Dead and Dead Again: Kansas City Quarantine (42 page)

“Orders. That is what worked for
me.”

“Civilians aren’t real good at
following orders.”

“That’s not my problem. Someone
else is working on that. Someone much higher up the pay grades. Maybe even The President.
I don’t know and I don’t care. I have my own orders, and I will follow them.”

“Well, I’ll tell you again, you’re
not taking any of our stuff without our permission. If you try, your mission is
likely to fail.” Calvin said, fixing her with a cool, unwavering gaze.

The Captain studied him evenly for a
very long time, her icy sapphires challenging his sparkling emeralds. The
civilian before her had a nice, friendly round face with an amiable quality that
she had mistaken for complacency. She had believed him a man who would take the
easiest road. But now she saw in Calvin’s friendly eyes an unyielding resolve to
protect his people and his city at any cost. She did not believe she could bully
this man and they were living in a veritable fortress with guns and full armor—
full
medieval armor. What the fuck are they doing in plate mail with swords and
axes? Where did they even get that ridiculous crap?
And judging from the
way he favored one side, he had clearly already been shot once and lived. It
would take every soldier she had to assault this building. No, the most
important parameters were getting the doctor and case to the destination.
Nothing else mattered.

“We will not take any of your
things,” the Captain agreed with a nod of agreement. “You are in the Quarantine
Area. I believe you are correct and justified in your statements. We cannot
judge what you had to do or what you will need to do in the future. We
would
ask for your help in our search, however.”

“Again, anything you need that I
can and am willing to spare, Captain,” Scooter conceded amenably.

“We don’t need anything yet, but in
case we do, thank you. Personally, I can’t see what we would need that you have
other than vehicles, but I need to make sure we understand each other. This may
very well be the most important mission in the world.”

Calvin understood why the Captain
was being such a hardcore bitch. In her mind, none of them mattered. The only
things that mattered were things that could help the mission succeed as fast as
possible. She’d likely planned on taking the vehicles as decoys, but if half of
her troop was killed by his friends their mission would fail.

“We’ll keep listening,” he
promised. “You call and we’ll try to help, for the doctor if for no other
reason. He wasn’t here long, but we like him.”

“Very well. I am sorry for the
initial tension. This is…I…”

“No one has
ever
had to deal
with something like this for real, Captain,” Calvin grimaced in understanding.

“We’ll be going now. If we haven’t
found the package by nightfall, may we return and stay here?”

“You’d have to turn over your
weapons,” Calvin suggested. “No military stationed on private property and all
that. The laws still apply.”

“We would never do that,” the
captain promised.

“I can’t let you bring your whole
team in here armed after your initial threats to take our things,” he explained
earnestly. “But I’m sure we can work it out.”

“Perhaps if we came in shifts?”

“I think if you sleep out there in
the vehicles we could keep watch for you,” Calvin ignored her suggestion. “We
could cover you out there in the streets from the balcony, but other than that,
I don’t know…”

“It’s ok, Calvin,” Sarah said. “We
can separate the back rooms. There’s a heavy fire door halfway up the building
on all floors. We’ll just let them in the back door and close it and keep
someone on the security cameras.”

“Oh. Ok great, then. It’s agreed,”
Calvin nodded and Batmouche’ returned a sharp twitch of a nod that was oddly
full of a grudging respect, and maybe even a little pride.

I wonder how well she knew mom?
Calvin
wondered, wishing things were different. But they weren’t.

“Ghosts,” the Captain said into her
own microphone. “Move the vehicles to the street that heads towards the river.
We are out in five,” the captain ordered.

The sergeant and two privates backed
out the door to stand guard on each side of the exit. Doc moved to the door and
Tripper stepped after him, pulling him aside to talk.

“Take care of yourself, Doc,”
Tripper said.

“You too, Tripper. Thank you for
all of your help.”

“Sure wish you were staying here
with the rest of us.”

The doctor gave him an oddly hurt
look, shaggy gray brows scrunching together and deep grey eyes silently demanding
a reason.

“I don’t mean I envy you your
chance to escape. Well, I do, but that’s not what I’m saying. I mean it’s
usually members of the team that help ‘the science guy’ who get out of the
disaster.”

“I see what you mean. And now this military
team will be getting your proverbial ‘science guy protection?”

“Yeah.”

“You realize those are just
movies?”

“I know, Doc, but life imitates
art.”

“True. But I think such imitations happen
because people make them happen out of appreciation for their favorite art.
This…this thing is too far out of control for any one person to repair.”

“I reject our reality and substitute
my own.”

“Nice.”

“You’re still the guy who can fix
this and we’re losing you.”

“Yes. I’m sorry. I will miss you
all.”

“But listen, maybe you can still
help us. Here’s the frequencies we’ll be operating on as long as we can. If you
get a chance, can you stay in touch? Let us know how you’re doing with the cure
and what help we can expect and what-not, ok? And maybe if they’re going to
drop the bomb, can you shoot us a warning so we can go to ground somewhere? That’s
not too much to ask for saving your ass is it?”

“Actually, you kept stopping me
when I was trying to flee,” the doctor pointed out dramatically. “I could have
been far from downtown in very little time.”

“In what vehicle?”

“I would have taken a taxi…”

“Really? Did you happen to see any
taxis at any time during this?”

“Come to think on it, I didn’t. But
I would have found a car or something.”

“Sure…and you know how to hot-wire
a car, don’t you? I mean, any Ivy league doctor knows that, right? They teach
that at John’s Hopkins, Vehicular Theft 101?”

“Well…”

“And how about driving out of the
parking garage. You didn’t even know that there were spikes that come out of
the ground to flatten your tires.”

“No one knows that.”

“Everyone knows that, Doc.”

“I’m sure I could have found a ride…”

“No one was leaving, yet. The
parade had just started.”

“I could have told them what was
happening.”

“First, you were running away from
all of the people. Second, if you had told this story to anyone who hadn’t seen
what happened at the crash site for themselves, they would have thought you
were crazy or drunk. They certainly wouldn’t have given you a ride. And by the
time they’d seen it for themselves, it would have been too late. People just
aren’t that trusting of strangers anymore. What a world.”

“That man Quinn believed Calvin,”
the doctor pointed out adroitly.

“True, but Calvin is special. Also,
they had just given him fifteen thousand dollars. Do you have a bunch of cash
to give someone?”

“Well…no, I do not. Not with me, at
any rate.”

“See, we gave you a ride, and then
a safe place to stay and sleep, and some food and after that, a phone to call
for help,” Tripper rebutted.

MacGreggor laughed and let out a
conciliatory sigh. “Yes. Fine. You are correct. I apologize for being so ungrateful.
Thank you, Tripper. And please pass that on to Calvin and the others. I
appreciate everything you’ve all done. About the radio, I will do what I can.
But I am not going to lie to you. It’s likely that they will keep the
one-hundred mile quarantine radius in effect for a very long time, and it might
increase to two-hundred or more. And there might never be a cure. This very
well may be permanent or the end of civilization as we know it…yes, perhaps
just the end period.”

“You think she’s telling the truth
about that wall?” Tripper asked.

“Absolutely. That is part of the
protocol in place, what I was explaining to Calvin before, a one-hundred mile
radius around the epicenter of the outbreak. Every National Guard base has
materials for their part of a wall and enough staff on hand to transport the
supplies on very short notice.”

“Can’t get water to an auditorium
for a week, but you can build a wall in hours?”

“Acts of nature do not fall under
the same departments or reactionary parameters as incidents of Bio Terror. A
few thousand people locked in a stadium in dire need of food and water will
affect only people’s emotions, but the threat of a viral apocalypse motivates
even the laziest people to protect themselves. It is all about
self-preservation, the key word being self.”

“Right. I get you. As long as there
isn’t a cure, they won’t lift the quarantine and none of us get out.”

“Yes. I’m afraid the Kansas City you knew and loved is no more, my friend. Even if we fix everything, this city
may never recover.”

“Oh, you don’t know us Kansas
Citians, Doc. We’re pretty tough and dependable folk when the trouble starts.
That’s why God put us all here in the middle.”

“Why is that?”

“So we can hold the rest of the
country together in a crisis.”

The doctor laughed.

“You laugh now, but you’ll see.
We’ll come through this yet.”

“You’re basing this on your luck so
far?” the older man asked.

“Yes. Of course, I’m talking about
our sports, mainly. But that luck has to go somewhere now. We can’t lose. This
is just another test that we’ll end up winning…eventually.”

The doctor laughed again, but not quite
as enthusiastically this time. “You know. I almost believe you.”

“With your help, Calvin will get us
out of this somehow.”

“If you two are done with the
kissy-face,” the Captain trumped back into the building and spat at them. “We
need to go
now
, Doctor.”

Dr. MacGreggor sighed and followed
her out to the military vehicles. When the officer, sergeant and the doctor
were safely inside, the rest of the unit broke perimeter and climbed in. Both
vehicles quickly pulled out and headed across the river and disappeared into
the distance.

Long after they were across the
bridge and out of sight, the gang stood watching the proverbial dust from their
passing fade into the distance. Calvin turned to Athena, Sarah and Trip.

“Do you think she would have tried
to take our stuff if she’d been able to get more guns in there?”

“No question about it.” Athena said
quickly.

Tripper nodded, but Sarah added, “Maybe.”

“You think her soldiers would have
agreed?”

“Private Gimp Bait would have done
whatever she ordered,” Trip said. “GI Jane and Sergeant Dogood I’m not so sure
about. They both seemed to be a little slower on the offensive, but not because
of any lack of skill. It was more like they have morals and aren’t afraid to
think for themselves.”

“The sergeant did not look happy
about the situation, but he would have fired,” Athena countered.

“So I guess the real question is:
will she try to take it if they come back?”

“No.” Athena stated emphatically.

“Wait, you were the one who said
she would have taken the stuff if she had more people,” Calvin argued.

“That was before she got to know
us. She respected you, Calvin. She tested you and I think you passed.”

“I agree,” Sarah agreed.

“Whatever,” Tripper muttered in
annoyance. “We still need to keep an eye out if they return. They’re soldiers
and not used to not getting their way in a Battlezone. They’re like cops when
they pull you over and you talk back. They’re absolutely certain they have the
law on their side.”

 “Well, in most cases, that is
true.”

“Never said it wasn’t. I’m just
saying it’s hard to debate with someone who thinks you’re supposed to do
whatever they say.”

 “Fair enough. You three get on the
line with Hef and Quinn and tell them what we have here and see if they can
tell you how to lock down those rooms we’re going to set aside. I want traps
and surveillance in place by nightfall.”

“Roger, Chief,” Athena murmured
with a salute.

“And will everyone
please
stop calling me Chief or Boss?” he shouted at their retreating backs.

“No!” “Too much fun.” “Sorry,
Calvin,” “I love you.” Their responses floated irreverently back down the
hallway to him.

“Yeah, that’s about right.”

* * * * * *

The army convoy didn’t have to
drive very far to reach Burlington. Crossing over the river, the captain noted
that the bridge was, in fact, intact. Only a few shuffling dead blocked their
way on the other side, but the Captain ignored them, as she had their entire
trip into the Quarantine Zone, despite having to find alternate paths around many
hastily constructed barricades on the main roads. It had taken them two days
for a two hour trip into the city. They were so far behind schedule she was
certain her superiors would have already sent in her replacement if that was an
option. But there weren’t a lot of volunteers waiting to drive into a
Quarantine Zone when the Chiefs were already considering a total purge, especially
when the original team was still active and in communication.

“Which way, Captain?” Sergeant Doogard
asked gruffly when the private brought their Humvee to a halt at the first
intersection.

“I’m not sure. I wonder if those
people did a very thorough search…what do you think, Sergeant?”