Henry saw that Molly was floundering, so he stepped in, “We don’t have to go to war. We just think that you might sway them -- possibly change some minds.”
“What do I look like?” Jones asked. “Like I’m some kind of Svengali?”
“No, Nate,” Jo said. “But the kids are right. You and your men swing the balance of power.”
“And why do I care about those people outside the wall?” Jones said.
“Because you do care,” Jo said. “Why did you stand up to Colonel Kilgore? Why did you risk everything to protect us?” She let that hang in the air for a couple of seconds. “Because you do the right thing.”
Jones looked to the ground for a moment, then said, “Shit.” He drew out the word to almost absurd proportions.
Chapter 13
Coming to Terms with the Scientists
“Do you think we can actually kill it?” Darke asked
“I don’t know for sure,” Hollaway replied. “It is possible. But if you’re asking if we could devise a method to safely kill them outside laboratory conditions, that is uncertain. Right now, I could certainly come up with a variety of actions to terminate it. Shooting in the head would be the most expedient.”
“Are you guys kidding,” Doc Wilson said to the scientists as they stood over the smart zombie. To him, the two scientists did, indeed, look like the mad scientists that he thought they were. “You really kill it, and we might be killing the only chance we have to stop what is headed our way.”
“I’m not so sure why you are so alarmed, doctor. What have we done so far?” Hollaway asked.
“You can’t kill me,” Grayson said in his raspy growl.
“See, we can’t kill him,” Darke said, pointing at the smart zombie.
Doc Wilson snapped his eyes shut and held them tightly closed for several seconds. He popped them open, then said, “But if you can’t and then we are lost. You have injected it with every poison known to humankind. You’ve shocked it. You’ve burnt it. And we are nowhere.”
“But, yes, we didn’t kill it,” Hollaway said as he displayed his hands in front of his body with the palms up.
Doc Wilson slapped a palm to his forehead and slowly shook his head back and forth for a few seconds. He dropped his hand and fixed his stare on Hollaway and said, “You two do realize that you aren’t working on some esoteric research to publish in a dusty academic journal, right? All our lives may depend on what we do in this lab. And we don’t have months or weeks. We have hours.”
Darke’s face became serious. “We do realize that, doctor, but we can’t pull a rabbit out of the hat. Our experience with the dead is limited.”
“And our experience with the thinking dead is limited to this one subject,” Hollaway said.
“And that’s why we need to keep it alive,” Doc Wilson said, “but also find a way to kill it...safely...outside the lab.”
“Doctor Wilson, you have put us in a challenging position here,” Hollaway said. “We have to keep it alive but also find a way to kill it.”
For the second time in a matter of seconds, Doc Wilson closed his eyes, taking in deep cleansing breaths. When he opened them he said, “Yes, we could shoot the damn thing in the head, but that won’t help us stop the ones on the way. I thought we were clear here. We need to find a way to kill or stop a thing like this and deliver a mechanism that does that. Since the ones coming will mostly be shrouded in a horde of zombies, we won’t be able to target a single individual.”
Holloway looked to Darke, and Darke turned toward Hollaway, their eyes slowly getting wider by the second. Together, they said, “A gas.”
Doc Wilson let that sink in, then said, “Yes, a gas would work, but we have to make sure it doesn’t kill us.”
Hollaway brought up his hand with his index finger extended and tapped it on his chin. “A tall order doctor.”
“You can’t be serious!” Doc Wilson said. “You guys seemed to be treating this like some kind of comedy act. We blow this, and we’re all dead. Didn’t you guys mention having some nerve agents here?”
“We’ve tried those on the zombies, and none of them have had any efficacy,” Darke said.
“But this isn’t a zombie,” Doc Wilson said. “It’s something halfway between a full zombie and something not a zombie.”
Hollaway turned to Darke and said, “The doctor has a point.”
“Yes, he does,” Darke said. “We should start the experiments immediately.”
“About time,” Doc Wilson said, throwing his hands in the air.
Chapter 14
Negotiations
“We don’t have time for some kind of parliamentary procedure here,” Eli said. “Those people stay where they are, and that’s final.”
Sergeant Jones held Eli in a stare that lasted for several seconds, then turned his attention onto Karen Gray, who stood behind Eli with her arms crossed. He could tell that she was trying to look resolved, but in his estimation, she wasn’t pulling it off.
“What about you, Karen?” Jones asked.
Karen let her arms fall to her side and said, “When we set up the Sanctum, we knew we faced extraordinary times. Really, in some ways, the decisions we made might mean the difference between the survival of humanity and its doom. One of the primary tenets was to try to save as many people as possible, and that’s why you good people are here.” She extended a hand and waved it across the small gathering that consisted of Eli, Karen Gray, Lassiter, Jo, Del, Donovan, Henry, and Molly.
The group had gathered in the foyer of one of the halls closest to the main gate. It had an expansive atrium with wide corridors leading off it into the depths of the building. The walls were decorated with photos of what must have been celebrated alumni from college’s past. The ones closest to the front were in color but turned to black and white the deeper you got into the room.
Molly started to say something, but Henry grabbed her upper arm and gave it a firm but gentle squeeze. She let out a stifled yelp, but she remained quiet. Karen Gray looked her way but quickly returned her attention to Sergeant Jones.
“But we knew we couldn’t save everyone,” Karen continued. “Not if saving everyone meant dooming everyone. That’s where our second tenet came in. Those that remained inside the walls had to be useful. They had to have talents and skills. They had to be productive.” It was as if she knew what was coming next as she shot up a hand with an index finger extended. “We didn’t deny them our protection, though. In fact, we provided them food and shelter. We extended protection.”
Molly couldn’t restrain herself, “Only outside the fucking walls...where they are basically hung out to dry as a monster horde descends on us. Who here thinks they will survive? Not me. They are toast.”
Sergeant Jones leaned in on his crutches and said, “The girl may be crude, but she has a point. All of what you said is quite academic. Clinical, almost. But those people outside the walls don’t stand a chance if we those zombies overrun the area.”
“Neither do we,” Eli said.
“If we can keep the zombies outside the walls, there is always a chance,” Jo said.
“But those people in the dorm don’t,” Del added. “If the horde does enter the area and the smart zombies are in the lead, then they can get inside that dorm. I’ve been there and done that, and let me tell you, that is guaranteed.”
“I know this isn’t going to sound very civil, but to save the best and brightest, we have to be willing to sacrifice the weakest,” Karen said.
“It all sounds very academic to me,” Donovan said, his voice sounding a little brittle. “I have people out there. They may seem disposable to you, but they matter to me.”
“Are you listening to Karen?” Eli asked. “We have finite resources inside. If that horde surrounds this place and we are able to hold them at bay, this place only has so much food. Are you willing to let the strongest of us, the ones best to fight the horde, get weakened by reduced rations? To not be able to fight back?”
“This is all hypothetical academic bullshit,” Jones said, his voice sounding harsher than he probably wanted it to. “You can play out all of your rhetorical mumbo jumbo, but your proposition is just survival of the fittest.”
Jo put up a hand to interject and said, “Since this whole outbreak consumed the world, all of us had dealt with the issue of surviving in a world turned upside down. There have been times that we have all nearly lost hope, but holding onto our humanity has always been at the core of the people who have been at my side since the beginning.” She paused and looked to Karen and said, “You don’t know this, but the journey of the people I came here with started in a little church in Portsmouth. While you have made one of your tenets that you are willing to sacrifice the weak to save the strong, we made a decision early on that we had to retain an essential dignity...for all of us. We decided to retain our humanity, and while I see your point, to a degree, I feel as if you have lost something along the way. What kind of people will you be if you do reach the other side of survival if you let those people die out there?”
“We’d be survivors,” Eli said. “That’s what we’d be.” He let that hang in the air for a moment. “And looked where your beliefs got you? You were on the run, barely surviving when you got here.”
“But we still had our humanity, asshole,” Molly said.
“All that is well and good, but the Sanctum is ours to run,” Karen said as she moved a steely stare from person to person in the group, “and we have the say in how it runs. And that is final.”
Jones cleared his throat and then said, “I was afraid you’d say that.”
Karen looked to him with a slight sense of alarm in her expression and asked, “What do you mean by that?”
Somehow Eli picked up on the threat implied by Jones’ comment and stepped closer to Karen while putting a hand on his sidearm.
“No, I’m not talking about a coup or anything like that,” Jones said as he put up a hand and patted the air with it. “What I’m talking about is pulling out all my men and all my weapons and getting the hell out of Dodge.”
Eli stammered for a few moments and said, “You can’t do that. You said yourself that you don’t have the fuel or the hopes of finding a better place to find shelter. You’re talking about suicide.”
“And we’d go with him,” Jo said.
“Us, too,” Donovan added.
“This is preposterous.” Karen Gray exclaimed. “You’d rather risk almost sure death by leaving because of those people outside -- people who we’ve said might be safe -- than to stay here and fight beside us.”
Jones fixed her in a flinty expression, “Remember, if we leave, you don’t stand a chance because you have no idea of what you’re up against. We do.” He stopped and pointed to Jo. “They do, too, and we know you won’t make it.”
Jo took a half step toward Eli and Karen Gray and said, “Up until now, we’ve talked about only some of us surviving. Why don’t we flip that equation and let everyone survive? Letting those people inside won’t change our chances of survival.”
Eli moved in front of Karen and said, “What if they surround us for days? For weeks? What happens if food is running low?”
“Then we’re all dead anyway,” Jones said. “If we can’t defeat them at the outset or get them to divert away from us, we’re all dead. We can do this together, or we can die apart. The choice is up to you, and you’d had better decide fast because me and my men are out of here in four hours if you don’t let those people inside.”
“I say good riddance,” Eli said. “We should have never let you in the first place.”
Del said, “I saw how you fared against a horde a fraction of the size of what is coming our way. I don’t think it will turn out well for you without us.”
“You don’t know shit about us,” Eli said as his face filled with color. Just as he was about to take a step toward Del, Karen Gray reached out and took his arm.
He startled a little and jerked his head back toward her and asked, “What?” It came out sharp and almost cutting.
“Eli, let’s you and I talk -- in private, for a moment,” Karen said.
“What is there to say?” He asked her.
“Please, Eli,” Karen said, talking in a hushed tone.
Eli looked back to the others and said, “Give us a minute.”
He and Karen Gray stepped away from the group, moving fifteen feet and turning their backs away. Jo could tell that it was more than obvious that the discussion wasn’t going well. At one point, Eli got in Karen Gray’s face, and she took a long step away from him, but then she said something that made him take a step back. Things settled down with both of them taking long glances back at the small group watching on.
Jo leaned in close to Jones and asked, “Were you serious? Would you and your men have just left?”
Jones moved to within two inches of Jo and said, “I had to make her believe we would.”
Del slipped close to Jones and Jo and said, “What if they call our bluff?”
“Then we go,” Jones said.
Del looked sideways at Jones for a few long seconds, poised to say something, but whatever it was, it remained unspoken.
Karen Gray broke away from Eli and started toward the small group, her face pale, and her lips pursed tightly together. Eli held back, his arms crossed, watching with a neutral expression on his face.
When she got within five feet of the group, she came to a stop and looked to the ground as if drawing strength from it. When she looked up, her eyes looked bloodshot.
“We have to come to an accord,” Karen said as she licked her lips. “You can move the people in the dorm inside the walls for the duration of the conflict that we are about to be involved in.” She stopped and took in a long breath through her nose and let it out two seconds later. “But if we survive this, all of you are to leave the Sanctum. We cannot take the dissent that you have brought into our midst.” She took a moment to look each one of them in the face and then asked, “Can we agree on this?”
Jones was the first to respond, “Yes.” He kept it short and sweet.
“I see a benefit for both groups if we stay, but we don’t want to intrude,” Jo said. “If we aren’t welcome, we will not stay.”
“I agree with Jo,” Donovan said. “But my people will abide by your wishes.”
“We were fine without you and will continue to be fine without you,” Karen said.
A heavy silence fell on the group with many, many words left unsaid.
Molly broke the silence as said, “Well, I think you people are fucking idiots. I think--”
Henry yanked her back and said, “Molly…please.”
She started to fight but gave up after a few seconds when Del turned and wagged his finger in her face and said, “No more, girl. Not another word.”
Something in Karen Gray’s expression seemed to say, “See what I mean?” She just shook her head and walked away to join Eli.
“I have to get a chopper in the air to see where the horde is,” Jones said as he awkwardly pivoted around on his crutches and then started out of the foyer.
Jo and the others followed him with Molly glaring back at Karen and Eli. Henry continued to hold her upper arm, guiding her away.
As soon as they got outside the doors, Jo asked Sergeant Jones, “Why do you think she changed her mind?”
As soon as Jones hit the bottom of the stairs, he turned to Jo and said, “She wants to live just like the rest of us.”
Chapter 15
Fly Over
“Trying to see through all that smoke is like trying to see through a pea soup fog,” Garver said as he guided the helicopter toward the raging forest fires and over the landscape covered with thick, dark smoke. Active flames leapt up from tall burning trees looking like tentacles in place, but those looked like isolated and random hot spots.
“Just keep flying,” Jones said from the seat next to Garver.
Eli and Jo had the
seats behind them. Both of them leaned forward, straining to get a view out the front windshield, but only saw the swirling charcoal gray and black smoke swirling across the forest. In places, they could see unblemished meadows and fallow farm fields, but the forest fire ranged across any areas filled with trees,
“What are we looking for?” Eli asked.
“We need to see if our fires have diverted any of the zombies away like we wanted,” Jones said.
“What do you think?” Jo asked.
“Too soon to tell,” Jones replied. “We’ll know soon enough.”
They continued along, the reverberation of the rotors pulsing through the cockpit as Garver’s steady hand piloted them into the burning territory.
“You know, this smoke works on us, too,” Garver said. “They might not be able to see us, but we sure as shit can’t see them either. And we’re making a helluva lot of noise.”
Jones looked Garver’s way with narrowed eyes and said, “You know, I could always change your nickname from Hawkeye to Grandma ‘cause you’re sounding more like a nervous old grandmother than the ace pilot you claim to be.”
“Boy, I flew missions in the first Gulf War and some of the worst hotspots in Afghanistan that you’ll ever see,” Garver said, matching Jones’ intensity. “You know every minute we’re in the air, we’re burning precious fuel.”
“But we need to know what we’re up against,” Jones said.
Eli leaned between their seats and asked, “Won’t we know when they make it to us?”
Jones slowly turned and looked at Eli and the expression on his face was one of disbelief. “You have never been a soldier, have you?”
“No, I was in the state patrol,” Eli responded. “I can sure as hell tell you that we did a lot of military-style drills. I know something about staking out a suspect.”
“This is not a suspect,” Jones said. “This is a war. In war, intelligence is sometimes what makes the difference. We are up here to gather intelligence. To know where the enemy is and to know how many of them are there and what direction they are headed. Knowing those things can mean the difference between winning and losing a war.”
The Deadland Chronicles | Book 4 | Siege of the Dead: Page 7