by John O'Brien
“Completely understandable,” Drescoll says. “So, I have another question.”
“Go ahead,” I say with some trepidation.
“You say you can hear better and see in the dark like the night runners. Do you have their strength and agility as well?”
“First, I’m not sure the extent the night runners can hear, see, or smell so I can’t really talk to any comparison. It does seem they are still more advanced in those areas though. I don’t think I could sniff out a single person in a building. So, I’d have to apply that to other areas as well. Why do you ask?” I answer.
“Well, I was thinking if you had the same abilities, we could test them and therefore know what abilities and limitations the night runners have,” Drescoll says.
The big “duh” goes off in my head. How did I not think of something so plain and simple as that before? However, I’ve seen what the night runners can do and I seriously doubt I am able to do what they can do. It is worth looking at though. I almost wish I had their exact abilities and knew how to use them. Then we could test out our defenses, to see if the walls are the right height and if other defensive measure we take will keep the night runners at bay.
“That’s an excellent point and I’ll be honest that I never thought of doing that before. We’ll keep it in mind in the future, but remember, I don’t think anything I have measures up to what the night runners have,” I respond.
I look at Robert and Bri who continue to stare at me as if I’d just sprouted wings. I can’t say as I blame them, or anyone else’s reaction for that matter. I’m sure it was a shock but am glad for the understanding. I’ll talk with them later about it but right now, with the meeting breaking up, Robert and I need to get with Frank, plot out the targets for the night, and get some rest.
Night runners streak in through the broken door. The chase has been a long one playing cat and mouse with this particular pack. I’ve tried to keep the sprints to minimum to lessen the sweating. I know their ability to find me via scent and have used everything at my disposal to keep ahead of them. Pack after pack have found me throughout the night as I try to make my way to a secure shelter. I wrack my mind to figure out why I’m out here at night but I fail to remember why. All I know is that I’m close to being spent and only have a partial mag left in my M-4. If my count is close to being correct, there are only four rounds remaining. After that, the knives at my side are all I have.
I’m spent and it’s all I can do to keep my panting breath from giving me away. Behind what used to be a customer service desk in a store I can’t remember, I hide behind the partition peeking out through a narrow gap. Eleven night runners that rushed in only moments before hard on my heels stand only a few scant feet away. They stand with their noses in the air trying to catch a scent. I hear their low growls deep in their throats and smell the strong, acrid odor of their unwashed bodies. My choice of hiding spots is iffy at best and I’m surprised I allowed myself to choose it. My only way out is through the night runners.
I slowly glance to my side and see Lynn hugging the cabinets below the counter. Her wide eyes tell of our situation. Somewhere along the way, she lost her NVGs. She’s been relying on me and, when outside, the half-moon to guide her way. I turn gradually back to the milling night runners while fingering the M-4 trigger guard. Four rounds, eleven night runners. Not the greatest of odds. I wish Lynn had a few left but her ammo was spent during our busy night of eluding numerous packs. Close calls and endless running has marked out progress toward shelter. We’re close but this looks like it’s as close as we’re going to get. We might as well be a hundred miles away.
With my heart beating hard in my chest, I’m out of ideas. It’s sit and wait for them to pass hoping they don’t detect us, or launch at them. Lynn is in the dark so it will be up to me. If I do manage to take them out in a quick, surprise attack, and the odds are against that, then the noise will surely bring others. It might gain us time however and allow us to get near our elusive sanctuary. I feel Lynn’s hand on my shoulder and she begins to shake me. Gently at first but with ever increasing strength. “Jack,” she says. I can’t believe she is putting us at risk by moving and talking out loud. I shift to remove her hand and try to silence her. “Jack.” The night runners turn and shriek. “Jack, it’s time.” I jerk awake and come close head-butting Lynn as I sit bolt upright. My heart is hammering in my chest and I break out in a cold sweat.
“Jesus, Jack, what the fuck?” Lynn says, rocking back to avoid my sudden movement.
“What? Fuck,” I say, momentarily confused as to where I am or what’s going on.
“Jack. Jack, it’s okay,” she says, putting a hand on my shoulder. I feel my heart rate begin to decrease as I become aware that I had a nightmare and am sitting safely on my cot in our little cubicle.
“Sorry. Are you okay?” I ask.
“Yeah. The question is, are you?” She asks in return.
“Yeah. Just a fucking nightmare. I’m guessing it’s time to get up,” I say.
“Well, it is, but do you think you should venture out tonight? Maybe you should rest and give it a go tomorrow night.”
“I’m good. It was just a dream and I’d rather not head back there so quickly, thanks.” I reply.
“Sometimes I’m not sure which is worse. The nightmare outside or the ones in our head,” Lynn says, understanding.
The Rain Cometh
We’ve all had the nightmares that follow extensive time in combat or nerve-wracking environments. The realness of them seems to sometimes match the reality of the waking world. The intensity of them leaves one feeling more tired than when you went to sleep. With my racing heart calmed to almost normal and the adrenaline fading, I rise, slip on my boots, lean over to give Lynn a kiss, and make my way down to the first floor.
Robert and Craig meet me at one of the wooden tables to go over our plan for the evening’s flight. Our main goal is to knock down more of the structures in the area. We’ll keep a sharp lookout for any night runners on the prowl. If we find any, we’ll break off from clearing the buildings to pursue them. Frank has circled the service stations and libraries. We’ll need those resources intact. The one fear I have of leaving those structures standing is that any night runners in the area will certainly use them as lairs so that we can be pretty assured of encountering them when we decide to enter. The service stations are small for the most part and easily cleared. The two major libraries in the area are a different story altogether.
With our maps marked, Robert briefs Red Team and the others assisting with reloading on the operations for the evening. He will be directing the fire control again tonight. We gather our gear and head out to begin the drive north. The breaks in the clouds I noticed earlier have disappeared but the overcast has lifted. We’ll have to keep an eye out for that. Although we can operate in any weather and see through the clouds, I do not want to land in bad weather without runway lighting. We can navigate just fine and set our own approaches but it’s the lights that allow us to find the runway with low ceilings. I don’t mind shooting an approach to get to a lower altitude but I don’t want to have to fly it down to minimums. It could make for a short evening.
A very light breeze has sprung up which will make the formation of fog more difficult. If we had the calm winds we experienced earlier in the day, I would most likely call off tonight’s flight. As autumn sets in, we’ll have more of this type of weather which will limit our ability to fly. The gray is a darker shade as the day begins its wind down toward dusk. We could just take out the buildings during the day and make it easier but I want to catch as many night runners as we can and that means flying at night. It may also give us more information as to where they are located, where they hunt, and possibly the numbers we are facing.
“Are you ready for this?” I ask Robert as we pile our gear in one of the Humvees.
“You’re kidding, right?! Of course I am. Not to make light of what we are doing, but I get to direct fire for a howitzer
, a 40mm auto-cannon, and a gatling gun. I wouldn’t miss it for anything. You know, it’s funny, I expected something much different but it’s not so different than the games we used to play. More complicated, yes, but really not that much different,” he answers.
“As long as you keep in mind what we’re doing and why,” I say.
“Of course. How could I ever forget? Every day reminds me,” he states.
“How are you doing, Bri?” I ask as she walks up toting her gear.
“I could use more of a nap but I’m ready,” she replies.
I seriously don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing my young daughter, who once tumbled on the mats in her cheerleading outfit, in fatigues and toting an M-4 like it belonged. I once again reach out for a sliver of hope that this won’t always be the case. I hope they won’t have to face this for their entire lives. And, along with that, I hope that their lives are long-lived ones. My hope being that at least they outlive me. No parent should outlive their child. I feel the hole in my heart thinking once more of Nic. Her death seems both so long ago and just yesterday. A sad feeling washes over me. I just want to sit on the pavement and lose myself for a moment. My sweet, sweet girl… gone… forever.
“Dad, are you okay?” Bri asks.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s load up and head north,” I respond, shaking loose from memories.
The drive north is like every other one we’ve taken, driven mostly in silence as we become lost in our own thoughts and contemplate the night ahead. I keep an eye on the overcast watching for any signs of it lowering. The fog can roll in quickly this close to so much water but with the breeze, we should be okay. Driving through the base that once looked and felt like a ghost town, the melancholic feeling that accompanied such trips is absent. It is replaced by an almost feeling of normalcy. I don’t know if this is a good sign or bad. It is, however, a suggestion that we are adapting mentally to our situation. Now if we can keep PTSD at bay.
Rolling up to the aircraft, we quickly stow our gear and take our stations. Not too many words are exchanged as we all know what we have to do. Going through the pre-flight checks, I hope the aircraft will remain intact and not develop any mechanical issues. We’ve put a few hours on it and lack for any maintenance and it’s a long way to go to get another one. Although we don’t have a long time left for our ability to fly anyway, I don’t want to take the time to fetch another one. The Spooky is the ideal weapon for this environment.
We start up without any problems and all systems check out. We taxi to the runway and lift off into the darkening sky. Although the ceiling is high enough for us to shoot an approach and pop out at a reasonable height to find the runway, we will have to venture into the clouds for our runs. This won’t hamper our operations in any way though. I’ll just head north on occasion and shoot an approach to verify we still have an adequate ceiling height.
I hear Robert running through the systems checks and I set the repeater scope up front to mimic the IR scope. The ground shows up with differing degrees of grays and blacks. Anything white will indicate something quite warm and most likely indicate the small, moving forms of night runners afoot under us. So far, I don’t see anything moving but the sun hasn’t yet set below the western rim. It’s just the heavy drone of the four engines and the white of the clouds outside streaming by the windows. We have darkened the cockpit so I can only observe the white wisps close by. I have to admit I am happy to be in the cockpit again; the day’s events lost for the moment. I set a course for the first of the buildings we chose earlier. We might as well get an early start on our evening’s work.
Robert sets our first target and I begin an orbit. He clears the 105mm howitzer to fire. I glance at the repeater scope and watch the targeted building disappear in a flash of light. Smoke and debris rocket up and outward from the impact. Craig X’s the target off the map as Robert sets up the next one. The sky outside turns a darker shade of gray and then goes black as night folds upon us. Our evening has begun in earnest.
We begin to circle over another strip mall a couple of miles to the southeast of Cabelas when our repeater screen shows white on the edges. It zooms out and is filled by small white objects filling the streets and scattering in all directions. There are hordes of them, to the point that I can’t even begin to guess how many. One moment there was nothing and then enough to turn the screen almost a solid white to the side. I’m taken aback by the vast numbers.
“Robert?” I say over the intercom.
“I see ‘em. Engaging,” he responds.
I bank and head toward the center of the mass spreading out in all directions. The count on the screen has way passed the hundreds mark and more into the many thousands. I knew the math of how many night runners must be in the area from the CDC statistics and the previous population, but seeing a horde like this fills me with a very deep dread. A hypothetical number in your head and seeing the actual visual representation are two very different things. Looking at the screen zoom in as we head toward the scattering night runners, I wonder how we managed to stay alive this long. We’ve never encountered packs in these numbers anywhere. I’m guessing they must have gathered together recently and am thankful we didn’t venture in a lair of this size. If we managed to get deep inside a building housing this many night runners, it would be over before it started.
Could our leveling the place have caused them to bunch together like this or is there some other reason? Is this one of the instances where we have triggered an adaptation on their part? These thoughts run through my head as the white mass becomes individual forms and smaller packs as they run farther into the night.
“Are we recording this?” I ask Robert.
“Yeah, Dad, I have the recorders on,” he answers.
“Good. Frank is going to want to see this,” I say.
Robert sets up on a large pack as we drift over their position. He marks them and I start to orbit. Tracers stream downward into their midst. Their running forms, white on the screen, elongate as they fall to the street. Streaks from ricochets peel off into the night and impact the surrounding buildings. Only a couple make it through the devastation and disappear into a side structure. Robert swiftly locates and marks another target. This is definitely what you would call a target rich environment.
The next pack selected is even larger than the last one and more spread out. Seeing that, Robert opts for the 40mm auto-cannon. I feel the solid thuds of the rounds departing. Flashes appear on the ground in the midst of the fleeing figures and walks through them leaving torn bodies in the wake. The once almost solid white screen clears seemingly in an instant as if a switch were thrown. I cast out for any signal but only receive fuzzy images. I’m guessing it must be the distance although I’ve been able to ‘see’ night runners from greater distances at times. I just don’t get this and wish I knew more about how to use it. I wonder if that is even possible. It seems to be a hit or miss type of thing. Is it me or do the night runners experience this as well? I think watching the white figures on the screen disperse and vanish.
“Did you mark the buildings they vanished into?” I ask Robert as I level the aircraft out.
“I marked a few but it seems they went into whatever buildings were the closest,” he answers.
“Okay, let’s target all of the buildings in the area making sure we keep away from any of the structures Frank marked,” I say.
“Way ahead of you,” Robert says as he call out and targets one of the building nearby.
We begin systematically taking on the surrounding structures with the 105mm. One by one, buildings are turned into rubble. In several instances, we observe night runners emerge from the structures once the first shells hit. We quickly set up the gatling gun and take them down when we can. In some instances, night runners exit the adjacent buildings we are shelling or even ones farther away. They don’t stay in the open long enough for us to engage them directly but we mark the buildings. I would like to hit their lair but it was impossible to
see which one they emerged from.
Over time, I notice a certain trend, and that is that we are pushing them farther to the southeast and away from our compound; our sanctuary that I feel we are only holding onto by our fingernails. Seeing this many night runners, thousands upon thousands of them, strengthens this feeling that we are barely holding on. However, we continue pushing them out. The more area we can clear, the better I feel about our chances.
We continue to hammer away at the structures in the area where the night runners vanished. They aren’t the buildings we designated for the night but the emergence of the night runners changed any plans we had. A small thought creeps into my tired mind wondering what adaptations the night runners will possible make of this slaughter. We drone through the night, periodically venturing back to McChord to shoot approaches verifying that the weather isn’t closing in on us. It wouldn’t do to have a night like this only to pile it in on landing. Of course, there is never a good time to pile it in. That will be avoidance number one. Setting up orbit after orbit, we reduce building after building into rubble until we expend our 105mm ammo. We then patrol farther out looking for any night runner packs that are on the prowl. Finding none in the Olympia area, we head north to scout the areas around the bases. Nothing. It’s as if the night runners, which once dominated our screens, disappeared from the night. Overall, I feel good about our night’s work as I set up for our approach into McChord and land. After reporting into the compound, we seal up the Spooky and try to grab some shuteye.
Michael rises with the coming of the night. The lair he found for the packs is serving them well. It is a little cramped with all that have responded to his call but it provides warmth from the chill of the days that seem to be coming with more regularity. The pack has grown so much that he’s had to find lairs for some of them in the outlying buildings. Tonight, he will scatter the packs in all directions but with the warning not to venture close to the two-legged lair. He needs to find prime hunting grounds to feed so many. More have joined and it’s important they find enough food. He’ll stay in communication with them throughout the night in order to ascertain the best places to find food. Some he will send into the surrounding buildings to find the alternate food source he found a while ago. That will hopefully provide during in lean times.