Medora: A Zombie Novel (29 page)

Stark just looked back at him, not amused.

“I’m actually quite serious, Dr. Stark. Do you understand that our government is crumbling? We’re leaderless. I brought you onto the research project because I trusted a hunch that I had about you when I read all those journals you wrote about Mad Cow Disease. You’re a double doctorate in physics and medicine. You are a brilliant man. Do you know this? Have you forgotten? Yes, you had a terrible reputation, but I still thought there was something about the way you assimilated problems and used pragmatism instead of politics. You’re… honest. This is the time and place for you. Right now, we need you.”

Stark scoffed for a moment.

“Plus, there’s no one else around.”

Stark finally grinned, “Yes, Mr. President, I’ll be your Chief of Staff.” He shook his head, “
What a joke” he added.

“Okay,
good, because I have some things to discuss with you. That was indeed David Cameron from Britain explaining his country’s presence in Baltimore and also New York State.”

“And?”

“It boils down to two things. They know that D.C. is compromised and they made an agreement with Canada that they would do everything necessary to stop the spread of the infection. They put the burden upon themselves in light of the fact that we are functionally paralyzed at the moment.”

“Can we really not take care of
this ourselves?”

“It is impossible to mobilize any major advancement on the cities. We’ve lost about eighty percent of communications not only within the city but transatlantic is down as well. All our satellite communication installations are down across the city. Those are what we use to talk to our forces all across the planet. Frankly, I’m glad the Brits are here. We need them. We have all of our forces
available, but we can’t communicate with them. The White House is commanding none of the pinpoint bombings on the New York area anymore. We are having different bodies of the government working without each other.”

“What’s the other reason England is here?”

“China.”

“And what are they doing?”

“The Prime Minister believes China is attempting a power grab on the United States. They’re using the infection as an excuse to invade, just as the Brits, but he insists that they’re seizing the opportunity to occupy the United States.”

“Where is China?”

“Coming up the Eastern coast. They may also be mobilizing in the Pacific.”

“
How’d they get here so fast?”

“I don’t know, but
listen, Reg, there’s something I need you to do.”

“What?”

“Get in a helicopter and go to Richmond, Virginia.”

“Why?”

“I’ve managed to get a radio broadcast around the Eastern seaboard area for any bitten people showing no signs of infection to report to the CDC there. I’m actually not even sure if the broadcast is still running, but it was playing long enough for a lot of people to hear it.”

“All we’re going to find are people with undiagnosed leukemia.
They are the only people who could be bitten and not be showing symptoms.”

“You’re probably
right, but you know more than anybody right now what’s going on with that virus and I’d like you to be there right now.”

“More than anyone except
Beckfield.” Stark stood up. “Okay, take me away, I guess.”

Diane opened the o
val office door to show him out.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you something,” Stark said, turning to
Rambert. “I have leukemia and I’m going to die in about two weeks from Virulex.”

“Oh,
well, that gives us plenty of time then.”

The maroon suburban jumped up and down on the uneven grass as it cruised along the riverbed. Keith looked over the steering wheel and into the early morning sun as it began to peek up over the trees ahead of him. Through the five-hour drive, he had realized that the best course out of the city was to follow small rivers and streams through parks. They provided both the absence of traffic jams and hordes of the infected. The car had been silent most of the night, with Ellen sleeping quietly in the back seat. He had intermittently checked the radio throughout the night for updates, but until the signal died, kept getting the same looped recording to come to Richmond. He was seriously beginning to doubt how much the government was even in control. The bombing of an elementary school area had reeked of desperation.

A few slits of sunlight began to shine through the trees ahead. He remembered the sunlight coming into their master bedroom just the morning before. Just a few beams resting on the bedroom ceiling as he contemplated his workday ahead of him. That was a different world then, a world where he had a little daughter. He had a little girl who wanted to own a Lego shop when she grew up. He was a different person then, maybe even a different animal. The outbreak had transformed him from a small squirrel that scurried around in a warm burrow into a ruthless hyena that fled when threatened or briskly killed when presented with the opportunity. His mind ran only on survival instinct now.

His thigh ached from where it had been stabbed with a pen in the subway from the day before, which now was a moment that seemed weeks ago. The pain reminded him that he had left that man behind down there to be eaten alive. His name was Dean, and he would never forget it. He had also left his best friend behind to die in a skyscraper. He searched for more and realized that he had fled from an elementary school full of teachers with a psychotic janitor, a horde of the infected and military airstrikes. There was also a little girl with them. Lastly, he never found his daughter. It wasn’t as if he deliberately tried to do these things. It was just that it was the most logical next option for him in every situation. Rationality was the cruelest instinct after all.

Turning the suburban around a bend in the river revealed a holocaustic sight. It was full of the sick frantically flailing their arms and thrusting their heads about, trying to understand the sensation of water around them. Amongst the sick were hundreds of bodies floating lifeless as driftwood with them. He marveled for a moment that he and Ellen weren’t one of them. How had they made it out when all these people hadn’t? Was it dumb luck or the cosmos? Whatever it was, Keith hated it for not wanting Jayne to survive with them.

In the silent dawn drive, he finally heard a long, drawn out cough from the back seat. Ellen continued to cough as she emerged from her coma of pain and confusion. Keith briefly glanced back and saw her clumpy hair covering her face.

“Hey
Hon,” he said softly.

“Keith…” she coughed again.

“Hey, we’re okay. We’ve been driving for a couple hours now. We’ve cleared New Jersey.”

“What happened?”

“We had to leave that neighborhood.”

“Oh, okay
,” she said with a dizzy voice. She went quiet for another ten minutes while Keith drove. He knew that she would wake up again and that he would soon face the wrath of a mother whose child was missing.

Rubbing his thigh, he looked over at all of the pantry food that he had crammed into the passenger side of the
car. He realized he hadn’t eaten in at least a day and had no appetite for any of the food.

Ellen coughed again and woke herself up from her daze. Keith could see her gnarled hair slowly rise in the rearview mirror.

“Hey.” He said sweetly.

“Where are we?”

“We’re in Virginia.”

She sat still for a moment and then Keith saw the sudden countenance of realization on her face as her eyebrows furrowed.

“Where is Jayne?” She asked sharply.

“She’s gone. She wasn’t in the house and we had to leave.”

“What!” Her voice rose. “What do you mean that we had to leave?”

“The area was getting out of control and the bombings weren’t stopping. There was nothing else to do.”

“Oh, there was something else to do and there’s still something we’re going to do. We’re going to turn this damn car around right now and go look for her.”

“Ellen, there was no one in that house. She could be… anywhere.” He knew that she could be
anywhere, but that she probably wasn’t herself anymore.

“Did you find Miss
Stutsen in the house?”

“No, but there was a body in the kitchen with the back door
busted wide open, which meant the house had been attacked.”

“Keith! Maybe she got out with Jayne. She could’ve taken her somewhere else.”

“I hope that’s the case,” he said with a defeated tone.

She stopped talking for a moment, considering the options. “I don’t really care where we
are going. We need to turn back. I’ve got to find her. I don’t care if we survive, because it will be hell knowing that I didn’t do everything I could to get her back. You shouldn’t have made that decision without me, Keith. You can’t do that. Why are we going to Virginia? What could possibly be there?”

“The government is broadcasting that everyone who isn’t sick should come to the CDC there.”

“As if they’re going to do anything.” She slumped back in the seat, shaking her head.

“
Hon, you got bitten and you’re fine. Every other person I saw get bitten got infected almost immediately. You’re probably immune and your blood could help them figure out a vaccine.”

Keith looked back and saw just the top of her head in the mirror. He briefly turned and saw her face. It was stern and fiery and he knew that there was no way he could talk her out of going back to Jersey. Looking back at the grass ahead of him, he pulled the suburban
over next to group of trees and waited for Ellen to speak.

She knew that he was ultimately right but a constant maternal gnawing inside of her vehemently rejected the notion of leaving her daughter behind. At the same
time, she wanted to give into him. She wanted him to talk her more into keep driving for Virginia.

“Keith, I just--”
She stopped. There was a small rustling sound coming from the back of the suburban. It was a jostling beneath canned goods and blankets. Ellen looked at Keith with wide eyes.

“Get out of the car
,” he whispered.

The
y both quietly stepped out, shutting the doors behind them. Keith had an aluminum baseball bat in his hands.

“Didn’t you check the car before you loaded it up?”

“I… I thought I did.” He was replaying the moments he spent packing the car and realized that he had just thrown in a bunch of supplies, and shut the back door. “Well, let’s take care of it.”

Stepping around to the back, he held the silver handle of the back door and abruptly popped it open with blankets and boxed food spilling out. He waited for a moment and saw someone move underneath a blanket. He ducked in and nudged it with his baseball bat prompting a small, girlish cry from the blanket. Ellen put her hand and Keith’s arm and stopped him for a moment.

“Jayne?” Keith dared to say.

A very weak voice replied
, “Daddy?”

“Jayne!” They said in unison, drawing the blanket off of their daughter who stared back at them from frizzy hair and a large black eye.

“Jayne, honey, you’re okay!” Ellen reached in and grabbed Jayne by the shoulders, lifting her to her bosom and rocking her intently.

“You’ve been in here the whole time?” Keith reached over for her and kissed her head.

“I don’t know. My head hurts so much.” She began to cry.

Ellen and Keith gave each other a relieved glance that not only had they found
Jayne, but that they weren’t going to have a bitter fight about leaving each other.

“Jayne, we were so scared
when we thought we lost you. Did Miss Stutsen take care of you?” Ellen cradled Jayne’s head in her neck.

“We went to her
house, but those bad people came into her house. They are so bad they wanted to hurt us. Miss Stutsen put me in her car to try to talk to them. Is she okay, Daddy?”

“I don’t
know, babe. How did you get that owie on your eye?” He touched her cheek realizing how surreal it was that he was looking at his daughter.

“A boy tried fighting me at school. He was one of the sick ones.”

Keith looked across the river and realized the horrific scene of bodies laid out for his daughter to see and quickly ushered Ellen and Jayne into the suburban.

“Okay, we’re going to try to get to a main freeway
,” he said, closing the door behind them. Putting the car in gear, he paused and looked back at his wife and daughter who looked like they had survived a war. He silently thanked luck or the cosmos for returning their daughter to them. Somehow, he had his family back. It suddenly made sense that she was back, as if he were expecting the universe to turn in their direction during the entire ordeal. He felt as if his life had turned into the narrative of a movie and that it had already been written that he would be reunited with his family. Whatever tragedies had happened in the last day weren’t very significant to him now that he had them back.

He pulled the suburban over a grassy hill and turned into a small town that seemed largely abandoned. After wandering through streets for a few minutes, he finally spotted signs to get to the main interstate freeway.

“Okay, I think we’re on our way now to Richmond.”

“What’s that?” Jayne asked.

“It’s in Virginia. We’re going there to get to a hospital so we can all get better. I’m so glad you’re back with us, Jaynie. We missed you so much. We were so worried about you.” Keith began to cry.

“Are we going to turn into one of the sick people, Dad?” Jayne asked.

“No, no of course not. In fact, Mommy might even be a special person that can help the doctors to figure out how to help all the sick people.”

“But, I want to go home.”

“I know you do, sweetie,” Ellen said, hugging her close. “We can’t yet for a while, okay?”

“Okay
,” Jayne resigned. “I’m so hungry.”

“
Well, we got plenty of food for you,” Ellen said as she began searching the back seat for something that Jayne might like.

Keith pulled the car up th
e interstate freeway and saw that Richmond was sixty miles away. The traffic was dense but it flowed easily.

“I wonder if all these people are heading the same way that we are.”

He glanced over to the lane on his left and saw a horse trailer that was hitched to the back of the truck. Instead of horses, it appeared that the truck was transporting infected people. About half a dozen of the sick were sticking their fingers through the metal holes of the carriage, trying to bite at the wind.

“Why would anyone cart them around like that?” Keith asked.

Ellen scooted to the window and look out at them. “They’re loved ones. They’re trying to save them. That’s why they’re taking them to Richmond. It’s that damn radio recording telling everybody and their dog to come. They think there’s going to be a cure.”

“I think you’re right. I’m wondering how easy it’s going to be to get into the facility.”

As they drove further, the traffic became heavier, progressing to a frustrating stop-and-go until it stopped altogether.

“I’m worried about this, Keith.” Ellen opened the car door to peer down the narrow view between traffic lanes. “Both me and Jayne need to get to a hospital and I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere with this traffic.”

“Daddy, do you think the sick people are around here?”

“No,
no, we left them behind us a long time ago,” he said, turning and smiling.

“Keith
,” Ellen said, grabbing his shoulder from behind his seat.

He turned and saw her looking intently ahead into the traffic in front of them. He slowly unbuckled his seatbelt and sighed deeply, knowing exactly what she was looking at. Opening the door, he looked ahead and saw a frenzy of people down the freeway. Cupping his hand over his eyes to block the
sunlight, he finally saw a leading edge of people running in their direction, streaming through the congested traffic.

“We’ve got to get out of here right now
,” he shouted.

Scrambling to the back door of the suburban, Keith quickly gathered as many food supplies into the two backpacks that he had brought and hoisted one onto his back. Stopping for a moment, he went to the front seat and slid a baseball bat into the side of one of the bags.

“Carry Jayne, and I can bring these.”

Ellen scooped Jayne up from the back seat and the three began running together past the traffic behind them. Their movement started alerting all of the drivers who also got out of their cars and started running. They soon found themselves at the edge of a human stampede; people panicking and running from only the assumption that there was something to fear but they didn’t yet know what it was.