The Departed

by Chase McCown

  They dreamed brave dreams that night and hoped brave hopes. All except Mike, who only wanted to be left alone with his self-pity. The next day, a hot breakfast helped to cheer him up, but a knock at the door would change his outlook entirely.

  Chapter 54

  January 28th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  Eight months had passed since they first arrived in DC, and by all accounts, things were going well. They all felt as if they were contributing something, giving something back to this Union that had taken them in. Mike was still sad at times but felt much better than he had so many months ago.

  A knock startled the four as they ate their breakfast, jarring them suddenly from their drowsy state.

  Howard answered the door, and a man in a black suit greeted him.

  “Howard McGregory?” the man asked.

  “Yes sir, and you are?”

  “Eric Smith. I’m with the Secret Service. The President requested you step outside with me. All of you.”

  “What’s this all about?”

  “You’ll see. It’ll only take a moment. If you would, please.” Smith again motioned for them to follow, and they complied.

  As they stepped out into the bright sunlight of the new morning, they noticed a band playing nearby. When their eyes had recovered from the blinding light, they saw a marching band walking down the street, which had just begun to play. Clowns, gymnasts, dancers, and even a few people walking on stilts followed the band. The realization of what was happening was slow, but suddenly Mike exclaimed what the rest were thinking.

  “A parade!”

  They were instructed to march with the parade, and they happily agreed. Susan and Howard hung back a bit, walking near the band and trying to be inconspicuous, but Jacob and Mike danced with the clowns and stilt walkers.

  After a few glorious minutes, the parade stopped at the town square, where a large tarp hung over something situated in the middle of the square.

  “Hello, friends,” the President said from behind a podium overlooking the scene. “I’ve gathered you all here today to pay homage to an unsung hero, someone whose tale has thus far been lost to the annals of time. Today, we will bring this man’s sacrifice to light. Please, lift the tarp.”

  At his request, the tarp was lifted. The construction under the tarp was a scene carved in stone.

  Mike was perched atop a wall, reaching out his hand to Charlie, who stood in the center of the scene. Charlie didn’t reach back, though. He only raised his hand, as if to wave goodbye to Mike. Four infected clawed at Charlie, dragging him down, but Charlie’s face showed no fear. He smiled at Mike while bracing himself for what would come.

  Beside the statue stood a plaque, whose simple inscription read only one word.

  “Sacrifice”

  Mike stood reading the plaque and gazed again in astonishment at the scene. He didn’t notice, but tears had begun rolling down his cheeks. He wasn’t sad, though. He was happy. Charlie was a hero, and he deserved to be remembered this way. He started to laugh, wiping away the tears and walking closer to get a better look at the statue.

  The statue gave the whole group a sense of purpose. They couldn’t let Charlie’s sacrifice be in vain. The outbreak had to be stopped, no matter the cost.

  Chapter 55

  January 28th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  Sgt. Bradley stood up straight and saluted, as he always did, at Howard and Susan as they drew near.

  “You know, you don’t have to salute every time, son,” Howard joked. “It’s just us, after all.”

  Bradley laughed. “I’m hoping if I keep at it, they’ll give me a citation or something,” he said, smiling. “Right through here. You’ve got a special guest today.”

  Howard and Susan proceeded through the gate and into the familiar courtyard they’d seen a hundred times by that point. The transition from the blindingly sunny outside to the shaded interior made them squint. When their vision finally adjusted, they saw a few instructors, a regiment of soldiers—a larger batch than usual—and someone else.

  The President.

  He stood talking to some of the soldiers, and Susan and Howard decided to walk over and greet him.

  “Oh! Look who it is. I really appreciate you guys taking time to work with the troops like this,” the President said.

  “No problem, sir, we’re happy to do it. What are you doing here, if you don’t mind me asking?” Howard probed.

  “I don’t mind at all. I convinced the security detail that it couldn’t hurt to get some self-defense training in. I know they’re good at their jobs, but I know I’d feel better with a little more firearms training. I’ve gotten a little rusty since my time in the army,” he said.

  “Well it’s great to have you here,” Susan said, shaking his hand. “We’re just about ready to get started. We just have to set up a few things.”

  “Of course. Good to see you two,” the President said before resuming his conversation with the soldiers.

  It was strange—the whole thing was strange, as a matter of fact. They hadn’t yet grown used to the lives they now lived. Susan still looked over her shoulder, half expecting to see the infected that must be after them. Usually all she saw, though, was the statue in the town square.

  As Susan set up the rifles for the marksmanship training, Howard asked the question that was on both of their minds. “Is this too good to be true? I mean—everything. I just feel like something’s not right. Do you know what I mean?”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” she said, setting up the bipod on a Barrett.50 caliber sniper rifle. “I feel the same way.”

  “All set?” an instructor asked.

  “All set,” Howard affirmed.

  They trained the troops in hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship and then gave them pointers on how to combat the infected based on their experience. It was strange, giving tips to professional soldiers, but the infected fought differently than anything the army had ever faced before. When they were finished, they packed up their equipment, waved goodbye to the crowd, and headed back to the apartment.

  Once back home, Howard tossed his duffel bag filled with supplies onto the nearby couch.

  “Jake? Mike?” Susan called.

  “They must be out working with New Dawn,” Howard said after a long wait.

  “They seem to be doing well,” Susan remarked.

  She walked to the refrigerator and retrieved the lunch portion of her daily rations, placed it on a plastic bowl, and slid the plate into the microwave. She typed in one minute and thirty seconds on the keypad before returning to the refrigerator to retrieve a bottle of water. She unscrewed the top of the bottle and took a long swig.

  “What’s for lunch today?” Howard asked.

  “Vegetable soup.”

  “Mmm, that sounds great,” Howard said, sorting through the rations in the refrigerator and retrieving his own portion of soup.

  When they had both finished heating their food, they sat at the kitchen table to eat lunch.

  Chapter 56

  January 28th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  An hour earlier, Jacob and Mike had sat talking on the couch when there was a knock at the door. Jacob offered to answer it, and Mike sat up so that he could get a glimpse of who was there.

  A man Jacob recognized as a scientist from New Dawn said, “Jacob, your and Mike’s presence is requested at the New Dawn headquarters. And do hurry—the matter is urgent.”

  The man then walked away and disappeared behind the building.

  “They need us, Mike,” Jacob said.

  Mike groaned but nodded and went to his room to get ready.

  In about ten minutes, they stood at the door of the research center. Jacob buzzed the doorbell but got no initial response.

  “Figures,” he said. “They rush us down here but can’t be bothered to answer the—”

  As he spoke, the door flung open, and a receptionist stood
to greet them.

  “—door... Hello,” Jacob finished.

  She chuckled. “Jacob and Mike, I presume?”

  “That’s right, we were told they needed us for...something... They didn’t really specify what, come to think of it.”

  “Right this way. Sorry to keep you waiting. It’s the second door on the left,” she said, pointing them in the right direction.

  They entered a dark room, lit only by the hallway behind them.

  “Thank you for coming on such short notice. Close the door, please,” a man said. His silhouette was only just visible in the darkness of the room. Once the door was closed, a projector turned on, and it shone on a wall to the right of Jacob and Mike.

  “We have a special assignment for you two. We’ve requisitioned a small detachment of soldiers, along with a helicopter. We’d like for you to ride with them to a small city in Nebraska called Seward, where a pilot has confirmed a strong infected presence, and capture one of the infected and bring it back—alive.”

  He pulled up a map of the city on the projector before asking for questions.

  “I do have one question. Are you insane? How are we supposed to bring back one of those things alive?” Jacob asked.

  “Look, we need it so that we can test the cure once it’s developed. We’re also providing a specially designed tranquilizer rifle that should quickly subdue an infected, along with a cage which the helicopter will carry that you can use to store it in.”

  “And what if they swarm us?”

  “Then you’ll be glad you’re in a helicopter and not a truck or plane. This is of the utmost importance to our cure development, which you agreed to help us with. If this is too dangerous for you, I understand. But your experience with the infected could prove invaluable to the mission’s success.”

  “How long will we be gone?”

  “About twenty-four hours.”

  “We’ll think about it.”

  “There’s no time for that, you’re either leaving now, or you’re not. We have the helicopter for only one day, and then the army needs it.”

  “Mike, what do you think?” Jacob asked.

  “I’m game if you are. I’ve always wanted to fly in a helicopter,” Mike said.

  “I don’t know, Mike, it sounds pretty dangerous. Maybe you should sit this one out,” Jacob said.

  “No way. I’m not letting you go out alone. Besides, he already said we’d have soldiers with us.”

  “Fine. We’re in,” Jacob said at last.

  Chapter 57

  January 28th, 2026. Somewhere over Nebraska, near Seward.

  The “whup whup whup” of the helicopter deterred any attempts at conversation between Jacob, Mike, and the crew. They’d been flying for what must have been hours, but Mike seemed to enjoy watching the landscape transform as they traveled. Mike felt like a giant as he looked down upon the rising and falling of the mountains below, but Jacob instead felt a bit shocked at seeing how small he really was.

  There I am, he thought as he saw a dot pass by underneath them, a mere gnat of profound insignificance from this vantage point. His ego ruptured, and a shrinking feeling took hold of him which he tried very hard to shake.

  “Look at that!” Mike shouted as they approached a forest of windmills.

  “Y-yeah, that’s great, Mike,” Jacob sputtered, still deep in thought.

  “We’re approaching the objective now,” the pilot said.

  Good, Jacob thought.

  The pilot brought down the chopper, and the crew disembarked.

  “Something doesn’t feel right,” Jacob observed, noting the remarkably desolate surroundings.

  They stood near a farm, and a looming cornfield sat nearby.

  “Let’s check the barn. Quiet now,” Lieutenant Cowell said, motioning for his men to take positions.

  “Breach on my signal. Support?”

  “Sir?” answered a soldier carrying a SAW light machine gun.

  “Be ready.”

  “Sir, yes, sir.”

  The lieutenant raised his hand and then made a fist. The soldiers by the barn doors slowly brought them open, and the rest braced for a swarm of infected to attack.

  They were met only with silence.

  “Empty?” Jacob asked.

  “Sweep the room. Check everything. Report anything suspicious.”

  Cowell’s men split up to comply with his orders, and as they spread out, the infected rained down on them from the upper level onto the ground floor of the barn in a torrent of writhing bodies.

  “Were they…hiding?” Jacob asked, shocked.

  “Regroup on me!” the lieutenant ordered. “This is Alpha One. Prepare for immediate evac. Do you copy, over?” the lieutenant called over his radio.

  “Roger that, Alpha One. Preparing for evac. Be advised, we’re spotting large numbers of unidentified heat signatures coming from the cornfield, half a click north of your position.”

  Lieutenant Cowell fired frantically into the mob of infected, but it only seemed to grow and surge with each passing moment. Two soldiers deepest in the barn were no longer visible and had presumably been lost.

  Cowell and the others escaped from the barn but were shocked by what they saw. Creeps poured relentlessly out of the cornfield toward the helicopter. As they boarded the helicopter, the creeps began leaping onto the rotors and tail, attempting to prevent their escape.

  “Let’s go!” Cowell pleaded.

  “Yes, sir,” the pilot said, and the chopper began to ascend. It struggled to gain lift with creeps hanging from the rotors, but soon their grip loosened, and they fell into the mass of creeps beneath.

  As the crew regained composure, one last infected reached into the open interior of the helicopter and clawed at Mike, trying desperately to bring him down with it. The lieutenant pulled out his pistol and fired a single shot into its head, and it fell back to earth. They had survived, but the mission was a complete failure.

  Weren’t the infected supposed to be mindless beasts? How did they know they would be coming, and how had they set up such an elaborate trap? These new developments troubled Jacob as they traveled back, and the crew did even less talking than they had on the way to the objective.

  “We lost two good men today,” the Lieutenant commented when they landed back at DC. He searched for something more, but there was perhaps nothing more to be said. He shook his head and wished them well, leaving to bring the bad news to the families of the lost.

  Chapter 58

  January 29th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  Jacob and Mike knocked on the doors to the New Dawn research facility and were quickly buzzed in to give their debriefing to a group of scientists standing and talking in the same dark room they’d gotten the mission in.

  “Where is it?” asked the voice that had originally briefed them.

  “Specifically? I’m not sure. Somewhere in Nebraska,” Jacob answered.

  “What are you talking about? What happened?” the voice demanded.

  “The whole setup was a trap. The infected set an ambush for us, and two soldiers didn’t even make it back. The whole mission was poorly planned from the start. You killed those people!” Jacob said, raising his voice to a shout.

  “Lower your voice! An ambush? Hmm, interesting. I wasn’t aware the infected were intelligent enough to do such a thing. Ambush tactics suggest some capacity for intelligent thought but also a willingness to cooperate with other infected to reach a common goal. This is a dangerous foe indeed, and further thought must be given to how to deal with them. Thank you,” he said.

  “Excuse me?” Jacob asked.

  “That will be all.”

  Jacob and Mike were shocked by his attitude but left and headed back to their apartment.

  There, Howard and Susan played checkers.

  “Hey guys, where’ve you been?” Susan asked as they came in.

  “Nebraska, actually,” Jacob said.

  “In a helicopter!” M
ike exclaimed.

  “Yeah,” Jacob affirmed.

  “What?” Howard asked, turning around to face them.

  “New Dawn wanted a ‘living specimen’ for their study. I didn’t want any part of it, but it sounded important, and it was a ‘now or never’ sort of thing, so I agreed. It was a bad deal, though,” he explained as he rummaged through the refrigerator for food.

  “Why? What happened?” Howard asked.

  “We went with six soldiers. We were going to hit one of the infected with a tranquilizer and throw him in a cage we were carrying with us, but the infected were waiting for us. They ambushed us. We were lucky to make it out, but we lost two guys.”

  “What did New Dawn say?” Susan asked.

  “He said what happened was ‘very interesting’ and told us that was all he needed for the day,” Jacob said as he heated up food for himself and Mike and opened a bottle of water.

  “I’m glad you guys are okay. We didn’t know what happened,” Susan said.

  “Sorry, we didn’t mean to worry you guys. I just kind of assumed everything would go smoothly, and we’d be home the next day. Now I just can’t stop thinking that if I hadn’t gone, those two soldiers would still be alive,” Jacob said, looking at the rations he’d heated but suddenly feeling not as hungry as he had been moments before.

  He set the food aside and went to sit on the sofa with the others.

  “It’s not your fault, Jacob. They volunteered to go. It was the infected that killed them, not you,” Howard said.

  “Maybe, but it still doesn’t feel right.”

  “I know,” Howard agreed. “It never does.”

  Chapter 59

  January 29th, 2026. Washington DC, Capital of the New Union.

  Mike took his food to his bedroom, stating that he would eat and then take a nap. After the door was closed, Jacob spoke up.