Finally she made a decision: Amy unlocked one of the car doors and got out, leaving the vehicle behind.
Water had been the deciding factor in her choice. In the car, she would have driven right past the supplies she required so badly to stay alive, unless she stopped at a gas station or something of the sort, and then she would have to deal with the hordes of monsters she attracted. The way she reasoned it, on foot she might be able to find a stream or some kind of berries in the woods. So she walked off the road and headed into the trees, feeling her way carefully through the newly fallen night.
14
Geoff met Jeremy and Wade on the road home about two miles outside the complex. “You done good, kid,” he told Jeremy when he saw the parts they had gone after. He ushered them on towards the base, but stayed behind to take care of any creatures that might have followed them back. He promised to meet up with them later in the mess, and then he disappeared into the trees, becoming a part of the woods themselves.
The inhabitants of Def-Con all sat in the meeting room. Sheena was allowed her rant on the importance of determining the various trajectories of the wave’s fragments—not that they could change those trajectories should a piece be aimed for the sun—and when she finished, Wade stood up and informed everyone that the base’s air system was fully repaired; he also updated the group on the life expectancy of the power core before giving the floor to the communications officer Toni.
Jeremy had not formally met her yet, so he watched the woman intently. She was tall and thin, in her late twenties or maybe early thirties. Her eyes were a bright green, and brown hair touched the tops of her shoulders. She spoke softly in a controlled, though almost shy, voice. Her efforts to reach anyone else in the government or military, or anyone on civilian channels and the small band frequencies, continued to meet with failure. Toni had no clue whether that meant they were alone in the world, or if the aftereffects of the wave simply hadn’t cleared enough to get out a good signal.
Geoff was the last member of the staff to speak, and despite the bleakness of the other reports, his was the most unsettling. The number of infected wandering close to the base was increasing at an alarming rate. Geoff hadn’t realized how much until today. No one blamed Jeremy’s arrival or Wade’s shopping trip, yet Geoff clearly thought these factors contributed to the problem. He wasn’t concerned about running out of ammo in the near future or worried about the creatures penetrating the complex; he was afraid the army of infected would grow so large there would be no way out of Def Con without a bloody fight. Geoff did not suggest abandoning the complex, as no one knew of somewhere remotely safe to set out for, yet he made sure everyone understood the threat of being trapped here for the rest of their lives.
When the meeting was over, people broke up into their own little clusters to continue private arguments over what should be done. Geoff and Troy pulled Jeremy out of the room and led him outside toward the garage. The night sky was clear and sparkling with stars. Two creatures were straining against the fence, and when they spotted the trio, they howled and slashed their flesh on the barbwire in their attempts to get in.
“Didn’t you just tell everyone to limit their trips up here?” Jeremy whispered.
“Yeah, but there are times and there are times,” Geoff said, walking to the fence as he drew his pistol.
“Come on.” Troy slid the heavy garage door open and led Jeremy inside. “Forget about them. They’re not why we’re up here.”
Jeremy heard two faint popping noises in the darkness behind him. When Geoff caught up again, Troy closed the door and hit the interior lights. He waved his arm around like a game show hostess showing off a prize. “Welcome to paradise.”
“The garage?”
Geoff tried to rub something red and wet off the front of his uniform. “It’s not the place but what’s in it, kid.”
Troy returned from the rear of the garage with a large jug in his hand. “Ta-dah! This here is Wade’s special home brew.”
“It’ll knock you on your ass,” Geoff said, “that’s for sure.”
“But you could drink in the complex. Why come up here?”
“There’s nothing like this down there.” Troy turned up the jug to his lips and took a long swig, coughing as it burned down his throat like liquid fire. “And hell, Geoff here would go crazy if he couldn’t see the stars. Mankind wasn’t made to live in the earth.”
“What he means is…” Geoff grabbed the jug from Troy’s hands, “we’d go crazy if we were cooped up with those suits much longer. All of them except Wade are educated people, and me and Troy here are the last of the grunts. None of them take him seriously at all, and they only listen to me because I saved their asses when the shit went down and they know I’m the only one who can do it again.”
Geoff offered Jeremy the jug, but he waved it aside. “No thanks. Isn’t getting wasted up here dangerous?”
Geoff laughed. “Isn’t breathing dangerous these days, kid?”
Jeremy didn’t answer.
Many, many feet below them, Sheena rolled her chair closer to Lex’s bed and reached out to take the woman’s wrist in her hand. Lex’s pulse still felt steady, if somewhat weak. There had been no change in her condition for days.
Sheena looked Lex over and winced. Once, she’d been a vibrant thirty-three-year-old woman whose charm and laughter lit up the dark corridors of Def Con. Now her skin was a sickly pale color and her long blond hair had lost its luster. Sometimes Sheena found it hard to believe she was looking at the same person who’d been her assistant, friend, and lover for the last five years.
She leaned forward in her wheelchair and rested her head on Lex’s chest. Tears glistened down her cheeks as sobs shook her broken body. She lifted her head, and her hand crept to the main power cord of the life support system. “I’m sorry,” Sheena said, no louder than a breath; then she pulled the plug.
A sharp, piercing tone filled the room as Lex’s vital signs flatlined. Sheena silenced the alarm with the flip of a button and turned out the lights. She wheeled herself out of the dark room without looking back.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,” Troy sang as the staff of Def Con gathered before the grave at the edge of the large gardens. Black-eyed Susans bloomed around the freshly dug dirt, their yellow petals straining to touch the sun.
To Jeremy, Troy’s voice sounded like that of a weeping angel. But as beautiful as the sound was, it stirred the creatures at the fence into a fury. Jeremy tried hard to block out the raging and the thrashing.
There were more of them today. They numbered in the dozens, and Jeremy noticed Geoff’s unease as the ceremony continued. The guard was armed to the teeth and clutching a fully loaded AK-47 in his hands. Everyone else seemed focused on saying goodbye to Lex, even Ian, though the CIA man didn’t look well. A sheen of sweat covered his snow-white skin, and he fidgeted with his handkerchief.
When Troy’s song ended, they all stood together, watching the bloodthirsty horde outside the gates until finally Geoff barked, “Okay! Everybody back inside—now!”
Jeremy wondered as he went if this would be one of the last times he would feel the sunshine on his skin.
Sheena kept the nature of Lex’s death to herself. Some suspected what she’d done, while others didn’t care, but no one confronted her about it. Lex’s death affected them all, including Jeremy, though he’d never met the woman.
A somber air fell over the Def Con complex. On the surface, Geoff, Troy and Wade waged a quiet war against the growing tide of the infected. Ian kept more to himself than ever, rarely leaving his makeshift quarters in the armory. Only Nathanial seemed to actually improve since Sheena suddenly stopped riding him about collecting more data on the trajectories of the wave in space.