In the Lone and Level Sands

by David Lovato

  The first day of tagging had gone well; Johns stayed at base while the others went into the city and spray painted directions and info anywhere they could. Toward the end of the second day, Max saw the building.

  It looked perfect. It was by no means a skyscraper, but it was definitely the tallest building in the area. Max figured it could probably be seen from almost anywhere in town, and even outside of it, from some angles. One of its faces was entirely concrete. No windows, just the ground-floor doors.

  The perfect canvas.

  Anyone still holed up in town, or those just passing through, would be able to see it at some point. But Max didn’t say anything, at first. Instead, as it got darker and more zombies came out, the three got into their Humvee and headed back to the community college. Lou turned on the radio like he always did, and it emitted nothing as it always did. That night, Max didn’t sleep much. He had to debate what to do.

  In the morning, as they were gearing up to head out, Max made his decision.

  “Do you remember that tall building, the one with no windows?”

  The three soldiers looked at him.

  “Max, you’re not thinking about tagging that building, are you?” Ortiz asked.

  “It’s visible from almost anywhere. It’d be way easier to see than our other messages around town.”

  “He’s got a point,” Lou said.

  “It’s risky,” Johns replied. “I don’t even know how many people are left to see it.”

  “We’re trying to bring in as many people as possible,” Max said. “Every person counts. Every one of them. This’ll help a lot.”

  “We have the paint for it,” Lou said. “And we have the gear to get someone up there.”

  “Okay,” Ortiz said. “We can tag that building.”

  Max took a deep breath and prepared himself. “I want to do it.” Once again, he found six eyes on him.

  “Do you think you’re ready for it?” Johns asked.

  “I’m not sure, but I want to try. I’m tired of holding you guys back.”

  “Max, you aren’t—”

  “From the very beginning,” Max said, “I’ve been more of a burden than help. Everything you guys have done, you could’ve done as easily without me. Maybe even easier.”

  “You don’t have to prove yourself to us,” Ortiz said.

  “It’s not for you.” Max brought his hand to his face, felt the wound across his eye. “It’s for me. I need to know that I can do it. If I can come up with an idea, and execute it, and if that helps people, then I’ll know I can do anything I need to. Please.”

  The soldiers exchanged glances. “Okay,” Ortiz said.

  Max, Lou, and Ortiz drove out to the building and took out the closest zombies. They made their way to the roof with relative ease, and the roof was completely deserted. The three set up a harness, and Lou and Ortiz used a drill-like device to put some metal rings into the concrete. They ran a rope through these, with one end of the rope leading through the harness and the other into a large metal coil, which they also drilled into the ground.

  “Okay, this is your clamp,” Ortiz said. “This’ll be at your side at all times. Just squeeze it to let yourself down, and let go to stop moving. Try not to go too fast, okay? Take your time.”

  Working the harness seemed to be the easy part; being 150 feet up was where it got tricky.

  “Ortiz will use a bag to lower anything you need down to you,” Lou said. “I’ll be on the ground, making sure your sign is legible.”

  “It might not be safe down there,” Max said.

  “I’ll be all right. I’ll try to stay in the Humvee as much as possible. You just try not to fall, okay?”

  “I wasn’t planning on it.”

  They helped him into the harness.

  ****

  He had stood there for a few moments, just breathing heavily. His feet were planted firmly on the edge of the building, and his hands were clamped tightly on the cable and his harness. He leaned backward, making sure the cable was taut, and stayed that way. Lou was already on his way down the building, and Ortiz said nothing. It was like he could sense what Max was doing, that Max needed him not to ask or rush him.

  Max leaned back a little more, waited.

  He looked down as often as possible. There was no sense in pretending he wasn’t a deadly height off the ground. If he could get used to it, it would only make the job that much easier.

  “You’re not going to fall,” Ortiz said. There was that mind-reading, again. “Even if you zip down the whole way, I can stop the coil long before you hit the ground. You’ll slide down, the harness will lock, and you’ll have bruises on your sides. That’s it.”

  “Thanks,” Max said. He leaned back farther; now he was standing completely straight, but at a 45-degree angle from the roof, his feet barely holding him up, the cable taut as possible. Like dipping toes and then feet and then legs into a lake to get used to the cold, Max wanted to accommodate himself to gravity pulling at him with full force.

  Max thought about all of the war movies he’d seen, the video games he’d played, thought back to scenes of soldiers rappelling down the sides of buildings in no time flat.

  Max took a few steps backward. He pressed into the concrete, held the rope and the clamp, and slowly went backward until he was air-sitting with his legs on the face of the building. Finally, Max felt ready.

  He let go of the building, but didn’t squeeze the clamp handle. Max swung forward, turning slightly, and bumped his side against the building. Instead of sliding down slowly with nothing but concrete to look at, he saw the city far below and spinning.

  “You okay?” Ortiz asked.

  Max hung there, a few feet from the roof. He wasn’t touching the rope or the clamp, he was just suspended by the harness at his waist. Vertigo was setting in, but he let it. If leaning back from the edge was the equivalent of dipping his toes in the water, this mistake he had made was the equivalent of tripping and falling in: Frightening, but effective.

  “Yeah, I’m all right,” Max said. He leaned back, stared at the tops of buildings as they faced down toward an infinite sky. It made him uncomfortable.

  “Want to get back up here? I can go down and tag the building.”

  “Let me try again.”

  Max grabbed the rope and sat up, feet against the wall. He held the rope tightly, let go of the wall, then squeezed the clamp.

  It was more terrifying than Max could’ve anticipated. One second he felt safe and secure, then he was in free-fall. The building’s face whizzed by in a gray blur. He closed his eyes and prayed the rope wouldn’t snap.

  His hand kicked in and let go of the clamp. Max stopped moving, the harness yanked hard at his sides. He opened his eyes and looked down, then up. Ortiz was several feet above him, leaning over the edge, looking down, clapping his hands.

  “God job, Max!”

  “Thanks,” Max said, “but let’s wait until I get this paint up before we celebrate.”

  Or better yet, let’s wait until I’m back on solid ground.

  ****

  What felt like a half hour passed before Max settled into a position where he could start spraying.

  “How is this going to work?” Max shouted to Ortiz.

  “You’ll have to do one letter at a time, then come back up so we can move you over a little.”

  “Got it!” Max said. He wondered how to word the message. It couldn’t be too long, but if it was too short it wouldn’t be of any help. Max might only have one shot.

  It was a tedious process. Max began his message, making sure to look across the building’s face with every spray, eyeballing the size and hoping the message would fit. He didn’t want to make things more complicated, but he figured he’d need at least two lines of text.

  When he finished all he could reach along one area, he signaled up to Ortiz. Ortiz would reel Max in and help him move to the side slightly, where he’d repeat the process.

  When he ran out of
paint, he signaled to Ortiz, who would lower a bag to him. Max would take a new can, put the old can in the bag, and continue.

  After about a half hour, Max and Ortiz moved the rope back across the building, and Max lowered himself to start the next line of text.

  The process repeated, and as the sky threatened sunset, Max realized he was done.

  He looked down, hoping to see Lou. He had heard shots fired a few times, but couldn’t see anything. He didn’t think he’d be able to hear Lou call up to him to tell him whether the message looked good or not anyway, so he looked back up at Ortiz and signaled to pull him up.

  Ortiz pulled Max back over the edge of the building and patted his back. “Good job, soldier.”

  Max took the harness off, letting his sides breathe. “We’ll have to wait and see, I think.”

  “Let’s meet up with Lou,” Ortiz said. They headed back down the building and found Lou just outside. He stared up, holding his gun.

  “You did a great job, Greenwald,” Lou said without looking down. Max got out from under the building’s awning, stepped out a few yards, then looked up. His message was large and clearly legible:

  COMMUNITY COLLEGE SAFE

  ZONE NORTH ROUTE 26

  “It looks better than I thought it would,” Max said.

  “Well, hopefully it works as well. I hate to leave the looking party so soon, but it’s getting late. We should head back to base.”

  “Good idea.” Max didn’t mind. To be perfectly honest, he’d seen enough of the building for a while. The soldiers climbed into the Humvee and headed toward the college.

  “So, tonight should be ripe for celebrating, right?” Lou looked at the radio, noticed it was off, and turned it on.

  “It’s just a building,” Max said. “We still have more important work to do, like setting up the walls.”

  “Not that,” Lou said. Max looked confused. Lou laughed. “You really have no idea, do you?” He waited a moment, and then laughed more.

  “It’s the 4th of July, kid,” Ortiz said. Max suddenly felt very out-of-place. He hadn’t been keeping track of the days at all.

  “Everything is just a blur, these days,” he said.

  “Well, you’ll remember tonight,” Lou said. “We’ve got some fireworks.”

  “Fireworks?” Max wondered where (and when) the soldiers had gone to get fireworks; all he ever saw them return from their outings with was food, clothes, and ammunition. He wondered if fireworks would be appropriate, given the situation.

  “Not really fireworks,” Ortiz said. “We have some large-scale flares. We’re going to set a few off, get people’s attention. Now that we’ve tagged up the place, we should start bringing people in.”

  “Won’t that also attract the zombies? Did you consider that?”

  “We were counting on it,” Lou said. “Those freaks will be occupied trying to get to the source, which will actually be a few miles from here. And, assuming the zombies can’t read, any survivors in the area will get to the college with little trouble.”

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Max said. He was beginning to feel excited, even if they were just flares. Every year on Independence Day, his family would walk up to the nearby park and watch the fireworks display. It was a big tradition. Max knew it would never happen again, and it hurt him to think about it. But the thought of seeing this new display, with this new family, was comforting.

  In the distance, Max’s building was fading away. The message was still clear enough, and for the first time that day, Max was able to see past his soreness and his tiredness at the work he had done, at what he had accomplished, and he finally felt proud.

  Once again, he felt free.

  57

  In Fort Knox

  Clark and Aimes took the liberty of showing Evan and the others around the common areas, where they’d be staying. There was the mess hall, the rec room, the quarters, and a few other civilian areas. Evan, Cynthia, and Mal would share a room, and the others bunked up in four other rooms down the row.

  “The beds aren’t the most comfortable,” Aimes said, patting the top bunk of the room Evan and his family were going to sleep in. “But you guys will be safe here.”

  “They’ll be fine, I’m sure,” Cynthia said. “Thank you again. I don’t think we would have made it out of there without you.”

  “There were so many of them outside the building,” Clark said. “Without guns, it would have been hard for sure.”

  “I want the top bunk!” Mal said.

  “I think that’ll be fine,” Evan said. Mal climbed the ladder to her new bed.

  “I’m queen of the tower!”

  “Seems like your girl likes it okay,” Aimes said after a chuckle.

  After confirming that Evan and his family had everything they needed, Clark and Aimes left to check on the other survivors.

  In the next room, Daisy and Stephanie were chatting. Vanessa had chosen to stay in the same room as them, but she still wasn’t saying much.

  “It’s cozier here than I’d imagined,” Stephanie said.

  “It’s okay,” Daisy replied. “Just glad to be out of the Cardigan. These beds sure are comfier than the couches. Being up in that building made me want to deep throat an anti-aircraft cannon.”

  “At least it was fairly safe,” Stephanie said. “It’s definitely safer here, though.”

  “Yeah, no kidding,” Daisy said.

  Stephanie looked at Vanessa. “You know, I bet they can get you something else to wear besides that dress. That can’t be very good for you, emotionally.”

  “I don’t want to get rid of it,” Vanessa said. “It has too many memories.”

  “Memories that I’d want to forget, if I were you.”

  “Forget?” Vanessa laughed a little. “I remember the name I gave my first stuffed animal, and that was almost thirty years ago. I won’t forget these past few days. I won’t forget my wedding. I won’t forget all the screaming, the bloodshed. Or how Butch and I were the only ones who made it out alive… Out of the entire wedding party and all the guests, just us two.”

  “You don’t need to get rid of it, hon,” Daisy said, “but you should at least change out of it and into something else. Something clean, and more comfortable.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Just for being here. I’m sure I’ve been a pain.”

  “It’s understandable, Vanessa,” Stephanie said. “Don’t worry about it, okay?”

  “Yeah, no prob,” Daisy said. “I was unnecessarily hard on you.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Vanessa said. She smiled.

  Clark and Aimes knocked on the door to their room. Stephanie opened it.

  “Hey, you three,” Aimes said, “whenever you get hungry, you can head over to the mess hall.”

  “Hey,” Stephanie said, “do you guys keep any spare clothes?”

  “There’s a set-up by the mess hall where we’ve got clothes of all shapes and sizes,” Clark said. “Whenever you want, you can go pick some stuff out.”

  “Thanks, guys,” Daisy said. The soldiers smiled and disappeared into the hall.

  ****

  “This place is massive,” Jason said. He lay on the top bunk in his and Eugene’s sleeping quarters, staring up at the white ceiling.

  Eugene paced back and forth in the middle of the room. “It…”

  “What?” Jason turned his head to the side, looking over at Eugene.

  “Sorry, what d-did you say?”

  “I was just talking about how big this place is, Fort Knox.”

  “It is quite large. Almost…”

  “Huh?” Jason said. “Almost what?”

  “Oh, n-nothing,” Eugene replied. “It’s nice they came around.”

  “Are you okay, man?” Jason sat up, and Eugene came to a stop.

  “Wh-why do you ask?” Eugene adjusted his glasses, but then took them off.

  “You’re pacing, you seem even more n
ervous than you usually do. You’re dripping sweat. Do you want me to make a list?”

  “I’m fine, really.”

  “Look, is it what happened on the helicopter? Since we’ve been here, it’s been real calm. It just makes me uptight when others are acting uptight, and you should know that I’m not uptight.” Jason jumped down from the top bunk and looked into Eugene’s jittery eyes. Eugene sighed. While fiddling with his glasses, he dropped them. Before he got the chance to make a grab for them, Jason raised a hand. “Don’t worry, I got ‘em.” Jason retrieved them and held them up for Eugene.

  “Thank you, J-Jason.”

  “No need, I just want to know what’s wrong. That is, if you want to tell me.”

  “I’m a little… claustrophobic,” Eugene said.

  “Oh, that’s it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, you’ll get past it, right?”

  “I usually d-do after a little while.” Jason grinned and patted Eugene’s shoulder. “I d-don’t like heights either, which is why I didn’t like being in the C-Cardigan. I d-didn’t get much sleep there.”

  “None of us did,” Jason said. “You’ll be fine. Just keep positive. There’s always hope, right?”

  “That’s right. I guess I’m just messed up.”

  “We all are, these days. That’s what makes us normal though, man. That’s what makes us human. If you can see what we saw back in Chicago and come out unscathed, then you’ve got bigger problems than most. We just need to keep a clear head about these things.”

  ****

  The graying sky was only getting darker. The clouds grew thick and dark over the world below, menacing in their appearance, like swelling beasts. They moved in and finally began to let loose their contents.

  Rainwater ran down the big “Welcome to Fort Knox” sign and onto the grass around it. It was a long rain that fell for hours.

  The mess hall was almost empty around 8:30 p.m. on the 26th of June, when Evan and the others ate dinner (which consisted of soup, bread and butter, and soda). Afterward, they moved to the rec room. Inside were a couple pool tables, a decent-sized TV, some couches; in the back was a small library, just a few shelves full of classics like Of Mice and Men and Moby Dick. Vanessa sat down with a book out of a small Stephen King section. Evan and the others were playing pool.