“Let’s hope you’re right.”
They made their way to the armory on Main Range Road. The front door to the building was locked, so Jeremy pushed the call button.
“Private First Class Johnson, how may I help you?” asked the staticky voice from the speaker.
“Staff Sergeant Schooner here. Colonel Moody sent me down to get more ammo for the boys working perimeter. We had a large group of those stinky fucks show up, and we need more. Right the fuck now!” Jeremy replied, sounding very authoritative.
Without another word, the electronic lock clicked, and Jeremy pulled it open. He looked at two of the guys behind him, and with two fingers, he pointed at them and then pointed to the left. Then he made a motion of going around a corner. The men nodded back. As they went in, Jeremy kept his pistol down by his leg, and at five feet inside the building, he went right as the other two men went left. Jeremy raised his pistol on the soldier he presumed was PFC Johnson and fired twice into his center of mass. Once Jeremy was satisfied that Johnson was not getting back up, he reached down and grabbed the soldier’s security badge and keyring. Not another shot was fired, and when Jeremy turned around, all seven men were standing there looking at him for further direction.
“So, that’s it? He’s the only guy here?” Vinny asked.
“I don’t know yet. We will see if they have another guy posted inside the vault. Usually, they do, but I’m guessing they don’t right now. Johnson here seemed too eager to have company.”
Vinny then noticed the brown plastic bags on a nearby counter. They were marked MRE and had a description of what the food inside was supposed to taste like. He’d eaten one once in boy scouts and hadn’t liked it very much. He then noticed a cot and a messy sleeping bag in one corner of the small room. Along another wall were CCTV monitors showing various other rooms he presumed were inside the building. Nothing moved on any of the screens.
“Looks like he has been pretty much living here.”
“Probably. Like I said, all single guys who were dedicated to making the next rank. Nowhere to go, no family to speak of except mom and dad. I’m sure the base commander made a promise to send help to get them as soon as possible if they stayed.”
“Man, that’s kinda fucked up. All those helicopters just sitting there not being used. I’m sure he had no intention of doing that.”
“You’re probably right. Ok, follow me and let’s get what we came for and leave before someone really comes for more ammo.”
They all followed Jeremy through the labyrinth of halls, checking each and every room to make sure they wouldn’t be ambushed later. When they got to the vault, Jeremy put the key in one lock, turned it until it clunked, and then took the security badge and swiped it against a card reader. They heard another clunk, and then yellow flashing lights overhead started going around. Finally, Jeremy opened the door to reveal a huge room lined with guns, ammo, rocket launchers, and grenades.
Charles let out a long, slow whistle.
“Jesus fuck, would you look at that? Just look at it.”
“Wow, this should make GM happy,” Vinny said very excitedly.
“Vinny, can I have a word with you?” asked Charles.
“Yea, what’s up?” Vinny asked after they were out of earshot of the other men.
“I don’t know if the plane will carry all that stuff back. It can only carry so much weight. We have to limit what we take back.”
“Dude, don’t be such a puss. The plane will be fine. Trust me. It can carry more than you think it can.”
“No. It can’t. I’ve been flying for twenty years, and I’m telling you if we overload it, we can’t take off.”
“Man, you worry too much. Those old rules don’t mean shit. Let’s just load up everything we can in the van, and it will fit in the plane just fine.”
“Whatever, but if we crash, I’m kicking your ass once we get to hell. Just remember, you can’t overcome the basic physics of flying.”
“HAHAHAHAHAH! Ok, it’s a deal.”
For the next hour, they loaded up everything they could into the van, leaving just enough room for everyone to somewhat fit inside. The tires sagged pretty good, and Charles worried they would blow one out on the way there. The ride was pretty bumpy because the suspension was bottomed out on the bump stops, with no give. Another hour, and they had all the items transferred from the van to the plane. All the men had equipped themselves with brand-new fully auto M4s with suppressors. It was the advantage of going on this little trip. After the van was parked away from the plane, Vinny called the guys to gather for a little chat.
“Guys, we need to talk about what we’re going to do when we get back to Campbellsville.”
“What? Why now? Why don’t we do that in the air?” Jeremy asked.
“’Cause I want to do it now, and Charles needs a few minutes to get the plane ready anyway.”
Once the six men were standing in front of Vinny, waiting for his next words, he pulled up his rifle and sprayed the men with hot lead on full auto. Starting with Jeremy, because he had the Army training, Vinny killed all of them right there. Calm as a cucumber, he collected all the weapons and ammo they had. He walked around to the back of the plane and shot one hole through the rudder and one hole through the elevator. Then he boarded the plane and closed the door behind him. Once he was sitting down in the co-pilot’s seat and had put his headset on, Charles asked if the other guys were ready to go.
“Well, they will be staying here for the duration of the apocalypse.”
“Why? What happened?”
“You were worried about weight, so I lightened the load by about a thousand pounds.”
“Dude, you’re a dick. I can’t believe you just did that.”
“What the fuck, man? I did it for you. So we could get this shit back and not crash. I don’t want to die. I want revenge on that fucking RV gang.”
“Ok, fine, whatever. Let’s get back.”
By the time they landed back in Campbellsville, it was almost midnight. They pulled the plane into the hanger and shut down. They locked it and went home to get some sleep. They shared a house because they had been doing everything together since the beginning of ZomPoc and didn’t have phones to coordinate schedules anymore. By 9:00 am on ZP10, both men were up and ready for the day. They headed over to GM’s to let him know everything they’d acquired, and they told him the army had shot their men and that they’d barely gotten away with the plane.
“Jesus fucking Christ, you guys are killing me. You lost thirteen good men yesterday alone. What the fuck am I supposed to do about that? Huh?”
“Well, boss, we couldn't help it. The Army wanted their shit back. They even shot the plane and everything. We were lucky to make it back with all the stuff. It’s still in the plane. We need some help unloading it, so we can start the move to Montana today. If you want, we can show you what we got.”
“Fine, this shit better be good, or I’m putting you up on the show today.”
When they were all at the hanger, GM was very pleased with all the guns and ammo they’d brought back. After seeing the holes in the tail of the plane, he seemed to calm down a bit about them losing another group of men. GM had men unload the plane, and by lunchtime, Charles and Vinny were taking off with yet another six men. They men had to be ordered to go because they knew the last two groups of guys that had left with Charles and Vinny hadn’t come back.
They flew past Fort Knox and landed at Louisville International airport. Charles taxied the plane around to the Air National Guard base, where four C-130s were parked. He pulled into a parking spot close to them and shut down.
“You sure you know how to fly one of those things?” Vinny asked.
“Yea, it’s like riding a bike. After college, I joined the Air National Guard, and they taught me how to fly. Then I was stationed here for a few years. I have probably four hundred hours in a 130. After my contract was up, I didn’t reenlist and continued my commercial job. I was able to
get better jobs ’cause I didn’t have to be here for one weekend a month and all that crap.”
“Holy shit. So, this whole time, you’ve had military experience, and none of us knew it.”
“Well, it’s not like I’ve ever been in combat. All I ever did was fly around here, and during my two weeks of activation a year, we flew cargo from one base to another. That was it. It was more like boy scouts but with really expensive toys. I looked at it as a means to get me a good flying job and nothing more.”
“Oh, I see.”
“We need one because we can haul a lot of shit. It’s more economical than a regular jet plane. It can land and take off on a very short runway. I don’t think any of those UPS planes will stop fast enough in Campbellsville.”
Vinny just nodded.
“On the other side of that building is going to be some fuel trucks.” He pointed to the northeast. “Bring one over here ’cause we’re going to need to fill this thing to the top.”
Vinny had a few of the guys keep an eye out for deadheads, and he took another guy with him to get the truck. Charles walked along the planes and checked the forms to find one that was in good working order. When he found one with good forms, he opened the crew door and went in to look around. He checked the fluid level on all three hydraulic systems and then went up to the flight deck. There, he turned on the battery to check the fuel levels. Satisfied that it was going to meet their needs, he grabbed a couple of guys and headed towards the operations building. He needed a new headset and to find some other specialty equipment that he needed to fly the military transport plane.
The doors were all locked; apparently, it had not been a weekend warrior Saturday when ZomPoc had hit. He tried the combo he still remembered from fifteen years ago and was shocked as shit that it still worked: 12325. It stood for the 123rd Airlift wing that flew C-130H 2.5s.
“Well, boys, looks like it’s our lucky day. HELLO! Anyone in here?”
No response.
“Do not let your guard down. There could have been a navigator in here with some girl, trying to impress her panties right off. Trust me, it usually works.”
They headed down the hall, made the first left, and then took the second right to the end of that hall. The door in front of him was to the life-support office. The door was locked, so he shot the knob with his pistol a couple of times. Then he lifted his leg and kicked the sole of his heel right next to what was left of the door knob, and the door flew open.
“ARHGHRGHRGHRGHRGHRGHARGH!”
“Shit, you two go in and find that sumbitch and kill it.”
The two men he pointed to quickly went in, and after a few seconds and a smattering of gunfire, they came back to let him know the room was all clear. Charles walked into the back room where, he remembered, the flight helmets were kept. He grabbed one that was his size and then test-fit it. Then he walked over to the NVG locker and pulled out a set and a couple of battery packs. He took the helmet back off, snapped the NVGs in place, and then put the helmet back on. Then he went into the dark room and tested the NVGs while he dialed in their focus.
Back out in the helmet room, he looked over at the large safe that kept the Beretta 9MMs, but he had no clue what the combo was. He also knew there was no way of getting it open without too much time and effort. Fuck it. We have plenty of guns. That will be someone else’s problem someday, he thought.
He walked out of the room and back to the hallway they’d skipped. He opened a door to the left and picked out a brand-new flight suit that was his size. He stripped down to his boxers right there, slipped into the new Nomex suit, and zipped it up. Then grabbed a couple more and picked up a brand-new set of flyer’s gloves and a box with a shiny new mint green headset. Finally, he grabbed a helmet bag and stuffed it with the extra flight suits.
“All right, guys, Vinny should be back with the fuel truck by now. Let’s go fill up my plane and get the fuck back to Campbellsville.”
By three o’clock in the afternoon, they were back and loading all their spoils of war into the 130. They spent the rest of the day moving stuff to the airport and loading it into the back of the plane. The first flight to Billings would be in the morning.
Chapter 7. Red Wing.
The gas station where the convoy stopped to refuel was in Avon, Wisconsin. The gas station only had six pumps, and the power was still on. That would save them some time. Once the pumps were started, Bill walked over to where Mike stood.
“Mike, man, I’m sorry about Brandy.”
“There’s nothing you could have done about it. She wanted to die fighting and not be a part of the harem. At least she got a couple of them before they got her. We are now in a war with these people, and they will stop at nothing to do whatever they want.”
“Yea, but why did they come after you guys? I don’t understand why they would chase us almost a thousand miles. For what? Slave labor? Sex? They can get that anywhere now.”
“You don’t understand. GM lost his mind when everyone he cared about died. Now he fancies himself as some sort of warlord or something, and he wants to rule with supreme power. Chasing us is a show of power and a lesson to be learned for others.”
“I guess I can see it. I’ll chalk it up as a testament to how crazy that dude is. So, how do you think they found us?”
“It wouldn’t have been too hard from the air. All they had to do was follow the trail of bodies in every town. That’s why we had to keep going around every town we passed through till you finally stopped.”
“Yea, I guess I didn’t think about that. So, I guess we have to start going around just about every town there is. But then, how do we get gas and supplies?”
“I don’t know, but now that Vinny knows Brandy was there and they think Steve is still alive, I don’t expect them to give up. I suspect we will probably see them again tomorrow. If not, then soon. Today they will go back, and Vinny will suck GM’s dick to stay in his good graces. They will rest and resupply. Also, Vinny has taken a special interest in you, and he doesn’t give up easily.”
“Yea, I noticed. Oh well, karma is a bitch, and he will get what’s coming to him.”
“I just hope you live through it.”
There was an implement supply store across the street, and Bill wanted to see if they had more manual pumps. He just smiled in response to Mike, nodded towards the tractor store, and asked Mike to join him. The two men walked over and found it unlocked and fairly busy. Bill guessed that farmers needed things on a Saturday. They quickly dispatched three employees and seven people dressed in overalls and flannel shirts. After a quick inspection, he found what he was looking for, and they headed back as the others were finishing up with refueling and tire checks.
In Platteville, Wisconsin, they stopped to pick up an HF radio. Bill and Mike could not locate a mobile one like Vinny had, so they took the base model from the control room. Small airports like that didn’t have control towers, and most of the time, pilots had to coordinate amongst themselves for landing and takeoff. But during high-traffic times, there would be a radio operator at the FBO to help de-conflict any issues if the need arose. Bill was happy with the bigger version because it would give greater range once he had the antenna mounted on top of his camper later.
As the convoy passed the Walmart in Viroqua, Wisconsin, Bill noticed a semi-truck that was surrounded by thrillers and was flashing its lights off and on.
“Breaker, breaker one-nine, you got your ears on, driver?”
“Yes, sir. Is this the people in the line of campers?”
“Yes, sir. Name’s Bill. I’m in the red SUV. You look like you could use some help, driver.”
“Yes, sir. Name’s Dennis, and I would really appreciate it if you could get these stinky bastards away from my truck.”
“No worries. Once you’re free, don’t take off. I’d like to talk to ya.”
“Look, man, the back is empty, I’m almost out of food and water, and I’ve been stuck in here for two days now.”
>
“Dennis, you don’t have to worry about all that. If you really were a driver before ZomPoc, then my team could use your skills.”
“Ok. I’ll hang tight, but I promise if you’re joshing me, it ain’t gonna be pretty for any of us.”
“Duly noted.”
Bill pulled the convoy to a stop, and D, Sasha, and Jane got up top. Twelve of the people who could, or were willing, to help walked through the grass towards the semi and started hacking and slashing thrillers with swords and machetes. About thirty minutes later, they figured there were close to nine hundred re-dead lying around. D, Sasha, and Jane were doing an excellent job of taking care of those coming towards them from town. Dennis got out of the cab slowly and carefully approached Bill and a few of the others from the convoy who were standing close to the driver’s side of the semi. Bill put away his weapon, walked up to Dennis, and stuck his hand out.
“Name’s Bill. It’s nice to meet you, Dennis. So, what got you into that predicament?”
“Nice to meet you too. Well, a few nights ago, I stopped to rest, and as an old habit, I left the engine running. Woke up the next morning and was completely surrounded. I shut the truck off and waited, but for some reason, they didn’t leave, and more kept showing up.”
Bill had already noticed the homemade cowcatcher on the front of the truck. That thing was huge. It had two main supports that ran from the radiator, all the way up to the roof of the cab. There was expanded metal in between them, so Dennis could see where he was going. Supports ran down the side of the cab and bolted to the frame. It reminded Bill of the exoskeleton on a rock buggy. From the radiator down to two feet off the ground were several sections of horizontal steel square tubing. Those were spaced only a few inches apart. The apex of the cowcatcher was five feet from the front bumper. The whole thing probably weighed about three thousand pounds. The rearmost portions of the cow catcher were six inches outside each front tire. That ensured he had plenty of space to get through any obstacle with room to spare.
Beginning of the New Beginning, Vol. 2 Page 10