Crawlerz: Book 5: Off the Rails

by R. S. Merritt

  It didn’t bode well for the reinforcements they’d have coming off the ships. The ones who weren’t already used to fighting the infected would need a period of adjustment. Without that period of adjustment there was every chance they’d go stark raving mad on their first venture out into the field. There was enough madness in the world already without their needlessly adding to it.

  Once everyone had taken care of their morning routines they headed back over to the administrative car. Drew walked with his head on a swivel. He was thinking back to LeBron’s warning from the day before about the bad guys leaving a sniper behind to spread some more love today. The main base for their newest enemy was only a couple of hours away as the Harley rode. The gangbangers could easily make it back before brunch to mop up the survivors if they wanted to. Stupid name or not they’d proven themselves extremely capable of meting out some serious damage.

  The Marine guarding the door made them stand outside while he sent someone to check with Shaun on whether Jeff and his team were welcome or not. Jeff thought about just knocking the Marine out of the way and going in anyway. The biggest drawback to that being the very real possibility the Marine would end up killing him for trying it. The Marine was doing his best to shrink into the entryway. The man was concerned there might be a sniper surprise coming for them after their morning Wheaties.

  They cooled their heels outside for almost twenty minutes under the watchful gaze of the sniper fearing Marine. Finally another guard came out and beckoned them to come in. This one recognized Billy and greeted him with a big grin. Billy smiled back ruefully and limped along into the train car with everyone else. The rock that’d slammed into the back of his leg during the attack the day before was causing him all kinds of pain. He mostly just wanted to do drugs and watch cartoons until his leg felt better.

  Shaun was deep in conversation with a few salt and pepper haired general officers. They’d slid their chairs over to be close enough so that Yue could listen in and comment. The conversation died down when they noticed Jeff strolling in. It was hard to miss him since he was rolling in with a guy with a skull tattooed on his face and the gigantic Harley. Drew slid over to the side to casually sit down on the bunk beside Lisa.

  “Good morning Mr. President.” Jeff said amicably. He may be planning on being nice to try and professionally give his opinion on the topics. More likely he was trying to worm his way past the group of men to get to the coffee maker on the far wall. The glorious odor of freshly ground beans having been struck by percolating water permeated the air inside the train car.

  Shaun shook his head disbelievingly at the way Jeff was staring past him straight at the coffeepot. He invited them to grab a cup of coffee then come back over. Five minutes later Jeff and the others were feeling much better about life in general. A nice hot cup of coffee on a chilly morning can do that for you. Shaun waited for them to come back over with their coffee then started talking.

  “Yue spent half the night and most of this morning convincing me that you’ve done everything in your power to do the right thing. She’s impressed upon me how the late SECDEF may have let a personal vendetta get in the way of making smart decisions. I’m not going to disparage the dead, so we’ll just leave it at that. Here’s the thing though. After the attack yesterday we either need to wipe those bastards off the map or make a truce with them. We have more than enough resources to wipe them off the map. Yue has once again managed to convince us that’d be a colossal waste of lives though. She thinks we should give up on stitching together the old USA and just give them Pennsylvania.” Shaun stopped to give them a chance to comment or ask questions.

  “We’ve discussed it and think a truce is the right answer. Saving lives and rebuilding the government are the priorities now. I don’t think we should be overly concerned with geographical boundaries at this point.” LeBron spoke up. It was exactly what they’d talked about. The way he phrased it seemed to rub Shaun the wrong way though.

  “Those ‘geographical borders’ you’re talking about are what make up the USA. I suppose you’ve heard of a little conflict called the Civil War? I don’t have any desire to start carving the country up into little territories for warlords to control.” Shaun snapped back. Over on her bunk Yue pursed her lips at the poor choice of words LeBron had used.

  “We don’t have to give up the territory for forever. The North ended up taking the South back after fighting for a few years. As President you have the historical precedent of writing out treaties then breaking them. Just ask the Cherokees or the Apaches how good our treaties are.” LeBron continued talking while Yue’s eyes continued getting bigger. She couldn’t believe he’d chosen this particular approach. They might as well let Drew make their pitch for them. Except Drew was probably good with just sending in the Marines to wipe the Living Zombies off the face of the planet.

  “Well why didn’t you just say that. Let’s go ahead and sign a fake treaty then once the infected are wiped out we can buy the land back for some shiny beads.” Shaun looked exasperated. The decisions he had to make didn’t really have a clear upside. None of the options that came across his desk were black and white. He was tired of living in a world of grey.

  “We’re willing to make the pitch to them. We can even say it’s a temporary truce if you like that idea better.” Jeff said.

  “I don’t like the idea at all. Yue already told me you’d be the best choice to send. Which makes no sense to me. Didn’t those people just hand you your asses like two days ago? What makes you think this time will be any different? What makes you think they won’t just shoot you when you show up?” Shaun asked.

  “You’re not dead for one thing. Those guys were pros. They probably knew which car held our leadership. They didn’t hit it on purpose. Plus this time when we show up, we’re not bringing threats. We’re just offering to leave them alone if they’ll leave us alone for a year or whatever. I’m sure Tommy will understand that if they kill us then you’ll have no choice but to start targeting them.” Jeff answered. The men sitting around all nodded. That made sense.

  “You’re really volunteering to go back into that hornet’s nest?” Shaun asked. He was staring at Jeff oddly. Like he was trying to figure out if the tall man talking to him was suicidal or just dumb.

  “I am. I’ll take a team and head that way first thing tomorrow. Assuming we can get you safely to Fayetteville and get some vehicles back here before dusk.” Jeff said. It was still pretty early so that may actually be possible. Either way they were going to end up spending at least one more night being lulled to sleep by the undead mosh pit that formed nightly in the train yard.

  “Ok then. We’ll take off in the next thirty minutes. I’ll take Harley with me and send him back with a Humvee. I’ll take LeBron too since he can barely stand. I also like the idea that he can pretty easily replace you if you don’t come back. You good?” Shaun asked.

  “Yes sir.” Jeff said affirmatively.

  The next twenty minutes were chaotic. Everyone was working to quickly pack as many people as possible into the three working vehicles they had. Harley reminded everyone that the Living Zombies also now controlled a chinook with twin machine guns on the front of it. That reminder helped speed up the process even more. Once the small convoy hit Fayetteville, they’d send back vehicles for the evacuees as well as something for Jeff and team to head up to Columbia in. Possibly a bus on top of a couple of Humvees for Jeff and his small team of volunteers to cruise up to the enemy headquarters for a heart to heart.

  What could go wrong? It’d worked out so well the last time they went up there to talk the Living Zombies into cooperating. Hopefully this time they didn’t end up naked on top of a parking garage filled with the infected.

  Chapter 29: Enjoy the Little Things

  The President and his staff left most of their stuff in the train car they’d spent the evening in. It was a million miles from luxurious but still better than the other cars in yard. A generator had been brought from t
he wreckage of Weathertop and hooked up so that the train car had power. The coffee pot, fridge and two electric fans all worked. It was paradise after spending the previous night with some battery powered lanterns as their main luxury.

  “Should we invite the others in here?” Drew asked.

  “The people who are going to be heading off to a nice safe base tomorrow while we leave to face down the devil?” Billy asked rhetorically. The life or death mission they would be embarking on first thing the next day wasn’t stopping him from enjoying a bottle of vodka he’d found.

  “We’ll invite them in a little bit. Right now I want to spend some time thinking about exactly what we’re going to tell Tommy.” Jeff said.

  “Sorry we killed a bunch of your people and threatened to blow you up. I guess we’re even now that you blew up hundreds of innocent people right in our faces. Please sign this treaty we don’t plan on sticking to.” Drew answered glibly. He knew he wasn’t being helpful. He just had a hard time keeping his mouth shut when he was confronted with raw hypocrisy like this. They should be the tip of a spear tomorrow. Not the tip of a pen.

  “I was hoping we could think of a way to pitch it to him so that he doesn’t try to feed us to the crawlerz for a third time.” Jeff said. It was almost pointless to be asking skull face and the grenade lover for a subtle approach. They were all he had at the moment though. He had to bounce ideas off somebody to combat the big nothing he was coming up with on his own.

  “This is a tough one.” Drew said thoughtfully. “You should’ve asked LeBron and Yue before they left. Those two are good at this kind of crap. I’ve got no clue how we’re going to talk Tommy into this. I mean unless we go crazy and just tell the truth.”

  A light came on in Jeff’s eyes. That was it. He was sitting here with a guy with a massive face tattoo and Drew. They were waiting on Harley to come back to join them. There was nothing subtle about the team he’d be taking to visit Tommy. Jeff was an amateur politician at best. The other guys on the team were whatever the opposite of a politician was. You didn’t get any blunter than these guys.

  “Brilliant. The truth it is. What’s the worst that could happen?” Jeff said with a smile. The ridiculous fate tempting expression elicited groans from Drew and Billy. Drew would’ve thrown something but of course Jeff had a fresh hot cup of coffee in his hand.

  With the plan pretty much wrapped up Jeff invited the people waiting outside to come in and enjoy the limited amenities available in the car. There was nothing much to do now. They were basically sitting around hoping the Living Zombies didn’t show up and kill them while they waited for Harley to come back with their ride. When darkness fell and there was no sign of Harley, they got worried. Sitting in the car while the crawlerz bounced off the outside of it they worked on a plan for what to do if no one showed up to get them. There was always the chance that Tommy had intercepted Shaun’s little convoy before they got to Fayetteville.

  The next morning proved that Harley was someone they should never count out. A whole convoy rolled up in the street opposite the train station. There was a heavily modified eighteen wheeler along with a long line of the military style up armored Humvees. A few troop carriers were interspersed with the Humvees as well. The bulk of the men making up the convoy were wearing the Harley Quinn insignia on their ‘uniforms’.

  It’d taken Harley a while to round up everything he’d thought they may need for their little day trip to visit with Tommy. The men and women in the convoy were the last surviving members of the suicide squad. If they died their legacy died with them. Not that they cared about any of that. What they all cared about was that the Living Zombies had killed their captain in cold blood. They were here to escort Jeff up to peaceably converse with the leaders of the group that’d killed dozens of their comrades. Every single one of them hoped the talks went sideways. They all wanted the chance to get bloody.

  The other soldiers who’d come back with Jeff quickly got the evacuees from Weathertop loaded up in the troop carriers. Watching them depart for Fayetteville Jeff wished he was going that way himself. Instead he’d be setting off at the head of a convoy to drive right back into the lion’s den. On top of his own instincts telling him this was a dumb idea he also had to deal with Harley having a change of heart. Walking up to Jeff after helping get everyone organized Harley let Jeff know what Shaun and Yue had told him before he came back.

  “Shaun had time to think while we drove over to Fayetteville. Yue was right there working through the different options and scenarios. The more they talked the more it seems like this is a bad idea. They want you to give up and go meet them in Fayetteville. This is a suicide mission. They’re leaving it up to you though. LeBron seems to think you’ll have a chance. I think if we head that way today, we’re all dead by manana.” Harley said.

  “What about these guys?” Drew asked indicating the squad members prepping for the run to Pennsylvania.

  “They don’t give a shit. I told them all it was pretty much a suicide mission. All they cared about was that these guys we’re going up to talk to killed Lindsey. Killed her and a bunch of others in a sneak attack. If this goes like you want it to then they’ll actually be disappointed. They’d rather drive in guns blazing and see who wins.” Harley answered. He sounded like he was good with that approach himself.

  “They’ll stay cool if everything is going good though, right?” Jeff asked. He didn’t want to get into negotiations and have his honor guard decide to pick a fight.

  “The President gave the rest of the squad to me. They’re pretty good at following orders. We shouldn’t have any issues.” Harley answered. Jeff had no choice but to accept that. Even if the way Harley was phrasing the response didn’t give him the warm and fuzzies. What did give him a better sense of security was the large quantity of Humvees. Harley had picked the ones out with the ‘going to war’ premium upgrade packages. There was also a solid looking troop carrier packed with gear. The cherry on top of it all was the highly modified tractor trailer they were keeping to take with them.

  The eighteen wheeler was how Harley had been able to accomplish everything he needed to and still make it back by morning. Harley and his men had brought the convoy to a halt about twenty miles from the train depot when it became obvious that they weren’t making it before twilight. They quickly secured their vehicles than piled into the heavily modified trailer to spend the night. They’d climbed out again this morning to continue the journey to the train yard.

  Wondering if he was doing the right thing Jeff decided to press forward with the plan. If nothing else this group of guys in the Humvees should be enough to fight their way out if they needed to. He told Harley to get everyone loaded up. Billy smiled which stretched out his skull tattoo horrifically and headed for one of the cars. Drew looked happy with the decision as well. The fact that Billy and Drew thought it was a good idea had Jeff rethinking the whole thing.

  “One more thing.” Harley said quickly.

  “Yes?” Jeff answered in a preoccupied way. His mind already working on what he was going to say when he got in front of Tommy. Winging it wasn’t an option.

  “The price of us supporting world peace is getting our pilot back. We’re not leaving her there. They can keep the helicopter. We can get plenty of those. She’s one of ours though and she’s coming back with us.” Harley paused then added. “Assuming we come back at all.”

  Jeff agreed completely. He was a little offended Harley thought he may have forgotten about their friend and comrade in arms. Working on how to insert getting her freed into his talk track he began walking towards the lead Humvee. He was told to go to the second Humvee instead. The man in the lead Humvee explaining that they were the one expected to set off IEDs. The lead vehicle was the most heavily armored so would lead the way. The men inside had doubled up on anything bullet proof they could find. Maybe they were being overly cautious, but they were the last standing members of a paramilitary unit fighting the undead in the middle of an apoc
alypse so evidently their paranoia had worked out for them.

  Jeff slid into the second Humvee. Drew had initially called shotgun, but Jeff’s NBA length legs caused him to pull rank and tell Drew to hop in the back instead. Grumbling about the rules of calling shotgun Drew got up and moved into the back seat instead. He was unceremoniously asked to slide over when Harley squeezed in. The backseat would’ve comfortably fit three men under normal situations. Harley’s large bulk took up one and a half spots though. With body armor and weapons he was a man mountain of muscle and machinery.

  Harley gave Drew and Jeff a set of comm units to wear. Once they’d figured out how to get those turned on Harley checked one final time with Jeff to make sure the plan was still a go. Once Jeff confirmed it was still on Harley told the men in the truck to notify Fayetteville that they were proceeding. The men in the truck had access to communications gear that let them reach out securely to Fayetteville. They were planning on using the gear in case Jeff needed to confer with Shaun before making any unauthorized commitments. Although if things veered too far from the original idea, then Shaun would probably just tell him to agree to whatever and get the hell out of there. The bombers would be in the sky before Jeff’s team made it back over the state line.