Sleeper Cell Super Boxset (97 page)

“Adam, I’ll need your help getting him out,” Mike said then looked over to his dad. “As soon as we get this guy out of here you’ll need to start CPR on him.”

“Okay,” Ulysses said.

Adam took Mike’s place on top of the elevator and Mike slid through the service hatch. Mike noticed the trembling hands on the young girl holding the mask. Her face was down and her hair hovered over the patient’s head. Mike placed his hands over the young girl’s. She looked up when their hands touched. Her eyes were misty.

The nurse brought the straps from the side of the gurney and tightened them over the patient’s body.

“We’ll move him on three. One, two, three,” Mike said and he and the nurse lifted the patient to Adam’s extended hand.

Mike pushed the patient up through the service hatch with the nurse’s help and watched it disappear out of sight. He folded his hands like a step and motioned to the young girl.

“C’mon, you’re next,” he said.

The girl placed her Converse sneakers into Mike’s hands and he lifted her up to the ledge of the service hatch above. He could see Adam’s hands grab under her arms and pull her the rest of the way.

“Thank you,” the nurse said.

“Up you go,” Mike said and thrust the nurse up to freedom.

Once everyone was out of the shaft, Sam jumped down to the top of the elevator next to Adam and the two of them lowered their arms inside the service hatch. Mike jumped and grasped both of their hands. He felt himself being yanked up through the hole in the ceiling and then his feet landing on the metal casing on top of the elevator.

The nurse and patient had already disappeared. The young girl wrapped her arms around Mike when he stepped back into the hallway. She couldn’t have been older than fifteen. His hand held the back of her head gently and then, without a word, she left.

“Appreciate your help, boys,” Ulysses said shaking Sam’s and Adam’s hands.

“Yeah, thank you,” Mike said.

The two men nodded and disappeared into the crowd. Ulysses pocketed the maintenance keys. Mike gave him a frown.

“They might come in handy later,” Ulysses said.

“Dad, we need to find the pharmacy here,” Mike said once the others had left.

“What for?”

“We need to grab you as much insulin and needles as we can.”

Beyond the busy operating rooms and ICU, the rest of the hospital was eerily quiet. Mike could see shadows moving in the rooms he passed and hushed murmurs coming from the inside. The deeper they went into the center of the hospital the quieter it became. Patients sat in the darkness, some with loved ones, others completely alone.

Finally, Mike saw “PHARMACY” painted in bold black letters across a door window. Inside he found a twelve pack of 10 ml bottles. Mike found a backpack and emptied the contents. He stuffed the pack full of insulin and disposable needles. He tossed one to Ulysses.

“Take one now before we leave,” Mike said.

“I have that stuff back at my place. You don’t need to steal it, Michael,” Ulysses said.

Mike’s gut turned sour. That’s what he was doing wasn’t it? He’d never stolen anything in his entire life. Then he remembered the hordes of people trampling each other to get into the police station. He saw the young man with the gunshot wound. He wasn’t going to let his father die when he had the means to save him.

“C’mon, Dad. We need to get out of here,” Mike said.

Mike peeked around the corner outside the lab. The hallway was empty. He motioned for his father to follow and he walked briskly down the hall.

On their way back to the stairs, Mike noticed a large group crowded around the window. He pushed his way through the crowd and made it to the edge of the windowpane.

The streets were chaos. Looters smashed windows and ran from stores with whatever they could carry in their hands. People were jumping and stomping on car roofs. Police officers were in full force in their riot gear trying to calm the riots breaking out everywhere, while those not joining in the riots searched for places to hide.

Mike pushed his way back to his father.

“What’s going on out there?” Ulysses asked.

“Nothing good. We’ll have to take the back way out of here. I-279 is right behind us. We can hop on that and take it to 65 back to my place. I’m not sure how safe it’ll be, but we should be fine as long as we make it back before dark,” Mike replied.

Mike and Ulysses rushed down the stairwell and burst out onto the first floor. Almost everyone that wasn’t dead or dying had crowded near the large lobby windows to watch the events outside.

They hurried down the hallways, turning left and right around corners, searching for the back exit of the hospital. Around every turn was death. All of the failed equipment in the hospital had turned the place into a morgue. There were so many individuals that couldn’t survive without the aid of machines and the computer chips that powered them.

When Mike and Ulysses finally made it out the back they shielded their eyes from the sun. Mike could hear the shouts of voices coming from the other side of the hospital, voices with a mindless purpose of chaos.

The Highway

The summer sun was brutal. Even the asphalt was sweating. Mike and Ulysses trudged between the abandoned cars on the highway. Other travelers were spread out on the road, heading to whatever home they still hoped was there.

It’d been three hours since they left the hospital. Mike pulled the water bottle from the bugout bag he grabbed from his truck at the steel mill. The rays shining through the plastic hitting the water shimmered like crystals. He had to keep reminding himself to drink, while restraining himself not to down the entire bottle in one chug.

Mike pressed the bottle to his forehead, attempting to cool down. The water felt hot against his head. He reached out his hand to Ulysses, but the bottle hung in the air, and when Mike looked over Ulysses was gone. He spun around searching behind him.

“Dad?” Mike asked.

Ulysses was bent over on his knees and slowly slid down the driver’s side door of a car and collapsed on the pavement.

“Dad!”

Ulysses sprawled out on the ground. He was breathing quickly, panting like a dog trying to cool off, but with no success. Mike lifted his father’s head up and felt his forehead. He was burning up.

Mike tipped the bottle into Ulysses’ mouth. The water spilled over his lips and dribbled down his chin. Ulysses coughed and pushed the bottle away from his face.

“Dad, you have to drink,” Mike said.

“I’m fine.”

“Godamnit, Dad, now’s not the time to be stubborn.”

Ulysses put his hand down and took a few more gulps of water. Mike dropped the bottle in Ulysses’ lap. His eyes fell on the bandage around his arm where the hospital staff had drawn blood.

“Did you take that shot I gave you before we left the hospital?” Mike asked.

Ulysses took another sip of water, avoiding his son’s face. Mike ripped open his pack and pulled one of the bottles of insulin out of his bag. He ripped one of the needles out of the packet. He pulled the syringe back, filling it with the insulin from the bottle. Mike jammed the needle into his father’s arm and emptied it.

That was typical of his father. Never thinking he needed outside help. He’d never needed it before. He worked two jobs while going to school finishing his engineering degree. He lived in a broken down apartment in the slums of the city when he was first starting out, with barely enough money to feed himself, and ended up as head engineer for one of the most prestigious firms in the city.

When Mike was little his dad was superman, he could lift him up in the air with one arm. Now, just like the patients in the hospital on life support, without this tiny bottle of liquid he’d be dead.

Mike joined his dad under the shade of the car. The two of them sat there in silence for a while. The people passing them didn’t bother to stop. They didn’t think to ask what was wrong. They just kept moving toward their destinations, mindlessly. Mike thought about his destination. He needed to get back to his family.

“You and I both know that those insulin bottles are only good for another month,” Ulysses said.

Mike’s heart dropped. He’d never heard his father talk like that before. His dad had always been the one to push forward, find solutions, and get it done. It was the first time in his life he’d heard his father hint about the inevitability that comes to all men.

“Insulin isn’t the only thing that can help fight diabetes, Dad,” Mike said.

“It’s the only kind that can fight the type I have, and you know it.”

“Think you can walk?” Mike asked.

“Yeah,” Ulysses replied.

Ulysses handed the bottle back to Mike and the two headed down the path toward home. Mike’s eyes kept wandering to the windows of the cars he passed. Items left behind in the vehicles that he could easily take. Flashlights, emergency flares, food, water, all sitting in back seats, cup holders, and glove boxes.

Stop it.
His eyes went back to the road. He wasn’t a looter. He only took the insulin because without it his father would have died.

Two men one car over from Mike were talking in whispers trying not to be too loud. One wore a grey Steelers jersey and shorts. The other was dressed in a short-sleeve polo and khaki pants.

“I’m tellin’ you, man, this was an EMP,” said polo shirt.

“It’s just a power outage,” said Steelers jersey.

“A power outage doesn’t cause your phone and car to break down.”

“You really think it’s the whole country?”

“Why haven’t we seen the national guard roll in yet? You saw what was happening in the city; people were going nuts.”

“You think it’s safer in Philly?”
“I guess we’ll find out when we get there.”

“Stay out of the cities,” Mike said.

The two men glanced over at Mike, who was looking at them.

“Your best bet is to head to a town with a small population. Gather whatever supplies you can and get to somewhere remote.”

“You think it was one of these EMPs that did all of this?” Steeler’s jersey asked.

“Yeah, I do,” Mike replied.

“Is that what you’re doing, survivor man? Going to get supplies?” Polo asked.

Then Mike heard it behind him, the low roar of an engine and the stiff shifting of gears. A light blue Chevy truck rumbled up the emergency lane.

People froze. Mouths dropped, and then arms flew up in the air. People made a sprint toward the car. Their frantic hands hit the side of the car, pounding on the windows, begging for a ride.

“Can you take us to New York?”
 

“I’m trying to get to Dayton.”

“Please, we’ve been walking for hours.”

“I’ll pay you, just please let us get in.”

The truck crawled to a stop from the blockade of people. Mike could see the young man and elderly couple inside the truck cab. The young man rolled the windows down.

“Hey, get out off the truck,” the driver called, turning toward the back.

Everyone was jumping in the truck bed, shoving each other out of the way savagely to make room for themselves. The unwanted passengers banged on the roof and sides of the truck demanding that they move forward.

“Get out of there! Now!” the driver said getting out of the truck cab.

The elderly couple held onto each other, their eyes wide with fear. One of the crowd members tried to climb in the driver’s seat when the driver got out, but he shoved him away.

Ulysses sprinted for the truck.

“Dad!” Mike said.

Ulysses had pushed his way through the crowd to the passenger side door. The truck started to rock back and forth. The driver turned around and saw Ulysses trying to pull his mother out.

“Don’t you dare touch her, asshole!” he said.

The young man leaped over the hood of the truck shoving Ulysses back. The crowd around them had grown to at least sixty people. Mike came up from behind and subdued the driver in a headlock.

“Dad, get them out,” Mike shouted.

Mike dragged the young man away from the crowd while Ulysses helped the elderly couple out of the cabin. When they were finally clear of the chaos around the truck Mike let the young man go.

People crammed themselves into the truck. Someone finally jumped behind the wheel and slammed on the gas. The truck hit several people before they were able to get out of the way. It swerved, smashing into cars and the concrete wall along the highway. People in the truck bed were falling out and smacking onto the pavement.

The truck drove further down the road with more people chasing after it. The young man started after it, but stopped when he realized his parents wouldn’t be able to keep up. He came back and took a swing at Mike’s head, who ducked out of the way.

“What the hell you piece of shit!” the young man shouted.

“Calm down, boy,” Ulysses said.

“Calm down? Our truck is fucking gone!”

“Somebody would have shot you, stabbed you, or hurt your parents to get that truck,” Mike said.