“Johnny this is important, please?” she said.
So for her I sat back and closed my eyes and for the first time I tried to remember. I remembered the monsters and the garage, the gunfire and screaming. The soldiers from the road block dying, one by one. The crash and Mom fighting, I felt tears burn hot trails down my cheeks. And there it was, my mother, my amazing, kind and beautiful mom, laying like a broken doll, her insides all over the place. Tucker listening to her begging him to protect her children and begging him to end it, to stop her suffering.
There was a voice far away, it was quiet but it was calling my name and then I felt a soft hand on my cheek,
“Johnny?” Karen said.
I looked at her but couldn’t speak so I looked at Kyle but I couldn’t say the words so Kyle said them for me,
“She was dying wasn’t she?” and I nodded and lowered my eyes to the floor.
I felt Karen wrap an arm across my shoulder and to my surprise Kyle moved next to me and did the same thing from the other side. No one said anything and for the first time I felt like maybe things were going to get better.
Not long after our touchy-feely moment we were called into dinner, the main dish was apparently six cans of some big-box brand beef stew that Mrs. Boudreaux and Mrs. King had performed magic on but most amazing was the bread.
Oh my gosh
was it good, it was flat, fluffy and hot. There was honey for it too, Mrs. King said it was Nan’s but she laughed when I asked who that was.
“What did I say?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you later kiddo.”
Kelsey winked at me but when I blushed Karen pinched me hard and when I yelped everyone laughed again. People are nuts. It was a great meal and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Only Tucker, West, Lowe and Lt. Kline were absent. Then there was dessert; each of us got six blackberries sprinkled with sugar, Lucy and Jordan took turns pretending to be servants presenting the treat to the other one. Jordan’s version of a snobbish English accent had everyone laughing including me. Finally dinner was over and Elaine and I had dish duty but Karen helped and we were just finishing when Deputy Weir stopped in for a cup of coffee on his way up to over watch. He stood and watched us for a bit but when he caught my eye he raised his cup in salute then winked. Grownups are weird.
He disappeared up the stairs and we headed to the great room, when we got there everyone except Weir was present, even the girls club albeit they were embroiled in a rousing game of ‘
Go Fish’
. Tucker and the Lieutenant were finishing up a drawing on a piece of poster board when we sat down to hear what was up. Everyone was talking and excited but I didn’t know why. Finally the LT, cleared her throat and asked for our attention.
“Everyone attention, attention please” she said and we quieted.
“I am not going to bore everyone with the details and let me assure you they are boring but the gist of it is that we believe that we think we know where a humming circle is going to be in 74 hours and 18 minutes plus or minus a minute or two.”
“Are they headed here?”
“To the Post Office?”
“Can we avoid them?”
The questions came rapid fire. The Lt. waved us down,
“No, no, they are not headed here. What we are proposing is that we set a trap for them and with luck we can wipe out an entire circle. We don’t know what effect this will have, maybe nothing or maybe it will screw with them big time.”
The Lt. showed us a map with a series of multicolored circles travelling in a gentle arcs across the page showing each group’s path, she pointed out the target group as being in red, the other groups were traveling in similar arcs that sometimes touched our target’s path but they didn’t overlap each other by much if at all. Mrs. West spoke up then,
“We chose group red because it is far enough away we don’t think they will pose a threat to our bases but it is within easy driving distance.”
The Lt. added “you will notice that no other color is currently between us and red and none will be for the immediate future.”
Tucker took his time in the lime light,
“Right here, just a little off of our route is a quarry, we are hoping to find a supply of dynamite there.”
Lt. Klein said “While we have one claymore remaining in the back of the MRAP and about 1000 rounds for our SAW, we would really like to apply a little shock and awe of our own. Thus the stop off for the dynamite.”
Mrs. West who sounded just like the other two in her tone of voice and looked just like them in the way she stood, all military official like then spoke,
“We need to point out that the places we have marked on this map is the location where the groups will be forming their ‘
humming circles
’ and that their actual path will vary.”
Tucker again spoke up,
“we believe that each group covers about twice the distance each movement interval than what is shown, imagine a 10 inch piece of spaghetti whose ends are fixed 5 inches apart, that is how much each one varies. It is the end points that we have a fix on, not the wiggly bit in the middle.”
Lieutenant Klein then said “Any questions or ideas?”
It was Mrs. Boudreaux who spoke first,
“Um, what’s a SAW?” It was Rico who answered “That’s a squad automatic weapon mam.” Then young Ms. Longacre asked
“And just who is going to be going on this wonder
Humanity Strikes Back
mission?”
It was the Lieutenant who answered after looking either way at her co-conspirators,
“Well, we three, plus Rico and we are hoping Deputy Weir and maybe two other volunteers?”
It was Elaine who spoke up next “I’m in.” she said with a determination that left no misunderstanding.
“Elaine! No!”
Rico exclaimed, panic in his voice.
She did not respond to him in particular she just made her case,
“I am a good shot but more importantly I don’t hesitate and you know that’s true. I have killed them before and I willing and able to do it again.”
The Lt. looked at Tucker who sighed and nodded that she spoke the truth.
“Then I’m going too!” I said.
Mrs. Driscol looked horrified but before she could protest the Lt. spoke up,
“Alright everyone, this will get us nowhere, with everyone’s permission I will treat this as a military strike and will make the choices from a list of anyone who wants to be considered.”
There was a murmur among us then finally agreement. She passed a piece of paper around and a bunch of us signed it. She said she would put together the team and have an answer for everyone in an hour because she wanted to meet with the chosen team afterwards. With that she took the list and headed to her room.
That was the longest hour I think I had ever sat through but finally Lieutenant Klein reappeared, she looked deadly serious and I saw a fierce determination in her eyes. She cleared her throat then began,
“Everyone, I just want to say that I appreciate how much everyone wants to strike at the monsters but I also had to consider the success of the mission and the protection of those left here at the lodge.”
I saw a flicker of something in her eyes that I could not quite place. Hesitation? Regret? It faded away and she said that the list is final and there will be no changes considered for any reason.
“So, here is the strike team:
Cpl. Hernandez will be on the SAW.
Diane West and I will be the forward rifle team to support Rico
Deputy Weir will be on the sniper rifle
Elaine and Kyle, flanking suppression fire
Mrs. Driscol you will be in the MRAP in case we have to bug out quick and Janey you will be riding shotgun.
Then she hesitated and concentrated on the list.
“Last member will be in charge of the detonators Kelsey Longacre.”
“What?!” Tucker screamed.
He hammered his huge fist down on the table at which he sat. I knew I had been left behind, probably because they needed a shooter here for security. But Tucker? That was a surprise and he began to scream at the Lt. He towered over her but she did not back down. ?
”Tucker!” she answered him decibel for decibel. “You can barely lift your left arm, your back is so bad it takes you five minutes to get out of bed. Your knees are shot and your distance vision is so bad I worry about you driving much less count on you for accurate rifle fire. You are one of the smartest men I’ve ever met but you are a wreck and I need people who can move and move fast.”
He stood there staring at her in disbelief but he said nothing, a moment later he turned and headed towards the stairs. Amy put a hand on him as he went by but he did not react to it. We watched him go up the stairs and I realized the old man, the one who figured out all this crap had been humiliated. Much to my surprise I actually felt sorry for him.
The Lt. turned to me then,
“Johnny, I hope you understand that we need shooters here too. I am hoping you, the Livingston’s, Karen and Mrs. Hardy will fill that role.”
I nodded and she turned away and asked that everyone leave but the strike team. I wanted to say something but how could I describe what I had seen? What Tucker could do in spite of everything she listed being true. Tucker was a warrior, unfortunately most of the others who could vouch for that were dead.
I headed upstairs for my over watch duty, as I passed Tuckers room I saw he was in there with Lucy on one lap and Jordan on the other and was reading a book to them. He suddenly looked more like Santa than the cold eyed killer I had seen him be in battle. He even did the voices for the girls and it made me shake my head in disbelief. By the time Janey relieved me on over watch the lodge was quiet but I was surprised to see Elaine come out of the bathroom wearing an oversized Tee and proceed to go into Rico’s room.
Oh brother
.
Day 24
The morning was cool and rainy, the clouds were so low the lodge itself was shrouded in them and the tree line was invisible to us. The mood was, well, strange. Not tense exactly more anticipatory than anything else. The strike team members were meeting with the Lt. in small groups, going over a map and discussing details of their particular role in the mission. Deputy Weir was on over watch and Mr. and Mrs. Livingston were drawing up plans for spring gardens and were excitedly discussing the possibility of building chicken coops and raising chickens. I overheard the Lt. tell Amy that Tucker reported that morning that the last two broadcasts kept the monsters right on track. I wandered through the kitchen and while I really wasn’t that hungry I couldn’t resist snatching a big piece of fresh baked bread when I found it so unwisely unguarded.
I went through the back porch door and looked out through the drizzle at our new garden and it made me smile. Of course not a single sprout yet but I felt it was only matter of time. I heard a strange screech coming from somewhere up the hillside, beyond the storage shed. I saw the nose of the old blue trash truck was sticking out from behind the shed. I adjusted my rifle sling and started to wander that direction.
As I passed the shed and reached the truck I saw that the lift gate was raised but attached to the back of the truck was a steel framed chain link cube. There was a Z inside, it was rather small for a monster, no bigger than me, it was roaming free inside the cube but there was a heavy wire rope made into a noose around its neck, the other end of the steel cable was passed through a steel eye welded to the steel frame and then 10 feet past that to where it was attached to huge eye bolt driven or screwed into an enormous hickory tree. There were two loops in the wire in which two foot long pieces of steel fence post were threaded. Hand holds. Tucker could use them to pull the creature up against the chain link without much risk.
The creature noticed me and it reacted instantly but instead of trying to get to me it launched itself into far corner of its cell.
“Oh my God” I whispered.
I put the M4’s sling back on my shoulder, apparently these rifles were trained to leap into your hands when it is startled by monsters. I stepped a little closer, my eyes couldn’t quite make sense of what I was seeing, I muttered to myself,
“What has he done to you?”
Finally I could make it out, a ten inch long and four inch wide section of its exoskeleton had been cut away from its back. Bright pink flesh streaked with bright crimson veins or arteries pulsed wetly in the air. Slimy yellow pus stretched to escape thin membranes at the edges of the wound. It had to be in agony.
I spoke to the monster, “hello?” and I took another step towards the cage. It turned to face me its eyes blinked, the strange four sections of each eye looking like a fourth of a black pie sliding in and out towards the center. I could not see anything in those eyes not until it seemed to recognize that I wasn’t Tucker and a cold fury appeared in them and it opened its tooth filled mouth and screamed at me. The roar was cut off short as a loud bang started both me and the monster as Tucker hit the side of the cube with a baseball bat.
“Shut up!” Tucker growled and the monster crawled back to its corner. Tucker walked over to stand next to me, and as we watched the monster he said