“Oh, Paula.” He reached for her, but she quickly crossed the room to escape his embrace. His awaiting hands hovered as if more confused than he was. “I brought one, too, remember? I left it in there just like you. He could’ve used that one.”
That bit of news didn’t seem to liven her any.
He offered one hand instead of a hug. “Take a walk with me in the snow. It’ll clear—”
“She can’t leave,” Spiky said from the door.
“But—”
“Suicide watch. Panel’s orders.”
Sean gawked at the guard like she had just told him his wife had already died. Then he regarded Paula, who sulked against the opposite wall. “No. Please, let her come with me. I can—”
“No can do,” the guard said firmly, clutching her shotgun to her chest like a spear at the ready.
“Can’t be mad at Patty, Sean,” Paula said with another sad laugh. “She’s just looking out for me, even if I think she’s wasting her time.”
He again tried to hold his wife, and she again evaded him, this time perching herself along the window sill to watch the snow fall.
Sean felt more powerless than ever. How could he fight this? His affections didn’t work. Their protectors didn’t help. He didn’t know what to do anymore, except wait and hope.
*****
Isaac half-expected some kind of hostile presence guarding the gates, but Fort Carson was as empty as Colorado Springs. Untouched, unmanned, no signs of struggle, nothing. The apartments, barracks, office buildings, and stores loomed with as many places to hide an ambush as the mountains beyond, but nothing moved or lay anywhere in sight.
“How fucked up is it that this place is making me think of Kenny?”
One of Didi’s brows quirked at him. “Come again?”
“Remember how he talked about the safe zone on that Army base in Texas?”
“Fort Hood,” Rachelle recalled over her steering wheel, which shook as much as her little body did. “He said the barriers failed. There’s not even barriers here; there’s just … nothing.”
“Yeah, well, if this was supposed to be another safe zone, the entire military failed its job.”
“Sounds like you all had a lively conversation with that psycho,” Gilda said with her willowy fingers on Cody’s wrist.
Isaac expected a rise out of the soldier boy, but the man looked paler than his dead partner, sweating like a beast. “He looks like shit. Do we need to turn back?”
“Can we please?” Gilda replied, though aiming that hope at Rachelle.
Cody shook his head stiffly. “I’m needed here,” he grunted, taking heavy breaths between every other word as he continued. “Better I … ride along to … give directions.”
“Your pulse is pushing ninety five, hero,” she chided him. “I’d wager you’re flirting with pneumonia right now.”
“Those slits … we didn’t … didn’t seal them.” His eyes fluttered like he fought to stay awake.
“Noticed. You’re lucky I have enough antibiotics to treat you, but you shouldn’t be pushing yourself. And what do you expect to find out here? Because I’m thinking more trouble.”
The stubborn soldier leaned back in his seat without a word.
Isaac checked the tablet. The new window taking up a quarter of the screen over the GPS map showed a flat line where he expected some wavy ones, and there were no green pinpoints like the skinny Pashtun guy said. “Ain’t no more signals. I don’t like this.”
“So, what do you want me to do?” Rachelle asked Didi, who just looked back at Cody.
Cody huffed a few times like he was getting ready to evict three little pigs and pointed ahead. “Follow this road … into the mountains. If nothing else … we can check … ammo bunkers.”
“Like Fort McCoy?” Gilda quipped, that sassy smirk of hers bordering on cute.
Cody grinned weakly yet humorously at her. “We could get … lucky this time.”
Didi shook her head with a smile. “Go ahead. We’ll see what’s around.”
“Hopefully not the Mountain Men,” the kid muttered, but she did her part, driving past more empty neighborhoods before reaching the mountain roads.
Isaac’s ears started to plug. He spent a good bit of drive blowing air into his plugged nose to unclog his ears while keeping an eye out for anything good … or bad.
They reached the foot of the first mountain, but all he saw was more nothing.
A few minutes later, the kid stopped before a fenced area with AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY signs on the open gate. Her eyes scanned the area like a mouse searching for a cat.
“I guess we can go in,” Isaac joked.
No one looked amused, but the kid drove on. She soon pointed out a concrete wall with a metal door sticking out of the mountainside. “Is that what we’re looking for?”
Cody nodded through his huffing fit, his eyes halfway up his head. The man looked like he was about to fall into some kind of a seizure.
“We should take you back,” Gilda said while shaking the man’s shoulder.
Cody waved her off, fighting hard to stay in the game. “No. Stop here.”
When the truck stopped, Isaac quickly grabbed his bat and got out, then went right back inside when the wind chill cut into his flesh like a damn sword. “Shit, that’s cold.”
“Didn’t I suggest you bring a coat?” Didi said while planting that pink cap on her head.
He flexed his guns out at her. “None of them fit.”
The dead head shrugged and took her numb ass outside, followed by her minion at the wheel.
“Don’t look at me,” Gilda said. “I’m not going out there.”
Isaac huffed, then bit his lip and got out again. He shivered his way to Didi’s side, where she and her student gaped at a single skeleton laying in a tattered, muddied Army uniform before the bunker door. Piss yellow grass grew through the dude’s leg bones.
“Looks like someone came here a long time ago,” Rachelle said, like that wasn’t obvious.
Didi turned on her little flashlight, drew her sword, and headed into the bunker.
“There she goes again,” Isaac muttered.
Rachelle nodded with a mild smirk, then pointed at the old skeleton. “It looks like he died right here, like he ever got up.”
Isaac knelt down to take a closer look at the static corpse, which didn’t have enough decayed flesh left on it to cover half its hand. Its skull was undamaged, and what remained of its uniform covered just enough of its chest to reveal the cause of death. “This dude took two to the chest.”
“Maybe those raiders in the west mountains,” Rachelle figured aloud through her shaky voice, her little body trying to hide how hard it shivered, “or the Mountain Men.”
Didi emerged from the bunker—sword sheathed—and marched straight back to the truck.
Isaac glanced at Rachelle and followed suit. He quickly returned to the backseat, reached up front, and blasted the hot air vents on full. His naked arms throbbed as his flesh absorbed the rush of warmth. “I take it you didn’t find anything useful.”
“Nada,” Didi replied up front.
“Learn anything at least?” Gilda quipped.
“Isaac said the guard got shot,” Rachelle said proudly like the damn smart kid in class.
“Just one?” Cody asked, still huffing up a storm.
Isaac flinched. “One what?”
“Guard?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Cody stared out the window with confusion. “A bunker detail requires … two armed guards.”
“Maybe the other one saw the writing on the wall and took out that dude for the goods,” Isaac suggested, giving Rachelle a smirk for her annoying presentation. She just glared at him.
Cody gaped at the unfortunate guard for the good minute spent huffing and puffing, sweating like a ho before a judge. Then he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Let’s check the other bunkers … just in case.”
Isaac sighed an
d kept a lookout as the kid shifted and backed the truck up. If these Mountain Men did this, there was no telling where they might be hiding. All the stick formations that may one day be bushes again had caught more than enough snow to hide any number of hostile parties, and they could easily corner the truck within the draws of these winding mountains that may be as empty as the bunker they just checked. He wasn’t getting his hopes up … or letting his guard down.
CHAPTER 13
LOST AND FOUND
Three more empty bunkers, two “munitions dumps”, and several “arms rooms” of disappointments, and not one more signal anywhere. Yet Cody insisted on trying one more place, clearly not getting the hint that the base was friggin’ empty! Rachelle was only mildly curious to see what a Special Forces complex looked like, but the emptiness of this whole area really gave her the creeps. It was eerier than waiting in Rock Rapids the other night.
The complex itself was a real let down, as the various buildings Cody had the three of them search had nothing of use; just standard offices and big storage rooms full of stationery. She expected scuff marks or papers spilled all over the place—any signs of battle or escape—but nothing stood out in the least. It was as if everyone had just gone to lunch and never came back.
The last one was different. The spacious bay in the back was relatively empty, which made her footfalls on the smooth concrete floor echo off the white brick walls like a painted cave, complete with a mural of a battlefield full of skeletons under the boots of twelve overly muscled Green Berets. The tarps over unidentifiable piles lay under a blanket of dust behind caged walls and a chained door. At the other end was a big metal door painted bright red with a bunch of signs. No bullet-riddled corpse here, though; just had a big, honking lock on the thick latches.
Rachelle yanked at the big door just to be sure, but it wouldn’t budge.
“No luck?” Didi asked as she entered the bay with Isaac, flashlights cutting beams through the dusty space like lightsabers in all those Star Wars shows.
Rachelle waved at the big red door. “You try kicking it down.”
Both adults examined the door and its honking lock. “No gettin’ th’ough dis,” the annoying one said. “Gub’ment made deez to last.”
Rachelle spotted a dark hallway. She aimed her flashlight into it as she prepared to enter when Didi stopped her with an arm, those fake brown eyes staring above the big red door.
“What?” she asked her mentor.
Didi aimed her flashlight at a black bulb above the metal door. “Is that what I think it is?”
Rachelle got a little closer to examine it and heard the faint whine of a rotor. A little circle in the center of the bulb aimed right at her. “A camera.”
“What?” Isaac asked. “Think someone’s in der?”
“Let’s find out,” Didi replied, then waved at the camera with a bright grin. “Hi, in there! My name’s Didi. My friends and I are part of a group of survivors heading to California. We’re a fine community of men, women, and children that would welcome you—however many of you there are—if you’re willing to play nicely.”
The camera didn’t move, and only the ghostly groan of the wind through the open back door filled the bay. Maybe Rachelle had imagined—
A heavy clunk echoed through the bay, startling her into grabbing her sword handle.
The big red door cracked open, taking with it the lock latch that wasn’t attached to the doorway. A beam of light streaked across the concrete floor, then broke when an M4 rifle poked out and aimed at them. Behind it was a shoulder clothed in a greenish t-shirt.
Isaac drew down on the door, but Didi watched patiently, not touching a single weapon.
“Don’t move,” an alto voice demanded.
“We’re staying put,” Didi said reassuringly. “Just be calm.”
“Where’s your food?”
“With our people, camped out in town.”
An ebony head peeked out at them, her short hair ratty from self-maintenance. Her eyes sunk into her scrawny cheekbones. “Why should I trust you?” she asked in a staccato voice.
Didi sauntered toward the woman, who raised her rifle almost by reflex despite how much it shook in her hands. She stopped a few feet from the woman’s rifle barrel. “All I’m offering is a place to go. We do have rules, but they’re fair. Whether you stay here or come along is entirely up to you. If you’d prefer, we can leave and never bother you again. Your choice.”
The woman frowned at Didi. “You just want my guns, don’t you? Well, they’re not mine to give away.”
“Are there more with you?” Rachelle asked, which startled the woman into aiming at her.
Didi quickly stepped between them with her hands up. “No, no, keep it on me. She’s just concerned. We won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt us.”
The woman looked Didi up and down like she was too good to be true, then checked out Rachelle again. “What are you, like, thirteen?”
“Fifteen,” Rachelle said defensively.
The woman looked warily over Didi again, her breathing both labored and frustrated. Then she dropped her rifle, fell back against the doorway, and slid to the floor. Her dark green t-shirt topped off camouflage pants in green, black, and brown, the cuffs tucked into tan suede boots. “No,” she said as she held her head, huffing worse that Cody. “No one else here.”
“Cody, we’ve got a survivor,” Didi said without touching her tablet, reminding Rachelle of the headset stuffed into her mentor’s face.
“Who are you talking to?” the woman in uniform asked like she was in a daze.
Didi took the tablet off and handed it to Rachelle. “Get Cody for me.”
Rachelle recoiled. “Why can’t you?”
Didi smirked at her, then scrolled her gloved index finger across the tablet screen with no result. “It won’t read me.”
Rachelle took the thing, then swiped and poked until Cody’s sickly face appeared, looking like he fought to stay conscious. “Hey, Cody, we need you to talk to someone,” she informed him before aiming the tablet at the stranger.
“What’s your name and rank, Marine?” he asked.
Rachelle regarded the exhausted woman as if impressed. A Marine? Cool!
“Higgins,” the Marine labored. “Corporal … Lavon Higgins.”
Cody pointed to himself. “Staff Sergeant Cody Montgomery. These are our friends—”
Corporal Higgins’ eyes brightened at him. “Are you with Captain Washington?”
Cody frowned and shook his head, still huffing. “I’ve known a few of those ... but not here. We’ve … been up north … since the plague spread.”
The hope drained from the Marine’s face as it sunk. “I only stepped out to find food … but I always came back. Kept my post secure. I couldn’t f—fail my duty.”
Cody’s brows flew up. “You’ve been in there for two years?”
She nodded stiffly, exhaustedly.
“I’d say you succeeded,” Didi said with a hand on the Marine’s shoulder, then pointed around at the rest. “Isaac Yancey. Rachelle Ortega. They’re pretty good in a fight for civvies.”
Lavon frowned up at Didi. “Didn’t I see you in a fuck flick or something?”
Rachelle recoiled, but Didi just grinned at the others like she was proud. “Hm. Another fan.”
“Like Hell. My lousy ex …” Then her head wavered like she was going to pass out.
“Corporal,” Cody’s voice chimed in, which sharply drew her head up again, “I don’t think Captain Washington is coming back.”
The Marine looked skeptically at Cody. “You just want the weapons. Don’t you, Sergeant?”
“We won’t take what you won’t offer, no matter what.”
Lavon looked at Cody’s image like he was cracked. So did Isaac.
“I’m not taking anything from a Marine doing her duty,” he said earnestly, then huffed a bit more before he continued. “We’ve got plenty of arms, but … if you come with us … we could mak
e sure … they don’t fall into the wrong hands. Your call.”
The corporal looked at each pair of eyes with great difficulty. After her silent debate, she slowly planted her hand on the door and shoved it open a bit more. A small lantern revealed two boxes of military shelf-stable meals under a cot full of blankets near the door, the rest of the vast room filled with racked weapons and ammunition crates of various calibers. It was a veritable gold mine, secured by an internal brace board.
Isaac reached into the nearest box of food and pulled out a candy bar, which he eyed with delight for a few seconds before disdain covered his face and he gave the treat to Lavon.
The Marine snatched the bar, ripped it open like a Christmas present, and wolfed it down like they were on intimate terms.
“Slow down, Corporal,” Cody said firmly yet shakily. “Save some for the trip.”
The Corporal stared at him almost like a child with her hand in a cookie jar. “You said you have food, right?” she said through a mouthful.
“Yeah, but you’ll get sick if … you eat too fast. Just take it slow. We’ll get there, okay?”
The starving Marine nodded and chewed more slowly.
Isaac squeezed into the long vault and looked around with delight. “Man, they’s some firepower up in here.”
Didi stopped Isaac from grabbing one of the racked weapons. “Hang on. We still don’t have the Corporal’s permission.”
Isaac looked put off but took a step back and covered his nose. “Your Corporal’s as ripe as the Power, man.”
Somewhere between insult and confusion, the Marine regarded Cody’s face on the tablet.
“You’ll get used to him,” Cody said. “He’ll still watch your back.”
“How come you didn’t ditch this place?” Isaac asked.
“A Marine doesn’t abandon her post,” Didi answered for the haggard jarhead. “Isn’t that right, Corporal?”
Corporal Higgins smiled gratefully. “Hells no.”
Rachelle was thoroughly impressed.
*****
“Anything?” Craig asked for the twelfth time, dancing the Frozen Jig on the roof their new hacker insisted would help track the mysterious transmissions, which had been quiet for well over two hours.
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