Influenza: Viral Virulence (14 page)

Seconds later, Scott dashed out of the back door and ran like lightning toward Brian’s car. Reaching the passenger’s door, Scott didn’t bother to open the door but rather dove headfirst through the open window. Brian’s shotgun went off as one of the hunters’ heads appeared out of the back door. The head disappeared, and both Brian and Michael slammed down the gas pedals. Like rockets, their vehicles took off down the alleyway, showering rock and dirt behind them. Brian was again in front, with Michael right on his bumper.

A shot rang out behind them, and Michael glanced back to see several unshaven men pile out the back door of their former apartment. Dressed in the same camouflaged hunting gear, they carried an assortment of guns and were aiming at Michael’s fleeing truck. Brian reached the asphalt pavement and swung his car to the left. Michael was not far behind. He made the turn as fast as he could without rolling the truck over. Lorie fired a round from the pistol, and the men ducked. That was all the time they needed as they sped down the paved street.

Out on the open road, they drove faster than was safe, and both vehicles took a hard left as they turned south on Main Street. Edging his speed up to around sixty-five miles per hour, Michael matched Brian’s as they headed out of town. Trying to keep his eyes focused on Brian’s brake lights in case he had to slow down suddenly and glancing at his rearview mirror for any signs of pursuit, Michael did his best not to wreck.

After a few minutes, they reached the edge of town and kept going. So far, there was no sign of any pursuit. Besides, Michael rationalized, it would take time for those marauders to run back to their own vehicles to chase them. Even if they had vehicles with gasoline, by the time they got into them, they hopefully wouldn’t know which direction the foursome had gone. “Hopefully” being the key word here. Easing off the accelerator a bit, Michael allowed some safe distance to develop between his truck and Brian’s car.

Turning and looking out the back window, Lorie asked anxiously, “Are they following us?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“My heart is pounding,” she said, gripping her revolver tightly. “That was too close!”

“We got out of there just in time. If Scott hadn’t spotted them, or if firing his shotguns at them hadn’t slowed those guys down for a few seconds, I don’t know what would have happened…” He trailed off, not wanting to think about the what-ifs.

“You’re going to have to teach me how to use this thing,” Lorie said, pointing at the revolver in her hands. “Soon!”

“You did great back there. You kept them from putting a few holes in the back of my truck,” Michael said. “But I wish we had a few more seconds back there. I left the shotgun inside the apartment.”

“It will be okay. We still have my gun, and you have the rifle in the backseat.”

“It was a good gun,” Michael said longingly. “And now those jerks have an additional gun they might use to kill someone else.”

“They might have your gun, but they don’t have any of your ammunition. Remember? You made sure the ammo was one of the first things you packed in the truck.”

“Okay, Lorie. You’re making me feel a little better. At least we got out of there without getting hurt.” He checked the rearview mirror again. All he could see was the familiar college town fading in the distance. He was leaving his old life behind. This wasn’t the way he had pictured leaving school when he had been thinking of graduating. Like saying goodbye to a familiar friend, Michael watched the tall campus buildings recede. He was leaving his former life behind with an unknown journey ahead.

From the backseat, Sandy’s head appeared as she squeezed halfway into the front seat between them. Both Lorie and Brian reached out and started petting her fur. Their hands touched, and Michael felt her soft hand brush against his own. He glanced at her as she glanced over at him. In the middle, Sandy started to pant and smile.

Almost fifteen minutes later, Brian’s brake lights lit up, and he started slowing down. Braking to a stop at SR 47, Michael slowly pulled his truck up along Brian’s right side.

“Any sign of them?” Scott called out from his seat.

“No, nothing,” Michael answered back.

“So, I guess this is it.”

“I guess so.”

They both sat still, idling for a few seconds. The black and white SR 47 sign stood large at the intersection. This was the inevitable time that Michael had been dreading. He had to say good-bye to his two best friends. He had given them both directions to where he was going, but he really didn’t know if he’d see either one of them ever again.

He looked back across at Scott and Brian and stuck his hand out the window. He gave them the thumbs-up sign. Scott reciprocated by repeating it back to him.

Brian tried to say something, but his words were drowned out by the idling engines.

“What?” Michael said, holding his finger to his ear.

“He asked,” Scott replied, smiling, “if we should all just have a group hug.”

Michael laughed.

“But seriously,” Scott said. “We’d better keep moving just in case those wackos are following us.”

“Just remember that you and your families have a place to go if things don’t go well when you get home,” Michael said. “Thanks for helping me out.” He waved at them.

They both returned the wave, and then Brian put his car in gear and turned east toward Pennsylvania. Michael turned his truck west toward Lima. They drove away from each other, and Michael wondered if he’d ever see his two best friends again. He felt a twinge of both remorse and sadness at having to part ways, but his family was waiting for him. If they even thought he was still alive.

Chapter 16

Lorie and Michael
drove westward toward Lima in silence. Michael looked at the empty road ahead of them. In it, he saw an unknown future before him. He was guiding the pen of his own destiny, like blank pages of an unwritten book. Driving on the open road, he could take any direction. Life-and-death decisions lay ahead, and he prayed that he had the wisdom to make the right choices.

The past was quickly receding in the rearview mirror. The predictable life of finishing college, salaried work, bills, and taxes was falling behind in the distance as the truck wheels kept turning. He was apprehensive about what lay ahead of them, but there was also a small sense of hope in the possibilities that lay before them. His foot pressed down on the accelerator, and the truck responded and picked up speed. It seemed the faster he drove, the more distance he was putting between himself and danger. He peered expectantly at the open pavement in front of him.

Michael always loved getting his truck out on the road. It relaxed him. He couldn’t adequately explain the feeling to anyone. Driving toward home felt like he was coasting downhill. It was like running with the wind at his back. It just seemed…easier.

They passed a few abandoned cars pulled off to the side of the road. At least, some of the vehicles were abandoned. Michael noticed that other vehicles, like the SUV in the pharmacy parking lot, had occupants who hadn’t made it. As they passed the first unabandoned car, Lorie gasped when she saw the body slumped over the steering wheel. A tear started to roll down her cheek as she vowed to keep her eyes straight on the road ahead. They both tried to avoid looking into the cars they passed on the road. It was better to imagine that they were all empty.

Lorie leaned over and attempted to tune the truck radio to any music, news, or sound over the airways. In response, she received nothing but static up and down the entire bandwidth. She finally gave up and leaned back in her seat.

“Who were those men?” she said, breaking the silence.

“I don’t know,” Michael responded. “I’ve never seen them before. I suppose they were some locals who decided to take advantage of the crisis. Maybe they were hungry or desperate. But I don’t think they were. I believe they’re just bad people. They wouldn’t have hesitated to kill us.”

“Or worse,” Lorie added. Then she continued, “I recognized one of them. Those were the same people who shot that poor, sick woman in the head in the middle of the street.”

“I bet there are more people like that out there. We need to be extra careful.”

“Wait! Slow down!” Lorie said suddenly, peering out the windshield. “There’s someone on the side of the road up there.”

At first, Michael only saw the rows of corn on either side of the road. They were driving in the middle of farm country. But then, just like Lorie said, Michael saw a sole figure in the distance. As they drew closer, Michael could see that it was a young woman sitting on a suitcase on the side of the road. The girl was wearing shorts, and Michael could see she was thin and had a pale complexion. She was leaning over with her face buried in her hands. Her long, reddish hair cascaded down over the front of her face and hands. He had no intention of stopping, but against his better judgment, Michael’s foot eased up on the accelerator, and the truck began to slow.

“She looks like she’s sick,” Michael said.

“Maybe,” Lorie replied, staring intently at the figure. “But she looks familiar.”

Hearing the approaching vehicle, the girl lifted her head and turned toward Michael’s pickup truck.

“I do know her!” Lorie exclaimed. “That’s Liz, one of my sorority sisters who lives in an apartment off campus. We should stop and see if she’s okay.”

“If she’s sick, we can’t run the risk of getting infected,” Michael warned. “Even if she is your friend.” He started to get upset at Lorie. She didn’t realize she was putting both of them at risk.

Despite his better judgement, Michael slowed the truck to a stop. Putting the gear in park, he left the engine running as Lorie leaned her head out the window.

“Liz, is that you? Are you okay?” she called out.

Surprised recognition dawned on Liz’s face as she started to stand up.

“Are you sick?” Lorie asked hesitantly.

“No, I’m fine.”

“You sure?” Lorie asked again.

“Yes, we stayed isolated and managed not to catch the flu,” Liz responded.

Before Michael could stop her, Lorie opened the door and jumped out.

Anger and frustration boiled within him. Not only was Lorie risking her own safety, but she was also putting his own health in jeopardy. How could she be so reckless? Not to mention that they were out in the middle of nowhere and there was still the possibility that the hunters, or other people with ill intent, were closing in on them.

From the backseat, Sandy watched her get out of the truck and cocked her head to one side in curiosity.

Michael opened the driver’s side door and climbed out of the truck. He watched as the two girls hugged. He had one second to wonder what Liz had meant by “we” in her answer to Lorie’s question.

There was a sudden rustle in the stalks of corn behind him, and he caught the rapidly approaching sound of shoes on the pavement. He whirled around just in time to see a heavy metal pipe descending toward his head.

“Jeffrey, no!” Liz yelled too late.

Time seemed to decelerate. He saw the pipe approaching in slow motion. Without thinking, Michael caught one end of the pipe in his left hand and the assailant’s arm with his right. In the same motion, he stepped into the swing, and rather than try to block the heavy pipe, he used the pipe’s momentum to redirect the arc of the swing harmlessly around his body. As the assailant continued to hold the end of the pipe, Michael leaned forward and pulled his arm up and over his right shoulder. Suddenly caught off balance, the attacker was flipped over and landed with a thud on his back. In the process, he lost control of the pipe. Michael held the end of the pipe against the attacker’s throat, applying enough pressure to keep him down.

“Stop!” Lorie screamed from somewhere nearby.

Michael looked up. Lorie and the new girl were running toward him, a panicked look on their faces.

“That’s my brother!” she pleaded with Michael.

Michael looked down at his attacker. Red hot anger raced through Michael’s body as he hesitated. He realized that his attacker was just a young adult about as old as the late Richard. The kid’s eyes were wide with fear as the pipe threatened to puncture his neck. He was a skinny, small-framed boy—reminding Michael of himself when he had first started at the university. With fair skin and freckles over his arms and face, he did look like he could be Liz’s brother.

“Why did he attack me?” Michael asked in a harsh voice. But he eased the pressure on the boy’s throat a little.

Liz ran up and knelt by the prone body of her brother. She looked up at Michael and pleaded, “Please don’t hurt him. He was just trying to protect me.”

“Protect you?” Michael retorted. “I didn’t do anything.”

“We’ve been through hell the last couple of weeks, and we really don’t trust anybody,” Liz said.

“It’s okay,” Lorie said softly, putting her hand on Michael’s.

Michael removed the metal pipe from the kid’s throat and watched as he slowly got back to his feet.

Still eying Michael warily, Jeffrey rejoined his sister, rubbing his neck with the palm of his hand. Standing next to Liz, Michael could definitely see the family resemblance. Although Jeffrey was younger than his sister, they shared the same facial features and reddish hair.

“What are you two doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” Lorie asked, turning her attention to Liz.

“We were on our way home, and we were abandoned,” Liz replied, looking down at her feet in shame.

Looking like a wounded puppy, Jeffrey said to Liz, “I told you your boyfriend was a jerk.”

“Well, you were right. He was a complete jerk,” Liz admitted. Then she turned to Lorie and Michael. “My brother and I were hiding out in my apartment for the past few weeks. We were waiting for Rick, my boyfriend, to drive us home…”

“That’s right,” Lorie interrupted. “You don’t have a car.”

“No, I don’t. Rick and his roommate have been driving us back and forth to school. When they finally did show up at my apartment to take us home, we put all of our remaining food and water in his car. Then, halfway to Lima, they pulled off the side of the road, claiming they had to ‘rearrange some of the stuff.’ After getting me and Jeffrey out of the car, they said they’d have a better chance of surviving without us, and they sped off with all our supplies. They stopped long enough to toss our suitcases out. What good our clothes will do us now…”

“That’s horrible!” Lorie exclaimed.

“How long have you been stuck out here?” Michael asked.

“About six hours,” Liz answered. “Yours is the first vehicle that’s come along since we were dumped like a rotten garbage bag.”

Lorie walked over to Michael and whispered softly so only he could hear.

“Do you think we have enough room to give them a ride home? They just live in Dayton, which is on our way.”

Michael shrugged and asked, “Are we sure that they aren’t sick?”

“They don’t seem to be sick. I don’t know Jeffrey that well, but I do know Liz is a good person. I don’t think she would lie about something as important as that.”

“Lorie,” Michael said, exasperated. “We can’t just pick up every stray that we meet on the road. We have to look out for ourselves. Taking them home just means more responsibility, more mouths to feed, and more time spent getting home.”

Lorie looked at him like he had grown two heads. “But they are human beings, Michael. Unless we’ve lost our own humanity already, we still need to help people. And if we don’t help Liz and Jeffrey, what’s going to happen to them? They don’t have a chance of surviving out here all alone.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Michael relented. Lorie had effectively calmed his anger and his frustration level was going down.

Lorie smiled at him and patted his cheek with her hand. “Now, that’s the Michael I know.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Michael said sheepishly, embarrassed by his outburst.

Turning back to Liz and Jeffrey, Lorie asked, “Do you want to ride with us?”

“Really?” Liz said with an expression of joy and relief. “I’ll answer with a definite yes.”

Michael walked grudgingly up to Jeffrey and extended his hand. “Sorry about slamming you to the ground.”

Jeffrey grinned and shook Michael’s hand. “I’m sorry about attacking you.”

“Hey, it’s okay. You were only trying to protect your sister. These days, you can’t be too sure about anyone or anything,” Michael admitted.

“That was some move you made. Where did you learn how to do that?”

Michael chuckled. “I took Lorie to some self-defense classes a while back. Well, it was more like Lorie did the lessons, and I got to be the guy that got punched and thrown around by her. But I guess I must have learned a few things just by watching her.”

Michael opened up the back door and looked at Sandy. “Do you mind sharing your seat with two more people?” he asked her.

In response, Sandy just tilted her head to the left as if she were trying to understand what he was saying. Then, she wagged her tail.

As he pulled his rifle out of the backseat, he heard Lorie ask if either Liz or Jeffrey had received a flu shot.

“Both Jeffrey and I share a family allergy to egg protein. We couldn’t get the flu vaccine even if we wanted to. It’s a miracle we didn’t get the flu. Being a freshman, Jeffrey had to live in the campus dorm. When we heard the news of the virus pandemic, I made Jeffrey pack and bring what he could carry to my apartment. We hid there as the virus hit, and we tried to survive day by day, waiting for Rick to come get us.”

“Jerk,” Jeffrey mumbled under his breath.

Michael stifled a laugh. With the truck still idling, he helped Liz and Jeffrey stow their two ragged suitcases. He had to rearrange their things a little to make room in the backseat. Fortunately, he had enough bungee cord and rope that he could secure most of the items to the new roof-rack system and the rest on top of the truck’s bed cap. It didn’t look fancy or nice, but he did a good enough job to keep everything from blowing away. He hoped it wouldn’t rain anytime soon, or they’d have a lot of stuff getting wet.

Finished with the repacking, they all climbed into the truck, and Michael started heading west once again. Sandy seemed to accept the two new travelers well enough and sat between them.

“Did you really think you could have walked all the way home?” Lorie asked the pair.

“We really didn’t have a choice,” Liz replied. “We got dumped out on the side of the road, and we knew we were probably going to die if we stayed there. We decided that if someone didn’t come along, we’d have to try to walk the rest of the way home. It was either that or try to make it back to my apartment.”

“You’re lucky the wrong people didn’t come driving by,” Michael said, looking at them in the rearview mirror.

“That’s true,” Lorie agreed. She then told Liz and Jeffrey about the close encounter with the men who broke into Michael’s apartment.

Liz and Jeffrey were spellbound.

“This just happened to you?” Liz asked, eyes wide with a mixture of amazement and fear.

Lorie nodded. “Only about an hour and a half ago. It was terrifying.”

“Wow!” Jeffrey exclaimed.

“Yeah, if it weren’t for my friends, Brian and Scott, they would have gotten us,” Michael added. “Scott spotted them coming, and they delayed them long enough for us all to escape.”

“I heard some sporadic shooting in town over the past few weeks,” Jeffrey said. “But I didn’t know it had gotten that bad.”

Michael rolled his window up a little. “It’s very dangerous back there. People are getting desperate and doing horrible things to each other.”

“There wasn’t much left back in town. That’s why we decided not to go back there after getting dumped on the side of the road. There’s no food, no water, nothing,” Jeffrey said.

“Soon, they’ll be killing each other over a simple vending machine snack,” Michael said.