I avoided looking at Raj's body. I didn't need the distraction. The only thing I was sure of was that I needed to get Sarah and Becky out of the house and do it quickly. Get them to the research facility.
It struck me that something didn't quite track, as if there were something out of place. And then it hit me. The picture window was intact. Not a crack anywhere. I glanced over at the door and it was perfectly intact as well. The infected hadn't broken into the house, Raj had let them in.
I didn't want to think about it. I couldn't. I got busy. The first thing I did was to close the front door and lock it. Before I closed it, I took a peek outside. The Swimmer had disappeared into one of the backyards across the street and South Fortuna Way was predominantly clear of the infected. There were two grays down the street heading our way, but they wouldn't be a problem, not with the Tundra.
I went to the stairs and called up loudly to them. "Sarah, we have to go. Throw the backpacks down and I'll be up in a minute to get you and Becky."
I ran to the bathroom and turned on the cold water and splashed some of it on my face. I toweled off, then went into the living room and used the towel to wipe the bat clean. I heard the backpacks hit the hallway floor upstairs with a thump. The infected man by the front door was near the bottom of the stairs. He was in the way. I used the towel to grab him by the foot and drag him into the living room with the others. Then I went into the garage and started the Tundra. It started right away and I could feel the power of its engine.
I hustled up the stairs and felt the soreness in my thighs. I went into the bedroom and grabbed the chair and took it out into the hallway and set it below the attic. Then I helped them get down from the attic. Becky first, then Sarah. Sarah carefully lowered herself and I helped guide her down with my hands on her hips.
After I stepped down from the chair, Sarah touched my arm below the wound. A dark spotting of blood had seeped through to the outer t-shirt. But my shoulder wasn't what was preoccupying her mind.
"Raj?" she asked, though it was clear she already knew. They both knew. I could see the pain in Sarah's eyes. She was simply looking for confirmation. Becky's face had already slackened into sadness.
I found I couldn't say the words. I didn't even know what they would be. Instead, I briefly shook my head and looked down at the floor.
Becky started to cry and Sarah pulled her daughter close to her. We needed to go. There wasn't time to grieve. It would have to wait.
I set the bat into its place in the backpack. I touched Sarah on the arm. "We have to go. They'll be coming soon."
Sarah nodded. I slipped my backpack on and asked Sarah if I could carry Becky downstairs. She agreed. I picked Becky up and asked her to close her eyes. I didn't want her to see the carnage. She closed her eyes and buried her face in my shoulder, and I placed my hand on the back of her head. Sarah grabbed her backpack and Becky's and we went downstairs.
Sarah glanced at Raj as we passed through the living room. It wasn't more than a cursory glance. I kept my hand on the back of Becky's head as we passed by.
I got them settled in the back seat of the Tundra. "This will only take a minute," I told them.
Sarah looked at me quizzically, but I didn't have time to explain.
I grabbed the matches from my backpack and tossed the backpack on the passenger side seat in front. There was a red plastic gas can on the other side of the garage. It was half full, but it would do.
I took the gas can into the living room. I pulled Raj away from the recliner. He looked uncomfortable with his neck bent so sharply. I poured the gasoline over his body and on the wood floor around him. Then I stepped back and lit a match and tossed it. The flame spread quickly over Raj's body and the floor—a yellow flame that danced and licked upwards at the air.
For a moment, I thought about saying something, but I had no idea what would be appropriate.
Once in the garage, I headed to the garage door. When I got there, I grabbed the red handle for the bypass switch and pulled it, and I heard the lever lock into position. I grabbed the door handle and lifted the garage door quickly. I took a peek outside and checked to make sure we were clear, then made my way back to the Tundra.
I shifted the truck into drive and could feel the anger rising within me. A part of me hoped the Swimmer would be out in the street so I could run him over. I scanned the street, but there was no sign of him. The two infected I'd seen earlier were lumbering toward us. I drove around them and accelerated.
I glanced in the rearview mirror as we approached the curve in the road and then I saw him. He'd come back out into the street in front of the house we'd just left. He began to hobble determinedly after us.
The road curved a few blocks ahead. It would be four blocks before we got to Brockbank Drive and then two blocks to the facility. A block ahead of us, a handful of infected stumbled about in a front yard. They'd be no hindrance.
I glanced in the rearview mirror and could see Becky leaning into her mother. She was crying softly. Sarah stared vacantly ahead. I hated to interrupt them, but I knew we had to contact the facility.
"Sarah, could you text them and let them know we'll be there in about three minutes?"
She didn't say anything but reached into her backpack for her phone. I could see her texting. I checked my watch and it was a little after six.
We passed the infected out on the lawn. They turned and stared at us as we drove past. A spattering of fresh blood brightened their dusty clothes. A couple of them chewed slowly on something in their mouths. They started to amble after us, but they were no threat.
We went past the last curve in the road and ahead of us I could see the stop sign where Fortuna Way intersected with Brockbank Drive. We were still clear.
I slowed at the stop sign and turned right and headed down the hill. The Salt Lake Valley opened majestically in front of us and offered a breathtaking view. A month ago, it would have been a beautiful morning. People would have been jogging and bicycling on Wasatch Boulevard.
The morning sun had poured its brilliance into the valley all the way up to the Holladay area. Another ten minutes, it would light up the East Bench area too.
Brockbank swung sharply to its left right before it intersected with Wasatch Boulevard. I followed the curve and the Jorissen Research Building came into view, a three-story brick building with long, narrow dark windows. The building took up half a block and was built into the lower slope of the mountain. The first thing I noticed was a large black helicopter sitting atop the building.
I was surprised to see it. Sarah hadn't mentioned anything about anyone other than the scientists being here. I looked in the rearview mirror and could see the surprised look on her face.
I turned into the parking lot in back—a decent size lot with plenty of parking spaces. A Hyundai Elantra was parked in the middle of the lot not far from the back door. I drove near the back door and swung the truck around so it faced the parking lot exit, just in case.
We stayed in the truck while Sarah texted them again. Ten seconds later, the back door opened. A man in black military-type garb held the door open. He didn't pay any attention to us but scanned the area and kept his eyes peeled down the street.
I grabbed my backpack. "Let's go," I told them. Becky had stopped crying, but her eyes were red and swollen. We got out of the truck and I locked it, and as I walked past the bed of the truck, I set the keys as casually as I could in the back corner of the truck bed. I wasn't sure why I did it.
Four steps led up to a large steel door. The door was three inches thick and painted pewter gray. I went up first to check things out. He held the door open with one hand and cradled an automatic weapon with the other. He was my age, maybe a few years older, and he was all business. His eyes were narrowed in concentration. He had a lean, hard build and a tight face with a sharply delineated jaw line.
A few feet back from the door stood a slender man in chinos and a crisp burgundy polo. The man had thick, silvery hair neatly tr
immed. It looked to be a fresh cut. He smiled easily at me as I stood in the doorway. He had one of those comfortable-in-his-own-skin smiles and radiated a quiet confidence. He wore aviator-style wire-rimmed glasses. He looked to be in his fifties and looked fit. The only hints to his age were the silvery hair, a web of fine wrinkles that fanned out from the corners of his eyes, and a few thread-thin creases across his neck.
He looked as if the apocalypse had never touched him.
I stepped aside and let Sarah and Becky into the building.
"We're so glad you made it. Please come in. My name is Lukas Melzer. That's Lukas with a k," he said. "I'm a consultant with the Homeland Security Department."
Chapter 19
Reconstructing Babel
Melzer stepped forward. "You must be Sarah," he said warmly, extending his hand. Sarah hesitated before reciprocating. Melzer took her hand and placed his other hand on top of hers in a reassuring gesture. Sarah looked past Melzer to the enormous, open room behind him.
Melzer held Sarah's hand a moment longer before letting it go.
The room was dominated by a maze of drab gray office cubicles. Three long rows of cubicles were divided into sections by vertical and horizontal hallways. The ceiling was twenty feet high, giving the room a cavernous appearance.
Becky leaned into her mother's side and wrapped her arms around her.
Melzer nodded sympathetically in the direction of Sarah's eye. "That must hurt," he said. "Maybe we can do something for it."
"It's fine," she said.
Melzer shrugged and turned his attention to Becky. "And you must be Becky. How are you, young lady?"
Becky forced a half smile and pressed her head into her mother's side.
"Well, that's all right. We've been looking forward to meeting you, Becky. We understand you're a very special young girl."
The security man closed the door and locked it. The door had a large vertical deadbolt at the top. The man slid the deadbolt into its chamber and pulled the knob over to secure it in its slot, then picked up a security bar off the floor and placed it against the underside of the door knob.
Melzer noticed the bat handle sticking out of my backpack. "And you are?" he asked.
"Jake," I told him.
Melzer smiled and offered me his hand and I shook it.
"Very nice to meet you, Jake," he said. "Please call me Lukas."
I nodded.
Lukas Melzer looked around and seemed puzzled. "Excuse me. I thought there were supposed to be four of you."
Sarah and Becky stiffened.
"Our friend didn't make it," I told him.
He seemed to sense our discomfort. "Oh, sorry to hear that."
An awkward moment passed before Melzer raised his arm usher-like and guided us to a bank of offices to the left of the cubicles. "Let me show you where you'll be staying and you can get settled in and relax for a while. We'll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning."
We followed Melzer.
The idea of moving to a secure location still surprised me. I had difficulty reconciling the idea in my mind. All along I'd been dead set on getting to the cabin, and the thought of not going there felt like a betrayal. Getting to the cabin had been my sole focus till Sarah and Becky and Raj had showed up.
Melzer led us to two offices located near the stairwell door toward the front of the room. Along the front wall of the room was a cafeteria to the left, his and her rest rooms in the middle, and double doors to the right leading to the reception area.
The double doors were solid oak with thick, vertical deadbolts like the back door. A barricade of tables and chairs and computers were crammed up against the doors. There was little to worry about. The infected would have to get through the front doors in the reception area before they could ever get to the double doors. And if they did, Melzer let us know it would be easy to isolate the infected on the first floor. The only access to the second floor came via the elevator in the lobby or the stairwell, and there was a security bar for the stairwell. If the infected ever breached the building, we'd move to the second floor, secure the stairwell door with the security bar, then escape via the helicopter.
Sarah and Becky and I were the sole lodgers on the first floor. Both Coleman, the security guard who'd let us in, and Alvaro, the other security guard, roomed up on the third floor. Alvaro was also the pilot. Melzer mentioned them both by name but never introduced us.
Melzer had taken an office on the second floor to be close to the two scientists who shared the second-floor lounge. The labs were located on the second and third floors.
Sarah and Becky took the office nearest the stairwell and I took the office next to theirs.
They'd brought in a second couch so Sarah and Becky would have enough room to sleep. The offices were only slightly less drab than the cubicles. The walls were a soft avocado green and the carpet a light beige. The outer walls of the offices had large opaque windows that let light in yet offered privacy.
My office had a gray metal desk with a leather swivel chair behind it. Two basic arm chairs were positioned in front of the desk, and a couch sat against one wall. For color, a mix of rustic-hued plastic flowers—carefully arranged in a jade vase—sat atop a file cabinet in the corner. A painting offering a vista of snow-capped mountains hung on the wall behind the desk.
I tossed my backpack onto the couch and sat next to it. I tried not to think about Raj. I felt out of sorts, disoriented. We'd stepped into a new world and I didn't know what to make of it.
I took one of my t-shirts out of the backpack and pulled off the two long-sleeve tees I'd been wearing. I did it with great care. My shoulder still ached.
After I put a fresh t-shirt on, I dug my iPad out of the backpack and checked to see if the internet was still alive and it was. I checked the usual sites but found nothing of interest, so I turned the iPad off and stretched out on the couch.
I felt exhausted and numb and my body ached all over. I rolled over and buried my head in one of the throw pillows. I did my best not to think about Raj and what had happened back at the house, but the scene burrowed its way into my mind. I knew Raj's death wasn't my fault, and I wasn't going down that self-judgment road again. Not this time. I'd done everything I could. Raj didn't have to open that door. If he hadn't opened the front door, he'd be alive and well. Raj had a choice to make and he made it, and that was on him, not me.
I thought about being up at the cabin, and I let images of the cabin and the stream and the woods drift before my mind's eye as I drifted into a sound asleep.
*****
I awoke in a haze and several moments passed before I knew where I was. It wasn't long after I'd awakened that I first heard him. I'd slept for three solid hours and was surprised I'd slept so long. I attributed the deep sleep to feeling completely safe for the first time since before Alex died.
Though his strident yell was muted, I knew it was him. The sound came from the streetside wall opposite the offices. More infected would be coming, but I wasn't worried. I felt safe inside the building. It was as if we were no longer a part of his world.
An hour later Sarah and I sat on a couch in a medical room on the second floor. She'd found a first aid kit in one of the cabinets and was ministering to my arm. Before she tended to the wound itself, Sarah had tested the range of motion in my shoulder. Despite the soreness, I managed to rotate it a full 360 degrees. I felt pain when I raised it up all the way, but at least I had full range of motion with it.
After she'd tested my range of motion, she cleaned the wounded area and tended to the splinters embedded in my arm. The three splinters I'd pulled out earlier weren't alone. Sarah had found a pair of tweezers and a needle and doused them in alcohol and pulled the splinters from my arm. She inspected the wounds closely with the needle, carefully separating the skin to find any leftover slivers hiding in the wounds.
I did my best not to flinch as she pulled them out.
Becky wasn't with us. The door to the medical room wa
s open and I could see her looking through a microscope. She'd made friends with the younger virologist and was being entertained by the scientist in one of the labs. All the labs had glass walls except for a few feet of drywall at their base.
Before Sarah and I had made our way to the medical room, Melzer introduced us to Drs. Nardone and Flanagan. Both specialized in virology and immunology, and the two scientists were as different as night and day.
Dr. Nardone looked to be in her fifties. She had dusty brown hair well on its way to gray and wore reading glasses with braided chums. While she wasn't exactly overweight, her body seemed to have settled into sluggishness from decades of sedentary lab work. During the introductions, Dr. Nardone stood stiffly in her white lab coat, looking impatient, her thin lips shut tight as if she had lockjaw. Occasionally, her eyes would dart here and there around the room. As soon as the introductions were over, she quietly went back to work without so much as a word.
The other virologist's name was Dr. Amy Flanagan. She had wavy light red hair and a smattering of freckles below her eyes. Her freckles were light, barely distinguishable from her facial skin. She looked to be in her mid-thirties. She was fresh and friendly and had an infectious smile and hit it off with Becky right away.
Sarah was studying my wound closely, her face no more than a few inches away. She'd located another sliver and moved the tweezers into the wound with exacting precision.
"I heard him," she said casually.
I wasn't sure what she was talking about. "Heard who?" I asked.
She squeezed the splinter, pulled it out steadily and examined it. "I heard Raj," she said quietly. "I know he let them in."
Apocalypse Journeys (Book 1): Jacob's Odyssey Page 23