“Dad said the weather’s different since the war.”
“They call it a nuclear winter. There’s a lot of debris and particles in the upper atmosphere; it blocks out some of the sun’s rays, something like that.”
“Do you really think my dad and brother are dead?” Michael asked, his tone turning somber.
“I don’t know if it was them or not, ’cause I’ve never seen them before, but I saw a young man about eighteen or so running from those men. He was…” She stopped herself from telling him the grisly details.
“He was what?”
“I saw him die, but like I said, I could be wrong, but I have a feeling I’m not.”
“I wish I knew,” Michael said.
“I do remember what they looked like. If you had…”
Michael took her hand and walked her out of the barn. They marched up the yard and into the house. He walked up to the fireplace in the living room and removed a photograph from the mantel. He handed it to her and said, “Chase is on the left and that’s my dad.” He pointed at Will on the right.
She recognized Chase but never saw the face of the man on the ground. “The young man I saw die, that was him right there.”
“And my dad?”
Brienne didn’t want to give him false hope, but she also couldn’t know for sure. “What did your dad wear? Did he have a dark green military-type jacket on?”
“I don’t know what he wore that night, but he does own one.”
Rustling came from the kitchen doorway. “Are you going to eat these eggs or not?” Tanya asked, her arms folded, telling them she was guarded and angry.
Brienne swung around and replied, “Yes, I was just chatting with Mike.”
“Good, because we don’t waste around here,” Tanya spat. She turned, but before going back into the kitchen, she said, “And his name isn’t Mike, it’s Michael.”
“Sorry,” Brienne said.
“It’s okay. I don’t mind Mike.”
“I think your mom probably wants me to leave soon,” Brienne said.
“I don’t want you to go just yet. Please stay.”
“I’m really sorry about Chase and your dad.”
Michael put the photograph back and said, “Chase was hard on me, but I know deep down he loved me.”
Tanya appeared again and said, “Michael, go take Nana her lunch.”
“Yes, Mom,” Michael said. He rushed off.
“I’d like to talk with you,” Tanya said. She motioned to the side door.
The two exited the house.
Tanya leaned against the porch railing. Her eyes were red and swollen from endless fits of crying. Her once strong eyes now told of pain and sorrow. “When will you be leaving?” she asked.
“As soon as you want me to leave,” Brienne answered.
Tanya looked up and said, “Don’t make sense for you to leave at midday, but if you could be gone by early morning tomorrow, that would be great.”
“Can I get the food and water promised?”
“You’ll get what’s due for bringing back my boy. But let me tell you something, the nerve of you to come into my home and just blurt out that my husband and oldest are dead is vile, grotesque and lacks any sense of decorum.”
“I wasn’t trying to offend anyone. I thought you should know,” Brienne said defensively.
“You could have pulled me aside, but you didn’t. You rolled in and made it a damn announcement. Now my mother-in-law is distraught and my baby boy is struggling.”
“I mean no disrespect, but if what I said is debilitating, then you have no idea what’s going on out in the world now.”
Tanya’s eyes widened with anger. “How dare you speak to me like that in my own home.”
“Like I said, I don’t mean any disrespect, but the world isn’t a nice and pleasant place where you have the luxury of being offended by words. People are literally eating one another out there.”
Tears welled up in Tanya’s eyes. She pointed her finger at Brienne and barked, “Tomorrow morning, first light, you’re gone.” She turned and raced back into the house. “And eat your damn eggs before I do!”
Brienne sighed. “Maybe this little house on the prairie isn’t so pleasant after all.”
ONE MILE SOUTH OF SANTA ROSA, NEW MEXICO
Reid came to, but this time he wasn’t just in a different room; he had the means of escape tucked into his pocket. His hands were bound like before to the frame of a bed, but were next to his body and within reach of his front pocket, where he had tucked the pair of surgical scissors. He twisted his hand, slipped two fingers into his pocket, and pulled out the scissors. He carefully manipulated them, ensuring he didn’t drop them, until he was able to begin cutting the leather bindings. He wasn’t sure how long he had to cut, adding to his anxiety. It wasn’t his life he was concerned about, it was Hannah’s. Hillary might be trying to help mankind, but she was doing so at the risk of Hannah’s life. Being used as a science experiment wasn’t what Reid had had in mind when he set out on this journey.
He cut the last part of the binding and pulled his arm out. He removed his other restraints, hopped out of the bed, and went to the door. He placed his ear against it and listened, but heard no one.
A cry sounded from the other room, jolting him. It was a woman, no doubt the young woman he’d seen strapped down like him. He began to wonder how many people had been Hillary’s hapless victims over the years. How many had she taken prisoner only to kill them by experimenting on them? He didn’t know, but if he, Hannah and the woman equaled three in the matter of a day and a half, that number could be large when stretched out over eight years.
He cracked open the door. He didn’t see anyone, but by the amount of natural light coming in from the end of the hallway, it wasn’t that late, meaning he hadn’t been unconscious for all that long.
The woman cried out again, “Someone help me, please!”
“Where are you, Marvin?” Reid asked himself.
“Help me, please!” the woman begged.
Reid clutched the scissors, took a deep breath, and stepped into the hallway. He turned down the hall towards Hannah’s room without incident. He threw open the door to find Hannah sitting upright, with Hillary injecting something into her IV. “Just stop what you’re doing.”
Hillary shot Reid a look and said, “Again?”
Reid held the scissors out like a knife and seethed, “Step away from my daughter.”
She did as he ordered. Her glance shifted to something over Reid’s shoulder.
Seeing her look, Reid suddenly felt a presence, but this time he was prepared. He stepped aside, pivoted and swung the scissors.
Marvin was there with a devilish smile on his face; however, he wasn’t expecting Reid’s swift move. Unprepared for Reid’s action, he stood and let the scissors plunge into his neck. Startled, he moaned as he saw the blood pouring down his shirt. “Mama,” he cried out, “the man hurt me.”
Reid was stunned in a way at what he’d done, then quickly overcame his shock, pulled the scissors out, and again stabbed Marvin in the neck near the same spot.
Marvin reeled back, blood now spirting from the wounds. He lost his footing and slipped on the bloody floor.
Hillary wailed in grief and rushed to Marvin. “My baby, no!”
Still armed with the scissors, Reid grabbed Hillary and wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her close. He placed the scissors against her throat and said, “Where are my belongings?”
“I’m not telling you anything,” Hillary spat.
“I’ll cut your fucking throat,” he warned.
“I don’t care what you do to me,” she fired back. She looked down at Marvin lying in a pool of his own blood, his body flinching. “You killed my baby boy.”
“Where are my things?”
“Kill me, go ahead,” Hillary said.
“Daddy, don’t,” Hannah pleaded.
Reid looked at Hannah. “But she—”
�
�She’s trying to save my life,” Hannah said.
“You should have listened to your daughter from the get-go. Now look at what you’ve done,” Hillary snapped.
“You kidnap people and experiment on them,” Reid growled.
The woman down the hall screamed again.
“Listen to her, Hannah. There’s another prisoner just down there she’s testing her drugs on,” Reid argued.
“But—” Hannah said before she was interrupted.
“You’re wrong, Hannah, she’s killed people.” He turned back to Hillary and asked, “How many people have you murdered? Tell her.”
“Hundreds, and I’d experiment on twice that, hell, ten times that if I could cure what has killed millions. You’re looking at the small picture,” Hillary preached.
“Daddy, don’t, please,” Hannah begged.
Reid gave Hannah a look and was about to protest when he decided he was wasting time. He dragged Hillary to the side, where he saw restraints dangling. “Put that on.”
“No,” she said defiantly.
“Do it!” Reid barked.
Hannah reached out and touched Hillary’s arm. “Please do it.”
Hillary stopped resisting. She put the restraint on her left wrist.
With her temporarily restrained, Reid took the other restraint, removed it from the bed frame, and walked back over to Hillary. He took her right arm and secured that a foot apart from her left arm.
“Thank you, Daddy,” Hannah said.
He pocketed the scissors, removed the IV from Hannah’s arm, and scooped her up in his arms. He gave Hillary a last look and asked, “Where’s my belongings, my fob for the car, all of it?”
Knowing she was defeated, she sneered, “I’ll tell you, but you need to shoot me. I don’t want to live without my baby boy.”
Frustrated with her resistance, he carefully stepped over Marvin’s dead body and out the door. He went straight to Hillary’s office and set Hannah down in a chair.
After a quick search of her desk, he found nothing. “Damn it.”
“Daddy, I think our stuff might be in another room,” Hannah said.
“You know where our things are?” Reid asked, surprised.
“When they brought me here, they also took our stuff into a room that way,” she said, pointing in the direction of the front of the building.
He promptly picked her up and swooped down the hall.
“Here,” she said, pointing to a door on the right.
Behind them he heard the woman cry out. “Help me, please.”
“Daddy, we can’t leave that woman,” Hannah said.
“We don’t have time,” Reid said, going into the room she’d pointed out. When he opened the door, he found a room stacked tall on all sides with boxes, all were marked by year. In the center of the room were piles of clothes, gear, equipment, weapons, and an assortment of people’s personal belongings. Sitting on a table near the front, Reid spotted their things, including the fob to the car. “Yes,” he yelped in joy.
“Can we now go help that woman?” Hannah asked.
He paused and looked at her. “You care more about other people than yourself?”
“If everyone helped everyone else, none of what happened would have happened,” she replied.
Reid stared upon Hannah’s weakened state. Her face was growing gaunt and her skin was ashen. When the bloody eyes were added in, she looked terrible. “How did you become so wise?”
“You taught me,” she said softly. She could feel her body growing weaker.
“I’m going to set you down back in Hillary’s office and drop you off. From there I’m going to go find the car, load it up and get you set inside; then I’ll go let that woman go,” Reid said. “Deal?”
“Deal,” Hannah said.
Reid went and did exactly as he said. The car was easy to find. Hillary had it parked in front of the office building that masqueraded as her medical laboratory. He packed the car with his gear plus extra weapons, food and water that he’d taken from the storeroom. He got behind the wheel to confirm the car was able to drive and was charged. He turned it on and watched as the screen showed the car was fully charged with a range of just under four hundred miles. “Yes!” he hollered happily. “Finally something worked out smoothly.” He was referring to Arthur’s theory that the car could recharge itself if allowed to get sunlight. Confident that he could get on his way, he left the car and ran back inside.
He stopped at the office and found Hannah resting, her eyes closed. He had one last thing to do: let the woman loose. He went to room four and turned the knob. He pushed it open to find the young woman awake. She lifted her head and said, “Don’t hurt me, please.”
Reid looked at her and instantly felt regret that his instinct had told him to just leave her. It was as if Hannah was operating as his conscience. “I was a prisoner like you. I won’t hurt you.” He raced to her side, his knife in his hand, and cut her bindings.
She grabbed her wrists and began to rub them.
Reid cut her legs loose and said, “You’ll find your stuff on the right, last door on the right.”
“Thank you,” she said. She threw her arms around his neck. “You saved me. I’m so grateful.”
“You’ll need to thank my daughter for that, not me,” Reid said. He turned and raced from the room. He stopped just outside the office door when he heard the distinct click of a revolver. He snapped his head in the direction of the sound and saw Hillary standing at the end of the hallway, her revolver in her hand.
“You forgot to check to see if I was armed,” Hillary said.
Reid was now armed, his pistol in a holster on his side. “Just let us go. You’ve done your test; it’s over.”
The young woman exited the room and saw Hillary standing feet from her. She gasped and leapt back into the room from which she came.
“I’m not going to hurt you; you go. Just know that I did this all for the greater good. Whatever evil you think I’ve done is justified when compared to the lives I could save. If your daughter is saved by what I gave you, look for her eyes to change back first. She’s in day three now and I’m afraid to say past any hope for her body to be immune. In my office you’ll find a safe. That’s where everything is, my journals, data, everything I’ve done to help make what wrong I did right. The code is eight two eight seven. In there you’ll also find a vial; give her a booster in two days, that’s equal to half a syringe, you’ll find them in there too.”
“I don’t think so,” Reid said.
“Mr. Flynn, what do you have to lose now? Give her the booster,” Hillary urged.
He nodded.
“If she doesn’t die, it’s because of what I’ve done for her; remember that,” she said and put the pistol to her temple. “If she lives, those journals and all the data I’ve compiled will help others recreate that serum. It can save the world from that horrible disease.” She pulled the trigger. In an instant she dropped dead to the floor.
The young woman slowly emerged from her room and looked down at Hillary’s body sprawled on the floor, a pool of blood encircling her head. “She killed herself?”
“Yeah,” Reid replied. “Don’t forget, your stuff is down there.” He pointed behind him to the storeroom.
He went to pick Hannah up, then recalled Hillary had talked about a booster shot. He paused several times as he thought about getting it, his mind spinning with the possibility that Hillary’s drugs might work. He searched the office, found the safe, and opened it using the code she’d given him. Inside were journals stacked up alongside a pile of Polaroid photos. He looked at a few and saw they were pictures of people. At the bottom of the photographs, written in red ink, were numbers. He found a photograph of Hannah; at the bottom it was labeled #1913. He cringed at the thought she’d killed that many people in her quest to find a cure. He tossed aside the photographs and reached further in to grab a vial with the handwritten words TEST BATCH T-36, and the syringes that were sitting next
to it. This had to be the booster, as there was nothing else in the safe. He put it in his pocket, swung back to Hannah, scooped her up, and raced out of the room towards the exit.
The young woman was now outside looking around. “It’s not here, it’s not here.”
Reid didn’t pay much attention. He put Hannah in the passenger seat and ran around to the driver’s door.
“It’s not here. Where is it?” she howled.
Reid stopped and asked, “What are you looking for?”
“My ride, it’s gone,” she said, her tone sounding defeated. “How will I get there now?”
Reid watched her pace. He understood how it must feel for her. She was young, alone and without her vehicle. “Where were you headed?”
“Mexico, Baja more specifically,” she replied.
He was torn as to what to do. She seemed innocent enough, but he had a car, she didn’t. Could she be a threat, or was she just someone in need and he could help? So many questions, so many decisions and not a lot of time. So far he’d found himself batting five hundred, with Kaitlyn helping him and Hillary using him and Hannah. Figuring it would be nice to have another driver to help push the distance he could go, and with time running short, he gave in and said, “I’m going to Southern California. You can ride with me there, then find another way south.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, her eyes wide with joy that she’d found a way to keep going. “You’re not a bad person, are you?”
“I’m not going to stand around convincing you I’m a good guy. I’m offering you a ride; you either want to go or not. But hurry up, ’cause I’m leaving in less than a minute.”
“I want to go.”
“But I need to tell you, my daughter is sick with the dog flu, so ride at your own risk,” he warned.
“I’ve been infected before; I’ll be fine. I’m immune now, they say.”
He opened the rear passenger door and said, “Hop in.”
Seven Days: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel Page 15
