Matthews walks around Darrel and briefly looks towards us through the window. The windows are tinted, and he probably can’t see us. But he knows we are watching. Walking behind Darrel, Matthews reaches under his suit jacket with his right hand. Darrel turns to keep eye contact with him. His eyes plead.
“Please, let us-“
BANG.
A mist of blood hangs in the air as Darrel’s knees buckle and his body collapses to the ground.
Tori lets out a desperate scream beside me. Kevin pulls her back, and Carter and Jo immediately barricade the front door with an overturned gurney while the rest of us quickly move back down the hallway and towards the garage.
That fool. They’ll be moving in minutes because of you.
“The garage, NOW,” I command. They all listen this time.
Chapter 22: Nichols
“God no,” Paige gasps with her hand over her mouth as we watch Darrel’s body fall into the melting snow. The man who shot him disappears back into the crowd of soldiers after returning his gun to its shoulder holster.
Suscipientes animam ejus, offerentes eam in conspectu Altissimi.
The two of us sit helplessly on the balcony floor of a building adjacent to the hospital. When the convoy showed up, we remained here and hoped that maybe we could get the group's attention in the hospital. They haven’t seen us. So we watched helplessly, unable to do a thing when they executed Darrel on the streets below.
So, I guess Paige is right. We can’t trust these “New Americans.” I never really crossed paths with them until today. I've heard whispers and rumors, but nothing certain. I’m blessed for that. I never imagined that a group could have risen as quickly as they did after the plague. Not unless they had somehow already started before the plague even began.
That would mean... this isn't the time.
Now, we have to focus on getting those inside that hospital out. If they are trapped, we may be their only chance.
Paige stands, withdrawing her gun from the holster. A fearless look flashes in her eyes. She stands and raises her gun over the ledge and towards the crowd. What is she...?
I quickly reach up and pull her back down onto the patio.
“What in heaven's sake are you doing?”
“I can't just sit here and do nothing.” She fights against my grip. “Let me go.”
“Darling, I'm mad, too. But there's nothing we can do. You'll just get killed.”
“You don't understand,” she says, tears building in the corners of her eyes. “Not... not again.”
She finally stops fighting and falls to her knees. I wrap my arms around her and try to provide some comfort. “Shh... it'll be alright.” I don't know what she's talking about, but this is not the time for her redemption.
“Carter's going to need you to help him,” I say. She relaxes and breaks away from me. Our eyes meet – she's thinking again.
“We need you, too,” she responds. I give a reluctant half smile in return; maybe not quite “need.” They made it pretty far without me. I worry about all of them, but they all escaped the impossible a few days ago; they can do it again. They are a tough bunch.
“What are we going to do?” Paige asks. “What are they going to do on the inside?”
“They know they can’t win this fight. If I was them, I would be planning a hasty retreat.”
“The cars are in the parking garage?” Paige questions. I turn in the direction of the garage.
“Exactly,” I say while quickly nodding my head.
I move while crouched to the end of the balcony. I quickly look over, peering towards the entrance to the garage; it's within eye shot. Most of the New American cars sit on the street directly in front of the hospital. The cars that go around the hospital are sporadic in placement. There's even a slight gap between two of the vehicles that block the exit to the garage. If the SUV would reach a high enough speed, it could shear right through that opening.
“It doesn’t look like they’ve particularly reinforced that area in front of the garage. I bet that’s what Ryan is hoping to do. It's going to be soon, too.” Several of the soldiers form into squads around the hospital. They're preparing to storm the entrances.
“Then we need to get down there,” Paige exclaims as I reclaim my hat and settle it on my head. With a nod, I sprint back into the building, and we move quickly back down the hallway. I hoist myself down onto the elevator, and help her follow. Soon, we are in the hotel lobby, and I slide beneath the large windows that face the street. We make our way under the window and kneel beside the glass doors to the outside. The soldiers move loudly just outside where we hide. With my hat in hand, I raise my head to look into the street.
Dozens of cars and trucks, and seemingly hundreds of soldiers move around the streets. A few erect a tent in the center with a giant medical cross on the canvas roof. They take no notice of us inside the lobby. All their eyes focus on the hospital.
“I think Matthews brought his entire army here,” Paige says.
“Matthews?” I ask.
“He's the president of the New Americans. He's somewhere far away and safe,” she pauses, glancing at my still questioning face. “He's a real monster.”
I’ll take her word for it. “Come on, let's go,” I say.
We move through the hotel lobby and quietly relocate in the adjacent alley. The door to the next building is unlocked so we move through it. We proceed quietly through a few more just like it until we find an office building directly across from the entrance to the hospital parking garage. We carefully move to the doors. My hand pushes the one open slowly and Paige leads the way to a broken down car parked along the sidewalk. The soldiers move up and down the street, but their focus is entirely on the hospital. Over the course of a few minutes, they don’t look back our way even once. The car and remaining piles of snow hide us well.
“We wait here as long as we can. If they don't come out...” I don't have a plan.
“Then what?” she asks, withdrawing her pistol and holding it between her bent knees as she leans against the car.
“Pray it doesn't come to that,” I say, closing the cylinder on my revolver.
Five minutes pass. I peer every so often through the cloudy windows of the car. It reminds me of the police standoffs I'd seen on TV – with the cops' rifles or elbows resting on the hoods of their vehicles while their fingers itch for the chance to shoot at anything that may come out of the building. Groups of soldiers storm the hospital. They are undoubtedly sweeping for my new friends.
We’re running out of time.
A group in white coats walks around the street carrying the bin of vaccines that Darrel gave them. These lab technicians go to each soldier, lift up his sleeve, and inject him with the vaccine. All of the guards around us are inoculated and the white-coated men move to the other side of the hospital. Now, they could hold us off indefinitely.
Fantastic.
I rise a few inches to look at the New Americans. More begin to gather near us, focusing on the entrance to the garage. They must suspect what I believe Ryan will do. The soldiers issue commands to each other quickly; soon they'll be moving inside. Ryan needs to make his move now.
“We may have to move soon,” I say to Paige. She nods. We won't go unnoticed here much longer.
The burn of rubber echoes from within the garage. An engine rumble grows louder and louder as headlights move up the concrete ramp in front of us.
Here we go.
The SUV crashes through the two cars and the sedan follows right behind it. Paige and I stand and unload our guns at the soldiers firing at the vehicles. Following mists of red, a few of them drop. After six shots, I expose the chambers to reload. My eyes stay focused on the cars.
I hate being right all the time – and they are leaving without us...
“Hey!” I yell towards the cars as I flip the cylinder back into my gun. Paige and I run in desperate pursuit.
Please see us.
Paige fires blindly
into the flank of the New Americans as she enters into a dead sprint on the sidewalk following the cars. I fire a few more rounds behind me in the same direction. Hopefully, this will provide some suppression. We turn and run into the road, dodging around their cars and a few bodies. Bullets ricochet off the ground around us and shatter the windows of vacant cars. I catch up to Paige and pull her arm along with me. Both our guns are empty, now. I flip it into my holster.
“Stop, Stop Stop...” I yell, waving my right arm over my head.
The SUV’s brake lights come on as the trunk immediately opens. The sedan nearly rear-ends it and turns sharply to swerve around. It picks up speed and continues down the city road.
I guess that car isn’t waiting for us.
Catching up to the SUV, Paige and I dive into the open cargo space. Carter grabs Paige’s arm, and I grasp the back of the headrest behind Caitlyn who has her rifle balanced on the backseat facing the New Americans who quickly gain on us from behind. Tori sits between them and does her best to pull on my sleeve. My body nearly jerks out of the car as the SUV speeds off again.
“Thanks for the lift,” I yell to Jo who is behind the wheel. The SUV surges into an alleyway and turns hard onto a cross street. We are a few dozen yards from the sedan.
“Tori spotted you two. I can’t believe Ryan didn’t stop.” Jo says, while swerving around a car. Some gunshots fire off in the distance behind us. The New Americans are already in pursuit.
“He’s pretty mission driven at the moment,” Carter replies, adjusting in his seat to look behind.
“Yea, no sh-” Paige begins. An explosion ahead of us cuts her sentence off. It causes the SUV to rock, but Jo manages to keep it on the road.
“What the hell was that?” Caitlyn yells while rising slightly to get a better view out of the front windshield. I do the same. At the end of the road is a Humvee. A man is on top with what looks like... a rocket launcher?
“How did they get in front of us?” Jo yells, pulling the wheel down sharply forcing the SUV into a tight left turn behind the sedan. We travel between a few more buildings, taking us out of view of that Humvee. The engine roars as we accelerate down the street. I turn forward, looking out the windshield. Between the buildings, I catch a glimpse of a yellow bridge.
It should be a straight shot from there. Just a little bit further and we'll be out of the city.
“It’s back behind us,” Caitlyn says, firing her rifle out the already shattered trunk window. It's gaining.
“Go faster,” I demand. Right after I say it, I know it's a fruitless request.
“It can’t go any faster,” Jo answers, glancing at me briefly from the review mirror. We escape the alley and the tires squeal on the main road as we make a sharp right.
They are still right behind us. A flicker of light from the top of the Humvee causes my heart to sink. They've fired another rocket.
Dear Lord. No.
My eyes follow a stream of smoke headed right... it's gonna hit...
BOOM.
Time slows as my body hangs in mid-air. My hands scrape to grab hold of something. But the roof is now the floor, and I come crashing down on the hard surface and shattered glass. While covering my head, I watch from the shattered rear window as we slide along the ground and crash through the front windows of a building on the other side of the street. The SUV finally stops sliding inside of a lobby. My whole body aches from the tumble, but I manage to painfully push my chest off the ground and turn towards the others. The car is upside down. Paige is sprawled out beside me. Her eyelids are closed. Carter looks like he’s out too. Caitlyn is moving out of the car. I can’t see Jo or Tori.
They are just unconscious. Please just be unconscious.
My head starts to hurt. I lift my fingers, and they come away with blood. My hat sits on the floor, and without thinking, I put it back on my head.
I guess it doesn’t protect my head so well.
While looking out the window, everything starts to become hazy with darkness.
No… it’s the black sedan coming to a stop right outside the building. They've stopped. The doors open and they rush towards us to help. Kevin stays by the shattered window and provides some fire to keep the distant Humvee at bay.
I manage to crawl through the small opening in the side of the SUV. Pieces of safety glass pierce my hand and slow me down, but soon I am out. I go to the front seat. Jo is moving and her fingers reach towards the door. I open it and ease her out of the car.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“I’m fine… we need to get the others,” she says.
Ryan helps Carter to his feet.
“Why’d you come back?” Carter asks, withdrawing his gun and checking the round in the chamber.
“Old habits die hard. I've lost enough today,” Ryan says. He has a different look. One that I've never seen before. Maybe a little less rage. They exchange understanding nods. “Come on – to your feet. Where's Tori?”
I look in the front through the open door; maybe Tori ended up in the front. I shout her name. Some others look. I can't find her. The passenger’s seat has supplies strapped in it. She didn’t land up there. I look around the hotel lobby for her. If she landed outside the car, Tori will be pretty beat up.
Where did she-? I find her.
My heart drops, and I feel my composure failing. Tori was thrown from the vehicle and is now against the back wall of the lobby.
She is obviously dead.
Et lux perpetua luceat ei.
I turn from the horror to see Jo staring at Tori’s body, her mouth open in a silent scream. I collect my own composure and go to her.
“I… I hate to do this… but we have to go. Come on,” I say. Jo turns to me and manages a nod. She shakes her head and begins back towards the SUV.
Please God, I can’t take anyone else dying. Help us.
We need to leave before the rest of the New Americans catch up; they could already be surrounding the building. Gunshots echo off the otherwise dead skyscrapers of downtown, and the corresponding bullets pepper the walls around us. We all crouch low to avoid the incoming fire. Ryan holds a rifle and helps Kevin fire out of the lobby.
“Get back in the-” Kevin begins. Another trail of smoke goes to the black sedan. Ryan and Kevin dive to cover as the car explodes in a bright burst of orange. I feel the heat on my face.
I turn from the explosion to see Laura pulling the box of vaccines from the trunk of the SUV. The explosion of the sedan has not slowed her down. It's the last case; the other was in the sedan.
“Most of these are broken, but enough are intact,” she says, inspecting the crate of vaccines. She stands with the box and approaches a nearby exit. “Come to this door.” She points to a door in the back corner of the lobby.
“We need to get out through that door,” Ryan yells to all of us, “If we can get away, there are enough buildings around here that we can hide in for a few days. We're in a city.”
We all move towards the back door; Laura stands at the doorway with the box in her hands. She turns and faces us. The maroon liquid drips from the corners of the box. I hope there's at least one vaccine intact. Laura looks to us with urgency.
“Come on guys this way is clear. Let's-” A burst of blood exits the center of Laura’s forehead. She falls forward, onto the box. She is… no. A black suited soldier moves in though the exit with smoke rising from his rifle.
“No!” I yell, bringing the revolver up to my hip. I crank the hammer back with my other hand over and over again. Another soldier comes through, and I aim for him, too. While firing the last shots, I curse God aloud. Both soldiers lie dead beside Laura. Her body lies on top of the box, crushing the contents even more.
“They’ll kill us all,” Paige yells, tears already coming down her cheeks. She is already at the body of Laura. This isn't like the last time we escaped. Tori and Laura are gone. I curse God again. Take me. Not them.
“How'd they already get behind us?” Carter yell
s, kneeling behind the flipped SUV for cover. More gunshots spray around us.
“They’re everywhere,” Jo yells, while aiming down her scope and firing a round.
I glance around, keeping my gun fixed on the door by Paige. I can see through the lobby's side glass to a neighboring store window. It looks like a toy store. The path looks clear. We need to move, now. Maybe that will have a back exit that isn't already surrounded.
“There’s a toy store next door. We should be able to get there,” I shout. “Maybe we can get out that way.”
Paige leaves Laura's body. In her hand, she holds a single unbroken syringe of the vaccine.
“It's the only unbroken one I could find in the box,” she says.
Ryan turns to Caitlyn. She gives him a nod. They have something planned.
“Use it,” Ryan says calmly. “We need cover.”
Caitlyn withdrawals something from her leg pocket. It looks like three black flashlights taped together. But they aren't flashlights. She pulls out a lighter and ignites the fuse. Well, that'll give us the cover we need for our escape. She rolls it towards the windows to the street. We have to get out of here before that goes off. We make our way to the window, ducking from the occasional bullet that zips through the lobby. Caitlyn remains standing in place.
“Caitlyn, let’s go,” Carter shouts. She shakes her head and continues standing still. She looks at the bomb and then to us.
“Get to safety. There is something I have to do,” Caitlyn smiles to Jo and Carter. “I love you both. Good-bye.”
“Caitlyn!” Jo yells. Caitlyn turns and runs out the opposite exit, the one Laura tried to lead us through.
“Caitlyn…” Carter says softly, gripping Paige. Maybe he knows what she's doing.
“Nichols, we have less than thirty seconds now, lead the way,” Ryan orders, ducking as some shots bury into the pillar beside him.
I fire two shots into the pane. I sprint at the window and lower my shoulder into the glass. It shatters, and I quickly find myself in the cold snow. The others jump through in quick sequence, landing beside me in the cold embankment.
Humanity Gone (Book 3): Rebirth Page 12