Only six vials of the vaccine remain outside government control, and two unlikely heroes discover it: a neurotic shut-in who is afraid of dust bunnies, and a brilliant but unstable girl who could save the world - or destroy it. As they escape across a pillaged and polluted America, they're pursued by a Federal assassin, a man who can only live if they die.
As the nation’s government begins to collapse, weakened by a worsening currency crisis and growing urban rioting, Krista discovers that the power to deliver the fatal blow to the vice president’s plans had been by her side the entire time. The one hitch—it’s hard to strike a blow for freedom when you’re exhausted by the hunt, from the day and night pursuit on land and from the sky.
From The American Main:
THEY CROSSED THE TRACKS and looked in both directions; the wreckage of
the train glowed in the distance to one side, and red crossing signals
blinked on the other. The lights of the diesel station burned brightly
ahead, but they saw no cars or people there. However, Ada noticed dozens of
surveillance cameras around the store and pumps, so they stayed far away.
They skittered down the gravel slope into a weedy ditch and then
through a field of patchy grass. In the glow from the filling station, they
spotted a row of houses ahead and walked toward them. After a few minutes,
they found a swing set in the backyard of a house.
Ada sat in a cracked plastic swing. “I need a break before I go in
there.”
“Good idea. We don’t know what we’re in for, although I can
guess.” She pointed to a wooden house whose back door was swinging in the
breeze and slamming against the side.
“That freakin door’s loud,” Ada said, and then it slammed again.
“You can hear it all over town. This place is either empty or everybody’s
deaf.”
“It’s deserted. We’ve seen this before.”
“Yeah. It definitely has that infected atmo, doesn’t it?” The wind
caught the door and slammed it shut, and then it opened and smacked the
house’s side again. “Do you know if the virus has gotten here yet?”
“I don’t,” Krista said. “My tablet battery’s dead, but I don’t
need the SatNet to tell me the virus hit this place. They split and didn’t
even bother to close the doors. I just hope they left a car behind.”
Ada ran her finger along a swing seat beside her. “They’ve been
gone awhile. There’s dirt on everything.”
The wind picked up and drove a wall of dust across the yard, and
they hunched over and covered their eyes. Within seconds, it was whistling
and howling, and then it ripped the door off its hinges and blew it end over
end across the yard and into the gully. The gust stopped as quickly as it
started, but the unearthly whistling remained as the wind tore through a
distant part of town.
“Now there’s a spooky sound,” Krista said.
“Yeah. All we need is a freakin
Day the Earth Stood Still theremin soundtrack.
Ooo-wheee-ooo! There you go. Now it’s a sci-fi B-movie.”
“Weird. Who thought the B-movie guys were such visionaries? It
turns out they showed exactly how the world would end.”
“Not exactly. If they wanted to give their viewers the complete
experience, they’d make them give up eating and drinking and showering and
crapping for a week, and then the usher would whack them all over with a
tire iron before they entered the theater. That might come close.”
“I know, right? Well, I can’t wait for the end credits, I’ll say
that. I detest this flick.”
“Detestify, sister. But horror movies don’t end like this. This
kinda scene usually means the shuffling horde of undead is coming. The
heroines run, the slow one gets eaten, the fast one kills her with some
improbable weapon she finds at the last second, and then she goes all
Serengeti on some zombie ass. That’s where the movie usually ends.”
Krista scanned the yard and peered into the doorless house, but
she saw no zombies. “Let’s change the script, then. We’ll stay close
together and watch each other’s back. Keep your gun ready. Look like a
desperado.”
Copyright 2021 Alanson Rand