Ch. 12 - Crates
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"You didn't see anything hinky?" Slattery demanded.
As always, Carlton smirked at the Commander's choice of words. Danny fought the urge to role his eyes. It had been a long time since he found Slattery's juvenile vocabulary to be a source of humor. "The dust was out of control, sir. No way to fake that. The place hadn't been touched in at least ten years."
"And Nolan didn't say anything suspicious?" Slattery continued, his brow furrowed.
Danny glanced at Carlton, who shrugged. "Nolan is definitely hiding things, sir, but on this he was straight-up. Nobody's been there."
Captain Chandler folded his arms across his chest, nodding firmly. "Told you XO. This is our best bet."
Danny wasn't surprised to find out that there had been a conversation between the two commanders that neither he nor Carlton were privy too. Captain Chandler trusted their loyalty, their skill, even their judgment. If he hadn't, neither Danny nor Carlton would be here. But for all of that, they were not equals. When push came to shove, Captain Chandler saw Carlton and Danny and Kara and Ravit as his responsibility, one that he took seriously. That was the reason that Captain Chandler went on the most dangerous missions alone. He wanted - no, needed - to protect the men and women under his command. And not simply from the risk of infection, but also from the knowledge of just how bad it was out there.
Danny understood because he felt the same. That was the reason he met each new group of survivors when they arrived outside the gate, rather than sending Wolf or Cruz or Diaz to do the job. Watching the men and women he commanded die was devastating. But seeing the fear, the horror in their eyes as they saw what was waiting for them - as they saw men, women, and children suffering from a virus that showed no mercy - that loss of innocence was almost as bad.
There was more than one kind of death.
"I agree with Captain Chandler," Danny spoke. "The bunker is no more vulnerable than this location, fewer entrances and far better hidden. Security isn't worth shit but we can beef that up."
"How about you Burk, you vote for Sheridan or the bunker?" Captain Chandler asked, turning to the other man. Danny admired that about Chandler, his ability to make them all feel like their input was valuable. Drawing them out, getting them to open up and speak naturally. It was one of the reasons why Captain Chandler was such a good leader. He asked what other people thought. He listened. He cared. Or at least he did a good job pretending. He acted as though this was a democracy, when in reality it was anything but. Captain Chandler could elect to stay here - against all common sense and logic - and nobody would openly defy him. Hell, nobody except the XO would even question him. Because as crazy as Chandler's ideas sometimes seemed, he seemed to pull off the impossible.
He was the reason that Doctor Scott still had a laboratory, allowing her to develop the cure.
He was the reason that the crew remained together upon reaching Norfolk, convincing those with families flung across United States that they were better off waiting for the cure before searching out their loved ones.
He was the one who trusted Smith, without any basis, when he said that this Camp buried in the Appalachians would keep them safe.
He was the reason that they were alive.
No, not all of them, but Captain Chandler was right more often than he was wrong. At times Danny almost hated the man for his ability to stir up hope, to make Danny want to believe, when giving up would have been so much easier. But every time he saw his daughter, he understood what drove the man.
Darian. Ashley. Sam.
Captain Chandler couldn't give up any more than Danny could, leaving his children behind to face this hell on earth alone.
"Bunker," Carlton replied. His eyes slipped towards Danny with a look that Danny couldn't translate. Strange. After years of working and living together, Danny thought that he could read Carlton better than anyone. "It will take weeks to get to Sheriden, and moving so many people is bound to attract Immune attention. With a bunker we can send groups one at a time, at night. With a little luck, they won't have any clue what we are doing."
Carlton's plan was solid. One that Danny should have suggested. But his brain refused to cooperate, unable to stop spinning long enough to focus.
"It will still take several days to fully evacuate," Danny interjected. "Moving the children will take the longest, especially in the dark. And it's going to be noisy. We may attract attention whether we want to or not."
"I have an idea about that," Captain Chandler said, exchanging glances Slattery. Oh yes, those two had spoken. This meeting was simply a formality. "We're going to give the Immunes something else to focus on. Captain Slattery will coordinate the evacuation while I take a small team down south and attract a little bit of Immune attention. Plan is to play peek-a-boo and keep them going for a few days. That should give you time to move everyone to the bunker. Then my team will hightail north, making them think that we are headed towards Illinois."
Not quite a suicidal plan, but close enough. Danny spoke without hesitation. "I volunteered to go."
After all, with Captain Slattery back there was no need for him to handle the evacuation.
"Request denied." Captain Chandler's voice was firm, leaving no room to argue. "You too Burk, in case you are about to make the same statement. You have a kid arriving at any minute. Not a good time to play hide-and-seek. Besides, I'll have Nolan with me and Cosetti and Mandelsohn volunteered to join us."
Mandelsohn? The kid couldn't be more than twenty. And although Cosetti was a decent sailor he was also, for lack of a better word, an anxious mess. Neither had ever done more than a local supply run. "Sir, I have to protest. They aren't ready. They've barely been outside the gate before."
Captain Chandler's eyebrow rose. "Both have done more than the required seven training missions and now with Doctor Scott's vaccine, we don't have to worry about becoming infected. That will make it far easier to evade the Immunes. They'll be expecting us to avoid populated areas. So we won't."
Which mean getting an up close and personal view of what happened to people who weren't lucky enough to evade the Immunes.
"Sir, I really think..."
Captain Chandler's hand rose. "Protest noted, Commander Green, but the decision has been made. Now go prepare the first three teams to move as soon as the sun sets."
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"Green!"
Barely reigning in his temper, Danny turned to Slattery. "Yes, sir."
The words were clipped enough to draw a scowl from Captain Slattery. "You're burned out."
"Captain!" Danny protested, but Captain Slattery stopped him with a raised hand.
"Truthfully we all are. Hell, before this damn plague any one of us would have been pulled off of active duty and permanently benched after a quarter of the shit that we've been through over the past four years. The fact that you're still kicking shows just how tough you are, Green. But we all have our breaking point. I know that I did."
There was no need for Slattery to elaborate. Both of them vividly remembered the night that Slattery sat next to his dying wife, holding her hand and sobbing, convinced that his daughters would be next. Morning might have brought a miracle for Whitney and Shaylyn Slattery, but watching his wife suffer and die took something from Slattery that he would never get back. Danny often wondered what Slattery might have done had things gone differently that night. Whether Slattery, like Benz, might have chosen a different path.
"I'm one of the lucky ones, sir," Danny argued, but unable to keep a note of bitterness out of his voice. Lucky. "I still have my family."
"We've all lost people," Slattery replied, voice soft. "Benz, Berchem, Smith. Don't think I don't understand what losing them was like for you. No different than me losing Garnett or Jeter. They weren't just my fellow senior officers. They were my friends. Closer in some ways than my own family. I certainly saw more of them."
Slattery's attempt at humor fell flat, the two men staring at each other. Slattery blinked first.
"This isn't a race to the bottom, Green, trying to figure out who has it worst. I lost my wife and son but my daughters survived. You lost your team and probably your parents but gained a wife and daughter. Ravit lost every single person she knew before this plague hit, but found Carlton. All of us lost something. There's no point in comparisons." Slattery paused, and his next words were clearly a command. "Once we get everyone to that bunker, you're off duty for two weeks with a mandatory counseling session. And before you protest, no, you are not the only one being singled out and, no, Captain Chandler is not going to reverse my position. We've decided that going forward all senior officers will be required to have monthly psych evaluations, along with PT assessments, in order to remain on active duty."
Damn. Slattery was a sneaky bastard, knowing that Danny couldn't very well protest too much when Captain Chandler had already agreed. Ignoring Slattery's grin - the one that clearly said got you - Danny managed to choke out a single word.
"Understood."
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Danny's foot tore through the crate, his blood pressure spiking even further as he struggled to free himself from the jagged hole without ruining his boot. It's not like there was a PX where he could get more.
Carlton leaned against the side of the building, arms crossed, unmoved by Danny's outburst. "You done?"
"What the hell, Carlton? They totally cut us out," Danny seethed. "And as if being kicked off the mission wasn't bad enough, I'm now benched?"
"Not benched. Given leave," Carlton stressed the word. "Leave that you should have received four years ago. When my time comes you better believe that I am taking every last second."
Learning that Carlton was not being given the same "leave" had done nothing to improve Danny's piss-poor mood. Sure he understood that Carlton was scheduled to take time off when the baby arrived instead, and Slattery implied that both of them were subject to the new mandatory counseling rule, but still, the knowledge that Carlton was handling all of this better than he was gnawed at Danny.
"Aren't you pissed?" Danny demanded, baffled by Carlton's unruffled demeanor. "We're the best they have and instead of running a mission in enemy territory like we trained for, we're playing tour guide to a bunch of civilians on a nature walk."
Carlton spoke calmly. "Captain Chandler's on a suicide mission. He knows it. Slattery knows it. The men that signed up, they all know it. That's the reason everyone on the team except the Captain is single. Less collateral damage. You have a wife, Green, a kid. You need to think about them."
Amber, her eyes filled with tears, begging to know why Eddie didn't take the offered vaccinate. "Why would Eddie do that? Leave us behind?" She whispered. "We have a child too. What about Tyler?"
Danny began pacing, pushing the image away. It wasn't the same. It wasn't. "I can't just sit here and do nothing. We're the best they have and we've been thrown aside in favor of the third-string."
Carlton didn't answer, the silence stretching for so long that Danny wondered if he was going to respond. "If I thought that me being out there would be the difference between the Immunes finding us or not, I'd be out there in a second. But I know that this time it doesn't matter how good we are. The whole point is to draw notice, to attract attention and, if need be, to get caught. And I don't want that to be me because, when it comes down to it, I want to see my child grow up."
Danny felt like he had been punched in the gut. "And you think I don't?" He snarled.
The response was instinctive, a defensive response, but Carlton took it seriously. "Do I think you're suicidal? Nah, but you're so far gone that you no longer care if you live or die. That's why you're breaking the rules. Pushing the boundaries. Taking on too much, refusing to delegate even when people offer."
Danny turning off his mic when outside the camp. Insisting that he alone be the one to meet all of the arriving groups. Pushing more and more responsibility onto his own shoulders in order to protect his people.
Carlton waited while Danny opened and closed his mouth, unable to find the right words. "You know that one of these days it's going to catch up with you and I'm going to be the one stuck telling Kara that your annoying ass is dead."
"It all seems so pointless," Danny admitted, his anger disappearing as quickly as it came, his entire body suddenly aching with exhaustion.
Carlton nodded, considering the statement. "But it isn't. Dr. Scott found the cure. We have a place to go. No it's not perfect, but it's safe. It's been a couple rough years but things are finally looking up, Green. You have to focus on that."
"I don't know how," Danny confessed.
"Then you need to figure it out," Carlton replied. Letting the words sink in, he straightened. "But for now, we've got a camp to evacuate. And I guarantee by now that both of our wives are ready to kill us so we should probably go before this entire conversation becomes truly pointless."