The Living Saga (Book 2): Enduring

by McFall, Jaron

  “I didn’t realize they were friends,” Cedric said.

  “Roommates,” Ross said. “They wound up together somehow.”

  Cedric laughed. “You are such a manipulative dude,” he said.

  Ross looked slightly embarrassed at being caught. “Okay… Yeah. I assigned all of the roommates. But I thought they would be a good fit together.”

  “No,” Cedric said filling his plate with mashed potatoes, “you thought that since you hang around me in your free time, you’d get to spend some time with my girlfriend’s roommate.”

  “And why would he want to do that?” A female voice said from down the line.

  Ross’s face turned beet-red as Cedric said back, “Sorry Aggie, I don’t know the answer. Maybe Ross will fill you in.”

  Cedric turned to go find a seat while Ross tried to explain his reasoning to Aggie.

  A few minutes later, Ross joined Cedric and said, “Well, she didn’t say no to the idea of a picnic one day.”

  “But did she say yes?” Cedric asked.

  “Her exact words,” Steph said sitting down across from them, “were ‘whenever you get back, adventure-boy, why don’t you try again.’”

  Cedric and Steph chuckled as Ross’s face turned red again.

  After they ate, all of the people going on the mission met with each other to go over the plan one more time. They continued to make their final preparations. Cedric spent some time with his parents and Charlie before dinner. He took the time to break out the Rook cards.

  “You know,” Charlie said smiling, “I didn’t think it would take the end of the world to get you two back together.”

  “It’s not that,” their mother said smacking Charlie on the arm.

  “Stop teasing,” Cedric told his older brother. He was about to ask where Denise was, but he figured she was probably avoiding him too. She did most of the time since tensions had been so high between her dad and him.

  “I’m leaving in the morning,” Cedric said.

  “Do you need any extra help?” Hank asked his youngest son.

  Cedric knew parts of his dad’s military background. It’s why he’d wanted the defense job. It’s why he’d helped design their defenses. He just could not bring himself to see his dad for any of that anymore, though. He just thought his dad was too old for it.

  “Nah,” Cedric replied. “Just stay here and hold down the fort. Don’t let Ben take over or anything.”

  Charlie stiffened at Cedric’s joke. “I really don’t know why you two can’t get along these days.”

  “Let’s not today,” Eliza said.

  Her sons dropped that thread of conversation and just enjoyed their time together.

  After the game, while Cedric was on his way to dinner, he was stopped by Dr. Moore.

  “Cedric, may I have a word?” he asked.

  Cedric agreed and followed him back to the infirmary.

  Once there, he saw that Reid was waiting for them.

  “I’m just going to get straight to the point,” Reid said standing up. “Can we take a sample of your blood? You’re the only person we know of that’s gotten the Asclepius Serum in the wild, so to speak.”

  Cedric couldn’t find a reason to object, so he agreed and rolled up his sleeve.

  “So, I heard a rumor Doc,” Cedric said as the needle punctured his skin.

  “Yeah, what’s that?” Dr. Moore asked.

  “I heard that you’re going to try to get the organisms in the serum to reproduce so you can replicate it,” Cedric stated.

  “And where did you hear that?” Dr. Moore asked. He didn’t look up but kept working to take a few vials of blood.

  “You’re not denying it,” Cedric said.

  “I saw it work firsthand,” Dr. Moore said. “It is a medical miracle.”

  Cedric frowned. “I’ve had it, sort of. I used it on Steph. But I want you to promise me that it will only be used in life or death situations. No fixing broken bones, cuts, whatever. We don’t need this mutating or creating a new infection.”

  Dr. Moore nodded and said, “No… no, we don’t need that.”

  Once Cedric finally made it to the cafeteria, dinner was in full swing. With the larger kitchen and cafeteria, there was enough room to fully spread out, no waiting.

  It took Cedric longer to scan everywhere, but he finally concluded that Karli was, again, not here. Instead, he found Aggie.

  “Hey,” he said sitting down next to her amongst a group of girls and young women. “Where is your room at? I need to talk to Karli.”

  “It's about time,” Aggie said. She turned and pointed in the direction of the old math wing. “Go into that pod. Take a left, then a right, and it’s the first room on the right. Once inside, its section B”

  Cedric knew that each of the full-sized classrooms had been divided into two to give some privacy. Two people would share each section of the classroom.

  It only took a few minutes to find the room in question—it was actually the room Cedric had taken algebra in during his freshman year.

  He went to the door of section B and knocked.

  He waited for a minute and was about to knock again when the door slowly opened. Karli didn’t even wait for Cedric to say anything. As soon as she saw it was him, she closed the door.

  “Karli,” he said through the door. “Listen, I’m sorry. You know I am.”

  “Took you long enough to say it,” she said back without opening the door again.

  “I said it when I first told you. I said it before I told you.” Cedric leaned his head against the wall and waited.

  “Will you open the door and talk to me?” he asked after three minutes of silence.

  “Cedric,” Karli said. “I don’t have anything to say to you right now. There’s nothing I want to hear from you.”

  Cedric felt his heart sink.

  “Then let me at least say this,” he said. “I meant what I said. I am sorry. I do love you. I’m leaving in the morning at seven thirty. I hope we will be back within a week. You know I’m coming back for you. I hope you’ll come see me off in the morning, but I understand if you don’t want to.”

  Cedric waited for a reply.

  After five minutes, he held his hand flat against the door. It was the worst pain Cedric had ever felt—it even felt worse than having his stomach ripped open by jagged glass. He was about to say something else, but the words caught in his throat. He tried to swallow so he could speak. When that failed, he turned and left—but he was sure he was leaving a piece of himself behind, sitting outside of that door.

  Chapter Twelve:

  LEAVING

  Cedric went straight to bed without going back for dinner after his one-sided conversation with Karli. The next morning, he woke early and showered. He knew it would probably be his last one for a week or more. Unless the Houston facility has one, he reminded himself.

  By seven o’clock, the kitchen crew already had a small breakfast cooked for the ones going on the mission. Breakfast typically wasn’t served until eight, but they made an exception for this case. They also made an exception for what they were serving. The entire crew, by special request from Eric, was served steak and eggs. It was a customary Marines breakfast for when they were deployed to war. Though, they had to serve venison steak instead of beef steak.

  For Cedric, this gesture seemed like an omen.

  By seven-thirty, the entire crew, along with the council and Cedric’s family members, gathered around the group to wish them off. Cedric’s heart, already weighted from the past two days, couldn’t sink any lower when Karli did not show up. He spent most of the time staring at the new words painted on the side of the Hummer: Ground Team Charlie. He thought it was ironic since Charlie was the one opposed to the mission.

  Just as the crew was about to load into the vehicles, Dr. Moore stopped them. “Hold on.”

  When everyone had stopped, he said, “Would anyone mind if I said a prayer before you left?”

  “I think
that’s a fine idea, Doc,” Pearson said removing his hat.

  “This is bullshit!” Ben spat to the people sitting at his breakfast table. He was always one of the first people at breakfast, so the room was still fairly empty. The only people at his table were some of the men who Ben had befriended. The newest member of the group was Bennet.

  “Alright, Ben,” a man named Gregg said. “What does that note even say?”

  Ben stopped his fidgeting long enough to read the letter out loud, “Ben Camp, you are summoned to appear before the council at nine a.m. regarding your recent behavior and insubordination.”

  “And they just taped it to your door?” Frank asked.

  “Hell yeah, freaking cowards. Can’t even tell me in person. Let my little girl bring in the note.”

  Ben got up and was about to storm out of the room when Gregg said, “We’ll go with you. I think it's about time we talked about this leadership issue.”

  There was a general murmuring of assent among the small group.

  “I want to know how that kid and that crazy woman got these positions anyway,” Bennet said. “I mean, I wasn’t here for that, but they rub me the wrong way, you know?”

  “Yeah,” Gregg said. “This is going to change. Let’s go talk to them and tell them we need to have a full meeting with everyone instead. A full vote.”

  “Something like that,” Bennet agreed. “We all need to be ready to do what it takes to make sure that those bozos are not in charge anymore.”

  At nine, Ben walked into the council room with his four friends trailing behind.

  “What’s this, now?” Sue asked. “I’m not about to have this meeting turned into a sideshow.”

  “I’m done taking orders!” Ben shouted.

  “We all are,” Gregg added.

  “Yeah, all five of ya?” Eric asked standing up and getting his crutches.

  “We want a revote,” Ben said. “We don’t agree with this leadership. It is flawed.”

  “No,” Sue said. “All of us here, Eric aside, won the vote. And Eric is just filling in while Cedric is out. We have an election schedule. I’m sorry but you’ll have to…”

  “I ain’t gotta do a dang thing, woman!” Ben shouted taking a step in her direction.

  Sue immediately backed up. “Leave, now,” she commanded.

  “Like he said,” Bennet said, “We ain’t doing anything you say. You have no right to lead us. No right at all. This is wartime. You are no veteran or soldier. We need real leaders.”

  “Here, here!” Gregg shouted. “We’re done!”

  Sue took a shaky step forward and said, “Come on. Council members, we’re leaving.”

  She tried to walk to the door but Bennet got in her way.

  “Move,” she demanded.

  “How many times do we have to tell you that we are not doing a thing you say anymore?” Bennet asked.

  Sue tried to maneuver around Bennet but he grabbed her arm tightly and shoved her backwards. Eric immediately tried to rush forward on his crutches, but one of the men, Wilson, knocked the crutches out from underneath him and shoved him backwards. Eric fell hard to the ground and twisted his broken ankle.

  “We are done!” Bennet shouted.

  “You haven’t even been here but a few days!” Jack shouted at Bennet. “You’re lucky you’re even here!”

  “Talk again,” Bennet said, “and you’ll lose your position too.”

  “This is getting out of hand,” Dr. Moore said. “We had a fair election.”

  “No,” Ben said. “We don’t need an election. We need leaders. And I reckon that’s us.” For the first time in days, Ben sounded calm.

  Sue realized that Ben had finally made up his mind. He was taking power.

  “Ben,” Sue said. “This is getting out of hand. You can’t do this. We all agreed.”

  “I didn’t agree to any of this,” Ben said calmly. “But I am taking all of this.” He grabbed Sue’s arm and shook her.

  “You’ll do nothing of the sort!” Jack shouted. He began to run forward.

  Before Ben realized what had happened, a crack reverberated off the walls. Jack fell to the ground, blood spurting from his chest. Ben’s eyes grew wide at the site.

  Sue screamed. After the initial shock, she drew back a hand and began to swing at Ben.

  Eric was attempting to get to his feet to rush forward, but Gregg grabbed a nearby chair and began to beat Eric across the head and his sides.

  Ben turned, covering his face from Sue’s nails. In his peripheral vision, he could see Bennet raise his gun again. At first, Ben thought it was pointing at him. Then, the shot rang out and Sue fell to the ground.

  By the time Garcia reached Bennet, it was too late. Two, maybe three, council members were dead. She knew that Dr. Moore and Ron weren’t fighters, but she wondered where Charlie was.

  Garcia tackled Bennet. Before she could wrestle the gun from him, Frank and Wilson had her pinned to the ground, fists pounding her in the ribcage and face.

  When they got off her, she could barely move. She coughed up blood and the tears began to stream down her face. She stared at the chairs, looking for help. She saw Charlie, sitting in silence, horrified and stunned.

  “How many miles in are we?” Steph asked as she peered at the map.

  Cedric looked at the odometer and said, “One-ninety-seven.”

  “That puts us near Delano, right?” Ross asked.

  “Yeah, good memory,” Steph said.

  “That means we stop for fuel,” Ross said. He was the one who had planned the map to avoid every major city and scheduled for fuel stops in small towns every two hundred miles.

  “Just a few more miles ahead, judging by the signs,” Cedric said. Cedric was cruising as fast as he could, but he knew this trip to Texas would take three days of driving, minimum. He knew that they should already be way past this point by now, but avoiding large cities was nearly doubling their mileage.

  “C’mon, man,” Ross said. “You’ve barely talked the entire trip.”

  “It’s not a vacation road-trip, Ross,” Cedric said. “We are on a mission. Only talk if you need to talk.”

  “We’re in the car,” Steph said. “We can talk if it’s just driving. We always do.”

  “See,” Ross said. “You and Steph always talk on the car rides. What do you talk about?”

  “Karli,” Steph said. “That’s what Ced talks about ninety percent of the time when he’s not talking about the mission.”

  “So, it's not just with me,” Ross said. “For the past few months he’s been hung up about dropping the ‘L-bomb.’”

  “Yeah, I’ve told him he just needs to tell her. I mean, its obvious for everyone watching them. They’re kind of sickening,” Steph said laughing.

  “Yeah,” Cedric said. “No worries for you two anymore. I think she’s done with me.”

  “She’s mad, Ced,” Steph assured him. “As soon as we get back, she’ll come running into your arms, you’ll twirl her around and give her a big kiss. Someone will snap a picture and it’ll go down in history books as ‘The Kiss 2.0.’”

  “Then, you’ll get married, have two point five kids and live in a house in the suburbs,” Ross added.

  They both chuckled at Cedric’s expense.

  “Up here,” Cedric said. “This stop looks promising. Look alive.”

  Ross and Steph immediately stopped their bantering as Cedric slowed the Hummer and pulled into a church parking lot. Cedric slowly eased the vehicle to the far end of the lot and waited for the second vehicle to pull beside him. Once they were parked, both vehicles emptied.

  They had run this drill the day before multiple times to make sure they had it right.

  Ross climbed to the roof of the first Hummer and Davis on the second. Pearson stood sentinel on the ground. Cedric, Steph, Stewart, and Clarke all gathered into a loose formation, Cedric in the lead. They walked the perimeter of the lot looking for any threats.

  Once they had retur
ned to their starting point, Cedric and Steph split away from Stewart and Clarke. They began checking all of the gas tanks.

  Among their drills the day before, all six of them had memorized the difference in the smell of old gas that contained ethanol and gas that didn’t. The gas that had bad ethanol fuel mixed in had a burnt rubber, oily smell.

  If they had any question, they could also pull the fuel from the tanks. The ethanol fuel would have water at the bottom since the fuel had separated. It was an easy enough, if long, process.

  Cedric was in the process of removing fuel from the second truck that had good gasoline when he heard a fast approaching noise from his left.

  He dropped his tubing and stood bolt upright drawing his rifle. Steph followed suit and pulled her shotgun up.

  Within three seconds, the perceived threat was on them. Cedric was knocked to the ground and felt a warm liquid spread across his face.

  “Get him off!” Cedric shouted laughing.

  Steph, unable to contain her giggles, pulled the dog from Cedric’s chest.

  “C’mon boy,” she said.

  To Cedric’s surprise, the dog looked like he only weighed twenty-five pounds.

  “That guy’s like a bullet,” Stewart said from behind them.

  “Yeah, I know,” Cedric agreed standing back up. “He plowed me down. I was not expecting that.”

  “What’s his collar say?” Ross shouted from the top of the Hummer.

  “Why’s he shouting?” Steph said. “I’ll go tell him to keep it down.” She turned to go back to the Hummer.

  Cedric reached down to pet the dog. “You out here all alone boy?” he asked. He grabbed the dog’s collar and twisted it to see the tags. “Who the heck named you?”

  “That bad?” Clarke asked.

  “Blitzstark,” Cedric read aloud.

  “Fun name,” Stewart commented. Her voice then went into a much higher register as she said, “But you’re a good boy, aren’t you Blitz?”

  Blitzstark barked, seemingly happy at all the attention.

  “Yeah,” Stewart said. “We’re not leaving him.”

  “He may have a home and family,” Cedric said looking around.

  “Look at his ribs,” Clarke said. “He’s got no one.”