Zombie Fallout | Book 14 | The Trembling Path

by Tufo, Mark

  “Well, since you already know what’s going on, how do the rest of you feel? We all have people here we care for; I don’t like thinking we’d give our enemies any leverage. This place might be secure, but what if a full-scale attack is launched?”

  Rose looked to Kirby. “I’ll be alright, sir,” she said, shifting her gaze my way.

  “Umm, yeah. Me too, sir,” Kirby piped up.

  “Super sly, you two,” I said. Rose looked embarrassed, Kirby proud. Yeah, I got that. When you grasp higher than your station, you should be proud. Lord knew I was.

  “I feel like I’m stating the obvious, Mr. T, but everyone seems to be missing it,” Tommy said. “How will we keep from getting shot the moment we step off that plane upon our arrival?”

  “Might have to jump early.”

  Gary looked like he was about to cry, and, considering his last landing, he couldn’t be blamed.

  “Let’s bundle up all these facts right quick before we all jump off the Talbot Bridge,” BT stated. “We’re currently awaiting trial for treason or subterfuge or a coup gone bad. We’re going to escape, fly to a heavily infested area to save a person…oh, did I mention it’s clear across the entire country? Then, presuming we do escape this cell and we’re not shot immediately and the plane we’re taking over there isn’t shot down, us and a squad of SEALSs are going to have to overpower five thousand zombies…”

  “Take a breath buddy; your sentence is a run on,” I told him.

  “Oh, I’m just winding up,” he started. “So. Presuming we survive all of that and cross the country again, we’re going to parachute out, find our way back onto base to confront Deneaux, her council, Bennington, and his troops and an Einsteinian zombie named Dewey. While in the background, all of those we love and care for will be dealing with the fallout of our departure and our treasonous acts with which they are complicit, by the way. Whew.” He wiped his brow. “Does that about sum it up?”

  “Fuck, man. When you say it like that, it does sound daunting,” I told him. “And this is exactly why I don’t plan shit out. Can you imagine taking all those variables into account? You’d never get anything done. Seriously, though, you all heard the gunny. Any one of those things could go sideways in a hurry. If you have doubts, you can stay.”

  I was proud that, to a man or woman, they were in for the whole white-knuckle ride. I could only hope that none of them paid for the crazy that BT said swirled around me like Pigpen’s dust cloud.

  Overland came back a few hours later. “Everything is in place. I’ll be back at midnight.”

  “Umm, there’s a problem.” I had my finger up as in a “point needs to be made” gesture.

  Heard something along the lines of “What now?” or “Fuck me.” Same thing, really.

  “My wife says she’s not going; she’s not pulling the kids from here.”

  “And you?”

  It was funny, in a way. I hadn’t thought of myself; I’d already told the major I was going, so I’d not thought to back out. Overall, didn’t seem like the worst idea.

  “I’m still in.”

  “Are you sure? Have you thought this through? We’re all going to be fugitives. My team, your team, the pilot and his team.”

  “Eastman?”

  Overland gave me a look, like, how did I know. “Doesn’t matter. Once you break out of here and we leave the base, we’re gone, personas non grata. We will have burned this bridge. Bennington will have orders to shoot on sight, and I imagine he’ll get plenty of enthusiasts.”

  “What if Bennington was no longer in the equation?”

  “A mutiny or a murder? I’ll take no part in it.”

  “High road now? I’m not into murdering the man, but the pressure, I think, has gotten to him. That and the snake-like Deneaux.”

  “The Civilian Board leader? What can that woman possibly have done?”

  “That’s how good she is,” BT said in all seriousness. “He doesn’t even suspect her capable.”

  “Most of what is going wrong with this base lies at her feet,” I told him.

  “What lays at whose feet?” Deneaux sauntered in. She had a small box in her hands.

  I nodded to myself. I had a moment where I believed this entire thing to be a set-up from the start. Bennington would come in next and say he was adding sedition to the list of charges already being brought forth. If Overland stepped close enough, I was going to crush his windpipe for this.

  “Ma’am,” Overland said.

  “Ma’am? Weird way to address a reptile,” I said.

  “Major,” Deneaux smiled at Overland as she walked past. “I brought you a present, Michael, something to show no hard feelings before your trial.”

  “Yeah, bring it closer.” I was an equal opportunity throat crusher.

  “Perhaps that would not be wise. I will open it for you.” The box was wrapped in silver paper and had a black bow tied upon the top. Looked fairly fancy. She slowly undid the ribbon and pulled the top off. She reached in and pulled out what I thought was a navy blue bag. She then turned it upside down to show me the initials MT stitched into the fabric.

  “Fine, I’ll bite. What the fuck is it, Deneaux?” I asked.

  “Why it’s the hood that goes over your head for the hanging! I had it monogrammed for you. I thought you might like the feel of fine silk against your skin before the noose snaps your neck and your feet dance around wildly.”

  “Holy shit,” Overland said.

  “Told you,” BT replied.

  “What? You wrapped the rope around your neck yourself, Michael. You should be the least surprised of all when someone decides to open the floor beneath you.” She had turned the hood so she was looking at the lettering, smiling as she ran a finger across it. “This is top-notch work; paid a pretty penny for it, but quality is always worth the price.”

  “You in on this shit?” I asked Overland.

  “In on what?”

  That was good enough for me.

  “Wassau!” I yelled.

  “Fuck, Talbot! I’m in the middle of a drink.” He was wiping the corner of his mouth, what he’d spilled as he hustled in.

  “You’re always in the middle of a drink. Let me the fuck out of here.”

  “Right now?” He looked to Deneaux.

  “Don’t worry about her.”

  “This isn’t the plan,” Overland stage whispered.

  Deneaux was absolutely clueless as to what was happening, but she was savvy enough to realize whatever it was, wasn’t in her favor.

  “Adapt and overcome.”

  “You Marines and your supposed wits. Make shit up as you go and then find witty ways to cover your asses,” Overland said. “She’ll blow this entire thing up in our faces.”

  “Not if she’s coming with us,” I said as Wassau fumbled with the keys.

  “I’ll just leave you with this…” Deneaux dropped my hood on the floor and headed for the door just as Corporal Baggelli showed up.

  “Don’t let her go,” Overland and I said at the same time.

  “Michael, surely this isn’t what you want to happen…?” Deneaux queried.

  “Oh no, you’re right,” I said as I stepped out of my cell, bent over and grabbed the cloth. “I’d much rather find my way to the gallows and don this fucking thing. You’re a sick person, Deneaux, and I think it’s high time you were dealt with.” I shoved the cloth into her chest and didn’t let go until she grabbed it. “Maybe hold onto this; you can kee

  p it as a souvenir, a way to remember where you went wrong.”

  “You going to push her out of the plane?” Kirby asked.

  “Can’t. Witches fly,” BT said.

  “And float,” Gary added.

  I wanted to fist-bump them, especially since it would have distracted me from wanting to send a few fists into Deneaux’s face. I detested violence against women, even snake-women, but shit if she didn’t necessitate a change in my thinking, or, at least, a one-time exception.

 
; “What’s with all the festivities?” Another SEAL came in, a PFC Reed. Although all things considered, he was the oldest private I’d ever seen, and he had a swagger that belied someone of that rank.

  “What are the prisoners doing out of their cell?” Sergeant Sorrens pushed past Reed and Baggelli and was standing next to Deneaux.

  “Help me, young man! All of these people here are in collusion for some sordid and dastardly deeds and I’ve been physically threatened.”

  “Dastardly? Is that a word? Saw it on a cartoon once, thought they made it up,” Grimm said.

  Deneaux moved lightning quick, like the predator she was. Grabbed Sorrens’ sidearm straight out of his holster before he even had a chance to look down. Of course, that unwavering barrel was pointed at me. She placed her back against the wall, seemingly checking everyone out while never taking her gaze away from me. “I’ve asked myself hundreds of times since we’ve met, Michael, how you always manage to obtain allies in the unlikeliest of places and are somehow able to escape even the unlikeliest of circumstances.”

  “And yet, for some reason I cannot even begin to fathom, Vivian, you keep throwing your lot in with any side other than mine.”

  “Oh, that’s not true, my dear.”

  I winced at the gesture of familiarity.

  “We had a good run there for a while, you and me. I consider those the good old times.”

  “Only you would,” I told her.

  “We could rush her, sir,” Stenzel said.

  “No need,” Sorrens said as he coolly approached Deneaux.

  I winced again when Deneaux turned the weapon slightly to make sure the safety was off before she pulled the trigger. I thought the bullet that was going to do me in would sound like a thunder crack. But instead it was the cold metallic click of a firing pin striking an empty chamber.

  “Not loaded.” Sorrens snagged the pistol from her roughly.

  “Worth a try,” Deneaux shrugged—not as if she’d tried to blast a hole in my forehead, but like she’d tried to pull a trick play in a youth football game and it had not gone as planned.

  BT let out a big breath, I think, for all of us.

  “The master sergeant doesn’t like me to have a loaded weapon in the jail area, since that one time,” Sorrens said, not elaborating.

  “Glad to see Barney Fife is alive and well,” I said. “And nobody better ask who that is!” I cut Kirby off at the pass.

  Reed had his sidearm out and pointing at Deneaux’s head.

  “You realize I’m the Chairperson for the Civilian Board,” she told him coolly.

  “Yeah, like I give a shit,” he told her. I liked him already.

  “Master Sergeant?” Sorrens was going back to his original question.

  “They’re breaking out,” Wassau told him. “I’ve been beaten up, you’ve been overpowered, and they’ve escaped.”

  “What? But you’re fine.”

  “Tough getting good help these days,” I told Wassau. “Hell, I’m stuck with Kirby…maybe we could make a trade.”

  “Hey!” Kirby realized he was the butt of my joke.

  “They’re not really making much of a go at this whole escape thing,” Sorrens said.

  “Major, I’m going to need a black eye, preferably not a broken nose. I could take a busted lip, I think…I’ve drunk enough anesthetic.” Wassau squared his body to Overland.

  “Someone want to catch him?” Overland asked.

  “Now, just wait a goddamned minute. Nobody is punching my master sergeant and definitely not escaping.” Sorrens wasn’t picking up on anything.

  “I have to pick the dolt who doesn’t even load his gun. Listen you fool, everyone besides you and I are in on it. Your beloved master sergeant is helping this treasonous band of miscreants to escape and cause who knows what kind of terror to this base,” Deneaux explained.

  “Is this true, Master Sergeant?” Sorrens asked.

  “He doesn’t even drink,” Wassau said. “Screw it, Major. Hit me hard enough to put me out; give me a little bit of a reprieve.”

  Sorrens deftly dropped the empty magazine from his pistol and was reaching for what I would imagine was a full one from his duty belt.

  “Don’t,” I told him.

  “And why the fuck wouldn’t I?” Although he did stop as he asked the question.

  “Don’t make me tell everyone here about…”

  “About what? That you’re escaping?”

  “About our, you know, business arrangement.”

  “Business arrangement? What the fu…but that’s private! Everything you sold to me you said was in strictest confidentiality!”

  Stenzel coughed and turned her head, clearly embarrassed for the man. Didn’t help the matter at all that Rose was having a difficult time hiding her laughter.

  “What is going on?” Easy enough to see Overland was pissed.

  I made a circle with one hand and with the pointer finger from my other hand, I made the universal gesture for screwing.

  Sorrens face turned beet red. He walked up to me and handed his pistol over before stepping into the cell I’d just vacated.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Wassau said. Telling you right now, Overland took out his frustration on Wassau’s face. Hit him good; I was surprised how well the master sergeant took it.

  “Son of a bitch,” he said, spitting blood as he walked it off before joining Sorrens in the cell, who had turned his back to us.

  “And her?” Overland asked, referencing Deneaux.

  “She’s coming with us.” I grabbed her upper arm. “Isn’t that right, Vivian?”

  “Wouldn’t have it any other way, Michael,” she positively cooed.

  3

  Mike Journal Entry 3

  “What the hell was that all about?” Overland asked as we climbed aboard our getaway truck.

  “Sorrens has a proclivity for rubber women, and I just happened to find a warehouse full of them. He’s probably my best customer. Rose?” I asked my corporal, as she was responsible for the bookkeeping.

  “By a country mile, sir,” she said. “I have him down for fourteen sales.”

  “Fourteen? Has his own silicon harem. Rose, remind me not to go to his house for dinner.”

  “Will do, sir,” she responded.

  “You’re the one bringing those in?” Overland asked.

  “I supply a product for a need. And if you think about it, my side business just saved us some dirty business in there.”

  “How are you my best option?” Overland asked.

  I was amazed when it was Deneaux that answered. “You’d be surprised,” was what she offered.

  “Little late to start cozying up, isn’t it?” I asked her.

  “What are your plans for me?” she asked, reasonably, once we got underway.

  “Not entirely sure, but I’m going to keep you guessing. As long as you think you can slither away from this at some point, you’re less likely to do something rash,” I told her.

  “Is this wise, taking her?” Overland asked.

  “It is. If she’s solely in charge, none of her lackeys are going to make a move without her say-so, which means my family and friends are safe. If we come back and they’re in jail, then we know Bennington is behind this whole fiasco, or in cahoots.”

  “It’s cute when you play at intrigue, like a babe with a big boy tool set.” Deneaux had lit a cigarette. “The things you don’t know could fill a warehouse,” she mused.

  “Glad to see you’re enjoying yourself,” I said, noting her smile and her general demeanor. “We have time together, maybe you could fill me in.”

  “What fun would that be? When learning new lessons, it is better to discover on your own than to be led to an answer.” She was still smiling, and I didn’t like that at all. Somewhere in her arsenal, she always carried an ace up her sleeve.

  “Grabbed these from the jailhouse.” I showed her a shiny set of cuffs. “Let me know if they’re too tight,” I told her as I ro
ughly grabbed her right hand from her lap. “I don’t give a shit, but I might get a smattering of extra satisfaction.” There was the familiar ratcheting sound as I closed the loop and then proceeded to do the same with the left. I was surprised when she didn’t protest with some bullshit like “what could a frail old woman do” or something along those lines, but she’d already pulled a pistol and threatened to kill me, so it wasn’t like anyone here wasn’t fully aware of what she could do.

  “I realize on some level this is a game for you, Vivian, that you get your rocks off on this shit. But I’m done. I have always, for some unfathomable reason, given you the benefit of the doubt, over and over. And every single time, you make me pay for that. So, I, in part, am responsible for the path of destruction you have hewn, and I’m pretty sick of racking up guilt. Nothing? Not going to say how I’m being overly dramatic?”

  “I’m scared, Michael. I’m afraid of what you might do to me if you feel provoked.” Her eyes glanced at Overland.

  “Good one,” I told her, slapping her thigh. “Damn, you’re good alright. Instead of being a murderous fuck-wad, you should have been an actress. Overland’s not buying your shit.”

  “M…major?” Deneaux raised her handcuffed hands.

  “As a commander of SEALs, I’ve found myself on the Hill more times than I care to count. I would have never thought the capital of our great country would become more dangerous than being deep in the heart of enemy territory. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen so many knives buried into the backs of opponents. Anyway, sorry…I realize I’m traveling off course. I’ve met with many senators over the years, but the one that I remember after all these years is Senator Deneaux.”

  Vivian registered shock only in the corner of her lip, which pulled downward for a fraction of a second. Beyond that, she was a statue.

  “We were at the Members’ Dining Room, a famous watering hole at the Capitol,” he clarified.

  “I’m well aware,” Vivian fairly hissed.

  “Senator D. was tossing them back like he was mad at his liver,” Overland said, “started talking.”

  “Man could never hold his liquor,” Deneaux smirked. “You have no idea the number of messes I had to clean up after him.”