The Beginning of the End (17 page)

“What’s the matter
girly, are you afraid of the dark?” The cowboy stepped outside the
room and flipped on the switch. The lights came on warming the room.
“Thank you.” Kate pouted. “Now keep your mouths shut! If I have
to come back, I’m gonna throw you a beatin’ and then I’ll leave
ya in the dark!” the cowboy barked in his southern drawl.

Sage helped Kate to her
feet and heard a voice come from the back corner of the room. “It’s
best not to mess with these guys, honey.” Sage looked up and saw a
woman sitting on the tiled floor. She stood up and walked over to the
girls and ran her gentle fingers across the blood on Sage’s chin,
“Did that bastard do this to you?” the woman asked. “That
cowboy guy kicked me when I was tied to their truck.” The woman
took Sage’s hand and led her to the back corner of the room, “Let’s
go to the faucet and get you cleaned up. My name is Jennifer. What’s
yours?”

October 11th 11:00pm

Bob was met with a hug
when he walked into the lab twelve hours later. “Hey, you look
tired. How’s it going?” Bob whispered in Sophie’s ear. “Dr.
Marcil is removing the RNA and structural proteins from the cultured
samples. We should have roughly a hundred doses in the hour. We’ll
take the DNA blueprint with us, and we can process as much as we want
in Atlanta.”

“That’s great!”
Bob spouted. He walked over examining the red serum, “This is great
work doctors, but unfortunately we still have another obstacle.”
Bob held up the red bag of serum, “We need to get this to Atlanta.
The General said the airports have been overrun by the dead, and our
military is down to ten percent. So I guess another way to put it
would be, we’re on our own! Our options are pretty limited. The
best plan I can come up with is, we commandeer a vehicle, and start
working are way south.” Sophie looked at Dr. Marcil, who was
shaking his head yes, “We’ll do whatever we have to do, Bob.”

“Do either of you
have a car?” Sophie reached into her lab coat and fingered her car
key, hesitant to speak up, recalling the dream she had earlier. “I
take the bus.” Dr. Marcil said, “But the college gives me a staff
vehicle to use. It’s a Jeep Cherokee.” A bit of good news, Bob
thought. “Where is the jeep, now Doctor?”

“It’s in the
faculty parking lot. That’s across the courtyard, about 400 meters
from the lab.” Bob pointed to a cardboard box on the floor, “The
two of you start packing up the EMapp, and I’ll get the Jeep! Where
are the keys Doctor?” The doctor thought for a moment, “Colonel,
I believe the key is in the top drawer of my desk. I can draw you a
map to the parking lot while we’re there.” Bob followed the
doctor back to his office. He searched through the desk and finally
came up with a single key connected to a MU key chain. The doctor
sketched a quick map on a post-it note and handed it to Bob, “How
do you expect to make it there and back with no weapons?” Bob
recalled the woman he had seen attacked in the courtyard, “Very
carefully Doctor. You don’t have to worry about me. I don’t have
orders to die.” Bob took the key from Dr. Marcil and headed to the
steel door protecting the lab from the outside.

“MARIA!”

“Yes, Colonel.” The
artificial intelligence answered.

“Are you able to
access the camera and let me know if there is any movement in the
courtyard?”

“Yes, Colonel, I have
already accessed my cameras and motion detectors. I’m not picking
up on any movement outside.” Bob hesitated, looking at the camera,
“MARIA, I’m going to have to ask you to break protocol. I may be
coming back here in a hurry, and I’m not going to have time to go
through the security process to get back through this door.” The
speaker clicked on above Bob’s head, “I understand, Colonel. I am
overriding protocol now. I will monitor my sensors and have the door
open for your return.”

The door hummed, and
Bob heard the grind of the steel bars retracting as the door opened.
Bob was surprised to see it was dark outside. He had been in the lab
for so many days he’d lost all concept of time. A quick look at the
post-it note map, and he headed out the door. Looking around, the
courtyard showed no unwanted visitors. The woman who Bob had seen,
murdered and eaten in the courtyard was gone. Nothing remained but
the woman’s red shoe. Bob didn’t waste any time. He took off
running across the courtyard, focusing on the shoe as he ran by. Bob
ran toward the bike rack for cover. He ducked behind a couple of
mountain bikes and got his breathing under control. He still had a
full fifty-yard sprint to the corner of the building. He took off
again and wasn’t three steps into his run when he caught sight of a
man to his right. The dead spotted him and started moaning. Its moan
was so loud it border lined on a yell. Bob knew these things were
smart, but smart enough to warn each other? Still a few yards from
the building, he caught more movements. A small horde of dead was
coming from the other direction. They were also moaning trying to
give away Bob’s position. He looked around the corner, and it was
clear all the way up to the faculty lot. He broke into another
sprint, leaving the dead behind.

Bob wasn’t far now.
He could see the lot at the top of a small knoll. Halfway up, his
thighs started to burn. He knew he shouldn’t have given up jogging
last year. When he crested the knoll, he looked at the lot and almost
fell aback. The first row of the lot was permit parking for McGill
University staff vehicles. There must have been ten jeeps parked in a
row, all different colors. Why didn’t he ask Dr. Marcil what color
the Jeep was? Bob could hear the mass of dead closing in on him. He
ran up to the first jeep and stuck the key in the door lock. Not it.
He kept trying working his way down the row. By the fourth Jeep, the
dead were cresting the top of the knoll. Running out of time, Bob
stuck the key in the fifth Jeep, and it turned. Thank God. He hopped
in, shoved the key in the ignition and turned it. The Jeep started
right up. The dead were right on top of him, smashing their faces
against the Jeep’s windows. Bob heard the snapping of their teeth
and felt chills run down his spine when he looked into those blue
swirling eyes. Bob dropped the vehicle in reverse and spun his tires
backing out. He stopped while he watched the dead he had backed into,
work his way back to his feet.

Bob slammed the vehicle
into drive and put the pedal to the floor. The sound of the tires
spinning was muffled by the thumping of the bodies bouncing off the
hood. One of the dead smashed out the passenger-side window and was
clinging to the vehicle. The monster reached in clutching the seat,
pulling himself into the jeep. Bob swung his fist at the dead. He
took his foot off the accelerator and turned sideways, putting his
boot to the dead man’s head. The dead released his grip and fell
away. Bob looked forward in time to see the courtyard bike rack in
front of him. He jammed on the brakes but still hit the rack.
Bicycles flew in every direction.

Bob came to a sliding
stop with the bike rack still hung up under the bumper. He jumped
from the vehicle and headed toward the steel lab door. A few yards
away the door’s motor hummed. The steel bars retracted, and the
door opened. Bob ran in without slowing and fell against the back
wall, “Close it! Close it!” he screamed to MARIA. The door closed
and locked. Bob was still sitting on the floor when the speaker above
his head clicked. Sophie came over it. “Any problems, Bob?” He
looked up the speaker and just shook his head, “Nope! Just a walk
in the park.”

October 12th 8:07am

The three of us ran,
and we didn’t stop until we were back at my house. We saw a few
dead, but they had not yet massed into groups. I hit the code on my
parent’s door, and we all took up seats around the kitchen table.
Chevy helped himself to the fridge and passed out sodas and broke a
brick of sharp cheddar cheese into three pieces, “So where are you
from?” Chevy asked as he handed Sidara a part of the brick. “I’m
a student at Potsdam. They canceled all the classes, and a lot of
people left for home. My family is down in Virginia, and I didn’t
have a way to get there. I was trying to call my mom, so she could
wire me money for a bus ticket, but I couldn’t get hold of her.
Then things started going crazy. Everyone was sick, and the news said
drinking the water would help. Then I guess it was poisoned, and they
said don’t drink it. I just hung out in my room because I didn’t
want to get sick like everyone else. I ate a lot of microwave popcorn
and drank a lot of Coke. I finally left my room, and everyone had
gone crazy! They were attacking each other right in the street. I
figured it was a good time to get out of Dodge, so I boosted a car
and skinned out. I ran out of gas just outside of town.”

“So where did you get
all the Army gear?” I blurted out. Sidara looked down at her MOLLE
vest and rifle. “About ten miles outside of town, I found a wrecked
Humvee. That’s when I came across the dead soldier. It was in their
supplies.” Still thinking about my mom, I asked, “Was there a
woman in the Humvee?” Sidara shook her head no, “Like I said,
there was just the soldier, why?” I rubbed my temples. My head
started to throb. I wasn’t sure what was worse, the thought of my
mom not being there with the wrecked Humvee, or those guys still
having her. Chevy chirped up, “We’re looking for a Humvee too.
Last night, we saw a Humvee drive by us with two girls tied to the
back. At the time, we didn’t have any weapons, so we couldn’t
help them. After we got here, Mr. Smith said that the same guys took
Ty’s mom and the lady who lives across the street.”

"Who is Mr.
Smith?” Sidara questioned. “He lives a couple houses down. He’s
not infected.” Chevy having said it out loud made me think. Is that
what it was, infected?

Chevy picked up where
he left off, “So we’re gonna find those guys, kick some ass and
get Ty’s mom back! Oh, and Sarah too. That’s what we were doing
when we heard you being attacked.” Sidara looked at Chevy and Ty,
“I want to get back to Virginia, but I want to help you guys find
your mom first. So what was your plan?” Now realizing how bad it
had been, I told her, “We were gonna walk around until we found the
Humvee and then follow it back to their home base.” Sidara
chuckled, “And just, how did you expect to follow a vehicle on
foot?” A little embarrassed, I felt my cheeks turned red, “I
guess we hadn’t really thought that far ahead.” Sidara rolled her
eyes at me and giggled, “It’s a wonder you fools have made it
this long. We need to come up with something solid. If those guys are
driving around collecting women, they’re not going to be very happy
to see us. They’re also in a big Humvee. If we’re going to find
and follow them, we need a bad-ass vehicle. I mean something really
tough and rugged! It needs to have big tires to be able to run over
any of those dead things that get in our way. Do either of you know
where we can find a vehicle like that?” Chevy was smiling ear to
ear, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a single key connected
to an imitation rabbit’s foot. He dangled in front of Sidara as he
answered, “Yup!”

October 12th 10:20am

“Really? You want to
walk the three miles back to our apartment to pick up that stupid
truck?”

“Yup, you know you
love it.” Chevy said, knowing I’d never admit that his truck was
the perfect vehicle, “Okay, I’m not saying your truck is the best
choice, but…..I guess it will do in a pinch. What concerns me is
the trip back to our apartment. We have to get through the city
parking lot again. We almost got killed there last night, and the
dark helped cover us. There’s no way we’ll make it across in the
daylight.”

Chevy held up a finger,
implying Sidara, and I should wait. He walked into the laundry room
and out again. Chevy held up a chrome key chain that had the letters
R/T engraved in red. I said, “Don’t even think about it!”
Sidara looked at me, “What?” Thirty seconds later, we were
standing in front of the garage door. Chevy hit the button and the
garage door rose.

The three of us stood
there in anticipation. When the squeaking of the door stopped, I
spoke, “The 1970 Dodge Charger R/T. It’s got a 440 Magnum with a
six-pack of Edelbrock carbs, heavy-duty suspension, and three on the
tree. With its 390 horsepower motor, you could lift up the front end.
My father told me that if I was ever sitting behind the wheel of this
car, he had better be dead, or I would be.” Chevy glanced at me,
“Let’s hope that’s not the case,” and tossed me the key. I
sat behind the wheel and rubbed my thumbs against the leather
steering wheel. I turned the key, and the huge engine gurgled making
the car rock from side to side. I gingerly backed out of the driveway
into the street. The loud dual exhaust was already attracting the
dead. I dropped the car in first and inched down the street.

“Come on! Let’s see
the nuts on this thing!” Chevy yelled. “I don’t want to scratch
it.” I whimpered. “Are you kidding me? It’s the end of the
world! Go! Go! Go!” I could see the dead starting to come out from
every direction. I pushed my foot down on the accelerator, the engine
rumbled. As we sped up, I could feel the G’s pushing my body into
the seat. The dead in my rear-view mirror were shrinking in size. We
came to a red light that hadn’t lost power yet and stopped. I
watched the light for a few seconds, and then realized I was being
stared at by Chevy and Sidara. “What are you doing?” Chevy asked.
Without thinking I said, “I don’t want to get a ticket.”
Realizing how stupid that sounded, I stepped on the gas without
giving them a chance to respond. I took off, tires spinning and
waking the dead. Sidara leaned up from the back seat, “I’m not
sure where we’re going, but this thing is like an air siren leading
the dead right to us. We better ditch it a few blocks from your
apartment.” She was right. We couldn’t afford to lead them to
Chevy’s truck. I came up with a plan in my head. A couple blocks
from the apartment. I would crank this baby up to about 70, throw her
in neutral, and kill the engine. At that speed, we should carrying
enough momentum to coast us out of harm’s way. I followed my plan
and killed the engine. The only sound we heard was the rubber on the
pavement. As we slowed, I pulled the car over to the side of the
road, coasting to a stop. In the rear-view mirror, I could see the
dead gathering in the street, but they were confused and didn’t
know what had made the sound. We snuck out of the vehicle, and I led
the way. We were only one street over from our apartment. We jumped
through the same hedges we had hidden behind the night before, when
the girl with the broken leg was shot down in the street. We worked
our way to the front and hid between the bushes and house, “Looks
like it’s all clear.” Chevy said. I lifted a finger pointing,
“That’s the truck right there in front of our apartment. Be
careful when you turn the corner into the street. It’s pretty
slippery.” Chevy shot me an angry look, “You’re such a dick,
Ty!” I snickered at my own joke and asked Chevy, “How long does
it take to put the snowplow on your truck?” Chevy’s mouth opened,
“That’s great idea, Ty! It takes about a minute.”