Escape From Metro City

by Mandel, Richard

  "Si," Raul said, still looking down and still offering his weapons to him.

  Ryan looked at the soldier. "Take this man's weapons, soldier. Also take his ammo too. He doesn't need them anymore."

  "Yes, sir," the soldier said. Raul handed both rifle and pistol to the soldier, then took off his ammo-filled MCPD rucksack and handed it over as well. When it was done, the soldier turned back to face Ryan. "What shall I do with these, sir?"

  "Put them with our own stores for now. I'll decide what to do with them later."

  "Yes, sir." With that the soldier left.

  Ryan again looked at Lisa's car keys, and then at Raul. The Mexican illegal was looking back at him, his face half full of expectation and half full of fear. Ryan chuckled. "You know, as the senior military officer in charge of the quarantine, I should be taking you in so we can turn you back over to INS."

  "Si," Raul replied with a gulp.

  "However," Ryan continued, "I'm not going to do that just yet. You were a big help to your fellow survivors, and you can be a big help to me now. We're about to saddle up and move back out so we can go clear out the town, and if my information is correct, then I need you to come along with us for a special job for which almost all the rest of my people and Colonel McKeegan's here are going to be too busy to do. I need them more for this op than for this little special job." He now offered the car keys to Ryan. "I want you to retrieve Ms. Stanridge's car for me. Can you drive?"

  A surprised Raul looked at the keys, then up at Ryan. "Si, senor!" he exclaimed with a grin.

  Ryan looked pleased. "Then that'll be your job, if it's still in any shape to be retrieved given the time that's passed. If it's not drivable but is still in good shape, let my people know and I'll arrange for a flatbed and crane to come get it. I want you to keep an eye on it from the time we get to it and you get it out of there until either we're done with this op and can come back to help you, or other federal authorities show up to take over in your place. Take it to my field headquarters outside the quarantine zone, and then park both it and you there until either of those happen. My people can show you the way." He now gave a chuckle and a grin. "That'll keep you out of the hands of the INS for a while longer. I owe you that much for doing your best to help Corporal Rappalo protect Ms. Stanridge against that thing. Can you do that for me, Mr. Esteban?"

  Raul face now filled with pride. "Si, General sir!" he exclaimed.

  "And no hot-rodding," Ryan added, still grinning as he handed over the keys.

  "Si!"

  It took General Ryan's forces about two weeks to clean out almost all forms of the undead, both human and animal, from Metro City and all of the surrounding countryside within the quarantine zone. By the time they were done, the decision had already been made by authorities much higher in the chain of command that Metro City would have to be destroyed as well. That took much longer, but eventually the entire city along with every human construction within the quarantine zone was decontaminated and razed to the ground in the months that followed. What few undead remained hiding in the city's abandoned buildings were destroyed at this time, and eventually what few remained in the surrounding countryside were hunted down and also destroyed by the end of the year. As for the former site of Metro City, even U.S. Highway 9 and other major federal and state roads which had previously run through the city were rerouted around its former site, and forests planted or in some cases transplanted to the appropriate places so that it could not be seen from the rerouted thoroughfares. At the end of this process, what few remaining bits of rubble and detria indicating that Metro City had ever existed save one were knocked down and bulldozed over, so that when all was done almost nothing was left on the site, resulting in an open plain covering about a hundred and twenty square miles.

  The site where Metro City had once stood was claimed by the federal government as a protected reservation, with no opposition from state or local authorities on the matter. It was subsequently fenced off from pubic access and no visitors were allowed under any conditions, save for the occasional survey team to check up on the site every few months. Only one thing remained to remind people of what had once been there, aside from the security fence and warning signs against trespassing that were posted at regular intervals around its full circuit. Along the slowly deteriorating remains of the paved multi-lane road that had once been the southern end of U.S. Highway 9 going out of Metro City, one of the old city limits signs had been left in place. It was the only thing remaining of Metro City, and it had been left there as a memorial of sorts to the memories of both the city itself and those who had lived and died there. It could be seen at a distance from the gate in the security fence on that end of the former site of Metro City, if one cared to go there and bring a pair of binoculars with them, and its legend could still be read for years to come: WELCOME TO / METRO CITY / POPULATION 76,379. Rather, that is what it read before the Outbreak happened. One could still see the faded red spray paint that someone had used at the time to spray out the population number, then add a single word in red in the bottom right corner of the sign so that it would read POPULATION UNDEAD.

  There came a day just over a month after her dramatic rescue from Metro City, when Lisa Stanridge was sitting propped up on the adjustable bed in her room at nearby Kramerville Memorial Hospital, and visiting with both Cy and her mother Nancy Stanridge. Lisa still had hard casts on her upper left arm, around her chest, and around her left leg at the knee, for her broken bones and her ribs were still healing. Initial surgery had been performed on her left knee to clean out pieces of broken bone and to prepare it for her total knee replacement surgery, but that was still in the not-too-distant future. There had also been other operations to properly set her broken ribs and reset her broken arm, so Lisa had spent most of the past month either unconscious or heavily sedated. The cast would be coming off her broken arm in about three more weeks. It would be two more months, give or take a week or two, before her reset broken ribs would heal completely. Also, both her regular doctor and the surgeon who was to replace her knee had informed Lisa that it would probably be four to six months after that surgery before she could even try to walk normally again. Finally, Lisa had a black eye patch over her left eye socket. She had lost that eye permanently due to what had happened, and she would be stuck with only one eye for the rest of her life, provided nothing else happened to her. "I'm just glad to be alive," she had told Cy and her mother as they visited. "It's going to take a while for me to get back up on my feet, but rest assured I will."

  "I don't doubt it," her mother said with a smile. "You're like your dad in that. Both of you were always so stubborn." She then looked sad and fell silent.

  Lisa reached out with her right hand towards her mother. Nancy took her hand and clasped it in both of her own. "Tell me, if you don't mind," Lisa said quietly. "How did Dad die?"

  "He died protecting me," Nancy said, her face filling with a sorrowful look. "When we figured out what was going on, your father immediately put me into the storm cellar and had me bar the door from the inside. After that, he stayed up there, knowing that the zombies were coming and determined to make sure they couldn't ever get me." She made a sound somewhere between a sad laugh and a choked-back half-sob. "He gave them hell."

  "I'll bet he did," Lisa said reassuringly, playing her thumb across one of her mother's clasped hands.

  Nancy now managed a laugh despite her sorrow. "You know, when the Army finally showed up and rescued me, there were literally piles of zombie bodies around the farm and in front of the storm cellar's outer door. He gave them everything he had with everything he had available." She now looked sad again. "All they found were parts of him. The zombies ... they must have torn him apart at the end." It was all she could do to keep from crying. "I'll miss him ... and Randy too."

  "Oh, Mom," Lisa said, squeezing her mother's clasped hands with her own.

  "Sounds like your Dad was one helluva man," Cy said quietly from his spot beside Nancy. "I can se
e where you got your own determination and courage, Lisa."

  "I was just doing like you, Cy," Lisa replied. "I was doing what I had to do in order to survive." She now gave a soft laugh. "I never knew I was going to hook up with you ..." and with this she gave him a heartfelt look, "... but I'm glad I did."

  "Same here, Lisa," Cy replied tenderly.

  Nancy looked at Cy, then at her daughter, then back at Cy again. She let go of Lisa's right hand with one of her own, and used the other to lift up Lisa's hand towards Cy. "Maybe you should be holding this instead of me," she said, as a smile returned to her face.

  "No, you're her mother," Cy insisted. "I'll wait my turn, ma'am."

  Everyone laughed at that. When they were done, Lisa pulled her hand back and gave Cy a look. "As long as we're speaking of turns, have you had any fun with those CDC people like I've been having? I swear, if they draw one more blood sample from me, then I'm going to shrivel up and blow away."

  "No, not as much, but I've had my share of time with them too," Cy admitted. "So has Raul."

  "Raul?!" Lisa exclaimed. "I was wondering what happened to him. I've been thinking that the INS got him once he got out of there and promptly hauled his ass back to Mexico, given that nobody's talked about him until now."

  "Well, he's still here," Cy said, "although he's in detention. Not with the INS, though," he continued, as Lisa cocked an eyebrow and Nancy listened. "General Ryan got him when he came back out of Metro City, and he's kept him under the Army's care up until now. Says he's a hero for helping me to save you despite his illegal status, and so does the press. There's a lot of negotiating going on about him at higher levels right now, or so I understand, but for now he's not going back to Mexico." He chuckled. "They're keeping him over at Fort Bowden until they make up their minds. I got to visit him last week. He says it's the most comfortable jail he's ever been in. He also says he hasn't made up his mind on what he's going to do once the higher-ups finally make a decision on him, but he assured me that he's going to have one heck of a story to share with his family back in Guadalajara whenever he gets a chance to go back and visit with them."

  "Well, I hope they'll let him stay," Lisa said, "or even make him a citizen. He didn't have to help us, or do his best to save me after I was attacked, and yet he did. They owe him for that. I know I do."

  "That's exactly what General Ryan said," Cy agreed. "That's part of the reason why he kept him in the Army's custody, and wouldn't let INS have him."

  "That's good," Lisa said. She fell silent, looking at her mother, then did a double-take and looked at Cy again. "Part of the reason?"

  "Well you see ..." Cy began, but he never finished due to a knock at the door.

  "May I come in?" a male voice announced.

  "Certainly, Dr. Phillips," Lisa called out. "Come on in!" She gave Cy a quick look. "We'll talk about this more later," she said quietly.

  "Uh-oh," Nancy said with a knowing grin, right before the door opened and Dr. Phillips entered the room. "You're in trouble now, Cy," she added in a low voice. Cy merely grinned back in reply.

  Dr. Harold Phillips was a handsome man of late middle age, with a head full of pepper-colored hair and penetrating brown eyes set behind a pair of thin round wire frame glasses. He wore the traditional doctor's long lab coat over his dress shirt and slacks, with dress shoes to match; however, he wore a plaid bowtie instead of a regular tie. "Hello, folks," he said cheerfully as he approached, "and hello to my most attractive patient today."

  "Thank you, Dr. Phillips," Lisa replied pleasantly. "Flattery will get you everywhere."

  "Yes, I know," Dr. Phillips replied confidently. "Now let's get your checkup over with, and then I can visit just like your mom and boyfriend are doing."

  "Doctor!' Lisa exclaimed, but her eyes twinkled as she did. Cy looked embarrassed. Nancy smiled knowingly but said nothing.

  The examination was a routine one and was over in about ten minutes. The first thing the good doctor did was check her pulse. He then pulled a ophthalamoscope from one lab coat pocket and used it to check her right eye. When that was done he put it back and pulled an otoscope from his other lab coat pocket and used it to check both of her ears. Once that was done he put it back, set up the stethescope he had been wearing around his neck in traditional fashion, and then helped her to sit up fully before he used it to both listen to Lisa's heart and to check her breathing as much as the cast around her side would permit. After that he motioned for her to relax and resume her semi-reclined position on her propped-up bed while he made some notes on the chart on the clipboard at its foot. He talked as he wrote, hanging it up once he was done and then returning to her side beside Nancy, opposite of Cy. "Excellent, excellent. Your recovery is proceeding normally. In fact, if it weren't for procedure and all that, I'd turn you over to Dr. Watkins for your replacement knee surgery today, but you know how it goes."

  Lisa nodded. "Everything in its right time, doctor. I've waited this long. I can wait some more."

  Dr. Phillips nodded back. "That's the spirit." He now frowned, but pleasantly. "I still wish you'd change your mind about reconstructive surgery for that left eye socket of yours."

  "Thanks but no thanks, doctor," Lisa said firmly. "We've already discussed this. No reconstructive surgery. As I said at the time, this ..." and with that she motioned with her right hand towards her new eye patch, "... is now part of me. It defines who I am and what I've become. Not a victim, not someone to run around and hold an eternal pity party, but a survivor. It's a symbol of what happened to me, and a reminder to others that it could still happen again, despite what they found in my blood to help prevent it, unless we act to keep it from happening again. You know what I'm saying?"

  Nancy Stanridge looked on her daughter with pride. Cy was doing the same. Lisa now held out her hand to him, and it was his turn to clasp it firmly and smile at her, and she at him. After a few seconds of this, Dr. Phillips spoke. "Okay. I won't bring up the subject again. I don't agree with your decision, but I understand from where you're coming and I'll respect it."

  "Thank you, doctor," Lisa said, looking at him as she did.

  Dr. Phillips now smiled mischievously at her. "By the way, you've got more visitors outside, and those folks from the CDC are back again."

  "Oh, God," Lisa said, rolling her eye in mock horror. "Doctor, please."

  "Fortunately they're not here for more blood samples this time," Dr. Phillips said with a chuckle. "They just want to go over the story of your Outbreak adventure again with you, to talk about you and the special capabilities in your blood, and how that's going to affect you and your surviving family, as well as discuss any possible future plans involving you, and all of that."

  "Can I see the other visitors first?" Lisa asked. "Please?"

  "I haven't even told you who they are yet," Dr. Phillips said with a smile.

  "I'd rather not deal with the CDC people again today, thank you very much," Lisa said crossly, pretending to be irritated. "If that's why they're here, then I want them to come back when I'm in the right frame of mind to give them a good piece of my mind." She now changed tone and spoke politely. "I'll take the mystery guests behind Door Number 2. Could you show the others in please, doctor, and tell that CDC bunch to come back another time?"

  "That I will," Dr. Phillips said. He waved at Lisa. "Until next time, young lady."

  "Until then," Lisa said. She, Cy, and her mother watched as Dr. Phillips turned, went to the door, and let himself out.

  "I wonder who those other people are who want to see me," Lisa said. "I know the government's been shooing away the press, thank God, and they wouldn't have let anybody else in here unless it was official business or ..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at her mother. "Do you know?"

  Nancy Stanridge grinned at her daughter. "It's a surprise," she said.

  Lisa was about to respond when another knock came at the door. "Come on in," Nancy called, before Lisa could say anything.

  The door opened
and three people came into Lisa's hospital room. There was one man and two women, all of whom were in their sixties, judging from their apparent age. The man was still physically imposing despite his age and full head of off-white hair, and he was a full head taller than the small but still attractive older woman with close-cropped auburn hair shot through with grey who remained close to him. A little apart from them both was another older woman with medium length red hair done up in a small bun and likewise shot through with grey. She was still attractive for her age, although her face was marred by a mid-length scar that ran from the left side of her eye ridge down her left temple. She wore a short-sleeved dress, and Lisa could see that her arms were scarred as well. All of this she took in at a glance, because her face lit up as she recognized the older man and his petite companion. "Grandma and Grandpa Zimmerman!" she exclaimed happily.

  "Howya doin', kid?" Jimmy Zimmerman said as he and his wife Clarissa took a place on the opposite side of Lisa's bed from Nancy and Cy, along with the older woman who had come in with them.

  "I've been better," Lisa admitted.

  "I hear you've had quite the adventure in Metro City," Clarissa Zimmerman said.

  "Not as much as the one Grandpa had during the war," Lisa said, and with that she turned to him. There was a look on her face that was hard to describe as she spoke. "I now know what you did back then, Grandpa. Mercy told me about it before she was killed. I had no idea. You're a hero, you know? A real hero, and you never said a word."

  "I couldn't," Jimmy admitted. "I was sworn to secrecy and all that. Had the world known what we went through, and what almost happened, well ..." He let his voice trail off as he took a long look at the still-recovering Lisa. "You're a hero too, you know."

  "Oh, I'm nobody," Lisa said quietly. "I'm just a former stock car racer who got caught in a zombie apocalypse and had to do whatever it took to survive."