by Mark Tufo
“Wait.” She sagged. “What do you want to know?”
“I want to know where that bomb is.”
“Bomb?”
“BT, cut her throat. She doesn’t have what we need; we don’t need her.” I hoped BT understood this was a bluff, but he put his apple down and stood, taking a step toward her.
“Okay, okay…I don’t know exactly where it is.”
BT gave out an inaudible whew that she couldn’t see nor hear. “Can I finish my apple now?”
“What assurance do I have that once I give you what you want, you won’t just kill me?” All of her earlier impassive demeanor had melted away.
“You give us viable information, I will hand you over to Wassau. I’ll let a tribunal figure out your punishment.”
“That’s not going to do it. I’ll be convicted of treason. It’s a time of war; I’ll either be hanged or shot.”
“I’m not sure how many options you have, but what did you have in mind?”
“What did we talk about with you making deals with the enemy?” BT had just finished eating a slice.
“We shouldn’t do it.”
“And why?”
“Because they’re the enemy.”
He pointed the tip of the knife at me. “See, you can learn.”
“Well, you heard it from my gunny. No deals. You tell us because it’s the right thing to do or you die. Pretty straight forward. There’s always a chance you could plead coercion in the trial, but here? No such luck. In the Barrows, we are the law. Ooh, I just heard myself say that. Was that over the top?” I winced.
“A little, sir.” Kirby was standing there with one of Ben-Ben’s old blankets that he’d fear-peed on, numerous times.
“Let’s just say, if you die here and now, there isn’t going to be anyone that’s going to come looking for you or no one asking questions. Just another casualty in a war full of them.”
Peterson looked around for a reassuring face, did not find one.
“A fucking cigarette, Michael! I’m a prisoner of war, not a politician! You owe me my basic rights!”
“When did smoking become a basic right?” Grimm asked. “Is that part of the Geneva Convention?”
“Can I do the tick-tock thing, or is that overplayed?” I asked.
“Traveling toward the cringe,” Kirby replied. “And anyway, that’s more of the bad guy saying.”
“Just give her the blanket.”
He opened the door and tossed it in. I caught a glimpse as the smelly material wrapped around her head. I was going to give him a promotion for that.
“Tommy, can I have the pack?” He fished them out of his pocket and tossed it over.
I knocked one out and headed for the door, Peterson intently watching me. I presented the cigarette to Deneaux like a hand model might show off a new bottle of lotion, replete with all the flourishes.
“Are you going to hand it over or are you planning on remaining an idiot?” she asked.
“Can you imagine how mean she’ll be in another hour?” BT was finishing up his apple, he did not look up when he spoke.
“One name, Deneaux. Just need one name that Peterson over there cares for.”
Deneaux fervently looked from the cigarette to Peterson. I seem to recall her licking her lips, but that may have been my wishful and biased imagination.
“There’s a Sergeant Castillo in supply; it’s her cousin.”
I walked in and handed it to her, even lit it before walking out.
“You fucking bitch!” Peterson shouted before I could get the door shut.
“Grimm, Kirby, Staff Sergeant Van Goth, I want this Castillo here. Gear up, use any necessary force.”
“She’s got nothing to do with this!” Peterson said.
“She does now.”
“She sold me out for a fucking cigarette.”
“To be fair, she equates them with gold,” I told her.
“Stop them and I’ll tell you.”
I nodded to Tommy. He finished buckling his tactical harness but didn’t head for the door.
“Why didn’t you just get it from her?” She was stalling; for what reason I didn’t know. Maybe she thought she was betraying whatever cause she believed in and couldn’t bring herself to admit it.
“She’d never tell me, might be the only leverage she still has.”
“Look, I don’t know exactly where it is. I wasn’t on the demolition team, but I know the quadrant.”
“I don’t know how many more precious seconds you can squeeze out of me. Once I send my team out for your cousin, I’m not calling them back.”
“All right! Fine!” she shouted. “It’s here. It’s in the Barrows somewhere!”
“You pathetic little fool,” drifted out from Deneaux’s room.
“Of course it is. Why wouldn’t Deneaux have the zombies flood this area first?”
“The Barrows is six blocks, Mike. It could be anywhere,” BT said.
“Michael, could you open the door, please?”
“What do you want?” I asked a pleased as punch Deneaux.
“The bomb is being watched. It can be remote-detonated, and it’s tamper-proof. I would hate to see anything happen to any of your team, should they head out and try and find it.” She wrapped her dry, pruned lips around the butt. It was so quiet in there, I could hear the sizzle of the tobacco and formaldehyde as they burned. I let a hand rest on the pommel of my weapon, it would be so easy. Kill her. Deal with the fall out as it happened.
“Oh, and Peterson, I sure do hope nothing happens to those you love,” Deneaux cackled. I slammed the door shut, unable to stop the disturbing airwaves from carrying her discordant laugh.
“Kirby, I want the shittiest music you can find pumped into that room twenty-four seven.”
“Music or bullets?”
“Just music,” I told him.
“What do you want to do with her?” BT pointed his knife toward Peterson.
“Cuff her to Deneaux.”
“You can’t do that!”
“This isn’t a Super Max facility; we’re not set up for prisoners.” I nodded to BT.
“And my cousin?”
“I’m not going to do anything; doesn’t mean Deneaux’s people won’t,” I told her.
“You’re an asshole!” There was venom in her voice.
“That might be true, but I’m not the one that shot a kid trying to protect his girlfriend. Or aligned myself with someone that threatens to blow a hole in one of the last bastions of civilization. So, yeah, I might be an asshole, but what’s that make you? Get her out of my face.”
Grimm got her free from the chair; if she had any fight left in her, she didn’t use it yet. With luck she would summon it all up to beat on Deneaux.
I was contemplating sending a team out for recon, see if they could find a spotter, when Stenzel told us that a vehicle was approaching.
“It’s Bennington’s driver.”
“Was wondering when he was going to come calling,” I said as myself and BT headed out the door.
“Captain, the colonel would like to see you.”
“In what capacity?”
“Sir?” the corporal asked.
“He’s trying to figure out if you’re here to arrest him. He gets that a lot,” BT clarified.
“I uh…arrested? I’m just supposed to pick you up.”
“Be right with you.” I pulled BT a couple of steps away. “I’m keeping my headset. If you hear it get removed, come get me. Or…I’ll use a code word if I get in trouble.”
“If?”
“You know what I mean.”
“What’s the code word, then?”
“Why don’t we go with fuck me.”
“Why don’t we just come with you now is what you mean, because you say that a dozen times a day.”
“He’s right, sir,” my lookout from on high added.
“Supposed to get some weather tonight, Stenzel, hope you enjoy your watch in the rain.”
That quieted her quick.
“Let’s use something you would never say.” BT was thinking. “I don’t know what the hell that would be, because you say whatever comes to mind, regardless of whether it makes sense or not.”
I could hear Stenzel laugh.
“How about: ‘I would love a piece of ham,’” I said, wanting to get out of this conversation quickly.
“Oh, that doesn’t sound code-wordy at all. He’s going to be talking about all the stupid shit you’ve done and how he should lock you up and throw away the key, and suddenly you’re going to spew out, ‘Why yes, sir, I would love a piece of ham.’”
“You don’t know. What if he offers me a final meal before I’m tossed away?” I left the earpiece in, placed the throat mic in my front breast pocket.
“Be safe, man.” BT clapped my shoulder. “You know we have your back if anything happens. Plus, it gets me farther away from Deneaux. Just having her here makes my skin crawl.
Ten minutes later I was at Bennington’s. Waited for another thirty while there was a meeting going on; soon, a swing band’s worth of brass filed out. It looked like the party was only for Majors and up.
“Sorry about that,” he said as he ushered me in. “If I knew you were going to come so quickly, I would have scheduled that meeting for later.”
“Sir.” I remained standing.
“You seem nervous, Captain.”
“Lot going on.”
“I might be able to ease your mind for the moment. Sit.”
“Has he offered you ham yet?” BT asked.
I wanted to tell BT to fuck off, but Bennington was eyeing me intently. I sat.
“Where’s Deneaux? Is she still alive?”
“Right to the point. She’s still alive, but only because she has that bomb placed somewhere.”
“You believe her?”
“I do.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“Roughly. It’s in the Barrows.”
“That’s a lot of roughly.”
“She’ll never pinpoint it for me. I’d be compelled to kill her then.”
“Wassau turned himself in.”
“For what? Coercion isn’t a chargeable offense.”
“He thinks it is.”
“Can we protect whoever she was going to harm to get to him?”
“No need; he died over a year ago.”
“Come again?” I asked.
“She found out about his lifestyle and threatened to go public with it.”
“How does that even matter—especially now?”
“This is still the military. I’m rather surprised you’re not angrier at the entire situation, considering it was your life on the line.”
“I was never in danger; the threat had been taken care of.”
“But he didn’t know that, and what if you hadn’t?”
“Too many what-ifs, sir. If you brought me down here to see if I’m going to press charges, you can let him go. He’s a good man.”
“You’ll have to talk to him first, but no, that’s not why I brought you down here. I’m finding out as I go along that Deneaux’s reach was much broader than I had initially thought. It’s difficult to realize just how widespread the cancer has grown. But I have an idea about how to root it out and destroy it.” He walked over to his closet and pulled out the wheelchair he’d first been sitting in when I met him. I’d mistakenly thought he did not have the use of his legs back then; come to find out it had just been a flaring case of sciatica. Having once suffered through it myself, I understood.
“Sir?”
“I’m going to step down. Health concerns. That will be the official reason when I hand the reins over to the civilian board.”
“Have you lost your mind?” I stood quickly. “Not only are we in the middle of an ongoing war, but you’re also talking about putting Deneaux in charge? I can’t think of a worse time—or even a better time—you could do something like that.”
“What if I told you I had a plan?”
“How’s that feel, Talbot? Someone telling you that they have a plan. Intimidating? Does it make you jealous that it can be done?” BT asked.
“Blow me,” I coughed.
“Excuse me?” the colonel asked.
“Sorry, sir…I’ve got this stupid tickle in my ear.”
“Tell your gunny I said hello.”
“You knew?”
“I know now. Can’t be too careful these days; I wouldn’t expect you to not be in contact with your unit, and you seem to have a special relationship with him. Didn’t take much deducing.”
“In that case,” I pulled the mic out, “blow me,” I said much more clearly.
“Can we perhaps get going on this? I have a lot to do in a relatively short amount of time.”
“If you do this, who are you going to trust to take it back? I mean, I would imagine you plan on getting back in charge, right? And who else knows about this insanity?”
“Glad you like what you’ve heard so far.”
“So much for plans,” I said as much to him as to BT.
“As for my officers, there aren’t any people I trust more than you and Majors Overland, Eastman, and Dylan.”
“What are you going to do, sir, if you yield and we’re not enough to wrest control back?”
“Then I’ve already lost, haven’t I?” He had a wry smile on his face. “And I still might have a trick or two up my sleeve.”
“Just throwing this out there, but what if once Deneaux is in control, she orders the deaths of all those opposed to her? You know, a tightening of grip on her rule kind of thing.”
“I don’t believe her to be in that position. She may have people on her side, but mass executions aren’t something she would be able to pull off without serious ramifications.”
“I think you're underestimating the lengths she would go to solidify her power.”
“It’s a chance we’ll have to take.”
I didn’t agree. One doesn’t give a murderer a rifle to see which direction they will aim. I was about to argue my point when he handed me a folder marked with the words “Top Secret.” I opened it to discover a stack of satellite photos of the base and the surrounding area. Could clearly see the zombie horde encircling the base, but what was different were the columns leading away; it looked like a spreading infection might, under a microscope.
“What am I looking at? Are they leaving?”
“When the first picture was taken, that was exactly what we thought. That perhaps with the semi-authorized killing of Dewey…” He paused to look at me sternly. I did not and would not ever feel bad about doing that, and it clearly showed in the passive way I stared back at him. “I’ve watched generals turn away under the heat of that gaze; either I’m losing my touch, or you just don’t care.”
“Too stupid to acknowledge,” BT whispered in my ear.
“I hate you, man.”
Bennington paused.
“Sorry, sir, my gunny has decided he wants to peel potatoes with a rusty nail until the end of time.”
“Can I continue? Or does the gunny need to whisper another sweet nothing?”
“Sorry.” I switched it off.
“So, at first, we thought that without a cohesive leader, that they were beginning to drift off and that was the reason we weren’t getting coordinated attacks. We thought soon the rest would become hungry and leave as well.”
“Not the case, I take it?”
“They’ve sent out runners. They’re amassing in numbers we didn’t even think possible.” He pulled out shots from nearby cities showing large black blobs of the undead. “We’ve tracked some of them into Oregon, California, Idaho…it might singularly be the largest horde this planet has or will ever know. Could be well over half a million zombies by the time they all get here.”
I was looking at him and then the photos. “You’re going to abandon the base; that’s why you’re giving it to Deneaux.”
“I believe
that the zombies aren’t going to make a move until they have these numbers; it’s almost like they want to prove that they can amass like this. Whoever is leading them is into grand gestures.”
“If you have this information then so does Deneaux; she’ll know you’re setting up a trap.”
“I’m the only one with these pictures and the satellite device. She has no way of knowing. Keep Deneaux where she is for now. I have a way for you to get your people out when the time comes.”
“And the rest?”
“We will save who we can, Captain, but this is still a war we are fighting on two fronts. One enemy wears a uniform of dead skin, making them easily distinguishable; the other blends in.”
“There are over three thousand people here, Colonel. Most are just trying to go on with their lives as best they can and don’t have any idea of the underlying intrigue happening. We can’t just leave them to the whims of the maniacal or the teeth of the zombies.”
“I realize this.”
“And that kind of mass evacuation? It isn’t going to go unnoticed.”
“I realize that too.”
He wasn’t very forthcoming with his information, and the reason was right there in front of me. He had no intention of saving the civilians. He couldn’t. We couldn’t fight the zombies; there were entirely too many. He was pulling his military out, and everyone else was on their own. I was reeling; my head was swimming with the ramifications of what he wasn’t saying.
“I—” I had to stop and collect my thoughts. “I don’t think I can do that.”
“Whether I’m in charge or Deneaux is, that horde can’t be stopped. We have a few weeks, perhaps a month, before they have amassed. Once they’ve tightened the cordon around the base, no one will get out; no one will survive. Deneaux’s influence has a long reach, and we have no way of knowing who sides with her. The more people we tell, the more likely she finds out.”
“You’re talking about what? Saving ten percent? Less?”
His mouth stayed tightly closed. It was an impossible situation: leave the undefended behind or motherfucking again align myself with Deneaux, who would fight tooth and claw. Sure, I knew it would only be to save her own ass, but the desired outcome, in this case, was the same.
“You’re not planning on doing anything rash, are you?” The colonel must have been able to see it in my eyes.
