by Dave Lund
“Shit.”
“Yeah, shit is right,” Lance continued, “and I’m not sure how we’re going to be able to stop this in time to save anyone, if we can stop it at all. Some of the models we’ve run in the past couple of days have made it look like nearly a ninety-nine percent mortality rate, globally. This is a mass extinction event.”
“Okay, where do you think we’re at right now?”
“My best guess, a bit over a month into it, is probably about ninety percent mortality. If we actually find any survivors out there, we’re going to need to quarantine them for at least two days after a physical search for bite marks, just to keep ourselves safe.”
“Got it. Anything else you could use down here?” Cliff said.
“Yeah, let me take my nap and leave us alone to work,” Lance replied.
“Roger that. Let me know if you need anything else. I have some airmen to train in tactics and marksmanship, a facility to run, and we still need to clear the dorms in the sister facility next to this one.”
CHAPTER 52
Chisos Basin Campground, Big Bend National Park, Texas
It took more time than he’d anticipated, but Bexar finished getting the other two water pumps online and the cabins now had running potable water. The hot water heaters were still on his list, but he simply didn’t have enough electrical power to run a hot water heater without running a generator. If the group needed hot water they could heat it on the fire. As of late, in an effort to conserve the limited Coleman fuel for their lanterns, they were cooking with fire rather than on their old Coleman stoves.
Bexar didn’t expect Sandra and Jack to come back down the mountain until tomorrow, but he wouldn’t be surprised if they came down early if they had news, or if they missed their little boy too much. Regardless, he was excited to hear what they’d found on the mountain top, and if they had made contact with anyone or heard any updates on the shortwave.
Emory Peak
“Roger Texas, we read you five-by-five, how are you set for provisions?”
“Copy Groom Lake, we’re set for now and surviving fine. Do you have any news outside of Texas, or any news of anything at all?”
“Texas, we have information that most of the people between the Appalachian and the Rocky Mountains are either dead or infected. We are currently tracking three large herds of undead swarming in three different sectors. The closest herd to you is in Texas and moving away from the Dallas area.”
Jack and Sandra looked at each other, mouthing the word “herds?” at almost the same time, then Sandra shrugged and said, “Copy that, Groom Lake, where are they now and which way are they traveling?”
“The last track showed a herd of about 200,000 undead approximately fifty miles southwest of the Dallas area, following I-20 west.”
Sandra, mic in hand, looked at Jack. “If they’re going south they’re basically headed towards us. Two hundred thousand? We’ll never be able to defend against that many.”
Jack nodded, reached for the mic, and keyed, “Groom Lake, if we’re in the path of the moving horde, what do you advise?”
Across the country, in a dark room illuminated only by the harsh light from electronic screens and computer monitors, Arcuni looked at the airman sitting at the radio and shrugged. The airman keyed the radio. “Texas, we can only advise you flee a herd, but if you’re unable to, get hidden, get secure, be quiet, and hope they pass around you.”
“Clear, thank you Groom Lake, station Texas is out for now. Will check back in two hours if you continue to monitor.”
“Wilco, two hours.”
Jack looked at his wife. “What do you think? If we bug out again, I feel like it’ll never end, and we’ll always be on the run.”
“Can we secure the camp? There’s only the one road into the Basin, unless you think the undead can travel over the mountains.”
“I doubt they could do it without the road.” Jack looked at the horizon and up to the sun. “It’s about noon, let’s wait and check back in with Groom Lake in two hours, then we can get back down the mountain and discuss it with Jessie and Bexar. I bet we could make some sort of roadblock and secure ourselves in the Basin.”
“So, we’ve got two hours then?” Sandra smiled at Jack and began unbuttoning her jeans.
CHAPTER 53
Groom Lake, Nevada
Arcuni handed the mic to the airman in the radio hut with him. “Okay, keep monitoring, I’m going to let Cliff know what we found out about our new friends in Texas.”
Twenty minutes later, Arcuni found Cliff topside, leading five airmen from NORAD with him in immediate action drills with M-16s. Arcuni walked up to the group and waited until the drill was done, then caught Cliff’s attention. After the last series, Cliff let the class relax with a water break and walked over to Arcuni. “Hey Technical Sergeant Arcuni, how’s life out there in Radioville?”
“Sparse,” replied Arcuni, “but we did make contact with a small group of survivors in rural Texas on a ham frequency.”
“Yeah? That’s great!” said Cliff. “Where are they, and how many are there? Are they well set?”
“They said they were very well-provisioned, there’s four adults and two children. Best I can figure is that they’re in a wildlife area or a state park or something, but out in the desert.”
“Right, well, there’s a lot of west Texas, could be Big Bend, or could be some random area out there in the Lone Star State.”
“They sounded like they were well prepared. I told them about the herd outside of Dallas and they were very concerned about that, but I didn’t really have any advice to give them. They’re supposed to check back in on the radio in two hours.”
“Great, okay Arcuni, let me know if you make contact with anyone else.”
Arcuni nodded and climbed back underground, grabbing two cups of coffee to share with the airman in the radio hut.
Chisos Basin Campground, Big Bend National Park, Texas
Two hours later Jack made contact with Groom Lake again and had a brief conversation with the man who said his name was Arcuni. Arcuni was very inquisitive about their position, and Jack assured him that although it might be a few days until another from his group could check in on the radio, they would be in touch.
Jack and Sandra made their way down the mountain, arriving at the camp earlier than Bexar and Jessie had expected. Dinner was slow-cooking on the smoldering coals of their fire.
“Hey you two, welcome back!” cried Jessie. “We didn’t expect you back so early, but we have something neat to show you.”
“Yeah, well, we have something to tell you too,” said Jack. “Why don’t you go first?”
Three hours later the sun had sunk below the desert mountains, turning the cold sky purple and red. The children were in bed, fighting their bedtime but falling asleep almost immediately after being read a story from one of the books stolen from their stop in Marathon.
“Well sure, Bexar,” Jack said, “we could barricade the road, but how would we bug out if we started to get overrun?”
Bexar said, “We’d take the Window trail and take the split to end up down at the Cattail Falls trailhead. We stashed the pull-behind RV there along with the Wagoneer. It would take a few hours to get over the trail, but once we reached the Jeep and RV, we could take one of two routes out of the Park. Hell, we could even drive to Boquelles and down into Mexico; if Mexico’s in the same shape as the U.S., I’m sure the Federales wouldn’t notice.”
“Sure, but how are we going to barricade the road and still leave it open for us to travel in the meantime?”
“I don’t know,” said Bexar. “Maybe we could pull more RVs back up here and block the road?”
Jack thought for a moment. “Well, we have the actual gate that the National Parks Service uses to close the road to the Basin and that’s a start, but what if we also drag a couple of dumpsters onto the road from the tent camping area? We could offset them so we can drive around them, but we could also push them
together using the front bumper of one of our rigs if we needed to.”
“I like it Jack, that could work,” Bexar said, “but I think we should also fill the dumpsters with rocks or dirt or something so they’re really heavy. If they’re empty you could probably push one by yourself, and a shitload of undead could easily brush it out of their way.”
“Yeah alright, we’ll do it first thing in the morning. We also still have a few of the shotgun blanks trip alarms. I think we should put some across the road high enough that a javelina won’t trip it, but a person would, dead or not.”
“Good idea,” Bexar said. “In the morning we’ll also rig the traps.” He continued, “Listen Jack, this is great stuff, but we need to have a Plan C in case Plan A and Plan B don’t work.”
“You’re right,” Jack agreed, “we have to assume that the zombie horde will come through here at some point; we can’t rely on just two plans.”
CHAPTER 54
February 11th
Chisos Basin Campground, Big Bend National Park, Texas
Bexar and the rest of the group were up before sunrise. One would think that with the end of the world, and the resulting loss of routines and timekeeping, it would be easy to sleep in until sunrise. But children have a way of ruining sleep regardless of what the rest of world is doing. By the time the group’s typical breakfast was eaten and cleaned up and the other morning routines completed, the sun was over the mountains. Bexar and Jack set out to put their new security plan in motion. The regular National Park Services gate that was used to close the Basin was already secured, locked with a metal clasp; it had been set that way for the past week, but that was no longer enough security for the group. Due to the size and weight of the dumpsters with their heavy bear-proof lids, it took Bexar and Jack until shortly after noon to drag the dumpsters out of the tent camping area with the Scout and up the road to the gate.
Moving the dumpsters and then filling them with dirt and rocks proved to be hard, slow work, but as the sun began to set on another day, the two fathers and husbands were finishing the work needed to protect their families. The dumpsters rested with about a ten-foot gap between them so the group’s vehicles could traverse the opening, but the opening could also be quickly closed by pushing the rear dumpster forward with one of their vehicles.
Early tomorrow, Jessie and Bexar would hike up to Emory Peak, excited by the possibility of reestablishing contact with their new friends at Groom Lake.
CHAPTER 55
February 12th
Groom Lake, Nevada
“Hey Sarge, our friends in Texas are back on the net,” the airman called out.
“I thought they weren’t supposed to be back on until tomorrow, did something go wrong?” Arcuni asked.
“No, I think they were excited to make contact again and get more intel from us. You want to talk to them while I get Cliff?”
“Yeah,” said Arcuni.
Arcuni took the proffered mic from the airman and unplugged the headphones from the console so the transmissions could be heard over the external speaker. “Howdy Texans, you’re back early, is everything okay?”
“Howdy to you, Groom Lake, yes, we’re fine. The guy you spoke to a couple of days ago told us about the Dallas horde so we started making preparations. Do you have any updates on that?”
“I think we do, we sent for our officer in charge and he’ll have all the details for you, but for now I have to ask, where are you guys holed up at?”
Jessie looked at Bexar and silently shook her head no, but Bexar keyed the radio. “We’re in Big Bend.”
“Good country out there,” Arcuni replied. “Find any other survivors yet?”
“No, just us four and our two kids, but we’re prepared to help any other survivors with food and water if you send them our way.”
Fort Bliss, Texas
“Hey Twardo, get over here, you’re not gonna believe this shit!”
Twardo pushed the teenaged Mexican girl off his lap, zipped up his pants, and walked out of the hotel room to join Russell, the club’s sergeant-at-arms. “This better be fucking good, asshole, or I’m going to beat you until you piss yourself.”
“Prez, I caught a conversation on the civilian radio channels—there’s a small group of survivors over in Big Bend National Park who say they’re well-supplied. There’s only four of them, and two kids.”
“Shit yeah, how far from here?”
“Probably nearly a two-day ride.”
“Put ten guys together to be ready to ride in the morning. The rest of the club will stay with the VP, the bitches, and the gear. Get a prospect to drive the van, and another to drive the truck to bring back what we can loot.”
Groom Lake
“Texas, my name is Cliff, and I was tasked by our government to help any survivors in any way I can,” came a new voice over the radio. “Is there anything you need?”
“Hi Cliff,” Bexar replied, “I’m Bexar. I didn’t know the government was still intact, how exactly could you help us?”
“To be honest with you Bexar, the government isn’t exactly intact. So far, we’ve found my group is one of the last remaining official representatives, but we’re trying to complete our mission of helping other survivors. If we can do that, maybe we can save our country for the future. We’re prepared to take other survivors here; we have food, water, and other provisions.”
“Where exactly is Groom Lake?”
“Nevada.”
“Nevada? Wait, Area 51? You’re shitting me!” Bexar said incredulously.
“Nope, I am one hundred percent serious,” Cliff replied, smiling.
Arcuni opened the door to the commo-hut. Cliff slid his thumb off the push-to-talk button and said, “What’s up, Sergeant?”
“We’re not going to have another pass over that part of the country until 08:00 our time tomorrow, and then we’ll need to review the imagery and prepare a Sitrep for you.”
Cliff nodded and keyed the mic. “Bexar, we don’t have anything new for you as of right now, but we are updating our information and will have something for you by about noon your time tomorrow.”
“Uh, okay thanks,” replied Bexar. “I guess we’ll check back in at noon our time tomorrow.”
Emory Peak, Big Bend National Park
“That was strange,” Jessie said. “Why do you think it’s going to take so long?”
Bexar said, “I bet they’re trying to get a plane or a satellite overhead first.”
“Okay, but what are you going to do until tomorrow?”
“You.”
Two hours later, the sun was descending over the mountains as Bexar and Jessie woke up from their nap. Bexar started heating up dinner on a fuel tablet while Jessie began cranking the shortwave radio.
“… no further communication has been received from the continent since the day before yesterday. As of now, the Crown is waiting and hoping that contact will be reestablished, and is extremely concerned for the rest of Europe. MI-6 has confirmed that most of central and eastern China experienced heavy fallout from the retaliation nuclear strike initiated by Russia and the United States against North Korea. Iran and most of the Middle East are also feared lost due to a nuclear strike thought to have been conducted by Israel. MI-6 has thus far been unable to confirm any previous attacks against Israel before their attack on their Muslim neighbors. There has been no contact with any North American officials since Z-Day plus-three. In other news, the Ministry of Health reminds all subjects to immediately report any persons displaying signs of infection, or any bite marks. King Harry has also sent notice to this station to remind all Britons to “Stay calm and carry on.” The empire will survive; it must survive, for we may be the only ones …”
“Holy shit, Jess, it’s like ‘On the Beach’!” Bexar exclaimed.
“Like what?” she said.
“The novel ‘On the Beach’ by Nevil Shute, where the last place on Earth to be killed off by nuclear fallout was Australia, and they were living
large and loose trying to enjoy their last few months of life before the radiation killed them all too.”
“That sounds horrible. What did they do?”
“Mainly they drank all day and held dangerous car races where no one cared about safety. I think all we had in the U.S. were EMPs.”
“Can we get fallout from those?”
“I don’t think so.”
CHAPTER 56
February 13th
Groom Lake, Nevada
“Cliff, the SATINT is mostly complete,” Arcuni reported.
“Any surprises?” Cliff replied.
“The Dallas herd has grown larger and is covering an incredible amount of distance in a short amount of time, but there are also some smaller groups splitting off from the herd.”
“Okay, where’s the main group now?” Cliff asked.
“About three hundred miles southwest of Dallas. The horde is still following I-20 west, but one of the larger factions that split off is moving south along I-35.”
“How far away are they from our Texas friends?”
“Assuming that they would have to deviate course to travel south from I-20, probably seven to ten days.”
“Any other survivors?”
“We picked up a group of people on motorcycles traveling east on I-10 about two hundred miles east of Fort Bliss.”
“Anything from Bliss?”
“No, nothing, except that there are a few buildings on fire, and fifty-three motorcycles parked next to a motel on the eastern side of the base. There are also people in the parking lot, but we haven’t been able to determine if they’re alive or reanimates.”