Characters: Logan/Carter; Robert
POV: Logan
“Shit, Robert. They’re here.” He said aloud what he’d thought just moments before.
Robert echoed him. “Well, shit. Ok. Let me think for a minute.”
Logan waited quietly but his mind was a riot of thoughts. He didn’t want Carter to be home all night alone worrying. If he was gone too long he wouldn’t put it past Carter to come looking for him.
“How many were there?” Robert’s voice broke into his thoughts.
“I don’t know. Maybe five?”
Robert’s eyes bored into his. “Maybe five? You don’t know?”
Logan felt his face flush. “Look. I saw maybe five. I didn’t wait around to take roll call.”
“You need to learn how to observe your surroundings. Are you at least sure they’re dead? The people? They can’t be cured?”
“I don’t know,” Logan mumbled.
Robert growled, “Boy.”
“Look. I don’t know! I wasn’t on that team.” Logan ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “But from what came through the emails, the rats they tested it on were all dead. One email said it was like something had bounced around the body taking bites out of all the major organs. If that’s the same thing that is happening to people, then no. They can’t be cured. Hell, the brain damage alone would be irreversible.”
“Ok. Then here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re going to put the rest of these bags by the door, quietly step out and take a look.
We’ll find out how many there are. If there’s not many and we can get the bags in the truck and get out that’s what we’ll do.”
“What if they are waiting at the door? I’m pretty sure they heard me. On all the videos we’ve watched they seem to follow noise.”
Robert grinned. “We go out the back door. Always have an escape route planned out. When I built this, I made sure to have a second exit. Come on, follow me.”
Following Robert, Logan asked, “What do we do if there’s a lot out there? I really don’t want to spend the night here.”
“We shoot ‘em and run like hell to the truck.”
Logan took a deep breath and grabbed two of the duffel bags, leaving one for Robert. He hadn’t done a bad job shooting the target on the tree. But the tree wasn’t moving. And wasn’t a person. Steeling himself for what he knew he’d have to do, he followed the older man through a doorway.
Robert went to the north wall where a shelf stood with boxes of ammunition. “Come on. The door is at the back. You can’t see it until you are right in front of it.”
There was a small door at the very end of the shelf. It was more narrow than the main door. Carrying the bags up and not tripping was going to take skill, Logan thought to himself.
“Set the bags here. Now, listen close. It’s a tunnel that winds around to the back shed. If we’re quiet, they won’t hear us and we can get a good count. What we’ll do is stand back to back and slowly rotate. That way nothing can sneak up on us and we can get a good 360.”
Logan nodded. A ramp instead of stairs. Back to back with Robert. When they got home, he was going to have to write all this down. The old army man knew what to do and how to stay safe.
Logan followed Robert as the older man opened the door. The tunnel was dark but he could feel the steep rise as they wound their way through. He wanted to ask Robert why he hadn’t installed emergency lights but decided to wait until they were safe. He did not want his voice to announce their arrival to anyone or anything that happened to be outside.
“We’re here,” Robert whispered. “The door opens up on the backside of the shed. I’ll take a quick look and then signal you if it’s clear.”
Logan nodded and then winced when the door squeaked.
He could barely see the outline of Robert’s body. He stared hard at it afraid he’d miss the signal. He was glad he’d been watching so closely because he barely made out the “come on” wave.
Stepping out, Robert grabbed his arms, turned him around, and then pressed back to back against him. Slowly they side-stepped toward the truck. Quietly they rotated around. Logan saw some shadows but couldn’t tell if they were people. Then Robert whispered, “I see six at the door. Do you see any?”
Squinting hard, Logan was just able to make out a few of the shadows. A tall tree stump, a pile of bricks, no people-dead or otherwise. Logan whispered what he saw to Robert.
He felt the older man push against his back. He decided Robert was trying to steer them back to the door.
Once they were behind the shed again, Robert softly barked out his orders. “Go back through and bring up the bags. I’ll stay here and if any come close, I’ll put them down.”
Logan jogged down the tunnel thankful that he wouldn’t be put to the test. He wasn’t sure he could hit a moving target. It wasn’t concern about killing another person, they weren’t people anymore.
They were walking corpses. He just wasn't sure he could hit anything in the dark.
Back at the door of the bunker, Logan pulled the straps of one of the bags up to his shoulder and then took the remaining two in each hand. They were heavy. He wasn’t going to be able to jog up the tunnel. Walking as fast as he could he finally reached the outer door, huffing, and puffing. He dropped one of the bags and let the one on his shoulder slip down to his hand. The strap had cut into his shoulder it was so heavy.
Robert slipped by him and shut the door, making sure it was secure. Then he picked up the bag Logan had dropped. “Come on. They’re gone. Let’s get this loaded up and go. We’ll come back another time.”
“They’re gone? Where’d they go?” Logan tried to look around as they made their way to his truck. He tried to be quiet as he heaved the duffel bags into the bed of the truck, but they still made a loud clunking noise as they hit. Neither Logan or Robert waited to see if the noise would bring more visitors. They ran to the front of the truck and jumped in.
As soon as both men were safely in, Robert held out a small handgun with a strange metal tube on it. “I let them go in peace. By the way, you have to shoot them in the head.”
Great, Logan thought. He could barely hit a tree. Now he’d be expected to shoot someone in the head. Starting the truck, he looked at Robert. “When we get home, I want to write all this down. I’ve a feeling I’m going to need to do some studying. My master’s degree in biology didn’t prepare me for the apocalypse.”
"You and your guy are going to get a crash course in survival. Now let's get going."
Logan didn't need any more encouragement. He put the truck in gear and headed home.
TBC