by SJ Morris
“Tyler, I know you’re strong, but I’m here if you need me. I love you so much,” I whispered as I hugged him close.
Lance came and sat beside Tyler and me as Chris and Tom took the torches to light the pyre. I didn’t want to watch, but I forced myself to be strong enough to. My boys hugged me softly as the fire began to warm our faces.
As the fire burned, people began to break off, but my boys and I remained. We sat for what could have been hours as the fire burned slowly down to ash. Before we knew it, the sun was beginning to set, and the three of us hadn’t moved. The air was perfumed with the scent of fire, and the smoke plume was now rising into the amber colored sky in white as the embers died. I gazed up as the first stars began to show in the quickly darkening evening sky, and I breathed in deeply trying to clear my head of the million thoughts racing around.
My sons, both still, sat at my side, ever silent in their grief. I thought about telling them I was pregnant, but it didn’t seem like a fitting time. Then, I remembered what Kamil said earlier to me about not being guaranteed tomorrow, so I decided to tell them everything.
Just as I was about to speak, a rumbling seemed to come from all around us, and the ground felt as if it were shaking. The three of us stood and looked around for the cause of the noise. We saw nothing, but the sound felt as if it was everywhere. Lance bolted for the cabin, but Tyler turned to me as if looking for answers. Then, a siren began blaring. The siren I remembered all too well; it was from Dan’s drone. He must have heard the noise or saw something on the security cameras that made him send it out and was now using it to alert everyone. Tyler and I ran for the house as Chris came running out.
“Huge trucks are coming, dozens of them, and Dan says there’s a huge herd of infected close behind them. Get your gear and be prepared to fight!” he yelled to Tyler. “Abby, I want you downstairs in the lab locked away. This has to be Dr. Brigantine, and I’m not going to let her get to you!” He kissed me and pushed me inside.
“I’m not going to hide, Chris! If it’s a fight she wants, she sure as hell is going to get it, and I’m not going to be left out!” I yelled at him, enraged that he would even entertain the idea of me tucking away somewhere hiding while everyone else fought.
“This is not up for debate Abby. You’re what she wants, and if she gets you, I don’t know what I’ll do. I can’t fight if I know you’re in danger, so I need you in the lab safe.” Turning to Tyler, he ordered, “Take your mother to Troy and get them locked in the lab. There’s a safety hatch to the surface like all of the other apartments, so if something happens and Brigantines men get inside, take your mother and Troy out to where we burn the infected outside the gates. I’ll meet you all there if everything turns to shit.”
Chris had all his gear on and was pulling his rifle out in front of him. He turned to look back at me and mouthed ‘I love you.’ Then he was off running to catch up with Tom and a few others who were also dressed in camo, wearing Kevlar body armor and carrying multiple weapons.
“Who the hell is Brigantine, Mom?” Tyler asked as he practically pushed me inside towards my room.
“It’s a long story, but she’s a doctor who masterminded the Z-Strain and this plague. She’s been following me for a very long time because I have some kind of genetic marker she needs for the virus. It’s more than likely her and her men outside the gates. She’s already kidnapped me once, and I was able to escape so she’s come back for me.” I said feeling exhausted just telling the smallest details of my twisted story.
“Okay, whatever you say, Mom. You can tell me all about it after you get all of your gear and we get downstairs to the lab as Chris said.” Tyler opened the door to my room and tossed a bookbag onto the bed. “I don’t know what you need but get it and let’s go. I’m going to get my stuff and meet you back here in two minutes. Then we’re heading downstairs immediately,” he barked at me as he left me standing alone in my room.
My instincts finally kicked in, and I closed the hurricane shudders that I had hoped never to use. I put on my leather gear and snake books, and then I gathered another knife, my gun, and extra ammunition in my bag. If I was ever to need this stuff, now was going to be the time.
I rushed out of my room and ran into Tyler with his heavy bag of gear. I was happy to see he had changed into his leathers and snake boots too. We headed for the pantry together and found Dana hiding next to the stove. I grabbed her and pulled her along with us to the pantry and the hidden door to the underground levels. Dana seemed to snap out of her daze as we rushed down the stairs. She pulled away from me yelling that she had to get to the security room. She said we needed radios, and she wanted to see if she could find out what was going on outside, so I let her go.
Tyler and I made it to the lab where Troy was sitting at his desk asleep, pencil and notebook in hand. I found it strange there was no one else down here yet, but I figured everyone was probably getting ready for dinner before the intruders arrived and they either joined the fight or were back in their apartments safely hiding from the chaos.
I woke Troy quietly after making sure I locked the doors behind us. I stayed at the threshold waiting to let Dana inside as Troy bumbled around trying to wake his sleep-deprived brain and focus enough to speak.
“What the hell is going on?” Troy finally spit out.
“Well, the short version is that Dr. Brigantine and her men are probably at our gates looking to get inside and recapture me. Oh, and they have a herd of infected behind them,” I blurted out as I peeked through the small round window of the locked door.
“I thought you said Jack blew up her lab, and they had no idea where to find us?” He asked as he grabbed his notebooks and put them in a book bag.
“Wait what? Who blew up a lab?” Tyler demanded glaring at me.
“Yes, he said Jack. Your father isn’t dead, Tyler. This is all part of a huge conspiracy, plot, I don’t know what the hell to call it, but everything in my life, including your father, has been masterminded by this Dr. Brigantine. I just found all of this out while I was kidnapped for the last two months and I’m still trying to make sense of everything.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me! This is bullshit! Dad is alive, and some crazy doctor is after you? If he’s alive, then where the hell is he now?” Tyler screamed with almost blood red eyes. He was furious.
“I know you’re angry. I am too, but we have to keep our heads straight right now. I’ll tell you everything that I know, but we have to make it through this,” I said calmly trying to ease my furious son.
“No! You said you would tell me everything when we got down to the lab. We’re here, so tell me everything!” He demanded, slamming his pack and his gun down on the counter next to him.
To break the tension-filled moment, there was a loud banging on the door. I looked through the glass to see Dana with Kamil carrying Jasmine who was injured and bleeding badly. I unlocked the door and yelled for Troy to get a medical supply kit. We were going to need it from the looks of things. Kamil and Dana helped Jasmine to the closest gurney and quickly laid her down.
“They are soldiers everywhere! They breached the fence and the wall within minutes like they knew exactly where to go!” Jasmine mumbled through gritted teeth as she writhed in pain.
“Relax, Jasmine. Let’s get you taken care of first. We need to stop the bleeding in your leg. Were you shot?” I asked her.
“I saw a soldier climbing over the wall, so I started shooting, but he was wearing Kevlar and was quick to retaliate with his shotgun. He clipped my thigh. It hurts like hell, Abby, so give me some pain meds and patch me up quick. I have to get back out there.”
“Your leg is pretty mangled, Jaz, so it’s going to require more than just a patch job, but I need to stop the bleeding first, so I need you to relax.” Just as I finished my sentence, her whole body tensed, and just like that, she passed out from the pain.
Troy and I worked together to stop the bleeding. We removed all of the bullet fr
agments from the wound and stitched up her thigh. She’d lost a lot of blood, but she was fortunate none of the pellets had hit her femoral artery, or she would have been dead instead of just passed out.
As Troy and I worked cleaning everything up, Dana and Kamil listened to the radios. None of what they heard sounded good. According to the shouting over the radios, there were soldiers everywhere inside the gates, and there were infected outside the fences, but a few were inside as well. It sounded like we were all trapped inside our compound shooting at one another. Chris confirmed it was Brigantine’s men when he took a radio off one of the soldiers he had killed. He radioed back that there was a woman giving orders to find me and make sure to take me alive. Well, shit.
There was a banging at the door again, and Kamil ran to check. It was Doc Baker with some of the children. She also had Dan, Tom, and Justin with her. They were wounded and bleeding pretty badly from what I could see. Kamil let them in and carried Justin to an open bed since he was barely walking on his own. Tom was shot in the shoulder, and Dan had a knife plunged through the palm of his hand. The kids ran to the back and hid under the counters that lined the room.
Doc Baker was taking care of Dan, and Troy was putting pressure on Tom’s shoulder, which I could see was a through and through, he didn’t need my help, so I went over to help Justin. He was sweating profusely and blabbering incoherently. He had blood all over him, but I couldn’t find where it was coming from. I grabbed a medical cart and pulled the sheers from a drawer. I cut off Justin’s shirt, and there was no wound I could see. I started cutting his pants from the bottom of his right leg up, and I saw it. Justin had a chunk of flesh missing from the back of his calf. The missing piece was in the shape of a bite wound.
I dropped the shears to the floor, and they made a sharp noise as the metal clattered onto the cold tile. I frantically looked around to the others, but no one seemed to notice Justin and me. I went to the cart and grabbed a scalpel, I looked at the man who knew me for years before this virus was released when our lives were ordinary, and life was simple. Justin was the first to visit my children in the hospital when they were born. Justin was family, and I was about to kill him.
I looked over at the children now huddled under the cabinets, and I saw Jessica and David, Justin’s children. They were staring blankly at me, watching me with the scalpel in my hand standing over their father writhing in pain. I quietly told them to turn away, and I turned back to Justin.
I held the scalpel at his temple and grazed him a few times as he randomly thrashed on the bed, but he didn’t feel it. He only felt the Z-Strain overwhelming his body. I knew what I had to do, but I was frozen, I felt paralyzed in my fear and guilt for what I was about to do. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and just as I was about to plunge the scalpel into Justin’s ear he sat up and screamed. The scream took me by surprise, and I jumped back. That fraction of a second was all the-now-reanimated Justin needed to jump up onto the bed and dive for Tom who was sitting on the gurney next to him.
Teeth bared, Justin slammed into Tom, knocking him over, and they struggled on the floor. Tom had his good arm up protecting his face from Justin’s teeth, but I could tell Tom’s strength was not going to hold out much longer, especially with the blood loss from his gunshot wound. I threw myself at Justin, wrapped my arm around his neck, and pulled him into a choke hold. I only had a fraction of a second with a good angle, but this time I didn’t freeze. I shoved the scalpel up through Justin's ear into his brain. His body slumped to the floor, bleeding black infected blood all over Tom.
I rushed quickly to throw Justin’s body off of him, but the damage was done. Tom’s open gunshot wound was soaked with black fluids. He looked into my eyes as I began to cry for this man I had grown to love like a brother over the last few months. I reached down to hug him, but he held up his hand to stop me from coming any closer. Jasmine, now conscious, realized what had happened and screamed out. Tom just looked at both of us with tears welling in his eyes.
“I love both of you. Please tell Chris it has been an honor serving with him.” Tom said quietly as he took his handgun from his belt, put the muzzle into his mouth, and pulled the trigger before any of us could stop him.
Huddled on the floor together in the corner of the room, the children all screamed and cried, all except Jessica and David. They both just stood silently with tears brimming and their faces red. I ran to them attempting to embrace and console them, but they both stepped back quickly from me with a look of horror. To them, I was the person who had just killed their father. I was no longer the woman they used to call Aunt Abby. I stood in the middle of the room surrounded by death, destruction, mayhem and devastation that I felt responsible for. Everyone just looked at me with blank stares, even Tyler. I stepped towards him, but he turned away immediately. I knew at that moment what I needed to do; I needed to end this fight.
Chapter 14
I grabbed my bag with my gun and walked through the doors of surgical suite A. I jumped onto the gurney in the center of the room and slid the trap door in the ceiling over to reveal the pull-down ladder that led to the surface. I came up through the small tunnel surrounded by a starlit sky being illuminated by random fires burning all over the property and the bright blasts of stray gunfire from virtually every direction. When one of the bullets ricocheted off of the metal hatch door I had just opened, I ducked behind it for cover.
“Hey! I’m Abbigail Norrington! I’m the one you’re looking for! Don’t shoot!” I yelled slowly rising above the cover of the hatch door as the gunfire ceased. “I’m coming out, and I’m unarmed. Just don’t shoot, and I’ll go willingly!” I yelled into the night sky.
“Come out slowly! Drop your bag and put your hands up! Interlock your fingers behind your head and lay on the ground face down!” someone whom I couldn’t see yelled from in front of me.
“I’m coming out. Please don’t shoot. I repeat, I’m unarmed,” I said calmly as I dropped my bag onto the ground and complied with the instructions I was given.
Like a ghost, a soldier covered from head to toe in black and grey fatigues came out of the darkness. He kicked my bag away and quickly grabbed my wrists to zip tie them together. Great, there goes my gun. Shooting my way out of being captured was not going to be an option anymore.
After he secured me, he barked into his radio something along the lines of the “target is secured” and everyone was to “‘fall back.” He lifted me gently to my feet, which I was not expecting, but this act of kindness also, unfortunately, confirmed that Dr. Brigantine knew I was pregnant and apparently told her men to take special care with me. He quickly walked me to the large front gate where we were surrounded by dozens of other soldiers in matching black and grey fatigues. They each scanned the grounds around us looking for any threats. I hoped that Chris was not going to choose this moment to make an appearance. That would be bad for all of us. My hope beyond hope was that he saw how horrible things were getting, and when he got separated from Tom that he decided to retreat to the rendezvous point in the woods he had mentioned earlier.
We stood at the large gate for a few minutes in silence. My captors continued to repetitively scan the area, their eyes and heads never staying still for more than a few moments. There was a buzzing noise, and the gates began to open. Shit, they somehow figured out how to hack into the gates. A pit of dread began to build in my chest as I realized the cabin was pretty much lost to us now. If Brigantine and her men could get in whenever they wanted, even if we could take it back, we would never be safe here again.
Just as I thought things couldn’t get worse, Dr. Brigantine stepped through the now-open gate with Jack by her side. She was smiling from ear to ear, which made me furious. I wanted to rip her throat out with my bare hands, I was so angry at her, but my wrists ached with every movement due to the zip ties securing my hands behind me.
“Oh perfect! Thank you, Lieutenant, for putting her hands behind her so I can rub the baby bump without her fighti
ng,” she said through her yellowed teeth as she reached out to rub my stomach. I wiggled and fought, but the two soldiers at my sides grabbed me quickly securing me as she caressed my abdomen.
Staring blankly at me, Jack showed absolutely no emotion. I was going to kill him for this betrayal. He led her right to us, and it took him no time at all, that son of a bitch. I knew in my gut that I shouldn’t have trusted him. Brigantine finished doting over my baby bump as she called it, turned, and walked away, motioning for the soldiers to follow with me in tow. We walked past Jack who continued to stand at attention like a statue. As we walked passed him, I spit in his face.
“Fuck you, you lying piece of shit. I will kill you for this, and I’ll make sure it’s slow and painful you disgusting waste of life.” I hissed at him.
He slowly wiped the spit from his eye smiling as he whispered, “If I can’t have you Abby, no one can.”
Brigantine giggled and turned to smile at me rubbing her masterfully played psychological plan in my face as we continued to walk towards the exterior chain link fence.
I had already smelled the infected the second I opened the hatch door, but now I could hear them as if they were right on top of us. Brigantine yelled to “light it up,”’ and instantly I was enveloped in blinding blue light. Once my eyes adjusted, I could see we were standing in front of the now-open main gate, which was blocked by what I can only describe as a souped-up garbage truck. Where the garbage would normally go, there was a huge container that had seats lining each side.