Until I Find You
Two Black Hawk helicopters reverberated in the dark sky above Seth. He could see that they were headed towards the low hanging orange glow over the distant ridgeline. He clenched his teeth and kept walking, refusing his better judgement to go back, knowing the consequences would be deadly if the wildfires in the distance took a turn toward his route.
His truck had run out of gas just before reaching Monticello, fifty long miles away from Moab. He had gone that way hoping to cap off his tank before heading to Salt Lake City, and when his engine started to sputter, he pulled off the road and left his truck. He had his backpack and his AR slung over his shoulder. Sweat dripped from his forehead and ran down his face mixing with the dust from the road and turned to grimy rivers that ran down his back and plastered his t-shirt to his body like a wet glove.
Still, he trudged on, mindless of the heat and the extra weight of his clothing. He had been wearing a flimsy medical mask but he had thrown it off on the road miles back, just so he could get a breath with out gasping. He tried not to think of Haven, but her face haunted his thoughts. He would have told her, but she would have never let him come alone.
The condition of his mother weighed on his mind with every step he took, but not knowing if she was dead, alive or in trouble pushed him on.
By high noon Seth had exhausted himself. He was only as far as Moab. He stopped at a carwash on the outskirts of town and tried to remember where Deaglan's house was, thinking he could go there for a while and rest. He had been there once, years ago, when Nathan had paid him to help Deag's family move, plus it was closer than his apartment. He grabbed a water hose located at the back of the business letting what little water was left dribble over his head to cool off.
He wiped water from his face and watched as a military detachment rolled slowly by on the highway. Too bad they weren't going in his direction he thought lamely.
He dribbled a little more water over his head and held the hose to his mouth trying to catch a few drips of water on his tongue. He closed his eyes relishing the cool dribble, ignoring the random gunfire in the distance and the riotous screams of looters, feeling somewhat safe hiding behind the carwash when he felt himself forcefully pushed to the ground from behind.
He instinctively lashed back jerking himself around screaming a gutteral curse and looked into the bloodied, teeth of a man and two women.
They fell upon him with rabid fury, teeth snapping anger, their hands reaching blindly, grabbing and scratching at his face. Seth felt the rip of his own skin and the fear induced screams that had been lodged in his throat broke free. The smell of their bloody breath choked his senses, his own breath gasping for release from the rancid odor.
He fought back even as he felt teeth clamp onto his shin, and he screamed as their blood stained hands struggled to bring his arms into their deadly bite. Seth grabbed the one directly above him by the throat, and fought to release his other arm from the grasp of the women but he could not withstand the strength or desire of their hunger. He finally broke free with his right leg, brought up his knee knocking the man off and into the two women, jerked his arm from their clawing fingers and rolled away scrambling to grasp the earth and pull himself free kicking the one from his shin in the face. It's head jerked backwards but it fell forward and it scrambled closer, not to be deterred from the flesh it so ravenously craved. Seth kicked it again and rolled away panting for air.
He got to his knees and crawled desperately to reach his rifle but not before they were upon him again. He heard the crack of a gun and felt the heavy thud of the man fall on top of him and from his sweat drenched vision watched two men with bats beat down the remaining three. A grunt escaped him as he pushed the dead man from off of him and he laid back trying to just catch his breath.
When he finally wiped the sweat from his eyes his rescuers were gone.
He sat up and looked around, his hands furiously patting his pants leg where the smaller one had tried to rip into his flesh.
He struggled, jerking and tugging to pull up the pant leg. It was wet with sweat and grass and Seth was trembling. When he finally managed to uncover the spot, he whimpered a sigh of relief.
It had not bitten through the tough jean material and a hoarse cry of reprieve erupted from him.
He got up and quickly shrugged his backpack on, picked up his AR and moved on, seeing the black SUV rolling along behind the convoy, but it never occurred to him that it was Nathan and Lara.
Seth moved on through the parking lot of a Dollar Store peering in the window as he passed. The shelves were empty. Like bare skeletons in the shadowed interior. Two lone and bloodied zombies of the sickness traipsed nearby and he gave them a wide berth. They were slow and cumbersome and their sightless eyes spooked him. He swallowed his fear. He could smell them from where he walked and they turned when they heard him and came his way. Seth started to jog.
They increased their efforts to reach him, gurgling and hissing angrily. He left them behind and walked in a fast clip not wanting to fall into their deadly grasp again.
A little further into town his brows rose when a familiar sign popped up along the road. His memory flooded back. It was the entrance to the neighborhood where Deag lived. He cut right and picked up his pace a little knowing he could stay there the rest of the day and head back out at night in the cool darkness, when the wild shout of a familiar voice shook him from his mental planning.
He held up a hand to shade his eyes from the fierce glare of the sun to see Cole Johnson drive up in his camo painted Ford long bed pickup. Cole ground to a stop, rammed it in park and jumped out, running up to give Seth a brotherly hug.
Behind Cole, ran Payton Johnson, his five-year-old son.
"I've been looking everywhere for you Seth! Damn where have you been man?" Payton grabbed Seth's leg and hugged him, and Seth instantly ruffed the child's brown hair. "I haven't been able to find anyone Seth. Not Bretta, Haven, Ervin."
Seth happened to look over at his truck where he noticed Coles ex-girlfriend, Payton's mother, sitting in the cab.
"I see you found Monica," he mentioned sarcastically.
Cole looked surreptitiously back at the truck. "Yeah. I couldn't leave her behind, Seth. What the hell. Do you know where everybody is?" he asked again.
Seth nodded. "Yeah. Haven and Bretta are with Hollis and Verbena. We all took off to Donelle's when things fell apart. They're safe. Don't know about Ervin though. I imagine Jasper headed back to the reservation and that's all I know. I don't even know where my mom is Cole. If she's dead, alive, sick."
"Oh damn," Cole sounded gutted with Seth's forlorn information. "Was she at the Hospital, Seth?"
"Yeah," Seth nodded. "I was headed to Salt Lake, but I ran out of gas just before Monticello. I'm having a hard time with all this Cole and it looks like there is a wildfire burning north of Delores county. I was just attacked by four of those sick people behind the carwash," he exhaled roughly. "They tried to damn near eat me Cole!"
Cole gave Seth a sideways look. "They ain't sick people Seth. They're eaters. Zombies. Ain't you heard?"
"No. Well, yes. I guess Nathan mentioned it. Like I said I've been holed up at home. I barely just got to Donelle's. Me and Haven went and laid down because she was shook up and tired with the baby and all. I guess I wasn't really paying attention because all I can think about is finding my mom. I was headed to Deag's place until tonight then I have to head out, man," he looked toward the truck. "I don't mean to be buzz kill but Bretta's not going to be very happy about seeing Monica with you."
"Well I couldn't help it at the time Seth, her parents are all the way down in Texas, you know that, and I wasn't about to let her take Payton down there, away from me. Now, you can't walk all the way to Salt Lake City alone. We're going to leave right now and drive you. Come on," Cole nodded picking Payton up and grabbing Seth by the arm.
Seth went but with hesitancy because Monica wasn't one of his favorite people to be around. She had come on to him once at a party when they were all drunk and she made him uncomfortable. He had never told Cole about it and then when he and Monica separated Seth blew it off completely. In his mind it was something best left unsaid.
Monica scooted over as Seth placed his AR behind the seat and climbed in the truck beside her, dumping his backpack on the floorboard. Cole lifted Payton up into the seat, climbed in beside him, put the truck in drive and announced that they were heading to Salt Lake City.
Immediately, Monica voiced her whining dismay, but Cole never bat an eye. "We're going," he told her stoically, "you can like it or not, but I don't see that you have any choice. Unless you want to stay at my place until we get back."
"That's fine with me. Me and Payton can stay there,"
"Oh no, no. Payton comes with me, Monica. So, pick your poison. Stay or go." He told her resolutely.
"I'll just go then," she huffed, rolling her eyes. "But it's not safe to be dragging Payton into Salt Lake, Cole, and it's not like I'm going to go anywhere."
"That's probably true Monica, but I'd feel better if we all stayed together," Cole reasoned. "We'll be super careful, okay."
Seth looked out the window, not wanting to take part in their squabbles. The road ahead was empty save for the ambling lines of the dead all around as Cole pulled onto the interstate, the scene around them was as much an apocalyptic wasteland as any of them could imagine. Seth dreaded what he would find in Salt Lake but said nothing as they sped toward a destination that could easily take any of them down without so much as a blink. He thought of Haven and hoped everyone was alright. He knew Hollis was going to be pissed but maybe they found his note. He put his troubled thoughts behind him and tried to focus on the scant possibility of finding his mom alive and getting them all back to Donelle's in one piece.
〰️
Keith Castelo, a triage nurse and one of Billie Jo's staff, though he was her equal in all aspects, excused himself from the patient whose vitals he had just checked again for the fourth time and pointed at a young nurse in the hall to replace him. She went right in and Keith took off down the hall to find Billie. He knew she was exhausted because he was too and still there was no end in sight. If anything, things had gotten worse. He knew that the virus had mutated, and they were far behind in options for an available answer. There were meetings upon meetings but nothing conclusive. He was sick of the lies and excuses. He knew things weren't going to get better. Then, as if some silent trigger activated, they were all gone. The CDC's, the WHO's. The health officials and their private government bodyguards. The scientific researchers. All of them. Just packed up and left. Had they received the devastating news that there was no cure, no vaccine, no patient zero? Had they given up and left for their own safe and sacred bunkers?
K
eith could only imagine, because they had left no instructions.
No hopeful explanations.
Saying it without saying it. They were on their own. Good luck, see ya on the other side.
Billie had slept through all of that. And Keith had decided for himself, it wasn't worth it anymore. He made a stop before heading to the third floor to find the room that was being used for sleeping quarters, let himself in, dropped a duffle bag on the floor and went over to the bed where Billie was asleep still in her bio-mask. He smiled down at her. Poor thing, he mused, she was determined to survive, he could say that much about her. He repeated her name until she came awake and sat up.
"You want a water?" he asked.
She nodded groggily, sighing inside her mask but Keith heard it as he went to the fridge to get a couple of waters. He tossed her one and she caught it. He said nothing for a few moments while she took a long drink. After that he cleared his throat and informed her he had gotten worried because she had been asleep now for twelve hours.
"Oh my God, Keith," she said standing bolt upright. "Why'd you let me sleep so long!" she cried out loud moving to the door in a frazzled rush.
"Hey, hey Billie, hang on," he grabbed her arm. "Everything is fine down there. You have time to get woke up, and anyway, Roger wants you to go down and help do a body count."
"Oh crap," she moaned. "I hate that."
"Yeah me too," Keith agreed. He chugged the rest of his water and headed for the door. "See you out there?"
"Yeah. As soon as I'm done with counting corpses I will be up."
He nodded and left, but he didn't go back to the observation triage.
Billie got up reluctantly and pulled on her bio-suit. She splashed some water on her face to ward off the fuzziness of sleep deprivation, put on her mask and left the room. She went to the end of the hall to the staff elevator, realized she left her keys back in the lounge and went back to get them.
A few moments later she returned, unlocked the elevator door, hit the basement button and rode down, dreading the sight of a morgue full of body bags. When the door opened she stepped out into the semi dark room and grabbed a clip board off the wall in front of her. She studied it momentarily to see when the last count was done, who did it and how many they had. It had to be done every hour because the government workers were taking them out on hourly rotating trucks.
It was sickening to see, and Billie had to admit, her mental state was cracking.
She was worried about Seth. She was worried about herself and she was worried about the country. There was little ability to get news from anywhere, only what officials designated to this hospital could tell them which was becoming sparse as the days went on. Billie walked around the corner into the large basement turned morgue, searching around for who she was supposed to be helping but finding no one, she shook her head in frustration. The roll up doors were open about half way but there wasn't anyone out there. Usually a truck was waiting.
"Hello? Roger? Anyone!" Her questions echoed back to her.
Billie looked around and turned around in confusion. Maybe Keith had gotten it wrong. Or maybe she was late. She turned to walk back to the elevator, deciding to go make sure, when she heard a vehicle pull into the bay. She shrugged and went back to the edge of the dock, seeing a silver pick up instead of the huge military truck that normally pulled in. A strange feeling formed in her stomach, because she wasn't armed, and looting was rampant everywhere.
"Hey!" she yelled through her mask. "You can't be in here!"
She watched in horror as the truck door flew open and she turned to run as fear gripped her mind. She dropped the clip board, tripped on her heavy boots, and fell with an ear-splitting scream, busting her elbow in the fall. Knowing she would never be heard down here, her heart thumped in her head and as she tried to get up she felt herself jerked up on her feet. Another scream formed in her mouth but never made it past her lips as she was dragged backward toward the dock door.
"Please!" she cried, "please! You can have what ever you want just let me go," she yelled, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Billie! Shut up! It's me," a familiar voice grunted. "We're getting out of here, come on!"
"Keith?" she shrieked. "What is going on!"
"Come on! We gotta go NOW!"
In the split second it took Billie Jo to come to herself, she shook loose from him, grabbed her throbbing elbow, and made a break for it. Straight to the waiting truck.
Keith Castelo slapped his leg, hollered a hell ya and ran, jumping in the driver's seat. They roared out of the bay and down the back lot to a gate he had purposely left open. He pulled through, and Billie's heart began to beat with stark, full on fear as he jumped out to close it behind them. She looked around crazily hoping they wouldn't be seen and when he jumped back in the truck she urged him to drive like hell.
They followed the military fencing erected to keep random people out of the zone of isolation for the hospital, (which honestly hadn't done much good) and the government officials who were stationed there, all the way down the length of the compounded medical buildings. Past the huge generators that made enough noise to hide a tank and right through a blockade attended by Army National Guardsmen who yelled and fired on them, but Keith put his foot in the gas pedal and the truck fishtailed across an attachment lane to the next parking lot where they jumped the curb and hit Eleven Hundred street going fifty. He sped up the road to South Temple, turned, and didn't stop till they reached Veterans Memorial Highway.
Billie Jo felt giddy. If she'd thought about walking out of there once, she had imagined it a hundred times and she just couldn't believe it was happening.
Suddenly she started laughing and couldn't stop. Keith joined in, drawing on her elation and the two of them laughed until their stomachs hurt. It was ridiculous she knew but she couldn't help it. Almost two weeks of torment and worry had taken its toll on her and when there was nothing left but hiccups she started to cry. "What's happened to the world," she sobbed brokenly. "People dying and not staying dead---," she cried. "Re-killing the ones who come back, oh my God Keith," her tears flowed anew just thinking of the things she had seen being done right in front of her face.
Keith kept his eyes on the road and said nothing. He understood.
When she was able to compose herself, she apologized but Keith was already shaking his head. "No apologies needed. I have a whole bag of meds I took from the pharmacy, if you need something to calm your nerves."
"You do?" she answered shakily. "Talk about being taken by surprise," she blurted as she rummaged around in a duffle that was between them with trembling hands until she found a bottle of Ativan, and dry swallowed two of them.
Then she looked at Keith straight on. "You had this planned."
"Is that a question or a statement?"
"I don't know. Maybe both. It doesn't matter. But why didn't you let me in on it? Afraid I would rat you out?"
"Maybe. Would you have?"
"Never," she assured him instantly. "Even if I hadn't agreed with it. I suppose though, if you had of asked me any sooner I probably wouldn't have gone."
"Really?" he asked with mock disbelief, "why not?"
She shrugged. "I guess I was thinking at first I was going to be able to save the world."
Keith nodded. Again, he understood her way of thinking. Their whole team was built on that standard, but when health officials started kicking dirt and running out of answers, Keith decided at the first opportunity he was getting the hell out.
He really hadn't even considered telling anyone much less pirating Billie out of there like he did. She was strong, but that strength could be her downfall. For the last four days he had secretly stockpiled small packages of supplies. Anything he could get his hands on. It hadn't been too hard. His defining moment was when he got in the hospital pharmacy as someone was coming out. It had an autolocking door, but no one said a word to him as he brushed right past and inside. He took out a duffle bag he had under his arm and filled it up with everything from A to Z, then he walked out and let the door slam behind him. After that he went straight upstairs and woke Billie Jo. It was at that moment he decided to get her out of there too. He knew she would have never left on her own.
"Well Billie, where are we headed?" he wanted to know.
"Moab." She answered instantly.
"Seth?" he asked with sudden solicitude.
She had inner misgivings, but she replied austerely, "Yes, until I find him."