Kenji had stayed at the back of the line, waiting for Ramirez to finish handing food and water out. Carter and the other pilots began to trade parts of their meals while simultaneously helping Nobuto and Ren make their meals. Kenji walked up to Ramirez, who had just finished digging out an MRE for himself.
Kenji didn’t hesitate, “Can I speak to you…Somewhere else?”
Ramirez looked up at Kenji before replying, “Sure, come on.”
Ramirez led Kenji back towards the stairwell, looking again to make sure that no one else was around.
“What’s the problem?” Ramirez asked quietly.
Kenji opened his mouth but did not speak for a few moments. “I…I don’t know how to start. I wanted to talk to you about Knight. Have you noticed anything odd about him? He didn’t seem all there earlier.”
“Describe not all there? What happened?” asked Ramirez.
“Before the hordes showed up, we were both in the tent looking at the map. We came out, and we thought we saw someone from our group further on down the road, so we went to investigate. That’s when it got weird. We got near the person, which turned out to be an infected soldier, and he approached the man but froze then threw up.”
Ramirez interrupted, “Froze and then threw up?
Kenji continued, “Yes, he froze as if he didn't want to kill the infected man. He's lucky I stepped in when I did, or the infected would have torn into him.”
“What?!” exclaimed Ramirez, “He almost let the infected man bite him? He didn't try to stop him?”
“No, he just stood there until I stepped in to save him. Almost like seeing me running in snapped him back to reality. He just seemed so distant, like he didn’t comprehend that he was in danger.”
Ramirez stared at Kenji for a moment, letting what he had just been told process, “Don’t tell anyone because I want to be one hundred percent sure before I act on it…but I think that Knight might be losing it. When I went to find him in the warehouse, he thought I was Smith. I didn’t think anything of it. I just figured he still hadn’t fully processed that he was dead.”
Kenji looked back towards the conference room, to make sure no one was coming their way, “Something needs to be done about him, though. We are allowing him to lead us, and he got most of my people killed. I feel like he is becoming unattached to reality.”
Ramirez said with a heavy heart, “What should we do; it’s not like we can get him any help. We don’t have any medicine with us that would help. Besides just leaving him here, there isn’t anything else we can do.”
“We should bound him. You know like with handcuffs,” Kenji said shaking his head slightly.
“That would just make him angry, and probably push him entirely over the edge. We don’t want to do that. I have seen this kind of behavior before. It happens quite often on the battlefield and shortly after to soldiers that have suffered severe trauma or lost a friend. The best thing to do is to get them away from the source, which in this case is seeing all these dead soldiers. The more they are reminded of it, the less lucid they become.”
“What should we do then? It seems like no matter what, he will be reminded of him. He will probably attack one of us next time. You weren’t there when he went crazy; it was a terrifying thing to see,” stated Kenji.
“I will watch him. I will try to keep him from going back into that state. We just have to keep reminding him of why we need to get out of here and his duty to finish the mission. He isn’t one to stray from doing his job.”
Kenji thought about it for a second, “So, it’s agreed that we both keep an eye on him.”
Ramirez nodded, “Yeah. Let’s get back to the group, though. He is right; we need to rest.”
They both walked back, each going their separate ways. Ramirez went to go check in with Knight, while Kenji went to talk to Nobuto and Ren. Everyone tried to rest or at least eat while the morning sun silently rose over the city.
Chapter 37
A bird’s eye view
Knight had closed his eyes but found his brain flooding them with visions of the night before. It had seemed like it had happened years ago, just a mere flashback. Everything had happened so quickly, and he had little time to react to any of it before some other problem had popped up. He wanted someone else to take the lead on the mission but knew that his men looked up to him, becoming familiar with his leadership.
The burden fell on him, like the world crashing down on his shoulders. He was Atlas; struggling to keep the world held up. It was that feeling that crept up on him, arching through his back, the tension of all deeds and future ones too. All the bad and the good weighed on him, with no release in sight.
Wanting to try to free his mind from such conviction, he got up from where he was attempting to lay down and sleep. He decided to focus his mind on a more current, less strenuous task. He readied his pack for the trek they would make next and lined up supplies for everyone else as well. He started to work his way through the weapons and ammo they had.
Finding a few extra combat knives, he put them aside for the civilians that had more crude weapons. He looked at the ammo, wondering if they should even bother taking it as sound attracted the infected. It might still be good to have if they got in a tight spot like they did earlier with the bus.
The bus, Knight, remembered the screams of the people he left to die, but he knew what he had done was right. None of them would have made it out alive if he had even let one infected into the bus. He didn’t know what else to do; they had no other options at the time. Either let the infected get in or cut off all possibility of anyone getting in.
He felt like he should say something to Kenji and the other civilians, at least, the ones left, and apologize. But, how could he? Sorry, I let all your friends die; I did it so that we could live. No one would understand because they were not in his shoes. Given a chance they probably would have come to the same conclusion. He knew he would have to say something eventually, but it was too soon, too fresh, for it to be considered sincere.
Knight chastised himself for letting his mind wander again to such things. He needed to get out of the offices and get some fresh air and let his mind clear. Knight took a walk up to the roof feeling the immediate temperature difference. Allowing his feet take him to wherever they stopped he ended up at the edge of the building, facing the city. The sun was now in full view, a giant orange ball in the sky.
Scanning the city before him, he was in shock. The difference between the nighttime dark and the daytime left the city more abandoned and dead. The destruction was evident, with several smoke trails leading up from where fires had run rampant before the storm rolled through. He hadn’t realized the silence and how out of place it felt. No cars moved along the streets, people walking on the sidewalks, nothing but dead motionless silence.
The destruction of the virus was absolute, leaving no chance, but cold hard fact behind. The rooftop gave them a bird’s eye view of the damage below; the vast reminder of what civilization used to be. The city’s buildings were so close together to save space, which when a fire broke out, it left half a city block a charred husk.
He could see several checkpoints like the one they had been at earlier, spread throughout the city. At each one cars blocked the road, a graveyard of vehicles. Knight looked carefully at the city before him, trying to find a suitable way out of the city without being caught in another situation where they could get trapped. No matter where he looked the streets bottlenecked or were completely impassable.
Lost in thought about the city and its unwillingness to let them leave, he stood there for quite some time. He was interrupted by a voice, “It looks like a war zone out there, doesn’t it?”
Knight turned and looked to see who it was, answering, “Yes, it does.”
An awkward pause occurred, as Muller joined him; both men stood in silence at the vast dead city. In that time, they finally saw movement in the streets below. Just coming into their view, they could make out a small grou
p of people moving slowly down the street towards them. Both Knight and Muller looked at the group, deciding whether they were infected or not.
A few minutes passed, and the group came closer to the building. It was clear they were infected; even at a distance, they could see their slow, forced movement down the street. They stopped at an intersection as if deciding a direction, they wanted to follow. After a few moments, one perked up turning towards the street to the left and started to move that direction.
Knowing that the infected had heard a noise, but Knight and Muller were too far away to hear it made them both wonder if it was a person, a living one. Maybe it was the wind blowing over a trashcan.
Muller stood next to him, looking over the edge of the building and decided to break the silence again, “Thinking about your plan on how we are going to get out of the city? I don’t see a straightforward way to get out.”
“Everywhere looks like certain death, and we can’t cut through any buildings to get around the worst congestion,” replied Knight.
“Well I have an option on how we can get through most of the city without running into too much trouble, but we will still have to worry about the streets closer to the edge of the city. We can take the sewer service tunnels. They run right along most of the streets, and they access to the subway tunnels.”
“The sewers? I hadn’t thought of that but are you sure they are clear?” asked Knight.
Muller paused for a few seconds before replying, “After we got the bunker we used a ventilation system to escape, it led to the sewer, which we followed to the sewer main. We took that up to the surface, which is where we ran into trouble, but while we were down there, we didn’t see a single infected. I don’t think too many people were thinking about the sewer when infected were chasing them down.”
Knight thought for a minute, “It sounds like it could work, and it would sure beat the hell out walking around on the streets. I just hope it leads to the edge of the city, but we also run the risk of getting lost. I guess we could just follow the subway lines out of the city as well. There is a station just below to the west of here. We just need to get to the airbase south of the city. I looked at the map, it’s called Atsugi Airbase. It’s an airfield, so if it doesn’t have the aircraft we need, we can just sit tight and call for help. We just need to get to a long-range radio system, which should be located there.”
“Well, here’s to us making it to the base!” said Muller as he walked back towards the roof access door, raising a bottle of water he had just opened.
Knight looked at his watch and saw that it had been about three and a half hours already. The group had long enough to rest, and it was time they all set out, and, at least, make it out of the city by nightfall. That was if they were lucky. Otherwise, they would have to hole up somewhere and wait out the night. Knight couldn’t risk them walking right into a horde at night time.
He left the roof and found Carter and Ramirez where they had decided to rest in one of the offices. Ramirez was already up and stretching while Carter slept fitfully. Knight hoped Carter was having nightmares about Smith, still blaming him for what happened.
He turned to Ramirez, “Let’s get everyone up and ready, I want to head out in the next thirty minutes.”
Ramirez yawned deeply, shaking his head that he understood, and would do as he asked.
Chapter 38
The trek in the dark
Knight stood in the lobby facing the doors leading out to the street. The bodies of the two soldiers were still there and looked as though nothing had touched them. That was a good sign, but infected could still be lingering nearby. He waited for everyone to adjust their packs, and ready their weapons.
He looked back and saw they were ready and waiting. He spoke, “The plan is to find a nearby subway line and follow it outside of the city. They should be cleared of trains and infected. The main goal is to reach the Atsugi airfield; it’s about ten miles away. If we get separated just head south out of the city and regroup at the airfield. We will stay there for twenty-four hours if time permits us to.”
Knight paused, “Does anyone have any questions?”
Silence greeted him as he looked at each person again. He grabbed his knife and prepared to open the doors. The swooshing noise of the door greeted them again, like an old friend. It would be the last time they heard the doors open. Knight stepped out into the streets once more. His sense heightened as he scanned the street once more for infected.
He could hear the people behind him breathing, and clothes swishing ever so slightly. Knight headed down the street to the right, heading for the station at the end of the street, opposite of where they had headed the night before. Approaching the station, they discovered a massive horde of infected roaming the streets, surrounding the stairs leading up to the subway line.
Kenji held his fist up, stopping the group, “Shit, the station is surrounded by infected.”
Muller moved up closer to Knight, “We could always take the sewer, and follow it out along the subway lines, until its clear.”
“Fuck it, I don’t want to deal with all these infected roaming around. Let’s go with your plan, we can try to find another station to enter down the street.”
Knight scanned the street for an access cover to the sewers. He spotted one not too far from where they were and signaled the group to follow him. Knight led them to the manhole cover. They stopped at it, the group circling it, and together they lifted it using their crowbars. The metal drain cover made a loud screeching noise, and it ground against the concrete.
Once it was off, they could see into the sewer, which was only big enough to have two people stand side by side, and barely a foot taller than them. It was clear these were not made for human passage on a regular basis but as quick, easy access to the cities underground water and sewage. The rain from the early morning before was still making its way through the cities sewers, and there were several inches of water.
They were lucky this was one of the main sewer tunnels, and not a smaller ancillary tunnel, which they couldn’t fit in. Knight led them down into the darkened tunnels, his boots softly splashing in the water. He dropped his night vision goggles to make sure the immediate area was safe, looking both ways before waving down the others, and pushing the goggles back up.
Each person climbed down the ladder until the small area became crowded with people. With everyone down in the cramped space, they turned on a few flashlights that they had, aiming them down the tunnel that headed south. Only a dark, damp tunnel met their beams of light. So far it seemed their plan would work out but finding an access point that led safely up to the streets above would be another story.
The sound of their footfalls echoed into the dark recesses of the sewer systems. Each time the tunnel met with another tunnel that was big enough for a person to fit through they stopped and waited, making sure there was not anything waiting for them in the dark. Whenever they were satisfied that nothing was there, they would continue. They went on through the darkness for what seemed like a day, only catching glimpses of the sunlight through small drains from above.
Knight was just hoping that he wasn’t leading them through a never-ending maze, and they ended up right where they didn’t want to, in the grasp of an infected horde. After what he was sure had been at least an hour he decided that they should stop at the next utility hole cover and try to see what was on the street. It was mainly to gain a grasp of how far they had moved, as well as whether the streets in the area were safe.
The next street access happened only to be a few feet from where they were. Knight stopped the group and whispered to them that he wanted to poke his head up and get their bearings to make sure they were on course. The others nodded in agreement, and waited, watching Knight climb the metal rungs up to the utility hole cover. Once he reached the top, he slowly pushed up against the heavy metal cover, which gradually rose a few inches.
Through his little slit, he could see the street. On the street s
everal pairs of legs shuffled by where he was, catching him off guard, his grip slipping on the cover. He carefully and slowly moved the cover up a few more inches so he could get a better view. There were about ten infected in the street, standing in their awkward poses, a few shuffled around aimlessly. Judging by the sunlight and the small shadows everything cast, he figured it was close to noon.
As Knight glanced around infected, scanning the street, a pair of legs walked a mere few inches from where he was. His body tensed, surprised by the sudden apparition. He decided that he had spent long enough checking the streets, and started to slowly lower the metal cover, trying to avoid the attention of the infected right next to him.
As fate would have it, the pair of legs stuck out their feet out and stepped on the cover, catching Knight off guard. He lost his handhold on the cover, the momentum of the force shoving his hands down, and hitting his head. He didn't have a grip on anything, so he reached out for the ladder missing it, and he began to fall back. He reached again, this time, finding purchase, he held and pulled with all his might, but he pulled too hard and head-butted one of the metal rungs.
Stars formed in his eyes, as the world went black again, the light from the street gone. He held onto the ladder tightly, waiting until he could only feel his head throbbing. He felt as though he could start to make the climb down, so he let his foot down to go down. He missed his footing and didn't have time to catch himself this time.
It wasn't a long distance to the ground, but it was enough to be dangerous. It was dark, and Knight had no way to tell how far the ground was. He felt as though he was stuck in a never-ending fall, but the ground did indeed make an appearance. He felt his leg hit the hard concrete; he also felt something snap in his leg. No immediate pain hit him since his head was already on fire. He lay still for a moment, realizing that he had made another mistake.
He wasn't sure what was wrong with his leg, but since he didn't feel any immediate pain, he figured he was okay. His head was starting to feel even warmer now, and his eyes began to feel heavy. However, he knew he had to fight on through the pain for the group.
What Remains: The Outbreak Page 25