Desolation

by Mark Campbell

  “Shh, shh,” Jerri whispered, cradling her sobbing friend against her. “It’s just the flu. You can’t help it. Just go back to your room and rest up. I’ll try to pick up some medicine for you after breakfast, okay?”

  Krystal stifled her tears and shook her head against Jerri’s shoulder. She pulled away and quickly wiped away her tears with the towel.

  “Thank you,” Krystal started and then choked back another sob. She grabbed her aching stomach and groaned with pain. “You’re a good friend Jerri… Please don’t tell anybody. I’m not well… but I’m not infected. I promise…”

  “Okay. Sure, sure,” Jerri said softly. She wasn’t sure what made her take such a liking to the young girl but she felt very protective of Krystal.

  Krystal smiled and walked out the restroom and headed back towards her quarters.

  Jerri was not stupid. She was concerned that Krystal was hiding something.

  She decided she would deal with it after breakfast. Provided they were serving it.

  4

  After finishing up in the restroom and a quick change of clothes, Jerri walked down the hall towards the dorm’s only exit, trying to ignore her growling stomach. She was wearing a flattering yet tattered pair of jeans and a grimy looking gray t-shirt that was far too big for her. She liked to look a little dirty because it kept guys from staring at her for too long. In her left pocket she kept her ID card and in her right pocket she kept her switchblade ready just in case.

  At the end of the hall the airlock door opened and she stepped inside an archaic sally port. The sally ports were attached to every building and acted as sterile buffer zones between indoor and outdoor areas. It had a single shower head overhead next to a speaker and a strobe light. A plastic sign on the wall next to the exit door showed a stick figure holding his arms above his head. Underneath, it read ‘All Persons Must Pass Decontamination before Passing – Press Button to Start Process’. Next to the cracked sign there was a red button.

  It was an irritating process, but one everybody had to endure if they wanted to pass through and go outside. Some of the other dorm’s sally ports were broken and allowed people to come and go as they please. Lucky bastards, she thought as she pressed the button.

  The red strobe flashed. “ Attention. Please stand in the center with your arms above y– [STATIC],” a metallic male voice crackled out of the ceiling’s speaker. “Do not m– [STATIC] during the decontamination process-s-s.”

  Jerri stood with her arms folded across her chest, annoyed. An unsettling grinding noise resonated in the wall and the shower head sputtered and spat out a plume of smoke from the failing pump. It made her miss the days when the showers actually worked and sprayed a fine mist of blue liquid. It used to be a refreshing break from the desert sun.

  Jerri coughed violently, waving her hand in front of her face as the smoke settled.

  The red strobe turned green.

  “You are now clear to exit the s– [STATIC]. Allow your skin to air dry. Thank you for your cooper– [STATIC] –on-n-n-n-n.”

  The outer door unlocked. Jerri kicked it open and stormed outside. The sudden sunlight blinded her. She threw her arms up and covered her face in response. Slowly, as her pupils adjusted, she lowered her arms and looked around as the steel door slammed shut behind her.

  A vicious wind ripped through the encampment, throwing sand and loose papers into the air as it blew through the narrow encampments in-between the alleyways separating the dormitories. Many people preferred the freedom that the tent cities provided as opposed to the overcrowded dorms. Unfortunately, that false sense of freedom came with a price when summer highs reached well over one-hundred degrees.

  Stray cats and dogs were once a huge problem in the encampments, but, like the rats, the number of strays decreased drastically over the past few weeks. Jerri tried not to think about it. It was unsettling to not see a single dog or cat anymore… Even the crows stayed away.

  Cats were nimble and fast. Jerri hoped that the cats were able to run away before they got caught. Jerri was a cat person ever since she was a little girl. She wished that she had captured one of the stray kittens before they all vanished. But at the same time she doubted that she could stand to see her pet just disappear one day.

  She tried to shield her face from the hot wind as she maneuvered her way through the countless rows of tents. A few tired eyes lingered on her but in a city full of bored souls with nothing to do people watching was a favorite pastime. Most of the tent dwellers simply lounged in the shade and napped. She did notice one man who was lying face down in his tent, unconscious.

  Two FEMA police officers wearing bulky black riot armor and protective helmets sauntered past her, holding empty industrial-sized rat traps. One of the officers brushed against her and almost made her fall over.

  “Watch where you’re going,” the cop snarled through his gas mask. Jerri looked away, quickly got up, and kept walking. The officers turned and kept walking in the opposite direction.

  She discovered that the best way to deal with the police was to avoid them. Since the police stopped getting paid with extra rations most of the officers who stayed on the force were those who liked the power. That made the remnants of the FEMA police dangerous beyond belief. Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

  Jerri emerged out of the alley and walked out into the camp’s large concrete plaza as she headed towards the camp’s mess hall. The camp’s towering administration control tower stood in the center of the plaza. It was a monolithic cement structure with a large ‘6’ painted on it. A tinted glass control room sat on the top of the structure crowned with an array of antennas, loudspeakers, and a tattered American flag. At the base of the tower a small battalion of FEMA police officers stood sentry duty at the tower’s access door.

  A few yards behind the control tower sat the camp’s gallows. It looked like a depraved swing set. It had five nooses hanging from it and they were rarely empty. Two men were swaying with the desert breeze as Jerri walked past. One wore a sign that said ‘THIEF’ and the other wore a sign that said ‘RAPIST’. Jerri knew why they had the gallows sat up where everybody would see them; they stood as a stark reminder of the camp’s swift criminal justice system.

  Past the gallows sat the mess hall. The mess hall looked like a long windowless gymnasium from the outside. It was built to accommodate a large number of people but hardly anybody wasted their energy to walk inside lately. Some days, when supplies were really low, the kitchen didn’t open at all.

  Next to the mess hall sat the camp’s vehicle staging area. Six black solar-powered Humvees adorned with Homeland Security logos were parked in it alongside a broken army tank. It was common knowledge that none of the vehicles operated anymore and did little more than collect dust. They used to have some old buses, used during the evacuations from the cities to the camps, but they were all stolen months ago.

  Past everything, in the hazy distance, the tall razorwire-topped wall that wrapped around the perimeter of the camp was visible. The wall had watchtowers, air raid sirens, and spot lamps along its length. She didn’t even think that the massive rolling gate functioned anymore. The wall had two purposes; it kept the infected out and kept the residents in.

  Fortunately, Jerri thought, the days of dealing with the faster moving original infected victims were long gone. The sprinters, as they were called, died off after a few weeks. All that remained of them were putrefied corpses strew across the entire country. The slower variants of the infected, the reanimated corpses courtesy of the government’s failed attempt at a vaccine marketed as Acexa, were rumored to still exist. It was said that the slower variants were capable of roaming the earth for years due to their suppressed decomposition rate.

  However, gossip in the camp was common and unreliable. Nobody inside actually saw an Acexa variant for a long time. As far as anyone knew, the Acexa variants were as extinct as the dinosaurs.

  Marauders were the real danger.


  Jerri pushed the button to enter the mess hall sally port and the rusty door slid open.

  “Attention. Please stand in the center with your arms above your head. Do not move during the decontamination process.”

  Jerri stepped inside and sighed as the door clanged shut behind her. It sounded like prison bars slamming shut and always made her jump. The red light flashed and the shower head spat out a trickle of rusty water.

  “You are now clear to exit the sally port. Let your skin air dry. Thank you for your cooperation and remember that no food is allowed to exit the kitchen.” The mess hall door opened and Jerri stepped inside. As expected, it was mostly vacant. Rows of dirty tables lined the center of the mess hall alongside wooden benches. Filthy trays lay everywhere and roaches scurried underneath the tables. An empty salad bar sat pushed against the wall next to the empty soda dispenser. A hot buffet bar sat in the center of the room; it was full of cobwebs and hadn’t been used for quite some time.

  A poster hung on the wall next to a framed American Flag:

  Two large soup pots, containing warm water mixed with spices and a little sugar, sat on one of the center tables. Some dirty bowls and cups sat stacked next to the pots.

  No meat was being served. A cook wearing a stained yellow apron adorned with the FEMA logo sat next to the pots and flipped through an old porno magazine. He was there to make sure nobody took seconds. Since they weren’t serving any meat, seconds probably weren’t going to be a problem.

  A few people sat in the mess hall and slurped their spiced water in silence.

  It was about what she expected.

  When the camp first opened they had fresh salads, warm bread, and average food. Now they were lucky when the camp even tried to put together a meal that involved more than an ounce of protein. Even bread was extremely rare. God, she missed bread. Hell, she missed carbs period.

  Jerri let out an exasperated sigh and walked over to the pots and helped herself. A dead bug floated up to the top in pot she got her soup from so she dumped the bowl and got a helping from the pot next to it.

  “Excuse me,” she said to the cook. “Will there be any meat served tonight?”

  “Do I look like a fucking psychic?” he said without looking up from his porno. Jerri frowned.

  “No, but you don’t seem like much of a cook, either,” she said. “Fuck off,” he snorted, staring at the centerfold.

  “There’s a roach in one of the pots,” Jerri said.

  “And!?”

  “Well… it’s not very sanitary,” she responded. “Shitty cooks making shitty food.”

  “Well, feel free to take your happy ass down to Burger King,” he said, turning the page. Jerri almost cursed the man out but knew it wouldn’t do any good. The man was totally apathetic. She knew that he would welcome a confrontation just for the entertainment. Instead of giving into his game, she took her bowl and left him alone to wallow in his self-pity and loneliness.

  She took a seat behind a man huddled underneath a blanket. She didn’t like sitting by herself in the mess hall and never understood why exactly.

  She slurped the water from her bowl and downed most of the disgustingly bland concoction in a few seconds.

  “I’m surprised,” the man behind her said without turning around. He slurped his soup loudly.

  “About what?” Jerri asked, still miffed.

  “That you spoke up to the cook,” the man said. “Most people are scared of anybody who wears the FEMA emblem.”

  Jerri scoffed.

  “That idiot’s nobody. A frightened little man with imaginary power,” Jerri said.

  “I don’t know…” the man said reflectively. “The hand that feeds you… You shouldn’t bite it.”

  “…The hand needs to have food to feed you with first,” Jerri said. “If I could survive eating bullshit I’d want for nothing in here.” They were quiet for a few seconds, backs turned towards each other, and then laughed.

  “It sounds like you’re a little disheartened,” the man said, finishing his soup.

  Jerri pushed her bowl aside and shook her head. “Just fed up,” she said. “I’m fed up with hiding. I’m fed up with starving. I’m fed up with these FEMA pricks waving their little dicks around like power-hungry idiots.”

  The man chuckled.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Jessica,” Jerri lied.

  Silence lingered for a few moments before the man finally spoke. “You never asked my name,” he said.

  “No, I didn’t,” she responded, smirking.

  “Well, I’m Andrew,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to meet someone who speaks so freely.” Jerri ran her finger along the brim of her bowl and stayed quiet. “Where are you from?” Andrew asked.

  “Phoenix,” she said after some hesitation.

  “Oh? Ever think about going back?” he asked.

  Jerri scoffed.

  “A jokester, huh?” she mused as she turned towards the man behind her. She couldn’t see anything underneath his blanket shawl. “Did anybody ever tell you that you’re kind of an asshole?”

  Andrew laughed.

  “Just my parents. They reminded me all the time,” he said. “As you can imagine, family reunions were a blast.”

  Jerri laughed. “I miss them though,” Andrew reflected. “If I wasn’t on a plane from Pittsburgh on the other side of the country when the outbreak happened, I wouldn’t have the pleasure of enjoying this bounty of sugar water. I’d just be a glowing pile of ashes.”

  “I think,” Jerri said as she turned back to her table, “that the ones we all lost in the blasts were the lucky ones. They were dead before they even knew what was coming.”

  Andrew nodded.

  “True, true… do you always get so philosophical over breakfast, Jessica, or do you just like to depress people for fun?”

  “Asshole,” Jerri said, smirking.

  “I’m just saying… we could talk about the weather or something,” Andrew said.

  “We’re in Arizona. The weather is hot as hell. End of story,” she snipped. “Funny thing is, I always said that I wanted to visit here and go see the Grand Canyon or something… After staying here one summer, my mind quickly changed. You have to be somewhat of a masochist to live here,” he said.

  “You’re just a snowbird who can’t hang. Ever think of going back to Pennsylvania?” Jerri asked. “Now who’s being the asshole?” Andrew asked, smiling. Jerri giggled.

  “You’re lucky I’m talking to you at all,” she said. “With all of these FEMA dicks walking around, I tend to just keep to myself.” Andrew let out a hearty laugh and stood up. As he stood, the blanket fell of off him and revealed his black tactical pants and shirt. He wore neither emblems nor a badge, but everybody in the camp knew the uniform. He was an Eye.

  The Eyes served as intelligence operatives within the camp and their job was to sniff out possible rebels and domestic threats. Jerri’s gut churned and her heart froze as Andrew stood next to her, letting her see his uniform.

  Andrew stood a little over six feet tall and had a head full of dirty blonde hair. He had piercing blue eyes that had the glint of intelligence. “Ah, fuck,” Jerri muttered.

  Andrew smirked and crossed his arms across his chest.

  “So I guess this is the part where you arrest me for being a subversive element to the safe and secure running of the institution?” Jerri asked, closing her eyes. She knew her big fucking mouth would get her in trouble one day.

  Andrew shook his head.

  “No, this is the part where I go wave my little dick around like a power hungry idiot… I believe that’s the way it goes, right?” “Well, I wouldn’t have said it if I knew you were what you were,” she said.

  “But you still would have thought it, right?” Andrew pried. “Absolutely,” Jerri answered. “In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have sat behind you though and we wouldn’t be in this predicament. Live and learn. Let’s get this over with.”

&nbs
p; She held her hands out, ready to get cuffed. She held her hands in front, hoping he would make the mistake of cuffing her that way. After he took her into the sally port to leave the building, she figured she would fish for her knife and attempt escape.

  Andrew thought for a moment and then shook his head. “Yeah, you wouldn’t have sat behind me, but then we wouldn’t have had the chance to chat. It’d be my loss. You have a good day, Jessica.”

  Andrew turned and started to walk away. Jerri lowered her hands, baffled. She was sure he was going to take her away and interrogate her. She was absolutely shocked. Before she could say anything, he was already half-way across the mess hall by the cook.

  Andrew grabbed the porno magazine out of the cook’s hands. “Hey! You mother–” the cook started. He froze at the sight of Andrew’s uniform.

  Andrew slapped the magazine up aside the cook’s head. The cook startled and raised his hand where the magazine struck him. “Get that roach out of the pot and get a fresh batch out, you idiot. Have some pride in your work before I personally make sure you get reassigned to a detail outside the wall,” Andrew said, giving the cook an icy stare.

  “Y-yes sir, right away sir, I apologize sir for my mistake, sir,” the cook stammered, quickly grabbing the pot with both hands. Andrew nodded and walked away towards the sally port. As he walked away he half-turned towards Jerri and wagged a finger by his crotch jokingly, shooting her a quick wink.

  Jerri couldn’t help but smile. She finished her soup and decided to head to medical. Some powerful decongestants for Krystal would be nice. She made a checklist in her head and made her way towards the sally port.

  5

  Jerri made her way underneath the scorching sun and walked through a row of tents that smelled like feces and sour milk. A woman she passed tripped and dropped a basket of laundry she had hung out to dry. A passing FEMA police officer walked up to the woman and reached a hand down to help her up. He smiled a genuine smile. His eyes were soft and kind, a rarity.