The Infection

Chapter 28

This was it. This is the last time she's ever going to see this place. As much as her cabin was ratty and old, she did build it with her own two hands. It did take a lot of work on her part and she finished it within a year. It may not have been much, but it was her home. 

"Ready, love?" Ben quietly asked, as he held each of their bags in his hands. She nodded and took hers from him; one going over her shoulder, the other going over the opposite shoulder and her backpack nearly weighing her down. 

These were all necessary items. Ben had the same bags and put them on the same way. "Alright," he whispered, "we'll go out the back way. Adrien and Richard usually wander over there, but they're still at the front gate, I checked. You ready?"

Confidently, she nodded and said, "More than I'll ever be." Ben gave her a quick kiss, before leading them both out. It was in the dead of night, so nobody was awake, except for Tony, Adrien and Richard. Which, if they did run into them, wouldn't be a problem. 

Ben and Cassie expertly snuck past other cabins and past a few buildings, before reaching the back gate. Ben used all his power and might to crank the heavy handle. He refused to let Cassie help because he didn't want her to strain herself. 

He ended up getting the gate open a little more than halfway, which was good enough. Just as he was trying to push the gate shut, there was a shout of, "Hey!" He and Cassie both saw a couple people sprinting towards them from the inside. 

Forgetting the gate, Ben grabbed Cassie's hand and ran as quickly as they could further and further into the city. It was then that they were being shot at. "Shit!" Ben shouted as a bullet whizzed past his head. "That's definitely not Tony or Adrien!" Cassie said. 

Suddenly, they could hear those inhumane screams. "Run, run!" Ben shouted, as he pulled out his gun. An infected came sprinting towards him, but he quickly shot it down. Cassie was also shooting them down as quickly as him. 

There weren't as many as they thought there would be. "That's weird," Ben panted, as they stopped for a minute. "Usually, gun shots attract an entire herd." He and Cassie looked at each other and shrugged. They weren't complaining. 

As they continued to walk, they looked back and could see the lights on at the compound. "They've bound to figure out it was us by now," Ben said. "Let's just hope they don't come looking." He took Cassie's hand and kept his eyes peeled as they walked through the city that had weeds growing around the abandoned buildings and cars. 

They both jumped when they heard a snarling sound next to them. Ben immediately pointed his gun to where the noise was. There was an infected on the ground, but it was incredibly frail. It tried to get up to reach them, but couldn't. Before Ben could pull the trigger, it started to have trouble breathing...then it died. 

Ben and Cassie looked to each other, then looked out to the street. It was covered with the infected, all on the ground; some dead, some having trouble breathing. "They're dying," Cassie said with a light laugh. "They're starving to death."

She looked to Ben, then said, "This world can be ours again!" Ben laughed and brought her in for a hug. "We need to tell someone," he said. "Not Chris or the others, they'll be furious with us, probably kill us." Cassie looked up at him and said, "Gary. After what you told me he did, sparing your life...he could help."

As much as he despised the thought of Gary, he knew she was right. He was the one that tried to stop this in the first place. "Alright," he said. "But we need some way to communicate with him. Do you remember if he had a radio or anything in the office?"

Cassie tried to think back. She analyzed Gary's entire office and could have sworn seeing a ham radio somewhere. "Behind his desk," she said. "You sure?" He asked. She quickly nodded, so he led them through the city until they reached an old radio shop. 

"Fuck, everything is gone," he said. "Not even a walkie is left. There has to be something around here." When he looked to Cassie, he saw she had a peculiar look on her face. "What?" He asked. She just smiled, took his hand and quickly led him out. 

When they reached a radio station tower, Ben smiled widely and said, "Christ, I love you." They both ran inside, not worrying if any infected were there because there were so many of them on the floor already. 

Ben immediately got to work on hooking up the radio. He flipped a switch to turn it on and got the results he expected. "The generator isn't on," he said. "Let me do it," Cassie told him, but he quickly said, "No. Stay here. If there is anything out there, I need you and our baby safe. I'll be back in a minute."

He placed a kiss on her lips, then ran down a few hallways and looked behind a few doors, until he finally found the electrical room. Everything was shut off of course, so he looked for the main grid. When he found a panel box, he pried it open, then sighed in relief when he found the backup generator hadn't been on yet. 

The moment he flipped the switch, everything came buzzing on. He then heard a snarl behind him and turned around. An infected was walking achingly slow towards him. Ben didn't see this as a problem and took out his knife before stabbing it in the head. 

He checked to make sure there weren't anymore, then walked back to the room Cassie was in. "Get it up?" He asked, as he saw her pushing buttons and flipping switches. "Almost," she said. When she turned on the tower signal, they were getting all sorts of recordings from military bases that talked about sanctuary at the nearest base. 

Those bases lasted less than three days. 

"Try speaking through one of them," Ben suggested. Cassie pressed a button to turn on the mic and said, "Hello, this is Staff Sergeant Cassandra Hansen, calling from the San Francisco radio tower. Gary Oldman, if you can hear me, please respond."

They waited for a few moments, then tried another station. They went through each one, then just started flipping through them. "He must have it turned off," Cassie said. "Either that or it isn't working." Ben sighed, but continued to flip through the channels. 

"Hell--." Cassie smacked Ben's arm and shouted, "Go back, go back!" He switched back to the previous channel and listened, "Again, this is Gary Oldman, reaching out to Staff Sergeant Hansen. Are you still with us? Over."

Cassie pressed the mic button and excitedly said, "Yes! Yes, we're here! Over." Gary responded a moment later, "Glad to hear you're better, Hansen. I'm guessing Ben got those supplies over to you. Over." She responded, "Yes, he did, but listen we have something very important to tell you. The infected are dying! They're starving to death and apparently moving much slower. We only saw a few by our camp that were moving quickly, but that's because they have food source there. The ones in the city are all dying."

It was quiet for a long moment. "So why are you telling me? Where's your group?" Ben took the mic from Cassie and said, "We left them. Cass and I are trying to make it on our own, but when we discovered this, we had to tell someone who's familiar with his, who wants it to stop at all costs. I know you want to make things right, Gary, especially after what Mark did."

It was a long and tense few moments before Gary finally said, "I'll lead a group into the city later in the day. Thank you for informing us. Will I expect to see you?" Ben looked to Cassie and put his hand over her stomach. 

"No," he told him. "We're done with all of this. We just want to find a place to lay low and survive. Wherever we end up, we'll try to keep in contact. For now...this is goodbye." Cassie took his hand and gave it a squeeze. 

"Goodbye, you two," Gary said. "Good luck out there." Ben flipped off the mic and looked to Cassie. He gave her a small smile and said, "I don't know where we're going to end up. I don't even know if we're going to last through the night. I just want you to know how much I love you. Despite everything that's happened in the past, I love you and I will always love you."

He happily welcomed the long kiss she gave him. "I love you, too, Ben," she said. He ran his hand over her cheek and hair, just getting the feel of her. "Marry me," he said. "I don't care when, I don't care how, I don't care where...just marry me, Cassie."

Her smile has never been so wide. "Of course I'll marry you," she giggled. "God yes, I will." They kissed for several minutes, occasionally stopping to laugh with pure joy in between. "Come on, let's get the hell out of here," he said. 

"We finally get to start over. Just you, me and our little family."