Chapter 28 - The Ice Storm
At about the time that Johnny G and Riley were dumping the trailer, Fred and Nikki were in their own hideaway. Fred took off his hat and rubbed his bristly gray hair before looking up at the ceiling. He then gestured toward the makeshift pen.
“No need for both of us to freeze. You can stay here with the horses.”
“No. I’m coming with you,” she said, although the last thing she wanted to do was go traipsing around in the freezing rain.
Fred stared a moment, noted the determination in her hazel brown eyes and put his hat back on. “Alright. Wear that poncho you have. We’ll take our backpacks with us.”
Fred went to the truck and pulled two handguns out of a bag. He locked the slide back on one of them and handed it to Nikki. Nikki inspected it. It was a Ruger twenty-two caliber, meticulously clean, and well lubricated. Ensuring it was unloaded, she released the slide and aimed at an imaginary target on the far wall.
He reached back into the bag, grabbed a handful of bullets, and handed them to her.
“We only have two magazines, so put these in your pocket. If you have to shoot, reload your magazine as soon as you can. Always keep it full. Have you ever shot a handgun with a suppressor attached?”
“I’ve shot plenty of guns. A twenty-two caliber is easy to shoot,” she said.
“They can be, but the suppressor puts a lot of weight on the front, which messes with your aim. If you have need to use it, I’d suggest using a two-handed grip.” He reached back into the bag and came out with two magazines that were already loaded. He handed one to Nikki. She inserted the magazine, ensuring she heard the click to indicate the mag was fully seated, and racked the slide. The only holster she had did not fit the Ruger, so she shoved the barrel into her belt. It was snug, but she worried that it might fall out at the worst time.
“Alright, let’s talk,” Fred said, which surprised Nikki.
“Okay, what about?”
“You said you took the combat defense class, right?”
“Yeah, Joker taught it.”
“Yeah, he’s a clown, but he knows weapons and shooting. So, you were taught what to do if we’re in a firefight and your mag runs dry?”
“Yeah, yell out the word red, take cover, reload, and then yell out the word green. Unless you use other words?”
“Nope, those two will do. Don’t yell if you don’t need to. If it’s humans we’re shooting at, they don’t need to hear what we’re telling each other. How about the hand signals, do you remember those?”
“Yeah, but I might be a little rusty with them,” Nikki admitted.
Fred did not admonish her and the two of them spent ten minutes going over them until he was satisfied she was proficient in them before heading outside.
The freezing rain pelted them as soon as they walked out the door. Nikki made the mistake of looking up and cringed when her face was hit by the icy particles. She tilted her face back down and pushed her Resistol snugly on her head. She then looked around. The rain was sticking to everything and freezing within seconds.
“All this ice is going to be hell to drive on,” she remarked.
“Yep, we might be stuck here a while,” Fred replied. “But it’ll also work to our advantage.”
“How?” she asked.
“Nobody but us will be out in this weather. Not even the zeds. We’ll be able to move around undetected.”
Nikki scoffed. “You mean we’re the only ones stupid enough to be out in this crap.”
“Yep.”
He put a pebble slightly in the path of the door. If someone opened it, it would be moved, signaling them of an intruder. Standing, he faced Nikki.
“There’s a parking garage a few blocks from here. It’s only six stories high, but it’ll do for now.” He gestured at the handgun. “We’ll only shoot if we have to.”
“I could take my bow with us,” she suggested.
“I don’t think it’d be much good in this weather,” Fred responded. “Are you any good with it?”
Nikki offered a smug grin. “Damn right I am. How about you?”
“Decent, but I’m better with guns.” He thought a moment before adding, “and knives. When we get to the garage, we’ll clear it and set up. Then we’ll talk more. If we get separated at any time, make your way back here. Only come looking for me when you think it’s safe to do so. Mount up on Aisha and tell her to find Fred. She’ll find me.”
“She will?”
“Yep, she’s one of the smartest horses I’ve ever been around,” Fred said.
“Does Leeroy know you’re in love with her too?” Nikki said with a grin.
That earned her a rebuking grunt before he began walking.
The footing was slippery, and they walked with care. Fred seemed to walk with ease while Nikki slipped frequently and almost busted her ass more than once. They reached the parking garage twenty minutes later. Fred crouched behind a pylon for a minute and scanned. The garage was typical; it was made of concrete and each landing had a waist high wall with the rest open to the roof. Nikki recalled someone telling her parking garages were commonly built like that to keep costs down and allow the garage to have adequate ventilation.
They carefully made their way upward, clearing each level of any possible threats. The garage held few automobiles now, making it easier for them to clear each landing. Once reaching the roof, they went back down to the fifth level in order to avoid most of the rain. Taking up a position behind an old Porsche, well back from the opening, Fred took off his backpack, broke the frozen precipitation loose, and brought out a pair of binoculars. Nikki wrapped her shemagh tightly and watched.
Fred had the collar on his duster turned up, and his hat was pulled down low. She could hardly see his face, but he did not appear the slightest bit cold. After a minute, he walked over to the east wall, standing at least ten feet back, and held the binoculars to his eyes. She kept watch while he methodically scanned. After he finished, he handed her the binoculars.
“I’m only seeing one thing we might need to check out, but you look things over yourself,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper. “Make sure I didn’t miss anything.”
Nikki took the binoculars and repeated the same process of scanning. After five full minutes, she handed them back.
“I don’t see anything. What were you talking about?” she asked.
Instead of answering her directly, he changed the subject. “Do you know what a PACE plan is?”
“Pace?”
“Yeah, it’s an acronym. Have you ever heard of it?” he asked.
“Um, no, I don’t think so. What is it?”
“It’s an SOP you create for communications. PACE stands for primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency. You asked earlier about my communications. Back before, our primary communication was normally something like a telephone. Mount Weather has their telephone system up and running, so that’s how they talk to the surrounding communities. The QRF and emergency functions generally use the radio. We don’t have access to a working phone, so our alternate form of communication is also the radio.”
“Alright, that makes sense,” she said.
“Now, for each category, there is a subcategory. Using a type of code rather than speaking plainly would be a subcategory.”
“What about that thing you were doing with the microphone earlier. Would that be a subcategory?”
Fred thought a moment before answering. “Yeah, I suppose.”
“I knew it. You were communicating with somebody else in code,” she exclaimed.
“Yep. I was. I’m not going to tell you who it was or what we were communicating. Not now, anyway. Maybe one day.”
“I take it this PACE stuff is something important,” Nikki said.
“If you’re working with a group of people, yes. If you’re going to be a lone wolf, not so much.” He reached up, took his hat off, and scratched his head before putting it back on. What he said next took her by
surprise.
“There’s a lot to learn. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders, so I suppose I could teach you some of it.”
A whirlwind of emotions went through her mind. The only person who had ever complimented her was her old boyfriend. She wanted to express her appreciation, but instead, she felt tears forming and turned away.
“Thanks,” she muttered.
“Don’t thank me yet. I won’t be easy on you.” Fred put his backpack on and adjusted the straps. “Let’s go.”
Nikki followed him down the ramps to the street before speaking. “Where are we going?”
“I saw movement over at a hotel a couple of blocks from here. Let’s go check it out.”
Fred led her two blocks east and stopped behind some derelict cars. He pointed at a hotel down the street.
“Look in the lobby doors,” he whispered.
She did so and watched for several seconds before she spotted movement. The glass doors were under a canopy, allowing customers to be shielded from inclement weather when they checked in or checked out. It amazed Nikki that the glass in the doors was still intact. Almost all glass doors and windows were broken out these days. Although they were dirty and it was dark inside, she could see part of the lobby. Visibility was limited due to the rain, but after a few seconds of staring, she spotted movement.
“Zeds or humans?” she whispered.
“Only one way to find out,” Fred replied. “Let’s take a walk over there.”
“Really?” she asked.
Fred answered by yanking a glove off and getting the suppressed Ruger out of his jacket pocket. Nikki reached under her poncho and did the same and they began walking. They worked their way between cars, fallen utility poles, and other debris. The rain fell steadily, and Nikki’s exposed arm was quickly becoming numb. Fred led them to the end of the hotel, where they cautiously peered into every ground floor window before walking by them. They eventually made it to a car in the lot which blocked their view to the lobby doors. Fred signaled Nikki to crouch down.
“I’m thinking it’s zeds. There aren’t any guards posted and I don’t smell any smoke. Wait here and I’ll check it out.”
“Oh, hell no. I’m going with you,” Nikki retorted.
Fred said nothing and instead motioned for her to follow. Nikki, mindful of her Mount Weather lessons regarding sectors of fire and flagging, walked behind and to the left of him. He came in from the side and slowly moved his way toward the front lobby. Fred stopped at the side of the double doors and made a hasty peek.
The doors would normally slide open when activated by motion sensors. Now they were motionless. Dirty, but unbroken. Fred put his fingers into the gap and forced the doors apart. He stepped in and to the side, gun at the ready. Nikki was right behind him. There were six zeds, three men, three women, cowering in the back corner of the lobby. They were a pitiful looking sextet. Their faces were deeply scarred, and their clothes nothing more than rags. But even with the scarring Nikki could see something in their expressions.
“They’re afraid,” she realized.
“Yep.”
“I’ve never seen that before. That’s weird. Are we going to kill them?”
Fred stared at them a long minute. He could see that two of them had missing fingers. Probably as a result of frostbite. One of them seemed to have compensated by wrapping rags around his hands. He thought back to the three female zeds he found in the barn. For some reason he had tried to help them but ended up putting bullets in their heads. Mercy killings, he’d later say. He turned and walked out.
“Let’s get back,” he muttered.
They walked back to the old construction company in silence. Nikki’s teeth were chattering too much to talk anyway. It caused her to think back to a brutally cold winter she’d suffered through back when she was eleven or twelve. What few livestock they had were steadily killed off by predators and their group had eventually run out of food. They went several days without eating before one man happened upon a feral dog pack and managed to kill one. Any trepidations and revulsions about eating a dog were nullified by their empty bellies.
One member of the group, a woman named Esther, was a minister or something back before it went bad. She held weekly church services during it all. When they were starving, she rambled on and on about how God was punishing the entire flock for the sins of a few. Amazingly, people were listening to her and believing her words. They embraced it, devoured it. That is, until she proclaimed God had spoken to her in a dream and directed her to sacrifice two children to appease him.
Nobody listened to Reverend Esther after that. Thankfully.
Nikki never forgot that winter and learned two valuable lessons – don’t rely on other people to keep you from starving and be leery of religious fanatics.
It took them almost thirty minutes to make it back to their home away from home. By then, Nikki was so cold she could hardly move. When they arrived, Fred checked the pebble. It had not moved. In fact, it had frozen in place.
Once inside, Fred worked off his duster and then helped Nikki take off her semi frozen poncho. Her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. Fred noticed.
“I didn’t see any indication of people around, so we might be able to risk a small fire,” he said. “The rain will help dissipate the smoke. Get some food out of the truck and I’ll get it started.”
Nikki bobbed her head in numb agreement. She went to the truck and got some canned beans, corn, pork chops, and cooking utensils out, gathered all in a big armful, and joined Fred beside the steel barrel that had been converted into a stove. Fred had a fire going in no time. Nikki hovered near it and warmed up while Fred cooked. Soon the pork chops were sizzling in the skillet.
When she was no longer shaking, Nikki excused herself, grabbed her toiletry kit, and entered the men’s room. She had to use her flashlight to see but encountered no problems. After, she used some water to wash up and brushed her hair. Staring at her reflection in the mirror, she thought Fred might get the idea that she was fixing herself up for him, which may or may not have been accurate. Staring a moment longer, she roughly grabbed her hair, pulled it back into a ponytail, and secured it with a piece of string. When she rejoined Fred, he had two plates of food waiting. She forked several mouthfuls into her mouth before she finally spoke.
“Why didn’t you kill those zeds back at the hotel?”
Fred chewed thoughtfully on a piece of pork chop and swallowed before speaking.
“I’m going to give you a Zach Gunderson answer. He always like to give detailed, articulate answers. Unless he didn’t like you. You ready?”
Nikki gave a confused frown. “Uh, okay.”
“Has anyone ever told you that back before, the population of the United States was something like three hundred and thirty million?”
“I think I’ve heard that,” she said.
“Alright, so, the plague hits. I don’t know how many people died, how many survived, and how many got infected, but I’ve been told the infection rate was incredibly high, somewhere between seventy and ninety percent. Let’s put it at seventy percent. So, how many in America were infected?”
Nikki scrunched her face up in confusion, which reminded Fred of a kid. She thought about it for a moment and gave up.
“I’ve never been strong with math.”
“Roughly two hundred and thirty-one million that are spread across the country. That’s a lot of zeds, right?” Fred asked.
“Hell yeah,” Nikki answered.
“Now, a bunch of them have died off, but not all. Some of them seem to be evolving.”
“The fifteens,” Nikki said.
“Yep, that’s what they’re calling them. Some people seem to think back when that batch of vaccines was sabotaged, it created the fifteens, and maybe that’s true, but there’s also another type of zed out there. You just saw six of them.”
Nikki once again scrunched her face up in confusion. “What? Those zeds at the hotel? What’s di
fferent about them?”
“You spotted it yourself. They were afraid of us. Fear is an emotion, which means they are experiencing emotions again, and, this is important, they understood that we were a threat.”
“That’s not what everyone else is saying,” she said.
Fred gave a slight shrug and continued eating.
“You’re the only one who believes this.” She said it like an accusation.
Fred wiped his mouth. “Melvin once saw a zed exhibiting fear when he was being chased by some men. That was last year, I think. Zach and a few others have seen it as well. The point is these types of zeds are mostly harmless.”
Zombie Rules | Book 8 | Who The Hell Is That? Page 16
