Patient Z (28 page)

“I know. He’d kill us both if he took the rig. What did you and Bren talk about out there?”

“She offered to go with him so the rest of us would be safe.”

Cal stared. “Fuck, really?”

“It’s typical of her to put the rest of us first. But she’s not going. I talked her out of it.”

“You know something?” Cal said. “Maybe we should
all
go.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

They had to have a council meeting to report on the interview with Ethan. Nobody suggested Bren
should
go with Ethan, though Cal wondered how many were thinking it. The easy way out. But Mitch and Bren were not people who took the easy way.

“Then as far as I see we have two choices,” Kathy said. “Either we leave before he comes back, or we improve our defenses.”

Cal raised his hand.

“Yes, Mr. Richardson?”

“May I address the council?” he asked, keeping it formal, the way they seemed to like it. Mitch looked at him, puzzled. Cal hadn’t explained this idea to him or Bren yet. He’d been too busy percolating it in the time since Ethan left, about two hours ago. A couple of nods passed between the council members, and Kathy spoke to Cal.

“You have the floor, Mr. Richardson.”

He stood. You made a case much better when you stood. Lawyers didn’t make their closing arguments sitting down.

“You said we have a choice of either defense or flight. But I think we have another, better choice. Attack.” There was quite a stir among the group at this suggestion. Cal paused to let them absorb the idea, then continued.

“We take the fight to Ethan, and we do it now, while he’s at his weakest. Before he rebuilds his flotilla and gathers more men. We go and destroy his base of operations, his weapons.”

“Cal, we don’t even know where his base is,” Bren pointed out.

“But we know where his boats are,” Cal said. “Or at least, I do. The base must be close by. I’ll bet we can track our way back to it.”

“We have no idea how many men he has at his base,” Mitch said. “There could be hundreds.”

“If there were, he’d have used them to attack us already. I’m willing to bet most of his men took part in the last attack. There were no more than fifty, and we killed at least half of them.”

“That’s a lot of speculation,” Mitch said. “Are you willing to risk the lives of our whole squad on that?”

“We could at least go take a look,” Bren said. “Send a small party to find the base and recon it, so we know exactly what we’re getting into. Reconnaissance and intel are key to a successful attack.”

“Good idea,” Cal agreed.

Mitch looked more dubious. “Who goes on this recon?”

“Us three,” Bren said, gesturing at Mitch, Cal, and herself. “Everyone else stays here to defend the place, just in case this is all a trick.”

“Three?” Mitch sounded even more dubious. “Surely that’s too few?”

“This is recon,” Bren said. “Travel light, move fast. The fewer people, the better.”

“Then maybe just me and Cal could go,” Mitch suggested. But Bren shook her head.

“Ethan is my problem. I get to be part of fixing him.”

“You’re not responsible for what Ethan did to you,” Ella protested at once.

“She’s right,” Mitch agreed.

“Okay,” Bren said. “Call it revenge. I agree with Cal’s idea. It’s tactically sound. Let’s hit him now while he’s vulnerable. I want to take that bastard down.”

Her words tipped the balance. Cal sat and waited while the council deliberated in quiet voices. Mitch cast him glances sometimes, some annoyed, some almost pleading. Well, tough. Mitch didn’t have the luxury of worrying about Cal. They were soldiers here, and this was a war. At last there was a show of hands, and though Cal thought Mitch’s hand went up reluctantly, it went up. The gavel banged down, and Kathy spoke.

“Mr. Richardson’s motion is carried. Small recon team to look for Ethan’s base and report back.” The gavel banged one last time. “We’re adjourned.”

* * * *

They took one of the small boats, just the three of them, setting out at first light the next day, leaving Tanya in charge of defending the rig. She didn’t look thrilled to be left behind—none of the soldiers did. But they’d have their chance later, Bren assured them, to take the fight to Ethan. And they all liked Cal’s idea. Mitch tried to calm the enthusiasm down, saying they didn’t know for sure yet they’d be going on the attack, but he suspected all of them were ready and waiting for it to happen.

On the boat, Cal took the wheel, watching the shoreline for a landing place close to Ethan’s boats. They couldn’t land right at that jetty, since it would be guarded. Maybe even by humans this time and not zombies. Mitch didn’t want to take the chance of anyone contacting home base to warn them of trouble. It took a few hours to get there, but at last Cal pointed at a small inlet.

“They’re about two miles south of here. Think it’s time we got out and walked.”

The boat wasn’t small enough to land on the beach, so they dropped the anchor, tooled up, and then deployed the boat’s life raft to use as a dinghy.

“Cal, you’d better take the point,” Bren said once they were ashore. “Since you’ve been here before.”

“I approached from the south last time,” Cal said. “But I’ll know when we’re getting close.”

“Okay, good,” she said. “I’ll take rear guard.”

“I’d prefer it if you let me do that,” Mitch said. Bren scowled at him.

“Mitch, I know more about taking the rear than you do.” She grinned. “At least in the noneuphemistic sense.” Cal smirked. “Let’s go. We’re burning daylight.”

They headed out, Cal leading, Mitch following, Bren close behind him. They should probably spread out a bit, but the natural urge to be close to others for safety was too strong. In Mitch and Bren anyway. Much stronger than in Cal. He sought solitude for safety, not wanting to rely on others. Could Mitch teach him to rely on them? He couldn’t convince Cal with words. He’d have to demonstrate it over and over again. Convince Cal to stay. Because despite everything, he knew Cal was still ready to leave again at any time.

“We’re close,” Cal said after nearly an hour of walking over rough terrain. All three walked more quietly, not speaking anymore. Mitch listened hard for any sound of voices to indicate guards. But when they arrived, they found the jetty guarded by what Cal had described before—a small compound surrounded by a wire fence, and inside it, five zombies, wandering aimlessly.

“He’s only got six boats,” Mitch whispered as the three of them crouched in cover. Only two of them were decent-sized cabin cruisers; the rest were small. “I guess we hit even more of them than we realized.”

“Or some of his people have taken them and gone,” Cal said. “After a disaster like that, I’ll bet he’s having trouble holding on to the group. Maybe he wasn’t even planning on coming back here with Bren. Might have been planning on doing a runner.”

“You might be on to something there,” Bren said. “Okay, do we do something about these suckers?” She nodded at the zombies. “We might want to come back this way and steal a boat.”

“He’s got explosives and fuel supplies in those huts,” Cal said. “We could destroy them.”

“We’re here on recon,” Mitch reminded them. “We don’t want him to know we were here. Let’s leave it. We can destroy the place if we come back with the full squad. Let’s see if we can track back to his base. Start searching for a trail.”

They spread out, Mitch leading this time, staying in the cover of the trees, looking for evidence of a trail. The trees got very close to the wire at one point. Mitch moved deeper into the trees, not wanting to catch the attention of the zombies, but spun back to the others when he heard a strangled cry from Bren.

Cal had moved close to the wire—too close. He was in full view of the compound. Bren was waving frantically at him to get back. But for a moment Cal just stood, looking at the zombies shambling around. Mitch ran back and grabbed him before any of them could approach, pulling him away. Only once they were well into the trees and Bren had caught up did Mitch speak, voice low, coming out almost as a hiss.

“What the fuck was that, Cal? Why did you get so close? We agreed to stay away from the compound.”

“Just checking something,” Cal said.

“What? What the hell are you talking about?” Bren demanded.

“Nothing,” Cal said. “Tell you later. Let’s go.”

Mitch wanted him to tell right the hell now. What would make him go so close? One could have reached out through the wire and pulled him close enough for a bite. They looked like quite fresh and aggressive zombies. Good thing they hadn’t noticed Cal before Mitch dragged him away.

But he didn’t have time to pursue the subject. They were running out of daylight. The sun was past noon now, and it was winter, so the days were shorter. He didn’t want to spend the night under the stars, not so close to the enemy.

They moved on and, around the back of the compound, found a path—well, really just an area of the woods where the brush had been flattened by people walking back and forth. They followed that into the woods, and it led them to a small clearing by a road. The clearing was well rutted with fresh tire tracks.

“Ethan’s parking lot,” Bren said. They walked down onto the road and looked up and down it.

“North or south?” Mitch asked. “Where are they coming from?”

They quickly found out it wasn’t north, because a short way north they found the road blocked by chopped-down trees.

“He’s established an extended perimeter,” Bren said as they turned around and went south. “Hard for anyone to approach him in a vehicle.”

“Should we get off the road?” Cal asked. “What if a convoy of the bastards suddenly shows up?”

“Good idea,” Bren said. Mitch agreed. They couldn’t stroll along in the middle of the road. But he hated the woodland. It was too easy to run into a wandering zombie without seeing it coming until too late.

“I’m still on point,” Cal said. He moved off the road and into the woods before they could argue. Bren shrugged and followed.

They found Ethan’s base just three miles down the road. The woods thinned out, revealing a collection of buildings, many of them low and made of wood, small, like lodges.

“What’s this place?” Cal asked.

“Could have been some kind of resort,” Mitch suggested. “For outdoorsy types. Lots of hunting and fishing in the area.”

“Never mind what it was,” Bren said. “How the hell are we going to get in there?” The base was surrounded by two fences, one about twenty feet inside the other, creating a kind of secured run between the two fences, right around the base.

It wasn’t empty.

Zombies, dozens—no, hundreds—filled the space.

“It’s like a moat,” Bren said. “But instead of water, fucking zombies.”

“They must have lured them in and trapped them,” Mitch said. “Look.” He pointed to trees outside the compound that were connected via rope bridges to a platform on a tower inside. “That’s how the people inside get in and out.”

“But
we
can’t because they’re guarded,” Bren said. Sure enough, two men with rifles guarded the platform where the rope bridges converged. “And you’d be totally exposed on one of those bridges.”

“How about at night?” Mitch asked.

“Maybe,” Bren said. “But they’d know someone was on the bridge just from the movement.” She shrugged. “We could attack with our rocket launchers, or maybe something heavier if we could lay our hands on it. I don’t have any training on heavy artillery, but I guess we could always steal a tank. That would get us through the wire for sure.”

“And set all those zombies loose inside the compound.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. In fact, hell, sounds like a good idea. Get them inside, and the people will have to run for it over the rope bridges. Place becomes uninhabitable.”

“I guess we could come back with the rocket launchers,” Mitch said. “Blow holes in the inner fence. If we climb the trees—”

“I could do it right now.” Mitch stopped when Cal interrupted, and stared at him. Bren did the same.

“What?” Mitch said.

“I could get over the outer fence, blow a hole in the inner fence with the grenades we’ve got, and just let nature take its course.”

“Cal, what are you talking about?” Bren asked. “There are zombies between the fences. Didn’t you notice?”

“I noticed,” Cal said. “And I can walk right through them.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

At least ten seconds of silence followed this statement. Cal broke it himself. “Zombies ignore me. I’ve seen it over and over again. You saw it back at the jetty. They ignore me because they think I’m already infected.”

“Bullshit,” Bren said.

“I’ve seen them go right past me to go after the next person. Mitch, you saw that at the hospital and at the naval base. Think back.”

Mitch shook his head, refusing to even contemplate this madness for a second.

“I don’t know
how
they know,” Cal said. “Maybe it’s my scent, or maybe it’s the antibodies. I don’t know. But I can walk through a crowd of zombies, and they’ll think I’m one of their own.”

“Prove it,” Bren said. “Go up to the wire right now and see how they react.”

“Bren!” Mitch protested. “He’ll be seen from that tower.”

“I’ll be careful,” Cal said. To Mitch’s horror he moved, keeping low, staying in the cover of the trees that came almost to the fence. Mitch tried to grab Cal and haul him back, but Bren stopped him.

“Wait,” she said. “Let’s just see what happens.”

“He’ll be bitten!” Mitch couldn’t keep the rising panic out of his voice. “We don’t know for sure the vaccine works. What if he— Cal, no!”

Cal was right by the wire, crawling there on his belly. He stayed between a couple of sturdy bushes for cover and knelt up. He leaned against the wire and called softly.

“Come get some, boys and girls. Dinner is served.”

A few of the zombies turned and looked toward the sound of a human voice. Some even moved toward Cal. But then they stopped, turned around, and went back to their aimless wandering. Mitch stared in wonder. They ignored Cal. Like he was one of their own.