by SD Tanner
Shaking her head, Lydia replied, ‘It’s not what you think. These tests are no different to the tests we do when we are trying to diagnose a sick person.’
He was a little relieved to hear that, but he wanted Lydia to be clear about how far they’d be willing to go. Ip was now part of their family. She’d protected them time and again and they felt equally protective of her.
Nodding, he said, ‘That sounds a little better, but we’ll need her permission to test her. She’s not our prisoner. She’s part of our family.’ Wondering how they would be able to ask for her permission, he said, ‘I forgot to mention she doesn’t talk. She doesn’t seem to understand language.’
Looking surprised, Lydia asked, ‘How do you know she doesn’t understand language?’
Shrugging, he replied, ‘She doesn’t acknowledge words, but she does seem to understand us.’
Arching her eyebrows, Lydia asked, ‘Can she at least nod her head for yes or shake her head for no?’
He shook his head at Lydia and said, ‘No.’
Lydia looked puzzled and asked, ‘Then how do you know she understands you?’
Drawing a deep breath, he said, ‘I don’t know, but she always seems to know what’s going on, what you want her to do and what you’re going to do. It’s hard to explain. It’s like she can read your mind. Sounds crazy, huh?’
Shaking her head, Lydia smiled and said, ‘Have you had a good look at the world lately, TL? It is crazy.’
By now, it was time for dinner, and leading Lydia to their version of a mess hall, they joined the rest of her group for dinner.
CHAPTER SIX: Scavengers & predators (Pax)
Heaving himself out of the Ford F150 truck, he stood and scanned the depot. Sentries were moving about on the roof and half a dozen scavengers were building up a pile of supplies in the car park, ready to be loaded into the trucks.
The National Guard depot was a central warehouse and distribution center for the surrounding military bases. It housed a range of supplies from MRE’s, cots and clothing to combat gear, personal weapons and ammunition. Much to his disappointment, it didn’t store heavy armaments like anti-tank missiles, mines and artillery.
Watching the scavengers move purposefully, he noted their flagrant disregard for uniform protocols. The depot contained a large supply of ACUs and pretty much everyone wore them. He was used to seeing soldiers wearing their ACUs to dress standards and he thought his recruits looked like a bunch of camouflaged tramps. It always made him want to put them on report, but he tried to dismiss his irritation. He knew it didn’t matter how they wore their ACUs, but lately pretty much everything was irritating him.
One of his tramps spotted him across the car park and trotted over. ‘Hey boss,’ the skinny kid shouted. ‘We’ze had company.’
He wasn’t used to being called ‘boss’ and it was another thing that grated on him. Scowling, he asked, ‘What kinda company?’
‘Two guys wuz here about 20 minutes ago. They wuz in combat gear ‘n carryin’ really big guns,’ the skinny kid said excitedly.
Sighing, he thought, “really big gun” wasn’t helping him understand the kind of problem he was dealing with. The skinny kid was one of his new boots. He couldn’t remember this kid’s name and he wished they’d wear badges on their ACUs. He could tell them to do it, but it would just be one more thing he’d have to teach them.
He asked the kid curtly, ‘What did they want?’
The skinny kid said rapidly, ‘They wanned to know about the base and who wuz runnin’ it. They wanned to know what wuz in the depot ‘n how much wuz left ‘n how often we unloaded stuff ‘n where we wuz takin’ the stuff ‘n how many guys we got ‘n whether we wuz military ‘n how many trucks we got ‘n how many women, ‘n kids, ‘n stuff’.
The kid was speaking so fast his words were merging into a wall of sound that was giving him a headache. Putting up his hand to halt the flow of words from the babbling kid, he asked, ‘What did ya tell ‘em?’
The kid looked at him in utter disbelief and said, ‘I dinna tell ‘em nuffin, boss. I dunno who dey wuz. Fuck dat shit.’
Inwardly he smiled at the kid’s indignation thinking he had his head screwed on straight even if he couldn’t talk properly. Nodding, he asked, ‘They say anythin’ else? And keep it brief. I ain’t got all day.’
The skinny kid finally slowed down his rapid chatter and said, ‘Nah, they jus’ sez they wuz army ‘n they wuz scoutin’ the area lookin’ for survivors. Sez they had a camp ‘n Alexandria ‘n they wuz takin’ care of the peeps up there,’
It sounded like more trouble to him, and sighing, he asked, ‘Did they say where they were headed?’
Shrugging, the skinny kid said, ‘Nah, jus’ sez dey wuz lookin’ about.’
Wondering how the men had arrived at the depot, he asked, ‘Did ya see their wheels?’
The kid looked momentarily puzzled and then said, ‘No, dey jus’ kinda shows up ‘n den walked off.’
That didn’t sound right to him. The army rolled into any place with fanfare. They didn’t just sneak up on you unless they were doing something sneaky. Either that or these guys were outright lying and were a bunch of survivors playing soldier.
Nodded brusquely, he said, ‘Yeah, alright. Stay on point. Ya did good.’
With his job, he was busy all day and half the night every day of the week. Part of his brief was to ensure everyone had a level of military training and he’d split training people into three categories. Basic weapons training for everyone, so they could at least take care of themselves. Weapons and basic survival training for anyone like the scavengers who went outside the wire. Weapons, survival and tactical training for the people expected to fight in combat situations with the living or the dead, but he was worried about his combat people. He didn’t have the resources or the time to do the right level or type of training. He didn’t even have people capable of combat. People were allocated to a category based on aptitude and preference. In his view, it was a lousy selection process and a lot of his people were going to die. He was trying to compensate for what he didn’t have by way of time and talent by using real combat situations as training events, but it was a pretty dubious practice. Sighing, he thought, desperate times lead to desperate measures.
The other part of his brief was to manage the supply lines. He had scavenger teams sourcing whatever the depot didn’t have, and he liaised with stores and inventory back at the Base. The needs of the Base were growing with the population and they still lacked good medical supplies and a fully qualified doctor. TL found potential sites to scavenge and Fagan maintained maps of the 80-mile radius they were currently scoping while Mick ran the stores. They’d settled on the Ford F150 as their standard truck and they had a couple of mechanics keeping them running.
Having such a highly visible Base worried him. They used massive overhead lights to form a perimeter of white brilliance around the Base at night. Few hunters crossed the barrier of light, and sentries shot down any that did, but the Base shone a beacon of light high into the night sky that was visible for miles. He didn’t like it and he thought it made them a target.
Their mission was monumental, dangerous and most likely futile, and he didn’t see how they could get rid of every hunter in the country. Although he understood Ip was a hell of a weapon against the hunters, there was only one of her. Gears and TL seemed convinced they could somehow replicate her abilities, but he didn’t see how and he still didn’t agree with the mission. He thought TL meant well and Gears liked to make things happen, but neither had thought it through to the end. Even with his misgivings, he figured at least the mission gave him something to focus on and it had its benefits. That thought reminded him of the woman he’d been spending his limited spare time with. She was lush. Big blonde, stacked rack, long lean legs with a round pert ass. He’d mentally nicknamed her his Blonde Distraction and she didn’t seem to mind that he came and went at odd hours. Shaking his head to clear it of pornographic memories
, he grinned to himself and went back to work.
He called out to a big twenty-something guy who was loading boxes into the Ford F350 Stakebed transport truck, ‘Mackenzie!’
He thought Mackenzie would make a pretty decent sergeant one day. He was organized, communicated and delegated well and was a solid fighter in combat. Striding up to Mackenzie, he said, ‘I need ya to pull together a coupla guys. We need to take a ride.’
‘Sure thing, boss,’ Mackenzie replied. ‘Where we goin?’
Looking over what Mackenzie was loading into the truck, he said, ‘Coupla guys dropped by claimin’ to be army. I wanna see if we can find ‘em.’
He knew it would be simpler if he went alone, but he used every opportunity to train his combat personnel. A short ride out would be an easy mission that would add to their experience and help build their confidence. Mackenzie frowned and then suggested a few names, ‘How about Max and Jimmy?’
Shrugging to indicate it was Mackenzie’s call to make, he waited while Mackenzie turned around and boomed their names across the lot. Two people immediately dropped what they were doing and jogged over. One was a short, stocky, curvaceous and pretty brunette in her twenties and the other a younger man who was tall and lanky with skinny, but broad shoulders.
‘Get your kit, we’re heading out,’ Mackenzie told them.
Pulling up a mental map of the area, he tried to guess where the two guys might have headed. They could only be about thirty minutes out, but you could travel a long way in thirty minutes if you wanted to. He decided to take a truck and cruise the roads. He figured the two soldiers might come to him if he made enough noise, plus he could cover more distance in less time. He decided wasting some gas was better than wasting a chance to catch up with these guys before they left the area.
As part of their training, he told his combat teams to wear a combination of ACUs, SPCS or police stab vests with magazine attachments, canteens, knife, radio, machete and assault gloves. Additionally they carried an M4 and the M9 handgun. Max and Jimmy arrived in full combat gear, and they headed out of the depot and began driving the nearby roads.
They were randomly cruising at 10mph for about 30 minutes when they heard a scream from a medical clinic about thirty yards away. The clinic was a single-story, red brick building with a wide glass entrance door and a window on the right. From the road, he could see the doorway to the clinic was wide open.
Mackenzie instructed Max to pull up in front of the building and he was pleased to see Mackenzie take control of the situation. He’d brought him along to give him a chance to practice what he was being taught and it was good to see the young man stepping up.
‘Whatdaya see, Mackenzie?’ He asked.
Mackenzie replied, ‘Single-story, single entrance, clear window. Should be enough light inside that entrance for us to take a look.’ Turning around to look at Max and Jimmy, he said, ‘Okay guys. I’ll take lead. Jimmy you follow. Then Max. Let’s clear the entrance and see if we can work out where the survivor is. Sounds like she’s in trouble, so we’ll need to be swift and stay alert. Any questions?’
They both shook their heads and Max replied for both of them, ‘We’re good to go.’
Climbing out of the truck, they headed to the entrance. Mackenzie had them do a final check of weapons and they walked in, holding their guns ready. His job was to observe and step in if they ran into any trouble they couldn’t handle and he followed them in.
There were a few broken chairs scattered around the reception area and an open door leading deeper into the building directly in front of the entrance. He could hear muffled thumping and clawing noise from beyond the door.
Mackenzie whispered, ‘Lights up.’ Flicking his head, he indicated to Jimmy to go through the open door.
Jimmy walked through the door, followed by Max and then Mackenzie. He followed Mackenzie and he was monitoring the situation closely. The sound was coming from a room to their right. To their left was another open door and directly in front of them were closed double doors. He moved to cover the open left door. Jimmy went through the open door to the right. As Jimmy moved, his headlamp lit the room ahead of him and there was a large hairless hunter about ten feet in front of him. It was banging its manically shaking head into the door, while it clawed at the door handle and the flimsy veneer door was splintering under the onslaught.
Max whispered to Jimmy, ‘Don’t shoot. She might be behind the door.’
The hunter must have heard her and it spun around and launched itself at Jimmy. In a blink of an eye, it was on Jimmy and grotesquely hugging him, while tearing into his neck with its teeth. Jimmy fell back into Max and he tumbled onto the floor with the hunter still attached to him. Max stumbled under the weight of both of them, but Mackenzie couldn’t shoot the hunter with Jimmy under it. Mackenzie stepped over the tumble of bodies, jammed his arm around the hunter’s throat and hauled it off Jimmy. Max recovered from her tumble and was half standing. With its inhuman strength, the hunter twisted in Mackenzie’s grasp and snapped at his throat. Mackenzie used the full force of his arms, shoulders and sheer body weight to heave the hunter away from him and back towards the door.
Mackenzie shouted, ‘Shoot it!’
Max aimed her M4 at the hunter and she opened fire. As she began to fire, Mackenzie swung his M4 into position and also opened fire. Within five seconds they unloaded sixty bullets into the hunter and its body jerked, its head disintegrated piece by piece. Fragments of skull and black viscous fluid launched outward creating a halo of gore around its head.
He shouted at them, ‘Ceasefire! Ceasefire! That asshole is down!’
The room was filled with the acrid smell of cordite and hazy smoke drifted past their headlamps. The hunter was almost headless, but what remained of its arms and legs was moving harmlessly.
Swatting Max to get her attention, he shouted, ‘Get out to the corridor. Check we’re still clear!’
‘Mackenzie! Go check that room,’ he ordered, flicking his head towards the door that now had huge holes punched through it.
Not waiting to see what Mackenzie found, he grabbed Jimmy by the shoulder straps on his tactical vest, dragging him out of the room and into the reception area. Mackenzie followed and he was pulling a stumbling woman behind him. Max, who was covering the area outside the room, followed them as they headed outside into the daylight.
He dropped to one knee and checked Jimmy’s vital signs, but he didn’t really need to. Jimmy’s throat was gone and the complete destruction of his neck and carotid artery meant he must have bled out in less than a minute. Mackenzie was standing next to Max, still holding onto the woman he’d rescued and was staring at Jimmy, clearly shocked at how quickly it had all gone wrong. Max was also staring at Jimmy, her skin was white under her olive complexion and she looked a tanned grey. A feeling of tired frustration swept over him, but he quickly stuffed the emotion down. Now was not the time to feel anything.
Standing and looking over at Mackenzie, he eyeballed the young man and said steadily, ‘This is how real combat happens. Ya can train, ya can plan, but until you’re in the shit, ya dunno how it’s gonna go down. Ya do your best, and ya learn and ya do better next time, but we’re not clear yet, so keep your shit wired and get your squad Oscar Mike.’
While he watched, Mackenzie physically shook himself, breathed deeply and his eyes became focused again. He’d clearly shifted gears in his head and was ready to deal with the problem of getting them moving again.
Mackenzie looked him in the eye and said grimly, ‘On it, boss.’
Glancing across the small car park, he saw two men dressed in uniform, holding their weapons down to make clear they were not a threat and watching them. Narrowing his eyes suspiciously, he thought, there you are, I’ve been waiting for you boys to show up.
Walking towards them, he called, ‘Hey!’
Both men were wearing their ACUs according to army standards. One man was tall and lanky and the other was quite short. The short one had
one of those faces that looks chubby even if the person isn’t overweight. The men stood watching as he strode towards them.
Once he was closer, the taller man asked, ‘What happened?’
The short chubby-faced man added, ‘We saw the woman go in the building, and then you guys showed up.’
Oh did you now, he thought sarcastically, thanks for the backup assholes. Ignoring their questions, he asked, ‘Where ya guys from?’
The tall man replied, ‘Camp Elder Base in Alexandria about 120 miles from here.’
He didn’t know who these guys were and he’d no intention of telling them anything. Continuing to control the conversation, he drawled, ‘That’s a lotta work to make your way down to our neck of the woods. Whatcha huntin’ for?’
The two men looked at one another and the tall man shrugged slightly. The short chubby-faced man looked back at him and smiled. His smile gave his chubby face apple cheeks and he decided he looked like a happy cherub.
The happy cherub started rattling off a clearly well practiced speech and said, ‘We’re with the army under command of Major Mitch Donohue. Our unit is operating under the direction of the National Security Council. Our base has orders to stabilize the local region and provide support to any civilians in the area. To that end, we’re bringing all civilian groups under our control.’
It sounded to him like the happy cherub learned everything he needed to know about the army from B grade movies and he asked, ‘What does control mean?’
The happy cherub gave him a patronizing smile and replied, ‘We have central stores and distribution and we are making sure everyone gets what they need when they need it. We weren’t aware there was such a large group of survivors down this way. The army are here to help you good people.’
He thought it was more likely they were here to help themselves to anything they could find, regardless of who owned it and he asked, ‘Why did ya come down this far if ya didn’t know anyone was here?’
