“I wouldn’t do any heavy lifting if I were you, or any strenuous activities. I don’t want you to rip open those wounds. Other than that, you’re good to go.”
“Fantastic.” I jumped off the gurney, patted him on the back and headed for the door.
“Lex, wait a sec, just because your back is fine, doesn’t mean you should just jump right back in. You can take a little time, get your head straight. Everyone will understand.”
I actually laughed. I know he was trying to be helpful, but sitting around contemplating my existence wouldn’t help me.
“My head is straight, Doc, but thanks for the suggestion. Action is going to help me out a lot more than inaction. And there is a lot of action needed.” I didn’t let him respond. I had things to do now that I was pumped to go.
Sixty | Oohrah
ZACH
I hadn’t gotten into the building ten steps before I had Romeo on my heels.
“Tammi’s in the conference room. A few of the Guard pulled up this morning, there’s one in there with her, an Ivan Poche. I don’t remember him from the church, but it looks like he might have stepped up in the Major’s place. They want to see you and Blake. I don’t like how they are pressuring us. We just lost one of our own, they can’t expect us to go in there guns blazing. I want to take that shit out as much as the rest of us, but I don’t want to lose another man.”
“They lost one too, though, so I guess they are saying the exact opposite about us.”
“Yeah, but they have an agenda. They have no established base, and they want Lakeview for its location, not because of moral reasons.” He pushed the door open to the stairs and held it open for me.
“And we want it because of revenge and to eliminate an enemy at our back. Who’s more justified?”
“And to get those women and children out of there.” He looked over at me as if I had grown a second head.
“Yeah, you’re right. We got Lex out, I can’t even think about anyone else dealing with that shit.”
“I’ve thoroughly debriefed Melinda, the girl that got out with Lex, along with Clara and Lani. The bikers don’t sound like they have their shit together at all, but they have a lot of weapons. If you give a monkey a machine gun, he’ll hit something.”
“Ever cheerful, Romeo.” I cursed under my breath as I crossed the threshold of the conference room and took in Tammi and the new weekend warrior.
“I’m assuming y’all aren’t here to play cards,” I said in greeting. There was evidence of a card game scattered to the side of the table. The two turned from the map we had spread out on the light table in the corner. It had all our supply locations we’d hit mapped out, along with camps we knew we could fall back to if something ever happened to our compound.
“Zachary James, this is Sergeant Ivan Poche, he’s taken command of the remaining Guard,” Tammi said without batting an eye. Poche shook my hand, pumping it hard and almost comically.
“Don’t hurt yourself, sparky,” Tammi said, her face still stoic as she looked over at Poche. I had to choke back a laugh as I released Sparky’s hand.
“So, Marine, huh?” He was short for a man, around five six or seven. He also showed signs of having a paunch, now all dried up from the apocalypse diet. His Army diggies hung on him, too big in the gut. The apocalypse had a way of slimming down the overfed.
“Marine Raider,” I said in response.
“Oh yeah, heard about that group, y’all made a mess of Afghanistan back when we first went in.”
“Before my time. They had all their kinks worked out by my time. You did a combat deployment?” I asked.
“Not combat, supply, but I did two tours. Seems like a long time ago.”
“Not long enough,” I grunted and slapped him on the back. Hopefully now that he got his war story comparison out of his system, he could show me his cards. “And now we’re back in the shit, only this time we’re fighting dead people and biker gangs, gotta love the irony. Wonder how the haji are dealing with the dead?” I asked him.
“Maybe they started this shit, fucking biological warfare. I think I read a book or something where they did that. Cooked it up in the desert and let it loose in all of our ports.”
“I don’t have a clue how this all went down, so I would only be guessing. Since this all started, we haven’t had any contact outside of the city. Have y’all heard anything? The Major said he had been in contact with a group that had set up at Bragg.”
“We had a few radio bursts with a unit that is claiming to be out of Polk, nothing more. It’s only a matter of time. Once we establish control in Lakeview, we can send out scouting parties, get better equipment, maybe run to Belle Chasse or even Keesler in Biloxi.”
“And you’re basing this all on capturing Lakeview?”
“There is no other option. They are centrally located, in the best position and they are drawing in any travelers through the city, killing and imprisoning them or chasing them off. We can’t let them continue, not to mention they are in a strategic location and most of the equipment from the one-eighteen is there. We need to get that stuff back. We have to take back Lakeview, even if it means killing off every last one of those bikers. The human race has a chance to start over. It’s a shame that scum like that is what survived.”
“Preaching to the choir,” I drawled. I guess we were going to take down Lakeview. I knew it had to happen. I just didn’t think we had to jump right on it.
“So, you signed us up, Zach,” Blake said coming in the room behind me. He didn’t look pleased with the conversation he had just walked into.
“Gonna take down the biker gang, do a little land grab,” I said half-heartedly.
“Oorah.”
“Oorah,” I replied, a little numb.
Sixty-One | Supposed to Be
ALEXIS
Blake and Zach were in the conference room with two people that I hadn’t met, and Romeo. When I walked in, everyone turned to face me, and a big smile broke out on Romeo’s face as he walked over and pulled me into a big bear hug. Whoa, that was unexpected. When I froze, not because I didn’t like Romeo, I just wasn’t used to emotion from him, he seemed to regain his composure and pulled away. He patted me on the back awkwardly to try and cover up his obvious happiness seeing me up and kicking. Blake stepped up with murder in his eyes when he saw my wince of pain, but I shook my head to stop him. There was no reason to get everyone worked up about a few stitches, it was going to happen a lot, I was used to the pain.
“Glad you made it through the shit.” Romeo stepped back and looked me in the eye as if checking for any sign of breakage. “Looks like you have to eat a bit more though.”
“Everyone wants to feed me,” I said brushing away his concern. “I’m finally a size four, never thought that would happen in this lifetime.” I deflect well.
“She’s heard it enough from us, Romeo.” Zach pushed through the crowd and gave me a look that I read as his “concerned” face. Being a victim had ruined my street cred. I guess he had forgotten the fact that I had gotten my own ass out of that shithole. Hello, I kicked ass.
“Who’re the newbs?” I asked looking over at the new faces. One was a tall woman in her late twenties with mocha skin and her hair pulled back in a tight bun. The other was an older gentleman, probably in his forties, with military written all over him. Didn’t help that he was wearing those weird digital camouflage uniforms that looked like a Photoshop file gone wrong.
“This is Tammi Ryan and Ivan Poche. We hooked up with them while trying to find you. Ryan is a State Trooper and Poche is National Guard.” I walked over and shook their hands.
“We’re trying to get your group to take down the Lakeview gang with us, seems we finally came to an agreement. This has to be done. This cancer has to be eradicated before it expands,” Tammi Ryan stated plainly. “We became aware of them about a month ago and they’ve been our primary focus ever since. I’m glad you made it out of there. I can’t imagine what you’ve been thr
ough.”
“From what I’ve heard, I was lucky. Have you spoken to Melinda yet?” I changed the subject. I still didn’t want to go there, I will not paint victim across my forehead. “She was in the camp for a lot longer than I was.”
“Yes, and from what she’s told us, they’re not very organized and most of the men in the camp are just as much prisoners as the women and children,” Ivan said. They were looking down at a map of the Lakeview area.
“Lakeview is an optimal base of operations. If we were to regain control of the area, we could close the floodgates and have only one or two points of entry, creating a living area on par with the old walled cities of the past,” Tammi said, indicating points on the map. “This was our goal when we pushed into the neighborhood, only to find that a biker gang had already taken up residence.”
“Y’all hooked up with police and the Guard and you are just telling me now?” I looked at Zach and he just shrugged.
“We were a little busy,” Blake chuckled and I could have kicked him.
“What kind of numbers do y’all have? Shit, are you in contact with any type of command?” I asked Ivan.
“We made contact with Fort Polk a couple weeks ago, but the connection has been spotty. They’re still semi-organized, from what we can tell. We reported in and are waiting for word. We’ll see.” He shrugged and moved back to the map.
I moved up next to them and looked down at the map. The base was clearly marked and there were other points on the map they had marked, probably what were look-out stations for the gang. It looked like the bikers watched all of the points of entry, except the North, which was the Lakeshore area and secured by a large levee. It could be easily breached though. If we went in through that area we would have a few blocks to cover through the neighborhood, but we could drive the utility vehicles over the levee, they weren’t that steep.
“What’s this?” I tapped an area that was marked off near the interstate.
“Our FOB.” When I looked at Ivan in question, he laughed and responded, “Our closest base of operations. We have six troopers and ten soldiers holed up in a church. The gang doesn’t push this far, they usually head into Metairie.”
“So, when are we doing this? When are we taking the fuckers out?” I asked.
“There isn’t a ‘we’ in this, Lex, you’re staying here and letting us handle it,” Blake said.
“Don’t even start with your caveman bullshit. If anyone deserves a little payback, it’s me. I’ve already taken out their leader…that’s more than you two.” He looked pissed, but I didn’t care. I was tired of him looking at me like I was a victim. The word RAPE emblazoned on my forehead like a pathetic beacon of victimhood. I was pretty sure that they didn’t believe me when I said nothing had happened. It was in the way they looked at me, the way they had first touched me. It had started to wear off yesterday. I thought it was completely gone this morning, but now those looks were back.
“Alexis, I know you killed their leader, but this is going to require a tactical assault and we’ve been trained,” Zach said, but my look cut him off.
“You can’t cut me out of this, Zach. I’ll stay out of the way of any tactical shit, but I’m going in and I’m going to make sure a bullet lodges itself in Junior’s brain. I need this.”
They both looked skeptical, but I could tell they were going to let me come with them. Right before I had to blackmail them with no sex for a week, Tammi stepped up and slapped her hand on the desk.
“I say the more skilled shots we have with us the better, and now you have to fill me in on Junior.” I could have hugged her.
“Oh, y’all better sit down. I got a few things to tell you about this place.”
It was time to get a couple of things off my chest.
“And where is Martinez? Shouldn’t he be in on this?”
Sixty-Two | Well, Shit
ZACH
How do you respond to that? We all just sort of turned and looked at her. No one spoke, Poche looked confused. Alexis wasn’t stupid, she caught on quick.
“What happened to him?”
“We lost him when we were running surveillance at the school,” Blake said.
“Biker or zombie?” she asked straight-up.
“Zombie,” I said.
“We lost the leader of the National Guard group too,” Tammi added, like this was some sort of condolence.
“There were just too many of them, we were almost out, he got bit, it could have been avoided,” Blake said and my guilt made it out to be an accusation, even though I knew he wasn’t directing it at me. It still hurt.
“He died trying to get me out,” Alexis said quietly, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
“Even if you weren’t captured by the gang, we would have gone in. We came out this way to recruit your group in an effort to take them down with help. We would have gone in no matter what. We would have run surveillance at the school. The Major would have led everyone into the gym, just like he did on that mission. There would have been casualties. Martinez’s death seems pointless and tragic, but we will take Lakeview and we will eradicate the scum that has set up shop there. We’ll free the ones they’re holding hostage and Martinez’s sacrifice will be for that cause. He was a soldier and he died in pursuit of the promotion of freedom. He was a hero and he died a hero,” Tammi said and I was surprised to find that her eyes glistened with unshed tears. She really meant what she said. She believed in this mission. She didn’t want Lakeview for its strategic positioning. Her goal was to free the women and children and eradicate the gang.
Alexis wasn’t holding back her tears and I went to her side, pulling her to her feet and wrapping my arms around her.
“His last thoughts were of you and getting you out,” I whispered and a sob escaped her lips.
“Just when things seem right, when I find a moment of happiness, it gets ripped away from me,” she hiccupped.
“I know, Lex, I know. We wanted to tell you, but it just got away from us. We didn’t know how to bring it up.”
Blake stood to the side of us. A few times he reached out, but put his hand back down. I knew he wanted to join us, reassure Lex, but we were unsure about people’s impressions and what they would think. I personally didn’t give a fuck, but this wasn't the time to assert our lifestyle. It was a conversation for later.
“I need a moment,” Lex said, pulling from my arms and making a beeline for the hallway.
“Why don’t we go see what Bubba cooked up for lunch.” I held the door open as everyone filed out, playing host, but only wanting to go to Lex.
Sixty-Three | Chances Are
BLAKE
I found her in my old office, sitting on the floor wiping at her eyes. I sat down next to her and didn’t say a thing.
“You shouldn’t have risked coming to get me,” she said softly.
“And I shouldn’t have left. We could place the blame anywhere, baby.”
“I know, but, hell…Martinez, I just, he was the best of us.”
“It usually is, Lex, it’s never the asshole, it’s never the skater. It’s always the best of us that throws himself on the IED or takes one in the head from the fucking sniper because he was hanging back to make sure everyone made it inside. Which is what Martinez was doing, he was making sure all of us got safe. He was the last one out, as usual, and he got bit. I can’t say anything that would make it better, all I can hope is that he’s found peace. Whatever that may be.” I took her hand in mine. Her skin was soft, but a light layer of moisture clung to her, like she had broken out in a sweat. I felt a momentary panic and sucked in a breath.
“Lex, are you feeling okay, why are you sweating?” I looked into her face and noticed a thin line of sweat clung to her upper lip.
Live (NOLA Zombie Book 3) Page 20
