by Germann, Tom
Steven stood in the loading bay as the roll-up door closed and hoped they were doing the right thing. The garrison soldiers had shown no discipline or that they could be trusted. After all, a few hours after they had shown up with a few drinks under their belt they had attacked Sue and Tracy.
Worse in Steven’s mind was the simple fact the few soldiers here were terrified of the outside. As soon as the roll-up door had started moving he had noticed the CO and all the other soldiers in the area had gone pale and kept a tight grip on their weapon. In fact, the ‘honour’ guard of Sergeant Tannis’s men had mostly moved to cover and had their weapons up. Sergeant Tannis surprisingly hadn’t. Instead he had stayed back with the CO and a hand on his pistol.
It also hadn’t escaped Steven’s notice those men had been covered in ammunition. With a strict enforcement of the rules every soldier was only issued a set amount per day of use. Not even a full bandolier. These men had carried four or five times the amount they were supposed to.
As the roll-up door had stopped then started dropping right after Major Wagner’s vehicle had left the building the CO had turned and walked away, fast. The Flag Sergeant had been there holding a unit flag and he followed at a much slower pace.
As soon as the CO had started moving the rest of the soldiers had started moving away a bit slower. Then as the CO had almost run through the door they had started laughing and making jokes.
Yupp they were tough. Steven half expected if a single zombie had walked in the open door the soldiers would have panicked blasting away most of their ammunition to take it out then most would have to change their pants. Probably not Sergeant Tannis. He wasn’t scared and he looked like he had a mean streak and wouldn’t show weakness in front of his men.
The door was finally closed and Steven thought back to what was going on.
Andreis was working in their armoury cleaning weapons and helping with inventory control. Most of the scumbags, no, soldiers Steven reminded himself, liked Andreis and Weibe. It was just Toker being a foreigner they disliked. Steven wondered if they also didn’t like anyone who wasn’t white. It would fit with their world view as far as he could tell.
So Andreis was socializing with the soldiers while cleaning their weapons and getting everything ready for shipping out. It would be a problem if they were here for long. The locals would be working on the young and impressionable trying to convert them to the way they thought. Young men tended to be malleable and it meant the nice young guys they were today could go bad with time. But at the same time, they were talking to Andreis and Weibe trying to bring them into the fold. So maybe they would be bragging and they would give something away.
Steven still had a tough time thinking all the locals could have been this bad. There were always the rotten apples in a barrel but it was usually just one or two bad influences. It seemed like everyone else was willing to write off most of the soldiers in the garrison. Yet Steven had a strong feeling that there was still good in them. They were soldiers. They had been trained to put themselves in harm’s way to protect the innocent and citizens of the United States of America.
Steven didn’t know much about Canada and he knew a lot less about the Canadian military. What must it be like there that they were so willing to dismiss the locals as all gone bad? Steven dismissed the thought and started considering what he was going to accomplish today for his task. One of those young privates was going to show up and take him through this labyrinth to a vehicle loading site for the train. From what he gathered there were either cranes there to load off trucks or maybe the trucks could be loaded right onto the train. The explanation hadn’t been the best. All Steven really cared about was loading fast. The faster they were done the faster they were out of here and off to someplace where they could take a break from the constant fear and worry.
Steven hadn’t even seen Jimmy this morning. He had got up complaining about the aches and pains of sleeping on thin cushions on a cold concrete floor and after stretching and eating some sealed foil wrapped food from the service centre he had limped off. Steven thought the limping was a bit too pronounced. Jimmy could be a bit of an actor at times.
Steven knew what Jimmy was planning for the day. Jimmy was looking through some parts rooms to see if there were parts to use on the vehicles left behind. He was the closest thing to a mechanic this place had and he wanted as much work done on the vehicles before they left. With luck, he could have them all running so they could at least be loaded onto the train. What he really wanted was to go through the large storeroom he had found and organize everything. Whoever had set it up had thrown everything in. With no organization whatsoever.
Jimmy had been complaining about that all night. He had even found ration cans both open and still sealed in the storage room.
Steven was sure Jimmy wouldn’t be able to get it all done. He was only one man and the so-called small storage room was the same size as the one they had slept in. But it was up to Jimmy to take care of. When everyone came back they could provide muscle help getting everything ready to load on the train by the loading dock.
From where he was standing Steven could see up and down the one side of the warehouse.
When they had pulled in he had been impressed with all army trucks and the armoured vehicles sitting there. It had seemed like they had gone on forever into the distance. He realized now that all the vehicles had been parked at the one side where they had entered. There were only a few vehicles here and given how large the building was they appeared tiny compared to all the open bays. He wondered what it would be like if the bays were full of military vehicles and the building crammed with soldiers. It wouldn’t be as terrifying to think about all the zombies outside that would love to get in for dinner.
Steven started pacing back and forth on the loading dock while he waited for his guide. The entire area was dark. Almost all the work lights were off so as not to attract attention here. There were three small lights on over by the one hoist. Their light didn’t extend very far at all. All the rest of the light he had to see by was from smaller windows high up on the wall.
The entire area was murky and felt miserable. He wondered where the guide was. The longer it took him to get here the longer it would take him to get the work done.
Steven stopped pacing, his knee was starting to ache just a bit. A sure sign he was tired, he wasn’t getting any younger. He took a deep breath and let it out. Janice his wife had always run him and tried to get him wound up over what was essentially useless panic. Well look where it had got her. Zombie breakfast. He was not going to let the past drive him. He was in control.
He turned and started looking at the loading bays. They could likely pull something like forty civilian cars in here or thirty larger vehicles like buses or transport trucks if needed. The layout was terrible and they should have been able to get a lot more vehicles in but there were all sorts of concrete barricades. Clearly these people had not been involved with any efficiency studies. There were only a few pallet jacks on the loading bay as well. Steven was sure the management was going to be as incompetent as the military side was showing itself to be here.
There were stairs up from the parking area onto the loading dock every forty feet. It would be a problem to get lots of people up unless they alternated bus then car or pickup. At this end of the open area was a light crane. So, if there was no way to get any supplies that came in bulk to the train everything would have to be unloaded here. At best a pallet at a time. At the worst, it would all be loose and have to be unloaded by hand.
Steven could see a door in the far wall at the far side of the loading area.
There was the sound of someone clearing their throat next to him.
Steven spun and discovered a small pale soldier wearing a uniform which looked too big on him at his elbow.
“Excuse me sir, I’m Private Kerlingen. The Sergeant said you needed a tour of the facilities so you could get everything ready for when you bug out to
morrow. I can show you where the vehicle loading area is and some other stuff. If you’ll just follow me?”
Without another word the Private walked off heading toward the distant wall. He took the first set of stairs down to the vehicle level and walked confidently on. Steven hurried to catch up to him and wondered why Private Kerlingen had been sent instead of one of the Sergeants men.
He quickly caught up and started talking to the pale young man while they walked through the huge quiet building.
JIMMY
H
e was tired. After several days of bad sleep, okay food and way too much stress he was coming to the end of his rope and he knew it.
Jimmy had always liked complaining about the poor quality of sleep he got in his trucks sleeper. He would have shot two or three of these bully boy soldiers for a chance at six hours of sleep. Heck he’d shoot all of the dirt bags for those six hours sleep and probably sleep better for it.
He stopped rooting through the huge bin of spare parts and put his hands up and stretched. He would have sworn he heard popping and several cracks.
He stopped and leaned against the shelving unit while he went rooting around in his pocket for a piece of gum.
He pulled one of his last pieces out of his pocket and started chewing. There was more in the vehicle they had brought with them but after that was gone? Heck this crazy place probably didn’t have gum. Or whatever else like modern medicine. Growing old here would not be a lot of fun. Then again surviving would be a good start thanks to a zombie apocalypse.
He looked at all the shelves in the storage room. Damn things went up to ten feet.
Maybe he should have pulled out of here and gone to work on the vehicles themselves. The only problem was the vehicles were about as good as he could get them but they had used up most of the spares. Talking to those locals it made sense for it not to be uncommon to have extras in every vehicle for when something broke down on the road.
It seemed like everyone who owned a vehicle, even little old ladies, knew how to change most of these easy to reach clamps.
Of course, with the end of everything going on having as many spares as possible would be a good thing.
But when this group of idiots had moved into this plant they had set up several rooms as parts rooms. But there was no rhyme or reason for where things were placed.
Large gaskets, clearly for either a tank or transport truck were in the same box as clamps for what would likely be a small generator. There were car parts in almost every box but not all the same model of car.
If he ever found out who had taken all the parts and put them together in a big box before shaking them out into smaller separate boxes he was going to have the idiot fix this absolute dog’s breakfast. As it was it would likely take him two or three days to fix everything and at the same time he was supposed to be pulling any usable spare parts relevant to the military back in this redoubt they all talked about.
Jimmy didn’t get it. If this big secret military redoubt was all set up to protect the strength of America and all her production capabilities why did they need hose clamps and gaskets? The government always lays in vast amounts of surplus. There should be millions of everything on shelves all sealed up and pristine. Why bring what most would consider to be scrap back. Well, they would be missing something. Like having no hammers or only snow shovels. After all, if they were living a zombie apocalypse it only made sense.
The door opened then closed behind him. Jimmy hitched up his pants then turned so he could see who had come in. He recognized two of the boys from the dinner last night.
They were both big with muscles, the rifles over their shoulders looked small and they looked a bit lost. They also looked like they hadn’t shaved in a few days. Interesting as there was some running hot water.
Jimmy nodded at them both. “Good day boys, how you doing on this fine warehouse kinda day?”
The one on the left, his nametag read Smith bobbed his head in greeting. “We were told to come on down here and give you a hand sorting out all the vehicle parts.”
Jimmy snorted a laugh then glared at Smith. “So, who did you piss off to get stuck working while everyone else is playing cards?”
The other one, Williams, laughed then stopped when Smith glared at him. “Well, Shiver, I mean Sergeant Tannis said since we kinda made the mess, we would help clean it up. Course it’s just the two of us. The rest are his buddies and cleaning up for tomorrow’s parade and the train.”
Jimmy thought the two men were almost twins. Good looking guys but not too smart who had fallen in with a bad crowd. Maybe he could fix it.
He smiled at the two of them. “Well boys no problem, you just put your rifles down over there and make sure your sidearm ain’t in the way and we’ll get this started and move everything out before dinner. Get those shirts off, it’s way too hot to be wearing one of those jackets and a t-shirt.”
Both men took put their rifles down in the corner. Jimmy noticed they didn’t even appear to be carrying extra ammo.
Both men shrugged out of their jackets and left them with their rifles.
Jimmy started back like he was shocked. “Now hey boys. Where’s your pistols? You ain’t walking around without pistols and backup ammo, are you??”
Both men looked at each other puzzled then at Jimmy. Smith spoke. “Well, no. All the pistols and other side arms go to officers or people on any sort of watch in the building. We never get ‘em. Why would we need ‘em??”
Jimmy put his hands on his hips and glared at them. “Boys I am telling you now as surely as god gave man a brain you need a pistol. If any infected were to get in here you need something you can hit them up close with. You gotta have a lot of ammo as well. Those things don’t feel pain like you or me. You may have to shoot them four or five times in the chest to even get them to go down. Go for a headshot to drop ‘em so you don’t end up infected and putting a gun in your mouth when the pain starts.”
Jimmy smiled inside.
They were both looking around in a panic and Williams was moving closer to his rifle. “We can’t get anything other than our rifles and we only get a magazine worth inside.”
Jimmy nodded. “Sure now boys. I hear what you are saying and I know what you really mean. You’re Sergeant Tannis decided it wasn’t important to give you or some of the other boy’s pistols hunh? And don’t try giving me the line about some officer has to give you permission to sign these things out. I know very well how the system works and how people work the system. You make sure you get yourselves some side arms and lots of spare ammo. Remember headshots for the quick take down or you’ll think it’s done with two to the chest. And it ain’t. For right now grab those pry bars over there and put them in a loop through your belt. If anything comes to the door use that. Don’t you worry they tend to make some noise, usually.”
Both men had grabbed up the offered pry bars and stuffed them into belt loops. As they began work they kept casting nervous glances at the door.
Jimmy kept talking with them constantly. He let them know some of the horrible things they had seen out there and being prepared with lots of guns and ammo was the way to survive. They ate it all up.
In minutes, they viewed Jimmy as an expert. In half an hour, they were looking up to Jimmy as he gave them advice he had built up from years watching horror movies.
On the other side, they gave Jimmy a lot of information, particularly how everyone in the headquarters group was unhappy at having been abandoned. There were several distinct groups within the soldiers stationed in the building.
Sergeant Tannis and his little helpers had a few others and kept most of the soldiers cowed with promises of what was to come but they were mostly terrified the army would leave them here to die when the food or water ran out. They had never even been outside of the building in their time here and had only seen a few infected.
But everyone knew those who had come down with the infection had been
shot by the officers in the back of the head and the bodies dumped into a deep hole somewhere on the property.
Jimmy nodded at this but when he asked they couldn’t tell him where the hole was or which officers had done the shooting.
Jimmy made sure to mention how Major Wagner, First Caisson, and Sergeant Vajjer had kept everyone in their party alive. How Sue and Tracy were like angels of mercy, cooking and carrying out first aid even on the infected they had helped.
After a cold lunch, they had got back to work and were making excellent progress given how big a mess they had started with, when the door banged open and one of Sergeant Tannis’s goons came in.
He stood shorter than either Smith or Williams and had a weasel face and slicked back black hair. He had acne scars all over the one side of his face and he seemed to be perpetually sneering. Jimmy recognized him from Vajjer’s description as one of the soldiers who had backed up the Sergeant after the girls were attacked.
He looked mighty angry. “Williams, Smith! What the hell are you doing out of uniform? You know orders. Always in full uniform. And why are your weapons on the ground? What if an infected got in here? You have to be able to stop them.”
So, the scum ball was wearing a corporal rank. But Jimmy had noticed Smith was wearing Corporal rank as well.
Jimmy did what he always did when faced by some overbearing puffed up idiot who didn’t know what he was doing. He went on the attack.
“Now you hold right up there, Corporal no name. Williams and Corporal Smith,” he placed just a bit of emphasis on the rank, “took those jackets off at my direction. We have a lot of heavy boxes to move and a lot of delicate parts to go through. I can’t have them getting all tired out and accidentally damaging something we only have a little of because they are about to pass out from heat exhaustion. Now as for the rifles, if anything comes toward us through the building we are going to hear the infected and those boys can grab their guns and be ready. I was able to give them pry bars which are better for the close quarter combat we’re all going to be facing when the infected get in here. I notice you have a sidearm and some extra magazines. So, when are all the rest of the soldiers going to be issued them? Damn it man. When those infected get in here they are going to roll right over the few men here because they don’t have the guns or ammo they need. Then we all die.”
