Humanity Gone (Book 3): Rebirth (12 page)

Chapter 17: Tori

Coughing has become as regular as breathing to all of us as
we sit in the hospital lobby around the small fire. Most of us are running high fevers, and despite our best efforts to manage the symptoms, we know our conditions are only getting worse. Some look farther along than others do, but the plague is moving faster than I recall that it did the first time. It feels kind of like we are back at the Ax.

Except now, we are all dying.

Darry lies beside me. I think he is asleep. He is one of the sickest. Even in sleep, his hands clutch tightly around the corner of the blanket that I pulled over him. I move my hand through his hair. Apparently, David went in there a few hours ago so they could analyze his blood. Hopefully the three of them will manage to find something soon.

Darry
isn't going to last much longer. I look around to some of the others. They won't either.

He tried to
get rid of the name Darry - said it was too immature. He hated it. I still like it. It’s how he first introduced himself to me.

“
Darry,” he said with his hand extended while adjusting the pack on his back. Even then, his face still looked worn with bags drooping beneath his eyes. We found him while scavenging in a nearby neighborhood. He told us to leave him alone, but luckily, we insisted that he come back with us.

Back then, I was part of a small group of survivors who had taken refuge in a superstore.
However, much had happened to me before then. My mother had been the owner of a small grocery store, and when everyone started to get sick, she locked the doors, and closed down the shop. She knew the store would be a valued resource when all the grids went down. While she was suffering from the first symptoms of the plague, she moved most of our possessions from our nearby house into the small store. She explained that with the gates down, the store would be secure for my cousins and me. They came to live with us when their parents died at the start of the outbreak.

Dad was one of the first to die. My older brother followed him quickly. Being the last one left, Mom wanted to do everything in her weakened state to make sure I wouldn’t join them for a very long time.

She became bed ridden after chaining most of the doors with the last of her strength. Mom was hoping to board the windows too, but she told me I would have to do it.

She died later that night.

I did my best to keep my cousins calm. We ate well, and the small toy section provided them with the little bit of  entertainment they needed to keep busy.

The first three days were successful. Sometimes customers would come to the door, but after a few knocks, they always left the dark grocery store.

I woke up late the fourth day to the sounds of a growing crowd outside of the store. Hiding behind the aisles, I moved closer to the front windows and glanced slowly around the side. Older teenagers, mixed with children, were screaming for the doors to open. I hesitantly backed away. As the hours drifted by, more and more people came to the entrance. Initially, they waited peacefully, but as the hours went on and once they realized it wasn't going to open, the mob grew worse.

Much worse.

Hands started to press against the window. Then they began to push. The pounding on glass seemed to shake the entire store. Screams began to penetrate though the locked automatic doors, and angry faces glared through the glass. One of the windows cracked and then another. A few appeared with bats and began to strike at the door.

My little cousin, Sandy, screamed when she stepped out from the back and saw the commotion.

I had to get the four of us out of there. The glass wouldn't last much longer.

“Get your bags. We are leaving,” I told them.

We kept the car in the loading dock in the back. We just needed to pull up the gate, and we could escape the mob. The four of us ran through the store and collected as much food as we could. After loading it all in the car and securing them in the backseat, we opened the door and drove out. A few people already began to flood through the open cargo door as we left. I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road.

“My God, look at them all,” I said. My eyes locked onto the chaos that was once my parent's
store, and I took my focus off the road. I started to accelerate without even knowing.

“Tori!”
Sandy screamed. I turned back to the road, just in time to swerve around a white SUV. I needed to focus; I almost got us all killed. I drove for a day and luckily stumbled upon a band of teenagers who had made a superstore home. They had managed to secure their new home, unlike me.

It was a high school traveling baseball team that had secured the superstore,
but with a few winks and some undone buttons, I got all of us on the inside. Luckily, the players inside meant well – they were just saps for a pretty girl, I guess. We never had to deal with the horrors that others had to put up with to guarantee their safety. A few more groups joined us, but soon the team decided to completely close up the store. People were becoming too dangerous. I couldn't agree more with their decision. When they chained the doors and constructed barricades over all the entrances, about fifty of us lived in the giant one-room village.

We made it through the winter without even the slightest problem. That spring was when we found
Darry while searching through the nearby neighborhoods for any young children that may have been left behind. Darry wasn't a child, in fact, we were and are, the same age, but I didn't want to leave him out there. He didn't look well. It took a while for me to break his shell, but once I did, we were never far from each other’s sides. He was always so kind and gentle to not only me but also everyone else in our home. It didn't take long for us to become very close – especially when he started to come out of his shell.

I never imagined it was possible to find love after the plague.

Over two years later, Darrel told me that he slipped out in the night, and found a jewelry store in a nearby shopping complex – none of the jewelry in the superstore would do. He found an engagement ring and a pair of silver bands. Without a priest or a magistrate, we were engaged and married in the linen aisle with nearly everyone in the superstore present. It was as official as it could get after the plague.

It certainly wasn’t the wedding I had dreamed of.
But after those years, it was a moment of beauty beyond what my dreams could conceive.

The superstore managed to keep us alive another few years. My cousins grew and no longer depended on me. However, we heard rumors of a great city rising in the east. Being towards the end of our stockpile in the store, we decided to find this city named Washington that was apparently the home of the new government in America.

They let us in with open arms. Why we didn't share the fate of many others who went to the city was beyond me. Regardless, we soon found new homes in Washington – still unaware of the horrors that they had committed.

Sandy managed to find a job in the house of the president. That's where I had seen Caitlyn's sister. My other cousins managed to find a home, too. However,
Darry and I felt something was off about the place. One day a few weeks later, we happened to stumble upon a worker inspection point right outside the walls of the city.

We were horrified. We told the others that they needed to leave, but they ignored us. “Better us than them,” they said. Painfully, we decided to leave them. We both agreed that we couldn't be a part of this and preferred to struggle in the wilderness. After the run in with Caitlyn, Kevin found us and brought us to the Resistance. This was our right place – with all of them. We've been happy here.

I hope the rest of them are still okay at Washington, but I don't know with this plague. Maybe when this is all settled I will be able to find them.

I continue moving my hand through his hair. He's made me so happy. I've truly been so lucky after the plague. I look at Caitlyn and Jo and know how much worse it could have gone for me.
Darry stirs slightly and looks up at me with wide eyes. I know he hurts.

Laura comes bursting through the hall with her gloved hands out to the side. She breathes heavily, and paces back and forth. Her mouth moves open every few seconds as if to say something but she doesn't.

“How's it going in there?” Nichols asks.

“Fine... just fine,” she says. I notice then the tear stains on her cheeks. She
's frazzled.

“How much longer until you're all finished up on David?”

She turns to me, shaking her head slightly.

“Laura?” I ask. “Where’s David?”

She looks down to the floor. My tone switches to harsh.

“Where’s David?”

Chapter 18: Ryan

So
, he's... he's gone. I step into the stairwell and walk up a few steps in total darkness. The others are still in the lobby attempting to comfort each other.

I had to get away.

After David didn’t come out for a long time, it didn’t take too much guesswork to figure out what had happened. The others became worried. They started to question.

As gracefully as she could, Laura had gathered our dying group and delivered the
morbid news: David died an hour ago so they would be able to quickly create a cure. Understandably, most of them broke down. Tori, who perhaps hasn't gotten used to death, was the most upset, and yelled bitterly that there had to have been some other way. I know there wasn’t – at least not within the time frame we have.

They're sad, but without his death, they'd all be dead. Most of them spent their time lying on the gurneys and curled into balls under blankets. My body wants to lie down too, but I won't let it. They need strong leadership – even if they are going to die.

So, I stood quietly in the corner as they consoled each other over his death. Nichols managed to say a weak prayer, and then took a disheveled Jo in his arms. Most of them are too sick to grieve for too long. They dispersed and resumed their weakened states. Judging by the way that I feel, and they look, we are going to die anyway.

It seems like David gave up his life for nothing.
But it had to be done if there was the slightest chance for the survival of the rest.

A necessary casualty.
Still, not an easy one...

He was my friend.
My partner in all of this hell.

When I come to the landing in the stairwell, I sit with my back against the wall with a blank stare.

And bury my face in my hands.

*   *   *

A few hours later, they struggle to move some mattresses from adjacent rooms onto the lobby floor. One by one, they all gather. None of them
wants to be apart as we face the bitter end. I can't blame them although I usually spent my time keeping watch at the window.

I've collected myself since the stairwell.

I'm better than that. The mission matters.

I stare out the window and down the street. The past day has also been unusually warm
outside. Much of the snow has melted and left huge puddles by the sewer drains. A few larger piles of snow remained, but luckily, we are getting a break this winter.

While uncomfortably adjusting the strap on my rash covered shoulder, I leave my window and walk into the lobby. The way they lay around the carpeted space reminds me of the hospital wing after the attack at the school. A sinking feeling spreads from my heart.

No, I did it again. What good am I? I have led them to death again...

Kevin laughs a little while sitting up on the floor. It tears my thoughts away from myself. This isn't my fault. I have done all I can. I nod slightly as I approach them. He answers me with a nod, too, and finishes telling his story.

It ends with a joke that I don't get. However, those that can laugh at his story do so in between coughs. Kevin appears less sick, but like me, he is hiding it. I can see it in his eyes. He wants to be strong for them.

Jo turns towards him with one eyebrow raised. Nichols sits beside her
; his back is propped up against a chair. Caitlyn lies between them. She looks to be asleep.

“Kevin,” Jo says, “It seems like we know so much about everyone, but you. You always
seems to just be there when we need you.”

He gives a mild smile that is broken by a coughing fit.

“I used to work with special…”

The double doors burst open and Laura moves quickly out of them. Sweat pours down her face. Her hair is partially down for the first time and she looks like a wreck. I rise to my feet and go to her.

As I move closer to her, I see the syringe in her gloved hand. Her arm hangs limp, and she holds it at her side. A bright red liquid glistens from within the plastic tube. It nearly resembles blood.

“Is that it?” Paige asks, managing excitement through her broken words. She sits up from Carter's lap. He gives Laura a hopeful look along with the rest of us.

Laura nods lightly, and nearly all of us exhale with relief. She walks to Caitlyn and kneels in front of her. Nichols helps Caitlyn sit up. Not until she is sitting up that I see how awful she looks.

Caitlyn's eyes are red, and the rash covers most of her skin. Her face looks worn and each movement is slow.

“Here, you need it most,” Laura grins while pushing up Caitlyn's sleeve. She quickly finds a vein in her arm. Caitlyn watches with a tired expression as the needle enters her arm and releases the liquid. An eerie silence fills the room.

“If I'm right, you
’ll should start to feel better within the hour,” she tells her with a weak smile. Laura grabs Caitlyn's hand and gives it a slight squeeze. “As for the rest of you, I am replicating the compound at a fairly quick rate. All of us should be inoculated within the next hour.”

It feels impossible. I never really imagined we would make it out of this.
Never in my wildest dreams. What are the odds that those two would actually figure this out? Better than I ever expected.

Joy fills the room. Smiles and hugs
are shared between those that can. They have forgotten about David so quickly... After leaving the chair, I stand apart from the rest of them; Laura is not far away. I look to her; she looks at the ground, and then heads back into the lab.

“Laura,” I say, “How’s Nate?” She stops walking, her hand against the double door.

Everyone in his or her brief moment of celebration turns towards Laura’s exhausted face. She looks absently to the blank wall beside her, and then back to them. I know what she will say before it exits her chapped lips.

“He died about an hour ago.”

The waiting room is silent again.

Laura walks out before I can even say I’m sorry.

I think I’m actually sorry for her.

Losing Nate and David is a huge loss, but look what we gained.

We did it. This is what we needed.

This second plague will be the end of the New Americans. The Resistance will survive. We’ll rebuild this country in my own vision.

I know how to get everything back on track.