The Dying of the Light (Book 1): End (38 page)

“How’d the new girl do? Forrest?”

“Yes, sir. She did very well, sir. We didn’t have any injuries on this go-round, so we didn’t get to see her treat anyone, but she was right there in the thick of it with the rest of Bravo Squad. She had a count of four with two assists, if I remember correctly, sir.”

Maxwell’s eyebrows rose. “Fired on six of ‘em, did she? Well, it appears you chose well, major.”

“Yes, sir. It appears so, sir.”

Maxwell sighed and motioned for Kim to sit as he took his own chair. “Unfortunately for us all, things aren’t going so well everywhere else. We’re getting more and more calls and we’re spread too thin. We got word from higher today,” he said, sliding a memo across his desk. As she took and read it, she began nodding. “Fifth through Tenth teams are now officially activated as of 0800 hours today. They didn’t have the training opportunities the rest of you did, so we’ll have to watch them a little closer. Especially since we lost Chauncey.”

Kim shuddered at her own memories of the ‘acclimatization training’ she’d undergone with the captive walker. “Have they been through everything else?”

Maxwell shook his head. “Pretty much just the basics. Briefing on the history, facts about the walkers, the same background material the first four teams got. Beyond that, they’re on their own. There’s just no time to train them adequately before getting them out there. We’re too short-handed now.”

“All we can do is try, sir,” Kim said, putting down the activation order just as the phone rang and, at the same time, there was a knock at the door.

Maxwell picked up the phone first. “Just a sec, Nancy,” he said into the receiver. “Enter!” he called to the door. Commander Anderson entered and sat down at Maxwell’s indication.

“Go ahead, Nancy,” Maxwell said to the phone. “Put him through, please.” Maxwell sat up straight in his chair, and Anderson and Barnes shared a glance.

“Higher?” she whispered. Anderson nodded and smiled. “What? What is it?” Anderson shook his head, putting a finger across his lips and pointing at the phone in Maxwell’s hand.

“Yes, sir. I see. And these notifications will start next week? Yes, sir. You too, sir.” Maxwell started to hang up, but the voice on the other end continued. “Sir? Yes, sir, he’s here. Yes, sir.” Maxwell punched the speakerphone button and placed the handset in its cradle, looking curiously at Anderson across the desk.

As though at the bottom of a well, the voice from what Kim could only assume was the Pentagon echoed in the smallish office. “Commander Anderson, this is General Morrison. Are you ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very well; you may give it to him now.” Anderson stood, saluted, and standing ramrod-straight, slid a small box across the desk to Maxwell. Barnes stood as well, standing at attention after a nod from Anderson. As he, too, stood, Maxwell opened the box. Kim could see the glint from two silver stars, and couldn’t help but smile.

“Colonel George Maxwell,” continued Morrison, “For conduct consistently and continuously exemplifying everything that the United States Army stands for over the course of more than twenty years, and for your commitment to the safety and prosperity of this nation and her people, I hereby announce your promotion to the grade of Brigadier General.” Commander Anderson moved around the desk, taking the box from the general and pinning the stars to the lapels on Maxwell’s uniform. “Congratulations, George. I would have rather done it in person, but you understand.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Maxwell managed to choke out a second later, his face pink.

“Now take me off speaker.”

“Yes, sir.” Maxwell picked up the phone. “Yes, sir. No sir. Will do, sir. Thank you, sir. You too, sir.” He hung up the phone and turned to Anderson, demanding, “How long have you known, Frank?”

Anderson was grinning ear-to-ear as he took his seat. “Oh, about a week, ever since I got your stars in the post. Nancy knew, since the paperwork came to her, of course. But Morrison wanted it to be a surprise, so he ordered me not to mention it, sir.”

Maxwell chuckled. “I bet. He’s like that.” He took his seat and allowed himself to bask for just a moment in the unexpected good news, sharing a pleased-as-punch grin with his old friends.

Soon enough, however, Maxwell took a deep breath and shook it off. “As nice as this is, folks, it doesn’t change anything. We’re still short-handed and things are just going to get worse from here.” He handed Anderson a small packet of papers. “Frank, I want you to share this with the rest of the team leaders, but since Kim’s here already…”

He stood and walked to the window. “It’s starting next week. Notification letters are going out — hand-delivered, no less — to those scientists and specialists who have been pre-selected to go into the AEGIS bunkers. It details the situation, what’s really going on, that is, and what we’re doing to survive.”

“Why so early, sir?” asked Kim.

“We’re giving them the chance to say no, major,” Anderson replied as he glanced over the paperwork.

“Is that a good idea, sir?”

“What else can we do, Kim?” said Maxwell. “Lock them up if they don’t agree to go along with us? I’m ashamed to say that the idea was considered, but some of us still remember the stories of our fathers about the Japanese internment camps during WWII. We’re not going to make the same mistake again.”

“What if they go public with what they know, then?’

“Then we discredit them. As loudly and as publicly as possible. Make up wild stories so even their own husbands and wives won’t believe them.”

Kim nodded. “I suppose that could work. Still, if enough of them banded together…”

Maxwell turned and looked at her, his face as grim as she’d ever seen it. “We can’t allow a mass panic before we officially release the news, Kim. The president has authorized Gardner and his people, and, by extension, us, to use whatever means are necessary to ensure public order until that time. And we all know what that means.”

Kim was dumbstruck. “But… but that’s
monstrous
! Killing our own people? Who the hell does he think he is to authorize something like that? What gives him the right?”

Maxwell raised an eyebrow at her. “
We
gave him the right, Kim, when we elected him. It’s a national security matter, clear and present danger, that sort of thing.”

Getting a hold on herself, Kim took some deep breaths. “Yes, sir. I see your point, sir. Permission to speak freely, sir?”

Maxwell glanced at Anderson, standing behind Barnes, who shrugged.

“Go ahead, major.”

“This fucking sucks, sir. And I have to say, I will refuse any order that requires me to fire on unarmed, non-infected civilians, except in self-defense.” Kim was caught by surprise again as Maxwell smiled, winked at her, then pointed to the ceiling and cupped his ear.
His office is bugged,
thought Kim.
Holy shit.

“Major, in future, I’d watch your tone, even when ‘speaking freely.’” Maxwell admonished, still smiling. “You will follow all orders as they are given, or I will have you arrested. Do you understand me, soldier?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Then you are dismissed, major.” Catching her eye, he tapped his watch slowly with three fingers. She looked confused for a second and then nodded.

“Yes, sir,” she said, exiting the office. Maxwell looked over at Anderson, who nodded and smiled, then followed Barnes out the door. As the door shut behind them, Maxwell turned back to the window.

There’s no going back now
, he thought.
Let’s hope she’s still the little girl from Arizona that I met all those years ago.

little girl from Arizona that I met all those years ago.

Chapter Nineteen

On her way out of the barracks moments later, Kim was surprised to see Anderson just outside the exit door. “Ready to go, major?” he asked.

 She nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Get in,” he said, indicating the waiting Humvee. As she took the shotgun seat, Anderson walked around to the driver. “Helipad 4, private.”

“Yes, sir.”

Anderson watched the Humvee as it headed off, spraying snow and muck.
I hope George knows what he’s doing
, he thought.

As they neared Helipad 4, Kim saw a Blackhawk warming up, the rotors turning slow. It wasn’t until she climbed aboard that she saw Maxwell inside at the controls. He indicated for her to take the co-pilot seat.

“Sir, I’m not checked out on this aircraft.”

“Don’t worry about it, major. I’ve had well over a thousand hours in these birds. We’ll be fine.”

Kim buckled on the extra helmet and settled the seat’s straps around her, snugging them good and tight. She took a deep breath. “Yes, sir. Ready when you are.”

Maxwell got clearance from the tower and they took off, headed west. As they flew out over foothills, the day turned to evening; the sunset was gorgeous. It looked like Maxwell was also enjoying it, and she realized just how few sunsets she might be seeing for a while.
Better make the most of it
, she thought.

Maxwell lowered the helicopter until they touched down in a small meadow, and motioned for her to get out. They stepped away from the chopper and Barnes noticed that he carried a folder in his hand.

“Long way to come for a briefing, sir,” she said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“This ain’t your typical mission brief, major. And we can’t exactly talk in my office, or in most of the base, for that matter. Take a seat,” he said, motioning to a nearby rock formation, and sitting down as well.

“Major… Kim… the full extent of what I’m about to tell you is known only to two people other than you and me: Commander Anderson and the president. There are others who know some of it, but the whole enchilada is just between us. Is that understood?”

Kim nodded. “Understood, sir.”

“Good,” he said, and handed her the file. He watched her as she opened it and paged through the information inside. Her expression darkened with every page, until he could see that she was shaking with rage. “Damn Gardner. Damn him straight to hell.”

“Calm down, major.”

Kim looked back up at him, and Maxwell recoiled, if only a bit.
I’ve never seen her this pissed off
, he thought.
And it’s only going to get worse.
He held her gaze until she sat back and took another deep breath and calmed down, at least somewhat.

“There’s something you haven’t seen yet, Kimberly.”

“Is it worse than that smug, self-centered, arrogant and idiotic bastard actually selling zombies to the North Koreans? Or deliberately experimenting on our own people?”

“Yes.”

She snorted, and he continued. “Maybe not for the world, but for you, yes. There is worse.”

She sobered, then glanced down. “Do I want to keep going?”

“As your father,” he said, “I don’t want you to. But I know you, and I know you couldn’t live with yourself if you didn’t know it all. I just want you to know before you go down this particular rabbit hole that I’m here for you, and so is Mary. And Johnny.”

Kim nodded. “That means a lot.”

“Good.”

As she continued to read the file, Maxwell could see she was getting upset again, and then suddenly she stopped as she reached what he knew would either send her over the edge or galvanize her into action. He hoped it was the latter, but you could never tell.

It was a full-size 8x10 glossy image of a brightly-lit cell, with a small prisoner standing in one corner. There was no bed, no toilet, nothing other than four blank walls and some chains leading to the diminutive figure’s wrists and ankles from rings bolted into the wall.

Kim looked up at Maxwell, and the tears in her eyes shone with the reflected sunset’s light. “How could he? Is he even human?”

“We just got this a couple days ago. That’s why you’re hearing about this now.”

“You know this… this is what broke David, right? All the other stuff he could handle, but this…” She reached out a hand as though to stroke the hair of the small boy pictured on the page. “Oh, Eric. Oh, God.” Dropping the folder on the ground, Kim staggered off, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off not the cold mountain air, but the chill from inside. Maxwell started to follow, and then stood where he was when Kim stopped a few yards away and fell to her knees.

She has to win this fight on her own,
he thought.
I can’t help her with this.

He was never sure how long they stood there like that, his adopted daughter in pain and suffering while he could do nothing but watch. Eventually, Kim stood up and wiped her eyes, then came back over and helped Maxwell collect the remnants of the file.

“His experiments were what caused that lab tech that Chauncey got hold of to turn so quickly, weren’t they?”

Maxwell nodded. “That’s what we believe. He and his people have modified a sample from Eric to attempt to make a version of the disease that makes walkers faster. We believe the idea was to use them as biological weapons. Chauncey was one of their first experiments.”

“What does Eric have to do with that, though?”

“We believe that because of the hormones in children’s bodies, especially as they approach puberty, the prion acts differently on their systems. Rather than causing them to deteriorate and slowly putrefy, it appears to stimulate muscle growth and adrenaline reflexes, making them much faster.”