“They’re dead, there isn’t anything anyone can do for them now,” Dave said. “I never thought I would ever say this but, they’re zombies.”
“We’ll, I know I never thought I would say this, but Dave, I’m not real thrilled about hearing that you now believe in zombies,” Bill replied. “Because that means that Hell has either frozen over or the world is coming to an end.”
“I hope you are just exaggerating on both counts,” Dave said.
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Bill sighed.
Dave put the car in drive and began making his way down the road towards the base.
A few minutes later, they came to the first gate.
The base had two gates that one needed to go through before they would enter the actual heart of the base.
The public was often allowed through the first gate, but very few people outside of Naval personnel were allowed through the second gate.
The second gate led into the area where the submarines were docked, that area was considered restricted to anyone but naval personnel.
Dave slowed down and brought the car to a stop a few feet in front of the first gate.
“I’ve never been out here before,” Bill said. “But shouldn’t there be a light at the guard booth?”
“I’ve been out here two different times, but they were both during the day,” Dave replied. “But I would think the area around the gate should be lit up. Someone could end up driving into the gate before they realized it was here.”
“Maybe the base is like the phones,” Michelle said. “Only open to the public between the hours of 0500 and 1700 hours.”
“But still,” Dave replied. “They had an answering machine to tell the public when they would answer the phones. They should have a guard posted to turn people away when the public is prohibited from entering.”
“Maybe they are having a power outage,” Bill added. “The base looks unusually dark tonight. Even though I’ve never been here, I’ve driven the ambulance down Route 40 on runs many times and there was always a glow in the sky from the lights at the base.”
“A power outage could also explain why the base didn’t answer the phone after five o’clock,” Michelle said.
Dave got out of the car and walked over to the fence and began to shine his flashlight on the guard booth inside the fence.
“The guard booth is empty, the door is hanging open,” Dave said walking back to the car.
“What do we do now?” Michelle asked. “I don’t even want to think about driving back through Kingsland.”
“Do you know of another gate?” Bill asked. “Maybe they only man certain gates at night.”
“No, this is the main gate, if they were going to man a gate at night, it would be this one,” Dave replied.
“We’re not going back to town are we?” Michelle asked sounding worried.
“No, we’re going in,” Dave replied. “If it was any normal night, we’d go home and come back tomorrow, but this isn’t a normal night and we can’t wait until morning. Besides, we really don’t have much of a choice, it’s either we find a way in to the base or we turn around. Like Michelle, I don’t really care much for the idea of going back through Kingsland.”
“I say we just run the gate with the car,” Bill said.
“I don’t think the Navy would look too kindly at something like that,” Dave replied. “We could end up getting a missile up our ass.”
“I didn’t think about that,” Bill replied.
Dave shined the flashlight on the gate and then the fence.
“I wish I had some damn wire cutters,” Dave said.
“I have a wire cutter in the trunk,” Michelle spoke up.
“You do!” Bill said sounding surprised.
“I have a roll of wire too,” Michelle added. “My car is held together by wire. When ever I hear something rattling or dragging on the ground, I cut a section of wire and tie it up so it doesn’t fall off.”
“It’s a long story, Bill,” Dave laughed. “Michelle can tell you all about her car later. Michelle, would you get me your wire cutters and the roll of wire?”
“Sure,” Michelle replied and jumped out of the car and ran back to the trunk.
A moment later, she walked to the front of the car and handed Dave the cutters and a large spool of wire.”
“Why did you want the roll of wire?” Michelle asked.
“After I cut a hole in the fence we need to wire it back together. We don’t want some zombies ending up following us into the base.”
“Good idea,” Michelle replied. “I hope I never see another zombie again for the rest of my life.”
“You and me both,” Dave growled as he used the wire cutter and began to cut the links in the fence.
It took him fifteen minutes to cut a hole in the fence large enough for the three of them to crawl through.
“Michelle,” Dave said. “How about pulling the car off to the side of the road and turn off the engine and lights. If the Navy decides to send a convoy out through this gate, we don’t want to block the road.”
“OK,” Michelle replied, got in the car, backed it up a few feet and pulled the car into the weeds along the road.
When she turned off the car, it became pitch black with the only light now coming from the flashlight that Dave was holding.
She got out of the car and locked the doors.
Michelle started walking towards the light reflecting off the fence.
When she reached the fence, Dave said, “I’ll hold the light for you, Bill you go through the fence first then hold the section of fence open for Michelle.”
Bill pushed through the fence then pulled back the loose section of the fence so Michelle and Dave could crawl through without getting scratched.
When Dave was through, he took the wire cutters and cut off six sections of wire from Michelle’s spool and began to secure the two sections of the fence together again.
“Hopefully those things can’t chew through this,” Dave said when he was finished.
“Let’s get moving,” Dave said.
“How far do we have to go?” Michelle asked.
“It’s a mile to the next gate,” Dave replied. “But we should run into a small complex about a half mile down this road where the Navy has facilities for the public to come in and the sailors can meet with their families before the Navy deploys them to their submarines to go out on their assignments.”
“Will there be anyone at the complex at this time of night?” Michelle asked.
“Probably not,” Dave replied. “But by the time we reach the complex, someone should have picked us up on the security cameras if they haven’t already seen us. They will probably have security come out to apprehend us by then, so when you hear someone coming, don’t make any suspicious moves. For all they know we’re breaking into the base, which we are, but we just need to cooperate until we have a chance to explain why we’re here.”
“Dave, when they see you covered in all that blood,” Bill said, “They might just decide to shoot you.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Dave laughed. “They might think I’ve been attacked by the two of you and shoot you guys.”
“Don’t worry,” Michelle chuckled, “I’ll protect both of you, can we just start walking? It’s creepy out here.”
The three of them started walking down the center of the road, using Dave’s flashlight to light the way.
“How did Jim and Pete die?” Bill asked as they walked.
“I had them sitting in their car outside of 81 Sunnyside Drive to keep an eye on the place until I returned from the call down at the old woman’s house,” Dave replied. “When I returned, I found them both dead in the car.”
“Any idea who killed them?” Bill asked.
“When we were investigating the first call at 81 Sunnyside Drive, we found everyone in the house except for that one kid Ted took to the hospital, we found everyone else had been butchered and partially eaten,” Dave repli
ed.
“Zombies!” Bill said.
“You’re probably right,” Dave replied. “Pete and I were trying to follow a trail of bloody footprints that went out the back door. They led out into the woods in the direction of other houses along Sunnyside Drive.
When Carrie called to say we had another call down at 92 Sunnyside Drive, I told Pete and Jim to wait in the car until I came back.”
“So you found them shortly after I left to take Joe and that other guy to the hospital?” Bill asked.
“Yeah,” Dave replied. “What I found in that car made me sick. I noticed some movement back inside the house, so I went back inside looking to find the people that had killed Pete and Jim.
I found three staggering monsters inside the house. I wasn’t in any mood at that point to try and immobilize them, so I pulled my gun and started shooting. The bullets didn’t do a damn thing.”
“The only way to kill a zombie is to shoot them in the head,” Bill said.
“We didn’t figure that out until later,” Dave replied.
They continued to walk down the road.
“Betty and Carrie were also killed by zombies?” Bill asked.
“I found four zombies tearing Betty to shreds next to the parking lot out in back of the Public Safety Building when I got back,” Dave replied.
“We saw zombies dragging Carrie’s dead body out of the police station a little later,” Michelle added. “It was horrible.”
“When what was left of Betty’s body tried to break in to the Public Safety Building, I finally started to believe in zombies,” Dave added.
“How did the zombies get into the Public Safety Building?” Bill asked. “That building looked pretty secure to me.”
“I can’t say for sure, but I think it was through the side door,” Dave replied. “Michelle and I managed to get out of the dispatch center by crawling through the vents before they broke into the dispatch center. Then we managed to make our way to the other end of the building before they discovered where we were. We barely made it out of the building by jumping out a back window and running to Michelle’s car. The whole night has been a nightmare.”
“On the plus side,” Michelle added. “There are about twenty fewer zombies now than there were before. Dave kept hitting them with my car.”
“Next time, you can drive,” Dave said.
“No, Thank You!” Michelle replied.
“But after all of this, I still don’t have a single idea how this all started,” Dave said. “Even worse, I don’t have a clue about how to deal with all these damn zombies.”
“Hopefully now that we’re on the Naval Base, we won’t have to worry about that anymore,” Michelle said.
“Well, I for one will be happy when morning comes and this whole damn thing is over and done with,” Dave said. “How much further do we have to go now? My back is killing me from where I landed on it when I jumped out of the ambulance,” Bill complained.
“Quit your bitching and keep walking,” Dave laughed. “Look at the bright side, you’re still alive. That’s a lot more than I can say for most of Kingsland.”
“You always were the sympathetic type,” Bill replied.
They continued to walk until Dave spotted the dark outline of buildings against the dark skyline.
“I think that’s the public access complex up ahead,” Dave said. “Keep alert, remember we might run into a security detachment around here somewhere. I’m sure they’ve picked us up on their night vision cameras or infrared
sensors by now. We don’t want to get ourselves shot by some hotshot security guard.”
“Just walk normal, that way they won’t mistake us for zombies,” Bill added.
“I doubt that the Navy is out looking for zombies,” Dave replied.
“Probably not, because zombies won’t show up on infrared or heat sensors,” Bill said. “They don’t have any body heat so they won’t show up on those kind of sensors.”
“I would tell you that you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Dave replied. “But tonight, it’s probably not the night to rule out any of your crazy shit.”
“That’s wise,” Bill said seriously.
Dave laughed but only said, “Just keep your eyes open.”
After a few more minutes of walking they came to the complex.
Dave stood and shined his flashlight on the buildings.
“Something about this makes me begin to wonder about how secure our country is,” Dave said. “If the Navy can’t protect their own base against the three of us, how can they protect the country against our enemies with all their high-tech weaponry?”
“Are you sure they have security cameras set up inside the base?” Bill asked.
“I would if I were running this base,” Dave replied.
“If we went inside one of these buildings, maybe we could find a telephone,” Michelle said.
“With the phones out, what good would that do us?” Dave asked.
“Maybe they have their own closed system inside the base,” Michelle replied. “One that’s not connected to the outside lines. They might be still working.”
“I guess it’s worth a try,” Dave said.
Dave shined his light on the nearest building and began walking towards the door.
“The door is locked,” Dave said after trying the door knob, then he moved over to the window and felt around.
“This window is open, I think we can get in here,” Dave said as he slid the bottom part of the window upward.
Next he climbed in through the window and shined his flashlight around the interior of the room.
The room appeared to be an office, a few desks sat out in the middle of the room.
Dave turned back to the window.
“It’s an office of some kind, give me your hand,” Dave said to Michelle.
Michelle reached up and took Dave’s hand and he pulled her in through the window.
Bill waited until Michelle was inside, then Dave pulled him inside next.
“There are two phones over on those desks,” Dave said.
“I’ll try them,” Michelle said and quickly walked over to the desks as Dave provided the light for her to see her way.
Michelle sat down at the first desk and picked up the phone and held it to her ear.
“I have a dial tone,” Michelle said.
“Do you remember the number for the base?” Dave asked.
“I think so,” Michelle replied as she began to punch in the number.
“I’m happy to see that something at this base is still operating,” Dave said.
Michelle held the phone to her ear for a moment then turned to look at Dave.
“It’s not ringing,” she said.
“Are you sure you dialed the correct number?” Dave asked.
“I dialed the number I remembered but I can’t be sure it was the right number,” Michelle replied. “I usually have a good memory for numbers when I’m not being chased by zombies.”
“Hang up and try it again,” Dave said.
Michelle hung up then picked the phone again and held it to her ear, the dial tone was back.
She dialed in the number again and waited.
“Still nothing,” she said then hung up the phone.
“If it is a closed system, maybe it doesn’t work like a regular phone,” Michelle said. “Maybe all you do is punch in the extension of whoever you want to talk to. Let me use your flashlight, there might be some kind of directory here with the base extensions.”
Dave handed Michelle his flashlight.
Michelle began to rummage through the desk, pulling out sheets of paper from the drawers until she found what she was looking for.”
“This looks like it,” Michelle said as she started running her finger over the list of names and numbers.
“Who should I call?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t call the Captain,” Dave replied. “Is there an extension for security?”
; “Here it is,” Michelle replied as she punched in one, four, seven.
“It’s ringing,” Michelle said, concentrating on the phone, but after thirty seconds she looked at Dave. “No one is answering.”
“Let me see that list,” Dave said reaching out his hand.
Michelle handed him the list.
“Try extension one, nine, five,” Dave said as he studied the list. “That’s the base operations officer.”
After a few seconds, Michelle said, “Still no answer.”
Dave handed the list back to Michelle, “Just start going through the list until you get someone to answer.”
Michelle took the list and began dialing, but after five minutes she hung up the phone.
“I even tried the Captain’s extension,” Michelle said. “It’s no use. No one is answering, maybe it’s still too early.”
“Not for the Navy,” Dave replied. “They are on the job twenty-four hours a day, or at least they should be.”
“What do we do now?” Michelle asked.
“I say we go in to the main part of the base,” Dave replied.
“And if there is no one there either?” Bill asked.
“Then we find a comfortable place where we can wait until someone shows up,” Dave replied. “After everything I’ve seen tonight, I’d feel much better being behind two fences instead of just one. But I don’t think we’ll have to do that, this base has a few hundred men and women stationed here and they are all on the other side of the next fence.”
“Are you sure about that?” Bill asked.
“If they aren’t here, then where the hell would they all be?” Dave asked.
“I don’t think you want to hear my answer,” Bill replied.
“Anyone have a dollar I can borrow?” Michelle asked.
Dave and Bill turned to see Michelle standing in front of a vending machine in the corner of the room.
Apocalypse- the Plan Page 47
