by Lundy, W. J.
“Yeah,” she agreed, bending down to pick up her discarded clothing. “What am I gonna find in the city?”
“A mother fucking headache,” the lieutenant replied.
“What’s that mean?”
“You’ll see.”
The sound of automatic gunfire reached her ears as she walked toward the little Toyota. She stopped and stared at the top of the rise where the road disappeared to the east. She knew instinctively that a just few miles past the hill was where Connie, her husband Ramón, and about thirty other people had just met their end when the sergeant took care of the situation.
55
Fort Bliss, Texas
April 24th
Sarah told Charlie what happened at the Beaumont Medical Center. If it affected him, he didn’t show much of a reaction. She suggested that they go back and break Jack out, but Charlie talked her down from that idea. His point, and she conceded it was a good one, was that not only would they not get far with armed guards everywhere, but they’d also likely get captured and end up as lab rats too.
Leonard had come to see her twice in the last nine days, with updates. Jack was still in Alpha Wing. They were working on infected people in the East Wing—doing what, he didn’t know—and they’d lost several doctors and other medical staff to the infection. Even Dr. Wallace, who’d been overseeing the work in Alpha Wing, had been killed. Most of the non-federal personnel had run off.
Her motivation to do the hard work on the perimeter defenses was gone. One of the men had gotten hurt a week ago, and he was on kitchen duty while he recovered. He was ready to go back to the wall, so she swapped with him and was spending her days prepping meals and cleaning up after her fellow recruits.
Her heart skipped when she saw Leonard walk in. “Leonard!” she hissed as she hustled toward him. “I keep telling you to go home! It’s not safe for you to be running back and forth like this. I won’t have your death on my conscience.”
“And I won’t have Jack’s on mine. They moved him to the East Wing early this morning.”
“But you said East Wing is for the…”
“Infected. Yeah. He’s not all the way gone—at least, wasn’t this morning. There’s this nurse who kinda digs me, and she and I were in this supply closet, making out…”
“Leonard! Focus! What about Jack?”
“Sorry. Anyway, she tells me the doctors moved one of the ‘immune’ people to East Wing. She said he scared the crap out of her because right in the middle of the move, he started talking normally. He asked to see Sarah and wanted to tell her goodbye. It has to be Jack.”
Sarah felt tears running down her cheeks but didn’t wipe them away. This was it. He was going to turn. She realized Leonard was talking to her, but she hadn’t heard the last part. “I’m sorry. What?”
“I said, if you want to go see him, now is the time. Things are getting crazy there, and we may not have another shot.”
“I need to find Charlie to tell him what’s going on.”
“I brought the nurse with me, and I gave her instructions to find Charlie and tell him. Let’s go if that’s what you want to do.”
“Okay, let me get my things.”
She ran to her bunk and opened her footlocker. She had her pistol and extra magazines on her at all times, but she grabbed her rifle and few extra magazines for it, too. She met Leonard outside, and he led her to a military ambulance. Sarah gave him a funny look, and he shrugged.
“Easiest way in and out. Communications are all fucked up,” he said as they got in. “No one wants to be on the hook for someone dying because they held up an ambulance at the gate. They’re way more focused on checking the refugees flooding in from the east.”
He drove out the same gate through which he’d entered, waving at the crew as they went through, and then flipping on the siren for effect once they hit the street.
The main roads were being kept clear by the Army, so they had an easy path back to the medical center. Leonard drove the ambulance right up to the entry. Sarah climbed out, and the guard at the door made a motion to stop her, but Leonard rushed around the front of the ambulance.
“She’s with me. We have a situation,” he said.
The guard started to say something, then thought better of it and just waved them through.
Once inside, they went farther down the hall than they had when Sarah was here before. She calculated they were two-thirds of the way through the building before they stopped at a staff elevator. Following the same procedure as before, Leonard scanned his card to open the doors, then again to access the floor where they were holding Jack.
Sarah turned to Leonard. “Listen to me. I want you to leave. Go home to your father and your grandpa and your orange truck and Officer Susan and all of that. I’m afraid if you don’t go, you won’t get out of here. El Paso isn’t what we thought it was.”
“I’m not leaving you, Sarah. You need me to get into the secure areas.”
The doors opened. Sarah pressed L and grabbed the security card from his hand as she stepped out. He took a step forward, but she pointed her pistol at his face. She held up the security card. “Access problem solved. Go home, Leonard.”
The doors closed and the elevator began its trip to the ground floor.
She turned around, realizing that she didn’t know exactly where Jack was. She spied a sign over a door that said Biohazard Safety Level 4, and there was a similar card scanner next to the door. She ran Leonard’s card through the scanner. Nothing happened. She reran it. Nothing happened.
“Leonard doesn’t have access to that room, Sarah.”
She spun around, startled by the familiar voice. She had the drop on him; her pistol was leveled at his chest.
“Hello, Duckett,” she said.
“You know, something was bothering me after you left the other day. Your whole demeanor changed after you talked to Jack. And, boy was I slow on this one. Melanie Gibson? That was cute.”
“Thanks. Are you going to let me in here, or do I have to shoot you?”
“I checked the DMV record for Jack’s wife, Sarah, and damned if it wasn’t your face staring back at me. Why’d you lie?”
“I assumed you guys would have grabbed me too, wanting to know how I traveled with him for a week without getting infected.”
He considered this for a minute. “You’re probably right. That was then. You want to see him? Fine.”
He held out his security card and walked toward the reader. Sarah stepped away from him and let him pass. He swiped it, and she heard a beep and a click.
“Sarah,” he said. “I want you to know that I don’t know what’s happening here. I’m no scientist, not by a long shot. I know now that they weren’t trying to cure any of these people. I feel like shit for helping them do whatever they’ve done. It won’t mean much to you once you get in there, but I’m sorry.”
“Is the other guy, what was his name, the one who tried to escape? Ram? Is he in here too?”
Duckett shook his head. “No. He’s in Alpha Wing. He’s still not showing any symptoms.”
“Is he a good man?”
“I think so. He’s always been nice to me and had no reason to be. He’s worried about his family more than himself, so yeah, I think he’s a good man.”
Sarah smiled weakly. “Let him go. That will help balance the scales.”
“I might do that. I just might. I’ll tell everyone that we’ve lost this wing to the infected. That should buy you some time. Are you planning on leaving, or are you going to…you know,” he mimed shooting himself in the head, “in there?”
“I don’t know. I hadn’t planned that far ahead.”
“Well, you should have a biohazard suit on if you plan to live, but at least put on a gown and a mask, would you? I’ll feel better.”
“Thanks, Duckett.”
He walked away without saying anything else, and Sarah pushed the door open.
She felt the whoosh of air as the negative pressure kep
t any air from inside the room going out. The doors closed, and the pressure equalized. She realized she was in an airlock of sorts. There were several blue gowns in the room. Following Duckett’s advice, she put one on, followed by a surgical cap that she took from a box and a mask from another. She found rubber gloves as well and pulled them on, snapping the fingers to get them tight. She held her breath and pushed open the next door. Another whoosh of air and she was in the room where the staff put on their biohazard suits. She passed them and went into a third room. This one had a showerhead in the ceiling and big ring on a chain to activate it. This was the decontamination room. One more door, one more whoosh, and she was between two rows of the infected, all chained to their beds, restrained at the hands, feet, and by a strap across the forehead.
She heard them snarling, snapping their teeth, and struggling against the restraints. Walking down the row, she looked back and forth, alternating sides to look for Jack. Finally, she found him third from the end on the back row.
At first, she didn’t recognize him. He’d bitten through his bottom lip, and blood covered the lower half of his face and neck.
“Oh, my God! Jack! What have they done to you?” She didn’t expect an answer, so she was startled when he rolled his eyes in her direction and spoke, spitting blood on himself.
“Injescted with varchus.”
“What?” she asked.
His eyes rolled back and forth a couple of times. He squeezed his lids shut, and drops of blood oozed from the corners. He snapped them open, making Sarah start. He focused on her, and his mouth snapped at the air a couple of times. She took an involuntary step backward. He struggled to speak clearly enough for Sarah to understand him. “No cure. Virus. Injections of virus. Heard doctors. Talking. Testing limits. Of immune.”
His eyes rolled back, and he thrashed against the restraints. His breathing became rapid, and the other infected patients around him became more agitated.
Sarah tried to process it. Could it be true? Could this have been done to him on purpose? If that were the case, did that mean that this whole outbreak was engineered? And by who? Was it terrorism? Something more sinister? Could the government be involved? The Army? Her head was swimming. Jack brought her back to the present.
“You. Understand?” he asked, trying hard to control his voice.
“I think so. You heard the doctors talking, and they have been injecting you with the virus to test the limits of your immunity. Is that right?
He smiled, exposing bloody teeth. “You. Smarter. Than. I look.”
She laughed despite the situation, and the laugh transformed into a sob. She was close to losing it.
“No,” Jack said. “No. Sad. You go. Fight. Tell Dad. Sorry.”
He coughed a glob of thick, bloody mucus onto his chest. Sarah could smell it, even through the mask. She was glad it hid her expression from him.
“I love you, Jack,” she said.
“Love. You.” He coughed again but didn’t spit anything up this time. “Favor.”
“You want a favor?” she asked.
“Yes. Two. Untie hand. Then, go.”
“You want me to untie your hands and go?”
“Yes. One hand. Then leave.”
She sobbed openly now. Even through the mask, Jack could see she was in anguish. She reached down and unfastened the manacle that held his left arm to the railing on the bed. He wanted so much. He wanted to hold her one more time. He wanted to stroke her hair, to tell her everything was going to be all right. He wanted to tell her not to cry. He wanted to kiss her, to taste her, to bite her, and feel her blood flowing, and chew on her flesh and…
“GO!” he shouted. “GO NOW!”
Sarah jumped back, shocked by the outburst. She took a step toward the door.
Keep going, he thought. He focused his mind on undoing the other manacle. It was getting harder to think, to keep his thoughts lined up. Biting. He wanted to bite. He was so hungry.
“GO!” he shouted again. His right hand was free, and he unfastened the head strap, then leaned forward to free his feet. “I’m. Surprise. Doctors.”
Sarah got it. He wanted to be freed so he could surprise the doctors when they came back. And he wanted her gone so he couldn’t hurt her.
“I love you, Jack!” she called out again. She saw him look up and for a moment, he smiled. In that instant, despite the blood and the torn lip and the bloody eyes, she saw him. Jack. He heard her, understood her. Then his smile turned into a snarl, and he was gone. He had one foot free and was working on the other. She spun away from him and hustled to the entrance to the decontamination room, hitting the red button to release the doors. She didn’t know what was in the shower, but she grabbed the ring and pulled the chain. Cold liquid cascaded down over her. She could smell bleach and held her breath as the fluid soaked her cap and mask and gown. Finally, she released the handle.
The disinfectant stopped. She stole another glance at the lab room. Jack was free, and working on turning another patient loose.
She gasped. The other patient was Ramsey, the man she’d brought here more than a week ago.
Jack paused for a second, his body shuddering in another spasm. He looked in Sarah’s direction, and snarled, taking a step toward her. She felt a shudder of her own, but stayed where she was and kept watching him. He stopped moving and smacked his head a few times. He violently scratched at his scalp for a couple of seconds, then turned back to Ramsey and renewed his efforts to untie him.
“Keep fighting it, Jack,” she said out loud. “Give ’em hell when they come for you.”
She passed through the room with the biohazard suits. In the last room, she ditched the surgical gown and cap, but stuffed the mask in her pocket. She paused and looked at the box where she had gotten the mask. She reached in and grabbed a few more of them on the way out.
Never know when you might need one, she thought.
She left the lab and scanned Leonard’s card on the staff elevator. She heard howls of rage coming from the lab and thought for a second that the infected were coming for her. She readied her rifle, but none of them came.
“Probably can’t open the door,” she said aloud. “Jack will show them how.”
The elevator doors opened and several doctors stared at her, surprised to see a soldier on the infected floor.
“You can’t be here,” one of them said. “The Army’s been ordered to evacuate the building.”
A man in a black tactical outfit stepped forward. He carried a compact rifle with a skinny magazine. Sarah thought it was an MP4. Or was it MP5? It didn’t matter.
“Yeah,” the man said. “Homeland is taking over. You can run along now.”
She held her tongue and stepped aside, letting them pass. They went straight toward the Level Four lab.
In the elevator she pressed L, and just as the doors started to close, she heard a burst of gunfire, and screams. The last thing she saw before the doors shut was the man in black getting tackled by one of the infected. She couldn’t see who it was, but she hoped it was Jack.
The screams faded as the elevator descended to the lobby.
She walked toward the front doors, expecting to see Leonard, but the lobby was empty. Even the guard had left. She searched the parking area, looking for a car that she might be able to steal, wishing the ambulance that Leonard used to bring her here was still parked there with the keys in it.
She heard a familiar engine, and scanned left and right, but could not tell from where it was coming. She thought she might be hallucinating, just hearing what she wanted to hear. Maybe the strain of seeing Jack had caused her to crack.
And there it was! Emerging from behind a massive truck with those descending railroad wheels on it, was the Mercedes SUV, pulling the teardrop trailer. Charlie was behind the wheel, and he maneuvered it to pull up alongside her.
“Hey, Sarah. Need a lift?” He acted casual, but she could tell he was excited to see her.
“Yeah, I do. Uber’s n
ot responding.”
“Jesus. I don’t miss all that yuppie crap.”
“How’d you know I was here?” she asked.
“Leonard’s girl told me. I loaded this thing up as fast as I could and headed over.”
“He’s a good kid. I shouldn’t have sent him away like I did. I wish I could tell him I’m sorry.”
“You can. He’s in the trailer with the girl. Now you want to go, or what?”
Sarah ran around the front of the SUV and climbed in the passenger side.
“Are we going back to base?” she asked.
“Nope. I heard there’s more than a million of the infected coming at this place from the east. They’re bombing the shit out of them, but still, I don’t want to be here when they show up.”
“So where then?”
“Back to the Reservation. Leonard said we’d be welcome there while we figure out what’s next.”
Charlie made the turn onto Highway 54 North. From their different excursions to set up defenses, Sarah knew they’d hit Highway 375 and connect with I-10. Conditions had undoubtedly gotten worse since they made the reverse trip three weeks ago, but they’d figure it out.
“Charlie?” she asked after a couple of minutes of silence.
“Yeah?”
“You haven’t asked about Jack.”
“The girl told me. There’s no coming back from that. I know it.”
“He was still himself, sort of, for a few minutes,” she said. “The doctors there were injecting him with the virus to test the limits of his immunity. They weren’t trying to cure him at all.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Charlie exclaimed. “That’s murder! What the fuck?” He took a second to calm down. “Did you, you know, take care of him?”
“Yeah. I set him loose, at his request, so he could get revenge on the assholes that did it to him.”
Charlie laughed. “That’s great! I wish I could see how that played out.”
“From the screams I heard as I was leaving, I think it went to plan.”
“Good,” Charlie said. “Good for him. Go out with your boots on. A hero’s death.”
