Chapter Twenty Nine
He lay in the middle of the road, the truck over turned in the ditch alongside. A scratched and slightly singed M-16 rifle lay a few metres in front of the truck, half sunk into the mud. Clasped in his hand was a small gun, Daniel wasn't used to identifying human weaponry, but he could tell anyone anything about an Autobot fire arm… or laser arm.
"A colt, standard issue".
Gemmy crotched down next to the man, seemingly not bothered too much by the fact his brains were scattered across the road.
"Looks like he gave himself a temple shot… but sat down on the road to do it".
Daniel gave her a look of surprise… of course, if he thought it wouldn't offend her, he'd tell her outright that her candour and knowledge was just a bit on the creepy-weird-a-person-out side.
"What? My dad was in the forces, I know a bit about guns".
"Oh, no, no, I'm not judging… just came as a bit of surprise, girl knows a bit about guns, but dad in the forces, air force right, makes sense?"
"Yeah, air force".
She took the gun from his hand, looked it over, checking how full the clip was then tucked it into her pants.
"Might come in handy, God only knows what's out there… or who".
"Yeah, good plan".
She hopped down into the ditch and took the assault rifle.
"Here, you look like you like big guns that fire fast".
"Thanks".
He said, sure to drip it with sarcasm.
Gemmy then without much concern, Daniel noted, walked around the over turned truck casually and then stopped, a small cry passing her lips.
"What is it?"
He asked as he rushed long the road until he was parallel with her.
"I think he shot them all, then took his own life".
He joined her, glancing into the back of the truck.
"Wow, he really must have got the jump on them, they're all soldiers".
It was pretty obvious given their uniforms.
She ran along the side of the truck until she was at the driver's side, she peered into the cab.
"It wasn't just the gents back there he shot, the driver has his brains smeared all over the inside".
Reaching in and taking the driver's fire arm did unnerve Daniel slightly further, but she was right, there was no telling what else was on these roads, who else had survived, they needed to take methods to defend themselves.
"I'm no CSI, but I think he shot the driver, they crashed and then he ran around the back and opened fire on these guys why they were trying to regain their composure".
"How the hell did you come to that conclusion?"
"Well, there's no skid marks on the road for one. The soldiers back here didn't seem to offer any resistance".
She returned to the back of the truck and pointed in:
"Only a few of them, at the back there, managed to get their weapons out, but I don't think they got any shots off…"
She pointed to the top of the back's entrance.
"Else there'd be shots or at least damage from shots around the entrance here".
"Then what? He felt so bad he walked out into the middle of the road and blew his brains out?"
"Well, probably".
"You know what I don't get? We're not really that close to a bombed city, right? I mean, yeah, we're on the outskirts of a few blasts, but you'd think the force of the blast would have blown his body up and away, right?"
"Um… what do you mean, blown his body away?"
"Okay, um… say the guy did what you said, shot the driver, then jumped out and shot the rest of these guys… then he goes up onto the road and puts a bullet in his brain for whatever reason… guilt… shame… doesn't want to get a dishonourable discharge? Well, he drops down where he is, and then later the bomb hits, the shockwave and blasts and winds and whatever, even out this far, they should have blown his little body along the road".
"Yeah, all you're proving is that he did this after the blasts".
"But there in lies the problem, one, I'm pretty sure that piece of shit of a truck isn't ruggedized to an EMP so if this happened post blast, the truck wouldn't' have been operable. So why would they be staying in an overturned truck?"
"Maybe the blast hit, he accidently shot the driver because his gun went off, and then he went and killed the others".
"Unlikely, because…."
"Because if there'd been a blast the soldiers wouldn't' have just sat in the back here twiddling their thumbs".
"That's right!"
"So, Daniel, you think he killed them before the blast, waited for the blast, and then killed himself?"
"I'm not sure. But I don't think the blast knocked the truck off the road or that the EMP knocked it out because the guys wouldn't' just let themselves get shot in the back, and at least a few of them tried not to get shot".
"Okay, now I'm confused, and I thought I had a pretty good flashback to the crime scene".
Gemmy said as she slouched against the truck.
"Well, I guess in all honestly it doesn't really matter, I mean, its not like we're ever going to know what happened here, and for another thing, its not like this crime is going to be high on the NCIS list of "to-dos". So, in light of our situation, I'm going to get my tax rebate by grabbing these brave fallen soldiers' bits and bobs".
Gemmy climbed into the back of the truck with the variously destroyed bodies.
"Dear God, Gemmy, are you fucked in the head?"
Daniel asked as he glanced in at her picking the pocket of the much bloodied remains of a young woman… or what had once been a young woman, the only one he then noticed.
"Look, they're dead. A lot of people are dead. I've seen lots of dead bodies in my life. This is nothing new. Either we help ourselves, or someone else comes along later and picks the poor bastards clean".
She was right, he knew, it was just rather unsettling to hear it said by a girl… He gave a slight smile as he realised the lecture he'd get if he ever thought that out loud around Arcee. He wondered if she was still alive. His history with her had provided him some insight into her thought processes, even after he'd fully recovered and decided he needed his own life again, his own independence, his own privacy of mind, he still felt some strange link with her.
But he felt nothing now. He didn't know what that meant. He didn't dare mention any of that to Gemmy; of course, he did have to wonder how much she knew about him, about the Autobots. The kids at school often pestered him for information, the kids in the neighbourhood often got snippy at him when he refused them access to the Autobots.
"I'll keep look out, and besides, I saw something in the ditch on the other side of the road, I'll check it out".
"Okay!"
She yelled back from inside the truck, a sticky sort of sound accompanying her.
There was nothing he'd seen in the other ditch, and he wasn't really sure if him standing look out would be of any consequence, but he didn't fancy standing there watching a teenaged girl picking through the pockets of dead soldiers all shot to hell.
Daniel approached the body in the middle of the road, his eyes scanning along the pools of blood and chunks of brain and skull that had left a rather artistic splatter effect about the dark, slightly ash covered road.
Something caught the very slight beams of natural light that fought to break through the cloud cover. It twinkled again, in amongst a piece of skin and bone. He crouched down and poked at it with the barrel of the gun. The hair on the skin was mattered with blood but as he moved it the hair shifted position revealing an intact ear.
"Nice".
He whispered sarcastically.
At first he thought the sparkle was an earring or other piece of jewellery, but as he moved the chunk slightly over with the gun's muzzle he realised the piece of metal doing the shining was attached to the now loose flap of skin behind the ear.
"Sparkle".
He whispered again as he reached down and actually peeled the small microchip off the back of the bloodied remains.
"What are you on about?"
She asked, her poorly cast shadow cast over him.
"AH! Nothing!"
He gasped, shocked, almost guilty, he quickly pocketed the chip and gave her a stupid grin. She regarded him, raised an eyebrow:
"What the hell are you doing?"
She asked, accusing him, and not caring if he took it as such.
"I thought I saw something".
"Ah… yeah…"
She noticed the remains of the ear, the blood on his fingers and gun nozzle.
"I saw something shiny, I thought it was a bullet fragment, I figured if we knew what kind of bullet we could guess who's gun it came from, give us more info on what happened here".
"Riiight".
Gemmy replied, a little confused, and perhaps grossed out by his antics, of course with that said; she was the one who had just picked through a truck load of dead soldiers.
"Well, it was something to do".
He said, hanging his head slightly.
"I didn't find anything in the other ditch; by the way, it was just a trick of the light on some grass".
"Okay then, let's get moving".
ooOOoo
The building was still smouldering as they passed it. The garden had been reduced to a scraggly pile of twisted and scorched shrubs and charred trees; most of the grass was gone.
"What do you think it used to be?
Gemmy asked as she cautiously approached it, the heavy wooden support beams were blackened and slightly glistening as little flames burnt internally.
"It used to be a school for special needs kids, my dad used to take this road because its usually quiet and you avoid the industrial centres – he was always worried the smoke was damaging his paint job, ha-ha".
That was half true, it was a school for special needs kids, but his father took the road because it was a quicker access to the Ark.
"You think there's anyone in there?"
The girl seemed a little softer in her approach, not as harsh as the young woman who hadn't that long ago pawed through dead bodies.
"Not anyone that's alive".
The two stood and watched as a few twists of smoke crawled up from the smouldering remains. There were no signs of bodies, likewise no signs of survivors.
"Do you want to look around?"
"It might be a good idea, it feels like we've been walking for hours and it looks like night is coming… well… kinda".
Daniel replied.
"Should we split up?"
Gemmy asked as she gave a quick glance to her left.
"We both have guns. We should be okay. I'll walk around this way, you walk that way, and if we just follow the building… well, remains of the building, we should meet up".
He explained as he started off in his direction, hoping his movement would get her going as well. When she didn't respond and all he heard were her footsteps he realised she had paid heed. He gave a quick glance over his shoulder and was relieved to see her walking in the other direction, a little cautiously of course, her hands clasping her gun tightly.
Daniel reached the end of the main building. It was rather spooky. The way some of its walls still stood, though blackened by soot and smoke, broken glass lay everywhere and the doors had collapsed inwards. Despite it being mostly a burnt out shell, it was still difficult to see the other side, there seemed to be a large partition in the centre of the building, a brick wall that was partially damaged yet managed to hold a section of the roof up. He reached gap between the blackened architectural monstrosity and a neighbouring building, that structure had not succumbed to fire, but there was obvious damage from one of the blasts, and burn marks on the wall neighbouring the main block. Its windows were shattered, the doors had been blown inwards, a few planks of wood, whether part of the roof or walls themselves had fallen both on the inside and outside of the smaller abode. He glanced in one of the holes that had once held a window. Pieces of string that had once held up student work had snapped and dropped its art, draping them across the desks, most of which were knocked over or moved form their original positions. There were no signs of bodies within. He debated whether he should enter.
"It was a school, there could be food".
He whispered to himself. He took a few steps back towards the entrance to one of the classrooms and he entered. His footsteps sounded hollow as they creaked over the broken door. There was a rather unpleasant crunching sound underneath. Looking down he noticed a small hand poking out from under. He cringed suddenly, but regained his composure when he realised they were long dead, and best to leave them under their make shift grave.
Daniel walked through the class room, careful where he stepped given the amount of glass and he wasn't too sure how sturdy his shoes would be against such obstacles. He lifted the top of one of the desks looking for anything that could be used. A mess of papers and a few felt pens. He tried the next desk, more of the same, papers and felts. Surrendering to some kind of OCD he opened each desk in the room and found similar items, though he did find several bags of lollies, half a mouldy sandwich – which he left, a few pieces of a fruit and juice box. He stuffed them into a material envelopes that he removed from a hook on the wall, the words "Dream bag" written in a poorly structured manner.
The neighbouring class room was in the same condition. The desks contained the same sorts of things. He gained from there a few packets of chips and a good helping of chocolate from the teacher's desk, along with a few cell phones. How useful they would be, or even if they worked he wasn't sure, but maybe they could so something with them later.
He stepped outside the final class room attached to that block and onto the back courts. He saw Gemmy in what appeared to be an administration building near the back of the campus. The reason as to the main block's fire was soon revealed when he noticed an over turned burnt out van driven part way in. There were a few bodies on board, burnt to nothing but blackened skeletons.
Daniel jogged across the basketball courts and gave a yell to Gemmy as he approached. He noticed her poke her head up from what was keeping her attention and she waved at him to enter.
"Find anything?"
He asked.
"Yeah, you?"
He held up the couple of bags he had gathered.
"Neat. Come take a look at this".
"What?"
"This was the principal's office, he left a message: To the parents, guardians or whoever finds this. Several explosions took place after 1600hours. As most children had gone home for the day we only had on campus six children who were part of the after school care programme, two teachers, myself and Mrs. Hutchin's the librarian, also a temp receptionist. The children were obviously frightened and we deemed it best to leave the facility to try and find a refugee camp. We have taken the school van; it's a white Toyota van with a blue stripe along the side, with the words "Bockingford school for the gifted and special needs". We plan to head north east. We feel it is unsafe here as the winds will blow radiation from near by cities over us. I promise to care for these children as if they are my own, and hope and pray that somewhere out there, my children have found care under those with a similar mindset. Sincerely and with both regret and hope, Art Ng".
Daniel looked out towards the burnt out van.
"I don't think they made it very far".
He pointed, unsure if Gemmy had seen it.
"Oh… shit".
She stared for a few moments trying to get her brain to identify the parts that would say it was a van.
"I wondered what that was".
She added.
"I think he meant 1800hrs, though".
"Yeah, though you'd think a principal of a special and gifted school would know the 24 hour clock".
Daniel replied.
"Guess he was in a hurry".
She sat down in the swivel chair and opened the top draw and started rummaging.
"I haven't checked the staff room, its down the end of this hall on your left, the rest of the rooms I've gone through".
Daniel nodded in acknowledgement.
The door at the end of the hall was slightly open; he suddenly became overwhelmed with a feeling of nervousness, and perhaps a hint of fear. Pushing the door open with the nuzzle of the gun, the screeching it made on its poorly maintained hinges did not help to alleviate his discomfort. He took a deep breath and entered.
"Hello?"
He whispered. There was something about coming into a teachers' staff room that instilled a kind of primal fear. If there was one room in every school that was always out of bounds, it was the teachers' staff room. The place where they escaped the noise and associated shenanigans the students would inflict, a place where they could get away from the tattle tails, the bullies, the class clowns, the teacher's pets, the bratty girls wanting their hair combed, the mummy's boys who wanted hugs, the naughty kids who talked back, a place where they could drink grown up coffee and have grown up conversations. And here he was, a teenaged boy, a rather naughty and unruly teenaged boy, invading that space. He felt like he was coming into get a humiliating telling off.
So he was quite surprised, and a little confused as to how he should feel when he found the place empty.
Well, empty except for the body that was slumped over the table.
He approached her. An older woman, hair tied back in a bun, with those chop stick type things pushed through, dangly earrings that touched the table, an professional, but rather frumpy looking brown flowered patterned dress, light brown panty hose, dark brown shoes with buckles and a chunky heel, an assortment of rings and bangles.
And a large pool of blood that had dried to the table and on the sections of the floors it had splattered on. A gapping hole in the back of her neck expressed the manner of her death.
The smell hit him them. He was so used to smelling things of a more fire damaged nature, that anything else had become a memory. The imagery of it all probably assisted. The wriggling maggots that squiggled about in that hole, a few having fallen out and into her hair, one was having a fine time in her ear, he noticed. She had been dead probably since the day of the bombs. He walked cautiously to the couch and took the faded woollen cover which he used to drape over her remains, he wished he could reassure himself his actions were out of respect for her, but really, it was because he didn't want to risk catching a glimpse of those maggots. Good to know the radiation hadn't killed everything… he contemplated on the irony of that statement as he raided the cupboards.
"Find anyth… DAMN!"
Daniel turned and faced Gemmy as she stood staring at the corpse.
"Shot in the back of the neck".
"So much for Mr. Ng's hopeful letter"
"Probably why he wrote down "regretful".
Daniel replied as he went back to his rummaging.
"She looks like a Mrs. Hutchins, a librarian, I mean".
Gemmy started looking through a small collection of jackets hanging from a coat rack.
"Actually, don't' you think its odd that he mentions her by name, but just says "two teachers and a temp", makes you wonder if he was paying special attention to her?"
"I'm more surprised he didn't list the kid's names… but I guess if a parent had their child here they'd come looking, so they wouldn't' need a list".
"You think they were having an affair?"
"Maybe, wouldn't be the first principal to get a bit on the side with the librarian or whoever".
"Not much to look at… of course she's a bit rank".
Gemmy said lifting the cover.
"Oh, nice, maggots".
"Yip. Kind of why I covered her".
"I found a sick bay, its got a bed and its warm, I think we should crash here for the night".
The girl said.
"Sounds like a plan".
Daniel stood up and revealed his bounty from the staff room.
"I think Mr. Ng must of taken everything from in here, all I could find was half a packet of crème crackers".
"Oh well, we got plenty from the class rooms".
They stood for a moment, regarding each other, unsure about the woman dead on the table.
"Let's go. It stinks in here".
Daniel then said, unsure if it sounded disrespectful or immoral on some level, if it did, she didn't mention it. They left and headed towards their night time accommodation.
