Human Extinction Level Loss (Book 1): Nicole's Odyssey (30 page)

Nicole smiled and called back. 

“Yeah, well it’s something you might want to keep to yourself, you know, until you and my dad become buds,” Nicole said. 

Walt chuckled over the radio.  “
Yeah, right, man,
” he said. 

As they drove through the town, they noticed that it looked entirely abandoned. 

“I thought you said they housed all the employees in town.  This looks like nobody has been here for months, maybe not since the beginning,” Sam said. 

Nicole gazed out her window at the empty looking houses and storefronts.  The town wasn’t destroyed, it just looked like everybody had disappeared. 

“
Hey, what’s with the town, man?  It looks abandoned
,” Walt said over the radio. 

Nicole picked it up.  “Yeah, Sam and me were just talking about that.  I don’t know.  They probably moved everybody into the mountain when it all hit the fan.  We’ll know more when we get to the gate,” Nicole said. 

Ten minutes later they were through the town and headed down another two lane.  They emerged from the trees and saw a single checkpoint mounted on a concrete island in the middle of the road.  A cross bar extended from the shack across the road.  Beyond the guard station, a massive tunnel cut into the mountain.  Overhead lights could be seen stretching off into the mountain, disappearing around a curve in the road. 

“I don’t see anybody up there,” Sam said. 

Nicole scanned ahead and saw no movement.  She sat in the road, the GTO’s engine idling the only sound.  Behind her, the motor-home waited.  Nicole eased down on the gas and approached the station.  As she pulled up she wound down her window.  Where she expected an immediate challenge from a hard faced guard, she saw only the empty booth. 

“Hello.  Excuse me, is anybody in there?” she called. 

Hoping that the guard was merely seated, she expected him or her to pop up.  When no one did, Nicole gripped the wheel and looked around.  There was no sign of anybody.  The place looked as abandoned as the town below. 

“Wait here, Sam,” she said as she opened her door. 

She got out and looked back at Walt and the others who had all crowded up in front of the motor-home to see what was happening.  Nicole held up her hand letting them know they should stay put for the time being.  She went over to the shack and looked inside.  All was in order except for the guard.  Nicole turned and looked around.  She stepped away from the guard shack and headed for the tunnel. 

Sam and the others all kept their eyes locked on her as she became lost to view just inside the shadowy recess of the tunnel entrance up ahead.  Several minutes later she came walking back out towards the GTO.  Reaching the car, she leaned in and looked at Sam. 

“I don’t know, Sam.  There’s nobody around.  I checked the tunnel to see if there was anybody in there.  There weren’t any vehicles in the tunnel either,” she said. 

Sam turned from her and looked back at the tunnel. 

“Maybe they are all locked up tight inside.  I mean what’s to do out here, right?” he said. 

Nicole rose and put her hands on her hips.  Her lips pursed in thought. 

“Yeah, well if they are all locked inside, then how do we get in?  Surely, they would still have surveillance out here even if they didn’t have a guard.  They should know we’re out here and have sent somebody, you know?” she said. 

Nicole looked around a final time then headed back to the motor-home.  Sam watched as Walt wound down his window and leaned out.  Nicole shielded her eyes from the setting sun as she spoke to Walt.  A moment later she came back to the car.  Sam watched as Nicole went into the guard shack and hit a button, raising the gate arm to the up position. She exited the shack and  climbed back inside the GTO. 

“What are we going to do?” Sam asked.  Nicole kept her eyes locked on the tunnel. 

“We’re gonna sit here and wait for them to come arrest us for raising their gate,” she said. 

Sam slumped in his seat as they both stared into the recess of the massive tunnel. 

Minutes passed without any movement from the tunnel.  Finally, Nicole picked up the radio. 

“Okay, Walt.  We’re gonna head in.  Just take it slow and stop if approached.  Just play it cool,” she said. 

“
Roger that
,” Walt said. 

Nicole put the car in
Drive
as the two vehicles headed into the mountain.

The silence was heavy as no one spoke.  Something just didn’t seem right to Nicole.  Someone should have been at the guard station.  They should have been challenged when Nicole raised the gate, and certainly there should have been an armed response when they drove their vehicles into the tunnel.  The only reaction was no reaction.  Perhaps after what had happened in the world, the powers that be saw no need to waste precious manpower guarding a gate whose only visitors promised to be reanimated Dead.  Nicole just hoped that when they got to the end of this road there would be some indication that things were under control and that they would let them in.  As they made their way through the tunnel, the growing sense of claustrophobia gave way when they emerged into a massive cavern that had been carved out from the rock.  A wide expanse of cavern floor was marked off in parking spaces.  The whole place was lit by a myriad of halogen lights. Nicole brought her car to a slow stop as the motor-home eased to a stop beside her.  Sam peered through the windshield at the largest door he had ever seen. 

“That thing looks twenty feet high!” Sam said. 

Nicole did not take her eyes off the door.  “Twenty-five.  And four feet thick solid steel, though technically that’s supposed to be top secret,” she said. 

Nicole cut the engine and eased her door open.  Sam opened his door and they both got out.  The others piled out of the motor home and together they gathered in a group in front of the vehicles.  They all stared at the monstrous door, no one seeming to either know or be willing to make the first move.  Finally, Nicole felt the pressure of taking action. 

“Well, come on.  Maybe they have a doorbell,” she said. 

“Should we bring our guns?” Paul asked. 

Nicole kept her eyes straight ahead.  “I think it would not be a good idea to attempt to gain entrance to the government’s most secret military base armed with rifles,” Nicole said. 

“Good point,” Paul said as the group made no effort beyond baby steps to approach the door. 

When they got half way across the staging area in front of the entrance, Walt cocked his head. 

“Hey, man.  Does that door look slightly open to you?” he asked. 

Nicole almost laughed at him until she took a closer look at the door herself.  The door did not seem to make a tight seal with the frame set into the rock wall around it.  As they approached, it became increasingly obvious that the door was not secured. A thin frame of light surrounded the door that was sitting ever so slightly ajar. The group stopped about six feet in front of it.  Nicole walked forward right up to the door. 

“This doesn’t make any sense,” she said. 

She looked to her right and saw the guard station set against the rock wall.  She went over and stepped up into it.  She saw a telephone on the small desk inside.  Below the number pad was a series of buttons.  One was labeled “Acc. Cntrl.”  She picked up the receiver and pushed the button.  Through the receiver, she could hear the ringing on the other end. 

“Hey, man!  I hear a phone ringing in there!” Walt called out. 

Nicole leaned out of the guard shack.  “Yeah, Walt, it’s probably me.  I was trying to call someone on the inside,” she said. 

“Yeah, well it doesn’t look like anyone’s home, man,” Walt said. 

Nicole pursed her lips in consternation and hung up the phone.  As she approached the group, Walt stared at the door. 

“Ringing stopped,” he said. 

Nicole crossed her arms over her chest and started biting the nail on her forefinger. 

“What do you think, Nicole?” Sam asked.  Nicole looked at him then back to the door, her only response to bite more of her nail. 

“Well, even with the door open just a little, it’s not enough for us to get in, I mean that thing must way a hundred tons.  There’s no way we could move it,” Billy said. 

Paul stared at the door. 

“Actually…” he said, his words trailing off. 

Paul approached the door.  All eyes followed him.  Nicole was about to protest when Paul put one hand on the door and gave a firm pull.  He stepped back as the massive door slowly swung open enough to gain them entrance.  He turned around and stared at the group who gawked at him.  Paul shrugged his shoulders.

“Engineering,” was his only response. 

The group stared at the now open door.  As one, they moved forward. 

“Hello?  My name is Nicole Bennett.  I am Col. Bennett’s daughter,” Nicole offered by way of identification. 

As the group crossed the threshold of the massive door, they all came to a sudden stop.  Just inside and all over the floor were fifteen bodies, their arms outstretched as if reaching for the door.  Their bodies were riddled with bullet holes, but there was at least one in each of their heads.  Nicole and the others all stared at the bodies in shock. 

“On second thought, Paul, Maybe getting our guns is a good idea,” Nicole said.

Forty-Six

The presence of the fallen bodies just inside the entrance to the mountain base had spurred Nicole to action.  She viewed their presence as the warning they were.  They had been fleeing from something, something that they were willing to forsake the most secure facility in North America to get away from.  They were a mix of military and civilian Department of Defense employees.  Military uniforms on some bodies lay mixed with those in civilian business attire.   The primary mission of this particular military machine was ultra secret.  The only thing Nicole knew was that her father was in command of it.  He had not called her as the commander those many months ago, but as her father, a father who knew that hell was coming and that the safest place to be was by his side.  Now, with Sam and the others gathered around her, it started to sink in that the reunion with her estranged father, and the refuge she sought, had taken a dark turn.  Nicole, Sam, Walt, Paul, and Billy stepped around the dead bodies.  Behind them, Jordan pushed Ruby in her wheel chair.  The bodies on the ground did not appear to be the monsters that she and the others had battled to get here.  Nicole peered down at them as she past.  They had all fallen in a similar pattern, heads toward the door, arms outstretched.  She did not fail to notice also that all the bullet wounds that had struck them down had come from behind.  These people weren’t the Dead attacking when they were killed, they were trying to escape and were shot in the back, with matching wounds to the back of their heads to make sure they stayed down.  It spoke of a preventative measure that had come too late.

As the group moved clear of the fallen bodies, Nicole stopped.

“Jordan, you push Ruby in her chair.  The rest of us form a circle around them.  Keep your rifles tight against your chest, fingers on the guards, but ready to go.  Think of the circle like a pie and everybody gets a slice.  Don’t take someone else’s slice.  Your own slice is in front of your face and beyond.  Ruby, Jordan, it’s gonna be like on the bus, okay?  We need ammo, we sing out and you feed it to us.  Control your firing to three round bursts and talk to each other when you get low.  Nothing gets inside the circle, okay?” 

Nicole looked around at the others and got nodding heads in response.  In the leather pouch on the back of Ruby’s chair were stuffed boxes of the high velocity rounds, with more in the pouches hanging off either side of the chair.  In Ruby’s lap were two more opened boxes. 

“Do you think…” Billy said.  His question hung unfinished in the air. 

Nicole looked at him then the others.  “I don’t know what we are going to find… so everybody just stay alert, okay?” she said. 

A final nodding of heads, then they formed up a circle around Ruby and Jordan.  Nicole took point, with Sam on her right shoulder and Walt on her left.  Billy was to Walt’s left and Paul was on Sam’s right covering the rear and closing the circle.  In formation they began to move out into the subterranean base.

Nicole tried to keep her focus.  She needed to do that for herself and the others.   She had seen her father teach the circle formation to recruits but she did not kid herself.  She was no field commander. She was trying to keep herself and the others alive by employing tactics she half remembered, from when she was a kid and her father’s idea of a day out was dragging her to Basic training classes. Once she got herself and the others here, her plan was to submit to whatever government paranoia was the standard protocol, and then endure a lecture from her father that she had hoped wouldn’t be too much of an “I told you so.”  She was ready for that and some part of her even welcomed it, if only so that she could then tell her father that for her part,  she was sorry for not being as understanding about his role in the world and letting that create distance between them.  Now as she moved deeper into the cavernous facility, she could almost feel the rocks closing in on her,  and wanted nothing more than for an armed patrol to call for them to halt and drop their weapons.  No patrol came and she didn’t want to even think about why.

The group moved as one through the expansive entrance, which was essentially a large loading area.  Forklifts stood abandoned.  Supplies sat, still sealed on huge lift plates set in the floor that would lower the provisions to any of the several levels below.  To their right, huge transport trucks sat parked.  Some were empty,  others looked like they were in the process of being unloaded when something interrupted.  Nicole took all this in as she scanned the area in front of her.  As they approached the end of the loading area, they came to the other end of the cavern.  Mounted in the rock was a set of sliding doors much larger than any normal elevator.  Set in the wall next to the doors was a card scanner.  A large light above the elevator doors glowed bright red.  A camera stared down at them.  Nicole stepped forward and stared up into the camera.