Humanity Gone (Book 3): Rebirth

by Derek Deremer

  A tear finally fell down his eye, but his composure did not break. He turned to me in the entrance of the Ax.

  “I then injected my brother with an overdose of heroin my buddy had on him.”

  “I’m so-” he doesn't let me finish.

  “We pulled over, and I buried him. Not long after, I left them all. My girlfriend had been with me, but she chose to stay with them. They could keep her, 'safer' she said. I didn’t want to be a part of the violence if I didn’t need to be. Not anymore. Never again did I want to initiate violence; I want to stop it when I can.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I’ve dealt with this. It’s a little tough at times, but I’ve dealt with this all. Tori has been great. And although we haven’t been with you very long, you’ve really given the two of us a home. No matter what happens tomorrow, I’ll have your back.”

  “And I’ll have yours,” I say and turn to go back in. Darrel throws away the butt of the cigarette. Surprisingly, he goes for a third.

  “You wanna help me with this?”

  “Sure.”

  It’s not as I’m going to sleep anyway.

  Chapter 6: David

  I awake before dawn to make sure everything is packed away in the cars. The others need as much rest as they can find, so I keep as quiet as possible. Laura and Nate’s sleeping mat isn’t far from my own. It’s the first time she’s slept so many hours in one night without running off to the lab. They completed whatever they needed to at around two and came and lied down.

  The radio still needs to be moved outside. I quietly place a few more boxes on the table, and line myself up to push it towards the entrance. It moves slowly, and one of the wheels lets out a loud squeal as it rolls along the tile floor. I quickly stop pushing the table. None of them wakes up, but Laura's head lightly stirs. Her eyes open, she grins lightly and then shuts them again.

  The others didn’t really know about us. I'm not that proud of it either, but it’s been awhile since…

  …well.

  Perhaps the worst part of it is that I can barely stand her. She doesn't think too highly of everyone – not that she says it, I can just tell. Her body language speaks volumes. But, it isn't her opinion that I value. Nate is a bit too occupied with the work and hasn’t made enough time for her. I didn't even know they were “together” until the third day here. I just figured they liked their space. Really, it is just Nate that likes his space. While Laura and I are together, she assures me it isn’t anything other than…

  “Here let me help you,” Kevin whispers, rushing forward and grabbing the other side of radio table. I guess he couldn’t sleep either. We both lift the table and are quickly through the doorway. After setting it down, I pop the SUV trunk and load the boxes inside. Kevin grabs a few and places them in the trunk of the sedan. I shut the hood and turn back to the broken down farm. It feels like we just got here, and now we are leaving.

  I reach my hand to my opposite shoulder and rotate it a few times. Since I took the bullet there, it hasn’t been able to move as it once did. I still pride myself on being the strong one here; however, I think Ryan can give me a run for my money these days.

  The shot to my chest didn’t help the healing process either. It’s only been a few months since both of those happened, but it felt like years since all of that hell entered our lives.

  “Thanks Kevin,” I say as we slowly walk back to the main room. He turns to me and nods. A few more are rising as the dawn’s light begins to pour through the large, hazy windows. Laura is one of them. She gives me a glance and then quickly looks away.

  It started a few weeks ago, before the bitter cold of winter set in. We both were walking the perimeter one evening after dinner. Throughout the day, a pair of us always made sure the coast was clear. Originally, Jo was supposed to come, but Laura said she needed some fresh air. Jo readily agreed, but told her to be careful. She and Nate are too valuable. Laura walked a few paces ahead of me.

  “Did you ever have anyone special?” she asked, playfully spinning her novelty gun on her finger. Our feet walked on top of the falling leaves and each step left a crunch. The leaves were turning and the trees glowed with beautiful oranges, yellows, and reds. It was something I took for granted before the plague.

  “Someones,” I boasted, “would be more like it.”

  She laughed. “Oh, is that so?”

  “I was fresh out of the academy and already had a job and an even better physique than what stands before you. Besides, I was good at what I did.”

  At the time, I was just being arrogant. I swear I had no intentions. She blushed lightly. I got a kick out of doing that to women. She slowed down and walked directly next to me.

  “How's nerdy Nate doing back there?” I asked.

  “He is what he is,” she answers, taking a few steps forward and looking out over the fields. Her hand fiddled with something in her pocket.

  “Explain,” I said, moving beside her. She withdrew her hand and held it loosely at her side.

  “He can work night and day, but I need the occasional break. The occasional human touch.”

  Her hand reached over and gave my hand a quick squeeze. She released and left me breathing quickly. She turned and stepped in front of me, grabbing my arms. I wasn't prepared for what she did next.

  She pushed me backward until my back was against a tree. Her eyes gazed into mine, and she pressed herself against me. Obviously, I gave in.

  After, she said it was a mistake.

  A mistake she continued to make several more times. At first, I felt guilty when I saw Nate, but the feeling has since subsided. I rationalize it with what I’ve been through. My head is far from being on straight.

  The plague. The gunshots. The New American attacks.

  Sara - for as literally screwed up as that was. It was brief, but there was something different about her. I knew I wouldn’t be able to be my normal self, and I liked having more decency.

  I shake my head to come back to the brisk morning. None of that matters now. What’s important is the task at hand – the city. Besides, Laura said the hospital yesterday was the last time.

  We’ll see.

  Kevin helps me move a few more items from within the Ax and place them to the cars. Gazing at our cargo, we should have plenty of fuel to get at least to the city and back. It isn’t too long of a drive, but anything is possible after the plague.

  Ryan emerges, clutching the majority of our extra guns and ammo. He turns his head.

  “We leave in a half hour everyone. Get ready,” he shouts into the Ax. He leans the weapons against the car and sets the box of bullets on the ground. We share a nod.

  “I want you driving that SUV with Laura and Nate. Jo, Carter, and Caitlyn will be with you, too. I’m going to take the sedan with the rest. And if we face any trouble, your only worry is to get them to that hospital, with or without us.”

  “I don't know if Carter will go for that.”

  “I don't care. I'm ready to do what I have to do, they have to be ready as well.”

  I merely nod my head.

  “Do you understand?” he demands.

  “Sure.”

  Chapter 7: Ryan

  We travel along the highway with my tiny sedan leading the way and the SUV close behind. They are right about fuel efficiency, but when I drive into a hostile territory, I could really give a damn about fuel efficiency. I put the nerds, Carter, David, Caitlyn, and Jo in the SUV for a reason. We need to keep those two little geniuses safe - period. Carter, David, and Jo are the best suited to make that happen. In the right situation, Caitlyn will remember to kill. I’m counting on it. I lift my hand off the steering wheel to check my speed and glance in the rear-view mirror. Darrel’s head is obscuring part of the rear windshield. Tori and Page are on either side of him and Kevin is in the front seat beside me. If trouble shows its face, my car is to provide the cover for the SUV to escape.

  Carter and Paige put up a brief fight that th
ey should be together, but that didn’t last long. I’m deaf to nonsense anymore. Getting this cure is all that matters. As far as I care, we are the closest to getting a cure.

  They want me to be their leader, right? I make the hard decisions; I make the right decisions. Humanity could be depending on this cure, and I’m not screwing this up.

  Kevin holds the map in his hands and gives me some brief idea on where we are going. He says he used to work by the city and knows the streets fairly well. We come slowly to an intersection.

  “Yea, you want to go left here,” he says.

  “I know,” I answer, and gesture with my head towards the green sign straight ahead. Snow stuck to the cold metal and covered up most of the city’s name. All that remained in the white lettering was “Pitts” and an arrow that went to the left.

  “The Pitts, how appropriate,” Darrel says from behind me. He is from the city, too. Most of us had been there at one point or another.

  We continue down the road avoiding vacant cars and occasional mounds of snow. Yesterday and last night were warm so a majority of the asphalt is black. Occasionally, I hit a few slick patches, but it’s nothing the chains around the tires can’t handle.

  The houses and businesses adjacent to the road look desolate. I vaguely remember traveling these roads in the past. People paced up and down the sidewalks – shopping, jogging, or on the way to dinner. Now, car dealership windows are shattered and snow covers the cars. A few of them still have the price tag visible. I refocus my eyes on the road ahead. I take the right exit and take an immediate right.

  We pull up to the tunnel. The city will be on the other side. A few weeks ago, we tried another tunnel into the city. Marauders were waiting and put a few bullet holes in the SUV. We replied with a few of our own bullets, and escaped. This time it is quiet, and from what I can tell, there are no places where people could be hiding. Steep walls of cement in nearly every direction surround the entrance.

  I pull over and decide to go over the plan one last time with the other car. Reviewing the plan right before we go into hell – I’ve done this too many damn times.

  David and Carter get out of the car and meet me. Jo and Caitlyn stumble out, too, and they head away from us. I watch them slowly walk towards the wide shoulder of the road exiting from the tunnel. It doesn’t matter what they do, but I keep them in the corner of my eye.

  This will be brief.

  “You guys ready?”

  “Yea Ryan, I-”

  “Remember you two. Getting to the hospital is all that matters. You get them there no matter what. Is that clear?”

  “Ryan-“

  “Is that clear David?” I respond sternly.

  “Yes.”

  “Without them everything is forfeit,” I remind them. Carter looks to my car. Paige looks back. Worry is on their faces. This isn’t a time for stupid romantic notions, but I don’t have time to explain that “Carter, I will look after her. Don’t worry.” I’ll look after her the same way I will look after the rest of them.

  “Watch for roadblocks in there and push through. As long as you don’t stop, it should be okay. Watch for dead-ends and ambushes, especially right on the other side of the bridge. They are probably used to people going into the city for help.”

  “It seems like you know a good bit about what’s going on in there,” David says. I quickly reply.

  “It’s things that I would do.” They both give me an uneasy look that I half expected. “Let’s go.”

  We get back in our vehicles and soon head into the dark tunnel. My fist grips the top of the steering wheel. My knuckles are bruised and cut from my enhanced interrogation from the night before. What none of them know is that he wasn’t the first trespasser I had captured that day.

  That morning, I found someone on the border of our field. The idiot waved to me. I quickly brought his face into the frozen mud and tied him up. Despite my aggressive behavior, he remained congenial. So I decided not to take him back to the Ax, they might have taken pity on him.

  I knew better.

  I carried him through the snow and tied him to a distant tree. When he realized how serious I was, his “understanding” attitude disappeared.

  He told me that he was looking for food for his wife and new daughter. They were a few miles away in a house in some dilapidated neighborhood. He said he had managed to take care of them well by merely scavenging.

  That story would have been all well and good, but I didn’t believe him.

  As soon as I pulled out the knife, he started to scream for help. Therefore, I gagged him, and went on with my “discussion.” How we found Caitlyn taught me a lot, although it only took a pinky for this guy to squeal.

  He didn’t have a wife or daughter. He was from the city. What’s more, the man was a New American, and I hate New Americans. The city is being used as a funnel to catch travelers passing through and then ship them off to one of those work camps. They had roadblocks with a couple guards at the end of nearly every bridge. The bridge we are about to cross is not one of them. He said they used this specific bridge for exporting, and didn't want to obstruct their buses.

  The guy I had tethered to the tree was a runner searching for potential settlements to raid and conquer. He told me that he had done it several times. He assimilates into a group of survivors and if they don’t follow him into the city, he’ll leave in the night and come back with his fellow soldiers. Even with the reemerging of the virus, they were told by Washington to continue their mission.

  This angered me, so I reapplied his gag.

  I stabbed the knife deep in his knee and then twisted. He screamed into the torn cloth wrapped around his head. His eyes begged me for a chance.

  So I killed him.

  Luckily, I found him when I was alone and was able to quickly dispose of the body among the brush on the other side of the perimeter. He gave me some idea of what we are about to drive into. He had better be right about this bridge.

  That second trespasser we found was lucky that Carter was with me or his fate would have been similar.

  The tunnel is pitch black inside. Our headlights get lost in the long tube of darkness. A few cars create minor hindrances as we drive around them. The small circle of light at the end of the tunnel grows and grows until we are outside in the brightness of day.

  The city stands strong on the other side of the river. From a distance, the city looks untouched. Only if I look closely out the windshield can I make out the wrecked cars and the burned skeletons of a few skyscrapers.

  “Doesn’t look all that bad,” Tori says from behind me.

  “No,” I begin, “no it doesn’t. It's when you get up close that you can tell how ugly it is.”

  That's how it always is.

  The bridge, much like the tunnel, is empty aside from the wrecks of cars. There doesn’t seem to be any visible roadblock up ahead. Still, I feel very uneasy.

  I continue driving at a low speed as we cross the rusting bridge over the river of cracked ice. Small patches of ice cause me briefly to lose control, but I keep the car straight, eventually bringing it to a halt on the other side. The four lanes of the bridge split up ahead just on the shore. Two lanes go up a ramp and feed onto a perpendicular street. The two remaining lanes go under that street, but these lanes are blocked with several overturned cars. That pathway is impassable with the twisted steel of the remains of automobiles. If we want to enter the city, it is going to have to be up the ramp.

  "Take the ramp," Kevin says, pointing lightly to the ramp on the right side. Short concrete walls line both sides of the ramp as it rises about fifteen degrees. Some wrecked cars rest against the sides of the entrance. "We can get to the hospital from that route as well. There's a bunch of one-way streets that should be safe to travel."

  Hopefully, we are the only cars running through the city at the moment. But something about this didn't sit right. I remember what that marauder had said; however, this is supposed to be the one safe bridge. I
inspect all along the passageway ahead and don’t make out anything else that looks suspicious. Maybe we got lucky.

  With a knife in him, he swore that this bridge is not one of the ones with roadblocks.

  I turn toward the ramp and slowly accelerate up the incline. I glance in the rear-view mirror; the SUV is right behind us. My eyes dash from side to side each second we go farther and farther up the ramp. I don't see anything.

  Whew. Kevin turns to me.

  "Okay, up ahead make the left... oh God what is that." I see it at the same time. An old white Bonneville creeps from the right side at the top of the ramp. Another car, I can't tell the make, comes from the other. My foot loosens on the gas pedal. No, no, no.

  I turn to the review mirror. Two more cars close in at the entrance. Two cars block us in at each end. How did we miss this? Those cars weren't wrecked. It was a facade.

  It's the damn roadblock. Stupid. Stupid. We are trapped. In the rearview mirror, I watch David's head dart from side to side looking for an exit. My radio crackles. It's him.

  "Ryan, what the hell are we going to do?" David asks. I hesitate for a moment looking up ahead. Some figures come into view. There's two, maybe three people. I don't pay them much attention. Kevin rounds a chamber in his rifle - paying them his complete attention. This is what I was afraid would happen. That is why they are in that car, and we are in this car.

  "Follow me," I respond to David, my finger releases the radio button.

  "You sure, Ryan?" he inquires. I throw the radio on top of the dash without answering. He'll figure it out. I slam my right foot down hard on the gas. The tires peel briefly as my car surges towards the newly formed roadblock about thirty yards away. Kevin leans out the window and fires a few shots at the figures. Whether avoiding the guns or the approaching car, all of the figures disappear. I glance at the speedometer.

  20... 25...