Left With The Dead

“Yes. He is.” She reached out and gently grabbed Jaden’s chin in her hand and turned his face toward hers. She kissed his forehead and looked into his eyes. “Say hello to-Dave, you said your name was?”

“Yeah. Dave Gartrell.”

“Say hello to Dave, sweetie.”

Jaden only sucked on his straw and slowly looked back at Gartrell. Gartrell winked at him again, and this time he was rewarded with a tiny shy smile from Jaden as he continued to drink his water. Gartrell’s smile broadened.

“A little smile like that is all the hello I need,” he said.

Jolie nodded without smiling herself and turned toward the coffee table. A small DVD player sat there, and Gartrell watched as she opened it and turned it on. Its screen came to life, and he felt a twinge of unease run through him.

“Hey, if that thing makes any sound-”

“I’ll keep the volume low,” Jolie said, her tone harsh. “I have to keep him occupied. If he’s unoccupied, he’ll start doing things that will cause more noise than a damned DVD, all right?” Jaden made a small noise in his throat when he heard his mother’s tone of voice, and Jolie turned back to him, all smiles. She touched his cheek and then tweaked his nose. “We’re going to watch some Blue’s Clues, okay buddy?”

Jaden pulled the straw from his mouth and said, “Boos!” His voice was small but as lovely as he was. Gartrell thought it was a 100 % match, and then wondered what it would sound like when the boy broke down and starting wailing. The DVD player’s screen came to life with an animated menu, and Jolie selected the ‘Play All’ icon. The DVD began playing softly, and Jaden giggled a bit as he sat down before it. He stared at the screen with rapt attention, his Sippy cup hanging from his mouth by its straw. Jolie kissed the top of his head again, then picked up a soiled diaper lying on the floor next to her. She rose to her feet and carried the diaper into the kitchen. Gartrell followed, and watched as she put the diaper in a plastic shopping bag, tied it up, and dropped it into the almost-full trash can.

“Jaden’s not potty trained yet,” she told him. “So we go through quite a few diapers during the day, and a few more overnight. I’m sorry about the smell, but I’ve been afraid to go out and dump the bag down the garbage chute. I don’t know what might hear the noise.”

Gartrell nodded. “I get that. You’re thinking, and that’s good. If the smell gets too bad, we can always pitch the bag into another apartment.”

“Who were you talking to before?”

“I made radio contact with the Army unit that’s to our north. It’s an entire division, maybe ten thousand guys. They’re trying to move into the city, but it’s not going too well.”

“Will they come and get us?”

“As soon as they can. They’re a little short on helicopters right now, but they know we’re here. By the way, I’ll need your address-I can give them GPS information, but an actual address would help.”

“Fifteen-forty Second Avenue, apartment four B. When do you think they’ll come?”

Gartrell shrugged. “Not sure-they’re waiting for helicopters to come in from Pennsylvania. I don’t know if they’ve left their home airfield yet, or if they’re even ready to launch. I’ll make contact again in an hour and try to get an update, but lots of stuff is going on in the world. We’re pretty low on the list of priorities right now.”

Jolie’s brow knitted. “Did you tell them I have an autistic son?”

“I mentioned that, yeah. Look, they’re going to try, but they’re also trying to stop those…things…from getting out of the city. You know what happens if one bites you, right?”

“No. What?”

Gartrell sighed. “You die. And then, you turn into one of them.”

Jolie stared at him for a long moment, then looked away. “Dear sweet Jesus.” She put her hands over her face. “Oh dear sweet Jesus, you mean-” Her voice broke and her shoulders shook as she sobbed. She tried to suppress it, but the emotion overwhelmed her. She wept as silently as she could, and Gartrell stepped toward her and put his hands on her shoulders.

“What’s wrong? Have you been bitten? Are you all right?”

She shook her head and pulled away from him. He let her, and stepped back so he could keep an eye on Jaden. The boy still sat in front of the DVD player, watching a cute animated dog named Blue cavort about with her human owner. Gartrell looked back at Jolie, and waited for her to get herself under control.

“What is it, ma’am? If you’ve got something to say, pull yourself together and say it.”

She reached for a roll of paper towels and tore off a sheet. She spent another moment drying her eyes, then sniffed and turned back to him. Her blue eyes gleamed in the wan light that made it past the shaded windows.

“My husband called me from downtown. He’d been bitten by one of those things, but he’d gotten away from it. They didn’t kill him. He was still making his way uptown.”

Gartrell didn’t really know how to respond to that in any meaningful way. “I’m sorry.”

She sniffed again. “So he’s one of them now?”

“I don’t know. Probably better to keep your mind on your son now.”

She looked at him, hard-faced once again. “You do know! You’ve probably got more experience with those things than anyone else in the city!”

Gartrell said nothing, and she turned away from him with a heavy sigh. She rubbed her eyes, then crossed her arms and hugged herself in the gloomy darkness.

“I’m sorry. I don’t…I don’t mean to fight with you. I’m just wrapped up a little tight right now, you know?”

Gartrell knew all about it, and he felt the same way himself. “It’s not a problem. I get where you’re coming from. But thinking about your husband right now…well look, there are other things that are more pressing.”

Jolie nodded slowly. “Yeah. There are.” She turned back to him and tried to relax, but it didn’t work. She still looked uptight. The kind of uptight where people start to fray at the edges, and that worried Gartrell a bit. He really didn’t need her melting down on him.

Jolie leaned against the stainless steel stove and regarded him for a long moment. “So tell me why you’re in New York City. Because I’m thinking you’re not really a city boy, are you?”

Gartrell smiled. “Kind of. I’m from a place called Savannah, down in Georgia. Not as big as New York, but not some hick town with a population of six, either.”

“I’ve never been there.”

Gartrell shrugged. He figured Jolie wasn’t the kind of person to leave NYC for places like Georgia.

“So tell me why you’re here,” she asked.

Gartrell looked back into the living room. The boy was still fixated on the DVD player, but had taken the straw out of his mouth and had the cup in his lap. Jolie walked toward Gartrell and looked in on her son, then turned back to the first sergeant.

“He’ll be occupied for a bit longer.”

“Good.”

“So tell me what you were doing in New York, Dave.”

“Sure.”

Gartrell wasn’t much of a story teller-his wife said that whenever he had read his once-small children stories, it sounded like he was reading from a chemistry textbook-so he didn’t embellish anything, just made a straight, unpretentious report. Working to keep the military acronyms to a minimum, he told Jolie how he was tapped to join Major McDaniels on the mission to New York City, where they linked up with Operational Detachment Alpha 331, call sign OMEN. He had known some of the Special Forces troopers from his time as an instructor, so he had gotten along well with them and had no problem inserting himself into their detachment. He also told her of his history with McDaniels, how he felt the black officer was hidebound by regulation and had only a limited ability to adapt. He had the chops to lead a Special Forces unit; but when it came time to step out of the box, he had problems with his emotions clouding his ability to focus on the mission. When he told her of what had happened in Afghanistan, of how the death of one boy might have saved the lives of five Special Forces soldiers, her eyes widened in surprise.

“You would have killed that boy?”

“If so ordered, yes.”

“Was…was that really necessary?”