Illumini

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Under the dark cover of night, menacing black vehicles were in motion, moving silently through the streets, propelled at such high speed they slipped past before most people ever cared to notice.  Always the same kind of tinted sinister SUVs regardless of which agency.

The call came in from the bunker and the vehicles cherry topped instantly, the glow of the flashing lights reflected off dark glass buildings, an apocalyptic, angry beacon that continuously lit up different sections of the city throughout the night.  Occasionally, the blue strobes of state or local police would join them, but they were not welcome, the feds wanted no reports, no record of their actions.

The fear they elicit was that of prey being hunted, when you fled it was serious, no room for error.  If caught, you disappeared into a black hole of federal prisons, there were no Sixth Amendment protections, no right to counsel, no 48-hour arraignment, no grand jury indictment; this was military justice.  To get, out someone had to come looking for you.

                                                       *

Nick looked at his watch; it was 10:02 PM.  He had to be gone within the hour, slip through their electronic grasp and vanish completely.  He drove safely and deliberately to meet Kate, following every street sign, obeying every law, acting more normal than perhaps he had ever acted before in his life.

His senses had become excited and heightened.  He felt as if he could watch every inch of the road all at once, see things before they actually happened.  The virus was alive in him now.  Anticipating everything, as if feeling the future, experiencing it through his senses, he knew exactly where everything was going to move.  It seemed like he received the same impulse to move as those around him were experiencing, simultaneously, with exactness, a precision that they, perhaps themselves, did not even feel.

In the parking lot of the bar, he saw Kate's silver Infiniti and pulled in quickly beside her.  She jumped out with a sense of urgency and pulled an overnight bag from the trunk.  The long, lovely outline of her body silhouetted in the streetlights.  Tossing it in the back of the jeep, she quickly hopped in, her ponytail swaying, and gave him a big hug and a kiss.

She lingered for a moment, her arms around him, and felt something resonate that she had not felt in a long time.  Reaching deeper, she could not put her finger on it, an elusive emotion.  She kissed him again, intensely this time, holding tight.

"It's good to see you're okay," she gestured.

"You too," he smiled.  "I'm glad you're with me."

She looked absolutely beautiful to him at that moment, her deep blue eyes and mischievous smile, so familiar and yet there was something fresh and vibrant about her that he could not quite place.

"I wasn't sure what to do," she questioned, with a warm innocence.  "You mentioned something on the phone.  I think I understand, but..."

As she talked, he pulled up his sleeve and reluctantly revealed an inflamed red area on his forearm.  She stopped talking abruptly, completely stunned, as she stared at the ugly rash and small oozing confluent bumps that spread up and down his arm.

"Oh, my god," she cried.  With her eyes watering, she pulled up the sleeve of her blouse and showed him a similar rash, smaller, not as advanced, and just emerging from the incubation period.

"What does it mean?" she asked.  There was fear in her voice now, as a tear slowly trickled down her cheek.  "Is it fatal?"

"I don't think so," he said, with a dazed, hopeless look in his eyes, as the virus continued to multiply within his body.  "But I don't know."