THREE DAYS LATER
It didn’t matter how much rest she did or didn’t get, Vivian woke up with a hard lump in her stomach and crushing pain to her chest each morning when the reality check hit her.
Her children were gone. Their poor bodies desecrated. She was sickened when she thought of the fear and pain they must have felt in their final moments of life after their own father lost his mind and went on some murderous rampage.
Their very own father.
Ben.
She mercilessly slaughtered her husband with a frying pan, enraged over what he had done. A man she had been married to for fifteen years. She was without thought or regret over bashing in his brains.
All that trauma to her body, mind and soul and for two days no one said much to her except to check her injuries.
She felt the pain from them, but didn’t say anything when the doctor asked. He looked preoccupied and worried, and the day before he was her only caretaker.
No nurses were on duty.
The television didn’t work and there was an increased amount of sirens outside the hospital.
This morning was different. No breakfast tray, no IVs in her arm, and it was the first day she didn’t feel drugged and she wasn’t restrained.
She swung her legs over the bed with a sense of freedom.
Could she leave? She wasn’t attached to anything.
Vivian stood up. No one was there to make sure she didn’t take off. She could actually use the bathroom without someone outside the door.
On the chair by the bed were folded clothes. A pair of sneakers rested on top. Vivian grabbed them and limped her way to the bathroom.
It took her awhile to get dressed. Her body was stiff and her injured arm felt tight every time she moved it. When she opened the bathroom door, Dr. Aaron Finch stood there.
“We need to go, Vivian, and we need to go now,” he said.
“You want to take a moment to drug me?” she asked sarcastically.
“I have medication in my things, things for pain. They’re in the car, but no more drugging you.”
“I was being facetious.”
“Please. We need to go.”
“Go where?”
“I’ll explain once we’re on our way. Come.” He reached out for her, speaking with urgency. “Everything is downstairs.”
With almost a laugh of disbelief, she smacked him away. “You can not possibly be serious. I’m not going anywhere but home.” Brushing by him, she walked to the hall.
“Vivian.”
“I assume I’m not under arrest,” she said as she walked down the hall.
“You’re not.”
“Then I want to go home.”
“You can’t.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I’ll explain it to you once we’re safe. You can’t go that way.”
Vivian thought he was absurd. The hall was empty. They were obviously in a section of a building that was vacant, being remodeled. There was evidence of that everywhere. Paint buckets, plastic coverings. In fact at the end of the hall was a plastic drape. Though not clearly, she could see a set of doors, or at least what looked like a set on the other side and she headed that way.
“Vivian. Please.”
She stayed focused and moved forward. She could hear him nearing her, pleading.
As her hand reached for the plastic drape, she heard a loud ‘bang’. It sounded like something hit into the door or wall.
She paused.
“You can’t go that way,” Aaron said. “There’s only one way out and if we wait any longer it won’t be safe.”
What was he talking about?
She parted the plastic curtain and the second she did, it was like a valve was released and the floodwaters rushed in. But instead of water, it was people. Rage filled people all slamming at once into the set of double doors causing the doors to bounce on their hinges.
A shovel was placed between the handles as an extra hold. Multitudes of pale and bloody faces fought for a spot to peer hungrily through the small rectangular windows above the handles.
“Holy shit.”
Aaron pulled her back and let the curtain drop. “That’s what I mean. Now, let’s go, the other end.”
Vivian felt him pulling her and she moved backwards a few steps then turned around. She walked as best as she could. It hurt with every step, sharp pains shot from her shin to her hip.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“I promise I’ll explain.” He led her to the other end of the hall and to the stairwell next to an elevator. Before entering he lifted a radio. “Paul, you there?”
Crackled. “Yeah. What’s taking so long, Doc?”
“We’re getting ready to come down the stairs. Be there in a minute. Is it still clear?”
“For now. Better hurry.”
“Got it.” He placed the radio in his pocket, then slowly opened the door and peeked in. “Come on. It’s clear.”
He went cautiously. He wasn’t just barreling down the stairs blindly. He looked over the railing, then took hold of Vivian’s arm and moved with her.
They made it to the next level, and Vivian saw that door was barricaded. She could hear the pounding and shoving on that one. Had she not been in a state of shock, she would have been scared. People were attacking, going nuts.
It was surreal and she hadn’t a clue what was happening. A part of her thought it was all a dream.
At the bottom of the stairwell was a door.
Aaron paused before pushing it open. “Listen to me. When I open this, there is going to be a black SUV there. Do not hesitate, just get right in, okay?”
Vivian nodded.
He lifted the radio. “We’re at the door. Still clear?”
“Still, but I see them up ahead. Go now.”
With the weight of his body, Aaron pushed the door open.
The sun was bright, nearly blinding Vivian and making it hard for her to see. She rushed out to the vehicle a few feet from the door.
As instructed she jumped into the back seat.
Aaron was barely in the front seat when the driver said, “Buckle up.”
He had the car in gear and moving before Aaron had shut the door.
Vivian wasn’t ready for the maniacal driving, she flew sideways to her left as the SUV peeled out and drove erratically, causing her to slide back and forth on the back seat, trying to get her bearings as the two men carried on a conversation.
“It’s not far,” Aaron said to the driver.
“I know. A ferry is waiting. Ramps down, all we need to do is pull up and in. He’ll take off. We have to let the guy stay.”
“That’s fine,” Aaron said. “As long as he knows he has to go into quarantine.”
“He knows. Son of a bitch.”
“Just hit them.”
“Huh?” Vivian sat up just as the driver careened into a person. The body flipped up on to the hood of the SUV and rolled off.
Thump. Thump.
He hit another and another.
“What the hell?” Vivian shouted. “You’re running them over?”
Neither man said anything.
She turned to look out the back window. She saw a mob of people behind them, running fast, trying to catch the SUV that got away too quickly.
It wasn’t long, after a few minutes of hard left turns and rights, squealing tires, that they neared their destination.
“Looks clear,” Aaron said. “Just pull up, I’ll unlock the gate.”
“You sure?” the driver asked.
“Yeah. I am. It’s better that way.”
The SUV stopped. “Shit. Be fast. Look. Down there.”
Aaron opened the door and jumped out.
Vivian looked to her right and out the window. Sure enough, there was another mob and as soon as Aaron was out of the SUV, they ran fast toward them.
The driver slammed on the gas, causing Vivian to jolt forward and back. She should have buckled in.
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He kept on driving and didn’t stop.
Again, she turned in her seat, looking back.
Aaron secured the gate and backed away just as that same mob of people arrived. Then Aaron ran toward the SUV.
“Come on, Aaron, come on,” the driver beckoned. “Is he close? Do you see him?”
“He’s coming,” Vivian replied.
“Good.”
Vivian was still watching for Aaron when she felt the bump as the SUV drove over something then come to a stop. She wasn’t paying attention to where she was or what was going on, she was more focused on Aaron.
The driver opened the door and got out, shouting. “Get ready to go!”
“You got it,” another voice responded.
Aaron was close. Behind him the mob shook the fence and some even were climbing over it. Vivian opened the back door and stepped out.
They actually were on a ferry. The engines revved and the vessel jolted.
She stayed next to the SUV, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. It was almost like a riot.
It was fascinating and frightening to watch.
Aaron boarded, and together with the driver, they lifted the ramp as the ferry slowly pulled out.
Looking back, Vivian watched the mob push so hard against the fence that it collapsed, and they all raged forward toward the ferry.
None of them, though, attempted to get into the water. They stopped right at the end of the pier, a few falling in from the momentum of their run.
“You alright?” Aaron asked, slightly out of breath.
“Yes.” Vivian nodded. “I want to go home. My children were killed. I need to see them. I need to bury them. Have a funeral…”
“Vivian,” he stopped her. ‘It can’t be that way right now.”
“Why?”
“It just can’t. So much has happened, the normalcy of a funeral isn’t happening now. I understand you need to go home. I get that. I do. One day, I promise, you will. Not now. You can’t. It’s just not possible.”
“What’s going on?” Vivian looked back at shore as they moved farther away. “Why are we being chased?”
“It’s not as simple as a one sentence explanation.”
“Then try. I deserve to know.”
“You do,” Aaron said. “I will tell you once we get there.”
“Get where?” Vivian asked.
“To our safe location.” Aaron placed his hands on her shoulders and gently turned her clockwise. “Our safe place.” He pointed. “About three miles out.”
NINE – WAITING
Brady walked from the bathroom with a bottle of water. “Is it my imagination,” he said. “Or does bathroom water always taste different?”
“No. I always thought it tasted softer,” said Jason as he fiddled with the television.
“Yeah, yeah, exactly. At least we have it though. My throat is raw.”
“Well, you shouted for the last two hours straight. You’re hoarse now.”
Jokingly, Brady imitated the ‘nay’ of a horse as he sat on the bed. “Anything?”
“Nope.” Jason tapped the television. “I can’t get a signal.”
“What time is it?”
Jason looked down to his watch. “Just about noon.”
With a long drawn out, “fuck” Brady shook his head. “It’s been almost twenty-four hours since anyone has been in here.”
“Yep.”
“Since we heard anything.”
“Yep.”
“What’s wrong?” Brady asked.
“Really, you’re asking me that?”
“It’s just you’re answering with one word.”
“Oh, I’m just thinking about Corrie and the baby.” Jason stood and started to pace. “I mean what is my wife thinking? Is she worried? Are they telling her everything is fine? I don’t know.”
“I hear you. I’m worried about my mom. She wasn’t feeling well. I hope they at least called her. Hey, thanks for the insight.”
“What are you talking about?” Jason asked.
“Well, you had a feeling something was wrong. You said not to eat. To save it.”
“Yeah, well, I thought it was strange when he brought all those snacks in. But when the sheriff was here yesterday, he looked bad. Like worried or stressed, and we didn’t get a tray, we got a jar of peanut butter, jelly, bread and a box of snack cakes. Who does that? He was giving us supplies. At least I thought. Enough to last a couple days,” Jason said. “If you weren’t so consumed with that game, you would have heard him say, ‘Don’t eat all those snacks in one day boys, make it last’.”
“I did hear him. I thought he was doing that parent thing. You know when our parents would go grocery shopping and we’d go for the bags with the snacks? They used to say the same thing.”
“True. I just got a different reading on it.”
“When he didn’t come back last night, we talked about him being busy. What do you think now?”
“It can only be one of two things,” Jason said. “Either they all left and were evacuated for the gas leak and we were forgotten or ….”
“They’re all dead from the gas leak.”
“Yep.”
“So you believe the gas leak story.”
“I do now. I mean think about it,” Jason said. “What if the gas leak was the reason the woman went crazy and killed her family? What if the gas made others crazy?”
“Ah, man, that was why they shot that guy.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, if there’s really a gas leak. And everyone died …”
“I want to believe we were left behind.”
“But if we weren’t, how did we live?”
Jason pointed to the window that was high near the ceiling. “We are obviously in the basement. That window is sealed. That door hasn’t been open.”
“So we’re stuck here.” Brady stood and looked up to the window. It was about three feet long and two feet wide.
“No. We can break that. Climb out,” Jason said. “At least one of us.”
“But if everyone is dead out there. Shit.” Brady paced. “Gas would have to dissipate, right?”
“Unless it’s a slow leak.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“Wait. They may come back. I’m also not gonna be stupid enough to climb out that window and die from poisonous gas.”
“What if they don’t come back? Dude, I am not gonna die in this room either.”
“We listen to what the sheriff said. We make our supplies last. After they’re gone, if no one comes for us, then we take our chances. Until then …” Jason walked over to the television. “I’m hooking the game system back up and we bide our time.”
“Just wait?”
“My wife and kid need me … alive. So yes,” Jason said. “We wait.”
<><><><>
Linda sipped on her take out coffee and nibbled on a donut she got at a local shop whose name sounded like a throwback to hippies in the seventies. It was the first time in days she had left her office. Not only that, she left base and traveled into civilian territory, and it worried her.
Why?
Normalcy.
Everyone acted normal.
What happened outside their world didn’t bother them. They went on as usual, working, school, griping that their Starbucks order was incorrect. The general ignorance baffled Linda. She expected chaos, downfall, instead she saw the attitude of ‘well, it isn’t us’.
But it was them. It would be them. They just didn’t know it yet.
She stared at her charted map of the United States. In a few weeks it had went from four or five incidents to something wide spread. Once PVI mutated again, it was game over. In three days it was like wild fire.
The map was color coded. A county was marked red even if there was only one case. Black if it was overrun.
The biggest affected area looked like the letter ‘Y’.
The color red formed a hook from Mi
nnesota, clipping some of Iowa, and it ran from Illinois, included all of Michigan, as it crossed only the tip of Indiana, then dipping down to cover the northern part of Ohio and Pennsylvania, it ended in New York.
Wisconsin and Michigan were completely red.
A tail of red ran westward toward Texas. Within that ‘Y’ were freckles of black.
There were a few red dots here and there, east, west and south, all in all, nineteen states were affected and a total of four hundred and thirty-two counties had the infection.
Eighteen counties were considered ‘Dead’.
Yet, people in Baltimore still waited in line for their morning latte.
The news covered it, twenty-four seven, calling it some sort of viral phenomenon that experts were working on. A biological weapon, terrorist attack. Cities, counties, states, all with border patrols. Yet, some woman in a yellow blouse chewed out a barista over the temperature of her coffee.
Unreal.
Linda was in deep thought. So much so, that when there was a knock at her office door, she jumped a little.
“Come in.”
“Colonel.” Brian walked in.
“Morning Major,” she said.
“I wanted to let you know the sixth and final Nostrum arrived at location.”
“Nostrum?” she shook her head. “That’s an odd name.”
“That’s the code name.”
“Yes, but when I hear it, it reminds me about hearing of those traveling medical shows with the miracle cures.”
“Isn’t it though?” Brian asked.
“Yes, yes, I suppose you’re right.”
“All six have arrived and are getting situated. Some are aware of what is going on, others need to be informed. Dr. Finch is there with the team working on it and a few civilians who helped get the Nostrum there, have been given sanctuary.”
“Any infection?” Linda asked. “With the team or civilians?’
“None yet.”
“Good. Hopefully we’ll find more of these Nostrum.”
“Hopefully.”
“You know, I am looking at this,” Linda said. ‘I was told to try to contain it. It went ballistic on us. It attacked us like an invading force.”
“Yes, it did.”
“We now need to take a different approach.”
“Ma’am?” Brian asked.
Three Miles Out: Book One Page 5
