Ducking through the flaps of a tent, we entered the next room and I resisted the urge to vomit. If what I had seen earlier was bad, this was…I don’t even know what to call it. Two men in doctor uniforms were literally being ripped apart by a handful of zombies, but the aesthetic was truly gruesome. As with earlier, a few of them had clearly suffered from radiation poisoning, detailed effects of which I don’t care to repeat, on top of the sickening coloring of their pupils, decaying skin, and gnarled teeth, all of which was gloriously highlighted in overhead lighting courtesy of the generators. The blood and gore that clung to the ceiling and walls completed the painting of fucking disgusting.
One of the doctors, his right arm pinned to the ground with the veins splayed open, reached out with his other hand for a scalpel that had found its way to the floor. Grabbing it, he quickly jammed the instrument into the neck of the zombie on top of him, forcing it through the tendons in a decapitation effort. Jessica assisted with the dispatch, plugging the zombie with a bullet, but it was too late for the doctor.
I immediately brought up my M4 and worked my way left to right, only missing one shot because the zombie decided to slip on the blood-drenched floor at that particular moment. Jessica stepped past my handiwork, nodding back at me with a “not bad” shrug before pushing past another set of flaps. Douglas had decided to join us, coughing next to me as he navigated his way to the next area. It was like watching a baby try to walk for the first time, but hating everything it touched to hang onto. Needless to say, it would have been amusing had we not been surrounded by horrific imagery.
Gunshots resounded from beyond the curtain, so I hurried to get in there. Pushing aside the fabric, I saw Douglas standing there, weapon extended, hands shaking as a zombie lay at his feet. He was clearly in a mild form of shock, so I approached him slowly and reached for the weapon.
“Doug, it’s okay. I’m just gonna take this for a second while you calm down,” I spoke softly, watching his body for any sign of resistance. He relinquished his grip on the sidearm and I put a hand on his shoulder, trying to ignore the look Jessica was giving me. I knew this was my fault, for enjoying myself in the other room instead of immediately following her, but the look of disappointment sealed it. The rest of the room was clear, Jessica having cleaned house, so I waited for Douglas to relax.
“I…I’ve never killed anything before. The bodies were always…dead already,” he whispered, swallowing the lump in his throat. I clenched my jaw, recalling the look of frozen horror on Kat’s face after Schafer.
“Dammit, Doug, I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean much, but I really-”
“No, I’m glad I did it.” He cut me off, looking me in the eyes, much to the surprise of myself and Jessica.
“Glad?”
“Yeah, I know the state of things out here and I know the dangers of my work. If I’m going to keep going out into the field with you guys, I need to be able to handle myself.”
“Oh…okay.” I nodded, trying to figure out if he had snapped or not. “Well, then, let’s go make sure Gabriel has a handle on things over there and we’ll skip past all the feelings, if that’s alright with you.” I didn’t phrase it as a question, and he caught the hint, but Jessica rolled her eyes at my dialogue skills.
You know that’s not my strong suit by now, reader, so I don’t understand why it’s so hard for everyone else to believe.
We left the medical wing of the sewers and found the central room empty, with no sign of Christie or the civilians. Gabriel ducked into view from the left tunnel, pulling down a crate from the opposite wall to use as cover.
“Fall back!” he shouted, firing suppressive fire down the pipe as the rest of his men and the three members of Christie’s team rounded the corner. They quickly formed a new firing line, using anything within reach to create cover.
“Douglas, get in that hole and don’t come out until one of us says otherwise,” I gestured to the center of the room and he nodded, jumping in. I had made a mistake earlier by putting him in harm’s way, and I wouldn’t make it twice. Jessica and I ran to either side of the tunnel, keeping our rifles trained on the dark opening. “What happened to the lights?”
“They shot them out as soon as they figured out our bluff with the speakers,” one of Christie’s men answered.
“How many are there?” I shouted as gunfire bounced around the room, forcing me to repeat my question.
“No idea, but definitely a lot.”
“Copy that.” I kept my eyes trained on the darkness, waiting for any sign of movement to show as my finger hovered just over the trigger of my M4. The moment stretched out, tension hanging thick in the air, but these men were clearly disciplined. No one so much as shifted from discomfort, with all eyes staying forward.
It’s been a while since I’ve heard the sound, but I knew a grenade pin had been pulled as soon as it happened. The fragmentation grenade bounced off the outer wall of the pipe, following the curve to roll toward Gabriel. Cursing, he kicked it away and ran from his position. The grenade exploded seconds later, sending shrapnel through the room as Gabriel hurled himself behind another crate.
That grenade was followed shortly by another, this one filling the opening with smoke. The men closest to the first blast were still recovering, but I squinted at the smoke to keep them protected. The exterior wall of smoke darkened as it curled around movement, so I opened fire, letting off three rounds at the shrouded figure.
“Shit!” someone yelled as a man fell out of the smoke, two holes in his chest. His face looked to be affected by radiation, but that could have been my mind playing tricks in the bad lighting. Still, the bullets that came from the smoke weren’t tricks, and I ducked back behind the pipe just as a round pinged off the edge above my head.
A firefight erupted as tensions came to a head, with both sides letting loose a hail of bullets, and the room became rhythmic with the sound of war. One of the Gabriel’s team caught a round in the shoulder, spinning him to the ground, but he thankfully landed behind cover. Being no slouch, though, he sat up and switched his rifle to the other hand, resuming fire with less accuracy. I had to commend his willpower.
With the smoke dissipating, the raiders were forced to make a snap decision between retreating and advancing. They had clearly expended their only advantages, the grenades and the element of surprise, and this was probably the closest they would get to the supplies, so they rushed our position. I had a chance to see through the smoke, counting at least a dozen bodies littering the ground, before I witnessed desperation in action.
Chapter 37
Twenty people ran at us in the confined hall of the sewer tunnel, being torn to shreds by the bullets being sent their way, until Christie’s team ran out of ammunition. Being the closest to the line, they were immediately confronted with hand-to-hand combat while the rest of us continued to fire in bursts. Composure was key in the skirmish, with our side maintaining a calm efficiency, but there were liberties. With so many enemies running at us, headshots stopped being the name of the game, replaced with kneecaps, abdomens, whatever slowed them down.
Within minutes, the fight ended and the smoke literally cleared. Around thirty people lay dead, while only one of Gabriel’s men was wounded. He had managed to fall back to another teammate’s position, where they had ended up killing at least two by hand. Speaking of Gabriel, I looked over to see him rising to his feet. He seemed shaken up by the concussive force of the blast, but otherwise checked out, to no surprise.
“For the record,” he said, glancing up at me, “I hate grenades, especially in close quarters. I think I might have tinnitus.” He poked a finger at his ear, smacking into his hazmat suit and grunting. “Damn radiation condom.” Knowing he would be fine, I stepped forward to look at our opposition.
Desperation had been the right word, with most of them suffering from radiation burns and malnourishment. Shaking my head, I wondered if we had done the right thing here. I know their actions were hostile, regardless
of the reasons, but it still bothered me, which I guess was a good thing.
“If they had asked for help, we would have welcomed them in, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Christie’s officer spoke from behind me. Turning, he was the one who had answered me earlier.
“That’s good to know, thanks, but I was just trying to understand the morality of it all. It’s part of this personal journey I’m on.” Realizing I had confused him, I waved it off. “I’m Eric, by the way.” He almost reached up to shake my hand, but made a face and hesitated.
“No offense, but I don’t know how much radiation sticks to those.” I had been in the suit so long that I had forgotten again, so I couldn’t blame his logic. “I’m Calvin, though, the outsider of this group,” adding, as an answer to my expression, “the human half of my K9 unit.”
“Ah, gotcha.” I left Calvin and helped Gabriel away from the tunnel, just in case any threats still loomed, before heading for Christie’s group of civilians. Letting Douglas know it was safe to get out of the hole on my way past, I followed the path of lights on the wall until I found my way back to where we had been when the red lights began flashing. Christie had managed to calm the crowd down to hushed whispers, an obvious display of her leadership capabilities, while they sat uncomfortably along the length of the pipe. As I entered the dim tunnel, though, she almost put a hole in me before I called out.
“Jesus!” she exclaimed, lowering her AR-15 and taking a deep breath.
“Nah, just me,” I joked, but she didn’t laugh.
“How are things out there?” She stepped closer, out of hearing range of the civilians. I scanned the mass of people, seeing the fear in their eyes as families huddled together, and wondered what would have happened if we hadn’t come. We may have been too late to stop the reactors from imploding, but we arrived just in time to stop a massacre. The idea of so many more lives wasted, especially all they had been through, was enough to chill me to the core.
“We handled the situation. One of your guys was hit, but he’ll be alright…” I trailed off and she knew something else was wrong. “The medical wing was another story. The radiation poisoning of one or maybe more of the sick was masking other symptoms, and they attacked your medical staff. There’s no easy way to say this, but no one survived. I’m really sorry, Christie.” Her eyes were glossy in the dim lighting of the tunnel, but she sucked up whatever her feelings were and nodded, knowing the rest of her group was watching behind her.
“So, these people are safe? The raiders are gone?”
“As far as I know, yeah. It seemed like they were desperate, attacking with their main force in one last attempt at your resources. I plan to form a small hunter-killer team to venture out and make sure, but you should be fine from now on.”
“Well, that’s a relief, but I don’t plan to be here much longer.”
“Right, your project.” I looked over my shoulder as Jessica joined us, smiling at me. “I think we could help speed up your progress, if you’d accept the help.” Now it was Christie’s turn to smile, full of hope and the first real smile I’d seen on her face since we met her. She moved to hug me but quickly withdrew, remembering the radiation that might cling to the suit. Still, her gratefulness was clear from the tears in her eyes.
“I think your help would be greatly appreciated.” I turned to Jessica, making sure she was okay with it, to find her beaming, which is a word I don’t use. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that we were going to make a difference that we could actually see firsthand, or maybe it had to do with our personal redemption, but she was so happy with the foreseeable future that I couldn’t help but feel good.
We spent the next few weeks underground, quietly escorting Christie’s group farther down the tunnel and getting to know them better. It was slow work because, on top of keeping track of almost fifty people, including children and one well-trained dog, we brought along the food, water, and portable generators. The generators were more of a choice, but they helped to keep things in perspective while being in the sewers for that long. To move, we had everyone on the left side of the sewer wear or hold the string of lights while the other side carried whatever they could. Luckily, we were able to slide the generators and water on pallets covered in plastic sheeting.
After we reached a point far enough from ground zero that the Geiger counters registered minimal radiation levels above ground, Douglas gave us the all-clear to take the group topside. You know, I was never really a fan of those touchy-feely moments on television, but seeing the elated faces on those people who had been away from the sunlight for months was pretty damn special. That those raiders would have robbed everyone of this moment haunted my thoughts for a moment, especially when I no longer doubted if we had done the right thing, until I looked over at Jessica and my mind cleared.
“It feels good to know we were a part of this, doesn’t it?” she whispered, tearing up as she watched the smiles and laughter before us. We had come out somewhere near the state border, where the scenery had been mostly wiped out, so sightlines were long in every direction. Looking all around, though, we were safe from any threats for the moment.
“Yeah,” I answered after a while, “it does.”
“Alright, people, I know we’re all enjoying this, but we still have a ways to go before we can find a home.” Christie knew we had to keep moving to avoid being irradiated beyond normal levels, so we regrouped and started our trek across the open world. Gabriel sent his men back to get the transport convoy, moving significantly faster being unencumbered by fifty civilians, and stayed at our rear flank, his eyes always watchful as he sparked up a conversation with Christie. The convoy rolled up the next day and we loaded up the water and food, which brought a lot of smiles back and let arms rest.
Eventually, we made it out of the radius of any nuclear blast zone and we were finally able to take off the hazmat suits, peeling off the extra layers of clothing with them. Rejoice doesn’t even begin to cover the feeling of not being inside a body condom, and my skin looked so wrinkled from sweat that I felt like it might peel off when I took the hundred showers that I needed. Luckily, the separate bladder inside the suit for restroom use kept it from being too…unsanitary, but the breeze on my skin was a welcome change.
Still, after going another few miles for good measure, we got Christie’s group to a town in Utah that looked defensible enough and helped them settle in. There weren’t resources nearby to build any wall or fence, but blockades and booby traps were set up by the combined creative efforts of Gabriel’s and Christie’s teams. Gabriel and Christie seemed to be hitting it off well, which was nice, especially since it took his attentions away from Jessica.
“Looks like you guys came through for us,” Calvin stood next to me, watching the last of the construction. He silently patted his German Shephard, Sampson, on the head, feeding him the other half of a hot dog.
“We aim to please when we can, which isn’t very often.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, these people were depending on you and I know they’re grateful.” He turned and held out his hand, which I shook. “Now that you’re not covered in radiation,” he joked.
“Right.” I dropped his hand and looked over the first outpost in Utah, number twenty-two as far as I knew.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what do you plan to do next? Now that you’ve finished your mission here, that is.”
“We’ll probably head back to San Antonio or Mississippi, check in with the bosses, and see what’s on their minds. I honestly don’t know where we’ll go from there,” I added, staring at Jessica’s gleaming smile. “We might just stay this time.”
“Not to impose, but do you think you could use another person with tactical experience? Christie is fantastic and I love the guys, don’t get me wrong, but I want to be part of something bigger, something that can bring the world back to normal, and I think you guys are doing that.” I coughed a laugh.
“I don’t even know what the hell normal is
anymore.” I squinted to my left, looking Calvin over again. He was six foot, in shape, and clearly knew how to handle himself under pressure. I wasn’t sure how Sampson would do against infected, but I got the impression he knew exactly how to tackle human threats, so I nodded. “I’ll run it by Gabriel and see if we can’t find room in the back seat.”
“Thank you, Eric.” I left him and walked over to Jessica, who stood with her hands on her hips and her t-shirt wrapped around her hips, leaving just a tank top and jeans. She looked amazing.
“Hey, hot stuff,” I said under my breath and she rolled her eyes.
“You’re ridiculous. I look gross, and I feel even worse.”
“Well, it was really dark in that sewer and I think my eyes got a little scorched when we came topside…” She smacked my arm and laughed, shaking her head.
“Okay, I get it. What’s up?”
“Obviously, we’re going back to San Antonio after this, but what then?”
“Then?” Her eyes flared and she took a deep breath, exhaling. “I have no idea, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Part VIII
Chapter 38
After heading to Mississippi and letting Murray know the situation out west, he informed us that the Arizona outpost had indeed been lost. It was a blow to all of us, not only because it was a waste of so many lives, but the fact that their demise hadn’t come from humans or infected. We had always feared dying, but no one ever thought about something we couldn’t fight. There was an outpost-wide memorial ceremony for everyone lost in the meltdown, and all the others that we had lost so far. With everything going on for the last few years, no one ever stopped to mourn or grieve, so Murray wanted to try and change that.
Murray showed us some of his recent changes to the outpost, trying to take all of our minds off of Arizona, before we left to follow the circuit of outposts on our return trip to San Antonio with Gabriel and Calvin. Some needed help, others had survivors that welcomed or thanked us. The accolades were nice, but it was hard to accept them knowing we had failed so many people. Months passed until we finally reached San Antonio, where we parted ways. Soon after our arrival, Gabriel’s team received a new mission, which I wished him luck on.
A Broken World (Book 3): Fractured Memories Page 14
