The Oasis (16 page)

In his free time, which was abundant, Jasper studied and kept his nose to the ground. He remained reclusive in his actions. Every time he saw Eric or the others there was always anger. Jasper knew Freeman feared that he would come forward with his knowledge of the vaccine. He knew he was not safe, even then. Freeman and the other SEALs’ desire to keep the vaccine from the rest of the world mirrored the wishes of those in charge of distributing it—or rather, of not distributing it. Every day Jasper kept away from the other SEALs. His only hope was to remain vigilant and aware of the pending situation.

As the virus spread throughout the US, so did the panic. Even within the military, things began to fall apart. Jasper witnessed the men change from their normal demeanor into monsters. By that time, most personnel remained in their rooms. Jasper barely saw any of the other SEALs, but because of his continued health, he was sure they were just as healthy as he was.

On the other hand, almost everyone who hadn’t been vaccinated against the virus was infected by it. He listened to the radio and saw on the news the extent of the damages. This affected everyone, it seemed. The death toll was over four
billion
people; that was over half the world’s population. As power across the country began to fail, Jasper knew he needed to find out as much as he could before it was too late.

Jasper’s attentiveness and observation paid off when he came across some confidential documents. He learned that the vaccine had been manufactured and then taken to a facility called the O.A.S.I.S., or the Operational And Special Investigation Station. He had never heard of it. As a SEAL he was given very high clearance, more so than the average soldier. Only SEALs and those above them had access to this piece of intel.

Through his investigation he found the lead scientist who helped to create the vaccine. Dr. Randall Pinkerson had been the head of the testing facility for the last five years. His work had led to many phenomenal discoveries for science. Jasper had no idea what Pinkerson thought about his vaccine or if he was even aware of what he created. He only knew that locating the doctor was vitally important to his cause. Jasper couldn’t sit around and watch the whole world be destroyed; he needed to help and now was the time.

The medical facility was in Coronado, California, not too far from his current duty station. First thing was he needed to find Dr. Pinkerson. Pinkerson’s office wouldn’t be in the medical facility, so locating the man was a little harder than just going to the O.A.S.I.S., but Jasper managed it eventually. There was only one problem.

Dr. Pinkerson was already gone.

Not in the sense that Jasper was used to. Instead of seeing a dead body in the medical office, a corpse festering away, he saw a man who had been ravaged by someone else. His body was bleeding out slowly and he could see the man’s eyes were changing from the illness he had obviously contracted. If the doctor didn’t die from his injuries, it was likely he would go on to kill others.

“I know why you are here,” the doctor rasped, holding his hands against his wounds.

Jasper raised his gun, pointing it directly at Dr. Pinkerson. The wall was covered with awards and degrees and he couldn’t help but think an entire lifetime of manipulating God’s creations was coming to an end.

“Everything you need to know is over there.” The doctor raised one hand gingerly, still keeping pressure on his side.

Across the room was a framed graduation certificate. Jasper moved quickly, not wanting to be caught by whatever had taken a piece out of the doctor. He moved the frame and saw a safe behind it.

“32, 14, 21.” The doctor coughed.

Jasper put his gun down and dialed the numbers. Inside the safe was a small book, resembling one of his military notebooks. He thumbed through it quickly and saw a lot of formulas. Towards the back, he found pictures of people who had been injected with the virus and those that had experienced the airborne virus. He shut it quickly, not wanting to see any more.

“I need a formula for a cure.” Jasper prayed that the doctor had developed not just a vaccine to prevent the virus—which would do no one any good now—but also a cure, to heal a person who had already been infected.

“It’s kept at the O.A.S.I.S. in a vault, like that safe but bigger.” The doctor struggled, gasping the words. “The combination is in that book.”

Quickly grabbing his gun Jasper pointed it back at the doctor, intent on firing immediately, now that he’d gotten what he needed.

“W-wait,” the doctor squeaked. “The cure is there. Get it. Duplicate it. Save us.” Jasper lowered his gun only enough to look into the doctor’s face. “Everything you need to know is in there.”

Jasper heard rustling in the halls. Firing, he left without another word. The virus would soon consume him completely and he would no longer be human.

Crossing the room, Jasper exited the way he came, tucking the book into his pants. It was small enough to conceal in his clothes. As he raced down the halls, he expected to see infected people, but instead he saw the red beams from the guns of the other SEALs.

“I know what you’re trying to do, Anderson,” Eric’s voice echoed down the hallway, bouncing off the walls. A shot was fired in warning and Jasper ducked into one of the rooms. “I can’t let you try to be a hero. A cure is not what these people need.”

The only hope Jasper had was escaping Eric and the others. The little book held possibly the only way to stop Eric. If they wanted to remain gods among monsters, then Jasper knew they would kill him on sight. He was probably the only person left alive with this knowledge. He needed to get the hell out of that building alive.

“We know about the O.A.S.I.S. Listen, if you come out now, we won’t kill you. There is no reason we can’t work this out diplomatically.”

Jasper could hear the low laughter of the other SEALs. There was no diplomacy here. If caught Jasper could only hope for a swift death. Which he couldn’t count on receiving; these men were trained in the art of torture.

He peeked his head out just enough to see who was in the hall. As he suspected, the other SEALs were pressed up along the walls. They were smart. They weren’t dealing with one of the
others
; they were fighting one of their own.

Eric stepped forward, raising his hands into the air with his gun up as if in surrender. Jasper was not a moron and he acted quickly. Thrusting his gun forward, he waited for Eric to open his mouth.

“All we want is the code to the vault.”

Jasper focused on Eric and opened fire. He aimed and shot directly at Eric. A bullet went straight through his shoulder, knocking him to the ground. The other SEALs opened fire immediately. Jasper was prepared and threw a smoke bomb down the hallway, giving him just enough of a distraction to run the opposite way. He ran until he reached the end of the hallway and jumped down the fire escape. Looking back as he jumped, he saw the others scrambling to get through the smoke and down after him. Without hesitation, he ran to the closest vehicle and got on the road. He knew he couldn’t go to the O.A.S.I.S. now—not if Eric’s men knew about it and would be watching for him to show up there. Rationally, he knew he needed to go into hiding until they gave up looking for him.

That had been five years ago. A long time, but now he was back, and he was again being chased down by Eric Freeman and his fellow self-made gods.

* * * * *

Lena looked away from Jasper, not sure what to think. Her mind scrambled to process what he had just told her. She had never imagined there could be a cure for what had happened to everyone. If Jasper had retrieved the cure instead of going into hiding, maybe her mother could have been saved. So many lives could have been saved.

He leaned forward and tried to hold her. “You have to understand,” he whispered, pleading. She shook her head. Not only had he known there was a cure for this infection, he’d had it within his grasp this whole time.

Her whole world spun as she tried to make sense of the man sitting besides her. She was torn between the man she had fallen for, the man who knew her sympathy and shared her heart, and the man who had held on to a cure for years while the world fell apart.

“Listen to me, Lena,” he said, rubbing his hand along her arm. “I couldn’t go back to my base, I couldn’t go to the O.A.S.I.S. I needed time.”

Lena glared at him. “Don’t you know you could have saved
millions
?”

“Not if I was dead!” he almost shouted. Sighing, he kissed her forehead.

Lena knew already. As she fought to reconcile what she felt for him with his actions when the virus spread, she knew that he was the only one who had that information and right now the only one who could save everyone who was left.

“Lena, I’ve been running for years.” Jasper leaned towards her and Lena bit her lip nervously, looking away from him. “Men like Eric have been looking for me for a very long time. They would have killed me on sight if I had gone anywhere near the O.A.S.I.S. I’ve watched every single person I met get taken by this virus, consumed by something darker than anything I have ever seen. Greed, lust, gluttony. This is far worse than any of those things. I have lost everyone. Except you.” He pressed his head against hers, smelling her hair. She brought a freshness to his life, a purpose. “You remind me that this is possible. Even if I die, as long as I can get that cure out, that is all that matters.”

Lena brushed the tears from her face and leaned up to kiss him. Their lips lingered before she pulled away. He reached around to hold her. Their bodies pressed together and she hesitated to let go of his hand. She let her body lean against his, her breasts pushed against his muscular chest.

“I think I love you,” she whispered, then looked away quickly as a blush crossed her face.

He smiled, teeth flashing against his dark skin. “Well, I
know
I love you.” As her flush deepened, he lifted her chin with his knuckles. He closed his eyes and kissed her again, letting his love penetrate through the kiss. His tongue caressed hers and he groaned as she pressed her body to his. “If we get through this alive,” he said, honestly not sure if they would or not, “will you marry me?”

She was shocked by his proposal. The institution of marriage wasn’t something she had ever thought much about. And after the world had all but ended, she had never thought of meeting someone like Jasper, let alone getting married.

“Lena,” he whispered her name, and she couldn’t believe this was happening. There were several men out there ready to kill them on sight, and she was considering a marriage proposal from a man who had kept possibly the most important secret in the free world from her. “Marry me.” It wasn’t a question. Her mood was suddenly buoyant and she knew she was going to say yes.

“We need to get to the O.A.S.I.S.,” she whispered smiling at him. He laughed quietly, knowing that her answer meant yes. They would be together until the end.

* * * * *

Lena knew they were getting close to their destination when she started to see military quarantine signs. The roads were harder to maneuver because of the clusters of abandoned cars. It would only be a matter of time before they would have to get out and walk. Spotting a motorcycle on the side of the road, Lena slowed the car. She wasn’t sure if Jasper was well enough to ride on one, but there was no way they would make it to the coast with the roads blocked as they were.

Some of the roads were crossed by barbed wire. The wires alone weren’t so bad, but the bodies—or what was left of the bodies—tangled in the wires made Lena gag. And there were signs about every ten feet.

Violators will be shot.

Military personnel only.

Virus-free zone.

Only one warning will be given before shooting.

Lena tried not to imagine the chaos that had to have taken place here so long ago.

Jasper stared silently ahead. As she pulled over to the side of the road, he nodded at her and they got out of the car.

“We need to get to Coronado. The facility is there.”

He eased himself slowly onto the motorcycle.

She wanted to tell him that he was in no condition to drive, but she wasn’t exactly feeling one hundred percent either. Looking over her shoulder, she feared the worst.

“They’re going to come for us.”

He didn’t need to tell her. Seeing Eric in the home they had taken refuge in told her that he would stop at nothing to get to them. Sliding her arms around Jasper’s back, she held him close.

He weaved the motorcycle through the piled-up cars with ease. If she hadn’t seen the wound on his arm before he’d wrapped it in his shirt, she would never have known he was hurt.

As they drove over the bridge, glided past the stopped cars, she saw a few
others
wandering around. The zone, maybe once virus-free, was now quite occupied by
others.
She wondered whether they would run into other SEALs here as well. All they could hope for was that they could get to the laboratory and find the information about the cure as quickly as possible.

Pulling off down the road, they finally entered the base.

Glistening oceans and beautiful beaches surrounded the island. The view was breathtaking.

As they slowed down, Lena noticed that Jasper seemed to heading for somewhere other than the office buildings she’d assumed were their destination.

“Where are we going?” she shouted over the revving of the engine.

He turned his head slightly. “We need to get you safe.”

“Wait a minute!” she shouted, tugging on his shoulders.

Swerving slightly, he pulled the motorcycle to the side of the road. He had known this argument was going to happen.

“I am
not
going somewhere safe!” Lena knew she didn’t have a compelling argument, but she had nothing else to hold on to.

“Fuck, Lena! Don’t you get it?” Jasper shook his head, exasperated, but revved the bike and pulled it back onto the road, continuing the way they were originally headed.

Although she knew that he was only intent on protecting her, she was tired of it. She’d been taking care of herself for five years. It was time for him to accept that she was going to be with him until the end. Whether that came sooner or later.