Life would never be right without Dustin. Mick’s heart broke every single time he thought of him.
The last thing he wanted was for anything to happen to Chris or Tigger. Where were they?
Maybe they were hiding in town … maybe. He called out, but received no response. He’d search the town, after a moment of regrouping. It was when he was about to sit and rest that he spotted the memorial wall and all the flyers posted there.
Like a flashing red light, Mick saw his name. He believed he did and, hoping it wasn’t his wishful imagination, Mick raced to the wall. Plastered over a stack of flyers was a note to him from Chris.
They were fine. More than fine. They were on their way home. Mick wasn’t certain how that was; maybe they had run into someone in town. The note screamed relief at him and grabbing it, he pulled it to his chest and collapsed on the ground.
While the search was sort of over, his journey wasn’t. Mick had to head back to Lodi, find a way there. He looked around the small town area and spotted a motorcycle in the open garage of a small gas station.
He fueled it up, but it wouldn’t jump start right away. With a little work, Mick got it running. He strapped his belongings to the bike, and he was ready to ride. Before he did so, he did something else he had done many times on his search, he pulled out his phone.
He pressed the ‘on’ button, waited for the power cycle and the familiar face of Dylan to greet him. She was his wallpaper.
“Hey, baby,” he said to her picture. “I know I failed you. But they left a note. They’re on the—”
When his phone rang, it startled him to the point he nearly dropped it. He looked at the screen. Incoming call: Mom.
“Holy shit!” Mick quickly answered the phone. “Mom!”
“Mick, oh, God, thank God. Where are you?”
“Mom, I don’t know if a man named Ethan arrived in town or not—”
“He did,” Rose said. “He told us. Did you find them? Did you find the boys?”
“No, not yet. I followed their trail. They left me a note on a wall in this small town, said they were on their way home and they were fine.”
“What do you think?”
“I think someone is bringing them home, not sure. I got a bike and I’m heading back to Lodi, hoping to get them on the way. We’re only a few hours out.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Mom, did that little baby live?” Mick asked.
“Yes, he did. He is doing great. Is there anything you need me to do? Do you need help?”
“No,” Mick answered quickly, then changed his mind. “You know what? Yes. We’re really near 90 right now, and I’m gonna guess the boys took 90 and are coming in from Cleveland. Can you head out to meet them? You’ll wanna take that route north toward Cleveland and then toward Erie.”
“Absolutely, I’ll leave now.”
“Mom, there’s that rest area, just where 90 junctions with 70. Outside Erie, remember? Meet me there if you don’t find the boys. That’s a halfway point. If neither of us have any luck, we’ll go from there.”
“I’m leaving now, Mick. Be careful.”
“You too.” Mick readied to end the call, but stopped when he heard his name.
“Mick?”
“Yeah?”
“I love ya.”
“I love you too,” Mick said, and hung up the phone. He was renewed, invigorated with hope and his adrenaline pumped. He mounted the bike, started it, and pulled from the service station onto Main.
Even though there wasn’t any traffic, habit caused Mick to pause and look both ways. Had he not, he wouldn’t have seen that in the direction he was heading, five trucks had pulled into the large gas station at the onset of town.
He could see supplies in the trucks and not only did men get out from the cabs, but they hopped from the back. Lots of men. Some wore camouflage, some wore black. They joked, laughed, hooted and hollered. Mick looked longer to make sure he didn’t see the boys, and when he didn’t, Mick, not wanting to wait around to see what they were up to, took off in the other direction.
11. Different Turn
Briggs waited, and at eight a.m. he was ready to go searching for the missing men from unit 149. At the suggestion of his new right hand man, he’d waited two more hours, then headed toward Erie.
If they were coming they’d be coming up that way.
At ten on the nose, Briggs was out the door. He had one man in his jeep and four other highly trained men following in a Humvee, in case there was trouble.
They made it into Pennsylvania without incident, and Briggs didn’t think they would run into any trouble. Most of the towns had been cleared out and the residents had moved to Damon.
Like he had a hundred times in the journey, Briggs looked to his phone to check for a signal. Then suddenly, he smiled.
“You’re like a teenager, sir,” his driver said.
“We have life in the phones again. Now why isn’t he calling? He said he would call when the signal went back up.”
“Why don’t you call him?”
“What if we try to call at the same time?” Briggs asked. “Then that would be frustrating.” I’ll wait.”
The driver glanced over at him. “Staring won’t make it ring.”
“Keep your eyes on the road, son. We have a six thousand pound vehicle tagging our ass, I don’t want you to make a mistake and have them ram us.”
“Yes, sir.”
After a few moments, the phone rang. Excitedly, he answered it. “Briggs.”
“You’ve been waiting to do that, I see,” Jon said on the other end.
“I have. Feels good. Even though it hasn’t been that long, it feels good. I thought you would have called right away, you were watching for the signal too.”
“I would have but …listen, I got news,” Jon said. “We got in touch with 149.”
“Where are they?”
“You’re not gonna like it. Seems they told us to stop bothering them unless we want to negotiate.”
“Negotiate? What the hell does that mean?”
“It means they cornered off Pennsylvania near the lake across Erie. They said it’s their territory now.”
“Jon, how many men could that be? Ten? Fifteen tops? I mean, how much of a hold can they have on that corner?”
“From what I was told,” Jon said, “they have more. They joined up with several other units that haven’t checked in and I’m on that now figuring out who they are. They said they have survivors, and Jonah … I heard kids in the background. Crying kids.”
Briggs snapped his finger to the driver, and signaled for him to stop. The driver held his hand out the window and slowed down before halting the vehicle.
Once the jeep stopped, Briggs stepped outside to have more privacy. “Tell me all you know.”
* * *
“Aw man,” Chris whined. “I knew it. I knew it.” He hit the steering wheel as they passed a sign.
From the back seat, Tigger said. “I told you.”
“Shut up, Tig,” Chris barked. “We went East instead of West, didn’t we?”
Jake held the map. “New York is north sort of, I don’t know.”
“We went east. We have to turn around.” Chris said. “Let me see the map.”
“Watch the road!” Tigger shouted.
“Tig, I’m only glancing. I’m good.”
“You’re gonna hit them.”
“Hit what?” Chris asked, eyes shifting to the map and to the rearview mirror.
“Those cars.”
Chris looked up.
Jake and Tigger screamed, and Chris, as he too screamed, hit the brakes. He wasn’t going very fast, yet the car swerved some before coming to a screeching halt.
He breathed heavily. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Everyone alright?”
Jake nodded then his eyes grew wide.
“I’m fine, too!” Tigger yelled.
“Is Emmie …” When Chris turned around to check on Emmie, he sa
w Jake pointing.
Chris peered out the windshield. Walking toward the car was a very tall black man in uniform. In fact, he was the tallest man Chris had ever seen next to Mick.
“Holy shit.” Chris whispered. “What do we do?”
“He has a gun,” Jake said. “He looks mean. He’s gonna kill us.”
Tigger hollered. “Reverse! Reverse!. Get us out!”
“Good thinking, Tig.” Nervously, Chris reached for the gear, shifted it, hit the gas, but the car was in neutral and only revved. He looked up the man grew closer. Hurriedly, Chris shifted again and hit the gas.
The car jerked forward.
Thump.
Chris watched as the front end of the car sent the man sailing to the left. He hit the brakes again and put the car in park. “Oh my god.”
“You killed him!” Jake said. “You just killed a man.”
“I didn’t mean to. What do we do?”
“Go!” Tigger popped his body between the two front seats. “Go.”
“I can’t go, I can’t.” Chris shook his head and reached for the car door.
Jake grabbed his arm. “Chris, there are five other men. Just go.”
Chris shook. His voice quivered. “I just committed vehicular homicide. I can’t go anywhere. It just ain’t right.” He opened the door.
The second he got out, Tigger jumped into the driver’s seat and grabbed the door, pulling it closed.
“What are you doing?” Jake asked.
“When they shoot Chris, we’re getting out of here. I got this.” Tigger’s legs didn’t even touch the floor, even though he slid all the way down. “I got this.”
* * *
His insides trembled out of control, but Chris took in a brave breath and walked toward the five men who were standing above the man he had killed. He whimpered, scared, on the verge of crying. “I’m … I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to kill him. I don’t drive. It was an accident.”
The men parted like the red sea, exposing the man, who was sitting up. A trickle of blood rolled down his forehead. He wiped it and slowly brought himself to a stand, staring at Chris.
“Aw, geeze, aw geeze. You’re big. Don’t hurt me. Please, I didn’t mean to almost kill you I swear. See? I could have ran. I didn’t. I came back. Sorry.”
The big man walked up to him. “Calm down. I’m not gonna hurt you. You’re all of what? Twelve?”
“Thirteen and a half,” Chris corrected.
“Still too young to drive, and I’m sure you were nervous.”
“I was, sir.”
“Commander Briggs,” one of the men called, “there are all kids in that car.”
“You guys alright?” Briggs asked.
“Yes. We’re just trying to make it home,” Chris answered.
Briggs walked by Chris and to the car. He opened up the driver’s door to see Tigger, who had slid all the way as far as he could on the driver’s seat. Hand on the wheel, his head barely came to the bottom of the steering wheel as he diligently tried to reach the pedals.
“What the hell are you doing, little man?” Briggs asked.
“I got this,” Tigger said, and then looked up. His eyes widened and he jumped quickly from the driver’s seat onto Jake’s lap. “I wasn’t driving. I didn’t hit you.”
“I know.”
Chris asked, “Are you okay, mister?”
“I’m fine. It takes a lot more than a Honda to kill me,” Briggs said, then held out his hand to Chris after looking at the others in the car. “Jonah Briggs, and you are?”
“Chris Hughes. That little guy is my brother Tigger. Don’t let his size fool you, he has a growing problem. And these guys, Jake and Emmie, we met at a camp. Our camp was hit by bad guys. Aw, geeze …” Chris stepped back in sudden realization. “You’re wearing uniforms too.”
“I’m not a bad guy, son. I know you don’t have a reason to believe me, but I’m not. Where’s home?”
“Lodi,” Chris replied.
“Ohio?” Briggs shifted his eyes to his men. “You’re going the wrong way.”
“We were supposed to go west.” Chris hung his head low. “We made a mistake.”
“A good mistake. There’s some trouble ahead. Chris, I want you guys to come with me, okay? I’ll explain later. I want you to come, we’ll get you fed, cleaned up and maybe try to contact Lodi to work out a way to get you back there.”
“Do we have a choice?” Chris asked.
“Not really,” Briggs said. “Trust me, it’s for your own safety.”
“We ain’t under arrest for almost killing you, are we?” Briggs shook his head. “You said you wanna clean us up. Are we that dirty?”
Briggs closed one eye and shook his head. “Nah, but …” he dropped his voice low. “You guys kinda smell.”
“Ah, geeze, those babies keep peeing their pants, that’s why.”
“You’ll have that.” Briggs placed a hand on Chris’ back. “Let’s go. Get your stuff and your gang.”
Briggs stepped to one of his men by the Humvee. “We’re gonna take these kids back to base. They were trying to get to Lodi, but since that’s not possible, head west, see what’s up. Do some reconnaissance, see what’s going on, and get back to me. And by all means, if there are a lot of them, don’t be a hero. Got it?”
The soldier nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Good luck.” Briggs stepped way. “Check in. I mean it.” He walked back to the car where Chris, Tigger, Jake and Emmie stood. He motioned his head for them to go to the jeep, then loaded them inside.
Briggs took a moment to watch the Humvee drive off, and then climbed in the jeep. He looked back at the group of kids. To him they looked scared, except the little guy. He looked completely unfazed and that made Briggs laugh. After telling them that everything was going to be all right, and hoping they believed him, they took off for Damon.
* * *
Las Vegas, NV
At a knock on her door at the crack of dawn, Lexi was greeted by Matt telling her that Palmer had taken a turn for the worst.
She gathered her bearings, got dressed, and went to see the man who was two doors down from Matt’s mother. He had definitely gotten worse. His lungs had filled up even more and he wasn’t responding to the antibiotics.
Matt’s mother was the same, no improvement, and Charlie the slot machine guy didn’t take his morning post at the video machines.
It was a tough strain of pneumonia, and though Lexi attributed it to remnants of the flu, she had to wonder if the deadly flu made the particular strain combative. Pneumonia after a bad case of flu was not uncommon, but this strain was stubborn.
It only reiterated to her that she needed to head to the medical center. While she was certain the flu epidemic had probably wiped out the hospital pharmacy, she was confident that other areas of the hospital would still have supplies.
It was a search and seize. She sent Bill with two of Matt's men to neighboring towns and communities to search for supplies. Bill knew what to get: intravenous supplies, antibiotics, chest tubes, suction devices.
She and Matt hit the hospital. A temporary fence was set up around the medical center with huge hand painted signs reading ‘Closed’. The front area was filled with cots and tents and Lexi could only imagine what was inside. The bodies inside were baked in the sun like some old fashioned means of dehydration. Leathery, prune like arms extended from beneath blankets. Exposed faces were tanned and the eye sockets, cheekbones, and the areas under the necks were sunken in. Not one exposed body contained eyeballs. They had either popped out on their own or were carried away by one of the thousands of birds that seemed to take over Las Vegas after the epidemic.
The avian population survived the flu; they were the impervious and the dominant species in numbers now.
Lexi devised a search plan with Matt, and just as she was about to step into the hospital, she heard the ringing of her phone. At first she thought it was Bill until she looked down.
He
nry Wilson.
She gasped out loud, asked Matt to wait, and answered her phone. Henry Wilson was the foremost authority on viruses. While Lexi was certain she knew what she was dealing with, it never hurt to get advice from a genius on the matter.
“Oh, thank God.” Lexi said, then answered the phone. “Henry?”
“I got your text,” Henry said.
“Henry, it is so good to hear your voice.”
“You, too, Lexi, you too.”
“Are you still in Lodi? Last I heard that’s where you and Kirk were headed.”
“We are. We made a home there,” Henry answered. “Where are you?”
“You’re not going to believe this,” Lexi said. “We’re in Vegas.”
Henry laughed. “Getting in some gambling?”
“In a sense. It’s weird. A lot of people — more than you would think — are on a pilgrimage east. Life’s pretty dead and dry out this way.”
“Well, it was first hit, least prepared. Why Vegas?”
“It’s a major junction. A stop through. People on their way east stop here, rest, get supplies and move on. Just this morning, ten came in. They’re headed to a place in New York. Do you know anything about it?”
“A little. Some new group trying to put civilization back together. Word reached there?”
“Yes, they’re getting it through militia groups.”
“So when should we expect you?”
“Bill and I will be here for a little bit. We’re needed at the moment. Seems we have some serious post-flu cases of pneumonia. Four cases, tough strain. In fact, I’m at the medical center now rummaging for supplies. All of the patients said the cough never went away after the flu, and now they have these symptoms.”
“I’d like to say we saw this one coming,” Henry stated, “but unfortunately, we all brushed off that possibility.”
“You seeing it on your end?”
The Flu 2: Healing Page 11