Affliction Z: Abandoned Hope (Post Apocalyptic Thriller) (12 page)

Sean rose and went to the gun cabinet. He retrieved an M9
and two spare clips. A bit much, given the circumstances, but he had no idea
who was watching and who might have followed Kathy. He also retrieved one of
the six gas masks he had stored in the cabinet. He went to the front door,
stopped, turned and walked back to Emma’s room. He tapped against the door.

“Yeah?” she said.

“I have to check something in the tunnel. One of the cameras
is acting up.”

The door swung open and a concerned Emma stepped out from
the shadows. She glanced at the gas mask in his hand. “Don’t go, Dad.”

“Em, it’s okay. I’ll only be gone for a few minutes. Bring
Marley in the room with you and I’ll come get him when I’m done.”

She stood motionless for a minute, as if the words had not
registered. Finally, she nodded and called for the dog to join her. Marley ran
into her room with his tail wagging. Sean pulled the door shut and exhaled.

He checked the computer one last time, switching to the
camera at the entrance. No one was there, but the screen indicated that the
door had been opened. Kathy was underground. Before locking the system, he shut
off the emergency lights that lined the passage. He hoped the sickness didn’t
make her any more adapted to the dark than him.

Sean exited the bunker and made his way toward the barn. He
slipped the gas mask over his face. In his right hand, he held an M9. In his
left was a flashlight. He extended both, aiming them into the darkness. The gas
mask dulled his senses, but he couldn’t take the risk of contracting the virus
when he found his wife.

Shadows jumped out at him every step he took. His heart
raced. It felt like a ton of bricks rested atop his chest. He used to live for
excitement and danger and the rush of adrenaline. Now he wondered how the hell
he’d get by in this new world.

Halfway between the bunker and the barn, he heard her
calling out his name. She must have been a considerable distance from the tunnel
entrance when he cut the lights and become had disoriented in the dark.

“Sean,” she called out repeatedly.

He continued forward, flashlight and handgun leading the
way. He did not rush to find her. Deep down, Sean hoped that she’d gather her
bearings and turn around. If only she knew the danger she was putting her
family in. But how could she? The virus had taken hold of her. Her ability to
think rationally had been swallowed by the monster that struggled to grow and
overtake her.

Eventually the calls stopped. Had she found her way out?
While there were cameras installed in the hallway, the entire area was not
covered. She could have lain down and fallen asleep. He had to press forward
and verify that she had left.

Not much further, he heard her crying. His light fell over
her. She sat on the floor, her knees drawn to her chest and her face pressed
against her legs. He took a few more steps forward, and then cleared his
throat. She lifted her head and turned toward him.

“Sean?” She brought her hand to her face to shield her eyes.
“Is that you?”

“Don’t move, Kathy.”

She pushed herself off the floor and started toward him.

“I’m armed, and I’ll shoot.”

She stopped cold and lifted her hands over her head. Her
eyelids were clenched shut. Her face twisted into a pained expression.

“You don’t… you don’t have to hold your hands up. Kathy, I
don’t want to do this. You’re sick. This is highly contagious. If I get sick,
Emma could get sick. We could all die. I can’t let that happen.”

“Only to me.”

He lowered his weapon and walked toward her, stopping five
feet away. He set the flashlight on the floor, aimed toward the ceiling. It
provided enough light that they could see each other.

She wiped her upper lip and nose with the back of her hand.
“So it was real.”

Sean nodded and said nothing.

“All those years, I thought you were crazy.”

“Why’d you stay around?”

“I guess because I believed that you could become the man
you were.”

“Did I?”

“Yeah,” she said, “mostly.”

He smiled. “I can live with mostly.”

“So can I. Or I could, at least. Not looking so good now, is
it?”

He shook his head and cast his gaze down toward the floor.

She leaned against the wall, took a deep breath, and said,
“I found a gun inside.”

“I know.”

“I’m thinking about using it on myself.”

Sean tried to reply, but it felt as though his throat had
constricted to the size of a pin.

“I don’t know if I can, though. I guess I’m still holding
out hope that this’ll pass. Kinda like the flu, you know?”

Sean forced himself to nod.

“That’s not going to happen, though, is it?”

“No, Kathy. It’s not.”

“Kill me, Sean.” She stepped into the middle of the hallway,
arms stretched wide.

Sean had seen things he could never recount to another soul.
He’d done things in battle that he wished he hadn’t. His moral boundaries had
been stretched, willingly, and usually to save those he vowed to protect. But
this was something he could not do, no matter who it might save, and whose pain
it would end.

“Please,” she said.

“I can’t.”

She stood motionless for a long stretch. Finally, she dropped
her arms to her side and took a few steps backward. “Can I stay down here?”

He nodded. “You’ll have to get what you need from the
house.”

“Including a flashlight.” She smiled. He thought she looked
peaceful. The moment did not last, though, as she broke into a coughing fit.

“I’ll lead you to the barn,” he said, picking the flashlight
off the floor. They walked ten feet apart, Kathy in front. She slipped through
the open doorway. Sean hid his displeasure at her having left it open. If
anyone had followed, they could have found their way down there and already
retreated to gather more manpower.

“Be back in a minute,” she said.

“I’ll be here,” he said. “Cover your tracks, okay?”

And she did. After she pulled herself through the hatch, she
covered it. A few seconds later, he heard the barn door close. He counted off
thirty seconds, and then he closed the tunnel door and engaged the lock. Using
a screwdriver, he removed the panel from the wall, revealing another keypad. He
input a master code, one that only he knew, and changed the password. Sean
crouched in front of the door for a few minutes, contemplating the action he
had taken. What he had done had effectively sealed his wife out, leaving her to
deal with the harsh realities of her condition all by herself.

Five minutes later, he stood outside of the bunker. He
removed his clothing and the gas mask and placed them, the flashlight, and the
pistol inside a contamination bag, which he left on the ground. Tears had begun
to cloud his vision, and his guilt over stranding his wife had begun to cloud
his judgment.

He opened the door to the bunker. Barbara sat on the couch.
Her face showed her fear. He looked at her, then at the computer. The camera
focused on the barn exit. Somehow she had unlocked the system.

“How much did you see?” he asked.

She stared up at him. Her eyes were wide. She licked her
lips and opened her mouth to speak, but barely managed to get an audible sound
out.

“She’s sick, Barb. There’s nothing we can do for her. She
made her way down here, putting all of us at risk. Do you understand?”

Barbara nodded slowly and unconvincingly.

“Don’t tell Emma. No matter what you do, don’t mention it to
her.”

Barbara nodded again, this time with more conviction.

Only then did Sean realize he stood naked in front of the
woman. He brought his hands up and apologized and headed toward the bathroom to
get a shower. He washed, then changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt he
had underneath the sink. By the time he returned to the main area, Barbara was
gone. Sean stood outside of her door, his fist raised and ready to knock. But
he didn’t. Instead, he unlocked and opened the gun cabinet. The bottom drawer
had a combination lock. He entered the correct code, opened it, and pulled out
a bottle of 151. He retrieved it and walked over the kitchen area and found a
shot glass. He brought the glass and the bottle to his computer desk.

The image on the screen remained unchanged. Sean cycled
through the cameras, starting inside the house. Room by room, he verified his
home was empty. He checked the garage, then the perimeter of the property. He
did not see Kathy in any of the feeds. Finally, he selected the barn feed. The
hatch was closed, as was the barn door. He threw back his third shot of 151,
wincing at the burn in his throat. Then he selected the camera positioned on
the other side of the barn passage door.

Kathy was there. She pounded against the door. Her mouth
opened wide over and over again. He didn’t need to be a lip reader to know that
she called out his name.

Sean took another shot, and then another. He lost track
after ten. All the while, he watched as his tormented wife relentlessly tried
to regain access to the passage. When he could take no more, he exited out of
the feed, changed his computer password, and then locked the machine. He
brought the bottle and shot glass with him to the couch. But he’d drink no more
that night. The moment his head hit his pillow, he passed out.

The cold air bit at Addison, causing her to sink deeper into
her sleeping bag. The first traces of light filtered through the tent. She
glanced around at faces she shared the structure with. Four women, all alone,
ranging from ages fifteen to forty, had become her roommates. Despite living
with them for a week, she still couldn’t remember their names. But it wasn’t
like she made an effort to get to know them. The first opportunity she got,
Addison was going to make a break for it.

The rest of the community did their best to help her
integrate to their way of life. They worked throughout the day, preparing food
for winter and constructing houses. Addison had been assigned as a digger for
the next structure, which meant from eight in the morning until sunset she held
a shovel and carried scoop after scoop of dirt up a ramp. They were smart, she
thought, building the structures in this manner. The house portion, while
useless from what she had seen from the completed buildings, provided a sense
of normalcy. Everyone would live below ground. Sealed off from the world should
those things she saw on TV make their way to the small community.

It turned out that Phil was the leader of the group. His
reach was wide, but only a small percentage actually made it to the compound.
They considered it their mission to keep humanity going, and to eliminate any
shred of evidence of the sick. That was why they had burned an entire community
to the ground.

How many innocents had died at their hands that day?

Addison shuddered and pushed the thoughts aside.

Aware that she would not fall back to sleep, Addison
unzipped her sleeping bag and rolled out of it. Quietly, she slipped on her
shoes and crept toward the front of the tent. She pulled back the flap and
stepped outside. The frost-covered ground reflected the early morning sun’s
rays, sparkling like diamonds. The patrol to her right looked in her direction.
His eyes didn’t linger long. He went back to watching the tree line. She’d
learned that the four men she saw were only the beginning. There were also four
positioned in the woods at all times. To escape, she’d have to get past them,
and as it stood, she had no idea where they were located. At some point, she
wouldn’t care. And then, she’d take her chances. For now, though, she had to
stick to the status quo and do as told.

She made her way to the main house for breakfast and coffee.
The ground crunched under her feet. She couldn’t recall a frost this early.

Would it be an early winter, or a particularly harsh one?
How would they survive?

She’d never roughed it in her life. Constant heat was taken
for granted, as was a roof over her head. There wasn’t enough room for everyone
inside the structures that were close to being completed.

Would the rest be forced to sleep outside?

She pulled the heavy wooden door open and stepped into the
room. The fire in the fireplace cast an orange glow across the room and
provided ample warmth. Addison shrugged off her coat and draped it over her
forearm. She walked toward the food table. Eggs and bacon were the meal of the
morning, just like every other morning that week. She wondered if they had
chickens and pigs somewhere, or was this what they had managed to pilfer from a
grocery store? She had seen no livestock, but that didn’t mean they didn’t keep
them elsewhere in an effort to keep predators away from the camp.

Addison grabbed a plate and scooped scrambled eggs onto it.
She grabbed four pieces of bacon. She used a ladle to fill a mug with lukewarm
coffee. She’d never been a big fan of the stuff, and never would have
considered drinking it at this temperature. But this was not a time to be
picky. The beverage provided the jolt she needed to get her day started.

There were few others in the room, which left plenty of
tables unoccupied. She sat at one in the corner, away from the others. Her
solitude would not last long, though. A woman close to her age sat down across
from her without trepidation.

“Hi,” the woman said. “Name’s Jenny.”

Addison nodded and looked down at her plate, hoping that
Jenny and her country twang would get up and leave.

“You got a name?” Jenny asked.

“Addison,” she said through a mouthful of eggs. A small
piece fell and landed on her hand. She flicked her wrist and brushed it off the
table.

“I never seen you before now. How’d you get involved?”

Addison set her fork down, swallowed the eggs and took a sip
of coffee. Through it all, the woman across her did not move. She didn’t put
food in her mouth or drink from her mug. She appeared to have no plans of
leaving, so Addison decided to go along with the conversation.

“I was never involved, as you put it. I was on the road,
trying to get out of town. Those two behemoths stopped me and forced me to come
here at gun point.”

Jenny lowered her head a little, looking ashamed. “Which two
did that?”

“Ralph and Phil. They didn’t do anything to me. I mean,
apart from the kidnapping thing. It’s not like they touched me or even acted
like they were going to. But still, they forced me against my will to come
here.”

“Where were you going?”

Addison paused for a moment before responding. She took
another drink from her mug and shifted her gaze around the room. No one
appeared to be listening in on their conversation, but she still wasn’t sure
how much information to divulge to the young woman.

“I was going to my grandparents,” she said. “They live in
North Carolina, north of Charlotte.”

Jenny’s eyebrows rose into her forehead. “You were going to
ride a bike to Charlotte in the middle of all this?”

Addison sat back and folded her arms across her chest. “How
did you know I was on a bike?”

Jenny chewed on her bottom lip for a few seconds. She looked
over her shoulder, presumably to see who was in the room. “I’m sorry about my
father. He takes this seriously.” She leaned forward, placing her elbows on the
table and her hands in the air in front of her face. “As he should. I know this
is important. The world is going down the shitter, Addison. The last reports I
saw, well, let’s just say that most people are dead or dying. Those that are
left, it’s gonna be a race to see who can grow the fastest. He who is strongest
shall outlast all the others. That’s what Daddy says all the time.”

“Which one is your father?” Addison asked.

“Phil.”

Addison struggled to see the resemblance. She also realized
she should say little else, if anything at all, to Jenny.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Jenny said. “You can trust
me.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re father abducts me at
gunpoint and you think I should just trust you?”

“I don’t like what they did to you, forcing you to come
here. I believe in his heart, he thought he was helping you. Maybe he saw me
when he looked at you. I know if I were out there alone, he’d want someone to
reach out and take care of me.”

“Reaching out and helping is one thing. Jamming a rifle into
my back and forcing me into a pickup truck is straight up creepy.”

Jenny looked down at the table. “I’m not disagreeing with
you, Addison. I’m not. But look, you’re in this situation now. You need to
figure out how to make the best of it, ‘cause this is life, Babe. My dad
listens to me. Somewhat, at least. If we become friends, you and I, I can get
you some benefits and privileges around here. Get you out of that tent and off
digging duty. Wouldn’t you like that?”

“Why should I believe you?”

“You ever seen me around here before?” She paused, but
Addison did not answer. “Ever seen me digging in that hole, or sleeping in a
tent? Hell, ever seen me eating in here before now?”

Addison shook her head.

“I only came in here this morning because I saw that you
had.”

Addison studied the woman for a moment. She looked
believable, but something nagged at the back of her mind. “What’s in this for
you?”

Jenny reached across the table, grabbed a hold of Addison’s
hand and squeezed it. “Companionship. I’m alone here. The others don’t interact
with me. They think I’m spoiled. They’re right, you know. But it’s not like
anyone else is running around my cabin to keep me company.”

“So the moment I become your friend, they’ll all shun me,
too?”

Jenny nodded and then looked away, perhaps feeling defeated.
After all, it wasn’t the best proposition for someone who wanted to be a part
of the community.

“Fine, I’ll do it. Tell him we’re best friends and get me
out of that damn hole.”

“It’s not going to be that simple,” Jenny said. “But we can
start by—”

The door burst open. The light that filled the room was
quickly blocked out by Phil’s wide frame.

“Jenny,” he said. “Get away from her.”

The young woman’s eyes watered over. She sat motionless,
defying her father’s orders.

Phil lumbered over to the table. He glanced down at Addison
and said, “Don’t let my stepdaughter poison your thoughts. She’s worthless,
that’s why no one will associate with her. I only keep her around because of a
promise I made to her mother while she lay on her deathbed. At some point,
Jenny here will need to take care of herself, and I figure that’s when nature
will take its course.”

Addison broke the stare between Phil and her and shifted her
gaze to Jenny, who now had tears streaming down her cheeks. The woman refused
to make eye contact and had released her grip on Addison’s hand.

“Get up and get back to the cabin,” Phil said. “And don’t
let me see you around this girl again.” He hovered over the table while Jenny
pushed back in her chair and stood up. She looked at him for a moment, then
turned and left the room. “As for you,” he said to Addison. “Finish your
breakfast and get to work. You’ll be wanting that building to be done a month
from now.”

Addison glanced down at her plate and began scooping
forkfuls of eggs into her mouth. The desire to leave the camp had never been
greater, not even on her first night there. She gulped down the remaining
coffee and then put on her jacket. She brought her plate to the table in the
corner where everyone stacked their dirty dishes. Leftover eggs and bacon
littered the floor. Addison dropped her plate, but that was it. She tucked the
fork in her waistband and the mug inside her zipped up jacket.

As she turned, she noted that not a single person in the
room looked in her direction. Her shunning had already begun.

For what? Jenny sitting at her table?

Maybe they were all embarrassed to have her witness how they
really operated. End of the world or not, people were still people, not cogs in
a machine.

She passed through the room and pushed the door open. The
air hit her face, cooling her flushed cheeks. The bright sunlight hampered her
vision. She had no idea who, if anyone, stood in front of her. And she didn’t
care. Addison turned left and continued along the front of the building. Her
eyes adjusted. She took a quick glance to her right and behind her. No one
followed, and it didn’t appear that anyone watched her. At the corner of the
building, she turned left again. Here, she had the woods to her immediate
right. She pressed against the structure and took three deep breaths. With one
last look to her left and her right, she lunged forward and dove to the ground.
The grass felt damp and smelled sweet. It had been a long time since she had
laid down in the grass. And that was under much different circumstances.

She crawled toward the woods, now just a few feet away. She
didn’t stop once she passed the first few trees. Sticks and undergrowth tugged
at her clothing and scratched her arms, legs and stomach. The pain did not
hinder her movements. After a few minutes, she rose to her hands and knees and
crawled on all fours. When she finally came to a halt, she glanced back. She
could no longer see the building where she had eaten breakfast.

As best she could, Addison traveled in a straight line. From
this point, she could continue in the direction she had crawled, or turn left.
Going any other way would bring her too close to the camp.

A twig snapped behind her. She scooted toward the closest
tree. It wasn’t the biggest, but if she turned sideways, it hid her from view.

Another twig snapped, this time closer. She reached for the
fork in her waistband, but it wasn’t there. She patted her legs and lifted her
pants. She’d lost her weapon while crawling along the forest floor. As she
straightened up, she felt the heavy ceramic mug inside her jacket pressing
against her side. She slowly unzipped her jacket and reached for the cup.

Whatever was out there was no longer moving. That, or she’d
not heard its last steps. Addison leaned to her right, using the tree for
support, and took in the area. There was nothing there. She convinced herself
that she’d heard a squirrel or raccoon. It didn’t matter what it was, though.
She had to get moving. Staying in one spot was asking to be found. That was the
thing to do when lost, not when trying to escape.

She faced the direction she’d been heading and turned left.
West, she presumed. Not the ideal direction, as it would ultimately take her
into the mountains. She didn’t plan on pursuing the path for long. Once far
enough from the camp, she’d circle around in an attempt to find the road. Any
road, for that matter.

Addison began walking, cautiously at first, and taking in
the sights and sounds. Nothing seemed out of place. The forest floor was
littered with dead leaves and twigs and branches. A few of the trees had
already begun to turn. Their leaves were varying shades of red and gold. No one
would drive through the mountains to enjoy them this year. The world would
never be the same.

She picked up her pace. Someone would have noticed she
wasn’t where she was supposed to be by this point. They would soon begin
looking for her. She had to distance herself.