“We’ve got to go back. We’ve got to rebuild and try again.” Tom said.
“With whom exactly?” LeBron said in an exasperated tone of voice.
“With whomever is still alive. We might not have been the only ones who survived. The whole second floor might have made it actually. If they’re all dead, I’ll ring up Weathertop and request more troops be sent by rail. We can’t afford to just give up. The stakes are too high. We give up here and it could be the end of the human race in a few generations.” Tom said enthusiastically. If he was expecting that enthusiasm to be echoed back at him, he was playing to the wrong crowd.
“It’s not like we have anything better to do.” LeBron said breaking the awkward silence.
“I get one of those fancy comforters this time. Those green army blankets suck. Why does the military even buy blankets that suck that much? What’s the point?”” Drew asked. He sounded genuinely pissed off about it.
Chapter 12: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. LeBron wasn’t sure where he’d read that at, but it seemed apt to their situation. Here they were the morning after barely surviving one night in the school headed back to rebuild it. Like this time would be any different. He highly doubted there was a magic formula of materials and elevation and defenses that’d actually make a place crawler proof.
If they were to use the three little pigs analogy that kept circulating in LeBron’s mind, the wolf won unless you built your house out of massive concrete walls. You basically needed to move into a cold war era bomb shelter if you wanted to survive without moving around. The places like the base in Cheyenne or the one at Weathertop they’d been at before taking President Thompson up on a one way ticket to Fayetteville. Anything less than that and the wolves would huff and puff and blow it right on down. Then they’d be inside gnawing on the stupid pork chops who thought they could staple car hoods to the wall and be safe.
They parked the Humvee in the school parking lot and carefully got out. There’d been thousands of the monsters here the previous night prowling the space they were parking in now. Out of those thousands maybe one in a hundred had been able to leap to the third floor. Different ones seemed to have developed different skills. Maybe some were just better at channeling the adrenaline rush than the others. Or maybe it had more do with the mind mumbo jumbo than with any physical elements. Regardless of the ‘why’ they needed to deal with the ‘what’ like Charlie had explained to LeBron the day before.
With thousands of monsters descending on the school any victims had probably been devoured before they turned. That lowered the risk of surgers. It didn’t eliminate it altogether though. Say ten crawlerz come in through the window and the first one takes a hunk out of your leg right as you’re slamming the door on a flimsy closet to hide in. It only takes the beasties a few moments to rip that closet door off but in that time the infection has spread enough so that they recognize one of their own. That little psychic connection forms that tells them not to eat you.
On the other hand if all ten of them jump on the person before he gets to the closet then that person isn’t going to get a chance to turn. Instead of having to survive one big bite now whoever it is in the room has ten of those things chomping on different body parts. That person is most likely not going to survive. Even if they do turn into a surger they’ll most likely bleed out before they’ve made it more than a few steps.
The group in the Humvee were all focused on that first scenario. It may be unlikely a surger was going to come springing out of the school to attack them, but it wasn’t impossible. The fact that each of them was on high alert was an indicator of why each of them was still breathing this far into the event. People who took things for granted didn’t survive very long in the new normal. Not unless they were camped out in one of those cold war era military bases with the rest of the fortunate privileged.
Nothing came at them from the bottom floor. They all hit the dirt when someone let loose a burst of machine gun fire from the building. Looking up at the building they watched as one of the covered windows was blown out. Whoever was inside wanted out and they wanted out now. The machine gun fire stopped and then a whole section of the wall blew out with a loud boom! Bricks and metal rained down on the small group desperately crawling backwards away from the explosions. Each of them wanting nothing more than to get back in the Humvee and be shielded from the heavy objects smashing into the ground all around them.
When the smoke and dust cleared, they’d all survived the rain of random building parts. Harley was nursing a bleeding scalp from being smacked by a brick. Drew was prying a piece of metal out of his thigh. Other than that they were all good. Lisa was once again struck by how they took things in stride now that back in the old days would’ve required insurance forms and a trip to the emergency room. Now they pulled stuff out of their bodies, poured some whiskey on whatever part had been gashed open and wrapped it up with duct tape and a maxi pad.
“Stop blowing shit up!” Harley had stood up holding the back of his bleeding head. He looked pretty pissed. He was yelling out a challenge to the building in general. Lisa wondered if the person who’d blown up the wall would have the guts to actually admit it. A pissed off Harley was quite a sight to behold.
“Sorry! We didn’t know anybody was down there. We need to get out of this death trap. Don’t suppose any of you know where a ladder is?” A soldier up on the second floor asked the question hopefully. If they didn’t, he was more than willing to jump for it. He wanted nothing more than to put some serious distance between himself and the hell hole he’d barely survived.
“Plenty of ladders and building stuff on the first floor. We have a whole classroom full of them.” Tom said.
“The first floor’s crawling with them. They’re slithering over each other hoping the food will come to them. They feel us out here. They sense the people alive on the second floor. They’ve got someone trapped in a tiny space on the first floor.” Yue said coming out of the car. Her eyes had a haunted faraway look. Her lips were slightly blue making her look like she had a mild case of hypothermia.
“Are you ok?” Lisa asked her with concern. Yue did not look ok.
“I don’t know. It’s all slimy in my head.” Yue answered. The group all looked at one another. The answer was as weird as it was creepy.
“Do you want to get back in the car and rest?” LeBron asked her. Yue shook her head and looked over at Harley. He’d gone from angry face to concerned face now that he’d seen Yue. The big man had a big heart buried under all that macho gypsy nonchalance he liked to front.
“Do you want something to help keep them out?” Harley asked softly. He wasn’t sure what all pills he had left but Yue looked like she needed them way more than he did. It was a measure of how concerned he was that he was even willing to entertain giving up the rest of his stash. Yue realized that as well. She hadn’t been worried about how bad off she might be until Harley had made that offer. She’d seen him ignore people’s broken bones when he had painkillers on him. If he didn’t think they were in enough pain he wasn’t going to dig into his limited stock.
“Thanks. I’ll take you up on that once we save the people in this building. I think I can help with that.” Yue said. On the inside she was screaming out for something to block the pain. Some way to expel the monsters from her head. She was worried she’d become like them. Maybe it didn’t take a physical transfer of saliva. What if they could infect her with a psychic sneeze? An exchange of bodily images instead of fluids? She was pretty sure the horror movie in her head was what drove the crawlerz onwards.
“Ok. What do you see?” Asked Tom.
Yue began walking along the bottom of the school. She was watching her memories of images. The memory of paths taken. She was sensing the prey huddled behind a frustratingly smooth and strong door. She stopped in front of a hood covering a window into one of the cl
assrooms.
“He’s in here. There’s also a wriggling nest of worms. We want him. It’s too strong. We’ll wait.” Yue said. She was so lost in trying to help rescue the man trapped inside that she had no idea how weird she sounded. When she finally looked up to see why they weren’t breaking into the room she was shocked to see them staring at her like she was crazy. She didn’t blame them for thinking that. She was willing to bet donuts to dollars that she was at least at the cat lady mark on the crazy scale. If for no other reason than no one but a cat lady understood what the ‘donuts to dollars’ thing meant.
“Do you see anybody else besides the people up on the second floor?” Tom asked her. Yue focused for a minute.
“No. I think that’s it. They’re in the stairwell but not the second floor yet. Hurry though. They never quit trying.” Yue said.
“Ok. Lisa can you take Yue to the Humvee and get her comfortable. Harley if you have a couple of Valium or something for her, I think she could use a rest. Feel free to drive her as far from this building as she needs to go.” Tom ordered.
Jeff took the pills from Harley once he’d sorted them out and started to follow Lisa back to the Humvee. The major stopped him and motioned him over to the side to have a private conversation. Jeff walked over impatiently. He really wanted to go check on Yue and make sure she was ok. She needed people around her right now. She was in a walking nightmare.
“Your girl’s the most important thing we’ve discovered so far. She might make this whole experiment worthwhile. We need to make sure she’s well-guarded and taken care of.” Tom told Jeff in a whisper once they were out of hearing distance of the rest of them.
“Agreed. We also need to make sure her mind doesn’t explode. She’s my girl and I’m going to protect her.” Jeff said wondering where Tom was going with all of this.
“I get that but with her mental skills she just became a huge weapon in this battle. A weapon we need to study so we can replicate her if possible. She could’ve been killed last night. I’m happy as hell to be alive but she’s just too important to be out here with us. I think we need to send her somewhere like Weathertop.” Tom said.
“Hopefully you’re also thankful to be alive.” Jeff said emphasizing the word thankful.
“Of course I’m thankful. She saved my life. She saved Lipsey’s life. Assuming he ever wakes up anyway. She’s a freakin hero. Which is why she should be shared around versus stuck out her on this experimental outpost where we’re all going to wind up dead. Do you want her dead too? You see how useful those skills of hers are right?” Tom argued.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to save the country. It’s up to her what she wants to do though. I’m telling you right now I put her first. You try and ship her off somewhere she doesn’t want to go or make her do anything she doesn’t want to do. I’ll be in your face. She’s got a whole crew who loves her. Don’t forget that.” Jeff threatened.
This wasn’t the time to tiptoe around the tulips. This was the time to drop the hammer and be extremely transparent. Otherwise Yue would be on the first train back to Weathertop. They’d have a gilded cage waiting for her. She’d be poked and prodded while they paraded captured crawlerz in front of her. She’d be forced to try and read their minds. He had a mental image of that scene from Ghostbusters where Bill Murphy holds up the card to let the girl try and guess what it is. Only in his vision Bill Murphy was a chained up crawler drooling blood and Yue was a pale zonked out version of herself. That intelligent light in her eyes replaced with a manic evil glow. He wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Hey man. Just trying to save the world here. She saved my life. I owe her. You were in that Humvee with her too. I don’t forget things like that. I’m not the bad guy ok?” Tom said.
Jeff liked the words he was hearing. He still wasn’t convinced he could trust the man though. This guy was truly committed to the mission. He was an officer who’d progressed up through the ranks by making the hard calls. This wasn’t a man who backed down because someone like Jeff got in his face.
“Sounds good. I’m going to get these pills over to Yue. Hopefully they help her block the crap out she’s sensing so she can rest. We can talk about that other stuff later once she’s able.” Jeff said. He held out his hand. Tom shook it looking him straight in the eyes.
Chapter 13: Town Hall
The inside of the cargo car was hot and stuffy. There was minimal ventilation for obvious reasons. The Fayetteville train yard had plenty of the cars sitting around. They’d all been outfitted previously to support the people living here. The move to the high school hadn’t happened until they’d all felt like the place was secure enough to keep them alive. The whole point of the Fayetteville force was to come up with ways to survive in a crawler covered America after all.
At this point Jeff doubted anyone would want to move out of the stuffy train cars again anytime soon. Sweating in your sleep was a lot better than dying in your sleep. The train cars might not be as secure as Weathertop, but they were the next best thing. A solid steel car with massive latches to open and shut the doors. Similar to the concept of driving around in an eighteen wheeler and using the trailer as your safe sleeping space. The main difference being you could only go where the tracks went.
Jeff sat on his cot gently stroking Yue’s long dark hair. She’d shoved the pills in her mouth earlier without even looking at them. He was thinking they were a mix of anti-depressants and Oxycodone but there was no way to tell for sure. Harley had been collecting random pills for forever now. Whatever they were the pills seemed to have done the trick. Before they’d all loaded up in the trailers at dusk Tom had come by and presented Jeff with a few different bottles full of different pills.
As a peace offering between the two men it was very much appreciated. The little bottles with pills rattling around inside them may very well be the answer to helping Yue keep her sanity. They’d have to experiment with the dosages to see what worked the best for her. Knowing her she may even refuse to take them. She might feel obliged to continue to serve as an early warning system against the crawlerz. Even if it eventually cost her sanity.
There was no need for psychic powers to tell them that there were infected all over the cargo car they were in. You could hear them beating away on the outside of the car. If you wanted to walk up to the front of the car you could also watch them on a live video feed courtesy of Charlie. He’d been very appreciative of Yue’s powers. Appreciative enough to have setup the live feed in their car after setting it up in the command car. They also had a generic little phone system running between the cars. Charlie had explained that it was all pretty solid as long as the infected didn’t decide to start yanking on wires while they were out there.
So far none of the crawlerz had been cable guys during their previous uninfected lives. Everything was still up and working and providing an amazing level of detail. If you were interested in watching the demons crawl all over the car you were going to be sleeping in it was there for you to see. Jeff had gone up to look earlier and decided he’d rather not know what was on the outside of the car. What was interesting from a scientific point of view was a skid mark inducer from a personal point of view.
You could barely even see the train cars on the camera feeds. They were literally covered with the infected. They were like candy bars on the ground covered in ants. In this case they were more like fire ants than your regular picnic ruining black ants. They crawled around randomly punching at the hard metal walls. Anytime they found something that was an irregular part of the car they pushed and pulled and hit it. If there were a way for the throngs of madmen outside to break in, then they were determined to find it.
If Yue had been awake, she could’ve told them about the overwhelming feelings of frustration bubbling through the monsters outside. Their minds filled with an addiction a million times more powerful than the pull of heroin for an addict. They didn’t just want it. They didn’t just physically and mentally crave the fles
h of the uninfected. They had to have it. The demons in them drove them to it. The parts of their brains opened and warped by the ancient curse pushed on them relentlessly. Their own personal tortured thoughts shared and twisted with the thousands of other infected around them. A madhouse of murderous impulses flogging them all forward.
As bad as the march to mayhem the monsters outside were fixated on the worse part was the inevitability of it for those inside. Jeff sat beside Yue carefully guarding the flame on the top of his candle. He made a game of it in his own mind. The candle was hope and he had to make sure the fire didn’t get taken out of the wick. Having your hope burn out when you’re in a fight like they were in was life threatening. There was no way to keep going if you couldn’t make yourself see a better future.
Looking around he saw everyone else was sleeping. Or at least pretending to sleep. He smiled when he noticed pretty much everyone had managed to claim a comforter for themselves. To have grabbed those they would’ve had to fight their way into the dark classroom they were stored in. They’d risked their lives for those king sized comforters. It was the small things that meant everything.
Crawlerz | Book 4 | From The Ashes Page 11