Endemic Rise of the Plague (36 page)

On her knees, Roxy dropped the gun on the ground. Knowing that Randy no longer
posed a threat, her thoughts went to her dying dog. She scrambled to Gypsy, and then heard more gunshots. Four shots. A hot tugging between her shoulder blades and in her chest gave her a slight discomfort. She looked down to see a hole in her chest, blood pumping out of it. She felt another, in her stomach, near her belly button. Reaching around, groping her back, her fingers found two more wounds. She’d been shot three or four times in the back. At least two of the bullets had gone straight through, exiting her body through her chest and abdomen.

The sight of the blood sent her head spinning. Her breathing immediately became shallow and rapid as shock set into her mind. She expected pain, but
felt none, as though her entire body went numb at the sight of the red substance leaking from her wounds. A sleepy sensation came over her, as her vision began to blur. All the while her breathing remained shallow, as if on the verge of an anxiety attack.

Suddenly lightheaded, she turned to look behind her. Rhino jogg
ed closer. He carried his gun in one hand and held his side with the other. Her eyes had difficulty bringing him into focus, before she fell over. Roxy’s cheekbone slammed into the pavement, her eyes facing toward the SUV.

She laid on the asphalt watching as Rhino quickly scooped up Randy from behind. Grabbing Randy under the armpits, Rhino made his way to the SUV, while Randy’s boots grated across the soaked pavement.
Rhino was speaking. Roxy tried to hear what Rhino mumbled. But it all seemed jumbled. Her body weakened with each breath expelled. She could feel her life slipping away, as she focused on Rhino’s voice.

“…Boss, we have to go
…lab will fix us up…get out of here…they’re taking out the town at midnight,” Rhino’s words sounded distorted, as he heaved Randy up into the Expedition.

Roxy heard something else, it sounded like a strenuous gasp for air.
But Roxy was sure it was her gasping for air. She tried to keep her eyes open as they became increasingly weighted. She thought she saw Randy’s arm reach up toward his head as Rhino hoisted him into the back of the vehicle. But her eyelids were much too heavy to hold open any longer. With her last smidgen of power, she lifted her arm, letting her hand drape across her loyal friend’s ribs. Roxy gently moved her fingers across Gypsy’s damp fur, as everything began to fade to darkness.

“Wait here with Rogue, stay in the car,” Joe said
, anxiously slamming the door to Mara’s Mini Cooper. Glancing back at Kate for just a moment, he could see her through the windshield, sitting in the passenger seat, stroking their red Pit Bull.
She’ll be safe here with Mara.

He turned
, offering an appreciative nod to Mara, then barreled toward Eighth Street after Hank and Dave. As he rounded the corner, he heard more gun shots. These shots were coming from Hank’s gun. He shot at a black SUV speeding down the street. The bullets ricocheted off the vehicle as the tires screamed across the wet pavement. A fire hydrant spewed water skyward that descended back down onto an overturned truck and the street.

Joe sprinted closer. Dave crouched on the ground next to someone, but he obstructed the view of
the person on the ground. Then, Joe saw Gypsy, lying beside Dave in a pool of blood, with a bloodied tee shirt tied around her neck like a scarf. Closer to the sidewalk, two more bodies were near, that of a man and a woman that Joe could not identify. His eyes fell back to the person blocked by Dave, only the legs were visible as Joe neared. He recognized the brown, zip-up boots…belonging to his daughter.

When Joe made it to Dave, he felt as if his heart would stop right there. His eyes fell upon Roxy
, motionless on the ground. Dave had pulled her head and shoulders into his arms. Joe could see a bullet hole in her chest, inches below her collarbone. Gashes and scrapes marred her face, shoulders and hands as she remained still on the ground. Whatever had happened here—she’d fought for her life. The front of her black tank top shined, wet with blood and torn from whatever fight had ensued here. His eyes went to the ground beside her, taking notice of how much blood soaked the ground beneath her.

“Is she?” Joe began, dropping lethargically to his knees. Reaching for Roxy, he pulled her into an embrace. His throat
closed in on him and his eyes brimmed with tears. He couldn’t believe it. They had made it all this way…only to lose her when he was only a few feet from her.

Joe looked at
feverishly at Dave, “Why? Why did they do this? They were dressed in the same uniform as Shotgun. Does he know who those guys are?” Joe blubbered.

“Is that
who your friend in the truck is?” Dave’s expression looked of disgust, “More Angora security?”

Dave breathlessly moved over to the man and woman lying on the street in a pool of gathering water. His hands shook as he reached down
, feeling each body for a pulse. Then he let his hand fall to Gypsy. Stoking her wet coat, droplets of water sparkled off her fur by the light of the street lights. He gently jostled her body, but Gypsy laid still. Dave wiped his face with his hand desperately trying to conceal his tears. He spun around looking at Joe. Dave’s face read like the morning newspaper—of regret and anguish.
He knew those two and he knew my Roxy and her dog. He knows my misery. He shares my pain.

As Joe clung to Roxy, he could hear his heart breaking, it sounded like shattering glass. Joe squeezed his eyes closed, then suddenly realized, that
he heard real glass breaking, from up the street. He looked up see to Dave was standing now, looking up the road in the direction of the sound. Hank looked to be in the same trance as Dave, looking at something. Joe peered around Dave’s legs and could see a wall of infected racing savagely down the street at them.

“Joe, let’s go.
Now!” Dave said without moving.

J
oe didn’t move. He couldn’t leave his daughter in the street like this—cold, wet and alone. Dave grabbed at him, but Joe shrugged off the grasp.

“Joe, we need to go.
Those are runners coming and they’re getting closer. Must have heard the gunshots.” Hank shook his head.

“And you want me to leave her here, for them to get her?” Joe yelled in fury.

“Do you want to die here with her? Do you want to go out like Mary and Jake? Like that Joe? She’s already gone!” Hank urged.

“I won’t leave her behind. Not this time,” Joe maintained.

“What about Kate? You’ve lost this daughter, do you want to lose another? She needs you Joe. She lost her sister—you want her to lose her father?” Hank interrogated.

Joe released his tight embrace with Roxy’s body. Looking at her face, barely ab
le to breathe, he knew that Hank was right. He had to leave his daughter. Kate was still alive, and he needed to protect her. That was his job. He couldn’t let his headache get in the way of keeping Kate alive. He gently placed Roxy’s head on the ground and stood, wicking away the water and tears from his face.

The vast sea of infected approach
ed from only a block and a half down. Joe sprinted toward the alley with the others.

Like a cannonball fired from a pirate ship, Rogue darted out at them from the alley as the
y approached. She raced as fast as her little legs could carry her, barking and howling.

“Rogue, come,” Joe demanded as he bolted toward the alley.
Why would she be out of the car? Unless Kate opened the door…

A
crowd of at least sixty infected approached. The runners were out front, racing at a speed that no ordinary human could match. The roamers were not far behind, shuffling along with the occasional one stopping to wail out to the others. The runners were only a block away by the time that Joe reached the alley.

When he rounded the corner just behind the others, he felt as though the wind had been knocked out of him. The Mini Cooper
had vanished. All three men sprinted to the end of the alley with Rogue leading the way. Dave scooped up a board and some type of strapping from a pallet on his way.

Looking up Seventh Street, Joe could see Hank’s truck at the end with infected encircling it. Rogue’s uninterrupted barking at them continued from the street. Looking down the other way, toward Angora, Joe could see that the open gates to the great laboratory hospital were beginning to close. Just within the gates
drove the black SUV, followed by a red and black Mini Cooper.

Joe pushed off, sprinting toward Angora, only to be headed off by Dave, followed by Hank.

“Joe, stop. We’ve got to go,” Dave said, putting his hands up to block Joe’s path.

“She has Kate—”

Joe couldn’t believe that Dave would try to stop him from getting Kate back. He thought Dave understood loss.

“I know. She’s not going to hurt her though. Mara’s not bad. Trust me
, we’ll get her back.
We
are in real danger. We have to go,” Dave said, taking a lower tone.

“That is my daughter in there. You’re not going to stop me. Get out of my way,” Joe growled
, charging forward.

Dave pushed him back, and Hank positioned himself shoulder to shoulder with Dave.

Hank is on his side? After all we’ve been through, he can’t even have my back?

“Man listen, they won’t let you in the gate. What, are you going to scale the walls? We have to go or we’re dead. You’re no good to her dead,” Dave yelled.

Joe frowned tightly, staring blankly at Dave, as echoes of the infected bounced off the walls in the alley. The familiar
whoop, whoop
of a helicopter overhead caught his attention. He watched the aircraft rise from the roof of Angora and told himself that Kate will be on one of them.

Hank and Dave are right to stop me. We have to get out of this to get her back. Whatever it takes, I’m going to get her back.
I can’t lose them both. I just can’t.

Reluctantly, Joe followed Hank and Dave back up Seventh Street toward Hank’s
truck. Dave explained along the way that they would likely evacuate Kate on one of the many helicopters that continued landing on the rooftop, and that maybe Mara thought it could be her only hope of getting out of Port Steward.

Even though, it all didn’t make much sense to Joe, he still followed them. Shotgun
might have some answers for him. He clung to that thought—that hope, that his only living daughter would be safe. It felt as if his whole life were slipping away from him. One daughter was dead, while the other had been whisked away to a place that was as mysterious, as it was strange.

Joe heard Hank’s gun fire off a few rounds. Dave had taken the submachine gun from J
oe that Shotgun had given him. Dave fired the weapon with one hand. His other hand held his shotgun, a peg board and some plastic pallet straps.

Joe looked up to see that they were shooting at more than twenty infected near the pickup. Joe felt numb, as if this were all a dream. He knew what was happening
around him, but the world didn’t seem as vivid as it had before. His mind felt as though it were being pulled in so many directions.

Then he felt the sharp claws digging in at his side. Rogue had jumped up on him. He looked down at her rusty colored fur and thought of how well behaved she was when she was around Roxy. Tears raced their way down his cheeks as he reached the truck. Hank and Dave had taken out nearly all of the nearby infected. But more of them were rounding the corner and even more had emerged from down the street through the alley, racing up behind them.

Joe slid into the back of the truck and patted his leg to call up the dog. Rogue gleefully rocketed into the back. The other two men moved Shotgun from the driver side to the passenger side. He yelled in pain as they slid him across the seat. Hank took the driver’s seat, and Dave leapt into the back, sitting near Joe. He dropped the shotgun, the holey peg board and box strapping in the truck bed.

“It’ll be fine Joe. We’ll get your daughter back. Shotgun said that they are evacuating to their headquarters in Blue Falls. But we have to get out of here first. You heard what they said didn’t you? That they’re going to destroy Port Steward at midnight,” Dave said solemnly, while clutching the MP-Five tightly.

“Yeah,” Joe felt that this was his only option at this point. “How did you know Roxy?”

“I just met her last night,” Dave paused. A look of sorrow fell over his face and tear
s lubricated his reddened eyes. “She was trying to help a neighbor that had been infected. When the neighbor turned, she wrecked her car. I met her in the park not far from the crash,” Dave said.

The sound of the truck’s engine roaring to life interrupted their exchange. Hank turned around the truck and sped down the street. As runners neared the truck, Dave readied his weapon, but none came close enough to cause him to fire it.

“Where are we going?” Hank yelled out the back window in suspense.

“Where did you say you ran into the military?” Dave asked.

“Over on Shoreline Road, near the bottleneck. They’ll kill us man, if we go back there,” Hank yelled.

“It’s alright, we won’t. There is an old building a few blocks from here. It used to be the old Post Office, you know the place?” Dave asked.

“Sure do, we’ll be there in a jiff,” Hank said, speeding up.