The Dead Series (Book 1): Tell Me When I'm Dead (23 page)

In the middle of the room stood a command center with multiple monitors showing live video of both inside and outside the property. Near that stood a couple of beds, a workout area with various weight machines and free weights and a small kitchen. There were also bathrooms with showers.

At another end of the basement was a steel door. Using a keypad on the wall, Ram opened it and showed us a room filled with weapons and ammunition—enough to conduct a small war. Beyond that, another door led to a shooting range.

“This is right out of a movie,” Ben said.

Ram took us back upstairs to the kitchen, which was big enough to cook for twenty people. A huge refrigeration unit with clear glass doors stood along one wall, and there were a walk-in pantry and a restaurant-quality gas range and hood. Outside, through an archway, was a formal dining room.

We sat around the kitchen table, drinking soda and eating chips. For a time we couldn’t say anything. Landry kept chuckling to himself. Then he became serious.

“What about electricity?” he said.

“I have a liquid-cooled standby generator, one hundred fifty kilowatts. There are also solar panels on the roofs of all the buildings,” Ram said.

“And what happens when the bottled water runs out?”

“There is an artesian well on the property, with a water-purification system.”

“Gasoline?”

“There is a five-thousand-gallon tank buried under the driveway. The gas pump is next to the garage.”

“Five thousand gallons,” Aaron said. “Holy shit.”

“Well, I can’t think of anything else,” Landry said, grinning. “You are officially my hero.”

“Guthrie needs to meet this guy,” Aaron said.

“I have a question,” I said. “Ram, are you saying we can stay here?”

“Of course. As my guests.”

“For how long?” Ben said.

“As long as necessary.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s not that I’m ungrateful, but why?”

He smiled and looked at each of us, as if this was the question he’d been waiting to answer. “I see many people at the motel,” he said. “All kinds. After a while I get to know who is good, who is not good. There are going to be dark days, I think. Indeed, it will become Hell on earth shortly. This place is safe. I thought I could run it myself, but I need help. I feel I can survive with all of you.”

“So how much is this going to cost us?” I said with a straight face.

“Dave, for shit’s sake,” Holly said, punching me in the arm.

“Come on, we were all thinking it.”

Ram laughed. “You think I love money, right? No, that is not correct. It is a test, Dave.”

“A test,” I said. “Sure.”

“Think of it. People argue about the money and I know they are not good for me. I never argue. I just say. And you don’t argue, you just pay. Simple. That’s the kind of people I know I can survive with.”

“Unbelievable,” Ben said, laughing.

“Ram,” I said, “I can’t figure you out, man.”

“Plenty of time for that later,” he said. “Now, who wants lunch?”

The room Holly and I were assigned to was comfortable. For safety, there were no windows. Ram explained that the windows we saw outside were false. There was a three-foot gap between the outer and inner walls. The windows were added for appearance’s sake. Instead we had a large flat-screen monitor that was fed by a high-def video camera on the outside.

Ram did screw something up, though. One queen bed stood in the middle.

“I thought I asked for twin beds,” Holly said as she took in the room.

At the motel, we’d worked it out that we would sleep together but without intimacy. But I knew it would be difficult for me to be close to her, to smell her scent and hear her breathing next to me without becoming aroused. I also knew that, after a time, it would be preferable to sleep on the floor.

“I’ll ask for another room.”

“No,” she said, touching my hand. “It’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

“I’m not ready to be alone.”

“Okay. That chair doesn’t look too bad. I’ll get our stuff.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“For what?”

“Coming back.”

“About the …”

“It’s okay,” she said, and went to check out the bathroom.

We spent the afternoon in the den watching the news. As Ram had predicted, things were getting worse. It
was
becoming Hell on earth. There was a set of monitors in the kitchen, and Landry spent a good deal of time watching them. It was as if he were waiting for someone. I came in to get a water from the refrigerator.

“You think the undead will find us up here?” I said.

“I don’t know,” Landry said. “I need to find Ram.” Then he walked out of the room.

Dinner was amazing. Ram, an excellent cook, made us a full Indian dinner. He said that, lucky for us, he was from the South. I don’t know how lucky we were. The food was so spicy I thought my teeth would melt. I had to drink a lot of water to get through it.

“My wife loved this kind of food,” Ben said.

We looked at him. We had never asked Ben what his story was, why he wasn’t anxious to return home with his son. We assumed he was divorced.

“You said ‘loved,’” Holly said.

“She passed away a few weeks ago,” Ben said. “Pancreatic cancer.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“She put up a good fight, but in the end she wanted to go peacefully. So we moved her to a hospice near our home. Aaron and I stayed with her. Until the end.

“After the funeral, we couldn’t bear staying at home. So we decided to do some camping and fishing—something we hadn’t done in a long time.”

“Normally that would’ve been a great idea,” I said. Holly shot me a look.

Ben laughed. “Yeah, I guess these aren’t normal times. Lately I’ve been thinking about Faith and wondering if she wasn’t luckier than us.”

“Don’t say that,” Holly said. “You and Aaron are together. That’s what matters.”

“You’re right,” he said, and gave his son a hug.

“Family is so important,” Ram said.

“What about you, Ram?” I said. “How did you end up here ready for World War Three?”

“I came to this country as a student. Got my engineering degree from Stanford. I was going to start my doctoral program but decided to take some time off and work.”

“You ran that motel,” I said. “How can you afford all this?”

“Not to boast at all, but I come from a wealthy family, Dave. I convinced them to support me in this.”

“Lucky for us,” Aaron said.

Landry had been uncharacteristically quiet. He glanced at Ram, and I saw something pass between them.

“It seems Mr. Landry has come concerns, though,” Ram said. “I think this is a good time to discuss. We mustn’t keep any secrets.”

“I’m worried,” Landry said, more interested in stirring his coffee than drinking it. “Not about the undead.”

“This is about those Red Militia freaks, right?” Holly said.

“How did you know?” Landry said.

“She reads minds,” I said.

Kicking me, she said, “I was thinking the same thing.”

“I’ve taken a look at all the plans for this place,” Landry said. “I’ve watched those monitors. I’m concerned that, if they wanted to, someone could take out the electrical fence, shoot the dogs and break into the house.”

“The fence wouldn’t be that difficult, would it?” I said. “Couldn’t you use a grenade or something to punch a hole and knock out the power?”

“They’ve been saying on the news that these guys are stealing weapons from Black Dragon,” Holly said.

Ram thought about this. “There are alarms everywhere. If someone were to try that, we would be waiting with guns.”

“But depending on how many were attacking, someone might still get through,” I said.

“We need to prepare for the worst,” Landry said. “That means a twenty-four-hour watch.”

Ben created a schedule for us that seemed to suit everyone. We each took four-hour shifts. The plan was to monitor everything from the command center in the basement. If anything suspicious happened, the person on duty woke up the designated backup. Then, depending on the severity, it was all hands on deck.

We weren’t hardcore about limiting bathroom breaks, but Landry advised us to remain vigilant. The video cameras and alarms around the property were first-class, so that helped. Still, there was always a way to defeat the best security.

Landry was a fascinating guy, and I came to appreciate him now that we were together. Though I’d known him only as my science teacher back in high school, I soon learned that he was a voracious reader. When he put his mind to it, he could master a subject in a matter of weeks. That’s why he was more prepared than most when the undead first appeared.

His biggest concern was the people who built Ram’s compound. They must have been locals and would know how everything worked—including any weaknesses in the defense. They might have even built in weaknesses intentionally, the way a computer programmer can build a back door into a software program.

And this was where I came to appreciate Ram, that crazy Indian genius. He’d already thought of that. Instead of using locals to build his fortress, he brought in construction experts from India on H-1B visas. And while he was planning, he studied and obtained his contractor’s license so that he could handle all the necessary permits himself. It was true that the plans were on file at city hall, but he assured us that he’d tweaked the design after submitting them and that the final revisions never made it into the official record.

It wasn’t yet time for my shift, but I couldn’t sleep. So I went down to the basement, where I found Aaron at the console and Ben in the workout room.

Ben was an interesting character. He didn’t say much. I had the impression his wife’s death had drained the life from him. For all I knew, he might’ve had a great sense of humor at one time, might’ve been the life of the party. But now he seemed quiet and serious. He was bench-pressing around a hundred pounds.

“Hey,” I said.

“I know,” he said without embarrassment, setting the barbell back on the stand. “It’s not much, but I’ve got to start somewhere.”

“You won’t hear me making wisecracks. I hate exercise.”

“Yeah, well, you might want to consider getting into shape.”

“Good point,” I said, and took a seat on one of the benches as Ben wiped the sweat from his neck and face. “So what do you think of all this?”

He looked at me, his face neutral. “I think most of us are going to die,” he said.

“So these projects you managed,” I said. “Were any of them successful?”

“Sorry to be so cynical.”

“Well, you might be right. The odds aren’t good. What about Aaron?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “He’s all I care about. I want him to make it—even if I don’t. I’ll do whatever I have to.”

“I know what you mean,” I said.

“How’s it going with you and Holly? Any better?”

“I like to think she hates my guts a little less every hour.”

Ben laughed. It was the first time I’d seen him do that. It was a high cackle that burst out of him, then disappeared. “I need to remember that line,” he said, and lay back on the bench for another set.

I started to walk away, then stopped. “How did you find me today? Really.”

“It was Holly. She seemed to know right where you’d go.”