Zombie Theorem (Book 2): The Siege, page 2
“No, not yet. I think I want food. I feel famished. Maybe a cup of coffee, if they have the stuff? Then I’ll take some pain medicine and pass out. Thank you for taking care of me, brother. I appreciate it.” I tried to convey seriousness about my appreciation.
“Come on, then. Take my hand, and I’ll help you up. Then we can go get some sustenance.” He reached out, taking my right hand and helped me to my feet. “You don’t need to thank me. I told you I felt like you were my brother, and when you went down I felt like I lost my one and only remaining family member. I will be by your side, man, ‘till we both go down or die of old age.”
“My very own Sasquatch. Sweet, I’ll be the hit of the neighborhood,” I ribbed him. He faked roared, quietly so as not to wake Senshi or Angel, and lead me outside toward the cafeteria.
As we walked, I would occasionally look up and see helicopters flittering around in the waning light of the evening. “Wow, they are still bringing in supplies?”
“Not always, mostly rescued civilians or patrols out looking for abandoned military units or Ridder patrols or camps. I asked why they weren’t using the satellites, and they said that every single one they tried to use was denying their access. I smell Ridder in all this,” Brian informed me.
“What about drones? They must have access to some,” I suggested.
“I brought that up, too, and was told that the drones worked off of said satellites.” He shot down my thinking. We walked for a couple of minutes when I stopped in mid-stride and stared out into space for a bit. “I know that look. You know something, huh?”
“I know a lot of things, but I just remembered reading an article from Boeing when we were working on a project they brought us in on. We actually were streamlining some processes and procedures outlining how they found a way of controlling most drones locally. If I remember correctly, they put their gear on a C-130 and were able to control six drones at a time with an operational distance of 300 miles around the aircraft.” I surprised myself, remembering the details from that project.
“Let’s swing by the air operations tent and see if we can’t get a quick meeting with Colonel Phillips. Can your stomach wait a little longer for that food and coffee?” Brian asked. I nodded my head yes and we detoured our way to the operations tent. We must’ve been lucky, for as we made entrance Colonel Phillips was making his way out. Brian stopped him. “Can we borrow you for a second?”
“If you don’t mind talking while chowing, you can have an hour of my time,” the Colonel offered.
“Perfect. We were heading there after talking to you anyway,” I said while following him toward the cafeteria. We made our way past the guards at the door and up to the line of food and cooks. We gathered some food that looked like it should taste better than those MREs we had been eating. Brian became a great help by carrying my tray for me. I went over to get some coffee and was stopped by a young man wearing an apron.
“You’re Dan right? With that SWAT team?” he asked, seemingly fidgety. I nodded affirmative, expecting some issues. “Sir, you don’t have to drink that swill. I have my own gourmet coffee in the back. I’ll bring you a cup.”
“Why would you do that?” I mumbled.
“The soldier you saved yesterday with the belly wound is my cousin. Think of this as my small way of saying thank you.” He then snapped off a salute and walked into the back.
I stood there for a minute trying to figure out what just happened. Brian whistled out to get my attention and motioned for me to come and sit with them. I turned on my heel and made my way over to their private table. Brian pushed a chair out with his foot and pointed to it. “Park it there, Boss.”
“Sorry gentlemen, I don’t mean to waste your time. So I was asking Brian here about why you are not using drones to cover more areas, and he suggested it’s because we can’t access the satellites. I then remembered a project we did for Boeing. One of the processes we wrote was for a C-130 to orbit at twenty-five thousand feet. And by using directional antennas, we were able to control all sorts of drones without the use of satellites. They could control six of them at a time out to a radial distance of three hundred miles,” I explained while transcribing the info onto a piece of paper that had appeared in front of me along with a pen.
The Colonel stared at the piece of paper and then at me while slowly shoveling food into his mouth. He stopped sat back in his seat and looked over my shoulder. “Looks like you made a friend.” He pointed behind me.
The young soldier had reappeared from the back carrying a serving tray with a carafe of coffee and three cups, including a cream pitcher and a plate of sugar cubes. He placed it on the table, set a cup in front of me and filled it. “Cream or milk, sir?”
“No, thank you. I like the taste of coffee,” I announced awkwardly.
“Very well, sir. Gentlemen, cream or sugar?” The Colonel motioned for two sugars and cream. Brian just motioned for one sugar cube. “Excellent gentlemen. If there is anything else you need, please just ask. I’ll bring some pie out when you are ready.” He turned and retreated back to the kitchen.
“Wow, you certainly did make some friends,” Brian joked, then tasted his coffee and almost collapsed off his chair. “Oh my God! That is the best coffee I have ever had!”
The Colonel next took a sip and his eyes shot open in surprise. “That certainly is the best coffee I have ever had while serving.”
I took a sip and enjoyed the fullness of the brew and aroma it gave off. “That is the closest I have ever come to my own personal blend. I am in heaven,” I announced before tearing into my food with the gusto of a starving man. I finished my cup and poured a second, sat back and enjoyed the first relaxing moment I’d had since that first day in my office so long ago. The coffee was so good I couldn’t even remember what I had just consumed for dinner.
The young soldier returned with another carafe of coffee and giant slices of pie for all three of us. “I hope you enjoyed your coffee, gentlemen.”
“Enjoyed is not a word I would describe this with. Maybe cherished or basked in its glory would be more to the truth. Thank you for sharing this.” The soldier blushed and beamed as he cleared the table.
“Thank you, sirs. Again, if you need anything let us know. We will be cleaning the kitchen and preparing tomorrow’s menu.” He left, with a spring in his step, back to the kitchen.
“I think I will talk to the General about promoting that man to head of the kitchen staff,” the Colonel mused. He took another sip of his coffee and a bite of his pie. “Back to your idea. While sitting here, I have been working on what I will need to make this work. I think I can actually have this happen within four hours if Travis Air Base is still operating. I don’t have any C-130s available, but I do have plenty of C-5s and pilots for them. Gentlemen, I am going to pour another cup and get back to my staff. I have a feeling I am going to be very busy over the next eight hours. Dan, thank you for your revelations and help.” He stood, poured himself another cup of coffee, and left quickly.
Brian and I finished the carafe of coffee between us, as well as our slices of pie. By the time we stood to leave, our friend was back and clearing our table. He carried a bag and handed it to me. “This should make things easier for you. Thank you again, sir, for your help with my cousin. We will not forget what you did for our family.” He held out his hand, but I pushed it away and gave him a brief hug.
“Glad I could help. Thank you for the coffee and kindness.” We turned and walked out of the cafeteria and outside before I glanced in the bag. When I saw what was inside, I almost passed out. Brian stopped and looked back at me.
“You ok, boss?” he inquired.
“He gave me two coffee presses and what looks to be five pounds of coffee already ground and vacuumed packed. The team is going to be spoiled over the next week or so.” I opened the bag so Brian could verify its contents.
“Holy cow, boss. You really made an impression on these guys,” Brian observed.
We walked back to our tent to find Kuppers and Vic sitting outside pouring over maps and files. Cupcake was sitting inside the engine bay of the Beast working on something. And Doc was digging through crates taking inventory of his supplies. As we walked up, Doc stopped what he was doing and motioned for us to come see him.
“Dan, I have a new present for you.” He removed a smaller gun from a box he was working in. It was smaller than the M4 I had been carrying. “This here is an H&K MP5. It is built to fire 9mm ammo and has a screw-on silencer and a red dot low light scope.” He handed it to me, and as I took it, I handed over my bag to Brian. The first thing I noticed was that it was so much lighter than the M4. “The ammo is much lighter also, so you can carry more magazines in your new vest and shit loads more in your Zomgo bag. 9mm is great ammo for taking out zombies. Once it penetrates, it deforms and bounces around inside the brain turning it to mush. But if you shoot a man wearing a vest, the ammo will not penetrate. For that you have your .45 ACP 1911 sidearm in your leg holster. Or the shotgun you will continue to carry on your back. I also have a lot more ammo for that and in different variants. I’ll walk you through all that later. Just wanted to introduce you to your new friend.”
I clapped him on the shoulder and handed him back the MP5. “Hold onto that for me, I’m about to take some pain killers and pass out. But seriously man thank you so much for the new gun. I appreciate it.” He took it back, giving me a knowing smile.
I nodded at Vic and Kuppers as I passed them on my way to my cot. Once in our room, Brian helped me out of my armor and outer shirt. I took 2 of the little white pills and washed them down with a bottle of water Brian handed me. I think I said thank you or something similar as I laid down on my cot and promptly passed out.
I had no dreams and slept peacefully. I awoke with Brian shaking my uninjured arm. “Have I ever told you it sucks waking up looking at your ugly mug?” I got out, while pushing myself to a sitting position.
“Keep that up and you can put your own shirt and armor on,” he joked.
“I’m sorry, I’m pretty sure I said thank you, your highness. The man I wish I could be more like,” I backtracked quickly.
“That’s more like it. Now raise your left arm and straighten it out, or it will become stiff and hurt more,” he explained.
I did as he ordered. He helped me stretch it, then slid my outer shirt on and, lastly, my armor. I only winced twice during the process. I think the medicine was still floating around inside my bloodstream. I looked around and noticed our footlockers had been emptied and our room was bare except for us.
Brian saw my look and answered my unasked question. “Everyone is already packed up and the Beast has been loaded. We have a quick briefing with Colonel Phillips and General Richards before we leave. We decided to let you sleep a little extra. Now come on let’s get moving. Everyone is waiting on you.”
We left our tent and marched over to the Command Tent where the rest of the team was waiting for us. We entered the tent and made our way over to the briefing room. A table set at the back of the room had a spread of food, coffee and juices out. Brian and I both grabbed orange juice and a Danish. We sat with the rest of the team, and talked about our plans to take Highway 1 into Stinson. While there we would find some supplies for Angel. She had on the same clothes and shoes since day one, plus other things she may need.
General Richards and Colonel Phillips walked onto the stage and took their seats. A young Lieutenant took the podium and waited for us to give him our attention. He seemed somewhat nervous to be briefing civilians and not so sure how to commence. “Go ahead, son, kick this briefing off. These fine people need to get moving on.”
The Lieutenant coughed and cleared his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen, at twenty hundred hours last night, Colonel Phillips came back with a plan for running our drones without using the satellites, which we have not been able to access. Early this morning around 0300 hours, a C-5 Galaxy lifted off from Travis Air Force Base loaded with some powerful antennae and drone communications equipment. We accomplished this by using three Reaper and one Northrop Grumman X-47B, which we were able to borrow from some Northrop technicians who happen to be on base with it. The C-5 crew was able to control all three up to a radial of two hundred and twenty-mile circumference. The Drones were able to pick up more radio traffic and found some police and military units that had been cut off by giant hordes of infected.” He turned and talked to his staff just off stage. “Can we have slide one projected, please?”
The lights dropped slightly and a projector started up and showed a map of central California. The Lieutenant used a laser pointer to highlight areas on the map. “These areas here are mainly where we have been able to contact survivors, whether Military, Police, or regular civilians. This was just a small slice of California. We are hoping to push south to L.A. and San Diego over the next couple of days. After we have covered those areas, we will push on to northern California. We were also able to contact two other airfields, one in southern Nevada, and one in Colorado. We shared with them this technique, and hopefully we can get an idea of how and where to help. Colonel Phillips, would you like to take over the podium and add anything?”
The Colonel yawned, stood, and made his way over to the podium. He made a sign to someone in the back of the room. The slide changed to show an overview of San Francisco. It was almost unrecognizable; the Golden Gate Bridge was the only structure looking undamaged. The only building still recognizable was the damn Trans America Tower. The rest of the city was in ashes and looked like what you’d expect during an apocalypse. “This was San Francisco, about three hours ago. As you can see, most of the city is still on fire and shows heavy damage to numerous neighborhoods. Not many radio signals or much of anything is coming out of the North Bay. I know we had to evacuate Moffett Field. My old squadron, the 129th Rescue Wing, was able to take all working aircraft and left over personnel and supplies out to Travis Air Force Base. The next slide is of Oakland and the Bay. By using the X-47B advanced cameras, we have been able to see homemade signs on school buildings and several public buildings asking for help. We are working on bringing helicopters and rescue personnel out to the area to attempt to help them. The only reason I am showing you this is so you are apprised of the ongoing situation. You have some of our communications gear and codes so you can contact us if you run into any survivors or come into contact with the Ridder Group. General, sir, would you like to say something?”
The General slowly got to his feet and made his way off the stage and stood near us. He waved the staff and guards out of the area and motioned the Colonel to come and join him. “I just got off the radio with the Secretary of Defense. She is ordering us to stand down our rescue operations and consolidate our supplies.” After shocking us with this information, he took a seat near me and Kuppers, crossed his legs, and looked back and forth to us.
“General, if you don’t mind me saying, that is fucking ridiculous! She expects you to stop helping people? Seems to me like that is exactly something a member of the Culling Initiative would order. Did she also tell you to work with the Ridder Group? You can’t be telling me you are going to obey those orders?” I barked out.
The General looked right into me for a second and removed a cigar from inside his jacket. He bit the end off and lit it slowly with a wooden match from his jacket pocket. “Well, son, without proper codes the Secretary of Defense cannot countermand a Presidential order. I was ordered to protect as many civilians as I could and to cooperate with other military commands. I found it interesting that someone so high would say what she said. I think we can put her right into the Culling member’s column. I am trusting you with this information since you are the ones who discovered these little treasonous asses. I just want you to know, as long as I have command of these operations, I will do my best to continue rescue operations and consolidate as many military and police forces I can find. But I believe I may be making myself a pretty big target. I will continue to fight to bring other officers into my graces and hopefully they will continue the good work if I am no longer able to.”
“Thank you for your information and bringing us into your trust, sir. If there is anything we can do to help while we are on our mission, sir, just ask and we will do what we can. I think we should be able to share information as we discover it,” Vic spoke up for the first time.
“I was hoping you would say that. I want to use you guys as a forward observation post and possible delivery boys. I have a whole bunch of letters I want you to deliver to every military group you come across out there. Since we will not be heading north for awhile with the drone program, I will be relying on you and your reports.” He motioned to the Colonel to go collect the documents. “There are also official documents in there identifying you all as military personnel with full ranks and privileges. They also have your orders in there to be left alone and given all respect of my office. You now all work for me and are on a classified mission. I left it vague so you could say anything you want. That should help get through a lot of red tape, if you need it.” He stood and offered his hand. “It is a privilege to know all of you.”
“I have to say, General, you are nothing like I thought you would be. It is a pleasure to know you, and now to work for you,” I said while shaking his hand.
Everyone took a turn shaking his hand and having private moments with him. Little Angel even got in on the handshakes, although she climbed up on a chair and hugged him tightly. The General blushed, gave out a loud belly laugh, and hugged her back. “You, little miss, have an important job. Bring them all back, sweetie.” She stepped back and gave him a crisp salute like she had seen other soldiers do. We all burst into laughter, then broke up the meeting.
The Colonel walked us out to the Beast and had a quiet conversation with Kuppers. I walked away so they could have a private moment. We made it to the Beast and climbed aboard. I was presented with a new helmet that had no damage to it, like my last one. I put it on my head and snugged it down. My new MP5 was strapped over my chest armor, and I pointed the barrel toward the floor to rest my injured left arm on it. The shotgun was now resting on a quick release latch near the hatch, my 1911 was secured in its leg holster, and Doc had given me back the Kabar. My Zomgo bag was resting between my legs. Brian sat across from me completely decked out in new BDUs, this time military issued to him, along with armor that actually fit his big Sasquatch ass. He smiled at me and situated his new, bigger modified M4 between his legs barrel down. Little Angel buckled in next to me and fit a helmet over her head that one of the smaller female soldiers gave her. She smiled at me and sighed happily. Apache, Doc, and Vic took their seats in the back. Cupcake took his driver’s position and fired up the big diesel engine. Looked like Kuppers decided he would sit up front now. He was reading through a packet of papers and nodding to himself.
