What if one of those things was out there, on the other side of this door!
She took a deep breath and shook her head. The truth was that they did have a couple of incidents with zombies inside of the fences of the safe zone. But the response was quick and efficient every time. She wrapped her fingers around the cold handle and turned it.
It was already light outside. Mid-morning, she guessed. There was still a bit of a chill hanging in the air. It was October, after all. Tammy shivered. She briefly considered grabbing a jacket but changed her mind and walked out when the sounds of a revving vehicle reached her ears.
She briskly walked down the row of steel huts. Yeah, they’re huts, she decided. Much better than the tents that had been erected for most of the other refugees. Her title of news anchor and role as media afforded her a bit of special status, so her crew and her had enjoyed the shelter of a steel building instead of a canvas tent.
Still shivering from the cold, Tammy hugged herself and rubbed her upper arms to get her circulation going, as she walked. She didn’t have far to travel, as the location of her hut was close to the barracks and the front gate. A minute later she could see the gate and a bus.
As she approached, she realized that the bus was inside of the safe zone fence. A few days ago, there were so many busses involved with the evacuations, that they would stage them in the big parking lot across the street. A combination of less people to pick up, less resources available to perform the extractions, and the security issues with all the undead roaming around outside the fence, had resulted in a couple of busses being parked inside the safe zone instead.
It also looked like only one bus would be operating today, with no Humvee support. Tammy could see that the Humvees were all still parked off to the side.
Don’t we even have enough soldiers left to provide an escort? ... Do we have enough to keep this camp safe? Tammy couldn’t help wondering.
She looked around the area. The gate itself was guarded by four soldiers, and she could see two more in the guard tower directly next to the gate. Tammy had counted about a hundred soldiers yesterday and guessed that there were probably half that many soldiers left in the camp today.
Those numbers seemed to be cut in half every day. Just four days ago there were at least a thousand.
A couple of gunshots sounded in quick succession. The soldiers at the fence were trying to clear the gate. Tammy knew that the soldiers had been busy in trying to keep the zombies away from the gate and the fences over the last couple of days. The fences were strong, but not built to withstand the force of thousands. She shuddered at the thought of thousands of zombies pressing in, slowly but inexorably bringing down the fences in their quest to attack the living.
Tammy shook herself out of her reverie and headed directly to the bus. Several soldiers were standing near the entrance to the vehicle. Two of them seemed to be going over a map.
Figuring out the route for today’s evacuations?
A skinny young soldier spotted Tammy first. He quickly stood up straight. Tammy had that effect on men. The young man stepped to intercept Tammy as she drew near.
“I’m ready for my exclusive interview!” He announced with a big grin. Tammy looked at the man quizzically, not sure how to respond.
“Keep it in your pants, Collins.” One of the other soldiers said.
Tammy smiled at Collins. “Maybe next time.” She said and deftly stepped around the soldier.
Three soldiers were putting the map away as Tammy walked up to them. Tammy immediately noticed that one of the men bore himself with authority.
That must be the leader. She guessed. Besides, he’s got more stripes on his sleeve.
The other two were a Hispanic soldier and a shorter female soldier.
“Hi.” She said as she walked up to the leader. She swept her hair behind her shoulder and presented her most winning smile. “I’m Tammy Jensen–”
“Of the Channel Eight News Team.” The soldier finished for her.
“Um, yeah. And you are?”
“Peters.” Tammy waited for him to say more, but he merely regarded her with a blank stare.
“Um, can I ask you a couple of questions before you depart?”
Peters nodded. “We are Oscar Mike in two minutes.”
“Oscar Mike?”
Peters seemed frustrated. “acronym. Stands for On the Move”
“Huh. 'oscar mike’ doesn’t sound any shorter than ‘on the move’...”
“Did you have an actual question?”
“Oh, yes. Sorry.” She flashed a shy smile at the soldier. He remained unmoved.
“It appears you will not have an escort. Does that mean things are getting safer out there? Are there less people to rescue? Or is there a shortage of resources?”
“Shortage of resources.” The man replied, showing no emotion. At least he was forthright, not like some of the other officials at the camp had been over the last few days.
“Does that mean that there are still lots of people out there waiting to be evacuated?”
“I do not know.”
“Ok.” Tammy decided to try a different tact. “Are the rest of the soldiers being pulled back to other strategic– “
“I do not know. Talk to a senior officer. If you can find one.”
Tammy’s face dropped slightly at the curt responses. Why is this guy being such a dick?
Peters noticed and frowned. “Look, I need to focus on getting through this mission with my team.” He hesitated, clearly uncomfortable. Then started over.
“Look... Tammy.” She looked up. “We don’t really know what’s going on. We’re just following orders. I would prefer to have an escort. The truth is, that things are not safer out there.” He stopped abruptly as if worried he had said too much.
A rueful smile crossed Tammy’s face. With a
