Rotter World (25 page)

Chapter Forty-two

Thompson made his way from the mess hall to Compton’s office at an unusually slow pace. His hesitation derived not so much from his concussion and aching muscles, but because he needed time to contemplate. Even more so than the bumps and bruises to his body, his entire psyche had been dealt a resounding blow, one strong enough to change his way of thinking.

For his entire military career, which spanned almost thirty years, he had sworn to defend the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. He had done so without hesitation, whether those enemies sat across from him on the Fulda Gap or the DMZ on the Korean Peninsula, roamed the streets of Mogadishu or Sarajevo, or hid out in the mountains of Afghanistan or in the Iraqi desert. Even after the outbreak of the virus, his enemies were clearly defined — the revenants and the vampires who had unleashed this horror on mankind. In those instances when he had to kill the enemy, he had been able to do so by dehumanizing them, mentally distancing them from their humanity by derisively viewing them as commies, gooks, or ragheads. Because they were not among the living, dehumanizing the revenants or bloodsuckers had been easy. Until now.

Upon first arriving at Fort McClary, he had been as taken aback as the doctor by the presence of vampires on the compound. He didn’t trust the bloodsuckers. Nor did he have much confidence in the humans for blindly putting their faith in them, feeling that Paul and the others had allowed the zombie apocalypse to cloud their better judgment and bring the enemy into their fold. It was why he went along with Compton when the doctor said that if Paul could not be entrusted to ensure the safety of what was left of the nation, then it was up to the two of them to do so. Yet the more time he spent with Robson’s team the more he came to realize that somehow this bizarre alliance worked. Despite there being only a handful of vampires left in the world, Elena had willingly banished one of her own to certain death to maintain the détente between the living and the undead. And rather than retaliate, which would have been the natural instinct, the vampires constantly put their lives on the line to protect the humans. Sultanic had become infected trying to save Whitehouse. And Tibor had risked being turned by revenants in order to rescue him from the armored car, despite his open hostility toward the vampires. Deep down Thompson knew that if the roles had been reversed, he would not have done the same.

The world had changed immeasurably in the past eight months. More importantly, so had his way of thinking.

Though the realization had been slow in coming, Thompson now knew that Compton was wrong to try and eliminate the vampires. The two of them had come up with a plan to dispose of them shortly after arriving at camp. Until today, he had every intention of carrying it out. Now his conscience could no longer allow it. He had to convince Compton to abandon the scheme, which would not be as easy as it sounded. Whenever the doctor got something stuck in his head, he pursued it with a single-minded determination. He still viewed the situation in black and white, refusing to see the shades of gray that had developed. Thompson had finally seen the truth, although to do so he nearly had to forfeit his life. If he talked to Compton, explained to him that the situation was not as clear cut as he himself had seen it only a few days ago, maybe he could convince the doctor to stand down. No one would argue that mankind had experienced almost total genocide thanks to the vampires. Yet that did not alter the fact that what Compton intended was no different. Whether it was four vampires or four billion humans, genocide was still genocide, and he would have no part in it.

Hopefully, he could convince Compton to see things the same way.

Thompson carefully planned out what he wanted to say, walking around the lab building several times until he felt confident he had chosen the correct words. Once he had rehearsed his speech a dozen times, the colonel entered the building and headed for the main laboratory. As expected, he found Compton hard at work on the computer, burning his notes onto CD-ROMs. Summoning his courage, Thompson opened the door and stepped inside.

Compton was so engrossed in his work he did not hear him enter. The colonel knocked on the open door. “May I come in?”

Compton glanced over his shoulder briefly before turning back to the computer. “Please.”

Thompson closed the door behind him and crossed the lab until he stood behind the doctor. “How much more do you have to do?”

“Not much. The last batch of vaccines is incubating now. In the meantime, I’ve been transferring my files to four CD-ROMs and two thumb drives. You and I can each carry a thumb drive, and I’ll give the CD-ROMs to Robson and his people. That should give us enough back-up copies to make sure at least one of them gets to Omaha.” Compton looked up at Thompson. A look of concern shone on his face. He spun his chair around to face the colonel. “How are you feeling?”

“Better than yesterday.”

“Are you still in pain?”

“A little, but nothing the drugs can’t manage. Why? Don’t I look well?”

“You look well enough. You just seem distracted.”

“I am. But not by the pain.” Thompson took a deep breath to steady his nerves. He pulled out a chair from the adjacent work station, turned it to face Compton, and sat down. “I wanted to talk about your plans for the vampires.”

Compton looked out of the corner of his eye to the security camera. The tiny red light glowed, signifying it was not transmitting. He leaned closer to the colonel and lowered his voice. “Everything’s set. Once we inoculate Robson and the others, then we’ll take care of the vampires.”

“That’s what I want to talk to you about. I think we should reconsider.”

“You have a better plan?”

Thompson shook his head. “I don’t think Dravko’s people deserve to die.”

“Dravko’s people.” Compton spoke the words slowly, emphasizing each one. He leaned back in his chair and studied Thompson, his brow crinkling with disapproval. “You’re beginning to sound like Paul and the others.”

“Maybe they’re right.”

“Do you honestly believe that?”

Thompson paused for a moment to consider his response. “Yes, I do.”

Compton broke eye contact and pushed his chair back to his work station. “I’m beginning to think the concussion is affecting your judgment.”

“My judgment’s fine.”

“Really? You’re starting to exhibit the same affectation for those creatures as Robson and the others.”

Thompson stood and crossed over to the doctor. “I realize that this sounds strange, especially coming from me, but I’ve watched the way the vampires have interacted with the rest of the group. They seemed to have integrated themselves until they think and act like humans.”

“But they’re not human,” Compton shot back in a low but stern voice. “Wild animals can be trained to live with humans, but they’re still wild animals and usually turn on their masters. You’d do well to remember that it was the vampires who released this hell onto mankind in the first place.”

“I know that. And they suffered for it just as much as we did.”

Compton turned to face Thompson. “And because of that I’m supposed to forgive them? Let’s hug and make up, and hope they don’t bite us in the neck while we’re embracing?”

“Yes.”

Snorting in disgust, Compton returned to his work. “You should go back to bed and rest. I need to finish up.”

“You need to listen to me,” Thompson said forcefully, growing impatient. “Like it or not, the vampires are an integral part of Robson’s group. And we need Robson if we ever hope to get the vaccine back to Omaha, mass produce it, and start taking the world back from the revenants. If you go ahead with your plan behind Robson’s back, we’re screwed. We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t take the vaccine and abandon us here.”

Compton sat back in his chair, focusing his eyes on the wall as he contemplated what the colonel had said. Thompson did not say anything, desperately hoping that he had made a connection with his friend.

After several seconds, Compton spun his chair to the colonel, his normal pleasantness having returned. “You’re right. Not only about needing Robson, but also about the necessity for being honest with him. We owe him that much.”

Thompson felt every nerve in his body relax. He had psyched himself up to anticipate the worst, although he was not sure how he would have dealt with that situation. Fortunately, Compton saw reason.

“Thank you, sir.”

“You’re the one who deserves my gratitude. I never would have made it this far without you.” Compton looked at his watch. “It’s getting late. You should get your rest. You’re going to need it for the ride back.”

Thompson stood up and pushed his chair back to its work station. “What about you?”

“I want to finish the back-up files of my notes before I go to bed.”

“As long as you take your own advice about getting some rest. Good night.”

“Good night.” Compton waited until Thompson reached the door before calling out. “And colonel, thanks again for looking out for me.”

“That’s what you pay me for, sir.”

Exiting the lab, Thompson headed back to his room, suddenly feeling emotionally and physically drained.

Chapter Forty-three

Dravko and Tatyana had spent the past few hours loading up the school bus, the Ryder, and the two Humvees with all the supplies they had discovered in the facility. They would be more than adequately stocked for the run back to camp. They had tapped into the facility’s fuel storage tanks and not only topped off the remaining fifty-five-gallon drums, but also filled more than a dozen jerry cans found at the motor pool. In addition to the eight M-16s left in the Humvees, Daytona had discovered an arms locker off the main security room that contained another twenty M-16s, five shotguns, ten Glock 23 semi-automatics, a .357 Magnum, thousands of rounds of ammunition, plus two dozen each of smoke and concussion grenades, all presumably for crowd control. All the weapons were divided up amongst the convoy, except for the Magnum which Robson had commandeered for his own use. The remainder of the stash included surgical equipment and medical supplies, two biohazard suits, three portable generators, crates of engine oil, containers of bottled water, and as many boxes of MREs as they could fit onto the vehicles. Jennifer had even found in the infirmary twenty pints of whole blood that Robson confiscated and surreptitiously passed to Dravko.

Packing the vehicles had been time consuming. They had to make sure not only that everything was divided in such a way that the loss of one or two vehicles would not mean the loss of any one group of items, but they also had to make certain there was enough room for the group to travel comfortably. The Ryder housed the three generators and the bulk of the supplies, while the two Humvees fit what few things could be stored in the cargo area. When it came to the school bus, every other row of seats was packed as tightly as possible and the contents tied down.

“That ought to do it.” Dravko finished securing the last of the supplies on the school bus. He stood up, stretching the muscles in his arms. “Where did Tibor run off to?”

“I sent him off to the fire and rescue station to see what he could find,” answered Tatyana.

“That was over an hour ago.”

“You want me to go check on him?”

“No. I’m sure he’s okay. But we could have used his help.”

As if on cue, Tibor emerged from between the lab and dorm buildings pushing a cart filled with gear. He wore a huge smile, which wrinkled the scar across his face in an awkward manner. Since Tibor rarely smiled, Dravko reasoned he must have stumbled upon something good. He and Tatyana stepped off the bus to greet him.

“What did you find?”

“There wasn’t much there that we could take with us. Mostly axes and some heavy duty crowbars we could use as weapons, if need be. But take a look at this.”

Tibor beamed as he removed what looked like a silver blanket and unfolded it. When he spread it out in front of him, Dravko saw that it measured eight feet square.

“What is it?”

“An asbestos blanket. I found ten of them amongst the rescue supplies.”

Tatyana looked puzzled. “What are they used for?”

“You throw them on somebody who’s on fire to douse the flames.”

Now it was Dravko’s turn to be puzzled. “You plan on spontaneously combusting on the ride home?”

Tibor’s smile morphed into a frown. “They’re heavy and impervious to fire, which means they’re also impervious to sunlight. I figure we put three on the bus, three on the truck, and two with each Humvee. That way, if we get trapped on any of the vehicles at sunrise, we can protect ourselves.”

As a demonstration, Tibor bent over and whipped the blanket over his shoulders. It covered him completely.

Dravko nodded his approval. “Good idea.”

Tibor stood up straight and refolded the blanket. “I’ll put them into the vehicles. How much more do we have to load up?”

“We’re done.”

“Oh. Sorry.” The tone in Tibor’s voice, though, indicated he didn’t regret missing most of the hard work.

At that moment, the blast door opened. The three vampires braced themselves, not sure what was on the other side. They were very relieved when Robson and Thompson entered. The colonel closed the door behind them.

“I didn’t know you went outside,” said Dravko.

“We wanted to check on the radio antennae to see if we could get a message to Omaha.”

“Any luck?”

“No,” said Thompson. “Looks like a bolt of lightning struck it. Everything’s fried.”

“Can you fix it?”

Thompson shook his head. “Not without an engineering squad. No big deal, though. The radio’s still intact. I’ll remove it from the communications room and take it with us. We should be able to reach Omaha with it once we’re back in Maine.”

“Do it in the morning,” said Robson looking at his watch. “It’s getting late and we need to get some rest.”

“No arguments here.” Thompson offered a friendly salute and strolled off.

Robson turned to Dravko. “You almost done?”

“Pretty much. We just have a few more things to pack up and then we’re good.”

“Looks like I’m not needed here. Call me if anything happens.” Robson headed off to the dorm building.

Once both humans were out of earshot, Tibor leaned closer to Dravko. “It looks like the colonel is taking a liking to us.”

“Maybe. But I still don’t trust him or the doctor.”