Dead Life Book 5 (15 page)

              They threw me up in the back of one of the dump trucks and were getting ready to drive through the gate when their last unit made it back. From what little I could hear from where they had me the Sargent that knocked me on my ass was right. They had Lily and John.

Chapter 18

Sleeping in a real bed felt great. I woke up before five and went to check on Al, which was easy considering we had all slept in the same room. I did my best the night before to try and convince Gina that we were perfectly safe in the hospital but she would have none of it. I shouldn’t have said anything about thinking that someone from the base was headed back here. That’s what I get for acting like I know everything. After we ate she had me go to some of the other rooms and wheel the beds from them into Al’s room. It was tight in there but after we moved the recliner and the dresser out I was able to get four beds into the same room. At first I thought I was going to be able to get away with only getting three beds in. That way Gina and I would have had to share a bed. After I pushed the third bed into the room I made a big show of how tight things were. Gina and Cindy didn’t fall for it though. The two of them just gave me some kind of blank stare and without saying a word started dragging some of the medical equipment out into the hall. Women.

The next morning the first thing I did was check on Al. He was still breathing but otherwise hadn’t improved. I took the sat phone out into the hall and called Tim. I was surprised when he answered on the first ring. He was still worried about the General that was trying to track us down so we only talked for a few minutes. I was able to let him know we were in Fort Leonard Wood without actually coming out and saying so. He tried to give me an idea of their location but I didn’t get much out of what he was trying to tell me. The only thing that made any sense at all was that they would see us in a few days. I told him of the success we had driving at night and from what I could tell they were going to give it a try. Hopefully that would get them here by the next morning. I told him that Al was sick and that we were afraid he was infected. That he hadn’t turned yet and it had been over a day so maybe he would be okay. He told me not to worry, Al probably only had an infection and that everything would be fine. I agreed and we ended our conversation there.

When I got off the phone with Tim I walked the hospital checking all the doors. From what I could tell we were still alone. After that I went to the kitchen to see what I could scare up for breakfast. The best I could come up with was prepackaged cooked bacon and some oatmeal. Bacon sounded good. Oatmeal not so good. What the hell it was hot. I loaded everything up on a tray and started back to the room. When I got there the beds were already out in the hall and the girls were in the process of dragging the recliner back into the room.

“Look at that,” Gina said. “You made breakfast.”

“I’ve been trained well,” I said. “I already checked the building too. We’re still alone.”

“Was that your son I heard you talking to?” Cindy asked.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Are they still on their way here?”

“They should be here by tomorrow morning.”

“That’s great Steve,” Cindy said. “I can’t wait to meet your son now that he’s all grown up. I remember him from when he used to visit you in the summer.”

“That was a long time ago. He didn’t even come every summer. I’m surprised you remember him.”

“I talked to him a few times. Unlike you he wasn’t afraid to introduce himself to the widow woman living up the street.”

“Let’s not start this again. Okay?”

“Let me get this straight Cindy.” Here it came. Gina couldn’t resist giving me a hard time about this, again. “You met Tim, but you never met Steve.”

“If I remember correctly he was about fourteen years old and he seemed to always be out riding his bike. I saw him all the time when I was out in the yard.”

“Well that figures,” I said under my breath.

“What was that Steve?” Gina asked.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Yes you did. Come on baby. Don’t be shy.”

“You just love this shit. Don’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah you do. The two of you are working this conversation around so you can see if you can get me embarrassed again about watching Cindy cutting her grass and working in her yard in her bikini.”

“So you admit it. The both of you were watching me. I had no idea.”

“What do you expect? Running around the front yard in a bikini, everything hanging out. The poor kid couldn’t help himself.”

They got me again. “I’m going to check out the base. Enjoy your breakfast.” I stormed out of the room and stopped just outside the door, listening to their laughter.

“You should go after him,” Cindy said.

“No. Let him suffer,” Gina said.

“What if something happens,” Cindy said. “You should go.”

The door flew open and Gina rushed out of the room, nearly running me over. “I’m sorry. We were just teasing you.”

“I know. I shouldn’t let it bother me so much.”

“Cindy is a very attractive woman. Nobody blames you for anything. Just come back in and eat breakfast. When we’re done the two of us will go check out the base together.”

“Let’s just drop it. I want you to stay here with Cindy. I’m just going to drive around. We’ll stay in touch over the radio.”

“I’m not letting you go by yourself. Every time somebody goes off alone something bad happens.”

“So what’s your plan? You think we should leave Cindy here by herself? Al’s still unconscious. Somebody has to stay with her and Al.”

“You don’t know what it’s going to be like out there. You can’t go by yourself.”

I pulled Gina into my arms and kissed her. “It’s got to be this way and you know it. I’ll hurry back and when I get back we’ll spend a little quality time together. How’s that sound?”

Gina slid her hand down between us and rubbed my groin. “Hurry.”

I kissed her one last time. “That’s what I’m talking about. I’ll be back in a flash with the cash.”

“What cash?”

“It’s an old saying.”

“Just get going. When you get to the truck do a radio check.”

The first thing I did when I got to the truck was radio Gina. Everything checked out so I wasted no time and headed right out. Gina wanted me to radio in every half hour but I talked her into a radio check every hour. I mean honestly what difference did it make? What was she going to do, come running out to save my ass? If things went south it would probably mean that I was dead. The last thing I wanted her doing was charging out into a horde of zombies trying to rescue me.

I had a map of the base and was going to head over to the barracks first. Fort Leonard Wood was a training facility for new recruits. I figured my best bet at finding anybody on the base was going there first. I drove between the huts where they kept the new recruits. Everything looked normal at first. I even got out of the truck and went into two of the barracks. Both were completely cleaned out. Except they weren’t clean. From the looks of things the army had emptied this place out pretty fast. Shit was thrown everywhere. Lockers were empty, beds were unmade, and they were both trashed. It was strange that they had left the hospital in an orderly fashion but the barracks had been evacuated in a hurry. There was nothing to be learned here. Time to move on.

“Break one nine for a ten one hundred.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean,” Gina replied.

“That’s trucker CB talk. I’m pretty sure it means I need to stop and cop a squat.”

“What?”

“Never mind. I just finished checking out the barracks. Looks like they bugged out of here pretty fast. I’m going up to the airfield next.”

“Keep me updated and do me a favor.”

“Anything baby.”

“Quit playing around.”

“I’m not playing around.”

“Then when you call me try and be more serious. I’m worried about you. Please stop playing. If you need to go to the bathroom just go. Don’t tell me about it.”

“I’m sorry. Don’t worry so much. There’s nobody here. I’ll be fine. I’ll talk to you later.”

“One other thing. Al’s coming around. Cindy says his heart rate is coming back up. He’s been moaning and tossing and turning in his bed. She thinks he’s going to be okay.”

“Thanks. That’s good news. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done checking out the airfield. Over.”

The airfield was probably only about five minutes from the barracks. Fort Leonard Wood wasn’t one of the bigger bases. From what I remembered from when Tim was stationed here during his basic training the airport was mostly used for small aircraft and helicopters. Troop transport planes and jets didn’t fly out of Fort Leonard Wood. I doubted that I would find anything at the airfield. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I debated as to whether I should call Gina and let her know what I was seeing. As best I could tell it looked like a small war had been waged at the airport. The fence on one end of the field had been razed and from the looks of things the runway had been extended several hundred yards. Construction equipment littered the sides of the new addition to the runway. Buildings had been plowed under to make room for the asphalt that must have been laid in a hurry. Something big had happened here and it looked like the military did everything in their power to get away from it as fast as possible.

I drove my truck down the runway but had to stop before I got to the end. The new construction was pitted with huge tire tracks from the planes that must have used the runway before the asphalt had a chance to set. I went as far as I could then stopped to look at the devastation in front of me. The tops of the trees at the end of the runway had been recently broken off. Either the landing gear or the belly of a plane had hit them during take-off.  To the south of the trees was a large field where one of the wings of the plane had torn a huge furrow. A quarter mile past that was what little was left of the burned out wreckage of the plane. I doubted that anyone had walked away from this.

There was nothing I could do sitting here; this had happened days ago. I turned the truck around and went back to where the hangars were. All the bay doors were open except one. Every one of the open hangars that was open was empty. Not a single plane or helicopter was left. I remembered coming here with Tim years ago. It wasn’t a big airport but it was a busy one. There had been takeoffs and landings every few minutes that day. I could imagine every plane being loaded with as many soldiers and their families as they could hold. Had something like this taken place at every military base across the country? And if it had, where had they all gone? Communications broke down so fast when the outbreak first happened that I had no idea what kind of response the military had made. Other than the reserve unit we had seen decimated on the second day I hadn’t seen any evidence that our country had even tried to stop the end of civilization. Maybe our armed forces were all in a central location waiting for the right time to mount an offensive. Possible? Yes. Probable? Not likely. I wasn’t going to hold my breath waiting for the government to come to our rescue.

I drove over to the closed hangar and got out of the truck. Before I got to the door I could hear moaning coming from inside. There were definitely zombies behind that door. I quietly crept over to the side of the building looking for a window. There wasn’t a window but at the far end of the exterior wall was a door. I didn’t like this. There was no way I was going all the way down there. The door was too far away from my only way of escape, my truck. I went back to the bay door in the front of the building and stood outside listening. The intensity of the moaning coming from behind the door had diminished. They must have been responding to the noise from the truck engine and the sound from the door when I got out. What had me confused was why weren’t they banging on the door trying to get at me? This was creeping me out. I spun around and raised my rifle. Ready for whatever was behind me. Which of course was nothing. The only sounds I heard were coming from behind the door. There was only one thing to do. I knocked on the door. This got them started again but they still weren’t pounding on the bay door. Next I banged on the door. This really got them going. It was really loud in there but there was still nothing at the door. I had to find out what was going on. I was having another what would Al do moment. The answer was in my backpack on the front seat of the truck.

I went to the truck, got in my backpack, and got two grenades. The door to the hangar was just like a large garage door. It worked off an electric motor. There was a keypad on the wall next to the door but that wouldn’t do me any good. Even if I knew the code the door wouldn’t work without electricity. If I opened the bay door they would probably all come storming out at me. Even though I had a feeling the zombies in the hangar were restrained somehow; that was how my luck had been going lately. Whatever could go wrong would. Instead of going down the same side of the building with the door that was too far away from the truck I tried the other side. As luck would have it the door was just around the corner. Made sense that there would be a rear door and a door close to the main entrance. What made more sense than that was that I’d tried the wrong side first.