They’d been told when they got back that the plane wasn’t coming in that night. It sounded like it would actually be coming the morning after the next night now. There’d been some kind of delay on the other end. They’d been glad for the reprieve. It meant that after spending the day doing manual labor in very stressful circumstances, they now got to spend at least the next twenty-four hours resting before they had to do it all over again.
Kyler lay there thinking of a suitable reply. He never got around to the reply though. The next thing he knew he was blinking in the light of the sun. Someone had come into the room and thrown open the curtains. Kyler sat up feeling groggy. His body felt weird. He realized it was probably because he hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in who knew how long. He threw his legs out over the side of the cot and sat up. Across the room he saw Rodriguez gingerly doing the same thing. Krantz was standing over by the window looking out.
“You guys have a nice rest?” He asked.
“Yes sir.” Kyler responded. Rodriguez had nodded his head along with him.
“Good. Rodriguez you go downstairs and get some breakfast. Kyler I’m taking you with me to do another sweep of the road. It’s a crappy day out so I’m hoping the Zombies stay in their nests for the day. Rodriguez, I want you to make sure you’re taking care of yourself. After breakfast get the dressings looked at and get back in bed. No booze today. Understood?” Krantz stared at Rodriguez.
“Yes sir. Thank you, sir.” Rodriguez said. He left the room to go grab breakfast. Kyler worked on putting his kit together and tying his boots. He’d allowed himself to get a little more comfortable last night before passing out than he normally did. The fire station seemed solid enough to withstand a herd and the people inside it were all professionals. He knew the worst enemy he could face out here was complacency. Every once in a while, you had to let your guard down though, or you’d fall over dead from a stress induced heart attack. He tried to think of the exact time when taking your boots off to go to sleep had started to seem like a luxury to him.
“You ready?” Krantz asked.
“Yes sir. Where are we headed?” Kyler asked.
“I just want to see the road you policed yesterday and make sure nothing new has decided to die on it. I wanted to look around and make there wasn’t a herd or anything hanging out that might impact the landing. Command let me know that this mission’s got eyes on it all the way up to the Senator. I don’t want any screwups to be our fault. Brotherhood brands or not we could still get orders to go clear out Zombie nests or religious nut jobs or sent up north to spy on those guys. We live on the edge of death already. No need to make our lives even harder by not doing a doublecheck.”
Kyler kept himself from asking for more details about the religious nut jobs or spying on the people up north. This was more than Krantz had ever said to him before at one time. He didn’t want to screw that up by asking too many questions. Instead, he just nodded and stood up ready to rock.
They took the same path him and Rodriguez had taken the day before. They were offered bows again, but this time Kyler just shook his head to decline. Krantz took one of them and casually tied it off to his pack. They scouted out the entire section of road Rodriguez and Kyler had cleared the previous day. It was still about as clean a road as you could hope for in the apocalypse. A small convoy with three hummers and a Penske moving truck passed by them while they stood in the woods.
On seeing the convoy Krantz decided they should wait and see if any Zombies came tagging along behind the vehicles. They sat in the woods for a solid thirty minutes before Krantz got the idea to call up to the radio men in the fire station and ask them to check and see if any of the other stations nearby where seeing any Zombie activity. They were told there was a group of about ten Zombies loping their way down the interstate in the direction the convoy had taken. They should be passing by them in about twenty minutes.
Ten Zombies was too many for them to take on without using guns so Krantz opted for them to stay hidden in the woods and observe. Once the Zombies passed by their hiding spot, they’d head back to the fire station for the night. About twenty minutes later a group of Zombies ran right on by them. The Zombies must be slightly adrenalized as they were all running at a sprint. Neither Krantz nor Kyler so much as breathed in the brief seconds the Zombies were streaking by them. Both of them flashing back to the new paranoia about the adrenalized Zombies having beefed up auditory capabilities.
Kyler got to thinking that if he was a pilot in this day and age he’d absolutely have insisted on landing in the morning as well. At night there was no telling what random Zombie may wander out of the woods and stand on your makeshift landing strip just waiting to go through the windshield of your plane. If it wasn’t a Zombie waiting, there was always the chance that a vehicle may pick that time to come cruising down the road as well. Most people still used their headlights at night but not everyone did. Plenty of military had NVGs and didn’t necessarily have to turn on their headlights to drive safely.
They arrived back to a bustle of activity at the fire station. The senior NCO for the men at the radio post immediately grabbed Krantz and pulled him aside to brief him on something. Kyler went off to find Rodriguez. He found him lying in his cot with a small bottle of Jim Beam.
“I thought you were going to focus on healing?” Kyler asked pointing at the bottle and grinning despite himself. The world was so screwed up and the trauma so great that you couldn’t really get pissed at anyone for having some sort of coping mechanism. For a lot of people that coping mechanism had unfortunately become some sort of substance abuse. So many people were hooked on drugs that seeing someone who stuck to just alcohol abuse was refreshing.
“It’s medicinal.” Rodriguez slurred from the cot. He hadn’t even bothered to look over when Kyler had entered the room.
“Dude. What if I’d been a Zombie busting in the room?” Kyler asked.
“Then I’d have killed you. Or you’d have eaten me. Or, I might’ve killed you while you were in the process of eating a chunk of me. Who the hell knows? Why you bugging me with stupid hypotheticals? What’s going on downstairs? Everybody got all excited about something about an hour ago but since then I’ve heard nada.”
“Yeah you might want to work on sobering up. There’s definitely something going on. I’ll go see if I can find out more.” Kyler started to leave.
“I’ll come with. Give me a second.” Rodriguez stood up to go with Kyler then fell back down onto the cot. The cot rolled away from him and Rodriguez ended up landing on the floor. Kyler walked over to help him up and noticed the back of Rodriguez’s pants were soaked in blood.
“Holy hell man. What happened? Did you try riding a horse or something while I was gone?” Kyler ignored the mumbling coming from the fully passed out Rodriguez and worked on putting the cot back together. Once he had the cot set back up, he put some fresh bedding on it. Not wanting to get blood all over the new bedding he took Rodriguez’s boots and blood-soaked pants off. Once he had the pants off, he grabbed the collection of bandages and first aid supplies he’d snagged expressly for this purpose. Luckily the fire house had been fully stocked with trauma supplies.
He was intently focused on trying to get all the blood off Rodriguez’s butt cheek when someone coughed above him. Looking up he saw Krantz and the fire station NCO staring down. Feeling a little awkward about his current position Kyler glanced up at them then and said hi. Then he went back to cleaning off the bloody butt cheeks spread out before him.
“We were coming to see if Rodriguez and you were up for a road trip. I’m going to go with Rodriguez needs to rest up some more and that no one besides you is going to want to be his nurse.”
“I don’t want to be his nurse either sir.” Kyler said. Krantz looked like he was fixing to answer when the NCO interrupted.
“That cut needs more than just bandages. Let me go grab my kit and I can get him sewn back up. It’ll heal a lot faster that way. Keep cleaning it a
nd get the area sterilized as much as you can.”
Kyler nodded appreciatively. He’d been thinking they should be doing more than just trying to hold the gash together with butterfly bandages. He hadn’t been sure how to go about it though. Rodriguez seemed content to just walk around bleeding all over himself, so they’d never really solved the treatment issue.
“Ok. Command lost contact with a whole looting team earlier and they wanted us to go get our eyes on the area and report what we find out. It’s only about thirty miles from here so we should be able to make it there and be back by tonight. We may have to wait until night to move in though. Anyway, I’m going to take the rest of the team and knock that out. You stay here with Rodriguez in case the plane lands early. If it does just collect the prisoners and drag them back here until we get back. Try to water down whatever Rodriguez is drinking so he can help out. Got it?”
“Yes sir. Sounds pretty straightforward.” Kyler answered. Krantz nodded at him then turned and walked out of the room.
The NCO came back in as Krantz was leaving. They worked together to get Rodriguez up on the cot. With the experience of someone who’s been there and done that the NCO sewed Rodriguez back together and slapped on a professional looking dressing.
“What’d you do before all this?” Kyler asked him as he was getting ready to leave.
“I was a corpsman. I’m probably one of the preeminent authorities alive today on sewing up soldiers. Although it used to be a lot more IEDs and shrapnel and less Zombie teeth and claws.”
“You sew up people who get bit?” Kyler asked curiously. A sad expression passed over the man’s face. A look all too familiar to anyone alive today. A look of profound loss.
“Not anymore. Learned my lesson on that one the hard way. Watch out for your buddy. I left a pack of antibiotics there. Make sure he adds that into the mix. Also, get him to drink less. Alcohol screws up the healing process and makes him an easy target for Zombies.” The corpsman left Kyler sitting in the room with a snoring, mostly naked Rodriguez.
Kyler waited about fifteen minutes then pulled the blankets up over Rodriguez and forced him to wake up and take one of the pills. The things were the size of horse pills which made Kyler wonder If maybe they were horse pills. Veterinary clinics were as open to be looted as any CVS and the medicine probably worked the same. Or, at least if the medical professional that’d just sewed up Rodriguez said it’d work then Kyler trusted in that. As dirty as this world had become it may be a better idea to just switch to antibiotics strong enough to cure a horse anyway.
Once he’d gotten Rodriguez to take his medicine Kyler wandered down the hall and asked if there were any clothes he could pick through. Most of the places people made into bases had a room full of clean clothes. People weren’t super interested in washing clothes too much anymore. At least not out in the outposts. Not when there was an entire Ross store down the road with enough clothes in it for them to wear new outfits weekly for years. The station had a room with clothes laid out in a few boxes. They had a different room people had been slinging the dirty clothes in as well. Kyler took the opportunity to change into some new pants and a fresh shirt.
Once he’d updated his wardrobe, he grabbed some new pants he thought may fit Rodriguez and a couple pairs of boxers before heading to the kitchen area. In the kitchen he took a pop top can of beans and a plastic spoon and shoved it in his pocket. With nothing else he could think of to do he headed back to the room with Rodriguez. He settled back into his cot after checking on Rodriguez to make sure he was doing ok.
Hoping the plane full of problems took its time getting there Kyler finished getting comfortable in his cot and quickly fell asleep.
Chapter 9: 99 Problems
Randy watched as his daughters were walked one by one down to use the bathroom. None of the guards had said a word to any of them since he’d tried attacking Gonzalez. He was still kicking himself for doing that. It’d done nothing but make the guards much more watchful and earn him a beat down. He couldn’t believe he’d tried to take down an obvious bad ass like Gonzalez with his hands literally tied behind his back. He’d deserved the beat down he’d gotten. Not to mention the WTF look Kelly had given him when he’d been tossed back into the closet. He’d actually been happy for the door to be closed and darkness to settle over them, so he didn’t have to see the disappointed look on her face.
All of the guards were super nice to the little kids. They’d obviously been given orders not to talk but that didn’t stop them from trying to make the girls laugh. They at least had the decency to look a little ashamed of themselves for shackling up kids and locking them in a closet. Myriah and Caitlyn got roughly the same treatment Kelly received. It was more like polite indifference than anything else. Randy, they treated like a convicted murdering piece of garbage. Which was exactly what he was in their eyes. The case could be made that this was all Randy’s fault. If him and Tony had just stuck with the program, they’d all still be living safely in the Brotherhood camp.
They’d have had to take orders and may have gotten separated. They’d have lost some of their individual freedoms. They wouldn’t be sitting in a closet with handcuffs on waiting to be shipped off to some concentration camp to be executed while their girls were drugged up and forced into arranged marriages though. Randy couldn’t believe after all they’d been through. After everything they’d done that this was how it was going to end. The guard brought Caitlyn and Doreen back in and shut the door. Those were the only two allowed to go two at a time since the soldiers had no desire to assist in toilet time with the toddler.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Kelly asked Randy in the darkness.
“Really? Cash literally sitting around in stores and banks for the taking and all you can offer me is a penny? You need to up your game if you think you’re getting access to my cranial conjugations.”
“Do you even know what conjugation means?” Kelly asked him. It was too dark to see her but by the tone of her voice he knew she was smiling.
“I know it starts with a ‘C’ and sounds smart.” He responded.
“You mean like my name?” Caitlyn chipped in out of the dark. The kids were always so quiet now that it was sometimes hard to remember they were there. Especially squished into the dark little closet. It was beyond sad how they’d learned to retreat into themselves.
“This is an ABC kind of conversation.” Randy told her.
“That’s great you two. How about we get it together and add a little focus to maybe trying to escape or at least survive the current situation?” Kelly said interrupting the banter she knew would just keep on going if she didn’t step in.
“Well. We’re handcuffed and locked in a closet guarded by a bunch of goons with guns. I had a pleasant conversation with one of our hosts and he told me we’re being transported up to Georgia and then probably separated. They’re already wary of us my dear since you knocked one of them out of a moving truck and I tried to head butt their leader to death with my hands tied behind my back. Anybody else got anything?” Randy asked sarcastically. He only realized how much of a jerk he was being when he heard Myriah start sobbing.
Caitlyn and the other girl’s all snuggled up on Myriah at Kelly’s direction to try and cheer her up.
“Real smooth. You do realize that whatever we say in this room may be the last memories they have of us, right?” Kelly whispered to Randy.
“I hadn’t actually thought of that.” Randy said letting the truth of that statement sink in.
“Well I think we need to face reality. We’re both dead. We need to do what we can to try and keep Caitlyn and Myriah from going down with us. You said they’ll probably just put the littles in their training camp, right? That’s a hell of a lot better than being dead. At least they’ll be taken care of and have a chance. They’re strong girls.” Kelly’s voice broke and she was the next one crying. All the girls including Myriah came over to try and comfort their mother. It was all made awkward since none of
them could hug the others except for the three little girls. The guards had given up trying to tie wrap their arms together since the handcuffs didn’t fit and no one considered them a threat anyway.
Randy and Kelly had both burnt some brain cells trying to come up with a way of using the littles hands to help them out of this situation but came up empty. The best they could do was maybe get the girls to run out the building while they all charged the guards when the door opened. Then you just ended up with the adults in the party either dead or beat to crap and the littles wandering around outside during a Zombie apocalypse. If there was one situation where you really wanted your kids to have adult supervision outside it was during a Zombie apocalypse.
“Don’t worry babe. The kids will be fine and if we can see a way out of this, we’ll take it.” Randy whispered in Kelly’s ear once she’d gotten the sobbing under control and everyone had gone back to their places. Each person making themselves as comfortable as possible on the dirty, hard floor with no pillows or blankets. They were scattered around on the floor in various states of fitful rest when the door opened to that room for the final time. As they were picked up and pushed out of the tiny, dark space Randy found himself already missing it. It may have been uncomfortable and cramped as hell but at least he’d had his family with him, and they’d been relatively safe.
Zombies! (Book 5): Greater Love Hath No Man Page 6
