Crawlerz: Book 5: Off the Rails

by R. S. Merritt

  It was all too coincidental to be believed. The men controlling the lands out west were willing to pay lip service to his leadership for now. That may change as he began taking a more active role in telling them what to do. No one was really clear on how many other territories were operating like Pennsylvania either. What local warlords had risen to prominent positions by protecting people from the infected. The headquarters for the group controlling Pennsylvania had been a two hour drive from Weathertop and they’d been clueless as to the extent of it until Tommy sent men to blow them up.

  The convoy slipped into Fayetteville in the early morning hours. Plenty of people were already roaming the streets. Being forced inside once it began to get dark meant bedtimes had gone back to those of colonial times. Early to bed and early to rise was the new normal. The convoy chugged up the cleared streets to the train station that was still the center of administrative activities for the city. Jeff left them in the Humvee and went inside to find out where Yue and everyone were. He came back out a few minutes later with a chagrined look on his face.

  “What’s up?” Drew asked. He was looking forward to seeing Lisa and didn’t like the look on Jeff’s face at all.

  “The President and his team flew out this morning to Cheyenne.” Jeff said.

  “That’s the top secret space force base out in the middle of nowhere Colorado, right?” Harley asked. Harley was a big time conspiracy buff. Jeff couldn’t wait to hear all the misinformation he’d be spewing out on their upcoming road trip.

  “I take it there’s not a plane waiting for us?” Drew asked.

  “Nope. We’ll be driving there. Shaun left a list of places he’d like us to stop and enforce loyalty on the way there.” Jeff answered.

  “Worst road trip ever.” Harley said mournfully. It didn’t sound like they’d be chilling in the barracks downing Margaritas any time in the near future. To make it even worse the President had taken Lisa, LeBron and Yue with him on the plane to Cheyenne.

  Chapter 32: The Reward for Success is More Hard Work

  “How far away is Colorado?” Drew asked. He knew vaguely what states lie between them and their destination. The idea of driving that far had never really occurred to him. He wanted to hurry up and get on the road so they could do whatever Shaun needed them to do and hook back up with Lisa, Yue and LeBron. On the plus side at least the three that’d already been ferried out to the NORAD command center would be safe and getting plenty of rest. Rest was not in store for Jeff, Drew and the team that’d be heading west come daybreak.

  “It’s about a day of driving back in the old days if you went about twenty miles over the speed limit the whole time and didn’t stop for anything.” Jeff answered.

  “Like a leave in the morning be there in a day kind of thing or like twenty four hours’ worth of driving total?” Drew asked.

  “The total one. It’s going to take us longer because we have a couple of detours. Plus the whole apocalypse thing keeps screwing up our plans.” Drew was disappointed to hear how long it was going to take. He was anxious to get back to Lisa. Jeff could understand. He was missing Yue pretty badly at this point as well. It must be even worse for Drew. He was separated from his brother, his sister and his girlfriend.

  “What sort of detours? Please tell me we’re not swinging by to remind more crazy people that they’re still Americans. I still can’t believe we survived making all those bikers recite the pledge of allegiance on their knees.” Billy was really hoping that the detours were more like stopping to pick up survivors that needed to be transported to the not so secret mountain base.

  “I don’t know if they’re crazy or not.” Jeff answered. The Presidential orders he’d received did indeed have them stopping in two locations to convince local warlord types that they should accept the position of governor for their region. Shaun was good with the formula they’d been using. He was hoping Jeff could continue to execute. Not having actually been present when these missions were completed Shaun had no way of knowing how much luck had played a significant part in their success so far.

  Drew leaned back in his chair. There was a small table with a long padded bench wrapped around it by the coffee station in the trailer. They were going to be leaving again so soon that they hadn’t bothered trying to move into any of the barracks available in the city. They knew the trailer worked to keep the crawlerz out. That was another big plus in terms of deciding where they wanted to spend their evenings. It wasn’t like the temporary quarters available in Fayetteville would be much better than the bunks they had on the trailer anyway.

  Harley handed Drew a coffee mug with a generous pour of bourbon in it. Drew choked it down doing his best not to cough and wince at the taste of the fiery liquor. Once he had it down the pleasantly powerful buzz that he felt coming on told him he wasn’t going to need NyQuil later. They’d get to sleep in the next morning anyway. They’d loaded everything up that they needed during the day. Now they were just waiting on some reinforcements scheduled to land at the airport in the morning.

  The reinforcements were a mix of seasoned guys and newbies fresh off the boat. Drew was curious to see how those newbies were going to handle their first interactions with the crawlerz. He wondered if Jeff had asked for the noobs just to get a feel for what training needed to be done to get people ready for this fight.

  They weren’t going to have any air support on this mission. Lynn had been whisked away to some secret hangar to continue flying whatever missions it was that they needed her to fly. Drew assumed Jeff knew all that secret stuff and just wasn’t saying anything about it. The cloak and dagger made a lot more sense now that the human enemies were starting to stack back up. Crawlerz might not be trying to listen in on random radio broadcasts, but you could be sure people like Tommy had guys trying their best to commit espionage.

  Drew didn’t really care about the success or failure of the objectives they were being given. All he wanted to do was get them knocked out so he could get to the NORAD base and see Lisa. At some point he needed to ask Jeff what NORAD stood for. He had a vague recollection of NORAD being responsible for tracking Santa Claus as he made his way around the earth every Christmas Eve. He assumed the important sounding acronym did a lot of other important things as well. For now it looked like him, Jeff, Billy and Harley were on the same wavelength. This new mission sucked. They should therefore drink bourbon until they passed out.

  The next morning sucked even more than the new mission. Drew lay on the floor wondering if he should puke or not puke. He didn’t bother wondering why he’d ended up sleeping on the floor underneath the table. Based on the waves of nausea rolling over him he assumed he could safely blame his current position on the large pours of bourbon Harley had relentlessly passed around. Picturing the large pours of warm bourbon rendered obsolete the question about whether to puke or not to puke.

  “Gross. You’re going to clean that up right?” An entirely too jubilant Harley asked. Drew wondered if Harley had woken up early just to give him crap about the hangover that’d been a certainty by the time he passed out. Whatever the reason if he didn’t start talking at a lower volume Drew was going to knife him in the foot. That should wipe that condescending grin right off Harley’s big stupid face.

  Drew crawled out from under the table. He was on a mission to find water and coffee and new clothes. He’d been lying on his back when he projectile puked into the bottom of the table. He was covered in chunky bourbon scented vomit. It was leaking from his hair into his eyes. The alcohol content of the room temperature mess still high enough to burn his eyes. Drew made it almost to the door before Harley stopped him. An extremely unwell Drew looked up at Harley to ask why the hell he couldn’t be left alone to crawl out into the fresh air and die in peace.

  “It’s still dark outside amigo. You sure you want to do that?” Harley asked.

  Drew glanced up at the monitors. The sky was lighting up but there were still some movements in the shadows as the infected tide finished
ebbing for the day. Harley had most likely saved Drew’s life by waking up early to babysit him. A completely miserable Drew slowly turned to crawl back to his own bunk. Harley tossed him a couple of wet towels and told him to strip. Once Harley had mopped most of the puke off Drew’s body, he helped him toss on a pair of shorts then get into his own bed. Feeling much more confident that his young friend wasn’t going to die of alcohol poisoning Harley used Drew’s soiled clothes to mop up the puke under the table.

  “Out of bed party animals!” Jeff called out flicking on the bright overhead lights in the trailer. It hadn’t just been the four of them who’d taken advantage of the relatively safe place to sleep combined with the promise of a late reveille. Pretty much everyone had taken Harley up on his challenge to party like it was the end of the world. Waking up after a night spent drinking like they’d all just turned twenty one a large number of the men in the trailer were wishing the end of the world had arrived while they’d been sleeping. None of them managed to puke all over themselves like Drew had but there was still going to be a serious strain on the Tylenol and fresh water supply.

  “Drink some water, find some snacks and be ready to roll out in thirty minutes.” Jeff announced to the red eyed miserable looking motley group of tattooed warriors slowly crawling out of their beds.

  “Anyway we could save the world tomorrow instead?” Billy asked.

  Jeff ignored him and disappeared out the door. A startled Drew glanced up to make sure it wasn’t still dark outside. To his delight and simultaneous confusion it was now very bright outside. Wondering where his clothes had gone Drew started looking around for a new set of pants. Meanwhile Harley had walked to the center of the aisle to address his troops.

  “Alright you bunch of lightweights. Get out of bed and get your gear together. We’ve got a bunch of fresh meat joining us on this mission. They’ve been sitting on boats and islands this whole time so half of them haven’t ever even seen a crawler in real life. We will pair them up with you. You’re responsible for showing them the ropes. If it hits the fan, you’re responsible for protecting them. We’re getting a bunch of them so don’t worry too much if the first one we pair you with gets eaten. There should be some spares. Try to keep your new pets alive and well though. Understood?” Harley looked around not really expecting any questions.

  “Are these recruits going to be squad when we’re done?” Billy asked.

  “They’ll be squad if they earn it. Looking at you sorry bunch of bastards right now I doubt any of these guys are going to want to be volunteering to join up anytime soon. Get your game faces on and show these FNGs how to do this zombie fighting stuff the right way.” Harley wrapped up his attempt at motivational speaking to get his own gear in order.

  Drew was experiencing a whole lot of the infamous ‘hurry up and wait’ aspect of any large military force lately. The men joining them were currently waiting on an airport tarmac for the bus to come get them. The extra vehicles for them to take to Colorado hadn’t been assigned to them yet. Jeff could be seen sporadically going from office to office muttering under his breath about having to do everything himself since the base had been staffed by a bunch of morons.

  As the morning ground on the convoy gradually grew in size. They were up to ten Humvees, two of the large, armored tractor trailer rigs, and a tanker truck full of diesel. The tanker truck was a very welcome addition that Jeff had pulled major strings to have included. It was a major bonus to have the man in charge of logistics for the entire country also be in charge of their convoy. Even if it still wasn’t possible to cut through all of the red tape. Men who’d grown up in the military bureaucracy just had a hard time letting go of their forms and ways of doing things.

  Jeff was one of those who’d grown up within that bureaucracy. He found it oddly comforting to be arguing with a supply officer about whether they needed the diesel tank more than the refugees being relocated from the Outer Banks to a fortified base further inland. He’d finally won the argument by pointing out that the officer’s bosses, bosses, boss reported to Jeff. After that he was able to ask for pretty much anything and get it. Once everything was finally where it needed to be he set his mind to the task of actually leading this unit halfway across the country.

  He was glad Harley was the one who was actually in charge of the convoy. It was a suicide squad mission and Harley now spoke for the suicide squad. Despite his gypsy upbringing and spotty past they welcomed and respected him. He’d proven himself more times than the men could count. His problems with authority didn’t really matter in a unit as full of misfits as the suicide squad. The new men coming into the unit may be an issue, but that issue would be Harley’s to deal with.

  Jeff wasn’t a natural leader. Unlike Harley he felt like a fraud every time he ordered men into battle. At heart he was an administrator. He enjoyed brainstorming sessions and creating pie charts much more than sleeping in the field and getting shot at. He didn’t consider himself brave. In the heat of battle he just did what it took to accomplish the mission and keep his friends alive. He wasn’t scared to fight but he wasn’t trying to go out of his way to pick one either. The people who’d been by his side for a while had a different impressions of him than he did of himself. Having witnessed the gentle giant flip the switch to battle mode when needed they all considered him an easy ten on the bravery scale.

  Jeff levered himself into the front seat of the Humvee with Harley driving. Drew was sitting in the back with a nervous looking skinny guy dressed in desert camo. Drew was happily grilling the frustrated looking guy on why he thought desert camo was appropriate for driving through Virginia. Jeff eavesdropped while Drew quizzed the new guy on whether or not he thought camouflage really helped when you were fighting the crawlerz. It was painfully obvious the man knew very little about dealing with the infected.

  “Where to boss?” Harley asked Jeff. Jeff was reading through the papers in an official looking package he’d been given that morning. It was their current set of orders. They were able to communicate with Cheyenne via a secure connection so those orders could change along their route.

  “Knoxville’s going to be our first stop. I’ve got an address in the mountains there we need to check in on. It’s where a handful of generals were ordered to establish a base. They haven’t been heard from in a while. It’s sort of on our way so we’re swinging by.” Jeff answered.

  It wasn’t a great answer. Jeff guessed he could have worked harder on his delivery. The truth was he wasn’t super excited about this first stop. It seemed like a waste of time to him. The men in the base were either dead or alive. If they were alive then they were ignoring the newly sworn in commander in chief. If that was the case, then Jeff didn’t think driving a big convoy up a narrow mountain road controlled by a bunch of military experts was the greatest idea ever. If all of the generals were dead, then who really cared? Lots of people were dead. Why send a highly specialized convoy of soldiers to go conduct a welfare check?

  It was early afternoon by the time they finally put Fayetteville in their rear view mirrors. They’d have to stop in a few hours to get everyone situated for the night. At this rate it was going to take them forever to make it to Colorado. Jeff was hoping that once they got on the road, they’d move along a lot faster. The individual missions they were being asked to perform on their cross country trek were going to slow them down even more. It wasn’t like you could just swing by and tell the local war lord to go back to following the constitution. It typically required more discussion than that. Getting those discussions going had required a decent amount of violence so far.

  They were getting close to the North Carolina border when Harley called for a stop for the day. It was still a little early, but they had a bunch of new people they needed to assign bunks too. They also needed to get those new people drugged up enough where the first round of crawlerz hitting the walls of the trailers wasn’t going to give them heart attacks. Jeff didn’t envy these guys their first exposure to the nigh
tmare visions they were going to be subjected to. He was interested in seeing how they coped with it though.

  Chapter 33: The Knoxville Nightmare

  The RV was parked next to a lake in the middle of the woods. The old dirt road the beast of a camper had originally driven down appeared washed out and overrun in the bright moonlight. It’d been the slightest tingle that guided the pack of crawlerz off the main road and into the woods. Drew saw through their eyes as they loped through the snow covered forest. It was the barest of sensations they’d felt. In a world growing increasingly devoid of prey the infected were chasing down every hint of lingering humanity.

  The RV had been there long enough for it to start sinking into the silty clay. The tires were all slightly deflated. If anyone was in the dilapidated camping castle it wasn’t immediately obvious by looking at it. Nevertheless Drew felt a tingle of excitement run down his spine. There was no way to know that there were people hiding in the old RV. The people had been careful to stay completely silent. They’d loaded up their family and headed out to the middle of nowhere after the first broadcasts had shown the infection sweeping the world.