by Brown, TW
“So?” Samantha pouted. Looking up at the faces of her two fellow scientists, she saw the same sense of doom and surrender in their eyes that was trying to establish a foothold in her spirit. “We have the radio…somebody may call someday, and when they do, we will be able to say that we have the possible immunization. Between now and then, we can all just work on creating more.”
“We aren’t getting out!” Lena slapped the table and stormed out, leaving Samantha and Darlene alone in uncomfortable silence.
Finally, Darlene was able to speak. “That was a really brave thing that you did,” she whispered.
“But it may be too little, too late.”
“Why? Because Lena says so? She doesn’t have nearly as many of the answers as she would have you believe.”
They sat in silence for a few more minutes. Neither one could take her eyes off the monitors.
Eventually, Darlene looked at Samantha with raised eyebrows. The woman sighed and nodded. Darlene walked over to the button and smacked it with the palm of her hand.
“Everyone remain calm, the emergency containment protocols have been activated…please stand by.”
She returned to the chair beside the bed and reached over to take Samantha’s hand. The two sat silently for several minutes before Darlene got up and walked over to switch off the monitors.
“I’ve seen that show before…the ending sucks,” she said in a feeble attempt to make a joke.
In the living quarters, Lena sat in her room watching the emergency light flicker in its syncopated pulse. Two short flashes…one long flash…two short flashes…one long flash…
Reaching in her desk, she rummaged around until she found the bottle of pills. Pulling it out, she stared at the label. She had no idea for how long, but at some point, the computer voice had begun a countdown.
“Sterilization will occur in ten…nine…eight…”
Lena opened the bottle.
“Seven…six…five…”
Dumping the contents into the palm of her hand, she grabbed the half-consumed bottle of water.
“Four…three…two…one.”
***
Slider stepped out of his tent. The day was cold, cloudy and might even see the first snowfall of winter. None of that mattered to Chuck “Slider” Monterro. He felt like it was the first day of spring.
The bustle of the camp was soothing and helped him dredge up his feelings of being human. It always took him a while after a job to feel like he was part of the normal world. When he was Slider, he was void of anything resembling humanity. That was the only way that pleas and begging could roll off him without causing him to hesitate even for a second.
He scanned the faces coming out of the mess tent and was pleased to see Sergeant Jody Rafe amidst those entering. Pulling on his jacket, Chuck ambled across the camp and took his place in line. He grabbed his tray like everybody else and went past each steaming hotel pan, nodding at some, shaking his head at others.
He spotted Rafe and made his way to the young man’s table. A pair of soldiers were sitting across from the sergeant laughing and acting like all was right in the world. Chuck sat down without asking and ignored the greetings of the two men who were falling over themselves to welcome the new arrival.
“I need to talk to you alone.” Chuck picked up his coffee and took a sip, then set the cup back down. “Now.”
He didn’t raise his voice, but then, there really was no need. The two young men hastily gathered their trays and scrambled to get away from the table. Jody tried to meet the gaze of the man sitting across from him and found he could not. He picked up his fork and shoveled in a mouthful of food, discovering that it had lost absolutely all flavor.
“You got some good men killed the other day,” Chuck said. He didn’t whisper, but his voice wouldn’t be heard by anybody but the two men sitting at this table. “You went into a situation using almost none of your resources correctly and it cost you something that we cannot afford.”
“How was I supposed to—” Jody began.
“You won’t talk,” Chuck instructed. “You will listen and you will learn. You aren’t fighting a human enemy. You are fighting abominations that don’t think or feel. So, you need to change and adapt to them. Also, you have a situation with the local population that requires some adjustments.”
“Those two men that we questioned,” Jody spoke after the grim-faced man across nodded. “They said the mayor and the chief of police are planning on holding a town meeting where it will be suggested that we be expelled from their town. Considering that they lost less than ten percent of the population, our estimates have them at just over two thousand citizens. There are only forty-six of us. They have us out-manned and, if our figures are even close on the conservative side…drastically out-gunned.”
“The mayor won’t be holding any meetings,” Chuck said after scooping up a spoonful of oatmeal. “That should be making the rounds shortly. This gives us a brief window, and we must seize the advantage right now. Tonight.”
Jody studied the man’s face. He tried to see something in the eyes that he could identify as evil. All he saw was the man everybody looked up to and respected. Yet, when the man spoke, there was something in his voice that made the hairs on the back of Jody’s neck stand up.
“I don’t understand,” Jody finally admitted.
“No,” Chuck said around a mouthful of toast, “you don’t. I am here to see that you do.”
“But I thought you were just—”
“The captain gave me papers yesterday. I am officially an enlisted man in the world’s most powerful military force.”
“So I imagine he made you the sergeant.”
“I am here to educate you, Jody.”
“Educate?”
“The world is over as we know it. The only way we will survive is through planning and discipline. As much as it would be easy to walk away from the good people of Bald Knob, Arkansas…they have a purpose.”
“And what would that be?” Jody wasn’t at all sure where this was going. It felt surreal and a bit creepy, like a scene from a horror movie. If it played out the way the movies did, then the man across from him would be the power mad soldier representing the evils of government and “The System” and it would be him, Sergeant Jody Rafe, who would eventually have to stop him. He hoped to God that this wasn’t like in the movies.
“First we need to secure the population. Tonight, we need to act fast and go house by house, starting with the remaining law enforcement. We get the people under our control and determine which ones are potential threats and which ones will accept our authority.”
“And what do we do with those who won’t?” Jody didn’t think he would be surprised by the answer, but he needed to hear it for himself from this man. Then, as soon as he could get away, he would go to the captain.
“The days of locking people up are behind us. It would be a waste of our very finite food resources,” Chuck explained. He spoke so matter-of-factly that Jody was almost swayed by the logic. “From the reports I have read, we don’t currently have enough to get through the winter. Culling the population will actually be beneficial to everybody.”
“Everybody except the ones being culled,” Jody grumbled.
“I understand that you may have issues of conscience.”
“Issues of conscience!” Jody couldn’t help but raise his voice. A few heads turned their way, but it seemed that as soon as they found Chuck’s gaze, they quickly returned to their meals…or left.
“I have to start with you, Sergeant Rafe,” Chuck said in his flat, calm voice. “I need you to bring the men into the fold on this. Coming from you will mean much more than if it comes from me.”
“What?” Now Jody was puzzled. This man was a legend of mythical proportions for the men of the “Gunslingers of Arkansas.” Of course, Jody was beginning to see that there may be more fact than myth in the stories that had been circulated.
“If the men hear the orders
from me, they will follow, but they will be doing so out of a misplaced sense of hero worship. When they start to see me as just a man…and they will…you will…then there will be second-guessing. When we embark on this mission, it must be with the certainty that we are doing the right thing for the right reasons.”
Jody felt his head swim. He was just a “normal” soldier. None of what this man said made any sense to him. If he was hearing the man correctly—and the sick feeling in his stomach told him that he was—then he was about to conquer a city. An American city. These people were the ones he’d taken an oath to “protect against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Was he about to become the enemy?
“So, what I need from you, Jody, is I need to hear you tell me that you understand, and that you are the man I can trust. I will help you…train you. What you are about to undertake will give you a few bouts with your conscience, but you need to remember that it is our duty to re-establish the country we love and want to see rise from the ashes like the phoenix.”
“This is madness.”
“Yes,” Chuck nodded, “it certainly is. If you didn’t feel that way, then I would be worried that I had the wrong man.”
Now Jody was even more confused. Chuck saw that look on the young man’s face and decided that now it was time to let the second shoe drop.
“You and I will be leading these men together. The captain wants us to secure this place by any means necessary, but I am not the right choice for that, Jody. I’m sure you have heard all the rumors about my history of service…and some of it is true. My specialty is to remove threats. I am not the person who needs to be put in charge. That is why I need you.”
“Need me?”
“Kid,” Chuck picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip as he locked eyes with the young man across from him, “if I ran this show, it would become the sort of dictatorship that I’ve been sent in time after time to cut the head off of. You won’t let that happen, will you?”
Jody finally figured out what he saw in the man’s eyes that he’d been trying to decipher. It was pain. This man had a pain so deep that he no longer even felt it.
“N-no, I won’t.”
“Good,” Chuck stood up, “then get the men mustered in the OPS tent in one hour and let’s get this started. It has to be tonight while they are struggling to figure out their own command structure. And that is your first lesson, Sergeant Rafe. If you cut off the head of a government, it is like the mythical hydra. It will grow a new one. You need to control the beast before that happens.”
Jody watched the man leave. He tried to make sense of anything that had just happened. It all felt too confusing. He looked down at his plate of barely touched eggs, grits and toast. He’d been famished when he came in, but now he had no appetite whatsoever. He had a feeling that was about to become the norm.
18
Geek-a-go-go
Kevin felt his eyes burning as he struggled to make out the labels in the weak light of the candle he’d lit and placed on the counter. So far, he’d found enough anti-depressant medication to live a dozen lives of bliss.
He had also discovered an abundance of antibiotics. Not wanting to make this trip a total waste if he didn’t discover what he’d come for, Kevin had stuffed all the creams and pills with “antibiotic” on the label into his pack. However, his search for clozapine was coming up empty.
He paused for a moment and finally decided to put the bottle of Viagra back. For one, he hadn’t noticed any difficulties in that department as of yet, and for another, he wasn’t sure he’d be needing it anytime soon anyways with as pissed as Aleah had been when he left.
Looking at the shelves of little white bags, Kevin realized that he might be here for hours doing this by himself. Judging by the gloom outside, he didn’t think he had hours left before the candle was his only source of light.
He moved to the next bin and started going through the labels. He was surprised at how many drugs started with the letter “C”. But each time he looked closer, his heart sank. He really wished that he knew if it had a generic name, or if there were similar drugs that did the same thing. This was simply an area that he had no experience with and had never bothered to learn about. He only knew about clozapine because he had heard somebody mention it in a college psychology class. He didn’t really remember much about what was being discussed that day other than schizophrenia and somebody mentioning the drug he now sought.
Twice Kevin thought he hit the jackpot, only to be disappointed. He was now squinting to see and feared he might have to spend the night in this place. He did not relish the idea of unrolling his sleeping bag behind the counter. And then there was Peter. The last he’d seen the man, he was tromping off in the snow yelling like an idiot.
Kevin immediately felt guilty for using that word, even in his mind. The man had been trying to help. And, truth be told, Kevin had to admit that he had a point about them being trapped in here if they’d both come inside. He hadn’t realized just how difficult this task was going to be until he saw the shelves with all the prescriptions sitting in rows like CDs in a music store.
Glancing at the front of the store, he guessed he would have another twenty minutes at the most until it would be dark. At that point, he could still work with the candlelight, but his concern was whether it would begin to attract zombies. Stopping for a second to clear the spots that were starting to dance before his eyes, Kevin stepped out from behind the counter and wandered up one of the aisles. Grabbing a box that contained eye drops, he tore it open and was disappointed to find the contents almost frozen solid. He tossed it aside and headed back to resume his search when he heard a thud against the front window that made him jump.
It was Peter.
Kevin walked slowly to the front of the store. He feared what he would see when he got closer. Peter raised a hand and slapped weakly at the big window once again. Kevin stepped out of the shadows and Peter pressed both hands against the glass. Kevin noticed something dark trickling down the window.
He took a deep breath and drew his blade. He would do what needed to be done quickly for two reasons. He didn’t want Peter walking around like one of them, and he didn’t want those things coming on the poor bastard’s heels. He still had some searching to do and couldn’t stop now. His reasons had just grown to include not wanting Peter’s death to be in vain.
When he moved around the checkout counter, Peter—or what used to be Peter King—stepped back from the window. The moment his head was out of the shadow of the building’s overhang, Kevin could see the eyes.
They were normal!
Kevin rushed to the door and Peter followed, although he was staggering a bit and leaving a trail of blood in the snow. Kevin looked past the man and noticed that all the activity had drawn the attention of a few zombies that were trying to trudge across the parking lot.
“Duck inside,” Kevin urged. “I will swap out with you and take down the few coming this way.”
“No,” Peter said with a shake of his head. “I just had to get to you and let you know that one of them got me. I am going to draw these away, too, I just didn’t want you to be sitting here waiting for me. The snowmobile is still parked at the baseball diamond. Find the meds and get back to the gang.”
“I can’t just let you go like this,” Kevin replied.
“You don’t have a choice.” Peter looked over his shoulder at the few coming his way. They had closed less than a quarter of the distance and were struggling in the deep snow. “I am going to draw these things away. I won’t be coming home with you.”
“But I can’t let you turn into one of them.”
“Trust me…that won’t happen. I found enough of those damn things that I will be able to dive into the mob and not leave enough of me to come back as anything.”
“But you might—”
“I’m not,” Peter interrupted. “You can feel it…taste it. I will break off a mirror from a car or something when I go and keep checking my eyes jus
t to be absolutely certain, but don’t wait around for me.”
“Be certain,” Kevin warned. “I can’t see myself leaving here before morning. If you stay clear of symptoms, get your ass back here.”
“Tell Shari that I really did care about her,” Peter said after another check on the approaching zombies. “And keep an eye on Erin. Post-natal depression is a very real thing. Her body may be so screwed up hormonally that she can’t deal with anything.”
Great, Kevin thought, it’s bad enough to be dealing with Valarie…now I gotta worry about a hormonally imbalanced teenager. Wasn’t that an oxymoron?
“I will,” Kevin promised. “And you make sure you are infected before you do anything stupid like stage dive into a zombie mosh pit.”
“One more thing,” Peter said. This time he leaned in close to the glass door and placed one hand on it. “I know that you and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye, and I guess I figured that I was going to be the smartest guy in the bunch. I think I was jealous of you and how together you are when it comes to all of this.”
“Peter…” Kevin wasn’t comfortable with the praise and didn’t really know how to respond.
“No, seriously,” Peter continued. “You keep making all of these runs out into the hell this world has become. You are the one who should be staying safe behind the walls. The rest of them won’t last the winter without you. So make it back and then stay put for a while.”
“I just…” Kevin was at a loss.
“Take care.” With that, Peter turned and faced the handful of zombies that were now almost upon him.
Making a loud whoop, he started off down the front of the store. Kevin dropped into the shadows and watched as the man disappeared from view. Sure enough, the zombies stopped advancing towards the store. One by one they turned and began to shamble off in pursuit of their quarry.
Kevin stepped behind the counter. He struggled with the idea of wanting to help Peter, but knew that there was really nothing that he could do. The only choice he had now was to honor his wishes and complete the task at hand.