So many memories... Tammy put her head in her hands and allowed the tears to come. She sat there for the next minute, weeping silently.
The sound of another gunshot brought Tammy out of her reminiscence and back to the present.
The sound of gunshots was a common occurrence at the safe zone, especially the last couple of days. While the number of the remaining soldiers had dwindled to a few dozen, the number of zombies surrounding the safe zone had increased exponentially. It became a security risk to have so many undead pressing in on the fences, so the soldiers were actively clearing the undead.
The hordes had to be culled. Tammy surmised. Too bad there seem to be an unending number of zombies, while our soldiers are dwindling rapidly.
Tammy frowned, momentarily stuck on the word ‘culling’.
This whole plague. This syndrome. ... Was it a culling of mankind?
She shook her head to get rid of the idea.
Tammy pulled on her socks, got up and put on jeans and a t-shirt. No blouse and skirt required anymore since her blossoming career as a news anchor had come crashing down.
Along with the rest of the world.
She quickly brushed her teeth in the small sink and stared at herself in the mirror for a second. She looked tired. No spark in those blue eyes anymore. She considered pulling her hair into a ponytail but decided to let her dark hair hang down over her shoulders. She put on sneakers and walked over to the door leading out of her Quonset style building. Tammy hesitated there for just a moment, her hand hovering over the door handle.
What if one of those things was out there, on the other side of this door!
She took a deep breath and shook her head. The truth was that they did have a couple of incidents with zombies inside of the fences of the safe zone. But the response was quick and efficient every time. She wrapped her fingers around the cold handle and turned it.
It was already light outside. Mid-morning, she guessed. There was still a bit of a chill hanging in the air. It was October, after all. Tammy shivered. She briefly considered grabbing a jacket but changed her mind and walked out when the sounds of a revving vehicle reached her ears.
She briskly walked down the row of steel huts. Yeah, they’re huts, she decided. Much better than the tents that had been erected for most of the other refugees. Her title of news anchor and role as media afforded her a bit of special status, so her crew and her had enjoyed the shelter of a steel building instead of a canvas tent.
Still shivering from the cold, Tammy hugged herself and rubbed her upper arms to get her circulation going, as she walked. She didn’t have far to travel, as the location of her hut was close to the barracks and the front gate. A minute later she could see the gate and a bus.
As she approached, she realized that the bus was inside of the safe zone fence. A few days ago, there were so many busses involved with the evacuations, that they would stage them in the big parking lot across the street. A combination of less people to pick up, less resources available to perform the extractions, and the security issues with all the undead roaming around outside the fence, had resulted in a couple of busses being parked inside the safe zone instead.
It also looked like only one bus would be operating today, with no Humvee support. Tammy could see that the Humvees were all still parked off to the side.
Don’t we even have enough soldiers left to provide an escort? ... Do we have enough to keep this camp safe? Tammy couldn’t help wondering.
She looked around the area. The gate itself was guarded by four soldiers, and she could see two more in the guard tower directly next to the gate. Tammy had counted about a hundred soldiers yesterday and guessed that there were probably half that many soldiers left in the camp today.
Those numbers seemed to be cut in half every day. Just four days ago there were at least a thousand.
A couple of gunshots sounded in quick succession. The soldiers at the fence were trying to clear the gate. Tammy knew that the soldiers had been busy in trying to keep the zombies away from the gate and the fences over the last couple of days. The fences were strong, but not built to withstand the force of thousands. She shuddered at the thought of thousands of zombies pressing in, slowly but inexorably bringing down the fences in their quest to attack the living.
Tammy shook herself out of her reverie and headed directly to the bus. Several soldiers were standing near the entrance to the vehicle. Two of them seemed to be going over a map.
Figuring out the route for today’s evacuations?
A skinny young soldier spotted Tammy first. He quickly stood up straight. Tammy had that effect on men. The young man stepped to intercept Tammy as she drew near.
“I’m ready for my exclusive interview!” He announced with a big grin. Tammy looked at the man quizzically, not sure how to respond.
“Keep it in your pants, Collins.” One of the other soldiers said.
Tammy smiled at Collins. “Maybe next time.” She said and deftly stepped around the soldier.
Three soldiers were putting the map away as Tammy walked up to them. Tammy immediately noticed that one of the men bore himself with authority.
That must be the leader. She guessed. Besides, he’s got more stripes on his sleeve.
The other two were a Hispanic soldier and a shorter female soldier.
“Hi.” She said as she walked up to the leader. She swept her hair behind her shoulder and presented her most winning smile. “I’m Tammy Jensen–”
“Of the Channel Eight News Team.” The soldier finished for her.
“Um, yeah. And you are?”
“Peters.” Tammy waited for him to say more, but he merely regarded her with a blank stare.
“Um, can I ask you a couple of questions before you depart?”
Peters nodded. “We are Oscar Mike in two minutes.”
“Oscar Mike?”
Peters seemed frustrated. “acronym. Stands for On the Move”
“Huh. 'oscar mike’ doesn’t sound any shorter than ‘on the move’...”
“Did you have an actual question?”
“Oh, yes. Sorry.” She flashed a shy smile at the soldier. He remained unmoved.
“It appears you will not have an escort. Does that mean things are getting safer out there? Are there less people to rescue? Or is there a shortage of resources?”
“Shortage of resources.” The man replied, showing no emotion. At least he was forthright, not like some of the other officials at the camp had been over the last few days.
“Does that mean that there are still lots of people out there waiting to be evacuated?”
“I do not know.”
“Ok.” Tammy decided to try a different tact. “Are the rest of the soldiers being pulled back to other strategic– “
“I do not know. Talk to a senior officer. If you can find one.”
Tammy’s face dropped slightly at the curt responses. Why is this guy being such a dick?
Peters noticed and frowned. “Look, I need to focus on getting through this mission with my team.” He hesitated, clearly uncomfortable. Then started over.
“Look... Tammy.” She looked up. “We don’t really know what’s going on. We’re just following orders. I would prefer to have an escort. The truth is, that things are not safer out there.” He stopped abruptly as if worried he had said too much.
A rueful smile crossed Tammy’s face. With a nod and another smile, she thanked Peters and let him get on with it. He spoke again as Tammy turned and started to walk away.
“Mark.” Tammy turned. “My name is Mark.” And with a shy smile he turned to get on the bus.
“Good luck, Mark.” Tammy said to his back. The soldier did not hear her, as he had already entered the bus and the door was closing.
Tammy quickly backed up from the gate area, as several soldiers prepared to open the gate. She watched as a several more soldiers arrived to support the departure of the bus. About half a dozen shots rang out in quick succession.
&nb
sp; Tammy watched as the gate was pulled open, and the bus pulled out. She was sure she saw Mark watching her from the window just behind the driver. She opened her hand in a subtle wave, as the bus moved out. Two soldiers closed the gate as soon as it had cleared the threshold. The two halves of the gate locked in place with a loud clank and locked the dead world out.
The bus moved out of sight. She could see a couple of shambling forms follow the direction that the bus took. With a shudder, she turned her back to the gate and walked back towards her hut. She was going to use the small hand camera and shoot segments. Josh had shown her how to operate it yesterday, after which Pete had taught her how to upload and broadcast the files. It was the one thing that Tammy could still do, that might somehow be helpful to people out there.
At least, that’s what she kept telling herself. Deep down, she wondered if there was anybody left out there to watch her segments.
For some reason, her feet kept moving as she neared and then passed by her hut. Tammy decided that she needed some coffee, and something to eat. Tammy moved swiftly down the avenue. The sun had started heating up the air, and her shivering of a few minutes ago was replaced by the start of perspiration.
The camp was set up in a classical military style, with a central avenue leading directly from the front gate to a central building. Various other lanes led out from this central building to other key buildings. That central building was Tammy’s destination. The mess hall was located in that building.
Breakfast. And hot coffee. Mostly the coffee.
It was a bit of a hike, but she was determined. As she got closer to the central building, Tammy started seeing other people. She nodded at a couple as she passed them. The middle-aged man and woman lowered their gazes and quickly continued on their way.
The last couple of days had gotten worse in this regard. People were nervous. They were scared. They had a right to be. The number of healthy people inside the safe zone had gone from thousands to hundreds. Tammy did not have an accurate count but had estimated that almost three quarters of the population inside the camp were suffering or had already perished from the effects of HAPS.
No. The Syndrome.
That’s what people were calling it now. The President had introduced the name a couple of days ago and it had stuck. Syndrome sounded more serious and ominous. Tammy could not think of a more serious or ominous situation.
She arrived at the central building and walked up to the double doors. She turned and looked out for a few seconds. She had passed no more than a few dozen people on the way. A few days ago, that avenue would have been packed with people.
She watched as three boys walked past and away into another direction. She frowned slightly at their departing backs. The way those kids shot furtive looks around raised her suspicions.
Why do I get the feeling that they’re up to no good?
Because you’re a reporter, Tammy. You smell a story. She answered herself.
Tammy stared after them for a few seconds.
You used to be a reporter, Tammy. She corrected herself. Besides, what kind of trouble can three teenage boys get into, that compares to the shitshow that is our lives? With a shake of her head she berated herself for being paranoid and let the notion go.
She reflected on the camp around her one more time. The whole situation around camp started to reek of hopelessness.
Shitshow is right. Maybe I should try to get out of here.
But where would I go?
She sighed and turned around, opening the door into the mess hall. The smells of breakfast cooking and coffee brewing quickly dominated her thoughts.
THINGS AT SAFE ZONE Kilo two-six were degrading rapidly. At peak, the safe zone housed over twenty thousand civilians and nearly a thousand military personnel. That number decreased rapidly as the syndrome was detected in a growing number of camp residents. Camp administration quickly coordinated security sweeps of the camp, to identify and process the infected.
The safe zone had been designed in quadrants. Quadrant four, as it was termed, contained the only building capable of housing the infected. It became known as the quarantine building. Civilians did not know what happened in the quarantine building but could guess. There was after all only one outcome for those infected with the syndrome...
All civilians had been moved out of quadrant four, and far away from that facility, a couple of days ago. It left the quarantine building in the middle of a mini ghost town. The mini ghost town was supposed to stay empty. But dozens of infected people, fearing discovery, chose to hide out in the abandoned huts and tents.
The rapidly shrinking number of security personnel at the safe zone meant that less sweeps could be conducted. For the last couple of days, teams of soldiers would patrol the safe zone and quickly take down any undead within the camp. This team had shrunk from dozens of soldiers two days ago, to just four men by this morning. Syndrome victims were able to stay undetected. Inevitably, these people died. Inevitably, most of them would rise again.
Tammy’s guesses about the current state of the safe zone weren’t far off from the truth. This morning’s population at the safe zone included eighteen hundred uninfected people and a mere skeleton crew of fifty-two soldiers. A more ominous statistic was the one nobody was aware of. There were also several hundred zombies inside the fence. Almost all of them were stuck inside the buildings that they had died in.
If Tammy could look down on the camp, she would also see that over five thousand zombies were encroaching upon the fences from all directions, and another twenty thousand zombies were in the vicinity, drawn by the noises of both the living and the dead. Nearly every soldier was posted along the fence line, taking shots at the seemingly unending masses of undead.
Tammy was oblivious to all this as she ate her breakfast. As she was sipping her coffee, the chain of events that would result in the downfall of their safe zone was set in motion.
It started innocently enough.
Chapter Thirty-one
October 28, 10:30AM
“Come on man, let’s go!” Mark was impatient to get going. The fifteen-year-old was the self-appointed leader and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to boss another boy around.
“Ok!” Steve finished tying his shoelace as the other two boys stood over him. “Jeez!”
The boys had snuck out that morning to explore the empty portion of the camp. They figured that they would be able to find some good stuff. Maybe even some weapons! They had explored a couple of huts so far but had found nothing useful.
As Steve stood up, he noted the third boy, Alex. Alex was looking around nervously. Following Steve’s gaze, Mark saw Alex’s nervousness as something to exploit.
“What are you afraid of dude. We haven’t seen anybody at all.” He stared down at the smaller boy with a disdainful look.
The twelve-year-old was scared and could not hide it. His eyes kept darting around.
Mark grabbed the younger boy by the front of his jacket. “Hey! You hearing me?”
“Lay off him, Mark.” Steve said without much conviction. He was also fifteen, but a full head shorter and only slightly less intimidated by Mark than Alex was.
Mark kept a hold of Alex’s jacket. “You afraid? You wanna run home, little boy?”
Alex raised the pipe in his hand. Mark flinched and released the younger boy. “Whoa man, what do you think you’re doing?” Alex realized what he had done and quickly lowered the weapon. The boys had found short lengths of steel pipe yesterday and felt all but invincible with them.
“S–Sorry.” Was all he said.
For a second it looked like Mark was going to get aggressive. But with another look at the pipe in Alex’s hand he changed his mind.
“Never mind. Fuck! ... Let’s go.” And he turned to walk down the row of huts.
Steve patted Alex on the shoulder, and the two boys followed their leader.
“I wasn’t afraid...” Alex muttered in the direction of Mark’s back.
&nbs
p; They had not ventured this deep into quadrant four before. Their goal was the offices and buildings near the outer edge. They hoped that there was good loot left behind there.
The three boys walked for a few minutes. The camp around them was silent. Apparently, none of these buildings had ever been used. The camp, which had originally been set up to receive over fifty thousand refugees, never did count more than about a quarter of that. The silence was oppressive. It was enough to make the bravest soul waver, and subsequently the three boys clustered together subconsciously.
Steve wondered why he had agreed to come along on this scavenger hunt in the first place. He had heard rumors of zombies out here. He gripped his pipe a little harder, imagining zombies stepping around the next building. Fear crept up his spine as they walked past the building’s edge and through the next intersection. He didn’t want to die out here.
Not that his father would notice. Dad was little more than a ghost himself, since they took mom away...
The boys walked in silence for a few minutes, the only sound coming from the occasional gun shot in the distance. All three boys knew what that was. The soldiers posted as sentries around the perimeter of the fence had to take out any zombie that encroached. And since every shot attracted more zombies, there was a lot of shooting going on. It was an out-of-control spiral.
The boys held a morbid fascination with it all. They had snuck up several times to the edge of their camp, so they could see the soldiers at work. It really was nothing more than target practice. The boys would pick one of the soldiers each, and count the number of head shots they made, wagering on which soldier would bag more zombies. So far, Mark had had an uncanny ability to pick the winner. The boys were totally desensitized to exploding skulls and red mist.
The piles of undead were mounting all around the safe zone and the stench was getting nasty. This started to keep the boys away from watching the soldiers at work. Steve wondered what the army would do once the smell got too bad.
Apocalypsis Immortuos | Book 1 | Syndrome Page 19