He started to look for the remote control for the television in the bedroom, caught himself doing something irrational, and realized he wasn’t right yet. Stryker glanced around the bedroom, saw a vase of flowers that were long dead and all but dust now, then looked out the window at an abandoned world.
“Here it is.” Erin entered the bedroom with a steaming cup of coffee in her right hand.
“I’m still not right.” Stryker accepted the coffee cup from her and again glanced out the window.
“Well, some concussions take a long time to get over. But they almost always wear off.”
“Almost?” Stryker asked.
“Usually.”
“That’s not the most encouraging answer I ever had.”
“You want the howdy-doody version or the truth?” Erin stared at him with a look of evaluation.
“You know the answer.”
“You banged your head pretty hard against the concrete during the fight, and then had your airway closed for a few minutes. I don’t know how to evaluate that because it was not taught to us in nursing school. So, I can only guess the combination of the two events is going to keep you laid up for a while.”
“You talk to Edwards?”
“Yes, he called this morning, and he and Elle were crossing the California border, headed south. He thinks he’ll be here tomorrow, and they’re fine.”
“Good to know. I guess I’ll hang out here for the day and he and I can figure out what to do when he gets here.”
“Are you still having doubts about going to the base?”
“I guess it’s inevitable that we’ll end up there,” he replied. “But, yes, I have my doubts about turning us over to a man we don’t know who may are may not turn out to be a guy you want to work for, or one who will be careful about how he chooses to use us.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Always.”
“I’ll make breakfast and be back in a bit.”
“See if you can find a crossword puzzle and pencil on the shelf in the living room,” Stryker said to her back.
A few minutes later, Erin returned with a plate of reconstituted eggs, something that looked like hash, and a puzzle and pencil. She laid the tray across his belly. “Anything else you want?”
“No, but where’s Haley?”
“She’s out making another cross for the grave.”
“You couldn’t find the one I made?”
“We did, but it was blown apart by the wind or something so she decided to make a new one. It’s probably best that you can’t watch her make it. She’s learning woodworking on the go.”
“Does she have her weapon with her?”
“Yeah, she’s in the garage and armed.”
Stryker saw that Erin was wearing her holster and the M-4 was draped over her shoulder in its sling. He nodded his approval and then piled into his breakfast. The eggs were terrible, the hash salty and dry, but it didn’t matter. He cleaned his plate and felt better almost immediately.
“I’ve never had a worse meal that tasted that good.” He smiled at Erin, who sat in a chair at the side of the bed.
“You haven’t eaten since noon yesterday, so I expect anything would taste good now.”
“I didn’t eat supper last night?”
“No, you were out,” she replied. “We brought you in the bedroom and you checked out in two seconds.”
“Is it normal to sleep that long?”
“After a concussion, yes, it is. She paused for a moment. “I’m going to go help Haley. If you need something, just yell. I’ll open the bedroom window so we can hear you.”
She opened the window, returned to the bed and kissed him on the cheek, then left the room.
Stryker stared out the window at a world devoid of color. The lawns across the street were filled with dead grass and tall weeds. The homes were covered with faded and peeling paint. Nothing moved, and the air was still. The trees across the street had drooping branches and were leafless. The irrigation system on the base was clearly no longer working.
He watched as tumbleweeds rolled down the street followed by a tattered piece of what must have been a newspaper.
Stryker thought back to the fight he lost. He had not been the loser in a fight since grade school, and thought about what he could have done differently. He realized his mistake was arrogance and pride. He’d let the man get him on the ground and what he should have done is picked up his pistol and shot him while he was down. But, he could not conceive of actually being bested in combat and had chosen the riskier path.
Or, he could have stepped back and told Erin to shoot him. He shook his head in disgust, wondering why he had behaved so stupidly.
It was not a mistake he would repeat. Next time, he would take the safer path and end his opponent while they were down.
“You look like you should have smoke coming out your ears,” Erin said from the open window. “What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing,” he replied. “Just wishing I was up and moving.”
“Be patient. It will probably go away by tomorrow.”
Stryker just shrugged.
“Haley and I want to go look around the base to see what’s here. We’re getting low on bottled water and I should find you some pain killers as well. We also could use some new clothes and baths. Is that okay with you?”
“Sure.” He glanced at his holstered XD on the bedside stand. “Just take your weapons and stay alert.” Stryker felt like the father of a teenage girl who just asked to have her curfew extended past midnight.
“Okay, we’ll be back in about an hour,”
“There’s a base map on the bookshelf. Take that with you.”
“I need a map? Really?”
“It’s a huge installation and you just need to be able to find your way back. We’re in base housing on the southeast side of Pendleton. If you have any problems, just hurry back here. You can probably find some of the stuff at the Base Exchange, and there are several clinics around the base that will have medications.”
“Good, I don’t want to go to the hospital and navigate through all the skeletons around it.” She paused for a moment. “Do you suppose there’s any running water anywhere?”
“I doubt it,” he replied. “There wasn’t any when I left here and I doubt much has changed.”
“Got it. See you later.”
He heard the front door open and close, the rumble of the Humvee’s diesel engine, and then the sound of it pulling away.
Stryker picked up the book of crossword puzzles, looked at it briefly, and felt the headache get a lot worse. He put it down on the bed and lay back with his eyes closed.
He woke up with a start when he heard the vehicle pull into the driveway and forced himself to sit up. The headache returned, less intense now, and he pulled his removed his XD from the holster and held it, barrel down.
“You feeling any better?” Erin asked as she entered the room, followed by Haley. They were both wearing BDUs.
“A little bit. The headache is nowhere near as bad.”
“Well, if you need them, take one of these every six hours. She set a box of pills on the night stand and handed him a water bottle.
“What is it?”
“Percocet,” Erin answered.
He looked box doubtfully. “I don’t think I’ll need them.”
“Well, if you do, take them.”
“Did you find everything?” Stryker asked.
“Yes.”
“Was that the best you could do for new clothes?”
“It’s practical,” Haley answered. “They are loose and comfortable, and they’re warm.”
“You were right about the map,” Erin said. “We did have to use it to get back here. I had no idea how large this place was. It’s like a city in a city. There is everything you can think of our there, including pools, tennis courts, movie theatres and everything else known to man.”
“Haven’t you ever been on a base before?” Stryker asked.
“Well, no. Why would I?”
“I guess I thought Sarge would have showed you around at some point.”
“Nope,” Erin replied. “We usually only saw him when he came to visit on holidays or was back from overseas.”
“You guys had it pretty good here,” Haley said.
Stryker nodded. “We did.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Edwards and Elle arrived the following day, pulling into the driveway in their Humvee and parking behind the one that Erin and Haley had used the day before.
When he heard the vehicle pull up, Stryker was in the back yard, pounding the new cross into the grave he had dug for his wife and daughter two years ago. He finished driving the cross in, touched his fingers to his lips, and caressed the top of the cross before he unslung his M-4 and moved toward the front of the house.
“Stay here,” he said as he passed. “It’s probably Edwards.” He moved his weapon to the low ready and opened the front door to find Edwards and Elle walking toward the house, both carrying their weapons.
“You look like shit.” Edwards approached with his hand extended.
“That’s just the half of it.”
“What happened?” Edwards asked.
“Long story,” he replied as Elle moved in for a hug.
“Where are the women?” Elle asked.
“Inside and I know they’ll be happy to see you.”
The three moved inside and Erin and Haley rose to meet them in the living room. After an exchange of hugs from all involved, they moved to the back patio and sat around a table drinking coffee.
“I’m sorry about your parents,” Stryker said. “It must be hard never knowing for sure what happened.”
“Thanks for that.” he replied.
“We feel the same way,” Erin said, and then the group fell silent.
“Did you get eyes on the base?” Edwards finally asked.
“No,” Stryker replied.
Edwards examined Stryker’s face and saw something that told him to hold the questions for when they were alone.
“You want to go in tomorrow?” Haley asked.
“Edwards and I will,” Stryker answered.
“We should go too,” Erin said.
“No need, all we want to do is get an idea if the place is up and running and, if so, if the men and women there seem to have their shit in a pile and are organized,” Edwards replied.
“You sure you want to do it that way?” Elle asked.
“I think so,” Stryker answered. “We have to get some idea of what the base is like and I don’t want to just go in and offer ourselves up to whatever power might be there.”
“Caleb needs to rest,” Erin said flatly. “He has a concussion and has been in bed for the day.”
“I’m fine,” Stryker protested. “We need to go after dark and get close to the base to really have any idea what is happening inside the facility.”
“How do you know there will be any light?”
“I don’t, but if there is we will be hidden in the darkness and they will be exposed, so it’s a plus in our column.”
“You’re not going tonight,” Erin said. “You need at least another day under the concussion protocol to be cleared to move around, much less do commando stuff. It’s not going to happen, so get used to it.”
“Edwards?” Stryker asked.
“Doesn’t matter to me,” he shrugged, another question mark in his eyes. Stryker just nodded at him, and he nodded back.
The group ate dinner and the women were in the kitchen cleaning up, when Stryker snatched a bottle of brandy off the bar, grabbed two glasses and motioned Edwards to the patio with a head nod.
The men sat down, Stryker poured two fingers into each glass, and Stryker raised his. “To Sarge.”
“Sarge.”
They both took a sip and put their glasses on the table.
“Okay, what the hell happened?” Edwards asked. “You look like shit and Erin and Haley are obviously worried. Erin said you have a concussion, so something obviously went wrong.”
“Short story is I got beat up in fight.” Stryker raised his glass and took another sip. “Before that, I was rescuing a girl from a flood and damn near died swimming back to our camp. In short, it’s been a pretty shitty week, and I made some pretty poor decisions.”
“Go on.” Edwards waited for a reply.
Stryker told him the whole story. He talked about Emily’s rescue, then the gun battle at her house, and finished with the story of the giant man who had bested him at hand-to-hand combat. Stryker finished the narrative, took another sip of brandy, and gazed at Edwards.
“Well, yes, that was a pretty shitty week,” Edwards said.
“That’s it?”
“What else is there to say? It’s the past, and you learn from it but you put it behind you. There is no clear path forward if you’re looking back. You know that.”
Stryker nodded his head slowly.. Silence ensued as the men finished their drinks.
“How was your trip back?” Stryker asked
“Not anywhere near as fun as yours.” Edward’s voice held a broad note of sarcasm.
“I could live without that kind of ‘fun’.”
“Me too.” Edwards raised his glass in salute.
Two days later, at dusk, the two men set out on their scouting mission. They had debated about taking the M-4s with them, as they were concerned that the captain, if he was a stickler, might object to their possession of the weapons, or it might lead him to conclude that they were both still active and assume they were in his chain of command.
They finally decided to take them as they had no intention of having any contact with the sailors that night or the following day. They also brought NVGs, food and water, and a spotting scope.
After leaving the camp, they drove south on Interstate 5, dodging stalled cars. Neither man detected any movement of any kind along the freeway. They passed through Oceanside, then Carlsbad, and finally past the San Diego International Airport.
“Well,” Edwards shrugged, “I guess the good thing about surviving the plague is you don’t have deal with traffic anymore.”
“I used to make this drive every day when I was doing rehab for my back, and it was at least an hour each way.”
The men drove on without further discussion for the time it took to weave their way around the skyscrapers that defined the boundary of the downtown area, turned south on 32nd Street, and then west on Harbor Drive.
“Let’s park in one of these ramps, and go the rest of the way on foot. I don’t want them to hear the engine,” Stryker said.
“That works.”
They parked on the first floor of a garage under a bank building, headed farther west until they were directly north of the piers, and passed several tall buildings. Then they entered a commercial building on the north side of the road and made their way up several flights of stairs.
“This should be high enough.” Stryker opened the door to the stairwell and both men moved to the south side of the building. As they approached the windows, the view below unfolded and they saw the enormous carrier berthed in the center of three sets of piers that ran across the waterfront.
The sun was dipping into the ocean to the west, but there was still enough light to get a good view below them. Stryker estimated they were around 400 meters from the giant vessel.
An enormous cable snaked out of the ship from a hatch on the forward deck, and ran down the pier into a brick building that sat close to the water.
“How many ships you think are down there?” Edwards peered through the scope.
Stryker shrugged. “Somewhere around fifty I guess. This was the Pacific Fleet’s base and I know they had some number of ships that was around that.”
“I wonder where the sailors are.”
“Probably in the buildings. Let me have the scope.” Stryker brought the scope to his right eye and slowly swept across the entire scene below him.
“
They must be working in shifts,” he said without lowering the scope.
“Why do you say that?”
“They have a string of lights that run down the pier and more around the maintenance building.” Stryker handed Edwards the scope.
“Must be,” Edward said.
“Did you see the Humvees with the Ma Deuces on them at the front gate?” Stryker asked.
“Yeah, but we can’t see the other gates from here.”
“My guess is they’re guarded too. Not much point in posting sentries at one gate and leaving the others uncovered.”
“Question is are they keeping people in, or keeping people out?” Edwards said.
“Well, they’re facing away from the base.”
As the last of the light left the air, the bulbs came on. A group of around two hundred sailors walked out of a high rise apartment building that Stryker knew was the former housing for single sailors and marines that either lived on base or were doing temporary duty assignments.
Stryker donned his NVGs and watched as they entered a large maintenance building. A few seconds later, someone opened the large garage style door that ran across the face of the building. From what he could tell, some were working on vehicles and others seemed to cluster around a large industrial looking device that sat in the center of the bay.
Edwards also put his NVGs on. “I get why they’re working on Humvees, but what the hell is that contraption in the bay?”
“I have no clue. That building is where the cable from the ship goes, so I’m guessing it much have something to do with power.”
“That’s possible,” Edwards said. “When I was here before they had a generator that gave them power to one of the buildings, and the light may be from that generator.”
“I don’t hear anything.”
“It was in a sound proof building behind the maintenance building.”
An hour later, Stryker said, “You want first watch? I don’t think anything else is happening tonight and we might as well get some sleep.”
“Got it. I’ll wake you in four.”
“Stryker,” Edwards hissed.
“What?”
“Put on your NVGs.”
Stryker got up, set the goggles on his head, and then looked at Edwards, who pointed to the west and down at fencing that surrounded the base.
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