“Stay here, Evan,” Doug said. “I’m sending Nikki and Eliot to the bus.”
“I don’t like this,” Nikki said.
“It’s too late to turn back now,” Doug told her. “They already see us plain as day.”
Nikki and Eliot and ran to the bus.
“Are you sure about this?” Evan asked.
“We’re going to get some information,” Doug replied. “These people have some. That I’m sure of.”
Doug approached the checkpoint at a modest pace. He didn’t want to spook them by going too fast or make them suspicious by going too slow.
He counted six soldiers who came out to meet him. One of the soldiers held out a hand to stop him.
‘This was such a bad idea,’ Doug thought.
“Get out of the vehicle,” a soldier said firmly.
The other soldiers were quiet, but Doug saw them look the truck over.
“Get out now,” the soldier said again. He reached for the door handle.
“Alright,” Doug said.
‘There’s still time to go!’ Doug’s mind screamed.
The soldier opened the door for Doug.
“Exit the vehicle,” the soldier ordered. His voice was becoming less calm.
“I’m not…” Doug began before the soldier grabbed him.
Doug was forcefully removed from the SUV. The soldier shoved him to the ground hard. Doug felt a knee against his back and a muzzle of a Beretta on his head.
“Are you a coward or a thief?” the soldier asked.
“What?” Doug asked, baffled.
Doug was trained to only take his gun out of his holster if his life is in danger as a last resort. A cop is taught to talk a situation out, but that was replaced with typical human instinct. He reached for his holster, but he couldn’t move his hand.
A soldier is trained to suppress an enemy captive and remove any chance he tried to resist. The soldier knew Doug would try for his gun. He had placed his boot on Doug’s hand. When Doug tried to get his gun, the soldier applied pressure with his foot.
“Are you a coward, or a thief?” the soldier repeated, this time slower and meaner. His face was a half-inch away from Doug’s ear.
“Neither,” Doug replied.
“Bullshit!” the soldier yelled sharply right into Doug’s ear. “Give me an answer, because I want to squeeze my trigger really bad, so bad. Give me an answer now!”
“I’m not a coward or a thief!” Doug insisted. “What the hell wrong with you? We’re not here to give you trouble!”
“Drop the gun!” a familiar voice said. “All of you drop those guns, or the ground will be a lot bloodier in ten seconds.”
‘Yes! Cameron!’ Doug cheered in his mind.
Doug watched as the other soldiers struggled to listen to Cameron or cover their own man.
“That’s enough of that,” an officer said. He stood at the checkpoint with his hands behind his back. He walked passed the five troops casually, without looking at them. “Stand down.”
Simultaneously, the five soldiers complied.
He walked up to Doug, Cameron and his soldier. He calmly looked over the situation as if it was something he’d seen often. What else did he look at? Doug turned his head toward the bus that had moved closer. Evan had shielded Cameron’s approach. His friend was now holding a rifle aimed at the five soldiers.
“Can you take your gun off my sergeant please?” the officer asked Cameron. “I’m not willing to lose anymore of the good ones.”
“Order him to take his gun off my friend,” Cameron said. “I’ll take my gun off when he does.”
The officer nodded at his soldier, who took the muzzle off of Doug’s head. He slowly placed the handgun on the ground. Cameron kept his promise by taking his own gun off of the soldiers head.
“Now let’s talk this over like men,” the officer said.
“Can you explain the crucifixes?” Evan asked.
“You want those people on there, or in the ground,” Lieutenant Jeff Mueller said. If they weren’t, you wouldn’t be here right now. None of you would have walked away from this. We did this world a favor by making all of those men an example.”
“What did they do?” Evan asked.
“We had four camps in Oklahoma City. Three of the camps are wiped out. No survivors and mass graves for as far as the eye can see. I was at one of those camps, and I will never be able to sleep with what happened. We tricked people to go to these camps, and those people ate food that had a toxin that could kill an elephant in seconds.”
Jeff’s eyes wandered downward with a sedated look.
“And that’s not the worst part,” Jeff said,
It seemed to Evan that there was something burrowed deep in Jeff.
“You said there were four camps,” Mandy said. “What happened to the fourth?”
“It fell,” Jeff replied. “It’s full of the turned.”
“How many are there?” Doug asked.
“Thousands,” Jeff said. “Nothing we can really do, but hope they don’t leave the camp. I think you should talk to the major. He’s at the fort, and he’s got a lot of information that you all should know.”
“I still don’t understand why you decided to crucify those soldiers,” Mandy said.
“Imagine the worst way to be executed,” Jeff replied. “That’s the worst way. They deserved something. Those soldiers, and public officials, were responsible the deaths of ninety-five percent of the civilian lives in Oklahoma. We saved two-thousand people so far. That’s all? How can genocide be justified? They deserve to hang on those poles.”
“None of those soldiers could be redeemed?” Mandy asked. “Killing justifies killing?”
“Mandy,” Evan said.
“No, no,” Mandy said bitterly. “What about those people, the ones who became flesh-eaters? What about those who didn’t?”
“Mandy, that’s enough,” Evan said louder.
“It’s not enough, Evan,” Mandy growled. “They poisoned all of these…
“I was one of them,” Jeff said. He looked right into Mandy’s eyes. “I should have been placed on one of those poles. I was the only one who apologized, the only one to mean it. Major Wright saw fit to forgive me.”
The confession silenced Mandy. She stood and nodded continuously. Her eyes were directed at nothing, but a thought.
“Ma’am, I know what you’re thinking,” the lieutenant said. “’Monsters like you deserve death, because you’ve done this act to those people in need.’ I think about that every second, of every hour, each day, and hopefully, for the rest of my life.”
‘Let him go,’ Evan thought. ‘He’s suffering enough, Mandy.’
“Can I have a word with my group mates?” Evan asked.
“I’ll give you some time alone,” Jeff said. “If you need me, I’ll be right behind this command tent.”
Jeff left the four to talk alone.
“We need to talk to this major,” Evan said.
“I agree,” Mandy said. “I can go with you if you want me to.”
“Sweet,” Evan said. “Just let me do the talking, ok?”
“I’m sorry,” Mandy said. “All of this is getting to me.”
“It’s getting to us all,” Doug stated. “Are you taking Matt, Evan?”
“I’m sure he’ll want to go,” Evan replied. “What about you?”
“I can stay around here and let the group rest for a bit,” Doug said.
“I’ll come with you too, Evan,” Cameron said.
“Doug, can I leave Brewster here with Eliot?” Mandy asked.
“I don’t think he wants to be parted with the little guy,” Doug replied. “It might be therapeutic for Eliot to have Brewster with him.”
“Then he’s welcome to spend as much time as he wants with him,” Mandy said with a smile.
“I think we have our team,” Evan said.
Evan went to let the lieutenant know that he had set up a crew to talk with the major.
“I have some things that I need to drop off at the fort, so I can escort you there. The rest of the people are staying here?”
“Yeah, Doug and John will keep an eye on Nikki, Mary and Eliot. I’ll be going with Cameron, Mandy and Matt.”
“What about that other member of the group?” Jeff asked. “The guy that none of you seem to talk about much.”
“Edward?” Evan asked. “Have your men keep an eye on him. He isn’t at all what he seems to be. He’s not to go around Mary.”
“If he does, I’ll pass the word to my men that are staying to have him added to one of the crosses.”
‘I wonder if that was a joke,’ Evan thought. ‘I hope it isn’t.’
Evan walked out from behind the tent when Cameron called out to him. He waited until the giant man arrived, and they walked to the bus together. Cameron and Doug had been talking with Sergeant Humphrey and the other six soldiers at the checkpoint.
“Thanks for waiting for me,” Cameron said. “I was just apologizing to them about earlier. I wanted them to know we didn’t have any hard feelings. Hey also apologized for roughing up Doug. They had issues with cops reneging on their duties.”
“Do they have any hard feelings?” Evan asked.
“No,” Cameron replied. “The sergeant said he was acting on his own anger.”
“Hanging people on telephone poles made into crosses though,” Evan said. “That’s an act of genocide, isn’t it?”
“It’s a necessary response to a major act of true genocide. They were evil men that may have killed us if we had run into them instead of these guys. You know what happened at the battle of little big horn.”
“With Custer, you mean,” Evan half asked. “Ah, I get it. Someone should have done the same to the 7 before more people were killed, but crucifixion is the most painful way, dammit, you’re making me think it out on my own!”
“How many people would be able to help us fight this mess if they were given a chance to? People have the ability to adapt. I plan on living this through. I will destroy any ‘biter’ that I see, no matter how hard it may be.”
Cameron was right, no matter how gruesome it seemed.
“There was something else,” Cameron said. “There’s a man down in Fort Sill. He’s been looking for me. I think he’s one of my guys.”
“You’re going to get them after we’re done with this major?” Evan asked.
“This will be the best time,” Cameron said. “I’m going to bring them to Detroit. It’s just the best option for everyone.”
“That’s great to hear,” Evan said. He was getting to like Cameron as much as he did Doug. “You won’t regret that.”
“I’ve known you for a short time, Evan,” Cameron said. “I already respect you. I trust you.”
At that, Cameron walked away, leaving Evan’s mouth agape.
A little bit later, Evan was on the bus. A pack with a days worth of clothes lay on the floor by the table where Matt was sitting at.
“Matt, do you want to come with me?” Evan said.
Evan sat down on the bus’s leather sofa across from the small table that Matthew was looking through pictures from Evan’s phone.
“Sure,” the boy said excitedly.
“I thought you would,” Evan said. “We’re going to have a conversation with a major. We were told that he has some information we should have.”
“Where is he?” Matt asked.
“He’s in a military base not too far from here,” Evan replied.
“Was it his idea to put those soldiers on the poles?” Matt asked.
“Is that still troubling you?”
Matt nodded.
“Yeah, me too,” Evan told the young man. “Get some things together and meet me at the cruiser, ok bud?”
When Evan stood up to leave, Matt went to Evan to hug him. Evan awkwardly hugged him in return, and patted his back.
After the hug, Matt did as he was asked. He gathered a small collection of clothes and his machete. Matt was changing before Evan’s eyes. From what the boy had told him earlier, someone who was a rebel at heart, and already doing drugs and nearly having sex, Matt seemed to find a place in this new life with a new responsible nature.
‘Maybe he feels this is the only way he can matter to someone,’ Evan told himself.
Evan walked out of the bus with Matt. He noticed that John and Mary kissed each other by the bus. Evan looked at Matt and found the expression on his face was saying “Now I’m truly alone.”
“You may think you’re alone, but you’re not,” Evan said. “I’m here for you.”
“I know,” Matt said with a smile.
They met Cameron and Mandy by the cruiser.
“The lieutenant tells me you have some questions about what happened,” Major Eric Wright said. “Come with me. You deserve to know.”
Eric led Evan, Cameron, Mandy and Matthew to a command center that had been abandoned. A radio played an Alan Jackson song somewhere. An explosion of memories ripped through Evan at hearing the song. Colleen was a huge Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw fan. He never understood how she could like that kind of music, but he remembered how Colleen would close her eyes as she listened to one of her songs. He would watch her as she slowly rocked Eliot or Emily along to a country ballad.
“Evan?” Mandy said. The memories disappeared, and he was back in the room. “You ok?”
“I’m fine,” Evan said. He nearly choked on his words.
A single computer ran with a map of the country on the screen.
“Every major city was used as focal points for the refugee shelters,” Eric explained. “Smaller cities and towns were evacuated to the nearest location of a camp. As you can see, just about every city has green dots.
“Green means that every commanding officer in those cities cleared their camps. Only five cities are considered red. Keep in mind, I said camps. There are plenty of brave people that decided not to go to the camps. Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, Oklahoma City, and New York City are red cities.”
“The lieutenant told us he was part of one of the camps that was wiped out,” Evan said.
“That’s right,” Eric said. He tapped the screen on the computer to zoom in Oklahoma. He tapped it again to bring up Oklahoma City where three green dots hovered over the city, and one red dot. “He was from this camp, Edmond. I saw that he struggled with what he and the others committed in doing. The others just carried on with no sign of remorse. I couldn’t allow that.
“I need you to understand something. We’re not the only guardsmen alive,” Eric said. “There are soldiers out there that will shoot you on sight. Not because they are ordered to, but because the last three days, they have let it sink in that they committed genocide. They may have watched family members die, friends, lovers, and now they are broken. They are most of those soldiers who hang on those poles.
“Let me show you Detroit and Kansas City, since you said they are both destinations.”
He showed them Kansas City first. All four camps were marked with green dots.
“When we took this camp over,” Eric continued. “We discovered this was a central command post for communications for the Midwest effort. We heard most of the reports by commanding officers from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Those officers reported that all who remain here, here, and here, are all dead, or undead. No survivors what-so-ever. There’s some undead though.”
Eric had panned out again, pointing to Kansas City, Dallas and Denver.
“There were over three-hundred million people in the United States before all of this happened. There is no way of knowing just how many are left, but I’m sure it’s below five percent. There are far more of the undead than there are survivors, by maybe triple. I’m just going by what the consolidated transmissions reported.”
Cameron sat on the table without saying a word.
“My wife and kids, they’re gone,” Evan said. “Both of this young man’s parents, they’re gone.”
“My entire family was slaughtered looks like,” Mandy said. “Akron is green.”
“My wife and five out of six kids are gone,” Eric said. “The only living son is in my quarters.”
“Is he ok?” Matt asked.
“I don’t know,” Eric said, looking glumly toward the door he had entered. “He saw his mother, brothers and sisters all get run down by those things. He stole a car to get to me, and he learned how to drive by doing so. He’s been lying on his cot since, barely eating, and he can barely sleep.”
“Maybe I can try talking to him,” Mandy said.
“I’d be grateful,” Eric said. “Some of the other soldiers offered too, but he just won’t listen.”
“I’d still like to try,” Mandy said. “I may not trust soldiers right now, but I hate seeing kids suffer. How old is he?”
“He’s thirteen,” Eric replied. “I can take you to him after we’re done here.”
Eric panned out and selected Michigan. He tapped on Detroit, where there were three dots. One was red, over Farmington Hills.
Evan’s heart sank. He was pretty sure most of his friends had gone to Farmington.
“Does it mean that the red is completely overrun?” Evan asked.
“Not necessarily,” Eric said. “Maybe they didn’t know they had to report their status. We were mobilized quickly. I can’t tell you if that’s even the case. I’m not worried about that one though. I’m worried about these two.”
Eric pointed to Warren and Sterling Heights. They were both green.
“Cleared,” Evan said.
“Cleared,” Eric repeated. “Where ever those troops are, they may cause any survivor a lot of problems. They may even attempt to kill them. I’m not going to let that happen. I have two companies under my command. I’m not a captain, but I’m the closest thing there is within five-hundred miles that you can trust. I will lead one company to Detroit, since there may be an established attempt to regain order.
“Human kind needs a chance, and I plan to be there and see it through.”
“Justin?” Mandy said. “Is it ok to turn on the light?”
“Who are you?” a boy asked in the darkness.
“My name is Mandy Ford. I just got here. I brought us both some food.”
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