Seven Days: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

by G. Michael Hopf

  Brienne sprang into action. She leapt forward and smashed her clenched fist into Emile’s jaw.

  He reeled from the hit, falling into the stairs behind him.

  Brienne continued the assault, peppering him with several more punches, only stopping when Emily grabbed her hand.

  “Enough,” Emily said.

  “He’s a—”

  “He’s my brother and you’re not going to kill him,” Emily said firmly.

  Wiping blood from a cut on his lip, Emile glared at Emily and asked, “Why? Why are you betraying me?”

  “I’m sorry,” Emily answered.

  “You’re leaving…with her?” Emile asked.

  “It’s not what you think. It’s not about you,” Emily explained.

  His feelings hurt, Emile asked, “You’re leaving us, your family, to run off with a stranger? You’re abandoning us to go away with…dinner.”

  Hearing enough, Brienne kicked Emile in the jaw. The impact knocked him out.

  Emily gasped. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I’m tired of hearing him talk,” Brienne said.

  With Emile unconscious, Emily knew they didn’t have much time to steal the vehicle and get away. “We have to go…now!”

  Brienne listened without complaint and followed closely behind Emily as they sprinted up the darkened stairs to the ground level.

  Emily opened the heavy door and poked her head out. “Clear.”

  “Where to now?” Brienne asked.

  “That car,” Emily replied. She nodded to a white Chevrolet Traverse parked next to a wall.

  Brienne looked around as best she could, considering the only light was the half moon. “Where is everyone?”

  “Don’t worry about that. Let’s move,” Emily said. She raced across the gravel lot.

  The two reached the small SUV.

  Emily jumped behind the wheel and motioned for Brienne to ride in the front passenger seat.

  “We should buckle up,” Brienne said, knowing that the ride out could get rough. She reached and pulled the seat belt across her lap and body and clicked it into the buckle.

  Emily hovered her finger over the ignition button.

  After a lengthy pause, Brienne asked, “What are you waiting for?”

  “I’m wondering if what I’m doing is right,” Emily said, her finger trembling.

  “You’re now wringing your hands over this? How about you get out, ’cause I know for damn sure I’m leaving,” Brienne snapped.

  “But he’s my family, my brother.”

  “Now you’re questioning yourself?” Brienne snapped.

  “If we get caught, they’ll kill us both.”

  “They were already going to kill me, so this is clearly better for me, but you need to get going or get out,” Brienne barked, her anxiety rising.

  Emily sat frozen.

  “Start the damn car!” Brienne hollered.

  Emily flinched. She hit the ignition, but the only thing that happened was the dash lights turned on. She tried it again, and still the engine didn’t turn over. “Oh no.”

  “Didn’t you confirm the damn thing runs?” Brienne asked, her tone filled with anger.

  “I know it works. I saw it driven over here and parked,” Emily replied, her finger hitting the button.

  Suddenly realizing what the issue was, Brienne barked, “Put your foot on the brake pedal.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Have you ever driven a car?”

  Timidly, Emily replied, “No, I’ve driven motorcycles and watched my brother drive this. I saw him simply hit this button.”

  “I’m driving. Get out of the seat now,” Brienne roared.

  Yelling erupted from the far side of the compound.

  “How do I know—” Emily asked before being interrupted by Brienne.

  “Get out of the fucking driver’s seat now,” Brienne snapped, her anger welling up into rage.

  Feeling Brienne’s anger, Emily gulped. She opened the door and ran around to the passenger seat.

  Brienne slid behind the steering wheel.

  Emily got in, her eyes wide with fear. “They’re coming. I hear them.”

  Confident, Brienne depressed the brake and hit the ignition button. The car roared to life. She put the car into drive and smashed her foot against the accelerator. The car lunged forward.

  “You’ve driven before?” Emily asked.

  “Of course. How old are you anyway?”

  “Twenty-three.”

  “Now it all makes sense,” Brienne said, turning the wheel hard to the left to avoid several other parked cars. “Where’s the exit?”

  “Turn that way,” Emily said, pointing to the right.

  Brienne cranked the wheel to the right, causing the vehicle to skid across the loose gravel. The headlights hit an armed man standing at the chain-link gate.

  The guard gave them an odd look then unslung his rifle.

  “You’re going to want to get down,” Brienne warned Emily.

  Not hesitating, Emily slouched in the seat.

  Brienne pressed the accelerator all the way to the floorboard. The vehicle sped up considerably.

  “Stop!” the guard shouted. His name was Jay and his brother, Nate, was good friends with Emile. He raised his rifle and aimed at the windshield.

  Brienne wasn’t about to stop. She aimed the vehicle directly at Jay.

  Seeing that the vehicle wasn’t stopping, Jay fired numerous shots from his semiautomatic rifle. The rounds smashed into the windshield and hit the backseat. He managed to get off half a dozen shots before Brienne struck him, tossing his body into the air. He hit the ground dead.

  Brienne smashed through the gate, leaving part of the chain-link gate wrapped around the right quarter panel and hood. She knew it would slow her down, but she kept the accelerator to the floor. What she needed was distance between her and the compound. “How far to the main road?”

  “Is it safe to sit up?” Emily asked.

  “Yeah.”

  Emily peeked her head above the dash and stared down the long straight dirt road. “Somewhere down there. Just keep going straight; you’ll run into a highway.”

  “What does that mean? Do I go left or right when I get to the highway?”

  “Um, I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

  “When was the last time you left the compound?” Brienne asked.

  “Seven years ago, Emile wouldn’t let me leave after…” Emily replied then fell silent.

  Picking up on something, Brienne asked, “After what?”

  “I ran away seven years ago. He went after me and found me. I got a mile down this road, that’s it. He hasn’t let me leave since,” Emily said, her voice cracking with emotion.

  “But you have to remember coming to this place, don’t you?”

  “We arrived at the compound eight years ago. I was asleep when we made the drive,” Emily confessed.

  Brienne groaned her disappointment at the news.

  “What? It’s not my fault,” Emily complained, her tone turning whiney.

  “You break me out, but you don’t know where you are or where we should be going?” Brienne asked.

  “But I got you out, didn’t I?”

  “That’s true.”

  The piece of the gate was beginning to effect the steering.

  Brienne slowed the car.

  “What are you doing?” Emily asked, her head looking around in all directions.

  “I’ve got to stop and remove the gate or it will cause irreparable damage,” Brienne replied as she hit the brakes and brought the vehicle to a full stop. She got out and went to the front end.

  Emily watched her through the bullet-ridden windshield, the headlights illuminating Brienne’s toned physique.

  Struggling with the gate, Brienne called out, “I need help. Get out here.”

  Emily did as she was asked.

  “On the count of three, we’ll pull as hard as we can,” Brienne said.
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  Emily nodded.

  “One, two, three.”

  The two pulled with all their strength. The gate broke free. They tossed it aside.

  “Let’s hit the road,” Brienne said.

  Back in the vehicle, Emily sighed at what they’d just done, hardly believing they’d escaped.

  “How is it you have blondish hair and your brother has black?” Brienne asked.

  “He dyes his hair,” Emily answered as she dug through her pack, looking for something to eat.

  Brienne laughed. “He dyes his hair. Oh my, now I’ve heard it all.”

  “Is that funny?”

  “Yeah, kinda. Anyway, tell me, why risk your life to leave and travel to some unknown place? You sorta had it good back there, besides the eating-human-beings shit you guys do.”

  “I was trapped there. My brother, he…let’s just say he mistreated me.”

  “Like sexually abused you?” Brienne asked, as that was what it sounded like Emily was alluding to.

  She sheepishly looked away. “He’s a bad, evil person. I like to think I’m not.”

  “Well, that’s to be seen.”

  “There it is,” Emily said as she pulled out some dried human flesh. Not thinking, she offered it to Brienne. “Are you hungry?”

  Brienne gave the open ziplock bag a look then leered at Emily. “You’re offering me human jerky?”

  “Oh, I forgot…” Emily said. She recoiled her arm and hid the bag.

  Reminded of who her traveling partner was, Brienne stewed on her circumstances and what could lie ahead with Emily at her side. She made a quick decision and got out of the vehicle.

  “Where are you going?” Emily cried out. She watched as Brienne walked over to her door and opened it. “What are you doing? Do we need to do something else?”

  “Yeah, I need to dump some baggage,” Brienne said. She grabbed Emily by the neck and yanked her out of the vehicle. She threw her to the ground and said, “I’ll be eternally grateful that you helped me escape, but I’m not traveling with a fucking cannibal.”

  “We made a deal,” Emily howled, her face covered in dirt.

  Brienne slammed the door.

  Using the only thing she had, Emily pulled out a semiautomatic pistol and pointed it at Brienne. “Let me back in the car or I’ll shoot you.”

  Looking down at the muzzle, Brienne put up her hands and said, “Fine. You can ride, but no more human jerky, human carpaccio, human whatever.”

  “I forgot. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  “Your brother taunted me with it, so you sort of triggered me,” Brienne said. She stepped forward and offered her hand. “C’mon.”

  Warily, Emily took her hand.

  Brienne pulled her up quickly, smacked the pistol out of her hand, and then came across Emily’s face with the back of her hand. “That’s for pulling a gun on me.” She let go of Emily and shoved her back to the ground.

  Emily hit the ground hard, landing on her butt with a thud.

  Brienne picked up the pistol, shoved it into her waistband, and said, “Thanks again for helping me escape, but like I said, I don’t travel with people who eat other people. Call me old-fashioned, but I’m afraid you might take a bite out of me.” She sauntered back to the driver’s door and gave Emily one last look. “See you later, cannibal.”

  “I hate you. I fucking hate you!” Emily shouted before opening the passenger door. She reached in and grabbed her backpack.

  Brienne jumped back into the car and aimed the pistol at Emily.

  Emily hopped back out of the car. “Don’t shoot me.”

  “I’m tempted, believe me,” Brienne said, reaching across the passenger seat and closing the door.

  “I’ll find you one day, I swear it, and when I do, I’ll kill you,” Emily spat.

  Brienne raised her middle finger.

  “I will hunt you down, I swear it,” Emily fumed.

  Brienne put the vehicle in gear and sped off, leaving Emily in a cloud of dust.

  “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll find you, and when I do, I’ll eat your fucking heart!” Emily screamed.

  DELIVERANCE, OKLAHOMA

  Kincaid wiped the sleep from his eyes. He stretched and let out a loud yawn before he turned to Kaitlyn and asked, “You woke me up just so you can try to pitch me again on sending out a recon team to see if this island sanctuary is real or not?”

  “It’s more than that. I have the perfect candidate, and I guarantee that when I’m done, you’ll sign off on this,” Kaitlyn said, standing tall in front of his home office desk.

  “Can I at least get a cup of tea before we do this?” he asked as he scratched his head. “God, how I miss coffee. Maybe this recon mission, if they return, can find us some coffee. How long has it been since we had coffee, six years?” He stood from his desk, walked past her, and headed towards his kitchen.

  She followed right behind him.

  He turned on a light. It flickered before becoming fully bright. “I need to get Donaldson to take a look at the batteries. We’re having power issues again.”

  Joe Donaldson was in charge of the solar and wind power arrays located south of town. It was one of the first major accomplishments that Kincaid had set into place once he saw that the town would have to become self-reliant.

  “This team can go looking for replacement parts too. We can make its objective more than just finding this facility,” Kaitlyn said. She appreciated that he had given her another reason to make the run.

  He filled a pot and walked to the stove. With a flip of a switch, the electric coil began to heat up. He set the pot on it and turned to face Kaitlyn. “Will you be wanting some?”

  “Sure.”

  He could tell by her composure that she was nervous. He rarely, if ever, had seen her this way before. “Go ahead. Tell me why this mission needs to happen.”

  “You were concerned yesterday about losing someone. Well, I have a volunteer, he needs to go, and there’s a reason that I know you’ll understand, being that you’re a father.”

  He grunted and said, “Kate, just spit it out already. You’re really building this up.”

  “The dog we took in, well, it bit a little girl.”

  His eyes widened and nostrils flared. “We have someone infected inside Deliverance?”

  “We have to assume so. The father—”

  Cutting her off, Kincaid stiffened his spine and snapped, “Please tell me this girl is in the infirmary and under quarantine.”

  Kaitlyn looked away.

  “She’s not, is she?” Kincaid asked, and by his tone, anger was rising in him. “This is a violation of our protocols, the very ones that have kept us contagion-free for years.”

  “I’m aware of that; hence why we need to send the father and the girl on this mission.”

  Kincaid marched from the room and towards his office.

  “Where are you going?” she asked, following him.

  He didn’t answer. He reached his desk, picked up the rotary dial phone, and shot her a hard look. “Who is this man?”

  “Tom, please, if you go to the man’s house, there will be trouble, and we’ll lose our opportunity. The girl is quarantined in his house.”

  “And the father?”

  “He’s there too. No one is leaving, I can assure you,” Kaitlyn explained.

  “We can’t have someone with the virus inside the town limits. I’m sorry, Kate, I need to call this in,” Kincaid said and went to dial zero.

  She rushed to the phone and depressed the hook switch. “Tom, please, let me explain, and if you’re not satisfied, you can make the call.”

  The water in the kitchen began to steam, the sound coming down the hall.

  Kincaid put the handset back on the cradle and said, “Explain it all to me over some Earl Grey.”

  FIVE MILES WEST OF LOGAN, NEW MEXICO

  Michael thought the smell of Nana’s room was bad until he had to haul away the heavily soiled sheets. Nana was unabl
e to make it to the bathroom, resulting in her defecating in the bed, but what was different and alarming to his mother and father was the amount of blood and pus that was present. She had lived with Crohn’s for many years and had it under remission for many of those years. However, she had run out of her medication a year ago and thought she’d be fine. She was wrong. Her symptoms now proved that her flare-up wasn’t just bad, it was severe. With their only recourse trying to find the same medications she’d taken before, Will and Chase had left to look for them and prayed that the unique medicines might still be on the shelves in the local pharmacy.

  Tanya filled a basin with fresh water and, with a bar of soap she’d made, started to wash up from the ordeal that had taken hours to clean.

  “Mom, how long will Dad and Chase be gone?” Michael asked. He was sitting at the small dinette table, his weary head in his hands.

  “Soon, I’m sure,” Tanya replied.

  “I don’t understand why they think they’ll find her medicine in Snowflake. Didn’t Dad already go there before?”

  “He’s double-checking.”

  “And if there isn’t any? What will happen to Nana?”

  “Michael, please, can you stop asking me one question after another? You’re acting like a child,” she snapped.

  “I’m just trying to understand,” Michael said, defending himself.

  Tanya toweled herself off and sighed. She took a seat across from Michael and reached over to take his hand. “I know you’re trying to understand. I’m just tired and stressed out. I don’t like your father or Chase leaving to go into town, especially after what happened recently, but I’m also fearful for Nana. You saw the sheets; you saw the blood. Her Crohn’s is bad, and while I recall it’s not fatal, that might have been in a world with available medicine and health care. I don’t know what’s going to happen. There, you have my answer, I just don’t know, but we can never give up.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have to apologize, but what I do need you to do is think a bit differently.”

  “Like what?” he asked, his right eyebrow raised.

  “You’ve always been more tender and sweet than your brother. I need you to find a way not to be if something happens.”

  “What do you mean, Mom?”

  “I mean that while I adore your sweet side, I might need you to be a bit more like your brother, a bit tougher.”