Viral Misery (Book 1)

by Watson, Thomas A

  “Don’t ever hide there,” Sutton said, moving past a large common room. He turned into the men’s room and walked into a large shower area.

  “There’s nowhere to hide,” Sarah pointed out as Sutton moved over to a wall, grabbing the metal panel.

  “I always had the best luck hiding under the stairs,” Skannish said, walking up beside her.

  They both jumped as the metal panel came off the wall with a snap. As Sutton moved to the side, they could see a rock wall but it was yards away. “Damn it, go through, we don’t have all day,” Sutton shouted and Sarah grabbed Skannish’s hand and pulled him through the opening.

  When she climbed through and turned around, it was then Sarah realized a hole had been carved out of the rock and a partitioned building had been put in the cavity. She turned around and watched Sutton back inout, holding the metal paneling. “Oh, dear Scott, my boy, you have some explaining to do,” Skannish sang out.

  They saw Sutton jerk his hands back as the metal slammed against the opening. “That took forever the last time,” Sutton mumbled, but everyone heard because of the echo in his suit.

  “Follow,” Sutton said, walking past them and the gunfire retreated down the tunnel closer to them. When they neared the end of the building, everyone saw a dark gaping tunnel that led into the rock face.

  When they followed Sutton into the tunnel, everyone stopped, gasping. It was just as big as the main tunnel leading to the central bunker. They all saw Sutton hadn’t stopped and took off after him. The flashlight in Sutton’s hand only sliced the darkness ahead without ending. Below their feet the floor was asphalt, but there were no overhead lights. When Sutton’s flashlight shined around, they noticed the walls and roof overhead were exposed rock. In all the other tunnels and areas, the rock was covered with steel or concrete facing.

  Hearing Skannish breathing hard, “Sutton, we have to slow down. Skannish can’t keep this pace up,” Sarah yelled, knowing they had traveled over a mile. Sutton stopped, shining the flashlight down the tunnel. When the beam hit the wall ahead, Sutton saw they were approaching a curve.

  “We can walk now,” Sutton told them.

  “Now tell me, how did you know about this?” Skannish panted.

  “After finding out about the security guards sneaking out and nobody figuring out how the flu got in the other bases, I asked the president if I could have a detailed plan of this bunker,” Sutton explained. “I wanted to know if people could sneak in and the president sent me the plans.”

  He turned around and shined the light down the dark tunnel. “This is the way to the train station,” Sutton told them.

  “Are you joking?” Sarah asked and the group followed Sutton as he walked down the tunnel.

  “Nope. One end of the train tunnel goes all the way to Camp David, the other end stops somewhere near the Pentagon,” Sutton told them and then glanced back. “According to the plans, this part was stopped a year into the building of this bunker. But the train station area was completed.”

  “I can’t believe you went off exploring like Indiana Jones and didn’t invite me,” Skannish chuckled. “My, I have to say, this is extraordinary.”

  Rounding another curve, they were met with a steel wall and Sutton walked up to a hatchway. Unlocking the wheel, Sutton spun the handle and then opened the door up. “That apartment building we were staying in was just placed in the opening of this tunnel, since they already had the space,” he told them, stepping through the hatchway.

  Everyone followed him in and were shocked to see Sutton taking off the suit. “Close the hatch. This area has its own filtration system down the tunnels. They aren’t connected to the complex,” Sutton told them.

  Then everyone noticed there were lights around them, not many but light fixtures were overhead. “My word, look at this,” Skannish said, kicking his suit off and looking down the tunnel and saw it opened up in a large area. “And to think I felt guilty, asking for a new desktop computer last year. How many billions did they just throw away with this?”

  “I don’t even want to know,” Sutton laughed. “I’ve only been down here twice exploring, but found rooms stocked with all kinds of stuff.”

  “So that’s why you stopped putting up a fight these last few days when I told you to go to sleep,” Sarah snapped and everyone snickered.

  “Well,” Sutton cringed. “If I hadn’t, we would be trapped in the lab.”

  “I wonder how many know of this?” Skannish mumbled as they stepped out into a cavernous opening. Train tracks ran through the center and the area could only be called a train station. “Reminds me of Grand Terminal in New York.”

  Raising his hand, Sutton pointed at buildings on the same side of the tracks they were on. “That first building was going to be a restaurant; a very fine dining restaurant. Those buildings past it are now just storage rooms. The one I checked out held hundreds of boxes of the old Nintendo entertainment systems,” Sutton told them and then led them over.

  “I hope there is food in that restaurant,” Sarah said, finally letting Skannish’s arm go and letting him walk on his own. Then she registered what Sutton had said. “Wait, the NES was put out in the eighties.”

  “I know. Me and my sister each had one,” Sutton chuckled.

  “How long do you think this area has been sealed off?” Sarah asked as Sutton opened the door to the restaurant.

  “The last building on this side is packed with cases of MREs with a date of six years ago. So, I know someone has been in here in the last six years,” Sutton answered and they all stopped to look around the opulent restaurant. At the far back corner, they saw a laptop set up on a corner table.

  “That’s mine,” Sutton told them. “It’s nice and quiet here.”

  “How many entrances into the complex lead here?” Sarah asked.

  “Only the one we used,” Sutton told her. “There are two maintenance tunnels that open up to the outside from here. I only had time to follow one and it was welded up and the outside opening was filled with cement.”

  “How do you know that?” Skannish asked, sitting down.

  “It said so on the plan. The other one said the same,” Sutton said, sitting down. “In each tunnel, according to the plans, there are entrances. The one that leads to Washington, you can see tire tracks. I’m not an expert, but they look old.”

  Slapping his thigh, “I feel like a kid, one of those Goonies,” Skannish cackled. “I wonder if there is a pirate ship around here.”

  The others moved around, looking at the fine china and silverware sitting on the tables as Sarah sat down at the corner table with Sutton and Skannish. “Why is there power here?” Sarah asked.

  “Well, you may not believe this, but they put in a nuclear power station,” Sutton told her. “It’s not a big one and it’s only a mile from Camp David and supplies backup power there. It was put in to power the trains.”

  “What were those buildings on the other side for?” Sarah asked, seeing a bottle of water beside Sutton’s laptop and grabbing it.

  “Living areas, shops, a movie theater, a bowling alley and such, but most I looked in are just packed with supplies,” Sutton told her. “This was going to be another living area around the train entrance, but they stopped and I don’t know why.”

  Sarah looked up and saw the others leaving the restaurant to go explore. “Do you have any idea where the president is headed?” she asked.

  “Yep, Denver,” Sutton answered quickly. “If you think that complex we were in was big, it’s nothing compared to that one.”

  Draining the bottle, Sarah looked over at him. “How do you know?”

  Tapping the keyboard on the laptop, Sutton turned it around and showed her the screen. “Whoever the president told to send me the file, sent me the files on every top secret bunker the US has.”

  “How do you know it’s all of them?”

  Tapping the screen, “Sarah, that’s seventy-nine bunkers in the US, linking tunnels connecting military bases
and one bunker in Hawaii,” Sutton told her. “I hope that’s all because that would explain a lot of the debt.”

  With a huge grin, Skannish stood up. “Will you two accompany me so we can explore this?”

  “What about the vaccine we were making?” Sarah asked, standing up.

  “Well, my dear. I’m sorry to say, we will have to start over,” Skannish said, walking slowly toward the doors. “Those that broke in sealed everyone’s fate here. Atlanta only had several dozen chickens that were immune delivered to them.”

  Sutton walked past her, following Skannish. Putting the empty water bottle down and following, “I hope there is water,” Sarah said.

  “Oh, there is,” Sutton told her, following Skannish out the doors. “Underground lake across the tracks that’s filtered in a plant. It’s a gravity based system and I don’t think the filtration was necessary.”

  “So, we just explore while people die?” Sarah asked as Skannish headed into the first building.

  “Sarah, we can’t be exposed to the virus for several days at the soonest. Those people out there are just scared. We will figure out our next move later but now, let’s see what our tax dollars have stored down here,” Sutton told her, holding the door open. Inside, they could hear Skannish cackling up a storm.

  “So, you played Nintendo?” Sarah asked walking in. “You think they have TVs and we could hook one up?”

  “Oh, I’ll kick your butt on Mario,” Sutton boasted, following her inside.

  “They have ‘I Love Lucy,” Skannish howled, holding up a VHS tape from a box he’d opened.

  “Haven’t seen one of those in a long time,” Sutton admitted, looking at the tape.

  “What is it?” Sarah asked, wrinkling her brow.

  “Oh shit, do I feel old now,” Sutton groaned. “Do you mean the tape or show?”

  “Both! Who’s Lucy and why is someone in love with her and why would others care?” Sarah asked with a shrug.

  Skannish stopped opening the next box and turned around, not laughing anymore. “You were very abused as a child to even ask that,” Skannish declared.

  With her mouth gaping open, Sarah turned to Sutton who just shrugged. “Don’t look at me because I know they have reruns on Nick at Night,” Sutton said, moving down the room between stacks of boxes.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  The Caravan Man arrives

  May 19

  With his arm resting on the door, Shawn glanced over at Tony. They had pulled out after feeding the animals and he was driving the new Chevy 3500 quad cab and pulling a forty-foot trailer. In front of him was Andrea in the Dodge they had picked up on the day Andrea and her group had joined. But now, Andrea was pulling a forty-foot trailer like he was.

  Only Arthur, driving the Suburban in the lead, was pulling the same trailer they had started out with. “Why doesn’t Arthur let you drive one of those big trucks with him?” Tony asked. “I can drive this truck.”

  “Because we always go back to the shipping yard,” Shawn answered and glanced over to see Tony was looking around, even glancing behind them. “If anyone is watching, they will see us coming back when Arthur loads those empty shipping containers.”

  The day after Andrea had joined them, after loading trailers from stores on the way home, they had set out to a trucking terminal. Arthur had climbed in one of the bobtail semis and had hooked up a tandem trailer. Even Shawn could tell Arthur had never driven a tandem trailer.

  With Shelia driving the Suburban, the group had followed Arthur home as he’d driven the tandem trailers with shipping containers on them. Some days when they went out, Arthur would drive the truck back to the terminal and park it.

  Then, Arthur would climb in the Suburban and they would head off into a nearby town and collect supplies. On the way back, Arthur would head back to the terminal, load two more containers, and lead them home. Behind Jack’s barn now sat twelve of the containers. Yesterday, they had started moving stacks of plastic bins in the containers and it was then that Shawn realized Arthur wanted the stuff protected from the weather.

  Of all the places they went for supplies, food stores were never on the list. Arthur avoided those like Satan was hiding at each one. More than once, Shawn had suggested it with all the mouths they had now to feed. It’d been only three days ago when he’d found out why.

  They were pulling stuff from another hardware store and there had been a small grocery store across the street. When you added up both parking lots and the road the buildings were on, they’d been about three hundred yards from each other. But that hadn’t stopped Vicki from spotting people running in and out of the grocery store.

  Shawn remembered moving to the door and watching two men drag a woman out by the hair on her head. Someone did run to help, but one of the men had raised a pistol and shot them. When they had called Arthur over, he’d just told everyone to load up and opened the sliding doors.

  Nobody moved as Arthur had slid the outer doors open and lifted his AR. Everyone jumped when his rifle coughed and those with rifles lifted them up, using the scopes to see what had happened. One of the men was on the ground holding his bloody side while the other held the woman’s hair, spinning around and looking for the shooter.

  When Arthur’s rifle coughed again, the man let the woman go before grabbing his chest and stumbled around until he fell. The woman ran over and kicked him in the face and took off running.

  Cool as a cucumber, Arthur had closed the outer door and walked back inside. “I said, load up,” he’d snapped and then had picked Nicole up from the playpen.

  “You think Arthur will let anyone else join us?” Tony asked as Shawn slowed, taking a sharp turn.

  On instinct, Shawn looked back at the standup forklift strapped down on his trailer. Seeing it hadn’t moved, Shawn glanced over at Tony. “I don’t know,” Shawn shrugged.

  “I hope he doesn’t,” Tony said as the radio went off.

  “People at the van ahead on the right,” they heard Arthur’s voice call out.

  Trying to act calm, Tony pulled his AR up and turned to face the passenger window. They saw a nice conversion van parked in a large gravel area. Three people and a kid were standing around an outdoor grill. Shawn gave a sigh at seeing the group wave because he could see weapons on the adults.

  “Tony, if Arthur didn’t take risks on us, we wouldn’t be with him,” Shawn pointed out as Tony turned, keeping an eye on the group until they were out of sight. “He doesn’t need us, that’s for sure, and we are more of a drain than help, if you ask me.”

  “But we aren’t scary,” Tony said, turning around. “All those that have asked to come with us were freaky.”

  Remembering a sixteen-year-old boy they had met in Conway, Shawn couldn’t help but shiver. Shawn was big for his age and was bigger than the boy that had strolled up, carrying an AK47 and two Glocks strapped to his hips. But the boy just gave him the creeps.

  “We have to trust Arthur on who joins,” Shawn finally said.

  “But he asked you about that boy,” Tony almost whined. “He never asked anyone about the others.”

  “That was the only kid so far that has asked to come. All the rest were adults,” Shawn reminded Tony.

  Looking over at Shawn, Tony was clearly worried. “I know, but I think Arthur would’ve let that boy come if you had said it was okay,” Tony guessed. “We know now that he is running with that group in Morrilton.”

  Nodding, Shawn slowed as they turned onto another road. “Tony, I think it’s you who’s wrong,” Shawn corrected. “I think Arthur didn’t want the boy to come, but felt guilty because he was young. Arthur wanted to see if the boy freaked the rest of us out.”

  “I’m saying no if I’m asked,” Tony admitted with no hesitation.

  “What if we find a bunch like Vicki’s again?”

  Jerking his gaze over to Shawn, Tony slowly turned to look around them. “I was wrong,” he mumbled. “We were shot at so many times trying to get out of Little Rock
; I knew we were going to die.”

  “Placing camera,” Arthur’s voice said over the radio and Shawn saw the vehicles slow. When they stopped, Shawn saw Shelia dart out of the Suburban while carrying a small tripod with a game camera mounted on it.

  Jumping a small ditch, Shelia put the camera next to a fence post and then ran back to the Suburban. “How that man thinks of stuff like that amazes me,” Shawn mumbled. They had ransacked an outdoor store and Arthur had had them clear the shelves of all the game cameras. Nobody ever asked why they loaded up what they did. They always knew it was needed to keep them safe.

  The next day, they had put out the first of the game cameras in Clarksville and the road leading to the farm. Every day they went out, they put cameras out and picked cameras up. Shawn was actually surprised at how many people they had taken pictures of.

  Arthur loved to put cameras near intersections and there were dozens of cars moving around. Granted, they had only seen a few as they’d ridden around, but the cameras had caught a bunch. It was the camera they had placed in Morrilton that had caught the sixteen-year-old boy who had asked to join them, moving with a large heavily armed group.

  And the group didn’t look friendly. Even in the photos, Shawn could swear he felt a malevolence from them. Andrea had put forth that since they hadn’t taken the boy, he’d joined someone else. Even as she’d said it, Shawn had known even Andrea hadn’t believed it.

  They had dozens of photos of the group and the boy moved with them too easy to have just joined them.

  Getting back up to speed, Shawn glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the road was empty. “People at the house on the left,” they heard Kirk call out over the radio.

  Turning, Shawn saw a brick house well off the small road they were on. “You see them?” Shawn asked and turned to see Tony looking at the house with binoculars.