by Javan Bonds
42
Mo Journal Entry 17
SHE HAD OPENED the door and The Expert was preparing to launch herself to the shore. We distinctly heard a small motorboat approaching. The five of us waited–okay, I cowered in the floorboard for what seemed like hours while everybody else waited and watched with rifles at the ready. A machine gun mounted bass boat came from around the pontoon bridge at the opened gap. I peeked over the lip of the window after Smokes said something about “Dat Star Trek mufucka.” I was happy to see that it was the tech, wearing Brotherhood of Steel power armor with the helmet by his side. Of course he was wearing his customary adamantium claws rather than the suit’s gauntlets. He proudly steered the PT boat christened: “Moldy Crow.”
I smiled and shook my head as I waved. “Hey Kyle Katarn!”
He looked over with surprise; yeah, smoking planes do not crash into the lake every day. Actually, maybe he was just surprised that we were alive, not engulfed in a massive fireball. The Tech also seemed genuinely glad to see us.
“Mo!” He scrunched up his face in a poor impersonation of Yoda, “Strong with you the Force must be.” He dropped out of his geekier than usual stance and asked, “Can I help?”
The boat drifted to within feet of the Beaver as I pointed over my shoulder at my brother and Aka. I then looked at my other two partners who readily agreed. “You need to take these two to the island. The three of us can go with you.”
He nodded before ordering his Spartan gunner, “Take these civilians to the courthouse and the other three will stay with me. Looks like you get the day off, John.” I seriously doubt the man wearing green Halo armor was actually named John, but The Tech gave a nerdy grin when he uttered the name. He and I were the only two of the assembled group that would know John is the name of the Master Chief. Hell, nobody else even knew he was wearing Mjolnir armor. God, I’m a fucking nerd; at least Gene knew what I was thinking as he sent Easy off to see our mother.I don’t know if it’s just what I wanted to hear, but I was elated when the armored soldier saluted and sounded exactly like a Storm Trooper. “Yes sir!” Damn, now that I think about it, I should’ve thanked the guy who had been on the 50 for not turning us into Swiss cheese when I screamed and waved like an imbecile.
Amazingly, the hefty pilot had not sunk our tiny, leaking craft. Even as he stepped from the plane to the boat, neither tipped over. I asked the tech after we dropped off the passengers, “So what’s been going on?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
Yeah, I knew we’d just bombed an APC, but I still had no clue to the big picture. “Well, I know we’re being attacked, but that’s about it.” I figured the fact that our plane had been riddled with bullets would have given him some indication that we were aware of hostiles.
I could see Gene mentally preparing for several parsecs worth of story. “I guess I gotta start just after you LEFT...”
☠☠☠
43
Gonads
THE TWO NEWCOMERS followed the armored man before them at a brisk pace. The helmeted soldier sounded a bit like those guys from Star Wars when he turned his helmeted head in Easy’s direction. “So who are you?”
He gestured to his fiancée as he spoke. “I’m Easy, Mo’s brother. This is my fiancée, Aka.”
He could almost see the eyebrows raise through the faceplate. “Oh! I guess that means we’re going to see your mom.”
The Protector nodded as he realized he was soon to see his mother but would never again see his father alive. Since they had crash landed in the water, everything had happened so fast that he’d had no time to ask or even think about the fate of his dad.
The trio rounded the corner to Gunter. Easy had to stop and blink. A woman that appeared to be his mother was walking in their direction, a young woman beside her. Both were wearing what appeared to be Kevlar with assault rifles strapped over each shoulder. “Mama?”
She broke from her conversation with the other woman and froze similarly before shouting and running at him with outstretched arms. “Ezekiel!”
He wanted to introduce his future wife but after the initial sobs of joy and exclamations, he said the only thing he could say, “Why are you carrying a gun?” He was not opposed to constitutional liberties, he had just never seen his mother carry anything more than her 38 revolver. It was surprising to see her at such ease with an SKS.
She was still wiping away happy tears. “Sarah and I are on our way to help your daddy.”
The Protector gasped, “You mean Daddy’s alive?”
☠☠☠
The frontline defenders could see a red, single engine plane with water skis flying at them from behind the enemy vehicles. Most were confident they heard a distinct pop from that direction.
They all watched, dumbfounded. The mayor knew exactly what was happening. “That’s Mo!”
Kumar’s distinct accent was heard radioing from his perch near the southwestern channel, “Plane dropped a…” he stuttered, trying to think of the right descriptor, “…bomb into rear of 40mm Cougar.”
His report was drowned out by uproarious cheers and fist pumps by the defenders. The mayor could see machine-gun fire puncture the plane at several points from below.
The cheering tapered before the Phantom sounded over the radio. “Plane took several hits from LATV mount, landing on the east side of the island. Pilot does not appear to be incapacitated.”
Randy grimaced, that was a good sign; he didn’t expect Smokes to die. It was just difficult to stay strong in your faith when your sons could have just been riddled with bullets. Could Mo really just have rescued the island before being cut down at the doorstep?
He wished he had immediate access to a HAM-capable radio so he could message his son before the end. Randy would wait until this horrible day was over to tell Debbie what he had just seen.
There was absolutely no fire coming inbound to the island, all of the ground troops were racing to the armored vehicles and shooting at the rushing cannibals. At least five soldiers crammed into the Humvee and had driven to park behind the recently bombed Cougar. A few had made it to the MRAP with the disabled mount. A couple of pitiful souls were unlucky enough to seal themselves inside the grenade launching APC. The control for the 40mm had been obliterated, they were basically hiding inside a coffin that featured a disturbed interior design. Every single gun on the mainland was now aiming east and destroying any of the rabid nudists that came into sight.
☠☠☠
He told his mother everything he could think of to tell her about his and Aka’s journey from the prison to the front lines. Thankfully, the African beauty had been there to fill in anything he missed. The Protector was glad to see that his mother truly liked his fiancée. She was very interested when Aka began telling her about the hydroelectric dam near where she grew up.
Aka concluded her story by saying that she was pretty confident she would be able to get the electricity running here. Mrs. Collins stood on her tip toes in an attempt to put her arm over the much taller woman’s shoulder. “I think we’ll have to tell Randy about that!”
It just dawned on the youngest Collins male who this pretty girl traveling with his mother was. She asked, “So is Mo okay?” This was Sarah Ogle! He remembered her voice from the radio several days ago. Hadn’t his brother been madly in love with this chick for years, but was too much of a pussy to ask her out? She at least cared about him enough to ask where he was. Maybe he could help Mo make some kind of move at the next opportunity.
The Protector answered with the sudden recognition making his eyebrows arch up. “Yeah, him and the other two went with that dude in the spacesuit on his Apocalypse Now boat.”
His mother chided him. “That’s Gene in Brotherhood of Steel armor on the Moldy Crow!”
The bodybuilder merely sighed as she “tsk-tsked” him. There was no way she knew any more than he did what either of those things were, she must’ve talked to Gene earlier. Easy was confident no one in his family
could possibly be that nerdy.
☠☠☠
“So if we send some assistance you will not fire on us?”
The reply came from one of the MRAPs. “Hell no, we’re too busy with the damn zombies! If you give us a hand, we’ll surrender and come out with our hands on our heads!”
Mo was incredulous. “I thought you were smart, Gene. This is the fucking stupidest idea you ever had!”
The tech lowered his radio as the boat began picking up speed. “Dangerous, not stupid. This is the most logical action and may result in the greatest number of lives being saved: both parties lending a little trust.”
“Logic went out the window when people started turning blue and biting each other.” Mo spit into the water before nodding to The Oracle. “And why we gotta trust these sumbitches with our lives? I’m sure there are some insignificant lives we could use!”
Smokes smacked a meaty hand on the engineer’s armor plated shoulder. “Da Whiz gots some gonads!”
Mo could only slap his forehead in response. The Oracle had accepted this dumbass plan and was ready to rush headlong into the waiting sights of several machine guns. He was thinking that it was so much easier to have faith when your own life wasn’t on the line. He was tempted to risk bacterial meningitis by abandoning ship and swimming to the island. Hammer began throwing lead at the peevies attacking The Villain. They had now gained a new ally versus the main antagonist whether The Hero trusted that ally or not.
☠☠☠
The mayor turned and was about to greet his wife. He wanted to scream, to fall over, to start running at them. Walking beside her in his direction was his youngest son. This was one of the happiest moments of his life, directly following one of the worst. He walked to his son and realized he had only thought of Mo being on that plane. He firmly shook the younger man’s hand and clapped him on the arm. “Easy.”
☠☠☠
“Mo’s alive?”
“That’s the same thing I asked about you! We thought you got shot or something when your radio went out.”
Mayor Collins did his best to explain the unexplainable miracle that had taken place. His long-lost son continued, “He made it and he’s with the Kathy Bates lady and the fat Chris Tucker guy–”
Easy was interrupted by his mother with the correction, “Captain Sledge and Marlon–”
He dropped his eyes to sheepishly smile and nod in acceptance even though he was pretty sure he had never heard that black guy referred to by that name. He guiltily picked up, “Are with Gene on the Moldy Crow.”
At that moment a conversation between Gene and the military on the other side of the water started over the radio. Randy understood what was happening and offered to come across the bridge to do some “zombie cleanup” after the enemy surrendered.
☠☠☠
Sally was on the verge of hysteria. “Jonathan!?”
Bobbitt could understand why his troops would offer peace, but knew he would ultimately not be accepted by these insurgents as a commander. If they continued fighting their human enemy, the peevies would eventually surround them, but if they allied with the humans they would be more likely to survive.
It was almost funny. Your enemy’s enemy could only be your friend on one side because on the other side your enemy’s enemy were insane cannibals. He couldn’t blame his remaining men for choosing life, but was aware he himself would need to make a run for it. He could hear the soldiers bargaining over the radio and he was also willing to accept some help from the insurgents–until the time was right.
He continued blasting the blue monsters as he spoke slowly and between bursts from his mount. “Sally, we can make it out of this but you are going to have to do exactly as I SAY.”
44
Mo Journal Entry 18
I WAS BEYOND astounded that every crew member of the Moldy Crow had not been diced into unrecognizable strips of flesh upon coming into range of the enemy’s automatic weapons. We added to the continuous onslaught of bullets going into the ranks of the undead. It was strangely exhilarating to no longer be at war with the guys that had been shooting machine guns at us just moments ago, almost as if we had become their reinforcements.
Hammer lowered the cartoonish red and smoking barrel of the mounted 50 and stated the obvious. “Overheating. You boys care to give me some coolant?”
I’ve seen this movie. I probably could have worked one up at the time, I just was not willing to whip it out in front of Hammer. Yeah, I know she’s a lesbian; she might even be more of a man than I’ll ever be, and she wouldn’t judge me.
I simply didn’t think it was worth commanding her to turn around and start singing. “Nope, sorry, Cap.” We Were Soldiers was the first movie that came to mind. Now, my excuse for not wanting to expose myself in front of The Expert would probably be that last scene from Boogie Nights. You know what I’m talking about and this is my journal, I can put whatever image into your head I want.
She turned to The Oracle who smiled sheepishly. He answered automatically, “I’s dry as a bone; added a couple inches to da lake awhul ago.”
She shrugged. I guess she saw the prophet take a leak into the water from the float of the Beaver earlier. The expert didn’t bother asking Gene, that armor would be too much damn trouble to work himself out of. Her gaze returned to me. “Come on Mo, you can squeeze a little bit out.”
What the fuck? I was about to tell her to do it! I was trying to give Mel Gibson an excuse when a lightbulb turned on. “Ain’t this a fucking lake? Water’s gotta be cold.”
She nodded in agreement. She looked into the mounted ammo box and clicked her tongue. “There’s only a couple rounds left anyway, not really a big deal.”
What? I was about to accuse her of just wanting to see my pecker! She called back to The Tech, “Time to make landfall! Steer us to that pier.”
Shit, I wanted to argue the usefulness of the two remaining shells; I felt a lot safer on a boat. Before I could speak, the three suicidal amigos were stepping onto the wooden planks and sending pain downrange.
I cannot count the number of times these people have nearly gotten me murdered. I guess I should credit The Screenwriter for the “nearly” part. If we were comparing the Cora crew to biblical disciples, I suppose I could relate to Doubting Thomas. I have no problem being a faithful follower when I am not at risk of being eaten. I’m sure I would deny Smokes three times if it would keep me safe. Well shit, I just realized that I’m not only a pussy, I’m downright blasphemous.
My compatriots were occasionally shooting peevies out of our sight. I took my own sweet time getting off the boat and creeping onto land. Sure, I’ve killed my share of zombies and I’m not really troubled by shooting the damned animals, I’m just not one of those people that go out of my way to kill countless enemies.
I played Medal of Honor back in the day–and yes, PC gaming is superior to your console, loser. Though I may have been too shitty an aim to be a sniper, I was a proud camper. Why would I run out into the open when you jackasses with the shotguns and bazookas would shoot in my general direction and kill me? I could just crouch in the corner with my BAR and wait! I’m nothing if not patient; I will let the rushing noobs clear a building before I go to find my perfect corner.
Four of the rabid nudists emerged from across the road to my east. They began screaming and howling as they charged me, blue private parts swaying in the breeze. It honestly would have been comical, naked people of all ages running and howling like lunatics, but the fact that they wanted to rend my flesh from my bones kinda sucked the funny from the situation. I’m not a Boy Scout and definitely would not have gotten a marksmanship award, but I dropped two of them with four shots and took aim on the third. Damn, the action clicked. Are you shitting me? I’ve never had a gun jam after so few shells. I dropped the rifle to pull my pistol with only yards to spare. I glanced to the right; I couldn’t see my comrades and was too far to be seen by the men in the vehicles. One of the two remaining mo
nsters lunged and I quickly pistol whipped the thing in the face before shooting the other.
The pistol whipped cannibal stayed upright and continued coming while its friend fell. I put two rounds in the chest of the creature as it closed its infected mouth onto my forearm.
“Oh. SHIT.”
☠☠☠
45
The Surrender
BY THE TIME the main group of defenders had breached the gap in the causeway and were crossing over onto land, The Expert and The Tech were zip tying each soldier’s wrists as they came down the line. It was amazing that all of the soldiers had given up freely, throwing weapons out of the vehicles and surrendering with fingers interlaced over their heads. They seemed almost happy to be giving up, preferring living and being captured to dead or undead and free. The Oracle was keeping an eye on the perimeter with his shotgun at the ready as the mayor ordered some of the island dwellers to the mounted weapons. Rapid fire bursts tapered off to only the rare break in silence as the horde had clearly been decimated.
☠☠☠
Sarah broke away from the Collins family and approached the ever watchful seer. “Where’s Mo?” After coming to her belated realization that she loved him romantically, all she had wanted to do was see him and talk to him. She felt like she was just winging it, having no idea how it would go. She almost laughed, that’s what Mo always does, she thought happily.