AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) (7 page)

“That
doesn’t give you much time to clear out,” the general replied.

“I
know, General. But if we aren’t out of here in fifteen minutes, it won’t matter;
we’ll be dead.”

“Godspeed.”

Blake ordered
the remaining soldiers to group together, except the people guarding the
entrance. “Listen up. In fifteen minutes, this part of the base will be incinerated.
I want you to load up all the supplies you can in the next five minutes. Then
we will evacuate to the fallback area. Got it?”

The soldiers nodded
and rushed to load the supplies. As the supplies were loaded, the ABs continued
to attack. But soon they were shrinking in numbers and were no longer armed
since their ammunition had been expended in the early moments of the firefight.

Within minutes,
the soldiers were ready to move out. As they approached the gate, they only
encountered light resistance and infrequent small arms fire. All the buildings
had been rigged with explosives as a final measure, and as the last group of
trucks passed the gate, Blake flipped the switch on the remote in his hand. In
a thunderous roar, the entire base exploded and was engulfed in flames.

As the group
cleared the outer perimeter of the base, Blake could hear the familiar sound of
the AV-8B Harrier jets approaching the base.
Marine aircraft group 39 had been given its order to
execute “Operation Scorched Earth.” Incendiaries were falling all over the base,
and the surviving ABs were instantly incinerated. Within minutes, there was
nothing left but a few small fires and smoldering bodies in what use to be the
west side of Camp Pendleton.

From the radio
reports, the infection started to spread in her area about an hour ago. However,
the streets seemed unusually quiet, especially for the middle of the day. Tara
was rocking Kaya quietly in her mother’s old rocking chair. “Maybe the reports
were blown out of proportion and nothing’s going to happen…” she thought. As
soon as the thought crossed her mind, she heard a piercing scream echo far down
the street. A few minutes later, she heard a gunshot much closer.

The gunshot
woke Kaya, and she started to cry. Tara tried to comfort her, but it wasn’t
working well. Tara walked into Kaya’s bedroom and set her on the floor next to
her toy box. With the Smith and Wesson still clutched in her hand, she peeked
out the window and tried to see what was going on outside.

Tara couldn’t
see any movement nearby, but at the end of the street she could see people being
chased by some men.

Within minutes
she heard screams coming from next door. Tara’s eyes darted towards the window
next to her neighbor’s house as the shouting grew louder. The pounding on her
front door startled her.

“Help me!” a
woman screeched on the other side. Tara’s skin pricked at the yelling because
she knew it was her neighbor, Sally. They had been friends ever since she had
moved into the house.

“Stay here,”
she yelled at Kaya, trying to mask her fear. Tara ran to the front door and
stared into the peephole. She was shocked to see Sally’s husband jump from
behind her and bludgeon her in the back of her head with a baseball bat.

Tara’s adrenaline
started to flow through her veins, and she threw open the door. Without
hesitation, she raised her pistol and pulled the trigger. A small hole opened
in his chest and Sally’s husband fell to the ground. She quickly pulled Sally
into her front room and relocked the door.

“Oh no…” Tara
whispered. Blood was rushing out of multiple head wounds, and Sally was hardly
moving.

“I’m afraid!” Sally
said as she reached for Tara’s hand.

“It will be OK.
Just hold on.”

Sally’s eyes
closed, and her breaths slowed until they abruptly stopped. Tara checked for a
pulse but realized there was none. She dropped to her knees, put her hand over
her face, and quietly started to sob.

Kaya slowly
walked out of her room and wrapped her arms around Tara. “Mommy, what’s wrong
with Sally? Is she OK?”

Tara didn’t
want Kaya to see her crying, so she quickly wiped away her tears. “Sally is
really sick, and we need to put her in the spare bedroom to rest.”

Tara grabbed
Sally by her hands and dragged her into the bedroom. A bloody trail on the
floor marked the grizzly path back to the door.

“Don’t worry, Sweetie.
Everything is going to be OK. But we will have to be extremely brave until Daddy
comes and gets us.” Tara vowed to herself that Kaya would never see her cry
again. She would do whatever it took to keep them both alive.

Tara ushered
Kaya to go back into her bedroom to play so she could wrap Sally up in a
blanket and clean the blood on the floor. She then went to the window, peered
out, and watched the carnage going on outside. After what seemed like hours, she
heard the motor of a diesel truck and a voice on a loudspeaker coming from down
the street. At first, the sound was extremely faint, so she couldn’t make out what
they were saying. As it drove down the street, she noticed that occasionally a
soldier in the back of the truck would fire at an infected person charging at
the truck.

As the truck
neared her house, Tara’s heart started to beat quicker, and she ran to Kaya,
picked her up, and ran outside to the edge of the street. She jumped up and
down and waved her arms to get their attention. The truck slowed, and Tara
started to plead with the soldiers. “Please can you take my daughter and me out
of here?” Just as she finished speaking she noticed that the truck was full of
civilians.

The soldier pointed
his rifle at her and glared at her sternly. “We don’t have any more room. There
is an evacuation zone set up at the high school on the north end of town. You
should make your way there. There is food, shelter, and better yet, a lot of
guns.”

Tara felt
helpless as she watched the truck drive away down the street.

With Kaya
holding her hand, she sulked back into her house. After sending Kaya back to
her room, Tara slid to the floor. She stared at the wall, unsure if her eyes
could even produce any more tears. The high school was ten miles away. The last
thing Blake had told her was to stay home and he would come get them. The
soldiers had just cleaned out most of the ABs in the neighborhood, so Tara
decided to wait in the house a while longer. She was praying that Blake would come
home.

Kaya quietly
walked out of her room, sat by Tara, and grabbed her hand. “Mommy, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing is
wrong, Pumpkin. We are going to wait here for a little while until Daddy comes home.
Go back into your room and play with your toys, OK?” Tara said with a weak smile.

Once Kaya’s
bedroom door closed, Tara pulled the blinds back and peeked out the window
again. She noticed several neighbors loading up their cars, and most of them
were carrying guns. Once loaded they all headed towards the high school.

A couple of
hours ticked by, and Tara kept a vigilant watch out the window. She had not
seen any infected or uninfected in some time. Kaya was still in her bedroom,
and Tara assumed she had fallen asleep.

Tara sighed and
sat down in the chair by the window. The sun was shining in through the opening
in the blinds, and it felt warm and glorious on her skin. Her eyes slowly
closed as she dreamed of the last time she and Blake had spent the day down at
the beach.

A young girl’s
terrified scream jolted Tara out of her dream. Kaya bolted out of her room, yelling,
“Mommy! What’s happening?”

Tara peeked out
the window and noticed several men and women leading two children down the road
with ropes around their necks. As the group passed each house, a few would run
in and then quickly return. Tara couldn’t help but wonder what they were
searching for.

They were all
following a black-eyed man in a white suit. “Kaya, you need to go to your room
and hide under your bed until I say you can come out,” Tara whispered sharply.

“But Mom—”

“No ‘buts’!”
she snapped. “Do it and don’t make a sound.”

Kaya’s eyes
grew wide, and she rushed to her bedroom without another complaint. Tara
immediately pressed up against the front door, grasping her gun tightly.
Suddenly, a yellow-eyed man pressed his face onto the window to peer inside. Before
she had time to react, she heard a loud crash in the kitchen. “They’re coming
through the kitchen window!” she thought. Her panic disappeared as her military
training forced her body to react.

In three wide steps,
she was in the kitchen entrance, grabbing the shotgun that was leaning against
the wall. She fired off two quick rounds at the yellow-eyed woman crawling
through the kitchen window. As the infected woman hit the ground, two more
yellow-eyed men barged through the back door.

Tara shot four more
rounds at the men coming through the door until the gun clicked with all the
shells sitting empty on the floor. She immediately pulled her handgun out of
its holster and held it in front of her.

Before she was
able to pull the hammer back, she heard the front door burst open. Two yellow-eyed
men stepped into the front room. She continued to pull the trigger until the
pistol ran out of ammunition. The two infected lay on the ground, twitching as
they expelled their last breaths.

She could hear
Kaya screaming in the other room, no doubt from the gunfire. “Stay there, Baby,”
she called, trying to sound soothing.

A rustling
noise came from the kitchen and she realized she didn’t have time to reload.
Instinctively, she reached for her father’s sawed-off shotgun leaning against
the rocking chair. Three of the yellow-eyed men charged at her from the
kitchen. The lead one caught the full blast of both barrels and was knocked
backwards. Before she could engage the other two, thick arms wrapped around her
neck from behind and started to squeeze her throat.

She grabbed the
man’s arm and threw an elbow into his stomach. With the same fluid motion, she
leaned forward and flung him over her shoulder. Before he hit the ground, she
had her knife out of the sheath and plunged it into his eye.

Suddenly, the black-eyed
man in the white suit entered the house. Tara immediately tried to rush to her
daughter’s cries but was blocked by two more men who had entered through the
front door. She kicked, punched, and slashed, but they reacted faster than the
others, so she couldn’t bring them down.

The man in the
white suit yanked Kaya out from under the bed by her hair, and she screamed in
agony. He then grabbed her arm and placed a knife to her neck. Tara froze,
feeling utterly helpless.

The black-eyed
man smiled. “Come now, is all this violence necessary? Put down your knife, and
I promise I won’t harm the girl.” His voice sent shivers down her spine.

Tara knew she
didn’t have any other choice, so she set the knife down. She was immediately grabbed
by the two yellow-eyed men she was fighting.

The man in the
white suit walked closer to her. “I like your spirit so I don’t think I will
kill you now. Instead, I will let you try for the right of Balla-ah, or ‘chosen
warrior’ in your language. If you survive, I will let you and your daughter go
free. If you don’t, you will be dead, and we will have your daughter as part of
our feast tonight.” He licked his lips and sniffed Kaya’s hair deeply. Kaya
whimpered as tears streamed down her cheeks. Tara lunged for her, but by now a
rope was around her neck restraining her. Suddenly, Tara felt a sharp pain in
the back of her head, and the image of Kaya soon faded to darkness.

“Base,
this is Captain Reynolds. Do you copy? Over.”

“It’s good to
hear your voice! What is your status? Over.”

“We are clear
of the base and on our way back. Operation Scorched Earth has been executed.”

“Glad you and
some of your men made it out. Head back to the command center for new orders.”

Blake paused for
a moment then pressed the button on his microphone.

“Sir, the men
know where to head. I request permission to go retrieve my wife and child.”

Blake stood
there for a moment, nervously waiting for a reply.

“This is
General Wicket. Captain Reynolds, you know that I can’t allow that. If I let
every soldier that had loved ones out there leave, half the company would be
gone. I’m sorry. Return to the fallback area, and we might be able to work
something out.”

Blake's hand
clenched the microphone on the radio even harder as he tried not to scream in
anger. After everything he had seen that day, he was terrified for his family’s
safety.

“What was that,
sir? You are starting to break up,” he said as he shut off the radio. The
driver stared at Blake in the back of the truck, using the rear view mirror, in
disbelief.

Once the
company reached the turn for the command center, Blake ordered the truck to
stop and he stepped out. All the trucks and Hummers came to a stop, and most of
the soldiers stepped out to see what was going on. Once most of the soldiers
had formed a semicircle around him, Blake stood on a large rock on the side of
the road.

“We have been
ordered to return to the command center, but many of us have family in San
Clemente. My wife and child are there waiting for me to come and get them. Even
with my sense of duty, I know that they aren’t infected, and I can’t leave them
there. So I am going to go save them. Those of you that want to join me may do
so. The rest of you, follow your orders and return to the command center.”

Blake noticed
that most of the soldiers froze in their places, staring at each other. He
could tell they were wondering if this was even allowed. After a few minutes,
five men stepped forward. Blake knew each of them and that they had families in
the same town as his.

Blake gave
orders to his first lieutenant to take the rest of the men back to the command
center. He would join them as soon as he knew that his family was safe.

After the
company drove away, Blake and the five soldiers climbed into the remaining
Hummer and drove west towards the town. Every mile or so they would come across
a few uninfected people wandering, and Blake knew they had been through hell.
They would usually beg for help, so Blake told them to head to the base camp or
to the clean zone that had been mentioned over his radio.

As they ventured
deeper into town, they came across more and more of the ABs. Most of them had
blank looks on their faces and were wandering aimlessly. “I wonder if they’re waiting
for something…” Blake thought.

Some of the ABs
attacked their Hummer with rocks and sticks, but the soldier manning the fifty-cal
on top brought them down before they could get too close. As they drove closer
to town, the ABs became more numerous.

“We should park
the Hummer and make the rest of the way on foot so as to draw less attention,”
Blake said to the others. “Everyone head to your homes and meet back here in
three hours. Anyone not here by that time will be presumed to be dead. Any
questions?”

“No, sir!” they
replied.

Blake glanced
at the sun high in the sky. He was sweating as he jogged forward, but he ignored
the heat as he thought about his family. Corporal Munns was accompanying him as
they lived within a couple of blocks of each other, but they both kept silent.

The closer they
came to most of the homes where located, the harder it was to avoid the AB
drones. Munns’s house was the closer of the two that needed to be checked. As
they approached from the back, they could see that the window was smashed and
the back door was wide open. Both men slowly approached the backyard, not
making a sound. They shared hand signals as a signal to move from one place of cover
to the other.

When they made
it to the house, they pressed their backs against the outside wall to remain
unseen. Munns quickly poked his head through the open door to see what was
inside, and Blake peered through the broken window. When he couldn’t see any movement,
he pointed to his eyes and shook his head to signal that he hadn’t seen
anything. Munns nodded in understanding, and they lifted their rifles in
preparation.

Slowly, both
men entered the house and searched each room for signs of Munns’s family. After
each room was examined, they shouted, “Clear!”

As Blake reached
the final bedroom and yelled, “Clear,” he could tell that Munns was devastated.
“At least we didn’t find any bodies,” Blake said as he patted Munns’s back.

They walked
into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Not knowing what to do next, they
both sat there in silence. Blake hated the uncertainty of his family’s safety,
so he stood and began to pace. Suddenly, he noticed a note on the refrigerator
held by a magnet.

Blake pointed
it out to Munns and began to read the hastily written note out loud.

My dearest
Charles,

Things started to get crazy here. Some men from your
base came driving around and told everyone to evacuate to the high school. I
have packed up the kids and a few things, and we will meet you there.

Love,

Sue

Munns exhaled
and relaxed in the chair. A smile crossed his face. Blake could see the relief
sweep over him.

“That’s great
news!” Blake said.

“Yes it is! Now
let’s go find your family.”

Blake
nodded his head, and they stepped outside, still holding onto their rifles
tightly. Th
ey
walked
a
few more blocks
and
then entered Blake’s neighborhood. Every
fifty yards they would take cover and scout out the next fifty yards. The
closer they came, the more numerous the bodies were. They were scatted all over
the ground, and the heat from the sun was making the smell unbearable.

“Things must have gotten pretty bad
here,” Munns said. Blake didn’t reply. He knew his wife was strong, and he had
to keep reminding himself that she could handle herself. Still, he picked up the
pace. Finally, they reached the house. Blake noticed that the familiar sounds
of his neighborhood were missing. He didn’t hear birds chirping, dogs barking,
or children playing in their yards. He only heard silence.

Blake glanced at his neighbors’
houses and felt an urge to look inside, but the image of his wife and daughter made
him shake his head and move forward. As they approached the house, they scanned
the perimeter carefully. When they decided it was safe, they crept to the
corners of the house. On Blake's signal, they peeked into the windows. Munns gave
Blake the all-clear signal first, and Blake did the same.

Silently, they both stepped to the
front door. They kept their backs against the wall, not wanting to stand in
front of the door and get an unexpected shotgun blast from the other side. As
he opened the door, his blood turned cold. There were several bodies on the
floor, and he didn’t recognize any of them. Then he noticed a trail of blood
leading to the guest bedroom.

Blake’s stomach clenched, and he
followed the trail. “Please don’t be dead!” he thought. As he walked inside the
room, he gasped in relief at the dead body lying on the floor. It was his
neighbor, Sally.

“Clear!” Blake called out. Then an
even worse thought crossed his mind. If his neighbor was dead, where were Tara
and Kaya? “Tara?” Blake yelled. He burst out of the room frantically, and Munns
followed.

There were several more bodies
scattered throughout the house, but he didn’t know any of them.

“I’ll keep watch…” Munns said quietly.
Blake knew there was only one reason he didn’t want to search the other rooms;
he thought Blake’s family could be dead.

As Blake searched each empty room,
the sick feeling in his stomach grew deeper. When he finished looking for his
family, he returned to the front room where Munns was standing guard.

“Blake?” Munns asked. Blake ignored
him and dropped onto the first step of his porch. He pulled off his helmet and placed
both hands onto the back of his head.

Munns stood over him for a few minutes
while Blake tried to figure out where his family might be. “Blake, they might
have gone to the evacuation area,” Munns said.

“You don’t know Tara, and the
bodies…” Blake replied. “I told her to stay here and that I would come get them.
She would have only left if there was no other choice.” Guilt started to wash
over him.

He blankly stared at his neighbor’s
house across the street when he noticed something moving on the roof. He immediately
brought his gun to his shoulder and peered through the scope. Munns followed
him on instinct.

Blake could barely see a head above
the walls on the flat roof, but he recognized the shining bald head. He ran across
the street and shouted, “Is that you up there, Don?” After a couple of seconds,
the rest of Don’s head appeared up over the wall.

“Yeah, who wants to know?”

“Don, it’s me, Blake.”

Blake turned to Munns to let him
know about Don. “Don is a retired Marine who saw a lot of action in Iraq back
in the nineties. However, he wasn’t quite the same after his last tour. After
Don retired, he became a little suspicious of the government and who knows what
else. He built his house like a fortress with only two steel doors and a few
small windows that were only large enough to look out but not crawl through.
The roof was flat with high surrounding walls, and more than once he had called
it his ‘sniper perch.’ He is always preparing for some kind of catastrophe.”

 
“Are you still human or are you one of those
things?” Don yelled.

“I’m as human as you,” Blake said
with a half smile.

“Prove it!”

Blake laid his gun on the ground,
raised his hands, and walked to the center of his yard while being in the
crosshairs of the scope on Don’s gun.

“Don, if I were one of the infected,
would I have just done that?” Blake said. He could tell that Don was thinking about
it. “I just want to know if you have seen Tara and Kaya.”

Don lowered his gun. “I have
something to tell you. Come to the front door, but leave your friend across the
street. I don’t like the way he looks at me.”

Blake glanced at Munns and shrugged
his shoulders. He then walked to the front door. Don opened it just wide enough
to poke his head through. His eyes darted left, right, and then left again. He
then abruptly yanked Blake inside.

Blake quickly scanned the room,
which was surrounded by military supplies.

“A swarm of them came down the
street several hours ago. They were going from house to house, gathering
supplies and looking for normal people. Luckily, most of the people left soon
after the troops announced the evacuation.”

“The enemy came to my house. I could
see them looking through the windows. Thank goodness I built them small. They
tried to break down the doors, but I had them built strong enough to withstand
a small mortar blast. Still, they kept banging it with whatever they could get
their hands on. It seemed to go on for forever.”

“They must have gotten something
larger to hit it with because the door started to give. I had my shotgun in one
hand and my pistol in the other. I wasn’t going to let them take me without a
fight! But that is when I heard screams coming from your place. This must have
distracted the bastards at my front door because all of the sudden the pounding
stopped. I peeked out the windows, and they ran over to your house. I quickly
went to my roof but didn’t dare take a look. I could tell that Tara was giving
them hell, though.

“Finally, I got up the nerve to peer
over the wall on the roof and look at your house. That is when I saw a man in a
white suit enter your house. Then the fighting must have stopped, because it
got really quiet… A few minutes later, two of the bastards came out carrying
Tara down the street. She was unconscious. Another one was dragging Kaya, who
was kicking and screaming with a rope around her neck. That little girl has
some fight in her – you should be proud!”

Blake’s fists were clenched tightly.
He was horrified to hear about his family, but he was just happy they were
alive. “Did you see which direction they went?” Blake asked.

“I watched for several minutes. They
went two blocks west and then headed south toward the old white church. I’m not
sure which way they went after that. Sorry, Blake. I wish I could have done
something, but I’m not the soldier I used to be.”

Blake didn’t know whether to be
grateful or angry. “Thanks, Don,” he muttered as he opened the door and walked
outside. Before he made it to the road, Don shouted at him.

“Wait, let me redeem myself and gain
some self-respect back. I can help you get Tara and Kaya back!”

Blake stopped walking and considered
the proposal. Part of him wanted to turn and shoot a bullet in Don’s head for
not helping his family, but without his help he wouldn’t know where his family
was. Besides, they could really use the help. Blake tilted his head around
slightly towards Don. With clenched teeth he said, “OK, but you have to follow
my orders. It will be dark soon; you have five minutes before we move out.”