Despite being shuttled all over the country Yue and Lisa were both making rapid progress on their recoveries. LeBron was walking around on crutches with the bottom of his leg in a cast. It turned out the sprain he’d thought he’d gotten had really been multiple broken bones. None of the medical people who asked him what he’d done to screw up his leg actually believed his story when he told them. At least not until they noted that the President went to seek counsel from the young wounded warrior. After that they all treated him with the respect due a war hero.
The plan they came up with was to basically continue doing what they were doing. They needed to scale it better though. Jeff driving around the country with Drew trying to convince every two bit dictator to fall in line wasn’t going to cut it. For one thing they needed to establish some way to keep them in line after they’d agreed. LeBron had an idea for an ambassador kind of role. These would be men and women who would be assigned different groups to keep tabs on. They’d go out and visit the different groups and ensure they were doing what they were supposed to. Yue suggested calling them envoys or something other than ambassadors. Ambassadors made it sound like they weren’t all still a single country. Shaun’s power as President came from the idea that they were still all citizens of the United States.
Yue was forcing herself to spend a lot of time in introspection around a more direct role she could play in the recovery effort. Shaun had asked around and discovered that there wasn’t anyone who could really do what Yue could do. At least there wasn’t anyone the government knew about who could. Almost everyone could sense the crawlerz groupthink. That’s what led to all the nightmares and a good portion of the suicide attempts. No one else had made the leap to actually influencing the actions of the infected with just their minds though.
Yue hated that she’d need to use those powers to help in the effort to rid the country of the infected. She was hopeful she might find a couple of others who had a similar gift and help them develop it. She’d absolutely love to shed the responsibility of being the only one who could have an impact in the psychic warfare game. Her bandaged arms were covered in deep scars from having to literally take bites out of her own flesh to wage that kind of war. Her brothers and her boyfriend were also marked. The memory of her face going into a feral mode as she chomped down on them was completely mortifying. She couldn’t imagine how they didn’t see her as a monster after all of that.
Lying in the recovery room listening to LeBron clicking away on a laptop the conversation often wandered to what they were going to do when the crawlerz were all cleared out. Finding a place out in the country to live in and farm was the most common fantasy. Lisa and Yue were careful to skirt around assuming that Jeff and Drew would end up married to them. That was an awkward thing to discuss with Drew’s brother and sister also being two of Lisa’s closest friends and confidants. No one bothered pointing out the age difference between Yue and Jeff anymore. A decade seemed like a pretty trivial difference after everything they’d been through.
Yue and Lisa found themselves in the unfamiliar position of waiting around for the men to make it back home from the conflict. They were both used to being the tip of the spear in these conflicts. They’d each had just as much experience as Drew and Jeff in the murderous art of war. Yue was the most powerful weapon they had for fighting the crawlerz. No one else could turn the tide of battle like she could. Neither her nor Lisa would shirk at picking up a machete and charging into the fray like a couple of earthbound Valkyries either.
LeBron picked up on all this frustration and seemed to delight in making it worse. The sheer joy he got from mentioning how it was going to be nice when the fighting was finished so the men folk could be around more. When they pointed out he was also sitting in the room knitting booties with the women folk he liked to ask them if they’d ever leapfrogged out of a parking garage full of monsters. The good natured joking went back and forth helping to pass the time. Anything that took their minds off the extreme danger they knew Drew, Jeff and some of their other friends like Harley were facing was worthwhile.
The next time Shaun came to visit he told them what Jeff had found at the base in the mountains by Knoxville. The three in the recovery room missed the beginning of what Shaun said because they were busy absorbing that it wasn’t bad news. Every time someone walked through the door not wearing medical garb it caused a collective gasp from the three of them. All of them were realists and they all kept expecting to hear that something had happened to someone they loved. That was a big part of their frustration in being laid up in the recovery room in the first place. They wanted to be out there fighting the good fight shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the squad.
“I’m sorry did you just say they were feeding the infected acid to see what would happen?” LeBron asked. There was no way he’d just heard that correctly. Maybe they’d been pouring vats of acid down on large crowds of the infected? That was something LeBron himself had looked into previously when he was searching for a more efficient way to kill large numbers of the infected menace.
“Industrial strength CIA acid evidently.” Shaun answered with a shrug. He’d known nothing about the experiments either. Most likely due to the bulk of the men on the base being ‘volunteers’ in one man’s mad experiment to bring his daughter back. Radio contact must have ended at about the same time as that experiment started getting ramped up.
“Did it work?” Lisa asked curiously.
“Sort of. It made the infected more docile. They attacked slower when they attacked at all. Drew reported the mind games were a lot more ‘Pink Floyd Laser Light Show’ instead of the normal ‘Faces of Death’. That’s a direct quote by the way. They still attacked though. We had two casualties taking out the mad man in charge.” Shaun said.
“That sounds like it might have been accomplishing something at least.” Lisa said doubtfully.
“Oh. I almost forgot it made it so the crawlerz didn’t care if it was sunny outside.” Shaun blurted out.
“Screw giving them drugs then.” LeBron said immediately.
“Drugs are bad.” Yue chipped in holding up the little button she could press anytime she wanted a little extra morphine.
“Hopefully Harley never gets bitten. We’ll end up with some kind of super zombie.” LeBron joked. Harley’s drug consumption was legendary. Anyone else would’ve been in an institution or a cemetery if they tried to match Harley’s lifestyle. There may be some blood pumping through his drug and alcohol stream, but it wasn’t much. How he remained able to function at the level he did was a mystery to them all.
“Where are they going next?” Yue asked Shaun. LeBron might already know but she had no clue. All she really cared about was how long until they safely arrived at Cheyenne.
“They’ll be swinging by Nashville to check in with a National Guard regiment that’s set up shop there in Mt. Juliet. They’ll see how many of the infected they can blast overnight on Broadway then keep heading this way. There’s a territory they’re going to check out around Wichita. Once they’ve put eyes on that and figured out what’s going on there they’ll be headed here. Hopefully in time to reunite with their healthy…. What are you guys calling your relationships? I didn’t get a chance to check Facebook on the way over here.” Shaun realized he’d asked an extremely awkward question a few seconds later. He saw no way to dig himself out of it though, so he just sat there with LeBron staring at Lisa and Yue.
“Is ‘none of your business’ an option on the status bar?” Lisa asked sweetly.
“Fair enough. Like everything else lately I guess it’s complicated.” Shaun said smiling weakly at his own joke.
“You’re really lucky you didn’t have to campaign for your job.” Lisa said sarcastically.
Shaun enjoyed his time spent in the medical suite with the three smart asses. Not only did it help keep him grounded he also normally left with some idea of what to do next. There was no such thing as a ‘yes man’ in this group. They’d call him out on
anything they thought sounded stupid. On top of all that he really did depend on Yue to help him with thorny political issues and LeBron to help him with logistics and a strategy. Lisa was good for making sure he didn’t get too full of himself.
As far as Lisa and Drew went Shaun had no doubt that they’d end up sticking together. If two people were ever more meant for one another then Shakespeare was going to need to come out of retirement and right an ode. Shaun still found Yue and Jeff to be an odd pairing, but it seemed to work for them. Having his main advisor on strategy and his main advisor on politics in a relationship didn’t have any downside that he could see. Of course he’d need Yue to tell him if there did happen to be a downside to it. That wasn’t going to happen as she wasn’t trying to torpedo what she had with Jeff.
It was all good as far as Shaun was concerned. This little group of unlikely saviors was going to help him figure out how to restore the country. They were going to take back the lives that’d been stolen from them. Listening to them as they continued to make completely lame Facebook status jokes, he honestly didn’t see how they could fail. All they had to do was kill a hundred million or so adrenaline fueled psychotic cannibals. Well there was also the multiple militia groups springing up across the country they’d have to deal with as well.
Shaun was determined to bring the country back together though. He was sure he had the team to make it happen. They’d beat the crawlerz one headshot at a time. They’d beat the militias the same way if they didn’t want to see reason. It was going to be a rough few years, but they were going to make it. Either that or they’d all die trying.
Author’s Note
I really hope you enjoyed this edition of the Crawlerz series. I’m finishing up the draft version sitting in a cabin in Tennessee looking out the window at the trees on the side of a gorgeous mountain. I’ve got five kids, a pregnant wife, six dogs, a mother-in-law and a sister-in-law sleeping downstairs. I’m absolutely going to need a vacation from this vacation
In the world around me it looks like we’re slowly pulling out of the nosedive the pandemic put us into. Money and a feeling of security are important, but no one is going to be able to replace the loved ones lost during this event. I hope these books have been a source of escape from some of the turmoil all around us. I know writing them helps me to escape.
As with everything I write I just kind of let my mind drift and try to see the events unfolding through the eyes of the characters. It’s really more about the journey than the destination in most cases. Especially with books like these that are based on the human spirits ability to overcome all obstacles. Thanks again for joining me on that journey. It’ll be picking up again as the team continues working on piecing back together what’s left of the American dream.
Until then stay safe! Would also love to get your stars and feedback on Amazon if you have a minute to spare.
Thank You!!!!
R S Merritt
June 13th, 2021`
Other Books by RS Merritt
Try an excellent 7 Book series built around a Zombie outbreak:
Zombies!
Need more Zombies? Check out the 6-Book Zournal series:
Zournal
Looking for something a little different? Try the Son of the Keeper series:
Son of the Keeper
Crawlerz: Book 5: Off the Rails Page 31