by John Darling
Chapter Thirty-Two: All Hands On Deck
The last twenty-four hours had been an absolute whirlwind. Shortly after Commander Knight had escorted Jemma out of the ball, he had come back and found me in my room. I had been about to go to bed when he barged in, threw a large yellow packet on my desk, and told me that I would be flying out in the morning. I hesitated before opening the packet since this was my first set of official orders. In that packet determined the next part of my life and I was nervous and excited all at the same time.
Lieutenant Ward had told us a few weeks ago that we would always remember our first strike team, the first time we go on a real mission and the first time we kill an actual zombie. After packing up all of my stuff and distracting myself for as long as I could, I decided to open it. I had thought about going to bed, but then I wouldn’t sleep. I would have just stared up at the ceiling in the dark wondering where they had decided to put me. I wonder if my Dad had been scared at all when he had received his own first assignment.
It was about two o’clock in the morning when I finally got around to ripping open the top of the envelope. Across the seal said, ‘Top Secret’ and the first thing I pulled out was a piece of paper instructing me to not share a word of any of this information with anyone, not even fellow Stormers. Those who needed to know about my whereabouts had already been informed.
The next item I pulled out was two sets of plane tickets and boarding passes. The first one was for the flight I would board this morning, which would depart Las Vegas at 10:03 A.M. and land in Rome about thirteen hours later. The flight I would then board would take me to Ethiopia.
The packet was large and contained several documents. After the plane tickets, I found a packet with a picture of the city of Dubai in the background along with writing at the top that said ‘Welcome’. Inside the packet, there was a letter from a man by the name of Captain Jade Williams introducing himself, as well as congratulating me on being officially selected to serve in Region 33, home of the Pandemic Strike Team known only as the ‘Sand Swarmers’.
I immediately liked the name and continued to read the packet. It explained how the Swarmers specialized in responding to threats in the Middle East and Northern and Eastern Africa. Since this was already a hot spot in the world, the Swarmers are one of several teams in the area, which all assisted each other in situations that required more than one Strike team to accomplish the mission.
The last two things I pulled out of the packet were two notes, one telling me that Lieutenant Junior-Grade Xander Black was going to be my mentor. I would be shadowing him for the first year in the field. I have to listen to everything he says and pay close attention to his actions while in the field. Then if he, as well as the Commanding Officer of the team, thought I was ready to become an ensign, I would be promoted to that rank officially.
The second note instructed me to meet with Commander Knight and Admiral Kenneweg for an official send-off before I left for the airport. Both of them congratulated me on being selected for this team since according to Admiral Kenneweg, the best graduates from BCS were sent to the most dangerous places. Even though zombies appeared somewhat equally throughout the world, the Middle East is a difficult area to operate in since this part of world had often been the center of several wars, as well as political unrest. As a result, Commander Knight had told me that certain targets were harder to get to since S.T.O.R.M. has to tiptoe around other militaries. Not only that, but targets were more likely to infect other people faster since they did not have the technology or resources to protect themselves from any kind of disaster.
I thanked both of them for their kind words and for believing in me. Before I left, Admiral Kenneweg had pulled me aside and told me the reason I was being sent to this team. There was a huge outbreak going on right now and an unusual number of targets had been detected throughout the continent. The teams based out of Africa were overwhelmed and High Command had ordered other nearby regions to send in their teams.
Admiral Kenneweg referred to this as an ‘all hands on deck’ situation and explained that the Sand Swarmers were one of the teams that had already received the call. They were already in transit and that was why I was meeting them at a makeshift fort that S.T.O.R.M. had set up in Ethiopia, instead of flying directly to their home base in Dubai. Admiral Kenneweg had told me that I’d most likely see the base after the missions were over. Although I was scared, I looked forward to getting some field time. I hadn’t thought it would be so soon, but I was going to try to make the best of it.
This plane wasn’t that large and most of the seats were empty. Aside from a few other Stormers that I was making a point not to bother, there weren’t many people on it. I had taken a civilian airliner from Nevada to Rome and then been escorted by an undercover Stormer to this private aircraft. The person had asked me if I needed anything before I got on the flight and for some reason, I had said no. I should have asked him for a pillow. The ones on here were awful. I’d been unsuccessfully trying to take a nap for some time now. I swore I could have filled a sack with crumpled up newspapers and it would have had more fluff than these things. My time on this flight wasn’t going to be much longer since the pilot had just come over the loudspeaker and said that we would be landing in thirty minutes. I wasn’t exactly sure where we were landing. My orders just said Ethiopia. I guess things were so classified that even I couldn’t know.
I decided to forget about the nap and looked out my window. The sun is just coming up, which meant the day was about to begin, but my body was all screwed up from the various time changes. It felt like the middle of the night and all I wanted to do was sleep. That wasn’t an option since we were descending and the seat belt light had just come on. It wouldn’t be long now before I met the members of my new team and my home for the next few years. I looked forward to getting my career off the ground, but I had just had to be sent to the one area in the world where there would most likely be no ice rinks. I was praying that there would be at least one within range of the base in Dubai that I could sneak off to. I made a note on my V-pod to ask Lieutenant Black if there was one around, after I met him.
The plane touched the ground and I’d never been happier in my life to have been wearing a seat belt. There must have been a lot of wind or something because I could see through the window next to me that the left wing was currently not parallel with the ground. I hadn’t been on that many flights, but I’d been on enough to know that we were not in a good position right now. We bounced upward a few times before touching down again. Thankfully, this time the pilots managed to keep the plane grounded and about a minute later we came to a full stop. A voice came over the loudspeaker and apologized for the bumpy landing. It also told us that we could now move around and prepare to disembark. I had been tired before, but after that whirlwind of a landing, my heart was beating fast and I was wide awake.
I grabbed my backpack from the overhead rack and followed the other Stormers off the plane. The bright sun and a cool breeze immediately hit me as soon as I walked through the side exit of the plane. I used my arm to keep the sun out of my eyes while they adjusted to the brightness. I was surprised at how warm it is for January. If this were Boston, there would most likely have been two feet of snow on the ground.
As soon as I got down the stairs, a few men pointed to a row of twenty of so Jeeps parked about a hundred yards away. Unlike other times I’d left a plane, there was no airport here. Behind me was a makeshift runway that looked like it had been paved last night. Adjacent to the runway was a tower that looked like one good gust of wind could knock it down. Several men were unloading the belly of the plane and piling all of the luggage into a tiny truck. I saw one of my bags get thrown into the vehicle and thought about walking over to get it, but the man behind me yelled again for me to walk over to the Jeeps. Just then, someone waved at me from the farthest Jeep. Hopefully, that was the person I was supposed to meet up with because I had no idea where I was and didn’t know a single person he
re.
“Greetings. Name’s Xander Black. You’re Trevor?”
The guy who waved at me introduced himself just as I reached the Jeep and I shook his hand. My eyes widened as I realized that the man standing in front of me was my mentor and the person I’d be watching closely for the foreseeable future. He was about my height and had blond hair. What was intriguing was his accent. I’d never heard it before and it was definitely not American. From what I could tell, English might not have been his first language.
“Yes Lieutenant, I’m Trevor. It’s great to meet you.”
“Likewise, but get rid of that rank crap. I’m sure you’ve heard I’ll be your mentor and please call me Xander. I haven’t been an officer long enough to warrant you calling me by my rank.”
I nodded my head and asked Xander what I could expect over these next few days.
“All I can say for right now is stay close and listen. Things might get interesting. Just follow me and you’ll stay alive.”
Xander took my backpack and placed it in the back seat as the tiny luggage truck pulled up. I pointed out my two bags and the driver handed them to Xander, who placed them next to my backpack. He instructed me to get in the passenger side since we were apparently late for lunch. Food sounded fantastic right about now since I hadn’t eaten anything substantial in a while. Xander started the Jeep’s engine and I expressed my hunger, but he warned me that the food out here wasn’t the best. Apparently, you had to eat a lot to get your fill and forget about taste.
We drove along the dirt and I couldn’t help but notice all of the tents we were passing. There were dozens of them and they all had the Red Cross logo on the tops of them. I asked Xander why the Red Cross was here, which was a challenge since it was an open Jeep. Xander chuckled for a moment.
“We’re the Red Cross! Tents like those are set up for our operations so planes flying over don’t get suspicious!”
We turned a corner and I saw a huge truck with missile tubes on the back drive by, followed by several cool looking dune buggies. They were very similar to the ones I had seen back in the garages at the Eye. In fact, I began to see several different types of vehicles that I remembered seeing before. Only this time, they were all moving around instead of being parked in some underground facility. Fully armed men were hanging off of most of them as if they were getting ready to go somewhere.
The Jeep came to a stop in front of one of the biggest tents I had ever seen in my life. Xander jumped out and told me that this was where everyone here got their food. They only served meals twice a day so each one was a big deal. I followed him into the food tent where about a hundred other guys and girls were already eating. We got into the food line and Xander handed me a tray.
“So this is a makeshift base and is only set up for temporary missions. It’s too far for us to go back to Dubai and then deploy, so we wait here until a target pops up. Once there are forty-eight hours of silence from the area, we pack up shop and go home. Thankfully no one will even notice we’ve left since it’s so secluded from the world.”
Xander continued to talk about the mission and why the teams were here while we got food. We reached the end of the line and sat down at the end of one of the long tables.
“See that guy over there?”
Xander motioned toward one of the Stormers sitting alone a few tables over. He was hunched over the table and had his head buried in his V-pod. I couldn’t see his face, only the thick glasses sticking out from underneath his black bureau. He hadn’t touched any of the food on his tray and I couldn’t help but notice how nervous he looked. I quickly counted the bars on his shoulder boards and turned around. This was no ordinary Stormer.
“That’s Captain Jade Williams. He’s in command around here and doesn’t usually come on missions like this. We all know things are bad when he comes out into the field. I’ve been on this team for six years now, and this is only the second time I’ve seen him do this. Something is up.”
For the rest of the meal, Xander pointed out various members of the team who were sitting in food tent and gave me a brief background on who they were and what their jobs were. None of them looked as paranoid as Captain Williams. Xander stressed the importance of staying out of his way as much as possible and not talking to him without going through Xander first. I wanted to get promoted as fast as possible and I assured Xander that I would do just that. The last thing I wanted to do around here was draw negative attention to myself.
Xander escorted me out of the tent after our meal and we rode in our Jeep to a different tent about half a mile away. This one was buried in the dozens of small tan tents with the Red Cross logo on the top and would be my home for the next few days. Inside was nothing to brag about. There was a cot on each side with fresh sheets and enough room to store my bags. This made the rooms back at the Eye look like a five-star hotel suite. I asked Xander who the other cot was for and he laughed as he laid down on it. Clearly, I had been talking to my roommate this entire time.
“Might want to grab some sleep. We have to be up in a few hours for the mission brief and who knows when we’ll be able to snooze after that.”
Several things that I had learned at Kings Point and while out at sea had come in handy since I had joined S.T.O.R.M. Once again another one of those lessons had come up and I was smart enough to know that when someone tells you to go to bed, you go to bed. As I zipped up the flap to the tent, I briefly told Xander that he didn’t have to tell me twice about sleeping. Ironically, he’s already asleep.
* * *
I gently awoke to the sound of Xander putting his boots back on, a little under four hours later. He immediately looked at me in relief and admitted that he hated having to wake people up. Luckily, I hadn’t been in that deep of sleep. A few minutes ago a different officer had sent him a message on his V-pod and the entire team has been instructed to meet in the big tent we’d been in earlier for the mission brief. I asked Xander why I hadn’t gotten the message and he simply explained that my number hadn’t been added to the team’s network yet since I had just gotten here. Xander urged me more quickly and I put one of my black jumpsuits on. I looked up and noticed the patch that Xander had on his sleeve. It was bright orange and had the logo for the “Sand Swarmers” on it, as well the S.T.O.R.M. eagle. I hadn’t seen that many patches, but this one was by far the coolest.
“When do I get one of those patches?”
Xander stuck his head back in the tent and smiled, “When you get your first kill.”
The way he just said that sent a chill down my spine. His tone was haunting with a hint of excitement in his voice as if he enjoyed killing. I, on the other hand, was not sure how I felt about killing people. I was certainly not eager to, but I knew that it was part of the job. It was not a question of if the time comes but when, and when that time did come, I’d be ready. I would just have to breathe and do everything that Jemma taught me.
I quickly finished lacing my boots and hopped into the passenger seat of the Jeep. Xander made a remark about my ability to get dressed in a hurry and I assured him that my pace would increase in the future.
We pulled up to the tent and parked behind several other Jeeps. Dozens of Stormers made their way into the giant meal tent. No one was in a hurry, which Xander pointed out meant there was no food out for anyone to eat. All of the seats had already been taken so Xander and I were forced to stand in the back of the tent with all of the other Stormers who hadn’t arrived early enough to get a seat. Everyone was talking and rambling on about various things. A few people greeted Xander as they walked by, and I expected him to introduce me to them, but he didn’t. Even though there were over a hundred people in this tent, I felt very alone. It would have been nice if Regional Command had assigned us to Strike Teams in pairs. Things would have been so much different if I’d had someone I knew right now. Making friends was not a skill that I possessed and had been something I’d struggled with throughout BCS. It would be nice to have someone like Alexei here with m
e right now.
“ATTENTION ON DECK!”
The talking immediately ceased as everyone stood up and snapped to attention. I couldn’t see who had just walked in but I assumed it was Captain Williams. The person put everyone at ease and as everyone sat back down, I recognized him from earlier.
“All right gents. Here’s the situation. Departure has been moved up to 2000 hours. This mission is the third op under the Ebola outbreak series. We will be assisting the other Strike teams in the area since they are overwhelmed with other targets. Our target is a thirty-eight-year-old male named Abubakar Zuberi.”
Captain Williams held up a picture of our target which I couldn’t see very well from the back row.
“We just got intel that he is located in Djibouti and just set off thermal monitors two hours ago. We plan on getting there and capturing him before he turns. The U.N. has informed the media that Africa is the source for this disease and certain parts are being evacuated by FEMA for safety and health concerns. This alibi will allow us to get in and out of the hot zone without drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves. Our two primary squads will go in first with H-VACS under my command. FAVs will provide support. If we fail to get him, or he turns before we can get to him, our other two squads will go in under the command of Commander Mowry. Keeping this out of the public eye shouldn’t be too bad, but just because this is an underdeveloped country doesn’t mean we can afford any mishaps. Stay alert and watch out for civilians.”
A few people mumbled for a moment before Captain Williams snapped and reminded everyone that he still had the floor. His face turned red as he yelled and the noise level in the room quickly returned to zero. He then continued to brief us.