Scourge - A Medical Thriller (The Plague Trilogy Book 3) (11 page)

“ ‘But why here?’ I said. ‘Why the United States?’

“ ‘It was rumored that because you started the plague, the United States was safe. I had to see for myself if there was such a place. It seemed to me the entire world was ending. When I cast off at the harbor, men were killing each other for space on the boats, but it didn’t help. The jiangshi—that’s what we called them—were more agile than most men. They filled the boats, and I saw people leaping into the water to get away from them, but they were in the water, too. I would see someone swimming for the shore and then they would disappear under the water and not come up again. I got onto a small boat that took me to Japan and then the Hawaiian Islands, but it was no better there. We are being pushed to extinction, and I don’t even know why.’

“ ‘
How did you end up in this town?’

“
‘I was traveling with a group here. Everyone is coming here. They know it is the least populated state in America. Soon, it will no longer be so.’

“I didn’t understand then the implications of what he was telling me. I thought we, the American people, were organized and by and large in the same general state as before the outbreak
, as if it were some sort of bad year that we would recover from. People don’t relocate entire cities because of a bad year. I still held that naïve belief that everything would be taken care of, but by that time, we were already scattered and planning a general retreat. The droves of infected that wandered the streets didn’t really need to eat or resupply. They didn’t care about water, food, or casualties. They just attacked. And a lot of the people they attacked, if they lived, would then turn to them within days. It was an army that grew in numbers the longer a war went on, unstoppable. That’s the first time, right around when I had met Shui, that the military presented thermonuclear warheads as a viable option. They wanted to somehow drop a bomb that would wipe out entire populations and thereby save the rest. That was then, and is now, the stupidest idea I could’ve conceived. This strain of the virus had infected the entire planet. You could wipe out whole countries and it wouldn’t matter. The infection would just continue to spread.

“The people had seen the writing on the wall, and they were fleeing the coasts in a mass exodus. Wyoming, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Utah
, and Montana were the states they were traveling to. Tens of millions of people fled for them, everyone from Hollywood socialites and celebrities to retirees living on the beaches of Florida. The nation was terrified and sought refuge in the open plains.

“Shui was just the first. Within a week, three more people had shown up in town. I continued to share our water and food with them. Finally, when the fourth and fifth
people came, a couple from Oregon, Jason put a stop to it.

“ ‘You can’t give them anything else,’ he told me one day when I went out to see him while he was still working on the truck. ‘They’re draining our resources
, and we’re going to need more still to get to the airbase.

“ ‘I can’t turn them away.’

“He stopped his work and sat on the hood of the truck, wiping his hands on a dirty blue rag. ‘Do you know who the best leaders are when there’s an emergency? It’s not the most compassionate. It’s the one who’s willing to kill ten people to save a hundred. That’s why Rome, a republic that hated tyranny, granted dictatorial powers to a single individual in times of crisis. You have the potential to develop a vaccine. These people don’t. You have to survive. They don’t. It’s as simple as that.’

“ ‘I’m sick of hearing about a vaccine,’ I said. ‘You’re putting too much faith in me.’

“He looked out over the horizon. ‘Storm’s coming, much worse than it is now, and when it hits, we’re gonna need to hang on to whatever we can. I’m hanging on to the belief that we can still fight this, and I think you’re the best shot. If I let that go, I may as well just go out there and let them finish me now.’

“I didn’t think those words would affect me, but they did.
I saw Jason then not as some assassin, not as a soldier, but as a frightened man, a man uncertain of what would happen in the future, and I was the anchor he held on to for that future.

“The crowds continued to swell. Soon, the population of the city was somewhere around a hundred people, all vying for the resources Jason had hidden aw
ay somewhere. That nice couple from Oregon were meeting with people in secret, convincing them that it was unfair that we controlled the supplies. They wanted to take them from us by force if necessary. I only found out about it because one night I heard a tapping at the window on the second floor and looked out to see Shui throwing pebbles at it. I went down and opened the door for him. He sat at the table, waited for me to shut the door, and then said, ‘They are coming for you.’

“ ‘Who?’

“ ‘Everyone else. Tonight. You must leave. They will kill you if you fight them, and if you do not fight them, they will use all the water and food and kill us all.’

“I looked over just then to see Jason standing
in the doorway, his arms folded, his eyes on mine with a look of ‘I told you so,’ though he wouldn’t say it. He disappeared and came out a moment later armed with the shotgun and his pistol. ‘No,’ I said. ‘I don’t want anyone to die.’

“ ‘Too late for that.’

“Jason went out on the porch and sat down, leaning the shotgun against the rocking chair. I stared at Shui, who kept his gaze low, unable to look me in the eyes. I checked on Jessica, who was sleeping upstairs. Just in case, I packed as much food and water as I could find in a duffle bag I’d found earlier in the week and went into Luther’s room. He wasn’t there. I ran down to the porch. Jason rocked slowly back and forth, his eyes narrowing on the crowd I could see up the street, a group of maybe fifty people. It looked like something out of
Frankenstein
. They didn’t have flashlights, or if they did, they didn’t want to waste them. So they had torches they’d handmade, and when they began marching toward us, the light bounced off the darkened buildings, casting shadows like phantoms against them.

“ ‘Let me talk to them,’ I said. I still believed all humanity hadn’t left our species yet
, that they would be open to reason. I was willing to have a more democratic control over the food and water, but to just unleash a mob onto our only resources would be foolish. So I intended to let everybody cool down and have, I guess… like a town council meeting about it in the morning. But as they neared with their torches, I saw Luther. They had him tied up with his arms behind his back and a rag over his mouth. A man behind him poked him in the back with a rifle, forcing him to march as quickly as they were.

“Jason stood up. ‘Go inside.’

“ ‘No, let me talk to them.’

“ ‘They’re not here to talk. Sam, go inside.’

“Though ultimately I knew he was right, I couldn’t force myself to go inside. I had to believe that they would be open to discussion. How could they not understand that our resources were limited and had to be rationed, that we couldn’t just let people gorge themselves on our food and let everyone else starve… but I was wrong. As soon as I saw their faces, I knew nothing I could say would convince them otherwise.

“The nice couple from Oregon were at the head, the husband
with a pistol in his hand. He took a step forward and said, ‘I don’t want to hurt ya. Just step aside and no harm will come to you.’

“ ‘I’m not hoarding resources. I’m open to putting everything in a communal spot and voting on how to distribute them. I always have been. I want everyone to get their share.’

“The man grinned. It was like this horrible mixture of sadistic joy and the pleasure someone has when they know a secret others don’t. It was just… malicious. ‘No, no more talk. You’ve been holding out on us, stuffing yourselves in there while the rest of us live on crumbs.’

“ ‘That’s not true. We have rationed everything and shared as much as we could.’

“ ‘Shared?’ the man said, ‘Who the fuck made you queen so that you could share the food with us? The food belongs to whoever can take it. And I’m not gonna ask you again. Move the fuck aside, or we’ll take it by force.’

“Jason
stood up next to me. He held the shotgun with one hand, low, the barrel pointed at the ground. He bellowed loudly, ‘Any man or woman who tries to take this food by force I will kill. I won’t hurt, I won’t threaten. I… will… kill
all
of you, if I have to. Count yourselves lucky that we share
anything,
that you have a roof over your heads, and that the ips haven’t shown up yet, which they will. You can’t move this many people without them following, so you need to save them bullets for the ips, not for us.’

“The man from Oregon considered this a moment and then smiled and said, ‘Kill him first.’
”

12

“The crowd didn’t move. Everyone stood motionless. We even held our breaths—at least, I think I did. Jason held still, too. The only change in his demeanor was that his eyes narrowed.

“Finally, the crowd broke forward with a roar. People shouting, swearing… they kicked Luther over into the dirt. Jason lifted the shotgun
and aimed directly at the man from Oregon’s face, when suddenly a sound tore through the air, clear and loud as a jet engine. It came from the dark, just past where we could see with the torchlight, a scream.

“It was like
the air had been sucked away and no one could breathe. The crowd wasn’t loud anymore. They didn’t actually move other than looking in the direction of the scream. Jason lowered the shotgun and turned. He marched back inside the building, but I stayed to watch the crowd. Just like that, they dispersed. They ran into buildings and slammed doors, drew blinds, put out torches. A few ran into a barn on the outskirts of town. In less than a minute, the entire street cleared, a ghost town. I stayed on the porch, peering out into the darkness. The scream had triggered something in me. I was forgetting about everything I’d seen, maybe not forgetting, but learning to deal with it. And that one sound brought it all crashing back, a cold, gray feeling in my stomach. I looked up to the sky and the blanket of stars. That was one thing about the lack of outdoor lighting that I could never grow accustomed to, how clearly you could see the stars. They looked like shimmering jewels encrusting the ceiling of a darkened room, much brighter and closer than I would’ve thought possible.

“I suddenly remembered Luther and quickly scanned the
street. He was still lying on the ground, unable to get up. I ran out to him. His hands were tied with strips of cloth, and I ripped them away. The rag covering his mouth had probably once been white and now appeared brown from the dust and dirt. When I pulled it off, he coughed so violently that I could see the veins in his neck, even by moonlight. I helped him up and we staggered back to the store. Jason hovered over the dining table, the bright light of the kitchen making me squint as I sat Luther down in one of the chairs. Jason had laid out everything that could conceivably be used as a weapon: the shotgun, two shovels, a pickaxe, a hatchet, and several large kitchen knives. His pistol, as always, was tucked into his waistband near his right side.

“ ‘They’ll be here soon. There’s wood in the garage next door and hammers and nails. We need to board up all the windows,’ Jason said.

“We worked frantically. I ran back every once in a while to check on Luther, who had a glass of water and some ibuprofen and said he felt fine. They had jumped him while he took a walk around the town, tied him up, and stuck him in the barn. ‘They wouldn’t have left us alone,’ he said. ‘Once they got the resources, they needed the room in the store. We would’ve been sent out into the desert.’

“
When the ibuprofen kicked in, he joined us, and the three of us nailed thick boards over every window. And there were a lot of windows. By the end, drenched in sweat, my muscles ached, particularly my back. We got some water, just a cupful each, and sat on the porch. Jason scanned the surrounding area. ‘Maybe it was something else,’ I said hopefully, ‘an animal or something? I had a cat that would scream like that when she was in heat.’

“ ‘Maybe,’ Jason said. He looked back
at Luther, who had dirt caked on his face, an outline of where the rag had been clean on the skin, making him look like he’d overslept in a tanning booth with a rag over his mouth. ‘How you feelin’?’ Jason asked.

“ ‘Fine.’

“Jason nodded and turned back to the darkness. ‘Something’s different about them,’ he said softly. ‘They’re not just sick, it’s something else. The way they attack, how it consumes them… something else is going on. It can’t just be a disease in their brain… it can’t.’

“Luther said, ‘The brain is the soul. When the brain is damaged, so is the soul. They’re just people that can no longer control themselves.’

“I looked from one to the other. ‘Are you guys talking about the people in the town or the infected?’ Neither of them responded.

“I don’t remember how long we sat on the porch before going back inside, but when we did
, we moved the furniture up against the doors. All three of us went through the store and then the upstairs apartment, checking and rechecking doors, windows, vents… anything that a person could conceivably crawl through into the building. When we were satisfied the place was as tightly locked down as it could be, Jason said, ‘We’ll sleep in shifts. You two sleep first. In two hours, I’ll wake you, Sam, and then two hours after that you’ll need to wake Luther.’ None of us argued or made suggestions. In fact, whatever had been happening between Luther and Jason seemed calm. More pressing matters had taken our attention away.

“I went up to the apartment and into the bedroom. Jessica snored so loud
ly that I knew she’d have a sore throat in the morning. I thought about making her turn onto her side but didn’t do it. She was in that state of sleep only a child can get to, one where the rest of world isn’t just held at bay but actually ceases to exist: utter peace. Instead, I sat by the window and stared out at the dark town in front of me.

“
Reading stories as a kid, I always tried to picture what a real Wild West town would look like, and I was never sure I got it right. Sitting there, staring at the blackness, I could see that I’d come close. This town could’ve been put in the West a hundred and fifty years ago and, other than the gas station and store, wouldn’t have seemed that out of place. I pulled my knees up to my chest and leaned against the wall, my eyes glued outside, and slowly, I drifted to sleep.”

“A soft hand on my shoulder woke me two hours later. I inhaled a deep breath and wiped away the strand of drool that I felt on my lip. He smiled at the little gesture and I smiled back. I stretched my arms, looked at Jessica, and then rose and followed him out of the room. He took out his pistol and handed it to me. ‘Just in case. But if you hear anything, come get me. I’m gonna camp out on the couch.’

“I held the gun in my hand. It seemed heavy for how small it was, a silencer that I hadn’t seen before clipped to the end. ‘Did you really see that place, Jason? Shangri-La?’

“He nodded. ‘Yeah, I saw it. It’s in the middle of the most beautiful jungle you’ll ever see. Thick green trees and vines, thousands of different animals and insects you’ve never seen before… it could be paradise.’

“ ‘But it’s not, is it?’

“ ‘No, it’s not. There
are roving militias in the jungle. Some of them are cannibals, really vicious types. Tristan does what she has to in order to keep her village safe.’ He paused. ‘I once saw her kill four people, just line them up and shoot them in the head like they were livestock, because she felt they weren’t contributing enough to the community. She made their families watch, and she didn’t even blink. She has that focus, that ability to do what needs to be done.’

“ ‘To kill ten to save a hundred.’

“He nodded. ‘Come get me if you hear anything.’

“He went into the front room of the apartment
, and I headed down the stairs. The silence in the apartment was deafening. I guess that’s the word for it, that kind of silence where it’s uncomfortable because you just can’t hear anything. With all the windows boarded up, I didn’t really have much to look at. So I went to the small rack of magazines the store had. Everything was at least two months old and nothing I would normally read, a few celebrity gossip magazines and the rest about hunting, fishing, and guns. Behind the cooler, which had to be kept on to preserve the milk and other perishables that Jason hadn’t stashed away, was the office. I hadn’t ever gone back there, so I decided to explore.

“The office smelled like mildew, a small space where the owner shoved everything he didn’t want the customers to see. Up on the wall, a calendar of nude women hung next to a work schedule. An old computer sat on the desk
, and I got into the chair and flipped it on. It still worked. I tried connecting to the Internet, but the server was down, so I just flipped through a few files before noticing he had Minesweeper on there. I played for about twenty minutes before I heard something outside.

“I couldn’t be sure what it was, but it made my heart race. I remained perfectly still, even holding my breath, and then I slowly rose and went out there. O
n one of the windows, a space of about three inches let in moonlight. The space between two boards that hadn’t been nailed flush. I peeked out between the boards. Standing in the middle of the street, a man in a white button-down shirt and slacks stood staring at nothing. The shirt appeared almost black with blood, either the man’s or someone else’s. As he moved, his gait was slow and awkward, and I could hear him making noises before he screamed. His voice had gone hoarse, and the scream wasn’t much louder than normal speech. Out of his mouth, a thick strand of black fluid leaked down over the shirt and into the warm dirt.

“In the garage next
door, someone else must’ve seen him too, because a noise came from there. Like banging metal. I think someone saw him and tried to hide, accidently knocking something over. The ip immediately turned toward the sound, and though his movements had been slow, he sprinted over to the garage and slammed into the door. And he didn’t stop slamming into it. Boom! Boom! Boom! He must’ve broken every bone in his shoulders and arms, but he didn’t stop slamming into the wooden sliding door. Finally, the wood creaked and I could hear splinters, and then screaming from inside, the screams of women and children.

“I rushed over to our front door
, which hadn’t been boarded up, and started throwing furniture aside to get out there. Luther and Jason both stomped down the stairs. Luther said, ‘What happened? What’s going on?’

“ ‘They’re trapped,’ I said, not looking back. ‘I have to help them.’

“Jason ran up next to me, making certain I looked into his eyes. ‘You can’t help them,’ he said. ‘They’re gone.’

“ ‘No,’ I said as I t
hrew a chair away from the door. ‘I’m not leaving them out there to die.’

“The scream
s grew louder. I could make out three distinct voices now, a mother and her two children. I pushed myself harder to move everything aside and then grabbed the couch, the heaviest item, to push aside, and Jason put his hand on it so it couldn’t move. ‘You’re not going out there,’ he said softly.

“ ‘Jason, get away from the door. I’m not kidding.’

“ ‘Neither am I. We don’t know how many of them there are. If you open that door, I’m going to have to close it behind you, and I don’t want to do that.’

“ ‘Do whatever you have
to do, but I’m going out there.’

“He
sat on the couch, making it nearly impossible for me to move. He weighed a ton, and with his feet planted on the ground, he resisted every one of my pushes and pulls. The couch wasn’t getting moved. Outside, the mother screamed for someone to help her just as other screams joined her from the darkness. ‘Luther, help me,’ I said. But Luther didn’t budge. He just averted his eyes and stared at the floor. I ran over to the window and peered through the opening between the boards. A group of infected surrounded the barn now. I had always thought their screaming was a product of their damaged minds, just the sound a brain injury might make. But I saw now that’s not the only thing it was. It was communication. They screamed so the infected behind them would come running, and the ones behind them screamed so the ones behind them would come. I couldn’t even imagine how many infected were about to descend on the town. Everyone in the area, I guessed.

“I made one last effort to move the couch
, and Jason didn’t move. He just said, ‘I’m sorry,’ quietly, so quiet I almost couldn’t hear it. I could tell it wasn’t an easy decision for him. But the decision had to be made. Even now, I don’t agree with him. I understand that droves of infected attacked the barn and that we didn’t have enough ammunition to take out every single one, but we could’ve done something…

“I sat on the couch next to him, listening to the screaming of the mother and children. A loud crash followed
. The ips were in the barn. The screaming increased in pitch, and then… she prayed. She screamed out for God to help her as they tore her apart… Within seconds, her screaming and the screaming of her children stopped, and there were only the horrible sounds of the infected.”