Langston checked on Parker every so often, each time he found the man lying on his cot facing the window. He had tried talking to Parker, but never got a response. So, he stuck to being around Evans and Daniels. They were a good enough sort, but when it came down to it, he wasn’t sure if they would be there the back him up if the shit hit the fan.
With that in mind, he told himself to cut back on the booze but found he could not help himself. He had shared with them a bottle that he had stowed away on his helicopter. It didn’t take long for them to polish off the bottle. Langston was surprised at how quickly it had emptied.
“I will go get the other bottle, be right back!” Langston said in a cheerful stupor.
“Hurry back!” exclaimed Evans as she attempted to stand but fell back into her chair.
Langston climbed the stairs, finding himself on the roof once more. He decided he should probably check on Parker once he returned. The walk to his helicopter was a chilly one, it seemed that after the storm the temperature had dropped, and fog had rolled in after it. Being so high up it wasn’t as thick as below but made it hard to see across the roof.
Eventually, he made it to his helicopter, and stumbled into the cockpit, digging for his second, and last bottle. Langston looked at the bottle; it was expensive, and he usually only took sips of it when he got back from the worst missions. Tonight, was the worst mission he had ever been on.
At first, he just sipped from the bottle of cheaper whiskey that he had lent to Evans and Daniels. Langston opened it and took a quick taste, cleaning the cheap stuff out of his mouth. Its rich warmth filled his body. He sat down in his chair, enjoying its familiarity. He decided that tonight was the night that he would finish the bottle, even if it did cost almost half his paycheck. Tonight, he didn’t care about money, or any small trivial things, only to make it through the night and back home.
That was his only focus, getting out of this shit and making it back home. He knew that the others felt the same way; no one in their right mind would want to stay here. Getting out of here was going to be hard, but if they made the tough decisions, they would make it. Not everyone would make it; that was just a cold hard fact.
Langston had lost friends before; he even lost soldiers on rescue missions. Eventually, he figured that he could not save everyone and that sometimes it was unavoidable. The motto was never to leave someone behind, but he would if it meant saving the rest of the group. Wasn’t saving the many, while risking the few the best option?
Langston took another swig, and he started to feel the alcohol coursing its way through his body, further numbing his senses. He liked the feeling; it made him stronger, caused the pain and worry go away. He would need the strength if he was to survive being in this hell. With that in mind, he took a deep chug of the whiskey; it burned his throat on the way down.
Langston sat in his chair watching the storm roll off into the distance. That’s when he noticed he wasn’t alone on the roof. A short distance away he could make out a man standing on the edge of the roof. He stood and made his way to the back of the helicopter. Langston wanted to know who was up here with him.
He approached the man, “Hey! Wh-what are you doing up here?!”
The man turned around; it was Parker.
“Parker!? Why are you up here?” asked Langston, surprised to see the soldier had left his cot.
“I can’t go on. I can’t do it again! Once we leave here, we will have to fight more of those…those things. They killed all my friends, and then I had to kill my friends to make so they wouldn’t attack me!” Parker yelled at Langston.
“You plan to jump?” asked Langston.
“I’m not going to watch more of you die. I won’t kill anymore. The infected can’t have me either. It’s best to just end it now before I become too much of a problem for the group.”
Langston moved closer to Parker, hoping to be able to grab him, “Come over here, we can talk about it.”
“Talk about it? Talk about what? I’ve made my mind up. This mission only ends up with more of us dead, and I don’t want to become one of those infected.” Parker said, moving closer to the edge.
Langston ran over to Parker, fearing he was going to actually jump. Parker stood at the very edge of the building. Langston tripped as he ran, his balance thrown off by the alcohol he had consumed. He failed to catch himself and tumbled to the edge of the building. Langston quickly tried to get up, knowing that Parker intended to jump.
Parker was staring down into the fog below the building, “Langston, don’t try to stop me. I don’t want to be alive anymore.”
Langston used the small half wall that circled the roof’s edge to pull himself up. He knew he had to act fast if he wanted to save Parker. Using the wall, he climbed up, standing a few feet away from Parker. Langston carefully balanced himself on the wall and began to inch towards Parker. Parker moved one of his feet, dangling it over the edge.
Langston moved as quickly as he could. He lost his balance momentarily but quickly steadied himself. His only priority was reaching Parker before he could jump. Langston finally was close and grabbed Parker’s leg, hoping to stop the man. Parker tried to yank back, but Langston’s grip was too tight, and they both teetered along the edge.
“Let go you, you’ll fall with me!” Parker exclaimed.
“I won’t let you jump, Parker,” Langston fought back.
Parker tried to loosen Langston’s grip, shaking his leg. Langston was determined, he wouldn’t let go. Langston dropped down off the wall onto the roof and began to pull with all the might he could. The alcohol in his system was making it hard to keep his balance, but he knew he couldn’t give up. He couldn’t give up on Parker. Langston pulled again, throwing all the strength he could muster. Parker was stronger though and waited until Langston’s strength faltered, tugging quickly.
Langston wasn’t prepared for Parker to tug back, and he lost his balance completely. Parker also lost his balance and slipped. He lost his footing and fell; Langston, still held onto Parker’s leg, doubling over the edge. Langston held onto Parker’s legs. Parker dangled upside down from the roof.
“I have you, Parker, I won’t let you fall,” said Langston.
“AHHHHH!!!” Parker screamed.
It was too late. Langston couldn’t support both of their weights combined. His grip on Parker’s leg was slipping, and he reached further to see if he could get a better hold. He was unsuccessful as Parker fell, screaming as he flew towards the ground below. Parker disappeared into the fog.
Langston couldn’t balance himself and was too far hanging over the edge. He began to slide face first, off the edge. Langston was able to quickly grab ahold of the ledge, and he tied to hold on for dear life. He could feel every muscle in his body scream as he tried to pull himself back up. He wasn’t strong enough to lift himself back up; soon it was just his fingertips on the ledge. Langston watched as the roof got smaller and smaller. The fog swallowed him, and then he couldn’t see anything at all. Langston never saw the ground as he slammed into it, crushing his insides; he died instantly.
Chapter 36
Three left
Knight led them to the front door, which was intact and a good sign. The door opened with a gentle scraping noise as it had before. Everyone in the group held their weapons ready, and they paused, waiting for the infected. None came out from the darker interior of the building, so they moved on to the stairwell at the side of the lobby.
Again, they opened the door and waited, but nothing came from within, only dead silence. The glow sticks they had placed earlier in the morning were still in their place but were dimly glowing instead of their previous brightness. Something was off; undoubtedly there was a reason why both Langston and Parker were dead. They took the stairs slowly, weapons ready.
Their minds told them something was wrong, but what they could see told them that nothing had changed since they left. The only indication that anything had happened was the lack of communication from th
e base and the visible dead bodies outside the building. As they all approached the top of the building, they expected to find more gruesome clues that the infected had somehow found their way to the base.
However, there were none, and as they reached the second to last floor, they began to feel a little at ease. Only just, though, there was still something left unexplained. The truth would reveal itself once the group reached the next floor. It was the need for the truth, which it wasn’t any worse than it already was, that drove them.
After what felt like an eternity of climbing stairs they reached the top floor. Knight stopped at the door, and put his finger to his lips, telling the others to be quiet. He put his ear to the door and listened. He heard no noise, which he couldn’t decide was good or not.
Knight moved back towards the door, whispering, “I didn’t hear anything, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything out there. Let’s use our rifles; we can risk the noise.”
Ramirez cut in, “I think the three of us should check it out and have the others wait here. If there are infected up here, they won’t be able to follow us back down through the door.”
Knight replied, “That’s probably a good idea. If there are too many, we can just retreat and figure something else out.”
Kenji looked at Knight, “Sounds good.”
“Alright, on three,” said Knight.
Ramirez and Carter moved up next to him and waited. Knight held out three fingers and counted down. Carter opened the door and went to the right, Ramirez went to the left, and Knight went straight. There was still no difference; everything was still in the right place exactly as they left it.
Kenji held the door open while the three of them moved towards the radio that was in the nearby office. Checking inside they found it was empty. Knight began to wonder where Evans and Daniels had gone, neither one of them was guarding the door. He hoped that they hadn’t ended up dead somewhere as well.
They moved through the offices when they heard the first voice.
“Shit!”
Knight held his fist up, signaling the other two to stop. The sound had come from the conference room that had become their armory. They waited a few seconds before Knight started to move again, but this time slowly. As they approached the room, they stopped.
Carter moved up to the doorway, opening the door, giving Knight and Ramirez a view inside. There were two males, one crouched behind the table, and one was sitting in the chair, in front of it.
Knight commanded, “Don’t move! Who are you?”
The person behind the table and equipment replied, “Knight is that you?”
Knight and the other two lowered their weapons as the man behind the table stood up. Daniels looked at them confused, looking at their rifles they had just been aiming at him.
“Daniels? We thought you were someone else. What the hell happened here?” Asked Knight.
“What do you mean? Muller and I are trying to figure out where to Langston and Parker are.” Said a frazzled Daniels.
“We know. We found them both dead at the bottom of the building. It looks like they fell from up here. Do you know why?” Asked Knight with an accusatory tone.
Daniels looked shocked, “They are dead? At the bottom of the building, how?”
“We were hoping you could answer that,” replied Knight, “Explain to me how two soldiers just happened to end up dead on your watch.”
Daniels looked at the ground in shame, “Well, to be honest, sir, Evans and I kinda got drunk. She should be lying down a few rooms over.”
He glanced up at Knight, “To be fair, it was Langston who gave us the booze in the first place, and after a while, he left to get more but never came back. The only reason I knew he was gone was that Muller showed up and woke me up. That’s when we started to look around for him; we even checked a couple of the floors below.”
Knight bellowed in rage, “To be fair? To be fair, I should leave you here to rot like the rest of the infected. You only had one job. One! Make sure nothing else happened to the base while we were gone. Instead, I come back to find two more soldiers dead. How do you think I feel adding their names to the growing list of causalities we have had on this mission?”
Knight paused, taking a deep breath trying to calm himself, “We need to pull ourselves together. At every corner, we turn we have made a mistake, and it has cost us all. We need to make sure that we get out of here. If we keep losing people, we aren’t going to make it. I can’t make sure everyone isn’t making stupid mistakes.”
Ramirez stepped in, “It still doesn’t explain how they died,” changing the subject.
Daniels spoke softly, evidently anxious, “Well, Evans said she heard some screams, but she didn’t think it was Langston or Parker, so we didn’t check. Something could have happened between them.”
“Yeah, I suppose something could have happened. It’s a shame though. It seems like we lose more people every hour. Which brings me to ask how you are here, Muller? I mean we hadn’t heard anything from your team since we called you guys saying we were checking out the base,” replied Ramirez.
Muller started, “I made it out, and the others didn’t. The government officials didn’t make it either. It was a bloodbath, and I only made by pure luck. I did, however, get the information the government officials decided to share with us. They said this information could mean life and death for the entire world. Everything they knew about the infection is on these hard drives.”
Ramirez weakly smiled, “At least now this has been worth something, I guess.”
Knight muttered, “Hardly.”
Everyone heard him say it, and each person knew what he meant. They had all seen someone they knew gruesomely and brutally murdered by the infection. It had touched every life that it could find, tearing at each person’s soul and will.
“So, what’s the plan now?” said Muller nodding his head towards Knight.
“Well, we need to get the rest of the group quickly. Carter, go get them.”
“Rest of the group? I thought everyone else from the mission was dead?” asked Muller confused.
Knight turned back towards Muller, “Yeah, we went to go to the crash site to grab the pilots. But when we got there, they were already gone. Some civilians that were holed up in a warehouse nearby had helped them get out of there and to safety.”
“As volatile as the infection is I am surprised you guys managed to find anyone alive out there. I have seen the hordes that form; it’s a scary thing to see. That’s how I lost most of my team, we were overwhelmed before we even had a chance to get away,” described Muller.
Muller reached down to his pack at his feet, opening the main pouch. He grabbed a hard drive, “There are three of these, all containing the files that the scientists gathered about the infection. We need to get this back to command so that we can analyze the data. There might even be a cure in these files, for all we know. I hope you guys have a plan to get out of here.”
Knight had set down his gear, “I had hoped to fly out of here, but the helicopters we have out there are both out of fuel. We could get some fuel for them but finding it would be impossible. However, I think we could make our way out of the city and make our way to the American Air Force base to the south of the city.”
Muller nodded, “That doesn’t sound too bad. I just don’t know how we would get around the city without running into hordes.”
“We can think about that in a while. First, I want to get everyone settled in and back in good condition. Many of us haven’t gotten the proper sleep or food and water that we need. We can wait out for a few hours until everyone rests up,” Knight told Muller.
“But, let me introduce you to the rest of the group,” he continued.
Muller grabbed his pack, not wanting to leave it unattended, “Let’s go meet them.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Kenji waited with the others in the stairwell, waiting for the usual sound of a fight, an ever-growing familiar sound of a scream fol
lowing it. So far, however, they hadn’t heard anything. The few minutes that Knight, Ramirez, and Carter had been gone, seemed too long, and the pit in his stomach that seemed to become permanent as of late was telling him to worry. As if they knew that his worry was setting in, Carter opened the door.
“It’s all clear, it seems that another member of our team made it back,” said Carter, “He also has what we came for, so our mission is still active. Knight wants everyone to rest up for the next few hours. There is food, water, and beds.”
Kenji looked down at the few people that remained from his group and the pilots that he had helped save earlier. Each face showed a slight sign of stress, but a little less now that they had made it to the base. Kenji wanted to tell everyone about Knight, that they should leave now since he was starting to crack. He had put his faith in the man, and in return, he allowed over half of his group to be slaughtered while they watched. Who was he to deny the few people alive the simple pleasures of a place to sleep, and have food and water, though.
Kenji was too tired himself to even argue, so he stepped through the door, and followed Carter. The in various places around the area military crates sat in piles. They walked by them, following Carter. He led them into a conference room, where even more crates sat, but these ones were open.
Ramirez had already begun removing the MRE rations and bottled water, handing them out to everyone who entered the room. The water tasted like sweet heaven, crisp and refreshing while the food was not anything special, it was better than what Kenji had eaten in the past week. They had lived off anything they could find, typically sticking with the food that was already ready to eat or took very little to cook.
What Remains: The Outbreak Page 24
