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“What are you talking about?”Katie asked as I recalled the grey who’d spoken to me.
Yes, I’d noticed the intensity in his gaze, but it hadn’t struck me as sexual interest.Just intensity.
“We followed the fence a few minutes to about the center point of Parsons, maybe,” I said.“Patrick used a bullhorn he found and started acting the part of a raider just to see what was out there.For a while, all we saw were undead.Then a handful of those grey-skinned creatures showed up.One was carrying a woman.She claimed they were friendly and helping her find her baby.”
Katie interrupted me, her tone laced with doubt.“A baby?Seriously?”
I nodded.“That’s what the lady said.Tom, who was supposed to be watching the other end of the fence, suddenly pulled up with a truck.Claimed he found it.The woman called him on his BS and said it was theirs.Patrick tried to flex.”
“And most of us ended up with a concussion,” Kevin said.“Except for pretty Andie here.You had a gun, didn’t you?”
“Before you say I was spared because I’m a woman, I’d like to point out that Roni was on the ground with you.”
“There’s very little physical difference between me and Roni,” Kevin said dryly.
Katie snorted.“I’m going to tell her you said that.”
“She’d probably high-five me.”
“Anyway,” I continued, “I think I was spared because I wasn’t dumb enough to point my weapon at anyone, which is probably why the lady invited me to join them.I declined.They left.We left.But when we met up with the team at the other end of the fence, six of those grey guys showed up again and demanded three trucks.The ones the Wichita unit left behind.
“Patrick was in the middle of negotiating when I opened my mouth and asked if they’d found the baby.I shouldn’t have shown I cared.”
“I disagree,” Kevin said.“As you already pointed out, if those creatures—whatever they are—wanted us dead, they would have killed us already.All you did was claim the biggest guy’s attention for a minute.And I’m guessing, since that group found us easily enough, we probably already had their attention.”
“Is it smart to return to the FOB then?”Katie asked.“What if they’re tracking us?”
“That’s why you’re watching our tail,” Kevin said.
“That didn’t help us before,” I said.“I was on top the tank, watching the entire time.We didn’t have a tail.I know we didn’t.And yet, they found us.”
“So you think we’re making a mistake?”he asked.
I shrugged.
“Hard to say.It’s not like we’re risking anyone else’s lives by going back.The FOB was empty.I think Patrick’s move makes sense.We located the creatures and made contact.We need to report it.”
“Reporting that should count for something, right?”Katie asked.
She knew finding them wouldn’t count for a damn thing.
The command at Irwin had been clear.Our one-way ticket to a sanctuary would only be redeemable when we found a way tostopthe attacks.All of them.The greys.The dogs.The undead.Until then, we were stuck out here, chasing breadcrumbs and hoping not to die before we had the answers.
“If there were more men sitting around at Irwin, don’t you think they would have sent someone to check on the FOB?”Katie asked after a while.“I mean, Irwin would have noticed the lack of contact by now, wouldn’t they?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Kevin said.
With communications down, each FOB depended on long-range radio to pass messages on alternating frequencies.The coded check-ins were set at predetermined intervals.It would take time for word to get back to Irwin.
“Based on what we found, I don’t think they’ve been missing long enough for any message to reach Irwin,” I said.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and a message did reach them and a platoon is already on their way to reclaim the base,” Katie said hopefully.
“When are we ever that lucky?”Kevin asked, pivoting in his seat and killing her optimism.
“Eyes to the side, Kevin,” I said, watching the road, the Humvee ahead of me, and my side.“Maybe we’ll get lucky.Maybe not.Whatever is going to happen will happen.Guessing and hoping won’t change that, but it might distract us and get us killed.Let’s focus.”
We were about thirty minutes out from the base when Patrick’s voice rang over the walkie.
