“Wow, nice work, Dan. We were taking bets on if you were going to fall.” I turned quickly to the voice and found the team, minus Senshi and Cupcake, standing behind me.
“Screw you, Brian.” I gave him the finger and then punched him in the shoulder. My knuckles cracked, and I shook my hand in pain. Damn, that guy had to be made of granite.
“Your little hand ok there, Boss?”
Doc butted in on our fun, “You two done yet? It’s going to be light soon.”
Kuppers came up into the group and dropped to one knee. We surrounded him and looked down to what he was drawing in the dirt with a stick. He drew the road going up to the building from our position. “Let’s break this down. Senshi will be our over watch, and Brian and Dan will head through the trailer park and come up on the building from the bridge side. Apache and Doc will come up on the hillside, and Vic and I will come in from the front. We can’t rely on timing here, so we will report on the radio when we are in position. At that point, Senshi will take out the truck’s guard and any others out front. We will then approach the building from our positions and make our way through the building. We need a couple of prisoners, so try not killing all of them. The hostages are being held in this storage room in the back of the building.” He tapped a section in the back of his drawing of the building. “Doc and I will make a beeline straight there to protect them. Apache and Doc, circle the building, take out any other guards, and stop anyone from retreating. Dan and Brian, you guys will sweep the building, looking for any guards unaccounted for.”
He looked up at all of us, meeting our eyes, “Any questions, concerns, or gripes?”
We shook our heads no and broke into our assigned teams. I pulled my pack off my shoulders and rested it against the tree. I dug into it, pulling any loaded magazines I had for the MP5 and slid them into pouches on my armor. Brian and I checked each other’s gear over as the rest of the team did the same.
Brian and I tossed a mock salute at the team and took off down the road to the trailer park.
We moved slowly and kept our eyes sweeping the trailers and the ground around us. We walked down the middle of the road and stopped dead in our tracks. A small group of five zombies shambled out in front of us from around a large trailer to our right, cutting off our progress.
I looked over at Brian. “We can’t use our guns, so I guess we go back to our tried and true ways from the Tower?”
He dropped his gun onto its sling and reached over and took one of my batons from my belt. I stretched my back and arms and retrieved my other baton and the Kabar knife from my belt. I pointed to my left and at Brian. He picked up on what I suggested and went in that direction. Two of the zombies broke off from their group and shuffled after Brian, leaving three for me.
I took my time and waited for the fastest to get within reach. I hit it in the left knee breaking the bone and forcing it to fall in that direction. As it fell, I swung the baton again, this time catching it directly behind its right ear. A crack of bone could be heard, and the zombie fell lifeless to the ground. I moved backward and to my left and watched as the zombies fell over their dead friend to the ground. I moved in fast and bashed in the nearest head. I then dropped to my knee, brought the Kabar down and into the last Zombie’s head just where it met the neck, and twisted it. I put my foot on its shoulder and freed the knife, cleaning it on the zombie’s leftover remnants of clothing.
I also wiped off the baton and holstered it, along with the Kabar. I looked over to find Brian finishing off the last zombie by bashing its face in with the heel of his boot. He cleaned my other baton and his boot off on its clothing and brought the baton back to me.
Brian slid the baton into my empty holster. “We have gotten way too good at this.”
“Don’t say that, you are going to jinx our next fight with these things.”
He flipped me off, brought his gun back to his shoulder, and stalked away. I took off the safety from the MP5, chambered a round, brought it to my shoulder, and followed Brian. We encountered no more zombies and went up a small rise to hide behind some trees just across the street from the building and truck sitting in the parking lot. Brian clicked on his radio, “Dan and Brian in position. Over.”
“Roger, we are all in position now. We will wait on Senshi to take out the guards and clear us to move. Over,” Kuppers answered over the radio.
We hunkered down, and I swept to the right of the truck with my gun as Brian swept to the left. A shot ran out, and the front windshield of the truck exploded in. Quickly, two more shots rang out. Then Senshi’s voice came over the radio, “All clear, I will cover the front door as you all move in. Over.”
Brian tapped me on the shoulder and then got to his feet and rushed across the street with his barrel up, covering the left side of the building. I jumped to my feet and copied Brian’s movements, but covered to the right. We met at the corner of the building, and Brian pointed to the windows and motioned for me to cover them as he made entrance.
I swiveled my barrel over and watched as Brian opened the door and made entrance. I stayed behind him and followed inside. We cleared the large dining room. The tables sat with tablecloths and full settings. No one appeared. We made entry into the only room offered to us off the dining room. The area was small with a small sink rack of cups and a soda fountain. We cleared it quickly, since it was barely big enough for both us to stand in at the same time. The next set of doors ended up being swivel doors that could open in or out. Brian motioned for me to stand back. He got on his knees and pulled one of the doors slowly toward him just enough so he could see into the room. Two rounds punched into the door above his head. Brian reacted quickly, pulled the door all the way open, and rolled through them. I dropped to my knees and waited for Brian to call me in. I heard three quick shots, and then something fell to the door. I waited another second, and was about to move inside, when Brian appeared at the door and waved me in.
I walked in and covered the Kitchen while Brian made his way through, clearing behind countertops and stoves. He motioned me forward, and I moved up and followed him to the end of the kitchen to a large stainless door. He reached out and grabbed the door. I moved to the side and raised my rifle to be able to fire inside once he opened it. Brian pulled the door quickly, and I stepped forward ready to fire. A man, dressed in dirty jeans and a red flannel shirt, stood inside shaking badly. I looked at his hands, and he raised them quickly to signal that they were empty. Brian reached in, pulled the man out, and threw him onto the ground. Brian zip tied the man’s hands behind his back tightly and sat on his legs. I stood there covering the man. Brian took a handgun from the man’s waistband and a knife from a scabbard on his belt. He put them into one of his many cargo pockets on his pants. He then zip tied the man’s ankles together and looked around the kitchen. I spied a kitchen towel, took it off a counter, and tossed it at Brian. He used it as a gag and shoved it into the man’s mouth. Using a roll of duct tape, he wound it around the man’s mouth, keeping the towel secured.
We left the man and worked our way into another dining room. Once we walked out, a burst of automatic fire punched holes in the wall to our left. We reacted without thinking and dove to the right behind an eating counter. The gunfire shifted and punched into the counter top. I kept my head down and watched as Brian crawled further down the open space. A lull came in the fire and he popped up and fired a short burst into the dining room. When he ducked down, I then popped up and watched as a gunman sighted on the area Brian had just dropped down from. I fired and stitched the man across the chest just as someone nearby him fired in my direction.
I dropped back down and covered my hands over my head and neck, protecting it from the chips of countertop being blasted into the air. Another gun went off from somewhere else in the room, and all became silent. I looked over at Brian, and he gave me the wait sign by holding a hand up. We waited another minute and then heard Kuppers’ voice, “Alright, boys, room is clear. You can get up now.”
We gained our feet and looked across the room to Vic zip tying a woman and holding a towel to her shoulder. Brian jumped over the counter. I was not going to even try doing that, since I would probably fall straight on face, so I walked around the corner and into the room.
“Building clear?”
Kuppers leaned against a table and dropped his gun onto its sling and smiled at us. “Yup. We found the hostages and freed them when we heard your little fire fight. We dealt with four other guards that were about to shoot the hostages. How many did you guys get?”
Brian scratched at his beard and answered, “One dead in the kitchen, and one prisoner hog tied on the floor near the fridge.”
“How are the hostages?” I asked.
“They’re fine. We freed one, and she is releasing the rest. Why don’t you two head up those stairs and deal with that floor while we go back and help out the hostages?” Vic ordered.
Brian and I nodded our agreement and started climbing the stairs. We kept hunched over, our guns trained at the door above waiting on us. “I’ll open the door. You do your action star roll inside and I’ll cover you,” I suggested.
“I’ll do my best Bruce Willis impersonation.”
“You have a long way to go to do that with how ugly you are.”
Before he could say anything, I grabbed the door and swung it open fully. Brian threw himself into the room and rolled into a couch onto his knees bringing his gun up. I entered into the room and moved to my right. Two men and woman hunched down at the end of the room with handguns raised at us. I fired and hit one of the men in the chest, knocking him back the wall. Brian fired simultaneously, hitting the other man in the legs, making him drop his gun and grab his new bullet holes. The woman started to raise her handgun when I yelled out, “Put it down, or we will kill you. You have no chance.”
I realized she was the woman I saw earlier in the truck. She thought for a couple of heartbeats and made the right decision. She dropped her gun and raised her hands. “I’ll cover you, Brian.” He stood and made his way cautiously toward her as I covered her and the two men. Brian knocked her down to the ground on her face and zip tied her quickly. Her frisked her and removed two knives and another gun hidden under her shirt. He then took the man he had shot in the legs and rolled him onto his stomach. He zip tied him up and went through his clothes, relieving him of knives, two full magazines of .9mm ammo, and 4 condoms.
Brian then rolled him over and tore the man’s pants legs open. He examined the wounds and removed a first aid kit from his pack. He poured two packs of some kind of power on the wounds and placed bandages on them. The man was unconscious from the rounds but had a strong heartbeat, Brian announced. He checked the last man and found him to still be alive. The man kept trying to speak, but blood welled from his mouth. There was nothing we could do. All I could think about was how he was going to suffer because of me. I raised my barrel and shot him in the head, putting him out of his misery.
Brian looked at me surprised, “That was the last thing I thought you would do.”
I looked into his eyes, then turned and started walking out of the room back to the stairs. I wasn’t trying to be an ass, but I was tired, hurt, and pissed at the whole shit going on since the world fell. “We couldn’t help him, and he was in misery. Come on, let’s go see what’s up downstairs.”
Brian followed me downstairs and to the back room where the hostages were being released by Vic and Kuppers. Kuppers looked up from releasing a mother and her young daughter from their binds and looked over to us. “What did you find upstairs?”
“Two hostages, one wounded. Also one dead gunman,” Brian answered.
“Where are Apache and Doc?” I inquired.
“They finished their sweep of the area and are bringing back a hostage. The guard should be here soon. Why don’t you two go out front and move that truck so they have a place to land?”
We turned and trotted back to the dining room, ignoring the prisoner that was still zip tied and lying on the floor. We opened the front doors and waved in the air toward where Senshi was watching us through a scope. We made our way over and opened the driver’s door to the sweet 4x4 Ford Raptor. I reached in and examined the interior. The back of the cab was painted in blood, and the dead guard was still sitting straight up in his seat. I stepped up on the running board and grabbed the man’s arm, pulling him out of the truck. Brian reached up and grabbed him, dragged him to the rear of the truck, and threw him in the bed. I looked at the seat and was happy to find it dry and clean. I slid in and turned the key and the truck roared to life. The engine in this thing was amazing and strong. I popped the brake and put the truck in reverse. I backed it out onto the street and parked it under the copse of trees Brian and I had hidden under earlier.
I turned off the engine and sat there thinking, I could probably fire this thing up and go to Fort Bragg on my own pretty quick. ‘What is wrong with me?’ I thought. This is my new family. I need to stay and help them. Then there’s Brian and little Angel. I can’t leave them behind. I sighed deeply and stretched my neck, trying to work the kinks out of it. I dropped the keys on the seat as I got out and made my way back to the parking lot. Brian watched me with concern in his eyes and stepped in my way. “Boss, what’s going on, man? You ok?”
I stopped and looked up at the sky, enjoying the rising sun from the East. “I don’t know, man. Maybe I am just trying to deal with all this shit. Just last week I was worried about data and reports. Now here I am using guns and shooting people. This is so hard for me to wrap my head around.”