ARES Virus: Arctic Storm (12 page)

“I know what I saw, Sarge. That was a girl peeking out of the window. She didn’t have that crazed look of the infected, nor was she hell-bent on getting to us,” Clarke responds.

“I saw the same thing. But, it could have been a trick of the light, and it was from a distance. The evidence here suggests otherwise,” Brown says. “If there was a girl and she managed to get away from whatever happened here, do you think any of the infected would have just let her escape? And, unless she’s a secret ninja super fighter, do you think she could have survived?”

Clarke just stares at Brown. Brown returns the gaze.

“Dammit, cadet. You’ll be the death of me yet. But we’re here, so we may as well go see if you’re right. But, know this. I’m giving this nonsense five minutes. Five minutes, and we’re out of here. Understood?”

“Fair enough,” Clarke replies.

“If this goes south, do your best to get outside and to the back. We’ll go with the same plan as before. Go into the nearest house, out the opposite door, and make our way two houses away. Clear?”

Both cadets nod.

“Stay against the wall. There’s less chance of a board creaking,” Brown instructs.

With one ear listening for any infected that might return outside, Brown starts upward, the two cadets right behind. At the top of the stairs, a hall branches left and right. In his mind’s eye, Brown visualizes the window where he saw what they thought was the girl. With that map in mind, he turns left at the intersection and pauses. All of the doors on the upper level are closed with sunlight seeping under all but one: the one immediately to the left of where they saw the figure.

“Anyone here?” Brown calls down the hall, only loud enough to be heard within the upper rooms.

A slight shriek emits from within the room showing no light.

Well, I’ll be damned
.

“I told you,” Clarke whispers immediately behind him.

“A shriek could mean one of the infected,” Brown counters.

“In a closed room? That doesn’t make any sense,” Clarke states.

“Granted. But we’re not going to stay alive by making wide open assumptions.”

With his hand gripped tightly around his handgun, Brown creeps forward until he’s beside the door.

“Are you in there?” he whispers through the door.

On the other side, Brown can only hear soft sobbing.

“We’re here to help,” Brown states, gently trying the doorknob and finding it locked.

“How…how do I know you’re not one of them?” a timid voice comes from the other side.

“Have you heard any of them talking? Or do they just scream?”

“N…No. Just the screaming.”

“If I were one of them, I wouldn’t be outside trying to talk, right?”

“I…I guess so. I’m scared.”

“I know you are. So am I. What’s your name?”

“Emily.”

“And how old are you, Emily?”

“Ten. Is…is my mom okay?”

“Where is your mom?”

“She was in the kitchen.”

“There isn’t anyone there right now. We’re here to help you get to safety,” Brown says.

“What about my parents? They’ll get mad at me if I leave the house without asking them.”

Clarke senses that this conversation could last forever, and the sergeant is right about needing to get away quickly. She also senses that his frustration could rise if this continues much longer.

“Emily, my name is Jessica. Your parents would want for you to be safe, right?”

“Yeah. But I’m not supposed to go anywhere with strangers.”

“We’re in the military and we need to get to somewhere safe. We’ll help you find them once we get there,” Clarke states.

Brown turns to look at her, giving her a “you’re offering the impossible” kind of look. Clarke shrugs in response.

“Do you promise?”

“I give you my word, Emily.”

“Okay, then. Let me move my dresser from in front of the door.”

“Do it quietly, please,” Brown adds.

Brown hears some shuffling and then dragging as said dresser is moved. He knows that their journey will be much more difficult with a preteen girl in tow. She’ll react to something before thinking about the ramifications, which in turn will increase their danger. There won’t be any more waiting in a storage shed while the infected prowl nearby. As she did when he presented himself, she’ll more than likely make a sound if she’s startled.

Yeah, this just became more interesting
, Brown thinks as the lock to the door clicks.

On the other side of the coin, he feels good that they were able to help this frightened girl. If this whole thing were completely about self-preservation, he would have left the cadets on their own long ago. It’s the right thing to do, so it’s worth doing regardless of the outcome.

Even if we don’t make it, we have this moment
.

The handle turns and the door opens a crack, revealing a dark-colored eye peeking out. Brown presents his best “I’m harmless” face, though it feels more like a grimace.

“Hi, Emily. I’m Jessica,” Clarke chimes in.

The door opens wider.

“Are you sure my mom isn’t in the kitchen? That’s where I left her,” Emily asks.

Clarke shakes her head.

“Then she might be in her bedroom. We should check there.”

“Emily, I know this is scary and hard to understand. But, your mom isn’t here,” Clarke states.

“I should wait for my dad. He’ll be here soon,” Emily says.

“I don’t think he’ll be able to get home anytime soon, with everything that’s happening. I’m sure your parents would want for you to be safe, and we’re here to help. I promise that we’ll help you find them once it’s safe enough,” Clarke comments.

“Okay,” Emily replies, opening the door wider. “Where are we going to go? I should leave a note.”

“We’re going to find a way out of town, but we can’t be seen by any of those things outside. Do you think you can keep quiet and do what I say?” Brown asks.

“I…I’ll try. If you’re trying to get out of the city, why don’t you use the creek that runs through the woods? That’s where me and my friend go when we don’t want to be found,” Emily responds.

“How far away is it?” Brown questions.

“I don’t know…a few blocks? It’s just up the road. I can show you.”

“Okay. Before we go, we need to gather some things,” Brown states.

“Like what?” Emily asks.

Seeing worry cross Emily’s features, Clarke chimes in, “Don’t worry. We’ll return or replace what we take. We just need a few things for a little bit.”

“Well, if you have some backpacks here, we could use those. Some water, food, that sort of thing,” Brown answers.

“My dad has some backpacks in the garage. And mom has water bottles in the fridge that she keeps cold for her runs.”

“Emily, one last question. Do your parents keep any guns in the house?” Brown queries.

“Uh, I think dad keeps a gun in the closet. And there’s one under the bed, but he doesn’t know that I know it’s there.”

“Okay. Hayward, head to the garage and find those backpacks. Clarke, go to the kitchen and gather water bottles and cans of food—don’t forget to scrounge a can opener and four spoons, unless you want to eat with your hands. And, for God’s sake, don’t make any noise,” Brown states.

“Sure, send a woman to the kitchen to do women’s work,” Clarke says with a smile.

“Just get going, cadet,” Brown responds. “Emily, if you have a backpack, can you start putting things in there, like a coat, socks, a couple of your favorite small things?”

“Like I was packing for grandma’s.”

“Exactly.”

Brown begins upstairs, finding a 9mm Glock in a case on one of the upper closet shelves. Under the bed, he hauls out a case to find an AR-15 within, complete with an extra mag. Searching the rest of the room, he locates a small amount of ammo for both the handgun and carbine. In addition, he finds a set of binoculars—not the best, but better than none at all. Setting those on the bed, he begins looking through the rest of the upstairs rooms, placing items on the bed as he goes. There’s not time for a thorough search, and space will be limited to the backpacks. He also has it in mind that they may have to survive for a few days, so he prioritizes items by their size and by what they may need versus what he wants. One of the problems he faces is that they may need blankets with nighttime coming, but their bulk precludes the ability to take them along with everything else. A pair of scissors makes short work of that problem as he cuts head holes in the middle of each one he finds. They’ll wear them like ponchos during the day and have them available for the evenings.

Coming out of the bathroom with an armload of toilet paper, Brown finds Hayward and Clarke standing in the hall with three semi-full backpacks at their feet. Clarke looks from Brown to the toilet paper and back.

“Really?!” she queries.

“You’ll thank me later,” Brown replies, heading to the bedroom to add his load to the small pile already there.

The very faint blare of the house alarm in the distance suddenly stops.

“That means that it’s time to go. Hurry and pack this stuff, then we’re outta here,” Brown states.

With each donning a blanket and a backpack over it, they hurriedly make their way downstairs and, after a quick check of the backyard, step outside. With Emily’s directions, they head through backyards toward the creek and out of town. Brown feels both relieved and anxious as they near the limits of the city. After going through so much, he’s afraid to hope. If he allows himself that full measure, it will only make any failure that much more difficult to deal with. And, he’s too often learned the hard way that giving into a full measure of hope brings its own form of carelessness.

So close, yet so far
, he thinks, helping Emily over another fence.

At the corner of the one house, Brown notes trees rising behind the houses across the street. With the houses and fences blocking any distant view, it’s the first time he’s seen them.

“Is that where the creek is?” he asks.

“I guess so. Me and my friend enter down that street,” Emily answers, pointing to an intersection three blocks away.

Brown follows the line of her finger, noting four infected standing motionless in the crossroad. They’re the first infected, or anyone for that matter, that they’ve come across since leaving Emily’s house.

Of course
.

The four are slouched and staring at the ground, behaving much like any of the other groups at the campus. They seem unaware of anything that is happening around them, but with the experience of the other gatherings, he knows they’ll come awake at the slightest provocation. The trees across the street beckon like a Siren on the open seas.

“Come to us. You’ll be safe. Just take that first step and come to us,” they say.

The temptation to sprint for the seeming safety of the trees is strong. They’ve come so far and there it is, right in front of them. The very thought of how far they’ve come halts Brown’s thoughts of dashing across to make a quick finish to their adventure.

The finish will indeed be quick if we draw the attention of the infected.

“Okay, we’re putting two more blocks between us and those loitering at the intersection. We’re almost there, but almost isn’t there. Don’t rush or let your guard down. We’ve made it this far by doing it the right way, so we’re not about to change that. Is that clear?” Brown whispers.

“Yes, Sarge,” Hayward and Clarke answer.

“Are you really in the Army?” Emily asks.

“We are. Or, at least the sergeant is. We’re still training,” Clarke answers, pointing at herself and Hayward.

“Where are your guns? Why did you need my dad’s?”

“We didn’t have time to get them,” Brown answers, attempting to circumvent the thousand questions that must be rattling through her mind.

“Oh, okay. Then why…” Emily begins.

Brown forestalls her with a finger to his lips. “Remember, we have to be quiet for now. When we reach a safe spot, then blurt out all of the questions that you want to. But, do me a favor and save them for then, deal?”

“Deal,” Emily says.

Helicopters crossing over the area in the distance ahead and behind remind Brown that they are far from out of it, even if they reach the trees. The thought that continues to tickle his mind is that there is more to what’s going on than some accidental outbreak from something cooked up in a college lab. Even if it were that, the widespread nature of the infection will require some pretty drastic measures.

There are a hundred different ways of dealing with something this large, none of them good
.

He knows with almost certainty that a cordon is being put around the city. And with that, no one gets out. The helicopters flying outside of the city are most certainly looking for any that try to escape. He’s witnessed a helicopter take up the familiar nose-down strafing run position on more than one occasion, so he has an idea of how those outside the city limits are being dealt with.