The Infected Dead (Book 6): Buried For Now

by Howard, Bob

  Each scouting party planned to return to their enclaves with news of the advancing horde, and if any had made the short trip home, at least some would have understood that they did need to run. As the main body marched, its tentacles of faster walking infected surged ahead and surrounded the scouts on the overpasses. Much too late they tried to run, but they found hundreds of infected already on both sides. Within minutes the scouts were added to the growing numbers of the death march.

  When scouts didn’t return, the walled settlements of survivors were slow to react. Instead of gathering their children and whatever belongings they could carry, they sent out more scouts, and as the mistakes were repeated, the horde had drawn even closer.

  The scenario that played itself out on I-26 between Columbia and Charleston was the mirror image of every interstate highway around Charlotte. The mountains turned the tide of infected away, but wherever there was a gap or a highway acting as a funnel, they followed it. It was the second wave of the pandemic. It was slow in coming, but it was coming.

  ******

  It had been a long time to be underground, but the survivors in the shelter at Ambassador’s Island weren’t complaining. If you asked any of them how long it had been, few of them would have known if it had been five, six, or even seven years. All they cared about was that they had been given a safe place to live for a very long time. That was a lot more than thousands of other people could say.

  Supplies had lasted so well that they never even considered rationing, and the community had flourished as if it was in a safe place on the surface. Water had continued to test safe due to the well designed filtration system installed by the Army Corps of Engineers, and power never so much as blinked off and on. When a lightbulb needed to be replaced, they made a production out of changing it just for fun.

  The idea to build a shelter with a mall in the center was genius. It wasn’t just a mall with entertainment and social events. It was a mall with stores that resembled the chain stores everyone had enjoyed before the end of civilization. People worked in the stores and shopped in them. It kept them busy and gave them a sense of purpose as they clung to a sense of normalcy. After work they could go to the restaurants to enjoy the company of friends.

  Crime was practically nonexistent. The closest thing they had to a problem was tempers, and most of the citizens knew how to control theirs. There had been one domestic violence case that resolved itself quickly when the couple involved learned their punishment for a second offense would be banishment to the surface.

  There was some concern that abused spouses or children would be afraid to speak up, but that was easily fixed by continuing to do the bite inspections. It wasn’t hard to understand that the biggest fear would be that the infection would somehow get inside, and a bite would go undetected. Over five years of being checked for bites had made the community feel like one very large family, and a bite inspection could uncover bruises as easily as bites.

  A natural death had created a crisis when a man died and turned while his family was sleeping. His family managed to restrain him without anyone becoming infected, and even though they were grieving, they put the community first and requested to be inspected for bites.

  There had been births during the years since the doors had been sealed shut, and children went to school almost willingly. The older kids were taught trades, and a health clinic was able to deliver the babies and treat most problems. When chicken pox was diagnosed on two children, there was an attempt to quarantine families to prevent the spread, but in the end, everyone just suffered through it together.

  When Iris Mason looked in the mirror, she was well aware of the new wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. She also knew they were called crow’s feet, but she preferred to call them laugh lines. They were there just as they should be, but she wondered if Joshua Barnes would notice them. It was something she would only ask herself in private, and if she ever saw him again, she knew he was too much of a gentleman to say anything about getting older. As for him, she doubted he would look a day older despite the differences between life on the surface and life underground. She could only imagine what the Chief had gotten himself into since she saw him the last time.

  Iris pulled back her long, silver hair and admired her healthy figure. She had led the way by example and made the gym part of her daily routine. If she did see the Chief again, he would comment about how good she looked. She allowed herself the liberty of pretending he had just given her the compliment, and she felt like it was good to wish even after everything that had happened. She knew one thing for sure, and it wasn’t part of her fantasy. She would make sure the next time they met that he would know beyond any doubt how she felt about him. It was something she had kept to herself for far too long.

  The last time they had seen each other there was no sense complicating the situation. They both had feelings, but she had to stay with her people, and he had to go back to his. While she could help almost a hundred people keep their sanity underground, he would have felt confined. It was best that he was out there doing whatever he could to fight the infected.

  Communications had been their weak link. There were radio reports from random places for a while, but gradually the radio signals dwindled to nothing. She had heard a report about helicopters, and as sparse as the report was, Iris knew in her gut that Chief Joshua Barnes must have been involved.

  Reports were given to Iris this morning that the radiation monitors were sending back negligible readings. The heavy rains over the last two years had been particularly helpful at washing the earth clean. If they were careful, they could avoid any of the hot spots that still dotted the area. They were already developing a topographical map of the previously contaminated area. Everyone in the shelter assumed it was because they would need to know where they could search for supplies when the time came, but Iris had other motives.

  She realized that was probably why the Chief was on her mind. When the day came that they could go to the surface again, she knew that she would leave Ambassadors Island in the hands of the others and go find the Chief. She knew that it would be a difficult journey, but she was resourceful and ready to do more than just survive. Besides, there were a few old friends in the shelter who had approached her about doing the same thing, so she wouldn’t be alone. At first she had tried to reason with them and convince them their place was in Ambassadors Island, but deep down inside she was grateful.

  What Iris didn’t know or couldn’t possibly suspect, was that the apocalypse was beginning again. She didn’t know what to expect on the surface. It had been a topic of discussion at almost every meal or social gathering for the first year, but as time went by it became a boring conversation as the same ideas were hashed and rehashed. When it was discussed, it was almost always ended by the comment that they would find out when it was safe to have a look.

  As the infected swarmed toward the interstates and walked away from the lake that held Ambassadors Island, they left nothing behind. Iris Mason and her friends would emerge from the shelter and think the battle was over. They would think the infected were all dead. There just wasn’t a reason for them to believe that there was a tidal wave of infected so vast that it would consume everyone who had survived the first time.

  There was a knock at the door that broke Iris away from the pleasant thoughts she had allowed herself to enjoy. She had even momentarily allowed herself to subscribe to that popular theory that they would find the infected had ended their reign of terror. That the virus was gone. She couldn’t begin to know that it was gone, but just not the way she thought.

  When Iris opened the door, she was surprised to find it was one of the young apprentices that was being trained in communications.

  “We’ve had some contacts, Ms. Mason. More than we’ve had in a long time. The watch captain felt it was best to send a private message.”

  “Thank you.”

  She eyed the boy and saw how excited he was. He was a mere child when they had closed the
doors to the shelter, and she momentarily wondered if it would be better if they were never opened again. The boy might live a life different from the one originally intended for him, but at least he would live it.

  “Please run ahead of me and tell the watch captain I’m following.”

  She could have been escorted by him, but then she would have been forced into conversation. For some reason she didn’t feel like talking. She had a suspicion that it was simply a wish to have a few moments to relive some of the enjoyment she had been indulging herself moments before.

  As it turned out, Iris could have spared herself several interruptions. With an escort she could have begged off more quickly every time she was stopped on the way to the communications center.

  When she finally arrived, she was greeted by several people who were on duty at the different electronic monitors that still functioned. There were also several cameras that continued to provide excellent views of the surface, and they were watched every minute of every day.

  The watch captain was a young woman who had grown into the position quickly. One of the first apprentices, Andi had admired Iris as a role model. Iris thought if Andi was a little older she would be a good candidate to replace Iris when she relinquished her position as mayor, but she knew that it wouldn’t be fair for her to pick her replacement if she was going to leave. It would be far better for her to allow the citizens to have an election.

  “What do we have, Andi?”

  “Good morning, Ma’am. Several radio contacts we didn’t have before. All of them are shortwave. No AM or FM, so they’re not likely to be radio stations.”

  “Anything worth hearing?”

  “They’re strange. They’re reporting widespread attacks by the infected and heavy losses, yet the monitors on the surface don’t show anything moving at all.”

  “Do you have locations from the reports?”

  “No, Ma’am. We haven’t received any confirmations from any of the sources that they are receiving our broadcasts. It’s one of the first questions we’ve been asking.”

  Iris checked the view on the nearest monitor and saw several birds. That was a good sign because it meant the radiation levels were getting better every day, but other than the birds there was no movement. She panned around and zoomed in on the roads. There used to be bodies, and after the bodies were gone, there were the random sightings of the infected that still wandered slowly in the direction of sounds.

  “What is the sense of urgency in the broadcasts, Andi? Could they be fake? Didn’t we get some suspicious reports once before?”

  “That’s just it. If these are fake, the broadcasters are good actors. They sound like they’re in full blown panic mode. Listen for yourself. We’re still getting one now.”

  Andi handed a headset to Iris rather than to put it on speaker. Although the communications room was one of the upper level rooms with a ceiling, it was best not to have a report of this nature echoing down the hallways.

  She put on the headset and got chills at the level of frantic fear in the broadcaster’s voice. The man was breathless and his voice shook.

  “……scouts aren’t reporting back. We sent out more when the first scouts didn’t come back, and we haven’t heard from them. An infected wandered out of the woods, and a perimeter watch said it looked like Charlie Gibson. He was with the first scouting party. I don’t know if it was true, and there’s no way to know for sure. We’re evacuating and will be off the air until we know we’re safe.”

  Iris’ hand shot out and keyed the broadcast button. She had to know where this was happening, and the problem with shortwave was that it could be anywhere in the world.

  “Unknown broadcaster. What is your location. Please do not terminate broadcast without advising of your location.”

  Iris tried to convey her own sense of urgency. If the man heard her voice he would feel like he had to answer. After all, he was sending out the message as a warning.

  There was a long pause, and Iris was afraid contact had already been broken. She was just about to repeat her message when the voice came back through the headset, but he wasn’t answering her question.

  “There are infected in the settlement. Hopkins is surrounded on three sides. Security forces have retreated from the fields into the main settlement to eliminate the infected. Some of us are gathering children and minimum rations and heading south, but some want to stay. No time to say more. Ending broadcast. God help us all.”

  “Wait.”

  Iris practically shouted into the microphone, but the sound of the radio switching off was too audible to ignore. There was nothing but silence.

  “Are there any other broadcasts in progress?” she asked to no one in particular. Her somber tone had caused a stillness in the room after her plea to wait.

  One of the men at a station nearby handed over his headset.

  “Scanning all frequencies, Ma’am. We have one broadcast that’s intermittent but clear. This one said something that made us think he’s somewhere near the Virginia border with North Carolina.”

  When she put on the headset, she heard a much more calm voice, but the man seemed almost to be confused rather than afraid. She lifted one earphone away from her ear and turned to Andi.

  “Watch captain, please have your staff begin reviewing all maps to find a town named Hopkins. I have no idea which state, so start with the southeast and work outward.”

  She lowered the earpiece into place before she heard an answer from the watch captain, but she had no doubt the order would be carried out. The man’s voice broke up a bit, so she asked the man assigned to the station to try to tune it in better. Computers made good shortwave receivers because the software could make the adjustments.

  “Towers along the ridge updated their count to four hundred sightings. That’s an increase of three hundred and fifty in the last twenty-four hours and is equal to the entire count for the last year when we were receiving reports of one per day. The watches estimate forward progress to be unusually slow for most of the infected. The faster dead seem to be new victims while the slower dead are extremely decayed. Speculation among camps is that they were radiation victims that have begun to move outward from the greater Charlotte area.”

  There it was. She finally had her answer about the location of the broadcast. Towers were common along the western borders with North Carolina back when forest fires were a bigger concern than zombies.

  The momentary thought of zombies made Iris think of the Chief. His humorous insistence that they weren’t zombies still amused her.

  Confusion appeared in the lines of her own forehead, and she turned to take in the faces of the communications room staff.

  “Why are we just now getting these broadcasts? I’ve gotten more information in the last five minutes than I have in the last five years,” she said.

  “Best guess is all I’ve got,” said Andi.

  “Let’s hear it.”

  The idea wasn’t that farfetched once she heard it put into words. As a matter of fact, they could have been planning for this day instead of manning every station as they had for years. Still, even though they had listened to static, it had given the radio operators a sense of purpose just as it had to the people working in their stores.

  Andi pointed at one particular station and said, “This is the station that controls our communications array, or antenna if you prefer. Our manuals gave us instructions on how to realign them to the satellites that would in turn give us the ability to detect broadcasts rather than to just randomly search for them by turning a dial.”

  She paused to give Iris the opportunity to ask questions, but Iris had read the manuals, too. Andi thought of her as their mayor and didn’t really know the depth of her skills, one of which was ship to ship communications when she had been the chief enlisted officer on a cruise ship.

  “Go on, please.”

  “We were acting under the assumption that we were realigning the array whenever we sent a signal for it t
o change positions. We had every reason to believe that was true because we received a status signal as feedback each time. What we never considered was whether or not the array was able to receive signals after it was realigned. Was it actually exposed to a clear sky above it, or was it enclosed?”

  Iris could tell the question was rhetorical because the obvious answer was that the array had been enclosed, and somehow it had become clear to receive signals.

  “Does your best guess include a theory about why the array could suddenly have a clear sky above it?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. As you are probably aware, we keep a log of times and dates when we realign the array.”

  This time Andi didn’t pause because she knew Iris had been the driving force behind not only the recorded history of life in the shelter, but the need for a specific routine. It wasn’t enough to monitor the stations. The smallest of details could be important, and this practice had proven itself to be true.

  “Review of the logs showed an interesting anomaly, and we tested it to see if it was real. Now, keeping in mind that this is just a best guess, we became curious when we noticed that the status feedback signal came back faster than it had in the past. A typical signal came back ten seconds later for every degree of turn on the main array. As of this morning, the signal came back after one second per degree of turn. That was significant, so we rotated the array three hundred and sixty degrees and timed the response. Then we did the same in the opposite direction.”

  “And your best guess for the speed of the array increasing was what?”

  “A body or bodies jamming the machinery, and whatever had decayed enough to allow the array to turn faster also allowed the enclosure above the array to finally open. We’ve been shooting radio ways into a ceiling for years. Now the ceiling is open.”