Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny (9 page)

“We knew we’d eventually relocate, we just didn’t know when,” Ruth said. “There’ve been groups working on a cure ever since the outbreak. Our group’s primary mission was to travel around the eastern region, make contact with survivors and test them. There were other units similar to ours scattered around the country but everyone was ordered to relocate and consolidate.”

“Go on,” I urged. Major Parsons spoke up

“We were making progress.”

“If you’re thinking about saying something stupid like, my children were instrumental in your research, I’m going to cut your tongue out.” The major made brief eye contact with me and quickly looked back down at the ground. I glared expectantly at the other two and motioned for them to keep talking.

“Three nights ago, the zombies attacked. We literally killed thousands of them, but there were too many.” Sergeant Smithson paused and looked over at Ruth. “Before that happened though, me and Ruth had talked about bugging out. We’d had enough. Things were all messed up and it wasn’t getting any better. Colonel Coltrane's behavior became, well, what’s the correct word—”

“Bizarre, odd, weird, contradictory, take your pick,” Ruth added. Smithson nodded in agreement. Even Major Parsons nodded.

“Justin and I had been secretly planning on it. We had this Humvee already loaded up and ready to go.”

“So, when it became obvious we were going to be overrun, we knew it was time to act.” Ruth cast me a worried look. “I won’t lie to you, Zach. Our original plan was for just the two of us to bug out. But, when the time came, I couldn’t leave without the kids.”

“She insisted on taking them,” Smithson added. “She cares for them like they’re her own.” I looked over at Ruth, who was choked up now. Sergeant Smithson grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“I gotta tell you, going out into that mess with two little kids was definitely not what I had in mind, but Ruth was right. Leaving them there was out of the question.”

“How did numbnuts here end up with you guys?” I asked.

“He saw us leaving, followed us, and demanded to know where we were going with the kids. I told him we were getting the hell out of there.”

“They asked me to join them,” Parsons added. “More like insisted, but I didn’t argue.”

“Yeah,” Smithson said and shrugged. “He’s a doctor, so I thought it’d be a good idea, even though our loadout was only enough for two people.”

“Where were you going to go?” I asked.

“Here, Zach,” Ruth said. “When we made the decision to take the kids with us, it was a no-brainer.”

“If we got caught, we would have been shot for desertion. We started to do it several times, but something always came up and we aborted. It looked like it wasn’t ever going to happen, but when those things attacked, I knew then we had to do it.” He shrugged again. “Hell, I wasn’t sure we were even going to make it off the premises, but they were all concentrated on the east side of the center.”

“Sounds like a convenient story,” I contended. Sergeant Smithson sighed.

“You’ve never been in the military, Zach. Duty and obedience to orders are beat into your brain all through boot camp. Going AWOL is almost as bad as renouncing God.” He sighed again.

“So, like she said, we talked about it and we planned it all out, but never acted on it until that night.” I thought it over for several minutes. They watched me in silence, unsure if they should say anything and opted to keep quiet.

“Alright,” I finally said. “I’ll give it to you guys, you brought my kids back.” I looked pointedly at Major Parsons. “What you did to me was unforgivable, but I can live with it. But, I want to make something crystal clear. In a few minutes, Kelly and I are going to take my kids home. I’m going to feed them, give them a nice hot bath, and I’m going to check them from top to bottom. If I find one single thing wrong with them, one single injury, one single scar, one single mark, I’m going to kill you very slowly.” It was a cool morning, but Major Parsons was now sweating profusely.

“I only drew blood a couple of times,” he lamented. I stared at him a long minute and then looked over at Kelly.

“There is one other thing we need to tell you,” Ruth said. Sergeant Smithson and Major Parsons looked at her sharply. She ignored them. “Janet, she’s alive.” I stared at her in disbelief.

“When the Colonel raided your house and after the gunfire died down, she was found in the basement, huddled over your kids. Colonel Coltrane gave her the option of going with him and caring for the kids. She agreed.” I frowned and shook my head slowly. That woman had more lives than a pregnant cat.

“Why didn’t you bring her with you then?” I asked.

“Because I don’t like the bitch,” Ruth said disdainfully.

“Ditto,” Major Parsons muttered. I certainly understood the sentiment. I glanced at Kelly a second and made a decision.

“You two,” I said, indicating the sergeant and corporal, “are free to go. Major Parsons is going to be a special guest for a while.” I pointed in the direction of the old homestead. “Start walking that way.” He slowly got to his feet and at first refused to move. “Either start walking, or else,” I threatened. He walked.

I directed Major Parsons while I followed him on Hank and soon had him in the old barn. I pointed to the cage. “Welcome to your new home.”

“How are they?” Kelly asked quietly as I came into the kitchen. When we got home, we fed them and then I bathed them while Kelly cleaned up.

“They’re asleep,” I responded just as quietly. I had them bundled up on the floor and the two of them feel asleep with Macie’s arms around her big brother. It was heartwarming.

“I’m pretty sure he finally recognized me,” I whispered. “But, I don’t think Macie has any clue who I am.”

“Do they have any injuries?”

“A couple of needle marks on their arms, which I expected, but otherwise they’re in good shape.” It was true. In fact, the two of them appeared very healthy and well-fed.

"That’s good, right?” she asked. I shrugged. “Do you think they’ll try to break that major out of the cage?” I shrugged again.

“They might, but I took their weapons and the fuel level on their Humvee is very low.” I’d told them they could spend the night in the old homestead and we’d bring them breakfast in the morning, or they could leave. I doubted they’d leave. Even I knew Marines were fiercely loyal to their own and no matter how much they may have despised Major Parsons, they wouldn’t abandon him.

Kelly and I bedded down in the den with my kids and they instinctively snuggled up against us. It was a wonderful feeling. Kelly fell asleep almost immediately. I stayed awake for over an hour, mulling over the events of the day. It was almost like an act of God that my children were back home. I had serious doubts about how we would have fared had we attempted to infiltrate the CDC and rescue my kids, so I counted myself grateful and said a silent prayer of thanks.

Major Parsons was still locked in the cage and it didn’t look like he slept very well. He sat up and looked up at me sullenly as I entered the barn. I pulled up a bucket, the same bucket my buddy, Rowdy Yates, had sat on back when I was in that cage, and sat down. Opening my thermos, I poured myself a hot cup of coffee. It was stale, hell all coffee was stale these days, but even so I made a display out of enjoying it immensely.

“How was your night, Major?”

“It could have been better,” he replied sullenly.

“I found needle marks on my children’s arms.”

“It was necessary for us to draw blood samples,” he said defensively. “I told you that.” I suppressed the impulse to throw my coffee in his face and instead stared at him coldly.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he continued, “but humanity depends on us finding a cure. I had orders.” I didn’t respond and instead continued staring at him while I drank.

“What are you going to do to me?” he finally asked. I let the silence linger while I finished the coffee and poured some more in the plastic cup.

It was a good question. Part of me wanted to take a knife to him and work on him nice and slow while he screamed in agony, but another part of me was indecisive. I pushed the thoughts aside for a moment and changed the subject.

“Do my kids have the same, what did you call it, antibodies? Do my kids have the same antibodies as I do?” His face brightened and he moved closer.

“Yes they do, sort of. Do you know what an antibody is?” he asked.

“Sort of,” I answered.

“I’ll give a simple explanation. An antibody is a y-shaped protein molecule produced by B cells. They’re the body’s primary immune defense. All humans have them, well most do. Now, an antigen is a foreign substance introduced into the human system that induces an immune response from the antibodies. Follow?” I nodded. “Yes, good. In your case, you and your kids have a unique antibody which is resistant to the virus. In addition, you have an antigen in your system which appears to make you completely immune.”

“But my kids don’t have the antigen.” He shook his head.

“It was our belief that you were exposed somehow and your immune system responded accordingly. Your children apparently have not been exposed.”

I thought about what he said and decided to tease him with a little information. I tapped the cage with my hand and told him the story about my encounter and the subsequent quarantine. He listened in fascination.

“So, you were exposed?” he asked.

“I got a little scratch on my finger and some of that damned black goo got in my mouth.” I pointed at the scar on my finger. “I cauterized it as soon as I was able and then forced myself to vomit. Even so, within the next few hours I got sick.”

“Could you tell me what your symptoms were, please?” he asked.

“Well, let’s see. During the night, perhaps three hours after I was exposed, my pulse rate skyrocketed and I began running a high fever. I was feeling really anxious, antsy. At some point, I was in a delirium and was convinced spiders were crawling all over my skin. That lasted most of the night, but the fever broke at some point. My wife sat with me throughout the night and tended to me.” She also took a lot of detailed notes that night. Some of the stuff she wrote was a little intimate, so I doubted I’d ever let him read them.

“Fascinating,” he said.

"But I still got sick."

"Yes, that was to be expected, but you didn't turn." He frowned and shook his head before looking at me. “Are you certain this is the only time you were ever exposed?”

“I don’t recall any other incidents,” I answered. “But it could have happened unknowingly somehow.” I thought about the time I was shot. I was out of sorts when that happened and it was several hours before I was rescued by Julie and Fred. I wondered if anything else had happened to me during that incident.

“I need to expose myself in order to test it,” he muttered to himself.

“What was that, Major?” I asked. He was lost in thought for a moment before realizing I had asked him a question.

“Zach,” he said in the tone of a question. I stared at him unemotionally. “We should go back to the CDC. You and me. The research team I was working with are a group of very intelligent doctors and scientists. With your help, we can create a vaccine and inoculate all survivors. We’d make history, Zach.” I continued staring at him and didn’t respond.

“Are you at least going to let me out of this cage?” he asked. I ignored his question and walked out. After shutting the barn door, I walked over to the old homestead. The two Marines were standing at the doorway watching me.

“How was your night? I imagine with all of those bullet holes and broken windows it was pretty cold.”

“We had sleeping bags, and got a fire going,” Sergeant Smithson answered. “But we had to keep watch since we had no weapons to defend ourselves. We didn’t get much sleep.”

“It was a nice home, once,” I said quietly. He gestured toward the barn.

“How long do you intend on keeping him locked up in there?”

“How long would
you
keep him locked up?” I responded. They glanced at each other without answering. “You two look like shit. When’s the last time you had a decent meal?”

“It’s been a few days,” Ruth answered. I nodded and took my backpack off. They both gasped when I pulled out a Tupperware container holding almost a dozen hard boiled eggs.

“Eat up,” I said. I watched as Ruth hurriedly retrieved a container of salt from her rucksack and the two of them began eating. Ruth suddenly stopped and looked up.

“Would you mind if I gave some of these to Major Parsons?” she asked. I shrugged indifferently. She took that as a yes, grabbed a few and jogged into the barn.

“How are your kids?” Sergeant Smithson asked.

“They’re doing okay. My son finally recognized me, but my daughter still has no idea who I am.” I had been standing, in case they decided to bum rush me or something, but I slowly realized they weren’t a threat, so I pulled up one of the chairs and sat.

“Do you have any kids?” I asked him. He shook his head.

“My teenage sweetheart dumped me back when I was in basic training. Since then I wasn’t interested in getting serious with anyone. I’d been playing the field, figured when I turned thirty I’d find a woman and settle down, have kids, all that shit.” I nodded in understanding. He had supplemented his eggs with some kind of packaged crackers and washed it all down with his canteen of water. I didn’t tell him we had some fresh milk back at the house.

“If I’m reading your rank insignia correctly, you’re a gunnery sergeant, right?” He nodded. “You seem a little young for that rank.”

“Attrition,” he replied with a shrug.

“How was the food supply down in Atlanta?” I asked.

“Lots of freeze dried food, MREs, the usual stuff,” he replied. “They had some garden plots, but with the influx of people, they didn’t produce near enough to keep up with demand, so fresh produce was a rare luxury.” He pointed at the crumbled eggshells sitting on the floor of the porch. “So, you guys obviously have chickens.” I nodded and pointed at the chicken coop I’d built a couple of years ago.

“After the house got shot up, we moved everything to our current location. We’ve got chickens, cattle, goats, rabbits, horses, jackasses, garden plots, a smokehouse, and a greenhouse. At one time we had three of them, but your buddies destroyed them for some reason.”

“For what it’s worth, I have no idea why he did it,” he said while making a brief gesture at all of the bullet holes riddling the house. “Well, they were fired upon and Lamance was shot, which caused the Colonel to order them to open fire, but…” he struggled to find the right words. “It probably could have been handled differently.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “They shot up both houses, killed my friends, killed two of my horses, and our dogs,” I said irately. “It could have been handled differently.” I had some more to say about it, but I suddenly thought of what he said about Lamance.

“By the way, what’d you guys do with Lamance’s body?”

“Ruth told me the Colonel said to leave it. When I found out, I wanted to come back down here and at least bury him, but the Colonel wouldn’t allow it.”

I suddenly got goose bumps. The bodies were burnt beyond recognition, so I relied only on a count, which, at the time, confirmed to me all of my friends and family had been murdered. But, if what he was saying was true? There should have been one extra body on that pile of burnt corpses. Three of the bodies were smaller, feminine, I assumed they were Julie, Jessica, and Andie. I cleared my throat.

“What size was Lamance?” I asked.

“He was about six foot, on the lean side, maybe one-seventy. Why?”

“Just wondering,” I replied evasively. My brain was churning, trying to remember the exact details of when I found the bodies and when I finally worked up the strength to bury them. Kelly said she’d watched Terry die and saw Konya get shot. And Konya was missing his left thumb, but I was too distraught at the time I buried them, never thinking to pay attention to such a detail. But, nobody actually saw Fred get shot. Was he possibly still alive out there somewhere?

Smithson was looking at me curiously. I’m sure my body language was all over the place. I tried to relax.

“I want to know about you and Solonowski, what happened?” he suddenly asked. I told him the story of how I goaded the hotheaded Marine into attacking me. I also told him of Ruth’s involvement. By the look on his face, I guessed Ruth had already told him.

“Did you really have to kill him?”

“Yes,” I replied. “He wasn’t going to simply allow me to walk out of there, now was he? The tests that s0-called doctor was performing on me were becoming more and more invasive. It was only a matter of time before he started doing things that were going to be irreversible.” He was silent, mulling over what I said, but it was obvious he didn’t like the fact that I killed one of his own, I could see it all over his face.

“Let me ask you something, big tough Marine, if you had been in my shoes wouldn’t you have done everything you could to escape?” He looked at me somberly. After a moment, he responded.

“Alright, I guess I can see your point.”

“But you don’t like it I killed one of your soldiers.”

“No, I don’t.” He was silent for a few minutes now. I waited until it got to the point where it was becoming a little awkward.

“Well, I’ve got a lot of work to do before sundown. Is there anything else you want to ask?”

“I’ve got a few, but right now the only thing I’m going to ask is for you to let the major go.” I thought a moment, nodded, pulled the keys out of my pocket and tossed them over.

“Leave the keys in the barn,” I said. He nodded curtly and I stood, causing him to stand as well.

“I have work to do,” I said. “We generally eat dinner at six. You and Ruth are invited, not the major.”

“Woothie!” Frederick shouted in baby talk and ran over to her as fast as his little legs would carry him. Ruth picked him up and hugged him before she realized I was glaring at her and put him down quickly. Macie was also making noises, but Ruth wisely did not go over to the couch where she was sitting. I directed them toward the kitchen and scooped Macie up in my arms.

“It’s a shame that my own children are more excited to see you than me, don’t you think?” They didn’t answer. I had a few more remarks on the matter, held them back, and sat down at the head of the table. I sat with Macie on my lap, but she kept squirming and I finally relented and handed her off to Ruth. Thankfully, Frederick still liked me and had no problem sitting with me.