AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) (13 page)

Munns figured
that the worst threat came from the man with the rifle. He could see the muzzle
flashes coming from across the street on the north side of the police station.
The man was taking cover just around the corner, shooting and then ducking back
again. Munns noticed the third time that the man popped his head out for about
three second between shots, just long enough to pull the bolt back on the rifle,
expel the spent shell, and chamber a new round. Munns smiled because he was
ready for the fourth shot. As the man moved around the corner for the next
shot, his head exploded due to Munns’s marksmanship.

With their
cover fire eliminated, Blake and the rest of the men quickly worked dropping the
remaining ABs rushing at them. Before they could leave the safety of their
cover positions, Blake knew they needed to make sure they weren’t going to be
attacked again.

The soldiers in
the police station couldn’t see any signal given but guessed that something had
happened because suddenly the ABs were coming at them from all directions. The
two soldiers covering the front window took out the first wave quickly, but the
soldier on the left exposed himself too much, and a rifle bullet tore through
his right arm and almost blew it off completely. The soldier on the right
couldn’t render aid because he would be exposed, and then the second wave of
attack came from across the street; they barely heard the gunfire.

James was in
charge of covering the south end of the building. Luckily, there was only one
door, and it was locked. After James heard his fellow soldier get shot, he rushed
to the front to help. Suddenly, he heard an explosion come from the back door,
and the blast knocked him to the ground.

For a second,
James could only see darkness and hear constant ringing in his ears. Their
patrol leader, who had been wounded earlier, also heard the explosion and
rolled into the hallway to lay down cover fire so James could get to safety. It
only took a couple of seconds for the fog to clear from James’s head, and then
he was scrambling for cover. Lieutenant Folly was struck in the foot by another
bullet from outside the door, but he couldn’t see who shot it because of all
the dust.

Ensign James yanked
a grenade out of the pocket on his vest, pulled the pin, and hurled it out the
front door. Within seconds, he heard the massive explosion followed by screams.
James immediately ran down the hallway and pulled Lieutenant Folly back to safety.
He knew he had probably saved his life while he was on the ground from the blast.

Blake could hear
the chaos in the station so he yelled to Munns to take out the other enemy sniper.
He decided that he and the other private, Jenkins, would make their way to the
back of the station while Lieutenant Western took out the remaining ABs on the
front and east side.

Blake and
Jenkins ran along the building, taking cover behind the cars along the street.
From behind the final car, Blake could see seven ABs. Two of them were lying on
the ground, undoubtedly victims of the grenade explosion that he had heard seconds
before. It looked like the remaining four men and one woman were preparing to
make an assault through the building’s doors. They were all were armed with
handguns and small caliber rifles.

Blake wanted to
get across the street and take cover behind a large tree, which offered a
better view of the back of the police station.

“Lay down some
cover fire, on the count of three!” Blake yelled at Jenkins and motioned the
direction he wanted to go. On three, the private popped up over the roof of the
car and started shooting in the direction of the ABs. However, Blake’s plan was
a second too late; the ABs had started their attack. As Blake reached the tree
across the street, he could hear gunfire coming from the back of the building
with horrific screams. Blake was able to drop the last of the ABs entering the
building with a short burst from his M-16.

Munns was
finally able to get a shot at the final sniper further up the street, but he
couldn't tell if he killed him or not. There were a few ABs still rushing
across the street, and he quickly took them out.

Blake quickly made
his way to the back door and stopped next to the AB that he had just dropped.

“U.S. Marines,
U.S. Marines! Hold your fire – I’m coming in.”

Blake brought
his rifle to his shoulder and quickly scanned the hallway for any ABs before he
entered. He quickly ran through the door and took cover behind a large file cabinet
with a copier on top.

“Lieutenant,
you in here?”

“Yeah, we are
in here,” came a weak voice from down the hallway.

“What is your
status?”

“Most of us
have been hit; the wounded are holed up in this conference room. I think we
still have one soldier guarding the front entrance.”

“Stay where you
are. We will make our way to you.”

By this time
the Navy lieutenant and Private Jenkins had made their way into the building
and were standing next to him.

 
“Start doing a room-to-room sweep. I think
there are still a few of those bastards in here. And be careful; we don’t want
to take out any of our own men,” Blake said.

Blake watched
as the lieutenant peered around the front door; he saw a body duck behind the
desk in the lobby. The lieutenant whistled a signal, which was the sign of the
day to identify friend or foe. When he got no reply, he opened fire. After a short
burst from his gun, the table was kindling, and a bloody pool started to form
around the body of the AB. After a quick scan of the room, the lieutenant
yelled, “Front clear!”

“Copy that,”
Blake replied.

Blake remembered
that when he had entered the building, he thought he had seen three bodies
moving around in the smoke and dust. He knew one had just been taken out up
front.

Blake made a
hand gesture for Jenkins to sweep the rooms on the right. He would take the
ones on the left.

Blake turned
his attention to Jenkins, who was sweeping the small hallway to the west. As
the private entered the room he was met with handgun fire. Jenkins ducked
behind the wall and pulled a grenade from his vest, pulled the pin, and
shouted, “You want some of this?” He tossed it in the room.

Blake scowled
at him. “Stow
that shit and keep your
head in the game!” he ordered. He heard the moans of wounded men coming from a
room ahead of him. “We’re almost there. Hang on!” he said.

“Copy that,” someone
from the room replied quietly.

From one of the
side hallways, a man charged towards them holding a pistol in each hand. He fired
through the door the wounded were hiding behind. Blake promptly rolled into the
hallway and laid down a quick burst of suppressive fire. The man stared at
Blake in confusion then down at his wounds. He slowly fell backwards and fell
to the floor. His head bounced with a dull thud as the blood trickled out of
his mouth and nose.

Blake slowly
walked to the enemy lying on the ground to make sure he was dead, or at least dying.
With the AB’s last breath, he muttered something almost inaudible, which caused
Blake stomach to turn: “For the honor and glory of the cause!”

Blake had heard
similar things in Afghanistan when he fought the Taliban. He decided to do a quick
sweep of the rest of the rooms to distract his mind, and he realized the
building was clear.

Blake quickly
stuck his head out the door to make sure Lieutenant Western was still covered
outside and that there were no other ABs heading their way. He gave a quick
glance up to Munns’s position, and Munns assured him it was all clear.

Blake entered
the room with the wounded soldiers. He knew two of them were still in fighting
shape, but the other two were badly wounded and wouldn’t be going anywhere
without considerable assistance.

“Which one of
you is Ensign Connor James?”

A burly, tough SEAL
with a flesh wound on his arm was treating some of his fellow soldiers. “That
would be me,” he said. “You certainly saved our asses. Another couple of
minutes and we would have been history. What are the Marines doing out here
anyway?”

“I have orders
to retrieve you and take you to our waiting helicopter back at your base. Then
we are to transport you to our base near Camp Pendleton.”

The young SEAL glared.
“The hell you are. My team needs me here. You Marines can handle things
yourself up north.”

Suddenly, Ensign
James’s commanding officer stepped into the room. “Gentlemen, what is the hold
up in here? We have major movement coming our way about half a mile out. If we
don’t get the hell out of here in the next five minutes, we won’t be leaving
any time soon.” He assessed the wounded and the private thoroughly. “James,
these Marines are here to take you back to their base. Someone thinks you
somehow hold the cure to the apocalypse. You need to get out of here now with
these Marines.”

“Bullshit! I
won’t leave you all here to die while I scurry out with my tail between my legs
with these jarheads. We all get out of here, or none of us do.”

The lieutenant grinned
and shrugged his shoulders towards Blake. Blake could tell he wasn’t going to get
the private out of there, so he returned the lieutenant’s gaze with his arm
stretched out. “Give me your radio. I might have a solution to all of our
problems.”

Suddenly, a
private burst into the room. “We have a problem!” he said between breaths. “It
looks like a hundred ABs are heading our way. They’ll have us surrounded within
minutes!”

“We need to get
the hell out of here!” Blake thought. He ran to the front of the building and
got on the radio. “Lieutenant McBride, do you copy?” He was hoping the
helicopter pilots were still listening to their radios on the assigned
frequency for the mission.

“This is
McBride. What is your status?”

“Lieutenant, we
are in some deep shit. We found Ensign James, but there are wounded here, and
if we don’t have air support in the next five minutes there won’t be anyone left
to rescue. We are five blocks due west of the ballpark in a police station.”

The radio went
silent for a few seconds before he heard the reply. “Reynolds, we can be there
in eight minutes. Can you pop smoke to signal your location?”

“Will do. Hurry,
we’ll be engaging the enemy with superior forces in less than five.”

“Copy, out.”

Blake turned to
Munns on the roof. He then pressed the mic on his radio. “Munns, what is our
status?”

“I’ve been
watching the approaching enemy through my scope. There are a couple hundred ABs
heading this way, and about half seem to be armed with guns. The rest are carrying
clubs or knives. They should have us surrounded in a few minutes.”

“We will have
air support in seven minutes. Keep us covered until then,” Blake said. Munns nodded
and positioned his gun.

Blake reached
for the smoke grenade on his belt, pulled the pin, and threw it onto the roof
of the police building. He hurriedly ran back inside to devise a defensive plan.
With there being two critically wounded soldiers, he decided to set up a defense
in the police station instead of taking on the attackers in the streets.

The three SEALs,
including the one who had been wounded, took up positions at the front. The
three Marines went to the back. Blake glanced down the hallway and shouted, “Remember,
James has to survive at all costs!”

James glanced
at the others uncomfortably, and Blake looked at his watch. Six minutes. He
walked to the back window across the parking lot and noticed movement.

Two AB women carrying
pipes and a tall, thin man with a hunting rifle ran forward to take cover
behind some trees. He also saw more movement behind them.

Blake brought
the scope of his rifle to his eye. The other three Marines did the same. “Take
out the ones with the guns first.” Swiftly, the familiar sound of Munns’s
sniper rifle broke the silence outside.

That seemed to
be the signal for infected and uninfected alike to take action. Twenty ABs charged
at the door from across the parking lot and were covered by four men firing
guns from the tree line. The bullets were striking the walls behind them as
they came through the windows. The air filled with drywall, dust, and stucco.

Blake placed
the crosshairs of his scope on the center of the body of the AB that shot at
them from the closest tree. He let out his breath and slowly squeezed the
trigger. At first, he thought he missed because bark from the tree flew
everywhere. However, he watched as the AB fell to the side. The other two Marines
hit their marks as well.

By this time,
the ABs that were charging their door were within a few feet. The first half
dozen were taken out by a short burst of M-16 fire, but there were so many that
they started to come in the front door and window. The magazine in Blake’s M-16
quickly emptied, and he dropped his rifle and drew his pistol.

Two quick shots
and the first two through the door were dead. The same thing happened for one
of the other Marines. The third had a gun jam just as three short ABs flew
through the window. Two had clubs and one a short sword. The third soldier was
using his rifle to defend himself against their blows. Blake turned his pistol
their way but didn't dare fire for fear of hitting his own man.

“Keep watch
over the back!” Blake yelled as he drew his knife. He made short work of the
three that were trying to attack his man. A quick glance at his watch reminded
him that there were three more minutes before the choppers arrived.

All of a
sudden, a blood-curdling yell came from the front. Blake had heard this sound
before when a man he knew had a body part blown off in battle.