Reset (Book 2): Salvation (10 page)

Trey had explained the conversion of vehicles to the corn fuel system. In his mind Malcolm envisioned modified cars and trucks, haplessly put together and visually crude. Such was not the case in the travel vehicle they would use to hit the road and search out the other four Genesis labs.

The vehicle was slightly longer than a short school bus, but higher. On the roof were the solar panels and containers of corn fuel. Both sources of energy were needed.

The exterior was a light gray color, with few windows. Interesting enough to John were the four extra tires that rested on the outside of the van, positioned just above the wheel wells. The tires were large, bulky with spiked treads. When needed the driver would engage them, much like putting a vehicle into four-wheel drive. The tires would rotate, lifting the van and temporality replacing the regular tires. These were needed for heavily overgrown areas.

Inside was nothing fancy, five rows of seats, much like a bus. But a good portion of the van was dedicated to storage. Overhead compartments and a good third of the van was nothing but back room storage.

They carried a lot of supplies.

It was definitely transport for a dystopian world. It was designed and used by the military or Salvation Command, which would make regular trips outside the walls to make sure the country was still in order.

Their reports were deemed classified.

Malcolm learned quickly that the virologist and historian were also part of the SalCom military. But the two that drove along with them commanded and protected the mission were dedicated military men.

One of them was Colonel Norris. When Malcolm asked, ‘As in Chuck?’ The colonel didn’t get it but he knew other things.

He had been part of the United States Military since he was eighteen, having been orphaned in the outbreak. He worked aid stations, then security for the building of the wall. He did survivor runs and looked for immune after the wall was erected. He also served as a wall guard when many people were camped out there.

Twenty-three years he had dedicated his life to the military. First the Marines, then SalCom when it all switched over.

He told of how he made at least two trips out a year. Coast to coast, north to south. He knew what was out there; the best routes to take and the areas to avoid.

Even with all that happened, there were still pockets of really bad areas. Where people had turned lawless and savage. Malcolm knew all too well how people had turned.

It wasn’t an empty world. Far from it. There were just more areas of emptiness.

It worried Malcolm and he prayed with concern for his friends out searching.

The colonel mapped out the route, where they’d go first and when they’d stop for the night. He said it would be the safest route, but couldn’t promise there wouldn’t be trouble.

They’d head to the West Coast first, then Texas, Alabama and finally to DC. Maggie was certain the one north of New York City, G5, wasn’t viable and held out hope that the one outside of DC would still be there.

When he asked why, because to him Washington, DC, was toast, Maggie explained, “history tells us a SLBM, low yield was launched on DC. The area was more deadly due to accumulative radiation. So there is hope that the G4 lab is there.”

Colonel Norris confirmed the area wasn’t completely dust. He hadn’t seen a lab, then again, he wasn’t looking for one. For some odd reason, when mentioning DC, the colonel said, “I know what’s out there. We need to be careful.”

What was out there?

He seemed more at ease when he found out an approximate address, adding he’d figure out the best way in.

The East Coast was good news to Malcolm. He hadn’t told Maggie where he was to meet the others, but he hoped that on the return trip to Salvation they could pass through Champaign and find out if the others were there or had made it and moved on.

Depending on how long they stayed at each lab, timing would have Malcolm in Champaign around the meet up time.

The mission was simple. Find the labs, search them for answers and possibly the vaccine and look for survivors. Following the survival of the fittest rule that selectively saved Malcolm and his crew to, they estimated that around the same amount of people probably woke up at each location. That was if they were all set to wake up in the same year. Or rather reset to wake up.

It was conceivable that one or more of the labs woke up years earlier or not at all.

Malcolm was hopeful that one of the labs contained those still cryogenically frozen in their units. It would be interesting to see and to possibly help those who had trouble when they did wake up.

They rolled out of the gates of Salvation just before noon. It was a later start than originally planned. The colonel was thorough and wanted to make sure they had enough supplies for every possible scenario.

It would take nearly sixteen hours, if not more to reach their first destination. They’d stop for the night long before that.

Malcolm sat next to Trey, he was glad to have his son along. Trey was a bit nervous about going. He hated leaving his business and crops for so long, even though Mr. Diaz and a couple of others promised to run things. That’s what Malcolm guessed. Trey didn’t convey that. He tried to hide his anxiousness, but Malcolm saw through it. He just kept reiterating how happy he was that Trey was there. In truth, Malcolm needed him there.

While Salvation had its own unique means of communication, Trey was outside of that and had no way to check up on things.

He was more like Malcolm than he cared to admit.

The others… they were strangers. Malcolm supposed he would get to know them all. He’d have to get to know a lot of things.

In a short span of time everything changed for Malcolm, his world was suddenly different. Sadly, there was a part of him that was gone, never to return. Thirty years in a blink of an eye … literally. The destruction and decay that occurred in those thirty years was evident with every mile they trekked on their journey.

According to the history of Matthew, the trajectories of the nuclear warheads were off. He seemed to recall a dozen targets, just on the East Coast. He figured they were everywhere though. Some cities hit with two or three bombs. Some of those bombs, missed. The land was barren more so from the nuclear winter that set in. The area just never grew again. Buildings were toppled, anything flammable was torn apart to create fires for warmth during the cold winter months.

After all, they all believed the world was done. They were left to their own devices.

While most first generation offspring of survivors had some physical defects ranging from mild to severe, they all had a sort of intellect disconnection, whether it was verbal or mental.

It was just a mess.

The Wrecker village was actually outside of the town of Burke, Virginia. One of the towns hit with a low yield device intended for DC.

Matthew hated the name Wrecker when Meredith told him. He hadn’t heard of it, but it made sense to him knowing the mindset and violent tendencies of the Night Stalkers, as he called them.

They … were just people. Maybe Burkians. But that was it.

Hunter rode in the back seat of the cart, which made not only for awkward traveling but conversation as well. His big body seemed to take up most of the seat and when he leaned forward he was invading Meredith and John’s space.

He made them travel slow and had them stop every once and a while so he could follow tracks.

He lost the trail of the stranger about six miles out of Burke. That was when Hunter got out of the buggy and looked around.

“We have a moment,” Meredith said. “I’ve been thinking about it. It can’t be us.”

“It is,” John argued.

“No, John listen. None of these people developed symptoms while we were here. This thing hits fast. Rusty would have been full blown sick before we left.”

“He was coughing and sneezing.”

“He said he had allergies.”

“Then explain. Explain how a Wrecker a hundred mile away caught a virus.”

“Air.”

John scoffed.

“Or Grant.”

That caught John’s attention. “Grant.”

“What if he were a carrier. We’re immune, he wasn’t. That would explain it.”

“That would. But I don’t think we should take the chance. Especially with the nice Wreckers. Speaking of which …” John looked over to where Hunter stood on the edge of a hill. “What is Sloth doing?”

“Excuse me.”

“Sloth. Remember Sloth from Goonies?”

“Oh my God, that is so wrong. On so many levels. Hunter looks nothing like Sloth.”

“Meredith please.”

“Slightly but not enough to call him that. Here he comes.”

Hunter looked like a man on a mission. He walked straight to the buggy and grabbed his sack, tossing it over his shoulder. He lifted his spear and the crossbow that John had. He then loaded the crossbow.

“Did you find something?” John asked with enthusiasm.

Hunter nodded once and walked ahead.

Hurriedly, Meredith and John followed. Hunter waited on the edge of the hill staring out.

When they arrived at his side, the saw that the hill wasn’t really that far up. Maybe thirty feet. Its height didn’t give a great vantage point; then again, it wasn’t needed.

Hunter pointed to a building below. It sat in a large parking lot, a lot cracked and covered in dirt. The building looked as if it were an office or medical suite. The windows were busted and the east wall of it had crumbled.

It wasn’t the building so much or the parking lot that Hunter indicated, but the makeshift camp set up not far from the doors of the building.

An old rusted van was parked with the rear door open and a canopy erected over the doors. A tent was not far from it and the remnants of a campfire sat between them.

The area looked as if someone tried to clear some of the dirt, sweep it up.

John didn’t see any people. “Are they your people?” He asked Hunter.

“No.” Hunter shook his head. He moved his index and middle finger back and forth then pointed below.

“You want to go check for a trail or tracks?” John asked.

“Yes,” Hunter nodded. “Quiet is needed.”

“Absolutely, after you.” John held out his hand.

“Is it them?” Meredith asked John in a whisper.

“I don’t know. But I do feel safe with our big friend.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

Making his way to the campsite, Hunter kept the spear behind his back and crossbow in his hand. He paused just outside the camp circumference, peered around and walked to the fire.

Crouching down he reached to it and withdrew his fingers, speaking softly. “Still warm.”

“Hold it!” a man yelled out to them.

Immediately Hunter sprang to his feet. He drew the spear and aimed the crossbow without hesitation at the man who emerged from the building.

The man wore the Genesis outfit of drawstring pants and tee shirt.

“Oh my God, what the hell are you?” he asked Hunter.

“That …” John said. “Is not very nice.”

“Who are you?” Apparently nervous, the man swung his gun back and forth.

“Easy.” Meredith lifted her hands. “We aren’t here to hurt you. We were searching for the people that were with a man dressed like you. He may have left here several days ago.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the man responded nervously. “He was sick. He left looking for help.”

“Yes, he infected a camp,” Meredith explained. “Why did you let him leave if he was so ill? Instead of helping him? And can you please put down the gun.”

Slowly the man lowered his aim.

John reached out to Hunter. ‘Okay, it’s good. Be diligent, but we’re good now.”

The man looked at John, then Meredith and finally Hunter. ‘We were confused. It sounds crazy.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” Meredith said. “No crazier than being rendered unconscious, and waking up in a lab after being cryogenically frozen.”

“You too?” he asked.

John nodded. “Yes. We’ve been looking for family, for answers.”

Suddenly the man grew anxious and emotional, almost as if he were relieved. “Did you find any?”

Meredith answered. “Some.”

“Oh, God. Then please, what is going on? Where are we?” he pleaded emotionally. “Or better yet, when are we?”

<><><><>

Harold Cole was a brilliant obstetrician and fertility expert before he was snatched out of an awards dinner and placed in deep freeze. Another awards dinner at the same hotel. He had flown in from Los Angeles and was a long way from home.

He told a similar story with the exception that the middle aged man, strikingly handsome, still didn’t recall most of his life.

Meredith and John went into the building with him, while Hunter stayed outside. They entered an office similar to the one their own group ascended into after the leaving the stasis portion of the lab.

Only difference was Cole and his people hadn’t searched for answers in the computer or on the desk, if there were any to be found.

There were a few others in the lab that survive, aside from the stranger named Mark that wandered into the village of Burke. From what Cole said, Mark woke up sick, but not terribly sick. He panicked and left. Oddly, enough, Cole and the three others, two men and a woman, were still in a major state of confusion.

“The clothes were on the bed, the video played, telling us to shower,” Cole said. “Janice was the first to wake up. She said Mark wasn’t ill at first, not at all. At least not physically, of all of us he was the most mentally unstable. In his panic he left.”

Janice spoke up. “None of us knew what happened, how we got there. Nothing. We were still sorting it out, we urged Mark to stay but he left.”

John asked, “How long after he came out of Stasis did he leave?”

Janice shrugged, “Hours. He found supplies and a way out. Went up there, came back down, and said he had to find help. We were still trying to help those who were choking.”

“Hours?” Meredith questioned. “So you folks only woke up four days ago? Was there no countdown clock on a door?”

Cole shook his head. “No. There was a door that led to an elevator but it was partially open. We thought at first Mark caught something up here, because within an hour of coming back down he started showing symptoms.”

Meredith explained. “When we came out of Stasis, it activated a countdown clock, after five days the door opened and an elevator was there. It was during that five days our memories started to return.”

“Not all,” John added. “Some still didn’t remember things. I’m thinking that it is a decompression period, possibly even when immunity to the virus builds up.”

“Last couple days we looked for him,” Cole said. “No luck. Nearest we can figure is we are by Washington, DC. And that a lot of time has passed. Do we know why we were chosen?”

“We learned,” Meredith said, “to preserve the human race in case things got out of control with a virus that was released to cull the population.”

Cole sighed heavily and sat back. “Apparently it did.”

Meredith nodded.

“So a virus wiped man to near extinction?” Cole asked. “Is that what happened?”

“And some,” Meredith said. She knew it was going to be hard, difficult to understand, and so easy to want to deny, but Meredith and John, did their best to explain to the newly awakened, what all had happened and what they had learned thus far.

<><><><>

“I want to sleep in a bed,” Jason said as he placed the sleeping roll over a small couch in the Rantoul library.

“Considering the circumstances, I’m thinking that may never be a possibility.” Nora finished her bedding and adjusted the light on the lantern.

“Nah, I find that hard to believe. Bet the people in this town are tucked away in their beds.”

“It’s their town. Once we find a home, then maybe we’ll get the beds.”

“If I recall correctly, there were dorm rooms and visiting pastor quarters at the church,” Jason said. “We’ll check that out tomorrow.”

“That sounds good. It’ll be something to do. They aren’t party people. They go to bed early around here. It’s not even eight o’clock.”

“What else is there to do? Yeah, and they kind of looked at us like we were nuts going back to put up notes for the others.” Jason paused to laugh. “They acted as if we were gonna be out all hours of the nights. They’re nice people.”

“Yes, they are. Are you amazed by them?” Nora asked. “I mean, half of them weren’t even out of grade school when the virus hit, another big section were young adults. Yet, they survived.”

“I think that amazes me most is in this world they could have turned bad. Instead they learned. They read, they learned. Hell the woman doctor is self taught.”

“Would you want to settle here?”

“We need to find your family. Find Salvation first, see what that holds for you.”

Nora huffed out a little in sarcasm. “Rick would be seventy now if he is still alive and Lilly is pushing forty. I wonder if my return will be worse on them.”

“You need to find them. We … will find them. Then after, whatever you want to do, I’m game.”

“Thank you. So if I said, let’s get some land with the others and make our own town, you’d be fine with that.”

Jason smiled. “Nora, you and the others are all I have. I’m golden with whatever you want.”

“You can be the town preacher.”

Jason laughed. “Yeah and you can be the town comedian.”

“Hey, these people laughed at my jokes. You laughed at the new one.”

“I laughed because it was so unbelievably dumb, how could I not?”

Nora shrugged. “It got a laugh. I do want to grow corn like these people. Wasn’t it good corn? It reminded me of the Sweet Corn festival from Lodi, Ohio.”

“Did Lodi make moonshine?” Jason lifted a flask, took a drink and handed it to Nora. “These people make great moonshine.”

She was hesitant at first, but Nora took the flask. She sipped it. “Taste like popcorn.” She hit her chest when it burned all the way down.

“Yep. It does.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“You will anyway.”

“What’s up with the drinking?” Nora asked. “Since we woke up, since you found that wine, you drink a lot.”

Jason lifted his eyes with concern to her. “Am I being a danger? Getting in the way?”

“No. No.” She waved her hand. “I was just wondering. Is it your way of coping?”

“I like to drink. I always did.”

“So you were the preacher that downed a few?” she asked.

Jason lifted a finger. “No. It was one of my conditions.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I was a hot mess, Nora. I mean, when the network scouted me, I was … I was bad.”