Forsaken World:Coming of Age (27 page)

Jumping down, Lance went to the shop and rolled out the welder. Putting on his welding helmet and other gear, he turned it on. When Ian heard popping, he crawled out to see Lance welding on the muffler he made for the excavator. Ian went back to work as Lance continued.

After making a few touch ups, Lance turned off the machine and checked his weld. Smiling at the work, Lance then screwed the box down on the hood of the excavator. “Ian, you mind if I give it a try?” he asked, taking off his welding jacket.

“You don’t want to wait until one of us goes out on the buggy?” Ian called out, still inside the engine compartment of the track steer.

“If it’s real loud, I’m just going to shut it down and start over,” Lance said, opening the door and climbing in. “We’ve been around these, and without the work, I’m sure they can’t be heard from a mile away.”

Leaving the door open, Lance turned on the key and waited for the glow plug light to go off. They had found the manuals for both in the truck, and he and Ian had read them. When the light went off, Lance pressed the button with crossed fingers and said, “Here it goes.”

The engine fired right up, and for a second, Lance cringed as the quietness of the area was disturbed. Looking at all the dials, Lance saw everything was good and climbed out. He could easily tell the engine was running, but it was real quiet. “The fucking Hummer is louder than this,” he said, jumping off the trailer.

He headed for the front of the cabin but stopped on the side, not able to hear the engine anymore. “That’s not even a hundred yards,” he said, spinning around jogging back.

“Damn, that’s quiet,” Ian said, sticking his head out of the track steers engine compartment.

“Hey, are your hunter ears in your vest?” Lance said, jogging to the trailer. Ian nodded, and Lance dug them out and put one on then jogged back to the front of the cabin. With the bionic hearing, Lance could barely hear the engine at the gate. “Well, now we just need to know how far someone can hear the hydraulics when it’s digging.”

When he came back around, he saw Jennifer and Lilly at the trailer, and they had brought out glasses of tea. Ian was drinking his, and Lance chuckled, seeing Ian glancing at Jennifer’s chest. It was hot out, and both Lilly and Jennifer were wearing dark blue polo shirts. “How in the hell did they get bigger?” Lance mumbled, walking over.

“Hey, brought you some tea,” Jennifer said, holding out a glass as he walked up.

“Thank you,” Lance said and took it.

Jerking her head toward the mini excavator, she said with a grin, “You two made this thing quiet.”

“Really wasn’t in the mood to use shovels,” Lance said then turned up the glass.

“Hey, can I take Lilly to the shooting range we made out front and let her check her AR and Ruger 22/45?”

Ian pulled off his tank top and wiped the sweat off his face. “Good idea,” he said, tossing his shirt down. “Get your suppressor for your XDM, and let her use it on hers so Lilly can at least get the feel of how it fires.”

“Already got it,” Jennifer beamed and spun around, walking away with her ponytail swinging side to side. Lilly stood quietly at her side with a soft smile then followed her.

When they rounded the corner of the cabin, Ian looked over at Lance as he lowered the empty glass. “How in the hell did they make them grow so fast?” Ian asked, shaking his head.

“Beats me,” Lance said, putting his glass down. “Remember when Todd’s mom went and got that boob job?” Lance asked, and Ian nodded. “I heard Mom and Dad talking, and that cost them some money. Hell, Todd’s mom just needed to hang out with Jennifer.”

“Ah, no, it has to be Lilly,” Ian said, grabbing tools and moving to the track steer. “Jennifer was always bitching about not having hooters, then Lilly shows up, and I think she told Jennifer a secret on how to make hooters grow. I mean, just look at hers.”

Thinking about that, Lance nodded. “Yeah, I would like to know how though. When I get a girlfriend, I can tell her,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“I wonder if there is a limit.”

“Hope so because we’ve seen hooters on some of those stinkers that we could’ve played jump rope with,” Lance said with a shiver.

With a look of disgust, Ian crawled back in the track steer. “I told you to never mention that again! I’m surprised that woman didn’t trip on them! They were past her waist!” he snapped.

Lance grinned, heading back to the shop. “Hell, I wanted to push her into a tree and see if we could tie her knockers together around it.”

Chapter Nineteen

After busting ass, the group was finishing supper, and Jennifer looked up to see Lilly finishing her second plate. When she pushed it away, Jennifer cleared her throat. “Whenever you’re ready, Lilly,” Jennifer said, pushing back her plate.

Lilly smiled and grabbed her glass, taking a drink. “Well, I was born and raised in Nevada. My dad owned a cattle ranch, so I grew up riding horses and working the ranch. I have a brother who’s in the Navy stationed in Japan. I was in FFA and 4H. I have always been active, playing ball, hunting, hiking, and mountain biking. When I graduated high school, I got accepted to the University of Ohio, did my undergrad studies, then applied and got accepted to their veterinarian school. If the world hadn’t gone to shit, I would be graduating in a few weeks and could’ve taken my boards.”

“Man, that sucks,” Lance said, and everyone nodded.

“Of course, I was at school when this infection started,” Lilly continued. “The university was actually one of those chosen to do research on the meteorite fragments. I didn’t get to at first because that was far from my field, but when the school got turned into a refuge center, they started grabbing anyone who had lab experience to help.”

“So the meteor was responsible?” Jennifer asked.

“Oh yes,” Lilly nodded. “They thought the silicon-based bacteria was fossilized, but it wasn’t. It’s in the air around us and in all of our bodies.”

“So you did some research on it?” Lance asked.

“Six days’ worth, and I sat in on meetings,” Lilly said.

Lance got up, trotted to his bedroom, and came back with his notebook. Opening it as he sat down, he clicked his pen open. “They figure out how in the hell this bacteria brings people back?”

“No, but they were getting some ideas,” she said as Lance started writing.

“If it’s in us, why aren’t we sick now?” Ian asked.

“The bacteria, or whatever they are, are inert in a living body. I’ve seen it under a microscope, and it looks like a smooth, glass rod. Now when the host starts to die, the rod shoots out cilia and flagella from all over,” Lillie said as Allie raised her hand.

“Why does it have a flag? Is that where it came from?” Allie asked, lowering her hand.

Lance looked up before she finished talking and answered, “No, Allie, flagella is like a long tail that some bacteria use to move around with. Cilia are like hairs bacteria use like paddles to move around like caterpillar legs.”

“Oh,” Allie said in a low voice.

Lilly smiled at her and continued. “Now unless anything has changed, this bacterium only affects humans. It’s in other animals, but it’s something about our brain that sets if off. One of the professors said it was specific to higher brain function life forms. Not even chimps are affected. The bacteria gets ‘turned on,’” she said making, quotes in the air, “when the bodies’ electrical output decreases. They measured it and reported, but I’m sorry I forgot the exact milliwatts that the bacteria came out of hibernation.”

“Not much we could do about that anyway,” Lance said, writing.

“Its growth rate is phenomenal when it’s active,” Lilly droned. “Now this bacterium is attacked by our bodies even now, but its silicone and the body barely register it as an invader when it’s inert. The bacterium actively uses sulfur in metabolism—” Lilly stopped as Lance slapped the table, looking at Ian.

“Of course!”

Ian just looked at Lance with a blank face. “I’m lost,” Ian mumbled. Lance got up and went to one of the dry erase boards on the wall in front of their desk. Grabbing a marker, Lance drew a circle then two smaller circles on top of it.

“Mickey Mouse,” Carrie said, pointing at Lance’s circle.

“Yeah, Carrie, that’s how I always remember the water molecule,” Lance said then drew a bigger circle with two small circles on top. It looked like the other, but Mickey Mouse’s head was too big.

Bam
sounded out as Ian slammed his fist down on the table. “Of course!” he yelled.

Jennifer leaned over to Lilly. “See, this is what upsets me. They can read each other’s minds, and I feel like an idiot.”

“Shit, I had to have it explained, but Lance is right,” Lilly said, staring at Lance then turned to Ian.

Closing her eyes, Jennifer reached up, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Explain please.”

“Jennifer,” Ian said, jumping out of his chair. “The only reason life on Earth breathes oxygen is to lock onto the hydrogen our bodies make in the Krebs cycle. How our cells make energy. High oxygen concentration is harmful even to us.”

Opening her eyes, Jennifer saw Ian grinning at her. “Your mind is closed to me, Number One. Please elaborate,” she said.

“Jennifer,” Lance said and she turned to him. “The bacterium uses sulfur like we use oxygen. We make water; it makes hydrogen sulfide.”

Looking from one to the other, Jennifer stopped on Ian. “You figured that out already,” she said.

“Yeah, but not the why,” Ian said, dropping in his chair.

“Shit,” Lilly mumbled then continued. “Yes, now at first, they break apart enzymes in us to make sulfur, and they are very efficient at it. Once they have the host under control, they break apart what’s taken in.”

“Hold up there, toots,” Lance said, putting the marker up. “We’ve seen them ripped open, so how can they use the digestive system if it’s gone?”

“If the material stays inside the body, the bacteria will break it down and circulate it. This was confirmed with the head of a cadaver. It held mouthfuls, and the bacteria in its mouth broke it down.”

Lance looked at Ian, who shrugged. “Don’t look at me, dude. You’re the one that got straight As in microbiology.”

Walking back to the table, Lance sat down. “Okay, did anyone figure out how they turned on our brain?”

“They don’t turn it back on,” Lilly said. “A bacterium moves over a junction, and its cilia merge with the neurons. This is repeated millions of times but only in the lower brain stem. Then, the bacteria use our bodies to function.”

“That is so fucking cheating,” Lance said and started writing.

“Lilly,” Jennifer said. “Skip the Mr. Wizard part for now. You can tell them later if they want to know. I will have to hit the books to understand it.”

“There’s not much else,” Lilly said with a shrug. “Like I said, the school fell in six days. It hit Columbus hard but not as hard as California or the east coast. We got reports from New York that when they figured out what was going on, on March 11, the city was overrun before the next day. One infected didn’t infect one person; they could infect dozens, then each one of those could infect dozens. The entire state of California went dark in forty-eight hours.”

Lance quit writing and looked up. “I read on one board that half the population was infected before the end of March. Did you hear or read anything like that?”

Nodding, Lilly grabbed her glass. “Seventy-five percent of the world’s population by the end of March. It’s hard to hold the infected off when they pump out volatile gasses when you kill them. I’ve seen thousands die because they couldn’t get out and move the damn bodies around their shelter. The infected just waited until the people couldn’t guard the fences because of the gas and then just beat the fence down. You could burn them, but you damn well better do it before you get piles, or your fence would melt down or you buildings would burn.”

“Yep,” Ian said, leaning back in his chair. “Had that happen to us already. Killed a bunch and piled them up. We figured out that they follow the smell, so we decided to torch them. Luckily, we were way back when we lit the fire.”

“I just moved,” Lilly said, looking down at the table. “I barely got out of the area when the campus was overrun. I found a soldier that had been killed but hadn’t turned yet and took his gear. Judy and George were with me, and we ran. If they aren’t packed too close, you can run through them, but if they grab you, it’s easier to chop off their hand than pry it off. As I’m sure you know, they don’t get tired. I jogged for seven hours before I could stop.

“I found this store, and that’s where I got a lot of gear, my hammer, a machete, and another pistol. Two days later, I came across three people: a husband and wife with the husband’s brother. They weren’t much older than me and seemed okay, so I traveled with them. I was tired of fighting and surviving alone. It’s so hard to sleep out there alone. I believe the only reason I did was because of my dogs.”

A shiver ran up Jennifer’s spine just thinking about that. “I really want a dog,” she mumbled.

Taking another drink, Lilly continued. “Well, I traveled with them for a few weeks. We soon gave up on driving. The infected would swarm the road, or you would just drive up to find the road ahead full of them. You couldn’t turn around because the road behind was full from those following you. After that happened twice, we just started moving cross country or on very small back roads.

“We talked to a few other survivors, but only one group joined us for a few days. They soon left, heading to Lexington after hearing a radio broadcast about a safe military strong point. I told them that unless they had sixty-foot-tall concrete walls, it was not worth it, but they went off anyway.

“It was that night the husband’s brother tried to rape me,” Lilly mumbled. “Judy and George bit him, making him back off. When he tried to get his gun, I pulled mine. The husband and wife jumped up, yelling at him, then looked at me and said they were sorry for his behavior. I turned my gun, aiming at them, and told them to back off. I gathered my stuff and left in the dark.

“The husband and wife never moved to stop him—at least not till I pulled out my revolver. They knew I had the M4 and Beretta I took off the soldier, but I never let them know about the revolver I found in that store. The guys were the only ones with pistols, and they didn’t have many bullets for them. They kept trying to get me to let the wife carry my pistol. After thinking about it, I realized they knew I didn’t know how to work that rifle. It took me a while, but I figured out how to load it, but I couldn’t take it apart and clean it.”

Lilly looked up with a clenched jaw, but her eyes were misty. “I grabbed my stuff and hit the woods. They tried to follow, all of them yelling out they were sorry, but I can move through the woods at night; they couldn’t. They had come to depend on Judy and George to guide us when we moved. The dogs would steer us around any infected if they weren’t too close or let us know, and we could deal with them quietly. It didn’t take me long to lose them, and for all I know, they are still walking around the woods because all of them grew up in Columbus and had never been in the country.

“From then on, I was alone,” Lilly said with a sob. “I did find a CB in a truck that still had battery power and talked to a man north of Knoxville for an hour or so. Knowing that I could be found by that radio, I walked off the road into the woods. Nobody ever came, but I just kept on moving.”

Lance cleared his throat. “Um, where were you heading? Home?”

Shaking her head, Lilly wiped her eyes. “No, Dad died my first year in college, and Mom sold the ranch. She moved to Vegas and had a midlife crisis. I called her all the time but rarely got her. The last time I talked to her was New Year’s Eve. She was engaged to a guy younger than me.”

“You’re mad at her for that?” Jennifer asked.

“No,” Lilly huffed. “I’m mad at her because that was her third engagement, and he was the oldest of the three. I’m mad at her for not answering my calls, or when I would come home, she would be gone, and I would have to stay at a motel. She knew I was coming home, and she would take off. That only happened a few times, and I just quit going home. Momma got a fortune for the ranch, and she’s just spending it right and left. It’s hers, and she can do what she wants with it, but I told her, ‘Don’t come to my house when you’re broke.’ And she was almost through half of what she got from the ranch.”

Lilly stared at the table, and Lance kept waiting for her to continue. After a while, he asked, “So where were you going?”

“The only plan I really had was to head west and was about to start my turn when I ran into you,” she said, wiping her nose with her shirt. “I was thinking of a valley in Idaho where we went to hunt. It’s steep getting there, but there’s water. Winter would be a bitch though.”

Lance reached over and patted her arm. “I’m sorry you ran into a bunch of cocksuckers.”

“Let’s find them bitches and skull fuck ‘em,” Allie said in a cheerful voice, which only made Ian and Lance cringe more. They both knew exactly where Allie got that phrase as Jennifer looked at both of them, shaking her head.

Wondering if he should address Allie’s vocabulary, Lance jumped when the center monitor on the wall blinked and started giving the alarm beep. Not a second later, four phones started beeping. “Man, this is bullshit,” he said, grabbing his phone. “Those motherfucking cocksuckers couldn’t come in daylight?”

Tapping his phone, the alarm quit sounding, and Lance moved over to the monitors beside the projection screen. The others got up, following him, and Lilly looked down at Jennifer’s phone. “The cabin calls you if someone is near?”

“Yeah, Lance taught it how to do that,” Jennifer said, putting her phone in her pocket.

“Holy shit,” Lance said, stopping at the monitors with his mouth hanging open. As one, the others moved over quickly and froze. On the screen lit up by the camera’s UV light was a full-grown tiger. It was sitting down with its side to the camera in a small clearing. “I thought I saw a puddy cat,” Lance droned.