Fade to Grey (Book 2): Darkness Ascending (14 page)

Walter keyed his button and replied, “
I read you
Scott, this is Walter, go ahead
.”

“
I can see somebody walking along the edge of the
road . . . maybe two people . . . they’re coming from the direction of the
campground
.”

“
Amy, did you get that
?”

“
10-4 Walter, Scott has one, possibly two figures
approaching down the road from the campground. I’m making sure the doors are
locked
.”

“
Amy, keep everybody as quiet as you can in there. 
Scott, we’re on the way. Don’t do anything until we get there. Alton, did you
copy of all of that
?”

There was no reply.

Walter waited another ten seconds, and then keyed the
transmit button again. “
Alton, this is Walter, can you hear me
?”

Dead silence filled the room.

The small group left Walter’s tractor shed and headed
down the path toward the house. Eric, Michelle, and Max brought up the rear. When
they reached the top of Walter’s driveway, Sam stopped them.

“How do you want to do this?”

“We need lights, guns, and radios. I suggest two
‘two-man’ teams. How about Michelle and I . . . and Max on one. Sam, are you up
to going?”

“Might as well. I’ll take Thompson again, as a much
trouble as he’s been, at least he hasn’t shot me . . . yet.”

Thompson’s echo of the word ‘yet’ coincided with
Sam’s, and they both laughed.

Walter handed his radio to Thompson, then trotted into
the house and brought back three more.

“Batteries are all charged, and I’ve got another one
up here. Keep me informed, and let me know what you find. Once we get this all
squared away, a few more of us will come down to the store and talk to the
folks with you.”

“Who’s got a flashlight with them?” Eric asked.

Thompson and Michelle both raised their hands. Walter
reached into his pocket and pulled out another one, handing it to Sam. “It’s
set to bright . . . just click the button once and it’ll come on.”

Eric looked around at their little group, stopping at
Mike, Dave, and Walter. “You’re our backup, so stay alert and be ready. You
might even want to have a vehicle started and ready to go. Max, get in the
truck.”

Max trotted around and vaulted into the bed of the
pickup as Eric unlocked the door. Turning to Michelle he said, “Do you know
where this Alton guy is supposed to be?”

“Yes.”

Eric keyed his radio, “
Scott, this is Eric, what’s
your situation right now
?”

After a brief pause the radio crackled to life and
Scott’s whispered voice came through, “
Eric, hey man, it’s Scott. Glad to
see you’re up and around
.” The radio cut off momentarily, and then came
back on as Scott transmitted. “
OK, I can still see the two guys, at least I
think they’re guys, out near the road. One of them looks like he’s kneeling in
the weeds at the edge, like where it starts to slope down toward the lake. It’s
hard to see though, and I didn’t want to turn on my flashlight unless they came
closer
.”

“
How far away are they from you
?”

“
Um . . . about 270 feet
.”

Eric squinted at the radio, and then turned his head
towards Sam and Thompson. “That’s kind of an odd number to say. Not 250 . . .
or 300 . . .”

Dave chuckled and said, “Remember who you’re talking
to, and what he does with ninety-nine percent of his life.”

Eric’s tired, blank stare went on for the space of
three heartbeats before Dave queued him in, “Baseball. That’s what he lives and
breathes. Right now he’s playing on his college team . . . remember?”

“I do now, but what’s that got to do . . .”

Thompson snorted and cut him off, “I got it. It’s the
distance if you run, say, from home plate all the way around until you get to
third base. There’s ninety feet between each base.”

Eric let out a slow breath and did the mental
arithmetic. “OK, got it now.”

Raising the radio to his lips again, he replied, “
Scott,
have you seen any other movement
?”

“
No . . . it’s hard enough to see down the road
without a light
.
I mean, not that I’m slacking on the job, but man, a
herd of elephants could have walked by and I might not have seen them
.”

“
Just do the best you can.
”

Eric turned to Michelle, “You ready?”

She nodded.

Turning back towards Sam, he said, “What vehicle are
you driving?”

“Figured we’d take Walter’s Mule.”

Eric glanced at the small utility vehicle, and then
back at Sam. “Why don’t you take something else . . . maybe something with
doors and windows. At least that’ll give you some protection.”

“Here,” Walter handed over some keys, “take my truck.
Is everybody armed?”

They nodded.

“OK,” Sam jingled the key ring, “let’s do this.”

They hopped into their vehicles and started them up,
and then maneuvered around the other cars and trucks that were crowded into the
wide area at the top of the driveway.

“
Scott, we’re heading down your way right now, any
change
?”

“
I don’t know, it looks almost like, well, like
they changed positions or something. Maybe not, it’s hard to tell. They both
hunkered down at the edge of the road a second ago—I mean at the same time as
each other. I think they’re looking for something maybe
.”

“
I want you to tell us about any changes that you
see as we come down. Any movement, any change . . . anything
.”

“
Got it
.”

“
Be careful guys
,” Amy’s voice came over the
radio.

“
Sam . . . what do you think, should we run with
the headlights on or not
?”

“
I can probably see good enough to follow your
truck, but don’t forget we have a long, dark stretch of driveway that runs
beside the lake, and at the end of that driveway is the gate where our guard is
not answering
.”

“
Good point . . . Scott, our headlights are going
to be visible from a mile away as we’re coming down the driveway. Let us know
if there’s any reaction from the road
.”

“
Got it
.”

Eric reached behind him and opened the sliding
partition window. Immediately Max’s giant black head poked through into the
truck’s cab. Michelle gave a short, amused laugh.

“What?”

“I just had an idea of what to get you for Christmas,”
she said.

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“I’m going to have a walnut trophy mounting board
made—only this one will have a big circle cut out in the middle. You can bolt
it to the back of the cab, so when Max sticks his head through, it’ll look like
he’s hanging on the wall above the fireplace.”

Eric chuckled as he drove down the switchback, “That
would be hilarious. And speaking of Max, you and I are going to have a
conversation about how you managed to put him on a leash.”

“I imagine we should have a talk about several
things.”

Michelle’s voice was light, but Eric picked up the
subtle undertone of seriousness in her reply as well. A few seconds later, the
high beams of his truck cut a wide arc across the lake as he made the sharp
right turn at the bottom of the ‘S’ switchback.

“Yeah, we should talk. Soon. Keep a sharp eye out on
your side, OK.” The resident butterflies in his stomach began their typical
fluttering with the thought of talking, actually talking, to Michelle.

Michelle mumbled a swift ‘Mmmm-hmm’ as she drew her
Glock—resting it in an easy, practiced grip on her lap. “I’ve been doing a bit
. . . well . . . a lot . . . of thinking.”

“Me too. Come up with anything interesting?”

“Perhaps,” she replied, and then added a low, but
firm, “we’ll see.”

“
Hmmm
,” Eric thought, “
have an honest
conversation with his best friend, who has been so close, and yet so far out of
reach all of his life, or drive down into the darkness and risk a violent
confrontation with people who were potentially infected with a deadly,
homicidal rage-inducing zombie sickness
.”

Zombies for the win, Alex.

Michelle cleared her throat, and then keyed her radio.
“
Scott, it’s Michelle. Any change
?”

“
I can’t really tell. I can still see a figure
moving a bit at the edge of the road. I think that his partner is in the weeds
just below him, but it’s so dark I can’t really tell. Do you want me to light
them up with the spotlight
?”

Walter’s voice came across the radios, “
Hey Eric, I
forgot to mention to ya’ that they got a big spotlight up there with ‘em on the
roof. It’s one of those bazillion candlepower rechargeable jobbies. The battery
won’t last but about twenty minutes or so before it gets sucked dry, but it’ll
shine from here to Mars while it’s runnin
.’”

“
OK, thanks Walter
. . . Scott, hold up on
the light for a minute.”
Turning to Michelle, he said, “We should have two
people, at the minimum, up on that roof. There’s no way he’d be able to hold a
spotlight and provide accurate fire at the same time. Do you know what kind of
weapon he has?”

She shook her head.

He grabbed his radio, touching the brakes and slowing
down to a crawl as he did, “
Walter . . . or Sam . . . what kind of weapon is
up on the roof with Scott
?”

“
I’ve got one of those black machine guns
,”
Scott answered proudly.

“
It’s not a ‘machine gun
,’” Walter’s dry voice
came through, “
Eric, he’s got an AR up there with him
.”

“
Ammo
?”

“
It’s got a total of four 30 round magazines
.”

Eric tapped the brake again, this time stopping. He
closed his eyes for a moment, envisioning the marina and its surroundings where
he’d spent so much time fishing, boating, and as it turns out, being crushed
upon by Jules’ friends. After another moment’s contemplation, he keyed the
radio, “
Scott, how much experienced do you have firing that kind of weapon?
No bullshit either, I need to know for real
.”

“
I have a buddy back in college that has one. He
let me shoot it a couple times
.”

“
Do you know how to reload it, and what to do to
clear a jam if it locks up
?”

“
I can eject the empty magazine and put a new one
in . . . no problem, but I’ve never had to un-jam one
.”

“
I think I know what you’re thinking
,” Sam’s
voice came across.

“
Hold that thought for a moment, Sam
.”

Eric paused again—lost in concentration with the radio
still held close to his lips. Max’s heavy tongue made several rough textured
passes across the back of his hand before withdrawing into the cavernous depths
of his mouth. He shifted the radio into his left hand, and then reached around
and scratched the immense, fuzzy head that was now puffing out a locomotive’s
worth of dog breath every few seconds.

“
Walter, how are they getting up and down from the
roof
?”

“
We’re using an extension ladder. It’s on the back
side where I used to have the stack of pallets
.”

“
Is it set up right now, or pulled up on the roof
?”

“
Should be up and ready to climb
.”

Eric turned and looked at Michelle in the pale blue
light emanating from the dashboard. “Do you want the job?”

The faint illumination was enough to see an abrupt
shift in her countenance. She stared at him for a long ‘three count’ before
replying, “This is one of the things that we’re going to talk about.” The tiny
sparkle of reflected dashboard light glowed in the centers of Michelle’s unblinking
eyes as her words settled between them.