Riposte (The Redivivus Trilogy Book 2) (26 page)

I love you more than you will ev…

Dad

Although the entire letter was dotted with dried tears, the last line was rendered completely illegible, presumably by the torrent pouring from her father’s eyes as he wrote the gut-wrenching words. Cheeks saturated and eyes rimmed with red, she handed the letter to Lydia. Annalee draped her arm over Ava’s shoulder as Lydia read the letter aloud.

Despite having never met John Wild and knowing Ava for less than a day, Lydia was certain she had never read anything so sad and heartfelt in her entire life. As she thought of them both, she was not sure who had it worse—John not knowing for certain his daughter was alive, or Ava knowing her father was alive but being unable to reunite with him. In truth both sounded horrible, but she reminded herself that they both still had a chance.

Lydia wondered if what Ava’s father said about the possibility of a cure held any real potential. If it did, she knew she wanted to be a part of it. If there was anything she could do to make this wretched plague pay for what it had done to Lonnie, she knew without a doubt she would do it—no matter the cost. As she looked at Ava, still sobbing in Annalee’s embrace, she vowed she would do whatever she could to reunite her with her father.
I am so tired of this damn plague and how it destroys everything in its path! It may be too late for Annalee and me, but it’s not too late for Ava. I will not sit idly and let it destroy her as well!

Sniffing hard and wiping her eyes, Lydia swallowed the massive lump forming in her throat. “When do you girls want to leave for Atlanta?”

19

October 4, 2015

Cobb County, GA

Sergeant Garza peered through the window, cautiously scanning the dark landscape for any sign of movement. Although he saw no evidence of the shooter, he knew he was still out there. Garza knew he shot him, but he also knew it was not a fatal hit. Given the cover provided by the overgrown field, Garza doubted he would be able to see the shooter even in broad daylight. “The coast looks clear, but he may still be out there waiting for us to make a move,” Garza said.

“You’re certain there was only one man?” General Montes asked.

“I only saw one, but there might be more. Although I would expect that if there were others, they would have made themselves known when I attacked him. I still can’t figure out why someone would come after you guys in the first place. I mean, I’ve worked with some ace snipers in my time, and even though this guy isn’t on par with them, he’s no slouch. I think he is either military or former military, probably U.S.,” Garza said.

General Montes considered his words thoughtfully. As far as he knew, the only people with any knowledge of their presence in the United States were a few high-ranking Brazilian and U.S. officials, and he could not see how either of them would be involved—if they were even still alive. Regardless, the situation made him question whom he could really trust. When he considered Sergeant Garza, the fact that he saved them on two separate occasions made General Montes feel as though he could be trusted. He reasoned that if Garza were going to take them out, he could have already done so.
With Corporal Rocha and the rest of my men gone, I’m going to need all the help I can get to see Dr. San safely to Atlanta.

After a long pause, General Montes finally spoke, “So what do you think our best course of action is at this point, Sergeant? We are roughly twenty-five miles from the facility in Atlanta. Our resources are severely limited, and we know very little about the conditions between here and there. I realize we are from different countries, and I have no authority over you. So I would like to ask you—one soldier to another—will you help me get Dr. San to the CDC? You know this area well, and as far as I know, you and I may be the only two soldiers of any kind left alive here.”

It was Sergeant Garza’s turn to reflect on the General’s words, and he did not wait long before returning his answer. Thrusting his hand out, he looked General Montes in the eye, and said, “I’m in. I’ll do what I can to help you get the doctor into the city.”

For the next several hours, the two men watched the area outside the store, looking for any sign of danger. Neither Garza nor Montes saw anything to indicate the shooter was still in the vicinity. Turning to General Montes, Garza said, “I think I should go out and scout the area. We need to know it’s clear before we move Dr. San. I don’t know if she’s the target, but we shouldn’t take any chances.”

“Agreed. You slip out the back, and I’ll keep watch from here,” Montes said.

He scanned the waist-high grass looking for any sign of movement, as Garza carefully stalked toward the location where he encountered the shooter. He knew he was close when he saw the divot made by his body colliding with the damp ground. As he listened intently to the world around him, he was struck by how quiet and peaceful the scene of the violent altercation was.

Crawling several more feet, Garza emerged into the haphazard clearing created by the previous scuffle. While much of the grass had been trampled, many of the remaining stalks bowed under the weight of dried blood. A large, dark stain glistened on the muddy ground, indicating that the shooter had lost a great deal of blood. Garza followed a trail of droplets that extended several feet in the opposite direction before it dwindled and dried up all together.
He must have dressed the wound, which means he had the necessary supplies and training. Who the hell is this guy?

Backtracking to the clearing, Garza caught a glint of sunlight reflecting off something in the grass. He scooped up a spent shell casing that was headstamped with
LC 13
and the NATO cross.
7.62—U.S. M80 ball ammo.
This deepened his suspicion about the shooter being U.S. military, though he knew the ammo was readily available on the civilian market. Despite a careful search of the rest of the area for any clue as to the identity of the shooter, he came up empty. Aside from the shell casing, the only thing he found was a small flashlight he had dropped during the struggle. Sliding the casing and light into his pocket, Garza realized that his military identification card was missing. He wondered if that meant the shooter now knew who he was, and whether that even mattered anymore.

Upon returning, Garza informed General Montes of what he had found, and the two men spent the majority of the remaining daylight hours digging a grave for Corporal Rocha. After they laid Rocha to rest, Lin placed the little unicorn suncatcher atop his burial site. “Go, and be with your wife and little girl, Corporal Rocha. I know they miss you very much. We will too,” Lin said with tears flowing down her face.

Not wanting to chance the shooter returning with reinforcements, they decided it would be best to leave while there was still a little daylight left. General Montes helped Lin into the LSSV, hoping she didn’t notice the blood and gore covering the outside of the vehicle. Although they knew they would not get far before nightfall, they set out toward Atlanta once again.

Having been awake and watching over Dr. San and Corporal Rocha for nearly thirty-six hours, General Montes took the back seat to get some much-needed sleep while Garza drove. Lin sat silently in the front seat, staring out the window as the ruins of America passed by. Although Garza very much wanted to talk with her, he felt it might come across as disrespectful or insincere if he were to interrupt whatever she was mulling over in her mind.

Sensing his gaze upon her, Lin cast a furtive glance in his direction. They shared a brief, awkward silence before a flutter in the pit of her stomach made her turn back to the window. Confused by her abrupt reaction, Garza worried she had picked up on the uneasy tension that had him feeling like a middle school boy trying to get to first base.

For her part, Lin was also caught off-guard by the intense feeling, and soon found herself overwhelmed with emotion. Her mind drifted to thoughts of Corporal Rocha and all the others that had died since they left Brazil. The self-doubt that so often plagued her reared its head with renewed vengeance. Just as it had in the past, the death of someone close to her gave her the strength and determination she needed to wrestle it back down. Refusing to let Rocha’s death go unanswered, Lin planned to channel her anger just as she had after her brother’s death. She vowed to do everything in her power to stop LNV.

From the driver’s seat, Garza could not help but wonder what Lin was thinking about as she stared out the window. Strangely, he found himself attracted to her despite the fact that she was filthy, exhausted, and unkempt. It was strange because she was far from the typical boisterous, curvy, fiery Hispanic women he usually fell for; not that he was falling for her. After all, they were fighting for their lives in the middle of the apocalypse, and she was likely the best chance of stopping the LNV plague before complete human extinction.
Hardly the time or place to be thinking about such things…
Even so, he remembered his relief when he entered the old convenience store and found her alive and well. The panic he felt upon hearing her blood-curdling scream infused him with almost superhuman powers, like a mother who is suddenly able to lift a car off of her pinned child.
That must mean something, right? I don’t know. Maybe I would have felt that way no matter who had been inside.

As night drew nearer, Garza spotted a suitable building to hole up in for the night. Even though they had travelled fewer than ten miles, the old warehouse with the well-concealed loading dock located behind it appeared to be an ideal place to stop. After parking the truck, Garza made certain it was concealed from the prying eyes of anyone who might pass along the road in front of the building. He and Montes did a quick sweep of the interior and found it to be free of the infected. In fact, part of the reason Garza had chosen the building was that he had not seen any significant infected presence in the surrounding area.

They set up camp on the building’s second floor, where Garza prepared an overwatch position by kicking out one of the boards covering a front window located close to the floor. While Montes and Lin sorted through their limited supplies and provisions, Garza set up a few rudimentary perimeter alarms using the tried-and-true method of stretching a length of thin wire across the walkways at knee height. Rather than affix tin cans or other metal debris to the line, as he would have if his primary concern were the infected, he devised a slightly more conspicuous and elaborate tripwire.

After collecting a pile of small pebbles, he placed them on a piece of cardboard elevated above a scrap of sheet metal on the floor just out of view of the walkway. He rested one edge of the cardboard on a concrete block while he supported the other with a thin piece of wood to which he attached one end of the trip wire. If anyone or anything hit the line, the wooden support would be dislodged, and the rocks would clatter loudly against the metal below.

Before settling in for the night, Montes and Garza agreed to alternate watch; Lin insisted she be included in the rotation. When it became clear she was not going to be dissuaded, they finally relented, provided she promised to wake one of them the moment she detected anything out of the ordinary. Garza agreed to serve as her backup, but found that the responsibility made sleep impossible.

As Lin sat watching the motionless world outside, she noticed Garza tossing and turning on his pallet. She moved closer to check on him, assuming he was in the midst of one of the all-too-common nightmares that plagued everyone still living. To her surprise, she once again found herself staring directly into his wide, hazel eyes—with nowhere to run to escape the awkward moment.

“What’s wrong? Did you see something?” Garza asked in alarm.

His response was so sharp that she doubted he had been asleep, though she imagined his military training allowed him to transition from sleep to full attention in a split second. “No, no. Nothing is wrong. You were just restless, and I thought perhaps you were having a bad dream,” Lin said sheepishly, as she turned to move away. Feeling the blood rush into her cheeks, she was glad it was dark so the soldier could not see her embarrassment.

“Wait,” Garza said. “Please, stay. I can’t sleep. I guess I’m just too wound up after everything that’s happened, you know?”

“What? I mean…yeah, it’s almost impossible to believe,” Lin said. She was relieved when he did not seem to notice the uncomfortable tension she felt. On the contrary, it was as if he had been expecting her to come over and strike up a conversation all along. The warmth in her cheeks percolated through her entire body, causing her scalp to buzz and tingle as it passed.

Lin had never been good with emotions, which is why she thought she was so good at science—nothing but cold, hard facts, with no touchy-feely, irrational sentimentality to get in the way. Akin to raging floodwaters, Lin felt that emotions were simply too powerful and unpredictable for safe handling. Even considering all the malign and diabolical creations spawned by modern science, including LNV itself, she still considered emotions to be among the most dangerous weapons in the human arsenal. A single word meant absolutely nothing in one context, but possessed the power to utterly annihilate a person in another—all because of the emotions it called into play. With no set rules or laws to govern them, she found their volatility extremely disconcerting.

Standing timidly before Sergeant Garza, Lin felt like an emotional cripple.
How is it that I can be in the middle of the apocalypse with the weight of saving the human race placed squarely on my shoulders, and still manage to feel as nervous as a schoolgirl on prom night by the simple act of talking to another person? I really should have gotten out of the lab more often.
Lin reminded herself she was not just talking to
any
person. Sergeant Garza had saved her life at least twice, and had risked his own life for her more times than she could count despite having met her only a couple of days ago.

“I can take watch if you want to try to get some sleep, Lin,” Garza said.

Hearing him say her first name sent a renewed wave of goose bumps propagating down her arms. She was so used to being called
Dr. San
that the complete lack of formality sounded almost intimate. He must have noticed her subtle shiver, as he leaned forward to offer her a light jacket. Her skin prickled so intensely when his hand brushed against her that she thought it would be impossible for him not to feel it. Given the butterflies threatening to make her stomach explode, Lin knew there was no chance of sleep for her in the near future. “I can’t sleep either,” she said nervously, and immediately feared how her words might be interpreted. If she were completely honest about it, she was not entirely sure of how to interpret them.

“Well, I may as well get up since it’s clear I’m not going to fall asleep,” Garza said. Glancing to where General Montes slept soundly a few feet over. He motioned toward the observation window, and said, “Let’s move over there so at least one of us gets some sleep tonight.”

Lin and Garza settled down next to the window, Garza instinctively scanning the area outside for any sign of danger. The pale moonlight was just bright enough to illuminate the vague outlines of the nocturnal landscape. All was quiet, aside from the occasional sound of insects and General Montes’ faint snoring. After a pause that seemed to last an eternity, Garza spoke. “Are you okay?”