by Germann, Tom
The Corporal had gone white faced and taken a step back while Jimmy had verbally launched into him. At the mention of infected in the building his hand had grabbed at his pistol.
He tried to recover. “None of it matters. There are almost no infected out there and they can’t get in here.”
Jimmy held his hands up. “Now you hold on son. I may be getting old but I’m not blind. There are almost no infected in the city? We passed hundreds on the short drive here when we arrived. In the outskirts of the city? We saw hundreds of them wandering around and they looked like they were slowly wandering toward the city centre. As for them not getting in here we stopped at a militia company headquarters out in the boonies. It looked like a damn castle with bars over the small first floor windows and nice thick doors. We opened the doors. Somehow even though they had holed up there with food and water infection had gotten them. Most were still moving when we broke in. A couple was with us. Neil and Sarah. Sarah was bit and after brief time while we loaded the one truck we found with some gear she turned and bit Neil. Sarah was shot in the head. Neil when he realized he was infected? He pulled a small revolver out of his pocket and shot himself in the head. Are you going to be able to shoot yourself in the head when you get bitten? Or are you going to live with the gut wrenching pain until you turn and there ain’t nothing human left of you?”
Jimmy thought he had pushed it too far.
The Corporal spoke slowly and loud. “Shiver said the infected are going to die off soon enough from exposure and lack of water. Then we can go back to the way things used to be but we’ll all be better off.”
Jimmy looked the Corporal deep in the eyes. “Unless the infected found water sources. They’ll eat anything they find. From what I saw some of those infected had to be from the beginning. They looked like death warmed over. But they were still moving. So maybe Shiver ain’t right. What then? How long is the food going to hold out and the booze? How is anything going to be good if there ain’t no one left?”
The Corporal straightened up, took his hand off his pistol then glared at Jimmy. “Sergeant Tannis is right. Everything is going to be fine. We just need to hold this place for a few more days, maybe a week or two. You two can get back and get your gear ready for the parade tomorrow. No need to move any of this stuff, it won’t be needed back in the redoubt. But we are going to need it here. Let’s go.”
Then the Corporal turned and walked out the door heading to somewhere else in the building.
Both Smith and Williams put down the boxes they had been working on, walked over to grab their jackets and their rifles.
Smith put his rifle down on one of the desks while he shrugged on his jacket. Williams was fidgeting with his rifle by the door checking the sights.
Smith whispered to Jimmy. “Don’t make them angry. If you push too hard sometimes bad things happen. You and the rest need to stay together. Shiver may be feeling like you’re a threat. People who are a threat end up going over the wall to get away. Usually without any gear.”
Smith finished putting his jacket on and picked up his rifle. Both men started to take the pry bars out of their belts.
Jimmy shook his head. “Boys you may need them in the not so distant future. No matter what happens don’t get bit. If you have to, push that little snot in front of one of them so he goes first.”
Smith stuck his hand out and shook Jimmy’s and without a word both men left just as the nameless corporal started yelling from what seemed like half a building away.
Jimmy looked at all the gear was in the boxes and all the organization the three of them had been able to get done with the parts.
Then he nodded his head as he decided.
The parts were either going or not. It didn’t matter. He would need more hands to help move all the heavy gear.
For right now it made more sense to go find Steven and Andreis. There was strength in numbers especially if the scum balls came for them.
Jimmy took the small weapon out and looked at it. Then he put it back in the holster loose so it was easy to get to and flipped the end of his shirt over it.
He had used violence when he was younger to protect a load and things had almost gone badly then but it had worked out. Now he had to protect himself and the others. He couldn’t afford any screw ups.
He quietly left the room and moved down the hall like a large hunting cat making no noise as he disappeared into the gloom.
ANDREIS
T
here was something nice about just cleaning weapons. It was very repetitive and Andreis had never really had to become too involved in thinking when doing it. Just show the soldier what to do and begin.
One dry pull through on the barrel to get out the big chunks, then oil on a swab followed by more dry pulls. Finally use several swabs until it looks clean then oil the barrel up if the weapon is going to be sitting there for a long time.
It was the same for everything else. Bolts needed cleaning and so did the inside of the weapon.
They had been doing this for hours. Him and another private. One of those pasty-faced skinny guys that was like a mouse.
They hadn’t been talking. There really wasn’t anything to talk about.
In fact, Andreis had started putting the broken weapons aside as he had gone through them. There were rifles with broken trigger guards and no one had replaced them.
There had been a manual showing with pictures how to do basic repairs and there was a large box with compartments which held the spare parts to replace most of the weapon.
So, when they had finished cleaning everything Andreis had pulled out the small took kit and replaced chipped firing pins, broken trigger guards, a damaged handguard and more. Maybe a third of the weapons were in the room had something wrong with them.
The pasty faced private? He had just watched Andreis start cleaning and he had pulled out all the pistols in a foot locker.
They were both almost done what they were working on and Andreis was feeling proud of himself. There had been a lot of broken weapons here. There were even some of the forty-fives that looked like they were broken which he wanted to try to repair.
There was also a couple of huge trunks jammed full of weapons. Pistols, shotguns, and rifles he wouldn’t mind going over.
If they had time in the day. He had only had a few bites of the lunch, not because he wasn’t hungry but because he had a tough time stomaching these army rations. They tasted like absolute crap and he had spent half an hour in the morning passing last night’s dinner.
He was working on putting together the M-1 with the broken guard when there was a noise from the door.
He stopped and looked over. It was Sergeant Tannis and some other Corporal standing there watching them work.
Sergeant Tannis looked at the other private. “Why don’t you take a break and go get some water Private?”
The Private looked at the Sergeant and hesitated. “I’m supposed to stay in the lock up at all times Sergeant.”
Andreis noticed Sergeant Tannis had a very nasty side when he was questioned. His entire face had turned into a mask of rage for just a split second then it was back to normal. “I wasn’t asking Private.”
The skinny kid was out of there like a shot.
Andreis didn’t wonder why. Not only was Sergeant Tannis terrifying when he was angry. The Private had been living in this twenty by twenty-foot concrete room for who knew how long. His cot was folded up at the back and there was a small side room with a rusty sink and disgusting toilet. There was also a case of food which is where their lunch had come from.
Andreis hadn’t made any comment about the smell when he entered this morning. Obviously, this reality didn’t believe in alarms but insisted in people sleeping with the weapons as security. He didn’t care he wasn’t stuck in the room for what smelled like weeks at a time.
Sergeant Tannis stayed in the doorway where the air was probably better. He nodded at the table
again. “So, you can fix weapons? Can you fix other stuff?”
Andreis thought about it. “Well yes, I fixed most of these. They were pretty easy. If there was a hard fix or the weapon had a messed up barrel then it would need to be test fired after fixing but everything I fixed here is fine.”
Sergeant Tannis nodded, “Good for you. It’s always nice to see people trying to do more than they are told they can do.”
The Sergeant turned to go then stopped, turning back slowly. “Hey Andreis, right? Yahh, me and some of the boys are going to be doing some things later. Why don’t you come by for a good time? Oh, and here.” He threw Andreis a package of something. “The garbage the Private is eating? He likes that stuff, have some real food.”
Then the Sergeant was gone.
Andreis checked the wrapped package. It was some sort of sausage and a sizable chunk of cheese and there was a half chocolate bar in a wrapper he didn’t recognize the name of.
He stopped and went to the work bench to eat. He only ate a bit more than half of the meat and cheese then all the chocolate.
When the Private came back half an hour later he looked like he had run through a shower and looked a lot cleaner. Andreis pointed out the food he had left on the bench.
Andreis decided Sergeant Tannis hadn’t been telling the truth about the Private. He devoured everything on the table in seconds and looked more energetic once he had.
Andreis wondered if everyone ate better than the weapon room guard or just Sergeant Tannis and his friends. He was pretty sure he had it figured out.
Andreis looked at the Private. “Why are all these weapons here?” When he saw confusion spreading across the Privates face he added, “I mean why are all these pistols here? There are so many every soldier could be issued one and a few magazines and there would still be lots of leftovers.”
The Private looked puzzled. “Cause only officers use pistols and there ain’t no one else to give them out to.”
Andreis shook his head. “No man, I saw Sergeant Tannis and his guard all have pistols. Can’t you just have everyone else sign for the weapons? That would cover it right?”
The Private shook his head. “Sergeant Tannis is a special case like his buddies. No one wants to sign for more stuff. They’ll get issued it if it is important.”
Andreis nodded and turned back to his work. The Private didn’t know anything. Heck he knew less than Andreis did about how the military worked. He’d have to mention it to the Major and First when they got back.
But for now, he just shrugged and went back to work cleaning and repairing weapons.
STEVEN ON THE JOB
S
teven was sick and tired of this job. He had walked with Private Kerlingen through the building, down those stairs and along the tunnel coming up on the far side of the street through the gated door then up some more stairs before coming up inside another building then out into a huge courtyard.
Being underground had been strange. It had initially made sense to have a way under the street but the street was blocked off anyway according to Kerlingen by the train tunnel. Then there had been those other side tunnels. He had noticed seven different side tunnels leading off into the dark. Two were blocked by massive heavy doors that were chained shut.
He had asked Kerlingen what the tunnels were for and where they led. The young soldier had shrugged. He had never gone down them exploring. In fact, none of the soldiers who had initially been stationed here had gone to check up on what was down there. Every one of those tunnels ended in a heavy door. At least Kerlingen had said the doors were immense. Steven had images of undead hordes walking through some sort of flimsy door and flooding the building looking for lunch.
He shook the chill off and considered the loading area he was in instead.
The building next door to the plant was a massive loading area for goods. There was a smaller building where the tunnel came up in which held offices and archaic machinery including a type of computer he hadn’t seen since he had first started out in the workforce all those years ago. There was more than enough power to run it but not much point as he didn’t know which punch cards did what or what else the dinosaur connected to.
But the yard itself. The entire city block was taken up by it. Surrounded by a wall almost twenty feet tall topped by rolls of razor wire it felt more like a prison. There was a tunnel at the far end from where a train would come in and it headed down into the ground. So, a train would come along and head into the tunnel to the end. The freight and flat cars at what would be the new front of the train could be loaded either by one of the cranes here or an entire vehicle could be loaded right onto the train with very little effort. Steven had looked at it carefully. He thought it would take about twelve men for muscle power to load fully loaded trucks and they would need to take their time to do it right.
As the lead cars were loaded the train could be moved forward ten cars and the next series of cars loaded and so on. There was enough space inside the walls for at least fifty trucks. Kerlingen had told him that during the peak production the parking lots down the road would hold more trucks ready for loading.
It seemed like trucks were shipped fully loaded right across the country so on the far end it could be driven off and head straight to whatever customers had ordered the products.
That was great. Unfortunately, there was no information on what trucks were coming to the loading area or what they were carrying. There were only a few chains and tie down ropes located in sheds in the yard.
What Steven did know was every outpost had a command post truck with all the gear that went along with it, including a generator in a trailer. There should be eight of those and half were going to stay behind. Every outpost would also have two trucks and half were going to be left behind when the army made its grand return to Freetdorf in the future. So, he had to load another eight trucks. All the armoured vehicles and some more meant he was guessing thirty vehicles total.
If the people knew what they were doing driving the vehicles onto the train then he estimated five minutes per vehicle to load and secure with ten minutes to shift the train forward. It would take them three hours to load in an optimal setting.
Steven then thought of everything that could go wrong including the quality of the troops he had seen so far and thought with luck they could have some trucks loaded within the first nine hours.
He took the sheet of paper he had been working with to calculate how much they could get done and he shredded it.
This was insane without a solid number for number of trucks or personnel coming. The CO had also sent him a note with Kerlingen that he wanted to leave food supplies for a unit which deployed forward to have an extra weeks’ worth of rations. How many men? Why the hell weren’t they bringing their own damn food? What about war stocks?
Steven put the pencil down on the pad of paper he had been using and got up to go for a walk around the compound. Again.
He had just been inside the office building working away so it was only a few steps to the door and outside.
He almost walked into Jimmy.
“Jesus Jimmy. I almost crapped myself as I thought you were one of those undead things. You could at least have given me a warning or come in talking or something.”
Jimmy put his hands on his hips and glared at Steven. “So, you want me to walk around hooting and hollering to make you feel good and if there were any infected in here I get to be lunch is that how it is? Why don’t you have your gun out? Wait do you even have one?”
Steven felt guilty. “Well I left the rifle behind. I’m not used to it and I won’t be any good a shot anyway.”
Jimmy just shook his head. “Well come on buddy I’ll walk you around the compound and be your security. Just remember. A single bite or scratch and you die in horrible pain then come back as a flesh-eating zombie wanting to devour us all.”
Steven glared back. “Thank you for the image. I don’t need to be
scared any further.” Then he tried to walk past Jimmy who put up a hand to stop him.
“Now hang on Steven. You need to be scared. We know there ain’t no cure. At least none we’re aware of. I don’t want you or the soldiers or either of those two young girls to get bit and die. It ain’t a way I would want anyone to go. So be afraid and carry your gun along with your ammo. If we were trapped here now we only have my sidearm and three reloads. At least with your rifle we would have some more range and a second weapon. Don’t ever forget it Steven.”
Jimmy paused and frowned. “I know you haven’t really talked about what happened that last morning at the service centre but—”
Steven held a hand up to stop him. “Janice and I had really grown apart Jimmy. We raised a great girl into a young woman. But our interests were completely different. I was married to her but we were more like friends sort of. She was always pushing for what she thought was important and I went along mostly. Then she went off and was good enough to get not only herself but two others killed even though we sort of knew the place was potentially dangerous. She knew better. I noticed the soldiers took off at a run to save them and they were able to bring Sam back. I’m okay Jimmy. I’m not going to kill myself or do anything bad to myself. I just need to get past it and it feels like the last five days have been five months and I am exhausted like everyone else but I can sleep later when we are all safe. Or at least when we aren’t in immediate danger. If it exists anymore.”
Jimmy looked at Steven carefully. “I can live with that. So, what’s got you all riled up then?”
