The Dark Days Series | Book 2 | Sanctuary

by Cole, Christopher

  ****

  Grim

  With the use of directional antenna, and changing positions to plot compass receiving signals on a map from the stolen radio, Gold Command was able to plot where the directional lines intersect on the map and triangulate the location of the stolen radio to a small bandit camp. The bandits weren’t subtle about hiding their camp and there were only about thirty of them left. There were two bandits keeping watch, we took them out with suppressed pistols. We moved up to where the remaining bandits clustered. They were mostly scattered, but some were in smaller groups. The sun set barely an hour before with a blanket cloud cover, making it pretty dark, so we wore our night vision goggles – handy pieces of equipment and a decisive advantage when your enemy is without.

  “Lieutenant Amos, you and your groups flank right. We’ll go left,” I ordered.

  Lieutenant Amos and his guys went to the right, and my guys went left. There were fifteen guys around the camp on our side – five were inside the cabin, three were around a campfire, two were patrolling near the woods, two were leaning against a shed, and three were trying to smoke something by a small box truck.

  “Private Morgan, take the two patrolling near the perimeter, Private Garrison, the two by the shed, I’ll get the pot smokers,” I ordered.

  We all had a silenced pistol in one hand and a knife in the other hand. Private Morgan snuck behind the two patrolling bandits, shot one in the back of the head and when the other bandit turned around, Private Morgan stabbed the bandit from under the chin then brought him down to shoot him in the head. Private Garrison snuck behind the two by the shed and stabbed one bandit in the throat then shot the other between the eyes – blood and bits of brains splattered on the side of the shed. I climbed to the top of the box truck overlooking the three bandits down below. One of the bandits took too big of a puff from the bong, and walked away coughing and the other two were laughing. I jumped down on one bandit making him fall flat on his face before I stabbed his skull, rose up and stabbed the other bandit in the upper chest close to the throat and then shot the other bandit as he turned around – I put a bullet in the skulls of the other two to prevent them from turning.

  “Let’s take the three by the campfire,” I said, on the radio.

  When we got into position I said, “Everyone pick a target, aim for the heads.”

  “I got the one cooking,” Private Garrison said.

  “Snorelax is all mine,” Private Morgan said.

  “That leaves the one drinking to me. On my mark, three, two, one,” I said.

  We shot our targets in the head. They slumped over dead.

  “Moving to the cabin,” Private Morgan said.

  “Captain Harvard, this is Lieutenant Amos. We found the radio. Over,” Lieutenant Amos said.

  “Roger that,” I replied.

  We stacked up by the front door, but before we could reach for the doorknob, a bandit came out. He didn’t see us as he walked out, Private Garrison grabbed his mouth from behind and slit his throat. Then we went inside – there were two bandits sleeping, one on the couch and one on the floor. Private Morgan and Private Garrison quietly went over and stabbed their throats. I took care of the last two bandits down the hall. The bandit in the bedroom spotted me, I threw my knife at his chest, moved behind the other bandit, grabbed him and snapped his neck. The bandit in the bedroom was still alive with the knife in his chest as he slumped against the wall trying to pull out his pistol. I ran over, pulled the knife out of his chest and stabbed him in the throat and eye – he fell dead with his one good eye still open.

  “Lieutenant Amos, this is Captain Harvard. We’ve secured our end, all hostiles compliant. How’s it looking on your end? Over,” I said, on the radio.

  “Hold on,” Lieutenant Amos said, then a few seconds later, “All hostiles dead on our end as well. Over.”

  We collected whatever ammo they had and retrieved the stolen radio along with one of theirs. We took it all back to our camp. At first light tomorrow, we’ll meet up with the Black Shadows at Dunsmuir. Although, River and her brothers were really anxious to go immediately to find the kids, but the roads were more dangerous at night because zombies are more active at night. We joined the others at the camp and it looked like they started the fires for dinner. River sat close to the fire looking tense and coiled, like she was ready for action. Corporal Wade noticed and tried to calm her down.

  Corporal Wade started, “River, did you know that Nathan saved Molly’s life by killing an entire cult by luring—”

  “—a herd of zombies into the cult’s place, then he disguised her, Blair, and Izzy with the zombie’s blood so the zombies couldn’t see them which is how they got out of there alive. Yeah, I know the story,” River stated.

  “Right, if he can do that, he can handle pretty much anything.”

  “A bullet to the head can kill anyone.”

  “Yeah well, he’s not anyone is he? Not everyone has his luck.”

  River looked up with a raised eyebrow.

  “Luck? Is that you call it? Well, if it’s luck that’s keeping him alive, I hope he has a lot of it because the thing about luck is, it will run out eventually,” River stated.

  “Worrying won’t help River. Those kids are alive, they’ll stay alive. We’ll be tripping over ourselves going after them in the dark,” Cody said.

  “I know. I know we can’t go after them now. I know that they’re strong. I know that they need help. I know that a big fucking storm is blowing in from the sea and is gonna be on top of us! I know!” River said, with an agitated face.

  River sighed and sat down.

  After a moment of silence, her brother Clark spoke.

  “River . . . I know telling you that it’s gonna be okay won’t help. We’re all eager to find them. We just gotta deal with our shit and remain in the present . . . also there shouldn’t be that many bandits left. It’s mostly zombies they have to worry about, and they know how to handle them,” Clark said.

  That didn’t do much for River.

  When dinner was ready and as we ate, River spoke.

  “I can handle Mom and Dad dying,” River said.

  Her brothers and Corporal Wade looked up at her.

  “I can handle being recruited by the Black Shadow . . . I might even be able to handle both of you dying . . . maybe . . . but if anything happens to those kids . . . what kind of evil is that? Something terrible happened to those kids, so young . . . that’s the worst kind of evil,” River said.

  I was inclined to agree with her. Out of all the evil that I’ve dealt with, bad things happening to children is the worst. Robbing each of them for an entire life – every hope, dream, experience . . . a life full of memories unlived, unrealized.

  “Captain Harvard, this is Gold Command. Do you copy? Over,” the radio called.

  “Gold Command, this is Captain Harvard. I copy. Over,” I replied.

  “Captain Harvard, new orders. Four vehicles with wounded will meet you at your location in the morning. You are to provide them safe passage and escort them to Camp Terminator. Medics and field surgeons will be there to assist. Over.”

  Everyone looked up at me.

  “Interrogative. What about the rest at Dunsmuir? Over,” I asked.

  “They’ll have to sit tight and wait through the storm before help can come. It’s moving fast. It’s almost on top of us here at the Fort. Over.”

  “But sir—”

  “These are your orders. Save the kids that need help now. The others will have to tough it out. They’ll manage. Protect the ones in need of medical help. Out.”

  Everyone else heard and they were pissed as well.

  “God-fucking-dammit,” Private Morgan rolled his eyes.

  Private Garrison threw his helmet.

  “Fucking Hell,” Corporal Wade swore.

  “Captain?” Cody asked.

  “Let’s escort them as quickly as possible, then get to Dunsmuir,” I stated.

  River crossed her
arms and looked away.

  “However . . . Command doesn’t know anything about you four, so, you will drive ahead and help to hold Dunsmuir while you wait for backup,” I said.

  River looked at me and asked, “You’re giving us the go-ahead sir?”

  “You happy, Lara Croft?”

  River looked at her brothers then back at me.

  “That’s all you have to say, sir!” River said, with a smile.

  Chapter 16

  River

  The morning was dark with clouds rolling in and the wind was picking up. We geared up and were ready to pass the convoy as soon as it met up with Captain Harvard and the others. We parked our Humvee off an old access road near the highway.

  “Guys, are you sure about this?” Cody asked.

  “Do you want to find those kids or not?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but River—”

  “But nothing, we have to find them. So, button your yap, get your shit together, and stop ‘Codying’ this up.”

  “Did you just use my name as a verb? Like Wally from ‘The Switch?’ Seriously?”

  “Aw, did your feelings get a boo-boo?” Clark asked.

  “How about you both shut up and focus?” Corporal Wade asked.

  “He’s right boys, quit screwing around. How long before they get here?” I asked looking at my watch.

  “Not too long. It’s not that far from Dunsmuir, but the roads are probably a maze to get through. Once they pass here and meet up with our guys there, we drive to where the kids are.”

  “Winner-winner, chicken dinner,” Clark said.

  “Don’t make me hungry, man,” Cody said.

  After a period of silence, I broke it by asking Corporal Wade, “So . . . how were the kids doing before the bandits attacked?”

  “From what Captain Noir told me, they’re excelling,” Corporal Wade said.

  “Really?” Clark asked, with a smile. I was impressed too.

  Corporal Wade continued, “Yeah, doing really well. Top of their class, same as you chuckleheads. You and your brother Clark are doing great . . . but you Cody—”

  Corporal Wade looked over his seat at Cody.

  “—I’m hearing things.”

  Cody looked away.

  Clark and I looked at each other with confused looks. We glanced back and forth between Corporal Wade and Cody.

  “What things?” Clark asked.

  “Your grades are slipping, you’re not keeping your locker properly organized, you’re running late, you’ve been getting into trouble, and I heard there was an . . . ‘incident’ between you and another recruit,” Corporal Wade explained.

  “What incident? Why are we only hearing about this now?” Clark asked, turning to Cody with a serious tone.

  “Do we really need to do this now guys? We’re kind of in the middle of something important,” I stated.

  “No, no, no, I wanna know what’s going on? Cody, are you some kind of trouble?” Clark asked his brother.

  “No, I’m not,” Cody replied.

  “Then what’s the deal? What’s going on?! What incident is Wade talking about? Did you get into a fight with someone or what?!”

  Cody sighed and rolled his eyes.

  “Huh? Cody. Cody! Cody, for fuck’s sake would you look at me and tell me what’s going before I ask Wade?”

  Cody still didn’t answer nor look at Clark. Before anyone could say anything, I spotted the convoy.

  “Convoy coming from the road. Get ready,” I said, loudly pointing.

  Corporal Wade started the engine.

  “We’ll do this later. Right now, I need your eyes wide fucking open,” Corporal Wade said.

  The convoy merged with Captain Harvard’s unit and drove with them to the medical base while we went in the opposite direction. The wind was picking up indicating that the storm was on its way. The highway to Dunsmuir was mixed with mazes and clusters of cars giving way to intermittent patches of clear roads – sometimes we’d have nothing on the road and then we have to maneuver around wrecked or abandoned cars. What was irritating, was we had to back up repeatedly to find another way around a dead-end or a gap too tight to squeeze through. To make matters worse, a large pack of zombies came out of the woods into the highway and spotted us.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, we don’t have time for this!” I swore.

  I climbed into the M240 Bravo machine gun and hosed them down. Same as always, blood came out their torsos before I got their brains. Then another pack of zombies started attacking from the right coming from the trees. I couldn’t get a shot with the machine gun, so I had to pull out my SIG-Sauer to shoot them. Some of the zombies were trying to climb the Humvee, so Clark got out and ran around to shoot some of them. Cody got out to help him, but more were coming. I spun the gun turret, so I could shoot the ones coming at us from the forest. I was scoring some kills, but a few zombies were attacking my brothers from behind some vehicles. They were both struggling until Cody pulled out his Beretta M9A3, shot his zombie in the face, then shot Clark’s zombie. After five minutes, most of the zombies were dead, both Clark and Cody got back in, and Wade drove through them. When we got to Dunsmuir we began searching for where the kids were based. Finally, a lookout came out signaling us he was coming out. We drove up close to him, he was definitely from Camp Sledgehammer, he was fourteen.

  “What’s up? Need something?” the boy asked.

  “Where’s your base? Where are the others?” I asked.

  “Up that hill, follow the road past the cabins until you see a small hotel,” the boy answered.

  We drove up. The roads off the highway were covered with pine needles and leaves. The old cabins and houses were still holding up, but they showed wear and decay. Nature was taking back the world. As we got closer, we saw more and more Black Shadow recruits and soldiers patrolling or working on fortifications for the hotel or defenses around. I was scanning all the Black Shadows to find a familiar face, but found none. Corporal Wade parked right in front of the hotel and I was the first to enter, followed by my brothers with Corporal Wade.

  “Nathan! Ashley! Molly!” I called, while searching.

  “Captain Noir!” Corporal Wade called.

  We searched the whole hotel and found no one. Then finally Captain Alvin showed up.

  “What are you doing here? Who are you looking for?” Captain Alvin asked.

  My brothers, Corporal Wade, and I stood at attention and saluted to the captain.

  When he saluted back Corporal Wade spoke first, “Sir, we’re looking for Captain Noir and a few Black Shadow operatives under his command.”

  “Well, you missed them. They left this morning,” Captain Alvin answered.

  “Left? Where?” I asked.

  “Captain Noir and some of my soldiers took several Black Shadow recruits to go look for some missing Shadows that haven’t arrived here yet. They suspect they are somewhere east in either McCloud or Greenwood.”

  “Greenwood?!”

  “Shit, how far is that?” Clark asked.

  Cody pulled out a map and answered, “Thirty miles, maybe a little more.”

  I scoffed.

  “There’s no way they traveled by foot there. Captain Alvin, did they take a car sir?” I asked.

  “They took two trucks with mounted guns, an SUV, and a car. Counting their commanding officer, Captain Noir, there’s seventeen of them heading east to look for the missing Black Shadows. They left this morning at 0700,” Captain Alvin answered.

  “Dammit, they’re probably already there by now. We gotta go after them,” Corporal Wade said.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, son. You can’t just go after them.”

  “Sir, they’re walking into a shitstorm of danger. They’ll need—”

  Captain Alvin shook his head and brought Corporal Wade to the window looking west. Dark thunder clouds were visible, we could even see the flashes of the lightning and the thunder was getting louder.

  “You see those clouds? That
storm is giving everyone back home hell and it’s gonna give us hell, too. I’m talking about high winds and a shitload of rain. You’ll be tripping over yourselves trying to find the others. Captain Noir and the others will hunker down in McCloud if they have to. If they’re fast and lucky, they’ll find the lost Black Shadows before the storm hits,” Captain Alvin explained.

  “But if we hurry, we can catch up to them!” I stated.

  “Yeah, and that’s a big ‘if’ soldier!”

  “Captain, we’re wasting time!”

  “Corporal, this isn’t a discussion—”

  “I need to do this!”

  Captain Alvin stopped and looked at River.

  “Please, sir . . . let us go after them. Please.”

  Captain Alvin looked back at the storm and scratched the back of his head, sensing River’s desperation and apparent connection to the other group.

  “Fine, but you better drive fast without wrecking. That storm is big, it’s pushing inland and it won’t pass quickly,” Captain Alvin said.

  “Thank you, sir. Thank you!” I said, before dashing through the front door.

  “Go! Hurry!”

  I got behind the wheel and started the Humvee.

  “What kind of vehicles are they driving?” Corporal Wade asked, as he got in the passenger seat.

  “A Chevy Silverado, a Ford F-250, a Jeep Wrangler, and a Dodge Charger!”

  I gunned out of there heading for the road to take us to the east.

  Hold on kids. Please don’t fucking die on me.

  Chapter 17

  Nathan/Sonny

  “Yep, you called it, Helga. Trail of dead zombies,” Ashley said, looking through binoculars.

  “Told ya, they’d be easier to find if there were more crows or seagulls or vultures, but in this wind, there’s not very many,” Helga replied.

  “We still have a path to follow, they went further east and the blood from the dead zombies is almost gone, so this had to be yesterday. They may not be that far ahead. Let’s go!” Carrie said.