“Mom?” Jax sobbed, afraid it wasn’t real.
He re-focused his attention on the thing with the wild eyes that was now stalking towards him, but moving faster and faster it seemed to Jax.
He raised the Enfield and pointed it toward what he could only believe was a monster. He found it in the rifle sight as he limped backwards toward the creek, trying to get away from it, barely able to put even the slightest pressure on his hurt leg.
“No!” he cried out in torment, knowing what he had to do, while the mob raced down the hill. Each one took a turn to slip and fall down the slick decline.
“Don’t do it!” Jax heard Ben yell as Ben pulled himself up from the ground and continued his effort down.
“No, Jax!” he heard his mother beg, the same clothes he saw her in on Tuesday now covered in mud. She still believed her husband could be saved. At least, she wanted to think that.
Another voice, a male that Jax never heard speak before, didn’t agree with Jamie as the monster was moving faster and faster. The tall man with horn-rimmed glasses and a white coat had seen this behavior before, so he told Jax exactly what he needed to do.
“Shoot! Shoot him!”
“Dad!” Jax bungled, sobbing, to engage the bolt that was still jammed. “I’m sorry! “I’m sorry, dad!”
Franco labored to draw the small revolver holstered at his waistband as he felt pain consume his chest. He grabbed his chest and fell, rolled eventually down to the bottom of the hill.
“Come on! Come on!” Jax pleaded with the weapon as he stepped further back into the creek until he was finally able to move the bolt. He engaged one of the two rounds that was left in the weapon as the monster surged towards him, faster now than anything Jax had ever seen even in the movies.
It was learning, adapting, quickly.
The beast was three feet away and splashing in the creek while growling with its mouth agape as Jax focused his aim on its heart.
He pulled the trigger.
“Dad!” he yelled as the bullet entered the thing that used to be his dad. It flew backwards and splashed in the creek, now with a hole in its chest.
The anguish was unbearable for the thirteen-year-old boy as the old truck twenty feet away exploded into a magnificent, fiery symbol of the unforgivable, hellish thing he just did.
Jax opened his eyes moments later, on his back in the creek as his one good leg couldn’t keep him balanced against the kick. He stood up to see Jackson’s body lying in the water on his back, not moving. He didn’t know how long it had been since he fired that shot.
“I’m sorry, dad,” Jax said, weeping, barely able to speak as he sloshed through the water, past the body, with the riffle still in his hand. He walked out of the creek where he saw the people that were running down the hill on the ground, holding their heads, after the force of the explosion.
“Look out!” Jax heard someone say.
“Jax!” he heard his mother scream. “Behind you!”
Time moved in slow motion for Jax as he turned around to see the monster moving towards him like a dog with rabies despite the hole in his chest that didn’t have a drop of blood coming out of it. It was covered in the same hard black substance that covered the hole in his leg. Jax remembered what his father told him in the truck as he engaged the last round in the bolt action antique.
One in the heart.
The man that Jax idolized his entire life reached out with both arms to grab him, to eat him.
One in the head.
Jax fired, hitting true and dropped the rifle as the kick of the rifle spun him on the one good leg, forcing him face down into the muddy creek edge.
The rain finally subsided.
He felt the warmth of his mother’s arms wrap around him as the others gathered around Jackson’s body. They were all so dirty with mud, looked as though they had been through a war.
They had been.
But it was only beginning.
“He’s dead,” Ben said with a whimper.
He ran his finger across the hard black substance forming in the wound on his best friend’s forehead. He had heard about the hard calcification, but had yet to have a chance to see if for himself.
“Help! He’s had a heart attack!” General Wingate yelled as he knelt down beside Franco’s body at the bottom of the hill, his hand clutching the little army man he used to have hidden in his desk. “Someone help me!”
“We need to get them to the lab,” Dr. Bigsby ordered the men in the protective suits, ignoring the General’s plea. “Collect everything here,” he continued as he picked up the habitat with what would later be named the ‘ghost locust’ still inside.
It was lying on its side.
Dead.
He wiped the debris off the container and walked towards Jax, noticing Detective Chambers standing in the creek staring at the body with a shotgun in his hand.
“I had to,” Jax blubbered to his mother who was on her knees in front of him with both her hands on his cheeks, rubbing mud and love all over them. She noticed Jackson’s dog tags dangling over Jax’s shirt and caressed them.
“I know, baby,” she said as she kissed his forehead and then squeezed him as hard as she could. “I know.”
“Was that thing on?” Dr. Bigsby asked Jax with a childlike gleam in his eyes as he pointed at the GoPro still strapped to Jax’s chest.
Jax eyed him, then looked down at the GoPro before looking to his mother, concerned. She looked concerned too. He looked back at the man in the white coat, but said nothing.
At that moment, they all heard Detective Chambers screaming as the monster that use to be Jackson Mills bit into his neck.
“Jackson!” Jamie screamed as she stood in front of Jax, trying to block his view.
Detective Chambers kicked the monster away as he held his neck, not letting go of his shotgun while blood gushed from his own wound. He fell into the creek.
Still human.
The monster was on all fours, but rose like primitive man as it eyed and moved towards Jax and Jamie now. They were the closest to the shore.
She froze, looking desperately into her husband’s yellow eyes one last time as they all heard the sound of the shotgun pump in Detective Chamber’s arms. He fired at the beast from behind while on his knees and blew its head apart at the neck, stopping it for good only two feet away from Jamie who had reached out to it, as if to give herself away to it. It was the first time in her life she thought about giving up.
“No!” she screamed as the monster splashed in the creek for the last time. She dropped to her knees and sobbed as she reached out to it. “Jackson!”
Epilogue
“Hey, Jamie,” Ben said into his cell phone as he heard her voice come on the line.
“Ben. How are you?” Jamie asked warmly as she stood in the kitchen of her apartment in the self-sustaining safe community known as HOPE. She rubbed her bulging, pregnant stomach and winced.
“I’m okay. You doin’ alright?”
“Yeah. Just the baby. He likes kicking me lately.”
“Ah. How much longer, love?”
“A couple of weeks to go.”
“That’s great, Jamie.”
“It would be a lot more exciting if I wasn’t trapped behind these thirty-foot walls. And the whole world wasn’t on fire.”
“I know. Sorry. You‘re a slow moving target in your present condition. Can’t risk it. How is Jax doing? Is he still writing those letters to his dad?”
“He is. Says it makes him feel close to him. He wants to know when he’s going to get his GoPro and storage cards back. He also wants to visit the willow.”
“Soon.”
“That’s what you said a month ago.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Pass on my apologies to him. He’ll get it all back soon, promise. And I will take him to see the tree. I hope he knows how grateful everyone is that he captured so much of that trip on video. It’s been so helpful with the research.”
“He
knows.”
“They’re naming it after Jackson you know?”
“What?”
“The vaccine.”
“Oh yeah? Unfinished vaccine you mean.”
“Right. Right. Yes, the Bigsby-Mills Vaccine.”
Jamie frowned. “After Jackson or after me?”
“Does it matter? Is he still… you know?”
“Yes. I told him it’s never going to happen and that he should give up.”
“He doesn’t seem to be the kind of guy to take no for an answer.”
“Well,” Jamie said as she picked up the photo frame she had on her desk at FEMA, depicting her whole family, aside from the new addition that had been growing inside of her while the world was blazing out of control. It was now in the kitchen by the phone, taken in what seemed like an eternity ago in a world that was unrecognizable to her now. “He’ll have to when it comes to that,” she continued to caress the image of her husband. “I will always belong to Jackson Mills.”
“He’ll always be with us,” Ben said. “The way he used to be.”
“Ad infinitum,” she replied and smiled. And we all fall. She thought back to the day Jackson woke in Walter Reed, worrying that her husband would never be free. “You’re free now, my love,” she said as she caressed the love of her life’s face in the picture under the fluorescent kitchen lighting. “Finally free.”
“Huh?” Ben said.
“Nothing.”
“Well, I’ll come by tomorrow to pat your belly and talk to the baby. Tell him how amazing his father was. I’ll throw the ball with Jax too. Maybe a little fetch with that sweet puppy of yours. I bet he’s getting big.”
“Yes, he is,” Jamie replied with a smile as she looked down at her feet where the seven-month-old German Sheppard was sleeping with its head nestled against her slippers. “He eats a ton. We all look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Benny. Be safe”
“You too. See you tomorrow, love.”
They hung up.
Jamie knelt down, as difficult as the baby inside her made that. She stroked the growing puppy’s head, cheered up by his black and brown fur. She and Jax had found him so many months ago. They were out scavenging for supplies. At that point, it had been close to two months since they lost Jackson. She smiled at the puppy as she recalled that day she and Jax had decided for the first time in over a month to see what it was like outside the walls of HOPE.
“He’s stuck,” Jax said as they watched him trying to free himself, both of them on edge, looking around for threats. They were both surprised the poor dog hadn’t been eaten yet. The monsters would eat anything with flesh and muscle and The Ministry was collecting them to fight. Aside from that, people in general were hungry.
Starving.
Food had become the number one commodity in the world.
“We have to help him, mom. He has to be lucky to still be alive after getting stuck here.”
Jamie looked around, hearing the beastly sounds in the distance, not to mention the ramblings of mad men. “Okay. Make it fast. They’re close.”
“Can we keep him?” Jax asked after the puppy was free. A black revolver with a scope fell to the ground, lodged out of the crevice along with the puppy. “He looks just like Jumper! Or will.”
“I guess.” Jamie hadn’t let herself cry in a month, a feat considering she had just found out that she was pregnant in between now and then. Hormonal shifts made it impossible to stop the tears as she held the puppy and thought about Jumper.
“Awesome!”
Jax picked up the gun and held it up to the sun. “.500 Magnum,” he said. “With a scope. Wicked. Can I keep this too?”
“Don’t you have enough guns?”
“Is that possible?” he asked as he eyed a monster coming at them in the distance. It hurdled, climbed, and descended each obstacle in its way. It was largely covered in the hard black armor that was all too familiar now and moved like some combination of ape and cheetah.
Jax pointed the new weapon at the monster’s neck and fired three times, putting the now headless monster down.
“Guess not,” Jamie said.
Jax placed the big gun in the bag with a big smile and they started to walk with the new puppy in his arms, stroking it like the thirteen year old boy he should be. It all still seemed surreal to Jamie.
“You know he’s going to end up drafted to fight as a soldier,” Jamie said.
“I know. All the big dogs are. We can hide him for a while though! Maybe forever!”
“What should we call him?”
Jax thought about it for a moment. “How about Gunner?” The puppy started licking his face.
“I like it. Gunner it is.”
The puppy was much bigger now as Jamie struggled up with her pregnant belly, and so was Jax after a major growth spurt. He was far too comfortable with that .357 magnum as far as Jamie was concerned. Of course, his life depended on that.
She walked to the bedroom and had to rest a bit. As Jamie lay in the bed with Gunner licking her face, there were others with a different focus.
In the research lab at HOPE, Lars Bigsby sat a makeshift desk watching videos on a laptop computer. He copied all the videos from the SD cards that Jax took with his GoPro.
They were just as interesting to Dr. Bigsby now, despite the fact he had watched them all over twenty times already. The locust habitat was next to the computer, but it was empty. The locust was in a glass jar filled with formaldehyde right next to it. The GoPro was sitting there too with a note. ‘Do not remove. Property of the United States of America.’
“Why are you running? The hospital can help you!”
The video showed Jax and his father in the old, white and green truck with darkness outside the windows that were covered with raindrops.
“No, it can’t! I was going to end up being some trapped lab rat for their testing.”
The video camera focused on the locust in the habitat, flying into the sides, trying to escape. Jax was looking at it. “You mean like him?” he asked his father, still looking at the locust.
The camera then focused on Jackson, who was looking at the locust, taking a brief break now from its efforts to escape the habitat.
Tired.
“When something in nature has gone awry, it needs to be studied.”
“They’re probably saying the same thing about you, dad. Don’t you see?”
Jackson looked as though a light bulb had just gone off. “I guess,” he agreed. “But I didn’t sign up for that.”
For a moment, for the first time in days, he felt all the pain inside subside. Nothing itched. He could see clearly and didn’t feel sick.
A calm overtook him, and it was strange.
It would be the last time.
“What’s the difference between you and him then, dad?” Jax was focused again on the locust. “What about science?”
“I just want to go home, Jax.”
Jax looked back at his father, and the camera followed.
“I need to go home,” Jackson continued. “Instinct. Like him,” he said as they both looked at the locust. “Understand? The only difference is no one has locked me down yet. And I’m not going to let them. Not ever.”
Jax nodded. “Nothing is going to ever be the same now.”
“I know. I’m sorry for everything I’ve put you through. I didn’t mean to.”
“I know, dad. You’re sick.”
Jackson nodded. “I want you to know that you kept me alive that day in Mogadishu. You. Your mom. Jumper.”
Jax wiped a tear. “What’s it going to take to keep you alive this time?” Jax asked as he eyed the small blood stain on his father’s blue jeans. He expected there to be more and for it to still be bleeding. He had just been shot less than ten minutes ago.
It wasn’t.
“This is the second time you have been shot on this trip. Why isn’t your wound bleeding?”
Jackson looked perplexed at the wound and then grinned. “I
don’t know.” He stared at Jax, looking as if he was apologizing for his condition. “I am going to the hospital as soon as we get home.”
“As soon as we get home!”
“Yes. Ah!” Jackson agonized in pain again. It was coming back. “Oh! After I see your mom. Ah!”
“Not again. What does it feel like?” Jax asked, grimacing. He could almost feel it himself.
“Like fire is burning me up from the inside,” Jackson moaned in agony.
“Do you think they’ll be able to help you?” Jax asked with despair as the Virginia highway raced by in the windshield.
“There’s only one way to know,” Jackson replied as the pain slowed for a moment. He stepped on the gas and the engine roared as he barreled south to his demise while the weather outside put on a grand show.
Fury unleashed.
Jackson pulled the silver chain his dog tags dangled from over his head. “What are you doing?” Jax asked.
“I want you to have these.” Jackson reached over Jumper and placed the chain over Jax’s head.
“Why are you giving these to me?” Jax put his hand over the thin metal tags that laid against his shirt as he altered his focus between his father and the dark road ahead.
“In case...”
“In case of what?” Jax asked. Jackson stared straight ahead, as if he couldn’t hear anything, or refused to listen. “Dad? Don’t you think it’s time you call mom?”
“What?”
“I saw you put that phone in your pocket back at the hospital. It’s charged. You should call mom.”
Jackson nodded after a moment of reflection. “You’re right. I should. It’s time,” he said with a whimper that sounded like he was watching his own funeral.
The video captured him dialing Jamie on his cell phone and speaking into it moments later, trying to talk over the noise inside the helicopter. “Hey. It’s me.”
Lars shut the laptop computer in disgust and walked through a door in the lab he bullied that led directly to the outside where the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky.
And We All Fall (Book 1) Page 31