I shook my head and turned back around to leave.
“Just trying to be there for you,” I said in a low voice.
“Worry about your own ass, kid,” I heard him say as the door shut behind Boomer and me.
I was happy to see he was passed out when I returned half an hour later. I pulled two more patrols before I woke him for his turn. He didn’t say a word to me while he got ready and left.
I laid there in silence. Real silence. There were no moans. No chorus of the dead. It was my first real night of silence since The Awakening.
Chapter 9
The Draft
April 25
th
Morning
Fish woke me a few hours later with a kick to my shin.
“Get up. We’re having a pow-wow in fifteen minutes.”
I groaned and stretched. Fish left before I made it to my feet. I shined a flashlight over into his area and saw all of his gear for scavenging runs was gone. He never woke me for another shift. I wondered if he got anymore rest.
I geared up and made sure I had enough ammo for my AR-15 and Glock. I filled my two canteens full of water and grabbed a bag of beef jerky for Boomer. I picked up my small pack I had prepared the night before and called for Boomer.
I opened the door and saw it was still dark outside. If the sun was coming up soon, I couldn’t tell. There were clouds covering the stars. That sent a shiver down my spine. I wondered if they were going to cancel the rescue attempt of the post office survivors.
I made it to where we had the campfire the night before. All of the adults were there except Privates Trent and Manns, and Specialist Gardner. Gonzales was the only active duty soldier there besides Lieutenant, now Captain, Campbell. I figured the soldiers were pulling guard duty.
Jada and Cheryl were there along with Kat and her girlfriend, Lee Ann. I hypothesized that Karina had been left to watch over the children, considering I didn’t see her anywhere.
Cecil and Daniel were the last to show up around the campfire, which was just being lit by Jenna.
“That’s everyone,” DJ whispered to Campbell.
The Captain nodded to Fish, who was sitting on a log, chatting with Chad of all people.
Fish stood up and got everyone’s attention.
“Alright everyone, shut it!” he said in a commanding voice.
The group fell immediately silent. Fish had what I like to call ‘The Dad Voice’.
I suddenly realized we were already starting the militarization of Camp Holly. For those of you who have never served in the military, I’ll give you a little basic training. Officers rarely took personal charge of their troops. That was the NCO’s job. NCO’s, or Non Commissioned Officers, are the Sergeants, or in Fish’s case, the First Sergeant. Sergeants were the ones to corral the soldiers, dish out details and duties, reprimand, and so on.
The group turned to face Fish who had stood and walked over next to Campbell and DJ. Fish whispered something to the Captain. Campbell nodded and Fish turned back to the rest of us.
“In an hour we are heading to rescue some shlubs holed up at the West Melbourne Post Officer. Before this happens, there have to be some adjustments made to the way we are organized.” Fish waited a moment to see if anyone was going to say anything, but no one spoke.
“The first change is that Lieutenant Campbell has received a battlefield promotion to Captain,” Fish said. There were a few chuckles, one coming from Gonzales.
“Uh, and who did Campbell receive this promotion from?” Gonzales asked with snide grin.
Fish darted towards Gonzales, who was too slow to react. The old sniper grabbed Gonzales by his collar and slammed him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.
Everyone jumped and jaws opened in surprise. No one, however, tried to interfere.
“Get this straight, you fuck. I am tired of your disrespect and dissention. You will tighten your ass up or I will personally feed you to the Zulus! Is there any doubt in your mind that I won’t fulfill that promise?”
I heard Gonzales grunt an acknowledgement.
“You will, from this point forward, act like a soldier, is that clear?”
“Ye-yah,” he said, barely able to breathe.
“Yeah?”
“Yes, Sergeant!” he said as loud as his lungs would let him.
“Okay, First Sergeant, that’s enough,” Campbell said in a surprisingly calm tone.
Fish took a second longer, staring at Gonzales just inches away from his face. I could only imagine the feeling the Private was having. I’ve been on the other side of those cold eyes. I wouldn’t be shocked if Gonzales pissed himself.
First Sergeant Fischer stood and backed up next to the Captain. Rachel, Gonzales’s girlfriend, helped him to his feet. He pushed her gently away and held his chin high. I wasn’t sure if he was angry or scared but, regardless, he stayed silent for the rest of the meeting.
There was a look of apology from Campbell to Gonzales, but the Captain didn’t say anything. Of course, he couldn’t. To do so would have undermined Fish’s new authority. That wasn’t proper military etiquette when it came to sergeants dealing with subordinates.
Captain Campbell sucked in a deep breath, and then began to speak.
“I don’t want anyone to be confused. Not much is changing. We are just establishing more organization. If we are going to bring refugees here, we need to have a structured environment that they can easily assimilate to.”
Campbell looked around, but there was only silence. Fish just made a very big point and everyone got the message.
The Captain continued. “We are still working out the details on how we will distribute duties and personnel. DJ,” he motioned to the big man standing next to him, “will be my XO. For those of you who do not know what that means, DJ is my Executive Officer, or rather, my second in command. Fish is the First Sergeant.”
Some of the civilians had questionable expressions, but Campbell ignored them.
“Chain of command will be important as we bring more people to Camp Holly. This is one of the main reasons why I wanted to address everyone before we made our rescue attempt today. It is important that we adhere to this way of life. Others that join us will have to fall in line. Are there any questions?”
Lee Ann raised her hand.
“Yes, Lee Ann?” Campbell waved to her.
“Umm, Sir… or Captain, will we all be given rank? I mean, are we all in the military now?”
Campbell nodded and gave a weak grin. “To a lesser degree, I guess you could say that. I don’t plan on calling people private and such. But leadership ranks will be given to people in those positions. Like I said, we have not worked out all the details. I will tell you everyone here will have a primary job. However, you can count on having secondary, and in some cases, tertiary responsibilities.”
Another hand was raised, this time by Cheryl.
“Go ahead, Cheryl,” Campbell gestured.
“Captain,” the elderly lady said, “I don’t know much about the military. I mean, rank and codes and—”
“Cheryl,” DJ said with a grin, “Don’t worry about that right now. I will be going over some basics with everyone today.”
“I’m going to leave DJ here today to start formulating our structure. He and I have already worked out a few things, and he will review that with you while we’re gone,” Campbell announced.
I noticed Ryan, DJ’s wife, appeared relieved that he wasn’t going on the rescue mission with us. DJ was still not one hundred percent since the scab had drilled him in the shoulder with a pick axe.
“Sir?” Cecil spoke up. “Who all is going today?”
“We will be taking three groups with us. The first team will be me, the First Sergeant, Christian and Enrique. We will be making the initial contact with the survivors there. Backing us up will be team two. That will be headed up by Specialist Gardner with Jenna, Daniel and Chad. They will stay just out of visual range until we call them up. We have to be careful.”
“And the third team, sir?” Gonzales asked in an even tone. I could tell he was still upset. I think he was asking because he wanted to go. Gonzales could be an asshole and did cause dissent with Campbell, but he wasn’t a coward.
Campbell turned to Cecil. “You were a sergeant in law enforcement, correct?”
“Yes sir,” Cecil nodded.
Campbell smiled. “Well, you’re still a sergeant. You will lead team three to the West Melbourne Police Department. You will have Private Gonzales and Private Trent with you.”
Campbell turned to Fish. “First Sergeant.”
“That’s it, folks,” Fish said, taking a step forward. “Everyone not going needs to meet with the XO in the reception building. The rest of you are to be out front in twenty. Make sure you grab your suppressed weapons, high powered rifles if you have them, some water, enough food for a day, and plenty of ammo. Dismissed!”
There were some mummers from a few people, but most started to scatter in various directions.
“Gonzo!” Fish called to Gonzales. The Private turned back around.
“Yes, First Sergeant?” Surprisingly, there wasn’t any malice in his voice.
“Walk with me,” he ordered and the two marched off to the rear of the camp.
Boomer and I were walking to the reception hall to grab some breakfast when Campbell intercepted me.
“Christian,” he said, jogging up next to me.
“Yes sir?” I stopped and faced him.
“I hate to do this, but you’re going to have to leave Boomer back here.”
“Excuse me, sir?” I was confused. Why would he want to leave our best advantage for detecting scabs?
“I know what you’re thinking, Christian. And yes, Boomer would be a great asset to have with us, but we’re leaving Camp Holly virtually undefended. Besides Manns, there is only DJ here to fend off any potential threats. Sure, the rest will be armed, but if something were to come to the camp, they will need every advantage.”
“Sir, neither DJ nor Manns know how to deal with Boomer,” I argued.
“True, but Karina has spent time with Boomer in the city. You said yourself she was good with him, and not a bad shot either.”
I sighed. “But sir, she’s only fourteen. She can read Boomer, sure, but… she’s only a kid.”
Campbell looked to the ground and then back up at me. “At what age do people start protecting themselves and others in this shitty world? At some point, these kids need to grow up. I know that sounds a little tough on my end, but if she has already shown she can do it, we might as well use her.”
“Alright, sir,” I nodded reluctantly. An order was an order, and it pretty much sounded like that was what he was giving me.
Campbell patted my shoulder and walked past me to the reception area.
He was right, of course. The camp was going to be short on defenders. Boomer wouldn’t let anything get near the camp. He liked Karina and would probably listen to her.
I went back to the shack and grab the MP5 submachine gun. If Karina had to go outside with Boomer, she might as well be armed with a weapon she was comfortable with. I wouldn’t need it where I was going. I had my Glock for a suppressed weapon and my AR-15 for scabs or if we were overwhelmed with dead-heads.
I then headed toward the reception building and, once inside the cool darkness, I called to her in a whisper so as not to wake the other kids.
“Karina?”
“Yes?” she responded with a yawn. Karina was sitting in a chair near the back door. The kids were sleeping soundly in random places on the floor. I motioned her to follow me outside.
Boomer raced to her when she exited and she rapidly began to pet him on his back.
“We’re leaving soon. Campbell wants Boomer to stay with the camp. Do you mind keeping an eye on him for me?”
Karina smiled, “Of course!”
“Just keep in mind how he is around the dead-heads and scabs. That’s why he’s staying. He’s our little early-warning system.”
“Is that for me?” she asked, pointing at the MP5 in my hand.
“Yeah. I figure you can use it for a while. You’re better than I am with it anyways.”
“Thanks,” she said after I handed her the weapon along with four full magazines I had brought. I also handed her the bag of beef jerky.
“Just be careful. And don’t let Boomer run off. I really don’t know how he is out in the open like this.” I repositioned my gear, preparing to walk away.
“Be careful, Christian,” Karina said, and gave me a hug.
“I’m always careful,” I grinned.
“Umm, no you’re not,” she joked.
I chuckled as I walked towards the front of Camp Holly.
The assigned personnel to the mission were all there among the various vehicles we had used to escape the Ace Hardware compound. Enrique was sitting in the driver’s seat of Big Red. DJ was there, standing on the side railing, giving him instructions. It turns out they were similar to the dump trucks he drove in Mexico.
Cecil, Gonzales and Trent were near DJ’s old F350 truck. Fish was there, giving the three of them instructions on what to look for when they raided the police station. The former cop seemed a little offended, but he didn’t argue.
Campbell called to everyone to go over the plan. Team One, who consisted of the Captain, Fish, Enrique, and myself, was to make contact.