The Eliminators | Volume 3

by Druga, Jacqueline

  “Who?” Yates asked.

  “Don’t get her started.” Rigs stated. “At least Kasper is too slow to jump in.”

  Rachel inhaled sharply. “So now he has a physical deformity and mental limits.”

  “Oh my God,” Rigs faced Yates. “I told you not to get them started.”

  “Me?” Yates asked. “I merely questioned who this Murphy was.”

  “Dude!”

  Rigs eyes widened. Kasper’s blurting of the single word was too normal sounding.

  “Dude, Murphy — Z Nation.”

  “Yes.” Rachel nodded. “You’re Murphy. Admittedly, I stopped watching. They jumped the shark with the tornado.”

  “Ha!” Kasper laughed once loudly. “Funny. Shark. Tornado.”

  Both Kasper and Rachel said at the same time. “Sharknado!”

  Kasper shook his head. “You jumped too soon. You never seen the full Murphy story, did you?”

  “Admittedly no.”

  “I’ll fill you in.”

  “Are you two done?” Yates asked.

  “No. Probably not,” Rachel answered.

  “That’s what I thought.” Yates walked toward the front. “I’m driving.”

  “Hey!” Rigs followed him.

  Rachel smiled. “It’s good to have you back, Kasper.”

  Kasper returned the smile. “It’s good to be back.”

  TEN – LEFT FIELD

  Some sort of Billy Joel song converted into elevator style, piped through the building’s speakers. Most of the residents really didn’t notice, or hear it, but Barry did. He honed in almost immediately when he arrived after having his leg set and saying goodbye to the team.

  To say he was grumpy was a massive understatement.

  Barry couldn’t walk, they wouldn’t allow him to use crutches. The only good news to come out of his orthopedic appointment was the doctor said ten days would suffice and he could use the crutches. By then, hopefully, the team would be back.

  For the moment he was stuck at Resting Meadows Retirement home. They had slapped on a fancy name, but it was still only a nursing home. They had nurses, health aides, and even a floor dedicated to memory care where they locked those folks in.

  Everyone there had been moved from another facility or deemed too old to take care of themselves.

  Liz told him it was a way for the older generation not to worry.

  At least it was nicer than the last place they tried to put him. That place had fake leather chairs lined up in a room that was converted from a sitting room, to a dining area and activities area.

  Resting Meadows looked a little like a hotel. A dining room, a separate sitting room with really nice chairs and a television.

  His room still looked too much like a hospital room, with a handicap equipped bathroom. But Sandy’s room looked homier, even with the disguised hospital bed.

  He was waiting on Sandy, who again went to Starbucks. She truly was taking advantage of the Eliminator free drink perk.

  The health aide wheeled him into the television room. The TV was mounted on the wall and Pretty Woman was showing.

  “Would you like to sit near the television Mr. Bick?” the aide asked. She spoke to him like he was a child. “Or are we hungry for a snack.”

  “No, snack. No green jello.”

  She giggled. “We don’t have green jello until Thursdays.”

  “Swell.”

  Then he noticed him. He could tell, or at least it looked it, that the man in front of the television in a wheelchair was younger. Younger than Barry. A woman who sat next to the younger man had white hair, with that bed head look in the back. All pushed up from laying down.

  “You know what?” Barry said. “I’ll go near the TV.”

  “Perfect.”

  Barry figured misery loved company and surely if Barry hated being there and thought he was too young, so did the guy in front of the TV.

  When the aide rolled him into position and locked the brakes, Barry saw he was correct.

  The man was young, maybe thirty years old tops.

  “Enjoying Pretty Woman?” Barry asked. He gave the man a once over, he was missing a left leg from the knee down.

  “Agnes wants to watch it.” He pointed to the woman next to him.

  “It’s a good film,” Agnes said. “Richard Gere is hot.”

  “I’m sure,” Barry said. “But he’s dead now you know.”

  “No, I don’t,” she snapped.

  Barry turned to the man and extended his hand. “I’m Barry.”

  “Lance,” he replied.

  “Nice to meet you.”

  “And I’m here as well,” said Agnes.

  “Ma’am,” Barry nodded. “So …” he glanced at Lance. “I take it your injury is why you’re here.”

  “Yeah. They have therapy here. Hopefully, in time I can go back out again,” he replied.

  “What do you mean?” Barry asked.

  “I’m an Eliminator.”

  “No shit, so am I,” said Barry. “A freak accident on duty is how I broke a leg.”

  “Being old is how you broke your leg,” Agnes quipped.

  Lance laughed. “I was bit on the ankle. They amputated yesterday.”

  “Sorry about that,” Barry said.

  “Hey, I’m alive and I hear they have a cool prosthetic program started.”

  “That sounds great,” Barry said. “And I have to tell you. I am really glad to see you here. Someone younger to talk to.” He looked over at Agnes when she laughed. “What?”

  “You act like you’re young,” she said.

  “Younger than you,” Barry retorted.

  “Not by much.”

  Barry smiled. With a fellow Eliminator and a sassy older woman, things were going to be a lot more interesting than he had thought. At least he wouldn’t be staring out a window all day.

  <><><><>

  They were nearly through the state of Ohio and Yates was still driving. Rigs was pretty certain he wasn’t giving it up.

  Everyone stayed near Yates to keep the conversation going.

  “Thinking about this,” Yates said. “It just hit me.”

  “What’s that?” Rigs asked.

  “This mission, right? We’re headed to some small Illinois town to get people who have survived pretty decently out there. In fact, they started their own survivor camp. A small town way out near Iowa, a tourist town, where people gathered …”

  “Yates,” Rigs cut him off. “Get to the point.”

  “They aren’t overrun …”

  “Yates.”

  “Okay. Okay. All because some doctor has a cure. Or a highly probable cure.”

  Rigs nodded. “That’s right. What is your point?”

  “Did anyone stop to think, if she was working on this cure, where the hell in Galena Illinois is she finding a lab, high tech enough to work on a virus?"

  Silence.

  “Holy shit,” Rachel said. “That’s a valid point.”

  “Dude.”

  Yates looked in the rearview mirror to Rigs. “What do you think?"

  “Nothing right now, but you have me thinking.”

  “I know,” Zeus said. “Maybe she found a meth lab.”

  “Did you just say … a meth lab?” Yates asked.

  “I did.”

  “You said a meth lab,” Yates stated. “The man who is almost an equal match for me in chess suggests a meth lab.”

  “You asked about a lab.”

  “Do you honestly think she’s curing a virus in a meth lab?” Yates asked.

  “You never know.”

  “I can pretty much say with all certainty that isn’t happening.” Yates said.

  “So, dude,” Kasper spoke up. “Do … do you th-think she’s lying.”

  “I think something is up.”

  “Hating to agree with Yates,” Rigs said. “He brought up a valid point.”

  “But it makes … sense,” Kasper said. “It’s the apocalypse. Anything t
o make it a road trip.”

  “Oh!” Rachel blurted out. “You are so right.”

  “What?” Yates asked. “What is he right about?’

  Rachel answered. “Every apocalypse story or almost every apocalypse story is a road trip story.”

  “No.” Yates shook his head.

  “Yeah, name an apocalypse movie that isn’t technically a road trip,” Rachel said. “Where the story doesn’t involve the characters going somewhere as part of the story line.”

  “World War Z,” Rigs said.

  “Road trip,” Rachel said. “I mean truest form of road trip.”

  Yates guessed. “Armageddon.”

  “Road trip.”

  “How?”

  Kasper explained. “They went on a spaceship.”

  “I got one,” Zeus said. “The road.”

  “Really?” Yates snapped. “The road? Remind me to never assume someone is intelligent because they play a good game of chess.”

  “Dude, don’t make fun of our strong man,” Kasper said. “Technically The Road isn’t a road movie.”

  “What?” Yates blasted.

  “See,” Zeus said. “I knew it.”

  “No it’s a road movie,” Yates argued. “It’s called The Road. Because they are on the road.” He noticed Kasper ‘trying’ not to laugh. “Kasper is just being an asshole.”

  Rigs snapped his finger. “I got it.” He nodded arrogantly. “Night of the Living Dead. Go on, Rach, how is that a road movie?”

  “Because they … they …” Rachel stammered. “They were on the road when they all met up.”

  “No.” Rigs laughed. “It’s not and you know it.”

  “Rach,” Kasper interjected. “He’s r-right.”

  Rachel exhaled. “Fine, he named one, but that will be the only one he can name. And Kasp, I am so impressed at how well you’re talking. Dr. Stevens said it would come back.”

  “I still st-stutter, at times.”

  “Was that real?” Rigs asked. “Did you just stutter or were you making a point?”

  Rachel spun and faced Rigs. “Are you making fun of his speech impediment now? What’s next, his glaucoma?”

  “My mother had glaucoma,” Zeus said. “Early, too, when she was young.”

  “You know what?” Rigs said, “I quit. I’m going to go in the back and work on learning more about the EPEV, so when we arrive in this tourist town, to get this supposed cure, we’re ready in case they actually are over run! Which … makes no sense. If you think about it. Why would they send us out to get them when St. Louis Command is closer?”

  “To kill Yates,” Zeus said.

  Everyone looked at him,.

  “What?” Yates asked startled. “Kill me? Why does everyone want to kill me?”

  “Dude,” Kasper said. “Not to b-be disrespect…ful, but sometimes you aren’t likable.”

  “I don’t disagree, but it’s no reason to kill me,” Yates replied.

  Rigs asked Zeus. “Why did you say that? Do you know something?”

  “No. Just makes sense,” Zeus said. “He’s throws a fit every five seconds about the EPEV and his patent, and what better way to get him to shut up than to just send him somewhere dangerous to have him killed. They would have killed him in jail, but you kept getting him out.”

  Yates looked at him. “That is smart. Coming from a man who thinks they are curing a virus in a meth lab and The Road isn’t a road movie. Do you have an intelligence off and on switch? Because that makes total sense.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” Rigs said. “They aren’t trying to kill you. Admittedly now that you brought up the cure thing, there’s some doubt, but I still say it’s a rescue mission. I know they wouldn’t go through all that trouble to kill you.”

  Kasper sighed out. “If only the Big Barry was here. He’s the older, wise voice of wisdom. He would tell us what was going on. No off-fense, Rigs.”

  “And with that,” Rigs said. “I’m going in the back.”

  As he walked away toward the back of the EPEV, he listened to the voices of his team until they faded to a level barely understood.

  Once in the back control room, Rigs took a seat. At that point he really couldn’t hear them. He couldn’t help but think of what Yates had said about the virologist. He made such a point.

  Where would this woman get the resources to work on curing a virus? Did she carry them in a case? Just able to use a notebook.

  Maybe there was something in the small town that aided her task.

  Yates had the satellite images hooked up and Rigs was able to pull up an aerial view of the town. He started zooming in to look closely. To see if there were any building that the virologist could be using.

  “Hey,” Rachel tapped on the door.

  Rigs spun around. “Hey. What’s up?”

  “Can I talk to you?”

  “Uh oh.”

  “No. No.” She smiled and sat down. “Nothing bad.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “We’re in Ohio and I know you want us to stop for the night in Indiana.”

  Rigs nodded. “Right.”

  “Well, I just think … I was wondering, can we go to South Bend? I think it’s time. I want to go to my house.”

  “Rach, absolutely.”

  “Thank you. I just lost my phone when me and Yates were taken hostage. I don’t have pictures of my family. I want to …”

  “Rach,” Rigs stopped her. “You could have told me you wanted to go home and sit on your couch. I don’t care. You want to go. We go.” Rigs stood. “I’ll go make sure Yates knows.”

  “Thanks.”

  Rigs tapped her on the shoulder as he passed. Alone in the back control room, Rachel noticed Rigs had pulled up a map of Galena. It was odd. For him to immediately pull up a map of their mission town, made Rachel wonder if Rigs was suddenly more suspicious than he let on.

  Rachel really wasn’t. Conspiracy theories tossed by Yates and Zeus put aside, Rachel was confident it was nothing more than a rescue and retrieval mission.

  ELEVEN – CUL DE SAC

  Each person who worked with Liz in rebuilding had a job. The problem was, the previous president was so concerned about giving people back their sense of normalcy that he failed to strengthen the forces that had to defeat the dead in order for everything to truly go back to the way it was. Or at least somewhat.

  She saw The Flaming Saffrons off to the assignment and Liz was so hopeful Stephanie had the key to the cure. She needed that.

  If they could cure the virus it would stop people from turning and give the eliminators and sweep teams a chance to catch up.

  After the Saffrons left, she made sure that Dr. Stevens got to work on finding space for Stephanie.

  She needed lab space.

  It was as insane a day as it could get. It started out well, then the attack of the dog. Not only did that happen, but Yates proceeded to break not one law but two when he fired his weapon in public and then put down a woman that deserved her farewell.

  The Peace Centers were a good process.

  Those who turned. Even though they didn’t respond to their loved ones were able to get a sendoff before they were put to rest.

  Just when she got that settled, she had to work on the lab, and the moment she returned to her office, Rigs called.

  “That’s a hell of a pit stop,” Liz told him. “That’s actually out of the way.”

  “Yeah, it’s the first time in a year Rachel had expressed any desire whatsoever to go back to her home.”

  “I understand that. And I am for it, but you should know, South Bend was never swept.”

  “How is that possible?” Rigs asked. “We cleaned Elkhart not four months ago.”

  “And we never got to it.”

  “So, chances are, Elkhart is overrun, again.”

  “Rigs, we want everything cleared as much as anyone, but we just don’t have the bodies.”

  “Well, then, maybe it’s time you drafted peopl
e and trained them. There are a lot of people pretty much doing nothing but drinking Starbucks,” Rigs told her.

  Rigs had a point. There were more dead than there were those alive, and the number of soldiers of the undead paled in comparison to the number of physically capable people that could join the fight but didn’t. They spoke about it a little bit more before Liz ended the call when General Morrows walked in her office.

  “We have a situation,” he said.

  “What now?” Liz asked.

  “The holding center for those who come in asymptomatic. Sector nineteen?”

  “What about it?”

  “We had an outbreak there. Fifteen turned and another dog.”

  “Jesus,” Liz said.

  “We have over a hundred people in that facility” Morrows said.

  “How many men over there?” Liz asked.

  “Two dozen, that’s not my concern,” Morrows said.

  “What is?”

  “We’ve integrated several dozen in town. Even though they are watched they can turn on a dime. It seems strange to me that so many turned at the one-year mark, making me believe that is as long as the asymptomatic phase lasts. If that’s the case, we may be facing a hell of a situation on our hands in town.”

  “And we have how many troops in town?”

  “Sixty.”

  Liz exhaled. “What do you suggest?”

  “Honestly?” Morrows asked. “Forget Sector Nineteen. The infected would have to cross the bridge and we can stop them. Pull all available men and station them in town.”

  “If you think that’s best,” Liz said

  “Right now, being proactive is our best option.”

  “Good. We only have to wait a few days. The scientist will be here with the cure and soon enough we can put this behind us.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Morrows asked. “That there really is a cure?”

  “I hope to God there is. Because if there isn’t, there’s no point in doing this anymore,” Liz said. “Let’s face it. We can’t keep up.”

  <><><><>

  South Bend, IN

  They stopped, just on the outskirts of the city, two miles from Rachel’s neighborhood. Already they started to see the dead, and they weren’t even in the city.