Tainted Cure (The Rememdium Series Book 1) (22 page)

BREAKING OUT - Saturday - December 20
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– 9:45 a.m.

Regina and the others crouched behind a Humvee and watched the jail. They had stopped once on their way and made a quick change of clothes. Regina had removed her uniform shirt and Turner now wore it under his sweatshirt. Reed had taken off his undershirt and given it to Regina and then switched outfits with Walt.

The soldiers standing guard at the front entrance to the jail looked edgy. They paced around, one huffing away on a cigarette, all their attention focused east. The gunfire from the highway and school had trickled down to short, random bursts instead of steady pops.

Either they were winning the battle, or…

Regina pushed the thought aside. “Okay, we ready?”

Reed nodded and pulled the mask over his face. “Yep.”

“I can’t believe I had to wait until the end of the world happened before I got a chance to see you go to jail,” Walt added.

Regina turned and looked at him, wondering how much of his comment was a simple joke to ease the tension, and how much was truth. She was well aware Wee-Wee Walt Addison had no warm, fuzzy feelings for her. “The apocalypse makes strange bedfellows, that’s for sure.”

“Stop wastin’ time! Let’s get in there and get Jesse!” Turner barked.

Walt kissed his wife long and hard. “Be safe, lover.”

“Always. Let’s go.”

Walt and Lamar remained in their spot while Regina, Reed, Turner and Martha stood and walked across the blacktop toward the jail. Regina and Turner put their hands behind their backs, Reed and Martha in step behind them.

The sounds of their footsteps made the four men guarding the entrance take note. Each raised their weapons and moved in unison to the front of the glass doors leading inside. The man closest to them who’d been smoking only seconds before laughed.

The sound sent a chill up Regina’s spine. It wasn’t anything close to humorous.

“Two more? Jesus, they’re comin’ outta the woodwork!”

“I don’t know why we’re wasting time and risking our lives for soon to be corpses,” another said.

“That ain’t our call, boys. We’re just followin’ orders like everyone else,” Reed said. “There’s more at the school we need to go get, so the sooner we get these two secured, the faster we can get back to help the others. We’re spread pretty thin after all the fightin’.”

“No doubt. The standoff in Rockport was scary. Knew if those things made it past the barricades we’d all be in serious trouble.”

Regina’s heart thudded in double time. She hoped Reed would ask, and she wanted to kiss him when he did.

“We were at the school and missed it. Were y’all there?”

“Yep. I tell you, when the police department was overrun, I thought we’d lost the battle. Then after we hit it with several grenades and the explosion happened—poof! Sent a whole mess of the dead back to hell where they belong. Gave us time to take out as many as we could see. Damn but those things move fast!”

Even though Regina’s head was down, she kept her face calm and expressionless. Inside her mind, she whispered a silent prayer for Geenie.
God love her.

The four men seemed to buy the charade and stepped away from the entrance, allowing enough room between them for the foursome to pass through. One even opened the door and then stood back. Regina assumed he was afraid to get any closer for fear of being contaminated.

They made it inside the jail. The reception area was empty, the closed-circuit cameras lining the back of the desk manned by no one. Regina already told them prior to arrival to maintain the façade of guards and prisoners in case they were being monitored by the security cameras.

Hot Spring County jail was large considering the minimal population of the county, yet small in terms of actual size. It could only house up to a maximum of fifty inmates. Since she knew the layout, she took the lead. When they arrived at the first set of locked doors, Regina’s heart sank.

Three armed guards and two Hot Spring County deputies blocked their way. They sat around the desk housing the controls to the bars on the other side. Regina kept her head down and prayed Deputies Jackson Allsop and Mike Bailey didn’t recognize her. Considering the side of her head was bandaged and she wasn’t wearing her uniform, she hoped they didn’t.

The guard sitting closest to them said, “We ain’t got room for more.”

“Not our problem. Sergeant Russell gave orders for us to bring them here,” Reed said.

Though doubtful anyone else heard the fear in her brother’s voice, Regina did. She could tell he was thinking the same thing she was: if there wasn’t any more room, what were they doing with the sick?

“I don’t care what the Sarge said, we are full up! Besides, we take our orders from Lt. Pack, and he said to take any new arrivals out back and terminate them.”

“What? We’re just goin’ to kill them in cold blood?” Martha gasped.

“Better them than us, right? We’re under Martial Law now. Y’all arrived just in time. We were just givin’ orders to take the ones already inside out back. We’ll need the extra help gettin’ them outside and burnin’ the bodies.”

Regina couldn’t take any more. She looked up and straight into the faces of Allsop and Bailey. They looked terrified yet unwilling to attempt a coup on their own. Considering they were outnumbered, she couldn’t really blame them. She hoped that was really the case and that the men she’d known for years hadn’t turned into cold-hearted monsters so quickly.

Seconds ago, she hoped they wouldn’t recognize her, but that had changed.

Searching their faces for any signs of recognition, she was greeted by blank stares. Unwilling to let them know she wasn’t really handcuffed, Regina remained still and spoke directly to Allsop and Bailey. “My daughter’s in there, sick like me. Please, let us be together when you kill us. I don’t want to turn into one of those things, and I know Jesse doesn’t want that either. Just allow us to hold each other one last time?”

The silence inside the jail was eerie. Five sets of eyes stared at her, three full of hatred and anger. The two sets she hoped to reach filled with pity, sadness, and then recognition.

Regina saw a spark of hope appear on Allsop’s face. Allsop gave a slight nod of his head and reached down and pushed the button unlocking the bars.

“What are you doin’ you fool?”

On cue, Allsop, Bailey, Reed, and Martha turned their weapons on the three soldiers. The three men froze. Regina burst through the open door first and grabbed the automatic rifle of the one nearest her. The look on his face when she snatched it up would have been comical under different circumstances.

“Sorry, Chief. Didn’t recognize you for a second,” Deputy Allsop said. “You okay?”

Regina nodded. “Don’t worry, boys. I ain’t sick. Neither is Jesse. We’re here to get her out, that’s all. What cell number is she in?”

Deputy Bailey answered, “Seventeen, Block B. Don’t worry, none, Chief. I’ve known that girl since she was a baby. Could tell she was just havin’ one of her allergy attacks. I made sure they put her in a cell by herself.”

“Bailey, you’re a gem. Now, let’s get these boys here secured. Make sure to take their radios. Don’t need anybody callin’ for backup while we break my kid out of jail.”

“Gladly,” Martha said. In a flash, she handcuffed all three soldiers, arms behind their backs.

“You’ll pay for this once Lt. Pack hears what you’ve done.”

“That may be true later, but not right now,” Regina said. She stared into the eyes of the man who’d been talking to them earlier. “You mentioned we are under Martial Law, right?”

“Yep, so when I’m able, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

Regina smashed the butt of the rifle into the bastard’s nose. The sound of cartilage and bone crunching filled the small area. Blood shot from the soldier’s nose while his body tumbled backward out of the chair.

“Any of you other heartless fuckers have anythin’ to say?” The other two men shook their heads. “Good, because I’m done playin’ nice with the military.”

Reed stepped forward and motioned for the two men to get on the ground. “Sis, go get Jesse. Martha and I will make sure these boys stay right here.”

Deputy Bailey pushed a button on the console and the metal door slid back. Allsop yanked a set of keys from the limp body of the soldier with the broken nose. “I’ll be takin’ my keys back now. Bastard.”

With Regina leading the way, Turner, Allsop, and Bailey flanking her, they stepped through the entryway and headed into the center of the jail. They only made it three steps when the sounds of mewing and groans hit them, coming from the cells up ahead.

“What the hell is that noise? And that smell?” Deputy Allsop asked.

“That would be from those who’ve turned. You know, dead people who smell your blood or hear us. God, doesn’t sound right. The dead smellin’ and hearin’.” Regina answered, rifle steady, eyes focused in front of her. “Stay in the middle of the aisle, away from the bars. They are strong, hungry, and determined.”

“Holy God, what a nightmare,” Deputy Bailey said.

“Keep movin’. Almost to Block B,” Regina urged.

Ignoring the rising noise from former residents of Hot Spring County as they grunted and clanged on the bars of the cells, Regina stopped and let Allsop move ahead.

When he reached out and inserted the key to unlock the door, the sound of Jesse’s screams sent waves of terror inside Regina’s heart.

“Open that fucking door!” she yelled.

Allsop swung the door open, and the group let out a collective gasp when they came face to face with what used to be Sheriff Roger Calhoun.

Jesse Parker rubbed her shoulders and paced around the small cell to keep warm. She wished she had real clothes on. There wasn’t time to change when the soldiers forced them from the house, and all she had on was her thin pajamas and slippers.

She hadn’t been inside a jail since Fayetteville. Being trapped in the confined space was a nightmare on its own. It took her back to a time in her life she never wanted to revisit. With the added stress of everything else going on, it was too much for her mind to grasp.

Jesse had tried to keep from having a panic attack during the last two hours. Terror and adrenaline took over her thoughts after seeing Stephen Sikes gunned down like an animal. Then, when she saw the amount of dead people converge onto the streets of Rockport, she’d gone numb. After Uncle Reed drove the Humvee away then left to go find her mom, Jesse clung to Turner for support. Being near Turner helped keep her from flipping out.

Then, things went from bad to worse. People ran screaming from the onslaught of the dead and gunfire. She tried to keep Uncle Reed in her sights, but lost him in the crowd. She had started crying again, overcome with worry she wouldn’t see her mom or uncle again.

Though time seemed to have stood still, Jesse guessed it was about three minutes later when Uncle Reed burst through the crowd, her mother’s limp body slung over his shoulder. Jesse had scrambled to unlock the back door to let him in. The second Uncle Reed set her mother in the back seat, her face covered in blood, two soldiers rushed the Humvee. One of them grabbed Uncle Reed’s collar and smashed his face into the door frame. Before Jesse had time to grasp what was happening, the other soldier stuck his weapon in Turner’s face, forcing him to move. In minutes, they were at the high school.

Uncle Reed and Turner carried her unconscious mother inside and a female soldier dressed her wound. Then Jesse started sneezing again and two men grabbed her. Turner tried to stop them, but was forced to remain seated by two other armed guards.

The soldiers took Jesse to the end of a long line of lunch tables. A female soldier drew her blood and deposited a few droplets in a vial full of clear liquid. Jesse told them she felt fine and was just suffering from an allergy attack. They didn’t believe her and dragged her, kicking and screaming, from the gym.

On the ride to the jail, Jesse was terrified. She didn’t know what would happen to her mom, Uncle Reed, or Turner. Even the constant fear when on the streets, so strung out she didn’t care what she had to do to survive long enough to get more money for another hit, paled in comparison to what was happening now.