Eves of the Outbreak

by Lilith Assisi

  “Whiskey, she wants whiskey,” said Nancy.

  Nancy pointed to the bar and another quiet woman ran over to find it for her.

  After being handed the whiskey Judy turned back to Jason.

  “Hold on to the sides of the table and don’t hit me,” she told him.

  “Do I look like a violent man?” asked Jason with a smirk. Tara was still holding the towel to the inside of his leg, constantly staring up at his face. Greg and Linda moved in to either side of him to help hold down his arms.

  Judy put her hand on Tara’s shoulder and she nodded, lifting up the towel and revealing the wound. It was only a couple minutes old and already looked like it was festering.

  Without a second’s hesitation Judy dumped half the bottle of whiskey on his wound and Jason screamed, his body arching up in pain as the burning sensation of alcohol on a fresh wound reached a whole new level.

  Tara mopped up the liquid from the table with the old towel and placed a new one on the wound. At the same time Warren rushed through the front doors of the bar and joined them. Judy heard him before she saw him.

  “What happened?” he shouted.

  He pushed through the crowd and surveyed the scene. He looked down at Jason and shook his head solemnly, placing a comforting hand on Tara’s shoulder.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said.

  “Are there any doctors or nurses that can help?” asked Greg.

  “All our medically inclined went up to Milford to help with Maria’s birth. And we don’t even know if they are ok. I left my crew up by the group of walkers and I saw Terri in among them,” he said.

  A bunch of gasps rippled through the crowd.

  “You mean, like, as a walker?” asked Nancy, being the only one brave enough to say it.

  Warren nodded.

  “Make it quick. And maybe I can have a couple quiet moments with the lady,” said Jason wearily.

  “Someone get me a saw, or better yet, an axe,” said Judy unexpectedly.

  Jason’s face looked horrified.

  “That’s not exactly how I pictured ending it. We have guns after all,” he said.

  “I need someone to get me all the medical equipment we have, but an ax would probably do the deed quickest,” said Judy with a new determination as she realized there was no one else with any medical background that would be able to help.

  Greg pulled Judy away from the group and Warren joined them.

  “What are you thinking, amputate?” he asked.

  “We can’t risk him being a threat to our community,” said Warren.

  “I think this organism travels by axoplasmic transit, meaning along nerve fibers and not within the bloodstream. That means we might have an hour or two before it gets up past his pelvis. If we amputate there is a chance that we could save him,” she whispered to the two.

  Greg and Judy looked at Warren expectedly.

  “Fine, but your crew needs to stick around and make sure he’s ok. And we’ll have to find somewhere for isolation to put him,” he said.

  Judy turned and rushed back to Jason.

  Greg looked at Warren and put his hand on his shoulder.

  “Thank you,” he said, trying to show the man with his look how grateful he was even if it did mean that he wouldn’t get to his son as quickly as he wanted.

  “You’re lucky Tara is so attached to him. I hope he makes it,” he responded.

  “I don’t envy you the screams and suffering you’re about to witness. I’m going to go back to saving my town in the meantime,” Warren concluded, turning his back on what was soon to become a bloody and macabre scene.

  Chapter 55

  Judy mopped up the sweat from Jason’s brow and checked some of his vital signs. He had been mostly unconscious since they had taken off his leg just above his knee about thirty-six hours prior. Judy was too weak to wield the axe, so Greg had done that dirty work for her, but she had stopped the stump from bleeding out afterwards.

  Warren had left to help with the latest influx of infected. It turned out that the urgent care clinic the group had gone to had been locked to try to keep infected in rather than out, and when they broke in they ended up being overrun by them. That was the group that had then headed down towards Sunset Lake.

  Everyone except for one nurse had survived, holing herself up in an isolation unit at the urgent care, but everyone else had been killed or worse, turned. And the couple dozen infected that escaped had continued towards Sunset Lake. No one wanted to hear details about Russell and Maria’s deaths, but everyone knew that Warren had taken care of them himself. A couple of the family’s friends had started caring for their remaining children in the meantime.

  Luckily that surviving nurse, Bridget, had been brought back to the bar where she was helping Judy and Tara care for Jason. They had brought a ton of supplies with them, including antibiotics and pain medications. They had gone back on a second run to get suture material to try to more properly close the skin over the end of the muscles in his thigh. If Jason lived through this he’d need more surgeries with an actual surgeon to make the end of his leg more functional, but that was a bridge they hoped to cross when they were sure of his survival.

  “Hey,” croaked a voice.

  Judy looked up and saw Jason’s eyes half opened.

  She smiled at him.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “Not dead,” he replied. “Yet.”

  “Do you want some water?” she asked.

  “Sure,” he replied.

  The nurse had told Judy that his body could probably handle water and saltines at this point. She figured since this was the longest conversation he had achieved with anyone.

  She rushed over to a nearby table and poured some bottled water in to a glass, then came back to join him.

  They had moved themselves to the second floor above the bar and set up a make shift hospital bed for Jason. Linda was in the room as well at the time and had already gotten up to join Jason’s bedside. The guard out front came in, probably alerted to hearing Jason stirring.

  Judy tried not to glare at him, but that had been part of the arrangement. Someone would be stationed in or just outside the room with a gun to “take care of Jason” if he showed signs of being infected.

  Jason and Linda smiled at each other, then Jason turned back to Judy.

  “You know, when I first met you I thought you kind of looked like a twelve year old boy. But watching you work on me brought a whole new level of maturity to your face,” he joked.

  Judy and Linda laughed quietly. Judy knew that many people thought she looked like a young Asian boy, and in another situation she might have been hurt by the comment. But she knew Jason meant well by it. She too felt more confident, more sure of herself after helping save his life, so his joking about her boyish appearance was easier to handle.

  “So doc, am I going to make it?” he asked.

  “Of course you’re going to make it! You’ve got the best crew in all of Minnesota working on you,” said Linda.

  “What does that say about Minnesota?” he countered with a laugh.

  “Jay! You’re awake!” exclaimed Tara as she ran through the door, running over and giving him a quick kiss on the lips. Despite everything that had happened she now had no fear of showing her affection for this man she was just starting to get to know. She hadn’t even been able to have a conversation with him for almost two days. Still she had spent just as many hours at his bedside as all his friends.

  “Um, wow. Hi Tara,” he smiled.

  She had reached down and was holding his hand tightly.

  Linda blushed. Judy felt warmth in her cheeks and knew she was blushing too.

  Linda and Judy backed out of the room together, letting Jason and Tara catch up and have some alone time.

  “We all owe you one Judy. Thank goodness you stepped up and did what you did. I know we still don’t technically know if he’s going to make it, but it seems pretty likely. Why didn’t you go
in to medical school? You probably would have made a great doctor,” asked Linda. The two sat down on the top of the stairs.

  “Truth is, I hate blood and guts. I think people are actually kind of disgusting. I love science, and most of the classes I took in college were in the pre-med track, but I realized pretty early on I couldn’t stomach actual bodies and sick people. My mom had always hoped I would be a doctor, and I did become one. Just a virologist rather than a physician,” she explained.

  Linda chuckled. “That’s probably the most you’ve ever said about yourself. You are one unique and tough cookie under it all. Judy, if anyone’s going to save the world, it’s going to be you. And I hope I get to be alongside you to see it happen.”

  Chapter 56

  “We’re gonna miss you buddy. I kind of wish we had gotten to know each other better back at the station,” Linda said, tears brimming her eyes.

  “I wish you could be with us for the rest of our trip. You were a good friend and asset to our team,” said Greg solemnly.

  Judy couldn’t think of anything to say, she just looked from Jason’s face to his stump leg, the leg that she still couldn’t believe she helped remove and heal.

  “Jesus, you guys make this sound like my freaking funeral!” Jason shouted at all of them.

  “Well, we don’t know if or when we’ll ever see you again!” exclaimed Linda.

  It had been eight days since his amputation and Jason was doing great. They had moved him out of his make shift hospital bed and in to Tara’s home. She didn’t seem bothered by his handicapped status at all, and was helping set up areas of her house to help him get back on his feet, or foot that is, and be mobile on his one leg. They weren’t going to be able to get any professionally made prosthetic limbs for him any time soon, but one of the local townsfolk was an excellent carpenter and had been working on his own version of a prosthetic leg for him.

  Tara came back in from the kitchen with a tin of homemade chocolate chip cookies for them for the road, and started saying her goodbyes.

  “Judy,” Jason looked up at her and beckoned her closer. She came and sat next to him on the couch and he turned to face her.

  “I owe you my life,” he said. “And I am sure many more are going to owe you theirs in the end. Please know that I have all the faith in the world in you. I know your brother takes care of you, but you take care of him as well. My mother was a warrior woman, and I see a lot of her in you. I gave this to my mother on her fortieth birthday after researching it. It’s meant to represent the warrior woman. After her death I have kept it with me in memory of her, but I think you should be its new owner. You are going to be the warrior woman of the future.”

  He pulled a trinket on a silver chain from his pocket and handed it to her. It was a beautiful and intricately carved white tiger, about two inches in length with emeralds for its eyes.

  Judy held it in the palm of her hand and admired it. It was gorgeous. On the back were Chinese characters carved in to it that she thought read mother and strength.

  “Thank you,” she said, squeezing her fingers around it.

  “No problem, now go save the world warrior woman,” he said with a smile.

  Chapter 57

  Though staying with the town of Sunset Lake for over a week had really set them behind in their trip to Chicago, much of the snow had melted and the roads were manageable. Plus Tara had given them her plow, which was now hung on the front of their Chevy Suburban. They drove west on I-90, back on track.

  They had decided to drive on back roads directly south to avoid Minneapolis until they hit I-90, and once on the highway it had been mostly smooth sailing. There were the abandoned cars every quarter mile or so, but they rarely obstructed their path. There was also the occasional infected, as well as a couple groups of infected that posed a little more threat. They were able to use the plow as a battering ram in most scenarios.

  The groups of infected were getting more common, probably because they were reaching the northern suburbs of Chicago.

  Sadly areas of the most population density were naturally the hardest hit, but with increasing groups of infected also came more signs of civilization. In the last hour they had also passed or been passed by two-dozen other cars. Most of them were leaving the city, and some of them were even shaking their heads or yelling at them through their windows while they drove past.

  Judy sat in the back of the car and was getting intermittent wifi connections on her computer. She had been trying to contact her friend in Boston via email but so far had been unsuccessful.

  The rest of the time she was downloading more information on the extremophiles, trying to figure out what role they were playing in the virus.

  The current article she was reading was talking about how the extremophiles were so hardy in various environments, and she wondered if some of their components were what kept the infected animated as they continued moving with their sub-normal temperatures and often rotting wounds. Were these people actually dead and reanimated, or just infected? The pH in these people must be very low, which would also normally contribute to killing off infectious organisms, but this might be used to the advantage of the new hybrid with its extremophile component.

  She looked up from her current reading, noticing the car had slowed. Greg was pulling over to the side of the highway.

  “Everything ok?” asked Linda groggily, waking up from her nap because of the sudden change in speed.

  “Yes, I just think we should formulate a plan before just driving in to the city. Hopefully 90 is open the whole way, in which case Daniel’s apartment is just a couple miles off of this highway in the Old Town section of the city. But it might be easy to get over run by infected there. I was thinking we could trade off and Linda could drive laps around his neighborhood after dropping us off at his building. Then Judy and I could go get him and come back as you lap the neighborhood again,” he suggested.

  “That is assuming he’s still there,” Linda said.

  Greg’s face looked angry suddenly.

  “I’m just saying Greg, what if he isn’t there? How long and how far do we search?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. We should see what the situation is there before making any major decisions on that front,” he replied.

  Judy was listening, but also watching three infected stumble up the highway towards them. They wouldn’t pose any real threat to them, but she couldn’t stop staring. Their lips and eyes had a blue tinge to them, and their entire body seemed pale. Even the African Americans in this group had a grey tinge to his skin giving him the illusion of pallor and death.

  Greg followed her line of sight and saw them, but then turned and continued talking to the group in the car.

  “Judy, you alright?” he asked

  She shook her head and forced herself to stop staring at the infected. She realized there was an Asian boy in the group, and she had been secretly picturing Daniel the infected the entire time. She couldn’t tell her brother this, and her fear that this would be the case was so strong she didn’t want to tell anyone about her vision.

  “Yes,” she said, averting her eyes so as not to have to look at Greg directly.

  “Ok, well, let’s switch places then Linda. And let’s suit up, have our weapons on us so we can just jump out and run up to the house.”

  Chapter 58

  Old Town Chicago had the feel of Boston. It was full of brownstones and Victorian buildings. Many medical students lived in poorer areas of town, but with Greg’s financial situation he was able to help his son out in affording to live in this more high-end part of town.

  Still, their car pulled in to a neighborhood that currently looked far from wealthy or safe. There was litter everywhere, broken windows in many of the houses, and overturned trash bins and recycling cannisters just lying in the street. The smell was horrific, some acrid mixture of burnt flesh and rotting fruit.

  All of them had reflexively covered there mouth and noses to try to keep the stench o
ut.

  They were still a couple blocks away from Daniel’s street when a person came running out of nowhere towards their vehicle.

  It was a woman, dressed in winter clothes, steam coming from her mouth as she shouted. She slammed her fists on the front of their car and started screaming.

  “Let me in! Take me with you! Please, I can’t make it out here alone! Please!” she pleaded.

  Despite her pleas for help, her face remained neutral, like her body language belied something different from her words. It struck Judy as odd, but she felt bad for the woman. They were in a cop car after all, and cops should be there to help.

  “Keep driving,” instructed Greg.

  Judy looked at him, startled by his comment. He was never the type to leave anyone behind or to not offer a helping hand.

  Linda pushed on and the woman was forced to step aside, though she ran up to the vehicle’s doors and went to pull them open.

  They were naturally locked, but when she backed away from their vehicle the woman shouted again and suddenly a half a dozen people came running out from the side alleys, carrying guns and machetes.

  “Gun it! Go right then left!” shouted Greg. He cracked the window and shot back towards the crew that was now opening fire on them.

  Luckily they only had hand guns, and while some bullets ricocheted off the back of the vehicle, none caused any major damage before Linda had turned right at the next street like Greg had instructed.

  She then swerved left and drove on until Greg shouted to turn right again.

  They finally slowed, having put at least a half-mile of distance between them and the group of people.

  “How did you know?” asked Judy.

  She was referring to how her brother knew not to help the woman, and that it was all an ambush in waiting.

  “She reminded me of a similar situation I was in when in Afghanistan. It just seemed like a ruse, like she didn’t really want help, just to distract us. Linda, slow down. Daniel’s place is just on the corner up here,” he said.