by Jeff Ping
Chapter 16
As SrA Keepers made his way to the terminal, he noted a lot of activity. There were teams of armed men patrolling and searching building by building. There were several vehicles of armed men driving around and searching the darker areas with search lights. After the men had moved past him he made a dash for the further corner of terminal. As he turned the corner and headed for the terminal doorway he was met by two individuals carrying M4's.
"STOP!! PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD!" shouted one of the men. SrA Keepers grabbed for his MP5 but both men fired before he could raise his weapon. SrA Keepers was hit in the shoulder and the legs. He made a snatch at his radio microphone but before he could key the mic., a booted foot struck him on the side of his head.
SrA Keepers saw a brilliant flash of light as the intense pain overpowered him and he blacked out. When he awoke he was tied to a chair while a man of about forty sat staring at him.
"Who the hell are you? We have already killed one of your friends tonight. And if you don't give me some answers I won't have any problem killing you too." I said.
"Keepers, John C., Senior Airman., United States Expeditionary Force" uttered SrA Keepers.
"OK John C Keepers what the hell are you doing skulking around my facilities?" I asked.
"This base is the property of the government of the United States. And you are not authorized to occupy these facilities," said SrA Keepers.
"There is no longer a United States government to own this base. This base and everything on it, is now the property of the Federated City State of California." I replied.
I turned to the armed men who had shot and captured SrA Keepers. "Steve, you and Mike, lock him up in the cage in the warehouse. Then get someone to tend to his wounds."
As the guards left the room with their prisoner, Sheriff Tom passed them in the hallway. Walking into my office Tom said, "Hey Bill, I heard you had some problems, was that one of them?"
"Yes, he is actually the second one, but all he will say is his name and rank. The first one was killed by Gus. They both had these radios on them. Gus killed one who tried to jump him in the terminal. We caught this one as he was trying to sneak into the terminal building." I told him, handing one of the transceivers across the desk to Tom.
Tom said, "I brought two deputies and four volunteers with me, but we probably should wait for Ralph and Rob before we try to make any contact with whoever is on the other end of these radios. I put in a telephone call to Ralph and informed him of the situation before I left Wasco."
Six hours later and after a meal and a couple of beers and a couple hours sleep, I was jolted awake when my brother Ralph Mason and Jack Duncan walked into the room.
Looking over at the beer bottles sitting on the table Ralph said, "Damn it, did we get called down here in the middle of the night and the parties already over".
"Where's Rob?" I asked.
"We decided one of us should always be at Jennyville and Haven. And Rob lost the draw, so I came to see what was going on. I flew down with six volunteers, and Jack here brought another eight guys. When we got here, Gus was gushing about having killed a young whippersnapper that had attacked him over at the terminal. What the hell is happening? The way he was carrying on you would have thought he had taken on a gang by himself." said Ralph.
I gave Ralph a run down on the situation, and then asked him what he thought the next move should be. Ralph asked if we had started doing a sweep of the fortified areas to try and locate any other people that might have penetrated the defenses.
"I have my people doing a search right now. One of the search party's captured a fellow I have locked up downstairs in the stockroom." I told him.
"I brought a couple of chopper pilots with me. We could launch some choppers and do a sweep of the area looking for any others or a larger force that might be lying in wait for an attack." offered Jack.
I told Jack to go to hanger two and get a couple helicopters in the air ASAP. There were two attack Blackhawks that were fully operational.
Jack assigned a pilot and copilot for one of the choppers and a sniper/spotter team for each door with night vision goggles. He also assigned a copilot and two sniper/lookouts similarly equipped to the second chopper which he piloted.
Jack instructed the pilot of one chopper to fly east to the base perimeter fence then to shadow the base fence line starting in a northern direction until they circled the base completely. He said that he would fly west and turn south mirroring the base fenced border.
Twenty minutes later one of the spotters on Jacks chopper spotted three APC's on a small rise on the southeastern edge of the AFB. Jack pealed off toward the base to report to me, Ralph, and Tom what he had located, using the police band walky-talkies. He instructed the other chopper to return to base. I was in my office when Jack reported to me using the walkie-talkie. I picked up the radio transceiver and said, "How long until you can get both choppers into attack position Jack?"
"Give me five minutes." said Jack
"All right, in five minutes, Tom will call them and demand their surrender. If after five more minutes that's ten minutes from now, I will give you the go to attack. But if they try to make a run for it, before my signal you are to take them out. I want to know who they are, and what they are doing here. I don't want them to escape," I said.
"Yes sir, I'm on my way," replied Jack. Jack double timed it back to where the two helicopters waited on the street just outside the exchange, where my office was located. Jack ran over to the pilot of the second Blackhawk and gave him his orders and told him to relay the information to his crew.
Then Jack turned and ran to his own chopper. Within two minutes both helicopters lifted of the ground, turned and flew back to the point Jack had observed the vehicles.
Back in my office I checked my wristwatch and when the ten minutes were up I nodded my head to Tom.
Tom keyed the transceiver microphone and said, "This is Sheriff Tom Hardin. We are aware of your location and demand you surrender immediately. One of your men has been killed while attacking a civilian and a second has been arrested. In the name of the Federated City State of California, I demand your surrender, or you will be considered armed and dangerous. You are to be apprehended or killed."
Tom gave the attack command to Jack over his police walkie-talkie radio then looked at me.
"Now we wait." I said looking over to Tom.
Inside the command vehicle, Colonel Thompson and TSgt Keller stared at each other.
"What are your orders, sir?" asked TSgt Keller.
"Who the hell do these people think they are to demand our surrender? Get me Hill Command center on the sat phone," said Colonel Thompson.
Before the call to Hill AFB could be initiated, the two Blackhawk helicopters popped up from where they had been concealed below the butte and opened fire on the vehicles using their M240 machine guns.
Jack fired one AGM114 Hellfire missile and the closest APC exploded, flipping into the air and landing on top of the command APC. Both Choppers stopped firing at that point. The side and rear hatches opened on the two remaining APC's. The occupants of the APC's started scrambling out with their hands in the air.
In my office the radio transceiver crackled to life and the voice of TSgt Keller came on line shouting "OK...OK! We surrender call the choppers off."
Ralph said, "I'll go pick them up."
Ralph hurried from the office and jogged to the warehouse motor pool compound and ordered a transport vehicle to drive him to the location Jack had shown them on the map. Ralph and six armed men arrived at their location just as the sun rose above the horizon. Ralph and his six guards dismounted and disarmed Sgt Keller and his troops.
TSgt. Keller said "I've got three wounded and four dead."
Ralph said, "Prepare your dead for disposal and then load your walking and the wounded into the bus."
TSgt. Keller stripped the dog tags from his dead troopers and moved back as two of Ralph's gu
ards put a round into each body's forehead then soaked them in gasoline and set them on fire.
As the bus made its way back to the exchange Ralph stood up and addressed the prisoners, "Who is in charge of this group?" asked Ralph
Sgt Keller spoke up and said, "Colonel Thompson is in charge of the expeditionary force. But he was wounded during the unprovoked attack and is unconscious, so as senior NCO, I'm in charge now."
Ralph looking Sgt. Keller in the eye said, "Let me make this very, very clear Sgt, you people attacked us first. And that indignant attitude and tone will only hasten your demise. I want answers and I will just keep shooting your people until I get the information I want. Now I want you to sit down and shut up. I will interrogate everyone later. Right now I am more concerned with how many others are at large inside my compound."
Sgt. Keller said, "Keller, Keith G. Technical Sgt., United States Air force."
Ralph looked TSgt. Keller in the eyes and said, "I remember the name, rank, and serial number routine. But in case you didn't notice the "F***in" Zombies ate the Geneva conventions rule book. So, either you give me the information I want, or the next guy in line will be asked until there aren't any more of you assholes to shoot. Now, if that's the way you want to play it, sit back down and shut up. I'll ask you later when I have the appropriate tools."
Ralph turned to one of the guards he had stationed at either end of the aisle of the bus, "Shoot anyone that tries anything or makes trouble. Make them head shots. No need to have to waste ammo with a second shot."
When the bus arrived back at the Exchange where my headquarters were located, Ralph had the prisoners locked into inventory stock cages. Although the cages weren't extremely secure, the prisoners were never left alone or unobserved by the guards. Ralph went upstairs to my office where me, Jack and Tom were waiting.
"I think these are regular US troops. Based on the rank they appear to be Air Force, not Army, or Marines." Ralph told us.
Jack said, "They were just sitting up on that hill top. We didn't spot any lookouts or anything. They must not be too experienced dealing with Zombies out in the sticks."
"They are probably military that went to ground as soon as the Zombie plague broke out. I won't have any problem beating the information that I need out of these guys. They should have been trying to save civilians not hiding underground." said Ralph.
Then Ralph turned to Jack and said, "Jack how about fueling up your helicopter and taking Technical Sgt. Keller and I for a little helicopter ride."
Jack looked across the desk at me. I nodded my head in assent. "I'm on my way, I'll be ready in 20 minutes." said Jack as he left the room.
When Jack had left the room, I looked over at Ralph and said, "At least try and get some information out of him before you throw him out, OK?
"I'm hurt Bill, I'm not a cold blooded killer despite what Gus says about me. I'll just question him. I think he needs to experience some Zombies up close first hand. I'm going to take him Zombie fishing. I've wanted to troll for Zombies ever since I went for my first chopper ride."
On his way to the stock warehouse to collect Technical Sergeant Keller, Ralph stopped by the sporting goods department and picked up a 100 foot coil of rope. Ralph stopped by the cage containing Technical Keller. Ralph fastened the Sgt.'s hands behind his back and blind folded the Sgt. and then led him outside and pushed him toward the waiting chopper.
"Lets leave the door gunners here this trip," said Ralph as he and the Sgt. climbed into the chopper.
Jack lifted off and turning to Ralph asked, "Where to Uncle Ralph?"
"Let's go out toward Barstow. I want to find a good sized herd of Z's."
On the flight east, Ralph tied the rope around Keller's chest. The other end of the rope Ralph looped around the tie down just inside the choppers door.
"Here they are," said Jack.
Ralph looked out the windshield to see about fifty Zombies milling around a trashed convenience store. All of the Zombies heads swiveled and turned toward the Blackhawk at the noise its blades made as they whipped through the air.
"Set us down here," said Ralph as he pulled on his gloves.
When the helicopter touched down, Ralph cut the straps holding Keller's hands behind his back. He ripped TSgt. Keller's blindfold off and pushed him out the helicopters side door.
"OK Jack, take us up about twenty five feet and toward them Zombies, slowly." said Ralph.
Keller shielded his squinted eyes trying to avoid the dust raised from helicopter blades backwash. Suddenly, Keller saw the Zombies staggering toward him.
"Pull me up damn it. They're coming!" Keller screamed.
"What? I'm fishing for Zombies and I can't quit until I catch one," yelled Ralph.
"I'll tell you anything you want, just please pull me up," whined Keller.
"Crap, I thought this was more fun than this. Take us up and away from here Jack," said Ralph as he pulled in TSgt. Keller.
On the flight back to Edwards AFB, TSgt. Keller told Ralph that his squad was dispatched from Hill AFB to investigate and were to determine who was occupying the AFB. Sgt. Keller also told Ralph that there were still four more men concealed inside the buildings and six more monitoring the runways.
"Can you get them to surrender?" asked Ralph.
"I can call them in using the radio gear in the command vehicle," said Keller.
When the chopper touched down, Jack offered to return Keller to his detention cage. Ralph said thanks and headed back up to my office.
Opening the door to my office, Ralph said, "The Sgt. says there are still ten men loose on the base. There are four inside the buildings and six at or around the runways."
"Did he tell you where they are from or why they came here?" ask Tom.
"Keller said they were sent here from Hill AFB to see who we were." I guess they figured everyone but themselves were either dead or Zombies. I guess they thought we might be terrorist or commies," Ralph laughed.
Ralph said that if he had the soldiers vehicles brought in Sgt. Keller could call in the remaining ten remaining men.
"They must have some way of communicating with Hill AFB too. I'll send someone out to pickup their APC's this morning. Ralph, why don't you and Tom get some sleep I'll wake you when we're ready to start questioning the prisoners. And, thanks Ralph, good job with the Sgt." I said.
"Thanks little brother, I was happy to help," said Ralph. Walking past me he tussled my hair, and then quickly stepped out of my reach.
As Tom and Ralph walked toward the sleeping quarters they had been assigned Tom told Ralph, "Do you know how lucky you two are, not only to have survived this shit but to have found one another too?"
Ralph stopped at the door to his room, turned and said, "Yeah, I know. Did you know Bill was working about 35 miles from Wasco when everything fell apart? You had a better chance meeting him than I did. I didn't even know where Bill was, before the plague hit.
He headed up to my place thinking that I might have tried to get there. Bill was only a kid twelve or thirteen when I left home. Bill used to write and beg me to visit, but I never seemed to be able to find the time to get down and visit him and the folks.
Then he grew up. He got involved with his own life and we just lost contact. I regret the lost years, when we fell out of touch with each other. During those years we could have both used each others company and support, and we'll never get that time back."