Nile shook his head. “That’s fine. But the faster we start hydrating them, the more chance they stand of survival.”
“Niles,” Cass said with some disbelief. “They’ve been on that plane for days. Would two more hours really hurt?”
“It may not hurt a couple of people, it will others,” Niles stated. “We made it here literally in the nick of time and we must do what we can to help them survive. This world has lost too many and too many couldn’t be saved. These people can.”
“How is it possible?” Kit asked. “I mean we don’t have any IVs.”
“Old-fashioned way,” answered Niles. “We get them to drink, we literally drop it in their mouths.” He looked at Cass. “If you want to go back to Griffin, either of you, go. Art and I can handle it.”
Kit shook his head. “No, we’ll stay. We’ll help. We’re talking what? A few hours? Overnight?”
“What about Kat?” Cass asked.
“He knows there’s a chance we won’t be back until tomorrow,” Kit answered.
“We passed a town,” Niles said. “Not a really a town. More like an abandoned highway stop with some businesses.”
“That’s Cameron,” Kit replied. “They have a small church there. We can lay these people down in there. Find fluids at the restaurants. It’s only a couple miles.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do, Officer, thank you,” Niles said.
“Good. Cass and I will head to the restaurant. You situate the patients.”
“Thank you again, Officer.”
Kit gave a quick tilt of his head to the left as a signal for Cass to walk with him.
“Man, they just refuse to call you Kit,” Cass said.
“They will eventually.”
“Kit.” Cass reached out, grabbed his arm, and stopped him. “You did really good back there. You alright?”
“Yeah, I am. It was… it was tough. All those people, Cass. They just suffered because their source of information shut down before they knew that in order to live all they had to do was open that door right away.” He started walking again.
“They did, Kit. They did. They just didn’t leave and the fungus grew over their only open door.”
“It was a horrible death for them.” Kit approached the squad car and stopped dead.
“Kit?”
He walked around to the passenger’s side, then away from the car a few feet. He stopped at the fungus that covered the ground. He stepped on it, stomped it a few times, then looked around again.
“Kit, what the heck are you doing?” Cass asked.
When he glanced her way there was a look of concern on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Cass asked.
“Nothing. I’m probably mistaken.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Kit cleared his throat. “Let’s just head to Cameron.” Before returning to the driver’s side, he opened the door for her.
While Kit got in, Cass hesitated. She peered out to the fungus, then back to Kit as he started the car.
She wondered what he saw, and even though he said it was nothing, Cass didn’t believe him. He did see something, because a typically unwavering Kit wavered, and that just didn’t happen for no reason.
Las Vegas, NV
The only green Eb had seen in Vegas was the decorative planted trees and shrubbery, his money leaving his hand, and the huge Grand Hotel, which, ironically, was Eb and Ada’s destination.
As it had in the desert area, the fungus had arrived.
It appeared in patches on the street, crept off the overhead walkways, and the castle-like hotel looked like something from an old Highlander movie.
It wasn’t everywhere, not on every part of every building, but enough that it changed not only the entire look, but the feel of the city as well.
Eb pulled the pickup to the parking garage entrance, stopping just before pulling in to assess if it was safe and if he could get through.
Fungus had begun to form on the arch of the entrance.
He and Ada both stepped out, a rifle strapped over her shoulder.
“Oh, God.” Ada coughed. “Is that humidity?”
“Like a jungle,” Ed replied and blew softly through is lips. “I don’t want to think about how bad it will be if this city gets covered.”
“Anyone stop to think how this will affect the atmosphere?”
“Jesus,” Eb said. “I didn’t think of that. It could kill us all.”
“It could. Right now… why did we stop?”
“It’s growing.” Eb pointed to the archway. “It’s just a question of how fast it’s growing. What if it’s growing so fast it blocks us in?”
“I don’t think it will grow that fast.”
Ed reached up and touched it. “Feels like grass but”—he slammed his hand on it—“hard as rock.” He tried to pull it. “Doesn’t move.”
With a ‘hmm,’ Ada walked back to the truck. Eb watched her reach in the back end and pull out a backpack type item that looked more like what the Ghostbusters would wear.
“What the hell is that?”
“Got this from Pete Jones when he quit the exterminator business. Here, hold my rifle.” She handed the weapon to Eb then placed on the pack, pulling out the hose with the squeeze handle trigger.
“What is in there?”
“My antifungal mixture.”
“You think it’s gonna work on something of this scale?”
“Building?” Ada shook her head. “No. Never be enough of it. But for a doorway. Sure.”
“It works?”
“Yep.”
“You tested it?” Eb asked.
“You know that smart shit Art didn’t want to admit it worked, eventually he did, but it was too late for those who got infected. When he got that deer and brought samples from it, we tried my mixture on one of the samples and damn if the green didn’t turn brown. Still he wouldn’t admit it.”
“Maybe because he knew it wouldn’t work on more than a sample.”
“Doubt me. Go on.” Ada aimed and squirted a portion.
Eb placed his hands on his hips. “Nothing is happening.”
“Give it more than five seconds goddamn it.”
Eb exhaled almost impatiently then widened his eyes when he saw the area she’d sprayed began to die off. “It’s crazy.”
“Yeah, isn’t it. I don’t think it will stop it from growing back. It might. We didn’t get that far. But it’s something…” She grabbed her rifle from Eb’s hand and, using the butt, hit into the dying portion. It cracked and fell to the ground. “There. We can go in. We won’t get stuck even if this crap grows a mile a minute.” She turned to head back to the truck.
“Wait,” Eb told her. “Just in case it does grow that fast. Spray again on the empty spot.”
With a shrug, Ada did and for good measure, she sprayed an untouched area.
They returned to the truck and drove inside.
Where they needed to go was a level down. Eb was all too familiar with it. Inside the garage were pockets of the fungus. It grew on some of the cars. Mainly the ones closest to the doors and openings. Eb picked a spot more central and they walked across the lot to the set of double doors where a sign overhead read ‘The Underground.’
“Sounds seedy,” Ada said.
“It’s not.” Eb, with a smile, carefully opened the door. “Hopefully this guy didn’t go nuts.”
“Hello!” Ada called out. “Anyone here?” She looked at Eb. “What was his name on the social media post?”
“Fishman and some number.”
“Hello! We’re looking for Fishman,” Ada called out again.
It was a dark hallway and surprisingly the power was still on. Eb knew someone was there because he could smell food.
After Ada called out once more, they heard clumsy bangs and thumps, followed by running footsteps.
Just as they turned the bend in the hall, a man appeared.
“Oh my God,” he gushed excitedly. “Oh my God. People.” He wore jeans and a tee shirt and to Eb, the guy had kept himself together while waiting.