Maureen looked back and tendrils of smoke rose from the center of the island. She caught a whiff of burning plastic and smoldering peat. Soon the entire island would be ablaze, leaving only a black charred scar. Maureen also knew the fire would bring new life and that in less than a year, it would be hard to tell there’d been a fire there.
They paddled into the thick vegetation, and Don called out to Lester, the man Don had told them about. Maureen looked forward to meeting Tank and Jessie as well, and she wondered how the smaller dog would handle her owner not being with them. When they heard Lester’s faint return call, they moved toward his voice.
Lester waited, M16 at the ready. Don made introductions, and Maureen found that she liked Lester. He had soft, kind eyes, but she could tell there was great pain hidden behind them. Maureen gave Lester some of the food they’d found, and before long, they were dragging the kayaks through the forest. Don had argued that they still might need them if the airboat was gone, or broke.
Saura was having trouble keeping up. Don set a grueling pace, and Maureen understood why. At the same time, he had to see she was breaking down, though she didn’t appear to be giving it much of an effort. Maureen slowed and stayed behind Saura. Lester wasn’t doing too much better. Don didn’t seem to care.
“Hey. Special agent man,” Maureen said. “You out of here now that you have your sample?”
Don stopped, and Raul almost walked into him. “I’m not so sure anymore.”
“Why?” Maureen asked.
“No white scars,” Raul said. “On Drago’s face or any of his men. Right, Reacher?”
“Right,” Don said. Who the hell was Reacher?
“So how could they handle the money and not be infected?” Maureen said.
“That’s the question of our lives,” Don said.
“None of the packets of cash on the pile were opened. Maybe the money went out to the next link in the chain sealed, and spread via the next level of dealers. That the stacks were sealed is proof Drago didn’t want to touch the stuff, I would think. Maybe he used the tainted money to buy his supply, and let others distribute the virus,” Raul said.
“All possible,” Don said.
“And Drago threatened Maureen by saying he’d open a package, like that was something he wouldn’t normally do,” Raul said.
“Maybe they wore gloves or protective hand cream,” Maureen said.
“Okay. What?” Don said.
“They make cream to protect you from poison ivy and things like that. I use it when I garden. It feels like a coating of plastic on your hands. The stuff doesn’t last long, though,” Maureen said.
“The gloves are a possibility. Nobody would question gloves on a guy like Drago,” Don said. “The cream is a stretch. Though, they knew what the virus did, so I’d think they’d be careful.”
“And the cream isn’t much of a stretch,” Saura said. They all looked at her, but she didn’t back down. “I saw that stuff in Drago’s private tent. I’ve seen it before. Ping uses… used it.”
“Raul, didn’t you search in there?” Don said.
“Yes, and now that I think of it, she’s right. It was in Drago’s tent with his colognes and stuff. Sorry. I had no reason to mention it. He wears Brute, if that’s relevant.”
Don chuckled. “As to your question, Maureen, no, I’m not out of here.” Don gathered Saura, Raul, Lester, and Maureen around him. “From what I can see, none you are infected. Lester’s been with me, and I consider you folks members of this team, if you’re willing. I need your help. If I can get these samples out, we can stop this, and bring some of the infected back.”
“But what does that mean?” Raul said. “Maybe we should just wait it out in the Glades.”
“You’re saying when the time comes, and they extract you, we’ll all come with you?” Maureen asked.
“If you’re uninfected and have helped me to the best of your abilities, yes.” Don held his hand out to Maureen.
She didn’t take it. “I have a couple questions.”
They started walking again, dragging the kayaks. “What if we’re wrong?” Don said, anticipating her question. “Doesn’t matter. As you can see, I’m not exactly at my best, so I’m running with the money concept and contacting my people. There’s not a hell of a lot more I can do with my current resources.”
“That was one question,” Maureen said. “Wouldn’t your people have picked up a victim by now to do research on, is another question. And can’t the government get a sample of the disease from one of them?”
“You’re a nurse, right?” Don said. Maureen nodded. “Think about it then. When a virus infects its host it grows, it changes and adapts. We need a pure sample of whatever they created. Plus, you’re missing the bigger picture. I can also now tell my people with ninety-nine percent certainty how the pathogen is being transmitted. That will allow them to take precautions all around the world.”
Saura said, “So they might not get you out.”
“There is that possibility, at least initially,” Don said.
“Then what?” Saura said.
Don said nothing.
All that made sense to Maureen, and she said, “One last one. Why get rid of Drago? Wouldn’t you want to question him further?”
“For what? He clearly didn’t create the virus, and would die before he told us anything. This way is better, and much faster,” Don said. Then he read her mind yet again, and continued, “And there was nothing to be done with Dempsey’s body. We couldn’t bury it. No rocks for a can. It would have burned no matter what we did, so why waste time?”
“Respect,” Maureen said.
“We don’t have time for respect. You think the disease will show respect?” Don said.
Maureen stopped pulling the kayak and held out her hand. Don took it. “Good. You?” he asked Raul. Raul and Don shook hands, and then Saura held out hers. “You have to step it up if you want to survive,” Don said to Saura.
Don’s perception amazed Maureen. In the short time he’d known Saura, he’d sized up her entire life, and in his polite, straightforward way, he’d just told the woman that if she wants to live, she better act like it.
“So the plan is to contact your people and get the hell out of here with the samples?” Maureen said.
“Yup,” said Don.
“How?” Saura asked.
“I need to contact my people via radio on the ultra-high-frequency emergency band,” Don said. “I think if I can find the right marine radio, and Lester and I modify it and add some power, I’ll be able to get them.”
“How will they know it’s you, Agent Mulder?” Raul asked.
“I have a special passcode,” said Don.
That satisfied Maureen, and it was a lot more than she’d had that morning. They started moving again, and entered a thick patch of pine trees. The kayaks floated on top of the saw palmetto, and this made it easier to drag them, except when they got caught between plants. She watched where she stepped because Don had told them this section of woods was packed with spiders and snakes. There were footprints, and it was clear Don and Lester had come this way. The rest of the pine forest looked to be untouched by man.
“Damn,” Don said as he saw the tire marks from Dempsey’s kayak carrier.
“Forgot our wheels,” Lester said. “I thought of them a ways back.”
They came to an angular aluminum airboat tied to a tree after forty minutes of walking. The boat was small, and only seated three people, and she didn’t understand how everyone, along with the kayaks, would fit on the boat. Expecting her concern, Don said, “No worries. We’ll tie the kayaks up behind the airboat and go real slow. We’ll all fit.”
As they had since she’d meet him, Don’s words put Maureen at ease. She saw why he had great authority and power. He had an innate ability to lead people without trying, and she had no doubts they’d been lucky beyond count when he’d stumbled into their lives.
Raul and Lester busied themselves with
tying the kayaks up to the airboat while Don got Saura and Maureen situated. Once Raul and Lester had joined them, Don pulled a folded piece of paper out from underneath the pilot’s seat.
“What’s that?” Saura asked. Maureen had noticed a change in the young woman’s demeanor. She was attempting to understand what was happening and get involved.
“Dempsey used this map to get us in here. I will use it to get us out,” Don said. He handed the map to Maureen, then turned the airboats great propeller. It took six turns before the engine caught, and the giant propeller spun. The motor roared, and the boat flattened the plants behind it.
Don eased the airboat’s yoke back, and the boat inched forward through the sawgrass choked water. Maureen sat in the chair next to Don, and Saura, Raul, and Lester sat on the deck before them. A tickle in her subconscious made Maureen look over her shoulder, back at the cypress trees. She started when she thought she saw a figure darting from tree to tree, watching the boat. She looked at Don, who watched her with a smirk on his face. None of the others seemed to notice their pursuer, so she stayed quiet.
Using the hand-drawn map, Maureen did her best to guide Don through the bays, streams, mangrove thickets and stretches of swamp. Above the sun crested over the horizon, and thick black clouds came in from the east.
“That doesn’t look good,” Maureen yelled over the growl of the airboat’s motor.
“No. It doesn’t,” Don yelled. “But we’re almost there.”
Don made one last turn and headed down a thin waterway that led into a thick tangle of mangrove trees. Don eased the boat’s yoke forward, and it slowed, and he shut down the engine. “This is where Dempsey parked it,” said Don, as Lester jumped from the craft, and tied the boat off on a tree. “Make sure it’s secured well. Never know. We might need this baby again.”
“Really?” Maureen said.
“My people may not be ready to extract us from the city. They may want me to get clear for pickup,” Don said. “Especially if I have civilians with me.”
Don made sense, as always, but the idea of returning to the Everglades turned her stomach. One by one, they jumped from the boat and headed up the path to Dempsey’s van. Maureen grabbed the water bottles sitting on the boat seat. She couldn’t carry them all, and everyone was already off the boat, so she abandoned two bottles.
Luckily for them, Dempsey had left his keys on the airboat. Jessie and Tank were excited to see them, but when Jessie realized Dempsey wasn’t with the group, the small dog balled up in the back of the van. Tank was happy to see Lester and Don, and he warmed up to everyone else fast enough. Maureen gave both dogs water, and in minutes, Dempsey’s hippie van was rolling back down the dirt road that led to Bubba’s house.
Maureen sat in the rear of the van, stroking both Tank and Jessie. When they reached the end of the dirt road, and turned up Bubba’s long driveway, Maureen thought she heard a faint wail of pain in the distance. None of her companions appeared to have heard it.
When they reached Bubba and Annette’s house, Don killed the motor and told them all to sit tight. Maureen said she was going with him, and Don didn’t protest. Bubba’s front door stood open, and his screen door flapped in the breeze. Don got out and went to the garage, the double-barrel shotgun held out before him. Maureen trailed behind holding her rifle with its single shot.
The side door into the garage was gone, and from the looks of it, the door had been broken in from the outside. Tristin was nowhere to be found. Don took two large red containers of gasoline, and when they left the garage, he put the extra gas in the back of the van, and headed for the house.
Bubba’s living room was destroyed. All his furniture was ripped to shreds, and the flat screen TV had been torn from the wall and used to break the fish tank. Dead fish lay all around, and water and colorful little rocks covered the floor. Don and Maureen moved into the kitchen, and checked the entire downstairs. Everything was chewed up, and broken, but there was no sign of Bubba, his wife, or Tristin.
They went back around to the foyer, and Don called up the stairs, “Hello!” Silence. “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you. Hello!” A floorboard squeaked. “It’s me, the man who saved you. Come on if you’re here. I have to leave.”
Nothing.
Don turned and opened the front door.
“Don?”
Tristin stood at the top of the steps, staring down at them petrified, but she appeared all right. “Come on then,” Don said. “We have to get going.” Don quickly finished searching the house, but found no useful weapons. He grabbed food and drink, but found little else of use.
When they got back to the van, Lester was in the driver’s seat. “I’ll take a turn. You need a little rest,” he said.
Don didn’t protest. “This is Tristin,” Don said. The young girl got into the van, followed by Maureen, who put her arm around the girl and pulled her close.
“Where to?” Lester asked.
“Do you know of any big marinas? Or boat storage places? Like where they’d store big commercial fishing boats, ferries, or yachts?” Don asked.
“Yeah. Tony O’s on the creek in Black Point,” said Lester. “But it’s back toward the coast.”
“Go there. Fast,” Don said.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Don rode shotgun, his head resting against the van window as he scanned the road and surrounding area. His eyes hurt, his mouth was dry, his throat sore, and every wound ached. They crept back toward civilization, and abandoned cars, and occasional bloodstains where a person or animal had been torn to shreds marred the landscape. To the northeast, smoke rose into the dark clouds above midtown Miami. He knew the chaos had no boundaries because it had reached Bubba’s place on the edge of nowhere. In the city, where there were high concentrations of people, the disease would spread exponentially.
He needed to understand what had happened at Bubba’s house, but he didn’t want to upset Tristin just yet because she had gone through two difficult traumas in a short time. He needed to know if Bubba had transformed on his own—he used and bought ride after all—or if the house had been attacked by outsiders. If it was the latter, things had spread faster than Don had thought possible.
The clouds were thick overhead, and the rain came in large, sporadic drops that smacked the windshield and tapped the van’s roof. Within seconds it was pouring, and the VW’s old wiper blades couldn’t keep up. As Lester pulled over, Tank lifted his head to take a look, then rested it on his folded paws. Don and Lester examined a map. “Are there drainage canals along this road?” Don asked.
“No. There are traditional storm drains on that one,” Lester said.
“Good,” Don said. “I want to be able to drive around obstacles, and roadside canals are beyond the vans capabilities.” More stuff a GPS couldn’t tell them. They went the long way around, and cut through a few housing developments hoping to avoid problems. Once the shower ended, the sun would shine again, but until then the walkers were free to roam. Then he remembered how the walkers had been all covered up when they’d saved Tristin.
Lester pulled the van back onto the two-lane road and started off through the open fields once again. Sugarcane and other crops grew well here, and other than a few houses, and some barns and metal warehouses, nothing but green fields stretched in every direction. Miami was nothing more than a distant stain on the horizon. The rain let up and abruptly stopped. Don cracked the windows open, and the fresh scent of water filled the vehicle.
“How are you, Tristin?” Don asked. He didn’t want to upset the girl, but soon they’d be back in the thick of things.
The girl still pressed against Maureen, her arms around her new surrogate mother. When the girl didn’t speak, Maureen said, “It’s okay, honey. He just wants to help us get out of here. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
Tristin nodded, then said, “I’m all right, I guess.”
“No cuts or wounds we need to worry about?”
“No, sir,” she said. “You
want to check again?”
“I don’t think so, and no need to call me sir. I work for a living,” Don said. “You feeling up to telling me what happened at the house?”
The girl winced as if reliving the pain. “I… is it important?”
“A little. You can save your story about what happened before we rescued you, but what happened at the house could be relevant.”
“Okay,” she said.
More buildings appeared in the fields as the farmsteads got smaller, and mile-by-mile they got closer to the suburbs of Miami. The rain started again, abruptly stopped, and a huge rainbow hung over the road. Thick smoke still hung in the distance.
“Take your time. Be as detailed as you can,” Don said, urging Tristin along.
“When you left me, I was terrified. I didn’t know what was happening, and having seen my entire family killed, I wasn’t myself, if you understand me.”
“Of course. We understand,” Maureen said.
“Go on,” Don said. “What happened after we left you?”
“I found some old blankets on a shelf and laid them out on the floor and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. My head hurt, and my hands shook. I lay like that for a long time—until I heard the yelling and screaming.” Here Tristin paused, her face filling with fear and anguish.
“At first, I hid under the blankets and hoped whatever was happening outside would pass me by. Then someone pounded on the garage door, and I hid behind a pile of wood,” Tristin said. “The side door caved in, and I saw Bubba, but it wasn’t the Bubba I’d seen in the driveway when you brought me there. He had…” She shrugged as if everyone knew the rest.
“How did you get in the house?” Don said.
“He didn’t find you?” Raul asked, at the same time as Don.
“I hit him with a rake and ran passed him. A woman stood in the doorway of the house, calling me. I ran to her because she looked okay, but Bubba came after me. I hid upstairs. He never came for me.”
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