Reset (Book 2): Salvation (22 page)

John monitored the radio and conveyed to the others the simple message that it was clear.

“If we don’t see each other again,” John told Marilee. “Then please know we are sorry and hope your life with your son is long and prosperous.”

“Don’t be silly, John,” Marilee said.” We’re all going to be a community. A village. You’ll see. Maybe even head back to Rantoul. But we’ll be together. All of us.”

“I hope you’re right my dear.”

“You owe me a novel,” Marilee said. “No one has published anything in decades.”

“Yes, I must get out of my thirty year slump. A novel you shall get.”

And the wheels in his brains started spinning. What would his first post apocalypse novel be? Before the world ended there were tons of novels about life in the apocalypse. John planned to write the first novel, written post apocalypse. Life after it ended. And he’d start that novel as soon as they were done with Salvation.

Meredith still wasn’t sure how it would all go down. Obviously, the paperwork proved their innocence, or they wouldn’t be walking toward the gate. They had parked outside the gate and were instructed to hold off coming in.

On the way a military truck rolled by them. It carried soldiers. Meredith swore that the older man driving made eye contact. She actually worried that they were leaving camp, planning maybe on gassing them, until she watched people in hazmat suits moving about inside the fenced in area.

They were probably just moving the soldiers out as a precaution.

“You all right?” Cole asked her. “You’re scratching your neck.”

“I always scratch when I’m nervous. I don’t know what we’re walking into, or even if we are walking out. Hell, this may not even be real.”

“What do you mean?” Cole asked.

“Like what if we all are connected by some link, but are still in stasis and are sharing a dream while in cryo sleep. We wake up and all is fine with the world. We die in our dream, we die in stasis.”

“Quite the imagination.”

“I was a theorist before all this.”

“We will have lots to discuss.”

“If we make it out of this. I’m not convinced that I’m not a carrier.”

“Can I let you in on a little secret,” Cole leaned into her and whispered. “I think I am too.”

Nora felt the comfort of Jason’s hand on her lower back as they walked through the gate and passed the armed soldier in protective gear. As he promised from day one he wasn’t leaving her side. Outside the gate she saw the plastic, see through room, she figured was for them. The Salvation van that Malcolm had driven was parked with the other vehicles. It wasn’t until they walked in that Nora saw Malcolm standing ten feet from the plastic room.

“What’s going on with him?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know.” Nora then called for him. “Malcolm?” Just as she stepped his way she was stopped.

“Please continue to the bio containment room, please,” the soldier said.

“I’m not allowed in,” Malcolm spoke loud enough for her to hear and said so calmly. “But I am here, Nora. I am right here. I am not moving.”

Nora nodded. A part of her felt like a sheep being led to slaughter, as if it were all a big ruse, until she heard Marilee.

In an emotionally, airy voice, Marilee called out. “Dillard. Oh my God, Dillard.”

Nora looked.

Marilee pointed to the window of the former discount store. A young boy stood there waving frantically and looking excited to see her. Immediately, Nora’s eyes misted over.

“Your son,” she said to Marilee.

“My baby,” Marilee whimpered.

The soldier pointed to the entrance of the quarantine room and instructed them to go on in. “Not you,” he said to Marilee. “Come this way.”

Marilee smiled, making eye contact with Nora.

“I’m so happy for you,” Nora said.

Marilee mouthed the words, ‘Thank you’ and followed the soldier.

Once inside, they were told to just hold on and someone would be with them in a moment. But Nora watched. The sheer plastic allowed for her to watch Marilee go into the former store and while it was still a distance, she could see clear enough when the reunion occurred between mother and son.

Her heart raced and she felt the emotions flood her chest. She stepped back into Jason, his hand squeezed her shoulder. He watched as well. For all that had gone wrong, at least something positive was happening.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” through the ventilator speaker the man spoke. “My name is Dr. Nelson. This is my team. We will be drawing blood samples. I promise it will be over soon. Results should be quick and we should know within an hour.”

Nora, like the others was nervous, Hunter put it in her mind it was all a trap and she had her doubts about Salvation’s true intentions. Even though they didn’t check them for weapons … a sign of trust, Nora was still leery. The mistrust seemed to go out the window when Marilee and Dillard embraced. They kept their word. Their end of the bargain. For as scary as it was for the carriers, an outcome unknown, the vision of mother and child through that window reaffirmed that Nora and the others needed to keep their word as well.

<><><><>

The blood work was finished. What was going on? Malcolm watched, his eyes only leaving that plastic unit to check on Marilee and her son, who still stood by that far corner window. She held him close to her, in front of her. Like Malcolm, they were watching the happenings in that bio room. Marilee more than likely was just waiting for them to be released, so they could all leave, like planned, to start a new life.

All appeared well and fine, but Malcolm knew better.

He thought back to earlier when he met with the colonel.

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

Malcolm did.

Norris folded his hands on the desk. “I’m taking these papers and I’m keeping them safe.”

“Of course.”

“Listen, they are moving me and my men out. At first I thought it was in case of contamination. But another team, not my division, will be staying back. Something is going on.”

Something was going on, Malcolm felt it. But when was it going to happen and what exactly would it be?

There wasn’t a word spoken in the bio room in the near forty minutes in which they waited on results. Meredith paced, as did John. Nora watched Marilee and her son, then she’d turn back to look at Malcolm who just stood there.

“Why is he standing there?” Nora asked Jason.

“I don’t know,” Jason replied.

“He’s watching us like a lab experiment,” John added.

“Nora?” Meredith called out. “Is that Rick?”

Nora’s heart skipped a beat, especially when Jason said, “That has to be him.”

She spun hastily around to see Rick walking with a soldier. They kept their promise. They said he’d be there after she took the test and there he was.

“My God,” John said. “He looks fantastic for his age.”

To Nora he did. She expected a shock at seeing him older but there was no shock, only cheerful emotions that swept over her making her want to scream.

Rick walked to the one side of the tent and Nora rushed over.

“Nora, oh my God. Can you hear me?” he asked.

“Yes. It’s muffled, but I can hear you.”

He placed his hands on the plastic and the second Nora’s palms pressed against his, Rick’s knees buckled some, the solider caught him before he lost balance, and Rick lowered his head. “Oh God, I believed you were dead.”

“I’m sorry. I am so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. I can’t wait to touch you and talk to you. I just need to see that you are real. You look exactly like I remember you.”

“You look the same too.”

“Nora, come on,” he smiled.

“No, Rick, you do. Is Lilly here?”

Rick shook his head. “I’m sorry. Lilly, she wasn’t ready for this. Not yet.”

“I understand. Please tell her, I love her.”

“I will and …” the solider tugged his arm. “I have to go.”

“But …”

“Listen, I’ll see you soon. They let me come out to say hi. We’ll talk later.”

“Okay.” Nora tried to touch him once more through the plastic, but the soldier led him away. She stood there watching as they took him into the old store and that was when she saw it. Her eyes widened. “What the hell? Guys? Marilee.”

Marilee backed up against the window, she grabbed on to Dillard, clutching him tight and protectively, it was apparent she was frightened and tried to back up with nowhere to go. Then she was grabbed and disappeared.

All nine in the tent vocally cried out their protest when Nelson entered the room.

“We have your results.”

Malcolm saw Richard enter the building and Marilee and her son vanish from sight. It was starting, just as Norris said.

Malcolm replayed his conversation in his mind.

“Why would they pull your team out?” Malcolm asked.

“So there would be no witnesses. I don’t think anyone is supposed to leave here alive. This is what I think, because the team that’s here are assassins for Salvation. The sweep team.”

“What about Rick? Marilee? Her son?”

“Again, this is my guess. I have no hardcore proof and I’m making a guess on what I see. Marilee and her son are expendable. Rick, well, in Salvation, when someone turns seventy, they are released from life. Rick turned seventy two days ago. His wife, daughter, family and friends already said goodbye to him. They think he was euthanized.”

“Oh my God.”

“Here’s what I know from what I have seen. Aside from the four man medical team, you have six soldiers on the sweep team. One at the gate, one in the bio room, two snipers on the roof, two inside the building, I believe to take care of Marilee, her son, and Rick. That’s all I know that are here.”

“I need to move the van to take a look.”

Norris agreed.

Hands and insides shaking, Malcolm hurried to the van. He peered around. “Okay, two soldiers inside I can’t see. I do see the one by the gate.” He slowly moved the van to be near the other trucks. “Two on the roof. Where? Where? I can’t see them.” Just as he parked the van, he spotted one, rifle aimed and ready. “There’s one. Oh my God.”

He returned to the tent, as Norris was packing up his things along with the evidence that Malcolm had given him.

“If you left, no one would stop you.” Norris told him. “But I know you won’t do that. You’re one man. I don’t know what you can do, but God Speed.”

Malcolm was as ready as he could be. He didn’t want to jump the gun any further and initiate something that wasn’t going to happen. There was still a chance that the sweep team was there in case they all tried to escape. He had to wait. That’s all he could do.

Nelson and his three colleagues had entered the tent with the soldier. Their announcement that they had the results did little to instantly calm those who questioned about Marilee.

Finally, in a stern voice, Nelson said. “If you want this over, we need to finish now.”

Nora and the others stood before them. All nine of them waiting, they all joined hands, like contestants on some reality talent show, waiting on elimination results.

“You’re trembling,” John whispered to Nora, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

“I’m scared. I just want to get out of here,” Nora said.

“Soon,” Jason whispered in her other ear. “Soon.”

“We ran the results twice to be sure,” Nelson said. “Good news or bad, however you want to look at it … only one of you nine is a carrier.”

Nora exhaled, but still trembled. Only one. Only one of them carried the virus.

Nelson looked down at his clipboard. “The carrier is …. Which one of you is … John?”

Nora felt his hand immediately shake and her heart took a nosedive to the pit of her stomach.
No, not John.
He was shoulder to shoulder with her, and Nora felt his inhale of courage just before he clutched her hand tighter

“I am,” John said.

“Very well. Thank you.” Nelson stepped back.

Without a pause or inkling of hesitation, the second Nelson moved out of the way, the soldier raised a pistol, extended it and fired once, point blank into John’s head.

The execution bell rang out in the form of a gunshot.

Meredith screamed, shrill, loud, and hysterically.

The warm sensation of blood splattered across Nora’s face, John’s hand still secured to Nora’s pulled her down when he flew backwards. Her mouth opened and she tried to scream, but she couldn’t. Blood rushed to her ears and muffled the sound of everything.