Day One (Book 2): Choices

by Michael McDonald

  The weight of a million tons crumbled from my shoulders and I wiped the sweat from my brow.

  “You alright?” Davidson asked.

  “Yeah, just a little hot out there,” I replied, realizing it wasn’t even hot enough to make a person sweat without physical activity yet.

  “Wait around, it’ll get hotter,” Davidson replied.

  I followed him into another mobile unit that had a small tent affixed to the rear of it. Through a single door my eyes popped open at the sight of military weapons of all sizes and shapes mounted to the walls, fore wall and in the middle of the unit. He looked at me to see the SBR on my shoulder and quickly grabbed a MK 18, which was simply the same weapon I had but it had a fourteen and a half inch barrel, a different stock, and an infrared laser attached to the top rail near the front sight. This was used in conjunction with NVG’s or night vision goggles to better aim the weapon in extreme low light conditions, as well as to mark targets for passing aircraft.

  “This thing’s full auto,” he said, holding it out to me.

  “So is this, and it’s easier to move with,” I replied.

  He replaced the weapon and continued forward. Several large ammo cans were placed in front of me.

  “That’s a thousand rounds of five, five, six. Nasty rounds those are, they’ll pop through body armor like it’s not even there,” he stated and continued to grab other things. He handed me a far better chest rig than I had gotten from the Young Woman, as it was fitted with armor plates front and rear, heavier than shit, but offering extreme protection if anyone was to shoot back. “AR five hundred armor, best there is. Will stop three oh eight rounds whether you’re running towards or away from an attacker.”

  We stopped at a small wall locker and he unlocked and opened the doors for me to see several different handguns sitting there. “You got a sidearm?”

  “I have a Beretta,” I told him.

  He smiled. “Good choice,” he said and handed me a drop leg holster. “This attaches to your chest rig and you can adjust it to ride low or high on your leg. It has a retention fit, which means the weapon will remain secure if you are running, jumping, or falling until you reach and pull it free.”

  He grabbed what looked to me was an old Pro Tech skateboard helmet and handed to me. In the front, just above the brim was a quick detach point where NVG’s could be placed if needed.

  “What do I need a skateboard helmet for?” I asked.

  He laughed at my lack of knowledge. “Gotta protect that coconut,” he said and hammered it with his fist. “This thing is as durable as they come. It won’t however stop a bullet, but if you fall or get attacked from behind, it will keep you conscious and able to fight.”

  From there we moved to the far wall where the long barreled rifles were kept. “You need something that can reach out and touch someone at say, six or eight hundred yards?”

  “I can’t even see that far, so if I cannot see them, then they can’t see me,” I stated. “I’ll keep my trusty room clearing rifle for now.”

  “Whatever you want, man,” he said and began packing all of my equipment into a large duffle bag. When everything was loaded, he hauled it back out into the balmy day light and dropped it at my feet. “There are twenty pre-loaded mags for your rifle in there, along with a few hundred loose rounds of nine mil, so you should be good to go.”

  I thanked him and then undertook the very arduous task of hauling my newfound toys back to the small room to go through and get things ready. On my way carrying what felt like nine hundred pounds of equipment that was probably going to weigh me down and get me killed, the faint thump of something in the sky called my attention. I looked, expecting to see another of the pencil shaped skyscrapers falling to earth in a cloud of dusty debris, but instead my eyes caught something much smaller growing closer.

  The air seemed to cower under the constant barrage of the approaching object, and within a few seconds I could see that it was a smaller helicopter than the one that currently sat on the flight line. It was shiny black with a bulbous nose, steep skids on either side and stubby tail with twin fins near the tail rotor.

  It approached and began to sink in altitude, as it slowed for landing. It swung sideways at the final moments, giving me a perfect picture of how big the aircraft was and sat down smoothly a hundred feet from the Huey. The rotors continued to turn, the turbine engine continued to bellow a rhythmic whine as hot exhaust fumes were forced out of the turbine nozzle just behind the main rotor blades. It was beautiful and I found myself, even under the strain from all my new gear, smiling at the sight before me.

  “That one, right there,” a voice stated to me and I turned my head from the helicopter to see Johnny standing a few feet away.

  “Come again,” I said.

  “That’s the one we’ll barrow,” he told me.

  “I thought you decided against the plan?” I asked snidely, although I was excited underneath that he had changed his mind.

  “I had issues with the Huey, and then when you told me Andrews was on to us, everything else just seemed to fall apart,” he told me as he watched the MD500D begin to wind down.

  “Issues with the Huey?” I asked.

  He nodded. “It takes two people to fly that damn thing, and with you having no flight experience, that would add to my tasks. But that bird right there can be flown easily by one person and is large enough for our stuff, us, and your son.”

  Chapter Three.

  The day wound out slowly. I went through the gear I had been issued and made sure I knew how to put everything on and made some small alterations. The last thing I needed was to be in a bad situation and have my gear betray me. We would already be risking so much just getting away from the base in one piece, so if we even managed that, I needed to ensure that there were no more hiccups to slow us down or even kill us.

  “I’ve gone over the layout of this place several hundreds of times and the only real threats I see to us when we take off, is in two separate locations,” Johnny said.

  “What threats are those?” I asked, looking up from trying to get the drop leg holster exactly where I wanted it to be.

  “Near the flight line there’s a machine gun nest with a fifty. If that thing comes up on us when we are taking off or already airborne… we’re toast,” he stated.

  “Then we’ll have to see to it that it doesn’t come up on us,” I replied. “What amount of flight training do you have exactly?”

  Johnny looked at me and smiled. “I use to test those things as they came off the production line in Texas. So, I’m more than familiar with their operation and what they are capable of doing, if we need to get that crazy.” He took a deep breath of the fresh air and looked toward the flight line. We had chosen to go through the gear outside and away from the security camera is our room. This way we could speak freely and not have to worry about someone watching us and hearing what we had decided to go through with.

  “My turn,” Johnny stated. “You are aware that if that fifty comes up on us, we are dead, right? There’s no going back, no asking for a second chance. They will throw everything they have at us in order to stop us… you need to know that.”

  “I’m aware of the risks,” I told him. “I would say that I even have more to lose than you, but that would be a lie. This is my son we are going after and I’m asking you to risk your life for him, which is why I would understand if you said no. I wouldn’t like it very much, but I’d respect your choice to stay alive and keep fighting… maybe one day soon all of this will be a distant memory and the world will return to normal.”

  “I’m aware of the risks as well and I see a brave father doing everything he can to protect his daughter and go get his son. I admire that… and besides, I really don’t have shit else to do, now do I?”

  We both smiled at the comment. The possibility of death greeting us in a few hours weighed heavily on our shoulders, yet we kept it far from the surface. We had to focus in order to keep things together and es
cape in one piece. The fear of the unknown was something that wasn’t at all an easy thing to get over or even look away from. It was very real and could take place not long from now, and with my Daughter going along with us, I could be responsible for her untimely death as well. That’s what bothered me the most. It ate at me like a cancer – timelessly devouring me from within, and I had no way to stop it.

  At one point I excused myself to the mess hall and downed a bottle of orange juice and a painkiller, hoping that it would calm me or at least give me that extra kick of pretend courage I needed just to make it until we were ready to go.

  Every detail had been planned down to the last second. We put in alternate routes in case something went wrong and we even cut a small hole in the fence, covering it with limbs, in case everything got shot to hell and we’d have to leave in a hurry and on foot. I had stuck to my guns about no one being killed, although Johnny wasn’t very happy with that idea, he did understand the root of what I was trying to avoid.

  We weren’t at war with the living. It was the dead that had caused all of this and if we needed to kill anyone, then it should be them, not the living. These were young men just following orders. Sons with fathers and mothers.

  The sun slowly made its way across the blue cloudless sky. Johnny and I quietly ran through what would be expected of us soon, over and over in our minds until it came without thought. We would have only one shot at this and the more we practiced the better our chances of getting it right the first time.

  Kember had slept the afternoon away and with her still asleep; I found my way to the fence and lit a cigarette. I walked along its edge enjoying the smoke as my mind raced over the things I needed to do once we arrived… and that’s even if we managed to make it off the ground without becoming a raging fireball within seconds of taking off. I’d never had to prepare for something that could cost me my life before, so I was at a loss for words, even my thoughts of what I should be going through were vacant.

  Kember was going with me, so if things went wrong she’d die with me and not be left alone in this new deranged world. Did I feel good about that? Of course I didn’t, yet at the same time it beat just leaving her here in the middle of the night and her waking the following morning to find out that her daddy was dead. She was two, so she wouldn’t understand, but one day she would and the thought that I had left her alone would probably haunt her forever.

  Then again, maybe it wouldn’t.

  All I could think about was the things my son had gone through over the past week. The things he may have seen, been forced to endure, lived through, and watched in horror. The mind of a nine year old was very impressionable, which made him all that more vulnerable. I wondered if he hated me for not coming to save him. I wondered if he thought I was dead and that was the reason I had not come and gotten him.

  I didn’t want to think about the obvious other possibilities and it took a lot of strength to keep my mind from heading in that direction. If grown adults could not survive, whatever this was, then who’s to say a nine year old could fair any better?

  “It doesn’t matter… I’m going no matter what,” I said to quell the negative thoughts that were starting to creep into my head. I took a drag of the cigarette and heard a pair of footsteps moving up from behind. I turned to see a tall black man in a fresh pressed uniform approaching me. His eyes were locked on me, as though he had been looking for me everywhere and had finally found me. His arms were behind his back and he stepped with confidence.

  “You must be Brandon Ellis?” He asked.

  I nodded my head to him and held out my hand. “Yes, sir I am.” He looked out my out stretched hand as if I had a contagious disease and he would suddenly die if he touched me. He kept his hands behind his back as he continued to eye me closely. I didn’t like the way he was looking at me, as I could tell he wasn’t very happy that Andrews had brought us on to a military base. I saw his insignia, but wasn’t sure if he outranked Andrews or if it was the other way around.

  “You look down your nose at me, you won’t shake my hand, so let me guess. You are here to express your concerns about Andrews bringing us onto a military base, which you probably hate, but since he outranks you there’s nothing you can do about it, although if you were to threaten us and scare us we may choose to leave on our own… am I close?”

  He said nothing as he watched me closely.

  “Look, if you got something to say, then just say it,” I told him.

  He pointed to my hand. “That wound, how did you get it?”

  “Does it matter?” I asked him. “It happened over a week ago, so that rules out me suddenly feeling the need to chew your face off.”

  “You were bitten?” He said.

  “By my six year old step-daughter,” I told him. The hardened look that formed his face suddenly began to loosen and he appeared to be mesmerized.

  “So, no symptoms of any kind?” He asked curiously.

  “I got a high fever, felt like my head had been blown apart and I’d lived through it, but some antibiotics and I was right as the rain again,” I explained.

  “Antibiotics?” He sounded even more amazed at my answer.

  “Yes, sir. Simple antibiotics that you would take for an infection,” I added. “The woman that happened upon me is the one that gave them to me. Without her, well… I’d rather not think of where I would be at this moment.”

  “And since then you’ve had no relapses, funny feelings or weird desires to hurt anyone?” He asked.

  “No, not at all,” I replied. “As I said earlier, if you have something to say, just say it. I don’t have time to beat around the bush.”

  “Come with me,” he stated and began to walk away. He stopped shortly and looked back at me. “Trust me, you want to see this.”

  We made minimal small talk about our lives before the world had taken the express elevator straight to hell, although he didn’t give much on his background and weather he was married, had kids or anything of that nature. But he was extremely concerned about my past and what I had done.

  On the far side of the base, in an area I had never ventured to, we ducked under a small awning of a tent, crossed the narrow gap and entered another mobile unit that was dimly lit. Only ten feet through the door, he stopped and pointed to my right into the darkness. “Take a look for yourself,” he said.

  “At what, there’s nothing there,” I exclaimed. A few seconds later and with no reply, my eyes adjusted to the dark for me to see a small open room. A single bunk was bolted to the rear wall and the place looked as though a rock band had spent the night there. It was in complete disarray.

  I grew closer to the opening and found that there was glass halting my advance. I brought both hands up to feel the cool glass when all of the sudden something slammed into it. I shot backward as quickly as I could, whipping the Beretta as I went, taking aim at the dimly lit figure. “Jesus Christ, Man! That kind of shit isn’t funny,” I shouted to him. He wasn’t laughing as I thought he’d be. He simply stood there looking at me, shifting his eyes to the dimly lit figure, and then back to me. It looked as if he were looking for something between us, maybe something in common.

  He turned the lights up and there before me was a turned soldier. His body was badly mangled, yet that didn’t stop him from trying to get through the glass and rip my face off before devouring my spleen while I lay there in pain watching helplessly.

  “You’re keeping this damn thing as a pet?” I screeched.

  “Not a pet, but more of a test subject,” he said in a calm voice.

  “What kind of tests could you possibly run on that thing, better yet, who did you find stupid enough to go in there to perform said tests?” I asked, still pissed and scared all at the same time.

  “Get closer to the glass,” the Man said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “It’s bullet-proof glass, there’s no way it can get you,” he told me.

  “Then what’s the point?” I asked.


  The Man was becoming more and more irritated at my lack of action to his commands, to which I didn’t give a shit about. After all, I wasn’t one of his men that he could order around, using the fear of his insignia upon me. I was a civilian, and if anything, I paid his salary and would not adhere to what he wanted of me.

  “Just step up close to the glass for a moment,” he added.

  “Why don’t you?” And with those words the Man did. The turned soldier broke his glare from me and turned his head from side to side, as if it were a dog listening for his master’s voice amongst a sea of unfamiliar voices.

  “See, it can’t get you,” he said.

  I knew asking why would just continue to carry us down this same road, a road that was nothing more than a vicious cycle of why and do. “Fine.” I stepped up to the glass and it focused its full attention on me and swiftly began to attack the shatter-proof glass. I stood there for only a few seconds until judgment told me better and I shot backward. “There, are you happy now?”

  “So it doesn’t favor you at all?” He said aloud.

  “Why the hell would it?” I asked. The answer followed seconds later and I swung my eyes from the turned soldier to the tall man beside me. “You thought that by bringing me in here since I was bit, that it would befriend me in some way and you’d have the proof you needed to kick me and my Daughter out of here, right?” I asked infuriated.

  Without denying any of it, trying to lessen the situation in anyway, or apologize, he simply nodded and answered yes.

  “You son of a bitch!” I shouted, feeling the heft of the Beretta in my right hand and wondering how funny it would be if I pointed it at his face and cocked the hammer. Would it wipe the smirk from his face? Would it change his altered opinion of me and my Daughter? Better yet, what if I just shot him in both legs and cracked the glass, if that was possible, leaving him there to watch as it dug its way through and attacked him?