I reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder and then pulled her in close. She melted against my chest and closed her eyes. “You did exactly the right thing. You did what you had to do to save as many as you could. I have lost friends in battle, I have lost friends during this tragic time. I take solace in the people I could save, and I honor those who gave their lives, so I could do my job,” I smoothed down her hair and rubbed her back.
“As we arrived at the facility, soldiers rushed us inside. I explained to them what I wanted to do, and a man named Coomey brought us up here and put us in there. He said he would lock us in and not to open for anyone. Shortly after that the building exploded in sound. We heard numerous guns firing, and then screaming, and then silence. Someone kept pounding on the door and trying to get us to open. I could see them in the camera feed and knew they were not the kind of men who had our best intentions in mind. We’ve been locked in here for a while, I had thought about opening the door a couple of times, and then I learned how to use the computer inside to check on the cameras around the base. It never seemed like a good idea to come out, so we stayed in there.”
I thought about the information she had given me, and even though I was not the kind of guy who could take that kind of information and create some kind of out of the box thinking like Dan could, I was not too shabby. “Think you can show me this computer and camera feeds? I still have a mission to complete before our bird comes back to collect all of us.”
“You have a helicopter? You really are going to get us out of here?” she, pulled away from me, and took one of my mighty paws into her small delicate hands, and led me into the safe room.
“I promise you that and all these kids are going to get out of here. I will make sure of it.”
Danielle sat me down at a laptop and booted it up. “I don’t know how we still have power, but the laptop keeps recharging every night.”
“Probably some big battery backup system somewhere in the basement. Can you show me the cameras available?” I put a reassuring hand on her back.
Danielle worked through the program and brought up numerous views of the outside of the base. Even though we hadn’t seen them from the fly over in the Osprey, the base was still pretty much covered in dead. Maybe the sound from the engines had brought them out of their confinements and out in search of food. We worked through all the available cameras, until I noticed something and asked her to stop on one particular camera. When Ridder had hit the base Amanda, Julie, and the rest of the intelligence group had been in a separate building set aside for just them. From what the camera showed, the place was a mess. Overturned desks and cracked monitors. I could see bodies scattered throughout the room, but the cameras were not good enough to identify anyone. I had worked with those people and I was feeling their deaths.
“Can you show me a path to that camera my people and I can use?”
“Yes, but that building has the highest concentration of those things.”
“We can make it through, that is what these guys are trained for,” I assured her.
“What do we do?” Danielle looked like she was about to start panicking.
“Do not worry hun, I want you and these kids to lock yourself back up in here. I will radio my base and let them know about you. When we return from our side mission, we will get you out of here and safe.”
“But what happens if you don’t make it back?”
“Then I will have someone from another team come get you. I promise, you will not be left behind.” I needed her to agree.
Danielle bit her bottom lip and stared at her hands for a while before answering. “Okay, I can do this. It’s only a couple of more hours of being stuck in here.”
“I will even leave you a radio, so you can talk to us,” I pulled my heavy pack off my back and dug through it till I found my backup radio. I had always believed in the two is one, one is none saying. I set the proper channel and entered the proper encryption codes and showed Danielle how to use it.
“I know how to use a radio, grunt. I did work in intelligence,” she playfully hit my shoulder and then gave me a sideways hug. “I am so grateful for you and your team. Without you I wouldn’t have known what to do to protect these kids.”
I wrapped an arm around Danielle and pulled her in close. “You would’ve figured it out. All that adapt and overcome stuff,” I gave her a wide smile showing my teeth.
“You better get going before I change my mind. When you leave the building, head west toward the motor pool and loop around behind it. There will be a baseball field, from there head in a straight line. I will guide you in from there.”
“Thanks Danielle,” I stood and circled my finger in the air.
The team had been sitting around with the kids but listening in on my little conversation and were ready to go in a moment’s notice. I stood in the middle of the team and scanned the children sitting on the ground looking up at us.
“Alright kids, we need to go find some friends of ours, but we will be right back. And when we come back, we are going to go on a cool helicopter ride. So, do us a favor, and stay here and listen to Miss Mei.”
The youngest of the bunch, a little Mexican girl with pigtails stood up and saluted. “My mommy said you always saluted soldiers,” she squeaked out in her falsetto voice.
“Attention!” bellowed Nunzio.
The team snapped to attention. The rest of the kids stood quickly and raised their hands in salute. We saluted back and smiled at the kids.
As we stepped out of the safe room a thought struck me and I waved for Hicks to come up to me. “If they close that metal door, will they be able to call out to us on the radio?”
Hicks studied the door and got a look on his face. “No sir, they will need to leave the door open.”
“I thought so, damn.”
“I got this Sasquatch,” piped up Dead Eye. He removed one of his side arms, grabbed a spare magazine, and ran back into the room. A moment later, he came back out wearing a smirk. “I may just be in love! That Danielle says she figured as much about the hatch, and happily took my sidearm. I was going to show her how to use it, when she rattled off the specs for it. When we come back I am so shacking up with her.”
Kot punched him the shoulder. “Aww, Limpy has a crush,” and then broke out into laughter.
“Enough ass grabbing, get your game faces on boys and girls,” Nunzio growled out and moved quickly to the stairway door.
We quickly cleared the rest of the building, finding no one else, alive or an infected. When Ridder had attacked the building, they had efficiently executed everyone in the head. That may have been a terrible thing, but it simplified our job and helped us save ammo. We stepped out through the front entrance and onto the top of the concrete stairs. We oriented our position and moved off at a quick time marching pace. We emitted no sound, except for our breathing and footfalls, and even that was muted with our heel to toe steps. We stopped at the motor pools outer fence and took a knee, as Dead Eye broke off from the group and moved across the big open square to the antennae array he had picked for his over watch. We covered his approach, until he climbed up and over the chain link fence, and half way up the tower. We then moved off around the motor pool that Danielle had directed us, and out into the baseball field. It was then we found our first obstacle.
A small group of twenty rotting meat bags stood in our way. They had not seen us yet, but one of them had his head turned up and I swear to God, was sniffing the air. I had not seen one of the zombies ever do that before. I was always under the impression that they attacked what they could see or hear only. I tapped Nunzio on the shoulder to get his attention and pointed out the anomaly. At first, he shrugged his shoulders as if to say “and?” I waited for a heartbeat and then saw understanding dawn on his face.
“What the fuck?” he spoke quietly.
“Yeah, I have never seen that behavior before.”
“My body cam is recording everything we see so the boys back on the Rea
gan can figure this shit out. I suggest we shoot these fuckers, before they catch onto us,” just as Nunzio had finished talking, the sniffing zombie turned his head sharply to us, dropped his jaw and let out a high pitch scream.
I wasted no time bringing my suppressed SCAR to my shoulder and delivering a round straight into the nose cavity of the zombie, popping his head like a ripe melon. As if on command, the rest of the team fired off their suppressed fire into the rest of the dead mottled group. After the fury of suppressed gunfire, the area became quiet as we waited hunched over. At first, I thought we would be safe to start moving. That is until five distinct answering screams broke the silence of the night.
“Uhm, Sasquatch, I have a couple of good size hordes moving toward the baseball field. You might want to start moving. Straight ahead looks clear, over.” Danielle voice reported over the radio.
I motioned to Nunzio to move it and we took off as one, legging it across the field as fast as we could. Even though we could move faster than the zombies, they could overwhelm us, with numbers, and if they got lucky and surrounded us we would be dead rotting meat like them. I had the longest stride in the team and quickly outdistanced them. I came to the boundary, a low chain link fence indicating homerun territory. I easily hurdled the obstacle and spun around bringing my SCAR to my shoulder to cover the rest of the team. It was then I became aware of the sheer number of zombies who had caught onto our trail. They seemed to be moving faster than the ones I was used to up to now, those worm farms were slow like their joints were frozen, but these things were speed walking. They were not a danger to catch a running soldier, but they would never tire or stop. After a while we would have to rest, and that is when these things would become a problem.
“Sasquatch, Dead Eye. The whole base looks to have come alive and moving in your direction. I can see a small horde that is moving in to flank you. I know these shit pounders are not smart enough to do that, but there it is. If you guys leg it out to the building straight ahead and head starboard, you should be able to hook around them before they intercept you. Over.”
“The Dead Eye guy is correct, I checked the cameras. It’s like they know where you are heading and are working on cutting you off at the pass. Over.” Danielle reported.
“Alright, you heard the calls. Move it double time to the building straight ahead and head starboard. “That would be a right, Hicks.” Nunzio yelled out.
I again lead the team across the field and stopped when I came to the building. I pointed my SCAR to Port and covered the team as they ran past me going Starboard. Two zombies, who had been teen girls in real life, turned the corner and moved at a slight jogging speed. Another new thing from these zombies. I ventilated their heads and took an extra beat before turning and running after my team.
“You should be clear for another three hundred yards. You see that three-story building next to that concrete hangar? Over.” Danielle called out on the radio.
“Yeah I see it. Over,” I panted out over the radio.
“That’s the building where your friends were stationed at. Over.”
“Got it, everything looks clear on the camera? Over.”
“Not all the cameras are working over there, but from the working ones it looks clear. Over.”
“Good enough. Break. Dead Eye, how does it look from your vantage point? Over.”
“Path looks clear, but I cannot see too much, it’s extremely dark over there and these things do not show up on the infrared scope very well. Over.”
“Roger, keep a look out. Out.” I passed Kot, the fastest runner of the team, and winked at her as I went by.
“Not fair, you have bigger legs!”
“All’s fair short stuff,” I called back to her as I moved on. I could keep this pace up even with my weapon, and weight of my pack for at least another mile.
I slowed my pace and allowed the team to catch up to me for the last thirty yards or so to our objective. Something seemed wrong to me, I motioned for everyone to stop and dropped to my knee. I switched on my low light scope and brought it to my eye. I could just make out the front entrance of the building, I had no idea what I was expecting to see, that is until movement just to the left of the building caught my eye. I zeroed in on it and waited a moment. It was by my count, from what I could make out, ten zombies. They stood in their spot slowly swaying back and forth, if it had not been for the small movement, I never would have found them.
“Left of the entrance to the objective, I have a count of ten,” I alerted my team.
“Why haven’t the cameras or Dead Eye found them?” Nunzio asked.
“They’re in deep darkness where they are, and Danielle reported not all of the cameras were working. We may need to alter our plan to gain access to that building.”
“Let Hicks and I range out, we will circle the building and look for a safer route,” Kot offered.
“Go,” Nunzio ordered.
Kot and Hicks separated from our little group and melted further into the darkness. I took lead and moved us closer to another building. I didn’t like sitting out in the open.
“Hey Dead Eye, what is the position of that horde we escaped from? Over.” Nunzio called out.
“Moving in your direction, but they seemed to be slowing. I am seriously spooked at how these things are acting. I swear they are setting up an ambush, it’s like they know which way you have to go, to get out of there. Over.”
Nunzio tapped my shoulder. “Yeah, we will deal with that, hopefully it’s just an anomaly, once we are done with our mission. The boys back on the Reagan are going to be surprised with all this new behavior of the God damn zombies,” I answered his unasked question.
The big clock I kept in my head seemed to be speeding up, and time seemed to be in fast forward. It was a symptom of hanging out with our asses in an unknown situation. I tried breathing exercises to bring my heart rate down, but it didn’t help. I tried to meditate, I tried clearing my thoughts, I tried thinking about Lewis, but nothing seemed to work. I was focused on our position and objective. That would usually be a good thing, but I couldn’t calm down. I was not an ice-cold operator like the rest of the team. I was about to ask Nunzio to move up and take over command when, my radio came to life.
“Kot to Sasquatch, can you hear me? Over.”
“Go for Sasquatch, I read you five by five. Over.”
“This place is thick with infected, but I believe we have found a way in. The structure next to our objective is the same height and is an easy three-foot jump. Hicks has already reconned the interior and found it empty. Over.”
“Roger, wait one. Over,” I turned to Nunzio to get his opinion.
Nunzio’s eyes locked onto mine, as he mentally worked the problem. Then slowly like a moon rising over a mountain range, he broke out with a mischievous grin. “I believe this is meant to be, big fury one.”
I hit him in the shoulder with slightly more pressure than I meant, if it hadn’t been for the building at our side, he would’ve been on his ass. “Sorry Guido, get the team ready.”
Nunzio rubbed his shoulder and gave me a blank stare. “Roger sir,” he turned and hand motioned to his men indicating what the plan was, and then spun around and delivered a punch that if he had hit a smaller man, would’ve possibly broken his arm.
I felt pain, but tried not to show it or grimace. I moved forward, SCAR at the ready, guiding my way. I checked once behind me and found Nunzio and the other two men of his team. It then hit me, I had never learned their names. I would have to fix that later.
I don’t need an ass kisser
It seemed like every time Dan tried to take a breath, he was being led around the Reagan into yet another meeting. The meeting he found himself sitting in now, was one he actually found interesting. He had the IT and communication weenies in the room. They were explaining how they had changed all the codes of their communication equipment, and the roadblocks they kept running into with other commands.
Dan sighed loudl
y and slapped the table to bring the bickering and side conversations under control. “I cannot keep up with all this tech speak. Let me ask some questions, and let me warn you, if you don’t give me a dumbed down explanation, I will have one of my Secret Service guys throw you off the side of the ship. Got it?” Dan met the gaze of every man and woman in the room, including Commander Langham, who was leaning against a bulkhead, an amused look on her face. All heads in the room nodded in understanding. “Good. First thing I want to know is, have we made contact with any other forces or countries?”
A young woman raised her hand, as she flipped feverishly through a notebook.
Dan chuckled slightly. “You don’t need to raise your hand hun, but please remind me your name.”
The young lady blushed and stared up at her raised hand. She dropped it quickly to the table and looked up to meet Dan’s gaze. “I am not in the military, I belong to the now defunct agency known as the Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA. My name is Jene Biester, I was the Director of Operations for the West Coast. My team and I have been trying to connect with our old counterparts in other countries, but I am sorry to say a lot of them have gone dark. So far, parts of MI6 in England are still functioning. They have connected with their Navy and some Royal Marines that have not given up power to Ridder. They have been tasked with securing Liverpool and the surrounding coastal towns. They say that the Queen is still alive, but her son and her two grandsons did not make it. They have been lucky so far, and have not yet had any heated battles with Ridder, but they have saved an estimated one million citizens, and an estimated two hundred thousand military personnel. All of Scotland has gone dark, not one patrol sent up there has come back, and all calls for communication have been ignored.
We have also been able to reach our Canadian friends, who have moved a significant number of their citizens north, to protect them. They have had some small pitched battles with Ridder, but nothing like we have seen. Australia is doing amazingly well; it would seem that Ridder could not move fast enough to control that country. The government moved their forces into the infected areas quickly and destroyed all infected personnel. The Germans are holding on by the skin of their teeth. Most of our other European allies are quiet and not responding to calls.
Zombie Theorem: Dark Times Book Five Page 7
