Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  Kelly started to argue then realized she didn’t have a lot to argue about. These guys had just heroically risked their own lives to save the lives of her and her children. She saw them moving towards Kyler and Randy. She went and started rounding up her troops. She thanked Henry for carrying Zoey and asked if he’d mind carrying her and Ali back to the vehicles that should be somewhere behind them. He reached down and grabbed Ali without a word and disappeared in search of said vehicles. Caitlyn, Sarah and Myriah carrying Doreen followed in his path. Kelly hesitated to make sure Kyler and Randy made it to the vehicles as well. She walked along with the men who scooped up her husband and the young man she’d already come to think of like a son towards the promised vehicles and escape.

  Chapter 24: Visine, Pancakes and Tic Tacs

  Krantz leaned back in the comfortable leather chair. He imagined Forrest had scoured the hospital to find the office of some rich doctor to snag the chair from. It was a world away from the cheap office furniture Krantz was used to dealing with. At least now he knew where all his co-pays had ended up at. He wished he could be a world away from the papers strewn across the top of the mahogany desk.

  Forrest had been speaking the truth when he said the north had hit them hard. According to the reports he’d just finished reading the north may have hit them hard enough to stop the New America expansion in its tracks. The north had flown multiple sorties against large targets in the south. Their knowledge of where to strike to do the most damage had to have come from traitors within the Brotherhood. It would’ve taken a high-level person to have provided the intelligence needed for the very accurate and extremely damaging strikes. It would’ve taken a very high-level person to have known the flight plans for Roberts to have been able to take him out in one of the first sorties.

  A high-level person or maybe just one of the guards who accompanied Roberts everywhere. Any of the men in his raiders group who kept their eyes and ears open would’ve probably been able to pick up on a lot of valuable intel. Krantz thought of Kyler and how he’d been around when him and Roberts had discussed strategy. He’d trusted Kyler and Rodriguez enough to let them in on his thoughts and plans and they’d betrayed him. The same thing could’ve easily happened to Roberts. It wasn’t like the old days with all the formality. It wasn’t like they were sending plans via encrypted satellite signals to headquarters to cloak and dagger everything around. Sending a fax over a hardwired connection was about the height of technology now as far as long distance communications went.

  A lot of the outposts were still intact at least. Since the infected tended to show up in large numbers everywhere too many people were living in one place everyone had been pretty evenly dispersed around the states. Whoever had given up the intel on the Brotherhood had evidently not been part of the Tennessee expansion either since the bases and forces in Tennessee hadn’t been touched. Bases on the coast had been hit especially hard. Krantz suspected the north was operating some subs or maybe even an aircraft carrier. It’d make sense since those military machines ran on nuclear power. They could travel around the Earth a hundred times before you’d need to swap out the power rods in the reactors.

  Krantz put a blank piece of paper in front of himself and started working on coming up with a plan to move forward. The longer he stared at his notes the more it became obvious to him that they should back off the expansion and consolidate their power in the states they already controlled. He didn’t see a path forward for them to conquer North Carolina. The north had just shown them what would happen if they kept pressing on the border. They’d sent an extremely clear signal that they wouldn’t just roll over and take it. He just didn’t know if the Senator would find that answer acceptable or not. He guessed he’d find out when he gave the Senator his report.

  Krantz sat up straight in the leather chair making it roll away from the desk abruptly. Something had just occurred to him. How the hell was he supposed to contact the Senator? It wasn’t like he had the man’s personal cell phone number. Even if he did it wasn’t like phone service was super reliable. With all the attacks there was a good chance the Senator had headed for a secure location which may or may not be on the grid of hard-wired lines they’d setup across the territory they controlled. Realizing that the stack of papers in front of him had probably been ordered to be sent to him by the Senator he relaxed. If they could get all this paperwork over to him then he should be able to reach back out to talk to him over the same wires. He reached for the walkie on the corner of the desk and sent out a call out for Forrest to confirm.

  He sipped at the last bit of cold coffee in the large ceramic mug while he waited. He didn’t have to wait for long.

  “Yes sir?” The retired marine entered and stood at parade rest until Krantz indicated he should sit. It felt a little awkward telling the older and more experienced officer he could have a seat in his own office. He explained his concern to Forrest about being able to contact the Senator for their meeting the next day.

  “No problem sir. I’ll reach out and see what we can find out about how the call should be setup. We have direct lines that go out from here to a good portion of the outposts. They had the IT geeks set up some of it but there’s also the old-fashioned sound powered phone options if we need to. As long as we have a pair of wires from here to wherever the Senator is, we can talk to him one way or another. I’m just hoping whatever hidey hole he fell back to the connections didn’t get destroyed in the attack.” Forrest stood there waiting to be dismissed. Still feeling a little awkward about it all Krantz dismissed him.

  Forrest paused on the way out to let Krantz know they’d made up his quarters on the level below the one they were currently on. He’d have a man come up whenever Krantz was ready and escort him to his room. They’d come back once they’d verified that they could setup the conversation with the Senator and let him know. Krantz went ahead and said to send the man once they were ready. It wasn’t like he was going to accomplish anything else sitting in the office staring at the papers he’d already read through five times. If nothing had jumped out at him yet, then nothing probably would. Maybe a good night’s sleep would help.

  Krantz recognized the soldier who came to escort him to his room as the same one who’d been on guard duty when they first arrived. End of the world and the military was still screwing over the enlisted guys. Either that or they were seriously short staffed at this outpost. They better get used to it. Based on the data Krantz had seen so far, they were going to be spread really thin moving forward. They’d lost a lot of men and mobility in the air strikes. In addition to hitting their military bases and taking out their troops the north had also taken the time to strike airfields, fuel dumps and military bases as well. They definitely hadn’t pulled any punches. The fight the Brotherhood had tried to start may have been already been lost before they’d even had the chance to throw a punch.

  The room Krantz was taken to was nicer than the average hospital room. It was in the labor and delivery section. It was one of the premium rooms the mothers could stay in after the baby was born for an additional fee. That’d always seemed like a huge scam to Krantz. How do you look the mother of your child in the eye and tell her you didn’t get her the nice room after she went through the pains of childbirth for you? It reminded him of the funeral home guy who’d tried to sell him the really nice coffin to bury his dad in. All he’d had to do to get out of that guilt trip was spend a few seconds thinking of what his dad would’ve said if someone had tried to charge him an extra two thousand bucks for a more comfortable mattress in his coffin. The funeral guy had looked offended when Krantz had actually started laughing at his recommendations. Offended and a little concerned that maybe Krantz wasn’t as sane as he looked.

  The room did come with one perk that seemed oddly out of place in a hospital setting. Especially in a room meant for recovering mothers although most of the fathers would’ve probably been fine with it. Someone had added a small mini bar. Krantz found himself automatically stan
ding in front of it making himself a very stiff drink. He’d just put the glass to his lips when there was a knock on the door. He set the glass down and went to open the door. He found Forrest standing outside.

  “You heard back on the call already?” Krantz asked.

  “Yes sir. You won’t be having a call with the Senator. He’s sending a helicopter in the morning to pick you up for a face to face. They should be here around zero six hundred. I can come get you in the morning and walk you out if that works sir. Your men and your personal helicopter will all be staying here for now.” Forrest informed him.

  “Thank you. That’ll work for me.” Krantz said hoping to get Forrest to go ahead and roll out. He was thinking he could really use that drink now that he’d heard this new plan. The old marine just kind of stood there looking like he may have something more to say. After a few moments of staring at each other Forrest finally blurted out the request to speak freely. Krantz told him to go ahead. Inwardly he was just wishing the man would leave so he could get sloshed and pass out on the comfortable looking labor recovery bed.

  “Like I told you before sir I couldn’t help but see that information that got sent out for you. I know how bad we got hit. I don’t have the numbers and everything like I’m sure you do but I would think a hit like that really rocks us back on our heels. This is just an old marine talking here but if I were you then maybe the advice to the Senator is to consolidate what he was able to take. If we press the north again all they have to do is swing with the same strength as the last time and it’d be over.” Forrest finished. He looked relieved to have gotten it off his chest.

  “Thank you. I’ll take all that under consideration. It was one of the options I was thinking about to after studying the data. If that’s all I’ll see you in a few hours to catch the flying Uber.”

  Forrest saluted smartly and left once it was obvious Krantz was dismissing him. Krantz wondered if Forrest had been hanging out in hopes of sharing the bottle of whiskey sitting on the counter. Dismissing the thought Krantz took a generous sip out of the glass he’d poured earlier. He told himself he needed to keep the drinking under control since he had to wake up early, he sat down on the oversized rocking chair and nursed the glass of whiskey. By the third glass he was no longer nursing the booze.

  He dreamed he was back home trying to find his phone. The damned thing kept beeping, but he couldn’t seem to find it anywhere. He opened his eyes when he belatedly realized it must be his alarm going off. The room’s window was covered in blackout shades and it was still dark outside, so the room would’ve been pitch black if he’d turned off the lights before he went to bed. The super comfortable looking bed still stood in all it’s made up hospital corner glory. He’d passed out in the chair he’d been drinking in. He vaguely remembered his promise to himself to keep it under control. The empty bottle on the floor told another story.

  He found his phone and silenced the alarm. He’d been searching for it in his dream for a good bit of time evidently. Checking the time on it, he saw he only had about five minutes to get ready now before Forrest was due to swing by and take him out to the helicopter landing area. The small bathroom had a bucket of water sitting in it for flushing and some rudimentary hygiene products sitting on the sink. He used half the water in the bucket to flush the toilet when he’d finished his business there. He used the other half to try and make himself presentable.

  Looking in the mirror he saw he was fighting a losing battle. He almost wished the hospital didn’t have the solar cells on the roof. That way he wouldn’t have the light to be able to see himself in the mirror by. He looked as bad as he felt. He squeezed the whole tube of toothpaste in his mouth and moved around the blob of paste with the cheap disposable toothbrush that’d been left on the sink. Why was it called a toothbrush? Because it was invented in Arkansas, anywhere else it would’ve been called a teeth brush. The old joke popped into Krantz’s head out of nowhere. It reminded him of a better time. He felt like he might cry thinking about the stupid joke his dad had loved to tell him and his brothers. He worked on getting his emotions in check as he splashed water on his face and ran his fingers through his hair.

  There was nothing for him to dry off on, so he pulled an extra shirt out of his backpack and used that. He ran his hands over his clothes realizing for the first time he didn’t have anything special to wear. Normally this would be a dress uniform or full suit and tie kind of thing. He was dressed more like some kind of homeless Mad Max character. Camouflage pants tucked into combat boots with the pockets all crammed full of stuff. A zippered black hoody with the Hard Rock Café logo from NYC on the back of it over a green t-shirt that said something about Irish beer on it. Knives, machetes, pistols, rifles and spare ammunition hung off him everywhere there was a place he could attach something. His Alice pack was sitting on the ground ready to be thrown on to complete the ensemble.

  There was a knock on the door. Krantz grabbed his pack and scanned the room to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything before opening the door. Forrest was standing outside looking annoyingly crisp and refreshed. Krantz saw Forrest clock the empty bottle and then scan over his face. His eyes showing compassion rather than revulsion he handed Krantz a small paper bag. Curious Krantz opened it and looked inside before snorting out a laugh.

  “How often do you have to restock the liquor in here after visitors?” He asked Forrest.

  “Given the times we don’t have too many visitors we bother with sir but there aren’t many that we provide for who don’t partake. We have a few minutes if you want to have a quick bite.” Forrest replied. He turned around and took a tray from a man behind him. He walked past Krantz and sat the tray on the counter. The wonderful smell of pancakes and syrup filled the room.

  After the impromptu breakfast Krantz was beginning to feel human again. They sat in the room joking while sipping on steaming hot cups of coffee. Forrest filled Krantz in on how they utilized tunnels and the cover of darkness to keep the base stocked with provisions. Krantz was in the bathroom applying the Visine to his red eyes when Forrest got the message that the helicopter was landing to pick up Krantz. Picking his pack up again Krantz followed Forrest out of the hospital over to the parking garage where a small commercial helicopter was waiting to take him to see the Senator.

  The man holding the door open to the helicopter saluted as Krantz walked over and climbed in the backseat. A few minutes later they were in the air. Krantz adjusted his headset so he could speak to the pilot if needed. The only words actually exchanged on the hour-long flight revolved around him being asked if he wanted a water. He very gratefully accepted the hydration. He knew a hangover was probably going to be the least of his worries before the day was over.

  Chapter 25: Hot Chocolate and a Solid Nap

  The leader of the group of men who’d rescued them on the bridge introduced himself as Petty Officer Briggins. When Kelly asked him what a ‘pretty officer’ was he stuck his hand out and told her Bryan also worked. He yanked the baklava off while trying to catch his breath after the fight revealing he was a red head. It immediately became apparent he’d been cutting his own hair. A lot of people cut their own hair in this new normal. You couldn’t exactly run out to a Hair Cuttery.

  Bryan was bad at it though. He had some sort of shaved in the front, medium long in the back bushy red hair thing going on. His whole head being covered in sweat didn’t do a lot to make it look any better either. Not able to think of a polite way to ask him to put the face mask back on Kelly asked him where they were headed instead. She hoped they weren’t planning on going too far. Being on the open road after making enough noise to be heard twenty miles away wasn’t a great idea.

  “We’re setup in an old barn some rich guy converted to a house. We’ve cleared it out to use when we’re up here in this area. It’s up the road a couple of miles. We’ve kept it stocked up as our fallback. There aren’t any population centers around here. Unless there’s a wandering herd we should be good to get to
the base and get secured before the first wave of infected make it here.” Bryan answered.

  Kelly and Henry were sitting in a civilian style Hummer with one of the soldiers driving and Bryan sitting in the passenger seat. He spun around in his seat to interrogate them as they drove.

  “Thanks for helping us across the bridge. We know you could’ve just blown it up with us on it. Thanks for trusting us with our weapons too.” Kelly said. Henry nodded his head in agreement.

  “Honestly there wasn’t enough time to try and search all of you for weapons. I’m kind of assuming with your kids in the truck behind us you’ll behave. Are they all your kids?” Bryan asked.

  “Yes. Mine and Randy’s. We collected Ali along the way, but she might as well be our blood at this point.” Kelly answered.

  “You two are lucky. Not many people can say they’ve managed to keep their family alive through all this. Especially not if they’ve been out on the open road. How about you? What’s your story?” Bryan asked Henry.

  “Not much too tell. Got stuck in South Carolina when all this happened. Was living in a little valley we’d cleared out of Zombies. We had a hidden trail into the back of a Sam’s Club. Enough food in there to keep us going for years. There was a little over thirty of us including a couple of kids. A bunch of guys in helicopters came swooping in and shot up the cabins we were in. We shot back and they launched rockets. Not much of a fight. Me and Sarah were the only ones who made it out. That was a couple of weeks ago. I’ve known Kelly and her family for about twenty minutes longer than you have. We met on the other side of that bridge.” Henry answered. He told the story emotionlessly.