Reset (Book 2): Salvation (11 page)

“Was this before the facial peels?”

Jason chuckled. “Yeah. I drank a lot. Did drugs. Before that, I battled addiction. My parents … I don’t know what I told you about them, but I can guarantee it wasn’t the truth. My parents in their exercising of tough love, disowned me because I kept stealing from them.”

It was hard for Nora to believe. The man he presented wasn’t the man he told her about. Yet, it oddly made sense. “How old were you?”

“Nineteen. And it was the best thing they did. When you have an addiction, you need to want to clean up. I had been using for years. When they tossed me out, I took my guitar and hit the road. Played on street corners. Eventually I got off the hard stuff. Started drinking a lot, smoking weed. Never to the point that I was a slobbering idiot. I don’t think. So … after the network discovered me playing in a bar, in short they cleaned me up, got me a wife, and fixed my teeth … made me a poster child for Christ.”

“Did your addiction ever come up?”

“It was a selling point,” Jason said. “Don’t get me wrong. I was grateful. I loved my wife. I stopped the party life for the church, and stayed clean for my family. But you know, being sober made me see how much pain I caused my parents and I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

“You know they did, right? They forgave you. They did. They loved you enough to let you go. It wasn’t because they hated you.”

Jason nodded.

“Did you ever make amends?”

“Eventually, but it was never the same. They were never really part of my life. So that’s it.” Jason lifted the flask. “That’s my story that you haven’t heard.”

“So you drink because you like it and not because you want to hide the pain.”

“I like to drink. Hide the pain? There’s no real hiding it, Nora. But it does help to ease the pain. And there’s no audience or perfect wife to say I can’t.”

“Then I won’t either,” Nora said. “I apologize for judging.”

“You weren’t judging. And I promise, I will not let it get out of control.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm?” Jason asked. “Did you just do a hmm at me?”

“I did. You said that line all alcoholics say.”

“I’m not an alcoholic.”

“You just said you were.”

Jason shook his head and took a drink. “You said you weren’t judging.”

“I’m not. I’m not.” Nora raised her hands. “I kind of do like this imperfect Jason better.”

“Gee thanks.” Jason put down the flask and fluffed the tiny homemade pillow given to him by one of the town’s people.

Nora laughed.

“What’s so funny, now?”

“I just thought of a joke.”

“Oh God. Don’t tell me, I want to lay down.” Jason lounged back, placing his head on the pillow.

“You’ll like it.”

“I doubt it.”

“You inspired it.”

Jason closed his eyes.

“What did the one alcoholic say to the other alcoholic during a nuclear war?” Nora asked. “Let’s get toasted.”

Jason opened his eyes.

“You like?”

Jason didn’t verbally respond, he merely sat up some and tossed his pillow at her. Nora once again laughed. She actually felt a breakthrough with Jason, a wall she didn’t know was there had come down.

She couldn’t believe he was going to sleep so early. Nora wasn’t even tired. Since Jason was, she found her journal and once he was fast asleep, she claimed that flask. The popcorn flavored moonshine wasn’t half bad.

<><><><>

It was an odd location where they had set up camp. Just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. The skyline of sin city was nothing but a mere shadow of darkness across the well lit star filled sky. Colonel Norris said it was one of his favorite places to stop and camp for the night. It was safe. Vegas had long since been empty. For many years it was a sort of a mini Salvation. Pockets of people went there with hopes of survival. Power was supplied by the Hoover Damn. But as the virus swept in every year, the population dwindled.

People moved on.

It was a dark, dismal ghost town. At least at night.

Norris assured Malcolm that when day broke, he’d get to see it in its full glory. There was a lot of sand. Without people and automobiles to keep the city clean, storms blew sand in by the foot. Most parts of the Las Vegas Strip were buried.

It was surreal for Malcolm. In his mind and time frame he had been to Vegas not six months earlier for a security convention. A part of him wanted to see, but a part of him didn’t.

Malcolm was shocked how warm it was.

Norris had erected a two man blow up style tent and they had, as he referred to it, atmospheric conditioning. Malcolm could have turned in for the night, but it was still early. He had hoped to have a chance to talk to the historian, Clark and the scientist, Nelson, but they retreated to their tents the moment they settled.

It was a pretty impressive camp, one that was erected pretty quickly. The two igloo air tents and a tent that pulled out from the transit van plus two fire pits.

Norris had done it before, it was obvious.

Trey turned in for the night, claiming he couldn’t take the heat.

To Malcolm it was hot but tolerable. He and Trey had their own tent, Maggie, Clark, and Nelson shared one, while Norris and the private took turns on watch, and slept in the transit van tent.

Malcolm was using the light from the fire to read the scrapbook that Trey had brought. Newspaper clippings, stories about Malcolm at the end. The smell of coffee moved through the slight breeze and Malcolm looked up to see Maggie. She brewed a pot over her own fire in front of her tent.

The gurgles of percolating carried to him and he walked over.

“Join me?” Maggie asked. “It’s like heaven in a cup.”

Malcolm laughed. “Your coffee?’

“Yes.”

“It’s good, but not heaven in a cup.” Malcolm pulled up a folding chair and sat next to her. He accepted the cup of coffee. “Thank you.”

“Can’t sleep?” she asked.

“I haven’t tried. You?”

“Too excited.” She brought her shoulders up.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Because when we left you were quiet.”

“I was nervous,” Maggie said. “This is the first time I have been outside Salvation since I entered.”

“You’re joking.”

Maggie shook her head. “Not at all.”

“Are you not allowed to leave?”

“Unless you are authorized for a mission you can leave, but you can’t come back. Or if you are like Trey and distribute to Salvation. Really, there’s no need to leave.”

“Yeah, the world. Aren’t you curious? I mean there’s a whole world out here.”

“It’s a deadly world,” Maggie said. “Aside from there being the chance of getting sick. There are bad people out here.”

“Those walls will have to come down at some point,” Malcolm said.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. It just doesn’t make sense. It’s very Logan’s Run like.”

“Logan’s Run?”

“It’s a science fiction movie. People live in a perfect world.”

“That’s us.”

“But they euthanize everyone the day they turn thirty.”

The smile dropped from Maggie’s face. “Oh, that’s horrible.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“We wait until they are seventy.”

The corner of Malcolm’s mouth raised in a smile. She had to be joking, because she followed her statement with a laugh.

“So,” Malcolm clapped his hands together. “What do you think? I mean, of what you have seen so far.”

“It’s empty and sad.”

“Yeah, it is. Tell me, what made you decide to be a doctor, or virologist.”

“Decide?” Maggie asked.

“Yeah, was it the virus that made you want to find a cure?”

“I didn’t decide,” Maggie said. “This is what I was told to do. When I was twelve, they said I was exceptionally smart and I was assigned the career.”

“You’re joking.”

“That’s the second time you claimed I was joking. Why would I joke?”

“It’s absurd. You can’t pick your own job.”

Maggie shook her head. “No, we learn from a young age what we are capable of doing and train from there. It works. Things run smoothly in Salvation. Not like we learned of the world before the virus. Wars, sickness, fighting, who needs that.”

“You have no sickness.”

“Only injuries and treatable illnesses like your infection.”

“What about cancer?” Malcolm asked. “Millions of people, I find it hard to believe there isn’t a case of cancer.”

“Oh, there is. We fix it right away.”

“Wow.” Malcolm leaned back and enjoyed a sip of his coffee. “Sounds like they created a Utopia pretty quickly.”

“We did. You’ll really love it there, Malcolm. It’s a great place. You won’t want to leave. I never did.”

“Well, I’m not so sure if my friends are gonna wanna stay there or try to make it on our own. I’ll do what they decide. I mean, we are bonded in a way.”

“That makes sense.”

“ Although, I’ll have to tell Nora that her former husband is there.”

Maggie cradled her cup of coffee. “Richard. Very nice. He’s sixty-nine now. She’ll probably be very shocked when she sees him.”

“I’d say and the fact that he’s remarried.”

“Are you worried?” Maggie asked. “About your friends?”

“I am. I gave my word I’d meet up with them.”

“Can you tell me where?”

Malcolm exhaled. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because if I can get you there, I will.”

After a moment of thought, Malcolm said. “A little town called Champaign, Illinois. It was center point. The meeting place.”

“Then I’ll make you a promise,” Maggie said. “Since you are helping me, I’ll help you. I’ll get you to Champaign, Illinois.” She held out her coffee cup. “You may be late, but better late than never. Right?”

“Right.” Malcolm clinked his cup against hers and followed it with a sip. A part of him was uncertain, that maybe he should not have told Maggie about the meeting place. But the reasonable part of his being argued, why should he worry about it? Maggie and the others seemed like good people. If she said she was going to help, there was no reason not to believe that.

There were more reasons for staying the night at the Genesis Lab camp other on the advice of Hunter. He felt it would be too dark to travel and there were animals. But Meredith and John couldn’t, with a clear conscience, just leave Harold and the others without helping them in some way. It was wrong. There was an unspoken camaraderie and Meredith and John were the veterans of waking up in a post apocalypse world.

Harold and the others were rightfully confused. They also were sad, heartbroken, and at a loss at what to do. Like John and Meredith, they thought about finding their families.

Other than helping them and staying put for safety’s sake, there was another reason. They were close to Washington, DC. For a reality check, Meredith needed to see DC. She had to and John agreed. Hunter came with them. He didn’t see what the big deal was. John jokingly told him, “I guess when you’ve seen one nuked city you’ve seen them all.”

Hunter didn’t understand the sarcasm.

They didn’t go into Washington, DC, that would have been nearly impossible. The bridges and roadways were crushed or twisted wreckage. But on a hillside, just above the Potomac River, they saw enough.

It was dead.

Even though buildings stood, some of them mere skeletons, nothing was green. Nothing grew. Surprisingly, a good bit of the Washington Monument was still there, blackened, charred and chipped away.

They didn’t stay long. Long enough to see the icing on the cake, the undisputable proof that the world fell apart when they slept.

Harold and the others didn’t come with them. John advised them not to. Not yet. It would be too much of a shock. They, like John and Meredith had to absorb what happened slowly. Taking in each piece of the apocalypse until they got the big picture.

There was also the task of getting them road ready. There had to be transportation, that was part of the project. While Meredith went over what supplies they would need, John sought out the means of transportation. The buildings were still intact, that meant that transportation was around.

He found them. He also discovered they weren’t as tricky to put together as Malcolm made them out to be. Then again, Meredith reminded him that Malcolm souped up the vehicles to make them better, or at least his.

The two man, golf cart vehicles, smaller versions of what John and Meredith drove were covered, they just needed cleaning. The solar battery was sealed in a case, and that first charge was going to take a little longer.

They had all that done by nightfall.

When Meredith woke the next day she wondered if Hunter ever slept. He was still in the same guarded position he held the night before. While John finished up a few things, Meredith brought Hunter a bottle of juice.

“For you,” She said, handing it to him. “Thank you for watching out.”

“Grateful.” Hunter took the bottle.

“Don’t you sleep?”

“Yes. Do you?”

“Yes, I did. You did not.”

He lifted his hand to his forehead and mimed staring out. “Must watch.”

“We appreciate it. You are a good man, Hunter.” She laid her hand on his shoulder.

“Ah,” John said as he approached. ‘Flirting with our post apocalypse friend, I see.”

“What?”

“Dainty touch. Big brawny guy. I can tell.”

Meredith laughed. “You’re silly. He’s very nice.”

“Hmm. Yes.”

“Are we done here?” Meredith asked.

“We are. I told them about Champaign and that we are all meeting there. That if we leave, we will leave signs to let them know.”

“Maybe we should wait for them to get there. We are ahead of schedule.”

“This is true and they know the time frame. I told them we’ll probably try to find Salvation. Who knows? But … we need to get moving so we can take Hunter back and make some headway today.”

Upon that, Hunter stood. “No. Hunter go with you.”

“Hunter,” Meredith spoke gently. “We’re going to take you back.”

“No, Hunter wants to go with you. See … world.”

John looked at him. ‘Even if we take you, we still need to go back and let them know we are all right. Your people were kind to us.”

Hunter nodded.

John asked. “Why would you want to leave them? Don’t you have family?”

“Hunter … has no one. See the world.”

“Yes, I heard,” John said.

“Hunter likes Meredith.”

John cracked a smile. “I see. Well, then, who am I to stand in the way of a budding May-December Romance. Very well. We are glad to have you.” John gave a swat to Hunter’s arm and whispered to Meredith. “Look at you having a boyfriend in the apocalypse.”

Meredith didn’t know what to say. She felt awkward and on the spot, and only glanced at Hunter with a smile.

They really had to get moving. And despite John’s wisecracks about Hunter’s infatuation, Meredith was glad to have Hunter along. With the world so unknown, and with the trouble she and John encountered not long before, Hunter was a valuable asset in such a world gone bad.

<><><><>

On the stainless steel prep counter in the kitchen of a corner diner, Nora and a young woman named Marilee, mixed oats and honey to create some sort of granola concoction.

“So,” Marilee spoke brightly with a high-pitched voice. She was young, definitely born post virus. Her blonde hair was blunt cut to her shoulders and the shiniest hair Nora had ever seen. “I was thinking about some joke you told last night.”

“Okay.”

“I laughed.”

“Good.”

“But I didn’t get it.” She paused. “What is a zombie?”

“Oh, wow, you don’t know what a zombie is?”

“No.” She shook her head.

“A zombie is a person that died, that eats flesh, that’s all they know. They are walking dead.”

“Did they have them when in your time?”

“Zombies? No. Just in movies. They aren’t real. We lived in a time where people were infatuated by them.”

“Walking dead corpses that eat people?”

“Yes.”

Marilee waved out her hand. “Well, that’s just silly. I mean, they’re people right. Rotting flesh. That’s what happens. Flesh rots. Who came up with that idea? Dead people eating other people?”

“Some say a guy named George Romero made them famous.”

“Well shame on him.”

Nora laughed.

“What was it like?” Marilee asked. “Living before the virus.”

“It was nice. It was convenient.”

“Things are convenient here,” Marilee said. “Some say you guys had the ability to communicate with the world.”

“We did.”

“Salvation is supposed to have all that and more. They’re supposed to be all high technical and stuff. Gadgets. Is that why you want to go there?”

“No. I want to go there to see if I can find my family.”

“That was a lifetime ago. Older than me. They’ll be old.”

“I still want to find them. Don’t you ever want to go to Salvation?”

“Nah,” she said. “None of us do. I like it here. Most people here were too young to remember much about life before the virus. If they were alive at all.”

“What’s it like? Living in this world now.”

“Fine. We eat. We laugh. We love. What more can you ask for? What else do you need?”

“This is true.”

“So where’s your friend?” Marilee asked.

“I don’t know. He said he’d be back. He wanted to look ….” Nora paused when she heard the distant sound of music. “Aw. Bet that’s him.”

“What is that?”

“Music?”

“How is that possible? Joe the piano player is in the fields.”

“That’s not Joe. I bet. Jason plays.”

“What does that …?”

“Will you excuse me?” Nora wiped off her hands. “I’ll be back.”

“Sure.”

What was he doing? Nora wondered. Did he have an audience and didn’t tell her. There was no doubt where it came from. Jason told her he wanted to go to the church; she thought he’d wait for her.

In an empty town, sound traveled, and the tinkling of the piano transformed into the sound of Jason singing.

It was mellow at first, but Nora clearly could hear the emotion cut through the song. It was a spiritual song, she didn’t need to make out the lyrics to feel that. Nor did anyone else.

Suddenly, his singing didn’t just call to her, it called to many in the small area. People stopped what they were doing and followed her to the church.

Nora didn’t know to whether to walk in, or wait. The song intensified as Jason’s emotion and amazing voice did. As she reached for the door, he stopped singing, but continued to play. That’s when she heard him speak and she quietly slipped in and stood there in awe.

He sat at the piano, his eyes closed, head swaying.

“Does He exist? In this world, do we still believe in His presence? Are we angry and feel cheated or blessed to be chosen.” He spoke in such a smooth preacher way, then after a pause, he broke out. His voice gained a raspy sound, his face red as he drew from his soul the powerful portion of the song. Hands clamoring on the keys as he blasted the end, hitting a high note that shocked Nora. Crescendo over, Jason brought it down, mellow, to a whisper until he ended.

His head was down.

Nora clapped. Slow at first then she jolted in surprise as others applauded as well. She looked around, about ten people had also slipped into the church.

Jason opened his eyes, a slight blush swept across his face and he shook his head with a smile.

“Looks like we got a real preacher,” someone said.

Jason waved his hand as if to say ‘no’.

“We expect a concert tonight,” another man added with a laugh. “Okay people back to work. We’ll guilt him later.”

Nora waited until everyone filed out and she walked toward the front of the church.

“Wow, I had an audience,” Jason said shyly. “I didn’t know.”

“You called them.”

“I what?”

“You called them, Jason. Your voice, your passion brought them in. I see why you were such a big deal.”

“Nora, it was one song.” He stood and leaned with his arm against the piano.

“It was more than that.” She approached him.

“At least the piano was in tune.”

“Eh, Joe the piano player probably keeps it that way.”

“Who?”

Nora waved out her hand. “Can I say something?”

“You will anyhow.”

“True,” She smiled. “You’re home.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have spent every single second, of every day with you and I have never felt or seen you more at ease. More in your element. What brought it out?”

“I don’t know. I came in here and I just felt like it.”

“You talk a lot about how the network made you. Peeled your skin, plucked your eyebrows, cut your mullet and gave you …a...” she nudged him. “Wife.”

“Yeah, they did.” He lowered his head in a shy way.

“They didn’t give you this.” She touched his chest over his heart. “They didn’t make you a preacher, they didn’t give you spirit, they helped bring it out. You express guilt over who you were, time to take pride in the man you became. This is why you were chosen to live in this world.”

Jason lifted his eyes. “Those are pretty complimentary words.”

“I mean them. I don’t think I liked you much until right now.”

“What?” Jason laughed.

“Kidding. I liked you. But now I think you’re a pretty amazing guy, Jason.”

“All that over a song?”

“No. All that over making me feel something. Emotion. Missing. Strength. Everything that seemed frozen with me felt somewhat defrosted.”

“You’re pretty amazing too, Nora.”

“Yeah, I know.”

It took Jason by surprise and he laughed. He laughed hard, reached out, placed his hand behind her neck, pulled her to him and placed his lips on her forehead. He pulled back with another laugh.

“And you tell really dumb jokes.”

“Oh, I have another.”

His eyes widened. “I think I was going to search out a new home for us here.” He started to walk toward the back of the sanctuary.

“Seriously it’s good. How long did it take the plague to wipe out the world?’

Jason paused by the back door.

“No one knows. Time just flew by. Get it? Flew? Flu.”

After a groan, Jason chuckled and disappeared into the back of the church.

“Oh, he likes my jokes, he does.” Nora said to herself and followed.

<><><><>

They left camp under a pink sky, light enough for Malcolm to get a glimpse of Vegas, sad yet in a way beautiful. With seven hours road time ahead, barring any problems, they’d have to make camp at G1 Lab if they were held up there for longer than four hours.