Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny (38 page)

“You two are smart people,” Justin said to Kelly and me. “But you’ve never been in the military. Not everything in the military is written in manuals. If you’ve noticed, everyone around here calls most people by their first name. In the military, we tend to call everyone by their last names, by their rank, or a nickname.” He pointed at Ruth’s nametag. “We never called Ruth by her first name; everyone called her a variation of her last name.”

“Bulldog,” she said. She must have seen my expression and grinned. “Don’t worry, I don’t consider it an insult. They started calling me that in boot camp and it stuck.”

“Everyone called me Smitty,” Justin said. “It’s a military thing, everyone had a nametag and that’s what we called each other. We seldom called each other by our first names.”

“Like, everyone calling me True,” True added. Justin nodded and wagged his finger. “He kept calling his friends by their last names, and there were a couple of other things. When we went out on the patrol, I asked Seth to take us back to the place where they were attacked. The first thing he did when he pulled the map out was orient it toward north. How many civilians do you know who does that?” Well, I did, but that’s how Rick taught me to do it.

“I see your point,” I said.

“We went to the scene where they were ambushed and found the two dead ones.”

“They were all torn up,” True said. “But they had put up a hell of a fight. One of them killed three or four with a knife. Now, he didn’t look like no outlaw biker or nothing, he had to have had military training.”

“Yeah,” Justin said.

“You’re convinced they’re military?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“But they said they were all congressional aides,” Kelly said.

“Exactly my point,” Justin replied. “Why lie?”

I stretched the kinks out of my neck. “We’re going to need to get to the bottom of this, and I say the sooner the better.”

“No time like the present,” True said in agreement and did a press check on his handgun, a Glock model 17.

“Alright,” Ruth said with a nod.

We found Seth in the greenhouse with Marc and Ward. He was freshly showered and clean shaven, wearing a clean pair of jeans with a blue Polo shirt. His hair even appeared to have been recently styled. Hell, he looked like he just came back from a day at the spa.

“This is nice,” he commented. “We have greenhouses back up in Mount Weather, but I’ve got to admit, you guys have far more varieties of herbs than we do.” He inhaled deeply.

“It smells wonderful in here. When I was a kid, my grandmother had a small greenhouse. She grew orchids. I always loved how it smelled.”

“They’ve done an outstanding job,” I said. The two psychologists-slash-gardeners grinned at the compliment.

“Seth is a little distraught over the death of his two friends,” Marc said sympathetically. “We thought this might be a pleasant respite from the others for a while.”

“They’re worried about me,” Seth said with a tolerant smile.

“Grief counseling and gardening, it’s what they do,” I said with my own smile. Seth chuckled appreciatively. I turned to Ward and Marc.

“Guys, would you two mind if we had a private word with Seth?” I asked. “We won’t be long.” Their smiles vanished but they obliged me and walked out. As planned, Ruth and True followed them out and then guarded the door. When the door shut, I turned to Seth. I wasn’t smiling anymore. Seth acted as though he didn’t notice our change in demeanor.

“What’s on your mind, guys?” he asked with no more tenseness than asking what time was dinner.

“What’s your rank?” I asked pointedly. “Judging from your age I’d guess you’re perhaps a lieutenant or a captain?” He frowned, as if confused by my question.

“I’m an aide to Congressman Weisenstein from New York, I told you guys that.” I shook my head.

“I’m not buying it. Neither is Justin.”

“You’re military,” Justin declared. “We can smell it all over you.” Seth didn’t respond and simply stared. “You didn’t think you could fool us, did you?” Seth continued staring at Justin a moment, realizing the gig was up.

“I guess not, but I can assure you there was no ill intent.”

“So, why the subterfuge?” I asked. Seth sighed and reached for a bucket sitting in the corner. He turned it over and sat on it.

“The name’s we gave are legit, but I’m not a congressional aide. I’m a captain in the United States Army. At the time of the outbreak, my duty assignment was with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.” He saw my look and explained. “My dad had connections so I was an aide to a general. He didn’t make it.”

“Your father or the general?”

“My father, and all of my family.”

“How many did make it?” I asked.

“Very few,” he replied matter-of-factly. “When the outbreak started, fewer and fewer people would show up to work. The day of the evacuation, there were only four of us. We had an assortment of senators, congressmen, high-level bureaucrats and their lackeys. We started with approximately five hundred people, but there’s been a lot of deaths and desertions. Oh, and a few births. Even an apocalypse can’t keep people from having sex.”

“Your mission?” Justin pressed.

“Everything we told you people, with the added emphasis of bringing Zach and his children back to Mount Weather.”

“And how do you intend to accomplish this?”

“Not by force, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said quickly. “Lieutenant Smithson brought us up to speed about Colonel Coltrane.”

“When did he do that?” I asked. Seth grunted and nodded toward Justin.

“Who do you think he was showing off his Morse code skills to all those nights?”

He sighed and shook his head. “For what it’s worth, I am in complete agreement with Lieutenant Smithson. That colonel went too far. That’s the reason for the subterfuge. We knew you’d be wary of soldiers showing up. Hell, for all we knew you’d take your kids and disappear, so we came up with a story.” I glanced at Justin. In fact, that’s exactly what I was considering.

“All of you are military, sir?” Justin asked.

“No, just me and the two who were killed.” He made a pained expression and rubbed his face.

“They were a pair of numbskulls, but they were my friends.”

“I imagine you’ve lost a lot of friends and family, just like us.” He nodded in agreement. I wondered if he knew how I’d lost mine. “Alright, keep going.”

“The delegation was my idea and for safety reasons, military personnel were included.” He gritted his teeth a moment before continuing.

“Our primary goal is to attempt to get you to see the importance, the magnitude of finding a cure and convince you this would be best for the country. No, let me rephrase that, if humanity is to survive, we
have
to find a cure.” I looked at him like he was trying to convert me to some kind of weird religion.

“I’ve heard all of this rhetoric before, Captain, and it seemed like it was just a lot of bullshit from people who were more concerned with themselves than with the wellbeing of my kids and myself.” I gestured around at our surroundings.

“We’ve worked hard to survive, and you’re trying to tell me it’s going to be in our best interests to drop everything and blindly place our trust in the hands of strangers, right?”

“You guys have done wonderful things here, I’ll grant you that, but…” he paused and searched for the right words. “You mentioned the word rhetoric. Let me ask a few rhetorical questions. Someone here goes to Doctor Parsons and says they were walking along one day and had a seizure, what does he have at his disposal to properly diagnose and treat his patient? Someone else has an impacted wisdom tooth that’s become infected, or maybe someone takes a bad spill off of a horse or has an automobile accident.” He hooked a thumb toward the school.

“I talked to Marc and Ward and they told me about a gentleman named Floyd and the freak accident he had that screwed up his arm. What if Doctor Parsons is the person who has one of these things happen to him?

“How about defensive capability? Can you defend yourself against a horde of a thousand or more? How about a band of marauders who’ve found themselves a tank or an artillery piece? The bottom line is, in spite of what you’ve accomplished, survival is still precarious. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“No,” I said slowly, “you’re not wrong.”

“Mount Weather is ten times bigger than this place, but unlike this place it’s a hardened, secure facility with a wide range of health professionals.” He gestured again toward the outside of the greenhouse.

“What do you have here? You’ve got a guard tower, some fencing, sandbags, and a few people with various types of small arms. Both of you know as well as I do you’re vulnerable. Gunny, what do you think, I’d say one tank with a trained crew could make mincemeat of this place. Would you agree?” Justin gave a small nod for an answer. Seth continued. “Hell, for that matter, a platoon-sized outfit with a couple of mortars and a crew-served weapon could wipe this place out. Is your house hardened?”

“It is, to an extent, but I see your point.”

“And what about the infected? I’ve seen satellite feeds of large swarms of them. We monitor them constantly, and believe me, they’ve started travelling.” He didn’t have to convince me, I’d seen it myself.

“Let me ask you, Lieutenant, how many of them attacked the CDC?” he asked.

“Several thousand, sir,” Justin admitted.

“Zach, we have military personnel and military equipment, Mount Weather can handle an attack of that magnitude, how about this place? I’ll answer for you. You people will put up a valiant fight, some of you will survive somehow, maybe, but most will die. Just like what happened at the CDC and everywhere else around the world.”

“You’ve got a good sales pitch,” I grudgingly admitted. “I bet you spent a lot of time rehearsing it in front of a mirror.”

“Indeed I have,” he replied with a wry grin. “I’ve used it to recruit other survivors. In fact, when we first started going out to recruit, we had a total of two doctors. On one of these missions, I found almost an entire ER staff hiding out in Georgetown. I successfully brought them in.” He stopped and watched us. Justin and I swapped looks at one another. He made several good points, I’ll give him that. Seth cleared his throat.

“I’m sensing your apprehension and I understand, but I’m not going to back off. Here’s where I go for the gut shot. What about the welfare of your kids? We have kids at Weather and we’re very cognizant of their importance to mankind’s future. You should see our education program. It covers a broad spectrum of survival and vocational skills, along with liberal arts. The children are being taught at advanced levels. It’s very impressive.” He leaned forward on the bucket, rested his elbows on his knees, and stared pointedly.

“The people here, well, with the exception of those two brothers, have had very positive things to say about both of you. I think you two would be in your element with us. We need more people, people who know how to survive.”

“And, the cure I supposedly possess.”

“Affirmative. I won’t bullshit you, that’s the entire reason for this mission.”

“Would a delegation have been sent here if I didn’t exist?” I asked. Seth shrugged.

“I don’t know. We’ve sent out recruiting missions before, but all have been limited in distance to Weather. This is the furthest we’ve been.”

“You mentioned satellite feeds,” I commented. He nodded.

“Several of them are still up there, quietly orbiting, but I think only about ten percent are online. Other countries may have a few still working. I’m not sure of the exact number, that’s not my bailiwick.”

“Does POTUS communicate with other countries?”

“Yes, but don’t bother asking me the specifics. Even if I knew, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.” Seth looked at his watch, rubbed his hands on his pants legs and stood.

“Tonya has declared a formal question and answer session immediately after dinner, which supposedly started ten minutes ago. Why don’t the two of you join in?”

Justin and I agreed and the two of us made our way to the cafeteria. They had some box fans running, but it was still stuffy inside. Everyone was wiping the sweat from their brow in between bites. To my surprise, Janet had loaded up the kids and brought them to the school. Frederick was sitting beside her, feeding the two dogs off of his plate when she wasn’t looking. She was armed with one of Fred’s revolvers too. I walked over to her with the intention of asking about the soundness of her judgement, but she spoke first.

“I see that look on your face, but there’s only four of them. If they try something with my babies, I’ll kill them myself.” She tapped the revolver for emphasis. Well, that was a good answer. I nodded and sat down beside my kids.

There was a lot of small talk during lunch. Everyone was antsy; they wanted to hear what the delegation had to say. Several times, somebody would try to ask them a question, but Tonya would cut them off, admonishing them to wait until lunch was over. Once everyone had mostly finished, Tonya stood and raised her hand, causing everyone to quieten down.

“Alright, this is what we’ve been waiting for. We’re going to have a question and answer session with the President’s delegation. Everyone please mind your manners, wait to be recognized, and don’t shout over each other.” She motioned at Seth who stood. “Seth is going to start it off.”

“First, let me thank all of you for your hospitality and the good food.”

“And the hot showers,” Sheila interjected.

“Yes, absolutely. We have running water back at Mount Weather, but we didn’t think we’d get another hot shower until we got back home.” There was some appreciative laughter.

“Let me clear the air about something first. I’m a Captain in the United States Army.” There was a sudden silence. “I apologize for misleading you, but we were made aware of the recent incidents involving Zach and his children, so we didn’t want to alarm everyone. I’ve discussed it with Zach and he understands.

“These three,” he said, pointing at his friends, “are not military. They are indeed congressional aides and are members of a task force whose primary mission is to reconstruct America.” Gus quickly raised a hand.

“Is it true you’re inviting all of us to go back with you?”

“Affirmative.” Raymond then stood.

“We have available housing in the facility and there are also people who live around the immediate area on farms. I believe that would appeal strongly to some of you.”

“What about those of us who were in the military?” Rachel asked.

“We are in desperate need of military personnel,” Seth answered and gestured at Sarah. “Ma’am, I understand you are a major in the Air Force?” Sarah nodded warily.

“We have a diverse fleet of fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft and only two pilots. You would be a valued member.”

“Are they flying?” she asked. Seth shook his head.

“They are currently grounded due to fuel issues, but we’re working to rectify that situation.” I saw Josue whisper something to Maria, who tentatively raised her hand.