by Rescue
Alex shook his head violently. "No. No way. You aren't going," he protested. "You don't have a stake in this..."
"We're going," Cahn interrupted. "You are going to need a doctor and a few extra guns." Dr. Cahn smiled wide. "I'm a doctor, and they are the guns," he said, indicating the men behind him.
Alex continued to shake his head. "No. We don't need a doctor..."
"Like hell we don't," Tolbert spat.
Alex turned on the man, forcing himself at John. "And just what good is a doctor going to do us? Huh? You get injured out there and we are putting a bullet in your brain, no hesitation. There is no curing a zombie bite. You are a dead man, and I'll make sure I pull the trigger!" Tolbert cowered under Alex's onslaught. He had just about brought the younger man to tears when Dr. Cahn stepped between them.
"Knock it off, Alex!" Cahn commanded. "You don't get a say in this one. We are going. You need the help and we have volunteered. That's final." Alex's gaze shifted from Tolbert to the doctor, the anger draining away almost immediately.
"Fine," Alex said, defeated. "Get yourselves armed and say your goodbyes to anyone you need to. We leave at sunrise." Alex pushed his way through the circle of men, the anger and frustration visible on his face and in his body carriage. He slipped away into the growing dark.
-----
"You can't be leaving? That man couldn't be serious?" Morgan Kemp fought hard not be believe what she knew was true. Only a few days had passed since Lt. Colonel Jonathan Hill had kidnapped Alex's wife Morgan and their five year old daughter, Gemma, in order to force Alex to bring the lieutenant's family out of Austin. Alex simply hung his head, not wishing to look his wife in the eyes.
"Morgan," Alex said. "You can't believe that Hill holding a gun to your head was just for show. I don't have a choice..."
"You could just refuse. Refuse to go. What could he do then?" Morgan knew the answer. Alex knew it too.
"I can't risk losing you and Gemma when I know there is something that I can do about it." Alex raised his head to look in his wife's eyes. They were the color of dark chocolate, and Alex could always remember staring into them, content and happy. "I can't fight him; he's got too many soldiers. I can do this. I can get them out and back here. It will be okay." He paused for a moment, not wishing to utter the next thoughts he had. "If I don't go, he'll kill..."
"Stop. Just stop!" Morgan cut in. "He can't. There's no reason behind it."
"Of course there's not. You know as well as I do that Hill is crazy. I don't know if it's this outbreak or if he's always been this way, but he's gone psychotic." Alex voice was calm, but sad. He understood what had to happen, and he knew there was a chance that he would never see his wife and daughter again.
"There's something else." Alex almost whispered this. Hanging his head again, Alex continued. "I think he knows me, or at least, about me. I think he knows what I've done in the past."
The words hung in the air. A question mark for the taking, prompting Morgan to ask him what Alex never wanted to tell her.
"What do you mean by that? By, what you've done in the past?" Morgan's voice held a cautious tone, not sure if she really wanted to ask it at all.
"Morgan," Alex began tentatively, "there's a lot about my past that you don't know...that I haven't told you about."
A look of shock flashed across Morgan's face. "Like what? What haven't you told me, Alex?" A hint of venom crept into her voice. Alex sighed.
"Sit down, Morgan. You're not going to like this. Remember that I told you I was in the military? Before we met? Well, that was only partially the truth."
"Alex, you better tell me what is going on here..."
"Please, Morgan," Alex stopped her. "I need to you listen to everything before you ask questions. Okay?" It took a moment for Morgan to agree, but finally her head nodded once.
"Alright," Alex began, stopping a moment to collect his thoughts. "It's true that I was in the military, but that is only the truth on the surface. I was in a division of the Marines that had no ties to anyone or anything. We never asked permission and we rarely asked forgiveness. My unit had the call sign of Neoguard. We were given the task of handling...unusual situations. Situations in which, if the general public found out, there would be mass chaos.
"My last mission was based in China, the Ningxia province in Central Northern China. They had a situation that needed some delicate handling."
"Zombies?" Morgan asked.
Alex looked to her and nodded his head. "Yeah. Zombies.
"The Chinese government was struggling to contain an outbreak of zombies in the countryside. Something that was not uncommon for this province. I guess they decided that they had had enough of the problem and were coming to the States for help. My unit got the call and within forty-eight hours we were on a plane headed for the Chinese border.
"We had no idea what we were in for. We were only given a quick briefing, told that there was a biological outbreak that we were to observe and develop a containment plan. That's where I came in. I was the only intelligence officer sent in the squad, and the person solely responsible for creating a workable plan to deal with what we were about to see."
Morgan stopped Alex in the middle of his thoughts. "Just what exactly did you see? Alex, was it like this?" she asked, motioning with her head outside, to the world in which they were now trapped.
"Yes...and no. We have it pretty good, considering. Remember that we were dropped into rural China; a place even worse off than any PBS Special. There were no roads, no building, electricity...we had nothing. And the people? The people were lower than anything you can imagine. Disease, malnutrition, not to mention the beliefs of the people. It took us a full week before we could even begin what we were sent there to do because of these people and trying to gain enough trust in them to allow us to stay." Alex stopped a moment to shake his head and again clear his thoughts. There had been so much that he had seen and done, and he didn't want to miss any of it. As much as he dreaded sharing these things with his wife, far worse would have been to disrespect those that had been affected by forgetting.
"After a week of gaining the trust of the people, we were finally lead deeper into the countryside." Alex chuckled at this. "None of us thought is could get any more remote than where we had just left.
"We were taken to a tiny village of maybe one hundred people. They lived at the base of a mountain next to the most beautiful lake I've ever seen. It became almost surreal when the horrific events started to unfold.
"My commander, Lieutenant Damon Elliot, and myself were lead to a small hut near the waters edge and set far out from the village center. My skin crawled, Morgan. That first time, hearing the moans of those monsters... I just wanted to crawl out of my body and hide." A shudder ran up Alex's spine.
"Inside the hut, tied at the wrists and ankles were two emaciated bodies. I would never have believed them alive if they weren't moving there on the floor. Broken bones poked through large gashes all over their bodies, but there was no blood. We later discovered that this happened because the creatures twisted and turned their bound bodies in desperate attempts to get at their prey. They were literally tearing themselves apart."
Morgan gasped and nearly retched on the floor, heaving and coughing, but able to keep her body under control. Alex gripped her arm and stroked her back, trying what he could to comfort her. "You don't need to hear anymore, babe. Lets get you some water."
"No," Morgan said through the hand that was covering her mouth. "I want to hear this...I want to know what you saw."
Concern etched Alex's face. "It's not all about what I saw... It's also about what I did. Are you sure you want me to go on?"
It took a moment for Morgan to reply. Alex prayed that she would say no, but his prayers went unanswered. "Yes...yes please finish. I'll be okay."
Alex took his hands off his wife's arm and back. There was a shame that he felt and didn't want to mar his wife with it. "You let me know when you've heard enough, okay? I wish I c
ould say the worst was over, but its not." Morgan closed her eyes and nodded her head, her hand still covering her mouth.
"The men in my unit were under strict orders to observe and report only. We were in no way to become involved with the events that we witnessed. That is easier said than done when you are thousands of miles away from any kind of governing authority, with only spotty communication with that authority. You tend to do what needs to be done, instead of what you are exactly told to do.
"Over the next week and a half I recorded the events that the villagers went through. The two bodies were disposed of soon after our arrival, both of them being burned in a massive bonfire that consumed every last scrap of flesh and bone. Only the teeth remained, and those were gathered carefully and given to the local witch doctor for his remedies.
"My commander had been quickly ingratiating himself with the village leader. The two of them were almost never seen apart, and I noticed that Elliot was beginning to take an active part in some of the activities of the village. Some of those included the capture and destruction of zombies in the surrounding forests.
"Everything came to a head about two weeks after our arrival. We couldn't quite figure out why, but the villagers kept talking about a celebration of sorts. Our limited ability to converse with the locals made it hard to understand exactly what was going on. It became all too clear one night.
"A large bonfire had been erected in the center of the village and everyone had gathered around it. There was some excited talk amongst the villagers, but none of us took much notice of it. Soon, a young woman was dragged from the village leaders hut, bound and the wrist and ankles and gagged so that her protests were muffled. Then Lieutenant Elliot came out."
Morgan watched as Alex's eyes glazed over and his voice became distant. She realized that at that moment, Alex was back in the village, reliving everything that had happened.
"There was a mad look in his eyes. Something that you didn't realize had always been there, but now you wonder how you missed it all those other times. An older man followed the lieutenant out of the hut, escorted by the village leader himself. The older man had a sly smile across his face, like he was the only one to get the joke. The village leader...that man was scared. He knew something bad was going to happen, but he was terrified to do anything.
"The young girl -- god, she couldn't have been more than fourteen -- she was dragged to the bonfire and thrown in the dirt. Elliot...Elliot had murder in his eyes. He stood over that girl, grinning something evil and looked around at all the villagers gathered. Then he said, 'This girl is dead. She has been taken by the dead walkers; made one of their own.' Then he looked down at her, grinning and said, 'She must be destroyed.'"
Alex stood up from the bed, startling Morgan with the sudden movement. He began pacing back and forth in front of the bed, eyes still distant and continued.
"I knew what was happening. I knew it, because I finally realized what it was that I had seen in his eyes. That murderous look, the madness. Elliot was going to kill this girl. This young girl who wasn't even infected.
"I didn't have a gun with me. I usually did, but just hadn't this night. Everyone around me was armed so I got complacent. I started to rush at the lieutenant, but only made it a few steps. He had seen the movement and looked up. The lieutenant was a smart man. He knew what I was going to do, and he had the unwavering loyalty of his grunt soldiers. One look at them and I was grabbed. I was physically lifted off my feet and slammed to the ground. They couldn't see what I saw; they could only follow what they were told.
"I lay there screaming at him, screaming at the others to stop him. I kept telling them that he was going to kill her. That she wasn't infected, but they just kept me there, pinned to the ground and watched as he butchered that girl.
"The lieutenant started by beating the girl with his own bare hands. That should have clued the others in that she didn't have the disease. No one ever touch the infected. He beat that girl again and again until her face was a bloody mess and his knuckles were split. Then he took his knife..."
"Stop! Stop, Alex." Morgan cried. The sound of her voice managed to pull Alex out of the past. His eyes cleared and he nearly stumbled when he returned to the present. Tears streamed down Morgan's face and Alex stood, staring at her until he regain his senses. Placing gentle hands around his wife's shoulders Alex held her tight until the sobs subsided.
"What happened? What happened to the girl?" Morgan asked. Alex shook his head, not wanting to continue.
"No. That's enough. You don't need to hear anymore." Alex pleaded with her to not make him finish the horrific past.
"What happened, Alex? You said that it wasn't just what you saw, but what you did. What did you do?" Morgan's question was a whisper, neither of them really wanting to go on, but know they had to.
"He killed her, Morgan. That demon Elliot cut the flesh away from the innocent girl while she was still alive. Then he stood over her and admired his work. There wasn't a sound save for the cracking of the bonfire. Not even nature herself could believe what she had just witnessed.
"One of the men holding me down slowly stood, and the other retched all over himself. I rushed at the lieutenant. He didn't even take his eyes away from the corpse as I slammed my shoulder into him. I straddled him and beat at him, and all he did was laugh. He laughed a crazed, hysterical laughter. Then I felt a knife at my throat...
"The older man stood over me with a military issue K-bar knife held at my throat. He told me to get off the commander. What could I do? I stood up and he ordered me to back up. Then he stooped over to offer a hand to Elliot. I couldn't figure out what was going on until the two of them were walking away. The man...the older man, do you know what he said to the lieutenant?" Alex's eyes focused on Morgan's. She shook her head in answer.
"He said, 'I guess that will teach her never to turn down my marriage proposal, huh?' He had condemned her, accused her of being infected, because she wouldn't marry him. The fucker had four wives already, and he killed a young girl because she turned him down."
Alex was on his feet again, pacing. The focus was once again leaving his eyes, and Morgan did not know if she would get him back again if he fell back into his past. "What did you do? Alex, what did you do to them?"
Alex stopped and looked at his wife as if she hadn't been there before. "I killed them," he said calmly.
Morgan's hand held back a whimper at his confession. She shook her head, knowing and understanding why he had done it, but not wanting to believe it.
"No one would talk about it. I tried to get them to admit to what had happened, to help me do something about it. Take him into custody, remove him from command, but NOTHING!" Alex yelled this last as he threw the entire contents on top of the nearby dresser onto the floor. Glass and wood splintered on the floor and Morgan screamed as she threw herself back on the bed.
"The fucking cowards wouldn't do anything, so I had to. I had to make them pay for what they had done." Alex's eyes were crazed as he looked back across the room at his wife. "It was easy, actually. They were drunk off of the adrenaline and soon off alcohol. He could barely even defend himself let along stop me. And the older man?" Alex shook his head. "He thought that girl suffered?"
"Stop it, Alex. Stop." Morgan pleaded with Alex, but he only shook his head, the crazed look on his face terrifying her.
"The High-ups? They didn't believe me; didn't want to believe what Lieutenant Elliot had done. But they knew what I did. I made sure of that." Alex crossed the open floor and leaned over the bed, staring through Morgan on the bed.
"They did what they always do. They covered it up. No paperwork, no hearing. I was just released from the service without anything being said or done. Military pension and my signature that I would not disclose anything that I had seen or done during my service with the Special Response Team, under 'threat of imprisonment' for disclosing government secrets."
The craze from Alex's eyes faded, alone with the color in his face.
He moved quickly to a small trash can in the corner of the room and threw up. Alex slumped to the floor and leaned against the wall. "They read my contingency plan, but decided that I was too much of a liability to actually follow it. They felt that my judgement may have been tainted by what I 'appeared' to have witnessed and trashed the whole thing. They never even saw this coming, did they?"
Alex fell silent, but continued to stare off into space. An eternity passed before Morgan could will herself to move. Slowly and deliberately, she slid off the bed and crept towards her husband. Carefully, she lowered herself to the floor and wrapped her arms around him, placing her head on his shoulder.
"I love you, Alex," she whispered, and the two of them remained their through the long night.
-----
The morning sun rose all too early for everyone in New Hope. Shuffling feet and silent figures moved about the compound, reminiscent of the dead walkers littering the countryside. After several of the colonists families had been kidnapped, word quickly spread that Lieutenant Colonel Hill, the Savior of New Hope, had coerced a few of the colonists to bring his family out of Austin. This morning, that group was leaving.
Alex stood alone at the back of a humvee, meticulously checking and rechecking gear and supplies. The rest of his crew, his unit, were saying their goodbyes. The sounds of muffled cries and pleadings to stay started to drift across the courtyard. Alex tried to ignore all of it.
Alex could hear footsteps approaching behind him and turned to see who it was. Shawn Davies and Luke Berryman were approaching, sly grins on their faces.
"You leaving without us?" Shawn asked, his tone happier than what would have been expected.
"Just making sure everything is right," Alex replied flatly. "You two say your goodbyes?"
Luke slapped Alex on the shoulder and chuckled. "To who? My family is right here," he said, indicating Shawn. "I'm a bachelor, and proud to be one. Guns...well, those are my babies."