The Fall of Society (The Fall of Society Series, Book 1) (32 page)

           
“Not
soon enough,” Donnie said.

           
“In
the morning, at dawn,” Ardent said to everyone. “So after dinner tonight, get
plenty of rest.”

           
“I’m
making something special for our last night here,” Tom told everyone.

           
“Let
me guess…beef stew?” Joe said.

           
“Yeah,
but I make it good.”

           
“No
argument there, but I’ve had it like a hundred and seventeen times,” Anthony
moaned.

           
“Be
quiet or you can eat MREs,” Tom threatened him.

           
“Beef
stew it is!” Anthony cheered.

           
“So
everything is loaded on the boat?” Ardent asked.

           
“It’s
loaded to capacity, any more and it will sink when it hits the water,” Tom
said.

           
“You
factored in the weight of us, too?” Bear asked.

           
“Of
course.”

           
“Good,”
Ardent said. “Then we’re ready.”

           
“As
ready as we’ll ever be,” Bear said.

           
“That’s
not ready enough,” John said.

           
“Hopefully
it will be,” said Lauren.

           
“Remember,
Tom, when you start the truck engine in the morning, it’s gonna attract all of
those things to the back,” John said, “so five seconds later and we go through
the gate.”

           
“Got
it,” Tom answered. “What if someone is left behind after I start the truck?”

           
“You
leave,” John told him.

           
“Really?”

           
“Yes,
leave, Tom,” Ardent said. “We can’t risk the entire group for one person.”

           
“What
if it’s more than one person?” Tom asked.

           
“Leave,”
John said sternly.

           
“Okay.”

           
“Let’s
put our gear onboard the boat, Bear,” Ardent said.

           
“Alright.”

           
“See
you all at dinner,” Ardent said and left with Bear.

           
Tom
walked away to check on his truck and everyone else went about his or her
business.

           
John
went to the back of the lot to check on the grenade launcher.

           
“John?”
Lauren called to him.

           
He
stopped. “Yeah?”

           
“Did
you mean that about leaving someone behind?” She said. “What if it were me?”

           
He
thought about what to say and then walked up to her so no one else would hear
because he was agitated. “What do you want me to say to that, lady, huh? That,
‘No, I wouldn’t leave you behind, a
gentlemen wouldn’t do that, Lauren.’
Is that what you wanna hear?”

           
His
callousness stung, and Lauren felt her eyes burn, but she held her tears; she wouldn’t
let him or anyone else see her cry again. “If that’s what you wanna say, as
wicked as it is, then fine. I’ll take it.”

           
“Jesus,”
John muttered. “Well, that’s too bad, because it’s not happening. You want a
truthful answer? Don’t be late for the boat.”

           
And
he walked away, leaving her behind.

           
The
sun drew its last breaths…

• • •

           
Later
and after the sun had set, they were all in the cafeteria for dinner.

           
Anthony
was finishing up his bowl of stew and decided to tease his brother, “Man! This
is the finest beef stew that I have ever had!”

           
“Shut
up,” Tom told him.

           
Anthony
shoved some more spoonfuls into his mouth and moaned with satisfaction. “Damn!
This is some good stew! Is this stuff imported, or did you make it yourself?”

           
“You’re
an ass clown,” Tom smirked.

           
“Yes,
I am,” Anthony said.

           
“All
jokes aside,” Ardent said, “this is really good stew. Thank you, Tom.”

           
“My
pleasure.”

           
“Yeah,
thank you,” Bear said.

           
The
rest of Ardent’s crew thanked Tom and John gave him a
thumb up.

           
“Now
that most of you have finished dinner…” Ardent said. “We need to discuss
something.”

           
“Ceraulo,”
Maggie said.

           
“Yes,”
Ardent confirmed.

           
“What
do we do with him?” Joe pondered.

           
“I
say we leave the crazy sonuvabitch here,” Donnie said.

           
“I’m
leaning in that direction, too,” Alan concurred.

           
“No
argument from me,” Bear added.

           
“He’s
a monster, but we wouldn’t be any different if we left him and all of them to die
here,” Maggie said.

           
“We
can’t take all of them with us,” Tom told her.

           
“Obviously
not, but we can’t leave them to die, either,” she stated.

           
“So
what’re you saying, Maggie, is that we put them all out of their misery?” Milla
said.

           
“I
think it’s the moral choice,” Maggie answered.

           
“There’s
nothing moral about this,” Lauren said. “But it’s the only choice we have.”

           
“And
what about Ceraulo?” Derek asked. “Do we kill him, too? Because I say we do.”

           
“Ceraulo
isn’t a murderer,” Ardent said. “He did what he thought was the right choice at
a bad time.”

           
“The
right choice?” Joe said. “To leave those poor bastards locked in their cells
full of their own filth and watch them die one by one, how is that right?”

           
“He
could have just abandoned them, everyone else left, but he stayed and tried to
take care of them, and he fed them,” Ardent argued.

           
“He
fed them because his son was one of them,” Donnie said.

           
“He
could have put his son in another part of the hospital and left all of them to
die, but he didn’t,” Ardent told them.

           
“So
what do you want us to do, Ardent?” Tom asked.

           
“We
give him a choice,” Ardent said. “He can either come with us or stay here and
take his chances.”

           
“If
he chooses to come with us, what about his son?” Maggie asked.

           
“He
can bring his son with us, if he can control him,” Ardent explained. “We’ll
restrain him, of course, and medicate him, if necessary.”

           
“That
sounds too risky,” Anthony said.

           
“Everything
is too risky nowadays,” Bear said.

           
“I
agree with the kid,” John said. “It’s way too risky, and I’ll tell you
something else—I don’t buy that story about his son. I think he’s playing
us.”

           
“Why?”
Lauren asked. “What would he have to gain by lying to us?”

           
“I
don’t know, but he didn’t spew out the son bit until Bear was about to open that
cell and kill the occupant,” John told them. “Unless his son was in that
particular cell, why else would he say that but to stop Bear? And what were the
chances that out of forty-seven patients Bear would pick the one cell that his
son was in? I say slim.”

           
“We’ll
just have to use caution,” Ardent said. “We’ll talk to him in the morning and
give him the choice of staying or going.”

           
“And
killing the rest of them?” Milla asked.

           
“Yes,”
Ardent told her.

           
They
all wondered about their decision as they talked amongst themselves and
finished their dinners.

           
Bear
walked over to Ardent and tried to speak to him in private. “Do you really
think it’s a good idea to bring Ceraulo and his son?” Bear asked.

           
“No,
it’s not a good idea,” Ardent said to him. “But you and I—we’re not
murderers, even in the world’s current toilet flush. We’re naval officers, and
we will act accordingly. Is that clear?”

           
“Yes,
sir.”

           
“If
his story about his son turns out to be a lie, then we take him with us, and
once we’re out of the city, we’ll give him some supplies and send him on his
way.”

           
“Okay,”
Bear said.

           
Tom
produced an unopened bottle of liquor. “I was saving this for a special
occasion, since we’re leaving in the morning. I guess this is as good as a time
as any.”

           
Bear’s
face lit up. “Oh, what ya got there, Tom?”

           
“A
hundred year old bottle of Scotch.”

           
“OOH
WEE!” Derek howled. “I haven’t had any decent liquor since this whole shit
storm started!”

           
“Guns
and ammo aren’t the only things a doomsday prepper stocks up on,” Tom said with
a smile.

           
“You
got more of that?” Derek asked.

           
“Yeah,
I do, but just this one bottle for tonight, we need to get up early and a
hangover isn’t a good alarm clock.”

           
Tom
cracked the bottle open, poured drinks for himself and Anthony in plastic cups,
and then passed it on. The rest of the group got a drink, except for Maggie.
Joe offered her some, but she refused.

           
Tom
raised his cup, “Here’s to being alive.”

           
“Cheers,”
Ardent said.

           
“Cheers,”
Joe echoed.

           
They
all raised their cups to a toast and drank.

           
Lauren
and John met eyes and she raised her glass to him, he reluctantly raised his.

           
“Oh
yes, cheers!” Milla said and drank. “Oh my God, this is great stuff!”

           
Maggie
was too busy looking out the window and listening to the horde outside the wall
to care about their moment of joy and then she ruined it. “Why didn’t the
military use a nuclear weapon on the dead? There’s so many. Why didn’t they use
it on them?” she asked whoever listened.

           
“We
would never use a nuclear weapon on our own soil,” Bear told her.

           
“Not
even when we’re losing the war?” Anthony asked.

           
“We
would never use a nuclear weapon on American soil during wartime,” Ardent said.

           
“But
this isn’t a war,” Maggie said.

           
“Of
course it is,” Ardent assured her.

           
“No,
it’s not,” she insisted. “We’re not fighting an invading country or terrorists,
we’re fighting
dead people
. It’s not
even a fight, we’re just hiding and hoping to live another day, another hour,
before they rip us apart and
eat
us!
This isn’t a war. This is the end of all things. So they should have used them,
but it’s too late now.” She looked back out the window.

           
“How’s
Corina doing, Maggie?” Derek asked.

           
Without
looking at Derek, she said, “Fine, I put her to bed early.”

           
“She
just has a cold,” Joe added.

           
“So
if we didn’t use any nuclear weapons on the dead, then why does the sky look
strange at times?” Anthony asked.