Alive! Not Dead!

by R. M. Smith

  She hung up the phone. “Wow!”

  “What did they say?” Ski asked.

  Mindy told us about the Air Force base in Moses Lake. She told us about all of the people there, the electricity, the food, and weapons. She said that her friend had invited her to come be with them to strengthen their numbers. She said it was safe.

  “That sounds pretty good,” Marge said, a bit of concern in her voice.

  “How safe is it?” Ski asked.

  “It’s a fricking Air Force base, Ski! They have weapons there!” Mindy said.

  “What happened?” Cindy asked, coming out of the bathroom.

  Mindy told her what had happened.

  “Wow, Jenny is alive too?” she asked. “That must be where all of the people went. I think it would be a great idea to go there.”

  “Yeah I think so too,” Ski said. “How about you, Dan?”

  I nodded slowly. “Sure, but I think we should be cautious. We don’t even know these people.”

  “We know Jenny!” Mindy said. “I went to school with her.”

  “And I dated her” Ski added as Cindy ribbed him with her elbow. “Ouch.”

  “You ok with this, Marge?” I asked her.

  “I don’t know these people either, cowboy, but it sounds like a pretty good plan. At least it sounds safe…” She put a hand to her chin, talking to herself. “I thought the base was closed…”

  “Well then,” I said, “Let’s backtrack after breakfast.”

  THREE STEPS

  Ski insisted on going back to the grocery store to pick up his jeep. He said he needed Roper, so we obliged him. Cindy rode with him while Mindy and I rode with Marge in her pickup. We sat in the front with Marge, Mindy in the middle.

  All of the deads around the grocery store had moved on.

  Mindy kept trying to call Jenny again in Moses Lake, but service was lost.

  For some reason, like Marge, I had misgivings about going to the base. There had been something in the voices of the people on the radio…something I didn’t trust.

  I don’t know why. Think of it as a gut feeling or a sixth sense. There was something askew.

  We made our way back north to Moses Lake. As we came into the outskirts of town Marge said the truck was running low on fuel.

  “We can fill up one tank and I can empty mine,” she said as she pulled next to some gas pumps at an Ernie’s Truck Stop. Ski pulled onto the other side of the island.

  “What’s going on? We’re almost there.” He asked over the engine.

  I said “We need fuel. Marge needs to use the lady’s room.”

  “Ok fine.” He shut off the engine to the jeep. As he hopped out he reached back in to grab his shotgun from between the seats.

  I went to the gas pump, simply out of habit. I tried to turn it on but it didn’t work. “Shit,” I muttered. “How we gonna get fuel?”

  “Hey cowboy,” Marge said from around the corner of the gas station, “this guy might know.”

  I turned. Marge was being followed closely behind by a soldier wearing full combat gear including a full face covering gas mask. He had an automatic rifle at Marge’s back. She had her hands in the air.

  Another soldier also wearing full combat gear and a face mask came out the front door of Ernie’s truck stop. He motioned with his rifle for me to move my ass over by Marge. He also motioned to Ski, Cindy and Mindy to do the same.

  We all went quickly and obediently over by Marge.

  The soldier who came out of Ernie’s pulled a walkie-talkie out of his front leg pocket. “Fee-fees acquired,” he said. “Returning to base.”

  We were loaded into an armored personnel carrier and driven through the broken town to the Air Force base. The base itself looked like it hadn’t been affected by the pole shift at all. The whole base was surrounded by what looked like brand new fencing with barbwire on top. All of the windows of the buildings on the base were intact; none had been broken by the shift. Soldiers, Marines, Navy and Air Force personnel walked here and there. Guards were posted at every door and exit. All personnel wore full combat gear with face masks. Each carried fully automatic weapons.

  We were driven across the tarmac of a huge landing strip. There was a very large plane parked near one of the hangars. We drove into a hangar near the back of the base. When the personnel carrier stopped, we were greeted by more fully armed guards. They escorted us to the back of the building and up some stairs to a well-lit office.

  The door was opened. A sharply dressed officer wearing a gas mask was sitting behind a desk. He nodded to the guards who led us into the room. They left, shutting the door behind them.

  The officer said “Welcome to Larson Air Force base, ladies and gentleman. Welcome to safety. I am First Lieutenant Lee Washburn. I am sure all of you have many questions. I assure you: all of your questions will be answered in time. You are at a secure base. We are working to make it a secure town. You were brought here for your own safety. Your vehicles are being towed here at this time and will be returned to you…”

  Marge interrupted. “Excuse me there, mister, but I gotta piss something horrible.”

  Washburn looked at her for a very long time without saying a word. He had slicked back jet black hair and a short moustache at the edge of his top lip. “Ma’am, we will get to that after your indoctrination.”

  “Um no,” she said. “Now. Or I will piss myself and get your shiny new floor all wet.”

  Washburn shuffled some papers on his desk. He thumbed the intercom on. “Get someone in here right now.”

  The door slammed open. A Navy military policeman stepped in. “Yes sir?

  “Airman, get this woman to the head ASAP.”

  “Roger that!”

  The MP escorted Marge out.

  Washburn looked at the rest of us. “We will continue when the lady gets back.”

  Mindy asked, “Did you guys get the cell phone towers working again?”

  “I don’t like to double-speak,” Washburn said calmly, methodically. “We will wait until the lady gets back from the head. Then we will continue. For the time being, relax and enjoy your safety.”

  I asked “Why are you wearing a gas mask?”

  “Again, I do not wish to double-speak.”

  Ski snapped at him. “Well we wanna know what the hell’s going on here!”

  Washburn stood up. He was a very tall man. He said very slowly “You are safe here. Enjoy it. We will discuss the situation in full when your lady friend gets back.” He sat back down. “Now then, why don’t you all tell me your names? This is something we won’t need to go over again when the lady returns.”

  “I’m Mike Markowski,” Ski said. He pointed at Cindy. “That is Cindy Thompson. Her sister is Mindy Thompson. No, they are not twins, just sisters.” He pointed at me. “That’s Dan Kingsley. The older woman is named Marge…what was her last name?” he asked me.

  I shrugged. I didn’t think she told us her last name.

  “Well you can ask her when she gets back,” Ski said. “That way we won’t have to go over that twice, either.”

  Washburn jotted all of our names down. He asked, “And what are your ages?”

  Ski said “I’m 27. Cindy is 29. Mindy is 23.”

  I said “I’m 25.”

  Washburn asked “And your birthdates?”

  Ski said a little louder this time “Jesus man, what is this, some kind of tax form?”

  Washburn set the pen he was using down on his desk. He folded his hands in front of him. “Mr. Markowski, I don’t know if you realize this or not, but you are on a military base. We do things by the book here. Maybe you don’t appreciate all of these questions, but in time you will. All I ask is your cooperation.”

  “Call me Ski and we’ll get along just fine,” Ski said.

  Just then, Marge came back in, again escorted by the same MP. She said to Washburn “My, you’ve done a nice job cleaning up this place. I thought this base was privately owned.”

 
“It’s been acquired by the military.”

  “You’ve been pretty secret-like. Last time I read the news this place was being renovated for a civilian airport. Sure doesn’t look civilian to me.”

  Washburn again looked at her. “What’s your last name Ma’am?”

  “I just go by Marge.”

  “You have a last name, Ma’am. We need it for our records as well as your age and date of birth. These other people have already given their information.”

  “Not our birth dates,” Ski said.

  Washburn gave Ski a look of contempt, then back to Marge. “Your last name, please?”

  “I’m 62,” she said. “I was born on February 19, 1958 right here in Moses Lake. My daddy worked on this base until the government thought it wise to shut it down.”

  Washburn added “And your last name?”

  “It’s Simpson.”

  “Very good.” Washburn jotted it down. “And the rest of you. What are your birthdates please?”

  We told him.

  By the time he had finished writing down the information; two guards came in. They stood on either end of our group. Washburn looked up after writing it down. He nodded to the guards who led us back outside, down the stairs, and back into the personnel carrier.

  We had no idea what was going on. Washburn didn’t answer any of our questions. None of us spoke as the personnel carrier drove us back across the tarmac of the landing strip. We drove into a parking lot of another large building.

  We were escorted into the building and into an elevator which took us a long way underground. The guards led us down long hallways with highly polished waxed floors to an empty clean dull gray painted room with bright overhead lights. There were no chairs. Only one small table was in the room. Nothing was on it. Standing in the center of the room there was another soldier in a gas mask. The guards told us to line up in front of the other officer.

  He said “I am Master Sergeant Fields. This is Indoctrination. There are three steps to Indoctrination. After this, there will be three steps to Inoculation. Then there will be three steps to Induction.”

  I asked “What are we going to be inoculated for?”

  He ignored my question. He was a muscular black man. He stood with his arms behind his back, his legs spread.

  He continued “Indoctrination step one. Take off your clothes.”

  “Like hell,” Ski started.

  One of the guards walked up behind Ski. He put his weapon on the back of Ski’s head.

  We all were shocked.

  “Hey what the hell?” I said.

  Cindy and Mindy were speechless.

  “This can be difficult or very easy” Fields said calmly with a raised eyebrow. He had yellow teeth. “Step one is the hardest. Step two can be more difficult. Step three…we don’t want to go there today. So, take off your clothes. Now.”

  Marge said “I will not.”

  Fields walked up to her, stared deeply into her eyes. In a flash he backhanded her across the face. She stumbled backward but didn’t fall. He yelled at her “Step two: TAKE OFF YOUR FUCKING CLOTHES FEEFEE!”

  I started taking off my shirt.

  “What the hell is this shit?” Ski hollered. The guard with the weapon pushed the muzzle harder into the back of Ski’s skull. “We’re innocent people here! What the fuck!”

  Fields yelled in his face. ‘TAKE OFF YOUR FUCKING CLOTHES NOW FEEFEE!”

  Marge was whimpering as she took off her clothes. She stood there with her bra and panties on. We all were undressed. The floor was cold on our bare feet.

  “ALL THE WAY OFF!” Fields screamed at us. ‘WE DON’T WANT SKIVVIES EITHER, FEEFEES!”

  “Oh Christ,” Ski muttered as he took off his underwear.

  We were all stripped completely nude in front of him. Fields looked us all up and down. He stood looking at Mindy for a long time.

  He whistled. “Jesus, you’re fucking hot.” He walked around behind us, looking us over. Again he stopped, looking longer at Mindy. “You got one fine ass, girl.”

  Mindy was ashamed. She had her face in her hands.

  He motioned to the guards. They stood on either end of the group, their weapons trained on us.

  Fields said “Let’s move to Inoculation now.”

  Nude, we were led down the highly polished hallway. We didn’t pass any or see any other people. Our clothing was left in the bright gray dull room. Another soldier came in and folded our clothes. He set them in neat piles on the single table.

  At the end of the hallway, we went through another door. This was a bright white room. There was another smaller locked door on the other side of the room. There were a few hospital gurneys and a steel operating table with a bright light illuminated over it. In the center of the room there was a table with syringes, test tubes and several different sizes of empty specimen cups on it. Another soldier was in this room. He was wearing a face mask, too as well as green rubber gloves.

  Fields said “This is Doctor Webb. He will take a blood and urine specimen from each of you.”

  Cindy asked “Where is the bathroom?”

  Fields stepped to Cindy. He grabbed her right nipple. He squeezed it hard. She let out a scream that echoed in the room.

  He said “We piss here, Feefee. We get needles here.”

  Ski was pissed. I could see it in his face. He didn’t like anyone touching his girl.

  We all were pissed. This was wrong. This was inhumane. What the hell was this all about? American citizens should never be treated this way, especially by their own military.

  The doctor picked up one of the specimen cups. He held it in front of my penis.

  This was so humiliating. I didn’t need to pee. There was no way that I would be able to pee with people watching me.

  “This is step one of Inoculation,” Fields said as he looked down at my penis. “Do we need to get to step two, feefee?”

  “What the fuck is a feefee?” Ski asked.

  As he looked at my wilted penis, Fields said “You are. All of you are.”

  I closed my eyes, embarrassed, ashamed to be humiliated in front of – and along with – all of these people. I strained to go pee, but couldn’t. I tied to take my mind off of the doctor kneeling in front of me, a cup held at the tip of my cock.

  Try to think of something else, I told myself. Anything. Feefee. What the hell does that mean? Feefee…I’ve seen it before. The word…Feefee. Where?

  I was able to go. I let it go, filling the cup completely. Doctor Webb pulled the cup away as soon as it was full. I still had pee left in me. I held it, but I didn’t know how long I would be able to.

  Mindy was next to me.

  Fields smiled at her. “Your next, sweet cakes.”

  “I can’t go” she whispered.

  “Sure you can. Just hunker down and piss like you would in the grass.”

  She hunkered down. Doctor Webb hunkered down with her. He held a larger specimen cup between her legs. Mindy started to cry in embarrassment.

  Fields yelled ‘PISS IT OUT, FEEFEE!”

  “God damn it, I am trying!” Mindy yelled back.

  Fields thumped her on the back of the head with his fist. Her head went forward. Losing her balance, she fell backward onto her butt on the cold floor. Fields laughed at her. “Get the fuck up, hottie,” he said.

  Mindy rolled into a fetal position. She started weeping loudly.

  Fields walked around her. He kicked her hard in the back of the ribs. She screamed.

  Ski had enough. He lunged after Fields. Fields knew this was going to happen. He was prepared. He had seen this many times. He caught Ski off-guard. He grabbed Ski by the arm, swung him around, and threw him hard down onto his ass.

  “We already ready for step two?” he hollered at Ski. “It gets rough fast. You either get up, piss in this tube, or I will make you piss in pain!”

  Crying, Mindy got back in line. She hunkered down trying to pee. She was sniffling but was able to fill the cup. Some u
rine got on the doctor’s gloves. He wiped it off on her shoulder.

  Ski filled his specimen cup with no troubles. He stared Fields right in the eye as he urinated into the cup.

  Cindy was next.

  “Ok darling, your turn,” Fields said.

  Cindy shook her head.

  “Piss it out, love. I don’t got all fucking day!”

  Cindy said quietly “I’m on my period.”

  “I don’t give a fuck. Piss in the cup!!”

  Embarrassed, Cindy hunkered down. She held the string attached to her tampon out of the way so it wouldn’t interfere with her urine stream. A drop of blood splattered on the floor between her feet. Doctor Webb quickly caught her specimen in his cup.

  Fields said. “You’re dirtying up my deck with your blood.”

  With a sigh of disgust, Cindy stood up quickly. She gave Fields a hateful look. A trickle of blood had run down her leg.

  “That wasn’t so bad,” Fields said. “Smells like shit, but at least it’s over, right baby?”

  “Leave her alone,” Ski said. “She’s humiliated enough, you don’t need to add to it.”

  Fields laughed. He walked over to Marge. “Ok little lady. You’re up.”

  Marge said “I just went upstairs. You should have told me you were gonna do this to us.”

  “Well you gotta piss again, sweet heart.”

  “I won’t be able to pee for a couple hours. It’s how my body works. It’s how it’s always worked.”

  Fields said “Hunker down.”

  She looked at him straight in the face. “I. Can. Not. Go.”

  “Hunker the fuck down, feefee, or I will make you hunker down! Let’s get some piss out of those saggy tits!”

  Matter-of-factly Marge said “Then make me hunker down, asshole.”

  The doctor was already hunkered down in front of her. Fields took the butt of his rifle and slammed it down on Marge’s right foot. She fell forward in pain, leaning on the doctor. Her bladder let loose. Urine spilled out of her. The doctor cursed but caught enough for a specimen.

  He nodded to Fields acknowledging that the urine test was done.

  “There,” Fields said. “That wasn’t so bad. We didn’t even get to step three. I’ve had a lot of step threes lately.”