Angel finished sliding the fifth pallet of fuel drums forward when the truckload of ammo showed up again. She was surprised to see an Air Force Staff Sergeant driving the truck. He sat behind the wheel of his vehicle looking over the clipboard in his lap, then appeared agitated when he saw the fuel barrels in the bed of the trailer. He jumped out and walked over to Angel.
“I hope you don’t plan to load ammo with fuel, I may only be a dumb old Air Force NCO, but even I know that’s not how it’s done.” Angel fought back the initial urge to rip off his head and bring him up on current events.
Fotos walked up the NCO and was about to berate him when Angel spoke up. “Ma’am, I have this. The Staff Sergeant is right, but he obviously hasn’t been updated with contingency operations shipping and storage hazards waiver ZA dash one.” Angel jumped down from the trailer and walked with the NCO to the back of his own truck. “Staff Sergeant, there was a message sent down for current contingency operations, regulations and standards that impede the mission shall be waived until cessation of the current contingency. When you get back to the warehouse you can ask them and they’ll be able to help you. Its short name is, ‘Zombie Apocalypse’. Now get me my load of shit so I can secure for the day!” The NCO looked at Angel. He first looked pissed then began to laugh and she joined in with him.”
“Sign here, I have three short pallets of assorted munitions and some rocket launchers.” He held out the clipboard for her to sign his shipping paperwork.
“What’s with the paper copies instead of digital?” Angel asked as she signed and initialed as requested. He took back the clipboard and handed her copies of the paperwork.
“All part of the ZA Paperwork Act. We don’t have half the digital shit we used to have for tracking supplies like this crap anymore.”The NCO climbed into the back of his truck, laughing at his own humor, then guided Martinez and the forklift to the supplies for the convoy, forcing Angel to run back to her own truck.
Fotos watched the supplies being transferred and her ears perked up when the truck driver from supply mentioned another convoy heading south in the morning to Pueblo, Colorado. That’ll make things easier for us, we just tag along with their convoy, and then break off at Pueblo. Now to find out who to coordinate things with. Fishing her cell phone out of her pocket, she took a minute to grieve at all the things she could no longer do with it. She pulled out her paper and dialed Captain Conrad.
“21st Security Forces, Captain Conrad.” Conrad mentally kicked himself for saying 21st instead of Headquarters.
“Hi, Captain Conrad, I was hoping you could get my convoy attached to the convoy leaving in the morning, that way the old ‘security in numbers’ thing will work to our advantage.” Conrad took a breath and held it before replying.
“How did you find out about the convoy tomorrow? That’s classified and you don’t have a need to know.”
“I overheard the supply folks that are provisioning us talking about it. I think that they believe we’re part of it.” Conrad jotted down her number.
“I’ll call you back in ten minutes. Do not discuss that convoy with anyone until you hear from me. Is that understood, Lieutenant?” Conrad was trying hard not to raise his voice.
“Yes Captain Conrad, do not discuss the convoy with anybody until I hear back from you.” Fotos’ confusion was turning to anger. Why screw with me? I didn’t do anything wrong.
Fotos looked at the phone in her hand as it rang, not wanting to touch it, let alone answer it. “Lieutenant Fotos.”
“Lieutenant, you will have your convoy at the southbound lane of Highway 59 at the intersection of Highway 93 at 0600 hours. You will trail behind the convoy a minimum of one hundred feet and not communicate with them or your own vehicles by regular radio. Satellite communications are approved. You will not discuss with your own people anything about the other convoy and you should encourage them not to talk about it among themselves. When the convoy reaches Wigwam they will stop to refuel. I recommend you refuel at the same time, and then continue on alone. Good luck, and let me know if you need any other assistance.” The phone clicked off and Fotos just stared at it for a moment before walking over to Caleb.
“We’re departing in the morning at 0600 hours. We’re going to follow another convoy as far as Wigwam, then we’ll refuel and be on our own. We’ll have everyone here at 0500 hours to give us time to take a last look over everything. Come to my room after dinner, Room 313; say 1830 hours and we’ll go over the route in more detail. How’s that sound to you?”
“Are you sure you’re not just trying to get me to your room? If you want to hookup, well, just say so. I’m cool with that.” Caleb grinned and Fotos just smiled, not having any emotional energy left to mess with him.
“Maybe in your next life. I’m going to invite Staff Sergeant Angel as well and let her put in her two cents worth.” Fotos said tiredly.
“I’ll bring Asher, he can set things up on the navigation so all the trucks have it on their online maps.” Fotos appeared unhappy, but saw the logic. “Let’s hold on to the truck until tomorrow so we don’t have to hunt rides.” Caleb added.
Fotos sat by the pool in the hotel/billeting waiting for the rest of the team. She’d left a note on her door to come to the pool since her room would be too small to have the meeting. The heat and humidity felt great and the smell of chlorine was not really noticeable. Next to her chair, her ice chest was filled with assorted cans of beer and ice. She was comfortable in her Air Force PT Tee shirt and PT running shorts, and debated whether or not to go for a run after the meeting. She looked up at Caleb in shock as he entered wearing his class B blue uniform complete with ribbons; his appearance was straight out of the manual from his shiny black low quarters, to the creases in his pants that looked like they were sharp enough to cut anyone who came too close.
Caleb laughed as she stared at him open mouthed. “Yes, I do clean up rather nicely. Thank you for noticing.” Caleb sat down next to Fotos, glad he was wearing his sunglasses so she wouldn’t see him staring at her.
“Don’t you feel a little overdressed Caleb?” Fotos asked, then she observed Brown enter the pool area wearing a loud blue, yellow, and red Hawaiian luau shirt and almost spit out the beer she was drinking.
“If I did before, not anymore. Pass me a beer, anything but light, please.” Brown sauntered over and plopped down in the chair next to Caleb, then pulled out his tablet.
“That looks good, how much are the beers?” he asked as Fotos was fishing a beer out of the chest. She pulled out two beers and handed each of them one.
“Is that beer?” Staff Sergeant Angel asked loudly from across the room. She was still wearing the same dirty stained undershirt, now with an equally greasy dirty pair of blue jeans that threatened to burst at the seams at any moment. She completed her outfit with a pair of scuffed up ‘old school’ black combat boots.
“Here,” Caleb shouted, when he tossed his unopened beer, underhanded to her.
“We’re all here now, so lets get down to business.” Fotos cringed slightly when she smelled Angel’s perfume that was losing the battle against covering up her body odor.
“We’ll meet at the vehicles at 0500 for one last look over and then we’ll setup our vehicles over on Highway 59 behind the other group we’re not to mention. At 0600 we’ll head south, basically chasing ‘those who will not be mentioned’ down Interstate 25. When we get to Wigwam, we refuel and then continue on our own to our destination in Arizona. The best route to me looks to be staying on Interstate 25 until we get to Interstate 40, and from there west until we hit Interstate 17. That’ll be spitting distance to Luke AFB. Total driving distance is a little under 1200 miles. Anyone have any ideas, opinions, or complaints about the route or plan? Okay, we’ll go by rank. Brown, you’re first, what do you think?” Brown looked up from his tablet and cleared his throat.
“In my expert opinion, we should stop for the night just north of Algodones, that’ll be about ten hours of driving and the
same time it gets dark. That’ll also be almost 400 miles from Wigwam; some of the trucks will need refueling, so it’s the best place to set down for the night. Let’s just be sure we stay staggering distance away from the town and its occupants.”
Fotos sat for a second with her mouth open in near shock, expecting the Airman to say something stupid or useless. “Um, your turn, Staff Sergeant Angel.” She looked up from where she sat looking at the tablet over Brown’s shoulder.
“The Airman has it right on the money. No driving in the dark and the next day we have a leisurely drive to the airbase. Do we want to play it safe and sleep in the vehicles or on the ground?”
“I think if we can get away from the city and any surprises, it’d be best to sleep on the ground. Who knows what things will be like after we get to our destination. I think things would be okay as long as we keep a guard through the night.”
Fotos took a sip of her beer, “That all sounds perfect, we have a game plan then. All we need to do now is have Asher update the online maps for the trucks.” Brown smiled as she spoke, especially since he already had it finished, but knew better to admit it was done or the officer would most likely make some changes or think the work he’d just done was easy.
“Yes, ma’am. All the vehicles will be updated before the troops arrive at 0500. If you don’t have anything else, I’ll be on my way.”
“I’ll give you a ride, Asher, I just happen to have a car.” Angel offered. Fotos was getting pissed that everyone was going to leave without being dismissed by her when Caleb surprised her.
“Permission to be excused, ma’am.” Caleb asked in the voice he’d give an order, while rapidly standing up for effect. The other two caught it and stood by their chairs in a loose position of ‘at ease’ even though they weren’t in uniform.
“You’re all dismissed, be safe and we’ll see you in the morning.” All three came to attention and saluted her, making her feel important. I can hardly wait until tomorrow, she thought.
Chapter 35
Estrella Mountain, Arizona, April9, 2029
Gloria woke, gasping for breath. Her broken nose was blocked with dried blood and mucus. Everything appeared out of focus as she tried to see where she was as tears of pain rolled down her cheeks. The pain from her broken nose was starting to subside a little as she felt an even worse pain coming from between her legs. Another new pain came from her wrists; she tried to focus on them and was able to see she was tied over the back of a couch. She began to remember her ordeal from the night before and lost the contents of her stomach all over the couch. Her tears of pain turned to tears of anguish. She pulled her hands, trying to free them, only to have the rope tighten on them, digging into her flesh. She fought her urge to cry out for help as she calmed herself by praying. She began to sense she was not alone, in the next few rooms there were others, and they were infected like her. She did not try to figure out how the infected had managed to get in; instead she wondered where her captors were, and when they would return. She pulled her hands again and felt the rope cut into her flesh and ignored it. She started to bleed as she struggled even more violently with the rope, then the rope loosened from where it was tied under the piece of furniture. She moved her hand to the other and was able to get her finger under the rope and force it loose enough to pull her hand out. Quickly she released her other hand and tried to stand up.
Gloria fell backwards onto the floor. Her butt was on fire with pain and throbbed with every heartbeat. She could see her ankles were tied to a bar to keep them apart and she felt even sicker. She bent forward and as she untied herself, she felt a warmth throughout her body as anger began to swell like she had never felt before. I will be the tool for my own justice, she thought as she managed to stand painfully.
She found her clothes and bent over to pick them up, sending more pain throughout her body. That’s not much better, she thought as she looked at her tiny shorts and blouse before picking up the bar. Nice and solid, lets see if it’ll crack open any skulls, Gloria thought before opening the door to the next room.
Furniture was tipped over, rugs were where they had been kicked to, and the coppery smell of blood was everywhere. Gloria sensed before she saw the first infected, it was just standing in the corner facing the corner swaying back and forth. Gloria gave a quick test swing of the bar with one hand and went up behind it, swinging the bar as hard as she could. She could feel a crack as the bar made contact on top of the infected’s skull. It fell noisily to the ground and the others in the room all turned to see the cause of the noise. Gloria made eye contact with Wilson. His eyes were fully dilated and he looked at her in confusion. He was still wearing his uniform top, but had lost his pants. She stared at him as he walked over to her, cooing softly as he walked. She began to shake and cringe as he neared, then she remembered the bar in her hand and she felt empowered. “Come on, you piece of shit, let Ms Gloria put you out of your misery.” Wilson was close enough to reach out and Gloria swung with all her might, she felt bones break as she hit his knee, forcing him to fall to the floor. He looked up at her with his big black eyes full of hurt and bewilderment, then she swung again downward, shattering his shoulder as he shrieked out, she quickly shattered his other shoulder before standing over him. “I’m not going to kill you, you animal. I want you to have a long painful life.” Swinging the bar like a golf club she connected solidly between his legs and he stopped shrieking. Gloria looked down and fought with herself to not finish off the passed out body before her. She took the bar and smashed his undamaged knee before breaking each ankle and then both wrists. “I’d stay and gloat but I think my people might be missing me.” She saw his shotgun and another pistol on the ground and picked them up. Looking around the room one last time, the infected were staying away from her; she could sense their fear and decided her work here was done. She walked back into the other room and found her sunglasses, amazingly unbroken. Slipping them on, she felt a mild pain from her nose as she knew she was already healing.
There were blood trails and brass covering the floor as she walked down the hallway to the exit. The door was riddled with bullet holes and the morning sun was already shining in. Opening the door cautiously, she could see bodies littering the ground. Then she heard the pounding and screaming from the two semitrailers near the rows of parked vehicles.
“Let us out!” “We need water!” “Help us!” echoed from the containers. Gloria carefully looked around and couldn’t see guards or anyone else. She walked over to the first trailer and could see the scratch marks and blood where an infected had tried to open the trailer door. Carefully, she lifted the bar and rotated it, and then pulled it back slightly. The noise inside the trailer stopped in anticipation of what would happen next. Gloria stepped back and pulled the door all the way open, those inside looked at her in anger and fear.
“Who wants to be free? I’m going back to my camp in a little bit. If you want to come with me, grab a gun and a vehicle. If you don’t want to come with me, grab a gun and a vehicle and any supplies you can find here, life can be rough. I’m Lieutenant Gloria Alban, United States Air Force, and I’ll be your rescuer today,” she said with a big grin on her face. An old lady wearing black from top to bottom was the first to come close to the open door.
“You don’t look like an Air Force officer, you look like the working girls down by ‘Club Go Go’ where my Jimmy always went.” She had a sneer on her face.
“Lady, I fucking sacrificed to free you all. Now you all can do what you want. Your captors are dead and when nightfall comes, the Zs will return. Tonight I’ll be behind high walls in a place called ‘Sanctuary’. You can all make up your minds where and what you want to do. I have to do some things before I leave.” Gloria walked towards the lot full of vehicles as people poured from the trailer, running in all directions. Someone opened the other trailer, freeing the rest. Ungrateful sons a bitches, I shoulda just let them rot. People were already fighting over trucks and cars. One man ran past Gloria a
nd began to open the door to her truck.
“Sweetie, that’s my truck. Those are my things inside it. Go find yourself another truck.” The man looked at Gloria with hate in his eyes. He started to walk towards her with a big sneer on his face.
“You’re one of those bastard’s whores that laughed at us as we were slaves. Now you get to be this slave’s whore.” The blast from the shotgun echoed from all sides of the racetrack for over a minute, then there was dead silence. The man looked down where the slug from the shotgun had embedded itself into the ground between his feet. She ratched another shell, the sound of the pump was enough of a warning for him to move on. She noticed the front of his pants was wet, and then in disgust remembered hers were, too.
Climbing up and into her truck, she removed the clothes and used a rag to clean herself before donning her uniform. She felt safe and powerful as she attached her body armor, then other gear over her uniform; lastly she donned her cap, and reached for the ignition key so no one else would try to take her truck. She looked around and saw people were running all over, there were also fistfights going on as people sought revenge against their enemies. No one was taking responsibility or trying to organize into any teams or groups. I should just let these losers go, she thought. Then she saw what looked like Major Wilson. He was even wearing a flightsuit. Gloria saw red and dropped from the truck before she charged across the raceway towards her attacker. She brought up her M4 and flicked the selector to ‘auto’, planning to make a mess of the bastard. The red dot was centered on his nose when she realized he had a beard and obviously wasn’t her attacker.
“You! Who are you?” Gloria shouted as the man finally realized the peril he could be in. The woman before him wasn’t aiming at him anymore, but was still highly agitated and carrying a firearm.
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