The sprinklers on the second floor did not turn on, but the explosion, hospital shudder and fire alarm woke Joe and Ivette.
“Get your jacket and boots on, now!” yelled Joe.
By the time they made it downstairs, the first floor was filled with smoke and mayhem.
He turned to Ivette.
“Put your scarf over your face, and go out those doors. Go across the street and wait for me there.”
She looked at him silently, but didn’t move.
“I have to find my friend,” he told her, “but I’ll meet you across the street. I promise. Now go!”
With a terrified look in her eyes, she scurried out the front doors amongst a throng of panicked patients.
The smoke was getting thicker, and he kept running into people trying to get out. Joe tried to remember how to get to Kevin’s room, but it was getting increasingly difficult to navigate the hallway. The floors were wet from the sprinklers, the smoke was thick, and he was walking against the traffic. A woman in boots and a winter jacket limped by him.
Finally, he navigated his way to Kevin’s hallway. Something hit him hard in his shin, and he cried out.
“Son of a…”
“Joe? Is that you?” asked Kevin from the wheelchair. “You’re going the wrong way!”
“Kevin, thank God!”
“Yes, I will, but please drive me out of here first.”
Joe pushed the wheelchair towards the exit. Now that he was going with the direction of traffic, it was much faster. They were both coughing, and their eyes were stinging. Joe was relieved to finally take a breath of clean air when he wheeled Kevin out the front doors. The relief was short-lived, when the cold snowy wind hit him.
Kevin was dressed only in his hospital gown, which was wet from the sprinklers, and the cold hit him like an ice block. Joe took off his winter jacket and put it over his shivering friend. The blowing snow made it hard to see. Joe pushed hard on the wheelchair to get it through the deep snow on the sidewalk. He kept going straight across the road. Patients, doctors and nurses were everywhere. There was another explosion behind them, and flames began to spew out of the windows.
When they made it across the street, Joe yelled loudly, “Ivette! Ivette, are you out here?”
Through the snowy darkness he panned the crowd till he saw a small child waving rapidly.
“Over here, Ivette. Come to my voice.”
He saw a small figure trudging through the snow towards him. He reached out and hugged her. She was shivering when she hugged him back.
“Let’s get out of here, okay?”
She looked at him and nodded.
He nudged Kevin, “I’m going to have to help you walk; this wheelchair is impossible to push in this snow. We need to find the snowmobile.”
Kevin put his arm over Joe’s shoulder, and Joe did the same. With Ivette holding on to Joe’s belt, they shambled over to the snowmobile. Joe laid Kevin in the trailer, and with cold shaking hands, started the snowmobile. Ivette climbed on behind him and clung on to him tightly. As the hospital burned behind them, they plowed through the drifting snow into the frosty night.
After a few blocks, Joe pulled up to the side of a pizza restaurant where it was sheltered somewhat from the wind. He pulled out the radio in his coat pocket.
“Camille, Tyler, are you there? This is Joe.”
There was a muffled crackle then: “This is Camille. We’re here.”
“Where are you? over.”
“We’re in the theatre district. What’s happening with all the explosions and planes? Are we being attacked?”
“I don’t know. We were in the hospital when it caught fire. Kevin is with me. We made it out, but now I’m not sure where to go. Are you guys safe?”
“Where is Tank?”
“He went to the Parliament Buildings.”
“Shouldn’t you wait for him.”
“I can’t. Kevin is hurt and I have a little girl with me. This storm is brutal and I need to find someplace safe and warm.”
“We’re on our way to the museum. It’s where my brother worked. I don’t think anyone would be there, and they may have supplies. It’s on the edge of the city. It might be safer. It should at least get you out of the wind.”
“Okay, I think I should have enough gas to get there.
“Do you know where it is?”
“Tank gave me a map. I can figure it out. We’re on our way.”
“We’ll see you there.”
Chapter 46
At the same time the explosion rocked the hospital, an alarm went off at the C3. Pascal woke up and grabbed Olivia.
A soldier in the hallway was making an announcement with a handheld loudspeaker:
“Attention, attention! All personnel must immediately go down the stairs and into the gymnasium and shelter in place. This is not a drill. Attention, all personnel must immediately go down the stairs and into the gymnasium and shelter in place...” The soldier repeated this as he walked down the hallway.
Pascal got his coat and boots on, bundled up Olivia, put on the baby pouch and put her in it. He put his backpack on and followed the crowd down the stairs to the gymnasium.
“What’s going on?” he asked a woman walking down the stairs beside him.
“I don’t know, and they’re not telling us. They just say we’re safer in here.”
“I heard we’re under attack!” said someone else. There was other murmuring and theories.
Once they reached the gym, Pascal sat against the wall in the corner and rocked Olivia.
The fluorescent lights in the gym went out and the emergency lights at the exits came on.
There was a brief din of excitement, but people settled back down and waited.
Pascal and Olivia fell asleep.
He awoke sometime later to excited voices. When he opened his eyes, he saw the beams of flashlights dancing across the walls and ceiling. Pascal realized that the emergency lights had died and people were using their flashlights to see.
“They’re gone!” someone shouted.
There were other cries and shouts.
“What?”
“Who’s gone?”
“What’s happening?
“The soldiers are all gone.”
People began shuffling to the doors. There was pushing, yelling, kicking and swearing.
Pascal waited in his safe little corner with Olivia. When the crowd had left, he grabbed his flashlight from his bag and turned it on. It flickered and shut back off.
“Come on!” he yelled at the flashlight and hit it against his leg. It flickered back on dimly. He walked out of the gym into the hallway.
The C3 appeared to be abandoned by the army. There were people going through the supplies and walking around looking lost, but there were no army personnel. He heard shouting from upstairs and a gunshot echoed through the school.
“What do say, Olivia? Should we ditch this joint? Let’s go back to the museum. Maybe it’s a little quieter there.”
He went out into the dark and snowy night and found his truck. He put Olivia and his pack in the truck and started it up. Olivia started crying.
“I know, you like the heat way up.”
As he drove through the snow on his way out of the C3, he looked at the gas gauge. He was almost out of gas.
I hope we make it.
Within a few blocks of the museum, the truck sputtered and died.
“Looks like we’re walking from here.”
The storm was abating. There was a red glow in the Eastern sky, but the sun had not yet risen.
Pascal donned the baby pouch and put Olivia in it. He grabbed his pack and his flashlight and started walking.
After only a few steps he saw a large dark shape in front of him. He turned his flashlight on but nothing happened.
“Who’s there?” he asked the dark figure, smacking his flashlight against his hand.
He heard strange grunting noise. It was getting closer.
He backed up against the truck and fumbled with the door handle, trying to get it open. There was another strange noise, and he felt something cold and wet against his neck.
He opened the truck door, put Olivia on the seat and closed it.
Pascal gripped his flashlight tightly, preparing to meet his attacker. When he turned around, Pascal was staring into strange rectangular pupils. The pupils belonged to a white llama.
Can this day get any weirder?
Chapter 47
Earlier in the theatre dressing room, the sound of fighter jets and explosions woke Camille.
“What was that?” she asked as she sat up.
Tyler rubbed his eyes. “It’s probably Tank coming to kill me.”
“Seriously, I hear something. It sounded like an explosion.”
“Okay, let’s check it out. Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“No clue.”
Camille put her bow on her shoulder, and Tyler grabbed his gun. They both put their backpacks on and left the dressing room. They could hear the sound of jets overhead but nothing from inside the building.
“Let’s go,” she said as she walked out into the hallway.
They got to the stage, and Tyler shone his flashlight at the theatre seats. “It looks like no one has come to see our show.”
“Show’s over,” said Camille and jumped off the stage.
They walked through the theatre and into the lobby.
Camille pointed to the front windows. “Looks like it’s still night.”
There was a loud explosion nearby, and the flash illuminated the blustery night.
“Whoa!” said Tyler, “what was that?”
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound good, we need to get out of here,” said Camille.
“Let’s find your side-by-side and drive to the museum.”
They walked back through the hallway past the coffee shop and variety store towards the parking garage stairwell.
Camille stopped to peer through the security gate of the variety store. Tyler walked ahead. When he rounded the next corner, he stopped suddenly.
“Don’t move!” yelled a voice. From where she was standing, Camille could see the back of Tyler, but not the person yelling at him.
Tyler’s gun was in his hands, but it was pointed at the floor. He kept the gun in one hand and held up the other hand.
“Whoa…don’t shoot,” he said.
“Put your gun on the floor.”
“Okay, I’m putting my gun on the floor.”
“Weren’t you with someone else?” the voice asked.
“I was, but not anymore. What about you? Are you alone too?”
Camille noticed that Tyler turned his head slightly towards her as he asked the question. She unslung her bow and nocked an arrow in it.
“My friends are around,” the man replied.
“What do you want?”
“I like your side-by-side up there,” the man said, “but I am having a hard time starting it without the keys. I need you to hand them over.”
Tyler reached into his pocket, pulled out the key and paused.
“You mean this key?” He threw the keys to the side, and they slid across the hallway into Camille’s view.
She pulled back her arrow and aimed it where she thought the man would make himself visible.
“Oops, they slipped,” said Tyler.
“Don’t move, idiot.”
Camille could hear the man walking towards the key and pulled back the arrow further.
He stepped into view and reached down towards the key. He stopped and looked up at Camille. Before he had a chance to raise his gun, there was a whoosh from the arrow and a wet thunk as it entered his throat. The tip of the arrow was sticking out the other side, and blood seeped out the entry and exit wounds. The man gurgled and slumped to the ground.
“Good shot, Camille,” said Tyler.
“I was aiming for the head, but I guess that works too.”
Tyler grabbed his gun and the key. “Time to go, in case he has friends nearby.”
They ran to the parking garage stairwell and up the stairs to the roof. When Tyler opened the door, the snowstorm hit them with full force.
“I hope you know where you’re going,” said Camille, “because it’s dark and stormy out here.”
“So do I,” said Tyler.
As they loaded their gear in the back of the side-by-side, a voice came over the radio in Camille’s pocket.
“Camille, Tyler, are you there? This is Joe.”
Chapter 48
Shortly before the explosion at the hospital, Tank woke up in the small office in the tall building. Jets screamed overhead and anti-aircraft guns shook the windows. From his vantage point at the top of the building he saw the army below scrambling to get to their battle stations. He watched as a JH-7 bomber was chased by a CF-18 hornet. Tank grabbed his gear and ran down the stairs. The door that had been booby-trapped was blown open from his grenade. A cold wind howled when he stepped outside. He couldn’t see any soldiers, but he also couldn’t see much of anything through the storm. Tank ran to his hidden snowmobile and started it up. Racing towards the hospital he heard the sounds of missiles, jets, gunfire, and explosions all around him. By the time he arrived, the hospital was fully engulfed in flames. When he pulled up in front of the hospital, he saw a lone woman standing in front, watching it burn.
“Excuse me miss?” said Tank.
She stood staring at the flames and didn’t turn to look at him. “What?”
“Where are all the patients?”
“They took some of them away in buses, but most of them died in the fire.”
“What about my friends? Kevin, the guy with the gunshot to the gut and Joe and that little girl?”
“I think I saw them leave on a snowmobile.” She still stared expressionless at the flames.
“Are you going to be okay?” Tank asked.
“I could have saved more…”
“I’m sure you did what you could…can I take you somewhere? You’re going to freeze to death out here.”
“Yesterday, I had so much hope for mankind,” she said. “A man brought an unconscious woman in. The man didn’t even know the woman, but he gladly took care of her little baby. What was her name again? Anyway, that’s when I knew that there are still good people in this world and maybe there is still hope. But now? Now I don’t know. The hospital is burning, and there are still people inside, and they are all going to die.”
“I’m real sorry ma’am,” said Tank awkwardly trying to console her.
“Olivia was the name,” she mumbled.
“Pardon me?” asked Tank, “Your name is Olivia?”
“No, my name is Effy. Olivia was the baby’s name.”
“Was the mother’s name Monique?” Tank asked excitedly.
“Yes.” She turned to him. “How did you know?”
“Where are they now? Are they still inside?”
“No, I saw Monique leave, but I don’t know where she went.”
“What about the baby? Where is Olivia?”
“She was with Pascal. He was such a nice guy.”
“Who is Pascal? Do you know where they went?”
“They went to the C3.”
“You’re coming with me.” Tank grabbed the woman by the hips and hoisted her onto the back of his snowmobile. She held on but said nothing as he drove the snowmobile into the storm.
When they arrived at the C3 they found it mostly abandoned. He asked a few people still wandering the facility but no one had seen Pascal or Olivia.
“Do you know where Pascal found Monique and the baby?” Tank asked her.
“He said he found them at the museum,” said Effy.
Chapter 49
Just before the first missiles exploded in Commerce City, in the little cabin outside the museum, Roxie started barking.
“Zach, wake up!” Ayesha said and turned her flashlight on.
“Is the fi
re out again?”
“No, Roxie’s barking.”
Zach sat up and turned his flashlight on. “Do you hear that?”
“It sounds like planes,” said Ayesha.
Zach got up and put his boots on. Ayesha slipped hers on too, and they stepped out into the stormy night with Roxie following closely.
“It sounds like fighter jets,” said Zach, “but I can’t see anything out here.”
“It’s freezing out here, can we go back in?” asked Ayesha.
Although Zach couldn’t see the jets through the darkness and the blowing snow, he did see bright flashes over the city.
“Oh no,” he said quietly.
“What was that?” asked Ayesha.
“They’re bombing the city.”
“What? Who?”
“Let’s get back inside, before we freeze.”
Roxie followed them in and they closed the door. Zach and Ayesha stamped the snow off their boots.
“My guess is, it’s the Chinese.” He opened the door to the stove and threw a log inside. “I wish the internet was still working.”
Ayesha lit a single candle on the table and turned her flashlight off. “What are we going to do if Monique doesn’t come back?”
“We’ll figure something out. Maybe we should just go back to sleep.”
“I’m awake now,” complained Ayesha.
Zach sat beside the fire and looked at his pistol. “If someone comes here, we need to be ready.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we need a plan, in case bad people come here.”
Chapter 50
Tank drove the snowmobile up to the front of the museum. The buildings were dark but he could smell smoke. There was a purple pick-up truck parked in front of the entrance.
“Someone’s here, follow me,” he said to Effy as he got off the snowmobile.
Tank held his flashlight against the barrel of his gun and pointed it ahead of him. “Stay behind me.”
“I thought we were looking for Monique? Who are you going to shoot?”
“Can’t be too careful,” he said as he walked around the side of the museum. He could see a dim flicker coming from the cabin beside the museum with a pink Volkswagen beetle out front. He turned his flashlight off and walked up to the cabin and knocked on the door. “Stay behind me,” he ordered Effy.
Black Flag | Book 1 | Surviving The Scourge Page 28