He brought Kaylee inside and took her upstairs. There was little more in the house than condiments and bland rice dishes to eat. Knowing they couldn’t stay there Daniel found the keys to the white SUV outside in the front driveway and loaded the car with what they did find. He turned the key and saw the Honda had about half a tank. They’d just drive West until they found somewhere safe, or ran out of gas. Either way it got them far away from this particular war zone and most of their current problems.
Daniel drove for what seemed like hours, the landscape of ashen colored burned down buildings a horrifying reminder that the disaster was everywhere. Kaylee hid in the back, playing with dolls while he drove, Mark’s stupid chrome platted M9 in his lap just waiting for a reason to put someone down. Dodging zombies wasn’t hard, they couldn’t get to the car fast enough to be a problem, even if they were fresh runners. Hitting them was often the only option though, knowing full well a crappy foreign SUV is not an ATV and would only take so much it occasionally got dicey. The remains of so many of the same models of cars littered the countryside, bogged down by mud, some by collisions with other cars or piles of corpses. People’s vehicles were stuck on the sides of every road, all trying to escape traffic snarls that piled upon themselves for miles and ended in yet more traffic clusters. Daniel lost the front bumper to a wheelchair bound zombie in the middle of the road. He ran over the man and his chair with a sickening crunch that made Kaylee cry. Some redneck’s Rebel Flag painted truck was stuck on top of a mountain of still squirming undead, their entrails and limbs jamming the wheels and getting caught in the gears and lift kit. There were zombies inside of cars, the people inside eaten alive when the windows were compromised.
A few bodies in the distance were still raging, one chased the van for almost a mile before suddenly going stiff and face-planting on the pavement. Her body slid, skinning most of her face off. Someone shot at the van too, pellets from a buckshot clanking off the fenders but thankfully the assholes missed the tires. Kaylee screamed at that one, Daniel did too, but he didn’t stop. The farther they got from downtown Washington DC the less destruction they saw. After an hour of not seeing anyone, undead or alive, Daniel let Kaylee sit in the front seat. She told him she had to pee again. He felt bad when he realized he’d completely forgotten to bring clean clothes for Kaylee. They were both wearing gross old stuff, how had he overlooked that?
Pulling over on a wooded stretch of highway Daniel got out and secured the area. He didn’t hear anything but a few helicopters in the background, some birds chirping, the canopy of the trees silhouetted against the storm of smoke to the East. This singular place felt safe in the smoggy summer. The wind blew so hot he wished it wouldn’t blow at all, the smells of rot and ash filled his throat. Kaylee got out and Daniel turned the other way, giving her some semblance privacy. When she finished he took his turn, having forgotten how badly he needed to go in all the rush of running for his life. A few minutes down the road again Daniel slammed the brakes hard and skidded to a halt, a sight he wasn’t excited to see just ahead of him. An Army/FEMA checkpoint manned with people still holding guns was unavoidable now. The infected didn’t hold onto anything but you, so at least there was that. He didn’t know how he felt about running into the Army already though.
A Blackhawk chopper thundered overhead, circled, and took station behind them. Another car that had been a good distance behind stopped just behind their van when it caught up. The driver, a teenage boy with duct-tape wrapped around his clothes like a bite proof suit climbed out and waved to the men in the chopper with joy. Daniel was prepared to run the checkpoint, but none of the Soldiers turned their guns on him except the stationary gunner whose entire job it was to follow you with a gun. The psychotic shit he’d seen go down wasn’t happening here, these men were calm and in control and nobody was eating anybody else. A Humvee approached the two cars, a bullhorn instructing them to proceed at 25mph, no faster. The Soldiers escorted them into a sallyport surrounded by concrete construction barriers and a few Hesco Bastions. Daniel still had his Military ID on him, there was no hiding who he was now if they did a pat-down search.
A FEMA worker in a tan mechanic’s jumpsuit came up to the van, “Are any of you sick?”
“No.” Daniel answered, Kaylee cuddling up to a stuffed Eeyore doll to hide.
“Is anyone else in the vehicle?”
“No, just myself and my niece.”
“Proceed to Search Area Two, please.”
“Look, I’m not giving up my guns. I have to be able to protect us.” Daniel was prepared to floor the accelerator again. His knuckles tensed around the wheel while he judged when the guards might not be looking. The guys manning the machine guns were smoking and joking, not paying any attention to them now that they were inside the first gate. Their complacency was his best chance if this went south.
“You don’t have to. This is just a first line checkpoint. We can’t let sick through without a checkup, but I think you’d know it by now if someone was infected with EV-1.”
“No shit.” Daniel agreed, feeling the adrenaline subsiding and slowly pulled the van into the search area. He and Kaylee climbed out and stood next to a table, an Army medic in MOPP4 chemical gear stepped up to them. She checked Daniel for bites or wounds, but scared Kaylee so badly she threw the doll at the suited soldier and tried to run before Daniel caught her.
He scooped her up and tried to calm her down. “It’s okay, it’s just a mask, Kaylee. I’ve worn them before, you wear them on Halloween, remember? It’s okay. There’s a good-guy inside.” Kaylee stopped squirming, but wouldn’t look at the masked Soldier.
“It’s okay.” The woman’s muffled voice came through the mask. She took it off, seeming relieved to have the rubber seal off her face in the humid Virginia air. “I’d know if you guys were bitten by now, it’s just SOP that I wear this out of the gate. I’m Sergeant Wendy Graystone.” She knelt down to Kaylee when Daniel set her back on her feet. “What’s your name?”
Kaylee dared a peek, but hid in Daniel’s chest as quickly as she’d looked. “Her name’s Kaylee.” He said, deciding then he needed to craft a careful lie. He knew Kaylee’s last name from things he’d seen written in Mr. Fisher’s basement, trophies and fantasy baseball papers with her parent’s names next to pictures. They looked like a really nice bunch of people. “Kaylee Gallagher, I’m her cousin, Daniel Sawyer. I was in DC visiting when…”
“Is there anyone else in your group?”
“Not anymore.”
“What’s it like out there?” Sergeant Graystone asked, distracting them from the MP’s searching the vehicle when Daniel started watching nervously. His ID was tucked in his arm pit, mostly because putting it in his butt was unthinkable to a 19 year old boy.
“It’s bad… why hasn’t it happened here?” Daniel asked while Graystone drew blood from him. It was harder to convince Kaylee this was okay, but she relented.
“It has, but there’s fewer people, most of the cases are in Phase 2 when they get this far from the cities. They’ve been attacking livestock and people who can’t run away. The Army’s set up lines around every major outbreak though. Reports at briefings say things are going bad, but emphasize it could be much worse. Most civilians are evacuating the areas in danger willingly, all for the push west to Cheyenne Mountain.”
Daniel breathed a sigh of relief, even though Kaylee’s fingernails dug into him when Graystone took her blood too. “Where should we go from here?” He asked.
“Where are you from?”
“All over, but currently home is Warren AFB. My mother is stationed there.”
“I’d take a train if you can find an open seat. Air Travel is still FUBAR. I wouldn’t want to go near an airport right now anyhow. They’re a real mess.”
“We’ve seen the planes in the fields.” Daniel said, omitting his own aerial disaster.
“Be careful. Keep your guns close. They’re letting people travel with firearms, too many riots broke out b
ecause of those of us unwilling to give them up.” Wendy lumped herself in that group. “You should hear the rantings coming out of Hawaii about it. The Administration has moved there until a large enough green zone is established on the mainland. I don’t know what you’ve done to stay alive so far, but something tells me it was difficult in a mortality defining way. Don’t admit to anything, no matter who asks. They’ve been jailing people for defending themselves, just like in Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy.” Graystone warned while the MP’s finished their search. “Plausible Deniability is the name of the game here.”
“That’s not the worst thing the Government has done.” Daniel said under his breath.
A large black man with an MP patch like a chip on his shoulder and Staff Sergeant rank on his chest to back it up walked up to Daniel. “Do you own this vehicle?”
“No, my uncle’s car ran out of gas, a guy gave us a ride.”
“So then it’s stolen?”
“I have no idea. The guy who was in it when he picked us up never said. He got bit yesterday, though.”
“It’s not registered to a man. It belongs to a…” He read the tablet in his hands. “Mrs. Rachel Tichacek of Langley, Virginia.”
“Okay, so the fat-ass guy before me stole it.” Daniel rolled his eyes. He was a skilled liar, having practiced for years with Air Force Security when caught in restricted areas.
“Either way, you don’t own it. It goes to the impound lot. You can keep what you can carry, a TSA Waiting Area is around the block. You can take a bus to the nearest Refugee Zone from there.” He said, turning around sharply.
“You’re a real asshole, Darnel.” Sergeant Graystone said.
The MP spun around on his heels like a Michael Jackson dance move, but with the bulky hostility of a gang member who escaped a criminal record. “Fuck you, Wendy. Do yo’ fuckin’ job an’ stay outta my shit, ya whiny ginga’ hoe!”
Daniel eyeballed the sergeants, never before had he seen two NCO’s go at each other like that, but then he’d only been to one drill weekend. Because of his mother’s connections his CO gave him dispensation to skip the next drill while overseas, given that he’d not seen his father in so long. He was supposed to make up the time working recruiting assistance later, but that was looking very unlikely. Call him crazy, what with being only a private first class and all, their bickering seemed kinda unprofessional. “He seems friendly.” Daniel smiled after the MP sergeant had left.
“I can’t prove it, no one here will listen, but he and those other shitbags over there are running a racket. I can’t go anywhere here without a fucking gun, walking corpses be damned. He’s just the worst kind of people. The other MP squads in our company have been assigned elsewhere, so it’s not like there’s anyone I can go to.” Graystone put her hands on her hips.
“No shit.” Daniel set Kaylee down on a chair, Sergeant Graystone volunteering to watch her while he packed their stuff from the car. He made sure to take the M4 after the MP’s had disarmed it by completely disassembling the weapon. He had to make up a bunch of bullshit on the DoD Weapons Registration Form they made him fill out before he could leave. One of the MP’s was following him around, keeping an uncomfortably close distance. Daniel minded his P’s and Q’s while he and Kaylee were given plain khaki pants and white shirts. It wasn’t stylish, but it was clean, and clean clothes can make a real difference to the beleaguered. Daniel and Kaylee gave the Private no reason to suspect he was anything other than another smelly refugee that needed to go away. Eventually their escort found somewhere better to be.
After he had all he could stuff in a blue hiking pack the MP’s shoved Daniel out of the way and drove the SUV out of sight. Fucking assholes. Sergeant Graystone, out of her desert camouflage MOPP gear and in a regular uniform now, caught up with Daniel and Kaylee before they rounded the corner toward a small town the checkpoint guarded. She wasn’t terrible looking out of the sweat suit, the ugly green/brown Army uniform not easy to make presentable, let alone sexy. If only they’d let the military iron their uniforms again… Oh well, bygone eras.
“It’s my lunch break. I only get a few precious hours away from those morons every day.” she said. “Can I buy you guys lunch before you get on a bus?”
“Sure.” Daniel set Kaylee down, letting her walk some. “Where are we, exactly?”
“Romney, Virginia. I don’t know if it has anything to do with that guy who ran for president or not. Probably not.”
Kaylee pointed excitedly toward an M1 Abrams that was rolling down the street, a convoy of heavily armed troops in LMTV’s behind it. The noise was deafening, but the convoy passed and they were able to continue talking after getting out of the way.
“You said trains were safer?” Daniel asked.
“For now. How have you survived behind the Red Line for so long?”
“Stayed hidden, stayed quiet, stayed put.”
“You lost people?”
“Yeah. A few…” Daniel clammed up.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” They stopped at a restaurant, the owner proudly sporting a pistol on both hips, each of his waitresses armed as well. A sign out front read Don’t Like Guns? Don’t Have To Eat Here. These people were making the best of the disaster, using it all as a way to protest the Administration’s unreasonable ban on certain kinds of guns almost as soon as the plague started. How banning magazines that could carry more than ten rounds and banning the sale of all cartridge fire ammunition was supposed to help with the plague was anyone’s guess, but nobody opposed the Executive Order when it came down. Too many people being eaten to notice a 3am bill ratification. Graystone bought them both a meal, preferring just a cup of coffee for herself.
“I ran your ID while you were changing, the one you thought was hidden. I know you’re in the Wyoming Guard. I don’t blame you for not saying anything.” Graystone admitted.
“Thanks, Sarn’t.” Daniel said, sipping his own cup of coffee. “I’m trying to get back to my own unit, if that makes any sense.”
“It does. These guys would draft you, put you into the fold out here. They’ve been doing it to anyone they find who’s been out less than five years and looks fit. The President has instituted a recall of all veterans not out of the Individual Readiness Reserve. It’s only a matter of time before they start scrounging the VA mental ward for the walking demented. There’s already a full draft going through to Congress, assuming Congress lives that long.”
“How widespread is this? We haven’t seen anything on the news but those replays of CNN footage.” Daniel finished his coffee and ordered another. He really wanted a shot of whiskey, but he doubted Sergeant Graystone would go for that.
“Wow. Yeah, I can imagine you wouldn’t know then. It’s on every continent but Antarctica. Texas is sorting their own shit out, but they’re causing friction with the Administration over how they’re doing it. The ACLU is having a field day with them in court, but it’s pretty obvious nobody on their side of the border is listening. It’s bad enough that Secretary of State Bitch-Face is threatening to bring in UN Peacekeepers to help bring Texas back under control… It’ll just start another civil war, bring in other states on their side.”
Daniel smirked. “Yeah, UN Blue Berets on Texas streets. That’ll go over well. What is this virus? Do we know anything yet? Can we stop it?”
“It’s been labeled EV-1, for Envier Virus-1. Some Romanian med students studying in Arizona named it. It’s not an official term I don’t think, but the media is using it. We don’t know how yet, but it attacks the nervous system like a weaponized compound, causing the victim to go into an uncontrollable rage. After that they die. They are clinically dead, no heartbeat no respiration or circulation… And it stays like that, only they get back up, and then they try to eat you. They’ll attack anything alive, but the virus seems to compel the host to attack people if there are any around. We theorize there is something more enticing to the virus about the human brain and nervous system, but test
s are in their infancy. We’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Where did this start?” Daniel asked as the food came. He’d ordered an omelet with hash browns, Kaylee got scrambled eggs and bacon arranged in a smiley face. She giggled and dug in. It had been a while since she’d had a meal that was actually cooked.
“The first known cases started in Nogales, Arizona. That big riot that was on the news a while back, they said it was Drug War related. The truth is coming out now though, it’s about as big as the Benghazi scandal a few years back, probably won’t go any farther than that either.” Graystone asked for another cup of coffee, the waitress returning promptly with a full pot that she just left at the table. “There are reported cases in every major city, now, like I said earlier. More reports are coming in from all over though. It’s jumped the Pacific and Atlantic, an outbreak killed over two hundred people in Paris last week.”
“Jesus.”
“And there are those types too.” Graystone rolled her eyes and sighed. “People who think this is the End of Days, the beginning of the Apocalypse and the Seven Years of War are gaining ground in public opinion. If you know your Bible, this part is Plague.”
Daniel believed in God, but his views were probably more shaped by the movie Dogma than by any actual religion itself. “So where’s Death Pony?” Daniel was talking about a character in the stop-motion animation show Robot Chicken, he didn’t expect Graystone to understand, but she laughed harder than she had in a while.
World of Ashes II Page 5
