“The point I’m trying to make is once we get down there, I’m not going to hesitate to kill anyone who gets in my way. That includes anyone who even
looks
like they’re going to get in my way. Maybe you shouldn’t be a part of that.”
“Fuck you, I’m going with you.”
“Okay,” I said. Can’t say I didn’t warn you, I thought, and hugged her again, tighter this time. After a long moment, she pulled away.
“We’ll get everything ready tomorrow, but tonight I’m going to have my hot bath and massage.”
“Okay,” I replied, knowing there was going to more than a bath and massage involved, and no, I wasn’t complaining.
My thoughts were preoccupied, which normally would have been an indicator of insanity. I mean, who in the hell would be preoccupied while in the middle of giving a full body massage to a beautiful, naked woman. Thankfully, by the time I got to her feet, she’d fallen sound asleep. I carefully got the blankets over us and I lay on my back, snuggled up next to her, thinking about my kids. I didn’t remember falling asleep; the last conscious thought I remembered was I wanted to jump in the truck and leave that very minute.
As fate would have it, we didn’t have to leave after all.
I heard the noise of the vehicle before I actually saw it.
“Whoa, Hank,” I whispered forcefully as I pulled on the reins and jumped off of Hank, hurriedly pulling my rifle from the scabbard. I took cover behind a tree and watched as a military Humvee came into view and slowly made its way up the driveway to my former residence.
Julie and I… I mean, Kelly and I had spent all of yesterday getting everything ready, and this morning I was making one final check around the farm before the two of us headed out. But, what I was seeing out there in front of me meant our mission was going to be postponed. They’d finally come back for me.
The scene was like a surreal image in a movie. The vehicle, a dirty military Humvee, approached slowly, inexorably. I couldn’t feel anything below my waist, but my legs were steady. I made a concerted effort to control my breathing and keep my heart rate steady.
“I thought there’d be more,” I muttered as I used the side of the tree as a brace to steady the fore stock and take aim. This was it. I was going to take out as many as I could before they got me. There had to be more of them. I wondered if there was another group moving in on Fred’s house at the same time and hoped Kelly wasn’t caught off guard. Jumping on Hank and hightailing back to the house would have been futile. If that was their plan, they were already there. Whatever her fate, I was going to kill as many as I could, and if I lived through this, I’d see what I could do.
They must have spotted me; the Humvee’s tires barked in protest as the driver slammed on the brakes. There were definitely two of them sitting in the front seat and the backseat had passengers as well. As I was about to shoot through the windshield, the driver got out and raised her hands.
It was Ruth, AKA Corporal Bulldog. I’d recognize her anywhere. She wasn’t looking so good. Her dirty combat uniform hung loosely on her, and her face bore the appearance of someone who’d not slept in a while. For a brief moment I felt sorry for her. She looked directly at me and waved tentatively. I held my position and waited, wondering if anyone was making a move to flank me, or perhaps they had a sniper out there somewhere and he was waiting for me to come out in the open for a clear shot.
All of these thoughts were rushing through my brain as I caressed the trigger, but suddenly, as I watched, something unbelievable happened. There was no controlling my heart rate now, it shot up like someone just popped me in the ass with a cattle prod. Two other people got out of the Humvee and as I kept watching, they helped two children get out.
My children.
I immediately took my finger off of the trigger and fought hard to settle myself. When my hands stopped shaking, I whistled for Hank, saddled up, and slowly made my way toward them, all the while holding the rifle at the ready. Stopping several feet away, I gave them the once over and peered inside the military vehicle. There were three assault rifles lying in the back seat along with some duffel bags stuffed in the cargo compartment.
“Hello, Zach,” Ruth said nervously.
“Don’t worry about the weapons, Zach.” I looked over at the person who had spoken. It was Gunnery Sergeant Smithson. He was fatigued as well, but otherwise looked the same as I remembered. Maybe his hair was a little longer, but he was still clean shaven and his chiseled features seemed to indicate he was as fit as ever. “They’re worthless at the moment. We’re out of ammo.”
“All of you step away from my children,” I demanded coldly.
“But, Zach, we brought them back to you,” Ruth responded.
“That’s the only reason any of you are still alive,” I said and then lowered my voice to a growl. “Now step away from my children.” They did as I ordered. The three of them moved as one and stood together closely, Sergeant Smithson standing in front of Ruth protectively.
The kids, my kids, were oblivious of the tension in the air. The only thing they were paying attention to was Hank. I nudged him toward them. Hank, who was very gentle by nature, nickered softly and sniffed them. I kept my rifle pointed at the three of them.
“What now, Zach?” Major Parsons asked. I glanced at my children. Little Frederick was walking around pretty well, even if he had his arms outstretched like Frankenstein. A sense of pride rippled through me. Macie had not moved from the position where Ruth had set her down. She was looking around in wonder at all of the sights and seemed particularly fascinated by Hank. He nudged her curiously. She fell back and squealed in glee. It was hard work keeping my emotions in check at that moment.
“They’ve grown,” I commented.
“We’ve taken good care of them,” the major said.
“You better hope you have,” I quickly retorted. Little Frederick looked at me curiously for a second before his attention again went to Hank. “They’re not even sure who I am, thanks to you people. Tell me what’s going on here.”
“There’s no need for all of this, Zach,” Major Parsons contended. “Why don’t we sit down like civilized adults and discussed this?”
“Are you going to make me kill you in front of my kids?” I rejoined as I stared at him in contempt. He dropped his eyes and stared at the ground.
“Let’s hear it,” I repeated. Ruth spoke up.
“After you escaped, Colonel Coltrane sent out search parties,” she said. “When you weren’t found, he wanted to come back here and wait on you, he knew you’d show up eventually, but he was ordered to relocate all of us to Atlanta.” I stared at her shrewdly, trying to determine if she was telling the truth.
“By whom?”
“The President,” Ruth answered.
“Where to in Atlanta?”
“The CDC,” Sergeant Smithson added. “Up until two days ago it was operational.”
“You said,
was
.” The Sergeant nodded. “What happened?”
“About fifty thousand of those things is what happened,” he muttered ruefully.
“The place was attacked and overrun,” Ruth said. “It was horrible.”
“It was one of those rules of yours, Zach,” the Sergeant continued. “They’re getting smart. We thought we had eliminated most of them, but those things fooled us. The only thing we could think of was they hid in abandoned buildings throughout the city and waited for the right moment.” Sergeant Smithson sighed and continued.
“For weeks we’d watch in amusement as small groups of them tried to climb the fencing or attempt to push their way through the concrete barricades. Little did we know those things were actually probing and testing our defenses, looking for weak points.” He paused a moment and looked at his companions.
“Long story short, one night they massed together and attacked us.”
“What, like a coordinated attack?” I asked skeptically. The Sergeant nodded. It was hard to believe those things, who were nothing more than sub humans now, were able to do something like they said.
“What happened then?” I asked. He pointed at Ruth.
“Ruth was assigned guard duty for the kids. We ate dinner together and then she put them to bed. The two of us were hanging out together when the alarms were activated.” His features darkened.
“Like I said, it was a mass attack. About six hours into it, it became obvious we were being overrun. So, we grabbed them and got the hell out of there.” He pointed at Major Parsons. “I figured we needed the doc here, so I made him go with us.” He then lowered his head a moment before raising it and looking me directly in the eye.
“Zach, on my word of honor, the three of us here had nothing to do with the death of your people.” I stared at him balefully, dubious whether or not he was telling the truth. I’d get to the bottom of it, but it was a subject for another time. I gestured toward my kids.
“Where were my kids at when y’all were holding me captive?” I asked.
“They were being kept in another building,” Major Parsons interjected. “Not far from where you were housed. They were not harmed, I can assure you.”
I continued glaring at all of them. In contrast to Sergeant Smithson, the major had not shaved in a day or two. His uniform was cleaner, but all that told me was the two enlisted Marines were the ones doing all of the dirty work. He returned my stare with an arrogant one of his own. It angered me, I couldn’t keep my emotions in check any longer. I walked up to him and kicked him in the testicles. I’ve no doubt it would have been a fifty yard punt if I had been kicking a football. Parsons gasped and doubled over in pain. Smithson moved toward me, but I stopped him by jabbing him in the gut with the barrel of my rifle. He backed away quickly with his hands raised.
“Easy, Zach. You may not like him, but he’s the only doctor we have.”
“You people kidnapped my kids and killed my friends!” I yelled so forcefully spit flew from my mouth. Ruth started to speak, but I cut her off with a look. I waited until I could speak without yelling.
“Y’all are going to tell me everything, but first things first, where is everyone else?”
“It’s just us, Zach,” Ruth said. “We honestly don’t know if anyone else survived.”
I kept a wary eye on them as I retrieved my walkie-talkie out of the saddle bag and called for Kelly. After a few tries, she answered.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“I’m at the Riggins house and I have company. Marine company. Check your surroundings and then get over here ASAP.” I jammed the walkie into my pocket and watched as Major Parsons, who was on all fours, began vomiting. Little Frederick saw and started crying, which surprised me.
Kelly sped up the driveway in the big Volvo and actually slid sideways to a stop, spraying all of us with gravel. She leapt out of the truck like a super cop in an action movie, pointing her handgun wildly. It looked really cool, but the only problem was she had left the truck running and in gear. It was lurching forward, a couple of feet at a time. I gestured toward the truck. She hurriedly jumped back in, set the air brake, and shut it off. When she got herself sorted out, I had the three of them move away from the major’s vomit and sat them down on the cold ground.
“Cover me a minute,” I directed to Kelly, set my rifle down and searched the three of them. There were no hidden weapons, but I couldn’t help but noticed when I was patting down Sergeant Smithson he was nothing but rock hard muscle. I’d have to be careful with him. I then grabbed their assault rifles and put them in the Volvo.
“So, tell us the whole story,” I commanded. “Starting with the kidnapping.”
“Our original mission order was only to snatch you and carry you to Fort Campbell,” Sergeant Smithson said. “I was the NCOIC.”
“What is NCOIC?” Kelly asked. “What does that mean?”
“Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge,” Sergeant Smithson answered. Kelly nodded in seeming understanding. “Anyway, as you know, we pulled it off without a hitch, other than me having to pop you in the back of the head.”
“Yeah, I had a headache for two days. I owe you for that one,” I retorted. “Keep going.”
“After we got back to Fort Campbell, we had a mission debriefing. That’s when I found out you had kids and one of the other teams had grabbed them.” He looked over at our dilapidated house. “And then, well, I guess you know what was talked about next. If that wasn’t bad enough, we lost one of our own.” I stared at them icily. I’m sure I didn’t have to tell any of them I didn’t care in the least that one of their fellow soldiers was killed. Hell, they all should have died.
“Who ordered the use of lethal force?” I asked. “Colonel Coltrane?” They nodded solemnly.
“Someone inside the house started shooting, that’s how Lamance got it, and then it all went to hell,” Ruth said quietly, almost in a whisper. She cautioned a glance at me. “It was a woman who started shooting. We found out later who it was.”
"Who?" I asked. The two of them glanced at each other uncomfortably.
"We were told it was your wife." I didn’t doubt them, it sounded like Julie. She wasn't timid to shoot if she felt threatened. I wondered who told them it was her, but decided to wait until later to ask.
“What happened after I escaped?” Smithson looked at me and his jaw muscles tightened.
“I won’t sugarcoat it, Zach. Everyone was pissed that you killed Solonowski and wanted some payback.”
“Killing me would have defeated the whole purpose of abducting me in the first place, wouldn’t it?” I asked. Smithson grunted.
“Oh, we had orders to take you alive.”
“I imagine if I were caught I had a good beating waiting on me.” Smithson replied with a tight smile.
“We searched for you for two days,” he said. “You were doing a pretty good job of hiding from us. Anyway, on the evening of the second day, Colonel Coltrane recalled everyone and issued the orders to relocate. He really wanted to find you too, but he had orders, and orders are orders. We packed up everything and left.”
“So, the President is the one who gave the order to move to the CDC?” Kelly asked. The two NCOs nodded. Major Parsons was mostly unresponsive and sat there morosely, gingerly cupping his ball sack.
“And to take Zach’s children?” There was a moment of silence, broken by Ruth clearing her throat.
“I won’t bother with a long-winded explanation, but we’re not sure POTUS was ever made aware of the children,” she said and looked over at Major Parsons. “Right, sir?” He was still in pain as he looked at her, but slowly nodded his head in agreement.