Nano Z

by Brad Knight

  One of the main reasons Nevada never crawled with people was the fact that it wasn’t a kind environment. The days were hot and the nights cold. You could drive for hours without coming across a tree or a natural source of water. Gas stations and rest stops were few and far between.

  Amber wasn’t as enchanted by the desert as Mack. Where he saw natural beauty, she saw boring expansive nothingness. She leaned her forehead against the passenger side window of the truck. The only thing that kept her spirits from descending into the annoyed teenager depths was Las Vegas.

  The torn up truck that Mack and Amber rode out of the Rocky Mountains, through Utah and into Nevada was holding up. Since leaving Hidden Valley they didn’t have any run-ins with meat puppets. Nor did they see any uninfected people. It was smooth sailing.

  As nice as it was not having to fight anyone in a couple of days, there were some immediate concerns that could derail Amber and Mack’s trip westward. The needle on the fuel gauge was nearing “E”.

  We really need some gas. Or else we’re in trouble. Mack glanced down at the dashboard. He’d been doing so for the previous hour or so. There was no sign of a gas station. Though he loved the desert, he had no desire to walk it.

  “Have you ever been to Vegas?” asked Amber. She didn’t take her attention away from what she interpreted as bland scenery.

  “Nope.”

  “I’m kind of excited.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “I dunno. I’ve seen in movies and shows, it looked fun. I always wanted to go.”

  Mack smiled. “In all your what, fourteen years?”

  “Yeah.”

  “In all your fourteen years on this earth you’ve wanted to go to Las Vegas?”

  “Are you making fun of me?” Amber turned her attention to Mack. “Be careful big guy. You almost made a joke. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

  “Well girlie girl, it’s safe to say that Vegas probably isn’t all that fun now.”

  Amber turned back towards the passenger side window. “I still want to go. I can check it off my… what do they call that list thing?”

  “A bucket list.”

  “Yeah, a bucket list.”

  I guess that makes sense. The shape this world is in, you start making a bucket list no matter how old you are. There’s a good chance you won’t see tomorrow.

  “Don’t get too excited. We’re not going there to sight see. We need gas if we’re going to make it to the coast.”

  Amber took the last sip out of her water bottle. Then she held the empty bottle upside down. “Water too. If we didn’t have to run out of that Hidden Valley shithole, we’d have plenty.”

  “Go easy on that. I don’t think we’re going to make it to a gas station on time,” Mack said after taking another glance the fuel gauge.

  “So what are we gonna do? Walk?”

  Mack didn’t answer. He just kept driving down the utterly empty road.

  “I’m not walking to Las Vegas man!”

  “To a gas station, not Vegas.”

  Amber quickly reigned in her outrage. “Oh. That still sucks.”

  “Yes, yes it does.”

  They kept driving another half an hour. Finally the gas fumes ran out and the truck rolled to a stop. Even though they hadn’t seen another car in a couple days, they pushed the vehicle off the road.

  Before leaving the truck, Amber and Mack took stock of what they had left. There were two one liter bottles of water, a couple protein bars, five crossbow bolts, thirteen rounds of ammo for the hunting rifle, an empty plastic gas can, and assorted medical supplies. They took all of that with them, lest they come back and find them gone.

  The long stretch of road ahead of them looked daunting. It seemed to go on forever. There wasn’t even anything in the distance for them to shoot for or look forward to reaching.

  Quickly it became clear that Mack and Amber had a very long walk ahead of them. Though it was only about sixty degrees Fahrenheit, there were no clouds to obstruct the sunlight. It didn’t take long for them to start sweating.

  An hour passed, no gas station in sight. Mack wondered if he made a mistake. Again, Simon’s words replayed in his head. What if he and Amber made it not only to Las Vegas but the Pacific Ocean, and there was nothing there but more death? What would he tell the teenage girl who put so much trust in him? What would they do?

  Two hours passed. In the distance, Amber spotted something shining in the intense sunlight. She lightly hit Mack in the arm to get his attention.

  “Over there,” said Amber as she pointed at the shining light.

  Is that a mirage? Are there mirages in the Mojave? I sure as shit hope not. I’m sick of walking.

  Encouraged by the light in the distance and the potential end of their long walk, Amber and Mack picked up their pace. If it was a gas station or rest stop, they could get some fuel. Then they could walk back and be in their truck before sunset.

  The abundance of walking that Mack had to do since the outbreak back in Dallas was hard for him. He wasn’t a young man. Although his stamina constantly got better throughout that time, he still got sore.

  Both of Mack’s knees ached with each step taken on the hard asphalt. The soles of his feet were sore. Still, he pushed himself forward. If his body hadn’t betrayed him yet, it could hold up a little longer. At least that was what he hoped. Truth was, he knew he was on borrowed time. Eventually he’d fall apart physically.

  As they got closer, Mack started to make out a building in the distance. Out in front of the building were what looked like fuel pumps.

  Those better be fucking full of gas or I might just cry. Mack took off his backpack. While still walking he zipped it open and reached in. He was looking for some ibuprofen. It was somewhere in there. In order to find it he had to slow down and look in.

  Amber pulled on the sleeve of one of Mack’s sleeves. She wanted his attention, and got it. Mack stopped looking for pain killers and looked over at Amber who was urgently pointing out in front of them.

  When Mack looked at what she was pointing at, he saw three vehicles. They were speeding towards them. In a matter of a minute or two they’d converge on the duo.

  Mack took the hunting rifle off his shoulder. Amber did the same with her crossbow. Neither of them wanted a fight. But both of them knew a fight was a very real possibility. And they were ready for it.

  “Get off the road, see if you can find some cover,” ordered Mack.

  Amber looked around. All there was to hide behind were shrubs and other small desert plants. None of them were conducive to hiding a human body behind.

  “Drop your gun. And you, drop your bow,” ordered a calm voice from behind them. The voice was accompanied by the telltale click of a gun.

  Where the hell did he come from? Mack looked over at Amber. When they locked eyes, he nodded indicating that she should follow his lead. And he was bending his knees and placing his hunting rifle on the road. Amber did the same with her crossbow.

  “Turn around,” ordered the calm voice.

  They’ve finally found us. This is it. Game over. Just make it quick you bastard. I’m sorry Amber. Mack and Amber turned around. There were three men in black SWAT outfits, pointing submachine guns at the duo. But there was something different about them. Unlike the SWAT guys in Middleton and the rodeo arena, they had patches.

  Galatea? Mack saw a logo on the black uniform on the SWAT guys who had him and Amber by gunpoint. The insignia was white with a blue crescent moon, intersected with a black crescent moon. Under the crescents in blue letters was “Galatea Systems”.

  We’re not going to be prisoners again. Amber isn’t going to go through what happened to her back in that rodeo. These fuckers are going to have to kill me… us. Mack tensed up. His fists tightened. He was ready to fight. One of the Galatea SWAT men noticed.

  “Whoa, relax big guy,” the Galatea men lowered their guns. “We don’t mean you two any harm. Quite the opposite. We want to help.”


  “Help us?” asked Amber while giving an untrusting look.

  “There’s a colony in Las Vegas. It’s safe there. We have power and running water.”

  When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. “Why?”

  “What’s that?” asked the calm voiced Galatea SWAT man.

  “Why do you want us? I mean you supposedly have a safe place, a colony. So why are you out here and why do you want us?”

  “We have orders, sir. Every morning we head out of the city and look for survivors, the uninfected. Then we offer them sanctuary. If they say yes, which they always do, we bring them back. As far as why? You’re going to have to ask someone a bit higher on the food chain than me.” The man seemed genuine. That didn’t necessarily make him trust worthy.

  Mack and Amber stared at each other for a minute. The vehicles that they spotted in the distance were parked right in front of them. Two of them were black SUVs. They looked exactly like the ones from Middleton.

  The third vehicle that pulled up was a heavily armored van. It looked like the sort of thing that banks used to transport money. There was nothing friendly about its appearance.

  “Look, we won’t force you two to come with us. But I highly recommend you do. For your own sakes.” The calm voiced Galatea SWAT member had a charisma to him. It was hard not to believe what he was saying.

  “We’re going to the same place. Why don’t we go with them? At least we won’t have to walk back to the truck.” The fact that Amber was willing to take a chance and go with those guys spoke volumes. It was her that was so horribly mistreated back at the rodeo arena.

  “Fine, we’ll go with.” Mack agreed to go with the SWAT guys. But he still didn’t trust them. Every other time he’d run into people like them there was carnage and violence. To not expect the same that time would be foolish. He decided to go with it for as long as it was safe.

  “You can take your weapons. When we get to the colony you’ll have to check them into the armory.” He signaled to the rest to depart.

  Once they retrieved their weapons, Mack and Amber followed the SWAT guys to the armored van. One of their supposed saviors opened the back. Inside was a man and a college aged young woman.

  Despite their doubts as to the intentions of the men in SWAT gear, Mack and Amber got into the armored van. It was a risk they needed to take if they were to advance to the West Coast. If anything went wrong, they stayed ready to fight.

  Chapter 10: Viva Las Vegas

  The back of the armored van was dark. There were narrow slits in the side that let in some sunlight, but not much. They were just big enough to stick the barrel of a gun through.

  Air conditioning wasn’t a priority for whoever built the armored van. Its four passengers in the back were hot. The slits on the side let in some wind but didn’t make the enclosed space very comfortable.

  Amber was huddled close to Mack. He stared at the man and young woman who accompanied them. His intention wasn’t to make them nervous or intimidate them. That was what happened though.

  The man, nervous, offered his outstretched hand for Mack to shake. “Spencer Wright,” said the man with a polite smile.

  Don’t be a dick. “Mack, and this is Amber.” He shook Spencer’s clammy hand.

  Spencer smiled at Amber. “Is she your daughter?”

  “Something like that, yeah.”

  “She’s lovely.” Spencer turned towards the young college aged woman next to him. “This is Janae. She doesn’t talk much.”

  Mack nodded at Janae. True to what Spencer said, she didn’t say anything.

  “Where are you guys coming from?” asked Spencer as he adjusted his miraculously still intact glasses.

  “Dallas.”

  “Dallas? No shit? I’m from Wilmington, North Carolina. And Janae… I haven’t the faintest idea where she’s from. She was in here before I ran into these Galatea guys.”

  “Where were you heading?” asked Mack. He wasn’t actually interested. But he had no idea how far they were from Las Vegas. And he needed something to pass the time in the uncomfortable armored van.

  “West I guess. The east coast was a mess. I had to get out of there. Originally we were just going to head to the Midwest. When we got there, we found it was just as overrun. So we just kept going.”

  We? He was traveling with someone else? “You keep saying we. I thought you met Janae in this truck?”

  “I was traveling with my family.” Spencer stopped looking at Mack but instead stared through him. “None of them made it.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” There wasn’t a lot of emotion or sincerity in Mack’s voice. That wasn’t because he was cold or uncaring. It was because the carnage he witnessed since the outbreak took away any surprise when hearing something so tragic. He was numb.

  “Don’t be. They went quiet, quick and painless.”

  Wait. What? No one goes quick and quiet in this world. Did this guy off his family? Okay Spencer, I do not trust you.

  “How about you guys? Where were you heading?” asked Spencer.

  Mack didn’t want to answer, but what was he going to do. He was stuck in the back of the van with Spencer, the potential family killer. There was no telling how long the ride was. And he really didn’t want to have to fight a man in a space so confined he couldn’t even stand.

  “We were going west too. I figured we could reach the coast and maybe find a boat or ship or something.”

  Janae started laughing. At first it was quiet, like a giggle. Then she broke into a full on chest hurting laughter. Between Mack, Amber and Spencer, the last was the most surprised.

  “What’s so funny?” asked Mack.

  Janae didn’t answer, she just kept laughing. Once she couldn’t physically laugh anymore without choking on her own amusement, she spoke. “There ain’t no getting on a boat and getting out of the country, you fucking idiots.”

  “Why not?” Mack stayed calm.

  “They won’t let you leave,” answered Janae as she wiped the tears from her eyes and caught her breath.

  Shit. We’re stuck in here with two crazy people. Maybe we should get the hell out. Do those doors open from the inside?

  “Who’s ‘they’?”

  “There are ships out in the ocean. Whenever someone tried to take a boat they sink it. So people tried to fly out. They got shot down. You get what I’m saying? There’s no way out. We’re stuck.”

  Spencer was confused. “Ships? What kind of ships? What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I don’t know, battleships I guess.”

  Mack was not convinced. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would American ships shoot down civilian planes and sink boats?”

  “Who said they were American?” Janae posed a valid question.

  “What else would they be?” Amber finally spoke up and joined the conversation.

  “Chinese, Japanese, Russian and even Australian,” answered Janae.

  “How do you know that?”

  “We saw the flags. My friend’s building had a rooftop that was high enough to see the ocean. So we got a couple pairs of binoculars and watched people try to leave and get lit up. It’s messed up, I know. But what else were we going to do. There was no TV, no internet. We had to do something to get our minds off the mess that the city had become.

  “When we were up there, we got a good look at the ships in the distance that were sinking everything. They had flags. We saw Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Australian flags. So we assumed that those were the countries they were from,” explained Janae.

  “Why would they…?” Amber began to ask.

  “Quarantine,” answered Mack. “They’re quarantining us.” That must mean the rest of the world isn’t infected. If we can somehow find a way around the ships, we can get away from all of this. Janae, I could kiss you right now. You’ve unwittingly delivered hope.

  Mack, Amber, Spencer and Janae engaged in small talk until the armored van they were in reached th
e Las Vegas city outskirts. The first screeches they heard shut them up. Being near meat puppets brought nothing but tension, fear and anxiety. None of which were conducive to conversation.

  The armored van didn’t provide a smooth ride. It’s thick, strong tires rolled over the many bodies that covered the Las Vegas streets. Even through the screeches and sounds of meat puppets banging on the sides of the vehicle, Mack heard the sickening crunch as their transport crushed the bodies of all they drove over.

  “Hold on. There’s a lot of them up ahead. We’re gonna have to go through them,” said the calm voiced Galatea SWAT guy after sliding open the small rectangular door that separated the cabin from the back of the van.

  As soon as the small sliding door closed again, the van felt like it was being tossed in a clothes drier. The noises were nightmarish. If sounded as if they were completely surrounded and being engulfed by meat puppets. But they didn’t stop. That was a good sign.

  This is bad. What the hell are these guys doing? Where are the taking us? Are we going to die in the back of this van? I can’t take it anymore. I have to take a look.

  Mack looked through the slit in the side of the armored van behind him. All he could see were bodies coming at the vehicle. There were thousands of them. If anything went wrong and the van stopped moving, it was clear that they were completely screwed.

  In one of his hands, Mack felt his hunting rifle. He considered using it. That urge didn’t last long. Soon the sounds of machine gun fire surrounded the van. Bullets ricocheted off the thick steel exterior of the armored vehicle. Some of the projectiles hit the road near it. By the noise, it was clear that there were several machine guns being used. What Mack couldn’t figure out was where the gunfire was coming from.

  Through the thin barrier between the men driving the armored van and the passengers in the back, Mack heard someone shouting for a gate to be opened. Then he heard what sounded like the perimeter gates of a prison opening up as the vehicle slowed down.