by Bowman, Dave
Nick shot the man once more to put him out of his misery.
He looked at Charlie.
“We’ve got to get to the cabin.”
35
Bullets were soaring over Jessa’s head. She returned the fire relentlessly until the figure fell to a heap on the ground.
But the shooting continued. She couldn’t see this one, but she shot in his direction. She held her breath, her muscles tight from tension.
The deafening noise of more rifles being shot added to the confusion. They were shooting guns without muzzle flash, so she couldn’t see where they were. She pulled the trigger yet again, but this time nothing happened.
Her rifle wouldn’t fire. The gun was jammed, she realized as terror took her over.
Her breath came in frantic gasps. She stayed low to the ground and retreated through the woods, her heart pounding in her chest. She feared this would be her end.
As she moved quickly away in a low crouch, she heard someone nearby. She cringed and took what she knew would be her last breath.
Instead of shooting her, though, the person to her side fired at her enemy. She turned to look, the muzzle flash blinding her.
Her target fell, shot dead by one of her friends. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness again, she saw Nick looking at her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Nick didn’t give her a chance to ask if he was okay. He was already running toward the front porch.
Someone was shooting in the cabin.
“What was that?”
Liz’s eyes were struck with terror as she turned to Trina. They heard first one shot outside, then more. Suddenly, it sounded like a war outside the cabin.
“They found us!” Trina cried. Her hands flew to her mouth as she looked at the other women.
Bethany didn’t respond. Her eyes were closed as she struggled through another surge of pain.
“Get down,” Liz said quickly.
Bethany was already low to the ground. She was laboring on her hands and knees. Trina dropped to her side and helped Bethany move away from the window. Mia followed.
Liz grabbed her pistol and peered out the bedroom window. She couldn’t see anything.
“Stay here,” Liz said before she ducked out of the room.
She ran from the bedroom down the hall. As she rounded the corner into the front living space, she stopped, paralyzed with fear.
Someone was turning the doorknob.
The boards on the front porch groaned under a heavy weight as someone moved outside. The door creaked as it swung open.
She lifted her pistol with her arms stretched out in front of her. She bent her knees slightly and steadied her hands.
Liz’s heart jumped into her throat as she saw a huge man step inside with his rifle raised.
She fired three times.
The second and third rounds hit him. He staggered back outside the door and fell, lying in a pool of his own blood.
Liz peered down at him. It was dark, and she could barely see his face. She had killed again.
Bethany’s screams from within the bedroom roused her from her moment’s pause. Liz raced back to the bedroom. She found Trina and Bethany where she had left them.
To Liz’s relief, no one had attacked from the window as she had feared. It was Bethany’s labor pains that made her cry out.
“The baby’s coming fast now,” Trina whispered to Liz. “Usually stress like this would make labor stall. But the baby’s so close that we’re past the point of no return. I’m going to need your help.”
Liz watched for a moment, stunned. She jumped when she heard someone running up the front porch steps.
“It’s me. Don’t shoot!” a familiar voice said.
Nick entered the cabin. He met Liz at the doorway of the bedroom, glancing inside to get a headcount. Jessa and Charlie staggered in the front door of the cabin breathlessly.
“We’re missing Matt,” Nick said as he turned and set off toward the door.
“He was going to get water when all this started,” Charlie said.
“Keep down and stay away from the windows,” Nick said before he stepped over the dead man in the entrance. “We don’t know if there are more or not.”
Jessa picked up Trina’s rifle that was leaning in the corner. “I’ll stand guard in here.”
Charlie ran off after Nick. “I’m going with you.”
From the bedroom, Bethany’s moans grew louder as another contraction began.
The two men stepped out into the darkness. They split up, first sweeping the area in front of the cabin, then moving to the back. So far, it seemed like the gang members had all fallen.
There was no one at the water spring. Nick and Charlie pushed onward, skirting around the meadow and cutting back toward the road.
To Nick’s great relief, they found Matt alive. He was tied up in the back of a Lexus. When he saw Nick and Charlie, he grinned.
“I heard all the gunfire,” he said. “At first I was scared that I had blown everything by getting captured. But I knew you guys would win.”
As they untied him, he told them about his capture.
“He was a huge guy with a red beard,” Matt said. “He had tattoos all over his neck.”
“Sounds like the guy Liz shot as he was trying to come in the front door,” Nick said. “We’re lucky he didn’t hurt you, Matt.”
Matt nodded vigorously. “Their leader told them not to kill the children.”
“How thoughtful of them,” Charlie said sarcastically.
“Did he say how many of them there were?” Nick asked.
“Six,” Matt answered.
Charlie exhaled. “Then we got them all. I got two, Nick got two, and Liz and Jessa got one each.”
Nick felt like he could finally breathe again. The immediate threat was over.
“The guy said something about Bobby being out here,” Matt said. “It sounded like he was the boss.”
Nick thought back to the spy they had caught at Chris’s cabin in Idaho Springs.
“Bobby was the one calling all the shots,” Nick said. “He was in charge of the whole BSC. And if he was out here, and we got all six guys. . .”
Charlie lifted his eyebrows. “You mean we just took out the head of the gang?”
Nick rubbed at his jaw. “It seems like it.”
Charlie let out a whoop as they walked back to the cabin. “So we’re in the clear now. They won’t be bothering us anymore.”
Nick could hardly believe it. Were they finally free of the BSC? Was this really the end of it?
“I hope so,” Nick said.
The faint glow of the candles from the cabin windows came into view as they approached the house.
“I can’t wait to tell them the good news,” Charlie said. “They’re not going to believe –”
He broke off midsentence. He turned to look at Nick and Matt.
A baby was crying.
Mia watched as Trina and Liz cleaned the newborn. Jessa brought in fresh water.
Using the midwife supplies that Bethany had been carrying in a suitcase for days, the women had been able to help Bethany deliver the baby and cut the cord. Trina’s help had been key during the entire process. Her calm reassurances had helped Bethany focus and not give in to fear during the labor. Now, Trina’s experience as a mother gave Bethany confidence with her newborn.
Trina wrapped the infant in a baby blanket and handed him back to Bethany, who now lay in bed.
Bethany’s eyes gleamed as she looked down at her son.
“He’s so beautiful,” she said. She marveled at the tiny new being she had brought into the world.
The baby was a healthy pink color all over and responsive to stimulation. Trina had checked his pulse and breathing. He was a perfectly healthy newborn.
Jessa ducked out of the room when she heard the guys walk up the front porch steps. Mia heard their voices, then Jessa’s footsteps as she returned to the bedroom.
“It’s all over,” Jessa said. “I don’t think the BSC will be bothering us again.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Trina said.
Liz breathed a sigh of relief and sat in the chair at Bethany’s bedside. “It’s finally over. No more fighting.”
Liz brushed the hair out of Bethany’s face. “Now we can get you and the baby back home where it’s safe. We don’t have anything else to worry about.”
Bethany bit her lip and looked up.
“But there’s still something,” she began.
Mia felt herself tense up. “What is it?”
“I heard you talking with Garrison,” Bethany said to Mia. “It’s something I’ve been worrying about ever since the outbreak. I never said anything because I was scared. I guess I just tried not to think about it.”
“About what?” Jessa asked.
Bethany took a breath, then looked down at her son. She blinked away tears as she spoke in a whisper.
“What if he gets sick from the Hosta virus? His dad wasn’t immune. Can the virus somehow get activated in his system now that he’s out in the world?”
Liz and Trina looked at each other, then at Jessa.
“And even if he’s immune, what if he’s a carrier of the virus?” Bethany asked anxiously. “You said your Native American friends haven’t been exposed to the virus.”
Mia took a deep breath, then spoke up.
“I think I have something that can help us find out,” she said.
She began to take several items out of Garrison’s backpack. She spread her supplies out on a table.
“What are you doing?” Bethany asked nervously.
“I saw in Garrison’s notes that they had developed a simple test for Hosta virus antibodies,” Mia said. “I found the supplies to do the test in his office, and I have them here. I just need to swab the baby’s mouth for a saliva sample.”
Retrieving a small plastic package, she walked to Bethany’s side.
“Do you want me to do it?” Mia asked gently.
Bethany looked at the sterile saliva swab.
“Okay,” she said, cringing.
Bethany pulled the baby away from her breast and held his mouth open while Mia moved the swab over his gums. The baby began to fuss from the interruption in his feeding.
“That should be enough,” Mia said as she returned back to her supplies on the table. “Now I have to put some drops of this chemical reagent on the swab. Then we wait twenty minutes.”
“Then what?” Bethany asked as she helped her son begin to feed again.
Mia looked at Garrison’s notes. “If the baby has been infected with the Hosta virus, the sample will turn blue. If not, it stays white.”
“So blue means he would be a carrier?” Jessa asked.
“Or that he’s . . . not immune?” Liz asked quietly.
“Yes,” Mia said, looking down. “To both questions.”
Mia set the swab on the table and turned to face the others. Bethany looked down nervously at her son.
Outside the bedroom, the guys awaited the results of the test. Charlie kept himself busy bringing fresh water from the spring while Nick dragged the dead body off the front porch. He found the keys to the Land Rover in the victim’s pocket.
As Nick was washing his hands, he heard a sudden chorus of excited voices in the bedroom. He knocked on the door. Jessa let him in with a grin on her face.
“I take it there’s good news?” he asked.
Mia nodded. “The baby is fine. He’s not sick with the virus, and he can’t get anyone else sick either.”
Charlie and Matt appeared in the doorway, eager to join in the celebration.
“Come in,” Bethany said, smiling. “He’s just finishing eating. Do you want to hold him, Nick?”
“Sure.”
It had been years since Nick had held a baby. He felt the sharp pain over losing his own family come rushing back. But as he took the little bundle in his arms and stared down into his clear, blue eyes, he sensed a new kind of hope that he hadn’t felt in weeks.
“Meet Nathan, Jr.,” Bethany said.
36
The group opted to siphon the gas from the vehicles left by the BSC. Preferring not to travel in the vehicles used by the gang members that had attacked them, they left the cars behind. Besides, they knew they would find new vehicles eventually.
They made it out of the mountains without incident. The roads were deserted. They took Interstate 25 south and left the BSC territory behind.
Nick swapped out Garrison’s GMC for a red Ford F-150 they found in southern Colorado. Matt smiled when his uncle selected the vehicle. It was just like his dad’s truck.
Gasoline wasn’t much of a concern on the interstate, either. With all the abandoned cars in every small town and city, they were able to siphon and refuel easily. The convoy headed south, making good time on the empty roads.
In Trinidad, near the New Mexico line, they found a handful of abandoned homes. They spent a few hours cleaning out pantries. Finally, their food supply was starting to be replenished. It wasn’t enough to last through the winter, but it was a good start.
When the three-vehicle convoy got to Chama, they stopped to look for more food in the small supermarket. Nick and Jessa went in to search the shelves for any leftover items. They found a few items among the rubble left by the chaos of the Hosta virus: mostly things overlooked by looters or shoppers in their final days.
“This is nowhere near the food supplies we had back at your grandfather’s lodge,” Jessa said as they pushed a couple of half-full shopping carts out of the store. “But hopefully we’ll get there eventually.”
Nick looked at the items they had found by combing through the store’s destroyed aisles. The packages and cans of shelf-stable food might make all the difference to them. It might keep them from starving.
“Yeah, we’ll have to hit up more empty houses along the way,” he said. “We’ll find enough one way or another.”
Jessa nodded. “If we survived the BSC, we can survive the winter.”
They pushed the carts to the Ford truck, where Liz and Charlie helped them unload.
Charlie nodded in approval. “Nice work, guys. You found beef stew and canned tuna fish.”
Liz’s face lit up. “And you even found some cereal!” she exclaimed. “I could use a break from oatmeal.”
“And there was a bunch of baby food,” Jessa called over to Bethany. “For when little Nathan is ready for it.”
Bethany looked up from the passenger side of the Forest Service truck where she was lounging with the sleeping baby. She smiled at Jessa and gave her a thumb’s up.
Trina didn’t move from where she stood with her rifle. She was on high alert at all times, eager to redeem herself for the times she had been less than alert on guard duty.
She had been a little different since Nathan’s birth. The new addition to their makeshift family, and her key role in bringing him into the world, had renewed her spirit. The baby gave her hope and a reason to go on. In fact, the newborn seemed to have that effect on everyone.
“Hey! There’s someone across the street!” she said suddenly, pointing at a clinic across the four-lane road.
Everyone looked. A man and a woman walked out of a medical building and began to cross the street.
“They’re coming over here,” Trina said. She eyed the couple anxiously.
A flurry of movement erupted around Nick as a few of them hurried to get their weapons or take cover. But Nick stayed put. He studied the couple approaching them. His face lit up in recognition.
“Is it really them?” he muttered to himself.
“Who?” Matt asked.
Liz looked more closely, then a smile broke out across her face.
“It’s Daniel and Anne!” Mia said, running out into the street to see them.
The others were close behind. They all met in the street, full of excitement and curiosity. Anne threw her arms around Mia and wrapp
ed her in a hug.
Nick, Charlie, Liz, and Jessa embraced their friends and stared at them in amazement. It had only been a few days since they’d seen each other. But so much had happened that it felt like a lifetime. Seeing familiar faces was an elixir for them all.
“What are you doing out here?” Nick asked them. “I thought you two would have been in White Pine Falls by now.”
Nick's eyes fell on Daniel’s shoulder. “Looks like you’ve run into trouble.”
Daniel looked at Charlie’s injury, which was very similar to his own. The two of them burst into laughter as they realized they had almost identical dressings on the same shoulder.
“It’s a long story,” Anne said, smiling. “And we could say the same for you all.”
“My mom got sick, and we had to quarantine ourselves for a few days,” Daniel said.
“Are you better now?” Mia asked.
Anne nodded. “Yeah, I guess it was just the flu. We had to make sure it wasn’t the Hosta virus, so we separated from the rest of the group going to White Pine Falls.”
“And then we ran into some trouble. We came here to get antibiotics for my shoulder injury,” Daniel began. Then he looked around. “But where are my manners? Come inside. We can sit and talk in the clinic.”
They followed them into the community medical center. After introducing Anne and Daniel to Bethany, Matt, and Trina, everyone took a seat in the lobby. They exchanged stories of everything they had been through the past few days.
Mia collected a saliva sample from Anne and tested it. The girl smiled as she told Anne she was free of the Hosta virus. Anne was relieved to hear she hadn't contracted the virus, and that there was no risk in contaminating anyone from her village.
“What a clever little girl,” Anne said as she watched Mia put away her supplies.
“Mia's the best,” Liz said proudly.
“She's amazing,” Bethany said. “I don't even want to think about what would have happened in Garrison's cabin if Mia hadn't been there.”