“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.”
TWENTY-ONE – HONORING THE DEAL
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.”