Julie watched me out of her peripheral vision, and tried to hide a smile. She then turned toward me and produced a bowl of soup that she had been hiding. “Something made me think that you wouldn’t be able to handle regular food yet, so I got you some crackers and soup just in case.”
I gave her a thankful smile and took a cracker and popped it into my mouth. I chewed it slowly breaking it down and savoring the salt. “Thank you, sweetie.” I then took a bite of the vegetable soup she had put in front of me. The warmth of the soup helped lift some of the exhaustion off my shoulders that had been threatening to knock me out. I ate slowly, blocking out everything around me, I took the small Styrofoam cup and sipped at the hot coffee remembering how a couple of weeks ago in the Tower, I would’ve killed to have my coffee hot. That brought a sad smile to my lips, as I remembered draining many cold cups of coffee.
I was pulled out of my dream world by Brian patting my shoulder. “Hey, Boss, I think it’s time to go home. Let’s go.”
I looked up, a little surprised at how I kept losing time. I thanked the new group of Marines that had joined our team and Brian pushed me out of the cafeteria into the cooling air outside. Julie came up beside me and took my hand. I twirled her around and pulled her down on my lap. She let out a little squeak and Brian, standing behind us let out his hearty belly laugh. “Can my driver and I offer you a ride back to your castle, my lady?” I said in a nice little British accent.
“Why yes, kind sir, I’m sure my father the King would pay you generously for bringing me home safe and unmolested. He may even offer the barn, and feed for your pet Sasquatch.” she giggled out.
“Ooh clean straw! So much nicer than what he makes me sleep on.”
“Enough, Sasquatch” I jokingly berated Brian. I then turned my attention to Julie sliding my hands over her body. “I never promised I’d bring you home unmolested. Just safe.” I waggled my eyebrows at her, and smoothed and twisted my non-existent mustache.
Brian moaned at my lame attempt at being funny and pushed us through the streets back to our house. When we arrived he helped me stand and let me walk around the house, staying close just in case I needed him. I was in pain but my muscles were finally starting to feel better and I was able to walk without aid. Brian bid us goodnight and headed to his bedroom, Julie helped me undress, looked over my bandages and then gave me a very welcomed sponge bath. I’d like to say I hated it, but I would be lying. She changed out my bandages for clean ones, and then disappeared to take a shower.
I eased myself off of the bed and onto the floor resting my back against the bed frame and stretched my back and legs the best I could. When she emerged from the bathroom she was surprised to see me missing. “I could’ve sworn I left my gimpy man around here somewhere.”
“Hey, I resemble that remark. I’m over here on the floor stretching. But now I need help getting back on the bed, please.” I raised my head over the bed and waved to get her attention.
“There you are.” She came around the bed and stood over me looking down and smiling. She bent over and took me under the arms and pulled. I knew I was too heavy for her so I got my legs underneath me and pushed with my feet to help make it easier on her. She got me back on the bed and then stepped back. She untucked her towel letting it fall to the floor, unveiling her enticing curves and silky smooth skin. “I’m not happy about it being the end of the world, but I got to admit, the apocalypse diet is doing me some good. Those hard pounds I always tried to lose at the gym have finally melted away.” She pulled her long light brown hair back into a pony tail and struck a pose with her fists resting on her hips and pushing out her wondrous chest. “What do you think? Like what you see?”
I couldn’t voice my opinion; I was tongue-tied by her beauty. She smiled, then giggled and pointed to my lap. “I think I will take that as a ‘yes’, you like the way I look.” She pushed me back onto the bed and straddled me careful not to hurt me. We made careful slow love for the next two hours. When we were done we laid spooning legs entwined with her head resting on my chest. I ran my fingers through her hair and thought about how in love I was with this woman.
We fell asleep like that, but at some point in the middle of the night, I woke up and covered us with the blankets. It was painful, but I wouldn’t complain. We slept well and woke with Brian knocking on our door. “Alright, lovers. You’ve got fifteen minutes. We have a meeting with Kuppers this morning.”
“Thanks Brian. If you can make us some coffee, I’ll get the Boss dressed and ready to go,” Julie called out.
“Roger that, ma’am,” he called back.
Julie helped me to my feet and brought me my BDUs and boots. While I slowly dressed myself she hurriedly got ready and watched me, to see if I needed any help. She put on my boots and laced them up for me but other than that, I was able to handle the rest. She put her hand out for me to grab and use to get to my feet. Instead, I pushed off of the bed using my arms and brought myself erect. My gut and chest hurt but I was not going to let them dictate how I moved.
We walked hand in hand from the bedroom and found Brian leaning against the front door dressed in his BDUs and holding three traveling cups of coffee. He opened the front door and pointed to the Humvee that sat in the driveway, with a driver holding the door open. I looked around and saw no wheel chair. Brian caught my glance. “I already loaded the chair in the Humvee. I figured, if you could do what you two did last night, you could walk out to the driveway with no problem.” He then smiled and let out another belly laugh.
I flipped him off and slowly made my way past him. I snagged the coffee that he handed out to me and took a sip. “Just like spinach, I think I have me Popeye strength now.” Julie sighed and patted my behind.
After some painful steps, I made it to the Humvee and climbed into the rear seat. Brian sat up front and Julie came around and sat next to me. I sipped at my coffee during the short drive out to the flight line. A large cargo plane sat at the end of the runway. Kuppers was standing on the ramp, speaking to someone inside. We drove up and the driver got out, ran over to my side and opened the door. He offered me his hand and I took it using his strength to climb out and stand. “Thank you.”
“You are more than welcome, Major Welko sir,” he said back.
Brian came to my side and offered to get the wheel-chair, but I waved him off and Julie came up to my other side. We walked toward the plane and Kuppers looked over, recognizing us. He finished up his conversation and then made his way over to us, cutting my travel in half. I lifted my arm to salute and he waved me down.
“Don’t start that shit. Looks like you are doing a little bit better.” He looked me over.
“I still hurt like a son of a bitch, but I’ll live. So, what’s going on out here?”
“Prisoner transfer. The Delta guys hit a Ridder convoy and took three prisoners. One was wearing a suit and body armor. We think he could be someone high in the Culling, or at least for that area. Vic is going to interview him, but the reason I called you is because we came up with a treasure chest worth of data and files. We also got his laptop and have sent it to our intel weenies who are going to work on cracking it. I want your team to drop everything and mine through this stuff. Could be actionable material in there. Tonight we have a meeting with General Richards.” Kuppers informed me.
Two men disembarked from the plane and brought down three large boxes and loaded them into the back of our Humvee. “No problem, we’ll get to it.” I stepped back and sketched a half-hearted salute. Kuppers shook his head and marched up the ramp and into the plane.
Brian helped me back into the Humvee and our driver took us to our offices. Waiting for us, was our staff and the new Marines who had joined us the night before. I took over a large conference room and we set to organizing the files in the boxes. After six hours of reading and recording data we decided to take a break. Brian ordered in our lunch and we took our time sitting back, eating, and sharing the info we’d found in the files.
&nb
sp; Amanda took the floor and brought up something that she was confused on. “Team, I have been cross-referencing the data we have been collecting and I have a question, or more of an observation, I guess. I am starting to think that this information is fake.”
I raised my head, put my cup of coffee down and paid attention to what she was saying. “Do me a favor, and explain what you mean.” I turned to a new page in my notebook and listened intently.
She fidgeted and looked down at her data. “Okay, let me start here. I looked over the data of Ridder troop movements. I then, cross-referenced it with the satellite images that I’d pulled down this morning. They just don’t make sense. Okay, look here.” She drew a quick map of Nevada and California and placed some red dots and yellow dots on it. “According to the data we got, it is showing small Ridder groups where these yellow dots are, but according to the satellite, these are actually pretty big groups, and vice versa on the red dots. I think they are trying to make us think that they are much softer targets than what we’d thought.”
I looked over her map and looked at the files she’d handed down to me. I read it over and shook my head in frustration. “So, if this is something we can verify as faulty, I think we must also come to a conclusion that this may all be a red herring and misinformation. Brian, go find me Kuppers and bring him here. Do not take no for an answer.” Brian got up and left the room in a hurry. I turned and addressed the team. “I want more information to show Kuppers on this. I want more proof that I can throw at him. Get to it, and question everything you read.”
Thirty minutes passed as we continued compiling, when the door opened and Brian walked in with Kuppers and some of his staff in tow, including Vic. I attempted to stand but was a little weak, and slunk down into the chair. Vic came over and shook my hand. “You don’t need to stand, sir.”
“Oh, don’t start that ‘sir’ shit, please.” I moaned.
Vic laughed over my discomfort and took a chair next to me. We turned to Kuppers who did his action man stance. Feet shoulder-length apart, hands balled up, resting on his hips, and jaw sticking forward. Just daring someone to hit him. “Someone want to tell me why the Sasquatch came and dragged me away from an important meeting?”
I turned to Amanda and gave her the go-ahead hand motion. She fidgeted for a second smoothed out her blouse, grabbed her files and stood, in front of her hand drawn map. She looked over to me, “Thank you, sir.” Then, she turned her attention to Kuppers. “Colonel, sir, while going through the captured data, we came to a conclusion that it is nothing but misdirection.”
Kuppers sighed, walked over to a chair by me and sat down in it. He took the files that I handed to him and nailed Amanda with his patented stare. “You have my attention Lieutenant Hammermeister.” He turned around and pointed to another Lieutenant in his staff. “You better be paying attention. I want all of this transcribed and sent to the General, immediately after this briefing.” He turned back to Amanda and gave her the continue signal.
She went through all of her material and added some new data we found. As she went on I heard Kuppers start grinding his teeth. When she’d finished, he sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. The room sat silent for a tense minute. He turned his chair toward me and opened his eyes. “So, what do you think about all this, Dan?”
I took a couple of seconds to think out my answer. “I think we are being played. I think all of this data must be considered suspect. I don’t think Ridder, or their bastard overlords have any idea that we have access to satellites and are just feeding us a bowl of shit flakes. I think they are hoping we’ll believe this data and then make mistakes, that will make it easier to take us off the board. I also think, you will find the prisoner is a set up.” I reached out, grabbed my cup of coffee, and took a drink. Damn, cold coffee. I made a grimace and surprisingly, a new cup appeared in front of me. I looked back to see Julie beaming down at me. “Thanks, hun.” I smiled and enjoyed the warm ambrosia of drink trickling down my throat.
Kuppers looked around the table and then in his best command voice ordered, “I want everyone out, except Vic, Julie, Dan, and Brian. Hold off on sending that data out to the General.” The room emptied except for the group that Kuppers had wanted to stay. He waited till the door closed and then stood up.
“What we are about to discuss does not leave this room, understood?” He pegged each of us with his stare and we nodded as one. His shoulders dropped and he sat on the edge of the table by the hand drawn map. “First, Hase said that the hit on that convoy seemed a little too easy. Ridder had bottom barrel soldiers protecting it. If our prisoner was anyone special, he would’ve been protected much better. We keep under estimating Ridder. I think we need better intel than what we have.”
I interrupted Kuppers. “We barely have any actionable intel at all. My people have been working hard going through what we have, and we keep finding that either the data is too old, or not solid enough to give us anything worthwhile.”
“I agree, Dan. That is going to be the main topic of what we are going to bring up to the General tonight. We need something to swing in our direction. We have been dealing with more and more zombies at the fence, also. Something tells me they are being funneled in our direction. We are kind of out in the middle of nowhere.”
“Where are we going to radio the General from? Your office?”
“Nope, we are going to fly out to see him personally. We think Ridder is listening in on our radio traffic. So, we are flying out to a little known air field in the Sierras. We will spend the night and come back tomorrow. I take it you’ll want to take Brian, and I am sure Julie will not let you leave her behind. Doc, Apache, Hase and Heaven will be providing security. It’s going to be a crowded flight.”
I sat thinking for a moment. “I want to put Amanda in charge of our group here while we are gone. She is great at analyzing data.”
“No problem. Gather the files you want to take and be at the airfield in three hours.” Kuppers gave a mock salute and left with Vic in tow.
Amanda and the rest of the team filed back in. “Amanda, you will take charge of the group and continue on organizing and analyzing all the data we have. Julie, Brian, and I are going to be off base till tomorrow morning.”
Amanda eyed me for a minute, waiting for more info. I didn’t offer any so she nodded her head. “Yes sir, anything else you want done?”
“Just do what you are doing. Maybe get the satellite tasked to check out the area around the base. I want to know how big the hordes are around here. Also, I want to know what is happening in Seattle. Last I heard, it was full of Ridder and had a carrier in the sound. Other than that, use your discretion. I’m gonna need a full briefing the minute I get back.” Amanda nodded her head yes and dove into her paperwork.
“We should go get packed and ready to go.” Julie patted my shoulder. She took the handles of my chair and pulled me away from the table.
“Wait, I need something to show the General.”
“Got you covered, Major.” Sargent Tony Torrez handed a file over to me. “I made sure to copy the map from the wall and added all of our notes and data.”
“Brian, make Tony and Amanda co-owners of the Employee of the Month award.”
“Roger that, sir.” He took the file from me and studied its contents as Julie, he, and I left the room. We continued down the hall and outside into the ever present sunshine. “I need to take care of some things Boss. I’ll see you two at the house in an hour. Can you grab my Zomgo pack from my room?”
“No problem, Marine. I’ll take care of it.” Julie answered him. “Hot date?”
“I wish, no, I need to grab some things and I want to talk with the pilots. I also want to check in with Apache on the security plans. I don’t like the idea of moving the Boss in his condition.” He lightly patted my shoulder.
“I’m doing better, Brian, don’t worry so much about me. It’s been almost a month since I got shot, I am healing quick and am ahead of the scheduled therap
y the doctor imposed on me.”
“Less than a month actually, sorry, Boss, but it’s my duty to protect you.” He waved and peeled off from us.
It took almost fifteen minutes of Julie pushing till we got home. She took us inside and I pushed myself out of the chair and onto steadier legs, making my way to our bedroom. I took a quick hot shower and checked my bandages. The scars were a nice pink and looked to be healing quite nicely. I looked up to my head and laughed at the friar tuck like ring of hair sprouting from my scalp. I found a fresh razor and went to work, shaving my head back to the smooth dome that it should be. I looked in the mirror to make sure I didn’t miss any places when Julie came into focus standing behind me. “I was wondering when you would shave that thing.” She put her hand on my head. “You look better this way.” She kissed my neck and turned me around slowly, making sure not to hurt my wounds.
I looked into her eyes and became lost for a second. It was then, I saw that she was holding a fresh change of BDUs. She helped me change and attached my thigh holster on. She handed me my trusty 1911 and I checked the magazine and made sure it was loaded. I holstered it and attached my new armor.
“This is my third set of armor; I’m starting to think I am a magnet for bullets.” I had been trying to keep the vision of Angel out of my mind. But just then I was hit full force with her loss. My knees began shaking and a sob broke through my chest. Julie caught me before I hit the ground, and dragged me over to the bed, sitting me down.
She picked up my head and wiped my tears away. “What is wrong my love? Do you need a medic?”
I could barely speak, but I was able to squeak out one word. “Angel.” Then a fresh bout of tears and sobs broke me in half.
“Oh baby, I knew this would happen at some point. You never had a chance to mourn her. We have time hun let it out.”
I don’t know how long I cried in Julie’s embrace. I felt another presence and then a giant hand engulfed my back. I looked up and into Brian’s smiling face. “I know, Boss, I also broke down when we lost her. She is still here though, I feel her all the time.” He helped me to my feet and handed me three white pills. I tossed them back and drained the proffered bottle of water. “We need to get moving. We will honor her memory when we get back. The whole team will get together, and we will give her a proper send off.”
Zombie Theorem (Book 3): The End Game Page 3
