Recovery: V Plague Book 8 (16 page)

Rachel
wasn’t certain but thought she had frostbite on several fingers as well as her
ears and the tip of her nose.  Maybe the tissue hadn’t actually frozen but she
was so cold she couldn’t tell.  The afternoon was wearing on, the clouds so
thick and snow falling so heavily that she had no idea where the sun was in the
sky.  She was in a world of white and grey, the lake reflecting the overcast
and appearing as if it was dirty steel.

Bill was
still unconscious and she had wrapped him as best she could in his nylon
canopy.  The fabric wasn’t terribly heavy but she hoped it would provide enough
insulation to keep the man from freezing to death.  Once he was cocooned, she
looked around the area. 

First she
was checking to make sure the wolf hadn’t returned, though she wasn’t confident
she would see it until it was lunging for her throat.  The animal’s coat was a
mottled grey and she had noticed how well it blended in with the snowy terrain.

Not seeing
anything for the moment she turned, shivering from the biting wind, and looked
around the small clear patch of ground she had chosen.  Snow was thick in her
hair and starting to accumulate on her shoulders and she knew it wouldn’t be
long before both of them would succumb to the weather if she didn’t get a fire
going.  But even with a fire they still needed protection from the wind.

Two large
trees grew next to each other, no more than a dozen feet apart.  They were
upwind from where she stood and as she stared at them an idea took shape. 
Rushing to her hastily dropped parachute she quickly pulled the canopy out and
set to work with Bill’s knife. 

It didn’t
take long to cut all the ropes where they were attached to the pack, but it
would have gone faster if she hadn’t been looking up and scanning for the wolf
every few seconds.  She was terrified it would approach while she was occupied
and when she looked up it would be standing there, teeth barred, ready to
pounce.

With the
chute free, Rachel fought with it in the wind, finally succeeding in getting
one edge to the closest tree.  She began wrapping the attached lines around the
trunk, beginning at ground level.  Her fingers were stiff and numb from the
cold and it took several attempts to tie a knot, but she eventually got it.

Slowly
working her way up she kept wrapping the canopy lines around the trunk until
she had reached a point a foot above her head.  One end of the parachute nylon
was now firmly secured to one of the trees, pulled tight against the rough
bark.  The free end flapped in the wind, snapping and popping like a flag.

Grabbing one
of the flailing lines, Rachel stretched it to the other tree where she first
wrapped the excess fabric around the trunk before pulling the line taut and
starting to work on the knot.  By now she was so cold she was shivering
constantly and her fingers were stiff and unresponsive.  The line slipped out
of her grasp several times before she finally managed to tie it off.

Not pausing,
she worked her way up the trunk at an agonizingly slow pace.  But as she
progressed the canopy blocked the wind.  It flapped violently above where she
was working, but as each knot went into place more and more of the wind was stopped. 
Finally reaching the same height as the first tree, Rachel collapsed onto her
knees with a gasp.

She was
still shivering, but without the wind chill the air immediately around her felt
almost warm.  She realized this wasn’t real, that there was nothing warm about
the situation she was in, and if she stopped it wouldn’t be long before she’d
fall asleep and never wake up.

Forcing
herself to crawl around the area she began gathering twigs and small branches,
shaking the snow off them as she worked.  Several feet from the windbreak she
had created, Rachel piled the wood on a mostly clear and dry patch of ground. 
The heavy branches of the trees over her head were providing shelter, and now
with the canopy blocking the wind driven snow there was a large patch of ground
that would stay dry.

She piled
the kindling as best she could, barely able to keep from scattering what she had
gathered as her arms and hands violently shook.  Once she had a small pile and
had managed to stuff handfuls of dry pine needles into it she scrambled to
where Bill still lay motionless, wrapped in the other canopy.  Not stopping to
check on him she searched his pack until she came up with one of the waterproof
matches.

It took her
several tries to calm her hands enough to even strike the match, but her heart
leapt when it finally flared.  Thrusting it against a few pine needles she held
her breath as the flame flickered, almost going out when a gust of wind made it
under the edge of the windbreak.  But the match kept burning, the needles
quickly catching.

Soon the
fire spread to all of the tinder then began licking the dry twigs.  There was
still some wind leaking under and around the edges of the canopy, but it was
just enough to fan the flames and the fire quickly grew.  Piling on more twigs
and small branches, Rachel held her hands as close to the heat as she dared.

Her skin was
so cold she couldn’t feel the warmth at first.  Several times she pulled her
hands back and checked them, making sure she wasn’t cooking her flesh without
realizing it. 

Piling more
wood on the fire she reluctantly began moving around the area, away from the
meager heat.  She needed larger branches and lots of them.  Fortune finally
smiled on her.  The area of the Sawtooth Mountains she was in was covered in
old growth forest and it had been a very long time since fire had consumed
everything in its path.

The forest
floor was covered with fallen branches of all sizes.  It had been a long summer
with very little rain and the wood she gathered was dry and caught easily when
she began piling it onto her campfire.  Soon she had a roaring blaze and had to
move back against the canopy stretched between the trees.

Slowly the
shivers and shakes that had gripped her began to pass as her body warmed. 
Leaning over Bill’s still unmoving form she reached out to check him.  He
didn’t respond when she shook his shoulder and Rachel placed two fingers on his
neck to check his pulse.  When she couldn’t feel anything she leaned in and
pressed her ear against his mouth, unsure if her fingers were just damaged from
the cold or not.

There was no
tickle of breath as she held her face in front of the pilot’s.  He was dead. 
Rachel sat back with a groan.  The morphine.  Anesthetics not only block pain,
they also inhibit the body’s thermoregulatory process.  Shivering is one way
the body tries to warm itself, fighting cold, as well as pulling blood from the
extremities into the torso to protect the vital organs and the brain.  The
morphine had prevented that and the man had frozen to death.

Rachel
wanted to cry, feeling partly responsible for his death since she was the one
who had administered the narcotic.  But she was too exhausted after dragging
him down the hill and battling the wind and cold.  Struggling with the rapidly
stiffening corpse, she freed the canopy it was wrapped in and after piling more
wood on the fire draped it around her body and lay down as close to the flames
as she could.

I grabbed
the sat phone and Katie, Dog and I jumped out of the Dodge.  Taking a moment to
set the phone to silent, I scanned up and down the abandoned street.  There was
a stiff wind blowing.  Little swirls of dust, leaves and trash skittered along
the pavement.  Other than those sounds it was absolutely silent.  Eerily
silent.  I still wasn’t used to this new world of ghost towns and cities.

“How about
in there?”  Katie asked, pointing at the bank building.

I shook my
head.  “Too easy to wind up on an upper floor and get trapped,” I said. 
“Besides, that’s one of the first, obvious places I’d search.”

The wind
shifted and the stench of cow shit blew across me.  As I continued to survey
the area I remembered that a third of the beef consumed in America came through
Dodge City.  Or had come through, I corrected myself.

“There,” I
said, pointing at a single level building on the far side of the closest
intersection that took up most of the block.  We set off at a trot, Dog running
to catch up after lifting his leg on a tree growing through a grate set into
the sidewalk. 

The building
looked old, or at least old as far as American buildings go.  It had probably
been built in the late 1800s or early 1900s.  It had a high roofline despite
not having a second story and currently housed a local department store.  Signs
for men’s suits, women’s dresses and shoes for the entire family festooned the
windows fronting the sidewalk.

If I was
right it would be a maze inside with lots of hiding places and the building was
large enough that I had no doubt there would be multiple exits.  Coming to a
stop at the double entrance doors I tried to see inside but the bright sunshine
turned the glass into a mirror.  All I could see was a reflection of the three
of us and the street we were standing on.

Pulling the
door open I gave Dog a few moments to sample the air.  He immediately growled,
letting me know there were infected inside.  I paused for a moment, debating. 
The large store was well suited for hiding, but I didn’t have time for a
protracted battle to clear out infected. 

But
bypassing this building and finding another one by no means guaranteed it
wouldn’t be full of infected.  We needed to get ourselves under cover quickly. 
The Russian helos were fast approaching.

“Infected,”
I mumbled, stepping across the threshold with Dog at my side. 

Katie
followed, letting the door swing shut and bump against her back.  My rifle was
up, scanning, and I whistled loudly.  I wanted to draw the infected to me and
get this over with.

The sound of
a rack of clothes crashing to the floor caused me to spin to my left.  Two
males were bumping their way through the maze of shelving and freestanding
racks full of women’s wear.  I shot both of them and rescanned, not seeing
anything.

There was no
power and while the sun streaming through the windows provided plenty of light
at the front of the store, the back half was lost in deep shadows.  I activated
the night vision scope on the rifle, but while the interior appeared gloomy to
my day adjusted eyes there was too much light for the electronics to perform
their function and I shut it down.

Dog was on
alert, ears up straight as he pressed against my leg.  Despite the tension in
his body he wasn’t growling.  Trusting him, and wondering how the hell he could
tell a live infected from a dead infected by smell, I began moving deeper into
the store.

We slithered
our way amongst the round, chrome display racks that were jammed full of
hanging clothes and seemingly arranged to prevent anyone from easily walking
through the area.  I’ve never understood why clothing stores do that, and it was
always one of my pet peeves whenever I went shopping with Katie.

Towards the
back of the store there was a set of swinging doors and I carefully pushed them
open, pausing so Dog had time to give the air a good test.  He stayed quiet and
Katie and I moved into a stock area.  Very little of the light made it this far
and I was able to scan the large space with the night vision scope.  Confirming
that Dog’s nose was right, I headed for the back wall where there were several
tall stacks of boxes.

To either
side of the immediate area were two exit doors, both with alarmed crash bars on
them to prevent someone from opening them without setting off a siren unless
they had a key.  Using my Ka-Bar I popped the cover off the one to my right and
cut the wires leading from the battery, then slapped the housing back in place.

Pushing on
the crash bar the door lock released without an alarm and I looked out on a
narrow alley and several vehicles as well as a couple of large dumpsters. 
Repeating the process on the other door I saw that it opened into a small
alcove off the alley.  A rusting iron ladder attached to the outside of the
building climbed up to the roof.

I now had
two exits that could be used if needed without tripping an alarm.  I was hoping
the Russians’ last view of me had been the car heading west, out of town, and
they’d just keep on going.  But I wasn’t going to count on it.  I needed to be
ready if they started a door-to-door search.

I didn’t
think that was too likely as the manpower required would be significant.  Each
of the HIND helicopters could only carry a maximum of eight soldiers in
addition to the flight crew, and as far as I knew there were still only two
helos hunting me.

“Call
Jessica and see what the Russians are doing,” I said to Katie as I began
stacking boxes to create a hiding place for her and Dog.

“No signal,”
she said a minute later.

“Then don’t
worry about it,” I said without stopping what I was doing.  “Not worth going
outside.”

It didn’t
surprise me that the phone couldn’t pick up a signal.  Satellite
communications, whether phone, data or TV is actually a very low powered signal
and it’s rare that you can connect without direct line of sight to the orbiting
antenna.  I usually roll my eyes and change the channel when I see a TV show
depicting someone standing deep in a building, talking away on a sat phone. 

“What are
you doing?”  Katie asked, tucking the phone away and moving closer to watch as
I picked up a heavy box of Levi’s.

“Making a
cave for you and Dog to hide in,” I said without pausing.

“And what
are you going to be doing?”

“Hopefully,
nothing.  But if they start moving into town and searching for us I’m going to
do what I can to discourage them.  It’s me they really want.  If our theory is
correct and Steve cut a deal with them I seriously doubt they’re going to worry
too much about fulfilling their end of the bargain.”  I said, stepping back to
admire my handiwork.

I had
restacked most of the boxes, leaving a small space open that could hold Katie
and Dog.  Once they were inside there were a dozen more boxes I’d stack into
place and unless someone tore the whole mess apart they would be invisible.

“You are NOT
sacrificing yourself for me!”  Katie stepped in front of me and grabbed my
arm.  “We can fight together.”

“Honey,” I
said, looking down into her eyes.  “I’m not planning on sacrificing myself. 
But they may find me.  And if they do it’s better that they find just me.  They
won’t look too hard for you, if at all, once they have me.  If you’re with me,
they get both of us.  If you’re not, you’ll probably get away.  Call Jessica
and have her get a message to Colonel Crawford in the Bradley.  Then get on the
road to Idaho.”

I held up
the keys for the Dodge.  Katie looked at me for a long time before taking the
keys and putting them in her pocket.  Throwing her arms around my neck she
pressed herself against me and kissed me.  Hard.

“You do not
get yourself caught,” she said in a hard voice when the kiss ended.  “I don’t
want to be without you ever again.  Rain fire on these fuckers.  Do whatever
you have to do, but come back to me!”

I pulled her
back against me, both of us looking up at the ceiling as the whole building
vibrated from two helicopters passing low overhead.