Virus

Six

We met at a big garage of the second floor. The rebel base was miles big. I stretched under the top western corner of Montana. It took two hours to drive from one end to the other in a Humvee.

We'd already said goodbye to Travis on the others side of the base. He wanted to stay near the infirmary with Gary and Michael.

Hal traveled with us. He was dressed in a black jumpsuit with a blue bandana tied around his calve.

Vladimir turned off the Humvee and tucked the key into his pocket. The soldiers guarding the door of the garage opened it and went outside the check the coast.

The big transit bus in front of us was being loaded with men dressed like Hal.

He looked at me, the first time we'd made eye contact since he woke.

"I guess this is it," he said softy, almost like he was being shy with me.

"I guess," I replied. And with that he got out and followed the soldiers onto the bus.

I was so appalled my mouth literally hung open, no kiss, not even a hug, and to add to that he didn't look back. He disappeared through the door of the transit and was gone. Forever.

"Hey, don't dwell on him, Sara said from the back of the Humvee. Jasmine sat in her lap. It was as if having a child in her vicinity calmed her sassy attitude. "He's just experiencing a lot of unknown emotions. Guys handle emotions way worse than we do."

I closed my mouth and nodded. Sara was probably right. He was probably dealing with some weird feelings.

Once the bus was loaded, then engine roared to life and it zoomed into the thick forest of Montana. Hal was gone forever.

After the bus was out of sight, Vladimir walked us to the bus heading for Topeka. Apparently a lot of people decide to stay out of the war.

"So just load onto the bus. All the weapons you came with are in locked cubbies in the bottom. If anything happens-," he hands both Sara and I a tiny button, "press this and we'll be there as fast as possible."

I took the button and clipped it to the hem of my shirt.

This morning we woke up to four new changes of clothes. They were all matching. A pair of compression underwear, a girdle that reminded me of football, a tight shirt, and a full body padded suit. The suit was probably supposed to make us look ominous in the enemies eyes because they provided almost not protection.

I had the suit zipped down to my hips so I didn't get too hot. Sara had her's zipped up to her neck.

We got onto the bus and sat in two empty seats next to each other. She kept Jasmine in her lap.

People dressed identical to us filed down the aisle, picking out the seats as they went.

The bus driver was a young man. Probably in his teens or twenties. My guess was he took the job to seek protection from the war. I could detect slight traces of fear in his eyes. This was probably his first outing as a rebel staff.

I felt sorry for him. I couldn't even measure up to his fear. He had the responsibility of carting a bus of people hundreds of miles through a war zone. Not only was he afraid for his only life but for every life on the bus.

He started the bus a we headed into the forest. The windows were tinted darker than legally allowed, which made it hard to see the forest outside.

The back of the bus was full of books. The books were stacked of the back seat, all the way to the top of the back support.

I selected the something that wasn't technically a book. It was a bunch of papers stabled together. No cover, no copyright, no publisher, just a bare manuscript called Monster. The main character of Monster was a teenage boy named Jack Plint. This book was definitely written within this week because Jack was living in a town in Maine full of soldiers in gas masks and people infected with the virus running around the east.