She screamed out in misery as his elbows dug into her already broken ribs. With total disregard, he crawled over her, the full weight of his body crushing her tiny frame, his knee compressed her chest and forced the remaining air from her punctured lungs, then as a final indignity, his boots dragged across her face breaking her nose.
An explosion from above made the general redouble his efforts. He progressed inch by inch, along the debris-strewn parking garage. He heard the iron girders screech in protest as the building and gravity wanted to complete its journey to the earth. He struggled on and could detect the sloping of the parking garage floor that he hoped was the exit ramp. As he neared the exit the damage to the structure lessened and he was able to get up onto his hands and knees and shuffle onwards, when he heard the first squeaking. He could not place the sound at first and wondered if the ceiling might still fall in upon him, when he was this close to freedom. The noise sounded as if the fabric of the building was crying out, but realized it was animal in origin. He crawled faster, when he saw the first of the rats, feeding on the corpse of a child. The rat quickly joined by another, then another.
He went to shoot at them, but thought that he might draw attention to himself. Although a grown man, and a four star general to boot, there was something about the rats that shot fear up his spine. He knew he could beat a bunch of rats in a normal battle, but the Black Death had been a game changer. These pests could multiply out of control and now, even more disturbingly they seemed to have lost their natural fear of man.
He thought that dogs could soon be roaming around in wild packs. With creeping dread, he recalled that many deadly creatures were indigenous to Florida, panthers, lethal snakes and even bears lived in the wild. He hoped they would not stray into the cities, but there was one creature that was likely to roam into town if left undisturbed, the ever-present alligator.
Over one million throughout Florida at the last count, and what with all the lakes, rivers, and canals that were characteristic of southern Florida, the snappers were never far away. He had the notion that they would soon become curious by the lack of noisy activity and might venture from their natural habitat and once they saw the corpses and got a taste for human flesh… then, well, it was unthinkable. As if he did not have enough on his plate, all ready.
15:05 PM
Major Osborne yelled. “Stand down!” and Lieutenant Carpenter lowered his rifle smartly and snapped to attention.
Sophie sighed with immense relief.
The major listened to the message from his walkie-talkie solemn-faced. “It seems like you two have won a reprieve. They want you alive at all costs.” He smiled charmingly at them as if they had won a prize-draw. He tossed the walkie-talkie back to the signalman. “Tell ‘em we’ve got ‘em and we’re bringing them in.”
Sophie knew she had to act, because once shackled and in custody, there would be no hope. She turned to Lieutenant Carpenter. “He’s lying to you.”
Carpenter ignored her, but she saw his resolve starting to crack. He’d obviously dwelt on her earlier comments.
“Think about it,” she said calmly. “If there’s a cure for the Black Death, then why is the Major wearing a biological warfare suit?” She smiled and knew that her logic had hit home.
Lieutenant Carpenter absorbed the information and then slowly turned the rifle to point at the major.
“Have you gone totally insane?” the major blustered. “How dare you point a weapon at a superior officer?”
Carpenter’s hands trembled. He tightened his grip not only on the rifle, but also on his resolve. He steadied his aim.
“Take him out!” Major Osborne ordered the other soldiers.
The soldiers raised their weapons clumsily, but it was nigh on impossible to aim properly wearing their helmets, so held the rifles on their hip, but were obviously uneasy about killing one of their own.
“That’s an order!” the major demanded, panic rising in his voice.
Luke used the distraction to attack from his crouching position; he grabbed the ankles of a startled soldier and hoisted him over the quayside into the water below. Jake jumped into action and shoulder-barged the soldier next to him with all his might, making him stagger. The soldier tried to regain his balance but was hindered by the hazmat suit, Jake gave him the smallest of pushes, and it was enough to send the unbalanced solider over the edge of the quay. Jake snatched his rifle out of the air as the soldier passed then tossed it to Luke.
Lieutenant Carpenter shot dead the major, but before anyone could react, he then turned on the prisoners. Luke was in his line of fire, when Winnie clouted him around the back of the head. He spun around to face her. “Fuck you, coon,” he grunted, shoving her harshly from his path, he turned back to Luke who now had his weapon pointed at his head. “Told ya, I’d kill ya,” he said and fired.
The one remaining soldier aimed his gun at Sophie, when to his utter amazement Winnie grabbed him around his waist. “May God forgive me…” she said softly and yanked him backward and they tumbled over the quayside together.
16:00 PM
General Malloy needed to alert the President but had no way to contact the outside world, their transmitters were down and the government was blocking all civilian transmissions leaving Southern Florida. Damnit, he cursed, he’d have to think of a way. He crawled up the exit ramp and could smell fresh air at last, he caught a glimpse of daylight flickered off a broken windshield of a jeep; a concrete block had crashed through the windshield and cut the two occupants in half.
He gazed in disbelief as more rats poured down into the parking lot, where had they all come from, he wondered? Although he remembered reading somewhere that, you’re never more than fifteen foot from a rat. He shuddered and watched them make for the nearest corpse, presumably drawn to the squeals of their companions. The general squeezed between a jeep and a perpendicular slab of concrete, he squashed himself flat and went underneath the jeep to bypass the slab, when a rat ran across his arm. He flicked it off in utter shock. The rat sat on his haunches hissing at him. He thought for a moment that it might attack, but it turned and joined its colleagues, chomping on the already dead body.
He breathed a sigh of relief and chided himself for being frightened of a rat, with one last push he was out from under the jeep, stood upright and limped up the exit ramp and out into the fresh air. “Yes!” he roared triumphantly. “I’m back!”
His joy was short lived as he glanced around and took in the devastation. It looked like Hiroshima, with the gray cloud hovering above where the hotel once stood and every surface covered in a thick layer of dust. His eyes fell upon the immense pile of debris that had once been the magnificent tower, with the smoldering aircraft protruding from the bottom of the heap. “I’m going to get you for this,” he cursed under his breath.
20:05 PM
“Duuude, I am so sorry…,” Jake said, beside himself with shame.
“Forget it man,” Luke said, waving him away trying to ease Jake’s conscience.
The gang crowded around and he drew his plan in the dirt on the quayside. “It’ll be getting dark soon, and we need the cover of darkness to help in our escape,” he gazed around the crowd, who were looking to him to be their leader, not a role he relished, but he seemed to take to the position with ease. “OK, do we all know what we’re doing?” the others nodded, “We’ll take four speedboats head due north, and hang in one pack, because if we are being watched on radar we’ll look like one boat. If they should send a launch to apprehend us, we’ll let them get close then split into four directions.” Luke smiled. “They can only chase one of us, so hopefully at least some of us will get through.”