The front doors to both homes had been kicked in. Either the houses had been looted or the infected had been there. Since the infected didn’t travel far for fear of being away from protection when the sun came up, it could be either. Gloria looked at the solar panels covering the barn and other buildings and got an idea. As they waited in front of the main house, she walked over to a car parked in front of the garage. The car was unlocked and clipped to the driver’s sun visor was the garage door remote. She pulled it off and held it above her head for the others to see. With the door facing the east she was not sure if there was enough sunlight to kill any infected if they were in the garage.
“Should I open the door now while we still have some sunlight?” Gloria asked Hope.
“Everyone get in position, away from the garage door. Open it when we’re safely back from it.” Hope answered. Gloria pounded the door with her fist a couple times to wake up and attract any infected inside. She could now sense infected inside, then there was shrieking.
Gloria pressed the remote from behind the truck. The door slowly rose, behind a pair of cars movement could be seen as the infected stayed away from the open door and cowered in the shadows. Stuart and Eto walked closer to the open doorway, each had Ruger .22 automatics with suppressors, ready to take out any infected.
“Stop! Let me take care of this.” Gloria could see there were six infected, all trying to cover their faces to avoid any sunlight. She walked up to the closest one and touched him on the bare leg with her stun gun. He simply dropped to the floor. In less than thirty seconds she’d zapped each one and they were out of the game.
“Was that necessary, Ma’am?” Hope asked.
“Yes, it was. They were no threat, and didn’t need to die. I also sense more in the house. If we’d shot them, the others would be warned and actively hostile when we entered the rest of the house. When the others get here, I’ll take Lt White with me and clear the house. There’s no risk to us.
The wind was blowing in through the open windows, the scenery of green on green with the mix of warm weather and a cool breeze in April had Caleb thinking he’d like to find a way to transfer to Travis, if it still existed after everything was back to normal. The truck ahead, turned off the road, and Caleb forced himself to become more aware of what was going on. He could sense infected nearby. Interestingly, they were not agitated, just confused even though they were near norms. They pulled up to a huge house that, he thought, bordered on being a mansion. Gloria was in front watching him and appearing agitated herself.
“We need to go in and clear the house. I was able to get to six, I think there’s about ten left inside. You up for it?” Gloria asked.
“Let’s show these guys how to clear a house properly.” Caleb pulled out his stun gun and a stun baton. “Do we go together or separate?” He asked, testing both devices for spark.
“You go around to the back door and I’ll go in through the garage. Let’s see who can get the most,” she said, knowing she just pressed his button for his competiveness.”
“You are so on, lady! Loser cooks the winner a meal when this is all over!” Caleb jogged around the corner of the house.
Gloria opened the laundry room door, then proceeded to the kitchen, where she could smell rotted food from the refrigerator being left open. Many of the cabinet doors had been ripped from their hinges, the floor covered in human waste and spilt food. She closed the door to the fridge and found herself nose to nose with a giant infected male. He appeared excited, breathing heavily into her face, making her want to vomit.
“Sweetie, you really need better dental hygiene.” She reached for his chest as he reached to touch her. She maintained eye contact the entire time. “Sorry babe,” she said as the stun gun touched his chest, the smell of singed hair wafting up. Only his eyes seemed to register a surprise before falling to the floor. “I still have it, yes, I do,” she said to herself, before moving on to the family room.
Entering from the back patio door, there was a choice of going down a hallway or stairs to the basement. Caleb flicked a light switch and headed down the stairs, sensing nothing, but wanting to play it safe.
“Olly, olly, oxen free. Come out where ever you are.” Caleb chanted softly while listening for movement. Somewhere ahead a door creaked, but he couldn’t sense anything immediately near him. The basement appeared at least twice as big as the house did from the outside. The entire basement must be an apartment, he thought, opening door after door. Finding nothing, he abandoned the search and headed for the stairs. Only after he slammed the door at the top of the stairs behind him, did an infected wake. It had been sleeping in the bathtub.
Gloria could sense the infected becoming angry nearby. She went room to room as quickly as she could so she could find out what was going on outside. She heard scratching coming from what she thought was a bathroom. Opening the door, she was knocked down as four infected tried to escape from their prison. She reached up and tagged two when they rushed past her, barely missing her as they fell. She jumped up and continued to the room to see what was in there. The partial remains of a child lay scattered on the floor, little more than bones and sinew. The only thing that was available for them to eat. The pile of small bone enraged Gloria and she chased after the two that got away, wanting to kill them to punish them for killing the child. Caleb was standing over their bodies, looking smug.
“Let a couple get by you? Don’t worry, I cleaned up your mess.” Caleb said jovially, until he saw she had her .45 in her hand.
“Those bastards killed a small child, they’re going to pay.” He heard the safety click as it was flipped from safe to fire. He could see the hurt in her eyes as he stepped between the infected and her.
“No, they’re animals now. When they wake, they will be human again. If you want pain, there will be pain. It was most likely someone in their family, maybe their son or daughter. Their family has had enough death already. Now we need to go.” Gloria looked into his eyes, then at the infected at his feet and brushed past him, wanting to get outside.
It was already dark when Gloria stepped outside. “The place is cleared inside. What’s going on outside? I can sense the locals are not happy.” She heard the sound of two suppressed shots and looked at Hope. He could see she was upset.
“We have a timeline, they started coming out of the barn and other buildings. There wasn’t any choice.” Gloria listened to Hope, trying not to get emotional.
Technical Sergeant Widauf made his way past the pair, carrying a shipping container almost as big as him. He set the box down on the dining room table and took a moment to admire the beautiful piece of furniture. He noticed movement in front of him and pulled out his 9 mil. A female infected in a blood-stained t-shirt snarled at him. Widauf fired into the mirror, the glass exploded the same time the woman grabbed at both his arms, from behind, pulling him to her before she tilted her head and tore out the side of his neck in one vicious bite. She shrieked out in vengeance before falling on top of him to lap at the blood spurting out of his neck. Gloria was the first to reach them and stunned the woman. Throwing her body to the side, she could see Widauf looking at the ceiling, eyes blinking, lips moving like a fish out of water while blood squirted high into the air. Gloria dropped to her knees the same time the last squirt of blood shot out like a fountain. She looked at him for a second and tried to perform CPR. She could hear her wind blowing out through his neck, the chest compressions only resulted in short squirts of blood into the air.
“He’s gone, Grits,” Hope said softly, “we should never have brought him with us.”
Caleb ran in and ignored his old sergeant from days gone by, recognizing the container on the table. He stepped in a puddle of blood, intent on getting to the container and closing it. “Christ on a crutch! What the hell is this doing here?”
He looked at Hope, waiting for an answer. “Do you know what the hell he brought with him?” He closed the lid and snapped the four wing nuts shut on the container. “W
hat the hell was he thinking?” Caleb dropped to his knees and started to rifle through Widauf’s pockets until he pulled out a small paper note pad and a pair of thumb drives. He resisted the urge to crush both drives. Instead, he carefully placed them in his pocket. “If you don’t know what this is, don’t ask. If you do, forget you ever saw it.” Caleb looked like he was ready to puke as he got up to find a bathroom.
Caleb sat down on the closed toilet and slowly went through the pocket note pad. On the first page, a set of longitude and latitude coordinates that he recognized as being Travis AFB. The next page specified the firing time he was to initiate firing Thor’s Hammer; the portable console had access until 2200 hrs, 15 April. A new shudder went down his spine, imagining the devastation. The next pages were the settings which would have resulted in massive devastation. It got worse on the next page, where it had the instructions to set the timer in case no one was left to initiate firing. He could feel the bile in the back of his throat, especially now that it fell onto him to program the firing solution.
Caleb tried to act calm as he walked back to the dining room, reopened the container and pulled out a hand-held antenna with a modified tripod he had designed himself. He set them on the table before picking up a chair and smashing it into the window. He then tossed the electrical cable through the broken window before walking past everyone carrying the antennae setup. He stabbed the tripod into the ground, then clicked the hand-held antennae into place. The cable’s rapid disconnect easily clicked into the antennae. Caleb looked at the bubble on the tripod to ensure it was fully level and adjusted the angle of the unit before pulling out his compass to adjust the direction. He went back into the dining room and connected the cable before firing up the console. Testing signal strength, he was disappointed to see only 57% connection strength. He walked back out and saw the tripod had slipped. He readjusted everything and returned to the dining room, again ignoring everyone until he was connecting at 99%. He pulled out the tablet and inserted the two thumb drives into the USB ports, then finished inputting the target settings and timing settings. He finished by closing the cover and locking the wing nuts into place. On the side of the case was what appeared to be a pressure release valve. He turned it counter clockwise 180 degrees then pressed it closed. He looked at his watch. He had completed the task in fifteen minutes, including setting the demolition charge to go off, if it were opened by the wrong person.
“Sgt Hope did, Sgt Widauf tell you what he had here?” Caleb asked, now that he’d calmed down.
“No, I just knew that a two star general told me, in person, to make sure he was able to set up his box and not ask questions. That was more than good enough for me.”
“If we don’t get our job done by 2200 hrs tomorrow night, Travis AFB, and all of us, cease to exist. If anyone tries to open or move that box without my help, this entire house ceases to exist. Releasing that little info alone to you just secured my court martial when we get back to Wyoming if we survive. I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure if the base goes up we are too close here. I’m surprised Widauf accepted this location.” Hope shouted out for everyone to get into the house.
Everyone, except for Caleb and Grits, had NVGs as they crowded into the living room. “First thing, no one goes into the dining room for any reason, no explanations. Second thing, stay the hell away from the satellite antennae outside the house. I changed the plan partially because of all the cows that are in the field on this farm. When we head out to the airbase, we are going to herd them before us so if they do have infrared or other devices, we should be able to fool them. We will set up a hide to observe the hangars. We will then decide when to investigate the interior of those hangars. If we are not able to, we will leave them our entire supply of C4. If we fail, at 2200 hrs tomorrow night, we will need to be far from the base. At 2100 hrs we will cut the wire fences and start driving the cattle onto the base.
Bags were brought into the house and everyone began to don new camouflage uniforms. The uniforms included gloves, hoodies, face masks, and gaiters that went on over the combat boots. They had even brought one for Gloria. Caleb looked on, unsure what to do. “Eto, run out to your truck and grab John’s bag and give it to Lt White. Sir, these are the latest in camo. It’s particularly suited for nighttime ops as it defeats infrared and NVG devices. I wish we’d had time to train you on wearing NVGs.” Hope said.
“Captain Alban and I don’t need NVGs, we can see in the dark without any devices,” Caleb replied, setting down the set he’d been offered.
“Looks like everyone’s ready. I want to see you all to go out back so we can scan each other for body heat leakage. Then Stuart, Noon, Moon, Sung, and Eto will help me cut the fence while the rest of you try and herd the cows to the fence line.
What comes around goes around. I leave Texas to get away from this and here I am in a field, herding again, Caleb thought whimsically Even the cattle prod is the same brand dad used. He walked silently towards the cattle over the uneven, marshy, pockmarked ground. Gloria was having trouble as she continued to trip, twice falling, and now thoroughly soaked and muddy. After walking a mile around the cattle to get in position, Caleb let out a shout the same time he zapped a sleeping cow. Startled, it mooed and rushed forward, scaring and waking other cows that joined in. Caleb and the others made sure to keep the fence as one flank, so they only had to stay behind and to the right, keeping the cows moving.
Hope stood abreast of his men, making a human wall to redirect the cattle through the newly opened fence. Caleb followed the cattle through the now opened fence and noticed a sign only as he stepped on it. Restricted Area Warning was in big red capital letters. The same type sign he’d seen numerous time throughout his short career. At the head of the herd, the lead cows were loudly mooing now in displeasure as they were forced to cross down a short embankment through a small creek and back up the opposite embankment. Most of the creek included knee deep mud, making the crossing difficult for animal and man alike. The cattle became harder to move after crossing the creek. Virgin tall fresh grass was in abundance and was too tempting to the cows. Many ignored the cattle prods, leaving less than a hundred that could be coerced to continue towards the flightline and the buildings on the other side.
The smooth, flat, even concrete of the flightline felt good to Caleb’s legs and feet. He wanted to find some place he could take a break and strip off his boots and socks and let his feet dry out. He looked over at the rest of the team and realized only Gloria seemed as miserable as him. The old one, Hope, who appeared to have one foot in the grave, seemed to have been rejuvenated after the trip across the fields.
They stopped at their first destination, the cargo handling area, to take a breath and evaluate their position. From here it would be easy to dash from building to building until they were able to set up a hide to monitor the hangars the aliens were in. Caleb was able to sense both norms and infected scattered around the air base, and something new.
“Do you feel it, Grits?” Caleb whispered between drinks from his canteen. No one else seemed to have anything to say.
“I feel something new, not sure what it is. Sort of like an infected, but it’s different, no emotion.” Hope was next to the pair before they realized it.
“You two seem very talkative, can you share it with me?” Caleb looked at him and could sense the old sergeant was going fast now, after the trip across the field.
“I think we’re sensing the aliens, no emotion, or direction to where they are, just a presence.” Gloria answered. Caleb nodded in agreement. “How are you doing, Sgt Hope?” Gloria asked even softer, after making sure no one else was close enough to hear the answer.
“Okay, everyone, lets get ready to move. We’re going to do this pinball style. Pruitt and Sung, head for the building directly north of us. After you two make it there the rest of us will follow. Then we’ll repeat to the building to the east of that and then east once more. The hangars are so close together after that we’ll just follow them
north until we find a suitable hide. The hangars we’re looking out for are 810, 811 and 818. Stay sharp and no talking from here on out.” Hope didn’t look over at Gloria.
The pair took off at a good pace and covered the 200 feet quickly. Hope waited a minute, then had Moon lead the rest of them for the run. They were only 30 feet out when Caleb heard a truck approaching. He put on a burst of speed, heading east to a row of parked cargo loaders, making a ‘follow me’ gesture. The rest of the group followed. A moment later, a white pickup slowly drove by them heading southeast. The group held their positions, making sure to keep the vehicles between them and the truck.
“Be sure to fill all the equipment outside 811. I don’t want to explain to those meat puppets why you failed.” The driver was shouting to his passenger as he got out of the truck, heading for a fuel truck.
“Don’t worry, I know what happens if we fuck up. Now go make yourself useful somewhere else. I’ll meet you over at the Knucklebuster for chow when I’m done.” The driver of the pickup waited until the fuel truck started, then headed south before turning east and then north on the other side of the row of hangars. The fuel truck followed in the same direction minutes later.
Hope snapped his fingers and pointed to their original destination. Moon nodded and took off with everyone following close behind. Moon continued into an open bay where Pruitt and Sung waited in the back of the bay.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on. We find a hide and bring one or two of those guys back and see if they can answer questions. It may all be a big misunderstanding, but we play our original hand. Pruitt and Sung, get moving.” Hope was unable to hide the tiredness from his voice.
An hour later they were positioned just south of Hangar 818, in the fuel barn. The huge hangar had a row of offices with views on two of the three hangars. Caleb cringed slightly at some of the remarks made about ‘chair force’ with how nice the offices and furniture was for mere aircraft maintainers. He didn’t have to listen long.
Infected World Trilogy (Books 1-3): They Only Come Out At Night Page 80
