Retaliation: The Mortis Desolation, Book Two (5 page)

M
ila
, John, and I walked down the corridors of Bunker Bravo, following Tim as he led us to Mr. Griggs’ office.

The look on Mila’s face frightened me. It was stone cold and filled with anger. I remembered what John called her earlier, “a loose cannon.” That was an apt description, and I worried that coming along with us maybe wasn’t the best idea. Still, I didn’t want to leave her out. It would have been wrong not to bring her. She was a part of our group now whether she liked it or not, and that meant that there was no way I could leave her out of the loop.

Our footsteps echoed around the concrete corridor. The walls of the hallway were round. The corridor was large too. It was probably thirty to forty feet tall and just as wide.

“Why are these hallways so large?” I asked Tim. I asked to break the silence, but also because I was a bit curious.

“This is one of the eight main corridors, all of them spreading from a large central hub that is connected to an outer ring. There are other corridors connecting the eight large ones. They are a lot smaller and less round,” Tim explained as we walked.

I waited a couple of steps for him to continue but quickly realized that he was finished with his explanation. “You ’didnt answer my question.”

“You’re observant,” Tim said. I couldn’t see his face, but just from the sound of his voice I could tell he was wearing a smirk on his face.

I didn’t press him with more questions, and we continued walked down the large corridor in silence. We passed by people and Genari occasionally, but for the most part, the corridor was empty. Everybody must have been navigating the smaller ones or were in the central hub.

I couldn’t believe that a few hundred feet above my head was the shell of the Earth. There could be a zombie feeding on a human, hundreds of feet above me, and they’d both be completely oblivious to the world beneath them. I felt guilty for a moment, but then it was gone.

Tim held open a large door that looked as if it belonged to a safe. We walked through the doorway and entered the office of Mr. Griggs, Head of Bunker Bravo Operations.

His office was large and filled with all sorts of trinkets. Paintings hung on the wall. Where there wasn’t a painting, there was a bookshelf that was filled with books and other statues and strange artifacts.

Mr. Griggs himself sat in a large chair behind a large desk, upon which sat a computer and all sorts of different papers and things. He wore a pair of glasses and a gray button-up shirt, the sleeves of which were rolled up to his elbows. He had short white hair and smiled at us with shiny teeth as we entered the room.

“Welcome,” he said as he stood from his seat. He walked around the desk and shook our hands. “I’m very happy you came. I’ve heard a lot about you three,” he said.

“We’ve barely told your people anything about us,” Mila said.

I tried my best to not give her a look. Instead, I stood there smiling at Mr. Griggs while wishing in my head that Mila would leave the talking to me. She definitely wasn’t a fan of this place.

“Of course not, but I hope we can change that,” Griggs said. He turned and gestured toward his desk. “Please have a seat.”

We sat down in the seats across from his desk. They were heavily cushioned and very comfortable. We told him our names, and he told us his even though he knew we already knew it.

“Would you like anything to drink?” Mr. Griggs asked as he sat down in his chair and began pouring himself a glass of water.

I fought to keep the frustration out of my voice as I spoke. “No sir, we’d really just like to get to the things at hand. We’re very overwhelmed by all this,” I said, looking around the room. “We really would like to know what’s going on.”

Griggs nodded his head as he took a sip from his glass of water. “Of course,” he said. He leaned back in his chair. “Well, as you know, this is Bunker Bravo. It was designed by the United States Government in case of an apocalyptic event. A small group of people—myself included—were brought down here when the Genari arrived. Just enough people to get the place running. Once things topside took a turn for the worse and the virus began to spread, more essential government staff—soldiers, politicians, scientists, and their families—were brought down here. Some Genari were sent to live here as well.”

“Yes, that’s what we’re interested in. I thought all the Genari were turned into Xenomortises?” I asked.

“Were all the humans turned into zombies?” Mr. Griggs asked with an amused smile. “Of course not. The Genari are a kind, peaceful race. They are just as guilty for the viruses spread as the humans. They deserved a place in our Bunker just as much as humans did. Besides, we still had a lot to learn from each other.”

“What kind of things did you learn?” John asked.

Mr. Griggs chuckled. “Well, I don’t think I should be divulging those things right at the moment. I can’t be telling you
all
of our secrets yet.”

I wasn’t sure what to think of this guy. He seemed nice but manipulative. I could understand that he didn’t want to tell us what they learned from the Genari, but he seemed so coy about it all. Very high and mighty. Still, I guess being the guy in charge of a place like this was pretty cool. He definitely had
some
bragging rights.

“You keep calling this place Bunker Bravo. Why? Are you giving yourself a pat on the back?” I asked.

Mr. Griggs forced a smile, and I could already tell this was a question that annoyed him. He probably had to answer it often. “No, there are…a
number
of bunkers across the United States. They each have their own letter of the phonetic alphabet designated to them. So for example, Bunker Bravo, Bunker Charlie, Bunker Delta, et cetera.”

I looked at Griggs for a moment, my mouth slightly open. Apparently, there were a
lot
of bunkers out there. I didn’t even know what to do with this information or how to process it. It was strange to learn of this whole other world right beneath the feet of the one that was dying.

I finally found the words to speak. “We asked this earlier of Trevor,” I said, eying Mila making sure she wasn’t about to freak out like she did earlier. “But why are you telling us this? Isn’t telling top secret government information to people who broke into your base a bad idea??"

“
Bunker
,” Griggs said, correcting my usage of the word base, just as Trevor did. “And I’m telling you this because these are things that all of the people who live in Bunker Bravo know.”

“Yes, but we don’t live here,” I said calmly.

“Miles, we’re not interested in keeping prisoners. We’re also not interested in killing people. This place was designed to preserve humanity. You finding your way in was an anomaly. Nobody was ever supposed to find their way in here. However, here you are. We’re allowing you the opportunity to live in a place that offers the closest thing to normalcy there is anymore. So, yes. You do live here.”

Mila opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself. I was very grateful for that, and I continued. “Mr. Griggs, of course we’re very thankful for this opportunity. However, we have friends and family on the outside who need our help. They’re in danger, and we have to save them. You see, our home was taken by these people called the Roves. They’re a ruthless gang that love to kill other humans almost as much as the zombies do. They’ve taken my home that I, along with others, have made, and they’ve taken those who weren’t able to escape as their slaves. I can’t just sit here in this bunker while they’re up there, waiting for me to come save them.”

Griggs sat back in his chair, and put one of his hands on his face as he thought about what I’d just told him. “I can understand the moral predicament you’ve found yourself in. I can only imagine what something like that must be like.

“However, I can’t let you leave before I know that I can trust you to keep the location of this Bunker a secret. We’ve worked very hard to keep this place a secret, and save for a few mishaps, we’ve been successful. If the location of this Bunker were to get into the hands of the wrong people—say, these Roves that you speak of—it would be a disaster. That is why, for the time being, you must stay in the bunker.”

I smirked, and I could tell that it threw Mr. Griggs off. I had an ace up my sleeve, and I was getting ready to pull it out. “Mr. Griggs,” I began, “how often do people leave the bunker?”

He eyes me suspiciously, but he decided to play along. “Every few days a group will go out and scout the area and do other sorts of missions.”

I was intrigued but kept myself on track. I had to stay focused. “Well, they seem to go out often. So why didn’t your people—not even your Genari—know about the new creatures: the atras?”

There was a moment of silence as Mr. Griggs searched for an answer.

“Mr. Griggs,” I said before he could respond. “Your people seem to be good. They seem to have the right training, as I’m sure they have all sorts of military background. However, they don’t have the knowledge of someone who has survived topside for years. They didn’t even know how to defeat the atras.”

“Yes, but neither did you until recently,” Griggs said, becoming defensive.

My heart skipped a beat as I watched my house of cards begin to shake. “Maybe so, but that’s just an example. The fact is that I could teach your men a few things, and they could even teach me a few things.”

Mr. Griggs sighed, tired of my games. “What’s your point, Miles?”

“My point is this: I would like to go out with your scouting squads. I can show them some things about the outside that they might not know. I mean, I’ve already taught them how to kill an atra from in here. Who knows what I could teach them on the outside?” I said.

Mr. Griggs nodded in acknowledgment. He couldn’t deny that I’d already given them very useful information.

“I just want to do whatever I can to get you to trust me,” I said. “My people need me, Mr. Griggs. I’ll do whatever I need to do to help them. I think I can help you as well.”

Mr. Griggs sat there for a moment. I felt my heart flutter. I hope what I said was enough. Finally, he spoke. “Miles,” he began. “I think we can come up with something that will be mutually beneficial.”

I sighed in relief as quietly as I could. It was a start.

D
aniel looked
at the squad he was supposed to lead on the mission and felt very inadequate. There were three large men with him, all of whom had military training and the ripped bodies to prove it. Leading a squad on a mission wasn’t something that he was used to. That was Miles’s job, or Pike, or any of the other people who’d frequently gone off on different missions back at Jefferson Memorial. But Daniel? He’d always stayed behind. He had to make sure the place ran smoothly. He was practically in charge of the place, as George—their actual leader—didn’t seem to know what he was doing, always asking Daniel for help.

But leading a mission to a zombie-infested settlement? Hell no. He wouldn’t even have to do this if Miles would have come back from Jefferson Memorial. Daniel figured it must have been a longer journey then he thought. They’d been separated for a couple of days, and Miles should have met up with them at Riven by now. But no, of course not. Of course he wouldn’t be back in time, and now Daniel was sitting in a truck with three huge military dudes off on a mission, and they were all looking at him to tell them what to do.

Daniel looked out the window from the front passenger seat and watched as the trees flew by. They were beginning to thin out, which meant they were getting closer to more civilized places. At least, places that were once more civilized. That meant it wasn’t going to be long before Daniel would have to step up to the plate. It was time to take the politician, manager, and leader part of him and add soldier to the mix. Daniel just hopped it wouldn’t be a recipe for disaster.

“You tell us when we need to pull over, boss. Don’t wanna get too close if the zombies are as bad as you say,” Jorge, the driver of the truck, said to Daniel.

Daniel tried to ignore the patronizing tone that he used when he called Daniel boss. “Yeah, don’t worry. We got a bit more to go.”

There was a bit of awkward silence. Daniel cleared his throat and turned on the A/C. Without missing a beat, Jorge flipped it off.

“A/C uses gas,” he said.

“Oh yeah. Sorry.” Daniel could almost feel himself shrink. He was way out of his element. Daniel knew that being out of your element
was
a recipe for disaster. If he wanted to get these guys’ trust, he’d have to get himself together.

“So you guys got a lot of guns and shit at Jefferson, right?” Ron, one of the guys in the back, asked.

Daniel turned in his seat to get a better look at him. He was an older guy, probably somewhere in his thirties. His head was shaved, but he had a slight amount of scruff on his face. He looked tough with his muscles bulging from a tattered green T-shirt. However, the smile he wore on his face made Daniel feel at ease. He seemed like he was a really nice guy. “We got a lot,” Daniel answered.

“How’d you guys get so many? We hear a lot of people around there are jealous,” Mike, the guy sitting next to Ron, said. He had bushy red hair and a thin red beard.

“We, um…” Daniel was taken aback by how genuine they seemed. They had tough exteriors, but Daniel could tell by the look in their eyes that they weren’t just messing around with him. They were just trying to be nice, and Daniel could feel himself getting a bit more comfortable. “Well, we were just fast, I guess. Fast and lucky. We got to a bunch of different military ammunition stockpiles and scavenged a bunch of gun stores once they were all abandoned. All this,” Daniel said as he gestured to the outside world, “happened a lot faster than everyone realized. There was a lot left over whenever the world gave up and went into survival mode. We were just ahead of the curve, I guess.”

“We were kinda in the same situation,” Jorge said in a gruff voice from the driver’s seat.

Daniel turned to him. “You guys got a good-sized armory?”

Jorge looked at him from the corner of his eye. “Good enough to keep us safe.”

Ron scoffed from the back seat. “Don’t worry about Jorge, Daniel. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

Daniel forced a smile. He didn’t want to laugh because he knew it’d probably offend Jorge. Daniel figured that Jorge didn’t like him because he was an outsider and because he was running this mission that he, admittedly, had no business running. Daniel couldn’t help the fact that he knew where Brinn was, what he needed, and what the situation there was like.

“So what’s with these creatures you were telling us about before we left?” Ron asked.

Daniel felt a chill in his spine. He looked out the window at the passing trees, almost as if he was making sure they were truly alone before he began speaking. “To be honest,” he began. “I’m not one hundred percent sure what they are. That’s why we’re doing this, after all.”

“Yeah, we know, but what are they like? You just said they were some sort of liquid things,” Mike said.

Daniel shook his head but then stopped himself. “ I guess they kinda are liquid. But they have a solid form to them. I guess kinda like a solid core or something? I’m not sure at all. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a sample of this stuff back to Peter, so he’ll be able to figure out what he can.”

“Yeah, I hope so. If what you say about the darkness is true, we’re going to be screwed if they come to Riven.”

“About that. What’s with all the windows to the hotel being boarded up? The only place there weren’t any windows boarded up was the library across the street,” Daniel said.

There was a moment’s hesitation before Ron answered. “Truthfully, I don’t know. I didn’t get to Riven until after they had the whole shindig set up.”

Daniel glanced over at Mike to see if he knew, but Mike just shrugged. “I came with the same group Ron did. Jorge is the only one in here who was around at the beginning.”

Daniel turned to Jorge, but he ignored him and stayed focused on the road. After a few moments of Daniel’s staring, he finally responded. “Now’s not the time for that. We need to stay focused.”

Daniel tried not to let out a sigh of disappointment and frustration. He faced forward in his seat, looking out the windshield. In the distance, he could see a water tower stretching into the sky, as if it was a beacon telling passersby that they were entering civilization. “We’re getting close,” Daniel said. He placed a hand on the butt of his assault rifle. “Everybody get ready. This could get hairy.”