by JT Sawyer
Chapter 1
Carlie and her team of five trotted up the stairs of a medical research facility in downtown Sacramento, California. Accompanying her were Eliza, Matias, and three other newly trained operators. In the ensuing months since her arrival at Fort Lewis and the possibility of a cure through Pavel’s research, Carlie’s team along with a half-dozen others had been combing the Western U.S. for additional medical equipment and laboratory devices that could aid Pavel and his group of scientists. Besides this constant quest, they were always on the hunt for fuel and several of their missions consisted of escorting convoys of tankers back to Lewis.
This latest mission was the twenty-ninth in the past sixty days since Carlie and her crew had settled into Fort Lewis. Since then, she had spent endless hours on helos flying to derelict cities to salvage centrifuges, incubators, immersion circulators, and anything else related to ramping up for large-scale production of the antidote once it was completed. Pavel had made it clear that he was still several months away from a breakthrough but everything was falling into place as long as he had a constant supply of research equipment for his lab.
Sgt. Major Ron Duncan, who oversaw field operations, had formed several high-level units comprised of experienced fighters to conduct such retrieval missions, most of which were performed at night to reduce encounters with the undead. Each were led by seasoned operators like Carlie or Shane with members being cross-trained in a variety of skills to complement the six-man units. Shane was asked to head up one of his own comprised of three men who were experienced combat veterans along with Amy who served as the team’s medic, and Jared, whose security-hacking and lockpicking skills had proved indispensable on numerous occasions at high-level facilities. When they weren’t on missions, they were training together, gathering intel on potential sites to procure more supplies, or serving as a rapid-response team to quell a zombie horde threatening one of their six smaller outposts in Washington. Matias remained as helo pilot for both teams but now had joined Carlie’s ranks temporarily, due to the recent loss of one of her men in a zombie attack in Eugene, Oregon.
As they entered the lobby, the rain on the streets intensified, making it difficult to hear. She motioned to her group to take a knee. Everyone squatted behind overturned furniture in the pre-dawn light as they waited for the storm outside to abate.
After she was done reviewing the floor plans in her head, Carlie’s thoughts turned to Shane. She thought about him a lot lately, often at inconvenient times like now. She was used to compartmentalizing her personal feelings—a coping strategy she had used for years in a job where personal feelings were afforded little space in the workplace or beyond. The life of a Secret Service agent had always been governed by endless hours on the clock and constant time abroad on assignments. It had become nearly impossible to foster any kind of romantic relationships and she had simply given up, immersing herself in her work rather than the occasional one-night stands that her male co-workers enjoyed. Then the pandemic changed everything and her life became about even greater responsibility. Carlie had become so tired of being on the frontline hunt for a cure that she just wanted to be left alone when they weren’t conducting missions or involved in training. She had withdrawn into herself in an attempt to hold onto some semblance of sanity though her thoughts of Shane, with his rugged features and teasing grin, only kept getting in the way of this approach. It didn’t make things easier that he kept making his intentions known with his compliments and occasional overtures. She always shrugged him off or indicated that there was some pressing post-op work to be done, then retreated to her room to read or just sit in the pleasure of silence away from shooting, explosions, or the moans of the undead.
Carlie knew that she couldn’t keep putting him off and she also didn’t want to risk driving away a man she adored and had feelings for. She just wasn’t sure how to balance her needs for what miniscule personal space one could get under their current living conditions and her desire to be closer to Shane. It was a struggle just to admit to herself that such desire was beginning to push its way upward from a heart that was accustomed to being constantly sheathed in discipline.
Ten minutes later, the rain had subsided enough where their hearing wouldn’t be obscured. Carlie stood and gave a hand signal for them to proceed up the stairs to the left. As they moved onto the third floor and headed towards the location of the main lab, she heard groans emanating from the door to her right. She glanced back with her eyebrows raised at Eliza. “And here I was hoping for one mission without having to whack a single freak.”
She and Eliza moved up on either side and, with a countdown of her three fingers, she motioned to Eliza to swing open the door. Both women did a dynamic room entry, sweeping to their respective sides. The piercing odor of rancid meat caused their eyes to water and both women fought back gagging. Matias moved in behind with his flashlight flooding the room on wide beam, illuminating the area like a small stadium.
Four corpulent creatures that were beside the large exterior windows started moving towards them. “Machetes only,” Carlie said. “I don’t want to risk damaging any equipment in here.”
She and Eliza dashed forward, transitioning to their tarnished blades. The nearest creature twitched and snapped at the air as it lunged towards Carlie, its yellow face resembling curdled pudding. She cleaved it through the right temple, plunging into the spongy interior. As it collapsed, a rotund beast in the corner wearing a security guard outfit emerged from the shadows, its face a glistening, fleshy blur as the beast rushed for her. Carlie sidestepped and slashed with her fourteen-inch blade at the cervical region, as its body slammed into a white desk. The creature turned and snarled, its head only held on by the slightest of tendons. She delivered a swift sidestroke, slicing through the remaining ligature as the head landed on the countertop, its jaws continuing to chatter while the carcass below throbbed out ruby fluid.
Carlie pivoted and saw Eliza finishing the last creature with a swift series of comma cuts across the base of the neck as blood geysered out from the severed trunk. She looked around at the young woman’s handiwork, the precise blade moves revealing Eliza’s skill. Carlie sometimes marveled at Eliza’s animal brutality that she channeled into her work dispatching the undead; her fearlessness in combat had given her a reputation as a cunning fighter.
Both women cleaned off their blades and pulled out their flashlights to aid Matias in sifting through the room for scientific components. The rest of the team searched the remaining labs on the same floor until they had procured the necessary equipment and carefully stowed it in padded duffel bags. Outside they could hear rain pelting against the windows and Carlie looked forward to the ending of another wet, miserable mission.
Chapter 2
Shane’s team held the perimeter outside, the five men and one woman spread out around the parking lot across from the building. It had been raining all night and now the rain was intensifying as the gray dawn revealed the ravaged streets around them.
“We’re packing up the items for retrieval now. I’ll squelch you on the radio when we’re heading back down to the ground floor.” When Shane was done conferring with Carlie, he glanced over at Jared, who was grinning, the first rays of sunlight illuminating his blue eyes.
“So when you gonna ask that little lady out for dinner?” said Jared.
Shane smirked and shook his head. “Probably not in this lifetime the way Duncan has us runnin’ and gunnin’ every week. Besides, she’s always been married to the job. You forget I tried once before in Tucson.”
“Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give things another stab.”
Shane raised his eyebrows. “And I’m gonna take relationship advice from a slick willy like you, especially given how much you’ve flirted with her in the past.”
“Carlie’s too frustrating a woman to pursue in my book. She’s got the romantic inclinations of a slow-melting glacier. Don’t get me wrong—she’s an amazing woman on many levels but I just don’t
want to spend the rest of my nights alone. Besides, Carlie and I always felt more like a distant brother-sister kinda relationship than anything else. Then, of course, there’s always this other charming belle I’ve kinda taken to,” he said, glancing over at Amy who was concealed twenty yards away next to a cluster of empty crates.
“Yeah, I noticed. You two don’t exactly keep your intentions for each other hidden. When did that whole thing ignite?”
“Oh, two missions ago when she split open that zombie’s head that was nearly upon me and I found myself staring eye-to-eye with this lovely maiden. Who could resist a gorgeous woman with a crimson machete in her hand and a brunette mane? All this time she had been in my presence and I was just too blind to notice.”
“You can’t resist any muchacha, dude, what the hell you talkin’ about. You even said yourself that women got you into trouble more than your line of work did.”
“Yeah, but I think I found the right one this time. It just took me a while to realize it.”
“Pfff…” Shane muttered and rolled his eyes, wiping several raindrops off his camo-streaked face. “Just be good to her, tough guy. She’s family to me.”
“And to me—but not in a creepy, hill-people kinda way.”
Shane heard Carlie’s three squelches on the radio. “Alright, let’s make this a hasty exfil.” He motioned with his hand to move and then they crouch-walked through the parking lot with each person spreading out, weaving around burnt-out vehicles and stepping over numerous skeletal remains.
Leaves fluttered on the ground near the entrance as a humid breeze floated over the area. With the sun just cresting the horizon, they could already hear the unpleasant shuffling of hungry flesh-eating monsters making their way out on their daily rounds. Shane saw the first cluster of twenty creatures shambling out from behind a medical marijuana dispensary. He shook his head slightly at the sign on the building. Surprised that Californians even needed a prescription—those fuckin’ hippies.
Fifty yards away, he saw Carlie and her crew in the lobby to the right, their arms loaded with pilfered equipment. He raised his hand, forming a fist, motioning for his team to stop and stand ready. Jared moved up behind him and covered the group’s rear. Amy was twenty yards to his right. Compton, a wiry operator, was to his left while Langdon and Kress, the two youngest members, were further down the line behind an overturned bus.
Shane tapped on his ear-mic. “I’ve got a shitload of tangos in the street approaching your location. You’re gonna need to take the back door out instead.”
“Copy that.”
He waited, concealed next to a green dumpster which reeked like putrid beef and was filled with the sound of buzzing flies. After a few minutes he heard clawing inside the dumpster and stood to peer inside. Raising the black plastic lid with his rifle muzzle, he saw a legless zombie inside, its badly decaying body mostly reduced to raw muscle and tendon. “Stupid thing must have fallen in here months ago and couldn’t get out,” he whispered.
“It probably smells us—or you. All that groaning is going to draw the rest of those things over here,” said Jared.
“Well, I can’t risk shooting a round in there and I can’t reach the fuckin’ meathead with my machete,” he said, lowering the lid and taking a knee with his rifle trained on the growing horde ahead. “Hopefully Carlie will be clear soon and we’ll be on…” Before he could finish, the thing inside began bellowing like a lion roaring after making a kill.
The noise was deafening, reverberating off the inside like a taut drum. “Shit, how does it even have any vocal cords left to chirp like that?” said Shane, his eyes wide. Peeking his head around the dumpster, he saw the nearest dispersed pack of zombies beginning to converge and flow in their direction. At the same time, he heard Carlie’s voice in his earpiece. “The rear and side exits are compromised. We’re gonna have to exfil out the front of the building as originally planned.”
“Copy that, give us a minute first so we can draw them away from your location.”
“That’s not going to take much effort, thanks to dumpster boy here,” said Jared.
Shane looked over at the location of his people and then back at the crowd while tapping on his ear-mic. “Alright, let’s backpedal and lure these things away from the medical building. Do not engage. I just want to draw these pus-brains towards us while we make a loop around the parking structure and then back towards the helo,” he said, moving away from the dumpster and walking backwards along his previous route. “Jared will watch our six and remember that for every fifty of these zombies, there’s bound to be one fast mutant so stay sharp. We can’t afford to engage one of those things again.”
The creatures were now moving in full force towards them as their motion, accompanied by the shrieks from the dumpster, continued to coalesce the crowd of yellow-faced freaks. On the slick pavement, the creatures tottered like they had footballs attached to their feet.
“I’ve got movement at my three o’clock—at least a hundred tangos,” yelled Amy. Shane looked to his right, struggling to make out the sight in the driving rain and saw another crowd moving between buildings, cutting off their intended route. He swiveled his head to the left and saw a clear path beside a small park. Tapping on his mic, he alerted the team to the change in plans and they began sprinting as one group, tightening up their formation. As they ran past a playground, Shane took the lead and pushed into a small parcel of woods. The undead had now formed into one current and were closing fast. From his memory of studying the city layout, he knew there was a courthouse not far from the park. He radioed his intentions to Carlie, who was nearing the helicopter a mile from Shane’s present position.
A narrow footbridge made of planks led across a muddy ravine with waist-high water rushing beneath it. “Alright, everybody across, then we’ll blow this thing,” yelled Shane, his voice barely audible in the downpour. The zombie’s frantic pace matched the raging storm as they descended upon the park, rushing towards the bridge and the delectable morsels of soft flesh on the other side. Shane paused before crossing and mowed down a half-dozen of the closest zombies in quick succession, their blood and bone fragments merging instantly with the falling rain.
Amy tore a grenade from her vest and waited until Shane was across and then tossed it on the bridge. Everyone took cover behind a massive fallen tree twenty feet away, huddled in the mud and fallen leaves. The bridge erupted, showering splintered wood around the forest and effectively sealing off any immediate chance of the zombies reaching them. A few creatures still tried to get across, their clumsy forms gelling with the bridge debris washing downstream.
“Whew—I wish all our getaways could be so smooth,” exclaimed Jared.
“Don’t count your blessing yet,” said Shane. “Just remember Murphy’s rule of combat—that the problem with the easy way out is that it’s already been mined.”
“You gotta dampen the already damp mood, man.”
Shane stood up, brushing a mound of wood slivers from his shoulder. “It’s a short jaunt to the courthouse from here and then we’ll be hitching a ride after that.”
They rushed through the overgrown treeline for another three hundred yards, emerging on the cusp of a main intersection near the courthouse. The sound of the furious river behind them had drowned out any noise except the crunching of their boots on the forest debris. Shane pressed his face through the thick foliage to scan the route ahead where he saw close to a thousand ragged corpses milling towards their location, drawn by the recent explosion.
Chapter 3
Carlie strapped herself into the co-pilot’s seat while Matias fired up the Chinook helicopter, its roaring engine sending a rising cloud of steam from the rain-cloaked exterior. From their position on the roof of a three-story nursing home, they had an excellent vantage point of the courthouse area in the distance.
“Damn, look at all those things, moving like carpenter ants swarming over a fresh-cut tree. Sure hope Shane’s team is clear of that mess,
” Matias said.
Shane’s voice came over their earpieces. “Timber Wolf, this is Black Bear, over—we’re in a bit of a jam here. Our secondary extraction point is overrun and we literally just burned the bridge behind us.”
Carlie and Matias shot glances at each other and then back out the front window. “I miss the good ole days when you could just call in an airstrike,” said Matias.
“They don’t have much time. There’s bound to be a whole bunch of the mutants mixed into that crowd down there.” Carlie leaned back and looked at Eliza. “Prep the mini-gun and have someone pull out the SPIE Rig. This is gonna be an express ride to hell.”
Chapter 4
The Chinook made a direct line for the forested park near the courthouse while Eliza swung open the side door and readied the mounted mini-gun.
Rickert, a muscular black operator, readied the SPIE Rig, uncoiling the bulky rope and waiting for the order to drop it. The Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction or SPIE Rig had been developed and perfected by the Marine Corp for placement or removal of personnel using a static rope with high-tension D-rings integrated every six feet along the length of the rope. It was their only option for quickly extracting Shane’s team from the dense forest below.
