“You guys notice it’s still snowing pretty hard outside?” Ginny asked out of the blue.
None of us had actually given that a whole lot of thought. We all stared back at her. She sighed.
“If it is snowing we’re going to have to go a really good distance on snow covered roads. The snow plows probably aren’t being sent out to clear and salt these roads anytime soon. The Zombies may be a little harder to lure out of their nests too. Most of them are half naked so leaving a pile of warm bodies inside a shelter to wander out into the cold is going to take some serious enticement. Since we’re doing this at night they’re also going to start out sleepy. The snow is also going to muffle any noises we make to try and get them moving.”
Ginny looked around at us. Gunny was smiling at her.
“I like this girl. She uses her head. Ok. So how do we address this?”
“What are our resources? Do we have snow mobiles, Hummers, any sort of air support on our side? What kind of things besides C-4 do you have that go boom? Do you have flares we could shoot off? Air horns? Do you know how we could get to the PA system at the base and try and set that off if they have power going out there?” Ann finished and stared at Gunny.
Gunny started laughing. “Nice. You two are going to totally cure me of sexism. After spending a few hours with these two knuckleheads I was kind of wondering how the hell you guys had managed to survive this long. I totally get it now! Anyway, I can check and see what kind of noise makers we have. We want stuff we can put on a timer so it starts going off after the bombs and then just keeps going as long as possible to attract as many guests as possible. If we have some mortars that would be bad ass but I don’t think we have any. I’ll ask the armorer. He may know where to get some around here if we don’t have them handy. I’d much rather blow stuff up from a distance.”
“Anybody got anything else?” I asked. “If not let’s wait on the resource check and see if we need to wait for anything. Otherwise, Ginny had an awesome point about the snow so I’m thinking we need to move as fast as we can before this operation gets wiped by the weather. Maybe it will screw up the Koreas too.”
“I doubt it.” Gunny said. “I’ve been to Korea, North and South, the North part of that is not really part of the public record. It gets cold there. These Korean army guys are going to think this storm is nothing. They’re used to spending time freezing to death with no supplies and the constant tension of being surrounded by countries that would love to see them all dead and a leader who was willing to sacrifice them all for his ego.”
Damn people with their world views and their knowledge of different countries making me look dumb.
Entry 37: Good Night Chesty, Wherever You Are
Colonel Hellfont greeted us in the garage bay of the warehouse. We were digging through the equipment the armorer and Gunny had provided. We’d briefed the colonel on our plan earlier and he had helped us fine tune it but pronounced that he thought it looked pretty good overall. The marines who would be going with us were helping load equipment into the two Hummers we’d be driving. One of them did have a grenade launcher on it which we were planning on putting to good use since we didn’t have a mortar.
Hellfont cleared his throat to get everybody’s attention once he had helped us finish getting everything loaded up.
“This isn’t the first-time marines have had to fight through a blizzard to go deliver a whooping on the Korean army. Being outnumbered is nothing new either. I want you guys to listen to these civilians. They’ve been there and done that as far as being outside the wire and killing goes. They have warrior spirits. Hell, I’m sending this young woman out to fight with you against all my instincts because she has impressed the living shit out of me. I have no doubt this will get done. I’ll see you all back here in the morning. Go do what you do marines.”
“Oorah!” Came back the marine response.
We all mounted up and got ready to drive out the open garage door. Snow was blowing in through the door already. It looked like the snow storm really was turning into a blizzard. A yellow streak moved towards us and then Ann was opening her door to let Daisy in. We’d tried to leave her behind for this mission but she evidently had other plans. She made her way into the back of the Hummer and got in her spot to take a nap. We wanted the Zombies to follow us but we didn’t want to attract a lot of them to the warehouse so we drove out slow with the lights off. The Hummers making pretty easy work of driving through the deepening snow and barreling through the drifts when we came across those.
I was in the lead Hummer with Ann and Gunny and two other marines jammed into the backseat. One of them was the cook and had never been outside the wire but he had volunteered to come on this mission so he could do his part. The other guy was infantry and had experience with the grenade launcher we had on this Hummer. He had done a couple of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. All of us were in full ‘battle rattle’ as they liked to call it. The armorer had made sure we were covered in the tools of the trade.
The tools in this case included flash bangs, grenades, M-16s, Colts and S&W side arms, and then more grenades and about a thousand pounds of ammo and C-4 each to lug around. For anything we needed to do quietly we all had knives and machetes galore in addition to what each person was used to carrying as their personal preference in Zombie skull smashing. Ann was driving our Hummer and one of the marines was driving the one behind us that Reeves and Ginny were riding in with another two jarheads. We were driving slowly and deliberately. Once we got a few miles out and had some open highway in front of us we planned on laying on the horn and trying to get some followers.
It turned out we didn’t have to wait. We were on the street heading for the on-ramp to take us up onto the highway to head south towards the Korean base when a mob of the Zombies started pouring out from underneath the overpass. They had probably been nesting out of the snow. It was great that we had some attention. It wasn’t so great that they were stumbling through the snow towards us and blocking the on-ramp.
We couldn’t stop. Going forward was going to be pretty rough. We could turn and try to go up to the other on-ramp down the street. We had some fancy headsets hooked up to radios that were supposedly encrypted and should not be easily detectable by the Koreans. Of course, they were the ones that had been left behind by the Recons as spares since they weren’t in the best shape. Turning left may work or we may just end up with the same issue at the next intersection.
I pressed the talk button on the transmitter.
“Floor it. We need to get up on that highway.”
I floored the accelerator and we lunged towards the on-ramp. We hit some sort of ice patch or something and went sliding sideways. That worked out Ok since we slammed into so many Zombies and the snow was thick enough that I was able to wrest control back and we bounced back towards the on-ramp leaving a good number of Zombies in a serious world of hurt. Even a Zombie doesn’t just bounce back from getting bitch slapped by a big ass Hummer.
Using the Zombies like a drunk driver uses a guard rail we made it to the on-ramp and started up. Reeves came over the walkie and told us they were good to go and following in our Zombie wake. I slowed down to a less suicidal speed to make it up the ramp and make the turn onto the highway. The trick now would be to make it all the way south to the Koreans while not losing too many of the Zombies who were following us.
We didn’t need to have them follow us closely the entire way. That would take forever and we basically needed to get this done tonight to ensure the whole plan wasn’t called off because of the snow. We did need to get a large mass of them moving in the general direction of the Korean base. Then they’d hopefully be within range to be attracted to all of the loud booms we were planning and able to get in through the gaps in the fencing we’d be creating. We needed enough of them headed that way to do some serious damage to two to three hundred armed Koreans.
At the very least we wanted enough of them to flood the base so that it would force the Kore
ans to relocate to another base where they would not be as dug in as they currently were at this one. Before all this Denver had a population of around three million people and Colorado Springs had a population of around half a million. These areas had been pretty hard hit by the virus since there were multiple military facilities here including the Air Force academy. That meant there should be a pretty large population of Zombies wandering around.
If we could get a bunch of the Denver Zombies headed towards Colorado Springs on the highway then that would block up that highway for the Koreans to escape up. We could go back via a different highway and set some traps along that route since after they bumped into the Zombies they’d probably back off and try a different path. I was thinking if we could get twenty to thirty thousand of the Zombies moving towards the current Korean base then that should pretty much do the trick anyway but a secondary strike on them was a solid add-on to the plan.
We were making headway but the trip was going to take a while. It was normally only about an hour and a half drive but times were no longer in the same galaxy as normal. We were chugging along at a rate of around thirty miles per hour on average. That gave us about three hours to arrive if we were going to just keep it up at that speed. The plan was not to just drive up to the front gate and ask if we could come in and blow their stuff up. None of us spoke Korean for one thing.
The plan was to park the Hummers about a mile out on both sides of the base and then myself and Gunny would head in to set the C-4 charges on the north side while Reeves and one of the marines headed to the south side and did the same along the perimeter there. We had some bolt cutters we were going to use to try and open gates and clip through fences as well. All in all, we were giving ourselves two hours to set the charges and do as much damage as possible to the perimeter of the base. Bonus points for planting C-4 on anything that was extremely flammable. We were aiming to time everything to start blowing up and getting noisy right as the sun came up.
The Zombies were early risers and should already be shuffling around aimlessly by then. We were all going to meet up on the North side of the base, lob a bunch of grenades into the administration areas of Peterson Air Force base and then take off up highway 24 before the horde of Zombies we hoped would show up actually got there. It all seemed like a pretty solid plan while drinking coffee mixed with hot chocolate back inside the warehouse. Driving in the middle of the night through a blizzard, surrounded by Zombies, headed for a base staffed by people who were used to this weather and environment, I was beginning to have my doubts.
“Hey Gunny. You still think this plan will work?” I asked the grizzled veteran sitting in the backseat. I think he may have actually been asleep.
He woke up when the guys poked him and told him I was asking a question. After repeating it to him he smiled and replied.
“Son. Plans are so you can sit around and think of a way to do something so that you get the supplies together and actually leave the house. Most plans pretty much go out the window once the action starts. As far as they go though, this one seems like a pretty solid foundation for us to build off of. Just be ready to make the right calls once it hits the fan and we should be ok.”
I had tried to put Gunny in charge of this operation but he’d insisted I stay in command and he be the second. I told him he was way more qualified than me and he said if we were only surrounded by regular humans that would absolutely be true. However, since the world was now full of Zombies I had a year or so head start on him for learning how to guide small teams through this environment. Not only did he say I had that experience but based on what he had seen in the park I was pretty good at it. Or, as he put it, “… you got your whole team out minus one guy. I lost all my men and got saved by your dog.”
Entry 38: It Hits the Fan
We started seeing signs for the highway and for the base coming up. It wasn’t as easy to navigate as we had envisioned because we weren’t just dealing with darkness, there was also snow coming down hard now. I wondered aloud if the snow would keep us from being able to use the radios.
The marine in the back seat, private Jacobs, said he had been helping test them out and they did suck when snow was involved. They had a very limited range as it was and we didn’t really want to use them in case the Koreans were monitoring for the traffic but it was still a nice option to have if it would have been more reliable.
We stopped and headed towards the highway and the northern perimeter of the base. Reeves and Ginny’s Hummer disappeared into the snow on the way to the southern side of the base. I drove a bit further into the snow then went ahead and stopped. It was time for Gunny and me to go set up some havoc. We got out. It was cold. Like testicle shrinking cold. Like when you turn on the water in the shower and you have a sunburn so you just do cold water cold. Like falling through the ice cold. But, I digress.
I strapped on my pack full of explosives and bolt cutters and other things that were ridiculously heavy, kissed Ann, and headed out with Gunny. The kiss with Ann had been briefer than I would have liked since not only did we have an audience but Ann wasn’t thrilled with the cold weather and had been in a hurry to shut the door on me. She’s such a romantic.
We did not know for sure how far away the base was. The snow was making it impossible to see anything. I was freezing and miserable so of course Gunny thought it would be a great idea to jog the rest of the way. Nothing like a nice jog in the snow in the middle of the night while lugging around a huge backpack that felt like someone had dropped a full refrigerator into. This had all sounded so much easier back at the base. We should have brought some ten speeds or something. I’ll keep that in mind in case I actually survive and there is a next time for me to be doing something like this.
We continued our fast-paced trudge into darkness. I’d given up even trying to pretend to know where the hell we were. I just hoped Gunny had some clue since I was just following in his footsteps. Literally, this snow was getting deep. He must have some idea because before too long we were running alongside a chain link fence with barbed wire on top of it that had ‘Keep Out’ and ‘Military Property’ and similar signs strung into it.
We stopped and Gunny and I used the bolt cutters to cut some gaping holes in the fence here and there. We could slip through just by cutting a slit in the fence but we wanted something a multitude of Zombies could all crowd through efficiently. We could only see a few feet on the other side of the fence. We continued on down it until we saw pavement on the other side. We cut a slit in the fence and slipped inside. This close we cut slits instead of the gaping holes to try and make it less obvious to any sentries that people were wandering around. We were hoping most of the sentries were wandering around and guarding the admin buildings and the vehicle areas versus walking the huge perimeter around the landing strips where we had cut most of the larger holes.
One minute we were running beside the fence and the next headlights cut through the snow and were coming right at us. There was nowhere to hide and no way whoever was inside had not seen us. They were driving a little four-wheel drive looking Toyota pickup. Before I could do much more than try and get my frozen fingers through the trigger guard of my M-16 Gunny had shot the driver and passenger through the windshield. The Toyota came to a stop and was sitting there idling as we cautiously approached it.
The doors were open so I opened the passenger side door and Gunny opened the driver’s side door and we dumped the bodies out on the ground. The passenger was still breathing so I pulled out my hatchet and used the blunt end of it to bludgeon him in the skull. Once the skull gave and caved in on him I jumped into the truck. Imagine thinking of how far we’ve come from our old selves. The whole time I was bashing away at that defenseless man lying on the ground I was mostly just trying to do it quick so I could warm my fingers up with the heater in the truck.
We had a quick conversation and decided to use the truck to drive around some. The two we had thrown on the ground did not seem to have any radio equipment o
n them or mounted in the truck so we assumed they had not called in seeing us wandering around out here. We’d taken there AKs and left them on the seats. Never hurt to have more firepower. You’ll never hear someone who has been to war say that he thinks he brought too many bullets with him.
We took the truck and drove down the landing strip towards where all the other vehicles would be. I was kind of worried Reeves and the guy he was with may freak out and start shooting at us but the plan had them staying outside the perimeter and only being there for about an hour before coming back to join us. That was because they had further to go and I wanted to make sure they got back to us before we started lighting this place up.
Gunny seemed to know where he was going and sure enough, within a couple of minutes we were outside some big ass hangars. He brought the truck to a stop and we both hopped out. We cut the chain off the door and walked right in. There were multiple small aircraft in here. Gunny whispered they were training planes to get pilots their first taste of bopping around in the clouds. You couldn’t just sit someone at a desk for a few years then throw them in the cockpit of an F-15.
We started shining our lights around and I was pretty excited to see a ton of barrels with flammable and danger written all over them. They might as well have ‘please place C-4 explosives here’ stenciled on them. Gunny and I got to work applying the C-4 and the timers. This should do the trick. We were running low on time so we decided to use up all but a couple of the charges inside the hangar. We’d put the other ones outside somewhere and set their timers to go off a little bit later. We were walking back towards the door we had come in when we heard Korean voices coming from outside the hangar.
Zournal (Book 4): Reap What You Sow Page 20