U.G.L.Y (29 page)

It gave me something to focus on. The crossed images of Eve were still haunting me. Once I got a fire going I sat quietly and stared into the flames. I forced myself to daydream.

I remembered staring into the flames of a fire when I was a boy. Playing out the adventures of Indiana Jones on the charred wood and ashes. It gave me comfort then, and now as I faded into thought, I began to play out a childhood adventure.

     “Hi” that soft sullen voice was behind me as I stared into the fire. “I'm
Sofia
”.

“Hi” I responded. “I'm
Duncan
” She sat next me and stared into the fire.

“I heard some of what you had said to the Major about how you and your friend had gotten here” she looked at me “ I'm sorry you didn't find your kids, do you think their safe?”

She had heard me describing my escape from home and my description of the previous days search for my kids.

“I hope so, my ex-wife and her sister were gone when I got to Tahoe. Hopefully they found somewhere safe to go”

“I lost my kids to, but mine are dead” She said sadly.

I looked over at her and saw a tear run down her cheek.

“I'm sorry
Sofia
” I said

“Thank you” she said, she leaned into my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her and she began to cry. We were all feeling the need for comfort, probably even the Marines. Everyone was in shock.

     When she settled again, I asked her how she had gotten here. She told me about how she worked for the CDC and was on assignment in the
Seattle
area when the first wave had broken out. Her family, her husband and two kids were in a suburb of
Los Angeles
. They were in an area that was hit early on by the contaminated water supply.

She had been on the phone with her husband when they were overtaken. They had fallen ill and he was describing their symptoms to her when the front door was broken down and they were overrun. She heard them being attacked, and she heard them die. She didn't go back, and stayed in
Seattle
to grieve.

As the night went on we lightened our moods by talking about our backgrounds and our childhoods. I was beginning to feel very comfortable being next to her. We shared the difficult things from our lives and the wonderful things. She spoke very highly of her husband, she had loved him. She missed him.

     We lay on the floor next to each other in front of the fire and I pretended we were on a camping trip. I talked about my interest in astronomy and the constellations. She talked about growing up in the south and summer nights catching fire flies and listening to bull frogs. She talked about her parents moving to the
US
from Coasta Rica. For a moment I forgot about what was happening, my fear melted away and I fell asleep.

29
.

-Marauders-

     “
Duncan
!!” I opened my eyes to see Levitt crouching over me “ Wake up, we have company”. He turned to
Sofia
and lightly shook her awake. “Come on my dear, its time to get moving”.

Outside the detention center a group of people that were not infected, had gathered. They weren’t looking for help. They were well armed and had military vehicles. They were threatening to take the detention center by force.

     It was still dark and away from the fire it was cold. I made my way over to a small office that Levitt had taken over to see what was happening.

“In the last few days we have crossed paths with some groups of survivors looking for supplies” Levitt announced to his men gathered in the office. “Outside this building a group of armed men have gathered and they are demanding access to our little refuge here. They are not military but it looks like they have either found equipment and weapons or have overtaken a military unit. Regardless I think we need to consider them potentially dangerous and heavily armed”

“Hey”
Sofia
touched my arm “Want some coffee?” she handed me a tin cup of steaming hot coffee.

     Levitt continued “We do not have the resources to fight these guys off. Even though its likely they don't have the experience or training to gain access to the building, we are not going to take them on. We are short of ammunition and food supplies. This is not a target worth protecting. We have easy access to our vehicles and a way out. We will avoid confrontation and move out within the hour. Let them have it”

     I found major Levitt to be a calm and level headed leader. He was making good decisions and he didn't seem to get rattled. His people were behind him, and they didn't argue or groan when he gave an order. If they had anything to say he would talk to them, get their input and make adjustments if the majority felt the same.

30
.

-Exodus-

     We were ready to move within 20 minutes. I gathered up the things I had left. Then I ran and joined the others at the staging area behind the main kitchen of the detention center.

     There were several rows of canned foods still stored in the area. Mostly stews, canned vegetables, and canned fruit. We were ready to evacuate, with several cases of food staged along side all the other gear. Hopefully we would be given enough time to load everything we had stacked into the vehicles that were waiting in an underground parking structure below the detention center.

     “Let me have your attention folks” Levitt said to the group. “I am going to go to the roof and announce our departure to our gathering audience. I will even go so far as to allow them access by dropping a set of keys to the outside door.”

We all looked at him with tilted expressions. Why would he give them access to the building?

“ Diversion” he said with a smirk on his face, “the objective is to get them to make as much noise as possible on the opposite side of the building from our escape path.”

      Levitt climbed to the roof of the building and joined the two marines keeping a vigil over the large group of marauders that had filled the alley. As Levitt had hoped, they were beginning to attract the attention of hosts that were now gathering outside the closed alley gates. They were hungry and angry and the gates were beginning to sway.

“Hey fellas, hows it looking?” Levitt said to the men on the roof.

“These guys are getting antsy and they want in pretty bad.”

“Lets give them what they want” He said, then quickly detailed his plan. “Let me have that bullhorn”.

     Levitt cleared his throat, raised the bullhorn to his lips and spoke.

     “ladies and gentleman.” The crowd quieted enough to hear him. My name is Major Steven Levitt, I am commander of a medical transport unit. We are temporarily occupying this location and have decided to grant your group access. I will be dropping a set of keys that were recovered from the interior to you. There will be a key to the outside door on this keyring.”

He stopped long enough to listen to some protesting and threats yelled back. They were demanding to be let in from the inside.

“You will forgive us for allowing ourselves enough time to evacuate before you enter the building.” He said to the angry mob. “good luck to you all”. He tossed the ring of keys into the alley.

     Levitt and his men ran at full sprint to the roof access door and headed down the stars to the staging area. Access to the parking area was through two large sliding doors that opened onto a loading dock. Two marines stood ready to open these doors on command as Major Levitt and his entourage came running into the room.

“Lets go!!” He yelled. We grabbed everything we could. I swung my pack over my shoulder and grabbed two cases of canned stew. My back twinged as I started to run towards the first vehicle I could see.

     While we were making our way through the parking structure in the alley, the marauders on the other side of the building were frantically trying to find a key on the key ring that Levitt had dropped to open the outside door. They were under attack now. The hosts had broken down the gates on both ends of the alley, as the number of hosts had grown into the thousands. They had set up a firing line on either side of the group facing the fences with several vehicles topped with 50 caliber machine guns.

But they were overrun before they could reload after their first volley, and within only 15 minutes the entire group was killed. Few were turned, most were torn apart and fed on. The hosts were becoming more violent as the day passed. It seemed like they were feeding more frequently on the uninfected than at first.

     The slaughter of the marauders gave us enough time to load up our vehicles. As the caravan of five Humvee's and one large transport truck began its slow movement towards the light of the open street, we could see shadows moving quickly past the entrance to the parking area. Thousands of hosts were running towards the open alley down the block, running to feed on the overwhelmed humans in the alley. The lead vehicle increased its speed and the caravan slipped one by one out into the street. There were some hosts in the way but the lead Humvee rolled right over them, clearing a way for the rest of the vehicles.

     As we drove out of the city we watched hundreds more hosts run towards the open alley. I imagined a feeding frenzy with thousands of infected bodies piled on top of each other. Fighting for the last scraps of human flesh.

After a short drive the lead vehicle pulled into a field on the top of a bluff overlooking the city and the sea beyond. From this vantage point we could clearly see the smoke rising from the detention center located downtown, near the wharf.

     “It looks like the entire building went up.” Levitt said, in a sullen tone. “I left those poor bastards as bait.”

I looked over at him “They would have killed us and taken our supplies” I said.

“I know” He pulled a cigar out of his pocket and ran it under his nose, “I know they would have. This is how we survive from here on.” He looked somberly at the cigar in his hand. “I don't have to like it though.”

     His thoughtful and sorrowful reflection of what had just occurred struck me in a way I hadn't expected. Till now I had been running and surviving. Hit hard by what I had seen and what I had lost. I was continuing to lose people I had loved. Even in Eve's case, the connection with her was unintentional but it was clearly there and her death was so traumatic and gruesome I felt it in my bones. This was how we survived from now on. We sacrificed others to live. Levitt had pointed out to me that we were losing our humanity.

31
.

-Encampment-

     The camp was large, there were 20 or more tents set up across the field. There was a mess tent, sleeping quarters, and a medical tent with hot showers. It was a small mobile city.

Levitt's group that had ventured into town, was relativity small, maybe ten marines. In the camp there had to be 100 marines, Navy and Army personnel. This was all that was left of more than  four hundred military personnel that were transporting the sick from
Seattle
.

After we arrived, I looked around for a place to settle in. Levitt pointed me towards one of the sleeping tents and told me I could drop off my things and get some food. When I was done, I was to make my way over to the command tent were he would show me all the data they had collected over the last couple of days. We had a short talk about our backgrounds and he thought I might have some incite on what was happening because of my research history.

He wasn't wrong. After the first wave had hit I had done a lot of independent research on the fungus strain that had contaminated the drug that was put into the water supply.

     I had surmised that it wasn't the drug itself but rather a combination of the location of manufacturing and the delivery method that was used. The combination of the two had created a leap in evolution for the fungus.

The drug company had used H-pylori bacteria as a delivery method for the drug. A live bacteria that had acted as a catalyst for ingestion into the digestive tract. My research had led me to believe that the bacteria had also provided a means for the fungus to survive in the human gut long enough to adapt to our physiology.

At first the adaptation would cause a psychotic reaction which would lead to an event like the first wave. But with the ill, the time it took to turn, gave the fungus enough time to adapt and find a method of propagation. This made a human turn into a mindless monster, with the sole purpose of feeding to pass spores onto the next host.

     Levitt and I talked for several hours and as the discussion moved along, other senior members of the camp began to gather in the command tent. A plan of attack quickly came together and by nightfall the whole camp had orders to pack up first thing in the morning.

Morning was too late. As the sun began to set thousands of hosts entered the field. There was no running, we heard no screeches to warn us. In a matter of minutes the entire camp was overrun. I didn’t remember very much from the attack. almost as soon as I heard the first explosion I was knocked unconscious by a blast from an exploding vehicle.