The Death Trilogy (Book 1): The Death: Quarantine (30 page)

Devin blared the horn and hollered, “Hurry up!”

Brianna was rushing around, but in the minute she had used to get Brando, she wasn’t any further along.

With each passing second, Devin knew he was getting farther and farther out of reach, losing himself in the darkness.

He laid on the horn again.

Tess walked out and said, “Stop, turn off the Humvee.”

“No, we need to catch him. He can’t do this alone!”

“By the time we get loaded up and on the road, he’ll be miles ahead of us, running with no lights and deliberately taking roads to lose us; he says so in this note he left for us,” Tess explained, holding up a white piece of paper.

Devin hit the steering wheel hard several times and screamed, “No, no, no!”

“Conserve fuel; turn it off!” Tess ordered.

Devin listened and shut off the Humvee. He got out, walked up to Tess, and snatched the paper out of her hands. He stepped over to the stairs and plopped himself on the steps.

Brianna raced out, Brando by her side, limping, “Is that it, we’re letting him go?”

“We’ll never catch him,” Tess declared.

“We have to try,” Brianna countered.

“I hate to say this, but Tess is right. He’s miles ahead of us, and I don’t know where he’s going exactly.”

“Yes, we do,” Brianna confidently said.

“No, we don’t.”

“Yes, he’s going to…” Brianna said and then paused.

“We don’t know. He never told us specifically. He did that for a reason.”

“We can’t leave him out there to do this by himself,” Brianna said, her tone angry.

“He says here he didn’t want us to go. We’re not leaving him, Bri, he left us,” Devin said, still reading the note.

“That’s because he’s a proud man, but he needs us.”

“Enough, we go and go now!” Tess barked.

“Really?” Devin asked, confused.

“Yes,” Brianna chirped.

Denver International Airport

Sweat was pouring off her brow as she tore through the concourse. Up ahead she saw a large sign that read Terminal C.

As she sprinted past people, they all looked at her strangely or with concern. Seeing someone run with fear in their eyes wasn’t a daily occurrence for them.

She knew she was drawing unwanted attention, but time was everything.

Banking hard to the right once she entered Terminal C, she saw the glowing lights of the Cockpit Lounge. Not fifty feet away and she’d be there, but was Travis there?

“Stop!” a voice commanded from behind her.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw two uniformed DIA guards running after her. The DIA guards wore black fatigues that distinguished them from the regular military.

“Travis!” she yelled out.

With the guards’ commands to stop and her yelling, all eyes were on her now.

“Travis, are you here?”

“Lori?” he called back as he stepped out of the bathroom.

Seeing him, she sprinted and ran into his arms. “Help me, please!”

He was alarmed to see her in this condition. Holding her trembling body, he asked, “What’s going on?”

“Hold her, don’t let her go!” one of the guards commanded. They were forty feet away and closing fast.

“Lori, what’s going on?”

“Too much to explain, but I need your help. They’re trying to kill me and my baby.”

“Baby?”

“I’m pregnant, please help me!”

“Let’s go,” he said, taking her by the hand and running away from the guards farther into the terminal concourse.

“Stop!” the guards again commanded.

Travis looked back and saw four guards; somewhere along the way two more had joined the pursuit.

Seeing a stairwell, he said, “This way.” They reached it in seconds, opened the door, and disappeared inside.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Good question, what exactly have you gotten me into?”

They raced down two flights of stairs and exited on the ground level. He kicked open a door and spilled onto the tarmac, which was illuminated with the brilliance and spectacle a sports arena or stadium would be during a night game. With the light exposing so much, it was hard for them to hide.

“Tell me what happened, and I can figure out what to do and where to go,” he asked, trying to get some answers while they fled.

“I’m pregnant, and the Chancellor wants to kill my baby. He’s taken me prisoner and has insidious plans to rule the world.”

“That’s sounds crazy!”

Between her rapid breaths she explained as best she could, but it was difficult for him to understand her.

Finally seeing an old M-998 cargo Humvee, he took off for it. He flipped open the vinyl flap and looked inside to find it empty. “Get in,” he ordered.

She did as he said. He jumped in behind her.

“We’ll hide here for a moment. I need to collect my wits, and you need to explain what the hell is going on.”

“Travis, you have to believe me when I tell you that everything and I mean everything, that is happening has been planned.”

“Planned for what?”

“All of it from the beginning. The virus, it didn’t come from Pandora; the asteroid was a ruse. It was released by Chancellor Horton and others like him, they…” She paused to catch her breath. “They did it to wipe out the world’s population. They’re creating their own world; they killed everyone so they can start over.”

“What are you saying?”

“There was no extraterrestrial virus or bug. The Death was man-made; it’s a bioengineered and weaponized virus created to kill off the world’s population!” she exclaimed.

Travis sat motionless and speechless.

“Nothing adds up, Travis, think!”

“I was brought to the DIA because I’m a DNA match for the chancellor, he’s taken me…” Again she paused as she relived the first moment Horton raped her. “He took me as his; he’s raped me. He sent my husband and son away, and now he wants to kill my baby.”

“What?”

“Please believe me!”

“I’ll be honest, your story sounds crazy, and I’d think you’d lost it if I didn’t have my own suspicions. Something stinks here, something odd is happening. Lately I’ve seen strange logos appearing on vehicles and such.”

“What do they look like?”

“Nothing I’ve seen before, a circle and inside it is a triangle with another circle inside that.”

Travis paused, then began to rattle off things he had seen and odd circumstances and situations that he’d never seen before in his years in the Marine Corps. He detailed the shot protocol and told Lori that his entire unit had started the shots a month before The Death occurred.

“I can’t be the only person around here seeing what is really going on,” Lori put forth.

“Of course you’re not. I’ve asked similar questions, and so have my fellow officers, but to piece them all together and say that The Death came from our own government seems total tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorist bullshit.”

“Well, it’s not, Travis. I overheard them. How do you explain the shots
before
The Death hit? I mean, if we’re to believe the virus is extraterrestrial and came from the asteroid strike, then why give you a shot a month before?”

“I know, but we just do what we’re told, and many of my men stopped asking when we were informed that those that challenge the shots will no longer receive them. You know what that could mean…”

“Death for at least ninety percent who don’t get it.”

“Bingo. They have us by the balls; we stay in line and don’t ask questions.”

She reached over and took his hand. “What’s going to happen to me?”

His natural protective instinct kicked into high gear as he scrambled through his thoughts to come up with an answer to her question.

“I’m going to be honest with you, Lori. This is not going to be easy. I don’t know how we escape. Soon they’ll have this entire place locked down.”

She began to sob after he told her that.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry, just want you prepared for what’s ahead of us. I’m with you. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Do you have any ideas for getting out of here?”

“No, none, I barely know how I got here.”

“Think, Travis, think,” he said out loud.

She gripped his hand tighter.

“I hope this works; there’s an underground subway that goes from beneath the DIA to NORAD in Cheyenne Mountain.”

“Is it safe at NORAD?”

“No, not at all, but along the way there’s an abandoned rail station not a mile down the tracks. I’ve seen it, it’s old; they stopped using it decades ago. Someone told me that from that station there’s an abandoned track that leads to Riverton, Wyoming.”

“What’s there?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” he answered her as he returned her grip on his hand.

She smiled at him and put her other hand on his clean-shaven face. “Thank you. I don’t know how to repay you.”

“That’s not what this is all about. Let’s say that you have trusting eyes. I believe you; something has been strangely not right since before this happened.”

“What about your fiancée, the note?”

“What would you do? I’ve thought about that, but do I just leave you, do I abandon someone who needs help?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t quite come to grips with what will happen to David and Eric now that I’m a fugitive. I just couldn’t let them kill my baby.”

A siren blared out, followed by an announcement. “Attention, attention, all personnel be on the lookout for Lori Roberts, female, five foot five inches, long brown hair. She is accompanied by an unidentified Marine. Both are wanted and presumed dangerous. Attention, attention, all personnel be on the lookout for Lori Roberts, female, five foot five inches, long brown hair. She is accompanied by an unidentified Marine. Both are wanted and presumed dangerous.”

“I think that’s our cue for getting the hell out of dodge,” Travis joked. He peered outside but didn’t see much activity. They had only minutes to make it to the railway before the entire place was crawling with security.

“There’s no better time than the present,” she said.

They jumped out and ran back towards the terminal building. Once inside, Travis knew how to get where he was going. He found the stairs that led to subterranean floor five. They sprinted deep into the belly of the DIA and emerged into a part she’d never seen nor heard of. Calmly they exited and began to walk towards a large metal gate. Above it was a sign that read ‘Tube Shuttles’.

Travis wasn’t surprised to not find anyone because the system didn’t run at night. The timing of everything meant that they’d be able to sneak onto the track.

“Hold on,” she said, stopping him from jumping onto the tracks. 
“You can just let me go. I’ll figure it out from here. They don’t know who you are and might not.”

“I think me being the unknown Marine won’t last long. I made my bed when I ran off with you. I have a distinct feeling that if I went back, they’d retire me, if you know what I mean.”

“Then let’s go,” she said, taking his hand.

He jumped onto the tracks and helped her down. They turned and looked down the dark circular tube.

She was scared for a variety of reasons. It wasn’t the walking into the darkness that frightened her; it was where it ultimately led. She took one last moment to glance back at the world she’d never see again. Her fate was sealed when she killed Chance and the councilman, and after overhearing the council members’ dissatisfaction with Horton, she knew he’d be powerless to defend her even if he wanted to. He had been right when he said his power wasn’t limitless and that he had to answer to the council. What she regretted above all after taking the first step of many before her was that she not only sealed her fate but that of David and Eric. She had no plans for helping them and couldn’t imagine how she could; she could barely help herself.

When the darkness finally swallowed them, he stopped to see if his eyes would adjust, but it didn’t do any good.

The rhythm of his breathing and the firmness of his grip soothed her. She was as ready as she’d ever be.

“Come on. Let’s see where this goes,” Travis said, pulling her with him into the pitch black.

Jenks Residence, Reed, Illinois

They put the last items into the Humvee, including additional food, water and diesel fuel, locked the house, set the Claymore in the driveway and got in the Humvee.

Tess was driving and allowed her sentiment to stop her before she accelerated out of the driveway. She looked into the side mirror and thought about all the life and death that had occurred in that house and wondered if she’d see it again. So strange she then thought about how a person can feel attachment and connection to a place even though they hadn’t known it long. Catching herself getting emotional to the point of tears, she put her full weight onto the accelerator and turned the wheel hard to the left.

“Where are you going?” Devin asked.

“Heading east.”

“Why? No, we need to go right, head south; that’s where Daryl is going!” Brianna blurted out.

“We’re not going after him, Bri. We’re going to North Carolina. It’s time for us to get back on our path.”

“No, please don’t!” Brianna cried out. “What about Hudson? We need to make sure we can rescue him; he’s just a boy.”

“No, Daryl made our decision for us; I can’t risk us on a wild-goose chase. You read that letter he wrote; he told us to get back on the road and to complete our journey. There are answers to all of this in North Carolina, and that’s where we’re going, period.”

Brianna began to cry.

Devin kept quiet. He was conflicted about what to do, but deep down he knew Tess was right. Daryl had left them because he knew the odds of getting Hudson were not good, and he couldn’t live with himself if they perished in the pursuit. In many ways, Daryl wasn’t being prideful; he was being respectful and loving. He was good at math, and the chances were high that Hudson was dead or would die, and he wouldn’t survive either. The slavers had made it clear that Hudson wasn’t available for a swap, and based upon the details of their group, they’d have to fight over thirty men. No, after much reflection, Devin realized that Daryl had shown his love and respect for them by letting them go so they could complete the journey they needed to. He came to see that Daryl, Mary and Hudson weren’t the journey but had been merely a detour along the road that he hoped ended with the answers to the many questions they all had.