Zombie Theorem: Dark Times Book Five

by James Wallace

  Apache pressed her head into the dirt and wept, till a hand touched her back and a man’s voice reached her. “Hey baby, you okay?”

  Apache rolled over and looked up into the water drenched face of Hase. He had been the man on the firetruck manning the water hose. He pulled her into his lap and pressed a kiss against her forehead.

  “To tell you the truth, I’ve been better,” she cried, tears falling down her face.

  “Sadly, this is not the worst day I have ever had. It’s in the top five though,” Hase pressed his lips against hers and they kissed long and hard.

  Tess picked through the debris from the house with Gillian and Stacie. They had found Nunzio and the two men named DP One and Two. None were alive, they had taken the brunt of the explosions. They couldn’t find the rest of the team, no matter how hard they checked in the debris.

  “Hey Dehe… whatever the fuck your name is. Over here, I need help!” A deep man’s voice yelled.

  Tess turned and found the big black man named Johnson waving at her from the tree line further back. She rushed over, waving Gillian and Stacie to help. As they came closer, they found the limp body of Kot in Johnson’s arms. Dead Eye laid on the ground on his back. His eyes were open, his face extorted into twisted pain.

  “Report big man,” Tess ordered.

  Johnson looked up to her with a cocky smile. “This little damsel in distress is just unconscious. Her vitals are strong. We were blown back from the explosion. Dead Eye here is the worse off of all of us. I think his knee is shattered, he hit two trees and landed right there.”

  Tess roved her eyes over Johnson as he grimaced standing up with Kot in his arms. A trickle of blood came from his side. “You’re hurt, you’re bleeding.”

  Johnson spread his grin further. In the immortal words of a great movie; “I ain’t got time to,” as he hunched his shoulders and chuckled. “You get the rest of it I’m sure,” he carried Kot away toward their team lead Apache.

  With the help of Stacie and Gillian, Tessa was able to get Dead Eye moved over to the rallying position next to Apache. Morley backed up the fire engine and climbed down from the driver’s side with his ever-present cigar in his mouth.

  Thanks for staying classy

  As I walked through the carnage of the big fight, I heard my name yelled out from the other side of the firehouse. I found Apache and what was left of my team. I slid down to the ground cradling the baby in my arms and looked over the men and women around me.

  “Report Apache.”

  Apache turned her head and stared at the baby. “We got our asses kicked around a bit sir, took some losses, but in the end we won.”

  “Who did we lose?”

  Apache closed her eyes and tears rolled out from under her lids. “Cupcake, Nunzio, Hunter, and the DP guys. Severely injured are Howser, Dead Eye, and Kot who has yet to wake up. Walking wounded are Johnson, Hase, Me, and I take it you guys.”

  Doc eyed Apache. “Did he go out fighting?”

  “Yeah Doc, Cupcake kept us alive with the minigun. Took a fucking Apache helicopter to take him out.”

  “A warrior to the end. Gonna miss that Polish asshole,” Doc took his helmet off and dropped it to the ground.

  Everyone stared at me and the baby in my arms. “This baby marks the end of one mission and the beginning of another. It seems Dan’s father Eugene rescued this little one, as her mother Julie died. Our new mission is getting this baby home safe,” I looked around till I found Morley leaning against a big red fire truck. I would ask about that later. “What vehicles do we have Morley? We need to get our asses moving.”

  Morley took his cigar out of his mouth and stared at his feet. We have one Humvee and the truck, oh and this big red bastard. Not sure how far it’s going to get us though, it sucks fuel like a crack whore does dick.”

  “Thanks for staying classy Morley,” Tess jumped in.

  “Am I wrong?” He put his cigar back in his mouth and chewed away.

  I ignored Morley and counted the people we had left. I counted fourteen with the baby. The Humvee and truck were not going to be enough to get us home. I handed the baby to Athena, pulled my pack around and dug out the satellite phone, I had a call to make.

  I dialed in the number and waited. A man’s voice answered this time. “Please tell me you have good news.”

  “I don’t even know what good news is anymore.”

  “Sasquatch report,” Kuppers ordered.

  I gave him the rundown of everything that had happened and gave him our position. “We need extraction, quick.”

  “I don’t know what we have in resources right now. Try and head south, keep the phone on, I’ll call you back as soon as I have an answer. Good job Sasquatch. Kuppers out.”

  I put the phone in my thigh pocket and limped back to the team. I gave them a complete no shitter recap and our orders and waited for whines and excuses. Instead they got up, scrounged all the supplies they could, and we crammed into the vehicles left. It was a tight fit and a lot of us sat in the back of the truck or on top of the Humvee. I sat in the back of the Humvee, the baby in my lap. Not once had she cried, she mostly slept. Two hours later and somewhere on the north side of the Columbia river on a back road, my phone rang in my pocket. We slowed and stopped as I took the call.

  “Go for Sasquatch.”

  “I have a way to get you. We have some new friends and they have agreed to lend us some airframes to get you. Do me a favor and don’t fire on them when they show up to pick you up. There is a big clearing coming up in about ten miles in front of you. Pull off the road and wait. I think it is best you deliver all the news to the boss in person.”

  “Thanks for the assist Kuppers.”

  “Thank me when you get your ass here.”

  It surprised me when a grey Russian Mil Mi-26 heavy lift helicopter that NATO codenamed Halo dropped from the sky and landed in the clearing. I was tempted to fire on the helicopter, but relaxed when the flight technician called out my name and waved for us to hurry. We loaded our injured, dead, and the rest of us into the cavernous helicopter.

  Athena came over and sat next to me, taking one of my hands. I had not put the little girl down once since we had left the firehouse behind.

  This is not up for debate

  After we touched down on the Reagan, Kuppers met me as I was crawling out of the helicopter. A woman was next to him.

  “Sasquatch, this is the ships doctor Maeve. She says that it is vital she check on the baby, before you present her to Dan.”

  I looked her over and held the baby against my chest. “This baby is not leaving my sight, I will be following you and sitting in during your examination,” Kuppers opened his mouth to speak when I reached out and grabbed onto the front of his uniform and lifted him an inch off the ground. “This is not open for debate, got me?” I growled.

  “I was just going to say, sounds like a great idea to me Sasquatch.”

  I smiled and put him back on his feet. I nodded to the doctor and followed her off the deck and into the carrier. The rest of my team offloaded our dead and injured. I should’ve stayed behind and dealt with that, but I was fixated on the little one. We entered the medbay and found that it was cleared out just for us. I finally relaxed when the hatch behind us was closed and dogged. Athena came up to my side and placed her hand on my elbow. I met her eyes and thanked her with a nod. I handed the baby to the doctor and tried to breathe.

  Maeve extricated the baby from the pack and unwound her blankets. She stopped and looked over to me. “When was this baby born again?”

  “Eugene said a week ago, I think.”

  “This baby is in excellent condition, maybe a little hungry, but she seems very alert for a newborn. She hasn’t even cried the entire time she’s been in here. Let me give her some shots and bathe her. Then you can take her to meet her daddy.”

  I nodded my head with relief and immediately fell unconscious in Athena’s arms. I woke up startled when I heard a man’s voice.
“Brian?”

  I rolled over in a hospital bed and was greeted with Kuppers staring down at me. “Holy fuck you are ugly,” I moaned and rolled over. Then a thought hit me like a ten-pound sledge hammer. I sat up quickly ripping an IV out of my arm. I ignored the twinge of pain. “The baby!”

  Kuppers put his hands on my chest. “Shh, she is right next to you.”

  I whipped my head around and paid the price for the action as I immediately felt nauseated. I closed my eyes for a moment and breathed in deeply and regularly till the feeling subsided. When I opened my eyes, I was met with the most beautiful smile I had ever laid eyes on. The baby, who still did not have a name. She had her eyes open and staring up at me. I moved a hand down and placed it on her, almost covering her entire little body.

  “Did you know you were injured by the way?” Kuppers asked.

  I moved my hand down to my side and found a bandage and staples closing a four-inch gash. “Had no idea.”

  “You were bleeding pretty bad and passed out. The doc took good care of you. You were only out for two hours. Feel up to a meeting with the President?”

  “Do you think he wants to see me? Last time we spoke, he said not to come back without Julie and his dad,” I dropped my head, feeling like I had let Dan down.

  “He already believes his father and Julie were dead. Ridder had sent us a little present showing they were being tortured and to prove it sent their ring fingers. I think you and this baby could do a lot to change him for the better.

  Thank you

  Dan opened his eyes and sat up in his bed groaning, holding his head with both hands. He had not slept that much since before the whole world was thrown into chaos. The light coming from the overhead fixtures threatened to tear his head open.

  “Relax Mister President. The sleeping medication I gave you is going to take a while to shake off. If it is okay, I am going to add a vitamin additive to your IV. Should help it stave off the effects,” a female voice came from next to him.

  Dan turned his head and opened his eyes enough to take in the woman to his side. At first, she was someone else. The name Amira flew through his head. He shook it off and squeezed his eyes shut and reopened them. The woman was his doctor. He tried to smile at her, but anything he tried doing, made it feel like he was going to die.

  “This is the worst hangover I have ever had. Even in college It never got this bad. How long have I been out Doctor Meagher?”

  “Please Dan, call me Maeve. I had you sedated for over ninety-six hours. You were very close to full organ shutdown. If you had tried to push it, you would’ve gone into a coma that I might not have been able to bring you out of. So, I put you into a prescribed medically induced coma to give your body time enough to repair itself.”

  “Ninety-six hours? I am going to need a full briefing of everything right away. Get my cabinet together and have them meet me in the wardroom in twenty minutes,” Dan tried to stand and would have fallen to the ground if Maeve hadn’t caught him in time.

  “I don’t think you will be making that meeting just yet. First, we need to get some solid foods in you, and then a shower. After those vitamins and food have had their chance to help, we will see about you taking that meeting. Doctor’s orders supersede the President’s every time. Sit back sir,” Maeve arranged the pillows behind Dan to prop him up into a sitting position.

  A rap at the hatch echoed through the room. “Come,” called out Maeve.

  The hatch opened and in walked Kuppers followed by a nurse and a steward from the galley with a tray of food. The steward placed the food on a nearby table and disappeared back into the corridor and remerging with another tray with a pitcher of juice and coffee. When he finished, he spoke to Kuppers quietly and left the compartment, quickly shutting and dogging the hatch closed.

  “Good to see your eyes open Mister President. You gave us all a scare, glad you are back though so I can give you back your power. I never want that responsibility ever again,” Kuppers spoke.

  “Not so fast Kuppers, the good doctor has informed me that I am not fit to take back my role just yet.”

  “I think I could handle another couple of hours of this burden, but no more than that,” Kuppers chuckled.

  The nurse and Maeve helped move the food over to Dan. He ate slowly, as the medical staff bustled around him checking his vitals. He was starting to feel a little better, a little more like himself. Kuppers sat nearby reading over a pile of folders from his bag. Dan kept looking over and tried to read the file names on the folders.

  “What is Omsk?”

  Kuppers closed the file and read the tag on it and smiled to Dan. “A city in Russia,” he reopened the file and continued to read to himself.

  “Why would you have a file with that city name on it?” Kuppers ignored Dan as he finished reading the contents. He closed the file and slid it back into his bag, took another and pulled it out, opened it and continued reading. Dan read the name on this file and tried to burn holes in Kuppers as he continued to ignore him. This tag said Zunyi, Dan racked his head trying to pull the info out, but instead all he gained was an escalation of a headache.

  “Zunyi and Omsk they are both cities. Why do you have files with those names on them?”

  Kuppers sighed and closed the folder. “Zunyi is a city in China, where New President Zhao has been evacuated to protect him from the zombie’s pressing west. Omsk is a city in Russia, where President Nikolai is running his war on the zombies, as they keep pushing the Red Army east. I have been in contact with both Presidents and shared with them all of our info concerning the Culling Initiative and Ridder. In turn, they have agreed to join our Naval Forces and help us solve our Ridder problem. I have promised we would return the favor once CONUS, Continental U.S. is clear of Ridder,” Kuppers leaned back in his chair.

  Dan took another spoonful of the soup the nurse was feeding him, as he thought. “I never agreed to anything like that.”

  “Nope, but you did make a big point that we should care about other nations and their people. I took the spirit of your orders and expanded on them.”

  Dan ate his entire meal and allowed the nurse and doctor to help him to his private shower. Kuppers continued reading his files, while waiting for Dan to finish. As he read through another file, a knock on the hatch came.

  “Come,” Kuppers called out.

  The hatch opened, and I ducked in carrying the baby in my arms. Kuppers directed me to the sofa across the room. A couple of minutes later Maeve, the nurse, and Dan dressed in a suit came out of the bathroom and headed over to a chair next to Kuppers for his briefing. With his back to me, Dan had no idea I was there.

  “Nurse Williams, I got this, the rest of you are relieved,” Maeve dismissed the nurse.

  “Dan, I have someone very important you need to debrief,” Kuppers explained to Dan.

  “Who is that?”

  “Me,” I answered.

  “Brian?” Dan turned in his seat and stared at me eyes wide.

  “Yes, Mister President, I have something for you sir,” I stood from the sofa, the little baby hidden in the crook of my arm. I moved in his direction.

  Dan stared at me. “Thank God you’re okay.”

  “I failed at my mission, I am sorry,” I dropped to my knees and dropped my head in defeat. Dan closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He looked like a man who had gone through too much. He had aged ten years, since I had last seen him.

  “You didn’t fail. While you were gone, I learned that Julie and my dad were already dead. I paid back their deaths a thousand times over,” Dan’s voice had no energy behind it. He spoke as if through a whisper.

  I looked over Dan’s shoulder to Kuppers. “Can I have a moment alone please?”

  Kuppers and the doctor stood up and moved out into the corridor, giving me the time, I needed with Dan. I quickly outlined my journey to Washington. Dan looked more and more tired as I spoke. I took a break to move over to Kupper’s chair.

  “Brother, I
found your father. He was badly hurt and bitten. He had given his life for this,” I moved my arm around and showed the baby.

  Dan sucked in a deep breath of air. “What?”

  I moved the baby toward him and handed her over. Dan’s hands were trembling with emotion, until he touched the baby’s blankets. He pulled her in close to him and gazed into her eyes.

  “He told me to tell you that when you think you are at your end, to hold on to the people who love you. He said to tell you this baby is the start to a new world, one which you need to secure for all of us who make it to the end. He said to give you his love and that he has never been prouder of you as he was right then,” I had to clear my throat many times as I spoke.

  Dan held the baby in his arms staring down at her. He was lost in her eyes. “Julie wasn’t pregnant.” he shook his head in disbelief.

  “Remember last time you spoke to her she said she had something to tell you. Maybe this was what she wanted to explain.”

  “Does she have a name?”

  “Your dad never said.”

  Dan moved the baby to his chest and closed his eyes. He smelled the baby and shivered. “My daughter, I will call her Amira,” he smiled, and his eyes lit up for the first time in a long time. “I have done things that I could never be forgiven for. Do you think she will still love me when she is old enough to understand what I did? For the destruction I have brought to thousands?”

  “Brother, she will learn to understand your reasoning and love you through it all. I know, because I have already forgiven you for what you have had to do,” I placed a hand on Dan’s knee.

  Little Amira seemed to brighten Dan’s demeanor. Almost as if she gave him a reason to live again. Brian had seen this effect on Dan before, when a certain little girl would sit on his lap and fill him up with love. This is the connection that Dan needed to become the man everyone had relied on to save them all.