Cassie (Adrian's Undead Diary Book 8)

by Chris Philbrook

  Sometimes you just need to feel what you’re doing is right for it to matter.

  Sigh.

  Winter is upon us, and we have many domestic issues to contend with. Food will be tight as is, and we now have multiple groups in the town that are likely to vie for the remaining resources in houses and businesses. Even if they are friendly, bringing them here to Bastion, in any way affects our ability to survive. We simply can’t afford to feed many more if we want to be healthy, and survive as a group through the whole winter.

  We all did manage to agree that for the moment, simply maintaining was a good idea. Investigate town, work on fortifications, increase our food production and resource retrieval, and when warmer weather came, hopefully we’d have a better idea of what we were supposed to be doing. I think all three of us were secretly hoping for more dreams between now and then that would lead us to the promised land, so to speak. We could use some serious insider intel.

  Gilbert, if you’re listening, I could use a call.

  Our plan for the next few days I’ve already shared. We’ve got the space and the gear to expand the hydroponics in the gym, and that’s what we need to do. We’ve got some design ideas for hydroponics that don’t require any electricity, and we’re going to build some. I've allocated manpower to Ryan and Becca to help get it done as soon as possible. We need to fortify MGR. We also need to install the second stove there, and probably increase their electricity on hand. Kevin, Ethan and I all foresee us expanding the number of people living there, so we need to gear up for that.

  Construction on the waterfront tower must continue. Watching the ice freeze a little bit more every morning has made people very worried about an attack from that direction, as unlikely as it may be. We also need more wood to burn. Syl needs to be rehabilitated, the school must stay open and operational for the children, and we need to make more babies. I know we’re having a rough time planning on how to feed who we have now… but we need to make more babies if we as a species are going to survive.

  I’ll end on that note. We’ve got to fuck more. Maybe that’s my role in this. Maybe the Soul has to knock some boots to save humanity.

  Right. Like that’d be the case. I'm not that lucky.

  -Adrian

  January 13th

  Ethan came over the radio yesterday afternoon, calm as a cucumber, with gunfire in the background. Those of us with radios reacted immediately to his short, simple message.

  “Taking heavy fire at MGR. One casualty, critical. Requesting immediate QRF support.”

  I haven’t heard a message like that in a long time. I mean years. I’d forgotten how badly it chilled you to the bone. I also forgot just how fast it got your heart pumping.

  Kevin came over the radio in response just a few seconds later, “Copy that. QRF gathering and enroute. ETA 20 minutes.”

  It took us just five minutes for our pre-agreed upon QRF force to gear up, saddle up, and get the fuck out of the gate. As we piled into the two humvees and the HRT there was a mixture of fear and adrenaline coursing through us. We knew we were driving into danger, but we also wanted to be there for our friends, and nothing, nothing at all would get in the way of us getting to the people we cared about.

  Caleb drove the HRT with me in the shotgun seat. In the humvees we had Kevin, Quan, Kate, Roger, Nick, and Joel. Pretty much the majority of our heaviest hitters. We left a good number of our second tier shooters behind for security in the event the school was attacked. Abby, Mike, Harold, Angela and Patty for example. Calling them second tier isn't fair either.

  “Out of the gate. ETA ten minutes,” Kevin said as we pulled away, gunning it up Auburn Lake Road. We'd made up time.

  Ethan responded a few seconds later, “Better hurry. We’re going to have a KIA here shortly.”

  Never something you want to hear. KIA. Killed in Action. A dead body. A dead friend. My resolution broken already, just 12 days into a 365 day long year. A fool's dream it was, right?

  “Roger that,” Kevin said.

  The roads were clear right up to the area where the police station was. In the road there we swerved and ran over a couple of dead that were walking towards the sound of the gunfire at MGR. Right about as the rear tires of the HRT were bumping over the smashed corpses Kevin asked Ethan to switch to the more secure military comms and give us an update. Ethan’s quick report came into our ears, crisp, calm and clear, though he sounded like he was running.

  “We’re taking fire from the north and west. You’ll be coming in from the south west if you take the normal route, so be careful. As best as I can tell, we’ve got three or four hostiles in both locations. They’re got high powered rifles, and are firing accurately. I’m more or less suppressed at the moment, but I'm maneuvering to a different window to get a shot off. Right now I believe they are maneuvering on us, trying to get to the base of the building. If they get to the gate, we’re in deep shit.”

  Kevin replied to him, “Roger that. We’ll adjust course to approach from the west attacker’s rear. Maybe we can flush them out. Who is the wounded and what is the severity of the injury?” Kevin asked him.

  “Mallory took a round to the left arm just above the elbow. Lower arm is trashed, severed. I’ve got a tourniquet on her and the bleeding pretty much under control and an IV in her. She’s in a lot of pain, and lost a lot of blood. She’s gonna need fluids stat, and I can't offer her care while we're under this kind of fire.”

  As much as I may or may not be angry with her for leaving me, or wanting to be happy without me in her life, I did not wish ill upon her. I always deep inside understood what she wanted. She didn’t deserve to get shot like that. No one deserves to lose an arm. My skin went all prickly as Ethan talked and I had that sinking feeling of despair, mingling with anger at the same time. I was in a bad place mentally, no lie.

  The PJs exchanged some fancy medical jargon that I won’t even try and regurgitate. I didn’t understand it then, and I certainly won’t do it any justice now. Over the comms we discussed driving hard into the back of the western shooter’s positions, and engaging them with overwhelming fire superiority. Shock and motherfucking awe.

  We saw them and they saw us pretty much at the exact same time. Two shooters were crouched down behind a car parked on the side of the street. They were behind the engine block, which means they were smart, or lucky. Both of them weren’t firing when we turned onto the street, but as soon as they saw our vehicles rumbling down the road at them, both shooters spun, and leveled off to shoot at the windshield of the HRT. Caleb ducked like a mongoose and not one moment too soon. The windshield spider webbed right where his face was and a massive round punched through the glass. I heard a loud “PUNK!” noise as it passed out the back of the HRT. Must’ve been a heavy duty round. Big enough to kill a deer, and definitely big enough to kill my brother.

  I had my window down already and as soon as the round hit I leaned the weapon out the window and thumbed it to full auto. I pulled the trigger and fired as a tight a grouping as I could into the space where the men stood, sending plumes of dirt and snow into the air as rounds skipped off the pavement at them. The two men dove over the car as we slowed down and Caleb was able to sit up. They got to their feet and ran with all their might around a corner. We pursued, stopping the vehicle at the small intersection near MGR. We got out and pulled security, having watched the two shooters run as fast as they could away.

  Our main concern at the moment was Mallory. Chasing down the attackers was secondary seeing as how they’d ran so fast. Ethan came over the radio as we started to form a perimeter saying the north side attackers had retreated as soon as I started to fire on full auto. I guess there’s a certain instinctual thing about when you hear the tearing noise of 500+ rounds per minute coming out of a gun that isn’t on your side of a fight. I imagine it's a lot like showing up to an afterschool fight and watching the offensive line for your high school football team show up for the other guy.

  Once the other guys were su
re we were safe for the moment, we got our PJs upstairs to Mallory, and they stabilized her. I remained outside on the north corner of the tower for security. I was useless to them inside. I’m better at hurting people than fixing them, sadly. I wonder if the powers-that-be thought about that when they made their picks in the end of the world draft? Makes me wonder if I'm the good guy's or the bad guy's draft pick?

  We remained at MGR as a force for an hour while they got Mallory patched up enough to travel. It was clear after talking in depth with Ethan and the folks at MGR that the attackers had some skill. The attacked on two fronts in an L shaped action, used accurate suppressing fire to free up movement elements, and had a clear and concise plan to attack the tower to get inside. I won’t go so far as to say they were professionals, but they clearly had a very good idea of how to do what they wanted to do. Not a good sign at least. This is where I talk about regret in doing things hastily.

  We had to get Mallory back to campus pretty fast, and we also had to beef up the numbers at MGR, so Kate and Nick, our flight crew folks elected to stay there. We also left them with their M4s, as well as a SAW and a thousand rounds or so for it. If they need to suppress attackers, that gun will buy them time. We were very lucky we left yesterday with just a single wounded person. Granted, Mallory is now down her left arm forever, but I’ll chalk that up as us being a little lucky. Had that bullet hit her about eight inches to the right, it would’ve ripped her chest apart, and she’d be dead.

  She’s stable right now in the clinic. I spent some time with her, but they’ve got her sedated pretty good. I can’t imagine the pain she went through. Poor woman has already been through so much, and now she’s without an arm. No more cutting hair, unless she gets creative. Life’s a bitch right?

  Kate and Nick are still at MGR as of right now until we come up with a more stable, solid plan to staff the location. We are now working on having two people on watch 24 hours a day there. It isn’t enough to just have the cameras. Speaking of which, we saw just a little of the attackers on tape. They stayed pretty far out, and the cameras aren’t the best anyway, so we saw very little of use. In good news, I don’t think they knew the cameras were there, and we saw them exit to the north towards the area where we saw the most of the fires the other day, which may or may not mean that’s where they are. We’re also debating mounting a recon-in-force to those areas to see if there’s a hornet’s nest to kick.

  We’ll see. Security first.

  What a rush though. Felt good to be a part of the team that kicked some ass, despite not actually shooting anyone. I guess that’s the fight we want to win right? No one died, and we all walked away, as did they.

  Martin finished his plan to upgrade the doors yesterday as well, which was sheer coincidence. We’re making a plan to upgrade the doors using his plan immediately. I think we decided to do it tomorrow, but I’m not entirely positive. Kevin and Mike were working on it.

  What I can certainly say is that with the clear need to upgrade the staff levels at MGR we need another generator for there, as well as increased food on hand, and food production either on-site there, or here to be delivered there. We also need a better sewage system than just bagging it and dumping it back here. We can throw it out the windows, but that isn’t sanitary in the least…

  Of course an apartment building in a town with no electricity or running water doesn’t have a lot of options. We’ll see. I’ll leave that plan to someone far smarter than I. I should talk to Ollie about it. That's the kind of problem he'd crush in ten minutes.

  We’re moving a few of the hydroponics stations to MGR. We’ve got a few that are already well growing that can spruce up their fresh food on hand right off the bat, and we can also relocate about ten chickens there as well. I think they can build a coop on the roof to make it work. Feed for the chickens might be difficult, but fresh eggs will be good. Water will be a concern there too, with added mouths, but… We’ll figure that out too. We’re also probably going to have to abandon the construction on the waterfront tower due to a sheer lack of manpower. As important as it is to build the towers, dealing with actual threats as they come to light is more important than a guard tower overlooking a lake that hasn't seen a soul on it in nearly two years.

  Fucking logistics of all this shit kills me. There’s just no easy solution to anything.

  Jenna came to me right after dinner and pulled me aside. I hadn't really taken any time to talk to her since we had the missing food incident. I immediately felt bad. I was talking to Michelle about how Syl was doing at the time, and for a moment, I thought Jenna was doing some kind of jealousy power play (which might be the case, as I’ve clearly shown, I’m a fucking giant dildo when it comes to women).

  Jenna raised the concern that we’re going through our canned goods at a pretty good clip, and the chickens aren’t laying as many eggs the past few weeks as they have been previously, so we’re actually not looking good on the food stores at all. She said she wanted to show me more of the deal, and I said I’d see her tomorrow, depending on how the day went, and whether or not we went to MGR to supply them, and start the work on the door upgrades.

  I’m very tired, but we’re all sitting here, tapping our toes and twiddling our fingers waiting for the radio to fire up again. I am sincerely hoping that the idiots that attacked us the other day don’t attack again, but if they do, we’ll be ready for them.

  I just hope they aren’t ready for us.

  -Adrian

  January 15th

  MGR was forced to engage another small round of attacks late this morning. Ethan, Kate and Nick were ready for them this time, and when the tower took fire, they returned equal or more fire accurately, with one confirmed KIA on the enemy.

  Apparently they were attacked by the south this time by a group numbering somewhere between 4 and 6 hostiles. They maneuvered on the tower providing cover for each other while Ethan observed them from the roof. Eventually the team radioed us that they were about to initiate contact, and when Ethan felt they’d run close enough, he pulled the trigger. One man was running across the street at about a hundred fifty yards out, and Ethan put one round through the guy as he crossed the yellow line in the middle of the street. Well, where the middle line was under the snow. We got some serious snow the past few days, and it’s still all over the place.

  Anyway, the report is that the man went down in a heap and stayed awful still. Ethan said he put the round through the man’s chest, and any weapon in that kind of caliber hitting a target that close, that’s not wearing any kind of body armor… Well. I’d bet the man’s lungs and heart were scrambled like eggs.

  The dude face plants in the road, and the rest of the group stops cold, taking cover. See: the power of the sniper. Ethan held his fire and waited, letting them sweat it, and after… I think he said a full minute, the man got back up, and he turned, looking for his other friends. This time, his intent was not to help them, or continue his part in the attack on MGR, but to eat the people he came there with alive. Good guy attacker, changing teams in the middle of the fight for us.

  Showing some compassion, Ethan put one round through the man’s skull, blowing it clean off his shoulders. What’s left of his body is still in the street down there right now, and that was about eight or ten hours ago. The rest of the group slinked away, staying in decent cover for their retreat, so Ethan wasn't able to hit them, and haven’t returned yet. Our three at MGR felt like it was a better tactic to let them escape and think over what happened, and how we handled it, than simply dropping them as they ran. Lord knows, Ethan and crew could’ve put at least one or two more of them down, of that I'm sure, despite him saying he couldn't get a clean shot off. After dark Ethan or Nick are going to slip out to retrieve the fallen dude's weapon and check on their route in or out. I’m guessing we might have some footprints or tire tracks we can follow out. Of course it’s a little windy right now, so there’s a good chance that’s a fool’s hope. I'm hoping for a trail of breadcrumbs.
>
  But, let’s face it. I am not a profoundly lucky dude. I can safely say I spend more time looking up from the bottom of the drain at the toe, than being the toe.

  MGR didn’t require a response from us, and judging from their accounts of the events, they handled it well. Unless these morons that keep attacking us come up with a new tactic, or find some kind of serious firepower, I think we have them handled for the moment. Famous last words, enter the Jinx Fairy.

  Mallory’s arm is doing well, and she’s finally out of the medication haze they had her on. She lost everything below the left elbow though. The stub, or whatever you want to call it is healing well, and she says the pain is manageable. She says she can still feel her fingers. Says she can still move them. Sucks to see her like that though. It’s certainly weird to see someone that previously had two arms doing things without one. Well, trying to do things with just one. She’s got to learn how to do a lot of things over again. I had this pang of guilt or something while seeing her. I almost wanted to ask her to “take me back” or something, at least so I can help her or something, but that’s all that white knight bullshit again. She doesn’t need emotional complications on top of healing issues. There are plenty of people that can help her here that aren’t going to mess with her head at the same time.

  I met with Jenna, and she’s 100% right. Our food stores are going down faster than we’d anticipated. I think the births of the children, the Syl theft, as well as just feeding Syl might have a lot to do with it. We’ve also had some sick kids, and we’re feeding them twice quite a bit. Once for them to throw up, then once again slower and with frustration so they keep it down. I also don’t think anyone had an idea the impact of Kevin and Michelle’s group was going to have on us. Granted, they brought some food with them, but it wasn’t much, and now they’re eating out of our stores. We can barely keep up with demand on egg or milk production right now. MRE's aren't designed for sharing in the same way grown food is.