Plagued (Book 1): The Girl Who Chased The Shadows

by Scott, Garrison

  Karen and Jack stood side by side surveying the scene in front of them.

  “This is going to be rough,” Jack said, stating the obvious.

  Karen nodded. “We’re not going to be able to carry anything out of here other than our back packs.” She looked behind them toward her daughter. “And Alissa.”

  Jack called out to the little girl. “Ready Alissa?”

  “No, wait!”

  Alissa ran to the back of their “camp” and dug through one of the remaining bags. After rummaging up a stuffed animal she held it up for her mother to see.

  “Mommy please can I bring Señor Fluffypants with me?”

  “Yes sweety, but that’s it, ok?

  “Kay.”

  Jack clicked on his flashlight and handed it to Alissa.

  “Are you and Mr. Furrybutt ready?”

  Alissa hit him on the leg with her stuffed animal. “Señor Fluffypants!”

  Jack laughed at her. “Ok ok, I’m sorry. I guess I’m not good with names.”

  Karen shook her head at them both as Jack kneeled down and allowed Alissa to scramble up his back. Once she was settled he stood up and grabbed his back pack. It was considerably lighter than it was when he had packed it a little over 2 weeks ago.

  “Ok, ‘Lissa. Shine that flashlight straight ahead.”

  The little girl clicked on the flashlight and aimed it just as requested.

  “Nice job. Now one more thing before we go. And this is important, ok?”

  Alissa moved her face closer to Jack’s so she could hear everything he was about to say.

  “There are going to be some things that we see on the way up that are not going to be nice and may even be a bit scary. If you see anything like that, just go ahead and close your eyes. I’ll keep you safe, don’t worry, ok?”

  Alissa tightened her grip on Jack before she answered him in a low whisper. “Ok Jack.”

  Karen hadn’t thought about what they may or may not see on their way out. She was just happy that they were finally leaving this horrible place behind. The lack of day light, the smell of the ocean mixed with death, the stale air. She wouldn’t miss any of it. She took a second to thank God for Jack and the nice man and his daughter? Granddaughter? Who rescued them from Dick and told them to come to the airport instead of the city.

  “Ok then, let’s go.”

  Jack moved ahead and began the dangerous and tedious task of looking for a way up and out of the parking garage.

  Back in the bunker, another trio was also making strides in their quest to reach the surface. Buddy, his tail wagging, was dangling from the ceiling, affixed to the rafters by nylon mountaineering straps and carabiners. Along with the dog the two rucksacks had also been secured to the ceiling. Everett was midway through threading the straps that would lift Skyler to the ceiling when she interrupted him with her hand on his arm.

  “Grampa, what about you?”

  “Darlin’, someone’s gotta open that door.”

  Skyler didn’t bother to mask her panic as she realized what opening that vault door actually meant. “There’s got to be another way. Can’t we use explosives to open it? A hand grenade?”

  Everett put his hand on Skyler’s arm and explained, “Nothing we have can make a dent in that door, darlin’. It was built to last. Now let’s get you squared away.”

  He laced his hands together to make a step so he could boost Skyler toward the ceiling.

  Instead of stepping up and strapping in, Skyler used Everett’s hands to reach her hanging rucksack. After briefly rummaging through it, out came a heavy duty yellow nylon rope. She zipped up the rucksack and she hopped back down. She went about the task of tying the two of them together, first looping one end of the rope around his waistband. She then looped the other end around her own. Skyler finished by expertly tying the two ends together with a bowline knot.

  “That some nice knot work.”

  She was not in the mood to joke. Skyler looked up at him, her face grim. “I have to try, Grampa.”

  With a nod he re-assumed the boosting position and hoisted her up toward the ceiling. This time she strapped in and they both worked to make sure her gear sufficiently secured.

  Everett walked to the vault door and put his hand on the wheel. He bowed his head down as if to say a prayer. After a moment he turned and looked toward his granddaughter hanging from the ceiling.

  “Angel. If I don’t get out of this bunker ...”

  “You’re getting out.”

  “But if I don’t ... I want you to head to Austin without me — get to Bryce. The two of you together are a force of nature that can do a lot of good for whoever’s left out there.”

  “And the three of us together will be even better.”

  Everett smiled at his granddaughter. She was convinced things were always going to go her way eventually. He hoped she was right this time.

  “Ready?”

  Skyler nodded.

  He slowly rotated the turn wheel on the vault door.

  With a deafening WHOOOOOSH the vault door flew open sending Everett flying backwards as the torrent of thousands of gallons of ocean water rushed down the stairwell and into the main bunker room.

  The nylon rope connecting Skyler to her grandfather went taut around her waist. The carabiners holding her suspended above the water began to strain under the added weight.

  She grabbed hold of the rope and pulled hard as the water continued to rush in below her, hoping to bring her grandfather up above the surface of the water.

  After a few seconds — that seemed like hours — she spotted Everett, struggling to make his way to the surface. Just as he managed to get a gulp of air, a piece of debris slammed into the side of his head, knocking him out. Skyler watched on in horror as his seemingly lifeless body was quickly reclaimed by the torrent as he slipped out of sight.

  Skyler jumped into action, quickly releasing herself from the ceiling and dropping down into the murky churning waters below.

  She dived beneath the surface continuously pulling on the rope that connected her to her grandfather, gathering up the slack while trying desperately to find him. Navigating the fast moving wall of debris that separated them was nearly impossible. Swirling around her were tree limbs, roof shingles, car parts, and things she just couldn’t identify. On top of that there were fish — some alive and some dead being swept along with everything else.

  Mixed in with the more innocuous debris, however, were body parts, both human and animal. She focused on the task at hand and tried not to dwell on each individual piece of debris. Instead of allowing them to be a distraction she thought it was best to look at each piece as an obstacle that needed to be navigated in order for her to save her grandfather.

  Skyler fought her way through all of it as fast as she could, she was well aware that Everett didn’t have a lot of time. She collected the rope’s slack and followed the line until she found him unconscious on the other side of the room. His end of the rope had become tangled up in a mess of fish netting and boat rigging. She reached between her legs and unsheathed the combat knife she had strapped to herself only hours before. She hadn’t anticipated needing it so quickly.

  She made quick work of freeing her grandfather from all of his entanglements and quickly navigated her way through the debris, desperate to bring her him back up to the surface.

  When they finally emerged she was nearly dizzy from the lack of oxygen.

  How long was I under there? Three minutes? Four? She looked at Everett, he was not breathing. She dismissed her line of thinking and started swimming for the staircase, hauling her grandfather behind her, grateful to see that the current had weakened substantially as the last of the water had made it’s way into the bottom level of bunker.

  Exhausted, she climbed out of the water and dragged Everett onto the stairwell landing. She immediately began to perform CPR alternating between pumping on his chest and breathing air into his lungs. Buddy, still hanging from the ceiling, watched
on. He alternated between a soft whine and a low growl, traumatized by all that had happened in the last few minutes.

  “Come on Grampa.”

  She worked on him for what seemed like an eternity. She was not going to give up on her grandfather.

  Relief isn’t a strong enough word to describe how she felt when Everett finally stirred. She turned him over on his side as he coughed up some water and regained consciousness.

  NINE

  An hour later Everett was sitting up, leaning against the concrete wall, and feeling better. As he rested, Skyler had worked to rescue Buddy and the rucksacks from their safe spaces. The stairwell was in decent shape, but as a resting place it left a lot to be desired. Still she didn’t think it was a good idea to leave the area just yet. Everett looked weak to her and they had no idea what awaited them one hundred feet up in the dark of night.

  “Grampa, as uncomfortable as this place is, maybe we should rest here until morning.”

  “No ... I’m good.” Everett got up unsteadily but he was determined to leave the bunker stairwell behind as soon as possible. “Let’s head out and leave the bunker to the fish.”

  Skyler turned away from her grandfather and studied the newly formed salt lake that had taken over the bunker’s lower levels. The water had cleared a bit in the last hour and in the beam of her flashlight she could see schools of fish swimming close to the surface. It was an unlikely place for an aquarium, but she’d seen smaller at the zoo.

  “How long do you think they can survive in there?” She wondered out loud.

  “I have no idea. They’ve got plenty to eat, that’s for sure. They’ll probably like those MREs a lot better than you did.” After a beat he added, “Let’s head out.”

  The nearer to the surface they got the more wrecked the stairway became. As they got closer to the ground level navigating the stairs became more like mountain climbing. They took turns passing the gear and the dog between one another as they ascended slowly toward the outdoors. With less than fifteen feet left to the surface they could see the stars through the empty space above them that once housed the hatch door.

  “Looks like a clear night.” Skyler commented absently, wondering what waited for them above ground.

  While they were holed up in the bunker she could think of nothing more than leaving it. It wasn’t that she felt claustrophobic; the bunker was too large for that. It sounded clichéd but she missed the feeling of the sun on her face, the wind in her hair and the smell of fresh air. But now, now that they were just a few feet from the surface she couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in her gut that had grown stronger with each step they took toward the surface.

  They hadn’t seen much in terms of signs of life on the surveillance camera. Not long after they’d spotted the man in the canoe, mold had started to form on the inside of the camera case and on the lens itself, cutting off most of their view. An occasional bird would fly in and out of frame, but they never saw another person.

  Everett interrupted her thoughts. “Here we go, angel.”

  They took their last few steps up and out of the bunker stairwell and were immediately overwhelmed by a strong, stomach-turning stench.

  Skyler gagged and put her hand over her nose and mouth. “Oh geez, what is that smell?”

  Everett covered his nose and mouth as well. “Sewage. Fish. Death.” He pointed toward her rucksack. “One of those bandannas oughta help a bit.”

  Skyler dropped her rucksack and searched for a pair of old-school red and white cowboy bandannas. Once she located them, she handed one to her grandfather. She folded her bandanna into a triangle and then draped the widest end around her face, just above her nostrils. She then knotted it tightly around the back of her head. She looked over toward Everett who had done the same. She noted to herself that they looked less like urban explorers and more like old-timey train robbers.

  “What about Buddy?” Skyler asked.

  Her grandfather laughed. “I don’t think he minds so much.” It was true, Buddy seemed unphased by the rank, gut-churning odors that assailed their senses. He was alert with his tail held high, happy and ready for whatever adventure his new companions would take him on.

  Everett shined his flashlight around the immediate vicinity, finally able to get their first real look at the areas their camera couldn’t show them.

  It seemed that no matter where he shone the light, wherever it landed, utter devastation was revealed. With each sweep of his beam the reality of how terrible the event had been, and how lucky they were to have lived through it, came into sharp focus.

  “My God.” Everett said under his breath.

  Not a single house had been spared. Many of the uniform plots of land that had made up this carefully planned neighborhood had little evidence that a home had ever been there at all. Only an occasional partial brick fireplace seen here and there rising out of the rubble gave any hints that this area had once been one of the nicest communities in Nassau County.

  Seeing all that had been swept away by ‘XF11 and its aftermath was heartbreaking, seeing what had replaced it left them speechless.

  Vehicles, turned into crumpled balls of steel and plastic, were everywhere. Dead fish and the rotting carcasses of larger sea animals were strewn about.

  “That explains the smell,” Skyler said to her grandfather.

  “Sure does.”

  She took a step forward to get a better look and her foot got caught on something, nearly causing her to trip. She steadied herself and turned on her flashlight, pointing it down toward the ground at her feet.

  “Pants?” she asked, puzzled. Her foot had become entangled in a crumpled pair of jeans. She kicked them loose and found beneath them there was a t-shirt and someone’s underthings.

  She swept the area with her flashlight and saw that, curiously, there were piles of clothes dotting the landscape around them.

  “Why all the clothes I wonder?”

  Everett shrugged. “Maybe just a trick of the tide?”

  “Was that some sort of laundry pun? Really? Now?”

  Everett chuckled and shook his head. “Not guilty, I swear.”

  He continued to search the area with his flashlight. There were other, more random types of debris a little further in the distance. Such randomness would be comical if its cause and consequences hadn’t been so gravely serious.

  Everett’s beam stopped on a semi with an accordioned trailer resting where one of their neighbors’ home used to be. Leaning against the semi there was a huge highway sign that read:

  Exit 1 South of the Border Next Right

  Skyler was confused. “Wait isn’t that—?” her voice trailed off.

  Everett finished her sentence. “In South Carolina.”

  Skyler whistled low. “Wow.”

  Once again he guided the flashlight elsewhere in the neighborhood, this time it revealed a large yellow metal structure, as big as a two car garage, in the distance.

  Neither of them had seen anything quite like it before.

  “What the heck do we have here?” Everett asked.

  He shined the light around the structure until he came to a bit of printed text near its base.

  Skyler read what it said aloud. “N.O.A.A. weather buoy. I had no idea they were that ... big.”

  “Me neither angel. There’s a lot of stuff up here I never thought I’d see in the streets of Great Neck. We need to keep an eye out. See if there’s anyone left that may need some help.”

  They continued west out of their neighborhood, swinging their flashlights looking for any signs of life. Other than the sounds of their footsteps, it was deathly quiet.

  “Even the crickets are gone,” Skyler observed.

  As they walked Everett reached into his rucksack and pulled out a granola bar. He broke it in two and handed half to Skyler.

  She took it from him and attempted to take a small bite. As she suspected it tasted terrible — almost as bad as the air around them smelled. While her grandfather w
as searching out signs of life, she tossed the rest of the granola bar to Buddy. He ate it immediately.

  It was slow going for Jack, Karen and Alissa. With no discernible direct path up and out of the parking structure they were forced to crawl around and in between pieces of crumbled cement and crushed cars that were just too big to move. On top of that they would occasionally walk past decaying bodies of all kinds along the way. And the smell. The smell seemed to get worse and worse the further they ascended.

  Karen tapped Jack on the back. “Jack?”

  He turned around, his face was bathed in sweat from carrying both his pack and Alissa.

  “Something wrong?”

  She smiled at him and shook her head. “No, I think we need a break. We’ve been going at this for hours. Mind if we take a load off for a bit?”

  Jack was relieved at her suggestion. His arms were tired and his back was hurting.

  “Sure we could do that.”

  He gently set Alissa down in a relatively clear and unbroken spot of asphalt. Karen handed him a juice box as he sat down.

  “Thanks, Karen.”

  She sat down next to him. Alissa instinctively crawled up into her mother’s lap and closed her eyes. After a few minutes the little girl had fallen to sleep.

  “How far do you think we’ve come?” Karen whispered.

  Jack shook his head. “It’s so hard to tell. Like you said, we’ve been at it for hours. I’d be happy to learn we were at least halfway to the surface.” He tossed the empty juice box and leaned back against what used to be a car.

  Karen nodded and watched the juice box land a few feet away. “We should take our time, no need to rush too much, we’ll get there even—,” she looked toward Jack and stopped talking. He had fallen asleep.

  Skyler and Everett had made their way to Highway 25, Northern Boulevard. Ahead of them was a church. It had sustained a lot of damage, the roof looked to be mostly collapsed and the grounds around it were a wasteland, but against all odds, the church was still standing.