The Death Trilogy (Book 1): The Death: Quarantine (24 page)

Tess shot a look at Devin.

Daryl caught the look and asked, “What is it?”

“We went into town and stopped by to see the mayor when we were looking for you. The point is, we saw Frank. Let’s say we know him from Decatur.”

“So these guys have a far reach,” Daryl said.

“How do they manage to operate with Turner’s people also running around the countryside?” Devin asked.

Daryl looked up when he felt a drop of rain hit his arm. The dark gray clouds had been slowly gathering all morning, and now they had morphed into a storm.

“Shit, rain,” Tess blurted out.

“No, it’s a good thing. The heavier the better,” Daryl said as he held out his arms in the hopes to have the cool drops hit his arms.

Devin looked down at the map, small wet drops now covering it, pointed at the courthouse, and asked, “We know where he probably is. How do we get him?”

“Distraction, my friend, distraction!” Daryl answered.

Denver International Airport

Lori lay staring at the ceiling, patiently waiting to hear Horton’s breathing to change signaling that he had drifted off to sleep. When he exhaled out deeply and snored on his inhale, she took this as her cue to get up. She hurried off to the bathroom and closed the door. Inside, she turned on the shower but didn’t wait for it to warm up as that would have meant having his bodily fluids on and in her that much longer. With a bar of soap she lathered her entire body, roughly scrubbing every inch of her skin in the hopes she could just wash everything that had just happened away. But no matter how hard she scrubbed, she wouldn’t ever feel clean again.

The water warmed up, and soon the shower and bathroom were filled with steam. She finished and walked to the vanity and wiped the mirror. Her reflection was distorted through the moisture that clung to the glass, but this was how she saw herself anyway. She had become a twisted and distorted image of the person she once was before.

A tap at the door alerted her to his presence.

She picked up the towel and wrapped it around her tightly.

A harder tap followed by him jiggling the locked handle.

“Lori, open the door.”

All she wanted was to be left alone. She feared he’d want to take her again, and the thought of that made her nauseous.

“Open the door.”

She walked to the door and unlocked it.

He came in and said, “You okay?”

“Sorry, I was on the toilet, couldn’t come right away.”

“It’s all right, just don’t lock the door next time,” he said and wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her firmly.

She clenched her eyes and prayed that he didn’t want to escalate his affections.

“I’d say we jump back into bed, but I have an important meeting to attend soon.”

As if her prayers had been answered, she mouthed the words, “Thank you, God.”

“I’m going to jump in the shower. Hopefully you left me some hot water,” he said. He kissed her and stepped into the shower. “Oh, I’ve let some people know that you’ll be living here now. They’ve already packed your belongings. I hope that’s fine with you.”

She was back in front of the mirror and thought to herself,
Like I have a choice?

“And I’ll be late tonight. I’ve told my chef to prepare you whatever your heart desires.”

Still looking in the mirror, she mouthed and mocked his words; it was the only form of defiance she could think of.

“I have so many things planned for us. I can’t wait to share them with you.”

This entire situation was so surreal. If she had met him before all of this, she would have been attracted to him; he was an attractive man, not much older than her. He held power, influence, and in many ways he was charming. If things had gone the way they had, she would have found him interesting, but because of her own past, their being together never would have occurred. Now when she looked at him, all she saw was a grotesque caricature of a man, an ugly beast disguised as a man. She had seen the real man he was, his black soul had been exposed, and she was his captive.

If she were to play this role, she needed to know exactly what the rules were. She walked to the shower, opened the door and asked, “Can I come and go as I please? I assume I’m still on the development team?”

“Of course you are. You’re a true talent, we need you, and yes, you can come and go as you please within the walls of the DIA.”

“Great.”

“However, you’ll be eating your meals here, no more overcrowded cafeteria for you.”

“Great.”

“Is that it?”

“Yes, and I’m going to need to have an appointment with an ob-gyn as soon as you can set that up.”

“Already done, forgot to tell you.”

“Aren’t you on top of everything,” she said, her tone subtly sarcastic.

“That’s why I’m the chancellor. Now can you close the door, it’s chilly.”

She closed the shower door and stood for a moment staring at it. Again a surreal feeling overcame her; in no one’s imagination except the sick and twisted one of the man who was on the other side of the glass could this reality be happening to her. She accepted the fact that she had no choice but to give in to him, for now, but she was Lori Roberts, someone who when challenged never, ever gave up, and she wouldn’t start today.

Exiting the bathroom, she made her way to the bed and sat on the edge. She ran the brush through her wet hair and began to plot how she’d survive this new hell she was living in.

Reed, Illinois

The day had turned to a black night. The bright full moon that had lit the night just a day before was now hidden behind the storm clouds that were pummeling the ground with heavy rain.

Using the darkness and rain to shield their movements, they departed the house, all armed and each tasked with very specific jobs.

Each one would be deposited in a different part of town to carry out a very specific task.

The first one to get dropped off was Brianna. She was let off a couple blocks from the main road into town. Her job was simple, get to the intersection of Missouri and Jackson Road, hide, and radio all traffic coming into and out of town. No one knew how many people Rivers had, and if more were coming in, they wanted to know. Daryl and Devin also wanted to keep Brianna away from what could be some heavy fighting, and this was a logical job for her to be responsible for.

The other three drove to several locations to set charges; this was to be the distraction. The main one was outside the grocery store. Outside of it, Tess would stay with the Humvee and man the machine gun. The desired outcome was to draw out and kill as many of Rivers’ men as possible. While she was doing this, Devin and Daryl would make their way to the courthouse. Their hope was that the distraction of the battle outside the grocery store would draw men from the courthouse to the grocery store. With a depleted number of men, they’d be able to slip in and find Hudson.

Daryl didn’t know if this strategy would work, but he didn’t know a way into the courthouse covertly. Based on what he’d seen days before and what Devin told him, Rivers had beefed up his defenses of the courthouse. He also didn’t know if his son was there. This entire thing was a huge gamble, but what was his alternative? Attempt to negotiate? He didn’t see that working out. This was his plan, and he was going forward with it.

With everyone in their places, Daryl and Devin maneuvered through the dark wet streets and set up in an abandoned storefront across from the courthouse entrance. The problem with getting into the courthouse was where it was located. The building sat by itself in the center of a plot of land bordered by a street, once you cleared the street you had to cross over a large yard just to get to the building.

Rivers had men set up on every side and each entrance guarded. He was like a king in a castle, and the street and lawn were the moat. It was this heavy presence of men that prompted Daryl to go with his plan. He needed to get those men away from the courthouse.

Daryl pulled a radio from his pocket and depressed the button to transmit. “Tess, let’s get this party started.”

“Good luck,” she answered.

The ground shook, and a series of loud booms echoed off the buildings downtown. Seconds later the sounds of screaming and yelling reverberated through the streets but were silenced when the .50 caliber roared to life.

“Let’s roll,” Daryl said to Devin. They slipped out of the store and jogged across the street.

Men from the courthouse compound began to run in the direction of the grocery store.

The number they heard and saw was far greater than they would have guessed. This alarmed Daryl, who didn’t want Tess to get overwhelmed.

“Sorry, but change of plan, go support Tess. Don’t let these fuckers catch her off guard,” Daryl ordered.

“No, she’ll be fine.”

“Go, don’t let her get mobbed.”

“Fine,” Devin said and took off running just behind the men.

The darkness provided significant cover for Daryl. The rain had subsided, but the torrential downpours had saturated the grounds, making his movements quiet.

Lights began bouncing all over the inside of the courthouse as whoever was inside was reacting to the battle that was raging outside.

Daryl had outfitted his AR-15 with a suppressor; this made his stealthy approach lethal. He walked up to a single guard on the lawn and squeezed off a single shot. All he heard was the man fall.

That one man was all he encountered before reaching an entrance, but he knew his luck would soon run out.

“Bob, is that you?” a man asked from the shadows near a side door.

“No,” Daryl answered as he squeezed off several rounds.

The man grunted and fell to the ground.

Daryl’s heart was pounding, and his body was aching. He stepped over the man’s dead body and walked inside the building.

Yelling came from several different locations inside, and the cover the darkness had provided was gone. All the lights were on, and any movements he made now would be seen. Thinking to himself, he asked,
If I had prisoners, where would I put them?
The answer that came to mind seemed natural; 
Downstairs
. He looked for a stairwell and found one that led to a basement. It just made logical sense to put people there, right?

He ran for the door but was stopped short when a volley of gunfire came down on him from a hallway ahead. Luckily he wasn’t hit, and he dove for cover behind a metal desk and knew the only way to move and not be seen was to provide some cover. He took a smoke grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it in the direction the gunfire had originated from.

The grenade spun and suddenly popped loudly and whished. Smoke filled the hall quickly, providing the cover he needed.

The gunfire continued towards him, though, as the person was spraying bullets in his direction.

Daryl calculated the distance to the basement door and crawled towards it. The rounds cracked over him as he made his way to the door. Memories of his time in combat came flooding back to him. Reaching the door, he sat up and grabbed the handle but found it locked.

Bullets hit the door above him.

“Fuck this guy,” he said out loud. He took out an HE grenade, pulled the pin, the spoon flew off, and carefully judging where the shooter was, he rolled it down the hall. He tucked his head between his legs and counted, one, two, three, four, five…boom, the grenade detonated. The shooting stopped, and nothing else followed. He stood, shot the door handle, and ripped the door open.

A long set of old wooden steps lit by a single bulb dangling at the base of the stairs stared at him.

He put the rifle to his shoulder and began to go into the bowels of the courthouse.

One by one and in small groups, men poured out of the grocery store only to be met by Tess and her new best friend, the Ma Deuce .50 caliber machine gun.

Tess wouldn’t have imagined shooting people could bring joy, but these weren’t people, these were monsters, and that made killing them exhilarating. She was enjoying herself so much that when there was a pause, she prayed for more to come.

She was so engrossed and focused on slaughtering the ones emptying out of the grocery store she didn’t see or hear the pack coming towards her from her blindside, but Devin was in pursuit.

When she came into view, Devin knew that he had to act, and act he did. He stopped, leveled his rifle, flipped off the safety and took aim at the furthest one out. He steadied his breathing, aimed and began applying a steady pressure to the trigger. To his surprise the first round exited the muzzle and, in what seemed like an instant, hit the man squarely in the back.

The force of the 5.56mm round took the man to the ground.

Devin adjusted slightly, took aim on another, and repeated what he had just done. One more round burst from the rifle and hit that man, killing him.

If not for the bank of lights at the grocery store, which illuminated the front parking, he wouldn’t have had any light to assist him in identifying his targets.

He took a quick count and saw another eight men racing towards Tess, who apparently was still oblivious to their advance as her focus was still towards the front of the grocery store.

With her attention elsewhere and no one but him coming to support her, he leveled his rifle again and took a third and fourth down. When the fourth man hit the ground, a prideful expression appeared on his face. Having spent a total of one week ever handling a firearm, he was impressed with his abilities. He immediately gave credit for his ability to his teachers, Tess and Daryl, but he did give himself a pat on the back for being a good student.

With six men still advancing on Tess and now close, he began to yell out, “Tess, Tess, look to your left.”

Fortunately for her, there was a pause in the firing at the grocery store, enabling her to hear his cries. She looked around, and when her gaze looked left, she saw the men advancing quickly. With swift precision, she unlocked the hatch and spun the gun to face the advancing marauders. She grasped the plastic handles, placed her thumb on the butterfly trigger and pressed down. The .50 caliber came alive again.