The Zombie Principle II

by David R Vosburgh

  “Could he have gone anywhere else?” asked Lucy.

  “Unlikely. At least not voluntarily,” Nick answered.

  That gave Stephen the beginnings of an idea. He was surprised that Chester hadn’t ended up in the brig yet the way he ignores the rules around here. That includes heading off on his own when he leaves with the hunting parties. The only reason Chester even leaves with them was that Major Bradley won’t let him outside the base walls by himself. He needed to retrieve his walkie anyway. He figured a trip to the MP’s barracks was worth a shot. At the very least a place to start looking.

  Without a word he went back into his room and returned wearing a pair of khakis and a beat-up flannel shirt he found in the apartment when they arrived that actually fit.

  “I’m going to the MP barracks,” he announced.

  “I’ll go with you. We were just going to finish those logs out back and honestly, I’m sore from yesterday,” Nick said moving his shoulders in a circular motion as a demonstration.

  “All right, get dressed. I’ll meet you in the Jeep,” Stephen said.

  The door to Kim’s bedroom opened and she appeared wearing a long t-shirt and brightly colored socks. She ran her fingers through her hair and then scratched her scalp, looking at everyone congregating in the living room.

  “Good morning, everyone is up early considering I’m the only one going to work today,” Kim said.

  “Chester never came home last night,” Stephen informed Kim.

  “Oh,” Kim said, followed by another “oh,” when she realized the possible implications.

  “Nick and I are headed to the MP’s barracks to see if he’s there or find out if they know anything. Would you ask around at the infirmary, maybe he ended up there. You never know with him,” Stephen said.

  Kim nodded and went into the kitchen for some stale trail mix.

  “Be careful,” Lucy warned. She said it every time they parted ways. It didn’t matter where he was going, she worried until he returned. Yet another byproduct of the world they found themselves in.

  “No problem, have fun with the kids today,” Stephen said with a smile. With Kim scheduled at the infirmary today, Lucy was in charge of the children. She had no idea what they were going to do to occupy themselves.

  With that, Stephen kissed Lucy goodbye and headed for the Jeep. He grabbed his holster out of the back of the Jeep and put it on. It was another concession with children in the house. No guns. Nick joined him a minute later.

  As they climbed into the Jeep, Nick turned to his friend, an unusually serious expression on his face.

  “You think he’s ok?” he asked.

  Stephen settled into the driver’s seat and put the key in the ignition.

  “I’ve spent a good deal of time with him since our arrival here and he’s taught me quite a lot. Everything from survival tactics to tracking basics. One of the things he confided in me was that he would always be home every night. The reason he said was, despite his fiercely independent streak, he understood the importance of being part of a team. The stuff he learned at that military school he went to. Anyway, he said that it was important to be where you said you’d be at the end of the day. Every day.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if you weren’t, they knew to come looking for you,” he answered as the Jeep’s engine roared to life.

  Major Bradley sat upright on the edge of the small couch in the plane’s cabin. He had just woken up from a fitful night’s slumber. They had arrived last night without incident at Worthington’s airstrip nestled in the Colorado Rockies. Bannon gassed up while Bradley and his men checked for infected. He thought back to his last visit here and how he believed then his search for the Doctor may have hit a dead end. And now here he was again a few months later with the Doctor with him. Never give up, he supposed, was the lesson learned.

  Sergeant Sanchez was up, patrolling the cabin, looking out the porthole windows. He was last on the watch list. Private Stevens had first shift and Major Bradley the second. Dr. Sanderson was still sleeping as was his wife and daughter. Major Bradley got up and moved next to Sanchez.

  “Anything?” he asked just above a whisper.

  “No sir, quiet. Very quiet,” Sanchez answered.

  Bradley nodded and moved quietly through the cabin, heading toward the cockpit. He gently knocked twice on the cabin door. After a slight pause, there were some rustling noises from inside the cockpit, then the handle turned and the door opened, revealing a disheveled Captain Bannon.

  “Good Morning, Captain,” said the Major.

  “I was dreaming about sandy beaches and drinks with little umbrella’s in them brought to me by scantily clad women. You interrupted me,” Bannon said in mock anger.

  “I’m afraid I do not have any drinks with umbrellas. On the bright side, I am not scantily clad either,” Major Bradley retorted.

  A faint smile creased the pilot’s lips.

  “We should still have some OJ in the galley, maybe even some microwavable breakfast sandwiches. Help yourselves, courtesy of Benton Worthington,” Bannon said.

  “When do you think we’ll be airborne?”

  Bannon moved his neck back and forth, working the kinks out.

  “Give me thirty minutes,” he answered as he moved past the Major heading toward the galley.

  Thirty minutes later, with full bellies, everyone strapped themselves in their seats as Captain Bannon taxied forward, preparing for takeoff. Major Bradley looked over at Dr. Sanderson who was turned around in his seat talking with his daughter and sharing a quiet laugh. His attention moved downward to the bag containing the pills the Doctor had removed from the lab. What wasn’t he telling them? Major Bradley was pretty good at reading people and he felt sure that there was some vital piece of information the Doctor was withholding. Hopefully, he would share that information sooner than later. Time, he was afraid, was a luxury they didn’t have.

  This side of the base was unusually quiet, even for this early in the morning. Stephen steered the Jeep out of the housing development and headed toward the MP barracks. As they passed gate 3, Nick looked over and noticed the guard shack was empty. The guard shack was never empty. He glanced over at Stephen whose confused look on his face told Nick he had noticed it too.

  Stephen gripped the steering wheel a little tighter as he took a sharp right, passing three air force personnel who appeared to be running to or from something in quite a hurry. It was then he heard the first gunshot. This was followed by several more. Stephen frantically looked around attempting to locate the source of the gunshots while keeping the Jeep on the road.

  “Did you hear that?” Nick asked, his head darting back and forth.

  Stephen simply nodded and continued to drive, now with a sense of urgency. The gunfire echoed off the base’s buildings periodically, like popcorn in a microwave when there are but a few kernels left.

  Stephen pulled up in front of the barracks and slammed on the brakes. They hopped out of the Jeep and ran to the door, Stephen stopping suddenly in front of it. It was slightly ajar. He extended his left arm to hold Nick back behind him as he leaned forward, ear pointed in the direction of the opening. They could still hear the occasional weapon’s discharge and a shout or scream in the distance but nothing coming from inside the MP Barracks. Stephen reached for the door handle with his left hand while reaching for his sidearm with his right.

  They burst into the room and quickly scanned the area. It was dark, the lights were off and the early morning sun had yet to brighten up the room. As Stephen’s eyes adjusted he could see the front of the room was empty and the desks were unoccupied. Some paperwork and a phone lay scattered across the floor. An odd noise emanated from the back left of the building, near the commanding officer’s office.

  “Over there,” Stephen said, pointing in the direction of the office.

  They moved past the reception area and through the maze of desks, Stephen raising his gun and clutching it with both hands. Nick had
left the house unarmed and was now cursing himself for the foolish move. He glanced at the desks for anything he might be able to use as a weapon.

  Standing in front of the closed office door, was an MP, identifiable by the black armband prominently displayed around the bicep. His back was turned toward the boys and he was pounding on the door, leaving dark stains on its surface.

  “Excuse me, officer?” Stephen said as they stopped about five feet from the unidentified MP, his weapon at eye level.

  The pounding stopped as the MP’s arms dropped and hung limply at his side. His neck twitched as he turned slowly to face Stephen and Nick. It was Lieutenant Barnes. His face covered in what Stephen could now easily see was blood, as was his hands and shirt. The former lieutenant grunted and stepped forward, lunging at Stephen. He didn’t hesitate and pulled the trigger on his weapon and blew a hole straight through the zombie’s head. It stumbled a few steps and collapsed at their feet.

  Stephen took a step back and bumped into Nick who stood in stunned disbelief. Bending down, Stephen examined the MP’s body and verified his handiwork. It was dead.

  “It’s in the base,” Nick muttered to himself. “How the hell did it get inside?”

  Stephen didn’t have an answer for that but his fear that something bad had happened to Chester just increased tenfold. He turned around and looked for his walkie and found it right where he left it yesterday afternoon, on one of the MP’s desks. He went over and grabbed it, switched it on, and clicked over to channel 4.

  “Major Bradley do you copy, this is Stephen Russo … come in Major Bradley, over,” he said into the walkie. After waiting a few seconds, he repeated his request a few more times with no success.

  “Try channel 6,” Nick suggested. Channel 4 was reserved for the Civilian Army Corps, Channel 6 was the base emergency channel. Stephen clicked over two channels.

  The small speaker erupted with loud, panicked voices. All talking over each other. They listened for a minute or so and was able to piece together a rough sketch of what was going on out there, and it wasn’t pretty. The northern area of the base was completely overrun and it was moving southeast. The president and much of what was left of the government had been or was in the process of being moved, into the Cheyenne Mountain complex. It was assumed that area was still secure. Apparently some infected had snuck in overnight and moved about mostly unseen until morning.

  “Lucy,” Stephen said out loud in a voice that cracked with worry.

  He shoved the walkie in his belt and decided to try the Major later, right now he needed to get back to the house. As he started to turn around, the office door handle turned and the door slowly opened.

  “Infected don’t usually use the handles,” Nick observed. Stephen raised his weapon anyway, he wasn’t taking any chances.

  Stepping around Lieutenant Barnes they approached the door. A face with soft features poked out between the cracks. Stephen thought he recognized the woman. His suspicions were confirmed when the door opened all the way.

  Katie Sharp looked down and saw the crooked body of Lieutenant Barnes on the floor and let out a gasp while covering her mouth. She looked back up and studied the two young men in front of her.

  “Stephen?” she said.

  “Ms. Sharp,” he answered. “Are you ok?”

  “Yea … I’m fine. I was sleeping in the office when I heard a loud noise … it woke me up,” she stammered trying to compose herself. “I peeked my head out the door and … there were infected … they had some of the officers pinned on their desks. One of them saw me and started toward the office. I didn’t know what to do, I had no weapon, so I hid in the office. They eventually left. Except for …” her voice trailed off as she gestured toward the body on the floor.

  “Well, we need to get out of here, the base is about to be overrun … come with us,” Stephen said reaching his hand out to her.

  She hesitated. “I can’t leave without my dad,” she said.

  Stephen had forgotten. She arrived with her father … the one who was bitten. He wasn’t sure how he felt about having an infected person with him but it had been a while since he had been bitten, he surely would have turned by now? The look in Katie’s eyes said she wasn’t leaving without him and he wasn’t about to leave her here. Lucy’s voice echoed in his head.

  “There may be a great deal we could learn from him.”

  Stephen looked down at the corpse in front of him and spotted a set of keys on the deceased’s belt. He reached down, grabbed them, and handed them to Nick.

  “Go get her father out of his cell, I’ll grab some weapons and ammo.”

  Nick took the keys and stood there. He had never been to the MP’s Barracks before.

  “Never been in jail before,” he said.

  “Follow me,” Katie said.

  Stephen undid the MP’s weapons belt and slowly slid it out from underneath him.

  “Nick! Take this,” he said handing him the belt.

  Nick briefly examined it and fastened the belt around his waist, removing the weapon he checked it, disengaged the safety, and made sure there was a bullet in the chamber. Katie was already standing in front of the door leading to the cells. She had picked up a letter opener along the way there.

  “Through here,” she said to Nick.

  Nick opened the door and started through when he stopped suddenly and jumped backward. He raised his handgun as quickly as he could but his wrist slammed into an infected’s elbow and the gun fell from his grip and dropped to the floor. Nick raised his left arm just in time to keep the zombie from advancing right on top of him. It was an enormous man dressed in air force blues. Its literal dead weight pressing on Nick’s forearm sending him backward and down toward the floor.

  Katie Sharp, standing right behind Nick, stumbled backward when Nick first opened the door but had now regained her balance. She saw the zombie moving in on Nick and knew it would only be seconds before it was on top of him. She felt the cold metal of the letter opener in her hand remembering that she had it. Raising it above her head she plunged it hard into the side of the zombie’s head, near the temple. It penetrated a couple of inches before she pulled it back out. The zombie, unfazed, continued to drop Nick to the ground. She moved slightly to her right, positioning herself directly in front of the infected as Nick struggled to fend off the heavy mass of flesh.

  She now had a direct path to the eyeball. Raising the opener once again she came down with all her might, striking the zombie flush in the right eyeball. Using both hands, she pushed the standard office item deep into the creature’s skull. That got its attention as the zombie let Nick go and began to squirm, Katie desperately holding on to the opener plunging it deeper.

  Nick fell to the ground and backpedaled along the floor, attempting to distance himself from the zombie. He reached out and grabbed the dislodged gun, scrambling quickly back to his feet. Pointing the gun at the infected he saw that it had stopped moving, a letter opener protruding from its right eyeball, and was leaning up against the doorway, slowly falling backward into the hallway like a giant Sequoia. A loud thump echoed against the metal bars of the holding cells.

  Stephen rushed over and surveyed the situation. He stepped into the hallway and saw no further trouble.

  “You all right?” he asked Nick.

  “Yeah, great. Didn’t see that comin’,” he quipped. “Thanks,” he said to Katie.

  “You’re welcome,” she said walking with purpose past the two young men.

  Nick followed her into the holding area, glancing behind him at Stephen who was shaking his head. They moved past several empty cells arriving at the last one on the right. Huddled in the far corner was an older man, his knees pressed against his chest. He looked tired and worn out.

  “Dad!” Katie yelled.

  The man tried to get up quickly as it was easy to see the joy in his face at seeing his daughter, but his body wouldn’t allow it. He struggled and nearly fell over twice, having to steady himself again
st the cot. He eventually straightened himself up and came to the bars.

  “What’s happening?” he asked.

  Katie didn’t immediately answer him, she instead looked at Nick and the keys he held in his hands.

  “Oh … yeah …sorry,” Nick said as he started trying the first of several keys on the ring.

  “The infection … it’s in the base. Some of the MP’s were attacked last night. We need to get outta here,” Katie answered him.

  Nick struck gold on the third key as the latch clicked and the door swung open. Katie pushed past Nick and into her father’s arms. They embraced as Nick made sure he had a tight grip on his gun.

  She steadied him as Nick led the way back through the door, maneuvering around the huge mound of dead flesh lying in the doorway. Stephen was near the front desk when they emerged. He had two semi-automatic AR-15’s and a dozen or so clips spread out on the desk in front of him.

  “Found the munitions locker. It was open and picked through but I managed to find these two plus an extra handgun … and some extra ammo,” he announced to the group.

  “You’re one of the young men who helped my daughter and I yesterday out on the ridge,” Malcolm said.

  “Yes sir, I am. How are you feeling?” Stephen asked, unable to ignore the man’s fragile appearance.

  “I’m still alive, I guess that says something,” he answered.

  Katie looked down at the table and grabbed the spare hand gun and examined it, checking to make sure it was loaded.

  “We need a bag for the clips and then we need to get the hell out of here,” Stephen said.

  It took a minute but they were able to locate a small canvass bag and loaded it up with ammo. They gathered together at the front door as Nick peered out the window. It looked clear but he couldn’t be sure.

  “Everyone ready?” Stephen asked. Everyone nodded.

  He opened the door.

  Kimberly Walker had arrived for her shift at the base’s infirmary a few minutes early. Not that time had a whole lot of meaning these days but if there was one place where punctuality still mattered, it was a military base.