Desolation (11 page)

Hemingway was the first to realize what was happening. That
something far more horrible than a prolonged assault was in progress. He
took in the changing scene below in the camp and the blood drained from
his face.

“Stay down! Stay the fuck down! The fucking arrows are laced!”
Hemingway shouted. “Grab the–”

An arrow struck Hemingway through the throat and erupted out
the other side, spraying a red mist out the back of his neck. Gurgling on
his own blood, he fell to his knees and dropped his weapon. His body
convulsed violently.

“Jesus! No!” Bret shouted, crawling over towards his fallen
brethren. He reached over to check his pulse–

Hemingway stood up in a drunken stupor with hazed eyes and a
gaping hole in his throat. He looked down at Bret, snarled, and pounced
on him.

Bret screamed as Hemingway tore into his neck and pulled apart
his flesh with his teeth.

 

Sporadic gunfire started to pop off inside the camp amongst the
crescendo of screams.

Volley after volley of Acexa-laced arrows continued to fly further
and further into the camp, striking down countless terrified souls who
were unfortunate enough to be outside the protection of the dorms. The
wall did nothing to impede the arrow’s deadly trajectories.

The panicked officers were quickly entangled with fighting their
infected brethren and terrified civilians, firing into anything that moved,
infected and healthy alike.

While the camp started to descend into the chaos, the
camouflaged marauders slunk back to their encampment and waited...
Throughout Camp 6 a new sound rose into the nighttime sky; it
was the sound of moaning and ghoulish growls.
18

A
ndrew tensed at the sound of the air raid siren. The thunder
crack of gunfire outside made him quickly draw his sidearm.
Jerri looked over at Andrew, confused, terrified. Jacob started
screaming in her arms.
“What’s happening?” Jerri asked.
“I don’t know,” Andrew quickly responded. “Stay here. I’m going
to find out what the hell is going on.”
Krystal vacantly stared at the wall, oblivious to the mayhem
uncoiling around her.
Andrew ran out into the hall, pistol ready.
People were milling around in the corridor, looking at each other,
frightened.
The alarm started blaring from the overhead speakers.
“Attention,”
a recorded pleasant soft female voice announced
overhead,
“An emergency has occurred. Please stay inside your quarters and remain
calm. Help is on the way. For your safety, all residential buildings will now be sealed.
Thank you for your cooperation”
Everybody in the hallway turned their heads towards the archaic
sally port as the light above it switched from green to red. The motor
above the sally port door made a horrific grinding noise and threw a
shower of orange sparks out into the hall.
“
Emergenc-c-c-c-c [STATIC] procedures ac – [STATIC]. Seal-al-ling
portal-l-l – [STATIC
]” the sally port’s robotic male voice sputtered out.
The door motor started shaking violently and then erupted. Pressurized
oil shot out from the cracked motor hull and splashed the civilians
gathered near the end of the hall, coating the floor and ceiling.
“Lockdown
procedures com-com-om-om-plete. Thank you for your cooperation-n-n–
[STATIC].”
The sally port threw another shower of sparks and the oil ignited.
The hallway lit up in orange flames along with the unlucky bystanders
who got spritzed.
People started panicking and trampled one another to get away
from the fire. Others ran out from the flames, flailing, screaming at the
top of the lungs as they batted at the fire covering their bodies. Black
smoke filled the air, the heat from the inferno started to peel the crackled
paint off of the walls.
The flames spread quickly along the hall and from room to room,
roasting multitudes as they slept.
The fire alarms chimed. The white wall strobes flashed. The
sprinklers did not activate. Lacking maintenance or care for so long, they
were now just for show.
“Holy shit,” Andrew muttered as he stared at the stampeding
crowd headed towards him. He ran back into Krystal’s room and
slammed the door shut behind him.
Jerri looked at him with her mouth hung open. Jacob shrieked in
her arms.
Andrew stood against the door with his back pressed against it,
holding it shut. He looked at Jerri and shook his head, lost for words.
“Let me in! Let me in!” someone shouted as they tried to open
the door, coughing violently.
After a few seconds, the person gave up and moved on to the
next room.
Black smoke started to billow into Krystal’s room from
underneath the door. The doorknob slowly started to glow red.
“We have to get out of here. Now,” Andrew said, pistol shaking
in his hand. “Your sally port just turned this place into a goddamn
inferno.”
Krystal sat on the cot like stone, no expression, and no comment.
“Jesus Christ…” Jerri quickly replied. She looked around the
windowless room frantically and then looked up at the skylight in the
ceiling. “There! Up there!”
Andrew ran his hands through his hair and let out an aggravated
sigh.
“You’re right, that’s the only way,” he said. “Stand back and
cover the baby’s ears.”
Jerri stood next to Krystal and covered Jacob’s ears tightly.
Andrew pointed his pistol up at the skylight and fired four shots
in rapid succession. The glass shattered, pelting the carpet with small
broken shards.
He holstered his pistol and ran over to the dresser in the corner
of the room. Grunting, he slid the dresser underneath the shattered
skylight and climbed on top of it. The dresser creaked and swayed with
his weight.
Flames started to eat their way into the room underneath the
door, blackening the carpet.
Andrew jumped up and grabbed the skylight frame. He gritted his
teeth together as jagged glass cut into his palms. Struggling, he pulled
himself up and out onto the roof.
He wiped as much blood off of his hands as he could using his
pants and turned towards the window on his belly.
“Jerri! Give me the baby!” he shouted above the commotion of
the gunfight in the camp and above the roar of the flames. He reached a
hand down into the room below and motioned frantically.
Flames covered the door and started to eat through the drywall.
Jerri coughed violently and climbed onto the rickety dresser. She
handed Jacob up to Andrew.
Andrew brought Jacob up onto the roof and laid the child out
next to him; the infant screamed the entire time.
Jerri turned towards Krystal and motioned for her to step
towards her. She hacked violently, barely able to see her friend sitting just
a few feet away.
Krystal let out a chain of rattling coughs, eyes tearing from the
smoke. Something resembling sanity started to show in her expression.
Jerri shouted, narrowing her eyes, trying to peer through the
smoke. The flames ate their way deeper into the room, melting the plastic
wall receptacles.
“Jerri…?” Krystal uttered between coughs. “Jerri…? What is…
what happened? Jerri!” She stood up and tried to navigate the room,
gagging, struggling to breathe. Recognition finally struck her and panic
started to settle in.
Andrew lowered his hand into the room and waved it frantically.
“Come on! Give me your hand!” Andrew shouted, trying to
shout over the roar of the flames.
Jerri tried to shout again but was overcome by smoke. The flames
started to spread across the carpet and engulfed the bottom of the rickety
dresser.
The flames blistered her legs, licking their way up to Krystal’s
nightgown. When the blaze came in contact with the material, it surged in
size, turning her into a roman candle. She tried to scream, but the heat
stole her voice.
Jerri, gasping for breath, reached up and weakly grabbed
Andrew’s hand. Her knees started to buckle as vertigo began to overtake
her.
Grunting, Andrew held onto her clammy wrist with both hands
and hoisted her limp body onto the roof.
The rickety dresser fell to pieces.
He laid Jerri down on the roof and quickly turned towards the
shattered skylight to try and grab Krystal.
Flames lapped up from the skylight and made Andrew cringe
backwards.
He turned towards Jerri and shook his head, a look of sorrow in
his eyes.
Jerri gasped and coughed as she struggled violently for each
breath she took. She rolled onto her side away from the lapping flames
and curled up into a fetal position, coughing steadily.
The alarm on the control tower wailed endlessly.
Andrew scooped Jacob up into his arms and carried him away
from the flames rising up through the skylight. He shushed the baby and
tried to comfort him. As he walked with the babbling child, he looked
down at the chaotic scene below.
Scores of walking corpses shuffled around the camp; dull eyes
searching for prey methodically. A mindless slow-moving army comprised
of FEMA officers and civilians moving across the camp, attacking every
living thing they encroached upon. Terrified officers had barricaded
themselves on top of crates and inside hastily fortified buildings, firing
ineffectively into the hordes that surrounded them. Hundreds of arrows
lay strewn across the ground and protruded out the side of the buildings.
For Andrew, the most frightening part was the groups of civilians
who had gathered throughout the camp, taking up arms against the guards
and infected alike, murdering with impunity. They were forcing open
dormitory sally ports and pouring inside, looting and shooting.
Things were rapidly falling apart.
“Attention. A civil emergency has occurred. Please stay inside your quarters
and remain calm until order is restored. Help is on the way. For your safety, all
residential buildings have been sealed,
” the camp’s public address system
announced.
“This is a public service reminder. Civil disobedience will not be tolerated
and is punishable by death. Thank you for your cooperation.”
A group of armed civilians overpowered the officers manning the
gatehouse and took over the controls. An alarm started blaring as the
massive steel gate rolled open, sending clouds of rust fluttering down off
of its derelict track.
The gate finally opened, throngs of people ran out into the desert
night, running towards freedom.
A volley of arrows quickly cut them down.
The marauders weren’t letting anybody leave the camp alive.
A group of armed civilians turned away from the open gate,
abandoning the idea, and headed towards the control tower, waving their
weapons above their head.
“This is a goddamn riot…” Andrew muttered under his breath.
For the first time in a long while, he was absolutely terrified; he
knew in his uniform he was a walking target .
Jerri got up onto her hands and knees, finally able to breathe
somewhat normally. She spat up ashy mucus onto the roof and struggled
to talk.
The baby started to cry in Andrew’s arms.
“…where is…?” she asked, trying to open her burning eyes.
Andrew shook his head and backed away from the edge of the
roof.
“We have to go,” Andrew told Jerri without looking at her. “We
have to go now.”

19

Supporting Jerri with his right arm and holding the baby against
his chest with his left, Andrew walked across the smoldering dormitory
roof. When he watched Major Ibanez plummet to his death from the
control tower, he knew that Camp 6 was finished.

They had to escape and they had to do it fast; the civil unrest was
spreading throughout the camp just as quickly as the infection.
“Did she…?” Jerri wearily asked. She finally managed to stop
coughing and some of her strength was returning.

The sound of ghoulish moans, sporadic gunfire, and shouting
filled the air; somebody in the control tower finally turned off the
obnoxious alarm.

“No, I’m sorry,” Andrew said as he stopped walking. “The baby
is alive and well though.”

 

Jerri glanced over at the child he held against him and let out a
tired sigh.

“His name is Jacob,” she said, shaking her head. She stifled her
tears for her dead friend and pushed herself off of Andrew. She managed
to walk on her own, albeit knees shaking. She turned towards him and
stared into his piercing eyes. “When she died… did she know? Or was her
mind still elsewhere?”

Andrew’s eyes locked on hers. “She was still out of it… I don’t
think she felt anything when she passed.”

 

Jerri considered what he said for a moment and then nodded.

“Perhaps that’s for the best,” she said. “The smoke probably
killed her before the flames. It would be like going to sleep,” she tried to
rationalize. She closed her eyes as they filled with tears.

“Yeah..,” he said, looking down at the chaos below. “Right now
we have to get out of here, Jerri… I need you to stay with me. There will
be time for mourning later.”

Jerri sniffled and looked down at the ground below. Infected
were prying at the sealed sally port entrances at the dorms and banged
against the steel doors, desperate to claw their way inside. Throughout the
camp FEMA officers clashed with civilians and infected hordes.

People tried to make a mad dash out of the camp’s front gate, but
were struck down by arrows each time.

The motor pool fence had been toppled and the Humvees were
all engulfed in flames. A group of boney civilians stood around the
burning vehicles pointing their weapons in the air, cheering.

“What… what in the hell happened?” Jerri asked. The fear was
evident in her expression.

“A siege,” Andrew said. “Those bastards infected the camp with
Acexa and now they’re waiting for the infection to run its course. They're
just waiting on the hill.”

Jerri turned towards him, terrified.
“What do we do…? Where is there left to go?” she asked.

“We have to get to my source, the one who knows how to
smuggle people out of here. We clearly can’t take the front gate; they have
that place covered,” Andrew said, looking at the barbaric crowd below
with concern. “I spent my last few bullets when I shot through the
skylight, so to make matters worse we’re weaponless.”

One of the civilians below stabbed an infected woman in the
forehead with a rusty machete, screaming. He pulled the blade back and
the infected victim collapsed on the ground.