The Shanxi Virus: An epidemic survival story Page 13

Jen, still standing and uncertain whether she would provoke Rich by standing, moved to sit on the couch with Aaron and Robin.

  "Not you, you're coming with me. I'm a sucker for good-looking women. Besides, you're a medical student right? You'll might be useful," he said, his words slurred. Rich grabbed her by the arm and shoved her toward the front door.

  "But there's no key for the Jeep," she said.

  "Don't worry about that. I've got the key. I'm too drunk to drive though," Rich snickered. "Learned my lesson about doing that. You all don't move from that couch. If I see you come out, I'm going to shoot Jen here."

  Jen opened the front door and walked around the side of the building, heading to the Jeep. She considered taking off and running from him, wondering if he was too drunk to hit anything with the gun, but decided it was too big of a risk. He was unpredictable and unstable. She might trigger a rage and he would take it out on Aaron and Robin. She opened the door and climbed up into the cab.

  Rich clambered into the passenger seat, the gun pointed at her, and fished the ignition key out of his pocket and tossed it into her lap. "Drive. Take the trails into the woods Mike talked about. Get me the hell out of here before those soldiers get here."

  Jen started the Jeep and tried to calm her nerves. Her hands from shaking and slick with sweat. Putting the Jeep in gear she drove through Mike's back yard and up the narrow trail leading into the woods. Low hanging tree branches and undergrowth scraped against the sides of the vehicle as they headed up the hill.

  Rich pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. "Hello? Yes, I'd like to report an infection. Yes. Yes. It's a cabin off a road behind the Oak Park development in Steelville. Yes I saw several people in the building, all infected. OK. I'll keep clear of it."

  "You bastard," Jen said. Tears welled in her eyes, her body flooding with emotion.

  Jen scanned the woods as they drove up the hill. Kelly was out here somewhere, and she hoped the girl would stay out of sight and let the Jeep pass by without revealing herself. Rich was psychotic and dangerous. Jen glanced in the rearview mirror, hoping to see Mike on the trail behind them, his rifle pointed at the passenger side of the truck. She rued the day she ever thought of him as a gun toting weirdo. Driving deeper into the woods, the cabin disappeared from view. A lump in her throat, Jen began to cry, wondering if Aaron and Robin would get away before the soldiers arrived, or if they would be put to the flame like Eva and Lance.

  Saturday, June 20th

  Chapter 21

  Just inside the tree line of the Mark Twain National forest, Mike was hid himself in the shadow of the park's towering trees, watching as a bright orange cone of fire erupted from a flamethrower. It roared as it incinerated everything in it's path. A tree between the soldier and Mike obstructed his view. He felt relief at being spared the sight. He had already witnessed enough carnage left behind by the gruesome weapon.

  "Oh no. I'm too late," Mike said, collapsing against a tree. He'd failed to locate Ted and Sherri. He'd failed them. Ted had saved his life, and he hadn't been able to repay the debt. It was more than that though. An unfamiliar feeling welled up inside of him. He struggled to contain it, but for the first time in a long time... since his parents died, his emotions got the better of him. Tears welled up in his eyes as he pictured the dim witted but well meaning Ted and his doting mother pleading for their lives, not realizing the futility of appealing to the hardened soldiers with orders to kill, to do whatever had to be done to halt the spread of the Shanxi virus.

  Disappointed in himself, he felt the weight of his earlier judgment of his neighbors, deeming them a liability. He had come to care for these people, and he hadn't even realized it until it was too late to do anything to help them. He had worked damned hard to keep people at arm's length for most of his life for this very reason. After he lost his parents, he hadn't ever wanted to feel like this again.

  "Too late for what?" a woman's voice asked just behind him.

  Startled, Mike spun around. Ted and his Mother stood on the trail, a quizzical look on their faces, as if they were oblivious to everything that had happened in the neighborhood.

  "You're alive!"

  "What is it Mike? You look like you're upset about something," Sherri said.

  "Come on, I'll explain on the way. We've got to get you out of here."

  Mike led them back into the woods and off the trails closest to the edge of the forest, putting distance between them and the soldiers in the neighborhood. He didn't want to take any chances of running into them. Those men had clearly received instructions to kill on contact and burn the homes. He wondered if his cabin was on the list, or if it was small cabin enough to escape attention. Either way, the Jeep was there. He'd find out soon enough whether it was intact or not.

  "Something terrible has happened. Soldiers are burning down the homes. They killed Lance and Eva and then... Rich might have been inside the garage. We have to get to my cabin. Jen, Robin, Kelly, and Aaron are there."

  "Oh my God! Are you sure? Why would they do this?" Sherri asked.

  "Someone marked the homes with the infection symbol. I don't know how the soldiers found us, but they did, and they've burned everything marked with it."

  Sherri gasped. "Who would do something like that?"

  Mike shook his head. "I don't know, but we need to move faster. Try to keep up, and stay quiet."

  He picked up the pace to the fastest he thought Sherri could run. At the same time he kept his eye on the horizon, scanning for threats. They passed through the woods, undisturbed and quiet other than the sound of the leaves rustling as the wind blew through the branches overhead. Ten minutes later they were back at Mike's cabin.

  Mike stopped before he stepped out from the edge of the forest, looking for signs of soldiers. The Jeep was gone. Had Jen and the others left him behind?

  A twig snapped just behind him, and Mike spun around, reaching for his Glock.

  Intent on the dangers ahead, he had neglected to watch his back. Mike cursed at his lack of perception. This was the second time in two weeks someone had snuck up behind him. He swiveled his head in all directions, looking for the source of the sound, convinced that a sniper's bullet would rip a giant hole through his head or his chest any second now. His pulse raced, but all he could see were trees and the underbrush. In a panic, he wondered if he should tell Ted and his mother to hit the dirt while he ran through the woods to give them a fighting chance of getting away, but knew that if soldiers knew their location, it would be pointless. They would be dead either way.

  "Mr. Mike?" Kelly popped her head out from behind the trunk of a beech tree, her face red and tear streaked. The child shivered, scared out of her mind.

  He let out the huge lungful of air he'd been holding in, and felt a wave of relief.

  "Kelly, are you all right? Where's your mother? What are you doing out here?"

  "My mom is in your house. The bad man is in there. She made me go through the window and run away."

  "You're all right now, we're here." He was puzzled. If the soldiers had been there, his cabin should have been torched. What was she talking about? "What bad man? What did he look like? Was he a stranger?"

  "Rich scared my mom. He has a gun and was yelling at everybody." Kelly began to sob again.

  "Come here dear. It's ok. Mr. Mike is going to make sure nobody hurts your mommy," Sherri said, wrapping her arms around the girl.

  "Ted, stay here with them. Keep out of sight. I'm going to check out the cabin. I don't know what's going on, but I've got my suspicions about Rich. If you see him, don't let him near you. Run away if you have to. The Jeep is gone. I'm going to see if I can get a look inside the house."

  Ted nodded and herded his mother and Kelly deeper into the underbrush. "I've got this Mike. Don't worry about us."

  With the others secure, Mike made his way through the woods, using the thick underbrush as cover as he moved closer to the house. He watched all around, making sure he checked his six o
' clock. He was overconfident in his perception. A trained soldier sneaking up behind him was one thing, but a six-year-old girl? It was a mistake he didn't intend to repeat for a third time.

  Twenty yards away from the house, he burst out of the underbrush and ran to his shed, then dashed to the edge of his house. Mike ducked his head in front of the window for a split second, getting a half of a second view into the living room. It was a quick glimpse, but he thought he only saw Aaron and Robin inside and no one else. He looked again, this time slightly longer, verifying what he'd seen.

  It was only the two of them in the living room, arguing. Mike rounded the house, checked the kitchen and bathroom windows, then scanned the driveway for signs of danger. Satisfied that they were alone, he moved for the front door. Out of the corner of his eye, a bright color caught his attention. A bright orange Shanxi virus had been painted on the front of his cabin.

  A wave of heat flashed over him as the pieces of the puzzle began to fit together in his mind. Rich and Jen were gone, as was the Jeep. Eva and Lance were dead, killed by soldiers. The soldiers thought they were clearing houses of Shanxi victims and eliminating the spread of the disease. They had no idea that nobody in the neighborhood was sick.

  Someone in the neighborhood had spray painted these symbols and informed the soldiers. Someone with a motive. Kelly's 'bad man' had already shown his true colors when he had drunkenly crashed into Mike and left him for dead. It wasn't beyond belief that the man would do something cowardly like this, for whatever reason his sick mind came up with.

  Mike flung open the front door of his cabin, fueled by his fury. "Where is Rich?"

  Robin shrieked, startled by his sudden appearance, and Aaron put his hand to his chest, sucking in a breath.

  "Mike, you nearly scared me to death. Rich--"

  "I know. Kelly told me. She's safe in the woods. She's with Ted and his mother."

  "Oh thank God!" Robin said.

  "What happened?"

  Aaron's lip curled up in a sneer. "That son of a bitch. He's the one that did this. He marked the homes! He threatened to shoot Robin in front of her daughter. He--"

  "Where is he now? We need to move, we can't stay--"

  The doorframe exploded into a shower of splinters three inches from Mike's head. He dove for the floor. The report of a rifle arrived a split second later. Mike rolled over and kicked the front door shut with his foot. With the knowledge that the thick wooden logs making up the cabin's walls would protect him from the rifle fire, he crawled on his hands and knees across the living room floor to his gun closet. "Get on the ground now! Stay out of the windows!"

  Mike reached up and pulled down a scoped rifle and got a box of ammo out. Propping himself up on his left arm out of instinct, pain shot up his arm as he fumbled with the ammo and tried to load the gun with his off hand. Knowing it was futile to try to take on a soldier in this state, he rolled onto his side and relieved the pressure on his cast. "Shit!"

  "What do we do?" Robin yelled.

  "Where's the Jeep?"

  "Rich took it. He took Jen too," she said.

  "Can you run?"

  Robin shook her head. "I hurt my ankle. I can run, but not far."

  Mike glanced at Aaron, but he already knew the answer to that question. The old man wasn't going far either.

  Mike weighed their options. The shot must have come from a long way away, or else he'd be slouched in the doorframe right now with a baseball-sized hole in his head. He had to think. The soldiers would be within accurate firing range in minutes. His first instinct was to lead everybody out the back door and run, but if there were other soldiers out there, they would be cut down as soon as they left the cabin.

  They couldn't kill the soldiers either. If even one of the soldiers were injured, Mike knew they would hunt the group down relentlessly. If the soldiers thought they were outgunned, they would call in air support to tackle the problem for them. Fort Leonard Wood was only a few minutes away by air. Somebody would have to stay behind to provide covering fire. Non-lethal shots fired in the direction of the soldiers, but well over their heads. Just enough to keep their heads down and give the group enough time to get away. With his shooting hand in a cast, it couldn't be him.

  "Anybody else know how to shoot a gun? Somebody has to stay behind and give us some covering fire. If we leave here on foot, you'll both slow us down. Those soldiers will catch up to us and it will be the end of all of us." Mike held up his cast. "I can't shoot like this."

  A burst of automatic rifle fire ripped into the front of the house, shattering the living room window and hammering against the front door.

  Robin screamed, drowning out Aaron's muttered cursing.

  He had to make a decision. Time was running out.

  Saturday, June 20th

  Chapter 22

  The forest was a blur of green undergrowth and brown tree trunks streaking by out of the side windows, and a jarring preview of the bumps to come through the windshield. Jen clung tightly to the steering wheel as the truck barreled down the rugged trail. They drove through a stream, and the Jeep's tires dipped into a deep hole in the bottom of the stream. Jen hit the gas to get out of it, and bounced around in the driver's seat, her head hitting the roof.

  Rich held the gun pointed at her in the passenger seat, and she was terrified that he would accidentally pull the trigger as the truck bounced around. She eyed the gun nervously for a moment, but fear for her own safety was overpowered by worry for the others she'd left behind. She pictured them cornered in Mike's small cabin, screaming in agony as the structure burnt down around their ears. Alive, but trapped inside a fiery tomb. She didn't think the soldiers would stop there either. Ted, Sherri, Mike and worst of all the little girl Kelly would be hunted down like animals, with no chance of escape. The Jeep had been there only hope of outrunning the soldiers.

  Jen had to find a way to stop Rich and turn the truck around. She couldn't let him get away with this. The others would die if she didn't do something. She just didn't know what she could do.

  Rich was in a drunken stupor. His head lolled about as he swigged cheap vodka from the glass pint bottle. Groaning, he put his hand on his stomach and belched.

  "Would you watch where you're driving," Rich bellowed.

  The Jeep hit a large pothole in the trail, and all of the liquor he'd drank came back up, covering Rich and everything in front of him with vomit.

  The acrid smell of gastric fluid and cheap vodka filled the Jeep. Jen's heartbeat went into overdrive, and she nearly lost control of her own stomach at the overpowering odor. She glanced over at him, hoping he had passed out. He clung to consciousness though, the vomit covered gun still aimed at her.

  Jen rolled down her window and drove with her head sticking halfway out of the window. Leaf covered tree branches whipped her in the face, but it was better than the smell. This was too much. She couldn't let this alcoholic wretch get away with murder while decent people were left behind to a fiery death. Anger filled her at the unfairness of it all. She had no weapon, but she wondered if she could turn his guilt over what he'd done against him and make him see how terrible what he'd done was. If he had a conscience at all, that was.

  "How could you kill your own wife?"

  "What did you say? What the hell do you mean how could I kill her?"

  "Why would you kill her? She didn't deserve to die."

  "The hell she didn't. She was a cheap slut that laughed behind my back while she was sleeping with the pool boy," Rich said, his words slurred.

  "But I thought you were cheating on her too. In fact, weren't you sleeping with that woman Claire before she started sleeping with the pool boy? And you weren't just sleeping with her either, were you? You were living with her in your flat in the city. A fling or an affair is one thing, but living with another woman? That is enough to send any woman over the edge. It sounds to me like you drove Eva into the arms of the pool boy."

  Rich's nostrils flared. "What do you know about any
thing? You don't know what real life is like. I was never good enough for her. She always looked down on me."

  "I'm not surprised you would feel that way, I mean, if you were sleeping around and drinking all the time. I wouldn't want to be married to an alcoholic philanderer either," Jen said. Her pulse quickened as she saw his anger growing. She wanted to push him into feeling guilt and sorrow, but it would be a fine line not to rouse too much of his irrational anger working through his issues.

  "I was never good enough for her. Even before Claire. I lost a good job in New York and we had to sell her dream house. She always hated me for making her move away from her socialite friends in the city. Those highbrow bitches and trust fund kids never like me. I wasn't good enough for them," Rich said softly.

  She had him now. That was raw feeling. Sadness. Not anger. Jen was getting into his head. "But she stayed with you, right? Even after you lost the big home in the city and she had to move away from her friends? She still stayed by your side. She just wasn't happy."

  "I... well... yes." Rich hung his head in shame, staring at the floorboard.

  "So what else changed? What else happened after you moved here?"

  "I guess I started drinking more after we moved. I knew how much she hated living away from the city. I felt bad, but there was nothing I could do about it." His brow furrowed and he scowled. "She made my life a living hell. I didn't want to be at home with her."

  Just then, her cell phone rang. She reached into her pocket and grabbed the phone. The display showed a long string of numbers. An international call. Her parents!

  "Give me that phone," Rich growled.

  "It's my parents. They're in Barcelona and I need to answer it. Please!"

  "Give me the damned phone," Rich said, lunging for the cell.

  Jen snatched her hand away, and answered the phone. "Hello? Mom? Dad?"

  "Jen! Thank God! Are you ok?" her father asked.