Aftermath (17 page)

When each man had settled into their position, Lee stood up fully, raised his arms high above his head with his hands open, palms out, and stepped out of the trees.

The man staring into the fire jumped like he’d had a cattle prod shoved up his ass and snatched the shovel up, bearing it like a club. He began shouting, “I got another one! There’s another one!”

“
Whoa!” Lee stood at the woodline and didn’t come any farther. “Calm down! I’m not infected!’

People were suddenly pouring out of all three tents, Lee thought there might be at least a dozen of them. They were young and old, men and women, and a few children. They all were lean, as everyone was these days, their faces dirty and hard, and they all were brandishing some form of weapon, down to the smallest child, which was a little girl that Lee guessed was not much older than Abby. She held a hammer.

Lee tried to sound calm and in control. “I’m not sick. I’m not here to hurt you. No one’s going to hurt you.”

The straight-laced man didn’t let his guard down, but the group’s instant aggression kind of stalled out and everyone just stood around for a moment, trading hesitant glances. When the straight-laced man spoke again, his voice came out stronger than Lee had expected.

“
Who are you?”

Lee eyed the man. Of course, he had a specific greeting that he was supposed to use when coming in contact with survivors. But somehow it seemed less likely to sound legitimate when he was wearing a smiley face t-shirt. He decided to go with a simple, “Captain Harden. US Army.”

The straight-laced man seemed to consider this, rolling it around in his mind like he was inspecting it. While the man thought things over, Lee could sense his companions from Camp Ryder behind him, ready to start shooting at a moment’s notice. Lee’s legs were tensed slightly, ready to dive out of the way of the gunfire if the man made any false moves.

The man tilted his head slightly. “Okay. Captain. Let’s assume that I believe you. My next questions would be, where is your weapon, where is your squad, and what are you doing wandering through the woods alone?”

Lee went for blunt honesty. “My weapon is behind me in the woods, where my men are pointing guns at you right now. And I’m not wandering. I’ve come for the bunker.” Lee readied himself to dive to the ground.

There was a ripple of shock as he told them he had men pointing guns at them, but it was silenced almost immediately when he mentioned the bunker. It was like Lee had said some secret password in a language only this group could understand. They began to look at each other and speak excitedly. Even the straight-laced man’s expression softened and turned into a faint, hopeful smile.

He lowered the shovel. “Dear God...this is your bunker?”

Lee looked around at the faces staring at them. Now all eyes were on him, completely focused on the next words he was going to say, willing him to say “yes, it’s my bunker.” Instead, he decided to address a more pressing matter. “Can we talk without holding weapons to each other?”

The straight-laced man was so enthralled by talk of the bunker, it was almost like he’d forgotten about the men in the woods, or that his group was still holding their various bludgeoning weapons. His eyes darted for a moment and Lee thought he saw a bit of the same fear that had come out before, but it was quelled with a slight nod. “Yes. We should speak reasonably with each other. No need for any bloodshed.”

Lee made a waving motion and his four men emerged from the woods. They didn’t point their rifles directly at the group, but they held them tight and ready. Their eyes flitted back and forth between the dozen survivors and Lee, trying to get a feel for what was going on. At the sight of the men, the group of survivors tensed and a ripple of fearful exclamations came out. The straight-laced man reached behind him, taking the hands of a young woman and a boy.

He turned his head slightly. “Trust in the Lord,” he said to them quietly. Then he turned back to Lee, the suspicion evident in his voice. “You don’t look like soldiers.”

Lee looked to men from Camp Ryder and gestured for them to lower their weapons. The very least he could do was show this man and his people that they weren’t there to murder them. “No, they’re not soldiers. They’re just civilians who are helping me get a job done. Please, let’s be calm here. We have no intention of harming anyone.”

The tension in the air eased, but only slightly.

“
Can you prove to us who you are?” the straight-laced man asked.

Lee held up a hand, his eyes narrowing. “I think I’ve been very accomodating, so far. Let me ask a few questions.”

Brief hesitation. Then: “Okay.”

“
Who are you?” Lee asked.

The man seemed to brace himself, as though he thought the answer might bring an attack. “I’m Father James Shultz. Everyone calls me Father Jim. The people behind me are members of my congregation.”

Lee pointed to the fire, now blazing hotly between them. “Whose body is that?”

Father Jim looked suddenly very serious. “They were a few, very sick people.”

“
Infected?”

Father Jim nodded again. “We could do nothing for them.”

Lee eyed him. The man stood erect, his people behind him. They were afraid, but trusting.
Trust in the Lord.
Lee had been correct in his initial assessment of the man’s occupation. A priest was about on par excitement-wise with an accountant. But there was something else behind his tortoise-shell glasses that spoke of violence. He wasn’t sure why he asked the next question, other than to see how the other man would react. “And how does that sit with your beliefs?”

Father Jim swallowed. “Yes. I struggle with that.”

Lee crossed his arms. “So why are you here?”

The priest turned towards his people. “We were taking shelter in our church near here, but it was burned down by a group of men. We lost many of our people there.” He met Lee’s gaze, and there was that flicker in his eyes again. “I lived there, right next to the church, and I hunted these woods for years. I remember when this bunker was built. There was nothing out here but woods. And then, suddenly, there’s a bunker? Never saw the crews working on it, and it was already covered in leaves and moss when I first found it, like it had been there for ages, but I knew it hadn’t been more than a few months since I passed through the area. It was always very mysterious to me.

“
When our church burned down, I knew this was where we had to come. It didn’t make any sense to me at the time, but I trusted the Lord.” His eyes suddenly looked misty, and his voice was low and strained. “We’ve been here for three weeks now, hungry, thirsty, in danger every day. We have waited. And prayed, every day, that you would come. And here you are. An answer to our prayers!”

Lee shifted uncomfortably. “I’m gonna speak to my guys for a quick second.”

Eager to know what the hell was going on, the four men from Camp Ryder quickly huddled up at the edge of the woods where quiet conversation would not be overheard. Lee stepped into the circle, that hardness now ebbing from his face.

He looked to Harper first. “What do you think, Harper?”

The older man blew air between his lips. “Well, there’s not much we can do for them.”

“
We can feed them,” Lee offered. “Give them some water and some guns.”

“
And then what?” Doc fingered his hair back behind his ears. “Just leave them here?”

“
There ain’t enough room in the truck to take ‘em,” Miller pointed out. “Unless we don’t take supplies.”

“
No,” Lee shook his head. “That is not an option. I made a promise to Camp Ryder. The supplies are non-negotiable.”

“
Then we have to leave the people here,” Harper concluded.

“
Can they stay in the bunker?” Josh asked.

Lee grimaced. “I really...don’t prefer that.”

“
Well, I think your preferences might have to change,” Doc got indignant. “We can’t take them with us, they don’t have a car to go on their own, and if you leave them out here in the woods they’re going to keep getting attacked until they die. That’s just a fact. It’s just a matter of time.”

Harper cleared his throat loudly. “What if they could find a vehicle and we gave them instructions on how to reach Camp Ryder?”

“
Still pretty dangerous,” Lee waffled. “And how will Bus take that?”

“
The only option that isn’t dangerous is letting them stay in your bunker,” Harper pointed out. “And Bus will just have to trust our judgment.”

Lee nodded. “I guess we should put it to Father Jim, then. We will give him supplies, and he can either go on his way, or meet us back at Camp Ryder.”

Miller shrugged. “Seems more than fair to me.”

Josh and Harper agreed.

Doc remained silent.

Lee turned and approached Father Jim again. He looked at the priest and the hopeful faces that gathered behind him. “I can’t let you stay inside the bunker, and we do not have enough room for you in the truck we came in. We came here to take supplies back to the other group of survivors, and we will be leaving first thing in the morning. We will give you directions to the other community of survivors, and you are welcome to go there. Or you can remain here, and I will come back for you, but I don’t know how long that will take. Regardless of what you folks decide to do, I will give you food, water, medicine, and weapons. And of course, you can sleep in the bunker tonight. The choice is yours.”

Father Jim did not seem offended, but simply thoughtful. “Well, I will think and pray about this decision and tell you tomorrow morning.”

Lee nodded. “Of course. Let’s get down there.”

***

Lee sent Josh and Doc to retrieve the pickup truck and pull it up close to the bunker door. While Lee wished to help Father Jim and his congregation, he did not fully trust them yet. Father Jim might be a man of God and predisposed to kindness, but he had also seen how the end of society had changed not only Father Jim, but everyone else that Lee had come across. When survival was on the line, people were capable of almost anything. If Father Jim viewed the bunker as his only chance of staying alive, and Lee as the one obstacle to that goal, he didn’t think it was out of the question for Father Jim to put a bullet in him, regardless of his beliefs.

He made the decision that he would arm his own group, and keep the rest of the weapons locked up until they were prepared to leave. Father Jim might not come up with a seditious plan, but that wasn’t to say he wouldn’t take advantage of an opportunity that was dropped in his lap. It was best to play it safe.

When Josh and Doc returned with the truck, Lee went to the big bunker door. Here the multi-tiered security system became a ridiculous rigamorol of redundancy all built to ensure Lee was the only person that ever accessed the bunker.

He held up the GPS to what appeared to be another flat steel panel. The device prompted him to enter a four digit code, which he did quickly from memory and the panel popped out and up on hydraulic hinges, revealing a small screen with a keyboard, a thumb-scanner, a microphone, and a retinal scan. He completed the thumb scan which activated the retinal scan, which activated the keyboard and screen. He entered his information and once it had been verified, the computer prompted him to say his passcode, which was matched to his voice.

The bunker came to life with the heavy mechanical sound of bolts retracting, like a vault door being opened. The door cracked and swung open quietly, letting out a rush of cool air. For a moment, Lee and Harper and Father Jim stood at the entrance to the bunker, staring into the spacious cargo elevator that would take them down forty feet below the surface, and down there was safety and security and the feeling that this was not the end of the world, that bringing them back from the brink was not an insurmountable task.

Harper’s voice was quiet and wondering. “What happens if you say the wrong code?”

Lee smiled. “Let’s just say we should avoid that.”

“
Can we go inside?” one of Father Jim’s congregation asked. She was a younger girl, probably in her teens.

Father Jim looked to Lee who gestured towards the elevator. “Be my guest.”

They went down in two groups, Lee and the men from Camp Ryder along with a few of the men from Father Jim’s congregation. Then Lee went back up to retrieve the rest of them, closing and sealing the bunker door behind him before descending down to the main level.

The elevator opened to a cement floor that took up a wide square of blank space. The entire bunker was lit by the cold but welcome glow of electric lights and the place was not just cool, but chilly, like it was turning the sweat on their bodies to sheens of ice. And Lee thought it felt wonderful. Based on the sighs of satisfaction from many of the others, he believed that notion was widely held.

The large open area before the elevator led off into a short hallway. At the end of that hallway was a living area with a few bunks and a few cots, a bathroom area with showers, and a food preparation area. To either side of the hallway was a door. To the left, it led to a storage area that held all the various supplies that this bunker was stocked with. This was by far the largest section of the bunker. The doorway to the right led to a control room where Lee could monitor the bunker’s systems and view surveillance footage of the area outside his bunker.