She play-slapped me in the back of the head. “So, my love, what’s new?”
“Nothing much, just had a nice little talk with Kuppers. Mind if we crash? We have an early morning.” She cocked her head at me like a dog would listening to a faraway sound. She gave me a tired smile and helped me out of the chair, giving me a quick wash down with a cloth. One of a thousand whore’s baths I had taken, since the fall of man. She helped me into a shirt and shorts and we climbed into bed. She pulled me in close to her and held me. I felt the exhaustion and pain of the day melt away, her love filling me up, and I fell asleep in her arms.
Dreams started back up again. There I was standing at the fence of the base and looking out at the horde coming in our direction. I was dressed in full combat gear, my armor was new and shiny. In my hands I held two very long blades, almost the length of swords. I was thinking of how I’d would do better if I had guns with lots of ammo. Or better yet, a tank. I looked to my right and found Brian standing there, dressed as an honest to God knight, in metal armor and holding a giant axe on one side and a wicked looking hammer on the other side. The word Malleus came to mind, which I knew was Latin for hammer, But I had no idea how I knew that. Brian moved his head to look down at me, he winked and gave me a sly grin.
I looked to my left and found Julie, dressed as if she was Joan of Arc holding a two handed sword. She looked over at me, gave me a wicked smile which showed no fear. “I told you, my love, I would never leave you,” she said.
I turned and looked behind me, and found an army of mixed soldiers. Some dressed as knights, some wearing their battle armor of today and standing in front, my SWAT and Delta family, dressed differently than each other. Apache stood tall, dressed in what I figured was traditional native warrior garb. In her one hand, she held a tomahawk decorated with feathers, in her other hand a bow, with a quiver slung across her back. Her hair was done in two large braids each hanging down onto her shoulders. Doc was wearing a cowboy get-up, complete with a duster and a black cowboy hat. Slung around his waist and sitting on his hips sat a gun holster belt with two big Colt six shooters, like you would imagine a cowboy would wear. Resting in the crooks of his arm was an old time shotgun, or street sweeper. Hase and his men looked scary, dressed in their full combat armor and loaded to bear with weapons and ammo. Heaven stood aside of his team and he was dressed differently. He wore a priest’s smock and in his hand he held a huge flaming sword. His usual short cropped hair was long and flowing around his shoulders. He looked deadly serious. The rest of SWAT were decked out in their SFPD battle armor and loaded with weapons. Kuppers came up to me and looked over the army we had.
“I must ask, is this a dream Dan?”
“I don’t know what this is, Kuppers.”
“Weird costumes you have everyone dressed in.”
“I don’t get it myself, Kuppers. I have had weird dreams before, but this one takes the cake. Usually my dreams have a prophetic meaning; an omen, I guess you could say. But the meaning of this one is not computing.” I turned my head, watching the horde advance slowly on us.
“You stand at the front of an immense army, obviously the leader. Your friends are dressed as great warriors, and as you see them. A horde of dead are advancing on us and yet here we stand, unmoving. I think the meaning is clear.”
“As clear as mud, I don’t get it.”
“He doesn’t see it, because he doesn’t know who and what he is,” came a high-pitched voice behind us.
Kuppers and I both turned and recognized the little blonde haired girl approaching us from the crowd. She wore the pretty little dress she’d had on when we’d first met her. Kuppers dropped to his knees and hugged the little girl. “Didn’t think I would ever see you again little lady,” he said wiping the tears from his face.
“I would say that I have missed you too, but I never really left silly.” She kissed his cheeks and climbed out of his arms.
She stood in front of us and put her hands on her hips. “Dan, you are a leader, a hero, a warrior, and possibly the only man alive who can defeat the scourge and the men and women who released them. This is the only way I could think of to show you who you are. Now, wake up, save these people and be the man we all know you to be.” She turned and walked away toward the army behind us. Before she met the front line she stopped and turned quickly. “One more thing, I gave you one more gift. When you wake up, you will understand. Oh, and tell my Sasquatch, I miss him.” Then she was gone.
I woke and sat up in bed. I sat there, thinking about the dream. It was still dark outside but I felt as refreshed as if I’d had twelve hours of sleep. I turned in the bed and hung my feet from the edge of the bed. I rubbed my face in my hands feeling the four day of growth. A warm chest pressed up against me as two soft arms enveloped me. “I had a weird dream.” Julie said.
“Did it have an army standing in front of a massive horde?” I asked.
She was quiet but her arms wrapped around me stiffened and she took in a sharp breath of air. “Great, so was I sucked into your dream?”
“I don’t think it was my dream, but I think we will find that all of us shared it. Let’s get dressed and get this day started. We have a lot to do. I want you to work with Amanda today, and back up all of our data, and pull the drives so we can take them with us.”
“Yes sir!” she said jokingly as she climbed out of bed and helped me up. I prepared myself for the pain that was inevitably to come, but instead, twinges and stiffness were all I felt. I stretched and then felt a little bit of the pain comeback. I took a couple of tentative steps and found I could walk again, but with discomfort. I was in no way cured, but I felt like I had before we left and I was captured and tortured.
We got dressed and met Brian at the door. He had a weird look on his face. “You had the dream too, Sasquatch?”
He gave me an irritated look and shook his head. “I had a weird dream, I was a knight like the ones you find in King Arthur’s court. I stood in front of a giant horde. It was weird, Boss.”
“Yup, that does sound weird.” I tilted my head and looked up into his face, giving him a smile. “Oh and Angel said to tell her Sasquatch that she misses him.”
He took a step back putting his hand on the door frame to keep him from stumbling. Without a word he turned and walked away. Julie and I found him in the kitchen, drinking a small cup of coffee with his head held in one hand. He saw us and wiped his eyes and stood. “That Humvee better be outside or someone is gonna find their ass missing, cause I am going to chew it off.” He stalked past us and to the front door.
I looked over at Julie who shrugged her shoulders as if to say, “I have no idea.”
We followed him to the door. I was slow and my legs felt tired and weak. I hadn’t walked in a little while and had to think hard to perform the maneuvers. I stopped at the door frame and leaned against it catching my breath and regaining my balance. Brian stood at the Humvee with the door open. It was then he noticed he’d left me behind. His face fell from the pissed-off look he’d had pasted on and melted to an apologetic expression. He came back to me and offered his arm. I took it and he walked me to the Humvee taking his time to make sure not to hurry me. He helped me into the back and checked to make sure I was secured before making his way up front and taking the passenger seat next to the driver.
We drove back to the office, which is what I was calling it. I know it was referred to as base headquarters, but that just sounded like a mouthful. The driver stopped at the entrance and waited as Brian helped me out of the back. Julie appeared with the chair and waited to see if I would take it. I knew I could walk under my own power into the office, but I didn’t want to chance making things worse again. I took the proffered seat and pointed to the doors. “Onward!” I called out.
“You do know you are a giant dork, right Boss?” Brian asked.
“As always. Now let’s get to work, we have a million and one things to do today.”
“I’m going to go ask the cafeteria
to deliver breakfast, be right back.” Julie jumped back in the Humvee and the driver pulled away.
Once in the office I motioned for the team, who was already there, to grab their reports and head to the meeting room. I caught Kuppers’ eye from his work station and he made the ‘wait right there’ sign. “Brian, why don’t you make sure the meeting room is set up and ready. I think Kuppers needs to talk to me.”
“No problem Boss, I’ll take care of everything.” He padded my shoulder kindly without trying to crush me like he usually did. He pulled an about face and disappeared down the hall, yelling at two aides standing in the hallway. They snapped to attention and followed quickly trying to keep up with his pace.
I sat in my chair waiting for Kuppers when a voice from behind startled me. “You look bored.” I turned my chair around and found Apache down on one knee. “I haven’t seen you since Las Vegas. We have all been busy around here, but I wanted to come see you.”
I reached out and took her hands. “I really miss all of you. I’ve been really busy but I gotta tell you, I miss everyone. I don’t even see my Dad often, and we share a house together! I looked closer at her hand, to be exact the left ring finger, which surprisingly had a ring on it. I looked up at her and saw the biggest smile I had ever seen on her. “I am going to guess. Hase?”
She went bright red and giggled like a school girl. Which is weird to see from a woman who could take anyone on hand to hand and beat them. “Yes Hase, he asked me yesterday. Of course I said yes, but I think we should wait till things settle down.” Her smile was infectious and I felt myself breaking into a huge smile.
“Can I suggest something Apache?” I asked after a moment of reflection.
Her eyes became hooded and you could see her about to slam down her control. “Of course,” she said with a measure of ice in her voice.
“First, you don’t need to close down on me. Apache, relax. Secondly, don’t wait, get married as soon as you can. In this world there is no guarantee that both of you will be here tomorrow. Also, all your friends are here on the base now, and who knows when that will happen again? And lastly, I am sure Heaven would be happy to marry you two.” I kissed the top of her hand and gave her my warmest smile.
She brightened and that smile came back. It was like looking at two different people, when she transformed from the warrior to the excited woman in front of me. “Do you really think Kuppers will be ok with this? I mean, it’s known as fraternization in the military, and it’s frowned upon.”
“I’ll talk to him, if you want.”
“You would do that?”
“Of course I would Apache. I have a meeting with him in a little bit and I’ll deal with this. Why don’t you go talk to Hase and make sure he is ok with this?”
She dialed the wattage up on the brightness of her smile and leaned in close kissing my forehead. “Thank you, Dan. Do you think Julie would be my bridesmaid?”
“She would attempt to kick your ass, if you didn’t ask her.”
“Awesome! I will go talk to Hase and then go find her and ask her.” With that she stood and jogged out of the room and down the hallway.
I looked over and caught Kuppers attention. I waved him to come over, he turned to his team said something and then trotted up the stairs. “Dan, ready for our quick meeting before the big one?”
“Yup, should we go into a meeting room or have a couple of words here?”
“We can do it here, nothing is classified. First I want you to deal with that interview, with our special guest. Would you like to take Brian again?”
“Yeah, I think Brian would be a good choice to help me get what I want. On a side note, I just spoke to Apache.”
“Oh yeah? Did she tell you Hase asked her to marry him?”
He surprised me with that information. I must remember to never underestimate him. “She didn’t tell me she’d told you.”
“She didn’t,” he said with a sly grin on his face. “Nothing goes on around this base that I don’t find out about.” He eyed me to let me know that is how he’d known about my little talk with the Librarian.
“Well then the next question I have for you should not be a surprise then. She told me she was going to wait to get married, but I told her that with how fleeting life is now, that she shouldn’t wait. She will not do it without your permission, though.”
Kuppers sat down on a nearby chair and leaned back. His back popped and I could see a little bit of exhaustion creep into his features. “Of course she has my permission. But I will need to separate their missions, for obvious reasons. So, when does she want to do all this?”
I reached over and took my ever present notebook and looked through my notes and agenda for the next two days. “I say we do this tonight.”
Kuppers looked down into the front of the auditorium-like room and whistled out loud. A woman looked up grabbed her yellow legal pad, and ran up the stairs to us. “Yes, sir?”
“Clear the cafeteria for tonight 1900. Also clear my schedule,” he ordered.
“Yes, sir. Is there anything you want me to order from the cafeteria? Is this to be a private event or an open event?”
Kuppers scratched his day-old growth on his chin and smiled. “I want a regular dinner made for twenty, oh and for dessert tell them to bake a cake. I don’t care what kind of flavor.”
“Yes, sir.” She wrote it all down and waited for a second. “Anything else, sir?”
“Yes, have a Humvee and driver meet the Major and his aide outside in twenty minutes. That will be all.”
“Yes, sir.” She turned on her heels and ran back to her work station to get Kuppers orders moving.
“So, you don’t need me for the big meeting?” I asked.
“Nope, but I spoke to the General on a secure satellite channel, that Amanda set up for us last night. He wants people to start flying out today; all non-essential people and all citizens. He is having them transferred to Travis for now, and then will move them around from there. Also, he wants the fighters flown out toward the horde, bomb them then, come back and reload and leave for Travis. One squadron will stay here to escort us out when we fly out. He also agreed with your idea to take the left over fuel and ordinance and set them up to annihilate the dead when they come on to the base.”
“I like all those ideas. But let me say I think we need to leave a small team here to draw the zombies in. Have a plane sitting on the runway ready to take off, just as the zombies come on to the base. Then let them fly around for a little while, keeping the zombies moving in to the base, and then have them detonate the ordinance.” I’d written all the data down from Kuppers and had added my own notes.
“I agree. I will bring all that up in the meeting, I’m sure we can accommodate those plans. Now, I will go get Brian, if you want to wheel your ass toward the front doors. You need to go deal with our friend.” As he rose from his seat, he was surprised to find Brian standing at the door, leaning against the frame.
“Never mind your personal Sasquatch is here. Have fun, guys. Oh and honestly, I don’t care what happens to our friend. Feel free to do as you think is prudent.” He turned and trotted back down toward his team, firing off orders as he went.
“Hey, Boss, have a good chat with Kuppers?” He grabbed my chair and wheeled me into the hallway and on our way to the front doors.
“Very good. I will give you the skinny in the Humvee. I am famished and thirsty. Think we can grab something to eat?” I asked as my stomach growled loudly, alerting me to the fact that I had not eaten since the day before.
The doors opened and Julie appeared in the doorway with a man behind her pushing a cart. “Oh there you are Major.” She handed me two Styrofoam containers and two stainless steel coffee cups complete with lids.
“You are my hero, hun.” I said with a grateful smile.
She leaned down and kissed me for a second. “Thank you, Major. You heading to deal with your interview?”
“Yup. We will be back by noon. Kuppers wi
ll be in the meeting. Work with Amanda and the rest of the team to make sure he gets all the up-to-date data.”
“Yes, Major sir.” She winked at me and walked away, motioning for the young man pushing the food cart to follow her.
Brian gave her a slight hug as she passed and whispered something to her. She punched him in the arm and giggled as she walked away.
“What was that about?”
“Oh, I told her I thought the food guy was cute.”
“You know; I always think that you are this big bad-ass Marine ready to tear people apart. Then you say or do something like that, and prove you are just human.” I shook my head side to side and tried to stifle a laugh.
“Ok, I’ll put the big bad Marine persona back on for you.” He dropped his brow, squared his shoulders, and marched my chair down to the waiting Humvee. The driver came running around and opened the door for us. I handed Brian the food and cups and gripped the Humvee’s door tightly, pulling myself to my feet. I stayed standing for a second stretching my back, then carefully lowered myself into the back seat. Brian handed me the food containers and drinks and instructed the driver to put the chair in the back.
Brian and I sat together in the back of the Humvee and ate our breakfast sandwiches and drank our coffee that Julie had so nicely provided for us. The driver made it to a small building near a hangar on the tarmac. Brian looked over at me, “You ready, Boss?”
“Yeah I am ready, but I don’t want the chair. Make sure they hold off bringing Joseph into the room until we are already inside. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me hurt.”
“Good thinking, Boss. Hang out here, I will be right back.” Brian climbed out of the Humvee and disappeared into the building. Ten minutes passed as I waited in the Humvee, enjoying the warmth. Suddenly the door opened and Brian came out with his usual scowl. “Alright, Boss. Everything is prepared.” He reached one of his massive paws inside offering me help out. I took it and pulled myself out of the Humvee and onto my feet. He kept his arm around me and helped me keep my balance as we made our way into the building and to the interview room. I was tired but the pain was manageable. Brian offered a bottle of water and I drank it down.
Zombie Theorem (Book 3): The End Game Page 8
