August Burning (Book 1): Outbreak (8 page)

A young manager approached the scene,
smiling nervously. “Ok everyone, lets just keep calm here. Cindy, what seems to
be the issue?”

The cashier leaned on one hip and
dropped her hand to her waist, so that she suddenly became instantly more
irritable to Harley’s furious hazel eyes. “Ummm, this girl just stole some
toothpaste, and ummm, some mouthwash.”

“Your worker is taking forever to bag
this stuff!” Harley shrieked, her voice capturing the attention of every
sweating cashier in the line.

Suddenly, a hooded man burst through
an empty lane, his arms stuffed with cleaning supplies and magazines.

“Hey! Hey wait!” The sweaty manager
raised a little hand in protest, her tiny body barely visible over the
register.

Harley looked down to another
register. A chubby woman in a ridiculously patterned sweater snarled and
snatched her final items from the belt, before charging towards the exit.

“No! Stop!”

Harley felt herself being pushed from
behind by the pudgy sweating man. She heard a baby crying desperately. “Move.
Just go!” the man whispered feverishly. Harley’s mind revolted in panic. He
began pushing harder, his bulging gut pressing violently against the bare skin
of her lower back. “Go!” She saw blurry shapes rushing for the exit, little
toothbrushes and floss boxes scattering to the floor.

“Harley!” Elvis shouldered his way to
the front, clutching a few more boxes of multivitamins. He stood a full foot
shorter than the fat man behind her, but his eyes were all fire. Elvis dropped
his shoulder and heaved into the fat man. Despite the man’s obvious size, he was
caught totally off guard. The creature shrieked like some overweight harpy, and
tumbled down the aisle, knocking over two-dozen boxes of gum. Elvis’s eyes
swept over the scene. The manager had already bolted off to try and chase
someone down. The cashier backed slowly away as more and more people made for
the exit in a mad dash. Elvis shook his head angrily. “Go. Ok, just go. Go!” He
gritted his teeth and applied a little pressure on the small of her back.
Harley felt a wave of gratitude as she looked at the shorter man guiding her
away. Where had that fire been all this time? They snatched whatever items
remained on the belt and made for the doors in a hurry.

Liam peered at his phone, reading as
they walked. “The school is urging us to remain in contact with our parents and
not to panic. They say...it’s better to remain here than to make any rash
decisions before we all know what’s going on….Sounds like they have no idea.”

“Sounds like a bad idea, is what it
sounds like.” Jaxton said. They had filled an entire shopping cart with canned
foods and then stolen it. It clattered on the sidewalk. People stared as they
passed, but no one said a word. He struggled for a second to turn the heavy
cart around a group of students screaming and arguing. Jaxton frowned. Nerves
were only fraying further.

“What do you mean? What else is
there?”

“If this shit keeps on spiraling out
of control, we need to leave.”

“Jax. And go where?” Tessa’s voice had
no mockery in it.

Jax looked at Liam with his eyebrows
raised.

“Home? Are you crazy?”

“How many of us have houses there?
Know the terrain? Where else would our families expect to find us?”

Liam scoffed. “Here!”

Jax continued, his mind working
effortlessly despite the feverish exhaustion that consumed them all. “If this
gets any worse, they’ll evacuate this entire area. And then we might never see
our families! Who knows how bad this is going to get.”

“We don’t even know what it
is
, Jax,” Liam argued earnestly.

Tessa cut him off. “There’s an
infection. Let’s stop pretending everything might be alright. The military blew
the fucking bridges into Manhattan. The Army sends wave after wave of soldiers
into that blackout zone and nothing ever comes back out. They wanted to trap
the people on that island. We have no way of knowing if it worked.”

Jax felt a sudden appreciation for the
girl beside him. She was sharp and bold at the same time. Tessa didn’t seem
like the type of girl to shirk from choosing a daring course of action. He
found himself smiling at her, noticing again her dull eyes.

Liam threw his head back in denial.
“We’re not doing anything until we know more. Now let me push the damn cart for
a bit.” He shouldered Jaxton out of the way, and pushed his brawny bulk into
the bar. Jaxton smirked, breathless, and slapped him on the shoulder.

Jaxton heard Tessa chuckle. He eyed her
sideways, “We didn’t forget about you. You’re up next.” They rattled past a
city block dedicated to manicured green space: the campus quad. Tessa opened
her mouth to reply when a mannish yelp sounded from around the corner.

Tessa shot forward, with Jaxton at her
heel. A stream of people was emerging from the dorms and classrooms around
them, heading in groups to the student center once more. Through the massive
glass walls, Jax could see an unruly crowd gathering in front of the TVs yet
again. “What is it now?” he muttered. “Let’s get back to the room!” He cried
back to Liam.

Adira continued to unpack the bags,
working tirelessly. She ran over the mental checklist again. Had they missed
anything? The others would have gotten it if she had, she was sure. She dropped
several toothbrushes on the table, next to a pile of dental products. “Eight of
those,” she mumbled.

She could hear the TV blaring in the
other room, and knew almost everyone was back from their tasks. Adira began to
feel her hands quaking as she moved. Her limbs felt weak and her mouth was dry.
She swallowed repetitively. As she moved, she started humming a broken tune,
but her voice kept cracking. Suddenly a bottle of painkillers flung from her
hands, striking the wall. She gripped the table hard, till she could feel her
nails bending and she wanted to scream and run.

“You ok?” Troy was standing in the
doorway.

Adira forced a smile and tried to
laugh. “Oh. I didn’t see you-well, yes. No I am ok…I just needed a minute I
think.”

Troy drew closer to her. He smelled
like sweat and there were crumbs in his beard. But she felt safer.

“Here, let me help you with that.” She
tried to resist, but he was already calmly seeing to another bag, working
slowly and making neat little piles. They worked in silence for a minute or so.
Sudden laughter spilled out of his lips, deep and genuine.

“You bought six nail clippers?”

Adira stuttered nervously. “Well I…I
mean…” She couldn’t help it. She joined his laughter until they were both
bright eyed with tears, appreciating the absurdity of the moment.

“Now, what were you thinking about
when I came in?” He asked. It seemed like he was trying to speak softly and
gently, but it didn’t quite fit him.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m losing my
element a bit, you know. I’m starting to feel lost at sea and useless. Like
this is becoming a man’s game and I’m getting left behind. I hate it.”

They continued unpacking bags in
silence. He sighed, placing a tube of anti-septic ointment on the table. “You
know one of the first things I tried to teach myself at boot camp?”

She grinned. “No, what would that be?”

“Only fools and the ignorant are
unafraid. Fear is the wise man’s reaction to danger.”

She paused, weighing his words. “You
don’t seem afraid.” She was surprised; normally she was the one lecturing to
others.

Troy shrugged. “Of course I am.
Perhaps less so than the others, but I feel it, just like you do. I’ll let you
in on a little secret though, if you want.”

Adira leaned closer. “Please do,” she
pleaded.

Troy nodded appreciatively, and
sighed. “Whatever is going on in New York, the military will handle. In a few
weeks, we’ll be back to our daily lives. People have no idea how effective a
machine our military can be. They probably think have a jaded view from
Afghanistan and Iraq. If there’s some sort of infection, it doesn’t stand a
chance against the firepower, the money, and the machines of the United States
military. That’s why I’m not really afraid.”

Bennett rapped on the doorframe, his
wiry frame filling the space. He looked at the two of them, and unconsciously
rustled his own hair. “You guys better see this.”

Troy nodded, brushing past him. Adira
came closer, and Bennett saw the corners of her soft mouth were rising
slightly. Unbidden, the memory of her naked body came to his mind as her lithe
form brushed against his chest. His mind had superb timing, he mused privately
with dripping sarcasm.

“A camera crew snuck to the Hudson
River’s West Side. CNN’s showing it.”

“Do you mean the east side? The
Manhattan side?

Bennett gulped. “No.”

Jaxton, Tessa, Liam, Harley, Elvis,
Bennett, Adira, and Troy all crowded around the tiny 22 inch TV screen. As they
drew closer, the picture crystallized on the screen.

A cameraman was trying to focus his
lens, as an amateur reporter drew up in front of it. “Do you have it? Larry, do
you have it?”

“Got it,” a deep voice crackled. A balding
man with pale skin and horn-rimmed glasses eyed the camera skittishly. He
jumped at the crack of gunfire, and ducked low behind a berry bush. A young soldier
guided them stealthily up the street flanked with brownstones. The man’s overly
bulky combat gear and cavalier attitude made him look foolish.

“So you can just cut me out of the
picture later, right?”

A deeper voice eased in from behind
the lens, “Oh. Yeah man, not a problem. And we’ll have you that cash as soon as
we get outta here.”

The trio was up on a hill, hiding on
an elevated street a mile or so from what appeared to be the Hudson River. The
soldier grinned and cocked an eyebrow triumphantly. “Just stay outta the fuckin
way,” the soldier jeered loudly. A gunshot rang out again.

The image froze, and the shot cut back
to the news desk. Ted was there again, adamantly cocking his eyebrow and
looking impossibly sharp in another blue suit. He looked off-screen, “are we
showing this?”

Jaxton could hear shouting voices in
the studio, and the camera shook as something hit it. Ted’s eyes were alight.
He was following some off-screen struggle with great interest. “Keep rolling!”
He roared at the cameraman. The feed continued, and he rose, pointing
off-screen. “They deserve to see this! The people deserve to know!” There was
more shouting, and a thud. Ted calmly retook his seat, fixing his hair till it
was perfectly coiffed. The camera snapped back into focus, and he nodded. “Play
the file.”

The amateur recording returned. A
series of streets stretched out below the camera. Brownstones hugged the
lethargic brown water. In the distance, one could easily make out the soaring
skyscrapers of the silent city. The camera zoomed in. There were soldiers.
Soldiers on the rooftops, their black barrels pointing at some unseen
adversary.

“What are they aiming at?” Harley’s
pupils were dilated, her eyes wide with terror. Elvis put his two hands on her
slender shoulders, his own face a mask of grit. She relaxed visibly at his
touch. Jaxton thought he noticed Liam bristle slightly.

There was confusion among the
soldiers. They were shouting at each other from across rooftops, gesturing
wildly. “Ohhh, this is about to get good…” The speakers blared with a whiny
voice. The pale, balding man motioned forward to the cameraman. His wiry arms
moved like slinking creatures. The shiny head was cocked slightly forward, as
if he was perpetually straining to hear a soft voice. Peering out from behind a
parked car, the camera showed an officer roar an order to his charges.
 

“Just sit back and watch the action
boys.” The clean-cut soldier lumbered down on a fallen tree, looking thoroughly
pleased with himself.
 
All atop the
roofs of the surrounding brownstones, automatic rifle fire erupted as an
alluring crescendo of technological power. Down in the street, an armored
personnel carrier burst over a fire hydrant and positioned itself in the middle
of the street. Infantry spread out around the parked cars. As water sprayed
skyward in a perfect arc, the vehicle’s machine gunner cocked his weapon with a
vicious zeal and hammered both fingers down on the triggers, sending a vigorous
barrage of lead down the street. The pale, wiry figure squealed with delight.
“What did I tell you?! This is guna be huge for us!” His dull excited eyes
darted around the action ahead.

The camera darted to the soldier, who
now stood up hurriedly and clutched his assault rifle uneasily. The pale man
leaned in, indicating the gunfire one hundred yards ahead. “What’s going on,
sir?” Jaxton thought he sounded a bit sarcastic. The soldier frowned intensely,
unaware he was being mocked. “I…I..”

“Tim. Tim,” the cameraman’s voice
quivered, even though it was impressively deep. “Tim we need to back it up.”

“Nonsense!!” The pale fool bleated.

The deeper voice behind the camera tried
again. “What is going on? Tell me right fuckin now.”