The Living Saga (Book 2): Enduring Page 18

“Yeah, I am old. But some things get better with age,” Hank said laughing.

  “Not people,” Dr. Moore commented.

  “Not people,” Hank agreed. Then he asked, “Where’d you get the coffee? Is there breakfast too?”

  Dr. Moore turned and pointed to the auxiliary hanger. “Kitchen’s over there. Good luck.”

  Hank got up to get breakfast for himself and Eliza when he heard someone shout, “Open the gate!”

  Immediately, he turned, thinking it was Charlie.

  Instead of the dirt bike he’d expected to see, a church van matching theirs pulled into view. Hank squinted at Dr. Moore. The doctor merely shrugged.

  Hank walked to the van as Eric climbed out of the driver’s seat. “Any news?” Hank asked as soon as he got close.

  “I was hoping you had some,” Eric responded.

  Hank just shook his head. He looked around to the passenger side to see Garcia, Ron, and Reid climb out. Hank told Garcia her brother was inside. She immediately left to find him.

  “We need a plan,” Hank told Eric. “We need to act.”

  Eric smiled and asked, “That soldier is still alive in there, isn’t it?”

  Hank stood up a little straighter and barked out, “Hooah!”

  It took Cedric about thirty minutes to come to an important realization. It took another thirty minutes to confirm it.

  Cedric was the first person in the house he’d spotted earlier. He moved as quickly as he could. He took in the dingy upholstery and dust covered surfaces. Everything looked brown in the cramped space. As soon as the small house was confirmed to be clear of any infected, and everyone was gathered in the small living room, Cedric said, “You’ve had the vaccines.” His voice left no room for denial.

  Ross was the only one from the facility who did not look confused.

  “What vaccine, Ced?” Karli asked when everyone else stayed silent.

  “The soldiers have been vaccinated against the infection,” Cedric said. “That’s why PFC Clarke, here, didn’t catch the infection from the bite. He’s immune.”

  Karli, Steph, and Davis all looked at Pearson for confirmation.

  “Correct,” Sergeant Pearson said. He leaned up against the small brick fireplace.

  Cedric looked down at Clarke. Stewart pulled the bandage from his neck. It was already covered in a dark yellow scab.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Ross asked.

  “Because then you would have wanted to be vaccinated,” Pearson said. “It would have jeopardized our mission.”

  “Don’t we have that right?” Steph asked. “We volunteered for this mission.”

  “Right,” Pearson barked back. “You volunteered. No obligation. You volunteered.”

  “Without all the information!” Steph said growing heated. “If it would have protected us better, we should have been given it!”

  “Do you realize how a vaccine works?” Stewart asked. She didn’t wait for an answer. She immediately began to rant. “It’s not some magical, stick, boom, wow, no infection. It takes time for your body to create antibodies. Yeah, we’re vaccinated. Even if we shot you three days ago, you would not be immune until after our mission was already finished.”

  “We still should have been told,” Steph said.

  “And what difference would it have made?” Pearson asked. “We still would have had to leave when we did. Possibly with less of the vaccine for the lab to work with. It takes time to create a vaccine.”

  Cedric shook his head. He’d used a similar argument with Karli recently about his use of the serum on Steph. He knew Pearson was right.

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Cedric said. “But, in the future, no more secrets. Full disclosure.”

  Pearson pulled a cigar from his front breast pocket and used his knife to slice the end off. “I cannot guarantee that,” he said as he lit a match. He slowly puffed, filling the air with thick, pungent smoke.

  Karli got up from her spot on the grungy couch and walked directly to the old soldier. “This place stinks enough as it is,” she said as she pulled the cigar from his mouth.

  Pearson grabbed the cigar from the girl and snuffed it out on the bricks. He glanced out of the window to see the sun setting. “Let’s double check the locks and get some rack time,” he said.

  The next morning, Cedric woke with a horrible feeling in his gut. He knew something was wrong, but he couldn’t place it. He was the first one up, just as the sun was rising. He got up and started nudging everyone else awake.

  He couldn’t figure out why he had a bad feeling, but he chalked it up to the uneasy conversation from the night before. Within ten minutes of waking, Ground Team Charlie was on the move.

  As he drove, Cedric’s unease slowly left him. The day began to go by without a single issue. The team stopped for fuel and rest in Oxford, Mississippi and then in El Dorado, Arkansas without any issues. They chose their fuel stations with better care than the day before, picking farms on the outskirts instead of crowded church parking lots.

  The only issue the team faced was crossing the Mississippi River. The Army, National Guard, and Coast Guard had worked with state and local governments to blockade every bridge over the Mississippi River. Cedric had remembered watching the blockades on the news. He remembered some were concrete barriers erected nearly overnight. Others were made of wood.

  There were only two bridges they could cross from Mississippi to Arkansas. Everyone was in agreement that they should take the lower of the two bridges since the atlas showed a town, West Helena, at the northmost bridge. The lower bridge on Highway 278 looked like it was fairly rural.

  However, when the team came upon the bridge, they were discouraged at the method of blockade.

  Once they had managed to cross about half of the bridge, Cedric groaned. The bridge was a cable bridge with two sets of towers holding the cables that supported the weight. Between the two sets of towers was a line of shipping containers.

  “How deep do you think they are?” Cedric asked

  “At least one, maybe more,” Ross said unhelpfully. Karli stared open mouthed at him trying to figure out if he was being sarcastic or just brain dead.

  Once they got closer, Cedric saw rope ladders that led to the top of the containers.

  The containers were stacked, like bricks, off-centered on each one, two containers high. Cedric could see that the ones on the ends of the second level were turned sideways, so he assumed that the containers were two deep on the bridge.

  The containers left some space at one side, so someone had built a giant wooden box and filled it with cement.

  “I’ll climb to the top and see what I can,” Cedric said after he put the Hummer in park.

  Steph was about to climb out when Cedric said, “Karli, you’re with me.”

  It took her a minute to register it, but when the SUV emptied, she followed closely behind with her bat held ready.

  “I thought Steph was your partner,” Karli said smirking.

  Cedric noticed that over the past twenty-four hours, Karli’s entire attitude about Steph had changed. She’d even stopped calling her Stephanie.

  “She is,” Cedric said. “But this isn’t a mission. It’s not even really recon. I just thought you’d like to see the top of the world.”

  Karli smiled and bumped him with her elbow.

  Cedric had her wait at the bottom so he could test the rope ladder. He wasn’t sure if it would still support weight after so many months out in the weather.

  It felt dried out, but otherwise, it held fine.

  Once he and Karli were on top, they began to scope the terrain.

  “Two deep,” Cedric said looking into the distance for any other blockades.

  “How will we move them?” Karli asked. “These things have to weigh a ton.”

  “I’d probably say closer to three ton,” Cedric remarked. “But I know what you mean. If we can find a hardware store, I think I’ve actually got an idea.”

  Cedric and Steph
left everyone at the bridge while they followed the map to the nearest large town. It was only a ten-minute drive sticking to the main roads. Before they even got to the town, they found a Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse.

  After a quick dash inside, Cedric had everything he needed.

  “Why do you think we’ve not seen any infected here?” Steph asked as they were leaving.

  “If you lived this close to the bridge, and that was coming, would you have stayed?” Cedric asked.

  “Good point.”

  When they returned, Cedric used the chain he’d scavenged from Lowe’s and tied the bottom shipping container to the Hummer. He floored the engine and the shipping container made horrendous noises on the concrete as it dragged.

  Once it had moved a significant amount, the top container fell like a Jenga block and tumbled off the bridge into the Mississippi River.

  Cedric unhooked the container once he’d steered it out of the way and repeated the process on the back row. Overall, their stop to clear the bridge had taken him less than an hour. From there, it was about three hours until their pit stop in El Dorado, Arkansas.

  Finally, the team stopped in the small town of Liberty City, Texas for the night. The team had begun to grow uneasy with each other since learning about the vaccinations. While they still worked with each other, the team dynamic was damaged.

  When the team stopped for the evening, Cedric and Steph left their chosen campsite for a quick side mission. Their plan to this point had used an older atlas that didn’t have city-specific data for Houston. Now that they were close, they needed a Texas Atlas.

  Ground Team Charlie had parked themselves in a storage facility on the outskirts of the main town. They had picked the location due to the gate surrounding the buildings.

  After the team was situated into two storage lockers, Cedric and Steph left on foot.

  “What did you make of that?” Steph asked once they’d left the gate.

  “What do you mean?” Cedric asked in return.

  “The storage unit. Yeah, he said it was so he could smoke, but doesn’t it seem like an us and them now?” Steph said referring to how Pearson and the other two soldiers took a storage unit to themselves while the other five and the dog had one to share.

  “Don’t think of it like that,” Cedric said. “We have to stay a team.”

  “Whatever, loverboy,” Steph said bringing back his old nickname. Anytime Cedric talked about Karli too much, she started calling him this to get him to shut up. Now, every time Karli wasn’t nearby on this mission, she brought it up again.

  “Hey,” Cedric said. “You’ve got to admit; she’s doing good out here. I didn’t know she could swing like that.”

  “She saved my hind-end yesterday,” Steph agreed. “Yours too. I bet you're glad she came.”

  Cedric shook his head. “I don’t think it’s going to be this easy when we hit Houston,” he said.

  “No,” Steph agreed. “I’d think not.”

  Knowing the mission, and with their experience, they both dropped the conversation as they entered the parking lot of the convenient store they were going to. Cedric couldn’t see the name of it because the only sign left standing was covered in pollen and bird droppings, but the building was green in most places.

  Cedric and Steph followed their normal game plan. He took lead checking out the perimeter. Steph took the rear and followed, keeping an eye behind them for an attack.

  Slowly, Cedric pushed his way around. Within minutes, Cedric assessed that the gas station was clear on the outside. He went to the front window and peered inside. Near the front register, he could see the map rack.

  “It’s there,” he whispered.

  Cedric pulled his pipe from his belt holster and tapped the giant glass window. When he did, the sound reverberated loudly. He took a step back and waited. He glanced over his shoulder and looked at Steph standing fifteen feet back. He shrugged and turned back to the glass. When he did, he saw it barreling toward him.

  Cedric jumped to the side just in time.

  The infected woman burst through the glass at full speed and plowed into the pavement.

  Cedric ran so his back wouldn’t be at the open window. When he was ten feet in the other direction, he shouted, “C’mon lady!”

  She stood up and stared at him. Cedric had never seen an infected person just stare before. For once, he had time to appreciate what she really looked like. She was wearing a smock apron that probably used to be green; the same shade as the building. Her hair was matted and long. Cedric could see that it had continued to grow. The newer portions were dark brown, where the lower portions were bleach blonde. Her skin was the shade of grass. Expect, on grass, this dark green was healthy looking. On her, it looked sickening.

  Cedric slowly pulled his gun from his holster and waited. The infected woman jerked her head and looked at Steph. She had her gun raised and pointed directly at the woman.

  “Get down on the ground,” Cedric ordered.

  The woman jerked her head back at him. Cedric looked directly into her eyes and he knew she understood him.

  “Steph,” he said. “Hold.”

  Cedric took a step toward the woman and said again, “Get down on the ground.”

  The woman just turned her head slightly like she was a dog deliberating.

  “Cedric,” Steph said. “What are you doing?”

  The woman jerked her head again to Steph.

  “She understands us,” Cedric said.

  Again, the woman jerked her head to the sounds.

  Cedric continued to speak to her, “Listen, get on the ground or we open fire.”

  Steph then shouted, “Get on the ground, woman!”

  The infected woman jerked her head one last time. Cedric knew that he was not meant to be here when he heard the noise the woman made next.

  She bellowed. It wasn’t a normal infected style bellow, though. Cedric could swear he’d heard her bellowed out the word, “No!”

  Immediately, the infected woman shot toward Steph at full speed. Without hesitation, Steph pulled the trigger of her silenced handgun.

  Cedric was frozen as the infected woman fell to the ground. He slowly raised his head to see the look of horror on Steph’s face.

  “She spoke,” Cedric said.

  “No,” Steph denied. “She yelled. Just a yell like all the others.”

  “She spoke,” Cedric insisted.

  “Just get the map.”

  Cedric turned to the gas station and slowly walked in stunned silence. I know she spoke. He kept saying in his mind. He walked inside, gun raised, and made his way to the map rack. He quickly grabbed an assortment and left before he could find anything else to shock him.

  When Hank had asked him that morning, Qualls repeated his message he had given Dr. Moore the night before. “No assistance.”

  Eric was ticked at first until he realized that the FRA didn’t have any way to assist. As the day went on, he realized how meager their supplies were. He’d later learned people were leaving to find something better. Eric wondered how many had come to their facility and claimed to have no involvement with the FRA.

  After he came to this realization, Eric spent the rest of the day with all of the people from his facility creating a plan of attack. Now that darkness was falling, it was time for them to put their plan in motion.

  Eric and Garcia parked the church van at the main gate of their facility just as the sun was setting. They bailed out of the side door and ran for cover. Within minutes, the van was surrounded.

  From their hiding spot, Eric scoffed. “Not a single thought. What if that had actually been a trap? Like a bomb?”

  Garcia just sneered seeing her men obey the order to capture her.

  On the other end of the facility, at the parking lot entrance that was completely blocked off, Eric heard the explosion. He couldn’t see the explosion itself, but he could see the glare from it.

  Minutes later, gunshots rang out from th
e same location. Pop, pop, pop.

  Eric waited. A few seconds later, another pop, pop, pop.

  “They’re running,” Garcia said.

  Eric turned back to the van. Fearing it was a bomb now, the crew quickly evacuated the area. Eric knew that they had effectively just sealed everyone inside.

  When Hank heard the explosion, he quickly slid down the hill. He knew the defenses better than most. He’d been the one who had quietly designed most of them.

  The moment he was on the pavement, he began to run, full speed. He knew exactly where everyone’s attention would be. They had been trained and he was in one of the few blind spots. But, the infected couldn’t come this way because of the barbed wire at the top of the hill. For Hank, it was a simple matter of pushing it out of the way.

  Once he’d made it to the side of the vocational building, he twisted the knob of the door Eric had described to him. It opened.

  Hank slid inside, gun raised. The room was empty. Hank moved through the council room. In the dark, he tripped over the tarp covering the dirt bike, exposing it. Hank glared at it, knowing his son hadn’t made it out.

  Hank made his way through the entire vocational building, room by room. He found the front door chained shut. That only left the door that led to the covered walkway available to most people. He knew he could just go back out the council door.

  Hank made his way up the stairs after clearing the shops. He hadn’t seen a single person yet. He checked every room. Finally, when he made it to Charlie’s room, the last room in the hallway, it was bolted shut.

  Hank knocked and said, “Charlie, open up.”

  He took a few steps back and raised his gun, waiting. He heard the bolt slowly unlatch and the door creaked open. Inside, he saw two women, a girl, and the small, old dog, Cisco. All three of the females looked like they’d been crying.

  “Where’s my son?” Hank asked.

  Denise immediately burst into tears.

  This was all the answer Hank needed.

  “Where’s Ben?” Hank asked.

  Sherry shook her head, “It was Bennet.”

  “I don’t care,” Hank said. “This has to end.”