World of Ashes II (7 page)

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief, even though Kaylee’s fingernails dug into him when Graystone took her blood too. “Where should we go from here?” He asked.

“Where are you from?”

“All over, but currently home is Warren AFB. My mother is stationed there.”

“I’d take a train if you can find an open seat. Air Travel is still FUBAR. I wouldn’t want to go near an airport right now anyhow. They’re a
real
mess.”

“We’ve seen the planes in the fields.” Daniel said, omitting his own aerial disaster.

“Be careful. Keep your guns close. They’re letting people travel
with
firearms, too many riots broke out because of those of us unwilling to give them up.” Wendy lumped herself in that group. “You should hear the rantings coming out of Hawaii about it. The Administration has moved there until a large enough green zone is established on the mainland. I don’t know what you’ve done to stay alive so far, but something tells me it was difficult in a mortality defining way. Don’t admit to
anything
, no matter who asks. They’ve been jailing people for defending themselves, just like in Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy.” Graystone warned while the MP’s finished their search. “Plausible Deniability is the name of the game here.”

“That’s not the worst thing the Government has done.” Daniel said under his breath.

A large black man with an MP patch like a chip on his shoulder and Staff Sergeant rank on his chest to back it up walked up to Daniel. “Do you own this vehicle?”

“No, my uncle’s car ran out of gas, a guy gave us a ride.”

“So then it’s stolen?”

“I have no idea. The guy who was in it when he picked us up never said. He got bit yesterday, though.”

“It’s not registered to a man. It belongs to a…” He read the tablet in his hands. “Mrs. Rachel Tichacek of Langley, Virginia.”

“Okay, so the fat-ass guy before
me
stole it.” Daniel rolled his eyes. He was a skilled liar, having practiced for years with Air Force Security when caught in restricted areas.

“Either way, you don’t own it. It goes to the impound lot. You can keep what you can carry, a TSA Waiting Area is around the block. You can take a bus to the nearest Refugee Zone from there.” He said, turning around sharply.

“You’re a real asshole, Darnel.” Sergeant Graystone said.

The MP spun around on his heels like a Michael Jackson dance move, but with the bulky hostility of a gang member who escaped a criminal record. “Fuck you, Wendy. Do yo’ fuckin’ job an’ stay outta my shit, ya whiny ginga’ hoe!”

Daniel eyeballed the sergeants, never before had he seen two NCO’s go at each other like that, but then he’d only been to one drill weekend. Because of his mother’s connections his CO gave him dispensation to skip the next drill while overseas, given that he’d not seen his father in so long. He was supposed to make up the time working recruiting assistance later, but that was looking very unlikely. Call him crazy, what with being only a private first class and all, their bickering seemed kinda unprofessional. “He seems friendly.” Daniel smiled after the MP sergeant had left.

“I can’t prove it, no one here will listen, but he and those other shitbags over there are running a racket. I can’t go anywhere here without a fucking gun, walking corpses be damned. He’s just the worst kind of people. The other MP squads in our company have been assigned elsewhere, so it’s not like there’s anyone I can go to.” Graystone put her hands on her hips.

“No shit.” Daniel set Kaylee down on a chair, Sergeant Graystone volunteering to watch her while he packed their stuff from the car. He made sure to take the M4 after the MP’s had disarmed it by completely disassembling the weapon. He had to make up a bunch of bullshit on the DoD Weapons Registration Form they made him fill out before he could leave. One of the MP’s was following him around, keeping an uncomfortably close distance. Daniel minded his P’s and Q’s while he and Kaylee were given plain khaki pants and white shirts. It wasn’t stylish, but it was
clean
, and clean clothes can make a real difference to the beleaguered. Daniel and Kaylee gave the Private no reason to suspect he was anything other than another smelly refugee that needed to go away. Eventually their escort found somewhere better to be.

After he had all he could stuff in a blue hiking pack the MP’s shoved Daniel out of the way and drove the SUV out of sight. Fucking assholes. Sergeant Graystone, out of her desert camouflage MOPP gear and in a regular uniform now, caught up with Daniel and Kaylee before they rounded the corner toward a small town the checkpoint guarded. She wasn’t terrible looking out of the sweat suit, the ugly green/brown Army uniform not easy to make presentable, let alone sexy. If only they’d let the military iron their uniforms again… Oh well, bygone eras.

“It’s my lunch break. I only get a few precious hours away from those morons every day.” she said. “Can I buy you guys lunch before you get on a bus?”

“Sure.” Daniel set Kaylee down, letting her walk some. “Where are we, exactly?”

“Romney, Virginia. I don’t know if it has anything to do with that guy who ran for president or not. Probably not.”

Kaylee pointed excitedly toward an M1 Abrams that was rolling down the street, a convoy of heavily armed troops in LMTV’s behind it. The noise was deafening, but the convoy passed and they were able to continue talking after getting out of the way.

“You said trains were safer?” Daniel asked.

“For now. How have you survived behind the Red Line for so long?”

“Stayed hidden, stayed quiet, stayed put.”

“You lost people?”

“Yeah. A few…” Daniel clammed up.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”  They stopped at a restaurant, the owner proudly sporting a pistol on both hips, each of his waitresses armed as well. A sign out front read
Don’t Like Guns? Don’t Have To Eat Here.
These people were making the best of the disaster, using it all as a way to protest the Administration’s unreasonable ban on certain kinds of guns almost as soon as the plague started. How banning magazines that could carry more than ten rounds and banning the sale of all cartridge fire ammunition was supposed to help with the plague was anyone’s guess, but nobody opposed the Executive Order when it came down. Too many people being eaten to notice a 3am bill ratification. Graystone bought them both a meal, preferring just a cup of coffee for herself.

“I ran your ID while you were changing, the one you thought was hidden. I know you’re in the Wyoming Guard. I don’t blame you for not saying anything.” Graystone admitted.

“Thanks, Sarn’t.” Daniel said, sipping his own cup of coffee. “I’m trying to get back to my own unit, if that makes any sense.”

“It does. These guys would draft you, put you into the fold out here. They’ve been doing it to anyone they find who’s been out less than five years and looks fit. The President has instituted a recall of all veterans not out of the Individual Readiness Reserve. It’s only a matter of time before they start scrounging the VA mental ward for the walking demented. There’s already a full draft going through to Congress, assuming Congress lives that long.”

“How widespread is this? We haven’t seen anything on the news but those replays of CNN footage.” Daniel finished his coffee and ordered another. He really wanted a shot of whiskey, but he doubted Sergeant Graystone would go for that.

“Wow. Yeah, I can imagine you wouldn’t know then. It’s on every continent but Antarctica. Texas is sorting their own shit out, but they’re causing friction with the Administration over how they’re doing it. The ACLU is having a field day with them in court, but it’s pretty obvious nobody on their side of the border is listening. It’s bad enough that Secretary of State Bitch-Face is threatening to bring in UN Peacekeepers to help bring Texas back under control… It’ll just start another civil war, bring in other states on their side.”

Daniel smirked. “Yeah, UN Blue Berets on Texas streets. That’ll go over well. What is this virus? Do we know anything yet? Can we stop it?”

“It’s been labeled EV-1, for Envier Virus-1. Some Romanian med students studying in Arizona named it. It’s not an official term I don’t think, but the media is using it. We don’t know how yet, but it attacks the nervous system like a weaponized compound, causing the victim to go into an uncontrollable rage. After that they die. They are clinically dead, no heartbeat no respiration or circulation… And it stays like that, only they get back up, and then they try to eat you. They’ll attack anything alive, but the virus seems to compel the host to attack people if there are any around. We theorize there is something more enticing to the virus about the human brain and nervous system, but tests are in their infancy. We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“Where did this start?” Daniel asked as the food came. He’d ordered an omelet with hash browns, Kaylee got scrambled eggs and bacon arranged in a smiley face. She giggled and dug in. It had been a while since she’d had a meal that was actually cooked.

“The first known cases started in Nogales, Arizona. That big riot that was on the news a while back, they said it was Drug War related. The truth is coming out now though, it’s about as big as the Benghazi scandal a few years back, probably won’t go any farther than that either.” Graystone asked for another cup of coffee, the waitress returning promptly with a full pot that she just left at the table. “There are reported cases in every major city, now, like I said earlier. More reports are coming in from all over though. It’s jumped the Pacific and Atlantic, an outbreak killed over two hundred people in Paris last week.”

“Jesus.”

“And there are those types too.” Graystone rolled her eyes and sighed. “People who think this is the End of Days, the beginning of the Apocalypse and the Seven Years of War are gaining ground in public opinion. If you know your Bible, this part is Plague.”

Daniel believed in God, but his views were probably more shaped by the movie
Dogma
than by any actual religion itself. “So where’s Death Pony?” Daniel was talking about a character in the stop-motion animation show
Robot Chicken
, he didn’t expect Graystone to understand, but she laughed harder than she had in a while.

“I have that show on DVD. There’s not much to do around here but watch movies you’ve already seen a million times. I could get some new ones from Sergeant Fuckface, but that would be-” Sergeant Graystone stopped when she heard gunfire. It wasn’t the random ones and twos everyone was accustomed to hearing now. This was machinegun fire. Two explosions in rapid succession could only be the tank at the head of the convoy shooting at something that warranted a high velocity bitch-slap.

“Stay here.” Graystone got on her radio and stepped behind a vending machine so Kaylee couldn’t hear it. She turned pale and came back to the table. “We have to go. They’re evacuating the town. There’s a group of more than a thousand coming down the road just before the checkpoint.” She turned to the crowd in the diner, “People, I need you to put down what you are doing and begin evacuating this town immediately. Stay calm, be careful. Head West and try to get to a FEMA checkpoint. Have your ID’s ready and don’t pick up any hitch hikers,” She turned to a teenager she seemed to know, “Even if they’re really hot college chicks, get me, Chris?” He nodded and left with his friends.

“I have a car. You two get in it and wait for me. I have to start emptying the TMC.”

Daniel was about to ask for the keys when a loud crashing sound came through the plate glass windows. When the noise was over they stood back up from defensive crouches and looked around, a GMC Suburban was now parked in the smoking section of the restaurant. The blonde woman behind the wheel was slumped over, but there was no time to check her as everyone started running and screaming. The streets were filling with panicked people, some of them covered in blood and violently attacking their neighbors. The Infected weren’t just down the road, they were right here, right now!

Sergeant Graystone pulled Daniel and Kaylee toward a parking lot where a Soldier had already locked the gate, sealing himself inside. “Specialist, open the gate!” She shouted, trying to listen to the radio at the same time.

“I can’t.” He said, shaking his head, his rifle aiming at anything that moved. “I’m not opening it for anyone. Go to the shelters.”

“Open the fucking gate, Jeffry, or I’ll climb this fence and fuck your face with a tire iron!” Graystone was furious. People were getting closer. Daniel raised his M4 and shot at a group of them, dropping the teenage zombie chasing folk with a blow to the torso. He started crawling toward the parking lot, eager to attack Daniel now. The terrified Soldier opened the gate before the crawling ghoul got closer. Once he’d re-locked it Daniel punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

“Thanks, asshole.” He said, following Graystone to her car. “We’re not taking him with us. Write me up for speaking out of turn, but I am beginning to think you have really crappy taste in friends, Sergeant.”

“Me too.” She said, putting the Pontiac Aztec into reverse and peeling out with all the power of a front wheel drive four-banger. They smashed through a gate at the bottom of a hill, something Jeffry the guard would be able to close again after they left, not that either of them cared about his fate now. Kaylee was still silent, probably in mild shock, sitting in the back seat with her Eeyore (the original Emo kid.)