by D. J. Molles
Before standing, Lee gave Angela a reassuring pat on the leg and his best confident smile. “Relax and try to get some sleep. Twelve hours from now, we’ll be back at my bunker and you can clean up and sleep in a real bed.”
She smiled bravely and Lee stood and walked to his post.
He hoped those words were true and that nothing unfortunate would befall them before they managed to get back home.
By the time he settled into position at the stump, he could already hear Jack breathing steadily, asleep.
CHAPTER 11
Company
The day was going to be a scorcher.
By 0530 hours it was already humid, and by the time everyone was awake and moving, it was getting uncomfortably warm. Lee had no more food left in his go-to-hell pack, but Abby was the only one who complained of being hungry. Lee was sure that Angela and Jack were hungry as well, but they knew he didn’t have any food left and that, hopefully, they would be at his bunker in several hours. Lee himself was hungry, but he’d experienced worse hunger in the past.
The group drank what water they had left and broke camp. Angela and Abby simply stood up and brushed the leaves off of themselves. Angela folded the poncho liner neatly and handed it back to Lee with a smile and a thank-you. Lee stuffed it away, then shouldered his pack and slung into his rifle.
They stood around in silence, looking out into the woods. The morning birds were all singing loudly, but the hum of insects hadn’t quite begun. The woods weren’t what you would call foggy, but there was a definite haze as the heat began to boil the water out of the moist forest floor.
“Everyone ready?” Lee asked. He received three silent nods. “Jack, take point?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll catch up in a second.”
Jack ported his rifle and led Angela and Abby out of the small campsite.
Lee grabbed a branch and gave the campsite a good sweeping to fluff the matted leaves and dirt and disguise that they had slept there. He was more concerned with the threat of infected than he was with anyone attempting to track them. But the party from yesterday was still something he had to think about.
When the site was sufficiently “cleaned,” Lee tossed the branch into the woods and headed out after the group. When he caught up with them he walked next to Angela for a moment.
“How are you guys feeling?”
She gave him a grim smile. “Hungry, thirsty, tired… everything hurts… but I’m glad to be off the roof.” The look of her smile changed to one of sincere appreciation. “Thank you for everything. You’ve been very kind.”
Lee waved it off. He looked at Abby and wanted to ask Angela how her daughter was handling the death of her father, but he wasn’t sure either of them was ready to talk about it. Though she obviously was no commando, she’d been through the ringer and held up quite well. Lee could appreciate the amount of self-control and understanding it must take for her to be able to trust the man who had shot her husband, even if her husband had been out of his mind when it happened. He wondered briefly if there were other circumstances unbeknownst to him that made the death of her husband and Abby’s father less emotionally devastating. Perhaps the marriage had been in trouble.
Or maybe Angela was simply as tough as she appeared to be.
He supposed that if she decided to stick around, she would be ready to talk about these things in her own time. And Lee had weightier matters to focus his attention on than Angela’s former home life.
He took a few long strides and walked next to Jack.
“Captain Harden,” Jack said with a shit-eating grin. “And how’s life treating you this fine morning?”
Lee regarded the older man with a blank look. It struck him that Jack might take a while to figure out, but Lee’s immediate take on him was that he was the type of guy who loved being a Marine, loved being in danger, and loved, most of all, a reason to carry a high-powered rifle. None of which were bad things at all, especially given the circumstances they found themselves in. People like that might be borderline sociopaths, but they did very well for themselves in crisis situations because they thought independently and functioned well in circumstances where others would assume the fetal position.
“I’m doing okay,” Lee eventually answered. “I’m not positive how far out we are, but if we keep parallel to the road and head east, I think we should make it by early afternoon.”
“Which side of the road is your place on?”
“The other side.”
“We’ll need to cross.”
“Yeah…” Lee trailed off. “So, Jack, what was your MOS in the Marines?”
“Scout sniper. Just like my pops.” Jack’s eyes scanned the woods as he walked. “Planned on bein’ a lifer, but God and the Hadjis had different plans.”
Lee decided he’d bite. “How’s that?”
Jack removed his dirty old baseball cap for the first time and turned so Lee could see the left side of his head. There was a thick scar that ran from his temple all the way back to his crown, then curved down toward his ear.
“Ouch,” was all Lee could think to say.
Jack replaced his ball cap. “Just got done with one of the most dangerous missions I ever been on. Drivin’ in a Humvee from the rally point back to base, and an IED goes off right underneath us. Well”—Jack grimaced—“right underneath the driver, anyway. They didn’t find much of him. I was in a coma for two weeks. Had brain damage. They did surgery and now I can’t see too well out my left eye. They said they don’t know whether it was the brain surgery or the trauma that caused me to lose my vision, but in either case, I got my papers about a week after they found out I couldn’t see no more. ‘Thanks for everything and all, but we can’t use you anymore.’ ” Jack turned and smiled. “Guess I’m just lucky.”
Lee found it hard to smile at the story. “At least you have a sense of humor about it.”
“Nope.” Jack wiped a bead of sweat from his nose. “I really was lucky. It was a coordinated attack. We were in the lead Humvee and the IED they used on me was supposed to be for the guys in the rear of the convoy. About a mile down the road, they find a guy sitting in a pickup loaded with enough explosives to turn us all into jelly. The guy in charge of setting off the IED fucked everything up. If he hadn’t blown the IED early, the guy in the pickup truck would have pretty much incinerated us. So now, I thank my lucky stars that God’s merciful and the Hadjis are incompetent.”
Lee actually chuckled for the first time in a while. It felt good.
“What about you, Captain? How’d you do your time?”
“Well, my butter bar years were spent in Iraq in a Humvee, patrolling Baghdad.”
Lee downplayed his own history, because swapping war stories wasn’t the reason he wanted to talk to Jack. “I did that for two tours, and then they gave me captain and offered to build me a house and a bunker and all I had to do was be prepared to rebuild civilization at the drop of a hat.” Lee’s voice was good-humored but sarcastic.
Jack nodded. “All in a day’s work, my friend.”
They walked for a long moment, at which point Lee asked, “So how long has it been like this?”
“Like what?” Jack looked around. “Hot and humid?”
Lee reworded the question. “When’s the last time you saw a cop? Anyone from FEMA? Any members of the military still working for the government?”
“Ahh…” Jack gave him a weird look, like he was picturing something else while staring at Lee. “Last cop I saw was when I was makin’ my way through Clinton, about two weeks ago. Him and about thirty infected chasin’ him. He ran around a corner. Don’t know what happened after that.”
Lee walked in silence for a moment, wondering if the cop had made it. Probably not. Jack continued. “Then I saw three helicopters comin’ outta the Raleigh area about two days later. Flyin’ low and fast. One was smoking pretty bad, but I never saw if it went down. After that, all I seen are infected and bands o’ thugs like yesterday.”
>
Angela had made her way up to the men. “I saw a cop about a week ago when we tried to go to the store and buy some food. He had his shotgun. I remember him because I’ve never seen a police officer look scared. He was pulling out as we were pulling in. Stopped and told us that the store was closed. Then he drove off real fast.” She paused for a long moment. Her voice became quieter. “We could hear screaming from inside though, but all the doors were boarded shut. We think they locked a bunch of infected inside. We went home after that.” Angela tried to put on a smile that didn’t fit. “Ate canned green beans and corn by candlelight because the power was out.… We joked around that it took the power going out for us to have a candlelight dinner together…”
Lee and Jack exchanged a glance. “How long has the power been out?”
Angela seemed to realize he was talking to her and snapped out of her memory. “Um… maybe a week and a half ago? It’s hard to tell. The days kind of run together.”
Jack’s eyebrows narrowed at Lee. “Wait—do you have power?”
Lee looked at the two expectant faces staring at him. “Yes. My house and my bunker are wired to a battery bank. It’s trickle-charged by solar panels throughout the day.”
“So…” Angela looked like she was thinking it was too good to be true. “When do the batteries run out?”
“They don’t. The solar panels recharge them.”
“So you have power indefinitely?”
“Pretty much.”
The look on Angela’s face could almost be called wonder. “Like… air conditioning and everything?”
“Air conditioning, hot water, you name it.” Lee smiled at Angela and Jack, who were looking at him like he was Saint Peter taking them into Heaven. “Being down there, it’s almost like the old world.”
“I’m taking a hot shower,” Angela declared, as though checking something off of her bucket list.
Jack smiled wistfully. “I’m gonna have a big ol’ glass of cold water.” He looked at Lee. “Assuming you have a fridge.”
“Yup.” Lee switched topics. “I really need to talk to you both about what’s been going on. Keep in mind that, while I have some nice supplies, you guys are the ones with all the knowledge. I need you both to bring me up to speed.”
“Sure.” Angela shrugged. “What do you want to know?”
“Either of you seen that group of guys from yesterday?”
Angela shook her head, but Jack just sneered. “You mean the cocksuckers who stole all that military equipment? Yeah… I seen ’em before.”
“I guess that answers my next question.” Lee shifted his pack. “Obviously you think they’re civilians who raided an armory.”
“Or took out a guard unit and stole their shit. National Guard was all over this place about a week and a half ago. Had choppers flying everywhere and Humvees escorting busloads of evacuees to FEMA camps.”
Angela spoke up, but quietly, like she didn’t want to piss off Jack. “They seemed like military to me.”
Jack screwed up his face. “Listen, honey—”
Lee decided to interrupt before another argument erupted. “I think she has a point, Jack. I agree that the majority of them look like they don’t know what they’re doing, but there were a few that moved like soldiers.”
Jack was silent.
Lee continued. “Have you heard of any units going rogue?”
The older Marine was quiet for a long moment as they trudged along. “I s’pose it’s possible, but I haven’t heard nothin’ ’bout any particular unit going rogue. Maybe we should ask them next time.”
Lee patted him on the shoulder once. “I’ll leave that to you. Whatever they are, what have you heard about them?”
“Well.” Jack shifted the strap of his rifle. “I’ve heard all kinds of things from people I come across while gettin’ here. Some folks say they’re out rapin’ and murderin’. Others are saying they’re going around looking for people that will offer them supplies so they can continue their mission, which is to ostensibly eliminate everyone that’s infected. I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I think they probably have it in their heads that they’re going to put a dent in this epidemic by wiping out the infected population, and so they’re going around ‘requesting’ donations from people. Maybe they get a little heavy-handed if donations aren’t made. Maybe they get a little jumpy with the trigger sometimes.”
Lee snorted.
“Like a protection racket,” Angela spoke up. “That’s sick how people take advantage of situations like this.”
“There’s a power vacuum,” Lee stated. “Every yahoo with a gun and something to prove is going to be trying to fill that void. Some are going to be worse than others.”
Angela looked right at Lee. “But you’re not one of them?”
Lee tried not to take offense. He smiled instead. “I’m not a ‘yahoo with a gun.’ I’m a member of the United States military. And I’m not looking for power either. Just trying to help.”
Jack stopped walking.
Angela stopped close behind him, and Lee immediately brought his rifle to a low-ready and scanned the trees. “What’s up?”
Jack’s head was lifted skyward just slightly, and Lee thought he heard him take a deep breath through his nose. “You smell that?” he asked.
Lee took a moment to sniff the air and caught it. “Smells like something’s burning.”
Jack nodded. “Wind’s blowing from the east a bit. Doesn’t smell good… not like wood smoke.”
Lee knew the scent quite well. He’d smelled it several times during the Iraq invasion. It was the smell of artificial products burning, like plastic on fire. It was a rank, noxious smell from up close, but now it only tinged the air. When he smelled it again he thought of dusty streets, everything in sandy desert tones, walls close in and high up, dark windows staring down, everything tainted with the residue of smoke and pockmarked with bullet holes.
Everyone was silent for a long minute, considering what this meant, like they were all seers watching a hawk fly by, determining the secret omen it bore.
Lee turned slightly to the left and pointed. “The road should be that way.” He began walking in that direction. “We should cross now.”
Without argument, the other three followed.
CHAPTER 12
Home Again
It didn’t take long for them to reach the road.
In more normal times, Lee had walked these woods for pleasure and exercise. He’d always found his way back to the road by the sound of cars passing by, like the sound of a river. Now the road was empty and silent and Lee almost stepped out onto the asphalt before he realized he was there.
The party stopped just inside the wood line. Past the trees, the shoulder of the road rose slightly to the asphalt. Jack offered to check it out, and Lee deferred. He knelt down, Angela and Abby hovering close behind him, while Jack low-crawled up to the road to survey in both directions.
“How far is your house, mister?” Abby whispered.
Lee looked both directions down the road, but being in the woods had disoriented him to what section of the road this was. He could be a mile from his house or ten. Luckily, he’d been keeping steady track of the amount of time they’d been walking, and he ran some quick numbers in his head.
“Rough guesstimate… maybe two miles?”
Abby didn’t answer. The kid was being a trooper hanging in there, but when a kid didn’t complain, you had to wonder what was wrong. Lee’s best guess was that she was so tired and dehydrated that she didn’t have the energy to complain. Her body and her mind were in survival mode.
He turned and looked at the mother and daughter.
Both of them looked rough, to say the least. The few bottles of water he’d been able to give them would have barely hydrated them in the state they were when they came off the roof, and certainly not now after a day of hiking. He noticed that Angela was massaging her thigh and he suspected muscle cramps.
H
e needed to get IVs in both of them. They couldn’t go on like this forever. He was pretty sure they could make it to the house, though. And then he could rehydrate them and get them back into working shape.
A quiet whistle drew his attention back to the road.
Jack was still on his belly on the shoulder of the road. He looked back at Lee and gave a thumbs-up.
Lee turned back to Angela “You guys ready? We’re almost there.”
She and her daughter both stood slowly and Lee motioned them forward. Angela jogged with her little girl across the road and disappeared into the woods on the other side. Lee waited until they were safe, then crossed quickly, Jack following closely behind. They continued into the woods until they could just barely make out the blacktop, and then turned due east, heading once again in the direction of Lee’s house.
As they walked, Lee noticed that the acrid smell of burning materials had grown slightly stronger. There was a haze hanging in the forest, but he could not tell if it was light smoke or the last bit of dew burning off in the warming sun. He kept his observations to himself, as he did not believe they would serve any purpose but to worry the others. They had hiked approximately another two hundred yards when Lee heard what he initially thought was someone shouting, but then immediately recognized as barking. Specifically, Tango’s barking.
“Whoa.” He held up a hand and everyone stopped walking. They all stood in the middle of the forest, straining eyes and ears for any signs of danger. “That’s my dog.”
“How can you tell?” Angela asked.
“I know Tango’s bark.”
“Thought he was in your bunker.” Jack spoke almost under his breath, as though he was pointing something out that would anger or embarrass Lee.
“He was.” Lee nodded. “If he’s out, the kid’s out.”
No one spoke. Tango barked three more times, and Lee realized he was getting closer. They were upwind and Tango had sniffed out his master. That was all well and good, but why the fuck was he outside to begin with?
