Enter Darkness Box Set

by K. M. Fawkes

  “Or maybe he’s not weird, you paranoid jerk,” Brad sighed. There was no point in continuing this line of thought. Not until he had more information. There was also no point in ruining the good thing that he had going based on a bunch of theories and speculation.

  He stuck his calendar up on the fridge and stood back, admiring that small symbol of order in the universe. At least one thing was still the same. The passage of time was reassuringly steady. Today was November twelfth.

  Not that it mattered at the moment.

  With a sigh, Brad thought forward to what he needed to do. Tonight, for instance, he had a very important question to bring up with his neighbors. He would have to go easy, especially given Ben’s reaction that morning, but he was pretty confident that he could manage.

  He’d made friends here. He’d make sure to use them to his advantage. It wouldn’t hurt them to answer a few questions. And maybe he could set his mind at ease. Until then, he was left with the exciting option of napping or reading. He opted for the latter, knowing that it would probably lead to the former before the afternoon was over.

  Chapter 10

  Walking into the dining hall, Brad inhaled appreciatively. The smell of roasting meat never failed to whet the appetite, and he had to admit that the excited chattering from the other residents made him feel good.

  After going through the line and getting his share of moose meat along with sides of green beans and potatoes, he took his plate and sat down. Jack and Charlie walked in a few moments after Brad had taken his place. Jack waved at him from the line and Brad waved back. The mechanic and his wife would probably be over to join him in a few minutes. He was fine with that. In addition to wanting information, he actually really liked Jack and Charlie.

  He wasn’t so sure he felt the same way about the meat on his plate, in spite of his pride in being the one that had shot it. He’d been afraid that there wouldn’t be enough to go around when they’d brought the scrawny creature in. It looked like they’d managed it—the portions were fairly decent—but he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be the best thing he’d ever put in his mouth.

  “Well?” Jack asked when he sat down and poked at the stringy meat. “What do you think?”

  “I would have thought that any protein was good protein,” Charlie chimed in. “But this might just prove me wrong.”

  Brad grinned and took a bite. It was stringy. It was tough. He chewed with determination.

  “I’ve had better,” he admitted when he’d finally worked the first bite down. “But I’d rather eat it than starve.”

  “Good enough for me,” Jack said, forking up a bite of his own. He made a face as he chewed. “Damn, it’s just like leather. Are you sure this was the moose and not one of those boots you wore into the ground?”

  Brad laughed as he scooped up some vegetables. “Now that you mention it, maybe that’s how they stretched the meat far enough to feed all of us.”

  At Jack’s reminder, Brad glanced down at his new boots. He’d had them for a few days now—since Neal had seen his beat-up old boots after the first hunting trip and handed him a new pair the next day—and they never failed to make him smile. In addition to being pleasingly shiny, they had the advantage of being warm and waterproof, which helped in keeping his feet happy whether he was working as a veterinarian or a hunter.

  The vet part had been pretty easy with such a small number of livestock to take care of. He worked with them diligently, though, partly out of dedication and partly out of boredom. If he could get the animals through the winter, there was a huge potential for breeding the cattle and raising a more stable source of food.

  A few people also had dogs that they’d managed to keep with them and Brad had been around to check them out as well. That was the part of the job he’d enjoyed the most. It wasn’t that he didn’t like farm animals, it was just that dogs were his absolute favorite creatures on Earth. Humans included. Jack and Charlie shared their apartment with a male golden retriever named Remington that Brad routinely dognapped to hang out with in the evenings. The creature was a little thin, but Brad was working on that, much to Remy’s joy.

  And Jack and Charlie, in addition to having a dog that they shared freely, were simply nice people. Jack had been a mechanic before the EMP rendered his job mostly obsolete. Charlotte had worked in a day-care center. She was teaching some classes to the kids in the compound. She’d had Brad in yesterday to talk about safety around the livestock. It had been kind of fun. If Brad had to socialize, he preferred the under-ten set. Kids had the best questions and they were refreshingly honest.

  But even more important than those traits, Jack had promised to help Brad search for Anna and the kids at every chance they got. The chance hadn’t come up yet, and Brad would have been lying if he said that it wasn’t starting to eat away at him. He was here, in a comfortable apartment with a fireplace and a bed, and they were struggling to survive in the snow. If they were surviving at all. He pushed that thought away. They had to be alive, still. They just had to.

  Caleb’s suspicions came back when Brad thought of how no moves had been made to form a search party. Was the Major simply placating him? Using him for the things he was good at without ever planning to waste resources on looking for Brad’s people? He reminded himself to bide his time. He would get his answers, but it was hardly something he could ask bluntly.

  “I told them that I think it’s crazy to leave the keys in the trucks,” Jack said. “But they said no one would be dumb enough to try to steal one of the things.” Jack took a drink of his water. “It just seems wrong to leave them like that, though. Even though I know they’re right.”

  “Yeah, it goes against everything we remember as normal,” Charlie said, making a face as she swallowed. “Sort of like eating this meat.”

  Brad grinned. “Hey, speaking of meat, have any of you seen Caleb lately?” he asked. After his nap, Brad had walked around the facility once more, and made no sighting of Caleb. Not to mention the fact that he hadn’t seen him at any of the meals today. With such a limited amount of food, no one missed meal times. Even chores and missions out were scheduled around them.

  “Caleb?” Charlie asked, slipping a bite of meat to Remington who took it gently and then wolfed it down.

  “Yeah, he’s on the hunting crew,” Brad said. “I’d say he’s close to forty years old. I’d guess he’s about five nine. He’s got dark hair. Um…he wears fatigues.”

  Charlie looked blank; the hunting crew and the childcare crew didn’t spend a lot of time together, after all. Luckily, Vance—who hunted when he wasn’t helping with house maintenance issues and lived on the other side of Jack and Charlie—had joined them and he stepped in with the answer.

  “He’s got the flu,” he said in his low, southern drawl as he took a big bite of meat. Vance had come to Maine for a construction job, but he hadn’t been allowed back into his home state of Georgia after he couldn’t guarantee that he hadn’t come into contact with the virus. So, he’d come back to Maine. No one complained about the cold more than Vance. “Which is probably for the best,” he finished. “It saves him from having to eat this. What is it? Rehydrated jerky?”

  “Moose. Bon appétit,” Brad countered. “And you’re sure he’s sick?”

  “Sure, I’m sure,” Vance said. “Mason said Caleb got sick yesterday morning. That’s why he didn’t go huntin’.”

  “Oh, no,” Charlie said, shaking her head and sighing. “That’s too bad.”

  “You just said you didn’t even know him,” Jack said with a grin as he pulled his wife against him and dropped a kiss on top of her head. “My little bleeding heart.”

  “Shut up,” Charlie said with a smile as she looked up at him. “I don’t have to know someone to be worried that they’re sick!”

  “Poor guy,” Brad said casually, trying not to show how his heart rate had increased. It was too damn much of a coincidence that Caleb had gotten sick after giving Brad information he hadn’t even want
ed to give him. Maybe they were holding him somewhere. Maybe there was still time. “I should drop by and see him after this,” he went on. “It might be good to take him some soup or something. Do you guys know where he lives?”

  “Across the way from us. But if he’s sick, he won’t be at his house,” Jack said, shaking his head.

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah, he’ll be down in quarantine,” Vance said. “And they’re really strict. They won’t let you in.”

  “Who won’t?”

  “The soldiers. It’s to keep us safe,” Charlie added when Brad raised an eyebrow. “A community this small…any disease would spread really fast. It would be like…” She gave a quick, embarrassed laugh. “Well, you know what it would be like, I guess.”

  He did. But still. “I might go take a look, anyway.”

  “Why?” Jack asked, finishing his green beans. “I mean, I don’t wanna sound heartless or anything, but hell—you aren’t going to see him.”

  “I know. But I guess I feel like I owe the guy. He really helped me out on our first hunt.”

  “Really?” Vance asked. “Caleb did? He’s always been the type to stick to himself.”

  Brad shrugged and then glanced around. Everyone around was in in their own conversational groove. No one was looking their way. He leaned in.

  “Can I ask you guys something?” he asked, making sure to keep his voice low.

  “Sure,” Charlie said, looking a little concerned.

  “I heard something when I was out hunting yesterday,” Brad said, making sure not to connect the rumor to Caleb.

  “What kinda something?” Vance asked.

  “About the people that used to live here.” He took a breath, trying to figure out the most innocuous way to ask the question. “Were they really all dead when the Major found this place?”

  Jack nodded. “Yep, that’s how the story goes,” he said. “It was a graveyard when the Major and his soldiers got here.”

  “The staff just left those poor old people to die,” Charlie added, shaking her head. “Can you believe that?”

  “But…do you really think that’s likely?” Brad pressed as gently as he could.

  “What do you mean?” Charlie asked, frowning slightly.

  “Well, with all the safe houses that were out there at the beginning…and with this place being so close to Bangor, don’t you think that the soldiers would have moved these people? You know, rather than let them die out here?”

  “The soldiers wouldn’t have seen any use for them,” Jack said sadly. “They only wanted the able-bodied to help beef up their ranks.”

  “I know the soldiers you’re talking about,” Brad agreed. “But there were good military men left at the beginning. I met some of them in Bangor. This wouldn’t have been out of their way. And I don’t know…don’t you think that Major Walker would have found someone alive? At least a few people, anyway.”

  “This was an old folks’ home,” Vance reminded him. “They were so frail that they probably went even faster than the rest of the world.”

  “They might have lived in a retirement community, but that doesn’t mean they were helpless,” Brad countered. “Hell, the place has a swimming pool and tennis courts. It’s not like it was a hospital in disguise.” He saw doubt flicker over their faces one by one. “I mean…don’t you think it’s a little strange that everyone here is young?”

  “Older people need more tech to survive,” Jack said flatly. “Pacemakers and stuff like that would have been taken out by the EMP, and pills and meds would have run out not long after.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “And I don’t think that this is the place to have this conversation,” the mechanic went on in a low voice, as he looked to his right.

  Brad followed the gaze to the soldiers who had just walked in and gotten in line for dinner. So there were taboo subjects here. The previous residents were apparently a big one. Had Caleb been onto something, after all?

  “You shouldn’t be stirring things up,” a woman sitting nearby said when the soldiers began to speak among themselves.

  Brad looked at her in surprise. He hadn’t thought anyone was listening. “I’m not trying to—”

  “I mean, I don’t like to be reminded that everything I have belonged to someone who wasn’t as lucky,” the woman went on, looking more and more upset as she spoke. “And the people that lived here…it doesn’t matter exactly what happened to them, does it? I mean, they were old. It was over for them, anyway.” When the woman saw the distaste on their faces, she hurried on. “And you’re looking at it wrong. Maybe they were lucky not to have to see what the world turned into.”

  Brad didn’t pursue the subject when she stopped speaking, and he and his companions finished their meal in silence.

  Once he’d handed his plate in, Brad walked out of the dining hall and down to the block of apartments Charlie had indicated when he’d pressed her for more information about where the quarantine was located.

  Jack had been right. Two armed soldiers stood outside one of the apartment doors. Their arms were crossed over their chests and their rifles were leaning against the wall behind them. Brad didn’t know their names; he only knew them as part of the Major’s guard.

  “What are you doing here?” the shorter one demanded, reaching for his rifle.

  Brad knew that he could swing the weapon up at any moment. Fear spiked in his blood, but he cleared his throat and answered the question anyway.

  “I—” Brad cut himself off suddenly, an idea occurring to him. It wouldn’t answer all of his questions, but it would get a few taken care of. “I wanted to see him.”

  The two exchanged a quick glance before the armed soldier spoke again. “You know you can’t do that.”

  “Why not?” Brad asked, trying to sound innocent. “I just want to make sure my friend is okay.”

  “You should know why,” the unarmed soldier said, looking at Brad sternly.

  He made sure that he looked very blank and confused. “No,” he said. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why.”

  The armed soldier sighed heavily. “Because he’s contagious. We don’t want disease spreading all through the place, now do we? Especially not in the winter.”

  Brad didn’t really see what the weather had to do with it, but he didn’t bother to question that part of the soldier’s claim. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked instead.

  “He’s sick. That’s all you need to know.” The soldier shifted the gun slightly as he spoke in a quick, impatient movement.

  “Okay,” Brad said, stepping back just a hair, balancing on the balls of his feet. He didn’t think they’d shoot him right here on the street, but he didn’t really know and his survival instincts were blaring a warning too loud to ignore. He took his chance.

  “Will you tell Carl I stopped by?” he asked casually.

  “Yeah, we’ll let him know,” the second soldier said.

  Brad turned and walked back down the sidewalk. He’d messed up Caleb’s name on purpose. And they hadn’t corrected him.

  He could have let that slide. Maybe the soldiers were just exceptionally polite. But they hadn’t even batted an eye; they hadn’t known that he was wrong. That told Brad two things, and he didn’t like either of them. The first was that the soldiers didn’t have any idea who they were supposed to be guarding. And the second was that Caleb had been right. It seemed that sometimes, people just disappeared.

  Chapter 11

  He let two more days pass, hoping against all instinct that Caleb would turn up at breakfast one morning. He didn’t. And, just as Brad had predicted, no one asked about him. Even Charlie, who’d seemed so concerned, and Vance, who’d worked with Caleb much more than Brad had, didn’t question the man’s disappearance.

  In the days that had followed being turned away from “quarantine,” Brad had been observing the workings of the facility with different eyes. He hadn’t noticed just how big the gap between soldier and civil
ian was before this. As his experiment had showed, the Major’s men clearly weren’t involved enough with the citizens to know their names. But it was more than that.

  The civilians might not like to admit it, but there was a sense of fear that ran through them when the soldiers walked through. Conversations were dropped mid-sentence. Hell, people even stood up straighter. Brad thought that he’d figured out Ben’s bitterness about the days off, as well: the civilians who got them were people who did something that benefited the soldiers. Jack fixed their transport. Brad had helped feed them something besides ration bars. It didn’t matter that Ben was making life at the facility more stable for all of them, because the soldiers didn’t care about all of them.

  He didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t want to think that somehow he’d fallen in with another group of crazies. There was one way he could get it sorted out. It was time to go to Major Walker and ask what he planned to do about his promise to help Brad find Anna and the kids.

  Once his chores for the day were done, Brad headed toward the office, unable to get rid of the sense that he was being watched. Or the feeling that he might have gotten Caleb killed by making him talk. He needed to talk with the Major and get this out in the open.

  “What are you doing?” a soldier asked when Brad stepped up to the office door.

  “I thought I’d go talk with Major Walker,” Brad said, trying to make it sound perfectly reasonable. Which, hell, when he thought about it, it really was. Why shouldn’t he talk to the guy? It wasn’t like the fact that he was a major really meant anything in this world anymore. It was sort of like money. A year ago, a lot of it would have meant something. Now, it was just a memory and a fire starter.

  “He’s busy,” the soldier said.

  “It won’t take long,” Brad said easily. “I just wanted to ask him one thing.”

  “I said he’s busy.”

  The soldier wasn’t even looking at him anymore. He was leaning against the wall, looking bored from the interaction. Brad bit his tongue to keep from snapping at the man. It wouldn’t do any good.