“You think she’s here?” she murmured to him.
“I hope so.”
A moment later they heard rapid footsteps outside the door. It opened with a loud jolt and a man stepped inside. He grinned at them.
“Well, well, well…if it isn’t Sweet Corn,” he said. She smirked and shook her head.
The soldiers on either side of the door looked at each other quizzically.
“When Jennings told me there were two civvies outside the gates, and one of them was a cute girl with a bloody Louisville Slugger, I had my suspicions.”
She grinned and stood up. Jared did the same. He shook their hands. “What are you guys doing here? Don’t you know how dangerous it is?”
“My mother showed up at my house a couple of days after you guys left. She was at the stadium. She said my sister left with some of the guys from your unit. We figured there was a chance she was here.”
“Your sister came here?” Bradley asked. He looked back at one of the guys on the wall. “Get the rest of the guys from the stadium in here.”
Anna looked at Jared. He was frowning. This wasn’t what they expected to find.
“Did you guys run into any trouble on the way here?” he asked while they waited.
“Not too much,” Jared said. “We only broke down, fought one of those mutant creeps, got chased out of a fully infested town, and missed out on the best pecan pie in the state. Nothing we couldn’t handle.”
Bradley narrowed his eyes and looked at her. She shrugged. “We decided to take the state highway instead of the interstate.”
“It was still probably safer that way. Stewart and I had a rough time getting here on the interstate. The pileups were bad.” If he was saying the interstate was rough, then it must be really bad.
He didn’t say anything more because Stewart came in. He came up to Anna and uncharacteristically gave her a big grin.
“Little Hellcat! I didn’t think we’d be seeing you guys again so soon.”
“Me either. I’m glad you guys are safe. I worried about you,” she said.
He waved that off and a group of men in unforms came back. They were looking a little unkempt. Bradley waved them in. “My friend here is looking for his sister. She was at Collier Stadium,” he said significantly.
The men looked at each other. They looked haggard and some looked unwell. “What was her name?” one asked.
“Kate Carson,” Jared answered. “Tallish, long red hair, thin…?”
The man widened his eyes, “Buffy?”
“Uh, what?”
“You’re Buffy’s brother?”
“Buffy?”
“Yeah, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” he said. “She’s lethal.”
“Um, I think you're talking about the wrong person.”
“No, it’s Kate alright. She’s death in a pretty package,” the man said fondly. Another one grinned and nodded.
“My sister isn’t a killer! She’s an art student!” Jared shouted.
Anna smirked and Ballard raised his eyebrows. The men looked on with small, tired smiles.
“Where is she?!” Jared yelled.
The man looked nervously at Bradley before answering. Bradley and Stewart looked concerned. Concerned about Jared’s reaction?
“She…volunteered. She rolled out with Alpha company,” he said to Bradley.
Bradley rubbed his face and shook his head.
“What does that mean?” Anna asked, looking at them. She grabbed Jared’s hand. She had a feeling he might have an outburst.
“Alpha company was ordered south,” Bradley said quietly. “They had some civvies from the stadium volunteer to join up.”
“Why?” Jared asked quietly.
“Nashville fell.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nightfall
“I’m going!” Jared shouted. He picked up the rifle he had laid on the desk nearby. “You owe me some ammo, and I’m going to need every bit of it.”
Bradley held hands up for Jared to slow down. “Please, listen. You can’t leave today. Did you notice that we’re a little short staffed here?”
“Yeah, so?”
“When Alpha company rolled out, with severely depleted numbers I might add —they were more like a platoon-sized element— they took most of our ammo with them.”
“Then I’ll go with what I have!”
“Did you happen to see the fifty cals mounted on the roof?”
“Where are you going with this, Bradley?” He ran a hand roughly over his face.
Anna watched as Jared’s frustration mounted. She was getting a bad feeling and she wished he would hurry and get to the point.
“Those aren’t there for looks, or for straggling civvies that happen to come by. Those are for the Biters.” The men in the room all looked at each other. Stewart checked his watch and tapped it.
Bradley looked at his. “Yes, we’re down to about two hours now before they come out in force.”
“What are you talking about?” Anna said. She balled her hands into fists and clenched them nervously.
“The day after Alpha company left, hundreds—thousands— of those things congregated out there. Every night they’ve been coming back. I don’t know if they know we’re here and that we’re the ones who destroyed so many of their numbers…but they come,” he said.
Stewart spoke up. “We’ve been shutting down all lights and limiting movement at night. Even pulling the men off the roof so they don’t give away our position. We stay as quiet as we can. We don’t know what they’re waiting for or why they leave at dawn.”
“So why haven’t you guys left?!” Jared asked. She looked at the soldiers.
It was a good question.
“We were ordered to hold this place at all costs. This is it. This is the base, the designated fallback position for every team, squad, and platoon out there in this region of the country. We destroyed the city so that we could eliminate as many of those things as possible before we rebuild a new, safer place.”
“Designated by whom?” Jared asked.
“Top brass —some General or another. I’m not entirely sure.”
“So, why can’t you contact them and tell them what’s going on...find a safer place until they come back?” Anna asked him.
Bradley glanced at Stewart before turning to her. “We lost contact a couple of days ago.”
“With whom?” she asked.
“Everyone,” he said helplessly. “We can’t leave. We may be the last men standing here. We are the last point of contact for our guys and for the others brought into this area of the country. This is where they know to come back to.”
“They thought it was safe because we essentially destroyed the city. Somehow, the biters must have either regrouped, or called in more of those things from outlying areas,” Stewart proposed.
“So why don’t you leave them a message and find a safer place?”
He looked at her doubtfully. “Where?”
She didn’t know. She nodded at his point.
“So, the draug are preparing to attack?” Jared asked. “Calling in reinforcements?”
“Seems like it,” Bradley said. "If they were rational humans then I'd say yes, for sure...but these are different."
To her, that was a very scary thought. They were dangerous enough just being crazy sick people, but now there were mutated ones and maybe even some that had the capability to think, to plan. It was too much. She leaned down and breathed deeply. She scrubbed her palms over her eyes fiercely.
“You can leave tomorrow. In fact, I’m going to require you both to leave tomorrow. I strongly, strongly urge you to reconsider going to Nashville. Our last comms from there suggest that they were pulling back and waiting for reinforcements.”
Jared looked helplessly at Anna.
“Nashville has a population of over a million people,” she told him. Surely, he wasn’t still considering going?
“Had,” Stewart said sadly. “Had a populat
ion of over a million people. Last we heard, a good three-quarters of those people were probably either dead or had turned. The place was overrun. All cities probably are.”
Seven-hundred and fifty thousand draugs?!
She couldn’t even comprehend such a large number of those things. How could anyone survive against such a force? And what about cities with even larger populations?
It was devastating. Demoralizing.
She swallowed hard as Jared stared at her. She saw the look on his face, and she started to shake her head. “No. No, you can’t go!” Her pulse pounded in her throat.
“Can you guys give us a minute?” Jared asked them.
Bradley clapped him on the shoulder. “Sure, we’ve got to prep for sundown anyway. We don’t have much time.”
The room cleared, and Jared came to where she sat. He crouched down in front of her chair and she fought to keep the tears from spilling. He took her hands and squeezed them.
“Anna, look at me.”
She blinked rapidly and looked up. She breathed in deeply through her nose, feeling it start to run. She hated crying, and she hated crying in front of other people even more. He moved his arms to her biceps.
“I wanted to wait. This isn’t the time to be talking about us, or anything like that. Not right now, but…I love you. I am in love with you, and I have been probably since the first week I met you and you caught me borrowing all the sporks from the breakroom.”
“Stealing,” she said. She bit her lip and sniffed. She had a feeling this wasn’t going somewhere pleasant.
The corner of his mouth tilted up at her reply.
“I want to be with you, and there are very, very few things that would ever take me away from you right now. One of those is my sister being in danger. I can’t leave her out there. I just can’t do it. I would crawl through hell to get to you if you were out there, and I have to do the same for her.”
She looked down again and nodded. She understood. She understood completely. That didn’t mean she liked it. “I know. I know you have to go.” It killed her to say that when all she wanted to do was lock him in here and keep him from leaving. The tears trailed down her face now, and she couldn’t stop them if she tried.
“Don’t cry, please. I’ll come back. Everything will turn out fine.” She could only nod.
He finally gripped the back of her neck in his hand and pulled her in to his chest. She wrapped her arms around him and seriously considered just not letting go. He held her tightly while she cried.
When she finally got control of herself, she pulled back a little and he captured her face in his hands. He kissed her with everything that he was. His lips were warm and insistent against hers and time stopped. She felt his heart and soul in that kiss, and she gave hers in return. It lit her up, inside and out.
He finally pulled back and she sniffed wetly. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her face and nose.
“No, it’s totally fine. I love to kiss crying, blotchy-faced, snotty-nosed women. Regular kisses are just meh… runny noses just do it for me, you know?” he said earnestly.
She laughed a bit and tried to clean up her face and be a bit more dignified. She didn’t want him to thing she was a complete clinging lunatic. Probably too late for that…
“So, you loved me that first week?” she asked, disgusted with her stuffy nose. She sniffed again.
“Yep. When you caught me loosening the bolt on Robert’s office chair and stood watch instead of outing me, I felt my miserable heart grow three sizes.” He pressed her palm against his heart.
“Really?”
“No,” he said with a smile. “But I really liked you. And I thought you were smoking hot.”
“Pfft,” she waved off his comment.
He grinned. “It’s true. I’ll prove it some time.”
She blushed and leaned her forehead on his shoulder to hide her face. She was no good at flirting. Or compliments apparently.
“I’ll take you home tomorrow and leave the day after. You’ll be safe with Hank and Juan.”
She nodded but said nothing. She sure as hell wasn’t going to sit meekly at home while he went out there alone. She had to think carefully, plan something out, but quickly.
“Sit tight.” He patted her knee. “I’m going to see if they need any help. Here, drink some water.”
“I want to go help too,” she said, but took the water and drank as much as she could. Being an emotional, crying mess was thirsty work.
They found the men in an informal meeting in the hallway. She felt self-conscious about her swollen eyes and blotchy face. She also wasn’t entirely sure that she didn’t have snot on her face. If they heard or saw evidence of her emotional outburst, they didn’t give any indication of it.
“We’ll get your vehicle moved inside the fence for tonight. Then we go into lockdown. No lights, no noise, and limited movement…even in here. They generally stay outside the fence, though occasionally a straggler works its way in. Seems random though, not planned.”
“They just sit out there?” she asked.
“Yep. They just crowd around the fencing. After the first night we stopped keeping watch on the roof. Too risky. They’ve always been gone by daylight.” He shrugged.
She wasn’t quite so cavalier about the situation.
◆◆◆
Night fell quickly after their preparations. There was a buzz of intensity in the men that unnerved her. She didn’t have to see the thousands of milling feral draugs outside to believe it. The truth showed in the men’s demeanor. They were scared, though it wasn’t an explicit fear. They tried to conceal it. Their wide eyes, their pale faces, their sweat…the dread oozed out of them and into the room. It permeated every corner.
“So, you guys rotate watches? Why not just all lock yourselves in a room for the night? Wouldn’t that be safer?” she whispered to Stewart.
He shook his head. “We send out two-man teams to check each entry point. If they get in, and we lock ourselves into a room with no exit, we’re trapped. They don’t have to leave every morning, they choose to.”
“That makes sense.”
“So, it’s just the ten of us here?” Jared wanted to know.
“Yeah, the Commander was ordered to send all units, leaving only a squad for defense. Of course, there weren’t that many here before that. Many didn’t make it out of the stadium. Some never reported, I’m guessing they either turned or deserted. I argued with him about leaving so few behind, but he couldn’t go against his orders. Guess Nashville needs our guys more than we do.”
It was quiet after that, and Jared compelled her to lay down on the sleeping pad he found somewhere. She didn’t think there was any way that she could sleep. He sat next to her and absent-mindedly brushed his fingers along her shoulder and arm. She finally relaxed enough to close her eyes.
◆◆◆
She woke in the dark with a gasp and a hand closed over her mouth. She struggled for a moment.
“Shhh, it’s me.”
Jared.
She sat up trying to figure out what woke her. She had been having a terrible nightmare about her mother. She rubbed her face and yawned.
“Did you hear that?” Jared whispered.
She was suddenly alert. “Hear what?”
“Shhh. Listen.”
A dim red glow lit the space. A head lamp. It moved closer to her and Jared.
“Put these on and be ready,” Stewart whispered to them. He pulled his rifle up to cover the door.
She pulled the light on to her forehead and turned it on before groping for her pistol belt. She raised up on her knees and pulled it on, fastening the strap around her thigh with a muffled click. She flinched at the sound. She found her bat next to the sleeping pad where she left it. It calmed her a little.
She heard Jared making similar noises next to her.
“Where is everyone?” she asked.
“We heard something on the other side of the building, near the drill hall
. Bradley took a couple of men and went to check it out. The others are still doing their roving patrols.”
They knelt a moment longer in the eerie, red-cast room when loud crashes echoed from the building in multiple directions. She jumped and her pulse raced. Her hands trembled as she pulled her pistol and kept it carefully pointed at the floor. Her finger itched to flip off the safety, but she didn’t trust herself not to shoot the first thing that came around the doorway.
The sounds of violent shrieking came from somewhere in the building. She couldn’t tell from which direction. She took a deep breath to try to calm her rapid heart and shaking hands.
A desperate scream worked its way toward them.
“Come on. We need to go now!” Stewart said, his eyes fixed on the doorway.
He didn’t wait for an answer.
Jared pushed her in front of him and watched their backs. She followed Stewart out into the hallway, fully expecting to run into a crowd of maniacs. There was nothing. The agonized screams were trailing off and Stewart turned in that direction. They reached the end of the hall and turned the corner.
Stewart stopped sharply and she ran into his back. “Back! Go back!” he hissed urgently.
Before she turned to follow him back, she caught a glimpse of a red light from the floor ahead. It shone gruesomely on the body it had formerly belonged to. The head lay several feet away. The crazies had lost interest in the decapitated corpse and slouched further into the building.
She followed Stewart back in the other direction. This time they went right, toward the drill hall. Her breathing was harsh, and she tried to control it so that she could hear better. It was hard to miss the enraged yells from behind them. They had to hurry!
She heard a gasp as they turned again. She darted a look over Stewart’s shoulder and saw several figures sprinting toward them. Red lights flashed crazily, and she squinted at the sudden brightness. The man in the lead stumbled and brought his rifle up for a second before recognizing them as friendlies.
“Run!” he said, abandoning any pretense at quiet.
“Where are the others?” Stewart shouted as they followed Bradley back the way they had come.
The Salvation Plague | Book 1 |The Turning Page 24