Immediately moving so her back was to the door of the armory, Rose looked for her other attacker, blood weeping from the end of the bat in her hands. A wide smile had appeared on Rose’s face. She was actually enjoying this! The boy had recovered from his knockdown and was once again moving toward Rose. Before getting to Rose, the boy tripped in debris on the floor, slipped and fell. However his forward momentum kept him going and he slid toward Rose coming to a stop about a foot away from her feet. Instinctively, Rose unleashed an underarm golf-style swing catching the boy under his chin, shattering his jaw. As Rose took stock of the boy and his mangled face, Rose’s enjoyment burned away like an early morning fog. She’d just smashed the face of a child with a bat. While he’d been infected and was trying to attack her, Rose couldn't shake the feeling that what she’d done was just wrong on some level. As Rose stood above the boy, he began to stir. He lifted his mangled and broken face up to her and began to whimper and growl as he clawed his way toward her, still intent on attacking.
Rose took a step back, bumping into the door to the armory, horrified at what was happening in front of her. This little boy was mangled and his face was broken beyond recognition, but he was still trying to get at her. Stoically, and with any enjoyment from her encounter with Lindsay the administrative assistant thoroughly gone, Rose drew her handgun and fired a round into the head of the boy, instantly ending his life. As the shot echoed around the hallway, Rose felt sick to her stomach. She turned quickly and began entering the electronic code into the door of the armory. As the keypad beeped indicating a successful code entry and the door lock popped open, she could very distinctly hear the movement of several different people on the floor above her in the administrative offices. Rose was unsure who was up there, whether they were infected or not, and whether they could quickly get to her location, but she wasn’t willing to find out. Rose entered the armory aiming to gather any supplies she could and then make a hasty exit.
The armory wasn’t big and it wouldn’t take her long to stock up. It was about the size of the offices she’d just passed but the walls were lined with racks for guns, ammunition, riot gear, weapons seized from criminals, and much more. Rose wasn’t entirely familiar with what was in there, but knew it was her best shot at getting well armed for her escape from town and her continued survival.
Rose closed the door behind her, an identical keypad on the inside of the door preventing her from being trapped inside. The first thing Rose noticed upon entering was blood on the floor. When she turned on the light, she saw where the blood was coming from. Andy was in the armory and appeared to be very injured. A trail of blood led from the door to the wall in the corner he’d propped himself up against.
Rose had never holstered her handgun after shooting the boy and kept it aimed at Andy as she approached him. Andy was wearing his uniform as well as several pieces of riot gear over his chest, legs, and arms. A bloody riot helmet was lying upturned next to him. Andy appeared to have scratches or cuts on his arms, legs, and face but Rose assumed from the amount of blood on the floor, Andy’s injuries were probably more extensive just hidden from her view. Rose could see that Andy’s right hand was a bloody mess, but not like Kate’s had been from scratching at the walls and doors. Andy’s injuries appeared to have been inflicted upon him instead of being self-inflicted.
As Rose approached Andy, his eyes flickered open. It seemed to take him a moment to focus on Rose’s shape and another few for him to remember who she was. “Rose” he croaked, “I’m sorry.” Tears began to stream from Andy’s eyes and roll down his cheeks making familiar tracks through the blood and grime covering his face.
Rose felt like she should be feeling some remorse confronted by her dying friend who, only days ago she’d have called her best friend, and was a little surprised that she wasn’t. Andy had been her friend, true, but Andy had betrayed her to the CDC and almost gotten her killed when she tried to escape. Rose’s first thought was this is exactly what Andy gets for ratting her out. But as Rose looked down at her dying friend in front of her, she knew that Andy was on the edge of death and put on an outward appearance of concern. “Andy, what happened?” she said kneeling down next to him. Andy was quite pale from the blood loss, and his lips were dried and cracked.
“We were over-run. Right after I called you. There was a huge group of them, like a swarm or something. The guards at the front doors couldn't handle them and they broke inside almost right away. We had to fight in the hallways but we were fucked from the start. I fought my way down to the armory, got on some riot gear, and then headed back out, but there were just too many. Didn’t even make it out of the hallway. I retreated back into here...There was nothing else I could do. I’m sorry Rose.”
“It’s ok Andy. You did the best you could I’m sure,” said Rose, as emphatically as possible.
“No not that. I’m sorry I called the CDC. I’m sorry I put your life in danger. I was just scared. This infection-I thought it was the best way. I’m sorry,” said Andy, dissolving into tears.
Rose felt like she should say something. Something about forgiveness or that she accepted his apology, but she wasn’t sure if she did. Finally, struggling for some sympathetic words to say, Rose managed, “It’s fine Andy. It’s fine,” Rose said patting his armored shoulder. Rose’s hand came away bloody and she discreetly wiped it on the side of her pant leg.
It was not fine though. Rose really wanted to yell at Andy. Tell him it was his fault she had to kill those men from the CDC that came for her. Rose wanted to shake Andy and yell in his face saying it was all his fault, but deep down she knew that it wasn’t true. She was angry for having to abandon her house and abandon Green Forks, but she was now realizing that she was going to have to leave eventually. If the CDC hadn’t come for her, the infected would have in time, that was pretty obvious looking at the police department. It wasn’t Andy she was furious with, it was in the infected. Rose had been living her life, minding her own business. She had been happy. Then they had come-taken Kate, taken her home, taken Green Forks, and now they’d claimed her best friend.
Rose could hear and feel the pops and scrapes in her mouth as she ground her teeth together in frustration. Rose looked down at Andy who was still crying, and she finally felt the first pangs of sympathy and guilt for him. The pangs quickly evolved into a hollow sadness as she realized what she was going to have to do. Rose was going to have to kill her best friend. Another terrible thing added to the list of horrors the infected were forcing upon her. Leaving him to turn into one of them was just not an option. As if reading her mind, Andy looked up at her. “You need to do it Rose. Make it quick and get out of here.”
Rose looked into Andy’s bloodshot eyes for a long time. Flashing through her mind were all the good times they’d had together in the years they’d been friends. Rose and Andy...and Kate. This goodbye would be for her as well. Rose never got to say goodbye to Kate and so this goodbye was for both of them. All of their lives had been intertwined and now that part was ending.
Rose lifted her handgun up to Andy’s forehead. “Alright...Goodbye,” was all she could manage. With tears forming in the corners of her eyes, Rose squeezed the trigger sending a bullet into Andy’s brain. The noise in the enclosed armory was deafening and caused her ears to ring, but Rose didn’t flinch at the noise. She’d just killed her best friend, said goodbye to her wife, and closed the door on that chapter of her life.
As Andy’s lifeless body slumped back into the corner, Rose pondered how easy would it be to use the next bullet for herself. That would not only end this chapter of her life but make it the last one. It’d be so simple to turn the gun and squeeze off the trigger one last and final time. The ringing in her ears seemed to perpetuate these thoughts, but as the ringing began to fade, so did the desire to end her life. She was immune to this disease and stood a better shot than most, possibly anyone else in the world, to survive. Shaking her head and shaking out the last of the ringing in her ears, Rose holstered he
r gun and got to work taking everything she could carry from the armory. Before she could survive, she first had to escape this building.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rose emptied out a bag of riot gear and used the oversized bag to take as many guns and boxes of ammunition as she could fit and still carry easily. Once satisfied she had enough, Rose turned to leave but caught sight of Andy’s body in the corner. Grabbing a few emergency blankets from a shelf and opening them up, Rose covered Andy’s body. It wasn’t a burial by any means, but at least it was something. Heaving the the bag over her shoulder and onto her back, Rose was able to slip her arms into the handles and wear the big bag as a backpack. Finding a box of ammunition she didn’t take, Rose quickly refilled the magazine of her handgun and reholstered it. Rose then grabbed her bat before steeling herself for what may lay outside the armory door. The door itself didn’t have a window, it was just a big metal door with metal hinges and an electronic lock. There could be a whole army of infected out there and she wouldn’t know until she opened the door. Any infected still in the building had been, without a doubt, drawn to the armory by the gunshots Rose had fired.
Bat in hand, Rose entered the door code and cracked the door open ever so slightly to look out. Luckily there were no infected waiting to reach in, but Rose could see several around, just wandering aimlessly in the hallway. Rose counted five infected that she could see, all adults, four males and a female. At least one of the males was wearing a Green Forks PD uniform. Rose knew she couldn’t just make a break for it down the hallway, she’d be swarmed and likely killed. Rose also knew that she couldn’t start firing on the infected because, while she may kill one or two, they’d certainly rush her and she’d be in a 3 on 1 fight or worse. Rose needed another solution and being in the armory, she had a few options.
Quietly closing the door, Rose returned to the shelves and searched for alternatives. Grabbing several riot control cylinders off the shelves and a gas mask from one of the riot gear bags, she went back to the door and prepared herself.
Taking a few calming deep breathes, Rose whispered to herself “You can do this.” Glancing one last time at Andy’s covered body in the corner, she said a silent goodbye before slowly cracking open the door. She waited until the five wandering infected were relatively close to one another before making her move. Rose picked up the first two cylinders she’d selected. Both were tear gas. She pulled the pin on both and hurled them down the hallway in the general direction of the infected. This caused a commotion but luckily not directed at her. The infected seemed to be fascinated with the smoke pouring out of the canisters and began chasing them. One even picked one of the cannisters up and tried to bite it, getting a full blast of smoke in his face before dropping it. The hallway quickly filled with smoke and Rose’s view of the infected became obscured. Rose pulled on the gas mask and readied the third cylinder, a flash bang.
Through the haze, Rose could hear the infected starting to hack and cough and vomit. Not having the sense to move away from the gas, the infected continued to remain in the thick of it exposing themselves more and more to the gas. Rose waited a few more seconds until she was sure all five were completely enveloped in the gas and then hurled the flash bang toward the center of the hacking and coughing. After throwing the flash bang, Rose quickly closed the armory door. After a few seconds, there was a loud bang like a firework. Rose then threw open the door and sprinted through the gas toward the end of the hallway and the conference room beyond, bag of guns banging loudly and painfully against her back as she ran. As Rose moved through the gas, she could see several of the infected on the ground, alive but writhing, blinded and choking. Only one of the infected, a man near the far end of the hallway, seemed to be only mildly affected by her tear gas and flash bang. The man made a clumsy grab at Rose as she ran by, but Rose just batted the man’s arms aside with her bat.
At the far end of the hallway, the haze from the tear gas was significantly less but Rose didn’t want to remove her mask just yet. Above her, she could hear the clattering of a large number of people moving around and items being smashed on the second floor. Rose didn’t stop as she ran by the stairwell access to the second floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see several people stumbling down the stairs in pursuit of her. Rose could tell by their blood stained and ripped clothing that they were infected. The strewn bodies on the stairwell were making it difficult for them to pursue, so Rose had a good head start on them. Coming to the back door of the parking lot, Rose threw open the employee door, quickly turned, and slammed it shut behind her just seconds before her pursuers slammed into the closed door, their distorted faces pressed against the small glass window in the door. Leaving the door, Rose tore off her gas mask and threw it aside, ran to the SUV, opened the back hatch and threw the bag of guns inside. Rose slammed down the hatch, jumped into the driver’s seat, closed and locked the driver’s side door.
The infected pursuing her were now slamming against the back door. She could see the door vibrating and bending at the hinges. As Rose fired up the engine of the SUV, the small glass window of the door broke and was quickly filled with outstretched arms grasping for her like bloodied, wriggling worms. Rose put the SUV in drive and began to pull away spinning the back tires and sending up a cloud of dust and rocks in the dirt parking lot. In her rear view mirror, Rose could see the door finally give way and the infected pour out of the building, at least 20 or more. Some gave chase to her vehicle, but most just ran off in several different directions. Rose pressed hard down on the gas intent on putting as much distance between her and the infected as possible.
Chapter 8
With every passing hour the infected ran rampant in Green Forks, the destruction seemed to Rose to be getting worse exponentially. Her drive into town had been bad, probably worse than she could possibly imagine, but her trip out of town now was just that much worse. Fires, sparked from the rampant and indiscriminate destruction, had expanded. The infected were everywhere and they appeared to be roaming more in groups then as individuals. It seemed to Rose that they were hunting in packs rather then crazed rabid animals but she couldn’t be sure. Rose had only gone a few blocks before the first infected person slammed into the side of her car. Each time, Rose couldn’t help but jump. They always seemed to come from her blind spots but she knew better than to stop this time. With each impact, Rose became more and more focused on getting out of town as quickly as possible. Rose soon began steering into any she could see coming, hitting them with the brush guard on the front of the SUV and saving the side doors from more damage. Her doors were getting dented pretty heavily, but the windows had held so far despite several large, ominous cracks. As Rose made it to the outskirts of town and beyond, she was able to think less about the infected she may encounter in the road and more about where she was going to go so quickly. Population centers were out, even towns smaller than Green Forks were probably not a good option. As quickly as Green Forks was overwhelmed, they had a police department actively fighting against the threat and still were completely wiped out. In many other surrounding towns, they didn’t have police departments. Those towns were likely already completely wiped off the map.
Rose figured that the further north she went, the smaller the populations would be and the fewer infected she’d have to deal with. If she could get away from major population centers, she’d probably have a better chance of avoiding groups of infected. If Rose could find a secluded cabin in the woods somewhere and avoid the infected for long enough, a couple years, maybe two or three just to be safe, maybe they’d all die off like what happened with Kate. Several years was probably overkill, but Rose was done underestimating the infected. If a couple years alone in the woods meant that she didn’t have to deal with them ever again, that would be a small price to pay.
Rose figured that the deep woods of northern Quebec, where there is nothing but endless trees and wilderness, would likely be a pretty safe place to go. Rose had never been that far north, even w
hen she’d gone hunting, but she’d heard that these woods were very dense and had very few people there, even during logging season. There had to be some shelter in there somewhere that could be her safe haven. First though, Rose would need to get out of the country and she had no idea what the borders would be like. Would the United States or Canada go so far as to quarantine the entire country like they did with New York? Could they? The closest border crossing was Estcourt Station, the furthest northern border crossing in Maine. Rose had crossed at Estcourt Station several times on hunting trips into Quebec and so she knew how to get there quite well, not that it was hard. There was only one main road from Green Forks north to Estcourt Station. Once you got to the crossing itself, there wasn’t much to see. Estcourt Station was a much grander name then reality. It was essentially a guard shack, a gas station, and a few other buildings. Not even a small town, just a small collection of houses and buildings on the US/Quebec border.
Break Away (Jordan Rose Duology Book 1) Page 10