Reset (Book 2): Salvation (21 page)

Maggie didn’t know him, but he sounded like someone she would like. Someone that could be a friend. Then again, her head wasn’t in it. Selfishly, she worried about what was going on in her own body.

At first Maggie didn’t want to speak to Jason when he called, saying she’d only speak to Malcolm. But Jason was persistent and polite.

“See, you want us to make the right choice. We don’t know what the right choice is.”

“The right choice is for all of you to turn yourselves in.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Jason said. “Is there a compromise?”

“No. Some of you are carriers. There’s no compromise.”

“You realize, we can take off, right? This is a big country. We can disappear.”

“Then why are you even bothering to talk to me?” Maggie asked. “If you can disappear, go. It’s on you.”

“I’m calling because I want us to do the right thing.”

“The right thing is to turn yourself in.” Maggie ended the call.

Trey approached her. “Is there really no compromise?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t even tried. I’d have to call Council and tell them that they don’t want to turn themselves in. I don’t know what would happen. I’m just so angry right now,” she said. “Angry at them for bringing this back and angry at myself for not taking precautions when I went into Rantoul.”

“Maybe you aren’t infected.”

“Maybe.” Maggie sighed. “Tomorrow will tell. Actually … tomorrow will tell a lot.”

<><><><>

Sitting with the others around the fire, Malcolm went through the contents of the envelope Nora grabbed from his office. “This is unbelievable. This …” he told the others. “Proves that none of us were willing participants. The screen captures from the video. It’s all here.” He smiled.

“We had no idea,” Nora said. “I saw your son’s name on it.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” He stood up with the folder.

“Where are you going?” Nora asked.

“Jason said they wouldn’t compromise. Maybe hearing about this…” Malcolm lifted the folder and the Aldervice. “Maybe they’ll be willing to talk.”

After he walked off, Nora looked at Marilee. She stared at the fire, looking so lost. Nora sat beside her. “Hey, I haven’t had a chance to talk to you. I am … I am so sorry. We are so sorry. You welcomed us and we caused this.”

“You didn’t know,” she said. “Even if you suspected you still didn’t know.”

“It took a lot for you to face us,” Nora said.

“Where else am I gonna go? I have no one. Everyone I knew and loved is gone.”

Nora felt her words, the pain in them, and they cut through her as she clutched Marilee’s hand. “If I can figure out a way to make this up to you, I will.”

“There’s no way.”

“I’ll try.” Nora told her, then noticed Malcolm was back. She stood. “That was fast. What did they say?”

Malcolm looked at everyone. “They’ll take the papers and they’ll let us live out our lives out here if … we all submit to a blood test and we give up the carrier, or carriers.”

John spoke up. “And one of us is a carrier. So we condemn this person to death, or whatever they choose to do with us.”

Malcolm nodded.

Meredith said. “Freedom for all comes at a price. A high price.”

“I say we go,” Malcolm said. “Let’s head east like Hunter said. They don’t go into the wasteland. It’s our best option.”

“No,” Jason said. “It’s not. It’s noble of you Malcolm because you know for a fact you aren’t a carrier, but I don’t know if I am, or not. And I can’t live with the fact that I feel fine but can easily cause death everywhere I go. We can hide, stay clear, but what if one of us has a child? What if we stumble upon a group, or they stumble upon us. I can’t take that chance.”

“Neither can I,” said Nora. “I’m with Jason. I vote we take the test.”

“I’ve had a good life,” John lifted his hand. “I also vote we get that test.”

“If it’s me,” Meredith said. “I’d rather die knowing I didn’t cause any more death, then live wondering.”

At that point, everyone had their hands lifted.

“No.” Malcolm shook his head. “No, we beat this thirty year bullshit. Someone did this to us. We didn’t ask for this.”

“Neither did Rantoul.” Nora reached for the Aldervice. “Let me make the call.”

As Malcolm handed her the device, Hunter’s hand came down on it. “No. This is mistake. A trap. Just pack. Leave. Do not bargain. They took children. Kill. They do not make deals with ease.”

“He’s right,” Malcolm said. “Thinking about it. She’s making a deal too easy and too fast.”

Nora removed Hunter’s hand from the device. “It’s a chance I’m willing to take.” Having learned from Malcolm how to use it, Nora connected a communication line. Her insides literally shook waiting for an answer.

“Yes,” Maggie answered.

“There’s a woman here from Rantoul….”

“Who is this?”

“My name is Nora Lane. Just listen to me. She is not sick, she never got sick. She’s immune. Two years ago you took her son. His name is Dillard Wanes. I want her reunited with her son. She gets her son back,” Nora said.

“Her son is in the system. He’s ...”

“Find him. And find my family. I know you know them. I want one last goodbye. Promise these and you can have your carriers. We’re packed and ready to leave. You have an hour to let us know, or we hit the road.”

Without waiting for anymore to be said, Nora disconnected and she handed the device back to Malcolm.

Marilee just stared at her.

Jason walked up and placed his lips to her forehead.

Everyone waited in nervous silence, except Hunter who actually began gathering items. He expressed his hope they would not agree, because he didn’t trust them.

The return call came forty-two minutes later.

“I spoke to Salvation Council,” Maggie said. “It will take at least a day to find Dillard. But they agreed. Here’s how it will go down. The day after tomorrow we will meet in Jacksonville, Illinois. Off of old highway seventy-two there is a building that used to be a Walmart. It is now a field training center. We will meet at noon. Malcolm, because he is immune will show Colonel Norris the documentation. After he verifies the validity of it, all of you will be placed in a special holding and tested. After and only after we have you, the mother will be taken to her child and Nora will see her family.”

“Then what?” Malcolm asked.

“Dr. Nelson should know pretty quickly who is a carrier and who is not. We take the carrier, or carriers, the rest go on their way.”

“What happens to the carriers?” Malcolm questioned.

“They’ll be placed where they can’t be danger to anyone.”

“Thank you,” Malcolm said. “And Maggie. I truly hope you do not get this.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

The call ended and Malcolm put away the device. “Two days.”

Her face was pale and despite her fever, a thin line of perspiration formed on Maggie’s forehead. The sickness had ravaged her leaving her lips dry and blistered, and her neck so swollen she often times choked on her on saliva.

Trey helped her sit up and gave her water. The first sip she took just fine. The second one she coughed causing the liquid to seep from her mouth.

“Sorry,” she said.

“It’s fine. Lay back down.” Trey adjusted the pillow.

“Do you think the people that lived here would mind I am in their bed?”

“No, not at all. They did well in this town, I bet they were nice.”

“What time is it?”

“Eight.”

“You better get going it will take a couple hours to get there.”

“I’m not going, Maggie. I’m not leaving you.”

Maggie whimpered. “You don’t need to do that.”

“I don’t. I want to. Now rest. Okay? Don’t worry about anything.” Trey waited for her to close her eyes and then he slipped from the bedroom of the small trailer home. Once outside he lifted the Aldervice and after pressing an icon, brought it to his ear. “Come on, Dad, pick up, hear the chirp.” He had been trying to reach his father since the night before using the private channel, just in case Salvation monitored, but Malcolm hadn’t answered. Finally he did.

“Hello.”

“Dad, did you leave yet?”

“No. Not yet. We will in an hour. Where’s Maggie?”

“She’s sick. She’s real sick,” Trey said.

“I’m sorry.”

“Me, too. Listen … I’m giving you the heads up. I don’t know what’s going down. They cut Maggie out of the loop and haven’t contacted her since yesterday morning. Just don’t … just meet Norris first, alone. Be diligent.”

“I will, thank you.”

“And Dad, hopefully, I’ll see you soon.”

“Hopefully.”

Trey ended the call. He wanted to do more, he wanted to be there in case of trouble, but he couldn’t. He just didn’t have it in him to walk away and leave Maggie to die alone. He just hoped his call to his father would be enough.

<><><><>

“Good. Good,” Hunter told Nora. “You break but are fast.”

“Thank you.”

Hunter had them all lined up in some sort of final warrior training session, just in case trouble happened. They had been working since the day before.

He stepped to Meredith and stopped her when she clumsily pulled her weapon from under her larger shirt. “You must be quick and sure.”

“I don’t understand. If they attack they’ll slaughter us.”

“Enemy will be close in the place they test you. Like I am to you now. You go down with a fight.” Hunter nodded. “I will not be there to protect you.”

John groaned. “I hate that he stopped talking in third person.”

Meredith grabbed Hunter’s hand. “I wish you were going to be there. I’d feel safer. But Hunter you know, I feel I am the carrier, right?”

“Hunter … I will get you. I have hatch.”

“You’re sweet. We made a deal.”

“If they break deal?” Hunter asked.

“Then you can find me. I’m pretty sure the walls of Salvation are nothing for you.”

“Good. Now work.”

<><><><>

Nora felt confident in her training and was ready to go. Jason quit early to salvage the Salvation van because they were all pretty sure, Salvation would take it back.

“You’ve been busy,” Nora said to him.

“Just getting ready. Hopefully, if all goes as planned, we’ll be back here to make a long term plan.”

Nora smiled. “Well, you know, if we don’t want to have a shitty life, we should avoid the waste … land.”

Jason crinkled his nose and shook his head. ‘Oh, God, Nora.’

“Figured I’d give you one more joke before we hit the road.”

“It should have been better.” He placed his hands on her arms. “How are you?”

“Good. Nervous.”

“Listen, if they find me to be a carrier …”

“You’re not.”

“If I am,” Jason said. “It’s okay. I’m okay with it and I need you to know that.”

“It’s not okay if you are. If you are I will be with you. I’ll go into quarantine, or whatever with you.”

“Nora, no …”

“Jason, too bad.” Nora said. “We woke up out of stasis together. You were the first face I saw that day and the first face I have seen every day since. Face peeled or not. We started this long lost thirty year journey together. We’ll … end it together.”

“It won’t come to that,” Jason said. “What do you think will happen?”

“They’ll kill us all, or let us go and we live happily ever after as best we can.”

“Wow, there’s no in between there in your guess, is there?”

Nora shook her head.

“Then let’s focus on the ever after.”

Nora shifted her eyes and then pointed at Hunter. “He’s not coming with us. What do you think will happen to him if we don’t return?”

“Honestly? He won’t give up on us. Hunter is, well … a hunter,” Jason said. “I am confident he’ll come after us.”

<><><><>

There was a great debate on whether Blake would even go with the group. Simply because he had the others from his California lab that he had to meet and warn. However, it weighed heavily on Blake that he could be a carrier so he wanted to go.

Malcolm hated it. He hated that everyone was willing to self sacrifice. It truly wasn’t fair to him. Had they all taken the same vehicle, Malcolm probably would have turned it and went another way. However there were ten of them from the labs and Marilee, so other than the van, they took three buggies, leaving one behind for Hunter. He handled his driving lessons fairly well.

Remembering his conversation with Trey, Malcolm left the others fifteen miles behind. Enough room to leave if there were trouble, or those from Salvation didn’t find the information worthy. Cole had figured out the communication devices in the buggies and Malcolm told them to stay put until he radioed for them to come.

The old highway that ran perpendicular to the town of Jacksonville was well maintained compared to other roads. That told Malcolm it was one frequently travelled. He found the old Walmart with relative ease; it was off the main road center of a huge lot.

He started assessing the second he pulled into the fenced lot. The single guard on detail let him in and instructed him to go to the tent near the bio room. He didn’t know what that meant. But he was certain he would find out.

Inside the area he spotted four large trucks and two jeep style vehicles. Right away, Malcolm saw the tent and the bio room. A plastic tent type structure that was square, and transparent. Inside he saw there were cots and chairs. Two medical personnel in hazmat suits moved around. A third, Malcolm took for a soldier, because he was armed, stood by the entrance of the bio tent.

Malcolm backed the van up behind the two tents. “Jesus,” he said. “I can do this. Why am I nervous?”

As he stepped out, one of those in the hazmat suit waved. Did Malcolm know him? Was it Nelson? He had heard he would be there.

The tent was ten yards from the bio room and had an actual door. There was no guard and Malcolm knocked.

“Come in,” Norris called out.

Malcolm walked in.

“Malcolm it’s good to see you.” Norris extended his hand.

“I want to thank you again,” Malcolm said. “Really. Because of what you did, I was able to get this.” He handed him the large envelope.

“How did this come about?” Norris asked, opening it as he walked.

“It goes back to right after the explosion. I ran the company that did the bio cam footage which uploaded to our server in Cleveland. My son saw that, my partner pulled it, copied it, and put it away for Trey. Nora went to my office while searching Cleveland and came across that. She didn’t know what it was. She just grabbed it.”

Norris shuffled through the photos. “This is unbelievable. You look dead.”

“They made it look that way.”

“You really weren’t aware?”

Malcolm shook his head. “And Nora wasn’t supposed to be there at all, she crashed that party. It was mistaken identity for her. They truly stole her life.”

“I like you Malcolm. You’re a good guy.”

“Thank you.”

“Do me a favor?” Norris asked. “Shut that door and have a seat.”