“Do you think you can handle a gun?” I asked.
Again, there was a pause. “I don’t know, Casey. I still can’t focus very well,” he admitted.
“That’s okay. Let me find you something else. I looked around the space and concentrated on the area where the moonlight hit the floor where I’d tossed the screwdriver. There beside it was the floor jack. I hurried to the equipment, grabbed the lever attached to the unit, twisted it out of the base, and handed it to Jordan. “Could you defend yourself with this if you had to?”
“Yeah, I think so,” he answered
His voice sounded more alert, and that gave me confidence. Okay, so I’m going to leave you here now and go back through the diner and out the door. I’ll get in the truck and drive around to the overhead door.
I ran back through the building and stepped outside. The beating of helicopter blades was louder than before, and it sounded as if more of them were in flight. I looked all around and couldn’t see any telltale lights in the sky nearby, but I knew there was very little time. Again, stupid things. I climbed into the vehicle’s cab and turned off the headlights, praying they hadn’t been seen. Putting my foot on the floor brake and depressing the clutch, I let off the emergency brake and shifted the truck into first. I pulled around the concourse and again backed uphill to the garage door. With a clang, the garage door jerked and began to rise. When it stopped the roofline, I backed in at a slow but continuous pace. Once I was inside the building, Jordan lowered the door, and I cut the engine. I climbed out of the cab and unzipped my biohazard suit. I pulled it off and tossed it into the corner.
“Now what?” Jordan asked.
“I don’t know yet,” I answered. “I’d say you and I need to get cleaned up and take care of Verna and Kyle. When they wake up, we can all decide on our next move.”
“I don’t think I can help you lift them,” Jordan said.
“Yeah,” I said. “You’re probably still weak. What did they do to you?”
“They took a lot of blood,” he answered. “They kept taking tissue samples. It was painful.”
“I think we should stay in the garage tonight,” I said. “Come with me to the dining room. You can grab a shower and something to eat if you’re hungry while I get Verna out of her suit. I’ll try to get her comfortable. If you can stay with her, I’ll get into the truck with Kyle. Someone needs to be with them when they wake up.”
◆◆◆
I woke up with a stiff neck from sitting in the driver’s seat for most of the night. I could tell the sun was up because the garage was bathed in pale light from the skylights. I stretched and looked over at Kyle, who was still wearing the body covering part of his biohazard suit. I hadn’t been able to maneuver him to get it off. He was beginning to stir. “Kyle,” I said, patting him on the back. “Are you okay?”
“My head is killing me!” he complained. “What happened?” “You were shot with a tranquilizer dart,” I answered.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“We’re in Ransdell, hiding at the truck stop. We’re in the garage,” I answered.
Kyle shifted in the seat and pulled himself upright. He bent over and held his head for a moment. I let him adjust and watched him for any sign of a problem. He turned and looked at me. “You did this, Casey? You got us out of there? Where are Verna and Jordan?”
“They’re in the diner. Do you feel like going to check on them?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said.
We climbed out of the cab, and Kyle took off his biohazard suit. We walked to the diner and found Jordan and Verna still asleep.
“You want to go see if we can find something for breakfast?” I asked.
Kyle nodded, and we went back to the kitchen and found that the generator was still operating. The electricity was still on. I looked into the freezer and discovered some cans of frozen orange juice concentrate, sausage patties, and French toast sticks. I moved to the stove and put on a couple of skillets to cook the sausage patties and warm the toast sticks.
“Kyle, can you fix this juice?”
“I’m going to have to boil some water,” he said. He found a pot and filled it at the sink. He brought it over to the stove and placed it on a back burner. I finished cooking the sausage, and the toast sticks were golden brown. I removed the food from the stove and placed it on a platter.
“I’ll check on Verna and Jordan,” I said. When I reached the dining room, Jordan and Verna were sitting up and talking. Verna had taken off her biohazard suit and was back in her olive-green medical scrubs. Jordan was wearing a t-shirt and sweats he’d obviously commandeered from the gift shop. Verna was looking over the documents she'd taken from the research facility.
“How are you both feeling?” I asked.
“I’m still feeling weak,” Jordan said.
“I’m okay,” Verna said. “But my knee is missing the morphine.” “We’ve made some breakfast in the kitchen,” I said. “Come on and get some.” I helped Verna to her feet, and she slid the documents in her pocket.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“We’re at a truck stop in a town called Ransdell. It’s about ninety miles from Ft. Wayne. We’re the only ones here, and the building is secure,” I informed her as I helped her to a table big enough for all of us.
Back in the kitchen, Kyle was pouring the orange juice into a pitcher with ice. I picked up a platter of the sausage and toast sticks and carried them to a table in the dining room. Jordan brought out plates and utensils. Kyle poured glasses of juice for everyone and brought out a bottle of syrup. We ate without talking. When we’d finished, Jordan broke the silence.
“We need to decide what we’re going to do now,” he suggested.
“I think we’re all in agreement that we need a plan,” I said. “Does anyone have ideas?”
“The only way we’re going to make it is to somehow get outside the contaminated area,” Kyle said.
“If we can get back to civilization, we can get the information out about what the army is doing in the research facility. They have to be stopped,” I insisted.
“It’s not the army,” Kyle corrected me. “It’s BioGenetics. They’re the ones who developed the virus in the first place. I doubt that the soldiers know what’s really going on. They wouldn’t allow it.”
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is how we get out.” Verna concluded. “We don’t know which direction to go or how far. They may have us surrounded.”
“Actually, we do know which direction to go and how far,” Kyle said. “I saw a map of the contaminated zone back at the compound. The northern border of the contaminated zone has the smallest military presence. If we can make it past there, we’ll be safely outside the zone. The last military post on the map is in a town called Ellington, near the Canadian border.”
“But won’t that take us past the army depot where this all started?” Jordan asked.
“Won’t they be looking for us?”
“Yes, they probably will be looking for us,” Kyle admitted, “But we can keep changing vehicles and get out of these clothes. If we’re smart about it, we won’t be easily spotted.”
“Kyle, can we take the radio out of the truck and use it to monitor what the military is doing?” I posed.
“Yes, I can put the radio in any vehicle we use,” Kyle responded.
“So, what is our next step?” Verna asked.
“We need to get one of the vehicles out there working and gassed up for the trip,” I informed them.
“Which one will it be?” Jordan mused, looking out the windows at the abandoned cars and trucks.
“We should pick one close to the garage. Remember, we’re going to have to push it inside, and there’s an incline,” I continued.
“I saw a van outside last night,” Jordan said. “We should take that. It will have room for supplies, and we won’t have to stop to get to them.”
“It’s settled then,” Kyle agreed. “Let’s go push it in now
.”
“It was in front of the last door,” Jordan said as we went back to the garage.
Kyle opened up one of the storage boxes on the side of the military truck and pulled out four automatic assault rifles. He loaded them with haste.
“Jordan, we’ll need you to operate the other bay door and cover us with the gun,” I instructed, handing one to him. In his condition, I didn’t think we should risk asking him to help us push the van inside. “You remember how to operate the door, right?”
He shot me a look of minor annoyance. “They didn’t take samples out of my brain, you know,” he snapped.
I grabbed a sledgehammer and smashed the sensor beside the door, so it would go down without stopping.
“You remembered! Glad they didn’t sample your brain either,” Kyle teased.
I smirked at him and handed another gun to Verna, giving her a quick rundown on how to aim. “You push with Kyle from the back while I steer and push from the driver’s side. Got it?”
“No problem,” she quipped.
Jordan opened the door, and Kyle, Verna, and I rushed to the van, watching for stray zombies. Kyle and Verna ran to the back while I slung my gun strap over my shoulder and opened the driver’s side door.
“Push!” Kyle ordered.
We all began to shove. The van was difficult to move up the incline, but it inched slowly forward.
“Hurry up!” Jordan yelled from the doorway. “They’re coming!”
I looked behind us and saw a group of zombies running across the concourse toward us.
“Keep pushing!” Kyle yelled. “We’re almost there!”
Jordan stepped outside the garage and started shooting rapid fire into the undead throng. Several of them fell to the ground, body parts and black blood sprayed into the air. I pushed as hard as I could. The front of the van cleared the doorway. I looked back and saw four zombies rushing forward. I slammed the van door and ran to the back to help cover Verna and Kyle. “Keep going!” I shouted to them. “You can make it now.” I took aim and fired alongside Jordan. The last zombies exploded in the hail of gunfire. Flashes of fire and smoke shot out of the guns.
“I like these better than dart guns,” I smiled.
“For real!” Jordan agreed.
The van rolled safely into the garage, and I ran back inside as Jordan closed the door.
“Casey and Jordan,” Kyle said. “You guys take the back seat out of the van and start packing supplies while I check out the engine.”
I opened up the back and sliding side doors on the van and crawled inside. I unlatched the bench seat and scooted it out the back. “Verna, help me lift this seat out,” I called to her.
She took hold of one end of the seat, and I took the other. We slid it out and carried it into the garage and set it aside. “Let’s start with food and water,” I suggested. Jordan, Verna and I went back through the dining room.
“We should check the convenience store first,” Jordan said. “We need to look for non-perishable items in sealed containers and bags.”
I looked behind the checkout counter and found some empty boxes that had been broken down. I folded three of them back together and gave one to Verna and one to Jordan. “Fill them if you can,” I instructed.
The shelves in the store were mostly empty, but we did find several cans of deviled ham and chicken, some crackers, and junk food. I spied a door with a padlock on it on the back wall of the store. “I’ll bet that’s the stock room,” I said. “We should check it out.”
“How?” Verna asked.
“I’ll be right back,” I said. I ran to the garage and grabbed a gun. I went back to the store.
“You’re going to blow it open?” Jordan asked.
“That’s the plan,” I said. “Now get back!”
Verna and Jordan took cover, and I opened fire on the door. Sparks flew as the bullets struck the metal. I aimed at the lock, and the doorknob blew off into the air. I waved the gun smoke away from my face. “All clear!” I said victoriously. The door stood open, and we went inside the small stock room. It was filled with cases of goods for the store. We sorted through the boxes and took all the ones containing canned meats, soups, tuna, and Beef-a-Roni.
“Do we need all of this?” Verna asked. “We’re only going about a day’s drive.”
“We don’t know what we’ll find out there,” Jordan said. “It’s best to be over-prepared.”
We found jugs of bottled water and plastic utensils in the corner of the stock room. We carted boxes back to the van, making several trips. Verna took a box of aspirin and two containers of antiseptic wipes. I located a road map from a rack at the checkout counter and stuffed it into the back pocket of my scrub pants. Opening the cash register, I was surprised to find some cash hidden under the change drawer. There was about seventy-five dollars in bills. Even though I doubted we could use it, I decided to put the cash in my front pocket just in case. I found some tacky, touristy-looking t-shirts and suggested we all put them on. They would be less conspicuous than our institutional-looking scrubs from the compound. I wished we had different pants, but Jordan had found the last pair of sweats.
We decided to save some room in the van for ammunition and other military gear. “Kyle can help us sort through what we’ll need from the truck,” I offered. We went back to the garage where Kyle was working under the hood. I handed him a t-shirt. “It’s less obvious than your military clothing,” I explained. “At least you’ll look like a civilian from the waist up.” He took the shirt and changed.
“I’m finished with the van,” he said. “The radio is installed and working, but I’m concerned about the alternator though. The belts were shot, and I replaced them. I started the engine, and there’s a charge going to the battery, but it’s not working as well as I would like for
it to.”
“Should we get a different vehicle?” I asked.
“No, we don’t have time to check them all out. It’s already late afternoon.” He dropped the hood. “I think this is as good as we’re going to get.”
“We need for you to look through the gear on the military truck and decide what we need to take from it,” I said.
Kyle nodded and began looking through the metal boxes mounted on the sides of the truck. He took several cartons of ammunition, a couple of extra rifles, and some other gear in bags. He loaded a large backpack with a metal frame. As I watched him work, I was struck by an idea. I picked up the biohazard suit I’d tossed on the floor last night and gathered up the scrub tops we had taken off. Collecting the remaining suits and scrubs, I tossed them into the truck. “Everybody give me your identification bracelets,” I ordered, hurrying to collect them.
“Okay,” Kyle said stepping into the diner. “I’ve got everything we need, so let’s get in the van and go.”
“Wait,” I called out. “I have an idea. Jordan, open the garage door behind the truck.” I handed rifles to him and Verna. “Cover the doors. Kyle, I need your help.” The garage door opened. “Help me get four of these zombies into the truck.” Kyle looked at me, doubt etched across his brow.
“Come on!” I said. “I’ve got an idea to throw the army off our trail.”
I drove the truck toward the bodies of the zombies we had killed. I hopped out and identified two males and two females. The bodies were mangled and missing parts, but they would work for what I had in mind. With Kyle’s help, we hoisted two zombie bodies into the back of the truck and placed two more in the front cab. I dropped a hospital bracelet near each body, hopped into the driver seat, and started up the truck. I drove it out onto the concourse and parked. I hopped out and ran back to the van. “Okay, I said. “Let’s go!”
We climbed into the van. Kyle took the driver’s seat and started pulling away. I grabbed a rifle, aimed out the window for the fuel tank on the truck, and fired as we pulled out of the lot. A ball of fire engulfed the truck and shot flames and billowing black smoke into the air.
“Great thinking, Cas
ey!” Kyle said, giving me a high five.
“Thanks,” I said. “Verna, hand me some of those antiseptic wipes.”
From the back of the van, she gave me one of the plastic tubs of wipes. I used several to wipe my hands and arms and gave some to Kyle who did the same. I wiped the gun down and told Kyle to clean the steering wheel. When we’d finished, I tossed the used wipes out the window.
“Do you think it will work?” Kyle questioned me, looking at the reflected image of the burning truck through the rearview mirror.
“It will unless they do DNA testing on the bodies,” Verna said. “But either way, it may still get us some time because the testing can take a few days.”
“Don’t they have to have viable samples as well?” Kyle asked.
“Yes, and it is possible that they may not get good samples because of the intensity of the fire,” Verna answered.
“I don’t think they’ll waste time on testing. Once they identify the burned-out truck, they’ll think it’s us and drop it,” Jordan opined.
“I don’t know about that,” I admitted. “You could be right, but by now, they may realize that we know what’s going on in that laboratory. They will want to make sure we’re dead.”
“And when they find out those bodies aren’t us, they’ll continue searching,” Kyle added.
“And then, they’ll kill us,” Verna said.
“That’s not going to happen,” I insisted. “We’ll leave the country if we have to.”
“Until then, we have to make the best time we can,” Kyle said. “But we should probably take the back roads instead of the highway. The military and police are more likely to use the main roads.”
Viral Series (Book 1): Viral Dawn [Extended Edition] Page 28