Desolation (26 page)

Andrew rolled his eyes.

 

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Andrew said in an aggravated tone. “Wait
here; I’ll go talk to them.”

 

Andrew started to step out of the alley just as Witt put a hand
against his chest, stopping him.

 

Witt shook his head in disbelief.

 

“Are you off your meds, son?!” Witt asked. “Those men aren’t
what they appear to be! They’ll shoot you before you say a word!”
Andrew brushed Witt’s hand aside and stepped out into the
street.

“I know what I’m doing,” Andrew said pointedly. He knew the
base wasn’t abandoned and he knew that the soldiers weren’t deserters.
“Wait here.”

Andrew walked out onto the street and down the hill as he
sauntered towards the base with his hands raised above his head.
Witt shook his head, aggravated and confused. He pressed his
back against the brick wall and looked over at Jerri.

 

“Does he
want
to get shot?!” Witt asked. “Is he insane?!”
Jerri didn’t hear him. She was too busy staring down at Jacob
with confusion, trying to figure out where the odor was coming from.
Witt rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh.
“Great. This is my life,” Witt muttered. He thought about the
SWAT van parked in the middle of the street and had an idea.
38

A
ndrew maneuvered around the old SWAT van parked next to
the ancient tanks and made his way down the steep street towards the
bottom of the hill with his arms raised above his head.

Six soldiers were standing sentry on the catwalk that ran across
the base’s closed entryway.

 

One of the soldiers spotted Andrew approaching and quickly
pointed his rifle towards him.

 

The other soldiers snapped to attention and quickly followed suit.
Six red laser dots appeared in the center of Andrew’s chest,
clustered in a tight circle.

 

Andrew froze, smiling.

 

“That’s far enough!” one of the soldiers shouted as he kept his
rifle aimed steadily at Andrew.

 

“I’m no enemy,” Andrew said. “I traveled here from Camp 6–”
“Then I suggest you turn around and go back to Camp 6,” the
soldier interrupted.

“Raiders burned it down to the ground,” Andrew said as he
stared at the lieutenant insignias on the soldier’s uniform. He nodded.
“There is nothing left for me back there, lieutenant.”

“Your problem, not mine,” the lieutenant calmly replied. “I don’t
take kindly to deserters.”

 

Andrew closed his eyes and tried to control his tone.
“I
work
for FEMA,” Andrew replied with his arms raised. “My
credentials are in my back pocket if you’d like to verify.”

The soldiers kept their rifles centered on Andrew, unimpressed.
“What do you want, FEMA?” the lieutenant asked.

“I need safe passage to the Capital for me and my wife,” Andrew
answered.

 

The soldiers looked at each other in disbelief.

 

“Sorry,” the lieutenant said, “but we’re not Southwest Airlines. I
suggest that you go back to your post… whatever is left of it.”
The soldiers chuckled and kept their weapons pointed towards
Andrew.

 

“You don’t understand,” Andrew replied calmly. “I
need
to get to
the Capital. I’m part of Project Lazarus.”

 

The soldiers looked at each other with sudden concern.
“You worked on it?” the lieutenant asked as he lowered his
weapon.

 

Andrew nodded.

 

“Let me see,” the lieutenant ordered. “Pull out your papers and
toss them to me, slowly.”

 

Moving methodically slow, Andrew pulled his tattered leather
credential wallet and tossed it up towards the lieutenant.

 

The lieutenant caught the wallet and carefully scrutinized the
credentials, narrowing his eyes.

 

The soldiers kept their weapons pointed at Andrew.
“Stand down, stand down,” the lieutenant ordered the others.

“His story checks out.”
The soldiers lowered their weapons and the tension eased.
Andrew smiled.
“Why didn’t you evacuate with the others?” the lieutenant asked.

“There were complications getting here,” Andrew said, not sure
who ‘the others’ were.

 

“Well we only have one plane left and it’s for cargo. Where’s the
wife you mentioned?”

Andrew nodded and pointed behind him.
“She’s right up the hill waiting for me,” Andrew said with a smile.
“You’re a lucky bastard,” the lieutenant said.
“How so?” Andrew asked.
The lieutenant laughed.

“If you came just a few hours later you’d find an abandoned
base,” the lieutenant said.

Andrew frowned.
“Abandoned? A key location like this?” he asked.
The lieutenant nodded.

“We haven’t heard anything from the Capital in weeks,” the
lieutenant said. “We were going to load the last of the devices and head
up north. We sure as hell don’t have enough jet fuel to fly around and
deploy what we have left. Between the scavenger attacks and the nightly
shootouts with the infected, we’re running out of supplies.”

“Where are they with the plan?” Andrew asked.
The lieutenant blinked and stared blankly at Andrew.

“How would I know? Hell, we’ve been glorified deliverymen this
whole operation,” the lieutenant answered with a shrug. “Flying from city
to city dropping off those devices… Fuck, I could put together one of
those in my sleep by now!”

The soldiers chuckled.
Andrew shook his head and smiled, embarrassed.

“I’m sorry. I’m just… curious. I haven’t heard a status update for
a while,” Andrew said.

 

“You and the whole fucking military,” one of the soldiers
shouted.

The outburst was met with laughter.
The lieutenant looked up the hill and narrowed his eyes.

“What the fuck is that?” the lieutenant asked. “Did you bring
backup with you?”

 

Andrew, confused, turned at stared at the approaching vehicle in
horror.

The driverless armored SWAT van was coasting in neutral with
the driver’s side door open. It gained momentum as it barreled down the
hill towards the base’s main entrance.

“That stupid fucking Witt!” Andrew said between his teeth with
an expression of feral rage.

 

“It’s a trap! He’s mounting a siege! Open fire! Open fire!” the
lieutenant shouted.

 

The soldiers hastily aimed at Andrew and opened wild bursts of
sporadic fire.

Andrew abruptly turned and sprinted off of the street as bullets
whistled past him and ricocheted off of the asphalt. He dove behind an
abandoned sedan and cowered behind it, covering his head with his hands
as bullets peppered the car and shattered the windows.

The armored van
whooshed
past him and crashed through the
base’s chain-link gate and it plowed a path through a stack of concrete
highway dividers that had barricaded the entryway.

A shrill alarm started wailing.

 

The armored van coasted to a stop a few yards into the base as it
veered off of the main pathway and got stuck a ditch.

Shambling corpses started to hobble out of the darkened
buildings and alleyways at the top of the hill at the sound of the alarm and
gunshots. They uniformly made their way towards the breached gate,
sniffing the air and following the noise.

The soldiers quickly focused their fire on the approaching
corpses, panicking as the horde’s numbers grew each passing second.

Andrew kept his ears covered and watched in horror as the
corpses stumbled closer towards the base and tumbled down the hill,
trampling one another.

He shook his head side-to-side and wrung his fingers through his
hair, frozen by fear and disbelief.

 

Witt emerged out from the alleyway next to him and lowered
down on his haunches. He slapped Andrew’s shoulder.

 

Andrew startled badly and gasped for breath. He looked over at
Witt with wide-eyes.

“W-what the fuck did you do?” Andrew asked in a fearful tone.
Witt blinked.

“Apparently saving your life,” Witt said. “What the hell is wrong
with you?”

“They were going to let me in, dammit!” Andrew exclaimed.
Witt shook his head.

“I don’t know what you used to be in Camp 6… A soldier I’m
guessing by the way you’re acting… but those men in that base aren’t your
friends. They’re dangerous deserters and–”

Andrew grabbed Witt’s collar.

 

“You ruined
everything
!” Andrew shouted. “I told you to wait for
me back there! Where is Jerri?!”

 

Witt pulled free of Andrew’s grasp and slapped the man across
the face.

 

Andrew, surprised, reached up and touched his reddened cheek,
mouth agape.

“Calm the fuck down!” Witt spat. “She’s already waiting for us
over at the east entrance! Now get your shit together and follow me
before the distraction I caused gets us both killed!”

Witt pointed up the hill at the encroaching horde of the dead.
They were almost at the gate despite the soldier’s ineffective gunfire.
Andrew slowly nodded, still in shock. If someone were to strike
him like that back in Camp 6 they’d be hung.

 

“Follow me and get your weapon ready!” Witt said as he turned
and ran down the adjacent alleyway.

 

Andrew stood and ran after Witt as slung his rifle off of his
shoulder.

 

Behind them, the walking corpses started to trickle through the
gate into the base through the breached entryway.

 

The soldier’s screams were deafening and gut-wrenching as the
dead made their way through their defensive line.

 

Away from the carnage at the east gate, Witt, Andrew, and Jerri
hid behind a derelict Tucson school bus parked near a smaller gatehouse.

The sign above the smaller entrance read ‘Davis–Monthan Air
Force Base – South Entry’. The nondescript southern entrance had been
heavily guarded, but when the gunfire started and the alarm started
wailing, most of the sentries abandoned their posts and ran towards the
breached main east entry. Only three men stayed behind and their
attention was focused towards the commotion on the other side of the
compound.

Andrew looked over at Jerri and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently.

Jerri looked at him and nodded. In truth, she wasn’t okay; she
couldn’t stop worrying about Jacob. His skin had an odd texture and she
couldn’t wake him up. She was starting to think he was sick.

“Is he okay?” Andrew asked as he looked down at Jacob’s
exposed face with revulsion. He swallowed a knot in his throat and forced
a smile as he looked up at Jerri.

Jerri shook her head and frowned.

 

“I think he’s… I think he’s sick,” she said, running the back of
her fingers across Jacob’s cold cheek.

Andrew cringed.
“Perhaps you should cover him,” he carefully said.
Jerri looked up at Andrew in confusion.

“You know… to protect him from the elements,” Andrew
explained.

 

Jerri agreed and covered Jacob’s face with the shawl.
Andrew was grateful that the dreadful thing was hidden away
again.

Witt was annoyed by the whole thing and couldn’t wait to be
done with the both of them and their dead baby. Judging by the size of
the militant force, he expected some real gems hidden away inside the
base.

“Come on,” Witt whispered as he chambered a round in his rifle.

Before Andrew could answer, Witt stepped out from the cover of
the school bus and brought his rifle to his shoulder, sighting-in on one of
the three distracted soldiers who were standing on the catwalk above the
closed south entry gate.

Witt pulled the trigger.

 

The side of the soldier’s head erupted in a geyser of blood and he
tumbled over the side of the catwalk, landing hard against the asphalt.
The other two soldiers, taken by surprise, fumbled with their
weapons and aimed at Witt–

Andrew emerged from behind the bus and quickly shot both
soldiers, hitting one in the forehead, snapping the man’s head back, and
hit the other soldier in the chest.

Both soldiers crumpled over the side of the catwalk and made a
meaty-sounding smack as they struck the ground.

 

The door to the gatehouse flung open and a man wearing a
military police uniform ran out toting a pistol.

Witt fired a three-round burst into the man and sent the MP
tumbling forward. The MP skidded across the pavement and left a bloody
streak in his wake.

Andrew switched his fire-mode to full-automatic and held down
the trigger, sweeping the rifle across the gatehouse’s large tinted windows.

The glass shattered and the two MPs hiding inside danced to the
tune of the gunfire as the rounds tore through their bodies. Both men
flung backwards against the bullet-peppered wall and slid down to the
floor.

Witt whistled and nodded at Andrew.
“Damn fine shooting,” Witt said, “I knew you were a soldier…”
Andrew nodded and didn’t bother correcting him.

Jerri stood in the back with her eyes squeezed shut. She had her
hands covering Jacob’s ears.

Witt ran towards the gatehouse’s shattered window and climbed
inside. He dusted the glass shards off of the control panel and hit a large
green button.