“That’s great and my name is Saunders. Can I get 10 minutes to clean up and change clothes?” she asked, unlocking her door so she and Chopper could go in.
“Oh yes, sergeant. She told Lt. Nila she saw you out running and he was the one who told me to come get you.” The private waited in the hall. “I’m to wait here for you.” Amanda could tell the private was nervous for some reason, probably because the dog weighed as much as he did. “You don’t have to wait in the hall, private….” She couldn’t see his name tag because of the rifle he carried.
“Private Sweet, sergeant.”
“Private Sweet. Please come in. While I change, please make some coffee so we don’t have to make the general wait.”
By the time she was changed into new clothes, Sweet had the coffee made, poured some cereal in a bowl and filled a glass with milk. He had also fed and watered Chopper.
“Thanks for taking care of him, Private Sweet,” Amanda said, toweling off her hair and pouring milk into the bowl of cereal. “I hope he doesn’t get upset having to stay in that fenced in area while I’m with the general.”
“Oh no, sergeant,” the private corrected her. “The lieutenant specifically said the general told him to make sure you bring your dog. He’s out finding a leash and that’s why he sent me.”
Amanda finished her breakfast while letting Chopper out the back. She didn’t want him making a mess in the general’s office.
She hadn’t tried putting a collar on him, but the way he acted, she assumed he’d been trained. She dug through the clothes she’d brought in the previous night and found a belt. When Chopper came back in, she knelt down and scratched behind his ears. He tried to lick her face when she put the belt around his neck. The dog had a big neck, but not as big as her waist so she took it off and used a fork to put another hole in the belt. When she put it on him, it fit loosely, but she didn’t think it mattered.
Amanda locked up the apartment and she, Chopper and Private Sweet walked to the general’s office. It was a nice morning, cool without being cold, spring breeze and clear skies. Chopper romped around the two as they walked, sniffing at everything, but not straying too far from Amanda.
They arrived at the office and Private Sweet saluted Lt. Nila who came out of the building holding a length of rope.
“Chopper, come,” Amanda told the dog and he came over to sit beside her.
“You’ve got a well-trained dog there, Sergeant Sanders. If he doesn’t need a leash, I don’t see any reason to tie him up.
“I’m Lieutenant Nila, the general’s aide. When she heard about you and your dog and his special talent, she was anxious to meet you. She actually wanted to meet you last night when you first got here, but Sgt. DeBusk told her you guys had come from the darkest pits of the worst hell and you’d probably want sleep more than you wanted to talk with some general.”
“I appreciate it, sir, and the name is Saunders, not Sanders,” she told him. “Someone must have got the spelling wrong.
“And this is Chopper. He’s my superhero,” she said patting Chopper on the head. He licked her hand.
“Sergeant Saunders it is. If you plan on staying in the Army for a while, I can have Private Sweet get you some uniforms, boots, the whole works. I can even make sure he knows how to spell your last name,” the lieutenant said, eyeing the private. She knew who had made the spelling error now. She didn’t think the private would make the same mistake twice.
“I don’t really know what we’re going to do, sir,” she said as he opened the door for her and her dog and they all went inside and down the hall to the first office on the left. “I was headed to Alabama where my dad and brother lived, but I lost most of my clothes in Canada, attacked by dogs in Spokane, mutants twice and just spent the last month and a half staying ahead of freezing to death and the Grim Reaper. Last night was…” she broke off as the general came out of her office. Everyone in the room snapped to attention. Even Chopper, who sat next to Amanda’s scratching hand, stood up.
The general had a warm smile and she used it on Amanda and her dog. “At ease, everyone,” she said and the two soldiers behind desks in the office sat back down and went back to work.
“You must be the Sergeant Saunders everyone has been talking about,” she said, reaching out to shake Amanda’s hand.
“I am she, ma’am,” Amanda said, returning the firm handshake, “but I don’t know why everyone is talking about me. I just got here last night and haven’t met anyone except these two since I got on base.”
“Please, come into my office and let’s get comfortable, unless you’re in a hurry to get back on the road.”
“Yes, ma’am. I mean, no ma’am,” Amanda had never had to speak with a general before and Gen. Parker had her off balance. “What I mean ma’am, and as I was saying to the lieutenant, last night was the first time in a while that I slept without thinking I was going to wake up to some horror.”
The two women went into the general’s office and the dog followed. The elder offered Amanda a cup of coffee which she accepted. Chopper lay down next to Amanda’s chair. The lieutenant brought in a plate of fresh apple and orange slices and a rawhide bone for the dog and closed the door on his way out. Chopper looked at the bone, then Amanda, then the bone again. “Well, go ahead, Chopper. It isn’t going to eat itself.”
The general sat down behind her desk and laid it out why she was famous. “The man you brought in, Dan, told our medic a fanciful tale of how you rescued him and five others from certain death. He then went on to spin a yarn about how you drove down from Alaska on your way to Alabama.
“Sgt. DeBusk, our intrepid explorer who you met last night on the highway, told me a wild tale you told him about escaping from a pair of mutants, including shooting one that had gotten aboard your RV and running over another one with your truck.
“He goes on to say, you have a dog that can sniff out these mutants from hundreds of yards away,” the general said, not reading from notes. Amanda listened and nodded but didn’t say anything. The general hadn’t asked any question so Amanda wasn’t sure what she was leading up to.
Parker smiled at Amanda, who was looking uncomfortable with her story being unfolded in front of her. To Amanda, it sounded more impressive when the general told it, than how she remembered it.
Amanda remembered more about how afraid she’d been and how she broke down and cried twice in the same day.
“I’ll give it to you straight, Amanda,” the general said, showing just a glimpse of weary of the roll she was in, “We’ve lost 17 good people to those mutant bastards. Every time we go foraging we have to be so careful, and even when we are, we still lose people.
“Now, Dan and Sgt. DeBusk’s stories seem too impressive and before we gone on, I want you to tell me they are exaggerations on your part.”
Amanda looked the general officer straight in the eye and told her they were true. “Ma’am, I didn’t do anything anyone else wouldn’t do. Dan needed help and I helped him. As for the mutants, if Chopper hadn’t stopped me, I’d’ve gone in that store and I’d be dead now. Chopper and I saved each other from a pack of wild dogs and we’ve been together ever since.”
The general told Amanda she believed every word. When Amanda finished her cup of coffee the general refilled it. “Tell me about Fort Wainwright, Amanda.”
Amanda told her about how everyone except for the captain and private had died on base and their decision to head to Anchorage. She told about meeting Johnson and his taking of his own life, the captain parting ways with her and heading off in search of his family, the murder of Shep by the Canadians, the entire story. She left out minor details, made no embellishments and kept to the major points.
The general listened without commenting or interrupting.
When Amanda was finished, the general asked Amanda if she’d like to go for a walk around the base with her. Amanda thought it was an odd request, but knew Chopper wouldn’t mind going outside again. He’d finished destroying
the bone he had been given.
“I’d like that, ma’am. I haven’t had any time to enjoy a walk without worrying about something or someone trying to kill me.”
The two women walked outside and Chopper immediately found a tree. They walked and talked about how the general came to command the base, and what she was trying to do to keep as many people alive as possible. They had fuel for generators, but that would run out eventually and they were working on other forms of power. They were scavenging from the air force base in Cheyenne and from Ft. Collins. Every bit of non-perishable food is being stored and we’re working on a number of other initiatives.
“I’m working on building a self-supporting community, Amanda, but we need everyone to help, and that’s the problem.”
“I don’t understand ma’am. From what I’ve seen, everyone seems to be working together, I see well-fed civilians and soldiers and you have electricty here. At Wainwright, we lost power even before everyone had died.”
“There is a lot more going on than you can see, dear girl,” the general told her. “There are roving bands of thugs who have attacked our rescue convoys. They’ve killed more than 30 people that we know about and captured seven women who were with them.
“That’s why Sgt. DeBusk met you with loaded guns and ready for an ambush. Between the bandits and the mutants, we’ve lost 72 soldiers and civilians in the last three months.
“We have been working hard to keep enough food and water and we have a safety margin of 36 days right now. I know it sounds like a lot, but our first crops are 80 to 110 days away. We have a dairy set up and there’s enough food for everyone right now, but next year, we will have a harder time of it, and the year after that. It’s going to be hard. Making it harder is the refugees coming in from the south who need us.
“There was a hurricane that ripped through the south two months ago and we’re still getting wanderers in. They need food and medical attention and housing. It’s like we are an oasis in a desert with the only food and water available.”
“I hadn’t thought about it ma’am,” Amanda told her honestly. “I’d only been thinking of myself and wanting to go home to see if my dad and brother were alive. I already know my mom didn’t make it. I saw her house in Spokane. She died with my step-dad beside her.” She hadn’t told that part to the general and there was a hitch in her voice when she did now.
The general, who was two inches shorter than Amanda, put her arm around her. “I’m sorry, Amanda. That had to be rough.”
They walked passed barracks and soldiers in uniform walking by saluted the general as they passed. There is some positive news, however,” the general told her. “There’s a colonel in Indiana who has a community growing like ours. We’re able to contact him via shortwave a few nights ago.
“We heard about a compound near Travis Air Force Base in California that was nearly wiped out by a 200-foot tsunami. The Perry Compound survivors near Sacramento are attempting to make contact with them.
“The problem is we lost two full teams before we even knew the mutants were out there. We’re more careful now, but still we lose personnel every week.
“I think you can help us.”
“Ma’am?” Amanda asked.
“I’m not going to pretend to order you, Amanda. I know you’ve done more than your share already and you’d like to get home. I’ll help you on your way with fuel and food whenever you want to go, but what I’m asking, is for you to stay here with us for a few months and help us before you go.
“You and your dog will be part of our scavenging team and I think the two of you will help save a lot of lives.
“In return, we’ll provide you a nice house, food, water and power, with a big yard and repeal the leash laws for Chopper. I’ll even give you a HUMVEE of your own to drive while you’re here so you don’t have to use your RV.
“If it would help, I will draw up paperwork for your honorable discharge so you won’t feel obligated to stay here. I don’t know how long you have left of your military obligation, but you seem like the kind of person who honors their commitment, even if there is no one to make sure.”
Amanda saw that the general was good at reading people and had pegged her for exactly what she’d been thinking. She had introduced herself as “Sgt. Saunders” even though she knew there was a complete breakdown of civilization. Amanda had just extended her enlistment to get the advanced leadership training and maybe flight school before everyone started dying.
The two finished walking around the fenced in area of the camp. Amanda saw areas that were a hive of activity and places where there was nothing.
The general had given Amanda an out if she wanted it. She could leave the base, fully fueled and stocked with food. In three or four days she could be in Alabama, because she would have to stop in Mississippi first. She had promised herself when she was crying on the ground with Shep’s head in her lap, that she’d attempt to find his mom and tell her how brave he’d been.
Amanda watched as Chopper loped around the area, tossing his head and picking up sticks for her to throw. The general had alluded to the hurricane in the south. If her dad and brother had survived the plague that had killed everyone, the hurricane, which the general told her had lasted for two full days and wiped out a number of camps up the east coast, had been as bad she said, it was doubtful her dad’s farm was even left on the map. She remembered her dad telling her about Hurricane Frederick, a small hurricane that had nearly wiped out Gadsden before she was born.
Eventually, she’d want to go back home, if for no other reason than to pay her respects to her dad and brother.
“Ma’am,” Amanda said to the general after walking in silence for several minutes. “I joined the Army to see the world. The world is now really different than it was three months ago.
“Like I said earlier, last night was the first night I slept without being afraid and I slept well. I think I am right on the edge of losing my mind sometimes and am going to wake up from a dream, but I never wake up.
“I know how you feel, Amanda. I feel the same way myself, especially when Sgt. DeBusk comes back from a trip with three fewer men than he went out with, like he did last night.
“We have farmers and electricians, mechanics and teachers, we have laborers and managers. What we need, Amanda, are soldiers.” The general then shut up and the two walked while Amanda thought. It took a few minutes, but eventually the general had her answer.
“If I can get some uniforms and some gear, I think Chopper and I can be both physically and mentally ready for duty tomorrow.”
The general, who had been walking close beside Amanda, slipped her arm around her once again, more as a motherly figure than the senior military officer in the United States Army. “Thank you, sergeant,” she said and Amanda could tell the general meant it.
“I’ll have Lt. Nila set you up with housing and you take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow morning about oh nine hundred, you report to his office and we’ll get all the paperwork started.”
“I already have an apartment, ma’am.”
“I know you do, but it’s not big enough for you and Chopper. You’re in one of the apartments where we put all the new people. If you are going to be on permanent duty here, we have something with a much larger yard and a garage to park your RV in.
“In fact, if Lt. Nila is as good a prognosticator as I think he is, your house is ready for you now.” The general pointed to a very nice two-story house with a two-car attached garage. “My house is the second one down. Lt. Nila and his wife live between us. I hope you’ll be my guest for dinner tonight and we’ll talk more about things then.
“I’ve got to get back to work, now sergeant, so I’ll see you tonight around 1900?”
“Yes, ma’am. And thank you, ma’am.” Amanda saluted the general, just as if she were in military gear. The general saluted back and headed off in the direction they’d come.
Amanda liked the looks of the house and Chopper didn’t seem
to mind either.
It wasn’t home, but it was enough home for now.
Chapter 10
“Dust on the dirt road!” came the call from the crow’s nest.
Morning had broken and chores were finished on Jerry’s farm. Everyone had completed breakfast and there were hopes the attack wouldn’t come today.
“Looks like three or four trucks!”
The alarm for combat stations was sounding now. Everyone was moving quickly but without panic. The children, led by LT were headed to the shelter cellar and followed by Cindy who had stopped to retrieve baby Adam.
Eddie, after making his report, scrambled down from the tower. His combat station was one of the Strykers which covered the area south of the shelter. Three of the big fighting vehicles had been staged behind berms on what had been dubbed windmill hill on the far west border of the farm. Anything coming around the hill south of Buff and Nick’s bunker was his. He’d also be protecting the south side of the shelter and the motorhomes which were being evacuated.
Monica had the middle Stryker with the Gatling gun she’d learned to use. There was a large wooden obstruction made from railroad ties in front of her vehicle to keep her from shooting toward the shelter entrance, or Tony, who was 30 feet in front of her inside the storage building, or the motorhomes. She’d be looking far left and far right for targets.
Randy was in the northern-most Stryker on the base of windmill hill, beside his friends Eddie and Monica, even though 150 yards separated the three Strykers. His primary mission was defending the shelter and Jerry, who would be in his sniper position atop the shelter directing the defenses. Jerry had provided a walkie-talkie to everyone, and a command set Tony had rigged in case the attacker’s frequency was found.
The elderly deJesus’s opened the hatch of middle Stryker of the reserve force and climbed inside. They might be old, but they were ready to fight. They would be protecting the windmill Stryker force from their concealed position between the motorhomes and the parapet in front of the shelter doors.
Hell happened (Book 2): Hell Revisited Page 21