by Mike Kraus
Chapter 4
Frank sighed and shook his head as he jogged along next to Linda. It had been two hours since they left the chaos of battle behind, though they could still hear the occasional explosion and sound of heavy weapons fire. Thick, acrid smoke drifted through the air, blotting out the sky and making it impossible to tell what time it was. The streets were quiet apart from the battle raging off to the south, and while Linda had initially been hopeful about their ability to find Omar’s location, she was starting to feel more than a few doubts.
She had assumed that once the mortars were taken care of, she and Frank would be able to take the Humvee and continue north in search of Omar’s location. The gunfire from the buildings had prevented them from taking the vehicle, though, and they ended up having to go on foot instead. Linda’s optimism hadn’t wavered at the start of their journey, expecting that they could pick up some sort of hint of Omar’s location from clues left behind by the attackers as they had made their way south to their emplacements in the buildings.
Block after block revealed nothing, though, and as Linda grew more discouraged, Frank’s upbeat attitude began to grate on her. He was surprisingly positive, asking questions about Omar and his past that seemed wholly irrelevant to the situation at hand. She bit her tongue, though, until they were sitting down inside a small bookstore on the corner of an intersection taking a breather and getting a bite to eat.
“Any idea what his—”
“Frank.” Linda’s reply was wrapped in frustration and weariness.
“What?”
“Enough. Okay? Enough with the questions. None of this matters for finding Omar. Nothing about his parents or his history or his living arrangements or what kind of shirts he likes to wear will matter in the slightest when it comes to actually finding him.” She caught herself raising her voice at him and sighed before reaching out to pat him on the arm. “Sorry. I’m just frustrated by all of this.”
“No kidding.” Frank smiled and passed her a canteen filled with water. “We’ll find him, though. It’s a big city, but we’ll find him.”
“How is it you’re so certain?”
“I dunno. I just get the feeling we’ll run into him sooner rather than later.”
She shifted in her seat to face him, crossing her legs and putting on an expression of curiosity. “All right, Frank. You’ve been asking me non-stop questions. Why don’t you answer one for me? Where do you think we should look to find him?”
“Well,” he furrowed his brow, “it seems to me that you’ve been thinking he would be close to the action. Right in the thick of it. But I don’t necessarily think that’s true.”
“And why not?”
“He’s been very involved in all of this mess from the start, but how many times has he actually been in the middle of it when there’s been a risk of him being caught?”
“Hm?” Linda cocked her head to the side, not seeing what Frank was meaning.
“Okay, so like, he created that virus that killed a bunch of people. But he didn’t personally deliver any of it. He worked to get the nukes into the country, but he never planted them in the cities.”
“That we know of.”
“That we know of, yes. But you see what I’m getting at? It seems like he’s been directing all of this from backstage. He’s letting his minions do the dirty work while he sits back and bides his time for… something.”
“For what?”
“That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”
Linda sighed, growing frustrated. “I don’t see what this has to do with figuring out where he is.”
“It wouldn’t make sense for him to be anywhere close to the attacks on the survivor city. He’s got to be somewhere to the north. Heck, even Sarah said something along those lines.”
“So where do we look for him, then? We’re a couple hours north of the fighting and there hasn’t been any sign of anyone around here. It’s just abandoned building after abandoned building.”
Frank looked out through the window of the store and nodded. “That’s our problem. We need to get some perspective on the situation.” He stood up and headed out the front door, with Linda hot on his tail.
“Perspective? What are you, a philosophy major or something now?”
“No, you—how is it you’re a Marine Raider when I’m the one to realize that we need to get to high ground?”
In a flash, Linda knew what Frank’s ramblings all meant. With the tall buildings all around them, they had a limited view from which to see signs of Omar’s men coming and going. For all she knew, they could be walking by a block or two away and she wouldn’t know it if they were on foot. Searching for evidence of their passage could take days or longer on foot, but if they got to an elevated position, they’d be able to see anything out of the ordinary.
“Up there.” Linda pointed to a tall, twenty-story hotel that was the highest point in the area. “If we get up there we should be able to see anything unusual in the area.”
Frank grinned and slapped Linda on the back. “Good idea. Let’s get moving.”
***
Half an hour later, Frank held his side as he wheezed for breath. A large ‘15’ was painted on the wall in front of him, and half a floor up Linda leaned over the railing to look down. “You okay there, Frank?” Her face was red and her limp had been more pronounced while walking up the stairs, but she wore a smile that irritated Frank more than he wanted to admit.
“Oh, yeah,” he panted, “doing just fine. Never better. Not annoyed at all to be outpaced by someone with a leg injury.”
“Well hurry it up, would you? Just a few more floors to go and then we can take a breather.”
“You know what?” He struggled to talk as he kept moving, taking the stairs one by one in a plodding, methodical fashion. “I think you’re taking this whole ‘perspective’ thing too seriously. Why couldn’t we just look for signs of him from the tenth floor?”
“The roof’s better. Now quit talking and hurry up!”
Frank groaned and shook his head but kept going, somehow overcoming the burning pain in his legs that made them feel like they were about to catch fire and shatter into a million pieces. Several minutes later, as he neared the top of the building, he heard a metallic thud and a bright beam of light cut through the dark shaft. The sound and light spurred him on and he reached the final floor just as Linda finished ascending to the roof via a ladder. Frank shut off the flashlight that he had been using and followed her up, glad that the access to the roof was large enough to accommodate him while he was wearing his backpack.
Up on the roof, Linda was already heading toward the edge when she glanced back and gave Frank a wave. “Take a look over there.” She pointed to the opposite side of the building. “Look for anything suspicious.” With Linda heading to the east side of the building and Frank to the west, they began scanning the streets and buildings, looking for signs of life in what had—from the ground—looked like a dead city.
Frank leaned up against a tall air conditioning vent as he scanned the city, trying to give his aching legs a rest. The cloud cover from the fires was clearer where the pair had stopped, but the air was still thick with the smell of smoke. Light—he still couldn’t tell whether it was morning, afternoon or evening—shone through the soot and dust in the air, casting rays onto the ground that moved and vanished and reappeared at the whim of the breeze.
He looked back at Linda and called out softly, not wanting to be heard by anyone who might be nearby on the streets below. “Hey. What should we be looking for?”
“This was your idea, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah. What are we looking for?”
“Anything out of the ordinary.”
Frank rolled his eyes as he turned back to look out at the city, muttering under his breath. “Out of the ordinary, she says. Sure. That’s just incredibly helpful.”
Visibility across the city was low, but the most defining characteristic of it was a compl
ete lack of movement. No cars or people roamed the streets, and even the firefights carrying on to the south were far enough away that they were nigh-on impossible to see. He scanned out to the west, where the city gradually turned into apartments and then condos and then homes with yards. All of the people living in them were no doubt to the south, wondering what was going to happen to them, and whether or not they would survive the fight.
“Frank, here. Now.” Linda’s voice was low, too, but had a sense of urgency about it. He took one final look out to the west before turning and walking over to her. His legs felt like rubber and every step was excruciatingly painful.
“I really wish I had worked out more before all of this.”
Ignoring his groans, Linda pointed out to the northeast. “Look out there. Notice anything?”
Frank followed the path of her finger, starting close and gradually looking farther and farther until he spotted what she was talking about half a mile away. “Is that a light?”
“Sure as hell looks like it, doesn’t it? I saw it a minute ago, bouncing and bobbing all around. I think it’s coming from inside that building and somebody doesn’t realize they’re giving us a light show.”
“It’s not far. You think it’s him?”
Linda looked back to the south then swept her gaze back to the northeast where the light was located. “It’s far enough away from the action to keep him safe but close enough that he can be involved.” She looked at Frank and nodded. “I think it’s him.”
“Huh. I guess we’re heading out, then.” He turned and took a step, then groaned again and reached out for her hand. “If my spaghetti legs can make it.”
Linda snorted in amusement and took his arm around her shoulders. “You know, it’s a good thing you’re halfway smart. Otherwise you’d be useless right about now.”
Chapter 5
Anticipation. The word didn’t seem strong enough to describe the feelings coursing through Frank’s entire body, and he could feel himself shaking. Each new building they passed through, each new corner they turned and each new step they took toward the place where they thought Omar might be brought greater and greater feelings of nervousness, fear and excitement. His legs, though they were still sore and felt detached from his body, were no longer of concern to him as he carefully followed behind Linda.
She had set an aggressive pace from the get-go, going first and taking the stairs down through the building two at a time and slamming into the walls as she rounded each flight, not bothering to even slow down. Frank had tried to keep up but ended up stumbling out of the front entrance to the building to find her standing across the street, crouched low and waiting for him with an annoyed expression on her face.
They said little as they went along, except to discuss possible routes that would keep them concealed as they approached the office building where they had spotted the light. The first sign that they were on the right path came as they were just half a block from the building in the form of the sound of a diesel engine starting up. The low rumble was quickly accompanied by the sound of a second engine, both of which sounded like they were quickly drawing closer to the pair.
Linda and Frank ducked down a nearby alley, crouching behind a pair of dumpsters as they watched the road with a limited field of view, waiting for the vehicles to appear. It only took a moment for the pair of large box trucks to roll by, both of them heavily weighed down based on how they bounced on the road. They went along slowly as the drivers avoided debris in the road, and Frank could see that there were three armed men in the front cabin of each vehicle, though the contents were a mystery.
“They’re heading south,” Linda whispered, “probably more reinforcements for the fight at the city.”
“Must mean things are going our way, you think?”
Linda shrugged. “Who knows. Not our concern right now, though. If they were loaded down with fighters then this is the perfect time to make our way inside.”
Frank took a deep breath and nodded to her. “I’m ready.”
Linda’s smile was genuine. “I appreciate you being here. I know this isn’t what you signed up for when you helped me out at that gas station.”
“I’m just happy to be here, with you. Helping to take this guy out, I mean.” Frank stumbled over his words, swallowing hard and avoiding her gaze.
“You’ve done way better than I ever thought you’d be capable of. Not bad for an accountant-slash-trucker.” She patted him on the arm and he smiled at her.
“Listen, Linda, before we go in, I wanted to ask—”
“Sh!” Linda put a finger to her lips as the smile and relaxed look disappeared, replaced with a wide-eyed expression of concern. “Hold the questions till later. You hear that?”
Frank cocked his head, listening intently until he picked up what she was talking about. A conversation drifted across the wind, coming from somewhere close by. It was loud and intense, in some language he didn’t understand, though the emotion behind the words told him more than enough. “Sounds like arguing.”
“Someone’s getting chewed out.” Linda peeked out from behind the dumpster and motioned with her head. “Come on. I need to get closer. I can’t make out everything they’re saying.”
The pair slunk out of the alley and down the street toward their destination. The building in question was illuminated softly from within, and the sound of a cluster of voices grew louder the closer they got. Linda and Frank slipped behind a row of rectangularly-trimmed hedges just outside the building before crouching down and holding still so they could hear what was being said inside.
“…not possible that they’re still holding out.” The first voice sounded tinny and had a slight staticky quality, and Linda realized that the person was somewhere else speaking through a radio.
“Possible or not, it’s true. We just sent two more groups to the front line. Without the mortars, we can’t advance.”
“Pound them with rockets, then!”
“We have been, but they’re ineffective at that range.”
A frustrated growl was followed by the sound of something breaking. “We need those codes! Direct the two groups you just sent down to come in from the east and west. Force their defenders to break off from their northern line to protect their flanks. Once they do, have the main force push across the river and attack them head-on!”
Linda’s eyes widened and she whispered in Frank’s ear. “We have to get word to Jackson. Warn him of what’s coming.”
“I thought we needed to get Omar first.”
“If they break through into the city and steal those codes…” Linda shook her head. “No. We need to make contact with Jackson.”
“How? We don’t have a radio.”
“No,” she said, “but they do.”
“So we’re going to walk inside and ask to borrow it?”
“After we kill them all, yes.”
Frank was about to argue with Linda over her ‘kill first, ask questions later’ approach when she started creeping behind the bushes over toward the door without saying anything else. Son of a… he screamed internally as he followed behind, wishing they could have come up with a better plan. She reached the edge of the bushes where the stairs met the building and peeked out at the half-open door. A sliver of cigarette smoke drifted out and Linda reached up to grab the rail on the stairs. She glanced back at Frank with an expression that asked if he was ready, and he nodded in affirmation.
In a smooth, catlike motion, Linda pulled herself up over the railing. When her feet hit the ground she pushed into the door with her shoulder while drawing a knife from its sheath on her chest. A faint gurgle was the only sound the man inside the door made as she slashed clean through his throat and grabbed his gun to keep him from pulling the trigger and alerting others to his condition.
Frank, feeling especially exhausted after all they had been through, exited the bushes and took the conventional way up the stairs before slipping inside the doorway. He gave the bleeding, q
uivering man on the floor a quick look before turning away to face Linda. She had already cleaned her blade and replaced it in its sheath and had her rifle up to her shoulder, waiting for his arrival. With a quick wave of her hand she signaled for Frank to follow her into the next room.
Based on the voices they had heard while crouching outside the open window to the building, Linda had expected there to be no more than two men in the room talking to someone on a radio. Supporting that assumption was the fact that they had said that two groups were on their way, so she figured that even if there were more people in the building, there couldn’t be too many. As Linda charged through the door into the room where she and Frank had heard voices, the sight of half a dozen faces turning to look at her made her heart skip a beat and she realized that she had made a dreadful miscalculation.
“Oh, shi—” Linda backpedaled out through the doorway while she fired at the men standing around a table in the center of the room. They were nearly as quick with their weapons as she was, though, and by the time she had dropped two of them the other four were already firing back as they maneuvered for cover. Linda pulled the thick oak door shut as a hail of bullets hit it and she ducked out of the way and looked at Frank who was wincing as he stood on the other side of the doorframe.
“Okay,” she said, “so I might have slightly underestimated how many there are.”
Shouts from inside the room were met with more shouts from upstairs in the building, which were swiftly followed by the sound of footsteps as several more people began running for the staircase located down the hall. Frank looked up at the ceiling then back at Linda as she shook her head.
“Make that drastically underestimated.”
“Do we stay and fight?” Frank fought to keep the panic out of his voice.
“No.” Linda made the decision quickly, without hesitation. “It’s a suicide mission. Besides, I haven’t heard Omar here, so who knows if he’s here or somewhere else.”
