The End Time Saga (Book 2): The Breaking

by Daniel Greene

  I should reason with her. Steele is dead. Leave here with me. If he told her Steele was dead, it would only make her dig in more in hopes that he was still alive. More importantly, he needed to get to Michigan, and he didn’t want to do it alone. Not again.

  “I need to get to Michigan. It’s the last known location of Patient Zero. It’s a long shot, but I believe it is our only shot.”

  She nodded carefully. The nod of someone contemplating his every word.

  “I can’t do it alone. You and Mauser can help make sure I get there alive,” he said.

  She blinked a few times. “What about Mark? He’s meeting us here. It’s only been a few days,” she said. Her eyes creased at the corners.

  “Gwen, I know, but finding Patient Zero is arguably more important.” Don’t say he’s dead or she will never go. She did not look convinced by his apparent logic. “Mark is from Michigan, right? He will know if we are gone, that we left for there. He knows I must get there,” he said, voice rising.

  She stared, visibly gulping, and then shook her head as she spoke. “How could you ask me to leave him? How could you ask me to run from him? Have you no heart?”

  “But—,” he started.

  “You’re an asshole.” Tears welled up in the corner of her eyes and then dissipated.

  He’d known she would fight him, but what options did he have?

  “I know that doesn’t sound fair.” There was no fairness in this world, only what happened and what didn’t. He presented a very plausible and rational sequence of events. He would never understand women. He would play the safety card next.

  “Gwen, you’re right. I have not been very sympathetic, but we can’t stay here. You almost stabbed me when I came to your tent. You feel it, I feel it. There’s something wrong inside this camp, and every day it gets worse. We must escape,” he said. He reached a hand for her. She flinched when his fingertips grazed hers.

  “It’s okay. I have a plan that will get us out of here safely,” he said, hoping to reassure her. A plan. What plan? He would think of one later. Footsteps drew him out of his connection with Gwen. A head poked into the tent.

  “Is everything okay? Mauser said. His reddish-blond beard was well past a five o’clock shadow. “What’s going on?” he said, taking a seat. His eyes were tempered as if he were tolerating Joseph’s presence.

  “I was just chatting with Gwen here,” he said.

  Gwen looked down and straightened her shirt. “Tell him what you told me,” she said.

  Joseph recounted what he told Gwen, and Mauser listened intently. Then he nodded. “I get the same feeling,” he said. “And I know it looks bad out there, but the military units will stick together and keep us safe. Safer than out there.”

  A giant red-haired wedge between Joseph and his departure. Joseph wasn’t surprised that Mauser wouldn’t want to go.

  “There is no way we are getting on the transports either,” Mauser said. “I talked to Sergeant Yates earlier.”

  “Then we have to leave here,” Joseph exclaimed.

  Gwen looked less and less convinced by Joseph.

  “Excuse me,” sounded from outside.

  Mauser pulled out his sidearm, holding it close to his chest. Gwen slowly slid her knife from her sheath. Mauser pushed himself slowly away from the tent opening and gave Gwen a look.

  “Who is it?” she called out. Silence dragged out for what seemed like minutes.

  “It’s Kevin. Can I come in?” he said.

  Joseph exhaled. Gwen and Mauser visibly relaxed.

  “Yeah Kevin. Come in,” she said.

  He poked his head through the flaps. Confusion spread over his face with a sprinkle of embarrassment. “You guys having a party without me?” he said.

  “No, no. I can assure you this isn’t a party,” Gwen said. She gave Joseph a hard glance and made room for Kevin to sit.

  Joseph liked Kevin. A much more basic man than Joseph for sure, but likable. Steele trusted him. So that gave him clout.

  “How are y’all doing?” Kevin said. His eyes darted from face to face, reading them trying to decipher their previous conversation with just a glance at their faces.

  “I can leave,” he said, looking back at the tent entrance. “You all look like someone croaked.”

  Gwen cracked a faint smile. Joseph felt more than uncomfortable. The more people that knew his plan, the more likely Colonel Jackson would find out and thwart him.

  Mauser studied the West Virginian.

  Kevin threw his hands up. “Well, come on. You look like I just caught you with your hand in the cookie jar.”

  No one said anything in return.

  Kevin rubbed his neck. “Guys?”

  “We are leaving. I want you to join us, but you can’t tell anyone. It will be dangerous,” Joseph said. Mauser looked pissed, but Joseph ignored him. Free help was almost always good help.

  Kevin didn’t hesitate. “You guys and Steele are the only family I got. Where you go, I go,” he said with a nod of his lanky neck.

  “Then it is settled,” Joseph said, pleased with himself.

  “I’m not leaving,” Mauser said. He gave a curt shake of his head.

  I need him. He’s a fighter. We are not.

  “This place is lost,” Joseph mumbled.

  “I don’t want to burst your bubble, Joseph, but Patient Zero isn’t in Michigan. If he was, he’s dead. I can tolerate some curtailed liberties to live through this,” Mauser said.

  “I don’t want to leave without Mark,” Gwen said firmly.

  They were a one-two punch to Joseph’s escape. Without them, he was a tripod with one leg. Joseph wanted to throw his hands in the air, but he needed these people. Steele was probably dead. The odds were about a hundred thousand to one that he would have made it out of the infected Steel Jungle that was once Pittsburgh.

  Gwen gave him the evil eye.

  “We must try to find Patient Zero. We can’t solve the viral riddle without him. I’m not doing this so I can win some fucking grant for big pharma. I am trying to save humanity from the dead.”

  “I think we are a little beyond the science, don’t you think?” Mauser held his hands up. “The time for science was a fucking month ago or a year ago, or whenever it was this shit started. No. The best shot we have is staying here,” he said, stubbornness settling on his features.

  “I’m leaving, and if no one goes with me, I will die, and we will lose the only chance we have,” Joseph said. He must go.

  “Be my fucking guest. You’ve been bitching about finding this guy since we started, and where has it gotten us. Nowhere. You’ve got to know when to cut your losses. We are safe. Gwen and I are staying.”

  All eyes turned to Gwen. She sat silent, the gravity of her decision weighing on her.

  “I don’t want to leave without him, but I know this is the right thing to do. If we have a chance then we have to take it,” she said. Her eyes watered at the mention of Steele, but Joseph could have shouted for joy.

  “You are kidding me, right?” Mauser’s face turned red. He gave Joseph an extra annoyed stare.

  “I know he will find us again,” Gwen said. Her lips formed a determined line.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t be a part of this madness. Gwen, stay here. Wait for him.”

  “You do not get to give me commands, Ben.”

  “Holy shit, you are one crazy bitch. I’m out. Have fun planning your funerals.” Mauser grabbed the zipper and ripped the tent open. He stormed into the night.

  Kevin closed the tent flap, all eyes falling on the lanky man. He looked like a school boy that had been sent to the principal’s office.

  “Kevin?” Gwen asked.

  “We need your help,” Joseph said.

  Kevin appeared thoughtful, collecting himself before he spoke. “I’ve read books and books highlighting the great men and women of history. Explorers. Conquerors. Presidents. Dictators. Emperors. Generals. Politicians. Advocates. All great people. I always fe
lt comfortable being a watcher living vicariously through others, observing their actions through words on paper. But times are changing and I would be remiss if I didn’t go with the ‘Doctor who Saved Humanity from Annihilation.’ I may only be a footnote in this story, but how glorious a footnote I will be.”

  Joseph smiled at Kevin and Gwen. Finally, people he could count on.

  “What about Steele? How will he know where we went?” Joseph asked, trying to be sensitive to Gwen.

  “I know a way,” she said.

  GWEN

  Youngstown Airfield, Youngstown, OH

  They only waited until morning for Steele. It burned her gut to think that she was going to leave him, but she believed in Joseph. She wished she didn’t. But if she left now, she’d be breaking every promise they had made each other. Steele’s voice whispered in her ears, “I’ll never leave you. Even when I’m gone, I’ll be with you.” No, she couldn’t think that way. She wasn’t breaking a promise. He’d broken his promise. She wasn’t forsaking a vow. He forsook his vow to her. He left her alone on this abandoned earth.

  She would help Joseph. Mark would have done it in her place. He would have guided Joseph and waited for me. He was just that kind of person. If he was still alive, then he would find her message and come back to her or they were truly broken apart.

  She organized her meager belongings into her pack. Some clothes, some supplies, and her picture. She held it in her hand. Its edges were ripped and it was creased down the middle. The image itself was caked with dirt and warped by sweat from her palms.

  It was a photo that she had secretly put in Mark’s pack when they left Fairfax. It was her and Mark at the beach in Michigan. It was the only picture she had of them together. A beautiful reminder of the life that once was.

  She held the photo close to her heart, as if she could squeeze the moment out of the photograph. A moment she would give anything to feel again. She let herself fall back into it.

  The sun glinted off the crisp blue water behind them. Fine golden sand tickled their feet. Lazy dune grass blew in the warm breeze. Mark laughed at the sight of his mom’s gray Weimaraner bounding from sand to sand dune as it chased giant beetles. Gwen felt relaxed, letting her skin soak in the Vitamin D from the sunlight. Deep down inside her, she knew this was the man of her dreams. He looked down at her; he was heavier then, but it was healthy. His hair flowed in the wind. In present time, his hair was partially gone, a puckering scar in its place. He looked back at his mother holding the camera.

  She snapped a picture with a smile. Her phone rang. “It’s the hospital,” she said, holding her wide-brimmed hat on her head and walking back to her beach chair.

  “I love you,” he said. “Even if you are a little too dry for me.”

  Gwen’s head tilted to the side in confusion. He swept her up in his arms. She cried out.

  “Put me down, you big goon,” she said, playfully slapping his shoulder.

  “No way, Jose,” he said and pounded sand straight for the surf. He plunged them in head first. The cool water shocked her body and invigorated her at the same time. Mark pulled her through the surface, the light blue sky overhead. She caught her breath and he let her stand. Waves rolled onto the shore and she jumped to avoid toppling over. She slapped at him again.

  “You got my hair wet, you jerk,” she said, but she didn’t mean it. What was having your hair done when you were living moments like this?

  “Sorry,” he said, not meaning it. He bent down for a kiss, and she met him halfway, letting herself be swept away.

  She opened her eyes. A cheap green tent ruffled in the wind over her head, not the beautiful summer sky. It was time to go. The sun was beginning to break the night with its rays of light cutting across the horizon.

  They were to rally at one of the hangers. Kevin had commandeered a pickup truck for them to drive. She didn’t know where he had gotten it and frankly didn’t care.

  As she approached the hanger she saw Kevin securing supplies in the back of a nice blue pickup. It’s license plate read NAW IBO. Boxes and bags lined the truck bed.

  “Kevin, where did you get all this stuff?” she asked.

  “Not much to do out in West Virginia. I used to play a lot of online poker,” Kevin said, tightening a strap.

  “You won all this?”

  He smiled at her. “Most of it.”

  “Mark hasn’t arrived yet, has he?” she asked, ever hopeful.

  “No,” Kevin said. He looked up from the bed of the pickup.

  “What about Eddie?” she asked.

  “He’s staying,” Kevin said.

  “Really?”

  “Didn’t pry. He looked pretty nervous at the mention of leaving. Don’t blame him.”

  She sighed. “I could use a drink.”

  “Driver’s side cup holder,” he said, taking her pack and securing it.

  “Oh yeah. And found you something that you might like.”

  “Thanks,” she said. No point in holding back now. In a few hours we could be dead. Reaching for the bottle of whiskey, she came across a holstered handgun sitting on the passenger seat.

  “Kevin, what’s this?” she said, handling the firearm.

  “Glock 43 9mm. Small, compact, concealable, and should fit your hand pretty good.”

  She slid it out of its holster. “It does fit my palm nice. Thank you,” she said, wedging the piece in her pants.

  Joseph entered the hanger, hunched over from the weight of his pack.

  “Glad you could make it,” she jibed at him.

  “I arrive precisely when I mean to,” he said, giving Gwen an extra smile. She smiled back. Joseph was a pleasant fellow. Kind of awkward, but he seemed genuine. Gwen liked people who were real. People you could connect with. People who weren’t trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

  Joseph lit a cigarette.

  “I think you are the only doctor I know who smokes,” she said, chastising him again.

  Joseph took a big puff. “Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you do, but at this point living to see my later years is not in the forecast,” he said.

  She held up her drink and took a swig of Kevin’s liquor.

  “Alright, kettle,” he said.

  “We’re all under a lot of stress,” she said with a smile.

  He smiled back and adjusted his glasses.

  Kevin jumped down from the pickup. “Are we ready to get this rodeo on the road?” he said.

  Gwen took a deep breath. “As ready as I will ever be.”

  “I am ready,” Joseph said, tossing his cigarette butt.

  “Where are you going?” came a voice. A shadowy figure stood in the center of the hanger, hands in his pockets.

  “Eh,” Joseph muttered.

  The man walked closer, neither in a hurry nor on a stroll. Gwen’s heart jumped in her chest. He limped, partially dragging his foot.

  “I said, where are you going?” His familiar reddish beard came into view.

  “Jesus, Mauser. You scared the hell out of us,” Gwen said. She inadvertently rose a hand to her chest. “Where do you think?”

  “I’m going to be blunt. You shouldn’t go,” he said.

  Gwen crossed her arms over her chest. They had already been through this. “Ben. We have to do this. If Joseph is right, we have a duty to help him.”

  He stepped closer to her, his face dark, shaking his head in disgust. “I promised Steele I wouldn’t let you go,” he said. He teetered for a moment in silence, then he sprang like a coiled cobra and grabbed her arm.

  “Come on, man, just let us go,” Kevin said. It was as if he faced a schoolyard bully.

  She struggled beneath his iron grip. “Ow, Ben you’re hurting me,” Gwen shouted. She shook her shoulders trying to get free. He ignored her and started to pull her out of the hanger.

  “Let me go,” she screamed.

  “Mauser, let her go,” Joseph called out.

  She resisted, throwing her weight backward l
ike a toddler in trouble with their parent. “Ben, stop,” she said. He continued to pull her against her will. Her feet slid over the concrete.

  Gwen swung with all her might, the flat of her hand connecting with his furry cheek. Whack. He looked at her, stunned, but still held onto her arm.

  “Gwen. You can’t leave,” he repeated. It was as if he were a robot. His only purpose was not allowing her to leave.

  She struck him again. And again. Each blow sending fire into her hand and wrist.

  “You don’t get to make my decisions, Ben.”

  “Today, I do,” he said and slapped her back. Her cheek stung like fire.

  Her insides bounced, her skin prickly. She sucked in air as if she had been sprinting. Her eyelashes beat furiously. Did he just slap me? Her feet slid beneath her as he dragged her.

  “Stop,” came a commanding voice from behind them. Mauser did, and they both gawked at Joseph. He pointed a handgun at Mauser.

  “She doesn’t want to go with you. She wants to go with us. You’re hurting her.”

  Mauser’s dark eyes went from her to Joseph and back again, a mean smile covering his lips. “You wouldn’t do it. Shit. You can hardly shoot the infected.”

  The gun trembled in Joseph’s hands. “I would do it. Now let her go.”

  “No, you wouldn’t.” In a fraction of a second, Mauser had his sidearm pointed at Joseph, his other hand gripping Gwen’s forearm like a vice.

  “Now, everyone just needs to get their stuff and go back to their tents. This is the safest place to be while we wait for Steele.”

  She swung at his face with all her might, her fist bouncing off the side of his head. He looked down at her with wild eyes and cracked her nose with the butt of his gun. Stars exploded in her head and she collapsed on the ground.

  “Don’t be stupid,” he screamed at her. She held her broken nose in her hands, blood spurting from her nostrils as if it didn’t want to be in her any more. “You are going to die out there,” he said, pacing back and forth.

  She sat upright, touching the blood with her fingers and looking at it. “Ben, it’s time for you to leave,” she said, wiping away the blood from her nose.