The second the dead reached Charles, he swung the crowbar low, hitting the stiff behind the legs, causing it to drop.
“Yes,” Rachel grunted out, then caught herself and looked at Kasper. “He did the leg thing.”
Before the stiff could react, Charles swung hitting it under the chin, before holding the bar with two hands and driving it into its head. He withdrew it in time to hit the other oncoming stiff in the side of the face, tumbling it back. He didn’t relent, he hit it again, then jammed the rod into the side of his head.
As if it were a sporting event, he was met with applause.
“Good job,” Sledge told him.
The two soldiers removed the downed stiffs.
Sledge walked to Rachel and Kasper. “Something tells me you two are a team.”
“We are,” Rachel replied. “We go out every day together. At first we weren’t really very good.”
“Ha,” Kasper said. “I wasn’t. You have never hesitated.”
“That’s because I hate them.”
“You guys wanna do the challenge together to show me how this team works?” Sledge asked.
“Absolutely,” Rachel replied.
“Weapon of choice?” Sledge asked.
Rachel took off her pack, opened it and pulled out two. “A honing rod,” she said. “And this short sword we picked up at the Dungeons and Dragons Memorabilia store.”
“Gladius,” Sledge said. “That’s called a gladius.”
Kasper held his up. “Cool.”
Both Rachel and Kasper stepped in the pen.
“How many have you two taken out?” Sledge asked.
“Total?” Rachel asked. “Like together? I mean, the first few days we weren’t very good …”
“Week,” Kasper corrected. “It took us a week to get motivated.”
“How many individually?”
Rachel bobbed her head, moving her mouth. “Two hundred and seven.”
“I did two-twenty-four,” Kasper said. “But I only did more because you got that killer blister on your hand.”
“So much better with duct tape.” Rachel held up her taped hand.
Rigs quickly looked at Barry. “Are they lying?”
Barry shrugged. “I don’t know. You know them as well as I do. They go out every day.”
“You two …” Sledge swung his finger around in a circle. “Took out over four hundred,” he said with some disbelief.
“Yeah,” Rachel said but she wasn’t arrogant about it. “I really thought when I did the math, it would be a lot easier to get rid of them all. You know if we each killed so many. But they keep coming. It’s not that easy.”
“No, it’s not,” Sledge said and shut the gate. “Take your places.”
Kasper walked toward the center. “Aren’t you gonna ask us how many we want?”
“No.” Sledge then whistled short and fast. “Open the gate. Let them out. All ten.”
Rigs immediate reaction was anger and shock. “What!” He threw himself at the fence. “Stop. You can’t do that.”
The pen opened and all ten rushed out.
Kasper made some sort of comment on how it reminded him of some bowling alley, Rigs couldn’t make out exactly what he said because he was still talking when the ten descended on the pair.
His instinct had him rushing to the gate to help them. It seemed like far too many. Even Barry rushed that way, but there was no arguing, no fighting to get in there.
Before he could even convince Sledge to open the gate, it was done.
Swinging, chopping, slicing, poking … laughing?
Rigs stepped back.
How the hell did they get so good, so fast?
If in three weeks they were like that, then they truly defined what Eliminators were.
Their applause was nowhere near as enthusiastic as the round Charles received. Maybe others were jealous or maybe just shocked. But there truly was no arrogance in their act. Kasper did it because he must have looked at it as some sort of master live video game to beat and Rachel killed out of hate, pure hate.
“That was … that was awesome,” Rigs told them as they emerged.
“Thanks,” Rachel replied. “We had a similar situation at the AMF lanes.”
“Okay,” Sledge said. “Good job. Who’s next? Sarge?”
Rigs stepped back, hands raised. “Not right now. I’ll pass.”
Sledge accepted that and chose someone else.
Eventually, Rigs would have to step up for his evaluation and after watching Kasper and Rachel, he truly dreaded it.
THREE – AT EASE
Ironically, it was an airport shuttle that took them back to the airport. While about a third of the road was passable, in the three days since Liz first visited them at the airport, they had cleared a path through the vehicles that jammed the highway from Robinson to the airport.
Of course they did.
Liz wanted control over two of those terminals.
“Can you house them?” Liz asked Rigs regarding ten potential Eliminators who needed a place to stay.
Rachel wanted to give her opinion, they already had thirty people there. And yes, the airport terminal was big enough to hold them, Rachel didn’t know them. They weren’t vetted, tested or interviewed. They merely signed up and that was it.
But Rigs, he was fast to say yes, which irritated an already annoyed Rachel.
She sat near the back, staring out the window on the short trip. Looking at the cars just plowed to the side like snow. Meandering dead with no direction, watching as the shuttle passed.
They were all going to be Eliminators, why didn’t they stop the shuttle and take them out?
That was the problem. That was why the dead kept coming and multiplying because no one seized every opportunity.
She exhaled heavily causing steam on the window, which she wiped off rather quickly.
“Okay,” Rigs said as he plopped in the seat next to her. “What gives?”
Rachel only looked at him briefly then returned to staring out the window.
“You’re mad about the new people.”
“Not happy. You weren’t happy when Liz and her people took over two thirds of the airport. You know, whether we like it or not, they have taken over completely.”
“It’s still a safe home for us and our domain.”
“Hmm.”
“Rach …”
“What?” she snapped.
“Whoa. Stop.”
“No, you stop. Keep them out of me and Kasper’s area, okay? We don’t know them. We don’t know if they are demented or sick,” Rachel said.
“I think we can safely assume the virus has run its course.”
“Never assume that … ever.”
“You’re mad and you were mad before Liz even asked us to take on people.”
“You know what?” Rachel turned her body to face him. “Yeah, I am. I’m irritated. You act like you’re all Mr. Zombie liberal.”
“What?” Rigs asked with a laugh.
Kasper poked his head over the seats from behind. “Dudes, I heard zombie liberal. Can I get in on this?”
“No!” barked Rigs.
“Fine.” Kasper sat back down.
“Hey,” Rachel snapped at him. “Don’t yell at him.”
“What is a zombie liberal?” Rigs asked.
“Maybe it’s more passive,” Rachel replied. “People who don’t think you should put down the dead, just let them die off.”
“Okay.”
“Then you go and act all Rambo today at the evaluation.”
“Ah, I get it.” Rigs nodded. “You’re jealous.”
“No, I’m not jealous. Miffed. We asked you to go out with us. Maybe get you over your fear of them.”
“I’m not scared of them,” said Rigs.
“You hesitated on Greg the pilot. You didn’t shoot him.”
“Maybe …” Kasper said from his seat. “He’s still afraid of them but he wasn’t because they weren’t dan
gerous today.”
“Maybe,” Rachel said. “I’d like to see him out there with the ones that can bite and scratch.”
“And it would be the same thing,” Rigs retorted. “I didn’t need to go out every day to do that. It’s basic hand to hand combat but with an edge because they’re fucking mindless.”
“Jeremiah,” Barry spoke in a low scolding tone. “Language.”
Rigs grunted. “I’ve had training. I’m an expert marksman. Not some housewife from Indiana who probably went out to the shooting range twice a week because she had down time between changing diapers.”
“You sexist, egotistical son of a bitch.”
Rigs looked across the aisle to Barry. “What? Not warning her about language.”
Barry ignored him.
“Okay that was wrong,” Rigs said to her. “I didn’t realize this was a competition, Rach.”
“It’s not.”
“Then why are you acting like it is?”
“Because Kasper and I have no formal training, we did what we did and then you went out, one accidental kill under your belt, Mr. Hesitate to shoot, and you take eight out with ease. How does that make me and Kasper look? Or how does it make poor Barry look, he got only one.”
“This is silly. How does it make you and Kasper look? How about, how does it make our team look? It makes our team look unstoppable.”
Rachel stared at him, biting her bottom lip.
“What?” Rigs asked. “No comment.”
“No … You’re, you’re right.”
“Wait. What? I’m right?”
“You’re right. I’m being childish. I’m sorry.”
“Just like that?” Rigs asked. “You’re done. This is over just like that?”
“Yes. I don’t stay mad. I don’t hold grudges. Why do you think I was married for eighteen years?”
“Wow.” Rigs sat back, when he did, the shuttle slowed down. He peered around Rachel.
The fence had opened up behind their terminal and the shuttle drove across the tarmac.
“Door to door service,” Rigs said.
The shuttle pulled a few feet from the staircase and Sledge, who was driving, opened the door. “Get you right here tomorrow morning. Zero seven hundred hours.”
Since they were in the back, they waited, there were only ten people.
Rigs let Barry and Rachel go before him and Rachel walked down the aisle, her pack over her shoulder.
When she stepped down, she nodded to Sledge.
“Good job today,” Sledge said.
“Thanks.” Rachel turned around to face the shuttle. Kasper stepped off, then Rigs, but he didn’t disembark. He looked back, hesitating.
Sledge asked. “Everything okay?”
“That other woman on the bus …”
“Evie,” Sledge said.
“Yeah, she is acting weird.”
“How so?”
“Scared maybe. I don’t know.” Rigs turned around, took a step in. “Hey, Evie. You coming?”
No response, then Rigs turned back around. “She’s coming.” He stepped off.
“You leading everyone in?” Rachel asked.
“Yeah, I’ll just …”
Evie appeared two steps before the bottom and she stopped. Her face was sweaty and pale and she leaned some, her hand gripping the railing.
Rachel whispered to Rigs. “She may have gotten car sick. I know Sledge was a little heavy on the turns and brakes.”
Rigs moved to her and held out his hand. “You need help?”
She gripped his fingers and stepped down the final step to the tarmac and when she did, she arched back, her head going backwards right before she flung it forward and bloody vomit poured from her mouth.
“Stay back!” Sledge ordered. “She’s infected!”
Her upper body shook and convulsed, arms flailed as her stomach sucked in just before every heave outward of bloody projectile vomiting.
Rachel stepped back, pulling on to the back of Rig’s shirt.
Evie shook and dropped to the ground, coughing and choking.
A single shot from Sledge and Evie stopped.
It happened so fast.
Rachel felt Rigs step from her grip and move forward. “Stay away, Rigs, you can’t help her.”
Another step away from her and Rigs turned around.
“Stay … stay back, Rach.”
The expression on his face was fear, total fear and Rachel saw the reason for it when she saw he was covered with Evie’s bloody vomit.
“Everyone get back!” Sledge yelled, with an edge of panic. “Stay back from him!” He lifted his gun and aimed it at Rigs.
“No!” Rachel jumped in front of Rigs. “No!”
“Ma’am, he’s covered,” Sledge said. “Step aside.”
“No!” Rachel barked.
“Rach,” Rigs spoke.
“Step aside.”
“No. No, I will not step aside,” Rachel argued passionately. “This man put his life on the line for my son. This man tried to save my family. If this man is infected, I will put him down myself. If he is infected and not a moment before.”
Rigs just stared at her.
Sledge handed her the pistol. Gave her one hard glance and then called the others to follow.
“I’m staying,” Barry said.
“Me, too,” said Kasper.
Rigs shook his head. “Please don’t. Go inside. Please. Please.”
“It’ll be alright,” Rachel said. “He’s fine. Trust me, he’s fine.”
Barry placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed before he and Kasper joined the others.
Once they were alone, Rigs lowered his head. “What are you doing, Rach?”
“Waiting. Until then, believe.”
“We don’t know.”
“It only takes a minute. We know that.”
“It may be different. Raise the weapon.”
“Rigs, please,” Rachel said. “If you’re infected, you’re gonna be too busy throwing up to be harmful.”
“Then stand back. I don’t want you to get infected.”
“What? And I die? Oh, who cares?” Rachel said. “I don’t. Besides, you aren’t sick. I know it. I feel it. I told you never assume the sickness was gone.”
“You’re right,” Rigs said. “And thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
And they stood there, out on the tarmac, staring at each other in silence. Rigs waiting for the moment he’d get sick, and Rachel knowing that moment would never happen.
FOUR – FRIENDS IN THE DARK
It was the first time since arriving at the airport that Rigs could recall hearing gunfire.
He wasn’t blaming it on the new residents or the soldiers that took over terminal A. The gunfire was in the distance and part of Rigs had to agree with Rachel when she complained that they should have just stopped and took out the ones on the side of the road.
Eventually they’d get to the airport.
They didn’t tire or sleep, they kept moving.
Rigs was keeping to himself, occasionally finding a window to look out. He didn’t need to stay away from people, he just felt that was what people wanted.
Sledge had called for a medical team that showed up in hazmat suits and tested him. Both him and Rachel. There they stayed, a rapid readout told him and Rachel it was negative, but the antibody test would take another day.
Sandy was part of the group. A doctor, and while she didn’t have much experience with viruses, she was certain Rigs had immunity. With how fast she heard the virus transmitted, there was no way he wasn’t immune with all the infected blood on him. That’s what she conveyed to him, giving him reassurance that he was fine.
He thought about how little he and the others who fled the Bahamas actually knew about the virus. Before they left, Rigs had just started paying attention to it. It had erupted by the time they landed. No one at the resort had even known a thing.
To Rigs it was fast, but was
it really? Had officials known about it even longer?
He guessed the point was moot considering most of the world now teetered on the apocalypse.
Rigs spent a restless evening, talking to those he knew from the Bahama plane ride. He tried to get to know Charles the guy that would be on their Eliminator team, but Charles was like, “Mister no offense, but I need to wait until I know a hundred percent you aren’t gonna start vomiting blood all of a sudden.”
Rigs said, “Fair enough,” though he knew he wasn’t infected. How did he know he didn’t have some sort of dormant infection like Evie?
If, of course, there was such a thing as a dormant infection.
Rigs carried a roll wrapped in plastic and stew in a takeout bowl, all courtesy of the bakery and restaurant in the food court. Sandy used their supplies to do the cooking. She rotated restaurants daily and she asked Rigs to take food to Rachel.
He hadn’t talked to her since their blood test, so with food in hand, he searched her out.
He went to her wing of the terminal to seek her out. At first he thought maybe she was sleeping. It was quiet and dark, then he noticed the slight glow coming from her little area.
She lived in a small security office and when Rigs peeked in, he saw her sitting on the couch, in the dark, staring at her phone.
He knocked on the open door.
She looked up and set down the phone.
“Seems to be a running theme tonight,” Rigs said.
Rachel cleared her throat. “What is?”
“Looking at a phone.”
“Are a lot of people doing that?”
“Yeah, Barry is, too.”
“Yeah, I just … I needed to see my family,” Rachel said. “I miss them.”
“I understand.”
“I know you do.” Rachel reached to the floor and grabbed her bottle, pouring some in the glass. “Want some? I have an extra glass.”
“Um, sure.” He set the roll and soup on her coffee table. “For you. Sandy said you didn’t eat.”
“Thank you. I was busy.” Rachel poured him a drink.
“We have an early day tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I know.” she patted the spot next to her and then handed him a glass, she lifted, then sipped hers. “You know Pittsburgh has cell service?”
“You’re kidding me?”
The Eliminators 2 Page 2