Autumn in the Dark Meadows (The Autumn Series) (25 page)

We walked down the runway, and I was surprised at how untouched it looked.  It was as if The Plague hadn’t really happened here, like everyone had just simply vanished.  There were absolutely no signs of looters, and despite the layer of dust covering everything, it looked like another day as usual for the base.

Rows and rows of F16’s stood like soldiers at attention on a ramp connecting to the main runway, and I was reminded Area 51 wasn’t as benign as it looked.  We were in a place of war.  A small fleet of Humvees were parked just off the tarmac in rows behind the jets, like a line of dominos.  Everything here was entirely uniform.

“I was a little worried this might be some secret hiding place for government officials who knew about The Plague ahead of time,” Daniel mused as we entered the largest airplane hangar I’d ever seen in my life.  “You know, some kind of big government cover up and conspiracy theory?”

 “I doubt the government was in on The Crimson Fever,” said Grey.  “But, it’s an entertaining idea.”

“You never wondered if there’s a pocket of people in some foreign country who went untouched?” Daniel asked.  “Or maybe, it was some massive chemical weapon that was released all over the place, leaving just a certain section of the globe unharmed?  With communications like they are, we’d never know about it.  Not for years.”

“I’ve thought about it, but it seems unlikely,” Grey said.  “The global infrastructure is fragile.  Most countries’ economies depend on world trade.  It wouldn’t make sense to wipe out all of your buyers.”

Daniel shrugged.  “Still makes you wonder.”

I thought about what Daniel said.  He was on track with his idea that The Crimson Fever was spread intentionally.  But what he didn’t know was that there were more nefarious people out there, willing to decimate an entire planet’s population, and they were possibly linked to Grey.  The thought gave me chills.

“Over there,” I said, pointing to a row of short buildings built into the side of a small hill.  From the air, they’d be completely undetectable, like just another rise in the terrain.  Several signs perched on a fence in front of the structures that read, “Restricted – Authorized Personnel Only.”  Cameras sat atop the tall fences in front of the building, pointing down at the gated entrance further protected by a guard shack.

“That looks right to me,” Grey said.  He took the lead heading to the fence.  But as we got closer, he froze and gestured for us to do the same.

“What?”  I asked.  He didn’t answer at first, but stared at the fence.

“That camera moved.”  Grey nodded toward the one on the left.  A small red light glowed on it.

“You think there’s someone in there?”  I asked.

“Could be.  Or they’re on motion sensors.  Either way, we should be cautious.”  Grey took a tentative step forward, but the camera didn’t move this time.  He took another, and this time, the camera tracked him.

“I don’t like this,” Daniel said.

Grey stood frozen in his place and grimaced.  I knew what he was thinking without asking.  I didn’t want to leave without some kind of weapons to take back either.  If we did leave now, we’d have wasted our time, when every second to prepare for the battle against The Front mattered.

“No one move.  I want to test something.”  Grey removed his sweater and balled it up.  Then, in one swift motion, he tossed it at least ten feet to his left.  The camera buzzed to the left, following the motion of his sweater as it unfolded and billowed out on its way to the ground.  The camera’s eye stayed on the sweater, now splayed out in the dirt.

“Motion activated,” Daniel said, catching on.  “No one intelligent on the other side.”

“Looks like,” Grey said as he went to retrieve the sweater.  “Come on, I think we’ll be all right.”

When we got to the guard shack, we peeked through the dirty window in the door.  Just inside, a desk sat with papers stacked neatly on its surface.  Another desk with several blank monitors was toward the back of the room.  This had to be where the guards would watch the video feeds from the security cameras.  No sign of life.

“Stand back,” Daniel said, drawing back his elbow to smash the glass.

“Hang on!” Grey said suddenly, holding up a hand to stop him.  He tried the doorknob.  It was unlocked and the door swung open, squeaking loudly.  Daniel chuckled in embarrassment.

“Wouldn’t want to try stitching you up here,” Grey said.  “Not without some kind of alcohol.”  He stepped into the doorway and looked around.

“True,” Daniel said, then gave a sideways smile, “I can’t tell you how much I’d give for some quality alcohol right now, and for The Front to be just a memory.  If we make it out of this alive, I’m going to find a way for us to have an ice cold beer.”

Grey gestured to himself.  “Too young to drink, remember?”

Daniel shook his head.  “I keep forgetting you’re so young.  In a very weird way, you remind me of my dad.”

I pressed my lips together to fight the smile that threatened my face.  Composed as always, Grey showed no reaction and experimentally pushed a red button on the desk.  A loud buzz made me jump, and the fence dividing us from the camouflaged buildings unlatched automatically and swung open.  I watched Grey as we made our way toward the gate.  His face gave away nothing.  I, of course, knew he was old enough to drink, but it didn’t seem like something The University would allow.

We reached the main building, and Grey pushed open the large, sterile door.  It looked completely out of place among the rugged hills.  A rush of cool air washed over me.  It felt like walking into a shopping mall on a hot day.

“Oh, my God, air conditioning,” Daniel breathed, pausing in the doorway behind me and closing his eyes.  “That feels so good.”

I went further into the building and was surprised to see a simple interior, with a small reception desk containing a computer and a lamp.  A closed steel door stood adjacent to it, with a keypad just to the left.

“Jeez.  Go through all the trouble of building such an elaborate secret bunker, you’d think they’d spruce it up a bit,” I said.  “What now?”

Daniel examined the metal door and tried pulling it.  Nothing happened.  He pressed a few buttons on the keypad and was greeted with a loud buzz, and a display on the keypad blinked, “Entry Denied.”  Grey and I inspected the desk behind reception.  Nothing useful.

“What code did you try?” I asked.

“1947.  The year the Roswell cover-up happened.  It was a long shot.”

I smiled at him and began wondering if he believed in UFOs.

“Anyone know anything about electronics, or government code breaking?” Grey asked, eyeing the stubborn keypad that refused to grant us entry.

“Maybe we should look somewhere else?” I suggested.

“It’s unlikely we’ll find any under less protection than this.  Any munitions would be stored under guarded key.  That’s not the kind of thing you want people having easy access to,” Grey said.  “Let’s give this door a few more tries.  If we get past it, I have a feeling we’ll find what we’re looking for.”

“Okay then.”  Daniel poked in a few more numbers and got the same response as before.  Then, after another try, the keypad buzzed loudly again and the digital display read, “Entry Sealed.  Quarantine Procedures in Place.”  A heavy clank made us turn around.  It sounded like it came from the door we’d entered through.

I went to the door and pulled hard on it.  Nothing.  It was sealed tight.  I turned around to look at the guys, my eyebrows raised.

“Oh, hell,” Daniel hissed.  “Guess we only get so many tries on this thing.”

“Calm down.  I’m sure there is a solution to this.  We just need to maintain a level head.  We’ll figure it out,” Grey said.  I knew what he was thinking.  There was no way for him to ever truly be trapped anywhere, with his special ability.  But he’d have to reveal his true nature to Daniel if we had to resort to astral projection.

“Well, there might be one other option,” Daniel said, scratching his head.  “Why don’t you guys stand back?”

Grey took my hand and pulled me back several steps.  Daniel reached behind his back and pulled a small revolver from his waistband.  Before I could say anything, he lowered the pistol to the keypad and shot off a round into it.  The noise from the gun echoed in the nearly empty room, and I slapped my hands to my ears, waiting for the ringing to stop.

“Where did you get that?!” I yelled.

“Keep it in my flight bag.  Most pilots have one when flying small aircraft, just in case you go down and have to fend off wild animals and such.  Never thought I’d need to use it, though.”

“Did it work?” asked Grey, approaching the door.

Daniel grabbed the door handle and pulled.  The door opened, and he turned to waggle his eyebrows at us in a small boast.

“We’ll figure out the other door on our way out.  Come on, let’s go.”  Daniel waved me in, and I was surprised to see a small room with a bank of elevators.  They all had one button next to them with an arrow pointing down.

We entered the middle elevator, and I was shocked to find not one or two underground levels, but twenty.

“I can’t believe how far down this goes!” I said in awe.

“I can.  Bet they got buildings like this all over.  There’s definitely some in the Black Hills,” Daniel said with complete sincerity.

Grey and I exchanged a look of bemusement at Daniel’s conspiracy theories.

“Okay, what floor?”  I asked.

“Let’s start with the lowest and work our way up,” Grey said, as he pressed the button next to the number twenty.

The elevator moved swiftly down through the earth, a noticeable chill seeping in the lower we went.  When the doors opened, a large, wide-open space with a very high ceiling greeted us.  It contained numerous work stations gathered around a massive arrow-shaped airplane.  It was shiny, like a polished nickel, and incredibly flat.

“Whoa!” Daniel said.  “Think that’s from Roswell?” he asked, his mouth gaping open as we went for a closer look.

Grey touched the rivets along the seams of the plane and shook his head.  “These are man-made.  And look, there’s no cockpit.  I bet this is a drone.”

“A drone?” I asked.

“Unmanned craft,” answered Daniel.  “The operators stay safe and tucked away on a base somewhere while these bad boys fly the dangerous surveillance missions.  Coolest thing I ever saw in my life.”

Both Daniel and Grey circled the aircraft once, inspecting every inch.

“Guys, I don’t see any storage lockers around here.  We need to keep moving.  Come on,” I said, pulling them both back to the elevator.

I pushed the button for the next floor, and we went up.  The doors opened to reveal a much less impressive sight than before, a hallway.

We walked past several offices and turned a corner.  Then I saw a room with a keypad beside its door.

“Over here!” I called.

“Let’s try it,” Grey said.  Daniel moved forward and instead of trying to guess the code again, used the butt of his gun smash at the door handle.

Finally, the handle gave way with a gratifying clang, followed by a clunk as it hit the floor.  Daniel smiled and pushed the door open, revealing a large room full of metal cabinets.  Rows and rows of large guns hung on the walls.

I followed behind Daniel as he passed through the doorway.  A tower of plastic cases in front of us tipped suddenly and crashed to the floor, shattering the silence of the subterranean room and revealing a man with a gun.  I hardly had time to react before a shot rang out.

Daniel stepped back suddenly, slamming into me.  I fell to the floor with him on top of me.  I lay there, the wind knocked out of me and unable to move, my eyes frozen, staring at the red blood splattered across the wall.

Another shot split the air above us, and a divot pitted the doorframe above me.

Grey lunged forward into the hallway and smashed the glass front of a cabinet containing a fire extinguisher.

“Get him out of here!” he said, stepping over me and Daniel.  He aimed the nozzle into the room and shot a massive spray of fire retardant, then rushed into the white fog, holding the extinguisher like a battering ram.

Another pop of gunfire went off, and I strained to push Daniel off me.  He wasn’t moving, and I couldn’t see his face, but I assumed he was very hurt.

I heard a thud and a groan of pain, but I couldn’t see Grey or the unknown attacker through the dense fog of retardant.

“Grey?!” I yelled, as another loud thump came from inside the room, along with the sound of someone gasping.

I pulled at Daniel again, this time with more success.  I managed to wiggle out from under him and dragged him out of the room and halfway down the hall, where the air was less saturated with white mist.  There I saw his injury for the first time.  Dark red blood streaked the floor, trailing behind him as I’d pulled him along, and was now pooling on his stomach and dripping over his sides onto the cold white floor.

“Daniel?” I whispered, praying he wasn’t dead.  He didn’t move.  “Daniel!”  I said louder, shaking him.  A soft groan came from his lips, and his eyelids fluttered.  He was alive.

The training Grey gave me at the Egyptian clinic quickly came back, and I pressed both of my hands firmly against the gunshot wound in his stomach.  I knew I needed to slow the bleeding until Grey could stop it.

“Stay with me.  We need you,” I said.  “Connie needs you.”  This time there was no response from Daniel.  “Grey!  Hurry!” I yelled.

I looked back down at my bloodstained hands and didn’t recognize them for a horrifying moment.  This couldn’t be happening.  We hadn’t even gotten a chance to join the real battle yet.

Seconds later, two figures emerged from the dissipating mist.  The man in front was in his thirties.  He had a cut lip and a swollen cheek bulging out from under a mane of unwashed, messy hair and a scraggly long beard.  He was sobbing like a child.  Grey followed behind him, motioning to him with a gun in his hand and looking angry.

“Stand over there and don’t move,” he said, motioning toward a corner of the hallway.  It was strange to see Grey holding a gun.  He took one of my bloody hands from Daniel’s wound and put the gun in it.  It was heavy and slippery in my fingers.

“If he moves, shoot him,” Grey said, seriously.  My mouth dropped slightly open.  I’d never held a gun before, let alone shot one.  Grey moved my gun hand so it pointed at the strange man, who was now crouched, cowering in the hallway with his hands over his head.  He looked terrified.  His knees actually shook with fear.

“I’ve got this.  Move back,” Grey said, taking my place over Daniel.  I stepped back, arms stretched out, holding the gun.  It all felt wrong.  I wasn’t supposed to be doing this, and Daniel wasn’t supposed to be on the floor, dying.

“Are there any first aid kits around here?”  Grey asked the man.  He was still sobbing.  “Hey!” Grey yelled.  “Are there any first aid kits?!”

The man’s face shot up, his eyes wide as saucers.  He nodded his head nervously and spoke in a broken voice.

“Yeah.  In the storage room,” he said.

“Autumn, can you take him to the storage room?”

I nodded.

“Hurry.”

I took a step toward the scruffy man and motioned with the gun for him to get up.  He slid up the wall, eyes on the gun in my hand, and turned to go down the hall.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your friend,” he whispered through his sniffling.  “I swear.”

“What’d you think would happen when you shot at us?” I said quietly.  He lowered his head.

“I thought you were going to kill me.  I’m so sorry; I was scared.  I never wanted to hurt anyone,” he said, as he opened a door, revealing a large supply room.  I realized his voice sounded much younger than I’d originally taken him for.  I thought now he must be in his mid-twenties.

“Why would we do that?”  I asked.  “We don’t even know you.”

“To take my supplies.  My food.  The little bit of water I have left.  I don’t know.”  His head sagged.  “I’m so, so sorry.  Please believe me.”  He started weeping again.  Something in his tone made my heart ache.

“You could have asked us why we were here instead of just shooting.  We were only looking for supplies to protect our town.  You could have come back with us,” I said, frustrated, and then adjusted my tone.  “Just get the med kit.”  He went to a shelf and began rummaging through its contents.

“You would have taken me?” he asked.  He looked up at me with eyes that spoke of sheer desperation.  “I was just trying to protect myself.  I swear.  Please don’t leave me here.”  He began fumbling through an open box.

“How long have you been here?”  I asked.

“Since Janet took them all away a year ago.  Maybe longer.  I tried to keep track of time.”  He turned around, several med kits stacked in his arms.  “What month is it?”

“April.”

His hopeful look fell.  “Oh, I thought it was February.”

“Who’s Janet?”

“Not who, what.  It’s the call sign on the plane that brings all the workers into and out of the base.  One day, people started getting sick.  They thought it was some kind of chemical weapons leak or contamination or something, so they started evacuating the base on JANET and never came back.”

“Why didn’t you evacuate with them?” I asked, motioning toward the door.  He walked in front of me, carrying the med kits.

“I wanted to leave.  I really did, but... things got complicated.”

“Complicated how?”

“Well, I was a custodial worker in this building.  And there was an incident that morning, before the first evacuation.  It wasn’t my fault, but it looked bad.  My boss, when he started getting sick, he fell and busted his head.  Blood was everywhere.”

“Why would that look bad?”

“He found out that morning that I lied on my admission paperwork.  I said I’d never been arrested.  But, honestly, it was a mistake.  I got into trouble once when I was a kid.  It wasn’t all that bad, really.  But I was a juvenile, and they expunged my record years ago.  I didn’t think it counted since it got taken off.  My boss found out about it during a random background check and thought I lied.  You can’t be allowed to work here if you have a record.  We got into a fight.”

“Was it bad?”

“Well, we yelled a lot.”  He spoke in such a resigned voice that it was hard to hear him, but at least he wasn’t crying anymore.  “It never got violent or anything.  I really needed this job, and I swore up and down it was an accident.  He was going to have me escorted off the base and everything.  I knew it was all over.  I was upset.  So I threatened him.  Lots of people saw it.  I didn’t really mean it.  I was just upset.  Then the sirens went off, and everyone forgot about me.  I was packing my stuff when I saw my boss again.  He didn’t look good.  That’s when he fell.  I tried to help him, but it was too late.  When one of the other guys came in, they saw me on the floor with him.  There was so much blood.”

“So you ran.”

“Yeah.  I ran and hid.  I should have just told them then, but I was so scared.  By the time I came out of hiding, everyone was gone.  I thought they’d come back for me, but they never did.  When the news reports about The Plague stopped running, I thought I was the only person left in the world, and I was too afraid of getting sick to try and leave.”

The last part of his story reminded me of my first month in The Water Tower, but I didn’t have time to sympathize with him.  Daniel was hurt, and Hoover was in danger.

We made it down the hall, and the man handed the med kits to Grey, who was already at work.  He sorted through them and opened one to find gauze and bandages.

“Can I help?” the man asked.  Grey shook his head quickly.  Daniel looked whiter than when I left to go search for the medical kit.  The man started weeping again.  “I wish I could take it back,” he cried.

I lowered the gun to my side.  “What’s your name?” I asked.

“Robert.  What’s yours?” he asked.

“I’m Autumn.  This is Grey and Daniel.”

Robert inclined his head in a nice to meet you kind of way that seemed out of place given our circumstances.

“Is he going to make it?” I asked Grey.

“I don’t know.  He’s lost a lot of blood,” he said as he finished pinning a tight wrap around Daniel’s waist.  “His pulse is pretty weak.”

“I’m so—” Robert began again, but Grey cut him off.

“We know.  Please stop apologizing and do something useful.”

Robert clamped his lips shut and chewed them, then ventured to speak again.  “Like what?”

“First, we need to arrange another form of transport out of here.  Our pilot is incapacitated.”  Grey motioned to Daniel.  “And second, we need weapons.  Lots of them.”

“Well, you’re in the right place for weapons.  We keep them in the room I was hiding in.”  Robert moved forward like he was going to bring them out.

“Wait.  Just tell me where,” Grey said, mistrustfully.  “No offense, or anything, but I don’t want you going anywhere near them.”

Another tear appeared in the corner of Robert’s eye.  He was a mess.  I wondered if having spent the year alone messed with his head, or if he’d always been such a basket case.

“The cabinets on the right are full of guns and ammunition.  It’s where I got that one,” he said and pointed to the gun I was holding.  “And then on the left is another set of cabinets with some nastier stuff.”

“Like what?” Grey calmly asked.

“Like explosives and stuff.  I really don’t know how those work.”

“I’m sure we can figure them out.  Now, we’ll need to find a way off the base.  Some sort of transportation.”

“Well, we got tanks.”

I nearly laughed.

“I suppose you know how to drive one of those, then?” Grey asked.  Robert shook his head.

“We’ll call that plan B.  What else?” Grey prodded further.

“What about the Humvees we saw on our way in?” I asked.

“We got lots of those.  Should all have some gas in them.  If not, the base has plenty we can use.  All they’d need is a quick charge on the batteries, and I know where we can do that.”

Grey nodded.  “That’ll work.  We’ll be able to get a lot more supplies in two Humvees than a tank.”

“What about the door to this building?  Remember?  It sealed us in,” I reminded Grey.

“I can open that,” Robert spoke up, with a weak smile.  I know most of the codes in this building.”

Grey wouldn’t let Robert touch anything while we carried armloads of various weaponry from the armory to the Humvees to begin loading.  Instead, Robert just followed us back and forth, begging to be allowed to help, pleading with us to take him along, and sobbing about how sorry he was.  It was annoying after the second trip, and by the third, I ignored Grey’s cautions and loaded Robert down with boxes of bullets.

When we were fully loaded, Grey and Robert carefully moved Daniel into the back seat of my Humvee.  I’d offered to take Robert with me, keeping our doctor within reach of Daniel, in case something happened in transit, but Grey was relentless in this.

“I don’t trust him alone with you,” he said quietly, out of Robert’s earshot.  “Odds are he’s telling the truth, but just in case, I want him where I can see him.  You’re taking the lead in front so I can keep an eye on you.”  Grey pulled out a map.  “Now you’re sure you understand how to get there?”  I nodded.  Grey had explained it twice already.

“What about the fences?”  Robert said, appearing to look over Grey’s shoulder at the map he held.  “They’re electrified.  And there’s several sets of them.”

“Ram them,” Grey said.  “Hard as you can.  You’re in an armored car.  They won’t stand a chance.”

“What about the part about them being electrified?” I asked.

“Your tires are rubber.  They’ll ground you.  Just run straight through them and head to the road.  Don’t stop for anything.  Understand?  Anything.”

Grey handed me a two-way radio with a grim face.  “I’ll be right behind you.  Use this if you need me.”  He turned it on, showing me how it worked.  “Robert scavenged these from inside for us.”

He walked me to the driver side door of my Humvee and opened it for me.  Before I could climb inside, he bent and kissed my forehead.  We stared at each other briefly, then I turned and hoisted myself into the massive armored car, and Grey shut the door after me and hopped into his own Humvee.  I cranked the engine.  The roar of the motor set my heart beating faster.  I’d only driven my parents’ BMW and Mercedes, and it’d felt nothing like this.

I blew out a deep breath and dropped the vehicle into gear.  When I put my foot on the accelerator, it roared to life, jumping almost out from under me.  I slammed on the brake, jolting both Daniel and me forward.

My next attempt was more successful.  It was awkward the way the wheel bounced around under my hands, with the Humvee still heading straight.  I think my father would have called it “loose steering.”  I didn’t like it.  I was used to the kind of German engineering where the car reacted to the slightest touch.

The radio bleeped, and I heard Grey’s voice coming in, “You okay in there?” he asked.  I wasn’t thrilled with having to take a hand off the gigantic steering wheel to answer, but did it anyway.

“I’m good.”

“Head for the runway.  When you get there, start speeding up until you hit max speed.  I want us hitting the fences at full force, so we don’t get stuck.  I’ll pull up beside you, and we’ll hit them at the same time.  Okay?”

“’Kay,” was all I could manage to get back before dropping the radio next to me.  I was terrified about slamming into a fence, no matter what kind of vehicle I was driving.

I found the taxiway leading to the runway that headed south and saw Daniel’s Cessna off in the distance.  I hated leaving it here, but it was useless without a pilot.  Maybe we’d be able to come back for it one day.

I turned onto the runway and waited for Grey to pull up beside me, then sank the accelerator pedal to the floor.  Our Humvees lunged forward together and began to speed up with massive twin roars.  The wheel continued to wobble loosely, and my stomach tightened.  The fences stood just past the end of the runway.  They were at least nine feet tall and topped with spirals of barbed wire.