by Dan McMartin
~~~
Pete looked around after hearing his name and found Gunny walking by with a squad of Marines. He waved at his friend and neighbor.
“You better hurry. We’re going to clear another block today,” Gunny said.
“Working on it. You guys are too efficient,” Pete shouted back.
“Generous rules of engagement,” Gunny said and waved as he passed. Pete laughed. There wasn’t much fear of collateral damage or upsetting the locals with heavy- handed tactics when fighting the undead. The locals, new and old, were all for the effort. Well, maybe not the protestors but everyone else was.
Pete went back to work installing the boards on the first story windows of the building he had been assigned that morning. Other men worked on installing a heavy door on the rear of the building while still others built an iron cage around the front door. The fortifications had evolved over the week Pete had been there as new people arrived with new ideas. This building would become a home for several families someday so it had to be secure.
But all of it was the second line of defense. The fences and barriers along the expanding frontier were the first line of defense. Each street would be guarded by the Army once the block was cleared and the housing secured. Soldiers would walk the perimeter day and night. The streets would be lit by portable lights. The zombies didn’t stand a chance.
It had been over a week since Pete and his friends arrived at Camp San Francisco. The frontier had been pushed south as far as California Street and also encompassed The Presidio in its entirety, half a dozen blocks west of the Embarcadero and the area around the Bay Bridge approaches and AT&T Park. There hadn’t been an attack since Pete arrived either. The city was truly secure.
In the past few days, armed convoys had been venturing out to secure more supplies and food. Fuel was transported across the bay by a tanker from the refineries in Richmond. Generators powered the city. The military was printing money to pay workers and there were even restaurants and shops open for business. Life was almost normal.
Anna had been reassigned to sector six and joined Pete in a small room in one of the many buildings situated on the Presidio grounds. They didn’t enjoy a private bathroom like many of the families placed in the row houses and apartment buildings in the other sectors, but it was nice to have a place of their own, a place that was safe.
Anna had found work in one of the newly reopened restaurants near Fisherman’s Wharf as a line cook. She wasn’t especially skilled but Anna had the basic knowledge of food preparation and she learned the rest as she went. As a bonus, she often brought home food leftover at the end of her shift.
Gunny was busy leading his platoon of Marines and Pete saw him often as they came and went. Anders, on the other hand was running all over the city with his crew of engineers. They went where they were needed. Pete saw him once while he worked but only from a distance. But he heard about Anders’ day in the evening when the four friends would get together and share their experiences.
With the boards secured, Pete’s foreman gave everyone a break for lunch. Pete contemplated walking back into the secured part of the city to buy lunch, but instead he decided to go up to the front lines and see what was happening there. It wasn’t far, only a block or two on most days, but Pete had yet to visit the very edge of the frontier.
He spotted Gunny and his Marines after a short walk. They were staged outside a three-story building. It used to house a small convenience store on the bottom floor and probably apartments or offices upstairs. Pete didn’t intrude but simply watched from across the street as the Marines went about their business. A moment later, the platoon of about twenty-five men split into thirds. One squad, led by Gunny, approached the front doors. Another went through an alley to enter the back of the building, Pete assumed. The third squad was held in reserve to provide security.
This was the frontier. Pete was still behind a fence but only a portable chain link fence. The checkpoint, permanent fencing and walls would be erected in the coming days. For now, however, only the temporary fence kept the zombies at bay. Thankfully, there weren’t many pressed up against the fence. Most of those that were on the streets had long since been dispatched. The rest were inside the buildings, trapped or gone dormant in the absence of stimuli.
On occasion, a zombie would make it past the fence, drawn by the noise made by the construction crews. But the crews were well-armed and always posted lookouts to spot trouble. In a few days, however, this section of San Francisco would be reclaimed, the streets and buildings free of the undead. In the coming weeks, families would move in and kids would be playing outside and attending school. Businesses would open and life would return to normal...or as close to normal as one could expect.
Pete watched the building as Gunny’s Marines cleared it. Now and then, he saw a flashlight illuminate a room or heard a single shot. To minimize friendly fire, they mostly used their shotguns to clear the buildings instead of rifles. The scatterguns were more effective anyway. Gunny had explained to Pete that most buildings were fairly easy to clear. Others, he said, were packed like sardine cans with the freaks, as Gunny called them. This building appeared to be an easy one...for the moment anyway.
Then all hell broke loose. A grenade went off in one of the rooms on the third floor followed by sporadic gunfire. The blast shattered the window and then Pete could clearly hear the Marines frantically shouting inside. He hadn’t seen it up close like this. There was violence that Gunny’s stories didn’t convey. It was chaos up there, at least to Pete’s way of thinking.
More gunfire was followed by a blood-curdling scream. Pete felt bad for simply watching as men were putting their lives on the line for his safety but he couldn’t look away. He found himself hoping his friend, Gunny, was alright. Then he heard it. “Corpsman!” came a familiar voice from the front door. A moment later, Gunny and another Marine carried a wounded man out of the building.
Another man, apparently the corpsman, ran to aid the wounded Marine. “Is he bit?” he demanded.
“No, crossfire. Took a round to the upper leg,” Gunny advised the corpsman. They set the man down as the corpsman went to work. He had Gunny apply pressure as he examined the wounded man, checked his vitals and assessed his health. Pete watched as the corpsman dug a tourniquet out of his bag.
“He needs to be transported. Call a vehicle forward,” the corpsman exclaimed as he applied the tourniquet to stem the flow of blood. Pete felt helpless but saw an opportunity to be of some use.
“I’ve got a truck right over there,” he shouted. Gunny and the corpsman looked up to regard Pete, but he was already running. His crew had been assigned several pickups to carry their tools and materials. The one Pete dashed off to get didn’t have a trailer attached like the others. Pete pulled the tailgate open and pulled out the tools that littered the bed. Once it was clear, he hopped inside and drove the short distance to the wounded Marine.
“You, you and you help me get him in the back,” the corpsman ordered and the Marines he pointed to didn’t hesitate. Gunny hopped into the passenger seat as the corpsman and several other Marines joined their fallen comrade in the bed of the pickup.
“You know where the Army hospital is?” Gunny asked.
“Yeah...we took a guy there a few days ago for some stitches.” Pete answered but he was already driving. He saw the benefit of keeping the streets clear. Pete was able to navigate the streets without much trouble, only having to honk his horn a few times to warn pedestrians or someone on a bike.
The corpsman knocked on the rear window. Gunny looked back to see what he wanted as Pete drove. “Faster!” Gunny advised him. Pete had been trying to drive fast without jostling his passengers too much. He assumed that wasn’t an issue and drove as fast as he could without losing anyone along the way.
The drive took only a couple of minutes but it seemed like days. Pete could hear the corpsman barking orders as Gunny helped Pete watch the road ahead. “There!” Gunny exclaimed and pointed
ahead to where he needed Pete to go. A moment later, the pickup rolled to a stop. Doctors and nurses were there with a gurney. Someone must have radioed ahead.
The wounded Marine was transferred to the gurney and disappeared inside the hotel turned Army hospital. Gunny and the corpsman followed. “Take these three back to the platoon,” Gunny told Pete and then turned to his Marines, “Advise Staff Sargent Bowers to continue the mission, secure that building and the surrounding area.” The men acknowledged the order and Gunny disappeared into the building. One of the Marines pounded on the back window when they were ready and Pete drove them back to the waiting platoon.
Chapter 14
“What’s wrong?” Anna asked Pete as she arrived back home. She pulled off her backpack and set it aside as she joined him on the sofa.
“I...um...,” Pete stammered. His foreman had sent him home after Pete explained what had happened. Pete was shaken and worried about the wounded Marine. His foreman decided he was too distracted to work safely. Pete wasn’t happy about it, he wanted to work to keep his mind off of what had happened, but he acknowledged he wasn’t focused on his work.
“Did something happen?” Anna pressed. Pete took a deep breath to steady himself and told his girlfriend about his day. Anna sat in shock as she listened. “Oh my God! Is he going to be okay?” she asked once Pete finished.
“I don’t know. I thought about calling Gunny but...well, he’s got more important things to worry about than my curiosity,” Pete replied. Anna nodded.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Anna offered and hugged Pete.
“I don’t know. He lost a lot of blood. The pickup bed was covered in it,” Pete said as he let Anna hold him and stroke his hair. They sat there together for a few minutes until Anna let him go and kissed Pete on the forehead.
“Are you hungry? I brought some sourdough home. It’s really fresh,” Anna said, trying to lighten the mood. Pete didn’t hear her at first.
“Huh? Oh...yeah, sure. Don’t be shy with the butter,” he said. Anna smiled at him and dug the loaf of bread out of her backpack. She took it to the counter in the corner of the room, pulled the butter out of the dorm refrigerator and prepared a thick slice for Pete. She returned and held the slice out for Pete but a knock came at the door before he could take it. They regarded one another for a moment before Pete jumped up and pulled the door open.
“Hey,” Gunny greeted him. He was still wearing his desert camo utilities and chest rig. They were stained with blood.
“How is he?” Pete asked worriedly and invited Gunny inside. Gunny shook his head.
“Thanks but I need to clean up. He’ll live and the doctors say they can probably save his leg. That’s all you, man. If you hadn’t been there and reacted...well he would have lost the leg and maybe his life. Thanks,” Gunny explained. Anna joined Pete at the door.
“That’s good news,” she said.
“Yeah. Your boyfriend’s a hero,” Gunny said. That made Pete uncomfortable. He just did what needed to be done.
“I just drove,” Pete replied.
“Sometimes, it’s the little things,” Gunny told him.
“I’m just glad he’s going to be okay,” Pete said.
“Me too. I know I can’t keep them completely safe. We have a dangerous job. But I’m not going to give my boys up easy,” Gunny said and then sniffed the air. “Is that sourdough?” he asked.
“Yeah, you want some?” Anna asked.
“Give me ten and I’ll go clean up, grab Anders and bring over a bottle of wine I found yesterday in one of the houses. It’s a 1999,” Gunny said.
“Deal,” Pete replied. Gunny extended his hand and Pete took it.
“Thanks,” Gunny told him again. Pete didn’t know what to say.
~~~
“That was nice,” Anna told her lover as he held her in their bed.
“Yeah. I like those guys. Anders seems better too. I think having something to focus on helps,” Pete replied.
“I know it does for me. If I had to sit around doing nothing, I’d go crazy,” Anna admitted. Her parents were already gone long before this happened. But she had friends that were lost to her. Were they turned into the undead or were they alive and fighting to survive? Might they even have made it to San Francisco but they hadn’t found each other yet? Anna didn’t know.
All she knew was that thinking about the situation at large, about all the people who had died or turned, about everything humanity had lost and the futility of it all, made her depressed. Working toward something better helped keep that at bay. Being with Pete made her feel better as well. Making new friends and beginning a new life made it all go away.
She sensed it in others as well. Pete and Gunny had suffered their share of losses both before and after this all happened. They both seemed sullen and lost at times. But Anders, well he was having the hardest time. He tried to hide it and Anna was sure that Pete and Gunny couldn’t always see it, but she could. He was in pain. He had lost his family. She knew what that felt like.
But Anders persevered. He worked hard at his new job and spent a lot of time with his new friends. Anna tried to keep him focused on something positive. She never pried or pushed but when Anders seemed to need a nudge back towards the light, she was there to do it. She had been where Anders was now.
Her parents were her life, her whole world, when she lost them. She was only a girl and suddenly, she was alone. She lived with friends of the family but it wasn’t the same. There was an empty place inside of her that persisted to the present day, though it wasn’t quite as noticeable now. But parents were supposed to die. Maybe not so young and violently but they were meant to go before she did. That was the way of things.
Anders had lost so much more. He lost his wife and his daughter, his child. Anna shuddered when she tried to imagine what that would be like. She didn’t want to know. She had even discussed it with Pete. There wasn’t time to put off such discussions in this new world, even in the relative safety of San Francisco.
Neither wanted a baby, not under these circumstances. That made Anna sad. She had wanted a family of her own but now, she couldn’t bear a child in good conscience, not with things the way they were. At some point, maybe, it would be possible but not now. Not until things were far more stable.
“What are you thinking about?” Pete asked.
“Everything...nothing. It doesn’t matter. I should be focusing on the future, right?” Anna replied.
“I guess. I suppose it doesn’t do any good to dwell in the past,” Pete agreed though Anna could tell he had been doing just that, dwelling in the past like she had been.
“Maybe it does. We never mourned. Not really,” she said.
“I don’t even know where to begin mourning, Anna,” Pete told her. She smiled wistfully at that. It was all so overwhelming if you gave into it.
“Me either,” was all she said and took Pete’s arm and pulled it even tighter against her nude body. He squeezed her tighter still. Suddenly, she felt so alone. There were so few people left. The world felt empty of life. Anna scoffed at her dark feelings. Tomorrow would be a new day. The sun would shine, at least after the fog burned off. She would go to work, serve all the people and feel renewed.
But sometimes, the nights were so long and empty.
~~~
The crack in the plaster was visible even with all the lights off. The security lights cast a blueish glow into Anders room, one he was all too familiar with. Sleep usually came but never quickly or easily. He stared at that crack as he did many nights as his mind flirted with dark thoughts.
Anders put on a good show out there but in his room, he didn’t bother. He didn’t hide his deep sadness when he was by himself but he no longer cried. Maybe that was a good sign...or maybe it wasn’t. It didn’t feel good anymore. The rawness of his emotions was gone and replaced by emptiness. His emotions seemed muted and distant.
Sure, he laughed at jokes and made pleasant conversation but it all felt forc
ed. Maybe this was just part of the process but Anders couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t. Maybe he would always feel like this. Maybe he would always carry the guilt that came with surviving when his wife and child hadn’t. Maybe he’d wish every day for the rest of his life that he would have died in that van at the hands of his recruit along with those other boys.
“I miss you so much,” he whispered to his wife and daughter. “I’m so sorry,” he added quietly. Jim Anders wanted to cry but there was nothing left. Nothing but his empty room, the blueish light and that fucking crack in the plaster. It would be another three hours of dark thoughts and emptiness before sleep would finally claim him.
~~~
Pete heard Gunny ask about him down below. He was working on the roof of another building, this one right on the edge of the frontier. The same one, in fact, where that young Marine had been shot the previous day. An inspection had revealed holes in the roof from the firefight he had witnessed. He was patching those holes.
