by Damon Hunter
“I still think it was the commies,” Dolan replied.
“I hope he is right,” Donna said, “It would mean all we have to do is hold the quarantine, and they seem to be doing that.”
Before Vance could reply his daughter came out of the holding pen, followed by Bo and Jennifer.
Donna and Katelin hugged each other. Vance did not bother trying to hug his daughter. He had not been around enough for her and could sense she was still cold towards him. There was no need to make things any more awkward.
“Do I get my guns back?” Katelin asked.
“Yeah, they’re in your quarters,” Vance told her.
“So. What is going on?” Bo asked, “Are we staying here or still making a run to the north?”
“For the time being we are staying here,” Vance said, “There is lot to explain. It would be better if we got everyone together and I can tell it to everybody one time.”
Chapter 6 -The TMRT Southeastern Checkpoint - Escondido, CA
Novak managed to secure himself a bottle of Jose Cuervo from one of the men guarding the holding pen upon his release. He planned to drink himself to sleep in the quarters they had set up for him, basically a glorified tent, and then he was walking out on the TMRT. Ideally it would be with their blessing, but he was leaving either way.
It was not because he did not understand why Dr. Talbot and others in the TMRT were doing what they were doing. He could see the why. He had been out there in the Quarantine Zone and knew as well as anyone the importance of keeping the rot contained, he just did not want to be a part of it anymore.
It was not lost on him that if the mission with Talbot turned out to be a success and a cure was found he had participated in the murder of hundreds maybe even thousands of people whose only crime was getting sick. The fact he was not given much choice, and the infected would have turned him with his men into hungry amblers or vampire rotters given the opportunity, was only a little comfort to what he had done.
With this thought bouncing around in his head he uncapped the bottle and had a long sip as he made his way through the tent city which housed most of the men charged with enforcing the quarantine.
Novak stepped into what he was told were his private quarters and saw a man in a TMRT uniform sitting on his bed.
“I think one of us may have the wrong room,” Novak told him.
“No, soldier we are both in the right place,” the man said as he turned to face Novak.
Novak saw the stripes and bars on the man’s shoulders. He looked for name on the man’s shirt pocket but despite regulations requiring one, this man had none.
“What do you want?” Novak answered.
“Is that the proper way to address a superior officer Captain Novak?”
“Captain?”
“You’ve been demoted.”
“Well to answer your question I don’t give a fuck what the proper way to address a superior officer is right now.”
“That attitude is why you were demoted.”
“I’ll tell you what I told them to lose my stripes. I don’t give a shit. I’m done with the TMRT.”
“No, not quite yet,” the Major without a name said.
“I must respectfully disagree.”
“I need someone who has been in the QZ for a covert op. This is too important a mission for me to go in without someone who has been there before.”
“I can give you some names of others who were there.”
“No, like I said this is a mission of vital importance. I have gone over the list of men here at the checkpoint and you are by far my first pick.”
“I suggest you go give pick number two the good news.”
“No. I think I want you. You may not know me but rest assured Captain Novak I am a man who gets his way. Besides when I mentioned your name the officer in charge of my mission insisted it be you.”
“Is that supposed to make me change my mind?”
“No, of course not. You want out of the TMRT don’t you?”
“Yes, and like you, I am also a man who gets his way.”
“I’m sure you are. Which is why I am going to my way as well.”
“I don’t see how we can both get our way.”
“Help me complete this one mission. If it is done right we will be in and out in less than twenty four hours. Once you have aided me in the successful completion of our task I will see to it you are released with full benefits at your previous rank.”
“Let me guess, if I don’t help you…”
“I will do everything in my power to make sure you stay in the TMRT.”
“What’s the task?”
“I cannot tell you until you are on the team. Once I have a commitment you will be fully briefed along with the rest of my team tomorrow morning.”
“This have anything to do with Eric Vance?”
“No. The dead are of no concern to me.”
“Well, I don’t really have a choice now do I?”
“No, but I find it’s better when a person comes to that conclusion without me telling them,” the Major with no name said as he stood. “Go easy on the Tequila soldier. We are going to start early. I’ll send a man to fetch you at oh seven hundred. Be ready to go.”
Novak took an even longer swig from the bottle before he said, “Whatever you say boss.”
Chapter 7 - Highway 78 - San Marcos, CA
Vampire rotter Tanner watched the wall from the shadows of the burned out hunks of metal covering the highway. He was careful to stay out of the large moving lights sweeping the area. He had seen his fellow kind, those who also had the hunger, wander into the light. Soon after they were no more. It was clear any of those with the hunger getting close to the wall would be torn to pieces by the weapons from the uninfected.
The dogs, however, moved through the light to the wall. The uninfected did not realize the smaller beast could carry the rot. Vampire Rotter Tanner called to the four legged creatures and they came. Like him they could smell the uninfected on the other side of the wall. The scent of the those who had not been gifted the hunger was growing scarce on this side of the wall, but it was abundant over there.
Vampire rotter Tanner did not need to give the four legged beasts any direction. Like him what to do was part of their very being. To them hunting and spreading the infection was no different than breathing was for the uninfected. The thought of not trying to spread the rot never entered their minds.
Vampire rotter Tanner however, having been infected with a rare strain, had the ability to self control his fellow rotters with the predatory vampire strain that normal rotters did not possess. He would leave those behind the wall to the dogs. As much as getting to the other side of the barrier and sinking his new teeth into rot free flesh sounded like pure bliss, there were certain people he wanted to get more.
One of the many differences in the strain Tanner had been afflicted with was the urge to fixate. There were people he was compelled to pursue until he got them, or they did him in. Until one of these things happened he would not stop.
Standing in the darkness, he said her name, “Jennifer.”
Vampire rotter Tanner had been distracted after he lost them. He had found new potential victims and they had taken him to the wall. The new victims would never get the gift of the rot and he could see he could not breach the wall. He stood in the night air as the wind came in from the ocean. The scent was faint, almost nonexistent even to him. Logic would have told him what he smelled was not enough to pursue. He, however, was not ruled by logic.
Vampire rotter Tanner left the wall and the feast behind it for the dogs as he began to chase the ever so faint scent of Jennifer and her friends floating in the wind.
Chapter 8 - The TMRT Eastern Checkpoint
Private Smithers hated walking the perimeter. He prefered the guard towers, where he could find targets with the night vision spotting scope and as long as they were in the Quarantine Zone eliminate them at his discretion. Even that was getting borin
g. Early on there were targets galore as people, started wandering into the declared no man’s land on foot. Smithers told himself they were infected, though, once the quarantine was declared they had orders to shoot to kill whether the target appeared infected or not. Lately, however, almost nothing wandered into range.
Veterans of the ongoing Northern California quarantine told him not to get complacent. They said eventually a horde of infected, with vampire rotters dispersed among them will make their way into the free fire zone. They told him the sheer numbers of them and the relentless way they kept coming was the stuff of nightmares. They told him it didn’t matter how many went down the others kept coming. The infected did not retreat nor did they ever surrender.
As one grisled vet told him, “Take a second to rest and all of sudden you are BDD and then I have to shoot your sorry ass.”
It was the first time he had heard the phrase BDD. He didn’t ask at the time because he did not want to let on he was this green when it came to fighting the rot. Later he learned it stood for Brain Dead and Drooling.
On a night like this, walking along the top of the wall and seeing nothing he had not seen before Smithers kind of wished a horde would just charge the walls. He felt he was up to the challenge and he had not had a nightmare since he was eleven-years-old. It was not like he joined the TMRT coming out of college. He graduated from the school of hard knocks before joining the elite group of soldiers known as the Tactical Medical Response Team. Private Smithers had seen some shit overseas and been able to sleep like a baby afterwards and he did not see how this would be any different.
He was about to walk back into one of the towers when he heard tha faint sound of a dog barking.
He stopped and gave his helmet a voice command. The visor turned on the night vision and he peered out into the darkness. He did not a see a dog but he definitely did hear it again though. It sounded like it was by the south corner not far away from the next guard tower.
Private Smithers gave a voice command to his helmet and a channel was opened between him and the soldier manning the tower.
“You have anything over there?” He asked.
“Pretty quiet,” the soldier answered, “I thought we had a vampire rotter roaming through some of the wreckage but I could never get a bead on him. It felt like he knew I was aiming at him.”
Smithers was about to tell the soldier how ridiculous he sounded, but he remembered a few times looking through a rifle scope while he was working the tower and seeing a vampire rotter appear to react when he put it in his sights. The rot may destroy a man’s mind but if one caught the vampire strain it upped the animal instincts to insanely high levels.
Instead he said, “I thought I heard a dog.”
“Affirmative, I heard him too. I was busy trying to snipe the rotter so I wasn’t really focused on the dog. When you asked if I had anything I thought you meant anything infected.”
“No, I meant anything, but mostly the dog.”
“I had a visual on the dog earlier. He was going along the wall like he wanted to get in but I don’t think he will find anything. I was on a wall inspection crew last night and unless something changed today the wall is still secure. Even if it does get in dogs don’t get the rot so I wasn’t worried about him.”
“They may not get the rot, but they do get hungry and thirsty,” Private Smithers said.
“I suppose they do, but I don’t have any dog food or a water bowl handy and even if I did I would catch hell if I left my post.”
“Understood,” Smithers said as he kept walking, listening to the dog start to bark again.
“He doesn’t shut up though I’m afraid someone is going to order me to shoot him. Stupid thing is going to wake someone up,” the tower soldier said. “If it doesn’t quiet down some major or a doctor mad that their beauty sleep was interrupted is going to tell me to ice him.”
“I’m headed that direction, I’ll see if I can shoo him off.”
“Thanks. I don’t want to shoot someone’s poor innocent pet, even if the person is currently brain dead and drooling.”
Smithers passed by the tower and gave the guard a wave. The guy in the tower was right, the dog was not their problem and any effort to aid it would be frowned upon. He was also right the barking was going to get on somebody’s nerves at some point. The tent city they had set up was not far from where the dog was making all the noise.
Soon enough Smithers saw the dog in question. A big black lab with floppy ears standing with he front paws against a door cut in the wall like he was waiting for someone to let him in. It continued to bark at the door as Smithers went down a ladder and went to the entrance.
He pounded on the door to get the mutts attention before he told it, “Shut up,” followed by, “Go home.”
For a long moment it obeyed the first command and Smithers believed it was about to follow the second when the animal started barking again. Smithers repeated the process and got the same result.
He thought about some of the mutts he had owned over the years and the one his parents had when he was growing up. One thing he knew about all of them is they responded better if they saw a face. Words alone never did much if they did not see the words were coming from somebody not entirely opposed to kicking them if things did not work out.
He took off his helmet, knowing the dog would respond to his angry face more than it would a colorful facemask. The door had a window he could open and see out in the quarantine zone. It was barred with opening big enough to stick a gun barrel through and not much else. It was covered by a small steel door.
Private Smithers opened the small door and let the animal see his face.
“Go on, get yourself home,” he said to the dog. He expected the dog to react but it just stared at him wagging a tongue Smithers thought was too big for it’s mouth and a weird color. He had never seen a dog with a blue tongue. He wondered if the low lightt was making him see things.
“What part of go home didn’t you understand you dumb mutt?” he said as the dog kept looking at him.
The dog did not move.
“You’re a strange dog,” Smithers said leaning closer to get a look at the canine with it’s front paws against the door. Without thinking about it he put his hand up through the opening of the bars as he tried to figure out how to get this thing to leave, or at least be quiet before some asshole decided to shoot it.
The dog shot forward with a quickness that surprised Smithers. He did not have much of his fingers exposed to the other side of the door, but what he did have the mutt sunk its teeth into.
Smithers pulled his hand back and slammed the small door, but the dog was to quick. Even though he was wearing standard issue TMRT protective gloves Smithers found himself with a bunch of bloody fingers. The way the mutt had come after him he felt lucky to have all his digits. He felt the way it attacked him if he had not acted the dog would be having a meal of his fingers right now.
With his right hand mangled, he drew his sidearm with his left. If someone was going to shoot the dog anyway Smithers decided he should be the one to do it.
When he opened the small door the dog was gone. He put back on his helmet and used the night vision feature to scan the area but didn’t see the dog anywhere.
He opened a channel to the tower, “Hey, you see the dog anymore?”
“No. Looks like you got him to go away.”
“If you see him again do me a favor.”
“Sure, name it.”
“Shoot it.”
Private Smithers closed the connection before the man in the tower had a chance to ask why.
Smithers was thinking how lucky he was dog’s don’t get the rot, although just because it was not spreading the rot did not mean the bite was clean. For all he knew he could still contract rabies or distemper. Neither of which were any fun. With this in mind he radioed in he was going to the infirmary. The hastily constructed building just behind him was home to many a doctor and a ton of supplies. Smithe
rs figured they would be the right somebody’s and have the right drugs to help the nasty throbbing and bleeding his fingers were experiencing.
He abandoned his rounds and headed over to the medical facility. He could go back to walking the wall after someone patched up his hand.
Chapter 9 - The TMRT Southwestern Checkpoint Motor Pool - Escondido, CA
“Is everything ready to go?” Harrison asked the soldier leaning against the wall drinking a bottle of water.
“Good to go,” he said. “I don’t suppose you can tell me what I just loaded on the transport can you?”
“No, and it would be wise of you not to ask.”
“That’s what I figured.”
Harrison left him and went into the garage housing the black windowless transport they would be taking into the QZ tomorrow. With the exception of Novak, who they had just recruited for his experience in the QZ at the strong suggestion of General Doctor Thompson the rest of the crew was already in the garage double checking their own gear or getting some sleep. The secret nature of the mission meant none of them were assigned quarters, so they had made the garage their own place until they headed into the QZ at dawn.
The soldier leaning against the wall could stay there as far as Harrison was concerned. His part was done, all he could do now was get in the way anyways.
The soldier, a man named Stickley, was fine staying out of the way. Whatever was going on he wanted absolutely no part in it. The group inside all had their names pulled from their uniforms, they addressed each other by rank, which had to be confusing since out of the five man crew four were the same rank. Also seemed odd they were already either sacking out in the transport or had made a place to sleep in the garage. As far as Stickly knew there were still plenty of beds available. They had been planning to take in people displaced from the evacuation which never really happened.
Stickley was wondering if the mess hall was still open at this late hour or if he would have to wait until morning. The checkpoint was a twenty four hour a day operation, he did not see why the mess hall should be any different. If he had to work deep into the night then it only seemed fair someone in the Mess hall was doing the same.
