Season of Rot (20 page)

#

“Come in, Freedom II. Come in,” Toni repeated
over the open frequency.

“Give it up,” Nathanial suggested. “They got
what they wanted: a definitive fix on our exact position. They’re
done talking now.”

Toni’s shoulders sagged with defeat. Her
fears were confirmed, and in that moment she knew she was the one
who had called this new terror upon them. She turned to look for
Jeremy, but he was already gone from the control room.

#

It was one of the joggers rather than one of
the vehicles who stumbled onto the most outlaying mine. The
explosion and the rain of pulpy, charred flesh brought the convoy
to a halt. People began to pour out of the vehicles and leave them
behind.

Troy swore under his breath. Whoever was
leading the mob knew what they were doing. The working trucks were
too valuable to lose, and by approaching the base on foot it would
cut down the damage the mines could inflict on the transports.

The .30-.06 propped against Troy’s shoulder
had a pretty good range. He sighted one of the joggers as the
moving mass of attackers began to pick up the pace. Troy put a
round through his target’s throat just as the mob reached the main
section of the minefield. Explosion after explosion tossed dirt and
body parts into the air, but the people just kept coming, without
even pausing to tend to their wounded.

In the bushes, Wade took a deep breath and
made his peace with God. The fastest of the joggers had already
reached the fence. He saw one of them toss something at the barbed
wire, and then his world went white.

Troy watched in horror as his friend was
blown apart, along with a large section of the fence. The attackers
flowed through like ants. He fired off a last shot with the rifle,
then tossed the weapon aside and tried to scurry down from the
garage roof.

Geoff remained hidden the whole time. He
waited in the bushes as the attackers ran past on both sides. They
moved like men but they weren’t really human anymore. Their battle
cries were the snarls of maddened dogs, and their skin was tinted
yellow with sickness. He caught a glimpse of one’s eyes. There were
no whites left, just a sickening bloodshot mass.

Geoff switched his AK-47 to full auto and
stood up, spraying the backs of the fifteen or so that had made it
by him. They crumpled like weeds before a scythe.

A rifle cracked and a bullet ripped through
the back of Geoff’s shoulder. He whirled around and charged at the
mob head-on, his rifle blazing and spitting empty shell casings. He
made it a few steps before his bullet-ridden corpse toppled to the
ground, rolling from its momentum.

Troy, down from the roof, saw the base’s
opening—Jeremy was trying to come out. Troy shoved him back down.
“Lock it!” he yelled.

“But Geoff...”

“He’s dead. Wade too.” Troy climbed down and
pushed Jeremy aside. He typed in the code, and something thumped
hard against the hatch. A gun chattered and bullets pinged off the
metal.

Both Jeremy and Troy ducked instinctively.
“Shit!” Troy grabbed Jeremy and tugged him deeper into the base.
“If they’ve got the gear with them to cut through between the outer
seal and the inner lock... we’ve got an hour, maybe two, tops.”

“How many are up there?” Jeremy asked. The
look on Troy’s face told him all he needed to know.

#

Deep in the bowels of Def Con, Ian threw down
the book he was reading and screamed. Spit flew from his mouth as
his head shook uncontrollably. He leapt up from his chair and ran
at the armory door, but his shoe snagged a nearly invisible
tripwire he’d set in place the day before; the armory’s lights
turned red as its huge door slammed shut in front of him. Ian
pounded his fists against it until the bones of his hands were
shattered, and then he started to use his head.

#

Troy and Jeremy burst into the control room,
nearly scaring Toni to death. “What the hell?” Nathanial
bellowed.

“They’re cutting through the outer seal,”
Jeremy said, panting for breath. “The others are dead.”

“Nat, are any of the exterior cameras still
working?” Troy asked as he closed on the engineer.

“A few... not the one in the shed.”

“Bring ‘em online. I have a bad feeling our
friends up there aren’t just going to be sitting on their asses in
the time it takes them to cut their way in here.”

“Okay, I’ve got two cameras reporting
operational. Both of them are a good bit away from the gates
though.”

“Put the closest onscreen.”

The huge wall display flashed to life,
showing a small group of attackers, who appeared to be reloading
their weapons. In the background, other attackers stood watching
something beyond the camera’s field of vision.

“Can you pan around and see what those others
are so interested in?” Troy asked.

“I can try.” Nathanial worked at his
keyboard, and the image flickered and bounced as the camera slowly
turned. Three of the attackers stood outside the fence amidst a
pack of infected. The creatures cowered around them like pets.

“I don’t believe it,” Troy said, rubbing his
forehead. “Damn, those fuckers are smart.”

Nathanial furrowed his brow. “Huh? I don’t
get it.”

“They’re rounding up the infected in the
woods. When they cut through the seal, they’re not just going to
rush in here. There’s no sense in
them
risking their lives.
They’ll let the mindless ones come in first, hoping they’ll either
overrun us or at least weaken our defenses.”

“Aren’t they all infected?” Toni asked.

Nathanial answered before Troy had a chance
to. “Yes, but they’re not the same. These new ones aren’t at all
like the ones we’ve had to deal with in the past. They’re much more
advanced, like they’re evolving back into something much closer to
what we are, just not as nice. And certainly not above using their
lesser brethren as weapons or cannon fodder, or whatever you want
to call it.”

“Somebody should get Ian. We’re going to need
all the help we can get,” Sheena suggested.

“No,” Jeremy replied, “Ian’s fine where he’s
at.”

“We should at least warn him,” Toni
added.

“Ian’s fine.” Jeremy moved to take hold of
Toni. “Trust me, he’s where he wants to be.”

“Jeremy.” Troy motioned him over to a table
in the control room. Troy ripped a map off the wall and spread it
across the tabletop. “You don’t have to die here. None of us do.
There’s a back way out.”

“That’s impossible!” Sheena snapped. “If
there was another entrance I would know about it.”

Troy ignored her and pointed to a spot on the
map. “There’s a tunnel inside the ventilation system here. Wade
found it a few days ago. It’s sealed up with an iron grate, but I
think you can get through it. It opens into the back of the
garage.”

“The garage? Those things are all over the
place up there,” Nathanial pointed out.

“They’re spread out pretty good though, and
most of them will probably follow the normal infected in here once
they get through the inner door. If you wait until they get into
the base, by the time you get up there you’ll at least have a
chance.”

“What’s with all the
you
stuff?”

“Jeremy, someone has to stay here to slow
them down and make them work for every inch of the base they take.
That’s me. I’m the only real soldier left.”

“Troy—” Jeremy started, but Nathanial
interrupted him.

“I’m staying too. So is Sheena. I’m not
running, Jeremy, and Sheena can’t. She’d just slow you down and get
you killed.”

Sheena nodded. “You and Toni go on,” she
ordered. “Make sure you take the time to gather up the things
you’ll need if you get past those things.”

“No!” Toni cried, squatting beside Sheena’s
chair to embrace her.

Sheena didn’t return the hug. “Go on. You’ve
only got one chance at this and time’s running out.”

Jeremy pulled Toni to her feet and looked
back at Troy. There was so much he wanted to say but the words
wouldn’t come. Troy smiled and shot him a mock salute. In spite of
the tears burning in his eyes, Jeremy laughed. Then he nodded and
led Toni out to gather what they would need.

20

The outer seal clanged as it dropped inside
the corridor below, and minutes later a well-placed charge blew the
inner door off its hinges. The mindless ones flooded down the
passageway and into the base. Troy waited for them in the only
unblocked passage to the control room.

A man dressed in the tatters of a tuxedo came
tearing around the corner, pink saliva flying from his mouth as he
saw Troy and howled madly at him.

Troy raised the automatic shotgun in his
hands and fired, cutting the man in two at the waist. A woman in a
bloodstained jogging suit was next, and Troy splattered her brains
all down the corridor. When the shotgun clicked empty, he snatched
up his M-16 and retreated towards the control room, firing on full
auto into the increasing tide as he went.

In the control room, Sheena struggled
clumsily to ready the handgun Troy had given her.

“You’re not going to need that,” Nathanial
told her as the gunfire on the other side of the door was replaced
by the sound of Troy screaming.

Sheena looked up at Nathanial and
understood.

Finally the door burst open and a woman with
matted gray hair and a bleeding hole in her left cheek led the
creatures inside. Nathanial stabbed at his keyboard one final
time.

#

Jeremy kicked the grate loose and leapt down
into the garage. A quick glance told him that the area was clear of
the infected—both breeds. He turned and helped Toni climb out of
the vent.

Only a couple of vehicles were left, and only
one that he knew for sure still ran. He tossed his pack into the
jeep. “Get in,” he told Toni, “and hold on.”

Apparently one of the thinking infected had
heard the thunk of the falling grate from inside the garage and was
now opening the large doorway to check it out. Jeremy ran him down
as he tore out into the dying rays of the setting sun.

The few attackers who’d stayed up top were
caught completely off-guard. Jeremy took advantage of their
confusion and plowed through them. He spun the jeep’s steering
wheel, making a sharp turn toward the gardens and the rear fence.
He was already deep in the fields when the first shots began to
ping off the tail of the jeep.

He reached over and shoved Toni down in her
seat. “Hold on!” he yelled as the jeep streaked towards the fence.
He ducked under the dashboard as best he could, leaning over in his
seat at the last second.

The jeep tore through the barbed wire,
dragging a section of the fence as it made it clear. One of the
tires blew out, but the jeep continued to roar forward until it
crashed headlong into a tree.

Jeremy rolled out of the driver’s seat. His
back felt like it had been ripped to shreds, and blood leaked from
large gashes the barbed wire had cut in his T-shirt. He looked over
his shoulder to see the attackers giving chase. “Toni, are you all
right? We have to move!”

She didn’t answer and suddenly he realized
she was no longer in the jeep. The barbed wire had caught her and
had yanked her out. Her mangled corpse lay several yards back,
tangled hopelessly in the fencing the jeep had carried with it.
Jeremy knew she was dead from a single glance.

He grabbed up his pack from the rear of the
vehicle and slung it onto his shoulder as the attackers opened fire
again.

Suddenly the earth itself heaved under his
feet and threw him into the woods as fire blossomed in a giant
cloud from where Def Con had lain below it.

Epilogue

When Jeremy came to, night had fallen in
earnest. The mob had been reduced to a scattered corpse here and
there. Slowly dying flames could be seen inside the remainder of
the fence around the Def Con complex.

Jeremy coughed and spat blood onto the grass
beside him. He looked up at the full moon, and a visible shadow
stretched across it, dampening its glow. Jeremy wasn’t a physicist,
but he knew something wasn’t right about it. His mind groped for an
explanation of the strange shadow until he remembered an old
episode of the
Outer Limits
he’d seen and recalled Sheena’s
warnings about the fragments of the wave. He knew one of them must
have made contact with the sun, causing it to go nova millions, if
not billions, of years early. The side of the earth facing the sun
was probably an inferno of death, and even as he sat there watching
the moon, a tide of fire crept its way towards him as the earth
turned. He had only hours left to live, but he knew his death would
be quick and he took comfort in that fact. He removed a bottle of
water from his pack and twisted off its lid. The night was so
beautiful, and since there was nowhere to run, he decided to make
the most of it.

#

Amy and Joe sat on the station’s roof. It was
a safe place to be outside at night, a place where they didn’t
really have to worry about the creatures.

Joe spread out the picnic blanket as Amy got
the food ready. He had cooked up some rabbit meat during the day,
and Amy, though still learning, had made something close to being
fresh baked bread. Joe sat on the blanket and popped open a bottle
of wine. He smiled as he filled a glass for Amy and passed it to
her. She took it even though she couldn’t drink it, and she
pretended to be thankful for Joe’s sake.

He sipped at his wine as she looked him over.
Amy was nervous about telling him. She had mixed feelings on the
matter herself. Part of her was thrilled and overjoyed, but her
rational mind questioned how wise it was to bring a child into this
nightmare. She had to tell him though. It wasn’t as if she could
hide it much longer, and he deserved to know. Amy figured she would
never get a chance to do it more perfect than tonight.