The truck was stopped once more, as the fence around the base came into view as did the guard houses that were long empty, the soldiers that manned them long dead or infected. Several military Humvees blocked the road, heavy M2 .50 caliber guns that had spent their belts were left aimed upwards, gunners nowhere in sight. Several cars were stopped in front of the Humvees waiting for admittance into the base; many of the car’s doors were ajar, as the people inside them fled.
Evidence that a horde had made its way to the base was evident; the blood smears inside the cars of the unlucky drivers and passengers, who thought they would be safe inside. Many vehicles had enormous holes where the large caliber bullets shredded everything in its path, suggesting the Airmen that guarded the base had no time to pick friendly targets from the waves of infected. It was a grim and desolate scene before them, death and destruction had its reign here.
The gates that were meant to keep people out were forced inwards, demonstrating the sheer size of the horde that attacked the base. Nothing could withstand it as it moved, a plague swallowing everything it could, growing with each victim. The group slowly walked through the horde’s wake, making sure it left no remnant of its impurity. Knowing that the trail of destruction leading into the base would mean the chance that the horde was still stumbling around trapped by the high fences around the base, the group crossed the threshold of the base.
Muller and Kenji lead them, their heads turning, and their eyes scrutinized everything within their view. After a short distance, the road leading towards a building that had several tents in front of it; many signs around the area indicated that it was the check-in for survivors allowed onto the base. A city bus abandoned next to the tents; the windows exploded inwards from gunfire. Bags and luggage were in piles as the military forced people to leave their earthly possessions.
Blood pools were plentiful around the area, and more lead deeper into the base. The street forked in two directions from the building, to the left many other administrative buildings formed the heart of the base, while to the right was the edge of the airfield. They stopped at the building gauging and weighing their options. Muller looked at the building in front of them while Kenji looked at the hangars in the distance.
“I think we should get to the roof. From there we can get a better view of the base and see if we can spot the horde,” Muller said while looking at the building.
Kenji looked away from the hangars and back to Muller, “Yeah, that would be a good place to start. Should we clear the entire building? In case we need to stay here overnight?”
“Yeah, this looks like a good place to hole up in if we need too. You and I should go in and clear the ground floor. Let’s get Cooper and Evans to clear the second floor. We can wait on the stairs and go to the roof and see if we can check out the rest of the base,” Muller said to Kenji.
Knight coughing interrupted their talk, the sound echoing off the building. They both turned to look back at where Ramirez was still standing next to; he seemed extremely worried as he watched his commanding officer and friend slowly dying in front of him.
Muller knew that time was short for Knight, “Cooper. Evans.”
Both jogged up the steps to where Muller and Kenji stood.
“What do you need?” asked Cooper.
“We are going to clear the building. We plan on staying here for the night. Kenji and I are going to clear the bottom floor; you guys are going to clear the second floor. Meet at the stairwell to the roof once you have cleared your floor. Got it?” asked Muller.
“Ok, we can do that. We will follow you in, and head to the second floor,” stated Cooper, while Evans nodded her head.
They all pulled out their weapons simultaneously; while Muller pulled open the door. The lobby of the building was lit by the late evening rays, making the surface of the floor shine brightly. The air was hot and stagnate; it had been a while since anyone had opened the doors to the building. No noise echoed in the building giving it the characteristics of a dead empty structure; only the dust stirred as they entered.
They all passed through the long-dead metal detectors, their minds telling them to brace for a shrill alarm that would never activate. At the front desk lay piles of paperwork that would never be filed or filled out. The lobby split into two wings, and north, and a south wing. They couldn’t see down the halls; no light was allowed into the halls, meaning that all the doors were closed.
All of them stopped, turning on their flashlights, shining them down both halls, seeing nothing down either one. Muller signaled the group that they were going to take the south wing first, and they crept along the hallway. Cooper and Evans moved past Muller and Kenji, walking down to the end of the hall where a staircase plaque was next to the door. Muller and Kenji stopped at the first set of doors, deciding to clear the room on the right first.
Cooper and Evans entered the door at the end of the hall; the door closing with a click. Muller and Kenji opened the door. They pushed it open slowly, finding only office cubicles behind it. The room held about sixteen cubicles, and all along the back wall of the room were filing cabinets, and on many of the desks were stacks of folders and paperwork. The clerks tasked with filing the mountain of paper were nowhere to be found, which was a good start.
They left the room, leaving the door open, and crossed the hall. Two doors stood next to each other, with the familiar symbols for females and males. Hoping that no infected remained in either of the bathrooms, the entered the male’s first. Making sure to check each stall, they quickly cleared the room and moved on to the female’s restroom. After entering the restroom, that old warning popped into their heads telling them that neither one of them had the right parts to be in this bathroom; again, they found nothing.
Down the hall at the next set of doors, they discovered a security room, filled with lockers and a wall of TVs that if they had power would no doubt show various views of inside and outside the building. The lockers were all empty and held nothing of value inside, so Muller and Kenji went across the hall. They found the second room much like the first, but this one was mainly file cabinets, again no clerical workers there either.
So far, their luck was pretty good; they hadn’t even seen a single sign that the infected had made its way inside of the building. With only two more doors left for the wing they quickly checked both; one was an office for a ranked officer while the second was a cleaning supply closet. Finding it odd that they had yet to face any infected they walked back to the lobby to clear the other wing. The hallway was darker but contained their first evidence that the infection had made its way into the building.
A small trail of dried blood led deeper down the hall towards the stairwell door. Muller and Kenji debated on checking the hall or following the trail, knowing it would probably lead to infected. Finally deciding the infected could wait, they decided to clear the hall after making hand signals to determine which way to go, they started at the left side of the hall. Beyond the door was a simple office supply closet, with a printer; papers scattered throughout the room.
Across the hall were more administrative offices, but it looked less used than the other ones. Beyond that point of the hall, there was, even more, blood; someone had lost a lot of blood. The room on the right side of the hallway was locked, so they continued to the last door, which was where the blood led. They both stopped at the door, which was two simple swinging doors for people to enter or leave by pushing or pulling the doors.
A bloody, smeared, handprint said there was a high chance they would find an infected inside; both men tightened their grip on their weapons. Kenji pushed open the door on the left, the one without the bloody handprint, slowly allowing more of the room into his view. The well-lit interior had large windows that adorned much of the walls. It was the cafeteria; tables and chairs were spread throughout the room, allowing many soldiers and officers to dine at once.
Many of the tables still had trays of food on them, all of which had long rotted away, but the
smell lingered in the room. The trail of blood led back towards the kitchen, moving through the tables like a maze. Together they crept through the empty room to the kitchen which was another swing door. Again, smeared against the door was blood, so they cautiously entered the kitchen. Many of the pots and pans were thrown on the ground or knocked over; the contents splattered all over the floor and walls.
Propped up against the walk-in freezer door was the body of a man in uniform; he sat immobile. At his feet, the body of another man, an officer; he held a chef’s knife in his eye socket. Kenji moved closer to the soldier’s body propped up against the freezer, poking him with the tip of his katana. After getting no reaction from the man, Kenji backed up and started to check for anything that hadn’t rotted yet.
“So, no infected on this floor that’s a good sign at least,” said Muller with a sign of relief.
Kenji turned to reply but was interrupted by a loud snapping sound. The man whom Kenji had poked with his sword had started to get up. Kenji instinctively kicked the man in the chest knocking him back down to the ground. He jammed the tip into the man’s blackened eye socket, ending his soft moaning. Placing his foot on the dead infected man’s shoulder and pulled out the blade.
“You spoke too soon,” smirked Kenji.
“Well, at least, there was only one infected…” Muller said over his shoulder, walking back into the cafeteria, “Are you coming? We should meet up with the other two.”
“Right behind you,” replied Kenji leaning over the dead infected man, saying a silent prayer.
✽ ✽ ✽
Upstairs Evans and Cooper had cleared out the floor and were waiting at the stairs, leaning against the wall snacking on some chocolate they had found in a vending machine.
“Have any trouble?” asked Muller, with a raised eyebrow.
Cooper smiled, swallowing a chunk of a chocolate bar, “We had a scare by the vending machine. Nothing to worry about, though.”
“You can tell us on the way to the roof,” motioned Muller.
Cooper followed Muller up the stairs, “We had cleared half the upstairs only finding a couple of bodies, suicides by the look of it; we decided to stop at the vending machine. It had been untouched, and we saw some chocolate. We were talking about how to get it out without making noise, and I guess that one infected that was in an office we had yet to clear heard us and came for us. We didn’t hear him until he was right behind us.”
Evans interjected “Cooper jumped at the sight of him! He shoved me out of the way and jumped aside as the infected man lunged at us.”
Cooper continued from there, “Well, he planted his face in the glass front of the machine, and I reacted by shoving his face into the glass until it broke, killed two birds with one stone.”
Kenji and Muller laughed, “Did you save any chocolate bars?”
“Maybe a few,” said Cooper sheepishly.
“Alright, we will have to get it after we are done on the roof,” replied Muller as they reached the roof door.
Ignoring the alarm will sound if opened sign on the door, they pushed it open and walked out onto the roof. From where the group stood, they had a decent view of the base. On the southern side, they could see the last bit of sunlight glinting off the hangars. A little north of the hangars they could see the air control tower, which they would have to get to in the morning. Moreover, to the north, they could see the residence area, filled with houses, shops, other general places that would make up a small town.
“Doesn’t look like much happened from up here, does it?” asked Kenji.
Nodding Muller replied, “It’s only just too quiet for an airbase.”
“Find me a helicopter, and I can change that,” said Cooper with confidence.
“Well now that the building is clear let's grab the others and bring them inside, we need to find a place for Knight to rest anyways. We might want to leave someone up here just in case, don’t want anyone or anything sneaking up on us this close to leaving,” said Kenji with a hint of sadness.
Muller waved the others away, “I’ll take the first watch, send someone to get me in about four hours.”
Kenji, Cooper, and Evans all left the roof to get the others, leaving Muller to watch the dead air base below.
Chapter 49
A long night
Ramirez had moved Knight into an office, making sure they blocked the door if no one was in the room with him. Everyone has settled for the night sitting in the comfortable chairs that officers used to sit in and manage the base from; giving orders, disciplining insubordinate troops for getting drunk and starting fights in the nearby town, making sure flights were on schedule. All was silent for the time being, and many of the group had found books or magazines to look at to keep themselves occupied. Muller was still on the roof, watching the sunset slowly diminish, allowing complete darkness to swallow the base.
Kenji waited the four hours until he went back up the stairs to check on Muller and if he had seen anything. He walked back up the stairs to the door, ignoring the do not open sign once more; the door creaked ever so slightly from rarely being used. Upon opening the door, he surrounded with complete darkness; he let his eyes adjust before stepping entirely outside. It was again a cloudy night with barely any open sky visible.
As Kenji spotted Muller towards the front of the building right above the main entrance, he noticed the sky was aglow. The orange glow from the fires, still ablaze in the town gave some light to the west. Muller had his rifle notched up against the rooftop, night visions over his eyes watching the main approach they had taken to get to the base.
Muller turned and looked at Kenji, “Been pretty quiet, looks like there was a horde moving north from the town. I’m super happy they aren’t headed our way.”
“That is good news. The group is settling in for the night, I’m going to replace you, and I think Ramirez is going to replace me,” Kenji replied unsure of the plan.
Muller changed the subject, “What about Knight, is he starting to show signs that he is turning? I mean he bit this morning surely he should start showing by now.”
Kenji nodded, knowing what Muller was talking about, “I don’t know how he hasn’t turned yet, but he isn’t looking well either. It's clear the infection is fighting for control of his body, but he’s still semi-alert.”
An uneasy silence fell over the two men, as they both understood that sooner or later they would have to take care of Knight, much like they had taken care of so many friends before. It was something that didn’t have to be said, each person knew it in their mind; infected people were just another infected, there was no saving them.
Muller broke the stillness, “Well, I guess I’ll leave you to your watch. Did we find any food worth heating up?”
Kenji took the rifle Muller was using, “No, nothing worth heating up, most of the food was rotten. So, it was mostly snack food we found.”
“Yeah, don’t remind me of that smell in the cafeteria,” Muller said scrunching his nose.
With that as the last thing said, Muller went back downstairs, finding a beautiful plush chair behind an officer’s desk, he decided to sleep in. Kenji had also kept the night vision goggles but found he would much rather rely on his natural eye than with technology’s help. Kenji had found that he was able to use his natural night vision quite well on several occasions. Using his new-found skill, he could make out two infected wandering in the street heading towards the housing section of the base.
He knew that they would want to avoid that section of the base if they could. Kenji watched them wander about some more before refocusing on the central gate area. Nothing moved through that area which was a good sign. After a bit he turned his curiosity to the airfield; across the expansive airstrip, he could see a few refueling trucks and the hangars but nothing else. He watched that area before repeating his watch of the other two sections.
He had a feeling that this was going to be a long four hours but stretched to make sure his body was aw
ake and active. Kenji settled in for his watch, leaning his body against the roof’s lip, the two infected wandering in the street his only company.
✽ ✽ ✽
Carter had ridden the bike he had found leaving the city to the edge of town, or what remained of the town. He knew he was close to the base, knowing it was on the other side of the town. It seemed that a fire had spread throughout the town, taking everything it could in its path. Only older stone buildings stood, all the insides charred away leaving the skeleton of the building.
Night had come, and he could see the fire still blazing in the western half of the town. Carter couldn’t see much at all with most of the smoke still hovering about the town, even with night vision he wouldn’t be able to see an infected until it was too late. Carter decided that he would wait until the next day to leave so he backtracked to the closest farmhouse he could find, which was a one-story house.
The house still had all its doors and windows intact, which were a good sign. He knocked on the front door making sure it wouldn’t be mistaken for an infected trying to get in. After repeating the knock, several times and no one answered, he decided to find a way inside; the front door was locked, as well as the back door too. None of the windows were left unlatched, which meant he would have to break a window to get into the house.
He wrapped his hand and found a small window at the back of the house, punching it with his wrapped fist. He reached through the window, being mindful of the glass shards and unlatched the window and shoved the window open. He pushed his pack through first, knowing he wouldn’t fit through with it still on. After Carter climbed through, he found he was in the bathroom of the house, and the door was closed.
What Remains: The Outbreak Page 32
