Season of Rot (16 page)

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Geoff asked.

“What?” Jeremy asked, as if snapping out of a
dream.

“That the gardens survived,” Geoff explained.
“Like I said, when the wave first hit, people were flooding up here
in droves based on rumors and desperate hopes. Of course, all they
really cared about was finding the base and getting inside. I don’t
think many of them headed out into the fields. Most of them poured
straight into the garage.” Geoff pointed at the larger building. “I
guess they thought it had to be the base since it’s the only real
building up here. It’s in pretty bad shape now. Most of the
vehicles were stolen or damaged by the mob when we stopped letting
people into the real base below.”

“How do you get inside?”

Geoff laughed and led him towards the more
battered of the two sheds. Its door was new and a sharp contrast to
the aged and beaten wood around it. “I had a hell of a time fixing
this back,” Geoff said as he opened the door, barely concealing his
pride. “Carpentry’s a lot harder than killing people, kid.”

The shed itself was completely empty except
for a large metal plate in the middle of its unfinished floor.
Geoff squatted and ran his fingertips across the hatch until his
fingers felt a crease, the edge of a small lid that popped open to
reveal a numerical keypad. He typed in an eight-digit code as
Jeremy watched. Somewhere below the floor, a motor came to life and
the plate rose up like a tilted manhole cover. Geoff motioned to
the hole. “After you.”

Jeremy slid down into a metal tunnel just
wide enough and tall enough for two people (no more than six feet
in height) to walk comfortably side by side. When they reached the
large vault-like doorway at the end, Geoff typed a code into
another keypad on the wall, and the door dilated from its center.
Beyond lay another series of corridors.

“Welcome to your new home, kid. You can call
me Geoff. I don’t think I caught your name.”

“It’s Jeremy, Jeremy Davis.”

Geoff grinned. “You live around here, Jeremy
Davis?”

“Not really... Well, I guess I kind of
did.”

Geoff shrugged. “Didn’t we all. Well, I guess
it’s time you met your new family.”

The soldier led Jeremy deeper into the
base.

12

Nathanial Richards punched a button on the
control panel in front of him and watched as the test ran again. On
the gigantic screen across the room, an image of a translucent wave
struck the earth once more.

Troy, sitting nearby, reclined and propped
his feet up on a dark, malfunctioned console. He had no idea what
Nathanial’s simulation meant, but from the way Dr. Sheena Leigh
frowned in her wheelchair, and judging by the grim look on
Nathanial’s face, Troy could tell it was nothing good.

The wave shattered as it struck the earth,
slowing from the speed of light to a dead crawl in space as its
fragments dispersed, each taking a different trajectory. Then the
screen went black.

“Run it again,” Sheena ordered, leaning
forward in her wheelchair.

Nathanial shook his head. “We’ve run it over
three dozen times today alone, Sheena. There’s just no way to know
where the pieces are headed. Maybe if we waited until the wave’s
aftereffects dissipated in the atmosphere a bit more, we could link
up to one of the satellites. Surely at least one of them had to
survive. We could—”

“I said run it again,” she interrupted.

Nathanial got up from his seat as Geoff and
Jeremy entered the room. He didn’t notice them, too focused on
Sheena. “You run it again! I’m through for today. Until we get more
data, we’re just wasting our time.”

“Ahem.” Troy cleared his throat and pointed
over Nathanial’s shoulder at the newcomers.

Nathanial turned to face them, his features
red with frustration. “Who the hell are you?”

“His name is Jeremy,” Geoff responded with an
edge to his tone. “He’s not infected by the radiation, so you might
as well just go ahead and welcome him aboard.”

“I hope to God he knows something about
astrophysics and computers because I fuckin’ quit!” Nathanial
stormed out of the room through an opposite entryway.

“That’s Nathanial,” Geoff informed Jeremy.
“You get used to him. That guy over there slacking off is Troy.
He’s military like me.”

Sheena rolled her chair up to them, and it
was clear from the way her arms strained that she was not yet
accustomed to her disability. “Do you, Jeremy? Do you know
computers?”

He stared at her. Even wheelchair-bound, this
tiny woman with flakes of gray in her black, pinned-up hair seemed
tougher than Geoff. She met his stare, her eyes unwavering through
her thick glasses. “Well?” she urged.

“Um... no, ma’am, I don’t.”

“What did you do before...?” she let her
sentence trail off.

“I was an artist.”

Sheena cackled. “You sure know how to pick
them, Geoff. What use is he going to be? And more importantly,
who’s going to give up their share of the food to feed him?”

Troy hopped to his feet and moved between the
doctor and Jeremy, sticking out his hand. “Glad to have you along
for the ride. I promise not all of us are as crazy as we seem.”

Jeremy took Troy’s hand and shook it
firmly.

“Bring him to the lab later,” Sheena ordered.
“We need to make sure he’s clean.”

Troy winked at Jeremy. “Gotta go. Duty
calls.” Then he grabbed the handles on the back of the doctor’s
chair and rolled her out of the room.

“Who was that?” Jeremy asked as the pair
disappeared down a corridor.

“That’s our doctor and science whiz, Sheena.
She was in charge here before things went to shit. She still thinks
she is, most of the time.”

A pale man, dressed in black and only
slightly older than Jeremy, wandered into the control room. He wore
thin, sleek glasses and carried himself with a flare of style. He
stopped in his tracks when he noticed the two of them.

“Oh God,” Geoff muttered, “not Ian.”

“Good afternoon, Geoff,” the man said with a
soft British accent and a smile. “And who might this be
accompanying you today?” He didn’t wait long enough for a response,
jumping back in as if hoping to interrupt any reply. “You don’t
actually have to answer that. I couldn’t help but overhear your
encounter with our resident witch doctor. She’s rather
narrow-minded these days, obsessed with death you might say.”

“Death?” Jeremy asked.

Ian nodded, waving his hand effeminately as
if dismissing Jeremy’s concern. “You’ve heard about the wave, I’m
sure. It broke apart when it hit the earth, you see, and our good
doctor is worried that a piece of it will hit the sun. If it did,
it could disrupt the fusion reactions inside the star like it did
the energy sources here; it would start a chain reaction and act as
a booster as well, causing even our tiny sun to become a supernova.
The sun would simply explode. It would be the end of our solar
system. Of course, given our limited resources at the moment, it’s
impossible to know where the fragments of the wave are headed.”

Jeremy blinked, stunned to silence. Ian laid
a hand on his shoulder. “Carpe diem, young man. Don’t worry about
the future, only be concerned with the time you have now.”

“What brings you out of your private coffin,
Ian?” Geoff asked.

“Coffee, my good man, Coffee. I was just on
my way to the mess to brew a pot while we still have some left.
Would you two care to join me?”

“I think we’ll pass,” Geoff said without
giving Jeremy a chance to respond.

“Have it your way then.” Cheerfully, Ian
continued along on his quest.

“Come on, kid.” Geoff literally pulled Jeremy
out of the control room. “Let me show you to your bunk.”

They rode a nearby lift down to the military
living quarters, a row of twenty-four rooms lining a long corridor.
According to Geoff, only three of the base’s survivors lived down
here: himself, Troy and the repair tech Wade. Nathanial, Dr. Sheena
Leigh (when she could be pried away from her projects), and the
base’s communications officer, a woman named Toni, stayed on
another level in the civilian section, whereas Ian made his home in
makeshift quarters he’d set up inside the armory, despite all the
available space. Ian had been the CIA liaison and was, in Geoff’s
opinion, the only complete psychopath left in the complex. There
was also a woman named Lex, who was in a coma, Geoff explained. She
was kept in the medical labs so Sheena could keep a close eye on
her; they weren’t sure whether she would wake up normal or be
affected by the wave.

For the time being, Geoff assured him, Jeremy
could stay with the “normal” people in the military quarters. The
room he gave Jeremy was rather Spartan. It contained only a bunk, a
small bathroom, and a single table supporting a computer tied into
the mainframe.

“It’s not much,” Geoff said, “But it’s a hell
of a lot safer than living out there with those things.”

A memory of Luke’s deranged, hungry face
flashed through Jeremy’s mind and he shuddered.

“The creatures don’t come around here much.
It’s rather secluded and very few people knew there was even
anything up here in the mountains. We do get a few wanders now and
again. Nothing we can’t deal with so far. Besides, even if the
things flocked up here in droves, there’s no way they could get
inside the complex proper.”

Jeremy nodded as he shrugged off his backpack
and placed it on the bunk.

Geoff headed for the door. “You look like you
could use some rest, so I’ll leave you to it. We’ll worry about
finding you a job tomorrow. Everybody here contributes somehow for
the good of us all—except maybe Ian. We have to work together if we
want to stay alive.”

As the door slid closed behind Geoff, Jeremy
slumped into the chair at the table and rested his head in his
hands. It was true: he felt safer here than he had in days, and it
was good to see people again, no matter who they were, but he still
wondered if coming here had been the right thing to do.

#

Jeremy awoke to someone pounding on his door.
He rubbed his eyes and climbed out of the bunk as a short,
hideously muscled man entered the room. The man’s bald head gleamed
from the light shining through the open doorway behind him.

“Time to go, new boy. We’ve got work to
do.”

“Who... who are you?”

“Name’s Wade. I keep things working around
here, but today I’m going into town and you’re going with me.”

“What? I just got here. Why me?”

“You’re not that dense are you?” Wade walked
over and rapped his knuckles on Jeremy’s skull. “Hello in
there.”

Jeremy backed away, and Wade glared at
him.

“None of us other than Geoff have really left
the complex since the wave. Hell, you lived through the shit out
there. I need a guide, Jerm, and you’re it.”

“But I don’t know anything you don’t,” Jeremy
argued.

“Daylight’s burning, new boy. Get your shit
together or get out.”

Jeremy had slept in his pants, so he pulled
on his Rush T-shirt and reached for his .38.

Wade saw him. “Leave that piece of crap.
Here.” He shoved a .45 automatic into Jeremy’s hand. “We’ll stop
and get you a real weapon on the way out too.”

Minutes later, Jeremy sat inside the garage
with Troy, Geoff, and Wade. He held an Uzi in his trembling hands
and watched as Wade worked underneath the hood of a military issue
jeep that had seen better days.

Troy held an M-16 and took continuous drags
off a cigarette. “I still don’t understand why you have to do this,
Wade,” he commented between puffs.

“You want to keep breathing?” Wade shot back,
his voice muffled by the hood. “If I don’t get the parts to fix the
ventilation systems from where you idiots shot it up, we’re all
going to be headed out of here, and I sure ain’t trustin’
you
to bring back the right gear.”

Troy chuffed. “Next time a bunch of
flesh-eating crazies get loose in the base, Wade, maybe you should
have a talk with ‘em, huh? Tell them not to get near anything
important as we blow their freakin’ brains out.”

Wade popped his head out from under the hood.
“Fuck you. You think I want to go out there into Hell?”

“Look, Wade.” Geoff moved closer to the jeep.
“Troy and I could do it. Just tell us what you need. You don’t have
to go.”

“Yes, I do,” Wade said. “Jeremy here’ll be
all the help I need; besides, the boy has to contribute somehow.
Why not this way?”

Geoff raised his hands in surrender.

Wade tossed Jeremy the keys to the jeep. “Get
in and crank her up.”

Jeremy did as he was told, and the jeep’s
engine roared to life on the first try. Troy tossed aside his smoke
and went to push open the building’s main door.

“Catch you later, guys,” Wade said. “We got
some shopping to do.” Then he motioned for Jeremy to get on with
it, and they drove out of the complex and down the gravel road
towards Canton.

“So just how bad is it out there, really?”
Wade asked.

Jeremy glanced over at the burly little man.
“Everyone I saw on my way here was dead, crazy, or both. The
power’s off everywhere.”

“No shit, Sherlock. I knew
that
.” Wade
turned his gaze to the roadside for a moment, as if collecting his
thoughts, then looked back at Jeremy. “There used to be one of
those large chain hardware and electronics stores just on the other
side of town. Did you see it on your way up here?”

“No. But I know where you’re talking
about.”

“You think we can get in and out of it
without getting our asses chewed off?”

“I don’t know. Those creatures... some of
them are pretty fast. If they’re inside the store...”

Wade picked up the twelve-gauge shotgun from
the seat between them and pumped a round into the chamber. “Shit,”
he said, “just another day in paradise, huh, Jerm?”