TAGGED: THE APOCALYPSE (22 page)

             
“Human guinea pigs,” Thompson smiled.

             
To the third man he said, “If you have no previous criminal record, and you consent to tagging, then we can probably let you go after seizure of any ill gotten gain.”

             
“I’ll take the tag. If that’s what it takes to survive.”

             
“We’ll take the tag. Just let him go,” his wife said.

             
“Two lines right here. Blood test and tag,” the officer ordered. The enlisted men hustled everyone into lines facing the plant gates. Everyone receiving the tag will immediately be given food rations for three days. All weapons must be turned over at that time.”

             
“How will we defend ourselves?” A man near the back of the line demanded.

             
“We will defend you. You will be under the protection of the United States government. You will be granted access to the power plant and given 5,000 credits until your identity can be verified and you are given access to all of your accounts and financial assets. Any medicines on file will be issued to you at that time.”

             
“What happens when the infected get in to the plant?”

             
“The infected will
not
get into the plant.”

             
“They’re in there now!”

             
“Who said that? I want that man identified.”

             
Several figures were seen melting into the crowds at the back of the line. Some of them seemed to be secreting food and weapons beneath and within the abandoned cars on the sides of the road for later retrieval.

Eve felt torn in half as the soldiers took Sven and Jackie away. She stood there, hands hanging limply at her sides. Her parents were dead, Dixon was dead and now Sven had been arrested and was facing a fate worse than death.

“Do you believe me now?” Frank was suddenly in her face, grabbing her arm and
pulling her toward the back of the lines. His eyes shifted nervously left and right and repeatedly glanced behind them as they moved. “It’s over! I told you this would happen. There’s nothing you can do. Nothing anyone can do.”

“We can’t leave. We have to help them.” Eve gasped through her sobs. “There must be something we can do. You have to help me.”

“Did you sleep with him?” Frank stopped suddenly and confronted her. “Did you sleep with him? I have to know!”

Eve just looked at Frank
, her tears stopping their flow almost instantly. “I…I would be dead if not for Sven. Sven protected me after my parents died.”

“I know you slept with him
.” Frank was purple with jealousy, but they resumed moving until they had passed the back of the two lines and ducked into the woods. “I don’t know how you could do that to me after all I’ve done for you. I
love
you. I asked you to be my wife, and this is how you repay me?” He stopped pulling her again, clenched both his fists together in front of himself and confronted her again. “I should just leave you here. Is that what you want? Do you want me to just leave you here?”

“Frank, it means a lot to me that you asked me to go with you.” Eve felt that her life was in danger and maybe she should go back to the power plant. “
I know you were sleeping with Alexis.”

“She was a whore! It didn’t mean anything.” Frank
’s words were still strong, but it took the sharp edge off his attack.

“Why did you let her blow you like two minutes after you asked me to marry you?” Eve accused.

“You saw that?”

Eve nodded
, watching him carefully. Then to her left, Eve saw movement in the woods. A man waved. He was wearing full camouflage and was practically invisible if he stood still. “Jeb!”

“Shhhh
!” Jeb said, and then next to him Mack and Tiny appeared, also covered in camo. They were heavily armed. Behind them was a cache of more weapons and food. Behind the cache was a group of several others that apparently were the rest of Frank’s group heading down to the California valley. “You okay, darling?”

“Here, drink this.” The doctor came and gave them each two plastic bottles of Ensure. “It will help you regain your strength.”

“I’m not feeling very well,” Sven
looked down at his arms which now looked like dart boards.

“I’ve never seen anyone take that much blood from someone
all at once.”

“We’re guinea pigs,” Jackie said
, downing the Ensure and handed it back to the doctor, who secreted it in the pocket of his lab coat. Sven did the same.

“I can’t be a part of this. I don’t
care if they are trying to cure the ravening virus.” The doctor looked angry, “What they are doing to you is actually illegal. However, just before the government went underground they passed several new laws stating that anyone who refused to be tagged lost their right to a driver’s license, right to work, right to a bank account, right to a passport, even their citizenship… essentially all their human rights. Without the tag, you no longer exist. All official records of your existence on this earth are now kept under the unique identifiers present in that tag. Since you both refused the tag, they can do whatever they want with you.”

Sven and Jackie just looked at him.

“Listen, tonight at dusk, I’m going to disconnect the door sensor and leave the door unlocked.” The doctor looked at them meaningfully. “That trial they held for you was ridiculous. I was planning to testify in your defense, but…”

At first light, Sven and Jackie had been brought in chains before the Officer and two enlisted men on either side. First Dennis, then Thompson had stood up and accused them of everything under the sun.
Four other survivors came forward and testified against them, apparently for better treatment under the new world order. Even Brit was brought forward to testify, but his answers to their accusations of hostage taking and kidnapping him were very evasive, and he did everything except refuse to cooperate. Sven gave him a grateful smile. When Sven thought he would then have his opportunity to give his defense, the Officer/Judge moved for ‘summary judgment,’ pounding his gavel, and immediately pronounced them guilty. He sentenced both Jackie and Sven to ‘Death,’ then commuted their sentence in the public interest to ‘Life Imprisonment,’ to serve as ‘Medical Volunteers’ until the time of their death or the ravening virus was cured and expunged from the face of the earth. Sven tried to protest but he and Jackie were immediately grabbed and dragged back to their cells in the bottom of the gate house, where blood was taken and tests were started on them. The stench of the infected was still heavy from the other cell where the bodies of Candy and the girls had been removed only hours before.

“Get some rest,”
the doctor encouraged, “God be with you.”

Just before dusk, the doctor came by and checked on them again. This time he was accompanied by three Army medics wearing fatigues, who watched his every movement. He checked Sven’s vitals, breathing and blood pressure and asked how he was feeling. “Do we have the results back from the blood tests?” he asked a young male medic, who couldn’t have been older than 19.

“I…I think they will be ready in the morning,”
he replied.

“Can you check for me? I have an idea
that warrants immediate pursuit.”

“Sure.” The young medic turned to leave.

“And take these two with you,” the doctor said.

“We are under orders not to leave your presence
at any time,” the slightly more senior female medic answered.

“That was an order
, soldier,” the doctor said.

“Your order contradicts our standing orders
, sir,” she replied nervously, looking to the other soldiers for support. “I’m going to have to check with the captain.”

“As a
medical doctor, I hold the rank of colonel,” the doctor reasoned still polite and smiling, although firm. “I outrank the captain. Are you refusing to perform a direct order from a field commissioned colonel? I believe the penalty for failing to perform a direct order from a superior officer is court martial or death.” The doctor smiled again.

“No sir!” All three of them snapped to attention and saluted, “right away
, sir.”

“I’ll be there in a moment,” the doctor adopted a kind demeanor, “wait for me at the lab.”

“Yes sir!” The three soldiers
bumped into each other in their haste to exit through the door.

“Wait until I am gone,”
the doctor whispered, nodding subtly at Sven and Jackie. Then, very loudly for anyone that might be listening, “you’re looking as well as can be expected. I’m going to order you double rations for the time being.” He made notes on their charts.

Jackie and Sven waited for the
doctor to exit, then jumped up from their beds to check the cell door. Jackie pushed the heavy cell door with his finger which inched open, unlocked. He then got on his hands and knees and crawled to the metal hallway door, which had been replaced already, and found it also to be unlocked. Jackie nodded to Sven. Sven crawled on his hands and knees to join Jackie. Sven took a deep breath. This was it. Either they would escape or be killed during the attempt.

“Whatever happens
, brother, I want you to know I love you man,” Sven said meaningfully, touching Jackie on the shoulder.

“
Yeah.” Jackie was not the sentimental type. “We need weapons, and we need to get out of these clothes.” They had been dressed by their captors in pocket-less black and white striped jump suits.

A giant
BOOM erupted from an area near the front gate. Short staccato bursts of gunfire sounded all around them. Sven heard men yelling and the sounds of booted feet drumming the ground. Sven heard a tank starting up, and the almost deafening roar as it advanced toward the gate.

Another series of
four successive BOOMS sounded to the left and behind, somewhere in the vicinity of Building 3. The lights flashed once, then went dark. “Code yellow,” the familiar recorded female voice intoned. “Reactor temperatures are rising to dangerous levels. Immediate action required. Code yellow. Reactor temperatures are rising…” The message repeated itself infinitely, never tiring.

“Go!” Jackie said
, shoving Sven through the open door.

Eve was hunkered down just inside the tree line on the east side of the power plant when the first explosion went off directly in front of the plant gates, just before dusk. Beside her were Jeb, Mack and Tiny. It was a good sized explosion, making a very big BOOM. Jeb had made a simple pipe bomb with gunpowder, sealed the pipe and then covered the entire thing in a jacket of nuts, bolts and nails. Mack and Tiny had then sneaked out and attached it to the car with the most gas left in the tank, about fifty yards from the power plant gates.

The
BOOM had the desired effect, causing a flurry of activity around the gates, with soldiers running frantically, shouting and brandishing weapons. One of the tanks was started up and the gates opened for it to exit and meet the undefined threat. A loose contingent of forty soldiers ran behind it, using it for cover. The explosion in front of the gates was simply a diversion from the real plan. When the time was right, Tiny crawled forward and cut a three foot line from the bottom of the fence that they quickly squeezed through and ran to the cover of the cooling tower, twenty yards away fast and low to the ground. All of them were wearing camouflage, which made them invisible when still. However, the human eye was drawn to movement and there were soldiers everywhere.

Frank and the other four families
with which Eve was supposed to have gone southeast to the California valley, to farm and raise cattle, were hidden in the woods in front near the car they just blew. They were only supposed to shoot to draw out the soldiers further if they didn’t come through the gate to investigate. The plan was to lure as many soldiers out of the gate as possible so Jeb, his sons, and Eve could come in the side unnoticed.

Originally,
Jeb had assigned Eve to stay back with Frank and the other four couples and one toddler, since it was safer, but Eve’s reception by the four women had been ice cold. She had received a few tentatively welcoming smiles from two of the men. But the eight of them had been stuck there waiting outside the gate for the past three days, because Frank refused to leave without Eve, his wife to be, who was inside the power plant falling back in love with Sven and finally sleeping with him. They were all firmly on Frank’s side, who was still sulking. Eve had approached Jeb then and shook her head subtly ‘no’ when he tried to assign her to stay behind.

“But I’m going to need someone to keep an eye on our cache of weapons and food,” Jeb whispered to her. “Can’t have that stuff disappearing while we’re in there being good Samaritans
, springing Sven and Jackie.”