Ragnarok Rising: The Crossing (The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (11 page)

At the end of the hallway was a large door marked with warning
placards for flammable and explosive material. It was a heavy fireproof door like you would see on fuel storage facilities. Instead of opening that door, we headed back to the others.

“Let’s put Becca on one of the beds,” I said. “I want you two with us when we sweep the next area. I’ve got a feeling that it will be much larger than this one.”

We carried Becca in and lay her gently on one of the bunks. They were military style bunks and mattresses, but unmade. I assumed that we would find blankets and sheets in the cabinets, but I didn’t want to waste time looking for them right at the moment. I wanted to find out what was beyond that door.

We left our packs in the room with Becca, taking only weapons and ammo. I checked each weapon and reloaded all of my expended ammo. Once everyone had checked their weapons, we headed back down the hallway to the big steel door. Clicking on our tactical lights, I reached for the doorknob.

It swung open surprisingly smoothly and we went in tactically. It was a much wider hallway that continued on into the bluff. On either side of us were heavy steel cages that held weapons, body armor, ammunition and equipment. By my estimates, there were enough weapons inside the cages to outfit three infantry companies. That would put it close to five hundred men.

I could see storage containers for ammo, medical supplies, explosives and grenades that had been sealed for long-term storage. They would be good for decades in that kind of container. The most recent inspection date I saw on a case was from 2010, which meant that everything in here should be in perfect working order.

When we passed the rows of supply cages, we came to a metal rail that led left and right to stairs leading down into darkness. Southard found a set of power switches and threw one that read “Main Power.” We instantly heard a whirring noise begin as ventilators came online, followed by the clunk of industrial lighting coming on.

As the big lights above us came
up, it illuminated the cavernous room below us. It was a veritable treasure trove of equipment, waiting for use. There were a dozen Humvees of different configurations. Two were set up as ambulances, two as command and communications vehicles and the rest were standard Up-armored infantry vehicles.

There were
six of the heavy-duty M939 5 ton 6x6 Cargo Trucks. All six had pintle mounts on the roof for a heavy weapon placement. They were the work-horses of the Army and could be used for almost anything. They would also run on almost any kind of fuel. The Cummins engines were designed as multi-fuel engines, but primarily ran on diesel. They could just as easily run on a mixture of oil and kerosene. If it would burn, they’d probably run on it.

The next row of vehicles put a big smile on my face. They were going to bring us a level of firepower that we’d never had before. Something I wish we’d had against the Freemen. There were two M2A3 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. These tracked vehicles could fight as well as carry troops into battle. They could withstand anything but a direct hit from missiles or anti-tank rockets. Those would make the zombies a much less lethal threat for our people.

Last, but certainly not least, there were four M1126 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers. With those in our arsenal, we would be able to make our home safe. We could rebuild a place where we could live our lives, not just hide beneath the ground. We could start to reclaim part of our world from the dead. We would rebuild our lives and start fresh, here in this valley.

There were tanks of fuel that would keep us going for a long, long time. There were enough resources here to keep a military unit fighting for at least a month of sustained combat operations. For our little group of survivors, we could turn the food and supplies into the start of a community. We now h
ad something we hadn't had for quite some time. We had hope.

At the far right-hand side of the room was a ramp leading up to a set of steel doors with gigantic pistons attached to them. From what I could tell, they should open up right across the road from the Visitor’s Center by forcing their way open through a covering of dirt and grass. The massive pistons could open and close the doors no matter what was on top of them.

We now had an underground stronghold that would serve as our base of operations while we secured the park. It would be our home while we established a perimeter around it to protect us from wandering zombies and the living, as well. There was more than enough room for everyone in the Underground. The quarters would be tight, but it was only going to be temporary. Once we secured the park, there was plenty of room for everyone to have a place of their own.

I liked the idea of securing one of the cabins for my family. We’d stayed in the cabins before, during one of our fishing trips to the park. They were big enough to live in without everyone being on top of one another. If we could find a way to run electricity to the buildings, then we could resume a standard of living close to what we had before the dead returned.

We had a long road ahead of us with a lot of work to do, but in the end it would give us a chance at life. If we turned some of the land into fields for crops, we could feed ourselves indefinitely. It would be nice if we could make enough room for livestock, as well. We would need the food sources to get us through the winters.

“OK, folks,” I said. “We’re in business. Let’s get some rest and start planning our next move in the morning.”

“Are we secure down here?” asked Southard.

“I would say so,” I said, nodding. “There’s no way the dead are coming through those doors.”

We headed back down the hallway and each selected a room. I went in to check on Becca and found her still out cold. As irrational as she had been acting, I was half afraid that she’d wake up and open the door that led back up the stairs. If she let the undead inside, then we’d lose everything. I wasn’t about to let that happen. I reached into my belt cases and took out two pairs of handcuffs. I attached her wrists to the bed frame and made sure they were tight enough that she couldn’t just slip out of them.

In a cabinet beside the bed, I found blankets, sheets and pillows. I covered her with a grey wool blanket and headed out the door. My eyes were getting heavy and I couldn’t wait to put my own head on a pillow.
Elliott was waiting for me outside.

“Hey dad,” he said. “We fixed up one of the rooms for us.”

I followed him into one of the junior officer rooms and found that everyone had brought their gear inside and made the beds. Spec-4 and Southard had already removed their body armor and boots. They were both under their covers and had their eyes closed before I was out of my armor.

“Dad?” asked Elliott.

“Yeah, bud,” I said, turning towards him.

“Are we going to be moving here?”

“That’s the plan, son,” I said, smiling at him.

“What about the
Stalkers
?” he asked, looking concerned.

“We’ll deal with them,” I said. “We have plenty of weapons and gear, now. We’ll find out where they’re hiding during the day and take them out.”

“Good,” he said. “I hope we can get everyone here, soon.”

“Me too,” I said, lying back on my pillow.

“Do you remember when we used to come here to go fishing?” he asked, settling into his own bed.

“I’ll never forget that,” I said. “Those were great times.”

“Can we do it again,” he said, “I mean once we’re secure here.”

“Absolutely, son,” I said. “We’ll be fishing together again, in no time.”

With that, we both settled in and went to sleep. I think I was out before my eyes were even fully closed. The bed was either incredibly comfortable or I was just that exhausted. Either way, I was out in seconds.

The dreams returned to me in striking clarity. For the first time, I knew what they meant and why I was having them. My sons and I were direct descendants of the warriors that faced the dead so long ago in that Viking village.

The descendants of the berserkers who stood their ground to save their family and friends. It explained a lot. We were the chosen of Odin. Destined to fight this evil since the day it was first unleashed. We were the Einherjar
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and this truly was Ragnarok. I awoke from the dream with the realization that had escaped me before. There were others like me, out there. Somehow I knew we would find one another.

10 May

I awoke to the smell of food cooking. It smelled amazingly good. My stomach began to rumble in anticipation as I got out of bed and slipped my boots on. Southard and Spec-4 were already up, but Elliott was still fast asleep. That made me smile. He’d been almost impossible to wake up for school since he was small. He looked so content; I really hated to wake him up.

“Rise and shine!” I bellowed, striding over to him and yanking off the covers.

“Aww, dad,” he groaned. “Ten more minutes.”

“Fine,” I answered, “but don’t expect me to save you any breakfast. I smell bacon.”

“Bacon?” he said, sitting up. “Real bacon?”

“That’s what it smells like,” I replied, heading for the door.

I could hear him scrambling for his gear as I walked out into the hallway, smiling. Two doors down was the mess hall. I walked into the room to see Southard in the kitchen area with Spec-4 sitting beside Becca, sipping coffee. Becca had a black eye and didn’t meet my gaze.

“Sorry about the eye,” I said, taking a cup of coffee from Spec-4.

“No, I’m sorry,” she said, softly. “I freaked out and almost got us all killed.”

“The important thing is,” I said, gently, “no one got hurt. Well, other than your black eye. We’re all fine.
Don’t waste time being upset about it. It happens to the best of us, sometimes.”

“It won’t happen, again,” she said, looking down.

“I know,” I answered, with more confidence than I felt.

Her nerves were gone. I couldn’t blame her for that, but I also knew that we couldn’t rely on her to come through in a pinch. We were going to have to be very careful when faced with danger, if she was in harm’s way. She was most-likely going to end up getting herself or one of us killed. I really hoped that she would come out of it, but it’s been my experience tha
t once the nerves are shattered nothing short of a miracle will put them back together, again.

I sat down at the table as Southard brought in two big pans full of eggs and bacon. They smelled great, but I had to wonder where he’d gotten them. He presented them with a flourish and sat the feast out before us. It was a feast, to be sure. There was a small mountain of food before us. Even Cal Sanders
would have had trouble with that pile.

“Where did you get the eggs and bacon?” I asked, snagging a piece.

“Well, the eggs are powdered,” he replied, snagging his own bacon and popping it into his mouth. “The bacon was sealed in cans for long-term storage. There’s a shit-load of canned goods in the storeroom.”

Despite being
canned, it may well have been the best bacon I’ve ever eaten in my life. The eggs weren’t bad, either. We all sat and ate our fill for the first time in quite a while. Between the five of us, we cleaned both pans completely out. When we’d finished, I leaned back with a contented sigh.

“Nicely done, Chuck,” I said. “You’ll make some lucky man a fine wife one of these days.”

That drew a round of laughter from everyone but Southard. He just gave me a mock scowl and the finger. We all chipped in and cleaned up the mess before heading out to gather our gear. We’d done what we set out to do. We’d found the POMCUS cache. Now it was time to find out the feasibility of living in the park.

By th
e time we finished gathering our gear, I had begun to formulate a plan. I knew that the
Stalkers
had to be hiding somewhere during the day. They avoided bright lights, so there had to be a place close by that they were going to ground. I knew the perfect place to begin, too. In the Nature Center, there was a scale 3-D map of the entire park. If there were any caves or large hiding places, we’d see it on that map.

My next concern was
whether the
Stalkers
were still in the stairwell or not. I didn’t want to open the big vehicle doors, because once they opened, you wouldn’t be able to conceal their presence. So long as we kept them shut, anyone who wandered by would just assume it was an abandoned park. Even if they did find the door to the cache, there was no way they were getting inside it without the combination.

We stopped long enough to top off all of our ammo from the armory,
and then headed for the main door. When we reached the big vault door at the end of the hallway, we all locked and loaded our weapons. Since there wasn’t any kind of a window in the door, it was going to be a coin toss whether or not there would be anything waiting on the other side. I wanted to do my best to put the odds in our favor.

“Alright, folks,” I said. “Let’s be ready for whatever is on the other side of that door.”

“How do you want to play this?” asked Southard.

“We’ll open the door a crack, but keep a firm grip on the handles,” I replied. “If anything tries to pull the door open, I’ll toss out a frag
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and we yank the door shut.”