Chapter 21: Ryan
I step behind Jo and Caitlyn who unblinkingly stare out the window at the parade of trucks parking on the outside. Many of them wear gas masks as they move about, forming a perimeter around the hospital. They know we are here. Carter runs into the room and nods to me with wide eyes. I guess that they have slowly made their way around the rear of the hospital, too. For whatever reason, they haven't entered. Perhaps they don't want to take a chance of destroying the cure with a barrage of bullets and explosions. Still, we are surrounded.
A cold thought grips me; we will not be so lucky this time around. I need to focus if we are to get out alive.
“Cait and Jo, I want you to head back to the waiting room and take inventory of all the weapons. Get them ready for transport. The cars are in the parking garage. If we can punch a hole right outside that entrance, we may stand a chance of retreating. They'll be careful killing any of us just yet,” I say. They turn; I grab Caitlyn's hand.
“Did you do what I asked?” I say to her. She nods and pats the cargo pocket along her leg. Jo gives us an odd look, but this isn't the time to explain.
Hopefully, it won't come down to using it. I knew Caitlyn would agree to it though.
They both turn and leave without questioning anything; Carter follows them. They are good soldiers. Honestly, we don’t stand much
of a chance, but I want them to leave me alone for a moment. I move closer to the window and scan the crowd of soldiers, looking for a specific face. The man I thought I had once found in his bed.
He’s out there. I know he is.
The one who has annihilated the work of years of my life. Twice. And I'll be damned if he does it again without paying with his life.
Matthews.
My fingers search for a way to open the window. Hospital windows rarely open for safety reasons. I find some leverage on the windowsill and try to move the glass. It doesn't budge.
Oh well, onto Plan B.
There is a monitor of some kind next to the vacant bed on the other side of the room. It’s roughly the size of an old tube television. I walk over to the door to the room and close it gently. The others are nowhere to be seen. I approach the bed and grip the monitor. Returning to the window with the heavy box, I lift it over my head and throw it into the window.
Glass shatters as the box penetrates the window and flies into the cold outside air. A few bullets immediately shoot through the newly opened window. I duck down as the lead goes into the ceiling above me. Dust falls on my head and neck. I reach up and swipe away the dust then pull my pistol from the holster at my side.
A voice projects into the room from the outside. They must have a megaphone. I figure that was a nice way to say hello. I'll at least hear what they want.
“Men hold your fire.” There is a pause. “Whoever is up there, we do not wish to fight. We know why you are in that hospital. We want to help in any way we can. Washington has managed to avoid an epidemic, but our gas masks and quarantine won’t last forever. Whatever qualm you may have, put it aside. You know, as I do, that there isn’t much time.”
I don’t trust a single word they utter. The minute that they know that we have the cure, they will take it by force. They will cure themselves, and will leave the rest to die. He’s not getting it. I will make sure that he does not get it.
I'll make sure we die before he gets it, and I'll destroy
every last syringe, too.
The voice continues.
“We are giving you one hour to respond to our proposal. After that, we intend to take you by force. We’d rather you work with us, but that is your choice.”
I look to another patient bed and consider throwing another monitor. Instead, I retreat. We have less than an hour to get the hell out of here.
* * *
“Why don’t we just take them one of the batches of the cure? That’s what they want - they’ll leave,” Darrel says. That is completely foolish. That is why I'm in charge.
“No. They know we wouldn’t give them all of it, and they would come looking for the rest. I’m sure they have a few lab rats that they think could quickly synthesize more with a sample. We'd rather die than hand it over to them.”
“So then, what’s your plan Ryan?”
Tori asks.
“Like I told them.
We get to the garage and shoot our way through their line. Then we make a break for the bridge.”
“That’s suicide,” Jo responds. “There are too many of them, and we are down to maybe a hundred rounds to share between all of us.”
“Working with them is suicide,” I remark. “Listen, we are taking everything down to the garage and preparing to exit. Gather up all the weapons and vaccines. Laura, make as many more as you can in twenty minutes. Everyone, meet down there in twenty-five minutes.”
“But-” Carter begins.
“Do it,” I nearly bark. This isn’t a time to deliberate. I am going to do what it takes to keep them alive whether they like it or not. I know best, dammit. I push past Carter, grab a few rifles from the table and head out of the lobby. Darrel glares at me as I push through the door and down the hallway.
What David did cannot be in vain.
While preparing my own rifle, I quickly yet silently move down the steps to the parking garage. Hopefully, the New Americans haven't wandered down there, yet.
I slowly open the door and scan the garage. It's clear. I set the extra rifles by the car and move towards the vehicle entrance. I kneel at the bottom of the ramp, leaning as covertly as I can against a cement divider.
It’s a long and steep ramp that goes up to street level; it's the only way for vehicles to get down here from the city. While the others load everything into the SUV and the sedan, I keep guard at the bottom behind my cover. Looking up quickly, I see a few vehicles and helmets move around, but the path remains mostly clear. If they look down, they'd barely be able to see me in the darkness. Perhaps they don't expect us to run. Maybe they think we still need more time on the cure.
Fifteen minutes later Carter quickly moves up to me.
“Ryan, we are missing one of the batches of the cure. I was just bringing down the third box, but when I came to the SUV, there was only one.”
“What?” I whisper aggressively, still glancing at the entrance to the parking garage.
“We had three, and now we have only two.”
“Where could it have gone?”
Carter shrugs his shoulders. The two of us move back to the car with our guns still at the ready. Kevin comes through the stairwell with Jo, Caitlyn, and the last of the rifles. Laura stands beside Carter and Tori holds a box of food from the apartments. I look around to everyone. Paige and Nichols are trapped outside. Well at least we’re all… wait, where’s Darrel?
“Where’s
Darry?” Tori asks, noticing his absence at the same time as me. She drops down her box of food and turns to the rest of us. “Where is he?”
Carter gives me a wide-eyed look. I’m not sure what…
It clicks. Darrel took the medicine. He's going through with his idea. We have to stop him.
Carter and I quickly run back through the garage and up to the first level. We catch sight of Darrel at the main entrance. He is moving the last of the barricade to the front door.
“Darrel stop!” I yell, nearly at a sprint. “That’s an order.”
“I’m not your damn soldier, Ryan. I’m not letting you get us killed with your insane ideas. Yeah – we’re going to blast our way out of this one. This violence needs to end.”
He picks back up the box and pushes his back against the door to the outside. Daylight pours in as it opens.
“No-” Carter begins to yell.
“You’ll thank me soon enough,” Darrel says, moving his body completely outside.
My fingers move towards my pistol, but the door shuts, and he is on the outside. Carter and I come to a halt at the doors. We both look through the glass.
Darrel hobbles towards them with the box in his hands. All of them have their guns on him. They don’t fire.
“Here’s your cure,” Darrel yells. “We finished it a few days ago, and there is plenty to go around. Just let
me and my friends go.”
“Set the box down,” the voice over the megaphone roars. Darrel sets it down and begins to back up with his hands in the air.
“I’m not armed,” he announces. Several of the guards move around him, their rifles pointing directly at his head. A lone figure protrudes from between black suited soldiers. He wears a white coat and a gas mask. I’d guess he is a scientist. His voice is muffled but still audible.
“What’s the dosage?” he asks.
“I think I heard them say something like 15 cc.”
The masked man nods, picks up the box, and walks back into the crowd, quickly disappearing behind the soldiers.
Tori walks up beside me and places her forehead against the glass.
“Darrel… what are you doing?” she whispers to herself.
Being stupid.
Darrel remains with his hands towards the sky. Another man with a mask emerges from the group. He wears a navy blue three-piece suit with a blood red tie. It is
him. I know it is him. God knows why he's here personally. I never thought he had the courage. Maybe he needs the cure...
President Cole Matthews. I can barely hear him from inside the hospital.
“So,” Matthews says beneath the mask, “you managed to solve what so many of us could not. Good for you.”
They aren’t quickly treating Darrel like the hero that he imagined. Darrel lifts his sweater to show the healing rash on his skin. “It cured me,” Darrel’s voice shook.
Matthews moves closer and looks at Darrel’s skin.
“Amazing,” Matthews remarks. A leather-gloved hand probes the rash with two fingers. Darrel's face flinches.
“Now please, let us go,” Darrel asks, lowering his sweater.
Matthews looks around to his men. Some of the few unmasked soldiers grow smirks at the comment. I imagine the faces that I can't see have the same smiles. A few even let out chuckles that end in coughing fits.
“We have to do something,” Caitlyn says to me. She holds the rifle tight in her hands.
There’s nothing we can do.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Carter says in a monotone voice.
Matthews walks around Darrel and briefly looks towards us through the window. The windows are tinted, and he probably can’t see us.
But he knows we are watching. Walking behind Darrel, Matthews reaches under his suit jacket with his right hand. Darrel turns to keep eye contact with him. His eyes plead.
“Please, let us-“
BANG.
A mist of blood hangs in the air as Darrel’s knees buckle and his body collapses to the ground.
Tori lets out a desperate scream beside me. Kevin pulls her back, and Carter and Jo immediately barricade the front door with an overturned gurney while the rest of us quickly move back down the hallway and towards the garage.
That fool
. They’ll be moving in minutes because of you.
“The garage, NOW,” I command. They all listen this time.
Chapter 22: Nichols
“God no,” Paige gasps with her hand over her mouth as we watch Darrel’s body fall into the melting snow. The man who shot him disappears back into the crowd of soldiers after returning his gun to its shoulder holster.
Suscipientes
animam ejus, offerentes eam in conspectu Altissimi.
The two of us sit helplessly on the balcony floor of a building adjacent to the hospital.
When the convoy showed up, we remained here and hoped that maybe we could get the group's attention in the hospital. They haven’t seen us. So we watched helplessly, unable to do a thing when they executed Darrel on the streets below.
So
, I guess Paige is right. We can’t trust these “New Americans.” I never really crossed paths with them until today. I've heard whispers and rumors, but nothing certain. I’m blessed for that. I never imagined that a group could have risen as quickly as they did after the plague. Not unless they had somehow already started before the plague even began.
That would mean... this isn't the time.
Now, we have to focus on getting those inside that hospital out. If they are trapped, we may be their only chance.
Paige stands, withdrawing her gun from the holster. A fearless look flashes in her eyes. She stands and raises her gun over the ledge and towards the crowd. What is she...?
I quickly reach up and pull her back down onto the patio.
“What in heaven's sake are you doing?”
“I can't just sit here and do nothing.” She fights against my grip. “Let me go.”
“Darling, I'm mad, too.
But there's nothing we can do. You'll just get killed.”
“You don't understand,” she says, tears building in the corners of her eyes.
“Not... not again.”
She finally stops fighting and falls to her knees. I wrap my arms around her and try to provide some comfort. “
Shh... it'll be alright.” I don't know what she's talking about, but this is not the time for her redemption.
“Carter's going to need you to help him,” I say. She relaxes and breaks away from me. Our eyes meet – she's thinking again.
“We need you, too,” she responds. I give a reluctant half smile in return; maybe not quite “need.” They made it pretty far without me. I worry about all of them, but they all escaped the impossible a few days ago; they can do it again. They are a tough bunch.
“What are we going to do?” Paige asks. “What are they going to do on the inside?”
“They know they can’t win this fight. If I was them, I would be planning a hasty retreat.”
“The cars are in the parking garage?” Paige questions. I turn in the direction of the garage.
“Exactly,” I say while quickly nodding my head.
I move while crouched to the end of the balcony. I quickly look over, peering towards the entrance to the garage; it's within
eye shot. Most of the New American cars sit on the street directly in front of the hospital. The cars that go around the hospital are sporadic in placement. There's even a slight gap between two of the vehicles that block the exit to the garage. If the SUV would reach a high enough speed, it could shear right through that opening.
“It doesn’t look like they’ve particularly reinforced that area in front of the garage. I bet that’s what Ryan is hoping to do. It's going to be soon, too.” Several of the soldiers form into squads around the hospital. They're preparing to storm the entrances.
“Then we need to get down there,” Paige exclaims as I reclaim my hat and settle it on my head. With a nod, I sprint back into the building, and we move quickly back down the hallway. I hoist myself down onto the elevator, and help her follow. Soon, we are in the hotel lobby, and I slide beneath the large windows that face the street. We make our way under the window and kneel beside the glass doors to the outside. The soldiers move loudly just outside where we hide. With my hat in hand, I raise my head to look into the street.
Dozens of cars and trucks, and seemingly hundreds of soldiers move around the streets. A few erect a tent in the center with a giant medical cross on the canvas roof. They take no notice of us
inside the lobby. All their eyes focus on the hospital.
“I think Matthews brought his entire army here,” Paige says.
“Matthews?” I ask.
“He's the president of the New Americans. He's somewhere far away and safe,” she pauses, glancing at my still questioning face. “He's a real monster.”
I’ll take her word for it. “Come on, let's go,” I say.
We move through the hotel lobby and quietly relocate in the adjacent alley. The door to the next building is unlocked so we move through it. We proceed quietly through a few more just like it until we find an office building directly across from the entrance to the
hospital parking garage. We carefully move to the doors. My hand pushes the one open slowly and Paige leads the way to a broken down car parked along the sidewalk. The soldiers move up and down the street, but their focus is entirely on the hospital. Over the course of a few minutes, they don’t look back our way even once. The car and remaining piles of snow hide us well.
“We wait here as long as we can. If they don't come out...” I don't have a plan.
“Then what?” she asks, withdrawing her pistol and holding it between her bent knees as she leans against the car.
“Pray it doesn't come to that,” I say, closing the cylinder on my revolver.
Five minutes pass. I peer every so often through the cloudy windows of the car. It reminds me of the police standoffs I'd seen on TV – with the cops' rifles or elbows resting on the hoods of their vehicles while their fingers itch for the chance to shoot at anything that may come out of the building. Groups of soldiers storm the hospital. They are undoubtedly sweeping for my new friends.
We’re running out of time.
A group in white coats walks around the street carrying the bin of vaccines that Darrel gave them. These lab technicians go to each soldier, lift up his sleeve, and inject him with the vaccine. All of the guards around us are inoculated and the white-coated men move to the other side of the hospital. Now, they could hold us off indefinitely.
Fantastic.
I rise a few inches to look at the New Americans. More begin to gather near us, focusing on the entrance to the garage. They must suspect what I believe Ryan will do. The soldiers issue commands to each other quickly; soon they'll be moving inside. Ryan needs to make his move now.
“We may have to move soon,” I say to Paige. She nods. We
won't go unnoticed here much longer.
The burn of rubber echoes from within the garage. An engine rumble grows louder and louder as headlights move up the concrete ramp in front of us.
Here we go.
The SUV crashes through the two cars and the sedan follows right behind it. Paige and I stand and unload our guns at the soldiers firing at the vehicles. Following mists of red, a few of them drop. After six shots, I expose the chambers to reload. My eyes stay focused on the cars.
I hate being right all the time – and they are leaving without us...
“Hey!” I yell towards the cars as I flip the cylinder back into my gun. Paige and I run in desperate pursuit.
Please see us.
Paige fires blindly into the flank of the New Americans as she enters into a dead sprint on the sidewalk following the cars. I fire a few more rounds behind me in the same direction.
Hopefully, this will provide some suppression. We turn and run into the road, dodging around their cars and a few bodies. Bullets ricochet off the ground around us and shatter the windows of vacant cars. I catch up to Paige and pull her arm along with me. Both our guns are empty, now. I flip it into my holster.
“Stop, Stop Stop...” I yell, waving my right arm over my head.
The SUV’s brake lights come on as the trunk immediately opens. The sedan nearly rear-ends it and turns sharply to swerve around. It picks up speed and continues down the city road.
I guess that car isn’t waiting for us.
Catching up to the SUV, Paige and I dive into the open cargo space. Carter grabs Paige’s arm, and I grasp the back of the headrest behind Caitlyn who has her rifle balanced on the backseat facing the New Americans who quickly gain on us from behind. Tori sits between them and does her best to pull on my sleeve. My body nearly jerks out of the car as the SUV speeds off again.
“Thanks for the lift,” I yell to Jo who is behind the wheel. The SUV surges into an alleyway and turns hard onto a cross street. We are a few dozen yards from the sedan.
“Tori spotted you two. I can’t believe Ryan didn’t stop.” Jo says, while swerving around a car. Some gunshots fire off in the distance behind us. The New Americans are already in pursuit.
“He’s pretty mission driven at the moment,” Carter replies, adjusting in his seat to look
behind.
“Yea, no
sh-” Paige begins. An explosion ahead of us cuts her sentence off. It causes the SUV to rock, but Jo manages to keep it on the road.
“What the hell was that?” Caitlyn yells while rising slightly to get a better view out of the front windshield. I do the same. At the end of the road is a Humvee. A man is on top with what looks like... a rocket
launcher?
“How did they get in front of us?” Jo yells, pulling the wheel down sharply forcing the SUV into a tight left turn behind the sedan. We travel between a few more buildings, taking us out of view of that Humvee. The engine roars as we accelerate down the street. I turn forward, looking
out the windshield. Between the buildings, I catch a glimpse of a yellow bridge.
It should be a straight shot from there. Just a little bit further and we'll be out of the city.
“It’s back behind us,” Caitlyn says, firing her rifle out the already shattered trunk window. It's gaining.
“Go faster,” I demand. Right after I say it, I know it's a fruitless request.
“It can’t go any faster,” Jo answers, glancing at me briefly from the review mirror. We escape the alley and the tires squeal on the main road as we make a sharp right.
They are still right behind us. A flicker of light from the top of the Humvee causes my heart to sink. They've fired another rocket.
Dear Lord. No.
My eyes follow a stream of smoke headed right... it's
gonna hit...
BOOM.
Time slows as my body hangs in mid-air. My hands scrape to grab hold of something. But the roof is now the floor, and I come crashing down on the hard surface and shattered glass. While covering my head, I watch from the shattered rear window as we slide along the ground and crash through the front windows of a building on the other side of the street. The SUV finally stops sliding inside of a lobby. My whole body aches from the tumble, but I manage to painfully push my chest off the ground and turn towards the others. The car is upside down. Paige is sprawled out beside me. Her eyelids are closed. Carter looks like he’s out too. Caitlyn is moving out of the car. I can’t see Jo or Tori.
They are just unconscious. Please just be unconscious.
My head starts to hurt. I lift my fingers, and they come away with blood. My hat sits on the floor, and without thinking, I put it back on my head.
I guess it doesn’t protect my head so well.
While looking out the window, everything starts to become hazy with darkness.
No
… it’s the black sedan coming to a stop right outside the building. They've stopped. The doors open and they rush towards us to help. Kevin stays by the shattered window and provides some fire to keep the distant Humvee at bay.
I manage to crawl through the small opening in the side of the SUV. Pieces of safety glass pierce my hand and slow me down, but soon I am out. I go to the front seat. Jo is moving and her fingers reach towards the door. I open it and ease her out of the car.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“I’m fine… we need to get the others,” she says.
Ryan helps Carter to his feet.
“Why’d you come back?” Carter asks, withdrawing his gun and checking the round in the chamber.
“Old habits die hard. I've lost enough today,” Ryan says. He has a different look. One that I've never seen before. Maybe a little less rage. They exchange understanding nods. “Come on – to your feet. Where's Tori?”
I look in the front through the open door; maybe Tori ended up in the front. I shout her name. Some others look. I can't find her. The passenger’s seat has supplies strapped in it. She didn’t land up there. I look around the hotel lobby for her. If she landed outside the car, Tori will be pretty beat up.
Where did she-? I find her.
My heart drops, and I feel my composure failing.
Tori was thrown from the vehicle and is now against the back wall of the lobby.
She is obviously dead.
Et lux perpetua luceat ei.
I turn from the horror to see Jo staring at Tori’s body, her mouth open in a silent scream. I collect my own composure and go to her.