Contagious (16 page)

It sounded like a pop. To the uninformed ear, the long sound was more like two boards smacking together. Walter heard it and recognized it. He knew and he slowly stepped away from the small group of people in the courtyard and pivoted his body.

“What is it?” Joel stepped to him.

A hair below a whisper, Walter replied, “A gunshot.”

“You serious?” Joel asked. “From where?”

“Outside.”

Another rang out, then another. On the fourth shot, it was obvious to anyone that heard, exactly what was happening.

“Rayne,” Joe said.

“Is someone shooting?” Calvin asked.

“Oh my God, Cassie.” Ava panicked.

Joel moved to the doors. “Stay here. Everyone.”

Bianca grabbed on to his arm. “Joel, you can’t go out there. They're shooting.”

“I know. But we have people out there.” Joel rushed to the door.

Walter followed and saw Ava and her older son hurrying behind. He turned to them. “Listen. Stay here. You have a small child. We’re going.”

“My daughter is out there.”

“We’ll get her.” Walter assured and met with Joel at the front doors.

Joel pulled and pushed. “What the hell? We didn’t lock these.” He tried each door without success.

Walter tried to jam his body into the door. “They sealed them.” He took a closer look. “Welded.”

“Are you kidding me? Well we know they didn’t seal the side exit,” Joel said. “Let’s go.”

He and Walter moved to the exit they knew was available because that was the one Cassie and Rayne had run from.

<><><><>

She was prepping samples in safe containers using the ‘virtual hands’ when she heard it. It took until the third shot when she stepped back from her work. Had she not paused to clutch her hand to work out the cramps from trying to control the levers, she would never had picked up on the sound.

“Was that gunfire?” she asked Randall.

“I don’t know. Maybe there was problems at the barricade.”

“Can you call down there? I mean you’re leaving and you don’t want to run into problems.”

“I’ll do that.” Randall picked up the phone connecting to the Sergeant in charge at the barricade. “This is Doctor Howard up at the mobile site. Are we hearing gunshots?” He paused, listened nodded and then thanked him and hung up.

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, all is fine. They had problems at the barricade. One of the infected was trying to get out. Made it damn near to the people. They stopped him.”

Amita exhaled. “That’s good but wait … did they shoot him?”

“Surely, they just warned him. Why would they shoot him?”

“To stop the infection.”

“I’m pretty sure if I saw a gun pointed at me, I’d stop. The shots were warnings,” Randall said. “Now let’s finish this so I can get going. Trust me. No one got shot.”

<><><><>

Rayne felt so much pain and he couldn’t decipher any of it. Physical or emotional. He was a mess.

How did it happen? Why?

He had cried out to stop. Both to Cassie and the soldier. Was his voice buried in their own confusion?

He was just a leap away when the first shot rang out.

Why did he stop chasing her? If he hadn’t, he would have caught her.

Rayne swore he saw the bullet sail through the air. He didn’t, but it looked that way when it smacked into Cassie’s shoulder.

As if she were a water balloon, the blood sprayed out everywhere and Rayne ran to her.

Cassie stumbled forward and that’s when they fired again.

“No!” Rayne blasted grabbing Cassie just as the second shot hit into her gut,

The only thing Rayne could think of was the soldiers panicked and just kept firing. Cassie fell lifeless into his arms.

“Stop!” Deep from his gut, Rayne cried. “She’s a kid! She’s just a kid. Oh, God!”

They lowered their weapons.

“Help.” Rayne called. “Help her.”

The one soldier simply stated, “Risk contained.”

And they all turned their backs.

Rayne couldn’t see their faces, surely there was remorse, and that was why they turned. No one was that cold.

He felt so lost, confused, he didn’t know what to do. So he did what he could. He lifted Cassie into his arms and carried her.

<><><><>

It was the single most heartbreaking thing Joel had seen in his entire life. Just as he hit the top of the driveway he saw Rayne moving as fast as his large frame could and in his arms was the young girl. Her frail arms dangled over his and both of them were covered in blood.

Rayne’s long hair was saturated, so Joel didn’t know who was bleeding. Were they both shot?

“Go to that mobile lab.” Joel ordered Walter. “Get help.”

“You got it,” Walter replied.

Joel ran to Rayne. “Oh my God.” His hand trembled over Cassie’s face. “Let me help you.”

“I got her. I failed, Joel. I failed.”

“No, Rayne. You didn’t. Come on.” Bracing under Cassie’s head, Joel hurried side by side with him to the mobile lab. It was long, three tubular buildings connected as one and Walter was knocking on every door.

“They aren’t opening,” Walter said. “Not even responding.”

Joel pounded. “Hey! Someone! I know you’re in there!”

“Joel,” Rayne said. “We have to do something. She’s dying.”

With everything he had, Joel pounded and kicked the door, screaming up at the exterior camera. “Open up. One of you come out! You’re supposed to help people, damn it. This is a child!”

Frustrated, Joel brought his hand to his head, that’s when he noticed the blood on his hand. His heart sunk. “Come on. Maybe someone inside has training.”

Saying nothing, Rayne rushed toward the hotel with Cassie.

Before he followed, Joel kicked out at the door, looked up at the camera. “Fucking cowards.”

Getting out of the hotel was easier than getting back in. Walter informed him the back door was locked. In his rage, Joel lifted the trash bin from outside the lobby door and sailed in into the door, shattering the glass and sending it everywhere.

“Seal that,” Joel used his feet to clear the debris. “Bring her in. Watch the glass.”

It was a squeeze for Rayne, but he made it in with Walter behind and Joel bringing up the rear.

Joel knew what was going to happen the second they emerged into sight, and it did.

Ava screamed. It was the type of scream that Joel had never heard before, deep and pain filled.  Ava, along with her older son, rushed toward Rayne.

His blood soaked fingers trailed down his face, and Joel saw Ava reaching for Cassie.

Walter said to Joel. “There is medical stuff in the
ballroom.”

Joel nodded. “Rayne take her to the
ballroom. Walter, go to the kitchen and get the big first aid kit.”

First aid kit, what a joke, Joel thought.  Did he just tell Walter to get the first aid kit? A simple band aid wasn’t going to work. They needed help. Joel just couldn’t process his options. This was unexpected. He watched Ava and Calvin run behind Rayne in the direction of the
ballroom.

The little one started crying and Bianca lifted him.

“Joel?” Bianca called him. “Are they coming, the soldiers? The doctors?”

“No.” Joel shook his head. “No one’s coming.”

‘That girl.  She was shot,” Bianca said with a whimper. “Oh, Joel. What are we gonna do?”

Joel wanted to scream because he just didn’t know. In the center of that courtyard he did just that. He screamed out. “Anyone! Hello! Anyone with medical experience. A nurse! Anyone? We need help!” His voice cracked with emotions with each cry out for help.

But no one was able to give any help.

Joel had to wonder, was there even a way to help the girl?

“Stop it,” Randal pulled Amita away from watching the security feed. “Stop.”

Amita cried. “We ignored them.”

“What choice did we have?”

“We could have helped them.”

“We are not … I repeat, not trauma doctors or surgeons. We aren’t here for injuries.”

“She’s a child.”

“She ran.” Randall stated. “As cold as that sounds. We are needed here. That virus is in there. It’s strong and anything short of the suits is a waste of time. You go in there, even to help, you can’t do it wearing a suit. So you can’t put yourself at risk.”

“How can you do it?” Amita asked. “How can you be so dismissive?”

“Because that’s one person.” Randall pointed to the screen. “We have seven billion others to worry about.”

Amita inhaled a breath that caused her whole body to shiver. “I can’t stay here and watch this.”

“Then don’t watch. But you will stay here
,” Randall said. “You have no choice.”

Amita’s eyes shifted again to the security feed. She didn’t need to hear what was being said. The emotions of it all carried through the images and she felt every one of them.

<><><><>

It wasn’t happening. It didn’t happen. In her mind, Ava wanted it all to be a bad dream, but knew the reality of it. Her body trembled, her heart pounded out of control and a panic and horror sensation swarmed around her chest. Ava thought she was going to have a heart attack.

Rayne placed Cassie on the first cot, he was saturated in blood and so was Cassie.

Calvin cried out, grabbing Cassie's hand. “Not my sister! Oh God, not my sister!”

Ava gripped Calvin’s shoulder to give him support. She wanted so badly to keep it together. But how? It was an impossibility.

Cassie’s eyes were open, they didn’t blink, and had it not been for the short huffs of breath she took that caused her head to twitch, then Ava would have believed she had died.

Over and over she heard Rayne. He kept saying he was sorry. He was so sorry.

The entire moment was filled with confusion.

No one knew what to do.

“Towels, get me towels, something,” Joel said.

“Where’s she bleeding from?” Walter asked holding a towel.

“Everywhere.” Joel replied. “I don’t know where to start. The stomach. Hold that on the stomach.”

“What about the head?”

“Ava.” Joel headed her a towel. “Can you?’

Ava nodded and grabbed the white cloth, placing it to the side of Cassie’s head just above the ear.

“The shoulder, too.” Joel’s face scrunched up in pain. A whine of emotion seeped from him. “I don’t even know what to do. We just … we just have to stop the bleeding, right?”

“So sorry it took so long,” a voice called out from across the
ballroom.

Ava looked up to see the woman. She wore a paper mask on her face and carried a case, hurrying to the cot.

“You’re one of them,” Joel said.

“Yes, Doctor Pashad. This isn’t my specialty,” Amita said. “But I’m gonna do what I can, ok?” She looked out at all the faces. “All right. Manager. I need water. Sterile water. Lots of it. Get me as much as you can, as fast as you can.” She started to visually examine Cassie. “Can you hear me?” She snapped her finger in front of Cassie, then looked to Walter. “Across the room, grab an IV pole. In the boxes on the floor, you’ll see a box marked. IV Kits. Grab one and hurry.”

Walter nodded and took off.

Amita propped the case on the cot next to Cassie and opened it. She pulled out a vial and a syringe, quickly filling it. “This is for pain, mom.” She told Ava and then injected it into Cassie. “I’m so sorry this happened.” Her eyes then shifted to Rayne.

“Water.” Joel returned and dropped a box on the floor. He handed her a bottle.

Amita extended a rag and Joel soaked it. “We need to find where  she’s been shot.”

Joel said. “Shoulder, stomach ... head.”

Ava saw it. The hesitation in the female doctor. It took her back a second, but the doctor continued to work.

“The big guy,” Amita said to Joel. “He’s been shot, too. Can you check his wound? I believe its upper left chest.”

Joel’s eyes widened. “Rayne was shot?”

“Yeah, he was. Please deal with that.”

“Right away.”

Amita moved quickly. Ava not only held the rag to Cassie’s head, but her other hand stayed on Calvin who tried to keep it together. But he was looking at his sister, not just a sibling but a twin. They shared a part of each other.

“What is her name?”
Amita asked.

“Cassie.” Ava replied.