Point Of Destruction

by Max Lockwood

  She managed to salvage another bag of non-alcoholic liquids and took both bags back out to the car before returning to the store. Inside, Bobby Dean was sitting on the counter, casually drinking his can of light beer as if he were watching a football game.

  “Should we pump gas now?” Melissa asked, starting to get anxious. They had been in the store for much longer than she felt comfortable with. Gunshots seemed to attract the infected, and Bobby Dean had fired enough rounds to bring in hundreds more.

  “In a minute,” he said, taking another drink. “Let me finish this first.”

  Melissa tried to stay cool. Her controlling tendencies were threatening to come out if Bobby Dean continued being so nonchalant about the potential danger they were in. She didn’t even know if he had the ammunition to protect them from another wave of infected.

  In the meantime, Melissa collected a few things that she had lost in the fire. With a fresh set of bandages, she was finally able to check the progress on her bullet wound. Pink scar tissue surrounded scabbing flesh. It wasn’t pretty, but her injury was finally healing properly, without any signs of infection. She splashed a little rubbing alcohol on the area and slapped a clean bandage on. Then, she carefully dabbed ointment on her burns. By the time she finished doctoring herself up, Bobby Dean had finished his drink and punctuated it with a loud belch.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  It took all of Melissa’s self-control not to scream. She had been ready for quite some time. She stuffed a few more things from the bullet-riddled shelves in her pockets and made her way outside.

  “Now, I’m going to pump the gas and I want you to stand guard for me, okay?” Bobby Dean asked. “I don’t want any sneak attacks.”

  “Got it,” Melissa said dryly. She followed him out to the car and checked their surroundings. Surprisingly, she didn’t see any infected in the area. She was sure that Bobby Dean had sealed their fate by causing a ruckus inside the store.

  “I feel like I’m constantly stopping to fill this damn car up,” he said to himself. “Good thing I’m not paying for the gas.”

  “I think that has to do with the speed you’re traveling at,” Melissa replied. “Going that fast and revving the engine probably uses more fuel.”

  “Then it’s worth it.” He grinned.

  While he was pumping gas, Melissa was beginning to hear the strange noises again, like she had as she fell asleep in Bobby Dean’s car. She didn’t want to mention it to him. There was only room for one crazy person in the car, and Bobby Dean had already taken on that role.

  Perhaps she was still sleep-deprived. Her nap had helped her feel reenergized, but she was recovering from a sleep deficit that was greater than the hours in a day. With more sleep, maybe the strange auditory hallucinations would stop.

  In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but worry that the trauma she had experienced in the last few months was taking its toll on her mental health. The fact that the voice sounded like Natalia only backed up that suspicion.

  Melissa wasn’t a big believer in the supernatural, either. As far as she was concerned, ghosts of the floaty, white, apparition type did not exist. But she figured if ghosts did exist, Natalia’s would certainly come back to haunt her. However, she was more afraid of Will than the ghost of the person she’d fatally shot.

  Finally, Bobby Dean finished pumping the gas and got back in the car, throwing the rifle in the backseat. Melissa quickly got in the car and fastened her seatbelt.

  Bobby Dean continued down the road, much to Melissa’s relief. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down. When she thought about it, it was silly of her to get so frustrated with Bobby Dean. He was a little strange, but not harmful in any way. He was just trying to make light of the terrible situation they were in. Besides, he had already transported her a few hundred miles in a relatively short amount of time. She could put up with a little eccentricity for that.

  Then, she heard the voice again. This time, it was louder and clearer than before. It didn’t sound like Natalia, either. It sounded furious.

  “Get me out of here!” the muffled female voice rang out from the back of the car. It sounded like it was coming from the trunk.

  Melissa whipped her head toward Bobby Dean. He shrugged in response.

  Relief washed over Melissa. She clearly wasn’t the only one who heard the voice. If he acknowledged it, then it had to be real. She wasn’t suffering from psychological symptoms, after all. Then, fear took the place of her short-lived relief—there was someone in the trunk of the car, someone who wanted out.

  “Who’s in the trunk of your car?” Melissa asked as her heart pounded. Was it possible that she had misjudged a deranged sociopath for a quirky bad boy?

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said.

  This caused her to worry more. “I need to get out,” she said. “Pull over.”

  “I’m not going to do that,” he said casually. “We have too far to go to keep making these pointless stops.”

  “Pull over,” she shrieked.

  “No,” Bobby Dean drawled, raising his voice.

  Melissa panicked. They were speeding down the highway and he was showing no signs of slowing down. The girl in the trunk was now banging on the sides of the car. No matter how loud Bobby Dean turned up the music, Melissa could still hear it.

  Whoever was in the back seat had been there for several hours. Melissa figured she was injured in some way if she had been quiet for so long. She didn’t know if the girl had been kidnapped and if Bobby Dean was planning the same fate for Melissa. She desperately wanted to save herself and the other captive, but she didn’t know how.

  In an attempt to get the man to take her seriously, Melissa pointed the revolver at Bobby Dean’s head.

  “Don’t be like that,” he groaned. “It’s just my crazy girlfriend. She was pissing me off, so I tossed her in the trunk so I could have some peace and quiet. It’s better for both of us that she stays back there. Trust me.”

  Melissa recalled Bobby Dean telling her that he was single. Something was not matching up and she realized that he had been lying to her about at least one thing. He was a threat and she needed to get away from him and save the other girl immediately. They might not have a car, but she figured the two of them would be safer without Bobby Dean.

  Without warning, Melissa grabbed the wheel and jerked it to the side. Bobby Dean stomped on the brakes, but they were traveling too quickly. The car slid into the ditch, jolting Bobby Dean and Melissa forward. The seatbelt caught Melissa in the chest, knocking the wind out of her. She looked over to see Bobby Dean’s head touching the windshield, a tiny crack in the glass where he’d made impact.

  Melissa unbuckled her seatbelt and ran out of the car toward the trunk. She didn’t know if Bobby Dean was still alive, but she needed to escape before he could catch her.

  Before Melissa could grab the release handle, the trunk swung open and a woman popped up. She swung at Melissa’s face, hitting her so hard that Melissa crumpled to the ground.

  The last thing she remembered was seeing the spiteful face of the girl who hit her, baring her teeth as she swung her fist. Then, she was overtaken by darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Thomas, Bethany, you’re free to proceed to General Population,” a bored doctor announced, handing each of them a set of pajama-like outfits. They reminded Thomas of doctors’ scrubs. He pulled his on as quickly as possible, not wanting to be completely naked for another second.

  The door opened, and the two were escorted to the wide-open room where they were to spend the majority of their waking hours. It looked like a recreation center and a cafeteria in one. In one corner, there was a small kitchen, handing out food and drinks. There was a ping pong table, a library, complete with oversized beanbag chairs, and even a set of massaging chairs.

  People sat in matching gray scrubs reading books or playing board games. Everyone seemed fairly happy. At the very least, no one seemed displeased to be there.<
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  “Want to check out the cafeteria?” Thomas asked Bethany. “I’m starving.”

  “Sure,” she said as she took in her surroundings. Her eyes frequently looked toward the ceiling.

  Thomas was disappointed when he saw that the cafeteria was really just a few vending machines until he saw what they dispensed. At the push of a button, Thomas could receive a steaming-hot slice of pepperoni pizza and a soda. He greedily munched down on his meal, burning the roof of his mouth in the process. He didn’t care, though. It was the first proper meal he had enjoyed in months. His eyes searched all of the possibilities in the state-of-the-art machine. He couldn’t wait to try the prime rib and the fried chicken the machine claimed to offer.

  Bethany pressed a button and a small plate of sushi and a cup of tea appeared on the conveyer belt. She picked it up and joined Thomas at a table.

  Thomas had never had sushi before, so he returned to the machine and ordered a plate for himself. He wolfed down the rice and fish, deciding that he quite enjoyed it. He wondered what other new things he could try at the base.

  “Pretty cool place, isn’t it?” Mark asked, sliding into the seat next to Bethany. His sister jumped, startled to see him appear out of nowhere.

  “Not bad,” Thomas said with a mouthful of food.

  “There’s plenty more where that came from. Let me take you on a tour of the place.”

  Thomas and Bethany followed Mark around the wide room. Thomas looked longingly at the cafeteria, hoping that the meals were available at all hours of the day.

  “How was the medical exam?” Mark asked.

  “Invasive,” Bethany answered coldly.

  “Yeah, sorry I didn’t warn you about that. They just want to make sure that the base isn’t infected. Here’s the library,” he said, pointing to the stacks of books. “We have a lot of books here, but it’s also just a nice place to relax and take a nap.”

  They continued walking to another section with the ping pong table that Thomas saw earlier.

  “This is the game section,” Mark said. “We’ve got board games, video games, a ping pong table, air hockey, and other fun stuff. It’s probably the most popular area on base.”

  Then, he led them to a patio area, surrounded by tall fences. A few young women were sitting on deck chairs with their sleeves rolled up, soaking up the sun.

  “This is the garden. We have some plants growing out by the koi pond and a little walking path if you need to stretch your legs. Otherwise, as you can see, it’s mainly used as a place to get some sun.”

  “How is this place so nice?” Thomas asked. “It looks so new.”

  “Our benefactors put a lot of money into making it as state-of-the-art as possible. I think the soldiers deserve to have nice things. We work so hard that it’s nice to relax a little at the end of the day.”

  His answer didn’t explain much for Thomas. The survivors in his town took over the courthouse and made it their own, but it still looked like a courthouse on the inside. This place seemed impossibly nice. There were clearly powerful people behind the construction of a brand-new military base.

  Next, Mark led them to a smaller closed-off room. They peeked through the small window in the door and saw people practicing hand-to-hand combat in a padded room.

  “That’s the training room,” Mark explained. “The army uses it to prepare soldiers for battle. Civilians aren’t allowed to go in there, though,” he said. “If you join, I’ll teach you how to spar. It’s pretty fun. Down the hall are the men’s and women’s dormitories. Then, there are a bunch of offices for military personnel, but that’s also off-limits for civilians. Again, I’ll give you a tour of those facilities if you join.”

  Mark finished the tour at the cafeteria, much to Thomas’s delight.

  “It’s all so fancy,” Thomas mused.

  “If you think this is nice, you should see the military wing. You wouldn’t believe your eyes.”

  This piqued Thomas’s curiosity. However, he took what Bethany said seriously and wasn’t about to join the army on a whim. Besides, he didn’t want to be tied to anything he couldn’t back out of. But seeing how well they were being taken care of, he wondered if Bethany was making a big deal out of nothing.

  “So, Thomas,” Mark said brightly, “tell me a little bit about yourself.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Thomas said, feeling bashful. “I’m not a very interesting person.”

  “Nonsense! Everyone has a story. How old are you?”

  “I’m twenty. I’m from a small town in Washington. It was a pretty blue-collar place and my family was poor.”

  “Any work experience?”

  “I worked at a grocery store to support my family and to save up enough money to move away from home.”

  “Are your family members still alive?”

  “Unfortunately, no,” Thomas said softly.

  “How did they die?” Mark pried.

  Bethany glared at her brother, but Thomas didn’t really mind answering his questions. Everyone had gone through similar situations so it didn’t seem more tragic than someone else’s story.

  “The virus, of course. But I was actually the one to shoot them before they infected anyone else.”

  “Sorry to hear it,” Mark said. “So you’ve used a gun before?”

  “Mark!” Bethany exclaimed, startling a few civilians at a nearby table.

  “It’s fine,” Thomas said. “I don’t really mind talking about it.”

  She shook her head and frowned, but Thomas continued, feeling more comfortable talking to Mark.

  “The surviving men in my town formed a militia of sorts. We defended the town and took turns sniping from the taller buildings. We kept a lot of infected away.”

  Mark raised his eyebrows. “That’s impressive. Why aren’t you there now?”

  Thomas shrugged. “I didn’t like being a part of it. They weren’t good men. I wanted to get away.”

  Mark nodded. “I completely understand. Luckily, all of the soldiers here are good citizens. You’d like them. They’re very good at making you feel like a welcomed family member.”

  Bethany tapped Thomas’s foot under the table. When he turned to look at her, her eyes were closed and her head bowed down toward the table.

  “You know, you’re just what we’re looking for,” Mark said. “I know you said you weren’t interested in joining, but maybe you could withhold judgment until I tell you more about what we’re doing here.”

  Bethany sighed loudly. She looked absolutely disgusted with her brother.

  “Bethany, if you’re going to be rude, you should just go to the library and chill out while I talk to Thomas. He’s giving me a chance here. If you don’t want to, I don’t want your negativity around here.”

  She stood up quickly and took long strides across the room, eventually disappearing into the stacks.

  “Don’t mind her,” Mark said apologetically. “She’s always been kind of moody. I understand that she doesn’t like violence, but she doesn’t seem to understand what we’re trying to do here. I can tell that you know the difference between senseless violence and necessary force. She just doesn’t listen and won’t open her mind. I love her, but she can be a huge pain in the butt sometimes. I’m sorry you have to be in the middle of it.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Thomas said, feeling awkward. “So, what is it that you do here? I’ve heard some things about a new army, and I have to admit, it doesn’t sound good.”

  “What, exactly, have you heard?”

  “Oh, not much,” Thomas said. “I just heard that the soldiers weren’t treated very humanely.”

  “I promise, whatever you’ve heard about us isn’t true. In the early days, I know that the leaders struggled to get everyone on the same page and things got messy on occasion. Now, we work like a well-oiled machine. We’re trying to make the world a safer place for people like us. I promise you that I’ve only had good things happen to me since I joined.”

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p; This puzzled Thomas. He had heard Mark promise safety, but he’d never explained exactly how they were going to achieve that. Thomas had about all the protection he needed after he’d met Alec and Elaina, and there was nothing unethical about how they were surviving.

  “But how?” Thomas worked up the nerve to ask.

  Mark bit his lip. “The United States military is no longer interested in saving citizens. Basically, they’re trying to get rid of the infected portion and start fresh. They are not using available technology and knowledge like they could be. That’s where we come in. Our scientists are working on experiments that will change the world as we know it. We have the power to take back the sick part of the country without detonating a bomb to rid it of infection. Once the war on the virus is over, we’ll rise to power and give a voice to the people who have been ignored for so long.”

  “But how?” Thomas asked again.

  Mark twiddled his thumbs. “Here’s an example—our head scientist is the most brilliant scientist in the country, yet no one listened to him. They ignored his work for years, even though it was life-changing stuff. In the new world, when we’re in power, everyone will know about the work he did to save the country. We just need more good people like you to spread the cause.”

  “I don’t think I’m what you’re looking for,” Thomas said.

  “Can I ask you something?” Mark asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “Sure.”

  “Have you ever felt like people don’t listen to you, even though you have good ideas? Do you feel like people are always telling you what to do and you have no choice but to follow along? Do you ever feel like people don’t appreciate you and what you’re capable of?”

  Thomas looked down at the table. It was as if Mark knew his deepest and darkest thoughts. He wanted to deny it, but everything Mark had asked was painfully true.

  “Maybe sometimes, I guess,” Thomas mumbled.

  Mark gave him a kind smile. “Then I think you’re exactly the type of person we’re looking for. I’d love to talk about this more, but it’s getting late and curfew is coming up. I just want you to keep an open mind and think about joining the ranks. Sleep on it, then we’ll talk about signing you up tomorrow, okay?”