Tommy ran into the house.
“Major? You’re cutting out, but we can hear you!” He was excited.
“Identi…Yourself,” the major called out.
“Sergeant First Class Frank Yarborough of the 179th EOD Company. Your turn, Major,” Frank challenged back.
“Major Diane Ruthcut. Attaché of the CDC in Topeka. We’re coming into Manhattan. Do you need assistance,” she asked as the static began to clear.
“Negative, Major. We’re just surviving. What brings the CDC to Manhattan,” Frank asked. Anna, Tommy, and Steve came out to the porch.
“Our last safe house was over run. I have a few people with me. We’re all that’s left.”
“Sounds like I should be the one asking if you need help,” Frank said.
“I probably wouldn’t say no, Sergeant. We haven’t eaten in a few days.”
“Copy, Major. Dawn is in about 90 minutes. Drive around until day light and I will meet you at the Hilton. It’s the biggest building in town. Can’t miss it. We can’t risk meeting you at night.”
“Understood, Sergeant. We appreciate it.”
“No problem, Major. You be careful out there and I will see you then.”
“Will do.”
Frank put away his radio. “Tommy, go wake up the group. We leave in thirty. I want to be there waiting for them.”
Anna looked at him. “I’m guessing that we don’t trust her.”
“No, I do not. I want to be ready just in case.”
“I’ll go get the guys up,” Tommy said.
Ten minutes later, Frank was explaining the situation to the group.
“Frank, I understand that you want to help them but don’t you think that this is a risk?” Kim asked.
“I do. That’s why I didn’t invite them here. If they are good people, we can’t turn them away. We have the room for a few more people if we need to take them in. If they are hostile then we will deal with it.”
“Deal with it how,” Steve said.
Frank knelt down in the dirt. Using a stick, he drew out a makeshift diagram of the area around the parking lot of the Hilton.
“We are meeting them here. These two rooftops here across the street give a great vantage point. I want two man sniper teams on each roof. If things go south, the snipers will take out the threat. Jim, Anna? You will be my snipers. Jesse, Craig? You’ll back them up. Make sure no Biters sneak up on them. Tommy and I will meet them in the parking lot. Steve, you’ll stay here to hold the fort down. I want this house locked down until we get back.”
“Why do you guys always get to have all the fun,” Steve asked.
“Because we can’t lose our medic,” Frank said.
“Fair enough,” Steve said with a chuckle.
“Tommy, switch all the radios to the alternate channels but mine. I don’t want them to hear our chatter,” Frank ordered.
“Will do.”
“Good. Let’s get going so we can get the house secured,” Frank said.
Forty-five minutes later, the sniper teams were in place and waiting. Frank and Tommy sat in the JERRV waiting for their guests to arrive. Frank took out his radio.
“How are we doing, Bravo,” Frank asked.
“Bravo and Charlie are in position. Good to go,” Anna called out
“Good. Be ready for anything and watch your six.”
“Copy.”
Frank switched to the main channel.
“Major? Come back,” Frank called out.
“Sergeant, good timing. I was starting to fall asleep.”
“How are you guys doing out there?”
“Got to say, I’m a bit nervous. Kind of feeling like I’m walking into a trap.”
“I can understand that. The only trouble you’ll have with me is the trouble you start, Major. If it makes you feel any better, you can call me Frank. I haven’t been a sergeant in quite some time. The military doesn’t exist anymore,” Frank reasoned with her.
“Guess that’s true. Guess you can just call me Diane. That feels weird. Think I’ve been in the game too long.”
“You and me both, Diane.”
He saw the sun peeking over the horizon. “I think we’ve waited long enough. Go on and head over this way so we can meet.”
“Will do. On our way,” Diane said.
Frank switched his radio over to the alternate channel.
“Bravo?”
“Bravo here,” Anna answered.
“They’re on their way. Be ready. Copy Charlie?”
“Charlie copies,” Jim said.
Frank switched his radio back over.
Ten minutes later, Frank spotted head lights down the road. Frank flashed his high beams. The vehicle continued down the dim lit road. Frank saw the vehicle as it entered the parking lot. It was an armored MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle with a turret mounted 240B machine gun. The 240B is a fully automatic, gas operated, air-cooled, belt fed machine gun capable of 950 rounds per minute, which would be bad news if Diane turned out to be hostile. Frank squinted in the dim light. The turret hatch was closed.
He sighed. ‘Good sign.’
Frank and Tommy made sure that rounds were chambered in their weapons then exited the JERRV. Tommy reached in before jumping down to retrieve plastic bags that had energy bars and water for their guests.
The two walked to the front of the JERRV and waited for their guests to exit their vehicle. He could see the driver’s silhouette. It looked as if they were conversing with the passengers. Finally the driver stepped out of the MRAP. It was a woman in an army combat uniform (ACU). She was a slim redhead, very pretty, in her early forties. Frank assumed this was Diane. Another passenger exited the vehicle from the rear hatch. This was an African American male, shaved head, mid 40’s, Tommy’s size, also in an ACU, carrying an M4. They walked toward Frank as they scanned the area for threats. Frank looked for signs of deceit in their posture. All he could see were frayed nerves.
“Diane, I presume,” Frank said as he reached for a handshake.
Diane hesitated then accepted the handshake.
“You must be Frank.” She was still scanning the area.
Frank smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
“This is Sergeant Eric Hamilton.”
“You can call me Eric,” he said as he stretched out his hand. Frank shook his hand.
“This is Tommy. We brought you guys something to eat while we talked if you want to take it back to your people. Know you guys must be hungry,” Frank said.
“Ma’am,” Eric asked, requesting permission.
“Go ahead and take it to them. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble here,” Diane said.
Eric took the bags from Tommy.
“Thanks, Tommy,” he said then ran off back to the MRAP. He dropped off the bag, handing out water and food to their passengers.
“So what happened to the CDC,” Frank asked.
“We were the only post still functioning. All the others had been over run a long time ago. One of the generators at our complex malfunctioned. It started making a high-pitched, screeching noise, drawing in tons of Biters. Out of the fifteen soldiers we had, only Eric and I are left. Hell, we would have never made it out without Eric. He fought through the hordes so we could make it to the MRAP.”
“Sounds like hell,” Frank said.
“It was.”
Eric came running back up to the group. He tried to hand Diane water and a nutrition bar but she refused, focusing on the task at hand. Eric stuffed the food and water in his cargo pockets.
“So where do we go from here, Frank? I’m sure you didn’t ask us to meet you here just to hand us some food and water.”
“You’re right. I didn’t. I know you guys have been mobile for a while now. You are probably tired. We wanted to feel you out. Our home is open to you, if you need to catch your breath.”
Diane was taken back. “Just like that? You don’t know us, but you’ll just open up your home for us?”
Diane looked at Tommy. “That’s very generous of you but I don’t know or trust you.”
Frank nodded. “That’s fair. We just wanted to offer. If you’re willing to follow us back, you can keep your weapons. We just wanted to give you guys a breather. If you wanted to stay, you’re welcome. If you wanted to go your merry way, you’d be free to.”
Diane thought hard about the offer. She was exhausted, along with the rest of her people. She knew they wouldn’t last much longer. She was out of options.
“Very well. I’ll trust you for now, Frank,” Diane said.
“Good. The same rule applies, the only trouble you’ll find with us is the trouble you bring. If we can agree to that, we won’t have any issues.”
“I think we can agree.”
“Outstanding. I’m glad I was just being paranoid.”
She squinted. “What do you mean?”
Frank twirled his finger in the air as he looked toward his sniper teams.
The two teams got up and started going down the ladders.
“Snipers,” Diane said, hesitantly.
“You can’t be too careful. If this went south, my wife would have gunned you down,” Frank admitted.
“Wife, huh? And here I was hoping that a handsome man like you was single.”
Frank laughed. “Not for a while now.”
The sniper teams crossed the street and made it to the group. Frank introduced Diane to Anna and the others.
“Before this goes any further, I would like to meet the rest of your group,” Frank said.
“Fair enough. Sergeant, go grab the others.”
Eric ran back to the MRAP. A man exited. He was in his mid-thirties, dark haired, with glasses. He was accompanied by a blonde woman, also in her mid-thirties, also wearing glasses. The two were holding hands. Behind them was a small girl around Tonya’s age, dark haired with glasses. They walked up to the group.
“Frank, this is Doctors Jamison and Nicole Smith and their daughter Jenny,” Diane said.
Frank reached out and shook their hands. “It’s nice to meet you all. Diane is going to follow us to our safe house. It’ll be a bit cramped but we should have enough room for all of you.”
“Really,” Nicole exclaimed.
“Thank you for helping us. We’ve been on the run for days now,” Jamison said.
“We don’t turn people away when they need help,” Anna said.
“Well. Let’s get out of here,” Frank said.
They all got into their respective vehicles. Frank took out his radio and turned it back to the alternate channel.
“Alpha to base?”
“Base here.”
“Base, everything went well here. We’ll be coming back with five guests,” Frank said.
“Copy. I’ll have the chef whip up something for them,” Steve said.
Frank chuckled. “Copy base.”
Steve met them in the yard as they pulled up. Frank walked up to him.
“So what did we just commit to,” Steve asked.
“Two military, two doctors, and a child,” Frank advised.
“That’s not too bad. We should be able to fit them in to the house. The problem being is the food issue,” Steve said.
“We will jump that hurdle later. For now, we’ll get them settled in,” Frank said.
Diane and Eric walked up to them. Steve held out his hand.
“I’m Steve. It’s nice to meet you all,” he said.
Diane shook his hand. “I’m Maj… You can call me Diane.”
Eric shook Steve’s hand. “I’m Eric.”
Jamison, Nicole, and Jenny walked up from behind Diane. Steve introduced himself to them.
“You guys can just call us Jamie and Nikki. No need to be so formal with us,” Jamie said.
“Sounds good. Let’s get you guys settled in.” Frank looked them over. “You guys don’t even have a change of clothes, do you?”
“No. We had to get out pretty quick. We didn’t have a chance to get any kind of supplies,” Diane said.
“That’s fine. We should have some clothes for you. The showers are free and we have a tank of natural gas, so there’s hot water. Our home is your home,” Steve said.
“I could really use a shower,” Diane said.
Later that day, Frank was standing on the porch drinking coffee with Anna and Steve. Diane walked out on the porch.
“Evening guys,” Diane said.
Frank raised his cup. “Evening. Feel better?”
“Yep. Got a hot shower and a full stomach. Natalie is a great cook,” Diane said.
Natalie over heard her. “Thank you.”
Diane turned around and stuck her head into the door to see Natalie.
“I should be the one to thank the chef,” Natalie smiled.
“So what’s the story, Diane? Did the CDC know how this shit started,” Steve asked.
“We don’t know the whole story. Bits and pieces mostly. What I’ve been able to glean was it started from some miracle Alzheimer’s cure that the Japanese were working on. Basically all the test subjects that they took from all over the world were completely cured, even the ones who were fighting it for years. All their test came back normal so they shipped them home, which is why the infection spread so quickly. The ones that stayed began showing signs of schizophrenia so the labs ran more tests. There was no sign of Alzheimer’s in their brains. What they found was much worse. The cure was some kind of genetically engineered enzyme that would repair the damages gray matter then safely run its course out of the host’s system, only it didn’t. The enzyme mutated. It infects the brain, shuts down the body’s systems, except for the motor functions and small part of the primal center of the brain.”
“Jesus…” Steve said.
“Was anyone close to a cure,” Frank asked.
“Yeah, we were. By close I mean a year, maybe two. Jamie and Nikki are the best Virologists in the country. Unfortunately, all there research was lost when we had to leave the compound.”
“So now, they have to start from scratch…” Steve said.
Frank thought hard about the situation he was just presented with. He knew he needed to get them back to work but what was the best course to take?
“So if they had their research, best guess, it would be a year. How long without it,” Frank asked.
Diane squinted at him. “I would think that some of it they could do just from memory but without it, about two or three years. What are you getting at?”
“Frank? You’ve got that look in your eye. This should be good,” Steve said.
Frank smiled. He did have something in mind.
“We need to have a meeting. I feel like playing some music,” he said as he walked back into the house. The Anna and Steve followed him.
“Wait! What,” Diane yelled, confused by the comment.
Twenty minutes later, the senior members of the group, joined by Diane, Eric, and the Doctors, met at the dining room table. Frank addressed the Doctors directly.
“Ok guys. Is there any way that you would be able to work in the hospital labs if you had your research,” Frank asked.
“Sure, as long as we had power for the equipment,” Jamie said.
“I did a stint at the hospital here doing a research study. The lab that was across from us should have everything we need,” Nikki explained
“We can get the generator running and shutdown all the breakers except for your space. That shouldn’t be a problem,” Jim said.
“Yeah but that still leaves the research. How do we plan on recovering it,” Diane asked.
“The research… What are we talking about? Notebooks and laptops,” Frank asked, formulating a plan in his mind as they talked.
“There are two laptops. Every piece of our research is on them. We did have them on servers but
since we had to stay mobile, Diane had us transfer it all to the laptops. We just didn’t have time to grab them when we were over run.”
Frank looked at Diane. “Smart move. That makes this much easier.”
“Ok, Frank. Spill it. What are you planning,” Diane asked.
“We have a little set up that we’ve come up with for getting rid of hordes. We just need one component of it to pull this off,” Frank said.
Anna realized what he was getting at. “The speakers…”
Frank pointed at her. “Exactly. We play obnoxious noise over a couple of speakers and the Biters will go right to it. That will be our opening.”
Diane thought about it. “There’s a small generator not too far away from the main building. It’s at a guard station on the east side of the complex on the other side of the main entrance.”
“That’s perfect. We can set up the speakers then circle around and wait by the main drive for them to clear out,” Tommy said.
“Yep. We would still have to worry about ones trap inside but it shouldn’t be anything we can’t handle,” Frank said.
“Frank, are you sure about this? It seems like a big risk,” Diane said.
“No different than going into town for supplies. We’ve dealt with much worse odds so far. I won’t lie to you though. Shit happens that we can’t expect so be prepared for a fight. Like always, we might not all make it back.”
“Well, you all sound pretty confident. Count me in,” Diane said.
“Me too,” Eric said.
Jim, Anna, and Tommy all raised their hands to volunteer.
“Alright. We’ll go in two days. We need to go pick up the speakers in the morning. We’ll need to break this to the group. Vacation just got postponed,” Frank said.
“Shit…” Steve said.
The next morning, the group was having a morning meeting.
“Alright guys. We’ve had a change of plans. The good Doctors here have been working and are close to some kind of cure for the infection, give or take a year or two.”
The group started to chatter amongst themselves.
“That being said, they had to leave their research to escape from their last home. If we don’t retrieve their research, it will be a long time before they have a cure for us all to enjoy. Today, we will be going to get some speakers from the music store and we’ll head out tomorrow morning to get their research. Unfortunately, that means that our vacation will have to wait a couple of days.”
Life In Death (Book 1): Surviving Death (The Struggle) Page 28