Battlefield Z Series 2 (Book 1): Flyover Zombie Page 6
“If we had a radio, don’t you think we would have used it to call for help? Or listened in to know others were out there?”
Pam held up a hand to placate him.
“We didn’t know you were here,” she said, then frowned as she ducked her head. “We should have known. It only makes sense that there would be survivors, right?”
She turned to Sharp.
“There are probably hundreds of places like this stuck out here,” she said. “People just trying to survive.”
“Not my problem.”
“Excuse me?” she blanched.
“I’ve got one problem. I don’t have a way to contact your father to let him know you’re alive. We’re alive. We were supposed to ping in when we landed. They’re going to assume the worst.”
“There are US citizens out here,” she snorted. “You’re supposed to protect them.”
“All due respect Ms. Ballantine, my mission is you. Anything else is outside my scope.”
He turned to Jacob.
“I’m going to have my men take a look around, see if there’s something we can use.”
He opened the door, motioned for Javi.
“Send the men out by two’s and find a radio tower or communications array we can use.”
His Sergeant snapped a salute and turned to give the orders.
“I want to talk to you about your mission,” Pam said from behind him.
Sharp stood up and waited.
“You see how bad it is in here?”
He nodded.
“These people need our help. My father would help them.”
Sharp shrugged his shoulders.
“What? You don’t think he would?”
“I don’t know your Dad,” he said. “Not personally. But his reputation never stood out as someone who was looking out for everyone else.”
“He saved you,” she almost stamped her foot. “He saved the whole world.”
Sharp nodded over her shoulder toward Jacob.
“Not the whole world.”
Javi knocked on a post and peeked up.
“Cap, we got something.”
16
That something was a cell tower a few miles away.
Two of his soldiers had climbed on the roof of a building and spied it in the distance.
Sharp jumped off the roof onto the top of a box trailer backed next to it, then down the cab of the truck to the ground.
He motioned the men over.
“That was some good thinking to get high,” he praised them.
“Nothing Sir,” said Jenkins, the younger of the two. “We used to climb tress at home just to see how far we could see.”
“I wouldn’t have thought of it, so way to keep your head.”
He circled the rest of the squad around.
“This place doesn’t have a communications center, so we’re going to that tower and making a call home. They should send a plane to get us.”
The men shifted, but didn’t say anything.
Their mission was to retrieve Ballantine and return to the LZ.
Once the call went out, they would have a few hours until the plane landed, and then they would be back on their way behind the wall.
“What about these folks?” Bear asked.
“Not our mission.”
Javi sniffed.
“That’s a lot of people to leave out here.”
“Which ones are you going to choose to go with us?” Sharp snapped.
“Maybe we could leave the ones who wanted to open the gates out here and just take the rest.”
“Not our call. Not our job. What is our job?”
Sharp glared at the men.
He didn’t like the idea of leaving a group of civilians behind any more than they did, but that wasn’t his decision to make.
The decision had been made fifteen hundred miles away, and their poor pre-op planning didn’t allow for this.
They should have known, should have anticipated what they would do if they ran into other survivors.
He was pissed at himself most of all.
There was no excuse.
He had no excuse.
The if/then scenario should have occurred to him.
Now things were moving fast.
He’d have time to sit down and think about it later, when he compiled the mission de-brief.
He’d let HQ know about the survivors in the community and the potential other communities scattered around the interior.
They could come up with a solution to find and rescue more people.
He wasn’t sure where they would put them though.
LA was packed tight all the way up to the Sierras.
People living with people, people camped out in front yards, in back yards. Space was tight.
He was glad it wasn’t his call to make.
Going to the cell tower was.
“We move in twenty minutes. I want that call to go out and get them here while we still have daylight. Everything goes right, we eat in the mess hall tonight.”
That seemed to placate the men, if not satisfy them.
At least the scowls disappeared.
“Get to it,” he sent them on their way.
“Captain?” Jacob waited at the corner of the building. “I think I might have something to help.”
17
Jacob led a group of three rag clad civilians over to the waiting squad.
There were two men and a young woman, barely more than a girl.
They all looked tired, malnourished, and resentful.
"Got your people ready?"
"I just want to remind you Captain, they're not soldiers. They're civilians."
"You don't have to remind me of my job. Can they keep up? That's the only thing you can be concerned with."
"We can keep up," the older man said.
"Don't you worry about us," the young man added.
The girl said nothing. She chewed on a
plastic straw, moving it from one corner of her mouth to the next.
Sharp tried to suppress a sigh.
Attitudes, he thought.
"Tell me their specialties."
"I'm a telecom exec," the young man said.
"Computers," added the older man. "Chip. My name is Chip."
"Chip," Sharp motioned him to join Specs. "This is your battle buddy. You don't move away from him. Copy me?"
"I'll watch the woman," Bear volunteered.
She switched the straw in her mouth again and snorted.
"You got a name sweetheart?" the giant rumbled.
"Yes," she said. "And it ain't sweetheart."
"I think she likes you Bear," Javi teased. "You. Einstein. Pop over here and stick to my hip."
The young man moved to walk beside him as Sharp rallied the tiny group toward the gate.
"I'm Rodney."
"Sure you are Einstein. You're the brains behind this outfit, anyone can see that."
"Actually, I just know where the tower is located."
“We know where it is Einstein.”
“I meant I’m from this town. I know the fastest way.”
Javi punched him on the shoulder.
"Brains, map. Same difference to us. You get us there and don't get dead."
Sharp held them up at the gate.
"Once we’re over that wall, there is a no talking rule. No talking, no shouting, no screaming. The only sound I want to hear is your bootsteps right behind mine. Questions?"
Einstein raised his hand.
"How am I going to direct you?"
Javi shook his head and dragged him to the front of the group.
"We're point, Einstein. We lead the way."
Bear drifted to the back of the squad, and kept the girl in front of him.
That left Sharp and Combine to play roamers and watch their flanks.
"We move low," he set the orders. "We move fast. If we encounter a group of Z, we avoid them. No heroics out there, got it?"
The other five s
oldiers gave him a yes sir.
Sharp motioned to Jenkins at the gate.
Jacob stood off to one side next to Pam and the rest of his men.
“Good luck,” he called to them.
The gate opened to an empty road and Javi led the squad out into the open.
17
They should have rested overnight and set the mission for the morning, Sharp thought as he eyed his men.
They looked tired as they ran through the streets, civilians at their side.
The speed was called the Ranger shuffle, so named because they could keep going at that rate for hours and eat up the miles.
It was slow enough the civilians could keep up, but would get them across the city to the cell tower and back before twilight.
Or so he thought.
But he wanted his squad looking sharp in case of a fight, and by the sound of the Z’s around them, it was something they couldn’t avoid.
“Eyes sideways,” Javi shouted.
Their heads swiveled to the road on the right following his indicated direction.
A small herd of Z shambled up the road, grouped together.
Sharp didn’t have time to count them.
“Left flank,” Bear called out.
He aimed his rifle to the left at another herd of Z.
More than twenty, less than fifty was all he had time to think.
They couldn’t go back.
There were Z back there too, grouping not tight yet, but a gauntlet he didn’t want to put them through, not with the civilians.
Besides, the way to the tower was still clear.
But when the three herds merged behind them, going back to the walled compound was going to be rough.
“Double time!”
The squad shifted into overdrive and hustled up the street.
The civilians kept pace. Being a zombie snack was a huge motivator to move.
Combine led them around the corner of the next street and it was a straight shot to the fenced enclosure around the base of the cell tower.
A dozen Z blocked the way.
“Cut them down?” Javi called.
Sharp gave them a negative. The bullets would draw more Z.
He slung his rifle and yanked out the long KBAR knife. Combine did the same while the others watched their charges.
Sharp would have preferred more distance between him and a walking dead man, but the nine-inch blade would have to do for quiet work.
He and Combine moved up the street whacking and stabbing the zombies and plopping their dead bodies off to the side.
They made short work of it just as the merged Z herd rounded the corner, a collective moan washing up the street.
“Move.”
Sharp hustled them toward the tower enclosure.
“They’re going to block us in Cap,” Javi called as he glanced over his shoulder.
Sharp pulled up as they reached the fence gate.
“Bear,” he directed.
The big man moved to the padlock on the latch. He reached into a pouch on his vest, removed a small butane torch and clicked it lit with a lighter.
The tiny blue flame cut through the padlock shaft and the metal body fell to the concrete with a muted clang.
“In,” Bear stepped back.
“Combine, on me,” said Sharp.
“Not a good idea Cap,” Javi argued. “You baby sit the civvies, let me and Bear play hide and seek.”
Sharp shook his head.
“No time to argue, Sgt. Get in there, shut the gate and we’ll draw them off.”
Combine squared off on his shoulder.
“Point the way, Captain.”
Javi and Bear led the three civilians into the enclosure and slammed the gate home.
“We won’t get all of them,” Sharp said to him. “Keep them safe. Get the call out and get us a ride home.”
“You get back to catch that ride.”
Sharp grinned, slapped Combine on the shoulder and the two of them jogged away from the tower to where the road turned again.
They waved to get the Z’s attention, and fired off two shots into the leading zombies just to be sure.
The herd shifted in their direction and began to follow the two men as they ran down the street.
Javi watched them go with a glare on his face.
“Get it done,” he motioned to Chip.
The old man went to the base of the tower and tried the black box that was bolted to one of the legs.
“Locked,” he shouted.
The noise drew a few Z toward the fence.
“Damn it,” Javi said and moved away from the gate.
If they could hide behind the legs of the tower, he would make them. But there was not where that the Z couldn’t see, or smell or whatever it was that they did.
Bear moved Chip to one side and sliced the lock off the box.
Chip opened the door and began to work on the components inside, crossing the wires and searching for a signal.
The crowd of Z around the fenced enclosure grew from a couple to a couple of dozen as more were drawn by the groaning moans of the others.
Javi was worried. He hadn’t heard any more shots since the Captain and Combine ran off.
“How we living?” he called to Bear.
Bear studied the configuration Chip was trying to work on inside of the shelf.
“Almost got it,” he said.
Bear looked over his shoulder. The inside was a collection of wires that led to a simple tiny screen that looked like a tablet hopped up on steroids.
Right now, a diagnostic was running on the components, and a tiny window with a keypad was open in the lower corner.
“He’s almost got it,” Bear repeated.
Javi gave the big man a tight grin.
“I heard him Bear.”
“Wasn’t sure,” he shrugged. “These Z are pretty loud.”
“Why don’t you kill them?” Einstein’s voice cracked as he said it.
“They can’t kill them Rodney,” said the girl.
Javi watched her move next to Chip.
“Almost got it Jess,” the older man assured her.
She patted him on the shoulder and watched him work.
“Got it,” he announced and stood back from the box.
Javi glanced inside and looked at the old man.
“How does it work?”
“I had to bounce the signal across a couple of old networks that were still up. We send out the message, and wait for them to respond.”
“I don’t need to know the guts, just what to do.”
Chip nodded.
“Okay,” he pointed. “You just type on the keyboard.”
Javi let go of his rifle and moved his fingers across the keypad to type out a message.
“How do you send?”
“Press send,” said Bear.
“If I saw a send key, I’d press it,” Javi snapped.
“It’s right there, Sarge.”
Javi looked. The send key was right there on the bottom of the keypad. He shook his head and pressed the tip of his finger against it.
Nothing happened.
“Did it work?”
Chip gently pushed him aside and studied the screen.
“It’s sent.”
“I didn’t hear a beep.”
“It doesn’t beep.”
“It seems like it should beep,” said the soldier.
Chip shrugged.