by Germann, Tom
Major Wagner considered. “Absolutely. Let me just pass on a plan here. Okay everyone so we just dodged a second mess dinner thank you very much. I’d be puking if I had to eat dog turd meat again. Everyone goes back to the room and gets cleaned up. We pack most of our stuff tonight. Tomorrow morning, we stay in larger groups and get our gear loaded when we can. The truck is just down the road and I think we should get it. Before we leave we grab as much spare clothing and other gear as we can. I just don’t trust this ‘redoubt’ or ‘refuge’ to be any use. I want to picture a top military installation with huge warehouses and all the things we need. I think I’m going to be sitting in a tent which should have been scrapped ten years ago eating a dinner of emergency rations. Take thirty seconds then questions or ideas.”
Major Wagner removed the ammunition from his rifle but left his sidearm loaded at his hip.
He looked around. “Time. Starting from the highest to the lowest rank go.”
Caisson shrugged. “I agree. We should mount a watch all night and I hate saying it but half on half sleeping. Roll with whatever weird shit comes our way. That’s all”
Vajjer looked around. “Me. K. I want to grab as much spare weapon parts as I can. Given what happened I think every weapon should get a quick pull through first and get oiled up. Not sure how we explain our missing truck when we get asked. Done.”
Wagner nodded. “We don’t explain it. We just get it then drive it to the back lot for loading. We take it when we get where ever we are going.”
Vajjer nodded.
Andreis, Weibe and Toker just shrugged and Toker spoke for them. “Nothing sir. We just follow where you take us.”
Major Wagner looked at Private Henry. “Anything son?”
Private Henry looked at his dirty boots and shuffled a bit. “Sir, can I doss down with you all? I heard enough I don’t trust these men and I’m a good worker even if I am a bit banged up right now.”
Wagner nodded, “of course you can.” Caisson and Vajjer nodded as well.
Wagner looked over at Steven. “Anything to add? Anything you saw at the loading area that would change the plan at all?”
Steven shook his head. “Jimmy and I have a plan and we can probably accomplish everything fast. I’ve got nothing other than a desire to go to sleep after some food that wasn’t packed after world war two.”
“Jimmy, do you have anything?”
Jimmy stretched back. “Yes, Sir I do. I talked to Steven earlier today. This place is a powder keg ready to blow. There ain’t no balance here. It’s like everything was frozen until we got here and we changed stuff. I get a bad feeling someone is going to try something tomorrow. Most likely that Tannis fella and his crew. About half the guys here don’t really support him but everyone is scared of the infected. So, they been supporting him. We gotta tread light and be real careful. It may be nothing or it could go real bad wrong.”
Wagner nodded. “I sort of had a similar feeling. So, we stay on alert and together.”
Sam shook his head and looked around.
Wagner looked at the two women. “Sue, Tracy, do you want to add anything?”
Tracy shrugged. “I try to not be negative but these men are all scum. They attacked us and put Sue down hard. They were going to rape us. They should be hung for it.”
Everyone started at Tracy. Steven spoke first. “Unh, Tracy you are always going on about rights and how everyone should be working for the greater good. You want to kill them all now?”
Tracy shrugged and looked angry as she turned on Steven. “These aren’t doing what they are supposed to. They should be helping rebuild and trying to find survivors. They are all hiding in this big building far inside so nothing can hear them. They get drunk every night and I get the feeling we weren’t the first two to be attacked. They are not going to change.”
Sue looked around. “I agree with Tracy. I was roughed up back at home before we came here a few times but I was never scared or beaten up like those guys did. They don’t deserve anything other than a ditch at the side of the road. I don’t want to be alone with any of them. We can trust you all because we came here with you and none of you are like that. But not them or anyone else from here.”
Wagner nodded agreement. “You won’t be alone I promise.”
Wagner kicked at an old oil stain on the concrete floor. “Here is my take away. The first outpost we stopped at it became sort of obvious someone had messed around with our weapons and removed the firing pins. We can’t say who it was for sure because we have no proof. But I really don’t think anyone in our group would have done it. I also don’t think most of the people in this building would do it as they either wouldn’t know how or aren’t so vicious, that only leaves one real suspect in my mind. We have to keep our guard up.”
He turned and looked at Andreis. “Alright I’ll talk to Andreis everyone else head back to the room. So, what is it Andreis?”
Andreis called for Weibe to come over and the three walked away while the rest closed and secured the armoured vehicles then headed back as a group to their quarters.
SETTING UP FOR THE NIGHT
T
he group had headed back toward their room while the Major and two corporals walked away.
Everyone was armed and Caisson took point with Vajjer in the rear. Toker was just ahead of him with his rifle unslung and the sling wrapped around his arm. The civilians were in the centre and the group walked as if they were in a war zone. Which they were.
Everyone was armed and everyone expected some sort of trouble.
They made it back to the room with no problems and entered.
Toker and Sam took the first watch. Vajjer went looking through their gear with Jimmy. It wasn’t long before they had gathered and were quietly talking about what they had found.
Everyone’s gear had been quickly gone through. Before they had left all of the gear from their old world including those items they had brought from the service centre had been stuffed into their backpack or had never come into the building being left in the truck parked on the street. The gear in the vehicles looked commonplace. A wrench is a wrench after all.
What they had left behind had been mostly clothing. Any food was gone.
Whoever had gone through their clothing had done so quickly but had not gone through everything. Everyone agreed it had likely been one or two people who had been concerned with being caught or had to report for duty soon.
It didn’t help any of them to know that though.
Sue and Tracy were flushed and angry.
The soldiers were much angrier.
Caisson held a hand up to silence the quiet arguments going on and looked at Toker and Sam. His voice was quiet and calm. “Alright this is what we are going to do, please head back over and maintain watch. Stay armed and ready to use those weapons. Treat anyone coming here as hostile and expect it to be an ambush. We will wrap up this discussion then establish a formal watch for the evening. Move now please.”
While the two men hurried over to the door and took up different positions, Corporal Toker explaining to Sam how to stand visible as the lead while he took cover behind some shelves in the prone position. Anyone threatening coming forward would see Sam. If Sam started throwing himself down then Toker would shoot through the thin wall spraying rounds down the hallway. Sam could then take cover and continue firing through the wall and down the hall.
First Caisson looked at everyone else while the sentries arranged themselves. When he spoke, his voice was still quiet and calm but everyone could hear the anger within. “I know exactly how you all feel and I will say this. It is worse for the soldiers. Sue, Tracy.”
Caisson turned his head and looked at them catching their eyes. “You feel violated because strange men without your permission went through your personal belongings including your underwear. It may be the same men or man who attacked you. I can picture most of the bad images going through your mind right now.
There is nothing here that has any value to you. Those scumbags mean nothing. Tomorrow when the outposts show up, eight is bringing more female clothing right? So, burn what you have or just leave it. I would suggest saving it and burning it for the closure.” He paused. “You are safe in here with us. If it comes down to it, this turns into a shooting match as no one under our protection is going to be used for someone else’s pleasure. The Major supports me fully. So, breathe easy.”
Caisson then turned and looked at Jimmy and Steven. He nodded at the door where Sam was. “The three of you are guys and I am going to say mellow. You are pissed off but realise these scumbags would pull something like this. You don’t really care because, well you’re guys and shit happens. I get it.”
He turned and looked at Sergeant Vajjer and Private Henry. “That only leaves the army guys. I want to skin these fuckers alive then rub salt into the cuts.”
First Caisson looked around at the startled expressions on everyone’s face. “I know what you are thinking. The military is used to having inspections and getting yelled at while our stuff is thrown around. I’ll explain it fast. An approved chain of command we are obligated to obey because of the oath we swore, including signing a blank cheque to our country has to do with training and becoming the best we can as a group. I have just had some REMF private who can barely get dressed in the morning go through my personal gear for my pogey. Smokes, porn, lighter, money. I don’t care what it was for. Some bottom feeding scumbag went through my gear and the gear of my section. See, people who do that in the military don’t last long. Cause we get mean and beat the hell out of a thief. They ain’t stealing to help the military, or the company or the platoon. They are stealing for themselves and weakening the rest of the military. I hate people like that. Sergeant Vajjer gets it. The Corporal’s may not get it so much yet, but if I find out who did it? The guy may not be able to get on the train tomorrow as someone broke his legs and stuffed him in one of these side offices with a gag in.”
By the time First Caisson had finished his hands were clenched at his side with the muscles flexed to full extension, his face was red and he looked enraged like no one had seen him so far on their six-day journey through this apocalypse.
Tracy shook her head. “I bet you it is one of the guys involved in attacking us. Those types always keep doing things like they don’t learn. If we find out who it is I would shoot him in the stomach and leave him lying there.” She then turned away and went to her small kit bag which she started pulling clothes out of and throwing them under the shelves further back.
Everyone stared at her in shock.
Sergeant Vajjer looked around at everyone. “Well it looks like someone’s growing up. I like her answer.”
No one replied.
The sound of Sam hitting the floor then moving around was a shock.
Sam was already speaking loudly. “Don’t shoot! It’s our guys!”
Everyone relaxed a bit but Sergeant Vajjer moved to the back of the room while First Caisson unslung his rifle and moved forward.
Sam opened the door fully and Major Wagner followed by Corporal’s Andreis and Weibe walked in loaded down with several large bags slung over their shoulder and several more shotguns along with all their other gear.
As soon as they were fully in the room Sam closed the door partway again and took his position again. Toker had never moved.
The three men walked over to the desks at the side of the room and started putting their load down.
Major Wagner looked around. “Okay. So, what’s going on?”
First Caisson quickly brought him up to speed. The only reaction from the Major was a sigh and he continued putting items on the desk top.
Everyone else had gathered around and stared at the mound of weapons and ammunition that had formed on the desk from the three men’s loads.
When he put the last item down Major Wagner asked out loud. “Really? From what we’ve seen so far should we, and by we, I do mean myself, Caisson or Vajjer, have expected anything else? Look at what happened to our gear when we headed out and hit the first outpost. Sue and Tracy saved our butts there and they are the only reason we’re all alive and not infected. I’m just thankful they left our gear after rifling it. Anyway, enough of those idiots. Here are some toys.”
The Major pointed out the shotguns lined up at the side. “We have seven shotguns for operating in built up areas and as weapons for when we are in the vehicles. We also have fifteen rounds issued as the daily issue. If we go on combat operations we need to get higher authorization for more ammo. That would be the CO.”
He moved his arm and pointed at the semi-automatic side arm’s lying in a pile. “We have also been issued twelve forty-five caliber pistols. Again, these are issued to vehicle crew and because weapons do break down sometimes I was able to get two per person. Each weapon comes with twenty-one rounds to fill those three mags per pistol.”
There was a stack of rifle ammunition the Major pointed at next. “We were never issued our ammunition allotment from this post. I drew it today. Every soldier carries a rifle and now we have thirty more rounds per person, including the ladies for purpose of issue. Three hundred and thirty rounds. Finally,” his arm swung until his hand was pointing at a small vicious looking weapon at the side. It had a pistol grip, then a magazine well and ahead a shorter barrel with another grip in the centre. It was maybe eighteen inches long and all steel and wood construction. It looked heavy.
“This naughty little monster is a heavy duty close quarter submachine gun. In forty-five caliber, this comes with twenty round stick magazines, which we have three per gun, and the ammunition for it. It can also take a larger mag which holds sixty rounds but they didn’t have any. Worst case situation you can also load a pistol mag on but I’m not sure how effective it would be with seven rounds. I was only able to get three because it is a senior weapon and I argued that in vehicles we need compact firepower. Oh, I brought a manual on the SMG because I have never seen anything quite like it before and weapon drills save lives.”
Sergeant Vajjer just stared at the weapon covered desks. “Okay sir, how did you get all this? Where did you get all this from?”
Major Wagner nodded at Corporal Andreis. “Someone was working with the clerk they have standing guard in the weapon vault. This is all sitting there waiting to be issued out. So, I did what any good bureaucratic army guy does. I walked in, pulled a pen out and told the clerk I was going to sign for everything my troops were entitled to in the way of weaponry. He seemed happy to issue stuff for once and I think he was a bit more generous than he normally would be giving me shotguns and SMG’s when it should have been one or another. But I signed for it all. So, let’s divvy this up, eat, drink, set up a watch and review the weapons quickly so we can all go to bed and get some fricking rest. I am exhausted and everyone else is tired too.”
Vajjer continued. “But we already had some side arms and shotguns.”
Wagner nodded, “None of it was issued from this post though. We are part of this post now and those items we brought in should be cleaned then handed in for reconditioning. We’ll get to that in a few days.”
Vajjer stared at him. “And we leave tomorrow?”
The Major smiled. “Exactly. So, if someone else somewhere wants to push the issue then we can turn in our original weapons. The rifles everyone knows about. There is a lot more ammunition and weapons in the lockup. I can’t come up with a way to get more unless we actually take out the door and that would be obvious.”
Jimmy smiled. “I may be able to help a bit there, Sir. I was going through the spare parts room. Where everything was dumped when several different loads came in. I buried a half case of hand grenades in the back under some boxes of filters. Now it would give us twenty hand grenades which may not be much.” He trailed off.
Caisson was smiling. “I’ll take a few grenades and this to balance the surprise Tannis and his goons are going to have planned.”<
br />
Major Wagner looked around and saw Private Henry standing to the side. “Private Henry. I know we are all part of the military and you may not be hearing some things here that fit in.”
Private Henry shrugged. “Sir, I already said I was coming here with you instead of staying at the last outpost because you may need help protecting the women from bad men. I’m still here to protect them. I gotta be honest sir. I also don’t want to have some sort of accident likes happens to some people. So, I’m in sir.”
Major Wagner frowned. “I understand and appreciate it Private Henry. First Caisson do we have a schedule for tonight?”
First Caisson nodded. “Yes, Sir. We all eat some food for dinner here in the room with sentries mounted. Then we review the firearms. I think the SMG there would be a good tool in the hands of the second sentry, better than a rifle anyway. We just need to review how to use them. Anyway, review weapons then three shifts of four personnel each means we could get some sleep and slightly better rest tonight. It’s going to be a sauna anywhere we are but at least here, well we can sweat together.”
Jimmy nodded, “it seems like the garrison troops have no problem sleeping. Probably because they finish most of a bottle off every night though. Not a good way.”
Major Wagner shrugged. “With luck, we can have seven hours of sleep for each of us. I’ll take that over drinking yourself unconscious thanks.” He looked around. “Okay everyone. We are up at zero five thirty in the morning. Eat here then head down to the vehicle bays. We need anything we are taking from here to go with us and we are done in this room. Then we need to get our vehicles to the train loading point including our truck outside. When everyone shows up we need to get them inside the building as fast as possible. These infected have been dormant lately but with all the vehicles moving in the area there is a good chance every single infected within a mile or maybe more will heading for here. The train goes underground for a while after we take off. We need to make sure we are rolling before some door goes down and they start flooding in. I don’t want to fight a rearguard action against a few hundred of them. Back to business. All the vehicles are moved when the convoy arrives. That cuts down on the number of times vehicles are moving. I believe the CO wants to have his parade around zero nine. We’ll have to show for it so everyone make sure you look good. Any questions?”
