Ok. Being the idiot that I am, I didn't properly research the locations of where several cities where before I wrote them down. If I did, I would know that Trenton, New Jersey is on west side of Maryland and you would not need to travel through the city to reach Baltimore. So instead, the city David has to travel through is Raleigh, North Carolina.
Ch. 9
Well, it looks like a normal city. If a normal city looks has abandoned cars blocking the streets, bleached skeletons littering the ground, and a giant enclosed area with concrete wall's twenty feet high.
David was on the outskirts of the city, viewing Baltimore with a pair of binoculars from a building. When he reached the suburban areas around the city, he was surprised to see that there were no zombies within the area. Sure, the suburbs were smoky, littered and smelled like death, but it was the first time he seen a place look so empty.
Also, there were no signs of any human evidence; besides the skeletons. No bullet casings, dried blood, fresh tire marks, or anything. The suburbs have been coated with smoke stains, rust, papers, bones and graffiti. It looked like no one had been through this way for a long time.
David turned his binoculars to the compound in the city. The wall they built was new, at least six months old. It was built with concrete blocks, stacked twenty-feet high, and was painted black for some reason.
But what shocked him the most was there several guards walking on top of the wall. The were dressed in black and white military camouflage and were carrying automatic weapons. I couldn't tell what military branch they were, but the looked very slick and very professional. He couldn't, however, see anything inside the compound except several buildings that stood higher than the wall or through the windows that rose higher than it.
Now, the only question is should he go and see if it was worth it.
He put his binoculars up and climbed down from his post. He couldn't see a Stiff on any of the streets leading to the compound. But he didn't let his guard down as he reached the ground and walked to his bike. He kept his eyes open at all times, especially now.
He only had experience with zombies in his area. And if they were evolving, he couldn't imagine what they would be like around the world.
With clear streets, he kick-started his motorcycle and headed towards what looked the only gate to the complex. He weaved in between cars and other obstacles, sometimes running over litter and bones.
He took in his surroundings. Pretty much every window was broken in all the buildings and everything inside was looted. TV's, furniture, tools, groceries, were completely gone from what he could tell as he rode by. Even tables and chairs were gone from restaurants and bars.
The outer-town was completely deserted. And the quietness was really starting to creep him out.
He turned left on a street and the complex came into view. Up close, it was really impressive and intimidating. It was like the wall was separating him from the rest of the world.
As soon as he could see the guards, they tensed up with the rifles in their hands. David saw one guy talking into his radio. Quickly, more guards were walking along the wall towards the gate. David couldn't see their expressions, but he felt very nervous. So as he neared the gate, he slowed to a stop, put his bike on the kickstand and walked to the gate.
"Hello! You guys got a bathroom in there?!" he called out.
There was a moment of silence, then all the guards started laughing. One leaned over on the other side and said something to the ground. A moment later, there was a groaning noise and the gate began to open. The soldiers on the wall returned to their positions while a few soldiers walked through the gate. They too were dressed as military personnel. All three were holding automatic rifles, but one was holding a bottle of water, who handed to David.
"Thank you, sir" David said as he uncapped the bottle and took a swig.
"What's your name, son?" the guy in the middle asked.
He finished half the bottle before he choked. "David, sir. David Peterson."
"I'm Master-Sergeant Wilson. Where are you from?"
"North Carolina."
The man's eyebrows rose. "You traveled all the way here on a motorcycle? That's pretty brave son."
David shrugged. "I've handled worse."
"I don't doubt it," the man said, nodding the sidearms on my hips. "Do you know how to use those?"
"When the time calls for it."
Wilson smiled. "Come on. I'll show you around."
David followed the sergeant and his buddies inside the compound while pushing my bike. The first thing he noticed was there a couple of dozen soldiers running around the inner edge of the compound. They were looking over maps, fixing weapons, cooking, and even playing cards. Several of them looked up and waved to him when they walked through. All of them were dressed in military camouflage with blue bands on their arms.
Beyond them, he could see that some of the streets were blocked with barbed-wire barricades and at least one guard posted at them.
Now why would they have guards in the city?
"Follow me," said Wilson. "I'll show you the city." He let David to the wall, were there was steps leading to the top. He followed him up and when they reached the top, David followed Wilson's gaze.
"Welcome to Baltimore, David," said Wilson.
From the outside, it looked like the wall was a perfect square around a section of the city. But from David's vantage point, he saw that the wall covered only three sides of the guarded sector with the fourth side leading straight into the bay. The shoreline had to be more than three miles away from the gate. There was a small peninsula leading straight into the water. Around the shoreline were several railroad cars, boat ports, a couple of baseball fields, and what looked like a small, military base on the very tip of the land. In the bay, he could several fishing boats tossing nets into the water.
He even thought he saw a small battleship on the horizon.
And even in the far corner of the complex, David could see that the Baltimore Raven's football stadium was in the complex as well.
When he looked into the streets, he felt his heart lift for the first time in months. Throughout the town, dozens of people were walking in the streets. All of them looked very healthy, dressed in clean clothes and wore expressions on their faces that life was completely normal. In fact, there were people shopping at stores, kids playing in the park and a city workers cleaning the streets and expanding apartment buildings. There was even a small concert on one of the streets. Several people had gathered around an outdoor restaurant to hear what sounded like a Peruvian flute band.
Weird.
"Wow, this was more than I expected," David said with awe.
"Yeah, it is something, isn't it? We set up our complex within the famous Inner Harbor, where all kinds of hotels are built. They've become a real help when people need a place to sleep, as well have the homes that are built in the peninsula Our main base of operations in the complex is at Fort McHenry.
"How many people are here?"
"At the last count, a little over twenty thousand. We range doctors, police officers, fire crews, soldiers to cooks, teenagers, seniors, salespeople, mechanics, and even a few college teachers."
"Teachers?"
"Yep. We even have a school for the little ones." Wilson handed him a pair of binoculars and pointed to the left side of the complex. "Our first step towards educating our future."
David held the binocular to his eyes. Through the lenses, he saw a about a dozen 8-year-olds sitting at desks through an open window, staring at a dry-erase board while a blonde female teacher was writing down math problems.
"It's so....calm here," David whispered as he lowered the binoculars. "When were the walls built?"
"We finished them about two months ago. The brigade I was a part of was clearing out sections of the city when my Captain realized this would a be a good start to try and start over. With the creatures beginning to slow because of decay and the bay giving us a form of protection because the creatures can't swim, we got to work immediately in March. Now, here we are today. The wall begins on the shore near Little Italy and stretches north to State Highway 40. It then extends east until it meets highway 129, which then goes south to merge with Interstate 395 and finally ends when it reaches the bay."
"Is everyone here Baltimore citizens?"
"Only a fourth. Everyone else came from other cities around the state."
David rose an eyebrow. "Other cities?"
Wilson nodded. "Right now, there are three platoons scouring cities all around Maryland, looking for survivors and bringing them here. So far, my troops have been very successful."
"Three plat....just how many soldiers do you have stationed here?" David asked.
"Including the other platoons? Around five thousand. They're stationed at other points of the city, but are in secure locations."
Five thousand? Wasn't that a little much to be focused on one station. I think only one thousand would be enough to protect a small complex such as this, David thought.
"Are there any other protected cities?"
"Only a few. There is one in Pennsylvania, another near the border of New York, and one in Vermont. However, none of them are as big as this place. They're more of a....series of complexes for temporary relief. When they here about the progress here, the military buses them over."
David nodded. But even though he pretended to agree, something about this was really unusual.
"So this isn't your base of operations? Is you commander somewhere else?"
For a moment, Wilson's smile disappeared. It came back in an instant, but it was more forced.
"Sorry. But that's confidential to civilians. We can't let our enemies know where our central command is in the country."
Enemies? Who hell are we fighting against besides zombies?
David was about to ask again when a voice rang out across the wall. "Contact! North wall!"
Wilson immediately turned around and looked at the area on the outside of the wall with his binoculars. For a moment, he swung his gaze frantically from left to right before he stopped. "There they are."
David followed his lead and looked out into the streets. From a quarter of mile away, he could see three figures running towards the gate. Even from the distance, he knew they were Runners. He could hear their distant cries and see distinct flashes of red on their bodies.
"Ok. We got two unknowns, one male, one female. There other one looks like soldier who ended up in the wrong part of town," Wilson announced.
"One of ours?" one soldier asked.
"Can't tell, but highly likely. Stupid bastard probably wandered from his post without backup."
David felt a rush of guilt. It sounded exactly what happened to Christopher.
"Shall I engage?" asked the soldier, raising his automatic weapon.
"When their in range, you may fire."
The soldier held his weapon to his shoulder and waited for the Runners to get within range. At the way the were moving, they were at the wall in seconds.
But David had a way to impress them.
"There almost here," said the soldier.
"Don't fire until you know-"
Three gunshots rang through the air and the Runners dropped to the pavement. Wilson and the soldier jumped at the sound because there was no way they were in range to take a shot. Wilson turned to see David with his Glock in his hands aimed at the Runners.
"Did you just shot them from here?" the Wilson asked.
David holstered his Glock and smirked at the Sergeant. "Told ya. When the need calls for it, I'm never miss."
"That's nearly impossible!" exclaimed the soldier. "They were nearly two hundred yards away. You couldn't have done that with a handgun!"
Wilson's smile was back. "You know, we are recruiting."
David shrugged. "I might do that, but first, I need to head out of here."
"And why is that," Wilson asked suspiciously. His face now looked like he was struggling to keep in his anger. "You're here now, why do you need to leave."
"My friends are still in the town I came from. I volunteered to check out your location after we heard your broadcast on a police CB radio."
"Oh, really!" Wilson exclaimed. "Well, then that changes everything. The more, the merrier I always say."
He grabbed David's shoulders, spun him around, and started pushing him down the stairs. David began to feel very cautious about the master-sergeant's actions. For one moment, he was angered by David's sudden departure. The next moment, he was eager for him to leave and bring his friends back.
David's original distrust for this place suddenly began to grow.
Wilson kept pushing David until he was at his motorcycle. He then grabbed a couple of bottles of water and packed into the cycle's saddle bag. He then waved a soldier over and turned to me.
"As good as you are those pea shooters, you need some serious firepower if you want to survive now." The soldier came over with an automatic weapon with several magazine clips. He handed it to Wilson, who held it out to David. "This is a basic M16. Each magazine can hold up to thirty rounds. I think it should be sufficient enough to see you on your journey."
David hesitantly picked the weapon up from his hands. The solid weight of his handguns gave him a great deal of confidence, like tiger stalking its prey. But the weight of the automatic weapon gave him a feeling of ....destruction?
He didn't know what the feeling was, but all David was that he didn't like it. Nevertheless, he strapped the gun to his back.
"Thanks, Sergeant. We'll try to be back within the next few days," David told Wilson.
"We'll have an apartment ready for you and your friends the minute you get back," Wilson told him as he held out his hand.
David nodded and shook his hand as well. "Thanks, sir." Yet, it felt like he just sealed his fate.
He swung his leg over the cycle and started it. The machine roared to life. David turned the throttle and blasted down the street.
Okay, the long way has been checked, David thought. Now to check the short route.