Page 1 of Resolution
Chapter One
The old groundtruck rattled and creaked as Jeff drove it up the freeway. Melly never thought she’d miss the Armored Personnel Carrier they’d been using to move around the planet but this truck left her feeling exposed and uneasy. No megacannon, no armored walls, just the three of them. She patted the floor by her feet for the hundredth time since they’d left camp before dawn, checking to make sure she had her small medkit. Having the tools of her profession as a doctor at her fingertips was important.
She leaned her head against the cracked, once nicely padded headrest and sighed, trying to quiet the butterflies in her gut. Jeff—Captain Jeff Pearson, her new husband—glanced over and patted her hand.
“We’ll be okay,” he said. “Cody’s got his drones on overwatch and no one at the refugee camp has any reason to be suspicious of us. Simply three more exhausted refugees trying to survive. You being a doctor should get us a lot of goodwill. No one’s going to mess with you.”
“I know” she said. They’d discussed this endlessly as a team while going over the surveillance holos Cody’s drones had created. “But now we’re nearly there, I’m questioning my level of bravery.”
“Doc, you’ve got all the guts in the world,” he said, voice full of pride. “You’ve proven that over and over since we landed on this messed up planet. We’re only staying a couple of days to gather our intel and then we’ll do an exfil, meet up with the guys and plan our next move.”
Melly closed her eyes, hoping he was right but nothing had ever been simple on Randal Four yet.
Well, except for getting married. The good people of Millersville had been so grateful for the help Jeff and his soldiers had given them, in addition to her own efforts medically, that a wedding had been pulled together literally overnight once Jeff had proposed to her. She peeked at her wedding ring, the thick gold band still an unaccustomed weight on her hand. She missed her engagement ring with its central diamond surrounded by sapphires but Jeff had worried it might be confiscated or stolen at the refugee camp.
Tamsyn Wendover, sitting in the backseat, squeezed her shoulder and said, “Compared to some of the things we’ve done this will be a piece of cake. I’m not worried. We’re tough.”
Well for sure she is, being a rancher on the frontier, Melly thought. Tamsyn’s presence on this jaunt had been hotly debated. As soon as she’d announced she was going with Jeff and Melly, her new husband Cody Wayne erupted in a furious protest.
“Like hell you are,” he said. “Bad enough we have to risk the captain and the doc but there’s no reason for you to go too. I want you here with me, where I can keep you safe.”
“We know there are people in the camp from my town of Rosewater,” Tamsyn had said calmly. “They don’t know Jeff and Melly and they’re not going to be willing to speak freely about whatever is going on at the camp to two strangers. They know me—they owe me for getting them out of Rosewater when the swarm of infected came in—so they will talk to me. We’ll learn more of what we need to know if I go along too.”
Eventually she’d won the argument although Cody wasn’t happy about it, having been grumpy when they’d left the well-hidden camp this morning. Melly was glad she was here. Tamsyn was level headed, thoroughly competent and a terrific assistant. She might not have experience with human medical issues but her veterinary skills, picked up over the years on her family’s sprawling ranch stood her in good stead. Melly would take what she could get and be properly grateful under the circumstances.
In an apocalypse of the infected, all of whom bled black ichor and wanted to kill and eat the uninfected, that being the only motivating impulse left in their rotted bodies and minds, a person with any kind of medical skills was a rarity and priceless.
The com on the control panel made a static sound and then a clear voice broke through. “Unidentified groundtruck, declare yourself and your intent.”
“Here we go.” Jeff exchanged glances with Melly and hit the reply button. “Three refugees from the capital city. My wife, her assistant and me. We heard your broadcasts about coming here to seek shelter and we’ve been working our way north to you for weeks now.”
Most of what he said was actually true, Melly allowed herself a bit of grim amusement. They’d agreed to tell as much truth as they could while they were on this intel gathering trip. Of course they’d been traveling in armored personnel carriers the team had appropriated in the abandoned capital city, not this truck. The mayor of Millersville had given them the truck when Jeff asked for a used vehicle. Poor Ryan had driven it in a strange looking convoy with the two APC’s when they left the town and until they’d set up a camouflaged camp a good distance off the highway.
“My wife’s a doctor, by the way,” Jeff was saying.
“Our chief physician will welcome the help, I’m sure,” said the voice from the camp, sounding only mildly enthused about the prospect of adding another doctor to the staff. “We’ll send out a patrol to guide you in and get you past the infected. You’ll be directed into a force field holding pen and given instructions from there. Welcome to Glastine.”
Jeff checked the forward vids. “I see the patrol coming,” he told Melly and Tamsyn. “Okay, take a deep breath, let go of everything we’ve seen and done up till now and just be who we say we are—three tired refugees about to arrive at the sanctuary we’ve been dreaming about since we heard the first broadcast. All kinds of grateful and awed they have this place set up. Okay?”
“Affirmative,” Melly said, her throat dry.
“Got it,” Tamsyn confirmed.
Two sporty groundcars raced toward them and made showy turns to flank the old groundtruck. Each of the new arrivals had a big blaster mounted in back, although Melly was sure the megacannons on the APC’s would make these look like kids’ toys. There were three armed men in each besides the drivers and the crews were obviously alert and ready for trouble.
“We’ll be going in fast,” said a voice on the com. “The camp is surrounded by infected but we know how to get past them and inside the safety of the force fences. Do exactly what we tell you and don’t slow down, got it?”
“I understand,” Jeff said, accelerating a bit to keep his distance from the car in front and the one trailing behind. “Glad to see you fellows.”
Melly realized she was bracing herself the closer they got to the camp. Cody had flown his tiny drones over Glastine endlessly and the holos were clear in her mind. Too clear. The camp was ringed by thousands and thousands of the infected, like a wall outside the camp’s force fields and barricades. The infected were merely standing for the most part, silent except for an occasional moan or growl. Their ranks were a hundred deep in spots and the behavior was unusual, based on what Melly had seen on her travels so far. Usually the swarms attacked any living humans they found or any place where humans were trying to stay alive. Maybe being so close to force fields was what kept them passive.
Or maybe it was the Watchers. Melly shivered. Certain of the infected seemed to have retained a bit of intelligence and the other infected appeared to obey them. And every Watcher she’d been anywhere near was focused on her. Melly had no idea why but it made the already intolerable situation even more terrifying. When Cody had done his surveilling, the team had taken note of how Watchers were distributed throughout the swarm around the camp. Jeff had ordered Cody to use one of drones to kill a Watcher by crashing it into the creature’s skull as a test. Immediately the infected who’d been close to the now dead Watcher surged forward, attacking the force field fence and becoming quite agitated.
After about an hour of this another Watcher had come from the depths of the swarm and taken up the position and the crown of undead calmed.
They’re a barrier to keep the humans in, Melly thought. But why?
Based on tales from the few people in Millersville who’d been in Glastine and escaped, the infected would try to kill anyone who walked out the gate or tried an exit through a weak point in the defenses. The guard force at the camp wouldn’t even attempt to rescue the victims either.
