Dead States | Year Zero | Nebraska

by Marty Brockschmidt

Crystal, her eyes red and puffy from crying, answered the knock on her door, to see Sergeant Redding standing there with Ivy and Amy. Stu Redding greeted her calmly. “May we come in.”

  Angrily Crystal turned to the side and waved them in. Stu let Ivy and Amy proceed him in, then closed the door after he entered. As Stu turned around Crystal backhanded him across the face with her left, followed with a backhand with her right and finally a solid left punch to his mouth.

  Stu wiped a dribble of blood off his lips with the back of his hand. “Are you done?”

  Crystal stood there, her fists clenched, after a moment Ivy took one of Crystal's fists into her hand. “Why have you brought us together, Sergeant?”

  Stu looked at the three women. “The General asked me to get some help to clean up a situation in the Club. I know you three are friends and Miss Grey is hurting.”

  Amy took hold of Crystal's other hand. “We need a hell of a lot more than a kumbaya moment from you.”

  Stu considered the women locked together in front of him. “We've had contact with an army base in Michigan. A sizable force that Mayhue thinks he can bring under his command. That is far from a done deal and they could just as easily be your allies.”

  Crystal responded without emotion. “We need to remove Mayhue and his thugs, from the picture first.”

  Stu nodded. “Yep.”

  Crystal continued. “And Mayhue has all the guns and we have not even a letter opener between us.”

  Stu nodded again. “Yep.”

  Crystal finished. “Then we'll have to take them out all at once.”

  Stu started to nod then stopped. “Ye.. What?”

  Crystal smiled grimly. “It’s okay, Mayhue's going to round his troops up for us.”

  Stu shook his head, in confusion. “Alright whatever your planning, you better do it before the General busts me back to Private or makes me one of his toys.”

  Crystal turned to Ivy. “Would you go with the Sergeant to start the cleanup of the Club.” Facing Sergeant Redding again Crystal added. “Move the bodies to the freezer. We will take care of them, when this is over.”

  As soon as the two left Amy turned to Crystal. “You have a plan?”

  Crystal shrugged. “Percy and I have been kicking around ideas. What's your take on the good Sergeant? Can we trust him?”

  “The General has some hold on him, that goes beyond respect for command. Still, he's a straight shooter and he has his own code. Yes we can trust him.” Amy answered with conviction.

  “Good. The first thing I need to do is ask him to assign Travis and Cassie to a special job.” Crystal said almost as a test of Amy's resolve.

  Amy nodded. “They are ready, trust me. What do you need me to do.”

  Crystal shook her head. “I can't use you Amy. For what we need to do, I need Flame.”

  Amy held out her fist. “Fire and Ice, Baby.”

  Crystal bumped the knuckles. “Fire and Ice.”

  Mac and his group, reached the Battle Creek rest area mid-morning, on the second day after leaving Chicago. Only to find the place deserted. Gael and Mindy took Matilda for a walk, while Mac and David took a look around, before deciding whether or not to radio the base.

  David stood looking at the map, posted outside the main building. “Fort Custer is not that far, we could just continue on there.”

  Mac chuckled softly. “We are being watched. They'll make themselves known, once they are done eyeballing us.”

  As if on queue a quiet voice came from behind them. “Mac?”

  Mac was not sure if he was more startled at the sudden appearance of the man or the enigma he found as he turned around. The man had ruddy skin, denoting his Native American lineage, but more striking was his dress seemed to come straight off the pages of a history book. Handmade snowshoes were strapped to his tall deerskin boots. His jeans were more modern, but his buckskin shirt was belted at his waist, by a simple cord. At his waist was an antler handled knife on one side and a leather pouch on the other. The head of the tomahawk at his back, peeked out just behind the knife. At his shoulder was a handmade bow and cedar arrows, in a deerskin quiver.

  Mac extended his hand. “And you have got to be Dakota.”

  Dakota grasped Mac's hand and the two men locked eyes. A moment later, apparently satisfied, Dakota offered his hand to David.

  A trace nervous David shook the hand, uncomfortable under Dakota's stare. “I'm David. Good to meet you Sir.”

  A warm smile spread across Dakota's face. “Dakota will work just fine David.”

  Still smiling Dakota turned his head to Mac. “Would you introduce me to the rest of your group?”

  Mac was impressed with how easily Dakota moved across the snow on his snowshoes, almost floating over the snow and leaving barely a trace. Matilda was the first to notice them and began wagging his tail excitedly.

  “This is Gael, David's sister Mindy and our four legged friend, Mindy has named Matilda.” Mac announced.

  “I call him Mattie, he's the one who calls himself Matilda.” Mindy replied a bit irritated that Mac couldn't get that straight.

  Dakota shook Gael's hand, slipped out of his snowshoes and got down on one knee to pet Matilda. “You have a strong connection to Mattie, don't you little Sister.”

  Mindy shrugged. “It's just something that comes to me. Not like I can hear Mattie talking, I just know. You know?”

  Dakota nodded. “The dog is your spirit guide. It is a special gift, that only a few people get.”

  Mindy's eyes got wide and pride swelled inside of her. Dakota reached into his pouch and pulled out a small dream catcher. “Little Sister, take this symbol of my people. From this time on you are Hiscasgaga, white faced woman, Wolf clan of the Nooke.”

  Mindy breathed in deep before taking the symbol. “You're not taking me from David.”

  Dakota smiled. “Not to worry. Now you also have family with the clan.”

  Mindy returned his smile and took the dream catcher. “Thank you.”

  Dakota looked down at Matilda and saw the two crescent shaped bite marks. Dakota took a small pot from his pouch and painted a crescent mark on each of her cheeks. “Your sign, the crescent moon, marks the beginning and ending of a cycle. We are at the end of a cycle now, but young ones, such as, you and your brother will shape the beginning of the next cycle.”

  David put an arm over Mindy's shoulder. “I just thought you were weird.”

  Mindy teared up, more than a little overwhelmed and kicked her brother playfully in the shin. Dakota stood up. “What do you say, I call for transport and let Colonel Paige hear your story.”

  “That is why we've traveled all these miles.” Mac answered.

  Dakota pulled a radio, from the seemingly bottomless pouch, and called for transport. They must have been nearby as it was the span of just a few minutes for the two snowplows to show up, leading a couple of pickups and two transport vans. While Dakota introduced Sergeant Boone to Mac and his group, a number of soldiers emerged from one of the vans and loaded Mac and Gael's equipment onto the the trucks.

  Boone invited them to join Dakota and himself on one of the vans while the soldiers hopped back aboard the other. The ride was short, but Boone took the time to get an understanding of road and general travel conditions. Before they knew, it they were pulling through the gates at the base. Boone's van peeled off and pulled up to the building nearest the entrance and the rest of the vehicles continued further on into the base.

  Boone led them into a small, but comfortable meeting room. Waiting for them was a tall, thin woman in standard fatigues with the insignia of Lieutenant Colonel. Her close cropped black hair was streaked with gray and if she was a woman that was concerned with appearance, she would feel her gray hairs complemented her gray eyes.

  Boone saluted his Colonel. “Ma'am may I present Mac, Gael, David and Mindy. Their four legged friend is Matilda.”

  A brief smile crossed her face as Mattie began wagging his tail and giving his best
Lab smile. She approached her guests and extended her hand. “Amanda Paige. Welcome to Fort Custer.”

  After greeting them each in turn she spoke to them as a group. “We have a few children here, but the dog is a novelty. Perhaps David and Mindy would enjoy meeting them.”

  Gael turned to the children. “Would you like to show off Matilda.”

  Mindy nodded. “Is there somewhere I can pee first?”

  Colonel Paige chuckled. “Of course my dear, follow me. Boone, show the gentlemen where they can freshen up.”

  After a short break, Mac and Gael found themselves back in the meeting room, with Colonel Paige, Sergeant Boone and Dakota. Colonel Paige could see the emotion and eagerness in Mac's face. “Before we get down to brass tacks, I want you to know that I am committed to providing you what assistance I can. I have a personal past history with Mayhue, but putting that aside, Sir your accomplishment in traveling the miles you have is nothing short of remarkable. Yet you still stopped to rescue, those children and a dog. I would be shamed if I didn't come to your aid.”

  Mac visibly relaxed. “Whew. Thank God. Excuse me for being blunt, but I've been away from home nearly two months and I know they have got to be suffering terribly, how quick can we get this underway.”

  Colonel Paige remained unperturbed. “I understand the urgency, we are loaded and ready to roll. However, Mayhue will not hesitate to use your people as shields if we just pull up to the gates. I need to know what your compound looks like and where your people are held so we can keep them out of harm's way.”

  Mac wiped a tear from his cheek, as he was simultaneously hit by waves of relief and anxiety. “If I could have paper and a pencil, I can show you the layout. There are some smart people, back home, I can guarantee they are prepared for this.”

  As Mac worked on his map of Timshel, Gael raised a question. “Excuse me, if I am asking a stupid question. When Mac rescued us at The Mission, there were only three men and Mac had to go through them to get to Meurte. When we go to Timshel and cut the head off the snake, what do we do with Mayhue's men.”

  “I have thought about this. I have no chain of command to fall back on, so all I can do is handle the issues in order of priority. The first job is to extract the people in harms way, then we need to make sure Mathias Mayhue can never be a threat to another person.” Colonel Paige stated letting a hint of emotion to show, as she finished. “Any of his men that survive, we will work together to find a solution.”

  Mac finished his map of Timshel and spread it out for them all to see. “I'm sorry if it looks just like a bunch of squares on the paper, but I'll explain it to you and hopefully that will clear things up. Timshel is pretty remote. There is only one road leading in, these lines up here. The area surrounding the town is mostly wooded, so even in winter, we can use that to get close. We put up a ten foot high fence around the entire place and just outside of that is a barbed wire fence. We had a herd of dead come through shortly after we got the fence up and it held up long enough for our militia to take them out.”

  “You were busy.” Colonel Paige said praising their ingenuity.

  “I guess, we were just trying to keep people alive. Before we moved in the place was a remote resort. These four blocks are the guest buildings. These three are where my people reside. The fourth we used as a clinic and is most likely the barracks for Mayhue’s men. This box is the house that was used by the on-site manager. We converted it to a quarantine and now Mayhue uses it as his personal residence.” Mac continued to explain.

  “What other security did you put in?” Boone questioned.

  “We put up a couple of gun towers near the main entrance, each can be outfitted with a fifty caliber machine gun. We also wired in motion detectors and cameras. They all feed into this building here. We used it as our main security office. I know the blind spots, I can get us in past them.” Mac answered.

  “What are the chances of getting word to someone on the inside?” Colonel Paige interjected.

  Mac nodded. “I've had some time to think on that one. This is a shed that houses the wood boilers and generators. If there is a problem with this equipment, they'll bring in Mick to fix it.”

  Mick Canales should be resting at this time of night, but was finding sleep elusive. His mind rolled through the events that had brought him to this point. This time last year, he was wondering if he was going to be out of a job. This out of the way resort had seen so many changes, had plenty of highs and lows and a continuing change of ownership. Regardless of who paid the bills, this place had been his home and as the caretaker, he had nurtured the small collection of buildings. In the spring, just ahead of the summer season, new ownership came along looking to create an experience for guests looking to escape the hustle and bustle.

  Mick new he could always find work as a hunting guide and he was a talented tradesman, able to fix or build most anything. He didn't plan on the dead rising and putting the world into a tailspin. The arrival of Mac and the other survivors, gave his life not only a new purpose, but a closeness to other people that had been missing from his life. Now Mayhue threatened, his home, his friends and his purpose.

  Mick's anger was peaking again when Private Bert Blazzo banged on his door. “Rise and shine caretaker, time to take care of some shit.”

  Mick rushed to the door, the last thing they needed tonight was for anything to throw off the soldiers routine. “What's the problem?”

  Private Blazzo pointed at a light in the hall. “The lights are startin to flicker. The old man will blow a gasket if the power goes out.”

  Mick grabbed a coat and slipped his feet into his boots. “Let's go.”

  In a few minutes they were standing outside of the utility shed. Private Blazzo pulled a pack of butts from his chest pocket and lit one up. “Hop to it.”

  Mick entered the shed and made his way to the wood gasifier that ran the generator. Dangling from it was the keys to TFOO, the Dodge Challenger he and Mac had made into an escape vehicle. “Mac?”

  Mac stepped from behind one of the wood boilers that heated the buildings and hugged his friend, pounding him on the back. “I brought some help.”

  Mick shook his head. “We got ourselves an inside man and Captain Grey has a plan to take out these assholes. It's all going down tonight.”

  Mac cleared the air intake restriction he had caused, While Mick updated the Private. “Just give me ten minutes, to finish cleaning the infusers and we'll be good. In the morning you need to tell your General he has to give me a maintenance schedule, so this doesn't happen again.”

  Private Blazzo used the last of his cigarette to light another. “Whatever.”

  Mick returned to see that Colonel Paige and Dakota had joined Mac and Mac made a quick introduction. “Mick. Colonel Paige and Dakota. Colonel Paige has one hundred fifty men at the ready.”

  Mick shook hands quickly. “It's good to have some backup, but I'm not kidding this thing is going down right now. We've patterned these guys and stacked the deck. We can't risk upsetting that apple cart.”

  Colonel Paige interjected. “If we could extract your people, I could join my forces with your Captain Grey.”

  Mick shook his head defiantly. “These people not only want to do this, they need to know they can do this.”

  “I hear you. We are here locked and loaded. Say the word and we can move in.” Colonel Paige responded.

  “Captain Grey has started the first phase by now. The next phase won't start until the patrols change in a few hours. Percy's team is going to take the security building. I can get a radio to him to drop off here, so you can follow along.” Mick explained quickly.

  “Ivy and my girls?” The concern in Mac's voice obvious.

  Mick put a hand on his friend's arm. “They are good, I swear. I won't lie to you, we've lost a lot of people and what they are making some of the women do, just ain't right.”

  Colonel Paige faced Mac. “How much do you trust your Captain Grey?”

  “I'm
the one that asked her to lead our militia, I still stand by that. It's not easy being this close and have to sit on the sidelines, but yeah I trust her.” Mac answered.

  Colonel Paige clicked her radio. “Maintain radio silence. Stay alert, but don't act unless you hear from me. Paige out.”

  Mick made his way out of the utility shed and left the three to wait in the dark. At the Club, Amy was doing her best these past few evenings to fill Tobin's role as short order cook. Thank God that was ending. As usual once the selected men, moved to the rooms down the hall, Crystal went around for last call. It was the hardest thing Crystal did, to ask her friends to keep playing courtesan to these lowlifes. Stu Redding did what he could, by hand picking who got drawn, especially tonight.

  Crystal passed out the final drinks and coffees to the guards and Sergeant Redding. “Drink up boys its closing time.”