AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) Page 6

  After the chaos started, Blake couldn’t see Stetson anymore. However, he was still on his mind. Blake wondered if he would have to keep his promise, but just the thought of it pained his heart.

  About thirty minutes later, all the soldiers in the compound were either on the ground in pain or unconscious.

  Blake knew from the briefing earlier that day what would come next, so he radioed his soldiers to be prepared. They had been told that once the infection started, it would be about an hour until the ABs would transform into the psychotic state.

  It wasn’t long before constant heavy gunfire could be heard all around the base. The chatter on the radio made Blake think that the ABs had started to rush the gates and were being mowed down by fifty-calibers on each gate.

  Blake noticed something strange happening in the compound of the ABs his group was guarding; instead of rushing the fence like was being reported around the other compounds, the ABs here were congregating towards the center. At the center of the mass a single soldier stood on a small stage made of tables. He was addressing the group that had assembled around him.

  Blake pulled out his pair of binoculars, in an attempt to see what was going on. To his horror, he saw his friend Stetson on the stage, his eyes entirely black. His eyes were opened wide, and the sides of his face seem to droop. Blake couldn’t help but think that his friend’s soul had left his body.

  Every couple of minutes, Blake would hear a call on the radio from someone asking for orders as the gunfire continued. Blake kept shouting out orders to his men not to open fire unless the ABs tried to escape.

  After what seemed like hours all the soldiers in the compound had crowded around Stetson. Blake remembered from the briefing that the earliest infected countries reported behavior of the ABs acting like an insect colony; each AB would exhibit a gathering-like behavior. Blake was seeing something similar here with his friend Stetson as their leader.

  As Blake nervously watched the gathering in the compound, a small group left the center and approached the gate at a slow pace. Blake and a couple of guards met them at the gate entrance.

  Each of the ABs with Stetson had piercing dark red eyes and contorted looks on their faces similar to that of wild animals ready to attack. Stetson, on the other hand, looked mostly like himself, except for his piercing black eyes, expression of arrogance, and long face.

  Both groups stared at each other for a moment before Blake broke the silence.

  “So Stetson, what’s going on?”

  “Blakkkke… what has happened here is a marvelous thing. We feel powerful and clear-minded with a single purpose. There is no ill will or hard feelings towards any of us that have changed. It is extraordinarily clear that we can develop a better world under a new order. There is only one problem that stands in our way,” Stetson replied in a slightly deeper voice full of clicks and stutters.

  “And what problem would that be?” Blake asked sarcastically.

  “It is you and your kind. But if you will let us go in peace, I give you my word that neither you nor your soldiers will be harmed. But if not, it will have to be war.”

  Blake’s jaw tightened. “You know that can’t happen.”

  “Then war it is.”

  Suddenly, Blake heard gunfire about fifty yards away. Two AB soldiers were trying to scale the side fence, and one of the guards on the outside perimeter opened fire on them.

  At the same instant, Stetson and his followers ran towards the center of the compound before they could be stopped.

  In seconds the infected mass in the compound started to run towards both gates.

  Nervous soldiers looked to Blake as if to ask, “Your orders, sir?”

  Blake breathed in deeply and gave the order over the radio. “Fire!”

  As the masses of infected soldiers charged, Blake and his soldiers in front of the gate opened fire. The bodies started to pile up, making it difficult for the infected to even get close to the gate before they were shot. Wave after wave of ABs charged forward as if they were being pushed by an unseen force.

  As the bodies started to pile, shouts were heard all around the compound and over the radio repeating the phrase, “Last clip.” As the bodies piled high enough that the top of the gate could be jumped over, the troops started to run out of ammunition. A few of the ABs climbed up the mass of bodies and jumped over the gate. All three of the infected were charging towards Blake and his men. His rifle went click as he ran out of ammo.

  “Shit,” Blake shouted out loud. As adrenaline rushed through his system, he quickly slung his rifle behind him and reached for his pistol. A soldier next to him had run out of ammo at the same time and was shaking as he clumsily tried to get his pistol out of his holster.

  Blake could tell that the first of the infected would be on the private before he could get his pistol out. Blake took a quick breath and fired off two quick shots at the infected attacker. The body fell at the feet of the young private.

  “Get your pistol out and get your head back into the game,” Blake shouted at him.

  Both soldiers now had their pistols leveled at the next two approaching infected.

  Blake and the private both hit their marks, and bodies fell to the ground.

  The blood from the dead piled up at the gate had made its way to Blake and his fellow soldiers holding the front gate. The sight and smell gave Blake an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

  Quickly, as the numbers making it over the fence grew, the fighting turned hand-to-hand. At first, the soldiers held the perimeter. But soon the sheer force of numbers pushed the soldiers back. “Everybody make your way to the front gate!” Blake yelled over the radio.

  Panicked soldiers yelled for help over the radio as they became cut off from the retreat.

  “Everyone, fall back to the west armory!” Blake yelled over the radio.

  Blake scanned the area to make sure all the soldiers still alive had retreated when he noticed Private Hernandez a short distance away. Her knife was drawn, and she had a terrified look on her face. She was pinned against the fence, trapped by two AB soldiers, and more were closing in. As the sweat ran down her face, she swung her knife with every ounce of strength she had left trying to keep them at bay.

  Blake instinctive ran towards her and within seconds he had reached the first AB. He shot his gun and instantly its head exploded in a wave of red. The other AB was temporarily distracted, which gave Hernandez enough time to sink her knife into its neck.

  Blake grabbed her hand and yelled, “Move it, soldier!”

  They only ran a few steps before ten AB soldiers blocked their way. Blake and Hernandez stopped and glanced at each other for support. Many of the ABs carried guns they had collected from the soldiers they had killed. Hernandez instinctively stepped behind Blake, and he heard a small whimper escape her mouth. Stetson stepped out from behind the line the ABs had formed.

  “Blake, Blake, Blake… look what this has come to. If you would have just taken my offer, think of how many lives could have been saved.”

  “We had our orders.”

  “So what are you going to do now? We have you surrounded.”

  Blake clutched the .45 in his hand a little tighter, hoping he still had a couple of rounds left. “I’m going to keep my promise to a friend,” he said as he glared at Stetson. Before the last word passed his lips he raised his pistol and shot his friend right between the eyes.

  Hernandez suddenly leapt out from behind Blake with her knife drawn. She let out a primal scream, and charged at the others. Blake stood there for a second; he had just killed his best friend. However, the second that he zoned out was enough time for Hernandez to move beyond from Blake’s reach.

  The ABs stared at Stetson’s lifeless body in shock, not knowing how to react after losing their leader. Hernandez shoved her knife into the closest AB’s chest. This brought the rest of the infected soldiers out of their daze, and she was brought down by a single infected soldier’s shot.

  By the time the
y looked back in Blake's direction, he was at a dead run. They opened fire, and their bullets whiz by as Blake zigzagged from side to side trying to be a harder target to hit. Several of the fleeing soldiers had formed a defensive position behind some trees and saw what had happened to Blake and Hernandez. As he approached the trees with the ABs in close pursuit, gunfire erupted in front of him. Instinctively, he dropped to the ground. The ABs pursuing him fell to the ground around him all around him as his soldiers hit their marks. Blake quickly realized that some of his men must have reached the armory, reloaded, and returned to the fight.

  After Blake reached the armory, he mentally made a head count. He realized that only half of his soldiers had made it back. Blake grabbed his radio with his hands, which were coated in sweat and blood. “Group one, do you copy?” The radio crackled for a moment, and a voice suddenly pierced through.

  “Yeah, we’re here! We’re at the fallback point.”

  “Make your way to the new command base,” Blake panted back. “Group two, you there?”

  “Yes sir. What’s left of us is heading out of the area.”

  “Group three, do you copy?” Blake asked. His stomach grew heavy as the fear for his soldiers threatened to drag him down. There was no answer. “Group one and two, do you have eyes on group three?”

  “Negative, sir,” two voices replied.

  “They must have been overrun…” Blake thought. He then radioed the new base that had been set up outside the perimeter of the camp. “Command, this is Captain Reynolds. In fifteen minutes have the Harriers start firebombing the entire compound. We have been completely overrun.”

  “That doesn’t give you much time to clear out,” the general replied.

  “I know, General. But if we aren’t out of here in fifteen minutes, it won’t matter; we’ll be dead.”

  “Godspeed.”

  Blake ordered the remaining soldiers to group together, except the people guarding the entrance. “Listen up. In fifteen minutes, this part of the base will be incinerated. I want you to load up all the supplies you can in the next five minutes. Then we will evacuate to the fallback area. Got it?”

  The soldiers nodded and rushed to load the supplies. As the supplies were loaded, the ABs continued to attack. But soon they were shrinking in numbers and were no longer armed since their ammunition had been expended in the early moments of the firefight.

  Within minutes, the soldiers were ready to move out. As they approached the gate, they only encountered light resistance and infrequent small arms fire. All the buildings had been rigged with explosives as a final measure, and as the last group of trucks passed the gate, Blake flipped the switch on the remote in his hand. In a thunderous roar, the entire base exploded and was engulfed in flames.

  As the group cleared the outer perimeter of the base, Blake could hear the familiar sound of the AV-8B Harrier jets approaching the base. Marine aircraft group 39 had been given its order to execute “Operation Scorched Earth.” Incendiaries were falling all over the base, and the surviving ABs were instantly incinerated. Within minutes, there was nothing left but a few small fires and smoldering bodies in what use to be the west side of Camp Pendleton.

  Day 4: Tara

  From the radio reports, the infection started to spread in her area about an hour ago. However, the streets seemed unusually quiet, especially for the middle of the day. Tara was rocking Kaya quietly in her mother’s old rocking chair. “Maybe the reports were blown out of proportion and nothing’s going to happen…” she thought. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she heard a piercing scream echo far down the street. A few minutes later, she heard a gunshot much closer.

  The gunshot woke Kaya, and she started to cry. Tara tried to comfort her, but it wasn’t working well. Tara walked into Kaya’s bedroom and set her on the floor next to her toy box. With the Smith and Wesson still clutched in her hand, she peeked out the window and tried to see what was going on outside.

  Tara couldn’t see any movement nearby, but at the end of the street she could see people being chased by some men.

  Within minutes she heard screams coming from next door. Tara’s eyes darted towards the window next to her neighbor’s house as the shouting grew louder. The pounding on her front door startled her.

  “Help me!” a woman screeched on the other side. Tara’s skin pricked at the yelling because she knew it was her neighbor, Sally. They had been friends ever since she had moved into the house.

  “Stay here,” she yelled at Kaya, trying to mask her fear. Tara ran to the front door and stared into the peephole. She was shocked to see Sally’s husband jump from behind her and bludgeon her in the back of her head with a baseball bat.

  Tara’s adrenaline started to flow through her veins, and she threw open the door. Without hesitation, she raised her pistol and pulled the trigger. A small hole opened in his chest and Sally’s husband fell to the ground. She quickly pulled Sally into her front room and relocked the door.

  “Oh no…” Tara whispered. Blood was rushing out of multiple head wounds, and Sally was hardly moving.

  “I’m afraid!” Sally said as she reached for Tara’s hand.

  “It will be OK. Just hold on.”

  Sally’s eyes closed, and her breaths slowed until they abruptly stopped. Tara checked for a pulse but realized there was none. She dropped to her knees, put her hand over her face, and quietly started to sob.

  Kaya slowly walked out of her room and wrapped her arms around Tara. “Mommy, what’s wrong with Sally? Is she OK?”

  Tara didn’t want Kaya to see her crying, so she quickly wiped away her tears. “Sally is really sick, and we need to put her in the spare bedroom to rest.”

  Tara grabbed Sally by her hands and dragged her into the bedroom. A bloody trail on the floor marked the grizzly path back to the door.

  “Don’t worry, Sweetie. Everything is going to be OK. But we will have to be extremely brave until Daddy comes and gets us.” Tara vowed to herself that Kaya would never see her cry again. She would do whatever it took to keep them both alive.

  Tara ushered Kaya to go back into her bedroom to play so she could wrap Sally up in a blanket and clean the blood on the floor. She then went to the window, peered out, and watched the carnage going on outside. After what seemed like hours, she heard the motor of a diesel truck and a voice on a loudspeaker coming from down the street. At first, the sound was extremely faint, so she couldn’t make out what they were saying. As it drove down the street, she noticed that occasionally a soldier in the back of the truck would fire at an infected person charging at the truck.

  As the truck neared her house, Tara’s heart started to beat quicker, and she ran to Kaya, picked her up, and ran outside to the edge of the street. She jumped up and down and waved her arms to get their attention. The truck slowed, and Tara started to plead with the soldiers. “Please can you take my daughter and me out of here?” Just as she finished speaking she noticed that the truck was full of civilians.

  The soldier pointed his rifle at her and glared at her sternly. “We don’t have any more room. There is an evacuation zone set up at the high school on the north end of town. You should make your way there. There is food, shelter, and better yet, a lot of guns.”

  Tara felt helpless as she watched the truck drive away down the street.

  With Kaya holding her hand, she sulked back into her house. After sending Kaya back to her room, Tara slid to the floor. She stared at the wall, unsure if her eyes could even produce any more tears. The high school was ten miles away. The last thing Blake had told her was to stay home and he would come get them. The soldiers had just cleaned out most of the ABs in the neighborhood, so Tara decided to wait in the house a while longer. She was praying that Blake would come home.

  Kaya quietly walked out of her room, sat by Tara, and grabbed her hand. “Mommy, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing is wrong, Pumpkin. We are going to wait here for a little while until Daddy comes home. Go back into your room
and play with your toys, OK?” Tara said with a weak smile.

  Once Kaya’s bedroom door closed, Tara pulled the blinds back and peeked out the window again. She noticed several neighbors loading up their cars, and most of them were carrying guns. Once loaded they all headed towards the high school.

  A couple of hours ticked by, and Tara kept a vigilant watch out the window. She had not seen any infected or uninfected in some time. Kaya was still in her bedroom, and Tara assumed she had fallen asleep.

  Tara sighed and sat down in the chair by the window. The sun was shining in through the opening in the blinds, and it felt warm and glorious on her skin. Her eyes slowly closed as she dreamed of the last time she and Blake had spent the day down at the beach.

  A young girl’s terrified scream jolted Tara out of her dream. Kaya bolted out of her room, yelling, “Mommy! What’s happening?”

  Tara peeked out the window and noticed several men and women leading two children down the road with ropes around their necks. As the group passed each house, a few would run in and then quickly return. Tara couldn’t help but wonder what they were searching for.

  They were all following a black-eyed man in a white suit. “Kaya, you need to go to your room and hide under your bed until I say you can come out,” Tara whispered sharply.

  “But Mom—”

  “No ‘buts’!” she snapped. “Do it and don’t make a sound.”

  Kaya’s eyes grew wide, and she rushed to her bedroom without another complaint. Tara immediately pressed up against the front door, grasping her gun tightly. Suddenly, a yellow-eyed man pressed his face onto the window to peer inside. Before she had time to react, she heard a loud crash in the kitchen. “They’re coming through the kitchen window!” she thought. Her panic disappeared as her military training forced her body to react.