The Phoenix Trilogy (Book 1): World On Fire (16 page)

    Natalie
wasn't generally one for relying on hope and well-wishing to make a situation
brighter, but considering that they had time to kill while they waited to see
if Marco's condition changed, it seemed like a reasonable comfort to pursue. It
was a seed that looked to have taken root in Rico, but Marco was as dejected as
ever.

    BJ
was mulling her suggestion of events over, but he appeared to be satisfied.
“We'll bunk here for the night. Answers will come in the morning. I'll take
first watch. Marco, you're off-duty for the night. Natalie, you'll take his
place.”

    Natalie
couldn't tell if being promoted to watch duty was good or bad, but she decided
to take it as a compliment rather than a necessity. She expected some kind of
retort from Marco, but he sidled off to a relatively clean patch of floor to
lay down his mat without a word. His silence was a greater indicator of how
poorly he was doing than anything else.

    Rico
moved to join him, whispering quiet words of support along the way. For his
part, Marco seemed appreciative of his cousin's efforts. He was an insufferable
ass, true, but he loved his family.

    With
the other two preoccupied, Natalie decided it was time to have a chat with BJ.
She had a lot of questions for him, and it was unlikely she was going to find a
better time to get answers. As she approached, she noticed he had once again
taken to studying the blood that flecked the walls with renewed intensity.

    “What's
on your mind, slugger?” It was a weak attempt at humor, but it was all Natalie
could muster. Plus, it didn't hurt that BJ looked like the kind of man who
spent a lot of years being called “slugger.” Judging by the mild twitch of one
eyebrow followed by the equally miniscule tweak at the corner of his mouth, BJ
appreciated her attempt. Or so Natalie supposed; reading the man was nearly
impossible.

    “This
was supposed to be a check-in station,
manned by five or six soldiers
. Just a few days ago, it was fine. These were good people.”
Whatever brevity Natalie had brought to the conversation flickered and died as
BJ spoke, his voice calm but his head bowed.

    “That
they died isn't the problem; everybody knows the risks of this work. No, the
issue here...” His voice trailed off, and Natalie believed for a moment that
his attention had wandered to darker things. She was surprised when instead, he
turned to her and shrugged, as if awaiting her response.

    ...because
he is. Duh. He wants me to tell him the problem. Okay.
Natalie glanced around the room,
hunting for an answer. The blood was everywhere, suggesting that whatever
transpired here had been brutal. There were no remaining supplies, so it had
been a raid.

    No,
could have been. Could have been a raid. Supplies being taken from a dead
outpost after the fact is just as likely. There's something else he wants me to
see.
Natalie surveyed
the room again, but there wasn't anything to find.

    Gore
all over the room, missing gear... nothing else. I'm not blind. Nothing else is
out of the ordinary.
She repeated the words to herself before pausing. Slowly, she glanced at the
door, her brow wrinkling in thought. Out of the corner of her eye, BJ nodded in
approval. Apparently she was on the right track.

    The
door is fine. The window is fine. Other than the
blood, the walls are fine. How?
Natalie knew the people stationed here
weren't civilians. They would have known how to handle themselves in combat.
Somehow, they'd been killed without any of their defenses being breached. A
quick check of the floor, and Natalie's mystery deepened.

    All
the blockades are fine, and there isn't a single shell casing or bullet hole to
be found. Military training, but nobody fired even once?
She briefly considered that it may have
been for the sake of maintaining silence, but it was hard to believe they
wouldn't have resorted to gunplay in what was clearly a life-or-death scenario.
Natalie turned to BJ, confusion plain on her face. He gave her a curt nod
before speaking.

    “Talk
it through.” Another gravelly command, but one Natalie was willing to play
along with.

    “There
wasn't any resistance here. Whatever happened came as a surprise, which
definitely suggests it was humans who were responsible. And... it was probably
an inside job.” Saying the words came almost as a realization, even to Natalie.
Human attackers would have met opposition the same as if they'd been zombies,
unless the outpost had no reason to believe they were enemies.

    “Almost
there. You're missing one thing.”
BJ gave no further indication of what the final piece of the
puzzle may be. Natalie tried to wrack her mind for anything else, but the clues
remained the same. Either she
hadn't noticed something in
the room, or there was more information to be wrung from what she already knew.

    Refusing
to let BJ's expectations down, Natalie mulled over the scene one last time,
keeping in mind everything she'd learned. The missing piece revealed itself
almost immediately,
but it
did little to shed any light on the situation.

    “The
blood.” Natalie's tone was something close to awe, and BJ confirmed her
suspicions with another slow nod as he turned back to his own investigation.
She understood now what had him so
preoccupied, and it was not a realization she appreciated
.

    All
of the signs had pointed toward a stealthy takeover, but if that were true,
why the mess? Natalie understood that
killing was a dirty business, but the sheer level and arc of all the blood
around them suggested an absolute massacre, not a tactical execution.

    Natalie
strode toward the sleeping bags, the only remaining evidence in the room that
might lend her a clue as to what had happened here. There were eight bags in
total,
all spattered with red
but seemingly undamaged from the outside.
To her dismay, they
proved to serve
more questions than answers.

    Tearing
each open, Natalie found that six of the eight were filled with congealing
blood,
hinting
that their owners had been killed while
they slept.
Another
indicator that this should have been a clean job, and more
confusion for Natalie.

    BJ
had settled in behind her, watching her work
in silence
as
he absorbed the information in front of him. He was likely coming to the same
conclusion as Natalie,
though
she hoped he would be able to find more to work with than she had
.

    None
of this is right. BJ said this place would have had five or six soldiers. Even
assuming there were six, not all of them would have been sleeping at the same
time. Plus, why the extra two bags? Spares for guests? Never knew the military
was that hospitable.

    Every
theory Natalie came up with had holes. Maybe the soldiers had been killed, neat
and quick, then had their corpses torn apart by the horde sometime after. It
was the best she could think of, but it still didn't fit the scene.

    Natalie
moved to rub her eyes in frustration, stopping short as she realized she had
just been handling potentially infectious materials. There was no telling what
was on her hands, but it wasn't worth the risk.

    Flustered
by the mystery and her own inability to even touch her face, she decided it
might be best to settle in for the night and approach it again in the morning.
Laying her kit down
o
n one of the cleaner sections of
the apartment
floor, Natalie was nearly ready for
sleep when she remembered she had one more question on her mind.

    “
BJ, back at the gas station... why did we
stay?” Natalie believed it was a fair thing to ask, considering even she had
known how much danger they were in while they were there. She was surprised
when BJ fixed her with an appraising stare, wordlessly judging her for some
unknown end. It made her uneasy, but a very large part of her hoped she had
proven herself.

    Natalie
almost scoffed at her behavior as soon as she realized how badly she wanted to
impress BJ. A deep pang of sarcasm hit her as she pondered starting a fan club,
but it passed as she matched his evaluating look with one of her own.

    Knowing
everything he had done, the composure he had maintained and the level of
stability he brought to the group, Natalie snickered.
She could laugh at herself about wanting
to be on his good side, but BJ was undeniably someone whose respect was worth
having.

    The
two of them sat there in silence for what felt like several minutes, eyes
locked in contemplation. Eventually, BJ let out a slow and heavy exhale,
obviously having reached a conclusion but not appearing to be too pleased with
it. Natalie had only a moment to wonder if his displeasure was her
fault
before he spoke.

    “The
first night after we found you, Marco told you about our plans for returning to
base. We would walk, and if we were given clearance, we'd eventually be given
use of a vehicle.” BJ's sonorous voice was marred by something else, a subtle
vein of sadness or anger, dark and
powerful.
Immediately,
Natalie knew where this conversation was going,
and the revelation left a sour taste in her mouth
.

    “
That gas station was our forward outpost,
operated by another squad of soldiers. The room we wound up in was supposed to
have a comm system and basic supplies, but as you saw, it had been picked
clean.” BJ waved one hand at the room around them, his gaze roaming the empty
ammunition boxes that cluttered the floor.

    “
See any similarities? Two posts, both
empty with their occupants likely murdered, both looted. Coincidences are easy
to believe in, but it's safer to be paranoid.” He paused again, this time
returning his attention to Natalie. It was clear he was studying her once more,
an indicator that he knew more than she did about what was happening to the
soldiers but hadn't made up his mind about whether or not he wanted to share
that information.

    As
much as she had wanted this, to be in BJ's confidence, Natalie couldn't help
but feel a small amount of regret. It was a simpler world without answers, and
the age-old adage that ignorance was bliss echoed in her mind. It was a truth
she couldn't argue against, and yet...

    Somewhere,
in a far off corner of her thoughts, she felt a courage she had never been
acquainted with beginning to stir. It was a fledgling emotion, new and
uncertain, but it was awake and very real. Every problem she had been faced
with in the last two days had been terrifying, should have been overwhelming,
but a deeply visceral part of her had welcomed the challenge.
All that was left now was to decide if
she wanted to keep feeding that part of herself.

    Natalie
felt as if she were at a crossroads. She could press BJ
to continue
, or she could say goodnight and let
the
others handle it. Memories of
The Matrix
brought a brief
twitch to her lips. Did she go tumbling down the rabbit hole, or did she go to
sleep and wake up believing whatever she wanted?

    She
already knew what she was going to pick, of course, but it felt unfair to
dismiss all of her options without giving them at least some consideration.
Natalie's sense of confidence was young, but someday it would be strong, if she
wanted it to be. To her, there was only one way to make that happen.

    “I'm
in this now, BJ. Not
just
because the world went and burned
itself down, either. I'm in it because I'm choosing to be.” As she spoke, BJ
gave her the first
full
smile she had seen. It was brief,
fading nearly before she knew it was there, but it happened. He belted another
deep
hah
,
satisfaction
etched across his face
.

    “
That's good. I like that. You made this your
choice, not your circumstance. Smart.” BJ rumbled another
chuckle, more of a
hm-hm
than any actual laughter. Natalie took it as a good sign. He seemed ready to
discuss things further, which is why it came as a surprise to Natalie when he
returned to his watch post by the door.

    “
Go to sleep for now. You'll take watch
after I do. We'll talk more when we change guard.” BJ took a seat in front of
the doorway, having commandeered a folding chair that seemed comically small
against his broad body. His rifle was resting within arm’s reach on a nearby
table, BJ having put it aside in favor of his axe.

    Natalie
wasn't much in the mood for sleep, but she knew her attitude would be different
in the morning if she didn't force herself to rest now. Ignoring the thoughts
and theories that were running rampant in her head was proving to be a greater
challenge than she'd expected. After a few failed attempts to settle herself,
Natalie was jolted
upright
by a scraping sound coming from near
the entry.