Authors: Robert Van Dusen
Two of the civilians got tasked out to go around to the cafeteria, classrooms and teacher’s lounge where they would gather up all the empty soda bottles and other sealable containers they could find. These would be washed out and left on the windowsills to air dry then refilled with water from the sinks and stored in the refrigerator to cool. If things were as bad as they looked it was only a matter of time before the water coming from the tap became not safe to drink.
Lieutenant Jenkins appointed a young woman named Dolores Anderson their vehicle maintenance person, as she was an automotive mechanic. Dolores got a detail together to strip the civilian cars of their useable parts, gas and fluids to help keep the three SUVs and two pickups running. This left them with a sizable pile of spare parts and twenty five gallon gas cans full of varying grades of regular gas. There were also eighteen buses that could have their tanks drained later to fuel the military vehicles.
Amy was also busy in the workshop: she manufactured homemade suppressors for their AR pattern rifles and Eamon’s shotgun. She also wired a switch into the school’s walk-in refrigerator and freezers so they could power the units off of a couple heavy duty batteries meant for the school buses in the back of the building. A couple hours with an exercise bike from the gym and some fan belts from the buses produced a dynamo to recharge the batteries after swapping them out every twelve hours.
The sleeping arrangements had been decided: there were two married couples that would have their own rooms. The single personnel would have to share rooms segregated by sex with females on one side of the building and males on the other. These rooms they partitioned off with sheets or tarps so the occupants could have at least a little bit of privacy if they wanted. Eamon, as the de facto unit medic, would room in the nurse’s office. Lieutenant Jenkins would sleep on the couch in the principal’s office, which was designated as the XO’s office. The only difficulty was that there was not enough cots to go around, however that was more or less worked around via creative work scheduling.
Eamon also advised that the former teacher’s lounge be turned into a quarantine room where anybody who came down with a cold or if they had been bitten by one of the infected would be kept separated from the others while they received care. All this was set up by the ‘unskilled labor’: mainly the civilians who did not get tasked out to help
barricade the school’s doors and windows.
Later
in the evening of their third day at the school Adam leaned against the low wall along the edge of the school’s roof. His entire body had long since settled into a dull ache from head to toe but he felt little right to complain: he had grabbed some rack time for a couple hours three or four times over the last few days. As far as he knew Frays had somehow kept working the entire time.
Lacey glanced at the woman snoozing with her head resting on her rucksack a few feet away and smirked. She looked kind of silly lying there with her mouth half open and snoring like a chainsaw. Lacey had found himself having to reevaluate his opinion not only of the Air Force but females in the military in general. He had heard all the jokes about
both groups (and told a few himself) but after his brief contact with Frays, he thought her a much better leader than most of the male Marines he had known. The fact that she had also worked his ass into the ground upped his opinion of her considerably. A brief ripple of shame went through him when he thought about how he had come dangerously close to shooting her.
Adam put the squad’s set of night vision goggles to his eyes and flicked them on. The world became shades of green and black punctuated with bright white dots as he scanned the fields behind the school. There were the uprights for the football field, the goalposts for the soccer fields, and the bleachers on the sidelines… Something made his breath catch in his throat. Something was moving on the grass in the middle of the track about one hundred and fifty meters away. He studied the spot for a moment, unsure if what he had seen was a trick of his tired brain or not. Not just one but several things were moving out there. “Oh, God…” he whispered.
Lacey rushed over to where Amy and Eamon were sleeping. He put a hand on Amy’s shoulder and shook her awake while kicking Eamon with the toe of his boot. She sat up with a gasp. “There’s somebody coming!” he said quickly before returning to his position. The two others dropped onto the rooftop beside him, Amy squinting through the scope mounted to her M4.
She held out her hand. “Let me see the NODs, Lacey.” Frays said. There was a note of uncertainty in her voice that made Eamon’s mouth feel dry. The Marine handed the black device over and Amy snapped the goggles onto the swivel mount on her Kevlar. She lined up the end of the NODs with her Aimpoint and paused. The air seemed to grow thick around them until the corner of Amy’s mouth curled upward slightly. “It’s a herd of deer, man. Looks like about six.” She narrowed her eyes and shifted slightly. “That one off to the far left has a nice rack. He looks like he’s about an eight point or so. Wouldn’t mind seeing him walk by my stand this fall.”
Eamon and Adam laughed. “You jerk.” Eamon muttered as he playfully slapped Adam’s Kevlar. “Woke me up for deer. Jeez!” The EMT got up and went back to his spot. After a few tosses and turns he settled back down.
Amy handed the NODs back to Adam
, grumbling under her breath. If she were packing a rifle of a heavier caliber or if it were daylight, they could have fresh venison for dinner. Having a barbeque would be awesome compared to eating out of cans for a change. Unfortunately, the ‘Geneva Convention friendly’ full metal jacket M855 round would not mushroom like a hollow point and probably could not put down a deer in one shot without precise shot placement. Given the way things were, she did not feel like tracking a wounded deer all over creation, especially in the middle of the night.
“You did the right thing.” she said quietly. The woman looked back at her rucksack then settled against the wall. She felt around in her pockets for a minute and looked hopefully at Lacey. “I don’t suppose you smoke?”
Adam shook his head. “Nope, sorry.” he said sympathetically. Lacey smirked when Frays groaned and rolled her eyes. She shot him a sour look and went back to her spot on the roof.
“Well, remember that we’re planning to do a little recon and foraging tomorrow.” Amy said quietly as she stretched and shivered a little. “I guess I’ll have to keep my eyes open. Wake me if anything else happens, alright?”
The next morning Lieutenant Jenkins and a couple of the refugees along with Frays and her people stood gathered around the hood of a Humvee parked next to the school’s automotive shop. Jean looked up to see two of the soldiers standing guard on the roof studying them from above. The older woman smiled and waved then turned her attention back to the safety briefing.
Jenkins traced a purple line on the map. “We came right up Route 111 here.” he said, stopping at a small dot. “Once you guys get to the little strip mall east of here, your objective is the Walgreens located in the strip mall about a quarter mile inside the town. Infill point will be the parking lot.”
Amy frowned at the map. “What are we looking for? I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want to spend any more time there than I have to.”
Eamon spoke up first. “We’ve got a couple people here with some pretty serious medical conditions.” he said slowly as he produced a folded sheet of paper. “I’ve got a shopping list made up of the meds they’ll need. All the antibiotics and painkillers we can find wouldn’t go amiss either.”
Amy nodded. “Alright, that’ll be your job once we get inside.” She struggled to remember the names of the two civilians. They were both about her age but neither one of them knew how to use a gun, leaving Frays and Lieutenant Jenkins somewhat at a loss as to how to put them to use. They looked like they were either college students or cubical rats, but they were the only two people to volunteer to give them a hand. “Josh and Dana, you two grab shopping carts and get all the canned food and bottled water you can find as quick as you can and throw it in the back of the Five Ton. I’ll be doing the same in the first aid section.”
Once they agreed on the plan Lieutenant Jenkins went back inside and Amy did a hands on check of her flight before they moved out. The convoy started down the road at eight thirty by her watch, putting them about five minutes behind schedule. Amy sat in the passenger seat of the lead Humvee, watching the world go by. Lacey was driving and Jean was manning the fifty caliber machinegun. Eamon, Josh and Dana rode in the Five Ton behind them. She spared a glance at the Marine in the driver’s seat. He stared ahead at the blacktop, his face unreadable. Then he yawned. After the adrenaline rush of the planning phase and moving out, the inevitable crash was starting to set in.
Amy dug around in her rucksack for a minute and came up with the canister of instant coffee she had bought in the PX and stuffed a spoonful of the freeze-dried granules in between her cheek and gum. “Here, man.” she said as she carefully held out a heaping spoonful to Lacey “Stuff this in your face like its dip. It’ll help you wake up.”
Adam grinned and carefully tried to do what Frays said. A good portion of it ended up in his mouth where it got stuck between his teeth and soaked up all his spit. “I never had dip before.” Lacey muttered as he took a quick drink from his camelbak.
“A day for firsts, I guess.” Frays said quietly. She started to wake up a little more as the concentrated caffeine started to claw its way into her bloodstream. “I don’t think instant coffee counts, though.”
Adam laughed. “Is it supposed to make my jaw go numb?” He wrinkled his face and swallowed the bitter juice in his mouth. The two of them were quiet awhile as they drove down the road. Amy warily watched her side of the road cautiously, her carbine resting across her lap with the rifle’s muzzle pointed out the window. She started humming a tune quietly under her breath. It took Adam a moment to place it: the hymn Onward, Christian Soldiers.
“Nervous?” he asked quietly. He bit down on the valve of the straw to his camelbak and took another drink. The water in it was already starting to get warm, but that wasn’t too surprising. It was close to nine thirty in the morning and it was already in the low seventies with clear blue skies. It was going to be a beautiful day.
Amy cracked open a bottle of water and drained half of it. “Of course.” she said quietly as she screwed the cap back on and set the bottle on the floor between her feet. “We’re going to go rob a drug store because of a near complete breakdown of social order caused by some kinda weirdo superbug or something. Is there any part of that sentence that doesn’t make you nervous?”
Adam laughed. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” He turned his attention back to the road for a moment. “Did you go…er…overseas?”
Frays nodded, still looking out the window. “Yeah, I just got back about a month ago.” she said quietly. Amy glanced at him a moment before turning her attention back to the road. She put out a hand against the vehicle’s dashboard to brace herself as Lacey took the Humvee around a stalled out car. “My sunburn barely stopped peeling and this crap had to happen.”
“Hey, I bet I can guess what you’re thinking.” Adam said after he had washed the instant coffee out of his cheek and swallowed it.
Amy arched an eyebrow at him. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yep.” Lacey broke out a wide grin “Why, oh why did I answer that goddamn phone call?”
Frays burst out laughing as they were coming up on the objective. Amy grabbed the radio’s handset and keyed the mike. “All stations this net, this is HQ Five Niner.” she said quickly then keyed the mike again “We’re about five minutes out. Everybody remember their jobs and get ready. In and out, easy peasy.”
The two trucks squealed to a halt about fifty meters or so from the front entrance of the Walgreens. Frays and Lacey bailed out of the Humvee while Eamon backed the Five Ton up to the store. Josh and Dana let down the back of the truck while Eamon hurried to join Adam and Amy by the door. “Door’s locked.” Adam said as he tugged on the handle.
Eamon frowned. “Does anybody know how to pick a lock?” he asked, clearly getting nervous about sitting out in the open like this. He looked apprehensively at Jean in the cupola of the Humvee a little ways away.
Amy spared a glance at the heavy garbage can a few feet away. “Got it.” she said as she slung her M4 behind her back and grunted as she hefted the receptacle. Frays struggled forward a couple steps then threw it at the store’s glass door as hard as she could.
The door shattered in with a loud crash as the store’s alarm started screaming. “Smooth, Amy.” Eamon scolded as the three of them hustled inside. He ran towards the pharmacy and started piling things into a cart. “Real smooth.”
“Didn’t see you doing much.” Frays grumbled as she pushed a shopping cart towards her assigned
part of the store. Once at the First Aid section she started dumping armloads of disinfectants, band-aids, first aid kits and other odds and ends into her cart.
The five of them quickly filled up carts from the front of the store, ran out to the Five Ton emptied them and ran back to the store a couple times. The M2 started barking outside. Frays guessed the alarm must be drawing infected from the surrounding stores and the area around the strip mall. “Make it fast, people!” Amy shouted as she dumped a cartload of water, canned food and the last of the first aid supplies left into the back of the Five Ton.
“This storage closet is locked!” Eamon shouted from the back of the store. He tugged desperately at the door, hoping to pull it open. “What do I do?”