by Mark Clodi
"I look like shit."
"You sure do." said Randy from behind her.
"You've been better too."
"Won't get any worse now." he agreed.
"So what is it like, being dead?"
"I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you afterward."
"That might not be too high a price to pay. It's not like I have anything left for me here now."
"Poor little Katie, all alone in the world!"
"No shit."
"You never sighted in your new gun."
"I didn't really have time. I sure as shit ain't going to do it here and now. Maybe in the morning before I leave." Katie said to his mirrored reflection. She didn't dare look back, for fear that he would disappear.
"You shouldn't forget, you'll need that gun before this is over."
"Before what is over?"
Randy waved his hands, gesturing around himself, "This. All of this."
"There isn't any 'this' anymore. It's already over."
"Not quite yet." Randy came up behind her and put his arms around her waist, then rested his head on her shoulder. Slowly he kissed the side of her neck, then nibbled on her ear.
Katie closed her eyes and enjoyed the embrace for a moment before shaking him loose, "You're not real."
"What do you want me to say?"
"How can this be real? I saw you jump. I heard you hit. You didn't even scream."
"I couldn't give away your position and I knew you wouldn't shoot me if I turned."
"I would've." she said flatly.
"There's the Katie I know and love. But you see? I do love you and I thought I should spare you that. It was the very least I could really."
"You could have taken me with you."
He shrugged and stepped back from her. "We walked different paths."
"Such bullshit. You'd think, because you are in my mind, I would do this to myself. I should make you answer me straight."
"I don't think you are ready for straight answers."
"And you're the decider?"
"No, I'm the spotter, I pick the targets, you shoot them. I call down the artillery, you cover my back."
"Pulling rank again?"
He stepped back further into the darkness, "You outranked me."
"But I wasn't the forward observer, in the field you had command."
Randy was barely visible now, he lingered for a moment and said, "It was never about control."
Katie's eyes flickered to her own for a moment, leaving his reflection, when she looked back he was gone and not there to hear her whisper, "It was always about control."
Chapter 17 — Max
Max stared at the small video screen on the backpack. When they had been shown how to operate the bomb they were impressed with the interface, which they could unlock using the codes provided by the military. The controlling computer allowed them to actually scale up or down the bomb and set a time delay and was incredibly easy to use. The screen they were looking at now didn't show any of the same options. It showed Draper, his large grin with white teeth gleaming in contrast against his black skin. The group had bundled back into the truck and driven to the interstate before stopping and investigating the beeping noise coming from the pack. The video had paused about halfway and Bill had restarted it from the beginning using the interface on the touch screen.
It showed Draper sitting in one of the rooms on the ship, his back to a gray colored wall.
"Sorry to do this to you." Draper did look slightly guilty, averting his eyes for a moment from the camera that was recording his words, "First things first, if you are seeing this message it means you opened up the pack to take a look at why it is beeping. I set an alarm to get your attention, I hope now is not a bad time. This device is still a bomb, it is still very dangerous. No offense to any of you, but it is naïve to think the military would put a nuclear bomb in the hands of people who are essentially civilians. No disrespect is meant to Sergeant Ostling and his fine record of service. Before you get riled up let me tell you what you do have. For the record we have one too, so you are not the only Guinea pigs on this run."
Draper paused and swallowed, the wiped his hand across his brow before continuing, he looked tired, "What you have is known as a positronic bomb. It has been in development by the Air Force for over fifty years and cost us….well, money doesn't have the same meaning now, does it? Suffice it to say a large portion of the research and development money has gone into making a non-nuclear alternative explosive device. You ever wonder why we agreed so readily to the bomb cuts in late eighties and nineties? Or why nearly every president can cut our stock pile of nukes even further for political gain? Well wonder no more, these weapons are a state secret, I don't even know how many exist or in what forms."
"So what does it do? I can reassure you that it is just as devastating as a nuclear device. The effects will be almost identical with one small difference, there will be no fallout. The one you are carrying is equivalent to ten kilotons of TNT. For a frame of reference the bomb we dropped on Hiroshima to end world war two was approximately fifteen kilotons. So why the bait and switch to give you a more powerful bomb? The funny thing about Military regulations is that this bomb is classified as experimental equipment, which you are authorized to test. The other quirky thing is that you are not, as drafted and retired soldiers, authorized to use nuclear weapons, not without years of training. So there you go. We could have broken the rules, but in a civilized society rules and regulations are what set us apart from the animals."
"The bomb can still be used as you were instructed with two exceptions, first you cannot change the yield, it only has one setting; 'Big Boom'. Second, you will want to get much farther away from the device before you set it off. A mile would be good. At that distance you will need to be under cover from debris, but, as I said, there won't be any radiation to worry about. Don't worry about the technology; we tested one of these babies in Denver three weeks ago; it worked just fine and took out the main aggressor there, I believe Max and Stewart can vouch for that."
"Good luck soldiers, fulfill your mission."
The screen faded to black for a moment then automatically reset back to the first frame.
"Who is Sergeant Ostling?" Stewart asked.
"Me." Ruben said
"Really?"
"All my life."
"Is no one upset about this?" asked Max.
The five of them stared at one another, then Bill shook his head, "Not really, we have a more powerful bomb, we have to get far away to use it if we want to live. It's experimental. Big surprise coming from Draper. I am more surprised they sent us five yahoos out to get this job done alone."
"With all due respect Lieutenant, I think a small team like ours stands a better chance than a combat brigade. Plus they need all the men they have to help in the fighting out in Iowa." Ruben said.
Bill shrugged his shoulders, looking unconvinced, "I know we have Max, but would it have killed them to send a few Special Forces guys with us too?"
"We are 'special forces', untrained, unconventional. Special." Stewart said.
"I am not sure I like what that implies." Bill said, "Ruben you said something about knowing why they didn't infect you back there, what do you know?"
The old man nodded his head, "Yeah, the one guy with the messed up mouth, he wanted to start in on me right away. The other warned him not to."
Stewart rolled her eyes, "Sure, I had to kill the rational one, instead of the freak."
Ignoring her comment Bill asked, "So what did you hear?"
"Apparently this part of the country has some sort of law again, and it involves not eating anyone still alive."
"What do they do with us?" asked Max.
"There is a camp in town here. I guess, from what I heard, there are camps all over the place."
"That's…disturbing." Stewart said.
"We gotta go get them." Ruben rubbed his eyes, "You can imagine what it would be like, people crowded to
gether, every once in a while someone disappears. It could be your wife, your neighbor." Ruben looked at Bill, "Your kid."
Shaking her head, Stewart said, "No. No way. I am all for saving people, but we have to keep the larger mission in mind." She pointed to the bomb. "If we take out the big guy, the rest will fall like dominos."
"That's what I am afraid of. Without the big guy keeping them in line, who's to say what will happen to the people in the camps?" Ruben asked.
"It's my call." Bill said, "I can pull rank if I have to. But…as we are 'special' forces I want your opinions too."
"We should find them." Ruben said firmly.
"Kill Sentry, come back here and help them." Stewart said.
Max looked like he was thinking things over, he knew what he would do if they were his kids. "Where are they? Did they say Ruben?"
Ruben shook his head.
"We can't be running all over trying to find them and who knows how many zombies there are? I think we have to go on."
"Javier? You have an opinion?"
The young man, nodded, "Yeah. I keep thinking, what if it were my family? My little brothers or mom and dad? I think we have to try and help if we can. Like Max said though, we don't know anything. We can't fight an army."
"We barely managed to fight out of this mess." Stewart said, waving her hand around the front of the hotel.
"Okay, let's get back in the truck. I didn't want to travel at night, but we are heading further down the road." Bill said, when everyone stared at him he added, "That's an order people. Let's move."
Ruben stood still, as if contemplating saying something. Javier stood behind the old man, then brushed his shoulder with one hand and turned away. Shrugging Ruben gave Bill a sloppy salute and turned to get into the truck.
"It's gonna be a sucky ride with no windows. Do you want to try and get a different vehicle first?" asked Max.
"No, we need to get moving before the zombies over there get organized and come after us. Can you see them Max?"
Max looked towards the other hotel, "They are there. More are coming from the west. Fast. Maybe in cars."
"Then I'll risk driving this. How many Max?"
"Fifteen. Twenty. Enough. If this is what they are sending our way, imagine how many they have in town. No way we could rescue those people Bill."
"That is about what I figured. Still, it hurts. We gotta keep our eye on the prize."
Chapter 18 — Katie
"I had to drive through the night." Katie berated herself.
Katie had been careful to avoid the many wrecks along the highway, however, the deer that jumped out in front of her was a surprise. She swerved to avoid it and ended up smashing into the guardrail and wrecking the van. The front of the vehicle was smashed in and the driver's side front wheel had been broken off and pushed up into the wheel well. The door on her side was crumpled so badly from the impact that Katie had to get out of the van on the passenger side.
She looked at it and shook her head in disgust. "Why am I even out here? What am I doing and where am I going?"
"Now you are asking the right questions." came Randy's voice from the side of the road. He was dressed casually, in his old leather jacket that was a size too big for him. He was smoking a cigarette and looked like he was enjoying the night air.
"When did you take up smoking?"
Shaking his head, Randy answered, "Don't get distracted, that's what they want. I haven't smoked since high school." He took a final drag off the butt of his cigarette and flicked it over the guardrail into the median between the twin ribbons of concrete highway.
"You'll start a fire doing that."
"Pretty doubtful, don't you think?"
She smiled at that, then hefted her bag from the van and started walking down the road. "I suppose so. For someone who is dead you are looking pretty good."
"Thanks. You too."
"Ouch. I cleaned up at the rest area, you saw me."
"Here we go with the not thinking again. I liked your first question the most."
Thinking about it, Katie's brow furrowed and she repeated, "Why am I even out here?"
"It bears thinking on."
Katie trudged down the road in silence for a few minutes. Finally she asked, "What else am I supposed to be doing? Crying? Hiding in a house somewhere? Heading back to die in Iowa with the rest of humanity?"
"I don't know that answer. But you still haven't answered your own question. Try not to get sidetracked."
"Okay. I feel a need. Yeah, a need to go this way."
"Is that so? Hm. I wonder why Katie. Don't you wonder why?"
She waved her hand in the air and answered, "Why? I don't think it is too important. I am following my instincts. I will survive."
"If you say so." Randy walked towards the shoulder of the road, away from Katie at an angle.
"You don't have to get pissy about it."
"You're wrong about that." He called back, trudging down the grassy embankment by the side of the road and out of sight.
"Fine. Be that way. You're just my imagination anyway."
"If you say so." called his voice as he disappeared from sight.
"I could make you come back if I really wanted to."
However, as hard as she tried, Katie couldn't make him come back.
She walked for over an hour before she finally came upon a vehicle she could use. The clear night showed the outlines of the wreck perfectly. Before she approached she pulled out her rifle. Seeing no one she crept forward a few yards, then stopped. She continued to make use of this stop and watch tactic all the way to the wreckage.
The vehicles had been towed to one side of the road and left. Once she assured herself no one was around she poked into each until she found a vehicle in drivable shape, a black sports utility vehicle. Lucky for her no one had taken the keys out of the ignition. She tossed her bag into the back seat, hopped in and tried to start the vehicle, but it wouldn't turn over. When she got out and looked the car over she noted that the dome light didn't come on. After some experimentation she found the lights were not working either.
"Battery needs a jump." Randy said, startling her.
"I hate it when you do that."
"I hate it when you are ignorant."
Shrugging Katie smiled and replied, "Lotta hate in this neck of the woods then."
Katie sighed and pulled her bag out of the back of the car.
"You gonna walk?"
"Car won't start. I'm not a mechanic. If it were a rifle I could strip it and have it working in a few seconds, a minute at most. But a car? Nope."
"The battery is dead, all you have to do is jump it."
"With what, Einstein? If there were another working car around here I wouldn't need to jump this one."
"Jeez Katie, no, there aren't any other working cars, but I bet the batteries in those wrecks work just fine. Find a screw driver and a set of jumper cables. Then we'll get the car started."
"Yeah. Right. My dead partner will help me get a dead car working." Katie paused, "Sure. Why not? A screw driver you say?"
"Or a wrench. Look around a little."
Katie saw that the back end of the sports utility vehicle was full of camping gear, heaped in untidy mounds. The automatic release button under the dash didn't open the rear door and earned her a look of disgust from Randy.
"Hey, you never know!" she protested.
"No power. No power doors. It's not even as complicated as field stripping a rifle."
Katie took the keys out of the ignition and used them to manually open the rear hatch, which swung up slowly with no power. Under the camping gear she found a roadside emergency kit, which contained not only screwdrivers, but also jumper cables. She found a good battery in the station wagon that was on its side a few car-lengths into the wreck and with a few quick turns of her borrowed screwdriver she pulled it out. With Randy directing her she sat the battery down by the side of the car, ran the jumper cables to its battery and gave the i
gnition a turn. It started up on the second try.
"Nice. I owe you one." Katie said.
"Take off the black cable on this car first and then the other black cable…"
Katie grabbed the center of the cables and pulled, jerking the clamps off of all of the battery terminals at once.
"Or that works. Not the recommended method though."
Katie lowered the hood on her car, tossed the jumper cables into rear seat and got in behind the wheel. The vehicle couldn't have been more than a year or two old, everything looked new, even if it had lost the 'new car' smell.
They drove in silence for a while, Randy looking out the side window, while Katie scanned the road ahead for wrecks and deer.
"What's it like, being dead?" Katie eventually asked.
"I can't complain. You?"
She shook her head, "I still don't get you sometimes."
"Where are we headed?"
"Some place warm. I am thinking Florida. I can get down in the Keys, find me an island, pure white sand, blue ocean and palm trees. I could go for that."
"A hammock?"
"You know it. Just me and you buddy. Drinking a few beers, maybe fishing a little and heading to the mainland every once in a while to stock up on food."
"What brought this plan on?"
"You made me think about it a little. I know it's summer now, but the weather isn't going to last. Soon it will be cold and snowy. How would I heat anyplace up here? If I go where all I need is a sweater I should be fine."
"What about hurricanes?"
"Don't be a dream squasher."
Randy shook his head. "Okay. So…Florida, island, hammock. Any other plans?"
"The world has ended. Do I need more than that?"
"What about the zombies?"
"I am going to kill every one of them I see. Every fucking one."
"That's…interesting."
"Hey can you check and see if this tub has a map in it?"
"Sorry, being dead has its limitations. There probably is one in the glove box. If not just pull up to any gas station you see, they're bound to have one."
"Good point. I'll just stay on this road. I have to go south as it is, then pick up a map when I stop for fuel." Katie said.