Zombie Anthology (5 page)

    
"What?” Jeremy asked as if snapping out of a dream.

    
"That the gardens survived,” Geoff explained. “Like I said, when the wave first hit, people were flooding up here in droves based on
rumours
and desperate hopes. Of course, all they really cared about was finding the base and getting inside. I don't think many of them at all headed out into the fields. Most of them poured straight into the garage.” Geoff pointed at the larger building. “I guess they thought it had to be the base since it's the only real building up here. It's in pretty bad shape now. Most of vehicles were stolen or damaged by the mob when stopped letting people into the real base below."

    
"How do you get inside?"

    
Geoff laughed and led him towards the more battered of the two sheds. Its door was new and a sharp contrast to the aged and beaten wood around it. Geoff couldn't hide the hint of pride which crept into his voice as he said, “I had a hell of a time fixing this back,” as he opened the door. “Carpentry's a lot harder than killing people kid."

    
The shed itself was completely empty except for a large metal plate in the middle of its unfinished floor. Geoff squatted by the plate and ran his fingertips across its surface until his fingers felt the crease he was searching for and popped open a small portion of the plate's top to reveal a numerical keypad. He typed in an eight-digit code as Jeremy watched. Somewhere below the plating, a motor came to life and the plate rose up like a tilted manhole cover. Geoff motioned to the hole. “After you." **** Jeremy slid down into a metal tunnel. Its ceiling was six feet above its floor and it was wide enough for two people to walk comfortably down it side by side towards the large vault like doorway at its end. When they reached the end, Geoff again typed a code into another keypad on the wall of the tunnel beside the vault door and the door seemed to break apart in its center to dilate open before them into another series of corridors. “Welcome to your new home kid. You can call me Geoff. I don't think I caught your name."

    
"It's Jeremy, Jeremy Davis."

    
"You live around here Jeremy Davis?” Geoff grinned.

    
"Not really… Well, I guess I kind of did."

    
"Didn't we all,” Geoff shrugged, “Well, I guess it's time you met your new family"

    
Geoff led Jeremy deeper into the base.

    
Nathanial Richards punched a button on the control panel in front of him again and watched as the test re-ran itself. An image of a translucent wave struck the Earth once more on the gigantic screen on the wall across the room from where he sat.

    
Troy reclined nearby with his feet propped up on the top of a console whose systems were no longer functional. He shifted in his chair having no idea what the display he was watching meant but he could tell that it was nothing good from the way Dr. Leigh frowned from her wheelchair with her eyes glued to the screen and the grim look on Nathanial's face.

    
The wave shattered as it struck the Earth, slowing from the speed of light to a dead crawl in space, as its fragments scattered, each taking a different trajectory. Then the screen went black.

    
"Run it again,” Sheena ordered coldly from her wheelchair.

    
Nathanial shook his head. “We've ran it over three dozen times today alone, Sheena. There's just no way to know where the pieces are headed. Maybe if we waited until the waves after effects in the atmosphere dissipated a bit more we could link up to one of the satellites up there. Surely at least one of them had to survive. We could…"

    
"No,” Sheena cut off his protest. “I said, run it again."

    
Nathanial got up from his seat as Geoff and Jeremy entered the room. “You run it again! I'm through for today. We're just wasting time here. There's not anymore we can learn without more data."

    
"Ahem,” Troy cleared his throat, pointing over Nathanial's shoulder at the newcomers.

    
Nathanial turned to face them, his features red with anger and frustration. “Who the hell are you?” he snapped at Jeremy.

    
"His name is Jeremy,” Geoff responded with an edge of threat in his tone. “He's not infected by the radiation so you might as well just go ahead and welcome him onboard."

    
"I hope to God he knows something about astrophysics and computers because I fuckin’ quit!” Nathanial shouted and stormed out of the room through an opposite entranceway.

    
"That's Nathanial. You get used to him,” Geoff informed Jeremy. “That guy over there slacking off is Troy. He's military like me."

    
Sheena rolled her chair up to them. It was clear from the way her arms strained as she pushed the wheels that she was not yet accustomed to her disability. “Do you, Jeremy?” she asked, “Do you know computers?"

    
Jeremy stared at her. Even wheelchair bound, this tiny woman with flakes of gray in her pinned up black hair seemed tougher than Geoff did. She met his stare unwavering through the thick lens of her heavy glasses. “Well?” she urged.

    
"Um… No, ma'am, I don't."

    
"What did you do before…?” she let her sentence trail off.

    
"I was an artist."

    
Sheena cackled. “You sure know how to pick them Geoff. What use is he going to be and who's going to give up their share of the food we have left to feed him?"

    
Troy hopped to his feet and moved between the doctor and Jeremy, sticking out his hand. “Glad to have you along for the ride. I promise not all of us are as crazy as we seem."

    
Jeremy took Troy's hand and shook it firmly.

    
"Bring him to the lab later,” Sheena ordered. “We need to make sure he's clean.” With that said, she looked up at Troy. Troy winked at Jeremy, “Gotta go. Duty calls.” Then took the back of the doctor's chair and rolled her out of the room disappearing down a corridor.

    
"Who was that?” Jeremy asked when he judged the pair to be out of earshot.

    
"That's our doctor and science whiz, Sheena. She was in charge here before things went to shit. She still thinks she is most of the time."

    
A pale man dressed in black and only slightly older than Jeremy wandered into the control room. He wore thin, sleek glasses and carried himself with a flare of style. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed the two of them.

    
Jeremy heard Geoff mutter, “Oh God, not Ian,” as the man approached them.

    
"Good afternoon, Geoff, and who might this be accompanying you today?” The man spoke in a soft, light voice in a British accent and then smiled. “You don't actually have to answer that. I couldn't help but over hear your encounter with our resident witch doctor. She's rather narrow minded these days, obsessed with death you might say."

    
"Death?” Jeremy asked.

    
Ian nodded waving his hand in a very feminine gesture as if dismissing Jeremy's concern. “You've heard about the wave, I'm sure. It broke apart when it hit the Earth you see and our good doctor is worried that a piece of it will hit the sun. If it did, it could disrupt the fusion reactions inside the star like it did the energy sources here and start a chain reaction leading to a big Ka-boom! It would be the end of our solar system. The sun would simply explode going nova prematurely and taking everything else with it. Of course, given our limited resources at the moment, it's impossible to know where the fragments of the wave are headed."

    
Jeremy blinked, stunned to silence. Ian reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Carpe Diam, young man. Don't worry about the future, only be concerned with the time you have now."

    
"What brings you out of your private coffin Ian?” Geoff snorted.

    
"Coffee, my good man, Coffee. I was just on my way to the mess to brew a pot while we still have some left. Would you two care to join me?"

    
"I think we'll pass,” Geoff said without giving Jeremy a chance to respond.

    
"Have it your way then,” Ian answered cheerfully and continued along on his quest.

    
Geoff literally pulled Jeremy out of the control room. “Come on, kid. Let me show you to your bunk."

    
Geoff took Jeremy to a nearby lift and they rode it down to the military living quarters. A row of twenty-four rooms spread out before them on both sides of the corridor that the lift opened onto. According to Geoff, only three of the base's survivors lived down here, himself, Troy and the base's repair tech, a man named Wade. Dr. Leigh (Sheena), when she could be pried away from her projects, Nathanial, and a woman named Toni who was the base's communications officer stayed on another level in the civilian section while Ian made his home in makeshift quarters he'd set up inside the
armoury
despite all the available space. Ian had been the C.I.A liaison and was in Geoff's opinion the only complete psychopath left in the complex. There was also a woman named Lex who Geoff explained was in coma. She was kept in the medical labs so Sheena could keep a close eye her and her condition not knowing if she would wake up normal or infected by the disease caused from the radiation of the wave. But for the time being, Geoff assured him, Jeremy could stay with the “normal” people in the military quarters.

    
The room Geoff gave him was rather Spartan. It contained only a bunk, a small bathroom, and a single table with a computer tied into the base's mainframe on it.

    
"It's not much,” Geoff said, “But it's a hell of a lot safer than living up there,” Geoff pointed at the ceiling, “Out there with those things."

    
A memory of Luke's deranged, hungry face flashed through Jeremy's mind and he shuddered.

    
"The creatures don't come around here much. It's rather secluded and very few people knew there was even anything up here in the mountains. We get a few wanders now and again though. Nothing we can't deal with so far. Besides, even if the things flocked up here in droves, there's no way they could get inside the complex proper."

    
Jeremy nodded as he shrugged off his backpack and placed it on the bunk. Geoff headed for the door. “You look like you could use some rest so I'll leave you to it. We'll worry about finding you a job tomorrow. Everybody here contributes somehow for the good of us all except maybe Ian. We have to work together, if we want to stay alive."

    
As the door slid closed behind Geoff, Jeremy slumped into the chair at the table and rested his head in hands. It was true, he felt safer here than he had in days but he wondered if coming here had really been the right thing to do. Still it was good to see people again no matter who they were.

    
Jeremy awoke to a pounding on the doors of his quarters. He wearily rubbed his eyes and climbed out of the bunk as a short, hideously over muscled man entered the room. The bald scalp of the man's head gleamed from the light
shining
through the open doorway behind him. “It's time to go new boy,” he ordered gruffly. “We've got work to do."

    
"Who… Who are you?"

    
"Name's Wade. I keep things working around here but today I'm going into town and you're going with me."

    
"What? I just got here. Why me?"

    
"You're not that dense are you?” Wade walked over and rapped his knuckles on Jeremy's skull. “Hello in there."

    
Jeremy backed away from the assault.

    
Wade glared at him. “None of us other than Geoff have really left the complex since the wave. Hell, you lived through the shit out there. I need a guide, Jerm, and you're it."

    
"But I don't know anything you don't,” Jeremy argued finding the thought of going back into town extremely disturbing.

    
"Daylight's burning, new boy. Get your shit together or get out."

    
Jeremy had slept in his pants so he pulled on his t-shirt and started to reach for his.38. Wade saw him, “Leave that piece of crap. Here,” Wade said shoving a.45 automatic into Jeremy's hand. “We'll stop and get you a real weapon on the way out too."

    
Minutes later, Jeremy sat inside the garage with Troy, Geoff, and Wade. He held an UZI in his trembling hands and watched as Wade worked underneath the hood of an army issue jeep that had seen better days. Troy held an M-16 in one hand and took continuous drags off a cigarette with the other. “I still don't understand why you have to do this Wade,” Troy commented between puffs.

    
"You want to keep breathing?” Wade's muffled voice shot back from where he worked. “If I don't get the parts to fix the ventilation systems from where you idiots shot it up, we're all going to be headed out of here and I sure ain't trustin’ you to bring back the right gear."