by Mike Staton
“No offense taken. We’re happy to be behind the wall.” Percival extended his hand. “Lieutenant Bradshaw?”
He nodded and gave a strong handshake.
“Percival and my watcher, Samuel. What’s the situation and how can we best help?” Percival took his hand back and shoved it into his pockets. He was surprised at the lack of reaction to the cold wind from the man before him. Perhaps he’d just acclimated to it.
“We’re at the cleanup stage. Sizeable horde from the northeast, pinch smaller one from the northwest and west. No breaches of our security.” Bradshaw turned his back to them and raised the glasses once more. “Lieutenant Adams is northeast. Your woman is in a tree to the northwest. She held that corner by herself. Fine shooting there. My recommendation, sir, head northeast to meet up with Lieutenant Adams. She had questions for you, Mister Polz. Pick up your shooter on the way back.”
Percival nodded. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Alan, would you be so kind as to guide us?”
Alan nodded. “Thanks, Bradshaw.”
Bradshaw waved and shouted down below to Lindsey. “Hey, Pixie. Go with them. You’re not needed up here any more. I haven’t seen anything for the last five minutes and I’m giving the all clear.”
Though Percival didn’t hear any reply from the sharpshooter, she joined them as they passed her going back down the tower. Alan set foot on the ground and turned to lead them into the forest once more.
“Kat was taken off that way.” Lindsey gestured in a direction cattycorner to the one they embarked.
“I’m certain she’s just fine.” Percival didn’t miss a step. “She’s a capable woman perfectly suited for keeping herself safe. Pulled my ass out of the fire a couple times already.”
“Uh huh…” Lindsey muttered. “Ain’t worried in the slightest for her?”
“I trust in her abilities. If you’re so worried, go wandering off on your own.” Percival followed Alan as he wormed his way through the trees with unerring steps.
Lindsey grunted in response.
Percival took that to mean the conversation was over and walked on in silence. They traversed downward a small hill and rounded a tight cluster of trees to see Dakota, Lieutenant Adams, Cooper, Anton, and Sapphire standing near the chicken wire fence on the safe side. Just outside of the fence lay a dozen bodies, possibly more. Bright, brass shell casings poked out of the leaf strewn forest floor and the trees beyond the fence bore the telltale signs of having been shot quite recently.
“Fence’ll need to be repaired here. Shot through it too much an’ if a corpse stumbles into it, there’s no guarantee it’ll hold.” Dakota plucked at the chicken wire. The section she plucked at folded away in her hand.
Lieutenant Adams nodded once. “Get it started. Anton, Alan, get the wheel barrows. Sapphire, Lindsey, Cooper, and Samuel help the A’s start moving the bodies. Percival, you’re with me. We’re walking the perimeter.”
“Sorry, ma’am. No can do.” Samuel shook his head as the others set to their assigned tasks.
Lieutenant Adams’s flight helmet turned toward Samuel. If laser vision were a real thing, Percival was certain the helmet would have been toast. Samuel’d only have lasted a moment longer. Lieutenant Adams’s shoulders relaxed a touch.
“I understand you’re his keeper, Samuel. And you’ve done an admirable job thus far.” Lieutenant Adams sounded like she was chastising a child. “I commend you for it, and Cadet Colonel Pull’s decision to place you on this assignment. He’s done good, but for the moment I need your capable strength placed upon another task. Should your friend turn, I’ll take responsibility. I’ll shoulder your burden for a short while.”
“Ma’am, three sets of eyes are better than two.” Samuel persisted. He crossed his arms over his chest and let the bat dangle from one hand.
“Not disputing that, boy.” Lieutenant Adams squared her shoulders and somehow made herself seem bigger than the young man before her; even though her head tilted up to put her line of sight to his head.
“I gave my—“
“It’ll be fine, Samuel. I won’t be out of your sight any longer than last night when I wandered off on my own.” Percival rested a hand on Samuel’s shoulder. “And Lieutenant Adams is a perfectly capable woman. Stand down for a moment. If it’ll help, no one’ll let Ian know you let me go off with a strange woman.”
Samuel brought his gaze to Percival, shook his head once, and let out a sigh. “Fine.”
“Thank you.” Percival patted the young man’s shoulder. He turned to Lieutenant Adams. “Lead on, Lieutenant.”
There was a half second delay before Lieutenant Adams’s helmet turned away from Samuel and to Percival. There was a near imperceptible nod, then she started off along the fence. Percival shifted his grip on Kat’s rifle and moved after her. She set a quick pace that he matched, though he was nowhere near as silent as she.
After a couple of minutes of moving along the fence-line, and once he figured they were out of earshot of the others, he fixed his gaze on Krista and said, “I’m going to go out on a limb and guess there’s something you wanted to talk to me about in private.”
“Very perceptive.” Lieutenant Adams managed to make the comment sound less than complimentary.
“No need to be standoffish. You’re a smart woman with leadership instincts as sharp as mine and a history with Ian. Doesn’t take much with those variables to figure out you wanted to separate me from my handler for a few words. What’s up?” Percival looked past her and the fence, out into the forest beyond.
“Katherine mentioned you were a part of a scouting party for your community. Told me you had extensive knowledge of the surrounding countryside.” Lieutenant Adams’s helmet swung to look at him for a moment before it returned to sweeping the area and checking the chicken wire fence.
“If you have a map of central Tennessee I can make note of most of the towns. Won’t be as detailed as the one I left with Ian and the survivors of Prosperity Wells, but…” He shrugged. “My memory ain’t perfect.”
“That would be much appreciated, but it’s not what I was getting at. She mentioned that during your debriefing you’d told of a military unit that you bumped into while operating near Knoxville?”
Percival looked away. He’d gotten people killed. He’d gotten Sarah killed. They’d already escaped that shitty situation and they’d gone back in.
And for what? Roy Joy? Revenge? Neither had panned out terribly well. It’d just led to more blood on his hands.
“You alright?” she asked.
He hadn’t even noticed she’d stopped walking until her words. He froze on the spot. “Not even remotely. I keep bottling up the events and emotions tied to them. Don’t have time to deal with ‘em, you know?”
“Honestly? No. You’ve just as much time as anyone else, which is to say, as much as you’ve been allotted by our maker.” Lieutenant Adams didn’t strike him as a religious individual. Seems he’d misjudged her. “What I do know is that you’ve information rattling around in your brainpan that could help save a lot of people and it’d be a shame to let it rot away after you experience a sudden loss of humanity.”
“Well, aren’t you just nothing but cute and fuzzy.” Percival shook his head.
“Luxuries reserved for very specific people.” He thought he heard amusement in her voice.
“I get that. Knew a woman who was like that once.” He shook Sarah’s image from his mind. “What do you want to know?”
“If you’re willing to share your information about supplies and the like, that’d be wonderfully helpful. But I want you to tell me about the military unit you encountered.” Lieutenant Adams resumed the patrol.
Percival stamped down hard on the bile that touched the back of his throat and the grief that wove tight tendrils of cancerous black agony around his heart. He didn’t have time to break again right now. Maybe when the virus over took him he’d have time to embrace the ache and eat a bullet in his final moments of humanity. But for
now, he shook his head and cast the thoughts to the dark corners of his being.
“They were military. Some small unit. Maybe 10 guys and gals? Army, I think. No, scratch that. They were Army. Led by a Lieutenant…” He searched his mind for the man’s name. “First Lieutenant Elias Proxies of the United States Army. He pretended to be friendly when we stumbled on his basecamp. Does the name mean anything to you?”
“The name doesn’t. Can you be certain that they were military? Not imposters posing as a military unit?” Lieutenant Adams asked.
“We bumped into cluster of imposters. I don’t.” Percival paused to swallow. He thought he’d come to grips with killing a living human being, but the vision of Delores Finnen popped into his mind, her legs torn asunder by his and Carlos’s gunfire.
He’d not delivered the coup-de-grace, but he’d killed her none-the-less. “No. I don’t think they were fakes. They wore military gear, carried military grade weaponry, and acted in a way I’d associate with a field team. Outside, of course, of shooting civilians.”
Lieutenant Adams’s helmet bobbed in a nod.
“We… I took down three of them. Fled from the rest.” Greyson’s collapsed face flickered in his mind. He’d possibly been unnecessarily brutal. He took a couple quick breaths. “I survived the hail of gunfire as they gave pursuit.”
“Do you know how many there were?”
“I’d guess 10. Seven after we’d left. But I couldn’t be certain. I was held captive for a few days, never got a good look at everyone who came and went from the house they were using as a base. Had some serious hardware there though.” Percival closed his eyes and reimagined the house.
“What do you mean?” Lieutenant Adams’s near silent footsteps came to a stop.
“A generator in the basement, hoses to vent the monoxide out the back, latrines dug in the backyard, two, maybe three, computers set up in the living room powered by the generator. A firing position from the second floor that covered the street and allowed their sniper to take one of my team’s life.” Percival’s words picked up pace as he listed what he remembered. “A fully stocked and ready to rock kitchen. Cots galore. I didn’t get to see their armory, but everyone had a weapon that I’d seen. Too many people in one place, secure… but a zombie horde nearby. Just a few streets down even. Less than a mile. You know how dangerous it is to gather people, noisy people, with big noisy guns in one spot.”
“A full field base is what you’re describing. You sure they were led by just a lieutenant?” Lieutenant Adams asked.
Percival shook his head. All the concentrating was driving a spike of pain between his eyes. “I dunno. I can’t honestly remember.”
“Did you snatch anything in your exodus?”
“Useless laptop with a dead battery.” Percival opened his eyes and moved along the fence. “I’m going to guess it’s also locked down tighter than a Mormon on prom night.”
“Likely. I assume you left that behind.”
“Sounds like you’ve been told this before this particular conversation already.”
“You always this observant?” Lieutenant Adams spun in place to walk backwards for a few steps before turning about face once more.
“One of the fine qualities I picked up while wandering the ‘wasteland.’ Kat tell you about it? We left it behind as it was still dead. Last I heard, Zack hadn’t acquired an appropriate plug for it. Should change when we retake the town.”
“Think you’ll be able to crack the security that I assume is on the computer?” Krista asked. They neared the gate and she gave it a thoughtful tug.
“Me personally? No. The tech team that was in Prosperity Wells? Yeah. Given enough time, I think they would have been able to crack it. Just Zack? I don’t know. He’s a bright kid, but he’s been through a lot. We all have lately.” Percival paused, looked at a blue tent set up on a campsite just a couple dozen feet past the protective chicken wire. “Do you have insight into it?”
“Not precisely. And nothing I am at liberty to speak on.” Lieutenant Adams shook her head. “Sounds silly to say it now, but most of what I know that I knew before I jumped out of a plane to land here is still classified. Not even ‘need to know’ level.”
“I get it. And any clearance you have likely wouldn’t exactly open an Army laptop anyways. You’re Airforce, correct?”
Lieutenant Adams nodded.
“Another word of advice, Lieutenant?”
“What’s that.”
“More a request of silence really. Don’t mention the laptop over the radio waves to Ian or Zack. It’d likely be best not to bring it up in anything beyond generalities to anyone, really.” Percival wondered what was on that laptop that warranted such a violent response.
“Why?” Lieutenant Adams’s question came as a sharp knife through the haze that’d started to filter into his brainpan.
“I’m pretty certain that the surviving members of that squad are looking to recover it and your fence would last far shorter than our walls did.”
Chapter 15
“Yeah. They’re willing to help.” Kat sat at the desk beside Gavin. She had Zack and Ian on the slightly static riddled airwaves. “They’d be willing to help even without anything from us, though I think it’s fair to give them information and possibly start up trade with them. Over.”
There was the barest moment of delay before Ian’s voice piped through and into the headset she wore. “Consider it done. Have Percival share what knowledge he remembers. That should suffice for now and we’ll send a copy of our map with the first caravan. Over.”
“Do we have the manpower?” Kat asked. She knew they were hurting on people, especially since the attack. She closed her eyes for a moment and rested her forehead against her palm. “How did the move go? Over.”
“We can spare the men. Might take a little bit to drum up the volunteers, but we have enough to spare for a caravan.” Ian paused and the static swept the space over Kat’s ears. The return of his voice was, despite the shoddy reception, akin to the sound of crystal being tapped. “The move went as well as could be expected. We’re stretched a little thin. Even so, I think everyone’s in good spirits. The recovery effort by Wolf brought in more survivors. Over.”
“That’s wonderful news.” Kat smiled and felt a warmth she’d not felt in what seemed to be ages spread through her chest. “That’s awesome. Things here aren’t quite as cheery. Sooner we can help them with food, the better. Over.”
“Understood. Good job, Corporal. Get things ironed out and head back. Over.”
“Will do, sir. We’ll have Gavin radio before the day we set out for home. Over.”
“Acknowledged. Carry on the good work. Pull, over and out.”
“Holter, over and out.” She pulled the headset off and set it on the desk.
“It should go without saying, but thanks. It means more than we can express that y’all are doing this for us.” Gavin slid his headphones down around his neck and watched her stand up.
“I know it. We’re all in this together. Even separated by miles of rough terrain and what not, we’re what remains. And we need to support each other, you know? Fight back against the darkness.” Kat ran a hand through her short hair. It stuck up slightly. “We do what we can because we must. For to do nothing is to let the despair and darkness take over.”
“Yeah. I getcha.” Gavin looked up at her. “Were you a philosophy student or something?”
Kat let out a short laugh. “No. Hardly. Believe it or not, physics. Suited my sharpshooting better. I just… there’s a lot of crappiness out there. More since the shit hit the fan, you know? I’ve seen the darkness, stared it in the face and it doesn’t need to be the gnashing jaws of a zombie. And all it takes is one person to push that darkness back. One little light.”
Gavin nodded. “I get you. I need to get back to monitoring the airwaves.”
“Sure. Keep spreading the light.”
*
Percival stood over a map with a red Sh
arpie carefully making notations. Judith hovered by the door. Samuel sat directly opposite the door with his bat propped next to him, arms folded over his chest, and his head down with his chin against his chest. His breaths, deep and even, revealed that he’d drifted off to sleep. She couldn’t blame him, he’d not slept a wink the night before. He took his duty of looking over Percival very seriously.
Just as seriously as she’d taken watching Dan. She didn’t relish the day it came for him to raise his bat to Percival. Especially as the latter man didn’t looked infected. That’d just make it harder. At least she’d seen it coming with Dan and his descent into bestiality. She shook her head and scrubbed a hand across her forehead.
“You alright, Katherine?” Krista asked.
“Huh? Yeah. Just lost in thought for a moment. Sorry, I missed what you were saying.” Kat brought her gaze back to Krista.
“Didn’t sleep well last night?”
“I can’t remember the last time I got a good night’s sleep.” The night before had been quiet and lonely, but decent. They’d had a roof over their heads and were a measure of warm in the basement of the Ranger Station. “But last night isn’t a measure of quality over quantity. It feels… odd to be in one place more than a couple nights. You know? Well, spending the night in an odd place.”
Krista nodded. “I understand. Were you missing his presence?”
Kat glanced at the door, then back. She could almost taste the bitterness in her tone. “Cooper? No.”
“Good. There’re better men, or women if you’re into that, out there.” Krista glanced at the radio and back to Kat. “But that’s not what I was talking about earlier.”
Kat nodded. “I know.”
“Just figuring out when you lapsed attention spans on me.” Krista crossed her arms over her chest. “I spoke with Bradshaw yesterday, right before the horde hit. He’s in agreement. We need to get in touch with our companions. Especially following what Percival told me yesterday.”
