by Thomas Key
Before he had realized it, the hour had passed. A strong knock came to the door and snapped Julius from his thoughts. He adjusted his seat and spoke. “Enter,” he said briskly. The man in full dress uniform, General Hawkings entered stiffly. He stood in front of the desk at attention. The man, recently promoted had been called to the office to create a new plan to remove those being housed at Cannon so that they could capture the needed equipment from the base. His promotion had been due to his previous General being retired from duty via a 9mm bullet to the head. They had no room for failures in this new world. “Reporting as ordered sir,” General Hawkings stated, once again snapping Julius out of his thoughts. “Yes, I can see that,” he responded to the military man in front of him. He did not ask the General to sit, because he had not earned it yet. “What are you going to do about those people in my base?” Julius said to Hawkings. “My staff and I are forming several plans as we speak sir.” “Such as?” he asked, his annoyance starting to grow. “Sir, we are looking at contaminating their water source, doing a HALO drop with some of our Special Forces, utilizing nerve gas or biological weaponry.” The General focused on the imaginary spot above the head of the Praetor. “Good. Good,” Julius said, his annoyance waning. “When you have a plan finalized, come speak to me so we can appropriate the required tools and manpower,” he told the General. He nodded, and turned to walk out of the room. “Oh and Hawkings?” The General stopped and turned to look at the man behind the desk. “I’d suggest you don’t fail us like your predecessor. You’re an up and coming star in our new world, I’d hate to lose you.” Hawkings for a moment lowered his gaze to the big man's eyes, before snapping them back up. “Understood sir,” he said before turning back and leaving the room, once again, the door closed with a soft click.
Chapter Six
Kenneth was exhausted to say the least. Between their near-death experience at the hands of the zombie ambush, and the absolutely insatiable sexual demands of the woman in his bed, tired was two weeks ago. He needed a break, of that he was sure. As he sat up in the bed, trying his damndest to not wake up the sleeping nymph next to him, he realized that he had been so busy as of late that he had never really unpacked from Lucaya. Lucaya had been their apartment complex home before arriving at Cannon AFB and had been overrun in one last attempt to hold the line. They had lost several good people including their leader, George. The memory of that old man made his heart skip a beat. He then thought about the backpack that had been with him since the beginning. The old beaten backpack that at one time was used for school. He had tried the college route, going to CNM, a local community college. He realized real damn quick that school just wasn’t for him. Kenneth was a free soul and wanted to make his own way. After spending hundreds on books that went unused, supplies and even that brand spanking new backpack, he dropped the courses. He began streaming his video game conquests live and while he was no celebrity, it helped him make a living. He hadn’t needed much, enough for new games, to pay the bills and $50 a week for food and gas and he was set. He honestly had not even dealt much with dating, and had no real luck at it. The fact that now he had this woman, Jennifer, attached at his hip was quite a surprise for him. He slid out of the bunk, dedicating every fiber of his being to not waking the beauty before him. Somehow, he managed to sneak out of the bed. In the small adjourned closet, buried under military gear and a pile of women’s shoes. That made him stop in his tracks for just a moment. How the hell did she get so many shoes in this kind of situation? He thought to himself. He moved the pile of shoes aside and found what he was looking for. A forgotten abused dark blue backpack. One of the pockets had been ripped from the pack, one of those times an infected got too close. He slowly unzipped the pack and began to pull items out. As he pulled items out of the pack, he evaluated each item. A small batch of some old clothing in need of a good wash, to which he almost fell backwards after taking a sniff. He tossed them to the side. Next, he found a small photo album. He had forgotten all about it. In his haste to vacate his apartment, he had grabbed only a few items. The album had an assortment of pictures dating back since his childhood. Photos of the brown-haired boy playing in the rain, on a camping trip with his parents and even him in one of those striped shirts that no kid would be caught wearing these days. His growing up had been rather painful. As a gamer to his core, his father had turned him onto games all the way back when the first DOOM game was released. Since those days, he was hooked. It royally pissed off his father when his young son began to kick his ass every match. Oddly, they stopped playing together after that. The photo of him holding a game controller at the age of 6 brought a smile to his face. As he flicked through the pages, he passed the full pages and entered the empty ones. His smile slowly vacated his face as he flipped through the empties. Would he even be able to take more photos to put into this book? Would they even be able to print photos in a year from now? The thoughts he was having was depressing to say the least. He gently placed the photo book to the side and put his hand in the pack, feeling for the next item. He pulled out a charging cord and plug. He for the life of him could not remember why he had this in his pack. Somewhat mystified, he set the items to the side. At the bottom of the pack was an MRE, Meal ready to eat or meals rarely edible depending on your relationship with them and a dead cell phone. The phone in his hand was something that he never thought he'd see again. The devices these days were fairly useless with the only real modes of communication being radio or satellite phones. He flipped the phone around in his hand. The old IPhone had seen better days. The case was rather beat up and thankfully, he had purchased one of those near destructible cases. The thought then occurred to him that he had the charger for it. The base had power. He might actually be able to salvage some of the more recent photos in his phone and be able to print them out while they still have a ready supply of ink on base. “What in the world are you doing?” Isabel asked him quietly as she turned over to look at him. “I forgot that I had this,” he said, lifting it up to show her. She raised an eyebrow. “Does it work?” she asked. He shook his head. “It needs to be charged, but they didn’t exactly install outlets in all of our rooms,” he said, looking around the room. “Come back to bed, and in the morning, we’ll get it charged and go from there. Deal?” she asked him. He nodded, placing the phone and charger onto the top of his pack and walking back to the bed. “I hope there’s nothing important on it,” he said as his head once again hit the pillow. “I’m sure it can wait,” she said, closing her eyes and drifting back off to sleep.
Chapter Seven
I awoke slowly, stretching my arms out and accidentally punching Rachel softly in the face as I did so. She took it like a champ though and just rolled over. I realized what I had done, still half asleep and whispered an immediate “I’m sorry.” She responded by very quickly and eloquently shoving my ass off of the bed. I landed with a thump and a loud ‘Ooof.’ I decided to take a moment while I was on ground level to continue to stretch. I then looked up just in time to see an avalanche of pillows and a blanket come crashing down onto my face. I slowly removed the said items from my face and saw that Rachel was already up, heading for the restroom. “Awesome,” I mumbled as I proceed to pick myself up and follow behind her quickly. That amazing backside, even with her pajama pants was still an attention grabber. Any guy knows that it doesn't matter what their significant other wears, they will always look damn fine in it. In this case, she was wearing an old pair of sweats and a worn-out Green Day t-shirt. I damn near ran over a small child who was also heading to the restrooms as I stared longingly at that wonderful butt. “Oh shit, I’m sorry,” I told the little boy that I had nearly sent sprawling on the floor. He regained his composure, and gave me an evil look. “Yeah, no problem,” he said as he stared at me like I just asked him if he’d sell his soul to the devil for Cheetos. I use the term little boy loosely as he was maybe 10 years old. “A little piece of advice,” I told him as I moved to get by him. “Don’t get between a man and his lady
,” I said with a grin. The kid literally stood back in front of me, cutting me off. “Like this?” he said with a grin as he did so. I came to a halt. “Yeah, like that, don’t be a douche,” I told him as my own grin turned to frustration. “You’re one of the soldiers, right?” he asked me. I looked the kid up and down. “Sort of. Why?” I asked slowly. “My friends are still out there,” he said. “What’s your name?” I asked him as I’m sure my face showed more than a hint of suspicion. “Matthew,” was his one-word reply. “Okay, Matthew. Who are your friends?” I knew full well that we had just recently been in the middle of a series of skirmishes with a band that had gone by the name of the Exiles. The last thing that I wanted was a kid who wanted to take me out for any of them being killed or left to fend for themselves. “Cara and Cayden and Joe and Raul,” he said quickly. “Are they kids?” I asked. He nodded in reply. I let out a breath and stood up straighter. “I’m sure if you let some of the people in charge know, they might be able to find them. If they’re still alive, they’ll find them,” I said, making a move to get past the kid. I suddenly had to urinate like it was no one’s business. He again stopped me. I then noticed Rachel watching us from the door to the restrooms, her curiosity apparently peaked. “I did tell them. No one even cares. They’re out there and they need help,” he said, an obvious look of frustration and anger flashing on his young face. “What do you mean by no one even cares?” I asked him, looking him straight in the eyes. “I told every adult that I could find. They either don’t believe me or just say, ‘we’ll take care of it’. But they don’t actually care. No one has even asked where they are,” he said. I saw Rachel’s eyebrow rise, and I knew this had to get settled before she came and intervened. I am a man after all and I wanted to sort this out like a man without her getting involved. “Why didn’t your friends come with you when you came here?” I asked. “I was out looking for more blankets and this couple found me. They made me come with them and wouldn't look for my friends. I didn’t even get to say goodbye,” he said. “Alright, Matthew. Tell me where they are.” He did just that, giving me directions and letting me know about their apparent hideout. I know my face which was rapidly growing into a look of dismay. Albuquerque. The kids were in Albuquerque. It was there that I had lost my whole world, and where the helicopter that I had been riding was shot down. Not to mention the lion that attacked me, the horde that chased us along Route 66 and in the end, losing my companion, Rodriguez, with whom I had grown very close. “They found a place to hide,” he continued, my attention having waned to the past. I refocused and listened closely. “Alright, where is that place?” I asked a bit apprehensively. “Monte Vista Elementary School,” he said matter of factly. “Shit,” I sighed, standing back up. That school was almost dead center in the middle of Albuquerque. I looked at Rachel who was now staring directly back at me. “Alright kid. Let me see what I can do,” I told him as I stared into Rachel’s eyes. The child kicked me in the shin, causing me to let out a yelp. “That’s not good enough!” he shouted at me as my eyes came down to his. “Alright, Alright!” I said back as I saw him ready for round two. “I’ll get them, alright?” I said, my hands out in a now placating manner. My shin was throbbing but the kid visibly relaxed. Rachel nodded and walked over to me. “Hey Matt,” she said sweetly, wrapping an arm around him. “How about we go back to your room and we let him go pee,” she had a grin as she led him away. I realized that I did indeed still need to go, like right then, and bolted for the restroom. After the piss to end all pisses, I stood in the stall with my hand against the wall. The kid’s friends needed help. Who I am to say no? Although what if they were already dead? Would it be worth the risk of my life to try to find out? I literally held out my hands as if weighing my options. Should I just tell him that we looked but didn’t find anything? That would make me feel like a total ass bag. Undecided, I headed back to my room still in a bit of a daze. I walked in, shutting the door behind me. Rachel was standing in the middle of the room, staring at me. “We’re going,” she said simply. I stood there, sort of puzzled. As my mind finally caught up to what she was talking about, I began by saying, “But...” She brought up her finger of doom. “We’re going to make sure. We will be fine. We’ve been there before and if there is an off chance there are some children who need our help, we’re helping them,” she said, leaving no room for argument. As a man, I felt I had to bring my foot down hard on this one. So I said, “Okay dear” and that was that.
“So, what’s this about road trip?” Ken asked me at breakfast. Isabel, Ashmore, the medic and Atencio were at the table as well and perked up at the question. Jaylin, one of the women rescued from the Exiles camp was behind me at another table and she too turned around. “Ummmmm what?” I asked slowly, the food in my mouth making it sound much more like an ‘mmmmmm waf?’ Everyone, including Rachel was staring at me. She at least shook her head slowly in what could have been disappointment. I chewed and swallowed quickly, conscious of everyone watching me. I finished the last bit quickly and sighed, taking a drink of water from a plastic cup on the table. “Are you serious right now?” Atencio asked, her tone not at all cheerful. “Sorry, I was thirsty,” I said defensively. “You’ve had your drink, now spill it.” I tipped over what little water remained in the cup and gave her a wicked grin. She stood up, and made to come at me so I laughed and put my hands out, “Okay, Okay.” She slowly sat back down. I recounted to the group about everything that had happened with Matt. I naturally left out the ass chasing. As much as I had no problem at all with describing that, I knew Rachel would choke me out in no time if I went off in that direction. As I finished up my tale, it was silent among the group. Jaylin had changed tables, tired of staying turned around, and sat with us. “So when are we leaving?” Ashmore asked. “I’m sorry, what?” I asked her, genuinely confused. “What?” she asked back, compounding my confusion even further. “She wants to know when we are all leaving,” Atencio asked me. “Well, Rachel and I were going to leave tomorrow…” “What about me?” Ken asked from beside me. He seemed confused and maybe a bit upset at not having been included. “I can’t speak for you man, I just figured we could do this ourselves,” I told him. He moved his mouth to my ear, “I have got to go dude. She’s going to drain my life out if I stay here with her,” he said, a hint of fear in his voice. “Fine,” I said, another one of my stupid grins starting to form on my face. “And us, of course,” Atencio said, pointing to Ashmore and then herself. I raised my hand to protest as Isabel and even Jaylin piped up and volunteered. “I appreciate the help, really, but it’s not your fight,” I said, trying to calm everyone down. “You’re going to need a medic if those kids need help,” Ashmore said. I nodded, “Okay yeah, true…” “And you’ll need another soldier to protect the medic,” Atencio said. “I guess, but…” “And you’ll need more soldiers to help protect the kids. I think two more ought to be enough,” she continued, cutting me off and pointing to Jaylin and Isabel. I just shut my mouth, as there was no point. Thoroughly defeated, I sighed and spoke. “Alright fine, but it’s on you. Don’t blame me if you get hurt,” I said. With that, we began to formulate a plan for leaving the next day. We would take two Humvees, and make sure that we were fully armed and well supplied. This would not be a repeat of my escape from Abq. We would be prepared for anything, or so I hoped.