Spore Series | Book 5 | Torch

by Soward, Kenny

  Lexi twisted her lips in thought. Then she grabbed her towel off her shoulder and twirled it, eyes narrowed at the captain’s door. On a whim, she strode back through the cafeteria, down the hall, and to her room, placing the hand on the reader to get in.

  The doors took forever to open, but the light turned green and she slipped inside. She tossed her towel on the bed and fell into her desk chair. She retrieved a handheld device from the top drawer. She’d taken it from Burke’s bus before turning it over to Jessie.

  Lexi opened the schematics diagram and zoomed in on Mueller’s room. She saw the little green dots that represented the people inside and wondered what they were talking about.

  Without knowing if her intrusion would cause any alarms, Lexi turned on the audio on the room’s touch screen, and their voices piped through on the device’s tiny speaker.

  “They can’t be trusted,” Mueller was saying. “They forced their way in and then brought in even more people. What else do they have in store for us?”

  Nancy spoke up in her quavering voice. “One of the nurse’s said Mrs. Shields and the new man, Moe, visited that Randy boy this morning. She found a small bruise on his forearm with a bandage on it. They must have injected him with something. Could it have been the serum?”

  “She said they didn’t have any serum.” Bonnie sounded disappointed.

  “She didn’t say that,” Mueller spat. “She said they would only give Burke serum from the new batch. They wanted to ensure we would make it quickly, which you have now promised to do. I told you from the beginning that we shouldn’t have let them in.”

  “What choice did we have?” Bonnie argued. “Burke has us over a barrel. What will happen when he doesn’t report in? They’ll all be slaughtered, that’s what.”

  “Do you think he’ll set any of them free?” Mueller’s tone was harsh but practical. “We don’t even know if they’re alive. As the months pass, we’ll keep believing it, and Burke will keep stringing us along.”

  “You’re right about that, Jens,” Lexi said with a click of her tongue. “I’ve been wondering that myself.”

  Nancy’s high tone cut through again, always hopeful. “What if we come clean and tell them that Burke’s holding our loved ones? What if we ask for their help?”

  “They’ve already proven themselves untrustworthy,” Mueller said. “I don’t think we can give them more. They may take their serum and vaccine and flee with Burke to Washington.”

  Bonnie scoffed. “We can’t let them do that.”

  “No, we can’t.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “We make their serum and vaccinations,” Mueller said. “But Burke doesn’t leave the facility. We’ll take him by force if we have to.”

  “What if they kill him?”

  “Then they killed him,” he said. “It’s a choice we don’t want to make, but we’ll make it if we have to. Burke will die before he leaves Redpine.”

  Lexi tapped her finger on the desk next to the device for another thirty seconds. Then she put it away, grabbed her towel, and headed back upstairs for her workout.

  Chapter 31

  Jessie, Redpine Facility, Little Rock, Arkansas

  Jessie heard the revelry out in the rec room growing louder and more boisterous by the hour. Someone was playing music, and it wasn’t just the kids’ games.

  Her touchscreen on the wall dinged, and Jessie turned to the door. “Come in!”

  Kim stepped into the room with a wall of noise behind her. She gave Jessie a sideways grin. “Are you coming out?”

  “I was about to start reading one of Paul’s books.” She shook her head. “What’s going on out there? Sounds like you’ve got a concert and a wrestling match happening at the same time.”

  Kim grinned wider. “We’re letting loose a little.”

  Fiona peeked around Kim’s legs. “Come dance with me, Jessie.”

  She scoffed. “What are we celebrating?”

  “A lot of things,” Kim replied. “The serum and vaccine. The Bryant’s reunion. Me and Bishop’s reunion.” She slipped in a sly look. “You and Dex.”

  “We’re just friends,” Jessie said, though she knew it was a lie.

  “Whatever,” Kim laughed. “You can’t hide it. It’s so obvious.” She dragged out the word like a teenager, and her Kentucky drawl made it even worse.

  “So obvious,” Fiona repeated, giggling.

  Her cheeks grew warm with embarrassment. “Yeah, okay. I’ll come out. But I want to show you something first.”

  Kim turned into the room and squatted down in front of Fiona. “Go tell Bishop I’ll be out in a minute.”

  “Okay.”

  The door slid shut, and Kim strode in to look over Jessie’s shoulder at the device screen. “What’s up?”

  “I was just looking around, and I saw this.” She gestured at the schematic of Redpine and zoomed in on the security barracks.

  “That’s the security wing.”

  “Right.”

  “Looks like pretty standard activity for 9:30 PM,” Kim gestured at the green bio readings. “Some people in the cafeteria or gathered in their rooms.”

  “Yeah, but I’ve been watching Mueller a lot.” Jessie shook her head and pointed at one room. “That man spends a lot of time by himself. He gets together in groups with his soldiers sometimes, but never with Bonnie and Nancy.”

  “Maybe they’re having movie night,” Kim suggested with a shrug.

  “Get serious, will you?” She pursed her lips.

  Kim laughed and then sobered. “Okay, so have you tried to listen in? I know I was against it before, but I think it might be necessary now.”

  “Way ahead of you.” Jessie hit a button and held up the device to show Mueller’s room outlined in red. “I tried to eavesdrop, but it’s blocked.”

  Kim’s expression grew confused. “Blocked? How? I thought we had administrative access?”

  “Me too. I’m not sure how they’re doing it,” Jessie said. “Maybe they’ve got more access than we originally thought. Maybe they know we can see them and are plotting against us.”

  “You need to block all of our rooms from anyone listening to us,” Kim said. “At this point, we can’t care what they think about us. If they want Burke back, they’ll do what we ask.”

  “Are we really going to do that? Give Burke back?”

  “I don’t know yet,” Kim shook her head. “Not permanently, but maybe for a little while. Until they have what they need from him. I’d go as far as to say we can even help them. It makes me wonder if I should come clean with Bonnie.”

  “Wait until we talk to Bryant.”

  Kim tilted her head. “Tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Great. Now, get your behind out here.”

  Jessie put her handheld in her pocket, stood, and held out her hands. Fiona rushed back into the room and took them, pulling her out into the passage where the sounds of merriment grew.

  The cafeteria and rec hall were full of muted happiness. Music played from the rec room, filtering into the cafeteria. Bishop, Bryant, Weissman, Garcia, Trainor, Hicks, and Melissa had jammed two tables together and were sitting around it, each with a beer or cup of wine.

  They turned their eyes as the three came up. Kim stood behind Bishop and placed her hands on his shoulders, giving them a little squeeze while Fiona danced around the table to throw her arms on Bryant. The soldier lifted the girl into his lap and moved a cup of something less lethal in front of her.

  “Looks like you guys are having fun.”

  “Bryant finally bought me that beer,” Bishop held up a bottle where he sat next to the soldier.

  Jessie nodded. “The Redpine folks were awful nice to give us beer and wine.”

  “It’s not enough to tie one on,” Bryant shook his head, “but it takes the edge off.”

  They all nodded in agreement as Jessie’s gaze settled on Melissa. She looked just like she did in her picture. She di
dn’t think she’d ever seen Bryant smile so wide, and for so long. And it was like a tension had lifted from his shoulders.

  “It’s surreal seeing everyone together.” Her eyes traced over the group. “It seemed impossible two or three weeks ago, but I feel like we’re starting to win.”

  Someone shoved a coffee mug with a small amount of wine into her hand. They raised their glasses, clinked them together, and drank. As the group carried on, she stepped away and meandered into the rec room where the kids played their games.

  Savannah sat in a soft chair near the hall to Wing 2, watching them. She’d lost her mask and scrubbed her cheeks to a rosy color. She held a tablet in her hand, lost in some book or movie. The woman looked up and waved, and Jessie returned the gesture with a smile.

  She spotted Moe standing at the intersection leading to the security barracks. He leaned against the entryway with a bottled water in his hand, staring down the dark hall.

  Jessie angled in his direction, coming to stand on the opposite side of the passageway.

  “Not having a beer?”

  Moe turned and drew a slow smile. “I can’t celebrate until I know my people in Chinle are okay.”

  “I’ve never been out west. What’s it like in Chinle?”

  He tilted his head and looked upward. “It’s a nice town, caught somewhere between the old ways and modernity. The mighty canyons branch eastward away from town. There’s striated stone in shades of red. Some rock formations have been smoothed by the wind to look like wax drippings.”

  “It sounds beautiful,” Jessie said, trying to imagine it but realizing she could never come close unless she visited it.

  “Oh, it is. My people lived there for centuries before coming up to form Chinle.”

  “Bryant mentioned your town was overrun?”

  “That’s right,” Moe nodded.

  “How does that happen out in the desert?” Jessie shook her head. “I mean, who’s out there to do that?”

  “It all started with the FEMA camp.” Moe turned and leaned his back against the door. “They built it right outside our town. The military came to protect it. Then the refugees poured in from everywhere, overwhelming the camp quickly. And while the fungus wasn’t in the air, the refugees brought a lesser form of it with them. Throw in the meddling of a madman, and you have the current situation.”

  “A madman?”

  “A man named Carver,” Moe said, almost dejectedly. “He came in with the refugees. I even helped triage some of his folks. But as the camp slowly became overwhelmed, he worked in the background to undermine things. When the spores broke out in the general population, he took advantage of the situation and overthrew the commander. My people fled and hid in the canyons.”

  “That sounds awful.”

  He levelled a hard look at Jessie. “He purposefully infected my people, and that’s why I’m here.”

  She shook her head, her expression confused. “Why would he do that?”

  Moe shrugged. “Because we don’t accept him as our leader. He wants to consolidate us with his forces for when the real military arrive. He knows there will be a day of reckoning soon--”

  “And he doesn’t want your people still hanging around,” Jessie nodded. “You’re a threat to him.”

  “That’s right. I had to leave a non-military man in charge of our defenses. I put my sister in charge of the scavenging team.”

  “From what you told Bryant, scavenging is pretty dangerous business out there.”

  Moe nodded. “It is. And my sister has never driven a truck much less done any type of long hauling. She’ll have my eighteen-wheeler. I just hope they found easy pickings out there.”

  “And you can’t reach them because of the radio situation.” Jessie bit her lip, eyes staring at the stout figure as he spoke to her from the shadows.

  The Redpine lighting system reflected standard hours, growing brighter in the day and dimming slightly at night. It provided the residents with a sense of normalcy with no windows.

  “That’s right.” He shook his head. “I have no idea what’s happening there now. My sister could be in trouble.”

  “Or she could be hauling back tons of supplies.”

  “Let’s hope so,” he replied with a half-smile.

  “This Carver guy sounds like a real piece of work.”

  “Part of me hopes his camp will implode from the inside.”

  “That would be convenient.”

  “It would be,” Moe nodded thoughtfully. “But I won’t know anything until I get back home.” His expression shifted. “You are infected with Asphyxia, right?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And this serum has kept you alive for weeks?”

  Jessie nodded. “Kim and her other partners worked nonstop to develop it.” Her eyes fell to the floor. “Too bad Burke keeps killing all the smart people.”

  “This Burke sounds like a real piece of work.”

  “I’m sure he and Carver would have a lot to talk about.” She laughed. “Don’t worry, we’ll have enough serum and vaccine for you in a week, two tops. It won’t be long.”

  “I just hope my people can hold out.”

  Shouts and laughter erupted in the rec room. Jessie turned to see Bishop holding hands with Fiona as they danced out of the cafeteria with Kim and the others following.

  His massive form standing above the little girl had everyone laughing, and Jessie could tell by the way he grinned like an idiot that two beers had loosened him up considerably.

  Some kids clapped and laughed, drawn away from their game to watch the crazy adults have fun. Kim suddenly spun in a circle, swaying her hips as she moved into an open space on the floor.

  Melissa joined her, dancing stiffer than her friend but still grinning as she swung her arms and lifted her feet, almost like she was marching to the beat. The tan and pretty co-pilot, Specialist Hicks, skipped out to meet the women, throwing herself easily into the mix. She tossed her hair and threw her hands into the air, mouthing the words to the once popular song.

  The kids ate it up, all of them leaving their games. They spun in place, trying out a few moves of their own.

  A worried look crossed Jessie’s features, but she shrugged it off. These people hadn’t had any real fun in a month or more. And most had witnessed terrible tragedies. They’d fought their way through adversity, and they deserved to have fun.

  “You’re not dancing?” Moe asked.

  Jessie chuckled. “I’m not much of one for it.”

  “Neither am I.”

  Hicks grabbed Kim by the hand and performed a pirouette, high stepping as she ducked under the woman’s arm. She slewed sideways and almost crashed. At the last second, she got her feet under her and turned back toward the women, shaking her hips as if nothing had happened.

  Jessie laughed, stomach clenched as her eyes watered.

  Bryant attempted to join the women, but he had the rhythm of an ox. He stepped side-to-side almost timidly. He wasn’t the deadly fighter anymore, but a silly grizzly of a man.

  A moment later, someone called up a slow song on the speaker system. Bryant and Melissa fell together, swaying back and forth. Bishop and Kim did the same, only they each held one of Fiona’s little hands between them. Hicks spun and made a come-here gesture to Trainor with her finger. The Nordic-looking soldier took two big steps toward her and squeezed her to him with a laugh.

  The kids partnered up and mocked the adults. They fawned over themselves and made kissing sounds while giggling.

  Jessie’s eyes searched the crowd for Dex, then she remembered he had Burke duty. Still, she grinned to think she had someone to look for. With any luck, there’d be more dancing and revelry in the days to come. Yes, she could get used to nights like that.

  “May I have this dance?”

  Jessie turned in surprise. Moe was bent slightly at the waist with his hand held out in an elegant manner. She didn’t know if he was serious at first, but his half smile and the glint in
his eyes set her mind at ease.

  “Why not?” she said. She set her cup on a nearby table and placed her hand inside his, allowing him to lead her onto the dance floor.

  Chapter 32

  Waki, Winslow, Arizona

  She shifted down but popped the clutch too soon, causing the big Peterbilt engine to grind and almost stall. She tried again, jamming the shifter into the right slot and popping the clutch again. The transmission caught, and the rig lurched forward.

  Moe had been right. The added weight of their supplies made the rig feel like a lumbering beast. It swayed and shook, and none of the gears seemed correct.

  She checked her side mirrors and spotted Ron Stone in his Kenworth rig, pulling out of the North Park Plaza Shopping Center to fall in behind her. They’d found another truck at a Loman’s on the outskirts of town. While it was risky trying to get in and out with two semi’s, she’d decided to do it, anyway.

  She might not live to regret her decision.

  Waki grabbed the radio out of her lap and pressed it to her lips. “Stick with me, Ron. The I-40 exit is just ahead. Make sure you take the eastbound exit.”

  “Roger that,” came his reply.

  Getting into town hadn’t been too much of a problem. It was the getting out that worried her. They’d pulled into the shopping center in force, two rigs and a pair of pickups. Eighteen people, total. They’d met slight resistance, sending guards scattering before filling their trailers at the FedEx warehouse, the Family Saver, and an auto parts store where they picked up valuable truck and ATV parts.

  Only when they were ready to pull away did they see the line of dust rising in South Winslow. Josiah Cooper had climbed atop the trailer and confirmed Waki’s fears. The guards had returned with reinforcements, and that force was coming to defend their property in a hurry.

  She turned her rig onto the exit ramp and straightened it out. A glance in her side mirrors showed Ron pulling in behind her with Rex and his pickup trucks trailing.

  Josiah shifted in the passenger seat and leaned out the window, pointing his rifle barrel the other direction. “Maybe they won’t follow us east.”