“Ah, yes,” Tish said. “Lord knows I’ve heard that phrase a time or two. ‘Dad, why won’t they tell you when and where you’re deploying?’ ‘Need to know information, and I don’t need to know.’”
“Right,” Miles agreed. “So yeah, mystery person or people that did this say hey, boy, there sure are a ton of zombie movies and TV shows out there, what if that were real? Wouldn’t that be a great way to kick off the end? Chicken, egg.”
“So you think TV made them do it?” Tish scoffed. “Did you get a personality transplant when I wasn’t looking because that sounds nothing like something my husband would say.” She elbowed him in the side.
“Hah,” he said. “No, I’m not saying it’s cause of the TV; I’m saying that some scientist who already has a mad on for the world says, boy, that looks like an interesting way to do it. And it would tie into people’s assumptions based on what they’ve seen. If anything, think about how the news media scoffed at first. They thought it was a hoax. How different would things be if the press hadn’t made a joke out of it, in the beginning?” He snorted. “Hell, if they’d been able to do it when Twilight was popular they might have engineered a vampire virus.”
“Something like that,” Tish mused, “an angry person couldn’t manage it. The emotion would get the better of them and they wouldn’t be able to complete the task. You need a true believer or a group of them. Fanatics. People who think they’re doing something for the greater good.”
“Maybe. Maybe so.” He fell silent and squinted. They were approaching the clinic, but there was only one truck parked in front of it. Many figures were moving in and around it, bearing arm loads of material into the clinic.
“Where’s the other truck?” Tish said.
“We’ll find out soon enough, but I bet we’re not going to like the answer.”
Miles’ initial concern eased as soon as he saw Vir marching toward the clinic with his own load. A pair of excited children orbited him as he moved; Miles could hear the happy chatter from where he stood. Vikram, who was around Trina’s age, was trying to help with his own load of supplies. Anoop, who was just shy of his fourth birthday, was too busy dancing around his father to be of much help. “Half the school is going to be late to class this morning,” Miles noted. Inside, he was less collected. Okay, good, so Vir made it. But where’s everyone else?
By the time they walked up to the clinic doors Vir had dropped off his load of supplies and was coming back out for more. As he saw them he stopped and raised a hand in greeting.
“Miles, my friend, good to see you.” Vir shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder. “Ran into some difficulties, but I got one vehicle back with as many of the critical need items as I could fit.”
Miles glanced sidelong at Tish. “Everyone’s going to be finding out pretty soon, anyway, Vir. You can speak openly.”
Tish gave him a curious stare in return but said nothing. Vir grinned. “Well, I have to confess, we were both wrong. I don’t believe Joey had anything to do with it.” He sighed. “In point of fact, I caught Donald and Buck in the act of loading up a goodly number of precursors.”
Miles groaned. “Oh, this week just keeps getting better. So, did you arrest them, ah, Deputy?” Tish’s look shifted from confusion to surprise. She turned on him, her tone annoyed.
“Seriously? You have someone undercover and you don’t bother to tell your own wife? Don’t trust me?”
“Larry and I knew, that was it. I kept my mouth shut out of general principle, don’t take it that way. I didn’t want anyone overhearing.”
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. This was going to be a bone of contention at some point in the future, Miles judged, but for the moment, there were matters too pressing for her to go down the road. He turned back to Vir and said, “Sorry, you were saying?”
The other man winced. “I didn’t have the opportunity to. That’s one of the things we need to talk about. There was a horde of biters cozied up inside the warehouse, but they weren’t acting right.”
Miles frowned. “How so?”
Vir shook his head and looked at the ground as he attempted to compose his thoughts. “They didn’t react as usual; at first, we didn’t even realize they were there. We made a bloody racket coming into the place, and nothing. As far as what set them off, I can only guess, but we split up and I suppose to other team stumbled over them. But that’s not the worst part. They overran the entire team. I made for high ground — but they started dog-piling to come after me.”
Miles rocked back on his heels. “They climbed?”
“Right. So I made it to the roof, and outside, what do I see but just literal streams of them coming out of the buildings in the industrial park. Like bleeding army ants.”
“How did you make it out?” Tish wondered.
Vir shook his head. “They ignored me. Couldn’t have cared less. I camped out on the roof overnight, and in the morning, they were all gone. They dropped a garage door on the truck with the radio in the process, or I would have called in. Thankfully they were all heading north, so I had the time to fill a large chunk of your wish list, Doctor, as I said.”
Miles frowned. “North?” He rubbed his chin in thought. “How sure are you about that?”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t check them with my compass, but it was northward for the most part. Barmiest thing I ever saw.”
“Right,” Miles said. “Look, I’m kind of on a schedule, Vir, so I’ll make it quick. Great job, talk to Larry if you want to stick around. If you want to go back to the wall, I’ll understand, but there’s some stuff going on that could use your assistance.” He stuck out his hand. “Thanks for everything, really.”
The other man gave him a puzzled look but returned the handshake with vigor. “If you’ll have me, I’ll be glad to stay on. But what’s the big rush?”
Miles began walking backward and pushed down the urge to outright sprint. “I’ll be gone for a couple of days. Larry can fill you in, but I have to go.”
Tish hesitated for a moment near the clinic. “Be right back,” she said to Vir, and then trotted after Miles. He hesitated to let her catch up, and then turned and began striding toward the east gate and the men waiting on him. “Damn it, Miles, what’s the rush?” she said as she quickened her own pace to match his.
“What’s north of Cincinnati, Tish?”
“Dayton,” she said with a frown. “Toledo, and . . .”
“Camp Perry,” he finished.
Chapter 18
“Yeah,” Hanratty said. “That doesn’t sound good.”
Miles gasped. “That’s it?” the other man said. “Doesn’t sound good?” He seemed surprised that Hanratty hadn't laughed in his face at the revelation.
Hanratty shrugged. “To be honest, it’s not the weirdest thing I’ve heard this week. I’ll radio ahead and let command know, they can push out some drones and try to locate their track. How long ago did you say he spotted them?”
“Late Monday.”
“So forty-eight hours, give or take. Add another twelve for Monday evening and early this morning. Typical walking pace of an infected over open ground is around two miles per hour. That’s approximately a hundred and twenty miles. They’re still a good 80, 90 miles short of the camp, most likely. ETA tomorrow, if that is where they’re headed.” Hanratty nodded. “No worries, Mister Matthews, let’s saddle up and get this wagon train rolling.”
He turned to leave the civilian to say his goodbyes to his wife and stepped up inside of the LAV. Ross and the other SEALs were already assembled in the crew compartment. He gave Ross a wordless glance, and the other man nodded. He’d heard the brief conversation.
Hanratty squeezed past Rivas toward the front of the LAV. All in all, it rubbed him the wrong way to play things so close to the vest, but he had his orders. The burgeoning relationship with the people in the community had gotten off to a rough start, but he’d done his best to smooth things over during the town hall. Inciting a panic was
hardly the best method to instill trust. On the other hand, failing to disclose the nature of the changing threat wasn’t good diplomacy, either. He hoped it wouldn’t matter. The area surrounding the settlement was as sparsely populated as any he’d seen in a long time. If they were all streaming northward, well, that was why.
“Fire it up, Corporal,” he said. “As soon as our passenger is on board, we’re rolling out.”
“Yes, sir,” Patterson said. The LAV rumbled to life as Hanratty started tapping into the blue force tracker.
BEGINNING MISSION PHASE TWO, he typed. FIRST-HAND HUMAN INTELLIGENCE REPORTS LARGE HORDE HEADED DIRECTION OF CAMP PERRY. ESTIMATE APPROX 80 MILES AWAY BASED ON TIMING OF SIGHTING.
He pressed the transmit key and waited. The GPS network must have been feeling benevolent this morning because he got a receipt notification in quick order. Shortly thereafter, command’s response came through.
ACKNOWLEDGED. BE ADVISED DUST OFF DELAYED DUE TO MAINTENANCE ISSUES. ESTIMATE 12-18 HOURS. RECOMMEND ALTERNATE RENDEZVOUS.
Hanratty cursed. Well, it figured. They’d run half the helicopters in the fleet almost literally into the ground over the past eight years. The other half had been sitting in various stateside hangars during that same time. It was inevitable that those sort of issues would crop up, particularly when the airframe mechanics began digging into maintenance now that they had the benefit of a secure base and spares. He tapped a quick response.
STAND BY, CONFERRING WITH GROUND TEAM COMMANDER.
Hanratty pulled a marked-up map out of a storage pouch and turned to Ross. Matthews was just climbing aboard, and Chief Foraker closed and secured the rear hatches as he stepped inside.
“They’ve delayed pickup,” Hanratty informed Ross. “You want to wait here, or do you want to divert?”
The lieutenant thought about it. “Let’s head for alternate Delta. We can hole up in that farmhouse overnight again, and I like being that much closer to HQ if something happens to the chopper.” Delta was just shy of 80 miles north of the settlement. The home Ross referred to had a large front yard, clear of electrical wires or other aerial obstacles, and they’d secreted one of their refueling blivets on the property to support future aerial operations. “We top off the chopper in the morning. That gives them enough range to swing down to the objective and return to base with a good reserve.”
Hanratty scanned the map and identified the mark location. They’d crisscrossed their way south in search for places to cache fuel supplies for the helicopters. The irregular pattern was intended to throw off any infected that pursued their noise signature. They’d overnighted at Delta over a week ago, so any stragglers should — theoretically, of course — have moved on. He turned back to Patterson and displayed the map. “Delta, Corporal. How we looking for fuel?”
Patterson eyed the map, then glanced at the LAV’s fuel gauge. “Should have plenty of a safety margin for a return, but I hope this works out as our new base, because we won’t have enough to get back to Camp Perry.”
Hanratty chuckled. “I don’t think that will be a problem. Let’s start heading that way, see if we can get back before dark, all right?”
“You said the magic words, Captain,” Patterson replied, and dropped the LAV into drive. As the gates opened and he drove forward, Hanratty composed his response to command.
Enough hands made all the difference in the world, and the survivors unloaded the truck in a fraction of the time it had taken Vir. Of course, in addition to working alone he’d been trying to arrange the contents in some semblance of order — keeping the more fragile materials in padded areas, or upright as needed.
While the speed of the unloading was hardly a shock, one thing that did surprise was the presence of his wife at the clinic when he pulled up.
Aasha had been a chemical engineer before Z-Day. She had worked for a company that made chemicals for circuit board manufacturing. It had always struck Vir as interesting work despite his own background in mechanical engineering. Where the structures he worked on depended on strength and robustness, his wife’s own work was neat, almost delicate, the balancing of various chemicals to develop compounds for specific purposes.
Circuit board manufacturing, of course, was a far-lower priority than it had once been. Where Vir had been able to lend a hand to the community in design and construction, Aasha had in a sense been adrift. She’d found things to occupy her as well as giving her some sense of purpose, but he’d always had the sense she wasn’t satisfied with their situation. But what did you say? It was hard to express complaints with the state of your life when so many had died and you were still alive.
But there was a change to her demeanor when he’d arrived at the clinic that his presence alone couldn’t explain. Oh, she’d been happy to see him, as had his boys, but there’d been more to it, a sparkle in her eyes and an uprightness of her carriage that he hadn’t seen in years.
They hugged, and he whispered, “I thought I might not see you again.”
“Me, too,” Aasha said. “Will they allow you to stay on as a deputy?”
“It seems that they will,” he assured her. “With any luck, I’ll not have to make many more trips outside of the walls. But forget me; you are beaming. What is happening with you?”
Her smile broadened. “There were some discussions about the shortages of antibiotics while you were gone, and that moved over into chemistry. I pointed out that the manufacture of them was simple, from a technological standpoint. One thing led to another, and Doctor Scott and I have been coming up with a list of the materials we’ll need to begin wholesale production.” She favored him with a proud smile. “So you may need to go outside the walls at least one more time.”
Vir laughed. “For such a cause as this, I will be more than happy to. I’m surprised that this has never come up, before.”
She shrugged. “They always had sufficient stocks on hand. One never values something as much as when it is no longer there.” She squeezed his hand. “But for now, I need to get the boys off to school, we are running late.”
His sons overheard this edict and groaned aloud. “Do we have to?” Vikram asked. “Can’t we stay with daddy, just for today?”
He shooed the boys away and said, not unkindly, “I will see you tonight, I promise. For now, get to school and apologize for your lateness.”
Vikram frowned and said, his face serious, “We were helping, not playing.”
“Yes, you were,” Vir agreed. “But you also owe respect to your teachers, and need to show that even when other things happen, yes?”
His oldest son considered, and nodded. “Yes, sir.” He grabbed his brother’s hand and pulled him away. “Come on, Anoop.” Smiling, Aasha followed and shepherded the boys in the proper direction. Vikram’s initial vector would have taken them into one of the fields and nowhere near the school.
“Bye, Daddy!” Anoop called, waving as his brother dragged him backward. “I missed you!”
Vir smiled and returned the wave. “I missed you too, little one.” He turned back to Tish Matthews. The doctor stood with her hands in the pockets of her light jacket and a sad smile on her face.
“They grow up too fast,” she observed. “I don’t think I was ever that serious.”
Vir sighed. “It’s our lot in life, unfortunately. Hopefully this generation will be the one that allows children to be children once again.” He cocked his head and gave her an appraising look. “But you don’t want to talk about philosophy, I’m sure. What did I miss?”
Tish shrugged. “Oh, nothing much. Just the return of the Marines and their demand for Miles’ assistance.” She hesitated. “Well, it wasn’t a demand, I guess, but it was one of those offers you can’t refuse.” She noted his blank look. “Godfather? Never mind.”
“It doesn’t behoove them to not bring him back if they expect ongoing cooperation,” Vir pointed out. “I’m sure it’s difficult, knowing your loved one is in harm’s way.”
“It’s too many things
at once. First, there’s the weirdness that Charlie’s team spotted, the horde behavior you saw, and the Marines showing up. Sorry, things have been too static for too long for all that to be coincidental.”
Vir frowned. “What happened to Charlie’s team?”
“Nothing as bad as what you saw, but they found several houses on their last scouting expedition where something had broken out rather than staying inside. Assumption being that something was zombies.”
“But biters—” Even now, after all these years, her term rankled him, and he refused to use it. His refusal changed nothing, but there were certain places that he refused to go to. Zombies conjured up thoughts of the metaphysical; Waheguru didn’t do cannibalistic walking corpses. This was something man had wrought upon himself, with some perversion of science. “Are not strong enough to do something like that, particularly now.” He finished and considered his own words. “Of course, I’d have said they weren’t strong enough to climb or knock down a roll-up door, either.”
“Right,” Tish said. “Something has changed. And, on top of everything else, someone murdered Ronnie Cartwright Tuesday night.” She shook her head. “It’s enough weirdness that the council came out after the town hall last night and said they want to lock the community down until Miles gets back. Guess they’re afraid salvage teams might decide things are getting too sporty and decide not to return.”
“No,” Vir exclaimed. “Do you have any idea who killed Ronnie?”
A Place Outside The Wild Page 25