“Lev.”
“No, I’ll just go in the other room.”
“Lev, stop.” I waited until he stopped moving. “You didn’t wait for me to go in the rest of the way.”
“That’s because your mouth was too busy making fun.”
“Don’t go. Stay. Please?” I held out my hand.
He took a step back toward me, grabbing my hand.
“Wait.”
“What now?”
“Close the door.”
Still clasping my fingers, Lev extended back his long reach and shut the door.
TWENTY-FOUR
FLEE
The middle-of-the-night civil defense siren wasn’t just jarring, it was frightening as it cut suddenly and loudly through the quiet night.
Lev was just getting ready to go to the couch. His hand had barely touched the doorknob when it sounded off.
His expression matched mine. Utter confusion as to what was going on.
He opened the door and threw on his shirt, stepping into the hall at the same time as Ben.
“What the hell is that?” Ben asked.
“I don’t know.” Lev moved quickly down the small hall to the living room.
Sawyer and Katie were up.
“Lev?” Katie asked, her little voice quivering. “What is that? I’m scared.”
“I know, sweetie.” He lifted her and turned to Ben. “Where’s Fleck?”
“He never came back.”
“Damn it.”
“Is it a fire?” I asked.
“No, it can’t be,” Lev said. “It’s coming from outside.”
I hurried to the window and looked out. Giant event-style spotlights swung through the sky and over the buildings. “People are going into the street.”
Lev handed Katie to me. “Let me see if I can find out anything.”
“You’re going out there?”
“Yeah, I’ll be right back,” he said. “Stay put.” He held out his hand.
“What about your shoes?” I asked.
“I’ll be back.” He hurried out the door.
“Mommy,” Katie called my name.
“It’s okay.” I set her down. “Let’s get your shoes in case we have to go. Okay.” I turned to Ben. “Get his shoes on.”
“Ben?” Sawyer asked. “What about Fleck?”
“Fleck’s a big boy, he’ll find us,” Ben told him.
I rushed to find Katie’s shoes—why was it a child’s shoes were never where they were supposed to be? When I finally had them, the door opened. Lev moved with urgency.
“Grab what we can and what is needed. Now. We have to go.” He grabbed his boots and immediately put them on.
“What is happening?” I asked.
“It’s an evacuation,” he answered.
“But Sean said it wasn’t going to happen yet. This is sudden.”
Lev looked up at me as he finished his boots. “Yes, it’s sudden. It’s urgent.”
“There’s been a breach,” I said.
“Yes. There has.”
“Okay.” I exhaled to calm myself, and took the shoes to Katie. “We’re gonna go,” I said as I put them on. “Alright?”
Katie nodded. “My drawings.”
They were on the coffee table along with her crayons and markers. I swooped them up into my arms and took them to my backpack by the door.
“Let’s go,” Lev said. “They’ll be calling for people. At least that was what I was told. If we miss a bus we have to walk. I don’t want to walk through a breach. Not with the area bulldozed.”
“Nowhere to hide,” I said.
“We’re ready,” Ben announced, standing with Sawyer by the door. He had a backpack across his shoulder.
“So are we. I’ll grab the bigger bag. Nila carry the…” He turned. “Where’s Katie?”
“Katie!” I called.
“I need Lev,” she hollered from the back room.
“I’m right here,” Lev replied. “Come on, Katie.”
“No,” she replied. “I need you to come back here. I don’t want to get in trouble.”
Lev spun back around to Ben. “Go. We’ll be downstairs.”
“We’ll wait,” Ben said.
“No. Go. We’ll find you.”
Ben nodded quickly, then holding Sawyer’s hand they ran out.
“Katie.” Lev moved with haste toward the bedrooms. He looked in the first one, so did I, she wasn’t there. And in my room, I almost didn’t see her. She was hunched on the floor by the bed, clutching her pink bookbag.
“Katie.” Lev held out his hand. “Let’s go. Don’t worry. Don’t be scared. I’ll carry you. But we have to go. What’s wrong?”
Her little eyes watered as she looked up. “You heard them, Lev. You heard the lady. She said you couldn’t go with me and Mommy if they made us leave. You have yellow.”
“Katie, it’s okay.”
“No!” she screamed. “It’s not. I want you to be with us.”
“I’ll catch up.”
She shook her head. “Promise not to get mad.”
“Why am I going to get mad?” Lev asked.
She unzipped the pink bookbag, reached in and pulled out a green band. “Large. Bottom drawer. So it will fit.” She extended it out to Lev.
She had stolen an immunity band.
Before Lev could react, I quickly grabbed the one on his arm, pulled it apart and snatched the one from her hand. I snapped it onto him.
“There. Let’s go,” I said.
“This is dishonest, Nila.”
“Fuck that,” I told him then turned to Katie and mouthed the words, “Thank you.” I reached down and lifted her.
“Let me.” Lev took Katie from me and I swore he paused to give a grateful hug to my child.
It was hard for me to walk, especially down the stairs. It was obvious we were the last ones out of the building.
As we walked out, the street was jammed packed. People crowded, squished in so tight it sucked the air. And they moved, slowly, like a wave that grabbed us and brought us along. Every person tried to get ahead of the one in front. The sirens continuously blasted and along with the emotional cries of people, it was so loud.
“Please keep moving,” a voice on speaker announced. “Yellow move north down St Paul to the mall. Blue and green move south to Smally Park.”
Were they serious? No wonder it was a jam. They had everyone moving in different directions.
I couldn’t see anything. Backs, heads. I kept standing on tip toes to find Ben, calling out his name.
“Ben! Ben!”
“I saw him. He’s down the street,” Lev said. “This is insane. Not to mention dangerous.”
“We can’t even move,” I said. “Do you still see him?”
Lev lifted his chin, he stood above most people and when I saw he was searching, I knew it wasn’t good.
Lev shook his head.
“Fleck?”
“I don’t see him.”
“Oh my God.”
“Hey. We have a plan. We’ll find each other. Right now, I have to get us out. Hold on to me.”
I grabbed his arm.
Lev turned and moved back against the grain, shoving through. I couldn’t see anything, I just had to hold on and blindly follow.
It wasn’t long before I knew where we were. Back at the apartment building.
“Lev?” I questioned.
“Trust me. I’ve been in this situation before. New York. People think inside the box.” He grabbed the door handle to the apartment and opened it.
Just as I stepped inside, the sirens stopped.
It brought an immediate silence.
“You think it’s over?” I asked. “False alarm.”
I didn’t need for Lev to answer me, the wave of panic and horrifying screams from people said it all.
Lev moved me inside and shut the door. He handed me Katie.
“Take her for a second, follow me.” Lev stepped ahead and swung his bag a
round as he moved. I heard it unzipper, then Lev stopped walking.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “It’s not safe in the building. Lev, they clean house.”
“I know. We’re not staying.” He turned around handing me a piece of paper that was wrinkled from folding. “Hold that.” He took Katie. “We’re headed to Smally Park.” He started walking again.
I looked down. It was a map, the one that Sean had given us complete with a ‘you are here’ star.
“He gave that to us when we were close to that park.”
“Where are we going, Lev?” I asked.
“Out the back door. When have you ever known me, Nila, to not look for the exits?” He turned a bend at the end of the hall and sure enough there was another door. “Let me see that map.”
I held it up for him.
“Okay, we’re going to go out this door. Go down two blocks and make a left. The park should be another block.” He pushed the door open and looked. “Let’s go.”
We stepped out into a back alley. Only a few people ran down the street. We could still hear the screams carrying to us.
Lev picked up the pace and I tried so hard to keep up, but the more I walked, the more my hips ached. It was as if they were locking up. Finally, I gave in and told him I couldn’t keep the pace.
He slowed down for me. When we reached the left turn we ran into the people again, though nowhere near the amount that was on Main Street. All moved fast and in the same direction, probably for Smally park.
That many people were immune? I thought the number of immune was small. It was when I caught a glimpse of a band or two as people ran by me, that I knew they were just trying to get out. To get on one of the buses or whatever vehicle they were using to evacuate us.
We weren’t near the end of the crowd of people, somewhere in the middle. I could hear engines revving and vehicles driving off. As we got closer, I saw taillights as bus after bus rolled out. Most not from the park.
Finally, I saw one lone bus. Just one. A gray school bus.
A man’s voice shouted out, “Blue and green first, then we’ll take yellow. Blue and green.”
It seemed so far away. I felt desperate. We weren’t getting out.
And just as I started to fall deep into a state of despair, I was overwhelmed with gratefulness that Lev was so tall. He hoisted Katie above his head and shouted. I didn’t recall ever hearing him so loud. His voice boomed out, “She is a blue! She’s a blue.”
“Let him through!” the man replied. “Let them through.” He fired his weapon once in the air.
It quieted the people down, brought a pause of stillness and after bringing Katie back to his arms, Lev grabbed my hand and plowed through.
We made it.
“Bands,” the man, a soldier, said. His name, Hawkins, was on the front of his uniform.
He checked Katie’s, then mine, then finally Lev. He waved us on. “Go on.”
There were only about ten people on the bus. Not one face I recognized. I looked at wrists and bands as I walked by, all of them green.
Lev led us to the back—I suppose to be nearer to an exit—and we all squeezed in one seat.
The second I sat down, I caught my breath and squeezed Lev’s hand.
“We did it, we’re getting out,” Lev said.
“What about Ben and Sawyer?” Katie asked.
“I bet they’re already on a bus,” Lev said. “They were far ahead of us.”
I glanced up watching the bus fill quickly.
I heard Hawkins call out, “That’s it. That’s all.”
He stepped back on the bus, but before he could, people rushed it, racing on despite his best efforts to close the door.
“Go,” Hawkins said to the driver. “Go now.”
Door still open, people trying to board, hanging on, the bus took off.
It drove quickly, though not as fast as I would have hoped. I turned to look out the back window, watching as the taillights illuminated the people running for us and those lying on the ground after being dropped from the bus.
The lights from Colony One were growing further in the distance. It then dawned on me: we didn’t close the fence and those people were running aimlessly through an unprotected area.
Somehow I had a hunch, a painful gut instinct that it was going to happen.
There was a reason for such a hurried and immediate evacuation. It wasn’t just a breach, it was much more.
Too many infected and deaders.
They came from both sides of the road attacking the unsuspecting people.
I closed my eyes and faced forward.
“Nila?” Lev called my name with a question.
“The infected,” I said.
“We’ll be at the receiving center shortly. That’s fenced in. We’ll be safe,” he said. “We’ll wait for Ben, Sawyer, and Fleck.” He grabbed my hand.
We were rolling and moving smoothly, halfway there. I could see a bus in front of us not that far away.
Maybe Ben and Sawyer were on that bus.
I sat back to relax, to absorb my safe status, when a bang rang out. It was followed by a thump as something smashed against the windshield. The bus bounced as if we’d run over something, and with a loud squeal of the brakes we swerved left and right until we finally stopped.
People screamed.
“Quiet,” Hawkins shouted, then turned to the driver.
“We blew a tire when we hit them,” the driver said.
“Can you ride on the rim?” Hawkins asked. “We’re close. There are too many of them for us to walk. We have another mile. We have to go another mile.”
“I’ll try.”
The bus started moving.
Hawkins tilted his head to the radio on his collar. He said something about how much time, or how long and I turned to look back.
We weren’t moving fast enough. In fact we were barely moving.
Floor it, please floor it, I begged in my mind.
They were coming. A group of them. They raced at top speed for the bus and I could tell by their relentless running they were infected.
If we stopped, even for a second, they would be on us.
Faster, please faster.
Maybe I was imagining how close they were. Maybe it was my fear.
Then suddenly my fear of the infected was replaced with something else.
At the same time Hawkins shouted out, “Everyone get down! Away from the windows!” I saw the dots of lights in the sky above Colony One.
“Nila! Down!” Lev charged.
Katie was already on the floor. I was able to crouch down on the floor part way in the aisle. I knew there was no way for Lev to fit.
I felt his weight above us. Did he just lie down on the seat? Was he hovering above us? I didn’t know.
I reached for my child and my eyes connected with her as I grabbed her arm and gave it a squeeze. It was comforting to see the look in her eyes. She wasn’t scared, and in that moment, I took strength from her.
I knew whatever happened, we were together, and we had tried.
TWENTY-FIVE
CONTINGENCY
June 20
Five explosions rang out and every window on the bus exploded. It filled with an intense heat and I hated the thought that my last moments would be touching my daughter as we were burned alive.
That didn’t happen.
We survived.
The bus, however, was undriveable, and we had to walk that last mile to the safety of the receiving center.
It was the longest mile I had ever walked.
Every step I took I kept looking out. Looking back at the dark smoke that lingered over Colony One. We were in a wide-open area, vulnerable to any infected. Nowhere to run or to hide.
Fifty people walking the road together.
We were a mobile buffet.
But there were no infected, at least none that came for us.
When we stepped through the gates that surrounded the receiving center,
I could see the station wagon still parked, right where we left it.
When we first got to the receiving center nearly two weeks earlier, there was barely anyone there. Now it was packed, every square inch.
I was hopeful that we would find Ben, Sawyer or Fleck. I kept looking at the wagon, expecting to see one of them waiting. There were so many people so we waited outside watching every bus as they loaded them to take survivors to another Colony.
They weren’t there.
Evacuation buses went all directions, north, south, and west. We were told there was another receiving center to the northwest, and they could have been there.
We stayed at the receiving center another day. We didn’t want to leave or take the only transportation for Ben and Fleck.
However, no one else from Colony One came and we were among the last remaining. Though we weren’t the only ones waiting for someone.
When it was time to go, to give up the wait, there were only a handful of us from Colony One, a few soldiers and a worker or two, that remained.
The receiving center was deemed closed.
Colony One…dead.
We used the facilities to clean up and stock up, then relying on our ‘if we ever get separated’ plan, we loaded into the station wagon for our meet-up destination of Cobb Corner.
A woman named Meg, along with her nine-year-old daughter ended up joining us. They had nowhere else to go and didn’t trust the Colony living.
They were scared and traumatized and said very little on the ride. It took Katie’s constant prodding to get the girl to speak.
After two overnight stops, three days in the car, they were chatting away by the time we reached the border of Virginia.
The fueling and help stops we saw on the way to Colony One were now few and far between. They were withdrawing. The last one gave us as much as they could in canisters that we carried on the luggage rack.
I didn’t worry though. We always found means to get gas, at least while the gas was good.
We took our time, we felt battered both emotionally and physically.
When we were within a hundred-mile range of Cobb Corner, we started attempts on the radio. It had charged enough from the car ride, and I prayed that Westin and Cobb Corner were alright.
“Cobb Corner come in, please come in.”
My Dead World 3 Page 14