Twenty-One

“No, Mya.  You will not go in there alone.”  Drav reached up and gently smoothed back some of my escaping hair.

“Drav, humans with guns will shoot at you if you go with me.  What if you get shot again?”

“Then I will remove the head from the one who shot me.”

Yeah, that’s what I figured he’d do.

“You’re a giant pain in my butt, you know that?”

He tilted his head, a look of concern pulling at his features, and I rolled my eyes.

“No, you are not literally causing me pain, you’re just annoying me.”  I sighed.  “I don’t want to see you hurt.”

“Then you understand why I can’t leave you yet.”

I shook my head at him.  He was making this hard on both of us.

“Please, Drav.”

“I would do anything for you, but not this.  I’ll leave you when you find your family.  Not before.”

I knew arguing would be useless and would only draw unwanted attention from humans and infected alike.  So, I sighed and threaded my fingers through his.

“Will you at least hang back a little and let me go first?”

“No.  We go together.”

I glanced at the main gate again.  My frustration built.  As much as I wanted to see a living human to know that the base wasn’t as abandoned as it looked, I really hoped there wouldn’t be one popping up as soon as we approached.

“You’re so stubborn.  Fine.  Let’s go.”

I released his hand, in case he needed to run, and started forward.  We walked silently over the dead greens and across the pavement toward the gate.  No one stepped from the guard house or from behind the thick lane dividers as we approached.  Nothing moved but the light breeze and a piece of paper taped to the window.

I stepped closer to read the rain-smudged ink.

“Proceed to the air strip,” I read softly for Drav’s benefit.

Looking away from the note, I met his gaze.

“Are you sure you won’t stay here?”

“I’m not leaving you, Mya.”

I looked beyond the gate.  Although I had high school friends who’d joined the Air Force, I’d never been on the base before and wasn’t sure where to go.  A large, empty parking lot stretched from the road to another building.  I started walking toward the structure until I could read the sign.  The Commissary.  Someone had painted “Cleared of supplies” across the front of the building.

Uncomfortable in the open, I picked up my pace and jogged toward the building then turned right and followed the store fronts.  Drav kept up with me as we passed each business.  All had the same message painted on their doors and windows as the Commissary, and I knew everything had been cleared and taken to the secured location Charles had mentioned.

However, seeing inside the empty restaurants only fed my fears.  The whole place felt too quiet.  No men with guns to guard survivors waiting to be flown out.  I thought of all the infected roaming the streets, the one I’d spotted dressed in fatigues, and the lack of houses with rescue needed signs, and picked up my pace as I jogged across an expanse of dried grass.  We passed another fast food place, tagged with the word “clear,” then ran along another road parallel to more stores.

Ahead, I spotted the airstrip.

“Almost there,” I panted.

I didn’t slow until we reached the edge of the field-like expanse of lawn.  To our left, a sea of empty blacktop.  To our right, the long airstrip.  Straight ahead, a long length of chain-link fence.  The dirt mounded around the posts indicated it was a new addition.

The fence didn’t protect anything.  Its straight line ran less than fifteen feet long and parallel to the air strip.  Papers littered the surface of the fence and fluttered in the wind.

With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I went to the fence and looked at the papers.  Notes and letters to loved ones left behind.  Pictures of people who were missing.  All of it left behind by the survivors evacuated from the base.

I pulled out the picture of my family that I had moved to my pocket.

“Help me look for them.  Or a picture of me,” I said, handing Drav the photo.

He didn’t tell me the effort would be a waste of precious time or that the sun was less than an hour from rising.  He took the photo, looked at my family, and then started looking at each photo on the fence.  I went to the other end and did the same.  I didn’t just look at the photos but examined the letters too. Minutes passed as I searched and read.  So many families ripped apart.  So many lost.  Some of the notes were goodbyes to family already known to be infected.  An ache grew in my chest with each foot of fence I inspected without anything from my family.

“Mya,” Drav said, softly.

I looked up as he pulled a photo from a place on the fence before him.

“This is you,” he said.

I rushed to his side and stared at the high school picture of me.  Four years had changed me a lot.  Yet, Drav had recognized the girl with the shoulder-length haircut and heavy makeup job.  Hope washed through me, and I looked at the fence.  They’d made it here.  How long ago?  Had they actually gotten on a plane?

“Where did you pull it from?” I asked.

“Here.”  He pointed to the empty space I’d been staring at.  A space surrounded by images of other people.  Letters to other families.  Nothing from mine.

I swallowed in an attempt to ease the tightness growing in my throat and took the photo from Drav.  It was something.  At least one of them had been here.

“There is a mark on the back,” he said.

I turned the photo over, and my eyes started to water.

We haven’t lost hope.  We will see you soon.

“We.  They’re still alive, Drav.”  I sniffled and wiped at my eyes and nose before looking at the fence again then the buildings beyond.  I needed to know where they’d gone.

“How am I always just behind them?” I said, more to myself than Drav.  He seemed to understand because he didn’t answer.

I went back to reading the letters on the fence.  Near the center, I found one with useful information.

“Drav, look at this,” I said with quiet excitement.

“What is it?”

“A notice.  The city’s been evacuated, but any survivors should wait here.  It says they will do a noon fly over and pick up anyone they’ve missed.”

“They want you to wait in the open, without protection?”

“Well, once the sun is up—”

“The infected are not bothered by the sun.  It isn’t safe.”

“What other choice do I have?”

He didn’t say anything as he continued to look at me from behind his sunglasses.

“It’ll be okay,” I said.  “I’ll be with my family soon.  You should go.”

He looked away, the muscle in his jaw twitching again.

Before he could say anything, a phone started to ring.  Loudly.  Another joined it.  Then another.  I turned a slow circle, hearing ringing coming from everywhere, and realized what it meant.

“Communications are back.  Drav, we need to get to the nearest phone,” I said.

He picked me up without question but didn’t start running.

“I don’t like this.  The infected will come.”

“No, listen.  The phones are ringing everywhere, not just here.  They won’t know where to run.”

“They’ll know to run toward the noise.”

“Please, Drav.  Just go!”  I pointed toward the large buildings north of us, and he took off running.

It wasn’t hard for him to break into the empty hangers.  He set me on my feet and closed the door behind us.  I ran for the nearest phone, getting it by the seventh ring.  I pressed the receiver to my ear, trying to hear something besides my racing heart.

“State of emergency has been declared for Oklahoma City.  Uninfected residents have been cleared.  Any remaining survivors should clear city limits within the hour.”  The message just kept repeating after that.

I slowly hung up the phone.  Thoughts whirled in my mind as I turned to look at Drav, who watched the door.  As if sensing my regard, he glanced at me.

“What was that?” he asked.

“A message.  A state of emergency has been declared for the city.  It said we need to clear city limits within the hour.”  But, why clear the city limits?  And who declared the emergency?  There was no one here.

“This doesn’t make sense,” I said, looking at the empty hanger.  “Why declare a state of emergency now?  Everything is already gone?  All that’s left are infected.  And that automatic message probably just pissed off all of them.”  I frowned, thinking again.  “Why are the phones suddenly working now?”

Drav gave a very human looking shrug.

“What do you want to do?  Leave or wait for the plane?” he asked.

“I don’t know.  The infected were acting weird, right?  Maybe the call is to warn survivors to leave the suburbs because of that.”  Yet, that didn’t feel right.  Again, why call now?  Why hadn’t an automated call gone through during the hellhound wave to warn people to stay inside?  Instead, phone service had just vanished.

The phone started ringing again.  I picked it up and listened to the same words before quickly hanging up.  Dread settled heavily in my stomach.

“We need to leave,” Drav said, echoing what I’d been thinking.

“Agreed.”  He peered through the window then picked me up.

Outside, he didn’t head back toward the airstrip but stuck close to the buildings.  His slow, stealthy movements and the constant distant ringing crawled under my skin until tension coiled tightly around my heart and lungs.

“I don’t want to leave again,” I said.  “But, this place feels all wrong and is weirding me out.”

Drav slowed to look down at me.

“I think maybe we should leave city limits like the message said.  Just for today.  We don’t need to go far, just somewhere we can keep an eye on things and figure out what’s going on.”

“Mya, slow your breathing.”  He leaned his forehead against mine, the cool rims of his glasses biting into my skin.  But I didn’t mind.  It was real, and it helped me realize I’d been starting to panic.

I closed my eyes and took a deep, slow breath before opening them again.  As soon as I did, he pulled back to look at me.

“Better?” he asked.

“A little.”

The phones stopped, the sudden silence as unnerving as the collective ringing.  Drav turned his head, looking at the open expanse of parking lot and further to the dead grass beyond.  His arms tightened around me slightly, which scared me.

As I focused on the area, shadows moved just beyond.

“Infected?” I whispered.

“No.  Ghua and others.”

A cold sweat broke out over my skin as I counted shape after shape emerging from the far tree line in the predawn light.  Six shadow men ran together toward us.

“Drav, I think we should go.”

“You are safe with me, Mya.”

“From infected and hellhounds, but you let Ghua sniff me.”

He grunted but still didn’t move.

“At least put me down.”

“You will stay?”

He really thought I’d try to outrun six demon men?

“Yes.  I’ll stay.”  Like I’d go anywhere alone with all the phones ringing.

Even with my promise to Drav, it was hard not to turn and run at the sight of six large shadow men sprinting toward us. And they weren’t even going their full speed.  Ghua’s familiar face stuck out from the others.

“Drav!” he said, as he made it to us first.

His sharp, eerie yellow eyes swept over me. His gaze had lost some of its curiosity since I had last seen him but those of his approaching companions worried me.  I shivered and moved closer to Drav.  He better not let them sniff me.

Drav stepped in front of me and partially blocked me from their view. I reached up and laid my hand on his back, in thanks.  However, Drav’s gesture proved pointless when the others arrived and crowded around us.

Drav tensed under my touch as one of the shadow men walked around the half circle they had created to get a better look at me. He stood shorter than Drav but seemed more heavily muscled.  His skin was even darker than Ghua’s, and his eyes were more of a mustard yellow.  His gaze swept over me, lingering here and there.

“What are you all doing here?” Drav asked in English.

Ghua said something, drawing my attention back to him and the others. It was unfair they could understand me but I couldn’t understand them.

“No,” Drav said, turning to look at the man who had stepped around us. Drav’s fingers brushed against my hip, and he tugged me to his side.

“What’s going on?  Why are they here?”

“Ghua told them about you. They have come to see some women for themselves and crossed our trail.”

Worry twisted around my heart like a vise. Drav had said they didn’t have women in their world. And although it concerned me that I’d sparked their interest, I still felt a small measure of safety.  Not only did I trust Drav, but I also knew Drav hadn’t seemed to grasp the point of a girl until the stupid audiobooks, which I refused to think about further.

“Did they find any?”

Ghua spoke briefly before Drav translated.

“The ones with guns took the healthy, leaving only infected females.  After they removed the head of one, they looked—”

“Okay.  That’s enough.  I really don’t want to hear any more.”

Mustard eyes stepped closer, claiming my attention, his focused intensity so like Ghua’s the first time we’d met.  It worried me.  When the new shadow man spoke, I couldn’t understand a single thing he said. But the way Drav growled and stepped in front of me let me know it wasn’t good.