Chapter 2: Celebrations Turned Despairs
A few months before
Someone decided to be generous and open the bar and offer free drinks to everyone. It was time to celebrate, after all these months, watching family and friends die, the nightmare was over, they were free of the virus, thanks to the Navy. They could start to rebuild their lives.
The bar was packed; there was music, drink, some food, but mostly a sense of normalcy, which had been lacking for a long time.
Most people talked about what had happened that morning in the park. Of the presence of Navy soldiers, of the vaccine, they talked about seeing the new President being sworn in, about the party that was held in his honor. Many were still mourning the loss of loved ones, there were some suspicious on the cure, but most people believed in this time was a new beginning.
Two men, however, were only pretending to enjoy the celebration. They drank, chatted, and laughed. But it was all a façade, none of the events of this day did the two men believe were worthy of celebration, quite the contrary. They were in attendance for entirely different and far more nefarious reasons. They determined in their goal to find a way to enter the President's hotel and get their hands on Dr. Scott.
The creator of the cure. A creation that was anathema to their fervent belief in their own absolute accidental superiority.
On the outside they were men who did not arouse suspicion. They were very ordinary looking. They were brothers, same height, same brown hair, and blue eyes. Dressed like most in jeans, shirts, sneakers and jackets. The only thing worthy of note was that one of them had a tattoo on his left wrist, a skull.
"Look at them. Without the vaccine created by that bitch they would all be dead now, we would be the only survivors, and we would walk by the world as gods. They do not deserve to live, they are not chosen."Jason said to the brother.
"After we deliver that bitch to our leader, they will not be able to produce anymore of the vaccine, we can destroy those few survivors and we can take our rightful place. We will rule the world!" Said Nick.
They walked among people, their goal to gather very particular intel, and they did hear one piece of valuable information. One of the girls was saying that her older sister worked as a cleaner at the hotel. The very same hotel that was their target, the new President's hotel.
"Can we join you?" Asked Jason.
"Of course." Most of them answered.
There were four men and two women in the group. One of them had been watching Jason and blushed when he looked at her. More precisely the girl who said she had a sister working at the hotel.
Their target clear even before they had made their approach, Nick distracted the others, whileJasonfocused all his attention on the poor young woman whose only crime had been to be unlucky enough to say exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time.
"Hello, what's your name?" Asked Jason with the fakest of endearing smiles, though invisible to a novice like the young woman.
"Maya." The girl replied shyly.
"It's lovely to meet you, Maya, I'm Jason." The charm was being laid on thick.
"Maya," Jasonsuddenly, and belatedly, feigned sadness. "It's a beautiful name. It was my wife's name."
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Maya announced, shocked at the news and his sudden change of demeanor.
"My wife and my daughter died from the disease. I think I should have died with them." Jason went on pathetically.
She put her hand on his in a gesture of comfort. "I also lost people I loved. But I am luckier than many. At least I have my sister Sarah and my nephew, Benjie."
"How old is your nephew?" Jason asked with real renewed interest. Too much interest…
"Benjie is six years old, he is adorable." She shared proudly.
"And your sister, she's not here tonight?" He asked looking around. Again, the question was asked with far too much visible interest. Not the amount of interest a virtual stranger would usually show for another virtual strangers specific family situation.
But Maya didn't seem to notice. She was young and despite her endured trails, still wanted to see the best in people. Like many she was hopeful this day marked an end to the terrible existence they had been forced to endure till now. Besides, the man's interest could easily be explained away by the fake interest of many a man after a far more usual and less nefarious thing from a woman in a bar.
It was the sixth sense of an older, more experienced and less easily trusting person that would have blaring alarm bells in a panicked fashion…But Maya was unfortunately none of those things. And right now, in these unfortunate circumstances, that painted a big fat victim label on her forehead.
"No, she is at the hotel where the President is staying tonight, she is working there. My nephew is with a friend, at home." She explained, far too helpfully and totally missing the wide malevolent smile that briefly escaped him with her disclosure that not only was their newly identified ticket to their target already exactly where they wanted her…but the ticket to get that ticket to do exactly what they wanted was clearly identified as well.
Distracted by his own malign thoughts, he did not hear Maya's next words. "Sorry, I was thinking about my daughter, she was also six."Jason said, pretending suffering.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, and here I am chattering nonstop." Maya's anguish was real. She was a good person with genuine empathy for the plight of others. A weakness that Jasonhad already identified and was now exploiting to its full advantage.
"It's okay, it's good to hear you speak." Jason knew how to be charming, or rather how to pretend to be charming, when he wanted, and he happily noted that was working, the little idiot was eating it up.
She smiled at him in empathy, understanding and comfort. He smiled back. His smile was real, though motivated quite differently. He had her. She was his now. She just didn't know it yet.
Things proceeded much the same for a while longer, Jason drawing his helpless victim further and further in. She had to feel comfortable, she could not suspect the trap that was soon to be sprung. It grew late and people around them began to leave.
Eventually Maya too got up and said a genuine goodbye, preparing to leave with her friends.
"It was nice to meet you Jason. I hope we can see each other again." She said with a warm and also shy and hopeful smile.
"I know we will, Maya." And it was very easy for Jason to smile and say the words in return. She didn't know how true those words were, though she would soon be regretting her own.
Everything was working out perfectly. She would unthinkingly lead them to exactly the ammunition they needed to accomplish their goal tonight.
He watched her follow her friends out.
Nick joined him and for a few moments they just waited, then with a shared conspiratorial and malicious smile they went outside and we started to follow the on foot group from a discreet distance.
They had to keep a large distance, after leaving the immediate vicinity of bar the streets were deserted and they would have been easier to spot going in the same direction, but thankfully the lack of proper street lighting meant they were hidden even when they did dare encroach closer. The group was easy to follow, talking a laughing loudly and merrily; as those who had imbibed freely and were in a celebratory state of mind were want to do. After walking for about ten minutes the pair crouched behind a pile of long uncollected garbage cans and large black plastic bags and watched their first target say goodbye to her friends and go into a house alone. The pair smiled at their continuing luck and waited for the remaining group to disappear into the distance.
"What are we going to do?" Nick asked, clearly the follower in their criminal dynamic.
"We take them, the girl and the boy, and if we find anyone else in the house, we kill them." Jason spoke the death sentence without a trace of remorse and actually with some detectable excitement.
They observed for a while longer, then they entered the house and quickly, silently and ruthlessly cut the throats of the two older women they found in the first bedroom.
They found Maya in bed in a room at the end of the house, probably not sleeping yet but with eyes closed and happily relaxed in near sleep. By the way both men ogled her still peaceful form, it was clear they were planning to have their own, more personal, fun with her, once their mission was complete.
Jason grinned nastily, as if at his favorite part in his own self-orcastrated charade. Creeping silently towards her, he placed his hand hard over her mouth in a sudden movement and Maya jerked wide-awake with a sudden start, her eyes wide and terrified but the implacable hand over her mouth preventing her from making the smallest sound.
In the dim light coming from the lit hall, it was clear that Maya recognized Jason almost instantly, her eyes going even wider, if that were possible. But when she also saw the knife he was holding up threateningly, a knife that was dripping with blood, utter terror immobilized her and even her ability to draw air into her lungs seemed to freeze like the ice that had frozen the blood in her veins.
Jason smiled, relishing her clear terror, relishing that he was the cause of it.
"Let's go darling, we have to make a visit to your sister. But first we have to collect your adorable nephew." Jason drawled in menacingly, thoroughly enjoying every moment of her terror. He didn't miss the renewed look of petrified panic on her face at his mention of her nephew, that look was intoxicating to him.
Jason was the one who gave the orders, but his brother was no less terrifying to Maya and she struggled pathetically against the two larger and much stronger men as they forced her up and into the next room where a young boy slept. Their loud arrival immediately woke the young child.
"Aunty Maya?!" Benjie cried in a panic as he was roughly pulled from his bed by one of the strange men.
"We are…we are…going to…visit your mother, Benjie" She answered, trying to calm her nephew in the increasingly seeming hopeless situation. She tried but failed to keep her voice was breaking and tears from falling.
They dragged them out of the house and Jason, taking both their hostages, immobilized and controlled by aid of his superior strength and threatening bloody knife, ordered his brother to hotwire a nearby car.
They were loaded into it, Maya struggling at first but stopping when Jason had removed the bloody knife from her own throat and placed it at her terrified nephews jugular instead. Nickdrove and the ride went too fast. Soon they were outside the hotel.
They ordered Maya to say that she had to talk with her sister, because her nephew had been in an accident.
"Remember dear, I will be right there with you and if you make a single move I don't like, the boy dies…and so will you…eventually." Again, it was Jason that taunted the terrified Maya.
She approached the hotel, the man she now knew to be evil incarnate at her side…and his knife concealed threateningly at her back. Unable to see that she had any other choice, Maya did as she was told and she asked to speak to her sister.
A few minutes later, her sister appeared, clearly surprised to see Maya accompanied by a man she had never seen before.
Sarah began to speak… "What's going on…?" But she was interrupted.
"I killed your friends; your child is with my brother and will die too if you don't do exactly what I say. I need to enter this hotel. Is there an unguarded entry?" Jason spoke softly so as not to be overheard but his words were no less debilitating for Sarah.
Sarah was terrified, she shared shocked and distraught glances with her little sister. Part of her was in an utter panic, but soon the stronger force of the protective mother emerged.
"You have my son, you bastard!" She hissed.
"You son with be dead in minutes if you don't keep your voice down and do what I say. I've already killed your friends, and neither myself of my brother will hesitate to do it again, in fact we will rather enjoy it...when the time comes." Jason warned, running a faux loving hand down Maya's cheek, he threat clear.
Sarah shivered in dread, but remembering the unused disabled entrance, and like her sister seeing no viable recourse but to acquiesce to despicable man…for her son's sake, she quietly and shamefully told him of the largely forgotten entrance.
"Very good girl." Jason spoke condescendingly. "Now find out which room that bitch they call Dr. Scott is in, and open that door for me in half an hour. Half an hour, Bitch, a minute more and your kid dies, and I see any sign you've tattled and your kid dies…understand?" She nodded, tears in her eyes.
Sarah went back inside, trying to hide the fear for her sister and her son.
A thousand scenarios went through her head, if she said something to the soldiers... No... That man would kill her son and her sister. She had no choice here.
Whether a case of luck or extreme misfortune, an opportunity came almost immediately. The daughter of the Judge who had sworn in the new President delivered a dress to be taken to Dr. Scott at once.
Sarah immediately volunteered for the task and was given Dr. Scott's room details. She hurried off with the dress.
Rachel had just returned from meeting with the President; he had informed her that she was forgiven for the death of Niels Sorensen, officially, presented with a presidentially signed pardon and everything. The following day she would be traveling to begin coordinating vaccine production work in other states.
She had conflicting feelings about the situation. She was happy because she was free of the murder charge but sad because this meant she would leave Tom. They had managed to reconnect. Their reconciliation had began when she was changing his bandages, the way he said her name 'Rachel', she had felt she had been forgiven, at least on small level.
And earlier in the park when they were spreading the cure, she felt the intensity of the look Tom had given her, the feeling that there was only the two of them in the entire world.
Rachel did need to give him important information about the vaccine, She decided to also write him a letter and leave it at his door. In the letter, she opened her heart to him. Perhaps this time apart could be beneficial for both of them. She was not blind, she knew he felt something for her, but he was still in mourning for his wife. Tom was a man who would not get involved with a woman while his heart was still with another.
Rachel heard someone knock. She went and opened the door and was met with one of the women that was helping with preparations for the Inaugural ball. She was carrying one black lace dress and high heel shoes.
"Good evening, Dr. Scott. The Judge's daughter sent this dress for you." Rachel was taken aback for a moment as the young woman spoke the words in a huge rush that practically assaulted her when she first opened the door. The woman looked very nervous. Rachel found the notion strange that she could be the reason, but not coming up with another reason she tried to be the younger woman at ease in her presence.
"Oh, just put it on the bed please." She smiled kindly at the ill at ease young woman. And it seemed that another's kind thought at solved one of the trivial problems that had been on her horizon tonight. While she would do it, she knew it wasn't exactly appropriate to attend an inaugural ball dressed in jeans.
Sarah watched the Doctor too. She saw when she had closed an envelope smiling upon her arrival, the smile had been joyful and slightly mischievous, as if keeping a sweet secret just for herself.
This woman, who had apparently achieved the impossible, was also extremely beautiful. She had long brown hair and deep brown eyes, about five foot ten, she would have to be more than thirty, but she didn't look much more.
Sarah had expected an arrogant attitude, after all, she had discovered the cure, but the woman before her now seemed accessible and friendly.
My God, they will hurt her… kill her even! And I am helping them! Sarah thought sadly, in helpless silent panic.
"Sorry, what was your name?" The Doctor asked her.
"S-Sarah." She spoke stiltedly, actually meeting this apparently amazing woman was doing nothing for her resolve, but ever time she waivered she thought about her innocent little boy, and her little sister, and her strength was renewed…but the feat was painful. Everything about her current situation seemed impossible, but asking for help too high a risk to take with the stakes as high as they were. She had lost everything else, she couldn't lose the last of her family. She couldn't.
"Thank you, Sarah." The Doctor smiled at her.
And Sarah felt even worse.
Her control of her emotions wavering, and very much afraid that tears would fall if she uttered so much as a word in response, she instead bowed her head and then practically raced from the Doctor's room.
Rachel was not ignorant of the young woman's strange behavior but could not possibly guess at the true evilness that was the reason for her demeanor.
Rachel was soon distracted from her thoughts when she found a note on her bed that had been placed there along with the dress.
Dr. Scott, sorry, you asked me to call you Rachel. You seem to be an admirable person, not just to have discovered the cure, but by the humility that shows when you talk about it. I took the liberty of sending this dress for you; I imagine you only have jeans. A nice dress and high heels is far better suited for a presidential party. There is no more fascinating and sensual thing than the way a woman holds herself. However, a woman needs to feel desired and admired, especially if she desires to arouse the interest of someone special.
I hope am I not presumptuous, I just think you deserve a bit of fun. Sabrina Smith.
Rachel ran her hands over the truly beautiful dress and imagined the Captain's reaction. The time would come and she smiled at the thought. But first, she needed to arrange things for her trip the next day.
Sarah looked at her watch, 20 minutes had passed, she had to rush, she could not be late. The door was far from the exit guarded by the soldiers, she didn't think the soldier knew of it at all.
She sought and found the door hidden behind some boxes, she removed the boxes one by one, taking care not to make any noise. She feared that the door had jammed, after so long without use. She pulled the lock and after a few tries the door gave way.
Upon opening the door, she found the man waiting for her, as she knew he would be, but it was no less unpleasant to see his face again. She was unsurprised to see that he was now alone, but she nonetheless feared for her sister. What if he was lying and he had already… No, she couldn't contemplate that, her darling little boy…
"Which is her room? Take me there!" The man demanded.
She did as he said and they soon arrived in front of the poor doctor's door. Her captor knocked on the door strangely softly after shoving her right in front of the peephole. Dr. Scott opened the door almost immediately.
"Hello, Bitch." And he immediately aimed a gun at Dr. Scott.
The Doctor was clearly shocked, especially to Sarah me with him. She felt so ashamed of her role and almost immediately regretted leading the man here, but was still clueless as to other choices she could have made that had as good a chance of bringing her back her precious baby alive and well.
"Don't make a sound, or I put I bullet in your head." Said Jason.
"Come on." He pulled her violently. Rachel looked at the gunman. She did not doubt that he would be able to fulfill his threat. Immunes were dangerous fanatics. And she was doubtless that that was exactly what he was.
Rachel looked for a way to escape. However, the gun pressed into her back left her with no alternative.
He took her to the basement, unfortunately encountering no one in this clearly less used section of the hotel. The young woman who had seemed nervous before, now seemed stuck in shock. She followed meekly at the man's order. Rachel could not quite figure out the other woman's part in the transpiring events. She was eventually shoved out a cluttered exit door and found herself outside the hotel, in an empty parking lot, her captor having escaped with her. The whole time Rachel had watched and waiting for an opening, but the man's finger had not strayed for his trigger, a trigger she believed he would actually enjoy pulling.
The man ordered the other woman to stay, to close and hide the door after their exit. He said that if she opened her mouth, her son and sister would die.
That confirmed what Rachel had suspected, that Sarah was not actually a willing accomplice to this, merely a pawn, now she had her confirmation.
He pulled Rachel through the shadows until they arrived at a car, where there was another man, and a woman and a child. The even younger woman and the child, clearly also hostages, like her, to the other man. The poor child seemed terrified.
When the other man saw them, he leered at her in a way that made Rachel's skin crawl and said. "You did it, Jason."
"You had doubts, brother?" The man that still held a gun to her back responded, arrogantly.
"Let them go, you do not need them now." It may seem arrogant also, but Rachel was sure she was the main target here and as messily as this was shaping up, she really did not want anyone else involved, especially a child.
"Shut up!" Jason shouted and deliberately hit her head hard into the car door as he pushed her into the back seat of the vehicle.
Despite her increasing pain, Rachel managed a challenging look at her captor, which of course only made him even angrier.
"Jason, we need to go, now!" Said a suddenly nervous Nick, glancing around the too empty space behind the hotel. His brother didn't respond but got in the car and Nick immediately gunned the engine and sped them all away.
Find me, Tom. Rachel prayed as she felt herself start to feel light headed for the hard blow.
Find me…
TBC
