by Jeff Olah
“I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but first I’d like to know who it is that I’m talking to.”
The blond man snickered. “Sure thing… okay, as I’m sure Cedric has told you, my name is Mitchell Blake, but most everyone just calls me Blake. I’m thirty years old and have been in this city since the second day. I’m also originally from Colorado and have family in Denver. Now, what else do you need from me before we proceed?”
Stepping forward, Tom said, “I don’t quite understand why we’re here. What’s all this about? You have to admit, it’s a tad awkward.”
“Tom Whitlock, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Alright Tom, I’ll be able to answer that question just as soon as I get a few more details from the both of you.”
“And what’s that?”
“Well Tom, I wanted to finish up with Emma first, but since you seem so determined to do this your way, here goes. Do you have any family, friends, or otherwise that you’re looking to bring into my town?”
“No, I don’t have any family and my friends already have a place outside of this city. And at some point, I’ll be going back to them.”
“That’s great,” Blake said. “So now if you’ll let me finish with Emma, we can wrap this thing up and get back to the business of trying not to die.”
“I do have family,” Emma said. “But they’re in Colorado and I don’t even know if they’re alive. Two days ago, I sent them a message letting them know exactly where I am. That I’m right here in this very building, and if they ever receive that message, I can guarantee you that they’ll end up here at some point.”
“Good,” Blake said. “Now with that out of the way, I can tell you why this information is important to me. You see, if we just let anyone into this city without some sort of a vetting process, who knows what this town will become in the next six months… in the next year. My goal is to keep this city as safe as possible, maybe one day even turn this place back into what it was. We have enough to worry about with what’s roaming the streets. Adding to that with the wrong sort of residents would be foolish, don’t you think?”
Emma shook her head. “I’m not sure, but it sounds a lot like you’re saying that my family may not be welcome here. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Emma, if and when your family makes it here, all you have to do is make an introduction. If they are half as lovely as you and your friend Tom, I’m sure we’ll get along splendidly.”
Growing weary of the conversation, Emma snapped back. “Your sarcasm is lost to me, especially where my mother, my father, and my brother are concerned. So save it for someone else.”
“Hey, there’s no reason for any hostility; I actually like you. My friends and I only want to make this city a place where we can rebuild. I would think that you would agree that we should at least assure every new citizen is up to a certain standard?”
“Your standard?”
“Maybe?”
Turning to Cedric and then back to Blake, Emma said, “I’m sorry if I’m coming across as rude or impatient, but don’t we have some sort of time limit out here?”
Blake nodded. “I have men on the street that are making sure none of those things get in. But yes, we do need to move this along, so I thank you for your candidness. It may not seem like it now, but we only want what’s best for this city. And when your family arrives, I’m sure they’ll be thankful we took these precautions to keep you and everyone else here safe.”
Blake turned and walked back to the white SUV. He jumped in behind the wheel as his yet unidentified friend climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door. Next, the engine roared to life, echoing through the empty parking garage. And in less time than it took for Emma to collect her thoughts on the unusual gathering, they were gone.
Turning away as the SUV disappeared into the street below, Emma cautiously regarded Cedric. “I hope I didn’t just cause any problems for you.”
“No,” Cedric said, the look on his face defying his rapid response. “Blake’s not that kind of guy. If he had a problem, he would have said something.” And then under his breath and only to himself he said, “At least I hope so.”
124
He wasn’t exactly sure what time it was, and as most everyone else had drifted back off to sleep, Ethan sat at the rear door. Sure his arms and legs were heavy, his back ached, and the pain behind his eyes was irritating; however, he didn’t feel like he needed any more rest. The sun had been up for a few hours, and if the bearded man kept his promise to return, he’d be waiting to greet him.
Frank and Griffin had also fought for the right to take watch, but Ethan had convinced the pair that if things went wrong, which they usually did, the group would need as many rested drivers as they could get. California was a long way off.
Sitting in the corner near the right side of the door, his view included the entire patio area and most of the greenbelt leading to the dusty hillside beyond the rear wall of the property. Over his left shoulder, he could also see the hall leading to the guest rooms, the front entrance, and a large portion of the lobby where his friends rested.
As the sun began to warm the area along the western edge of the hotel’s property, creeping slowly toward the patio, Ethan finished off what remained of the twelve-ounce soda he’d been nursing for the last hour. The caffeine had slowly dripped into his system and although the added energy was a welcome addition to his morning, the room temperature caffeine was marginal tasting at best.
Setting the empty can aside, he stared down at the weapon in his lap and wondered if he’d have the stomach to kill again. Up to this point, every single round he’d fired was more or less in self-defense and could easily be justified. However, as unconventional as the bearded man’s appearance in the middle of the night had been, he—up to this point—hadn’t necessarily been a threat. Odd, peculiar, maybe even a little eccentric, yes. But dangerous? Not so far.
Rolling the stiffness from his neck, Ethan was surprised to see Shannon moving quietly out of the lobby. She walked slowly in socked feet across the cold tile flooring, smiling as she approached. Her heather grey, long-sleeve shirt hung loosely above the faded denim that clung nicely to her perfectly sculpted legs. He couldn’t help staring—she was beautiful. And the look in her tender blue eyes told him that she didn’t at all mind.
Taking the seat across from him, she pushed her chair in front of his, kissed him gently on the forehead, and sat down. Again offering a wide smile, Shannon lifted her legs and set them in Ethan’s chair. She smelled of fresh linen and warm lavender. And although the showers the group had endured the night before were torturously cold, they now seemed completely worth the trouble.
Shifting in his seat to allow her room to stretch her legs, Ethan looked back toward the lobby. He rubbed his hand over the rough stubble on his face and yawned.
“Anyone get any sleep?”
“I think so,” Shannon said. “Off and on, maybe a few hours at a time. But someone—I think Ben—was really out. Snored louder than I’ve heard in a long time.”
“Good, the kid needs the rest.”
“Carly said he’ll be fine. He won’t have any motor loss or range of motion issues, at least I think that’s what she said.”
“How about Griffin? Did you notice if he was getting any rest?”
“I’m not too sure. Every time I rolled over last night, he was either sitting at the window or talking to Frank. But when I got up just now, he was at least lying down.”
Ethan nodded and turned to look back through the doors. “I have a feeling today is going to get weird.”
“The crazy bearded man?”
“Yeah, he called this his town.”
“Maybe he lives here?”
Ethan turned away from the window. “I’m almost certain of that, but what about all the others that lived here as well? Something’s not right about this place.”
“Yeah, but what can we do? I doesn’t make a whole lot
of sense to—”
“I’m thinking we may just want to pack up and leave. Put this place in our rear-view mirror before he comes back. I mean there’s really no reason to push our luck. For all we know, the bearded guy has friends, and I’m through putting all of you in the way of danger.”
Shannon leaned forward and reached for his hand. “Ethan, I know what you’re trying to do, and I know why you’re doing it. But you can’t save everyone; you can’t be everything to everyone. The rest of us all have to learn to stand on our own as well. We do need you, just like we also need Griffin and Carly and even Ben. We can all contribute. You just have to give us a chance. Thinking that you have to protect all of us in every situation make us weaker as a group. You need to give the rest of us the opportunity to step up, to show that we can help.”
Ethan dropped his head. “You’re probably right. I’ve done nothing but get people hurt… or worse. My father, Cora, Ben, and even my best friend. None of them deserved what happened to them.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. None of those things were your fault. Not what happened to Cora, or Ben, or even your father, and especially not what happened to David.” She squeezed his hand. “He was gone before you even ran into that bank.”
His best friend’s death wasn’t something he had any interest in reliving, not now, not ever. He had dealt with it in his own way, and only wanted to remember his friend as he was before the world went to hell. David was a good person, as good and kind as anyone Ethan knew. He didn’t deserve the ending he got.
“It’s not something I really want to talk about. It’s over now and there isn’t anything I can do about it.” Ethan could feel himself beginning to get angry. “Griffin made sure of that.”
Shannon pulled away. She leaned back in her chair and slid her feet onto the floor. Her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink and she began to quiver. “It… it wasn’t Griffin.”
“What?”
She took a deep breath and again leaned forward, her face just inches from his. “David was already gone. There wasn’t anyone or anything that could have changed that fact. He was a danger to every single person in that vault, and that’s exactly why I did what I did.”
“You?”
“Yes,” Shannon said, a tear rolling down her cheek. “He had you down and would have killed you. I didn’t have any other options.”
“You shot David, and you made me think that it was Griffin?”
“It wasn’t something that was planned, and I don’t know why he told you that he did it. I’ve wanted to say something, but it just never seemed like the right time.”
His first instinct was to give into the anger that was pulling at him. To let out what had been building for the last forty-eight hours. He needed to feel something other than fear, regret, and sorrow. But unloading on Shannon wouldn’t change anything about their current situation. It wouldn’t help him decide what to do about the bearded man, and it wouldn’t give him one ounce of peace. The woman sitting twelve inches away was right. Now he just needed to find a way to convince himself of that.
Standing, Ethan gripped the nine millimeter he’d carried since escaping the university, and avoided looking back at Shannon. Stepping aside, he unlocked the door and said, “Let the others know I’m taking a quick walk around the property.”
125
He’d made it to the street before he realized that someone was following him. Stopping near the brick planter, Ethan waited as Griffin hurried over. When his friend was within ten feet, he turned and began walking west along Main. He followed the same path they’d walked the day before, but now purposely walked at a much quicker pace.
After ten minutes, neither man had spoken. And as they reached the offices for City Hall, Griffin stepped out into the street; however, Ethan continued walking.
“Hey,” Griffin said, “I was thinking we may wanna check to see—”
“If he’s in there, which I don’t think he is, he already knows we’re out here. No need to rush things.”
Griffin shook his head and jogged the short distance back to his friend. “Then where are you going?”
“I didn’t ask her to send you out here. This was something I was going to do on my own.”
“She did the right thing, Ethan.”
Ethan stopped and turned to face Griffin, the two men now only inches apart. “Which thing is that, sending you out here to check on me or lying to me about David?”
“Listen, I’ve already told you my positon on this subject. Your friend was already gone by the time we entered that vault. You and I both know that. He would have killed you and no telling how many others. What happened needed to happen—it doesn’t matter who pulled the trigger.”
“Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t, but why’d you feel you needed to lie about it, why tell me you did it?”
“The simple answer is that it just seemed easier. We had no history, no reason for you to be conflicted about hating me.”
Griffin was right. Ethan would have beat himself up for days if he’d have thought that Shannon had pulled the trigger. It would have turned him inside out knowing it was someone he thought he knew. He’d have been unable to rectify what he knew about humanity, and most likely would have turned away from the rest of his friends.
Ethan stepped back. His shoulders fell and he breathed out heavily. “Griffin, I don’t hate you. To tell you the truth, it wasn’t easy hearing about David, but I wasn’t really even angry with you then. I thought I was, but I just needed someone to blame. Someone to hate other than myself. I couldn’t save the one true friend I had in this world and I needed somewhere to put those feelings.”
“I understand,” Griffin said. “And I don’t blame you; I probably would have felt the same way.”
Turning his back to Griffin, Ethan held up his hand. “Wait, what is that?”
Griffin had heard it too. “The same thing as yesterday, but it sounds much closer, keep going or head back?”
Staring up at the sky, Ethan attempted to place the low humming sound that had been alluding them since early the day before. He closed his eyes and faced west. “Let’s go up a few blocks and see if we can get a better idea of what it is.”
“Thirty minutes,” Griffin said. “We don’t find anything in a half hour, we go back. Agreed?”
“Sure, let’s go.”
The pair jogged another four blocks before stopping across the street from a dusty parking lot. They stood with their hands on their knees, attempting to again place the sound. It was louder here and had taken on a different tone. Something unusual, but not completely foreign. The low guttural hum that now enveloped them almost sounded human.
Catching his breath, Ethan pointed up the long block. “It’s somewhere up there, I’d say maybe another half mile. You good to go?”
“I’m fine, let’s go.”
Staying along the middle of the two lane rural road, Ethan led the way. Top to bottom, both sides of N. 150 West were nearly empty. An abandoned service station sat at an intersection with Main and as they moved from one end of the half-mile-long street to the other, the pair counted only seven individual structures, and still not a sign of life existed.
Reaching the intersection of 150 W. and 400 N., the sound was now more familiar than they were comfortable with. It echoed in their ears, bringing back thoughts of the first few days of the infection, just not quite at this level. Both Ethan and Griffin turned toward the steep incline on the opposite side of the street and waited for the other to confirm what they already knew.
Ethan spoke first. “You know what this is?”
“I think so, but I’m not even sure how it would be possible.”
“Check it out, or go back?” This time, Ethan was asking Griffin. Not because he needed validation of what he was about to do, but because he wasn’t looking to drag another one of his friends into something he shouldn’t. Ethan knew what he was going to do, but he wanted Griffin to choose of his own free will
, without any convincing.
“There’s no way we can just leave now.”
“Alright, let’s go then.”
The built-up shoulder was just tall enough to hide whatever sat behind it. From where they stood, the four-foot-high raised bank looked to be a newly developed reservoir. And as they crossed the street and read the fine print on a temporary posting, their suspicious were confirmed.
Ethan read the three-line notice.
“Miller reservoir. Dedicated to the good people of Green Valley. Together we prosper.”
And then turning to Griffin, he glared at the date of operation. “Three weeks from today. So it was never filled.”
As the sounds intensified, Griffin motioned toward the four-foot embankment. “Let’s get this over with.”
Ethan nodded and started up the short incline as Griffin closely followed. They stayed low and bear crawled their way up the dirt and gravel slope. But before they’d reached the top—less than halfway—both men were stopped in their tracks.
Able to now see what they had been visualizing, the men continued to the top of the embankment and stood facing the absurdity that was playing out thirty feet away. The slope on the inner walls of the empty reservoir was much steeper than what they’d just climbed and the total distance to the bottom of the massive void looked to be somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty feet.
Covering almost the entire floor of the one-hundred-foot square reservoir were the former residents of Green Valley. Every man, woman, and child from the dusty little town now walked in packs of threes, fours, and fives. They were remarkably well preserved and most would be indistinguishable from those who had not been infected… other than the errant bite marks and bloodied clothing.
Scanning the largest horde he’d ever seen, Ethan thought back to the sign he read upon crossing over into the city limits. “Nine-hundred-fifty-one.”
