In the short time with them, I observed how much they had grown, both as individuals and as a couple. Matthew had become more confident, and Katherine was learning to forgive herself, but both of them strengthened the others weaknesses. Apparently, though, I wasn’t the only one making observations, because Kat pulled me aside one night at dinner.
“Anything you wanna tell me?” she asked with a smirk. I shook my head.
“Not really, why?”
“I couldn’t help but notice you and Jessica seem a lot closer than the last time I saw you.”
“Maybe you’re just seeing what you want to see.” She punched me in the shoulder and I grinned.
“Come on, old man, I have feminine intuition,” she said, tapping the side of her head. “You can’t hide anything from me.”
“Okay,” I shrugged, “I don’t know what we are, but there’s definitely something between us.” Kat smiled, satisfied.
“That’s all I wanted to hear.” She hugged me. “I’m really glad that you’re happy, Eric.” I returned the hug before we parted and Kat looked over her shoulder, watching Jessica sit at the dinner table with Matthew. “She’s great for you.” Turning back to me, she looked mischievous. “So, when’s the wedding?”
I laughed and patted her head.
“Easy there, match-maker. I don’t think we’re quite there, yet.”
“Did someone say something about a wedding?” Jessica asked, coming to stand behind Kat, who had an evil smile on her face.
“I give up,” I muttered, throwing up my hands in defeat as Kat laughed. Walking to the table, I left them to their romantic notions and joined Matthew.
“You do make a great pair, you know” he offered as I pulled out my chair, and I leveled a stare at him.
“Matt, if I wanted to talk about that, I’d have stayed in their conversation. As for us, we can talk shop, play cards, or catch up. Otherwise, I’ll sit here in silence and judge you.”
We settled on cards, which the Kid promptly started shuffling to avoid my alternative, and played a few rounds of Texas Hold ‘Em while I conducted an internal investigation. In truth, I had no problem with the idea of being with Jessica, which scared the hell out of me. With the exception of Kat, and I guess Matthew, everyone I cared about had died. Just the idea of adding Jessica’s name to that list made me feel sick.
A few minutes later, the women joined in our game, which made it more interesting. Kat had never played, and she sucked at bluffing, while Jessica proved to be a great match. It was hilarious when Kat tried to lie about her “great” cards, because Matt called it and we all laughed when she laid down a pair of two’s. As much as I hated to admit it, though, Kat was right about Jessica and I being great together.
Looking at her across the table, I was determined to make her another exemption to the list, having gotten Kat and her husband to safety.
The following day, Lieutenant Murray knocked on our door personally and let us know that the plan was ready to move when we were. The shipment of coolant had arrived, though it wouldn’t be enough to fill the reactor’s systems completely, and Harper had procured a few extra hazmat suits for the journey. Since fuel was becoming increasingly hard to come by, he wanted to take as many precautions as necessary to make sure we only made one return trip.
Across the room, I saw Jessica’s eyes and knew I had nothing to worry about regarding an untimely demise. She was a fighter and she was ready, proving harder to kill than even me in that arena. Nodding, more to myself than anyone else, I told Murray we’d be downstairs in ten minutes and he left as we got our gear ready.
The weapons had already been cleaned and oiled, the magazines loaded, and we both packed an extra change of clothes for different weather. Since it was November, I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially given the apocalyptic conditions changing environments. With any luck, we would arrive without incident, make our way to the reactor, replace the coolant, and leave the same way we entered.
As a great man in a great show once said, though, “If wishes were horses, we’d all be eatin’ steak.”
Chapter 31
Our convoy left San Antonio four days ago, the drive taking longer due to blocked routes, detours, and stopping when it got too dark. While we certainly had enough drivers to trade shifts at the wheel, the strict fuel supplies forced us to make this trip count. The one negative to the zombies dropping like flies was that, on top of animal carcasses and ferals, we had to watch out for their bodies in the road. While I had driven the Humvee through the crowd at the reactor, there was always a chance that a bone could pierce a tire or stab something underneath the vehicle. You’d be surprised at how hard it was to see a desiccated corpse on pavement at night.
Either way, we were passing through Arizona and it wouldn’t be long before we entered California. Captain Murray’s map was missing the top left corner, but Douglas recalled the mention of a nuclear reactor nearby when he was getting his degree at UCLA, so we were on the right track. Still, as we drove toward our objective, I wasn’t the only one getting a bad feeling?
“Does anyone notice the distinct lack of buildings?” Gabriel asked, steering around a crashed SUV. I remembered there being a lot of desert when Jessica and I had come through, but the land was completely barren. I hadn’t seen a plant of any kind for the last mile, not to mention wildlife. With my senses tingling, I looked around at the vehicles as Gabriel drove.
It was all too…neat, like something had pushed them into a kind of line.
“Stop the car,” I said quickly, slapping the dash and bringing out my radio. “Douglas, how far out would the blast radius of a nuclear reactor be?” Jessica looked at me from the back seat, and Gabriel’s eyes flicked to the side as he raised an eyebrow.
“Well, if it was just one, it would hit a large chunk of California, centered around the main site.”
“Okay, let’s assume there were a couple. Weren’t you saying something about the exponential blast radius?”
“If two or more reactors were positioned close enough to each other, their explosions would increase and expand, yes.”
“Alright, here’s the million-dollar question: What would the edge of a nuclear blast look like? I’ve seen pictures of Chernobyl, but it’s been a while.”
“The very outskirts would have a few things out of place, like dead plants and dying animals, but the closer you got to the source of the explosion the easier it would be…” His words drifted. “Holy shit! Put on your suits, now!”
Without hesitation, Jessica pulled out the extra hazmat suits that Harper had included in our care package. It was uncomfortable to get on in the cramped quarters of the Humvee, but I’d take discomfort over the alternative any day. As Douglas also suggested, we all put on a second pair of socks, another shirt, and anything else that would create layers between us and the radiation.
“I thought Murphy said his people took care of the reactors near his outposts?” Jessica asked, grunting as she pulled on a leg.
“He did, but we haven’t set up an outpost in California, and I don’t think he’d have enough coolant lying around to take care of multiple reactors.”
“So, not to create a worse situation, but what does that mean for the outpost in Arizona?” Gabriel speculated, frowning. Jessica’s eyes widened as the realization hit her, knowing they would have been directly in the bubble of destruction.
“Alright, does everyone have their suits on?” Douglas asked over the radio, breaking up the sobering moment. Making a mental note to swing by the outpost or ask Murphy later, I looked around the Humvee before giving the affirmative, joined by the other members of Gabriel’s squad riding in the other vehicles. Luckily, we hadn’t brought the transport vehicle this time, which would have exposed everyone in the back, choosing instead to bring a second Humvee and a flatbed Ford. The canister was strapped in tight, and encased with the bed cover to keep it safe from the view of raiders. “Good. We may have been exposed to light levels of radiation, but w
e’ll be fine as long as we don’t stay outside too long or puncture our suits.”
“Douglas, I need you to focus. Obviously, our mission parameters have changed, since the reactor blew up, but what would you do if that happened?” In the movies, people always went underground, but I didn’t want to sound stupid. It might be small, but I do have a little intellectual pride left.
“If it were me, I’d go underground.” Dammit. “You can easily navigate the city using sewer tunnels, but you’d have to know where to come out to avoid being exposed. Like I said, any high dosages and you’d be in serious trouble.”
“Okay, at the risk of sounding dumb, do I need to worry about some irradiated zombie monster?”
“I honestly have no idea, since this is my first zombie apocalypse, but I’d assume not.”
“At least that’s something. Now, we just need to see if there’s anyone left to make contact with.”
“Wait, you aren’t really suggesting going further in? The levels of radiation will eat right through these suits if we get too close to the reactor, not to mention the remote possibility of a mutation.”
“That’s exactly what we’re suggesting,” Jessica answered, nodding to Gabriel. We started driving forward, but I closed the air vents for good measure. I wasn’t a big fan of going toward the nuclear blast site, having seen the results of radiation poisoning, but if there were survivors living underground, we had to at least give them a chance to make it out.
Sometimes, being a good guy really had its downsides.
Chapter 32
Douglas had made sure to pack a Geiger counter in each vehicle, which spoke highly of his forward thinking. As we drove past the state sign for California, Jessica kept a close eye on the reading, the bright red numbers constantly changing. I’ve heard a lot of sounds that escalate my blood pressure, like explosions and gunfire, but I nearly had a heart attack every time the clicking of the counter spiked. Douglas quickly assured us over the radio that we were still under acceptable levels of radiation, especially since we were inside the vehicle and wearing hazmat suits.
I had only ever seen California in movies and postcards, but it was strange, if not unnerving, to drive along the empty highways and pass through silent cities. I watched out the passenger window, the desolate remnants of the once-bustling cities looking like the haunting grounds of a Travel Channel documentary. We were still on the edge of the blast, though, because there were still buildings standing.
“How close can we get to the center of the explosion before our suits are useless?” Jessica asked over the radio.
“There’s a decent buffer zone where, as long as we stay inside and our suits are intact, we’re fine. If we get too close, the radiation levels will eat through the suits. I’d say, based on what I was able to read before we left, that we can at least enter the city and remain safe, but we’d have to immediately go underground if we wanted to go any further in.”
“Fantastic,” I breathed.
“On the plus side,” he continued, “we won’t need to get any closer anyway. Anyone caught in the immediate blast would have been vaporized instantly.” I glanced at Jessica, who shared a similar look of concern. We’d have to work on Douglas’ social cues, at least over the radio.
We kept moving, being told that stopping for any length of time would also increase the radiation levels. I tried not to think about the thousands of people that had once filled these streets less than five years ago, people that had either been vaporized, as Douglas had said, or suffered from extreme radiation poisoning until death, a truly awful way to go.
The further into the state we got, the more ash covered the ground until, eventually, the streets were lined with it. Thick sheets of grey powder stretched over the pavement, across highways, and throughout the empty spaces where forestry or structures used to be, whether from the air following the nuclear meltdown or evidence of the countless victims. I briefly wondered how many of those victims had been infected, wishing my imagined number were lower, but they were lost well before the reactor blew.
“We must be getting close,” Douglas chimed in over the radio, noting the Geiger counter reading going up. We had been driving for a few hours, but any indication of where we were was gone. Signs were missing, so Gabriel had just followed an arbitrary direction for the last hour. The one positive was that the explosion had made our route easier, but the idea of radiation leaking into our blood killed any silver linings.
“Tell him to let me know when to stop, because I really don’t know much about the numbers and I sure as hell don’t know Geiger counters. I just hear that clicking and wonder how long before I close my eyes for the last time, yeah?” Gabriel said, which Jessica relayed through the radio. It wasn’t much longer before Douglas called for us to stop.
“Alright, if I’m still reading the map right, we’re sitting in an intersection.” I looked around at the massive destruction, seeing very little to suggest there had ever been a city here. A few steel beams, which were barely intact after partially melting, scattered wreckage of shriveled vehicles, and mounds of ash were all that remained. “If that’s the case, there should be a sewage line running directly underneath us. From where we are, I think there’s a grate near that concrete slab to our three o’ clock.” The slab in question had probably been the site of a street light at one point.
“I’m sensing a lot of if’s coming off of this map, so how long can we be in the open before we can kiss our ass goodbye?”
“I don’t feel too confident answering that, but I’d say we’ll be safe as long as we stay under a few minutes,” Douglas answered nervously. Part of me wished he had been a nuclear scientist, but I knew he was trying his best out here.
“Right,” Gabriel grabbed his M16 from between the seats and held his hand out for the radio. Jessica slapped it into his palm and he cued it up. “I just have one question. This won’t make me sterile, right? I like the idea of firing on all cylinders, even if I’m not hitting that road, you know?” Douglas paused for a moment, probably surprised by the blunt approach, but it was a valid question given the circumstances.
“I, um, I’m sure our…engines will all be working just fine after this, assuming we limit our exposure.” Gabriel let out a sigh of relief and nodded, psyching himself up.
“Let’s get in that sewer, find any survivors, and get the hell out of here before any of our fears come true.” I had no argument, so we drove closer to the concrete and left the Humvee. Douglas noted that we should also try not to stand still in the ash itself, as it was highly irradiated, so I kept moving, jumping over the ash piles as much as possible.
“I think I found it,” Jessica called out from a few feet away, pushing aside ash as she uncovered the sewer grate. The air was almost foggy, it was so contaminated, but I could make out the metal circle when I stood over it. Bending down, Mills and I lifted it up, bracing our legs until it was out of the ground. Gabriel helped to push it over, revealing a ladder into the sewer below.
“How sure are we that we won’t be swarmed by zombies when we get down there?” I voiced, thinking of the tight quarters and no other way out. Given, the scientists at San Antonio had said the number of infected was significantly lower as time passed, and we hadn’t seen a zombie in…damn, I guess it had been months, but they lived on in my nightmares either way.
“We don’t have much of a choice. If we stay out here too long, we will die.” Douglas glanced at Gabriel, adding, “And your concerns would be made real.” With that being all the reason he needed, Gabriel shrugged and descended with haste, fearing some things more than the possibility of zombies. Jessica followed, then the rest of Gabriel’s team. Douglas and I went last, pulling the grate closed behind me and shrouding us in complete darkness.
Chapter 33
My boots touched down in sewage, the grimy water feeling textured even though I couldn’t actually feel anything through the layers I wore. Flicking over the scope of my M4, I glanced at the team through night
vision, seeing Jessica do the same. Gabriel led the way ahead, allowing me and Jessica to hold the rear flank.
“How are you doing?” I asked, finally getting a second to talk to her.
“I’m okay,” she exhaled, “but I’ll be a hell of a lot better when we put California behind us. I just hope we find survivors down here.”
“As opposed to the alternative?” I knew she had turned to look at me, even without the scope.
“Eric, I know we’ve seen destruction and violence, but this is different. These people had no chance to fight, to survive. They just…died.” I heard her feet shuffle through the water as she resumed walking. “It really makes you think, you know?”
“Yeah,” I agreed, having thought a lot myself. The idea of dying hadn’t honestly occurred to me in a while, having been more positive lately, but it was always a possibility. I just had so much more to live for now, between Kat and Jessica, that I refused to even consider death as an option.
“Hold up, I’ve got something up here,” Gabriel whispered over the radio, and we waded through sewage to join him. Ahead, the tunnel diverged in three directions. “What do you want to do?”
“We could stick together and maybe choose right, or we could split up, cover more ground.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too. Alright, Douglas, you and Jules stay with me. Eric, you and Jessica take the right tunnel. The rest of the team, head left.” We established the sewer entrance as our fallback position before setting off, slowly making our way down the right path. Jessica set the Geiger counter to only go off if we hit a pocket of radiation, the alarm letting us know our exposure had spiked so we could find another way. I thought I could hear the sloshing of water from the other tunnels, but that could have been my mind playing tricks. It also occurred to me that it could be coming from ahead, but the echo of the sewer made it impossible to pinpoint directions.
A Broken World (Book 3): Fractured Memories Page 12
