“Yeah, well, this one bit you in the ass. Tim and Billy are on you, man,” Ron finished. He then turned and headed up to the co-pilot seat behind David.
Kyle leaned back, closed his eyes, and willed himself to not show his anguish in front of the other guys. I did this. Shit, this one is going to really hurt for a while..
CHAPTER 33
Hutch and Hicks
Hutch leaned over and pulled off the blindfold he had previously placed on his passenger after they left the rubble of the stadium. The young man’s eyes readjusted to the sunlight and turned to look at the older man holding a gun toward him. He was a little amazed by the age of the man he’d just witnessed hours before run around gunning down slabs and leaping over building ledges. From the scope of the Army Ranger’s rifle, he’d figured the man to be in his low- to mid-30s, but up close, he could see he’d been off by a few more years.
“Well, I see the Navy Seal reputation for hospitality is greatly exaggerated,” the Army Ranger said, sizing up his captor.
“Sorry about all that, but I didn’t need you to see what I was storing away and where,” Hutch replied as he regarded the need for a blindfold.
“You talking about all the souvenirs you carted out of the stadium?”
“How long have you been watching me?” Hutch tightened his grip on the pistol.
“About 10 days. I was passing through when I caught a glimpse of you planting the explosives around the stadium. I fell back into the building across the street and kept an eye on you until I could figure out what you were up to.” The Ranger leaned back in the seat.
“What were you doing passing through the city? That’s the most dangerous place to be nowadays.”
“Well, to be completely honest, I was heading to Busch Stadium to do the exact same thing you just did,” the Ranger said. “I’m going to pull up my sleeve and show you something.”
The Ranger slowly pulled his sleeve up to his bicep and revealed a Chicago Cubs tattoo. “I figured since it was our president who ordered the nuke on Chicago and he was a St. Louis fan, I would at least repay him for what he did to us.”
There was an awkward silence for a moment until Hutch lowered the pistol and put it in its holster before he let out a short bark of laughter.
“That was the most ridiculous reason you could have given me, but I completely believe you,” Hutch said. He opened his door and motioned for the Ranger to do the same.
The two strangers exited the van and walked around to the front. When the Ranger arrived, he was greeted by Hutch as he stood with a smirk and an outstretched hand.
“Name is Hutch, Chief Warrant Officer, US Navy. Recently retired.”
“Hicks, Sergeant, US Army Ranger. Active.” The Ranger shook Hutch’s hand.
“Well Hicks, if you’re active, why aren’t you with your unit?” Hutch moved to the back of the van and started to unload some equipment.
“I was home on leave when the world went to shit. I was immediately recalled and put on the mission to retake New York. But when that nightmare happened, we fell back to Jersey to regroup. It was there that I got separated from my squad. While on a recon they were overrun at the base, and when I returned, I watched as the last helicopter lifted off. It was shortly after that when Chicago got nuked and the EMP disabled all my communications gear. I’ve been slowly working my way south ever since, trying to stay alive. I tell you, I’ve seen some sick stuff while traveling, and until I ran across you, I’ve been trying to avoid every other person I’ve come across.” Hicks grabbed one of the foldout chairs Hutch unloaded as he spoke. As he sat, he asked Hutch, “So what’s your deal? Why do you have such a beef with old baseball stadiums?”
“No beef. Just figured I would do the honorable thing and put the old girl down in a fashion befitting her station before Mother Nature did it slowly and painfully.” Hutch opened a tub in the van and pulled out two cans of Dinty Moore Beef Stew. He then tossed one to Hicks.
“Oh, man, real beef stew. It’s been a while.” Hicks ripped off the lid and started to chow down. “So really, what’s your deal? You seemed to go to a lot of trouble taking out all those slabs.”
“Just doing my part to eliminate the threat. You know, I was going to heat that up for you.” Hutch produced a small camp stove from the van.
“I see. Strong silent type, huh? That’s cool. I know how you Seals can be. There were a couple Seals with us in New York. They were the same way, not very talkative, mostly all business. Maybe you knew them. Went by Snow and Tyler.” Hicks went back to eating his cold stew.
Hutch perked up at the mention of the two names, but quickly schooled his expression into a neutral one. “Yeah I knew them a little,” he said. “What happened to them? You know where they went?”
Hicks noticed the slight change in Hutch’s demeanor and choose his response carefully. “Yeah, unfortunately, they didn’t make it out of the New York affair.”
A feeling of disappointment settled in over Hutch, but he managed to hide his disappointment better then he had his surprise a moment before. “That’s a shame. I heard they were good guys.” He fired up the stove.
Hicks could feel that there was more to the story than Hutch was letting on, but decided not to push his host any further for the time being. “So, what’s your plan? Where are you going after this? I can tell you don’t like to stay anywhere long, judging by the gear you have in the back of the van.”
“I go wherever I feel I can do the most damage to the slab population. I’m going to finish eating, after that I’m hitting the bunk in the back of the van. You’re welcome to the cab, and in the morning, we can both head our own way.” Hutch stirred his stew on top of the stove.
Hicks took the hint that the time for conversation was over and decided to take up the offer of a safe place to sleep for the night. Maybe in the morning he could convince Hutch that sticking together would be a good idea. “Thanks. I’ll see you in the morning.”
CHAPTER 34
Kyle and Hope
It had just turned to dusk as the Devastator pulled into the garage. They had not had a chance to park before a large-sized welcoming party awaited them. Slowly, the three remaining members of the recon team solemnly exited the vehicle. As Kyle shut the door behind him, the elated looks on the welcoming party’s faces started to change. It was not the first time a returning team was short a few members.
“Where’s the rest?” Kenny blurted out from the crowd.
“They didn’t make it,” Kyle answered.
“What happened? What did ya’ll see?” Ron’s wife Josey asked as she greeted her husband with a hug.
“We were overrun by the horde below Columbus,” Ron answered. “There was an accident, and we couldn’t get to them in time.”
The crowd went silent at the news and gave them a little more breathing room. Over the previous eight months, they had only lost five members of Camp H., but each one was considered family. As such, each person there felt the losses and took a moment to collect their thoughts.
“Give us a few minutes and we will get everyone together to talk about the mission, and we’ll go over what happened to our friends.” Kyle headed to the door of the garage.
As Kyle cleared the doorway, a fresh round of rain pelted him in greeting. He looked around the camp and large puddles of rain told him it hadn’t let up since they’d left, and the completely darkened sky gave no impression of letting up anytime soon. He watched the sky for a few more minutes and hoped he was reading it wrong, but all the signs were there.
“We so don’t need this right now,” he said aloud, not realizing that Ron stood right behind him.
“We don’t need what?”
“I almost don’t want to say it, in case it jinxes us.”
“Hurricane?” Ron replied.
“You see the pattern, too?” Kyle asked.
“Yep. I noticed the clouds this morning. East to west in October isn’t normal, but I was waiting to see how it went throughout t
he day. I was convinced on our way back, watching the storm with the sideways rain and the wind picking up all day.”
“What do you think the chances of a direct hit are?”
“Well, we ain’t had a direct hit since Kate in ’85, so by all probabilities we’re due. Problem is, it doesn’t even have to be a direct hit to hurt us. You were right, though, we don’t need this right now. With that horde approaching, depending on where this storm is, we could be in trouble. That horde ain’t but a day or two away. And if my past experience with hurricanes means anything, this feels like about a 24-to 48-hour warning. You do the math. Two events at once of this magnitude equal trouble.” Ron looked back out into the camp.
“Alright, let’s get everybody together and figure out what we can do,” said Kyle. “I’m gonna go get the kids and change clothes. Let’s call a meeting at the armory in 30-minutes. Hey, are we okay?”
“Listen, shit happens. We’re okay. I should’ve put a bullet in him the second he was bit, but I hesitated, too. You know I’ve got your back.” Ron slapped Kyle on the back.
Kyle patted Ron back and said, “Thanks.” Then he headed off into the rain toward his house. He didn’t even try to avoid the rain. It actually felt good for the moment, almost as if it were washing off the day from him.
As Kyle reached his house, he stood at the door to remove his shirt and shoes just as Sam would always make him do when she was around. No use in breaking old habits now. As he entered the house, he was greeted by the sound of feet slapping on the tile, headed straight for him.
“Daddy, you’re back!” Patch greeted him with a bear hug to the midsection. “And wet, too.”
“Hey, big guy. How was your day?” Kyle tried to pry the little guy off of him.
“I was good today, and Uncle Benjy showed me how to tie my shoes, too.”
“Uncle Benjy was here?”
“Just got here. Figured I would wait here for you and catch up with the kids for a few minutes,” Benjy replied as he came down the hall.
“Good. Glad you’re here. We may have a problem or two.”
“You talking about the horde or the hurricane, Bucko? That’s why I doubled back tonight, wanted to make sure you caught on to that, too.”
“Both. Give me a minute to change, and then let’s talk strategy,” Kyle said as he slipped into his room.
As Kyle closed his bedroom door he heard a noise behind him. He spun around and drew his gun on instinct only to find Hope coming out of the bathroom—with a rifle. Startled by his appearance as much as he was by hers, Hope had also raised her weapon.
“What the hell are you doing?” Kyle asked as he lowered his gun. “You scared the crap out of me.”
She lowered her gun as well, and let out a nervous breath before she replied, “Sorry, Dad. I was getting some extra ammo, and I know you store it in there.”
“What do you need all that for?”
“Well, I figured with the approaching horde you would need all the help on the wall you could get,” she responded. “And besides, you promised I could start to contribute more. So I swapped tower duty with Yankee Dave, and he said he would take over garden duty for me tomorrow.”
“I don’t think you’re ready for tower duty all night by yourself—”
“I won’t be by myself. Rico is going to join me and help. We’ll keep each other awake and alert.”
Over my dead body was the first response to pop into Kyle’s head. Aloud, he said, “Over my cold, hardened, decaying body you are. I don’t like this idea at all. Not the two of you alone up there all night by yourself. I don’t care if you hate me for this, but No! And that is final.”
“Oh my God! Eew, you’re such a pervert, Dad. There is going to be nothing like what you’re thinking going on. Geez, have a little faith in me. Besides I’m 18, and you can’t stop me!”
“Eighteen doesn’t mean squat anymore,” Kyle shot back. “That was the old world. The new world is whatever I say until I’m not saying it anymore.”
“Well, you’re going to have a big problem tonight, because I am late for guard duty and as soon as I get my raincoat, I’m walking out that door.”
“I will not let you leave this house.”
“What’re you going to do? Ground me, tackle me, and give me a spanking? We both know none of that will happen. So excuse me while I go contribute.” Hope slipped past Kyle out of the room and headed down the hall, grabbing her raincoat off the hooks by the door on her way out the front door.
Kyle didn’t know what to do but watch her leave. He turned around to find Patch and Renee as they stared at him in amazement, while Benjy was almost giggling at the event that had just transpired.
Kyle headed back toward his room, stopped, and stared at all three occupants in the living room “Don’t get any ideas from this. This isn’t over.” Before he slammed the door shut behind him, Storm let out one lone loud bark as if to let him know she’d agreed, and all three in the living room started giggling as she did.
CHAPTER 35
Kyle
Kyle, Benjy, and all the kids except for Hope, arrived at the armory for the meeting. After they shook off the rain and secured their guns, they entered into the living room of the house. It was probably the most fortified of all the houses in the camp as all weaponry was stored there and all access points to the house had been reinforced to make it almost impenetrable. It was also the fallback point for the camp in case it was ever overrun. A group of six could easily hold off an army of slabs or bandits from inside the well-supplied building, since it was stocked with enough ammo and food for well over a month if the need arose.
As Kyle walked into the living room, he was greeted first by Yankee Dave. Dave was a tall well-built guy in his late 30s, and was the main man in charge of the armory. Dave had come upon the camp by accident while travelling in search of his brother. He had escaped the infestation in the north with his wife, but he’d lost her around Atlanta when they’d been found and overrun as they’d slept one night.
He’d then continued his trek south and stumbled across Camp H after he’d smelled BBQ cooking back when the camp was still young and they had been celebrating a fresh hog kill. When he’d showed up at the gate, he had been in pretty rough shape after having been forced to survive on scavenged food and was also severely dehydrated. Kyle allowed him to come in, and they fed him, cleaned him up, doctored his minor injuries, and dealt with his severe dehydration. One thing that Kyle still found funny after all Dave’s time in camp was his newfound addiction to Southern sweet tea. When he’d first arrived in Camp H, one of the first items offered had been sweet tea, which he admitted later he had never had before. He quickly became so addicted to the Southern staple that once, when the camp had run out of sugar, he’d gone out for three days and scavenged enough sugar and tea bags from around town so he could have a steady supply of it.
“How’s our fearless leader tonight?” Dave greeted Kyle.
Kyle almost visibly winced at the mention of the word leader, as it came out of Dave’s mouth. Even though the camp unofficially considered him the de facto man-in-charge, he didn’t want it to appear as though he held an unchallengeable position of leadership. Since day one, he had made it clear he would rather have more of a consensus and hold camp discussions on how things were to be decided. It was true that Kyle and his closest buddies were the main men when it came to the camp; after all, they’d been the ones to essentially create Camp H. Regardless, he had to admit to himself whether he wanted to or not, that the people of Camp H looked to him as their leader and that sometimes people needed to be led. He knew that without a leader, be that one man or a committee, productivity would suffer in calm times and chaos could run rampant during periods of crisis.
“Seen better days,” Kyle responded. “But I’m still above ground, so I guess that’s good. Is everybody here?”
“Yep, everyone except the ones scheduled for guard duty.”
Kyle made his way to the front of the
group and greeted everybody on his way up. After his opening remarks, he immediately recapped the events of the day. From past experience, he knew he had to cover the critical information first before he could inform them of the losses suffered on the outing. In the past, when he’d led the meeting with a moment of silence for any members of the camp who’d perished, nothing effective was achieved after the fact, and the mega horde headed their way was of paramount importance to them all. After he got everyone caught up on the results of the reconnaissance mission, and the utter importance of fortifying and making plans to deal with the horde, he let them know they had again lost people. Not believing in hiding things from his people, he filled them in on the details of the situation that led to the deaths of Big Poppa Don, Tim, and Billy. As he concluded, he paused for a moment to allow all of the information they’d been given to sink into the somber group, as well as a moment of quiet to morn the most recent losses to their community.
After a few seconds of silence, Kyle began to relax as he realized they understood what he had done and why. A few faces showed some concern, but no one voiced any outrage and most kept quiet as everyone present could relate in one way or another to what he’d done in that tense situation.
Kyle exhaled a sigh of relief and continued on to the next pressing matter concerning the camp. “Okay. Now I think we are all starting to realize that this might not be a typical fall storm brewing. Those of us from around here recognized the patterns of this storm and we think we are dealing with a hurricane in the making. If that is the case, we need to come up with a plan on how we will handle this storm coupled with the approaching horde. I am open to any and all ideas on this one,” Kyle then opened up the floor for discussion.
Forty-five minutes and several heated debates later, the residents of Camp H finally agreed upon an acceptable plan of action.
“I think we are all in agreement then. Let’s get all four remaining vehicles prepared for camp evacuation in case this goes bad. We’ll also be prepping the camp in an attempt to repel the horde, as well as preparing as best we can to ride out the storm here in camp, if we can. The armory is our most defensible and most secure building, so we will move everything we want stored safely, here. All weapons will be divided up amongst everyone able, but with a small contingent of weapons and ammo to be left here in the armory. Those remaining weapons will be for the volunteers who are going to stay in camp in the case of evacuation to safeguard our supplies until we come back after it is safe to do so. We figure we have about 24- to 36-hours until the storm gets bad here, and about the same until the horde arrives, so let’s get everything humanly possible done tonight and we can reassess in the morning anything else we don’t get to.”
Humanity's Hope (Book 1): Camp H Page 14
