The Service Centre (Zombie Transference Book 1)

by Tom Germann

  He tuned her out over the sobbing from the soldier. “It burns, it burns…”

  “Shut up and give me your hand.” There was silence for a second. The girl in the back was smashing the phone on the cradle. “The line’s dead!” she yelled.

  Out of the back, some fat guy with stains on his shirt came lumbering forward, looking around and yawning, “What’s going on out here? I heard someone scream…” He stopped and started gawking at the soldier lying on the floor and the people surrounding him.

  “Okay, hold up, everyone! What happened?”

  Everyone ignored him while the older soldier talked quietly to the others, including the stock boy who was staring wide-eyed at the soldier on the ground.

  The sergeant called out, “Sir, come and look at this.” The soldier walked over and knelt down to look at the young man on the ground.

  He was holding his hands out and held them like they were claws with his fingers curled in. The sergeant carefully rotated the hand by the wrist and brought the palms up.

  The soldier kept shivering, and grunted in pain.

  The sergeant looked at the soldier. “It’s okay, you just got some sort of electric shock and the numbness will pass soon. You just need to relax.” He looked over his shoulder at the warrant officer. “I’ve seen a few electric burns in my time, and others as well. There’s no marks on his body, so it couldn’t have been that much. The only thing is that his arms feel like ice.”

  The officer took a knee next to the soldier and started talking to him. “You’re going to be fine. No marks means that whatever happened hurt a lot but wasn’t serious. Just relax and take it easy for now.” He put the back of his hand against the soldier’s wrist and then scowled. “You are as cold as ice. Let’s get a blanket over him and elevate his feet, just in case of shock. I haven’t seen that much in the way of burns before, but I’ve never heard of a freezer burn from a door in summer.”

  The blonde brought up a blanket from the back and they covered the soldier with it, being careful of his hands, which were still clenched tight. When they were touched, he mewled in pain.

  Everyone stayed far away from the doors and windows, except for the younger trucker, Sam. He was sniffing and carefully examining the glass and the metal framing. He backed off and turned, looking confused. Jimmy was staying well back from the doors. “What’s wrong, Sam?”

  The young trucker looked at the older man. “Jimmy, I’ve seen a few electrical burns and been there when they happened. It smells like a big short, but that feeling you get when you get close to a live wire isn’t there. I know there is a current, but it just doesn’t feel like a normal short or anything like that. I can’t explain it.”

  Jimmy nodded and considered the soldier lying on the floor. Steven had come over to the group, and the warrant officer stood up and joined them as well.

  Steven said, “So, if the lights went out in the parking lot, is it possible that the power was redirected to the front doors? Is this some sort of attack?”

  Richard, the heavy set man, was watching. “No, we had a blowout from a bad storm a few years ago. If the lights went out outside like that, they would have taken out the lights inside as well. The electrical here is kinda patchy and there is supposed to be a rebuild for this centre coming as it gets modernized, including new electrical.”

  The officer looked at Richard. “I saw cameras all over the outside. Are they monitoring and is it recorded?”

  Richard nodded. “Yes, and the cameras are hardwired, so they should still have power.”

  The warrant officer looked around at everyone standing in the main area of the service centre. “I am guessing that for something to happen like that, it could not be an accident. Someone would have had to set that up? Correct?” He looked at Sam. “You know something about electricity, correct?”

  Sam blinked slowly several times while he thought. “Yes. It would have to have been done deliberately, or the outside lights wouldn’t have gone out like they did.”

  The officer turned to where the sergeant was still hovering over the shivering private. “Sergeant Caisson, I think we may have a problem.” The sergeant stood up and started looking around at the outside of the building. The warrant officer turned to Richard, who was clearly in charge of the service centre. “How many outside doors are there to this place? Are they secured?”

  Richard looked around nervously. “There are four doors in and we lock them all, except the front ones, for security. There are cameras that record everything inside as well as outside.”

  The officer nodded and was about to speak when the inside lights went out. Everyone started yelling and screaming.

  The black was absolute and terrifying for modern man. It was like the entire building had been put into a sealed box. Someone bumped into something and knocked it over, starting a chain reaction of other people moving and knocking things over. The cries increased until a voice bellowed, “QUIET! Everyone STOP FUCKIN’ MOVING and stay still! Anyone with a flashlight, pull it out and let’s get some light on the situation NOW.”

  The sounds of movement stopped and then came the sounds of hands scrabbling. Suddenly, a light came on. The bright beam of light lit up a display case and then was pointed downward. It stopped at the boots of the older soldier. “Does anyone else have a flashlight on them?”

  Three more came on, giving more light to the area. Two of the soldiers and the older trucker had flashlights that snapped on.

  Suddenly, the two emergency lights started to glow and put out a sickly yellow light that helped illuminate parts of the inside of the building.

  The stock boy was holding onto a display case for dear life, looking like he was about to start crying. He looked around frantically, releasing his grip on the display case and starting to edge down the aisle toward the back. “I can’t be here. I gotta get out of here!” He turned and took off for the back office.

  Richard started running after him, yelling, “Sal! Stop! There’s no place to go back there! Don’t touch the door!”

  Sal was already gone. A second later, everyone could hear a scream, which broke off. Richard and Tracy went into the back with the other two privates, and they all came out with Sal held up between the two soldiers. He was whimpering. They placed him next to the other private and made sure that both were stable. During that time, Susie had gone into the backroom with Jimmy and Sam and started pulling out some old emergency supplies from the last major blackout a few years previously.

  There were three lanterns that ran on fuel in the back storage room, along with several smaller battery-operated versions that could be used as well.

  The argument over what to use was short. The warrant officer put forward the best argument against using the fuel-operated lanterns. “Look, I don’t see anything outside. None of us can see anything outside, correct?” Everyone agreed with that.

  “I don’t want to freak anyone out, but what if there is nothing outside? If we have no more oxygen coming into the building, then lighting those lanterns would be a mistake. We could burn off our oxygen supply that much faster.”

  Richard laughed at that. “Come on! We have to be somewhere! We can’t have just been ripped off of the planet and put in deep space. There has to be more air coming in from somewhere. This is just some sick new reality show, or something like a horror movie. I almost think that the government is running this as some sort of experiment.”

  He finished and everyone stared at him.

  Jimmy said it first. “The government went into the middle of nowhere and set us up in a rest centre. Better bet would be a bunch of psycho maniacs want to run experiments on us or kill us slowly. Or that maybe aliens came down and took us all away for probing, or worse.” Jimmy leered around and wiggled his eyebrows.

  Susie giggled. “That could be lots of fun…. Well, for some of us!”

  That brought a laugh an
d broke the tension.

  Steven, Jimmy, and two of the soldiers just started ripping open packages and putting batteries in the small lanterns.

  With no power in the building, Susie and Tracy took coffee orders and over Richard’s protests, let everyone know they could help themselves to ice cream.

  Just in case this was some sort of weird fluke, the girls took down who had what, just in case everything went back to normal. Everyone sat around at the tables and ate sandwiches and ice cream while sipping hot coffee.

  Sal and the younger soldier were up and moving around stiffly, but getting better by the second. There were no marks on their hands and the only side effects seemed to be a headache and overall stiffness. They had been told to take it easy and were being watched in case they relapsed.

  What anyone would do if it was serious, no one really knew. None knew anything more than basic first aid.

  Steven stood up. “Hi, everyone. I think we need to get organized and figure some things out. We could be here for a few hours or longer. How about we just go around and tell a bit about ourselves so we all at least know each other. Just who you are, what you do, and if you have any special training or skills. Okay? I’ll go first. My name is Steven Lagrange. I’m a senior manager for a small company, Las Campanas, which translates to ‘the bells.’. I am developing the West Coast and finding business. I came up on the tech side so I know telecommunications. My wife is Janice and she organizes and runs assorted fundraisers in our area, and is also involved volunteering at the local church. I am forty-six years old. Anyone else?”

  Jimmy stood and hitched up his pants. “Hi, everyone, thanks for coming to this meeting and I wish none of us were here! My name is Jimmy Hofmann. Me and my partner Sam were on a long distance haul with a big cargo, which is why there are two trucks. I’m a long distance hauler and a trucker for over twenty years. I can drive anything big and fix a bunch of the little stuff that’s wrong as well. I like engines and playing with cars. I can also load just about anything. If anyone’s looking to pick up a sweet young piece like myself, I come in at fifty-one years old. You go next, Sammy.”

  Sam stood up, looking nervous. “You maybe know me now as Sam. It’s Samuel Jon Cooper. I’m twenty-six and am a licenced electrician. But I don’t like doing that so I just started driving truck. This is my probationary time and I’m working with Jimmy here, who is showing me the ropes. I really just want to get home to my girlfriend as she’s worried about me.” As Sam sat down, everyone caught Jimmy rolling his eyes.

  Susie giggled and whispered to Tracy, “That is so sweeeeet. Maybe we can find you a sweet guy like that, Tracy?”

  Tracy leapt up before anyone else could. “My name is Tracy. I’m twenty and I am going back for my second year of college. I don’t doubt that the government would conduct experiments on small groups for the right reasons.” She sat back down.

  Steven looked around. “Tracy, what skills do you have? What are you going to college for?”

  Tracy looked up from playing with her phone. “I can drive and I’m doing first year general studies.” She went back to playing with her phone, not noticing everyone staring at her and most of the soldiers just shaking their heads.

  Susie stood up. “Well, if that is the best Tracy can manage, I can do better. My name is Susan Belrose, call me Susie or Sue. I’m twenty and I live just down the road in town. I did track in high school and still run. I have lots of skills, I just don’t know what all would be relevant for here. I have a first aid course because I lifeguard at the community pool in town. I’ve worked here in the service centre for over a year and know how most of the place works and what we have in stock.” She sat down again.

  Richard stood up so fast that a piece of sandwich that had fallen onto his shirt was propelled across the room. “My name is Richard Blund. I’m twenty-seven and I’ve been the manager here at the ‘Top Ten’ service centre on the night shift for the last six years.” He sat down again.

  A voice whispered, “It looks like he lies in the fridge and eats the leftover food overnight.”

  Sal stood up. “Hi, I’m Salvatore Vaccaro. I’m seventeen and just moved here to be with my family over the summer. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my life so I’ve been working here. I like to work on cars and race them when I can.”

  The soldiers looked at each other and the oldest one stood up in his relish-colored uniform. “Nice to meet you all, I am Warrant Officer Jonny Wagner. I am forty-five and a supply technician in the Canadian Forces as a reservist. Most of you are probably aware that we had a large contingent down here doing a longer exercise on the base to the south. We were one of the rear parties. Leadership, first aid, instructor, whatever you need done is what we do. Driving is irrelevant here, I guess. We train for domestic operation circumstances and I have done a lot of work with it. Hopefully, this is just a weird atmospheric something or other and we are free and clear soon.” As he sat down, the large tattooed soldier stood up.

  “I’m Sergeant Gus Caisson. I’m actually infantry but was left behind with the support troops to help out. I’m twenty-eight years old, can use every weapon system we have, and have two tours. Oh, and I am a reservist.” He sat and the shorter, stockier soldier stood up.

  “I’m Corporal Chris Vajjer, I am a Regular Army Weapon Tech sent down to work with the reserves. I’m thirty-one and have three tours. If it’s broken, I can fix it, but I am NOT a vehicle technician.”

  He sat down and then all three of the young privates stood up. They looked at each other and then the first one spoke. “Um, hi. We all just joined and finished our training for the summer and came down here on the exercise. We all have about five months in. I’m Private Tim Weibe, a vehicle technician, and I like to work on cars at my dad’s shop. I’m nineteen.” The private that had been shocked, who had short blonde hair and blue eyes, spoke next. “I’m Private David Andries and I’m Dutch. I am a cook, but I wanted to be infantry. I am eighteen years old.” He sat down. The last private was darker-skinned with a big beaky nose. “I’m Private Adil Tocker. I am a clerk. I am eighteen years old and came here with my family a few years ago because of the violence in my home country in the Middle East. I do what my sergeant tells me.”

  Janice clearly sniffed and looked away while Private Tocker was talking, looking like she had smelled something bad.

  Steven stood again. “Well, that covers all of us. Mmmm, Warrant Wagner, do you train for--” He waved his hands around. “--this? What should we do?”

  Richard leapt up. “Hold on there! This is US soil and those are Canadian soldiers. They have no say in what we do here. This is a company owned rest stop and I’m in charge of it!”

  Sergeant Caisson looked at the red-faced man. “Okay, boss, what do you want to do?”

  Richard just stood there with clenched fists, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly. The sergeant sighed. “Sir, what do you want us to do?”

  Warrant Officer Wagner stayed sitting. “We seem to be okay for air right now, but this entire building is only a thousand square feet. So everyone, stay calm and sit down unless you have to get up. If the oxygen supply is good, then we have to worry about supplies. How much ‘stuff’ do we have and how useful is it? We can survive up to thirty days without eating but only three to four days with no liquid.”

  Tracy piped up, “We’re good. The delivery truck was here yesterday and dropped off a bunch of stuff so we have hundreds of bottles of pop, water, and other drinks. Same with food. The fridge and freezers are pretty full and that stuff has a stale date of weeks.”

  Wagner nodded. “Good, we need to know exactly how much food and water we have and if there are other items here that we can use if we need them. I saw lots of batteries for the lanterns we have, but how many cans of fuel are there for the camping stuff?”

  Susie put her hand up. “We were supposed to do a detailed stock-taking tonight a
nd tomorrow, but really, the inventory control sheets in the back are almost completely correct. We also have some other stuff that’s been back there forever. There are two small generators and gas in the auto body shop that’s attached to this building, along with some other stuff that was sitting there when I started working here. I understand that it’s been sitting there for about two years since the last big power outage in the area. They aren’t big but they’ll keep the coolers going so the food doesn’t rot. I think we are supposed to have enough fuel to run them for, like, three days or so.”

  Everyone looked at one another. Corporal Vajjer looked around. “Yah, I saw the bays on the way in. Has anyone made sure that its ‘here’?” He pointed at his feet. “With us? Can we get to it?”

  Susie nodded. “Oh, it’s here with us, and there is a door in the back into the bays and offices there. We just keep it locked all the time for ‘security’ purposes, even though I don’t get why. I’ve been in there before and there are still toolboxes and other stuff. I mean, it’s not in use but it could be opened tomorrow, or at least it looks that way.”

  Richard was turning beet red again. “There were no mechanics available to work here so the company shut it down. You aren’t supposed to be going through that stuff, and when did you, Susie?”

  “Oh, usually late at night when I was on break and you were sleeping. It gets boring here for eight hours when no one is coming in.”

  Wagner looked at Susie. “How did you know it is still ‘here’?”

  “I looked through the security peephole on the door and you can shine a light through another security hole just lower, so I could see it. Plus, I touched the door and it’s normal. Oh, and the bay doors are all closed and kept locked. But I never went into the bays directly ‘cause I didn’t have a key.” Susie yawned as she finished talking.