A New World: Sanctuary Read Online Free PDF Page B

happen to you, I’m worried there might be a breakdown,” Drescoll says in a lowered voice.
    “You and Lynn can easily handle things if something were to happen to me,” I say addressing his concern.
    “Probably, but not as well I think.   Well, I hope you find your mom well,” he says sticking his hand out.
    “Thanks.   I appreciate that and you take care of yourself.   There may be others around that may not take kindly to you borrowing their vehicles,” I say returning his shake.   “Follow me to the gate.   Honk or flash your lights if you see something or you need to stop.”
    “Will do,” he says and climbs into the driver seat with Green Team already seated within.
    Robert and I climb in the other Humvee.   I check the battery and wait for the light signaling the glow plugs are warm before starting up.   With a “thumbs up” from Drescoll beside us, we start off in the early morning light toward the front gate.
    Nothing much has changed since our journey into the base just a week ago.   It still has the ghost town feel; the structures intact but with no one home.   This is where our journey began so there is a bit of a homecoming feel.   The eeriness is not as prevalent as before but there is no way it can completely disappear as we travel through the empty streets.   Only the lonely feeling of a world abandoned follows us as we make our way past the desolate buildings.   I used to get this feeling in times past when we would travel through deserted villages where the people had long ago fled from various roving armed bands; the once busy dirt streets, filled with the noises of villagers going about their daily lives, just echoes of the past.
    We keep a lookout among the buildings and streets as Greg couldn’t have been the only remaining soul here.   Birds flit through the calm, warming air and over the brown grass fields, their life changing little in the aftermath.   The only change in their life is perhaps the registration of a new predator.   Andrew, the first person we met following the death of the world, enters my thoughts and I wonder if he made it to find his parents in Spokane.   With the immunity seeming to be familial, it makes sense that one parent, if not both, would have survived the vaccine.   Whether they survived the days following is another story altogether.   I find myself hoping he at least survived and manages to find his way back here.
    Passing by the hospital, I shudder recalling the close call within.   The building carries a foreboding feeling similar to the CDC building; that the façade is hiding a darkness and terror within.   I remember the words Drescoll spoke just a short time ago when he mentioned having to care for the injured.   The foreboding comes stronger knowing we will possibly have to raid a hospital soon for medical supplies and equipment – knowing it will not be a pleasurable operation.   With the traffic surrounding the exit ramps to the hospital and the larger amount of vehicles in the parking lots, I have the distinct feeling the medical facilities will have a greater amount of dead within complicating matters.   Not just from the nauseating stench but from the onset of disease with so many dead, plus, the knowledge that there may be quite a few night runners within those facilities.   If we are going to go in, we will have to do that soon as the disease from the decaying bodies will only get worse with each passing day.
    Robert is quiet during our ride through the base.   The smell of the decomposing bodies by the front gates reaches us before we catch sight of them.   Again, we have to maneuver our way through them, missing the bodies as best as we can.   The stench is overwhelming and my gut clenches with nausea.   A few of the bodies have been picked at from the carrion.   The sight and smell is disgustingly atrocious.
    “That’s just plain nasty,” Robert says as we thread our way through and pull up to the front gate,