Chapter 70 - Sixty Nine - Travelling To The Base (1/2)

The American Military Base was located some way North West of the village and in times past, it would take between twenty and twenty five minutes to get to its entrance by road.  Just as in past times of crisis, civilians would seek guidance from the authorities, the police, the politicians and if they were not available, then the army.  Even though the men and women stationed there were not of the same nationality, just the fact they were a military organisation was enough for them to represent a beacon of hope for those who survived the end of the world.

Of course, just because the Americans were military, did not mean that they didn't suffer the effects of the apocalypse within their tall wire fences.  A percentage of their personnel did die to the sickness and rise as mindless, starving corpses and it was just as difficult for them to put down this new enemy, for they were not the blank faces of opponent soldiers in a foreign land.  But however difficult, they swept through the housing and barracks with decisiveness after an initial hesitation with deathly force and only lost one healthy man in the process due to a moment's distraction cost him his life.  His death was not in vain as it taught them a valuable lesson; do not get bitten.

The first wave of survivors came to knock upon their doors just two days later and at first, they were not willing to let them in.  Some of the soldiers wanted to focus on their own survival first and hopefully make it back home, others were fearful that these refugees might carry the virus.  But, the survivors kept arriving and were unwilling to leave, begging to be allowed into the dubious safety of the wire fence walls.

The smarter individuals realised that if the numbers continued to grow, they would not only attract wandering zombies, but might also threaten the safety of those within the gates.  So there was a compromise, the initial wave of people were placed into an empty house and kept in quarantine for three days.  Not only did the soldiers hope that this would identify any who could become zombies, but gave them time to think about solutions to the refugee problem.  It was not as if they had a great deal of family housing that could be used to accommodate these people.

Eventually, the people were assimilated, but while they were in quarantine, new arrivals came.  These people were quarantined elsewhere.  Another group of survivors brought with them a mob of hungry zombies, who'd followed their noisy vehicles and had to be dealt with first, before the survivors could be.  It was then that some soldiers noticed they had weird super-powers.  They were no J*stice Leag*e nor X-m#n though, their powers didn't make them much stronger than normal.  However, those handful that could summon water came to be treated like Kings and made to retreat behind the lines.

When the utilities no longer worked, the soldiers began recruiting the strongest of the survivors to help them scavenge food and supplies.  As the base numbers continued to grow, survivors were put to work strengthening the wall and building temporary housing from wood and brick.  If people did not work, they did not get fed, that was the rule.  One mostly civilian squad had the idea of bringing back caravans and campervans from driveways and the base continued to grow.

”When I arrived at the base,” Chang Min reminisced as the truck slowly trundled down the broken road, ”there were no spare beds, people slept with padded green blankets upon floors or on couches.  It was not difficult for me to adapt, but there were many grumbles from the people I arrived with.  They also complained about the food and the work.  I do not think that they were well received by the others.  But I had performed my duties as a bodyguard, so I let them do as they pleased and made myself useful.”

Chang Min had never been a stranger to hardship.

”How many people were on the base when you left?” Dexter asked him.  The squad that he'd taken with him was somewhat a show of force with the big guys Harry, Arthur and Winston displaying the majority of the muscle, while himself, Chang Min and Cole had good abilities as well.  Tyler had been left behind this time as water users were precious and they didn't want to reveal all of their cards, not knowing just what sort of reception they'd receive.  This was also the reason for leaving all the women behind as well, even if Monika had proven more than once that she could look after herself.

”Around three thousand four hundred,” Chang Min replied.  ”Of which around five hundred were originally military or personnel and another one or two hundred were family members.”

”I thought it would be bigger,” Harry admitted, aloud, with some melancholy in his voice.  They could not blame him.  The two towns that the base was located in between used to have tens of thousands of people living within them, not to mention the smaller populations of the scattered villages close by.

”There may have been others like us,” Dexter suggested, ”that grouped together outside military bases.  Plus isn't there another military base about an hour or so away?”

”You mean the one that houses members of our own Royal Air Force?” Winston asked, before swerving to miss a particularly large pothole. The men unfortunate enough to be in the back braced themselves against the cold metal walls of the van's storage area. Fortunately, the ice packed metal containers that Shaun and Tyler had rigged up were secured well; they were suffering enough bruises from the bumps and other obstacles in the road, let alone broken bones from the containers.

”Yeah,” came the reply.  ”Some people have rooted biases, like Tyler or maybe it was just the first place that came to mind.  They could have gone there.”  It was a pretty dream, but no one really bought it.  Who'd go so far a field when there were soldiers on your doorstep?

”Still, that's a lot of people to feed over winter,” Cole mused, ”it's no wonder we almost came to blows with them in the wheat field.”

”That was just greed,” Arthur said, softly from the passenger seat. It was not as if they were planning to take a lot of the wheat having wanted it just in order to start their own wheat field in the spring and not in order to produce flour.