Zombie Fallout (Book 13): The Perfect Betrayal

by Tufo, Mark

  His head shook side to side.

  “What about the time you’re not there then?” He remained silent.

  “You realize how important she could be,” Bennington said.

  “I see potential, yes,” I answered, honestly.

  “Tomorrow then?” he asked.

  “Tomorrow. And if the answer is no?”

  “We’ll talk tomorrow,” he replied.

  Got the distinct feeling that “no” was not an acceptable answer. He’d send my crew and me out and then show up in force. I was walking a high-wire without a net, a nice, thick lava flow directly underneath.

  “Good to see you,” I told him before I turned and walked back into the house and shut the door behind me. BT was in the living room.

  “That went well. Now what?” he asked.

  “I’ll do it, Papa Talbot,” Avalyn said. Tracy had a protective arm over the girl’s shoulder.

  “What? No!” Tracy said as she got in front of the girl and stooped down.

  “If I don’t, they’ll just come again. You’ll be in trouble.”

  I looked at BT and then at Tracy, who turned to see the surprise on my face. We all knew Avalyn was smart; I could now add astute, and loyal, to her increasing awareness.

  “Talbot,” Tracy said as she stood.

  “She’s right,” I told my wife. Not words she wanted to hear.

  “So we just give her up?” she asked.

  “Bennington’s right. Avalyn could potentially have a cure or maybe the secrets to a vaccine that might make people immune to a bite. That could be the difference between our extinction or survival,” I said, and that was the truth, not that I felt better for saying it. I didn’t and I hoped it wasn’t just a rationalization.

  “And if he doesn’t let her go after a week? What if he says she’s a danger to the population? What then?”

  “Trace, I don’t know. I have to take him at his word. We’ll deal with one problem at a time. Avalyn is right; if she doesn’t go willingly, he’s going to find a way to take her.”

  “Are you hearing the words come out of your mouth? How can you trust a man that would kidnap a little girl?”

  This was rapidly becoming a fight I was going to be on the losing end of. It seemed either outcome was going to end in that result.

  “It’s all right, Mama Talbot. He’ll save me.” Avalyn was smiling; my heart was breaking. She was putting a trust in me I wasn’t entirely sure I could deliver on.

  Justin walked through the door; it would have been impossible to miss the tension that filled the room. “What’s the colonel doing out there?” he asked as he stepped farther into the room.

  BT and I were looking at Tracy, who was now shielding Avalyn. “He wants to take Avalyn to the medical center and run some tests,” I said. “And I don’t think it’s an offer we can refuse.”

  “I’ll go with her.” He was crossing the room.

  “He wants her for a few days, and without any of us along,” I added.

  “And you told him no, right?” Justin stopped to look back at me. “Tell me you told him no.”

  “I told him we’d talk about it,” I said.

  “What’s to talk about?” He was getting angry.

  The rest of my squad was looking anywhere but at the conflict that was about to erupt. I would imagine this was getting uncomfortable for them.

  “What are they doing here? Are they here to take her?” He was squaring off for a fight.

  “We came here to prevent them from taking her,” BT, thankfully, stepped in.

  “Then it’s settled,” Justin said.

  Nobody said anything. It was Stenzel that broke the silence. “We’re with you, sir,” she said.

  “What’s that mean?” Justin questioned.

  “If we don’t let them test Avalyn, we’re going to have a war on our hands,” I told him.

  “Then we give it to him!” Justin exclaimed.

  I think a dawning came to Tracy of what all of this could lead to. More than a few of us could die, and they’d still get the girl.

  “When have you ever backed down from a fight, Dad?” Justin asked.

  “When it’s a fight that I can’t win,” I sighed.

  “Bullshit! That’s when you fight the hardest!”

  “Justin,” BT started, “we’ll be in danger. You, your mother, your sister, her baby, the entire family. We stand with your father, but you have to realize what’s really at stake here.”

  Justin spent a moment looking around the room. He knew the words BT spoke were the truth. “Then, okay, we leave. We grab all our stuff and we leave,” he said, figuring he’d struck upon the answer.

  It was an option, and I’m sure Bennington knew this as well. We wouldn’t be able to leave. “He won’t let us go,” I said.

  “So, we’re prisoners, then?”

  “No, we’re not, but…”

  “She is!” Justin finished.

  What could I say to that? In a way, she was. In a way, we all were.

  As grown up as Avalyn seemed to be with her thoughts and her speech, she had yet been able to crack Justin’s name. “Jussin, it’s all right. I want to go. I want to help.”

  “You’re just a kid; you don’t know what you’re saying,” he told her.

  I could have said the same to him; I refrained. I didn’t want to put him back on the defensive.

  “I know exactly what I’m saying,” she said defiantly, her hands on her hips as she came out from behind my wife.

  “This is bullshit and you know it!” He was pointing a finger at me. I did know. But every once in a while in this crap-filled world, you had to swallow some down. Justin stormed up the stairs.

  “Come here, kiddo.” I sat down on the couch; I’d all of a sudden become extremely weary. She did as I asked. “You say the word and I’ll do everything I can to get you out of this.”

  “We can’t leave, Papa Talbot. This is a good place. It’s dangerous out there.”

  Did I tell her it was dodgy in here, too?

  She beat me to the punch. “It could be dangerous here too.”

  I gave her a hug. She was indeed a key, but which door did she open Door Number One, or Door Number Two? Was she A brand new car! or A year’s supply of kitty litter! Where were the lovely models to show me what I’d won? Lord knows I was going to get a serious dose of contempt from Justin; Tracy would understand the need to do this, but that didn’t necessarily mean we were going to see eye to eye on it. We lived in a finely balanced relationship, and this could tip it.

  We did end up having a barbecue that night, and at least in my case, entirely too many beers. The next morning, relatively bright and early, Avalyn and I headed to the medical facility. I wasn’t overly surprised to see the colonel there. Good chance my place had been under surveillance the entire night, and when I left, he’d got the call.

  “Lieutenant,” the colonel said. He was far from his cordial, sometimes even jovial self. I’d given him a lot to think on the previous night. “Glad to see you’ve done the right thing.”

  “Yeah, about that, sir.” If he was expecting an apology, he was sorely mistaken. “I’ll drop her off on a couple of conditions.”

  He looked at me like I wasn’t really in a position to demand conditions, but he rolled with it.

  “Go on,” he said, tight-lipped.

  “First is, someone gets to visit her once a day.”

  “Okay,” he said, but I didn’t know if he was acknowledging my words or acquiescing to the request.

  “Second, there’s a camera in her room that we can monitor the whole time.”

  “That can be arranged.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “You ready, Avalyn?” He held his hand out for her.

  Avalyn looked back to me. “It will be alright, Papa Talbot.”

  “I know it will.” I was looking straight at Bennington.

  That all happened a couple of days ago, then Justin burst into my room, and I was no
w going to be forced into a confrontation I wanted nothing to do with.

  “I’m coming with you,” Justin demanded as I got dressed.

  “You haven’t talked to me in days, and now you want to come with me?” I placed my pistol in my holster and debated the merits of taking my rifle.

  “This isn’t about you,” he said.

  “What about the camera feed?” I asked, though I knew the answer. If they hadn’t allowed him to see her, then they’d most likely cut the feed as well.

  “Nothing.” He shook his head as he said it.

  “You stay here. I’m mad enough, I don’t need you adding fuel to the fire. Call BT and let him know what’s happening.”

  “Want me to tell him to meet you there?”

  “He knows what to do. Please just do as I ask.”

  “Get her back, dad.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “Hopefully it’s better than most of yours.”

  In a normal shitty situation, this would have been relatively humorous; this time it was a dig, and he knew it.

  “You and me both,” I said sincerely.

  I was driving fast across the base. Not sure if the MP was blind or had seen the expression on my face, but instead of pulling me over for speeding, he turned his attention to the food he was holding. Must have been one hell of a sandwich. I was running through a laundry list of scenarios: what if this happened, what if he did that, to the point my head was spinning in place like a hamster wheel. By the time I got to the colonel’s office, my stomach was in knots. I opened the door with force enough so that it crashed into the wall behind it and shook the windows.

  “Lieutenant Talbot!” his attaché said as I surprised him from his work. “What can I help you with?”

  “I need to see the colonel.”

  “He’s in a meeting,” the corporal replied. He was getting up from his desk to head me off at the pass.

  “Good. That means he’s in. I’ll only need a minute.” I was fast enough he couldn’t get the right angle and I gave him a look that froze his hovering hand in midair. I wouldn’t have meant to do it, but I would have broken that hand if he’d laid it upon me and he knew that instinctively.

  “Colonel Bennington!” the corporal shouted over my shoulder in warning.

  I was already halfway through the door. My steps about faltered when I saw Mrs. Deneaux sitting in the chair opposite the colonel.

  “Something I can help you with?” Bennington asked.

  “Michael, my dear, how are you?” Deneaux asked.

  And just like that, I knew what was going on. Bennington knew the power I possessed and was going to use the civilian council to neutralize that.

  “Vivian.” The word felt greasy upon my tongue. “Could you excuse the colonel and me for a moment?

  “Of course. You were done here anyway.” She stood. “Oh dear, that’s not what I meant.” She covered her mouth as she gave an unnatural titter. “I meant we were done here. Do you think it was a Freudian slip? Must be my old age catching up to me.”

  It was as unlikely she’d let something mistakenly slip from her tongue as it was my sister rolled something worthy of a five-star restaurant out of her oven.

  “I hope you don’t forget where you parked your broom,” I told her as she walked past.

  “Oh, how I’ll miss these times. It was good talking to you, Colonel; the topic of discussion was certainly a lively one.” She made sure to place her hand on my forearm as she said that.

  “You’re about as subtle as a tank,” I said for her ears only.

  “No need for subtlety when you have a tank.” She left with a smile upon her lips. I still didn’t know how she made it look like such an unnatural expression.

  “Colonel.” I turned back to him once Vivian had walked out.

  “It’s sir, to you, and why are you not at the position of attention, Lieutenant?”

  I could feel the flakes of bone being ground off my teeth as I clamped down my jaw and kept in what I wanted to say. I got to the position of attention, more out of reflex than a desire to appease the colonel.

  “Sir.”

  “What do you want, Lieutenant? I don’t believe you have an appointment.”

  “Sir, my son was at the medical facility earlier. Said he couldn’t get in for his visit with Avalyn.”

  “I’ll have someone check on it.” He turned back to the papers he was working on, completely disregarding my presence. He looked up after a few moments. “You’re dismissed.”

  “Sir, this wasn’t our agreement.”

  “This is my base, Lieutenant, and I will damn well do as I please!” He had stood up; the corporal ran in to make sure everything was all right.

  “With Deneaux?”

  “Her husband was a great man. A senator of repute.”

  He was a politician, so I was already dubious. “That may be, sir, but Vivian is none of those things. She’s malicious, malevolent, and vindictive.”

  “If she is all of those things, why would you bring her here?”

  “Because she’s a survivor, sir. Having her on your side can be beneficial.” The words tumbled out of my mouth; they tasted terrible as I thought on what I’d just said. I’d given him even more reason to align with the snake. My wife was right when she said that sometimes wise men say nothing. “But Colonel, she is all about herself. She will use whoever she needs to gain an inch. She’s a murderer.”

  “We’ve all done things we’re not proud of.”

  Something was wrong. I was getting my first indication that Bennington was close to snapping, if he was justifying murder. “Sir, you’re going down a dangerous path. I looked the other way with the nuke. I held my tongue when you authorized the use of the bullets that are, even now, making super-zombies. But now you’re ratcheting it up, sir. Deneaux will bring this place down upon your head. I can deal with all the other stuff, but Avalyn, she’s one of mine, and that’s not going to fly. I’m going to get her.”

  “That wouldn’t be a wise move on your part.” The colonel was leaning over and had his fists on his desk, in a prototypical power move.

  “You going to arrest me?” I asked, even though I was more inclined to think he’d have me shot. “Sir, whatever you believe or whatever Deneaux told you, it’s not true.”

  He arched his eyebrows. “You presume to know me?”

  “This base is yours.”

  “Damn right.”

  “I want no part of running it.”

  The corporal was standing there, his mouth agape as his head turned as if he were watching a tennis match.

  “I very much like the small niche that’s been carved out for me and my squad. We do what we do, my family is safe, I’m content, sir. I like it that way.”

  “Get out of my office.”

  “What about Avalyn?”

  “I said get out of my office.” He sighed and sat back down. He looked tired.

  If he didn’t give me the answer I wanted, how prepared was I to do what needed to be done? It would be easy enough to pull my pistol on him, hold him hostage until the girl was free…then what? We’d be on the run. He had an army, helicopters, spy satellites, and nukes, if he was so inclined. I was in so far over my head, and I didn’t know where the surface was.

  “I’ll leave when you honor the agreement you said you would.”

  “And you? Will you honor the agreement you made when you came here?”

  “Tell me what I did to break your trust, sir. I’ve done everything you’ve asked and more, put myself and my squad at risk based solely on your orders. Now tell me: what has Deneaux done for you except spill poison into your ear?”

  “She’s my civilian board advisor. Corporal, get the MPs here to remove the lieutenant.”

  The corporal had not moved. I think he hadn’t even realized he’d been addressed.

  “Corporal!” the colonel shouted; the corporal jumped.

  “On it, sir,” he said, scurrying out.

  �
��Thinking about using that 1911 of yours?” he asked, a sick smile pulling the right edge of his lips up in a sneer.

  “Right now? Honestly? Yeah, I am. You’re getting as close to unfit for command as I’ve ever seen a commander get. I’ll leave on my own, Colonel, and my son will be back at the medical facility in about an hour. I strongly suggest he be allowed in.”

  “Or what, Lieutenant? Are you going to stage a coup? You do realize that ever since our little meeting the other day I’ve had everyone in your family followed. If something were to happen to me, there’s no saying what may befall them.”

  The button in my head was flipped on; every thought was now encased in blood red color.

  “Any one of them so much as twists an ankle on the sidewalk, Colonel, I will personally exact every bit of revenge upon your being. Maybe I die in the process, maybe I don’t. All I know is that you’ll be dead in the most painful way imaginable.”

  I could hear a Hummer pull up outside. The shit had been tossed and it had indeed struck the blades of a fast-moving fan. It had sprayed everywhere, and there was little chance the stink of it was going to be cleared out anytime soon.

  “Ah, Sergeant Sorrens. Could you please remove this man’s firearm and have him arrested? When that’s done, I want you to round up the rest of his squad.”

  “Sir.” The sergeant was talking to me.

  “The rest of my squad? They’ve done nothing!” I yelled.

  “I’ll let the tribunal decide that. Sergeant, do your job.”

  “Lieutenant, your firearm, please.” The sergeant had his hand on the hilt of his weapon, though he had not drawn it.

  I could still extract myself from this situation by force, but then what? I gingerly reached into my holster and pulled the weapon out and handed it over.

  “Hands behind your back, sir.”

  I did as he said. The cuffs were placed on much too tight. I glared at the colonel the entire time, who had once again gone back to his paperwork.

  Before we got back into the Hummer, the sergeant made sure to readjust the cuffs. “Sorry sir, adrenaline. Watch your head.” He was helping me in.

  “He’s losing it, Sorrens,” I said. The man stiffened, like maybe he’d seen it too.

  “I’m just an MP here. I do what I’m ordered.”