“This bite …” Charles winked, then took the refreshed glass. “Is a gift. I haven’t wanted to live since the day I lost my family.” He downed the drink. “Refill?”
“Absolutely,” Rachel poured. “We raided the bar.”
“Thank you,” Charles said. “I wanted to die. I just didn’t have the courage to take my own life. That’s why I went after these things. It’s not bravery, it was my death wish and bingo … thank God it’s here. You guys …” he sipped instead of downing all at once. “You guys are a hell of a team. You are going to do so good with this.”
“Listen,” Sandy grabbed his hand. “I have to try everything. I can’t … as a doctor, let you die.”
“I understand,” Charles said. “But as a human being. You should.”
“Do you know how sick you will get? How fevered and painful this will be? Ask Barry, his son suffered.”
“Well … I’m kind of hoping the doctor in you will help me out with that,” Charles said. “I can take the gun, I will take the gun if need be, but that’s so messy for you guys.”
“I … I …” Sandy stood. “I don’t know.” Confused, she looked at each of her team members. “Barry?”
“I know as a doctor,” he said. “It is your duty and obligation to heal. Sometimes healing is a little more than just the flesh.”
“Dude is wise,” Kasper said.
“Rigs?” Sandy asked.
Rigs looked at Charles. “Is this what you really want?”
“Is it what you wanted?” Charles asked rhetorically.
“I get the not having the courage to take your life,” Rigs said. “I was there. I was self destructive other ways.” He quickly turned to Rachel when he heard her, ‘hmm’. “What, Rach? What is it?”
“Sorry, just thinking about your nympho stories you told me.”
“Now is really not the time,” argued Rigs.
“Yes,” Charles said. “It is the time. This bantering is what makes you guys … you. And you will probably be the best Eliminator Team out there. Sorry I’ll miss it. But I will miss it, one way or another. Sandy?”
Sandy exhaled. “I need a moment. Apparently, me taking the time to think about it doesn’t really matter now.” She excused herself from the room and went back to her medical area. More than anything she wanted to save Charles. She had the means to save him … whether it was freeing him from the virus or freeing him from a world he no longer wanted to live in.
<><><><>
They didn’t know.
They just didn’t know. There wasn’t enough information passed on to them to know if Charles would rise after he passed away. After all, it wasn’t the virus or bite that did him in, it was a nice cocktail of medication that Sandy mixed.
They took him to the safehouse and tucked him comfortably in a bed. The window was open allowing a cool breeze inside.
He said his goodbyes, took requests for the ‘other side;’ then closed his eyes and left the world peacefully.
Rachel and Kasper stayed in the room with him. They stayed long after he died, well after dinner and far beyond the time Sandy went to sleep. The open window helped with the slight ammonia smell that started to fill the room.
The house was quiet. They hadn’t seen or heard any dead.
How long, if it all, would it take? Did the virus make its way into Charles enough to revive him?
“Go,” Kasper said. “I’ll stay.”
“I’ll wait.”
“Rach, we’ve been in this room eight hours. I’ll stay, come and relieve me in a few.”
“Yeah, I need a break. What if I go for an hour and come back?”
“I’m fine,” Kasper told her. “Go.”
“Okay, yell if you need me.” Rachel took one step away.
“Rach.”
She stopped and looked back.
Charles had opened his eyes.
“Fuck,” Rachel said. “I was hoping for his sake that wasn’t going to happen.”
“I got this.” Kasper placed one hand on Charles’ chest to hold him down. “I’m sorry, buddy.” And he reached for his honing rod.
<><><><>
There was a firepit in the backyard of the safe house. Down a slightly grassy grade, the pit was settled into the ground and the flames were minimal, Rachel saw only the orange glow.
Rigs sat by the fire on one of the three benches near the pit.
She carried a bottle and glasses while making her way to him.
“They … had the good stuff in there.” She stepped over the bench to sit down.
“I know.”
She cast her gaze to his feet where a bottle set. “I see you found it.”
“I did.”
“I thought you might need one.” She set her own bottle down.
Rigs blew slowly through his parted lips. “I do. I did. I will. Barry … will take watch. Then I’ll have Kasper.”
“I can take watch.”
“Thanks. How is he?” Rigs asked.
“He’s … he’s gone … again.”
“He came back?”
Rachel nodded.
“So we know.”
“Kasper was quick. He was back in a minute.”
“I did this, you know?”
“How?” Rachel asked.
“I hesitated. The kid didn’t bite him at first. I hesitated.”
“It was a kid.”
“So you say and Charles said.” He lifted his bottle. “But Kasper didn’t hesitate.”
“Kasper never had a child. Different mindset. And this is not your fault. Not at all. And if you need to look at it someway, look at it as something Charles wanted.”
“Did he really?” Rigs asked. “Because he fought them awfully hard for someone who wanted to die.”
“Yeah, it’s like drunk driving. You can do it without a problem, but one day it will catch up to you.”
“Wow. So are you saying, it will catch up to us?”
“I don’t know. I do know this. Every time something goes wrong, we can’t kick ourselves. We’re gonna have days like this.”
“Rach, this was day one,” Rigs said. “Day one of being official Eliminators. We lost one of our own. It was a sucky day one.”
“Charles would disagree. We saved an entire family-ish.”
“What does that mean?”
“We don’t know about the baby. We can hope. We don’t know.”
Rigs stared down to his drink.
“Charles was right about something,” Rachel said. “We are going to be a good team. We will do what we need to do, no matter how long it takes, we’ll get this world back.” She lifted her bottle.
He lifted his, clinking it against hers.
Rachel saw it in his face. It was a hard day for all of them, but more so for Rigs. He carried an extra burden. A burden she believed one day would lift from him.
They all would have those days. Fighting dead that would be emotionally hard to put down, losing people who should have survived. It couldn't be helped.
They put themselves out there as Eliminators. It was who they were, what they did and what they had to face for a long time coming. They would try their best and God willing, they would never lose another team member.
TWELVE - LOOKING BACK
Nine Months Later
March 8 – Day 325
They had been on the road only fifteen minutes, the song Chihuahua Love repeated only twice and then Barry moved on to the next track. Listening to the defunct nineties’ boy band, made Rachel think of Kasper even more. She understood why Barry did that. A song that usually made the team laugh and sing along, now made everyone depressed.
They were taking off for out west. To be unofficial Eliminators. Against the wishes of Liz, the government pulled the plug on the western portion of the initiative focusing only East of the Mississippi.
Work needed to be done, there were still towns to clear, survivors to help and they had rescued a little girl named Penny from a warehouse opera
tion.
Penny was not immune, like most survivors that lived out west.
Everyone talked about keeping the little girl with them. Rachel hadn’t said it yet, but she didn’t want to get attached to a child. She hoped to find her a family.
That’s what Liz said to do. There was a camp on the Kentucky Tennessee border.
Kasper even said her name was a sign of bad things to come.
Making reference to the television show and an Antagonist that kept his zombie daughter like a pet. Her name was Penny.
Kasper.
Rachel sat on the bench seat, with the table. Her hand on her coffee cup, head against the windows, eyes closed. She was exhausted and hadn’t slept well for two weeks.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the heroic move that cost Kasper his life.
Diving from that platform, impaled by a spear. It didn’t kill him, in fact by some miracle it missed anything vital. But the spear was covered with infected blood.
Kasper laughed as he lay in the hospital bed. “Dude, I’m serious, I saw Jack’s face. I swear …” He paused laughing and cringed.
“You okay?” Rachel asked. “Your injury hurt?”
“No, my head. It’s pounding all of the sudden.”
“Hold on, I’ll get the doctor.” Rachel lay her hand on his arm, when she did she felt how hot he was. “Kasper you’re burning up.”
“And there …” the doctor’s voice entered the room. “There is a reason for it. Son …” He walked closer to the bed. “You’re infected.”
Rachel’s heart sank right there and then.
Kasper had kept his spirit’s up, fighting it tooth and nail, swearing he would be different, and signing the forms to turn his zombified body over to science.
For the two week period before they headed back on the road she went and visited him.
He was gentle, never went for her or Rigs. Never tried to bite them.
Before they left, Rachel made one more visit. Her excuse was to bring a game console over for Kasper, but the truth was, she needed to see him once more.
It took everything she had to go back on the road.
Without Kasper, being an Eliminator wouldn’t mean the same thing.
Dr. Stevens allowed for Rachel and Rigs to go into the lab room without him, after all Kasper was restrained.
The restraints rattled and Kasper perked up when Rachel and Rigs stepped into the room before heading out.
“Say hi,” Rachel told Rigs.
“Hi Buddy.”
“Hey, Kasp. Look what I brought you.” Rachel showed him the game console. “Dr. Stevens said he is going to hook it up for you.”
Kasper just stared.
Rachel set it down. “We’re leaving Kasper. It’s not gonna be the same without you. I’m so gonna miss you and your jokes. Rigs just isn’t gonna cut it. You know. He’s dull.”
“Thanks,” Rigs mumbled.
“Anyhow, Kasper. I’ll be back and I’ll check in on you. Maybe even find a way to call.”
Rigs placed his hand on her back. “Time to leave.”
Rachel nodded. “We have to go. They’re waiting. I’ll tell you all about it when I come back. I’ll miss you, Kasper, and I love you. I’d give you a big hug, but you know … I just can’t. Enjoy the game.”
Kasper tilted his head.
Rachel sighed out. “He’s looking at me like he knows. Like he’s trying to make me feel guilty."
“No.” Rigs told her and turned her. “Let’s go. Kasper is gone Rach. He’s not in there. He doesn’t know, okay?”
Rachel took a step.
It was soft, low and deep, a groan that sounded like, “Raayy.”
Rachel and Rigs both stopped and looked back at Kasper the same way at the same time. Then they looked at each other.
“No.” Rigs shook his head.
“No.” Rachel said with a laugh. “Weird we both thought that.”
Another step.
“Chel.”
They both froze.
“Rayy,” Kasper repeated.
Rachel cringed. “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. Don’t.”
“Chel.”
“Fuck.”
Dr. Stevens flew into the room. “Did he … did he just speak?”
Almost scared to reply, Rachel nodded.
“This is … this is unbelievable,” Dr. Stevens smiled.
“It’s not possible,” Rachel said.
“I hoped. I didn’t think it would be,” Stevens said. “But here we are. I didn’t want to say anything. We have been giving him this injection that keeps the brain … for lack of a better word … sparking. We gave it to him before he passed and daily since. It also keeps the heart pumping at eight beats a minute, respiration at six, to prevent decomposition. Hence why he looks so good.”
“Ray … Chel.”
“Oh my God,” Rachel said. “He knows.”
“We don’t know how much he knows or retains. It could be some automatic response from memory retention,” Stevens said. “We need to work with him more. Test more obviously, what we’re doing takes time to progress.”
Rachel finally looked at him again. “Oh, Kasper, I hope you’re in there.”
“No, Rach,” Rigs said. “No, don’t buy this.”
“You heard him talk,” Rachel argued.
“I did. I did, but it doesn’t mean Kasper is there. Rach, he died.”
“Technically …” Stevens sang the word. “He didn’t. Not quite.”
“Stop. Just stop. Don’t do this to her. Don’t. He’s like a parrot. He heard me say her name.” Rigs said. “He’s not in there Rach, Kasper is not in there. Watch.” Rigs stepped to Kasper. “Kasp, if you understand me, if you know what I’m saying, say something Kasper-like, that I would never say.”
“Duuuuuude.”
Rachel’s hand shot to her mouth, her eyes widened and she looked at Rigs.
“I … I …” Rigs stuttered. “Stand corrected.”
They hightailed it out of the hospital, powerwalking back to the RV, after making a promise to Stevens they’d say nothing to anyone. Not yet.
No matter what, Rachel kept replaying that moment in her mind.
“Ray … chel.”
The look in his eyes. Maybe it was her imagination, Rachel saw soul in them.
“Ray … chel.”
“Rach,” Rigs voice called to her.
She sprung up. “Sorry.”
“Were you sleeping already?” Rigs asked. “Your Starbucks is still warm.”
“No, I’m awake, I was thinking, what’s up?”
“You have a minute?”
Rachel sat all the way up, looking out the window. “Why did we stop?”
“That’s what I want to talk to you about.” He gave a twitch of his head and Rachel took it as a sign to go outside with him.
She grabbed her cup and followed outside. “Does everyone else know why we stopped?”
“No,” Rigs replied. “I wanted to talk to you first.”
“Why?”
“Well, you’re like my co-captain.”
“You never said that before. That’s really nice of you.” She sipped her beverage.
“I thought it was a given. Anyhow … depending on what you say, we might turn around and go back.”
“To Center City?”
“Yes.”
Rachel perked with excitement. “Are we going back for Kasper?”
“What? No! Why would we do that?”
“Because he is … not a normal stiff.”
“No. Just no.” Rigs shook his head. “Sandy and Barry know I took a call from Liz. They don’t know what for and they really didn’t ask.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“The president is dead.”
“Excuse me? He’s dead. When? Like now?”
“No, I think sometime between the authorization of supplies and instructions from Liz, until they called.”
“Oh my God, that’s horrible. Wa
s he bit? Did he have the virus?”
“No, it was like normal dead.”
“Normal dead?”
Rigs waved out his hand. “Anyhow, Liz who was second in command is now president.”
“We just gave that woman more power?”
“I thought you liked her?” Rigs asked.
“I do. Just saying. So she’s president and her first order of business is to reinstate the westward movement of the Eliminators?”
“Bingo.”
“That’s awesome. Why are we going back?”
“She wants to meet with us right away, get official orders and since we’re only twenty miles out, we can do that … if you want. Or we can go take Penny somewhere first.”
“Liz knows Penny isn’t immune. She won’t let us bring her back in the city.”
“She will if we agree to let Dr. Stevens have her.”
“Ah.” Liz backed up. “Hence why you needed to talk to me.” She bit her lip and took a moment to think. “So we can’t keep her if we’re Eliminators. Now at this moment, our choices are to take her to a survivor city and leave her with strangers or let Dr. Stevens take care of her.”
“Liz said that he wouldn’t harm her.”
“Oh, I believe that. The man is gentle with zombies, he’s not going to harm a child. Especially since he had four grandchildren of his own.”
“How do you know this?”
“We talked,” said Rachel. “Maybe … he can help her. Besides, Kasper is there, he won’t let anything happen to her.”
“Rach, Kasper is … he’s not … never mind. So we go back?”
“Yes. I’ll grab another Starbucks.” She headed back to the RV. “Maybe even see …”
“No.” Rigs shook his head. “No more seeing Kasper.”
“Oh, hey, I wrote in the logbook.”
“Really?” Rigs nodded. “That’s impressive. We’ve only doodled in it for a year. Maybe that can be your job as co-captain.”
“Um … that would be a no. Let’s tell the others and go back.” She downed the rest of her latte and boarded the RV.
THIRTEEN - ORDERS
The Eliminators 2 Page 7