The Beginning of An Apocalypse
Nineteen

Shane walked out of his shower and leaned forward to get the towel he left on the sink. He walked into his room to grab the clothes he forgot to bring when he first took a shower. He threw on some jeans and a long-sleeved blue cotton shirt. He went back to the bathroom to brush his hair and then he was done.

Shane grabbed his shoes and sat down on the couch to put them on. Ever since this virus broke out, he hasn’t been going to work that much. At least not as much as he liked to.

He was seconds away from putting on his second shoe when his phone rang. He took a deep breath and grabbed it even though he knew it was either going to be his sister, mother, or boss telling him the latest things that were happening. The things he didn’t care to know.

He looked at his phone and saw it was his sister. He couldn’t say he wasn’t relieved when he saw it wasn’t his mom or his boss. His mom would tell him all about the new things she saw on the news and his boss would yell at how his business was going to go under. He couldn’t say he didn’t have the time to deal with those things, but he for sure didn’t have the want to. He held his breath while he hit the green button and put the phone to his ear.

“Hey, what’s up?” He said hoping she would possibly not answer. She could talk for hours and he wasn’t looking forward to that.

“Not much of anything little bro. You know, since the entirety of California was shut down, but you know how–”

“Ally, is this going anywhere or are you going to rant about viruses and death?” Shane asked. He didn’t want to be so upfront, but he had the feeling that she was talking about something else with the weird tone of her voice. She had that tone where he knew she had some sort of gossip to talk about. And probably something to do with him. Fun.

“Yes, Shane-y, I have something to tell you,” Ally said with that annoying giggle of hers. “You know that girl you kept telling me about? What was her name again, Casserole? Candice? Ca–”

“Cassidy?” Shane asked. He shook his head but he couldn’t shake the smile on his face. “And I didn’t say more than a few sentences.”

“It’s been months and all I hear about is her.”

“If I talked a lot about her, you would have known her name by now,” Shane argued. He got up from the couch and went to the kitchen to grab himself a drink. He ended up leaving the kitchen without a drink because it was too strange to sit and do nothing while on the phone.

“Sure, sure, you are so in denial,” Ally said.

“Could you just get on with whatever it is you want to tell me? I’m busy.”

“Busy watching your comedy shows and eating chips in sadness,” Ally said. “Anyway I was watching the news with Mom and it was about whoever brought this virus or whatever in. some kid. And there was a clip of these people or whatever who went onto the bridge when he was on the bridge and they came out without dying.”

“Yeah, that was weeks ago,” Shane said after forcing himself to hear Ally’s words in slow motion so he could hear anything of what she said. “What’s the point?”

“Well, it was just leaked that your not girlfriend slash girlfriend was on the bridge. She was put into the hospital afterward and–”

“What?!” Shane stopped walking in circles around his apartment and stopped like ally was in front of him and they were talking face to face. “What do you mean?!”

“I’ll send you the link,” Ally said. “But she was on that bridge with the lead dude trying to save us all, Dr. Something or whatever. They went missing and appeared in the hospital that’s across town.”

“And you’re just calmly telling me this?!” Shane asked, his voice a little too high.

“You know I have a hard time being serious about anything, Shane,” Ally said. “Anyway no one knows why she’s in the hospital but they looked into her life or whatever and there’s a rumor that the infected person on the bridge is her brother. Marcus, I think. I sent you the–” Shane hung up the phone and went to the link that Ally had sent him.

He pressed it and it took her to a YouTube video that was of the news. Of course, not the actual news video, Ally only watches YouTube.

He held one hand to his mouth after he pressed play to the video.

He watched as the Golden Gate Bridge collapsing came on and how they were talking about it. He knew about the bridge collapsing after some weird blast that the military called a missile. He saw it weeks ago, but he didn’t pay attention to it.

He wished he did now.

He watched as the pictures changed to a close-up picture of the infected kid who was on the bridge. He saw Marcus a few times, he could tell that it was him without much trouble. He looked a lot sicker and a lot scarier, but it was him.

He watched as the news lady calmly talked about how it was rumored that they brought in Marcus’s sister to get him to listen to the soldiers and get him into custody. It didn’t go well.

And then there was the blast that had destroyed most of the Golden Gate Bridge. No one was going to be driving on there for a while.

And then he saw a picture of that scientist Gabriel Everett and Cas standing together outside of a hospital. It looked like a paparazzi photo. Gabriel Everett was in crutches and a cast. Cas leaned over a little bit with her hand clenched against her stomach. She didn’t look good. Even with her face hidden, he knew it was her.

Her dark blonde hair covered her face, but he knew everything about her and there was no denying it was her.

He was only focusing on Cas and when the picture passed to another he had to scroll back. He wanted to study everything going on in that picture like it would tell him all the secrets to why she was there with that man.

He looked back at the picture but didn’t see only Cas again. He looked and saw someone coming up behind her. A bigger man who was close to Cas. His arm was raised and he had something small in his hand. He couldn’t tell what it was and he couldn’t zoom in.

All he knew is that it was trouble.

He watched the rest of the video and saw the hospital that Cas was outside of. He knew the hospital from past visits. It wasn’t a good thanksgiving day last year.

The video ended and Shane was left standing there with a million questions and one answer. He had the answer to why Cas called him and told him that she wouldn’t be working for a few days. But it wasn’t a few days it was weeks and she lost her job. She had no choice but to do it, she was stuck in the hospital. And it was probably confidential–Screw that, she should have said something, he told himself.

His irrational mind was in the works now.

He didn’t care about what happened or why, he knew about it now, and if she was sick with this deadly disease that they were calling Tar-SF-613-2022. He believed it was named that because it made your insides look like tar and he believed for San Fransico and the year. 12 may have been the day it happened, he couldn’t remember. Hey, he thought, San Fransico could be known for something else besides the now-destroyed Golden Gate Bridge.

He grabbed his coat and his baseball bat. It wasn’t to hurt anybody, but on the news, it said that the virus is transmitted through physical contact so you should avoid touching anyone who looked remotely sick. His dad made everyone he knew carry around a bat to push people away from him if they came after them.

Shane didn’t think much of anything but he wasn’t going to risk death because he didn’t want to carry around a bat.

He kept the bat in an unzipped bag so it didn’t look like he was going to rob someone while they walk down the street. That’s the last thing he wanted.

The CDC also told them to wear masks even though the only danger to them was touch. People were scared, Shane suspected, they had nothing else to do but take percussions.

Shane left his building with only a few raised eyebrow looks. He took his car from the apartment parking lot and drove to the hospital that was shown to have Cas staying there. He didn’t know what he was doing without a plan. Cas probably wasn’t even there he felt like he had to go. They were friends after all and he had to make sure she was okay.

That she wasn’t laying dead somewhere because she was too stubborn to accept help. Or kidnapped and in trouble.

Why didn’t she just stay looking for him on the streets with his help?

Why did she go with this Gabriel Everett and get herself into all this trouble?

It was almost a twenty-minute drive to the hospital, but it only took a few minutes to get a parking spot and get out. There weren’t many people here. Everyone was at home and probably falling off stuff, but none of them were brave enough to get help so there wasn’t a full parking lot.

He got out of his car and made sure he locked it. Another one of his mother’s fearful rants.

He walked past all the now and then cars and eventually into the hospital. He didn’t know what was going to happen or if he was going to get the answers he wanted, but he wasn’t going to leave without having someone talk to him.

He went up to the receptionist and waited for her to end her phone call. After what felt like an eternity she ended her phone call and looked up at him. “How may I help you?” She didn’t look or sound happy to be talking to him at all.

“Hi,” He said. “I’m looking for a patient, Cassidy Tyler.”

She turned to her computer and started typing in her name.

“Family?”

“Friend,” Shane said. “I haven’t seen her in a while and I was told that she was here. I need to make sure she’s okay.”

“Hmm…” She looked at the computer and Shane saw a look in her eyes that she saw something and it concerned her. She shook herself a little and looked back up at Shane. “Sorry, there was no one here with that name.”

“What are you talking about?” Shane asked. “I know she was here. She may have been discharged already. Check again.”

She took a deep breath in and moved her mouse to click on the edge of the screen. “I tried again and there’s no–”

Shane slammed his hand against the desk. He didn’t know where any of this came from, but he couldn’t stop. He knew she was lying to him and that was something he really couldn’t tolerate right now. “All respect, but you’re lying. I know she was involved in whatever was happening. I want to know what!”

“Sir,” The receptionist said. “I don’t have any information on the girl you want.” She continued to look every which way as if she was signaling for someone to help her. Yet no one was coming to help her at the moment.

“Stop lying to me, She could be dead or sick and I don’t–” Shane took a step back and a deep breath. He didn’t know what he was doing. This wasn’t him. If he could look at himself from the outside he would stay away from this person. But there was no stopping the words coming out of his mouth. There was no stopping the fear that holding him captive.

“Her name is Cassidy–Cas Tyler and she is twenty years old. Please, I–”

Someone grabbed onto Shane’s arm forcing him to stop. He believed it was going to be secure and they were going to drag him out. But it wasn’t. The person who grabbed his arm and yanked him to the side was a woman. Her long red hair was in a mess and crutches.

“There you are,” she said randomly like they knew each other. “Sorry about him. He hit his head at home and now he’s talking crazy.” She laughed until the receptionist gave her a nervous laugh back. “I’m just gonna get him back to his room and get his thick head checked out.”

The woman looked up at Shane with not the same smile she was giving the receptionist. “Come on,” she said with now a forced smile. She got herself to walk away with her crutches. It must be her first time using crutches because she was slow and Shane was sure she would fall soon.

“Do I know you?” Shane asked. “I mean, you don’t know me and you came up to get me away from there. I need to go back because I need to ask more questions.”

“You won’t get your answers Mr…?”

“Shane,” He told her. “Wilgate. You?”

“Well Shane Wilgate, I’m Liza Locken and I’m here to tell you that you are a stupid idiot.” She kept walking without another word. When Shane spoke or tried to defend himself, she wouldn’t even answer him. She turned and went into an empty room. She pushed him in when he walked way too slowly. She shut the door when he was in and away from her. “You think you can go around and spat crap that is confidential?”

“Do you work in the military or something?” Shane asked. He completely ignored any want for the answer to that question. “Do you know Cas Tyler?”

“I do, we’re somewhat friends,” Liza said. “And you can ask all around but no one’s going to tell you anything. I’m sure Mr. Gabriel Everett made sure of that. I don’t know if you know who that is.”

“I know who he is,” Shane said. “He’s usually talked about on the news when I sometimes watch it. Plus I saw a video talking about him earlier which is why–”

“You talk a lot don’t you?” Liza asked interrupting him from his ramble. She gave a little chuckle when she saw Shane tense up and look away after she interrupted him. “Why are you looking for her?”

“She used to work for me in a store across town. Last Out. Well, she’s fired now because she didn’t come to work for so long. But we’re friends and I saw that her brother is the person who caused this new pandemic. I just–”

“Okay, I get it,” Liza said. She shook her head and cleared all the rambles of unimportance that Shane was saying. Liza got herself to walk to the bed and sit down. “If you’re trying to save her and be a hero, you’re too late. She left two days ago.”

“With that Gabriel Everett guy,” Shane said. He grabbed his phone from his back pocket. He scrolled through his phone till he got to the screenshot he took of the picture of Cas, Gabriel, and whoever the man was that stood behind her. He walked over and gave it to Liza. “I think that something is wrong. That Mr. Everett took her.”

Liza zoomed in and looked at the man who was behind Cas. She looked back up at Shane to see him leaning over to see what he already knew.

“You think this man took Cas? Mr. Gabriel would never let that happen.”

“What if he’s been kidnapped too,” Shane said. “He is the one who is like the main scientist on this pandemic and trying to fix it. So, they could want him or something.

“The day Gabriel Everett gets kidnapped is the day I can die happy,” Liza said. “Which would be impossible.”

Liza put her crutches on the side of the bed and pushed herself further on the bed. She turned her body to make herself to be able to lay straight on the bed. “If you think that Cas is in danger, she probably is. I told her to be careful but Gabriel can make people do anything he wants. Easy.” Liza handed Shane back his phone and laid down to rest her back on the bed.

“Why are you so calm?”

“He’s not going to hurt her,” Liza told him. “What he’s going to do is most likely going to be some kind of experiment or use her to put his names in the paper after he stops this pandemic.”

Shane shoved his phone back into his back pocket. He couldn’t believe her. He didn’t know who she was or who she worked for but the fact that she was sitting here and acting so calmly was not a great feeling for him.

She knew something that she wasn’t saying. He knew that she must know Gabriel and she also said she was Cas’s friend. He didn’t know if he was wasting his time here talking to this crazy and super relaxed woman.

“None of those things are good things,” He said with a little bit of a high-pitched tone. “I need to replace Cas and you need to tell me where I can replace her. She may be in danger and even if she isn’t, I still need to see her.”

“Why is this so important to you?” Liza asked. She got herself to sit up after three failed attempts and a few seconds of resting because of the pain. “Do you like her?” She asked with a grin. “Love her?”

“I don’t,” Shane said. “We’re friends and I’m trying to help her replace a friend.”

“Sure, sure,” Liza said with a smile and a roll of her eyes. “Help me up.” She held out her hand for Shane to take and pick her up. With some hesitance, Shane lent her his hand and helped her to stand up. He tried to grab her crutches for her hoping he could help this become easier. Liza slapped his hand as soon as she saw his hand in sight. Once Shane stepped back she grabbed them herself.

“If you think your not girlfriend is in danger then I’m going to take you up on it. We’re not friends, but I’d hate to see something happens to her. And Gabriel probably has nothing good planned for her.”

“Exactly,” Shane said. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever,” Liza said. “Just follow me and quiet your blabber mouth quiet.”

“Do you just love to insult people?” Shane asked.

Liza shrugged and gave a slight nod, “It’s fun,” she replied. She shook her head and she went from laid back to focus. She got herself to get out of the room and into the hall. She turned down the way they came and back to the desk.

Shane moved away as the same receptionist was there and he believed things would go smoother with him not being there. He still felt annoyed that that woman wouldn’t tell her the truth. Shane walked too far to the point he couldn’t hear what Liza was saying. He figured she was signing something to get out of there.

He didn’t know if he thought that anymore when the lady picked up the phone and started to call someone. The look of intimidation in her eyes. Maybe even fear.

Liza smiled and that was the last of it.

Liza pushed herself to walk over to Shane who stayed against the wall by the large plant. “I got her to have one of the security guys take us to the security room. We’re going to watch the tapes from the cameras and see if Cas is in danger or just missing.”

Liza let out a grateful sound when she rested her body against the cold wall. Her back still hurt like hell but she was able to move again. And laying it completely straight made it easier to do anything.

“She told me she was homeless so she could just be wandering the streets and you can’t replace her,” Liza said. “We have to be sure.”

Shane heard everything that Liza said and he was grateful for everything she was doing. He was going to replace some way to show that to her. But right now all he could think about was what she had just done and how easily she had done it.

How she talked about Gabriel as if they knew each other more than just from hearing about each other on the news.

“Who are you?” Shane asked. He looked at her with all seriousness and he waited for her to answer. He wasn’t going to give up until he got the honest answer.

“I work in the military as an officer. I have some authority and I know how to get people to do what I want,” Liza said.

“So you were on the bridge when it collapsed?” Shane asked. He asked like he was asking a celebrity if they were in a certain movie. A look in his eyes and that expectation of her to say something.

“Yeah,” Liza said with a sigh and a nod. “That’s why I’m in this shape sadly.”

“Oh… Sorry,” Shane said.

Liza rolled her eyes and turned to look the other way. She crossed her arms and waited for the man with security sewed into his uniform to walk over to the desk where she could spot him. And in two minutes, he was there.

“Thank God,” Liza said. She put her crutches in place and got herself to walk. She gritted back the pain till she got used to it and was able to walk. “Take us to where the security tapes are held.”

“Uh hi,” the guy said. “I’m–”

“Jonathan Boyle,” Liza said. “I see it right there. Now take us, come on.”

The guy scratched the back of his head and it was obvious that he found what Liza said to be rude. He didn’t end up protesting and he brought them to his floor and the security room. “Which tape do you want? From when?” He asked.

“From two days ago,” Liza said. “It was around 12:34 that they left so then.”

“Okay,” Boyle said. He sat down in his chair and went to look for the recorded tapes for Tuesday. He went through all his recorded tapes. He looked at all their names from the top thinking it would be right on top. “Okay… That’s weird.”

“What’s wrong?” Shane asked. “Is it gone or something?”

“Yeah,” Boyle said. “I can’t replace it.”

“What do you mean you can’t replace it?!” Liza snapped. “Look again.” She knew she should have guessed something like this was going to happen. With Gabriel, he would take every extra step. And if he kidnapped some girl right outside of a hospital, he’d make sure there wouldn’t be any evidence. They could still be hopeful.

“Is it connected with another tape? Maybe it is with another file,” Shane said.

“No,” Boyle said. “Due to a mess that we had two years ago, we were told to date each file to make sure we knew what each one was.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” Shane asked. “Does that mean we can’t be sure if she was taken or if she just ran off?”

“Has this ever happened before?” Liza asked Boyle. “Missing files?”

“No,” Boyle said. “I mean, one time it got ruined because it didn’t get put onto a file, but we knew that was a mistake. Nothing like this has happened before.”

Liza looked up at Shane and could see what he was thinking. He knew what the truth was and what it meant, but he didn’t want to accept that. He knew somewhat of Gabriel and he could probably tell that he was bad news.

She didn’t blame him, this was probably hard for him after all.

Shane shook his head and moved forward. He grabbed onto the seat and leaned closer to the screen. He started reading off the file names. “Maybe you’re just missing it. Check it one more time,” Shane said.

“Shane,” Liza said.

Shane heard her, but he didn’t stop. He gently slapped Boyle’s shoulder and told him to check again. Boyle rolled his eyes and sighed, but he did what Shane asked. And the outcome remained the same.

The file’s gone.

“Come on,” Liza said. Liza got herself away from the desk and waited for Shane to do the same. Shane wanted to push Boyle out of the way and check himself. The woman at the desk lied to him too, this man could be lying just like her.

Even though they saw the computer screen and saw no Tuesday time.

“Shane, Let’s go.”

She walked out and after a minute of Shane going back and forth in his head, he walked out to. “What are we going to do now?!” Shane asked as they started to walk down the hall to the elevator.

“We’re going to go replace Gabriel, duh,” Liza said. “He kidnapped her, he’s got her.”

“How could we just go replace him?” Shane asked. “I’m a manager of a nobody store and you’re well… off work.”

“Thanks,” Liza said with a little bit of attitude in her voice. “I know where he is and where he’d have Cas. The only problem is that only he can get in there. Since he is a control freak, he has six billion levels of security. He has everyone know who works there and who doesn’t so no one can sneak in and pretend to work there.”

They walked into the elevator and pressed the button to get back down to the first floor. While they went down Liza went on and on about the security systems he has. When the door opened Liza went on about what could happen if they were caught.

By the time they got checked out and got to Shane’s car, Liza said she was only halfway done with the history of people who had tried and failed. It was brutal and scary. Liza said she was sure that Gabriel had killed many people and covered it up with the snap of his fingers.

Everything pointed to the words ‘he’s dangerous’ in big bold letters in red.

Shane couldn’t help but picture Cas being in that top-secret secured building. He imagined seeing her in a hospital-like cell that she was kept in. Seeing the many underground floors with many trapped people who were tricked by or betrayed by Gabriel.

He knew that Gabriel was a scientist who liked to experiment with new impossible ways. He would use those new ways on his prisoners. He would use them as lab rats and it wouldn’t matter if it went wrong.

He thought about it till he couldn’t think about it anymore. Till he scared the crap out of himself and it was too late to turn back.

“So what do we do?” Shane asked. “We can’t get in. We may not even be able to get near the place. If we are even suspected of trying to do anything, no one will ever see us again.”

Shane was grateful there was a red light because he felt like he was about to either crash or randomly stop and get hit by a car. He rested his head against the seat and took a deep breath. “Cas is probably getting tortured and Marcus is off killing people. How did this all happen?”

“They fell into the wrong hands,” Liza said. “There’s nothing we can do about that, but we can try to stop anything else from happening.” She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. “I can’t believe you made me talk like this. Be happy.”

It wasn’t the greatest way to cheer up the mood, but it made them both chuckle a little.

The light turned green and they started to drive again. “But seriously, do we have a plan?” Shane asked. “How do we get in?”

Liza sat up and scratched at her nose. “I can get in easily, but Gabriel knows who you are so I wouldn’t be able to get you in. I don’t like what that would lead to if we were making a plan on infiltrating.”

“Why would you get in so easy?” Shane asked. “Because you work in the military?”

Liza gave Shane half of a shrug before she thought about how to answer him. If she should even answer him truthfully. “That’s only part of it,” She told him. She has stuck with him anyway and even if it was by her own choice, they were. They were partners.

Shane didn’t get what she meant when she said, ‘that’s only part of it.’ What was the other part? Does she have something on him? Blackmail?

He started to wonder if it was safe for him to be sitting next to her right now. He wanted to know the answer even if it would scare him, so he asked. “And the other half?” Shane asked and waited for her answer.

Liza looked at him and with a smile, she said, “We’re cousins and he’d never kill me.”