Riposte (The Redivivus Trilogy Book 2) (27 page)

Sounding far more upbeat than the situation called for, Lin fell back into the old world routine of answering the question as though it were posed by someone who truly did not want an answer but who asked strictly because it was the socially appropriate thing to do. “I’m good.” Even as she said it, she realized it sounded ridiculous.
‘I’m good.’ Seriously? The world is being overrun by infected monsters and everyone I’ve ever known is likely dead, and I say ‘I’m good?’ Unbelievable.

“No, I mean how are you
really
doing? How are you holding up?” Garza asked, the sincerity now evident in his voice.

Recognizing that the question was more than idle small talk, she reconsidered her answer. “Given that the world is crumbling around us, I guess I’m doing about as well as can be expected. I mean, the fact I’m even alive is something. When I think of how many people I’ve seen die since we left Brazil…” There was a slight hitch in her voice before it trailed off completely. After a moment, she sniffed hard and continued, “Now there’s only General Montes and me.”

“And me,” Garza said without hesitation.

“I didn’t mean… Thank you, Sergeant Garza. We couldn’t have made it this far without you.”

Although Lin did not dare turn to face him, she could feel his eyes upon her again. While she found his gaze unnerving, she was also comforted by his presence, just as she had been by Corporal Rocha. Like General Montes, both Garza and Rocha were good men—selfless, loyal, brave, and capable. Part of her feared Garza would be taken away just as Rocha had been, and the idea scared her more than she thought possible. Every death she witnessed was so painful, and she did not know how many more her heart could withstand before it simply refused to go on.

Another uncomfortably long silence passed between them before Garza spoke again. “I thought I had come to terms with death, you know? I thought I finally had at least a vague idea about what it was and how to handle it, but now I see that was just something I told myself to get by. I mean, I’ve seen soldiers in my unit—my brothers—bleed out right next to me, and I knew I would likely see it again. How else can you get past something like that and be ready to face it the next time?”

Listening to his heartfelt narration, Lin finally mustered the courage to look in his direction. The moonlight shimmered in the tears forming at the corners of his eyes, as he stared out the window as if making a proclamation to the entire world.

Continuing, Garza said, “When I was a kid, I remember thinking that death was temporary—that I could somehow reverse it. It was like death was punishment for something I had done, so I could also
undo
it. When I finally accepted the permanence of it, I just tried to run away from it. I felt like my shadow was Death stalking me, waiting to catch me with my guard down. Occasionally, I would feel it sneaking up on me, and I would spin around to find it had disappeared. Now, death is everywhere and there’s no way to avoid it. You can barely stay ahead of it. The worst part is that it keeps reminding me just how much I miss Mariana,” Garza said, his voice thick with sadness.

Lin’s heart sank unexpectedly at the mention of the woman’s name, and the unsettling sensation was as confusing as it was unpleasant. She did not understand what was behind it or where it had come from. She imagined it was merely empathy for his loss, though she could not help but wonder if there was more to it. The possibility that she would feel such a shallow and selfish sentiment as jealousy sickened her.

“It’s funny, the guys in my unit called me
Reaper
,” Sergeant Garza said, following with a small chuckle. Unexpectedly, he pulled his shirt up as if he were going to undress. Shifting to the side, he let the early morning light wash over his muscular back, illuminating the large, intricate tattoo of the Grim Reaper covering its entire surface. “When I was fifteen I decided that if Death was going to follow me everywhere I went, I was going to put him on my back so I would always be one step ahead of him.”

Enraptured by the intricate lines of the tattoo, Lin fought the urge to reach out and trace the ominous figure on his back. Instead, she bit her lower lip, and asked, “Was Mariana your wife?”

She saw the muscles in his back stiffen at her words, making the Grim Reaper appear as though he was readying himself to strike. With a sigh, Garza’s shoulders slumped and all of the tension seemed to bleed out of the Reaper. “No. My sister.”

Before she realized what she was doing, Lin placed a tentative hand on his bare shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” Lin said, knowing all too well the pain he felt.

“Even though it’s been so long, it feels like it was just yesterday. I guess because I never really dealt with it at the time,” Garza said. “She was just ten years old when she was killed by a stray bullet back in Mexico. My family immigrated to the U.S. the following year.”

Now, it was Garza who noticed a change in Lin’s demeanor. She appeared rigid and pale in the predawn light, with all of the nervous tension she possessed moments ago gone. “Lin?” Garza asked cautiously.

“My brother, Kang, died when he was nineteen,” Lin said, as though forcing the reluctant words out of hiding. She proceeded to tell Garza about the mysterious disease that claimed her brother’s life, and how his death put her on the path that led her to where she was presently.

In many ways, the death of Garza’s sister had a similar life-defining effect on him. Although he accepted he would never be able to exact revenge on the gunman responsible for his sister’s death, Garza decided to join the military to fight for good, as a means to avenge her loss indirectly.

They sat in silence for several minutes, reflecting on this commonality between them, before Lin said, “I’m scared.”

Without a word, Garza put his arm around her, wishing the sincere gesture could somehow shield her from the world around them.

General Montes woke in time to hear the end of their conversation. He had worried about how all of the death and dying was affecting Dr. San. It was nothing she had experienced, and he knew there was really no way to prepare her for it. It was like trying to explain that fire is hot to a child. The words mean very little; true understanding comes only with the pain experienced when he or she puts a hand in the flames.

When Lin and Garza fell silent, General Montes sat up slowly, his muscles stiff from the uncomfortable sleep. His creaky joints popped and cracked as he crossed the short distance to where the two sat watching the world outside come back to life under the early morning sun. With a small sigh, General Montes said, “There is so much death, but you have to believe that life is stronger than death in the end. And you must not fear death because that fear will overshadow your life. The courage to face death head on is the light that clears away the shadows and allows us to live to fight another day.”

20

October 5, 2015

Cobb County, GA

As the sun poked up over the eastern horizon, Lin, Montes, and Garza climbed back into the truck, hoping to finish the long journey that for all but Garza started nearly five thousand miles away. With their destination so close, Lin thought of everything they had experienced, and said a silent prayer for everyone who lost their life along the way. She truly hoped it proved to be worth their sacrifice.

From the driver’s seat, Garza said, “It’s maybe twenty miles to the CDC lab. Hopefully we can cover that distance today. That said they are likely to be the hardest miles we’ve travelled yet. Traffic in Atlanta was bad before LNV, not to mention the population density in the area. There’s no telling how many infected are in the city. Stay sharp, and pray for luck.” Lin watched him kiss a small cross before tucking the necklace back under his shirt.

Garza knew that taking back roads to avoid the traffic snarls on the interstate would increase the distance to the CDC, but he felt certain it would decrease their overall travel time. As he drove, he was amazed by how quickly the urban area appeared to have collapsed. While he had seen the urban decay in the Atlanta metropolitan area before LNV firsthand, the profound desolation he now saw seemed impossible. In less than two weeks, the city looked as though it had been uninhabited for months. Whether it was due to the speed in which the virus spread, or the fragile nature of the complex infrastructure supporting our tenuous, modern lives, Garza did not know. Perhaps it was both.

Signs of progressive disrepair were everywhere, as though the world was literally crumbling around them. None of them had truly realized just how dependent the modern world was on constant human maintenance. They took it for granted as something that merely persisted unaided until until now. Trash swirled in the streets. Cars were left where they crashed, patiently waiting for wreckers that would never come. Darkened buildings appeared dead without their life-sustaining electricity. Bodies littered every part of the landscape. Lin felt numb as she recalled a time when she thought it was dreadfully unacceptable that a squirrel had been dead on her street for nearly a day and not yet removed.

Lin imagined she could actually see the manmade world aging and weathering before her eyes, as though Mother Nature went right to work the moment she realized no one was left to stop her from reclaiming what was rightfully hers all along. Everything was painted with dreary desolation, almost as if the virus had destroyed all the color in the world as well. A cold chill ran down Lin’s spine when she thought about how long it had taken mankind to reach this point, and how quickly it was being reversed in its absence. The world she saw was deserted.

Although they only encountered scattered clusters of infected as they neared the outskirts of the urban area, they knew without a doubt there were many more waiting in the city. After all, the Atlanta metropolitan area had a population of just over 5.5 million before the plague. Even if 75% of them died, the rest of those people had to be somewhere, and none of them harbored any delusions that they were all tucked away somewhere—safe and sound.

“Wait a sec! What the hell is that? What is she doing?” Garza asked rhetorically.

On a ruined stretch of road, he saw a woman that appeared to be stranded. He pulled the truck to a stop a little over one hundred yards away, while the woman continued waving at them frantically. Scanning the surrounding area, Garza saw no one else—infected or otherwise.

“I don’t know,” General Montes said thoughtfully. “She might be in trouble, but it could be a trap.”

Nodding, Garza said, “Why do you think she is just standing there waving, instead of approaching us? You would think if she were out here alone, she would be running toward us rather than hanging back—seems kind of suspicious. Still, if she is in trouble then we can’t rightly leave her out here.”

“Yes, but I feel it’s just too risky,” Montes said. “Perhaps one of us can assess the situation while the other hangs back with Dr. San, though I’ll admit I don’t feel much better about that plan.”

Having been silently listening to their conversation, Lin finally chimed in, “Are you two seriously discussing this? Of course we have to help her. There is no way we are going to leave anyone out here—certainly not because of me!” She thought back to the interstate when Corporal Rocha had told General Montes to drive off, leaving Garza alone to fend off the infected horde bearing down upon him.

Morally, both men knew what should be done, but they also knew the importance of their primary objective. Even so, the thought of leaving the woman to fend for herself when they had the ability to help her did not sit well with either of them.

“Fine, I suppose you are right, Dr. San,” Montes said. “It wouldn’t be right to leave anyone out here, but you must understand our need to keep you safe. If we can’t get you to the CDC lab then it might not matter who we help. So if we’re going to do this, we need to do it cautiously. Garza, I’ll drive while you stay concealed in the bed of the truck, ready to fire if necessary. Just because we don’t see any infected, doesn’t mean they aren’t close by. Lin, you stay down and out of sight. At the first sign of anything amiss, woman be damned, I’m getting us the hell out of there. Understood?”

“Woman be damned?” Lin asked rather incredulously.

When General Montes’ facial expression did not waver, she and Garza nodded in agreement. Montes climbed out the rear driver side door, and stepped forward as though trying to get a better look at the situation. Garza slipped into the back seat and out the rear passenger door before sliding stealthily into the bed of the truck.

General Montes climbed into the driver’s seat and drove forward slowly, keeping a watchful eye out for any sign of danger. If he were honest with himself, everything about the situation seemed dangerous, but he certainly could not argue with Dr. San’s point about the morality of leaving the woman behind.

As they drew closer, Montes could see that the woman was shouting something and pointing toward the ground just off to the side of the road. The unsettled feeling in General Montes’ gut rose steadily the closer they got to her position.
Why is she yelling like that? Doesn’t she know that will draw any infected within earshot to her position? Surely she realizes we see her and are heading in her direction.

Lin spoke from the passenger seat, “What is she saying? Roll the window down so we can hear.”

Ignoring the nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that screamed for him to turn back, Montes reluctantly continued forward. He cracked his window, and the woman’s fervent pleas for help became clear.

“Help! Please! My son is trapped! Help me! He’s just a boy! Please!”

The frantic look on her face seemed incongruous with her body language, as though it were trying to mask something lurking just under the surface. While her face and voice certainly conveyed fear and desperation, her tense body—coiled like a snake ready to strike—belied them both. Slowly, it all started to clear in Montes’ mind.

As he lay on his back nervously scanning from side to side, Garza saw that the road was flanked by more elevated positions than he cared to think about. Windows of derelict buildings, rooftops, and all manner of abandoned constructions provided more potential hide spots than he could ever hope to keep an eye on. He knew he was hidden from anyone on the road, but he was completely exposed to anyone occupying the higher ground. With no cover in the truck bed, he felt like a sitting duck. They were entering the perfect location for an ambush, and the sweat beading on his forehead told him they were in for hard times in short order.
Oh shit!
This is not good. This is not good.
He was struck by a profound sense of déjà vu as the stretch of road in his home state began to look a lot like the one in Nasiriyah, Iraq that he had tried so hard to forget.

As he was about to relay his concern to General Montes, he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. Although only a fleeting glimpse, he was certain he had seen someone peering out of a second story window to the left of the truck. The figure faded into the shadows before he could ascertain any further details about the person. Perceived movement from several other areas vied for his attention simultaneously, and he began to think he was imagining things until he saw the clear outline of a man lying prone on the edge of an old railroad trestle. While he could not say for sure without raising up to get a better look, he swore the man had a rifle trained on them.
That would be an easy shot even if you couldn’t shoot worth a damn, and I’ve got no cover!

Sensing the time to act was now or never, Garza made his decision. Uncertain if the man on the railroad trestle had seen him, Garza popped up, placed the reticle of his holographic sight on the man’s head, and fired two quick shots. The man’s head slumped forward, and in an instant, the truck was engulfed in pandemonium as gunfire erupted on all sides. Garza and Lin dropped down, hoping to find cover, while Montes gunned the truck’s engine.

Before he managed to escape the ambush, however, a car pulled out and blocked the road just beyond where the stranded woman stood. Enraged and no longer waving, the woman wheeled around to face them, standing between the two vehicles with an assault rifle in hand. With only his eyes above the dash, General Montes saw a look of shocked terror wash over the woman’s face. It was obvious she had expected him to stop, but the roar of the truck’s engine made it clear that he had no intention of doing so.

“Brace yourselves!” General Montes bellowed, loud enough for Garza to hear him in the back of the truck.

There was a thundering crunch as the large truck plowed into the car blocking their path, riving it apart like a can opener cutting through a tin can. The impact bisected the formerly stranded woman at the waist, her face smashing against the windshield before the upper half of her body rolled over the truck’s cab. The startled look in her eyes never faded as she vanished from Montes’ field of view. Her torso, slick with blood, slid off the roof and into the bed with Garza before slamming against the tailgate with a meaty thud.

While the impact with the car slowed the truck considerably, the momentum kept them moving as the gunfire intensified behind them. Round after round plinked against the truck’s metal body as someone opened up with a burst of fully automatic gunfire. Feeling completely exposed and fearing for his life, Garza slid toward the tailgate and grabbed the woman’s torso by the hair. He pulled hard, flipping the half-corpse on top of him. Several dull thuds and a fine crimson mist told him that he managed to find cover just before several rounds punched through the sheet metal.

“Get us the hell out of here! Those shooters are chewing right through this thing!” Garza screamed. In the chaos of the one-sided gunfight, he failed to notice the truck steadily losing speed. Now, it was all but stopped. General Montes chanced a look in the side mirror and saw several figures emerging from places of concealment on both sides of the street. He knew they were not infected; their movement was too purposeful as they advanced on the truck, and they each carried a rifle.

“Garza, the truck’s shot, and I count at least five armed combatants closing on our six! You need to find cover!” Montes shouted.

“You don’t say! The truck’s shot?” Garza muttered, as he slid out of the bed and dropped to the ground. He rolled under the truck just as a string of bullets stitched a path along the pavement. Coming out on the other side, he dove for cover behind a stalled car as several more shots rang out.

Drawing his pistol, General Montes returned fire over the hood of the truck, allowing Garza enough time to get settled. In turn, Garza popped up and fired a quick burst that took out the legs of one the advancing attackers. His guttural cries of pain echoed between the buildings, further agitating the infected already converging on the sounds of the fierce gun battle.

The first pack of infected broke from between the parked cars, directly in front of two of the approaching gunmen. They fired into the group of ten, but with few headshots, it did little to slow them down. The infected fell on the two hapless gunmen just as several others silenced the man whose legs Garza had decimated.

From where she crouched in the truck’s foot well, Lin heard the collective growl of countless infected reverberating through the cab. Blinded by fear, she jumped out of the truck, intent on fleeing for her life.

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” a gruff voice yelled from less than ten yards away.

Turning, Lin found herself staring down the barrel of a rifle cradled in the hands of a dirty man wearing a trucker’s hat and filthy coveralls. Petrified, she stood like a statue, directly in Montes’ line of fire.

Garza, who was engaging the other remaining gunmen, had not yet noticed the situation.

On instinct, Lin held up her hands as if to say,
you got me, take me in
. Unfortunately the deranged look in the man’s eyes told her that was the last thing he intended to do. In that instant, Lin knew it was all over. She had traveled all the way from Brazil at the cost of innumerable lives, only to be killed in a botched carjacking by a bunch of crazed, redneck survivors. She closed her eyes in anticipation of the gun blast and the blinding pain it would inevitably bring.
At least this will all be over for me, finally…no more death.