Mad World (Book 3): Desperation (14 page)

Nineteen

It was a good half hour before Risa was satisfied with all we were telling her. She asked more questions and talked with Leia. With Risa awake, it was more evident to the others that they had pretty much the same personality, and they bonded quickly. We all got snacks and brought back stuff for Risa, who stayed in the SUV on orders from Jonathan. He stayed with her, and they had some alone time in there without the close quarters of other people intruding, something I was looking forward to enjoying with Zach, if he was interested.

The more time I spent sitting next to Zach, talking with him, whispering, leaning on each other while sleeping, and general silly grins and smiles and stolen glances, the more I felt not only comfortable with him but bonding with him as well. He seemed to really like me, too. We held hands all the time now, and his hand in mine felt familiar and good.

Back on the road again, DeAndre was driving while Dad got some sleep in the back. Risa sat up front with us, feeling a little better after sleeping for nearly two days, and with her wounds all dressed. Jonathan let her know that she was infected, and she became somber as she absorbed this information, but Risa quickly decided to look on the bright side and began grinning and cracking jokes.

“Well, at least I’m in the same vehicle as the hope for humanity,” she said, laughing. At this, I mimicked punching her in the arm. “Hey, if you’re able to be the cure, I’m going to probably be the first one cured. Cool!” She looked at me sideways. “I always knew you were destined to save the whole world, Lukey.” At this I made strangling noises and she started giggling. Leia was sitting beside Risa and was actually grinning at this exchange. It was good to have Risa back. I made a silent vow that she would be saved, if I had to give every last drop of my blood to do it. I loved my sister very, very much.

We headed east and crossed into Vermont, then turned south and drove the 89 all the way down, past St. Albans, Burlington and Montpelier, all the way down to White River Junction, a small city just over the border into New Hampshire. By this time, most of us had dozed off, Risa was talking quietly with Leia while Jonathan snoozed against her, and D was drinking his fourth energy drink. The motion of the SUV had lulled me to sleep a hundred miles ago, so when DeAndre pulled over to check his map, it woke me. Yawning and stretching, I looked out the windows at the landscape around us. It must have been close to midnight, and everything was quiet and still. No cars were on the road other than us and the Humvee that pulled up behind us. Opening my door quietly and grabbing my shotgun, I decided to go check on them.

“Be right back,” I patted DeAndre’s shoulder as he studied his e-map tablet. He nodded absentmindedly, and I closed the door gently. I heard another door shut a minute later, and Zach and Risa soon joined me in the night air.

“Jonathan’s been telling me what happened. I can’t believe people would do that,” Risa shook her head. “Poor Gisele.”

“This emergency forces people to be brave,” Zach said, shotgun trained on the hillside.

I nodded as we walked over to the Humvee to check on things. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it. And what’s scary is that Dad and I figure this is probably not an isolated incident.”

“This plague is going to be the end of humanity if we can’t get it shut down. If not the end of humans then the end of our humanity.”

I nodded. The guy who hadn’t been burned was at the wheel of the Humvee, they had been switching out drivers just like we had been. “How’s it going Tim?” I asked, walking up to his window.

“Actually quite well. Everyone’s asleep,” he jerked his thumb back to indicate the rear of the Humvee. “They’ve been zonked out since we crossed the border.” I nodded. He looked at Risa. “So, you’re awake?” She nodded. “How do you feel?”

“Sore. Hurts like hell. Still a little groggy.” She indicated the bandages on her arm. “If I wasn’t doped up to high heaven I’d probably be screaming in pain.” She shrugged. “It’s all numb.”

He nodded. “Heard what happened to you. Amazed you even lived through it.” He studied her as if she were a specimen in a lab.

“Risa’s incredible.” I put my arm around her tenderly. “She’s a superwoman.” I smiled and kissed the top of her head.

Risa ducked to hide her smile and punched my arm. “Idiot,” she said, grinning. Zach smiled. Laughing, we all headed back to our SUV.

“Almost there, can’t wait!” Tim called after us. I waved back at him as we got to our vehicle, still chuckling.

I loved our camaraderie. Except when it made me unconsciously lower my guard. We’d been caught like this a dozen times on this trip. My senses tingled as I opened the door and helped Zach and Risa in. Swinging my head around, I stared into the dark.

“Shit,” I said under my breath. There were four sets of eyes reflected back at me from about 20 yards away. Black inky night almost hid them. They were crouched behind the bushes, and I could just barely make them out. I thought I saw movement behind them. There were more coming, I sensed. I pushed Risa’s door firmly shut and slowly turned around. Everyone was asleep except for the drivers, Risa, still gravely injured, Zach, and me. I brought my shotgun off my shoulders and held it at midlevel, muzzle pointed outward. Not taking my eyes off of them, I walked sideways and the back across the rear of the SUV.

Suddenly, BOOM! It came from around the other side of the vehicle, the driver’s side. DeAndre’s side. I jumped, not expecting the loud noise to be behind me. Swinging around, my eyes fell on the body of a zombie dropped about 5 feet from me. It had been trying to creep up on the SUV. The top of its head was gone, and black gore dripped on the road.

I shivered and studied it for a few seconds, then looked back at the zombie eyes in the bushes on the passenger side and saw them all melt away into the brush. Turning back to the left side of the vehicle, I walked around and saw DeAndre hanging out the window, shotgun smoking.

“You want to watch yourself, there, Luke,” he said quietly.

I nodded. “Thanks,” I said as I climbed back in the vehicle.

“It was Risa who saw them out the window.”

“Risa? Wait, ‘them’?”

He nodded. “There were three of them. I got the one in front; the other two ran off when it went down. Lock the door. I want to get going.”

He pulled out onto the freeway again, giving a thumbs up to Tim driving the Hummer behind us as he pulled out and followed us, matching DeAndre’s determined acceleration.

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and looked over at Risa. She grinned and tapped her temple. “Thanks, Sis.”

“Hey, if I don’t watch your back, who will?” She smiled. “In fact, it’s a miracle you survived at all while I was out of it.” I smiled, and she let out a chuckle.

“God, you two. I cannot wait to get to Boston.” Dad sat up and yawned. “How much longer, D?”

“About two and a half hours, if all goes well,” DeAndre answered, taking a swig of water.

“I’m going to try and sleep some more,” I said. “Wake me when we get there.” I was asleep in under five minutes, the last thing I heard was Risa and Dad whispering together.

Twenty

“Luke, wake up,” Dad was quietly calling me. I was dreaming he was waking me up for training practice, and I was 17 again. But then I realized. Boston. Save Mom. I came awake with a start.

“Wha…?” I sat up, rubbing my eyes. “Are we there?” It was still dark outside and we were queued in a line with police officers questioning everybody. “Boston?”

“No, this is the Massachusetts state line,” Dad said as he looked out at the checkpoint set up in front of us. “They’re being very careful.” He looked back at the Humvee behind us. “Unfortunately, we’re bringing a group of plague-infected victims into their state. Hope they won’t give us any trouble.” He sat forward again.

DeAndre grimly waited his turn, then crept up and rolled down his window. “Hello, officers,” he said, holding up his ID. “We’re traveling with the Humvee behind us. We’re with the Sanctuary Team out of Winnipeg, and …”

The officer’s eyes widened just a bit, and then, “Hold on, Sir. Wait one minute here, please.” He turned to confer with his fellow border guards a dozen feet away. Five of them huddled together and talked, glancing at us every now and then. After a few minutes of this, the first guard came back to D’s window.

“Sir, if you and the vehicle following you would please pull off and park in this lot behind me, we’ll be able to help you.” He indicated the small lot filled with at least eight police cars.

“Certainly, officer,” DeAndre said, then slowly pulled off to the side. He waved for Tim to follow us, but the guards were already waving him over with us. “This is fishy.”

“Oh, god…” I mumbled. “What now?”

“I have no idea, Luke,” Dad said thoughtfully, looking at the guards still conferring with one another. A supervisor had arrived and begun talking with them.

I looked back at the highway where we’d been pulled off. They had stopped letting cars through, and people were just sitting there on the New Hampshire side. I heard one officer call out to the cars in line, “You people need to go back. There’s a station in Nashua that will process you.” Then he turned away and went back to talk with the others.

Beside me, Zach stretched and yawned, as did Leia, DeAndre, and Jonathan.

“How are you feeling, Babe?” Jonathan asked, looking Risa over with concern.

“Actually, not so hot,” she replied, holding her shoulder. “I think I need more painkillers, or whatever you doped me up with.”

“Come back and lie down here. I want to check your wounds.”

Risa moved gingerly to the stretcher in the back while Jonathan opened his med kit and began rummaging around in it, looking for what he needed.

“What’s going on?” Zach yawned.

“We’re at the Massachusetts state line, and we’ve been stopped,” Dad said grimly.

Looking out the side window at the police conferring with each other, I had a feeling. Somehow, I wasn’t worried at all. A peaceful, confident feeling flooded my body from my head down to my feet, and a smile came to my face.

“Luke,” Zach whispered beside me. “What’re you thinking?”

I turned to him. “I just have a good feeling about this. I know it looks bad, but I have a really good feeling about this.” I stared into his eyes. He stared back at me with a soft smile on his face. I leaned in to kiss him and …

“They’re heading back. God, I hope it’s good news.” DeAndre glanced back at me. “Luke, you always have a good sense… uh…” he stopped talking and just smiled at us. We were busy doing a thorough exploration of each other’s mouths.

I heard Dad chuckle, and then say, “Yes, officer?”

“Sir, Dr. Carroway is expecting you in Boston and has alerted us to watch for you.” Zach and I broke away from each other, and my eyebrows rose in surprise. The police officer looked inside our SUV with his flashlight. “Which one of you is Luke Hill?”

I started to talk but Dad hurriedly interrupted from the passenger seat. “Uh, we’d rather not say. We will all be traveling with my son. We don’t plan on being separated.” Dad smiled grimly. The police officer just looked at him. “It never seems to turn out well when we separate.” Dad added.

“We are staying together,” DeAndre stated in support, his deep voice loud in the small compartment. “If you officers have been in contact with Dr. Carroway, then you were probably told to let us through and to not delay us.” He looked pointedly at the fellow, who, after a minute, turned back to his superiors.

They conferred for a few more minutes.

“Do you think we should make a break for it?” DeAndre asked in a low voice.

“How far do you think we’d get?” Dad asked, turning to him.

“They’re coming back.”

We all turned to watch several officers once again approach our window.

“Sir,” the elder one said, obviously in charge, “I’m Sergeant Wolford of the Massachusetts State Police. We apologize for the delay. We will be providing a police escort for you and the vehicle behind you, so that your arrival in Boston won’t be further delayed. Dr. Carroway has been moved to the underground facility at M.I.T.” He leaned in a bit farther. “The doctor’s lab was overrun two months ago, and the university facility was better protected. He’s basically in an underground bunker. We will lead you there and provide police protection for you and your party. There have been a few uprisings in Boston lately, and we can help with any firefights that may break out.”

“Thank you, officer. May we get going then?” Dad said, clearly happy but restrained. We’d been here for over ten minutes.

“Absolutely. In fact, I will take the lead squad car, and there will be two others following you, and two others following the other vehicle.” He left our window and proceeded to a nearby police cruiser.

“Okay, boys and girls, looks like we’re finally getting on our way,” DeAndre started the engine and put it into gear. Pulling out ahead of us, the police car was running with full lights. We made an interesting parade, a line of seven vehicles, with red and blue lights flashing all over the place. White strobe lights played back and forth in each cruiser rear window, quite impressively. As the first car turned onto the open road, it waited maybe 45 seconds, until the last cruiser had pulled on; then it accelerated to more than 75 mph.

“Now we’re talking,” Jonathan whooped.

“At this rate, we should be in Boston in less than 25 minutes,” Dad said.

Everything was going well, we had a five-car police escort; looking behind us I could see Tim in the Hummer back behind two police cars; and Zach and I had kissed. I smiled with contentment. I knew everything would be okay. I felt it. I had a feeling about things, and everything was going to go smoothly. Everything. Smoothly. Yeah.