A Glimpse of Decay (Book 3): Lost in Twilight (7 page)

“Got shot by accident?” Morrow replied.  “What the hell do you mean, ‘got shot by accident?’ ”

“I guess when Lorenz was sweeping the gate, a few rounds got loosed in here and a civilian got nailed.  He’s dead.”

“Well, finish up in there and bring those civilians with you.  We’ve cleared the police station next door and I’m moving all the Bradleys inside of the gate so we can fuel up, but we need to hurry before more of those things show up.”

“I copy that.  We’ll be out there shortly.”  Davenport looked to his men and said, “Cooper, go back with the officer to get his partner.  The rest of you need to get out with the lieutenant to help provide security on the gate while they fuel up.”

“Alright Officer, let’s go get your partner,” Cooper said to Vincent.  The two men disappeared down the hall while Davenport and the rest of the squad made their way back towards Morrow and the armored vehicles.

“You say we mistakenly killed a civilian?” Morrow asked Davenport as the sergeant walked up to the Lieutenant.

“Yeah, he was too damn busy watching us and didn’t bother to take cover.  He got tore to shit.”

“And he didn’t come back…you know, turn?”

“Naw, he took one to the head.  He didn’t have much of a brain left.”

Morrow looked away for a moment as a scowl came over his face.  He hated the fact that they had killed an innocent person, but based on what Davenport had told him, there was no way that they could have prevented the tragic event.  He looked back at his sergeant, the scowl now replaced with a look of resignation.  “Well, there was nothing we could do.  It’s not like we did it on purpose.”

“Nope, it’s something that couldn’t be helped.  Plain and simple.”  Davenports’ eyes met Morrow’s and they both gave each other a reassuring nod.

“This is our lieutenant, Lieutenant Morrow,” Cooper announced as he and Shondra and Vincent approached him.  “He’s in charge.”

Morrow turned to face the couple.  “First Lieutenant Al Morrow,” he said as he reached his hand out to greet Vincent.

Vincent extended his hand and the two shook hands.  “I’m Vincent and this is Shondra.  We’re police officers here in San Antonio.”

Morrow looked at Shondra and shook her hand.  He then looked back at Vincent.  “We’re terribly sorry for what happened to your friend.”

“Nick.  Nick was his name,” Shondra said in a low voice.

“It’s bad…what happened to him, but it wasn’t your fault,” Vincent added.  “He got too excited seeing you guys killing those things, and he didn’t pay attention to the fact that he was in the line of fire.  It was a freak accident.”

“Well, still, we’re not in the business of killing innocent people.”  Morrow looked at Shondra and he could see the sadness in her eyes.  He sensed that the topic needed to be changed and he pointed to the armored vehicles.  “We were looking for fuel and the map told us that there was diesel at this station.  Lucky for us, the pumps are still operational.”

“So, the Army is working in San Antonio?” Vincent asked.  “Man, we’ve been in the dark for the past couple of days.  Where are you guys from?”

“We’re from Dallas.  With the National Guard.”

“Dallas?” Shondra asked in a shocked tone.  “What are y’all doing here?  Why aren’t y’all back up in Dallas?”

“Well, that’s kind of hard to explain.”

“Kind of hard to explain?”  Shondra raised her eyebrows in a quizzed expression.  “What do you mean by that?”

“I’m not too sure about what’s been going on with the rest of the military.  Things are kind of…well, they’re messed up pretty good.  Right now we’re garrisoned at Fort Sam along with a mix of other Guard and Regular Army units, but I don’t know about anyone else.”

“So what is a Dallas Guard unit doing down here in San Antonio?” she asked.  “I figured that you would probably have more than enough to deal with up there.”

Morrow reached up and unsnapped the chin strap to his helmet.  After removing it, he placed it on the deck of the vehicle he was standing next to.  He vigorously rubbed his left hand through his dusty brown hair.  “All we know is that we were ordered to deploy down here at Fort Sam.  Supposedly the hospital at the San Antonio Military Medical Center is taking lead in the research on this thing.  They’ve flown in a lot of supplies and personnel and they’ve shut off the fort to everyone.”

“Yeah, but why did they send you guys down here?” Vincent asked.

Morrow looked down at the ground and sighed.  “Because we’re about all that’s left.  Our unit was already deployed for our two week summer training exercise, so it was easy for them to just grab us up and send us down here.  Half of us got sent to Fort Sam and the other half got sent off to Fort Hood.  Lots of other units…well, the majority of them, failed to muster…no one showed up or reported.  Guess they chose to stay with their families.  Who can blame them, right?”

“Yeah, and if I had the chance, I would have done the same,” Cooper said in an anguished tone.  “I still say we get as much fuel as we can and we high-tail it home.”

Morrow glanced back at Cooper and said, “You know we can’t do that, so stop saying that.”  After a few moments of angrily staring at his trooper, Morrow turned back to Vincent.  “Anyway, from what it sounds like, most of the Guard units across the country have deserted, including here in Texas.  I guess that’s why they sent us here, because no one else was available.  I don’t think any of the area units around here mobilized.”

“What about the Regular Army…the active duty guys?” Shondra asked.

“I know there is a large group of them at Fort Hood, but I don’t know about the rest.  I heard that a lot of them got stuck overseas.”

“Damn, it sounds like everything has gone to shit,” Vincent moaned.  “But how could it fall apart so fast?”

Sensing that his lieutenant was being overwhelmed with Vincent and Shondra’s questions, Davenport stepped in.  “We don’t know how everything fell apart so fast, but we’re here because they’re working on something at the fort that might give us some hope.  That’s all we know.”

“And those choppers we saw in the air?” Vincent asked.  “Are those Army?”

“Yeah, they were working with us in checking on a research facility near here,” said Davenport.  “Apparently there were some scientists who were doing research on this thing and they were trapped in a lab there.  The choppers were evacuating personnel from the air base at Lackland and taking them to Fort Sam, and they helped out by directing us to the research facility.  Sad to say though, it was too late by the time we reached the lab.  Everyone was dead.”

“Lackland?  Are there still people at Lackland?”

“Not anymore.  They pulled the last of them out this morning and moved them over to Fort Sam.”

“There was an evacuee station near there, at Port San Antonio, in the old Kelly airbase.” Shondra said.  “That’s where Nick’s wife was supposed to be at.  Is it still there?”

“That place fell late last night.  It’s like a buffet with these fucking monsters.  You get a large gathering of people and those things come from every direction.  I guess that’s what happened to that evacuation center.”

“Damn,” Vincent mumbled to himself.  He looked at Morrow and asked, “Did you guys see any living people between here and Fort Sam?”

“Yeah, lots of them.  They’re out looting and trying to scavenge whatever they can.  Most of them ran when they saw us because I guess they thought we were on looter patrol or something like that.  Some of them asked if they could come with us, but we’re under strict orders not to take anyone back to the fort.”  Growing tired of the conversation, Morrow turned and yelled, “How are we coming with the refueling?”  He looked back at Vincent for a second and then retrieved his helmet and put it back on.

“What about us?” Shondra asked.  “Can we go back to the base with you?”

Morrow looked away as he tried to avoid seeing the desperate expressions on the faces of Shondra and Vincent.  “We can’t take anyone back with us.  The fort barely has enough supplies for those already there.  ‘No civilians,’ that’s the order.”  He didn’t enjoy having to turn his back on the two police officers and he nervously tugged and readjusted his uniform and gear.  Looking back at the two distressed officers he said, “The best I can do is stay here and cover you while you gas up your car and gather whatever you need.  I’d suggest looking for a few gas canisters to carry extra fuel with you.”

Sensing Morrow’s resolution, Vincent decided not to say anything else about going to the Fort.  He knew that Morrow had his orders and there was no use in pressing the matter.  “Uh…well, thanks for offering to stand by while we gas up,” he said.  “We’ll take you up on that.”

“Yeah, no problem.”  Morrow walked over to Shropshire’s track and climbed up onto the deck.  “Alright, let’s get out by the gate and provide security while these officers get what they need to get out of here!”  With a roar, the vehicle engine cranked to life and it rolled back out towards the main gate.  Morrow didn’t bother to look back at the officers as he balanced himself on the Bradley.

“Man, that’s one cold-hearted son of a bitch you have for a commander,” Shondra said in disgust.

Not knowing whether to defend him or agree with her, Davenport simply replied “Yep.”  He glanced around nervously, acting as if he was about to commit some kind of crime or something.  “Hey, follow me real quick,” he said.  “Cooper, get Quint’s and Boo’s rifles out of Logan’s track.  And three mags for each gun.”

Cooper understood what Davenport was up to and he smiled and said, “I gotcha Sarge.”  He trotted over to the rear hatch of one of the vehicles and reached inside.  He retrieved two rifles and a couple of tan pouches and then walked back over to Davenport.

“Here, take these rifles,” Davenport said as Cooper handed them to the police officers.  “Their previous owners don’t need them anymore.”

“Yeah…poor Quint, he always bitched about how he should have joined the navy instead,” Cooper lamented.

Vincent and Shondra quickly slung their rifles and tucked the ammunition pouches into their cargo pockets.  “Thanks so much, we really appreciate this,” Vincent said as he stretched his arm out to shake hands with Davenport.

“I’m also going to leave you a five gallon water jug, but that’s about all I can do for you.  I know it’s shitty that we can’t take you back with us, and I feel like crap about it.”

“Yeah girl,” Cooper said to Shondra.  “They aren’t fucking around at all about no civilians at that base.  I hear they shot down your mayor as his helicopter tried to fly into the fort.  Killed his ass, along with everyone else onboard.”

“They did what?  Oh my God.”

“It’s true,” Davenport said.  “I heard it over the radio…just a few hours ago.  They were warning him to stay away, but he still came in, so they brought him down.”

“That’s insane, just insane,” Vincent gasped.  He shook his head in disgust and looked off in the distance.

“Well, we don’t have time to sit around and have a current affairs discussion.  You guys need to get together whatever it is that you need, and you need to hurry.  Morrow won’t want to stay here for much longer.  Cooper, make sure we got everything we need.”

“Sure thing Sarge,” Cooper said.  He looked over at Shondra and Vincent and said, “Best of luck to y’all.”  With a wink at Shondra, he turned and darted off towards the fuel pumps and the other tracks.

“Alright Shondra, bring the car over to the pumps and I’ll go into the garage and see if they have any gas canisters in there.  I’ll also look around for anything else that we might need.”

“Okay,” Shondra said.  As she was about to make her way to the patrol car, she turned to Vincent, and with a dazed, almost detached demeanor she said, “Oh, please…can you at least put something over Nick so he’s just not left in there like that?  He deserves better.”

Day 23

Highway 20, 3 miles east of Rome, Georgia

Benjie and Michelle sat under a large tree as they tried to seek shelter from the drenching deluge.  As Benjie peered out into the darkness of the night, he clutched his shotgun and strained to hear over the rain.  They were soaked and they were hungry.  Even though it was a summer night, they were shivering with cold.  He leaned against Michelle and tried to share warmth with her.  He desperately wanted to avoid either one of them coming down with any illness and he was worried for the both of them.

***

After fleeing from the gun battle just outside of Rome, Benjie and Michelle had worked their way north through the woods and towards the Etowah River.  Because of what they had experienced at the roadblock, they had agreed not to trust anyone, no matter how innocent or helpless they appeared, and both were determined to make it back to Cartersville one way or another.  They moved slowly and cautiously, scurrying from one tree to another, and Benjie had done his best to navigate the wilderness, but they were walking around blind and their cell phones had long since died, leaving them without any GPS to work with.

After their first night in the woods, which was also rainy and miserable, Benjie had decided to try to make their way back to the highway.  He told Michelle that they were probably far enough away from Rome and that they wouldn’t have to worry too much about being taken captive by the crazed state troopers or National Guardsmen.  As they reached the highway by the end of their second day, darkness was setting in, so they decided to seek shelter in the trees just off of the highway.  As they picked a large pine to hide under, the rain came down again, but harder this time, and they huddled next to each on the wet grass and leaves.

***

“I can’t believe it’s been raining this much,” Michelle complained.  “When you need it to rain, it’s always dry, but when you need a sunny day or a dry night, it comes a raining.”

“Hopefully it won’t last long,” Benjie said.  “Hey, wait a minute…do you hear that?”

“What?”

“Listen.”  Benjie craned his neck to better hear the noise coming from the road.  “Sounds like a car…no, more like a truck.  Look…over there.”  He pointed towards the highway.  “Looks like a car or something is pulled over on the side of the road.  You can see its lights.”

Michelle struggled to see through the dark as she wiped away the water from her drenched forehead.  “Yeah, I think I see the lights.  Think we should go and see who it is?”

Benjie thought for a moment.  He remembered their conversation about not trusting anyone, but he knew that their situation wasn’t the greatest and they were both worn out, hungry, cold and wet.  “Yeah, let’s go and check it out.  Hopefully whoever it is, they’ll be friendly.  Just stay behind me.”  He reached out and took Michelle by the hand as they both crawled out from under the tree.  Sloshing through the wet grass and mud, Benjie stopped and told Michelle to hunker down.  He could clearly hear the engine of the vehicle.  It was a diesel.

He lowered his shotgun and held it behind his back as he stepped out from the trees.  He saw an older red Dodge truck with oversize tires; the engine rumbling away and its interior dome light on.  It was parked on the shoulder with the passenger side tires on the grass.  As he walked closer to the vehicle, he saw that no one was inside of it.  He made his way to the back of the truck and was about to peek around to the driver’s side when he heard the cocking of a gun.

“Just hold it right there, mister,” came a voice from the darkness.  “Don’t make any sudden moves, and don’t do anything stupid.”

Benjie froze.  He could tell that the voice was coming from off to his left.  He turned and got a blast from a flashlight right in his eyes.

“Whatever you got behind your back, just put it down on the ground in front of you…nice and slow.”

Benjie gave a quick thought about making a run for the trees but decided against it.  He didn’t want to draw any attention to Michelle, so he complied and placed the gun on the grass in front of him.  He heard the sound of footsteps walking up to him, but the bright beam of the flashlight prevented him from be able to see anything.

“You got anything else on you?” the voice asked.

“Nope, nothing.”  Benjie knew that he still had his pistol tucked into his back, but he wasn’t going to give away the last thing he had to defend himself with.  As he tried to shift his eyes to see who his adversary was, the bark of a dog startled him.  He looked over to his left and saw a large white German Shepherd.  Its nose was pointing at the trees where Michelle was hiding.

“Who else do you have with you?” the voice asked.

“Nobody.”

“Bullshit.  My dog senses someone out there.  You better tell them to get out here or else my dog is gonna go in there and drag ‘em out.  And that won’t be pretty.”

“Look, mister, we don’t want no trouble,” Benjie pleaded.

“Neither do I, but you’re the one who was snooping around my truck.”

“I didn’t see anyone in it.  It was strange that it was running by itself.”

“You ever heard of someone pulling over to take a piss?  Now, have whoever is in there step out into the light.  I just want to see who you have with you.  I ain’t looking to hurt anyone.”

Benjie could hear the determination in the man’s voice and he decided that it wouldn’t be wise to test him.  He looked out to the trees and reluctantly called, “Michelle, come out here.”

“Just one person?”

“Yeah, just one person.  Come on, Michelle, come on out.”

“Michelle, come out,” the voice called.  “I promise, I’m not going to hurt you or your friend.”

“Will your dog bite me?” Michelle called back.  “He seems mighty mean.”

“No, he won’t.  I promise.  Come here, boy.”  The dog responded to the voice and darted behind the flashlight.

“Okay, I’m coming out.  Just please don’t let that dog bite me.”  Michelle slowly stepped out from the trees and walked up next to Benjie.  The flashlight beam dipped away from the couple and a middle-aged man slowly emerged from the darkness.  He was wearing a worn and faded maroon Texas A&M ball cap, a dark rain coat, blue jeans and brown tactical boots.  As he came forward, Benjie could see a lever-action rifle in the crook of his arm.  His dog followed closely behind; its ears pointing forward and its tail locked in place.

“Don’t worry, Rhino won’t hurt you.  Unless you go off and do something silly.”  The man crouched slightly and bent down, picking up Benjie’s shotgun.  “I’m just gonna put this in the bed here real quick.”  He stepped back towards the truck, easing the weapon down onto the deck of the truck bed.  “So, what are y’all doing out here?”

Benjie continued to study the man.  He noted his full face and dark features.  There was something familiar about him.  Something about his voice.  “We were headed to Rome—”

“Ah, not a good idea,” the man interrupted.  “Things there are kind of…well, let’s just say it’s not a good place to be right now.”

“I know,” Benjie said as Michelle stood in silence, fixated on the dog.  “They had some kind of road block set up just outside of town.  They had the state patrol, the cops…even the damn National Guard out there.  They were stopping everyone and trying to take their cars and their property from them.  Some people made a fuss about it, but they just shot them and took their stuff anyway.”

“Yep, all in the name of
‘quarantine’
or trying to keep the city safe from infection.  By the way, what’s yall’s names?”

Benjie raised his hand to shield his eyes from the rain.  “I’m Benjie and this is Michelle.”

“I’m James.”  James pointed down at his dog.  “And this is Rhino.  So I take it you got away from the road block?”

“Barely.  A bunch of guys showed up and this big gun battle started.  People were getting shot and killed…and then they started coming back to life.  It was awful.  Michelle and I hightailed it out of there.  We made off for the woods and we’ve been out here for the past two days.  We were gonna try to maybe follow the highway back home, but we didn’t know if we wanted to risk being seen by anyone because of what happened at the road block.”  Benjie looked at the man’s face, trying to place him.  He was sure that he knew him from somewhere, but he couldn’t quite make the connection.  “Say, don’t I know you from somewhere?  You seem awful familiar.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.  But no, I don’t think I know you.  Anyway, you guys are lucky you got away from the place.  The commander of that guard unit stationed there is the cousin to the commander of the state patrol barracks for that area.  They decided to close off Rome to any outsiders.  Now, all those inbred bastards are running the show.  Of course, the wife of the guard commander is the sister to the Chief of Police, so they got all the support they need to run that whole town.”

“What about the mayor?” Michelle asked.

“Executed,” James replied bluntly.

“What?” Benjie exclaimed.

“Yeah, executed, along with a bunch of other folks who didn’t want Rome to be locked down.  That guard commander said he had the authority to do all of that because of martial law.  I’m telling you, they got that place locked down tight.  Almost every road is either barricaded or manned by a road block.”

“What do you mean
‘executed?’
” Benjie asked as he tried to process what James was telling him.

“Executed as in being lined up and shot
‘executed.’
”

“Shit, I can’t believe that.”  He shook his head in disbelief and disgust.  “If ya don’t mind me asking, how did you come to know of all of this?”

“I live in Floyd, just the other side of Rome.  When everything started to break out, I decided to try to make my way down to Lake Allatoona.  My cousins have a big cabin cruiser at a marina down there.  They gave me a key to it sometime back and said I could use it anytime I wanted to.  Figured now would be a good time to use it…you know, being on the water and away from everyone and everything.  So I loaded up my supplies and I headed out.”

“Man, that must be a big boat that your kin have,” Michelle said.

“It’s pretty damn big.  My cousins own some property and oil wells in Texas and they got lots of money, so they keep a boat here on Allatoona for when they come back to Georgia.  Right now they’re over there just outside of Houston.  Anyway, I was getting ready to make my way into Rome and the cops had one of those damn road block set up on the northern edge of the city.  Sons of bitches tried to take my truck, but I wasn’t having any of it.  I shot one of them and they put two holes in the side of my truck up near the cab.  I was able to turn around and get away.  It was strange though, because they didn’t try to chase me or anything like that.”

“What did ya do after that?” Michelle asked.

“Well, I bypassed the whole damn city.  After driving around a little bit, I ran into some folks who had made it out of there and they’re the ones who told me about everything that was happening in Rome.”

“Damn, you are lucky,” Benjie said.  “So why are you still out here?  Why didn’t you make it to the lake?”

“You know, let’s get out of this rain.  Hop on into the truck and we’ll pull off so no one can see us.”

Benjie looked over at Michelle.  James seemed alright, but Benjie didn’t know if he should be so trusting of him.  For all they knew, James was a scout for the people in Rome.  Michelle stepped over and longingly looked at the truck.  She had a pathetic expression on her face and her drenched hair was matted down over her eyes.

James could sense Benjie’s apprehension and said, “Don’t worry, everything is alright.  Come on, let’s get dry.”  He walked over to the passenger side and opened both doors.

After hesitating for a moment, Benjie looked over at Michelle and said, “Okay, I guess it’s safe enough.  Go ahead and climb on in before you catch your death.”  With the enthusiasm of a child, Michelle immediately jumped into the back seat of the truck cab and closed the door.  Benjie didn’t find himself as trusting as Michelle, so he cautiously slid into the front passenger seat as he eyed James, who was now making his way around to the driver’s side.

The stranger opened the rear door on his side and said, “Get in there, Rhino.”  The dog leapt into the back seat and assumed a guarded stance as it eyed Michelle.  “Don’t worry about him,” he said as he jumped into the driver’s seat.  He turned and looked at Michelle.  “If you reach under the seat there, you’ll find a couple of towels.  Use them to dry off.”

“Thank you,” she replied meekly.  The dog was making her nervous and she didn’t want to make any sudden moves.  She retrieved the towels and handed one to Benjie.  “James, do you want one?”

“Naw, I’m alright.”  James dropped the truck into drive and edged it more into the grass.  “Okay, I’m going to pull a little more off of the road and kill the engine.  I don’t want anyone to see us.  It might give away my mission.”

“Mission?” Benjie asked in surprise.  “What do you mean?”

James reached into his pocket and pulled out a complicated looking hand-held radio.  He raised it to his mouth and pushed the “talk” button.  “Alright, I’m in position and nothing so far.  I’ve picked up a couple of refugees and they seem to be okay…aside from being soaked.”