by K. S. Black
* * *
Kevin hadn’t spoken a word since they left the resort. Cooper started the shower for him and made sure he had everything he needed. Fully dressed, Kevin stepped into the shower and scrubbed his leathers from top to bottom with soap. When he began taking off his wet clothes, Cooper headed to the kitchen to see if Hayley had found all the supplies he was going to need.
Twenty minutes later, Kevin walked into the kitchen shirtless, wearing only a pair of baggy pajama bottoms, and drinking from the bottle of bourbon that had survived intact inside his leather jacket.
Cooper eyed him, checking for other wounds. Satisfied, he headed back upstairs. When he returned to the kitchen, he carried a laundry basket full of Kevin’s wet things and set it at Hayley’s feet.
“Hang these out in the garage to dry. They’ve already been disinfected.”
“What the heck, Dad?”
“Just do it, please. I need to take a look at Kevin’s leg.” Kevin was seated at the kitchen table drinking bourbon straight from the bottle.
Cooper was packing gauze inside the wound when Hayley came back in.
“Ewww! How can you stand doing that?”
Kevin stared straight ahead and took a large swallow of bourbon and grimaced. Cooper wasn’t sure if it was because of the pain or the bourbon.
He wrapped an elastic bandage around Kevin’s thigh and helped him to the couch. He sat down next to him, and they passed the bottle of bourbon back and forth not saying a word.
Hayley stared at the bottle before she turned and glared at both him and Kevin. “Mom says,” Hayley paused for a moment. “Mom said--” Her eyes filled with tears, but she continued. “Mom used to say that people who drink before noon have a problem.”
Neither man responded, but Cooper swallowed the knot that had formed in his throat.
Kevin slammed the bottle down on the table. “What the fuck was that, man? What the holy hell was that? Now we have to worry about crazy, naked people running around trying to eat us?”
“What?” Hayley asked. “You actually saw one?”
Cooper leaned forward.
“It’s all over the news.” Hayley hesitated. “I’m sorry I turned on the TV, but I kept the volume low. I got so bored while you were gone. I was going to tell you, but you had me doing things. Then you were busy fixing up Kevin. Neither of you looked like you wanted me to say anything.”
“Stop.” Cooper held up his hand. “It’s okay. What’d you hear?”
“The Rapture virus has mutated into something totally new—a combination of weaponized rabies and Rapture. They weren’t seeing the rabies part of it before but somehow the two viruses combined. They’re calling it Dante’s Influenza. You know, like Dante’s Inferno. I can’t remember the scientific name. The news people said it’s like going through Dante’s nine circles of hell once you’re infected.”
“So is it like the Spanish Flu that wiped out all those people in the early 1900’s?” Kevin asked.
“Not really,” Hayley said. “The CDC people said that it’s not really the flu even though people are getting high fevers, bad headaches with the usual flu symptoms. But the fever makes people go kind of crazy with anxiety and hallucinations. Their temperatures spike to a hundred and six degrees. Then they go into a coma. Less than half the infected survive. And the really weird thing is that if people survive the fever, they wake up a day or so later with a temperature that stays at about a hundred and four degrees.”
“Their brains must be fried.” Kevin said.
“Well, yeah. The virus wipes out the areas of the brain that deal with emotions and higher level reasoning. The infected people seem to have a lot of activity going on in the amygdala. Most of their behavior is based on instinctual responses.”
“Okay, Dr. Hayley, you’re getting a little too medical for me,” Kevin said.
“I'm just saying what I heard. People are acting like animals. And they're going around biting people and stuff and spreading the virus like that, kind of like rabid animals. They said there's a ninety percent infection rate if you come in contact with the virus. Doctors are trying the rabies treatment on them. But the virus spreads so quickly that they don’t think it will do any good.”
“Glad we were suited up,” Cooper said.
Kevin took a long pull from the bottle.
CHAPTER 16
May 9 – San Bernardino
“I’m going down to San Bernardino. I want to drive around and see if anything is happening there.” Cooper’s destination was the San Bernardino International Airport, which had been part of Norton Air Force Base until the mid-1990s. He knew he and Hayley would be safer driving straight through to Tucson, but he had to find out what was going on while he had the opportunity. His need to find information was almost a compulsion, and he couldn’t stop until he had a better picture of what was happening.
Hayley jumped out of her chair and grabbed her new leather jacket. “I’m ready.”
“It’s probably pretty quiet out there right now, but I’d feel better if you were here.”
“C’mon, Dad. I can be your navigator. Please take me with you. You might need help.”
Cooper hesitated, weighing all the negatives. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I neeeeed to go with you.”
The determination in Hayley’s eyes belied her age. Cooper didn’t say no this time, even though he knew he should. But he would keep her safe.
“You do everything I say—understood?”
“Yes sir!”
Cooper glanced over at Kevin.
“Don’t look at me, man. I’ve had more than enough excitement for one day. I’m gonna sit here and lick my wounds. Maybe take a little nap. Take some pictures for me.”
“Why didn’t I think of that? Hayley, go grab my camera out from behind the Humvee’s driver seat. I brought it in case I needed to document anything. Also, get the other AK-47.”
When she walked out the door, the 9mm was tucked into her waistband. She came back in with the camera and the rifle. “Aren’t we taking the Humvee?”
“Nope. We’re going to go steal a car. You ready?”
Kevin laughed after Hayley’s mouth dropped open.
* * *
They walked until they reached the neighbor’s house with the yellow Dodge Challenger parked out front.
“Why aren’t we taking the Humvee?” Hayley asked.
“I don’t want to take any unnecessary chances with the Humvee, plus we’ll stick out a little less in this car.”
“But it’s yellow. And it’s a muscle car.”
“There aren’t many choices, plus it’s fast. How’d you know it’s a muscle car?”
“Emily’s mother’s new boyfriend drives a muscle car like that one. All my friends think he’s hot and love his car.”
“Oh.” Cooper was tongue tied.
“What do you think has happened to everyone in Rohnert Park?” Hayley’s voice grew softer.
“I’m not sure, sweetheart.” He put his arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head.
“I’m okay. As long as I’m with you, I’m going to be okay.” Cooper didn’t know if she was trying to convince herself or him.
* * *
The Challenger was spotless on the inside—an old man’s pride and joy. It drove like a dream, hugging the road around every curve. He couldn’t remember the last time he had driven anything other than an all-terrain vehicle. The power as it accelerated was intoxicating. He made sure there were no cars in sight and floored it. Hayley let out a whoop.
Ten minutes into the trip, she pointed out a large fire in the distance. Cooper focused in on where she pointed. Thick clouds of black smoke covered the area they were heading into.
When they entered San Bernardino through the foothills, the air was filled with smoke. Cooper slowed to a stop at a road block. Bullet casings and food wrappers littered the ground.
They got out of the car and walked beyond the roadblock and around a
bend in the road for about a hundred yards. The elevation gave them a good view in every direction. Abandoned cars lined the road as far as they could see. Cooper spotted a dirt road off to the east, a possible way around all the cars.
He drove slowly for several miles. The Challenger was not designed for off road driving and took a beating. The road eventually wound behind a housing development and became a paved street. He used his GPS to navigate through the neighborhood and back onto the highway. A large Road Closed barricade had been moved aside, and not far beyond that, the road was clear of abandoned cars.
The streets were empty except for a few cars packed with anxious looking people, their supplies and suitcases strapped to the roofs. A smoky haze settled across the downtown area giving it a surreal quality.
They passed a drug store and a couple of convenience stores. The windows had been smashed and the stores looted. Hayley pointed to a three car pile-up in the intersection ahead. One of the cars was totaled and blackened by fire, the remains of two charred bodies inside. She pulled a pair of binoculars from its case on the floor and counted six small fires in the distance and wondered aloud if they would spread if no one put them out.
* * *
Following the directions from the GPS, he took smaller side roads when he could. As they got closer to the airport, thousands of body bags were stacked in piles along the road. A few blocks ahead, he spotted five garbage trucks with teams of men in racal suits throwing the bodies in the back like garbage on trash day.
He backed up slowly. Then he headed towards the East 5th Street intersection. He told Hayley to get down in her seat. Focused on the GPS, she hadn’t seen what was ahead them. There were at least twenty-five bodies in the middle of the road, most of them covered in blood and flattened by heavy vehicles. Protest signs lay scattered on the street. He gunned the engine and took a hard right onto East 5th Street, trying not to drive over the carnage. Hayley remained unaware.
He slowed down when they were close to the airport. “Use the binoculars and tell me what you see.”
“The street is full of Humvees and other military looking vehicles,” she said and continued to scan the roads in every direction. “Dad, you need to take a look at what’s coming up behind us.” She handed him the binoculars. He stopped at an intersection. Behind them, a convoy of buses headed their way.
He drove through the intersection and turned into a parking lot filled with cars and found an empty space. They slid down in their seats and waited. They could still see the road.
Why did he agree to let her come? He was going to get them both killed.
A convoy of twenty buses with bars on their windows turned on Del Rosa Drive, followed by four black Humvees. After waiting a few minutes for the buses and Humvees to put some distance between them, Cooper headed to the airport.
As they got closer to the entrance, he made a U-turn and parallel parked along a curb lined with abandoned cars. He had a clear view of the main terminal and spotted the buses and the black Humvees that had passed them. “Hand me the camera case.” He took some photos while Hayley sat quietly. He had taken over a hundred pictures. “Have you ever heard of FEMA camps?”
Hayley shook her head no, but before he could respond, the ground trembled beneath them. A long line of flatbed semi-trucks passed behind them with pallets of black containers stacked three containers high.
“What are those?” Hayley asked.
“FEMA coffins.”
“What are FEMA coffins?”
“They’re actually called vaults. You put them inside a grave first than the casket gets lowered into it. But a lot of people thought that FEMA was planning to use them for dead bodies during a pandemic or a disaster and started calling them FEMA coffins. Looks like they were right.”
He drove south into a large fenced, parking lot so he could get a better view of what was happening behind the terminal. He scanned the area with the zoom lens and froze. “Oh my god.” He couldn’t click fast enough.
"What do you see?"
"I’ll show you when we get back. It's not good."
They stayed parked for fifteen minutes before he headed south again past a large hanger near the runway. He continued to take photos until he spotted two Humvees headed in their direction.
“Shit! Grab the camera and make sure you’re buckled in.” He cut through the parking lot they had been in earlier and got back onto Del Rosa Drive. Hayley pointed out two Humvees coming from opposite directions trying to form a road block at the East 3rd Street intersection.
He gunned the engine and sideswiped the Humvee closest to his side of the car and shot through the air between the vehicles like a champagne cork. The Challenger bounced into the far lane as the Humvees approached them from the East 5th Street intersection.
“Dad, look! There’s two more.”
The Challenger screamed through the intersection ahead of the Humvees. The rear window shattered as bullets impacted the back of the vehicle. The passenger window behind Hayley shattered. Cooper pushed the accelerator to the floor. He had never driven a car that fast on a city street and yelled at Hayley to use the GPS to get them back to Twin Peaks. It was the same as Shannon’s before she got her new phone. Thank god Hayley knew how to use it.
“Dad! There still coming!”
“I see them.”
“They’re still shooting at us.”
“Keep your head down. Let me worry about them. You focus on the GPS.”
“Calculating,” the female, computer voice said as they headed away from the airport at one hundred and fifteen mph. He followed the directions back to the highway with the Challenger topping out at over a hundred and fifty mph. The Humvees were no longer visible behind them. He didn’t slow down until they were out of San Bernardino and sure that they weren’t being followed.
* * *
The Challenger had taken a beating, but they made it back to the cabin in almost half the time it took them to get to the airport. Cooper hadn’t said anything the entire way home. After he walked into the cabin, he took off his jacket and laid it across the back of the chair next to the couch where Kevin was snoring. He found his bottle of scotch on the kitchen counter. With the bottle and a glass, he sat down at the end of the couch next to Kevin’s feet.
Kevin rolled over, opened his eyes and yawned. Hayley shook her head at him, but Kevin ignored her. “How’d it go?”
“Look for yourself,” Cooper said and handed him the camera.
Kevin pulled out the SD card and asked Hayley to put it in the slot on the side of the television. She handed him the remote. With a couple of clicks, the first images appeared on the screen. Kevin and Hayley leaned forward to watch the slideshow.
He closed his eyes and rested his head on the back of the couch. He savored the scotch in his mouth before swallowing. Nothing was going to erase what he had seen.
In the first set of images, hundreds of civilians stepped out of buses in the front of the terminal. Soldiers wearing black uniforms and respirator masks directed people to different stations. Medical personnel took their vitals. The civilians were forced through chain link tunnels to the left and to the right. Soldiers pointed guns at them to make them comply. Crying children were pulled away from their parents.
Kevin and Hayley’s faces grew somber. Kevin wiped tears from his eyes before looking at the screen again.
In the next set of photos, soldiers off-loaded equipment, supplies, and vehicles out of a C-5 Galaxy, one of the largest military aircraft in the world. They trucked everything into a set of hangers behind the terminal.
In the last set of photos, the focal point was an area to the south of the main terminal where a smaller set of hangers were located. Part of the apron had been enclosed by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. A heavy tarp was strung up across one side of the fence like a curtain. Behind it was a large bulldozer. And beyond that, thousands of empty FEMA coffins were stacked up on the far side of the apron.
The next shot
s of the same area showed about a hundred men, women, and children exiting a hanger in single file. They were being forced inside the enclosure. Twelve soldiers dressed in racal suits were already inside waiting with rifles. Close-ups of the rifles revealed that they were fitted with suppressors. When all of the civilians were inside, the soldiers pointed their rifles at them and forced them to move against the fence.
Hayley grabbed the remote from Kevin and stopped the slideshow. “I can’t watch anymore. Now that I know what a FEMA camp is, I’m never going to be taken to one,” she said and handed the remote back to him before heading to the kitchen.
Kevin stayed on the couch and continued to view the photos. The soldiers lined up in front of the crowd and fired until all the civilians lay dead on the ground.
When they were done, the tarp was pulled away and revealed a sliding gate being pushed open by two soldiers. The bulldozer entered the enclosure and scooped the bodies off the cement but left pools of blood behind. A soldier had picked up a small child by the leg and threw him into the bulldozer’s bucket before it backed out of the gate to dump the bodies.
Outside the enclosure, more soldiers in racal suits hoisted bodies into FEMA coffins. The containers were forklifted, one at a time, onto flat-bed semi-trucks and driven away.
Three soldiers pulled a giant hose into the concrete enclosure and cleaned off the blood to get the area ready for the next group.
The final image captured a guard in a Humvee with a pair of binoculars pointed straight at the camera.
CHAPTER 17
May 9 – Lake Arrowhead
Cooper packed the radios in boxes. With the cables tagged and coiled, he placed them with the radios. Kevin had fallen asleep on the couch again, the puppy stretched out next to him. Earlier, he had noticed the dark circles under Kevin’s eyes so he let him rest.
Even though he wasn’t dirty, he took a shower and tried to scrub the day’s events off him. The hot water eased the tension from the muscles in his neck and shoulders. He put his armored suit back on without the self-conscious thoughts that had nagged him earlier and walked into the kitchen. The aroma coming from the stove made his mouth water. He savored a moment of normalcy.