by Mark Clodi
Sighing, Hank conceded with bad grace, “Fine. You get me to stay here, any ideas on who else should go?”
“You better send Nanci!” Evaine called over, then returned to watching the toddlers.
Hank thought about it and nodded once, “Yeah, we better do that. Gonzales you and the doc get the people worked out, you know who is who and who we still need here better than I do, then you work on getting some basic supplies sent over, maybe some of the shotgun ammo, I bet they could use it. Kevin why don’t you help him by either pulling the cars or the supplies, you volunteered an idea, so now you get to do some of the work.”
Kevin smiled to show his willingness and soon the three men moved off discussing what to do and how they were going to get it done, leaving Beth to check Hank’s bandages and smile at him, “Trying to weasel out of here huh? Why don’t you like us?” she held up a silencing finger, “Don’t deny it! Oh I know you just want to be reunited with Juan, we all want to cover our friend’s backs, so I get it. You really should have time to rest though; you have done your part, right? Killed a hundred zombies with your bare hands, fought Dave to a standstill inside the Quick Trip. You are like a living legend already!”
“Aw now, don’t you start in, people are not really saying that are they?”
“Well, no really the kids though, you rescued Cage and Sylvia, well they are talking you up a lot. The stories get back to the adults who are taking care of them and then get talked about more, so you are practically a legend. Not quite there yet. You mind if I ask you another question?”
“Sure, shoot.” said Hank a little puzzled.
“How many zombies did you kill since you left the clinic anyway?”
“You’re pulling my leg right? I mean, you think I kept track? Juan and I shot a lot of them, I had a lot of head bashing to do, probably a couple dozen shots and eighteen or twenty head bashes. Does it matter? There are surely a lot of guys out there that have taken down more than that. Juan, for one.”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter, but I can at least tell everyone the rumors are wrong. Yeah, you killed more than we all gave you credit for. So how do your ribs feel?”
“Well better, now that you have tightened the bandages. It’s the fact that I can hardly breathe that bothers me now.”
“Deal with it, hero. I will be back to check up on you before you hit the hay. Unless I am wrong your lady friend wants to talk to you without me around.” Beth glanced briefly at Evaine, who was still standing close by, near the children. “I will leave you two to it, no rough activity though, got it?”
Hank’s face turned red and he nodded, “Nothing like that, she is just a friend I dated a couple times.”
“Sure, Hank, sure.” Beth nodded and walked away.
It took about five minutes, then Evaine managed to find her way over to Hank’s chair. Hank had picked up the latest and probably last ‘Field and Stream’ magazine someone had left nearby with another cup of juice and was reading an article on Bass fishing in Michigan. Evaine stood near the foot rest, put her hands on her hips and said, “So, you know that woman?”
“Beth? Yeah, sure Doc’s nurse, we rescued her and doc out of the clinic, gave 'em our car and directions on how to get here. Why?”
“I think she is too old for you.”
“Oh?” Hank didn’t really know what to say to Evaine. Sure, they had dated, but that was about it. Hank liked her, thought she was great, and had no intention of saddling her down with a man thirteen years older than she was. Not even if it would make Nanci happy. “Ah, what makes you think I am interested in her anyway?”
Evaine made a slightly rude noise and said, “Maybe not you so much as her, but every man has needs Hank, even cold men like you, I just don’t want you suckered in by the first thing that comes along.”
Hank made a look that suggested ‘who? Me?’ and laughed, “No need to worry about that darling, plus I got you looking out for me right? I’ll be okay.”
“Sure Hank, you’ll be fine.” Then Evaine switched to Spanish and muttered, “better than fine when you finally get over our age difference, then you will be mighty good indeed!”
Continuing in Spanish Hank said, “Oh yeah the old ‘Spanish Culture’ thing, huh? Funny how you always see young girls marrying old goats and never young boys doing the same thing. Makes you wonder which is the smarter sex?”
A rather uncomplimentary word spilled out of Evaine’s mouth, along with a good natured smile and she turned back towards the children.
Chapter 16
John spotted the convoy first, when he did he excitedly yelled out, “Juan! There they are Juan! Do you see em?” The eighteen year old was dressed in green hospital scrubs badly in need of changing. He stood about five foot ten inches tall, had black hair and hazel eyes with long soft looking eyelashes. His hair was, like his clothing, in need of a good washing, his face had the pall of someone who has been up too long and is running on pure adrenaline and caffeine.
Juan was in the bathroom, which did have a window, however he was sitting down and could not see outside, let alone back along the road leading to the hospital, “No. I don’t see them, Give me a minute to finish! Jesus wept! Call it in to Jack, let them know they are coming, okay?”
“Sure thing!” pulling the walkie talkie of off his belt he pressed the send button and said, “I can see them Jack, they are pulling up the street now. Juan is on the pot, so I am calling to let you know.”
Some laughter came back at John a moment later as Jack replied, “Thanks, we'll open the doors for them and tell Juan not to rush things, cleanliness is next to godliness, right?”
John looked puzzled for a second and looked at Juan as he came through the bathroom door, “What did he mean by that? God that guy is so weird sometimes!”
“Sì. Don’t worry about it. Next time you don’t have to mention I am on the pot, right?”
John’s face blushed as realization dawned on him, then he turned quickly to look out the window again with a clipped nod. “Say, Juan, you guys got a humvee, eh? That must be nice, did you run into military guys then?”
Turning to look, Juan shook his head slowly, “No, no they didn’t when we left, maybe someone came in or something, I better tell Jack, make sure it is who we think it is.” Putting his lips near the talkie he said, “Jack.”
On the other end, Jack answered, “Juan old pal, you all buttoned up already?”
“Good to go. Jack one of the vehicles coming up is a hummer. Did we have a hummer that I didn’t see at the club? It is painted in a camouflage pattern.”
“What? No! I don’t think so. Aw hell Juan you don’t think they are bad guys do you?”
Peering at the vehicles closely Juan watched for a few seconds, shaking his head he answered, “Not bad guys, they look okay to me, but they have lots of guns and stuff, you better try and call them on the cell before they get to much closer!”
“Affirmative, right away!” the walkie talkie went silent for a few minutes while John and his Spanish counterpart watched the convoy approach with trepidation.
“Its them Juan! Its them! They picked up a straggler, but it's okay!” Jack’s voice brought the welcome news over the walkie-talkie.
“Gracias a Dios!” Juan muttered quietly, then said, “Good, glad to hear it, me and John will stay here until you send someone for us, okay, just to keep a couple eyes out.”
“Yeah, as planned anyway, well send someone up there to relieve you soon, we have to figure out how we are going to proceed, probably me and a couple other guys will come up and we’ll shoot the shit about it in fifteen minutes or so, okay?”
“Yeah, super, we’ll be waiting.”, Juan said, turning to John he continued, “You still got that deck of cards you found?”
Closer to twenty minutes later Jack showed up with Nanci, a man in an Army uniform and no one else. The man in the uniform looked a bit shabby, he was shaved, but the uniform was a little big on him. He was wearing a military style cap, tho
ugh he had a Kevlar helmet hanging off of his belt. He was also dressed in full body armor, which may have contributed to making his uniform seem overly large. His hair was not close cropped in a crew cut, just a normal looking haircut. His face was tanned, not Hispanic and he had brown eyes. His eyes conveyed the look that Juan was familiar with these days, Sylvia had the same look, so had Kevin. The two thousand yard stare of a man who had seen so much his mind was no longer quite focusing on the here on now, so much as the ‘there and then’. Juan had only a second to take this in before Nancie grabbed him by the neck and kissed him, she then started hugging him tight, while whispering endearments and praises to God that he was alive. The look on Jack’s face told Juan the other man had news, and that it was not good. After a few seconds Jack cleared his voice and said, “It will just be us talking Juan. No sense pulling everyone into this. Juan this is Ted Jenkins, Ted, Juan and John.”The men shook hands all around, “John you and Ted get to watch and see how we do things, if you have anything constructive to add, jump in and say something., Turning to John he said, “You might know parts of the hospital better than we do, did you work here or were you visiting?”
“I had part time hours here after school, they called me in when people didn't show up to work their shift. I just swept the floors.” replied John.
“Good enough, you know the main hallways and can help us figure out where to go. I want to basically try and isolate the cafeteria, maternity ward and ER, if we can keep these places clear it will make it easier to eat and escape if we have to. Of course the guys back at the warehouse will get a call if there are any problems. Doc tells me they are getting another load of vehicles working now if we need reinforcements. They sent over twelve men, plus we got Ted and his two more guardsmen.”, pausing he pulled a box of ammunition out of his jacket and handed it to Juan, “Oh they sent a ton of shotgun ammo, you might want these, huh?”, Juan took the shells, opened the box and while they were talking he busied himself tucking the shells into his various pockets.
“Okay, John, any thoughts on how to block the hallways or anything between the areas we want to isolate and the rest of the hospital?” asked Jack.
John thought for a moment, rubbed his chin and said, “Yeah, the fire doors! We can just shut and lock them from the central panel, I think Tim has a key and knows how to do that, he can shut the maternity ward off on the second level and shut the doors between radiology and the ER on the ground floor, there are not any doors between the cafeteria and the main entrance, but the other ground floor rooms can be cut off. We had a problem with one of those doors locking once, it was a big deal, had to call in a contractor, patients and doctors had to go up the stairs and down the other side to get to rooms, it was a big mess….Sorry! I didn’t mean to go on there, uh, yeah we can mostly do it, except for the cafeteria, the stairway exits all open out and can be locked from this side, nothing would get through, but we could get out.”
“Okay, we can build more barricades to seal off the cafeteria from the main entrance better, we already got one up, but it is pretty flimsy. Why don’t you go ask Tim about it and get stuff locked down now John? And thanks for your help.”
John got up to go, saying, “No problem” and as he left Juan could not help but wonder at how smoothly that had been handled by Jack. Ever since the group came in, Jack had been a little edgy and Juan was pretty sure it was because of the Guardsman, Juan recognized what Jack did as a way to get the kid out of the room so Ted could talk to them in private. Jack waited until he heard the door at the end of the hallway clang shut and then turned to Juan again, “We may have a problem.”
“Sì? I got that, what?”
“Bad news from Sergeant Ted, I am afraid. You guys saw how the road was cleared and how there were a few body bags here and there as they did it?” Juan nodded, “Well, the military was trying to go and relieve that dj, who is holed up in his building, broadcasting instructions and news on how to deal with the zombie threat, well, shoot, I better let him tell it.” Jack cast a glance at Ted and nodded.
Ted spoke for the first time, his voice was gravelly and not unlike Hank’s in many ways, he said, “We are from the depot between Colorado Springs and south Denver, near Larkspur. My unit, part of the 36th Infantry Division, was attached to the 36th Aviation Brigade, a National Guard unit, when this mess started we were equipping for rotation in the middle east, we had three days to go until we shipped, that would have been, why today! Anyway we were confined to base to keep some of the younger guys from going AWOL at the last second, usually by having car trouble or drinking so much they passed out or getting into a bar fight and thrown in the drunk tank the night before, there has been a real problem since the wars started. So we got to sit on the base and almost mutiny before the army gave us our orders. This whole thing took the military by surprise, I can tell you that! A foreign war on foreign soil, sure, but a horde of zombies in our own back yard? How can we fight that?”
“Well yesterday we were ready to do it, break out and go home, find our loved ones and kick some zombie ass. We were ready to go with or without official sanction, then word comes down of a mission that might do more good, rescue one guy, a hero of sorts, and use rescuing him as a reconnaissance mission to plan future attacks into the city to rescue other pockets of humans still alive. None of us liked it much, we all wanted to rescue our families and check on our friends, however in the military they train you to know that ten individuals are not as effective as ten men working as a team. This was a military situation; our country is being overrun, even if our foes were unconventional and unarmed. A few lectures by our superiors and most of us bought into the strategy, even if we did not like it. Plus, I have to admit, we were afraid, the only news we got was from the dj, and according to him there was a sea of zombies around and in his building. What could we do alone?”
“So we spent a restless night griping and getting what rest we could. I think all of us planned to take our vehicles and head out on our own when we reached town, most of us are from up and down the front range, maybe twenty percent are from down south where the unit is ‘Officially’ stationed, Texas and Oklahoma. My two guys, in the humvee were from Aurora, like me. We thought we'd scope the situation, get this Blake guy first, then head east to get our families. A humvee can hold eight easy, and we had a total of eight family members to go and find. Not a coincidence, but a stroke of luck that we were one of the ‘short’ vehicles. The plan was to go in rescue any civilians we could, take down as many zombies as we could, at least put a dent in their numbers and then get the hell out. We had tanks, a couple of the ‘Interim Armored Vehicles’, the newer ones, with the turreted twenty millimeter guns that can be slaved to take down aircraft, like on those navy ships, you catch that in the news a year or so back?”
Jack and Juan shook their heads ‘no’, Ted shrugged his shoulders and continued,
“Oh, that is a sight to see, works great with drones anyway and they have some anti-missile capabilities too. Anyway they mount a twenty millimeter ‘main’ gun, and an M2 fifty caliber machine gun, same gun we have on the humvee
Then they loaded us up with ammo, an extra quarter ton of the fity caliber rounds, three extra cases of belt fed twenty millimeter ammo for the IAVs and two cases of the hundred and five recoilless rifle high explosive rounds. Plus we had two fifty gallon drums of fuel and medical supplies. Not much fucking room in there with that garbage loaded up. No problem, we knew how to deal with excess. Heck it ain’t like any of us were going to have docked pay or worry about a court-martial.”
“So we climbed in our M1132 humvee, I was in command and I put Thompson on the turret with the old fifty caliber and Sanchez on shotgun. Thompson didn’t have to be up and out for the ride, so we chatted about our plan on the way up from Larkspur. It would be cake to do a fade out and we wanted to go back to the base, there were no zombies there, we hadn’t even seen one until we hit Castle Rock. Me and the boys only saw dead ones until we got into the Tech Cente
r. Oh and we were the tail too, we rode about a klick behind the last vehicle with orders to call in if we saw anything creeping up our ass. Mostly we were supposed to be there for re-supply, something we would not need, I mean the zombies didn’t even have guns and could not fight back, right? We were a wasted resource and fading to get our families would be no big deal, especially on the way back.”
“Well when we hit Denver everything slowed way down, we had major, I am talking major crashes to content with, we were lucky to make four clicks an hour with all the moving we had to do, I guess the Major was not so stupid after all, to have brought up our heavy movers and equipment. We heard the gunfire at the front of the column before we saw any hordes of zombies, the scuttlebutt that came back to us was that the zombies were hiding in wrecks or on overpasses, or coming up the ramps at us when we stopped. I ordered Thompson into position, it should be a cake walk, the new lightweight cupolas are real effective against small arms and fragments and our enemy didn’t even have guns. He wasn’t worried, I wasn’t worried. Still when that first mob came up the on ramp at us they made it all the way to the rear bumper before he stopped them. You ever see what a fifty caliber bullet does to a man? This gun can plow through cement walls about a foot thick with the armor piercing rounds, the standard rounds we were using don’t have quite that penetrative power, but when they hit.” the sergeant made a ka-plowing sound with his mouth while opening a fist with one hand, “when they hit, they make great big holes in things. Especially meaty things.”
The zombies were not stopped though, they kept on coming over their dead, the slow rate we were moving kept the rain of bullets just beyond the back of the vehicle and then some of them hit us from the side. I was never happier to have Sanchez than yesterday, he knows how to work his AR-3. He muzzled it out of the firing port on his side and kept that clear and I used my pistol out of my side. Sanchez had to squirm into the back to shoot out of my side, he ended up staying there for the rest of the trip. Because he could hand Thompson ammo from there too.”