by B. T. Wright
“The airfield’s another three, maybe four miles. The stadium is right there.” Bald pointed beyond their car, into the near distance. “Why not fix Dylan up there and make for the airfield in the morning? At first light.”
“That’s all well and good, but have you forgotten about the Beritrix. We still need our injections. If we can’t fly out tonight and get a shot before dawn, we’ll be walking dead by morning.”
There was a silence. Colonel Jenkins was right. They needed to get to Virginia as fast as possible.
“Fair enough,” Bald said. “You think we can get Dylan in the car?”
Colt moved to his son’s side, reached inside the opening of the cart, and lifted his son. Just as he began to walk forward, something stopped his momentum.
A sound, a subtle hum caused Colt’s stomach to tighten with worry. But as he raised his head, concern left him. He was filled with hope at the sight of an approaching vehicle.
19
“Take up arms!” Colonel Jenkins aimed his weapon toward the approaching SUV and stepped in their direction.
Colt held tight to Dylan. He wouldn’t let go, not with another threat coming. As he watched the approaching vehicle, he couldn’t help but think, deep down, that there were infected inside. Impossible. He shooed that thought away. No way. A car? They can’t be that advanced.
“Please don’t shoot!” A woman yelled just as she stepped out from the driver’s side door with her arms raised into the air.
From far off, they couldn’t see her fully, but she was most definitely in an Air Force uniform.
“Name and rank?” Colonel Jenkins yelled into the twilight.
“My name’s Hunt. Cassandra Hunt, and I’m a fourth-class cadet.”
“What are you doing out here all alone?” Colonel Jenkins continued.
“Looking for you,” she said.
“Come again?” Colonel Jenkins said.
“I heard an explosion earlier. Like missile fire. The roar of that missile saved my life. I was trapped by three infected—men from my own unit were hunting me, and they followed me all the way to the stadium.” She turned and motioned to the field in the distance.
“Did you eliminate them?”
“No, I couldn’t. I’ve lost my weapon.”
“How have you survived this long without a weapon?” Colonel Jenkins said.
“My charming personality.” She grinned.
“From what we’ve seen, you need a whole hell of a lot more than that to escape these monsters,” Bald added.
“I guess I must be lucky then.”
“Luck’s got nothing to do with this apocalypse, sweetheart,” Bald said.
“Sweetheart? Boy, do you have the wrong girl.”
Before Bald could return comment, Colt cut through the crap and asked the pressing question that had plagued his mind ever since the helicopter went down and they lost their stash. “Do you have any Beritrix?”
“No.”
Colt’s shoulders slumped. “How have you survived this long without it?”
Hunt seemed reluctant to speak, and Colt wondered if she was hiding something.
“Look you found us, not the other way around. If you have some, let us know. We’re in need,” Colonel Jenkins said.
“You know about Beritrix?” Hunt said.
“Of course. How do you think we’ve survived this long?” Colt said.
“You mean you all have WD17?” Hunt said.
“Me and my boys do. The others do not,” Colt said.
Shock crossed her face. They could tell she hadn’t run into many survivors, if any, since this all began. “How are you . . .?” she trailed off.
“Alive?” Colonel Jenkins filled in the blanks.
“Ever since the outbreak, we’ve been on a daily regimen of injections. Same as you,” Colonel Jenkins said.
“And that works?” she said.
Colonel Jenkins looked to the others, then chuckled to himself and shrugged his shoulders. “Seems to.”
“Now that you know our story, do you have any or not?” Colt pressed.
She gritted her teeth, then nodded. “I don’t.”
“Then what’s with the twenty questions? Why quiz us on such nonsense?” Bald stomped forward.
But she stopped him in his tracks with her next words. “But I know where you might be able to get some. It’s not mine, It’s the coach’s.”
“The coach’s? What coach?” Colt said.
“Of the football team.”
“You’re shitting me?” Bald said. “Coach Logan has WD17?”
“Apparently,” Hunt said.
Colonel Jenkins waited a moment to gather his thoughts. If they went to the stadium, they couldn’t make for the airfield, not until morning.
“You sure there’s enough for all of us?” Colonel Jenkins said.
She nodded. “I am. I saw three vails in the fridge in his office.”
“That’s more than enough for one injection. Especially, if we can get to Virginia in the morning,” Colt said.
Colonel Jenkins shot Colt a stare. He didn’t even have time to reprimand him before, Hunt spoke, “What’s in Virginia?”
“That’s need to know. Way above your pay grade.”
She didn’t hesitate. “Bull shit.”
“Excuse me, cadet?”
“Look, I mean no disrespect, sir, but in case you haven’t noticed, most the world is lost.”
“And I suppose an apocalypse makes it okay to disrespect the chain of command?” Colonel Jenkins said.
“Well, no, sir, I just mean . . .” Hunt began.
“Mean, what exactly?” Colonel Jenkins said.
She huffed, then gathered herself. “That’s how I got into this mess. The president gave a superior officer my name. The president gave the order to find me and my Beritrix. The colonel wouldn’t tell me what my name meant on a document. Only that it had something to do with this apocalypse. Not more than a few minutes later, people were attacking people. My friends. They . . . they tried to kill me.”
“The paper said Beritrix was the cure, didn’t it?” Colt said.
“It had my name on it. With the words find her. I didn’t know what that all meant until . . . all hell broke loose.”
Still the colonel held his tongue. But Colt couldn’t, not for her sake. He wasn’t military and therefore wasn’t breaking the chain of command. “My brother’s in Virginia.”
“Damnit, Maddox!”
“What? She deserves to know,” Colt continued. “He’s with some scientists and the president. They are trying to figure what this is and why this happened.”
“Are you planning on finding a plane in the airfield?” Hunt said. Colonel Jenkins nodded. “Then you’ll need a mechanic. That’s me, that’s what I do. I’m studying to work on planes. I can help you.”
Colonel Jenkins let out loud roaring huff. “That’s enough chitchat for now. Take us to the stadium. To the Beritrix. First things first. Nothing matters anyway if we can’t get those injections.”
Colt carried Dylan toward the car, but just as he bent down to lean into the sedan, Hunt yelled out, “Why don’t you set him in here? I imagine he’ll be more comfortable.”
Colt stared at the SUV. He knew Dylan would be more comfortable in the higher vehicle, and it would mean less struggle to get him in and out. Colt stared over the roof of the sedan, directly at Colonel Jenkins. He nodded in agreement. “It’s true. He will be better off.”
Colt’s eye went to Wesley as he sat in the back seat. “C’mon, bud, we’re switching vehicles.”
Wesley followed his father out of the car. “You follow us,” Colt said over his shoulder.
“Don’t worry about us, we’ll be on your six,” Colonel Jenkins said.
As Colt approached the SUV, Hunt met him on his side of the vehicle. She grabbed the passenger door and pulled it open. Colt dropped Dylan inside while Wesley jumped into the back, leaving the door open for his father. Just before Colt stepp
ed inside, he took one last glance toward the setting sun.
It was orange, mixed with reds and yellows. The wispy clouds danced along the mountainside and took his breath away. He blinked slow, then stared at both of his sons inside the cabin of the SUV. After the fleeting glance, he looked again to the sky, hoping he would get to see many more nights like this one.
20
“So, you’re a mechanic, huh?” Colt asked.
“That’s right! Does that surprise you? Tell me you’re not one of those misogynists who thinks women can’t be mechanics.”
Colt put his hands up to deflect. “Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like that at all, I didn’t mean to imply.”
She burst out laughing. “Relax, geez, I’m just playing around.”
Colt nervously laughed to himself, then sat back against his seat and looked to Wesley. He smiled, not knowing how to continue the conversation with her. He couldn’t get a read off this young woman.
“So, what happened to you?” Hunt looked at Dylan.
“Fell out of a golf cart.”
Again, she burst out laughing.
What’s so funny? Colt was about to defend his son, but before he did, she came back. “I’m sorry, I laugh when I’m nervous. I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear.”
“Why are you nervous?” Wesley asked.
Colt put his arm on Wesley’s to make him stop, but perhaps it was a good question.
“It’s just . . . you guys are only the second people I’ve seen alive since all of this started. I was beginning to think I was alone. You know, like Will Smith in that . . . that zombie movie, what’s it called?”
“I Am Legend.” Dylan turned and grinned to his dad. They’d enjoyed a host of movies together.
“That’s the one.” She reached out and playfully hit Dylan on the shoulder without thinking.
“Ow.” Dylan grabbed his shoulder, and his head dropped as his face screwed up in pain.
“Hey, watch it!” Colt added from the back seat.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to . . .” Hunt said tried to console.
Then Dylan rose in his chair and started laughing on his own. “I’m just playin’.”
More laughter erupted. The first in a while. Everyone in the SUV shared in the experience. And in that moment of sweetness, Colt stared out the window and felt normalcy return, if only for the moment.
“What are all your names?” Hunt asked.
“I’m Colt.”
Dylan raised his hand. “Dylan.”
Wesley remained quiet in the back next to his father, so Colt answered for him.
“Nice to meet all of you. Where did you come from?”
“We had a house in the mountains. In South Park.”
“Oh, cool, just you three then?” Her question was innocent. But inside that harmless inquisition was pain. And the calm Colt felt as he stared outside turned dark as the heaviness of reality hit him between the eyes like a sledgehammer.
Colt remained silent. He couldn’t answer.
Dylan did instead. “No, my mom, she . . . she turned.”
“I’m so sorry. She wasn’t on Beritrix?”
“No. By the time we found out what this was, it was too late,” Dylan said.
Colt listened to Dylan’s side of the story for the first time, but as he spoke, it was like Colt was hearing from another person’s body. Like he was listening without being present. In his mind, he escaped the present reality and transported himself inside the operation room with Anna by his side at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.
He questioned his decision to leave her again. If we were there, we’d be alive and well. Not in this mess. I did this, I put my sons in danger. Look at Dylan. He’s got road rash from head to toe. And Wesley. He’s scared. Why shouldn’t he be? He’s seven. Lost his mom. She’s turned into an infected. We can defeat them all. We’ll eventually end up like them. Like the vice president said, it’s inevitable. See, even he’s dead now. Colt continued his self-criticism and neither heard nor saw his son waving at him from the front seat as his eyes stared forward in a daze.
It wasn’t until the cabin lights sparked to life that Colt shook from his reverie and heard his son. “Dad! We’re here. Inside the stadium. We need to get out quick. Hunt said there could be infected around any corner.”
Colt saw Colonel Jenkins and Bald filing out of the sedan and getting to their feet. He reached for the lever and exited.
“Where are we?” Dylan asked, now joining his father and Hunt on their side.
“The concourse. Like, I said in the SUV, tread carefully and don’t make too much noise. I was chased throughout this stadium by infected from my own unit.”
Bald and Colonel Jenkins walked up from the sedan and overheard the end of the brief conversation. “Stay frosty,” Colonel Jenkins said. “And stay together. We’re running low on ammo. Shoot smart and aim true or who knows what will happen.”
“Well, that’s comforting,” Hunt said, eyeing Dylan, then gave him a nudge.
Once Colonel Jenkins shot her a death stare, she straightened up and lost the snark. He said, “Hunt, lead the way. But go slow. The kid’s still hurting.”
She started walking, and Bald followed close behind. Then Dylan, Wesley, and Colt. Finally, Colonel Jenkins. They were close enough that Hunt could hear Colt when he whispered, “Where are we going? Is it far?”
“No. Not far.” She spoke out of the side of her mouth. “We’re heading to the locker rooms. Coach Logan will still be held up there. Apparently, he’s hardly come out for three days.”
“You’re shitting me. What’s he doing, actually living inside the locker room?” Bald said.
“By the looks of it, yeah! Wait until you see the locker room. It is quite comfortable. Aside from the rotting food smell,” Hunt said.
“Uh, gross,” Dylan said.
“Yeah, I’m not sure why he still has it inside to be honest. Maybe he thinks it will throw off his human scent. If they can smell our scent, that is. Speaking of that, can they?”
“Not that we’ve seen, but honestly nothing would surprise me at this point,” Colonel Jenkins said.
“I guess. I’m not surprised he hasn’t come out much. If I were in his position, God knows I wouldn’t,” Hunt said.
“I can’t believe we’re here. We’re actually walking through Falcon Stadium.” Dylan looked around in awe.
“What . . . this?” Colt said. He hadn’t been aware his son had any interest in football.
“Yeah. I mean, I’ve only watched one or two games, but still, this is . . . awesome,” Dylan said. “Like a cathedral.”
“A cathedral, huh?” Colonel Jenkins said. “Obviously you’ve never heard of a little team from South Bend, Indiana called Notre Dame, huh.”
“Pssh.” Bald forced out breath through his teeth. “Please.”
“I mean no disrespect to our boys, here, Bald, but get real. You can’t compare the Air Force Academy’s football team to Notre Dame. I mean, c’mon.”
“You’re right, sir, I can’t. We’re far superior,” Bald said.
His comment brought out a half-hearted chuckle from Colonel Jenkins. But in the moment of laughter, there was a popping noise from their right.
Colt reached for both his son’s and Bald and Colonel Jenkins stepped in front with the rifles aimed at the ready. With their eyes trained ahead, they wouldn’t falter, or shoot until there was a target.
More popping came, but still no visual contact. After three consistent pops, there was a scattering noise across the floor. It was then that the ‘threat’ made itself known. The distinct shape and coloring gave it away: a racoon.
Colt let go of his boys and allowed them to remain in line, directly behind Hunt. Colonel Jenkins and Bald sighed, then lifted their rifles up and rejoined the ranks. “Carry on, Hunt,” Colonel Jenkins said.
There wasn’t much ground to make up. Once they were at the doors of the locker room, Hunt reached out and tapped on the door. Two q
uick knocks followed by a harder third.
She turned to look at the group. “A code the coach and I came up with,” she said.
“Cute.” Bald smiled slyly.
In an instant, the door opened, and a frail looking man stood on the other side. He stepped aside and allowed all to enter. Once inside the hallway, everyone stopped. Colt couldn’t help but stare at the blue walls.
Coach Logan didn’t say anything, didn’t even offer a welcome greeting, he simply pushed beyond them and walked inside.
Colt whispered over his shoulder to Colonel Jenkins. “Looks a little worse for the wear, wouldn’t you say?”
“I assume you would as well if you were held up in this place all by yourself. Nevertheless, keep an eye out,” Colonel Jenkins said.
“What? You think he’s a threat?” Colt said.
“After what we’ve been through, Mr. Maddox, I think everyone is a threat.”
Colt walked in line, taking note of everything inside. Hunt was right. This place is a palace, Colt thought. And safe enough, at least for the night.
21
After parading everyone through the locker room, Coach Logan paused by the door that led to his office. The exact place Hunt had said the vials of Beritrix were being held.
“What is it?” Hunt spoke, wondering the reason for the wait.
“We can’t go inside,” Coach Logan said.
“What the hell do you mean we can’t go inside?” Colonel Jenkins wouldn’t allow anyone else to ask the first question.
Coach Logan dropped his eyes to the floor and said, “I know why you’ve come. I tried to get Cassandra to stay with me. I begged her not to go after you, but she didn’t listen, she wouldn’t listen to my reasoning.” Coach Logan was visibly shaking now.
Hunt searched for Colonel Jenkins’ eye to find contentment, but there was only scorn and disbelief in his gaze.
Colt stepped in front of Coach Logan and stood eye to eye. “Look, guy, I don’t know who think you are or what you’re so afraid of, but Cassandra told us we could find Beritrix here. We came here knowing we would be able to take the shots in the morning.”