“You guys been on the train for a while?” he asked. He noted that the boy mentioned seeing someone shot but no mention of the shots that were just being fired outside the station itself.
The boy nodded then opened his mouth to talk but before he could answer the old lady cut him off.
“Yes, we were some of the first on the train, we’ve been outside the station all morning ever since we were woken up by the sirens and all the big Army trucks,” the lady told him.
If a state of emergency was declared because of this outbreak then in a city the size of Seattle, the military involvement was a given. Nick was a prepper and had gone over scenarios in his head like this before. These people he was sitting with though, to them it was probably something they’d never imagined.
The lady reached under her seat and grabbed the purse he’d seen. Delving her hands into the purse, the lady brought out some knitting needles. Attached to the needles was a work in progress and a ball of yarn. “It keeps me calm,” The lady said noticing he was watching.
The girl next to the lady sighed “Oh my God! You act so old!” the girl said, rolling her eyes and putting her head against the window looking out.
The girl jumped in her seat, letting out a squeal bumping into the lady who then swatted at the girl. “Heidi! For goodness’ sakes what are you doing? Sit still, girl!!” the lady barked at the girl.
Heidi was sat sideways in her chair with her hand covering her mouth.
“What did you see?” the boy asked.
She turned to the boy “There was a guy just standing looking at the train covered in blood,” The girl said scared
The old lady sighed then slammed the knitting needles down. “Heidi! Do not start acting up by trying to scare your brother! And this poor man probably just wants to enjoy his trip! Now enough!” The lady said sternly but the girl just sat back down with folded arms. The boy began rolling in the chair laughing. Nick knew better after the morning he had; he knew the girl probably had just seen someone like she described. It probably wouldn’t be the last by the time this train journey had ended, he thought.
Alice
As Benny’s yellow truck drove through the deserted neighborhoods, Alice only caught a glimpse of one person out in the street walking. She was sure everyone else was probably huddled indoors, fixated with the same repeated news broadcast of where to go and what to do. The virus seemed to have literally crippled the country in the last twenty-four hours. When Alice had finally gotten some sleep, it hadn’t been for long. She had tossed and turned all night on Benny’s couch unable to rest properly. Alice knew if she’d gone across to her own home, she would have been able to sleep even less. The lack of sleep may have been the cause of why she felt so groggy right now or it could have been the bump to the head. She’d gotten less sleep on some of the double shifts she’d pulled for VPD. So, Alice knew she could still function and still make good decisions. As they drove through neighborhoods, she was shocked by the amount of blood she saw. There was blood splattered on fences, houses, and even parked cars. It nagged inside her that she’d not seen a single body.
By the amount of blood she was seeing, some of the people should be lying dead in the street.
It was almost as if they’d gotten up and walked away, she thought to herself. Alice knew that thanks to this virus that’s probably exactly what had happened.
“Oh, shit!” Benny mumbled slamming on the brakes as the truck turned a corner.
Alice leaned forward from the back seat to see a barricade across the street ahead of them.
The street ahead of them led to Mill Plain Boulevard. It was one of the major four lane roads that ran the length of Vancouver. Four men in army uniforms were manning the barricade armed with rifles. One of the soldiers started to walk towards the truck waving his hand for them to come forward.
“Shit, what should I do?” Benny asked.
“Pull forward slow,” Alice said.
The truck slowly moved towards the soldier that was waiting in the middle of the road for them.
The soldier waved them to a halt then two more soldiers started to walk towards them. These two soldiers had their rifles raised and pointed right at them. The soldier in the middle of the road walked round to Benny’s driver window. The soldier motioned Benny to roll down the window.
“Howdy, folks,” the soldier began sounding eerily cheery. “Where you guys off to?” the soldier asked.
“We were headed to the Vancouver east precinct then the camp at Illahee Elementary” Benny said pointing towards the barricade. The soldier peered inside looking at Marcus then at her.
“I’m afraid that’s a no-go, guys” The soldier said then waved at the two other soldiers to lower their guns.
Alice leaned forward “Why’s that?” she asked.
The soldier glared at her. “Well the FEMA camp there isn’t set up yet and probably won’t be as most of the trailers are being redirected,” the soldier said.
“Redirected to where? And we really need to get to the east precinct” she asked.
“I’m afraid I can’t give you that information ma'am, so if you’d kindly turn the vehicle around and head home this situation should be resolved shortly and it’ll all be back to business as usual once order is restored,” the soldier finished.
“I’m an officer for Vancouver Police and haven’t had any contact with my Precinct, is there anything else you can tell me?” she asked.
“Sorry, ma'am, your superiors should be in touch shortly, now please turn the vehicle around!” the soldier said changing his tone from happy go lucky to authoritative.
“No problem,” Benny said raising his hands. The soldier nodded as the truck was shifted into reverse.
“What are we going to do now?” Marcus whispered as Benny reversed the truck to turn around.
“Try a different way, this happened to Jake and me yesterday. They only had busy roads blocked off, so we took the back-road home,” Benny said.
“Head towards 136th and we can hit the precinct that way, they may have more info,” she said.
Benny nodded as the truck turned off the blocked main street, they were on onto the narrower streets of a neighborhood.
As they neared the precinct the smell of smoke was heavy in the air. As they turned onto the street with the precinct, Alice felt her body freeze in horror. The whole precinct was rubble with tiny plumes of smoke coming from piles of smoldering debris.
“What the fuck…” Marcus said.
Benny stopped the truck and Alice got out trying to hold back her tears as she slowly walked towards what was left of the Precinct. It must have been burnt down, she thought, examining the scene. Looking around the scene, though, she noted that it looked more like there had been an explosion with debris scattered across the street. She felt Benny’s hand on her shoulder, and she started sobbing turning into her friend’s chest.
“What’s going on?” she sobbed into Benny’s chest.
She could feel his hands patting her back like she was a small child. Alice wasn’t sure how long she’d been crying but Marcus got her attention.
“We gotta go, guys!” Marcus yelled from the truck.
Alice looked up from Benny’s chest to see a group of people stumbling through the smoke of the precinct. There was a group of six of them, all covered in blood and charred black clothes with huge gaping wounds. All of a sudden, her sadness melted away and was replaced with anger and rage. Pushing off of Benny she walked towards the people stumbling through the smoke and pulled her Glock out from the back of her pants. Raising it up she squeezed off three shots that hit the first person that walked from the precinct debris onto the road. It was a man or had been a man with only one arm. Where the man’s other arm had been it was missing from the elbow down. As the three shots slammed into the man's chest he fell to the ground.
Alice kept walking closer and aimed down at the man on the ground. The man looked up at her reaching with one arm and the other which was a ca
uterized stump. She fired three more shots into this thing with one going right into the forehead making the thing go limp.
“Let’s go!” Benny said pulling her by the shoulder.
Once they were back in the truck Benny revved up the engine and peeled out, driving back the way they had come. Alice sat in the back seat trying to keep calm but could feel herself ready to explode inside. The army guy had lied, the news had lied, who could they get truthful answers from? she thought to herself.
“This is complete chaos,” Marcus said from the front passenger seat.
Alice nodded to herself not saying a word as the situation only seemed to be getting worse and worse. “We can head to Jake’s then the FEMA camp by his house, those guys might have been lying,” Benny said.
“Yeah.” she said softly, hoping that Jake and his family were okay.
Mason
People began pushing and running as shots and screams filled the air. Mason looked in the direction of the information boards where the shots originated. He could see soldiers standing on top of kiosks aiming down into the crowd that surrounded the boards. Other people were running in his direction towards the exit, but soldiers rushed past, forming a line. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he didn’t want to get caught in the stampede of people about to clash with these soldiers.
“Follow me,” he said to Alex who he could tell was terrified. He clutched his bags in one hand and lifted Sarah up with the other. He started walking fast in the direction the Exit arrows he’d seen were pointed. Looking at the entrance of the terminal he could see that it was blocked off by outside barricades and more soldiers. The arrows he’d noticed above pointed in a different direction from the entrance, however. He followed the arrows to some doors which looked like fire doors. Examining them he could see they weren’t emergency doors as there was no bright markings or symbols.
The shouting and screaming was getting louder but there had been no more gunshots. The soldiers had formed a pretty solid line, keeping most of the rowdy travelers in the portion of the terminal the shots had come from. Looking at the door joints he couldn’t see any kind of emergency exit alarm. Nothing that would trigger attention once he opened the door.
“Daddy, I’m scared” Sarah whimpered into his ear as he lifted her up higher in case he had to burst into a run. “It’s okay, honey, we’ll be okay,” he told her, looking at Alex and nodding at the door.
Alex meekly nodded back as he counted to three in his head before knocking the middle bar of the door slightly to test it. It didn’t make a noise, but he heard the latch click.
“C’mon” he whispered, pushing the bar and walking through. Once through he heard the door click closed behind them.
Alex was standing right behind him holding Abby in her car seat. They were in a long, dimly lit brick hallway with another set of double doors at the end. He could see these doors weren’t as heavy as the ones they’d just come through. There was a square glass pane on each door with daylight coming through from the other side.
As they walked towards the double doors a single door opened to the side and a soldier burst out.
Alex jumped so he put his arm around her pulling her close.
“Ostanovites kuda vy idete!” The soldier shouted pointed an old, dirty looking AK-47 at them. Mason put his hands up dropping the bags but still holding Sarah whose head was buried in his neck.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand! Please!” He pleaded.
The solder stepped out of the doorway towards them saying again, “Ostanovites kuda vy idete!” He thrusted the rifle nozzle towards Mason.
Before he could speak again a man wearing the same polo shirt as the people manning the information kiosk came out the doorway the soldier had come from.
“Are you American?” the man asked.
Mason gulped and nodded not sure if this would be a good thing or a bad thing. The man stepped in front of the soldier putting a hand on the rifle urging the soldier to lower it.
“Oni poteryany turistami,” the small man said to the soldier. The soldier looked at them and Mason could feel the soldier scrutinizing him.
“Ya zaberu ikh obratno,” The man said, and the soldier nodded. The soldier then sighed and walked back through the door he’d come from, slamming it.
The man was looking at Alex and Abby smiling which made Mason feel a little uneasy.
“Thank you. I think” Mason said.
“No problem, I have a family, too, so understand” the man said in a sad tone.
“What’s going on? Can you help us? We’re trying to get home,” he said.
The man shook his head, “To America? I’m afraid not,” the man said waving for them to follow.
They walked down the hallway towards the two doors with the small glass panels.
“All flights national and international are grounded. All transportation has pretty much been halted,” the man said.
Mason noticed the confusion on Alex’s face, but he didn’t want to ask for too many details with Sarah listening as his daughter clutched onto his shoulder tight.
“What’s going on? Please you must know something,” Alex asked from behind him.
The man turned and looked at Alex then at him. “How much do you Americans know? I’m guessing not much if you traveled here,” the man said with a weirdly forced wry smile.
“Look! I appreciate what you did with the soldier back there but yeah, we don’t know anything. Only thing we’ve seen is what was on the news out there…and looks like you guys are getting ready for a war,” he said, waving his arm towards the direction they’d just come.
“Once we get out of here, I will tell you what I can but I only know what I’ve heard from soldiers and saw on the news myself and I’ve learned lately that they are two different things,” the man said walking towards the double doors. As they got close to the double doors, Mason could see through and could make out green camo…lots of it.
“Can you get us to another airport?” he asked, grabbing the man's shoulders.
“First we need to get out of the city! I need you to do as I say! Please!” The man said.
This was the first time the man had said please, Mason noticed, and seemed a little on edge with all these soldiers outside. Mason still had an uneasy feeling about this guy. Right now, it seemed like the only way out of this shit storm was with this guy.
“Now, please be calm and do not do anything rash while I talk to some of these soldiers,” The man said. Mason nodded putting his arm around Alex, pulling her close.
“Mason…that’s my name,” he said to the man.
“Dimitri,” the man said opening the door.
Outside the double doors was what seemed like a staff parking lot fenced off. It was filled with army Jeeps, tents, and soldiers. Dimitri walked out, waving to a group of soldiers who were closest to the door. Mason couldn’t hear what they were saying but Dimitri kept pointing over to them.
One of the soldiers walked over to them stopping a few feet away. The soldier looked Mason up and down then Alex. “Seek?” the soldier asked.
Mason knew what the man was trying to ask so shook his head. “No, we’re not sick,” he told the soldier. Dimitri walked up behind the soldier patting the guy on the back. The soldier turned and nodded before whistling to a group standing by a Jeep. Dimitri had a huge smile as one of the four walked over, throwing a set of keys to Dimitri. Mason wasn’t sure what was going on and didn’t like it but would play along. “Let’s go!” Dimitri said looking pleased with himself.
As Mason started to follow Dimitri the soldier in front of him put a hand up so Mason stopped. The soldier whipped out a flashlight and shined it in his eyes like a doctor would do. Mason was blinded for a second then when the flashlight turned off, he noticed the soldier was looking at his hands.
The soldier nodded patting him on the shoulder which Mason took as a signal that he was good to go. Mason put his arm tight around Alex he walked towards the Jeep that Dim
itri had started up.
As a gate was opened for them to drive out of Mason knew he should be happy they were getting away from whatever was about to go down at this airport. He wasn’t, though, as he was being eaten up inside with questions. As the Jeep’s engine growled while they drove along deserted streets, he figured now was a good time to try to get some answers.
“Dimitri…what’s going on? Why did those soldiers give you a Jeep and let us just leave?” He asked.
“Because I told them I’m taking you to the Embassy,” Dimitri said continuing to drive along empty streets. “For several weeks there has been a disease affecting lots of countries and people. Most pointed fingers at America,” Dimitri said looking at him with raised eyebrows.
Looking in the rearview mirror Mason could see Alex in the backseat snuggled with the girls. “What kind of disease?” Alex asked with an arm around Sarah’s ears.
“A bad one” Dimitri began “It starts off as a fever with lesions, bleeding, dementia, schizophrenia, craziness, and even cannibalism!” Dimitri said.
“Why hasn’t this been on the news?” Alex said.
Dimitri let out a deep laugh “It has been! You Americans don’t care about us or the rest of the world, just yourselves. America has been getting the blame but now…now either America's big plan backfired, or you weren’t to blame in the first place,” Dimitri said.
Mason’s head was spinning, and he could only imagine how confused Alex must be.
“What big plan? Backfired how?” Alex asked.
Mason didn’t need to Dimitri to spell it out for him, he knew what Dimitri meant when he said that. Most of the world didn’t like America or Americans in general due to their reputation.
When something happened globally, either America got involved even though it was none of their business and were seen to get something out of it or would just stand by while disaster struck.
“I’m sorry…I guess you’ve been traveling but America has been crippled more in the last twenty-four hours then the rest of the world has in the last four weeks” Dimitri said.
When The Dead Rise (Book 1): The Outbreak Page 16