Ravaged Land - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (27 page)

“Let me go! They killed him! I’m going to kill them!” I screamed at him. “Let me go!”

“I can’t do that,” Dean said getting my arms and pinning them down above my head so I couldn’t push at him anymore. “You need to freakin’ calm down before we get to that decontamination building. Just stop and think for a second, JUST THINK. Do you really think any of us would just give up on Ryan? We’ll find him. You aren’t alone, you have us. We care about him too for Christ’s sake!”

“YOU don’t care about him,” I snarled as a montage of all the dirty looks he gave Ryan played in my mind.

“Don’t be stupid, of course I do! I can be mad at and jealous of someone and still care about them!” The fact that he was admitting to the jealously slowed me down, it made me think that Ryan had been right about how Dean felt about me. What would Owen think of what he said? Or Sienna? Neither of them questioned it, maybe they already knew, or maybe it didn’t matter to them that they didn’t understand. My adrenaline was slowing.

“You heard the gunshot,” I said a little more calm, but I still had little bursts of trying to get myself out from under Dean’s body. I thrust my hips up trying to get him off-balance and then attempted to pull my hands loose, but Dean was stronger than I was. I was getting tired, weaker, and I gave up when I saw the building come into sight.

“Pull it together!” Owen ordered from the front.

“It’s OK Ros, we’ll find him again,” Sienna said trying to sound reassuring.

“But they killed him,” I screamed at her. I was sure of it. The timing. The men in suits saying he was a goner. I had little to no doubt they’d killed him. They weren’t going to risk their people to one diseased person who maybe didn’t have a chance in hell at survival. Maybe Seth never had a chance either and he knew it, and that’s why he did what he did. Maybe those men knew Ryan didn’t have a chance. Maybe this isn’t the first time they’ve seen the disease, that’s why they didn’t want me inside. Not because of Ryan, but because of all the other diseased people they had inside.

“We will figure it out Ros, I promise you! Please! You have to compose yourself, if they kick us out of here, it’ll be much harder to find Ryan. The best place for us to be is here where he is. Even if he is not in this building, he is in this area, with these people, THIS is where we have to be to get Ryan back,” Dean said and even though I didn’t want to admit it, he was right.

“Was. This is where he was.”

“Huh?”

“You said where he is, I corrected you. This is where he was.”

“We don’t know they killed him and we can’t assume that they did. Step one, get inside. Step two, learn as much as we can and step three, find him,” Dean said, as we pulled into a parking spot. Before Owen had even cut the engine, someone was walking out to greet us. “You can do this. We can do this. We’ll get him back.”

I wanted to start screaming or crying or pounding on this woman’s face until I got some answers but instead I wiped my tears and forced myself to wear a pretend smile. I’d do what I was told and follow their stupid directions, but only until we found Ryan. And if I didn’t find Ryan someone would pay. I wouldn’t stay here any longer than I had to. I didn’t care how wonderful it might be on the inside. Anywhere else would be better. There were four other cars in the lot, one was parked close up to the building and the others were parked in seemingly random spots.

“Hi!” the woman said as Owen stepped out of the car. “Welcome! Glad you’ve come, hopefully it wasn’t a difficult journey HOME!” She wasn’t much older than we were. She held a clipboard against her large chest and smiled at us with a perfect toothy smile. She gave us each a good once over while she spoke, “So… I’m Ms. Deezil and I’ll be your guide through d-con as we call it. First your car stays here for two weeks before it is taken away. The reason it remains is just in case this isn’t a good match you are allowed to leave during probation at any time. You can leave with all the things you came with, nothing more, nothing less. I do, however, need to take your keys in the meantime. They will stay here because we always go on the assumption it will be a great fit and you’ll be here for the long haul. Like most everyone who comes HOME does,” she said smiling the whole time. “Ah, before we go on, you are Owen?” Deezil said reaching her hand out to him as if she already knew.

“Yeah, that’s me,” he said a little confused how she knew but figured it must have somehow identified him in the papers she had on her clipboard.

“Lovely, nice to meet you. And that means you’re Dean,” she giggled.

“Right,” he said unimpressed by her, even though she was obviously really impressed with him. I consciously stopped my eyes from rolling beyond halfway point, so instead it looked as though I was looking up at the sky.

“Perfect,” she said holding on to his hand longer than she should have, and I could have sworn she was blushing. I couldn’t blame her, Dean was very attractive and tall and solid. All the things that made most women get goofy. “That makes you Ros and you Sienna,” she said guessing correctly.

“Yep,” I said giving her a nice fake smile back, one that closely mimicked her own. She scrunched up her eye and looked at me strangely. I could instantly tell she saw right through it and the smile melted off my face. It was then I saw something in her eyes. There was something she was trying to communicate back to me, her expression had changed, she wasn’t being fake, and it only lasted a split second. But I just couldn’t get her message. I couldn’t understand what it was. I wanted to take her aside and ask. Deezil knew something. Deezil wanted me to know something.

As we followed her into the building, I wanted to ask her, make her tell me, but I could tell she didn’t want me to utter a word. She had practically pleaded with her eyes for me to keep my mouth closed. She almost looked scared, and I could tell she regretted whatever it was she had tried to say with her eyes. Before I knew it the moment was gone and she was her fake-self again. If I said something to anyone about it she’d deny it. What did she know? What was it she wanted me to know?

“Boys this way and girls that way,” She said once the big glass doors behind us closed and we were inside d-con.

Owen and Dean walked down one hallway with Deezil, while Sienna and I, hand in hand, slowly walked down the other looking back at them. Sienna watched her brother, and I watched the two guys that had taken care of me until this point, walk away from us. Ryan was gone. Dean was gone. Owen was gone. Seth was really gone. Everything and everyone kept disappearing.

It took all that I had not to just drop to the floor and get myself into their mental institution if they had one. I grabbed Sienna’s hand tighter as we pushed open the big metal door.

Chapter twenty-two.

Inside there was a man sitting behind a desk who asked our names, just our first names. I guess the likelihood that there would be more than one Ros here at any given time was pretty unlikely. After confirming who we were he directed us to the first station, and we were separated. They had me go first. I undressed and then proceeded to the next station for what they called ‘the cleaning.’ I was told that my clothes would be burned but that new clothing would be provided. After a scalding hot and overly soapy shower, I was given a lightweight cotton robe to wear.

I was led to a waiting room where I sat for awhile alone until Sienna was brought to the same room. She sat next to me and took my hand. It felt like we had been sitting there for hours before they called her back. I stood up with her, nervous about being separated again, but the woman dressed like a nurse assured me she’d be fine and we’d be back together before I knew it. I let go of Sienna’s hand and she walked off with the nurse.

“Hold tight hon, you’re next,” she said smiling as if I had been told what I was next for. Only about five minutes passed when the same nurse-like person came and called my name even though I was the only one waiting. I looked around the waiting room and then back at her, but she just smiled.

I followed her down a hallway where she weighed me, wrote down my height, shoe size and a few other measurements for clothing. At least that’s what I assumed they were for. It was just like being at a doctor with a few extra measurements. I thought it was strange when she wrote down my hair color and eye color, she didn’t ask me she just wrote them down with the other measurements. I wanted to ask to see the form so I could see what else had been documented.

“Right in here Ros,” she said opening the door and pointing to a little bed just like the ones they had in doctor’s offices. “Have a seat, Dr. Rose will be right with you.”

I hopped up on the bed holding my robe closed. I wrapped my arms as tightly around myself as I could in an effort to keep myself warm. The whole building was freezing. I was surprised icicles weren’t hanging off of the ceiling. They had electricity. I couldn’t figure out why they used air conditioning instead of the heater. Maybe it was another way to keep us here. We couldn’t get away fast if we were frozen. I wondered where the electricity was coming from, the building was so large I doubted it had a generator. Maybe there was a windmill or something I hadn’t seen. I figured that meant HOME would have electricity and maybe the infirmary did too.

The room didn’t have a computer on the desk like you’d expect, but I figured computers must be pretty much useless if no one else used them. There was a calendar hanging on the wall, showing it was September, whether or not that was accurate I didn’t know. Maybe they had been keeping track of time here since this all went down. Something we probably should have attempted to do too.

The door opened and a tall thin woman with over-sized glasses slipped in. She set down the clipboard and looked at me, “Hi Ros, I’m Doctor Rose,” she smiled at me.

“Oook,” I said. I wasn’t really sure what to say.

“Oh sure, I suppose this is all very confusing to you. I’m just going to check you over to make sure you are healthy and ready to go to HOME. It won’t take long I promise. When I finish Nurse Silar will take a blood sample and you’ll be on your way,” she said pushing her glasses up.

Dr. Rose gave me a basic physical and determined I was perfect for HOME pending the blood test results. The nurse came in and drew my blood. Before she left she handed me a folded up bundle and asked me to change. I was led out to another larger waiting room where Sienna was already waiting.

“You’ll wait here for your results and further instructions,” the nurse said before she walked out. Eventually Dean and Owen were brought into the waiting room, and we embraced as if we hadn’t seen each other in years.

We sat stiffly in our new clothes partially due to the cold and the other part was from the stress. We all matched in our light blue jump suits. Our names were written on our suits along with a sewed on patch with the word “Probationary” stitched on it. Right now none of us cared how we were dressed we were just happy to be together again. Dean hugged Sienna again and then me. At first I thought it might be awkward but it wasn’t, I welcomed it. Ryan wouldn’t be jealous he’d be happy there was someone there with me and he’d be happy it was someone like Dean, and Owen too, that actually cared about me. Owen seemed nervous and was giving his full attention to our surroundings. I could tell that he felt overwhelmed and powerless and it was causing him a great deal of anxiety.

Dean, Sienna and I sat down on a couch close together and Owen sat down in an arm chair. His eyes darted around the room quickly, scanning and memorizing everything.

“Did they take your blood?” I whispered to Dean.

“Yeah.”

“They took my gun,” Owen said clenching his fist, “why didn’t I leave it in the car?”

Obviously they weren’t going to let us keep our weapons, but thankfully I had left mine in the car. At least I knew where one was, not that I could get to it easily but who knows, just knowing where one was could come in handy. Maybe once we were gone they’d take our weapons from the car, after all they did have the keys. Eventually a heavy, metal door at the back of the waiting room opened silently and Deezil stepped out closing the door behind her.

“Great news! You are all set for HOME!” She smiled at us as if we should be elated by the news, but all I could do was stare at her and wait for that glimmer. The one that made me think she was trying to tell me something telepathically. I wanted another chance to try to read her telepathic message. “So, again, your car will be held temporarily in case you need to leave. You can leave one of two ways, one if you aren’t a good fit, and two, by your own choice.” Did she say that last part weird? Strange inflection? “Next you’ll be taken by helicopter to HOME as it’s still quite a while away. We have to keep its location as secret as we can for the safety of our family at HOME. A family you are all now part of, so, congratulations!” She gave us each a brief hug to make it official, of course her hug with Dean was a solid five seconds longer and she kind of lingered. She needed to get out more. “So if you have any questions for me now is the time,” she said looking at each of us. When none of us spoke she continued “Great, let’s go.”

She walked us out back to where a helicopter was loudly idling with the pilot sitting inside waiting to drive us off to our new blissful future. Deezil waved enthusiastically at the pilot and he gave her a simple nod back, her shoulders seemed to sink. She shook our hands one by one. When she got to Dean she put her hand on his chest and let it linger there for just a moment while she shook his other hand. Of course the message she was trying to send him was loud and clear, but the one she was trying to get to me was dreadfully subtle. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye to see his expression when she moved on to Sienna. He looked back at me with a wink and a smile, and I couldn’t help but smile back at him. I guess he’d gotten her message too. The mood shifted when she took my hand and looked me square in the eyes, she mouthed something at me that looked like “he’s gone” but I wasn’t sure.