Toxic (53 page)

The trio went through the tunnel until reaching one of the exits. Clayton left the two women behind him and did a recon. He gave them a signal to advance. Stressed out and in a hurry to get out of the complex, Elaine put a hand on the rung of a ladder.

“No, not here. This access leads directly in front of the hangar. It’s too exposed.”

The succession of tight passageways reminded her of when the aliens arrived on board the troop transport. Her breathing became faster and her anxiety skyrocketed, eating away at her insides. At least they weren’t at risk of running head on into any infected. They passed a second exit and then took an even narrower, pitch-black tunnel. Elaine hesitated.

“Get a move on! We can’t dawdle.”

Annie took her hand. “We’re almost there.”

“I... It’s just that confined spaces have been scaring the crap out of me for the last little while.”

The nurse closed her eyes and stepped into the darkness. To avoid letting the walls rub her shoulders, she walked sideways. The ordeal stopped after about fifteen meters, at the base of a metal ladder placed against the wall of a sort of square well which was large enough for her to calm herself down a bit.

“This is a former evacuation canal,” Clayton specified. “I’ll go first. You can join me when I’m sure that there’s nobody in the area.”

Elaine would have preferred to avoid the wait, but now wasn’t the time to argue. She had to deal with it patiently by biting a nail. The success of their escape depended on a fragile suspension bridge between two distant islands. She felt a sort of shame for taking advantage of the farmer’s naivety in such a way, but her own life depended on what her patients once called her talent for human contact.

Very calm, Clay got to the top. He stepped over the edge and disappeared from her field of vision. In the company of Annie, who remained silent, Elaine passed two minutes of agony before the blond head reappeared in the back-light.

“Annie, it’s your turn.”

The young woman smiled at Elaine. That’s weird, she thought. Her accomplice remained calm, likely delighted that her life’s dearest wish could finally come true. With a bit of luck, she might even see her brother again. In reality, this type of expedition could encounter a ton of problems, one of which – the opinion of the group – risked breaking the trust that Annie had placed in her. When her friend managed to get out of the passage, Elaine started up in turn.

The evacuation canal led to behind a building that held a bunch of useless junk. The position of the sun indicated the beginning of the evening. The inferno hit her shoulders. Underground, at least it was a more bearable temperature. She found her two accomplices crouching behind a wall. In front of them, a trail disappeared into the vegetation. That was the advantage of the Everglades, she thought; they could move away under cover and disappear quickly.

“This path leads to the shore five or six kilometers from here. I know that it might be tough for women to walk under this heat, but you’ll make it.”

The nurse clenched her teeth to avoid letting out a reply that might change Clayton’s benevolent attitude towards her.

“Is there a problem?” he asked.

“No, I’m just an anxious person.”

“OK, let’s go.”

They ran for about thirty meters with their backs bent. The shoulder strap of Clayton’s AK, which was in his hand at the moment, left a line on the dry ground. The sun beat down hard on them. Sweat pearled up on their skin. In a second, Elaine was soaking and sticky. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. Once again, she noticed Annie’s ease. The young woman had seemed so frail to her. She looked like an older Alison. Thinking about rejoining the young girl soon, she smiled discreetly. She would find them all again, she motivated herself, even if they had left the island.

Once they were out of the view of the guard posts around the camp, they walked normally, without slowing their pace. Clayton maintained a fast walk, anxious to put as much distance as possible between him and his former friends.

“I have a boat,” he explained. “Well, a small one, but it will do.”

Elaine walked up to him, which provoked a frank sneer from the man. His rough and callous hands reminded her of those of her uncle, who was a mechanic in the Navy. She wondered where he was now and then pushed those thoughts out of her mind.

“I will be in eternal debt to you for helping us. Thanks to you, we are...”

His sudden reaction nailed her to the spot. He brandished the AK and pointed it at her. In shock, the nurse recoiled.

“But what...”

“I should kill you, you lying, manipulative bitch,” he spat.

Around them, three armed men emerged from the underbrush. Four others came out of a thicket in front of them, cutting off their escape. At the front, she recognized the hooded cape of the Reverend. The latter approached his disciple.

“But you won’t do anything, Clayton; isn’t that right?”

Elaine was dumfounded and lost. She tried to make eye contact with Annie and saw the young woman go to the side of her master.

“I’m sorry, but thanks to him, I spoke to my brother.”

“But... How?”

“Thanks to the radio that God entrusted to our guide. Jon is alive, and I’m sure that he is going to come join me now.”

The Reverend ordered her to be silent, reminding her that certain details shouldn’t be revealed to strangers. However, his opportunistic salesman’s smile showed his satisfaction with the produced effect.

“Take note that I don’t use amateur manipulation. You used seduction and lies, strutting around in front of this unfortunate man and tempting this poor young woman. As for me, I offer them real results and not pipe dreams. Annie spoke with her brother and Clayton will find an appropriate wife as recompense for his services. We are a tight-knit community that nobody can destroy. Not even the aliens or the living dead.”

Elaine still hadn’t recovered. She realized that nothing could get her out of this mess. The goons surrounded her. One of them tied her hands behind her back.

“Well, it looks like we have our first participant for the games tonight. I wonder if you’re good with a machete. In any case, I’m looking forward to seeing you in action.”

Around her, the faces lit up and their eyes shone, including those of her former accomplices.

“Don’t expect any help. It looks like God has taken a long-term holiday.”

Masters watched the quay of the marina disappear behind a bend. He turned his head to the other side, towards the open ocean. The orange disc was on the verge of kissing the horizon. When the search for Hector didn’t turn up results, the dozen kidnappers had brought the five of them onto their boat to leave the island before nightfall. They had tied them to the port side, except for the singer, whose fate had been eating away at Bruce since their departure. He was more than just worried.

“If they touch her,” he raged in a high-pitched voice, “I’ll make them pay.”

“Save your energy. For the moment, we’re at their mercy. I think that Alva will know how to defend herself.”

“I saw how that guy was looking at her.”

The world always allowed the powerful to impose their will on others and to hoard what they desired. The only difference was how. What useless money no longer could buy – judges, lawyers and even love – guns now offered people the ability to take possession of. This simplification in relationships went hand in hand with the collapse of society and the return to the basics: force maintained order. Conscious that he was on the wrong side of the barrel, Masters told them all to keep a low profile and to obey without discussion. He raised his head: there was activity near the wheelhouse. The leader of the band turned to the side, his shoulders too wide to fit through the tiny door. He walked towards them with a mocking look on his face.

“Your girlfriend’s a junkie, right?”

With a heavy gesture, he threw a bag of powder in front of them.

“We found this on her. I won’t tell you where. Do you have any more?”

Bruce pulled at his bonds.

“What did you do to her? You son of a bitch!”

As a response, the biologist received a violent kick to the stomach. He bent over in pain and doubled over on the deck.

“Here, I ask the questions.”

Dewei and Alison, despondent, didn’t dare budge a millimeter. The colonel closed his eyes. He knew this type of person well.

“Hector was a drug trafficker before the invasion. He kept coke on his boat.”

“Well then, the old nigger is reasonable at least.”

Bruce straightened up, his gaze murderous. The corpulent man went towards the stern to smoke.

“I told you to obey.”

“What do you think they’re doing to Alva? And we’re here, our arms crossed.”

“Arms tied,” Masters corrected him. “That’s not the same thing. We have to wait for our chance and when we get it, we can’t miss it. They won’t do anything to Alva; these guys are disciplined.”

Or was it something else?
 he thought. The leader had said the word
girlfriend
 in a voluntarily sharp tone. Disdain, perhaps.

“How can you know?”

“Because he’s enjoying watching you go crazy. He’s sizing us up. For him, this is probably more entertaining than fucking.”

A few minutes later, the man that looked like a lumberjack came back to the wheelhouse. He gave out orders and a moment later, Alva appeared in the doorway. Bruce didn’t take his eyes off of her while one of the goons accompanied her towards them. Once she was sitting down and her jailer had returned to his post, he bombarded her with questions. The diva lost her temper, exacerbated by the biologist’s behavior.

“Bruce, shut up, please.”

Then she turned towards the colonel. “They wanted information, so they questioned me, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be when we arrived. They searched me, for sure, and they found the drugs. They asked a lot of questions. I told them that it came from the stash on Hector’s boat.”

Summarizing the facts, she didn’t even look at Bruce, who was hanging onto each word, tense like the string of a bow. Masters nodded.

“He came to ask the same thing. That one there is smart.”

“In my opinion, they still have Elaine. One of them, a guy named Hans, is smoking our cigarettes. When their boss left, he came up to me and ogled me, talking about the nurse and a threesome.”

“So, they’re going to take us right to her. Perfect.”

“Perfect?” Bruce choked. “Because you think it’s perfect?”

“It could be way worse. For the time being, we don’t have any other options,” the marine said brusquely, also somewhat annoyed by the childish attitude of the scientist.

The boss put an end to their secretive meeting. He stood before them and then looking Bruce straight in the eye, grabbed Alva by the hair, as she screamed and jumped onto her knees. He dragged her to the wheelhouse. Even though she was quite large, she looked so fragile beside the colossus of a man.

Colombia was welcoming him with outstretched arms.

The opportunity, so seductive, to return to his country, was finally within reach. He just had to sail to Cuba and cross the Caribbean. A dozen days of sailing at a peaceful speed and he would set foot on his homeland. The decision was more complicated and the consequences obviously serious. Could he abandon them to their fate? In other times, he wouldn’t have hesitated for a moment, but the people of the cartel that he had left behind in the middle of the ocean while the Coast Guard was tracking them had been paid for that. They were forced to aid them, which offered them a respite to get rid of the merchandise.

With all danger seemingly aside, Hector turned the two handles that controlled the opening of the ballasts. The semi-sub surfaced barely one nautical mile from the island. He didn’t yet unfold the mast, trying to maintain a certain degree of discretion. With the binoculars around his neck, he walked up onto the deck and quickly found the small white plume on the western horizon. The diesel of the
gringo
’s barge suffered from a lack of maintenance and missing parts, he said to himself. That would make it easy for him if he decided to follow them.

His gaze moved towards the south.

He found himself one the verge of departing, not very far from the place where the yacht had burst out of nowhere, ruining his plans and his life. The events had passed quickly and often against his will. The trafficker touched the bandage under his t-shirt. He had even taken a bullet. Xavier had almost had him. In ten years of working for the cartel, the bullets had always passed around him without ever hitting his flesh. Some of his comrades in arms at the time said that he had some sort of divine protection or grace. Hector smiled. At least, he now knew the truth of things. The Lord himself had abandoned the land of men and his special favor seemed to have been taken away for an undetermined amount of time.

Why should he feel guilty about just the idea of fleeing? What was so bad about going back to his home?

A radio...

This wacko had a working one, Elaine thought, on the way back to her cell. That seemed impossible to her. The aliens had fried all technological infrastructure, which obviously included radios. Wrong, she thought, everything that contained chips, transistors and electronic components. There existed devices that were not susceptible to the effects of an EMP, of the same type as the old ones that she had seen on board the navy troop transport.

The Reverend had offered Annie the chance to talk to her brother in exchange for her treachery, following a very simple saying: “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Elaine attacked a new fingernail. There was no point in brooding; her fate was sealed. She had thought she was more clever and she had lost.

She leaned to the side to drink a glass of water. When she sat up, Annie was standing in front of the curtain.

“You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve to show your face here,” the nurse spat at her.

The young woman held a folded cream-colored toga and a wooden cross in her hands.

“I’m not putting that thing on. If I have to fight, I’m going to keep my dignity at least.”