Zombie Theorem (Book 1): The Culling, page 17
“Feels like it’s been hours.” I felt slightly more refreshed, I looked down at Angel and saw no wrinkle or worry on her face.
Apache came over and took Angel from me, as I stood up to join the group. We could barely hear each other over Brian’s snores. “Apache and Cupcake, I want you two glued to the barge at all times. We lose that, we lose everything. Doc I want you to be our liaison with the NG unit. When they get some supplies they owe us 5.56 from helping them out at the barricade, try and be smooth and get some MREs while you’re at it, and anything else you can cajole, beg, or steal. Senshi, you go up to the high ground and keep watch on incoming ships and let us know when we have a safe enough lane in the bay to boogie. Vic and Dan you two go work with the Rangers and the NG; make sure they know what has to be done with the infected. If you have to, enforce it yourselves. I’ll play radio operator, and I’m going to go play tourist. Our radios are strong enough for what we need them for and we have our own emergency channel to use. Is there anything I am missing?” Vic dictates.
I raise my hand like an idiot and Kuppers just shook his head rolled his eyes and said. “This isn’t school Dan, just speak your mind.”
I lowered my hand and blush, then pointed at Brian. “What is an MRE, and what about him?”
“It means Meals Ready to Eat, it’s horrible tasting military food. But has all the calories one needs to survive. Let the Sasquatch sleep. If I need him, I’ll have Apache wake and direct him. Maybe we can use him like a mule and get him to carry the supplies the NG brings in.” He looked each one of us in the eye then nodded, as if he came to a decision and walked away.
Vic grabbed my arm and we walked away back to the docking ferries and to meet up with the Rangers. Doc caught up and wrapped his arm around the NG guy’s shoulders, steering him away from everyone.
Vic and I saw Douglas and headed in his direction. “Hey Douglas, this here is SFPD’s head detective Vic. Know where we can find Charlotte?”
“Charlotte is over there helping the injured into the old guard house.” He pointed up the walkway to another building.
“How many does she have with her? Oh and do me a favor, stay near one of these Guard guys. They are armed and just in case something happens they will back you up.”
“Last count was 20. I know she has three soldiers with her. Yeah I think I will go hang out with one of them.” Douglas waved good bye and made his way over to three Guards directing civilians where to go.
Vic and I marched our way over to the guard house. I push my foot between the door and frame before it could close all the way. We file in together and Vic smiled at Charlotte as he closes the door. “Hi Charlotte I never had the chance to meet you. My name is SFPD Detective Vic Reynolds. Douglas informed us you were taking the injured up here. Where are the Guard that are supposed to be with you?”
She looked back at us and moved her body, trying to block our view behind her. Before she could, I caught a glimpse of something moving behind her, but she moved quickly cutting me off. I looked up and she locked eyes with me for a second before casting her eyes to the floor. “Oh shit” I thought, she is going to let the people go. “You have no jurisdiction on my Island detective Reynolds.” She tried to stand her ground and take control of the situation.
“Ma’am no one does at this moment except for the ones with the guns. If you let these people go you are putting everybody at risk. This infection can turn someone quickly and in turn they will attack someone else and then we are fucked. So where are these people?” Vic removed his side arm from his leg holster holding it at his side. I saw his finger disengaging the safety, then slides down to the trigger guard.
I removed my collapsible batons and flicked them out to their full length, they snapped audibly, locked in place. I turned away ignoring the ongoing situation with Vic and Charlotte. I decided to investigate what I saw, when she tried to block my view earlier. I slowly started making my way in that direction trying not to not make too much sound. As I came around the corner I saw three infected zombies kneeling over a couple of people. At first it seems like they are being intimate. Until I see the blood and hear that awful slurping sound from the tower. I lost it, raised my batons and charged in. I crushed the head of the zombie nearest me and turn quickly in place snapping out one of the batons onto another’s head cracking it open. By this point the third is standing up and coming in my direction, a loud boom comes from my left, almost blowing my ear drums out, and I feel something go speeding by my head. The zombie’s head explodes like a watermelon after being on stage with Gallagher. All the fluids spray onto the wall behind it, coating it like red paint. I stood there out of breath, shaking my head trying to regain my senses.
Vic came up to my side and fired three shots into the victim’s heads on the floor turning them into red mist. He turned to Charlotte, grabs her arm and pulls her over to witness the scene. “Where are the other 16?”
“I put them upstairs, there is no way out from up there.” Charlotte whined.
Just then I recognized one of the victims on the floor as a NG soldier. I pointed at it making sure Vic sees it. He shook his head and groans, kicked Charlotte in the back of one of her knees sending her to the floor. He handcuffed her wrists then pulled out two big black zip ties and tied her ankles up. “That man’s death is on you Charlotte. Now stay, I will deal with you when we are done cleaning up your mess.” Vic looked over at me. “Got a little more in you?” I nodded yes and he clicked on his radio. “That female Ranger has fucked up bad. We have one dead guard, three reanimated, and three dead. There are 15 more infected upstairs in the guard house. Dan and I are going to clean up this mess. Be prepared, I have put Charlotte under arrest, she is bound and down on the first floor of the guard house. Send someone to corral up Douglas her partner, also send someone over here to back us up.”
We headed over to the stairs, listening to the voice over our radio ear pieces. “Roger that Vic, Apache, wake up Sasquatch and have him put Douglas under arrest. I’ll back up Vic and Dan. Everyone else hold positions.” Kuppers voice came over the radio.
I took lead since I need room to swing my batons and we headed up the creaky stairs. I brought my head above the top level and stopped in place, looking into the eyes of another guard. This one is alive and stood there with his weapon shouldered. I waved him over. “prepare your weapon, we had an incident down stairs and lost one of your guys to the infected. Are any of your infected unconscious?”
The young man pulled his gun off his shoulder, removed the safety. “Yes ten are, the other six are sitting against the wall across the room.”
“Where is the third Guard?” Vic asked as we finished coming up the stairs and faced the room.
“He is still outside only two of us came in to help the female Park Ranger. What should we do?” He asked with fear in his eyes.
Vic dropped the magazine from his gun and inserted a fresh one. “Remember what happened on the dock before we got you?” The young man nodded yes and the fear notched higher in his eyes. “Exactly. We need to end this now. Any more come in from the other ferries and we need to do the same thing or the rest of the people coming here will not be safe. Now follow me. Dan go down stairs and watch over that Bitch.” As I headed down, I saw Vic moving into the other room followed by the young Guardsman.
Even though I expected the shots, they surprised me when they broke the silence, jolting me almost to my knees. I am so upset I make my way over to Charlotte watching as she tried to make it over to the dead guard and his M4. I step on her hand, eliciting a hiss of pain from her, and pick up the gun before she can. I looked it over looking for the safety then engaged it and slid it onto my shoulder using its strap.
Charlotte rolled over onto her back and sneered up at me. “What you are doing is murder! You cannot just kill people who are sick and injured. You can also not detain me; I am a federal officer.” She screamed at me causing spittle to fly out from her mouth.
I focused on the dead Guard and pointed at him. “Your actions killed that young man. This is what happens when you show weakness, you kill the people who are looking to you for safety. I have been fighting these things for days now, trapped in the fucking Transamerica Tower. I’ve had to kill friends and coworkers. Now look around, you did this! Stop being stupid, open your eyes.” As I spoke my anger took over and I ended up shouting at her.
I almost jumped out of my skin when a hand rests on my shoulder. I look up to find the hand belongs to Kuppers, his eyes are as hard as rocks and have no kindness in them. “People like her are sheep son, they will never understand, or do what has to happen. Why don’t you go outside and take a breather, I’ll back up Vic and take care of her” I nodded in agreement and stepped outside.
I bent down and used the concrete to pop the locks on my batons and collapse them back to their normal size. As I was about to holster them I noticed the blood on them. I head to the dock with my head down, trying to not make eye contact with anyone. I sat down and washed the blood off of the batons, and holster them. I raised my head after a moment and watched as Brian walked Douglas up toward the guard house. I sighed, and cracked my back to release some of the tension and jogged off to catch up to Brian as he took Douglas inside. I slid in and shadowed them over to Vic, Kuppers, the Guard from upstairs and the trussed up Charlotte on the floor.
“What is going on. Why is Charlotte being detained?” Douglas inquired, quietly since Brian’s hand was resting on the nape of his neck reminding him that he better be calm.
“This fine young man from the Guard here has requested she be detained till she can be tried in a military court for allowing a National Guardsmen to lose his life due to her negligence. She was trying to release these infected people, some of them re-animated into zombies and killed the others along with the Guard.” I examined Charlotte and noticed someone had stuck tape over her mouth. “Son, the question is, are you gonna hitch your cart to hers and go down with her? Or do you want to work with the fine men of the National Guard and help protect these poor people on your island?” Kuppers asked in a quiet yet demanding voice. Since meeting Kuppers, I finally figured out who he reminded me of. He looks and sounds to me a lot like Colonel Miles Quaritch, from the movie Avatar. He can scare and inspire people at the same time, so it was no surprise when Douglas opened his mouth.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked down at Charlotte then back up at Kuppers. “I had no idea what she was doing. I am more than happy to help the National Guard and protect these people.”
Kuppers smiled and handed Charlotte’s key chain to him. “You might want to give these to the Guard in charge outside on the dock. Also someone needs to get in the cell house and help people get settled in.”
“Yes sir I will.” Brian removed his meaty paw off of the kid’s shoulders freeing him. “Oh by the way until we are ready to deal with her, there is a cell, I can lock her in.”
“Excellent I will follow your lead sir.” Kuppers reached down and lifted Charlotte to her feet. “You need to hop or I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you outta here missy. Up to you.” Charlotte screamed from behind the tape and shakes her head. Kuppers rolled his eyes, picked her up and threw her over his left shoulder. “Have it your way sweetie. Lead on son.” They left the guardhouse, leaving the rest of us standing around.
“I guess we should clean up these bodies, should we toss them into the bay?” Brian asked.
I shrugged and asked the guard and Vic. “What do you guys suggest?”
“I’ll get a detail once the traffic outside has thinned and take care of these bodies. Thanks for your help guys.” The Guardsman, Schillinger his name tag said, answered.
Brian, Vic and I turned to leave when suddenly I remembered I had the dead Guard’s M4. I took it off my shoulder and handed it over to Schillinger. “Here, this belongs to you guys, I took it from him.” I indicated the dead man on the floor.
“Thank you, but I am sure we will have a lot more then we can use soon. Why don’t you keep it?” He handed it back to me.
I nodded my thanks and strapped it back on my shoulder, where it started banging into the shotgun already perched there. Brian, Vic and I make our way back to the barge where I secure the M4 into a rack in the Beast. I’m really going to have to learn how to use these damn things soon.
A whumping sound rips the air apart causing me to look up, just as my ear piece crackles to life with Senshi’s voice, at least I guess it’s him, I’ve only heard his voice twice before. “Three choppers coming in from the south. Two are carrying slung pallets under them. Looks like the one with nothing slung is heading to the north eastern side and the other two right up here on the exercise concrete pad.” Then his voice was gone.
Brian tapped my shoulder to gain my attention, pointed up the hill and took off at a jog. I on the other hand had to sprint to catch up to his long legs. I finally caught up to him at the top of the hill at the flat concrete area, just as one of the helicopters released the pallet’s canvas sling. I had to bend over to catch my breath, while doing so I watched three Guardsmen struggle to move two pallets out of the open area, to give a clear landing space for the helicopters to land.
Brian didn’t waste a second, he ran over, dropped his shoulder and hit one of the pallets, he grunted, pushed, and roared out loud. Slowly the pallet moved, the faster as he gained his footing and, moved it all by himself to the side of the hill. The other Guardsmen had stopped in their tracks, out of his way and watched his massive feat of strength in awe. The guardsmen then looked to me for guidance. I shrugged and pointed to the other one. We ran over together and started shoving it back away from the landing zone. Once far enough away the two helicopters set down and the men within disembarked. Once they were out, the two helicopters took off staggered so they wouldn’t hit one another.
A man wearing what looked like some kind of officer rank on his collar walked over examining my uniform and gear. “You don’t look like you’re in the guard”
“Nope, I am with the SFPD SWAT, name is Dan Welko” I held my hand out to him, he stared at it for a minute then shook it with a strong grip.
“Dan, that there is a Captain in the Air Guard, 129th out of Moffett, unless my guess is wrong.” Brian said walking up to us.
“When did SWAT start hiring Bigfoot?” The Captain laughed. “I am Captain Phillips from the 129th. We brought some supplies and have more on the way. What the hell is the situation here?”
“My commander, John Kuppers is on his way down sir. He will brief you in on the situation sir.” Brian answered. Just then Doc, Kuppers and another Guard came trotting down from a walkway winding up to the cell house.
Kuppers walked right up to the Captain and punched him on the should hard enough to make the Captain hiss in pain, “Well if it aint Captain Phillips, gee it’s been what five years since we got to practice SAR up in the Sierras?” I found out later from Brian that SAR meant Search and Rescue.
The Captains eyes went wide, as his smile deepened and he punched Kuppers’ shoulder back. “Ironman! Holy shit good to see you alive. So give me a no shitter, what’s going on here?”
Kuppers took the Captain’s arm and moved him away, out of ear shot of the rest of us. Doc and the Guardsman Franklin, his name tag said, started opening pallets. Doc’s eyes grew in size, like a little girl getting a pony for Christmas, at what he discovered. A couple of 129th Air guys gave Doc a detailed inventory of their contents. I watched as Doc read through the inventory reports, his smile just kept growing and growing till I thought his face was going to split in half. He craned his neck looking around then headed over when he found Kuppers. He waited for a short time before breaking in on the conversation. Doc showed Kuppers the inventory and babbled on a bit till Senshi’s voice broke over our radio. “We got another three copters coming in, same heading same set up.”
Doc’s attention was torn away from his discussion with Kuppers as he looked up searching for the helicopters. As before they drop their pallets and we all work at moving them over before they touch down to disembark their men. I noticed that this group had more army instead of Air Guard guys. They disembarked with rifles in hand and marched straight up to the guardsmen standing with Doc. They saluted and started in on the conversations going on. Brian and I looked at each other and shrugged, we felt a little left out of the going ons.
As if reading our minds, Kuppers, the Captain, along with the new Army National Guard arrivals made their way to where Brian and I waited patiently. “More of the same coming.” Senshi reported over the radio.
Kuppers stopped at a pathway nearby and motioned for Brian and I to meet with them. The Captain spoke up first when we entered the group. “Kuppers just sang your praises Dan. Good work on the Transamerica building, you too Brian.” He shook our hands again but this time with more warmth.
One of the Army Guardsman introduced himself and his command group. “I am Captain Scott, and this is First Sergeant Hinton and Banks. We are with the 49th MP Brigade you already have here. Sounds like we owe you guys some ammo and supplies we had to borrow from you earlier. By the way, before we go any further I am in debt to you and your team for saving my men and getting this place under control. Your man Doc here was just telling me what we owe and that shouldn’t be a problem; we brought more than enough. I’ll get a detail together and have them take it down to your barge. I take it you guys are not sticking around?”
“Thank you for the supplies. That young man, Dan, is the one who rescued your men.” Kuppers motioned to me.
The Army Captain turned and held his hand out to me, I took it and shook his hand. “No problems we were at the right place at the right time to help. I’m just sorry we couldn’t save everyone.”
“We can’t be everywhere at once; they did their job.”
“So Ironman, tell us why are you guys running out on us? Do you know something we don’t?” enquired Captain Phillips.
“We have our own mission to complete. I won’t bore you with the details. But give me your frequency and codes so if we find any information we can share I’ll call you. Or who knows we may need an air taxi.” Kuppers laughed out loud.
