them. His eyes were shiny with joyful tears.
“This is my big brother, Kaholo,” he said, pointing to each of them as he introduced them.
“Nice to meet you guys,” Kaholo said. He looked a little embarrassed about the shotgun.
Ben wasn’t a small man, but he felt small next to Kaholo.
“Don’t worry man. That’s the way things are now.” Ben wished he didn’t have to say it, but it was true. Between the infected and the guys at the fake roadblock, it paid to be cautious.
“Come on in. Let’s go sit in the living room,” Kaholo said. “You guys want anything to drink?”
Chadwick raised his hand. “I’d love a glass of water if it’s not too much trouble.”
“No trouble at all. There’s a pitcher in the fridge,” Kaholo said with a grin. “Help yourself.”
Anuhea shook Kaholo’s hand and they also spoke in their native tongue.
Such a beautiful language, Ben thought.
The living room was in the front portion of the house. It faced the cross street to the one they’d driven up on. Ben walked over to the front door and looked out the peephole. He could see about half of the front yard over to the intersection, while tall bushes blocked his view in the other direction.
Ben heard Keanu and Kaholo talking about why he didn’t make it to the Quarantine Center. Keanu was telling the story of how they’d helped him escape. Kaholo stood up and shook Ben’s hand.
“Thank you for helping my brother,” he said. He had a serious, yet friendly look.
“My pleasure,” said Ben, shaking his bear sized hand.
Recounting the last few days took some time. Once they filled in Kaholo, he launched into his own story.
“We got an alert and thought we’d be going to sea, but then they told us to stand down,” said Kaholo. “It was strange because we can’t be of much use here on land and at least out at sea we would be safer.” He shrugged. “But orders are orders.”
Ben sat down on the couch and laid his rifle across his lap.
“I wanted to meet you at the Quarantine Center, but I had a duty to find out what was happening to the unit,” Kaholo said. His face was drawn, his brow furrowed. It was clear the decision hadn’t been easy for him. “When I got down there, I saw that the phone call I received must have been the last thing the lieutenant did. He was one of…them.”
Keanu put a hand on his big brother’s shoulder.
“I was worried about what happened to you too.” Kaholo looked at his brother.
“I know,” Keanu said.
“We call them infected, if that helps,” said Charlotte.
“Thanks, it does.” Kaholo sighed. “At first, I didn’t understand what was going on. After what I’ve seen, what I’ve done…” His voice trailed off and he rubbed his hands together nervously. “Man, it’s a fucking nightmare out there.” Then he remembered Oliver. “Pardon my language.”
“It’s okay, my dad used to swear too,” said Oliver. “He was a soldier.”
“I bet he was a good man,” said Kaholo. He put his hand up for a high-five.
Oliver wound up and swung his tiny hand.
Kaholo feigned pain. “You’re so strong.”
Oliver giggled.
“At that point, I just prayed you’d already been airlifted to Molokai. Then I came back home, planned to wait a few days to see if you showed up before I went looking and what do you know…here you are.”
“How did you plan to get to Molokai?” Ben asked.
“The same way that I hoped Keanu had gone,” Kaholo said. “By airplane.”
“Do you know if they’re flying people out of Hilo?” Keanu asked.
“I have no idea. When it was clear the unit was in the dumps, I came back home to wait for you.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Ty asked. He rubbed his leg near the bandage. He’d been listening intently to the conversation. “Let’s go to the airport and find out.”
Everyone looked at him like he was crazy.
47
Altoona, PA
As they rounded the corner of the house, Vanessa heard a loud click. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man holding a gun pointed at her head. At the same time, a man in a suit stepped out from side of the garage. He walked toward her and Steve, holding a matte black pistol waist high, pointed at them. Vanessa didn’t know guns well, but she thought it had an unusually long barrel.
Her voice caught in her throat. She wanted to yell at Steve to run. Her body betrayed her so badly that she couldn’t get a squeak out.
“Good evening folks. We need to go inside and have a little conversation with you,” said the man from behind the garage.
“Move,” said the man aiming at Vanessa’s head. “Let’s go, nice and slow.”
She noticed that they looked almost identical - suits, sunglasses, dar
k hair, and similar athletic builds. The only distinguishing feature to tell them apart was their height. The one from the garage was slightly taller and the shorter one had a slight southern drawl.
“C’mon now, turn around slowly and go to the door,” the short one said.
Steve looked at them. “Please, you don’t have to…”
“Stop,” the tall one said, cutting him off. “That’s where you’re very wrong, Mr. Edwardson. We do have to. Now move.”
They reached the door and Steve began to whimper. He didn’t want to go inside because he knew it would be the death of him. His hands were shaking.
Vanessa’s stomach roiled. This was her fault. Her lack of attention to detail gave Black Tide the window of opportunity they needed to find them. Now they’d both pay the price.
She reached a tentative hand forward to grab the door handle and pulled open the screen door. She took out the key to unlock the backdoor. The key slid into the lock with a slight thunk.
They walked into the kitchen and the short one told them to sit.
“This is your fault,” Steve growled at Vanessa. “This is your fault.”
“Don’t pass the blame, Mr. Edwardson,” the tall one said calmly, closing the door behind him. “You stole and shared information that wasn’t yours. In violation of your employment contract, I might add.”
There was no way she was going to go down like this. Black Tide already killed her brother. She had to make sure they paid for that and all the others they’d killed. She had to.
From there, everything moved quickly. Vanessa pulled out her chair, pivoted and flung it at the man behind her. He stumbled over it with a curse. One shot went off, punching a hole in the floor. She tried to grab Steve’s wrist, but he pulled free of her grasp.
She heard one of them yell, “Put that bitch down” as she ran crouched over and slipped into the front room.
Vanessa turned toward the staircase, glimpsing Steve in the kitchen staring at her wide-eyed. He’d been too scared to move, but it was now clear that he realized his mistake.
“Mr. Edwardson,” the tall man said. “Your contract is now terminated.”
Vanessa glanced back just as Steve’s head jerked sideways, ejecting blood and brain matter across the tiled floor. His eyes were wide and fixed on her even as his body collapsed into the gore spreading across the tile. Her scream cut off as two loud blasts went off behind her. Bullets slammed into the doorframe beside her and the wall in front of her.
The scent of gunshots mixed with spaghetti and death.
As Vanessa cleared the first steps leading upstairs, she heard the shorter man chasing her. She knew that she couldn’t stop for anything. As she stormed up the stairs, two bullets ripped into the wall inches behind her.
For a moment, she wondered why she ran upstairs, but pushed the doubt out of her mind. Focus was key if she was going to survive. Vanessa sprinted down the hall, turned into one of the two small bedrooms and slammed the door behind her. She opened the window and glanced out. It was clear, so she climbed out of the window and onto the roof below that formed the roof of the porch.
She ran along the roof as the bedroom door slammed open in the room. A shot smashed the glass of the window and another cracked past her head. Vanessa gasped despite her focus on the edge of the roof. She veered to the right and closed the distance.
Four feet…three feet…two feet…jump…
She leapt from the edge of the roof clearing the neighbor’s fence, praying that her childhood gymnastics skills had been retained enough to survive. Vanessa landed in the grass on the other side of the fence and rolled a couple of times. Little of the grace she’d had as a young girl remained, but she hadn’t broken anything. Her feet stung from the impact and her hip ached, but she could move and movement meant life.
Someone was walking along the sidewalk. The person seemed slow, perhaps enjoying the comfortable fall air. She yelled, “Help!”
The person turned and started toward her with a groan.
“Shit! Shit,” Vanessa said, shocked to be facing one of the infected. She slid to a stop in the grass, falling hard on her ass. They’d spread this far already?
Instinctively she angled away from the man and sprinted between her neighbor’s house and the next one. A wet slap sounded behind her followed by the sound of a body falling. She glanced back and saw the infected crumpled in the driveway.
Her mind screamed at her to keep moving, don’t look back, don’t hesitate, and just keep going.
48
Ty was adamant about leaving right away for the airport.
“We have plenty of time,” he said.
Kaholo shifted in his seat.
“I think I glossed over my trip into town,” he said. “I don’t want to candy coat it, so I’ll just say it plainly: Hilo is royally fucked. Making it to the office was not easy and coming back was even worse.”
“What happened?” Charlotte asked.
“These…infected, right?” Kaholo asked.
Charlotte nodded at him.
“So, these infected seem to enjoy grouping up. They move slowly, but it’s easy to get backed into a corner. I was almost boxed in. Like I said, when I showed up everyone there was infected and I had to fight them off,” Kaholo said, spreading his hands. “Driving home, avoiding the clusters of infected, was a chore. There was no easy way through town. Those things are everywhere.”
“But we can make it,” Ty said. “We’ve done it before.”
“This is a much bigger town,” Anuhea said.
“How far is the airport from here?” Ben asked.
“It’s not far. With no traffic, it would take maybe twenty minutes to get there. Avoiding the infected, I’d say it’d take close to forty minutes.” Kaholo leaned forward on his elbows and took on a serious look. “The airport is basically right in town. If those things are roaming about, my guess is that the airport is overrun. I wouldn’t hold out too much hope that it’s still an option.”
Ty groaned at the proclamation. “Come on, man. We can’t know that for sure.”
Ben stood up, feeling the need to stretch his legs. He paced around the living room, looking at family pictures and various knick-knacks that Kaholo had on display. In one picture, Keanu and Kaholo stood side-by-side in their uniforms. They looked sharp and formidable.
“We need to take stock of our gear and, if we decide to go, we need to plan our trip to the airport,” Ben said. “The Humvee can’t fit another big guy. No offense.” He glanced at Kaholo. His t-shirt stretched nearly to the breaking point over his bulging biceps.
“None taken,” Kaholo said with a smile. “Mamma didn’t make tiny men.”
Keanu raised his hand for a high five. Their hands smacked together loudly.
“So we take another car. That’s no problem,” Ty said. “Ben, you know how fast things can fall apart. We shouldn’t wait.”
“And if we go tonight and the airport is overrun, then what? We would end up luring the infected back here,” Ben said with a growl. “That’s if we don’t run into more assholes like the ones at the roadblock.”
“How does that change if we wait?” Ty threw his hands up in the air.
“We would have time to lead the infected away and escape. We’d have time to evaluate our options-”
“What options?” Ty shouted.
The air was thick with tension. They only had maybe an hour or two of daylight left. If Hilo was anything like Kona had been, and the airport turned out to be a bust, they would be driving around in the dark, drawing the infected down on themselves.
“If we get caught out there in the dark…I don’t think any good can come from rushing.” Ben stopped pacing and looked around the room. Everyone other than Ty looked agreeable.
“This is crazy. Your thinking is completely backwards, it’s too risky to wait. Every minute we wait, the chance that we can fly out of here decreases. How do you not see that?” Ty asked.
“Your leg needs some atte
ntion and you should probably stay off of it. A night of rest will do you some good,” Charlotte said.
“Oh, shut up. I’m fine.”
“Hey!” Ben glared at Ty.
“Let’s all take it down a notch,” Keanu said, patting the air with his hands.
Ty turned to Kaholo. “Do you think we can get there and check it out before dark? And if it turns out to be a shit show at the airport, would we have time to get back?”
Kaholo let out a big breath. He looked around at the others. “It is possible, assuming we don’t run into any delays or accidents.”
“But it is possible.” Ty crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Ben.
“In the spirit of democracy, perhaps we should take a vote?” Chadwick offered.
Chadwick had been so quiet that Ben almost forgot he was even in the room.
“Another vote? Seriously?” Ty’s face grew red.
“I’d rather not vote again. If Kaholo thinks it’s possible, maybe we should consider checking out the airport today,” Ben said. As much as it pained him to admit it, Ty had made some good points. “There is more risk if we wait to check on the airport. We haven’t unpacked anything, so we’re basically ready to go. If there are any problems we can lead the infected away and circle back here.”
“Are you sure?” Charlotte asked.
Ben shrugged. “No, not really. I think it’s a coin toss at best.”
After more discussion, the group finally decided to give it a shot. Waiting carried as much risk as not waiting. The situation with the infected wasn’t going to improve anytime soon. So, they decided to make a run to the airport.
As before, they piled into the vehicles. Except this time, Ty rode with Kaholo because Anuhea didn’t want him in the Humvee. She was still pissed off at him. Ben wasn’t sure they had spoken in days. Not since Ty abandoned them in the burning airplane.
Could Ty say or do anything to fix a breach of trust like that? Ben watched Anuhea and decided that was likely a no, especially after the drunk driving incident.
