Mad World (Book 3): Desperation (17 page)

That had sounded like a canon. And then I saw them and I nearly wept for joy.

Looking down at Risa, I smiled with tears in my eyes. “I think we’re going to be okay, Sis.”

“What?”

“The cavalry’s arrived.”

It was the modern day cavalry, at least. Pouring over the edge of the clearing, from across the road, came a company of Marines, at least 200 of them. Highly trained, each carrying an assault rifle, they plowed through the zombies that were left like a hot knife through butter. I heard a roaring off to the east and saw two huge tanks plow over the barricade like it was nothing.

We’d been saved by the United States Marine Corps.

Twenty Five

It took about fifteen minutes in all. They had corpsmen with them who helped DeAndre and Dad, Zach and Jonathan. They’d been wounded but not bitten, so they’d be okay. A medic helped Risa onto a stretcher: she’d finally passed out.

I was helping Leia out of the tree when a Marine approached me.

“Sir, I am Captain Anderson of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, Fifth Marines.” I shook hands with the man, deep relief making my chest constrict.

“We are very, very glad to see you, Captain Anderson.” I lowered Leia to the ground. “Have all the zombies been dispatched?”

Just then another Marine stepped forward. Captain Anderson turned to him.

“Captain, the area is secure.”

“Excellent, First Sergeant, excellent.” He turned to me again.

“Sir, are you Luke Hill?”

I hesitated. Dad hadn’t wanted to single me out, worried they’d take me and leave the rest behind. Looking again into Captain Anderson’s face, blue eyes looking steadily at me, I felt complete confidence in him. And I think he already knew who I was; he was just asking as a courtesy.

“Yes, Captain. I’m Luke Hill.” I turned to gesture toward Risa, off to the side on her stretcher. “And that’s my sister Risa Hill. And the rest of my family is nearby. My father Jacob Hill, my uncle DeAndre, and Jonathan, and Zach.” I looked up again at the Marine. “We are a family, a team. A fighting team.” I cleared my throat.

“Sir, we know all about the Sanctuary fighting team. You’re out of Winnipeg and have traveled here to Boston to help Dr. Carroway with his serum. You have an infected team member back in Winnipeg and you are also traveling with a vehicle full of compromised individuals.”

I stared at him open mouthed. How did they know?

He continued.

“We’ve been tracking you, sir. We are here to provide aid to you.” He gestured behind him at another Marine, then turned back to me.

“Sir, if you will come with us, we already have your party secured in your vehicle.”

Leia and I followed him as we made our way back to the street. We passed hundreds of zombie corpses, and saw the Marines with a flamethrower, burning piles of them on the far edge of the park. Dawn was just pinking the east as we got to the SUV. It looked none the worse for wear and had actually come through intact, tires and everything. Amazing, considering the amount of firepower unleashed in the last hour. The Hummer was already started behind us, and idled in the early morning light. Tim waved at me from the driver’s seat. I waved back, still in a daze at what we’d just avoided.

We all got in, me in the driver’s seat, and the rest in the back. Risa had been bundled in a nearby Medvac vehicle, DeAndre and Dad were packed in behind me with Jonathan, Leia and Zach. At the last minute, Captain Anderson got into the front passenger seat. I turned to him as he snapped his seatbelt on.

“Sir, I have strict orders not to leave your side until you have been delivered to Dr. Carroway.” He gestured to the Marine Corps vehicles nearby. “If you will just follow the First Sergeant in the vehicle there, we will be providing you with a full escort to the facility just ahead.”

His tone invited no argument. I nodded, and obeyed the man.

Our destination turned out to be just three blocks away from the park, and with the Marine escort, we got there in less than ten minutes. Large bulldozers were just finishing clearing the barricade a block south of the park, and we drove right over the grass and back onto the road in short time. Tanks travel slowly, and we were now more than a dozen vehicles long in our convoy. Before I could begin to worry, the lead vehicles were trundling into an underground facility, and Marines secured a large metal door behind us.

We were immediately taken down five floors, flanked by a dozen Marines, in a huge cargo elevator that could have held one of the tanks. Risa was there; she gave me a weak smile and a thumbs-up, making me smile back.

After a few minutes, we arrived at a huge network of laboratories, each scrubbed white and sterile as any operating room. We all filed into a room and were seated, and then we waited.

Before long, the door opened and several Marines filed into the room, and then a tall, older man with wild hair. He was nearly as tall as Dad, and was wearing a rumpled lab coat. His kind, dark brown face was covered with a day’s growth of whiskers, and there were bags under his eyes. Dr. Carroway. Finally.

He saw us and walked up to us and began shaking hands with all of us. Dad came forward and introduced us all, and when he finally turned to me, before Dad could introduce me, Dr. Carroway spoke.

“This must be Luke.” He studied my face, noting the incongruity of my suntanned cheeks against the greying color of my temples and neck. “Fascinating.”

I cleared my throat. “Pleased to meet you, Doctor.” I looked at Dad, and he nodded. This was my ballgame. “Doctor,” I looked into his dark brown, intelligent eyes. “My mother is infected. She’s dying. Please, what can we do to save her?”

“Well, first let’s get started in the lab.” He led me by the arm out the door, one hand still clasped in mine, the other holding me at my elbow. “Luke, you are a very valuable person. The most valuable person on the planet right now.” He spoke as he talked.

“Doc, I know. But I don’t want to be dissected or anything, I want to help my mom.” I swallowed deeply past the lump in my throat. “My mother, Alyssa. She has to be one of the first helped. But I’m not a lab rat. I want to save her life.”

“Don’t worry, Luke. We have no intention of harming you.”

We walked down a hallway and the doctor kept talking. I glanced behind me and saw everyone was following: Dad, DeAndre, Risa, Leia, Zach, even Tim, Claude, Vee and the other lady were there.

“Luke,” Dr. Carroway said. “You don’t grasp what is happening here. This is historic.” He kept walking rapidly down the hallway, turning right then left, deeper into the laboratory’s maze of corridors. “I know you want to save your mother.” He turned to me, and looked deeply into my eyes. “I know. She is your mother. And we will save her, if it can be done. I feel very confident we can.” He glanced around at Dad and the others. “She is your wife, your sister, your family.” He turned back to me. “You want to save her life, yes. In fact, the bravery and exploits of Alyssa Gonzalez are known even to us. Sanctuary’s team has made incredible progress in this fight.”

Here he stopped at a white door and produced a key. Unlocking it, he continued to talk as we all filed into his office and adjoining laboratory.

“But Luke, you must realize that not only can your mother be saved, if we act quickly. Once I have the serum made, from the antibodies in your blood combined with the components I have been working on these many years, we can construct a cure.” He looked into my eyes, and finally released my arm. “Luke, every person in the world is somebody’s mother, somebody’s father, somebody’s child. They all deserve to live.” He adjusted his eyeglasses and continued. “With your help, we can end this nightmare.”

I felt Dad behind me take hold of my shoulders and squeeze them. Zach stood by my left side, and DeAndre was on my right. I swallowed thickly, then straightened my back and looked back at the good doctor.

“Let’s do this, doc.”

Twenty six

It had taken us nearly a week to travel to Dr. Carroway in Boston, and it took him four days to put together seven potential serums. He worked day and night, catching naps in his lab whenever he had to. It felt like I gave gallons of blood - I had needles stuck in me almost constantly for the first hour - but I know it was only several pints. I lay weakly in bed the first night, barely able to move, feeling exhausted from the blood loss, but feeling very good, very positive. Dad, DeAndre, and Zach stayed next to me; I’d insisted on it. Risa had been taken to the next room where she was resting and recuperating. They had her in surgery in the first hour, and Dr. Carroway’s assistants had done a great job repairing the damage the zombie horde had done to her. From all the traumatic injuries, it was clear she’d been infected, and she’d volunteered to be one of the first ones the serum was tested on. Tim and the others also volunteered. They all wanted to help. They all wanted to live. This was their only chance, really.

The third night into it I lay on my bed in the lab, unable to sleep. DeAndre lay sleeping in the corner, snoring softly, and Zach was just coming in, toothbrush stuck in his mouth.

“Dad? You awake?”

“Yes?”

“It’s been nearly nine days since mom was infected,” I lay staring at the ceiling, trying not to cry. Dad was silent for a minute and I thought he’d fallen to sleep. Then –

“I know, son.”

“She only has three more days at most. And it took us more than six days to get here.” Tears ran down the side of my face onto my pillow.

“I know,” Dad whispered, so quiet I had to strain to hear him.

Zach came to sit next to me. He laid his hand on mine.

“Dad,” I swallowed tightly past the lump in my throat. “Mom …” I couldn’t continue.

There was silence for a few minutes.

“Luke, it ain’t over till it’s over.”

“I … I wish I could somehow speed things up, go back in time, somehow do something …”

“I know, son. I feel the same way.”

“What good is extra strength, or having the cure in my blood, if I can’t save my mom?” I put my hand over my eyes and grimaced, pressing my fingers into my eyelids to stop the tears. My heart felt so heavy in my chest it was like a two-ton weight. “What …” I swallowed thickly, then cleared my throat and began again. “What more can I do? What …” the lump in my throat stopped any more words.

“Luke, pray for a miracle. That’s what we need.” He paused for a moment to think, then continued. “I’ve never been one for praying to any gods that may be out there, and you know I’m not really the religious type, but Dr. Carroway is a genius, and I think he might be able to pull this off.”

“But even if he finds a cure, traveling back to Mom… I can’t see how…” tears filled my throat and I couldn’t go on. Voicing my fears seemed to give them more weight, and I didn’t want them to come true.

“We definitely need a miracle,” Dad said quietly. “Trust me, I’ve been thinking of that as well. I think we all have, Luke. Maybe, since the zombie king is dead, and hopefully no other zombies are sending hordes after us, we could possibly speed back home in time.” He fell silent.

“Luke?” Zach said beside me.

“Yeah?”

“Tell me more about your mother. I want to know everything about her,” I moved over, and he settled down beside me on his side, facing me, head propped up on his arm.

“Where do I start?” I wiped my eyes, blew my nose, and smiled. “Well, for one thing, she’s a phenomenal fighter. She can spar with the best of us and hold her own. She can flip into the air and be on the back side of any zombie charging; it’s awesome to watch.” I settled in under the blanket more comfortably.

“Remember the time we got into that skirmish just east of Regina?” Dad chuckled.

“Oh my god, yes, it was so awesome.” I said, remembering that day.

“Tell me about it, you guys.” Zach smiled.

“Well, our team was performing a rescue in a nearby city. We’d made it to the room at the top of a factory where twenty people were trapped. The building was full of zombies, so I went out first, trying to get to the room where they were trapped. But something went wrong, and the zombies began attacking me. There were maybe sixty or seventy of them, and Mom did this cool new move she’d been practicing: fighting indoors in tight quarters, twirling with both Bowie knives out, going really fast, and attacking before the monsters could react. She saved my life that day, and many others. She told me she’d always be there for me.”

“So you see,” I smiled, “She’s always rescued me, from the time I was born. Now it’s my time to rescue her.” Tears fell from my eyes, and Zach leaned over and hugged me.

“That was a great day,” Dad smiled.

“So the people got rescued? Everything was okay, then?” Zach asked.

“Yes, thanks, in a large part, to Mom. She acted out of bravery, and the zombies had no chance,” I said.

“Alyssa is a very fierce fighter,” Dad said. “You have no idea until you see her in action.”

“She sounds intense.”

“That’s a good word for her. Intense.” I said.

“Alyssa is practically a legend back in Winnipeg with the other Sanctuary soldiers.” Dad said.

We talked for a bit more, reminiscing and laughing. It was like medicine. Finally, my eyes started to close on their own.

I yawned. “I think I’m finally ready for sleep. Telling that story has given me hope for a miracle again.” I smiled.

“Luke, I believe in miracles. Something will happen.” Dad pulled the blanket up to his shoulder and curled his legs as he lay on his side.

“G’night, Luke,” Zach went and lay down on his own cot.

We were soon all fast asleep.