There was a pause as the camera transitioned, and then I heard Josh.
“Holy Shit!” he shouted. “Wylie! They blew the propane tanks for the generators. Half of the west end of the Underground is gone. The area by the rock crusher collapsed. That’s not the worst of it. It took out everything above ground on that end of the property. The Army Reserve storage center is completely gone. The only vehicles we have left are the ones that were inside.”
“Damn!” I hissed. “They knew right where to hit us.”
“Why did they send in a team, at all?” asked Elliott. “Why waste the men, if they were going to take out our generators anyway?”
“Good question, son,” I replied. “If I had to guess, I would say that they were planning on sneaking in and planting charges inside, too. When they lost contact with their team, they pulled out and detonated the charges. They practically crippled us, even without the charges going off inside.”
“If they had managed to set off the charges inside,” said Southard, “we’d have been all but defenseless. We keep most of our ammo in the armory. If they’d have blown it and the Hive, we’d have had to bug out or die here.”
“We may still be faced with that,” I replied. “Josh, how long will the food keep without power?”
“A few days, at the most,” he replied. “But the good news is they only got the tanks. The generators are below ground. If we can find some propane, we can fire them back up.”
“Alright,” I said, “that’s next on the agenda. Any sign of the Freemen?”
“Not right now,” he replied. “Camera coverage is spotty, but I don’t see anything at the moment. I’ll keep them on as long as I can.”
“Copy that,” I replied.
“I know where we can get propane,” said Southard. “We passed that lot the other day. There were propane trucks parked in there.”
I remembered what he was talking about. It had been back when this all started, when we were still trying to rescue trapped officers and civilians. If the Freemen hadn’t gotten to them, there were a dozen trucks parked there with a large refilling station. We could keep the generators on line for quite some time. We only had a few days before our food supply went bad, but we were going to have to deal with the Freemen first.
If we couldn’t restore power, we’d have to abandon the Underground. Without the food storage, it wasn’t sustainable. Now with half the fences blown to hell, we couldn’t count on growing food until we could secure the perimeter, again. If the explosion attracted as many zombies as before, we might never secure it.
It was time to either hit the Freemen where they lived, or draw them out for a fight. Either way, this had to end. They were destroying everything we’d worked for. It was now a matter of them or us for survival. One of us had to go, and I chose them. Now it was just a matter of enforcing that choice. It was survival of the fittest, and they had to go.
Chapter Twenty Seven
Flight of the Valkyries
I've been down in this world, down and almost broken.
Like thousands of people, left standing in their shoe.
I've been down in this world, down and almost broken.
As thousands they grieve, as the Black Friday rule.
- Flogging Molly
After checking my sons to make sure they were alright, I left them with their mother. They were all shook up. Well, all of them except for Elliott. He’d taken to the action like a duck to water. I pulled him to the side and had a quiet word with him.
“You did great today, son,” I said, patting him on the shoulder.
“Thanks, dad,” he said, smiling at the praise.
“I want you to keep an eye on your mother and your brothers,” I said. “They’re pretty shook up, after all that.”
“I know,” he said. “Especially mom.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “But she did an amazing job, too. She took out at least three of them.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me with you?” he asked.
“I’m sure, bud,” I said. “Don’t worry, though. I’ve seen you in action. You’ll get your chance to get into the fight. Right now, I just want you around them in case something else happens.”
“No problem, dad,” he replied, and checked the load on his M-4.
I clapped him on the shoulder and headed for where my people were grouped together, talking. As I walked up, Southard grinned at me and slapped me on the shoulder. I grimaced, but didn’t say anything. Those welts still hurt like hell.
“Oh, shit,” he said. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t sweat it,” I said, and shrugged. “Let’s get a team together and go topside. I want to take a look at the damage, myself.”
“I’m in,” said Spec-4.
“Me too,” said Southard.
“How many do you need?” asked First Sergeant Gregory.
“One or two more should be plenty,” I said. “I’ll take Bowman and Ramirez.”
“No can do, boss,” said Southard. “Ramirez took a hit to the leg during the firefight. He’s having a bullet removed as we speak.”
“Fine,” I said, “Bowman and Webber.”
“I’ll grab ‘em,” said Southard, heading off.
“What do you want us to do?” asked the First Sergeant.
“Why don’t you and your men take some flashlights and go assess the situation in the west end. See how bad it is.”
“We can do that,” he replied. “Be careful up there.”
“If the entire perimeter is breached,” I said, “we may have to find a way to seal the entrance.”
“We might want to consider that, anyway,” he said. “It makes one more line of defense.”
“Good call,” I agreed. “We’ll see what we can figure out when I get back.”
The Rangers headed off towards the cave in and I headed for the ramp with the others. We all locked and loaded as we climbed the ramp to the surface. It would have been faster to take a vehicle, but it would have attracted more attention, too. Right now, stealth was a much better option.
When we reached the surface, the smoke hung heavily in the air. It was so thick, it was difficult to breathe. Spec-4 took out her shemagh and tied it around her face. I didn’t have one, so I used the spare t-shirt I keep in my pack. Once everyone had made their own masks, we headed over the hill towards the thickest part of the smoke. It was the area where the propane storage tanks had been.
When we reached the top of the hill, we could see that the above ground storage facilities were all either completely destroyed or burning. The crater where the tanks had been was as big as a high school football field. Grass was burning, vehicles and buildings were burning and our perimeter fence was completely gone for about 150 yards along the western boundary. The perimeter wasn’t just breached. It was non existent.
We pressed on to the edge of the property, so we could check on the zombies along the interstate. I was hoping the fire and smoke wasn’t attracting them. What we saw shocked us all. The explosion had ignited cars all along the interstate. There were over a hundred cars burning, and the burned bodies of hundreds of the dead.
The few dead that were still in the area were like toddlers in a room full of shiny toys. Between the burning cars, the burning grass, the explosion and the sounds of gas tanks touching off along the interstate, there was too much stimulus for the zombies to focus on any one thing. They would head for something, then change course when something else happened. It was total chaos. At least they wouldn’t be coming for the gate any time soon.
We stayed low so they wouldn’t see us. With all the smoke in the air, there was no way that any of them could smell us. We headed back, silently. The destruction was immense. If we couldn’t get propane for the generators, there wasn’t anything to keep us in the Underground. All of our fortifications and the arable land for crops were completely useless, now. Without the perimeter fence we were no better than cavemen. Without the generators, not only would our food go
bad but we wouldn’t have any lights. No lights were bad since it was always dark underground.
Once we made it back inside, I called Weasel-face over and asked him to see if he could rig a gate in front of the entrance. He was good on that industrial forklift, and we just might be able to block off the entrance with a couple of semi-trailers. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it was better than nothing. At least until we could figure something out that was better.
First Sergeant Gregory was waiting when I finished talking to Weasel-face. He didn’t look happy. I took that to mean it was bad news. I headed over to him, dreading what I was about to hear. He scratched his chin and shook his head before he spoke. Spec-4 joined us, removing her shemagh.
“Well, it’s completely sealed,” he said. “The dead can’t get in that way.”
“That’s not too bad,” I said, hoping that was the worst of it, but it wasn’t.
“It gets better,” he added, sarcastically. “The entire section is unstable. More of it will come down without much effort.”
“How far does the bad section extend to?” I asked.
“Damned near to the Hive,” he replied. “We lost almost a third of our usable area, including one warehouse full of parts that went down with it.”
“Damn it,” I cursed. “Those machine parts would have been damned useful.”
“At least it didn’t get any of the food storage warehouses,” he said, “but if we can’t get power going, we’ll lose it all anyway.”
“I know where we can get some propane,” I replied. “The problem is we’ll have to deal with the Freemen before we can risk anymore salvage runs. The last two times we’ve gone out, they ambushed us.”
“How bad is the perimeter?” he asked.
“It’s completely boned,” I said, shaking my head. “We couldn’t keep a troupe of Cub Scouts out of this place.”
“Any chance we can fix the fence?”
“Doubtful,” I replied. “We don’t have enough supplies. Besides that, there’s a huge freakin’ hole in the middle of the field now. The crater is about thirty feet deep and a hundred yards across.”
“Holy crap,” said the First Sergeant. “That must have been one hell of a blast.”
“It’s like a small nuke went off up there,” I said, shaking my head.
“What do we do next?” he asked.
“Were you able to reach your chain of command?”
“I was,” he replied, nodding, “but they won’t be of much help.”
“Why is that?” I asked, surprised.
“All available aircraft are being redeployed to assist with the relocation of surviving government personnel to Fortress Manhattan. We’re on our own. The option of extraction isn’t even on the table, anymore.”
“Is there anything we can get, at all?”
“Maybe,” he said, removing his beret and running his hand across his scalp. “They’re abandoning everything in our area that they can’t airlift out. There is one unit at Fort Leonard Wood that might be able to help. They’re survivors of the 3/18th Field Artillery out of Fort Sill. They’ve got a gun line of M-270’s that can reach here.”
“I didn’t think we had artillery that could go that far,” said Spec-4, incredulously. “That’s like eighty miles or more.”
“MLRS,” I said.
“What’s a MLRS?” asked Spec-4.
“Multi-Launch Rocket Systems,” I explained. “They’ve got a range of about 100 miles.”
“Do we have the grid coordinates for their camp?” asked the First Sergeant.
“I don’t,” I replied. “I was a little busy last time I was there.”
“I never learned to call in a fire mission,” said Spec-4. “I don’t think I could isolate the grid square.”
“I could, in a pinch,” said the First Sergeant.
“I can do it,” I said, smiling. “I was an F/O[26] in the Army.”
“Well, then,” said Spec-4, “all we have to do is locate the base on the map and blow them off of it.”
“I have to go back there, first,” I replied, surprising everyone.
“Why?” asked the First Sergeant, clearly confused.
“I owe it to someone there,” I replied. “There was an old man. He saved my life.”
“Do you really think he’s still alive?” asked Spec-4.
“I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t try to find out,” I said, looking down.
“Alright,” said the First Sergeant, “we go back in. No problem. We do a night insertion, like last time. We can search the place and extract your guy. Once we have him, we call in the Arty[27].”
“Works, for me, Top,” I said, smiling.
“Who are we taking?” asked Spec-4.
“We need to keep it small,” I said. “Besides, I don’t want to pull too many people away in case they come back here.”
“How small?” asked the First Sergeant.
“I’m thinking you, your Rangers, Wilder, Southard and me,” I said after a moment.
“Is six enough?” asked Spec-4.
“I just want to find the old man, not invade them,” I said, grinning.
“How do you want to deploy?” asked the First Sergeant.
“On foot will take too long,” I said. “We’ll take a couple of vehicles until we get close. Then we’ll stash them and go in on foot from there.”
“It’s a good thing we brought the Humvees down from the Reserve Center before they hit the propane tanks,” said Spec-4. “I’ll go prep two of them.”
“Thanks,” I said, as she walked away.
Once she was out of earshot, the First Sergeant looked at me and lowered his voice.
“I didn’t want to say this in front of your people,” he said, tentatively, “but are you sure you’re up to this?”
“Too much is at stake for me not to see this through,” I replied. “I’ll finish this.”
“Your call,” he said, patting me on the shoulder. “Just remember, you’re not the only one who’s been through that. We all have our scars.”
“Thanks, Top,” I said, shaking his hand. “When this is over, maybe we can finally have that drink.”
“Sounds good to me,” he replied.
We headed off to make our preparations. Once everyone who was going had been contacted, we all turned to the task of checking our gear. I replaced my expended ammo and made sure all of my weapons were fully loaded. Then it was time to replace my body armor. The sword that the she-beast had used on me had shredded the chest. Only the trauma plate had stopped it. That’s the trouble with ballistic armor. It’s usually not any good against a blade.
Once I had a new interceptor vest on, I shouldered my pack. The straps bit into my shoulders, right on top of numerous slashes from the whip. I winced in pain, but accepted it as part of the burden. Once the initial pain wore off, it just faded to the background with all the others hurts I still felt. I’m not sure if my aches and pains had subsided to a tolerable level or if my tolerance for pain had increased since my ordeal.
I headed into my quarters and found Karen and the boys waiting for me. She didn’t look happy to see me in full battle-rattle, but she didn’t protest. Evan and Erik were both still a little shook up, but Elliott looked like he was ready to go back out. I couldn’t help but smile at him. The younger two would get there, too. I knew my boys would be ready for anything. All I had to do was keep them alive.
“I’m going back out,” I said, kissing Karen on the cheek.
“I assumed that by the way you were dressed,” she replied, crossing her arms.
I could tell she wasn’t very happy, but under the circumstances who could blame her. The Freemen had come into our home and shot at our kids. They’d killed our people and threatened our very existence by destroying our power generation capacity and collapsing part of the Underground. We’re lucky the entire thing didn’t collapse.
“I know you don’t want me going back out,” I said, putting my arms
around her.
“That’s not it,” she said.
“What is it, babe?”
“They threatened our children!” she snapped. “What kind of animal threatens children?”
“The worst kind,” I said. “Trust me.”
“And after what they did to you…” she began sobbing.
I stroked her hair and held her. What else could I do?
“Promise me something,” she said, through the tears.
“Anything, babe,” I said, soothingly.
“You do whatever it takes to make them leave us alone,” she said, looking into my eyes. “You make them pay for what they did!”
“I intend to,” I said, a touch of coldness in my voice.
“I want to go with you,” said Elliott.
“We’re keeping the team small, bud,” I said. “You need to stay here and protect your mother.”
I could tell he didn’t like it, but he didn’t argue. He had grown up so much since this all started. I never wanted my children to have to grow up to be soldiers, but this world was leaving us no choice. They would have to be strong to survive. We all would. It was going to be a constant struggle to survive in this new world, gone mad. But I had no intention of giving up. So long as I drew breath, I had hope. We’d make a life, again.
Reaching into my bag, I pulled out a badge. There was a bloody spot on it and I recognized it, instantly. It was Alex Parker’s badge. Alex had given his life to buy us time to escape. Even after he’d been bitten himself, he still fought to protect the ones he cared about. How could the rest of us do any less?
“Take this, son,” I said, tossing the badge to him.
He caught it and turned it over in his hand, reverently. He studied the details and the words engraved on that badge. A smile crept over his lips as he looked back at me.
“I can keep this?” he said, grinning.
“Absolutely,” I replied. “You earned it. Keep that badge with pride. That belonged to a good friend of mine named Alex Parker.”
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