TAGGED: THE APOCALYPSE (6 page)

“Go around! To the right! To the right!”
Sven fumbled the blunt while turning the wheel, dropping it at his feet, then frantically looked down as he drove, hoping to quickly recover the life-sustaining weed.

Dixon
stood in the cab of the truck, the hackles on his neck up, his teeth bared, barking and snarling viciously at the press of the crowds blocking the road with their cars, hands held out beseechingly to the trucks. Bugs hopped around Sven’s legs as he tried to drive, his eyes wide with fear, wanting to run and hide somewhere. “Chill out, dudes,” Sven admonished quietly, realizing that Bugs and Dixon were as stressed out as he was.

In
his rear view mirror, Sven could see a line of four cars driving into their wake, also trying to make it to the gate. There were people on foot milling around the stopped cars. Vendors were out, walking among the cars bartering their wares; tube socks, sweatshirts, winter coats, a taco truck. Paper money was still passing hands in many cases. A few recently Tagged offered their right hand or forehead to be scanned. Off to the right of the gate, men were erecting a new fence, preparing for nightfall. A front loader was digging a ditch in front of the newly erected fence –
smart
, Sven thought. In and among this activity wandered the newly infected. Weird red eyes, blank stares, some with angry red boils visible on their necks and faces, bloody noses that wouldn’t stop bleeding, some were even weeping or sweating blood. It was cold, so everyone was bundled up in warm clothes. When the boils popped they would leave terrifying cavernous holes in the skin which would initially be hidden by the clothes. But the worst was the smell of death that lingered on and around them. It was a deep, earthy smell so strong that no perfume could possibly mask it. It was the smell of the dead walking on the earth among the living. The smell intensified as the disease progressed. In the later stages, the infected person would strip off their clothing, apparently due to the heat of the fever, even in below freezing temperatures, and wander, not knowing who they are or even their name. At the end came the change. The infected person would bleed out. They would go into convulsions, spewing the black vomit. Black vomit was not really black, but black bile mixed with fresh blood. It smelled like a slaughterhouse. It seemed that the infection literally liquefied the insides of its victim, and the infected person would spew the infection mixed with their own blood from every pore and opening in their body until they became nothing more than an empty husk; a skeleton with big hair, claws and teeth. Upon death came the change. The infected individual would become like a lion, instinctively attacking any human it encountered, biting, scratching and spitting to spread the deadly disease. The disease increased their metabolism to such a fevered pitch that they were all starving, and they fed on the humans they killed by sucking their blood for sustenance. But the worst part was that they naturally banded together to hunt in packs; the larger the pack the better. Like locusts, they would sweep across the land as an unstoppable army, devouring every human they came across. Fifty or even one hundred at a time would fall on one living human fighting amongst each other to tear at him and drink his blood. There was no escape.

Up ahead
, a forty foot RV stood sideways across the road, blocking it. On either side, blocking the shoulders and even up onto the grass were two more sturdy work trucks. Sven turned his wheel hard to the right coming within a few centimeters of the RV blocking his path. Two men with guns pointed with their fingers and shouted down at him from the roof of the vehicle. There were men in the other trucks with rifles as well.

“Back up! It’s a trap! Back up!” Sven screamed into the radio, jamming the truck into reverse.
Sven felt a jolt as one of the four cars in their wake jammed itself into the rear wheel of his truck, stopping any reverse movement. Another jolt as the truck behind hit. Dixon was barking like a mad dog everywhere at the same time. Bugs jumped out of the window and disappeared under a nearby car.

Suddenly
, there was a man with a gun at his window wearing a mask. “Just do what I tell you and no one is going to get hurt.” The voice sounded familiar. Sven held up his left hand, while he felt for the triggers of the double barreled shotgun sitting across his lap with his right hand. Dixon growled, beginning to coil for a leap through the window at the man’s throat, then sniffed the air and began tentatively wagging his stub of a tail.

“
Sven! Dixon!” Immediately, the man pulled off his ski mask with his free hand.

“
Jackie!” Sven cried with relief. “Jackie O! My man!” They clasped hands through the window and pulled each other in giving man hugs through the open window. Dixon smiled and wagged his tail at Jackie. Then whipped around and barked viciously at someone on the passenger side.

“Everybody BACK OFF!
He’s with me. STAND DOWN!” Jackie looked directly past Sven through the cab of the truck. Sven saw from the corner of his eye another man in the side view passenger window with a gun. The man on the passenger side had the drop on both him and Dixon.

Two shots rang out behind
them at the other truck. Jackie vanished into the gloom. He reappeared at Sven’s window moments later. “It’s cool. Come on out.”

Sven
, not unaccustomed to being confronted by violent trigger happy men with guns, put both hands out through the window, then stepped slowly onto the street. He held his empty hands up to show he was unarmed. He closed the door, locking Dixon in the cab, to protect him from being shot. “This is Sven. He’s with me! He’s with me!” Jackie’s voice boomed, as he waved both arms shielding Sven with his own body, and giving the all clear signal. Adams was on his knees in the road, his hands on his head. Chris was sprawled out behind, bleeding. He was writhing and moaning in pain. Four men pointed guns at them. The man with the rifle on his drivers’ side door hung back. Dixon rattled the windows barking at the man.

“I thought we lost you
, man. We went to the grow house. We couldn’t find you. It’s so good to see you,” Jackie said.

“
Ditto, Bro.” Sven couldn’t stop smiling at the return of his friend. “What’s this?” Sven motioned at the blockade and the guns.

“Hostages. They won’t let us through the gate. If we stay out here like this we’re dead,
Homes. The infected will get all of us,” Jackie said.

A
young boy pocketing a handgun came and stood close beside Jackie with a hat covering his face. The boy didn’t even reach Jackie’s massive shoulder. Jackie smiled. The boy looked up beaming at Sven from under a knitted hat and layers of bulky clothing. “Candy!” Sven exclaimed. They hugged. Candy kissed Sven on the cheek. “What about…”

“
Needles?” Candy tilted her head to the left at a man staring blankly into the gloom; his face was a blank mask and his nose was bleeding. “He’s infected.”

“We
have to try to help Needles,” Sven said.

“I’m a medical doctor.” A small birdlike man walked out of the crowd
slowly, but purposefully, with his hands up toward Chris and crouched over to examine him. There was no resistance. “This man must get inside and stabilized or he’s going to die. We don’t know the extent of his injuries.”

“Ok
ay, change of plans,” Jackie said to Sven. “We have to get him inside
now
. We go in with you.”

“I’m an
EMT.” A woman on the edge of the crowd volunteered, joining the doctor by Chris’ side. Suddenly, one more, then three more, then four more women, identified themselves as nurses, and also appeared at the side of the doctor.

“Clear the road
,” Jackie ordered. Sven, Jackie and Candy squeezed into the cab with Dixon. Bugs was still AWOL. Candy tried to shepherd Needles into the cab as well, but Dixon started growling and his hackles went up, which was strange because Dixon had always liked Needles. Needles would go with the doctor and nurses in the truck in front.

At the gate, the guards were firm
, but nervous, about the overwhelming numbers outside. There was no way they could keep out even half this number of people, if they rushed the gate. Sven could hear the tinny voice of Susan squawking over the guards’ radio. “I’m sorry,” the guard said to the doctor, the EMT and the four nurses. “We can only let in the people who went out.”

“Chris will die, you idiot! We need a doctor
,” Sven was angry. The guards’ radio squawked more fervently.

“This is Chris, man. We need to help him
,” Adams, the other guard spoke to the head guard.

“Ok
ay. Okay. Go ahead.” He turned his radio down with irritation. The doctor, EMT and four nurses went through with the injured guard Chris and Needles immediately.

“These are my friends. They’re with me.” Sven
waved his thumb over Jackie and Candy beside him in the cab and drove through the gate before the guards could object. There was no way Sven was leaving them outside the gate. The first stop was the medical building that was well-stocked, clean and virtually untouched. The doctor and his assistants went right to work on Chris in the medical room. Needles stood there catatonic, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He didn’t seem to be aware of anything. He stared blankly at the floor. The doctor and nurses pushed Sven and the rest into the waiting room and shut the door.

Eve showed up within
thirty seconds of their arrival. “Are you okay?” She smiled in greeting, going straight to Sven, looked him up and down for injuries, and then kissed him on the mouth, pressing her body close against him. “What happened?”

Daaaaamn
!
She looked good, and she smelled good, too.
He had forgotten about Eve in all the stress and mayhem and worry. “Chris was shot.”

“Is he going to be alright?”

“We don’t know yet. The doctor and some nurses are in the next room with him.”

“What
doctor?”

“We picked them up outside the fence.”

Eve seemed satisfied for now. “Who are your friends?”

“Sven honey, why didn’t you tell us?”
Candy winked at Sven and then hugged Eve in greeting. “I’m Candace. You’re beautiful darlin’. How old are you?”

“Eighteen.” Eve looked challengingly at
Candy, then looked down.

“This is
Jackie and that’s Needles in the other room. Needles is infected.”

Jackie
held onto Eve’s hand, “Who’s in charge here?”

“
My Mom and my Dad. Well, my Dad officially – he’s the chief nuclear engineer for the plant, but my Mom seems to be running things. Kirk and Susan…”

T
he door to the waiting room opened with a bang. Two heavily armed guards outfitted with M-16’s, blue fatigues, military boots, bullet proof vests and side arms strapped to their legs entered and took positions on either side of the door. Behind was Susan, then Kirk. Behind them were Britt and Dennis. “Who are these people?” Susan demanded. Then, without waiting for a reply, she motioned to the medical room and the forms of the multiple persons behind the clouded glass, “and who are those people in there?” She stomped forward toward the door to the medical room, but Sven stepped in front before she could open it.

“Now, calm down,” Kirk touched her shoulder from behind.

“These are my friends; my business associates. They’re growers too,” Sven said. “Chris has been shot. There’s a doctor and five nurses trying to save him in there.” Eve came over and stood beside Sven, clinging to him like a vine.

“Who shot him?”
Susan demanded, already knowing the answer. They had seen everything from the window in the control tower.

Jackie
stepped forward. “There are people outside that need to come in. There are at least four electricians out there; a gun smith; a fence guy and his family; a guy with a front loader; couple of construction workers; a beer brewer…”

“You’re all leaving now
; them too.” She motioned toward everyone in the other room.

“Whoaa,” Dennis stepped forward
. “We’re not throwing the doctor out. We need a doctor.”

“Chris will die without medical care
,” Brit joined in.

Susan stomped
past them, yanked open the door to the medical room, and surprised everyone huddled around an unconscious Chris spread out on the table. The doctor and the nurses wore blood-spattered, white gowns with surgical masks and gloves. They looked up alarmed. “We don’t know who’s infected. You could all be infected.”

A
sound like a bed sheet tearing, erupted in the room. Needles, who had been sitting catatonic in a chair in the corner threw up. Black vomit gushed out of his mouth onto the floor. He tipped over head first, unconscious, into the black vomit, sliding across the floor on his shoulder and arm. His body was stiff and rigid, like someone was pulling him in opposite directions with a string attached to his head and feet. His body convulsed and more black vomit spewed out of his mouth onto the floor. A large, bloody, black stain spread across the seat of his pants from the inside. Susan screamed and slammed the door. Her hands shook with rage and fear as she pressed her back to the closed door. “Get them out of here
now
!  They’re all infected!”