by Germann, Tom
Steven waved his arms at the loading area spread across the compound taking in the loading ramps and everything else. “We have to load maybe thirty trucks. Given how idiotic and incompetent most of these troops are it could take us almost a full day. We aren’t leaving by tomorrow afternoon.”
Jimmy grinned. “Well Steven I do believe I have the answer for you using some sound business management skills. Use the skill sets you have. I can drive anything and Sam almost anything. We can also chain loads. Me and Sam will load the vehicles fast as can be then with someone’s help chain them down to the cars so they don’t shift. This is a nice slow moving train that ain’t taking high speed turns. We may not be able to do thirty vehicles with the straps and chains you have in those bins but we can do most of them.”
Then the grin left Jimmy’s face and he started walking slowly toward the far side of the compound. Steven hurried to catch up to him. Jimmy was looking straight ahead and started talking quietly. “We have bigger problems then loading the super CO’s trucks on the train tomorrow. Let’s walk and talk about why we may not be able to load anything tomorrow.”
Steven slowed his pace so he was matching Jimmy stride for stride and kept his voice low. “Great. What do you know I should be terrified of now?”
Jimmy kept walking slowly along toward the far gate. “Well I had a chance to work with some of the local soldiers. I think they were supposed to give me a rough time and just be slackers. But I got to know them a bit and started talking about how life was outside and what it had been like. I think I have a feel for how the politics of this place work and its worse than I thought. In fact, we may be in more trouble than we really believed we could be.”
Steven stopped walking. “How could we be in more trouble than we thought? We are in the end of a zombie apocalypse. Tell me how?”
Jimmy motioned for Steven to keep walking. “I’m being paranoid and I think most of the soldiers here at least the bad ones are too lazy to do any real work so I can’t see them spying on us unless they had to. But we can work and talk. Let’s go over there and check out the gate. It’s big and I hope it’s as sturdy as it looks. I wouldn’t want a few dozen zombies to press up against it and knock it over.”
Together the two men walked toward the gate and Jimmy talked while Steven listened to the discussion about the garrison and how they would load all the trucks onto the train when it arrived. They also discussed other things going on within the walls and what they should be doing to prepare.
RETURN TO HEADQUARTERS
T
he drive back was stressful. Having driven throughout the city for the day checking every outpost or the wreckage left after the mysterious raiders had destroyed them they were looking forward to a fast run for home and out of the armoured vehicles.
As the dead seemed to follow in a straight line and did not show much awareness unless they had a target they had made the decision to take a main road back then turn off before they were there then darting back and forth in the side streets. This should have left all the dead wandering and away from the huge building and its surrounding support structures.
As they had left the warehouse district with only five or six miles to get back to the headquarters the lead vehicle had developed a problem.
They were half way back when the engine revved hard for a second then blew a large black cloud of diesel smoke followed by a rattling cough.
They had stopped immediately and tried to figure out what to do. There were no zombies in the area so the last two vehicles closed up. Wagner, Vajjer and Caisson climbed out of the turrets and stood watch from the tops of their vehicles. Sam climbed out of the last vehicle through the turret and hurried forward to look at the vehicle.
By agreement they had shut all three vehicles down in the hopes of not attracting more zombie attention. Private Henry, Sue and Tracy were still in the vehicles staying out of the way.
Sam needed Caissons help to lift the metal grill covering the engine and the metal was burning hot.
Sam spent a minute looking through the engine compartment being careful where he touched as the heat radiating off the engine was incredible. Even wearing gloves, he had to be careful what he touched.
After a minute, he stood up and they lowered the grate back into place. There were several zombies in the distance growing closer and somehow more seemed to be coming out of the side alleys joining the first few.
Caisson looked at Sam. “Well?”
Sam shrugged. “I can’t really tell much from here. I would need to climb in and I can’t touch jack right now. I think an oil line went or there is a leak. So, in the long term we could be screwed and these engines need to have all the fluids topped up. I just hope the engine doesn’t overheat, burn off all the last bits of oil then blow out. I hope we can make it back. We only have a few miles to go. Just go SLOW and take it easy.”
Sam didn’t say anything else but went back to his vehicle and climbed back in.
The three men looked at each other and shrugged.
Climbing back into the vehicles they sealed up again, started the engines up and slowly drove away. The lead vehicle kept the rpms down and wasn’t moving much faster than a walk.
On the drive back none of the roads were fully blocked which was a relief.
Unfortunately, they had to drive just faster than a walking pace and while they very slowly left the zombies behind even more kept appearing from the sides. There were several instances where zombies came out in front of the vehicles.
The convoy made no effort to swerve and hit the dead but the zombies felt no fear and tried to get at the people inside the vehicles. Most fell or were pushed under the vehicle where the armoured vehicles tires turned them to paste.
One zombie grabbed onto the handholds on the side of the lead vehicle somehow and tried to pull itself up. It failed and fell under the rear tires of the vehicle. The tires cut the creature in half and the upper half tried to pull itself along after the lead vehicle. It was still connected to the crushed part of its body and couldn’t pull free.
Sam did swerve and crushed its chest and ruptured its head under the tires.
After almost an hour they were in sight of the headquarters building.
They had been discussing this on the way down. At a walking pace, they could not gain enough distance between the zombies and themselves.
The answer was the middle vehicle with Vajjer would take off heading back for the building darting around to lose those zombies coming in. That way they could get back, the guards would open the vehicle door then the last two vehicles could put on a burst of speed taking two or three turns and drive right into the vehicle door which would be promptly closed.
It would hopefully work.
The buses and loaded supply trucks could skip the building entirely and head straight for the vehicle loading docks. That area hadn’t had activity in a while so there shouldn’t be many if any zombies in the area.
There should be some way to get the extra people forward to the passenger car loading areas.
The lead vehicle slowly turned right and headed off away from the building. The second vehicle with Vajjer sped up then turned left toward the building the last vehicle with Wagner took the slow right. In fact, the vehicle stopped in the intersection for a few seconds before carrying on slowly after the lead vehicle which was smoking more every time it accelerated.
The armoured vehicles slowly toured back and forth not venturing further away from the building and in fact getting a bit closer before taking a nice long straight main road away. As soon as they were clear they could take off. The lead vehicle only had to last until they made it back to the building then the engine could explode for all they cared.
There were still two more armoured vehicles in the building and when the military came back they would be rolling in convoys with dozens if not hundreds of armoured vehicles.
The radio clicked on and Vajjer’s voice came clea
rly over the line. “They saw us, it took a little while but they are opening the vehicle roll-up door now. Move now. Over.”
“This is Wagner, we are rolling now. Keep the door open. Over”
“Roger that. Out.”
Caissons vehicle accelerated and took the first left, Wagner’s followed and both vehicles made a darting run for the building. They ended up making five more turns but then they were back at the headquarters building.
The door stood open and first Caissons vehicle, slowing, entered, and headed off to the side. Then Wagner’s vehicle entered and stopped immediately as it was right against one of the loading docks.
The door behind them rolled down quickly and as the bright light of day faded and Major Wagner could start to see what in the gloom he nodded to himself. He should have expected this.
Just like in a cheesy horror movie with zombies, people were always going to be stupid.
Sergeant Tannis and six of the headquarters soldiers were standing on the walkway behind the docking bay with their rifles leveled and bayonets fixed. He couldn’t read their expressions but they looked tense.
He stroked the machine gun pressed up against him and wondered if they understood what they were letting themselves in for.
DEBRIEF
T
he standoff continued for seconds then the CO along with his Flag Sergeant, Steven and Jimmy came bustling into the loading area.
The CO seemed oblivious to the threatening postures of his headquarters guards instead walking past them quickly then down the stairs stopping next to Major Wagner’s vehicle.
The engines were off and everyone could clearly hear the CO. “Come along now gentlemen. Open up! I want to hear how everything went. Will all eight outposts be here tomorrow or should you head back out to guide them in?”
Wagner released the machine gun, carefully unlatched the hatch, then opened it before standing up. He pulled his rifle up then sat down in the hatch. He looked down at the CO and realized how bad he must look.
Soaked in sweat with lines of dirt and some grease across his face and jacket. He looked bad compared to all the rest of the garrison troops. Of course, it was what someone who went outside looked like.
“It’s good to be back sir. We got to all the outposts and they will be coming in tomorrow morning. I made sure they were fully briefed. Sergeant Tannis, perhaps you and your men could lower their weapons. After all none of us were infected during our trip out there.”
Sergeant Tannis and his men didn’t move. “We need to see you weren’t infected. Most people would try to hide the bite or scratch. So, we need you to strip.”
Wagner’s reply was immediate. “You may want to see me and my men naked Sergeant and it’s okay if that’s how you are, but we are tired and no one was bitten. We never even came down to close quarter fighting.”
The CO turned. “Sergeant Tannis, put those weapons up now man. We can see no one here is infected.” He turned back toward Wagner. “Now then Major. Please tell me how many we can anticipate tomorrow. There should be almost nine hundred men coming in. Do they have injured or have they taken casualties?”
Wagner had started climbing out of the vehicle in preparation to climbing down then he stopped. “Do you want to debrief us in your office sir?”
The CO shook his head impatiently. Back on the loading bay the Flag Sergeant, Steven and Jimmy had stopped well back from Tannis and were watching.
Major Wagner stopped exiting the vehicle and sat on the lip of the turret again.
“Yes sir. There may be as many as a hundred and fifty coming in tomorrow. All but two of the outposts were gone, wiped out. Some large well-armed raiding party hit each outpost and destroyed it killing everyone and taking the supplies held there. Outpost XXX and Eight had survivors of most of the company. Oh, and those company strengths were around sixty men. We did find one survivor a Private Henry, he is sixteen years old and came back with us. Outpost Eight still had supplies for a good long time but the other company was scrounging for food and almost out of ammunition from when a horde of the infected had hit them.” Major Wagner shrugged. “That’s really the highlights sir. It looked like the Patriotic Guard unit had stood to and done well but then they packed up and moved out of the city when it looked like the city was lost. I guess they lost communications with headquarters and thought everyone was wiped out.”
The CO had gone white with those few words.
Up on the loading bay Sergeant Tannis and his men had disappeared.
Major Wagner carefully climbed down while the other two vehicles opened and Caisson and Vajjer climbed out as well.
Jimmy climbed down the stairs and wandered over to Caisson’s vehicle staring at it. He was joined by Sam and the two started talking quietly about the vehicle.
The CO stepped up to Major Wagner and spoke quietly. “There should be almost nine hundred soldiers out there in those outposts with just over a hundred in each one and you are saying they are almost all gone? Half of them?”
Major Wagner shook his head. “Sir. There were only personnel left in two of the outposts. Most of them had been on a patrol when their outpost was hit and wiped out. The other outpost, number Eight was off the beaten path, near the highway. They put signage up outside the city so anyone coming in would know where to look for them. They have several survivors with them and said no one had come to drop supplies or take survivors for a long time. Also, the Patriotic Guard had an outpost and it was in excellent shape. We estimated well over a hundred and fifty soldiers in their location. But they bugged out a while ago. I hate to say it sir but I think there is a very real chance the armoured convoy may have gone with them.”
The CO straightened up and looked Major Wagner in the eye. He spoke very quietly. “Do you have any proof? Even saying it out loud is a very serious charge. Abandoning a duty position in a situation like this would end up with the convoy commander in front of a firing squad. Is there any chance this was something done by the communists?”
Major Wagner shrugged. “I’m sorry sir I didn’t see any proof but the convoy hasn’t been going that far. You said there were no survivors brought in the last few runs. But outpost eight has a fair number and hadn’t seen anyone for the last few weeks since they were put out there. We only saw a few people out there.”
The CO nodded and seemed to perk up. “Of course, of course. These are just concerns. Just as likely the convoy commander didn’t know where the outpost was. They may well be out there somewhere now running low on food and water. I hate running out on them like this but we have our orders.”
Behind the CO Sergeant Vajjer’s face had gone blank as he listened to the conversation. At the last bit, he smacked himself in the head then put two fingers to his temple and mimed shooting himself.
Everyone else tried to keep a straight face.
The CO continued. “I was going to have a final dining in tonight for all our personnel as we leave tomorrow. I am just not sure if all the work will be done in time. I had been hoping, with almost nine hundred more troops on the ground everything could be loaded quickly. I’m just not sure how to proceed with so much workload for everyone.”
Major Wagner noticed the CO was glancing at him while he had been going on. So, give some courses of action. “Sir, perhaps a last dining in with emergency rations could be skipped? Let the troops work then open the mess for a celebratory drink or two after. That way if any of the troops need to get some sleep because of exhaustion they can and everyone else can have a quiet informal celebratory party.”
Again, the CO seemed to brighten right up. “That’s a splendid idea Major! I’ll pass it on and we’ll all keep our nose to the grindstone for a bit longer then! I hope to see you and the ladies in the mess later then.”
Recognizing the dismissal Major Wagner came to attention and saluted the CO. All the rest of the soldiers straightened up to attention and the CO saluted back, spun on his heel, then walked off quickly.
The Flag Sergeant joined him at the top of the stairs and they disappeared into the halls running throughout the building.
Everyone gathered around the vehicles and both Sue and Tracy carefully opened the vehicle hatch then clambered out with a hand from the men there. They looked worse than anyone else as they had chosen to stay inside the vehicle most of the day including one of the breaks.
Sergeant Vajjer looked around. “Anyone else here want to stick a shotgun up the CO’s ass and pull the trigger? How can someone be so stupid?”
Sue went white and was clenching her hands at her side. “If anyone needs a shotgun stuck up their ass it’s the scumbags here. The CO is just an idiot.” She had to stop speaking as she was shaking.
Caisson held up a hand. “Listen and understand Sue. Those scumbags are not soldiers. They are just bully boys and no one is going to leave either of you alone while they are around. In fact, we are always going to be armed. So as bad as it started it didn’t go any further. You need to stay focussed okay? This is just like a zombie horror movie. A small group trapped and surrounded by zombies. The military is full of idiots and anyone who loses focus dies. None of us are going to die here.”
Private Henry spoke up from the side of the vehicle. “S’cuse me sir? What are zombies? I never saw a movie about anything like that.”
Caisson went blank faced for a second when he realized the screw up. Vajjer stepped in quickly. “You ever see a horror movie Henry?”
Henry shook his head. “No Sergeant I don’t watch a lot of movies unless they comedies.”
Vajjer nodded. “Yupp, horror movies follow a standard. You die when you drop your guard because you’re doing something stupid.”
Henry nodded understanding. “I seen lots of that in the last few weeks Sergeant.”
Corporal Andreis walked over to the Major. “Sir? Could I bug you for a minute? I think I have an idea which may help.”
