by Jamie Davis
Kurt reached over to his pack and removed a small collapsible shovel. It was one of those versatile tools that had many uses beyond digging a hole. This time, however, it would be used for its intended purpose. He moved to the edge of the hillside and began digging.
As he got tired, Marci took a turn, too. Soon they had a hole big enough in which to place the body. As Kurt started shoveling dirt back into the hole, Marci went to gather stones from around the hillside to put on top of the packed dirt when Kurt was finished.
When they were done, they had a nice rock cairn built over the top the burial site.
Kurt laid the doc’s stethoscope at the head of the grave to help mark the point where the doctor was buried. “Maybe someday someone would find it and realize a healer was buried there.”
Marci smiled and nodded. He smiled, too. It was a comforting thought.
“Let’s go and get the camp set up. It’s going to be a long night and we need to keep the baby warm. We’ll take turns holding her beneath our own blankets to use our body heat to help keep her temperature stable.
“What about food?” Marci asked.
“I think there’s another village just south of here, at least that’s what the map says. We can be there by mid-morning if we leave at dawn. Hopefully, if we get there quickly enough, we can try and find some baby formula, powdered milk, or even canned milk to feed her.
“South? But that’ll take us completely out of our way,” Brent complained after listening in on their conversation. “We have a timetable to keep. I’ll not allow it.”
Kurt rounded on the man. “We’re not going to let this child starve to death just because you think the mission will be inconvenienced. You heard the Doc before she died. This baby is the mission now and regardless of that, we’d still do the right thing and try to keep the kid alive. What kind of monster are you to even suggest such a thing?”
Brent stammered as if searching for the words that would answer a question like that. Eventually, all he could say was, “Fine, we can go to the village.”
“Alright,” Marci said. “I’ll get the camp set up. Then you and I can take shifts on guard, K.C.”
Kurt glared at Brent, wondering if he could even be trusted to watch the baby. Marci went about the routine task of setting up camp and Kurt walked the perimeter to make sure everything was safe.
Brent was the logical choice to take care of the baby out of the three of them. He was a family man who had kids of his own. Kurt resolved to leave the baby in his care for now, but he’d keep a close eye on the guy.
He started preparing a meal with their MRE packs. Reconstituting the ready-to-eat meals for the three of them was a familiar task and helped ground him after the strangeness of the birth and sorrow at burying the doctor.
It was funny how something like that could bring a sense of normalcy back to a situation like this. He hoped as the light of the morning dawned on them in a few hours, things would look brighter tomorrow than they did right now.
For the time being, Kurt needed to put on a positive outlook and show everyone else that they would find a way through this. Deep inside, though, he had a deep sense of dread.
Chapter 13
The baby cried almost continuously by the time they reached the small village to the south. Luckily, the noise from the child’s fussing didn’t attract any infected to them.
Kurt’s decision to divert to the town turned out to be a good one. A quick search turned up more than he’d expected to find. They discovered a couple cans of powdered baby formula and some bottles. One of the homes had several small cans of evaporated milk and a box of powdered milk.
Between all of that, Kurt figured they could feed the baby for at least the remaining week ahead of them. That should be more than enough time for them to travel the rest of the way to the western settlement and lab.
Kurt reconstituted some of the baby formula with water from his canteen and poured it into one of the baby bottles they’d found. He took the bottle to where Brent sat with the baby while it slept.
Marci called him from outside the home. “Kurt, you’ve got to see this.”
“I’m kind of busy with the baby.”
Marci came in as Kurt picked up the baby and started feeding her from the bottle. “Kurt give the baby to Brent. He can finish feeding her. I need you out here. Now.”
Kurt was puzzled by her insistence but knew he should trust her judgment. “Here, Brent. Take the baby and feed her this bottle. Stay in here and stay quiet. There must be trouble outside. Marci and I will be right back.”
Kurt followed Marci out the door and she led him to a small storage building at the outskirts of town. The warehouse was boarded up so that no one could get in the windows but somehow the door had been breached. They found several bodies of the infected laying around the broken doorway and just inside the shed. But that wasn’t what Marci wanted him to see.
Leading him through the door and stepping carefully around the decomposing bodies, Kurt held his breath, trying to avoid retching at the stench coming from inside the enclosed space. Marci led him inside and pointed at six bodies wearing tactical gear and weapons. Whoever these guys were, they’d made a final stand against an attack by the infected here. They didn’t look like settlers though. They look like trained soldiers or mercenaries.
“Who are they?” Kurt asked Marci.
“I searched them. I found one of them had a corporate ID From Aranis. These guys are part of a corporate security team. I thought the Doc told you no one had been in here through the gateway since she came out almost a year ago. That can’t be true. These bodies haven’t been dead that long.”
Kurt looked down at the decomposing corpses. It was hard to judge from what he saw how long they been here. It seemed unlikely that they’d been here for a whole year, though.
Marci was right. Something strange was going on. “Let’s search them. Maybe we can find something that’ll explain why they’re here.”
The two took a few minutes and set about the disgusting task of searching the bodies. Kurt found some personal items, including a wallet and old military dog tags on a few of them.
The portable wrist computers each of them wore had powered down a long time ago, but Marci might be able to work some tech magic to get them back up and running. They might have some information about what brought them here and what their mission was.
“Let’s keep this discovery from Brent. We don’t need to tell him about it until we figure out why they were here. He backed the Doc’s story and told us no one else had been here. Clearly, that wasn’t the case.”
Marci nodded and took the wrist comps off each body and stuffed them in her pack. “I’ll use some downtime later when I’m alone and see if I can crack the encryption on these bad boys. If we can power them up, we might be able to figure out what’s going on.”
Kurt nodded and the two of them left the storage shed behind them. Kurt was glad to be out in the fresh air again. He felt like he needed a bath.
Brent had just finished feeding the baby and she was resting comfortably in his arms by the time they returned.
“Everything good with the kid?” Kurt asked.
“Yes, she took the whole bottle. She should sleep for a while now. Kurt, I know you have problems with me. Still, I think we should get back moving west again. We’ve diverted enough away from the mission to find baby formula. We need to get back on the road.”
“Agreed,” Kurt said. “We’ll get on the trail west right now.”
“What did you all find out there?” Brent asked.
“Just evidence of more infected around than I’m comfortable with. We need to be careful when we leave and watch our backs for a while.”
Brent nodded and went back to tending to the baby. Kurt and Marci mixed up a few more bottles for use overnight and on the trail and packed up the rest of the formula, powdered milk, and evaporated milk cans.
“Brent,” Marci asked. “How often is this baby going to
need food?”
“Probably every two to four hours. At least that’s what my kids were like when they were first born.”
“All right,” Kurt said. “We’ve got enough bottles ready to get us through most of the afternoon and night, then. When she needs to eat again, we’ll stop and camp for the night. We should probably try and find some sort of shelter so we don’t have to camp out in the open with her.”
Brent nodded and started handing the baby to Marci so he could put on this pack and then reached out to take the baby back.
“I thought you didn’t like the kid and thought she was a distraction?” Marci asked as she handed the baby back to him.
“Like you said, she’s the mission. Besides, you need your hands free in case we run into trouble. You’re a better shot than me.”
Kurt couldn’t argue with that logic. “Let’s get moving. We’ve got to get back on the trail and put some distance between us and any more infected around this area.
They trekked west the rest of the day and made good time. The team stopped twice more to feed the baby before they camped for the night. Now that she was fed, the baby was mostly quiet.
Kurt wondered if the steady rocking motion of their walking on the trail helped keep the baby settled. She didn’t fuss much at all, which was good. They were trying to be as silent as possible while they crossed through this region.
Late in the afternoon, Marci scouted ahead during one of their breaks and found a small farm. The log cabin farmhouse was intact and could be easily barricaded if needed. It would also give them shelter for the night. It was getting colder the farther west they traveled. She led them to the farm after their break to feed the baby.
“Looks like we can camp here for the night,” Kurt said. “Good job, Marci. Do a circuit and make sure there are no infected close by. If it seems like it’s safe, we’ll light a fire in the wood stove and cook something fresh for dinner. We still have some of the vegetables and canned meat salvaged from the last village.”
The three of them set out and arrived at the farmhouse fifteen minutes later. While Brent and Kurt started setting up their gear for a night stay, Marci began to making a security circuit around the farm to make sure there were no infected hiding nearby.
She returned a half hour later and nodded as she walked into the cabin. “All clear.”
“Good, then you take a turn with the baby.”
“We need to give her a name,” Marci said. “We can’t keep calling her ‘the baby.’”
“I don’t know. What do you have in mind?” Kurt said.
“We should name her something that will link her to her mother in some way.”
“Her mother's first name was Alison. Maybe we can name her Allie?” Kurt asked.
“I like that,” Marci replied. “Allie it is.”
“I don’t know why you all are fussing over that kid so much. Without proper care, we’re never going to keep her alive in this type of environment.” Brent said.
Kurt spun around and poked his finger at Brent’s chest. “I don’t want to hear any more talk like that. This kid is important to what we’re doing here and she’s not going to be treated like a burden. On top of that, she’s the child of one of our team members and needs to be protected. I expect you to do what you need to do to protect her. Understand?”
Brent backed down and he grumbled and muttered something under his breath. Kurt let it go. He didn’t like the way the guy was acting. With kids of his own, Kurt figured he’d be more sympathetic to the baby. Something wasn’t quite right, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Marci finished feeding the baby and sat rocking her where she sat on the floor. Kurt started cooking their meal. It was getting dark outside. It was time to set up camp and get settled for the night.
Kurt worked on barricading the door and windows on the first floor while Marci got a place set up to put the baby down to sleep. It was time to get some rest, though he and Marci once again split the night-time guard duty between them. Kurt still didn’t trust Brent to take a shift on his own. They’d continue on in the morning and hopefully find some more supplies for the baby along the way.
Chapter 14
The next two days of travel moved quickly. The terrain was relatively easy though they continued to gain elevation as they walked into the mountain foothills. They also ran into no more trouble with any infected.
The biggest problem they encountered, though, had to do with little Allie. She went through the food and formula much faster than they expected. Kurt realized by the end of the second day that they were going to have to divert again to a nearby town to search for more formula or milk.
The town showed on the map, just to the north of their current position. He was concerned because, with the other settlements they’d encountered, they’d also found evidence of larger groups of the infected nearby.
This town looked a little larger than the ones they’d seen so far. Kurt hoped they could sneak into some of the homes on the outskirts and find more formula or milk for the baby without having to explore too far into the center of the community.
Brent complained once again about the diversion. Kurt glared at him without answering his concerns until he shut up. They reached the crossroads leading north on the map and turned towards the nearby town.
There were immediate signs of infected nearby. Marci spotted fresh tracks in the dirt on the road. As they crested a hill on the outskirts of the community, Kurt thought he spotted figures moving on the far side of town, but he couldn’t be sure. By the time he got out his binoculars, the streets looked clear.
“We need to move quickly, and quietly,” Kurt told the others as they crouched in the brush near the edge of town. We’ll search the homes in this area until we find what we need. Then we’ll head out west again. There have got to be infected nearby so let’s keep our eyes open. Brent, you carry the baby and stay behind us. Marci and I will do the searching.”
Brent took the child from Marci. She’d been taking her turn caring Allie, who slept at the moment. Their search started on the southern end of town. These homes were mostly stone and wood construction and only one story high. Kurt found another bag of powdered milk. It wasn’t as good as baby formula, but he figured it would do to supplement the real thing.
Marci found a couple of towels they could use for diapers. Finding places to clean the ones they’d been using had been problematic. They’d reused the same couple of rags for the task up until now and they were pretty nasty even after rinsing them in the few streams they came to. Kurt was still amazed at the amount of shit a baby could produce.
They were about to head back out of town when Brent pointed up the street towards the center square. There looked to be some kind of local police or security station there.
“Do you mind if we search there?” The corporate rep asked. “We might be able to find some more ammunition. I’m running low. There also might be information about the infected or nearby communities kept by the local authorities.”
Kurt looked up and down the street for signs of any zombies nearby. He didn’t see any movement and decided it was worth the risk. “All right Brent you get to check inside, but be quick about it. Marci and I will take cover behind those concrete planters in front of the building out and keep watch. Get in, look around and get out. Got it?”
Brent nodded. They all jogged up the street until they reached the police building. Brent took Allie and went inside. It looked like it only had a few rooms and Kurt figured it wouldn’t take him long to investigate. Kurt crouched down on the sidewalk behind the decorative concrete planters, with his back against the wall at one corner and Marci was behind him at the other corner.
Kurt watched down the street on his side of the building. He saw nothing to the east. Marci hissed to get his attention.
Kurt turned and Marci pointed down the street. There were several infected coming this way. He didn’t think they’d been spotted yet. They weren’t charging in this dire
ction, just sort of wandering this way.
Kurt pointed inside the police building.
Marci nodded.
Crouching low, the two of them moved back to the center of the building at the door.
Marci reached up to open it but it was locked. “What the hell?” She whispered.
Kurt shrugged. He rapped quietly on the door with his knuckles. He waited, but there was no answer. He shook his head and pointed back around the corner. Marci checked over her shoulder. The infected were still shuffling in their direction.
Kurt knew the two of them had to get out of sight right away. They only had a few more seconds before they were spotted.
Kurt and Marci crossed back towards the corner of the police building where Kurt had crouched moments before. He pointed to an opening just past the next structure on their side of the street. There was an alley opening there that might lead to the back of the police station. They might be able to get in that way.
Marci nodded and the two of them crouched low and darted in that direction.
They almost reached the alley without being seen. They would have made it, but a loud siren sounded overhead. Somehow, the police alert siren had switched on. Kurt snarled in frustration and looked back.
The zombies all spun around to look in their direction. The infected spotted the two of them on the sidewalk right away. The group of ten zombies screamed and ran at Kurt and Marci.
They were only fifty meters away. Behind the first group, more infected ran into the street and headed their way.
Kurt snapped off a few quick shots. There were too many to take down from here.
“We need to get inside somewhere now,” Kurt shouted as he fired.
Marci pointed across the street to a bank building. It was built entirely of stone. Kurt nodded and fired off a few more bursts of flechette darts down the road.
Marci took off at a sprint for the reinforced structure. Kurt ran right behind her.