by Lund, Dave
Hurricane thankfully turned out to be a huge letdown for as anxious as Bexar had been. The town was deserted; only a handful of straggler Zeds meandered through the streets of the deserted and destroyed town.
“Thank God. When we came through this town before, it was completely overrun and we were fleeing for our lives. It was bad.”
Jessie didn’t say anything; she continued to hold Bexar’s hand, wincing in pain with some of the larger bumps in the road. Her ankle was a sickly green and purple color, still quite swollen and excruciatingly painful, but Jessie was tough and not complaining, even though Bexar was sure that he would have been if he was that hurt.
There wasn’t much daylight left. It was already mid-afternoon, so there wasn’t any way they were going to make their destination in Texas before nightfall, or maybe even the next day. They would need a safe place to setup for the night. Out in the middle of nothing Utah, they were surrounded by incredible landscapes and many national parks, but Bexar wanted a solid structure, something they could survive a siege of the dead in if they had to. Camping in Zion might be nice because there wouldn’t be any crowds for once, but even if Jessie’s ankle wasn’t badly sprained, relaxing backpacking trips were not on their agenda for survival. The thought of low-stress, happy backpacking, easy meals, and Nalgene bottles of water in their packs sounded wonderful, but Bexar knew that world that life for them would never exist again in anything but a memory.
Outside of Las Vegas, NV
“Do you think that the Zeds are attracted to the smell of blood?”
“You know what? Why don’t you go fuck yourself, dick!”
Jason smirked at his wife—Wife? Was Erin really his wife? He was confused but Jason felt deeply in love. Smiling, he slid past Erin toward the broken glass doors at the front of the Love’s travel center, slapping her ass as he went by. Erin flipped him off with a grin. She picked up an unopened bottle of beer from the parking lot and threw it into the darkened store with a loud shattering crash. As expected, dark guttural moans erupted in response as the Zeds inside shambled into shelves and trash trying to get to the disturbance for the hope of a fresh meal.
Jason propped open one of the doors with a brick on the sidewalk that appears to have lived in that spot since before the rise of the Zeds, probably for the very reason of holding open the door. They took a few steps back, giving room for any new friends to stumble out of the store’s interior, Jason standing nearly back to back with Erin. She watched the door, he watching behind them for any threats that might shamble up, living or dead. They weren’t disappointed; a few breaths later, the first Zed fell through the door of the gas station and fell to the pavement with a hard crack of a melon falling to the floor as its head bounced off the pavement. Erin fired a single shot before it could get up, painting the concrete with the blackened pus-filled rot from its now ruined skull. It felt like an hour, but the reality was that only a few minutes had passed, and Erin had dispatched four Zeds that had come out to greet them. She threw a rock inside the store and waited; this time, there were no moans, no great crashes.
“Ok, lover-boy, in we go. Think the trucker’s showers still work? I could use one.”
“Heh…no, but maybe we’ll find a bucket of water or something for you to use.”
“Bitch bath, like some homeless hooker.”
“To be a hooker, you’d have to have sex with people.”
Erin smiled slyly. “Yeah, people who pay…maybe you should pay up.”
“I was hoping to be put on an installment plan, like rent to own.”
Erin smiled and slid inside the dark interior, broken glass crunching under her feet. The counter where the cashiers stood was a complete disaster. All the cigarettes seemed to have been taken, candy bars and bags of chips were strewn about the floor, and the store stunk, smelling of a mix of abandoned building, rotting flesh, and old poop. It was the perfume of the apocalypse, common enough that neither of them really noticed anymore. Twenty minutes later, they were done clearing the building. Not only did the showers not work, which was far from surprising, but in typical truck stop fashion, someone had shit all over the floor in the restrooms. It didn’t matter, though, as they could sleep in their truck if they needed, but what did matter was that as ransacked as the store was, the limited selection of feminine products were still there. Without any embarrassment, they were far too close for that anymore, Erin pulled down her pants, cleaned herself up with a T-shirt from the store, threw that on the ground, and inserted a tampon.
“Now if we could find that mystical bucket of water to wash my panties and pants, I would really appreciate it.”
Jason kissed Erin. “I’m on it.”
They knew they were out of luck inside the Love’s, as they had searched it for Zeds, but had also kept a lookout for things like a bucket of water. There were a few unopened bottles of water that were found, but those were too valuable as drinking water to be used for cleaning. A few minutes later, Jason returned. “It isn’t the best, but I think I’ve got a solution for you. Follow me.”
Walking out to the fuel pumps, Jason held out his hand. “Give them to me.” Erin laughed and took her pants and panties off, handing the soiled pair to Jason. Jason pulled a squeegee out of the bin and plunged the clothes into the water used for washing windshields. Amazingly, it hadn’t completely evaporated or been drunk by wildlife, which probably meant it wasn’t just water.
Erin stood there, looking mean with her bemused look and rifle, half-naked in the parking lot. Clothed or not, Jason wouldn’t want to get on her bad side. “Think we should let them soak for a bit? Maybe get them in the morning?”
“Uh, maybe? I usually just threw them into the washing machine. I don’t know.”
“OK, well I do have experience in such things. We should let them soak for a while. Why don’t we figure out dinner, take a break, and then we can return to scrub on them?”
“So what should I do, just have my bare ass flying in the wind?”
Jason smiled. “I’m very OK with that.”
They both went back into the Love’s and scavenged for something to eat besides the MREs in their truck. As the sunset, they retrieved Erin’s clothes from the stale water, scrubbed them with a stiff brush they found on the ground nearby, and rinsed them in another windshield washing water bucket. The pants and panties went on the roof of the MRAP to dry and the two climbed into their armored truck to sleep. They left the roof hatch open for fresh air and fell asleep in each other’s arms, the cool breeze keeping the interior comfortable.
Hillsboro, Texas
The compound was impressive. It appeared to have been a large trucking yard or something like that before the rise of the Zeds, but since then, this group had used semi-trailers and shipping containers to build a heavy-duty wall. Guards manned observation towers, ready to kill as it appeared. A heavy gate slid open from the inside as they approached, and the UTV that Ken was riding in barreled into the courtyard without even slowing down. Once stopped inside, the heavy gate slid closed with a hard thunk behind them. A woman walked toward them. She was armed, but her rifle hung on a sling across her chest, a camouflaged armor carrier with many rifle magazines in pouches covering her chest and midsection. She appeared to be middle-aged and had the look of someone who was once much heavier, but lost a significant amount of weight in a short time. Ken noticed her eyes in the light of the setting sun; they were hard and cold, and the blue-grey color of steel. Immediately, Ken knew that she was not someone to fuck with. On the perimeter wall, he noticed that two of the guards were staring at him instead of outside the wall, their rifles ready in their hands.
Ken didn’t know if he was a prisoner or if these people were friendly, but it didn’t much matter at this point because without them he would have died. Whatever came next, he would adapt and overcome as needed.
“You got yourself into a bit of trouble out there, guy.�
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Ken nodded, still unsure of the what was going to happen in this new and dynamic situation. The heavy gate slid open noisily and Ken turned to look. He saw his truck drive through and stop behind the UTV where he sat.
“Mister, we have a few rules here, one of which is that you’re required to be armed and ready for a fight at all times. Do you have more ammo for your weapons in the truck?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
A faint smile could be seen before she responded; not with her lips, but with her eyes, her face as unmoving as granite. “Good, go top off, then we’ll chat.”
Ken’s face, however, was not the hardened face of a combat leader; his expression gave away his surprise, although the woman said nothing. First, Ken inserted a full ammo clip into his M1 and charged the weapon, then he topped off his empty pouches with fresh ones before reloading the few clips he was able to pick up and keep, replacing them in the ammo can with the others. He completed his task quickly, efficiently, and in silence. The leader watching from her spot in the courtyard, the woman who had driven the UTV, watched, as well as the two guards on the wall. Others filtered by, appearing to be completing chores, while a few others stood watch on the wall, facing outward.
“This reminds me of the firebase on Hill 354 back in ‘Nam, except that we didn’t have any women there. From the look of how things are going on here, we could have really used some women fighting alongside us back then.”
The leader’s face didn’t change, but the woman who drove the UTV smiled at him the same way a girl smiles at her grandpa after he said something stupid. Ken frowned and continued to load his pistol magazines, wondering what would come next, except that he didn’t really think that he would be kept a prisoner since they were making him top off his weapons. He was worried that they would take his truck and supplies, though. If that happened, then he would be in trouble and getting to Groom Lake would be tough.
“What are you going to do with me?”
Finally, the leader’s face changed, a thin smile appearing on her lips. “We’re going to do nothing. If you would be kind enough to donate some gear or help out around the compound for a bit as repayment for saving your ass, that would be great, but if you want to leave now, you can. However, we won’t save you again, and we’re going to blindfold you to drop you and your truck off away from us. We don’t need you coming back in an attempt to take what we have. My name is Samantha, but most call me Sam.”
“Welcome to meet you, Sam. I’m Kenneth, but most call me Ken,” Ken began, looking around again. “I don’t think I could take what you have if I wanted too; y’all are setup quite well.”
“We are, but we don’t need any extra drama than we already have with the dead.”
Ken nodded. “The Zeds have really fucked everything up, but not as bad as the fucking Chinese and Koreans that invaded.”
The woman’s smile vanished. “What?”
“The PLA, the invasion.”
“What are you talking about? We know that we were attacked, we had the warnings right before everything went dark, and we saw the aircraft spraying the virus or whatever it was, but we haven’t heard about an invasion.”
“Do you not have a radio?”
The woman shook her head.
“OK, I could use some help setting mine up, and ma’am, we have a lot to talk about.”
Great Falls, Montana
Chivo press-checked his rifle and looked out the windows, scanning for threats. He had to assume that something would go wrong and they would be on foot from this point on. Chivo obviously hoped that wouldn’t happen. The aircraft descended closer to the snow-splotched landscape, which was the problem. Andrew was landing them for the night on a road that passed in front of a ranch. There wasn’t much for them, except maybe shelter in the house or what looked like a utility shed or barn, but it was what they had for the night. The yellow Husky flared for landing, bouncing on the large tundra tires, snow blowing into the air and past the cabin from the propeller. Andrew stopped the engine and flipped open the clamshell door, climbing out with wheel chocks for the main gear. Chivo unfolded himself from the aircraft; as small of a person as he was, it was still cramped. Once out, he continued to scan the area, rifle in hand, but no threats appeared. There weren’t any tracks in the snow and no signs of any movement, living or dead.
“I’m going to check the house. Don’t chock the tires yet. Let me make sure we won’t need a quick escape first.”
Andrew flashed a thumbs up as Chivo turned and walked toward the house a few hundred yards away. There wasn’t much for Andrew to do in the meantime, so he checked the leading edge of his wings for any icing and checked for any ice or snow building up in the petcock tubes. He didn’t want them to end up like Buddy Holly. Chivo returned a few minutes later.
“House is clear. The owner is still there, killed himself on the back porch, and left some canned goods that look tasty, so score one for the good guys.”
Chivo grabbed his gear out of the aircraft and started back toward the house. Andrew put the chocks in place and followed along shortly. The setting sun cast long shadows across the landscape, red and purple colors lighting up the bottom of the few clouds in the sky. Andrew smiled at the beauty. It was important to him to keep sight on the simple things now that the simple things were pretty much all he really had left. Their day was over and hopefully the next day would see them completing their mission. Andrew was ready to get back to Groom Lake and to Oreo. This was the longest he had been without his best friend since before the end of the world four months ago.
SSC
Amanda waited sort of impatiently for the man and his son to come back to the dining facility; they had enjoyed a light snack before heading off to shower and changed. He had said it had been many weeks since they had been clean. Their clothes were a filthy mess and if the powerful washing machines in the facility couldn’t get the grime out, they would be thrown in the trash. Tired of waiting and figuring that the new guests could figure out how to eat the food, she left and went to the control room. Amanda toggled the view on the computer monitor between the different security cameras above ground, watching and looking for any sign of who the random attacker was who shot at her, but there wasn’t any movement that she could see except for a handful of Zeds on the western side of the facility. They were shambling toward the main facility entrance, but posed no threat to them below. Even if a million Zeds stood on the ground above her, she would be fine.
Restless and giving up on the security cameras, Amanda flipped on the spark gap radio and waited as it came to life, popping and hissing as it did. On the table, she had a pad of paper and a pen along with a cheat sheet of Morse code letters and shorthand codes that people have been using. It appeared that people were excited, transmitting on top of each other; it was a pileup of popping buzzes. Amanda was able to catch snippets and slowly began to piece together what was being talked about. It was like being at a lively cocktail party in a foreign country, except that you couldn’t see who was speaking or read their body language.
Amanda transcribed the transmissions and waited for her chance to get on the airwaves and set the record straight. It appeared that Bill, or someone from Groom Lake, was trying their best, but it was not going well for him. On the pad of paper, Amanda wrote out the message she wanted to send then drew the dashes and dots of how it would be transmitted above each letter. Once ready, and with some effort, she broke into the frequency and began transmitting.
BREAK BREAK BREAK
TRANSMISSION FROM POTUS
SSC - WAXAHACHIE TX SECURE AND READY FOR SURVIVORS
GROOM LAKE NV SECURE AND READY FOR SURVIVORS
PLA PLOT TO LAUNCH USA ICBM UNCOVERED AND STOPPED
PLA STILL A THREAT
REPORT ALL SEEN PLA TO GROOM LAKE
MILITARY RESPONSE PLANNING
NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS
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NEED ALL CURRENT AND FORMER SERVICE MEMBERS HELP
WE WILL FIGHT
WE WILL WIN
GOD BLESS AMERICA
POTUS OUT
There was a pause at the end of her transmission then the radio practically exploded with all the received transmissions, all on top of the others. She could no longer decipher what was being transmitted so she stopped trying. The fight was that there was a rumor that the PLA had fled; there was also a rumor that their facilities had been overrun. Hopefully, this would help settle some of those fears, but Amanda wasn’t sure. A Roosevelt fireside chat that was not and she felt slightly amiss for outright lying to the American public, but not much. She felt like they needed to be lied to, they needed hope and guidance, just as other wartime presidents had done.
Amanda looked up and saw Eric and his son Jacob standing in the room eating the dinner she left out for them with a puzzled look on their faces.
“It’s a radio.”
They both looked at her with blank expressions.
“There is another underground facility in Nevada. Actually, there were a lot more of them, and these are the only two left that are online and not overrun by the Zeds, but at the facility in Groom Lake, there’s a radio guy who came up with this radio. We’ve transmitted plans and instructions via shortwave radio. Slowly, people began getting online and transmitting. It’s amazing really; old technology working after everything else was wiped out from the EMPs.”
“Is there anyone else here besides yourself?”
“Not for the moment. That’s going to change soon.”
