“After a while, I was so out of breath that I had to stop. I think I puked a little, I’m not sure. I just kept replaying through my head how one second I had Val by the hand, and the next she was gone. I had a cramp in my side that was hurting real bad, so I focused on the pain. This brought me out of my shock enough that I knew I had to think it through or I’d just be running blind. I was in this area with houses now, and I had to try and get my bearings. Keisha had driven, but I wasn’t sure where we had parked. I didn’t want to go back into Ybor City, but I didn’t have much choice. I had to find out if Keisha had made it out. If she had, I hoped she was waiting for me at the car.”
To Steve, she said, “As I was walking, I kept trying to call you, but all I got was that same recording to try back later. I guess everyone in Tampa Bay was trying to use their phone. I looked around for a payphone, but those are almost impossible to find. That was when I realized that I was in a real shitty section of town. There were all these people in the street, and they were all really seedy looking. A couple guys called out to me and followed me for a while.”
Turning to Heather, she said, “And I don’t have to tell you what they were saying. I was worried about getting dragged into one of the houses and getting raped, so I stayed in the center of the street. I think if those guys knew that everything was completely falling apart and that the cops weren’t around to bust them, they would have been all over me.
“So I made it almost all the way back to the edge of Ybor when I saw the first National Guard troops. They must have been sent to break up the riot. You could hear the sound of gunshots coming from the city, but you could hear a lot more rifles firing on full automatic. They had set up a roadblock and were letting people out, but they were searching them and taking away any weapons that they found. They had about thirty or forty pistols that they had confiscated sitting in the back of one of their trucks.
“I asked them if they could help me find Keisha, but they said they were too busy. They also wouldn’t let me go beyond their roadblock to find her myself. They said that a relief center had been set up in Desoto Park. I told them there was no way I was going to be able to make it all the way to south St. Petersburg, but they explained that it wasn’t Fort Desoto Park, but a small park a few blocks to the south. That meant that I had to go back the way I’d just come, and there was no way I was going to do that alone.
“I went over and stood with a bunch of other people that were in the same boat as I was. They were all trading horror stories about what they had seen, but I kind of tuned them out when I heard that nobody’s cell phone was working. I was looking around while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do when I spotted someone I knew.”
“Who was it?” Steve asked, hoping it might be one of their few mutual acquaintances. It would be nice to hear news about someone he knew, even if it was months old.
Ginny paused and said, “Oh, no one. Just this guy I kind of knew. I think his name was Danny or something.”
Steve hid a smile. Ginny never forgot a name or a face, so in other words, it was an old boyfriend and she didn’t want to bring him up in front of her new boyfriend.
“But anyway,” Ginny continued, “he was looking for his date and was in the same situation I was. They had gotten separated in the riot, and he couldn’t get back inside Ybor to look for her. He did have his car, though. He started talking about sneaking back into the city to look for her, but that ended pretty quick when something near the north of the city blew up. You could see the flames shooting up into the air and all this black smoke.”
“I heard about the fire,” Steve said. “What started it?”
Ginny shrugged and said, “I don’t know. But whatever it was, it almost knocked us off our feet. We stood there watching it for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do now, but then the National Guard guys started yelling at us to get out of the area. They were saying that there was a big fire and the wind was blowing it in our direction. That was enough for us. Danny grabbed me by the hand and took me to his car. When we got in, he opened up the glove compartment and took out a gun.
“Normally, something like this would kind of freak me out, but not that night. The first thing I asked him was if he had another one. He told me he had a rifle and another pistol at his house, so I told him to get us there as fast as he could.”
“How far away did he live?” Steve asked, wondering if she had come back across to his side of the bay.
“Right on Davis Island,” Ginny told him. “On an average night, you can make it there in about fifteen minutes. Once you get on the expressway, it takes you right to the exit and three minutes later you’re at his doorstep. That night, it took us more than an hour. People were flooding the roads trying to get out of town, and then jamming up the back roads when they saw the freeways were jammed. I don’t know where they all thought they were going. I mean, we were one of the last cities to get hit by the virus. We had to stay on the expressway, though, because we had to cross the river.
“When we finally made it to the bridge across to the Island, we found it blocked by a couple of pickup trucks. There were a bunch of people with rifles and shotguns hanging around, and they were stopping everyone to make sure they belonged there. One of the guys knew Danny, so we were just waved through. I was never as glad as when we pulled up in front of his house and he shut the engine off. I figured we were safe.”
“No one was safe anywhere,” Steve said.
“And Danny knew that,” Ginny told him. “As soon as we walked through his front door, he told me to start getting ready to leave. I didn’t have any clothes or anything, so I borrowed a pair of his pants and a shirt.” She laughed and added, “I had to tie a piece of rope around my waist to keep them up since he didn’t have a belt that fit my waist. I must have looked like Jethro Bodine.”
Steve saw Tick-Tock walk in and waved him over. Wilkes started to rise, but before introductions could be made Steve asked about Denise.
“She’s sleeping now,” his friend told him. “They called the doctor, and he ran her through the X-ray machine. He said it wasn’t a fractured skull, but just a real bad concussion. She’s on a week’s bed rest, and then light duty for another week.”
Steve’s said, “That’s great news,” but his heart told him it was the last thing he wanted to hear. He knew that they were going to be moving again within the next day or two, or even as soon as tonight if Fort Polk sent a helicopter for them. He also knew that Tick-Tock wouldn’t leave Denise, so that meant he would be staying here. From the look on his friend’s face, he could see that he had already come to that decision.
Not one to beat around the bush, Steve said, “So you won’t be coming with us.”
Tick-Tock shook his head and said sadly, “I have to stay. I already asked Rick, and he said he would love to have another person here with a military background.”
Not one to have her limelight stolen, Ginny stood up and said, “It’s good to see you again, Tick-Tock. I was just telling everyone about how I got out of Tampa.”
Her hair was longer, and she had a few lines on her face that weren’t there the last time he had seen her, so it took him a second to recognize her. When he did, his eyes lit up as he threw his arms around her and said, “Holy shit. Ginny.”
Although they hadn’t been the best of friends when they knew each other at the radio station, the reaction was brought on by seeing that someone was alive that you thought was lost. After a few seconds, they broke apart and Ginny introduced him to Wilkes.
After they had shaken hands, Ginny said, “Why don’t you sit down, and you can hear of how I got out of Tampa alive.” Before waiting for an answer, she started telling them about how Danny had a boat and took her to MacDill Air Force Base.
His mind on how he would manage without Tick-Tock’s help, Steve barley heard her as she told of being evacuated to a base outside of New Orleans and then sent to a refugee camp. The rest of how she came to be at Fort Redoubt was lost in the pain of knowing that he would soon be separated from his best friend.
***
As soon as they left the chow hall, Tick-Tock said he needed to check on Denise. The camp was nothing but dark shapes as he disappeared around the corner of a building without saying another word. Steve looked on in wonder, thinking that they would at least talk about his friend’s decision to stay. He wouldn’t try to talk him out of it, but it left a bigger void knowing that Tick-Tock could just cut him off that easily and move on.
Reading his mood, Heather said, “He feels guilty for having to stay here. It probably damn near tore him apart making his mind up.”
“He sure doesn’t act like it,” Steve said in a low voice.
“And how would you deal with the situation if it was me lying in the hospital?” Heather asked.
Steve didn’t have to think about it before saying, “The same way.”
“Well then, there you go,” she said and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
She laughed again and said, “I’ve always heard the term ‘bromance’, but I’ve never seen one in action.”
Steve had to laugh, too, before saying, “I guess I am acting like he just broke up with me. Now I have to take you to the prom.”
Heather’s response was interrupted by a young man of about eighteen that walked up to them and said, “My name is Gerald, and I have taken the liberty of finding your people somewhere to sleep for tonight, sir. Commander Styles told me to assure you that we would find something more permanent tomorrow if need be. Your temporary quarters are ready, if you’ll just follow me.”
“Commander Styles told me that I would be able to use the radio,” Steve told him.
“The generators are shut down for the night, sir,” Gerald told him. “We have to ration diesel fuel.”
“When will the generators be back up and the radio working?” Steve asked.
“Zero nine hundred,” Gerald replied. “Breakfast is at zero six hundred, and I have orders from the commander to wake you at zero five-thirty. Now if you will follow me?”
***
Linda woke and rolled over in her cot. In the dark, she could barely see the layout of the room she and Cindy had been assigned. They had been billeted in the officer’s dormitory, so they had a two person room all to themselves. An officer in the peace-time military might bitch about the accommodations, but she felt like she was staying in the Radisson after all the nights spent sleeping on the ground or in the back of a truck. The enlisted that were on duty lived in one of three, one-story barracks-like structures, and she was glad they had room for her in officer’s country. She knew she could live with anything that came along and learn to accept it, but she was also grateful for the little things. Like privacy.
Feeling as if her bladder was about to burst, she carefully got up and made her way to the door to use the communal bathroom at the end of the hall. Pep raised her head from where she was curled up at Cindy’s feet, so Linda scratched her chin and got a tail wag in response. Giving the pooch a boop on the nose, she went to the door and twisted the knob while pushing. To her surprise, it gave a few centimeters and then shut. Thinking she had been locked in, she felt a twinge of anxiety. Rick had seemed like a decent guy, but maybe that had been an act.
Hearing a familiar voice say, “One second,” dispelled her fears.
The door opened outward a few inches, and she found Igor peering in at her.
Feeling like a little girl under his unwavering stare, she mustered her dignity and said, “I have to go to the bathroom.”
The door opened, and she entered the hall. Seeing a chair a few feet away, she pointed to it and asked, “Were you sitting in that and blocking the door? Why aren’t you in the barracks?”
“My duty is to protect the chosen one from harm,” he answered.
“But we’re safe here,” Linda told him.
“Are we?” Igor asked.
“Don’t you trust Rick and his people?” she questioned.
Without a second’s hesitation, he replied, “I trust no one where the girl’s safety is concerned.”
With a slight smile, Linda asked, “Don’t you trust me?”
“No,” Igor said in a flat voice.
***
Crammed together onto one of the narrow cots, Brain and Connie had no problem holding each other close. When it was first announced that there were only a few rooms available, they had been worried that they wouldn’t be able to spend any time alone together since the barracks were wide open and separated into male and female. It looked like it might be a long, lonely night until one of Tick-Tock’s people had spoken up and said that the rooms should go to the original members of the group. He went on to say that they had saved their lives, so it was the least that they could do. When it was all worked out, he and Connie had gotten the last room in the officer’s quarters. The billet had two cots, but they found they only needed one.
Brushing a stand of Connie’s hair from her face, Brain said, “I can’t believe we actually made it.”
“We’re not there yet,” Connie said softly.
“But we might as well be,” Brain told her. “Tomorrow or the next day, we can be in Fort Polk, safe from any harm. In the meantime, though, we’re behind four walls with fifty people guarding us. It sure is better than lying in the dirt wondering what’s going to come at us out of the woods. And when you think about it, why do we have to go to Polk? I mean, Tick-Tock’s not going. We could stay here with him and Denise. Steve doesn’t need us to protect him, he’ll have the whole Army looking out for him. All we have to do is join up with Rick’s people and wait for the doctors to come up with a cure.”