Ex-Patriots (8 page)

The ex clacked its teeth and took another
swipe at Danny. He gave it a shove to keep it off balance. “Final
decisions? Famous or not?”

St. George tilted his head and pointed.
“What’s on its arm?”

“Ink,” said Hector. “Roses. She had some nice
work done.”

Ilya snapped his fingers. “She’s a porn
star.”

Lee gave the ex another look. “You think
so?”

“Blonde hair, fake tits, one very tattooed
arm, kind of familiar.”

Paul pointed his rifle down the road. “Isn’t
there a big porn headquarters right down the street?”

“I don’t think all the porn stars lived
there.”

“Hey, I’m just saying it’s there.”

Billie looked back to St. George and spoke in
a low voice. “Was it a Predator?”

He blinked and dropped his own volume. “Yeah.
Good guess.”

“Prop engine, sort of a plane, doesn’t sound
like there was a pilot.” She shrugged. “I was only in Afghanistan
for eighteen months, but I saw a couple of them.”

Lady Bee laughed. “Oh my God, I think he’s
right. That was Brooke-something.”

“Aren’t there ten or twenty Brookes?”

“No she’s a big one,” said Ilya. “Damn, what
was her last name?”

“I think that’s enough to say she counts as a
celebrity. Jarvis?”

The bearded man sighed and nodded. “Yeah,
sure. I ain’t never catching up, anyway.”

Billie watched Danny try to trip the ex, but
spoke in the same low tones. “Why are you so cautious if it’s one
of ours?”

“We don’t know it’s one of ours,” said St.
George. “For all we know it’s a bunch of redneck survivalists who
logged a lot of time playing flight simulator games. Until we know
for sure, I think it’s better to be cautious.”

“Fair enough.”

Danny kicked one of the ex’s legs out from
under it and the dead thing tumbled to the ground. Ilya tossed him
a pike from the back of
Road Warrior
and he caught it
one-handed. He took a good grip on the weapon, drove the spiked tip
down through the ex’s mouth, and watched a puddle form behind its
head.

NOW

“It’s a military base,” said Barry. He’d been home
from his recon mission since sundown, changed back from the energy
form, and eaten two peanut-butter sandwiches on the way from Four
to Roddenberry. He was working on the third. It had apple slices in
it that crunched whenever he took a bite.

They were in Stealth’s conference room. The
cloaked woman had spread another map across the table, this one
showing most of the American southwest. The thought flitted through
St. George’s mind that he had no idea where she got all her maps
from. Maybe she’d looted a travel store at some point before they
founded the Mount.

Barry placed his hands on the edge of the
table and heaved himself up out of his wheelchair. “Army, if I
remember my camo patterns and stuff,” he continued, “but I’m pretty
sure I saw Air Force there, too, and maybe a couple of
Marines.”

“All working together on one base?” said St.
George. “Isn’t that a little odd?”

“Unusual, but not unheard of,” said Stealth.
Her black-gloved finger traced out an area in southwest Arizona.
“The most likely candidate is the Yuma Proving Ground.”

“Didn’t seem that big,” said Barry. “This was
just two or three little places and a small airstrip, none of them
much bigger than the Mount.” He took another bite of his
sandwich.

“There are a lot of sub-bases in the proving
ground,” said Danielle. She reached up and brushed a stringy lock
of strawberry-blonde hair away from her freckled face, then swiped
at it again when it dropped back down. The only way she could
attend was to take off the Cerberus armor, and she was fidgeting.
It had taken St. George an hour to convince her to take it off. “I
did a quick trip out there once to test the mount for the arm
cannons. As a whole it might be overrun, but it wouldn’t surprise
me if there was still a functioning base or two there
somewhere.”

Barry studied the map while he chewed. “I
think it was around here,” he said, twiddling his fingers at part
of the map. “There was a pretty decent-sized area with a
triple-fence where most of the activity was. A couple hundred exes
outside. Forty or fifty buildings, a helipad, and a power
substation pulling from somewhere off-base. And there was an
airstrip twenty or so miles from there where the Predator was
docked or parked or whatever you say. It looked pretty clean and
ex-free, too.”

“How many people?”

He shrugged. “Not sure. Looked like a lot
less than us. I mean, the original us. Skeleton crew guarding the
walls. A lot of buildings, but it didn’t look overcrowded. You know
how we’ve got tents on rooftops and all that? There’s none of
that.”

St. George looked at the distance between the
proving grounds and the city of Yuma. “Any civilians?”

Barry shook his head. “If there were, I
didn’t see them.”

Stealth shook her head. “It is unlikely a
military base would have large numbers of civilian refugees.”

Danielle frowned. “It’s not like the movies,
you know,” she said. “In a real crisis protecting civilians would
be a top priority.”

“It is unfortunate, then, that the ex-virus
was not recognized as a real crisis sooner,” said the hooded
woman.

St. George let out a slow breath and a wisp
of dark smoke curled from his nostrils. “So this is real,” he said.
“The military’s still up and running and they’re looking for
us.”

“There is the possibility the base and its
resources are being used by other survivors,” said Stealth, “but
the logical assumption is this is a functioning base staffed by the
U.S. Army.”

They all stared at the map for a few
moments.

“Look, I hate to be the serious one here,”
said Barry, “but are we sure this is a good thing?”

They looked at him. Danielle frowned again.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“These guys have been on their own at least
as long as we have,” he said. “We don’t know what kind of shape
they’re in, physically or mentally.”

St. George’s lips twisted into a thin smile.
“Still worried about a crazy military?”

“A little, yeah.” He shrugged again. “I just
think we should be a bit cautious before we go running up to hug a
bunch of heavily-armed guys who’ve been standing out in the sun for
two years.”

“There’s the other side of that coin,” said
Danielle. “We don’t know they’re alone. For all we know there are
military installations and population centers all over the country
that are connected.”

“We have seen no evidence of such a thing,”
said Stealth.

“And I’ve never heard it,” said Barry, waving
his half-sandwich in the air. “Even if they were all on the east
coast, I’d see something in the air now and then.”

“I’m just saying it could be,” insisted the
redhead. “Let’s not convince ourselves this is a bad thing before
we have more evidence.”

“Let’s not forget something else,” said St.
George. “They know we’re out here now. We sent them a message
through their Predator.”

Barry nodded. “That we did.”

“It seems safe to say they didn’t know what
they’d find when they sent the drones,” St. George said. “Now they
know we’re out here. I think we should wait and see what they do.
Let them make the next move.”

Stealth tilted her head at him. “And if they
do not make a move?”

“Then we can send Barry to check them out
again. But for now, let’s play it cool.”

Barry grinned. “Don’t want to call too soon
after our first date?”

“Don’t want them thinking we’re a threat,”
said St. George. “They’re probably as freaked out by us as we are
by them. And like you said, they’ve got a lot more guns. Let’s wait
a couple days and see if the Predator comes back.”

Danielle nodded. “When they do, we can use my
call sign and codes. Even if they can’t verify it, they should be
able to recognize it as our military without too much trouble.”

Stealth gave a slow nod. “A sound plan for
the present.”

“There’s one other thing, though,” said St.
George. “What do we tell everyone?”

“What do you mean?” asked Danielle.

“Everyone here at the Mount. Inside the Big
Wall. Do we keep quiet? Do we tell them the military’s coming to
save the day?”

“I am sure that decision has been made for
you, George,” said Stealth.

He looked at her. “How so?”

“Besides the four of us, fourteen scavengers
know of the Predator drone. I find it unlikely all of them have
remained silent on this matter. I would estimate at least two
hundred people have been told the news during the course of this
meeting.”

St. George sighed.

“Oh, joy,” said Barry. “That won’t cause any
headaches.”

“I would suggest we advise citizens against
any premature assumptions as to the nature of this incident.
Perhaps we can protect them from potential disillusionment and the
corresponding blow to morale.”

“Assuming, of course,” said Danielle,
“there’s going to be a reason to be disillusioned.”

The lights flickered. “That’s my cue,” said
Barry. He swallowed the last crust of his sandwich. “Batteries are
running low. I need to get back to the chair.”

“They’re not lasting any time at all now,”
muttered the redhead.

“We’re supplying six times as many people,”
said St. George. “We need to figure out a better way to do
this.”

“You’re telling me,” said Barry. He swung
himself off the table and into his wheelchair. “You know it’s been
six weeks since I slept in a bed?”

“Come on,” said the hero, scooping up his
patchwork leather jacket. “Let’s get you over to Four.”

“Cerberus,” said Stealth, “if you could
escort Zzzap back to the electric chair, I would like to speak with
St. George for a few more minutes. Alone.”

“Somebody’s in trou-ble,” sang Barry with a
grin.

The redhead took in a quick breath. “Will you
be long? I was hoping to get the armor back on tonight.”

“Take the rest of the night off,” St. George
told her. “We’ll get you suited back up in the morning.”

“Oh, sure,” said Barry. “She gets to sleep in
a bed.”

“Someone needs to check the gates, though,”
said Danielle. “If you two are going to be here for a while—”

“I will check the gates once our meeting is
done,” said Stealth. “Will you see Zzzap back to Four, please?”

Her elbows pulled in closer to her body.
“Sure,” she said. “No problem.” She wheeled Barry around and out
the conference room doors.

St. George dropped his jacket back on the
table and looked at the cloaked woman. “What’s up?”

“How did the new chainmail armor
perform?”

“Nobody likes it, but Danny Foe let an ex get
the drop on him and it stopped the bite. Not much past that.
Everyone was on their game today.”

“Is there anything else to report from your
mission?”

He leaned back against the table. “Pretty
much just what we expected to find in the valley,” he said. “Exes
seem more numerous but spread out more. Most everything’s looted
along Cahuenga, but it’s hard to tell when so it doesn’t help us
figure out if there are other survivors out there.”

“Did you listen?”

“What?”

“You launched a flare which would have been
visible throughout most of the southern San Fernando Valley. If
survivors saw it, there is a reasonable chance they would have made
an effort to attract your attention.”

He sagged a little. “I didn’t even think of
that. I was so excited about the plane.”

“The fault is mine,” she said. “I became
focused on the flare as a signal for our own purposes. I did not
consider the possibility it would serve as an indirect beacon to
others until after you had left.”

“It’s not your responsibility to think of all
this stuff.”

“Someone must be responsible,” she said, “and
I am the best suited to the task.”

“Well,” he said, “maybe it won’t be for much
longer. If it really is the Army we’re all off the hook. Someone
else will be in charge.”

She tilted her head at him. “I did not
realize you were eager to be relieved of your
responsibilities.”

“Aren’t you? I mean, let’s face it. There’s
got to be people better qualified than us to rebuild
civilization.”

“Perhaps,” she said. “Perhaps not. To my
eyes, you are eminently qualified.”

They looked at each other for a few moments,
then a few more, and then she turned and moved to the bank of
monitors. St. George picked up his jacket. The doors were closed
behind him when he realized he’d missed another opportune
moment.

* * *

“So,” said Barry as the wheelchair rolled
along the garden, “you want to hang out for a bit? It’s boring as
hell just sitting in the chair all the time. I’ve got tons of
movies.”

He felt Danielle shake her head behind him.
“I’ve got to get back,” she said. “A couple things to do.”

“Like what?”

“What?”

“What do you have to do?”

“Just... stuff. You know. I spend so much
time in the armor a lot of stuff gets neglected.”

“So you’re doing laundry? Please tell me
you’re doing laundry, because it’s way overdue.” He gestured to the
open street as they turned onto 3rd. “Hey, use the center of the
lane. It’s smoother. Easier on the chair and my butt.”

“Whatever.”

She leaned and the wheelchair worked its way
out into the center of the road. “Yeah,” he said. “Much
better.”

Danielle gave a grunt. To their south was the
Melrose gate. They could hear the distant chattering of teeth in
hundreds of mouths.

“So no movie, eh?”

“No, sorry.”

“I’ve got a couple games, too. Finally
figured out how to run an optical mouse remote, so I can use a
laptop.”