Fade to Grey (Book 2): Darkness Ascending (29 page)

The paramedic didn’t miss a beat. “Like I said, other
people disagree with our methods. However, the message we’re trying to send is
very clear: if you want the safety, community and humanity that we offer at the
shelter, you’ll have to follow certain rules. And I think it’s safe to say that
if you were inside the shelter, you’d certainly want us to enforce these same
conditions on anybody new.” He stepped forward and met several faces directly
throughout the crowd. “The entrance to our shelter is located at the rear of a
long slope at the old gravel pit. There are cement walls for the last 200 yards
or so along the roadway. I’m not sure exactly what they were for—something in
the design for blast reduction, maybe. Outside of the shelter, spaced fairly
equally along one of those walls are a series of forty-four concrete bins. Each
of them are about five feet wide, nine feet long, and six feet tall. They have
no roof, and the front side of each has an opening for a door—although no doors
are installed. We’re not exactly sure what they are, or were supposed to be
used for, but they fit our purposes rather well. Anybody who wants to enter our
shelter spends forty-eight hours in one of the holding tanks. You will be
dressed warmly in whatever clothing we have available, and a tarp will be
secured over the top to keep out the rain.” He stopped again and cleared his
throat before continuing, “You will be handcuffed, and a rope will be tied
around your neck. The other end of that rope is secured to a large iron ring on
the outside of the tank. You will not be fed during your quarantine. We do have
a volunteer that will bring you water twice a day. Sanitary facilities, due to
necessity, are a bucket. The rope gives you enough leeway to walk around the
inside of your quarantine tank, but no further. After your quarantine, if you
still appear healthy and uninfected, we take off the rope and move you inside.
You’re still kept handcuffed, though. The next twelve hours is observation and
testing by our medical personnel. If you pass, you’re in. We’ve never had
anybody not pass the twelve hour observation period. Our experience seems to
point to a much quicker contamination time frame. During the forty-eight hours,
anybody that changes, or ‘creeps out’ as we’ve called it, is removed from the
tank. We use an old cherry picker power ladder to lift the iron ring. So yes,
Wayne, we hang them, and by doing so we save ammunition and don’t get
contaminated fluid sprayed everywhere.” He turned and gazed at Diane, smiled,
and then shifted around the room. “It may interest some of you to hear this—the
creeps are not, as a lot of people think, indestructible. The ones that failed
quarantine and we’ve had to hang . . . well they died just as fast as
uninfected people.”

“How do you know that, Ray?” The tone in the fire and
rescue lieutenant’s voice was an unmistakable mixture of sarcasm and anger.

“That’s a fair question, Wayne, although I don’t think
there’s any reason for your attitude.” He took several steps to the right,
passing in front of Eric and Michelle and putting him closer to Callie. Turning
back to face the crowd, the paramedic answered, “Regardless of what your own
personal politics, religion, or beliefs are, you have to realize that for the
safety of all residents at the shelter, we’ve had to establish, temporarily at
least, a very black and white policy. I’m not going to go in to every little
detail of what it covers, but basically, if you violate any of the shelter
requirements, you go before the council. If they determine that you are indeed
guilty of a major violation, they hang you.”

A loud murmur and scoffs of disbelief swept the crowd
as he continued, “Hear me out for a moment before you pass judgment on us. We
only have three laws in the shelter that are considered capital offenses, and
all are equally important for our long-term well being. If we didn’t have a way
of enforcing those laws, our shelter would rapidly disband into chaos. For
example, if you’re found guilty of stealing food or water, sleeping while on
guard duty, or sewing dissension among the residents, you are eligible for
capital punishment.”

“Carol Ann didn’t steal food, and you know it,”
Lieutenant King said disgustedly.

“Wayne, I’m not having this conversation with you
again. She stole food, she admitted it, and we followed the rules of the
shelter. If you have a problem with that, take it up with a council when we
return.”

“I’ll be out at the truck. Call me when you’re done.”

“Hold up there a minute,” Eric interrupted as he
pulled his radio, “
Sam, can you come in from guard duty and escort one of
the firemen back to the truck?
” Turning to face Ray, Eric said, “It’s not
safe to be outside by yourself.”

The look in the paramedic’s eyes gave away nothing,
and after a moment he nodded quietly.

Sam’s voice came over the radio. “
I’m coming in the
front
.” A few seconds later he popped through the divider curtain.

Eric turned to the lieutenant. “Do you want to call
your guys and let them know you’re on the way?”

Lieutenant King picked up his radio and made the
announcement. As he turned to follow Sam, Eric stepped toward the bearded EMT.
“Hey, hold up a minute. Lieutenant, I imagine as a fireman you know a little
bit about winches, right?”

“We use them frequently, so I suppose I know a fair
bit.”

Turning to face Ray, Eric dipped his head quickly
towards Sam. “Mr. Ingram, do you mind if your lieutenant takes a quick look at
the winch on the front of the truck out there? During one of our firefights
tonight, we lost a vehicle in the lake, and I’m hoping that winch will be able
to recover it, but I don’t know what it’s rated for, and I don’t want to burn
it out trying.”

The bushy-faced paramedic shrugged his shoulders and
frowned. “Whatever.”

Eric nodded and then called out on his radio,
“Attention
all shooting teams, we have two people leaving the side entrance. Repeat, we
have two friendlies heading outside. Crow’s nest, do we have an all clear?”

Thompson’s deep voice came back,
“Crow’s nest is
reporting all clear. Copy on two friendly units leaving the store.”

Sam turned and walked away, followed close behind by
Lieutenant King.

“Sorry,” Eric said, “you were saying?”

Dark brown eyes stared at Eric for a few seconds
longer than necessary before turning back to the crowd. “That’s about it. Are there
any other questions that I can answer?”

Mr. Lee half raised his hand. “So, if I understand you
correctly, the railroad construction project area is not safe. But you said you
had a plan to get us through there, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Do you mind sharing?”

“Not at all, I’d be happy to. Whenever things began to
go bad, we think that somebody at the rail project intentionally moved a small
train in an attempt to block off several roadways. We don’t know why, and by
‘small’ I don’t mean tiny like a toy. What I mean is that it’s not 500 rail cars
long. There’s only about seventy boxcars sandwiched between two diesel electric
engines, but it’s enough to completely block the two roads through that area. The
problem is that we haven’t been able to move it. The area is fairly swarming
with creeps. The route that the RV discovered, believe it or not, actually goes
through a repair warehouse, and by doing so, skates you just around the far end
of the train.”

“So we’re going to follow you in a convoy and shoot
through this warehouse on the way to the shelter?”

“No. The creeps, as far as we’ve been able to tell,
seem to stay close to the central core of the construction project. That
warehouse route is located just north of the central core.” He sighed and shook
his head. “We can’t afford to lose the only route that we know of heading west.
So instead of risking a lot of vehicles traveling through the warehouse, we’re
going to use plan B. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that there’s a section of
tracks that extend about a quarter mile southwest from the construction area.
It’s the very beginnings of a line that would have eventually ended up in the
oil fields. But that track cuts off through a juncture that is behind the
stopped train. More importantly, we have a working diesel locomotive attached
to a single boxcar sitting on a section of tracks just outside of our shelter.
We’re blocked in, so to speak, by stopped trains and unfinished tracks, but we
can maneuver just enough to get that boxcar to the end of the tracks past the
construction project. So, if you have a vehicle with enough fuel, you can
follow us to a staging point a mile or two outside of Richland. Once there, we’ll
radio the shelter and wait for the train. When it’s close enough, you’ll drive
the rest of the way, park your vehicles at the end of the track and hop on the
boxcar. Once the metal door is shut on that car, the creeps can’t get in. After
that, it’s pretty simple. We’re just going to put the train in reverse and head
back to the shelter. Any ‘hitchhikers’ still attached to the train will be
dealt with by our security team before you disembark and head to quarantine.”

“What if we don’t have a vehicle to drive? Can you
give us a ride?”

“No. The council has authorized me to extend our offer
of shelter, but we can’t take the chance that one of you may be contaminated,
so you’re not allowed inside our vehicles. I’m sure that somebody would be able
to give you a ride. If not, it’ll be cold, but you can ride on the outside of
the fire truck.”

“Well, what about you? You’re standing right here in a
group of almost fifty people. If one of us is sick, couldn’t you spread it to
the rest of the shelter?” the question was voiced by a mousy-haired lady
wearing a faded orange hunting vest.

“Ma’am, I’m glad you asked that. You see,” he stepped
back towards the center of the room and held both palms up, “my job at the
shelter requires me to put myself in potentially risky situations. The council,
of which I am a member, also requires me to follow the same quarantine protocol
that you will. When we get back, they’ll put a rope around my neck as well.
What I’m trying to say, is that you’re worth it to me, to the council, and to
everybody at shelter Yellow.”

Several heads nodded throughout the crowd as they
listened to his words.

He turned to look at Eric and Michelle. “We hope that
everybody will come and join us. Many of you,” he swiveled towards the crowd
again, “have useful skills that will greatly benefit our survival.”

Several other questions came from the audience, most
of them rehashing what the paramedic had already said. As he was speaking,
Michelle whispered to Eric, “That guy gives me the creeps. And I’m not talking
about ghouls, I mean in the old fashioned ‘he’s a slick talking pervert’ kind
of way.”

“Yeah, I don’t trust him. On the other hand, it sounds
like they have their ducks in a row at the shelter.”

“There is no way on God’s green Earth that I would put
myself in a position where that man has some type of authority or power over
me,” Michelle hissed in Eric’s ear.

Eric studied the fire sparkling in Michelle’s green
eyes. He had seen that exact flare recently. It was back at Uncle Andy’s cabin
when she was emptying the magazine of the handgun into one of her captors.

“I’m not saying that we should go to the shelter—just
that it sounds like they have some semblance of organization there.”

“So did Hitler.”

He returned a soft smile, and held it there until her
expression eased a bit, and then turned again toward the paramedic.

“Any more questions?”

Diane stood again. Instead of facing the paramedic,
she did a slow 360 around the room. “I think that Ray is the answer to our
prayers. A fully functional shelter facility with room for everyone, and what
seems to be a well thought out plan for survival.” Turning back towards the
table, she asked, “When can we leave?”

“At first light.”

“Yeah . . . just hold up there, partner.” It was the
wide bodied man with the braided beard who had stood up for Eric earlier that
night.

“Yes, sir. Do you have a question?”

“More of a statement. Maybe you’re not aware of why
we’re still here in the first place. A lot of these folks are missing some of
their family back at the campground. We’re hoping that some of them are still
alive. A lot of us are also hoping that an attempt is going to be made to
rescue them.” He remained standing as the paramedic turned towards Eric with a
questioning look on his face.