Executive Orders: Part 2 of the Homeland Series (13 page)

“Hurry it up!” The guard shoved Alex’s back with his rifle. “This stench is about to make me puke!”

“Yes, sir,” Alex responded and put a foot against the truck for leverage.

Cole did the same. “On three. Ready?”

Alex nodded.

“Hurry up!” The guard stood next to them at the back of the truck.

Cole tightened his grip on the dead man’s arm. “One. Two. Threeeee…”

The body came free. So did the four others that were stack on top of it. The five corpses toppled from the truck on top of Alex and Cole.

The guard squealed, backpedaling from the vehicle. His foot found the edge of the trench. Cole looked up as the green sleeve lost his balance, tumbled backward, and disappeared into the pit.

“Help!” the guard screeched. Cries of pain followed.

Alex and Cole struggled out from under the avalanche of death. The pair walked to the edge of the pit. They looked down to see the guard entangled in dead limbs. The lifeless appendages fell across him, slithering across his body, covering his screaming face. The macabre members seemed to claw at him, taking what small measure of vengeance that was left to them.

A ragged head lolled aside to reveal the guards tear-soaked face, his mouth agape in horror. His hands grasped for his right leg, which was broken below the knee. A shaft of bloody bone poked from his thick gray trousers. He spotted Alex and Cole staring at him from above. “Help!” he howled. “Help me!”

Cole and Alex locked eyes.

“This is our chance.” Alex looked into the trench. “We need his chip.”

“Wait here.” Cole scrambled down the dirt wall of the pit to the wailing guard. He bent over the man. “Shut up.” He kicked the greenie in the head. Cole’s hands reached for the rifle which lay just out of the fallen man’s reach.

“Attention!” Alex yelled from above.

Cole froze.

“What’s going on here?” A new voice yelled from the top of the pit. It was another guard. This baby-faced sentry couldn’t have been more than sixteen. He called to his comrade in the hole, “Sebastian! What happened?”

The injured guard responded. “These two…”

Cole kicked a dead leg over the man’s face. “He fell in! We were trying to get him out!” His mind raced. He had to buy some time. “His leg is broken! He needs a doctor!”

“We don’t have one!” the young guard yelled.

“You better find one or your friend will die. Do you understand? Sebastian will die!”

“I have an idea!” the young guard exclaimed. “We have a nurse!”

“Good! Go get her. We’ll get Sebastian out of here.”

“I don’t know…”

“Go!”

“You two stay here. I’ll get be right back.” The young guard sprinted away.

Cole waited for the footsteps to fade. He picked up the rifle and kicked the leg from guard’s panicked face. “It’s just not your day, Sebastian.” He smashed the steel butt of the weapon into the guards face. Blood gushed from the man’s crushed nose. Cole drew the rifle back and hit him again. Then again. Again. Again. Again and again with animal rage. He finally ceased when there was nothing of the man’s skull to break. His trembling arms and face were covered with brain and blood.

“I think he’s dead,” Alex said sarcastically from above. “Get his chip! We’ll need it at the checkpoints. Hurry!”

Cole took the guard’s crimson-stained coat. He then rifled through the man’s pockets and found a boot knife. He slung the gun across his back and used the knife to cut the RFID chip from the dead man’s hand.

“You have to keep it warm.” Alex said. “Those chips are temperature sensitive. That’s how they know if we’ve cut them out. A guy tried that a few eeks ago. The guards found—”

“I got the point.” Cole held the chip tightly in his fist and began to scale the loose dirt wall. He slipped. The he slipped again. He needed both hands to climb his way out.

“Hurry!” Alex hissed.

Cole opened his fist and looked at the small chip. “Dammit.” He put the dirty, bloody capsule in his mouth, tucking it into his cheek and ascended the trench with fresh vigor. Alex helped pull him over the edge of the pit and back to the land of the living.

Cole sat, gasping for breath at the mouth of the pit. He got to his hands and knees, his head hanging low.

“Sebastian! Are you okay?” A voice called from behind him. The young guard was back with the nurse. “Hey! Where’s Sebastian?”

Alex tackled the guard, wrestling him to the ground.

The guard kicked and screamed, trying to get the wiry prisoner off of him, fighting for control of his rifle.

Cole pounced onto the guard, driving Sebastian’s knife into the young man’s neck up to the hilt.

The teenager’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Cole twisted the blade. Gore gushed from the wound. The struggling stopped. So did the guard’s breathing.

The nurse screamed.

Alex sprang up and covered her mouth with his bloody hand. “Shut up!”

“Hey!” Cole pointed at Amber. “I know her!”

Amber’s eyes darted to the grubby soldier.

“We met at the hospital in Nashville. I’m the sergeant who brought the food and medical supplies when the power went out.” Cole asked, “Remember?”

Amber nodded.

“Can we trust you not to scream?”

“She nodded again.”

“Just kill her,” Alex said, “We don’t have time.”

Amber’s eyes widened.

“No.” Cole reached out and removed Alex’s hand from Amber’s face. “She’s coming with us.” He crouched and removed the young guard’s jacket. He tossed it to Alex. “Put this on.” He then cut opened the teenager’s hand and removed his chip. Blood and steam oozed from the dead guard’s wound as Cole handed the RFID device to Alex, who tucked in his cheek. Cole wiped his blade clean, then used it to dig the RFID chip from his own hand. His teeth gritted in pain. Crimson streams flowed down his fingers onto the cold ground as he worked the sharp edge into his shuddering flesh. The foreign object finally came free. “Here.” He handed the knife to Alex as he put his chip in the guard’s mouth. “Cut yours out, too.” Cole searched the boy’s remains. Something was rolled up in the youth’s back pocket. Cole removed it and flattened it out with blood soaked hands. It was a comic book. Hank’s throat tightened. “He was just a damn kid.” He put the book back into the pocket.

Alex dug his chip out, handed it to Cole, who stuffed it in the guard’s mouth.

Alex turned to Amber and pointed at the lump in the back of her right hand. “Your turn.” He put the blade to her skin.

“I’ll do it myself.” Amber took the tool from Alex. “I’m a nurse.” She removed the tracking chip from her hand with cool precision and handed it to Cole. This chip also went into the guard’s mouth.

They rolled the teenage guard into the pit and started to climb into the truck’s cab.

Cole grabbed Amber’s shoulder as she tried to step into the passenger side. “You get in the back.”

“With the bodies? I don’t think so.”

“You don’t have one of these.” He pointed to his coat and armband. “That looks a little suspicious, don’t you think? You don’t have a chip either.” He jerked a thumb toward the back of the truck. “Now get back there and play dead.”

Amber pointed to Alex. “What about him? He’s skin and bones. He looks dead already. Have you seen any starving guards around here?”

Cole looked at Alex. “She’s got a point.”

“Okay!” Alex removed his coat and threw it at Amber. He took the guard’s bloody chip from his mouth and held it out to her. “Bon appétit.”

Amber took the RFID and gagged as she tucked it in her cheek.

Alex climbed in the back. “Now get us the hell out of here.”

Cole and Amber raised the tailgate then hurried to the cab.

“Here we go.” Cole started the engine.

“We have to bring Martha with us,” Amber insisted.

“Who is Martha?”

“Congresswoman Martha Jefferson.”

“The one running for President?”

“Yes.” Amber pointed to a storage container near the guards’ quarters. “She’s in there.”

“My guys come first, then we’ll get her if we can.” He put the truck in gear and headed to the warehouse.

*****

A murmur rose from the inhabitants of the warehouse at the sound of the heavy transport halting outside the door.

Hick’s had been sleeping. He grimaced with agony as he sat up to see what was going on.

“I thought we had today off?” said a prisoner next to him.

Hicks shuffled toward the door.

Truck doors opened. Footsteps followed. Then tugging at the door.

“It’s me! Sergeant Sexton! I’m here to get you out.”

The murmur turned to a clamor as men rushed to the door.

More frantic yanking on the door. “It’s locked! Try to push from your side.”

Inmates rushed to the entrance and pushed like men possessed. The door didn’t budge.

“It’s no use!” Cole yelled through the door. “Back up! I’m gonna ram it!” He turned back to the truck.

“No!” Amber blocked his path. “If you ram that door, this whole place will come down on our heads.”

“I can’t leave them.”

The camp alarm sounded.

“They found the dead guards,” Amber said, “We’re out of time. We have to go.”

Cole pointed to the warehouse. “Not without them.”

The truck’s engine revved. Gears meshed. Cole and Amber looked to see Alex sitting in the driver seat. He hit the gas. The truck lurched forward. Cole and Amber gave chase, grabbing hold of the tailgate, clambering into the back as the vehicle picked up speed.

Cole cut a hole in the tarp covering the truck bed and peeked out. “He’s headed for the gate! Get down!”

Guards ran in every direction amid the pandemonium.

An armed sentry put up a hand to halt the truck as it approached. Alex accelerated. The guard jumped aside as the hulking vehicle smashed through the perimeter to forest-lined road beyond.

Cole raised his head and stole a look out the back of the vehicle. He spotted something on the dust covered road behind them. A black MRAP was on their tail. It was topped with a machine gun turret which was aimed at them.

“What do we do?” Amber asked.

“Stay down and hang on.”

Machine gun rounds peppered the truck, sparking and popping all around them.

The MRAP soon overtook their vehicle. It pulled even with the driver seat and unloaded a burst of .762 caliber rounds into the cab. The cargo truck jerked, then served off the road and into the woods.

“Hang on!” Cole yelled. He covered Amber’s body with his. The vehicle leapt into the air as it careened down an embankment. A splintering crunch sent Cole and Amber crashing into the front of the cargo bed with corpses. Amber’s screams were drowned out by the shriek of rending metal and shattering trees. The truck flipped. She and Cole were buried by cold, clammy bodies.

Then it ended. The truck rested on its top up against a tree.

Cole lay, dazed among the dead. The rhythmic ticking of cooling engine parts was the only sound.

“Amber,” he whispered. There was no response. “Amber?”

He felt around among the dead. A warm cheek brushed against his fingers. He shoved the cadavers off of Amber and grabbed her face. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes slowly opened.

Heavy tires skidded to a halt on the road above. Cole heard two passengers dismount and climb down the wooded embankment to the wrecked truck. He caught sight of the black pants and boots of the DHS agent as she stepped around to the cab. Two pistol shots rang out, ending any uncertainty of Alex’s fate. The second agent walked to the back of the truck.

“Stay down,” Cole whispered. He went limp as the man ducked to look into the cargo area. “Hey!” he called to the female agent. “Two Green Guards are back here!” The agent crawled in, pistol in hand. He grabbed Cole’s coat and tugged.

Cole mumbled something just above his breath, his eyes half open. He beckoned to the agent.

The DHS man crawled closer and put his ear to Cole’s lips. He never saw the knife.

Cole drove it deep in the agent’s throat, just as he had the teen-aged greenie. The guard kicked and gurgled, then went still. Hot blood covered Cole’s face and arms up to the elbows. Its sticky heat reminded him of the summer his father taught him how to change the oil in his car. He could still hear Hank’s laughter as the car’s fluid ran all over his head and hands in the hot gravel driveway of their country home.

“What’s going on?” The female agent looked into the back of the truck.

Cole clenched the male agent’s pistol, the grip sticky against his bloody hand.

The agent raised her pistol and entered the hold.

Pop! Pop!

The woman dropped.

Cole held his breath, listening for more footsteps. None came.

“Help,” Amber grunted, trying to free herself from the tangle of dead flesh.

Cole pushed the cold flesh off of her. “Are you hurt?”

“I…I don’t…” She vomited, then groaned, “My head hurts.”

“Hey! What’s going on down there?” a voice called from the idling MRAP.

Cole looked through a rip in the tarp to the road above as he pocketed the female agent’s pistol and ammunition. The gunner had his turret aimed at the truck. “We gotta get out of here!” He asked Amber, “Can you walk?”

Amber nodded. “I think so.”

Cole helped her from the wrecked vehicle.

“Hey!” the gunner called from his perch.

Cole froze.

“What happened?” the gunner asked.

No shooting. Not even an order to put their hands up. Cole was amazed until remembered he and Amber wore the coats and arm bands of the Green Guard.

He waved to the black-clad man. “Those bastards took our truck! Thanks for the help!”

The gunner waved back, tilting his head like a confused dog.

“Let’s go,” Cole whispered to Amber. He put her arm over his shoulder and led her away from the black gun truck into the woods as fast as they could walk. He was careful to keep the wrecked hulk between them and the gunner.

“Hey!” the gunner yelled, “Where are you going? Where are agents Adorno and O’Donnell?”

“They’re in the truck!” Cole spotted a wooded ravine ahead. He scooped Amber into his arms and picked up the pace. Dead leaves crunched under their every step.