Free Range Protocol- Tales of the Tschaaa Infestation

by Marshall Miller

  “Pablo, I promised we would go look for her—and we will. Petty Officer Heidi Faust never goes back on a deal. Let’s eat something first, find me some dry shoes, then we go. Deal?”

  Pablo sniffed. “Deal.”

  Heidi found some fairly fresh bread, lunchmeat, and cheese. Some cans of pop rounded out the lunch. With food in her stomach, Heidi felt more human. Pablo ate a little, but was clearly nervous. He found sandals that fit Heidi, thanks to the leather being all stretched out of shape. Her uniform boots would take some time to dry out. Heidi dried out her holster and spare mag carrier, then slung the equipment belt over her shoulder. She quickly wiped down her service knife as well, blew inside the plastic sheath, and then sheathed it. She then did the same with her butterfly knife, planning to check it for signs of wet and rust when they returned. Southern Florida and its humid salt sea air was horrible for rust and corrosion.

  Pablo watched everything she did. “You do that a lot, don’t you?” He asked.

  “Well, Pablo, all this was beat into me by a couple of training drill instructors. You take care of you equipment and it will take care of you.” She walked to the door and listened. Then she turned to Pablo. “Do you have your key?”

  “Yes, Heidi.”

  “Well, it’s off to see the Wizard, or at least the yellow brick road. Let’s go.”

  Pablo kept quiet as they walked down the three flights of stairs, seemingly knowing that noise brought danger. They went out a side exit, then slowly down the street, trying to keep in shadows as much as possible. Pablo led them in the direction of his uncle’s place, about a mile away. It was still like a ghost town in this area of Miami.

  Halfway there, they saw why the area was so quiet. A harvester rob suddenly came trundling down the middle of the street, its electric powered motor being rather quiet. Heidi grabbed Pablo and ducked in a nearby alley. She put him behind her, pushing up against a building wall as she drew her pistol. Fuck, she thought. She did not even know if her pistol was any good against that thing. Suddenly, she was scared to shit.

  The six-wheeled overgrown ATV trundled past, not noticing them. Finally, Heidi could breathe again.

  Pablo whispered. “I’m scared. I want to go home!”

  “If we keep real quiet, we’ll be at your uncle’s place in no….”

  “My mom is dead. So is my uncle.”

  Heidi froze. “How do you know, Pablo?”

  “I just know. That machine tells me they are dead. We see no one else. Just the machine. They killed everyone.”

  Heidi looked at the young boy, now taking in adult sensibilities. Heidi crouched down and looked him in the face. “Pablo, I’ll keep my word. You want to go on, we will. You want to go back, we will. Your decision.”

  Pablo took a big breath, letting it out. A tear ran down his face. “Back, home. Please.”

  “Okay, Pablo. We’ll go back. Slow and quiet.”

  They took a half hour to cover six blocks and waited another ten minutes to make sure no harvester robs would sneak up on them. They made a dash to the side door, and Pablo used his pass key to let them in. They made their way to the relative safety of the third floor apartment. Pablo went straight to his mother’s room. Heidi spent a few minutes looking out the apartment windows that faced the main street. Nothing. She then went to check on Pablo.

  The young boy, being quickly forced into adulthood, was sitting on his mother’s bed. He held a stuffed bear up to his face. “Pablo,” Heidi said quietly.

  “I gave her this bear on her last birthday. Bought it with my own money. It still smells like her. She always liked bears. My dad left years ago. It’s just been mom and I, with my uncles.” He began to sob. Heidi went up and hugged him, tears beginning to run down her cheeks. They held each other for about five minutes, as Pablo began the horrible grieving process of losing your mother. But then again, Heidi realized her family was probably gone too. Florida had been hit hard with Squids and harvester robs prowling the waterways and shorelines, of which Florida had a lot. She swallowed the lump in her throat and spoke.

  “Pablo, this hurts like hell. I know. I just realized my family is also probably gone. But I know they would want us to do our best to live, to remember them.” She kissed his forehead. He hugged her, hard.

  “Thank you for helping me, Heidi. I knew a soldier would help me.”

  Heidi laughed. “Coast Guard. Better than any soldier. Just remember that.” They sat for a few more moments, then both stood up, went to the kitchen area. Heidi noticed the stove used gas, turned it on. It worked.

  “Pablo, might as well use the heat as long as we have it. Have any hot chocolate?”

  “Yeah. Several boxes. My uncles loved it!”

  “Well, my main man. Time’s a-wastin’! Hot chocolate always makes me feel good, even on a warm day. Marshmallows too. Ah, here are some. We’re in business!” The two humans began to survive.

  That night, Heidi started to sleep on the front room sofa, but Pablo demanded she sleep with him in his mother’s bed. As she crawled into bed with the ten year old, Pablo finally telling her his age, he said, “Will you be my sister? I always wanted a brother or a sister.”

  Heidi hugged him, trying not to start bawling. What a kid. He gave her hope.

  “Yeah, I’ll be your big sister. But you know big, older sisters can be bossy. We do that to keep younger brothers from being hurt.”

  Pablo seemed to consider that idea, then answered. “Okay. Say my prayers with me?”

  “Sure thing, kid. We need all the help we can get.”

  After Pablo had said his prayers, including asking God to look after his mother and uncles, he snuggled up to Heidi and was out like a light. Quietly, Heidi added a prayer of her own.

  “Hey, boss man—or woman—upstairs, at least give us some luck. We need it.” Then she was out.

  Hours later, Pablo shook her awake.

  “Heidi, wake up! It’s just a dream. Wake up.”

  She jerked awake, was disoriented for a moment before she realized she was in Pablo’s apartment. She was sweating, shaking. But she knew the reality they were facing was almost as bad as her dream. She hugged Pablo.

  “Thank you, my man. That was a bad dream.”

  “You okay now, Heidi?”

  She smiled at him. “Hey, my little brother is here to protect me. Of course I’m okay.”

  Pablo grinned, his first since Heidi had met him. “Go to sleep, Big Sister. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.”

  Heidi did an out of character giggle. “Yes, sir,” she said, then put her arm around him and was fast asleep.

  The next morning, the two new siblings went around and began scrounging things from the vacant apartments. The super had hung himself in the basement because he couldn’t take the stress. Heidi managed to wrestle his body outside and into a dumpster down the block, there being no place to bury him. A couple of days later she found some gasoline and had an old funeral pyre for him. He hung himself, so Heidi figured he wouldn’t care that he was being cremated. Mrs. Kleinman and Mrs. Melendez, Pablo’s neighbors, had disappeared. They had no idea what happened to the two women, who could have been snatched by the harvester rob the two had seen, or maybe they had just fled. Pablo and Heidi would never know. So, it was Heidi and Pablo for about a week, scavenging food, water, candles, batteries and anything else they could use. Then Joseph and James showed up…

  Heidi was outside, looking into abandoned vehicles for usable items. Between the apartments and the cars, she had found a good supply of canned and dry goods for food, some booze, beer, water and soft drinks, as well as a .22 rifle and a cheap .38 revolver. She treated Pablo like the younger brother he wanted to be, making sure he did not go out alone. So Heidi was outside, and Pablo was doing look out duty from the apartment window when the two human figures appeared, walking down the street. Heidi was dumbfounded for a minute that they were strolling down the middle of the thoroughfare. Then she noticed the Navy flight suits and M-4 assault
carbines.

  Heidi called out from behind a parked pickup truck, her pistol in her hand concealed by the truck bed.

  “Are those two Swabbies I see, Airedales or what?” She called out in a friendly sounding voice. The two men stopped. Then stared at her.

  “Lady, where did you come from?” the one identified as James called out. They were both caucasian, medium build, brown hair, and—she would soon discover—gay. They were also hitched to each other. So, it solved the question of whether she would have to fight them off or not.

  “I come from around here. The question is, where are you headed? Or coming from?”

  The two former chopper crew members were all that was left of a detached air unit, operating out of Homestead Field. They had tried to keep things together after Miami took a couple of minor rock hits, followed by a major invasion of harvesters and Squids. The Tschaaa liked the area around Miami Bay, the reefs and coves heading down into the Keys, and decided to make it a principal point from which they could expand their operations. A former active duty Air Force Base, the military tried to use Homestead as a place from where the invaders could be counter attacked. It didn’t last very long. It was a prime demonstration that any real estate within a few miles of the ocean could be owned by the Tschaaa if they wanted it—within twenty-four hours.

  Deltas softened things up, harvester robs went after the fresh meat, young warrior Squids snuck up on humans close to the water, using a color changing camouflage ability to ambush any sentries. They demonstrated a short dash ability, which enabled them to hack or shoot someone, then disappear into the shadows as their skin achieved the color and texture of the surroundings. A few grays and lizards were also seen during the attacks, fielding weapons. John and James had watched their chopper be destroyed on the ground and had to flee for their lives. So they started heading north to Miami proper, trying as much as possible to stay away from the waterways and inlets, which the Tschaaa prowled. Here they were, just shy of four weeks from the first rock hitting.

  Joseph saw how Heidi was giving them the once over, calculating their level of threat to her.

  “First, Ma’am, we are gay. So no, we won’t try and jump your bones. We’re a committed couple.”

  Paused for a minute, then added, “And don’t take this the wrong way, but neither of us are into large breasts, either.

  Heidi began to laugh. “You may be gay, but you still noticed my chest! Must be a guy thing.”

  The two men laughed, and the three former military members shook hands and began to discuss plans.

  Joseph Bone and James Lawson, after clearing it with Pablo, moved in next to them in a now vacant apartment. Two days later, all four humans were carefully prowling the marinas around the area, looking for something in particular. They found it fairly quickly.

  Scrambling into the long Open Fisherman, the three former mariners checked out the boat. They were surprised the batteries still held a charge. Heidi turned on the blowers and let them clear out any gas fumes. Then, glancing around for any signs of Squids, she turned the engines over. They started right up.

  “Somebody kept their boat in good order,” Heidi exclaimed.

  “Lucky for us,” James added. “So, if we round up some more fishing gear, I think we can put this plan into motion.”

  The Plan was to slowly go into the bay, see if there were any actual Squids around. Then, they would try fishing. They needed some fresh food stock, and an early winter seemed to be headed their way. Although southern Florida would be spared the worst effects of the long, or nuke winter, it would still be colder than normal. Viable food stocks would soon be short. Fish, dried, salted, whatever, would be an important food source. Other than the single harvester rob which Pablo and Heidi had seen, everything else appeared to be quiet. The Tschaaa seemed to be spending time in the South, towards the Keys and Homestead, rather than around Miami, now that they had cleaned out most of the local populace.

  The next week, same day the ole Emergency Broadcast System managed to broadcast one last time that the Central Government of the United States had ceased to function, the three adults plus one kid slowly left a dock berth not far from the apartments. They had moved the Open Fisherman from the main marina where they had found it to a small dock not far from the area of the apartments. Some thirty-one days prior, everyone had a fairly normal life, with day to day mundane activities. Then, the Tschaaa arrived, and people were in danger of being eaten.

  The group slowly headed out to the Bay opening. They had a gill net, some lobster and crab pots, several lighter weight trout poles, and a couple of heavy duty deep sea rigs. Aft they had a drag line with various types of hooks. At this point, anything remotely edible was fair game. Heidi had more small boat handling skills, so she was at the wheel, with Joseph to port and James on starboard. Pablo sat by the twin outboard engines. If any Squids appeared, Pablo, with somewhat darker skin, was to hide on the deck, out of sight. Word had gotten out that the Squids preferred dark meat, and people with lighter skin tones were being ignored. Unless, of course, you stuck the proverbial thumb in their eye, drawing attention to yourself. Then a robocop might just take you out.

  They reached the entrance to Miami Bay before a Tschaaa appeared off the bow, floating and treading water. It had a spear that it pointed straight up. “Shit!” Heidi cursed as she throttled back the engines. Pablo flattened into the bottom of the boat. Joseph had one of the two spear guns ready, the thought was that at first something less noisy than a firearm would be better in any conflict. Heidi let the boat drift, as she made her way to the bow. She looked at the Tschaaa, a young warrior, apparently playing picket duty.

  “Well, here it goes,” she said to herself. “Avast ye, my tentacled friend! We just need to get a little fish, to eat. We promise not to take too much, disturb you and yours.” She had no idea if the thing could understand her. She hoped they had some type of Star Trek universal translator, but at this point no one knew for sure. Joseph nervously handled the spear gun.

  Suddenly, the Tschaaa forcefully blew out its gills, then slipped beneath the water. Everyone held their breath. No other Squid appeared. Everyone started breathing again. Five minutes later, they passed out into open sea.

  Later, they would try and figure out what the alien was thinking, and doing when it blew its gills.

  “It sounded rude,” James opined.

  “You mean that Squids gave us a raspberry?” Heidi asked.

  “Or maybe that was a laugh,” James said.

  “A laugh about what? Was there a joke—or something they saw was funny?”

  James got a slight wry grin on his face.

  “Well, there are those rather large protuberances on your chest. Quite noticeable in that tank top.”

  Heidi’s mouth popped open.

  “Keep that up, and I’ll slice you up and use you for bait, airedale.”

  Pablo joined the other two males in laughter.

  “All right little brother. What’s so funny?”

  “I’m just laughing because they are. It’s fun.”

  “Men. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.” Later they would find out just how close to the truth they were, when they mentioned Heidi’s large breasts as being a factor in their survival.

  The three adults and Pablo were soon recognized, a going concern the Squids left alone. Heidi saw Squids coming and going from some of the larger reef areas. So, putting two and two together, she figured they had some kind of home base set up under water. When through binoculars she noticed young Squid following adults and adolescents, she figured, rightly so, the reefs were a breeding area. She steered far clear after that. No use pushing their luck.

  The first month, they fished and collected a substantial amount for drying, salting. They also ate a lot, with protein being a welcome addition to the canned food they had been eating. They neither saw nor heard any other humans around until the end of the first mouth. Then, as they were heading into the dock, they saw tw
o figures slowly approaching

  “Pablo, bottom of the boat,” Heidi directed as she pulled out her pistol. James grabbed one of their assault rifles and stood ready. Heidi slowly brought the boat into its berth, Joseph jumping onto the dock to secure it. She casually looked through her binoculars and saw that the figures were a man and a woman, about in their late twenties. She exited the Open Fisherman, slowly walking towards the figures, her pistol still in hand.

  “Good afternoon. Can I help you two?” The two stopped, empty hands extended towards Heidi.

  “We don’t want trouble, lady,” the male spoke. “We were just wondering if you would take something in trade for some fish. We’re about out of food. Looking through all these empty buildings is nerve racking. Plus, the smell of rotted food got old real quick.”

  Heidi nodded. They were having the same problem. Also, feral animals of all sorts were beginning to prowl around the smell of garbage.

  “So what do you have to trade, mister?” Joseph, who was now standing a bit behind Heidi, asked. The young woman slowly reached in her handbag and pulled out some rings with good sized stone settings in them. Heidi could see they were of good quality.

  “I have to ask. Unless you have a sniper covering us, what’s to stop us from just taking them, giving you nothing?”

  “Nothing,” the woman replied. “But we have been watching you fish for the last few days. The way you treat each other tells us you still have some morals.”

  That comment actually made Heidi feel good. It was nice to know there were people around, and that they noticed humane treatment. She called to Pablo. “Go ahead and come on up, meet the…I need your names, please.”

  They were Stan and Joan Johnson, a married couple with no children. They were surprised when they saw Pablo, but did not let on that the surprise was from the knowledge that children were sought after by the harvesters.

  “Pablo, see if a ring will fit you, one you like. It’s an early Christmas present. Then take a bigger one you can grow into.”

  Pablo grinned and looked through the booty. After choosing two, he then took a third, a gold ring with a stylized shark design in it. “Here, Heidi. A present. Merry Christmas.”