Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (Book 4): Walking In The Shadow Of Death (19 page)

“I think I would prefer to be
armed, but if this makes you more comfortable, I will go along with it,” Sean
said.

David laughed and stepped away from
the safe. “I think it will make us all feel better. I noticed you removed a
part of the weapons.”

“Just the bolts. That makes me more
comfortable,” Sean said, smiling sincerely this time.

“Very good then, we are both
satisfied,” David laughed. “Would you like some taken up? The kitchen should be
open now.”

Sean looked at him, puzzled. “The
kitchen? I won’t turn down a meal if that’s what you are asking.”

Alex grunted and sat at the desk.
“I wouldn’t say that, you haven’t had it yet.”

Luke laughed loudly and slapped
Alex. “You are ruining my new friend’s surprise.”

David interrupted, shaking his
head. “Enough, boys. Alex, we are closed for the night, that door stays locked,
nobody in or out. Luke will be down to relieve you in a couple hours.”

“Yes Uncle,” Alex answered.

David walked to the steel door at
the back of the room and rapped three times. As before, the door opened and a
new face looked out at them. A skinny old man dressed in heavy pants and a
turtleneck sweater gave Brad a surprised stare before looking back to David.
“Whatta yat?” the man asked with a thick accent.

“This is it,” David responded.

“And who are they?” the man said,
pointing at the strangers.

“They are guests, thank you,
Robbie.” David said as he pushed open the door and walked past the guard. “This
way.”

Sean again shrugged to Brad as he
followed David through the doorway. The door opened into a small landing. There
was a set of old cast iron stairs going up which David took two at a time, then
turned a corner and continued to another steel door. At this door he pulled a
latch and the door swung in revealing another long room filled with small
living encampments.

David stopped in a large open space
and waited for the men to enter the room and fall in beside him. “This is our
camp. We took over the entire second floor, we could still move to the third
floor if necessary. Right now the third floor is reserved for the single men.”

Brad looked around the large room,
the size and shape being identical inside to the one below where the vehicles
had been parked. “How many families do you have here?” he asked.

“There are ten families, but over a
hundred and twenty residents. Many of us here are alone, not everyone was lucky
enough to get their families out,” David said, placing a hand on Luke’s
shoulder. “I was lucky enough to get my nephews out, but we couldn’t locate my
brother and his wife.”

“I am sorry for your loss,” Brad
said.

“Many have lost more,” Luke replied
solemnly.

“How long have you been here?” Brad
asked.

“I’m not much for counting days,
but we moved to this place about two weeks after the lights went out. We had
held up in our homes for a while, then set up a tiny camp in the woods outside of
town. But as the weather turned bad we needed to find something better. My
father knew of this place, well, more than that, my father worked here as a
young man.

“No one had been here in some time;
the fences kept out most people. My father said the place had high brick walls
and fenced-in yards. It seemed ideal at the time. I’d say this place has served
us well. This factory thrived in a time before technology. Many of the
woodstoves are original, there is a boiler in the basement, and water tanks all
over the property.”     

Sean looked around and nodded in
agreement. “I tell ya, I’m happy to see folks getting along so well. It
brightens my spirits.”

“Come now, let me show you to your
man, right this way,” David said, indicating for them to follow him.

As they walked down the center of
the room, Brad looked at the makeshift shelters on either side of the path. The
living arrangements reminded him of the warehouse in Hairatan, back where they
had built the refugee camp for the locals. The thought of Hairatan depressed
him, the impossible task of trying to get his men home still was at the back of
his mind. How was he supposed to rescue them when he couldn’t even rescue
himself?

Brad followed the other men,
preoccupied with his thoughts as they passed through the factory floor and
through another door. They had entered into another office space. The room was
filled with makeshift cots and boxes of personal items. Brad looked around the
room and saw Hahn sleeping on a bunk. Brad quickly walked across the room and
went to his side.

Hahn was still unconscious. His
armor and shirt had been removed, and his damaged left arm was elevated and
loosely splinted, resting at an angle going away from his body. Hahn’s arm was
black and discolored, his fingers a twisted mass of dark blue and purples.
Hahn’s head was to the side and he was breathing shallowly, sweat beading on
his forehead. A door opened at the end of the room causing Brad to turn.

A young man, cleanly shaven,
approached the bed. He gave Brad a dirty look as he went to push past him. “Ah,
the rest of the brave Americans,” he said sarcastically. He moved between Brad
and the bed. “Excuse me, I need to treat this man.” The young man removed a
glass bottle from his pocket, then used a syringe to draw out the fluid which
he stuck into an IV bag that was plugged into Hahn’s good arm.

“Will he be okay?” Brad asked.

The man continued to work on Hahn
as if he hadn’t heard the question. After taking a quick check of Hahn’s
vitals, he pulled the blanket up to Hahn’s neck then took a step back to face
Brad.

The young man looked Brad in the
eye. “Will he be okay? He is most likely going to lose that arm, possibly die
of infection or maybe blood poisoning. Have you seen this man’s toes? The
frostbite, and what the hell happened to his head? Is this how you take care of
your friends?”

Sean, having heard enough, moved
Brad aside and stepped forward. “How long have you been in here, kid? Do you
even remember what it’s like outside?” he said in a low, serious voice. “He
hurt his head in a plane crash, then probably ruined his feet leading a horde
of those things away from the survivors. His arm? Yes, once again he fought off
a horde to allow the rest of our team to escape.”

David quickly stepped between them.
“Easy gentleman, our young doctor has had a rough few days himself. I’m sure if
we all take a step back you will find our Doctor Ericson here is highly
qualified, his bedside manner just needs some work.”

Sean clenched his jaw, then with a
thoughtful expression he nodded his head. He turned and walked towards the wall
and sat on a long bench, leaning back and stretching his legs before letting
out a long sigh. “Thank you Doctor, I appreciate everything you have done for
my man,” he said.

Brad smiled and took a step back,
leaning against the opposite wall, amused by the exchange, knowing Sean would
rather beat the man senseless than put up with the doctor’s shit. But
surprisingly, Sean’s new tone appeared to be working. The doctor’s demeanor
relaxed and he went to the same bench and took a seat next to Sean. “I
apologize for my harsh words. As David said, it has been a long week,” Ericson
said.

“You really think he will lose his
arm?” Brad asked.

Ericson put his head down. “I’m
afraid so. The shirt we peeled off of him seems to have qualities that
prevented the spread of the infection, but there has been excessive tissue
damage and too much time lost to try and save the arm. Right now fever and
sepsis are the problem. Removing it will be risky, but it may have to be done
if we can’t break the fever.”

“Risky?” Brad asked.

The doctor looked up, making eye
contact with Brad. “Yes … we are short of medical supplies, especially
antibiotics.”

“Well hell Doc, we have stuff,”
Brad said, moving quickly across the room and unsnapping his assault pack from
the larger rucksack that Luke had carried into the room. Brad unzipped the top
of the bag and spread the bag open, showing Ericson the contents.

Ericson stuck his hand into the
bag, digging through the items. “This is quality medicine, more than any
soldier would be carrying, why do you have this? Where did you get it?” he
asked suspiciously.

“We have more injured friends in
our party that needed medical supplies. We made an excursion into a small town
near here, and we raided a medical clinic,” Brad said.

“The clinic? The one near the
evacuation center? Impossible, that place was overrun long ago,” Ericson
gasped.

“We were told the town would be
occupied, but we had no idea how bad.” Brad paused, looking down at the ground.
“Anyway, none of that matters now, we have medicine … can you use it?”

The doctor took the bag from Brad
and continued to look through it before sitting it next to his feet. “Yes of
course, I’d like to get your man started on some of these right away, but you
said there were more of you? Who told you about the town and the clinic?”

“Can you save his arm?” Brad asked.

“This will help, but I can’t make
any promises, now about the clinic?”

Brad looked to Sean, unsure of how
much information he should share. Sean acknowledged him with a nod and took
over the conversation. He tactfully caught David and Ericson up on where they
had come from, and how they became stranded on the island. Sean told the story
of the plane crash and their wounded, how they had raided the town and barely
made it out. He was very careful to withhold information on the farm and the
names of the family that took in his men. He was still unsure who these people
were and if they could be trusted.

There was a knock at the door
interrupting Sean’s story. The door opened and an elderly woman entered,
pushing a cart filled with bowls of stew and pieces of hard bread. “Supper is
ready, gentlemen, wish I had more for you,” the woman said in a joyful voice.

“This will be fine, Mary, just leave
the cart. I’ll see that Luke brings it back to the kitchen,” David said,
signaling for the woman to leave.

“Alright, alright, I can see you
boys are busy, just make sure you don’t keep these gentlemen too long. They
look very tired and in need of a bath,” Mary said, walking from the room and
closing the door behind her.

David handed out bowls of stew.
“Well, that explains the increase in activity.”

Sean nodded, using a spoon to take
a mouthful of the liquid and smiling at the taste. “Yeah, sorry about that, the
plane crash drew several of them in from the city. The stew is very good by the
way.”

“Thank you, it’s lobscouse. Mary
will like hearing that. So these friends of yours? Where are they now?”

“I’m not sure,” Sean said, not
completely lying. “We were separated after the crash. They took shelter on a
farm; we were trying to locate them when we ran into your boys.”

“On the highway … yes, the daily
supply run,” David said, nodding as he sopped up the remainder of his stew with
a piece of bread. “My boys go out every day, raiding empty homes mostly,
sometimes markets or warehouses. They have become very good at it.”

“How do they keep from leading the
primals back?” Brad asked.

“Primals?”

“The creepers,” Brad said,
correcting himself.

“Ah yes … Primals you say, well the
ones that show themselves in the daylight are very slow, and even a bit daft.
As long as you don’t leave obvious tracks, they are fairly easy to lose when in
vehicles. We never stay out past dark, that’s when the others come out, the Buhmann
… they are fast and clever … But I’m sure you know all of this,” David said,
placing his bowl back on the tray.

Ericson had just finished injecting
another round of medication into Hahn’s IV bag. “You say you have more injured
men? If you take me to them, I will treat them in exchange for the remainder of
these medical supplies. You have more than enough.”

“Ericson, wait,” David said.
“You’re our only doctor, I can’t allow you to make that deal.”

Ericson put his hand up. “It’s okay
David, and the man is right, it has been too long since I have left this
place,” he said, looking to Sean.

Sean looked at Brad, who shrugged
his shoulders in response. “I sure would appreciate the help, but I can’t
guarantee what meds will be left after treating our injured.”

“Well I’ll take that risk. Your man
won’t be mobile for some time. But I assure you, he will be safe here. The rest
of us … we can leave in the morning. The boys can drop us where they picked you
up, or give you a ride to the door if you want to give us the names of the
family,” Ericson answered.

Sean and Brad sat silently
searching for the right response.

David smiled. “I appreciate you
protecting the family that took in your men. This is a remote area, and we know
most everyone in these parts. From the location where Luke picked you up, it
could only be a couple places. I’m thinking either Taylor’s farm at the end of
the valley, or the Emersons’.” David walked to a locked cabinet. He took the
combination padlock in his hand and began to spin the dial. “The Taylors, now
that would be a hell of a walk, way down the valley they be. And being that
Luke salvaged goods from their farm not ten days ago, I’d say I can scratch
that name.”

David made the final turn of the
lock and pulled it open. He opened a cabinet door and revealed several bottles
of alcohol and a number of glasses. “Brandy be okay for you, Sean?” David
asked.

Sean smiled. “Very nice, thank
you.”

David pulled the bottle from the
cabinet and slowly began filling glasses and passing them to the men as they
finished their dinner. “So, I heard tell on the fate of the Emersons; seems his
wife was attacked. They went to town and the clinic looking for assistance as
things fell apart. Nobody has seen them since. Luke went by their farm, but
things were torn apart so he let the place be. We try to distance ourselves
from danger.”