“The good news is that I’m not going to let you lose your soul,” she exclaimed.
“I haven’t lost my soul Sophie and I don’t need a big sister, I already have a big brother to look after me.”
“Not around here you don’t.”
Sophie caught his eye. He smiled at her and walked away.
“I’ll see you around, stay safe.” He said.
Chapter 9
The map of the town they had was up to date, he knew that for sure. One of the students in Peter’s social class had done a survey of the local area to show how New Haven had grown from pre-Yale day. They also had a model of Yale. The girl that gave it to him begged him not to damage Yale itself. She was obsessed, and horrified about the possible war.
“Do you think they’re ready?” Lee asked Peter looking out of the Headmaster’s window.
The council had take taken over the Headmaster’s office in the school and was their new H.Q. And Peter himself had taken the headmaster’s quarters for himself. Peter thought of the irony and about the last time he was in here. He smiled at the thought. Where were all the people that tried to destroy him? Dead!
Peter stood up and looked outside. The soldiers were standing in nice lines doing exercises. Standing, then dropping to the ground and back up again with their rifles high in the air. He remembered his time as a plebe at West Point, especially R-day, fun times. Not to mention the fun of the first two months, he saw dozens drop out, but he made it, Beast Barracks were no match for him. The ruck marches were fun. He wondered how much I’d be able to get these guys to do. He couldn’t afford any drop-outs.
They didn’t want to waste ammunition, so they procured paintball guns at a local big box store. People were holed up there. That was a diplomatic victory, mostly for Sophie, Peter and Lee were content with just shooting the place up. But Sophie convinced them just to give us the paintball guns and pellets.
They practiced with that. Fewer casualties.
“Well, well, well. We’ve actually managed to make a working army,” Lee said looking at the kids.
“With my Japanese training and your American training we might have the best soldiers in the world,” Lee said.
“Yeah, your amazing Japanese training hey?” Peter poked.
“They’re just kids though. We need to get real people, real men! Anyone with a gun can kill, we need men that are willing to kill,” Olivia said sitting at a large round table to the left in his Office.
Rachel was outside on the balcony. He had wanted to talk to her, but hadn’t the chance lately.
“Come on!” Peter said to Lee and walked out to the balcony that overlooked the back field.
Peter saw Olivia look up at him, she was going over some paper work at the Headmaster’s desk, still working out where some people should go and serve.
“Hey!” Peter said to Rachel as he walked outside, he patted her back.
She smiled at him.
The wind was blowing gently. It wasn’t as cold as it had been lately.
“Hi.”
“I heard you were kind of grumpy with me?”
She shrugged.
“I’m just kind of bothered that Olivia totally twisted things around and made the war with Yale about something else.”
“She hasn’t!” Lee said sharply defending his girlfriend.
Rachel put her arm up on his shoulder and leaned on him looking at Lee. She was like that. Outgoing and didn’t mind human contact.
“I haven’t seen you around lately,” Peter told her.
“Busy with my new boyfriend, end of the world and all,” she said.
Her long auburn hair flowed freely. She had strong steely gray eyes, almost a weird blue, they really stuck out. She wore a long dark overcoat with fur trimming. She was dressed better than Sophie was, she had always tried to emulate Sophie’s style. She looked over the side down at the army training.
“Not if I can help it, as you can plainly see.”
“Indeed. So you two are cool with what she’s been saying?” she asked them.
“And who’s to say that Yale wouldn’t eventually attack us?” Lee questioned.
“We are hidden pretty well. And to be quite honest from what I’ve heard Yale really isn’t up to attacking anyone.”
“The bugs found us. It’s not like our existence was a secret, we are a breeding ground for future Yalers. They know about us,” Lee countered.
“Maybe, but they’re probably peaceful.”
“Peaceful? Did you not here about that girl we found? What about when they start running out of supplies and food? And when they acquire guns?”
“What happened to that girl was horrendous, but it was an isolated incident. And maybe, just maybe, some people deserve what’s coming. But Olivia’s making them sound like Al Queda.”
Peter had tried ignoring most of the rumors that Olivia was sending around the school, mainly because he wanted to attack Yale and that was all that was to it.
“She’s telling some people that they’re planning to eat us.”
Peter laughed.
“Maybe they are, I’m tired of listening to this,” Lee said and walked inside.
“Rachel…”
“Peter…” she said sarcastically.
“It’s just her thing.”
“It’s just a game to her…”
“I’m stopping you right there. Rachel, we’re at war. It’s occasionally hard to define the enemy is all. It’s Olivia’s job to get the people worked up. I need… we all need wanting and willing soldiers, okay?”
She lost her smile and then searched for it and showed it to him. She was very innocent looking. He wonder if Maddie would be alive, if he and Rachel started dating, or would Rachel be the one dead?
“Okay. You win for now Peter. I just wanted to tell you that Jack’s ready for whatever you want. We’ve set up a make-shift hospital. By the way, one, Jack doesn’t want you to hit the Yale medical facilities too hard and second, how many of our kids are you willing to risk?”
“Is it just about numbers to you? Good lord woman,” he asked mocking her.
She shook her head. “Ooh, don’t give me that crap Peter.”
“I have around a hundred soldiers and I can’t afford to lose any of them. Hopefully we’ll have more trained for the Yale mission, we’ll see. But the school is full of geeks you know, I don’t have a lot to choose from. But we do have a lot of cool gadgets that the geeks are making.”
They both laughed.
“Maddie was lucky to have you. It’s all so senseless and sad.”
Lee came out with Olivia in tow.
He thought Rachel and Olivia were friends, but they kind of gave each other dirty looks.
“It was inevitable anyhow,” Olivia said. “If we didn’t attack them they’d attack us. Survival of the fittest. Didn’t you read the paper I put out?” Olivia asked.
Rachel smacked Peter’s butt and walked inside, “Not interested. Save your sound bites for someone else,” Rachel said and disappeared.
He sighed, but couldn’t help smiling. “I hate doing things that people question.”
“Well get use to it, this isn’t some sad sack democratic, save the whales crap here. Don’t be a wimp, that’s what being a leader is about, hard times, hard decisions,” Olivia said and the three of them looked down at the soldier’s training, “Has it ever crossed your mind that invading Yale may be the easiest thing that you’ll do for the rest of your life?”
Peter turned and looked at Olivia, their eyes meeting as Lee was looking down.
“Why? Like what?”
“Say we do this right and we do take Yale, then the town. Say we block the creatures somehow or the sun comes out. They’re not just going to go back in the ground. We’re going to have to keep fighting. The country has no leadership. Our reputation will grow. We’ll be in demand. We’ll be fighting for a long time.”
“Well I’ll just play it by ear for now,” he laughed and looked at her
, but Olivia looked deadly serious.
“Someone’s gotta plan for the future,” Olivia said.
Chapter 10
The rain was coming down hard and it was melting the left over snow. Peter knew they didn’t have a lot of time. Soon the Night Crawlers would get their heads up and resume their advance on them.
He told Lee to prepare the troops. And at ten o’clock Friday night they moved out towards Yale. He was hoping to use this time of night in case of a protracted battle. Hopefully they’d start getting tired, and their defenses, if they had any, would hopefully break down as the hours dragged. They moved through the town farther than anyone had previously. They were in an area long abandoned. There were the occasional body lying around. He wondered who killed them, Peter was vaguely aware that the Night Crawlers took the bodies with them.
“Maybe not as many people got killed?” Lee wondered.
“No, they bring them down to their hole. Maddie thinks… thought they ate us,” Peter said.
“Yeah they probably do,” Olivia agreed.
Tonight they’d managed to get more than the original estimation of a hundred soldiers. People were far more gung-ho about the war than even Peter had believed. Olivia had done a good job selling the war. They managed to get about two hundred soldiers. Soldiers, not kids. They did have a few arming problems though and ran out of guns. But they managed to get other weapons.
They soon came upon Yale. The school was just as prestigious and gorgeous as he had heard. They surrounded the school, Peter was planning on using the same attack pattern that the army had employed on Iraq during the last war there. He broke the army into ten twenty man divisions. They all had their orders.
Olivia sent Evelyn back two days ago with the times that they needed Yale to be off guard. Hopefully she wouldn’t have a change of mind. Olivia hadn’t told Sophie or Rachel about sending her back, she felt they’d have complained that they didn’t give Yale an adequate opportunity to surrender. But the three of them wanted a weak enemy to give the soldiers confidence and they figured the school should be soft enough.
They entered the Yale compound with no troubles. There was a suspicious lack of guards. Maybe no one thought they were needed with the horrible weather. The Harkness stuck out like a Gothic tower from a Lord Byron poem.
All the unit CO’s had Walkie-Talkies, twenty in all. Sophie was with Peter and Lee keeping track of positions. Initially she didn’t want to come, but Peter told her that he needed someone there to keep him honest. Weird, you wouldn’t of thought of that dynamic a couple months ago.
Sometimes he remember her in her room on the yacht. Her bare skin.
He pushed all the stupid thoughts out of his head as they entered the main Hall. Despite it being dark, it was still gorgeous. Everything here was gorgeous. He had only been here once, but Peter had been struck by its beauty.
Evelyn walked out from a hall. She waved at him. “Hi,” she whispered. She had a few people behind her.
“What’s going on? Is everything good?”
“Yeah, these are my friends. I just didn’t want them hurt. But I hate to disappoint you, there isn’t going to be much resistance,” she said.
“Why?” He asked.
He bet Sophie was relieved to hear that.
“They’re just not interested. They have basically no defense. They’d probably welcome you.”
“We’ll see. Did you find your man?”
“No, I’ve steered clear of him. I plan to find him when you invade. There’s a giant party in the Dorm. They’ve all set-up in a single dorm, just like you.”
“Well, let’s go,” Peter said.
***
They moved out. There were a few reports of sporadic gun fire. Mostly inexperienced leaders in the divisions, shooting couples out having sex, or smoking pot outside.
Peter moved everyone in to surround the Dorms. Lee and Olivia caught back up with him.
“I didn’t think this was going to be so easy,” Olivia said.
“Some people’s wills to fight are weak,” Lee said.
“I think they just want to party,” Peter said.
The group walked into the Dorm and fired into the air. He walked up a couple flight of stairs. This dorm had an open hallway looking down at a shared common room.
“Excuse me!” Lee yelled.
Lee fired a few more times into the air. Everybody looked up at him. They were dressed in shorts and shirts for the guys and bikinis for the girls.
“What the hell is going on here?” Lee asked.
“It’s Bermuda shorts day!” someone yelled. The crowd cheered.
Peter looked at Lee, Sophie and Olivia.
Lee fired into the air again to quiet the crowd.
“We’ve come to liberate you!” Olivia yelled.
“Take your shirt off!” someone yelled.
She cracked a smile, embarrassed. “Sorry, but no. This is Commander Peter Nelson, the leader of the New Haven Spartans. We are the city’s new army. You all are under the complete control of the army!”
The crowd cheered. Rising beers and joints to liberators.
“I’m going,” Peter said. “I don’t care about this crap. I want the doctor.”
Evelyn walked past him with a scruffy looking man who looked scared. She threw him into a room.
“Peter…” Sophie started.
He shook his head at her. “She deserves her revenge,” he said and continued walking.
A shot rang out as he left the dorm.
Peter realized that it would still take a while to secure this place. He was lucky. They didn’t even put up a fight.
Chapter 11
The group headed towards the hospital, which was actually secured pretty well. There were three guards.
“Can I help you?” one asked through a hole in the glass.
“We’re looking for a doctor,” Peter replied.
“What’s with all the guns and weapons?” another guard asked, his hand on his holster.
“I’m willing to bet the glass is bullet proof, hey?”
The first guard nodded.
“Wendham!” Peter yelled.
Wendham came over with a small package. He stuck it to the glass. The guard’s eyes went wide.
“Shit!” One yelled and ran, the other two joined him.
They shielded ourselves as the glass blew. Peter lead the group as he stepped through the mess into the hospital.
Soon a busy looking nurse station came into view. He started wondering if this was right. Yale went down without a fight. Barely any causalities and here he was ready to kill in cold blood.
All eyes turned to them. He leaned against the counter in the station.
“Excuse me ma’am,” Peter said to a wide eyed young nurse. She looked like she’d be pretty, but he was willing to bet the last couple weeks had added years to her face. No doubt they were short staffed and over worked. “I’m looking for a doctor…” his brother told him his name. Just in case they managed to make it to Yale somehow, “Dr. Jonathon Hailey.”
She looked them over.
“He’s sleeping right now,” she said softly.
“Well can you go wake him up please?” Olivia asked.
One of the security guards steeped in front of Lee.
“Sir, maybe you can come back later?” he said, his two buddies looking on.
Lee grabbed him by the man by the throat and started squeezing. The guard’s mates reached for their guns, but that’s as far as they moved. Lee threw the man on the ground and everyone in the group pulled their weapons.
“Maybe you should do as he asks,” Sophie said stepping up to the counter.
The nurse swallowed hard and looked over at the useless security guards.
“He’s in the doctor’s quarters. Just past this door, third door on the left.”
“See, not that hard.” Olivia said and smacked the nurse’s papers out of her hand.
Peter walked past the restricted area. Lee and
a few other soldiers went ahead of him. They kicked open the doors. A few screams came out from nurses and a few jumpy doctors. A groggy man came out of the room that the nurse told them about.
“Dr. Jonathon Hailey?” Peter questioned.
“Yes, and you are?” he asked. He looked cold and calculating, Peter tried to calculate the man. The one responsible for Maddie’s passing. He had short brown hair and brown eyes. Nothing special about his body, but his mind was probably quite the thing to behold. Someone like him you only had a second to show him if you could survive or not, and if not he wouldn’t give you the time of day, on to another patient. And that meant your life.
“So you’re the head doctor here?”
“As of five weeks ago yeah.”
“You weren’t before?” Peter asked. Maybe this wasn’t the guy, just a name lost in the shuffle.
“No, before I was just a student doctor training. But with the riots, the fighting, and of course the giant bugs killing everyone...” The doctor pulled an apple from a pocket and took a bite.
“Yeah that’s been a bitch hasn’t it?”
Peter realized how much he’d missed in all the towns, especially in the big cities. The riots, the infighting, and then of course the Night Crawlers. Must have been hell. Maybe God was sparing him for something.
And then there were guys like this making the unbearable into hell. He was the reason Maddie wasn’t around he reminded himself again.
“Are you aware of why we attacked you?”
“I’m not aware of all that much right now other than you guys pointing guns at me.”
“Well let’s make it short then, my name is Peter Nelson, my brother is James, ring any bells?”
The doctor shrugged, “Sure, yeah, we went to school together. He got a hold of me, said his brother…” recognition dawned on his face, he took another bite. “I’m assuming she didn’t make it?”
Peter shook his head. “No… she died… from complications,” Peter said, his heart aching again, trying not to let his voice break.
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I couldn’t have saved her anyhow. The insects have a kind of venom and it kills you regardless once bitten. It’s nasty stuff…”
The Complete Creeping Darkness Page 13