Zombie Rules (Book 5): Mount Weather

by David Achord

  “Get in,” he said and pulled the shower curtain closed behind her.

  “Oh, shit, you’ve really got it hot,” Savannah said as she stepped under the water.

  He looked at her as she closed her eyes and turned her face up, letting the water spray her face. He found himself reaching for the shampoo bottle and lathering up her hair. She murmured in contentment and leaned back against him.

  “You’ve gained weight,” he said. “I noticed last night.”

  “Doctor Salisbury weighed me. Ninety-eight pounds. She said my target weight should be one-twenty by Thanksgiving.”

  “Good,” he said and rinsed off. “Maybe you should start lifting weights, build up your muscles.”

  “Will you work out with me?” she asked.

  “Sure.” He watched as she rinsed off, fighting the urge to get frisky. “There’s something I have to get off my chest,” he said.

  Savannah rinsed the soap off of her face and looked up at him with her big brown eyes. She knew better, but somewhere in her brain, she suddenly worried he was about to dump her.

  “There’ve been a couple of women since Peggy,” he said. “But, they weren’t anything serious. Casual flings, friends with benefits, whatever you want to call it, they weren’t anything serious.”

  “Okay,” Savannah said.

  “I kept it that way on purpose so when it was time to end it, there’d be no emotional attachment, at least not on my end.” Melvin searched for the right words, even putting his face under the showerhead, momentarily hoping the hot water would get his brain moving.

  “So, anyway, I wanted you to know that. And, I want you to know that I don’t think of you in the same way. I laid there last night trying to think up something to say to end our relationship. I thought of a few of reasons, but ultimately I realized it was the last thing I wanted. I want you, and not for just a casual fling. I want more than that. Is that okay?”

  Savannah stared at him deeply. “You’d have me?” she asked.

  “Absolutely.”

  She hugged him tightly and then kissed him. “You won’t be sorry,” she said.

  Melvin smiled. “Good. Let’s get out of here.”

  He peeked through the curtain. Nobody else was currently in the locker room.

  “C’mon.” They hurriedly dried off, wrapped the towels around themselves, and went back to their room.

  Chapter 36 – Jim

  “Alright, start it up,” I directed to Savannah.

  Savannah dutifully cranked the ignition, and after a moment, the engine roared to life. Jim nodded in somewhat sad gratefulness.

  “I appreciate it,” he said.

  I removed the jumper cables and closed the hood as Melvin did the same to his truck. Savannah exited the car, a Subaru Outback, and joined the rest of us.

  “Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Parvis asked him.

  Jim looked at his wife, Linda, and nodded.

  Parvis looked solemn, but did not argue with him. He reached into his pocket and handed Jim a set of keys.

  “All of the entry doors on the house use the same key. The barn and tool shed have different keys. These are the ones,” Parvis said and pointed them out.

  “And another thing,” he continued. “As soon as you get settled in, give us a shout on the radio. If we don’t hear from you in two hours, we’re sending out a search party.”

  “I will do so,” Jim said and held out his hand. “I appreciate everything,” he said and looked over at Linda. “Are you ready, honey?”

  Linda, Jim’s wife of thirty years, was a statuesque blonde who carried herself like a beauty pageant contestant, which she once was. She nodded once, trying hard to maintain her composure. He nodded at his two girls, two younger versions of their mother in their late twenties.

  The four of them got into the car and quietly drove away from Mount Weather.

  Melvin gestured at his truck, which was loaded down. “I’m going to follow along, help them get settled in, and then I’m going to check on some stuff. I’ll be back in a couple of days.” He gave Savannah a long hug.

  “I want to go with you,” she begged in a low whisper.

  “We’ve talked about this,” he said. “As long as Lonnie and his boys are in the area, it’s not safe.”

  She continued holding him. “I still want to go,” she said.

  “You’ll be fine here. I check in every day on the radio, and I’m only going to be gone a few days. Besides, you need to start socializing, get some female friends. If you have any problems with anyone, you go tell Kelly and she’ll sic Zach on them,” he said, looked over at me, and winked.

  “Okay,” she said and reluctantly let go of him.

  Everyone else had walked in, with the exception of Savannah and me. We waved at Melvin as he left.

  “Well, I don’t have anything to do until three. Lydia finally stuck me with the evening shift maintenance duties. I think I’ll go pester Kelly ‘til lunch.” I paused, waiting for her to say something. She looked a little apprehensive. She’d been looking that way since Melvin drove off.

  “You got any plans?” I asked. She shook her head. “You want to come with me?”

  Kelly had a group at one side of the room, teaching them math. Maria had the younger kids, including mine, in a separate room. She was reading them a story both in English and in Spanish. Savannah and I found a chair in the back of Kelly’s room, sat and watched.

  She really seemed to be enjoying herself, and the kids were being attentive. One kid raised his hand.

  “Yes, Billy?” Kelly asked.

  “Why do you need to know what square foots are?”

  She seemed at a loss for words for a moment, then she looked back at me and smiled.

  “Well, why don’t we let Mister Zach explain? What do you kids think, should we let Mister Zach explain?”

  There was a chorus of yesses. I stood, reluctantly, and walked to the front of the class, thinking along the way. When I got to the front, I saw a ruler.

  “Oh, here we go,” I said. I used the ruler and a marker to draw an almost perfect square foot on the board.

  “So, this is one square foot, right?” I asked. I was met with silence. “Yes, that’s right, I’m glad you kids agree. Now, answer me this, if this were one square foot of earth outside, how much wheat could you grow in it?”

  There was more silence, but at least I had their undivided attention.

  “Let’s say you can grow one wheat plant in that square foot of earth, so how many plants would a one-acre field yield?” More silence. “Okay, hold on, let me give you guys some information.”

  I turned back to the chalkboard and wrote out the number of square feet to an acre.

  “43,560, that’s how many square feet are in an acre. So, how many wheat plants can you grow in an acre?”

  Sammy tentatively raised his hand. I pointed at him.

  “43,560?” he asked.

  “Yep, you nailed it. So, now that you know how many wheat plants will grow in an acre, you get a pretty good idea of how much wheat you can harvest and how many people you can feed.”

  I paused, looking to see if any lightbulbs were going off in their young brains. But, honestly, I didn’t see shit. I tried again.

  “Here’s another example. Say you want to build a house and you need to know how much concrete to pour for the foundation. The first measurement you take is the square footage, oh and how thick it’s going to be, then you know how much concrete you’ll need. See?”

  After a moment, a little girl raised her hand. I pointed at her with a smile.

  “Are we going to build a house?”

  “Um, no, not right now.”

  “Why not?” another one asked.

  I looked over at Kelly. “Okay, I give up.”

  She giggled at my efforts and looked at the clock on the wall. “Okay, everyone. Put your things away and line up to go to lunch.”

  Chapter 37 – Return from Fort Detrick


  “Alright, men, five miles to go,” Justin said over the radio. He was in in the lead vehicle and was standing in the open hatch. In addition to the second Stryker they brought with them, they were bringing the two abandoned Strykers back home with them. If the vaccine works, it was going to be a successful mission. He might even pester General Fosswell for a promotion, he thought with a smile. He keyed the microphone.

  “I want to tell you I’m proud of all of you. Nobody died, nobody got infected, and we accomplished the mission. You done good, men, you done good.”

  “I’ve never been so glad to see this place in my life,” Joker said as the grounds of Mount Weather came into view.

  “Yeah,” Kirby agreed.

  They parked the four Strykers at the decontamination station. Everyone got out and stretched. One of the guards exited the post and started walking toward them, but Justin waved them off.

  “Gather around, everyone,” Justin ordered. He waited until everyone was together in a loose formation. The two scientists awkwardly stood off to the side. Justin motioned toward them.

  “Why don’t you two go on inside. We’ll bring your equipment in shortly.”

  Justin waited until they walked away before speaking in a low voice.

  “First, I want to commend you Marines. Everyone’s performance was top notch; you made my job easier. We’ll have a more detailed debriefing at a later time, but for now, I just wanted to say I’m proud to be a part of you hard chargers.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Sergeant Crumby replied.

  “Second, we’re going to go ahead and get these vehicles decontaminated before we do anything else.”

  He got a few hard looks, but nobody said anything.

  “We’ll worry about the rest later, but I must insist all of you shower before evening chow. We all smell awful.”

  There were a couple of guffaws now.

  “Now, for the final thing I need to tell you men: I owe you Marines an apology. There are some things that have happened here while we were at Fort Detrick and I kept the information from you.”

  “What happened, sir?” Joker asked.

  “The president was murdered,” Justin replied. The Marines erupted with sounds of disbelief followed by a barrage of questions. He waited for the noise to die down and then explained.

  “What are we going to do?” Corporal Conway asked.

  Justin saw two carts approaching, each being driven by a Fosswell. He lowered his voice and spoke quickly.

  “For now, we’ll obey our chain-of-command. We’ll talk more about all of this later when we know more details. Whatever we do, we do together, and we only talk about this amongst ourselves. Oo-rah?”

  “Oo-rah!” the Marines said in unison.

  “Alright, let’s get this equipment cleaned up.”

  They started up the pressure washer and quickly began spraying down the Strykers. Justin helped out, but watched out of the corner of his eye as the two Fosswells spoke with the two scientists for several minutes. The scientists got on one of the carts with General Fosswell and they made a U-turn. A guard opened the gate and Captain Fosswell drove out. He made his way down the roadway and parked a few feet away. Justin walked over and rendered a salute to the captain.

  “I need you to load up the doctor’s equipment,” the captain said. He hadn’t even bothered getting out of the cart and made it clear he had no intention of assisting with the manual labor.

  Justin recruited Joker to help him with the equipment. When they got it loaded, Captain Fosswell stared pointedly at Justin. “This stuff isn’t going to get unloaded by itself, Lieutenant.”

  Justin held back a sigh and looked at Joker. “Give him a hand, will you?”

  “Absolutely, sir,” Joker said and jumped in the passenger seat. He then stretched, letting his left armpit get close to the captain’s face.

  Captain Fosswell looked at him briefly in annoyance before focusing back on Justin.

  “There’ll be a briefing in thirty minutes in Secretary Stark’s conference room. Your presence will be required, but don’t bring any of these smelly soldiers with you.”

  “Aye, sir,” Justin replied and then lowered his voice. “Can you give me any additional info, sir?”

  “All in due time, Lieutenant.”

  “Yes, sir,” Justin said and rendered a salute. Captain Fosswell returned the salute casually and started to drive off, but paused momentarily.

  “Since you’ve been gone, General Fosswell took the liberty of appointing Corporal Bullington as his administrative assistant. You didn’t hear it from me, but she’s anxious to see you, and she may even have some answers to your questions.”

  “Aye, sir,” Justin said. Even though he’d been going on only four hours of sleep a night for the past two weeks, he had a feeling Ruth was going to keep him up half the night telling him everything that had been going on.

  They got the armored vehicles hosed down in no time and double-timed to the locker room. Justin caught Ruth in the hallway on the way to the cafeteria and pulled her into an unoccupied side room. He kissed her and hugged her tightly.

  “Easy, big guy,” she said, smiling. “I’m pregnant you know. Besides, you need to take a long shower, you smell.”

  “Maybe you can scrub my back,” he said with a grin.

  “Maybe,” she agreed, still smiling. “I have a lot to tell you.”

  “Okay, you can tell us all during dinner.”

  Ruth pushed away and shook her head. “No, half the stuff I have to tell you is secret. You’re not going to believe some of it.”

  Justin looked at her questioningly. “Okay, but the boys are dying to know what the hell is going on.”

  Ruth gave him a pat on the cheek. “Alright.” She was interrupted by the sound of the klaxon, followed by an announcement over the intercom.

  “We have zombies approaching the main gate! Repeat, we have zombies approaching the main gate!”

  “Damn it,” Justin growled and sprinted back outside. He heard the sound of automatic weapons fire, and by the time he made it to the front gate, it was all over. Conway and Jenkins were standing in the open hatches of two of the Strykers, the barrels of their machine guns smoking.

  Justin jogged up and saw fifteen zombies lying dead in the roadway. Conway looked over.

  “What’re you doing out here, sir?” he asked.

  Justin stood there, catching his breath and looking at the carnage. “That’s a good question,” he said. The other Marines broke out in laughter.

  Chapter 38 – The Vaccine

  “So, tell me, what’s the next step with the vaccine?” I asked Parvis. He was watching Senator Nelson and I play chess. The senator took my rook with his queen. I quickly moved my remaining knight.

  “Check,” I casually mentioned. His king was hemmed in by other pieces, so his only move was to take my knight with his queen. He did so, and I took his queen with a pawn.

  “Damn,” he muttered.

  I waited quietly as he worked it out and realized he was going to be mated in three moves. He sighed as he pushed over his king.

  “Well played, sir,” he said and stood. “I’m going to take a break and stretch my legs.”

  “Fancy a game?” Parvis asked after he’d walked off. I looked up and motioned toward the empty chair.

  Parvis smiled and took his place. “Your game is good, but not perfect,” he said as he began resetting the pieces.

  “Human trials,” he said as I advanced a pawn and he quickly advanced one of his own. I looked at him in puzzlement until I realized he was answering my question.

  “When?” I asked and moved a piece. He responded by quickly moving another man, like we were under the clock, which we weren’t.

  “Tomorrow morning. Two people have volunteered.”

  “That’s not very many,” I remarked.

  “Nope, it isn’t. A few people are going to be voluntold,” he said, moved a piece and lowered his voice. “The Marines.”

/>   “All of them?” I asked.

  “Half. The pregnant one, Bullington, is exempt, but, we’re going to need some women to volunteer as well, eventually.”

  Each of us was silent for the next few minutes as we developed our men. There was a quick trade off of pieces, leaving each of us down one knight and a pawn. The appearance of the board looked like I had better development, but I caught a small smirk on his face, which made me slow down a little and reassess the board. I almost missed it, but he was setting me up for a trap. The obvious move was for me to push my king’s bishop pawn into a fork which would threaten a bishop and his remaining knight, but it was exactly what he wanted me to do. If I did it, he’d move his knight, I’d take the bishop, and he’d move his knight again, trapping my queen.

  “Are there any side effects?” I asked, wondering if he would answer honestly.

  “Shouldn’t be,” he said as he watched me move a pawn, freeing up my queen and queen’s bishop. He was no longer smirking.

  Yeah, no issues. It was easy to state there were no issues when you haven’t done anything.

  Our first game ended in a stalemate.

  “I have a question for you,” I said as we set up the board again.

  “Shoot,” he said.

  “You have an intimate knowledge of this place and the protocol, correct?”

  “Yep.”

  I was black in the first game. Now I was white and moved a pawn.

  “What happened to the rest of the people on Capitol Hill? The Marines said not all of them were brought to Mount Weather.”

  “For continuity of government purposes, they were divided up into three groups, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. Mount Weather is designated for Alpha group. Bravo and Charlie were to be located in other bunkers similar to Weather.”