from Greensburg.”
“That doesn’t sound too hopeful.”
“Actually, in a kind of sad and sick way, Mike says we’re better off. We can move faster now and we’re a smaller target. Mike said the rats may even think they got us all and leave us alone if we’re lucky.”
“I doubt that.”
Benji gave her a funny look. “Warren said the exact same thing.”
“Where is that bastard?”
“He’s off with Mike. I think they’re discussing a faster route to the base since we don’t have as many people to worry about now. Mike talks like we might be able to reach the base in just over a day if we keep pushing straight when we roll out.” Benji paused, “A day, Michelle, can you believe it? A single day.”
“Good.” She tried to sound cheerful. “Then maybe I won’t have to eat your burnt oatmeal anymore.”
Benji shot her a playful injured look. “Just get some rest, okay? We’ll be moving soon.”
She promised she would, and he scurried off to where the others were. Michelle closed her eyes and tried to think of the future, but all she could see were the flames of the convoy burning in the night.
Hours later, the convoy ventured on toward the base. Michelle found herself riding shotgun next to Warren in one of the combat jeeps, with Benji in the seat behind them. She understood why Warren had knocked her out and she tried to forgive him for it. Benji wasn’t happy about sharing a jeep with the guy who had punched out his sister, and he wasn’t happy about being separated from Mike either, but he’d promised to stay with Michelle this time.
Their jeep was in the lead, followed by the pickup and the van, both crammed full of the remaining survivors. The tanker truck was next in line, with Daniel and Jenkins’s jeep bringing up the rear.
The scenery left much to be desired. Barren sand sprawled out around them on all sides.
“We’ll be there soon,” Benji tried to assure Michelle. She wondered if he was actually trying to convince himself.
“Has Mike told you what this base is?” Warren asked, taking them both off-guard.
“It’s a bomb shelter,” Benji answered. “Like the kind they took the President to when all this started happening.”
“No. No it’s not,” Warren said. “But you’re right, they did take the President to a place like what you’re talking about. Him, the other VIPs, and the men assigned to protect them all died horribly. The rats were waiting for them underground.”
“Warren, stop it. There’s no way you could know that,” Michelle said.
Warren ignored her. “Where we’re going isn’t a bomb shelter or some kind of bunker, though they did gut one and build the base inside of it. It’s a research facility, a state-of-the-art, self-contained place of nightmares. It’s one of the most sterile and impenetrable places on Earth. The base was designed to keep the government’s worst experiments contained should something go wrong, but I think it will keep the rats out as well… As long as it hasn’t been breached by someone else before we get there.”
“What were they working on in the base?” Benji asked, hating himself for believing Warren but realizing it was just the kind of place Mike would lead them to.
“Bio-weapons, viruses, new types of killer radiation—how the hell should I know? I doubt if Mike even knows for sure. Regardless, it will keep us alive and we’ll be a hell of a lot better off than we are outside.”
After that, the three of them rode on in silence. Benji leaned into his seat and stared up at the sky. He knew Mike had been some sort of high-ranking scientist before the world ended. Everything Warren had just told them made perfect sense, but what bothered Benji was how much Warren knew. Why hadn’t Mike told him more about the base if he’d shared this much with Warren? And was what Warren said about the President true? Warren didn’t come across as a guy who made shit up, so just who the hell was he? Benji promised himself to confront Mike about Warren when they were all safe.
He closed his eyes, tired of staring at the clouds and the sand, and dozed off to sleep.
The small chain of vehicles came to a stop outside the massive steel fence encircling the base.
The group got out of their vehicles like expectant kids on Christmas morning and gathered at the gate, filled with new hope and relief to have finally arrived. A sign hung on the fence, proclaiming that this place was government property and off-limits to the public. It warned civilians to stay away and also boasted that intruders would be shot, but Mike explained that it was just a ruse to help keep the base secret.
“The gate’s locked. That’s a good sign,” Warren said to Mike. “But how do we open it?”
“Just shoot the lock off. The defenses up top don’t really matter. It’s what’s under the sand that’s going to keep us alive.” Mike could see Warren’s military mind unwilling to sacrifice something as small in the grand scheme of things as a locked gate, so he added, “We can use one of the cars to brace it or maybe find a way to chain it back ourselves if we need to.”
Warren called for Daniel to bring him his weapon and used the high-powered rifle to destroy the lock. A cheer rose from the survivors of the convoy and people rushed through the gate as it swung open.
“Wait!” Warren screamed, but no one listened.
Mike put a hand on his shoulder. “Let them have this moment. I doubt there’s any need to worry until we actually get inside the complex proper. If there was still a military presence here, we’d already be dead or under fire. We’ll take it slower then. I promise.”
Warren reluctantly agreed, but moved the lever of the rifle to load another round into the chamber.
Three
Mike sipped at his cup of coffee, savoring the flavor as he flipped through the stack of paperwork on his desk. He and the others had been living in the base for a week and it still seemed like a dream. They were as safe as they could be in a world gone to hell. They had food, running water, electricity—he even had a damn office again.
There was so much to do ahead of them. They had yet to finish a full inventory of the base’s massive stockpiles, and they hadn’t even begun to explore the research that had been conducted there before the rats came. Maybe there was something they could use as a weapon against the creatures. Anything seemed possible.
The first things they had done after moving in were simply the basics: getting the place as operational as they could, assigning everyone living quarters, and setting up a watch shift for the base’s security room; they had also assigned a team to make contact with other survivors via the base’s communications array.
Everyone was happy and finding a way to contribute—everyone except Warren. The man had become withdrawn now that he had accomplished his mission. He was a soldier by blood, and damn good at his job too, but it appeared that after he’d gotten everyone to the base, his job was at an end, at least for the foreseeable future; while Mike hated to think that the man felt useless, he had to confess he was thankful they had no reason for his protection.
The base also had an armory, so he’d assigned Warren the task of inventorying the weaponry and devising the best plan to defend the base, should the rats breach the compound. He knew Warren took the task seriously, but he also understood it wasn’t what Warren was really trained to do.
Someone knocked on the door to his office. Mike placed his coffee beside the paperwork on his desk as Benji let himself in. Mike instantly saw the mischievous look on Benji’s face and knew that his plans of working through the morning were pretty much shot to hell. He smiled as the younger man entered and shut the door behind him.
A classic Beach Boys tune echoed in the hallway as Brent sped along on a skateboard. He let out a scream of pure joy as he reached the hall’s end and jumped into the air, pulling off a Tony Hawk-style stunt. He landed and, keeping his momentum, turned to head back the way he’d come.
He nearly lost his balance and barely managed to stop when he saw Warren standing in his path. He grabbed up the board and snapped to attention. “Sir,” he bellowed over the Beach Boys.
“Music’s a bit loud, isn’t it, Private?”
