54. The cul-de-sac
In the gymnasium, Chloe is wrestling on her back with Jane over her trying to force her into an impossible position when she sees the boots and becomes aware of someone standing and watching them next to the practice mat.
She whispers to Jane: “Wait! Someone’s here.”
“No, I don’t fall for that cheap trick. Do you try to outwit me in such a scaly manner?”
“No, really! Look!”
Jane quickly glances around and sees Hannes Haasbroek. She leaves Chloe, rises and pulls her up. Soaking wet they stand closer and Chloe asks: “Hello, Hannes, what happened last night? I heard some of the visitors escaped. Who are they and why?”
Hannes ignores her question. “You two must immediately come with me. The colonel wants to see you urgently.”
Jane shrugs her shoulders. “He’ll have to wait a bit. We are going to shower first. See, we are bathed in sweat.”
“I said: immediately!”
Jane turning her back at Hannes, starts to walk towards the showers.
Hannes’ voice sounds urgent: “Your friends’ lives are at stake if you don’t cooperate immediately. If you care about their welfare, you will come with me immediately.”
Jane stops and turns about but before she can say anything, Chloe reacts: “Come, Jane, be quiet. Let’s go and find out what is going on.”
Hunter is sitting opposite Heinrich at his desk when they enter the mobile headquarters and he winks at them while the German only stares at them.
Hannes indicates that they must sit down on the open chairs next to Hunter. “Wait here! The colonel wants to see you separately.”
He vanishes in an adjacent office.
They sit down and look at the big, silent German. Chloe feels like a naughty little girl waiting in front of the headmaster’s office. What did Hannes mean by telling them their friends’ lives are in danger? She remembers Kadin’s passionate hug and she worries.
Hannes appears, leaving the door open, and points at Chloe. “Chloe, please go in! The colonel is waiting.”
Chloe enters and sees three chairs in front of Morrison’s desk. He stares at her as if there is something wrong with her and she asks while sitting down. “What is amiss, Colonel?”
Cool and collected he answers: “Trust is very important especially in the circumstances we are going to experience soon. We must know who we can trust and who not and loyalty goes hand in hand with trust. Do you agree, Chloe Eastwood? Can we trust you? Are you a loyal person?”
Chloe nods. “I am very loyal and trustworthy.”
Morrison bends and picks up something and the next moment he puts two muddy boots on the desk in front of him and Chloe bursts out laughing.
Morrison is surprised: “What is so funny, Chloe?”
“You, who stole my boots! That is what is so funny, Colonel.”
“Why do you think I’m putting these small boots on my desk in front of you? I’m very glad you don’t deny that it was your little feet that walked around with them last night. It would be quite interesting to know where they walked around last night.”
He waits for her reaction with a stern face.
Chloe feels she is overstepping but before she can stop herself she blunders: “Sarcasm doesn’t fit your hairstyle, Colonel.”
She admires his self-control as he doesn’t burst out but answers calmly: “What do you have to say for yourself, Chloe? How does the puzzle fit together? You, who supposedly are so extremely trustworthy and loyal?”
“Naturally your trackers have already analyzed our tracks and you know it was me that helped those eight people escape. You trampled on those peoples’ human rights by unofficially placed them under house arrest and they asked me to help them. I am sorry; sometimes the interest of the parties that want your loyalty clash and it was one against eight. As far as I know, they didn’t cause you any harm and didn’t deserve to be detained here and being eavesdropped. Sis! It wasn’t nice of you to mistreat them like that, Colonel. That is why their interests triumphed in my decision and all I can do now to compensate is to be dead honest with you. It was me, Chloe Eastwood, whêna.”
Morrison nods his head concisely. “You couldn’t do it alone. Who helped you?”
“It was only me.”
“Shit story! Don’t talk rubbish! You’ve just told me and the least you can do is to be honest, but you are lying through your teeth straight into my face. I shall tell you who helped you: your old buddy and confidant Major Hunter because we did some investigation and know very well that you have a long history. Furthermore: he and Nico even have a longer history and so the pieces of the puzzle come together. Hunter is certainly the mastermind behind the whole operation. We know he was a recce but the paw-paw hit the fan and all of you slid into the shit and now you are going find out you are going to shit now, believe me! And who else helped?”
“If you say so; who am I to argue? It was only our two, wily villains.”
“Don’t lie to me! Who else?”
“No one.”
“Who cut the fence and left the vehicle for them? Who misled Dexter and his troops who went to investigate in the barn while they hid in the storeroom? Who called back the dogs to their cages?”
“I am impressed, Colonel! You know your story. Are you going to trample our human rights just as you did with those poor people whom we helped against your molestation? It seems as if you have put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Why interrogate me?”
Morrison remains concise. “The guilty persons are Chloe, Jane, Hunter, Ronnie, and Lyle. Am I correct??”
“If you say so; who am I to disagree?”
Morrison pushes a button on his intercom. “Heinrich, send in the other two.”
Hunter and Jane enter and sit down on both sides of Chloe.
Morrison explains: “Right, Chloe already has told me everything and I know who the culprits are. I will tell you soon what we are going to do about your treason, but first; there are only two things that can happen with your friends: either they are going to be lucky and we stop them at a roadblock, or they reach PE and wait until the last moment to reach their secret hiding place. The last option is going to backfire and will mean the end of all of them and that is why you are here now. You are their only hope of survival.”
Chloe frowns. “What are you saying, Colonel?”
“I arranged with the SADF and they are on their way to the smallholding but they don’t know anything about the plague. Your friends are not going to reach the hide-out and are therefore doomed. I guarantee you that I will not allow them to get there in time and they will be overwhelmed by the plague Friday night at midnight. I will not recall those troops before that time.”
Hunter speaks: “I assume we are here because you want to bargain with us and you are now using our friends as your trump card. You don’t know why it is so important for them to get to the hide-out before the plague comes. What is our guarantee that you are going to recall those troops if I tell you? By the way, it is only me who knows the real reason. The rest only helped me to get them there on time.
Morrison sits forward in his chair. “Give me a good reason that makes sense and I’ll recall those troops. Give me a shit reason and they become man-eating monsters together with the population of PE.”
Hunter thinks for a while and then answers: “You are right! I have no alternative than to tell you. Professor Johan de Ridder is waiting for them there.”
Morrison hit his desk with his fist: “I knew it; continue!”
“For some reason or other he doesn’t trust you at all and that is why he wants to keep this information secret until the last moment. You now have put us in an awkward position and I have no choice than to let you in on the secret. Johan has a very important mission to fulfill and he trusts the eight people to help him. After those things that fell from heaven and spread the plague, effectively died, they must come out of the hide-out and start with his mission. There is no cure for the virus that is going to wreck our civilization, but the occult made it Johan’s mission to help them to develop a cure so that they can stop the hell on earth.
“It is a fact that one person out of a few hundred thousand has one or other genetic disposition that gives him or her a natural immunity against the virus. That person can be infected by the virus but doesn’t exhibit the same symptoms as others and can infect people but doesn’t become seriously ill. Johan’s mission is to find these carriers amongst those who survived. As soon as he finds one, that person must be brought to the scientific team that invented the virus in the first place.
“As a team they are then going to develop an antidote by using the DNA of these carriers to end the plague. That is precisely what is going on and I see no reason why you should prohibit them from entering the hide-out because they are going to free us from the hell that will be breaking loose soon. Those ten people’s aim is pure and honorable, Colonel, and if I were you, I would rather help them instead of blocking their path.”
“Why do they have to use that hide-out? Why can’t they bring this Johan guy to us?”
“This farm is less safe. That hide-out is 100% safe until the plague has stabilized and is then only contagious from one person to another. They are planning to return to the farm in a month when their provisions are depleted and they must leave the hide-out.”
“Why does he only trust those eight people? We can protect him far better and help him with his mission.”
“Well, I hope you will help them when they return to the farm, but it is a strange story of why he wants to do it with only those eight. You will find it difficult to believe, but Johan was taken into a spaceship that was sent from another civilization. In that ship was a crystal ball on which he had to put his hands and as he made choices the crystal ball showed him alternative solutions. The best solution was the one in which he only takes in the eight people when the plague starts.”
Flabbergasted Morrison looks for a while at Hunter. “Do you really think I must believe the nonsense you’ve just uttered? Beam me up Scotty Star Trek rubbish?”
Hunter shrugs his shoulders: “Where is your
polygraph tester? Let me guess: it is surely Heinrich. Let him test me now. Everything I have told you is the truth; whether you want to believe it or not. Strange things have happened that are difficult to explain. Nico surely told you about it. You know about Kadin, Billy and Michael’s experiences with Vipracitti, the strange prophet, and leader of the occult. You know this man has extraordinary hypnotic powers, amongst others. Up to now, he has manipulated the flow of events by showing up in their dreams. I suppose that is why they are so important for the success of their difficult mission. The occult protects them to eventually find a cure and I have the feeling that the special connection with the prophet, is going to help them to succeed in their mission.”
Silence follows after Hunter’s explanation and Morrison deliberately keeps them waiting while his eyes roam over them emotionless. Eventually, he speaks: “What are we going to do with you now? Soon there will be anarchy all around and pandemonium will break loose and I will have to reign with an iron hand. I will have to use this opportunity to make a thorough example of you because we cannot tolerate treason or mutiny in the future. We gave you a chance and look now what is the consequences? We will have to show the community what happens to transgressors.”
Morrison grins while looking at Chloe: “Your
dogs will be a big asset for us in the future but you destroyed all my trust in you. I should kill all of them right now, but they are too valuable. But, I think I don’t need ten of them. What are the names of your old dogs again, ah, Batista en Buddy? I am going to force you. You are going to shoot those two dogs in front of all and let it be a good lesson for you never to double-cross me again. What do you think, Chloe? Maybe I can enforce your loyalty in such a way because it doesn’t come voluntarily. From now on you will know the colonel is the most important person on this farm and he demands your loyalty and reliability, period!”
Chloe freezes inside and looks at him too stunned and afraid to react. She hopes he is only bluffing.
Morrison looks at Hunter and Jane. “You were appointed as the community’s police, but you break the rules yourself. You have no discipline; that is outrageous! The same applies to you: the colonel is the most important person on this base. His word is the law and will be followed to the letter. If not, well, you should have noticed that corrugated iron structure without windows with a concrete floor we have erected in the open veld under the Africa sun. That is our temporary detention cell where we are going to punish perpetrators. We call it The Box. The sun bakes that corrugated iron sheets extremely hot and it feels like an oven inside. I am going to station three foot soldiers there 24/7 as sentries and we are going to use the box to install discipline. Hunter and Jane, you are immediately going to arrest Ronnie and Lyle and lock them inside the box until further notice. They will be an example for the rest to see what happens with, as Chloe calls them, wily villains!
“Hunter and Jane, our sheriff and his deputy; I’ll make sure this community is going to despise you because you wanted the job and now it is yours. My rule is simply this from now on: if someone transgresses, it is the box for him/her; doesn’t matter who it is. And if the box doesn’t work, that person will be banned and kicked off from the farm. They will then have to survive outside and you two will help to sustain order or you will be expelled and I appoint someone else.
“In the meantime, my soldiers are searching all homes and units and taking all smartphones. They are now going to escort you to your units and confiscate your phones also. The farm’s landline has been cut off so you can’t make contact with your friends in any way and their fate is now in my hands.”
“Soon we will get the community together and tell them about your treason and explain how things are going to work henceforth and show them what happens with perpetrators. This community is now at my mercy!”