I felt myself smiling. “Thank goodness!” I rushed toward the vehicles.
“We can’t take any of those,” Huai Li said.
“Why not?” Kyle questioned. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s been down here for years. Who’s gonna know?”
Huai Li scowled at him. “All these have tracking devices in them. They do it to keep a record of their location underground, in case there’s a problem.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I cried. The trek down the ramps had been more strenuous than I’d imagined it would be. My thighs and calves ached even worse than before, and I was so tired I began to worry I may not make it out of the compound. “How far is it until we’re off the base?” I asked.
“We’re near the center, so ten miles in any direction,” Huai Li answered. “Which way do we need to go?”
I glanced at Kyle, uncertain I wanted to give away all of our plans just yet. Even if we could fully trust Huai Li, I felt like the more people who knew what we were doing, the greater the chance of problems down the road. We might unknowingly put Verna and Jordan, or ourselves, in danger. What was that old saying about two people being able to keep a secret only if one is dead? More and more, I was learning to think that way. I didn’t like it, but it had become necessary.
“East, for us,” I told her. It wasn’t entirely off, but it was vague enough to leave some questions about our long-term plans. As I saw it, once we got out, we could part ways with Huai Li, and she could return to wherever she was from, or perhaps we could connect her with safe shelter along the way. We would head to Canada after we separated. But for now, the important thing was getting off this base. “I’m worried I may not be able to make it walking ten miles in my condition. Are you sure there’s no other way for us to get out of here? I mean, do they have a golf cart or something that wouldn’t have a tracking device on it?”
Huai Li shook her head. “Nothing like that, but while we’re here, we should see what we can get that will help us on the way.”
“Are there supply rooms down here?” Kyle asked.
“Yes, you’ll find them along the outer walls,” Huai Li explained.
We started by rummaging through the vehicles. Luckily, we found emergency medical kits and biohazard suits. Keeping the packages and ditching the clothes, we moved to the outer walls and located three supply rooms in the immediate area. Inside the first one, we found boxes of fatigues, hats, boots, and backpacks, real backpacks, and not the awkward duffels we’d dealt with before. I almost cried when I discovered a box of jackets. It was an added bonus that the clothing would blend in with the landscape once we were out of the facility, unlike the things we now wore. We found articles that would fit each of us, and we put on the gear, stuffing our old items into a box and hiding it in a corner. I was so thankful to have real boots and socks. In the next supply room, we found hundreds of boxes of MREs.
“We should take some of those meals,” I suggested.
Kyle looked doubtful. “We do need food, but we won’t be able to carry many of those while traveling on foot.”
I lifted one of the boxes. It was probably a pound or a pound and a half, and the box itself was bulky. As weak as I felt, I doubted I could carry more than one or two over a long distance. I imagined not many would fit in the backpacks either. “You’re right,” I agreed with Kyle. “Maybe we should go through them and take out packages of the most important things, like protein.”
Huai Li and Kyle both agreed on the strategy, and we opened several boxes, taking out the main entrees and putting them into the backpacks. We also opted to take matches and flameless heaters. We hoisted our packs onto our shoulders and walked toward the final storage room.
Even though we’d been choosy about putting only the bare minimum of supplies in our packs, I quickly found the weight to be more than I could handle. I took a few steps and then collapsed onto the hard, cement floor.
“Casey!” Kyle cried out. He scrambled to my side, and I tried to hide the fear I felt at his use of my name. “Trey,” I prompted him, “I’m fine. Remember, Harley Evans is no wimp.” I didn’t dare look at Huai Li. Maybe she didn’t catch it. I looked into Kyle’s face. What was I going to do with him? Usually, he was so on top of things. It wasn’t like him to forget.
What if the virus is affecting his mind? Somehow, I doubted it, though. It made no sense that I was feeling so bad, but he wasn’t. Even my skin was starting to break out, but Kyle seemed fine. But then, Harley’s disease progressed even faster than mine.
Kyle helped me to my feet. Once I was standing, I was in even more pain than before, and even though I tried to move, the pain made it impossible to walk without limping and stooping over.
“Hey, Huai?” Kyle called to her. What are the chances we could disable the tracking on one of those jeeps? Do you know where they’re mounted?”
Huai Li shook her head. “No idea. Do you know where to look, or how to disable one?”
“I’m not sure,” Kyle admitted. “I’ve worked on a lot of vehicles, though, and maybe I could identify something out of the ordinary that might look like a tracking device. Let’s try.”
Kyle took my pack, and we walked over to the vehicles. Kyle chose one with a hardtop, extended cab, an extra row of seating, and a cargo bed.
“Do you think we’d get better gas mileage from one of the smaller ones?” Huai Li asked.
“Probably,” Kyle answered, “but this will hold more supplies, and we can shelter inside the cab if necessary.” He turned to me and pulled me in for a hug. “Hey, why don’t you just relax on the back seat while I work?” He planted a kiss on my forehead.
I didn’t feel like arguing with him about it, so I did as he suggested. Huai Li busied herself carrying supplies from the storerooms and placing them in the back bed. “The last storeroom has assault rifles,” she announced. “How many do you want?”
The metallic clanging of Kyle probing around the front end paused. “Bring one for each of us, and maybe two spares. We don’t want to have to keep up with too many. Too many extras might fall into the wrong hands. Bring all the ammunition you can conceal under the seats. We don’t want to raise suspicion at the gate with visible ammo. I’m thinking we should tell them we’re being sent to take emergency food supplies to the convenience store for the couriers.” As I listened to Kyle’s words, my eyelids were getting heavier. The sounds of him working resumed, and I drifted off to sleep.
***
A metallic squeal roused me from my sleep. For several seconds, I sensed only the vehicle slowing to a stop and was disoriented, unsure of where I was or why I was here. I looked around, and we were outside, somewhere.
“Hey, babe,” Kyle said, “You doing okay back there?” He turned around in the driver’s seat and looked at me.
“I feel like hell.” It was coming back to me now, where we were, and the situation we were in.
“You look like hell,” Huai Li said.
“Gee, thanks,” I grumbled.
“No, I mean seriously, you do. Your skin is paler, and the breaking out is getting worse.”
“Well, don’t just criticize. Can’t you do something to help? You’ve got some medical training, right?” I asked.
“Very little. I just helped with the vital signs, records, and basic first aid. I’m not a nurse,” she informed me, her lips dropping at the corners into a frown.
“But you seemed to know a lot about the virus and the research here,” I countered. “Back when we first got here, you told us some things.”
“Yes, I did, but I only know the information we were given,” she said. “Maybe there’s something in the medical kit that might help.”
I shook my head. “Let’s just get out of here. We need to get off the grounds before someone notices we’re gone. I’m just worried about getting past those guards.” I pointed toward the east gate of the depot grounds. From our vantage point, the well-lit entrance was clearly visible. Two armed guards staffed lookout towers, and anot
her two worked the checkpoint just inside the enclosure.
“I think you should get in the back, and let us cover you up,” Kyle said to me, over his shoulder. “If they get a look at you, they’ll see you’re infected and probably won’t let us pass.”
Even in the short span, I’d dozed off, my arms and legs had stiffened. Maneuvering over the back seat was so painful I felt my eyes beginning to water. Determined to make it back there to get some rest, I shook my head in agreement and climbed into the back bed. Kyle and Huai Li hopped out of the jeep and rearranged the supplies in the vehicle’s rear, creating space for me to crouch into. I laid down and wedged myself against the metal sidewall. Boxes were piled around me and balanced over the edges of each other to conceal me.
“It’s going to be okay,” Kyle said, stroking my cheek.
I wasn’t sure whether he was saying that for my benefit or to reassure himself. He positioned a final box above my head, and I heard his and Huai Li’s footsteps as they made their way back to their seats. The vehicle body shook as they climbed in, doors closed, and we soon began to move forward. The smell of exhaust was strong, wafting up through the floor of the bed, and I pulled my shirt over my nose and mouth to breathe. Even though the material was heavy, some of the fumes passed through it, choking me and making me cough. A short distance later, the squeal of brakes sounded in the night, sending a sharp pain through my head, which rested above a wheel well.
I felt the back of my throat lurch, and I tried to hold my breath so no one would hear me coughing. Men’s voices sounded out from the front, barely discernible over the engine’s hum. I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Huai Li’s voice carried over the din, but again, it wasn’t possible to make out any of her words. My eyes stung and burned, and I squeezed them closed to protect them from the fumes.
Please just hurry!
Pressure mounted in my lungs. Terrified, I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold my breath much longer. In the darkness, my senses reeled. Any movement triggered a nauseous wave of dizziness, causing my stomach to seize and heave.
Mercifully, I heard the sound of another motor and grating noises I recognized as the same sound the gate had made when we entered the facility earlier. They were letting us leave! The jeep lurched forward, and a deafening bang rang out directly beneath where I was hiding. A thicker cloud of gas seeped through the floor. The vehicle kept moving, and the front end lurched as we hit an apparent speed bump. My head bounced against the wheel well. The back tires hit the crack and, again, the force caused my head to whiplash against the metal.
I cried out in pain and prayed no one heard. We kept driving, and the fumes continued to fill the space around me. No longer able to hold my breath, and the shirt painfully inadequate, my lungs forced me to exhale, and I sucked in air in an uncontrollable reflex. Exhaust fumes filled my mouth and lungs. My hands flailed out, beating wildly against the cardboard in a futile effort to dislodge the box that rested directly above my head.
If only I could let in some fresh air.
But I was too weak to move the boxes. My reflexes retched again, and I nearly passed out. I had to get Kyle’s attention, and I tried to call out, but instead choked and couldn’t utter a sound. There, in my stupor in the darkness, my pulse was racing, but time slipped by in slow motion as flashes from my past flickered into my awareness. Mom leaving for work. Dad in the hospital. Derek, saying he loved me.
The last thought that registered in my consciousness before all went black, was that I hadn’t told Kyle to burn my body if I died.
Chapter 10
Huai Li
The army depot disappeared from view, and Huai Li pointed to a side road, barely visible ahead, in the periphery of the headlights. Kyle steered the jeep off the highway and down the side road.
“You should cut your lights,” Huai Li said. “Drive slowly, and use the moonlight to see, if you can. That way, we have less chance of being seen.”
Kyle cut the lights and crept forward. In the dim, reflected light of the moon, he saw the road was only paved for a few yards before giving way to a gravel lane. Kyle slowed down as the wheels left the pavement. Again, the brakes squealed as he pulled to a stop and parked. Kyle climbed out of his seat and ran to the back of the vehicle. Huai Li followed suit on the opposite side.
“Babe? We made it,” he called out, as he pushed the boxes away from Casey’s hiding place. “Babe?” He paused and sniffed the air, and as he lifted the box away from where her head lay, a dense, gray cloud of exhaust gases was visible in the cavity. Kyle coughed and leaped into the truck bed with her, batting boxes away from her body.
“Jesus, Casey!”
Kyle kicked more cartons of supplies out of the way. “Huai Li! Help me! Something’s wrong, and she’s worse. There’s vomit on the truck bed.” He waved his hands over Casey, fanning the fumes away from her.
“Oh, no!” Huai Li gasped. “Gas…carbon monoxide!”
Kyle heaved Casey’s limp form into his arms as Huai Li darted to the back and lowered the tailgate. Kyle jumped from the platform and carried Casey to the grass by the lane, where he laid her down and dropped to his knees beside her. Talking to her in hurried, clipped sentences, he loosened the buttons at her shirt collar, his tone intensifying as it became more evident the girl wasn’t responding.
“Oh, my God! Is she…is she?” Huai Li backed away, clutching her head in her hands, unable to finish the question.
“It can’t be!” Kyle shouted into the night. He let out an anguished scream as he bent over her and peered into her mouth. “Get me a water bottle and bring the medical kit,” he ordered Huai Li.
She rushed to the jeep as told and returned with the requested items. Kyle grabbed the water bottle and dribbled some over Casey’s face, wiping away vomitus and mucous. He rinsed his fingers and then reached into her mouth, checking the crevices between her cheeks and gums for bits of regurgitated food and fluids. Kyle tossed particles and stringy saliva aside and crouched lower. Positioning his lips on Casey’s, he breathed air into her lungs.
Huai Li’s stomach cramped in fear as she watched Casey’s chest slowly rise and fall. Without consciously willing it, she felt her feet carrying her backward as she shrank away from the scene before her. What would Rhodes do to Mendel if she failed to get the information that she needed from these two? What would he do to her?
It was evident at this point that Huai Li’s suspicions were correct; the pair had been concealing their true identities. The teenager, at least, was using an assumed name, and it was likely she’d done so because she was hiding from someone or something. The young man, who she guessed was two, maybe three years older, had slipped up and called the girl Casey more than once, so it was likely that was who she really was. Chances were that Trey wasn’t the young man’s name either.
Huai Li was convinced now, even more than before, that she’d been right about these two. They probably had the information she sought, or knew where it was, but what would she do if the girl was dead?
Mendel’s perfect face flashed before Huai Li’s mind. His beautiful, innocent eyes, and that horrible plate they’d used to cover the incision they’d made in his skull. Her hand rose, of its own volition, and felt the bandage covering the wound in her own skull. What more would they do to her son? Even now, had they already infused and synthesized her neural capabilities into his brain?
Hot tears streamed down her face as she froze at the thought. Her son, the only person she had left to love in this wretched universe that had become a twisted game of oligarchs vying to be king of the mountain. She hated them all. Because of them, her child’s life was under constant threat, all because of her work. How had she not seen what was happening? How could she have not foreseen them using her mind in this unspeakable evil?
“Check her pulse, will you?” Kyle barked at Huai Li. “Help me, damn it!”
Huai Li snapped to attention, scrambled to her knees, and felt for Casey’s heartbeat on the inside of the teen’s w
rist. She pressed carefully on the inflamed skin, moving about, searching.
“Feel anything?” Kyle’s voice was frantic. “Huai! Talk to me!”
“I don’t know yet,” she cried. “Sometimes the pulse is hard to find when the virus kills tissue. Just keep breathing for her!” Huai Li moved to Casey’s neck and palpated the carotid artery pathways on both sides.
“Well?” Kyle yelled.
“Just focus on what you’re doing. Don’t make me nervous! I can’t concentrate with you shouting at me.”
Kyle let out an exasperated growl and continued breathing for Casey. Huai Li moved to the girl’s feet and unlaced her boot. She pulled it from the girl’s foot, removed her sock, and felt along the inside of her ankle. “I’ve got a pulse!” she exclaimed. “It’s rapid, though. Probably a reaction to the carbon monoxide in her blood.” Her tension eased, but barely, and she began to sob harder, her shoulders heaving with each breath. Mendel may still have a chance.
As Kyle continued resuscitating Casey, her body gave a sudden, violent jerk. She sputtered and coughed, saliva frothing from her lips. Kyle rolled the teen onto her side and turned her head, allowing the mucus to dribble onto the ground.
The girl cried out in agony, and Kyle scooped her into his arms. He sat there with her for a long moment, rocking her and burying his face into the crook of her neck. Kyle pawed at her with his arms, as if he couldn’t hold her close enough.
Huai Li watched them clinging to each other, desperately trying to find solace in this hopeless situation. As she realized Casey barely had the strength to hold onto the man she loved, sadness descended on her, thick and weighty with all its guilt and regret. They were so young. It was sad to see the loss of promise and life. This is what consequence her work had brought. Amid her own worries and fears for her son and herself, Huai Li found herself regretting that she would eventually have to kill them.
***
The Viral Series (Book 2): Viral Storm Page 16