Free Life Among The Dead (Book 2): A Castle Made of Sand by Daniel Cotton Page A

with this
city anymore.
    The truck grumbles around the corner, heading
into the very place he has been trying hard to get out of. Dustin
has his foot poised over the accelerator; he knows that oversized
behemoth will have no chance of catching his car. But the truck
clears the way, revealing another set of headlights shining at him.
Now sandwiched between these two vehicles, Dustin has no choice but
to perform a U-turn and follow. The second vehicle flashes its
brights to indicate he should do just that, and he becomes a part
of the convoy that heads deeper into the very industrial park he
wished to escape.
    Dustin Barnes has never been to this part of
the park. The unmoving traffic thickens as they near the high walls
of the National Guard’s recruit depot. Civilian vehicles clog the
entrance to the small base in a haphazard arrangement born out of
desperation. People wanted in, but those turned away for being
bitten now walk in the spaces between the tightly packed
bumpers.
    The trucks pull up against the wall and
Dustin follows suit. Soldiers and civilians pile out of the back of
the carriers, while riflemen position themselves between them and
the meandering threats that advance, but most of the zombies are
thankfully trapped amid the congestion.
    Dustin follows the living into the base,
where he and the other survivors are handed off to a new crew of
soldiers armed with clipboards and ballpoints.
    The refugees are split up according to gender
and ushered into tents. They are told to strip down and surrender
all weapons. Dustin is told to extend his arms and turn around
while naked so he can be checked for bites. Though the process is
for everyone’s best interest, he feels embarrassed and demeaned.
His pistol, and the few rounds he had on him, have been confiscated
and placed in a clear bag embossed with his name in permanent
marker. Those who have passed the inspection are herded away once
dressed, and those who had failed are never seen again.
    Among the battery of questions asked of the
survivors were personal inquiries: do they have children, and where
are their families? Dustin feels a twinge of guilt as he follows
the group, because he hadn’t even thought of his mom and dad until
he was asked about them. He hopes they’re all right.
    The base makes him think of his grandfather.
The man had been in the army, and he wonders if this is where he
went to boot camp when he was Dustin’s age. He knows they used to
drill here before an influx in enlisters forced them to move
training to a larger facility. This base was given to the reserves
as a depot for drilling and disaster relief. The refugees are
brought to an open bay barracks that once slept sixty men
uncomfortably back in the day, yet is now deemed suitable for
ninety.
    Three rows of steel bunk beds line the squad
bay with little space between. Men, women, and children who have
already settled into the shelter fall silent as the additional
occupants are led in and told to find an empty rack to sleep
in.
    Dustin walks down the narrow rows of staring
people, making it halfway down one before he discovers an empty
bed. The moment he adheres the nametag they gave him to the head of
his mattress frame, the soldiers tell the mass of salvaged souls
that it is time to eat.

 
14
     
    Gar has made his way to Memorial Hospital. He
didn’t need to evade the dead that followed him after fleeing from
the slasher, which is good considering a sharp pain in his side had
caused him to slow. For some reason, the zombies just passed him by
as he limped along. The stoner had to scratch his head over this
and wonder if they thought he was one of them by the way he was
moving.
    The parking lot is a mess, because folks had
parked in the aisles of the Emergency Room entrance in their
imperative times of need. He has to climb over the hoods of cars,
and maneuver around one that stopped inside the lobby. The
expensive luxury sedan had destroyed the glass vestibule and
careened into