Long Live The Dead Read online

  Robert ignored him, at least he was following orders. Picking up his own rifle he checked the safety then the ammo. Happy he was fully loaded he headed in the direction of the sun to see what, if anything, he could find.

  An hour later he had circled back, not finding anything beyond rocks, sand, Joshua Trees and a bunch of yellow flowers he didn’t know the name for. The Hummer was all closed up again and everyone but Greene was sitting around the cooking fire.

  Tommy was the first one to speak as he came walking over.

  “Well, did you find anything?”

  “Nope, nothing. What about Greene, has he been back yet?”

  “Nah, I just came down a little while ago.” said Ramirez “I saw that skinny dick way out there. It looked like he was just sitting on a rock.”

  “What about the radio, do they have their end wired yet?”

  “Nothing yet. I’ll try again around sundown?”

  “Yeah, sounds good. Make sure you can get back down before it gets too dark though, we don’t know how dark it’s gonna get yet.”

  He slipped the shoulder strap of the MP5 off and set the gun aside before sitting down in the shade and breaking out his canteen. He took a long drink of cold water and sighed.

  “I knew Greene was gonna be trouble. I should have set a time to be back here”

  “Nah, he probably would have been late anyway, as far as I’m concerned that guy can walk home” said Baker.

  “Amen to that.” added Ramirez, crossing himself.

  They all sat around and talked idly for a while about nothing in particular until about an hour later when Greene finally did wander back into camp and then things got a little quieter. Baker slipped his hat down over his face and pretended to sleep reclined against a boulder. Jackson sat and wrote quietly in his journal. Ramirez excused himself and climbed back up onto the top of the butte until just before sun down. Tommy and Smith talked quietly about some of the local plant life and whether or not it might be edible.

  Greene hadn’t said anything since returning to camp and Robert was fine with that, if he had found something he would have brought it up if for no other reason than to brag. There was no need to kick a bee’s nest, he thought and just let him do his thing - which turned out to be stripping and cleaning the backup side arm. Robert tried to ignore him and wrote up a field report.

  “Okay, chow time!” announced Tommy as he started spooning his stew into bowls and handing them out. The food was better than everyone expected and that brought back some of the lost camaraderie. Greene still remained silent, he just ate, taking turns glaring at everyone one at a time.

  Ramirez came back down a little while later and had his portion too. He still hadn’t gotten anyone on the radio so he said that he would try again in the morning before they broke camp but Robert told him not to bother – it could wait for the next night, that gave them all day to get it up and running.

  They built up the fire and making sure that they had enough fuel on hand to last the night. Then Robert, Tommy and Smith took 4 hour shifts keeping it going during the night. Each night they were going to take turns staying awake for a few hours… until it was Greene’s turn, then no one would sleep.

  IV

  Baker woke up just as the sun was starting to crest the horizon, the fire was still going but it was getting low. Smith who was supposed to be watching it and keeping guard was sitting up but his eyes were closed and he was breathing slowly and steadily.

  No harm done thought Baker and slipped a couple of the last logs into the fire, the rest of the team should be waking up soon – if he snuck away quietly now he could find a rock to squat behind and get back to wake Smithy up before anyone else awoke.

  He didn’t think that he would need his MP5 but he grabbed it anyway, better to follow protocol. Howard would be cool with little infringements but Greene would write them up for every little indiscretion and file a full report when they got back.

  Finding something far enough away that he could be alone but still be within ear shot wasn’t too hard, he set his gun down to the side still within reach and tried to find a comfortable position to squat.

  After a minute or so he started to get the feeling that he wasn’t alone… there were still a lot of shadows around. Plenty big enough for a human being to be hiding in – he started to question his memory of leaving camp. Was everyone still in their sleeping bags? Yeah, they were, he was sure of it.

  “Hello? Is there somebody there?”

  Silence.

  He finished up quickly and stood fastening his fly as he did.

  Some gravel skittered off to his left and he spun to face it grabbing his rifle as he did. The handgun on his hip probably would have been faster but the MP5 held more bullets and could go full auto with a flick of his thumb.

  There was nothing.

  He stepped forward slowly at first, with the gun raised he swept the area back and forth. Maybe it was a bird of something, a rat maybe. They didn’t have either in the bunker but they had been briefed on what to expect out here and theoretically the animal wildlife shouldn’t have been effected by the virus the way that humans were. The animal population should have thrived after the death of mankind… but come to think of it Baker hadn’t seen much wildlife at all so far. There had been some birds here and there, some type of crow he thought but that was it.

  Then he saw it. It was hard to make out in the shadows because its fur was a dark gray that blended perfectly with its surroundings but once he saw it, his brain couldn’t not see it.

  The dog just stood perfectly still, frozen like a statue – probably as surprised to see Baker as he was to see it. Ever since he was a child Baker knew that he was an animal person. He’d seen pictures and watched movies with animals; horses, cows, birds, cats… dogs… Baker had always wanted a dog.

  Now he knew that wild animals could be dangerous so he didn’t make any sudden movements but this wasn’t a wolf or a coyote he was sure of that, he wasn’t sure what breed it was but it looked like some kind of domestic breed. Whatever it was it didn’t look one hundred percent healthy. Its ribs showed through its short fur, in places so did its skin. Its eyes looked mostly gray and Baker wondered if maybe it was blind. All said this was a very sorry example of the canine race, and Baker thought it was beautiful.

  It looks starving maybe if I feel it can gain his trust? Nothing too fast, I won’t grab it or anything, maybe I can just touch it…

  Very slowly he reached into the right breast pocket for some of the extra protein bars he had. Dogs used to eat biscuits he thought, he didn’t know what they used to be made out of but the protein bars were a meat substitute, maybe it would eat one.

  Still keeping his right hand on his weapon he squatted down right where he was and extended the other hand out towards the animal.

  The dog barely moved, it followed his movement with its eyes and shifting its neck slightly but didn’t make a move either towards or away from him.

  Well he isn’t growling, that’s good. Maybe I just needed to entice it more…

  “Hey there boy” he whispered gently “You look hungry… do you want some food huh boy?” He assumed it was a boy, he couldn’t tell from here and he didn’t want to make any move that might seem threatening so he just called the dog boy – it wouldn’t know the difference anyway.

  “Come on boy, it tastes good I promise!”

  Hesitantly the dog started to move, tentatively it took a step and then another.

  “That’s it boy! You can do it!” He tried to keep his voice still low and calm as he cheered the animal on like a parent would a toddler taking his first ever steps.

  The dog moved a little quicker but still cautiously and Baker saw that it had a definite limp. It still wasn’t growling, the only noise it made at all was a high pitched wheeze that might have been a whine of fear or pain.

  Staying just back out of grabbing range the dog extended out its neck and sniffed at his hand, its head was low and it looked
up at Baker’s face half through its eye brows.

  “I’m not gonna hurt you boy, it’s okay I’m n – ”

  Without warning the dog lunged at his hand and sunk its teeth in. Suddenly the timid, weak looking creature had gained a strength that belied its feeble appearance.

  Baker screamed, first unintelligibly and then profanely, thrashing his arm trying to shake the dog free. It came off with a wet angry sound and sailed several feet away through the air. From fear and instinct more than anger his finger contracted on the trigger making the gun stutter a spray of bullets wildly.

  By sheer chance several of them hit the dog in a rising arc across its chest, bisecting its head, obliterating one side of its face and spraying gore over the rocks behind it.

  “God-damn-it that was stupid!”

  He looked at the prone dead animal, it twitched a little but it wasn’t getting up. Voices were coming from the direction of the camp.

  “Damnit. I’ll never hear the end of this. Damnit, Damnit!”

  He looked down at his bleeding hand and knew why the dog had come free so easily, several of its teeth were still lodged in his skin – he started picking them out quickly, looking around his thoughts raced. Starting to walk back towards camp, maybe he could head off the others and they wouldn’t see the dog and know how dumb he just was.

  Coming around the rocks several of the others were staggered about trying to see where the gunfire had come from. He waved them off to stop anyone from coming too close.

  “I’m okay, I – I just slipped”

  Starting to walk back towards the camp he tried to distance himself from the grisly scene behind the rocks. Smith and Howard were jogging his way.

  Howard made it to him first. “What happened?”

  Baker kept moving back towards the camp. “I’m okay, it - it was stupid, I was taking a dump and when I got done I – I was coming back and my foot slipped and stuck my hand out onto a damned… petrified cactus. My gun went off on accident”

  Smith came running and sucked in a breath when he saw Ramirez’ hand. “Wow, that’s looks bad, come on get back over where I clean it up and take a better look at it”

  Greene was stood up onto of a rock about five or six feet tall that they had to walk by as they entered back into camp, he had the perfect position to look down on them and intensify his air of superiority.

  “What’ya do have trouble with your zipper? I always knew you were simple.”

  “Screw you.”

  Howard looked up at him “Greene, why don’t you shut your mouth?”

  “Why don’t you make me?”

  They locked eyes for a few seconds before Howard just shook his head and left, Greene chuckled to himself and looked down his nose at them.

  “Oh, wow that looks bad,” Tommy looked more wide eyed then Robert had ever seen him.

  “It’s nothing, I just slipped.”

  “It’s not nothing, this is pretty bad Mitch – you might need some stitches,” Jackson said wincing.

  “Tommy - why don’t you get started on some breakfast. How about it Doc, what do you think – Do we need to turn it around?”

  “What! No, I’ll be fine, we don’t need to go home for this!”

  “I’ll be the judge of that, thank you very much” said Smith shortly as he started to wash off the blood.

  “Well?”

  “Give me a second”

  “Ramirez, they probably don’t have the antenna working yet but why don’t you head up and see just in case? Let them know what happened and see what they say”

  “You got it”

  Greene sauntered over and found a smaller rock with a better vantage point that he could sit on and be smug.

  “He’s definitely going to need stitches and I don’t know about keeping it clean out here, if infection sets in I don’t have much that can fight it off. I think that we are close enough to home to just go back.”

  “No-No-No-No, damnit – NO!” he thought frantically for a way out of his mistake. “The bike! We don’t all have to go back on account of me… I’ll ride the bike back myself and the rest of you can just go on without me.”

  “You can’t ride the Bike with you hand like that man.” added Jackson wincing at the sight of the wound.

  “He’s right.” Howard said, thinking. “But maybe… Maybe someone can go back with you, the bike will hold two right?”

  Jackson nodded. “I’ll do it, I’ll go with him”

  “No, we need you to drive the Hummer now. If we do this someone else will have to go”

  “I’ll do it” Smith volunteered. “I can get him back there in a couple of hours probably, the bike moves a lot faster then that thing” he motioned over at the Hummer. “I’ll drop him off and hopefully Pennebaker will say I can come back out.”

  “But what about Medical?” Tommy interjected sounding concerned.

  “Greene is my second for medical, and as long as we don’t have another accident like this, he should be fine to cover for me for a day or two”

  “Or Howard, you could take him – I would gladly take over the leadership duties for a while” said Greene slyly.

  “I bet you would, but no I think that sounds like a plan Smith: you do it. Henry can you do the honors and get the bike down, do you need a hand?”

  “No, I’ve got it”

  Soon the smell of fried tempeh and grits filled the camp.

  When Ramirez came back down even though he hadn’t been able to raise a response Robert had him go back up and broadcast the plan in case they could hear back at the bunker and just couldn’t answer yet. That way at least they would know that they were coming and could be waiting to help.

  Everyone ate and they broke camp. Baker hadn’t eaten much, he was probably feeling guilty about jeopardizing the mission thought Robert. He would be okay, it was better to get him fixed up now then have him get worse later when they might not be able to get him home in time.

  The two of them headed back north on the little bike with Smith driving and Baker hanging on mostly one handed, the others waited and watched them go to make sure the doctor was going to be able to handle things. He did pretty well considering what little practice any of them had gotten riding it, after a little shaky start they starting moving quicker so they finished loading up the Hummer and headed south.

  “You know what we need? We need some music.” said Tommy from the front seat in his new position as navigator.

  “This was a military Humvee they didn’t come with music players.” Jackson replied quietly.

  “Okay, but we couldn’t have put something in? CD, Mp3? Something?”

  “This isn’t a joy-ride ‘Stains’.” Greene added sourly from the back.

  “Not with you here it isn’t” he whispered to himself before addressing the others. “So do you think Baker will be okay?”

  “Apart from still being retarded, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

  “I wasn’t talking to you.”

  “Yeah, hopefully he won’t have any nerve damage but he isn’t gonna loose any fingers or anything.” Robert glanced at his watch then leaned a little forward in his seat “Hey Henry I know we’re supposed to be going a little slow so Smith can catch back up but do you think we can go a little faster, we need to try and make it to Angeles Crest by nightfall.”

  “Sorry Rob”

  “Hey how about a sing-a-long!?”

  “’Stains’, I swear to god if you start to sing, I don’t care if I die too I will jam a grenade down your throat”

  “That’s enough – both of you”

  For the next few minutes they drove on in relative silence. The Hummer was the only thing seeming to generate any noise, the wheels, the engine. There were metallic squeaks and squeals, their gear rattled and chattered in the small amount of space it had to move.

  The same scenery passed by the window like it was one long picture that just looped around and around. The effect proved hypnotic and before long everyone but Jackso
n was asleep. He drove on alone in consciousness and after a while began to sing quietly under his breath… “I come home in the morning light, my mother says ‘When you gonna live your life right?’…”

  V

  “How are you doing back there?” Smith asked his passenger.

  There was just a groan from behind him in response.

  “You’re not getting motion sick are you? If you are just let me know and we can stop for a while.”

  Another groan.

  Using the compass mounted on the handlebars he was able to check their heading from time to time and make sure they were still on course, they had only been moving for about half an hour they had another hour if not two to go, if they got off course this early they would be totally lost. But they should be okay, every now and again he could also see broken scrub and tire marks from the Hummer so he knew they were still on the right track.

  “No one is gonna blame you for any of this, you know that right?”

  Silence.

  “I mean, it was an accident – could have happened to any one of us. You’re gonna be just fine”

  No response.

  He decided to stop talking, he had to raise his voice over the engine anyway and it seemed like Baker didn’t want to talk about it so why push it? They rode in silence for a while until he saw that they were coming up on sudden dip. He remembered it from being in the Hummer, they had hit it pretty fast to see just what exactly the all terrain vehicle could do and everyone except baker had hit their heads… Maybe it was time for a little payback.

  “Hey Baker; Hold on!”

  He throttled up and jumped the bike off of the lip. They didn’t come too far off of the ground but far enough, as they went up Smith leaned forward and it took him a second to realize that the reason he didn’t feel Baker behind him any more wasn’t just because his passenger hadn’t leaned with him it was because he wasn’t there… About the same time he realized this gravity reasserted itself and the bike touched down.