The Death Trilogy (Book 2): The Death: Eradicate

by John W. Vance

  “Tess, it’s Devin. You okay?” Devin asked from the open doorway, his shadowy figure looking large.

  “I’m fine. Come in,” she answered.

  He stepped in, looked around and joked, “You know, you really should think about cleaning the place.”

  “Nothing.”

  “You can’t find it?” he asked.

  “No, nothing, I’ve looked and looked, but nothing from him that looks like a note that would tell me anything,” she said in a tone of deep frustration.

  “Well, it doesn’t help that the lights don’t work,” he said, flipping a switch up and down.

  She watched him as he flipped the switch, stopped, and stepped farther into the condo. He kicked around the garbage that was once prized possessions. He peered into the kitchen that sat adjacent and laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Tess asked.

  “Did you have a refrigerator and dishwasher, or did…?”

  She interrupted him and said, “Of course, some dumbass thought those would be valuable.”

  “Ha, what an idiot.”

  “Well, there’s no shortage of them around,” she said as she stood and stretched. “How’s Bri?”

  “Good. No other sign from your neighbor. Not sure if she saw something, but she and Brando have it covered out there. Thought I’d come in and see if I could help.”

  “What time is it?” she asked.

  “Past noon, you’ve been in here a while. We got worried,” he answered. He walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. He could see the strain on her face, and the hopelessness she was feeling oozed out of her.

  “A new set of eyes will be helpful. How about you take the office? First door on the left,” she said.

  “Sure thing.” He walked off and into the room. Instinctually he went to turn on the light, but nothing happened. He looked down after feeling the large faceplate and saw it was a heart. “I have to say, it must have been you who decorated this room.”

  Tess was busy in the bedroom again. She was now on her hands and knees crawling around, picking up every little piece of paper. “Why do you say that?”

  “I can’t imagine a big tough Marine putting a heart-shaped light switch on the wall.”

  Upon hearing that, she shot out of the room and into the office, stopping just at the doorway. She looked down at the heart-shaped face plate and blurted out, “That’s it! He hid it behind there, I know it!”

  “Behind the light switch?”

  “Yes.” She looked around the desk for something to unscrew the screws. “Help me find something to get the plate off.”

  “Really, he hid it there?”

  “Maybe, Travis has hidden things behind switch panels before. No one looks there for anything, and this one I gave to him on our first anniversary.”

  Devin didn’t need to look. He pulled out his Leatherman tool and opened it up to the flat head screwdriver. As he handed it to her, he asked, “You gave your man, a Marine, a heart-shaped light switch? Even my metrosexual self would think that was gay.”

  “Shut up. It’s personal; there’s a story behind it,” she barked as she snatched the Leatherman out of his hand.

  “I’m sure there is. Does that story include role-playing and zipper masks?”

  She snarled at him and didn’t answer his snarky comments. She quickly unscrewed the panel and removed it. She looked behind the toggle switch and saw a folded-up piece of paper. She squealed, “There’s something there!”

  “I thought I’d seen everything, but this is incredible,” Devin joked.

  Her hands were shaking as she unscrewed the switch and pulled it out; with a hard pull, she yanked it out and tossed it. With her other hand she pulled the thick folded paper out. She looked at it for a nanosecond and unfolded it. Each fold revealed the mysterious note wasn’t a note but a map.

  Devin was looking over her shoulder; the anticipation was riding high. For him it felt like Christmas in some way.

  When the paper was fully unfolded, it showed a map of Colorado, and the only mark on it was a circle around an icon of a plane with three handwritten letters, DIA.

  “What does it mean?” Devin asked. “Is he at an airport?”

  “Yeah, if my memory serves me, DIA stands for Denver—”

  Devin interrupted and finished her thought, “—International Airport.”

  They both looked at each other oddly.

  Devin stepped away and ran his hand through his hair. He turned to her and asked, “Are you sure this is the note?”

  She gave him a look that told him it was, but answered, “Travis was being very careful. He must have been worried. For whatever reason he didn’t want to tell me over the phone, and by hiding it in here, he’s telling me that he knew something bad was coming.”

  “Do I have to be the one to say the obvious?”

  “What’s so obvious?”

  “If I knew the end of the world was about to happen, I’d just tell you where I was going. I mean, this whole thing, this entire trip is total bullshit, if you ask me.”

  “Travis must have had a good reason. He must have known that he couldn’t talk with confidence over the phone. Maybe he feared for his life, maybe—”

  “Still, he has put your life in danger; he could’ve given you a better clue than this. If you had left North Dakota knowing where he was, you’d be there right now. This is, pardon me for saying, silly.”

  Tess cut her eyes at him and said, “He had good reason, he had to!” Tess hated having to defend Travis but did so out of obligation. There wasn’t a day that had gone by since the outbreak that she hadn’t asked herself the same question, but hearing Devin ask it made it different. He didn’t know Travis; it was easy for him to judge, she thought.

  Devin and Tess’s disagreements had been growing in frequency and intensity since leaving Daryl’s house, making the journey personally tense.

  Devin opened his mouth but stopped short. He knew whatever he’d say would not do any good and only add fuel to the fire. Regardless of how silly or needless leaving the message there was, now they had something to go on, and they had a very long trip ahead of them.

  Tess looked at the map and ran her fingers over it. She then placed it against her chest and closed her eyes.

  Devin reached out. He felt badly and wanted to apologize, but Brianna’s yell halted his mea culpa.

  Tess shoved the map in her pocket, pulled out her Glock, and bolted out the door. Devin was right behind her, his AR-15 at the ready.

  When they exited the condo, they had a clear view of what was happening. Half a dozen young boys were around Brianna.

  At first they looked harmless, they were children, but upon stepping off the deck and hurrying towards Brianna, who was standing outside the Humvee with a pistol in her hand, they could see these children looked anything but harmless.

  Their soiled and torn clothing clung to their scrawny bodies, dirt and grime covered their gaunt faces, and in their boney hands they had bats, pipes and several had guns. They were taunting and jeering Brianna, who had a look of fear on her face.

  “Help, Devin, Tess, help!” Brianna cried out again, not knowing they were coming.

  “Bri, we’re right here!” Tess responded.

  The boys, surprised to hear another voice, looked at Tess and Devin coming.

  Half of the group turned and faced them. Two held guns, one a revolver the other a 1911.

  “Boys, hold up. Put the guns down. There’s no need for this,” Devin yelled, his rifle raised.

  “Listen, boys, whatever you think was going to happen, isn’t. If you’re looking for some food, we can help out,” Tess offered. She held her pistol up in an attempt to show she meant no harm.

  Devin quickly glanced at her and said, “Tess, what are you doing? We don’t know who they are and what they’re capable of.”

  Not looking at him, she answered, “They’re just kids.”

  “Did you hit your head in there?” he asked
, mocking her.

  “You look hungry. We have some food we can share, okay?” Tess asked.

  Brando was standing next to Brianna, his leg still bandaged from the gunshot wound weeks ago at Daryl’s house in Reed, Illinois, but his fighting spirit was very much there. His hair was standing up on end and he growled deeply at each boy.

  The boys began to laugh at Tess, and the boy holding the revolver started to laugh so hard his laugh turned to a cackle.

  Devin felt very uneasy about the situation before him. He had seen so much since all hell had broken loose seven months ago, but never had they encountered feral children. He tightened his grip on the rifle and took aim on the boy with the revolver. He seemed to be the oldest at ten, and the others seemed to look towards him.

  “What’s your name?” Tess asked.

  The boy with the revolver lowered it and answered, “Alex.”

  Tess smiled and said, “Alex, hi, my name is Tess. Are you hungry?”

  He nodded.

  “We can help,” she said.

  “Tell them to back off Brianna,” Devin ordered.

  “We’ll give you some food, okay, but can your friends back away from our friend?” Tess asked.

  Alex whipped his greasy hair out of his face, smiled and said, “Sure.”

  Just with that simple answer, the other five boys lowered their weapons and took a few steps back.

  Devin still didn’t trust the situation and kept his rifle firmly planted in his shoulder.

  “Hey, lady, what about him?” Alex asked Tess, his finger pointed at Devin.

  She looked over and raised her eyebrows.

  Devin stepped laterally towards her and stopped just next to her, his rifle not moving an inch, “Tess, I don’t trust this,” he whispered to her.

  She whispered in return, “They’re just hungry boys.”

  “Exactly.”

  Tess rebuffed his concerns, holstered her Glock, and walked past Alex towards the back of the Humvee. She opened up the rear hatch, pulled out a case of MREs, and tossed it on the ground.

  Alex whistled and two of the boys, who looked around seven, ran over and grabbed it.

  “Are we good?” she asked.

  Alex, while only appearing ten years old, had the bearing and presence of an adult. His dark brown eyes had a deadly and menacing stare.

  Devin saw this, but for whatever reason, Tess did not. The Tess he knew before stopped being her the moment they had arrived in Topsail Beach and parked in front of 18 Island Drive.

  “You get the Hummer from Lejeune?” Alex asked.

  “No,” she answered.

  “Where you from?” he asked.

  “Right there.” She pointed to her old condo.

  He looked back, cracked a half smile and said, “You’re a local?”

  “Sort of. So where are your parents?”

  “Dead, everyone’s dead,” one of the seven-year-olds blurted out.

  “Where do you live?” Tess asked.

  Alex pointed to the house where Brianna had seen the movement hours before.

  “I told you I saw something move!” Brianna exclaimed, feeling vindicated.

  Tess exhaled deeply. She felt for the boys, but she now could see a hardness and desperateness about them. Tapping her intuition that timing was everything and theirs could be running out, she said, “Well, boys, we have to go. Enjoy the food, and please drink extra water when you eat those, they’ll jam you up otherwise.”

  Brianna opened the driver’s door, Brando jumped in, and she followed.

  Alex’s face went emotionless.

  Seeing this, Devin slowly raised his rifle, ready for anything to happen.

  Tess circled the Humvee and jumped into the front passenger side.

  The other boys were looking to Alex for instructions while keeping an eye on Devin.

  Alex turned and grinned at Devin.

  The Humvee came to life with a rumble.

  The anticipation was killing Devin. He just knew this was about to go sideways and didn’t want to risk losing by not having the advantage, so he fully raised his rifle and shouted, “Alex, nothing personal, but don’t think about it!” He sighted in on Alex’s chest and placed his finger on the trigger.

  “We’re good. Don’t shoot!” Alex said. A strange calmness emanated from him, strange because he was so young to display this type of cool behavior.

  “Miss Slattery, Miss Slattery, is that you?” a little girl yelled. She had appeared from nowhere.

  Brianna swung the Humvee around and pulled up to Devin, blocking Alex.

  “Miss Slattery, Miss Slattery!” the girl again yelled. She ran to the driver’s side and began smacking the window.

  Brianna looked down at the dirty-faced girl who was no more than seven years old. Brianna could see the desperation in her eyes.

  Tess looked, and the expression on her face shifted. “Stop the vehicle!”

  Brianna did just as Tess ordered.

  Tess jumped out of the Humvee and ran around to the little girl with arms wide open. “Meagan, oh my God, Meagan, it’s you.”

  Meagan jumped into Tess’s arms and clung tightly. She whimpered, “Don’t leave. Please don’t leave. We need you. I’m scared.”

  Tess returned the girl’s embrace with the same love she had received. “I can’t believe it’s you.”

  “You’re leaving. Please don’t leave!” Meagan pleaded.

  Tess pulled her away to examine her. Meagan’s face was smeared with dirt and grime; her thick long brown hair was tangled and greasy, similar in look and feel to dreadlocks.

  Tears began to stream down Meagan’s face, and her body began to tremble. “Please don’t leave us.”

  “Where’s your sister? Is Melody with you?”

  Meagan nodded and pointed. “She’s sick.”

  Tess stood, grabbed Meagan’s hand, and said, “Take me to her.”

  Devin watched the entire scene while keeping a watchful eye on Alex.

  “Hey, lady, you’re not allowed in there,” Alex barked.

  Tess ignored him and walked briskly towards the house where the kids claimed they had been staying.

  Devin walked over to the open passenger window of the Humvee and said, “Pull down the street and park. Get up in the hatch behind the big gun. I don’t trust these little fuckers.”

  Not debating his order, Brianna did just as he said.

  Alex’s age and maturity began to show. His temples throbbed, and his teeth clenched as he watched Tess walking towards his house.

  While the other boys began to rip apart the MREs, he marched towards the house.

  Devin was right on his heels. “Hey, Alex, where are all the adults?” he asked in an attempt to steer the conversation and get more information.

  “I told you, they’re all dead,” he answered as he strode quickly, his eyes focused on Tess’s back like lasers.

  “There are no adults anywhere?”

  “No good ones.”

  Devin raised his eyebrows, intrigued by Alex’s response.

  “Hey, lady, I said you can’t go in there!”

  Tess had reached the screen door. She turned and replied to Alex, “Meagan is my friend and so is her sister. If Melody is hurt, I’m going to help. Plus I don’t take orders from children.” She opened the door and walked inside the dark and smelly living room. The pungent smell of feces hit her hard, to the point she almost gagged. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she looked around the room. Garbage, debris was everywhere; the place was a total dump.

  “Where’s Melody?”

  Meagan escorted her through the maze of garbage to a bedroom. There on soiled sheets lay little Melody. Her tiny five-year-old body was curled up and shivering.

  Tess bolted to her side. Brushing away her curly blonde hair, she found her face.

  “Melody, hi sweetie, it’s Miss Slattery,” Tess softly whispered as she petted her head.

  Melody opened her eyes slightly and looked at Tess. She
attempted to smile but couldn’t.

  An intense heat radiated off her tiny body. Tess began to look at her more closely to see if she could identify what was wrong with her or what might be causing her intense fever. She pulled the stained sheet back and found a small puncture wound on her calf that was red and inflamed. “What’s this from?” she asked Meagan.

  “Alex hit her with a rake.”

  “Nice kid that Alex,” Tess murmured loudly.

  “Screw you, lady,” Alex blurted out. He was now standing in the doorway.

  Tess hadn’t seen him walk in and really didn’t care. She looked around the room. The filth, decay and disgusting smell were repulsive. She needed to care for Melody, and this wasn’t the place to do it. She shoved her arms under Melody, who let out a slight whimper, and heaved her up. “C’mon, baby girl, I’m going to take care of you.”

  Melody was so weak she couldn’t hold on to Tess. Her frail arms dangled like small sticks.

  Cradling her tightly, she walked to the bedroom doorway.

  Alex defiantly stood in the way. “You’re not taking her anywhere. She’s part of our group,” he snapped.

  “Get out of the way!” Tess said.

  “No!”

  “Listen, kid, I don’t know what your problem is, but get out of the way,” Devin said and touched Alex’s shoulder.

  Alex shrugged his hand off and pushed him away.

  Devin, tired of Alex’s behavior, had had enough. He grabbed him by the back of the neck and forcibly removed him from the doorway.

  Alex resisted, but he was no match for a grown man.

  “Get off of me!”

  Devin pinned him against the wall and yelled, “Listen, kid, I don’t give a shit if you survived till now. This little girl needs medical attention. Now you can help us or get the hell out of the way. Consider this one less mouth to feed.”

  “Two,” Meagan said as she followed right behind Tess.

  Alex stopped squirming and gave Devin a hard look.

  Devin let him go slowly and said, “We good?”

  Alex didn’t answer; he kept staring.

  Tess didn’t concern herself with the spat between Devin and Alex. Her objective was finding a safe and clean place for Melody. When she reached the front door, she kicked it open. Once outside, the fresh air filled her nostrils and lungs. Never in her life had she experienced anything as disgusting as the squalor the children were living in. With purpose she marched ahead, down the stairs, across the driveway and into the street. Her first inclination was to go to her old house, but she stopped just short of the driveway and paused. She looked at the house she had once called home and decided she didn’t want that either. To her right was another property, similar to hers but with an additional bedroom. Not sure what to do exactly, she looked at Meagan. “How about we go to your house?”