Eric Brown: Season of Rot

“I don’t see how that’s a problem,” Benji chimed in. “Have you read Warren’s report on the armory? We could just blast our way out if it came to that.”

Mike and Darren looked at him as if he were an idiot.

“Benji, do you really think they’d build this place to where someone down here could get out if something went wrong inside of it?”

“Darren’s right,” Mike agreed. “I doubt a point-blank nuke could rupture this structure. If it goes into lockdown, we’re finished… but at least it won’t be the rats that get us.”

“You got that right,” Warren said, making them all jump as he appeared in the doorway.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Mike asked.

“Not much to do around here, in case you hadn’t noticed. Besides, I had something I wanted to ask you. But if you’re busy, I can come back.”

“No. No, not really. We’re still just trying to figure things out in here. What was it you wanted to ask?”

“Just something I’ve been wondering about since we got here and found the main outer doors open. I can’t believe no else has asked it yet.”

“Well?” Mike prompted.

“Where the hell is everyone, Mike? You don’t build something like this and leave it unmanned. I don’t care if the F-ing world is falling into Hell; even if people were called out and some abandoned their duties to try to reach their families, someone would have stayed. Shit, Mike, we haven’t found a single corpse.”

Mike stared at Warren as the soldier’s words sank in. “My God… You’re right. How in the hell have we been so stupid? There should have been a skeleton crew at least to keep the base operational. This place is too much for the government to just write off.” Mike whirled on Darren. “We need the security systems online now! We have to know if we’re alone, or if there are others in the base with us.”

“Be my guest,” Darren said, getting up and offering his tools to Mike.

“Shit!” Mike plopped into Darren’s seat and ripped open a panel on the console. Darren moved out of his way. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Mike snapped at him. “Get back here and help me!”

Benji glanced at Warren and caught what appeared to be a quick smile pass over the man’s rough features. “I’ll get us some coffee,” Warren said and turned to leave the room.

As Warren left, Benji found the nerve to speak up again. “But wouldn’t we have seen anyone by now if they were here?”

“This base is huge, Benji,” Mike answered without looking up from his work. “And they’d know it better than we do. For all we know, they could be holed up in a safe room somewhere, biding their time.”

“Biding their time for what?”

“A chance to take back the base,” Mike said.

Warren returned minutes later with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. He took a sip as he watched Darren and Mike fighting with the base’s systems. They’d long since given up any fix short of manually bypassing the security protocols.

“Damn it!” Mike shouted. “This is taking too long!”

“Uhh… Mike,” Warren said, trying to get his attention. He didn’t look up. “Mike.”

“What?”

“There’s no army hidden in the base to try to kill us,” Warren said calmly.

Mike almost ignored Warren and went to throw himself back into his work, but he caught a glint of humor on Warren’s face. He stopped and glared at him. “How can you know that?” he asked carefully.

“The armory,” Warren informed him. “When Brent and I were cataloging it, we noticed a few things missing from what should have been there. Two rifles, a handful of pistols, some ammo. Just a bit here and there. The other inventory reports you had for the meeting showed similar things, just a bit missing here and there. The way I see it, there were likely one or two people living in this place when got here—maybe three if someone was injured. They likely saw us coming but for some reason couldn’t close the main doors in time, so they grabbed what they could, locked down the labs, and tucked themselves away when they realized there were too many of us for them to fight. Right now, I bet they’re tucked away, scared shitless, waiting on us to leave.”

“You knew there was someone else here this whole time and you’re just now telling me a week later?”

“No, I suspected. When I overheard about the problems you were having with the security systems, that confirmed it for me. You’ve been able to get the ones outside working just fine, but the internal ones… That’s because they shut them down hard to protect themselves. It’s what I would’ve done in their place. Though if these people were anything like me, most of us would be dead, picked off one or two at a time to even the odds, which makes me think these people, whoever they are, aren’t looking for a fight. They’ve had their chance to strike first and they let it slip by.”

“So you’re saying we shouldn’t be worried?” Darren asked.

“No, I didn’t say that. We need to find them. We need to let them know we’re not a threat before they get so desperate they do something stupid.”

“I’ve got it!” Mike shouted. The security console came to life. Not just a random screen here and there but the whole board of monitors, showing eight of the interior rooms, including the one they were in. They could now cycle through the cameras and, in theory, see most of the base, but more importantly the bio-scanners were online too.

Darren double-checked Mike’s work. The last thing they needed was for the system to short out or blow.

Mike clicked on the bio-scanner screen and a two-dimensional map of the base appeared. Little green dots spotted the map, most of them moving.

“Those dots represent everyone alive in the complex. See how there are four dots here?” Mike pointed at the room they were in. “That’s us. So five of you came back from the fuel run and eighteen of us escaped the attack on the convoy, so how many dots do we have?”

“Twenty-four,” Warren answered. “One person too many.”

“But how do we know which dot isn’t one of us?” Darren asked.

“Normally, I would say we couldn’t,” Mike said, “but luck has made it easy for us.” He pointed at the screen again. “He or she is camped out in the number-four lab. We haven’t been able to get into the high-security labs yet, so there’s no way that’s one of us.”

“I think it’s time we paid them a visit,” Warren said, ready to get down to business.

“Hold on,” Mike urged. “We may have gotten these systems online, but we still can’t open those doors. I don’t think going down there and banging on them is a good idea for any of us.”

“So what do we do, Mike?” Warren asked, clearly annoyed. “Station a guard by them twenty-four seven and wait for whoever it is to get desperate enough to come out on their own?”

“Actually, I was just thinking we’d use the base’s intercom. We can talk to whoever it is in there without putting any of our people at risk.”

Warren thought it over and nodded. “Agreed. But I’m still going down there, just in case whoever’s in there gets spooked and comes out, guns blazing.”

“Take Brent and Michelle with you. No sense in taking unneeded chances; besides, Michelle’s a hell of a lot more diplomatic than you are.”

Warren scowled. “Give me ten minutes to round them up and get in position.” With that said, he stormed out of the room.

“Damn,” Darren commented. “That man is ready to kick some ass.”

“He’s always ready,” Mike said. “I’m just glad it’s not ours.”

Kyle stirred on his makeshift bed. His dreams had not been pleasant, hadn’t been since the darkness came. Hell, they never had been pleasant, he admitted to himself. He wasn’t the kind of person who had nice dreams.