In the Lone and Level Sands (76 page)

Finally, Aimes succeeded in moving the body
off of Clark. When it hit the floor, it made a soft
thud!
The zombie’s eyes were open and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Aimes put a hand to Clark’s neck, trying his best to stop the
blood.

“No,” Clark said, then coughed blood over
his already bloody uniform. “No time. Just off me here, man. Sides,
I-I wouldn’t be a good zombie.”

“Don’t be stupid! You know I can’t… I can’t
do that!” Aimes sat there, hovering over his fading friend, unsure
of when Clark would turn. “You’re gonna be fine, buddy! You’re
gonna be all right!”

“Please… This, this hurts, Matt. You know
there’s n-nothing anyone can do.” Through the drunken, crazy,
emotional haze, Aimes was probed by his friend’s words, Clark
calling him by his first name. He hadn’t done that since sometime
back in middle school. Clark was serious, he just wanted out. And
since Aimes wasn’t responding quickly enough, Clark began drawing
his own sidearm.

“No! No, I’ll do it. You don’t have to do
it.”

“Thanks. Just promise me something. Take
care of your-yourself, okay?”

“I will.” Aimes lowered his weapon to the
left side of Clark’s head. It was the last thing he wanted to do,
but he knew he had to. “Later days.” With the barrel of the gun
pressed to Clark’s temple, he sat there for a moment, and then
Clark’s eyes changed. He let out a shriek and jerked toward Aimes,
mouth agape. Aimes shut his eyes, and then a shot rang louder than
he wished it had, and Clark fell silent.

Aimes fell back on his rear, discarded the
gun, and wept.

****

“Are you all right, honey?” Cynthia looked
down at Mal, who was not even picking at her food.

“I don’t feel very good,” Mal said.

“Where does it hurt, honey? Stomach?”

“Yeah, it really hurts.”

“What was the last thing you ate, hon?”
Daisy asked.

“A ham sandwich last night, with some
chips.”

“Come here, let me feel your head.” Mal
turned, and groaned a bit. Cynthia placed the palm of her hand on
Mal’s forehead. “Oh, you’ve got a bit of a temperature. You might
have a bug.”

“I feel like I might throw up.” Mal closed
her eyes and waited for the contents of her stomach to shoot out of
her, but they didn’t. Cynthia turned to Evan as he approached with
a tray of food and sat down.

“Looks like Mallorie’s got the stomach flu,”
she said.

“Oh, really? Do you feel like you’ll throw
up, Mal?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, let’s get you to a bathroom before
you do!” Evan put a guiding hand on Mal’s back, and she stood up.
They walked out of the mess hall, to the nearest bathroom. Mal
groaned every couple of seconds, and as soon as they entered the
bathroom, she hurried to the closest toilet and kneeled in front of
it. She heaved and made a horrible grunting sound.

Mal reared back from the toilet. She looked
up, her hair falling onto her shoulders.

“How do you feel now?” Evan asked. “Pretty
good, I bet.”

They walked out of the bathroom after
flushing the mess away. Everyone looked up as they returned.

“Doing okay there, Mally?” Jason said.

“Yep! I feel like I could eat a pig,
now!”

“Well, until you feel better, you should
wait on that,” Cynthia said.

“I will.”

“Tonight, we’ll get you some crackers or
something and see if you can hold that down.”

“Oh, mom, that’s so boring!” Daisy said.

Cynthia laughed. “Don’t encourage her!”

Jared and June were walking up to Evan’s
table. June hovered slightly behind Jared.

“Do you mind if my mom and I sit here?”
Jared asked.

“Not at all,” Evan replied.

“Thanks.” Jared sat across from Evan, next
to Eugene, who was finishing his soup. June sat down by her
son.

“Hello everyone,” she said. She turned to
Eugene. “Sir, I apologize—”

“P-please, there’s no need, ma’am,” Eugene
said. “All is forgiven.”

“Thank you.” June started eating.

“Where are you guys from?” Jared asked. “All
from Chicago?”

“Yeah,” Evan said. “We were at my daughter’s
ballet recital at a theater called the Belmont. It went to hell
fast. Thanks to Stephanie here, we were able to get away in an
ambulance.” Evan pointed to her with his thumb.

“Oh, did you steal it?” Jared said, eyes
wide.

“No, I was an EMT before this mess,”
Stephanie replied.

“Oh, interesting.”

“I lost my partner back in the bathroom of
the place.” Stephanie put a hand on the table. She felt Jason’s
clutch hers gently, and continued. “We got away all right. We were
in the Cardigan for almost a week before you showed up. We’re
really lucky.”

“You were in a torn-up wedding dress,” June
said to Vanessa. “It must have been horrible.”

“It was, but I try not to think about it too
often. My husband was a good person, but I like to think he’s in a
better place now.”

“I’m so sorry,” June said.

“There’s no need to apologize, but thank
you.”

“Where did you two come from?” Jason
asked.

“Wisconsin,” Jared said. “We were at a
military base. There was an… incident.”

“They shot Jared!” June said. “Not
them,
another soldier. They said it was just friendly fire…
It was horrible!”

“Some of the guys from Fort Knox were flying
in to check up, and they said the place wouldn’t last another day,
so they brought us all here. We were on the last flight out.”

“Have you heard anything about what these
things are?” Evan asked.

“Nothing helpful,” June said. “From what I
can tell, they don’t look any different than us. There’s just
something horribly wrong with them.” She lowered her voice. “You
know what I think?”

“What’s that?” Cynthia said.

“I think the military is behind this. Maybe
it’s some biological weapon.”

“Okay, this conversation just took a turn
for the worse,” Daisy said. She rolled her eyes.

“What else could it have been, then? If not
the military’s deed, then whose? God’s?”

“Look, let’s forget about who’s responsible
for them,” Stephanie said. “We should focus on the present. Not the
past. We’re safe now, this place is secure.” June and Daisy both
nodded.

“Thank you,” Eugene said. “Might’ve given me
a headache!”

“You got some meds for that?” Jason asked.
“Cause I already have one.”

The others continued eating, but Evan stared
at his food. Something had made Mal sick. He wondered how secure
Fort Knox really was.

****

Sleep hadn’t been coming easily to Evan, so
at nearly eleven o’clock, he went to the rec room to watch TV.
There was nothing but snow on the screen until Evan inserted a DVD
of
Seinfeld
. Evan had a laugh or two, and before long, Aimes
found his way into the rec room.

“Hey there,” Aimes said.

“Oh, hi, Matt,” Evan said. “How are
you?”

“That’s a hard question, I think.”

“Why’s that?”

“Never mind. How are you?”

“I’m coping. I’m fine. Things are looking
up.”

“No pain?”

“No, not really.” Evan noticed Aimes’s hands
were shaking. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“How’s Clark?” Evan said. Aimes eyed him
oddly. “Your friend?”

“Oh… Hey, you seem like a level-headed man,
Evan. Can I tell you something?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Last night there was a problem. It was
bad.” Aimes’s eyes started to shine with tears.

“Just tell me. There’s no need to drag it
out.”

“Clark and some of the other soldiers… We
were messing around, drinking.”

“Okay,” Evan said. “That’s not it, is
it?”

Aimes shook his head. “We were just trying
to kill some of the guilt I guess, especially Bogart.”

“Oh, Adrian. That’s the guy who was friends
with the soldier who… Who shot me, right?”

“Yeah. He had to have his stomach pumped. He
drank so much, a lot more than Clark and I. Still, we had a little
too much to drink. It was stupid of us. We heard some slamming on
the door. Clark thought it might be survivors who needed help. He
went and opened the door and let the things in.”

“Oh my God,” Evan said.

“There weren’t many, but three got
inside.”

“You killed them, I would hope, and shut the
door?”

“Yeah, but one of them got Clark.”

“I’m… sorry. I’m really sorry.”

“I just feel so guilty.”

“It’s not your fault,” Evan said. “I’m not
going to mince words. Alcohol was not a good thing to have so close
to an entrance, but it’s a horrible thing that happened. It’ll be
okay, though.”

“It has to be,” Aimes said. “I still need to
get back to my family.”

“I think you should.”

“Yeah. The other day, I talked to your wife
and her friend. My wife Julie is pregnant. She and her sister Stacy
are back in Wyoming. They’re staying at their parents’ mansion. I
have to get back to them, but I have obligations to my
country.”

“Honestly, I find it very noble that you
hold your country so dearly, but you’ve got to think about your
priorities. I know it’s hard, but if I were you, it would be my
family on the top of the list. It is for me. Do what you feel you
need to do, but think about it. Okay?”

“…You’re right,” Aimes said. “I think I’ll
leave soon. Julie’s gotta be worried sick. That is, if she’s still
okay.”

“She is.” Evan put a hand on Aimes’s
shoulder. “I’ll bet she’s sitting up in that big house, waiting for
you. She must be worried. Believe me, that kind of stress on an
unborn baby isn’t good. You need to get back to her and your child
as soon as you can.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Evan said with a
smile.

“Hey, about what I told you,” Aimes said, “I
just had to tell someone. You won’t let people know about what
happened last night, will you?”

“I won’t tell a soul, but people will wonder
what happened to Clark.”

“Yeah. We’ve gone on a few supply runs since
this started… It wasn’t hard to convince people an accident caused
Clark’s death.”

“Of course not,” Evan said. “It
was
an accident, after all.”

“Thanks. And thanks for listening to
me.”

Evan smiled. “Don’t mention it. Hey, you
like
Seinfeld
?”

****

On Independence Day, two soldiers sat in the
control room of one of the base’s docking points.

“How long have they been gone?” Private
McAvoy asked Lance Corporal Barry. They were waiting for a Humvee
that had gone out on a scouting run.

“Maybe a couple hours. They’ll be fine. They
know what they’re doing.” Barry took a swig from a Mountain Dew
can.

“That seems like long enough to me,” McAvoy
said. “It’d be easier if we had radio.”

“Well, we don’t, and we’ll just have to
accept that. Look, I know these guys. They’re tough, and they’ll
get back okay.”

“Hopefully soon.” McAvoy looked out through
the small window of the control booth at the large, metal door to
the dock. “And I hope we don’t have any more problems with that
damn door.”

“They will, and the door will be fine.”
Barry shook his head. “It’s been fixed. Stop your worrying, McAvoy,
okay?” He took another gulp of his soda.

“I will. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I know sitting here doing
nothing isn’t helpful. You wanna play Speed, or something?”

“Sounds fun. You got a deck of cards?”

“Always,” Barry said. He reached into the
breast pocket of his shirt.

The two of them set up the cards. Pretty
soon, the game had gotten their minds off of the Humvee, and they
were enjoying themselves with little worry. Neither of them checked
the camera feed during their game.

A few games later, even over the faint
moaning outside, McAvoy heard a large vehicle. “Hey, Barry, you
hear that?”

“I think so,” Barry said. “It must be
them.”

McAvoy looked at the screen and saw nothing
but the outside of the dock. There were a few zombies in view, but
no Humvee. “Nothing yet, but it sounds like it’s getting
closer.”

“Well, don’t open the door until we get a
clear shot of them. We don’t need any accidents.”

They set down their cards and listened. It
wasn’t long before Barry and McAvoy saw the front bumper of the
Humvee pull into view. They even saw the driver; he waved to the
camera.

“All right, I think we’re good to go,” Barry
said. “Get ready.”

“Okay,” McAvoy replied. He reached for a
button. It clicked, and the door began opening slowly. It was
squeaky as it rose. A few zombies ducked and crawled and hurried in
awkwardly, but the soldiers inside picked them off.

“What the fuck’s keeping the door?” the
driver asked.

“It was broken, but it should be fixed!”
Barry said.

More zombies rushed toward the door, which
seemed to be slowing with every inch. One climbed onto the Humvee;
it pounded on the exterior, growling loudly. Barry and McAvoy shot
at the zombies running toward them. One in a jumpsuit, a child, an
older woman. When there was a lapse, McAvoy looked beyond the
Humvee.

“I think we’ve got a big problem,” he
said.

“What?”

“If we don’t get this thing in here and
close the fucking door, we’ll have more than we can handle!” He
pulled Barry’s arm, motioning for Barry to take a look.

“Fuck!” Barry said, then turned to the
driver. “Hey, why didn’t you tell us you were being followed? We’re
screwed if we can’t get this door shut!”

“I was hoping to be in already!” the driver
said. He motioned to a soldier in the passenger seat. “What are you
doing? Get out and shoot those bastards! You guys in the back, too!
I’ve gotta get this bitch in!”

The available soldiers opened fire on the
oncoming horde. Dozens of zombies rushed toward the dock as the
Humvee inched its way inside the base. The door was nearly open,
but it sounded as if it would give out at any moment.