Pulse (18 page)

Dom turned his attention to what was in front of him. People were being taken one by one behind curtained areas in the Gate 1 section.

This was normal, Dom told himself. They had to do this to make sure only healthy people made it to the evacuation zones. But they weren’t going fast enough considering Seattle was going to be bombed in only a few hours.

Behind them a slew of gunshots went off. The crowd ducked simultaneously. All of the soldiers’ walkie talkies crackled to life. “
1 infected on perimeter of entry. Threat eliminated.
”

Dom gripped Chelsea’s hand and gave her his best reassuring look even though anxiety was creeping up his chest, constricting his breath and speeding up his pulse. A spot opened up. A soldier came and nodded at Dom and told him to follow. As the soldier pulled the curtain aside and shoved him in, he saw Chelsea go into the one next to him.

Then the questions, first from the soldier as a doctor-like figure yanked up Dom’s sleeves and began checking his arms.

“Do you have any weapons?”

Dom’s eyes widened. The last thing he wanted was to be separated from the only thing that gave him comfort. But…

“Yes,” he found himself saying. “I’ve got a handgun in my
backpack.”

“Sir, you’ll need to set your pack down. We’re going to check it and return it to you momentarily. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Another soldier took his pack. Dom watched as they rifled through it before the doctor jerked his chin forward and shone a light in his eyes.

“Have you come in contact with the parasite in any form?”

Did the man he killed count? The worms and crazy men chasing them down the alley? Seeing his friend be consumed by them? “No.”

“Are you traveling with anyone who has come in contact with the parasite?”

“No.”

The man pulled Dom’s shirt up and prodded at his stomach. His gloved hands felt rough and calculated. He stepped back and nodded to the soldiers. “Clean. Next.”

Dom still saw spots of light and dark from the flashlight in his eyes as he donned his pack again, feeling disoriented. It felt much lighter and he wondered if they’d taken anything else beside the gun. Before he left, the doctor put a green tag around his neck.

The soldier led him past at least a dozen more curtained areas before the fence opened up. He was at the end of the T, the middle school in front of him blazing with lights and buzzing with activity as people were ushered in, soldiers patrolling the area.

Dom slowed his pace, scanning the area behind him for Chelsea.

Not again. No, no, no…

Not one of the people trickling from Gate 1 was Chelsea. He’d lost her. Again.

He deviated from the crowd he’d been walking with to the school, looping around in hopes of staying near the gate longer in case she came out. Was it possible she got out before him? Did she tell them something that aroused suspicion?

“Excuse me, Sir, have you been checked?”

Dom spun around, coming face to face with a duo of soldiers.

“Yeah. Uh, see?” He fished his tag out, which was covered by the straps of his pack. “I’m looking for my girlfriend. She was right behind me, and—”

“You need to pass Gate 2 and go into the school.”

“I know, but—”

“Sir, I’m not fuckin’ askin’. If you don’t get a move on, I’m authorized to remove you from the premises.”

Dom’s jaw hung open. He took another look behind him, not moving.

The other soldier stepped forward. A kid his age, maybe even younger. “Buddy, people get separated at Gate 1, but I can almost guarantee you you’ll find her when you get in there.” His eyes became distant. “If you don’t continue to Gate 2, we have to release you back into the city.”

Release him into the city?
Don’t follow orders and you get tossed to the infected?

“Ok. Fine.” He started walking to the school.

“And hey, buddy? Make sure you have your tag showing.” The soldier grimaced. “You don’t want us thinking you’re one of them.”

***

Dom was assigned to the theater room to ‘wait pending evac.’ He was lumped into a group of about thirty people being led through the middle school by an escort of five soldiers. The school was packed. Either they were simply overloaded, or they hadn’t been evacuating people yet.

Whatever the case, people were afraid. Dom heard it in the whispered conversations around him. Saw it in the way people eyed the exits. The same thing was on everyone’s mind; if only a couple infected got in, it would all be over.

They’d be making it easy for them.

When they arrived at the theater room it was half full. All of the seats had been taken, and many people were on stage laying on the floor or sitting. Dom branched off from the main group towards a side wall.

“Please remain calm while we sort out the evacuation procedures. The buses will be arriving shortly.” The soldier’s voice was flat. “Do not leave this room unless a soldier has okay’d it and is escorting you.”

With that he left. The double doors slammed shut. Through the tiny windows Dom saw some of the soldiers remain, keeping guard outside. It made him feel safer. At least they weren’t being packed like sardines and left alone.

He shrugged off his pack and sat down, pressing his back against the wall. He felt the weight of Chelsea’s absence overtake him. He dropped his head into his hands and inhaled deeply. At least they were in a safe place. They might be separated, but this was different than earlier. There were military guys protecting them. They were moments away from being bussed to a safe zone.

“Mind if I sit down?”

A man stood beside him clutching a suitcase. He wore rumpled, dirty clothes that looked like he hadn’t changed them in days. His glasses were tinted a dark shade of brown. A business-like haircut was mussed. His eyes darted from Dom to everyone else in the room and back again. Something about him was familiar, but Dom couldn’t place him.

“I guess.” Dom scooted aside, dragging his pack between his legs. “Be my guest.”

“My name is Adam Baker,” he said, holding out his hand.

Dom stared at the offer but didn’t take it. Was this guy insane? There was a parasite running rampant that infected people easier than…well, anything Dom had ever heard of.

“I’m Dom,” he said. “Sorry, don’t really feel great about touching other people. What with everything going on and all.”

Adam grinned. “Smart.”

“What’s with the glasses?”

“Ah, yes. Transition lenses.” He adjusted his glasses, pushing them up his nose. “Eventually they simply don’t transition back.”

“Right.”

They sat in silence for a beat before Dom asked, “How long have you been here?”

“Here?” Adam drummed a beat on the top of his suitcase. “A while. Not sure really.”

Out of all the refugees, why did Dom have to sit next to the weirdo? But he was here and he was going to make the best of it. “I just got here. I arrived with my girlfriend but we got separated at Gate 1.”

“Gate 1?”

“Yeah, where they check you for the parasite.”

“Oh, right. Of course. Did you try calling her?”

Call her?
Dom mentally slapped himself. He unzipped his backpack and rifled around for his phone. He checked each compartment. It was gone.

“I guess they took it. I had a gun, too. But they took that. Not sure what else they took.”

Adam’s gaze turned towards the double doors. He didn’t have anything to add. Dom pulled a protein bar from his backpack and unwrapped it.

“Anyway, my best hope is that we get on the same bus when they evac us. Or we’ll at least meet up once we get to wherever they’re taking us.”

“There aren’t any buses coming.”

He stopped chewing. The food felt like a lump of dirt in his mouth. He forced himself to swallow it and turned to face Adam. “What?”

“I’ve been here since the military took over. Not a single bus has come. Either they’re really held up somewhere, or they just aren’t coming.”

“You’re crazy.”

Adam pointed above them to the windows. “The entire fleet of yellow school buses are in the lot behind us. They could use those. They haven’t.”

Dom stood up and peeled one of the blinds down. Sure enough, across the tennis and basketball courts was the school bus lot. A handful of soldiers were patrolling the perimeter of the school. Dom’s mind had wanted to justify it by saying they didn’t know, but they sure as hell did.

“But they’re bombing the city! They can’t keep us locked in here, this is in the blast radius.”

“The city is trying to separate healthy people from those infected with the parasite. I believe it is a preventative measure, to stop the parasite from spreading. Remove healthy individuals, and perhaps they’ll be able to whittle through the infected easier.”

“That makes sense, but you’re ignoring the huge ‘they’re going to bomb Seattle’ thing.’”

Adam leaned in. He reeked of body odor and stale food. “Do you see that man sitting in the middle of the stage?”

Dom looked. A burly looking guy sat there with whom Dom assumed were his wife and two kids. They wore camouflage and looked tough in a way that made Dom want to avoid them. “What about them?”

“I spoke to him when he first arrived hours ago. He claimed he had enough food, medical supplies, and firepower to get him through anything. I bet he did. One of those doomsday people. He would’ve stuck it out through everything, but bombs? He said the military blocked off all exits in the blast radius except the ones they’re at. They’re pooling everyone in these ‘evacuation points’ as a way of organizing them. He didn’t have an option but to come here.”

Miles away, Dom’s supplies stood neat and stacked in his apartment. The very same apartment he should never have left if what this Adam guy said was true.

“If you’re saying the bombing is a huge lie, you’re insane. Everything you just told me is a big guess anyway. They’re blocking off exits to the city to make things more orderly.”

“Or to ensure the flow of people to their designated checkpoints.”

“There isn’t anything suspicious about it.” Dom reassessed Adam. If anything was suspicious, it was him. “Even if they did lie, they’re still saving people’s lives by trying to
stop infection.”

Adam leaned against the wall. He tapped his suitcase in rapid succession. “You could look at it that way. But they did it to strike fear and urgency into people. Look at Mr. Survival over there. He wouldn’t have left his house if he didn’t have to. I’m sure thousands of people would think the same way and, eventually, they’d get killed. The parasite spreads. If everyone thinks they’re going to die, they’ll all come this way.”

The front doors opened and a new group of people were let in. About the same number as in Dom’s group. The theater room was filling up quickly. Not many more could fit comfortably without it getting overcrowded. He watched for Chelsea, but as the doors shut and she wasn’t in the group, Dom felt his hope deflate. He sighed and stared at the ground.

“Two obvious flaws with that plan,” Dom said. “The infected are bound to come to all the checkpoints, too. When the healthy people come here they’ll start getting picked off by the infected. And the infected will come here, too.”

“Exactly.” Adam had a fervor in his voice at the prospect of death that disturbed Dom.

“And second,” Dom continued, “there were only eleven ‘evacuation points.’ They can’t fit the population of the Seattle area in them. What are they going to do? Start turning people away?”

Adam shrugged. “Exactly. Whatever they think they’re doing, it is an act of desperation. They
won’t
be able to accommodate the numbers. They certainly
don’t
have enough manpower to successfully filter each infected individual. Eventually the parasite will take over Seattle, just like every city it’s come through so far, and these ‘evac points’ will be fuel for the fire. Plus, do you know how unlikely it is the military would get authorization to bomb an
entire
city? Even if they actually wanted to, it would take weeks—months!—to get clearance for such a dramatic measure.”

As crazy as the guy seemed, something about it all struck true to Dom. The vague statements by the soldiers about when buses were coming, plus the reality of the military bombing the city? He felt embarrassed he didn’t question it. But why would he have questioned it? A million thoughts swirled in his mind as waves of emotion overtook him.

He regretted coming here. He was miserable not knowing if Chelsea was safe. He was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with how little he felt in the grand scheme of things.

“How the fuck do you know all this?” Getting angry felt good, even if it was at a total stranger. It felt like a Brian move, and he could see why he always did it. “It makes sense, sure, but it could be a total conspiracy theory.”

“I work for the CDC. I know procedure and protocol and none of this checks out.”

TV!
That’s where Dom recognized him from. He made one of the early announcements from the CDC about the infection, which was then thought of as some crazy virus. Only then he looked much more put together. And hadn’t he been reporting from…what, Georgia?