“Stay still. It’s going to be okay,” she lied.
Hope knelt beside him and steadied herself while she tried to figure out what to do next. Then she heard a growl behind her. Hope spun around to confront the new target with her knife at the ready. She scanned the area in front of her before she realized that the growl originated closer to the ground.
“Storm. C’mere girl,” she commanded. The white Shepherd paid no attention to Hope, but was intently focused on the darkness near the fence. Hope turned in the direction Storm faced just in time to have a flash of lightning illuminate two more slabs as they emerged out of the mud from the hole under the wall. Hope realized she had no idea how many more had come though the hole or how many were on the other side waiting to do the same.
“I’ve got to get that hole blocked. Rico, don’t move. I will be right back.” She bolted over and quickly dispatched both new arrivals with a thrust of her knife before they could gain their footing as they came out of the mud. Hope looked around and found a loose piece of plywood on the bottom of the watchtower. With a couple well-placed kicks, the 4x8 sheet of wood came free of its mounts. She picked up the wood and slammed it down into place at the edge of the wall and temporarily sealed up the hole that was allowing the slabs to enter.
Hope quickly climbed back up the ladder and grabbed the emergency flare gun that each tower held. The flares were only to be used in case of a breach and were colored differently for each tower. Hope removed the gun from its box and quickly fired the flare toward the center of the camp. Happy to see that it worked and that it landed right in the middle of the houses, she then grabbed her rifle and a towel and slid back down the ladder where Storm was waiting at the bottom.
“Good girl. Now watch my back while I get Rico patched up,” she commanded as the two ran over to Rico.
Hope reached down to grab Rico’s head and started to wrap the towel around his neck to staunch the bleeding. It was then she discovered he was no longer bleeding. Slightly confused, she put a hand on the other side of Rico’s neck to check for a pulse. Seconds ticked by , but she felt nothing; she was about to give up and accept the fatal truth when she felt Rico start to stir.
“Oh, thank God,” she exclaimed. However, her joy was cut short as she unexpectedly felt a sharp pain on her arm. She looked down in shock to see Rico biting into her forearm as she had continued to check for his pulse.
Quickly, Hope jumped back. Storm came to her side and barked and lunged at the body that just one-minute ago she had been standing over protectively.
Slowly, Rico rose from the ground and tried to steady his newly dead body. Rico stood and wobbled from side to side as if he was no longer aware of his body as he tried to figure out where he was and what he was supposed to do next. In a heartbeat, his instincts took over and he gained his bearings and approached the two meals standing before him.
Hope drew up her rifle, her hands trembling, as she readied herself for what she knew she must do. Rico approached her and appeared to become more comfortable with each additional step forward in his new existence. Hope put her finger on the trigger and took a deep breath.
A loud report echoed across the night, and Rico dropped to the ground for the second time that night. Hope was confused, though, as she never squeezed the trigger. She looked into the darkness and saw a familiar figure standing five feet behind Rico with his gun still aimed in their direction.
“Dad, I’m so happy to see you!” Hope cried out as she ran forward into his outstretched arms.
“It’s alright,” Kyle said. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so … I was so scared, though,” Hope responded as she looked down at her arm and slowly slid her sleeve down to cover the bite mark.“Ron is right behind me. He will take over when he gets here, then I will get you back to the house, and you can tell me what happened.” He stifled a shudder as he looked down at the body of Rico.
CHAPTER 38
Hutch and Hicks
Hicks slowly opened his eyes, giving them enough time to adjust to the bright morning sun coming through the windshield. As his vision came into full focus, he eyed a sign going by his window. It read: PADUCAH CITY LIMIT.
“Wow. How long have I been out?” Hicks asked, as he sat up in his seat still groggy from sleep.
“About four hours.”
“Four hours and this is as far as we’ve gotten?”
“Yep,” Hutch said. “Had to go slow. A lot of blocked roads with debris and stranded vehicles everywhere. Even had to nudge a few of them out of the way. Honestly, I was very surprised you slept through it all.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sleep without keeping one eye open. So what’s the plan? We still heading to Nashville?” Hicks hoped that his host hadn’t changed his mind about letting him tag along. It took him the better part of an hour that morning to convince Hutch that it was mutually beneficial for them to stick together.
“Yeah, but first we will make camp here tonight.” Hutch pulled out an old fold-up map and studied it for a few seconds before folding it back up and sliding it into a vest pocket.
After a few detours, the duo pulled up behind a large building that was identified by the sign at the road as the World’s Largest Quilt Museum. Hicks surveyed the area as Hutch pulled the van to the rear of the building into a large open field that must’ve been used as an overflow parking area when the regular parking lot was full. Though, for the life of him, he couldn’t think of a single scenario where there would be that many people going to a quilt museum at one time.
“This looks good,” Hutch said. “We have a full 360-degree view of anything approaching. You set up camp here and I’m going to scout out the area for supplies.” Hutch climbed out of the van and grabbed his gear and an extra empty duffle bag.
With a four-hour nap behind him, Hicks jumped out and stretched for a few seconds while he watched Hutch disappear around the side of the museum. Once he was fully stretched out, Hicks started the process of setting up their camp. He paid special attention to the directions that Hutch had explained to him earlier in the trip on how he liked the camp to be set up and the security measures put in place to give them an advanced warning of anything approaching.
After about an hour of work, Hicks finally sat down on one of the fold-up chairs and started to catch his breath. Without warning, he was startled out of the chair by three rapid gunshots coming from inside the museum. As he jumped to his feet and grabbed his rifle and tactical vest, he heard three more and then another three, followed by what could only be a fragmentation grenade going off.
Hicks ran toward the gunfire to lend a hand to his new partner. As he approached the rear of the building, another grenade went off. This time, however, an entire section of the rear wall blew outward in a cloud of dust and debris. Hicks saw some movement in the smoke and readied his aim.
A moment later, two slabs appeared from the smoke, and he dropped them both with two quick pulls of the trigger. Then another figure started to emerge from the hole, but he recognized the shape and gait and pegged that one as Hutch.
Hutch quickly cleared the debris created by his blast and was in a full sprint with a large duffle bag slung over his shoulder that was obviously more full than when he had left.
Within a few seconds, Hutch covered the distance separating the two men, and Hicks was a little impressed by the older man’s athletic ability. He quickly changed from admiration to alert when he saw over a dozen slabs emerging from the new exit. Their exit, though, wasn’t as graceful as Hutch’s had been as they stumbled and tripped over the debris, creating a dog-pile effect. He knew it would only be a temporary delay.
His host had by then reached his position and turned to see if his pursuers were still coming. “Did you get everything set up?”
“Just as you laid out for me,” Hicks responded.
“Good. We have at least a couple hundred in the building, and I just pissed them off. Fall back to the van and let’s
greet them.” Hutch then sprinted to the van.
Hicks jumped up inside the van and emerged from the roof hatch with a belt-fed machine gun that he quickly snapped into place on two custom mounted brackets. Meanwhile, Hutch grabbed some of the camp gear and tossed it into the back of the van and shut the door while he remained outside.
Hutch knew the sound of Hicks’ opening fire on the rushing slabs was sure to alert any slabs in the area as to their position, which was why Hicks had earlier been busy installing Claymore explosives with trip wires in almost a complete circle around the camp.
Hutch opened the cab of the van and grabbed two more guns from behind the seat to go with the one already slung over his shoulder. As he shut the door, Hicks opened fire on the approaching slabs. While Hicks kept them at bay for a moment, Hutch climbed up on top of the van to have a better view of the battle.
Unexpectedly, a large explosion from the left signaled an intruder had tripped one of the Claymores at the tree line, meaning the slabs had been a lot closer than they thought when they’d picked that location. Hutch turned to the sound of the explosion and eyed three slabs still airborne from the Claymore. Then within seconds of the first explosion, two more went off on opposite sides of the van. Hutch looked and noticed slabs coming from nearly all directions. He realized they were in for a long afternoon, but luckily he had come prepared. He dropped back down into the back of the van and started to open several of the long metal boxes stacked carefully around the interior. Each box was loaded with ammo, grenades, and many other weapons of war he had acquired from raiding various abandoned military bases or overrun supply convoys, and even civilian stashes he had run across.
The steady sound of the belt-fed gun and the regular explosions around them told Hutch they were going to be busy for a while and that they would be putting a huge dent in his supplies. Regardless, he wouldn’t stop until they were completely overrun or they had killed every last slab that came at them.
CHAPTER 39
Kyle and Hope
As Kyle and Hope started for home, along the way they met David, Christi, and Yankee Dave who had been up that night planning for the next couple of days. They had seen the orange flare as it flew down the street signaling trouble at the east tower and had come to find out what had happened.
“Come to the house with us,” said Kyle. “Hope will brief us on the details.”
When they got home, Hope sat in the wicker chair and told her tale of the events that had just happened. When she finally finished, she leaned back to catch her breath.
Every fiber of Kyle wanted to scream at Hope, to tell her this was what he had been afraid would happen. Yet he kept his composure and comforted her with a pat on the shoulder and a hug. “It’s going to be okay,” he told her and squeezed a little harder before he let go and moved back to give her some breathing room.
“Why don’t you go get changed and into some dry clothes?” Kyle suggested to Hope. “We’re going to go find Patty and tell her what happened to her son and then bury the body. I’m sure that will take a while.”
Yankee Dave walked up to Hope and patted her on the back. “I wish I had been there, kiddo, so you wouldn’t have to be going through this.” Dave followed Kyle to the door.
David was the next to approach on his way out. He just stopped and looked down at Hope. “I’ll leave Christi here for you to talk to and help if you need anything.” Then he, too, headed for the door.
After all three men had exited, and left Christi, Hope, and Storm alone in the room, Christi broke the somber silence first. “Yep, that’s my man, mister sensitive there. He’s all mine, so don’t even think about taking him.”
The two ladies burst out in laughter as Storm curled up in the corner as she tried to dry off. Hope stood up and went toward her room.
“I’m going to go get cleaned up, then go to bed. You can stay if you want to, Aunt Christi, but I’ll be okay. I think I just need some sleep.” Hope headed down the hallway.
“I’m going to hang out for a little bit, mainly so I can do some cleaning around here. Your dad has really let this place go. I can’t stand the mess anymore.” Christi picked up the broom and started to sweep the floor.
Hope headed straight into the bathroom and shut the door. She ignited the lantern and watched as the bathroom slowly filled with light. With a pause of dread, she slowly lifted up her sleeve and looked at the bite mark on her arm. It was slightly swollen, and the teeth had definitely broken through the skin in a couple of places. She grabbed the soap and pulled the chain on the pipe above her head that led to a water reservoir on the roof of the house. Water slowly started to come out of the new faucet mounted above the original, and she began to wash the wound. She scrubbed the wound as hard and long as she could take it, then she squeezed the last bit of antibiotic ointment out of a tube and completely coated the wound. After she wrapped gauze around it, she slipped on another long-sleeve shirt and exited the bathroom to go to her room, one door over. As she shut the bathroom door, Renee opened her bedroom door at the last second and startled her.
“I heard everything from the bedroom. Are you okay?” Renee asked.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just really shaken up from everything.”
“If you want to talk, let me know,” Renee offered. “I’m here for you. I just wanted to hear it from you, Hope. Is it true that Rico turned?”
“Yeah, it was fast, too. One minute he was alive and the next second he was trying to eat me. Thank God Dad showed up. I don’t think I would have been able to pull the trigger on him,” Hope responded as her voice began to crack as she relived the moment. “Just promise me something, Renee. If I ever turn, you won’t let me do something to you or Patch. Will you do what has to be done?”
“I don’t know—” Renee tried to finish but was cut short by Hope.
“No, you have to know. I have to know that you would do whatever was necessary.”
“I will, okay!” Renee fired back. “ But let’s not think about that. Dad is not going to let anything like that happen to us. Okay!”
“Okay. Now let me get some sleep. Oh, and make sure you have a gun handy in the room tonight. I don’t know if any other slabs got through before I sealed up the hole. Good night.” Hope paused for a second. “I love you and Patch very much.”
Renee was caught off guard by that last comment. She turned and walked over to Hope and gave her a hug. “I love you, too!”
As Renee headed down the hall, she could see Aunt Christi steadily cleaning the kitchen as she shook her head in disgust, and she thought of how traumatic the night’s events must have been to push Hope into saying she loved her. She couldn’t remember the last time she had heard those three little words come out of her sister’s mouth.
CHAPTER 40
NINE MONTHS BEFORE CAMP H
One Month Before Kane’s Arrival
Commandos and Spooks
The Blackhawk’s engines roared to life, and six well-armed fully-outfitted commandos sat inside waiting for the final members of their party to arrive. As the late arrivals walked to the helicopter, one of the commandos opened up the sliding door to let them in. The first through the door was a well-dressed man in a snazzy suit and everyone else in the helicopter instantly pegged him as CIA by the way he carried himself. The other man was dressed considerably more casual compared to the first, with him wearing combat-ready fatigues and toting a rifle over his shoulder.
The battle-ready man leaned forward and gave the pilots their orders before he turned to the rest of the men and addressed them as the helicopter began its assent. As they all watched Fort Benning get smaller through the window, he briefed them on their mission. “Alright, listen up. We are heading to Washington DC, to one of the Smithsonian Annex buildings to be exact. This is a simple snatch-and-grab. Mr. CIA here, knows what we are going for. He will take the lead once we arrive. We are not to engage any civilians or undead unless they are in the direct path of our objective. Once we have secured our pac
kage, we are then to eliminate with extreme prejudice. No side missions and no rescue missions. We get our package and get out. If we do what we are trained to do, this will go off without a hitch, and we will be home in about 12-hours. Now get some sleep. We have four hours until touchdown.”
The six commandos all responded with a resounding “Hoorah” before they each leaned back to get some rest. The suit gave a slight nod of approval, but did not speak. Instead, he set his briefcase to the side, which was handcuffed to him, and pulled out a mission outline and looked over his instructions.
Four hours later, the men all double-checked their equipment as the helicopter circled around looking for the building they were to land on. “Got it!” the pilot yelled, pointing to one of the larger buildings just south of the main Smithsonian building. As they swung around and prepared to land, all the men looked out at the burned buildings in the country’s capital. Even the White House showed battle scars. Most of the damage was from the early days of the infection when people ransacked it after all the government officials evacuated the city and everyone else was left behind to fend for themselves in the face of an unrelenting enemy.
The helicopter pilot hovered just above the roof for a minute to see if they would be met with any opposition before he decided they were safe, and he set the bird down. “Alright, you have seven minutes before we return. If you want a ride home, be on time.” The pilot then gave them the green light to exit.
The commandos took up their defensive positions as they stepped out onto the roof, andwatched as the helicopter lifted off and disappeared from sight. They made their way to the large metal door on the roof. As they approached the door. they saw it had an electronic keypad lock on it, but without any power, it had gone into its secure lock-down mode. The suit squeezed his way through the commandoes and produced a large battery box, and set to work. He pulled the cover off the keypad and spliced the battery into the control panel. As the power was restored to the lock, he pulled out a keycard from the briefcase and slid it though the reader and watched as the light turned green, and the distinct sound of the locking mechanism unlocking could be heard. As the door opened, a hiss of air signified that the building was still structurally sound.
Humanity's Hope (Book 1): Camp H Page 16
