by John Holmes
“Better sooner than later, Nick” she said, snapped the shotgun together, and got up to relieve Hart so she could get some food.
“Damn straight” I said to myself. Two thousand miles from home through a cruel, hard country. “Damn straight.”
Chapter 13
We sat around the fire that night in a council of war, debating which direction to move in. East was the obvious choice, back towards New York, but sometimes the most obvious thing isn’t the right thing.
Around the fire sat me, Brit, Major Rhodes, her copilot Captain Crossley, their Navigator Lt. Schwertig, Ziv, and Red. The rest of the guys were either on watch or resting, trying to get some sleep.
“Last position we had, I took a look just before we lost engine power” said Schwertig, pointing to a page in a U.S. road atlas opened to Kansas. I had carried it in my pack, like my DeLorme atlas of New York. “Given our glide rate and altitude when the engines quit, figure maybe twenty five miles past that point. That puts here, maybe.”
Looking at the map, I saw that he pointed to a little town just south of the Nebraska border, about halfway across the state. Two hundred miles east was the Missouri River, Kansas City, and settled areas. Those we wanted to avoid at all costs.
“What about Fort Riley?” said Red.”Task Force Bronco had a pretty big presence there, running operations into Missouri, if I recall.”
“That’s out. We have to assume that any large military installation got hit by the second plague.” I saw Crossley start to say something, but I headed her off. “That goes for the air bases around Omaha too.”
Major Rhodes spoke next. “We have to find a plane. A civilian airport might have something, but it would have to be big, to carry the eight of you and the five of us.”
“There is no you and us, Major. There is only us. We work and fight as a team. As soon as you get that, the better off we’ll all be.”
“In which case, you’ll understand that I make the final decisions. As the ranking officer here, I’ll decide where we go.” The Major gave me a steady look, and I sighed.
“Major, I appreciate the fact that you are a competent flyer. I’ll explain, though, again. We are on the ground, not in the air. This is where we excel, and if you want to stay alive, you’ll do exactly what we say. When we get back, you can bring me up on whatever charges you want. Do you understand?”
“Violating the Chain of Command is punishable by death, Sergeant Major Agostine. I’ll have you shot.”
“Ma’am” said her copilot. “I think now is not the time to get into pissing games.”
Brit looked up in the sky, looking for the dead Space Station to come cruising overhead. She gazed at the stars, ignoring the conversation. Ziv sat with his knife, slowly grinding at the edge with a whet stone, not saying anything, but calmly watching the Major.
“With all due respect, Ma’am” agreed Lt. Schwertig “I also think we should listen to the Sergeant Major. His people have lived out in the Wilds for years.”
She stubbornly refused to give in. “That’s well and good, and I appreciate those skills, but I. AM. IN. CHARGE. Of course, the Sergeant Major can slap me around all he wants, but that doesn’t change anything.”
Whoo boy, this woman had some steel in her. Ziv started to get up, but I held up my hand, stopping him. Instead I reached into my pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. I handed it to the Major. She started to read it silently, then continued out loud.
“…is hereby appointed the brevet rank of Colonel, for the duration of the Emergency, until I rescind this Executive Order. Signed President Christopher Epson.”
There was silence around the fire until Red spoke. “Shit, Nick done gone over to the Dark Side.”
“Oh wow, does that mean I’m a Colonel’s wife? I get my own parking space! Queen Dependapotomus!” exclaimed Brit. Ziv still eyed the Major, who stared at the paper.
“Can I have that back, please?” She handed it to me, and I folded it back up. “None of this means shit. I want you to listen to us because the world is a very bad place. I think the rest of your crew gets it. Point is, if you cause us trouble, I won’t have Ziv kill you. We’ll just leave you here. And I’ll stick with Sergeant Major, thanks.”
Rhodes actually stood up and threw me a salute, which I returned. She then sat back, accepting the new pecking order without comment. I’ll say one thing though, she was military through and through. I wasn’t used to it. Probably crapped MRE’s still in the package.
“OK, now that all the dick measuring is done, can we get back to where we are going? I think a plane ride beats the ever loving shit out of walking fifteen hundred miles” said Brit.
Schwertig spoke up. “Well, if we’re going to try for a fairly big airport, we’re going to have to get close to populated areas. Last I recall, a lot of this part of the country was evacuated to the Pacific Northwest, but there were tons of undead around St. Louis. And all up and down the Mississippi watershed.”
I agreed. None of us had ever operated anywhere west of the Appalachians, but from Chicago down to New Orleans had turned into a death land. I didn’t want to cross it, but we might have to.
“How good of a condition would a plane be in after four years of sitting on the ground?” asked Red.
“Depends on if were in a hangar or not. Outside, well, in this country, I would expect four years of storms would done a job on them.”
Rhodes said “If we head for Offutt there were C-130’s there operating as of last month. There probably is a few on the ground that are serviceable. But” and she looked at me “I yield to the Colonel’s experience on the ground.”
Before I could speak, Brit said “Offutt got hit by the second plague.” Brit often acted as our informal intelligence officer, since she seemed to know everything that happened around the country through her network of social media friends. Since the net had crashed last month, for good, I don’t know how she knew anything, but I trusted her.
“Well, we could sneak onto the base, but how long do you think it will take us to get a C-130 or a C-12 up and running?”
“I, well, I don’t know. I would need to ask Master Sergeant Dowling.”
“Well, Major, in my experience, you should rely more on your Non-Coms than you apparently do. Why isn’t he sitting here talking this stuff over with us?”
“Because this is a council of war, and I brought all my officers.”
Brit actually snickered at that one and muttered “dumbass” then got up and climbed over the perimeter wall. Master Sergeant Dowling came back without her and sat down next to Ziv.
“Master Sergeant” I asked “about how long would it take us to inspect, refit and fuel, say a C-12 Huron if we found one in a hangar?”
“At least an hour, if we have fuel on hand. Gotta have batteries, and I’d want to check out all the engines. I’m not rated on them, but I can figure them out.”
I made up my mind. “OK then. Offutt it is. Ziv, I want you and Vely to keep an eye out for some motor transportation. Red, start thinking of how we can defend a hangar from a horde for at least an hour. Lt. Schwertig, how far?”
He peered at his map again. “About a hundred fifty miles.”
“Double that” I said. “We’re going to have to avoid every town bigger than fifty people. This brings us to our next problem, food.”
“What about it?” asked the copilot.
“We have ten people to feed for a week, maybe more. How many MRE’s do we have?”
“Six” came the answer from over the berm, where Sergeant Vely was listening in.
So we would have to go into a town after all. Something I didn’t want to do, and my team could march on short rations; we had done it often before. The Air Force guys were definitely not used to it, and would be miserable.
“OK then, get some rest. At zero three hundred we move out to check out that town down the road from here. Red, set up the guard roster.”
I took first watch, sitting up on the berm
, trying not to silhouette myself against the sky, and watched Ziv circle the camp on a roving patrol. Overhead, the stars blazed, not caring.
Behind me Brit whispered “ohhh, a big bad colonel now, I’m sooo scared.” I ignored her.
Chapter 14
Brit carefully shook me awake. “Nick” she whispered “stand to.” I stifled a groan and sat up, moving slowly around in the lightweight sleeping bag. My boots were down in the bag, giving my foot some time to breathe while I slept, and I quickly changed my sock and put the boots on. I tightened up the straps that held my carbon fiber lower leg onto my stump, and worked my way into my gortex jacket while keeping the bag over me to keep the chill out. The middle of summer, and the temp felt like it was fifty degrees. I knew it could jump to over a hundred today.
I heard Brit whispering to the others, rousing them from their sleep. My watch said 02:52. I guess three hours of sleep was better than nothing, and we wanted to hit that town before dawn. In the darkness a bulky shape brushed past me as Ziv took his position in the berm. The full moon was just setting, illuminating everything in a ghostly white light.
“What the fuck, it’s still dar *urk*” One of the sleeping shapes had started to complain loudly when Brit shook him awake, and she immediately kneed him in the chest and slapped a hand over his mouth.
“’Shut the fuck up asshole” she hissed, and the man went quiet, because she had the blade of her knife to his throat. I saw that the other Air Force crew, clustered around the sleeping figure in borrowed sleeping bags or blankets, sit up. Great way to start a morning, I mused.
I went over to where Red was scanning the surrounding area with one of our two pairs of Night Vision Goggles. “Anything?” I asked quietly, and he shook his head.
“Saw a couple of undead moving towards the plane crash a little while ago, and Ski saw a truck moving way off on the highway around zero one, from the direction of the town. Haven’t seen it come back.”
“Probably waiting for daylight to see what they can scavenge. OK, here’s the plan. I’m going to take Brit, Ski, Vely, your wife, that Air Force Master Sergeant and Ripley on a recon of the town, see if we can find some supplies and transportation. That leaves you here with Ziv and the rest of the Air Force crew to rest and be our Rally Point. It’s about four miles to town, so we should be back, one way or another, by noon. If we need to stay put, I’ll send someone out to bring you guys in, or call you on the radio. If you hear a lot of gunfire, or we aren’t back by twelve and you can’t raise us on the radio, then well, it’s been nice knowing you. Get back to New York and look after my boy.”
“How about you leave Brit here with me? So, you know, so that Nate doesn’t lose BOTH his parents in one shot.”
I almost laughed at that one. “I would, but what are the odds she’ll listen to me?”
“Well, you’re right, of course. Ziv is going to be mad.”
“Ziv isn’t fully recovered from a sucking chest wound, no matter what he may say or do. Besides, I think he has a thing for the good Major Rhodes. Who am I to get in the way of romance?”
He did laugh at that one. “You noticed it too. He hasn’t taken his eyes off her, even when I was sure he was going to cut her throat. He’s a weird dude.”
“Yeah, well, we all find love where we can in this mad mad world. Of all the Air Force people, Schwertig seems to have his head screwed on straightest. If you have to, put him in charge of the Air Weenies.”
“Got it” he said quietly, and handed me the NVG’s. “You’re going to need these. Here comes Ripley back from patrol, he’s got the other pair.”
“Thanks.” I took them and mounted the monocle on my helmet, swung up and out of the way, then headed back to gather my recon team, first slipping over the berm to take a quick piss with Red in overwatch.
We set out fifteen minutes later, at a brisk marching pace that put us outside the town before the sky started to lighten in the east. I wanted to get some idea of what was there before we went in, and I scanned it thoroughly with the night vision, looking for movement. Bognaski did the same with the thermal sight on his sniper rifle, which, in the cool night air, worked even better.
“There” he said, settling on a spot just off to the right. I turned to look and saw a herd of antelope moving along the highway leaving town, carefully grazing on the shrubbery that had grown up through the cracks in the pavement.
“So the town might be uninhabited. I kinda suspected from the smell. Smells burnt. Or it might be, that could be a migratory herd that hasn’t encountered man in a while.” The fire made me think it wasn’t though. Fire had destroyed more towns and villages than the zombie plague did. The undead may eat you, but a lighting strike with no water pressure in your mains and no gas for your fire trucks will burn down everything around you.
“OK, we go in the middle, then split and work our way out. Brit, you and me to the right. Hart, you and Ripley to the left. We’ll circle around and meet on the other side of town. Ski and Vely, on overwatch. Sergeant Dowling, stay here.” The Air Force NCO nodded, having no wish to get mixed up in this kind of work.
Just then Bognaski’s rifle coughed, the suppressed, subsonic round knocking down one of the antelope at the back of the herd. The rest of them took off running, not knowing where the threat came from, only aware one of their number had quietly died. We all dove to the dirt and brought our weapons up, ready to engage whatever he had fired on, feeling stupid when we saw the animal kicking its life away in the dirt.
“What the hell did you do that for?” I angrily said to the Corporal.
“I don’t know about you, boss, but I’m pretty fucking hungry. We can get it when you finish your recon and I can dress it out.”
He was right, of course, but I said “Next time, you clear it with me before you fire, you got it?”
“Sure” he said, looking sheepish.
I let up on him a bit. “Sure is going to taste good, though.”
Chapter 15
The problem with separating ourselves was the very real chance of friendly fire. We had radios, so we could stay in touch, but working our way outward like that minimized shooting without a PID, or Positive ID. Still, it wasn’t something you went into lightly, which is why I kept the less experienced people back
We moved forward towards the center of town, which thankfully wasn’t a big place. I wasn’t concerned too much about undead, since four years on, a little town like this wasn’t likely to have many mobile ones left, and we could clear out any building that we decided to settle in. What we were looking for was sign of human occupation. The range of a Z bite was a lot shorter than a rifle bullet or an arrow, or even an axe or machete, and we needed a secure place to rest.
The town consisted of a main street, with a couple of older buildings, as well as some detached houses on side streets. Only a block on each side, and beyond that was the rail yard with the grain elevators. A little further out was a gas station / truck stop, which had burned to the ground. The far side of the town, opposite us, had suffered a catastrophic fire that had reduced all the buildings between Main Street and the rail yard to burnt out brick shells. Made our job easier. We hunkered down at the end of an alley that fronted main street.
“Ok, here’s the deal. I don’t care about Zed, but of course, pop them if you see them. Keep it quiet though. We’re looking for signs of occupation by reavers or anyone else. If you see a large vehicle in decent condition, call it in.”
I looked at them, three soldiers in dirty multicam. One giant woman with a machine gun slung across her back, another female with red hair and an eye patch, and a guy with a withered arm. I thought about my own missing leg, and laughed to myself.
“What’s so funny, dipshit?” asked Brit, though she also had a grin on her face.
“I was just thinking what a raggedy ass crew we are.”
“You got that right” laughed Hart.
We split up then, heading down separate allies behind the buildings. Walking down
Main Street would be asking to get popped.
“Bognaski, hold fire unless you have absolutely confirmed ID.”
“Roger that, Chiefaroonie” came back over the radio. I was going to smack the shit out of him when we got back.
We moved slowly, step by step, Brit watching the close in with her suppressed shotgun, me watching further out, scanning the ahead and the above, keeping the barrel of my M-4 lined up in front of me, tracking with my head, looking over the top of the sights. Swinging around a doorway, remembering what happened to me in Whitehall, we continued heading down the alley.
What we were looking for was evidence that anyone had been there any time in the recent past. Tire tracks, footprints, fresh trash, expended brass, human shit, anything, and we quickly found it. Brit put her hand on my shoulder, two taps, and I sank down on my knee, looking around for threats before turning to her. She handed me a piece of human leg bone, split down the middle, bits of gristle still clinging to it, teeth marks gnawed into it. Now that I looked closer, I could see that we were almost standing in a pile of smashed human skeletons in various states of decay. What I took for a small rock was actually the top of a child’s skull.
“Eaters” she whispered, and I looked right at her. Brit had a special hate for cannibals, after getting captured by a group of them a few years ago. I half expected her to go charging into the building in front of us, an old hotel, where it looked like the bone had been thrown from. A few years ago she would have, but she had learned caution, probably from getting shot, twice. We slowly backed away from the building, keeping to the wall so that anyone inside would have to look directly down to see us.
I keyed the radio and called Hart. “Kelly, we have some evidence of eaters out here. Brit and I will stand by until you can make it back here.” Then I called Bognaski.
“Jimmy, can you see anything in the large, four story structure, two blocks to the left of center?”
His voice came back right away, all joking gone. “Watching it. Might be some movement in the third floor, but the windows are really dirty, hard to tell. Wait …” I sat impatiently until he came back on “… someone on the roof, just took a peek over the edge. Hadn’t seen him before.”