Fade to Grey (Book 1): Fade to Grey (46 page)

Michelle shut the back doors then stepped over directly in
front of Estes. With a practiced glare for emphasis she said, “What?”

Estes snapped to attention, eyes on the horizon and said
quietly, “Sir, the F22’s.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Lieutenant?” she
hissed.

This time there was no mistaking the look of confusion that
crossed onto Estes’s face as he answered haltingly. “Sir, the F22’s, the Raptors.
Down in the tunnel you ordered them to wait ten minutes.” Estes looked at his
watch again and said, “Time is almost up sir, and I’d rather die fighting
zombies then by being blown to bits from a laser guided bomb dropped from an
airplane that I can’t even see, sir.”

The sheer force of her own reaction sent Michelle into panic
mode. Shit, shit, shit. How could she be so stupid? She had screwed up, and the
look on Estes face sent a shiver down her spine. It was a look halfway between
confusion and suspicion. Different thoughts rapid fired through her brain as
she tried to salvage the moment. Glancing at her own watch she mumbled, “Thank
you lieutenant” before backing up near the black SUV and withdrawing the ear
bud from her collar. Going through the motions again she requested another ten
minute delay from the mythical airplanes. Estes’s eyes followed her like a hawk.
Even the most clueless person in the world would have been able to tell that he
was rapidly reevaluating the situation. Michelle saw him unsling his weapon. She
was deciding whether to go for her own when Andy cut in.

“Lieutenant.”

Estes still had his eyes locked on her.

“Lieutenant Estes,” Andy said a little louder.

“Yes . . . sir,” Estes said slowly as he turned around,
holding Michelle’s eyes with his own until the last possible moment.

“OK, it looks like we’ve got as many as we can,” Andy started.
“I’ll be brief. Colonel Jordan has been relieved of command and rank. He is
being detained until such a time when he can answer for his actions. Major
Larrabee will take over this unit when he arrives. Lieutenant Estes is being
field promoted to the rank of captain, with all of the responsibilities,
requirements, duties and benefits that accompany it. It is effective
immediately and will be permanent when I get time to file the proper paperwork.
Captain Estes will be in charge of base security. Take to heart what I told you
earlier. Remember why you are here, and remember that we are watching you. Questions?”

There were none

“Dismissed.”

The brief meeting over, everybody returned to the school
except Estes, the six soldiers that accompanied him, and the major from
medical.

Andy stared at the name on the man’s uniform briefly before
sighing in barely disguised impatience. “I trust this is important, Major
Sullivan?”

“Sir, I just thought, I mean that I was hoping you’d . . .” he
stuttered before Andy barked again.

“NOW . . . spit it out now major, or so help me I’ll tie a
steak around your neck and throw you over the fence.”

The major shot up ramrod straight and said, “Sir, is my duty
to inform you that the information received from Homeland concerning
transmission of the infection is incorrect. That is to say, in my fullest
capacity as chief medical officer at this unit, I have personally been unable
to account for physical trauma or direct contact as the source vector for eleven
confirmed cases, sir.”

“What are you saying, major?” Andy said.

The major looked a bit startled as he answered, “Sir, the
sickness, the infection . . . it’s airborne.”

Michelle was torn between the sinking feeling in her gut at
what the major had just said and the look on Estes face as he swiveled back and
forth between her and Andy. For a space of perhaps a dozen seconds no one said
anything. Finally breaking the silence was another chattering of small arms
fire accompanied by a request for reinforcements by the school cafeteria’s
loading dock. The occasional bursts of gunshots rapidly increased to a steady
pace and were accompanied by another request for backup. Michelle could see
that Estes was also battling indecision. Turning to lock onto her eyes again,
the newly promoted captain shifted the grip on his rifle and called to his men.

“Alpha Squad, lock and load.”

Michelle stood there, eyes transfixed on Estes, her mouth set
in a tight frown as she waited. There was no way she could draw the 22 out of
the shoulder holster in time, no way to grab the concealed 380 taped to her
thigh. If Estes decided to shoot, she was as good as dead.

From the corner of her eye Michelle noticed Andy glancing again
in her direction. She could tell from the brief contact that he knew something
was up. Andy’s hand slowly settled near the belt line of his suit coat.

Andy looked back at the major, who was still holding a crisp
salute. In a much easier tone than the last time he had addressed him, Andy
said, “Major, are you sure on this?”

“Sir, I have nine civilians and two military personnel, all
deceased, in the quarantine room. None of them show any signs of trauma that
would account for their infection.”

“What about non-traumatic possibilities, like being splashed
in the eyes with infected fluid?” Andy asked, causing the major to shift his
eyes downward in brief consideration before answering.

“Sir, it is my professional medical opinion that the
likelihood of eleven cases in such a localized area being attributed to a
splash contact vector is . . . extremely unlikely. Sir.”

With a noncommittal grunt Andy said, “Duly noted, major. I
will make sure to pass on your information. In the meantime, take whatever
precautions you feel are necessary and within your capabilities. Dismissed.”

With another textbook salute, the major turned and trotted
back toward school. Andy watched him go for a few seconds before swiveling back
in Michelle’s direction.

“Is there a problem Captain?” Andy asked as he stepped slowly
towards Michelle and into Estes’s field of vision.

With his head and neck frozen, Estes’s eyes played a slow
tennis match between Michelle and Andy.

Quickly glancing over Estes’s shoulder, Michelle could see
several members of his squad exchange glances with each other, apparently
sensing the rising tension.

Andy spoke again. “I asked if there was a problem, captain.”

“Yes, I believe we have a problem.” There was no “sir” added.

Bursts of full auto gunfire echoed from a second direction. The
radio barked a constant stream of commands, but they were lost in the
background of her mind as Michelle focused on Estes, waiting for his response. She
didn’t have to wait long.

“Alpha Squad, double time it to the cafeteria and teach those
pukes how to shoot. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Sir, yes sir,” all six echoed before turning and trotting
around the side of the brick school building.

Michelle realized she’d been holding her breath. Her exhale
came slowly and focused, totally the opposite of her adrenalized racing heart. Andy’s
side step brought him next to her shoulder.

“Captain, I don’t have time for this . . .” Andy started to
say before Michelle cut him off.

“Andy stop. He knows.”

Andy merely grunted, reading the look on Estes’s face and
silently agreeing with a nod. Another moment of stillness passed before Estes
spoke.

“Yes . . . ‘he’ knows. But he’s not exactly sure what he
knows,” he shifted his gaze back and forth between them as he continued. “I’ll
give you this, you’re good. Damn good. And what you did up here, with the
colonel and those three jerks, that was good also. I’ve got about a million
questions running through my brain right now, not the least of which is why I
didn’t have my men cut you down. Maybe someday I’ll find out the answers.” The
sound of a larger caliber automatic weapon thundered in their ears, causing
each of them to shift their gaze back towards the school.

“Maybe,” Estes said with a deep sigh, still looking in the
direction of the gunfire.

“How did you figure it out?” Andy asked.

“It was me. I messed up and forgot what an F22 was,” Michelle
said, still looking at Estes . . . still waiting for him to change his mind and
fire.

Estes nodded and spoke. “That was one of my clues, but it
wasn’t the one that sunk you.”

“What was it?” Michelle asked.

Estes edged the barrel of his rifle slowly towards her
midsection. And icy chill settled in her gut as she waited for the explosion. It
never came.

Giving a slight nod in the direction his barrel was pointed,
Estes said, “I imagine it would be hard to contact the pilots with that hanging
out.”

Michelle dropped her eyes downward at the same time that Andy
looked over. Dangling down at her midriff split was the jack at the end of her
ear bud cable.

Michelle cussed a blue streak only partly under her breath as
Andy chuckled.

Estes tilted his head toward the SUV and asked, “Who was he,
for real?”

“Someone who’s going to be both ecstatic that he’s still
among the living and pissed that we’ve left him zipped in a body bag for too
long,” Andy said.

“So he’s . . . alive?” Estes asked, a frown of confusion
painted on his face.

Andy just smiled and nodded.

Michelle watched as Estes shook his head again before
breaking out into a huge smirk. “Damn good,” he said again.

Andy reached into his pocket and withdrew the small pad and
pencil. Scribbling quickly, he tore off the sheet and handed it to Estes.

Estes took it and looked down, reading the neat, concise
script. It was an address.

Andy said, “If things get too hairy here, you and your boys
will be welcome with us.” More machine gun fire joined the already intense
skirmish.

Andy cocked his ear towards the sound and said, “That is, if
we’re still alive.”

Estes nodded, meeting both of their eyes for a moment before
extending his hand. Michelle and Andy each gave it a firm shake.

“Stay safe sir,” Estes said.

“You too . . . Captain.”

Estes smiled, saluted then turned and jogged towards the
gunfire.

Michelle slid into the nicely warmed interior of the idling
SUV, shutting the door quickly behind her. A cumulative hard shiver coupled
with twenty odd seconds of hyperventilation immediately followed.

“Are you good to go, or do you want to hang around for a
while more?” Andy asked.

Michelle hadn’t even heard him come in to the vehicle, and
the twin lasers that shot out of her return glare threatened to vaporize him on
the spot.

With a slight upturn of his lips that settled somewhere
between a smirk and smile, Andy continued, “Well, I guess it’s a ‘go’ then.” He
turned and faced forward, still fighting back an obvious display of amusement.

“Go gets maa vote,” the muffled voice from the rear chimed
in.

Spitting out some muffled words of her own in reply, Michelle
jammed her feet on the floorboard, pushing her body rigid against the back of
the seat. Reaching down with her left hand she pulled her skirt straight up and
left, fully exposing her toned thighs and pale blue hip hugger cotton underwear.
The motion immediately unlocked Andy’s neck muscles and he swiveled her way,
eyes wide.

Reaching down with her right hand, Michelle ripped the
improvised duct tape holster off of her thigh and handed it to Andy who was
still staring at her midsection.

“What’s the matter old man, haven’t you ever seen a girl’s
legs before?”

Andy shook his head and grunted. “Um, yeah, I have. Just not
ones as good looking as yours for quite a long time.”

“Well take a good look Andy, because the next time you see
these legs they’ll be kicking your ass from here to Cleveland for talking me
into this,” Michelle tried to stay angry as she spit it out, briefly holding
the teasing position before she settled back into the seat.

They paused in their exchange, locked in a stalemate of
glances that were struggling to find a happy medium between seriousness and
mirth. From the back the muffled voice sounded again.

“I’d ike a wook.”

“Shut up,” Michelle and Andy echoed at the same time, ending
the tie and causing both of them to smile.

With another deep sigh, Michelle reached in to the center
console and withdrew her Glock, positioning it for easy access on the front
seat. Shifting into drive, she headed out of the school grounds, stopping only
briefly as the soldiers manning the entry gate opened it and waved her through.

They followed the highway straight south through town,
weaving in and out of the jumbled tangle of cars, trucks and buses, many of
them still smoldering. They saw several slow moving walkers, but nothing was
close enough to make even a halfhearted reach at their vehicle as they slid by.
Once Michelle was sure they were beyond the visual range of anybody observing
from school, she took the next left, drove several hundred feet off the highway,
and pulled to the side of the narrow tar and chip road. The nearest house, a
maroon and tan double wide trailer, occupied a space about seventy yards
further up. They saw no movement. Andy took another look around from inside the
truck before nodding to Michelle.

“Let’s do this quick and careful,” he said.

Michelle put the vehicle in park and grabbed her Glock,
scanning a full 360 before answering. “Quick and careful,” she echoed as she
mashed the rear hatch release.

Exiting the vehicle simultaneously with Andy, Michelle stood
on the road, looking and listening for danger as Andy fast stepped to the rear
and opened the hatch. She heard the sound of a long zipper descending and then
several grunts as Sam was helped out of the body bag.

A flash of movement caught her eye from the direction of the
highway before disappearing.

“Contact,” she voiced to Andy and Sam.

They both turned to look in the direction she was facing. “What
was it, and where?” Andy asked.

“It was down near the highway, by the scrub hedges where we
turned off. I don’t think it was an animal, but I only got a brief glimpse,” she
answered.

“Well, let’s not go that direction, shall we. Besides, isn’t
this road heading kind of towards your house anyway?” Andy asked.

Michelle nodded her head in the affirmative as she answered. “Yeah,
this will curve around to the right and end in a tee. Turn left and follow that
road for a little bit and you’ll come to a three-way intersection. Veer to the
right and you’ll be on the road that goes to my house.

“Why are you telling me, you’re driving,” Andy said.

Michelle faked a brief angry face before turning to Sam. “You
look like shit.”

The dried blood, cracked lips, and bruised skin gave a
decidedly macabre overtone to his answer. “Ooo shoul see da ofer guys,” Sam’s
hand lightly supported his jaw bone as he winced with each slurred word.

“Yeah, we did. They didn’t look too bad. What do they teach
you in state police school, pillow fighting?” Andy chuckled in reply.

Breaking out in a painful grin, Sam returned the laughter for
a few moments before looking hard at Michelle and Andy. “Isten . . . I don know
haw you anaged ta . . . wha I’m tyin ta say is . . .”

“Save it for when you don’t sound like you have a mouthful of
golf balls,” Andy said.

“No . . . now. Ank ooo . . . ow-ow-ow, iss reakin urtz.” They
watched as Sam gingerly rubbed the side of his face as he spoke. “I’d ike ta
ick that big ude in da face a eww times.”

“You want me to take you back?” Andy asked.

Through swollen eyes Sam looked up, managing a cracked lip,
bruised face grin as he said, “No.”

A slight crunching sound caught Michelle’s ears and she spun
in the direction of the maroon double wide. Two figures clad in tattered
camouflage were stepping onto the gravel shoulder of the tar and chip road.

“Get in the truck now,” Michelle hissed.

The three of them quickly entered the vehicle—Michelle
driving, Andy at shotgun, and Sam in the back seat. The camouflage pair began
to move towards them, slowly at first but picking up speed as they closed.

“Forward through them or backwards to escape or reassess?”
Michelle spit out quickly and urgently.

“Wait until they get close enough for us to tell if they’re
infected. It could be a couple of Thompson’s guys. And in any event we need to
go in that direction,” Andy said.

“I o I wook wike itt, ut I’d ather avv a unn ined of y-inn ta
ill oming it my armin eron-ow-ity,” Sam managed to spit out.

“What?” Andy said.

Sam took a deep breath and started to speak again but
Michelle jumped in and cut him off. “He said he knows he looks like shit, but
he’d rather have a gun instead of trying to kill something with his charming
personality.”

“Oh,” Andy said as he handed him the 380.

The two figures closed the distance quickly. At thirty yards
Michelle could see blood on their faces. At twenty-five yards Andy said, “Just
wait. Let them get right up to the truck if you have to Michelle.”

“Why?” she asked hesitantly.

“Because they might just be wounded, and I don’t want to
leave any of Thompson’s guys behind. They’ve already had the short end of that
stick.”

“OK, just remember what the feral did to your pickup.”
Michelle shifted the big vehicle into drive, but kept her foot on the break as
the pair approached. At ten yards distance the camouflage figures slowed, then
stopped. The one on the left cocked his head and stared through the windshield.
Dull red eyes burned in their sockets as he slowly bared his blood stained
teeth in a silent snarl. His companion mimicked the same actions moments later.

Michelle’s heart sped up as the infected soldiers began
moving towards them again. “I don’t think we need to wait any longer, do you?” she
said to Andy and Sam.

Andy shook his head, more in sadness at the loss of two more
soldiers then in response to her question, Michelle thought.

Michelle gave an instinctual look into the rear view mirror,
doing a double take and shouting “BEHIND US!” just as the muted
CRASH
of
safety glass shattering penetrated the truck. At least a half dozen infected
had somehow appeared on the road behind them as they were focused on the two
approaching from the trailer. One of the rear group was close enough to pound
on the SUV’s back glass, splintering it into a giant spiderweb pattern.

A second loud
BOOM
resounded through the interior of
the big black truck, this one caused by the impact of a bloody, ham sized
clenched fist descending on the hood.

“Any time you’re ready . . .” Andy said dryly.

Michelle dropped off the brake and mashed the accelerator. The
on demand four wheel drive system sensed the loss of traction as the big V8
torqued the rear tires into a spin, and immediately locked the front
differential. Lurching forward, the black SUV mowed down ham fist before slamming
into his companion milliseconds later. A quick, double set of
thump-thumps
rocked the vehicle as she drove over the two soldiers. As they were
accelerating down the road, Michelle glimpsed into the rear view mirror. Both
of the men were getting back on their feet.