Tammy and Ringo (21 page)

“I'm good,” Ringo smiled slightly. “I got something I want to show you,” he said, holding out the wallet. Hiram took it, looking inside.

“Ben Wallace,” Hiram said, a note of sadness in his voice. “Where did you get this?”

“Off his body,” Ringo said flatly. “He was about to attack me when he just. . .stopped, Hiram. I think maybe he had a heart attack or something. I mean, I don't know just what that looks like, but he looked like he couldn't breathe and then he sorta grabbed at his chest like, and then he fell over. I mean that was it. Gone.” Ringo snapped his fingers.

“He had a heart problem,” Hiram nodded. “Maybe three, four years ago he had to have surgery for it. Poor old Ben. You say he was infected?”

“Yeah,” Ringo nodded. “Sorry about him, Hiram.”

“Is what it is,” Hiram shrugged. “We knew him from church and from around the way. Not really friends but we knew him.” Hiram sighed and put the wallet in his pocket. “Well, come on. I'd say Helen and Tammy have a feed waiting on you by now.”

“That's the best news I've had in a while other than I'm not infected,” a grin broke Ringo's face at that. “Lead on!”

Tammy and Helen were on the porch and Tammy ran to meet him, throwing her arms around him in a bone-crunching hug.

“Oh, I am so glad to see you,” she told him. “Welcome back!”

“Thanks,” Ringo smiled, though he looked uncomfortable. Tammy noted that and stepped back a bit, but then leaned forward and kissed his cheek, surprising them both.

“C'mon!” she told him taking his hand. “We fixed you a good meal and it's waiting on the table. Hiram said you'd been eating those horrid MREs for all this time. That's too much for anyone to endure for long.”

“You've had one then?” Ringo laughed.

“Soldier's daughter, remember?” Tammy said impishly. “I've had one. More than one since my dad always brought them along on camping trips. 'Saves time', he said.” Ringo was happy to see that Tammy could mention her father without turning morose. That was a good sign. And Reese might be all right, after all.

“Do please lead me to this food,” he settled for saying and allowed Tammy to pull him toward the house. Hiram watched closely at how Ringo fidgeted over the contact but smiled to himself at how well Ringo dealt with. He really was a good young man.

Helen embraced him as well once he was on the porch but more reservedly than Tammy had.

“We're so glad to see you home, Ringo,” she said gently. The word 'home' hit Ringo by surprise, but he found himself liking it. He had felt comfortable here from the the first and reminded himself that one of his initial thoughts was that had it not been for Tammy he would have jumped at the idea of staying with them.

“It's good to be home,” he said, meaning every word and was rewarded with a warm smile from Helen. She was pleased to hear him say that.

“Come on then and get washed up,” she told him. She, Tammy, and Hiram each helped him shed gear and equipment which was deposited in the hallway for later.

Five minutes later Ringo was eating heartily and telling the three of them what he'd seen and experienced while they shared their own story of the last few days. There was a lot to catch up on.

*****

“So anyway, to say it's weird out is an understatement,” Ringo finished. “It's really odd in places. There's almost no traffic right now and with the power off it's creepy quiet. Which is kinda helpful, actually, because you can hear better.”

“It is more peaceful,” Hiram agreed with a nod. “Course once summer hits full on and we're missing the conditioned air we'll be singing a different tune, I imagine.”

“Maybe the power will come back on by then,” Tammy shrugged. “I mean if things aren't terribly bad anyway. Once things straighten out we might get at least some services restored.”

“Might at that,” Hiram said, more to keep from dashing Tammy's hopes than because he agreed. And she might be right.

“I think no matter what things are gonna be a lot different from now on,” Ringo shrugged. “I wonder what Memphis is like right now,” he mused.

“Radio is full of reports of one kind or another, but when you sift through them way too many are just 'I heard' stories,” Hiram told them. “Not many operators in any major cities seem to be on the air at the moment. That might be because of the power,” he shrugged. “Generators are loud and hard to use in smaller places and solar isn't always an option either for people in apartments and what not. Most commercial radio is off the air and there's been nothing on television since the power went off. The last reports were bleak to say the least,” he admitted.

“What about Baxter?” Ringo asked. “Did you ever hear anything from her?”

“No, but like I said, since you're back we'll try and give her a call,” Hiram said, getting to his feet. “No time like the present if you want to give it a try.”

“I'd really like to know if she's managed to get anywhere,” Ringo replied, getting up as well. Hiram looked at Tammy and Helen.

“You two want to come along? You can hear what she has to say. Just stay out of the camera. No sense in her seeing more than she already has.” The two women exchanged glances and then nodded.

“If you talk to her, you might ask if she has any news about my dad's unit,” Tammy said hopefully. “He said they were in Atlanta. Maybe they were nearby, I don't know.”

“Won't hurt to ask,” Hiram nodded. “She might well know at least some news. If she doesn't, maybe we can find someone who does.”

The four of them made their way to Hiram's radio room in silence. There was hope for good news mingled with dread of bad news and no one wanted to speak about either. It was the work of just a few minutes for Hiram to get his gear connected and powered up. He placed the call over a video link, expressing surprise that line was still up.

“It's a dedicated line, but still it's a wonder it's working,” he explained. Tammy nodded in understanding. Ringo didn't know the difference and didn't react. Hiram made a shooing motion to Helen and Tammy and both moved away from the camera, out of sight. The call ended without an answer and Hiram frowned at that.

“Might not be working as well as I thought,” he murmured, placing the call again. This time someone responded and Hiram was shocked to see Williams looking at him out of his one good eye.

“And speak of the devil,” the other man smiled grimly. “I sure wish you were here right now you old bastard,” he said though there was no heat in the words.

“What's happening Willie?” Hiram asked, frowning. No way should he be answering this call.

“Hell done come to breakfast, Gob,” Williams told him. “That stupid bitch Baxter got herself infected and went through half the staff before anyone realized it. Whole place isn in an uproar. We're trying to save who and what we can but we're gonna have to abandon this place. Whatever you want, make it quick.”

“I was just wanting to see if those samples did any good,” Hiram managed to get out. “I can see that they likely didn't.”

“Sorry, Colonel,” Williams shook his head. “Most everything of that nature was lost when we lost the lower lab levels. Some data was saved but nothing hard. I'd have been reluctant to release anything out of here anyway. You know the protocol for something like this.”

“I do. You got a back-up?” Hiram asked.

“An off-site just out of chopper range,” Williams grimaced. “We're gonna get as close as we can and try to hump the rest of the way. It's almost to the Florida line. We may have some ground transport waiting but I can't count on it.”

“You had any word from the Eighty-Second?” Hiram asked. “Friend of mine's father was with 'em. Haven't heard any news.”

“I know they were here,” Williams nodded. “Last I heard some of them were holed up in several buildings downtown but low on supplies. If we have the time we're gonna try and drop some stuff to 'em, but our priority has to be the squints. If we can hold out long enough to load a couple choppers with goods for 'em it might help. All we can do,” he shrugged.

“If you can, outlast them, they're dying from medical problems,” Ringo offered. Hiram looked a little annoyed but Williams perked up at that.

“You must be the kid she thought might be infected,” he said and Ringo nodded. “Glad to see you made it, kid. If it wasn't for her being about the last person alive that might have stopped this thing I might o' killed her for suggesting we bring you in. Turns out I didn't have to. I'd say it serves her right, but like I said she was about the last brain we had that might have figured something out.”

“Thanks for the info, Willie,” Hiram said. “Watch your six,” he added.

“Always do, Gob. Wherever you are, stay there. Ain't no place for old men like us to be.” With that the signal was gone and the four of them were left looking at an empty monitor.

“Oh my God,” Tammy spoke first. “There's nothing left?”

“Didn't sound like it,” Hiram's voice was grim. He turned to Ringo.

“Nothing,” the teenager said bitterly. “It was all for nothing.”

“I'm sorry, kid,” Hiram said gently. “More than once it was me.”

“What are we going to do now?” Helen asked, ever the pragmatist. “I'm assuming that this back-up plan of theirs doesn't come with more doctors and researchers.”

“No, it won't,” Hiram sighed. “It'll be a fallback to store and preserve the data they have in case someone turns up who can use it. From what he said,” he nodded to the screen, “they don't really have many left to do the work. And probably no one who can replace that bitch Baxter.”

“Hiram,” Helen scolded gently.

“She was,” was all the defense Hiram offered. “Well, we are definitely in for it now.”

“What are we going to do?” Tammy asked, still thinking about the news of what was left of her father's unit. Maybe he was alive still, but if so, then he was trapped in a building in the middle of Atlanta.

“All that we can do,” Hiram said turning to look at all three of them. “We survive.”

The words sounded hollow even to him. Bbut it was all he had to offer at the moment.

*****

Even as Hiram spoke the world burned, sometimes literally with both fire and fever. The virus had been engineered to be spread quickly and the engineering had worked to perfection. Throughout the day the situation deteriorated, growing steadily worse until finally there simply wasn't anything left of society. In just a matter of days, less than two weeks total, the virus had swept around the world, taken by commercial airliners into the industrialized world where it spread quickly. Individual infected became groups of infected traveling with a herd-like mentality focused only on attacking anything within reach. In larger cities groups became crowds. In some areas crowds then became hordes.

The problem was that once you were bitten, that was it. There was no treatment and no cure of any kind. Again the engineering used to construct the virus held, fighting off any and every attempt to counter it. There was simply nothing to be done with someone who was infected.

As realization of that spread, people began to take drastic measures. Anyone who exhibited any signs at all were shot out of hand. Anyone bitten wasn't even given a chance to say goodbye to loved ones before being shot in the head. These types of measures initially made matters worse as body fluids, brain matter and blood from those 'sanitized' were not treated as level four hazards. Believing that only a bite could infect them, it took an entire day for people to realize that they were exposing themselves to the virus even as they tried to prevent it from spreading.

To prevent more of that, those suspected of being infected were rounded up and trucked to isolated areas where pits had been scooped into the earth with bulldozers. The 'suspects' were unceremoniously forced into the holes and shot, the bodies then burned to ensure the virus was eliminated.

Once the trucks made that run once and returned empty, as those 'suspected' of being infected decided they had nothing to lose and started fighting back. Until that moment many had believed the lie that they were simply being isolated as a precaution. Others were firmly convinced that a cure was imminent, awaiting only an effective method of distribution. All they had to do was 'hold on'.

As the truth began to sink in the last vestiges of order simply collapsed. Those who were trying to cooperate with the authorities ceased to do so, in many cases joining roving gangs of criminals who were taking advantage of the sudden absence of order and authority.

The last official estimate provided to the world governments were that fully eighty percent of the world's population was either infected or exposed. The last straw for those in positions of power was a frantic call from the CDC informing the White House that the virus had escaped quarantine inside the medical lab and that the majority of the staff were now infected or exposed. There would be no help from that quarter ever.

There was no last resort. No golden bullet or magic formula. There was no last minute cure or vaccine, no heroic doctor working for days at a time to provide the answer at just the last second.

And so the world as it was known ended not with a bang or a whimper or even a whisper, but in the blood curdling scream of those infected with a bio-engineered virus that induced a debilitating rage in anyone who came in contact with it.