by Joe Kelly
“Always said you had poor taste.” Steve remarked as the others chuckled.
“I chalked it up to desperation,” Ronny said rubbing the back of his head.
“If you kill him we will pitch in and dig the grave.” Chris said.
“Grave hell, just throw his body out of camp and toss some leaves over it.” Steve commented.
“waste of good leaves” Ori said as he dug out the silver hip flask he always carried. Opening it he sniffed in appreciation then took a shot. “aaah god that’s good” He said passing it to Steve. “a sip only.”
“what is it” Steve asked suspiciously. Ori had once given him a taste of Potato Schnapps, which smelled like sewage and tasted worse. His taste buds had never forgotten or forgiven.
“Apple pie shine, I don’t have a lot of it.” Ori said. “Remember that Guy Malcom. His grandpa made the stuff. Smooth as silk, and kicks like a mule.”
Steve took a sip his eyes widening “damn that’s good” He said passing the flask to Rob. Who took a sip, his eyes widening in surprise.
“that is good” Rob agreed as he reluctantly passed the flask along.
The flask was passed around till it reached Jared. It does smell good, Jared thought as he lifted it to his lips. It was smooth and surprisingly did taste like Apple pie. Oh man that is so good he thought as it warmed his belly. He offered it to Jill who demurred politely. Reluctantly he passed the flask back to Ori who returned it to his pocket.
“great, its Henry” Steve said in a low voice as the door to the common area opened. Henry stepped inside pulling off his gloves as he looked around. Spotting Jared he walked slowly towards him.
No one particularly liked the man, Henry just grated on most people’s nerves and after the fight he’d had with Ori he had kept to himself to the point that he did little to help around the camp. Off and on he had gone on a few runs but beyond that nada. No one had yet suggested that Jared throw him out of the group but there had been some comments about his being lazy and eating food others had risked their lives to gather.
“I’d like to talk to you” Henry said levelly.
Jared gritted mental teeth, you’re the leader act like it he told himself. “What’s on your mind Henry?” Good job you sounded normal, keep it up. No punching him.
“I nee…” He stopped gathered his thoughts then plunged on. “I want to go on the run tomorrow, in fact I’d like to be assigned to one of the teams from now on.”
“Let’s walk and talk” Jared suggested noting his friends were watching and listening intently. Henry nodded, looking relieved, pulling his gloves back on he followed Jared outside into the camp.
“mind if I ask why you suddenly want to help?” Jared asked as they walked around the enclosed area.
“I…Look I want to help.” Henry said then stopped in the shadows looking up into the night sky for a moment. Lowering his gaze to meet Jared’s eyes he shrugged. “I…” he said then trailed off again.
“It doesn’t matter, not really. But understand Henry, if I put you on a team you’re going to follow orders. You don’t get to take a day off because your pissed or upset at someone.” Jared said half expecting Henry to come back with ‘we aren’t in the damn army’ or something similar. He didn’t, I wonder if this has anything to do with his shacking up with Stephanie.
The times Jared has seen the couple together, he had gotten the impression that not only was Henry truly smitten but that Stephanie, who had reputation for being…. Loose shall we say, liked him in return. Maybe the two of them will pull their heads out of their butts and end up being a benefit to the group Jared thought.
“okay be up at 0500hrs… sorry five AM I’m briefing the teams on the run, we will eat breakfast at the same time and if you have questions I expect you to be like everyone else and ask. If you think it will sound stupid, ask anyway. Trust me Ronny askes enough stupid questions you shouldn’t be afraid to either.” He said mentally checking the team rosters he had drawn up. “Is that rifle the only weapon you have?”
Henry nodded jerkily, He’s scared Jared thought, impressed despite himself. It took some brass ones to volunteer for something that scared the crap out of you. If he shows up and does a good job I will be really impressed. “I’m going to put you on Team three, Chris is in charge of Three, He knows what he’s doing and isn’t a cowboy.” Jared told Henry. That and it keeps him away from Ori and Steve. No sense in borrowing trouble.
Team three was the one team that Jared worried about, other than Chris no one on the team had ever seen combat. But all of them had faced zombies and survived and that’s what they would be facing so it should be okay.
“Thanks” Henry said then started to turn and leave, stopping when Jared touched him on the shoulder.
“Henry, if you have problems, questions or just need to talk I will listen. Can’t swear I can give you good advice but I’ll do the best I can.” Jared said as Henry looked back at him. If the man was really taking a step forward and wanting to help, Jared was going to treat him the same way he treated everyone else and make sure that Henry understood that he was.
“Thank you, I’ll remember that.” Henry said.
“Good, go have a good night Henry. Remember five am.” Jared said.
Now I have to tell Chris, the news. This is going to be a fun evening, Jared thought as Henry headed back to his RV.
Chapter 3
Mikhail drove slowly down the road, keeping an eye out for the undead. Not that he had any real fear of them. He was protected, for now. At least for as long as he did what he was asked to do. Which, he reflected wouldn’t be all that hard. Find a group of survivors led by some red-headed former soldier that were heading to Charleston and kill them, easy enough with only so many routes available and being protected, at least to some degree, he could scout ahead faster than a large group could. He could even stop and recover fuel he needed without threat.
They had a three-week lead on him thanks to the need to gather supplies and gear including the car he was driving. He smiled at the heady rumble of the old Detroit motor. Americans might be complete idiots, but they had made some good cars a generation or two ago. The car a dark green Plymouth that someone had spent a lot of money and time fixing up had started on the first try almost as if it had been left for him.
It was an older car, he had never been good with years and things like that, so he wasn’t sure what kind it was. Not like many Americans had been into cars either, at least not by the year 2000, but at a guess it was from the seventies. It just had that seventies feel to it. Once he was loaded up he headed east, not really concerned with a destination at this point. There were only so many ways they could reach the place his new “friend” had told him of.
He had at first thought to head straight their destination and wait but had decided that the fun would be in stalking them, destroying their hope. Who knew he might even link up with them and work from the inside. It would in all honesty make things easier and entertaining.
Would they welcome him with open arms he wondered, then smiled as another line from Faust ran thru his mind, “Methinks, by most, 'twill be confessed That Death is never quite a welcome guest,” Mephistopheles the demon had said. No, He would keep that option open, for now he would just travel the eight or ten possible routes they could take and see about what he could do to screw with them to let them simmer in fear and anxiously await the end.
✽ ✽ ✽
Under a pewter sky, the teams Jared had put together for the raid left the camp, headed back up to I-40 and the National Guard Roadblock. It was a short trip all things considered, and it was getting colder.
Jared slowed as the abandoned vehicles became more numerous. The evacuation plans drawn up for natural disasters had called for both east and west bound lanes to be changed to single direction, in this case it had been used to send the fleeing population west. It hadn’t mattered in the end, the undead had swarmed over the traffic jam and those who had tried to flee had been pu
lled down and those trapped in vehicles had died when of either starvation or had been pulled out and killed when the undead had managed to break windows.
“I wonder who gave the order to deploy the guard, because they sure as hell didn’t call up the Guard in Nashville.” Steve asked over the radio.
“Don’t know” Jared replied as he looked to the north of the interstate then to the south. A few clumps of undead were visible, most were to spread out and too far away to be an immediate threat. The few undead that were closer than that could be put down quickly without much danger since they were scattered between and around the line of vehicles that had been abandoned by the terrified citizens.
“A guard commander maybe, the Lt. Governor was out of town according to the news so maybe he did it. I don’t think we will ever know.” Jared said as he drove through the wide median between east and west bound lanes and parked just before the check point.
The check point, was more of a fortified position. Enclosed by Jersey barriers and smaller HESCO barriers, allowing only one open lane on the both west and east sides. A HESCO was a collapsible wireframe container, with a fabric liner that could be filled with anything from dirt to gravel. They could be set up and filled in a very short time. The barriers at the road block were only 4’x3x32’. Probably deployed from a vehicle container.
Each entrance was covered by sand bag positions, behind the fighting position were Humvees with mounted M60s or M249s. In addition to the entrances, several more sand bag positions had been carefully situated around the checkpoint, two of them had .50 machine guns or Ma Deuces. The rest of the sandbag positions had been intended as Infantry fighting positions. You guys did everything right, and it was the wrong way to fight the undead, Jared thought with a regretful shake of his head.
Behind the walls, they could see several tents, mostly GP small and one Medium sized tent, that had been set up in the wide grassy area between the east and west lanes. A trailer mounted generator was parked beside the GP Medium which Jared assumed was the Command tent, judging by the radio antenna’s that had been set up beside it. There was also something that looked like a chain link enclosure and a parking area with two M35a3’s, commonly called Deuce and Halves, a water truck built on a m35A frame and a M977 HEMTT, or Hemmit.
Deuce’s had been around since 1949 starting life as a ROE 6x6, but had been upgraded to a ten-wheeled vehicle and designated M35. able to carry up to ten thousand pounds with off road capabilities and a motor that could run on damn near anything including used motor oil they would be priceless for Jared’s group assuming they could be started.
Boxes and crates were scattered on the ground around the back of one of the Deuces, as if the guard had been unloading the vehicle when the undead had rolled over the check point.
A chain link holding center that contained a handful of undead, had been set up on the south side of the check point. The undead inside the enclosure were clustered along the fencing shaking and beating on the chain link as they stared hungrily towards the vehicles and the people that had emerged from inside. Probably people that had been bitten and detained, he thought. he didn’t want to think any deeper about how and when they had died. they were undead now and that was enough.
Inside the check point there were only a few undead, almost all in uniforms, they would be easy to put down, as long as the clearing team moved fast to keep the undead from clustering.
“looks more like a FOB, than a check point” Jared commented after a moment.
“It must have taken them a couple of days to set all that up” Logan said as the rest of teams exited their vehicles.
“five hours, give or take” Jared told him. “the HESCO’s, that’s those wire frame box things, can be set up pretty fast. They probably had a road crew set up the jersey barricades, or maybe not. What it wasn’t was a typical check point.”
Which made sense, Jared thought, probably set this place up on the third or forth day when they still thought they could turn the tide. They were trying to stop people who had been bitten from leaving the city as well as stop any of the infected from moving west out of Knoxville. Till a horde hit the place and wiped the guard out.
“let’s do this” Jared said, “we have a few pus bags on the north side heading this way.” He opened his door, a chill wind blew into the van, and slipped out. The smell of rain hung heavy in the air, at least it’s not snow. Jared thought, and it’s not cold today either.
“be with you in a minute, we have a few undead to clean out over here” Steve reported over the radio.
“roger that” Jared replied, looking up to see if he could spot Ronny and his Ultralight. He could hear the ultralight but not see it. “Ground to Air, Ronny what’s it looks like from up there?” He transmitted.
“it doesn’t look to bad down there, there are a lot of them, but they are spread out and heading towards your position.” Ronny reported as he swept over the woods and hills to the south of I 40.
“we aren’t going to have a lot of time folks so let’s get this done” Jared transmitted.
“Clear and moving into the check point” Steve reported.
Steve, Ori, Kyle, and Clay made up Team two, their job today was to clear the check point so that the scavenger team could get to work. Once they cleared the check point they would provide security for the scavenger team.
If a large number of pus bags show up, we are going to have to scrub this run and high tail it, we just don’t have the manpower to do anything but die against a mob. Jared didn’t like the idea of running but he liked the idea of being eaten alive and coming back as a zombie even less.
He stood there quietly for a moment the smell rain in the air and looked around the roadblock. It would be a few minutes before the closest undead got close enough to become a threat, so he took the time to note every bit of cover and obstacles that could be used if needed.
The teams gathered round him, warily keeping an eye out for threats. “okay we all know the plan, we have thirty minutes. Good luck and for god’s sake stay alert.” Jared said. Steve and his team which included Ori, nodded and jogged towards the check point and its jersey barrier and sand bag defense’s.
Team one, Jared’s team stayed by Jared. They were playing defense this raid. This was Jared’s first time with Logan in the field and the younger man looked nervous. The AR Logan carried seemed to give the young man some comfort. Not that they were going to use firearms unless they had too. Swords, tomahawks, axes and bats were the order of the day. “let’s get to it” Jared said.
.
Team three had the rear. That was a team Jared wasn’t thrilled with, only Chris was an experienced fighter back there. Chad had, according to the story’s Logan and his group had told, gotten himself and three others out of the hotel they had been staying in with a Cricket bat, the same blood-stained bat he now held. Madoc, another college student from Logan’s old group had been an avid hunter and at least knew which end of a crossbow or rifle to point at people but at this moment he was holding a Halligan. A firefighter’s tool. Jeff Sloan looked nervous holding the Axe, he would much rather have his rifle in his hands. he knew how fast the sounds of shooting would draw in more undead. “Three, use the crossbows unless they get close.” Jared told Chris, who nodded and got his people moving to the position he had chosen.
As soon as Steve and his team had cleared the perimeter of the road block and were into the guard post Rob, Warren, Clay and Brad a man from Logan’s group, were climbing around the barricade that blocked the road looking into hummers and parked supply trucks. They were leaving the field tent on the north side of the road alone for now. Rob grunted as he dismounted the ma deuce from the sandbagged position and lugged it over and placed it in the bed of the Deuce and half, followed by Warren who carried two of the four ammo boxes from the position. If they could get the Deuces started, Jared wanted to take them. They would be useful for hauling supplies or for parts for the other two Deuces, either way was a win as far as Jared
was concerned.
Normally Jared would be thrilled as spit to have a .50 but these days, it wasn’t a big deal. Oh, you could put zombies on the ground with it, even kill some of them. But once you were done crippling them you still had to go out and use more ammo to put down the crawlers unless you ran over them. Which was efficient but not something he relished. He would take the weapons anyway, at some point being able to lay down serious fire against a huge horde or against well-armed groups of humans would come in handy.
The scavenger team quickly found several M16’s, four of which had m203 40mm grenade launchers attached, thirty-six 40mm grenades in the High Explosive, HE, flavor still in their cans. That was a great haul, he thought though the grenades would not be as effective against undead as they were against people. But against a crowd of undead, inside the five meter kill range, they would probably kill one or two and cripple most of the dead in the zone and possible cripple more out to twenty meters and crippling the undead was almost as effective as killing them. Besides like most guys he loved things that went boom.
