Once he’d finished examining every site, he moved on to the perimeter fence cameras, taking control of the viewing arm so he could examine as much of the electrical boundary as he could.
He sat back in the swivel chair and adjusted his cap. ‘Well, that’s all 36 of em’ along the fence, and I ain’t spotted a single breach.’
‘Or a single person,’ Adam said.
‘That’s a good thing. Trust me. We don’t need any complications. Although it would help to have a few qualified folks to manage the place.’
‘So what’s next?’ Vincent said.
‘From what the cameras say, it seems like good news, but there are plenty of blind spots – just so happens I know where they are. We’ll need to split up if we’re gonna cover all the ground before nightfall. I think y’all would sleep much better if you knew there were no surprises.’
‘You’ve got that right,’ Kristin said.
‘Before we do, there’s one last thing I wanna show you.’ Salty jumped up from the chair and led them to the back of the building. It opened out into a viewing area complete with large chairs and artificial water fountains. Its centrepiece was a huge window that allowed them to look out onto the whole preserve.
They wandered right up to the glass – all except Ethan, who took the opportunity to drape himself over one of the cushioned lounge chairs.
‘It goes on forever,’ Kristin said.
‘Close. You’re lookin’ at 820 acres of land. That’s the sweet spot. Look it.’ Salty pointed across the lake to the deer park. ‘It has its own little ecosystem, full of wildlife. So long as we make sure the species remain sustainable, we should have all the food we could need for the rest of our lives,’ he said. ‘If things get hairy when we go out there, just wanted to let you know what we’re fightin’ for.’
Ethan raised his hand from the lounger. ‘Erm, you can count me out of that. I’m vegan.’
‘Like Doctor Spock?’ Emily said.
The whole group burst into laughter. Her comment even raised a wry smile from Salty.
‘Yes, Emily. Exactly like Doctor Spock.’ Ethan’s smile soon faded when he saw that Vincent was glaring at him. He leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling.
‘Anyways, we do this right, we got it made.’ Salty looked Ethan’s way. ‘As for you, there’s plenty of mushrooms growing all over.’
‘Great. Mushrooms are my Kryptonite.’
‘Well, I guess you’re shit out of luck.’ The wiry-looking man stood proud, surveying the preserve like he’d built the place with his bare hands. ‘Let’s get some air, people. I don’t know ‘bout you, but I ain’t much for breathin’ this reconditioned crap.’ He went back into the main room and searched the storage locker against the left wall, taking three walkie-talkies from their charging bays and carrying them out to the front entrance.
As soon as they emerged, Raine looked to them for confirmation.
‘Looks good, but the cameras can’t see everything,’ Salty said.
Raine nodded and started to head towards the aviary again.
‘Hey, wait a sec,’ Kristin called after her.
‘I’ll check the north fence,’ she said without looking back.
Kristin gestured to Salty to say something, but he just shrugged. ‘Seeing as she’s got the north side, I’ll take the east. Mrs. Graham, will you oblige me?’
‘Sure,’ she said.
Vincent glanced down to her leg, noting the fact she still wasn’t able to put her full weight on it. ‘Your ankle?’
‘It’s easing now, really.’ She pushed the Beretta into his hand. ‘It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.’
He accepted the gun and smiled. ‘OK, but what about Emily? I don’t like the idea of her running around this place until we know for sure it’s safe.’
‘I get that, Vin. Doesn’t change the fact I need you out there – if we’re gonna get this done before we lose the light,’ Salty said.
Vincent stood and pondered what to do. ‘Adam.’
‘Yes sir?’ The young man approached him with his usual wide-eyed exuberance.
‘Will you stay here and keep an eye on Emily until we get back?’
‘Of course, Mr. Graham. Whatever I can do to help.’
‘Thank you.’ Vincent smiled. ‘That OK with you, pumpkin?’
‘Sure, Daddy.’ Emily ran up to Adam and playfully punched his thigh. ‘I won’t be too much trouble.’
‘Be nice to Adam. Me and your mom will be back before you know it.’
Salty grabbed Vincent by the wrist and pulled him to one side, keeping one eye on Ethan. He was currently strolling around the walls of the Management Centre with his hands in his pockets.
‘Looks like you’re stuck with the day walker. Check out the east.’
‘No problem,’ Vincent said.
‘Hey.’ Salty forced him closer, narrowing his eyes. ‘Bein’ vegan don’t make him a saint. Don’t drop your guard for one second,’ he whispered.
‘I won’t.’ Vincent brandished the parting gift from his wife.
‘You know how to use that?’
‘I think so.’
‘Let’s hope you have the guts to pull the trigger when the time comes. That little girl needs her daddy.’
‘Let me worry about that,’ Vincent said.
‘Fine. Let’s get goin’. We’ve wasted too much time already,’ Salty said, handing him one of the walkies he’d found. ‘Long as you stay clear of the trees, you should spot one of those things comin’ from a mile away. If you do, make sure you use the walkies. I set them all to the same channel.’
Vincent and Kristin kissed Emily and joined their partners to head off on their search.
3
Raine waited until she was adjacent to the twenty-metre-high observation tower before gazing up at it. The tall wooden structure creaked gently in the wind, its shadow shielding her from the sun. She thought she noticed it swaying. Not possible, of course. A trick of the light. Or maybe it was due to lack of food and sleep.
Away from the glare, she could spot the radio antenna and TV transmitter mounted on the insulators on the roof. The door at the foot of the tower stood ajar, revealing the first few steps of the spiral staircase.
She took a peek into the stairwell. It was empty – no dead, no blood. She counted all fifty three steps, pushed open the hatch at the top, and climbed into the observation room.
The place looked lived in. There were candy bar wrappers on the desk. A baseball jacket with an Ohio State Buckeyes patch lay over the back of a lazy chair. The cold coffee and milk in the mug had separated and the coffee had turned to an indiscernible sludge. On the other side of the room, a table housed a TV set and a longwave radio unit.
Raine lifted herself up and walked over to the table, sliding her finger through the layer of dust that had settled on the TV screen. She ran her hand across the transmitter and then switched it on. She turned the dial, searching through all the channels, looking for anything other than the crackle and hiss of static. As she’d suspected, there was nothing but dead air. She cut the power and wandered over to the desk, smirking at the monthly video game magazine lying open there. After rifling through a few of its pages, she closed the magazine to look at its cover.
An object had been hidden beneath the publication, and it caused her to raise her eyebrows when she finally saw it. A set of high-powered binoculars – something she could use. She picked them up by their strap and hung them around her neck.
The pinch from the cramp in her calf muscles and the bottoms of her feet made her wince. The distressed leather of the lazy chair seemed inviting all of a sudden. Raine sat on it and rested her boots on the edge of the desk.
As she was about to sit back and relax, a strong musty smell hit her nostrils and she straightened up again. The unpleasant odour was coming from the drawer below her left arm. She gave it a tug, but it didn’t want to budge. A second, sharper encouragement caused the jam to clear and the drawer to slide o
pen. The source of the smell soon became obvious. What used to be a cream cheese bagel was sitting on top of a greasy napkin; it was so infested with mould, the fuzz on its surface resembled a miniature of the preserve’s forest. A bunch of keys and a Rubik’s Cube sat next to it. Raine put the keys in her pocket and pondered over the multi-coloured puzzle, rotating it through her fingers. She tossed it in the air and caught it; a smile of reminiscence broke across her face – she remembered… She gripped the cube tighter to prevent the memory from fading, but no matter how hard she squeezed, it continued to decompose.
Frustrated, she got to her feet and ventured out onto the perforated steel of the observation deck. The tower certainly served its purpose; she had a panoramic view of the entire facility. Even after Salty’s boasting, it was hard to appreciate just how large the place was until it was laid out in front of her: acres of lush green grass and forest, punctuated by eco-friendly structures and bodies of water. She could see all the way to the tops of the surrounding fences.
The weight around her neck reminded her of the binoculars. She lifted them and scanned for the whereabouts of her companions. First she looked east, towards the parking lot and a rather futuristic, dome-shaped building, but try as she might, she couldn’t pinpoint anyone.
She gave up and turned her attention north, spying the second observation tower on the edge of the deer park, and the walls of the facility’s power station.
Finally, she spotted signs of life. Adam was next to the Management Centre, carrying Emily on his shoulders. She was using him as her own observation tower, stretching out one of her dainty arms to point out a shifting flock of birds heading towards the lake.
Further away to the northwest, Raine found Vincent and Ethan walking together. They were just about to pass the glowing panels of the solar farm on their way to the woodland on the other side.
She scanned west to the main gate where they’d entered from, and then behind her to the fence. She locked on to a figure moving through the trees beyond the confines of their potential safe haven. She could tell by the shrivelled skin and its repetitive motions that it was one of the dead. It constantly plodded towards the electrified cables, only to be knocked back again – its movement was relentless and without thought. It was impossible to say when this back-and-forth had begun, but it would never stop – at least not until its flesh and muscle had fallen away and its bones had crumbled.
Something about that idea made Raine’s blood boil, so intensely that she knew she wouldn’t be able to rest knowing it was there. She lowered the binoculars and frowned in the direction of the fence.
4
Beyond the glare of the mounted solar panels, Vincent licked his dry lips as he trudged towards the nature trails. Ethan had been lagging behind since they started the search. Although Vincent was just as suspicious of the group’s most peculiar member, he was pretty sure his distance wasn’t intentional. The more time he had to observe him, his movements, the shape of his body beneath his loose fitting hoodie, the more apparent it became Ethan was struggling to keep up. From his face, he seemed no older than 25, but his physical condition suggested a man twice that age. Vincent didn’t peg him for a hellraiser. Drugs, he thought. Probably drugs.
He dropped his backpack on the ground and knelt to reach inside it. He felt something cold on the back of his hand. He saw it was a grey shirt, damp with sweat. He recognised it as the top Adam wore to jog around the refugee camp. He rested his arm against his knee and sighed.
‘What is it?’ Ethan asked.
‘It’s nothing really. I must have picked up Adam’s pack instead of mine.’ He delved through the pack again, eventually placing his hand on what he was looking for. ‘It’s OK though; Adam has water in here too. Would you like so—’
Vincent turned, holding the bottle, and to his surprise, he saw Ethan almost on top of him. He took a step back as they made eye contact, and Vincent thought he saw Ethan withdraw his outstretched hand back to his waist.
The young man straightened his stance. The shadows cast by his hood blackened and elongated the dark patches under his eyes. He seemed ill at ease, like a guilty child. ‘No thank you, Vincent,’ he said. He paused for a moment, and then walked on towards the trails.
Still on his knees, Vincent watched him, waiting to see if he glanced back. He ran his fingers over the ridged front of the walkie clipped to his belt and onto the handle of the Beretta tucked in his pants.
5
Adam watched Emily swinging her left leg to kick the surface of the grass, almost losing her balance as she followed through. She pushed her tongue against the inside of her cheek, creating a bulge.
‘How’s your gum feelin’?’
Emily shrugged. ‘OK. Sore, I guess.’
‘Just keep gargling that salt water. It’ll stop it from getting infected again.’
‘Urgh.’ Emily pulled her face. ‘Maybe the abscess is better.’
‘You don’t mean that.’
She focussed on the ground. Taking a short run up, she flipped onto her hands and arched her body over to land back on her feet. She finished the move by pushing out her chest, adopting the stance of a gymnast at the end of a routine and looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
‘That was impressive,’ Adam said.
‘I know. I wasn’t too good at it when I was at school, but I had plenty of time to practice at the camp.’ She soon lost interest in cartwheeling and returned to kicking the grass. ‘What should we do now?’
Adam gazed over to the open door of the Management Centre. ‘I think your dad packed those playing cards before we left. Your mom left her bag inside, so if they’re there, we could play Go Fish.’
‘Boring. I want to do something out here,’ Emily said.
‘Just think of all the exploring we will be able to do when the others have made it safe.’
‘Are there lots of animals around here?’
‘For sure. There’s deer, foxes, coons, woodchucks, squirrels, mice, and a whole lot more, I reckon.’
The talk of animals excited her. Adam could see the warmth pipe into her face. She paused for thought, curling her lip.
‘We could go to the lake and play cards down by the boats.’
Adam’s pale blue eyes flickered. ‘Erm, I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Emily.’
‘Salty said as long as we stay clear of the trees, we will be able to see the monsters coming from a mile away.’
‘Yeah, but your dad said we were to stay put.’
‘He also told you to keep an eye on me.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Well, how can you keep an eye on me if you’re here and I’m way over at the lake?’
‘Emily?’ Adam raised his eyebrows.
She smirked, a glint of mischief in her eyes, and then took off across the grass, giggling with every gleeful step.
Adam was shocked at how much distance her little legs had already covered in just a few seconds. ‘Emily, wait!’ He had no choice but to chase after her.
6
The steel frame of the aviary arched against the landscape. It was hands down the biggest bird house Kristin had ever seen. From where they were, she could hear the gentle buzz of insects darting around the botanical gardens. But there were no birds – not a single chirp or wing flap.
As they got closer, they understood why. Both doors to the structure had been left wide open.
‘Someone had the sense to let them out before they abandoned ship. That tells us somethin’,’ Salty said.
‘Tells us what?’ Kristin asked, still gazing into the dome.
‘Someone was here during the outbreak. They knew no one was ever coming back.’
‘I remember how it felt back then. Even when whole cities were being locked down and martial law had been instigated, I still believed the authorities would stop us from going under. How stupid was that?’
‘Pretty stupid, but I guess if you’ve had a private school education and work in a well-paid jo
b so you can live in a fancy home, provide for your kids and pay medical bills, makes it hard to realise by just how thin a thread everything is hanging.’
Kristin turned from the aviary and regarded Salty’s tattered clothes and weather-worn complexion. ‘What about you? You worked here; Warrington obviously trusted you. He didn’t sound like a guy who would short-change his employees.’
‘It was a good gig; I’ll give it that – probably the best I’ve had, but it wasn’t always that way. Not nearly.’ He hawked up some phlegm and spat it onto the grass nearby.
‘Come on,’ he said, flicking his head to the east. ‘Time’s a wastin’.’
They followed the main road until they came to the visitor centre – the largest building on the site. Panels of concrete and glass had been assembled to form an almost perfect cross.
‘Even though he closed it to the public, he left everything in there just the way it was.’ Salty smiled. ‘Except for one thing. He had a fancy cocktail bar installed. He might have had a stick up his ass about purifying the planet, but he had a weakness for liquor.’
‘You admired him,’ Kristin said.
‘Can’t say as I agreed with everything he stood for, especially not his politics, but he was a man who knew what he wanted outta life. There wasn’t too many of them around. Even less now,’ Salty said.
‘We going to take a look?’ Kristin said.
‘Nah, we’ll check it out later. There’s somewhere else we need to go first.’
‘Where’s that?’
‘It’s right up ahead.’
Behind the visitor centre there was a circular building with a glass roof. Salty quickened his pace when he saw it and Kristin strode alongside him. The doors were unlocked and they wandered into the reception area. Kristin noticed the public information posters about deer physiology and diet. She realised they were standing in what used to be the preserve’s animal clinic.
Salty behaved like he knew the place well, slipping behind the counter and entering the door to the rest of the building. An intense smell caused him to recoil and cover his mouth with the cuff of his plaid jacket.
Everything Dies [Season One] Page 13