Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 51

I pointed at the car. "That's where we parked," I said after trying to get used to wearing the night vision goggles.  It was one of the two PVS-14 optics left in the armory. I thought it would be useful to traversing across campus in the dark.

"That's hella far for a parking job," Armas said. I could not leave him with the others, so I brought him along --just the two of us. I didn't fully trust him yet, but he had more experience with firearms than anyone in the group. He tilted his head to the parking lot ahead. "Um, we're gonna be too exposed."

"There's no way around it."

We approached the parking lot next to the Buffalo Soldier Field. We could check the handful of vehicles surrounding Washington Hall to use for distraction, but most of them didn't have the keys. I was tempted to break the windows, but I was afraid the alarms would draw the vectors to our position. I don't even know how to hotwire a car. There weren't many cars sitting on the lot, and I didn't like how exposed we were. Every vector within a thousand feet would spot us.

"So, who taught you?" Armas asked suddenly.

"Taught me what?"

"How to shoot. You carry it like a second limb."

"My dad. Navy SEALs. It comes with the territory, I guess. My family had a long history in the service."

"You want to become a soldier like him, too?"

"I want to become a biologist. He wants me to become a soldier. But look where I am now."

Hey, dad, look at me, wearing this bulky thing. Funny, huh? Here I thought I swore I would never become a soldier, but I think you secretly wished this entire pandemic to happen. I chuckled, imagining my dad would probably do backflips if he could see me now.

I fiddled with the radio attached to my vest. I specifically told the others to keep radio silence until the vectors were out of sight (or after the distraction worked), then they could contact me, or I contacted them first. I didn't want to give away our location if there was a vector nearby.

"You should give me one of the keys," Armas said.

"Why? We're only taking one car, remember? We still need to walk back to Washington Hall after we abandon the Jeep somewhere west of here."

"I can distract them for you."

I stopped mid-stride. "You're going to leave us," I said. It wasn't a question.

Armas sighed. "Look, you have your weapons and your humvee. I'm going to head out to Georgia. My dad still lives there with his girlfriend, and my sisters are there, too."

"We need you to get us into Albany."

"And what do you think they'll do to me when I get back? You said it yourself. I've gone AWOL. Do you know what they do to men like me? I still have family left, and I need to know that they are okay."

"They already put the entire region under quarantine. You can't just waltz out of here."

"I'll figure it out."

"You're not taking our weapons."

"You can keep them. I have what I need with me." He looked down at his rifle, vest, and the ammo he had in his pouches.

I looked at the hotel and back to the campus up the hill. "You know it's best if we all stick together. Safety in numbers," I said.

"You killed my mom," he said.

"Oh, don't put that on me! Are you seriously blaming me for that? She's one of them."

"We should have waited for a cure. You owe me."