by Russ Melrose
I believed in the existence of chaos as an integral part of the fabric of the universe and chaos often made things messy. You could never plan for every possibility. And today had been a perfect example. I certainly hadn't thought of the possibility of an infected man lurking underneath the cars on Wasatch Boulevard. And that unforeseen morsel of chaos set everything that would happen in motion. I never imagined the Swimmer would snatch Becky and take off with her. And I never thought I'd be using the Glock today either.
But somehow in the end, it all worked out.
I believed as long as I planned things out as meticulously as I could and considered every possible contingency, then things would find a way to work themselves out. I could believe in that and I did. The plan wouldn't be perfect. It never was. But if I was careful and remained alert, the plan would have a good chance of succeeding.
The plan for tomorrow was as simple as could be. We'd get up early and I'd let them know we would be driving rather than traveling through backyards. I doubted they'd have a problem with that. We'd climb into the Tundra and drive to the research facility. Sarah would text the scientists and they'd let us in. It couldn't get any simpler, and maybe that's what worried me. I never trusted anything that looked too easy.
The biggest wild card in my plan was Raj. I thought I had a good feel for what I could expect from Sarah and Becky, but I couldn't be sure about Raj. Sarah could be emotional, but she could be tough too. I believed I could count on her to remain calm if a difficult situation arose, and I knew she would take care of Becky. And I knew Becky would simply follow her mother's lead. But I didn't know how Raj would react if things got sticky. I didn't know if he would freeze or cower in fear as he had earlier or if he'd go crazy and start bashing in the heads of the infected with his steel mallet hammer. I knew he might want payback for the infected stealing his dignity.
And I wondered if Raj actually had it in him to be violent. I knew I didn't want to find out. I didn't want to see him have to break with his religious beliefs and have to use violence, but I also knew we might need him if a difficult situation arose that I couldn't handle by myself. I could only hope everything would go smoothly and Raj wouldn't have to test his beliefs.
I no longer had to wonder about my own capacity for violence. Just today I'd killed four of them and maimed the Swimmer. But I felt no remorse. Not a whit. Remorse was a luxury I could no longer afford. A month ago I never would have thought myself capable of this kind of violence, but the twinge of guilt I'd felt just a few days ago had all but vanished. And the truth was, it was getting easier. Despite my feelings about Alex, I had come to accept that they weren't human and they meant to harm us. And I no longer had a need to call it self-defense or to try to rationalize my actions. I would use the Glock or the bat if I needed to and wouldn't bat an eye. I might not want to shoot them and I certainly didn't enjoy it, but I wouldn't hesitate to kill them.
I got the iPad out and started going over the route. It was simple and direct. Straight down Fortuna Way to Brockbank, turn right and a few blocks later we'd be there. As long as we didn't run into any trouble, we could be there in three to four minutes easy. I selected alternative routes in case we had to abandon the Tundra and get there by a backyard route. I'd let them know in the morning what we would need to do if we had to abandon the truck. I couldn't believe how close we were, yet it felt as if we were a thousand miles away.
I checked out CNN and Julia Courtney's blog. The only thing of interest came from CNN. Reportedly, a survivor who had worked for MI6 described documents he'd seen that detailed Al Qaeda plans for a coordinated biological attack against the United States and a handful of European countries. There were similarities to the actual viral strike and they were outlined in the report. But the plans were at least ten years old and the threat level of the possible attack had been reduced over the years and eventually dismissed.
I didn't know what to make of it and no longer cared. The who and why of it were irrelevant as far as I was concerned. All that mattered now was surviving and getting them to the facility.
A little while later, Sarah came into the room. She had the frozen peas and wash cloth pressed against her cheek and eye again. After her nap, I'd put the peas back into the freezer since they'd started to thaw. As she came toward the bed, she pressed her lips together and widened them slightly into a reserved smile.
She sat down on the edge of the bed toward the bottom and placed her free hand on her right thigh and sat with her back slightly bowed. She seemed tired again. Her face, at least the half I could see of it, was smooth and passive.
"How are you?" she asked me.
I felt achy all over, but I didn't mention it to her. "I'm okay," I said. But I sensed she wasn't here to inquire about my well-being.
Then she got to it. "I'm worried about Raj," she said. "He's not himself."
"Yes," I told her. "I'm worried about him too."
Sarah started playing with the hem of her shorts, smoothing the edges with her fingers. She looked at me with her good eye. "I was thinking maybe you could talk to him," she said. "Raj likes you. He respects you."
And it occurred to me that Sarah didn't understand what Raj was going through. Sarah didn't seem to grasp the role she and Becky played in Raj's inner turmoil. Not only did Raj act the coward today, he did it in front of the woman he loved and her daughter. I could talk to Raj till I was blue in the face, but it wouldn't erase the memory of what had happened, nor would it make him whole again. This was about Raj and his pride and his relationship with Sarah and Becky, and Raj was the only person who could work it out.
I spoke slowly with a measured tone. "Sarah, Raj is upset because he believes he acted like a coward today. Nothing I say to him will change the way he feels. Nothing."
She looked at me with concern in her good eye and kept playing absentmindedly with the hem of her shorts. Then she looked down into her lap.
"Raj doesn't need to be a hero," she said in a subdued voice. "Not for us."
"I understand," I told her. "But that's not what Raj thinks."
For Sarah, it was simple. She wanted Raj to be the same Raj she and Becky had always known. And she wanted me to fix it for them. But there was nothing I could do.
She studied her lap wearily but didn't say another word about Raj.
And I couldn't for the life of me understand why Sarah and Raj weren't a couple. It was obvious he adored Sarah and Becky and they seemed incredibly fond of him. They seemed perfect for one another, or at least to me they did. Sarah trusted Raj implicitly, and wasn't that what she was looking for?
Sarah stopped playing with the hem of her shorts and looked up. "Thank you for not being upset about Becky," she said quietly.
Then she paused before continuing. "It was my fault," she said. "I should have told you. You had a right to know." And she said it all breathlessly as if she couldn't wait to get the words out of her mouth.
And then she watched me, waiting for me to respond.
"It's all right," I told her. But I knew it wasn't. Sarah had come clean about Becky even if it was at Raj's prompting, while I had kept my knowledge of the Swimmer secret from them. And he was in their lives now because of me.
Sarah seemed to relax and gather herself. "Anyway," she said. "I just wanted to thank you." She said it softly and I knew she was being sincere. Then she got up from the end of the bed and left the room.
Women had always been a bit of a mystery to me and Sarah was no exception. Yesterday, Sarah considered me a thug with a gun, unworthy of her trust. Today I was Becky's savior, a hero. Who knew what tomorrow would bring? I was at a complete loss as to what to make of Sarah. But it wasn't just Sarah. I felt utterly fatigued having to deal with the three of them. Raj was in crisis mode over his failure to protect them and Becky was infected, and somewhere along the way, their problems had become mine. Now Sarah expected me to somehow magically fix Raj. I couldn't believe how complicated my relationship with the three of them had become in les
s than forty-eight hours.
I'd managed to convince myself that helping them would be relatively simple. Get them some food to last awhile and get the hell out and get to the cabin. It should have been easy. But the moment I agreed to take them to the research facility, everything changed. My decision unleashed a whole new string of possibilities. And I knew I had no one to blame but myself. I could have said no, even contemplated saying it, but in the end I agreed to take them where they wanted to go—and now I was entangled with them.
All I wanted to do was get them there safely. And if I could keep Raj from having to confront his fears and his beliefs, all the better.
My inner musings were interrupted by a sudden clunking sound as if the air conditioning had suddenly been cut off in midstream. And then everything went quiet, disturbingly quiet. The moment I'd heard the clunking sound, I knew the electricity had been cut off, but I didn't want to acknowledge it to myself.
I walked out into the hallway. Raj was already standing in his doorway with a concerned look on his face. Sarah and Becky emerged from the master bedroom. I walked quietly over to the top of the stairs and listened intently, but I couldn't hear a thing. I should have at least been able to hear the hum of the fridge from the kitchen, but the house was dead silent.
I put my index finger up to my lips to let them know not to say anything. They followed me quietly as I went back into the bedroom. We crowded around the window and took in the wide sweep of the valley. It was shrouded in darkness. There were a handful of lights on here and there in buildings that must have had backup generators. But that was it. And in a few days, even those lights would go out, and the valley would be in total darkness.
I could remember worrying about the inevitability of the electricity going out in the valley, but even so, I'd come to the point in the past two weeks where I'd begun to take the electricity for granted. Now, in a matter of a few days, the valley would descend into chaos. With the electricity gone, so too was the thin veil of safety from the infected. There would be no more air conditioning to mask sounds. Now, even the slightest sound would draw the infected to you.
I needed to focus on getting them to the facility in the morning, nothing else. I thought about driving to the research facility now, but I quickly disregarded the notion. In a few minutes, the East Bench would be in total darkness. I'd have to turn the Tundra's lights on to be able to see where I was going and that would likely draw the infected. And since I could only see a half block down Fortuna Way, I had no way of knowing how many infected there might be further down the street. Besides, Sarah and Becky and Raj were exhausted and so was I.
I sat on the edge of the bed and opened my backpack and got out my notepad and pen and the penlight Sarah had given me. Then I closed the blinds and sat back down and turned on the penlight and began writing them a note. In it, I told them we had to be completely quiet. There could be no talking, only whispering in the ear when necessary. Other than that, we couldn't make any kind of noise. I told them it would be best if we went to bed now and got a good night's rest, got up early in the morning, maybe five o'clock, and took the Tundra to the facility. I told them taking the Tundra was a better option than traveling through neighboring backyards. I told them it would only take a few minutes to get there and that we'd be fine. And I told them the key to staying safe would be for us to be completely silent till morning. Each of them used the penlight to read the note and nodded their approval after reading it.
I knew we needed to contact the people at the research facility. We might not be able to text them in the morning. I knew cell towers had backup power, usually batteries and generators, but I didn't know how long they would last. I thought a day or two at most.
Sarah's cell phone still worked and she texted them and we worked out an alternative plan in case the cell phones stopped working. They would expect us anytime between five and six in the morning and they would have someone waiting by the back door to let us in if we couldn't text them. We'd knock and they'd let us in. They texted us that they had backup power at the facility and that we'd be fine there. And then they mentioned something about relocating to a secure location in the coming days.
I was surprised at the mention of relocating to a secure location. Was there really such a place? I wondered where it was and how they would get there. Could they take Sarah and Becky and Raj with them? The thought excited me, but I needed to take one thing at a time. Just get them to the research facility in the morning. The details of a secure location could wait.
After they settled into their rooms, I lay awake and thought about what would happen in the morning. With a little luck we'd be fine. We'd managed to come this far and we were ever so close. Beyond the pervasive silence in the house, I could hear the soft murmuring moans of the infected sifting through the bedroom window and I wondered how close they were.
And as I lay there, I realized I hadn't thought much about Alex the past few days. I hadn't dreamed about him either. It could have been because I was so busy with Sarah and Becky and Raj. I wasn't sure. And I didn't know if I was simply numb from all the excitement and tension of the day or what it might have been, but I didn't feel the same level of angst about Alex that I'd become so accustomed to feeling.
After a while, I rolled onto my side and curled up. I was incredibly tired. My bat was still in my backpack, but I was far too tired to grab it. My mind and body felt remarkably still. For a time, I listened to my breathing till it blended into the darkness.
Chapter 16 – The Diversion
I heard the moans and knew they had to be close by. And I knew I wasn't dreaming. Not this time. My mind was foggy and I had to force myself to sit up in bed. I dug the heels of my hands into my eyes and rubbed them lightly. Then I blinked and squinted till I could see clearly in the bluish-black light. I reached down and rummaged into my backpack and found my iPhone and checked the time. It was just past four-thirty in the morning. Sunrise would be sometime after six, but by five-thirty it would be light enough to travel.
The moans were several decibels higher than they'd been last night. And I might have been more concerned if I hadn't been half asleep. I heard a throaty moan in the immediate vicinity, clear and distinct, and I perked up and listened. The moans sounded like they were coming from the backyard. I was suddenly wide awake. I eased myself off the bed and went to the window. I lifted a single blind and peeked into the backyard. An infected male was bending down, inspecting a doghouse near the back fence. He wasn't alone. Two more of them were in the backyard wandering aimlessly in the filmy predawn light. I glanced into the backyard next door to my right and there were two more infected stumbling about in the yard.
I would have wondered how they'd gotten past the gate and into the backyard, but I already knew. The Swimmer. Had he opened the gates to both homes? At first, I thought he might have known we were here. But if he'd known, it didn't make sense that he'd open the gates to both homes. And if he'd known we were here, he would have helped them break into the house.
I hustled across the hallway to the bedroom where Raj was sleeping. He was in the teenage girl's bedroom. I went to the window that faced the street. The window had white sheer curtains pulled back on the sides. I crouched low and looked out the lower corner of the window into the street. They were everywhere, dark silhouettes scuffling about in the early morning twilight, waiting and listening for the slightest hint of a meal. In the little over a half block I could see, there must have been at least a hundred of them, probably more. And I wondered how many more there might be waiting for us past the curve on Fortuna Way.
Gates to the backyards across the street had been opened too. The Swimmer must have opened the gates to all the homes in the vicinity. It was the only thing I could think of that made sense. I wondered if he'd spent the whole night doing it. He must not have been as badly injured as I'd imagined.
And then I knew we were in real trouble. We couldn't use the Tundra because there were too many of them out in the street, and
traveling through backyards was out of the question now too. I slunk to the floor with my back against the wall and tried to think of what we should do. The only thing I could come up with was hiding in the attic. But it was a bad idea. With the air conditioning gone, the attic would be like an oven. It would have been hot before, now it would be intolerably hot. We'd never last there very long. And what if the infected lingered around for a week or more? Then I thought we could just stay put in the house and only go up into the attic if they tried to get into the house. It was probably the best option. But I didn't like that idea much either.
The people at Jorissen's would be expecting us. If we were stuck in the attic for several days or a week, they might leave for their secure location and leave us behind. If that happened, Sarah and Becky and Raj would be left with nowhere to go.
I knew cell phone service would be dead in the next day or so. After that, we'd no longer be able to communicate with the scientists. Chances were if we didn't get there today, we'd likely never get there. It had to be today.
I looked over at Raj. He slept soundly, curled up comfortably in the bed, sleeping on his side with a pillow covering his head. He hadn't heard them yet. I decided not to wake him. Not for a while.
Then I heard the unmistakable sounds of a picture window under attack. It was up the street toward Jupiter Drive. I didn't have an angle that would allow me to see the house, but I didn't have to see it. I knew what would happen.
I left Raj's room and stood in the hallway. I didn't know what to do. I felt numb, though I wasn't panicked or afraid. What concerned me most was the prospect of facing Sarah and Becky and Raj without a clue as to what we should do. I had led them here and now we were surrounded by the infected. I glanced at the door to Sarah and Becky's room. It was half open like all the doors upstairs, and I thought about checking on them, but I was hesitant.