The next morning after breakfast I laid out the next series of steps we had to complete before I was sure that they'd be able to take care of themselves after I'd left. "I think it is time we brought the bus into the lot, but first I want to make a try for the military base to get more ammo. Any volunteer's?" I said while looking around. "Considering how things might get worse, I think it's a good idea to load up on something that pack's more of a punch," Jim replied, "we can also see how the others are doing while we're at it." We spent today making a list of the things we would need and plotting our course to the base. "I was once posted there, so I know the place pretty well. So I'm definitely going," Jim said. Frank volunteered as well as Isis, but in truth I was hesitant in letting everyone who could fight leave the compound. Thomas and the women assured me that if anything happened that they would at least be able to hold out until we returned. Jim gave a nod of approval so that settled things. We went to bed early so we could leave before dawn and hopefully return before dark.
After an uneventful ride Jim parked on a hill a mile from the base checking it out with binoculars, when he said, "I can see their truck with the doors open, but I see no signs of life, living or otherwise. There is a helicopter on the roof of the armory, so if we do get in a pinch we can leave that way." We decided to take the frontal approach to avoid getting shot by mistake, as we reached the building, Jim grabbed a M60 machine gun from a truck and took the lead. I knew there was no one living inside, because if there where there is no way they would've left such heavy artillery lying around. "Do we go thru the loading dock or try for the office door?" Frank asked. "The office door, I have no intention of getting swarmed if they happen to be in there," I replied before making my way to the stand alone door in the side of the building. I looked around before taking my crowbar to pry the door. Jim sighed before saying, "This is a military installation, you can't just bust the door's down." After getting the crowbar in I leaned on it, then took my knife sliding it into the gap I made and popped the latch. Jim rolled his eyes at me as he began moving in to secure the entrance followed by Frank and Isis, I took one more look around before going inside. There were a few infected inside that we easily took care of, the odd part was that most of them were taken out by someone else.
"Looks like they made it inside, but where the hell are they now?" Frank asked after killing another infected in one of the offices. "We haven't reached the warehouse yet, be careful. I think this is going to be harder than we thought," I said as I made my way to the next office. From what we could see, about a third of the infected were killed by the soldiers here, and another half were killed by the guy's, but the number that are in the offices aren't enough to cause those guy's any trouble in my opinion. "Something went seriously wrong here," I thought to myself. Once the offices were clear we made our way to the door that lead to the warehouse. I went up next to door and placed a hand on the handle before looking at the others. Everyone took a deep breath before then I yanked open the door, Jim jumped thru with his gun at the ready follow by Frank and Isis. As I went thru the door the first thing I noticed was an armored convoy parked in front of the door, and when I looked around the APC I completely froze. "Looks like we found the base personnel," I thought to myself as we looked out at over a hundred infected shuffling thru out the warehouse.
We exchanged glances wondering at what to do next when Jim pointed to the open APC in front of us and then the bay doors. The controls for opening the doors was back in the office. Isis went back to the offices to open the doors with Frank to watch her back, while Jim would drive the APC and I would man the M60 on top to draw the infected to us so we could lead them out. Once everyone was ready Jim turned on the APC as Isis opened the doors causing the infected to stir like an ant's nest. I started to open fire in short bursts at the infected just to push back the ones that got too close and to keep them from blocking the way. "I really have to stop playing hero before I end up getting myself killed," I thought to myself as I fired off another burst. "It wouldn't hurt if you put a little more distance between us," I yelled down to Jim inside the APC. With my ammo getting low I had to start only firing short bursts to keep drawing them towards us as we slowly drove past the doors.
As Jim started to do a U-turn on the tarmac the infected started to claw at the APC with a few climbing up so I pulled out my hand gun and shot any that got a bit too close. "I wish these things would learn the meaning of personal space," I thought to myself as I shot another in the head knocking him and an infected behind him off the APC. After a few minutes Jim honked the horn, signaling for them to close the doors. When they were halfway closed Jim hightailed it back inside, running over more than a few infected. As we cleared out the building we came across a back room, but the door was barricaded from the inside and it took us a while to break it down. But when we did, we found the missing group members, they had turned and were eating each other so we ended their lives as mercifully as we could. While the others were packing everything we could take with us, I went with Jim to the roof to check on the condition of the helicopter.
Frank came up to the roof to tell me they were ready as I was leaning over the edge taking in our surroundings, I said, "We may be ready to leave, but I think they have other plans." Frank came to the ledge to look down upon which he started cursing, the infected that had created a wall between us and our vehicles. "What do we do now?" Frank asked while throwing his hands in the air. "This is why plan B's exist. I had Jim check out the chopper, it has a full tank and is ready to fly," I told him, "but unfortunately it won't carry everything we planned to take, that just means we can use this building as a backup should the complex fall, and having so many infected lingering around will keep any would be marauders away."
So we loaded what we could on the chopper and left, everyone was surprised at first that we came in a chopper, but soon discarded the thought, glad that everyone had made it back. As everyone celebrated our haul I went down to the garage I claimed as my own where I was working on the bronco I had first found. It had everything from bullets to bombs, and even a solar powered radio. That was where Isis found me when she asked "Still plan on leaving? You've led us well, kept us alive, why not stay?" I didn't have to turn to her to reply, we've been having this discussion ever since she found out about my side project. "You know the reason, you all have everything you need to become self-sufficient, and that helicopter up there now gives you a better leg up than anyone else out there right now. I can't stay here knowing that I might be able to save one more lives," I said. Knowing how this conversation would end, she left to get me dinner, which consisted of a roasted whole pig, since the generators were starting to run out of fuel we were trying to eat the things that would spoil first.
The next few days consisted of Jim teaching Isis and I to fly the chopper, while everyone else built pens for animals they gathered from nearby farms. I knew that she had picked up on it right away, but I let her have her way and stayed a few days, I guess because a side of me didn't want to leave her for things unknown. Eventually it was time for me to leave, on my last night there everyone threw me a farewell party, thanking me for all I had done for them. I spent the last night with Isis in my room, but we didn't get much sleep. I woke up before dawn with her wrapped tightly around me, but I slipped free to go to the garage. On a silent agreement Jim was there waiting for me so he could close the gate behind me. "I know I haven't been very nice to you over the past month even though you saved our asses at the school and set us up with this place, but I just wanted you to know I always respected you," Jim said. My first thought was to tease him about getting sappy, but seconded guessed it knowing that it was probably embarrassing enough for him to admit it. So I just nodded my head and drove off to meet the sunrise, not knowing where the day would take me.