The Death Trilogy (Book 1): The Death: Quarantine (12 page)

“See you then.”

Lori hung up the phone and stormed out of the cafeteria. She again had questions, but this time wanted real answers. How she’d get those, she was unsure, but she’d do whatever she could to get them.

Three Miles North of Reed, Illinois

The farmhouse looked abandoned from the road, but so did every house nowadays. There was only one way to find out, and that was to go knock.

To say Devin was nervous was an understatement. He had found himself leaning on Tess’s natural leadership since they had met almost a week ago, but now he had to be the one taking the lead.

“Brianna, you stay here with Brando and Tess. Let me go ahead,” he instructed her as he placed Tess softly on the ground.

Brianna nodded her agreement.

“Hide here, and don’t come out until I call for you,” he ordered her.

Devin waited till he felt they were secure before he left them in a clump of mature oak trees and brush thirty feet down the dirt road from the farmhouse driveway.

With Brianna, Tess and Brando tucked away, he carefully walked down the drive, his eyes scanning left to right, looking for anything that might be a threat. Walking up to any house or building could be dangerous and had to be done carefully. He reached the front deck without issue and looked around. Nothing gave him concern, so he quickly scaled the few steps and was on the deck. The front door was only five feet away, and he thought it prudent to just go up and knock. He cleared the five feet and went to knock when he heard the universal sound that sends chills up your spine and fear into your gut, the sound of a pump shotgun’s action.

“My name is Devin. I need help. My friend is wounded, and she needs antibiotics. Please help. I’m not here to do any harm,” he pleaded with his arms raised, showing he was not armed.

“Go away. We don’t want you around here,” a gruff male voice yelled.

“Please, we just need some antibiotics; you can toss them out to me. Something like Amoxicillin if you have any, please.”

“Get the hell out of here. We’re not a damn charity!” the man yelled again.

“Please.”

“Leave or I’ll fucking shoot ya.”

“Don’t shoot. I’m leaving,” Devin begged. He still hadn’t seen the man but knew he was near the corner of the deck to his right. A strong desire seized him, and he turned to face the direction the voice was coming from. “Sir, please, if you have anything to spare, it’s appreciated; I’m not here to harm you.” Devin caught a look at the man and the barrel of the shotgun. Just behind him, Devin caught a glimpse of a young boy, not more than six. The man was burly, and his face was covered in a reddish brown beard. His hair jutted out from underneath an old trucker’s cap, and his muscular arms flexed as he gripped the pump shotgun.

“Sir, I’m traveling with a woman and girl. She’s been shot, and the wound is infected. I don’t need anything else, just antibiotics if you have any to spare,” Devin said, now sounding like a broken record.

“Oh, Daryl, enough, the man seems scared and honest. Just give him a Z-pak or something,” a woman’s voice said from inside the house through an open window.

“Mary, stay out of this,” Daryl yelled.

“For heaven’s sake, he doesn’t look like he could hurt a fly,” Mary countered.

“Daryl, my name is Devin Chase. I’m Immune, and I didn’t come to harm you or your family.”

“How do I know that, huh? How do I know you don’t have a group of thugs around the corner?”

“If I had a group of thugs, I wouldn’t stand here. I would have approached with my little gang and wouldn’t have asked, I’d just start shooting. Believe me, I’ve run into those types; I’m not one of them.”

“Bring the girl here; let me see for myself,” Daryl responded, his tone lowered from before.

“Thank you, I’ll do that,” Devin answered, the smile on his face giving away the happiness he felt inside. Without second-guessing, he turned, jumped off the deck, and ran down the driveway towards their hiding spot. When he reached them, Tess had found some strength to sit up, but she was extremely weak.

“I found some help, but they want to see you first to prove I’m not lying.”

Tess didn’t say anything. She lifted up her arms in a sign she agreed.

He scooped her off the ground and began to walk back to the house.

Tess squeezed his arm.

He stopped and looked down at her.

She gathered enough strength to whisper, “Have Bri and Brando come, leave everything, but give her my pistol.”

“I told him—”

“You don’t know for sure what we’re getting into.”

Devin turned back and gave Brianna the instructions. She followed them to a tee by tucking the pistol in her waistband and ran up to them, Brando at her side.

“Let’s go get you healed,” Devin said and walked her to the house.

Halfway down the drive, Devin saw who he assumed was Mary standing at the top of the stairs.

“Bring her on in here,” Mary said as she stood back and opened the screen door.

Devin looked for Daryl but couldn’t see him anymore. He cleared the steps and entered the house.

Mary followed right behind and said, “Turn right, first door on the right. Lay her on the bed.”

Devin did just as she said.

Mary came to Tess’s bedside and asked, “Where’s the wound?”

Tess slowly lifted up her shirt.

“It’s infected, all right. Stay here, I’ll be right back,” she said and left the room.

Devin, Brianna and Brando were in the room watching over Tess, not sure what they should be doing.

Mary came back in with a box of medical supplies, a small bowl of water, and a glass of drinking water. She began to attend to Tess’s wound by cleaning it.

Daryl stepped into the doorway and said, “I wish to speak with you.”

“Sure,” Devin answered.

Both men walked outside, and Daryl didn’t wait to dictate just how things would be with them under his roof. He finished by warning Devin not to try anything. Devin agreed to all of his demands.

“Where you from?” Daryl asked.

“New York City.”

“You’re here all the way from New York?”

“Actually, no, I was in New York, ended up in Decatur six months ago. I was bunkered down in a farmhouse similar to this since mid-October until just last week. I’ve been walking since with Tess and the other girl, Brianna, who we saved from some bad people in Lovington.”

“You were just in Lovington?”

“Yes, three days ago.”

“Did you happen to see Turner’s Raiders?”

“I don’t know who that is, but we ran away from a small army of men with military equipment.”

“That’s them. Those bastards have been going across the countryside raping and pillaging. Some say they’ll be heading here soon.”

“I don’t know who they are or where they’re going; I would agree that they’re a bunch of bastards.”

“Give me the details. When did you see them? Had they just arrived? Where do you think they might be heading? How many?” Daryl asked.

“Three days ago, they had just arrived, they were terrorizing the survivors there, not sure where they’ll be heading, and I counted two dozen vehicles, tanks, and I’d guess about two hundred armed men.”

Devin could see fear in Daryl’s rugged bearded face.

“Here’s the deal. In exchange for taking care of your friend, I need you to come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’re coming into town with me. We’re going to warn the mayor; we have to make plans.”

Denver International Airport

Chancellor Horton dismissed his staff and cleared his calendar so he could be available for Lori. As he waited for her to arrive at his office, he cleaned himself up, brushed his teeth, and combed his thick hair.

The tap at his door alerted him to her arrival.

“It’s open. Come in,” he called out.

The heavy metal door opened, and Lori walked in.

He looked at her and could tell her emotions were again riding high. He found her hot temper somewhat amusing for a variety of reasons, one being that most people would find the circumstance she was in to be ideal and wouldn’t question a thing. While he found her stiff determination for the ‘truth’ to be humorous, he also found it and her enticing.

She stood at his desk and waited for him to offer her a seat.

Opening a small refrigerator that sat in the corner of his office, he asked, “Can I get you anything to drink? I have sodas, juice, beer, water, you name it.”

“I want answers, that’s what I want,” she barked.

“Mrs. Roberts, or can I call you Lori?”

“Is it true the first team assigned to this project was killed out at the site from an attack similar to the one we encountered the other day?”

He pulled a beer out, popped off the cap, and began to pour the amber-colored beer into a pint glass.

“Are you listening to me?”

He was listening and thoroughly enjoying her feistiness, but he knew he’d have to take control of this confrontation and quickly. If there was anything he’d learned in life, it was that he needed to show he was the one in control and had the leverage.

“Mrs. Roberts, please take a seat and calm down,” he said in a low tone as he motioned to the leather chair at the front of his desk.

“I won’t calm down until you start giving me answers.”

Now he was ready to show he had some bark and to establish he wasn’t going to be pushed around. “Mrs. Roberts, sit down, shut your mouth now. If you don’t, you can go pack your trash and go back to whatever little dirty camp you came from with no chance of ever leaving it again. Do I make myself clear?”

Lori’s eyes widened as she was taken aback by his forceful demeanor.

“Do I make myself clear? It’s a simple yes or no question. If you can’t answer it, then leave, I’ll have you on the first truck back to your camp.”

“Yes,” she answered and quickly sat down.

“Good, glad to hear it. Mrs. Roberts, we chose you to be a part of a valuable team, but don’t think that this is your place of business. You don’t own this, you don’t manage this, you don’t do anything unless we tell you to. You don’t demand anything. This is our project, and your expertises are well documented, but make no mistake, we will find someone else if you don’t work out, and I can say that you are now officially not working out.”

Lori began to regret her hotheaded behavior and was concerned it just might have gotten her into hot water. She was accustomed to being the boss and giving orders, not taking them.

“Chancellor, I apologize. I do wish to stay here and work on this project. To be honest, I’m just…scared. I don’t like uncertainty, and I hate not knowing everything.”

“Mrs. Roberts, get used to it. There are thousands of people out there in camps from Canada to Mexico and points in between that would take your job with no complaints in a heartbeat. Some of those out there are architects like you, albeit not as good, but people we can work with. Talent can only get you so far; you need to be able to play with a team. If you can’t, you become a problem not a problem solver. We already have enough on our plate; we don’t need high-maintenance people demanding things all the time.”

Lori was really scared that she had destroyed her one opportunity to get her family to Camp Sierra. Sensing this, she began to beg, “Please, Chancellor, I’m truly sorry. I am, really.”

Horton loved the groveling and begging. His plan had worked; he had the leverage and was now applying the pressure to get whatever he wanted, including her, if that was an option.

“Mrs. Roberts, I’m happy to hear you understand. So, now that you’re calm, what is it I can help you with?” he asked as he sat down finally and took a drink of beer.

Lori thought and had now changed her mind. He was right; she had no stature to be demanding things, especially when they had been nothing but good to her.

“Never mind, I know you’re busy, and to be honest, I don’t want to make you mad again.”

“That’s passed, and I think you understand that yelling and demanding doesn’t work with me. I operate better when someone talks, and respectfully.”

“Was there a team working this project before us?”

“Yes, they were murdered by the Scraps in an attack that was similar to the one the other day. This is why Chance had an Osprey this time with armament and why he decided to leave Maggie instead of risking the entire crew.”

“His decision now makes sense when I have some context.”

“Is there anything else?”

“No, that’s it.”

“Are you sure I can’t get you a drink, something? Maybe a beer will take the edge off.”

“No sir, I’m fine. I apologize for bothering you and for my immature outburst. It wasn’t right, and it’s not professional. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“It’s all forgiven. Don’t worry about it.”

She stood and headed back to the door when he stopped her, “Mrs. Roberts?”

Facing him, she said, “Yes.”

“Will you have dinner with me, say tomorrow night? You might have more questions, and I promise to answer all of them.”

Lori didn’t know how to take this, but after just being threatened with what could amount to exile, she didn’t think she had a choice. “I’ll have dinner with you. What time?”

“Let’s do seven thirty, in my quarters.”

Again she wanted to say no but couldn’t. “That’s great, thank you. See you tomorrow.”

“Have a good day, Mrs. Roberts.”

Lori said her goodbyes and left. She couldn’t get out of his presence fast enough. A strange pressure began to emanate from her chest bone, and her breathing became shallow. A fear began to come over her as she imagined she was having a heart attack. Needing a place to sit, she plopped down in the first chair she found and laid back with her hands on her chest. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she imagined this was it for her, she had screwed up her family’s chance, and now the stress had resulted in a heart attack.

Minutes went by and the pain subsided. She steadied her breathing and chalked it up to an anxiety attack.

Feeling better and with a strong desire to go hide, she fled out of the executive office space and back to her quarters.

Reed, Illinois