“So even if there are aid supplies in there, like food and stuff, it could be poisoned?” she asked.
“Pretty much,” Jared said.
She blew out a breath and took another drink of coffee. It was too early for all this.
“Could it just be a coincidence that they chose here? I mean, maybe New Zealand is overrun, and everyone is dead, so they just decided to come here.”
“Could be,” Harry told her. “It just doesn’t seem very likely they would decide to make that trip when any number of places are closer at hand.”
“Except we’re world renowned for having an AR-15 behind every bush. Maybe they think there will be weapons and food lying around everywhere,” Jared said.
“The land of milk and ammo,” Fletch said.
“Lame,” Jared told him.
“So, chance.” Harry wrote it under the other options. “Honestly, I don’t know to think about any of this. I don’t know if what those ships are carrying is good, bad, or just plain nothing at all. They could be empty, but I think it’s important. We can put it on the back burner for now especially since you have an important mission of your own coming up.”
“Yep. Tomorrow at dawn. I’d like to go over the route and details with your alpha team leader while we’re here. I don’t anticipate requiring any support, but I’d like his input on route selection,” Bradley said.
“By all means. Lowe is a good man to have around.” He went and opened the door and called to the woman in the lobby. “Have Lowe sent over immediately, please.”
“If you and Jared want to follow me, we can take a look at a few properties and decide where your people might like to stay.”
Anna and Jared followed him out, while Bradley and Fletch waited inside the lobby.
She thought Jared was a little irritated to be left out of the route planning session, but she didn’t want to make him feel worse by bringing it up. She was sure Bradley would go over it with him afterward anyway.
“Down here we have a five-bedroom family home. It was owned by the Jacksons.” He waved his hand toward a beautiful large house with an overgrown front yard. “There is a swing set in back as well as a sandbox.”
“It’s beautiful. I think this would be fine for all of them,” Anna said.
“If they’d like more privacy, we have a couple of vacant homes down at the end of the neighborhood. They can split up however they’d like.” He looked around the area. “Most people here like to stay close by in case…well, in case something happens.”
“I understand,” Anna said.
Jared was looking all around, likely scanning the defenses for reliability and protective abilities. Other community members walked around the area. Some waved. Some didn’t. She understood that too. They were wary of outsiders. She hoped they would treat their people with respect, even if they chose not to be overtly friendly.
“How are you going to protect the Outpost while you’re gone?” he asked them casually.
“The Outpost?” she asked.
Harry nodded. “It’s what we call your place.”
“We’re locking it down and making it look uninteresting. Hopefully that will be good enough,” Jared said.
“You want to store your supplies here? We have an empty space in the basement of the Comms center,” he offered.
Anna thought it might be a good idea but looked to Jared to see what he thought.
He finally shook his head. “Nah. I don’t want all of our eggs in one basket, if you know what I mean.”
“Wise,” Harry commented.
“What do you call Sten’s place?” Anna said, peering at Harry from around Jared’s side.
Harry grinned. “Halvorsted, after the old man.”
“The old man?”
“Sten’s father, Halvor,” he replied.
“Sten Halvorsen…makes sense,” Jared said and she nodded.
“I suppose we should head back and let you get home. Your people are welcome to come any time today, just pull right on up to the gate.”
“Thanks Harry,” Jared said, and shook his hand.
“Is salvation supposed to be abominable?” Jared asked as they waited outside the community center for Bradley and Fletcher.
“I don’t think so.”
“So, you think Prophet Jerry is a little—”
“Out there? Yes,” Anna said.
“I was going to say batshit crazy, but whatever,” Jared said.
Anna looked at her watch. It was getting close to eleven and they still needed to pack their things, finalize the route, and bring the others here to get settled in.
She moved to stand under a large shade tree to wait. She would be glad when the weather started to cool a little, but she knew that would be a double-edged sword.
Winter would mean snow, ice, and some subfreezing temperatures. They weren’t far enough South to be guaranteed a mild winter. That thought brought her up short.
“Hey! Do you think they’ll die in the cold this winter?” she asked excitedly.
“Ehh, probably not. They don’t seem stupid. They have instincts, at least the muties do. They’ll probably huddle up or start wearing clothes or some shit.”
“Or hibernate?” she asked, holding out a tiny bit of hope.
“Maybe.” He didn’t seem to be too hopeful.
“Here they come,” she said.
Bradley and Fletch came out the door and walked under the shade tree to them. Bradley had an atlas under one arm and a set of keys in the other.
“Lowe set us up with a vehicle,” Bradley said with a grin. “It’s got a radio and…” he grinned over at Fletch. “A fifty mounted in the back.”
“Are you serious! That’s awesome, man. What about ammo? You know I don’t have any fifty-caliber ammo laying around…”
“It’s all taken care of,” Fletch said. “Those fuckers don’t know what’s about to hit them.”
Anna refrained from mentioning that entire army units had been decimated by the biters, even with multiple machine guns. She let them have their excitement. Who would it hurt to let them have a little optimism and some extra hope?
She was also kind of excited to try it out.
Chapter Twenty-One
Moving
Jared
Bradley followed behind him and Anna in their newly borrowed armored Suburban. It was a heavy, deadly vehicle. Bradley pointed out the run-flat tires, the heavy grill, the armored plating along the insides of the doors, but most notable was the special door in the back which had a shooting port. He was itching to give it a try, but they needed to conserve the ammo for it until they were desperate, or until they found a cache of fifty caliber ammunition somewhere.
He also lamented the fact that they only had two pairs of Peltors.
“What are Peltors?” Anna asked.
“Ear pro…hearing protection. A fifty caliber in that space will wreck your ears. The Peltors filter that out while still letting us communicate.”
“So, you think they’ll be okay at Harry’s? I don’t like how close to town he is,” Anna asked.
“As long as they remain vigilant, I think they’ll be okay. Worst case scenario, they’ll have to hunker down in a shelter somewhere and wait for us to come back. Harry has a good little armed force. They know what they’re doing.”
“I guess,” she conceded.
“I wonder what Stewart is up to. Seems out of character for him to disappear like that,” Jared said.
“Out of character? Really? We don’t exactly know his character anymore,” Anna pointed out.
“He hasn’t changed that much! Except for the, you know, wiggly fingers…and the creepy eyes.”
Anna just looked at him. He knew that look. It was her ‘I think you’re being stupid but I’m not going to say another word about it’ look.
He was very familiar with it, having been on the receiving end for over two years now.
◆◆◆
Back at the house the group members
that were staying behind had congregated in the living room. A large pile of belongings sat squarely in the center of the living room. Alejandro was running around, obviously excited about the prospect of playing with other kids. The adults looked on with bemusement.
Jared felt terrible for effectively kicking them out of the house while the team was out on a mission, but he had to remember that it was safer for them where there was more security.
“Well, are we all ready?” Violet asked. She carried her knitting bag and a sweater, though it was at least ninety degrees out, if not more.
Old folks were sometimes incomprehensible to him.
“Where’s mom?” he asked.
“I’m here,” she said, coming from the basement.
She carried a bag and had a pistol strapped around her waist. She looked well rested for once. Probably because he was finally going for Kate, the favorite child.
“Your father would be proud of you,” she said, suddenly. “He always knew you’d make a fine leader, and here you are. It probably wasn’t the way he pictured it, but he was right nonetheless.”
Jared swallowed and didn’t know what to say to that. His mother never blamed him for his father’s death.
“Do you think I made a mistake all those years ago?” he whispered. He found himself struggling to keep the emotions from overwhelming him.
“By not taking the appointment at West Point?”
He nodded.
“I think you would have been extremely successful, and would have made an excellent officer…”
His heart fell.
“—But I don’t think you would have been as happy. You have turned out to be a fine man. Now you are a leader, and you have a good wife to care for, though I’m a bit angry that you didn’t tell me about her sooner…”
Oops.
“So no, I think you made the right decision. Now, take us to that community and then go find Kate.”
◆◆◆
The procession was a strange one. The convoy of pickup trucks containing many of their group, followed by a very brightly colored, dubiously acquired El Camino, followed by Juan’s family in the SUV. Bradley and Fletch brought up the rear in the armored Suburban.
The trip down the highway was uneventful and Harry’s gate opened instantly when they got there. Jared was completely surprised at the number of people on the streets when they arrived.
Men, women, and children gathered at the community center and surrounding area. They milled around, yet all turned to watch as Jared’s group arrived in their somewhat unconventional cavalcade.
They parked along the street in front of the house allotted to them. Jared looked in the rearview mirror as Bradley’s truck parked and the doors opened. He got out first, and the others followed. Jared motioned his group to close in around him. When they complied, he gestured to the home.
“This is the house that Harry has offered us. It should be plenty big enough for you all if you’d like to stay together. There are also two other homes further on the outskirts of the neighborhood, if you’d rather separate into groups. Make your choice and we’ll help you unpack and get settled in. I want to make sure you all feel safe and welcomed here.”
They all looked at him uncertainly. He realized that they were overwhelmed with the amount of people staring at them from across the road. They had been around so many strangers since before the plague.
“Does anyone want to go their own way while they are here?” he asked.
Nobody spoke up.
“Hank?” he asked.
Hank shook his head. “Nah, I think we’ve decided we’re going to stay together until you guys get back. Hell, after all this time I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”
“All right then. Let’s go meet your new neighbors and get you guys settled in here for a bit.”
Jared led them over to the crowd and Harry made the introductions.
There was no way they would ever remember the names of over a hundred people, but perhaps they would remember a few and make some friends.
◆◆◆
After getting their supplies unpacked, with some stored in the pantry and the rest in the basement, they sat around in the living room. Alejandro was itching to go to the playground so Jared would make this fast, but he didn’t feel right unless he left them with a plan in case something happened while they were gone.
Bradley looked at him, and he nodded.
“So, this place is well protected. They have teams patrolling the walls and the streets twenty-four hours a day. However, if they do breach the defenses, I want you all to run either to the community center, which has a basement shelter, or to this basement here. This basement has a strong door and lock and all the supplies. It wouldn’t be as comfortable as the one we stayed in before, but I think it would be enough to keep you safe until help comes.”
“We understand,” Hank said, and they looked as if they did.
“Juan, we’ll come back and pick you guys up as soon as we can. However, if something major were to happen here and you felt as if you needed to leave, then take everyone and go back to the house. That is your backup plan,” Jared said. “If the house is overrun, or there is some reason that you can’t make it there, then you all need to go to Sten’s settlement. Halvorsted. It’s the old Oak Grove community.”
“Do you all know where that is?” Anna asked.
They all nodded.
“We had better move before it gets late,” Bradley said.
He watched Bradley shake hands with everyone, even giving Violet a reluctant hug after she pulled him in and pinched his cheeks like a child. Jared went last, giving everyone one last reassurance. He felt oddly like a father reassuring his children that he would come back.
It was unsettling.
◆◆◆
They spent the rest of the day fortifying the defenses on the empty house and yard. Bradley and Jared decided that since there was already a fence and a trench around the property it was probably going to draw some attention. They thought it would be best to reinforce the windows and doors as best they could.
They covered all but the back door with boards and sheets of wood. When the sun began its descent, Stewart still hadn’t come home.
They went in. The house was darker than usual thanks to their new security measures. It felt more like living in an armed camp than the home he was used to, but they probably should have done it long ago. It just wasn’t safe having windows anymore.
“What if Stewart doesn’t come back?” Anna asked.
They were sitting in the shadowy kitchen eating their evening meal. Violet had made bread, and they were eating it with a can of beef stew. They hadn’t spoken to each other in a while, and her voice was almost startling in the quiet.
“He will,” Bradley said. “But if he doesn’t, then we’ll have to go anyway. I wouldn’t know the first place to start looking for him.”
“I don’t even know why he left,” Fletch said, scraping the last of the gravy from the bowl with a slice of bread. “Did he say?”
Anna shook her head. “He just wrote that he was going with us and to wait. He said it was dangerous out there. Actually, his exact words were dangerous and death. Not exactly reassuring.”
“Think he knows something we don’t?” Jared asked.
“I think he knows a lot that we don’t,” Bradley said.
“His mind seems perfectly fine. We had a conversation of sorts. He was frustrated that he couldn’t speak properly,” Anna confided.
“Maybe he will get better at it,” Jared said.
“Maybe.”
Bradley washed his bowl in the sink, then dried it and put it away. It wasn’t until then that he spoke. “Stew is like a brother to me. Closer than a brother. He’s the only family I have. I can’t ever give up on him.”
Jared waited, but he didn’t say more. He wondered why Bradley didn’t have a wife or girlfriend or children. Maybe he would ask some day. He didn’t want to bring up somethi
ng that could be painful.
Dredging up bad memories before they were going to leave on a critical trip didn’t seem like a very good idea.
It was kind of strange though, how most of the people they had collected were loners like he and Anna used to be. Aside from Juan and his family and now Jared and Anna, none of them had partners. They had lived alone. What did that say about them all?
“I guess I’m going to get to bed. I’ll need at least a few hours of sleep to operate effectively tomorrow,” Bradley said.
“Yeah, we should be going as well.”
They went their separate ways for the night. They would be meeting back here at five for breakfast before beginning their journey.
With or without Stewart.
◆◆◆
That night the house felt empty. The darkness reverberated with faint echoes of the life it held earlier in the day, but those quickly faded into a dull, ringing silence that made it impossible to sleep.
He was too keyed up. Too many plans and scenarios ran through his head, not only about tomorrow’s trip, but with everything that could happen here, and everything that could possibly happen in the future on a large scale.
With a country so divided that they had two militaries currently at war with each other, how could they hope to have enough strength and numbers to defeat the muties? Did they both just consider them a lesser threat? Did their struggles for power begin even before the plague? Perhaps one side or another was a part of it? Both?
Those thoughts and others, about Anna and him and their future, whirled through his head. It didn’t make for a restful atmosphere, that was for sure.
He heard a faint whisper of noise from outside the bedroom. His eyes shot open wide in the darkness. Anna was breathing lightly next to him. She was deeply asleep. It was probably Bradley or Fletch. They were probably having trouble sleeping as well.
But he wouldn’t be able to relax until he checked.
He pressed the button on his watch and the dial illuminated green. It was twelve-fifteen in the morning. He groaned silently. It sucked to know you only had a few hours left to sleep but couldn’t actually fall asleep.
The Salvation Plague | Book 2 | The Mutation Page 17
