“This is Doctor Ben.”
“I’m sorry you’re breaking up.”
“Ben,” he repeated. “And you’re breaking up too.”
“You guys okay?” he asked.
“Yes. Listen we went to Key West. It isn’t good. They’re infected,” Ben said. “People are missing from here now.”
“I would ask…repeat.” Triple clip of static. “But I got it.”
I looked at Lev. “What would cause that?”
Ben replied to me, “Interference. Maybe a storm somewhere.” He returned to the radio. “We think we’re headed up that way. Do you copy?”
Nothing.
“Westin?”
It wasn’t just another rush of static, his entire message was garbled with it. “Listen,” Westin said. “Whatever…do…don’t—”
More static.
A lot of static, and it seemed as if that was all.
We kept trying, but we had no luck.
“He was warning us about something,” Ben said. “I’m sure of it.”
“Maybe they’re infected,” I said.
Ben shrugged. “I would think he would have known this morning. It’s something that occurred while we were on the boat.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
Ben swiveled the chair around. “I still say our best option is heading back to Cobb Corner. I know”—he held up his hand to Lev—“you want to go to the cabin. I get it. But we need to stop somewhere and find fuel. Cobb Corner is our best bet.”
“I already said the same thing to Nila,” Lev said. “I agree with you.”
Fleck asked, “What if the warning was not to go there?”
Lev sighed out heavily. “I guess we’ll find out.”
FIFTEEN
FROM LEV’S SIDE
May 26
It was a long night. One that was difficult and unnerving because every sound caused me to worry. Fleck and I switched shifts keeping watch. While one was on a roof, the other packed the wagon.
There would be no rest for me. I had Fleck sleep during the last couple hours. We’d leave at first light. I encouraged Nila and Ben to rest because they’d have to drive if need be.
Cobb Corner was nine hundred miles away and taking the back roads, like we did when we’d traveled south, would add even more time on to our trip.
I estimated it would take at the very least sixteen hours. Which meant, even leaving at dawn, we’d have to find somewhere to spend the night.
We took mainly state highways and two-lane routes, steering clear of the interstates.
Those roads took us through a lot of small towns.
Just before we stopped for the night, we passed through a small town on the border as we crossed into North Carolina. Grassland, I believe. I didn’t recognize the name and was certain we hadn’t passed through it on our journey southbound. Surely we would have noticed the bodies?
Bodies lay on the road, outside of stores, some cars looked like they’d just been abandoned where they stopped. Not many, about eight, had their doors open. It was a smaller scale scene of the chaos I had seen before, left over from the original outbreak. But something about this town was different.
“Lev, why are you stopping?” Nila asked, leaning between the seats.
“Fleck did,” I answered.
“Okay, so why is he stopping?”
“I think I know.”
“Want to share?” Ben asked.
I lowered my voice. “These bodies don’t look that old. None of this does.”
“You’re right,” Ben said. “I’ll go with you and look.”
“Stay put, please,” I told Nila and grabbed for the car door.
“You’re leaving us in the back seat?” she asked. “I hope the child locks aren’t on.”
“Mommy, look at that cat eating that body,” Katie said. “Do you think he knew that person? Maybe it was his owner.”
I paused before getting out. “Can you…can you have her not look out the window, please, thank you.”
I stepped out and closed the door, walking around the wagon to meet Fleck. “Why did you stop?”
“You notice anything strange about this?” Fleck asked.
“It looks fresh,” I replied.
“Exactly,” Fleck said. “Look at these cars, they’re packed up like they were leaving.” He walked over and peeked inside one. “We should siphon.”
“We can do that,” I said.
“Lev, Fleck,” Ben called out. “Can you come here?”
Ben was crouched by a body.
He peered at us as we approached him, squinting from the sun. “Infected. No bite marks. Necrosis has started. Single shot to the head.”
“All these people were infected?” Lev asked.
“I only looked at a couple. They were shot, too. This one I looked closely at. Infected, and um, here’s the strange thing. He was infected, but I don’t think he turned.”
“You mean into a deader?” I asked.
“No, I mean into the raging infected. This guy was just sick. The skin color tells me that.”
“What about the others?” Lev asked.
Fleck’s voice was a little distance away—I hadn’t even noticed he had walked away from us. “This one’s arm,” Fleck said. “Barely any spider veins.”
Ben raised his eyebrows. “How about that?”
“So the people that lived here, and it looks like there were maybe twenty or so, they were sick and they all got shot?”
“I’d have to look at every body but that’s a possibility,” Ben said.
“We don’t have time. Let’s just get gas while we can and get going. That way we don’t have to stop again before Cobb.”
Ben agreed and stood. We needed to leave this town.
We traveled north, making a pact that we would stop when we felt it was too much. Fleck, hating to admit it was too tired and felt unsafe on the motorcycle. So we stopped before I would have liked to.
Keeping us out in the open exposed was not an option, not with everything going on. Unfortunately, it was the only option available to us. We stopped on a bridge that gave us a clear view of anything should it come our way.
It was a restless night for the kids, but we were back on the road and nearing Cobb Corner before eight the next morning.
About a quarter of a mile before the town, the road started to wind before finally opening up. We hit the bottom of the small grade with Fleck still riding a short distance ahead of us, and I could see the brake lights on his bike through the morning haze as he took the final bend.
I thought at first he was stopping to wait for us, but then I saw the real reason. Two military vehicles and an unmarked white utility van were blocking the road.
“Lev?” Nila called my name as I hit the brakes.
I mumbled softly, “Turn around, Fleck, come on, turn around.”
“What’s going on?” Nila asked.
“I don’t know.”
Fleck began to turn the bike when I saw two people in white biohazard suits carrying military-style rifles halting him.
I placed my hand on the gear shift and prepared to go just as three more people in hazmat suits walk up to Fleck. Those three weren’t armed and their suits were yellow.
“What are you doing?” Nila placed her hand over mine on the gear.
“We have kids in this car, Nila. We can’t go any further, especially if the virus is there.”
“We can’t leave Fleck.”
Ben said from the back, “We can’t stay.”
I saw through the corner of my eye Fleck stepping off the bike and raising his hands.
All that ran through my mind upon seeing the guns and the hazmat suits was that place we’d driven through in North Carolina. The cars with the doors opened, the people shot lying on the ground.
“We have to go.” I placed the wagon in reverse but before I could hit the gas, a triple pounding knock on my window instantly caused me to freeze.
A man i
n a white bio suit aimed the rifle at me. “I need you all to step out of the vehicle.”
I just stared at him, trying my best to think of a way out.
Another armed man approached on the passenger’s side.
Again, the man at my window repeated his request. “Step out of the vehicle now.” He paused. “Please.”
I wound down my window and spoke in a low voice. “Look, we have children in the car. Can you step back and lower your weapon? You’re scaring them.”
“I’m not scared, Lev,” Katie called from the back seat.
I utterly cringed at that moment, shot a glance to Nila, then looked at Katie in the back who was peeking around curiously.
I looked again at the person who stood at my door. He lowered his weapon and stepped back. He did as I requested, and we really had no other choice but to do what he had asked in return.
Reluctantly, we stepped from the car.
SIXTEEN
LET’S BE CLARE
The town of Cobb Corner was just up ahead and I worried, if they, like everyone else had gone or worse…dead.
For as scared as I was, for some reason I slipped into some weird survival mode. We weren’t going down without a fight.
Maybe I had the killer instinct after all. But when the soldier or whatever he was backed away from the car, I was able to switch the safety off my pistol and make sure the semi auto switch was engaged. As I slipped from the car, I placed it behind the waist of my pants. The blood rushed to my ears. I inched my way around the front of the car, back sliding against it to be near Lev. He opened up the back door, reached for Katie and held her.
It had to be what had happened in Canada that made him clutch my daughter.
“Lev?” I whispered.
“I don’t know. I’m just…thinking of that town.”
“Oh my God.”
“Stay close to me.” He looked behind him to Ben and Bella. “We all stay close.”
“If anything,” Ben said, “anything remotely goes wrong. Bella, I want you to take Christian and run. Run as fast as you can.”
“No worries,” she said. “I will.”
“Nila, do you want to hold Katie just in case you have to run?” Lev asked.
“No, I’m the best shot here. Trust me, I’m ready. I can take out three of them before they get off a single shot.”
“Mommy’s funny,” Katie said.
“This way,” the man said, walking before us and leading the way.
“No one is behind us,” said Ben. “That’s a good sign.”
Lev grumbled a “hmm.”
We walked until we met up with Fleck.
“They say anything to you?” I asked Lev.
“Nope, just that I can put down my hands,” Fleck answered.
We stood in a group, close together as those armed formed a wall before us.
It was hard to distinguish through the suits if they were men or women; the only indicator I had was the size of the body and height.
What I believed to be two men walked up to Fleck. One had a clipboard, the other some sort of instrument. It was white and it reminded me of one of those grocery store scan guns, only winder.
He held it to Fleck’s face, waved it in front of him, then instructed, “Tilt your head to the left.” He scanned his neck. “To the right.”
Fleck did.
“Hands please, palms up.” He ran the tool over them. “Palms down. Thank you.” He turned to the man with the clipboard. “Clear.”
“What am I clear of?” Fleck asked.
“No signs of the virus,” the man replied.
“I could have told you that.”
“Not if it’s early on. Next.”
He repeated the same actions with every one of us, with the same monotone instructions. Each of us was deemed clear.
“Why all this?” Ben asked.
“Just protecting the town, sir,” was the answer we received. “We apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Is this for good?” Ben asked. “You weren’t here when we passed through before.”
“No, it’s not permanent. We’re searching.” The man with the clipboard moved forward. “By chance have any of you received a scratch or a bite from someone sick and did not contract the virus?”
It was déjà vu. Canada all over again. A man with a clipboard asking that question. There was no doubt in my mind about how I was going to answer.
I shook my head no, but I knew, I knew it was coming.
“Me,” said Katie cheerfully.
Before anything could be done, the second I saw the rifleman make a hair of a move, I whipped out my pistol and placed it to the clipboard man’s head. “I swear to God, touch her and I blow his head off. Try it.”
The man with the rifle raised a hand, moved his rifle to the side and raised the other. “Ma’am we have no intention of hurting the child.”
“Please take the gun from my head,” Clipboard Man said calmly. “We’re not asking so we can hurt her.”
“So you’re not responsible for those bodies in that town a few hundred miles back? All with bullet holes in their head.”
“We probably are,” Clipboard Man said. “But they were infected, I assure you.”
“The whole town?” I asked.
“No, just those people. We rescued about seven who weren’t. Those we shot were ill, some in the early stages, some not. I assure you they had the virus,” said Clipboard Man. “Entire groups are getting sick. Please take the fucking gun from my head. Our interest in the girl isn’t to harm her, it’s hopefully to help us stop this.”
“Nila,” Lev said calmly. “Lower the weapon.”
“No, Lev, I don’t trust them. If one of us wouldn’t have been clear, they would have shot us.”
“Yes, we would have,” Clipboard Man said. “I’m being honest with you. We have to stop this thing by any means necessary but that does not include killing a child who could possibly be immune.”
Ben stepped to me and in front of Lev, sandwiching Katie between them. “Lower it, Nila. They won’t harm her. They have to go through me and him. And we know he’s tough to take down.”
It took a lot, but I did. I lowered the weapon.
“Jesus,” Clipboard Man gasped out. “Thank you.”
“Can we go to our cars and go into town?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “We’d really like to talk to you. It would benefit your group. You can trust us.”
“It’s kinda hard to trust someone whose face you can barely see,” I said.
A woman’s voice called out. “You can see mine.” She stepped forward. “Can you take a moment to talk to me? Just you.” She looked directly at me. “Please.”
That’s when I saw Westin was with her.
Lev moved forward. “Westin, what is going on?”
“They picked up my radio transmissions,” Westin said. “They’re looking for life and people.”
“They’re shooting people,” Lev told him.
“Lev,” Westin said. “I may not agree with what they’re doing, or how, but they are trying to stop this virus before it wipes us all out. Or turns us into a world of those things.”
“Who are they?”
“Those mythical beings called The Colony,” Westin replied.
“Actually…” The woman, wearing a hazmat suit as well, walked up to me and extended her hand. “The Colony is a place. I’m Clare.” She shook my hand.
“What did you want to talk about?” I asked.
“She’s your daughter, right?” Clare pointed to Katie.
“Yes,” I said. “Can he come too?” I indicated too Lev.
“If he’s the father, then yes, he can.”
“He’s the father,” I replied.
“No,” Katie sang out with a giggle. “He’s not my dad, silly. Daddy was the one who bit me.”
Silence filled the air.
Then Fleck spoke up. “Okay, you know what?” he said. “Someone really needs to
teach this kid the old adage that children should be seen and not heard, or maybe…try some duct tape on her mouth.”
I really wanted Lev to go, father or not, and I told her I would only speak to her with Lev present.
I had Fleck take care of Katie and warned him jokingly not to duct tape her mouth.
“Okay, here’s where we stand.” Clare exhaled as she sat in her chair behind a desk in an office set up in the rear of her utility van. She wasn’t old; she was actually young. I was willing to bet she wasn’t a day over thirty-five. Her brown hair was pulled back into what I would call a messy bun. Strands dangled around her very tired face. “When we picked up the radio signal coming out of this town we intercepted and made contact. We found out Westin is pretty much the person people check in with. People that haven’t made their way to a Colony.”
“To be honest,” I said, “no one really knows about The Colony or where it is. We just learned about you recently after we heard some people have been looking for it.”
“They find us or we find them,” she said. “So as I was saying, knowing that Westin makes contact with people from all over, we figured maybe he had heard from your group. He had. We had a team in the area checking out Key West. The radio woman told us where you lived, but you weren’t there.”
Lev asked. “Why were you looking for us?”
“We retrieved a lot of intake information from Canada before they fell. Several instances were documented of people that were bitten and survived. Of those coming in on the Ontario border, your group was one of four.” She opened up a folder. “You had a man named Corbin with you.”
“He was killed by them,” I said.
She nodded. “I saw that. Ignorance isn’t always bliss, is it?”
“He was straightforward,” I told her. “He thought maybe they could use him. Maybe there was something special about his blood.”
“And there was,” Clare said. “So knowing that your group was ejected, we were hoping to find a family member. And we found him with one of the other groups.”
“He has a son,” Lev said. “Sawyer. They kept him and wouldn’t let us take him.”
“Oh, we located Sawyer,” she said nonchalantly. “He’s with a family in Colony One. He is not immune though.”
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