“Please tell me that wasn’t the other crew,” Nikolai said with a sigh. Steve nodded. “Well then, we’re leaving, they’re not, fucking idiots!”
“We can’t just leave them,” Steve pleaded.
“Yes we can,” Nikolai corrected him.
None of the people that Nikolai had grouped with were especially bright, with only Greg having a few good moments. Nikolai suffered from complete psychopathic symptoms, complete lack of empathy, with no cares for anyone but himself. That was a good day for Nikolai. On a bad day, he was beyond blood frenzied, killing at will anyone that argued against him. Thankfully for Greg, today was a good day.
They had built planks along the roof tops to make escape routes if something like this should happen. Nikolai led the way to the vehicles and got in with the eight others that were with him. Nikolai drove an SUV while Steve took a Jeep to follow the convoy heading toward Detroit. They kept a two mile cushion between them and the massive convoy.
“Hey!” Max yelled after the two vehicles. He turned to the three other men. “You stupid fuckers had to shoot!”
Max led his four man crew to their vehicles when a plank snapped, sending two of his men down to a host of undead below. He watched with no emotions as his men were quickly mutilated and devoured. Max then tried to help the other jump over, but the man missed by centimeters. He fell to a gruesome death. Max safely got to his vehicle and followed his group to Detroit.
-----
Evan’s house was deathly silent until three vehicles pulled up in front of it. Evan was the first to get out of the Police SUV. Mandy got out of the passenger side while August and Sergeant Covington got out from the back seat.
Sarah had driven a new truck that Robert had found for her. She had taken Jeremy, Robert and Specialist Alex smith. The third vehicle was Eric’s Humvee. He had three passengers and a gunner. Eric had three guards posted on the road while they gathered Evan’s family. The Humvee would carry the bodies to the grave site back at the safe zone.
They ignored the bloated hulk of a man that lay in the entrance hall. He had no signs of natural decomposition according to Eric. No maggots were found on or around him.
The first body they gathered was Eliot. The four-year-old’s body had begun to decompose. Evan’s helpers had to ignore nature’s way of taking care of the deceased or they would have wretched. The smell alone almost caused them to vomit.
Colleen wasn’t decomposing properly. Flies and maggots seemed to ignore her completely. Emily was a different matter.
“I had to do it, Evan,” Sarah said after they took Emily’s body out. Evan studied Colleen’s body vacantly. “She had already turned when I found her.”
“She must have bled out from that wound on her arm,” Eric said, observing Evan’s wife. “I bet it was that big guy down stairs who did that.”
“The important thing is, she’s not suffering anymore,” August said. “Sarah did the right thing to destroy her.”
“I still don’t know anything about these things,” Eric said. “Let’s get her out of here, and we can talk about this later.”
Like Doug, the service for Colleen and the kids was short and emotional.
“Colleen, I know you are in heaven with Eliot and Emily,” Sarah said. “You will be able to enjoy your motherhood with good company. We’ll miss you three deeply.”
Evan stood quietly with Tracy in his arms. Tracy had thought the entire time that Colleen and the kids had gone with Evan when he left for Phoenix. When she realized they were gone, she was very upset.
“There it is, Selfridge Air Base,” Eric said. “Behind there is a neighborhood large enough for all of us.”
“What about the safe zone?” Evan asked.
“That’s going to be a forward base to deal with the undead in the west,” Robert said.
“Exactly, and the National Guard Post will be used to monitor the north. We need our eyes on Colonel Arthur Hummsfeld and Captain Joseph Spelasky.”
“We’ll have Detroit covered then,” Evan thought out loud.
“You will be elected the chief officer for the shambler duty, Evan,” August said.
“Ok, I wanted that position,” Evan said. “As long as I don’t have to kill any living person, I’ll be fine.”
“We’ll make sure we won’t put you in a position where you’ll have to,” Eric said. “Robert, can you fly that beast?”
A line of military helicopters sat on a tarmac.
“Not without a proper crew and a good maintenance staff,” Robert said. “I can teach some others what I need, but it’ll take time to get even one off the ground.”
“Tell me what you need,” Eric said.
“Let me talk to members of your crew who are confident enough to want to learn. After that, we’ll go through some training. I’ll have a maintenance crew take a few of those apart piece by piece to learn what everything is, and then reassemble one. Once we get some air time under them, we’ll work on a daily work load. I won’t get in one of those things until we have that.”
“You don’t sound enthused,” Evan said.
“You heard about crashes from accidents in war zones,” Robert said. “Those things weren’t even shot at. They still crashed, because someone made a mistake. You don’t just get into those things thinking you can fly them instantly. A good pilot needs proper training before he gets into a cockpit. We’ll get a bird up though, after I get a crew together. We just need to clear out that mess though.”
“Leave that to my team,” August said. “Are your squads ready, Eric?”
Sergeant Covington raised his thumb, as did Sergeant Greg Humphrey.
“Let’s go,” August said.
August led Jeremy, Walter, Master Sergeant Marcus Gage, Specialist Alex Smith and two squads to the gates of Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Inside roamed dozens of reanimated soldiers. August and her team were motivated not to allow one to remain walking after today.
Equipped with silenced M4s and full armor, they moved forward in waves. Muffled pops occasionally muttered out through the otherwise quiet air. Their only communication was hand signals. Shamblers fell as the team moved forward. Once a good enough area was clear of the undead, the spear teams came in with Robert and Evan leading.
“Ok, you take out the shamblers out in the air strips,” August said. “We’ll take down the uglies at the tarmac. Eric will take his team to the residential area. We’ll work our way to the command center and meet there.”
“Got it,” Robert and Evan said.
Robert didn’t waste any time. He led his team of ten guardsmen through the air field to take out any shambler they came across. There was a cluster of them at the north gate that had to be thinned out to be destroyed. Robert used the same porcupine formation that allowed him to defeat Doctor Grayson’s attempt to overrun the safe zone.
“Thin and kill,” Evan told his team when roughly half the cluster came after them. “Stay focused.”
Both teams stayed on task while driving their spears into their target’s heads. They refused to allow any to get behind them.
“They’re down, Evan,” he heard Robert say over his earpiece. “Let’s head over to the command center.”
Evan’s team of ten started for the command structures.
“Look there,” Robert called out on his radio.
Evan looked at what Robert was pointing at to see a long line of freshly dug dirt.
“Mass graves I’m guessing,” Robert said. “It’s the exact same thing that we found in Warren.”
“I wonder who’s in them,” Evan said quietly.
Robert waggled a finger in the air.
“No military jets in the air since this all started,” Robert said as he approached Evan. “I’m guessing the directive wasn’t just for civilians.
“Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap,” a private on Evan’s team blurted out.
“Logic or not,” Robert said. “This was a big fucking waste of very fine individuals. Eric wants
me to start up a crew for getting some helicopters in the air? This would have been a nice start.”
Evan saw that Robert was quite angry about the discovery.
“We still might find someone,” Evan said.
“I’m not so sure,” Robert replied.
They moved forward without saying much more. The command center was nearly cleared out already by Robert’s team. August arrived shortly after Evan’s did. They waited for an hour before Eric’s Humvees showed up. All of their fifty calibers were raining mutilating shots on a quickly shrinking swarm of shamblers.
“Jesus, did nobody survive here?” Evan asked as they watched the bloody carnage.
“We’ll have to check each building,” Robert said. “Maybe people have gathered in a barrack or something. I hear you though.”
Evan realized it was a complete reversal from their earlier conversation. Evan had been the positive one, now Robert was the one holding a bit of hope.
The gun fire from the fifties ceased before the Humvees arrived at the command center.
“The place had fallen from stupidity,” Eric told everyone on the teams. “That bunch we just mowed down looked to be in the hundreds. They were all gathered around a few bodies on the opposite side of the residential area.”
The squad leaders went into the main command complex while the rest went through the other buildings on the base. A few dormant shamblers were inside the complex. Eric led Evan, August and Robert through to destroy them. They located the commander’s office at the very back of the second story.
“Well, I guess I should’ve been expecting this,” Eric said. “General Nathan Powell lived by the gun, and he died by the gun.”
A man with a massive hole in his face lay hunched over a desk. A smaller hole rested on the back of his head.
“He was executed,” Robert said. “Was it by his men?”
“That’s my guess,” Eric replied.
“We might have found a mass grave on the airfield,” Robert said.
“Looks like the general was telling us a story here too,” August said. She read from a yellow note pad. “’I need an explanation to why I keep hearing a rumor about some army men coming on the base. No one came to me, but now I have a lot of my airmen dropping like flies.’”
“Explains the mass graves,” Robert said.
“That was written the night before it all went down,” August said.
“Someone knows about all of this,” Evan speculated. “Someone in Washington set this entire thing up.”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Robert said.
“There’s more,” August said. “It’s hard to read most of it with the blood stains. ‘My entire command’s morale has been deflated’ I think it says. ‘They are a bunch of raving lunatics. Troops are shooting each other regardless if they are friends or not. Those men and women who are suppose to be dead,’ can’t read the rest of that line. Well, this is interesting.
“’They are going after the residents now, and I don’t have anyone left to stop them. They are attacking and eating,’ that’s where it ends.”
“A microcosm of what happened to the rest of the country took place here,” Eric said.
“I’m guessing that last line is where the bang happened,” Robert quipped.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Eric said. “Let’s go back outside to see how the others are doing with their search.”
Once outside from the stagnant and horrific smelling confines of the command complex, the squad leaders gathered information from runners.
“Nothing yet,” Evan said.
Each time Private Swan returned, Evan’s hope sank lower. Once all of the buildings were checked, the decision to clear out the bodies was made. Eric asked the group if they wanted to bury the bodies, or burn them. They elected to bury them.
“Collect IDs of everyone we find,” August said. “Who will dig the graves?”
Evan looked around at this squad. Each member nodded at him.
“My squad will,” Evan said.
“Thank you. We need people to make grave markers.”
“We’ll do that,” Robert replied.
“Awesome, we’ve got something going here,” August said. “My squad will gather the bodies. Where should we set the grave site?”
“There’s a good spot by some willows along the lake,” Robert replied.
“We’ll head out to find some shovels,” Evan said.
He took his crew to the residential neighborhood to search for enough shovels and work gloves that they could find. When his squad returned, the work had already started. Robert’s crew was making the head markers from fence posts. Eric split his crew up among the others to help. Eric himself took a shovel and helped dig. August and her team started to line the bodies where they were to be buried.
As the graves were dug, the bodies were placed in. There were a lot of bodies to bury, but no one regretted making the decision to do it. Nearly all of the men went shirtless as they worked, and the women took off their heavy uniform pieces down to undershirts. Some went to nearby houses to find shorts instead of the uniform pants. The sun began to set by the time half the bodies were laid to rest.
“Hey everyone, want some help?” a familiar man’s voice said behind Evan.
Evan stopped digging momentarily to see if it was truly Cameron. He was shirtless and covered in dirt and sweat.
“Oh hell,” Evan said.
He hopped out of a three foot deep grave to approach Cameron. The giant was accompanied by a dozen other men and women. He was going to hug Cameron, but he felt awkward without having a shirt on. Matt didn’t care and he hugged Evan tightly around his stomach. Evan gave the young man a hug back.
“We could use all the help we could get,” Eric said. “Great to see you again, Cameron. Did the mission go ok?”
“They lost quite a few people, but we got all the kids back safely,” Cameron replied. “Take a break Evan.”
Cameron took Evan’s shovel from him.
“We have a bunch more by that willow,” Evan said. “Matt, could you help Robert by writing names on the grave markers?”
“Sure,” Matt said. Evan noticed Matt move off awkwardly, favoring his right hip.
“He had an incident,” Cameron said. “He has a nasty gash on his hip from falling through a floor. He was pursued by a group of biters.”
“Well, he’s home safely now,” Evan said. “So are you. I can’t take anymore deaths of people close to me.”
“I can’t either,” Cameron replied. “We’re taking this base?”
“This will be the main location for the civilians to stay,” Eric said. “They’ll have the best protection here from the reanimated and maniacs in here. We will also have two outposts.”
“Sounds good,” Cameron said. “Gina, say hello to Major Eric Wright.”
Gina went to Eric. She took his filthy gloved hand into both of hers.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Gina said.
“Hope most of it was positive,” Eric said.
“You’re a man of principles and values,” Gina said. “These people are very lucky to have you with them.”
“I appreciate that,” Eric said. “Cameron found you in Nebraska?”
“Yep, I was stationed at the Kearney armory.”
“Wait a second,” Eric said. He seemed mildly surprised. “You’re a soldier?”
“Private Gina Mantellione, United States Army National Guard,” Gina said. “179 Infantry Regiment, but I was moved to Kearney for communications support, so I’m also affiliated to the 101.”
“Welcome to our growing family,” Evan said.
“Ok, a few more,” Eric said. “We’ll stay in the barracks tonight.”
The crew had buried the children they had found first. Most of the boys and girls didn’t have any IDs on them. Robert gave those children names. Evan thought about his children as he dug. The thoughts fueled him with anger.
Evan got help fro
m Cameron and Eric to get out of the six foot deep hole for the little girl they were about to bury. Once he was out of the hole, he threw the shovel angrily to the ground.
“She could be my niece,” Evan growled. He didn’t realize he said it out loud.
“I buried five of my children,” Eric said while he dug. “I also buried my wife, by myself.”
Evan looked at Eric thoughtfully after the last comment.
“You and me, we’re alike, Mister Carter,” Eric said. “Family is everything to men like us. We bend over backwards to give everything we can to the people we love, but we are robbed of those people. I’m not a man who openly wants to kill a person, but I will. I’ll kill an abusive man, a rapist, just like in St. Louis. A man like that deserves death.”
“Yes he does,” Evan said.
They placed the bodies of three women into the next three graves. Once the dirt was shoveled over the bodies, Eric dismissed everyone for the night.
The squads went into two separate barracks for men and women. Most of the soldiers crashed almost immediately. A few of the less exhausted troops volunteered for guard shifts.
“Never thought I’d ever get to see what Selfridge looked like from inside,” Evan said when he found Eric sitting outside the men’s barracks.
“It’s a good base,” Eric said. “You never went to an air show or the museum as a kid?”
“I grew up in Lansing, plus my dad was a religious nut. He didn’t agree with military policies of occupations, so he avoided anything that had to do with military.”
“Wasn’t your brother in the military?” Eric asked.
“Navy,” Evan replied.
“That must have gone over well,” Eric said.
“Mark could do no wrong,” Evan said. “I was the black sheep, the lost liberal disgrace.”
“You are the one sitting here with me,” Eric pointed out. “If you were my kid, I’d be very proud of what you’ve done so far.”
Eric laughed at something he must have been thinking.
“I don’t really know you, Evan, but I think you’re a valuable person to have with us.”
“Thanks,” Evan said. “I’m glad you’re on our side.”
Detroit Reanimated Page 30
