“Hud, where are we going?” In the windshield, Sasha could see that there were still shadows pursuing them. They were no match for the heavily armored Mauler, though, and it was going fast enough now to elude them. She saw one in the distance ahead, as soon as the headlights shined on him, he dropped to the ground and Hud aimed the vehicle for him.
“I’m headed to the bay. We can use the protection of water on at least two sides there.”
He didn’t offer any more explanation. Inside the Mauler, he was in command, as he was the only one who could drive the thing. Derek was watching him, and Sasha could see he wanted to prod Hud for a better plan, or at least more information. But he gritted his teeth instead and looked straight forward again. Sasha kept her eyes out front as well, trying to add any assistance although she knew that Hud was completely capable of eradicating any obstacles in the Mauler. After a few moments, they came to the part of the base that she had been to before, the piers that the huge warships had been docked at. They were all empty now, except for three, and those three were as dark and ghostly as any deserted houses they had searched on base. Her hope of finding any survivors on the ships dissolved instantly, surely the Navy would have had the ships lit up like a baseball field if there were anyone alive on them, and Sasha’s hopes of finding survivors at all had diminished in the past few days, anyway. They had found nothing but bodies and more monsters.
Hud stayed close to the water until there was nothing but sand. The tires on the Mauler had no problem finding grip in the sand, and he pulled the vehicle away from the ocean, then put it in reverse and pulled back until there was only a few feet between the back tires and the waves. He left the engine running, so the headlights could continue staring ahead, and nothing moved in their beams. Sasha sat in silence with Nora next to her. Derek moved towards the cargo area, where he tried to find a comfortable position to maybe get another hour or two worth of sleep before daybreak. Hud crossed his arms and continued to stare out the window, standing guard on his own. He didn’t say anything, but Sasha could feel that he was not going to trust her with the responsibility of keeping herself awake to guard them anymore; he would just do it himself. The condescension was loud enough in the silence, she didn’t need him to say a word. Her personality wanted to argue with him, defend herself and knock him down from the pedestal on which he kept himself. But her rationality knew that they needed him still and without him they would have already died a few times already. She bit her lip to keep from saying anything. Instead, she let Nora rest her head on her shoulder, and eventually rested hers on top of Nora’s, until she was breathing deeply and dreaming.
Derek stayed as still as he could, listening intently to everything. He could feel the accusation emanating from Hud, and was wondering why Sasha was putting up with it. He had seen her vicious temper, it seemed to overtake her. He had feared for her when she had chased Hud the first day they had seen him, and although she still stood her ground for the most part, she seemed to submit to his arrogance more and more every day. He pushed the troubling thoughts away.
He was glad to be able to hear the waves crashing on the shore behind the Mauler, but was afraid they might drown out any other sounds that might serve as a warning. His back was hurting, his ears were ringing, and his wrist was sore, but somehow, eventually, sleep found him and he drifted off.
Chapter 20.
Derek was awakened by the pale blue light of the morning coming through the windshield. He felt like he had just fallen asleep. He went to check his watch, but remembered it was gone. He couldn’t remember where he had put it. All that was on his wrist now was gauze. In the dim light, he pulled the gauze off to check the wound. To his relief, it was healing already with no sign of infection. He did not know, of course, what was causing all the others to change and behave the way they did, but he hadn’t ruled out some type of viral or bacterial infection, although he was pretty sure it couldn’t be anything airborne. His mind was constantly trying to solve the puzzle, to come to a conclusion about what could be done, if anything, to prevent the change happening to him, or Sasha and Nora. Hud as well, but strictly for the benefit of having another survivor around.
So far, he had mentally organized all the things he had witnessed. These monsters were bloodthirsty, and although Derek had never stuck around long enough to see if they actually ate flesh, he had guessed by the condition of many of the bodies he had seen that simply killing the victims wasn’t always the objective. Mauling and destroying seemed more likely, but he hadn’t the slightest idea why.
The ones that weren’t killed were somehow transformed, they became the same as their attacker. In a matter of minutes, it seemed that they went from screaming in agony and terror to screaming in anger and hunger, looking for a victim of their own. If this was a virus, it was probably spread through saliva, or blood. The ones that didn’t make it were probably killed by blood loss before the virus could take effect. At least that seemed to make sense in his head, anyway.
Derek stood, and noticed that Sasha was awake as well. She was in a different position from earlier, still sitting on the bench seat, but with her back against the side of the Mauler. Her eyes were open, looking down. Her lashes moved when she looked up at him.
“Hey.” He whispered. She smiled weakly. She pulled herself out from under the still sleeping Nora, and joined him in the cargo area. She began rifling through the bins.
“I just wish I could take a hot shower.” She said, wistfully. Derek understood that desire.
“Yeah, and eat a home cooked meal. Steak and potatoes.” He added. Both of them immediately regretted mentioning things they once took for granted. In silence, Sasha pulled out one of the few cans of food they hadn’t left behind, a fruit salad mix, and began searching for the can opener. Derek grabbed another can, cooked and diced potatoes. Completely unappetizing, but he had quickly learned that it didn’t matter what the food tasted like, in the end it was going to fill his belly the same way.
As they were eating, Hud moved in the front seat. Neither Sasha nor Derek knew if he was just waking up or if he had been awake, silent, all through the night. He opened the door, hopped out, and Sasha assumed he was relieving himself behind the Mauler.
While Hud was gone, Sasha wanted so badly to say something meaningful to Derek, words of appreciation so that he knew that she was glad he was around. She wanted to apologize for Hud’s attitude towards him, and make sure he knew that she didn’t feel the same way about him. She honestly felt safer for having him nearby, and was drawn to his quiet intelligence and compassion. She tried to think of a way to say it to him without sounding like a school girl admitting a crush.
“Derek,” She began. When she looked up, she saw he was already looking at her expectantly. His dark eyes were focused on hers intently, and it caught her off guard. She forgot what she was going to say, and each second that passed was agonizingly soundless.
After a moment, Derek’s face lightened, his mouth turned up at the corners in a half smile.
“Yeah?” He asked, eyebrows raised, trying to encourage her to finish her thought. Sasha smiled too, amused at her own uncharacteristic speechlessness. She regained her composure, and feeling more comfortable in his relaxed aura, started to tell him that she was glad she was stuck with him. Before the words came out, Hud’s head appeared in the front seat again, his face tense.
“Come look at this.” He said.
Sasha looked back at Derek, and he responded with a sight nod and began to move towards the front of the vehicle.
With Sasha close behind, he came forward until he could see what Hud was looking at outside the Mauler. Stepping out onto the sand, looking toward the ocean, they stood in morbid shock. Each of them instinctively covered their mouths and noses with their hand to try to mask the putrid odor. Along the coast, where the waves were gently beating the sand, there were bodies. Hundreds of them. Thousands. They bobbed and swayed with the waves, as far up and down the coast as they could see. Some had
been pushed up the beach, like seashells left behind after the tide goes out, and seagulls and sandpipers were milling around them, over them, like they were nothing but mounds of sand to explore. The water right along the shore was brown, where it could even be seen between the dense sea of bodies, which stretched at least a few car lengths out into the ocean.
“Oh my God.” Sasha whispered. Derek inhaled sharply and even Hud seemed to be disturbed by this sight. The three of them stayed motionless, in astonishment, watching the dead roll with the waves.
What finally broke Sasha’s attention was recalling the child sleeping inside the vehicle. Not wanting Nora to have the ghastly image of thousands of dead bodies burned into her memory, she immediately went to her and woke her up slowly, asking her if she was hungry. Sasha retrieved the half-empty can of fruit salad she had been eating and had Nora come towards the back of the Mauler, where there were no windows, to finish eating it.
Derek and Hud had come back into the vehicle, and the smell of death began to creep inside. Sasha hoped Nora was not able to smell it above the aroma of the fruit salad, and went back up towards the front where Derek and Hud had been having a conversation in hushed tones.
“There’s nothing here, man. No one’s left. We need to leave.” Derek was saying, trying to sound reasonable.
“And go where? You think we are going to find some help out there if an entire United States Naval Base was wiped out? This is the safest place we could have been besides in some underground bunker somewhere.” Hud sounded almost defensive, as if Sasha and Derek were going to somehow hold him responsible for not protecting the entire base.
“We have to go somewhere, Hud,” Derek said, “This could have been an isolated thing, it could just seem so widespread because communications have been knocked out.” He sounded less hopeful than he wanted to.
“Don’t you think someone would have come for us by now if anyone was left?” Hud asked. The question pretty much shut down any further argument from Derek. Hud was right.
Sasha went through all possible decisions at this point. She didn’t want to stay at the base anymore than Derek did, and she wanted to remain hopeful that there was help out there. But right now, they had supplies. They had a large potential for even more supplies, tons of houses that had once belonged to the members of the Navy and their families. There were weapons here, and the Mauler, and she was not ready to leave these small consolations yet, especially with Nora, at least until she had a better plan.
“Hud’s right, Derek.” She said. She saw Derek stiffen, and she tried to ease the tension by continuing in a softer voice.
“I just want to make sure there are no survivors left around here, and there are still guns and food here.”
Derek remained quiet, but nodded his head. She sensed his anger, but couldn’t figure out why he had reacted that way.
Hud started the Mauler.
“We are going to need more fuel.” He pulled the rumbling vehicle away from the beach, away from the horrifying panorama of bloated bodies behind them.
Sasha went back to Nora and tried to keep busy as Hud made his way toward wherever he was hoping to find more fuel. Derek ignored all of them, holding his pistol on his lap in the passenger seat, watching out the windshield.
After a few moments, Sasha recognized the area Hud was entering. This is where they had retrieved the Mauler they were driving now.
“How are you going to refuel?” Derek asked, without looking towards Hud. “Is there a diesel tank on the base?”
Hud answered the question as if he had just been issued a challenge.
“Yeah there’s a tank, but it’s not going to pump anything without electricity.” His tone was incredulous, as if he couldn’t believe anyone could be so dense as to not know everything about how a diesel pump was powered.
“So, your plan is?” Derek said, this time sounding like he was issuing a challenge.
Hud didn’t answer, and Sasha wondered if it was because he didn’t have a plan or if it was because he simply didn’t feel the need to explain anything to Derek. He seemed to constantly want to belittle Derek, especially on anything where Sasha was involved. It was aggravating.
Hud pulled up near another Mauler. He opened the door, said nothing and jumped out, leaving Sasha and Derek in thick awkward silence. Whatever opportunity Sasha had had earlier when she was alone with Derek was gone now. He was not going to be receptive. Instead, she decided to grab her shotgun, follow Hud out, and see what she could do to make herself useful.
Typical of Hud, he grinned in his sardonic way, like he was enjoying the idea of her trying to protect him with that shotgun. She ignored it, and kept herself vigilant, although she knew the chances of an attack in the daylight were low. She followed Hud as he made his way in between the parked Maulers, up into a small shop where Sasha assumed any mechanical work that was needed on the Navy’s vehicles was done. Inside, Hud used a knife to cut a chunk of hose out of some machine Sasha couldn’t identify, and carried it back to the Mauler that was parked closest to the one that held Derek and Nora. She watched, skeptically, as he dipped one end of the hose into the gas tank of the new Mauler, and then began siphoning the diesel fuel. After a few moments, he spit out a mouthful of it and shoved the flowing hose into the gas tank of their Mauler. He let the fuel transfer between the two tanks, then repeated the same thing from another Mauler, filling up the internal tank on theirs and almost fully replenishing the external tank.
While Hud finished up and Sasha became more anxious to get back into the truck and continue trying to plan, Derek was staring angrily out the window, focused on nothing in particular as his thoughts spun.
He did not understand why they both wanted to remain in the base. His family might be waiting for him, he had spent a week here already, fighting to stay alive, for the sake of the company and the strength in numbers that Sasha had mentioned. It was obvious now, to him at least, that there was no one left in the base. Everyone besides them had either already left, was dead, or was now a nocturnal hunter, dead set on killing them.
He had expected Hud to resist leaving. Although it was frustrating, it was understandable that Hud was going to feel safer on a military installation. If he had indeed come from a military family, then he probably was more comfortable in this environment, and he certainly knew this place inside and out.
He had been taken aback when Sasha had taken Hud’s side, though. She had no reason to want to stay here. Except for Hud. The realization that she would risk Nora’s life, as well as her own, in order to be near Hud had hit Derek squarely in the chest like a solid punch, and that had surprised him as well. He hadn’t even been aware that there had been anything more than a purely forced friendship between Sasha and Hud, and he surely didn’t expect to feel jealousy at figuring out there was more. He thought it was absurd that any type of attraction between the two of them had been able to manifest under the conditions, and he was almost sickened when he realized that it had happened to him as well. It just was not reciprocated. He was now sure that he was nothing more than a survival tool for them. He seemed to recall things differently now, the way they looked at each other, the way she allowed him to get away with treating her like a belonging, and the way they always seemed to pair up to do jobs, leaving Derek to fend for himself or babysit Nora. His blood was boiling, and it was worsened by the fact that he was stuck with them now, and his survival depended on them.
When Sasha reentered the truck ahead of Hud, she tried to get his attention by staring at him momentarily. He completely ignored her, he did not want to see her trying to hide what he already knew, and he didn’t need to be patronized.
Sasha made her way to the back seat, more uneasy now that before. Derek had made it obvious that he didn’t want to communicate with her in any way, and she wanted to tell him that she was only trying to make sure that whatever they did, it was well thought out and planned. She had spent too many years making up for mistakes that had happened because she
had failed to think a decision through, and she could barely think further into the future than what was going to happen today, she had not had a chance to seriously think any more ahead than that. She wasn’t even sure if she knew how, her mind was not used to working that way.
Hud seemed oblivious to the strain in the atmosphere around him, as he started the Mauler up and began to drive back towards the neighborhood that they had left off at yesterday, scouting for survivors and supplies.
Sasha hated the fact that her opinion had been the same as Hud’s, even though they were for completely different reasons. He clearly wanted to remain on the base because he was so well acquainted with the area, this was his home, and it was more secure than the homes that Sasha and Derek had both come from. All she wanted was some more time, so she could figure out the best plan, and do it right this time, for her sake and theirs. Derek had taken her agreeing with Hud as a stab, and Sasha had no way of explaining it to him without Hud taking it as personal insult against him. Hud’s reaction to a personal insult would be more dangerous than Derek’s. Although, she was surprisingly upset by Derek’s behavior towards her. It was affecting her more deeply than Hud ever could. As soon as she asked herself why this was, she realized that her feelings for Derek were more substantial than she thought. She quickly changed the subject in her mind to something else. She needed to check on Nora, see if she was still hungry, and get her prepared for the rest of the morning.
Hud seemed more than willing to begin the normal routine that they had followed in the past. He was already nearing the housing area, assuming that Derek and Sasha would follow his unspoken orders to assist him in scouting for more food and survivors. They both did, although with an unnerving tension between them that Hud seemed unaware of or unconcerned with, but this was the last time it would happen.
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