We follow Aaron as he winds his way through the dead bodies scattered near the gate. With our guns at the ready, we move together as one big pack, watching each others backs. Any zombie that comes within a ten feet is taken out with a quick shot to the head, and we don’t hang around to make sure they don’t get back up. We just keep moving, making our way to the nearest building on the base.
Aaron holds open the door and we all quickly file inside, spreading out to check each nook and cranny for any signs of bodies, either dead or alive. When our search turns up no sign of bodies, we close the door and lock it behind us, giving us a moment to rest without having to constantly look over our shoulders. I fall onto a couch beside Todd, and he puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me closer.
“What is this place?” he asks, taking a quick look at all the chairs and couches around us.
Aaron looks at me. “My guess is they tried to make this place as comfortable as possible, probably for whatever guards were stationed at the front gate. When they switched after their shift, they came here to unwind and relax, maybe get some sleep, before it was their turn again. There isn’t really any other use for a room this close to the gate.”
Aaron plops down into a comfortable chair, and I can almost see him slowly begin to relax. Everyone else finds a place to sit, and for a minute, we all just enjoy the safety and the silence. None of us are really in a hurry to begin planning, or to go back out there and face whatever is waiting for us at the door. So we just sit back and kick our feet up for the first real rest we’ve had in awhile.
After we catch our breath, Aaron gets up and takes the floor. The first thing he does is turn to Michael. “You’re the one with the most experience around an airbase like this one. Do you have any idea where the supplies and weapons would be? Any time you can save us would be to our advantage.”
“My guess is the weapons would be near the center of the base, so everyone could get to them in a hurry in the event of an emergency. That’ll be our best bet. The supplies could be anywhere, though. Probably near the kitchens.”
Todd snorts. “Ya think?” We all ignore his remark, and instead focus on Aaron again.
“Alright. We’ll head back out, and we’ll make our way to the center of the base. If there’s anything left here, let’s hope they’re not too far apart. I don’t feel like running all over this base, playing keep away with a bunch of zombies.”
“Does anybody?” Todd mutters under his breath.
“Do we get some more rest, or do we go now?”
“I think we should go now,” Allen says. “I don’t like the thought of leaving our people stranded out in the middle of nowhere for any longer than we have to. Especially with the baby. It’s crying will attract zombies from all over. We have to make this as fast as possible.”
“Then we’ll leave now. Everyone, do a quick weapons check. Let me know what you’ve got left.”
I still have my last two magazines in my sweater pocket, but Aaron is running on empty, so I hand one of them over to him. Between the rest of the group, there isn’t much more ammunition to go around. Not nearly enough for all of the zombies hanging around. If there isn’t any ammunition here on base, we’ll all be in serious trouble.
With one hand on the door, Aaron looks at all of us. “Is everyone ready?”
We all nod, and Aaron throws open the door.
Chapter Eighteen
A zombie lunges at Aaron, and he brings his gun down, crushing the monster’s skull. It crumples to the ground and we leap over it, running like our lives depend on it. We move together as one group, making sure that nobody is more than an arm’s length away at any time. There are only a handful of zombies hanging around, and we make sure to give them a wide berth. Some of them don’t even look up as we run by.
Of our group, Michael has the most experience on an air base, so we let him take the lead. We keep to the shadows as Michael leads us through the base. The buildings are a lot more spaced out than I would have thought, and Michael whispers that it’s to prevent them all from being bombed at the same time during a hypothetical attack. That way the enemy had to circle around again, giving them time to mount a defense.
Since I don’t know the first thing about air bases or military life in general, I take him at his word and keep quiet when he hushes me. I hunker down beside Michael in the shadows of a building as we check our weapons. The nearest building is about sixty feet ahead of us, and it’s all flat, open space occupied by a group of zombies that are wandering around aimlessly.
My palms are sweating and my heart is pounding in my chest at the thought of having to run straight through this sea of flesh-eating monsters. We wait for a few breaths until a part opens up, and then we’re off and running for our lives once again. Todd runs by my side, using his shotgun to knock down any zombie that gets too close. As we run, the zombies begin converging on us. I raise my gun and squeeze the trigger. A zombie drops to the ground and doesn’t move again, but another quickly replaces it.
Bullets begin ripping into the zombies from behind, and their bodies jerk with the impact. They begin dropping like flies, and we don’t wait around to see what happens next. Aaron leads us through an opening, shooting as we go. A zombie reaches out for me, and I ram my elbow into the side of its head, knocking it to the ground. Daisy’s hand reaches out for mine, and I take it, pulling her along so she doesn’t get left behind.
The bullets are coming from an open doorway in front of us, and we run for it. Once we’re all inside, the door slams shut behind us and a man puts a long piece of metal through the handles, creating an effective barrier between us and the zombies waiting outside. When he turns around, he narrows his eyes at us. “Are you people fucking crazy?”
We’re all hunched over, trying to catch our breath and calm our nerves. Aaron is the first to recover, and when he does, he stands and offers his hand to our savior. The man takes it slowly, looking over our group in the process. I can only imagine how we must look in the eyes of a stranger. We’re all tired and dirty and hungry, and we’re at our rope’s end. This helicopter is our last hope, and I’m sure it shows by now.
“Thank you for saving us,” Aaron says, shaking the stranger’s hand.
“You’re welcome,” he says stiffly. “Mind telling me what you’re doing here? This place has been dead for some time. If you were looking for sanctuary, you’re shit out of luck.”
“We knew this place had been overrun some time ago,” Michael says, stepping forward. “We came here hoping to find leftover supplies and weapons, and a helicopter to take us to Colorado.” When the stranger lifts an eyebrow and doesn’t say anything, Michael adds, “I’ve got experience flying.”
“Are there any supplies left?” Aaron asks. He motions to our group. “We’re hungry and we’re out of ammunition. We won’t make it far without them.”
The stranger looks all of us over, and as he’s staring at me, I notice the patch on what’s left of his uniform. It says Roberts in black stitching. Roberts nods his head slowly. “Yes, there are still supplies here. Everything happened too fast for those leaving to gather supplies or weapons.”
“What happened here?” Aaron asks, looking around.
The small room we currently find ourselves in looks like someone has been squatting in here for months. There’s garbage all over the place. The only clear space on the floor is in the corner, where a green sleeping back is spread out with a couple of blankets and pillows. There’s a bucket in the opposite corner that can only be used for one thing, and I try not to cringe at the thought of being shut up in this room for days at a time.
“The place got overrun,” Roberts says quietly. “About three months ago. I don’t know how those things managed to get in, but once the first zombie got through that perimeter, this whole place fell within eighteen hours. There was so much confusion and panic as people were trying to get their families to safety, but it was no use. People were dying left and right, and many of them came bac
k and started killing. Many of the men and women here couldn’t stand to put down their own children, and they paid the price for it.”
“Did anyone make it out alive?” I ask, trying not to think about all of the children.
“A few did,” Roberts says. “They grabbed what they could and ran, not even bothering to try and defend this place. After a certain point, we realized it was hopeless. I don’t blame them for abandoning this place. I don’t know what happened to those people in the months since—my guess is they’re all dead and I’m the only one left.”
“How have you managed to survive here by yourself for so long?”
“I’m careful. The supplies are in the building next door, and I only venture out when the coast is absolutely clear. If there are even a handful of them out there, I’ll hide out in here until its safe, even if that means I have to starve for a few days. I can’t afford to take any chances. Not with the state the country is in right now.”
“It’s a madhouse out there,” Aaron says quietly. “I heard there isn’t much left along the east coast.”
“There isn’t much left anywhere,” Roberts says grimly. “Before this place fell, we were getting semi-regular reports from a few other strongholds around the country, and their reports were less than promising.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“I mean, our troops were falling left and right. No place is safe for long, not with the dead constantly coming. We hoped they would eventually begin to starve or turn on each other and begin dying off, but that didn’t happen. Their numbers just kept increasing and increasing with no end in sight. The last I heard, right before this place fell about three months ago…the total population was about eight hundred thousand.”
“Less than a million people?” Aaron asks, horrified.
“Yeah, and I like I said, that was three months ago. For all I know, it could be less than a thousand by now. I should have hope that the strongholds in Florida, California, Michigan, and Texas have managed to hold out, but honestly, I don’t. I think they’re gone just like this one. And if that’s true, this country doesn’t belong to us anymore. It officially belongs to the dead. We’re living in a zombie country, and it’s only a matter of time before we’re all dead.”
“You don’t believe that,” I say, surprising him. “If you really believed that we’ll all die sooner or later, you would have given up by now. You wouldn’t be hiding out in here, being careful and fighting to survive. You would have killed yourself, but you haven’t. You still have hope, even if you don’t know it.”
He hesitates, before sighing. “You’re right. I do still have hope. We were in contact with a small scientific military research center in Montana. A scientist there thought he was close to possibly finding a cure. A way to reverse the effects. He claimed to be making progress. But once this place went down…well, it’s hard to know if he’s still working, or if he’s even still alive.”
“Wait a minute,” I say, almost breathlessly. “When you say, ‘a way to reverse the effects’, what exactly do you mean?”
“I mean, he was trying to turn them back into people. And he was having some small success with his attempts. There very well may be a cure by now. He had already determined that certain people were immune to whatever this is, but he wasn’t able to figure out what made them immune. He was taking their blood and introducing it into the blood of those infected, and the immune blood combated the virus, driving it from the infected people. Unfortunately, even if he finalizes a cure, he won’t be able to distribute it himself. He’d have to get to Detroit, where the virus originated, and he wouldn’t stand a chance of getting there by himself.”
“There’s a cure,” Daisy says quietly. I look back at her, and I see her eyes wide with wonder and hope. Real, tangible hope. For the first time since the school fell, she actually looks like she thinks life might be worth living after all. It pains me to see her looking so happy, because I know it can’t last forever. Sooner or later, something will happen to dash that hope, and she’ll be even worse off than before.
Roberts nods his head. “I believe there is, or will be some day. It’s just a matter of surviving until then.” He looks at our group, and I think I can see pity in his eyes. “If you’re serious about that helicopter, I’ll help you get there. Once the commotion out there dies down a bit, I’ll take you to gather up some supplies, and you can be on your way.”
“Not all of us are leaving on the chopper,” Allen says. He motions to himself and Chad. “We’ve got a bus and a group waiting for us outside the city. We just came with our friends for supplies and more ammunition, and then we’ll be getting back on our bus and heading for a supposed safe house in Chicago. You’d be more than welcome to come with us if you want,” Allen offers. “It might not be as safe out there, but you’d be with other people who could watch your back.”
“I’ll think about it,” Roberts say. And from the way he looks at our group longingly, I believe him.
Roberts makes us all wait around in his little hidey hole until the coast is clear. Every so often, he goes to one of the boarded up windows and he looks through the cracks, checking to see how many are still out there. I can tell Allen is trying not to be too impatient, but it’s hard to sit around waiting when you remember there are other people outside the city waiting for any sign of your return. He and Chad pass the time by making a game plan in the corner, and we leave them alone.
Todd and I sit together on the floor, and Janelle comes over and joins us. As she and I begin to talk, I realize that I know almost nothing about this woman, despite the fact that we’ve been through so much together as a group. When I ask her about her life before all of this happened, she gets a smile on her face as she recalls her fondest memories.
“I was working part-time in a coffee shop while I was going to school in Connecticut to become a teacher. I’ve always loved kids, and I knew since I was in middle school that I wanted to work with them when I got older. After I graduated high school, I moved away from my family in order to focus more on my studies, but I would go home once a month for a family dinner with my parents, and my older sister and her children. I loved my nieces and nephew, and I couldn’t wait to have kids of my own someday.”
Her eyes start to go blank as she thinks about her family, and she doesn’t speak again until I gently prod her. “Janelle?”
She shakes her head to clear it and continues. “I was actually home for my monthly visit when all hell broke loose. People were rioting in the streets; there was so much panic and confusion. They were turning on their friends and neighbors. My parents died when the store they were at caught fire. A whole bunch of people got trapped, and when they didn’t come home, it was just me, my sister, and her kids. Since I didn’t have anyone that really needed me, I volunteered to be the one to gather supplies when we ran low. I came back from gathering supplies one day…and they were gone. There was blood everywhere…” She looks away, but not before I see the tears.
“Janelle, I’m so sorry.”
She takes a deep breath. “Thanks.” She looks at me. “Who have you lost?”
“I only had my parents and my boyfriend to lose. They’ve been gone for quite a few months now. Aaron found me shortly after, and I’ve been with him ever since. Part of me is glad I didn’t really have anyone else to lose, but I’m also a little sad because it means I don’t have anybody that loves me in my life, and it can get pretty lonely. I mean, Aaron is practically family now, but it’s not the same thing.”
“I know what you mean,” Janelle says. “Believe me, I know.”
“What about your cousin?” Todd asks. “Do you still hope she’s alive?”
“Now that I know there’s a possible cure…yeah, I hope she’s still managed to hang on. Before, when I thought we were all just prolonging the inevitable, I kind of wanted her to be dead just so she wouldn’t be suffering. But if there’s a chance things can be fixed, I think it’ll all be worth it, no matter how much sh
e may have suffered up to this point.”
“Guys,” Aaron says, coming over. “Roberts says the coast is clear. We’re gonna go.”
We gather our things and line up by the door. Roberts removes the metal, and we all take a deep breath. He pulls the door open, and we step out into the open air. Most of the zombies have dispersed in the last hour or so, leaving us a clear path to the nearby supply building. We run in a single file line, and Aaron closes the door behind him.
One look at the supplies lining the shelves and I’m not surprised that Roberts has managed to survive for so long by himself. There are shelves upon shelves of canned goods, MRE’s, and even packages of beef jerky. It looks like there’s enough food here to feed a small army, which isn’t surprising since that was its intended purpose.
Todd and I begin shoving supplies into our bags, packing as much food in as we can. Roberts hands us another bag from a pile in the corner while he and Aaron look over the weapons on the other side of the room. I watch as Aaron skips over the weapons, instead opting to stuff our bags with as much ammunition as he can fit. He shoves one final box of shotgun shells in and zips the bag closed.
Soon, we all have a backpack of some kind. Todd, Daisy, Janelle, and I have backpacks full of food. They weigh a ton, and I hope they don’t slow us down too much. Aaron and Michael have backpacks full of ammunition, and we take more off the shelves and shove them into our pockets. Once we have all that we can carry, Aaron turns to Roberts. “We need to find a helicopter. Can you take us to one that can get us to Colorado?”
Roberts nods. “It’ll be close, but I think there’s one left that can make the trip. It’s not too far from here, but I have to warn you, the zombies like to hang around in that area. It’ll be difficult to get there in one piece.”
Zombie Country (Zombie Apocalypse #2) Page 24