Eric Brown - Season of Rot

More explosions rippled through the convoy, lighting up the night like flares. Many of the cars and trucks were engulfed in flames.

Mike heard the bullet before it slapped against his skull. As Benji leaned over him and the darkness swooped down over his vision, Mike realized too late that he hadn’t been able to alert Warren and his team to the attack.

Michelle could see the fires raging where the convoy was supposed to be camped, red and orange flames leaping up into the darkness.

Warren slammed on the brakes and the jeep came to a screeching halt on the road.

“What the hell are you doing?” she screamed.

“We’re too late,” he said; he sounded hollow. He went to slam the gearshift into reverse, but Michelle bolted from her seat. Warren turned to Jenkins. “Why the hell didn’t you stop her?”

Jenkins didn’t answer. He was frozen as if in some kind of shock, his eyes transfixed on the carnage in the distance.

“Shit.” Warren jerked the gearshift into park, then swung his feet onto the asphalt and ran after Michelle.

She was tall and fast, made even faster by the adrenaline pumping through her veins, but Warren managed to grab her from behind and bring her to a halt. “Michelle, it’s over.”

“No!” She tried to shove Warren off of her. “My brother’s there—we have to help them!”

“Michelle—”

She elbowed him hard in the stomach. Any other man might have fallen from the blow, but Warren’s training took over; he spun her around and smashed his fist into her cheek.

Michelle toppled to the road. She got on her knees and looked up at Warren with a burning rage in her eyes. He didn’t have time to argue with her. They had to get out of the area before the rats from the convoy discovered they were there.

He kicked Michelle in the head, and she fell over, eyes rolling up to the whites. Then Warren picked her up and tossed her into the jeep’s passenger seat.

Jenkins was beginning to come around. “What… what are we going to do?” he asked.

“Survive.” Warren gunned the engine, and the wheels spun out as he doubled back the way they had come. “Mike!” he said into his radio. “Mike, if you’re out there, bring anyone you can to the second rally point. Mike!”

The radio remained silent.

“It’s like you said,” Jenkins reminded him. “We were too late. They’re all dead.”

Warren tossed the radio aside and focused on the road in front of him.

“Hey there, sis.” Benji smiled as Michelle opened her eyes. At first she thought she was dreaming, until she tried to sit up and a sharp pain stabbed through her head.

“Whoa.” Benji gently pushed her back down. “You had a pretty rough knock to the head.” He laughed. “I told you that Warren guy was a psycho. Maybe next time you’ll listen to me.”

Michelle looked around at her surroundings. She was lying on a makeshift pile of bedding stretched out on the dirt. The sun was high in the sky, and she could hear people talking in the distance.

“The convoy was burning.” Tears ran down her cheeks. “I… I thought you were dead.”

“I almost was,” Benji replied. “Less than twenty of us made it out of there alive.”

“Mike?” she asked.

“Mike’s fine. A bullet grazed his head, but he’s fine.”

Michelle squeezed Benji’s hand and smiled. He nodded and smiled back.

“Where are we?”

“About seventy miles closer to the base Mike’s been leading us to.” Benji shook his head. “We’re down to one overcrowded van, a pickup truck that’s nearly falling apart, and the tanker and jeeps you guys brought with you from Greensburg.”

“That doesn’t sound too hopeful.”

“Actually, in a kind of sad and sick way, Mike says we’re better off. We can move faster now and we’re a smaller target. Mike said the rats may even think they got us all and leave us alone if we’re lucky.”

“I doubt that.”

Benji gave her a funny look. “Warren said the exact same thing.”

“Where is that bastard?”

“He’s off with Mike. I think they’re discussing a faster route to the base since we don’t have as many people to worry about now. Mike talks like we might be able to reach the base in just over a day if we keep pushing straight when we roll out.” Benji paused, “A day, Michelle, can you believe it? A single day.”

“Good.” She tried to sound cheerful. “Then maybe I won’t have to eat your burnt oatmeal anymore.”

Benji shot her a playful injured look. “Just get some rest, okay? We’ll be moving soon.”

She promised she would, and he scurried off to where the others were. Michelle closed her eyes and tried to think of the future, but all she could see were the flames of the convoy burning in the night.

Hours later, the convoy ventured on toward the base. Michelle found herself riding shotgun next to Warren in one of the combat jeeps, with Benji in the seat behind them. She understood why Warren had knocked her out and she tried to forgive him for it. Benji wasn’t happy about sharing a jeep with the guy who had punched out his sister, and he wasn’t happy about being separated from Mike either, but he’d promised to stay with Michelle this time.

Their jeep was in the lead, followed by the pickup and the van, both crammed full of the remaining survivors. The tanker truck was next in line, with Daniel and Jenkins’s jeep bringing up the rear.

The scenery left much to be desired. Barren sand sprawled out around them on all sides.

“We’ll be there soon,” Benji tried to assure Michelle. She wondered if he was actually trying to convince himself.

“Has Mike told you what this base is?” Warren asked, taking them both off-guard.

“It’s a bomb shelter,” Benji answered. “Like the kind they took the President to when all this started happening.”

“No. No it’s not,” Warren said. “But you’re right, they did take the President to a place like what you’re talking about. Him, the other VIPs, and the men assigned to protect them all died horribly. The rats were waiting for them underground.”

“Warren, stop it. There’s no way you could know that,” Michelle said.

Warren ignored her. “Where we’re going isn’t a bomb shelter or some kind of bunker, though they did gut one and build the base inside of it. It’s a research facility, a state-of-the-art, self-contained place of nightmares. It’s one of the most sterile and impenetrable places on Earth. The base was designed to keep the government’s worst experiments contained should something go wrong, but I think it will keep the rats out as well… As long as it hasn’t been breached by someone else before we get there.”

“What were they working on in the base?” Benji asked, hating himself for believing Warren but realizing it was just the kind of place Mike would lead them to.

“Bio-weapons, viruses, new types of killer radiation—how the hell should I know? I doubt if Mike even knows for sure. Regardless, it will keep us alive and we’ll be a hell of a lot better off than we are outside.”

After that, the three of them rode on in silence. Benji leaned into his seat and stared up at the sky. He knew Mike had been some sort of high-ranking scientist before the world ended. Everything Warren had just told them made perfect sense, but what bothered Benji was how much Warren knew. Why hadn’t Mike told him more about the base if he’d shared this much with Warren? And was what Warren said about the President true? Warren didn’t come across as a guy who made shit up, so just who the hell was he? Benji promised himself to confront Mike about Warren when they were all safe.

He closed his eyes, tired of staring at the clouds and the sand, and dozed off to sleep.