As the convoy positioned itself in front of the control tower, Major Bradley got out of his Humvee and walked towards the back of the second deuce and a half. As the civilians hopped out of the truck he waved over his soldiers as well.
“I am going to give it to you all straight. It looks like the helos might not be coming back for us. We’ll spend the night in the tower and I’ll see if I can get ahold of someone to send something back to pick us up. If not, we’ll head out bright and early tomorrow morning.”
Turning to his soldiers Major Bradley continued, “Captain Morris take some men and clear this tower, I don’t want any nasty surprises during the night. Simmons, once the tower is clear you get up to the control room and set up your radio, see if you can contact anyone. The rest of you keep watch until the tower is clear.”
Looking back at the group of civilians he said, “You folks just hang tight here, I don’t want you wondering off. Once the tower is safe and we get inside, you can do as you like as long as you stay in the tower.”
As soon as Captain Morris and his men had cleared the tower Major Bradley ushered the civilians inside and placed a guard at the door to make sure nothing got in and no one snuck out. Heading back to his Humvee he found Specialist Simmons gathering up his radio gear.
“Simmons, I want you to get up to the top of the tower. See if you can plug into their communications equipment and contact someone at NORAD,” Major Bradley said.
“Yes sir!”
Simmons headed into the building lugging his radio equipment with him. As he disappeared Captain Morris came out and headed for Major Bradley.
“Sir, there’s no way anything is getting in that tower without going through us first.”
“Very good Captain we should be safe here tonight then. Is there anything else?”
“Yes sir, we don’t have much in the way of food for the civilians. Our men have their MREs and the lady with the kids had some food in a cooler but that’s it.”
“I figured we would eventually have to address the food supply, especially with civilians involved now.” Gesturing down the road Major Bradley continued, “We passed some warehouse buildings on the way in and I saw a number of semis parked outside of them. Top off all our vehicles with diesel and then take some of the men along with the fuel truck and refill it. While you are there, see if the men can find a break room and vending machines that might have some food and drinks. Then check over at the offices buildings across the street for the same. I know they’ll have coffee and I’ll need that in the morning.”
“Sounds good sir we’ll get right on it.”
“You and your men keep a low profile Captain, and get back here before dark. We can’t afford to lose any more men.”
As Captain Morris gathered his men and headed to the fuel truck Major Bradley turned to the group of civilians huddled next to the truck.
“Ok folks it’s safe to go inside. Make yourselves comfortable but do not try and leave the building. We will stay here for of the night.”
Speaking up from the back of the group Dave asked, “Did I hear you say something about food?”
“Don’t worry about that, I have men out gathering some,” replied Major Bradley.
“We could always help look for supplies,” said Stephen.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea son. My men are trained and armed. I don’t want to have to worry about a bunch of civilians running around. You folks just make yourselves at home in the tower.”
Major Bradley turned and motioned for one of his soldiers to herd the civilians inside. Once they were in the tower, Major Bradley grabbed his map case and headed up the stairs to find Specialist Simmons.
Stephen held the door as the others made their way into the control tower. With an annoyed look back at Major Bradley he followed the others inside. The tower was a small building to begin with but Stephen was surprised to see that the ground floor contained only an office and a stairwell leading up to the observation deck. The others shuffled into the office in front of him. The room had a window with a shade half way drawn allowing enough of the early evening light in to see a small desk with a computer, a conference table, and four chairs around it. In the corner was a file cabinet and the walls were decorated with memo papers and maps. Out of instinct Stephen closed the door behind him and sunk to the floor next to Nick. Lucy and Dave took a seat at the conference table while the lady and the two kids huddled together on the floor on the opposite side of the room.
Clearing his throat Stephen said, “I guess we should all introduce ourselves.”
“I’m Stephen, this is Nick, that’s Dave and Lucy,” he continued gesturing around the room.
“Nice to meet ya’ll, I’m Kim and these are my kids Jason and Danielle.”
“Hi,” said the two kids in unison.
“That’s a nice doll you have there Danielle,” said Lucy, “what’s her name?”
“Miss Molly,” Danielle replied sheepishly, hugging the doll closer to her chest.
“So what’s with the golf club Jason,” asked Stephen.
“My, my … dad … um gave it to me … for um … protection,” stammered Jason. “Why do you, you know, have an axe?”
“Same reason as you, for protection,” answered Stephen with a slight smile. “Well it’s nice to meet you guys considering the circumstances. Where are ya from?”
“We’re from Petersburg, Virginia; what about you guys,” replied Kim.
“Believe it or not we are from Anaheim, California.”
“California? What in the world are you doing out here?
“Kind of a funny story, but this ugly lug over here has visited almost every Six-Flags except for the one outside of D.C. so he dragged us all out here,” chimed in Nick dryly.
“And you wanted to visit your dad,” Stephen said giving Nick a look.
Stephen continued, “It’s been an interesting trip to say the least. We had no idea what we were driving into. When we left we heard of possible riots in Florida and then drove straight through and didn’t hear anything else. Things just kept getting stranger and stranger the farther east we went.”
“Yeah, things got out of control faster than anyone realized, including the military,” Kim replied nodding to the door. “I heard you guys talking about food outside, we’ve got a little in this cooler we can share until those army guys find more.”
“That would be great,” said Dave speaking up for the first time.
“Ok I’ll divide it up; I think we should save some for later too.”
Opening the cooler Kim took out some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and began splitting them in half and handing them around the room. Dave grimaced as he reached for the sandwich but soon had the whole thing stuffed in his mouth.
“Are you ok?” Kim asked Dave noticing the dark stains covering his shirt. “You didn’t get bit by one of those things did you?”
“No, no bite. It’s just my shoulder. We had a run in with some looters,” Dave replied.
“Sounds like we’ve all had a rough couple of days,” said Kim looking down at her two kids.
“This is the first chance we have to process it,” said Stephen. “It all happened so fast once we got to D.C.”
In the silence that followed it finally began to sink in for Stephen, Nick, Lucy and Dave. So much had happened in the past few days, all with no time to really understand what was happening.
Finally Nick broke the silence, “So what is going on Kim. Like Stephen said, we’ve been traveling the past couple of days and once we realized something was going on none of our Uni-phones worked. All we know is we saw a lot of people heading west, people biting and eating other people, and looters. Those … those cannibal people or infected people or whatever the army guys call them even got Emma.”
With that Dave let out a sob and buried his head in his hands.
“Real nice Nick see what you did,” said Lucy has she put a comforting hand on Dave’s shoulder.
“Who’s Emma?” asked Kim.
“She is er … was Dave’s girlfriend. Some looters kidnapped her and stole my car. That’s when Dave hurt his shoulder,” answered Nick. “We tracked them down but we all got attacked by those things and then Emma …”
“Shut up Nick, you’re not helping,” growled Lucy.
“Sorry,” mumbled Nick looking down at the ground.
As Dave continued to sob Kim got up and went over to him. Kneeling down in front of him she grabbed his hands and looked him in his eyes.
“I know what you are going through,” she said comfortingly. “I watched my husband get taken by those things. He saved our lives. I am sure you did everything you could to save her. There’s just no stopping those things.”
Dave sputtered out thanks and went back to sobbing as Kim went back to her kids and pulled them both in close as they began to quietly cry.
“I am sorry to hear about your husband,” Stephen said quietly. “It sounds like he was a brave man.”
“He was, thank you,” replied Kim as a tear rolled down her cheek.
“It seems like you’ve got a little better handle on this then we do but could you tell us what the heck is going on?” asked Stephen.
Wiping her eyes Kim responded, “It started in Florida, around Miami. At first there were just reports of rioting and random violence. But that grew out of control and then the government thought that maybe there was something causing mass hysteria. Soon they blamed it on terrorism and thought something was contaminating the water supply. Then it started to spread, quickly. Lots of cities were being overrun with the violence. Rumors were coming in that people were eating each other. They referred to them as ‘the infected.’ Before the news stations starting going dark and the power went out we heard there were evacuations zones being set up. We decided to head north to find one and well, here we are.”
“Wow, no wonder we couldn’t get anything on our Uni-phones,” said Nick.
“That would explain a lot of what we saw driving out here,” said Stephen.
“Yeah but why couldn’t the government or army stop this?” asked Nick.
“I don’t know, but I think those would be questions for Major Bradley,” answered Kim.
For the next hour the small group of civilians talked sporadically with each other, sharing their stories and their grief. They were only interrupted when Major Bradley and Captain Morris knocked on the door and entered the room each carrying a box.
“Here are some blankets and a couple couch cushions my men were able to round up for you,” Major Bradley said setting his box on the table.
This is Captain Morris he’s my XO,” he said eliciting quizzical looks from the civilians. “Kind of like my right hand man. So if any of you need anything or have a problem he’ll have the solution. His men were able to round up some food from a couple break rooms and vending machines.”
“I’ll leave you to it Captain,” Major Bradley said with a nod and then exited the office.
Captain Morris set his box on the table began to hand out a small assortment of candy bars along with a bottle of soda for everyone.
“You don’t have a diet one in there do you?” asked Lucy absent mindedly.
“Miss, I think that’s probably the least of your worries,” replied Captain Morris.
“We’ll have to ration out the food and drinks as we don’t know when we’ll find more of it,” Captain Morris continued. “I am leaving a guard right outside this door tonight so you all can sleep easy; you look like you need it.”
As he finished passing out the food, Captain Morris noticed the black gun case nestled in the few belongings that Kim had brought into the office.
“Is that your gun ma’am.”
“Um, well it was my …. my … husbands … but I guess it’s mine now,” Kim replied looking at the floor.
“Do you know how to use it,” asked Captain Morris.
“Not really,” replied Kim.
“It would probably be a good thing to know. Anyone here know how to use a gun?” asked Captain Morris as he looked around the room.
Everyone shook their head except Nick who spoke up, “Yeah I do. I used to go shooting with my dad.”
“Ok then. Let me give the rest of you a quick crash course. You know, just in case,” Captain Morris said uncertainly.
The nods around the room reassured him and he reached for the case.
“First things first, what’s the combo in case someone needs to get in,” he asked.
“Umm, 2, 3, 6, 6,” said Kim.
Captain Morris applied the combination and then opened a case to reveal a brand new Glock semi-automatic pistol. Holding it up for all the civilians to see he showed them how to hold and aim the gun. He then proceeded to show them how to turn the gun safety on and off and how to make sure there was no bullet chambered in the gun. Passing the gun around so everyone could get a feel for it, Captain Morris talked about when and how to use it safely. Finally when it came back to him, he showed how to insert and eject the ammunition clip of which there were three in the gun case. After everyone had a chance to practice loading and unloading the gun and asking any questions they had Captain Morris returned the gun to the case, locked it and handed it back to Kim.
“I hope you all can remember most of what I said. It could save your life or the lives of those around you one day,” said Captain Morris.
“Anything else before we turn in,” he asked surveying the room.
“Will we be leaving in the morning?” asked Kim.
“If we can’t get into contact with anyone we’ll leave early tomorrow.”
“Anything we can do to help?” asked Stephen.
“Tonight, no,” replied Captain Morris. “For now try to get some sleep and we’ll see you all in the morning.”
Turning on his heel Captain Morris left the room, closing the door tight behind him. The group ate their meager rations in silence and then each grabbed a blanket. Finding as comfortable of a position as they could, they settled in for a fitful, albeit much needed night’s sleep.
Chapter 12
The Benefactor
“It really is a spectacular view,” thought Dr. Sanderson. He was standing, arms folded, in front of a large row of picture windows looking out onto the beautiful snowcapped Rocky Mountains. He had been admiring this view for over a week now but was beginning to run out of patience.
The nebbish Doctor stood at five foot nine with dark brown hair that was speckled with white. In his early fifties he had, up until now, been able to maintain his slim build. He wore glasses that were usually found atop his head.
He turned around and headed back into the large den where he had spent most of his time during the past week. It was a large office space with a set of two steps leading back down from the picture windows. To the Doctor’s right was a large mahogany desk and leather chair, with rows of books lining the shelves behind it. Straight ahead of him was an oval conference table with six chairs on either side and one at each end. Notepads, folders, and various documents littered the table along with the Doctor’s personal computer. To his left, a couch was flanked by two living room chairs and a small coffee table in front of the sofa. The furniture faced a roaring fireplace with a large screen television above it. At the far end of the room were the office door and a small bar stocked with the finest spirits.
“The rest of the house is just as impressive as the view,” the Doctor mused.
After he had discovered what had happened in the Florida lab, he contacted the man who, for the last several years, had been funding the project. His generous gifts to the sciences had been well documented and he had taken Dr. Sanderson’s project to heart, claiming he thought it to be the single most important work presently being done. No one else shared his view.
After the fateful incident in Florida the Doctor had been unable to reach the benefactor directly, but through his people arranged for a meeting. The Doctor had grabbed all the mini data discs and personal n
otes from the lab and was picked up by helicopter and flown to Tampa International Airport where he was then flown, by private jet, to this mountain lodge located near Silverton, Colorado.
He had spent the last week going over his notes and reviewing the data discs trying to figure out what had happened. All he was able to discern was that all ten test subjects expired at about the same time. Data recordings showed no pulse, respiratory function, or brain activity for any of the test subjects for the better part of an hour. Shortly after he had received Keith’s frantic call, the subjects began to move. Unfortunately, that was impossible; or as impossible as modern medical science would allow. The raw medical data was at odds with what the data recordings were displaying.
By the time he reached the lab, all ten subjects had escaped and there was nothing but the nearly devoured body of his former assistant. A quick search of the premises yielded nothing; and a more thorough search of the surrounding area had been unsuccessful. He spent the next two days cleaning up the mess left behind by the test subjects before being picked up by the helicopter. His notes, thus far, had yet to shed any light on how or why this happened. He did, however, have an idea of how to proceed.
Moving into the living area, Dr. Sanderson sat on the couch and opened the drawer in the coffee table where a data disc player was housed. He put in the disc he had watched earlier and pressed play on the touch screen remote. Although it was difficult to watch, he wanted to reassure himself of his idea. It was the recording of the brutal attack on his lab assistant. He watched as Keith entered the lab for the first time to check the equipment, and then as he pressed the reset button, the lights flickering on and off. When the lights came on for good, the subjects began rising to their feet.
Dr. Sanderson sat up and leaned forward as he stared intently at the television screen. He wanted to make sure he got a good look at what happened next. As the test subjects cornered poor Keith, he began to scream for help. Test subject Number Five approached and placed a hand over the mouth of the doctor’s assistant. The others then attacked and began to tear at his clothing. Using the remote, Dr. Sanderson hit the rewind button and watched again as Number Five deliberately muffled the scream of Keith McFadden. He was sure of it.
The Zombie Principle Page 11