A Glimpse of Decay (Book 3): Lost in Twilight (18 page)

“Bravo-Six, you’ve still got a lot of those things alive and kicking on the other side of the wall,” Novak said over the radio.

Marching forward, driven by instinct or desire or something that was simply unexplainable, the dead and fast movers pressed on.  Below their feet was a quagmire of burnt corpses, exposed bowels, dismembered torsos and gelatinous sludge.  Some of the reanimated fell into the gigantic craters left behind by the bombs—clawing at the broken earth with their bloodied fingers as they tried to climb their way out.

As the line of troops and Bradleys slowly moved forward, Karnes noticed that one of the sections of the wall was beginning to bow inwards.  The weight of the pressing attackers was causing the damaged wall to give way.

“Oh my God, look…next to the gate!” Karnes screamed up to Morrow.

Morrow looked to where Karnes was pointing at.  His eyes bulged with fear as he realized what was happening.  “The fucking bombs must have weakened it!”  He quickly went over his options—run, stay and fight or pull back to the hospital—and then he came up with a dangerous, if not insane decision.

“Drive this thing up to the wall to brace it!” Morrow yelled down to his driver.  “If we don’t, it will collapse!”  Without giving it a second thought, the driver dutifully obeyed his commander’s order and the track lurched forward.

Morrow continued to sweep the area in front of him with his coaxial machine gun, but just before the squatty armored vehicle could reach its destination, the wall separated from the gate.  In the next instant, a twenty foot section of the battered barrier caved in and the heap of undead and fast movers that had been piled against it came tumbling down in a sickening, putrid wave of decay.

“Hit them with the canon!” Morrow yelled.  His gunner opened up with the vehicle’s main weapon, a 25 millimeter canon, pouring round after devastating round into the oncoming horde.  Seeing their commander employing the heavy gun, the other Bradleys joined in, and as the small canons raked the clutter of zombies and fast movers, a spray of body parts, blood and gore spewed out over the carnage. 

“The wall’s been breached!” Karnes yelled into his radio.  “Tell Hartman the wall has been breached!”  The terrified sergeant looked over and saw that Carrie was still around.  Eyeing a Humvee that was parked near the main gate, he yelled to her, “Let’s try to get to the Humvee and get back to the hospital!”  Without waiting for a reply, he took off in a sprint towards the vehicle.  Carrie followed and was joined by two other troopers.

From his perch above the battle, Novak could see that the perimeter had been compromised and the swarm of reanimated was quickly spreading out into the compound.  The small line of soldiers was wavering and many were turning and running.  Some tried to make it to the hospital while others made a mad dash for the surrounding clinics and lodging quarters.

“Fuck, what do we do?” Brasher asked his pilot.

Increasing his altitude, Novak backed away from the battle and circled back north around the hospital.  Landing in a vacant parking lot outside of the north entrance, he kept the engine running.

“Steel Horse…we’re standing by just outside of the northern entrance awaiting further orders,” Novak advised over the radio.

“What do I tell them?” Collier asked the general.

“Just acknowledge them for right now,” he answered in a disinterested tone.  “Also, get every soldier on the perimeter over to the main gate…on the double.”

Collier issued the order sending all of the remaining perimeter defenders over to assist Karnes.  She could hear the gloom in Hartman’s voice and she felt like something had broken in the man.  “General, are we going to be alright?”

Ignoring the frightened girl’s question, he walked past her and exited the room.  While standing in the hallway, he yelled for Youngblood or Riggins.  After calling out two more times, Riggings came racing down the hall.

“Sorry General, I was making sure the stairwells were secure,” the lieutenant explained.

“Where’s Youngblood?”

“He went down to the first floor to make sure the entrances are secured and sealed.”

“Okay, I want you to gather up the research staff and get them ready to evacuate…if things get beyond our control.  Novak has his helicopter just outside of the northern entrance.  Go ahead and get the group headed in that direction.”

Hartman’s words sent a wave of terror through Riggins’s body.  If the general was actually considering the possibility of having to send the researchers away, Riggins knew that things were really going bad.

“Yes sir, I’ll see to it,” Riggins said.  He turned and ran back down the hall, disappearing around a corner.

Hartman stepped back into the command room and slowly made his way over to the window that overlooked the gate and its breached walls.

“General?” Collier called to him.  She was on the verge of tears and she was standing up.

“Yes, my dear,” he said as he looked down at the spreading wave of undead.

“What are we going to do?”  She had placed her headset on the table and she was walking towards him.

Turning away from the window, he looked into her eyes.  He could see the fear—the tears welling up—and he knew that she was at her breaking point.  “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”  He walked up to her and took ahold of her trembling hands.  “As long as we keep them from getting up here, we can hold out until we get some relief.”

“Relief from who?” she asked as she began to cry.  “There’s no one else out there.”

“Of course someone else is out there,” he countered.  “Dyess sent us that bomber, so that shows that someone else is still operating.  Believe me, we’re not alone.  We can’t be.”

“Just one lonely plane!” she wailed as she pulled her hands away from him.  She stepped back and said, “They didn’t even have any supplies to send us.  No food, no water…and no ammunition.  There’s no one else out there.  We can’t even reach Fort Hood anymore.  We’re all alone!”

“Stop talking like that!” Hartman barked.  With a crazed look in his face he said, “You sound like we’ve been beaten.  We haven’t lost…not by a long shot.  We’ve had a minor setback, but we haven’t been beaten.  Now get ahold of yourself, Private!”

“Are you crazy?” Collier screamed.  “Can’t you see?  It’s all over for us here.  Those things have broken through the wall and it will only be a matter of time before they get up here.  We need to get out of here…right now!”  The woman was sobbing hysterically and she had lost the last of her composure.

“Get back to your station!  Get back on that radio or I’ll have you taken into custody for deserting your post!’

“You’re going to be the death of us all!” she screamed back.  “I’m not going to stay here and let you get me killed!”  She turned to make her way towards the door.

Hartman reached down to his side and pulled the pistol he had been wearing in his tactical holster.  He pointed it at her and said, “You’re not going to desert your post…not under my command.”  His hand trembled as he pointed the gun at her back.  His sanity also trembled as he contemplated the fate of the compound.

Collier turned to look at the general.  Tears were streaming from her eyes and mucus was running from her nostrils.  “Are you going to shoot me?”

“If I have to I will.  Now, get back to your station!”

Realizing that if she stayed in the office she was going to die one way or another, she turned and began to walk towards the door.  Her vision was blurred by her tears, but she could make out the door knob.  As she reached for it, a single shot rang out. At first she didn’t know what had happened and she thought that someone had punched her on her back.  She stumbled forward and fell up against the door.  Reaching back towards the site of the now burning pain in her back, she felt warm fluid on her hand as her blood began to flow from the bullet wound.  Her chest tightened as her lungs began to fill with blood.

Standing there with the gun still pointing at Collier—a waft of white smoke dissipating from the barrel—Hartman watched as the private began to sluggishly slide down the door to the floor.  She drew up into a fetal position and rolled over to her side.  Blood began to pool up around her as it soaked into the dingy brown carpet.

As Riggins was opening the door to the lounge where Irene and Jim and the others were waiting, the sound of a single gunshot filled the room.  Startled, Riggins turned in the direction of the report.

“What the fuck was that!” Jim exclaimed.  He looked over at Irene and she looked back at him—her face was gripped with fear.  They both stood up and began to walk towards the door.  “That came from up here.”

“Are those things already here?” Farris asked in terror.

“No, they can’t be.  All the stairwells are secured and the elevators are locked.”

“Well, someone up here is shooting,” Jim said.

Wanting to investigate the gunfire, but knowing that he needed to focus on the task at hand, Riggins stepped into the lounge and shut the door behind him.  From the look on his face, everyone in the room could tell that things were not going good.

“What’s going on down there?” Farris asked.

The wall has been penetrated…down by the main gate.  We’re doing our best to contain it, but in case we can’t, we need to get you guys moving to the chopper.  It’s just outside of the northern entrance.”

“Shit, why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” Farris asked.  Irene could hear the man’s voice cracking.

“Let’s just deal with what’s going on right now,” Riggins said as he attempted to avoid a long drawn out conversation with the doctor.  “Just gather your things and let’s start heading down to the helicopter.  Okay?”

***

Hartman—his senses still reeling from what he had just done—was now standing at the window, gazing blankly at the scene below.  He knew that all was lost and he knew that he was to blame for it.  His chance to save the world had been squandered.

With his troops in full retreat, the only organized resistance was from the Bradleys.  They were still actively trying to repel the horde as they drove in circles, crushing and mashing any unlucky reanimated and infected who weren’t quick enough to get out of the way of the tracks.  One of the Bradleys was adorned with several fast movers as they clambered up onto the deck of the vehicle.

After several minutes of looking mindlessly at the demise of his troopers, he snapped to and realized that if any of them had been trying to communicate with him, they wouldn’t have received any response because Collier was no longer at the console.  He turned to make his way to the radio and was surprised when he saw the freckled private standing there.  Her eyes were glazed over with a white film and a rasping noise was coming from her throat.  To his horror, he realized that she had reanimated.

He quickly drew his pistol and began to fire it before he could bring her into his sights.  The first bullet struck the floor next to her boot.  The second bullet tore into her thigh and the third bullet smashed into her abdomen.  He didn’t get a chance to get off a fourth bullet.

Collier grabbed onto the collar of the general and with incredible strength, she pulled his neck towards her gaping mouth.  He dropped his gun as he tried to push away from her, but he couldn’t break her grip.  She bit down onto the left side of his face, cutting through flesh and muscle.  Her teeth gnashed on his facial bones and he screamed out in pain.  With one vicious twist of her head, she pulled off a chunk of his face and began to chew on it.

The terrified general fell back onto the floor and clutched at his gaping wound.  He kicked and flailed as he tried to get away from Collier.  Shoving himself across the floor, he got to his feet and looked for a way to escape from the command center.  In the corner of the room was a small utility closet.  He broke out into a full run and yanked open the door.  He shut himself inside the closet and he curled up in the far corner.

***

“Man, what the fuck is going on over there!” Jim said as more gunfire echoed down the hallway.

“Look, you guys stay here,” Riggins said.  “I’m going to see what’s going on.  That fire is coming from the command center.  Something must be happening in there.”

“You want us just to stay in here?” Irene asked.  “What if those things are up here?”

“Just lock yourselves in here,” Riggins said—or more like ordered.  He ran out of the room and back in the direction of the command center.

“Jim, I don’t want to stay here,” Irene pleaded.  “Let’s go before something bad happens.”

Jim looked over at Farris and Wang and the other doctors and researchers.  They were all huddled on several couches, shuddering in terror.  He then looked back at Irene and wrestled with the idea of going or staying.  “Okay, let’s get out of here.  I’m sure we can find our way down to the helicopter.”  He walked over to the couch that he and Irene had been sitting on and he picked up their bags.

“I don’t think we should go,” Farris argued.  “I think we should wait on Riggins to come back for us.”

“I agree with Doctor Farris,” Wang said in agreement with his trembling colleague.  “It’s not safe to go down there on our own.”

“Well, I don’t think it’s safe to stay up here any longer,” Jim countered.  “Come on, Irene, let’s go.”  Turning back to Farris he said, “You can stay here Major, but we’re leaving.”