The Flu 2: Healing (15 page)

“’Bout an hour, maybe more. Not sure.” Tom hitched a breath. “I’m so damn worried about my grandkids, this was a shot of life I needed. I just started reading and he cuddled more. Look at him. When Dust … when Dustin was this age we spent hours like this.” Tom cleared his throat.

“I remember.”

“If it’s all the same to you, Lars, I think I’d like to take this little one with me when he’s ready to leave the hospital. I’ll look after him until Mick decides what to do with him. I can take him with me everywhere. I’ll make sure he eats and drinks.”

“I think that’s a great idea.”

At a single knock on the archway, Ethan stepped into the room. “Hey, guys I just …” He trailed off and stared. “Wow, Doe looks great. I can’t believe that’s the same boy. Wait until Mick sees him.”

“Amazing what a little watering will do,” Lars said. “What’s up?”

“Check this out,” Ethan said. “Cell phones are back.”

* * *

Rose was ready and on it.

She was packed and prepped to leave, but as she promised Tom, she’d wait to see if she got a hold of Mick when the phones went up.

Just about out of patience and ready to jump on her bike and go on a wild goose chase, Rose got word and then she looked at her phone.

She decided to give herself one hour to reach Mick and then she’d take off.

On her front porch, phone in hand, Rose dialed Mick. It went immediately to voice mail; she didn’t leave a message. She hung up and tried again. She would do that continuously for one hour. After that, she’d try to reach Mick from the road.

* * *

Cambridge, PA

Mick dropped to his knees in defeat the second he stepped into Cambridge. It was a ghost town and he knew the boys weren’t there. Where had he gone wrong? Where had he failed? The entire last leg of his journey was filled with hope of finding the boys. He thought of when they were born, all the Little League games, the times he’d stand up for them when they were in trouble and all the times he took the boys for overnights when Dylan was at the end of her rope.

Not that the boys didn’t drive him nuts. They did. Tigger in his tiny tot body was years beyond his age in intelligence. He was sarcastic and funny and had more love and joy in his small body than a state full of people. Chris was always the antagonist, going against what Mick said, questioning him every step of the way. And Dustin … Dustin was the voice of reason, yelling at his little brother for questioning Mick, then turning right around and doing it himself.

Life would never be right without Dustin. Mick’s heart broke every single time he thought of him.

The last thing he wanted was for anything to happen to Chris or Tigger. Where
were
they?

Maybe they were hiding in town … maybe. He called out, but received no response. He’d search the town, after a moment of regrouping. It was when he was about to sit and rest that he spotted the memorial wall and all the flyers posted there.

Like a flashing red light, Mick saw his name. He believed he did and, hoping it wasn’t his wishful imagination, Mick raced to the wall. Plastered over a stack of flyers was a note to him from Chris.

They were fine. More than fine. They were on their way home. Mick wasn’t certain how that was; maybe they had run into someone in town. The note screamed relief at him and grabbing it, he pulled it to his chest and collapsed on the ground.

While the search was sort of over, his journey wasn’t. Mick had to head back to Lodi, find a way there. He looked around the small town area and spotted a motorcycle in the open garage of a small gas station.

He fueled it up, but it wouldn’t jump start right away. With a little work, Mick got it running. He strapped his belongings to the bike, and he was ready to ride. Before he did so, he did something else he had done many times on his search, he pulled out his phone.

He pressed the ‘on’ button, waited for the power cycle and the familiar face of Dylan to greet him. She was his wallpaper.

“Hey, baby,” he said to her picture. “I know I failed you. But they left a note. They’re on the—”

When his phone rang, it startled him to the point he nearly dropped it. He looked at the screen. Incoming call:
Mom.

“Holy shit!” Mick quickly answered the phone. “Mom!”

“Mick, oh, God, thank God. Where are you?”

“Mom, I don’t know if a man named Ethan arrived in town or not—”

“He did,” Rose said. “He told us. Did you find them? Did you find the boys?”

“No, not yet. I followed their trail. They left me a note on a wall in this small town, said they were on their way home and they were fine.”

“What do you think?”

“I think someone is bringing them home, not sure. I got a bike and I’m heading back to Lodi, hoping to get them on the way. We’re only a few hours out.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Mom, did that little baby live?” Mick asked.

“Yes, he did. He is doing great. Is there anything you need me to do? Do you need help?”

“No,” Mick answered quickly, then changed his mind. “You know what? Yes. We’re really near 90 right now, and I’m gonna guess the boys took 90 and are coming in from Cleveland. Can you head out to meet them? You’ll wanna take that route north toward Cleveland and then toward Erie.”

“Absolutely, I’ll leave now.”

“Mom, there’s that rest area, just where 90 junctions with 70. Outside Erie, remember? Meet me there if you don’t find the boys. That’s a halfway point. If neither of us have any luck, we’ll go from there.”

“I’m leaving now, Mick. Be careful.”

“You too.” Mick readied to end the call, but stopped when he heard his name.

“Mick?”

“Yeah?”

“I love ya.”

“I love you too,” Mick said, and hung up the phone. He was renewed, invigorated with hope and his adrenaline pumped. He mounted the bike, started it, and pulled from the service station onto Main.

Even though there wasn’t any traffic, habit caused Mick to pause and look both ways. Had he not, he wouldn’t have seen that in the direction he was heading, five trucks had pulled into the large gas station at the onset of town.

He could see supplies in the trucks and not only did men get out from the cabs, but they hopped from the back. Lots of men. Some wore camouflage, some wore black. They joked, laughed, hooted and hollered. Mick looked longer to make sure he didn’t see the boys, and when he didn’t, Mick, not wanting to wait around to see what they were up to, took off in the other direction.

11. Different Turn

Briggs waited, and at eight a.m. he was ready to go searching for the missing men from unit 149. At the suggestion of his new right hand man, he’d waited two more hours, then headed toward Erie.

If they were coming they’d be coming up that way.

At ten on the nose, Briggs was out the door. He had one man in his jeep and four other highly trained men following in a Humvee, in case there was trouble.

They made it into Pennsylvania without incident, and Briggs didn’t think they would run into any trouble. Most of the towns had been cleared out and the residents had moved to Damon.

Like he had a hundred times in the journey, Briggs looked to his phone to check for a signal. Then suddenly, he smiled.

“You’re like a teenager, sir,” his driver said.

“We have life in the phones again. Now why isn’t he calling? He said he would call when the signal went back up.”

“Why don’t you call him?”

“What if we try to call at the same time?” Briggs asked. “Then that would be frustrating.” I’ll wait.”

The driver glanced over at him. “Staring won’t make it ring.”

“Keep your eyes on the road, son. We have a six thousand pound vehicle tagging our ass, I don’t want you to make a mistake and have them ram us.”

“Yes, sir.”

After a few moments, the phone rang. Excitedly, he answered it. “Briggs.”

“You’ve been waiting to do that, I see,” Jon said on the other end.

“I have. Feels good. Even though it hasn’t been that long, it feels good. I thought you would have called right away, you were watching for the signal too.”

“I would have but …listen, I got news,” Jon said. “We got in touch with 149.”

“Where are they?”

“You’re not gonna like it. Seems they told us to stop bothering them unless we want to negotiate.”

“Negotiate? What the hell does that mean?”

“It means they cornered off Pennsylvania near the lake across Erie. They said it’s their territory now.”

“Jon, how many men could that be? Ten? Fifteen tops? I mean, how much of a hold can they have on that corner?”

“From what I was told,” Jon said, “they have more. They joined up with several other units that haven’t checked in and I’m on that now figuring out who they are. They said they have survivors, and Jonah … I heard kids in the background. Crying kids.”

Briggs snapped his finger to the driver, and signaled for him to stop. The driver held his hand out the window and slowed down before halting the vehicle.

Once the jeep stopped, Briggs stepped outside to have more privacy. “Tell me all you know.”

* * *

“Aw man,” Chris whined. “I knew it. I
knew
it.” He hit the steering wheel as they passed a sign.

From the back seat, Tigger said. “I told you.”

“Shut up, Tig,” Chris barked. “We went East instead of West, didn’t we?”

Jake held the map. “New York is north sort of, I don’t know.”

“We went east. We have to turn around.” Chris said. “Let me see the map.”

“Watch the road!” Tigger shouted.

“Tig, I’m only glancing. I’m good.”

“You’re gonna hit them.”

“Hit what?” Chris asked, eyes shifting to the map and to the rearview mirror.

“Those cars.”

Chris looked up.

Jake and Tigger screamed, and Chris, as he too screamed, hit the brakes. He wasn’t going very fast, yet the car swerved some before coming to a screeching halt.

He breathed heavily. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Everyone alright?”

Jake nodded then his eyes grew wide.

“I’m fine, too!” Tigger yelled.

“Is Emmie …” When Chris turned around to check on Emmie, he saw Jake pointing.

Chris peered out the windshield. Walking toward the car was a very tall black man in uniform. In fact, he was the tallest man Chris had ever seen next to Mick.

“Holy shit.” Chris whispered. “What do we do?”

“He has a gun,” Jake said. “He looks mean. He’s gonna kill us.”

Tigger hollered. “Reverse! Reverse!. Get us out!”

“Good thinking, Tig.” Nervously, Chris reached for the gear, shifted it, hit the gas, but the car was in neutral and only revved. He looked up the man grew closer. Hurriedly, Chris shifted again and hit the gas.

The car jerked forward.

Thump.

Chris watched as the front end of the car sent the man sailing to the left. He hit the brakes again and put the car in park. “Oh my god.”

“You killed him!” Jake said. “You just killed a man.”

“I didn’t mean to. What do we do?”

“Go!” Tigger popped his body between the two front seats. “Go.”

“I can’t go, I can’t.” Chris shook his head and reached for the car door.

Jake grabbed his arm. “Chris, there are five other men. Just go.”

Chris shook. His voice quivered. “I just committed vehicular homicide. I can’t go anywhere. It just ain’t right.” He opened the door.

The second he got out, Tigger jumped into the driver’s seat and grabbed the door, pulling it closed.

“What are you doing?” Jake asked.

“When they shoot Chris, we’re getting out of here. I got this.” Tigger’s legs didn’t even touch the floor, even though he slid all the way down. “I got this.”

* * *

His insides trembled out of control, but Chris took in a brave breath and walked toward the five men who were standing above the man he had killed. He whimpered, scared, on the verge of crying. “I’m … I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to kill him. I don’t drive. It was an accident.”

The men parted like the red sea, exposing the man, who was sitting up. A trickle of blood rolled down his forehead. He wiped it and slowly brought himself to a stand, staring at Chris.

“Aw, geeze, aw geeze. You’re big. Don’t hurt me. Please, I didn’t mean to almost kill you I swear. See? I could have ran. I didn’t. I came back. Sorry.”

The big man walked up to him. “Calm down. I’m not gonna hurt you. You’re all of what? Twelve?”