The Cloudy Skulls (Cloudy Sandbox Book 1) (4 page)

I hadn’t been asleep long when I woke up to the now familiar sound of the alarm. All I could think was
what now?
as I quickly jumped out of bed and pulled on a pair of combats to go with my black vest and laced up my boots. I shrugged my jacket on while leaving my room, and this time the officers that were coming out of their own rooms looked more alert than the last time this had happened. Maybe we were all just getting better at handling emergencies since they were being such common occurrences? I scanned the corridor for Parker but he wasn’t there, instead as soon as I left the officer's corridor I literally bumped into him.

‘Hey, I was just coming to find you. Your base is in trouble,’ he said.

I fell into step beside him as he walked me across the hall to the main control room. ‘It’s not my base yet, you’ve not handed over to me.’

‘It’s your base now that it’s infested with victims, I don’t want any part of that.’

‘Infested?’ I asked, any traces of humour fading away instantly. A cold chill went up my spine as I checked the screens for the security camera feeds. I had to sit down when I saw the first pasty, decomposing body stagger past the camera of the hangar outside wall. ‘How the hell did these bastards get in? Who was manning these cameras? Who was doing perimeter checks?’

‘Calm down, there’s no point overreacting,’ Parker said, sitting next to me. ‘The point is they’re here, so let’s not deal with how they got here, but focus on how we’re going to get rid of them.’

I still couldn’t believe we’d been breached. We’d only been here a day, how could things have gone so wrong? And we didn’t have an aircarrier to evacuate with either. Suddenly the officer’s fears that had seemed ridiculous last night were making sense now. My own heart was hammering in my chest as I watched another victim pounding at the door to one of the outer store rooms. ‘I know you think it doesn’t matter, but I need to know. Who was doing perimeter checks? Who was manning the cameras?’ I knew it was the officers jobs at the moment, as soon as the base was handed over to me I could post my own soldiers, but Parker was still technically in charge. I wanted to know who had been watching out for us, and I wanted to know what had gone wrong.

Parker hung his head and sighed. ‘If you’re looking to blame someone, blame me. I relieved the last guards and did the perimeter check myself. The guys were tired, I thought I’d give them a break. I was about to go out and do another check when the alarms sounded. I’m sorry.’

The fight went out of me a bit at that. I knew there were only a few officers, and they were tired and stressed. Parker had tried to do something nice for them, to take the responsibility on himself. ‘The cameras?’

‘Ah. The cameras I gave to Keswick. And I know what you’re going to say-’

‘You know how I feel about Keswick.’

‘He’s a good guy, Komatsu, I know you’re suspicious of everything he does, but he’s been working hard to make sure all your electronics are up to scratch for when we’re gone. He’s doing the best he can with the equipment he’s got. He was staying up anyway to run diagnostics so he promised to keep an eye on the cameras while his reports ran. It made sense to let him do it rather than make somebody else stay up and do it.’

I hated his logic, because it made sense. It didn’t make me feel any better, though. ‘Where is he now?’

‘Keswick?’

‘No, Santa Claus. Of course bloody Keswick.’

Parker’s face paled. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Well he’s not watching the cameras, because the cameras are in here and unless he’s managed to turn himself invisible then he’s not here.’

‘Shit,’ Parker said.

‘Yes. Shit,’ I said, but then the anger started to drain again when I caught sight of more victims gather outside. ‘They can’t get into the building, right? We’re on lockdown?’

‘Yeah, the base sensors picked up the first victim and put the base into automatic lockdown,’ Parker said, suddenly seeming a lot less confident than he usually did.

‘Well we’re safe for now, then. That gives us time to think of a plan. And do me a favour? Don’t go telling the other officers and the soldiers that there’s victims walking about in our front yard. Tell them the alarm was a test or something.’

As it turned out Parker didn’t need to say a word. When I left the control room every damn soldier was pressed up against a window watching the victims stagger about. As soon as one soldier noticed me they all turned, and I had a thousand and one questions fired at me, and not a single answer to give them. Thankfully Lucan grabbed my arm and pulled me away, through the mess hall, down a corridor and through the recreation room, then up a flight of stairs to the east tower. There were two towers, east and west, that were the only elevated parts of the building. They gave us a better vantage point to see activity around the base and beyond the fence.

‘There’s something you need to see,’ Lucan said, as he crouched on the floor and pointed down to the corner of the fence.

The walls were floor to ceiling glass so you could see in any direction, but we were a bit high up to see the ground properly, so I had to crouch down too and squint, especially in the early morning darkness. A tower light was trained on the fence, though, and I could see what Lucan was pointing at. There was a hole in the fence, just large enough for a victim to pass through.

‘Kuso,’ I swore, and banged my fist against the reinforced glass. ‘How did they manage that? Shouldn’t the fence be electrified?’

‘It should be,’ Lucan said, his red eyes watching as another victim tried to navigate the hole. It was hard work for it, since its senses weren’t as sharp as they had been in life, but it managed to get through after tearing its skin on a jagged edge of wire.

‘I’m going to find out why the hell it isn’t, then,’ I said, and pushed myself to my feet. Without waiting for him I ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time, and then ran back through the corridors toward the control room. I was looking for Parker, but he wasn’t there. To my delight Keswick was.

I didn’t give the little weasel a chance to say anything, instead I kicked the rolling chair he was sitting on into a wall and then stormed over and slammed my foot against his chest, pinning him against the wall.

‘L-listen-’

‘If I wanted to listen, then I’d have asked you to speak,’ I said harshly, pressing my foot harder against his chest. ‘I’ll go first. We seem to have a victim problem, and I’m told that you were the one that was supposed to be manning the cameras. Did you not notice our pasty little friends entering the base?’

‘No, I wasn’t-’

My boot ground in harder and he grunted in pain. ‘I have a theory, you see. You didn’t tell anyone they were here, because you were the one that let them in. You stopped the power to the electric fence so they could get through. Maybe you even cut them a hole, I don’t know yet. But I’m going to find out.’

‘That’s not it at all!’ Keswick said, and he lifted his hands to push my boot away. He wasn't the biggest guy in the world but he was a lot bigger than me, and the force of the push toppled my balance so I had to pull my foot back to stand up properly. He instantly stood up and rolled the chair between us to stop me attacking him further. ‘Just listen, for five god damn seconds, alright? I didn’t turn off the electric fence, I didn’t even know there was a hole in the fence, alright? And Parker said that he was going to watch the cameras, I have no idea why you think I would do that. I’m not security, I’m an engineer.’

I watched him for a few more moments, I didn’t like the way he always avoided my eyes. I quickly moved forwards, grabbing the chair and pushing it into him. He yelped out in surprise and raised his hands to protect his face as if I were about to attack. ‘I didn’t do anything, I swear! Why the hell would I want those damn things anywhere near me again? I just want to get your damn base finished and then I want to go home. That’s all.’

‘What about before we got here, though? You’re really telling me that your whole team was taken out by victims, but then they all disappeared just as we got there?’

Something flashed in his eyes at that, but he remained stubborn. ‘We opened the gates for your airslicer, but before you got there a bunch of victims came in and caused chaos. We tried to fight them off but there were too many of them. I don’t know how they got in there, but all I know was that Sanderson wanted to close the gates to stop more of them coming in, but I knew your airslicer was coming, and it seemed stupid to close up the gates with some of the bastards still inside. So I tried to open them, he fought me, I had to kill him. It was me or him. Then you came crashing in and by the time I knew what was going on the victims were gone and I had you yelling at me. Really, this has been the worst job I’ve ever been on, and I just want to get home in one piece.’

‘We all do,’ I said levelly, watching his eyes. He still wouldn’t meet mine. ‘Look at me.’

‘Why?’ he asked.

‘So I can see if you’re lying. How can I trust someone that won’t even look at me?’

After a long suffering sigh he did. In them I saw hatred and anger and fear, but no guilt. ‘I don’t like the red eyes, you see? Is that a crime? Reminds me of them…them
things
.’

I could understand that. ‘If you haven’t been sabotaging my base, then who has?’

Keswick frowned. ‘I still don’t understand why you think someone is out to get you.’

‘I found detonated EMPs outside the hangar. My guess was that you put them there to knock out the power so the base couldn’t direct our airslicer to land.’

‘Jesus, I didn’t know they were there. I
swear
I didn’t know anything about those.’ Keswick slumped back against the wall and ran a hand down his face. ‘Shit man, what the hell is going on in this damn place? Dead zones are no good, I’ve always said that. Always thought that stupid bitch Alice Cartell never should have pushed this through. They’re dead zones for a reason, setting up camp is just going to get everyone killed. At least she’s here to die with us.’

‘Nobody is going to die,’ I said.

He laughed but it came out more like a choke. ‘No offence,
ma’am
, I don’t think you get a say in the matter.’

‘Yes I do,’ I said, and I started out of the room. I made it to the door before turning back to him. ‘You’re coming with me.’

‘I told you I didn’t do anything!’

‘I’m not arresting you, I need your help. Otherwise you’ll be right, and people will die.’

He narrowed his eyes and stayed where he was for a long moment, but then he pushed away from the wall and came over slowly. ‘What do you need me for?’

‘I need that electric fence back up and running,’ I said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

‘What do you think I was trying to do in here?’ he shouted, waving a hand at the computer station I had kicked him away from. ‘I saw the damage on the cameras, I tried to get the fence back up. I can’t, though, there’s a break in the circuit because of the hole. It needs to be patched up before I can get it back online.’

‘Fix the hole, got it,’ I said, nodding my head toward the door. ‘You’re still coming with me.’

‘Where now?’ he whined.

‘To fix the hole, like you said.’

If possible he paled further. ‘Outside? Bitch, there’s victims walking around out there, that’s insane.’

‘Maybe, but if we don’t go out and fix the hole then there’ll be even more victims in our back yard. Then we really will be screwed.’

‘But why do
I
have to go out there?’

‘Because I don’t trust you in here,’ I said, leaving the control room and hurrying down the corridor. The sirens had stopped but the red warning lights were still flashing every few metres to remind us of the impending doom. I was hoping to find Parker, but the first useable person I ran into was Lucan. He joined our little group as I went on the search for our missing Lieutenant General. I hoped he hadn’t gone to be a hero and charged out there guns blazing to take out as many victims as possible. It was the kind of dumb thing I could see him doing.

‘Komatsu, can I speak to you for a moment?’ called a voice, and I reluctantly stopped to talk to Major Alice Cartell.

‘What can I do for you? You may have noticed we’re having a few issues,’ I said tersely.

She nodded distractedly. ‘I was going to my room before the alarms started and someone tried to grab me from behind. I bit their hand and they pushed me down and I hit my head on the wall, then the alarms started just as I fell unconscious. I didn’t see who it was-’

‘Whoever it was deserves a medal,’ Keswick said, his hands balling into fists as he glared at Cartell.

‘I’m sorry?’ Cartell asked.

‘It’s your fault we’re out here. We’re all going to die because of your stupid programme opening army bases in bloody dead zones.’

I placed my hands on Keswick’s shoulders and steered him away, leaving Cartell standing with her mouth gaping open. Whatever she was talking about would have to wait, I had more important things to worry about.

‘Damn, I should have asked her if she’s seen Parker,’ I muttered under my breath. ‘Where the hell has he gone? I don’t have time for this.’

I changed our course and headed toward the training room. Inside was a weapons store and I let us in and began handing out weapons and protective gear. Gloves to stop us being bitten, guns with pyrebullets, and knives strapped to my thigh. Several items were missing, including one of the pyreguns, and I wondered where it had gone. I felt like I knew the answer but before I could ponder it further Keswick was in my face.