The Beginning of the End (19 page)

We finished clearing
the building and were fortunate enough not to find any other dead.
With the building clear, I figured we should get the truck inside one
of the bays and set up shop. The dealership still had hot water and
power, so we all got a chance to wash up. Chevy and I dragged a
couple of the customer couches from the show room out into the bay.
We set them up so we could see any traffic that might pass by in
front of us. We filled our bellies with soda and candy from the
vending machines, and boredom set in. I laid on the couch and watched
as the sun sank behind the Adirondack Mountains to the west. I
assumed I was on first watch when I looked over and saw Chevy and
Sidara were already asleep. I watched as the light gave way to
darkness, and slumber followed.

October 12th 11:21pm

I heard a sound.
Something stung me on the back of my neck. I tried to get up, but I
couldn’t move. My eyes were too heavy to open. I thought I heard a
scream, a moan, the sound of a diesel engine. Then I slept.

October 12th 12:30am

Bob worked his way to
his feet and headed to the lab. Sophie and Dr. Marcil were packing up
the EMapp and the hard drive that contained the formula. “How much
do we have?” Bob asked, looking inside the box filled with the red
serum. “Fifty-one doses packed up, and two more on the counter.”
Bob saw the two syringes laying on the counter filled with the red
fluid, “What are those for?” he asked. Dr. Marcil picked up one
of the syringes, and stuck it in his own arm, “They’re for us,
Colonel.” Bob lifted an open palm to the doctor, “No offense Doc,
but I’m really not too sure about dosing myself with that stuff.”
Sophie gave Bob a loving pat on the back, “Don’t worry, Bob. It’s
perfectly safe. It will prevent you from contracting the virus, and
it will stop you from turning into one of those things, if you get
bitten.” Bob was reluctant to take the shot, but finally gave into
Sophie’s pleas. As Sophie administered the shot, she asked, “So
what happened out there?” Bob didn’t want to scare her and
downplayed the incident, “Let’s just say it’s dangerous out
there. I think the sooner we get out of Montréal, the safer we’ll
be. There are dead everywhere.” Bob looked at his watch. “It’s
almost one o’clock now. It’s too dangerous to go out at night.
Let’s all try to get some sleep and leave at sunrise.” Dr. Marcil
stood up to leave the room, “I’ll be on the couch in my office if
you need me.” Sophie took Bob’s hand and led him to the storage
room. She laid out some blankets on the floor, “It’s not the
best, but will have to do.” The two laid down, and Bob held Sophie
in his arms, “Do we have any chance of making it through this?”
she asked. Bob was lying there silently in thought, “I don’t know
Soph. I just don’t know.”

Five hours later, Bob
opened his eyes. He still had his arms wrapped around Sophie. She
opened her eyes and moved in kissing his lips. Bob couldn’t hold
out any longer. Bob unbuttoned her blouse, without leaving her lips.
Sophie unclasped his belt, and they made love on the floor of the
storeroom. After, they lay there and held each other. Sophie
whispered and kissed his ear lobe, “I don’t want to ever leave
here, Bob.” He turned kissing her back, “Either do I. Let’s
just lie here and hold each other for a while.”

“Colonel!” the
speaker above Bob’s head crackled to life. “Yes MARIA!”

“I’m sorry to
disturb you, but Dr. Marcil is requesting your presence in his
office.”

“Thank you MARIA,
please tell him, I’m on my way.”

“Do we have to
leave?” Sophie purred as she watched Bob search for his boxers. “I
don’t think we have a choice.” She saw him chuckling to himself,
“What is it, Bob?” He finished buttoning his pants and gazed down
at her, “Maybe we could spend some time together after all this. I
mean, the only other plans we have are to save the world.” Sophie
smiled, “There’s nothing I’d enjoy more Bob.” She rolled over
searching for her clothes, “We’ll I guess I had better get
motivated then.”

They worked their way
to Dr. Marcil’s office at the far end of the building and found him
sitting at his desk. “Ah, good morning!” he said as they walked
in. “Do we have a plan for today Colonel?” Bob took a deep breath
and had a seat in the chair across from the doctor. “Yes, I do
Doctor. Why don’t you head to the lab and grab the EMapp? Sophie,
would you please go to the store room and find us some blankets,
food, and anything else that looks useful.” He was sure she’d be
able to find it. “I’m going to find us something we can use, as
weapons. Once we’re back here, we’ll load the EMapp into the
jeep, and get the hell out of this city!” Bob looked at both
doctors, and they gave a confirming nod. “Let’s meet back at the
main lab door in fifteen minutes!” The doctors checked their
watches and left the room. Bob yelled out as they walked away,
“Fifteen minutes!”

October 13th 7:30am

The mid-October sun
shining through the eastern window warmed my skin. I laid there
still, my eyes too heavy to open. My head was foggy, and I couldn’t
remember anything. I pried my eyes open enough to see a blurred
garage. I blinked, trying wash the sleep away. I gave up and closed
my eyes, finding a pounding in my head. I wanted to rub the pain away
from my temple, but my hands didn’t work. What? I was tied up. My
hands and feet were bound together in back. I lifted my face from the
concrete, “Chevy!” I called out. I heard moaning coming from
behind me. I rocked my body until I flopped over. Chevy was also tied
up. He was asleep with a puddle of drool on the floor by his mouth.
“Chevy!” I said, louder this time. I watched as he fought to gain
consciousness and open his eyes. “Chevy, where’s Sidara?”

His eyes started to
blink, fighting for sight, “What?” he moaned. “Someone was
here! Sidara’s gone!” Chevy lifted his head and tried to move,
“I’m tied up!” he groaned. Chevy fought with his restraints and
rolled backwards.

“What’s that on
your neck?”

On the side of his
neck, I could see a small steel dart with feathers on top. “We’ve
been drugged! Is there anything on me?” Chevy peeked through his
one working eye, “There’s a dart in your neck too!” I
struggled, “We need to get out of these restraints and get out of
here. All of my weapons are gone, what about yours?” Chevy tried to
look himself over from the tied position, “Mine are all gone too.”
I rolled over as far onto my back as I could in frustration, “What
are we going to do?” I yelled. Then it hit me, “Chevy, did they
find the throwing knives in your boot?”

I watched as Chevy
rolled, rocked, and reached. “Score! I’ve still got them.”
Chevy twisted and fought with the bindings for minutes. Finally, his
feet released, and he straightened his legs. “Wow that feels good.”
I could see sweat beads building on his forehead from the struggle.
With a victorious, “Yes!” Chevy’s hands were free and in front
of him. He pulled at my hands and cut the bindings. The zip ties were
so tight they had cut into my skin. I tried to massage out the red
cuts on my wrists.

“Who did this?” I
asked.

“Who do you think it
was, Ty? It had to have been the guys in the Humvee, and now they
have Sidara too!” Chevy went over to his truck. “Did you pack
anything for a headache? My head is killing me.” Chevy questioned
as reached in the back of the truck and pulled out a soda. He popped
the top, took a drink, and opened his truck door. “Well at least,
they didn’t take this.” Chevy held up his tomahawk, then tossed
it back on the truck seat. I patted myself down, “They took all of
my guns!” I reached behind my head, “Dammit! They took my swords
too.” Chevy pulled the truck keys from the visor and held them up,
“We’ve still got the old girl. What’s the plan?”

I thought about it for
a minute, “Yeah, I’ve got the perfect plan. We hit the Arm’s
Room. Then we find those guys and kill them all!”

October 13th 5:30am

Sidara woke up,
suspended from the back of the Humvee. “Hey, she’s waking up!”
Luther called out to Cowboy. The vehicle came to a stop. Cowboy
stepped out of the driver’s seat and walked around to the back of
the vehicle. Sidara saw him and fought with the zip ties that were
wrapped around her wrists and ankles. “Don’t bother trying to
escape, you’re chained to the anchors.” Sidara saw that the
Cowboy was holding one of Two-gun’s swords. He swung it back and
forth a few times and admired the blade, “Where did your boyfriend
find this little gem?” Sidara spat at him, “None of your fucking
business, and he’s not my boyfriend.” Cowboy lifted the point of
the sword up to the bottom of Sidara’s chin, “Careful. Careful.
You’re not in much of a position to protect yourself little lady.”
Sidara looked above her and saw the male that had been manning the
turret had crawled inside of the Humvee. Beyond the cowboy, she could
see a dead walking up to him. She was sure he hadn’t seen the dead.
He lowered the blade from her chin and ran his thumb across the edge,
“This is really nice. I bet your boyfriend could slice up a few
dead with this thing. The dead man was just about to attack the
cowboy. Trying to distract him, Sidara yelled, “I told you he was
not my boyfriend, you stupid red neck!” Cowboy paused his thumb,
“Now, why do you have to be like that?”

The dead was just
inches for the cowboy with its arms out. Cowboy swung the blade,
completely slicing off the dead’s head, while screaming, “Hi ya!”
The head flew off and rolled to a stop. Cowboy walked over and drove
the tip of the blade into the skull, “Die!” Cowboy pulled the
sword from the skull and walked back to Sidara, “Tank you for no
warning Daniel-son!” Cowboy snickered, doing his best Mr. Miyagi
imitation.

The Humvee started back
up, and Sidara could feel the V8 turbo diesel vibrate through her
body. It didn’t help the pounding she had in her head since she
woke up. She went through the evening in her head. How did this
happen? One minute we were on the couch talking in the dealership and
then next, she was tied to this rig. How was that possible? Sidara
wondered if the cowboy had left her new friends alive.

The Humvee turned into
the fairgrounds, an all too familiar feeling for the men inside the
vehicle, “Open up!” Luther shouted. The garage door opened, and
Tommy was standing there with his AK-47. They drove in as the garage
door squeaked down. The passenger door swung open from the outside
with Tommy standing there, “Where the fuck have you guys been? Kane
is on a rampage! He said you should have been back last night.”
Tommy disappeared when he heard Kane screaming from his office. Kane
walked out and over to Cowboy, who was slowly exiting the Humvee.
Kane’s face was beat read, and he was breathing deeply through his
nose. “It’s not our fault, Boss. We had a run-in with some
survivors.”

“Survivors?” Kane
asked.

“Yeah, we went out
like you told us to, and we were having a hard time finding anyone.
We were headed back here, pretty disappointed because we had let you
down. Luther had to take a piss, and he spotted some kids in a truck.
It was a good spot on his part.”

Kane twisted his head
peeking at the back of the Humvee, “So what did you bring me?”

Cowboy led him behind
the vehicle, where Luther was already cutting the zip ties off of
Sidara’s legs. Kane eyed her from head to toe and smiled. He
glanced at Luther, “Cowboy tells me I have you to thank for this.”
Fear prevented Luther from speaking, so he just nodded his head yes.

Kane hopped up on the
Humvee bumper and pulled out his cane knife. Without hesitation,
Sidara swung her foot striking him right in the balls. Kane cried out
and fell over backwards landing on the cement floor, “Who the fuck
untied her legs?” Kane seethed. “Get her off the fuckin’ truck
and chain her in my office!”

October 13th 7:45am

Chevy and I gathered
all of our gear and threw it into the back of his truck. I opened the
garage door, and we headed straight back to my parent’s house.
Overnight, the dead had converged in the west end. A few of them were
even foolish enough to get in the way of the truck. The plow blade
striking the dead, reminded me of dropping water balloons from our
second-story balcony when I was a kid. Only someone filled these
balloons with black ooze. Chevy spoke without looking, “Are you
going to get that?”

“Huh?” I said
confused. Chevy pointed to my pocket with his chin, “You’re
buzzing.” I was so busy trying to come up with a plan in my head. I
didn’t even feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out
and read the screen message, “One New Voice Message!” My fingers
couldn’t move fast enough.

“Who’s it from?”
Chevy asked.

“Unknown Caller.” I
said, as I pressed the play button. A cursor scrolled across a bar on
the bottom of the screen, showing the message was playing. The
message was fifty seconds of static. Disappointed, I let the phone
drop to my lap, where I felt it buzzing again. I grabbed it with both
hands, “One New Text Message!” I slid my finger across the
screen. My excitement was quick to vanish when I saw that it was
nothing but garbled letters and characters. “I bet you it’s mom
trying to contact us, but the cell towers are all screwed up.” I
looked up in time, to see Chevy swerving in the road trying to hit a
dead woman. “I didn’t know you were such a sick bastard.” Chevy
didn’t respond to my jab.

He turned onto my
parent’s street and made the turn into the driveway without
slowing. He didn’t stop until he was in the garage. I jumped out,
and closed the garage door behind us. I watched through the window of
the door to see if we had attracted any dead. “The coast is clear!”
I chirped. Chevy followed me inside, and we went straight for the
arms room.