by David Rogers
“That’s another reason to turn you around.” Jones said. “There’s only so much to go around.”
“We’re happy to do all our retrieval elsewhere, miles from here if necessary. Macon is only half an hour to the east, for example.”
“Macon is near as bad as Atlanta is.”
Jessica suddenly hoped the subject of where they were from wouldn’t come up. If the townsfolk were jumpy enough to dislike any outsiders – because of the zombie threat – they’d probably be even less inclined to be reasonable if they learned everyone in the convoy had come straight from Atlanta. Which was the largest mass of zombies for at least five hundred miles in any direction.
“Deputy Jones, we’re a security and bodyguard outfit. We’ve got training and equipment that seems to be letting us hold our own quite well against the zombies. If we have to go in around Macon to secure supplies, we’re willing to take the risk.”
“Been dealing with a lot of zombies have you?”
Tyler shrugged. “Some. Enough to know we’re doing well so far. Look, we just want to pass through and get to our destination. Surely we can come to some sort of arrangement.”
Jones opened his mouth, but one of the tractor drivers spoke up first. “You said you’ve got a doctor?”
As the deputy turned to look at the man, Tyler simply nodded and replied. “We do.”
“A real doctor?”
“Adam, let me handle this!” Jones said angrily, and loud enough that even Jessica heard it.
“Fuck you Henry.” the tractor driver shot back. “We got people who need tending.”
“My brother has a medical degree from Emory.” Tyler said, stepping into the back and forth before Jones could speak again. “He’s a specialist in internal medicine with over twenty years of experience.”
Adam ignored the angry body language of Jones. “We’ve had our share of sick people turning into zombies, and some folks got banged up handling them.”
“Most scrapes and bruises.” Jones said loudly. “Nothing that won’t heal.”
“There are some broken bones and a couple of guys took bullets in the fighting.” Adam corrected.
“We can take care of our own.”
“They need proper treatment.”
“Adam—”
“As I said, we don’t want to cause problems. But as I also said, we’ve supplies and training. We can make sure your injured citizens are taken care of.”
“Just how is it your brother isn’t dead?” Jones shot back, his face clearly reddening.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand your question.”
The deputy waved broadly around. “When all this started, the hospitals and clinics were swamped. Then they all got taken down by zombies. That’s how we lost our local doctors, and the news said the same thing’s been happening everywhere. How is it your doctor brother didn’t end up the same way?”
“Because he was trying to find his children.” Tyler answered. “He was too busy attempting to find out if they were okay to get to a hospital. Then he found out they weren’t okay, and was preoccupied with grief and consoling his wife. Then everyone saw what was happening at the hospitals, and he realized going in at that point was a dangerous waste of time.”
“That’s awfully convenient.”
“It’s fortunate. Fortunate for his wife that she didn’t lose him too. Fortunate for us, and you if you’ll permit, that he avoided being caught up in the bloodbaths in the medical centers.”
Jones’ face was still set with stubborn anger. “Suspicious. And speaking of kids, that’s another reason we don’t need you folks coming through here.”
That seemed to throw Tyler off track. “I’m sorry?”
Jones pointed right at Candice, visible through the windshield of the lead SUV. Jessica stared at the man, uncomprehending but suddenly alarmed. She tightened her arms around her daughter protectively, while Candice flinched and stared back at the policeman. “Kids seem to have been the cause of this.”
“That’s bullshit.” Austin spoke up for the first time since the encounter started, straightening his gaze from the brief glance he’d taken in Jessica’s direction.
Heads swiveled to him, including Tyler’s, but Austin ignored Tyler and continued addressing Jones. “I’m former Army, and I had a lot of friends who were still active military. Units from here to fucking Guam had outbreaks before they left barracks. Before they got anywhere near civilians. Some of them didn’t even last until Saturday morning before every soldier was either turned or dead. You figure they had any children with them on base?”
Jones opened his mouth, but the man next to him suddenly shoved him. Hard. The deputy stumbled sideways, and his companion spoke loudly. “Shut the fuck up Henry.”
“As I keep saying, we don’t want to cause any trouble.” Tyler said quickly. Jessica felt her spine congeal into solid ice and whipped her head around to stare at him. There was a tone, something in the spaces between his words, that she didn’t like. At all.
“Where do you get off Mills?”
“You ain’t in charge.”
“I’m the only authority left in Knoxville.”
“Hell you say.” Adam bit off, his tone firm.
“Listen—” Jones began, only for Mills to round on him.
“No, you listen. We done decided yesterday we’re all in this together. That’s why we’re out here.”
“To keep everyone safe.” the deputy yelled.
“Which don’t mean what you’re trying to do.”
“We can’t just open up to refugees. We’ll all be dead inside a week.”
Mills pointed a finger right in Jones’ face. “If they were riff-raff or something, you might have a point and maybe I’d agree. But they’re not, and we could stand having people like them handy.”
“We don’t need their help!” Jones insisted.
“Adam?” Mills asked.
“I say yes.”
“Tim, George?”
The other two men up in the seats of the other tractor and bulldozer nodded, then nodded again when both Mills and Jones looked up at them.
“Four to one. Shut up Henry.” Mills said.
“Goddamnit!” the deputy swore.
“Mister . . . Morris was it?” Mills continued, turning back to face Tyler.
“Tyler Morris, yes.”
“If you’re willing to help us if we ask for it, and aren’t planning on picking the town clean, then I think we’ve got a way to work with each other.”
“I’m sure we do. If you’ll give us the afternoon and night to get settled in at our facility, tomorrow we can make some arrangements to treat your injured citizens.”
“That’ll be just fine. Ain’t none of them so bad off they can’t hold on until morning. You ain’t planning on doing any coming and going until tomorrow are you?”
“How do you mean?”
Mills gestured in the direction of the road beyond the roadblock. “We’re on shift here until dark, and it’ll take some time to get word out to everyone we’ve got picked to sit on the roads. Not all of them have radios yet. It’ll save you having to have this conversation again if you let us make sure they all know you’re okay.”
“That won’t be a problem.” Tyler nodded. “Thank you for that.”
Mills nodded back. “Come by the town hall tomorrow morning with your brother and we’ll go from there.”
He turned to one of the tractor drivers, who reached for the keys. As the farm vehicle’s engine started up with a rough rumble, Tyler said something very quietly to Austin before heading back to his car. Austin took a long look around the area, then another down the length of the line of convoy vehicles. As Jessica heard the BMW’s door shut, he checked forward again, made a circling motion in the air with his right hand, then got into the SUV and closed the door. He didn’t unsling his MP5.
Jessica continued studying him, trying to do it out of the corner of her eye. When he wanted to he could be hard to read, bu
t she’d gotten more used to him during the hours coming down from north Atlanta. She wasn’t entirely sure, but she thought she was catching a bit of a frustrated vibe in his expression. It was all but buried beneath what she was coming to recognize as his professional face, but looking past the set lines of impassivity she was certain something else was there.
“We’ll be there in just a few minutes.” Austin said as the tractor finished backing off the road, clearing the right hand lane. The cars and trucks behind the main line of the roadblock were several car lengths back, and spaced out so it wouldn’t be difficult to weave around them.
“Do you think we’re going to have any . . . trouble?” Jessica asked after a moment.
“What? No.” Austin said, turning to look at her finally. His tone sounded surprised, but she still saw that bit of something in his face.
“Austin, seriously.”
“We’re fine.” he said, flashing a reassuring smile. “We’re almost there. Relax.”
“What did they mean it was my fault?” Candice asked.
Both adults blinked, and Jessica had to catch herself before she spoke too quickly, before she let too much worry and fear appear in her voice. “Sweetie, they’re just scared. People say things they don’t mean, that they don’t understand, when they’re scared.”
“But—”
“None of this is your fault.” Austin said calmly.
“They’re just scared.” Jessica repeated, hugging Candice to her. “Being brave takes a lot out of someone. It’s hard to be brave all the time. They’re just scared and tired.”
Candice cranked her head up at an odd angle so she could see her mother’s face. Jessica smiled down at her and hugged her again. “I promise. You’re being brave. They are too, they’re just not as good at it as you are.”
“Being brave sucks.” Candice said after a few moments, and Jessica laughed.
“You’re still not wrong.”
“Your mom’s right girlie-girl.” Austin put in. “And so are you. We’re almost there. We’ll be safe.”
Lights started flashing briefly behind them, one after the other as the tail-end SUV signaled it was ready. Austin shifted into drive and popped the parking brake while Candice seemed to ponder what the adults were telling her. Jessica kissed the top of her daughter’s head and rocked her a few times.
Austin led the convoy through the roadblock at just past a walking pace, weaving around the parked vehicles. They hit clear asphalt and waited for everyone to catch up, then he pushed the speed up to forty. Jessica kept her arms around Candice and glanced around curiously at the scenery as they headed into town. Rural farmland quickly gave way to rural settlement, with houses that were actually within sight of one another, then some small business like feed stores and small shops, and finally changing over to modern Americana establishments familiar anywhere in the country.
They passed a Piggly Wiggly grocery store and an Ace Hardware that was much larger than the little strip mall style ones Jessica was used to seeing in Atlanta, plus an easy double handful of recognizable food franchises like McDonald’s and Waffle House. They mingled with houses, which was unusual to Jessica’s eyes, but were also intermixed between some obvious government buildings. Right in the midst of the heaviest concentration of commercial buildings they came to a major intersection with signs proclaiming it was State Route 128.
Austin turned right and headed west. The crush, such as it was, of development eased back off to less driven levels, and they soon came across signs indicating ‘Roberta Industrial Park Airport’ was coming up.
“Almost there.” he remarked.
“There’s an airport here?” Jessica asked, surprised.
“Just a little one.”
“How little?”
“Little.” he shrugged. “It’s a grass strip. Local pilots use it, and occasionally Eagle will fly important clients in, but if you’re seeing airport and thinking jets or something, that’s not what it’s for.”
“How can an airplane land on grass?” Candice asked.
“Carefully.” Austin said in a humorous tone. “And only if it’s a small plane. Like maybe five or six people small. At least here.”
“Oh.”
“And here’s our turn.” Austin said. On the right was a painted wooden sign and a gravel driveway leading to a small building with a three story tower attached to it, but on the left there was a small paved road with a stone marker next to it. As he turned the SUV to the left, Jessica saw an Eagle emblem carved subtly on the stone, above the letters ESEP.
“This is small.” Candice said, shifting up to better see over the dashboard. The road was smoothly paved, but wasn’t a full two-lanes of width. It stretched out through thick stands of pines and conifers without any shoulders to speak of, nor any painted edge or divider markings.
“Eagle tries to be subtle. We’re out in the sticks, but the facility is here because we used it for training. When you’ve got a dozen or so guys on the firing line that makes noise.”
“The airport doesn’t mind the noise?”
“No.” he shook his head. “At least I’ve never heard of them complaining any.”
“How close are we going to be to anyone else?”
“I think the closest house or whatever is about two and a half miles. Eagle owns most of the land around the facility specifically to maintain a buffer zone so people don’t move in and start bitc—uh, complaining about noise.”
“Remote but not too remote.”
“You got it. It should work out well for what we need it for now.”
Jessica nodded and fell silent. The road stretched straight back through the trees quite a ways, well past a mile, until she finally saw a heavy duty chain link fence up ahead. The trees ended about fifty feet from the fence to reveal neatly trimmed grass and the entire facility.
It was larger than Jessica had expected. There was a three story building that looked remarkably like a hotel, save for any sort of signage indicating it was owned by any hospitality company. Two other buildings, sheet metal braced with wood, were off to the right of the taller building, and behind all three she saw a huge expanse of land. There were some sections that had been cleared down to dirt back there, and in places she saw some white and silver colored posts she couldn’t figure out.
The road was laid to roll right up to the tall building, which had a covered drive-through area at the front and a parking lot with what looked like thirty or thirty-five spaces. There was a second length of pavement that connected the other two buildings to the entrance. A pair of small wooden buildings, well-constructed but barely large enough for a single person to fit inside, stood to the side of the gate on both sides of the fence. The gate itself had a large sign, white metal with raised black lettering that was reflective to be extra attention gathering.
Eagle Security and Executive Protection
Knoxville Training Facility and Firing Range
Private Property – no trespassing beyond this point
Warning – firearms are in use
Please use call box to announce yourself.
“Okay, sit tight.” Austin said as he stopped ten feet from the gate. He checked the area carefully, then slid out. Jessica glanced around, then back to him as he went over to the outside guard house and opened the door. She noticed he stood back from the door as he opened it, his hand hovering near his weapons, and waited several seconds before stepping into the doorway. After a few seconds the gate began rolling back, and he came out.
“Who’s that on the roof?” Candice asked as Austin walked back.
Jessica looked around, then noticed a figure on top of the tall building. Whoever it was crouched on the near edge, studying the convoy. They weren’t doing anything aside from watching. “I don’t know.”
“Can I ask Austin?”
“It’s probably someone who works for Eagle.”
“How can you know?”
“Okay, ask Austin then.” Jessica said, though she
felt certain the man already knew someone was on the roof. He had demonstrated far too much competence for her to expect him to have missed the rooftop observer.
“Who’s that up there?” Candice asked Austin when he reached the SUV and opened the door.
“Up there?” he said, looking up at the roof as he got in.
“Yes.”
“I’m not sure yet, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s probably Lori.”
“Who’s Lori?”
“Lori is one of the instructors who works here.”
“What does she teach?”
“Hang on a second girlie-girl.” Austin said. He reached for his radio and pressed the button. “Scott, Carter.”
“Right here.”
“When you’re through, stop and close the gate. It’s the big green button. Works just like a garage door opener.”
“Got it.”
Austin released the radio and put the SUV in gear. “Lori teaches marksmanship and firearms maintenance.”
“What’s marksmanship?”
“Shooting guns.”
“A girl?” Candice asked after a few moments, after the SUV had cleared the gate.
“Sure, why not?”
“I . . . I don’t know. It just seems odd.”
“Well, I think you might like Lori.” Austin said as he followed the road. “She’s tough.”
“Tough like you.”
“Oh yeah.” Austin said, his tone pitched to convey understatement.
Jessica found herself smiling. “She must be quite a woman.”
“Oh yeah.” he repeated.
“You’re pretty tough.” Candice said as they reached the shaded area under the tall building’s drive-through.
“So is Lori.”
“Wow.”
“Wow indeed.” Austin said, shutting the SUV off for the first time since they’d left Johns Creek and turning to wink at her. Candice giggled, and he made his eyebrows wiggle up and down a few times before turning to look around outside his window. He checked, but it was a quicker check than he normally made before he opened the door.