by John Holmes
Ignoring the blood and gore, Brit gripped me in a bear hug. Then she slapped me hard, across the face. She was covered in blood up to her elbows, and it splattered as she hit me. “Don’t you EVER do something like that again, you stupid asshole! Even if it’s ME down there!” she yelled, and burst into tears, holding me around the waist, not letting go.
I looked over her shoulder at Bognaski, who had resumed firing at the undead as the truck led them around in circles. Next to him lay the pale, lifeless body of Sergeant Arroy-Wilson, also known as Vely to her friends. A pool of blood ran from her severed femoral artery, across the roof, and dripped down onto the machine that had sliced it open so easily.
Chapter 22
We got everything we needed from the store, except for ammo. Brit had pulled the blood soaked list from Vely’s cargo pocket before we wrapped her in a poncho and placed her body on the hood of the truck. As we made our way into the store, headlights shining to provide extra light, the only undead we met were are few that were immobile from broken limbs. We quickly dispatched them and made our way through the place, checking off items we needed.
Perishables like food were gone; even the cans were opened and empty, or had burst. The townspeople had eaten their way through them quickly, and probably opened that small hole in the front to venture outside, letting in a lurking Z. We would never know. Doc quickly found the medicines he needed, restocking his aide bag and grabbing some expired antibiotics. “Better than nothing” he grumbled, grabbing some more bandages. More camping and cooking gear, a shortwave radio receiver that we could operate off the truck batteries with a converter; propane, sleeping bags, some tents so we could avoid towns and still have shelter. As many batteries as we could carry. By the time we were done, the truck was stuffed.
Rummaging through the gun counter, I grabbed a new, in the box, 12 gauge to replace the one Brit had shattered, since I knew she still had a couple dozen shells for it. I had hoped for some .22 ammo for our modified M-4’s, but all we got was a box of .308 caliber that would fit Bognaski’s M-14. That is, we thought we would get nothing until Master Sergeant Dowling had the bright idea to search the corpses.
“Figure if the holed up here, anyone with a weapon would have wanted to keep their ammo on them. We need to check pockets, see what they carried.” He still seemed in shock over the quickness of Vely’s death, and I remembered that the two of them had been out there alone when we lured the Z’s out of the hotel, but he seemed to still be able to think straight. Like Jonesy, Dowling had grown up in a rough section of town, in his case Chicago, and seeing friends die unexpectedly was something he had been used to before joining the military.
His idea was right on the money. On the crushed body of one of the undead, run over by the truck, we found an army surplus chest rig with a half dozen magazines filled with 5.56 rounds for a regular M-4 or M-16. That we could use; we had saved two M-4’s from the burning C-130. We had run through a LOT of our .22 ammo in the fight that just happened. Another body turned up a cheap .25 automatic in a pants pocket, with a half dozen rounds in it. This I gave to Ripley. “Just in case” I said as I handed it to him. The jackpot was a backpack still strapped to the remains of some farmer. It held a couple hundred loose rounds of .22 LR, exactly what we needed to replace what we had shot off.
“OK” said Brit “that’s everything on the list. Let’s get out of here before it gets dark.”
“What about Vely?” asked Dowling. “I don’t really want to ride with her body strapped to the hood.”
“You’ll do what you have to do. We’ll bury her when we meet up with the rest of the team. I’m not leaving her here.” This was said by Bognaski. I stood looking at the body wrapped in the poncho. Nothing but dumb bad luck, or karma, or whatever. I started to think black thoughts, and tried as hard as I could to push them away. I had done all I could, risked my own life for hers. It just hadn’t worked out. I was accepting more and more that I just couldn’t save everyone. Hell, I didn’t even know what had happened to get Kelly Hart killed. I folded the poncho back to see her face, pale under the brown skin, drained of life. My hand reached up and pulled at the American Flag velcroed to her shoulder, and it gave a ripping sound as it came away. I folded it and put it in my breast pocket, along with the others I had there.
We rode back in silence, taking a different route to avoid ambush. Now with batteries to spare for the extra Night Vision Goggles, Red slowly spun the turret, watching for signs of life, but seeing none. We made it back to the truck stop in less than a half an hour, flickering our headlights once as we pulled up, to keep the rest of the guys from lighting us up. We had reached them by radio a few miles back, and told them that Vely was dead. By the time we got there, Ziv and Lt. Schwertig had already dug a shallow grave.
The ceremony over the burial was short. Like many soldiers, I carried a small green copy of the New Testament with me, more for something to read than anything else, and it fit easily into my pocket. I wasn’t particularly religious, and I was severely pissed off at God for abandoning us to this hell on earth, but twelve years of Catholic School died hard, and somewhere deep inside I still had faith. Vely had been an ardent Catholic, giving us long arguments about the forgiveness of God and the salvation of Jesus, and I guess I owed her something. We placed her body in the ground, and I opened up to a well thumbed page and read from the book of Luke.
“ So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”
I closed the book, and said “I don’t know if there is point to all this, but Vely gave her life to help us get home. An accident, but you all know what can happen in combat. For a short while, she was a part of our team, and I’m going to miss her unshakable optimism. I just know that, like the book says, no matter what we believe as far as God, we have to have faith that what we’re doing will lead to a better place, a better world where we can live in peace. Otherwise, there is no point, so faith it is.” I wished once again for my friend Ahmed, dead these two years, to be here. He had a faith that was unshakeable, and always knew what to say.
We all pitched in and shoveled dirt onto her still form, quickly covering it. Then we placed broken pieces of asphalt and brick over it to keep predators from digging her up. She was lucky to have even that; millions and millions had nothing.
Our campsite was several miles away, made by parking the two vehicles with space in between to set up a tent or two. Being out on the prairie, the wind never stopped blowing, shaking the tent walls, so we moved the trucks around to create a wind block. The watch was divided into half on, half off for the next twelve hours, allowing each of us to get a good six hours of unbroken sleep. Brit spent a long time trying to scrub the blood out of her uniform sleeves finally giving up, throwing it into the back of one of the trucks and crawling into the tent with me. We lay there with our arms around each other, and she softly cried onto my T-shirt.
“I tried, Nick, but there was so much blood, and I couldn’t find the artery to pinch it off. She was awake the whole time, but after that first scream she just gritted her teeth and said nothing till her eyes closed.” She started to sob uncontrollably, and I let her for a minute.
When she was quiet again, she whispered “I’m sorry I slapped you, but I was scared. I saw you disappear running, and then when you went down under that Z, I thought you were dead. What if … what if we don’t make it back? Kelly is dead, her son had no mom now. What if something happens to you? Or to me?”<
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I held her face in my hands and said “We go on. You saved my life back when I was in a deep depression, stopped me from killing myself. I’m not going down that road again, and I’m not going to let you either. But she was my soldier, I HAD to go. You understand, don’t you?” I felt her nod her head yes, but she said nothing.
Brit had never actually become a soldier. She was a civilian, and fiercely loyal to her friends and team mates, but I’m not sure she ever understood what a leader owed the people he led. Maybe she was learning now, at a hard price.
“Just don’t … take any stupid chances.” She placed her hand on my face, touching it gently.
“I won’t” I lied. I would do what I had to do, to get as many of us home safe as I could. When she finally fell asleep, I crawled out of the sleeping bag and lay with my head outside the tent, watching the stars. Finally I saw it, the dead International Space Station arcing through the sky. It traced a bright trail across the horizon, looking down on all our stilled hopes and dreams.
Chapter 23
Dawn broke over the plains like it usually does, with the sun peeking over the horizon, and then seeming to jump into the sky. I hadn’t been able to sleep, so I got up and left Brit snoring in the tent when I smelled some food cooking.
“What have we got for breakfast?” I asked Captain Crossley, who was roasting something over a propane stove, pouring garlic onto some cubes of meat. It smelled great.
“Antelope, the one Bognaski shot the other day. It’s a bit gamey, but if you cook it enough, it should still be good.” She took a hot piece right out of the pan and shoved it in her mouth, then immediately took a chug of water from her canteen.
“Got enough for everybody?” I asked, hopeful.
“Couple of bites for everyone. This is the last of it. Bet get your lazy wife out of bed before I eat it all.” I liked the Captain. She hadn’t complained, did everything we asked, and was generally as helpful as she could be out of her element.
“Where’s Major Rhodes?” She pointed, chewing on another piece, to the back seat of the minivan, about ten feet away. Ziv was sitting there, feet stretched out, a broad grin on his ugly face. The Major was stretched out full length, snoring with her head in his lap. The Serb gave me a big thumbs up, and I returned it, then held my hands up with ten fingers, meaning ten minutes. Ziv gave me an OK sign and I left the two of them alone.
Continuing my rounds, I found Bognaski sitting up in the turret of the Humvee. His position gave him a view for miles. Lt. Schwertig sat on the hood, brushing his teeth.
“Where’s Doc?” I asked, and they both pointed to another tent. “He’s checking out that Airman. Doesn’t look too good. Dowling is in there too.”
“OK, meeting in ten. Shit, shower and shave.” I ducked into the tent they had pointed out, and almost banged into Doc coming out. Behind him, Doc was taking the Airman’s pulse. I didn’t even know the kids’ name, and he looked like death warmed over.
“What’s the deal?” I asked.
Dowling shook his head. “Doc said the meds he got didn’t help, too old. Blood poisoning all the way up his arm now. He’s going to have to take it off, and that will probably kill him in the shape he’s in.”
“Damn. Well, I guess we’ll do the best we can. Good kid? What’s his name?”
“Thomas. Yeah, he has been flying with us for a year now, since he turned seventeen.”
Doc stood up and motioned us outside of the tent, then filled us in. “I’m going to have to take his arm off, but I’m not sure if he’s up for it. I don’t have power tools, so it’s going to be a scalpel and a handsaw, high up above the elbow. The infection is spreading really quickly. I’ve seen it a lot; younger people who starved a bunch after the plague never really recover, and their immune systems are weakened.” He wiped his forehead, already sweating in the rising heat.
“Well, if you’re going to do it, you have to do it now. How long until he can be moved?”
Doc laughed and said “How long were you messed up when you got your leg taken off? He can move right away, but it might kill him. What’s the rush?”
I waved my arm to indicate the horizon. “We’re naked, exposed out here, and I want to find some cover, at least. Can you wait to do the operation until we move a couple dozen miles down the road?”
“If we have to. He’s getting worse by the hour, though. Pulse is weak and thready, and he has a serious fever.”
“OK, let’s get going then.” I turned and walked back to the hood of the Humvee, where Red and Ziv were waiting, along with Major Rhodes and Brit, who had finally woken up.
“Here’s the plan.Doc has to take that kids’ arm off, but I don’t like having our ass hanging out here on the plains. We have to find someplace to hideout for a day or so until the kid is well enough to travel, or he isn’t going to be able to travel at all. Either way, we’ve been through a lot in the last few days, and some down time might be good., Red, cross load all the ammo. Ziv, get with Lt. Schwertig and plan a route to some really small place, maybe a farm house with a barn, that we can hide out in. Major, can you work with everyone else and inventory our supplies?”
She nodded, and I continued. “I want to leave as soon as Doc says it’s OK. He’s going to operate as soon as possible. Brit, give him a hand, if you’re up for it.”
We broke to each do our tasks, and I climbed up in the turret to stand guard, slowly rotating and scanning the horizon, looking for any signs of movement. I felt totally naked up here, silhouetted against the morning sky. It had been fine last night in the darkness, but we needed to move as soon as possible.
My thoughts were interrupted by a scream, a long drawn out wail, followed by grunts and sobbing, and the crunching, chewing sound of the saw. I knew from experience what it felt like, and my heart went out to the kid. Mine leg had been taken off by Doc Hamilton with a power saw; Doc Bailey was using a hand saw. The sobbing stopped after a minute, then Doc came out of the tent, a disgusted look on his face. He threw the saw down and walked off, out into the prairie. Brit followed him out, and looked at me, shaking her head. “Heart” she mouthed, and I nodded. The kid’s heart, weakened by starvation and illness when he was a teenager, had given out under the shock and the infection. He probably should never have been in the military, but needs must when the devil dances.
The C-130 crew, led by Major Rhodes, had been standing outside the tent, waiting, and when Brit told them, they reacted in a variety of ways, from tears to stoicism. I turned my back and watched Doc as he sat in the long grass, looking away from the Air Force people. Airman Thomas had been their crewmate, and I left them to their grief.
Chapter 24
The plane, a four engine jet, high up in the stratosphere, held all of our attention. It was moving from Northeast to Southwest, and we all watched as it passed slowly overhead, contrails making a long white cloud in the sky.
“Look at that!” said Major Rhodes, staring longingly at the plane. She held some binoculars to her face and studied it.
“Thought so. C-17. Too bad we can’t talk to it, they have rough field capability, could just drop right down here and pick us up.”
I growled in frustration. I was listening on the shortwave, which was tuned to the Emergency band. I could HEAR them calling us, but it was just a receiver, I couldn’t answer them.
“Liberty for Lost Boys, Liberty for Lost Boys. Come in, India Sierra Tango One, over”
“Why are they looking for us? We’ve been overdue for days now. How would they even know where in the frigging US we went down?” asked Red.
At that, Major Rhodes started to blush. “I think I might have made a mayday call on the SatCom before we went in.”
I turned to her, aghast. “You THINK? YOU THINK! Holy SHIT!”
She immediately got defensive, looking at Ziv for support. He sat passively cleaning his nails with his knife, not wanting to get involved. “Hey, hotshot,” she said “I was trying to cope with an in-flight emergency, in case
you don’t remember. I didn’t see YOU flying the plane.”
“Yeah, well you could have mentioned it! We could have stayed local to the crash site, seen if someone showed up looking for us! That column of smoke was a frigging mile high, and there are SAR elements within MH-60 range! Were you able to get a position out?”
She looked down at the ground, blowing outward a deep breath. “Maybe” she mumbled.
“Shit” I said, even as Red stared at her, hard. Then he got down from the truck and limped out ahead of us on the road.
“Where is he going?” asked Master Sergeant Dowling.
Brit answered for me. “He’s walking away so that he doesn’t kill your boss. If we had known that someone might be looking for us, then maybe Kelly, and your Airman Thomas, might still be alive.” She blew a large bubble with the gum she was chewing, and held the pump action on her shotgun so tightly the knuckles on her hand grew white. She and Kelly had been very close, living next door to each other and raising their kids together.
Unconsciously, the group had separated into the Air Force contingent and the Scouts. Ziv stood off to one side, ignoring both groups. I didn’t know which way his loyalties were anymore. Bognaski idly swung the turret back and forth, pretending to scan the horizon, but I saw his hands resting on his M-14.
“OK, it can’t be helped” I said, wanting to defuse the situation. “What’s done is done, and we were all under a lot of stress. Major, I suggest that when Red comes back, you apologize to him.”
“I AM sorry. I was trying to get the plane down in one piece, and in the rush afterwards, I didn’t remember it.” She truly did look embarrassed and remorseful.
“Water under the bridge. Let’s mount up. We’ve got a lot of miles to cover.” Red walked slowly back to us, ignoring everyone, sitting in the drivers’ seat of the Humvee. We all climbed in to our respective places and rolled out down the highway at a steady twenty miles per hour. We were in no rush to trip an ambush, and we were all unsettled by the thought of rescue passing right over our heads.