Brooks looked over her shoulder to see Wu and his cycle sticking close to her rear. The dozens of deaders that had followed them were now too far behind to be seen. The captain hoped the stumbling undead were lost in the dense jungle. Brooks' first instinct was to turn around and head back to the compound to help out the others, but orders were orders. She slowed her bike to a stop, and Wu rolled up beside her. He glanced behind them, saw it was clear, then dropped his goggles down around his neck.
"Captain?"
"Wu?"
The sergeant climbed off the bike, held it upright with one hand, and pointed to the engines with the other. A couple of bullet holes had raked the engine. "Looks like I got shot."
"Hope it wasn’t friendly fire." She smiled. "Run?"
"Nope." He let the bike fall to the grass.
"Damn. Well, climb on. I guess you’re riding bitch."
"Figures." He climbed on behind her. "Please don’t tell the fellas."
"Oh, I’m telling everyone." She revved the bike a little. "Looks like we lost them." She shoved her goggles on top of her wild red hair. Dirt streaked her high cheekbones. "We just have to find a way to the airstrip!"
"West." Wu pulled the compass from his tac vest. "The airfield is due west. We head in that direction, Cap, we’ll find it. Island’s not that big."
Brooks nodded. "Thank God for that, Sergeant. West it is." She pulled down her goggles and smiled. "Let's find our bird, Wu!"
They rode through the thick jungle for about a mile before coming upon a clearing. Inside it was a wooden building that resembled a church. Parked next to it was an old, yellow school bus and an even older Datsun pickup truck, but what caught the soldiers' attention were the fifty or so deaders that surrounded the structure and appeared to be trying to get inside. Brooks carefully set the bike down right before the clearing. The captain dropped to her stomach and lay hidden in the tall saw grass. The sergeant crawled over next to her and lay flat. None of the deaders had heard their approach; they were too pre-occupied with trying to tear their way into the building.
"What is it?" Wu whispered.
"Hell if I know. Looks like a church," she said quietly. "Put some eyes on it."
Wu pulled out his binoculars and gave the building a once-over. When he was done, he handed them to Brooks. "Definitely people inside. Count about sixty meat sacks outside."
"Damn!" Brooks glanced through the binoculars. "Must be what’s left of the locals inside. Came to the church seeking refuge."
"Some refuge," Wu said. "Place won’t hold much longer."
"No, it won’t."
Wu craned his neck to look behind them. Still clear. He turned back to Brooks. "So we going to find us a way around?"
Brooks shook her head. "No." She sighed. "We have a job to do."
"Captain." Wu could tell what she was thinking. "We have a plane to protect."
Brooks rolled on her side to face the sergeant. "We can’t leave those people to the deaders."
"That’s not our mission, Captain. We have our orders."
"Which we will carry out, but first, we have to take care of this."
"Look, Captain, we don’t know who is inside. They could all be infected. Hell, it could be some animal trapped inside."
"Really, Sergeant?" She rolled back onto her stomach and resumed watching the church through the binoculars. "We need to try, Wu."
"Captain …"
"Listen, Sergeant. When I was a kid, my family was stuck like those people. We would have died if soldiers hadn’t risked their lives to save us. I can’t throw that away. Can you?”
"Aw, crap!" Wu shook his head. He remembered the horror of being trapped in the attic. "No, no I can’t. You have a plan?"
"Yes I do, Sergeant." She checked the magazine on her mini-14. "You take thirty of the fuckers, and I’ll take thirty."
"Real strategic, Captain." Wu rose to a kneeling position with his sniper rifle.
"Simple and sweet." Brooks smiled as she squeezed off a round.
CHAPTER 41: LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD
"Well?" Mister Black sat in the large, overstuffed chair, sipping his expensive Scotch and staring down the senator on the huge, leather couch across from him. Senator Able Collingsworth took a big drink from the thousand-dollar Scotch then rested the equally expensive glass in his hands. Collingsworth always hated dealing with the man, but Black had made him extremely wealthy and would continue to do so.
"Mister Black." He could hear the Muzak version of Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" playing in the background. Black and his damned Muzak. Collingsworth couldn’t figure the man out. He tried, but the man made his skin crawl. "We thought a Beta test on that island would be a good thing. We know it works."
"Yes, we do," Black said evenly. He tapped the fingers on his free hand to the Muzak. "But we already knew the effect of the virus. The vaccine was the only question."
Collingsworth couldn’t meet his cold stare. "Yes, I know that now. Doctor Orlac assured us there would not be a problem."
"Well." He poured himself another drink. "There is one. This does anything to fuck up our plans for Mali, I assure you, Senator, it won’t be good for you."
"Yes." Collingsworth suddenly felt sick. He knew Black would make him and his family and his mistress suffer. "Senator Kubicek and I have contractors on scene. The island will be wiped, and that will be it."
"You do know there are Russian contractors on the island now too." Black stood up and walked over to the giant fireplace behind his chair. "They want the vaccine and the virus."
"Our team should be fine."
"Fine!" Black gritted his teeth, turned, and slowly walked over to the senator. "Mali has just discovered bigger oil reserves than the Middle East. Their makeshift government wants to sell it all to the Russians. We are talking billions and billions of dollars!” Black turned the glass around in his hand. "With that virus and vaccine, we can destroy that country then rebuild it, and all that oil and money is ours. You do like money, Collingsworth? Whores aren’t cheap, are they?"
"I … I …" Collingsworth looked down at his shiny Italian shoes. "Our team will get the vaccine and virus before the Russians," the senator said lamely.
"You better hope so, you little bitch, 'cause I will rape everyone in your family, your whore, and you if they don’t!" He smiled. "Then I will cut you apart piece by piece and make you eat them. Got it?" Collingsworth nodded quickly. "Good. You better pray we get it back." He poured himself another drink then offered Collingsworth more. The senator slowly raised his glass for Black to fill. "Drink up. It may be your last."
Hale and the remainder of his team fought their way through the hungry undead to reach the back of the lab building. Most of the structure was now consumed in flames. The major felt like the wind had been taken out of him as he surveyed the carnage around him. Hale saw the open back door and Klattenhoff’s crumpled form half in and out of it. He hand signaled for the others to form a perimeter, then he and Wickham hurried over to the smoking doorway.
"Motherfucker!" Hale glanced from the giant German's corpse into the inferno of the laboratory. He could see several flaming deaders moving around inside.
"Poor bloke." Wickham knelt down and reached into Klattenhoff’s tac vest and pulled out a wallet. He quickly flipped through it until he found the German’s ID. "Meyers, Klattenhoff. Security contractor." He looked up at Hale. "Definitely a good guy."
"We have to find those Russians!" Hale shook his head wearily. Wickham nodded and stood up, sliding Klattenhoff’s ID into one of the pockets on his tac vest.
"Major!" Zoe West shouted from behind as Gonzo popped off a round at an advancing deader. Hale prepared himself for another onslaught of undead but was surprised when he turned to see West waving him over to a spot in the grass. Hale asked Wickham to pull the German’s body outside the building then ran over to West's position. Before the major could say anything, she knelt down in the tall grass. Hale looked down to see another form, dressed like the dead German, lying face down. The man appeared to have been shot in the back.
"He’s still alive," West said, touching the back of his neck.
"Barely." Hale looked around, making sure nothing was sneaking up on them. The rest of his team were keeping up the perimeter. "Maybe we have us a little break." He gently rolled the man over on his side. "Looks like the shot went clean through."
"I got a dressin’. We can …"
"No fucking way!" Hale blurted. West had pulled out a battle dressing but stopped when Hale shouted. Underneath the man was a metal biologic case. The major figured there was no way they could be so lucky, but he hoped.
"No way, Major!" West said, tearing the dressing open.
"Let’s see, Sergeant." He reached for the blood-stained case beside the man when a strong hand grabbed his wrist and almost pulled him off his knees. The wounded man cursed as he grabbed the major’s gloved hand. West shoved the rifle into the man's ear.
"Easy there, mate! Don’t be doin’ anythin’ ya might regret."
"Yanks and Aussies!" the man groaned. "Finally." Wolf let out a breath then released Hale's wrist. "'Bout time you guys showed up."
"Who the hell are you?"
"Zagers, Wolf Zagers." He groaned as West wrapped the dressing around his back and chest. "Look, inside is the vaccine and virus." He thumped the case weakly with the back of his hand. "Bad news though. The Russians have an identical case … and Doktor Orlac."
"Of course." Hale looked around. Newman and his team were just arriving, followed by Clarke and Mac. "Can you walk?"
"Yah," he wheezed. "I thought I was going to die here." He tried to stand.
"There’s still time for that," West said, helping the wounded Zagers to his feet.
"Thanks, Fräulein." Wolf coughed.
"Sorry about your man." Hale nodded his head in the direction of the other German's body.
"Bastards," he spat. "Klattenhoff …" His voice trailed off and he shook his head slowly. "We have to stop those swine!"
"I plan on it." He stuck his hand out to Zagers, who was still being half-supported by West. "Rollie Hale, Major, Strategic Securities."
"Major." He quickly shook his hand. "We need to get moving."
"Major." Newman ran over to Hale followed by the others on his team. "Jayne and Gibson are dead. Cord got bit, but we juiced ‘im up."
"Alright, Newman." He patted him on the shoulder. More losses. Too many on this cake walk. “We need to round everyone up and head back to the airstrip. Those Russian assholes are going to make a play for our bird." He grabbed up the metal case. "Diamond, get ahold of Captain Brooks and let her know the bad guys are heading her way."
"Yes, sir!"
"Wickham!" Hale shouted. The compound fire was starting to spread. The tall saw grass and some of the surrounding trees were now rapidly burning. Thick, black clouds from the gas fire were turning the late afternoon dark. Deaders were starting to gather in masses, drawn by the battle and fire.
"Major?" The Australian officer dropped his rifle into the combat carry position and strode over to where Hale and Newman were positioned.
"We need to get back to our vehicles. We’ll try to get as far out of the compound perimeter as we can. The fire and those meat sacks are going to be too much of a hurdle for us to push through. Gather up the teams. We’re moving out!"
Captain Brooks gingerly stepped over a pile of freshly re-killed deaders. Lis had slung her mini-14, the barrel warm on her back. She had a sub-compact Beretta pistol drawn and was cautiously approaching the front door of the church. Sergeant Wu was to her left. He had also slung his sniper rifle and had his 9mm pistol out. He kicked at a male deader. It groaned and tried to roll to its feet. He fired a suppressed round into its head. The deader stopped moving.
"Think we got them all?" Wu said, trying not to breath in the smell of decay.
"You have the scope, Sergeant." Brooks smiled as she glanced around. Both of their rifles had been modified with silencers, so the attack on the surrounding deaders had been more time-consuming than threatening. The captain reached for the doorknob and slowly turned it, not surprised when she found it locked. Brooks stepped back, pistol still pointed at the door. "Locked."
"Windows are all shuttered," Wu said, looking to the left of the building. "Why don’t you knock, Captain? Deaders don’t knock."
"Deaders don’t knock." She curled her lip and nodded. Brooks stepped forward and, with her free hand, rapped firmly on the wooden door. No answer. She knocked again. Still no response.
"Probably scared shitless." Wu shrugged as he glanced around, making sure more deaders weren’t sneaking or shambling up on them. "Announce us, Captain. That’s the polite thing to do."
Brooks shook her head then rapped on the door again. "Hello," she said. "Hello, U.S. Air Force!"
"Air Force?" Wu whispered.
"If I said Strategic Securities, they wouldn’t know who the hell we were." She knocked again. There was a click from the lock on the other side. Brooks stepped back, pistol raised. Wu did the same. The door slowly opened, and an older man peeked out. Brooks lowered her handgun and raised her free hand. "It’s okay. We killed all the deaders. We are here to rescue you."
"Rescue?" Wu said under his breath. "Shit."
"I’m Captain Brooks, and this is Sergeant Wu." The man opened the door all the way and stepped out onto the porch. He almost jumped back at the sight of all the deader corpses. The man’s hair and clothing were unkempt, and Brooks noticed he was about sixty years old. "Sir …"
"U.S. Air Force?" the man asked in a thick accent that Brooks recognized as French.
"Yes, you speak English?"
"Hmmm." He stuck out his hand and wiggled it. "Little."
"You speak French?" The man nodded. "Good," Brooks said in French. "We are here to rescue you. How many of you are there?"
"Ten children and four adults." The man rattled on. "I’m the school bus driver, Pietro." He smiled nervously.
"Are you in charge?"
"No, no." The man put up his hands. "Sister Anne is!"
"May we come inside?" Brooks asked.
"Yes, yes!" Pietro put down his hands and stepped back into the doorway, waving them in. Brooks holstered her handgun and glanced over at Wu.
"It’s okay, Sergeant. He’s the school bus driver. His name is Pietro. There’s ten kids inside and four adults." She followed the older man inside. "I guess a nun is in charge."
"Went to a Catholic school," Wu said as he followed Brooks in. "Nuns were always mean."
"Well." The door shut behind them. "Thank God they are. This one had the right idea." Brooks followed Pietro into another, larger room. The smell of unwashed bodies assaulted both of them. Suddenly, the room was filled with excited chatter as a wave of children happily greeted Brooks and Wu.
"Hey!" Brooks stumbled back as several children grabbed her legs and waist as if she was going to disappear.
"It’s okay!" Wu said as three kids almost tackled him.
"Children!" A stern voice came from the back of the room. "Children!" A young, brunette woman dressed in jeans and a red plaid shirt shooed some of the frantic kids away. Wu expected an old woman dressed in penguin gear, but instead he got an attractive woman in her early thirties. Wu smiled and relaxed.
"Sister Anne?" Brooks asked.
"Yes, yes," she said in a Texas drawl. "I’m Sister Anne Calloway." She held a machete in her left hand and extended her right to Brooks. "Are you two Air Force?"
"I’m Captain Lis Brooks, Strategic Securities. I only said that so you would let us in," she said, shaking the sister's hand. "This is Sergeant Wu."
"Thank you all for saving us," Sister Calloway said, shaking Wu’s hand. "We were prayin’ mighty hard."
"Any of you infected … er, bit?" Brooks asked.
"No, we are all good. I have three of the kids' parents and Pietro here. Father Romero, well, he perished when the dead first attacked." She shook her head. "This is all we could save," she said quietly.
"We need to get you all out of here," Brooks said, glancing around at the motley group of children and adults. "The situation is bad all over the island. We do have a plane, and we can get you all aboard, but we have to move now."
"Captain," Wu whispered in her ear, "the major’s not going to like this."
"He has no choice. We can’t leave them here," she replied almost inaudibly. "You know they are going to sanitize the island. We can’t leave them."
"I know." Wu hung his head and nodded. "I know. Let’s do it."
Brooks patted him on the shoulder. "Good call, Sergeant." She turned back to Pietro and the young nun. "Does the bus run?" she asked in French.
"Yes," Pietro replied proudly. "Like a top!"
"Sweet. Sister, we need to move everyone to the bus. Can you get them ready?"
"Yes, I can!" Anne turned to the others and told them in that same stern voice that they would be leaving and to line up. The kids cheered loudly, and the Sister quieted them down again. Once they were ready, Anne told Brooks.
"Sergeant Wu, would you clear away some of the bodies?" Brooks said so the children couldn’t hear her. Wu nodded and headed outside. "Pietro, can you help the sergeant?"
"Yes, Captain." Pietro saluted her smartly and grabbed one of the male parents to help. As the two other men went outside, Brooks pulled the nun aside and spoke to her in a low tone. "When we get outside, have the children look straight ahead. There’s a lot of bodies out there."
"Thank you." Anne turned to the remaining group and repeated Brooks’ orders to the children. The kids seemed a little confused, but the parents seemed to understand the meaning behind the Sister’s words.
"Everything will be fine, Sister," Brooks told her.
"Anne. Just call me Anne."
"Anne." Brooks smiled. "I’m Lis. We have a good-sized cargo plane and a bunch of badasses with guns, so don’t worry."
"Best news I’ve heard all week." Suddenly, they heard the school bus roar to life.
"That’s our cue, Sister. Let’s go!"
Brooks drew her Beretta and pulled open the front door. The ragtag group of survivors started to fall in behind the captain and the nun. Wu was standing outside between the church and the bus and quickly signaled it was clear. Brooks gave him a thumbs up then turned to the group and spoke in French.
"Remember, children, look straight ahead at the bus. Do not look around." She stepped outside, knowing that Hale would be pissed, but she also knew that he would get over it.