Authors: James Cook
“Baby, can you take him, please? He just woke up, and I need to rest a little while longer.” She said.
Her eyes were puffy, and her long, straight red hair hung down in loose tangles. Aiden, on the other hand, seemed in good spirits. He smiled and made a weird sounding gurgle-shriek when he saw his father. He reached his little arms out toward the big man and babbled something similar to ‘da-da’ as Ethan took him from his wife.
“I got him babe, you go get some rest.” Ethan leaned down and kissed her cheek. Andrea reached out and squeezed him around the waist for a moment before mumbling a vague thanks and going back inside her shack.
“Is she okay?” I asked after Andrea closed the door behind her.
“She’s fine, she just works too hard is all. She was feeling last night’s wine when she got up this morning. Little man here woke her up just after sunup.”
Ethan wiggled a fingertip against the baby’s belly. The little fellow squirmed and giggled as he pushed at his father’s hand.
“You’re a ticklish wittle baby aren’t you? Yes you are.” Ethan kissed the little boy on the head and sat down in the chair with him, issuing forth a steady stream of baby talk as he played with his son.
I smiled as I watched and wondered what kind of future waited for little Aiden. I looked around me at the people hustling to and fro, carrying out one task or another. It seemed like there was plenty of work to do, between cleaning, organizing, taking inventory, and building things to make life inside the confines of the warehouse more livable. There was something about it all, in light of everything that had happened in the last three months, that inspired a sense of hope.
Even here, in the worst of times, people were trying to live their lives. The world outside the warehouse was crawling with horrible flesh-eating monsters, but these people were still trying to make a home for themselves, trying to move forward. I felt a strong surge of respect and admiration for Ethan and the people around me, and a cold wave of despair as I pondered what had been lost. So many lives, just wiped out. Gone. All the hard work, inventiveness, and effort, all the life stories, families, and everything people spent their lives building. All of it swept away in an irresistible surge of destruction that left only ashes and broken lives in its wake.
I shook my head to ward off those thoughts. My mind had been wondering into that territory more and more often lately, and it always led to the same conclusion- there was no going back. The world as I knew it was over. My comfortable, quiet, easy life was a thing of the past. From here on out, it was going to be a daily struggle for survival. The sooner I got used to that idea, the better.
My dark thoughts were interrupted by the clang of the bar across the steel door being raised as Bill and the other four men on watch with him came into the warehouse. Three other people waited for them by the door. Cody and Stan turned over their SCAR rifles, somewhat reluctantly, to two of the people taking over the watch. The third one had an M1A battle rifle strapped across his back, and a military style vest with several spare magazines hanging from the front of it. He gave a contemptuous snort at the two high-tech weapons as the oncoming watch looked them over. I figured he must be one of those gun purists that despise the smaller 5.56 and .223 rounds fired by most modern assault rifles.
After they finished turning over the watch, the four men walked toward Ethan’s shack. Bill stopped in front of where Ethan and I sat, and the other four men fanned out behind him. He looked over his shoulder and made a gesture in my direction.
“Everybody, this here is Eric. He just got here yesterday. Eric, I believe you met Greg and Rick already, these other two yahoos are Cody and Stan.” He smiled as he said it, and the two big police officers stepped forward to shake hands. I stood up from my chair and offered them each a hand in turn.
“Hi nice to meet you.” I said.
Stan’s expression was stern, but not unfriendly, as I shook his hand. He was a little taller than me, and rivaled Ethan for muscle mass. He had salt and pepper hair, and a thick mustache covered his upper lip. If not for the crew-cut, he would have looked like a gunslinger out of the old west. Cody was much younger, probably not any older than me, and favored me with a warm, friendly smile.
“Nice to meet you Eric.” He said. “Been a while since we had any cute single guys around here.”
I stiffened a bit and stared for a moment, not quite sure how to respond to that one. Cody released the handshake, and his smile faded into an irritated frown.
“Damn. Another straightie.” He said.
Stan let out a short bark of laughter.
“Told you so. Pay up.” He held out one hand, and Cody glared at him for a moment before reaching in a cargo pocket and handing him a pack of hard candies. Stan opened them and offered me one.
“You helped me win ‘em. Want some?”
I laughed, awkwardly. “Uh…no, I’m good. Thanks anyway.”
Stan shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
He smirked at Cody before popping one of the little red candies into his mouth.
“I’m going to go home and enjoy these. Talk to you folks later.” He called over his shoulder.
“Yeah, I hope they rot out your teeth, dickhead.” Cody muttered, then turned and stalked back to the other side of the warehouse.
Rick’s shoulders bounced in a silent laugh as he watched Cody walk away.
“I think you broke his heart.” He said.
The others broke out in laughter, including Ethan. I gave them all an irritated glare and sat back down in my chair.
“I’m glad I could be here to amuse you.”
“Aw, come on, don’t be like that.” Bill said. “Cody’s a good man, but he’s the only gay guy here. I think he’s getting right lonesome. He was swearing up and down to me and Stan today that you were homosexual.”
My frown deepened. “What the hell would make him think that?”
“I don’t know. Wishful thinking maybe?” Ethan said, smiling. He affected a thick, drawling southern accent.
“You got to admit, you
is
mighty purty.”
That brought on another round of laughs at my expense from the men gathered around us. I shook my head and pointed a finger at Ethan.
“Don’t get any ideas, Romeo, you’re a married man.” I said.
Ethan sat back in his chair and leaned Aiden’s back against his chest as he motioned to the stack of lawn chairs standing nearby. The baby occupied himself by chewing on his hands as he reclined.
“Why don’t you fellas sit a spell. Eric and I got something we need to run by you guys.” Ethan said, turning serious.
Bill and the other two men grabbed chairs and sat down in a semi-circle across from Ethan and I.
“Stacy came to talk to me today. Said you fella’s had some kind of a plan to get more supplies from Alexis.” Bill said. “Ethan, we’ve been over this before. It’s just too dangerous, we can’t risk it. Besides, we don’t have enough firepower to clear out all the creeps, even with what you brought back yesterday.”
“We may not have to.” Ethan replied. “Eric here seems to know an awful lot about fighting these things. He came up with a plan that might just work without us having to use up too many resources.”
Ethan looked at me and gestured toward Bill. “Tell ‘em Eric.”
I laid out the plan the same as I had described it to Stacy. Bill put a hand to his chin and seemed to think about it for a moment or two.
“How do you know the creeps will follow you? What if they don’t? If the distraction doesn’t work, we could wind up in a heap of trouble.” He said.
“They’ll follow, don’t worry about that. Ethan has seen evidence of that for himself.” I nodded in Ethan’s direction, and he related the story to Bill and the others about how he became stranded in Alexis, and his subsequent rescue.
“I’m telling you Bill, I watched those damn things follow him for at least a quarter mile.” He said as he finished his story. “When he turned back around to pick me up, they turned around with him and started coming back in our direction. Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Bill stood up from his chair and began pacing around. His expression had brightened, and his body language became more animated as he thought over the plan.
“You know Eric, if you’re right about these things, and we can use your diversion strategy effectively and consistently, this changes everything. We might actually be able to go on the offensive against the creeps, instead of skulking around in small groups scavenging supplies wherever the hell we manage to find them.” He said.
“I got a question.” Greg said, one hand raised in the air. “How the hell do you know so much about the creeps? We’ve been trying to fight these things for months, and we’re barely holding our own. How did you become such a creep-killing expert?”
The group went silent, and stared at me expectantly. I looked down at the ground, and considered how to respond.
“I could tell you, but I doubt you would believe me.”
“Son, you’d be amazed what I can believe these days.” Bill said. “Let’s hear it.”
I clasped my hands together for a moment, then ran them over my face.
“It all started when I met a man named Gabriel Garrett…”
I laid it out for them. Everything. I left nothing out, not even the part about buying all the illegal weapons. I told them about everything that happened to me, all the way up to where I ran into Ethan. When I finished, everyone was silent and stared at me with a mixture of shock and disbelief. I couldn’t help but laugh at them.
“I said you wouldn’t believe me.”
It was strangely cathartic, spilling all of my secrets. The burden felt a little lighter for having shared it.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you,” Bill said, “it’s just that we’ve all been speculating since the outbreak started about what caused all of this. Now here you sit, solving the mystery for all of us. A damn bacteriophage did all of this?”
Rick shook his head. “Unbelieveable.” He muttered.
“So the fucking government knew about the Phage before the outbreak? How could they let something like this happen?” Ethan’s voice shook with anger as he spoke.
“Listen guys, I don’t have any answers. I’m not sure that anyone left alive does. Regardless of how this all started, we are where we are. The problems sitting in front of us are not going to go away on their own. Now is the time to take action.” I said and stood up. “I need to go get something out of my truck, I’ll be right back.”
I walked over to my truck and dug out Gabriel’s manual. I brought it back over to Ethan’s shack and handed it to Bill.
“Everything you need to know about how to fight the undead is in there. Do you have the necessary equipment to make copies?” I asked.
“Yeah, we have a whole bunch of computer equipment around here somewhere. I’ll get Justin to fire it up and make copies. Rick, do you mind fetching Justin and help him set up one of the generators?”
“No problem.” Rick stood up and walked toward Justin’s shack. Greg stood up as well and slung his rifle across his back.
“I know where all the computer equipment is. We have a couple of boxes of paper in the storage area, I’ll give Justin a hand getting everything set up.” Bill nodded and Greg set off toward the other side of the warehouse.
“Well, looks like I got some reading to do.” Bill said as he stood up. He stared at the binder in his hands for a long moment before looking up at me and offering me a hand.
“I tell you what, if everything you’ve said is true, and we really can pull off this plan of yours, I’ll give you my blessing to date my daughter.”
I smiled and shook his hand. “Sir, you have yourself a deal.”
Chapter 10
Logistics
Justin set up a laptop and printer on a folding table, and plugged them into a gasoline-powered generator. He scanned Gabriel’s manual and printed ten copies, then placed each copy in a separate binder. Meanwhile, Bill sent Ethan around to let everyone know that he was calling a meeting. Work continued as word spread, but I could hear people talking to each other, speculating as to what the meeting was about. I caught quite a few people giving me curious stares and whispering to one another. I helped Stacy clear some space in the middle of the common area and arrange enough lawn chairs so that everyone would have a place to sit. We placed five chairs in front for Bill and the other compound leaders. When we finished, Bill came over to me and motioned for me to lean down so that he could whisper something.