The Death Trilogy (Book 1): The Death: Quarantine (23 page)

Terrorized by his confession, she pushed him away and ran up the stairs and out onto the main terminal level. Her body was shaking so much she felt as if she’d go into convulsions. Her mind spun from the horrible things he had told her. She wanted it to be wrong, to be a lie, but deep down she just knew what he was saying was true. All of this around her was the lie. For the first time she had finally found out the truth, and it was worse than she could imagine. She thought of David and Eric as well as the baby. What was she going to do? Her erratic weaving through the terminal drew the attention of several people.

“Are you okay?” a man asked, coming up to her.

She held out her arm for him to keep his distance and kept walking.

More questions came, but she knew the answers. What he’d told her was the truth. All of this was some master plan, some scheme. She then asked herself, ‘Was the virus a part of this? Did they kill everyone so they could build a new world order?’ The thought of that was too much; her head spun and vertigo began to set in. Off to her right she saw old passenger seats and hurried over to them. She plopped herself down, rested her head back, and began to cry heavily.

April 12, 2021

Jenks Residence, Reed, Illinois

Devin stood up and raised his rifle at the lonely silhouette coming down the driveway. Had it not been for the full moon, he wouldn’t have seen the person at all.

“Stop right there!” he ordered.

The shadowy figure kept coming, the steps short and slow, but still coming.

“Damn it, stop right there,” he barked, his finger now on the trigger, and his stomach tightened.

The person stopped, mumbled something unintelligible, and collapsed in the driveway face first.

Thinking quickly, he called out for Tess and Brianna, then pulled his flashlight out of his pocket and clicked it on. The light splashed out on the driveway and onto the person lying motionless on the ground. He waved it up and down and saw it was a naked man. He immediately thought it could be Daryl. With urgency he stepped back from his covered position on the deck and ran towards the man. When he reached him, he identified him as Daryl.

The front door flew open; Tess and Brianna came running out with guns in their hands.

“Over here, it’s Daryl. Help me get him inside.”

Brianna and Tess sprinted over to Devin and Daryl.

“Oh my God, he looks bad,” Tess blurted out.

They all picked him up and began to carry him inside when Daryl mumbled, “I’ve had better days.”

“We got you, buddy,” Devin said.

Once inside the house, the three operated like a well-honed machine after having dealt with medical emergencies so often. They began addressing Daryl’s battered condition.

His body was covered in dirt and mud, which only acted as a cover for the cuts, bruises and scrapes that covered his body. His face was swollen from what must have been repeated hits they could only presume were delivered from fists.

As they worked on him, he kept mumbling most of which was unintelligible, but one word he kept repeating was clear: “Rivers.”

The first time he said it, Devin and Tess thought he was mentioning the location of where he had been held, but after the fourth time, they knew it meant Mayor Rivers. If he was involved in his abduction and torture, then he was a party to Simon’s activities, and with Frank being spotted with him, he also had something to do with that group of marauders.

Daryl took what little energy he could muster and grabbed Devin’s arm.

“What is it, buddy?” Devin asked.

Daryl pulled him closer till Devin was close enough to him and said, “Hud, they have Hud.”

Devin’s eyes opened wide with shock at the news. He looked at Tess and said, “They have Hudson. The cannibals have Hudson.”

“Where is he?” Tess asked.

Daryl tried to sit up, but he just didn’t have the strength and fell back onto the bed.

“Just rest, you tell us where we can find him, and we’ll go get him,” Devin said.

Shaking his head furiously, Daryl said, “Heavily armed, too many.”

“But we have a machine gun now,” Tess arrogantly said.

“No,” Daryl snapped.

“You need to rest, get some fluids in you,” Devin said.

“Coat closet, IV, get it,” Daryl mumbled.

Brianna took off and got the IV and needle.

“Here,” Tess ordered. She took the IV from Brianna and quickly injected it into Daryl.

“Bedroom, top drawer nightstand, small box, get it,” Daryl instructed.

Brianna again took off and returned promptly with a small locked box with a dial combo on top.

“Eight, five, eight, three,” Daryl said.

Brianna followed his instructions and unlocked the box.

“Bag, give it to me.”

She handed him a Ziploc bag filled with a whitish powder.

“Is that what I think it is?” Tess asked, a tinge of judgment in her voice.

“It’s not like that,” Daryl said as he opened the bag and brought it to his face. His swollen eyes looked at the three then he lowered his face.

“Unbelievable,” Tess snarled and pulled the bag away.

"Stop I need to wake up!" Daryl snapped.

"Not with that!" Tess argued, not letting go of his hand holding the bag.

"I'm not a user if that is what you think, I found this while scavenging some time ago," Darly said defending his desire to use it.

"That's even worse, you don't know what it is and what's in it. This shit can kill you!" Tess said snatching the bag from his weakened grip and exited the room.

"Come on, I need something," Daryl barked.

"I agree with Tess. The IV will help, you're dehydrated and we'll get you some pain killers. But if you want to go get Hudson you're not going out full of illicit drugs," Devin said.

 Daryl gave in and rested his head back."

Tess came back in and said, "How is he?"

 
Daryl looked at her and rolled his eyes. “My lovely lady, I’m not a drug addict, I just don’t toss anything away I find that might come in handy, and right now, timing is important. My boy is with a group of fucking cannibals, and you’ll need me to get him out. You can sit in judgment all you want. I don’t use that shit, but now that it's not an option go get me some coffee.”

Tess went to say something, but Devin cut her off. “Tess, he’s right, this is no time to make judgments. You can see he’s banged up. Let’s figure out how we’re getting Hudson; there’s no time to waste.”

Biting her tongue, she looked at Devin and shifted her gaze to Daryl and said, “Fine.”

“I imagine you two don’t know how to properly use that .50 cal. Let me show you just how we’re going to deploy that, and let’s go through the other goodies our Raider friends left us with,” Daryl said sitting back up again, a crooked smile stretched across his face.

Denver International Airport

Lori stopped just outside the first entrance to Horton’s office suite and smoothed out her shirt and ensured her hair was just right. After what felt like an endless night of tossing, turning and contemplation, she had made her mind up. With no choice but to give in to his demands, she thought it best to come to him and give herself over with no further resistance.

“I’m here to see Chancellor Horton,” she told the guard.

“One moment, ma’am,” the guard said, then clicked the handset on his radio. “Ms. Roberts is here to see the chancellor.”

The minute pause felt like agony to her as she chewed on her lip nervously.

The radio crackled to life. “Send her through.”

The guard opened the first door and let her proceed.

Down the long hallway she slowly walked. At the end stood the second guard standing in front of Horton’s actual office door. The thirty-foot walk from one door to the other felt like she was walking a plank off a ship. Once she walked through his door, she would be immersed in something she knew no way out of. The only thing she knew was her previous approach hadn’t worked, and if there was any escape from what she was about to endure, she’d have to operate differently.

The second guard, dressed head to toe in black fatigues, checked her out. His cold stare was void of any emotion. Without breaking his stare, he reached down and opened the door and pushed it open.

When the door fully opened, she looked in and saw Horton sitting at his desk at the far end of the room.

She stepped in, and the guard closed the door. When it clicked, she cringed.

Horton stood from his desk, adjusted his pants, smiled broadly and said, “Lori, so nice to see you. Might I say you look…lovely.”

She walked farther into the office and stopped a few feet from his desk. “Thank you.”

“I assume you thought about our conversation yesterday?”

“Yes, and I’m here to tell you…that…” she said, skipping over herself as her thoughts raced, jumbling her words. “I’m here to let you know I’ll do what is needed.”

He walked out from behind his desk and stood in front of her. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he gripped them firmly and started to rub up and down her upper arms. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear you say that. I wish things could have been different, but we really aren’t the bad people you think we are. We mean well, and in time you’ll see that.”

She had been looking at him, but as he talked, she lowered her head in shame.

Lifting her head, he said, “I know how you must feel…I know this. This is not what I wanted but what must be. Just give in to me, and you’ll know that this new world order we’re creating is the right path for the human race. For the first time in human history we will get it right. Gone will be war, pestilence, ignorance. We will usher in a new age where everyone around the world will be connected through one language, one system, one government. We will live within our means and respect the world by living sustainably, and never again will we rape the mother earth and desecrate her with our waste and pollution. You are a part of this as you build a new city, the capital city of North America that will be a shining testament for all the citizens of Earth to gaze upon in wonder and awe and know that they have a home, a true home.”

She fought back the tears that she felt coming but couldn’t stop the trembling that overtook her body. It was her body’s way of signaling that she was in the presence of evil, but she didn’t need this message; she knew it and couldn’t escape its grasp.

He lowered his head to meet hers and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. With one-sided passion, he slipped his tongue in her mouth.

She made a slight jerk to resist but fought her instinctual repulsion and just let him do what he wanted.

He pulled back, smiled and said, “Welcome home, Lori.”

Jenks Residence, Reed, Illinois

“This is a treasure trove; look at what we have here,” Daryl blurted out, the IV, pain killers and coffee had given the boost he needed.

“I’m not familiar with everything. What do we have?” Devin asked.

“Good stuff,” Tess said. She began to look over the assortment of weapons and equipment laid out on a tarp in the side yard. “It’s like a grenade salad,” she joked, picking up a canister. “We have smoke, HE and even some 203 rounds for this bad boy right here.”

“You know your grenades. Why is that, G.I. Jane?” Daryl asked in jest as he elbowed Devin.

“My fiancé is a jarhead. He keeps me up to date on everything. He’s been prepping and training me since after he graduated OCS years ago.”

“My kind of man, glad to see the world hadn’t completely gone to shit before. I was beginning to think most guys had grown man-ginas and given up on being men,” Daryl bemoaned.

Tess looked at Devin.

“What are you looking at? I don’t and never had a…whatever you called it.”

“Man-gina.” Tess laughed.

“Screw you,” Devin snapped.

“Take a joke, Dev, jeez,” Tess fired back.

“Besides the vast assortment of grenades, we have two thousand rounds of .50 cal for the Ma Duece, a dozen 203 rounds for our grenade launcher, three thousand rounds of 5.56mm, fifteen hundred rounds of 9mm, two H&K pistols, thank you, eight Claymore mines, and the best thing, an entire crate of C4. This, my friends, is a beautiful thing, the Claymore has been around for decades,” he said, holding up the olive drab curved square device.

“Why change something when it works, right?” Devin mentioned.

“You got it. In fact, the ole .50 cal was first introduced in World War One, and we’re still, or I should say,
were
still using it today.”

Strewn among the weapons were other useful items: packs, food, water, fuel, maps, radios, batteries, and personal effects from the dead men.

“What’s the next step?” Tess asked.

“You know how to use the machine gun, so that’s good. I think we should set these up just in case my new friends show up,” Daryl said, motioning to the Claymores.

“Then what?” Devin asked.

“We go get my boy.”

Daryl hadn’t set up a Claymore in years, but it wasn’t rocket science, and when he had the main access points to his property covered, he laid out a large map of Reed.

With a marker he circled several points and said, “This circle is us, this here is my sister’s place, and this is where I was being held.” His finger was on a place right in town.

“What is it?” Devin asked.

“Grocery store.”

“Is that a joke? They’re using a grocery store to process humans?” Tess asked.

“I wish it was a joke, it’s the real deal. They’ve turned into fucking animals,” Daryl exclaimed.

“Let’s not insult the animals,” Devin chimed in.

“Let’s get serious,” Daryl said and continued. “They have what can best be described as a small army.”

“How did you get out?” Tess asked.

“That’s not important. He’s not there. I looked, but they’re holding him somewhere else.”

“How do you know?” Devin asked.

“One of the guys, his name was…damn, I can’t remember, it’s not important, he told me they had him.”

“Any clue where?” Tess asked.

“Oh, his name was Frank; he said that the mayor has a taste for ‘young meat’, his phrasing not mine.”