Degeneration (50 page)

             
“Come up here and sit the fuck down,” Mathis said. He removed his white-suit’s protective hood and ran his fingers through his oily, sweaty hair and scratched his stubble-covered face. As soon as he removed his hood, the stench of urine and wet feces filled the air.

             
Richard cautiously made his way into the cockpit and sat down in the co-pilot’s seat, staring at Mathis with apprehension.

             
“Your suit,” Richard said, methodically rubbing his neck.

             
“Doesn’t matter anymore,” Mathis said, glancing down at his bit leg.

             
Richard said nothing and simply stared out the window at the ground below. He sat rigidly still.

The radio in the control console crackled with dead static. It hadn’t uttered a single human voice for hours.

Mathis looked down at the Brier Creek shopping center as the helicopter made its assent. The entire area was awash with burning napalm. The Target and Wal-Mart stores, both former Red Cross shelters during the outbreak, were burning out of control and flames leapt through their tattered roofs. On the roofs, thousands of severely burnt men, women, and children shuffled aimlessly amongst the ashes in search of fresh hosts, staring up at the helicopter with an insatiable hunger.

As he stared down at the walking cadavers, Mathis realized for the first time just how beyond anybody’s control the situation outside had become.

It was no wonder why the government risked blowing their flu cover story by carpet-bombing the entire city with napalm.

Things had fallen apart.

“Well, it looks like their little firebombing was a failure,” Mathis said. “They’re still milling around down there… thousands of them.”

He glanced over at Richard.

             
Richard sat in silence, listening to a conversation Mathis couldn’t hear.

“Just hang tight. I’m going to deliver you safely,” Mathis said. “But it won’t be at Falls Lake… that’s a waste of time.”

Richard ignored him and stared vacantly ahead, desperately trying to eavesdrop on Andy and the female voice.

“Are you alright?” Mathis asked, coughing.

Richard snapped back to reality and slowly turned his head towards Mathis, opened his mouth, and then sighed.

“What is it?” Mathis asked.

“I was going to say something, but my thought got taken from my head before I could say it,” Richard said and went back to eavesdropping on the conversation inside his head.

Mathis stared at him a moment and then focused ahead. He was starting to notice just how damaged and out of touch his co-pilot really was.

“You need to pull yourself together,” Mathis finally said. “I know that you’re… not well, but if they make a vaccine from your blood… you’ll be a national hero. I’m finished. I don’t think you’re infected. I think that Dr. Medford was speaking out of turn. This…this
thing
is bigger than you and me, now, and much bigger than Raleigh, I fear. They need a cure… a
real
cure… You can offer them that. You can give this country a future. Do… you even understand how important you are?”

Richard said nothing.

“Do… you even care?” Mathis asked.

Richard slowly nodded, as if digesting the thought.

“I do. I do care about Andy. I’m going to save him,” Richard muttered. “But first, I am going to sleep.”

Richard leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

The sun was rising.

Mathis frowned and stared outside as they flew out of Raleigh’s city limit and skirted the edge of Durham. In the distance, he saw what remained of Durham’s plastic-draped skyline. The entire city had an orange glow as the flames devoured entire neighborhoods and leveled forests. Duke University’s campus was awash in flames.

Evidently, Raleigh was not the only city that had been firebombed.

With the whimsical hopeful illusions of rescue and safe passage dashed, reality suddenly became frighteningly real to Mathis. A part of him was relieved that he didn’t have long to live in the ruined world of fire and teeth and he started to welcome death’s eternal peaceful prospect.

The irony that the only hope that the United States and quite possibly the world had left rested in the hands of an infected army colonel and a broken civilian teetering on the abyss of insanity was not lost on him.

Mathis erupted into a coughing spasm.

In truth, he didn’t know what to do, or who to call. All he could do was fly until he couldn’t fly anymore and hope that he made it far enough to deliver Richard to safety.

In truth, it all started to feel hopeless.

From his vantage point, the whole world appeared to be burning against the rising sun.

Mathis watched, and Richard slept.

30

             
W
ake up.

             
Richard’s eyes shot open on Andy’s command.

             
The morning sun momentarily blinded him.

He found himself still sitting next to Mathis in the helicopter. The helicopter had left the city behind and was flying over dense forest and the vehicle-clogged remnants of Interstate 85. The trees below were green and unscathed, meaning that they must have passed the radius of the fire bombardment. He saw a large lake in the distance.

             
That’s Falls Lake, Richie.

             
Richard heard the voice come from behind him and felt spooked. He spun around but nobody was there. Andy’s scent lingered, though.

             
Mathis was struggling to maintain consciousness let alone maintain control of the helicopter as he battled the infection coursing through his veins. Snot dribbled out of both of his nostrils and his lips were swollen. Each breath was labored and came out in raspy spurts.

             
Your sister and I
were talking. We decided that it’s time.

The sound of the female voice that Richard heard inside his head earlier suddenly became very familiar.

“Stacy,” Richard murmured.

A flash of violent images passed before his eyes.

He closed his eyes, shook his head, and pushed the horrific images away. He started to wring his hands in his lap, methodically popping each knuckle.

We
’re
almost at the lake, so we have to do it no
w, okay Richie? Butner is close just a few miles north of the lake and a very short drive along the interstate.

             
Richard took a nervous swallow and clinched his fists in his lap. He looked over at Mathis and saw that he was very sick. It would be easier to catch him off-guard.

Just punch him in t
he throat, reach for the pistol on his lap
, and kill him. As soon as you do that, I’ll take over flying this thing.

Richard looked down at Mathis’ lap. He didn’t see a gun.

Look again.

Richard looked down at Mathis’ lap again and saw that a handgun had materialized. His eyes widened with fear.

See? He was going to use that pistol to shoot you as soon as he lands
at Falls Lake
.
He’s sick. He knows that he’s not getting out so now he’s going to kill you and take you with him!
Kill him
first
!

Richard bit down on his bottom lip with slight trepidation and then drew a fist back.

Outside, there were two blinding flashes of brilliant white light, brighter than a thousand suns.

Richard quickly shut his eyes and turned his gaze towards the floor. All sounds stopped as his ears rung with tinnitus.

Slowly, his vision returned and the ringing in his ears subsided.

He heard what sounded like a rapidly approaching freight train.

Richard threw a panicked glance outside.

A vicious shockwave ripped across the forest below and bent every tree against the ground as if they were mere saplings caught in a breeze.

Richard looked over at Mathis, who appeared equally terrified.

Mathis mouthed two words, but Richard couldn’t make them out over the roaring outside.

Before Richard could utter a response, the shockwave struck the helicopter. The windows shattered, the electronic gauges fried, and the craft went spiraling towards the forest floor below.

In the distance, two massive mushroom clouds blossomed high into the sky and blocked out the sun

One of the clouds formed over the remnants of Raleigh and the other one formed over a desolated Durham.

31

             
R
ichard regained consciousness several hours later.

Even though it was only noon, the sky was dark and it was raining, leaving him cold and soaked. His whole body ached and his head throbbed. He smelt burning hair.

His eyes slowly fluttered opened.

The mangled wreckage of the helicopter was suspended in-between two oak trees. His body dangled out of the craft’s shattered windshield, suspended in his tangled-up seat harness, swaying side-to-side.

             
The left side of his body, the side facing the distant blasts, was badly burnt and covered in painful pus-filled welts. While the right side of his body appeared relatively unscathed.

             
Hanging there, he stared down at the ground below.

             
Splintered branches and small pieces of wreckage littered the muddy forest floor as torrential raindrops pelted the ground.

             
Richard weakly fought against the restraint straps that were tangled around his chest, struggling. One of the straps started to loosen just as Mathis limped out from behind one of the massive oak trees.

Mathis’ left leg was badly broken and his femur bone jaunted out through his bloodied white-suit. He limped underneath the helicopter, dragging his broken leg behind him, and reached up towards Richard, snarling and groaning. Half of his body had been burnt beyond human recognition.

             
The strap wrapped around Richard’s chest loosened a little more, and dropped him closer to the ground.

             
Mathis started to claw at the air towards Richard, making guttural gurgles of excitement as his prey dangled closer.

             
The strap started to loosen more…

             
Richard grabbed the strap with both hands, desperately attempting to keep it wrapped around him.

             
The strap tore loose from Richard’s grasp and he tumbled towards the ground.

             
Richard landed hard on Mathis and sent him sprawling onto the ground.

             
Richard rolled off of Mathis’ corpse and crawled a few feet of distance while struggling to catch his breath, trying to ignore the excoriating pain that radiated throughout his body.

             
Mathis slowly stood back up, now covered in mud. He limped towards Richard, dragging his fractured foot through the muddy water.

             
Richard struggled to his feet and started walking backwards, away from Mathis. He slipped in the mud and landed on his back.

             
Mathis lurched forward, reached down, and grabbed Richard’s right ankle with both hands. He pulled Richard towards him through the mud.

             
Richard drove his left foot into the center of Mathis’ chest with all of the strength his feeble body could muster.

             
Mathis lost his grip on Richard and went tumbling backwards in the mud.

             
Richard quickly got up, turned, and sprinted into the tree line without looking back, panting.

             
Mathis struggled back onto his feet and slowly limped after Richard, trudging through the mud, making guttural growls.

             
Richard ran in-between the twisted trees, leaping over fallen branches and swerving around fly-ridden burnt animal carcasses. Many of the trees had fallen during the earlier shockwave but it was still a struggle to maintain even the barest of visibility in the thick foliage. Thin saplings slapped against his face and thorny weeds tore through his tattered jeans as he ran. He was terrified, lost, and consumed by pain. He heard things shuffling in the woods all around him, shuffling towards him in the dark.

Worst of all, however, he had no clue where he was headed.

             
“
We’re going to Bu
tner. That’s where we’re headed,” Andy said, running beside Richard.

             
“Yes, I know that! Goddamnit! But how?!” Richard shouted between exasperated breaths. He couldn’t even remember the last time he ate. He was already dizzy and he knew that he would never make it to Butner on foot. “We’re in the middle of the woods, its pitch-black, and I am about to pass out!”