The Infection (38 page)

“It’s nothing,” Ethan tells him happily. “Some people at the government center thought I was a doctor and attacked me. I ran, found a crew unloading cattle, and worked the day.”

“Ah,” Ray says in understanding. He knows about the cattle crews and how they use people as bait for the monsters that infect the animals.

“When I got back to the government center, the same people were waiting for me and gave me this,” Ethan answers, pointing at his face and laughing.

Todd laughs with him and says, “Why are you so happy about it?”

“I’m happy because I think I may have found my family.”

The other survivors glance at each other and offer weak smiles.

“That’s good news, man,” Ray says.

Sarge touches his shoulder and adds, “Yeah, it’s good, Ethan.”

Ethan glares at them. “I’m serious.”

“And I’m taking you seriously,” Ray answers carefully, bristling.

“I spent several days at the government center. The records people found one Carol Bell in the camp, but it wasn’t my wife. I kept pushing until I finally convinced somebody to check some of the other camps. Turns out there is a C. Bell and two M. Bells at the FEMA camp near Harrisburg. Three days after Infection, a C. Bell and an M. Bell arrived on the same day.”

He studies the faces of the other survivors for a reaction.

“It sounds hopeful, Ethan,” Paul says, nodding. “I mean it.”

“It sounds
awesome
,” Todd tells him.

Ethan turns to Sarge and says, “I was wondering if you could take me there. There, or as far as you can.”

♦

Sarge believes it is appropriate that the other survivors are here with him again, as he has never really left them. His mind has been plunging into the past, against his will, during every still moment, reliving the horrors of Infection, the Screaming, Afghanistan. The worst is when he suddenly finds himself standing in the dark alone in front of the hospital, shooting the Infected swarming across the parking lot while every atom in his body screams at him to run. He surfaces from these terrifying flashbacks drenched in cold sweat, his heart clenched in his chest, refilling his lungs with a sudden gasp. He is not stupid. He knows he is suffering heavily from post-traumatic stress. He also knows that getting back out into the field will cure it, at least temporarily.

“I might be able to take you to Steubenville,” Sarge says.

“What’s in Steubenville?”

“Bridges.”

“The Infected of Pittsburgh,” Ethan says, nodding.

“What are you guys talking about?” Todd says.

“That big fire that chased us out? It also chased out all the Infected,” Ethan explains. “They’re walking west, straight to the bridges. Straight to us. Right, Sarge?”

Sarge nods. “I’m leading a mission out there to blow the bridges. Specifically, the Veterans Memorial Bridge. Six lanes across the Ohio River.”

“You can’t help but hear them,” Paul adds. “They’ve been attacking the camp ever since we got here. The gunfire has become almost constant, day and night. After a while, it gets to be background noise. If they get inside, we’re done.”

“We’re the last refugees that made it to the camp from Pittsburgh,” Sarge says.

“Can the Infected swim?” Ray says.

“Our intelligence says they can’t,” Sarge tells him. “If we blow the bridges, they’ll be stopped cold at the river.”

“What they’ll do is go north and south.”

“That’s not our problem.”

Ray shrugs. “You’re right. It’s not.”

“The migration will be deflected and that’s all that counts as far as we’re concerned.”

“I want in,” Todd says. “Let me come, Sarge. Please.”

“I might as well join in, too,” Paul says, eyeing him hopefully. “I could be useful.”

Sarge shakes his head in mild disbelief. The truth is he would be happy to bring them on the mission. The boys he commands are good but they do not know what the survivors know. Frankly, he is surprised that they would want to leave the safety of the camp to go back into the jaws of the beast. And after just a few days, no less. Was it not the point of their journey together, after all—to find this sanctuary, and try to live a normal life?

“It’s going to be incredibly dangerous,” he tells them.

He remembers driving through Steubenville, the town eerily quiet. No sign of life, not even a dog barking. The Infected are there, all right. And with many of the Infected of Pittsburgh migrating west, the place is going to be swarming.

“I’m coming, too,” Wendy says from her cot.

“Wendy!” Todd says happily.

The men launch themselves to their feet as she stands painfully, visibly trembling, touching the back of her head and wincing. She shrugs off their hands and walks to where they were sitting, taking a place next to Sarge and accepting a drink of water in a plastic cup.

“Well, then I’m going, too,” Ray says.

“The hell you are,” Sarge growls. “You’re not one of us.”

“But she’s one of
us
. If she goes, I’m going. It’s that simple. I made a promise.”

“Yeah?” Sarge glares at him. “To who?”

“To a lot of fucking dead people,” Ray snaps back.

“Ray is coming with us,” Wendy rasps.

Sarge scowls but says nothing.

“Are you all sure about this?” he says.

“Yes,” the survivors murmur, looking down at their bowls.

“What about you, Wendy?”

“You were right,” Wendy says. “It’s not safe here for us.”

“Can you do it?”

“You’re not going without me.”

“All right,” he says.

The room falls silent as they consider their reasons for wanting to go.

“I hate it here,” Todd says finally.

Ethan says, “I actually love it. But I have to get to Harrisburg.”

“We’ll get you as far as we can, Ethan,” Sarge tells him.

“It will be good to get out of here for a few days,” Paul says. “Maybe I’ll go all the way to Harrisburg with you. This place is unclean. God doesn’t live here.”

“Where exactly does he live, Preacher?” Ray asks quietly.

“Where? Out there, friend. With
them
. They are his agents.”

“Get your sleep tonight,” Sarge tells them. “We’re training tomorrow. The morning after that, we’re going to drive out there and blow a hole in that bridge.”

He adds, “I hope this is what you want.”

FLASHBACK: REVEREND PAUL MELVIN

He remembers seeing the half-eaten remains of the children defiling the altar of his church, blood running down its sides like the afterbirth of some grisly sacrifice to a pagan god. He remembers his shoes squishing on the wet carpet, stepping over the bodies of his congregation surrounded by clouds of buzzing flies. He remembers the mob marching out of the haze singing and waving their Bibles and banners and weapons. He remembers how they hung the Infected on a traffic light at the intersection of Merrimac and Steel, how they demanded that he bless them, how he told them their war was just. He remembers the screams, the popping guns, the newly Infected lying twitching on the ground, the final shouting as the last of the mob made a stand and were overrun in the smoke. He remembers telling them not to be afraid as they died.

He remembers walking home through the smoke while the screams rose up from the city all around him. He remembers walking home intent on letting Sara infect him so that they could be rejoined. He remembers finding his house on fire.

Like Job, Paul lost everything he loved.

As with Job, God allowed it.

THE BRIDGE

When the survivors left Pennsylvania, they crossed a sliver of West Virginia, a piece of ground stabbing north like a spike, before finally entering Ohio. The Veterans Memorial Bridge connects Steubenville, Ohio and Weirton, West Virginia—six lanes of modern superhighway carrying U.S. Route 22 across the Ohio River. Nearly twenty football fields in length, the cable-stayed bridge consists of steel girders and beams supporting a composite concrete road deck, the entire structure suspended by cables fanning out from the two support towers, a common design for long bridges.

Before Infection, thirty thousand people crossed this bridge every day. Now it is a funnel for more than a hundred thousand Infected moving west away from the still-burning ruins of Pittsburgh.

♦

The Bradley roars east on Route 22, leading a convoy of vehicles including several flatbed trucks stacked with explosives, armored cars and four school buses packed with soldiers and fitted with V-shaped snowplows on their grilles.

The rig slams into an abandoned minivan and sends it spinning onto the shoulder of the highway without breaking its stride. The crash makes Wendy flinch.

“We’re going to practice a rapid scan,” Sarge says.

Wendy blows air out of her cheeks and nods. She moves her left hand to wipe sweat from her forehead and bangs her elbow again.

“Mother,” she hisses. Sitting in the commander’s seat directly adjacent to Sarge in the gunner’s station, her body is almost surrounded by hard metal edges. Not much room to do anything except work the joystick that controls the turret and weapons systems.

She peers into the integrated sight unit, which provides a relay of what Sarge sees, overlaid with a reticle to help aim the Bradley’s guns. The highway slices through the rolling hills to the horizon, flanked with green. Smoke is still pouring out of Pittsburgh, darkening the eastern sky. The horizon shimmers and pulses with heat waves.

“Hey,” Sarge says. “You’re sightseeing.”

“It’s hard to take my eyes off the road.”

Sarge smiles. “You have to get used to the fact that somebody else is driving. While Steve will obey our commands to stop and go and so on, we are a self-contained world up here, just you and me. You help scan and identify targets, and I’ll track and kill them.”

“Yes, sir,” Wendy says.

“I’m not a sir. I work for a living, Ma’am. Now let’s do a rapid scan with overlapped sectors.”

“With who, what?”

“That means I’ll be scanning roughly the same ground ahead as you. First, scan center out, near to far, then left and right to center, near to far. I’ll be scanning far to near.”

Her gum cracking, Wendy scans the highway ahead and identifies two abandoned vehicles in the grassy median. They are passing a billboard on the right that tells her to tune in to
Channel Seven News at Eleven with Janet Rodriguez
, Janet grinning confidently down at her in a power suit with her arms crossed. Beyond, power lines and trees.

The opposite lanes of the highway are occupied by a long column of Infected that stare grimly at the rig as it rolls by on its grating treads.

“Identified,” she says.

“Confirmed. Range?”

“Fifty meters?”

“I’m asking for the range to the nearest target.”

“I thought that’s what I was giving you.”

“See that billboard up there on the other side of the highway? That’s about a hundred.”

“Oh, then twenty, twenty-five?”

“Bingo,” he grins. “You’re learning fast. You should be proud, babe.”

“That’s Private Babe to you,” she answers, turning and flashing a smile.

“What can I say, girl. You do look good in cammies.”

“Settle down, Sergeant,” she laughs. “This Army uniform is like two sizes too big for me.”

“You wear it like a dress.”

“A tent, maybe.”

Wendy laughs lightly, feeling good for the first time since she kissed him at the hospital. Sarge is a good man. He gives her precious moments in which she can forget about Infection and everything else. She believes she could easily fall in love with him if they live long enough.

The Bradley trembles slightly with the stresses generated by dozens of moving parts. She can feel the beating heart of the engine, turning the force of controlled explosions into the raw horsepower needed to turn the treads and propel the vehicle’s twenty-five tons. The vibrations flow through her body, reminding her that she is riding a metal bull with the strength of five hundred horses and a mind of its own. And yet she feels powerful sitting here in its brain. More in control than she has ever felt, in fact. She is in an armored box with wheels, somebody else is driving, and she’s got the big guns. She laughs again as she considers there are few better places one could be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

The exhilaration she feels, however, is tempered by a growing weight on her chest. Running the rig is a lot of responsibility. The soldiers, the other survivors, and all the people back at the camp will be counting on her to make good decisions when they hit the bridge in ninety minutes, and she simply does not have enough training or experience to do it right.

She is scared.

“You ready for more?” Sarge says.

I’m ready for a hot bath with real soap, scented candles, some Alanis on the CD player and a tall glass of red wine, she thinks.