“Here’s all the medicine we could find from the house.” When we salvage the other houses, do you want us to take all the prescription medications as well?” Gloria seemed to say it all in one rushed breath.
“Luckily we didn’t have any additional patients from your driving, Lieutenant Alban. I already have her on an IV drip. She was more in danger from dehydration than not having her meds. Her sugar is only slightly elevated.” The doctor took the meds and separated them by sticking them in different pockets. “Hmm, from the prescription dosage and that she takes it once a day, makes me think she has only recently been diagnosed as a type II diabetic, unless there’s other meds she’s been prescribed that you missed. I want you to go back to her home and search for any additional meds and her medical files. Please be safe driving.” Walker dropped the last bottle of pills in his lab coat before turning around and going back inside the clinic.
“Aww, crap!” Gloria said aloud in frustration as she backed up the truck along the sidewalk between buildings. All her energy was lost and she just wanted to get the task done in the hope it would help excise the memory of Oliver. The gate was already open for her as she continued to back out a safe distance, before heading for the girl’s house.
The specialist was sitting on the front step of the house with a bag of cookies while he worked on a tablet. “We need to take one more look through the house to see if we can find the girl’s medical records, or any more of her medications. Just grab all the drugs you find to be safe. I’ll dig through any files to see if I can find the records.” Gloria reached down and grabbed a handful of the cookies as she made her way back towards the house, tossing one into her mouth. Hmmm, thin mints.
She walked down the hall until she saw what passed for a den or home office. The room had not been touched by the infected and other than the smell of death that came from the other room, she would not have given it any thought. The first drawer was pay dirt, a folder labeled ‘Anna’s Medical Files. Inside were insurance documents and reports from lab work along with prescription instructions. She put the folder on the desk and quickly went through the remaining folders. She felt like she’d been punched in the gut when she saw the girl’s father had died in Iran. She grabbed the folder that said just, ‘Daddy.’ Inside was his history in the Army, a few souvenirs, and a sealed envelope with ‘Anna’ written on it. The remainder of the folders was bills and assorted household stuff including warranties and instructions for appliances. Keeping only the two folders she found, she stuck them into a cardboard box and then began taking down pictures of the girl and her parents until the box was full. She looked at a special display case. Inside a flag lay folded in a triangle, showing only a field of blue with five white stars, along with a rack of ribbons, and a set of dog tags. I can’t let that be destroyed; hopefully that little girl will understand what this represents one day.
The sun bothered her as she stepped out of the house, forgetting to don her sunglasses beforehand. Once the glare disappeared, she noticed Technical Sergeant Muller standing on the curb, looking a little lost. Recognizing her as she stepped out, he walked up to her briskly and saluted. “Ma’am, do you have a minute? We need to talk.” Resignedly, Gloria returned the salute, having the feeling her adjutant was going to give her a lecture.
“Let’s sit in your truck, Willy.” Gloria dropped the box she’d been carrying into the bed of his pickup truck. “Go ahead, I’m all ears.”
Muller cleared his throat and nervously began to speak. “Ma’am, we all know you have special abilities that no one else can perform. With that in mind, Master Sergeant Hale and I, well mostly me, have been trying to clean up our rosters and duty schedules. Of the sixty-six mixed personnel we have, we broke it down to six squads of ten. They rotate pulling security, patrolling, escorting the civilians when they leave the compound, and any details they are needed for. Everyone who is not assigned to one of the squads are part of the command section.
Those assigned to the command section, besides their regular jobs, will rotate on tasks like monitoring radios, and being tasked as NCO of the day, and first response to support the squad on security detail as needed. I took the liberty of making the duty schedule for the remainder of the month, I just need you to sign it to make it official.” Gloria took the documents. The first was the manning document similar in format that’d she’d seen in her own duty section at Luke AFB. She liked the mix of retirees and active duty personnel, she could see no problems with it. The duty schedule appeared very complicated at first glance, then she thought about how best to divide up work without burning out any one squad. She signed the document with a flourish.
“That was a magnificent piece of work Willy. You and Master Sergeant Hale did an outstanding job. Hopefully we can get more bodies in and make things a little easier on everyone. I appreciate that you didn’t show me as performing any responsibilities. With the new schedule for next month, I want you to have me on it. At this time many things are in too much of a flux. One example being I just found a little girl, and now I was going to take this box to the hospital, but you can do that when you drop me off at my personal truck. From there, I’ll be making a run to the airbase for medical supplies. Later I’ll go after the civilian pharmacies to build up our supplies. This’ll sound corny, but my doors always open to you, even if we share an office, an office I hate to sit down in, I prefer to be on the move.”
“Thank you, Ma’am. It was actually pretty easy to slap the paperwork together. Usually it’s an NCO or junior officer that does that type of work on behalf of the commander, they make any changes they see fit, then sign the corrected copy for action.” The sergeant’s statement was not new to her but she felt relieved that he found nothing wrong with the procedure. She sat quietly as he drove them back to the school.
Gloria thought of her last visit to the base as she stopped by her quarters and donned her field gear. She held up the helmet in front of and dropped it. It’s enough work already managing my hair, I’m not adding helmet hair to my list of problems, she thought. Gloria stopped by the duty desk to make sure everything had remained quiet, and then stopped by the armory, deciding to add a couple grenades to her gear. As she waited for the correct pockets to be located for her vest, Muller walked in from his trip up north to block access to the contaminated zone. He was still openly perspiring from a busy day. When he saw the lieutenant was going out solo again, he called over to Collins, who he had suspected of shirking his duties.
“Airman Collins, I want you to accompany Lieutenant Alban out to the base.” He then turned to Gloria, “Anything else you need, Ma’am?” Gloria knew she was busted, especially after the rule for no solo trips for anyone outside the school area.
“Thank you, Master Sergeant Hale. Looks like I almost departed the post without a wingman.”She looked at the unhappy airman. He was still wearing his full gear and it looked like it was maybe for the kid’s older brother or someone else. “I’ll meet you outside by the door, be sure you have water, I don’t know how long this will take.” I should be getting an additional couple bucks an hour for babysitting.
“Ma’am, I didn’t hear where you were headed.” Hale had a slight smile that said, “You’re busted just give up all the details.”
“I’m going to the pharmacy out at Luke to scrounge medications. I found a young survivor today that was diabetic.”
“I haven’t seen any breaches on the exterior of the clinic but there was fire damage on the third floor. I remember smoke damage where there was a broken window. Do you have a breaching tool to open the doors with? Be a shame to break the glass and then later try to reuse the building. We have a couple of extras we picked up from the fire department.” Hale looked in the doorway to the armory, “Hey Jack, give the LT one of those breacher units we picked up.” Gloria took the heavy bar, amazed it felt so light, then had to remind herself again that she was stronger than before.
“Thanks for all the help, Master Sergeant Hale. Why don’t you coord
inate with Technical Sergeant Muller for a time that would be good for a sit down to go over future plans.” Gloria swung the breaching tool effortlessly as she strode to the exit.
Collins was leaning up against the wall next to the door, his eyes were closed and he was snoring softly. At first glance he appeared to be guarding the door.
“Let’s go, Airman Collins. We have a fun day ahead of us still. Now won’t that be better than just sitting around back here with nothing to do? I even got you a weapon for when we go hand to hand against the Zs. After all, we can’t use our firearms against them since it draws the Zs to us from everywhere inside the building.” Gloria held out the breaching tool and Collins cringed as he backed away from the tool, fear and loathing radiating from the young man towards the tool before him.
“It won’t bite you, Airman, and I’m pulling your leg. The tool is used to open doors. We are not going to the base looking for a fight, at least with just the two of us.” The young airman had a stupid grin on his face as he took the tool from Gloria. Lord, what did I do to deserve all this? She wondered as she led the way to her truck. She could now sense resentment aimed at her from the brooding airman. She ignored it as she drove towards the base, while keeping an eye out for any possible hostiles.
Gloria resisted the urge to laugh when she pulled into the reserved parking spot for the wing commander. She took a long look at the south entrance that, luckily, was also where the pharmacy was located. The glass doors didn’t appear to be disturbed. Remembering her last visit to the base, Gloria grabbed her keys before climbing down out of the truck. Collins was having trouble with the carbine and the breaching tool while trying to get down from the truck. Gloria just watched in amusement. The he proceeded to follow her without closing his door.
“Son, if the battery gets run down because the door is open, we spend the night here. Do you want to spend the night here?” Gloria found she was losing patience with the airman too quickly and wondered what his regular job had been in the Air Force and decided she wasn’t in the mood to have a chat with the petulant boy. She ignored him as she stopped in front of the doors and tried to sense if anyone was nearby, it appeared to be their lucky day when she didn’t detect anyone nearby.
“Let me, Ma’am.” Collins offered when Gloria reached for the breaching tool in his hand.
“It’s all yours.” She replied as she continued to nervously look around for anyone nearby, not just the infected. She heard the click of a bolt being withdrawn and looked over at Collins as he was putting a small tool pouch back into his vest. The little Sad Sack came through, she thought in delight.
“I have to ask, where did you learn that, Collins?” Gloria asked.
“Ma’am, I’m a Structural Specialist. When everything went down I was assigned to the key shop. Actually I was going to be moved from the key shop because I completed all my training for everything related to locks, cipher locks, and keys. I was going to go to the welding shop next.” Gloria could detect the pride the young man felt and decided to cut him some slack.
“I want you inside the door and keep an eye out for anyone that gets close to the clinic. That way you stay in the sunlight, we may not be alone in here.” Collins fumbled to bring up his carbine from how it was hanging from the patrol strap. Gloria grabbed the breaching tool as it began to fall.
“I know another way into the pharmacy, I may need this. I have to go around the corner so don’t get excited if you hear any movement.” Her boots made a squeaking sound as she walked on the linoleum floor, sounding to her like it was echoing off the walls for the entire length of the corridor. She passed the small break area and remembered how those machines had stolen her money too many times in the past. If I have time, it’s payback, she thought.
Applying the Halligan tool to the door and listening to the loud ‘crack’ sound as the doorjamb broke she thought, I should have brought the kid with me, but he’d find away to get bit or hurt. She did not bother to use her flashlight or the light on her carbine while briskly walking down a short hallway. The door had a box next to the door knob and a warning sign that an alarm would go off along with the standard sign about authorized personnel only allowed inside. She struck the alarm box off to give her more working room and was annoyed when the alarm went off, obviously from a battery backup.
Continuing the job, she had to use more force this time before getting through the door. She raised the tool above her head and brought it down with all her strength to smash the alarm, over and over, until there was quiet once again. She walked through the pharmacy area to the shuttered service windows, then opened them up. Collins was still standing by the front entrance, only watching her now.
“Ma’am, since it’s clear in there, when you get to the narcotics safe let me know, you won’t be able to get into it with your tool. I might be able to.”
“That works for me. Here, I’m going to hand you a couple carts. I’ll load the drugs on the counter and you can sweep them into the carts and wheel them to the truck and dump them into the bed of the truck until we have all the drugs or the truck is full.” The carts, both appearing to have come from the commissary, narrowly fit through the windows. A rhythm soon began and they quickly started to go fill the back of the truck with meds.
“Ma’am, the truck is almost full. If you want the vault open, I should start now.” Gloria looked at all the remaining medications and wanted to kick herself for not bringing a full detail of people with additional trucks. Live and learn.
“You want to walk around back or just go through the window? It’s pitch black in the hallways.” That additional information made up Collins’ mind for him, he decided to jump through the window, and managed to knock over a computer monitor in the process. He looked sheepishly at Gloria and shrugged his shoulders, then walked over to the vault.
“I remember helping put in the vault door. The hospital got cheap and bought the cheapest one they could find still within security regulations. It only has four locking bolts.”
“So you can pick the lock or use a back door trick to get in?” Gloria asked, fearing the answer.
“Ma’am, even though they have the cheapest vault door they could get, the walls around the vault have six thousand degree concrete fireproofing. The possibility of drilling into the safe to crack it is nil as well. I should have it open in a little under ten minutes,” Collins said with a smile. He reached into his vest and pulled out a small satchel, then pulled out a black plastic handle with only a red button and an open end. He opened it up and inserted a nine volt battery. He then pressed a cylinder-shaped piece of metal into it until it was firmly planted. He carefully set it on the floor and donned a pair of gloves he’d had stuck in his back pocket. He then put on a small pair of safety glasses.
“Ma’am, you don’t want to look at this while I work.” He picked up the tool again and it looked like a light saber from the movies. He pressed the tip along the crack of the door, then pressed the red button. An intensely bright flame shot out, as melted metal dripped to the floor. He quickly moved it four times in ten seconds before the flame burned out.
He jumped back and took a breath. “I broke so many procedures and safety protocols I don’t even want to think of what would happen if I was busted.” He smiled when he saw Gloria looking at his tool. “This is a tenth generation thermal breaching tool. I just insert the thermite cartridge to the handle, then when I press the red button, the cartridge is ignited for up to ten seconds to eight thousand degrees. You won’t find that in the local hardware store. I just have to do the locking bolts on the right side and we should be good if I guessed correctly where the locking bolts were.”
Collins stooped down by the vault door and inserted a new cartridge into his breaching tool. He made it look effortless as he fired up the device and completed the remaining bolts. “Well, Ma’am, here’s where we see how good a job I did.” He reached for the wheeled handle and gave it a tug, he then grunted and placed his boot on the frame for more lev
erage as he pulled with all his strength, without any luck.
“Let me give it a try.” Gloria asked nicely. Collins was going to say something sarcastic and thought better of it before moving away from the vault door.
Gloria grabbed the wheel and pulled it with all her strength and could feel it move the slightest bit. She let go and gave herself a minute to prepare to try again. She tried to jerk the door open and felt like she may have hurt herself for the effort. She moved a chair in front of the vault door, sat and then set her feet firmly on the frame before grabbing the handle again and pulling slowly, trying to use all the strength she had. Her arms and legs were shaking and she felt her stomach complain and was getting ready to give up when the door opened. “I guess you loosened it up for me. Let’s hurry and fill up the truck so we can maybe make another trip.”
Collins swallowed the smart remark he was going to release. “Yes, Ma’am, nice job.”
“I knew I should have just swapped trucks and gone back out again.” Gloria had parked her truck next to Sanctuary’s clinic entrance and decided she was in the way as volunteers unloaded the supplies. She stopped by her office to check in with Muller and before she realized what was happening, she was reviewing and signing what felt like every paper they had in the office. When she had finished it was too close to dusk to go back out with anyone else.
Chapter 26
East bound Highway 25, Wyoming. April 7, 2029
“Am I turning into a fricking vampire?” The rising sun was doing an excellent job of blinding Caleb as he drove towards the rising sun, his sunglasses almost useless. The quiet started to tear at him so he turned on the radio.
Oh mother, tell your children
Not to do the things I’ve done
Infected World Trilogy (Books 1-3): They Only Come Out At Night Page 47