Crawlerz: Book 5: Off the Rails

by R. S. Merritt

  “How come some of them are near cities and some are in the middle of nowhere? Any thoughts on that little mystery?” Drew asked. He was really getting into it now too. The map had the names of cities and towns on it. While some of the circles revolved around the places that had always been major population centers there were plenty that were in the middle of nowhere.

  “I’ve got a couple of guesses. Maybe there’s regular people in those locations. The crawlerz would form big groups to try and get at some uninfected flesh. I’ve been tracking the movements of the groups. It looks like they come together to form larger groups on a regular basis. I never really see splinter groups leaving once they’ve been absorbed into the larger groups. I don’t know. It could be some other infected behavior that we can’t even guess at because we’re too sane to see it.” LeBron said. He was exasperated by trying to put together the pieces with limited data. He felt like he was slowly getting somewhere though.

  “If Yue ever comes down off morphine mountain you should show her this stuff. She’s only borderline sane at this point. She may have some good insights to share.” Drew said thoughtfully. LeBron looked at his older brother with respect. He knew there’d been a reason he’d invited him to come along.

  No one had expressly ordered LeBron to look at satellite imagery of the movements of the groups of the infected. He’d taken it on himself to do so. His official job was to help with the logistics of eradicating the crawlerz. Attempting to understand the motivation behind their movements definitely fell within his purview. There were scientists off in safe locations studying data and formulating theories on the behavior of the crawlerz. These highly educated men and women had a lifetime of knowledge, but they lacked the practical experience of fighting the infected up close and personal.

  It was one thing to watch videos of attacks and to study the movement patterns of the infected via their eyes in the skies. It was another thing altogether to have stood face to face with the monsters and survived. LeBron, Yue and Drew had gone toe to toe with the demons many times now and walked away breathing. Yue could even get inside their heads. A feat LeBron doubted very much was able to be replicated by some lab coat wearing old dudes floating around on a carrier surrounded by Benson burners or whatever.

  Chapter 16: The Ones Who Tried to Kill Us?

  “You should’ve brought cookies.” Drew remarked. Jeff had just finished telling them how the meeting with SECDEF went. They were gathered in Yue’s room in the infirmary once more. This time everyone was awake except for Yue. Lisa was pretty stoned thanks to the happy pills she’d downed earlier but her eyes were open at least. LeBron had mentioned getting Lindsey to join in on the planning session, but she’d been conked out when they went to go check on her. Her arm was being held up in the air by a complicated looking multi-wired contraption. She wasn’t leading any missions anytime soon.

  The meeting with SECDEF had gone almost exactly the way Shaun had insinuated it’d go. They’d sat down and reviewed the satellite imagery with an Air Force Colonel. The colonel was one of the few people left who knew how to keep the satellites in orbit. He was young to be a colonel. That was typical in some military ratings where they had to be able to pay specialists enough to keep them out of the private sector. Retention of top scientists and medical professionals was almost impossible otherwise.

  The colonel was an expert at taking the raw data from the satellite feeds and converting it into consumable information for the non-technical minded. He’d been doing it for a little over a decade. It was amusing that with all of that experience he still came up with the same summary that LeBron had already reached. Amusing but not unexpected once you got to know the precocious young LeBron. It helped that Yue had given them insights into the crawlerz psyche that no one else had. It was interesting and horrifying to see the circles representing individual herds of thousands of the infected wandering the country.

  The herds of the infected had really just been a sidebar in their conversation. The real reason for the meeting was to identify where large groups of the uninfected were hanging out. Once they did that then the next step was to prioritize which ones they were going to try and bring on board and in what order. They were planning on supplying and reinforcing the groups that would ally with them. Shaun wanted to start bringing their armed forces home. They had thousands of trained soldiers sitting around on islands and ships with their thumbs up their butts. It only made sense to bring them home and get them in the fight. No need to depend on refugees and home grown militia to do all of the work.

  The colonel had provided a second set of images that LeBron hadn’t seen yet. These images had been focused on large groups of people moving around during the day. The crawler images had been taken at night and were mostly infrared images. The pictures of the people moving around during the day were much more illustrative. You could actually see the people, their vehicles, and where they were holing up at to stay safe at night. There were a lot more survivors out there than Jeff had assumed. That was especially telling since the satellite wasn’t even capturing everyone. It was focused on certain regions of the country based on its orbit and programming.

  “Why do they want us to start with a group that hates us? Those guys already tried to kill us once. They damned near did.” Harley said passionately. He didn’t normally get worked up over anything. It was a sign of the amount of frustration growing in the room.

  “It’s not our first time actually. We just did this with Governor Marshall.” LeBron smiled at the honorific. An old military doctor leading a ragtag group of armed survivors was now the official governor of South Carolina. Although ‘official’ might be a pretty strong word.

  “Those dudes hated us a lot. Especially Jeff.” Drew said unnecessarily. They were all well aware of how this group of survivors felt about the government. The recently deceased leaders of the forces they’d just brought onboard had hated them so much that they let it kill them. They were betting that the average person just wanted to survive.

  “We’ve tried meeting with the leaders of a rebel group. They tried to kill Jeff. We could just put Jeff in front of people and kill whoever tries to kill him? That’s basically what worked with Marshall’s group right?” Drew offered up his idea. Except for Jeff most likely dying it wasn’t a horrible plan. It was actually one of the better approaches they’d come up with.

  “How about we get on a train and leave flyers at all the train stations saying that the government is coming to save them.” Harley said darkly. The last time they’d done that they’d ended up spending way too much time in a super dark crawler packed tunnel. An experience none of them ever wanted to relive. This group that SECDEF wanted them to recruit now were the same ones who’d ambushed them then.

  Jeff wasn’t a big fan of the plan either. He was pretty sure SECDEF had picked that group because they’d already tried to kill him. That made more sense than the far-fetched strategic reasons he’d outlined in the meeting. Jeff hadn’t even been able to argue with the logic surrounding the plan. SECDEF was more than willing to just start sprinkling Anthrax everywhere they saw a major hub of crawlerz. In that plan the refugee groups were just collateral damage. That put Jeff in the awkward position of arguing for the safety of the group that’d already tried to kill him once.

  “What’s the plan then?” LeBron asked.

  “They won’t answer their radios so we’re dropping leaflets on their HQ.” Jeff said with an embarrassed grin.

  “You’re joking right?” Harley said. Even Drew thought that was a horrible idea. For that particular group of refugees Drew would’ve been happy to drop grenades on them. That’d be a much better message than leaflets in his opinion.

  A grimacing Jeff answered. “They refuse to make radio contact. The core group’s around five hundred people spread out around multiple cities. They have scavenging down to a science. They rotate their people around to different locations every week or so. That seems to be the key for the groups that are still large
and alive. If you don’t have a base as solid as Weathertop at least. We’re proposing a meeting at their current HQ. We’re not leaving them much of a choice. Leaflets have already been dropped.”

  “When’s the meeting set for?” LeBron asked. He was wondering why Jeff was calling this a planning session. It sounded like the plan was already in motion.

  “This afternoon.” Jeff answered without quite making eye contact with anyone. “We need to decide who all’s going. We’re taking two chinooks. We’ve got a suicide squad escort prepping. I want you to stay here Harley. That’s Captain Lindsey’s orders regardless. Drew and LeBron I figured you guys would come along with me. You up for it Drew?”

  “Sure. It’s been a whole day since I was shot in the back. At least this time I know who not to stand in front of.” Drew grinned when LeBron flipped him off. LeBron was tired of apologizing for the errant shot. Drew was going to live. There was no permanent damage, so LeBron no longer felt bad about it.

  They agreed to meet at the helicopter pad in a half hour and dispersed to get their gear. Jeff swung by to see a few other people on the way out. Drew and LeBron went straight to their rooms and started strapping on weapons and body armor. It was the standard outer wear for leaving Weathertop. Even the walk to the helicopters was hazardous. Yue had told them there were plenty of crawlerz buried in the ground outside to hide from the sun. Security camera footage showed how the outside of the base was swarming with the monsters every single night. In their groupthink the memories of biting into the flesh of the people in the base was still rising to the top.

  They waited until Jeff showed up with an entourage of squad members. Drew loved the way the squad members epitomized the new dress code for an apocalyptic warrior. Their fearlessness mixed with an ultra-professional attitude made them ideal apocalyptic companions. That professionalism was apparent even with all of the piercings and tattoos. Why not live a little when you were probably going to die soon? If Drew didn’t have his brother and sister around, he would’ve been looking for an application to join up. Harley had told him he’d sponsor him. He just had to promise to keep Yue from killing him if he did.

  Drew secured his backpack and helped LeBron get his gear strapped on. It wasn’t easy covered in all the junk they carried. In a couple of hours they’d be descending into the courtyard of a Courtyard by Marriott. It’d been retrofitted by the refugee militia to keep out the infected. It must be doing its job since the refugees were still alive. Or at least they had been on the last satellite sweep. The reason for their urgency was partly due to the fact that they couldn’t be sure the people weren’t moving on to another location. The pilot who’d dropped the leaflets had confirmed he’d been shot at. He didn’t have any more details. He’d dropped the leaflets and gotten the hell out of there.

  “This mission is going to suck.” Drew said to the squad soldier next to him. The man had a life size skull tattoo covering his face. It was pretty creepy looking. The man looked over at him with an even creepier expression.

  “Haven’t you noticed when you go to war with a team called the suicide squad that the odds of coming back alive are normally somewhere between zero and probably not?” The soldier asked. His open mouthed grin making the tattoo even more grotesque looking.

  “I assumed that’s why they let you get the tattoos and everything. Your whole body covered?” Drew asked curiously.

  “You hitting on me? Normally only the ladies ask me that.” Skeleton face responded with an even bigger grin. The grin erupted into actual laughter at the expression on Drew’s face.

  LeBron turned his head away from the back and forth Drew was having with the living skeleton. The man wasn’t wrong about this being a thinly veiled suicide mission. One that LeBron doubted SECDEF expected them to return from. If they did return SECDEF would definitely not expect them to be returning successfully. If this was a return with your shield or on it kind of scenario then SECDEF was betting he’d never see any of their shields again. If any of them harbored any illusions about the craptastic hand they’d been dealt, then all they had to do was review the wording of the leaflets that’d been dropped.

  The kicker was how straightforward they were. The leaflet stated that the area the refugee band was inhabiting was considered of strategic importance to the United States restorative efforts. The refugees were invited to join forces and accept the command of the United Government. If they did not wish to join, then they needed to vacate the area or missiles would be launched to take them out. The leaflet identified the men who’d be landing in the courtyard that afternoon as special envoys of the United States government. Attacking them would be considered an act of domestic terrorism. The entire leaflet was designed to look innocent enough on the surface while simultaneously inciting the refugees to attack. SECDEF wouldn’t think twice about having the missiles launched either.

  “Everyone realizes this is really stupid right?” LeBron repeated after the pilot announced that they were approaching the landing zone. Jeff didn’t say anything, but his eyes revealed he was right there with LeBron. LeBron wished Yue had been coherent today. If so, she would’ve jumped in and gotten this all figured out. Jeff had somehow let himself be maneuvered into a suicide mission. What LeBron didn’t understand was why Jeff was still going through with it when he obviously realized what a cluster this was going to be.

  “At some point we have to talk to these people. Why not today?” Jeff finally answered. LeBron had about a million arguments for why they shouldn’t do it today. Before he could start tossing them out the pilot came on the line again to announce they were five minutes out from the landing zone.

  On hearing they had five minutes until game time everyone started doublechecking weapons and body armor. Helmets were pulled on and gun magazines were nervously pushed tighter. Battle buddies did quick once overs to make sure no one was forgetting anything. It seemed silly but that second check ritual had saved plenty of lives over the years. People get nervous before jumping out of a helicopter. Especially in the face of enemy fire. It’s easy to forget to lace up your boots or zip up your Kevlar. People have even jumped out the door without their weapons.

  The pilot announced that a small group of men were waiting outside the hotel. They did not appear hostile at this time. Jeff acknowledged the pilot and ordered her to land. He requested the pilot of the other helicopter keep hovering for now in case they needed any air support. Their pilot rotated the helicopter to train her weapons on the group of men below. Watching the group carefully for any signs of aggression she slowly landed the big bird in the parking lot. The group of men continued waiting peacefully enough on the edge of the parking lot. One of the men waved and smiled at her as she landed the chinook.

  On the ground the suicide squad members quickly deployed out the door. They flanked Jeff, LeBron and Drew as they walked towards the group of men waiting for them. Trying to look like they were here to make peace while dressed for war the group strode forward. The dual rotors on the big bird behind them were slowly winding down. Drew knew the pilot would keep her hand on the stick in case she needed to get her guns or rotors going again quickly.

  “You the guy we have to talk to if we don’t want a missile shot at us?” A large grey haired man dressed like a biker from a Mad Max movie asked. He’d waited until they were close enough to greet one another to get in that first jab.

  “I like to think of us more as the guys trying to rebuild the country and get rid of the crawlerz. We want your help in doing that. We can supply you and your men with whatever’s needed to help with the effort.” Jeff answered smiling.

  “Next time you’re going to print up some of your pretty little brochures maybe phrase it that way instead. Reading this I almost feel like you’re threatening me and my family. Probably because of the parts where you threaten to blow us up if we don’t do what you say. So you want us to roll over and take it. Make us into your peasant class militia. Zombie fodder to charge in first with the weapons you give us
. Something like that?” The grey bearded man was grinning evilly at them while he talked.

  “We just want to sit down and talk with the people in charge here. I think once we explain what we’re trying to do that you’ll see it’s best for everybody. There’s plenty of open space for everybody once we have the infected under control.” Jeff said. He hated that he sounded like he was backpedaling right off the bat.

  The men in front of them didn’t strike any of them as military types. Their demeanor and the way they were dressed hinted at a more sinister background. Most of them were sporting patches and other insignia on their clothes. They looked more like a street gang than a military unit that’d been left behind. Their leader in particular had something dead behind his eyes. He was hiding something behind that big grin on his face.

  “You’ll get a chance to talk very soon. We’re about five seconds from blowing up that helicopter you have flying around. You need to get on the radio and let the other pilot know if they just sit still, we won’t blow them up next.” The man kept the grin on his face while Jeff stood there with his mouth half open. He had no idea how to respond.

  There was the whooshing sound of surface to air missiles being fired as men on the roofs of the surrounding buildings launched their loads at the hovering bird. The chinook pilot tried to take evasive actions but was struck by two of the rockets. The helicopter exploded in the air. The wreckage tumbling to the ground about fifty yards from where they were standing. Jeff was on his radio telling their pilot to stand down. He saw a small group of men emerge from out of a wrecked van on the other side of the parking lot.