It was nearing night when Jess finally entered San Antonio. There were too many cars in the streets to continue driving her truck so she parked it on the side of the road, hiding away the keys and grabbing her backpack. The smell here was just as bad as it had been in her home town. However here rotting flesh was mixed with burning flesh. The bandanna around her nose and mouth did little to filter the acrid scent as she weaved her way through cars and far around piles of burning bodies. People were here, people who were alive. The grey wouldn't have bothered piling bodies for a gruesome pyre.

Jess kept her eyes wide open, noting lights in the distance. Lights meant electricity. She quickened her pace, following the road noting signs that pointed towards the Army Base of Fort Sam. She wasn't surprised. Of course people would gather at an army base. They'd just been attacked. People were going to go where there would be weapons and nominal protection. She wished she'd thought of it before abandoning her vehicle but it was too late now. She kept up a steady jog, aiming to reach the base before night set in. 
She was not scared of the dark, not normally. But this wasn't the same world she'd known a few weeks ago.

It took over an hour of walking and jogging to reach the base, a decent sweat discoloring her collar and wetting her brow. She pulled off the bandanna as she reached the gate, noting several self appointed guards. They pointed weapons towards her as they heard her approach, and a flashlight shone in her direction. "Whoa! Easy, I'm human!" She called out, hands raised up to show she wasn't holding any weapons. Her shotgun was slung on her back. 

"You got identification!?" One of them called to her, his voice trembling. Shit, he was younger than she was by the way his voice cracked. 
"Easy there, Jace." An older man with wispy white hair stepped forward and waved Jess closer. "I'm Tucker. What's your name and where you from?"
"Jess Myers. I'm from Cotulla." She showed her driver's license.
"What was the population?"
"'Bout 5,000." Jess answered solemnly. "Small place..."
"Anyone else alive there?" He asked in a tone that was weary as he looked over her license.
She shook her head. "Far as I could tell, just me."
"Shit..." He muttered and handed back her license. 
"How...how many here?" She nodded at the base behind him. 
"Fifty-two. People are arriving every couple hours now but...the death count so far is in the hundreds of thousands." He shook his head. "Its the Apocalypse, no doubt about it. You encountered any of The Grey in person yet?"
"Naw." Jess shook her head. "Terrified I was gonna though." 
"Yup, we all are, kid. Go on inside, get yourself a hot meal and grab a bunk. If ya need medical assistance ask the people with the red badges on their arms. Ya need information, ask someone with a blue badge. If you brought anything you can donate to help, like medical supplies, please do."
"Sure. Thanks." Jess nodded and slipped inside the gate, a shiver going down her spine. It was all so surreal. 

The inside of the base was clean, organized and quiet. Too quiet. Those that spoke, did so in hushed tones as if speaking above a murmur would attract the attention of the Aliens. Ridiculous of course, but she felt the same fear. Most people were in a state of shell-shock, sitting on bunks and staring blankly into space. The people with red and blue badges were doing their best to help organize the refugees and answer questions, of which too many had no answers. She didn't realize she'd frozen in the doorway till someone with a red arm badge touched her shoulder. A women with flaming red hair and green eyes. "You alright hun? You hurt at all?"
"Mm, no. I..." The words stuck in her mouth as the reality of the situation suddenly struck her. 
The nurse just nodded understandingly. "Men are bunking on the left, women on the right, families..." She grimaced slightly, revealing just how few families there still were, "Families in the back. Put your stuff on which ever one that's free. No one is gonna take anything. We've got guards watching closely for theft. And honestly..." She shrugged, "There is more than enough to go around right now."
Jess nodded. "Yeah, thanks." She noted several tables set up in the middle of the bunker. One had people with blue badges and paperwork. Even in the apocalypse there was paperwork. Another was a makeshift medical station where people were being treated and given medicine. Another had food that was being served out. She grabbed a bottom bunk in the corner, hiding her stuff under the bed but putting her coat on the pillow to mark it. She kept her shotgun slung on her back. It was Texas in the middle of an Alien invasion so of course no one stopped her. Everyone wanted to be armed. She made her way to the back of the line, waiting for her turn to get some food.