And Cole wasn’t bragging about having seen more than most people. He was just stating a fact.
“We gotta get outta here,” Tommy from Terry Flats was telling anyone who would listen, including Bolton and the others as they finally hurried over to join them. “Where’s your chopper? We gotta get in that thing and take off.”
“Is that why you came here?” Greg asked him.
“Well, yeah. No one comes all the way out here. There’s nothing—” He suddenly stopped and glanced around, as if seeing the warehouse for the very first time. Then, noticing the lone elevator, “Is that an elevator?”
“Yeah, it’s an elevator,” Bolton said. He peeked past Emily at the dead psycho before focusing on her. “We in trouble?”
“I think so,” Emily said.
“Of course we are,” Savannah said. She crossed her arms over her chest and shivered slightly. “So what else is new?”
“What about Cole?” Zoe asked. She was looking at Emily.
Emily was about to answer when they heard a bloodcurdling scream from outside the warehouse. It was much louder than the last scream, mostly because there was now a big hole in the wall to add to all the opened high windows surrounding them.
Screaming. Painful screaming.
And it seemed to go on for minutes but was probably just a few seconds before…nothing.
Silence, again.
Except for the combined thumping heartbeats of everyone in the warehouse, that is.
“So, uh, where’s your chopper?” Tommy asked as he looked from one face to the next. “We should really get going before the rest of them get here.”
“How many?” Emily asked.
“Huh?”
“How many is ‘all of them?’”
Tommy seemed to think about it for a moment.
“It’s not a hard question, kid,” Bolton said, sounding slightly annoyed. He was much more intimidating than Emily with his haggard, lined, and heavily bearded features.
“Ten, maybe twenty,” Tommy finally said. “I didn’t stop the truck to count. But there was a lot of them.”
“What were they doing?” Emily asked.
“Running.”
“Running?” Greg said.
“Running here,” Tommy said. “All of them. They were keeping their distance from one another, but I was weaving all over the place and caught sight of at least ten of the suckers.” He looked back at the dead psycho Emily had shot. “He was one of them. I recognize that spear of his.”
“And another one just went down,” Dante said. He had finally joined them in his wheelchair. Ashley hadn’t followed him out, maybe because Zoe had ordered her not to.
Off the others’ puzzled look, Dante continued. “The screaming we just heard? That’s another one down for the count.”
“So two down and at least seven left,” Greg said.
“Three down,” Emily said.
“Three?”
She pointed back at the side door. A beam of sunlight shot through the hole that the dead psycho’s spear-sword had punched through earlier.
“Oh,” Greg said.
“We should be going,” Tommy said. “So where’s that chopper? It’s one of the ones parked out there, right?”
“Forget about the chopper,” Fiona said. “We’re not leaving until everyone’s back.”
“Huh? Who’s missing?”
All eyes—with the exception of Tommy’s—turned to Emily.
She looked away from them and toward the elevator.
“Someone’s down there?” Tommy asked. “What the hell’s down there? I didn’t even know this place was occupied.”
Flickering motion out of the corner of her left eye made Emily spin around, the Glock snapping up, just as a black-clad figure darted between the semi and the wall and disappeared out of view onto the other side.
“What was that?” Greg asked. “Did anyone see that?”
“They’re here,” Tommy said. “So we should really be going now, guys.” Then, not trying to hide the fear, “Please?”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Emily said. “Not until Cole comes back.”
“Damn right,” Bolton said. “We’re not leaving anyone behind.”
“Seriously?” Tommy said.
“Fucking right seriously, kid.”
“Oh, man, I should have stayed in town.”
Greg walked the short distance over to stand next to Emily. He clenched and unclenched his fingers around his own Glock. “So what’s our next move?”
“We keep them out,” Emily said.
“We should follow Cole down the elevator,” Zoe said.
“She’s right,” Bolton said. “That’s the smart move.”
“You guys crazy or what?” Tommy said. “The smart move is to get in that chopper and take off!”
“That’s not happening, son. I won’t leave anyone behind. And the last time I checked, I was the only one who could fly that bird.”
“Oh, fuck me.”
Bolton turned to Emily. “Zoe’s right, though. We should follow Cole down. It’s gotta be safer down there than it is up here. Or will be, pretty soon.”
Emily shook her head. “If we all go down there, we might not be able to come back up.” She looked back at the wide gap in the warehouse. “They already know we’re in here. The ones Tommy saw, and who knows how many else. The Bell made a big impression.” She shook her head again, maybe to convince herself more than the others the second time. “We stay up here and keep them out until Cole comes back.”
“That’s, uh, a pretty big hole that Tommy boy here just punched into our wall,” Greg said.
“Sorry about that,” Tommy said, almost meekly.
“Idiot,” Fiona said.
“Hey!”
“Well, you are.”
“I guess…”
Emily looked over at Greg. “I need you to do me a favor.”
The former contractor nodded. “Anything.”
“I need you to give that gun to Bolton.”
Greg’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You’re no good with your left hand,” she said. “We both know it. And we’re running out of bullets.” She looked past Greg and at Bolton. “You were in the Army.”
“That’s right,” the chopper pilot said. “But I was never very good with a gun.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’ll still be an improvement over Greg.”
She turned back to Greg, remembering those three days when the big man did everything possible to keep her alive because she had guilt-tripped him into doing so. She should have felt bad about what she was saying and doing now, but she didn’t. She couldn’t afford to.
Step one: Know your objective.
Keep everyone alive until Cole could return or could be rescued. Either/or.
Step two: Gather intel.
They were surrounded by psychos. How many was up in the air. As few as seven, but probably more than that.
Step three: Formulate a plan.
Protect the integrity of the warehouse at all costs.
And finally, step four: Execute that plan.
Put the guns and their limited ammo in the hands of people who could use them. If not expertly, then more efficiently. That meant her and Bolton.
“I’m sorry,” Emily said, her face softening somewhat as she locked eyes with Greg.
The contractor pursed a smile before turning and handing the Glock to the pilot. “Here, old timer.”
“You sure?” Bolton asked even as he took the gun.
“She’s right. I can’t shoot for shit with my left hand.”
“So how are we going to keep those crazies out exactly?” Zoe asked.
Emily looked back at the battered truck parked on top of the fallen door. “The semi,” she said to Tommy. “Will it run?”
“Uh, I don’t know,” Tommy said. “Engine died as soon as I got inside.”
“You didn’t try to turn it back on?”
“I didn’
t see the point.”
Greg was standing beside her again. “What’s the plan, boss lady?”
Emily looked over and smiled at him. He returned it without missing a beat—and without the hurt she’d seen before.
Instead of answering him, she walked over to the dead psycho and tried to pull the spear out of his hand. The man refused to let it go even in death, but she was able to pry it free with some extra force.
She returned and handed the weapon to Greg. “You’re going to watch my back while I see if that semi is really dead or not.”
“That’s the plan?”
“Is that really the best plan?”
“Depends. What’s yours?”
“Run into a corner and hide. But I don’t think that’s gonna work.”
She grinned. “No, probably not.”
Tommy groaned. “Oh man, I should have stayed back in town.”
“Yes, you should have, idiot,” Fiona said, just before she punched Tommy in the shoulder hard enough to make him stumble back.
“Serves you right, dude,” Dante said.
Tommy didn’t say anything, but he rubbed at his shoulder and put his head down.
“Why the hell did you bash down the door in the first place?” Fiona asked him.
“That wasn’t the plan,” Tommy said.
“So what was the plan, genius?” Savannah asked. She sounded almost as annoyed as Fiona. Or, at least, on par.
Tommy shrugged. “I drove past the airfield first, but I didn’t see anyone at the choppers. When I rounded back around to the front doors, I saw some bloodies were already outside trying to kill each other.” He lowered his voice when he finished with, “I didn’t want to risk exposing myself to them.”
“Moron,” Fiona said.
“I’m sorry, okay?”
“You should be.”
Emily turned away from them. She unclipped the two-way radio from her waist and tossed it over to Zoe. The single mother wasn’t ready for it and almost dropped it. “I need you to keep trying to reach Cole.”
“What if he doesn’t answer?” Zoe asked.
“Just keep trying.”
Zoe nodded, but the expression on her face told Emily that she, like Emily, wasn’t very hopeful.
Emily looked at the others. “There has to be a way to make contact with the people underground. Look through the offices again.”
“What are we looking for?” Dante asked.
“A landline, maybe. Or intercom. Some kind of communications device that we might have missed the first time we searched the place. There has to be a way for the people up here to keep in contact with the ones below.”
The others nodded mutely, but as with Zoe, Emily didn’t find anything on their faces that appeared even remotely confident.
Bolton walked over to where she stood. “We really gonna do this?”
“Yeah, we are,” Emily said, looking back at the opening around the parked truck and the pool of sunlight pouring freely into the place.
So much for a hidden sanctuary in the middle of nowhere...
Chapter 7. Cole
“You should make up your mind quickly,” Sal said through those same hidden speakers that Cole hadn’t been able to find then and still couldn’t now. “Your friends look like they’re going to need your help pretty soon.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your friends. The ones upstairs in The Welcome Room.”
Cole tensed, Emily racing across his mind.
As if the invisible Sal could read his mind—or maybe she could see the sudden tenseness on his face—the woman said, “Yeah. Her, too.”
“‘Her?’” Cole said even though he already knew who Sal was referring to. But he’d asked anyway, because he needed to know more. Or, if nothing else, get a better feel for just how much Sal could see and hear from wherever she was hiding.
“Your wife,” Sal said.
“I don’t have a wife.”
“Nice try. I can see the rings on both of your fingers.”
Cole smirked. “What else can you see?”
“Enough to tell you that if you don’t come and get me the hell out of here, you won’t be able to return to your wife and friends fast enough to do them any good.”
Cole glanced at the door behind him. It was closed, but there was a latch for him to pull it open. Could Sal lock it from wherever she was, the same way she’d opened it for him?
Again, as if she could read his mind, Sal said, “You can open it from inside. But you’d still need me to turn the elevator back on.”
“I didn’t need you to come down.”
“You came down it because I let you. I turned on the power to the elevator. But I can just as easily shut it off, which I’ve already done.”
Emily, Cole thought again.
“So here’s your choice, big man,” Sal continued. “You can come rescue little ol’ me and take me up there with you or be stuck down here with me and all those blood-red little monsters running around waiting to stab you in the face. All the while, your wife and your friends are fighting for their lives without you. So what will it be?”
“Not much of a choice, is it?” the Voice said. “Unless she’s lying about shutting off the elevator.”
And what if she’s not?
“Like I said: unless she’s lying.”
Can I take that chance?
“Beats the hell out of me.”
You’re no help.
“I beg to differ. I’m a lot of help.”
Cole grunted.
“I take it that’s you agreeing?” Sal asked. “Or did you just burp?”
He ignored the question and walked over to the nearest locker and opened it. Or tried to. It was locked and wouldn’t budge. He thought about breaking it open but didn’t want to risk damaging the Remington.
Instead, Cole moved on to the next one. It, too, was locked.
“Where are you, anyway?” Cole asked the invisible Sal.
“Nearby,” Sal said.
“Where, nearby?”
“Do we have a deal or not?”
“Yeah, we have a deal.”
“Until we find you and put a nice little hole in your face, you conniving little bitch,” the Voice said. “Right?”
Cole didn’t answer the Voice.
“I said, right?”
He managed to pull the fourth locker open but didn’t find anything inside that was of any use. Stinky clothes, socks, and a spiral notebook with surprisingly decent real-life drawings of, he guessed, the artist’s fellow employees. They were all wearing the same uniforms in the pictures.
“What are you doing?” Sal asked.
“Looking for something useful.”
“They’re facility employees, spud, not soldiers. They don’t have anything you can use unless you can use smelly briefs.”
She wasn’t wrong. He opened more lockers and found more than one pile of stinky undergarments. Apparently the people that worked down here spent very little time in the laundry room. If, that is, it even had one. He assumed it did. Probably.
“What’s happening aboveground?” he asked, closing an empty locker and moving to the next one.
It was locked, but the two after that weren’t. Not that he found anything worth stealing in them either. The closest was a metal protractor among some construction tools.
“Someone just drove a semi into one of the doors,” Sal was saying.
Cole froze. “What?”
“Someone knocked down one of the hangar doors with a truck.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I shit you not.”
“Fuck.”
“That’s what your wife and the others said when it happened.”
Cole gave up on the lockers and stared across the room at the door again. On the other side was the hallway, then the elevator; and Emily was ten stories beyond that.
“And now?” he asked.
“They’re formulating a
plan to keep the blood-crazed maniacs out. Your wife already plugged one of them.”
“Is she okay?”
“They’re all okay. For now.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“What’s happening now?”
“Look, you wanna stand there and listen to me give you a blow-by-blow account of the action, or you wanna get this show on the road and come get me already, so you can run up there and rescue your friends and wifey? With the former, you’re wasting our time and theirs. What’ll it be?”
“You said someone drove a semi into the warehouse?”
“That’s right.”
“I didn’t hear a thing.”
“You wouldn’t. Which part of ten-stories-down-and-built-to-withstand-any-calamity-known-and-unknown-to-man don’t you understand?”
“She’s got a point,” the Voice said.
Yeah. A point.
“But we’re still gonna shoot her in the face when we meet her, right?”
Cole didn’t respond.
“Right?”
Cole said out loud, “How do I find you?”
“First, you go outside through the same door you came in,” Sal said.
“And then?”
“And then, you try not to die as you head over to where I’m waiting.”
The Voice laughed inside Cole’s head.
He grunted out loud. “And you’ll be able to see me? You can see the entire facility?”
“Mostly.”
“What does that mean? ‘Mostly?’”
“There are blind spots.”
“How many blind spots?”
“Enough that this isn’t going to be easy for you. You’ll probably have to shoot your way to me. Then, shoot your way to get us back to the elevator. Like I said: It’s not going to be easy.”
“She’s definitely asking to get shot in the face,” the Voice said.
Cole walked back to the door but didn’t grab the latch. Instead, he stared at it for a moment, trying to come up with a better plan. Emily always had a four-step solution to solving any problem:
Step one: Know your objective.
Step two: Gather intel.
Step three: Formulate a plan.
And finally, step four: Execute that plan.
Fall of Man | Book 3 | Firebase: Page 6
