The Death Trilogy (Book 1): The Death: Quarantine (8 page)

“Yes, like I said, he’s like a human but one that listens . That just might make him better than human,” Tess said as she greeted Brando by rubbing his fur.

“Your side, it’s bleeding,” Devin said, motioning towards the fresh bloodstain at the bottom of her shirt.

“Yeah, I know, the damn wound opened up again; the full-out sprinting wasn’t any help,” Tess said, acknowledging the fresh blood.

“Let’s get it bandaged up.”

“No time, let’s cross over and keep moving. We need to get as far away from these guys as possible.”

“Where are we going?”

“To start, across the highway; from there, southeast, with our final destination being North Carolina.”

Devin thought for a moment. Going to North Carolina seemed daunting, but he had no place to call home, and Tess was the only person he had met in months.

Tess and Brando walked to the edge and paused to listen. She looked both ways, and after taking a few deep breaths, she took off in a sprint across the four-lane highway.

Devin watched her and Brando race across the open space and knew that any chance at surviving this new world was with her and the almost-human dog Brando. With this acceptance firmly planted in his head, he burst out of the field and tore after them.

Denver International Airport

If Chance Montgomery was anything, it was boring. He droned on for almost an hour about the responsibilities the team had been given.

“Great, so does anyone have any questions?” Chance said, finishing his diatribe.

Lori shook herself and sat straight in her chair. She glanced at the others and noticed they too were fighting back sleep.

“Lori, any questions?” Chance asked.

“Um, yeah, I do; this sounds more like we’re urban planning an entire city. What I didn’t hear was this being the expansion of Camp Sierra.”

“Who called it Camp Sierra? We’re working on Arcadia.”

The three at the table looked at each other, confused.

“What’s Arcadia?” Brad asked.

“Let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s get down to brass tacks. We have a long job ahead of us if we’re to break ground in a month, and we need a plan that can be approved. That’s what we need to focus on,” Chance said in an upbeat tone.

When he mentioned two months, Lori’s heart sank. She didn’t want to be away from her family that long, but if it meant they had a chance of getting out of Camp 13, she was willing to make that sacrifice.

“So based upon everyone’s specialty, I’ll let you work on your projects independently, but we’ll also work together to make sure it all comes together. Maggie, you will handle the design work to ensure we incorporate all modern sustainable developments into the plan. Focus on roads and transportation; remember, our new city will be car free. Focus on walking paths, trails, creeks and mag train depots. Brad, you’re my civil engineer, my main concern for you to tackle will be the water and sanitation infrastructure. Lori, you will work on designs of all the new governmental buildings as well as the mid-rise residential and commercial market center downtown. Make sure beauty meets function in all the buildings you design. My contribution will be the overall layout of our all new master-planned development. We will give birth to our new home, Arcadia.”

All were blown away by the grand idea, and Lori specifically felt overwhelmed.

“How many buildings, what type? I need more guidance. Where do I start?”

“Glad you asked. You’ll start with the new capital building,” Chance responded and stood up. He walked over to a side table and grabbed a tube and pulled out a rolled-up map and unrolled it on the table in front of them. “This is my first draft of the city. The capital will sit directly in the middle, and everything will emanate from there. Lori, to answer your question, make that your first priority, make it grand and impressive, something that will stand for a millennium.”

“Okay, I’ll get working on that. Do you have a specific size in mind?” Lori asked.

“Ever been to Washington, DC?”

“Yes, long ago.”

“Make it half the size of the Capitol Building there.”

“Got it,” Lori said, taking notes.

“Do we have topographical maps so I can see how the land lays?” Brad asked.

Chance sat for a second and thought about his question, then answered, “I do, but I have something better for you. How about we take a trip?” He pushed his chair out and stood.

Again the other three looked at each other, surprised.

“Grab your stuff. I’ll meet you topside, say in fifteen minutes. We’ll catch a helicopter to the site.”

“Exciting,” Maggie blurted out.

“I’ll see you up there,” Chance said and exited the room.

Lori didn’t know what to think about all of this. What had been pitched to her as an expansion of the mythical Camp Sierra was really the design of an entirely new city. Something like this wouldn’t be considered a big job, not even huge—this was epic. She felt excitement at this opportunity but also felt sad. She knew this would take longer than two months; this could take years. She would not allow that amount of time to go by without seeing her family. But now wasn’t the time to complain, now was the time to work and earn her family a place in this new city. She looked down at the map and bent over to get a closer look; at the bottom corner was the name
‘Arcadia’
. Questions began to pop in her head.
Why build a new city? Why go through this trouble?

Thoughts then came to her of what she had seen yesterday on the screen. Her fears had been proven to be wrong. Here she was working for the government as they embarked on plans to start something new. Nowhere along her travels yesterday did she encounter anyone out of sorts, and everyone at the DIA was nice and helpful. She filed the thought yesterday as nothing more than letting her imagination run wild. Laughing to herself, she thought she must have been getting camp fever
.
With a sense of purpose and feeling the most hopeful she had felt in months, she left the room and made her way topside. Today was a new day for her and the beginning of something grand.

Lovington, Illinois

Devin’s clothes were soaked with sweat, and his face, arms and hands now bled from the multitude of tiny cuts and abrasions from the dried dead cornstalks. He had remembered hearing how the Midwest was corn country; now he knew why.

Each road they came upon provided a much-needed break to catch their breath. Now they were on the outskirts of a small town, and they’d need a more detailed plan than the simple one they had perfected crossing small roads or highways.

Taking a seat in the moist dirt, he lowered his head and let the sweat drip off his face and onto the ground. He was amazed he had made it as far as he had. He supposed adrenaline had carried him the distance given the fact he hadn’t worked out in months.

The fatigue Tess was experiencing was greater, as she didn’t just sit, she lay down.

“Don’t go to sleep over there,” Devin joked.

“My fiancé use to tell me, ‘Why stand when you can sit, why sit when you can lay down, and why not sleep if you’re lying down?’” she replied, taking a long stretch, her head propped up on her backpack.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Brando walked up and licked Devin on the face, then sauntered off and curled up near his feet.

“Hey, boy, how are you holding up?” Devin asked, surprised by Brando’s affection.

“Ha, he’s starting to take to you,” Tess commented.

“I’ve never been much of a dog person, but I’m taking to him too,” Devin said.

Tess sat up, took off her body armor, and lifted her bloody shirt. “Damn.”

“What is it?”

“Just this, it won’t stop bleeding. I think I’ll need your help with sewing me back up,” she said as she examined the wound.

“You never told me how you got that.”

“Those goons shot at me. This is just a graze.”

Devin pulled off his pack and crawled over to her side.

She pulled out a first aid kit and unzipped it for him. Taking a large gauze, she poured some hydrogen peroxide on it and began to clean the now exposed wound. With each gentle swipe she grimaced.

Devin didn’t know what to do. She asked for his help, but he felt like a third wheel.

When she was done, she clipped and removed the old stitches and removed them.

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing; she was so tough and capable.

“You stitched yourself up?”

“No, Brando did it,” she joked.

“Where did you learn to do that?”

“In the kit is a needle and thread, pour some peroxide on it, and give it to me,” she instructed.

He did as she said and handed it to her.

Pressing her flesh together, she began the process.

Devin cringed when she poked the needle through the first time, but soon was mesmerized by how gentle and precise she was.

“You’re good at that,” he remarked.

She ignored him, staying focused on the task at hand until she finished, placing a fresh bandage and tape on the wound.

“There, hope that one holds,” she said.

“Me too, for your sake.”

She dug through her bag and pulled out bottled water and guzzled it.

“That was a hard run. Let’s take an extended break and plan where we go from here,” she said.

“Good, I’m tired.”

“Did you see anything that might tell us the name of the town?” she asked.

“I didn’t really look for one.”

She again dove into her pack and pulled out a small pair of binoculars. “Here,” she said, handing them to him.

Devin took them and crawled to the edge of the field. He swept the seemingly empty town from left to right and back again. Not a person or animal was moving, and not a sign on the roads he saw listed the name. On his second sweep through town, he caught the name ‘Lovington’ on a restaurant sign.

“I don’t see any official sign, but I do see a commercial sign that mentions Lovington.”

She had her map out and answered, “Lovington would make sense. God, we ran far.”

“Oh yeah.”

“No wonder we’re tired; we ran about ten miles.”

“My legs are already sore. There’s no way we’re walking all the way to North Carolina. We need to look at getting a car or something.”

“Traveling on roads can be dangerous.”

“It can’t be any more dangerous than this?”

“Believe me, I’ve been traveling for some time; cars can be death traps.”

“Well, if I have to keep doing this, I’ll die from a damn heart attack,” he joked.

“Maybe you’re right; there isn’t a safe place anywhere.”

“Tell me more about the guys who shot you,” he asked while still scanning the town.

All he could see was a cluster of homes, a residential neighborhood, but no commercial buildings of any type. He knew they only had a couple days of food to split, so scouting some of the homes for food might be a good idea, after they rested, of course.

“I ran into them miles north of Decatur. They’re just a rogue group of thugs, all Immuners who have one purpose, causing mayhem.”

“I don’t understand why people would do that. We should be coming together, not tearing each other apart,” he said as he crawled back and sat down.

“The irony of it all is The Death spared all walks of life, good, bad and indifferent. The problem we have is now the bad don’t have the threat of being arrested. It’s as if The Death brought out the real person lurking inside the souls of people.”

“Like what, made people bad?”

“No, the bad person was always there. The Death didn’t make them that way, it gave them a world where they could be themselves.”

“So what did these guys want?”

“Do I have to spell it out for you?”

“I guess not.”

“They’re just a pack of butchers, and we need to stay clear of them.”

“I agree, but it sounds like we’ll be running into others just like ’em somewhere else along our way.”

“Maybe so.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“Lay low here, take a nap till it gets dark; then we’ll move under the cover of darkness. Safer that way.”

“Good, I’m tired.”

“Not yet, we take turns, and since I’m the lady, I’ll use that to get first dibs at sleeping.”

Devin smiled and said, “Deal, I do owe you.”

“That you do. Wake me in three hours or if we have to bug out.”

“Sleep tight.”

Tess fell back against her pack and rolled onto her good side and fell almost instantly asleep.

Devin, not trusting his ears, went back to his covered position near the edge and pulled the binoculars back out and began to continue looking for any movement. So as to not fall asleep, he made a game out of his surveillance. He counted the houses, then cars, then sorted the cars by color, make and model. He took in every detail and committed it to memory. He thought it made sense to truly get to know what was out in front of them, because by nightfall, they’d be heading that way.

Arcadia

Chance promised the ride to Arcadia from the DIA would be quick, about an hour. All on the team were excited, and when they boarded the MV-22B Osprey, they found the perfect number of windows to view their trip from.

Lori had never flown in a helicopter before, and the Osprey looked like one until it was airborne; then it transformed itself into an airplane when its propellers tipped horizontally and locked in place. It was the strangest aircraft she and the others had ever seen, but for the crew of Marines onboard, it was just like any other flight for them.

The first minutes of the flight took them over Denver and the foothills. Twenty minutes into the flight, they were in the Rocky Mountains.

Lori didn’t stop looking at the ground below; she loved watching the topography change from the flat plains near the airport, to the rolling foothills to the jagged granite Rocky Mountains. The Osprey stayed close to the mountaintops and weaved through a series of long valleys until they crested one last mountain, and there below them was a pristine valley, approximately four miles wide and twelve miles long, with a river that coursed through it like a snake.

Over her headset Chance said, “That’s it, that’s our blank canvas below.”