Amy’s face was completely drained of life, eyes wide open.
He whimpered, touching her face. “Amy. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Her lips moved, and her eyes rolled back. “Malcolm.” She said weakly. “For me. Find out what happened. My family. Please.” On her last words, her head slumped forward to his hand and Amy died.
He was at such a loss. One of the only people he knew, had left in the world, had died. In that empty field, he just wanted to break down. He was in complete shock. Malcolm trembled, not knowing what to do, where to turn. He turned off the power to the buggy. In danger still or not, truth was, his melting pot of emotions at that moment had beaten him, Malcolm couldn’t move.
TWENTY-FIVE – Linked In
Finally Jason started to talk. It took a good half hour into the trip before he said a word, and the conversation opened up with his history of carsickness.
Nora offered to pull over and let him drive if that would help. He declined.
“I’m good for now,” he said.
“All the way around?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, when we first woke up down below, you were positive and upbeat.”
“I was vague about everything, it was surreal. Once reality kicked in with my memory, it all hit me.”
“I understand.”
“And really, can we be positive and upbeat right now. This sucks, Nora. Sucks. We don’t know how long we were in stasis, it was at least a year. They didn’t tell our families we were alive. So they suffered believing we died. It’s a heavy load to carry.”
“There’s a reason that we are alive.”
“Yes, someone decided that we were prime specimens and needed to be saved for a rainy day.”
The corner of Nora’s mouth lifted in a smile. “That’s a really good analogy.”
“It works. How are you? Honestly?”
“Scared. I have a painful knot in my stomach that isn’t going away. We woke up to tragedy. We woke up to a different world. Only none our families may not be a part of it. Every time I think of it, I get sick. I’m inwardly obsessing about it. I am going over it in my mind, what I’ll do if I can’t find them. What next? Once I realized who I was, I realized I missed them and love them so much. But when I realized what had happened, I also realized I may never see them again.”
“I hear you. We weren’t there for what they went through. We were robbed of being there.”
Jason got ‘car sick’ and Nora had to pull over. He wasn’t sure if it was the ride, the heat or his emotions that caused him to get ill. Stopping the buggy just outside of Franklin Tennessee, didn’t make things any easier on him. At least emotionally, it was completely different than the highway or even Redstone Arsenal.
They both knew when they got back in the buggy, it was going to get more difficult by the mile.
The amount of foliage increased the further they drove north, until they could barely pass on the road. Vines and trees crept through the concrete highway, there was no distinguishable ‘side’ of the road, and it was as if the highway merged into a forest.
Nora stopped and stepped out of the buggy and peered ahead. “What did we miss?”
“Apparently, a lot.” Jason, too stepped from the buggy, only he spread out a map. “We’re five miles from Nashville.”
“Where is it?”
“Beyond the trees.”
“This isn’t right,” Nora said. “I mean, how can this be so overgrown and Redstone wasn’t.”
“I don’t know.” Jason grabbed a bottle of water, took a drink and stared at the map.
“We can’t drive through. We don’t know how thick this is or how deep this goes.”
“I say we give it a try. Go as far as we can, see what’s ahead.”
“Keep in mind, once the sun is blocked out, we have one hour of power or we’re gonna be stranded until the battery recharges.”
“I still say we chance it. Once the reserve light kicks on. We power down or turn around. Either way, I think we need to see.”
“Yeah, me, too.” Nora got back in the driver’s seat and waited for Jason.
They only made it a mile and three quarters before the reserve light kicked on and they powered down the buggy and decided to walk a little farther to see what was ahead.
Nora focused on her footing, more so to make sure they were still on the highway. The deep arms of nature that reached out across the road, lessened some as they moved further.
“Maybe we could have taken the buggy,” Nora said. “What do you think?”
“Possible but…” Jason picked up the pace, just a little and moved ahead.
“What is it?” Nora jogged to catch him. He had stopped and was slightly bent over pulling vines and tossing them to the side.
“Concrete barriers,” Jason said. “They go straight across the highway to the side of the road.”
“You think they’re on the other side?”
Jason shrugged.
Nora assessed. The median strip was apparently trees beforehand and now they were completely full. “We could go see.” She suggested.
“It all depends. I mean, why concrete roadblocks. To stop people from coming in or from leaving.”
“Both maybe.”
Jason climbed over the barrier, waited and held out his hand for Nora.
It was awkward for her, they were just a bit too high for her to comfortably step over. When she did, her foot caught and tangled in something. “Wait. Wait.”
“What’s wrong?”
“‘I’m stuck on something…” She stood balancing on one leg, the other leg was extended on top of the barrier.
“Hold on.” Jason grabbed her ankle.
“Is that a rope?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He pulled it loose, then drew it in, to see where it came from.
Nora brushed off. “What are you doing?”
“I just wanted to see where it went. They barricaded and roped this place off.”
“But where are the cars? Everywhere else had cars right up to the barricades.”
“This is bizarre.” Jason ran his hand over his head and turned clockwise. “What… no.”
The tone of his voice dropped.
“Jason?”
“No.” He took off running.
“Jason, what do you…?” Nora never finished asking. Because she knew what he saw, why he reacted. At just the right angle she caught a glimpse of it, but after running to catch up to Jason, she saw it fully.
“What the hell.” Jason slipped his fingers through and gripped the high link fence. It was thick, at least fifteen feet high with three feet of barbed wire on top and unlike the concrete barriers, it was easy to see that the fence extended to the left and right with no clear end in sight. Beyond it was a sea of cars buried in high grass and bushes. The cars extended as far as they eye could see.
“They put a fence around Nashville?”
Jason visually scaled the fence, and darted to his left. “It’s a gate.” He reached for it and pulled. “Stuck.” He kicked it. Vines and roots had grown around the edges making it impossible to move. When he stepped back he saw it.
A sign or at least it looked like one. It was attached to the fence a few feet above his head.
Ignoring Nora’s questioning, he climbed up and used his hand to clear the dust and dirt on the three-foot metal sign. It was at least two inches thick and he had to use his fingernails to pick it apart.
His legs ached and arm weakened from holding on, but he was diligent, especially after the first portion cleared exposing the word ‘Quarantine’
He lost his breath as the remainder of the words began to clear. Jason peered over his shoulder to Nora. She stood below, her hands on hips, watching him.