Fade to Grey (Book 2): Darkness Ascending (53 page)

“Now we’re going to replay it, and Amy will translate
what she can,” Uncle Andy said to the crowd.

Amy stood, “My French is kind of rusty, and I was
never fluent to begin with, but I’ve managed to piece together enough of it to
make sense. She walked over to the laptop and plugged in a set of headphones,
and then used the touch pad to slide the timeline indicator of the video back
to the start. At the first scene from the rooftop, Amy started speaking
haltingly, interjecting for clarification frequently.

“. . .
don’t have long to show you this. We are
informed
. . . or maybe she means told . . .
the same state of affairs is
happening in . . .  all the lands
.”

The camera panned down to the street level view of
people running from their attackers.

“
You can observe the
. . . um, something like
disorder or panic, but I’m not sure of the exact translation . . .
in the
streets below
.”

The image shifted to the burning skyscrapers as the
shadow puppet hand of the reporter pointed.

“
Many buildings have already . . . been in flames
for . . . long time. You can observe the
. . . I don’t know what she said .
. . maybe the word was destruction or ruin.”

The scene now showed the firefight in the street.

“
Military people can’t help and are being
. . .
.
. . .
um . . .” She paused the screen for a moment, “I’m not really
sure exactly what she’s saying here. She’s talking really fast and I can’t
quite catch it, but it’s something like the military can’t help them, or isn’t
available to help them. And then she goes on to say the . . . police or law
enforcement—something like that, anyhow—are just as useless wherever she’s at.
So I’m pretty sure from the way she’s talking that the video she’s watching is
not in the same city that she is, if that makes sense.”

She hit play and the view swept down the wide street
with the dim headlights of gridlock cars, orange fire, and smoke.

“
There is no break out . . . from city . . .
 I
think maybe she means no escape . . .
There is no location that . . . she
knows of . . . that is protected, including the office building she’s in.
”

On cue, the banging sounded and the camera shifted to
the barricaded double doors.

“OK, she’s telling the cameraman to keep the camera on
the video . . . that the doors will hold.”

The scene shifted to the nighttime horizon illuminated
by flaming structures before blacking out momentarily, returning with a top
down view into the swarm below.

“
This is the . . . setback underneath our
headquarters
.” Amy paused the video again. “No, that’s not right. It’s more
like she’s saying something like ‘we’re also in danger at our office from
creatures like these’ . . . something like that anyhow.” She hit play again,
and video moved to the carnage in the street next to the building.

“
I have personally . . . observed . . . friends
being killed badly . . . like this
. I can’t really make out the next few
words, because the double doors get banged on again right here,” Amy pointed to
the screen and we watched as the camera dropped and recorded the man’s useless
attempt to stem the tide of ghouls that burst into the room.

Amy paused the playback once more. “You know what
happens next. The only other intelligible words I can make out are at the very
end when she’s shouting. It’s a mixture of her crying for help and screaming
for someone named Sebastian.”

“Who’s that? Nancy asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe her cameraman, maybe someone
else.”

“Anybody want to see it again?” Uncle Andy asked the
assembly.

“Actually,” Bucky nodded, “do you have the ability to
show that in slow motion?”

“Sure do. Any particular place you want to see?”

“There’s a part where you get to see the skyline with
all the fires right before the camera moves and looks down the side of the
building.”

“Give me a second,” Andy said as he fiddled with the
laptop. A moment later the scene was queued and ready. “OK, here goes.”

He played the brief segment of the skyline with
burning buildings in a jerky, frame by frame view that reflected the low
quality of video.

“Can you do it one more time?” Bucky asked.

My uncle nodded and played again.

“THERE! . . . Stop the video right there,” Bucky said
enthusiastically as his finger pointed toward the screen.

It took several coordinated tries to finally get to a
three frame glimpse where Bucky had indicated. He stood, cowboy hat tilted back
to expose the majority of his forehead, and walked toward the screen. His
gnarled finger traced the skyline as he spoke. “I thought I was just seein’
smoke from all the fires above the buildings, but look right here . . . what do
you see?”

I leaned forward in my chair and squinted; the gesture
was mimicked by almost everybody else as well. Whatever he saw was lost to me.

“If you blink, you’ll miss it, and it’s almost
impossible to pick out in a still image,” Bucky said as he pointed again, “but
watch right here and you’ll see what I mean.”

The scene was reversed and played again at slow speed
several times. Nancy, seated in the front row, bobbed her head and raised her
hand. “I see something, like a flash or a reflection as the camera slides past.
At first I thought it was just smoke, but it looks almost . . . curved.”

“It is,” Bucky smiled as he pointed again. “You’re
looking at the Arch. This city is St. Louis.”

They played it several more times, and now that we
knew what we were looking for, it was easier to pick out.

“There’s something else,” Emily chimed in. Heads
swiveled her way as she continued. “Look at the skyline again. The only light
you’re seeing is from the fires. In other words, they have no electricity in
St. Louis. Now look at the background where the reporter is broadcasting from.
The fluorescent tubes in the ceiling lights are glowing, so wherever she was
had power at the time she made this recording.”

“Interesting observations,” Walter mumbled. “Anybody
got anything else?”

“Do we know when the actual video was shot? I mean, is
there a timeline or a file date?” Callie asked.

My uncle shook his head. “No, we’re not sure exactly
when it was shot, and the file date is the day she saved it on her computer.”

“Are there any other videos after this one?”

“No, this is all we got.”

The room was silent as everybody processed their own
thoughts about the video. I watched as Sam slow stepped to the front of the
room, coaxing several additional sips of coffee from his mug on the way. He
reached his hand to the laptop and moved the video, pausing it at the street
view. “I was in St. Louis a few years ago. It was just for a day or two on my
way back from a conference in Atlanta. As I recall from a little pamphlet that
picked up, the city population was around 300,000. I’m not saying that this is
the case, but if we’re going by Callie’s numbers, that means there’s a
potential for about, oh, maybe 130,000 type O people.”

“St. Louis is a small city, population wise anyhow, at
least when you compare it to some others,” Bucky said.

Sam nodded, “I know, but what I’m getting at is that
right now, there’s no place I’d rather be than at a remote marina in rural
North Dakota.”

Several heads bobbed around the room in agreement with
Sam’s observation, and I was about to stand up and share my thoughts when
several radios, mine included, cracked to life.

“This is Bernice . . . we can see somebody walking up
the driveway.”

“Can you tell if they’re infected?”
Walter keyed back immediately.

“Not from a black and white image.”

“Keep talking to us,”
Walter said as the room flew into movement.

“Where’s the 7.62 with the night scope?” I asked.

“I put it in the closet of the sewing room,” Walter
grimaced at his own reply. “Feel free to kick my stupid ass later.”

I started barking. “Thompson, you’re our shooter. Get
the rifle and get out on the deck when we have the all clear from Bernice. Sam
and Mike, keep Thompson alive. Michelle, you’re with me.” I went through the
heavy door into the garage with Michelle at my heels as the radio crackled
again.

“It’s walking into the woods at the edge of my view .
. . OK, it’s gone now—I can’t see it anymore . . . but it went into the woods
on the side toward the house.”

I drew my CZ and pressed against the door to the
outside. Michelle mirrored my pose on the opposite side of the door. Her
eyebrows rose in an unspoken question.

“Now we wait for Thompson and Sam.”

It didn’t take them long before they called out for a
status report on the video feeds from the deck and house. Bernice reported all
clear.

“We’re getting ready to go outside,”
Mike’s voice came across.

“I’m watching and will let you know if I see anything
on the cameras.”
Bernice replied with
a monotone.

“We’re on the deck. Thompson is scanning . . . hold on
a second.”

A minute passed before their voice came back.
“OK,
Thompson has one figure about sixty yards away in the woods. He says that he
can’t tell if it’s infected or not, but it’s just standing there next to a
large tree.”

I keyed the radio.
“Hey Sam, ask Thompson how close
he’d need to be—using the night scope—to give us a positive call on whether it
was sick or not.”

“He said he’s not sure,”
Sam answered,
“but he’s guessing maybe half the
distance—twenty-five or thirty yards—wait
. . . Sam’s voice cut off briefly
in mid sentence.
“Sorry, army boy said ‘meters’ not yards. He’s saying that
the scope vision is really clear, but the magnification isn’t very strong.”

My uncle cut in.
“Those scopes are designed for
fairly close encounters, not long range sniping.”

I turned to Michelle. “I don’t think we’re going to
know for sure unless we put a light on the target.”

“Isn’t a giant spotlight going to make us screw the
pooch with our light discipline?”

“We don’t have many options,” I replied, “besides, the
angle that they’d be shining the light from is going to be away from the
lake—it should line up almost directly with the boat launch by the marina, so
unless somebody’s standing there, we should be OK.”

“Both of our AR’s are already loaded in your truck,
right?”

“Yeah, so is the silenced .22.”

She closed her eyes for a minute in thought before
glancing up at me. “Our night time security plan sucks.”

I said nothing, but I’m sure my expression echoed her
statement.

Michelle gave a small shake of her head and pinched
the bridge of her nose as she continued. “We’re at a crossroads of sort, I
think. We can’t afford to leave someone who might be infected that close to the
house, especially at night. On the other hand, if they’re not infected, we also
don’t want to just leave them out there. I know what Walter said about this
being a no man’s land, but are you really going to feel comfortable pulling the
trigger if you’re not sure?”