The Death Trilogy (Book 1): The Death: Quarantine (22 page)

Tess began to cough loudly and spit in an attempt to make it seem she was sick.

Devin didn’t like how nosey he was and, after his short meeting with Rivers, could see why Daryl didn’t like him much either.

“The one coughing is Tess. I don’t think she’s feeling well and in the back is Brianna.”

Brianna waved and gave her signature cute smile.

“Hi, ladies, I’m Mayor Rivers of Reed. Welcome to our great little town.”

“Hi, Mayor,” Brianna answered.

Tess continued to hold her head down between her legs and cough.

“Oh, she’s sick, poor thing,” Brianna explained.

“What’s wrong with her?” Rivers asked.

“Just a stomach flu, don’t worry, she’s immune,” Brianna said as she leaned forward and began to rub Tess’s back.

Rivers looked closer at Tess, then gave Brianna a wink. “You’re a sweet-looking one.”

Brianna only smiled.

“Are there some lovely ladies in there?” Frank blurted out as he leaned in to take a look.

Devin, sensing that Tess wanted to go, said, “Well, Mr. Mayor, thanks for listening to me and for your willingness to help.”

“My pleasure, so we can find you and your lady friends up at Jenks’ place?”

“Yes, all bunkered down there. My God, he’s got quite the fortress there,” Devin answered, exaggerating what he had in hopes they wouldn’t show up. He now regretted coming to meet with Mayor Rivers and could see that the man probably had designs on Jenks’ home since Daryl was missing.

Devin put his hand out.

Rivers took it, and they shook firmly. “Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.”

“I will. I’m sure Daryl will show up.”

“We shall see.”

Devin got into the Humvee and started it up.

The men backed away and watched as Devin drove away.

Rivers turned to Frank and said, “Spread the word to be on the lookout for Daryl Jenks. If you find him, bring him to me immediately.”

“Yes, sir,” Frank answered and walked away.

“And Frank, put some eyes on the Jenks property. I want to know what’s going on there. He has some hardware that I want.”

April 11, 2021

Jenks Residence, Reed, Illinois

Devin shot up from the large recliner chair and looked down at his hand, which was wet. He wiped it and focused his blurry eyes to find Brando sitting next to him.

Brando’s excitement grew when Devin woke up, and he did his best to wag his tail. Standing on three legs, he whined and tucked his head under Devin’s hand.

“Hey, boy, did you hear something, or do you just want some love?”

Brando nuzzled more, showing his real interest was getting attention.

“Oh, I see, you want to be petted.”

“Hungry?” Tess asked from the kitchen.

“What? Um, what time is it?” he asked. The last thing he remembered was looking out the window, then darkness, or at least so he thought.

“It’s six twenty,” Tess answered as she began to prepare some fresh eggs.

“I guess I was tired.”

“Bri said you didn’t move after taking over.”

Devin stood, stretched and walked into the kitchen. He pulled a chair out and sat down. The muscles in his back, legs and arms were still sore from the run he made the other day carrying Deborah. In fact, his body hadn’t truly recovered from the running, hiking and fighting he had been engaged in for over a week straight. Never in his life had things been so up and down. This was worse than right after The Death broke out.

“I’m tired and sore,” he moaned.

“Suck it up,” Tess joked.

“Listen to you, drill instructor. Um, can I ask you something?”

“Oh no, not another BS question about my politics.”

“No, not that at all, I’m past that. I was wondering what happens when we get to your place and there’s no message or note. Have you thought about that?”

“No, I don’t think about it. Travis said he was leaving me something, and I trust him completely. Unless the place burned down, it will be there.”

“Who’s to say someone didn’t take it?”

“They didn’t; it’s hidden in our secret spot. It’ll be there,” she said as she stopped cooking the eggs and looked at Devin.

“Good, let’s hope that it gives us some answers.”

“It will. It might not give us all the answers, but we’ll know more than we know now.”

“When were you and Travis getting married?”

“June 3
^rd
is our wedding day; I’m hoping we can still make it happen. Of course, it won’t be the white wedding I was expecting, and the honeymoon certainly won’t happen, but if there’s one thing I want to do, it’s marry that man. I love him and want nothing more in this world than to find him and become his wife.”

“Am I invited to the reception?” Devin joked.

She turned back to the range, turned the gas off, and placed the eggs on three plates. With a thought at the front of her mind, she turned around and spit it out, “You know getting married means more now than it did before. It holds something special, much greater than before all of this. I know this sounds corny, but the human race now rests on us having babies and growing out of the ashes.”

“But didn’t you say that giving birth is difficult?”

“Yeah, but we can’t give up; I won’t give up, ever. Mr…what’s your last name? God, I can’t believe I don’t know your last name.”

“Chase.”

“Mr. Chase, as you get to know me more, you’ll see that I’m really an optimist. Don’t laugh, but we can turn this all around. It won’t be easy, obviously, but I believe in the end, we can prevail.”

“Speaking of politics, ever thought about running? Nice speech.”

She tossed a hand towel at him and finished, “No, really. I won’t quit, that’s why I, now we, keep heading to North Carolina. If I thought otherwise, I would never have left my parents’ house.”

“Tess, you’re an impressive person, you truly are. You inspire me, you really do,” Devin said.

“I wasn’t looking for validation.”

“I wasn’t giving it to you. I’ve changed, and I credit some of that change to you, and a part of my change requires me to be honest to the people I care about.”

Tess looked at him and cocked her head affectionately.

“We’ve only known each other for a short time, but I trust you with my life. I just hope that I can be the person you’d feel the same way for, in a platonic way, if you know what I mean.”

“I’ve seen the change in you, and I can say the same thing. We’re a team.”

Devin smiled hearing that.

Tess turned back around and served the eggs. After delivering a plate to Brianna, who sat on watch from the front porch, she came back and sat down.

The conversation she and Devin had minutes ago made her feel good and hopeful despite the realities of their current situation, which she needed to have clarity on.

“Dev, how long are we going to look for them? And don’t say as long as it takes.”

“I thought you were an optimist?”

“With a streak of realism tossed in there.”

“It’s a good question, but leaving now just doesn’t seem right, call it a gut thing.”

“You know that the mayor will be making a visit, and Turner’s people will eventually show up. We’re lucky no one’s shown up yet. I just think we’re risking everything.”

“Listen, if you and Brianna want to go, go. I’ll stay around a couple more days, then catch up with you.”

Tess exhaled heavily. His answer was not the one she wanted to hear. It wasn’t that she wanted to stop looking for Hudson or Daryl, but the realities told her that if they hadn’t found them by now, there was a good chance they were already dead, and all they were doing was risking themselves by looking for ghosts.

“I won’t leave you here, but let’s give this thing a drop dead time, please,” she put forth for him to consider.

Devin heard everything she was saying and agreed, but he also felt an allegiance to Daryl for helping Tess when they needed help the most. To him it was the honorable thing to do, and the word honor was something he had mocked in the past, but now he clung to it and revered it. He did know, though, that he couldn’t risk Tess or Brianna just so he could look forever; she was right.

“Two more days, we leave in two days, deal?”

“Deal, but since we’re going to be here, let’s figure out how to use that machine gun.”

Denver International Airport

With a straight edge in her hand, Lori traced a three-inch line that represented the top of the carved granite rail for the new capital’s balcony. She leaned back and looked at the completed sketch, but her scrunched nose gave the expression that she wasn’t happy with it. Taking the large eraser, she rubbed out the line, added the ends farther apart and lined up the straight edge again. This time she pressed the pencil tip down harder and broke off the tip.

“Damn!” she exclaimed in frustration as she threw the pencil.

Her frustration stemmed not from the pencil but from her personal situation with David. She tried hard not to focus on them, but how could she not think about losing her family? Last night proved to be sleepless, something she had become accustomed to since losing Madeleine and the lack of sleep wasn’t her friend. She was always someone who needed her rest, all eight hours. With David and Eric gone, her pregnancy and no sleep, she was a wreck. Her meeting this morning with Chance and the team was not a shining moment for her. She had shown up disheveled, and her patience with Chance and his bloviating was gone. During one of his long speeches, she had interrupted him five times. When the meeting ended, he showed his displeasure by pulling her aside and asking her to never show up like that again. She apologized halfheartedly, grabbed her notes, and left the meeting.

She had thrown herself into work to distract from her personal dilemmas, but it wasn’t working. It felt like every minute she could either see David’s shocked expression when he walked in on her and Horton or hear his last words just before boarding the helicopter with Eric. The one word that she tried desperately to block out was Eric calling her a whore. That was painful, and something she didn’t know if she’d ever forget anytime soon. She had thought her kids hadn’t been aware of her past indiscretion, but how foolish could she be, kids heard everything that went on in a house. She was lying to herself if she actually thought Eric or Madeleine hadn’t heard the fights between her and David. They had to know, and the idea that Madeleine knew and never spoke to her about it before her death made that another torturous thought. She would never get a chance to explain herself or ask forgiveness.

With her mind full of a myriad of emotions ranging from anger to regret and sorrow, she wished she could down the bottle of wine she saw sitting on the counter next to her. Rubbing her belly, she talked herself out of popping the cork and just guzzling the bottle. Anything to help take away the pain she was feeling or fill the void in her heart.

With her work not able to take her mind away from her troubles, she put her shoes on and left her residence. Maybe a walk would help, some exercise and fresh air outside. She meandered through the passageways till she reached the elevator. As she reached for the button, the bell sounded and the door opened.

There in front of her was the last person she wanted to see, Chancellor Horton.

“Lori, hi, good to see you,” he said warmly.

“I’ll take the next one,” she snapped.

“Oh, come on, don’t be like that.”

The door attempted to close, but he held it open.

“Are you really going to act like nothing happened?”

“Please let me explain.”

“Just leave me alone. I don’t know what you think, but I’m married, pregnant and need to find a way to get my family back,” she barked and walked towards the stairwell.

He exited the elevator and followed behind her.

“Chancellor Horton, leave me alone!”

“Lori, stop,” he said desperately, grabbing her arm firmly.

“Let me go!” she bellowed and tried to pull away.

His tone lowered, his grip tightened, and his face drew close to hers. “Stop and listen!” He opened the door to the stairwell and pushed her inside.

“You’re hurting me.”

When the door closed behind them, he said, “The world you knew before is gone, and it’s not coming back. That's something you need to come to grips with, period. I’m going to be very candid with you, something I never was before. I tried this nice-guy bit, but that doesn’t seem to work with you.”

She struggled and tried to pull away, but each time she resisted, his grip grew tighter.

“You’re hurting me. Let me go.”

“Lori, I will have you. It’s that simple. You’re meant for me, your DNA was tested, and you’re compatible with me. You and I are a perfect match; our children will be perfect.”

What he was saying frightened her, which made her resist more. She slapped his face.

He brushed off her hit, grabbed both her arms, and pressed her against the wall. He leaned in till his face almost touched hers and spoke slowly and deliberately. “You’re my DNA match. You and I will produce offspring for the new world we’re creating. You may not like it, but that’s how it is. I didn’t want this either when they told me, but when I saw you, well, let’s say I was suddenly happy about the selection made for me. I thought I could bring you here, wine and dine and seduce you. It was all too perfect, I thought, we needed an architect, your DNA was a match for my new mate, and so here you are. I was wrong about you, though. You had some surprises, like this baby for one,” he said, then touched her belly.

His touch made her cringe.

“Get off me!”

“ You see, we knew about your past; it was all documented. Your history, your spread across the Internet, your searches, your old e-mails; everything about you we’ve had for a long time. We’ve been collecting data on everybody for a very long time. We know you, Lori Ann Roberts, we know you had an affair, we read the e-mails, we know everything.”

Lori began to cry as he continued to spill the sinister scheme to her.

“If you do not give into me, I will have David and Eric killed as well as your baby. Their blood will be on your hands. It’s your choice, plain and simple,” he finished and let her go.