Carlie Simmons (Book 1): Until Morning Comes (13 page)

“The helos from New Mexico will be here
in a few minutes,” said Matias, whose face looked strained. He grabbed his
rifle off the table and walked to the stairs. “We need to get up to the roof
now.”

Nadine and David were stuffing water
bottles into their packs while the professor had just finished an MRE packet.

“And what about Carlie and your friends?
Aren’t you going to go back for them?” said Eliza as she and the others
followed.

“Their heat signatures disappeared off my
computer so either they went further underground or they…” He paused, rubbing
the whiskers on his chin as he continued walking up the steps. “My helo is
nearly out of fuel and any trip on the streets below would be suicide. I don’t
plan on letting my friends’ sacrifice to save you, if that’s what it becomes,
be in vain.”

“They all knew the price for their
actions,” Phillip quickly interjected. “That fellow Shane and his subordinate
seemed more than capable of handling whatever was thrown at them. From what I
know of Carlie, her training is exemplary—it’s only her professional conduct that
is questionable. We can only wish them the best.”

“I didn’t see you itching to hop off the
helicopter and rush to save the others,” said Nadine.

“You know, as far as I recall, you and
your friend only have a ticket out of here because you both happened to be in
the right place at the right time,” said Phillip.

“No, we are here because of Carlie and
the others, you pompous ass,” she said, swinging her hands down by her sides.
“What role
you
play other than being a walking ad for a men’s fashion
magazine is beyond me.”

“There’s little point in arguing,” said
Matias, who kept peering up the stairs to make sure the route was clear. “The
way I see it, the human world just got a whole lot smaller and we’re going to
have to work together like never before.”

As they crested the last floor, Matias scanned
the rooftop through the small window on the exit door. “There they are, one
minute out,” he said, opening the door as the two army helicopters came into
view.

They stepped out into the blast furnace
of heat and searing sunlight. Matias donned the sunglasses dangling off his
neck and kept his M4 in a low-ready position, scanning to the right and left. A
CH-47 Chinook landed while the AH-6 Little Bird attack helicopter remained in
the air for cover support.

The massive Chinook set down twenty
yards from the stairwell. Two armed soldiers jumped out from either side of the
lead helo and shuffled forward in a low crouch, waving to the group to move up.

Phillip grabbed Eliza’s arm and pulled
on her sleeve but she pushed his hand way, glaring at him. As they entered the
helo, Eliza, the professor and Phillip sat at the rear and Matias, Nadine, and
David climbed aboard near the front.

Matias gave the thumbs-up to the pilot
then leaned forward to introduce himself. “That’s it. There are only six of us,
though I’d like it if you could swing to the southeast a mile from here over
the university. Some of my fellow operators remained behind there trying to
rescue a group of students.”

The stocky pilot leaned back, yelling
above the rotor wash. “Sorry, but my orders are clear—get the girl and go.”

“It’s a twenty-second detour, Chief. You
can arc that way momentarily and then sweep north without violating your
mission parameters.”

Phillip leaned forward, pushing his way
past Matias. “Chief, I’m the ranking agent here, associated with the Secret
Service. You said you have your orders. I would advise you to follow them and
get Ms. Huntington to safety.”

The pilot glanced at the other helo and
gave the hand signal to depart, then he swung back to Matias with a frown. “You
know how this works, Agent Matias,” the chief said with a nod, then looked back
at Phillip with a glare.

The helos lifted off and headed north.
Matias sank into his seat and felt the blood rush out of his face. He leaned
forward, resting his arms on his dusty pants and interlacing his fingers while
slightly lowering his head. He looked up at Eliza, who was staring out the
window. Matias thought of how he and his entire team had been enjoying cold
beers together twenty-four hours earlier. He raised his head and looked out at
the jagged expanse of mountains north towards Phoenix, wondering if his wife
and kids were safe. If they had only been closer he may have had a chance at
making it back to them.  

As these images ran through his head,
the faint discussion between the co-pilot and the chief entered his
consciousness. Matias tilted his head back slightly to hear the conversation.

“Sir, I’ve got a faint GPS tracking
beacon coming in on the radar about eight miles to the southeast,” said the
thin man.

“What could that be?” said the chief.
“We don’t have any ground elements in place down there.”

“It looks like one signal. The pace
indicates it’s in a moving vehicle.”

The chief leaned back. “Agent Matias,
could that be one of your guys down below?”

“Negative, none of us had personal
location beacons on us…” He paused, squinting at the blip on the radar screen
and out to the barren desert to the right. He shot a glance back at Phillip,
who quickly averted his eyes and folded his arms in front of his chest.

“But Carlie must,” Matias said, with his
jaw clenched. “I remember her saying that some Secret Service agents have sub-dermal
tracking devices,” he said again, studying Phillip’s rigid facial features and
dawdling eyes.

Matias got out of his seat and grabbed
Phillip by the shirt collar. “You knew all along that she could be tracked and
we could locate them, you chingada!”

Phillip raised his hands, looking at the
two other soldiers sitting across from him for help. “It wouldn’t have changed
anything,” Phillip muttered. “Eliza is the mission objective. Carlie, whatever
I thought of her relative skills, knew she was expendable from the moment she
signed the dotted line on her application. Besides, do you think the president
would have welcomed her with open arms after she abandoned his daughter back
there?”

“Shut up, Phillip,” said Eliza, who was
gripping her knees. “I’ve had it with everybody putting me ahead of the others.
If Carlie’s down there, then we need to get her out.”

Matias shoved Phillip back against his
seat and turned to the front, inserting himself between the pilot and the
second-in-command. “Chief, those are my people down there, one DEA and the
other Secret Service, whose signal you’re picking up. They’ve probably got a
dozen college kids with ’em too.”

Phillip shouted from the rear. “Chief,
you have your orders and this grunt—” He paused, looking at the other soldiers.
“No offense to you fellows. Matias here can’t make command decisions. He’s just
a DEA officer.”

“Chief, as someone who has been in the
shit before, I know you’d never leave your people behind to die. As one operator
to another, I’m asking you to disregard orders and veer to the southeast to
extract my fellow teammates. Any fallout from this will be on my shoulders. You
can even say I had a gun to your head.”

As Jared drove the pastry truck along
the abandoned highway, Carlie scanned the road ahead while watching the
creatures behind them fade in the distance. “It seems odd that in the past mile
since we left the storm drain back there we haven’t come across any abandoned
vehicles going this way east,” she said.

“Maybe they all got out in time and are
safely tucked away in the rancherias to the south,” said Shane, who was
standing between the two front seats.

“Yeah, or maybe they all got munched on
by those broccoli-faced freaks back there,” said Jared. “Maybe we’re it—all
that’s left in the world. The new masters of our planet,” he said, smiling at
Carlie, who sneered and shook her head.

“You don’t strike me as a master—more
like a court jester,” said Shane.

Jared clamped his hands tighter on the
steering wheel until they were white. “You know, Deputy Dawg, the town of
Tombstone is just a few miles to the south if you’re in need of a street where
you can strut your bow-legged walk.”

“Yeah, maybe you should go there and apply
for the job of town drunk. I hear they’re looking for disheveled two-bit losers
for their cowboy shootouts. Maybe you can even find a blacksmith there to
remove that bracelet of yours.”

“Alright, enough, you two,” said Carlie,
who was squinting into the distance straight ahead. The van moved up a hill and
then descended, which revealed a stretch of road ahead. “Hmm, I think I just
figured out why this route has had so little traffic.”

Shane hunched forward over Carlie’s
shoulder. “Damn, are you kidding me?”

The three of them gazed in shock at the
sight ahead as the rest of the group in the back of the van pushed forward to
see. Jared slowed the vehicle until they were nearly at the edge of a massive
canyon whose bridge was choked with a tipped-over eighteen wheeler that had evidently
caught on fire. Its smoldering bulk blocked the entire width of the two-lane bridge.

Jared stopped the van as everyone climbed
out to look at the burnt wreckage. Chrome and metal fragments were spread out
along the small bridge. One half of a charred corpse was splayed out on the
yellow centerline a few feet from the driver’s door.

Carlie walked over and stared down into
the sheer two-hundred-foot walls of the redrock canyon then back out along the
direction they had just come from. Miles of open sand dunes interspersed with
the occasional Saguaro cactus rolled out on either side of the highway. Only a
distant mountain peak to the northeast provided any visual relief from the
monotonous terrain.

“Well, as I see it we have two options.
We go back the way we came and find another way around the city or we locate a
foot trail down into this canyon and trek up the other side. Then we can push
on to a ranch and hope we find one that’s still intact.”

She wiped the sweat from her brow with a
shirt sleeve. The humidity from the recent storm had turned their surroundings
into a tropical furnace.  “I’m going to look in the van and see if there’s any
water. That’ll be a major factor in what we do from here.”

“We need to get on the move fast,” said
Shane. “Those things weren’t very far behind us and if they pick up our scent,
this is going to be our Alamo.”

“Why don’t you take a few people with
you to the top of the hill we just descended and keep an eye out for movement
while I gather up any supplies in the van,” said Carlie.

Shane went back over to the group.
“Jared and Amy, come with me up the hill and bring any weapons you can find.”

“Why, the good sheriff wants us to
accompany him on a nature walk,” said Jared.

“Shut up already,” replied Amy, who was
rolling down her shirt sleeves to provide protection from the sun.

As the three of them walked up the road,
Carlie gathered the others around her. “I want each of you to go through all
the compartments inside the van and pull out any food, water, tools—anything
that we can use, should we have to leave here in a hurry.”

The students got busy and formed a fire
line to pass items out of the rig. Carlie walked back to the edge of the canyon
and began studying the sandstone walls for any sign of a faint animal trail
that led down. She paused along the gravel edge, and then she tilted her head
up to the north, listening to a faint droning sound that resembled a helicopter.
“Can’t be,” she whispered while placing one hand above her eyes to cut the
sunlight.

The noise grew louder and she could see
two black shapes along the horizon, flying low over the sand dunes. “It is—they’re
coming for us, finally!”

She yelled towards the van. “Our search
team has arrived. Grab any belongings and let’s get the hell out of here.”

Carlie started yelling up the road to
Shane but he was too far away to hear. As she started walking towards the three
of them, they abruptly turned from their squatting position on the highway and
began bounding downhill, with Shane waving his hands frantically.

“Ugh…that can’t be good,” she muttered.
“There are no breaks in today’s schedule.”

“I’ve got a white van on the road ahead
just before that bridge,” said the chief.

“I see it,” Matias said. “Looks like
there’s a cluster of people gathered around the canyon.”

“And there’s an army of tangos headed
along the highway to the west, about five hundred meters out,” said the
second-in-command.

Matias peered to his right and could see
what resembled a swarm of fire ants moving along the blacktop in the direction
of the van.

“How long until we’re there?” he said.

“Barely in time to stow and go,” replied
the chief. “This is gonna be down to the wire,” he called over to the AH-6
attack helicopter flying parallel to them. “I need you to lay down cover fire
over that mob of creatures pouring in from the west, do you copy?”

The attack helo beside them began
veering off to the right. “Roger that, sir. We’re on it,” replied a voice over
the speaker.

As the Chinook began descending, the
lean soldier sitting next to Matias slid open the side door and stood with his
rifle at low-ready. They were about three hundred yards away from the van when
Matias spotted Shane running down the road with two other people following him.

When the helo set down amidst a swirl of
beige sand, Carlie ran up to the entrance and began helping people inside. “I
thought you might be tired of the scenery out here,” said Matias.

She looked up at him, her mouth widening
as she tore off her sunglasses. “
Que bueno verte, amigo
. Now that’s a
face I never thought I’d see again,” she yelled out above the rotor wash.

Matias smiled and then shot his gaze over
Carlie’s shoulder. He nodded towards Shane, who was now in a full sprint with
Jared behind him and Amy trailing last. The attack helicopter flew to the rear of
the fleeing trio and began unleashing rounds from its two mini-guns.

Most of the lead creatures were cut in
half by the firepower but some managed to get through the hail of bullets and
continued their pursuit. Shane was at the lead when his right ankle hit a small
depression in the road and he crumpled, rolling forward along the pavement and scraping
his head. He continued to somersault until he came to a halt before a clump of
cacti. Jared was directly behind him and ran past him but then stopped and turned
around. Jared yanked both of his dormant Glocks from his belt and began
shooting wildly at the oncoming attackers. Out of twenty-four rounds, only two
hit their intended target—the head of a limping cowboy with a bent ankle that
was nearly upon Shane. Jared threw down the smoking Glocks and grabbed Shane’s
vest, yanking him up. Amy came up alongside them and threw her arm around
Shane’s waist as the three of them hobbled forward. Nine creatures were quickly
closing in behind them.

The two soldiers back at the helo began
firing. Carlie grabbed an M4 from the cabin and kneeled down beside the landing
bar while Matias hopped out alongside her. They both commenced sniping the
crazed assailants who were within inches of reaching Jared. Carlie shot the
last one, causing a mist of blood to spray over Jared’s neck.

The swirling sand from the helo rotors
created a mini dust storm that encapsulated the area, making it difficult to
discern if there were more creatures coming. As the exhausted trio approached,
Carlie lowered her rifle and ran forward to help Shane. His right temple had a
patch of road rash that was bleeding heavily and both his palms were lacerated.
She reached out and helped him get on board the helo while Matias and the two
soldiers kneeled beside each other with their weapons fixed on the veil of
brown before them.

After Shane was inside, Amy climbed on board
and collapsed on the bench next to Nadine. As Jared climbed into the cabin,
Carlie extended her hand. “There just might be a decent guy inside of you after
all,” she said, helping him on board.

“Sorry, but I can’t hear you over the
sound of how awesome I am,” Jared said, smiling like a jack-o-lantern.

“Ah, yeah, never mind,” she replied.

Jared sat down, dropping his leather
daypack between his legs. He was sitting across from Amy and gave her a crooked
smile, which caused his large dimple to show. Jared grabbed a bottle of water
and poured it over his head while gleefully shaking himself, spraying Phillip in
the process.

With Matias and the two soldiers inside,
the helo lifted off and veered to the north. Carlie peered out the window and
saw close to a thousand mangled bodies littering the highway below, with more
creatures still pouring in from the west.
How could there be that many of
them?

As they continued north, Carlie tore
open the first-aid kit mounted on the cabin wall behind her and leaned forward
to clean up Shane, who was leaning his head back onto the bench. She grasped
his hand while rubbing an alcohol pad over his head abrasion. In between
grimaces, he managed a half-smile and stuttered out, “Is this what it takes to
get a beautiful Secret Service agent to go soft on me?”

She shook her head while dabbing the
wound. “Just be quiet.”

Carlie leaned back to reach for the
gauze and felt someone place it in her hand. She looked up and saw Eliza beside
her. “Carlie…I’m sorry for the way I’ve always acted towards you and the other
agents—you are a total badass.”

Before she could respond, Carlie heard
Jared’s shrill voice cut in. “Hey, you two ladies, can one of you sisters patch
up my boo-boos as well?”

Carlie and Eliza both turned and glared
at Jared, who began withdrawing his toothy grin. “Just funning, y’all. No
worries here. I can manage on my own.”

“You’ll get used to him after a while…”
said Amy, who sat with her arms folded while scowling at Jared. “…like a dog
gets used to a tick in its ear.”

As the helos continued across the rocky
expanse of desert, the chief leaned back. “We’ll be at the White Sands Missile
Range in two hours, so settle in and get some rest.”

“We are in your debt, Chief,” said Shane.

“You can thank Agent Matias. He nearly
put a gun to my head,” the chief said, nodding to Matias, who tried to contain a
chuckle.

Carlie looked at the tired faces around
her and thought of how the morning before she had just finished the shooting
match with all her colleagues and had been so intent on plotting her next
career move. She settled into the seat beside Shane and pressed her head back
into the wall, letting out a constricted breath that was searing her chest.

 She didn’t know what disciplinary
action, if any, would be waiting for her upon arrival at White Sands. Frankly,
she didn’t care. Everything she had built her life upon in the last seven years
felt like it had been swept away with the coming of dawn. Carlie just wanted to
curl up alone in a quiet room. She didn’t want to waste any more of her life’s
precious energy watching over one single person because they were deemed
bureaucratically important, or in maintaining the façade of another unsavory
politician’s media image for posterity.

Now all that mattered were the handful
of friends in her midst and the hope of reuniting with her family along the
difficult road ahead. She felt directionless and stared at the empty desert.
Her tense shoulder muscles unfurled and she found herself being drawn into the monotonous
hum of the rotors. Her eyes grew heavy. She exhaled and drifted off into a deep
rest as the helicopter flew over the serrated contours of the landscape below.