Standing Before Hell's Gate

by William Alan Webb

  “Nobody.”

  “Somebody had to.”

  “An instructor showed me how, then I did it.”

  “What about shooting? Who taught you how to shoot?”

  “Nobody.”

  “Somebody had to.”

  “An instructor showed me how guns work, then I just did it.”

  After a few more attempts and failures, she gave up. “Who taught you to be such an asshole?”

  #

  Jane had reached the point where her eyes wouldn’t stay open no matter how hard she tried. Even the throbbing ache in her foot had lost its edge. As sleep became harder and harder to fight off, she twice dozed and swayed in the saddle. Both times she jerked herself awake to see Green Ghost still slightly ahead and to her left, horse and rider plodding forward like a joined machine. She determined to stay awake until dawn, which wasn’t too far off and would provide a strong reason for stopping.

  The eastern sky showed the first traces of pink when Green Ghost spoke without preamble. “Adder was one of us,” he said, as if they’d been conversing all night. “A Zombie, better than the best of the best. Then he sold us out.”

  It took her a second to realize he’d actually spoken the words and she hadn’t dreamed them. She started to respond but a yawn overtook her. “You do what you want,” she said. “But I’ve gotta get some sleep.”

  Green Ghost stood in his stirrups and scanned the land ahead. “Half mile up, there’s some rocks. We’ll stop there.”

  She saw the spot he meant. “Watch out for snakes.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So what’s a Zombie? I’ve heard you mention it a few times, and I know you and Claw and Vapor are all Zombies, and this Adder, too, but I don’t really know what that means.”

  He didn’t respond right away. Even now, with the old world long gone along with its rules and loyalties, it felt strange talking openly about Task Force Zombie.

  “I don’t know how much you know about the world before the Collapse, so stop me if you already know some of this. Back then, most countries maintained extensive armed forces, but because of nuclear weapons nobody wanted to start a full-scale war.”

  “My father said something about those.”

  “Yeah, you didn’t want to use nukes. They’d fuck up the planet along with your enemies. So wars got smaller and nastier, involving lower numbers of troops, but often with big consequences. So everybody developed what they called special operations teams, spec ops, the best troops they had. They gave them the best training and weapons and made them highly mobile. America had a lot of different such organizations. The Navy had the SEALs, which stands for Sea, Air, Land… the Army had Delta Force, the Marines had MARSOC, Marine Special Operations Command, and the Air Force had their Special Operations Command.”

  “That sounds like a lot.”

  “We needed every one of them and it still wasn’t enough. Plus, you couldn’t just go send your spec ops people anywhere you wanted, because if they entered a foreign country without permission that could trigger an all-out war. So a lot of countries had what were called black ops teams that operated outside of the usual force command.”

  “Is that what Zombies were, black ops?”

  “Yes, but in a different way. We all had to give up our entire identities to join. That’s why we all have code names instead of our real names. If we were captured on a mission, it couldn’t be traced back to the United States. We didn’t even know each other’s real names… other than Vapor, I still don’t. If Claw told me his real name, I’d still call him Claw. It’s all I know him by. Originally there were fifteen of us assembled from all branches of service, and each of us had to give up our previous lives so nobody would know who we were or what unit we were part of.”

  “And Green Ghost is your code name.”

  While they spoke, their horses plodded right past the rock island where they’d planned to stop. Neither noticed or reined in their horse.

  “Right. We also made sure that none of our procedures matched those of U.S. Special Forces units, in case our radio transmissions were overheard. Our uniforms and equipment came from countries all over the world.”

  “I must be missing something.”

  “Like what?”

  “All this… what’s the word… secrecy? Yes, secrecy… if they didn’t know you were Americans, then why worry about things like your clothes?”

  “We couldn’t take any chances.”

  “I think I understand, but what’s a zombie? What does the word mean?”

  “It’s like a science fiction monster, a dead person who walks around eating brains.”

  “Eww… those couldn’t have been real.”

  For the first time in days, she saw a tiny smile outlined on his face in the waning moonlight. “No, they were pretend, like men from Mars or Bigfoot.”

  Jane wondered if he meant more by that remark than he’d said. Once she’d realized that some men wanted to kill her friends, the Hairy People, she’d stopped talking about them.

  “To our friends, family, and the outside world we no longer existed, so we called ourselves zombies because we were dead men walking. But we couldn’t even share that with people not on the team, so they only knew us as the Nameless.”

  “Okay,” she said, not understanding but not wanting to pursue it, either. “And Adder was one of you?”

  Green Ghost’s hint of a smile disappeared. “He was one of the original fifteen. From day one, he resented me being in charge, but that didn’t bother me. Being an alpha was almost part of the job description and some people deal with it better than others. Except in the teams, you absolutely cannot break trust with the people who’ve got your six. You can hate their guts all you want, but when it’s time for business, all that shit’s gotta stop. If you’re number twelve out of a squad of twelve, then you prove you’re ready for more responsibility by performance, not by undermining the chain of command…”

  “Was any of that supposed to make sense? All I understood is that he doesn’t like you.”

  “No, he didn’t like me, which was fine because I couldn’t stand him. But there was no denying his command presence, tactical skills, or qualities as a leader, and eventually he worked up to command Third Squad. Then, a little before the earthquake hit and the world fell apart, he took a team of eleven other Zombies into the country of Venezuela, down in Central America. The mission was to find the location of a dirty bomb that was being assembled, and before you ask, that was a kind of nuke, a nuclear weapon, a weapon of mass destruction that was intended for use against the American public. Three weeks later, Adder comes out of the jungle alone. He said all the others were killed in an ambush, but I, and a lot of others, didn’t believe him. We think he sold the mission out for money. I had plans on finding out for sure, one way or the other, before the Collapse hit.”

  “So you think he helped murder your friends.”

  “Not just my friends, my subordinates, the people who entrusted their lives to my leadership. A dirty bomb like the one he’d been sent to find later went off in St. Paul, Minnesota, taking out five bridges over the Mississippi River and making them unusable. That was after the earthquake, when most of the bridges south of the Twin Cities had already been destroyed.”

  “That’s awful. Who did it?”

  He shrugged. “If they found out, I never heard it. The FBI thought it was an ISIS cell, but at that point, the country was under attack from numerous directions.”

  “And you think Adder caused all of that?”

  “The bridges, yeah, I do.”

  “There’s still one thing I don’t understand. Why do you feel responsible if this was Adder’s fault?”

  “I’m the one who gave him command of Third Squad.”

  “Oh. Thank you for telling me all of this. Now I understand why you’re so anxious to find him.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Some men tried to kill a friend of mine last year, so I think I know how you feel.”
/>
  “What’d you do?”

  She shrugged. “I got help from his mate… uh, wife, and together we killed them.”

  “Good. That’s my kind of man.”

  Jane merely smiled, wondering if he’d still call him a man if they ever met.

  #

  As they headed southwest, the terrain changed from flat prairieland with mostly scrub trees for vegetation, to forested uplands with dense stands of mature pines. There was little undergrowth, which gave the entire region a park-like atmosphere. With the coming of sunrise, Jane led them to another small hill studded with trees and rocks jutting from the side of a mountain, which offered a defensible position with good sight lines in all directions, but better concealment for them between the boulders.

  “I stayed here overnight once,” she said. Fatigue drew out her words in a slower cadence than usual. “Let’s make sure there are no rattlesnakes.”

  They got within twenty feet of the slope and tethered their horses to the low-hanging branch of a Ponderosa pine, with lots of other needle-filled branches within reach for them to eat. But when the horses snorted and pulled at their tethers, Jane froze and Green Ghost followed her lead. That was when both heard the characteristic buzz of a rattlesnake’s warning. Jane waited to see if Green Ghost would check it out, but when he didn’t move, she shook herself and climbed the humus-covered hill.

  “Be careful,” he said.

  She didn’t bother telling him that she’d learned to inspect the ground in front of every step she took from the first halting footstep she’d taken as a toddler. She moved with the confidence of a lifetime, since staying alive in the wilderness meant seeing dangers before they saw you. Once at the top, she found a long stick and began poking up under rocks. Then she stood, smiled, and waved him up.

  Once there, Green Ghost poked his head around a large boulder and looked where she pointed. “Holy shit, there’re two snakes and they’re fighting.”

  Jane couldn’t help but giggle. “The rattlesnake is fighting. The other one is hunting dinner.”

  “Huh?”

  “The black and white one is a king snake. They’re immune to rattlesnake venom and think of them like you and I would a thick slice of pig.”

  “A delicacy.”

  “A what?”

  “Never mind, but even if the king snake’s immune, doesn’t the rattlesnake have fangs? It seems like getting stabbed with those would kill the king snake.”

  As if on cue, the rattlesnake struck. It all happened in less than half a second. The heavy triangular head shot forward, its mouth opened and twin fangs folded out, ready to inject venom. But the rattlesnake had made a fatal mistake. As fast as the pit viper was, the constrictor was faster. The rattlesnake’s fangs plunged downward into nothing but air, leaving it overextended and vulnerable.

  The king snake’s head drew back to avoid getting bit, and then shot forward again to clamp its own jaws around the rattlesnake’s mouth. In the next half second it looped its body around the first third of the venomous snake, the muscles in the zebra-striped body flexing visibly under its skin. The rattlesnake whipsawed and shook its rattle in fury, but with every movement the king snake tightened its grip.

  Jane moved into the circular cleared space at the top of the hill between all of the rocks. Green Ghost watched her but didn’t follow.

  “It’s safe now,” she said. “We’ve even got entertainment.”

  #

  Chapter 18

  Into the unknown, take me by the hand,

  Lead me to new vistas, lead me to strange lands.

  Sergio Velazquez, from “Away and Away”

  Willow Beach, Arizona

  0544 hours, April 25

  As dawn lit the desert in pinks and purples, the First Mechanized Infantry Regiment prepared to move out of its camp on a piece of level ground in rough country, near a place called Willow Beach, which overlooked the Colorado River south of Hoover Dam. The nature of the terrain would have made it hard for a large force of mounted cavalry to approach without being seen, a force such as the Rednecks, who seemed to infest the region. Colonel Young was not about to let his command be caught by surprise and attacked while bivouacked.

  Angriff slept better in his tent, on a simple cot with his sleeping bag, than he had in months. He was in the field again, and while he enjoyed the comforts of home as much as anybody, he never quite felt as comfortable there as he did during operations. If he’d believed in reincarnation, as Patton did, he would have believed himself to be a nomadic warrior for some forgotten tribe that built no cities and never stayed long in one place.

  When the operation began, he’d declined Colonel Young’s offer of an orderly, but the addition of a headstrong nine-week-old puppy changed his mind. The unlucky choice was Corporal Tananda Isbukeke, universally called Kiki. As he stretched in the chilly morning air, Angriff couldn’t help chuckling at the sight of the tall NCO trying to walk over the broken ground carrying a cup of coffee and a squirming puppy. Angriff reached for the coffee, but Kona half jumped, half fell into his hands instead.

  “I think she’s bonded with you, sir.” Isbukeke had fashioned a crude collar and leash out of rope, the end of which he offered to Angriff. “You want the keys, General?”

  Within minutes, Angriff wound up fifty yards away from the main camp, holding Kona’s leash in a death grip as she barked at a coiled rattlesnake hiding under a rock. The serpent had been asleep when Kona nipped at it. Combined with sluggishness from the night’s cold temperatures, the snake’s strike at her nose missed by three inches, after which Angriff physically yanked her backward and prayed the rope’s knot didn’t unravel.

  Hearing the commotion, Isbukeke came at the run. “General, Colonel Young sends his regards and asks that you join him in the headquarters tent.”

  Angriff handed him the leash. “Don’t let her hurt that snake.”

  Isbukeke followed where Angriff was pointing. From his reaction, it was obvious he hated snakes. “I won’t, sir. I can guarantee we won’t get close to it.”

  The tent flap was pinned open, but Angriff ducked anyway out of habit. Young and his staff stood around a small table with a paper map spread on it.

  “Old school,” Angriff said. “I like it.”

  “It’s a tourist map, General. One of the men found it back at Ma Kelly’s. It’s the best we can do.”

  “Don’t apologize, Colonel. Whatever works, works.”

  Young outlined his proposed movements. Major Wincommer’s 7th Cavalry Regiment would screen both flanks and stay within radio range to prevent any ambushes on the way to the Colorado River gorge. The 2nd Mech would take Highway 93 to and over the Colorado River below Hoover Dam. To Angriff’s question, he replied that yes, the engineers had given the go-ahead as long as no more than two vehicles were on the bridge at any one time.

  One company from First Battalion would veer from the main column east of the river and make for Hoover Dam itself, pausing at the Hoover Dam Lookout for any signs of trouble. If everything appeared safe, it would probe the Dam to investigate the current status of its electricity-making potential and any staff that might be on hand, in particular the mysterious Lulu.

  Meanwhile, the bulk of the regiment would move through Las Vegas and pause at Nellis Air Force Base to assess whether or not to send patrols into the city itself. It was assumed the company at Hoover Dam would join the main body rapidly and then be left at Nellis when the regiment pulled out headed to Creech.

  “Any new intel on Vegas?” Angriff asked.

  “Nothing definite, but patrols got as close as ten klicks and definitely saw lights among the outlying buildings.”

  “No indication of origin?”

  Young shook his head. “Permission to get underway, General?”

  “This is your show, Colonel. I’m just along for the ride.”

  #

  Chapter 19

  I am who I am. I can’t pretend to be someone who makes $25,000 a year.


  Gwyneth Paltrow

  Malibu, California

  0826 hours, April 25

  Károly Rosos leaned on the third-floor balcony’s wrought iron railing and deeply inhaled the salt air. He had always loved this time of the morning in California, when the rising sun turned the waters of the Pacific Ocean black to dark gray, then a succession of shades of blue and finally the turquoise he’d swum in most of his youth. Building clouds on the western horizon promised rain later that day, but for that brief period, he felt like he was ten years old again.

  “Did you know there’s no such thing as a sea gull?” he said, watching several birds skim over the breakers near the beach. “There are gulls, but none are sea gulls.”

  “Were you listening to me?” Adder said. The big man stood behind him and Rosos could feel his glare. Adder was necessary to his father’s plan, but that didn’t mean he had to like him. There was an indefinable menace about the man, some sense that if pushed too far Adder might forget his own best interests and go berserk.

  “Yes, I was listening. You’re a real buzzkill,” Rosos said.

  “I didn’t come here to stare at the ocean or talk about birds, this isn’t my childhood home, and I didn’t come to California to fuck around. I told your father I’d do what I could to assess the Chinese military potential and then make suggestions, which is what I’m trying to do right now.”

  With an exaggerated sigh, the youngest Rosos turned away from the ocean and waved his hand. “Assess away.”

  “I’ve only been here two days, but I can already tell you that whatever combat potential Zhang’s people may have had before the Americans kicked their ass is gone. The survivors of the original armored corps that landed here forty years ago are all in their sixties and seventies now, and the best of those died during that battle last year. The ones who are left don’t want any part of dying for their Generalissimo.”

  Rosos yawned and picked up a mug from the wrought iron table to one side of the balcony. He closed his eyes and sipped hot, fresh coffee. “This alone made coming to Los Angeles worth the trip.”