by Lundy, W. J.
“He also said, ‘Tell Dad I’m sorry.’ He didn’t say for what.”
Charlie sighed, letting his breath whoosh out for several seconds.
“I’m sorry, too, boy.”
They rode on in silence. As they made the turn to Highway 375, Sarah looked in the side mirror and saw a massive dark cloud of dust looming over El Paso. Could a million infected running toward the city create a cloud like that? It looked like videos she’d seen of sandstorms.
Silently, she made a vow to Jack. She’d find out what happened. She’d find out who was responsible. And if it were in her power, she’d make them pay.
56
Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, Texas
April 24th
They were in a stalemate. Ian needed to come up with a course of action quickly. A movement from the corner of his eye caused him to pull back, but he kept his gun up tight under Dr. Sanjay’s chin.
“Don’t hide behind that corner, sweetheart; you’re making me nervous,” Ian called out.
A woman stepped out from behind the corner and met Ian’s eye. “Jose, isn’t that the girl you were trying to make nice with down in the lobby?” Kinsey asked.
“Yeah, she must not have been able to resist my charms,” Jose replied. The woman, who was actually pretty hot, gave Jose a pathetic look, causing Ian to instantly like her. She wasn’t a fool, and guns didn’t make her nervous.
“Are you up here to rescue your boss or just be a pain in my ass?” Ian asked.
“Well, he’s not my boss, so it must be to just be a pain in your ass,” she quipped.
“It’s not fun time, lady, so just go about your business, and we won’t bother you.”
“I know. I’m coming with you… As soon as I grab my partner, that is.”
“No freeloaders, baby. Go on about your business,” Ian said, knowing somehow that whatever he said wasn’t going to matter to this woman.
“I wasn’t asking,” she said, which caused all three of his backups to look her way for a second, mildly shocked at her audacity.
“Give me a fucking break. Toby, zip-tie the guards while Kinsey and I take the doctor to his office. Where is your office, big boy?”
“My office…” he stammered. “It’s down on main floor by the lobby.”
Another motion pulled at his eye. The girl who was crashing the party shook her head and pointed toward a door with a name plaque on it.
“Really! I think we should try this door with your name on it first.” Ian peeled the ID card lanyard from around Sanjay’s neck and slid the card through the reader. The lock clicked open, and they walked through the door into an immaculate, spacious, air-conditioned office.
“All right, everybody, bring it in here. Yes, you too,” Ian said to the woman, who smiled. He saw why Jose was trying to make time with her. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“It’s definitely not sweetheart. You can just keep that cheesy Hannibal impersonation to yourself. My name’s Jesse, and my partner’s name is Ram. He’ll be coming with us.”
“You’re not coming with us,” Kinsey said, causing Ian to smile. This new girl, Jesse, was like his sister all over again; she was going to get her way, regardless. It made him a little nostalgic for simpler times.
“You need us. Seriously. If there are two people in this city who need to go with you, wherever it is you’re going, then it is us,” Jesse said in a factual tone, as opposed to the pleading one that Ian had expected.
“Okay, I’ll bite. Why do we need you, Jess?” Ian asked, noticing that something he said pissed her off again.
“It’s Jess-e, mister no-name hot shot with a gun.”
“Call me Ian. Sorry to cut this short, but spit out your value to us or walk away. We don’t have time for any more bullshit.”
“I’m an excellent shot and a registered nurse. We need to take Ram with us because he is immune—the only one who is immune, as far I can tell, and the good doctor here is sucking on his blood like a fucking vampire.”
Ian had to admit, the thought of someone being immune and in their company intrigued him.
“Kinsey, go with the little lady and get her boyfriend,” Ian said, knowing that the little lady comment would piss her off. To Ian’s surprise, she was smiling. She was already on to his game.
She reached out and grabbed Sanjay’s ID from his hand. “With this, we’ll be right back.”
“What are you really doing here, Dr. Sanjay?” Ian asked, shoving him down into the chair.
“I already told you, I am trying to find a cure.”
“I don’t think so. In fact, I would bet that you had a cure the whole time, but we’ll know for sure in a matter of seconds, won’t we?”
Kinsey followed Jesse out of the crowded corridor and into one of the big staff elevators. The mercenary kept her weapon at a combat rest position, but still exuded the threat of violence. Jesse pressed the floor they needed, and then turned to a face the other woman as the doors slid shut.
“There are usually MPs guarding Ram’s room. They all have M4s and pistols. The sergeant is only armed with a pistol, but with all this shit going on…” She shrugged. “Who knows?”
“Is this guy your boyfriend, or something?” Kinsey asked as she impatiently drummed her fingers across the stock of her rifle.
“No,” Jesse frowned. “He’s freaking older than shit. He’s a friend. Ram may be the cure to this whole damn thing.” She chuckled to herself, thinking how crazy it was that the crotchety old prison guard could be the answer to this mess.
“You prior service?” Kinsey asked.
“Navy.” Jesse nodded. “You?”
“Marines.”
“I can see that. Look, we don’t want any trouble. We just want out of this zoo. They flew us to Atlanta at first, and then evacuated us here. We haven’t seen a lawyer or anything resembling personal rights.”
When the elevator reached its destination, Jesse said, “Let me handle this. Hopefully we can avoid any shootouts.”
Stone-faced, Kinsey bent her knees slightly and pulled the rifle into a ready position. She leaned forward slightly as Jesse leaned forward and glanced outside the open elevator. The annoying whine of an alarm and flashing red lights filled the hallway.
“They’ve been having a lot of infected patients attacking staff,” Jesse said quietly over her shoulder. “I don’t see anyone outside of Ram’s door, so it must be an alarm on this floor.”
Kinsey nodded, scanning their surroundings. Jesse waved her companion out of the elevator, and both women stepped into the empty corridor. The mercenary, weapon tucked into her shoulder, swept the area around them.
The alarm was starting to give Jesse a headache.
“Let’s move,” Kinsey goaded the other woman. “We’re running short on time. My boss isn’t the patient type.”
“Hold on,” Jesse replied, glancing around the abandoned hallway. She figured most of the medical staff had split, along with the soldiers. Pointing to a closet, she ran over to it and pulled open the door. Jesse leaned in and started rifling through folded stacks of clothing.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Kinsey asked as she watched Jesse and the hallway simultaneously.
“Clothes. We don’t need Ram running around with his ass hanging out!” She grabbed a pair of black scrubs and a pair of flip-flops, and then shut the door. “Trust me when I say that no one wants to see that!”
“No, I do not.” The corners of Kinsey’s mouth crinkled upward, finding herself warming to this pushy woman who weaseled her way into their group.
Jesse thought the mercenary’s face was going to crack. “No one likes old-man ass,” Jesse chuckled, then carefully sprinted the few feet to Ram’s door. Kinsey followed, still watching for any soldiers or other hired guns. Jesse swiped Sanjay’s key card, unlocking the door. Looking around once more, she pushed it open.
“Hey,” Ram said, pushing his food tray to the side. “This tuna sandwich tastes like shit!”
“That’s because it’s not tuna!” Jesse said, stepping into the room. Ram’s eyes grew wide as he realized it wasn’t one of the regular medical staff, but his young partner.
“Jesse?”
“No shit, Ram,” she said, tossing the scrubs and flip-flops onto his blanket-covered lap.
Kinsey gave Ram a once-over as she stood in the open doorway then returned to watching the corridor for any threats as Jesse started to remove the IV from his arm.
“It’s been so long that I thought you were dead.” Ram smiled as Jesse reached into her own scrubs’ pocket and pulled out a small cuff key.
“No such luck, Ram.” Jesse quickly unlocked his restraints and patted the stack of scrubs on his lap. “Get dressed; we don’t have a whole lotta time.”
Ram slid off the hospital bed and waved Jesse off. “Turn around. I don’t need you getting an eyeful.”
“Trust me; you don’t have anything we haven’t seen before,” Kinsey said, smirking as she glanced over her shoulder at Jesse, who seemed to be enjoying the exchange. “Besides, we don’t have a magnifying glass with us.”
“Who’s Miss Sunshine?” Ram asked as he quickly pulled on the scrubs.
“Kinsey,” Jesse said with her back to him. “She’s a mercenary. And our ticket out of here.”
“This just gets more fucked up by the minute.” Ram finished dressing, then picked up the flip-flops and tapped Jesse on the back. “What the hell am I going to do with these?”
“Put them on,” Jesse said, turning around. The scrubs practically dropped off the older prison guard. “Man you’ve really lost weight.”
“Yeah.” Ram slipped the cheap flip-flops on. “They had me on some kinda low-carb diet, and they uncuffed me to work out every day. I can’t walk in these,” Ram said, glancing down at his feet.
“Did they take a lot of blood?” Jesse asked as he was trying to step into the shoes.
“Blood, no. They were trying to infect me, I think. They kept injecting shit into me,” Ram said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“You’re going to have to step it up a bit, Big Boy,” Kinsey said as she watched the corridor. “You two done catching up so we can get out of here?” Without waiting for an answer, she stepped into the hallway and signaled for them to follow. Once out of the room, they headed toward the elevator, the mercenary in the lead.
“Hold it!” Sergeant Duckett shouted from the far end of the hallway. He held his 9mm at chest level, aimed at Kinsey. “Drop your rifle,” he said to the mercenary.
“I can’t do that,” Kinsey replied, finger resting on her rifle’s trigger. “Just let us go, and there won’t be any need for bloodshed.”
Duckett glanced uneasily from Kinsey to Jesse, then at Ram. He let out a deep breath and slowly dropped the pistol to his side, carefully slipping it into his holster. Raising his empty hands so Kinsey could see them, he quickly spoke. “We have orders to abandon this post. Homeland is taking over whatever is left of this fucking place in one hour. The rest of my unit is moving out right now. I was coming over to let you go anyway.”
“Let me go?” Ram frowned.
“Yes.” Duckett glanced back over his shoulder then back at the three. “We lost the East Wing to infected. This place is no good anymore. You’ve always been pretty square with me, Ram, in spite of your situation, so I thought I’d do you a solid and give you a chance to get to your family. I really don’t know what the fuck they’re doing to you here.”
“Where’s my family?”
“I don’t know, dude. Wherever you left them, I guess—if they made it this long.”
“Thanks, Duckett. I owe ya one.”
“No, man, we’re square,” he said, fading back into the stairway.
Kinsey’s group took the elevator to the third floor, and she heard her mic click four times. She motioned Jesse and Ram into the corner, behind the control panel and took a knee right in front of the door. She didn’t fear MPs or discount mercs anymore, but Homeland guys played dirty.
The door opened, and Kinsey was firing before she knew if she had a target.
“Toby, come over here and show the good doctor some of that Gitmo training that you had. The one with the fingernails—yeah, that’s one of my favorites,” Ian said casually, knowing that Toby had no special training, but the mere suggestion would hopefully be enough to push the cowardly doctor over the edge. Toby moved in and Ian grabbed the keys from the Sanjay’s pocket and started to rummage through his desk.
“Yes, sir. Let me make sure that I have everything I need. I can use his paper clips and…” He looked under the desk’s edge and grabbed an intercom wire that he yanked out and stripped the insulator off. He held the wire up so all could see. “I should be able to get some use out of this before it melts, then I need a pair of pliers and a thin needle. I have pliers on my Leatherman, but the needle… I don’t have a needle.” He pulled the huge KA-BAR knife from his belt sheath and laid it on the desk corner in front of the doctor. “I’ll use this.”
Sanjay started to whimper. His previous arrogance appeared to have come from another life, a life where he retained some semblance of dignity. A life that allowed him to look down at the heart of society and scorn them due to the exemplary education he had earned with the help of daddy’s bank account.
“What do you want? Killing me won’t help you.”
“Kill you? No, Doc, we’re going to peel you like a grape,” Toby said with the barest hint of joy to his tone.
“What do you want? Just tell me!” He was starting to panic, and Ian knew it was time to strike.
“Where are the other safe houses?”
“The what? Safe houses? They’re not safe—”
“We have a pretty good idea what they are, Sangy, but that’ll be a good start. Tell me that, and if you’re honest, we can talk about what it will take to ensure that you survive the day.” Ian glared at the doctor, whose attention was torn between him and Toby, the latter fiddling with his mock Gitmo tools.
“There is a folder in a file sleeve taped to the bottom of the center drawer,” he said, barley able to keep from shaking.
Ian reached under the desk and tore away the file sleeve. “Hey, you told the truth. How’s it feel? Be careful now, too much honesty can be addictive,” he said, not really knowing what he could get from him now. What held value in this world? By glancing at his file, Ian could tell that they had everything that they could use from this worm, but they just couldn’t let him go free. He was sure this creep had something to do with all this shit.
“Can I go now? I mean, will you let…”
“Hell no! I need to know why you were taking blood out of Jesse’s boyfriend,” Ian said and was surprised to see the doctor freeze up, his terror level increasing tenfold.
“Oooo, it looks like you just struck a nerve, boss,” Toby said.
Jose peeked outside the door toward a sound that’d caught his attention. “Hey, you boys have anybody wearing black uniforms?” Jose asked one of the bound guards. They all shook their heads.
“Looks like Homeland’s here, boss,” Jose shouted. “Three in the hall and two lined up on the elevator. Five total, from what I can see.”
Ian saw the doctor smile at his inevitable release. At least he thought it was his release, but unfortunately for him, he didn’t know Ian’s crew. Toby stomped on Sanjay’s chest, using the wall to brace the chair from tipping over, and the doctor started to gasp for breath. Ian moved next to Jose, who’d just coded Kinsey. Hopefully, she was on her way back. Ian signaled for them to get low in case they just started shooting through the door.
“On Kinsey’s first and a two-count,” Ian said, and Jose gave a nod. He checked Toby, who now had the doctor zip-tied to the chair and was behind him, crouched down and using the man’s shoulder to stabilize his barrel.
Six quick reports sounded from the hall. “Now!” They burst out of the office door. Both Ian and Jose took down two and finished
off the third as Kinsey and her stragglers came from around the same corner where they’d first seen Jesse. They all piled into the office, except for Jose, who stepped into an alcove across the hall.
Ram, Ian guessed his name was, instantly went for Toby’s KA-BAR. Ian thought the man was going to stick it right in the doctor’s throat, and he wasn’t going to stop him, but to his surprise, he bent down and sliced the bonds on the guards, then stood over them.
“Infected are in the East Wing, boys. Get your guns and go without issues, all right?”
“Yeah, Ram, we’ll go. We’re tired of hanging around this sick fuck anyway,” one of them said, and Ram nodded.
Kinsey whispered something in Ian’s ear. He heard her but couldn’t believe what she was saying.
“What? No, I heard you. Toby, he wasn’t drawing blood from our new friend here.”
“Oh, I have a feeling that I am not going to like what you’re going to say, Ian,” Toby replied.
“No, you’re not,” Ian said and watched as Toby’s huge hands and arms grabbed the skinny intellectual’s head and spun it so hard to the right that the snapping of his neck sounded more like a squish from wringing out a towel than a snap. His body went limp.
“Tell me later,” Toby said and positioned himself by the door.
“Good riddance to that sick fuck,” Ian grunted. “You two, you’re on my team now, so follow orders, everyone downstairs and directly to the truck. We’re moving out.”
“You’re not going to stay and fight?” Jesse asked, seemingly disappointed.
“No, Jesse, we’re not. Chances are, we’ll kill more infected just trying to escape than anyone on the front line will.”
“That bad, huh?” Ram asked.
“You’ll see when we get outside that this situation is completely unfuckable. Grab what Homeland gear you can on the way out.”
The lobby was empty, and the discount mercs at the gate had also disappeared. People ran back and forth in panic, and not all of them were healthy. A scream from behind sounded, but Ian ignored it as Kinsey and Jesse brought down four of the infected that had slipped in from the East Wing.