by R. Brewer
David’s lip stopped trembling and he looked at her in surprise. “What?”
“I said, okay, David. I won’t ever forgive you for lying to me for all these years, but I believe you. So, give us the whole story. Tell your son what you’ve been doing with your life.” Looking at how pathetic her husband appeared, Bonnie found her bitterness fading rapidly. “Tell us how we can help.” She glanced over at Tim, who stared at his father, no emotion apparent on his face.
“I’m so sorry, Tim,” David said. “We’ll never have enough time for me to tell you how much.” David stood up and got the chair from the other side of the room. He brought it over, sitting it in front of Bonnie. “Okay, I’ll start at the beginning.”
* * *
Jodie felt as if every cell of her body were in pain. She had no idea where she was. Looking up, she saw the ceiling of what appeared to be a warehouse. Somewhere in the distance, a group of men were talking and laughing. The aroma of food drifted through the air and Jodie realized she was outrageously hungry and thirsty. She straightened her leg and her appetite disappeared as waves of nausea hit her hard. She breathed deeply, trying to keep from passing out. After a few minutes, the nausea passed and she tried to sit up slowly, wincing in pain.
Seeing herself, Jodie almost laughed, thinking she looked like she’d been through a meat grinder. She needed first aid. Looking around, she realized she was on top of a fire truck parked in the garage at the station. Not a bad place to be if you want a first aid kit, she thought. Jodie slid to the end of the deck and dropped down to the back step. She fought not to scream as she put her weight on her wounded leg. One step at a time, she lowered herself to the garage floor. She stopped and leaned against the truck for a moment, waiting for the dizziness to pass.
Jodie limped around the side of the truck and opened one of the panels, revealing hose connectors, axes and tools. She quietly closed the panel and opened the next, finding what she was looking for. The first aid kit. Something else, too. Bottled water. She shoved two bottles in each coat pocket, grabbed the kit and slid silently out the side door of the station.
Unlike the town she’d been in earlier, the streets here weren’t dark. Jodie realized she was exposed, out in the glow emanating from the fire station. The earthquake must not have damaged the power grid here, wherever was. She quickly made her way around the back of the building and sat down behind a dumpster, downing a bottle of water in one long swig.
She opened the first aid kit and shuffled through it until she found six small packages of painkillers. After tearing open two of the packages, Jodie washed down the tablets with a second bottle of water. Leaning against the dumpster, she thought of her father, hoping he was still alive, still able to be her dad. And she thought of Mei. Mei was strong. And smart. She'd figure out a way to keep everyone safe. Jodie pictured them and the rest of her new family of friends spending holidays together, laughing, finally rid of Gypsum.
After a few minutes, when the medication had taken some of the edge off, she pulled out the alcohol pads and set them to the side. Using scissors to cut the sleeve off of her shirt, she peeled her blood-encrusted makeshift bandage away from her gunshot wound, starting the bleeding all over again. She gritted her teeth, groaning as the alcohol stung and numbed her torn skin at the same time. The wound cleaned up nicely though, and she covered it in a thick pad of gauze and tape.
Next, she worked on her knee, unable to stifle a curse as she extracted a stone from underneath the flap of skin that hung from the kneecap on her left leg. She needed stitches, she knew, but couldn’t risk trying to find a doctor to help her. She clamped an alcohol pad over the wound. The pain was unbelievable. She felt herself lapsing into unconsciousness momentarily and lay down flat on the ground to keep from passing out. “Well, at least I still have a kneecap,” she mumbled.
Finally able to sit, Jodie resumed the painstaking process of cleaning her wound, covering it in as much medical adhesive as she could get out of the tube, and wrapping it in all the remaining gauze and tape. Her knee already felt much better, now that she had removed the stone, but she realized she was highly compromised for the task she had ahead. Jodie felt like she'd wasted too much time already. She needed to get to Gypsum's Nevada facility now.
She’d have to find a car with gas and steal it. Once she was on the road, she’d immediately be in jeopardy of capture by Gypsum. There just didn’t seem to be many options left. That was, there didn’t seem to be until she saw the dirt bike sitting on the other side of the parking lot. Beyond where the bike stood, the bronze glow of the sunrise barely peeked over the horizon. It was time to move.
Chapter 10
Chuck moved away from the train car door and sat down on the deck as quietly as he could. He’d been listening to the Gypsum guards for several hours and was tired. Mostly, he was disgusted with them. How could they be so stupid? Didn’t they realize what they’d been a part of? He wanted to think that they weren’t aware of the consequences of their own actions or of the thousands of people who'd lost their lives to Gypsum’s plan, but he realized that fear changed people. If kept under the threat of death for prolonged periods, a man’s personality could change. He could justify things he never would’ve thought possible before. In the game of survival, some men suspended their morality for so long that they forgot about the good that made living worthwhile to begin with. These men fell in that category. They were morally bankrupt. And in charge.
Chuck mulled over what he might have to do in order to survive, what morals he might have to suspend to assure Jodie’s safety. If he could even find her, that was. He felt a bit hopeless, trying to plan for an attack, not even knowing what direction to look. Then, he heard a name he remembered and slid closer to the door again.
“That bitch,” one of the guards said. “Just wait until we get back to base. I’m gettin’ some serious time with ol’ Christy.” He laughed and although Chuck couldn’t see inside the car, he knew the guard was likely making some obscene gesture.
Christy, the pretty dark-haired woman who was Jodie’s friend. The guards knew where she was. If Jodie was down there, chances were she’d be with Christy.
Chuck clenched his metal jaws, holding back the temptation to go inside and teach the guards a lesson in manners. For now, he’d have to stay in the background. He would need the guards to lead him to Christy. Then, he’d tear them apart. Chuck opened his Hello Kitty bag and pulled out his last candy bar. After he took care of the guards, the very next item on his agenda would need to be restocking.
The train whipped through the tunnel at an incredible pace, silently humming on the electromagnetic cushion. Chuck marveled at the machine and his surroundings. How many years must it have taken to create this tunnel, to perfect the machine, to develop a plan so diabolical? He looked at his body, which was reflecting the bluish cast of the overhead lights. He knew he'd been growing ever since waking up and estimated he was close to six and a half feet tall. How would Jodie ever recognize him, a giant metal skeleton, even if he did find her? She would be scared of him and for good reason.
Chuck willed his eyes to close for a moment so he could shut the entire world out, but his wish went unfulfilled. "That's right. No eyelids. Shit." He placed his hand gently over his eyes, and was calmed by the darkness. He wanted to sleep, if only for just a little while. He'd started to feel so tired, probably, he thought from being so worried about Jodie.
He picked up his Hello Kitty bag and slipped the strap over his head, tying it tightly so that it covered his eyes. The soft fabric felt good against his face. He could smell a faint scent of perfume on it and thought of the little girl who he'd taken the bag from lying in the hallway, wishing he knew her name. With all his heart, Chuck wished he could cry, but he only felt the familiar burning sensation in his eyes, fading slowly as he slipped into a deep sleep.
* * *
Jodie rustled through the first aid kit, finding two more packages of painkillers. If she was going for a ride on a
dirt bike, she'd need all the pain management she could find. Just shifting her weight to lean over and grab the kit sent shooting pains through her abdomen. Earlier, she'd checked her ribs to find them tender and purple, battered like most of the rest of her body. Yet, she knew if she ever was going to see Mei or her father again, she had to forget the pain and move on. At least, she had to find a place to hole up while she rested for a few hours. As soon as the sun came up, she'd be out in the open.
Remembering the discussion with her father and smiled. She recalled she'd almost burst out laughing when her father had told her where the Gypsum installation was located. Nevada. The desert. Area 51. "Really, Dad? I mean, really?"
"No, Jodie, not exactly Area 51. Close, though. The access is on a ranch near the military installation, hidden right out in the open, where no one would believe it," her father had said. "Cows rambling around just above where Gypsum is making plans to end the world."
"So, those stories about Area 51, are any of them true?" Jodie had asked, wondering if the things she'd been dismissing all these years were actually real. What she remembered about her father's response to that question was that he didn't really answer it at all.
"All I know for sure is that your mother knew how to erect a smoke screen when she needed cover," her father had said. "Who knows what's down there? But, you know, it's the desert. They'll see us coming for miles. We don't have a choice, though. We can't use the tunnels after what's been let loose down there. If we get exposed to any of those diseases, that would be the end of our little crusade."
Jodie glanced over at the brightening sky, thinking she'd better get moving. She wondered what had happened to the people who survived the explosion. They would've been exposed to the most lethal organisms known to exist, and who knew what else. What other evil pursuits had her mother had been up to, all those years, sequestered in her laboratory, ignoring her family?
"Somehow, I have to find out where I am before I can figure out where I'm going from here," she mumbled. Jodie grabbed hold of the dumpster and slowly pulled herself up to a standing position, one inch at a time, gritting her teeth so that a stream of profanity wouldn't escape her lips. She shifted her weight to her right leg and tried bending her left, the intensity of the searing hot pain in her knee taking her breath away. "Shit, that hurts. I need stronger meds."
Jodie looked across the parking lot, scanning for any movement, hoping there was no way Gypsum would know she was there. There was no option. Going for the dirt bike would put her out in the open and that was just a chance she needed to take. Summoning up all the courage she had left, she hobbled a few steps forward, heading for the other side of the parking lot.
"Oh, my God. What happened to you?" a man's voice behind her asked.
Jodie stopped dead in her tracks and didn't turn around. She didn't think the man was from Gypsum or she would be dead by now. He sounded young, like he was in his twenties or thirties.
"Here, let me help you," he said, coming up to stand by her side and extending his arm. "I'm Eric."
She looked up at him, realizing she was in too much pain to continue to walk by herself. Jodie reached out for him, feeling herself growing dizzy. The man wrapped his arm around her waist, gripping her tightly around the ribcage. She wanted to scream as the pain in her midsection reached deeply into her, mercifully sending her into unconsciousness.
* * *
Jodie woke to the sound of sirens. Even with her eyes closed, she could see the reflection of the red and white lights swirling in the air. She reached up to rub her aching head.
"Oh, you're awake," a man's voice said. "My name is Eric. I'm an EMT and I'm going to help you. Can you tell me your name?"
Jodie opened her eyes, but wasn't quite aware of where she was yet. She felt confused and disoriented. She remembered walking toward the dirt bike, then nothing but maybe someone helping her walk. She decided not to respond until she felt more coherent. The EMT hovered over her, tearing a piece of white tape off of a roll. He pasted it to her arm, over the IV needle sticking out of her skin. Jodie began to panic, reaching for the needle. She needed to get it out of her, now. What if this man was from Gypsum? What if they were sedating her? She thrashed on the gurney, trying to sit up, reaching for her arm.
Strong arms pressed her back down to the bed. "It's okay. It's just fluids," the EMT said. "You're extremely dehydrated. You should start to feel better in a few minutes, but we need to leave the IV in.”
Jodie relaxed ever so slightly. Maybe this guy had no idea who she was.
He let go of her shoulders and looked down at her. “There was no way to get you to the hospital unless I took you in my truck, so I decided to treat you here. Your vitals were good, but you were kind of out of your head at first."
Seeing the EMT in his uniform conjured memories of Mei and Nick helping her on that awful day after she’d hit the woman lying in the road, the day that had changed everything. Jodie felt her jaw clenching with the thought that they could be in grave danger. She wanted so badly to get moving, but couldn’t. Exhaustion had taken its toll.
She wasn’t too out of it to realize that her shirt had been changed, though. Looking down, she found that she was wearing a man's white t-shirt. Her skin smelled of alcohol and soap. Shifting on the gurney to look down at her legs, she could see that her feet were bare and the bottom of her pant leg was cut off. "Where are my shoes?" she asked, feeling like her tongue was made of sandpaper.
"Oh, you do speak," he said, smiling at her. "Don't worry about your shoes. Got 'em right here," he said, pointing over to a table where her boots, socks, and blood-encrusted shirt lay. Next to her clothes sat her handgun and FBI badge. "I see you're an FBI agent," he said, pointing toward the badge.
Jodie felt embarrassed for a fleeting moment, thinking of him undressing her. Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, she began to wonder if he’d opened her badge and read her name. What if Gypsum had broadcast her name and painted her as a terrorist? She wondered if they had fabricated a story and plastered it all over the news by now. But if her name and picture were in the news, it was unlikely the EMT would be treating her to begin with. She decided to take a chance. "Where are we?"
"We're in the Lakeview Fire Station," Eric said. "There, now I told you something. Why don't you tell me what happened to you."
"What hasn't happened to me," she mumbled, aware that her speech was a bit garbled. "You have power here. Do you have a phone that works?" she asked, at the same time wondering just who she thought she was going to call.
"Well, let me get you some water, first. It sounds like you've got a mouth full of cotton." He walked over to a refrigerator and took out bottled water. "We’ve got power, but no phone. All we have for communication are some short-range two-way radios. Some cell phones work, but that started getting a bit sketchy yesterday, too."
"Thank you, Eric," Jodie said, trying to sit up.
"You're welcome, Jodie. Or, is it Agent Watts?"
"It's Jodie for now," she said.
"Here, let me help you with that," Eric said as he came back to the gurney and turned a crank that brought her to a sitting position. He twisted the cap off and handed her the water. "Are you hungry? It might be some time before the guys get back to take you to the hospital. They got called out right after you came in. Lucky I found you or you could've been lying out there all day."
Jodie nodded her head. "I'm very hungry, thank you."
"Well, you've got your choice. Fruit cocktail or energy bars?" Eric asked.
"How about both?" Jodie asked, thinking she hadn't felt this ravenous ever in her life.
Eric laughed. "My kind of girl," he said, walking out of the room. Moments later, he came back with four small cans of fruit cocktail and a half dozen energy bars on a tray. "Your dinner, madam," he said, bowing in front of her and placing the tray on her lap.
Jodie grabbed at the energy bars first, unwrapped one and stuffed half of it in her mouth.
"So, Jod
ie, what happened to you?" Eric asked. "I mean, you look like you've been beat up pretty bad. It took me some time, but I got all the glue scraped off your knee. Did you do that yourself?"
Jodie nodded, her mouth full of ground up peanuts and caramel.
"I had to put in a few stitches while you were sleeping or it would've opened up again," Eric said, looking down at the floor like he was a little uncomfortable. "And, I need to ask you about your shoulder, Jodie." Eric looked her directly in the eyes. "Is that a gunshot wound?"
Jodie nodded again and swallowed the rest of the first energy bar, contemplating how much of the truth to tell him. She felt like Eric could be an ally if she told him her story, but if he knew what was really happening, he would be in danger from Gypsum. She swallowed and then paused for a few seconds, contemplating her next step. "Eric, listen to me carefully. I have to get to Nevada and I have no idea where I am. I've been chased by some very bad people. People I need to stop. They're out there looking for me right now and if they find me here, you'll be in danger, too."
Eric stared at her for a few moments. "Bad people, huh? We’ve been hearing about some guys we thought were from the government going around rousting people out of their homes. Dressed up like a SWAT team or something. Sounded like they were looking for somebody. One of the guys here, his father told them to piss off when they insisted he leave his farm. He had animals to care for, you know." Eric’s face worked into a grimace. "They beat him up pretty bad. We had to transport him to the hospital all the way in Flagstaff. Only one around here in good shape yet."
"Those guys . . . they were dressed in combat uniforms? Drove up in white vans, by any chance?" Jodie asked.
"Yeah, that's what I heard, at least," Eric said. "Sounded as if they acted like a bunch of criminals instead of SWAT."
