Crawlerz: Book 3: The Mountains Are Calling

by R. S. Merritt

  Yue was working on the best way to casually ask if anyone had seen the guy who made the announcements on the radio. If Jeff really was in a position of power here, she was sure he’d have swooped in to save them by now. The fact that he had yet to make an appearance had her extremely worried.

  Chapter 35: The First Daughter Didn’t Make it

  The barracks they were taken to after filling out their processing forms were much more modernized. The cart driver who taxied them over to their new digs had been talkative in a good way. Not like the guy who’d driven them to the medical bay who’d been talkative in a creepy way. The rooms they’d stayed in for quarantine hadn’t been used in forever. The driver thought they originally might’ve been used for keeping political prisoners in. Given the décor matching the time frame of the cold war it made sense. That whole section had been sealed off until recently when they’d needed somewhere to stick people for quarantine.

  There was a separate barracks for the men and the women. The only exceptions were for husbands and wives traveling together. Yue tried tossing out brother and sister and was shot down. Lisa stepped on her toe to shut her up. If Yue got to go with LeBron and Drew that’d leave Lisa by herself with a bunch of strangers.

  The soldier on duty must’ve overheard the argument. He walked over and let them know that he’d put the duffel bags containing their personal items on the bunks he was assigning them. He also told them the trick would’ve been telling personnel they were married. Instead of a bunk they’d be relaxing in one of the family suites. Noting that it was too late now he gave them all a quick tour before going back out in the hallway.

  The men’s and women’s barracks were long rooms separated by a common area with couches and a few TVs. It was meant to be a place to socialize and wind down after a day doing whatever it was soldiers did all day on a secret base. There were video games and vending machines scattered around as well. The vending machines were all empty. There were a few other men and women sitting around wearing the same flight suits they had on. That marked them as fellow refugees waiting on the slow train to Fayetteville.

  Shaun walked in while they were sitting around talking. Dinner was delivered for the people on bedrest. Lisa joked that they couldn’t possibly go a few hours without shoving food down their throats. She didn’t understand how come the soldiers stationed here weren’t all the size of houses. Then one had walked by who was a little larger than the others. Drew wiggled his eyebrows at Lisa when the man walked by causing her to snort and laugh hysterically. Young love and all of that.

  Shaun had gotten a full IV bag into his body while the rest of them had spent their time in personnel filling out forms. He’d gotten to skip the personnel office for the day. Yue and LeBron were freaking out that they were on some sort of watch list. The new President had ordered a group of elite soldiers to kill them after all. It seemed like that sort of executive vendetta would leave a paper trail.

  “Feeling better Shaun?” Yue asked as Shaun walked over to talk to them.

  “Feeling good. They pumped me full of the good stuff. I’m actually going to go check on something. I’ll be right back.” Shaun said. He walked past them and continued on towards the men’s barracks door.

  “Should’ve told him there’s a bathroom out here.” Lisa said.

  “Yeah, that good stuff must be looking to come out.” Drew joked.

  They talked some more as they pushed the extra food around on their plates. Harley eyed everyone else’s portions until most of them relented and shared their extras with him. When Shaun came stomping back out of the barracks looking a little frazzled, they all turned to look at him curiously.

  “You guys get all your stuff back except for your weapons?” Shaun asked them.

  Everyone nodded. They’d been pleasantly surprised when they went into the barracks and discovered their gear on the bed. They still had to wear the flight suits but at least they’d gotten their personal gear back. Their weapons would be returned in Fayetteville was what they were told. Nothing to really be upset over. Unless of course the crawlerz managed to breach this base like they had the one in South Carolina. This one had been built back when the cold war was in full swing though. It wasn’t going to succumb to a bunch of adrenalized crazies punching it really hard.

  “Were your wallets in there with your licenses?” Shaun asked pointedly.

  Drew shrugged. He’d noticed his wallet right away. He’d considered tossing it out about a million times. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it. LeBron still had his too. A quick survey of everyone at the table revealed all the men were still carrying theirs. Lisa and Yue had both lost theirs along the way. Probably because they didn’t have the same fascination with carrying wallets in their pockets as men did. It finally dawned on Harley what Shaun was getting at.

  “You saying they already knew our names and everything before we went to processing? They were just checking what we told them against the info they already had?” Harley wondered aloud. His fascination with government conspiracy theories leading him to think of all kinds of sinister scenarios.

  Before Shaun could answer two hard looking men walked in and looked around the room. Yue slunk down in her chair thinking this was it. Their names had popped up in some database. Now they were going to be whisked away to some forgotten part of the base and executed. She wondered if they’d be killed in the same room Jeff had been executed in. Looking across the table she saw Drew slide his chair back from the table. He looked like he was getting ready to attack the armed commando looking dudes with the plastic spork he’d used to eat the vegetarian chili they’d been served for supper.

  Everyone around the table tensed up. The moment they’d all feared looked like it was crashing down on them now. The President was still pissed. He’d sent his goons to collect his pound of flesh.

  “Shaun Thompson?” One of the men asked. Shaun stood up and nodded.

  “Is Wendy with you?” The other man asked. He’d glanced back and forth at Lisa and Yue before letting his gaze settle on Shaun.

  “Is she here?” A voice called out from the entrance to the room. A man walked in Yue and Drew instantly recognized. It took the others a few more seconds. The man didn’t look the same as he had before this had all started. The apocalypse had aged him greatly. He also hadn’t been on the news as much as the President.

  Yue was struggling to understand what was going on. Her first instinct had been that the President was looking for them. Then the Wendy comment finally sank in. She combined that with Shaun’s frantic state of mind lately. Not to mention his odd ask for them to say Wendy got killed jumping off the roof. The final puzzle piece snapped into place when it finally occurred to her Shaun’s last name was Thompson.

  President Thompson stood in the middle of the break area looking frantically around the room. He made eye contact momentarily with Yue. She saw a brief flash of surprised recognition in his eyes before he continued to scan the room. He finally walked over to Shaun and hugged him.

  “Where’s Wendy?” The President’s tone was sad but hopeful. He was preparing himself to get bad news, but he was holding out for the slim chance that he might hear something good.

  “She didn’t make it.” Shaun said simply.

  President Thompson’s face collapsed. He sat down at the closest table and put his head down on his arms. He sat like that for a few minutes with his shoulders heaving. Secret service and soldiers alike standing around staring at anything that wasn’t their leader crying on a table in a breakroom. Yue and everyone did their best not to draw any attention to themselves.

  Yue knew Thompson had recognized her. She wondered if she was about to get blamed for the death of the first daughter on top of stealing state secrets. Shaun’s words came back to her. She was in full agreement with him now that they’d absolutely tried to save the drug addled daughter of the President. While the President was lost in his grief she was lost in her reimagining of that night on the roof. She wanted to be r
eady in case she was asked to relive it in detail for a hard eyed man with water and a board.

  Thompson eventually got control of himself and stood up. He took the neatly folded napkins one of his agents handed him and used it to dab at his eyes. Then he turned his gaze on Yue.

  “I remember you from the ship. You’re the girl who was with Jeff. Did you come here looking for him?” Thompson asked.

  “Yes sir.” Yue said seeing no point in trying to lie.

  “Shaun. Was this girl with you when Wendy died?” Thompson asked. He was eyeing Yue suspiciously. He was waiting for her to show any sign that she’d somehow been responsible. She did her best to keep her face neutral.

  “Yes sir. Her and the others tried to help. Three of us ended up getting wounded trying to fight our way over to save Wendy. One of the infected came out of nowhere and grabbed her. The last I saw she was flying over the side with it trying to bite her.” Shaun said straight faced. Yue was happy the President was watching her. Drew probably had a completely confused look on his face. He’d eventually catch up, but subtle lies and storytelling really weren’t his thing. He took more of a Hulk approach to problems.

  “You’re certain she died?” The President flipped his attention back to Shaun.

  “Yes sir. I looked for her the next morning. There were no bodies besides the infected we killed the night before. She must have been turned by the crawler that carried her off the roof. That’s the only thing that’d explain her disappearing like that. It was a solid four story drop to the concrete.” Shaun said. He was speaking a little loudly for such an intimate matter. Yue knew that was to make sure all of them heard the story in case they were called on to validate it.

  The grieving father didn’t appear to notice the extra volume. Yue was worried the other agents in the room might find it a little odd though. She was also worried that even if the grieving father didn’t notice the volume shift that the scheming politician part of that father might. She had no doubt that sharp political mind was absorbing every nuance of the conversation with his nephew.

  Yue was terrified the President would find out what’d really happened to his daughter. She was also filled with admiration for Shaun. He didn’t have to tell this lie. He could’ve easily let the guards know who he was as soon as they arrived. He could’ve told them what’d really happened on that roof top. The man was honoring his word. He was protecting them like they’d protected him. That debt was now paid in full. All they had to do now was survive the next ten minutes.

  The key to survival in this situation was to do everything humanly possible to make sure that Drew didn’t get a chance to talk. Luckily the President decided he’d had enough. He exited the room with his agents. At the last second one of the agents came back and invited Shaun to join them. It didn’t sound like the kind of invite that could be turned down. Shaun left with the man after shooting them a nervous smile accompanied by a devilish wink.

  “What just happened?” Drew asked once everything settled back down.

  Chapter 36: The Wrong Side of the Tracks

  “We’re leaving?” Yue asked again. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and sat up. The woman who’d woken her up nodded and left.

  “I knew it was too good to last.” Lisa said from the bunk above Yue.

  They’d been in the barracks for the last week waiting on their orders. Lisa was the only one who wasn’t wearing a bracelet condemning her to house arrest. She’d been able to get out and see the base a little bit. According to her if you’d seen one part of the base, you’d pretty much seen it all. Despite Drew’s constant jokes about aliens the base was about as exciting as a big parking garage.

  Lisa had been put to work in the mess hall. It required her to wake up ridiculously early and then work until way too late. It was hard work but easily beat running for your life from flesh eating freaks every day. She kept certain aspects of her day to herself to avoid getting in a fight with Drew. The hardest part of her day was typically blowing off the five thousand attempts to hook up with her. Who’d have thought putting a pretty girl in a flight suit to serve food to a few hundred Marines might lead to issues?

  It actually hadn’t been that bad. For the most part the Marines and airmen were all perfect gentlemen. She was careful to avoid flirting back. She was nice but firm. She was worried her ego may grow out of control with all the compliments she was getting. It was physically demanding work. She looked forward to the end of each day when she’d take a nice hot shower before watching part of a movie in the break area with Drew. Life was good. She’d known it couldn’t possibly last.

  They hadn’t seen Shaun since he’d left with the President. Yue was glad for that. She was a big proponent of them keeping out of sight and out of mind of the extremely powerful man whose daughter she’d shot. The other refugees kept their distance. Yue didn’t much care and made minimal effort to interact with them. Everyone preferred sticking to their own groups most of the time. Not that it mattered overly much anyway. During the day almost everyone was assigned to some sort of work detail. As their bed rest bracelets wore off, they were each given light duty as well.

  They were told to pack their stuff and meet in the break room in an hour. Yue and Lisa raced one another to enjoy one last hot shower. It wasn’t like it was going to take a long time to pack up their meager possessions. Arriving at the showers they discovered two other women had beat them to it. Lisa and Yue waited impatiently while the other women finished up.

  In the men’s barracks the news that they were leaving in less than an hour was met with mixed reactions. LeBron immediately headed into the break area for a cup of coffee. His gear was already packed. Harley shoved his junk in his bag and followed along behind LeBron wondering why the hell they had to leave so early. Drew rolled over and went back to sleep.

  Drew was literally dragged out of his lower bunk onto the floor five minutes before they were supposed to muster in the break area. LeBron started shoving his gear into a bag for him. Drew decided he might as well get on board with the whole going to Fayetteville idea. He threw his gear on, brushed his teeth and was only a few minutes late to the early morning muster.

  The emphasis on being there at eight sharp soon dissipated as some sort of delay kept them from leaving until nine. It gave them all enough time to enjoy one last breakfast courtesy of the Weathertop secret base supply caches. In true hurry up and wait fashion they were taken by golf cart from the barracks to another hangar where they once again stood around staring at each other.

  “How do you think they power this place?” A bored Drew asked looking up at the lights. For the first time he was wondering where all the electricity for the golf carts they’d been riding around in came from.

  “Solar farms outside the base maybe?” LeBron answered. He’d given this a bit of thought already. Any fossil fuels would’ve given the base a finite amount of time to operate before losing power. That wouldn’t work for a base intended to survive in the event of a catastrophe like they were living through. The planners would’ve wanted to make sure the base was powered by some sort of sustainable energy source.

  “The dams man. Why do you think they have people stationed at Fontana? That’s why it’s so important to keep it up and running.” Harley said. He’d spent more time at the Fontana dam installation than the rest of them had. It made sense he’d have learned more about what the power it produced was being used for.

  They were ordered into a transport truck and driven outside as part of a small convoy of four trucks. One truck full of refugees and one filled with Marines. The other two trucks were loaded with supplies. There’d been some awkwardness in the hangar as half a dozen of the Marines had said hi to Lisa in front of an increasingly jealous Drew. Having never really been jealous before he wondered if that meant he was even more into Lisa than he’d thought he was.

  Yue was just happy Drew kept his temper in check well enough to not start a fight with a dozen Marines. She knew Harley and LeBron would j
ump right in with him. They were all still recovering from the injuries that’d qualified them for bed rest. She didn’t want to see them get beat down in a hangar. Marines were trained to win whether it was on the battlefield or in the bar. She was impressed by the way Lisa deftly avoided their advances. Having been in the same kind of male dominated situations Yue knew how hard it was to constantly turn men down. Especially when you ran into some of the ones hiding a fragile ego behind a macho facade. Those were the ones you really had to watch out for.

  Thinking of that she wondered when they’d get their weapons back. It was one thing to go unarmed in a massive concrete bomb shelter full of soldiers ready to defend you. It was another thing entirely to be back out in the field with nothing to defend themselves with. At least Lisa would have a whole fire team of Marines ready to jump in and save her if need be.

  The drive was uneventful. The day was chilly and bright with only a few wispy clouds breaking up the majesty of the bright blue sky. A good day to be out and about in a world where shadows brought the nightmares. The country two lane turned into a highway that brought them into a city. The stench of death wafted out from the alleys and dark streets they drove past. The feeling of being watched ebbing and flowing as they drove through the crumbling remains of civilization.