by A. R. Wise
"Well, thanks for not stabbing me to death. I owe you one." He looked at the IV stand that she was using as a crutch, and then he dipped down and easily swooped her into his arms. "Do you mind if I carry you the rest of the way?"
"Hold on." She pinched the IV tube near its base above the center of her arm and then jerked the needle out of her vein. A spurt of blood escaped and she grimaced from the pain as she threw the tube to the side and pushed the IV stand away. "We'll move faster without that thing to worry about."
Reagan's mustache raised on one side as he smirked down at Laura. "You're tougher than you look."
"No. I just want my kids back."
"Well, let's not waste any more time."
Reagan carried her as they headed toward the Blue Med area where Annie was supposedly being held. Laura was anxious to see her youngest daughter, but her concern drifted to Kim and she wondered if Billy had been able to save her. She tried not to worry since it was out of her hands. There was no one alive that she trusted more to save her daughter than the man that was trying to.
* * *
"What is it?" asked Courtland in a scolding manner when Graves opened the door to the attic. The abandoned house on Hailey's End had an attic that was converted into a loft. There was a staircase that led to it and a door that Courtland kept locked most of the time. A gas powered generator hummed in the corner and provided electricity to the multitude of machines that he'd snuck here over the past several months after putting his plan to escape the General and the other men responsible for the plague into effect. The windows of the attic were boarded shut and he'd spent a lot of time covering each wall with insulation to prevent any heat signatures from escaping the house and alerting patrols that something was amiss.
Graves glanced around, silenced by the amazement of the scene. The attic was loaded with beeping, whirling, and chiming machines that were all busy performing some task that he certainly couldn't fathom. Courtland stood in the center of it all, a syringe in one hand and a vial of pink liquid in the other.
"What do you want, Graves? I told you not to bother me up here."
Graves shook his head and refocused. "Shit's hitting the fan, bro."
"What is it now?"
"The kid down in the basement turned into a zombie and ate his mother. The door's latched shut, but that kid's making a hell of a racket. We were wondering if we could shoot him."
"No. Not yet. I want to run some tests on him first."
"Okay, fine. Second thing, Trev is missing."
"I thought he was dead."
"So did I, but Jason went in to check on him and he's gone."
"Fine. Good riddance. I hope he wanders out into the ocean and drowns." Courtland turned back to what he'd been focused on. The little girl that Trev had brought back from the city was cowering on the floor at his feet. He dipped the needle into the vial and pulled back the plunger. The thick pink liquid bubbled up into the syringe's barrel until it was nearly full. He took it out and squeezed until a bubble of the gelatinous liquid rolled out of the tip. He looked up at Graves and said, "Are we done?"
Graves held up his finger and scowled as he looked back down the stairs behind him. He glanced back at Courtland quizzically.
"What is it?"
"Do you hear that?"
"No." Courtland couldn't hear anything over the rumble of the generator.
Graves waved for him to come closer. "It sounds like a low roar, from way off. Come here."
Courtland hurried to the door. "It might be one of the Nighthawks. RC might've found us. Be careful."
They descended the stairs and Courtland hushed Graves as they stood at the bottom and listened for the odd noise. It was definitely coming from outside, but it sounded like a horn of some sort. It bellowed low and loud as the two men looked at each other in confusion.
"What the fuck is that?"
"Some sort of air horn?" asked Courtland as he moved to the nearest window. He used the syringe to lift the blind and gaze out into the dark night. "What's that?" He pointed out the window and then moved aside so Graves could see.
The tattooed ex-con pulled the blinds apart with either hand and stared out into the bay. There was a ship in the distance, aglow with lights, headed on a collision course with the island.
CHAPTER TEN - THE GOOD GUY
"This is it, bro." Levon stood atop the waterslide in the abandoned amusement park with Billy.
"I know."
They'd found a few ponchos on the barge, along with a crate filled with the lye that Billy suspected was laced with the disease. They used a drill and a makeshift funnel to pour the powder into the coffins on the boat before setting off on their suicide mission. Clyde was somewhere below, near the shore, guarding the motorized rubber raft that they'd taken.
They sailed the long way around the island and parked beside the amusement park. Billy guessed that Trev and the other cops hadn't taken up residence inside of the park itself, and that it would be a safe place to dock. The plan was to climb to the highest place on the island and wait for the barge to crash. Then, as the haul of dead and dusted corpses spilled out onto the shore, they'd wait and watch where the cops were hiding. Hopefully, they'd be able to slip in and rescue Kim while the cops were investigating the crashed barge.
Billy leaned over the wooden railing on the side of the platform that the slides were attached to. He watched the barge in the distance as it made its agonizingly slow journey to the island. He looked through a pair of binoculars to spy on the small island to see if there was any movement yet.
A seagull's chorus nearby caught his attention and he looked off to the east where a glimmer of the approaching morning turned the horizon purple. "It's been a hell of a ride."
"Yeah." Levon checked his gun again, as if he might have miscounted one of the two times he checked before. Three bullets were all he had left, and Billy had the same. "I don't think I need to tell you what I think of this plan."
Billy smiled and looked at his friend as the morning light started to scare the stars away. "I know, I know, you think it's brilliant and wish you'd thought of it."
Levon chuckled and looked out over the island. "Something like that."
"I remember coming here with my parents as a kid. I used to try and convince them to let me stay in the games area all day. I loved playing skee ball. We used to head home with arms full of toys."
Levon pointed down to the paved area where the game booths still stood. "I bet you could find some toys down there." He pointed at the aluminum bat that Billy had set against the railing of the slide's platform. "If they left a bat in the batting cage, maybe they left toys in the game booths."
"Maybe. If we have time, remind me to check and see if there are any stuffed cats that we can take."
"Why stuffed cats?"
"I remember Laura saying her girls collected them. She said it was one of her regrets, that she didn't grab one before they ran from their house."
"All right man," said Levon. "I'll try to remember. Have you seen anyone out there yet?"
Billy looked through the binoculars again. "No, nothing yet."
"That barge is moving too damn slow." Levon stared over the edge of the platform at the tops of the trees below them.
"Hey man," said Billy after another moment of silence. "Before this shit goes down, I just want you to know that I'm glad we met."
"No shit. Without me, you'd be out there trying to eat people with the rest of the walking dead."
"Well sure, there's that, but I meant it in a different way. I'm glad we met. You're a good guy and…"
"I know, I know," said Levon as he waved off Billy's sentimental rant. "I feel the same way. To tell you the truth, earlier tonight, when I knew Mark was dead, I thought about putting a bullet in my head."
"Fuck man, sorry to hear that."
"Yeah. It was some heavy shit. I loved that dude more than anyone else on the damn planet. You don't even know, Billy. Mark and I were tight. He meant the world
to me."
"I could tell. I wish I had a brother like that."
"That's just it though, man." Levon walked to the other side of the deck and leaned against the corner. He looked around as if worried that someone was eavesdropping and then looked back at Billy with a smirk. He chuckled as if embarrassed. "You know me, man. I ain't no sappy, whiney bitch or nothing. Right?"
"Right."
"I put that gun to my head and I was ready to end it. I was ready to go see whatever the fuck the man upstairs has planned for us next. I was close, man, real close. Then something hit me."
"What?"
Levon nodded at Billy. "I thought of you, and how if I pussed out and put a bullet in my head, I'd be leaving you behind to save that little girl all by yourself. It was then, after my brother was dead at my feet, that I knew it ain't just blood that makes a family. You know? It ain't just blood."
They looked at each other in revered silence.
"I take it back." Billy nodded and smiled. "You are a sappy bitch."
They laughed and Levon cursed at him a few times before he punched him in the arm. "Fucking asshole."
Then Levon's expression turned serious as he pointed out across the abandoned park toward a hill on the other side. "There, at that old ass house up on that hill. Someone's in the yard."
Billy brought his binoculars up to spy on the house. He saw three men, two in cop uniforms and a third in a white t-shirt and jeans, staring out at the barge that was headed toward the island.
"Those are our guys." Billy set the binoculars on the ledge of the deck and pulled out his pistol. "Now we just have to wait for the barge to hit."
Levon took a deep breath and looked at Billy with wide eyes. "You ready for this?"
Billy smirked and shook his head after a quick laugh. "Nope. How about you?"
"Not at all." He nudged Billy with his shoulder. "I hate this fucking plan."
* * *
Clyde heard the barge's air horn in the distance and he tried to walk up to a hill where he could see further out onto the small island while still keeping an eye on the boat. Billy and Levon were depending on him to be ready when they came back with the girl, and he wasn't going to let them down.
Billy and Levon weren't the type of people that Clyde normally spent his time with. Their childhoods had certainly been spent under drastically different circumstances. Billy was the son of a poor shrimp boat captain and Levon looked more suited to the cover of a hardcore rap album than a country club. Clyde had grown up in a luxurious home, attended to by butlers and maids, and got nearly everything he'd ever asked for.
When his father told him that he would have to join the Army, Clyde threw a fit. He was embarrassed by the memory of crying on his bed after storming through the house, knocking over anything valuable that he could reach. It was a pathetic display of his spoiled nature, and he was ashamed of it.
He made it through basic training, and was surprised to find that the rest of his squad had similar life stories to his. They were all from well-to-do families and were astonished on the day they were told they were being forced to join the military.
Basic Training had been easier than they expected, and nothing like it was depicted in movies or popular culture. In fact, the entire experience felt more like a Summer Camp than military training.
Now, after the conspiracy had been revealed, he thought he understood what was really going on. His squad wasn't a true part of the military, and they were never trained the way a real soldier is. His father's powerful connections had landed Clyde a spot in a safe squad that would be all but guaranteed survival through the apocalypse that was anything but an accident.
He was disgusted by what he'd unwittingly been a part of, and wanted desperately to find any way to fight against his father and the others that had a part in this. He thought about the day he ran through the house, shattering vases and pulling paintings off the wall, and suddenly didn't feel as ashamed as he had before.
Billy and Levon, and their determination to save Kim, had become the only thing Clyde cared about anymore. He would do anything to help them.
That's why he was so mortified when he turned around and was caught off guard by the man in the police uniform that had snuck up behind him with a hammer.
* * *
Kim was left alone amid the clatter of the generator and the medical equipment. Courtland had chained her to a handle on a large, heavy machine that had a glass display with a wheel of paper rolling inside of it. Several jagged lines were being printed as the roll spun, but none of the information displayed made sense to her.
She tugged at her binding, but the massive machine didn't budge. She tested the length of the chain to see how far she could wander from its base. The thin, creepy man could return at any point, and she was desperate to find something to defend herself with. Whatever he had in that syringe, she knew it was what caused Toby's misery. She was terrified it would do the same to her.
The room was filled with useless tools as she searched for something sharp that she could defend herself with.
"Whatcha looking for?" asked Trev.
Kim cried out in shock at the sound of his voice. She stumbled as far back as the chain would allow and then moved in a semi-circle away from him.
He held up the pocketknife that she'd used to stab out his eye. "Were you looking for something like this, you little bitch?"
Trev's head was partially wrapped in a blood soaked towel. His one good eye was bloodshot as he glared at her. He licked at the inside of his bottom lip as his mouth hung open as if he were staring at a favorite meal. He started to walk toward her with the knife held out front.
"Stay away!" She scampered to hide behind a squat, circular machine that had a wheel in the center that could hold test tubes and spin them like some sort of miniature amusement ride. "Get away from me."
"The harder you fight, the worse this is going to hurt." He stood in front of the machine she hid behind and toyed with her by darting from the left to right side and back again as she tried to hide. "Think of this as a life lesson, Kimmy. An eye for an eye. Come here and get what you deserve, you fucking little twat."
Kim was trapped, but she tried to pull herself further away. The chain attached to the collar around her neck caught on the wheels on the bottom of the circular machine and caused it to slide an inch. She noticed that it moved and charged at it from behind. Her shoulder smashed into the back of it and sent the machine thrusting forward into Trev. He was caught off guard and the corner of the squat equipment collided with his groin.
Trev was more frustrated than hurt and he laughed as he shoved the machine to the side and reached down to grab the chain. "That's enough playing around. Get over here." He pulled the chain hard and Kim fell down as the collar pulled her forward. Her face smashed against the floor and she felt her mouth fill with blood as Trev dragged her toward him. She coughed as the collar choked her and one of her baby teeth fell out of her mouth along with a mouthful of blood.
"Stop making this harder than it has to be."
"Fine!" She screamed out at him. "Stop pulling me."
"Fine what?" Trev laughed as he watched Kim try and stand up. He pulled at the chain again and knocked her to her knees. Her hands hit the floor first to keep her head from smacking down a second time.
She pushed herself up. "I'll let you do whatever you want to me."
Trev smiled and hissed a sinister laugh. "Oh yeah? You'll let me carve out your eye? Cause that's what I want to do. You're going to stand there and let me do it? Is that what you're saying?"
She took a brave step closer.
"You stupid little bitch. If you don't think I'd do it, you're sadly mistaken." His knife flashed in the floodlights that hung above them.
Kim's daddy had taught her to do two things if a stranger ever tried to hurt her and she couldn't scream for help. First, she should kick the stranger in the knee. She kicked as hard as she could and Trev cried out in pain as he staggered back. Second
, she should aim for the groin and never stop hitting until help arrived.
* * *
"Annie!" Laura screamed out her daughter's name as Reagan carried her into the room labeled 'Blue Medical.'
The room had two rows of beds on either side of a long hall. On the other side was an office with bay windows that looked out over the room of beds. There was a short wall that hid the rest of the office from them as they gazed out over the spectacle. There was blood everywhere.
"Annie!"
Reagan was stunned by the massacre that had taken place here. Streaks of blood painted the walls and hardly a square foot was left dry. Severed fingers decorated a bed to his left, and a man's body was laying on the floor to the right. There was another body, badly sliced by some sort of blade, that was laid out on one of the beds, and he could see yet another man's body in the back office. Reagan's feet clopped in the growing pool of blood beneath him. These murders were fresh, and he watched for any sign of who might have been responsible.
"Maybe this isn't the right room."
He stared at the vicious slices that had been cut out of these victim's faces and prayed that Annie was somewhere else.
"It said Blue Medical on the sign out front," said Laura. "Annie! Please God, please be okay. Annie!"
A tuft of red hair rose up from the other side of the wall that separated the office from the rows of beds. Reagan saw it before Laura, and the sight scared him. He feared that Laura's daughter was dead and that she was about to reveal herself to be a zombie.
Her hands draped over the window's sill and her head began to rise up so that she could look at them. Covington had said the scientists were testing a potential cure to the plague that Courtland had designed, but one possible side effect was that the subject could catch the disease. As he looked around the room, he thought he knew what might have happened.