by Dirk Patton
42
“You want what?” Johnson asked when we all crowded around him.
“Logs of every radio transmission in the past hour,” I said. “Know where to find that?”
“No,” he said. “Didn’t even know there was such a thing.”
He pulled a keyboard closer and began banging away. Nitro and I pushed in, one of us on either side of his chair. I was sure it wasn’t Johnson but wasn’t about to not be watching closely as he searched for the evidence we wanted.
It took some time, and lots of clicking through menus, but he finally opened a folder that contained numerous audio files. Each had a long, numerical name followed by a time stamp. I was surprised at how many there were for only the past sixty minutes.
“Play them, one at a time,” I said.
Johnson clicked on the first, and I heard my own voice coming from hidden speakers as I issued the warning that infected were on the A level. He kept going, playing one file after another. Most of the way through the list, I was starting to think this was going to be a bust when a young girl’s voice sounded in the room. She was whispering, talking to a male that I didn’t recognize, telling him our plan. I blinked in surprise when they ended the conversation by saying “I love you” to each other.
“What the hell?” Johnson asked, looking up at me.
“Our traitor,” I said, turning to Tiffany. “Recognize the voice?”
She nodded, tears springing from her eyes.
“That’s Angela. She’s the little sister of one of the girls on the team. Hasn’t been the same since we got her back. Now I know why.”
“Where the fuck did she get a radio?” Johnson asked.
“Who the hell knows,” I said. “Maybe she brought it with her when Igor rescued her. Maybe she picked it up off one of the bodies in the hangar. Doesn’t matter at this point.”
“What are you going to do?” Nitro asked me.
“Tiffany,” I said. “I need your help. We’re going to go up to where the girls are, and I want you to point out Angela for me.”
“Why? You can’t hurt her!” She took a step away from me.
“No,” I said softly. “You’re right. I can’t. But we need to take that radio away from her before she hurts us any more than she already has. OK?”
“You promise you won’t hurt her?” She sniffled.
“You have my word,” I said. “Now, we need to go.”
After a few moments, she nodded and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
“Johnson, stay put and let me know if anything changes outside. Nitro, get Vance back down to the hangar and ready to go.”
“Ready to go?” Vance asked in surprise. “What the hell am I going to do? Fly around and impress them into letting you get to the Chinook?”
“Just be ready,” I said, pulling Nitro to the side. “Sorry ‘bout that. I should have trusted you.”
“Damn right you should have,” he grumbled. “I know you’ve got a lot of shit to deal with, but don’t forget who your friends are.”
Properly chastised, I nodded and called Dog as Tiffany and I headed out the door. I was setting a fast pace and she had to alternate between walking and skipping to keep up.
“What are you going to do to Angela?” She asked.
“Already told you,” I said, sighing. “I’m not going to do anything to her. Just going to make sure she can’t keep feeding information to the enemy.”
We were quiet for the rest of the walk to where the girls were huddled near the exit. Igor and Goose stood watch at opposite ends of the group, Rachel, Irina and Anna sitting on the floor with them.
“The blonde sitting next to Chelsea,” Tiffany said as we approached.
Igor looked at me questioningly but didn’t say anything as I breezed past. Stopping directly in front of the girl, I held my hand out.
“Give it to me,” I said.
The rest of the girls stared, and the three women who had been sitting with them got to their feet. Angela met my eye, remaining perfectly still.
“What’s going on?” Chelsea asked, standing and looking back and forth between us. I ignored her.
“Angela,” I said. “Give me the radio. Now!”
“What radio?” Chelsea asked, looking down at the other girl. “Ang, what’s he talking about?”
The girl still refused to say anything.
“I’m talking about a radio she used to tell the militia what are plans are to get out of here. Now, they’ve got the helicopter surrounded and we can’t escape.”
I didn’t have to check to know that every pair of eyes was locked on Angela.
“Is that true?” Chelsea asked her friend.
“It’s true,” Tiffany said when the girl remained silent. “I heard a recording of her talking to them.”
“Why?” Chelsea asked her. “Why would you do that?”
Angela lowered her eyes to the floor and spoke in a choked voice.
“I don’t want to leave. I’m pregnant.”
I can’t say I was terribly surprised after having heard her conversation. A buzz started up amongst the other girls as they reacted to the news. I took a big breath and let it out slowly as I looked at Rachel. She shook her head, but I had no idea if she was trying to tell me something.
“Angela,” I said, kneeling in front of her. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
She looked up at me through tear-filled eyes, surprise written across her face.
“What?”
“If you wanted to stay, all you had to do was say so. I’m not going to make you, or anyone, go with us if they don’t want to. But, are you sure you really want to?”
“I love him!” She said, sniffing. “I’m going to have his baby. I have to stay!”
“OK,” I said. “Just give me the radio. You don’t have to leave.”
She stared back at me for several seconds before digging a small handset out of her sweatshirt. I took it and turned the power off before standing and slipping it into a cargo pocket in my pants. Stepping away, I came face to face with Tiffany, who looked decidedly distressed. Rachel grabbed my arm and led me down the hall near where Igor was busily scratching Dog’s belly. Tiffany followed.
“You cannot leave her behind!” Rachel whispered.
Tiffany, standing next to her, nodded emphatically. Before I could respond, Anna and Irina joined them, the four women facing me down.
“She’s an adult. She can do what she wants,” I said.
“No, she’s not!” Tiffany hissed. “She just turned sixteen, for Christ’s sake! She doesn’t have any idea what she’s doing!”
I looked over my shoulder at Angela. She was curled into Chelsea’s arms, sobbing, as the older girl gently rubbed her arm.
“We take her with us,” Rachel said, Anna and Irina nodding their support.
“You’re going to force her?” I asked.
“If we must, then that is what we will do,” Irina said firmly.
“What about bringing the boy along?” Anna asked, earning shocked looks from the others. She looked at their expressions before offering an explanation. “It would make it easier.”
“Are you kidding me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice down so Angela couldn’t overhear our conversation. “This whole thing is about them wanting the girls back. That, and revenge for the ones Igor killed while rescuing them. You really think they’re going to just let us go, and take one of their kids with us?”
“Look. I don’t care about the boyfriend,” Tiffany said. “But, we’re not leaving Angela behind!”
I wanted to throw my hands up in the air in frustration. Gave it serious consideration for a few seconds. In fact, I was seriously considering sending Vance out in the Super Cobra to wipe out the militia and not worry about the Chinook. Once the enemy was finished off, we could drive to Nellis and find another aircraft.
“We can’t leave her!”
I sighed in exasperation and turned to see Chelsea standing on m
y blind side.
“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been told,” I said sarcastically. “Don’t need to hear it from you, too.”
“Stop being an ass,” she said. “I got her talking after you walked away. The father is one of the guys that was guarding them.”
“That’s not a surprise,” I said, earning a dirty look from all the women surrounding me.
“Well, when she said who it was, Chris, one of the other girls who was held captive, remembered him. This isn’t what you’re thinking. This guy’s an adult. Your age, or older. He raped every one of them. Angela’s the one that got pregnant.”
“No way we leave her with him!” Rachel said, stepping close and thrusting her face at me.
“Agreed,” I said, gut churning in anger. “OK. Tiffany and Chelsea, she’s your responsibility. If she fights when the time comes, Rachel and Irina will help.”
“Me too,” Anna said.
I nodded.
“How we go?” Igor asked.
“Haven’t figured that one out,” I said. “Not unless we sacrifice the Chinook to take them out.”
“They’re all in a tight group around the helicopter?” Chelsea asked.
“Yeah.”
“The infected downstairs,” she said. “Remember? Nicole can control them. There’s a bunch of them. Let’s send them out to do the fighting for us!”
I looked at her for a moment, a big grin slowly spreading across my face.
43
Dog and I stood in security, looking over Johnson’s shoulder. Our best guess was that over two hundred militia soldiers were clustered around the Chinook. The remainder of their forces were still circling the perimeter in a variety of vehicles. They would be Vance’s primary targets once he was airborne. The others were about to get a nasty surprise.
Igor and Goose had taken everyone else into the cafeteria, securing the doors once Bunny and Monk joined them. Gonzales had escorted Nicole back to the sub level, propping open stairwell doors along the way, creating an unimpeded path for the infected to reach the surface. Once he was safely behind locked doors in an adjacent room, Nicole freed the females.
I watched in amazement on a monitor as they flooded out of the containment cells and surrounded her. At first, my heart rate shot up as I thought they were going to attack, but my fears were unfounded. Forming a large circle around Nicole, they quickly calmed and stood watching her. While they were still, I made a rough count, coming up with nearly a hundred. I was glad I wasn’t out there with the militia.
At first, I thought Nicole was just staring back at them, but soon I realized her mouth was moving. Not like she was talking, but almost as if she were singing to them. The surveillance camera didn’t have audio so I couldn’t hear whatever sounds she was making, but the females did. After several seconds, they turned as one and raced down the corridor to the open stairwell.
Johnson tracked them as best he could, but they flew up the steps faster than he could change views. In far less time than I could have, they reached A level and bunched up at the exit.
“Clear to launch,” I said into my radio, releasing Vance to take off.
On another monitor, we watched as the roof of the indoor helipad began to retract. It was thick, heavy steel and trundled slowly open.
“Kill exterior lights,” I said.
Johnson already had the controls up and ready, the entire outside of the facility plunging into darkness. A couple of seconds later the cameras automatically switched to night vision and our view was restored. Vance would be flying without any lights showing, taking full advantage of the Cobra’s advanced systems to maneuver and engage the enemy at night.
That didn’t help him with any Stinger missiles the militia had, but it’s not that easy to lock onto a target you can’t see. Especially if that target is low to the ground and dancing all over the place. Not that the weapon needs visible light to operate, but the human hand on the trigger has to be able to line up on target for the IR seeker head to achieve lock. Without that lock, the missile won’t fire. I was counting on the militia to fall victim to a lack of training and experience.
“Let them out,” I said when the shield covering the helipad was fully open.
Johnson pressed several keys. First, a thick blast shield retracted from the exit where the females waited, then the door lock released which allowed them to push through. On the other monitor, the Super Cobra appeared as it ascended out of the hangar.
The large group of females charged through the door, immediately zeroing in on the militia standing near the Chinook. We could see them clearly in shades of black and green on the monitor as they raced across the smooth tarmac. They were only three hundred yards from their prey when they exited the facility, and were in a full sprint.
Around the helicopter, the militia wasn’t aware that death was racing towards them. They’d been smoking and drinking beer for the past hour, waiting for something to happen. And, when they heard the Super Cobra take off, they thought that was their only threat.
They all stood and faced the direction of the aircraft’s noise. Rifles were raised and aimed. In the rear of a pickup, a man stood and shouldered a boxy device with a long tube extended from the rear.
“Vance, you’ve got a Stinger near the Chinook!” I shouted into the radio.
“Copy,” he answered immediately, his voice tight with concentration.
By now the females had closed half the distance to the closest militia troops. We were still working without audio, but I was certain they were attacking without screaming. Everyone was still focused in the direction of the attack helo, apparently unaware of what was bearing down on them.
There was a brilliant flash of light from off camera that lit up the area around the Chinook. It was quickly followed by a second. Vance taking out roving pickups.
The explosions and light must have been too much for the females to contain the urge to scream. In almost comedic coordination, every head amongst the militia turned in the direction of the attackers. For an instant, they remained frozen in shock, mouths hanging open, then there was a mad scramble to bring weapons around.
But, they were too late. The speed of the females prevented them from getting more than a short volley of gunfire off before the leading edge slammed into them. From that point, carnage ensued. The infected tore into the surprised people with savage efficiency. Throats were ripped open by slashing nails. Bodies were ridden to the ground and rent open.
Some of the females were killed by panic fire, but the militia was unable to mount a coordinated defense. Two trucks tore away, one of them spilling terrified men out of the bed as it accelerated. The infected were on the hapless people in a blink, seemingly exultant in tearing them to ribbons. As the massacre continued, it was regularly lit by flashes as more vehicles were targeted and destroyed by the Super Cobra.
“Fuck me!”
I turned to see Nitro looking over my shoulder at the monitor. He’d hurried up from the hangar after closing the roof behind Vance.
“I’ve never seen this many at once,” he said, his face slightly pale.
“Boy, have I got some stories to tell you,” I said, turning my attention back to the screen.
Within minutes, the females had killed every single militia member that had been near the Chinook. Their prey down, they fell on the bodies and began feasting. Behind me, I could hear Nitro reciting what had to be a prayer in Spanish. Didn’t blame him. Even though I’d seen this more times than I could count, it was still a horrifying display.
“All targets destroyed!” Vance’s voice over the radio. “Got a few running out into the desert. Want me to go after them?”
“Negative, stay on CAP,” I said after thinking about it. “Are we clear other than the infected?”
“Looks like. Stand by, and I’ll make another orbit.”
Five minutes later, he came back on the radio to confirm we were clear. Now came the part that really worried me. Nicole going out to send the infected away
. Sure, she’d been able to control them inside the facility, but now their blood was up.
They’d just killed two hundred people and were busily feeding. Would they listen to her, or would they attack? And, going out there to protect her wasn’t an option. That would just enrage the females and make things worse. I tapped my radio to transmit.
“Gonzales, you upstairs yet?”
“Yes, sir. With Nicole, near the exit.”
“It’s time, Master Chief.”
There was no immediate response, and I resisted the urge to repeat my order. I imagined that he and Nicole were arguing. He didn’t want her to go outside, and I didn’t blame him. But, we needed the infected gone so we could board the Chinook, and short of an extended fight to kill all of them, I didn’t know of any other way to accomplish that.
“Copy, sir. She’s going out now,” he finally said after several minutes.
Nicole appeared on the exterior camera, cautiously exiting the facility.
“Lights,” I said to Johnson.
A few seconds later the cameras had to adjust back, once again giving us a sharp, high-definition color view. Nicole paused when they came on, then purposefully strode directly towards the bloody carnage near the helicopter. She covered the distance much slower than the infected had, coming to a stop a dozen yards from the closest corpse that was being consumed.
Her back was to the camera, but from the way her head moved it was obvious she was communicating with the females. At first, I didn’t think they were going to respond, but slowly they began to look up, blood dripping from their faces. Nicole seemed to falter, then gathered herself.
One by one, the infected rose to their feet, abandoning their fresh kills. Slowly, they drew together around Nicole. How she didn’t break and run at that moment, I’ll never know. Instead, she stood her ground and faced their blood slicked faces and arms. She kept at it, finally lifting her left arm to point at a spot on the horizon and holding the pose.
At first, there was just a trickle, but soon the entire group was running away in the direction she had indicated. Nicole watched them race across the tarmac towards the desert, slowly lowering her arm as they left the pavement and charged across the sand. There was a flash of movement near the exit, then Gonzales appeared, running to where Nicole still stood.