The Apocalypse

Chapter 49



Epilogue

The Atlanta Base



All four of them were arrested, five if Eve was included in their number and this was a good thing, because had they not been arrested and held for trial, they would have been sent to the refugee center at Guntersville which was later overran by a great army of zombies with a fearful loss of life.

They counted themselves as lucky, yet the looming trial was a weight upon all of them. They slept little and worried a great deal, especially Sadie who wasn't nearly as tough as she tried to let on. She found the cage oppressively small. Restless, she walked the ten by ten cell every day, stretching her legs and complaining about the need to run.

In spite of everything they stayed as cheerful as they could and looked on the bright side: they were warm and alive and still together. The time passed and it was hard to tell how long, though Eve could hold her head up and blow raspberries at the guards by the time Colonel Taylor was arrested for speaking out repeatedly against the admiral's heavy handed methods.

Things grew especially grim after the colonel “confessed” to the killing of the Secretary of Health and Human Service and was executed by firing squad. Since the little group was among the few who knew the actual truth, Ram surmised that it wouldn't be long before each of them was forced to make their own confessions and were killed as well.

It seemed a very likely thing, but not two days later the USS Harry S Truman, the admiral's flagship, exploded in a giant fireball. His coup was ended with a countercoup, which in turn led to an assortment of counter-counter-coups until the remaining hodge-podge of military forces set up veritable city-states where generals reigned with all the power of petty kings.

And all the while, the five of them sat in their makeshift cells, until it was practically forgotten what they were incarcerated for. Thankfully Eve, with her giant blue eyes and her tiny button nose, made such an impression with the guards that they were looked upon favorably and when word got out there was a baby being held as a prisoner, the group was taken before a general none had ever seen before.

“This is the baby I've heard about?” he asked. “May I hold her?” He was a kindly sort of man with short grey hair and wore a uniform that had been starched to such a degree that he seemed bullet proof.

Still Sadie said, “Only if you wash your hands.”

Since the general had benefitted from the Secretary's death and had never liked the admiral in the first place, he didn't hold a grudge and released them as soon as Eve went red in the face, grunted twice and filled her diaper. “She's all yours,” he said quickly, handing her back. “Good luck.”

Things had changed greatly at the CDC during their stay in jail. For one it was no longer called the CDC. It was simply called either the Atlanta Base or just Atlanta. And gone were the multitude of scientists. Some stayed, but for the most part the others drifted away when actual work was expected of them. The base had been expanded to include the buildings and grounds of nearby Emory University, and for the most part, as winter turned to an early spring the base was beautiful.

It was a thriving community of both men and women, numbering close to four-thousand people and Neil's family was welcomed—mostly because Eve was such a novelty. Very few babies had lived through the initial stages of the apocalypse, and children of all sorts were considered somewhat of a prized possession.

Sarah and Neil decided immediately that they wanted to stay. The base was secure and the general seemed a good and fair ruler; overall it seemed an ideal place to raise children. Although Sadie liked Atlanta well enough, she stayed mainly because she couldn't stand the idea of ever leaving her apocalypse parents.

Ram was different. He chaffed all through march and by the time the Dogwoods began to flower he shouldered his pack and kissed his friends good-bye.

“I'm going north,” he said in a vague reply to their questions. “Just to see what's what. I'll be back, I'm sure.” The truth was that his heart was restless. It held the ghost of a woman and the thirst for revenge. Cassie was out there—and she deserved to die. Often he had dreamed of her and in those dreams she was a faceless hate.

“Bring me back something nice,” Sadie begged. “Like the Liberty Bell, I've always wanted one.”

“Is that all?” he asked with a laugh. “Just a thousand pound bell? Not the crown from the Statue of Liberty?”

“Or a shot glass from the Empire State Building, one or the other. I'm going to miss my Uncle Ram.”

“Me too,” Sarah told him. “What I want is for you to bring yourself back when you're done setting your heart to rest.” She hugged him fiercely, while Neil was quiet and shook his hand solemnly.

“Good luck,” his friend said. “And keep your powder dry...wait. Is that a real thing or a sexual metaphor?”

Ram couldn't help but smile at the man, or at any of them really, however he knew, as he went through the gates, that smiling didn't always equate to happiness. Sometimes it was only a mask to hide pain. So Ram smiled his fake smile one last time and then turned to begin his hunt.

The End.