Extinction Survival Series | Book 4 | Warrior's Fate

by Browning, Walt

  “Yes, sir,” he finally said. “Next Wednesday.”

  “You got any plans?” Carver asked. “You’re turning eighteen, aren’t you?”

  “Uh. Yeah. No plans.”

  Carver glanced at Kinney and got a knowing nod in reply. They needed to remember that Lucas was just a kid.

  “Huh. That doesn’t seem right. Eighteen is a big birthday. I’ll have Hope and Randy make up a nice, big cake. Enough for the whole community. We need to have a party.”

  Lucas’s face relaxed and he began to stammer. “Really, it isn’t necessary, sir. I’m fine.”

  “Nonsense. A party isn’t for just the birthday boy. It’s for everyone. We need to celebrate the milestones. We need to remember birthdays and holidays. All the things that we have in common.”

  He stood up and approached the young man. “You’re a big part of the community, Lucas. It’s important we remember that and have some fun, maybe even at your expense. How does that sound?”

  “I’ll volunteer to help on the at your expense part of the party,” Brett added with a smile.

  Lucas jabbed Brett with his elbow as they all continued standing in line.

  “Oh, you will, huh? I suppose I shouldn’t mention that you gave away one of our valuable satellite radios,” Carver replied.

  “Sir. I thought it was important to maintain a line of communications with the new group. They are good warriors and saved our bacon out there. They were leaving, and it was the only thing I could think of.”

  Tim Reedy coughed then snorted. “You gave her a phone so you could call her.”

  Carver raised his eyebrows as he walked up to Brett. He put his nose a few inches from the young man’s face.

  “You gave our sat-phone to a girl, just so you could make a date?”

  Brett was terrified. Their eyelashes were nearly touching, and he struggled to come up with a plausible story as Carver’s coffee-laden breath and fearsome demeanor kept him off balance.

  “Yes, sir!” he finally blurted.

  Carver turned away from the young men before he could show his smile. He looked up at Kinney, who was doing an even worse job of keeping his own laughter in line. A snicker escaped from the retired Marine, followed by an uncontrolled snort. Carver broke down and both of them began to laugh.

  The five young men stood and stared at each other, unsure if the situation had turned in their favor, or gone seriously wrong.

  Finally, Carver caught his breath and walked back to the boys. “Brett, I have only one question. How did you get her to take the satellite phone? I really want to hear that pickup line.”

  Carver looked at Kinney, who was still grinning from ear to ear.

  “Can you imagine that conversation?” he asked the Marine. “Hey baby, give me a call on channel four tonight.”

  “Uh. It’s channel seven,” Brett said before realizing he didn’t have to reply.

  Both Kinney and Carver looked at each other and lost it again.

  “Stop! I’m peeing my pants,” Kinney gasped between laughs.

  “Oh God. I needed that,” Carver added as both men leaned on a desk and convulsed with laughter.

  The other four young men allowed themselves a big smile at their friend’s expense. The only one not happy was Brett. When they finally calmed down, both Kinney and Carver took a seat while the five remained standing in line.

  “Look, guys. You fucked up. You should have followed protocol and come straight back here.”

  Lucas spoke up. “It was my fault. I made them go.” He dropped his head in shame. The room stayed silent before Lucas continued. “I lost it, sir. I guess everything about my life sucks right now, and I thought seeing what I had done would make me feel better. I’m so tired, and I don’t want to be here anymore. I want things to go back to normal.”

  “I get it,” Carver replied gently. “We all forget that you guys had some of your best years stolen by the apocalypse.”

  “I’m supposed to be going to college this fall,” Lucas blurted.

  “Yes, you were,” Carver said. “It’s not fair.” He sat quietly for a moment, then stood again. “Look, you guys. It’s easy to get sloppy out there. One moment of forgetfulness or a single misstep, and people die. It’s an unfair burden, but it’s what we are stuck with.”

  Carver stood, then began to pace back and forth.

  “I’m pulling you guys off the front line for a while.”

  The five glanced at each other, then back to Carver.

  “You need some R and R. You guys take a few weeks off. We have a birthday to celebrate, and if I can swing it, maybe a vacation for all of you.”

  “Vacation? Where can we go?” Brett asked. “There are Variants everywhere.”

  “Not everywhere.” Carver smiled. “And maybe, you can ask your new girlfriend if she and some of her friends would like to join you.”

  Brett blushed, but the other four grunted their approval.

  Kinney leaned over to Carver with a questioning look. “Vacation? Where the hell would they go?” he whispered.

  “Big Bear Lake,” Carver replied in a low tone. “Pito is up there and reported there were almost no Variants. They’re clearing the town right now.”

  “When did you find out about this?” Kinney asked.

  “They got there two days ago and ran into almost no resistance. The drive up was clear as well. They are reporting in tonight to let us know if they completed their mission and cleared all the structures. It sounds promising.”

  “Might be a good place for our second town,” Kinney added.

  “Yeah. That’s what I thought. We’ll see.” Carver turned to the boys and addressed Brett. “When are you supposed to call her?”

  “Tonight, at nine.”

  “Channel seven, right?”

  “Uh, yeah. I mean, yes, sir.”

  Carver smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t be listening in.”

  “I might,” Kinney jokingly said. “Listening to a little phone sex might do me some good.”

  Brett went red, and his face flushed even more while the rest of his squad laughed.

  “At ease, everyone. Nobody is going to listen in on that conversation. But I do want to be there at the beginning of the call and speak with whoever is leading their group. We need to set up a line of communication and eventually make face-to-face contact with them,” Carver said. “Any questions?”

  No one spoke.

  “All right, Brett. Be back here at 2045, and we’ll go over everything one more time. After I speak with someone in charge over there, the phone is yours.”

  — 13 —

  You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

  — C.S. Lewis

  Big Bear Lake Solar Observatory

  Big Bear Lake, CA

  “How much longer?” the soldier yelled from down the hall.

  “Another minute,” Pito shouted back as he struggled to remove the computer’s access panel.

  He was working alone at the observatory’s workstation, recovering the hard drives from the facility’s server. Apparently, they contained potentially valuable information for the Cal Tech scientists who were living on Catalina Island.

  Pito had gone to Catalina a few years back when Palomar Mountain had been evacuated. He originally planned to stay with the scientists but lasted exactly one month before hitching a ride back to Lost Valley. Life on the island had quickly become boring. At least on the mainland, he could continue to use his skills.

  He grunted. “There!” The metal panel finally snapped open, giving him access to the guts of the machine. He had the hard drives stuffed in anti-static bags, then placed in his backpack less than two minutes later.

  The trip to Big Bear Lake had gone smoothly. The lack of Variants they’d encountered on the drive up had been a pleasant surprise.

  Once they arrived at the mountainside resort, clearing the town had taken just two days, using tactics that they’
d developed over the prior years. The military vehicles would form up at a defensible location on the outskirts of town. The convoy’s eight-wheeled, amphibious, light-armored truck would then drive through the area of operation, drawing out any Variants that were in the vicinity. The LAV-25 would lead the creatures back to the defensive location, where overlapping fields of fire would eliminate the threat. If the horde was too big, the LAV would simply keep going and lead the infected away, then escape to fight another day.

  The resort town of Big Bear Lake had been relatively quiet when the virus had first been unleashed on the world. The community’s inhabitants in late April of that year numbered less than five thousand, so when the LAV-25 raced through the community two days ago, only a few hundred of the infected had been drawn out. They were all that was left of the original, small population. The beasts were pitiful things, gaunt from lack of food and wasted from years of hibernation. In fact, the vehicle had to move at a snail’s pace to allow the Variants to keep up as it drove through the small municipality. Once they arrived at the ambush, the creatures were quickly eliminated. The ensuing forty-eight hours found little resistance as the soldiers moved door-to-door, clearing buildings, and cataloging any remaining supplies.

  Pito left the server room and joined the security force that had accompanied him to the solar observatory. The facility’s dome was situated on a narrow, finger-like peninsula that projected out into Big Bear Lake. The cool water surrounding the solar telescope kept the area around the dome at a steady temperature throughout the day. Acting like a heat sink, the lake’s water eliminated heat convection air turbulence from the atmosphere around the telescope. Big Bear Lake had been the most accurate and efficient solar observatory in the world. The data he’d just recovered was invaluable to the future of solar astronomy.

  “What the hell do the eggheads want with this data?” one of the soldiers asked. “It’s not going to help us kill any more Variants.”

  “Preservation,” Pito replied. “We have to save as much of mankind’s knowledge as we can. Someday, we’ll rebuild the world, and anything we can recover now will help the process later.”

  “Well, this town’s clear, and if the ride up here is any indication, we may be close to getting rid of the infected population,” the soldier said hopefully.

  “Have you been into San Diego or L.A. lately?” Pito asked.

  “No. This is the furthest from the camp I’ve been in a while.”

  “It ain’t no picnic. I was with the expedition to the Port of Long Beach last month. Do I need to say more?”

  The raid to the old shipyard to meet up with boats from Catalina had cost the camp two fireteams.

  “I’m sorry. Wishful thinking, I guess.”

  “You guys did a good job clearing the area,” Pito added with a softer tone. “I think this town would be a good location for us to pursue. I told Carver as much when I called in my report the other night.”

  “Thanks. I hope we can make it back here. It’s beautiful.”

  They all gazed across the large lake, enjoying the serenity of the pristine water and sunlight.

  “There are shoreline cabins over there,” the soldier said, pointing off to the west. “And some sailboats and kayaks at that dock.”

  Pito shielded his eyes from the lake’s glare. He could make out a pier with paddle-powered craft standing vertically against several racks on the nearby shore. Several skiffs, their linen sails torn and fluttering in the breeze, still floated at their moorings.

  “Yeah. Maybe we can come up here for a little vacation,” Pito said. “Right now, we need to get back to the others so I can send the camp a final AAR. Then, we can head back home.”

  Gold Creek Center

  Hanna Hall

  “That went well,” Hanna whispered to Brett as Father Walsh walked slowly away.

  “Is he all right about us knowing where you guys are?” Brett asked.

  “Probably not. He’s so protective. He still thinks we’re in high school.” She giggled.

  “I miss high school,” Brett replied wistfully. “But I’d be in college by now.”

  “Glad to know I’m not that much older than you.”

  “I don’t think that makes much difference now,” he whispered.

  The conversation took an uncomfortable pause as both tried to figure out what to say next.

  “You’re in the foothills, outside San Fernando. How far up?” Brett asked.

  “About a fifteen-minute drive from the Costco. It’s close to town, but with the steep vertical climb, we’re really isolated.”

  The Gold Creek Center sat in the Western San Gabriel Mountains. It was built as a religious retreat and had several large, defensible buildings, along with its own water towers. It was on a secluded road almost two thousand feet above sea level, thanks to California’s unusual terrain.

  The American Southwest began taking shape over a billion years ago. Back then, the moon was much closer to the earth and the ocean currents were thrust hundreds of miles inland on a regular basis. Over the ensuing millennia, shifting tectonic plates and the erosive effects of wind and rain wore away evidence of the old, primitive tide. The mountains that backdrop San Fernando are the remnants of these massive natural forces.

  The road leading through the mountain range gave the retreat a measure of safety. The sparsely inhabited and less-than-hospitable land provided an excellent buffer from the viral apocalypse that had consumed the world.

  “How was the trip home?” Hanna asked.

  “Fine. No problems,” Brett replied. “I’m just glad we’re not going back out for a while. We’re now officially on vacation.”

  “You probably need it after what happened.”

  “Yeah. We got pretty sloppy. I’m glad you guys were around.”

  It was a little difficult at first to have a conversation. The transmit button on the handset had to be depressed to send the signal, then released to receive the reply. It took a little while to get into a rhythm where they didn’t talk over each other by both depressing their push-to-talk button. Eventually, they managed to chat without interrupting each other.

  It was awkward at times, but that was more likely the result of a boy and girl trying to find a way to connect and not due to the communication gear.

  “So. How did you end up at the conference center?” Brett asked. “Father Walsh told Carver there are over seventy of your classmates there?”

  “We were having a senior retreat when…” Hanna’s voice trailed off before continuing. “About half the class drove back home when we first heard about the virus. My parents had driven me up, so I had to wait for them to come get me. They never showed up. That’s how we all ended up here. If an adult brought you, they wouldn’t release you unless an adult came and signed you out.”

  Hanna stopped talking and released the transmit button. A difficult few moments went by.

  “Same with me,” Brett said, trying to get ahead of a potential conversation killer. “We were at camp, and my parents were in Europe when it happened.”

  “Maybe they found a place like ours,” Hanna replied hopefully. “They’re half a world away. You never know.”

  Brett was doubtful but said, “Thanks. Maybe they’re all right.”

  The two continued to speak for several more hours, Hanna opening up about her lost family and the two of them crying over Brett’s dead twin. Shared misery bonded the two, even though they were over a hundred miles apart.

  “Oh my God, it’s almost midnight,” Hanna gasped.

  “I guess we should go,” Brett replied. “I had a nice time.”

  “Me too. Same time tomorrow?” Hanna asked.

  “Yeah. That sounds great. Same time, tomorrow.”

  “Then. Bye.”

  “Bye, Hanna.”

  Neither wanted to end the call.

  Finally, Brett twisted the power knob and clicked off the radio.

  He returned to his room and crawled quietly into his rack. His
bunkmates’ snores normally kept him awake, but their growls and nasal droning that night were oddly comforting. He closed his eyes and thought of Hanna then quickly fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.

  — 14 —

  Don’t ever become a pessimist…a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.

  — Robert A. Heinlein

  Big Bear Lake

  “Come on, guys! Let’s get moving,” Brett said.

  Tim, Lucas, and several other young men were all gathered in the small motel’s changing room. It had been almost a month since Pito returned from the resort town. Since then, several dozen families had moved to the mountain community and set up shop.

  A farm was being developed. Solar power was in place and already used to power several structures, including the building the young men were occupying. Eventually, the generated electricity would run irrigation pumps, providing water to the soon-to-be-planted vegetable fields.

  “Hurry!” Brett whined.

  “They’re not going anywhere,” Tim Reedy replied.

  Truth be told, Tim was as anxious to start their vacation as Brett seemed to be. The difference was that Brett had someone special waiting for him out there. The twelve young men were the first group of vacationers who had come to the newly reestablished town while a dozen women from the Gold Creek Center had been invited, as well.

  The girls were staying at an adjoining facility, but the two groups were going to meet at the lake’s shore and have a picnic. Hanna Hill was one of those who had made the trip. It was the first time Brett and Hanna would see each other since the battle at Costco over a month ago, although they’d spoken almost nightly since then.

  “How do I look?” Lucas asked his brother.

  They had all scavenged some swimming trunks. They had outgrown their old clothing long ago and had never needed to pick up recreational wear since then.

  Lucas was wearing a flame-orange pair of trunks that had white stripes running down the side. A Tampa Bay Buccaneer logo was sewn into the fabric. In normal times, he’d have been teased relentlessly for the outfit. No one wore anything but Raiders or Charger’s gear in Southern California. But these weren’t normal times. With five years of rot wasting most clothing away, they were lucky to find anything that was still in one piece.