“So I guess we’re headed to the hospital then?” said Jason.
“Looks like it.”
We pulled up behind the hardware store where we left the car and walked between parked cars and building to the back of the Aquatic Center. From here I could see several figures on the roof of the hospital. Looks like we were right, they chose the hospital for their camp. From here the guys could keep an eye on me but stay out of sight until I signaled. “Alright,” I said looking at them, “Here goes nothing.”
“Hey, James,” said Justin.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t get killed.”
“I’ll try not to,” I grinned.
“No, seriously. I don’t want to have to deal with Sarah.”
“Alright. Watch for the signal and if things work out make sure to follow my lead.” I walked out to the middle of the street. I raised my hands over my head and waved them slowly. I wanted to make sure that the people on the roof could tell that I wasn’t a Walker. I didn’t want to die waving my hands over my head like an idiot. They didn’t shoot me but I was met by two heavily armed men. I looked at them closely. They were probably four or five inches taller than me and were heavily muscled. They had either spent a lot of time in the gym or they had spent some time in boot camp. I figured them for military based on the way they stood and acted. While their main focus was on me their eyes never stopped scanning the area behind and around me. They were looking for an ambush or a trap. “Hey guys.” They didn’t speak. “Seriously? You’ve just met a survivor in the zombie apocalypse and you’re not even going to say hello?” Silence. I tried to keep walking to the Hospital but they wouldn’t let me. “Ok guys what the deal?”
“They’re determining your threat level and waiting for my orders,” I heard from behind the two mountains.
“Your orders?” I questioned the faceless voice.
“Yes, my orders. I’m in charge of this convoy. Names Cole Shepard,” said the man coming out from behind the two guards and offering me his hand. He looked to be an even six feet tall, blue eyes and black hair with some gray at his temples. He was probably thirty-two or thirty-three and was still in good shape. He was wearing no insignia or military markings on his black uniform but the way he carried himself made me think military.
I shook his hand, “James Ryan.”
“Good to meet you, James.”
“Good to meet you too. Welcome to Astoria.”
“This your town James?”
“Can’t say it is Mr. Shepard. I’m from over in Washington.”
“Is that so? Where about? And please call me Cole.”
“Well sir, I mean Cole, I’m originally from Vancouver but I met up with a bunch of survivors and we’re all grouped over in Megler, right across the bridge. We loot the small towns around us and happened to hear you guys roll into town.”
“So you’re not alone then.”
“Going out by yourself is a good way to get killed,” I told him seriously.
“That it is.”
“Excuse me for asking sir but you’re military aren’t you?”
“I told you, call me Cole. And yes, some of us are. How could you tell?”
“Well your guards here never stop looking at the surrounding area. If I had to guys I would say army. They probably spent a little time in Afghanistan and saw some action. It’s in the eyes. I had friends who were over there and their eyes were harder than before. Then there’s you.”
“What about me?”
“Well after shaking my hand you automatically fell into a parade stance. Far too formal for a civilian but just right for someone in the military. I would guess you’re used to issuing commands. When we first met you told me that these two were waiting for your orders. You didn’t lord it over me or try to assume dominance, you simply stated it as a fact.”
He let out a small sigh, “Well, you are good at reading people aren’t you?”
“Have to be. The best way to survive these days is to notice your surroundings.”
“Very true. But let me tell you something James, I’m good at reading people too.”
“I believe that sir,” I nodded.
He squinted a little at me before saying, “You’re the right age for a student, I’m guessing twenty-one or two. That would make you a junior? Yes, a junior. The way you broke things down, I would say you were a psych major. Also, you’re not alone out here. You came by yourself and I’m guessing that you have people watching and waiting to see if we’re friendly. Am I right?”
I smiled, “Mostly. I was a History major, not Psychology. And yes, I do have others with me.”
“Well, bring them out. We won’t bite.”
I gave the signal and we waited for them to join us. While we waited I asked, “What rank were you in the army sir?”
“What? Can’t figure that one out?”
“Well, if I had to guess I would say Sergeant First Class maybe.”
“God damn boy, how did you figure that one out?”
I smiled, “You’re about what, thirty-one? That’s about the right age for Sergeant. You’re still in shape so you’re an enlisted man and the rank just seems right.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, anything lower and you would have the experience to coordinate a convoy like this. Anything higher and I don’t think you’d have the connection with your men that you would need for them to follow you. Anything other than Sergeant and you wouldn’t be able to lead your men, at least not effectively.”
“Damn, you are good. Sure you’re not a psych major?”
“I’m sure, I never did like psych.” By now the rest of the guys met up with me and I introduced them, “Guys, this is Sergeant Cole Shepard. Sergeant, these are my friends. Thomas, Jason, Matt and Justin.”
Cole shook each of their hands in turn and said, “Good to meet you guys. You can call me Cole. James here tells me you’re all part of some big group of survivors.”
“Yep,” said Justin, “We’re bunked up in a school that we fortified. We’re just out looking for supplies.”
“How many people you got there?”
“What you guys think?” said Matt, “Maybe around sixty or so. People are pretty much free to go during the day but we check for bites if they want to come back in.”
“I see.”
“What about you Cole, how many people you got in the hospital?”
“Well let’s see now. We lost two of our scouts and Robinson to that Z he didn’t fully put down, so counting me, we have forty-one men.”
“Do your scouts use motorcycles?” asked Thomas.
“Yes, they do. How did you know that?”
“Well, we set up roadblocks all over the area to keep the Walkers from moving around too much. We were heading back from a scouting mission when we found a guy who had hit the roadblock. It was already dark and I guess he didn’t see it. We tried to save him but he was pretty much done for. He must have hit it going pretty fast,” I explained.
“Ah, I see. Well, thank you for trying to save him.”
“So you’re not all military then?” I asked.
“No,” Cole’s face darkened, “Unfortunately circumstances have forced us to align ourselves with less than reputable individuals.”
“You mean gang members, more specifically the eighteenth street gang.”
“How did you…”
“The tattoos on your scout and the fact that he was Mexican were a dead giveaway.”
“Of course. Well, you’re correct. We were based at Ft. Irwin down in California and once things went to hell we got the fuck out of there. We picked up a couple members when we passed through L.A. and we’ve been stuck with them since. They’re more trouble than they’re worth.”
“How many gang members?”
“Nineteen now, I think. We keep them together, have them on guard together. They don’t really like to follow orders but they stay in line. They’re no soldiers but they can pull a trigger.”
> “That can be useful,” I said thinking, “So have you cleared out the hospital?”
“Oh yes. It was the first thing we did after establishing a perimeter.”
“You wouldn’t be willing to share a little medical supplies, would you? You can never have too many bandages or antibiotics.”
“No, not a problem. Come on, you can come in and pick out what you like, there’s plenty to go around.”
We walked with Cole and his two silent guards into the Hospital, passing a large gas tanker and a container truck flanked by two guards on our way in. “You guys just been emptying stations on your way?” I asked pointing at the tanker.
“Yes, it’s convenient to have your own fuel with you wherever you go.”
“And what’s that other semi for, the one with the storage unit?”
It wasn’t Cole who answered me but one of the guards, “That’s where we keep all of our special supplies,” he grinned.
I was about to ask what he meant by special when Cole changed the topic, “Anyways, we’ve cleared out every room so we can house all the men. We set up the Mess in the cafeteria but haven’t had a chance to go through the medical supplies and move it to one location.”
“Well, I think most of what we could use would be in the Pharmacy. We’re pretty well supplied with gauze and the like but we could use any antibiotics and other meds.”
“Of course, let’s get to it.”
We reached the Pharmacy and I climbed over the counter. I looked through the shelves of containers and bottles. Reading each label and, determining whether it was usable, I added bottles of antibiotics, pain killers, nitroglycerin tabs and EpiPens to a garbage bag.
“How do you know which to take and which are useless?” asked one of the guards.
“My dad was a doctor,” I said reading another label, “I used to read some of his textbooks when I trained to be an EMT. That and the training itself helped me learn which drugs are useful in an emergency.” I turned to look at the Sergeant, “We’ve got all we can take right now, our vehicle is rather small and we’ve already stocked up on other supplies. Would it be alright if we sent another team to look through the some of the E.R. supplies?”
“That would be fine. I’ll have several bags made up for you so you don’t have to spend so much time looking around. It…” Cole didn’t have a chance to finish as there was yelling in the hall.
“Excuse me,” he said before heading towards the yells. We followed him and saw two men fighting in the hallway. One was obviously a gang member, the other looked like military. I don’t know what they were fighting about but as soon as the Sergeant appeared the military looking guy stopped fighting and looked to the Sergeant. The gang member, on the other hand, had no intention of stopping, he pulled out a knife and headed towards the guy he’d been fighting. I was about to call out but the Sergeant beat me to it. Faster than I would have thought he had his sidearm out and leveled at the gangbanger’s head. “Drop the knife,” he said coolly.
The knife man looked between the raised gun and the guy he was fighting. I don’t know what he was thinking, maybe that he could kill the guy before dying himself, but finally, he put away the knife. Still pointing his pistol at the man the Sergeant motioned for one of his guards. The guard walked over and seized the guy. As they pair walked away I asked, “Where are you taking him?”
“We’re using the locker rooms as a sort of holding cell.”
“So you already had a need for them?”
“Well, there have been… scuffles between my men and some of the gang members. It’s best to keep them away from everyone else until they cool off.”
“I guess we’re lucky he was only armed with a knife.”
“I don’t allow guns to be carried inside the compound, especially not by the gang members. If you’re on guard then you get a weapon from the armory. I’m currently the only one with a weapon inside the hospital, I shouldn’t have let you enter without having you give up yours,” he said looking at our numerous weapons.
“Sorry, but we wouldn’t have come in if we were required to give up the guns. I sleep with these babies,” I said patting my pistols.
“Must be an uncomfortable sleep,” he said smiling.
“Well it’s kept me alive,” I said returning his smile.
“Yes, it has.”
“Well Sergeant, we better get back to our base. Will you be staying long?”
“Don’t really know yet. We want to resupply if you don’t mind sharing the resources.”
“Not if you don’t mind sharing the medical supplies.”
“Not at all.”
“Well, the Safeway has already been cleared out. There’s a Fred Meyer in Warrenton that we haven’t hit yet. We haven’t wanted to commit the manpower to clearing it. Might be a good place to try.”
“I’ll take that into consideration.”
“Thank you, Sergeant,” I said shaking his hand.
“Not a problem.”
“We’ll send a team to pick up the rest of the supplies.”
“We’ll be waiting.”
We were escorted to the door by the remaining guard and once we were out of earshot Matt said, “Well, that went well.”
“Yeah they seemed like good guys,” agreed Justin.
“No, I don’t think so,” I said shaking my head.
“What? What was wrong?”
“That was a show. Cole is interested in keeping himself and his people alive at any cost.”
“So are we,” said Jason.
“No, we’re not the same. I don’t trust him and what was all that about the special supplies? I got a bad feeling when that guy talked about it. Did you see the looks they shared? And what about the guards around the container truck? Something’s wrong.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Matt.
“You didn’t notice how Cole changed the subject after that guard let something slip?”
“Well yeah but…”
“But nothing. I want to limit contact with them and get them out of here as soon as possible.”
“I think you might be overreacting,” said Justin.
“I don’t think so, but we’ll see.”
We got back to our car and headed to the Megler Bridge but we didn’t cross. “We can’t afford to spend another two hours getting back. We’re going a different way. It’ll take us through neighborhoods filled with Walkers but it’ll keep us away from the hospital and get us back to the house faster.”
It took is around forty-five minutes to make it back to the house. We went slowly to keep our engine noise at a minimum. Hopefully, they didn’t hear us but if they did they would assume we were just doing more scouting. Back at the house, I relayed the story of the Sergeant and the details of the compound. “They don’t sound that bad,” said Christina.
“I don’t know, I don’t trust them.”
“Why not?” asked Sarah.
“Just call it a gut feeling. Did you notice how there were no women or children?” I asked the guys.
“Yeah but just because we didn’t see any doesn’t mean…”
“He said that he had forty-one men, not people, men.”
“Ok, so what?” said Jason.
“It’s just odd.”
“We need the supplies they can give us,” said Matt.
“Yeah I know. That reminds me, who wants to go and get it?”
“I will,” said Sarah.
“Sarah, no.”
“It’ll be fine. I promise.”
I let out a long breath and relented, “Fine, But you’re taking at least two others.”
“Ok.”
“I’ll go,” said Christina.
“Then I’m going with you,” said Thomas.
“Ok, anyone else? No. Ok you three, don’t go the long way, use the same route we took to get back. Get the supplies and get back here. Don’t hang around. I told you, I don’t trust them.”
“We’ll be fine,” Sarah said.
“I hope so. You three better get moving, I want you back as soon as possible.” They loaded up in the same car we took last time and I said bye to Sarah, “Watch after yourself. I told you, I have a bad feeling about Cole. He’s not what he appears to be, so be careful.”
“I told you, I’ll be fine. I can handle myself,” she said grinning.
Survivors Series (Book 1): Heroes Aren't Born Page 24