Dead Quarantine (21 page)

The men would not be able to follow them for
long on foot, and there would be no car they could jack anywhere
close, though both helicopters were still in the air following
them. No way could they shake them off. By now, the soldiers must
know about the path through the forest and if they were efficient,
as they showed they were, they would be waiting for them on the
other side.

“Stop the car,” he said. She skidded to a
halt. “How well do you know this place?”

“My father used to take me here for hiking,
a long time ago.”

He knew that her father had died five years
ago in some freak accident. It was on the news, but he didn't know
much more about it.

“Why are they chasing us?” she said, hitting
the steering wheel. “Haven't we suffered enough?” She put her
shaking hands over her eyes.

They couldn't stay here for long; each
minute brought the soldiers closer to them. He pulled her hands
from her face. “Do you know a place with a steep incline?”

Dazed, she looked at him. “Yeah...yeah I
think so. It's just a way off before we clear the forest.”

Behind them, far or close he didn't know, a
branch snapped.

“Drive, I'll tell you on the way. Put the
lights on, I don't want them to miss us.”

He crawled in the back of the car and
searched for a gas can. He found one, tucked to the side in a side
strap. He wiggled it. A fifth full. It would have to do. He poured
the gasoline over the back. He upturned the ammo boxes, spreading
the shells and bullets around. He pocketed about ten shells. He
couldn't waste them all. He pressed the car lighter in, gathered
all paper he could find, and put them in a heap.

“When you get near the incline, slow down
and drive into it. Before the car falls in, jump out. I'll do the
same after I light everything up.”

“Are you insane?”

“It's the only way we are going to get rid
of them.”

“We are almost there.”

“Just do it, okay?”

She said nothing, though she held the door
handle and started slowing down. The car lighter popped out. He
took it, the tip glowing hot. He held the lighter in one hand and
the shotgun in the other. His hammer was secured in between his
belt. He remembered his gun; he had forgotten to take it. She
yelled for him to get out. He pushed the back door open. She jumped
out from her side. He threw the lighter on the paper. The gas
caught on fire and the paper started burning. Ralph pushed himself
out the back and fell down, rolling on the ground while the truck
flew down the precipice and crashed with a loud bang. His body
ached from the fall; he would be heavily bruised by the day's end.
Quick footsteps. Hands grabbed him and pulled him up.

“We need to move,” Sarah said.

Arms around each others’ backs, they ran for
the cover of the trees. They let go of each other and kept running
away from the dirt road. The helicopters hovered above where the
truck had crashed. Sarah was slowing down, getting winded. Ralph
grabbed her hand and egged her to keep up the speed. It was only
when he started hearing the ammo going off that he pulled her down
behind a thick, fallen tree. Resting their backs, they breathed
laboriously, exhausted, but not done yet.

“That was close,” Ralph said. “We got away
for now.”

“That was insane.”

She had a twinkle in her eyes when she said
that. However insane it was, it had worked, but they had to put
more distance between them and the soldiers or find a hiding
spot.

“Any caves nearby?”

“Yes, there used to be mines not far from
here, though I have no idea where. I just know they have to be near
the hill.”

He stood up and helped her up. “Guess there
is no other choice than to keep running.”

Soon after, they were too winded to run.
They must have run three miles by now. The sound of the rotors was
now faint. Ralph looked around. There was not much to see in the
dark; they had risked limb and neck running blindly through the
forest, but they managed doing so with little injury. For now, they
would walk until they caught their breath again.

“We keep going this way we'll be near the
base of the hill,” Sarah said.

By all means, it was not a small hill, but a
peak of more than two thousand feet.

After a half-hour walk, they reached the
base, the vegetation had subsided and they could see the sky again.
It was clear and with a big moon shining. In the moonlight, he saw
a few hundred feet up the hill, there was some kind of hole. The
moonlight could be tricky; they had to get closer to be sure.

They climbed up; the slope wasn’t steep it
and took them little time to get there. It was a shallow cave;
however, it was the best shelter they could find on short notice.
This high up, it gave them a vantage point to oversee the
city—their dead city and the helicopters flying above it like flies
on a corpse. They could also see the fire where they had
intentionally crashed the truck. It was a bright spot at the border
of the forest.

“We made it,” Sarah said. She scratched her
bandage. “For now that is.”

The sat down at the entrance of the cave,
watching the helicopters fly over the city, their light beams
crossing each other. As their body eased from the exertion and
started to cool, they huddled together to regain some warmth. He
put an arm over her shoulder. There was a time not long ago he
would have loved sitting like this with her. It was not bad, but he
would trade it for sitting at the dining room table with his
family. He held her tighter against him, and she nestled her head
closer to him. She smelled nice. He sighed, if only things were
different.

Huddled like that, they watch the swarm of
helicopters abruptly move away in unison. They sat up straight.
Shortly after, a combat jet flew low and fast and dropped a bomb.
It twirled in the air and hit the center of downtown. A big, white
flash covered all. A sustained roar reached them. They fled deeper
into the cave, pressing their back against the uneven stone wall.
Ralph saw blotches of light in the dark, his eyes slowly adjusting
back to normal sight. A dust cloud swept over the hill and forest,
bending the trees away from the city. The roaring seemed to keep on
and then suddenly it abated. They walked to the cave's opening.
Where the city center stood, a huge mushroom cloud rose up in the
sky. Dust crawled at its base. In a radius of some miles—where the
buildings, their homes, school, the places they had spent their
lives had stood—there was nothing but dust now. On the outskirts of
the city, the buildings still stood, burning. The city had been
destroyed. Sarah pulled him back inside.

“They nuked it; the just went and nuke our
city,” she said with eyes big as dishes.

Ralph was similarly astonished. He saw no
point. There had to be people alive in there, and those in the
buildings at the far side of the city still might have some. But
that close to the blast, the radiation would eventually kill them
too. What about them? At about fifteen miles away from the city
center, what about them? He would only know later if he ever grew
old. They crept closer together.

“Please hold me,” Sarah said.

He faltered and then pulled her closer,
pressing her against him.

“What are we going to do now?” she
asked.

He could feel her tears on his chest.

They made it out alive. They had escaped.
Everything else they knew was gone, but a new world had opened for
them—a nightmare world.

“We'll do the only thing left for us to
do—we'll survive.”

The End

Lauryn sat down on the road, tired—no not
just tired, exhausted—and looked around her. An interstate was
framed by barren land. As far as she could see, it stretched to the
horizon. She had finally left behind the line of melted and
blackened buses with the carbonated remains strewn about. Behind
her, on its side, was the last bus in line, The only yellow
remaining was on the back side. Far in the distance, a spec
shambled forward, never stopping, never resting, never eating,
drinking or breathing. It was her only companion for miles, a
companion that would rather eat her than chat. She should have gone
with Ralph, but at that time, she really thought she was dying and
wanted to spare him the trouble.

Lauryn stood again. Each step took more
effort. The only solace she had was that, even exhausted, she was
still faster than him, but not fast enough to outrun him, not
strong enough to fight him. One step after another, she shambled
forward. One day, she'd see Ralph’s face again and kiss those
lips.

Live on Ralph, live on,
she thought,
and someway she'd do the same.

Discover other titles by A.Rosaria at
Smashwords.com:

Novelette

Soul
Eviction

Red Impish
Demon

Outcast
(Maiden-at-Arms)

Damnation
(Maiden-at-Arms)

Short Story

Man-at-Arms

What To Live
For

Zombie
Scare

Absentis

Death’s Given
Chance

Ghost
Worker

CONTACT

Author’s
Blog

Author’s Website

Author’s Twitter

Please
continue for a preview of

Brian looked at his watch, an ostentatious thing his
wife gave him for their fifth anniversary. He had fifteen minutes
left on his break.

He climbed the stairs – stairs much the same as any
others anywhere. Stone grey steps, simple red railing for support,
the walls bare of decoration, and the staircase in itself empty
because most people preferred the elevator.

He liked climbing and descending the stairs during
his break. In his lone treks up and down he thought about the
things bothering him; a new habit he“d developed after the big
fight with Claire.

Brian looked down the flight to the basement. He
took a step down. It seemed darker here. He backed up to the ledge.
A solid green door barred the entrance. Most probably locked.

Time was ticking away and his break would soon be
over. He looked up through the gap in between the stairs. A ways to
go up to the fourteenth, but before he did there was something he
had to do. He held his breath. It was time he apologized to Claire.
Slowly he exhaled and fished his mobile out his pocket and dialed
her number.

After what seemed like minutes, the voicemail
clicked on. He knew she was home. He dialed again and again. The
third time she picked up. He heard her sob at the other side.

“Have you not had enough already?” she said, her
otherwise sweet singing voice heavy with sorrow. “Why do you keep
calling?”

“But, love, I–”

“Stop calling me!” she screamed.

“I just want to say how sorry I am.”

“Just leave me alone.” She hung up.

“God,” he sighed.

It‘d been like this since their argument–except that
was an understatement. It was a fight, the worst they“d ever had.
He said things to her that he shouldn‘t have said, hurt her
feelings deeply, and in a fit of anger she threw him out. All
because of Tom.

Tom is the guy that likes to tease his co-workers,
the fun guy, the popular guy. Brian‘s relationship with Claire was
the butt of his jokes. It was all supposedly in good fun, but it
must have never sat well with Tom that he had a younger wife.
Fun-loving Tom, living life to the fullest without a care, he just
couldn‘t let it go.

Brian at first thought nothing about it, until he
caught Claire hushedly talking on the phone with Tom. He never gave
her Tom‘s phone number. Could she really blame him for believing
something was up?

Since then, Tom had avoided him. A great feat
considering their desks were opposite each other.

Tom must be somewhere else in the building, Brian
thought. The bastard can‘t hide forever.

He went up, building courage as he went for things
to come.

The daily exercise walking the stairs paid off.
Normally he would be panting and sweating a river by now, but he
went up the fourteen floors without having the need of a second
breath.

On his floor, walking the hallway to his room, Brian
avoided looking into the rooms he passed. He didn‘t feel the need
to socialize with anyone who might fancy to call out for him. He
wanted to save all his energy for his confrontation with Tom. Once
he found him he would take their conversation to somewhere more
secluded, maybe the basement, if he could gain access to it. Or
they could go outside, somewhere away from strangers.

He barged in. Tom‘s desk was empty. Brian looked
around. Jim sat at his desk reading from his screen, probably
something non-work-related going from the way he sat slumped
backwards. Unaware of Brian‘s entrance, his eyes stayed glued to
the screen.

Jim was a fool that liked playing antics on his
co-workers. He wasn‘t a bad man; he worked hard when there was a
need to do so. Today not being one of those days.

“Jim.”

Jim looked up, squinting his eyes. “Brian? Is that
you?”

“Do you need glasses or something? Of course it‘s
me.”

“It‘s been a while since I saw you last.”

Brian rolled his eyes. A thirty-minute break didn‘t
consist being away for that long.

“Where is Tom?”

Jim shrugged and turned back to his screen.

“Where is Tom!”

Confused, Jim looked to the doorway and shivered.
“Damn AC is acting up again. Thing been running too cold
lately.”

Brian breathed in deeply and mentally counted
backward to ten.