I climbed over the hump in the middle and unlocked the passenger door. I started trying to pull myself out when Ann squatted down in front of me and told me to sit down for a second. We were in the middle of a warzone but sitting down for a second seemed like an awesome idea. She looked me in the eyes for a minute. I was hoping she was going to kiss me but it turned out she was trying to figure out how concussed I was. She told me to shut up and I realized I’d been singing the K-I-S-S-I-N-G song out loud. My mouth kept filling up with blood. I hoped I’d just bit my tongue and it wasn’t coming from somewhere deeper in my body.
A Seal appeared and between Ginny, Ann and the Seal they drug me over to Ginny’s Hummer. It was still drivable although it had obviously gone through a lead car wash as well. They shoved me in the passenger seat and then the Seal went around to the corner of the building and took a look. Another Seal who had been around the building jogged back with him. I listened while he reported what he’d seen.
“Looks like there is still a firefight going on with the forward based Koreans. I saw a couple of burning somethings out there which could have been Hummers. Bigger problem. Without the mortars going off the Zombies are starting to get interested in what is over here again.”
“You know how to launch the mortars?” Ann asked the Seal. He shook his head in the affirmative. Looking a little offended to have been asked. “Good. You grab what these guys had been shooting and keep up the strategy of launching them way over the trailer. Do that until you run out of rockets. We’re going to put Steve on the ground by you and leave a couple guns to help guard you all. I’m taking a gunner and going up to help out the Captain. Who wants to go with me?”
Everyone volunteered. Ann put a Seal in the turret and had Ginny and Daisy stay with me. A couple of the girls had made it to us by this time and they stood guard as well. The one Seal started launching mortars and the other one helped Ann pull me out of the Hummer and set me on the ground. Ann bent down to give ma kiss goodbye and I went exorcist mode with some really impressive vomiting. She patted me on the head instead. She jumped in the Hummer. I think I saw her trying to find sanitizer gel as she drove away.
I asked the Seal who was squatting beside me if he knew what had happened to the guy in my turret. He shook his head to indicate the guy had not made it.
“What was his name?” I asked.
“Kolger. He was from Indiana. He’d have given you a high five for how you took out those assholes using just the Hummer and your oversized balls.”
Kolger. I’d have to remember that. I didn’t like that so many had fallen around us and we didn’t even know all of their names. There wasn’t so many of us left that I should still only know some of them. I decided not to ask for anyone’s name right now because I could barely remember my own. Bullets flying everywhere, Zombies encroaching and mortar rounds being launched a few feet away from me I went ahead and closed my eyes to take a short nap.
I opened them a second later when Ginny dumped out a water bottle over my head. I’d breathed in a good bit of it and that sent me into a coughing fit. I gave her my best WTF look once I had recovered. She gave me her you’re an idiot look.
“Concussion dude. You should know this by now. No sleeping allowed because of the fear of death.”
Oh. Yeah that made sense now that she put it that way. It was also probably nice to wash some of the blood off my head. I noticed the gunshots seemed to be happening pretty regularly as the women worked to keep the Zombies at bay. I made a mental note to try and remember to learn these women’s names so I could stop referring to them as the ‘women’ all the time. It seemed to be a recurring issue with me. Of course, most people died within a few days of me learning their names so maybe it was better luck for them if I didn’t know who they were.
I drug myself to a sitting position up against the side of what was left of a gas pump. I looked around while everyone worked hard on keeping us alive. I drank out of a bottled water someone had handed me. I slowly started feeling like myself again. We did not seem to be in imminent peril so I decided to keep resting for a little bit longer. I figured it would be appreciated if I waited for the nausea and dizziness to pass before shooting an automatic weapon in close proximity to a bunch of other people.
Part of the building behind me exploded. I lay on the ground covered in dirt and dust and rocks and other debris. I crawled my way to the top of the heap and took a look around. There were some bodies lying around me that looked like they may belong to the people who had been defending this position a second or two ago. I forced myself into action when I realized one of the bodies may belong to Ginny. I heard whimpering and looked over to see Daisy licking one of the bodies.
The body shifted around and an arm swatted out at Daisy. Then Ginny sat up and started brushing dust off of herself. She saw me staring and motioned for us to check the other bodies. The first one I turned over was the Seal who had been launching mortars. His forehead had been crushed in by a brick or some other flying debris. He wasn’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon. I noticed a couple of the women and the other Seal were checking on everyone now. Daisy came over and started licking me.
I remembered Ann was out there facing the other force of Koreans. That had me standing up and staring through the cloud of dust to try and see what was going on down the road. The screams in the air had increased in volume. Our mortar guy was dead and the Korean mortar guy had switched his target to us so nothing was keeping the Zombies moving the other direction now. Two Hummers came to a stop on the road beside us.
I pulled out my pistol and lay there waiting. Ann popped out and started yelling for us to get in the damn car. Abraham popped out of the other Hummer and started asking who had the mortar here. I pointed at the dead Seal. Ignoring the corpse, Abraham propped up the tube and started dropping mortars in. He stopped and took a look at where each one landed. He finally seemed to be happy with what he was hitting. I saw another Seal was launching missiles in the general direction I knew the Koreans were pinned down in.
At some point Reeves and Wilson and those guys had managed to hoof it to where we were at and they helped get us all packed into the two Hummers. It was very close quarters but no one was too worried about that. We started driving the hell out of there. The turret gunner was going ballistic on the roof. Sending all kinds of love back towards the people still trying to kill us. We drove in and around the holes in the asphalt. We stopped to pick up one other Seal who crawled out of the weeds and flagged us down.
We were down to eight Seals, two of the girls who had come with Ginny, Ginny, Reeves, Ann and myself. Daisy was the only one who seemed happy with the seating arrangement. She stretched out across everyone. Letting them take their tension out through their hands into her fur. She was getting a world class rub down and in doggie heaven.
I sat up straight. We didn’t have the damn bomb. I did not want to have to try and go back in there and take it again. Every time we got close to that place people died. I asked Reeves what we were going to do about the nuke.
“The Captain dropped a mortar on the trailer it was in. That should have done the trick. Too many Zombies were coming thanks to all the explosions and the firefight. We’d have all been dead if they hadn’t showed up and attacked the Koreans from behind. There were a lot more of them than we had seen.”
Excellent. We wouldn’t need to go back for the bomb again and it should be lost to the Koreans now as well. I closed my eyes, Ginny smacked me and I opened them. Guess I was not going to be allowed to take a nap on the way back this time. I really needed to stop getting concussed all the time.
Entry 13: Such Sweet Sorrow
We rolled up on the guys at the transport. We’d clicked the radio a few times to let them know we were coming so we didn’t get shot. They watched as we piled out of the clown cars. I could see them counting us as we got out. I could see their eyes searching for missing friends. These guys were operators so there was only a shrug of acknowledgement when
no one else got out of the Hummers.
We were down to two Hummers and a transport. We were fixing to be down to one Hummer because we needed to send Ginny and the girls back the way they had come. Abraham was letting the Seals who’d stayed with the transport know what had happened and letting them know he wanted to roll out under cover of darkness. I didn’t think it was a great idea to try driving in the dark but I’m sure he had his reasons. Since we were dealing more and more with an enemy the Seals understood better than I did it made sense for him to have the lead. My groups expertise lies in surviving the Zombies not sneaking and leaving bombs. The sneaking and leaving bombs is basically the main function of the Seals.
I walked over to Ginny with Daisy jumping all over me. She’d already managed to knock my belt off and scratch my arm in her eagerness to show me how much she loved me. I ruffled the fur on her head real hard and pushed her to the ground so I could talk to Ginny. Of course, the dog took that as me wanting to play and she jumped right back on me. Luckily, Ann wandered over to join us and everyone likes Ann better than me. That includes Daisy. I’ve come to accept it.
With Ann fighting off Daisy I was free to talk to Ginny.
“This time. Go, get those girls to safety. Listen for your radio. Only a few people know where you are going to be hiding in case we get captured. Abraham was going to tell me and I told him not to. I know the general area though so I’ll drive around and click until you contact me. I’m going to miss you. I might even miss Daisy a little bit but I think you leading those girls is the right thing to do.” I paused there and looked at the women in the Hummer who were waiting on Ginny to get in so they could head out.
“She may be the youngest out of all of you but I can tell you right now she has saved our lives time and time again with her skills. Do not underestimate her. Listen to her and make sure everyone follows her orders and you guys have a much better chance of being alive when I come find her. I have no doubt she’ll be alive.”
I gave Ginny a kiss on the top of her head and messed up her hair a little bit and wandered off. The thought of not seeing her or Daisy again had made my eyes water up a little bit. Must be some pepper or something on the roof of the Hummer that got blown into my eyes. In the space of two years she’d become closer to me than any little sister in the history of the world and I really was going to miss her. If I didn’t think we were on a suicide mission I would probably have insisted she come along. If I cared more about the mission I would have insisted on it as she did have an uncanny knack for coming up with plans that let us do the impossible.
Ann walked over and gave me a hug when she saw my eyes. Reeves and Wilson were taking a turn saying their goodbyes to Ginny. When Reeves turned around his eyes looked a bit watery as well.
“Did someone break a pepper shaker?” Ann asked me.
I smiled at her and let her out of the hug so we both could wave at Ginny as her and the women drove away with Daisy sticking her big head out the window. This time it felt final. There was no other mission separating us from this plunge into the heart of the Korean invasion to try and set off a giant bomb. The four of us had kept each other alive and now we were three. I felt instinctually like breaking up the group was a horrible idea. Just look at what had happened when Reeves had wandered off with these guys this morning.
Abraham and Walker got in the Hummer with us and everyone else piled in the transport truck. Reeves was busy in the turret making sure there was plenty of ammo in reach and that everything on it still worked after the abuse it had received during the wild battle today. The Hummer itself was covered in scratches and the windows were all spider webbed with cracks from bullet impacts. It had been a brand-new Hummer that looked like it just rolled out of the factory this morning when Abraham had rolled out in it.
While we were getting situated for the drive Abraham handed out three sets of the custom communicators the Seals used and told us he’d explain how to use them on the drive. They had not had any spare ones so he must have had the presence of mind to strip them off the dead Seals to let us use and give him some backups. Now we’d be on the same channel as those guys which should help greatly in orchestrating this assault.
We started trying to put those on while Walker headed out of the parking lot with the transport following close behind.
Entry 14: Bringing a Nuke to a Gunfight
I settled in. In the good old days, it was about a nine or ten-hour drive from Carson City down to San Diego. These were not the good old days. In the good old days, you could stop at gas stations and pay with a credit card while maybe getting yourself a couple of Taquitos and a diet coke. Now you tried to carry as much diesel around with you as possible because you never knew for sure when you may find more. Same thing with food and water. We had all kinds of stuff jammed into the Hummer.
The entire right side of the rear seat was taken up by crates of water bottles, nine-millimeter bullets and packs of gauze. I was up against the rear door with Ann leaning against me from the middle of the seat. Reeves was up in the turret, probably frozen by now. Walker was driving and Abraham was staring at a Rand McNally Map book of the West Coast. I was sleepy but Ann was doing a good job of making sure I stayed awake. She wanted me awake at least until morning. I was still feeling pretty gross and my body kept wanting to fall asleep so to take my mind off it I asked Abraham what route he was planning.
“I was thinking we take Highway-395 all the way to San Diego. It’s pretty much a straight line between here and there. The problem is we’re going to run into Korean forces along this road. Korean forces who are trying to figure out who keeps attacking them. We could take smaller roads but there’s really no reason the Koreans would not also be on them. Also, with the mountains the smaller the road the more likely something has happened to it where it’s not usable anymore. We drive straight and fast and fight when we have to and at some point, we ditch the vehicles and go on foot. Carrying a giant ass bomb by hand should be awesome and make sneaking in super easy.”
Abraham was no Ginny. It was a pretty simple plan. Simple was good. The more complicated the more stuff that could go wrong. Simple plans were easy to change as needed.
“You know.” I started to talk and waited for him to look up from the map before I continued. “People see what they expect to see. If we could swap this Hummer out for one that is less beat to hell we may just be able to drive right past roaming patrols and other Koreans versus having to fight them and then go hide for days every time we pass someone. It’s worked for us before.”
“Thanks Steve.” Abraham put the map down and turned in his seat to look back at me. “Your real-world experience has helped us a ton already. I still can’t figure out why you guys are so gung ho on coming on this mission with us but I do know when we pull it off it is going to be thanks in a large part to you and your team’s efforts. Now we just need to find a Hummer that is not beat to shit so we can try out your idea.”
We kept talking in to the early morning. Ann had fallen asleep as soon as we started talking with an admonition to the Captain to not let me fall asleep. He’d agreed to keep me awake and to wake her up before he fell asleep so she could take back over. He had me go through our journey from Florida with him. He asked intelligent questions and tried to glean information about the encounters we had so far. He also let slip some of the things he knew.
The original virus that caused all these issues had been developed by the Russians. The Koreans had bought it from an arms dealer who got it from a scientist who worked in the labs but had not been paid for three months due to budget cuts. The arms dealer had picked it up for the price of a nice bicycle. He sold it to Korea for the price of a nice house.
Korea got the cultures but could not figure out what to do with them. They asked the arms dealer to get them the scientist. He did. He also grabbed the scientist’s wife and kids to give the Koreans leverage over the guy. The Russian government did figure out someone had taken the family and had figured out it was the
Koreans about a week before everything went down. With the scientist who had worked on the team to develop the virus in house the Koreans were able to produce a large quantity of the virus. Eventually they synthesized a version that could be transmitted through the air as well as by bodily fluids.
They had hidden the bulk of their people in underground shelters and then sent there spies out to spread the virus. They had them hit shipyards, airports, military bases, bus stations and sporting events in every major country around the world. Any and all military bases were the highest priority for them to hit. The idea was for the virus to sweep across the world and burn out then they would emerge and take over an empty world. They felt they had to do it as their paranoid leader knew his actions had caused the world to be coming for him. The death camps shown on TV had been breeding and testing ground for the virus cultures.
The story gets murky there but the Koreans managed to commandeer some Chinese Nuclear Aircraft carriers and head for San Diego with them. They meant to ferry most of their population to southern California but that had been cut short when we nuked the shit out of North Korea in retaliation.
Zournal (Book 6): The Final Countdown Page 7