The Beginning of the End (16 page)

The attic was
relatively nice at one time. It had gray hard wood floors, and three
sides had decorative windows. Sidara knew she was still in danger
when she saw a set of stairs at the opposite end of the attic leading
down to the main floor. It was just a matter of time before the dead
found her. She crept to the window and opened it. Looking out she
could see a rose trellis which ran all the way to the ground. The
roses had long since died with the cold October nights, revealing
white pickets that would make a perfect ladder. Sidara reached out
clinging on as she swung her body through the window. With her feet
firmly secured, she carefully maneuvered herself down. Not quite
halfway, the persistent sniffing woman was back, looking down from
the window and moaning at Sidara. The woman reached for Sidara and
toppled out of the window. The falling woman’s leg caught the back
of Sidara’s MOLLE vest, taking her along for the ride. Sidara
landed flat on her back and felt like she’d been hit by a car. The
woman was lying next to her with her, head caved in from landing face
first on a paver stone.

Sidara rolled off her
back and up onto her knees. The noise of the crash brought a small
horde of dead around from the front of the house. She brought up her
M4 and started firing at the dead. Every time one dropped, another
took its place. Sidara continued to fire as they backed her into the
corner. The horde had grown and more were coming faster than she
could pull the trigger. Sidara knew this was a battle she would not
be walking away from. She started thinking about her mom and sister,
trying to find peace.

October 11th 11:15am

Bob walked in and
flipped on the fluorescent lights in the isolation room. Sophie was
lying there with her eyes open. She turned her head to him. He was
taking a big bite of a sandwich he was holding. She watched a glob of
mayonnaise drip on his shirt. “You want half?” he asked. Sophie
threw her legs over the side of the gurney and sat up. Her belly was
rumbling, but finding out the test results was the only thing on her
mind, “So what’s the verdict?”

Bob held up his index
finger, silently asking her to hold on while he finished chewing. The
waiting was agony for Sophie. She watched as he continued to chew and
finally swallowed.

“Do you want the good
news or the bad news?” he asked. Sophie glared at him. “Wow! If
looks could kill. Okay, you’re fine! The EMapp is a success. The
tests show the virus has been totally eradicated from your cells, and
the EMapp is showing no signs of post cellular regeneration! You’re
in the clear!”

Bob typed in a
five-digit code on the glass door’s keypad and hit a large green
open button. Huge fans inside the room kicked on evacuating the air
from the room. Ten seconds later, the glass door slid open. Sophie
ran out into Bob’s arms. “You’re going to be okay!” he said,
feeling a tear roll down his cheek. Sophie held onto him and didn’t
want to let go. She buried her head in Bob’s chest. He put his
hands on both of her cheeks, lifting her head and pulling it closer.
He closed his eyes as their lips met. Sophie broke from the kiss and
questioned Bob, “So what’s the bad news?”

“Dr. Marcil wants you
in the lab right away. He needs your help processing the serum. We
need to have it in Atlanta in 48 hours.”

October 12th 2:15am

Mr. Smith stood up and
put on his Indiana Jones hat, “I’m sorry boys. I'd like to go
with you, but I’m afraid I’d just slow you down.” I rose to
shake his hand, “I understand Mr. Smith. Do you have everything you
need? There are plenty of weapons in the basement, and the house is
full of groceries.”

“Thanks you boys, but
this is all I need.” Mr. Smith said as he lifted his arm up
displaying his shotgun. “Please let me know if you find Sarah.
We’ve been close since her husband died. She’s really all I have
left in the world.”

“You’ve got it Mr.
Smith!” Chevy said with a handshake.

They watched as the old
man left, guns ready, until he walked into his house. Chevy locked
the door and asked me, “Who the hell is Sarah?”

“She’s the lady who
lives in the house across the street.” Confused, Chevy asked, “I
thought that was Mrs. Harper?” “Yeah, Chev! She’s Sarah. Sarah
Harper!”

Chevy’s head rocked
back like he finally understood, but I could see he was still trying
to figure it out in his mind.

I sat back down at the
kitchen table and picked up my mom’s cell phone again, scrolling
through the messages. The rest were all mine. My dad had no idea what
was going on here. I used the cell phone to try calling him again. I
pulled up his name and hit the call button. A picture of he and my
mom on their honeymoon popped up on the screen, with the words,
Calling Sean plastered across their faces.

Nothing happened. I
looked at the phone and waited as it tried to connect. Chevy saw the
look of concern on my face and asked what was up. “The phone’s
not working.” I handed it to Chevy. He looked at it and then spun
the screen back at me, “There’s no service. Look at the top. No
signal bars and no Internet symbol. The phones must have finally shit
the bed.” Angry, I threw the phone on the kitchen counter. “Dude,
chill! We need to take care of this ourselves and stay focused. What
do you want to do now?” I shot Chevy a look, still mad. “What the
hell do you think I want to do? I want to get my mom and dad back,
and I don’t care if I have to kill someone to do it!” I ranted.
“Well my friend, we may just have to do that.”

Chevy was right! We
needed to stop screwing around and come up with a good plan. “So
let’s stop fucking around and take care of business! What’s the
plan?”

Chevy thought for a
minute and answered, “It’s not safe to go out in the dark. The
sun should be up in about five hours. We’ll finish stocking up on
supplies and get a couple of hours of sleep. We’re out the door the
second the sun comes up. We’ll find those guys and get your mom
back. Sarah too, if we can find her.”

October 12th 7:15am

Chevy and I were out
the door just after seven, not really knowing where we were going. I
guess the half-ass plan was to walk around until we spotted the
Humvee. Then follow it and save mom.

“Which way?” Chevy
asked.

“I’m not really
sure. The last time we saw the Humvee, it turned west on Cornelia
Street. So I guess we’ll head west, maybe we’ll get lucky.”

Shots rang out a few
houses away. Chevy and I took off running toward the sound. It
sounded like a high-powered rifle, loaded with high-capacity
magazines judging from the amount of shots between reloads. The shots
were just a few yards away now, “Chevy slow down! It might be those
guys!” He stopped running and looked at me like I had just saved
him from making a deadly mistake. The shots were ringing out in the
backyard of the house across the street. The yard was surrounded by a
new white vinyl fence that still wasn’t completely finished. I
couldn’t see over it, “Hold this!” I handed Chevy my AR-15 and
climbed up a few feet on a red maple tree that was covered with
purple leaves. If there was a threat on the other side of the fence,
I’d have the advantage. It would be hard for them to see me though
all those leaves. I climbed high enough to look over the fence,
“Chevy, it looks like some sort of military girl. She’s being
attacked by a bunch of dead. Hand me my rifle!”

Sidara knew it was
over. She had just fired the last round from the M4 and there was no
time to reload. The last thing she was going to do was let a bunch of
dead eat her for breakfast, or take a chance of turning into one of
them. As a last resort, she reached into her MOLLE vest and pulled
out one of the grenades she had taken from the dead soldier outside
of town. She slid her finger through the grenade pin and took a deep
breath. This was it! She watched her hand shake as she started to
pull the pin. Loud bangs rang out from the other side of the fence.
The dead woman closest to her fell dead, landing on top of her.

Someone had given her
the few precious seconds, she needed to jam another mag into the M4.
Together, with the other shooter, they mowed down the remaining dead.
Sidara dumped another empty mag and inserted a fresh one. She scanned
the yard with her rifle. They were all dead now.

I called out from the
other side of the fence, “Are you okay?” The girl turned and
looked in my direction, “Where are you?”

“I’m in the tree!
We’re friends! Hang on, we’ll come over.” Chevy and I walked
along the fence line looking for the gate. I opened it and walked
through first. The girl was gone. “Hey, where did you go?” On the
other side of the house, a fence section had been forced to the
ground next to a pile of dirt and a wheel barrel. It looked like the
homeowner had been doing some landscaping before all this shit went
down. “I’m over here!” she called out. I could see her peeking
around the corner of the house, “Why don’t you come out? We
promise we’re not going to hurt you.” I waited, but didn’t see
any movement. The girl finally spoke, “I don’t know you, and how
do I know you’re not going to kill me, like those things?”

I figured I just saved
this chick's life, the least she could do was come out and thank me.
I looked back and asked Chevy, “What the hell is her problem?” He
just shrugged his shoulders, “I’m guess she’s scared, just like
we are.” Chevy brought up an interesting point. I mean after all at
least we had each other. I turned back toward the girl, “Listen, my
name is, Ty. This is Chevy! We are not going to hurt you. My mom was
kidnapped by some guys in an Army Humvee, and we are just trying to
find her. You can come out, or we can just leave you alone and go
away if you want.” The girl finally spoke again, “I’m trying to
get to my mom and little sister too. I spent the night in this house,
and I woke up to these things trying to kill me.” I chuckled,
“Welcome to the club!” I watched as the girl stepped out from
behind the house. She had dark hair and looked like she was about the
same age as us. She let her guard down and started walking toward us.
We walked toward her with our arms in the air and off the weapons,
“Hi, I’m Ty. This is Chevy.” I pointed with my thumb, which was
still well above my head. The girl looked at us and reached out to
shake my hand, “You can put your hands down. I’m Sidara.” With
introductions out of the way, I checked out Sidara’s gear, “Looks
like you found yourself some weapons. I love that vest. Where did you
get it?” Sidara looked down at the vest and then back up at me, “I
took it off a dead soldier after I shot him in the eye. Although, in
my defense, I only killed him because he was trying to eat me.” I
smiled at Sidara, “Yeah, there seems to be a lot of that going
around.” Sidara eyed our weapons, “I like your setup. What have
you got there?” she said pointing at us. “Well it’s a special
holster rig my da-.“

“I wasn’t talking
to you Two-gun. I was talking to your friend. What’s that on your
leg?” Chevy looked down at the gun on his leg and pulled it from
the holster, “This is a MP-9. It shoots a 9mm bullet and has this
black thing so it’s not too loud. It has a bunch of other stuff
too.”

“Not a gun guy, huh!”
Sidara laughed. “No, they’re all Ty’s guns. He’s the expert.”
She looked back at me. “So where did you get all the weapons
Two-gun?” “My dad is a cop, and he likes to collect guns. We grew
up shooting them together. Why do you keep calling me Two-gun?” I
asked. “Because you look like a modern day cowboy with those two
Glocks on your hips. Don’t go getting all self-conscious on me
there Two-gun. Take it as a compliment.” All three of our heads
snapped around as a dead man came staggering into the backyard with
us. Chevy’s MP-9 was already out. He pointed the gun at the dead
and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He pulled it again and
again. Still nothing happened, “I put bullets in it! It’s
broken!” Sidara ripped the MP-9 from Chevy’s hands. In a
one-second demonstration she slammed the palm of her hand against the
bottom of the magazine. “Tap it!” Then she grabbed the operating
bolt and yanked it back letting the spring snap it back into place,
“Rack it!” Without looking away from Chevy she pulled the trigger
sending the 9mm round through the eye of the dead man. He fell over
backwards onto the ground. I stood over the dead man and admired the
shot, “What is it with you and eyes?” The sound must have
attracted another Dead. I could hear him bouncing his body against
the other side of the fence. We all heard his teeth snapping
together, “We had better get out of here!”

October 12th 2:05am

Kane sat leaning back
in his chair, still running his thumb along the blade of the cane
knife.

He glared at Sage and
Kate, as they backed into the corner pulling against the chain,
crying. “Well ladies, do you have any other questions for me?”
The girls both whimpered, “No.”

“Well, if our
business is complete here, let’s get you both to your new room.”
Kane leaned forward in his chair, paused and stood up putting his
knife in the back of his belt, “Cowboy!” he yelled from behind
the desk. A moment later, the man wearing a large black cowboy hat
walked into the office. The same man who had introduced his boot to
Sage’s face. “Yeah, Boss!” Kane flipped his chin toward the
girls, “Get them out of my office and throw them in the lockup.
While you’re at it, get that old slab of meat off my cutting table.
I’ll finish with her later.” Cowboy pulled a key ring off from
his belt, lost in thought, while he fumbled for the right key. After
a few seconds, he found the right one, and unlocked the girls from
the rafter chain. “Come on, I’ll take you to your room.” The
girls followed as Cowboy led them like leashed dogs. At the far end
of the building, the Cowboy unlocked a large steel door. He swung it
open with his boot, revealing darkness. No light came out of the
room. It was like looking into an abyss. Dampness mixed with the
smell of mold exuded from the room, washing over their faces. “I’m
not going in there!” Kate screamed. The cowboy picked up his leg
and put his boot heel in the small of Kate’s back. She landed face
first on the cold tile floor. Kate’s chain was still connected to
Sage and took her for a ride too. Kate made it up to her palms and
looked back at the cowboy, “Please turn on the lights! Please!”