Malcolm felt better. He was groggy during his talk with Trey, but once the fog cleared from his head, he felt stronger. The fever that beat him down was gone.
He listened to the voices outside of the room. Trey spoke to someone. Malcolm couldn’t make out the words. He sensed it wasn’t good, especially after the news Trey delivered. He guessed it wouldn’t be long before someone came into his room. If Trey was covering up Malcolm’s identity, surely it wasn’t a doctor going over Malcolm’s condition with him.
His arm was attached via tubing to an intravenous bag, but other than that Malcolm was mobile and he wanted to take advantage of that. He missed the entrance into Salvation. More than anything he was curious about the world set behind a wall.
What type of city was it thirty years in the future? Nothing in the room was ‘futuristic’. Of course, Malcolm learned from the
Back To The Future
movies that thirty years was a mere blip. There was a chance technology wasn’t zooming ahead. He remembered seeing the movies and waiting for all the cool stuff that the movies predicted. In a sense, a lot was accurate, but on a smaller scale.
Still alone in the room, voices outside continuing, Malcolm removed the sheet, swung his legs over the bed and stood.
The window was close and Malcolm wanted to look out.
He wanted to see, at least a part of, Salvation.
He parted the blinds ever so slightly, like a nosey neighbor trying not to be seen. What Malcolm did see surprised him. He wasn’t many floors up, maybe three or four and his view was stilted. There were no cars, no exterior motor noise, very few people walked the streets. He didn’t know what city he was in, but it looked to Malcolm like a small town. Those structures still remained, almost like a relic or museum. Beyond the original buildings were multitudes of the same gray building. All four stories high, all square, plain. They were simplistically constructed. Those, Malcolm imagined, were erected in the preparation years and more were added as population grew.
It was all speculation from what he saw, which wasn’t very much. It was all very old fashioned, yet futuristic.
He turned with a jolt when his door opened and a man in biohazard gear entered the room.
“We are going to need you to step back and into bed please.” He said.
“Everything okay?” Malcolm asked.
“Please return to your bed.”
Not one to disobey orders, especially since he was the ‘alien’ in the new foreign world, Malcolm retreated to his bed. Once he sat upon it, the man signaled at the door. Four more people entered, all dressed the same in protective gear.
They moved quickly, sealing the windows with plastic, covering everything including vents. Around his bed, they erected a tent. While doing so, no one spoke to him.
Malcolm didn’t need to be a scientist or doctor to realize he was being placed in some sort of quarantine. But why?
He only knew that whatever the reason, it wasn’t going to play out well.
His heart sunk and he cursed the injury that brought him there. Something in his gut said that for him it was going to be far from Salvation.
<><><><>
Rusty made John and Meredith a care package. Not that he wasn’t escorting them to Wrecker land to find their buggy, he was. But he knew they weren’t coming back with him. That’s what he told them.
“That’s big,” John commented when Rusty showed him the old duffel bag as he loaded it in the back of the cart.
“Ain’t all,” Rusty lifted a box. “Made you a humdinger of a care package.”
“Is that so,” John said.
“We really appreciate it,” Meredith added.
“I know you two have your stuff. But this is good stuff. Important. Things you’ll need.” Rusty opened the bag and box some, then indicated that aside from the revolver size crossbow, which John likened to an old nerf gun dart shooter, he gave them marijuana and moonshine. “Won’t get stuff like this anywhere,” He lifted the jug. “Best this side of the straits of the Waste.”
“Straits of the Waste,” John repeated. “Obviously referring to the post nuclear wasteland.”
“You got it.” Rusty winked.
<><><><>
The horse drawn buggy ride was bumpy and long. John wondered how he never woke up even briefly after his attack. It was a different view of everything, especially with Rusty giving the narration of each step.
“All this here,” Rusty pointed out. “Was a mall. The mall then became a medical camp. After that, it was tore down. Yep. I can remember as a boy coming here and stealing food.”
Meredith said, “it had to be difficult for you.”
“We did what we could. Houses used to be closer. There used to be grocery stores. I think the only thing that is better is pockets of humanity.”
“What do you mean?” John asked. “You’re talking about those who survived?’
“No, those who survived and are good people. They kept their humanity. Neighbors help neighbors now. Not a lot of hate.”
“That’s one good thing,” Meredith said.
They moved along for a bit further until Rusty pointed out and announced, “This is where I found you.”
“Were we just out in the open?” John asked.
“No. Not at all. Wouldn’t have looked had I not seen a dead Wrecker. Usually they take their dead, they must have missed him.” Rusty pulled the buggy to a stop and climbed out. “Do you recall where your own mobile is?”
John stepped out and looked around. “Back there.” He pointed.
“So you hid it?” Rusty asked. “Think the Wreckers got to it?”
“Yeah, but we have a secret compartment and Grant, the man that was with us, he was so paranoid about someone attacking us he hid the battery cell.”
Meredith asked. “John, if they didn’t get the battery cell, how are we gonna charge it enough to start the buggy. It’s been a few days.”
“Chances are it’s charged. It wasn’t buried,” John replied.
“Wreckers could have got it,” Rusty said.
“Doubtful,” John replied. “They wouldn’t know what to do with it.” Tromping over what foliage there was, John uncovered the buggy.
The stuff that was hidden under the back seat remained. He then scoured the area for the mark on the stump. Grant had marked a broken tree stump to show where he hid the battery cell.
Sure enough, it was there. John grinned and held it up.
“So is this goodbye?” Rusty asked. “I mean you got your vehicle and energy contraptions. What happens now?”
Meredith stepped to Rusty. “We tell you how grateful we are for you and even though we are leaving, I’d like to ask if we can come back and see you after we meet up with our friends. We’re gonna need to settle somewhere and I think this area is perfect.’
“I’d like that. You have the map. Don’t lose it.” He shook his finger at them in a lighthearted way.
“We won’t.” John then embraced Rusty. “I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you. I will never forget what you have done for me.”
“Come back and visit, let me know if you ever found Salvation.”
That was all Rusty requested. He gave them his version of a care package and brought Meredith and John to the solar buggy then he stayed and helped bury Grant, then watched as they pulled away.
John kept peering back in the mirror until Rusty faded. “Ready?” John asked Meredith.
“As ready as I can be.”
“Where to first?”
Meredith looked down at the map. “At least twenty miles from here. Then we’re safely out of Wrecker land.” She glanced back down to the map and the section marked with a ‘W’. “I hope.”
<><><><>
It was a good day. The weather was clear and Rusty wanted to enjoy the ride back to his home. At the pace he set it would take a good hour or so, but that was fine. He had a bit of a headache and hoped the fresh air would do him some good. He had been stagnant in his home since the arrival of his guests. Or rather the two people he found and helped. There was something strange about them, they claimed to not know anything. Hinted that they were in some sort of experiment that had them sleep for decades. To Rusty, they were either very clever and creative, or they were telling the truth.
The fact that they went into Wrecker territory told him a lot.
No one knowingly goes into Wrecker World.
He liked John and Meredith. Although John seemed stuffy, he was a nice guy. Rusty hoped they wouldn’t leave. If indeed they just woke up from some sort of refrigerator cooling system, they weren’t prepared for the world. The fact that they had been attacked and violently sexually violated told Rusty that. Had it not been for them needing to meet their friends, Rusty would have encouraged them to stay. Learn a little of the new world.
As they went their separate ways, in complete opposite directions, Rusty kept looking over his shoulder to the odd sun mobile they rode. In his mind, he wished them luck just one more time.
About twenty minutes into his journey, maybe about ten miles, he spotted it. The sun beat squarely down at Rusty casting a haze over his vision. He tipped his hat to shade his sight and pulled on the reins to lower the speed.
“Well, look at that,” Rusty said as he neared the figure on the road.
The person walked slowly, nearly staggering, but by the size of him, Rusty knew, even from a distance it was a Wrecker.
Wreckers had eye problems and didn’t see well at all in the sun. Hence, Rusty believed, why he staggered.
He was a huge son of a bitch, Rusty thought, bigger than most he had seen.
What was he doing out not only in the day, but in an area not quite dirty, dusty and dead, like Wrecker Land? Maybe he was in the shade, trying to make his way. Lost.
Whatever the case, Wreckers were dangerous. Rusty didn’t worry about being hurt. Even with a bad knee and hip, he could dart out of the way. Especially on the open road under a bright clear sky.
Another pull of the reins, the horse ‘neighed’ and the Wrecker stopped, then looked around. His hand was on his stomach and the other reached out.
The Wrecker made some sort of noise. As if he were calling out.
It carried to Rusty, louder and stronger as the Wrecker stood in one place waving out his extended hand.
Was he thinking he was gonna attack? If Rusty didn’t know any better, he would have sworn the Wrecker was trying to get help.
But Rusty knew better.
He reached behind him for his cross bow and made sure it was loaded and ready to go. Rusty needed one shot, one shot only, but even as good of a shot as he was, he had to get closer. The sun distorted his vision.
“Easy boy,” Rusty said to the horse and stepped from the cart.
The Wrecker didn’t move.
“What are you doing in these parts?” Rusty asked.
The Wrecker reached out.
“Can’t see me to attack. Can you now?”
Another groan and again, the Wrecker swung out.
Rusty was about fifteen feet away, but in order to make it a clean shot, one that would kill, he had to get closer. Just as he hit a distance of eight feet, he raised the weapon, prepared to fire, when the Wrecker, just dropped to the ground.
Was it some sort of ploy? Rusty still planned on killing him and lowered his aim. He would have killed him had the Wrecker not started to shake. His body convulsed slightly and the Wrecker coughed. He coughed in a choking manner.
“What the hell?” Rusty lowered his aim, still keeping his distance.
Once more the Wrecker reached out, then his arm dropped and he went still.
Rusty gave it a moment in case it was a trick. When he realized the Wrecker was dead he stepped closer.
Had the Wrecker been injured days before by John and had been wandering the whole time? Maybe he got lost and starved.
Rusty stood closer and the second his own shadow cast over the Wrecker, he realized what happened.
The Wrecker, like all his kind, had smooth skin, no hair and a slightly elongated head, like a Neanderthal. His nose was wide and flat, a thick substance formed at the base of his small nostrils. His lips were big with a clef that exposed his larger teeth and gums. His mouth was open and from it was more of the thick greenish substance.
However, more than his mouth and nose, it was the eyes of the Wrecker that said a lot. Eyes that always bulged were so red they looked black. His eyelids were encrusted with what looked like scabs and around his thick neck were glands so swollen and purple, they had grown so big, they were splitting the skin.
The Wrecker wasn’t lost or injured, the Wrecker was sick. He died from what ailed him. If Rusty didn’t know any better, he would sworn it was the virus. But that was impossible. It had been dormant for nearly ten years.
Nonetheless, whatever it was that killed the Wrecker, scared Rusty.
It was going to be a long trek, time wise to get back to the buggy, but at the speed Jason walked, Nora wondered if they’d make it out of the city before dark.
He dragged. Typically he didn’t, was there something on his mind?
She was able to find a couple of those two wheel carts that had a handle like wheeled luggage. They weren’t in the best of condition, but she cleaned them up and packed them with items she took from the Westin and other items she picked up. They moved easier and carried more than the plastic drug store cart.
She pulled one cart, pen in mouth, map in hand, duffle bag over her shoulder while Jason pulled the other with the guitar over his shoulder. He walked a few feet behind her.
She paused, looked down at the map, pulled the pen and marked off landmarks. It was a tourist style map with businesses marked on it. It was far easier for her to keep track of where they were and where they were headed by landmarks. She marked off another.
Remnants of landmarks were easier to spot than street signs.
“Chernobyl.” Jason said.
“Oh, he speaks.” Nora turned around. “What did you say?”
“Chernobyl. I remember looking at pictures.” He paused and took a sip of water. “I remember in school we learned the eco process.” He walked and caught up to her. “I distinctively recall my science teacher telling me. ‘Look at an empty field. In five years you’ll see this, in ten you’ll see that’.” He shrugged.
“A lot of factors play into what would be overgrown. At least I think...”
“Theoretically and scientifically, this should look like Nashville. Then again, not everyone left Cleveland. Some stayed. We saw that. But Chernobyl, at least the pictures didn’t look like Nashville. No one lived there. Maybe they did and we just didn’t know. Mutants and such.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Jason.”
“Just idle conversation, I guess. Now that my mind unlocked a lot of stuff.”
Nora felt a little jealous. “You’re remembering?”
“Yeah, the bits and pieces are no longer like memories of movies, I know them now as my life. You?” Jason asked.
Nora shook her head. “My full memories don’t really start until my twenties. Hell, I nearly didn’t remember I was in the service.”
“They’ll come.”
“I hope. I want to remember my parents.”
“What if you remember stuff you wish you wouldn’t?”
Again, Nora stopped walking. “That was a really odd thing to say. Did you?”
Jason pouted and shrugged. “Conversation for maybe later.”
“You’re on. Since we don’t have anything else to do.”
“There’s always Yahtzee.”
“Yeah, you did find that.” She smiled.
They walked for another hour, keeping the idle chitchat alive until they arrived at the lot where they had left the Solar Buggy. They had hidden it behind a building near the overpass and barricade. Roads were too overgrown to drive on.
Nora set down her things and cleared the brush that she used to hide the buggy.
“See, from here …” Jason said.”It looks like Nashville, buried. But when you go in, it’s not as overgrown. Like the pictures of Chernobyl.”
“Oh my God, let the Chernobyl thing go and help me out.”
“I’m sorry. Here, I got this.” Jason walked over. “Take a break. I’ll load the buggy.”
“Thanks.” Nora exhaled and stepped out. The lot was like its own mini wooded area, the concrete lifted in a lot of places. Cars and work vans were left behind. Company property that just stayed when people left. The red building itself was partially buried. Jason was right. Cleveland didn’t look like Nashville because people stayed in Cleveland and just when the annoying thought of Chernobyl hit her she got a good look at the work van. It was wedged in the midst of tall trees. She moved the bushes and walked to the van.
“What are you doing?” Jason asked. “That won’t work for us.”
She grabbed her bottle of water, put some on her hand and smeared it on the back of the van just under the window.
“Nora?”
Without answering or acknowledging Jason, she pulled forth the duffle, grabbed one of the shirts she found at the Westin, wet it down and continued to wipe the rear door. Just a section of it. The license plate.
“Nora?” Jason called her name nearly laughing.”Why are you washing the van?”
“What was the name of Malcolm’s Bio Cam Company in Cleveland? The one that had the footage. Remember he said, the footage from the ball room went to his headquarters in Cleveland.”
“I remember that. I don’t know the name of his company.”
“Do you know his last name?”
“No.” Jason shook his head.
“I do. I remember it from the Genesis units. His name is Malcolm Lowe.” She exposed the back of the van and the name painted on it. “Lowe Metro Security. Bet me this building is it.” She pointed. “The registration on the van ... year after we went into stasis.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? For real? This doesn’t excite you?”
“Should it?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, it should. For Malcolm it should.”
“Cool. I’m excited. What now?”
Nora smiled. “Let’s go in.”
<><><><>
Because he resided outside the walls of Salvation and lived pretty much a hermit’s life, Trey was permitted to leave without quarantine. It was believed and known that he would have minimal contact with anyone else. He was asked though to check in using the sky method. The sky method was a means of communication utilizing the old servers and remnants of what was left of the internet.
The word quarantine didn’t sit right with Trey. It bothered him. Were they quarantining his father for fear he would catch something or that his father had something? Trey knew that it didn’t make any sense. If they placed his father in a stasis situation to ensure that mankind would continue on, wouldn’t they give him some sort of cure? An inoculation? Even Trey and his family were given such a vaccine.
He remembered the day well. A group of four men arrived at the house with government identification, but it was an organization Trey never heard of. Then again, he was still a teenager so he didn’t pay attention to that sort of stuff. They were still in shock and experiencing fresh grief over his father’s passing. That was when Trey initially believed his father had died. It was a short-lived belief. The four men triggered disbelief.
When they came, they told his mother that just before Trey’s father left for New York he had been exposed to Typhoid on a recent trip to Puerto Rico. His father had been in Puerto Rico for three days and wasn’t ill, but then again, he went straight to New York after his return.
They vaccinated the entire family.
Up until his father returned, Trey always believed that he received a shot for Typhoid.
But it was the visit of those men that prompted a mental episode in Trey that took him on a different path of grief than his family.
His last encounter with his father was not pleasant. While the others embraced him goodbye, Trey fought with Malcolm.
“But you just got back,” Trey said, watching his father pack.
“I know. I know. Weren’t you listening? This is top secret. I told you about it. This experimental unit can be my retirement. My legacy.”
“I thought we were your legacy.”
“Yeah, well, this legacy will pay for college,” his father said.
“You’re an absentee parent.”
“Really? Really? An absentee parent?” His father laughed. “Pretty mature words coming from such an immature guy.”
“I take care of everyone when you’re not here.”
“And this is a short trip.”
Trey shook his head. “Why don’t you stay in New York?”
“Yeah, well, maybe I will.” His father shut his suitcase and walked out.
Those were the last words he spoke to his father.
Don’t come back.
I won’t.
He didn’t.
That conversation was the very reason no one believed Trey that his father was still alive. They said it was his guilt talking. It was something else, but Trey just couldn’t say what it was.
He retreated to his room often and was obsessed with the story of the explosion at the hotel. He read every article, opinion piece, and participated in social media groups. When a video emerged of hotel surveillance, Trey watched it over and over despite the warning that it was graphic.
Where was his father?
They showed a ballroom, but he didn’t see his dad.
“Maybe that’s not a bad thing,” his mother said.
Not that Trey wanted to see his father blow up, but a part of him needed that resolution, as sick and twisted as it sounded. Plus family members of the others were saying they didn’t spot their relatives either. Trey wasn’t the only one.
Then within a week of getting that vaccine, the conspiracy theories started. People claimed it was an inside job, done on purpose, and amidst the conspiracy stories, the outbreak began.
The president’s widow insisted her husband was alive.
It happened so fast; his world was turned upside down. Still, he watched that surveillance footage from the hotel over and over.
Was he that blind with the grief that consumed him, that it took his sister’s words to realize what he had to do?
“You should just go to Cleveland, Trey,” she said.
“For what? The virus is there.”
“Uh … did you forget why Dad was at that hotel?”
Trey did. The invention of the century. The legacy. The bio cam.
“Size of a golf ball. Nice thing is, not only will the footage be on the computer at the hotel. It goes to the government and …” Malcolm winked. “We backlog it secretly at our facility.”
His father shared that secret. No one else knew. Trey did. If he wanted to prove the conspiracy theories right then Trey needed to see that footage. After all, it wasn’t the same footage that they showed on the internet. It wouldn’t be. The bio cam footage had vital statistics for each person.
Trey tried to get in contact with Walter, his father’s partner, but was unsuccessful.
For his own sake he needed to see that footage.
His father’s office at the house had been sealed off by his mother. Like some sort of shrine. While she was out getting food Trey went into the office. He took the laptop and brought it to his own room. His mother rarely went in the office and he doubted she would notice.
His father worked remotely from home and as Trey suspected, he was able to network into his father’s system.
It wasn’t until that very second that he put in the password that Trey realized he was closer to his father than he remembered. He was trusted. He knew his father’s password.
It took two days and Trey finally found the files to the footage. They weren’t numbered, but the dates and times clearly confirmed they were from that fateful day.
Did he want to watch them?
He needed to.
After copying all the files, he placed on headphones and watched. Starting from the first one.
That one made Trey smile. It was his dad talking to the camera. His vital stats showed a rapid heartbeat and the smile on his face confirmed how happy and excited he was.
As he went through the files, he felt as if he were watching some boring movie. People moved about talking. Occasionally he’d see his father.
He wanted to skip to the end. To the explosion.
But he didn’t. He watched all two hours. From catering set up to the guests arriving and finally the end.
Trey expected everyone to be unaware, some flash of light or ground rumbling. Instead …he heard the ‘boom’, that was clear. Biting his nails he watched as people started to leave the ballroom. Any second, he figured it would all collapse. The building didn’t, but people did.
He watched everyone reach out blindly, sway and drop to the floor. He would have believed it to be a gas attack, the start of the virus. He expected everyone to flat line. They didn’t. Everyone’s breathing and heart rate slowed down, but they weren’t dead.
They weren’t dead at all.
The last of the videos ended with people in white suits coming in with stretchers to take people out.
Then the video went dead.
Trey tried to tell his mother, but she freaked out on him for having the laptop and took it from him.
She didn’t want to hear it.
Would Walter?
He left message after message. “Walter, please call me. I saw the ballroom footage. Call me. It’s not what you think.”
Finally after two weeks Walter got back to him. He simply asked for the password and hung up. Hours later, Walter called again.
“Listen to me, Trey,” Walter said. “You tell no one about this. The government has been here. Some other group of people are trying to find these files. I’m fearful that we stumbled across something we shouldn’t have. There’s a cover up. Why else would they show bogus video footage? They may think your father was involved in some way.”