((Hey folks, sorry for the new double-tap post topic.  The first posting suddenly stopped allowing me to edit the subject line to reflect updates and direct people to where and when new chapters were added.  I emailed the outdoors mods but they never responded and the issue has never resolved itself, now going on 14 days.  For those not already aware, chapter 12-13 were updated on page 2 of the first topic post on page 2.

I’ve decided to create a new topic/story thread, and hopefully the error won’t crop back up again.

Anyway, enjoy

-Brian))

Chapters 1-13 found at http://ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=20&t=605564

Chapter 14
Clifton Shelter

“Stop here.” The woman said as they approached the gates to Clifton Elementary School.  She got out of the back seat and walked up to the two men standing on the other side of the large wrought iron gate, their weapons at the ready as they watched the vehicles they didn’t recognize.

The Shelter itself could not have been put in a better location.  The school was built at the top of a large plateau, which overlooked the small town beneath it.  There was only one small two lane road which led up to the school grounds.  The rest of the hill was steep.  A normal person could hike up it with only a minimum effort.  The dead people out there didn’t have the dexterity to make it up without stumbling back down again.  Their only way to breach the shelter would be the road they were currently parked on.

Ben could see the tall iron fence wrapped all the way around the top of the hill, presumably to keep the children who attended this school from falling down the slope and injuring themselves.  There had been several tall makeshift towers erected with cut down trees and plywood to form lookout posts, or guard towers.  From the other side of the gates, Ben saw a mix of people.  They reminded him of refugees he saw on the news, covered with blankets and huddled together in groups.  Their clothes dirty and wandering the school grounds in a daze.  

The parking lot was full of cars and various vehicles both commercial and more pedestrian in nature.  They even littered the playground and parts of the lawn around the school building. People walked around the parked vehicles as they performed their daily routines, small ragged children chased each other around them.  Thankfully, there was a clear path for cars to drive on the road that led to the front doors of the school, and then back out again.  

Ben looked over to Matthew, who was also looking the shelter over.  “So, what do you think?”  Matthew looked up at the guard towers, taking in the entire scene.

“It’s one of the better fortified Shelters I’ve seen.  I just hope there is another way off this hill other than this road, otherwise they will have trapped themselves.”  Matthew continued to look the compound over as Ben considered what was said.  He was correct; they had inadvertently created a bottleneck for themselves.  If the creatures ever arrived en masse, they would no doubt trudge up the road they now sat on, which would be the only way in or out.  

As Ben considered this possibility, the two guards behind the large iron gates removed a bar which allowed them to swing freely open.  Corporal Hasser waved the truck forward, motioning for them to move past.  As Ben started the truck up, he stopped beside the woman.  She put her palms on the bottom of the open window and looked at Ben.  

“Drive up to the front doors and they’ll be people to move all your supplies into the storerooms.  Frank will be down in a moment to talk with you.”  Ben looked ahead to the front doors of the school.  There were already several large men standing around, looking like they may be there to help.  He looked back to the tall woman, who was waiting for him to move.  

“Look, I wanted to say thanks for helping to defuse the. . .” She cut him off abruptly.  

“Come on, we’re wasting daylight.” Hasser said loudly, walking towards the van, motioning for them to move along.  Ben looked over to Matthew who was watching the two guards at the gates.  

“I’m guessing politeness didn’t disappear all at once while I was gone, that it took at least a week or so?”  Ben honestly wasn’t surprised at the reaction he got from the military woman.  She was obviously in “work mode” which left little time for pleasantries.  Putting the truck into drive, he rolled up to the main entrance and then past, coming to rest behind an old ford that had been pushed out of the way.  The van followed, and came to a rest at the front steps.

Ben turned off the motor and grabbed his pack out of the back seat.  “Alright, let’s go meet whoever is in charge” he said as both he and Matthew got out of the truck and started toward the door.  

The group from behind him was already climbing out of the van.  The doors to the side and rear were opened and the items were being taken inside, presumably to the storage room that the Corporal spoke of.  Ben walked up to the van and got a better look at the others that were traveling with the doctor.  

He was honestly surprised that they had lasted this long.  The big guy was obviously good in a pinch, but the old woman and the skinny man would have slowed them down tremendously.  As for the other man, he looked like he was right out of some institution or jail facility.  Ben walked up to the doctor who was giving the old woman a hand down.

“Hey, I never got the chance to introduce myself back at the shopping center, my name is Ben, Ben Maxwell.”  Ben helped the doctor get the old woman down from the van.  She stepped down to the pavement and clutched an old purse against her.  

“I’m Doctor Lindsey Dorian.” She said rather curtly as she helped the old woman towards the school building.   It was obvious that as slow as the old woman was moving, this was going to be a long trip inside.  Like a mother goose that led her children, the others in her group almost instinctively got in line behind her.  

“Is the woman your Grandmother?”  Matthew asked as he caught up to the group and fell into step with Ben.   Lindsey looked over to the inquisitive police officer, who looked like he was barley old enough to shave.  

“Just an old woman who wandered into the Lorton shelter a few days ago.”  Lindsey helped Granny begin to navigate the stairs.  She took them slow and one at a time.  As the group ascended, there was an awkward silence that was only filled by the occasional crying coming from the refugees out front, and the sounds of people milling about.  

The smaller man from Lindsey’s group stepped ahead of Ben and grabbed a hold of his hand, shaking it vigorously.  “Hello, how do you do. My name is Irving Steinman and I wanted to just thank you for coming to our rescue out there. . .it was fantastic, back at the supermarket where those things almost ate us.  I wasn’t too thrilled with how you stayed back at a distance though.  You could have swooped in, coming in closer to draw. . .”  the short man just kept droning on as they reached the top of the stairs and were met by an older man in a flannel shirt.  His hair was brown with graying temples and he had a clipboard in his hands.  

Lindsey stopped Granny just in front of him as the others turned to see him standing there.  The line of people carrying in the supplies had grown to a dozen as they handed the items off one at a time to each other, almost like a living conveyer belt.  

“You the new people?” The man asked, looking over the motley crew that stood at the base of the school.  Ben nodded his head, taking a step forward.  

“I guess that would be us.  I’m Ben Maxwell.”  He extended his hand and was surprised that the older gent shook it in return.  Ben had expected to encounter more of the dry and ‘all attitude’ demeanor similar to the military woman.  

“Frank Morton.” The man said as he let go of Ben’s hand.  “I’m the guy who set this shelter up when everything started happening.   Matthew came up next to offer his hand to Frank.  

“Matthew Yates.”  Matthew shook the mans hand as he took in the uniform that Matthew was wearing.  

“Nice to meet you Matthew.  I take it by your uniform that you were a police officer?” Frank actually sounded surprised.  Ben noted the tone and looked over to Matthew.

“Yes sir.” He replied, stepping aside to let the others introduce themselves.  Frank kept his gaze on Matthew, as if pondering something silently.  He averted his gaze and looked at Lindsey who still had a firm hold of Granny.  Lindsey addressed him next.

“Are you in charge here Frank?”  Lindsey wanted noting more then to get Granny inside, preferably to a bed or a cot if they had one available.  Frank shook his head in response to the question.

“There isn’t really anybody in charge officially, although I guess I am the closest thing we have to a leader right now.”  Franked looked at the others and then back to Lindsey.
“Which one of you is the Doctor?” he asked, looking the group over.  

“I am, Doctor Lindsey Dorian.”  Frank nodded his head as he managed a brief small at the young woman.

“Well Doctor, we’re happy to have you here.  We have a lot of people with various medical issues that could use treating.”  He looked at Granny, who was watching the children play in the yard, a smile on her face.  Frank turned to allow the people to come in.  “Why don’t you bring her on in and we’ll find a place she can sit down.”  The group followed Frank inside the school.  

He led them inside and turned a corner, taking them to a room which was labeled “nurses station”.  It sat across from a larger room which looked to be the administration offices.  Glass walls had been smudged from the increased access over the last few days.  Frank opened the door and brought them all inside.

As the group entered, they saw an older teenage girl with short red hair, who was tending to several small children who sat on an examination table.  She looked over as the group came in, and then back to one of the children, placing a band-aid on their arm.  

“This is Tandi, she’s been acting as our school nurse since she arrived a few days ago.  She was the closest thing we had to a doctor.”  Tandi finished placing the bandage on the child, and then sent him and his friend on their way.  Tandi stood up and walked over to the newly arrived people.  

Other then the thin layer of dirt which came from not having a shower, Tandi was a stunningly beautiful young woman.  She was almost as tall as Ben, standing at 5’10 and was very thin for her height.  She wiped her hand on her jeans and came over to help Lindsey with Granny, who was already being maneuvered to one of the examination tables which were free.

Frank spoke to the young woman as she helped Granny onto the table.  “Tandi, this here is Doctor Lindsey. . .” Frank looked back at Lindsey.

“Dorian” she said, making sure the old woman was comfortable.  Lindsey turned to face the teenager.  “You’ve had medical training?”  

Tandi shook her head in response. “I was a lifeguard for several years, and they made us learn some basic first aid.”  Tandi looked back to Granny who was looking around the room, smiling at the various drawings which still adorned the walls.  “why don’t you let me take this purse.”  Tandi reached out to take hold of the purse, but Granny resisted, clutching it closer to her.

Lindsey quickly stepped in “NO!” She said, a bit louder then she meant to. “She doesn’t let anybody take her purse.”  Tandi quickly let go and took a step back.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”  She looked honestly upset at the comment.  Frank took over and quickly stepped in.

“It’s alright Tandi.  Can you show Doctor Dorian around the clinic here?”  Frank nodded reassuringly to Lindsey “I’m going to give these folks here a tour of our shelter.”  Frank patted Tandi on the back and turned to face Lindsey.

“Doctor, I’m going to have the Medical items you brought with you moved into the clinic.  Tandi can help you get everything set up where you want it.”   Lindsey was already fishing out the enoxaparin pills she had taken from the supermarket pharmacy and was getting ready to give them to Granny.

“That would be great” she said, searching for a cup to pour water into.   Frank motioned for the others to follow him outside.  The larger guy who had arrived with Lindsey looked at Frank, as if he had a question.  Once he caught Frank’s eye, he spoke.

“Hey Frank, we’re all kinda hungry.  Is there someplace around here to get a bite?”  Frank stopped one of the guys walking through the halls.

“Carl, take these boys over to the cafeteria and have the cook whip them up some sandwiches. Tell them I said it was alright” The man nodded.  Frank turned to Ben and Matthew “You two want to get some food before we look the place over?”  Ben considered the offer for a moment, but decided he’d rather become comfortable with his temporary home before he thought about food.  

“No, I’m alright.  Matthew?”  Ben turned to look at his recent traveling companion, who was shaking his head no.

“Maybe later if that’s fine with you” Frank gave a quick nod to Ben’s comment. Watching as the shelter guard led the newcomers down the hall and towards their waiting lunch, Frank turned back to Ben and Matthew, who were waiting.  

“Shall we?” he asked, holding his hand to the side, motioning them onward.

The 2 story school building was crowded with local residents, and people from around Northern Virginia who had fled to this location when the trouble got out of hand.  Each of the classrooms, and been converted to shelter rooms, along with the gymnasium which was now a large open-air sleeping room.  People had huddled their belongings into small piles which denoted their claim to sleeping space.

Frank led them upstairs, to the second story which was mostly classrooms.  These too were converted into sleeping quarters, with one room set up for children.  At least 15 kids ranging from age 3 to 14 were set up in a rear classroom.  A lone woman watched over the children, most of whom either lost their parents or came in alone from some of the other shelters.  

As they walked along the various halls of the school, Frank explained how in the early days of the crisis, people from the town below had come to the school for safety.  They were fortunate that their community was fairly small and there had been ample warning.  Most of the residents had managed to get their families out intact before the first of the creatures had begun making their way into the nearby areas.

Because Clifton was built at the bottom of a valley, and was surrounded by a series of hills, the creatures were more or less coming through the valley lowlands, or along the roads.  Several had managed to make it over the hills without stumbling back down in the process, but they were easily dealt with.

As shelter after shelter in the nearby towns were overrun, those people came here seeking safety.  While the initial count was 89 during the first week, by the end of the second week, their numbers had risen to 425.  Space was now at a premium, and to make matters worse, there had been several attempts from survival opportunist, raiders who tried to storm the shelter.

Frank ended the tour by stopping outside of the teachers lounge.  He put his hand on the doorknob and hesitated, turning to the men behind him before he entered.

“I have to warn you before we go in. . .Louis is a bit. . .” Frank searched for a word, looking off into the distance momentarily “. . .a bit off.”  Ben and Matthew nodded as Frank opened the door.  

The inside of the lounge was crowded with various electronic components and maps which were hastily hung up on the wall.  Wires and circuit boards were scattered across a large coffee table, and the room smelled of soda and body odor.  The windows had been covered with several large blankets and several large manuals were opened and sitting on a desk in the corner.

On a cheap faux wood couch, laid a middle aged man who was the obvious source of the odor which came out of this room.  He was dressed in black surplus store fatigues and had a black bandana tied around his head.  In one hand he held a sodering iron which thankfully wasn’t plugged in, and in the other was a spool of copper wire.  

As the three men looked the room over, Frank knocked loudly on the doorframe, announcing their presence. The smelly man bolted upright, looking around the room quickly.  Frank took a step inside.

“Easy there Louis, it’s just me.” The man he called Louis, stood upright as he heard the voice, and pulled out a pair of glasses from his shirt pocket.  They were thick, coke-bottle glasses, which magnified the size of his eyes.  “Louis, I wanted to introduce you to some newcomers we just got in.”  Frank motioned to Ben and Matthew, who walked into the room.  As soon as Louis caught sight of Matthew, he stepped back, obviously alarmed.

“You let the cops in?”  Ben turned to look at Matthew, who was as just as confused as he was.  Ben thought this might be some prejudice the odd man had which predated the present events, but then he remembered the look that Matthew had received from Frank when they first arrived.  Frank put down his clipboard, calming the alarmed man.
“He’s not with the others Louis, he’s not one of them.”  Louis took a cautious step forward, looking at Matthew.  

“He’s got a gun.” He said, in a matter of fact way.  Frank cocked his head, as a dog might.

“Hell Louis, half the people here have guns of some type, that don’t make them robbers.”  Louis looked over to Ben and then back to Frank.  

“No, just savages.”  Louis responded, placing the soldering iron down on what looked like yet another equipment table.   Frank turned to face the two men who watched the exchange.  

“You’ll have to excuse Louis.  Like a lot of others here, they can be suspicious of motives.”  Ben nodded his head, understanding what Frank was saying.  They had literally just met and didn’t know much about one another.  Ben wasn’t even sure how long they would be staying just yet, or if they would be kicked out because of lack of space.  Frank went on with the introductions.

“Louis, this here is Ben and Matt.  They just came in with a group of people, including a Doctor who looks like she might be able to help us out.  They even came loaded down with all kinds of medicines.”

Louis looked to the side for a moment, almost as if he were processing the information.  He quickly turned and looked at the two men.  “If you were raiders, it wouldn’t make sense that you brought a large load of supplies with you.”  Ben watched as he began to logic out their good intentions on the spot.   “The time it would take to reload what had already been unloaded would take too long, and you would have already known the school was heavily guarded.  You’d take heavy casualties and that would make a plan like that too risky to undertake.  Too many loses all around.”

Louis took a step out and closer to the men.  He seemed to have found a level of comfort he hadn’t had several moment before.  He nodded his head with a sense of triumph.  “I seriously doubt you’re raiders!”  Ben and Matthew looked at one another, unsure on how to respond to such an announcement.

“Uh. . .Thank you?”  Ben said, more as a question then in thanks.  Frank just closed his eyes and gave them the “don’t worry about it” hand signal.  Louis shrugged his shoulders, slipping the copper wire into one of his many pockets.  

“You’re welcome.”

Frank opened his eyes and walked back to join the two men.   “Louis here is our electronics, go-to guy.”  Frank pointed over to a piece of equipment which sat on a table.  “He had one of those old style ham radios at his home.  When he showed up here, like you he was stocked up on supplies, but his were more eclectic then yours.”  Ben looked around the room.  He made out the radio that Frank had mentioned, along with what looked like radio frequency scanners, several sets of walkie talkies that looked like they had come off a World War II movie set, several more traditional radios and some old black and white TV’s.   Frank walked over to Louis who was picking up a pair of headphones which were attached to the ham radio.  “Louis keeps us connected with several other shelters from around the US.”  The odd man was quick to chime in, proud of his achievements.

“Not just the US, I got ham operators from Great Brittan, Canada, Bolivia, Germany. . .A couple from some other countries too, but I don’t understand their language.”  This was great.  Ben remembered watching the news he had accidentally recorded last night and seeing that this wasn’t an event that was confined to the US, but seemed to be affecting other countries as well.  Now he might be able to get more up-to-date information.  Matthew was the first to ask the question.

“How bad is it out there?”  He asked as Louis sat down at the radio, turning some knobs and trying to listen in to anybody who might be transmitting.   Louis answered while fiddling with the radio.

“Oh compared to us the other countries aren’t doing well.”  Ben became disheartened at the response.  He looked at Frank who didn’t seem phased by the words.  

“This is doing well?” Ben asked, motioning around the room, shocked at the choice of words that Louis had chosen.  Matthew put his hand on Ben’s shoulder, urging him to let the statement pass.   Frank came over to join the two men who still hovered near the door.

“Maybe we should let Louis work?” he said as he urged the two men to follow him out.  Ben turned and happily left the room.  Frank closed the door behind him and turned to face Ben and Matthew.

“I’m sorry guys, Louis can be a handful if you’re not use to him.”  Frank started back down the way they came, talking to a person here and there, asking if they had everything they needed, checking in with some of the people who helped with the day to day aspects of running the location as well as just being seen.

Ben and Matthew followed Frank back downstairs and to the Principal’s office.  Frank opened the door for the two as they walked in.  Frank closed the door behind them and sat down on the edge of the desk.  The office itself didn’t look like it had been converted in any way.  In fact, it looked as if the principal could come walking in at any moment.  Frank picked up an old coffee mug that sat near him and took a sip.  He looked at each of the men briefly and then spoke.

“So how long do you boys figure you’ll be with us?”  Ben knew this was the part where he’d have to plead their case and to show how they could be useful.  

“Honestly Frank, My original plan was to come here, hopefully get some information on a nearby town that was still intact and then start looking for friends who survived.  That pretty much changed when I heard that there aren’t any towns left anywhere.”  Frank nodded his head, as if he had heard this story before.  He looked over to Matthew who had been surprisingly quiet.  

“How about you TJ Hooker. Any long term plans?”  Matthew didn’t get the joke.  Ben smiled, knowing that Matthew was too young to remember the William Shattner cop show of the late 70’s.  

“My family died along with most everybody else.  Everybody from my station is either gone or bugged out when things got real bad.  I’d like to stay here and help out if I can.”  Frank looked into his coffee cup and sat it back down, no longer interested in the cold beverage that sat in it.

“Well guys, I’ll be just as honest with you.”  Ben thought this was where the rub would come in.  Where Frank would tell them that there simply wasn’t enough room for them to stay.  He had seen Frank interact with other people, and knew he wouldn’t turn them out right away, but he figured they’d have a few days at most before being asked to move on.

“We’re overloaded here at the school with families, people who come here in various states of shock, or are simply too old or have seen too much to process it yet.”

Matthew sat up in his chair a bit. “You mean like Louis?”  

Frank shook his head “No, Louis was like that before he came here.”  Matthew looked over to Ben, and then back to Frank.

“We’re packing people in wherever we can find space.  During the first week we were more or less ok, but after the other local shelters fell we started taking on more and more survivors.” Frank turned and looked out the window, watching two of his guys walk a perimeter around the iron fence.  

“We’re only 1 of 3 known shelters left in the area.  First there is the Front Royal compound. It’s a large office building which has about 120 people living on 5 floors.  They’ve blocked off the first floor staircases with loose filing cabinets to keep the creatures out, but in the process trapped themselves in.  They have their own radio and stay in contact with us through Louis.  I’ve talked with the guy in charge there, and he said that unless they can get some more food, the supplies they managed to stockpile will run out in a week. “Frank turned back to face the two.

“The other location is an old nightclub somewhere down in Prince William County.  We’re not too sure about that location.  We had somebody arrive from there a few days ago.  They’re pretty well fortified with large streams on either side of them, but they have more survivors then they do resources, and we have no active way of keeping in contact with them.  Hell, they may have all died by now.”

Frank rapped his fingers on the desk a few times, contemplating something.  “Point of all this guys is that we have very few people who are actually capable of getting out there and who can be effective.  Looking at the supplies your group brought in, you know what you’re doing out there.”  He stood up and walked around the desk, sitting in the high back chair.

“We could use you, hell. . .all of you.”  Ben thought for a moment about taking the credit for the heist that Doctor Dorian had been a part of.  It would certainly keep them here for longer then the few days Ben thought they would get.  He decided that it would be better to be straight with Frank up front.  Better to be truthful now, rather then having him find out later that he wasn’t a part of the Lindsey’s store looting.  

“Matthew and I weren’t exactly a part of the supply gathering, Frank.”  Ben saw Frank’s brow narrow, listening to the man as he spoke.  “We came upon them when we heard the shooting.  We came over to help since we hadn’t seen anybody living that day.”  Frank leaned back in his chair and exhaled.  

“You both seem to be handling this situation better then most folks here are.”  Ben noticed that Frank was choosing his words carefully.  “You aren’t in any shock, you did drive over to help them out rather then leave the other group to their own devices.  That tells me not only are you both capable and useful in a situation like we got us here, but that you aren’t only out for yourselves.  Shit, I’ll take folks like that anyway.”

Ben could tell both he and Matthew were being sized up, most likely in anticipation of being asked to stay.  All in all Ben didn’t have anyplace else to be.  He didn’t have any family other then his sister down in Atlanta, which he had been estranged from for almost 10 years.  His ex-wife was supposed to be getting remarried and as such, had somebody to watch over her now.  Not that she had ever really needed any such person before.  Rebecca was always very self reliable and waved away any offer of help.

“What would we do?” Matthew asked, sitting up in his chair and looking at Frank.

“Well, we need folks who can head out and get supplies we need.  Food, ammo, more guns, little bits here and there.”  Frank put his feet up on the desk, stretching slightly. “We can always use more people to stand guard and to keep those things from getting too close, I know Erin has been moaning about getting more help outside of the school to patrol.”  

“Erin?” Ben asked.

Frank motioned behind him with his thumb.  “Tall little spitfire army solider you met on your way in.  She’s the head of security around here.  Made sense as she has the most up-to-date training out of all of us.”  

Ben looked over to Matthew, requesting a silent agreement on the offer that Frank was extending to the two of them.   Matthew nodded, signaling that he would be open to staying.  Ben looked back at Frank who was watching them.

“Tell you what Frank, set us up with a place to sleep, let us get a good nights rest to consider your offer.  In the morning we’ll come back to give you our answer and get our first assignments.”  Ben smiled, hoping that Frank would catch onto his double meaning.  Frank just laughed, sitting up again.  

“It’s a deal.”

Chapter 15
Marine Corps Base, Quantico Virginia

Graham walked down the hallway, his combat boots squeaking against the over-waxed tile floor as he made his way down the corridor of administration’s headquarters.  Major Pruitt kept pace with the slightly larger man whose intent stride spoke volumes as to his present mood.

As both men turned the corner, they caught sight of two sentries who stood on either side of a door.  As they approached, both marines saluted.  Graham and Pruitt returned the salute, as the marine on the left turned and opened the door.  

Inside sat a man in dark grey slacks and a dress shirt, his tie missing.  The senior officers entered the room and the door closed behind them.  The man in the dress shirt was sitting on a bunk, his head down and cradled in his hands.  As the sound of footfalls stopped, the man looked up.

“I assume that you are Colonel Graham?” The man asked, looking first at Graham, and then at Pruitt.  

“I’m Graham.” The colonel said, sizing up the bureaucrat sitting in front of him.  “You must be Bureau Director Peter Gaskin.”  The man on the bed stood up, adjusting his dress shirt.

“I’d hope so Colonel, I hate to think you violated military law and regulations to detain the wrong man unjustly.”  Graham wasn’t surprised that he would get such a response from the civilian.  He knew that somebody with limited training wouldn't understand the wisdom of having the military take over in a serious situation.

“Gaskin, I ordered my Marines to secure your part of Quantico because you and your people couldn’t hack it.”  The Colonel watched as Pruitt became uneasy next to him.  At this point he didn’t care what his Major thought.  He knew he was in the right here.   “By my count, you lost 22 people in the last week, all due to the fact that you had inexperienced guards posted at the week points along your fence line.”  Graham couldn’t believe that he had to point out such obvious negligence.  “Hell, you allowed those. . .things out there onto your grounds and because your people panicked, they made it into your complexes before my men had the situation back under control.”

Gaskin just watched as the Colonel spoke, the anger growing on his face.  Graham reached into his pocket and took out a cigar and a cutter, trimming off the edge of his Churchill Fuente.  “Hell, if I hadn’t stepped in this morning, you and your people would most likely be standing alongside those things, trying to get at my people on the safe side of Quantico by now.”

Gaskin had had enough.  “Colonel, we only had 220 people at the onset of this crisis, 34 of those have been killed or are unaccounted for.  Whereas you have what. . .2000 plus Marines and their civilian families to call upon?”  Graham knew it would come down to excuses.  Rather then admit their inabilities; most men would rather make up excuses.   “I would be feeling rather superior myself if I had 2000 people to help with my defense.” Gaskin finished, looking with contempt at the Colonel who was lighting up his cigar.

“Well Director Gaskin, then today you can start feeling superior.  From this point on, I am annexing the FBI compound and placing it under US Military jurisdiction.”  Pruitt moved his eyes over to Graham, trying hard to hide his disapproval.  As Gaskin began to voice his protest, the Colonel turned and left the room, leaving Pruitt standing there dumbfounded as Gaskin began yelling something about congressional approvals and executive orders.  

Graham turned back to look inside of the room.  “Director Gaskin, if you want to voice your protest with members of congress or the President, you’ll have to swallow a bullet to have a heart to heart with them.”  Graham looked over at Pruitt “Major, are you waiting for an invitation?”  Pruitt quickly walked out of the room and joined the Colonel.  The sentries closed the door as the two men started back to the Colonel’s office.

“Sir, with respect. . .it couldn’t hurt to have additional bodies to man stations on base.” Pruitt said, struggling to keep up pace with Graham.  

“Major, I have no intention of having those people ride this thing out, snug in their beds while the rest of us fight to keep the base secure.  I want you to speak to the remaining heads of the FBI and convince them that it’s within their best interest to accept military rule and to fall in line.”  

Pruitt was being insistent. He wouldn’t let up on the colonel and was going to make his opinions known.  “What about Gaskin sir?”

Graham thought for a moment, running over the options he had through his head.  “We’ll keep him confined to quarters for now, and let him stew.”  The men reached their destination at Graham’s office and went in.  A tech sergeant was setting up a laptop computer for Graham’s meeting with the other surviving base commanders.  The sergeant saluted as the men came into the office.  Graham took his seat behind his desk, and motioned for Pruitt to sit across from him.

“How are we doing Sergeant?” Graham asked, placing his cigar in an ashtray in front of him.

“You’re connected with the main relay satellite and have a direct and secure line sir. You’ll need to look into this small camera, mounted to the top of the screen when you speak  Other then that, just double click the talk icon when you’re ready to initiate the meeting. “  

Graham nodded his head.  “That’ll be all son, dismissed”  

“Yes sir, thank you sir.”  The Sergeant saluted and walked out of the office.  Pruitt was sitting uneasy in the chair.  Graham understood that he and the Major had very different ideas when it came to running the base.  Even with the lockdown had been ordered, Pruitt was insistent that Quantico should be sending out supplies to help the survivors who had not yet become infected.  A concept that wasn’t acceptable to Graham at all.  Not only did he have several thousand Marines to care for, but at least 800 Marine families as well.  Supplies were running thin as it was.   Guards had been posted at all supply depots and the base PX, and unless they were able to increase their supplies, people would start getting out of hand.

Graham looked at his watch,  16:58 hrs.  He knew that this was going to be rough.  A lot of the men he had served with were no doubt dead by now.  It was one thing to be taken down in the line of duty, but this situation wasn’t anything they had ever trained for before. When you shoot a man, he’s supposed to stay down.  These things were getting back up after being shot.  Only a head wound, or heavy ordinance would do the trick.

Graham looked at the flashing box in front of him.  He moved the mouse to highlight the talk symbol and clicked on it.  The machine began to hum and a large window came up on the screen.  On the left was a rectangular box which showed the ID’s of everybody who was online.  Graham looked at the names of the CO’s.  He didn’t recognize any of them.  As the connection reached the final stages, he saw the image of a Navy Admiral talking.  It seems that there was some chatter already going on.  As Graham was the one who called this meeting, it was up to him to lead the conversation.

“This is Colonel Eric Graham, United States Marine Corp, Commanding Officer of Quantico, Virginia.  I’d like to thank you all for making time to be here.  I see we have. . .” Graham reached into his shirt pocket to extract his reading glasses.  He put them on and read off the names of those currently on the line.

“Major Winston, Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska”
“Colonel Tyler, Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona”
“Lt. Colonel Mahuna, Fort Shafter, Hawaii”
“Lt. Colonel Santiago, Forts H.M. Smith and Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii”
“Captain Hunt, Fort McCoy, Wisconsin”
“Rear Admiral Davis, Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, Virginia”
“Rear Admiral Connor, Corpus Christi Naval Station, Texas”
“General Hillside, Fort Hood, Texas”
“Colonel Graham, Quantico Marine HQ, Virginia”
“Major McDonald, New River, North Carolina”
“Lieutenant Unger, Watervliet Arsenal, New York”
“General  Johnson, Fort Wainwright , Alaska”
“Colonel Jackson, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana”
“General Thomas, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho”
“Captain Karlson, Wright-Pat Air Force Base, Ohio”
“Major Hewett, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada”
“Captain Danvers,  Site R, location undisclosed”
“Robertson, CDC, Site H, location undisclosed”
Maxwell, CDC, Site D, location undisclosed”

Graham looked at the list.  16 bases and 3 secret bunkers left in the US.  This was unimaginable.  Of all the collective firepower and training each of the US bases had, that only 19 would be left was something he simply couldn’t fathom.  Graham took off his reading glasses and returned them to his pocket.  

“I noticed that Cheyenne Mountain hasn’t dialed in yet.   Has anybody heard from them since the President briefed us?”  The screen switched to an Air Force Colonel, sitting in a room with several officers flanking him.  

“This is Colonel Jackson, one of my officers was in contact with the Mountain approximately 2 hours ago. She reported that over 70% of the base had been overrun with hostiles, and the remaining survivors were going to attempt to head to the lower levels and barricade themselves.  We couldn’t get confirmation that the President was with them.”

Graham looked down at the names again as they sat on his screen, hoping that more bases would sign on.  He knew that given the effectiveness of these things that were attacking, there was little hope that the Cheyenne group would last for long, if they weren’t already dead by now.  

“How about ships at sea?” Graham asked, tapping his fingers on the desk. “Can Navy personal establish how many vessels we have on maneuvers that haven’t been affected?”

One of the Admirals flashed on the screen, looking at a piece of paper as he spoke.  “I had our Base communications request a count and status report of all Naval vessels not in dry-dock.   The good news is that we estimate close to 80% of all submarines, aircraft carriers and assorted ships are reporting either no contamination or minor incidents that have been confined and dealt with. All ships are holding position at sea pending new orders ”  

This was the first good news that Graham had heard since being placed in command of Quantico.  This meant that even in the worse case of an unaffected foreign power deciding to try and take advantage of the situation, they should be able to handle any attempts of invasion.  The problem was however, that without anybody to direct them, having naval ships holding position wasn’t going to do the US any good.  Too many bases had already been lost, and with ammunition limited, as well as manpower, it would be a matter of attrition before they fell.

Graham knew without the ability to do what they needed, that it wouldn’t be long before the few remaining locations would also fall under the weight of the attacking hostiles.  He knew this was his time to act.

Graham looked over at Pruitt who seemed to be deep in contemplation.  He looked back to the screen and addressed the combined CO’s.  “Ladies and Gentlemen, prior to leaving for NORAD, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Myers sent a communiqué to this base’s previous Commanding Officer, General Hanlon. At the time of the onset of this crisis, General Hanlon was attending a conference in Los Angles.  He was reported to have been killed and I was placed in command of this post.  The orders that had been sent to Hanlon were then given to me.”

Graham opened his desk drawer and pulled out a manila folder with the USMC logo on it.  Stamped in big red letters on the cover were the words “YANKEE FIRE”.  He took out a single printed page and read it aloud.

“To: All US Military Personal.  Given the dire nature of the present threat to US domestic tranquility and to ensure the continued survival of the United States of America and those who would call such home, and after consultation with the Commander in Chief and the Secretary of Defense, I am hereby making the following directives.

To hereby be known as DODD 4720.16; in the event that the President and all remaining candidates to succeed that office shall either be killed in the line of duty, or be reported as missing and presumed dead, and it is the consensus of existing base commanders that the present situation is exactly thus, all surviving military base commanders are hereby authorized to act autonomous of existing orders and commanded to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the survival of humanity and the United States of America.

Signed by my hand, this day August 29th, 2004.  Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard B. Myers; USAF.”

Graham put down the letter and looked back to the laptop sitting on his desk.  “As you here are all of what seems left of the US military, it falls to us to decide if we are to enact this directive.”

There was an audible murmur over the line as the various leaders began to consult with those individuals who were in the room with them.   As each person at their own terminal made noise, the screen would flash to them, their conversation being picked up by the microphone.  

For about 5 minutes Graham simply listened as the crowd began arguing the merits and the potential dangers of acting as their own chain of command, absent of any central figure to guide them.  After a bit of time had passed, the screen changed to an Air Force General, It was the commander of the Montana Air Force base who had spoken earlier.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I think the present situation speaks for itself. If anybody here, or those in the room with their CO’s can point to anybody in the chain of succession to be the President who is at their facility, or can be located. . .speak up!”  

There was silence.  The screen stayed on the General.  “Well then, in absence of any individual the law states is able to act in capacity of President of the United States, we only have the executive order to fall back upon. “  Graham smiled.  He knew that shortly he would have the restraints he had been under, removed.

“I suggest we conduct a role call quickly of all those CO’s on the list, to see if we do indeed have the consensus the order requires.”  The general was fast-tracking past the continued debate that was going on.  Graham respected this manand his ability to cut through the bureaucratic bullshit that he had to face.  

One by one each of the names were read that appeared on the Colonel’s video screen.  Each commanding officer stated if they were for or against this executive order being activated.  By the end it wasn’t even a contest.  17 voted to enact the order, 2 against.  A large smile washed over the Colonel’s face.  He was now not only in command over Quantico, but was now able to begin conducting operations outside of the base to begin cleaning up the situation.

One of the other commanders suggested that there be daily on-going communications with all bases that were on the line so they could share information and give updates on their progress.  It was decided that at 16:00 hrs Eastern time would work best for everybody.

As quickly as the call had started, it was now over.  Graham leaned back in his chair, content with the way that things had gone.  He took the still burning cigar from the ashtray and placed it in his mouth, puffing with satisfaction.

“Sir, even with this order being enacted, I would still like to recommend that we. . .”

Graham didn’t even bother looking at him as he cut the Major off.

“Pruitt, I want you to assemble 5 exploration teams to head out at daybreak tomorrow morning and begin surveying the area in all directions.  Have them establish suitable locations for forward command areas.”  Pruitt stood up in protest.

“Sir, please!  I think it would be wise to first establish the locations of survivors and have them brought to safety so we can begin. . .”  Pruitt was again unable to finish his thoughts.

“That’ll be all Major.”  Pruitt stopped talking.  He saluted and turned on his heals.

“Yes sir”. He spat out with venom as he exited the room.   Graham watched as the door shut behind the Major.  The Colonel picked up the signed executive order and read it over again.  He contemplated having the order framed.  Having a pine or oak frame located so he could have this document hung on the wall behind him.  

The order had become the most important order in the history of his career; even if it was a brilliant forgery he had written himself.

Chapter 16
Clifton Shelter; Clifton Va.

Ben looked at the map laid out on the desk in front of him. It had been spliced together from two real estate maps from some of the cars out in the parking lot, showing each of the individual streets in the Northern Virginia Area. It had been a week now since Ben and the group had come to the Clifton Shelter, and the situation was only getting worse.

The frequency of encounters with the creatures had begun to escalate.  Thankfully like Frank had stated, there were only a few ways they could manage to enter the area.  It made dealing with each encounter a rather routine task.  The problem at present was dealing with these creatures as they tried to cross the check points was becoming a full-time task itself.

To make matters worse, all the non-medical supplies the Doctor’s group had brought in had run out yesterday.   In the last few days the shelter had accepted 20 more people, but didn’t have the food or items to sustain everybody for more then another week.  The electricity had gone out days ago, and they were operating on a gas powered generator.  Fuel was limited and most of the cars outside had been siphoned already.  Power was regulated very harshly and was used sparingly.  

Ben took his mug and drank down what was left of his coffee.  He was recently placed in charge of locating and securing supplies that the shelter needed.  A long list of items sat bedside the map, with different colors of highlighting denoting which supplies were the most important.  

Weapons, ammunition, canned food supplies and soap topped the list.  There was a modest but small number of handguns, rifles and shotguns at the shelter, but rounds for those weapons were running out quickly.  The school had a decent supply of sub-standard food for the survivors to eat, but Ben was not surprised to learn the quality of school food had not improved since his early childhood learning days.

Soap was not only important for general cleanliness purposes, but with the amount of bodies being crammed into rooms, the body odor problem was becoming unbearable.   The school didn’t have any shower facilities, and while some crude “bucket with holes” systems had been created, they were not enough to tackle the problem on their own.

Ben was considering various locations to try and loot from.  He knew that if he could get a team large enough to drive both his truck and the van the doctor had come in, they could fill both vehicles up with enough supplies to last for several more weeks.  The real problem would be holding off the creatures while the two teams stocked up on supplies.  Ben knew he wasn’t going to make much headway without finding somebody who had a better grasp of the area then he had.  

He got up from his chair and walked out to the hallway, brushing past the assembled people who were huddled in the hallways.  He folded up the large map as he walked and made his way to the nurse’s station.  The door was open as he approached.  In the last week Lindsey hadn’t had to deal with much more then a few scratches and bruises caused from having too many people confined in such a small place.  

Nobody had any idea as of yet how these creatures came into being.  Some people suspected it was a virus and that it was passed along when you came into contact with the ghouls.  Others thought it was an airborne virus, and if you became too sick, or were injured, the virus would speed itself along until it overtook you.

All anybody had really were guesses.  When people weren’t sobbing in a corner or having problems dealing with the present situation, it was the popular topic of conversation.  Trying to determine who was responsible, how the dead were managing to reanimate, how long it would be before there wasn’t anybody left living on Earth.

Ben walked through the door to the nurse’s station to see Lindsey dealing with a young man who was laying on the examination bed.  A man with a holstered .45 stood on the other side of the room.  He nodded at Ben as he entered.  This was part of the standard routine as of late. All of the people who were newly arrived were watched for a few days and confined to the large gym for 24 hours and placed under guard.  After the crude quarantine period, all newcomers were checked out by the doctor and then if all was normal, they were released into the general population.  Ben walked over to the office desk as Lindsey looked in the patient’s ear with a medical tool.  

“I’ll be with you in a second”. Lindsey said as she continued her look into the man’s ear.  Ben watched as she completed a through examination of her patient.  She made a few notes in a textbook and then turned to face the man, who was sitting up.

“Alright” she said, closing the book and placing it under her arm.  “You’re seem to be doing just fine.  There’s no need to keep you in quarantine any longer.” Lindsey gave a quick nod to the guard who had escorted the man down.  “Please find him a place to sleep and show him around the shelter.”  Lindsey placed the book down on a table as the man on the table stepped down.

“Thank you Doctor.”  The patient said as he joined the guard who led him out of the clinic.  Lindsey walked over to a sink and began washing her hands with a jug of water that was kept solely for the purpose of keeping medical instruments and herself clean.  As she scrubbed her hands with the small bar of soap, she addressed Ben.

“You know, a week ago if you told me I’d be working at a school clinic, I would have taken it as an insult.”  She got her hands lathered up and began to quickly wash the soap off, trying to conserve as much water as she could.  “But I was thinking this morning after getting all of 3 hours of sleep. . .” she began toweling off her hands with some small tri-fold paper towels.

“With most, if not all of the people I worked with dead, and no doubt wandering out there trying to eat survivors . . .that makes me chief of staff by default.”  Lindsey threw the wadded up towels away as she looked up at Ben, who had an odd look on his face.

“Was that a joke Doctor?”  Ben wasn’t sure he had heard what she said correctly.  For the entire time he had known Dr. Dorian, she had been all business, an ice queen with a demeanor to match.  He watched as Lindsey folded her arms in front of her.  

“Tandi seems to think my bedside manner needs some work. How was that?” Ben nodded, still unsure that he believed that the Doctor was capable of cracking a one-liner.  

“Not bad” He said, trying not to laugh at her attempt.  Ben unfolded the map on Lindsey’s desk and smoothed it out.  Lindsey cocked her head up to get a look at what he was doing.  As he finished placing the map on the desk, Ben looked back up at the Doctor.

“I’m trying to find locations we can hit for supplies.  I’ve asked around and have a list of 3 primary stores we’re going to head to this afternoon.  Two supermarkets and a sporting goods store”.  Ben took a pen out of his pocket.

“I wanted to wait until you were not busy to ask you, what medical supplies you need and where could we find them?”  Lindsey thought it over for a moment.  She knew that basic medical items, found in any market would be useful.  It was the harder to get medical items that she could really use right now.  Sheets, plaster for casts and splints.  Burn ointments and common medical supplies.

“Can you have your men hit the first aid isles of the supermarkets you stop at?”  She asked.  

“We need to focus on food as our primary need, but I suppose I could have one of my guys just deal with medical items and nothing else.”  Lindsey was hoping for a little more then that, but it would have to do.  “Anything else?” Ben questioned as he wrote down some instructions on his loose piece of paper.

“Actually yes” she answered.  “I need some medical instruments, pretty specific instruments. If I show you the location of my hospital, can you stop there?”  Ben seemed very unhappy with this suggestion.

“Sorry Lindsey, Hospitals are the last place we want to be.”  The Doctor was confused.  As if reading the look on her face, Ben explained.  “With everybody becoming infected and injured during the mass confusion, they would have been taken to the various area hospitals.  Once those creatures arrived, it would have become a feeding frenzy for those. . things.  The number of dead. . .not dead things will be largest at these locations.  Same thing with police stations.”  It made a sort of odd sense to Lindsey.  She remembered before she had left her hospital for the final time, the number of injured people was tremendous.

Lindsey wasn’t happy with the prospect of having to practice medicine in the shelter with little to no modern equipment.  She was relegated to what little equipment the nurse had been given by the school district.  The nurse had never been meant to treat seriously wounded children, just to patch up little bruises and cuts the children received.  Any child seriously wounded would have been transported by ambulance to her hospital and then treated. . . it suddenly occurred to Lindsey, ambulances!

“What about stopping on the road on the way to your locations?”  Ben raised an eyebrow, unsure what the doctor was suggesting.

“Where?” He asked.

Lindsey placed her palms on the desk, looking at Ben as she spoke. “Most of the instruments I could really use, as well as the medications can be found in your run of the mill ambulances.  With all the insanity, most of the EMT crews would have been dispatched to the various calls.  I’m sure some of the crews were hit as they worked and killed by the creatures.”  Ben was starting to see her point.

“You can either ransack the ambulances, or if the keys are still in the ignition . . .drive the entire thing back here.” Lindsey finished her explanation as Ben wrote the orders on the piece of paper.

“I’ll have my guys keep their eyes open while we’re out.” Ben finished writing and placed the pen back in his pocket.  He began folding up his map, placing it in his hunting vest pocket.  “How you holding up otherwise?” He asked the doctor, genuinely concerned with how his new friend was doing.

Lindsey shrugged her shoulders. “I could use a good night’s sleep.  Tandi is supposed to cover for me this evening, but she’s still just a kid, and won’t be able to handle anything more serious then a cut.”  Lindsey and Ben’s attention was adverted briefly by some brief shouts outside.  After a moment of listening and not hearing anything else, they went back to their conversation.

“I try not to have enough down-time, cause that’s when I have to deal with the reality of everything that’s happening.”  Ben understood perfectly.  It was good to keep busy and just focus on each task as it presented itself.  Frank had a philosophy that everybody here should be working on some task.  Not simply to provide for everybody’s survival, which was an important, new fact of life; but to keep them occupied and not thinking about what had happened.
“I know where you’re coming from!”  Ben snapped the button on his vest and zipped it up the rest of the way.  “I’ll see you when we get back.”

“Good luck” Lindsey said as Ben walked out of the room.

Ben walked through the hallways, seeing people as they went about their daily routine.  There was an air of anticipation around the shelter as this was the first day that they actively risked leaving the safety of the shelter.  As he walked outside, the sun hit Ben in the face, causing him to squint in order to see.  It was a typical August morning.  A slight breeze was blowing the trees back and forth, and providing a much needed chill to the air.  A smell of rain in the distance helped to mask the odor that was coming from inside of the school.  

The ground of the school were less littered with food wrappers and boxes then last he saw.  One of Franks ideas was to make their living space a bit more tolerable.  He had ordered all the trash and refuse collected and piled in one corner of the compound.  The plans were to transport the trash someplace else once they were able to focus on such things, and better armed.

Ben took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on, shielding his eyes from the brightness of the outside world.  He walked to the bottom of the steps where the volunteers had gathered that would be accompanying him.  There were six in all, seven if you counted Ben.  Matthew was with them, no longer in his police uniform, he had graciously accepted the offer Ben made to him to change into a pair of clothes he had brought with him from home.  They were a bit large on him, but it made people more at ease to not have him in uniform

Matthew had been placed in charge of internal security of the school.  Mediating over any fight that would pop up over who really owned a blanket, or to make sure that frayed tempers didn’t get too out of hand.  The shelter had a minor problem with theft, as the only property you could really call your own was whatever you could hold with you.

Frank was so concerned over this problem that he had gathered everybody together to address them, to appeal to their sense of humanity and to get them to come together as a group to help one another, and not steal what wasn't yours.  The message had been mostly received, partly in fear of being kicked out of the shelter to fend for yourself were you to be caught.  Frank had never really said that such would be done.  It was a persistent rumor that Frank didn’t do anything to dispel.  Ben doubted that the man he had come to know would really do such for such a minor offense.  The unspoken threat alone was enough to keep people on their best behavior.  Matthew was his way of ensuring that he never had to make such a decision.

Ben headed towards the group, who were all checking their weapons to make sure they were ready.  Ben had instructed that each man be armed with a long rifle and a handgun, along with enough rounds to ensure that they could hold off a large group of the creatures.

Ben knew most of the men who had volunteered after the request had been made.  Most were locals from the area who already had a working knowledge of firearms.  Two of them had served during the 1990’s Gulf War.  One of the men had arrived with Lindsey’s group at the same time as Ben.  She had told him that this particular guy had just been released from prison when the outbreak started.  Frank had requested that one of the items to have the highest priority while they were out was a gas truck.  The last man to join the group heading out was a long haul trucker, and oIf they could locate a tanker truck, it was this man who would drive it back immediately to the shelter. Assuming it was full, they could power the school’s generator day and night for over a month before having to find another truck.

As Ben reached the group, one of the men handed him a .22 caliber rifle with a scope.  Ben thanked the man and slung it over his shoulder.  He looked over the men as they all looked to him for their word to get started.  Ben thought it would be a good idea to go over the general game plan, just one last time.

“Alright gents” he started “I know we’ve already covered things, but just one last time so we’re clear.”  The men stood there listening, showing no sign that they were unhappy about hearing this once again.  “We’ll be hitting three locations.  The first is a warehouse bulk food store about five miles away, off of Old Ox road.  Two of you will ride with me in my truck, the other four in the van.  Once we reach the first location, the drivers will stay outside and make sure the exit remains clear while the others go inside and start gathering food.  Take as much as you can and bring it back outside and start loading it up.

The next location after the warehouse will be a sporting goods store about a mile, back in the direction of the Shelter.  It’s one of these massive places that has items for every sport, including a firearms section.  That’s our main need, although if you get a chance, hit the camping section as well, and also any clothes you can grab.  Most important are guns, rifles and ammunition.

The last location is another supermarket on the way back home.  Same drill as before.  Drivers stay outside while the others collect as much stuff as they can.  By that point we’ll be pretty chock full with little room left.  Those people going into the supermarkets.” Ben picked one of the guys at random “Your job will be to collect nothing but medical items from the first aide isles.  Bandages, medicine, sprays. . .whatever is in that isle.  

Ben dug under his shirt and pulled out a playground whistle.  “I have two of these things.  If we run into trouble, I’ll start blowing to signal inside.  If you hear a whistle, it means we’re in deep shit outside.  Drop what you’re doing and get back to the vehicles.”

Ben handed the other whistle from inside his pocket to the man on his right, the man Lindsey had introduced as Bridger Durgen.  “Congratulations, you’re going to be the other driver and keeping watch with me outside.”  Durgen took the whistle and placed its cord around his neck.

“Bonus items” Ben said, “are large gas trucks and an ambulance.  I talked with the Doc, who said she needed some medical tools and supplies you can’t find at the local drug store.  If either driver sees a gas truck or an ambulance, stop and we’ll take them along with us.”  Ben knew that it wasn’t going to be likely, but he wanted to make sure that in the event one was seen, everybody knew the plan.

“Now, if we do locate a gas truck, we’ll postpone our trip until after we get the truck back safely to the shelter.  If we locate an ambulance, we’ll bring it along with us if the keys are still there.  If they aren’t, or there isn’t any gas left, we’re to take everything from inside.”  Ben looked around at the men who were listening intently.   “Questions?”

The men shook their heads.  They all pretty much knew what they had to do.  Ben had made sure of it last night after the men had come to the office to volunteer.  

“Alright then, let’s get this done as quickly as possible so we can all get back here.”  The men all walked together to Ben’s truck and the van Lindsey had arrived in, which were sitting in the driveway, ready to head out.  Their gas tanks had been topped of, and were probably the only cars left with full tanks after the siphoning had taken place two days ago.

Frank unlocked the doors for the three guys riding with him, and patted Matthew on the back as he walked by with his group to the airport van.  The men all got into their vehicles and started up their engines.  The noise made everybody in the courtyard turn their heads, as this was the first time in days they had heard a car engine.  Ben pulled out in front as the van followed him.  The drove around the circular drive in front of the school and towards the main gates, which were already being opened.  Ben saw Frank standing near the main gate.

He slowed the truck down as he approached, rolling down his window.   Frank walked up, placing his arm on the open window ledge and looked a bit nervous. “Just wanted to wish you all luck”.  

“Just keep a light on and the gates open for us when we head back.”  Ben said as he placed the folded map on the dashboard.  

Frank held up a hand held radio which was still on. “I already radioed Erin and told her you guys would be heading out.  She said that undead traffic was pretty light this morning.”   Ben looked at Frank.

“Undead?” he asked.  Frank shrugged his shoulders.

“We really didn’t know what we should be calling these things.  Somebody just started referring to them as the undead yesterday and it kinda stuck.” Ben had heard the walking dead being referred to as ghouls, creatures, monsters, corpses and even things, but undead was new.  It a lot of ways it both identified what they were pretty well, and conveyed their danger.

“Works for me” Ben said as he rolled the name through his head.  “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”  Frank took his arm off the open window, allowing Ben to roll it up as the two vehicles rolled out through the gates and down the road leading into town.  

Chapter 17
En Route to Scavenge Location 1

As Ben led the group through the wooded area, he saw several dead bodies laying on the side of the road, all having been shot in the head.  This was the work of the outlying security teams who kept watch around the perimeter of the shelter, making sure that none of the undead got too close.  

Ben continued up Clifton road, surprised to see that all of the stalled cars he had passed on the way into the shelter last week had been pushed off the road.  Again, this was one of Frank’s ideas, making sure that any groups going out or coming in could do so as quickly as possible.

One of the guys in the backseat pointed off into the woods to a group of about 15 undead which were making their way towards the general area of the shelter.  Ben looked over to see the creatures stumbling as they made their slow trek.  He considered stopping to kill these undead, but decided against it.  He had to keep to the issue at hand.  He knew that the corporal’s group would deal with these people before they got too close.

The vehicles got to the main crossroad where they would need to turn to start towards the warehouse store. Ben took the corner and started towards his first location.  He looked down the road to see several undead who were coming their way.  Ben continued heading towards them, slowing as he got close. The undead raised their arms and started to moan, walking even faster towards them.  Ben simply bumped them as he went by, knocking them aside with ease.  

They continued down the road, coming to a ramp where they would have to make yet another turn.  As Ben slowed, he could see the tall sign standing well above the treeline, advertising the location of the store.  Ben dodged several abandoned cars as he weaved through them, knocking yet another undead to the side.  He went down the road a bit, making sure the van was still close behind him.

As he turned into the parking lot, he saw there were about eight of the undead just standing in the parking lot of the warehouse, slowing swaying as they approached.  Only one of them was near the front doors, which had been ripped open, no doubt by the mobs of survivors during the early days.  Glass and various items were strewn all around the front entrance.  Ben sped up, knocking into the creature as he past the front door, turning the wheel hard so the back of his truck would be near the entrance.

Ben put the truck into park and shouted loudly to the men with him “Lets go!”.  The doors to the truck opened quickly as the men, all with their weapons at the ready climbed out and quickly went to work.  Ben started to take aim with his rifle as the van pulled up next to him.  He looked through the scope, targeting the head of the closest undead creature, making sure he was right between it’s eyes and pulled the trigger.  He watched as its head jerked back swiftly, it’s body falling backwards in a heap to the asphalt.

He looked over to see the men in the van already heading in, to join those who were in the truck, gathering food items.  A man he had met for the first time this morning, Durgen stood beside him.  He had an AR-15 up and was already squeezing off a shot at another of the undead.  

“We’re going to attract all of these things that are in the area with the gunshots.” Durgen said, taking aim once again and firing.  This time a blond woman, with blood crusted on her face had her head explode as Durgen fired off another round.  From inside the sounds of gunfire could be heard.  

Durgen looked over his shoulder.  Ben had expected this, and wanted to keep the man calm. “Keep your mind out here Durgen.” Ben said, taking aim with his.22, shooting a fat man in overalls who had a severed leg in his hand.  “We knew that there would be undead inside the places we went to. The guys inside can handle it.”

“Undead?” Durgen asked, turning to his left, shooting at a moaning teenager who had just turned the corner of the store.  

“New name for these things.” Ben said, firing again at the fat man.  His first shot had hit him in the neck, ripping a large piece of it out, but otherwise not phasing the robust looming figure.  

Durgen dropped to his knee, steadying his aim. He switched back again to his left and fired at a business man, still in his suit who was only 40 feet away.  A red mist exploded from behind the undead corporate leader’s head as the bullet passed through his skull, dropping him to the ground.  “I like it!”  He said, looking back at Ben who was firing at the undead woman he had knocked out of the way as they parked in front of the warehouse.  

A flatbed hand truck, being pushed by Matthew came out the front door.  He was loaded up with canned and bagged food.  He and another man behind him started throwing the food into the back of the van.

“It’s been picked pretty much clean” Matthew said, shouting to be heard over the continuing gunfire.  “There isn’t much left.  We should be done here pretty quick.”  The men continued to load up the van as Ben and Durgen finished off the last remaining undead who were in the parking lot.

“Just grab what’s left and we’ll hit the supermarkets.” Ben yelled back.  Both men out front took the opportunity to reload their rifles, quickly placing more rounds into their magazines. From inside two more men came out, their own flatbed hand trucks loaded with various items.  Again they began to load up the van while Matthew and the other men went back in.  Ben looked around, not seeing any additional creatures. This is too easy Ben thought to himself, listening to the sound of a dead city, occasional being broken by the noises of the men inside of the store.

“Here they come!” Durgen shouted as he again went down to one knee, taking aim down the parking lot.  Ben looked over his shoulder to see a large moaning mob of undead approaching him.  There were a lot of them.  More then he had anticipated.  “Hrmph. . .Figures!” Durgen said, looking through the scope on his rifle.  Ben raised his own weapon up and looked through his scope, focusing on the group just coming out of the tree line.

He saw what he thought must have been 200 undead easy, all in a group and heading right for them.  It was a mix of walking dead people in dirty and torn clothes.  Just as he had seen before, most of them were missing pieces of their body, or had large blood stains were they had been attacked previously.  Without taking his eyes off of the group, he spoke to Durgen.

“How long before they’re on top of us?” he asked, looking now at the man kneeling beside him. Durgen took a moment to consider.

“5 minutes?” He guessed.  Ben nodded his head, seeing movement off to his right.  Another, smaller group of five creatures were turning the corner of the building, heading towards them.

“Then we’re out of here in three minutes” Ben decided as he began taking aim at the closer undead group and began firing.  Ben focused on each of the people in order and dropped them to the ground.  Five undead in 8 shots.  Not his best but now wasn’t the time to worry about his marksmanship.  Durgen had begun taking aim at the larger group and was killing them one by one.  Ben was amazed at the accuracy Durgen had.  He was a very odd and quiet man, always watching people intently.  He usually only spoke when he had something important to say, otherwise he kept mostly to himself.  Even so, he was also one of the first who had volunteered.

Ben walked behind Durgen and saw a lone undead person who was making her way around a parked car.  Ben took aim and easily dispatched her.  He looked back to the door as the 3rd team came out, with more items and started loading them into Ben’s truck.  

“Two minutes gentlemen and we’re leaving. Once you’re done with that load, go back in and help the other with their runs.  We’re not going to have time to get more from here.”  Ben watched as the men looked nervously at the approaching undead horde, their moans almost deafening.  The men dropped a large can of what looked like pears from the side of the truck.  Ben knew they weren’t paying attention.

“Damn it worry about what you’re doing, we’ll worry about this out here!” He yelled to be heard.  The men went back to focusing on loading the remainder of their stash.  After they were done, they pushed the hand truck out of the way and ran back in.

“It’s getting pretty thick!” Durgen yelled as Ben turned to see the undead had now grown in number.  For every one of them they shot, 5 more poured out from the tree line.  They were getting fairly close.  Ben took aim at some of the group closest to him and opened fire.
From inside there was some shouting, and then gunfire.  Lots of gunfire.  Ben and Durgen looked at each other and got to their feet.  From inside the darkened warehouse, Matthew came out with a loaded up cart with the others close behind them.  One of them had his right hand placed under his left armpit.  They franticly began throwing the items they collected into the back of the van.

“What happened?” Ben shouted, looking at the wounded man.

“Bastards are coming in through the back.” The injured man shouted.  “One of them bit my hand when I wasn’t looking. It’s not bad, I’ll be ok!”  Ben patted the man on the back and pointed to the cart being unloaded.  

“Help them out!”  Ben turned to face Durgen.  He pointed at the marksman and then to the approaching group of undead. He then pointed to himself and then the door to the warehouse.  Durgen nodded and turned to continue firing at the approaching group.

Ben walked over to the front and strained to see inside the dark store.  He could see movement, but it was still a bit away.  He raised the rifle up, ready to use it as soon as he could get a clear target.  One shadow became four, and then the four shadows became eight.  From the sunlight that managed to make it’s way through the broken windows, Ben could see another large group coming towards him from inside of the warehouse.  He raised his rifle and fired at the lead undead man.  He hit him square in the forehead, sending him back into another person, who also fell to the floor.  He could hear the gunfire coming from Durgen’s rifle over the chorus of moans from the other side of the vehicles.  

Ben took another shot, missing a undead woman who was now fully engulfed in the sunlight.  She reached out for him, moaning as she moved slowly forward.  Matthew stepped into his peripheral view, waving his hands.  Ben looked over and Matthew gave him the thumbs-up signal.  He turned to see the back doors of both the van and his truck being closed.  Durgen had also seen this and was moving to the driver’s side of the van.

He ran over to his truck and climbed in.  The others got in quickly and closed the doors.  As he started up the engine, he looked out his window to the van and Durgen.  He nodded to Ben, indicating that everybody was in.  He put his truck into drive and started out of the parking lot quickly, the sound of the moans now turning into the heavy breathing of the 3 men in the truck with him.  

“It. . .” one of the men in the back seat began talking, laboring to catch his breath.  “It was pretty slim pickings in there.  It looked like the place had been looted pretty well.”  Ben turned out of the parking lot and continued down the road, swerving along the path he had memorized from the map.

“Were there bodies on the ground when you first went in?” Ben asked, paying as much attention as he could to the road in front of them.  The man in the passenger seat next to him answered.
“There were dozens of them. Why?”  Ben knew this wasn’t a good sign.  

“It means that we weren’t the first group of survivors to hit this place.  If the store had been looted during the first parts of the infection, there wouldn’t have been any dead bodies inside.  It would have happened too fast and the number of those undead things would have still been small.  The fact that there were bodies that weren’t getting back up means they died after the worst of the infection had taken hold. Some other group came in, made sure all the undead inside were really dead, and then cleaned the place pretty much out.”  Ben thought that might explain why there were so many undead still near the warehouse, and in such large numbers.  Whoever had hit their first scavenge location, had done it most likely less than 24 hours ago.   It was either the raiders that everybody in the shelter seemed to fear, or somebody else.  Somebody better trained and able to strip the contents of a large bulk warehouse market with shocking speed and efficiency.   This didn’t bode well.

cool man, i like how its developing

best story i have read yet

Definately the best zombie story I've read.  Good work.

[timidly raises hand]

I have a question.  Why is the Major getting all upset at the Colonel's orders?  Is there something I'm missing here that is obvious to those in the Armed Forces?  After all:

A.  The Executive Branch is effectively nonexistent, as is the Legislative Branch for that matter.

B.  The Military is the only organization left (that we're aware of) with the capacity to be proactive in regards to handling the situation with the "hostiles".

So what is the hangup?  Is it the fact that the Colonel will likely set himself up as a de-facto dictator?  For all practical purposes he already is one, by nature of the circumstances not of his own creation.  I'm getting the impression that something monumental and potentially illegal is about to happen, but I'm just not seeing how the remaining base commanders have any alternative.

And why would the Major or Bureau official have a fit over the situation with FBI headquarters?  For goodness sakes, the center was being overrun.  You'd think the FBI would be grateful for the hand.  Is the bureaucracy so bad that people can't think outside the box?

Just some quick tips,

Marines do not salute indoors (I took an ass chewing on this from an Army officer once, my command backed me up. Me-1 / Army officer-0) We only salute when wearing a cover (hat), we don't wear covers inside. If the Marines were armed then a cover would be required inside but still no salute.

Marines do not have tech sgt's.

Marines use proper rank, not just calling anyone past the rank of sgt, sgt.

I'm not bustin your balls, the story is awesome. Just thought it would help you make it a bit more real.

Keep up the good work.

AS

Originally Posted By ArmedSuspect: Just some quick tips, Marines do not salute indoors (I took an ass chewing on this from an Army officer once, my command backed me up. Me-1 / Army officer-0) We only salute when wearing a cover (hat), we don't wear covers inside. If the Marines were armed then a cover would be required inside but still no salute. Marines do not have tech sgt's. Marines use proper rank, not just calling anyone past the rank of sgt, sgt. I'm not bustin your balls, the story is awesome. Just thought it would help you make it a bit more real. Keep up the good work. AS

No ball bustin perceived. It should be quite obvious by now. . .I was never a devil dog but did stay in a Holiday Inn last night!

Thanks for your input.  I'll have to go back now and make a few tweaks, as well as edit some future stuff not posted yet.  By all means should you see anything else as I go on that you raise an eyebrow at. . .let me know!

Originally Posted By Shane333: [timidly raises hand] I have a question.  Why is the Major getting all upset at the Colonel's orders?  Is there something I'm missing here that is obvious to those in the Armed Forces?  After all: A.  The Executive Branch is effectively nonexistent, as is the Legislative Branch for that matter. B.  The Military is the only organization left (that we're aware of) with the capacity to be proactive in regards to handling the situation with the "hostiles". So what is the hangup?  Is it the fact that the Colonel will likely set himself up as a de-facto dictator?  For all practical purposes he already is one, by nature of the circumstances not of his own creation.  I'm getting the impression that something monumental and potentially illegal is about to happen, but I'm just not seeing how the remaining base commanders have any alternative. And why would the Major or Bureau official have a fit over the situation with FBI headquarters?  For goodness sakes, the center was being overrun.  You'd think the FBI would be grateful for the hand.  Is the bureaucracy so bad that people can't think outside the box?

Thanks for the question Shane, don't be afraid to raise your hand in "class."

Were it me and I was in the situation that I’m describing in the story. . .surrounded by 2000 trained Marines would be in my top 2 locations to be at to survive.

The original edit had the Marine Colonel being a lot more brutal and ironfisted then the re-write has.  When I would read it back again and again. . .I wasn’t happy with it.  The parts of the story written from the POV of Ben and Lindsey flow fairly naturally from me when I write.  When the POV is from Graham I struggle a lot.  I never served in the Marines so a lot of the knowledge and experience I’m winging and it shows in the narrative which still bothers me to this day.  

Rest assured, while it may not seem all that bad now. . .Graham’s story arch will get you shaking your fist.  

Great work so far!!  Keep it up.



Ron

Great new chapter.

Somebody tell the man with the bite that he needs to do everyone a favor and put a bullet through his brain before he causes a disaster!

Great storytelling, and awesomeness with the new chapters.

Quantico is home to the President's helicopters, an FBI training facility, a DEA facility and some artillery (which I could hear on crisp mornings sometimes while just south of the base in Stafford county).

The I-95 corridor cuts the base in two and it's fenced along the major roads but there's open forest around the country side part... so zombies could easily shuffle onto the base's back acres... but each compound on the base has it's own perimeter so theoretically it's one of the most secure zones in the country.

Just south of Stafford is Frederickburg. Now the thing to know about NoVA IS most roads run East to West not NORTH TO SOUTH as few as a dozen road blocks could totally shut down traffic from the Potomac all the way to the mountains.

In Frederickburg there's a huge mall with a Costco attached to a mall. That would be an excellent fortress for a couple hundred people to hole up in.

Then there's all the islands, penninsulas and cul-de-sac places on the map that are defensible or could be rapidly made so with a couple of Jersey barriers or some dry vans or steel garbage containers lined up and stacked...

I think if a bug or virus removed 50% or more of the population from the eating market there'd be so much surplus food laying around untouched that we'd have hundreds not dozens of Alamo refuges.

Still, the point about how many ad hoc defenses would have the right mix of leaders, tools, food, and ammo is well taken.

Great new chapters!

thanks for the update

Great story!

Chapter 18
En Route to Scavenge Location 2

Ben came to an intersection.  As he made the slow turn, weaving through the burnt and damaged cars, he saw an ambulance up ahead.  It was off to the side of the road, near two other cars that had slammed into one another.  He drove up cautiously, looking to see if anymore undead were close by.  Bem came up along side of the ambulance and parked right next to it.

“Alright” Ben said, putting the truck into park once again.  “Just like we discussed.”  The man next to Ben took out his handgun and got out of the truck.  He walked up to the ambulance and opened the door, leaning in to check for keys.  After a moment he ran back to the truck and opened the door.

“The keys are still in there, but the battery is dead. It won’t turn over.”  Ben guessed they must have kept the overhead lights on while they were stopped, and that drained the ambulance’s battery.  “We could probably jump it.” The man said, looking back at the stalled vehicle.

“That will take too much time.  Let’s go ahead and get everything we can out.”  Ben opened the door and motioned for the men in the van to join them.  One by one they got out and jogged over, all with their weapons at the ready.  Ben addressed them all at the same time.  

“The battery in the ambulance is dead.  Everybody get everything inside out and load it into the back of my truck.”  Ben opened the back gate and raised the window on the bed cover.  “Matthew, climb on top of one of these cars and keep an eye out.”  Matthew nodded and jumped up onto the roof of a Ford expedition.

The others jogged over to the back of the ambulance and opened the doors, beginning the task of emptying it of everything.  As they worked to clean it out, Ben spotted an EMT toolbox sitting along the side of the road.  It was open as if it had just been left recently.  As the men worked to transport the items, he walked over and closed the lid of the tool box and brought it with him back to truck, loading it inside.

The men continued working as Matthew kept watch over them.  Grabbing a large roll of gauze, Ben found the man who had been bitten and began to bandage up his hand.  The bite wasn’t deep, but it was bleeding as if it had cut all the way through his hand.  He finished wrapping the man’s hand and the two helped loading up all the supplies, leaving only a rolling gurney.  

“I don’t think this will fit!” Durgen said as the men looked it over.

“Leave it” Ben responded, calling Matthew back to rejoin them.  Matthew got down and hurried over to them.

“We have about 30 of those things starting down the road behind us.”  Matthew looked back down the road as the first sounds of their moans could be heard.  

Ben looked over to Durgen, who was already starting back towards the van.  The others went to their own doors and climbed back into the vehicles.  They continued down the street as they proceeded to the sporting goods store.  This location promised to be a bit less overrun then the warehouse was.

The Sporting goods store was in the middle of a corporate complex, with the closest housing units being half a mile away.  The less number of houses nearby meant the less number of undead they would need to worry about.  In theory anyway.  The warehouse store had been right next to a town home community, which might also explain why there were so many undead who showed up so quickly.  The only thing that really concerned Ben was the possibility of whoever it was who cleaned out the warehouse market, may have also hit this place as well.  It was a bridge they would have to cross when they got to it.

He continued along, seeing the occasional undead creature as they went along, most times by itself.  The lack of cars in the area was making their progress go smoothly.  It seems that during the onset of panic, this wasn’t an area that was widely used to try and escape.

Ben saw the street up ahead he would have to take.  He came to the road and turned, almost hitting a car that was parked along the side.  He quickly dodged it, straightening out and kept moving along.  The road they were on curved slightly, the tall corporate building blocking the sunlight and placed them in the shade.

The sporting goods store should be just up ahead.  He came to a large parking lot and then saw it.  It was a two-story building with its large storefront windows intact.  A lone undead was swaying along the sidewalk in front of the store.

“Yes!” Ben said to the others in the truck. “We’re the first ones here.” Ben turned into the parking lot and drove towards the front door.  As the truck came to a stop, the other quickly jumped out and ran to the door.  Ben got out and took aim at the lone undead as it turned and started towards the approaching van.  He took aim and fired, easily dispatching the middle-aged man.  The sound of broken glass rang through the lot as the van came to a rest next to the truck.  

Durgen came over to keep watch with Ben as the rest of the group ran inside, following the first team that had gone inside.

Both men kept watch, nervously pacing around the vehicles as the others were inside, busily gathering up the list they had been told previously to find.  Ben once again noticed how eerily quiet everything was.  There were no sounds of airplanes or traffic, or any of the other sounds you would have come to expect from a busy metropolitan city.  Even the birds and crickets, which should have been active, were silent.

Thankfully, there wasn’t a pre-existing supply of the undead to deal with this time.  Unless the rear of the store had been broken into as well, they didn’t have to worry about any of them being inside of the store.  The parking lot only had a few cars out front, and they were off at the far end of the parking lot.  No doubt commuter cars from some of the local businesses.

Ben slug his rifle around his shoulder.  They were parked near the middle of the store, and would have ample warning if any undead were to approach them.  He even considered having Durgen stand guard solo, but decided against it.  He had gone to a lot of trouble to devise this plan, and changing things mid-stream would only stand to confuse everybody.  He thought it best to wait outside and stick to the plan.  

The first group exited the store, carrying several armloads of rifles and shotguns, their pockets budging with rattling ammunition.

“It’s a goldmine boss!” One of the men said as he began dumping his armload of weapons inside of the van, happily announcing his find.  He then began empting his pockets of boxed shotgun shells and ammunition of various calibers from his pockets.  A second man emerged with more rifles, shotguns and several handguns which were tucked into his waist band.  He too was loaded down with ammunition.  

“Can’t you guys use a cart?” Durgen asked, looking over the bounty the men had gathered thus far?  The first man who had just finished loading his pockets, answered.

“There’s an escalator in the middle of the store, and its not working.  We can’t get the carts down, so we’re moving stuff by hand.”  He said as he jogged back into the store, as Matthew now exited, carrying more long guns.  He looked over at Ben as he started the process of unloading.

“There’s a locked room behind the gun counter which I figure has even more weapons and ammunition inside.  I could bash it open, or use one of the shotguns to blow off the doorknob.” Ben knew that those weapons could make the difference between holding the shelter for a while longer.  He didn’t want to spend too much time at this location, but then again, they weren’t exactly pressed for time like they were at the warehouse.

Ben scratched his unshaven chin. “Do what you can to get inside, but don’t use a gun.  I want to make as little noise as possible. I think that’s how these things are findings us. See if you can find a sledgehammer, or crowbar, or something heavy to get inside.”  Matthew gave him a quick nod and then headed back inside, passing another man who had boxes of ammunition pilled in a large box, dragging it behind him.  He got to the van and started unloading it as quickly as possible.  It was the same man who had been injured at the warehouse.  Ben walked over and helped him unload.  This was going to be an impressive haul.  Depending on how much was in that back room, and however much camping supplies were inside, they might fill the two vehicles to capacity.  

Ben looked around briefly to make sure there weren’t any undead approaching.  He went back to helping the man unload and then sent him back in to get more.   He kicked the box to the side and rejoined Durgen.

“You know, it would be a shame to leave stuff here that could be useful back at the shelter.” Durgen said, taking a cigarette out of his pocket and offering one to Ben.  He declined.  Durgen lit the cigarette as the two continued to watch.

“I was thinking the same thing.” Ben said, listening to the faint sounds of the men inside, shouting instructions to one another.  “With another group out there somewhere, I feel kind of bad, hording all this stuff for ourselves.  Then again with the entire country now turned into these undead things, not to mention the raiders Frank told me about, the more firepower we have, the better chance we have at surviving.”  Durgen took a deep drag off the cigarette.

“Who says the other group out there isn’t the raiders?” Durgen responded, scanning the horizon for any movement.  Ben had to admit that Durgen had a valid point.  He knew that there were groups like the Front Royal shelter, and other shelters like the weird communications guy pointed out who could be in the area.  Even with this information looming, Ben knew it was very much an “everyman for himself” situation.  

“What do you suggest?” He asked Durgen.  “Skip the next supermarket and just focus on the store here?”  Ben didn’t like that idea.  The warehouse store had been a large bust.  He had planned on having at least the van filled to capacity by the end of the first stop, but with the store having been looted by people unknown, they had less then what was needed in the way of food.

Durgen shook his head. “No, we should still hit the next supermarket.  But if we had another vehicle. . .we could gather more.”  Durgen was right, but they didn’t have the time to head back to Clifton and get one of the other trucks.  

It suddenly hit Ben.  They didn’t need to head all the way back to Clifton.  They could take any vehicle they wanted.  Ben began looking around at the nearby office buildings, looking to find something other then a car.  Something big enough to hold a large volume of items.  Durgen saw Ben looking around and pointed off to their left.

“Soccer Mom mini-van, next parking lot over”.  Ben looked towards where Durgen was pointing.  It was perfect.  It was one of the newer model minivans with the collapsible seats in the rear.  Ben took his rifle from around his should and held it up, using the scope to take a closer look.  The parking lot was clear.  He lowered his rifle and looked at Durgen.

“Do you know how to hotwire that thing?”  Ben knew from watching the movies, that you had to pull the wires from underneath the steering column, but wasn’t sure which wires those would be.  Durgen took another drag from his cigarette and tossed it on the ground.

He slung his rifle over his shoulder and let out a brief “yep” and started jogging over to the empty parking lot, not waiting for the order to be said.  Ben wondered if auto theft had been what Durgen was originally locked up for?  His own curiosity would have to wait, as he was suddenly considering the implications of having another vehicle to load supplies in.  He knew this meant the trip would be even more successful then he had originally intended, yet he didn’t want to get too confident or let his guard down too much.  There was still a lot that could go wrong.

Two of the men from inside came out at the same time, carrying the last of the showroom rifles and shotguns, and each had belts and handgun holsters draped over their shoulders.  As they started unloading, one of the men looked around.

“Where’s Durgen?” He asked, tossing the holsters inside of Ben’s truck.

“He ran over to grab a minivan, so we could get more stuff from here.”  They looked over to where Ben was pointing, to see Durgen crossing out of the stores parking lot and making his way towards the minivan.   “How’s Matthew doing with the door?” Ben asked, keeping an eye on Durgen as the two men finished unloading.

“He got into the backroom, but all the weapons and ammo back there are in a steel security cage.  He’s trying to bash a padlock off the gate door, but he says he may have to shoot it off.”  Ben didn’t like the idea, but he would have to risk it.  They needed those weapons.  He turned to look at the men, who were already heading back inside.

“Guys, are all the weapons from outside that backroom gone?”

The older of the two men motioned for his partner to head back inside while he spoke with Ben.

“Yeah, but there is still a lot of ammo left.”   He extended his arms, trying to show by volume how much was still waiting to be loaded up.   Ben considered for a moment.  With the extra van on its way, he could opt to be greedy.

“Tell everybody to finish bringing down the ammo and then focus on camping stuff, especially any camping food they might have.  MRE’s or anything like that.”  The guy looked at him oddly.  Ben explained “Meals Ready to Eat.  Freeze dried camping food, stuff that’s already packaged and lasts forever.”  The guy nodded and headed back inside.  Ben heard the engine of the minivan start up as Durgen quickly put the vehicle into gear and headed for the front door.

He stopped next to the airport van and the two men began folding down the rear seats, making as much room as they could.  

“Well done” Ben said, as he opened the rear of the minivan and folded down the rear bench seat.

“Yep” Durgen replied, taking out another cigarette and lighting it.   Ben walked back near the front door and kept watch in the other direction.  The men brought out more ammunition and kept loading it into the airport van, which was now almost full.   One of the guys came over to Ben, breathing heavy as he stopped next to him.

“That’s the last of the ammunition they had out in the open.”  He bent down and placed his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.  Ben offered him a bottle of water he had in his hunting vest, and the man accepted, taking a long drink.

“Head back in and let everybody know to start on the camping gear.  Get blankets, campfire cooking supplies, anything you think would be useful.”  The man took another drink of water and started back in.   Ben watched as he went through the doors, as two of the other guys came out with 2 carts full of the camping MRE’s he had mentioned before.  Entire boxes of them loaded in the carts.

“I thought you couldn’t get a cart down the stairs?” Ben asked, looking at the men as they packed the items into the airport van.  

“We’re throwing them over the side of the second floor and loading them up in carts down there.” One of the guy answered, busily unloading.  Ben nodded his approval.  He was pleased with the group who had volunteered. Not only were they fast, but they could think on the fly.  They could improvise when a roadblock came along.  He was hopeful for the first time since coming to the shelter a week ago.  

From inside of the store came a loud gunshot.  Then another. The sound was enough to make all the men outside jump.  The two men who had just finished unloading the camping MRE’s, closed the airport van’s rear door and ran back in.  Both Durgen and Ben raised their rifles, expecting the men inside to come running out once again, with the undead in pursuit.  Several minutes went by with no word from inside.

Ben knew it was most likely Matthew trying to get the padlock off the gate door, but he wanted to make sure.  As the minutes went by, more of the men from inside came out with more carts full of various camping items.  

“Who got shot?” Durgen asked as the men headed over to Ben’s truck, unloading the items.

“Matt has the padlock off and is loading up stuff from inside.”  Ben was relieved that it wasn’t more serious.  The men went on unloading as the next group came out with more items, along with a handful of rifles.  Durgen lifted an eyebrow as the new rifles came out the front door and past him.

“That’s some serious firepower”. He said, looking the weapons over as they rolled by.  Ben wasn’t what you would call a gun nut. He had a passing familiarity with handguns and rifles, but he knew that Durgen did, and if he was pleased, it meant that Frank would be as well.  

More items were brought out and loaded up as quickly as possible.  Ben looked across the parking lot as he saw a group of undead crest a nearby hill.  As he had been afraid of, the noise had attracted them.  

“Company!” He shouted as he raised the rifle to the ready.  They were still a good ways out, 300 yards or so, but it meant that they would need to leave soon.  Durgen came over and had a look for himself.  

“Looks to be some of the same crowd from over at the warehouse.”  Ben couldn’t be sure from this range.  Durgen’s rifle had a better scope on it, and could make out detail from further away.  Regardless of if they were they same undead or not, he knew they should start getting ready.

“I’ll watch this crowd” he told Durgen, taking more rounds out of his pocket, getting them ready.  “You keep an eye out on the other side.”  Durgen went back over near the minivan he had procured.  Ben made sure the guys inside knew they had less then 5 minutes as they came out again, and to make only 1 or 2 more runs.

As the loaders finished placing their items in the back of Ben’s truck, they decided not to push their luck and to finish up with the last location so they could head back home.  Ben got back into the truck as Matthew took over driving the airport van.  Durgen and the wounded man got inside the minivan and the three vehicles started off again, this time to the same supermarket where Ben had first met Lindsey.  Whereas the first location had been more or less a bust, the camping supply and hunting store almost made this entire excursion with their time.  Ben watched as the three vehicles behind him closed ranks and kept a close distance to one another has they had planned. Ben didn’t want to allow himself to get too content. There was still more to do and the danger hadn’t resided any, but after this haul. . .Ben had to smile.

Chapter 19
En Route to Scavenge Location 3

The three cars once again found themselves weaving through the maze of cars and debris which had piled up in the final days.  Ben led them along streets he had chosen and navigated a path which would keep them away from any of the major highways.  

Leaving the undead behind them at the sporting goods store, Ben made sure the other vehicles behind them kept up.  He was surprised to see that there were more and more undead in the area then when last he was here.  When he and Matthew had first arrived last week, there were only random groups.  Now there was a steady supply.  Not concentrated in any one group, but scattered in small pockets, all slowly swaying.  They would reach out for the vehicles as they got close to them, but were too far away to make any real attempt at extracting the men from the vehicles.  Those few who were blocking the path, got bumped out of the way as the caravan approached them.

Ben turned onto the last leg of their journey.  Another stretch of the same road they had first started on after leaving the shelter.  This road ran through Centreville, and close to route 66 that Ben had been on just a week before.

As he crested the top of the hill, he could see ahead down the road.  A full mile ahead of him was the location of the supermarket.  All along the roadway were scattered numbers of the undead, all slowly shuffling.  They weren’t reaching out for anybody, just slowly meandering in various locations.  Just like before, as the vehicles roared into earshot, the creatures turned and picked up their pace, moving with purpose directly for them.

Ben did his best to avoid as many as he could.  More then once, he knocked them out of the way with the van, only to have them bounce off a stalled car and fall directly into their path.  Ben had no choice to run directly over them, causing his truck to jump uncontrollably, shifting the items in his vehicle all around.

As they got closer to the supermarket. The crowd of undead began to thin out.  With the parking lot came of the supermarket coming into view, Ben could see a large number of dead bodies laying out front.  An occasional undead figure still remained in the lot, still with the same directionless shuffle.  

The three vehicles navigated their way into the lot, and then made a direct beeline for the front.  Ben pulled up to the front doors and quickly stopped.  Durgen’s Minivan stopped directly in back of him, and the airport van, already full and unable to take anymore supplies came up to parallel Ben’s Truck.  

Again, everybody stormed out of their vehicles like US airborne soldiers, jumping out of a plane, their weapons held at the ready.  The 5 men who had loaded at the previous locations all went in at once, ready to scavenge whatever they could.  Durgen walked over to join Ben, who was already taking aim at one of the closest undead, firing and sending them to the ground.  

A strong rotting smell permeated the area.  A foul and repugnant smell of putrefying human flesh and rotting vegetables.   With the power off in the area, all the perishable items in the store had done just that.  Combined with the dispatched undead bodies out front and the oppressive summer heat, it made for a harsh smell, worse then any Ben had experienced.

Durgen continued with clearing the area, shooting two more undead in rapid succession.  Each he hit with accurate precision.  The men kept a watchful eye on the horizon, making sure they would have ample notice before they were overrun.  From inside came the sounds of gunfire.  Several rounds were fired and then silence.  Ben turned and strained to see what was going on inside.  Once again without the lights on inside, it was too dark to tell.

Durgen placed his gun on his shoulder.  “They’re fine” he said with authority.  “No screaming after gunfire means they hit what they were aiming at.”  Almost as if on cue, the sounds of shopping carts being loaded could be heard.  Ben returned to keeping watch over the area.  Several undead could be seen off in the distance, slowly making their way directly for them, but it would be some time before they would pose any real threat, and at this distance, Ben was sure even Durgen would have problems shooting them.

The first wave of canned and bagged food items came out and was loaded in the rear of the minivan.  Bags of food were crushed under the weight of canned items tossed in haphazardly.  The men didn’t have the time to consider placing the items in carefully.  They were after quantity, not quality.  

The first group finished as the next came out, almost like an assembly line.  More food items and various supplies had been gather, and were being tossed into both the van and Ben’s truck.  It seemed as if there hadn’t been any additional looting since the doctor’s group had been here last week.  There was no shortage of cans and boxes of dried food and cereal being brought out.  

Ben watched as several shadows began appearing over the horizon, their bodies catching the light of the sun, hitting them as the walked into view.  The crowd of undead they had previously passed and were scattered, had combined into one large mass, moving directly for them.  Ben looked over at Durgen, who already had his rifle up to his shoulder, and was evaluating the crowd through his scope.  

“I’d say we have 10 minutes tops.” Durgen announced as he flipped the safety on his AR-15.  Ben turned to inform the loading parties, who were busily unloading their supplies.  The men nodded and went back in, informing the others inside.  Ben looked in the other directions.  Another large group was approaching from ahead of them, but were also a ways off.  They were quickly going to be surrounded.

“Oh shit!” Ben exclaimed, heading for his truck dashboard, and opening the map.  He looked at the green highlight he had made earlier, looking for alternate routes back to the Clifton shelter.  The path he intended to return on was now full of undead people.  He could bump one or two out of the way without much concern.  Even one or two dozen could be dealt with.  The numbers up ahead that blocked his path numbered more then two dozen.   If Ben attempted to take the Caravan through the mob, he stood a good chance of stalling the vehicles on their bodies, allowing the others to bust through the windows.

Ben looked at the nearby roads on the map.  He could take several side roads to get back, but it would tack on another half-hour on their journey.  He also wasn’t sure what roadblocks would be in the way.  It was possible that several of the roads could be completely impassable.  It was extremely risky, but Ben had little choice at this point.  He took out a yellow highlighter and quickly traced out a new route.  Refolding the map, he left the section he was looking at on top and placed it on the dashboard.

More carts came out quickly, several now at the same time.  The men labored to keep the items from spilling out as they threw them in the minivan.  The haphazard piles made it difficult to keep the larger items inside.  Ben jumped as Durgen started firing at the group blocking the path back home.  

“Hold up!” he yelled in-between shots, trying to get Durgen’s attention.  “There’s too many of them.  I found another path we can take to get back.  Save your rounds.”  Durgen lowered his rifle, looking back at the progress the men were making.  

“When do we leave?” Durgen asked, taking another cigarette from his pocket.  Ben looked inside the windows, evaluating their progress.  

“One more trip from each guy should do it.”  Durgen nodded and walked over to the minivan, opening the door and starting the engine.  Ben looked over each group, watching as certain death loomed closer and closer.  Matthew and the wounded man came out with two carts both full with food.  They started unloading items into Ben’s truck, filling it to capacity.  Matthew closed the flatbed gate and then the window above.  Ben leaned over to the men as they secured the back doors, his voice barley audible over the wail of the approaching mob.

“That’s it!” Ben yelled. “We’re leaving as soon as the others unload.”  Matthew nodded, taking the rifle off his shoulder and holding it at the ready.  The wounded man pulled out his handgun and kept watch in the other direction.  The mob was now spilling into the parking lot.  Their numbers extended all the way up the road and over the hill on the horizon.  There were easily 600 of them, all wailing and looking directly at the waiting men.

Another of Ben’s group came out of the front doors, his cart full of medical items.  He rolled over to the minivan, ramming the car into the rear.  With the speed of  a man in complete fear, he tossed the items inside by the armful, quickly going for the next armful before the previous load had a chance to settle.  Matthew ran over to help him, cleaning the cart out faster.  They pushed the cart out of the way and Matthew motioned for the man to remain with him.  

Ben watched intently for the last two men to emerge, he wanted to make sure they could get their cart unloaded fully without delay.  Ben continued to look, hopeful that the men had been told about the last haul.  He had no doubt that everybody inside could hear the roaring moan that approached.  They were probably trying to gather as much as they could on this last trip.  He knew that the more food they could collect on this trip, meant more time before they would have to plan for another excursion out of the shelter.

More time passed and the men weren’t emerging.  Ben looked over to Matthew who was giving him a “what do we do” look.  Ben couldn’t give them anymore time.  They’d have to make do with whatever they had.  He nodded at Matthew and pointed at the door.  Without acknowledging, Matthew ran inside the supermarket to gather the remaining men.  

Ben got his rifle at the ready, as did Durgen who had stepped out of the minivan.  Both men were getting ready to fire.  The crowd was now at 40 yards and were approaching quickly.  Durgen took aim and started to fire, hitting several undead with his first volley, each one falling, knocking a few more off their feet.  Ben’s approaching mob was still a bit out.  He wanted to wait until they were closer in.  He didn’t have the skill Durgen did with a rifle, and he didn’t want to waste time reloading.

From his peripheral view, Ben saw Matthew running out of the supermarket, firing his rifle back inside as he ran out.  Ben knew this was bad, real bad.  From inside, several undead came stumbling out, fresh blood smeared over their mouths.  The wounded man, seeing this slammed the backdoor to the minivan closed and ran around to the passenger’s door, climbing in quickly.  

Matthew did the same, climbing into the van by himself and quickly turning the engine on.   Ben ran around to his truck and got inside, finding the last of his group, already inside and buckled in.  Ben started up his truck and put it into gear, quickly pulling out of the parking lot and towards the residential road away from the mob, the others following him quickly.

Ben grabbed the map and tossed it to the man in the passenger seat.  “We’re in the red circle marked with a three!” He yelled, the adrenalin from the escape still pumping through him.  “Start giving me directions that I highlighted in yellow.”   The man did as he was told without question.  As they drove up the side streets, the man would tell him where to turn next, with the other vehicles following.  


* * * * * * * * * * *


It was early afternoon when the caravan arrived back at the Shelter.  Ben had driven back not uttering a word.  He focused on driving and listening to the directions as they were given to him.  He had just watched in a daze as the caravan slowly made their way back to the shelter.  Driving more on internal autopilot, Ben managed to evade the few undead they came across on the way back.

As they approached the town, the group was waved past by Corporal Hasser and her group of border guards.  They were dragging several dead bodies off the road as the caravan past them.  Ben drove past and straight for the gates of the School.  As they drove up the small road which let into the compound, the guards at the gate opened the large doors to allow the supply team in.  Ben drove up the drive and parked just past the stairs leading to the main door.  A thunderous applause started up from all around him.  From the gathered mass of survivors in the court yards, from the people emerging from the doors of the school.  People hung out of the front windows of the school, both floors clapping and hooting.  They were heroes, they had managed to accomplish what they had set out to do.  Keep the shelter going and keep the survivors fed.  Ben shut the engine off as Frank emerged from the school.  After seeing the three vehicles full of supplies, he yelled back inside for help unloading.  

The others who had been with Ben starting piling out of their supply heavy vehicles, each with a face showing the depression of losing two of their comrades. Guards who had been patrolling the grounds were slapping the man on the back, congratulating them for a job well done.   Frank walked up to the driver’s window where Ben still sat.  Still holding onto the wheel, he just looked straight ahead, unwilling to get out of the car, half wanting to drive back to the supermarket on the slim chance that the two men lost might still be alive.

“Ben?” Frank said with a calm tone, just barely audible over the cheers from the shelter.  Ben didn’t respond.

“You should come inside, sit down and take it easy.”  He watched as Ben slowly began to move, opening the door and stepping out of the truck.  As his feet hit the ground, his legs gave out from under him and he collapsed onto his knees, vomiting on the pavement in front of him.  Frank lurched forward to support Ben and keep him from falling all the way to the ground.  The cheers which had been joyous suddenly stopped as people saw Ben collapse onto the deck.

Ben continued to heave as Frank held onto his shoulders.  Once the contents of his stomach were emptied, he slowly made it back onto his feet.  Frank continued to hold onto him and he guided him around the truck and towards the doorway of the school. “Let have the Doc take a look at you” he said, helping Ben make it up the stairs.  The others from his group were sitting on the steps, each deep in his own thoughts.  All except for Durgen, who stood calmly, smoking a cigarette.

Frank led Ben through the front doors and towards the clinic, passing other residents of the shelter who were busy helping to unload the supplies.  The small nervous man who had accompanied Lindsey’s group to the shelter was making a list of each item as it was off loaded and past through the front doors.  He had been put in charge of the supplies and keeping an inventory of everything the shelter had.  

The two men entered the clinic to find Lindsey training her new medical protégé, Tandi.  The two women sat at the nurses desk and were going over some medical notes the Doctor had made to help train Tandi.  As the door opened, they both looked at Ben who was pale from his vomiting episode.  Lindsey got to her feet and pointed to an examination bed.  “Set him over there”.  

Frank helped Ben over to the table and then ontop of it.  Ben sat there, cold and shivering slightly. Lindsey came over to join them, motioning for Tandi to join her.  “What happened?” the Doctor asked, urging Ben to lay back on the table and to relax.  Ben just stared straight ahead, not giving much thought to where he was at the moment.  Lindsey looked over at Frank after not getting any answer from Ben.

Frank shrugged his shoulders. “They just pulled back in.  All the guys got out except for Ben.  I had to coax him out and he damn near collapsed, puked his guts out in the process. Two of his group didn’t make it back.”  Lindsey looked back at Ben and placed her hands under the back of his jawbone, where it met the ears.  She felt around a bit and then took out a small flashlight.  

“Tandi, I want you to watch this” Lindsey said as the young woman walked next to the Doctor and observed.  She flashed the light into Ben’s eye and then turned it off, and then did the same thing to the other eye.  She turned to face Tandi and placed the light back in her pocket.  “What did you see?” Lindsey asked.

“Um, his pupils were slow to dilate?” She said, almost as if asking rather then informing.  Lindsey nodded her head.  

“Now I want you to feel his forehead”.  Tandi seemed to be a bit nervous, not wanting to upset Ben.  Lindsey stepped aside and motioned towards Ben.  Sheepishly, Tandi moved to the bedside and placed her hand on Ben’s forehead.  

“Well?” The Doctor asked, looking at her young trainee as she lifted her hand away.

“He’s cold and damp.” She answered, stepping back.   Lindsey folded her arms, continuing with her train of thought.  

“So you have a 34 year old Male, presenting slow pupil response, cold and calmly skin, who was reported to have just finished vomiting and experienced a traumatic event.  What is your diagnosis?”  Tandi looked back at Ben and then over once again to the Doctor, working up the courage to respond.

“Shock?” she said once again, making it sound more like a question.  Lindsey nodded.

“Perfect!” She said, praising her new student.  The doctor turned to face Frank once again, who was listening intently to the two ladies go over the symptoms.  “He’s just in shock after everything he went through.  Some time to rest, some liquids and a small sedative should get his body back to normal.” Lindsey cocked her head to one side, continuing on with what she knew wouldn’t be the best news.

“His mind however, may be another matter.  I’m not saying he’s going to be like this forever, but after seeing horrific things, sometimes the brain can take a bit to come to term with things.”  Frank looked concerned.  He glanced down at Ben, who was still had a thousand yard stare in his eyes.  

“Are you saying he lost it?” Frank asked, not intending to sound so callous.  Lindsey shook her head in response.

“I’m saying that we’ll have to wait and see.  Sometimes witnessing traumatic events can be dealt with after the initial shock wears off.  Sometimes the person deals with it slowly over a process of years.”  Lindsey put her hand on Ben shoulder, looking into his eyes.  “We’ll know more once the initial shock has run it’s course.

There was a knock at the door which caused Frank and Lindsey to look over.  Matthew stood there, looking concerned.    

“Is he going to be alright?” Matthew asked, not wanting to walk into the room for fear of crowing everybody.  Lindsey turned to Tandi, who was standing just behind the Doctor.  

“Tandi, please wheel Ben into the next room.  I want him to get as much rest as he can.”  Tandi walked over and began to push the bed across the tile floor, into a small anteroom which was just off the main clinic.  There were two such rooms built for the clinic, usually to sequester ill boys and girls who needed rest in separate areas.   As Ben was taken to the small room, Lindsey turned once again to face Matthew.

“He’s in shock right now, probably from loosing two people.” Lindsey realized that Matthew had also been with him at the time.  The young officer would have the specific knowledge that Frank lacked.  Lindsey motioned Matthew inside.  “Can you tell me what happened out there?” She asked, offering Matthew her chair.  He walked in and sat down, folding his hands in front of him.  Frank joined the two, sitting on the edge of the desk.

“It was at the last location” Matthew began “We were getting overrun pretty quickly and we wanted to finish loading the vans before we had to leave.  Two of the guys went back in to make a last run. . .” Matthew went over the events in his head as best he could remember them.  “They were taking too long and I went in to tell them we were leaving.  Went I ran in I saw them on the floor.  Those. . .things were all around them, eating them as they screamed.” Matthew looked out the window at the vans, still being unloaded.

“There were more of them, moving past the bodies and heading for us, so we ran.” He finished, looking back at Frank and the Doctor.

“So Ben saw this too?” Frank asked, confused.   Matthew shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t think so, it was pretty far in the store, and Ben was outside at the time.”
Lindsey thought for a moment.  From what Matthew was describing, it sounded as if this might be more shock over losing people then from witnessing the men with him die.  Lindsey looked out the window herself, at the supplies as they left the vans.  A thought began to form in her head, and she sincerely hoped she was mistaken.  

“How is everybody else?” She asked, still looking out the window.  Matthew turned to Frank who was still watching him.  Matthew took a deep breath and leaned back in the chair.

“Fine mostly” he answered. “Upset at losing people, tired, exhausted.” Matthew ran though what he had observed during the time they had been out.  “One of the guys got bitten at the first location we went to.  Nothing too serious, we bandaged it up.”   Lindsey looked over to Frank, who was nodding as Matthew finished answering the Doctor.

“Frank, I want to have the men brought to me for examination.”  Frank turned to Lindsey and slowly nodded.

“Alright Doc, I’ll take them over to the cafeteria to get some food and then bring them here myself.”  Lindsey shook her head.

“No Frank, I mean now.” The tone in her voice made the statement a very obvious order.  Franked picked up on this and questioned her further.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, getting back to his feet.

“We still have no idea what causes people to turn into those. . .creatures out there.” Franked turned to look at the room that Tandi was walking out of.  Matthew caught Franks look and sat upright in his chair, alarmed.

“You think Bens going to turn into one of those things?” Matthew asked, raising his voice.  Frank turned back to the Doctor who was going over possibilities in her head.

“I honestly don’t know.” She answered “I don’t know if we’re dealing with a virus, bacteria, infection; I don’t know how people get turned into those. . .” Lindsey searched for the words, only to have Frank apply the new term for her.
“Undead” he said, again turning to face the room Ben was in.
“. . .How a person becomes, undead.” Lindsey looked down at the notes that were on her desk. “It’s suspicious that Ben was the only one to suffer from shock and nausea. It doesn’t mean that he will turn into an undead creature, but nevertheless, I want him monitored.  I also want the others to be quarantined for the usual 24 hour period.”  Frank considered the Doctor’s recommendation carefully.  Nodding his head he looked back over to Lindsey.

“Alright Doctor, I’ll go inform everybody else.  I’ll also have a guard posted in the clinic.”  Frank motioned over to the room Ben rested in, not wanting to say the words.

I'll wait for the movie

Needs more sex.

Great update, Please keep going.. Thank you

i like it

thanks for the update...

keep up the good work, good job

Building nicely!  Can't wait to see what's next!

Michael

I hope this is not going to die.

Originally Posted By eagle308us: I hope this is not going to die.

If you mean particular characters in the story, you'll have to wait and see.

If you mean the story itself, no it won't die (although it was never really alive to begin with, but that is semantics now isn't it!)

You're like the 7th person in the comments section who has had similar concerns.  Is this a common problem with fiction in the AR forums?  Stories started but left to sit unfinished?  That just seems mean on the part of the writers.  If you craft a story that people enjoy reading. . .to leave them hanging by never knowing what happens to the characters you've created is just downright wrong!

Originally Posted By Shadowbody: Originally Posted By eagle308us: I hope this is not going to die. If you mean particular characters in the story, you'll have to wait and see. If you mean the story itself, no it won't die (although it was never really alive to begin with, but that is semantics now isn't it!) You're like the 7th person in the comments section who has had similar concerns.  Is this a common problem with fiction in the AR forums?  Stories started but left to sit unfinished?  That just seems mean on the part of the writers.  If you craft a story that people enjoy reading. . .to leave them hanging by never knowing what happens to the characters you've created is just downright wrong!

Yes it has happened. One or two I was reading seemed to drop off the map. Nothing worse than just getting good and the story not ending.

Chapter 20
USMC Base; Quantico, VA

Control and Command was buzzing with activity.  The monitors on the wall showed various camera angles from the apache helicopters Graham had sent to survey the area.  From high above the ground, the Colonel could see large concentrations of the creatures wondering the grounds near Quantico.   Graham listened as his marines coordinated the reconnaissance mission, giving directions to the pilots and keeping them on task.

The one helicopter he was most interested in however was the view right in front of him.  It was a ground shot flying over a highway heading north of them.  It had been a week now since Graham had taken over authority of the operation to keep America alive.  A week since the document he had forged had been so readily accepted by the other base commanders and allowed him to act without having his hands tied.

The Colonel had managed to not only thin the numbers of the creatures near Quantico, but also to extend the parameter several miles outside of the base.   The process had been extremely slow and methodical; the bodies that had been killed were collected and transported to a dump in a nearby town.  Disease had become a constant fear with the number of dead creatures around the parameter of the fence.  A collection detail had been put together and the grounds policed.

Looking over to the wall maps, Graham noted that two more bases had gone from red to blue, meaning two of the remaining military commands had fallen. One was in Europe and one in North Carolina.  The Colonel had plans to send a small team down to the NC base to scavenge any materials left that could be of use to Quantico.  Food, armaments, equipment.  If he had a larger contingent of troops, the trip to scavenge other military bases would have been easy to plan for.  Not having the resources to expend for such a task, he came up with an alternative plan, ransacking local relief shelters.

Graham already had his people gathering intel on local civilian shelters of size, which had an abundance of supplies and manpower.  Twice now he had sent his men to these shelters to round up the survivors and their supplies.  Both missions had their share of problems crop up.

Unlike the Marines under his command which were disciplined and knew how to follow orders, civilians had a nasty habit of asking questions and wanting to discuss every little decision into the ground.  There were also a good number of people who had an inherent distrust of the military, blaming them for the present situation or were wary of the intentions of those Marine’s who showed up to relocate them.

During the evacuation of the Front Royal Shelter, two of Graham’s Marines had been shot when they insisted that the group accompany them back to Quantico.  The Marines regrouped, and after learning of the situation, the Colonel ordered that the men take the shelter by force.  The survivors didn’t put up much of a battle after that.  The supplies the group managed to stockpile were removed and those survivors who were willing to relocate were brought back to the compound.  Those who didn’t were shot on site.  It was a decision that Graham knew he should regret having to make, but honestly he didn’t.  In situations such as this, a clear and focused military mindset would be what kept their civilization running.

He looked over to a map of Quantico which had been tacked up on the wall.  It included the nearby towns and woodlands.  If they continued to gather refugees at this rate, overcrowding on the base would become an issue.  Graham didn’t like the thought of extending the bases perimeter beyond his means to secure it, but this would soon become a reality he might have to face.  

Between the barracks and the small town of family housing on the base, he would need to have a makeshift tent city erected to ensure people were kept as healthy as possible and out of the elements.  Graham’s attention was momentarily diverted by a monitor on his left, which showed his Marines just storming the main gates of Fort Belvoir, an Army installation about 20 miles north of Quantico.   The camera mounted to one of his Marine’s helmets showed a moderate concentration of reanimated soldiers and civilians, nothing his boys couldn’t take care of.  The main issue was the time which could be allotted on the ground before noise roused the attention of any creatures in the area.  At best there would be 15-20 minutes to search and gather whatever could be found.  Then the group would have to de-ass the area in a hurry or risk being overrun.

For this particular excursion, Graham had sent up 200 of his men, and 3 large empty 18 wheelers which could be loaded up with supplies and whatever provisions were deemed to be usable.  The two areas to be given the utmost priority were the armory and the PX.  Anything else such as supply warehouses and medical bays were secondary.  Graham listened as the group’s mission was being directed and monitored by a staff sergeant in front of him.  The satellite showed two large mobs to the Northwest and Northeast advancing on their position, although at the rate they were moving, his men looked to have about 30 more minutes of safe gathering before the marines on the perimeter would begin to engage the tangos.  The colonel left the monitors and the situation for the sergeant to manage as he walked into his makeshift underground office to review the intelligence which had been gathered the night before.  Several folders sat on the desk with local town names and locations.  

Along with these locations were the final few shelters which had been hastily erected by civilians and had somehow not managed to be completely overrun.  27 locations of interest and 4 shelter locations sat in front of him, each folder thick and with multiple images and notes his analysts had compiled pertaining to supplies and materials suspected to be present and prioritized their need versus what Quantico had readily at hand.

Colonel Graham reviewed the satellite photos attached to each of the folders, looking over each one with meticulous scrutiny.  His staff had been able to easily log into the various spy satellites in orbit and put them into operation. Along with the major population centers of various foreign powers, he wanted to get a better look at the east cost and see what complexes still remained.

Reservists armories, military bases, naval complexes, military armories. . . each one had to be secured and their supplies relocated to Quantico.   There was no immediate need for concern as they we're well stocked to survive for well over one year, but Graham knew that before too long; these locations would be raided by whatever survivors were out there.  He couldn't allow that.

His men had already identified a good number of strategic locations for him, prior to giving him the photos.  Graham was to review each photograph and select specific areas to zoom in on and examine.  

The resolution they could achieve would allow them to read the headlines on newspapers if they had to.  It would be important to determine what perimeters still remained at these locations, if survivors had taken over the complexes and would put up resistance, or if they had been overrun with the flesh eaters.  Poor intelligence and a lack of strategic planning could cost him men and resources he frankly couldn't afford to lose.   But Graham had a secondary objective.  One he had only disclosed to a few select officers.

Recruitment of new marines.  He wanted to locate the pockets of survivors and relocate
them and their stockpiles to Quantico.  The number of Marines he had was adequate for now, but he would ultimately need more.  Civilians weren't the best of choices, but even your most defiant cadet can be broken and made into a good Marine given enough motivation.  He also knew that if this situation lasted for decades, that they would need to begin the process of having children.  

The women on base would need to start baring children so their numbers would remain constant, if not increase.  Graham was a Marine from the old ways of thought, ways that dictated only men were marines.  Women stayed at home and raised the family.  They didn't belong in combat, period. In back-line support capacity, if necessary, but they tended to distract his Marines and made things more complicated.  

He also knew that Pruitt would be one of the first to object.  Graham was becoming increasingly impatient with his senior officer.  Pruitt was an adequate Marine, but he didn't seem to comprehend that they were now in a world of shit.  Old protocols and procedures no longer applied.  If any of them were to survive this situation, drastic measures, no matter how unpalatable they might be, would have to be adopted.  The rules of engagement and military protocols no longer applied.  

Graham knew it, the other surviving base commanders knew it, Pruitt was having trouble adapting. He was continually questioning Grahams orders and not looking at the bigger picture.   He was quickly making himself a liability.  Graham thought for a moment and went back to his photographs, outlining the areas he wanted more information on with a grease pencil.  His preparations were interrupted by a knock at his door.  He looked up to see a lieutenant standing there.

"Enter" Graham said, putting the pencil down.  The lieutenant took 3 Steps forward and stood before the superior officer.

"Sir, Lieutenant Walsh reporting as ordered."  Graham motioned to the chair.  

"Sit down son." He reached into his desk and pulled out a folder he had reviewed last night.  It was the personnel folder for Walsh.  Graham needed somebody who had the correct background and the training to execute this new operation.  Somebody who he was sure could comprehend the situation they were now placed in and would act accordingly.  A marine who was raised in the old school world of thinking, similar to the way he was brought up.  Somebody who wasn't Pruitt.  

The young Lieutenant sat down in front of Graham's desk. The Colonel opened up the file and began to read some of the portions of the file he had highlighted.

"Lieutenant K. Walsh.  Graduated Virginia Military Institute 1993, Received Master of Strategic Studies.  Graduated OCS program 1995, Tours in Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq."  Graham skipped down the page to the Lieutenant's evaluation reports.  "Afghanistan 2007.  Lieutenant Walsh deviated from mission outline to intercept suspected insurgents sighted in the Dajhain region."  Graham looked up over the edge of the file folder to look at Walsh.  He saw the lieutenant’s eyes straight forward showing no reaction or response.  He continued to read from the file "Despite the orders from the mission commander, Walsh led a team into Dajhain and eliminated 40 insurgents, and destroyed a large cache of munitions intended for use against US military forces."  Graham turned the page.  "Investigated for dereliction of duty but no formal charges were ever filed.”  Graham closed the file folder and sat it on his desk. The young Lieutenant sat stonefaced, not showing any expression at all.  The Colonel took a deep breath and looked at his junior officer. “That’s where the file ends.”  

Graham leaned back in his chair and looked over the young officer sitting before him.   “Son, I for one think you made the right call.  You discovered new intel in the field, had to make a judgment call based on the new information and rather than pushing information on this aside for later review, which would have let the enemy relocate or fortify the position, you took the initiative and removed the ongoing threat. “Graham liked this young man, he decided that he had selected the right man for the job.  Leaning forward in his chair, he took out a cigar and cut the tip off, looking at the Marine.

“I have a special assignment for you Walsh.”

Chapter 21
Clifton Shelter

Ben sat upright, suddenly aware that somewhere, around him there was a good deal of commotion being made.  He was naked, covered with a blanket and laying on a soft plastic table, in the school’s clinic.  To his right there was a movement.  He looked over to see two men, each with a handgun pointed at him.  They looked terrified and as if they didn’t know who he was.  Ben looked each one over a bit and then spoke.

“Why do I have guns pointed at me?” he questioned.  The men looked at each other sheepishly and then back to Ben.  The younger looking of the two responded first.

“Frank told us to watch you.  Make sure you don’t turn into one of those monsters.”  Ben took a deep breath and put his hands behind him, relaxing a bit.  He had a vague memory of arriving back at the shelter.  He remembered the guys dying at the grocery store, but the trip back was a bit of a haze.  Ben smelled that he needed a shower badly and the stubble on the bottom of his chin scratched his chest.  How long had he been out?  He looked back to the two guys who still had their weapons pointed at him.  Ben didn’t want to chance one of these guys shooting if he suddenly sneezed.

“Seeing as I’m still able to talk and am not moaning, or coming towards you, I think it’s safe for you two to assume I’m not a monster.  Do you mind pointing those guns somewhere else for a while?”

Both of the guards lowered their firearms, keeping them handy just in case Ben should try to lunge at them.  Ben took another deep breath as the sounds from down the hall subsided and whatever was going on seemed to be resolved.  Ben strained to look around the room.  It was dark outside, and the room was lit by several lanterns which hung from nails around the room.

Ben looked down at his watch, or where his watch should have been.  He looked around to see if he could spot any clothes.  He glanced over to one of the guards.  “What day is it?”  The older of the two men responded this time.

“Thursday”.  Two days since he had arrived back at the shelter.  That explained the growth on his face and why he smelled so bad.  His mind was still trying to recall the events which had taken place after arriving back at the shelter when the door to the clinic opened.  Lindsey walked in with a cup of coffee in her hand.  She smiled when she saw Ben was sitting up and actively returning her gaze.

“Glad to see you’re back with us.” She managed in a half-pleasing tone.  She walked across the room and sat her cup down on a corner of a table.  She turned to the two men standing guard and dismissed them.  The two guards picked up some sports magazines they had with them and walked out of the room.

“Is there any reason why I’m naked?” Ben asked as Lindsey walked to the foot of the clinic bed and picked up a clipboard.  It was a chart they had been using to keep track of Ben’s health over the last two days.  The doctor took a pen out of her breast pocket and begin to write something on the clipboard, not looking up as she spoke.

“After you made it back to the shelter, you collapsed and began to run a fever.  We weren’t sure if it was a simple reaction to shock or an early symptom to turning into an undead creature.”  She finished writing her notes on the clipboard and tucked it under her arm.  Ben watched as she looked back up to him, walking over to sit on the edge of a nearby table.

“The next day one of the guys who went out with you, died of an infection he got after being bitten by one of the undead, and then he turned.”  Ben looked down to the floor, not pleased to hear that he had managed to lose another man.  He felt horrible enough, responsible even for the guys who died.  Lindsey walked over and stood next to him.  

“Hey, silver-lining time.” Ben looked up to meet her eyes.  He wasn’t sure what she was saying.  “It’s not easy to lose people, but if there is anything positive from all this, it’s that we now know how the infection spreads.  It’s a blood-borne pathogen.  The infection is spread through blood contact, through the bites.”  Lindsey put the clipboard onto the bed next to Ben and reached her hands up next to his jaw line, feeling his neck.

“Once we learned that, we had to check you out for any bite or scratch marks, hence why you’re not wearing any clothes.  That and to be honest with you. . .they needed to be washed!”  Lindsey took an instrument out of her pocket and placed it into Ben’s ear.  She pushed a button and looked at the readout.  She placed it back into her pocket and picked up the clipboard once again.

“Your fevers gone.” She wrote another note down and placed the clipboard down once again.  “I’d like to do another quick exam before I clear you to leave the clinic.” The young doctor said, walking over to the door into the main clinic area and closed the blinds. Ben watched as she reached into her lab coat pockets and took out a pair of small latex gloves.  She placed them on and then walked over to the table, lifting up the blanket that kept Ben’s modesty covered.  Ben took a hold of the covers and kept them in place, rather awkwardly.  

“Um, Lindsey, look. . .I feel fine and um.”  Ben’s embarrassment was obvious to the doctor, who shot him a stern look.  

“Ben, I’m a doctor!” Lindsey crossed her arms and stood up straight. “There isn’t anything you have that I haven’t seen on hundred’s of other male patients, plus I’ve already seen you fully naked while you were unconscious.”  The words made Ben instantly blush.  He suddenly recalled her mentioning that she had checked him over for bite marks when he had been out cold.   Ben shook his head and took a deep breath, releasing his hold on the blanket and allowing the doctor to perform the exam.

He didn’t mind having Lindsey perform the exam.  She was an extremely attractive woman and if the world hadn’t have gone to hell, she was the kind of woman who he would have tried to pick up somewhere.  It was exactly this thought that made him uncomfortable.  The last thing he wanted was to get a hard-on while this beautiful woman was examining him.  

He turned and sat on the table, his legs hanging off the side as Lindsey pulled the blanket away, leaving Ben completely naked.  Lindsey began her exam, checking his blood pressure, his breathing and his heart.  She listened through a stethoscope as Ben coughed several times for her.  Ben was impressed at the professional nature Lindsey had.  It wasn’t any different then watching the men he had led out work to get the supplies loaded in the trucks.  Her specialty was more in taking care of those same men, and of Ben at this moment.

Lindsey checked his reflexes and asked him a series of questions about his previous health and his last doctor’s exam. She dutifully wrote down everything Ben told her, almost as if starting up a new file on him.  After a short while, Ben began to relax and became rather fond of the attention the doctor showed up.  Feeling her warm hands as they pressed against his chest, checking out a bruised rib he had from falling out of the truck after getting back to the shelter.   After looking through some instrument into his eye, Lindsey walked to a closet across the room.  She unlocked it with a key from her pocket and reached in, taking out a white plastic bag and closed the door behind her.  Lindsey placed the bag next to Ben and patted it twice.  

“We had your clothes washed.” She said, handing the blanket back to Ben so he could cover up.  “Your gun and personal belongings are all inside.  There is also a small shaving kit one of the guys found while they were going through the town below the school.”  Ben opened the plastic bag and looked through it.  The smell of fabric softener immediately wafted through his nostrils.  Ben couldn’t remember the last time he had smelled that scent.  It was a little piece of civilization that he always seemed to take for granted.  

He continued to pick through the bag and found the shaving kit Lindsey spoke of.  It was a small travel size bag, one that looked as if it could have come off a airline complementarily kit.  He unzipped it and found it had a small tube of shaving cream, a tube of face balm, comb, toothbrush and toothpaste, along with a disposable razor.  Ben zipped it back up and looked over his shoulder to the bathroom in the corner.

Lindsey spoke up as he got ready to stand up from the table.  “The water stopped running yesterday.  Frank had some of the guys build a makeshift shower outside with some of the camping shower water bags you brought back on the last supply run.  With the recent rain we have enough for everybody to take one shower a week, at least for now.”  Ben stood up, steadying himself after not having used his legs over the last few days.  

With his strength quickly returning, Ben opened the bag and began taking out his clothes as Lindsey excused herself from the room.  “I’ll be outside if you need me.” She said, closing the door behind her.  Looking around the room for a moment, Ben decided he might as well take advantage of the privacy and get cleaned up.  He grabbed his clothes and the small shaving kit and went into the bathroom.  While it wasn’t as good as hot running water, Ben managed to make himself look presentable once again and then went about removing the beard growth on his face.  

He had just completed his shaving and was putting his handgun back in its belt holster when there was a knock at the clinic door.  Ben looked out to see Frank standing outside, a big stupid grin on his face.  Ben waved him in and wasting no time, the older leader strode over to him and put his hand out.
“Good to have you back with us son. You gave us all a big scare when you got back to the barn.”  Ben accepted the offered hand and shook it.  

“I’m just sorry that I managed to get two of our guys killed in the process.” Ben responded, the look of sorrow not well hidden on his face.

“That’s enough of that talk now. “ Frank said sternly, patting the younger man on the shoulder.  “None of us were under any illusion that this would be a cakewalk.  Everyman who volunteered knew the risk going into this, and for as bad as the others told me it was out there, we managed to keep our little operation here able to survive a few more weeks.”  Ben knew what Frank was saying was technically true.  He knew that it honestly could have been much worse.  He still couldn’t shake the thought that for all the preparation that they had going into his little outing, there still could have been more they could have done to ensure everybody made it back safely.

Ben nodded his head slightly, more for appearances to the old man and to hopefully let the topic of conversation turn to something else.  Ben would need to deal with this on his own for the time being.  When he was ready, he would talk to Frank more about what had happened and hopefully get some of this guilt that he was feeling off his chest.  For now though, he needed to do this in his own way and without the constant offers of support which he just wasn’t ready to accept just yet.  As if the heavens had heard his line of thinking, the radio on Frank’s belt squawked to life and a rather panicked voice came through. . .

Great work!!  Keep it up.  Thanks



Ron

good stuff

keep up the great job but we need more

great story thank you for the hard work.... keep it up...

great story...need....more....i'm.......fading.......fast

Chapter 22
Clifton Shelter


“Frank! Frank!” the voice rang through the room.  Frank quickly took the radio off its clip and held it up, hitting the side button to respond.  

“Go ahead”

“You need to get to the gym right now, we have an issue.” The nervous voice said, the sound of multiple people in the background shouting was easily audible.  Frank looked over to Ben, who was intently watching what the old man was doing.  Without being asked, Ben nodded and the two men flew out the clinic door.

Ben followed Frank down the long tiled hallway towards the gymnasium which had been set up to receive the majority of survivors who found their way to the shelter.  The sound of the boots on the tiled floor echoed as they proceeded to the rear of the school.  The smell of body odor became more pungent as they neared the large wooden double doors.  With no power and no AC, the buildings became uncomfortable during mid-day.  Doors were opened to allow airflow to circulate, but this provided little in the way of clean air.

As they approached the doors, the sounds of agitated people could be heard. Many were shouting and screaming.  Frank picked up his pace and burst through the entrance.  A small group of men were gathered near the door to the coach’s office, which had been modified to become a holding cell.    Several people pointed rifles and handguns at the thick glass, which looked into the office.  Ben picked up his pace in order to keep up with Frank and moved past several groups of people who were keeping a safe distance from the commotion. He stoped behind Frank as he slowed once he came to one of the men he recognized as being in charge of this particular area.

“What happened” Frank asked, looking into the office.  Ben stepped around one of the riflemen in order to get a clear look at what was going on.  Behind the thick glass, he could see one of the men he had taken with him several days ago on the supply run. His face had become gray and sunken, devoid of any color.  Blood seemed to have dried around his mouth and his hands were coated in some dark color muck.  The man pounded against the glass, which made no noise.  It was obvious this office was sound proofed.  It was equally obvious that this man had become one of the creatures while Ben was unconscious.

“He’s turned.” One man said, not taking his aim away from the creature’s head as it fought to break through the unbreakable glass.  “He’s going to infect the rest of us” the same man went on, obviously upset at having one of these creatures so close to him. Ben could tell the other men with weapons at the ready were equally nervous.  Each one jumping slightly each time the thing hit it’s fist against the glass.

“That’s 2-inch think safety glass” Frank said, looking at the men as he pointed behind him, towards the confined ghoul.  “There is no way 1 undead thing is going to break through.”  Ben looked around as more men with weapons came running into the gym, ready to deal with the creature.  The men seemed unconvinced that the glass would hold against the punishment the infected man could throw at it.  Slowly the number of armed men around this office entrance began to grow.  Ben knew that soon there would be a small army out here, and that the situation could get bad if somebody panicked and tried to shoot through the glass.

“From near the rear entrance of the gym, leading in from the outside playground, a loud, booming female voice shouted over the sobs and crys of the collected refugees.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL DOING IN HERE!” the voice yelled, obviously angry.  The men near the entrance quieted down, looking over to the direction of the opened door.  Erin Hasser, Frank’s head of security for the shelter was quickly making her way through the crowd, who parted for the obviously angered woman.  She had a rifle slug over her shoulder and was shouting as she made her way toward Ben and Frank.

“I’m happy to see you ladies have time for tea inside while your posts, the posts I’ve asked you to secure GO UNMANNED.”  The slender and furious solider walked briskly to the first man she came to, quickly breaking to a sprit as she neared within 5 feet of him.  Her momentum easily allowed her to slam the man up against the window, only inches from the hands of the infected creature and separated only by the glass.  The man hit the glass with an impressive thud as he struggled to break out of her hold.  Hasser had the man’s neck pinned against the large window with her forearm, his wrist held behind his back with her other arm.  The other men, including Ben all took a step back as the pinned man began wailing.  Only Frank stood his ground.

Hasser motioned towards the wide-eyed creature as she spoke. “Do you know what happens if just one of your boyfriend’s pals manage to get past the perimeter?  The part of the perimeter I’ve told YOU to keep watch of?”  The man continued to try and break free of Hasser’s hold, which was unyielding.  He screamed for her to let him go.  She showed no signs of mercy on the sniveling man. “You might as well just walk in there and give him a big kiss, because right now you’re inviting these things into the compound by not standing your watch. . .do you understand?” She asked, her anger very obvious.  The man managed a weak yes.  With a speed that only a solider could have, Hasser dropped her forearm from the man’s neck and drew a handgun from her thigh holster, pushing the barrel of the gun into the back of his neck.

“Or maybe I should go ahead and kill you right now, since you’re showing me you’re pretty much useless.”  Everybody took an additional step back as she pressed the gun harder against him.  “You don’t leave your post.” Frank motioned for Hasser to let the man go. It was obvious to everybody that she had made her point.

“DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND ME?” she screamed louder, pushing his face hard against the glass.

“YES!” He screamed.  Hasser reholstered her gun and stepped away from the panicking man, he quickly lost his footing and stumbled away from the office window.  

“The rest of you, get back to your posts NOW!”  The men turned and headed back to wherever they were supposed to be.  The man who Hasser had made an example of, got back to his feet and followed the others back outside, leaving only Ben and Frank standing near the door.

“Was that really necessary?” Ben asked, motioning toward the man she had made an example of as he murmured under his breath.  The shorthaired corporal looked at Ben without any emotion on her face.

“I promise you that it’ll be a long time before we have a problem with them leaving their posts again.”  Frank looked down at the floor, pushing his graying hair back and trying to catch his breath.  Ben watched as the solider looked into the room to size up the situation.  “We need to take care of this now, before we get a panic situation.”  

Frank looked over to Ben and stared for a moment, contemplating what to do.  For a few moments Ben thought that he might be looking to him for an answer.  Just as he was about to offer a suggestion, Frank took a radio from his belt and turned the volume up.  The radio on Hasser’s belt clicked as Frank pushed the button to talk.

“Joe” Frank held the radio up to talk, looking to the window as he did so.  From both radios the sound of a man answer came through.  “I’m going to have Hasser take care of the undead in the holding cell.  Get ready to sound the all-clear.”  

The corporal took her gun back out of it’s holster and got it ready, taking the safety off.  Frank took the key to the door from around his neck and handed it to her.  

“Gotcha boss.” The voice on the other end of the radio answered back, as Hasser placed the key into the lock and got ready to go inside.  As if by instinct, the creature’s head snapped to look at the door as the sound of the key made it’s way into the room.  Hasser stormed into the room, slamming the door behind her.  The creature turned it’s body slowly to face her and attack.  Less then a second after the door closed, the bright flash of the gunshot lit up the room and the body flew back against the wall, blood and brains splattering above it.  The creature twitched slightly and then fell still.  Hasser lowered her gun and walked back out of the room.

"I’ll have one or two of my guys stop by and clean up the mess." She said, handing the key back to Frank and making her way towards the door outside. Ben turned back to Frank who was giving the man on the other end of the radio the signal that everything was resolved. Ben glanced once again into the office, looking over the now dead man whom he had just worked with a few days prior. Slowly people began returning to their affairs and settling down. Frank put the radio back on his belt and motioned Ben towards the door.

"We have a bigger problem to worry about" Frank said as the two men walked down the hallway, heading back to his office.  Ben knew that this would more or less be the norm for here on out.  One crisis being replaced with another just as quickly as the first was resolved.  He already missed the days when his biggest concern was domestic or imported beer.  Those days were now replaced with simple survival and how best to keep everybody alive.  As they continued on, they passed two of the security sentries, who had black plastic trash bags and buckets of water. This was obviously the cleaning crew that Corporal Hasser had spoken of.

They walked into Frank's office, which now had the map that Ben had used during their last supply run, tacked up onto a wall.  Ben shut the door behind them and walked over to the chair in front of the desk, and sat down.  Frank opened a file cabinet and took out a bottle of scotch and two glasses.  “I don’t know about you, but I could use a good belt right now.”  He placed one glass down in front of Ben and poured a healthy amount of the liquid for his friend.  He poured one for himself and leaned back in the chair.

"I've had the little accountant fellow who came in with the Doc run the numbers three different times. " Frank took a sip of the scotch and set the glass down. "Every time and every way we look at it the results are always the same.  We can't stay in operation here much longer."  Ben looked at Frank who was rocking in the high back chair, motioning to several pads of paper which sat to his left.  Ben knew that crowding was an issue.  He had seen it everyday since he arrived at the shelter.  He just hadn't realized that it was THIS bad.

"According to a headcount, we have 318 people inside the shelter, 319  if you count the lady who is due to deliver a baby in 3 weeks. Even if we start to ration people to 1 meal a day, we only have enough food to last for 2 more weeks."  Ben nodded his head as Frank spoke.  In the early days of the outbreak, even after he and the others arrived, there was a steady stream of people seeking shelter.  No more then 4 or 5 a day, but they added up to more mouths to feed.  

"We can always head out to collect more food.  There was alot we couldn't gather during the last run we made. " Ben did some quick math in his head. "If I had twice the number of people I went out with the first time, we should be able to gather enough food to last a while."  Frank sat silent for a few moments and then slowly began to shake his head.

"I already thought about that." He said, leaning back in the chair. “It’s a band-aid fix.  It might give us another few weeks, but then we're right back in the same situation as before."  Ben saw his point.  Supply runs had already proved to be extremely dangerous.  He had already lost two of the guys under him, but even beyond that. . .each time they went out they had to use ammunition.  Whereas canned food and bottled water was plentiful, locations which stocked ammunition were more difficult to come by.  Ben looked up as Frank took another drink from his glass and set it back down, tapping his fingers on the desk.

"What we need is a more long term solution.  Something that will make It possible for us to limit the food runs."  Ben thought for a moment.  

"Growing our own food?" He asked.

"Exactly!" Frank replied, placing both palms on the desk, leaning forward. "We need to start farming, grow vegetables in a hydroponics area we can set up.  Make ourselves more self sufficient rather than having to scavenge every couple of months."   Ben liked this idea.  He was in favor of any plan that reduced the amount of time they had to head out into the mass of undead.  Looking out the window and over the courtyard which held many of the refugee’s cars, he pondered the space they had.
"We could convert the ball fields into a miniature farm."  Ben wasn’t sure about this plan, and given the way Frank was furrowing his brow, he knew the idea wasn't being received well.

"This place isn't large enough to sustain over 300 people.  We'd need something bigger." Frank answered, looking over to Ben's map that hung on the wall.  Ben followed Frank's eyes, looking to see what he was looking at.  "Something larger and easily defendable."  Frank stood up to get a closer look at the map.  

"This area is too heavily populated." Ben said, shaking his head. "We'd need to look further south, down past Fredericksburg and into the more rural. . ." Ben stopped, a sudden idea flashing into his mind.
"An island!" He eagerly proclaimed. "It would be perfect.  endless supply of seafood, rich soil to plant crops."  Ben was on his feet, excited with his idea.

"That's not bad!" Frank sat, scratching as his beard.  "The Chesapeake Is full of islands we could live on.  After we took care of the undead who lived there, the rest of the island would be secure."  Frank looked back at the map, which didn't go as far east as the Chesapeake.  "Let's go check the Library for an Atlas."  For the first time since this madness had begun, he had a small ray of hope.

Chapter 23
Clifton Shelter

Lindsey walked into the smaller of the school’s two Gyms, which was previously used to house all new people coming into the shelter until they cleared the 24-hour quarantine period and were deemed not to be infected.  With the recent discovery that transmission of the virus was caused by fluidic contact; there had been a push to cease the quarantine and defer to a simple exam to look for bites or deep scratches.   Lindsey had spoken to Frank and convinced him that other viruses were just as important to screen for.  One person sick with the flu or another similar strain could cause a great deal of damage and given the poor sanitation; along with the cramped conditions the transmission of something was fairly high.

Over the last week, the number of new arrivals had continued to dwindle.  As the days went on and survivors either found other locations to hide, or become infected themselves, the influx of new survivors was done to less than five a week.  Lindsey walked over to the 3 people who were making use of the cots which had been left.  A young boy who looked to be 15 or 16 had mud and at least 3 weeks of dirt caked all over him.  A woman in her late 50’s who was holding her arm, which had a poorly constructed splint on it.  She would need to take priority.  If there was a bite associated with that arm, she would have to break the news that she had less than 12 hours to live.  The last person was a man who looked to be in his late 20’s.  He had very short hair and was very muscular.  Lindsey guessed he was former military by the way he carried himself.   As she approached the 3 new arrivals, she addressed them all.

“My name is Doctor Lindsey Dorian. I’m in charge of everybody’s health and well being while they’re with us in the shelter.” The 3 looked on while the doctor spoke, all with a look of fatigue and nervousness.  It was a look that Lindsey was all too familiar with by now.  “We have a policy to keep all new arrivals here in this area for 24 hours so we can perform an exam and make sure everybody is in good health before we have you head out into the general population.”  Lindsey walked over to the older woman with the injured arm.  “Ma’am, why don’t you come over to the screen area and I’ll have a look at that arm.” Lindsey motioned over to one part of the gym which had a large sheet hung by twine to the beams above to provide a bit of privacy during physical exams.  

The three newcomers didn’t show any signs of bites or scratches.  No outward sign that they had become infected during the time before coming to the shelter.  The woman had broken her arm during the escape from a Shelter in Alexandria.  She had been on foot for almost 2 weeks and had encountered a small group of people near the Potomac who had offered to set her arm as best they could manage.  Lindsey couldn’t be sure; but it looked as if her arm had been sprained rather than broken.  Lindsey replaced the splint with an immobilization device the last scavenging party had discovered in the ambulance.  

The young man was a bit dehydrated, but otherwise was in good condition.  He was a bit unnerved to undress in front of Lindsey and allow her to check him over.  She had encountered this many times in the past; but was able to convince him that it was for his own good.  His clothes had mildewed, and she thought it was best to have them burned, rather than to have him continue to live with them.  She sent one of the guards off to gather up garments which were also brought back from a camping store during the stocking mission.  Again, he didn’t show any signs of bites or of scratches.  He didn’t talk much about where he had been since the outbreak.  Lindsey didn’t want to push him too much.  Part of her job was to get an unofficial census of who was coming in and their medical history.  She had makeshift files on almost everybody who was inside of the shelter, to include their medical histories.  It was a bit unnecessary; and if this shelter was to be overrun; there wouldn’t be time to gather all the files.  What it did accomplish was to keep Lindsey busy and make sure she didn’t have much free time with which to focus on everything bad that was going on outside of these walls.

The last man said he had in fact served in the second gulf war.  He was back in the states on leave when everything had gone to hell.  He said that he tried to get back to his unit at Fort Belvoir, but once he arrived at the gates, he discovered they were in lock-down.  He was in great physical shape and only had a recent burn mark on his left forearm that he said he received while trying to pull somebody out of a burning apartment.  Of the three, he was more than willing to give his account of what he had been up to during the three weeks.  Lindsey recommended that he get into contact with Frank after his quarantine period had ended.  The shelter was in dire need of people with Military training who could help fortify the grounds, as well as to help out with the supply runs.  Lindsey wrote his name down on the tab of the file folder she brought with her.  ‘Walsh, Kyle.’

After the exams had finished, and she had instructed the guards to keep an eye out for any persistent coughing or complaints of soreness, she went back to her office to have Tandi bring them some food.  As she walked past the auditorium, she noticed a good deal of commotion.  A lot of people were heading inside, talking about some announcement.  Lindsey toyed with the idea of skipping it and just having Tandi fill her in on the latest news, but her curiosity got the better of her and she found herself heading in with the rest of the survivors.  She took a seat near the back of the hall, away from the rest of the people who were filling seats near the front.  

Up on stage, Frank stood at a makeshift podium which looked like it had been pieced together to provide a platform which he could rest papers on.  There had only been one previous meeting which everybody gathered for, almost a week ago.  This was to announce that the shelter would have to begin rationing meals to only 2 per day per person.  Surprisingly the news hadn’t met with as much resistance as was anticipated.  The only person who wasn’t held to the 2-a-day meal rationing was Ellen, the woman from Fredicksburg who was pregnant.  Lindsey made a mental note that she would need to speak with her later tonight to check up on her.  The baby wasn’t due for 2 more weeks, and while everything seemed to be progressing well. . .she didn’t want to take any chances.  

The last of the crowd trickled in and Frank stepped out from in front of the podium.  The crowd quieted down and as they did, he returned behind the podium with the flickering of lit patio torches acting as stage lighting.  Frank looked at something in front of him and then addressed the gathered crowd.

“In a meeting I had tonight, we had to face some extremely difficult facts.  The most pressing one, being that given our current numbers, it is going to be difficult for us to remain in the shelter without having to go out for supply runs every week or so.  I don’t have to remind everybody here the danger that presents itself each time we send a group out.” A slight murmur made its way across the room.  Lindsey strained her eyes to see if she could make out where Ben might be, but wasn’t able to discern him from the others.  Frank continued on.

“With the amount of ammo we’re going through in a given day, even if we were able to grow our own food here at the shelter, we would still need to send people out to replenish our ammo stores.”  Another round of murmuring began washing over the collected mass.  “Heck, when you run the numbers of any number of situations, the end result is that our shelter here just won’t do for the long haul.  We are going to have to relocate.   As if he had just opened Pandora’s box, the crowd began showing their displeasure at the suggestion.  Many rose to their feet and began shouting over one another.  One man was yelling about not taking in anymore people.  Another said they should start building another shelter nearby to help lessen the strain.  People were throwing out whatever suggestions they could come up with on the spot.   Frank held up his hands in a gesture to get people to calm down.   Little by little people returned to their seats.

“Believe me people, we’ve considered every single option we could come up with.  No matter what we threw out there, the fact remains this school simply can’t provide even a quarter of what we require to survive.  Now, we’ve come up with a solution which we think will be a good fix.  One that if we can pull it off, will not only solve our problems, but give us even more room to breathe then we had before.  Ben, why don’t you come up and fill everybody in.”  

Lindsey looked down the rows as a man up front stood.  It was in fact Ben.   He looked hesitant as he walked up the small stairs onto the stage and took over the podium from Frank.  Ben said something to him, something she couldn’t make out and then took the floor.  

“We think our best chance at prolonged survival is going to be finding a location which will both allow us to live off the land, but also a place that can provide us with a vast boundary that the undead can’t get past.  We want to move everybody to Tangier island in the Chesapeake bay.”  The crowd started to get unruly again.  The same vocal people before began to shout about how they would get there, somebody yelled something about swimming, the rest Lindsey couldn’t make out.  She looked back to Ben who was obviously getting flustered.  He stepped out in front of the podium, and to the edge of the stage.

“People. . .people. . .” The crowd got quiet again.  Ben cleared his throat, trying to find the words.  “Look, we’re still working on the logistics on how we can safely get everybody to the water’s edge, and then how we can get people out to the island.  I have a lot of experience with boats and sailing.  We think our best bet is to take one of the ferry’s that takes tourists out to the island.  Those ferries are large enough that they should be able to accommodate all of us and all our supplies in two trips.   Once there, we would have 50 miles of water between us and the rest of the world.  There would be endless amounts of seafood to live off of, gardens we could use to grow our own food.  We could hunt the wild birds which migrate through the area, we can fish and crab and there are ready made houses.  People could get their privacy back.”
It appeared that Ben had spoken the magic words.  The crowd seemed to find that last part extremely favorable.  Lindsey knew that most of these people lacked the ability at present to see the larger picture.  Personalizing the experience for them was the best way to look past the potential danger.  Show them what was in it for them.  She wasn’t sure if Ben had done that intentionally or if it was coincidence that he threw that last part in.   Rather than shouting up at the stage, the people in the audience were murmuring with one another.

“Once on the island, we’d need to police it to make sure we contend with all the undead. After that we could begin to house people and work on converting the island to support all of us.  Begin to till the soil and get people to start fishing and crabbing.  While it would still be a wise idea to patrol the beaches to make sure no undead washed up on shore, we wouldn’t have to deal with them stumbling close to our home as an everyday event.”  Lindsey watched as Ben leaned forward to emphasize his last point. . .”we would have a sense of normalcy.”

Frank came back onstage and stood next to Ben, to address the survivors.  “We’re still hashing out the details of the plan to relocate, and while we’re most likely not going to be able to move for another week or two, anybody who has any experience with welding, mechanical engineering or is an automotive mechanic should stop by the front office to see me.   We’ll gather everybody back in here one week before we plan on heading out.”  

Lindsey noted that whereas most of the people looked defeated and downtrodden when they came into the auditorium; now there seemed to be a renewed sense of energy.  People had a look of hope on their faces and the general atmosphere was more upbeat.  While she was pleased that the group was looking forward to relieving their general poor condition; she was concerned that for all the promises and all the planning that was shortly going to commence, there was a good chance it all might come crashing down as soon as the enormity of their proposed plan sunk in.  Remaining in her seat, the doctor watched as the people slowly filed out.  Frank and Ben were the last to leave, chatting between themselves about the small details of their plan, Frank looked up from his planning to meet Lindsey’s eyes.

“Doctor” Frank said, greeting Lindsey as Ben also looked down to her.  “We’d like to talk with you as well in the next few days.  I imagine that your medical supplies and instruments will need special attention when we begin the move.”  Lindsey managed a weak smile.  She wanted to grill the two planners as to exactly what methods they were intending to use to move everybody.  Some of the supplies she had didn’t require anything special if they were moved.  Other items; such as all the medication had to be handled with extreme care.  They couldn’t get wet at all, and there was also the issue of people raiding the medication during transport.  She didn’t want to think badly of the various survivors, but the fact remained that people were creatures of habit.  She knew from interviewing several of the survivors that more than a handful were either alcoholics, or suffered from drug abuse in their history.

While there hadn’t been any raiding of the medical closet yet; she knew it would be only a matter of time before her supplies began disappearing. Thankful, they had been able to find a key to a lockable cabinet where they were storing all the pharmaceutical supplies.  Lindsey knew this would have to be a priority when and if this plan of theirs became a reality.  “Sure guys, I’ll stop by tomorrow morning.”   She managed another weak smile and watched as the two men left, still chatting and acting like young boys talking about baseball cards.

Taking a deep breath, Lindsey stood up and walked out of the auditorium, the smell of freshly extinguished torches and fuel rushing out of the door as she opened it.   The relocation wasn’t something she could allow herself to become distracted by.  There was too much to do and too many people she had to concern herself with right now.   It was close to 9:30PM, too late to check in with Granny and the other elderly patients she had.  

After arriving, she had one classroom converted to a make-shift geriatrics ward.  There were 5 senior citizens who required daily observations.  She had asked Tandi to check in with them to make sure everybody was alright, and to collect their vitals as she had shown her young student.  Tandi was extremely reliable about these things.  She recalled seeing the clipboard sitting on her desk after she had started her shift and seeing all of Tandi’s notes updating the condition of the geriatric patients.  
Lindsey took a right at the end of the long hallway and took the stairs up to the second floor, to the room set up for the children.  She knew they’d also be asleep by now, allowing her to check in on them in relative quiet.  She noted how people had been moved out of the hallways they were squatting in, deferring to the classrooms where they could claim a portion of the room as their own.  Over the last few days, at her own recommendation, the living conditions had been addressed and a lot of the debris and filth had been cleaned as best as possible.  With so many people living in such a cramped and confined space, disease was shortly going to become as great as a concern as being overrun by the undead.  

As she approached the door at the end of the hall, she nodded to the woman who sat at a desk just outside.  Several of the adults had volunteered to take rotating shifts acting as a parent; guardian, and nursemaid all at once.  Protecting the children and keeping them occupied was helping, as much as could be expected anyway.  Lindsey slowly opened the door to the classroom and walked in quietly.  In all there were 15 children.  They varied in age from 3 to 14.  Each was asleep in a cot set up for them, blankets kicked off of several who found it too hot to use.  Lindsey lingered at the foot of each of the cots to make sure everything was alright before moving onto the next one.  As she neared the end of the first row, the moonlight from outside illuminated a young boy who was sitting up, leaning against the wall.

The doctor walked up and sat down next to him.  She thought his name was Timmy, but she couldn’t remember.  “You should be asleep young man” she said, trying to coax the boy back into his cot.  He squirmed as the doctor tried to put her arm around him.  

“The monsters are coming.” He said, not wanting to lay down.  Lindsey moved the blanket down a bit and took her hand away from the youngster.  

“We’re safe here.  There are a lot of adults here with guns who won’t let the monsters come anywhere near the school.” She said, trying to assure the boy that he was safe.  Safe. . .Lindsey knew full well that ‘safe’ was a subjective term these days.  Safer was a better term to use, but she didn’t feel like trying to argue semantics with the boy.  He looked over to the window and then back at the Doctor.

“No.  In my dreams.” The young boy said, pushing himself up against the wall.  Lindsey understood now.  The boy was having nightmares and they were keeping him up.  Given the dreams she was having lately, she related with the child.  She still had a number of people she needed to see, and didn’t have the time to handhold this boy back to bed.  She knew it wouldn’t take much to get him to fall back to sleep, at least for a few hours before the nightmares came back.  She decided to give it 5 minutes before she would have Tandi come up and try some warm milk.

“I tell you what,” Lindsey swung her legs onto the cot and picked up the child so she was holding onto him.  “I’m going to lay down here myself for a bit.  Why don’t you keep me company and I’ll keep an eye out for monsters.”  She laid down and placed her head on the pillow, holding the young boy against her.  Without struggling, the boy laid his head down next to hers and stopped fidgeting.  Lindsey knew it should take but a few moments for him to fall back asleep, and then she could move on to check in on the next room.  She started planning out the remainder of her evening.  Checking in on the children next door, then over to Ellen to check in on the baby and see if it was turning as it should be.  She would need to catch up on her paperwork from this evening and get some filing done.  She also wanted to get Tandi trained on more first aid techniques.  

She listened for a bit to see if she could hear the child breathing slow.  She could feel his back rising and falling against her chest.  She started counting the number of times the pressure of his inhaling pressed against her.  3 times every 10 seconds. . .or was it 4.  She needed to start over again. Once. . .twice. .each time she tried to listed for the exhaling as well as feeling it.  She thought she may have missed one again.   One exhaling. . .twice now. . .With relaxation now settling over her, Lindsey fell asleep.  

awesome, i like how u are progressing the story and the route you are having the characters take. good job keep it up.

This story seems well thought out.  I am really enjoying the plot and character development.

A big +1 from a dyed in the wool zombie fan.  Well done.

Excellent!  Really enjoying the story!

Thanks....

Michael

Brains, more brains.

Keep up the good work.

Ron

great story!

btt looking for an update

Chapter 24
Marine Corps Base, Quantico Virginia

The knocking on his door was only getting louder.  Graham decided that sleep would elude him for yet one more night, and resigned himself to the fact that he was going to get up.  He swung his legs out off his bunk and forced his eyes to open, he looked over to his illuminated desk clock, which read 03:00 hours.

“Enter.”

The door opened and a Captain took a step inside.  “Sorry to wake you sir.”  Graham gave a tired and weary stare back as the Captain stood at attention.  

“It’s alright son, what’s the issue?” The captain looked like he had been the officer that drew the short straw and had to break the bad news.  

“There was an incident in the civilian area.  Several of the civilians objected to the conditions and their requirement to attend combat training.  There was a demonstration and as we attempted to end the incident, there was a firefight.  One of the civilians managed to secure a firearm and opened fire on the posted guards. One of them was injured in the opening volley.  The guards returned fire and killed 3 civilians. There was a panic and a number of the civilians managed to escape into the forest.”

Graham had been given several reports that some of the civilians gathered from the local shelters and those who had been located in the nearby towns were unhappy with the arrangements and the orders that all able-bodied men were going to be given training to help defend the base.  There hadn’t been any serious incidents, up until now.  He considered what had happened and decided that the best solution would be to address whoever was speaking for the civilian groups this week.

“Have the guards search the civilian areas and look for any additional firearms or weapons. . .secure them in the armory if located and have the owners taken to the brig. I also want the guards doubled in the civilian areas for the time being.”  The captain waited for any additional orders as Graham got to his feet and walked over to his closet to pull out his BDUs.  Why the civvies would want to get off the base and out into the open where those reanimated creatures were was a concept that Graham couldn’t comprehend.  They’d last all of 12 hours before they were discovered and attacked, but if that’s what they wanted, then he was more than happy to abandon them to their fate.

“I also want the satellite information from when they escaped.  Track their movement, locate the area where the civilians managed to bypass the fence and shore it up.”

“I’m sorry sir, we were conducting the daily download of data telemetry when the incident occurred.”  Graham looked out from behind his closet door to the see the Captain standing as if he were before a firing squad.  This was the problem with the satellites the joint chiefs had selected to use.  The real time data they could collect was limited in scope and scale, and would eat up their relays while processing.  The much more efficient method of collecting data was to allow the sat telemetry to collect for a period of 24 hours and download it in a solid packet stream for the base eggheads to analyze.  When you did this, there was a window of 30 minutes where the satellites would not being watching the earth.  It was a gamble, but given the ongoing threat and situation the detailed information was more valuable.

“That’ll be all Captain.”  The colonel grabbed his gear and was debating on grabbing a quick shower when a stray thought occurred to him.  “Hold on Captain.”  The officer stopped and turned to face his superior once again.  “When did the telemetry download commence?”  

“02:00 hours sir”  

“When did the civilian riot commence?”

“02:10 hours sir” Graham considered the possibility for a moment.  There wasn’t any way the civilians would have been able to know the exact time that the download was to begin, or for how long the satellites would be out of contact.  Even if they did have some way of knowing. . .leaving the safety and security of the base was suicide.  There wasn’t any reason, any benefit that could be had for the civilians to escape.  They weren’t in a lockdown, nor being imprisoned.  Anybody who wanted to could easily leave without having to go to such lengths, and to date nobody wanted to leave the base.  Why would they when there were over two thousand marines to protect and provide for them.  Graham decided that he was barking up the wrong tree.  

“That’ll be all, thank you Captain.”  The young man nodded and left the colonel’s quarters.  Graham decided that he might as well stay up and get some breakfast from the mess before heading to his office.  It wouldn’t be until mid-morning when the newest Satellite information could be reviewed and the local points of interest he had requested updates on would be ready.  Graham combed his thinning hair and made his way out the door and towards the administrative buildings.

Even with the situation as tenuous as it was, 03:00 these days wasn’t much different than it was before the crisis had started.  Marines on sentry saluted as he walked by, the small gathering of fresh recruits in the barracks were just being forcefully awoken by their DIs for the early morning run, there was a slight breeze which stood in stark contrast to the harsh Virginia summers. One could easily stand still and not notice any difference from one month ago.  

Graham turned the corner to the main entry for the administration building and stopped at the front desk, where an enlisted man was sitting working on paperwork.  As the door opened the man looked up and got to his feet as he saw his commanding officer.

“Good morning Colonel.” The Marine said as he stood at attention.  Graham nodded at the marine as he walked by and to his office.  Wedged into the frame of the door was an envelope.  He knew what this was instantly and tore the envelope open.  Inside was a single piece of paper, a report sheet.

Graham took his reading glasses out of his pocket and put them on, unfolding the piece of paper.

Received 17:34hrs, encrypted channel 114.32. Message begins:

Arrived and inside.  Location prime. Count 350 plus. Armed well. provisions moderate.  Trained resources assisting location.  Next contact 17:30 – forty eight hours.

The colonel smiled.  Walsh had managed to arrive safely and had gotten inside the Clifton shelter.  There were only 3 more shelters operating in a 500 mile radius, and this one looked like the icing on the cake.  It would still be about a week or so before they could move on it.  If this site had military trained people helping in running their operation, they could expect fierce resistance.  It would be two more days before Walsh’s next update would come in.  The next report would speak towards their security and the final report on armament types and positions.  As soon as he got back, Graham was going to see to it that Walsh was given a promotion to Captain for this.  

He folded the piece of paper and tucked it into his shirt pocket, wishing that all his officers could be as dedicated to the cause as Walsh was.  If they would strive to me more like him, and like Walsh and less like. . .well like Pruitt.

The Colonel’s good mood suddenly left him.  He’d have to do something about Pruitt once this news got to him.  He was becoming an issue that Graham was quickly losing patience with.  He’d have to consider what to do about the Major, and soon.

Chapter 25
Ohio State University Medical College
Columbus, Ohio

Lindsey walked onto her balcony, bathing her waking self in the warm morning sun.  From the 4th floor she could see the bustle of people just leaving for their morning commute.  Several of the bodies she saw were fellow medical students walking towards the campus for a morning class.   Lindsey stretched the stiffness away, twisting to try and get her back to crack.  Normally quite reserved, she never had a problem standing on the balcony in her panties and short cut off OSU t-shirt.  She liked the feeling of the sun on her belly, and at this time of the morning, nobody ever noticed anything other then what was directly in front of them.

From behind her, a large set of masculine hands reached around to clasp her on both sides of her waist.  She smiled without looking behind her, allowing herself to be pulled back against the rugged and manly chest of her fiancé.  His scruffy face pushed against her neck as he gave her two quick kisses on her collar bone, his standard way of greeting her after getting out of bed.

“Good morning Doctor Dorian.”  Michael said, giving her a quick third kiss on the back of her neck to punctuate his greeting.  “Feel like some breakfast?”  Michael had only moved into her apartment several weeks ago, and much to the absolute disgust of her ultra-conservative Boston blueblood father.   Michael was a guitar player in a local band, and occasional painter.  He had attended a year and a half at OSU, but dropped out to spend his time working on getting his band off the ground.   She had told her older sister this in confidence, how she and Michael had a whirlwind romance and after 6 months of dating, how he had asked her to marry him.  Miranda, her sister decided that she had to inform their father of the most recent development, and this is when all hell had broken loose.   Daddy’s little girl had been cut off from the family so long as she lived with “that boy” and she would now have to find her own way to pay for medical school and the apartment they enjoyed.  

It was her life, not her father’s.  She was an adult now, and was more than happy to show her father, her sister and anybody else who dared to poke their noses into her life that she was an adult and didn’t need to live for Daddy’s approval like Miranda did.    Lindsey turned her head to the side and pressed her check against Michael’s bare chest, closing her eyes while she considered the possibility of pancakes and eggs.  

“I’d love to baby, but I need to study for a test tomorrow.  The circulation system is kicking my ass and I need the extra time to cram.”  She honestly did want to enjoy a morning meal with him, but the last thing she needed was to have her family proven right by failing a test and allowing everything to fall apart.   She’d have to settle for a granola bar and then 8 hours of memorization and color diagrams.  The hands on her waist began to slide up her body, heading under her cut-off shirt.  She gently placed her hands on his to stop the approach.  

“You sure Linds?” Michael asked. “We can make it a very special breakfast.” Lindsey laughed as she turned her body to press against his, placing his hands back on her waist.  
“I’m sure baby.  Any other day I’d march you back into the bedroom myself and that is where we’d spend all morning, but I really don’t want to mess up this test. Rain check?” She asked, punctuating her own sentence with a kiss on his chest.   She waited for a few moments but didn’t hear a response.  She knew this would disappoint him, but they had agreed that school needed to come first, for now anyway.  Even though there had been no “official protest” Lindsey wanted to assure her lover that their intimate time would come soon enough.  She placed both hands on Michael’s chest and looked up to face her 6 foot 4 giant of a future husband.  

As her eyes went up above his chest, she gasped to see his eyes missing.  Part of his cheek was also absent, and blood was dripping down from his chin.  They were also now standing on the steps of the Clifton shelter, not on their Columbus balcony.  The hands on her waist suddenly clamped down and held her in place, while the massacred face of her undead fiancé bared down on her captive neck.

“NO!” Lindsey screamed.  Bolting up from her desk where she had fallen asleep.  Her clinic office was dimly lit by the yellow glow of an oil lamp.  The slight comfortable morning breeze of her nightmare balcony had been replaced with the oppressive humidity of the shelter and the summer midnight of Virginia.  Lindsey could feel her terror sweat drenched clothes clinging to her body, giving her a sudden reminder of exactly where she was and that it had just been a dream.   She looked down to the paperwork she had been working on and pushed it aside, giving her space to place her palms and to catch her breath.

From outside she could hear rapidly approaching footsteps and tried in vain to quickly compose herself.  She pulled the loose hairs that had managed to pull themselves out of her pony tail back and tried to will the sleepy and fatigued look off her face.  She took a deep breath as the door into the clinic swung open and two of the guards stood just outside the doorway, guns drawn but held down low.  As the men looked around the dimly lit office, Lindsey held up a hand to calm them down.

“It’s alright guys” she reassured them, trying to provide a rather embarrassed smile.  “A spider climbed onto my leg. . .surprised me. “ She knew it sounded lame, and the moment she said it she consider how completely girly the sentence was.  She might as well climb up on the desk holding her frilly pink dress in her hands and tell them she saw a mouse.  She watched as the two guards briefly looked at one another and then took another glance around the room.  The older man on the left brought his eyes back to the stalwart standing doctor.

“You sure you’re alright doctor?”  Lindsey had to catch herself from barking at the guard for having to repeat her sentence.  She was fine, it had only been a nightmare.  She wanted nothing more right now then to be left alone and to make her embarrassment just go away, along with these two guards.  Lindsey put her hand down and nodded her head.

“Everything is fine, thanks for checking anyway.”  She watched as the two holstered their handguns.

“Ok Doctor. Have a good evening. “The guards closed the open door into the office and walked back to their post at the front doors to the shelter.  Lindsey watched as the two slowly made their way back and she let out a deep breath.  Standing there, wet from neck to toe in body sweat, she hoped that the office was dim enough that the guards hadn’t noticed.  There was no way now for her to get any sleep.  Although she knew she was physically drained from any measureable sleep in days, she was wide awake now. Way too alert and her embarrassment was only rivaled by the fatigue which was, for the moment anyway being held in check.  She brought her hands up to her eyes to rub them more awake, and she shuddered as she felt her wet shirt slowly peel itself from her body under the weight of the moisture.

Lindsey considered for a few moments, and decided that if she was going to be awake for a while, she might as well get comfortable.  Walking to a cabinet in the corner of the room, she opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of jeans, bra and shirt that Tandi kept stored away in the event she had to work an overnight in the clinic.  The doctor held each item up to her body to see if they would fit.  Tandi was a few inches taller than she was, and about 10 pounds lighter then Lindsey last remembered herself being, but otherwise they were close to the same size. Lindsey thought back to how she and Miranda had gotten into more than one argument after “borrowing” one another’s clothing.   She decided while they might be a little tight on her, it was better than walking around in sweat drenched clothes which were more than a little ripe.  She neatly folded the clothing and carried it to the attached bathroom, which now also served as her washroom with the small basin sink, and would have to now suffice as a shower.  Last week Frank had arranged to have a 5 gallon portable water tank hung up above the mirror with a hose that ran down into the sink.  There was a small valve which depending how far you opened it, gravity fed water down below and allowed her to wash her hands in between examining patients.  

She had promised herself she wouldn’t use this as her own personal shower, as that would be an unfair luxury as everybody else had to use the community showers that had been jerry rigged outside behind the school building.  At best people were only getting one shower a week, but it was better than not having any way to clean themselves as all.  Despite her promise, Lindsey needed to get clean, and at this time of night. . .there weren’t any other options available.  

Peering around the corner and to the hallway, Lindsey didn’t see anybody around.  Satisfied that she was mostly alone, she walked back to the bathroom sink and began stripping off the sweaty clothes.  She placed them on the tank of the toilet, and would arrange to have them washed tomorrow morning.  There was a small group of 8 people who had been assigned to wash clothing as thoroughly as was possible with the few supplies they had.  Several large tubs had been located in the town below, along with washboards and an ample supply of detergents.  After being washed they were hung to dry on several lines, and people could come collect them after they had properly dried.  Surprisingly there had not been any disputes over who was the rightful owner of a newer pair of jeans, or a freshly laundered shirt.  It was yet another one of Frank’s “systems” that had proven invaluable.  

Lindsey slipped the jeans off her legs and stood in front of the large mirror above the sink, taking a moment to inspect her body and performing a quick visual inspection.  She had definitely lost weight in the 3 weeks since arriving at the shelter.   Her ribs weren’t yet visible through her skin, as was the case with more than a handful of the people who hadn’t been eating as well as before the world had decided to end, but that slight “pudgy” she had given herself hell over last Christmas was now a distant memory.  The silver lining in all of this. . .she thought to herself, . . .was that she had the same body now that she had back in college 15 years ago.  

Lindsey stopped and closed her eyes quickly.  No!  She stopped thinking about it and the fact that she had even brought up the memory had angered her.  She admonished herself for bringing up the thought.  The nightmare was bad enough.  She couldn’t help what she had dreamt, but thinking about Michael now was threatening to make her cry, and that wasn’t acceptable.  Little weepy and weak housewives cry.  Tiny shrinking violets who think their husbands are cheating on them cry.  First in their graduating class and doctors close to chief of residency don’t cry.  Lindsey took a deep breath and made the thought go away.  Michael had left her. . .he didn’t care that her career was important to her, and she was better off without him in her life.  She quickly reaffirmed the fact to herself again and opened her eyes.  Lindsey took another deep breath and pulled her hair from out of the pony tail, letting it fall over her shoulders.  The sight of the loose and split ends making her slightly depressed.  Had this been a normal week, she would have scheduled a trip to the salon, complete with a manicure and pedicure to remedy the tired scarecrow staring back at her in the mirror.  Normal wasn’t something anybody had any longer, only something talked about when there was free time to think at the shelter.

Reaching over, Lindsey took the small bar of soap from the washbasin and opened the valve on the water hose to allow a small stream of water to trickle out.  She lathered up her hands and began to apply the soapy foam across her body, trying to wash away the dirt, the smell, but mostly the shame from allowing herself to be weak enough to almost cry about Michael.   After each arm and been thoroughly scrubbed, she opened the valve once again and rubbed the water against her skin, washing away the soap.   Following the same routine for her face, neck and chest, she looked down at her shins, wishing she had a razor to rid herself of the small growth of hair that had started to return to her legs.

“Lindsey. . .Joe mentioned that you were a bit frazzled by. . . “ Lindsey turned to see Ben just rounding the corner to the bathroom, peering in to see Lindsey exactly as God had made her.  The look of shock and embarrassment obvious in his eyes as they moved down across her body and then back up again to meet her own eyes.  He looked as if he was about to say something, but quickly turned his back to the Doctor, trying to protect her modesty.   “Oh god, oh. . .oh damn Doctor, I’m sorry. . .I didn’t know you were naked. . I mean that you were nude. .in your nakedness. . .” Lindsey closed her eyes yet again, sighing deeply and asking herself sarcastically if this night could get any better.   She was too tired to be self-conscious, too exhausted to make a scene, or ask why people don’t seem to knock on her office door before coming in.  She was simply worn down to the point where she either had the energy to complete her makeshift bath, or yell at Ben.  She opted for finishing the bath.   She opened her eyes to still see Ben standing in front of her, his back turned as he was still stuttering and stammering.  She decided to throw him a lifeline before he had an embolism.

“It’s alright Ben. It was an accident; I should have closed the door to the bathroom. I didn’t think anybody else would be up this late.  She noticed Ben had stopped his monologue of awkwardness and was surely debating a quick retreat.  

“Joe said spiders were making their way into the clinic. I just wanted to let you know we’re going to have people clean the clinic from top to bottom tomorrow to make sure this area is a sterile as possible.”  The words were spoken at three times their normal speed.  Ben was obviously more rattled then Lindsey thought.  She considered options for a moment, and decided that it might save her any additional embarrassment if she had a sentry to watch for anybody else who wanted to stop by while she cleaned up.   She looked back down to her bare and dirty legs and then to Ben’s turned back.  

“Ben, can I trust you to be a gentlemen and keep your back turned while I finish up in here, and keep anybody else from wondering in?” She knew she didn’t need to even ask.  Ben had Boy Scout written all over him. It was practically tattooed across his forehead. He was one of those Dudley do-right guys who went on about compassion, honor and helping your fellow man.  She didn’t have to wait long for a response.  

“Absolutely. I’m sorry, I should have knocked or said hello. . .I just didn’t think. .”  Lindsey cut him off again.  It was obvious he wasn’t thinking. .

“Ben, just watch the door.” Lindsey turned back around and began her procedure of lathering and scrubbing her legs.   She got about half way through the first leg when the silence began to bother her.  A man she hardly knew was directly behind her while she was naked only feet away.  The awkwardness was beginning to get to her.  She opted to get a conversation going, despite how odd the situation at hand was.

“Look, don’t worry about cleaning the clinic.  Tandi and I do it in our spare time to keep things tidy, and beyond that. . .”  She considered what she was about to say, but figured if she was in for a penny, she might as well be in for a pound. “And beyond that there wasn’t a spider.  It was a nightmare.”  She finished with her first leg and placed the other foot on the sink, lathering up once again as she turned her head slightly to make sure Ben was still being a gentleman.  It didn’t surprise her that he was being still as a statue.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of Lindsey.  Most of the people here have nightmares.” Lindsey worked on a tender spot on her leg where she had bumped it several days ago. . .making sure the small scrape was remaining as clean as possible.  She listened as Ben continued.  “I doubt there isn’t a single person here who hasn’t been messed up by what’s going on, after seeing what we’ve seen.”  Lindsey didn’t have time to share her personal philosophy with him.  On how people like her with so many people to care for and look after don’t have the luxury of falling to pieces.  They have serious responsibilities and don’t need people to question their ability to do their job.  Her mind picked up on the fact that Ben was still talking, and decided that she should be paying attention.  

“. . .and honestly I’d question anybody who had seen even half of what I have seen recently and didn’t have nightmares.  I know I will for a long time to come.”  He was trying his hardest to be reassuring and comforting, she had to give him that much, even if his manners were those of a wandering bull, he obviously knew all the right things to say.  Lindsey finished scrubbing her other leg, cleaning off the soapy foam with the trickle of water and placed it back on the warm tile floor.  

“I guess I just want to be the first person that is able to cope with everything going on around here, so that I can help everybody else come to that same point.”  She was trying to keep the conversation going, trying to keep the awkwardness out of her mind, and just allow herself the ability to take a simple bath.  She was only half-committed to the words coming out of her mouth. It seemed she was so tired now that she was actually holding conversations on auto-pilot.  

“You might not see it Lindsey, but I think that’s why so many people here respect you.” Ben seemed to be speaking more in normal tones and his usual speed.  Whatever discomfort there had been a few moments ago must have been lost.  “Yeah, you’re a doctor and there is always a certain amount of respect which comes with that, I think their opinion of you is more due to how you’re always putting their well being, tending to their cuts and bruises before anything else, including your own health.“ Lindsey wasn’t used to having her patients talk frankly with her like this.  Ben was addressing her more as an equal then as a doctor, and it surprised her that having him do this wasn’t making her upset.  She pushed her blonde hair back past her shoulder to keep it out of her way temporarily.

“Hell, I know that’s why I have so much respect for you.  That, and if you don’t mind me saying it. . .you have a damn fine killer body!“  The words took a moment to register with her, and she had to do a quick mental check to make sure she had heard what he just said correctly.  Was he really flirting with her? From outside the sound of the door opening was once again audible.  She looked over briefly to see Ben’s head turn and face the door.  

“We need a minute here.” Ben said to whomever had just walked into the clinic.  Lindsey had wanted to wash her hair, but with the shampoo scavenged from the town below going to the general community; and with the possibility of somebody being injured right outside, her hair would have to wait.  From around the corner a quiet voice was just barely audible.

“I’m supposed to relieve Doctor Dorian.”  It was Tandi.  She had agreed to stop by at 4AM this morning to take over for Lindsey and allow her to try and get some sleep.  Was it really that late. . .or early?  The doctor raised her head slightly, making sure that she could be heard.  

“It’s alright Ben.  Tandi can take over for you. Let’s finish our conversation when you get back from your scouting trip.”  Ben nodded his head and without turning and accidently getting another full look at Lindsey in the buff, side-stepped to the door out of the clinic.  Lindsey found herself smiling just a bit as she suddenly remembered where she was.  

“Tandi” she said loudly once again. “Can you grab one of those towels we got in yesterday?”  They were again part of the spoils which had been liberated from the town below.  While it still wasn’t safe to venture out beyond the shelter, the small number of houses down the valley and the items inside allowed the residents of the shelter some minor creature comforts.  Towels and ripped up bed sheets turned into towels were amongst the latest of spoils.  

Lindsey heard the sound of the cabinet door opening and Tandi came into the bathroom, stopping at the door.  The look of surprise not hidden on her face to see her new boss standing naked.  The doctor was happy this would be the final time she would have to explain her situation.

“He caught me sneaking in a quick bath and I made him stand guard there while I finished up.” Lindsey took the towel her young assistant was holding and began to dry herself off.  “I hope you don’t mind, I’m borrowing your clothes. Mine are sweat soaked.” She motioned to the pile of soiled garments which sat in a heap on the toilet tank.  Tandi took a moment to gather herself, her mind working a hundred miles an hour.  She shook her head and leaned against the door frame, trying to shield her boss from any casual view from out in the hallway.

“Oh. . .” she managed.  “It’s no problem, I have another clean set under my cot upstairs, I don’t mind.”  Lindsey sensed there was more going on in the teenager’s mind.  As she toweled off her arms, she raised her eyebrows, wanting the teenager to continue her train of thought.  Tandi must have picked up on the gesture, as she just shrugged and finished her train of thought.  “I just thought. . .for a moment there that I had walked in on. . .”

Lindsey felt herself blushing slightly at the words.  She stopped toweling off and just stared at Tandi, cocking her head slightly as if to say “him?” The young woman, obviously aware of her line of thought not being appropriate, quickly caught herself.  “I’ll go get my paperwork started.”  She walked over to the desk and began to make herself busy, removing herself from the uncomfortable topic of conversation.  Lindsey turned back around and finishing drying herself off.  As she looked up briefly to see herself in the mirror, she saw that she was in fact, blushing.  Not only were her cheeks red, but her shoulders and the top of her chest as well. Tandi must have seen it, which is what prompted that last comment.  

Fantastic! She thought to herself.  Just what I need, rumors of a shelter romance to get started.  She looked back to the mirror and saw she was smiling.  She *was* smiling.  Why the hell was she smiling?  He was cute. . .fine.  But he wasn’t the type of guy she would normally want to date. He was caring; he was respectable and was overly compassionate about people around him.  Lindsey caught herself smiling more; she tried to will herself to stop smiling, to make the blushing fade away as well.  Her mind starting to try and come up with a possible medical reason for what was going on.

“It’s just a normal autonomic response.  It’s just embarrassment over. . .” The realization then hit her like a ton of bricks.  No!  This can’t happen.  Not here, not with everything else going on.  Deny it as she might, and against the hard and focused demeanor she worked so hard to keep up, the truth of the matter was clearly evident and staring back at her in the mirror.

She had developed a romantic interest . . .a schoolgirl crush for Ben Maxwell.

thanks for keeping up the good work. i sence a battle is upon us in this story, which u have progressed very nicely

good chapter, thanks!

Great addition, keep it up.

Nice work on Chapters 24 and 25!

Thanks!

Michael

Great addition. Thank you.. When you have the time keep it coming...

Great story! And not to seem pushy, BUT MORE PLEASE!

Toad

Are there any updates for this story incoming? It's great so far!

Any more updates!