From inside the car they could hear the man screaming as he charged.
“What do I do?” Adrian yelled.
“Floor it!” Kala screamed. “Hit the gas!”
Adrian slammed his foot down on the gas and the car lurched forward. It was just an old station wagon, not a sports car, but it had enough torque to leap forward into the charging man. He hit the hood and then his head slammed into the windshield before the force of the impact threw him back off the car. They watched in wonderment as he flew almost twenty feet in the air and then impacted the asphalt.
“Holy crap,” Abbie said.
Adrian nodded. The big black man rolled many times when he hit the ground and Kala wondered if he was dead. She felt the car slowing.
“No! Keep going, Adrian, get us around him!”
Adrian hit the gas again and they sped around the man. As they did so, Adrian sideswiped a parked car on the side on the road.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“Careful!” Abbie screamed.
“I’m sorry, I can’t see!” Indeed, the windshield where the guy’s head had hit it was shattered. Not caving in, but there was only about six inches toward the top that Adrian could actually see out of. He swerved back into the middle of the road, overshot it, and sideswiped another car on the opposite site. This hit was harder and sent the girls flying again.
“Ahh! Dammit, that hurt, Adrian,” Abbie yelled at him.
“Just shut up a minute; I can’t concentrate with you yelling like that!”
Abbie sat back in her seat and Kala could see that she was fuming. Hurt tears ran down her face and she thought that some of them were probably angry tears as well.
“Adrian, get us the hell out of here! Do you want me to drive?”
He glared back at Kala. He took two deep breaths then pressed on the accelerator again, going much more slowly this time. “All right, I can see, just not well,” he said, craning his neck to see out of the top of the windshield.
Kala slumped back in her seat. At this rate, they would be lucky to get there at all. Kala watched Adrian carefully place a hand on Abbie’s leg. She was still pissed, but when he touched her, she looked at him and her face softened. Kala frowned again at this behavior. He had just been all over her in her bedroom an hour ago. Maybe she had imagined the connection? No, he had kissed her, there was no imagining that. A little bit of pissed-off acid rose up in her throat. She snorted. Boys are pigs.
Chapter 28
Abbie turned on the radio. It was set to a local pop station. Normally, WKFR was playing the billboard top 40 hits from the last several years. Now, a loud siren bleated over the airways. It was the emergency broadcast system being activated. The siren stopped a moment later and a crackle of static filled the speakers. Adrian thumbed the volume up a little and the trio listened as they traversed the Miami suburbs.
The report was brief, and to Abbie it sounded military. She shifted in her seat since it was hard to get comfortable. Her leg, where the late Mr. Wolfgang had bitten her, was throbbing. It was a pain that seemed to radiate out from her injured calf and over her legs with every beat of her heart.
The voice on the radio sounded nervous. He wasn’t unprofessional, but it sounded to Abbie like he had just been handed the report that he was reading, and did not like what it had to say. For the first time, the people of Florida would learn what was happening in their most populous city.
Abbie felt chills crawling around within her as she listened. The man on the radio described the disease as an exotic new type of malaria, one that had never been studied before. This ‘new’ disease was transported into America on board a ship that had traveled to a tropical island in the Atlantic. It came ashore via insects and spiders that hitchhiked on board the vessel. Once on American soil, these bugs integrated themselves with the native animal life.
Some of the hitchhikers, spiders, which are not actually insects at all, spread out all over the city, some of them biting humans. The first human who was bitten by one of these spiders, as far as they could tell, was Marc Velez. This started a chain reaction and before Velez’s death, he was also bitten by a native mosquito. That mosquito became infected and carried the disease to another human, who was in turn bitten by more mosquitos, and so on.
“The President has declared a state of emergency. Florida, contrary to the earlier words of the governor, will not be evacuated. Today marks the first time in our country’s history that the state of Florida is going to be governed by martial law. National Guard units will be assisting state law enforcement agencies to enact a statewide quarantine.”
Abbie sucked in a breath. My God.
“The Surgeon General has released this statement: ‘The best course of action for Florida residents is to remain indoors. Do not leave your house for work, or to mow your lawn, or to get your mail. Danger is everywhere right now, both in infected insects and in violent infected humans. Wear Deet-based insect repellent at all times, and be sure to stay away from any unusual spiders you might see. Again, do not leave your homes. The people of Florida will not be abandoned. The CDC is sending in medical supplies that local doctors and volunteers will use to stem the flow of infection throughout the state. I know this will be a difficult time for Florida residents, but we cannot allow this disease to spread.”
“That’s all for now, folks. The bottom line seems to be that help is coming, but for the time being, no one is getting out of Florida.”
Abbie looked over her shoulder at Kala in the back seat. She was staring out the side window. She did not react to the broadcast.
“Getting sick of being right?” Abbie asked her.
Kala shrugged, “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t.”
A bead of sweat was rolling down Abbie’s face. She watched Kala watching the sweat roll off her face. The way Kala watched her made Abbie feel like a bug in a jar. Abbie looked forward and tried to shake off the chill that had permeated deep within her. She shivered, and at the same time wiped the sweat from her forehead. She did not feel well at all.
“We’re close to the airport now,” Adrian said from his position in the driver’s seat, awkwardly craning his head and neck to see out of the window.
“I hope my parents are still there,” Abbie said. She would feel better once she could see them. All of this stress and worry was beating her down and her body was feeling the effects.
“I’m sure they are,” Adrian said, “and we’ll all get out of town together.”
He patted Abbie on the leg. It was supposed to be comforting, but she was too hot and the brief contact made her leg sweaty. She reached up and cranked the air conditioner up to high.
“How are we going to leave if we’re being quarantined?” It was Kala’s voice, creeping up from the back seat.
“Here we are girls - whoa!”
Abbie looked up. “Oh, wow!” she exclaimed.
Kala leaned forward between the two front seats. “There must be thousands.”
Abbie’s gaze swept over the sea of glass and steel in front of them. They were at the airport access road about a half-mile from the airport itself, and in front of them lay a wide expanse of abandoned vehicles jammed together, all the way to the terminal buildings in the distance. It looked like a scene from a post-apocalyptic thriller, like Stephen King’s The Stand.
“Guess we aren’t the only ones with this idea, huh?”
“Where are all the people? They just ditched their cars here and left?” Kala asked.
Abbie saw the remnants of violent episodes all around them. Blood on the cars, bits of entrails hanging here and there, body parts strewn about.
“They must all be in the airport,” Adrian suggested. “Let’s go, we’ve got a good half-mile hike before we reach the terminal building.”
Adrian started to open the door.
A hand shot up from the back seat and stopped him.
“What is it?” he asked Kala, a slight edge to his voice. Adrian was ready to move.
“I-I don’t feel very good about this.”
They waited for her to continue.
“Let’s just take this slow and try to stay out of sight, all right?”
Adrian and Abbie exchanged confused looks. Adrian looked like he wanted to roll his eyes at Kala’s comment, but Abbie saw fear in her friend’s face. Kala, afraid? Kala was a great many things, but she wasn’t one to be nervous or afraid of anything. The thought of it made Abbie feel even more unsettled.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, please,” she said to her friend.
“I just have a bad feeling.”
“You, feeling? Didn’t you tell me that you are fueled by facts not fears?”
“That was just a clever trope I came up with. I do appreciate facts more than supposition, you’re right, but there’s something wrong here. I don’t think we should be here, Abs.”
“All right,” Adrian said, rolling his eyes a bit, which drew a frown from Abbie. “Look, a lot of bad things are happening. Let’s just go.” He pulled himself out of the car and into the humid air.
Abbie continued to watch Kala with worried eyes.
“It’s going to be all right, Kal,” she said. Abbie managed a weak grin.
Kala did not think everything was going to be fine. She watched as her best friend of many years struggled to get out of the car. She was in pain, that much was obvious. Still, Kala thought there was more to it than the eight deep puncture wounds her father had made in Abigail’s calf.
Abbie’s face was pale. Her normally tan, Puerto Rican face, a face so many white girls would kill for, was now the color of a white towel that had been washed with a load of darks. It was dingy and dirty colored, sickly. Sweat was rolling from her friend’s face, even though the air conditioning was cranked up all the way in the station wagon - it could not have been more than sixty degrees inside. She’s feverish, Kala thought. Kala’s mind was roving over many observations, problems, and possible solutions when Adrian knocked on her window and startled her. Okay, she thought, let’s go.
“There’s some bug spray in the trunk,” Kala said as she pulled herself out of the maroon Subaru. “We’ll need to coat ourselves well with it.”
They did, spraying the pungent, deep-forest spray over every exposed inch of skin that they could. Kala noticed that once they left the car, all three of them began scanning the air above and around them, as if they would be able to see a mosquito approaching. It was terrifying to think that death was flying all around them, probably in droves of millions of the biting insects.
Kala pulled the M & P pistol out from her back holster and racked back the slide to advance a round into the chamber. Then she slid it back into her holster. She pulled the magazine from her AR then reattached it to make sure it was seated properly. She nodded at Abigail, who did the same with her AR-15. Adrian watched them and glanced down at the shotgun he carried. Kala didn’t know if he knew how to shoot well or not, she just assumed not. She watched Adrian flick off the safety of the blued-steel 12-gauge. He then looked at her expectantly.
“Okay, let’s do it. Follow me for a bit, and Adrian, try not to shoot your foot off.”
“Huh?”
“Just keep your finger away from that trigger unless you really intend to use it.”
He gave her a gruff look, but removed his finger from inside the trigger guard, where it had been resting dangerously close to the trigger. Kala gave him what she hoped was a sarcastic smile, and then began making her way through the wide expanse of abandoned cars around them.
They needed to cover about a half-mile, and they did so at a moderate pace. The serpentine path they had to take around the parked cars slowed them. The land here, approaching the airport, was slightly rolling, with the occasional outcropping of scrubby bushes and a small palm tree here and there.
Kala insisted that they stop every minute to listen and observe everything around them. The others begrudgingly humored her, though she saw Adrian and Abbie exchange looks more than once. Looks that told her they thought she was crazy. Crazy enough to kick your ass, Adrian, Kala thought, though she did not know if that was really true. What? Where had that come from? She was getting distracted and that might be dangerous. Past a few more cars, they were able to see why the oasis of uninhabited vehicles stretched so far from the airport.
“Good God,” Adrian said. Abigail, beside him, stared up and nodded her agreement.
Kala sighed. God she hated being right all the time.
They had come to the tall fence that surrounded the airport’s property. The gate that the access road ran through, which was usually always open, was securely shut. Two empty security cars had been parked behind the gate on the airport side of the road to prevent anyone from busting through.
“Why are they trying to keep people out?”
“We’re quarantined now, remember?” Kala reminded them. She sighed again and asked the question she already knew the answer to. “I don’t suppose this might dissuade you two from continuing, will it?”
Adrian had already found an opening in the fence where someone had used a heavy-duty bolt cutter to cut an entrance through the security fence. It had been peeled open a little to allow easy passage though the chain link. The three of them walked through the hole in the fence, ironically, right next to the No Trespassing sign, and Kala felt a chill ripple through her skin. They still could not see the airport itself, well, they could see the top of the rectangular control tower, but nothing else, as there was a small hill in their way.
Kala took the lead again and trudged up the little hill. After cresting the embankment, the front of the airport suddenly came into view, less than a hundred yards away. Kala reached the top of the hill first, looked, paused, then her eyes bulged wide. Shit!
Kala dove down to the ground, her rifle crunching into her chest, and scuttled downward, awkwardly waving one hand at the other two. She stood and ran at them, motioning them to get back, but then she tripped and crashed into the dry earth.
“Kala, what’s wrong?” Abbie yelled, running up to her fallen friend as fast as her injured legs could carry her. She dropped the AR and knelt next to Kala.
“What is it, Kal, what did you see?”
Kala had the wind knocked out of her, and when she recovered, she saw Adrian making his way up the hill.
“Get back here!” she cried out to him, waving frantically. He gave her a confused look but complied. When he reached the girls, Kala was back on her feet. Adrian looked frustrated at being told to come back.
“What is it now, drama queen?”
His words stung and Kala’s hands balled into fists. A low growl involuntarily crept out of her throat. Adrian gaped at her, startled by this animalistic response.
“Knock it off, Adrian,” Abbie said, glaring in his direction. “What is it Kala, what did you see when you went up there? Are there many people?”
Kala didn’t answer, but for a slight nod. She swung the backpack off her shoulder and from it, she extracted a long black gun scope. She had taken the scope from the other rifle they had left at home, thinking it may be of use to them as a sort of binoculars. Kala breathed deeply. Did I really see what I think I did? Yes, it was unmistakable. But did somebody see her? No, probably not. Surely if she had been seen, there would have been sounds of a pursuit.
“Very carefully, crawl up the hill,” she said to Abbie and Adrian. “Then you can see for yourself. We made a mistake coming here,” Kala said this and then paused. “All of these people did.”
So they crawled up the hill and as they reached the top, Kala became nervous. She felt her heart rate rising steadily. When they reached the top, they lay out prone, lookin
g over the edge. Kala handed the riflescope to Abigail.
“Look at the front promenade,” she told her.
Abbie looked for a long time and then handed the scope to Adrian, who reluctantly took it. He had been looking, just with the naked eye, as Kala had, and if his eyesight was good, then he already knew. He put the rifle’s optics up to his eye anyway and drew in a long breath. When he finally turned away and handed the scope to Kala, she thought he looked a little green.
“What now?” he asked. Defeat was in his voice.
Kala raised the scope to her right eye and gently squeezed the left shut. She breathed smoothly and took in the massacre. There were hundreds of them, possibly more. Dead bodies everywhere, splayed out all over the concrete walkway leading to the front doors of the airport. Maybe thousands.
Her eye settled on a smallish boy. He was on his side, facing in her direction. He was perhaps only six, with a chubby innocent face that reminded her of her brother. Lukie … His eyes were open, though she could not tell what color they might have been in life. In death, all eyes seemed to look gray. In his forehead was a single, large, red, hole. A gunshot, in the head. He was only a little boy, but he had still been gunned down, just like all the others out here.
She trained her eye on the victim’s hands and noticed that they were not red with blood or mutilated, as the hands of the infected usually were. They hadn’t been rampaging. These were just citizens of Florida. They came here for help, to try to get away, and they were slaughtered.
Kala felt hate rise in her, hot and deep, like a little ball of liquid metal in her heart. Then she shifted her vision again and focused on what she had seen when she initially crested the hill, what had caused her to dive down in fear. Standing in front of the airport, spaced out twenty feet each, were four men in full tactical gear. They each held what looked to her like MP5s, automatic weapons that were ideal for close quarter combat. Combat. Or butchering.
Pathosis (A Dark Evolution Book 1) Page 22