by TW Gallier
"Mike did?"
"Yeah, your walkie-talkie isn't working," Mike said as he joined us.
Jake just stared at us a second, and then went to check it. He rummaged around and finally sighed gustily.
"It's not in there. Do any of the other captured trucks have a walkie-talkie?" Jake said.
After they did a quick check and determined only the pickups and jeep had walkie-talkies, Jake took one from a pickup. Then we made plans to scout the armory. Olivia was added to the scout team since she was the only one to have ever been there. I almost wasn't allowed to go. Jake wanted me to stay behind, to keep two people with the jeep. Mike insisted I go with them. Mike, of course, was leading the scouts. Billy and Travis came with us.
"Kyle can't drive a standard," Mike said to Jake. "So you can be the jeep driver until we return."
Ralph wasn't pleased that he was the only one of us left behind. Honestly, I'd rather have him than Billy or Travis. I wasn't in charge.
"Let's go. You lead, Olivia," Mike said.
Olivia and I both wore helmet liners. Since I gave her mine, I took Ralph's. The steel pots that went over them were just too heavy for us. Really, how did soldiers deal with that weight all day and night? I found it extremely annoying and unwieldy at best.
Before I knew it we were on the move. Olivia was in the lead, with Mike behind her. I came next, with Billy and Travis bringing up the rear. We all had AR15s and extra magazines.
Olivia must've been really tired of sitting in that jeep all day. She moved quickly down the street, using the shadows to hide us as much as possible. With the cloud cover, there wasn't much light to cast shadows, but every little bit helped to make me feel better.
We only saw one zombie, about halfway to the armory. We just waited for her to wander away. When Olivia hesitated to continue, Mike laid his hand on her butt and pushed her forward. She just took off trotting, while I cringed and heat flushed through me. He had no right!
"Calm down, little geek," Billy whispered behind me, sounding way too amused. "She's got a nice ass. Everyone wants a handful."
So embarrassing. Was I that obvious? Did Olivia know?
Unable to speak, I just followed Mike across the street. Per Mike's instructions, we moved across open areas like streets and parking lots spread out about twenty feet apart. When Olivia stopped we tended to come together, before taking off again. Thankfully, Mike kept his hands to himself the rest of the way.
I heard the armory before we reached it. The fact others were already there looting it was demoralizing. Mike kept us moving forward, though he did slow us down. About a block from the armory Mike redirected us across the street to approach from a different direction.
There was a 7-Eleven convenience store directly across from the armory. Olivia guided us into the alley behind it. Mike took a ladder off a service van and led us atop the store. We crawled to the front and lay down in line. I broke formation to lie on the other side of Olivia. Mike gave me an annoyed look, but didn't say anything.
"Where are all of these people coming from?" Olivia asked. "There are way more survivors than I thought."
My thoughts exactly. Maybe the world wasn’t as bad off as I originally thought. Then it occurred to me we'd encountered maybe two hundred living people between Emory and the armory. Out of a million people before the shit hit the fan, we found a few hundred survivors. Not counting the people of Emory.
Maybe it was far worse than I thought.
"How many do you think are in there?" Mike whispered as he looked at the armory through binoculars.
I didn't see anyone directly, but I could see movement through the windows. They had lights. After a few minutes I realized they had gas lanterns, what I'd always called Coleman lanterns.
"A dozen," Billy said. "No more than that."
"There could be more coming," I said. "Or posted on guard."
Mike had the only binoculars, and he didn't share. So I only had my naked eyes. After a while he looked off into space a long moment.
"Okay, guys, do any of you know what Army scouts do?"
That had to be a trick question. I thought we were doing what Army scouts did. Was there more?
"Scout?" I asked, getting an amused snort from Olivia.
"You're a funny man," Mike said. "Scouts don't just find the enemy, they attack them just enough to make the enemy shoot back."
"Why?" Billy said. "Sounds crazy."
"That's how they find out what the enemy has in terms of weapons and manpower," Mike said. He lifted the walkie-talkie. "They then radio back what the enemy has, so the men behind them will be ready."
Olivia and I shared a not so amused look, and shook our heads. We knew where that was going. Not what I was expecting.
"What if there are hundreds of them?" Travis said. "We'll be slaughtered."
I was so glad he asked that question. Mike would probably think less of his friend than he would of me if I asked it. Damn good question, though. Everyone was nodding, including Mike.
"It's a chance we have to take," Mike said. "So two of us will stay up here to engage them, while the rest of you move about a block back towards the convoy. Just in case we are killed."
"And just who do you want to stay with you?" Olivia asked, and I could hear the fear in her voice. None of us wanted to be the shooters and take all of the return fire. "I'd like to volunteer anyone but me."
Everyone grinned but Mike. "Just me and Kyle."
Oh hell yes. The bastard was trying to get me killed so he could have Olivia. I knew it. At least that's where my head went.
"Don't you think you had him do enough already today?" she said in my defense.
"Yes," Mike admitted. "But I like the way he handles himself."
Well, I couldn't refuse after that. Maybe Mike wasn't such a bad guy after all. That was high praise from a veteran. Suddenly, I didn't want to disappoint him.
"It's settled. Billy, take command of Travis and Olivia, and lead them over to the next intersection over," Mike said. As they left, he lay back down and took aim at the armory. I glanced at Olivia, who was hurrying away. "Kyle, I'm going to shoot into the windows to the left of the front doors, and I want you shooting into the ones on the right. Then we'll see what they shot back at us with."
Chapter 14
I mimicked how Mike sprawled out, feet wide and rifle to his shoulder. Preparing to fire on the other survivors made me feel like a real Army sniper. For a second. When I realized I'd be shooting at men who'd never threatened us, my enthusiasm faded.
Pap-pap-pap! Mike squeezed off into one window, and then repeated on the next in line.
He didn't seem to be aiming at anyone, so I didn't have to kill either. Unless absolutely necessary. Yeah, I wasn't feeling like such a good soldier.
The other three could be heard behind us running away. They probably thought Mike would give them plenty of time to reach the spot he wanted them to wait. As their footsteps faded, I took aim at the first window and squeezed off three shots. Then I swung the AR15 to the next window, and the next, and the next. We put three to five rounds through every front window.
The other group returned fire. Bullets zipped overhead, sounding way too close. A few hit the façade and roof in front of us. We were on the same hill as the armory, but they had a few feet in elevation on us. I started feeling very exposed and vulnerable.
Mike returned fire, so I followed his lead.
"Shoot into the shrubbery on your side of the building," Mike said. "See if anyone returns fire."
"Aaiiee!" I cried when a shot ricocheted off my helmet. The fiberglass was just enough with the angle to defect the bullet. I might've peed myself again. "Shit."
No one returned fire from the shrubs on either side. I counted three men shooting at us, from three different windows. After we shot into all of the windows again, Mike pulled the walkie-talkie out of his back pocket and turned it on.
"Jake, I think there are only a handful of men in the armory. We can
take them easily enough, over," Mike said.
"We can?" I whispered.
They were behind brick walls. We'd be out in the open.
"Weapons, over?" Jake asked.
"Small arms only," he said. "Nothing military grade, over."
That meant the others hadn't broken into the arms room. They only had what they brought with them. I wasn't even sure why they were bothering with the armory, but then if it offered better weapons and lots of ammo, why not?
"We're on the way!" Jake said.
The jeep bounced out into the street. Jake turned on the headlights. Not sure why he did it now. The other trucks turned on their lights, too. They were coming at full speed. Jake got that jeep up to speed a lot faster than Olivia. Ralph was hanging onto the M60 for dear life.
They would be there at any moment and all hell would break loose.
"We need to get off this roof," I said when a round hit my left calf and left a long grazing wound. Hurt like hell, but I was loath to show weakness in front of Mike. But, damn, that hurt! "I've been hit twice."
Yeah, I counted the hit on my helmet.
"Really? Are you all right?" he asked. Mike sounded truly concerned. "Do you need help?"
The convoy arrived. I spotted Olivia, Billy, and Travis running down the sidewalk towards the armory. Ralph opened up on the building as soon as he had line of sight.
"Wahoo!" I cried when Jake turned into the drive and headed straight towards the building. The drive circled around in front of the building, but had a secondary drive that split away and went around to the back. I could see fenced off parking lots full of military vehicles and equipment. "I'm good. Let's get the hell out of here."
Mike waved me down the ladder first. We quickly moved around to the side, and then charged across the street with guns blazing. I felt like I was in a Rambo movie or something. Only, there were no bad guys to be seen. That didn't keep me from emptying four magazines.
Mike ran straight up to the front door. It wasn't locked. If it was, I don't think we could've forced it open. They were pretty heavy-duty doors. Still, I think we were the first ones inside.
"Follow me and do what I do," Mike said as we entered. He held his AR15 differently now, kind of high. I remembered seeing evening news footage of the wars where the soldiers were advancing through the streets holding their weapons like that. Felt awkward to me, but I followed his example. "Shoot anything that moves."
Most of the inside doors were open. We went from room to room, taking our time. First thing, we checked the rooms that men had been firing out of, but only found the brass left behind. Mike said the brass was from 30-06 hunting rifles. It was just brass to me.
Jake led a bunch of men inside through a back door. We heard their footsteps echoing through the building. It was an old, red-brick structure. Just a single story, and probably built back before WWII. It had wide corridors and glass transoms over the inner doors. Ralph entered with Jake, now carrying an AR15.
"Did you capture any of them?" Jake asked Mike.
"No one dead or captured," he said. "There weren't very many. They must've bugged out when they saw you coming in."
Jake had us fan out and find the arms room and NBC room. I didn't know what he meant by "NBC room" until I found it down in the basement. Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical room. It was stenciled right there on the wooden door. We smashed it open and found lots of gas masks. There were other things, but all I cared about was the masks.
When Jake arrived to inspect it, Olivia was with him.
"Travis, get all these masks into a truck. See if there are any more," Jake said.
Mike's voice came over Jake's walkie-talkie. "Found the arms room. Those other men were trying to cut through the steel cage with blow torches."
"Location?" Jake replied.
"I know," Olivia said, and hurried away.
I followed her and Jake before Travis could make me help load the masks into a truck. I didn't want to be their pack mule. I was just a guide, and I didn't trust Jake that much. Besides, I might be able to switch out my AR15 for a fully automatic M16.
Olivia led us up to the ground floor, then to the other end of the building, and down into another basement. We found Mike and two others checking out the blow torches. It didn't look like they really knew how to use any of that stuff.
"You don't need that," Olivia said, turning into another office. "Supply Room" was stenciled on the door. "SSG Roberts" under that. I wasn't sure what "SSG" stood for, but guessed it meant supply sergeant. "The keys are in here."
She went over to a big, steel desk. It was locked. Jake sent everyone off to find a crowbar and something to break open the desk. Olivia and I looked around the supply room while we waited. There were boxes of desert camo uniforms and hats. She snatched an army cap and stuffed it in her back pocket.
I found a tool box, with a large screwdriver. With that and a hammer, we broke into the desk. Olivia didn't have to rifle through it at all. She went straight to the key ring.
"How did you know?" I asked.
"Sergeant Roberts was my escort when I toured the armory, and we came in here to get the keys for the arms room," she said, shrugging. "He was a very friendly man. I hate knowing he's probably dead."
Jake almost crowed with joy when she handed the keys over. It took a little while to figure out the correct key, but the guys from Emory swarmed into that arms room like kids in a candy store. Rack upon rack of what Mike called "old M16A2 crap" filled the front half of that caged off section. They were locked down by steel bars, so Jake gave the keys to Billy and had him unlock the racks while the rest of us explored.
"Ammo!" someone called.
Wooden crates full of ammo of all calibers were stacked in back. Jake ordered them all loaded up. We all turned into pack mules at that point.
Mike took charge of all the gunners, setting them up around the perimeter. Everyone else loaded trucks with guns, ammo, and gas masks. They had cases of MREs, which Jake said were only to be taken if there was room.
It was hard work. By the time the trucks were about half full, I realized we didn't have room for everything. And I didn't care. I was exhausted. I shed my camo shirt, and even my brown t-shirt felt too hot. Olivia stripped down to her t-shirt, too.
Jake hauled weapons and ammo with the rest of us. He shook his head when he saw how rough we looked. I was too tired to be embarrassed.
"Kyle, you and Olivia come with me," Jake said. "We'll let the big boys take care of this."
I was too tired to be embarrassed.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Motor pool. They have some pretty old vehicles here, so we might find one or two that we can take," he said.
The motor pool was a fenced off parking lot that Jake opened by driving his Trailblazer through the gate. Inside were lots of familiar vehicles, mostly jeeps and old trucks I remember seeing in WWII movies. Jake referred to them as "duce and a halfs" and "five-tons." A five-ton was just a bigger duce and a half.
"Why is it called a 'duce and a half'?" Olivia asked.
I was so glad she asked that question.
"It's a two and a half ton truck," he said matter-of-factly. "It's a M35A2 cargo truck, but everyone calls it a duce and a half." He pointed at a bigger version of it. "That's a M939, five ton truck."
Both versions looked similar, painted desert camo with canvas covers over the cargo area. To me the canvas made them look like old wagons from cowboy movies. Except they were really big.
Jake grinned at me as he opened the driver's door of a M939. "Kyle can probably drive the five-ton, since it's automatic."
"Haha, you're funny," I said.
We looked inside. Everything looked like it was made of steel, and the seats didn't look any better than what we had in the jeep. I was more than a little worried that Jake would have me drive one of them back to Emory. Besides being separated from Olivia and Ralph, that thing was enormous.
"The Army doesn't believe in comfort, d
oes it?" Olivia said.
"Jump in and start her up, Kyle," Jake said.
He motioned me up, so I reluctantly climbed in. That truck scared me like the zombies didn't. The dashboard, if you could even call it that, was just as bare-bones as the jeep. Like Jake said, it was automatic, though I wasn't sure what the difference between 1-5, 1-4, etc meant.
"I don't have the key," I said.
Jake just grinned. He climbed up in the door next to me and had me start flipping switches. One above the other to the right of the steering wheel. The top switch was labeled "Battery" and the other "Start – Run." I had to flip the battery switch up, and then the start-run. He indicated the lights that came on.
"I guess it's old enough the EMP didn't screw it up," I said, kind of disappointed.
"Military trucks mostly don't have keys," he said. "Now push that switch up to the Start position, and release after it starts."
The truck started. He patted me on the shoulder. "See how easy it is? Now, start moving the three five tons out and parking them in line. We're taking them. While you're doing that, I'm going to show Olivia how to start the duce and a halfs."
"They're different?" she asked.
"Yes. Much more complicated."
Jake wagged his brows at me. Jumping back on the ground, he slammed my door and led Olivia over to the five duce and a halfs. I eased the truck into gear, giving it a little gas, while I tried to remember how many extra men they brought to drive more trucks.
Chapter 15
Jake gathered everyone down in the basement and announced that we would leave for Emory at 0500 hours in the morning. So we had time to rest up for the return journey. Everyone would take one guard shift, one third of the people on at any given time. With the number of new trucks we acquired, there were only three people on each vehicle after our acquisition of the Army trucks. Driver, gunner, vehicle commander is what Jake named up.
"I'm commander," I told Ralph and Olivia with a wag of my brows. "You work for me now."
"I got something you can command," Ralph said, grabbing his crotch.
"Very mature," Olivia said. She smiled at me. "I'll obey your orders. As long as it's what I want to do anyway."