Season of Rot (28 page)

“The most deadly bio-weapons man ever
conceived were being designed here. Only a select few in the
government knew this place existed. During your stay here, you have
likely noticed some of the rooms are sealed off. I don’t have the
codes to access those doors, and I am not certain we should open
them even if we could. From top to bottom, this base was built not
only to keep unauthorized personnel out, but to contain the things
that were being created here if something went wrong. This base is,
beyond the shadow of a doubt, the safest place in the western
world—maybe the whole world. In short, I believe we are as safe
here as we’re ever going to be.”

Mike paused, letting his words sink in. “So
that brings us to the issues of actually living here. Most of you
in at least some sort of fashion have helped take stock of the
useful things this base contains. We have running water, an
unlimited, shielded supply of it, so thank God for that. There’s
enough food to keep us from starving for years without rationing.
And Warren was quite pleased with what we found in the armory. He
believes we have the firepower to make a stand if the rats find
this place. The sole real concern of the base is power.

“Though it’s partially solar powered and has
a wide array of batteries and generators to help recharge them, our
fuel supply is limited. Eventually some of us may be forced to
venture out to obtain more, but for now we’re okay. I don’t see the
need for an expedition aboveground at least for a month or two.
Thus, I suggest we enjoy what we’ve been blessed with. We have
plenty of time to come up with viable solutions to the fuel issue.
It’s time for us to rest and live a little again in a world where
so many others don’t have the luxury.”

Benji cleared his throat and got up to stand
beside Mike. “We may have everything we need, but there’s still a
lot of work to be done. We need people to cook, clean, pull watch
shifts, and people to try to make contact with other survivors. And
people to plan for what the future may bring. The world may be
dead, but life goes on and so does work.

“Now that we’re not on the run anymore, we
need a better assessment of just what everyone is capable of and
what duties they would like to take on in our new home. I’ll be
meeting with each one of you over the next day or so to see where
everyone can be the greatest help, then we’ll come up with a duty
roster so everyone knows where they stand and exactly what they’re
responsible for. Each of us will pull our own weight from now
on.”

Mike motioned Benji to silence. “With that
said, if you have any questions, you’re welcome to approach Benji
or myself at anytime, and we’ll do our best to address them.”

As the meeting broke up, Mike judged that
most people seemed not just hopeful but happy. He was sure
eventually there would be complaints and disputes over everything
from assignments to living quarters, but as a whole, things were
going well and the group was on its way to a real future.

Mike followed Benji out of the breaking crowd
and into the base’s control center, where Darren was working in one
of the terminals.

“How did the meeting go?” he asked.

Mike smiled. “As well as could be hoped for.
How are things going here?”

Darren shrugged. “I know you picked me to
help out with this because, other than you, I’m the only person in
this group with any computer skills...” he smiled and shook his
head, “but I just ran a geek squad for an electronics store. This
shit here...” he gestured at the room around them, “this is some
hardcore stuff. I’m doing the best I can, but it’s way beyond me.
Without the pass codes you had, I doubt I’d even be in the system
yet.”

Mike nodded. “I know what you mean. Computers
were never my specialty either. I used to just take this stuff for
granted when I was a researcher, and when I took over as an
administrator...” Mike sighed. “Well, let’s just say delegation is
a wonderful thing.” He slid a chair over to where Darren was
working and sat down. “I think between my casual understanding of
the system here and your knowledge of hardware, we should be able
to get everything online, given time. We did get the lights on,” he
said, trying to ease the tension with a joke. “So what’s still not
operational at this point?”

“Most of the internal and external security
measures. I haven’t been able to gain access to the security camera
feeds, or whatever the hell the more advanced system is that
overlaps them in the programming.”

“That would be the base’s bio-scanners, I
think.”

“Bio-scanners, right. This whole damn base is
like something out of
Torchwood
.”

“What?”

“
Torchwood
? You didn’t watch a lot of
sci-fi, did you?” Darren laughed. “Forget it. Doesn’t matter.
Anyway, we do have power. I have control over all of the base’s
doors except the ones that I think lead into the high-clearance
labs and a few of the more scientific supply areas. I
have
gotten the communications array working, including the intercom
system. One thing scares me though. If this base’s bio-scanners, or
whatever you called them, were ever triggered to a threat, there’s
no way in hell I’d be able to override them. We’d be trapped down
here.”

“I don’t see how that’s a problem,” Benji
chimed in. “Have you read Warren’s report on the armory? We could
just blast our way out if it came to that.”

Mike and Darren looked at him as if he were
an idiot.

“Benji, do you really think they’d build this
place to where someone down here could get out if something went
wrong inside of it?”

“Darren’s right,” Mike agreed. “I doubt a
point-blank nuke could rupture this structure. If it goes into
lockdown, we’re finished... but at least it won’t be the rats that
get us.”

“You got that right,” Warren said, making
them all jump as he appeared in the doorway.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Mike
asked.

“Not much to do around here, in case you
hadn’t noticed. Besides, I had something I wanted to ask you. But
if you’re busy, I can come back.”

“No. No, not really. We’re still just trying
to figure things out in here. What was it you wanted to ask?”

“Just something I’ve been wondering about
since we got here and found the main outer doors open. I can’t
believe no else has asked it yet.”

“Well?” Mike prompted.

“Where the hell is everyone, Mike? You don’t
build something like this and leave it unmanned. I don’t care if
the F-ing world is falling into Hell; even if people were called
out and some abandoned their duties to try to reach their families,
someone would have stayed. Shit, Mike, we haven’t found a single
corpse.”

Mike stared at Warren as the soldier’s words
sank in. “My God... You’re right. How in the hell have we been so
stupid? There should have been a skeleton crew at least to keep the
base operational. This place is too much for the government to just
write off.” Mike whirled on Darren. “We need the security systems
online now! We have to know if we’re alone, or if there are others
in the base with us.”

“Be my guest,” Darren said, getting up and
offering his tools to Mike.

“Shit!” Mike plopped into Darren’s seat and
ripped open a panel on the console. Darren moved out of his way.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Mike snapped at him.
“Get back here and help me!”

Benji glanced at Warren and caught what
appeared to be a quick smile pass over the man’s rough features.
“I’ll get us some coffee,” Warren said and turned to leave the
room.

As Warren left, Benji found the nerve to
speak up again. “But wouldn’t we have seen anyone by now if they
were here?”

“This base is huge, Benji,” Mike answered
without looking up from his work. “And they’d know it better than
we do. For all we know, they could be holed up in a safe room
somewhere, biding their time.”

“Biding their time for what?”

“A chance to take back the base,” Mike
said.

Warren returned minutes later with a steaming
cup of coffee in his hand. He took a sip as he watched Darren and
Mike fighting with the base’s systems. They’d long since given up
any fix short of manually bypassing the security protocols.

“Damn it!” Mike shouted. “This is taking too
long!”

“Uhh... Mike,” Warren said, trying to get his
attention. He didn’t look up. “Mike.”

“What?”

“There’s no army hidden in the base to try to
kill us,” Warren said calmly.

Mike almost ignored Warren and went to throw
himself back into his work, but he caught a glint of humor on
Warren’s face. He stopped and glared at him. “How can you know
that?” he asked carefully.

“The armory,” Warren informed him. “When
Brent and I were cataloging it, we noticed a few things missing
from what should have been there. Two rifles, a handful of pistols,
some ammo. Just a bit here and there. The other inventory reports
you had for the meeting showed similar things, just a bit missing
here and there. The way I see it, there were likely one or two
people living in this place when got here—maybe three if someone
was injured. They likely saw us coming but for some reason couldn’t
close the main doors in time, so they grabbed what they could,
locked down the labs, and tucked themselves away when they realized
there were too many of us for them to fight. Right now, I bet
they’re tucked away, scared shitless, waiting on us to leave.”

“You knew there was someone else here this
whole time and you’re just now telling me a week later?”

“No, I suspected. When I overheard about the
problems you were having with the security systems, that confirmed
it for me. You’ve been able to get the ones outside working just
fine, but the internal ones... That’s because they shut them down
hard to protect themselves. It’s what I would’ve done in their
place. Though if these people were anything like me, most of us
would be dead, picked off one or two at a time to even the odds,
which makes me think these people, whoever they are, aren’t looking
for a fight. They’ve had their chance to strike first and they let
it slip by.”

“So you’re saying we shouldn’t be worried?”
Darren asked.

“No, I didn’t say that. We need to find them.
We need to let them know we’re not a threat before they get so
desperate they do something stupid.”

“I’ve got it!” Mike shouted. The security
console came to life. Not just a random screen here and there but
the whole board of monitors, showing eight of the interior rooms,
including the one they were in. They could now cycle through the
cameras and, in theory, see most of the base, but more importantly
the bio-scanners were online too.

Darren double-checked Mike’s work. The last
thing they needed was for the system to short out or blow.

Mike clicked on the bio-scanner screen and a
two-dimensional map of the base appeared. Little green dots spotted
the map, most of them moving.

“Those dots represent everyone alive in the
complex. See how there are four dots here?” Mike pointed at the
room they were in. “That’s us. So five of you came back from the
fuel run and eighteen of us escaped the attack on the convoy, so
how many dots do we have?”

“Twenty-four,” Warren answered. “One person
too many.”

“But how do we know which dot isn’t one of
us?” Darren asked.

“Normally, I would say we couldn’t,” Mike
said, “but luck has made it easy for us.” He pointed at the screen
again. “He or she is camped out in the number-four lab. We haven’t
been able to get into the high-security labs yet, so there’s no way
that’s one of us.”

“I think it’s time we paid them a visit,”
Warren said, ready to get down to business.

“Hold on,” Mike urged. “We may have gotten
these systems online, but we still can’t open those doors. I don’t
think going down there and banging on them is a good idea for any
of us.”

“So what do we do, Mike?” Warren asked,
clearly annoyed. “Station a guard by them twenty-four seven and
wait for whoever it is to get desperate enough to come out on their
own?”

“Actually, I was just thinking we’d use the
base’s intercom. We can talk to whoever it is in there without
putting any of our people at risk.”

Warren thought it over and nodded. “Agreed.
But I’m still going down there, just in case whoever’s in there
gets spooked and comes out, guns blazing.”

“Take Brent and Michelle with you. No sense
in taking unneeded chances; besides, Michelle’s a hell of a lot
more diplomatic than you are.”

Warren scowled. “Give me ten minutes to round
them up and get in position.” With that said, he stormed out of the
room.

“Damn,” Darren commented. “That man is ready
to kick some ass.”

“He’s always ready,” Mike said. “I’m just
glad it’s not ours.”

Four

Kyle stirred on his makeshift bed. His dreams
had not been pleasant, hadn’t been since the darkness came. Hell,
they never had been pleasant, he admitted to himself. He wasn’t the
kind of person who had nice dreams.

He sat up, dropping his bare feet onto the
metal floor of the lab and scratching his eyebrow. His back ached
from using a lab table as a mattress.

Ever since he had gone into hiding a week
ago, he hadn’t been able to shower or shave properly. It bothered
him more than the dregs of shit food he’d been living on since he’d
locked himself in the lab.

When the intruders first broke in, he had
cursed himself for not repairing the outer doors. He should have
done it as soon as he arrived, even before he brought the base’s
systems online. But he’d thought the world was dead, and to save
time and energy he’d decided to turn on systems as needed. The
intruders had taken him so off-guard, there was no way he could’ve
sealed them out. So he’d taken what precautions he was able to,
locking down security systems, disabling a few key systems—or at
least turning them off again—and grabbing what he thought he’d need
to survive until they were gone. Kyle had never imagined they would
take up residence in the base. In the heat of the moment, he’d only
seen them as looters, not refugees, and now he was paying the
price.