by catt dahman
“Copy that, Alpha. ETA thirty minutes. Will be ready to do an intake. Over.”
“Alpha Out.” Len hoped he had impressed the newcomers. They all needed to be professional now.
“You sound organized,” Juan said, “and take civilians for rescue missions?”
Bryan nodded, “We do. We provide training, experience, and gear…all in very quick time. Search and rescue. Whatever we’re needed for.”
“I may wanna be part of that.”
“Me, too,” Mike said, impressed.
“You’re only sixteen,” his mother, Diane, reminded him.
“And that’s old enough, Mom. Things have changed.”
“I know,” she admitted, sadly.
“It’s much worse out there, worse than what we’ve seen in here in the bomb ruins. Under siege, we have faced over a hundred of those things. You all may not want to go on search-and-rescue missions as they are very dangerous. We have lost a few along the way; they went out as heroes, but I’m saying some training might be good for the long haul when we all have to face the outside world.”
“I don’t think anyone untrained would last out there now,” Beth said, “I wouldn’t last.”
“It’s really that bad?”
“You have the zeds, and they are hunting in hordes; the sheer number of them can keep them coming back without feeling pain or damage, deadly.
Then we have seen raiders, and they are vicious in their own right,” Beth told them. “When we ran into raiders and if Len and Bryan had not trained most of us, we all would have been killed; it took a lot of team work.”
On the lower floors, they kept most of the survivors back while looting the linens.
“Did you all do this?” Conner pointed to the bodies. “We heard the shots.”
“Yep. And we secured several rooms.”
“We raided the vending machines, but those things almost got us; that’s how two of the people were bitten. Three were killed in raids; I mean, they were torn to pieces; they became one of those things,” Conner said. “I’m really amazed at how well your teams work.”
“They work well together or die being torn to pieces, alone.”
Len heard a moan from behind a door. They had planned to come back to go through all the rooms, but he wanted to seal a deal.
“Beth, bathroom; Kim, the room with Mark. Mark, may Conner borrow your gun? Conner, you watch the door so nothing gets past you.”
“Yes, Sir, Colonel.” Conner took the gun, and the others took their places.
“Go.”
Kim kicked the door in, and he and Mark moved in. Mark carried his axe this time. Inside, Kim shot a teen and a child zed in the head while Mark swung and decapitated a heavy man. He then smashed the head. Kim kicked in the bathroom door, and Beth, without hesitation, placed a bullet in the center of a woman’s head. “Clear,” she called.
“Clear,” Mark yelled out. They grabbed the suitcases full of clothing and closed the door, marking it.
“Balls to the walls,” Conner said, shocked. “That was intense.”
“That was amazing,” Mike said. “Did you see that, Mom?”
“Impressive. Sick and scary, but impressive.”
“We’ve seen enough.” Steve glared, holding his wife close to him.
Len shrugged. “Good work, Conner. You’ll fit in fine. We’ll get you a gun and gear. We’ll take you, too, Juan, and if you want, we’ll train you. That’s exactly what we do. Sometimes we find survivors like you guys.”
“Sounds fine. I hunt, so I’m good with guns,” Juan said.
Len led them out, a team in front, and Thurman, Big Bill, Bryan, and Johnny covering the back. Through the crack, and finally, they were in the lobby, now free of bodies. Roy and Benny, Misty, Alex, and Tink stood ready. Sally moved forward. “May I check for bites, please?”
Each came to her; she checked each one, sending them back to the rest. “All clear.”
“Misty and Tink, provide escort, please.”
Both looked serious as they followed Len’s formality. They led the survivors out with the rest following. Sally wanted to check each and provide some first aid; she called to get them some food and drinks. They were added to the list and assigned rooms.
“Are the children not yours?” Wanda asked. She was a schoolteacher and had wanted to teach the children in the group, to give them structure.
“We were at the hotel, and a mob of zeds came up,” Conner said. “I guess a half dozen, then a dozen; about that time, here came a bus full of people, maybe twenty children and ten adults.
They crashed into a car and saw us coming out, so they, already infected, ran to us; the driver was in bad shape; a few were trying to help, but we had no weapons or anything, and the zeds went after them. My God, Sir, they tore them to pieces. We lost three right there, trying to get the children to safety.”
“Thirty people?”
“Like I said, someone was already turned and biting those on the bus, tearing them up even as they tried to get to us. Zeds were coming from all over, and then the bomb hit as we were getting inside; the timing was unreal.
The hospital started falling, but it still sheltered us a great deal; some of the hotel fell in, but it held fairly well. We ducked into the lobby with those who had made it, but the zeds didn’t stop even with everything falling and people being burned; five children made it and four adults. Two were attacked in the lobby.
We gathered food, got quite a bit, started climbing, but the only floor that was empty was the fifth where we were; that was Diane’s room, and then we broke into two more rooms that we could tell were empty.”
“Then what?”
“One of the adults from the bus killed herself that night. Another one just vanished; she was gone the next day, and we never saw a sign of her, again. Her kid was the one who died in the parking lot.”
Wanda took to the children at once, giving them plenty of food. Everyone ate as if he were starving. The teams also ate since they had missed lunch. Most were wide-eyed at all the food and drinks they had, their fresh Band-Aids and bandages, clean and white, and everyone welcoming them, as if they had been truly saved.
Julia cursed when they checked on her and told her what all she had missed. She wanted to see the cute Hispanic man they told her about. She swore she’d be up and back in action the next day, despite Sally’s saying Julia needed a week of rest.
Hagan was scheduled for release and was ready to get busy again; his release made Julia curse and howl even louder.
Chauncey declared he was going to be up and working, too, and that he would be livid if Julia were up before he was. They all had a big laugh.
“If we can have security, we can strip the hotel, think soap, sheets on beds, toilet paper, towels, pillows, and the luggage with clothing,” Conner said.
“Make me a list with that. We will do that today and tomorrow.” Len thought that since they had cleared some of the hotel and had a system; it would be perfect for training his teams.
He spoke to Roy who was snide, but agreeable to a lot. They decided that Roy would get a few to train with guns and be the security for the hospital so teams could go out. Roy enjoyed being a leader and puffed his chest out. Leaving Roy and his team there wasn’t the best, but it was a place where they would do the least damage.
Len asked Benny to be Base Actual long term and for Jeri to train with Benny so she could fill in if needed. Len stressed about the teams but finally got them sorted.
“Len, umm, I hear you are Colonel now,” George laughed. “I never thought a bunch of ‘old men’ would be doing this kind of thing.”
“You ‘old men’ are valuable to us. And you’re my eyes when I can’t see it all. I trust you guys.”
“I won’t say my joints feel good, but to be helping and feeling as if we were needed to do men’s work, feels good, Len,” George said. “I hate to be dancing on the death of the world, but I feel more useful than I have in ten years.”
Rae had still
not said a word. She came over, cleaned up, and dressed in military gear. She looked as if she were in her twenties, with a plain-faced and dark, short hair.
Without a word, she held her hand out to Len to take his gun. Eyes narrowed; he handed it to her.
Deftly, she locked the bolt to the rear, went through her steps, and removed the bolt assembly; then, in a second, she removed the cam pin, thirteen steps. Next, she reassembled the M16. “One minute, five seconds,” was all she said.
“Can you shoot?”
She nodded once.
Len made a change on his paper. “Okay. I have your teams. You may be missing a person a few days, but he will come back. If we get more, we add to the teams. If you don’t like the teams, I don’t care; they are ‘damned fine with cherries on top’ who need some training and are at least two people each leader can depend on, no matter what.”
He didn’t tell them yet that he had asked some of the women who could sew to make them patches with their team’s name and ‘US Militia’ on them.
Beth had said they ‘played military’, and people were demanding missions to kill zeds, so it felt, in a way, like a joke. Made-up ranks. Made up names. But they were doing what was right by the country. They were Americans, upholding the values and ideals that made the country great. Somehow, Len believed in this.
“Okay, we’ll be training this mission. We will serve floors two, three, four, and five with four teams. Clear rooms, and mark with an x.
We will not, I repeat, not be on the ground floor. I want this lobby as Base where Benny and Rita will be Base Actual.
Roy, I want your team patrolling the cafeteria and camp. The volunteers you gathered will go into marked rooms and loot from the list I gave you. We want those items. While one team clears a room, the other will provide security. Then rotate sides of the hall. Questions?”
“Comment?”
“Go.”
“When you clean a bathroom and room, say ‘clear’ for each,” Kim said.
“Right. Okay. We go to floor five, first, Bravo and Charlie. Alpha and Delta will take floor four.
Roy, are you ready to relay the loot?”
“Sure am. We’ve got security and the supply crews pulled, everyone to help so we can move fast. Even the kids are going to stack the lighter things,” Roy said.
“Alpha under me…Mark: Captain; Tink, Misty, and Rae: Lieutenant. Bravo will be Bryan: Major; Johnny: Lieutenant; Julia: Lieutenant but in medical; and Diane and Mike: in training, providing security and training only.”
“If placement and no civvies are allowed, practice fire. Charlie will be Kim: Major; Beth: Lieutenant; George: Lieutenant; Big Bill and Chauncey are in medical. You clear every room, Delta.” He paused, knowing this was a big deal and people would question this choice if anything happened. “Delta is Conner: Captain; Hagan: Lieutenant; Thurman: Lieutenant; Juan and Alex in training.”
Hagan walked in, grinning. “Sally released me, and Julia and Chauncey are mad and cursing a blue streak. I love it.” He got some laughs.
“Welcome back.”
“You all look good. Stay alert.”
They walked out, feeling a part of something big. The world might be dying, but each felt he was doing something that mattered. The organization and camaraderie raised morale.
On the fifth floor, Kim’s team, Charlie, began the routine, making it crisp and clear to Bravo team, who watched.
In the hall, Bryan and Johnny showed Diane and Mike how to hold security, two facing forwards, and two to the back of the hall. They had a lesson on safety as the rooms were cleared. They heard shots on the floor below.
A fourth of the way done, sixteen rooms, and they had killed a dozen zeds. One made a lucky grab, catching Kim sideways, and Big Bill calmly took it out, splattering brains all over the room. He was trying the fire axe and with his huge size, and he was doing damage.
Beth had found two. George stood ready each time, watching his team. The way they worked was like a well-oiled machine. Even Bryan and Johnny were impressed with the teamwork.
At the halfway point, another fifteen down, Bryan stopped and let Diane and Mike try the guns. Diane showed promise; she was steady and calm. Excited, Mike missed his targets a lot but was enthusiastic and listened to instructions well, asking questions when he was unsure.
“George, Charlie, team, can Diane and then Mike stand in for George if he stands with them?” Bryan asked. “Unfortunately, they need to see and smell what combat is really like so that they know it’s much scarier than target practice.”
“I think that is a good idea,” Kim said, “Be ready, it is fast, stinky, and violent.”
The next room was already empty.
At the next one, a zed stood next to the window. Kim motioned Big Bill to handle it, might as well show them the worst part. Big Bill lifted the axe back and swung. It hit the woman in the ear area, crushing part of her skull, her brains oozing out in a grey jelly. Her blood splashed against the wall behind her, with her skin and ear smashed into a thick pudding. The smell wafted out. She was a Red, so they got the smell of vomit and feces as well.
Big Bill pushed the woman down, Kim held her head with his foot as she snapped at him with broken, filthy teeth, and Bill got out the axe. He lifted, Kim moved, and Big Bill slammed it into her face. The skull cracked in half with a thud.
Diane turned and vomited up everything she had just eaten. Mike looked pale but big-eyed and shocked.
“You okay?” Bryan asked. “I puked, too, the first time we did a melee.”
“Wow. That is bad.”
“Some are much easier, I promise. Clean shots are. But there is worse than that, too. Much, much worse.”
“One of our friends was caught by a raider and fed slowly to a zed; that was hell. I have seen my friends torn apart, too. It can be worse, but sometimes such as when we found all of you, it was very worth it. We are saving everyone we can and trying to make things better,” Beth told them.
“Can you handle it?” Bryan asked.
Diane nodded. “I think so. Mike did better than I did.”
“Just know you do it for many. Beth has been through hell, seeing friends killed, kidnapped by raiders; she’s a hero and you can be, too.” Bryan did his pep talk.
“Okay, next zeds…let’s take out the legs and let them try shooting,” Kim said.
Three rooms were cleared before the zeds had a chance. Diane had good accuracy and was able to finish the two in one room.
“Don’t shoot,” someone called from the bathroom as a zed lurched towards him. The zed was nude, both feet in thigh-high stilettos which had been turned over and broken, her body had high, firm breasts that were beginning to sag and go mushy with decomposition. Her make-up made her look clownish. Kim finished the woman while she was shambling, and then they waited.
“Porn zed,” Kim whispered.
“Do you have food?” the man called.
“What’s your name?”
“Eddie. I’m starving, man.”
“Who was the zed?”
“The what? Oh, that was…shit…it was a hooker, okay? So sue me.” His voice was wavering, slurred, and wet sounding. “Look, I’m hungry.”
“Are you injured?”
“Listen, do you have food; damn it, yes, I am just sick; that is all. And I have a bite, but it’s better.”
“Open the door slowly, please.”
Eddie opened it. Beth recognized the nasty smell of the bite on his arm. His bandage, a formerly white towel, was soaked through with green and yellow, thick pus and blood. He was sweat soaked, pale. His shirt was off, and they could see his shoulder and chest were discolored as the flesh rotted on his body. Beth took a big step away, shuddering. He reeked.
Kim motioned the team out. He said that they needed a second and asked if Eddie would sit down, facing the other way for a minute.
Bryan stood in the doorway on guard, and in a few seconds, the others heard one gun shot. Kim walked out and vomited.<
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“That’s when it gets bad, like I said,” Beth told Diane and Mike.
“But as bad as it is, those aren’t the people they were before; that is the virus in them, using them like puppets. He is set free now to go on wherever he is supposed to go. To be trapped in a rotting body and used by an evil disease, that is wrong. It hurts us to do that, but it is the right thing. Would you want a loved one or yourself to be like one of those things?”
“No,” Diane said. “I see what you mean. And I see why you do this. My God, someone has to clean up the world.”
Johnny sighed, “Welcome to the US Militia clean up crew.”
“More than that. You saved our lives. I may not be as strong as you all, but yes, Mike and I need to learn to protect ourselves, and we can do this.”
“Even if we puke,” Mike said and then looked ashamed he had smiled.
The rest laughed a little and showed him it was okay. The hallway was cleared without further problems, and they found fewer zeds.
Finally, with all rooms marked, they radioed in a ‘clear’, and one team helped the supply team gather items while the other stood guard; they stripped the rooms of everything they could use.
Len met with Conner, Kim, and Bryan. “Sitrep?”
Kim told them about Eddie. Len and his team had had no problems like that but had found quite a few zeds.
Kim reported: Misty was trained; she needed practice but was ready for more responsibility. Juan was a natural and took to everything as if he had been trained long before. Alex was doing well, and Rae, who never spoke, moved like a deadly panther. Len was very curious about her story, but she wasn’t telling.
Rooms were stripped of every item on Conner’s list unless zeds had been in the room with the items.
The supply teams were excited about all of the usable items. Even shower curtains would have some use, they knew. They liked the more comfortable chairs as well, to replace the plain ones in the cafeteria. Fluffy comforters were better to keep warm them, too. With so many sheets, Sally could have people roll bandages from them and use them for many other things. The towels, tons of them, were a great find.
Clearing the fifth and fourth floors was enough; they had enough to sort until midnight now, and they were hungry. Using a lot of soap and then alcohol satisfied Sally, and they called it a day to eat and catch up with the others. Most ate a second serving of dinner.
