Endemic Rise of the Plague (17 page)

“Thanks, this will be just fine,” Roxy said looking to Dave. She reached down and
scratched Rogue on the head, as the ladies settled on the floor beside the couch.

Mattie walked through the slim door next to the bathroom and closed it behind him.

“You take the couch. I’ll take the floor,” Dave said, reaching for the comforter.

Shotgun maneuvered the SUV tactfully, steering between abandoned and wrecked cars in the darkness, on the Dixon Street. The few infected in the road were moving slowly, and seemed not to notice the slow-moving vehicle with its lights off. The remaining core guards inside were silent, the situation with Walker weighing heavily on their minds in this early morning hour. The only sounds were the incessant pings of Junior and Rhino’s phones.

The gridlock extended several blocks. Ahead on their side, three lanes of red tail lights were aglow in contrast to the white and yellowish headlights shining from the three lanes on the other side. The stop light ahead changed from green to yellow, then red, yet all the vehicles were at a standstill. No sounds of horns blaring or citizens shouting
, the traffic riddled street sounded nearly silent at this hour. The vehicles were mostly sedans and compact cars, although there were a few pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles. A small red hatchback had pulled out of traffic and rested near a street lamp, with its front end smashed, while steam drifted from under the hood.

The businesses on either side of the traffic were closed, but that didn’t stop thieves from busting out windows and retrieving valuables contained within. A handful of looters ran in and out of the buildings on Dixon, while law enforcement was nowhere to be found. They ran with stereos, laptop computers and fur coats from the Penny Saver Pawn Shop, down the ravaged road, using the chaos to their advantage. Blood seemed to be on everything, the street, the cars and the few slow-moving infected scattered about further up
the road. It almost looked as if the sky itself had rained blood.

“
It looks like the traffic from earlier never got a chance to clear out before they were hit by the infected,” Junior said, looking out the window of the SUV.

“The low jack signal isn't far. Buzz and Doyle's vehicle should be up ahead,
” Rhino said, looking at his phone.

“
Yeah, their phones are there too. GPS reads them at the same approximate location,” Junior said, glancing at his phone, then over Rhino’s shoulder.

Shotgun pulled over on the sidewalk. Buzz & Doyle's SUV could be seen forty feet ahead, parked in the middle of the street, amidst a sea of empty vehicles. The air
looked dense with smoke, rolling in thick and swift, blanketing the surrounding area. There were at least three smoldering vehicles and a warehouse burning itself out in the distance. Rhino and Junior exited the vehicle from the back seats. They had changed back into their Angora security uniforms shortly after arriving at the lab. Boots followed them out from the back seat, still wearing his street clothes, never having an opportunity to change before they left to look for Buzz and Doyle. Randy and Shotgun followed them out of the truck as they all pulled their weapons in the ready position, switching the safeties off. A few infected were shuffling about the rows of parked cars, with none particularly close, the men moved in on the SUV, trying not to be detected.

They traveled between stalled vehicles.
The engine of a nearby compact-sedan still rumbled, likely just on fumes. As they surrounded the back of the SUV, Randy and Rhino went up on the driver side, while the others approached from the passenger side. Nothing could be seen within the tinted windows. As Randy and Shotgun approached the front windows on either side, they swung out about three feet away from the vehicle and aimed their guns at the rolled-up windows. The men continued to side-step toward the front of the vehicle, in an effort to get a clear view through the windshield. Shotgun plucked a flashlight from his belt, illuminating the windshield. Seeing nobody in the front seat, he clicked off the light.

“
Wait,” Randy said, “Turn the light back on. Someone’s in there.”

Shotgun clicked the light back on, and the two moved closer to the front of the vehicle, while the others flanked to their sides, near the front tires.

“There is nothing there Boss,” Rhino announced, craning his neck.

Shotgun flicked his wrist, illuminating the inside of the vehicle with strobe-like flashes. Suddenly a face appeared, from the back seat, between the two front headrests. The security team flinched at the sight of the unexpected figure.

Randy sighed, “It's Buzz.”

Buzz glared at them for a moment. His penetrating stare felt as if he could char a hole in their very existence. With ghostly white
skin and dark veins spider-webbing his face, he had a dark substance around his mouth, dribbling off his chin. He masticated fiercely as his teeth tore into the meat in his mouth effortlessly. After what seemed like an eternal stare, Buzz ducked his head down, disappearing between the seats again.

“
Man, I think he's eating something,” Junior sputtered, dry heaving.

“
Or someone,” Boots added with contempt, glancing at Randy.

“
Boss, we need to put him down. We can’t leave him like that,” Shotgun declared.

“
And then what? Go up and down the whole street killing them all? I say we just leave 'em,” Junior said.

The men knew that there
could be no hope for Buzz. According to Dr. Brandenburg, nothing could be done for those who had already made the transformation. Buzz was doomed like many of the other infected roaming the town.

“
Okay Junior, we’ll leave him,” Randy began. “That way he can get out and kill someone else. Maybe that someone else…is your brother or your mother. He’s one of us. Wouldn't you rather be taken out then to be one of those...creatures, killing and devouring other people? Shotgun's right, we need to put him down. We'll take him on the driver side. Shotgun, you're with me, everyone else keep a look out, so none of the infected get too close.”

Shotgun surveyed the area, a handful of infected
were within eyeshot. A feeling of suspicion crept up inside him that there may be many more of them out of sight. The ones within his view were unfocused and shuffling along slowly, their eyes fixed on the pavement beneath their feet.

“Hang on a second. If we start shooting, all those, uh…
creatures
will come at us,” Boots said pointing toward the infected down the street.

“Boots, we’re cool
,” Rhino smiled at Randy. “They’re barely moving and haven’t even spotted us. Who knows if they can even hear? Besides, I think we can move a little faster than them, if they decide to head over here.”

“They can hear. And they’re faster than you think.
They just haven’t really noticed us yet. Walker was bitten because we weren’t faster than them. Some of them are slow, but others are really, really fast. Some of the roam—like these
roamers
out here. Some run—the
runners
can get up to speeds that could keep up with a dirt bike. And either one can wail…
wailers
make these blood-curdling calls,” Boots warned.

“Oh, okay Boots. So now you’ve named them?
The roamers, the runners and the wailers
? You’ve put way too much thought into this—” Rhino taunted.

Rhino had a way of getting under people’s skin. Recognizing that his antagonistic nature would not sit well with Boots, Shotgun stepped between them.
His timing had been impeccable, as Boots morphed his face into one of outrage. He attempted to push past Shotgun to Rhino—who beckoned Boots with his hands.

“Can it men! Remember why we’re here,” Randy said pulling out a
custom-fabricated, sound suppressor tube from a Velcro pocket on his side pant-leg. “You’re right Boots, we should be cautious. Let’s get this done and get out of here.”

Shotgun hustled to the SUV and reached for the handle as he and Randy approached the back door of the vehicle.
“You ready Boss?”

“
Yeah, I got this,” Randy said as he finished screwing the silencer onto his weapon. He aimed the gun at the door and gave a quick nod.

Shotgun opened the door to the SUV. Randy fired off two shots into the vehicle, before quickly closing the door.
The shots were discrete, with none of the infected seeming to notice.

“
Let’s go,” Randy shook his head in disappointment, striding back to the Expedition.

The men followed Randy into the vehicle and sat for a moment in silence. Shotgun, at the wheel,
had no clue of where to go. Buzz and Doyle had transferred to Port Steward from the Crescent Bay Angora facility a few months subsequent to Junior’s hiring. Now Buzz was dead, and Doyle’s status remained unknown, Port Steward appearing more like a war field than a small coastal town. Shotgun, looking to Randy for some sort of direction, instead found a cold expression upon his leader’s face. Randy stared blankly out the windshield.

“
Rhino, Junior, get on the phone with Brody. We need tracking on,” Randy paused looking at his phone. “Roxanne Harper. I need to know if she has low jack on any vehicles and if her cell phone has GPS. I also have her father, Joseph Harper, and sister Kathryn Harper, see if either of them have any devices with tracking info available.”

“
Okay Boss,” Junior and Rhino said rhythmically. Rhino began thumbing the buttons on his phone.

Junior pressed his phone to his hear. “Hey Brody, we need tracking...” his voice trailed off.

“Was she their target?” Boots asked.

“
Yeah,” Randy answered gruffly.

“
Well, apparently we’re too late. She has already turned into one of them. Why are we going to waste our time to track her down? Walker and I never found McFarland at the carnival and Junior and Gigantor over here, picked up the brother of their target. Are we going after them next? Look around, there’s anarchy all over this town. We just lost Buzz. Shouldn't we be looking for Doyle? And what about Walker, he needs us,” Boots ranted.

“
Buzz and Doyle,” Randy said flatly.

“
And Doyle?” Boots lifted an eyebrow, shaking his head in frustration.

“
I fired two shots, one into Buzz and the other into Doyle," Randy said calmly, giving his men a moment to soak in his words. "Walker is in good hands with the doc. If anyone can help him, it's her. There’s nothing we can do for him—he’s in quarantine. We could go back to the lab and twiddle our thumbs, or we can finish Buzz and Doyle's final mission. Our mission—to bring in these people, starting with this Harper girl. Buzz and Doyle never made it to her house, Boots. She might still be at home. We need to bring the doc something still moving. With all of us, we can secure the target and get her back to the doc, without killing her.”

The men sat in the vehicle
silently for a few moments, only to have the quiet interrupted by the ping of Rhino's phone. He checked the screen, “I’ve got three signals. An iPod registered to Kathryn located out in the farmlands. Roxanne's got low jack on her vehicle. It's in Saddle Brook Park. And I’ve a faint-intermittent signal from her cell phone, around that same area. The closer we get to it the better the location signal will read,” Rhino looked at Randy.

“
Are we going or what?” Randy asked, glaring out the window. “We’ll pick up more vehicles and split up.”

“
Hell yeah, Boss,” Shotgun said.

“
Let’s do it,” Rhino nodded.

“For Buzz and Doyle," Junior raised his phone as if it were a champagne glass.

Boots looked around at the others with disgust, reluctantly he uttered, “Yeah, yeah, let’s go. What else are we going to do?”

SATURDAY

Joe awakened to a blaring static noise, bouncing off the walls in intermittent bursts. He rolled over inside the green and blue, nylon sleeping bag that Hank had lent him for the night. Joe could see Hank coming into focus. He
was fiddling with the converter box on a little thirteen inch TV on the back counter. The television itself looked as if it were the first color TV ever made. Hank turned down the volume dial immediately. Kate woke up too, with a groaning yawn as she stretched her arms out from within her identical sleeping bag.

“
Good Morning, sorry I didn't mean wake you like that,” Hank said, bearing a half smile.

“
Not a problem Hank. Let me come over and help you,” Joe said getting up with a yawn of his own, twisting his back.

Joe’s thoughts went to his missing daughter, Roxy. Hoping that she had heeded his warning about staying inside the house, he knew that she was a smart girl. But that didn’t stave off a feeling of guilt that crept up inside his core as he thought about the message he left for her.
She is probably worried out of her mind about Kate and me.

Joe had tried to use the lone telephone in the General Store several times last night to call home, but the line
had been dead each time he picked up the receiver of the decades-old phone. He needed to get back home to Roxy and take her and Kate away from the danger that has seized The Port. Holding out little hope that what went on at the carnival could now be under control, Joe felt unoptimistic about an encouraging outcome at this point. After all, the carnival was miles away from the General Store, and yet one of
them
had made it all the way out here—the woman last night that attacked Jake. Joe decided that he would try to get this television set going with Hank and then he’d ask for that ride home that Hank promised last night.

“
I'm just trying to see if I can get a signal, maybe there’s something about what happened last night on the news. So we can find out what's going on, and how all those people became those things,” Hank said.

“
Yeah, and what they’re doing about it,” Joe said wiping his eyes and taking the cables from Hank.

The cables were in pitiful shape, part of the outer casing was melted, leaving many of the wires exposed. The plug itself was a different color. Hank must have spliced it with another cord. Joe just hoped he wouldn’t be electrocuted before he found out what
the news reported.

“
Morning all,” Mary said cheerfully walking in from the kitchen area at the back of the store. She had a plate of eggs, hash browns and sausage links in her hand. The aroma of the home-cooked meal began to fill the room.

“
Good Morning Mary,” Kate said perking up, quickly rising to her feet. “That smells great.”

“
Morning,” Joe said, looking up from the wad of frayed cords. He hadn’t ever used a converter box before, he had always had satellite, but he figured it should hook up just like everything else does to a TV.

“
I made breakfast, it's in the kitchen. Help yourselves. I am going to take this plate to Jake. I am a little worried about him. He's been in the cold box for almost an hour. I think that that bite gave him an infection. He has quite a fever. If he doesn't get better soon, we may need to figure something out,” Mary said.

“
Uh, huh,” Hank said, without looking up. Mary seemed as if she knew that he’d toned her out. Rolling her eyes, she walked toward the garage door.

“
Thanks Mary, that food smells delicious. I can't wait to try some,” Kate said, heading for the kitchen.

“
No problem hon,” Mary replied, shutting the door behind her.

Hank smacked the television on its side and then on the top, a picture almost came into focus.

Joe jumped slightly in surprise at the whack to the TV. He continued to follow the wires from the converter box to the set, all seemed to be connected properly. Beginning to think that the connection wasn’t the problem, Joe warily eyed the frayed wires thinking that they may be the issue.

“
We're almost there Joe, try wiggling the yellow one,” Hank said happily pointing at a tattered cable.

“
Ha-ha!” Joe said as he peered at the screen. What looked like a newscast during a blizzard came into fuzzy focus. The screen flickered a few times, before clearing right up.

“
Well done, Joe my friend,” Hank clapped and waived Joe over to the front of the television.

Joe and Hank stood before the screen frozen, gazing into it as if they had been turned to statues. A man with perfect hair sat behind the news desk. His face clean shaven and stern, he kept shifting his eyes, perhaps reading from a teleprompter.