Blood Apocalypse - 04 (13 page)

“What did I do?” James asked, trying to appear innocent.

“You know exactly what you’ve done,” Roberts seethed. “It’s bad enough you want to try to go Rambo on a bunch of people who could tear you up like shredded wheat, but now you want to push my buttons after you’ve been warned not to?” he warned through gritted teeth. “Do you want to be transferred out of here?”

“What? From this glorious tropical paradise?” James shot back sarcastically. “Please. You need me too much to get rid of me.”

“I need you like I need a fucking toothache. And right now you’re a bigger liability than you are an asset,” Roberts warned him. “You’re either a part of this team or you’re not.”

James shot him a smirk. “Funny. I was about to say the same thing to you.”

*****

When morning came and the first licks of sunshine broke across the eastern horizon, a lone jet approached from the east. Gunnery Sergeant Tufo stepped out into the brisk morning air, his eyes adjusting to the brightening sky, his ears picking up the sound of the jet’s engines before his eyes picked it up as it descended. The control tower had called and notified him that the cargo jet was coming in bringing supplies and a lone squad member who had been hopping military jets all the way from Italy.

Mark knew that Colonel Mitchell had nearly pulled an all-nighter, as had Laura Youngblood so he took it upon himself to greet the young soldier who had risked everything to save his family, and thereby, got himself into a pile of trouble that could have only been one step up from Hell itself. Mark and another crew were leaving this morning to go back to Tinker to pick up a few things left behind anyway, but this call made it worth ge
tting around a bit earlier than he had planned. He had contacted the duty chief and had a crew standing by to offload the cargo plane and an electric golf cart ready to take Dom to the infirmary for a quick check over. He was sure that Dominic would fight him over the medical check, but rules were rules. Besides, Matt had already told him that once Dom got back, that was the first thing on the list.

Mark waited anxiously for the plane to land and taxi to a stop near the hangar he stood by. As the rear cargo doors opened, Dom practically clawed his way out of the plane and bounded out to the tarmac. Mark smiled as he saw the oversized Italian again and shook his head.

He raised his hand and yelled to him, “Dom!”

Dominic turned and saw Tufo standing by the edge of the tarmac and his head instantly tilted, the confusion evident across his face. “I remember you,” he said absently.

“Gunnery Sergeant Mark Tufo. You saved my family in Ohio.” Mark approached him and stuck his hand out. Dom took it and shook his hand, the confusion still evident in his face. “We have a lot to discuss, so if you’ll follow me?” Mark led Dom to the golf cart.

“I really need to talk to the colonel.” The anxiety in his voice was loud and clear.

“I know, but he made it clear what we need to do first, Dom.” Mark motioned toward the cart.

“Why are you here, Tufo? I mean, I understand you’re grateful and all, but you shouldn’t be here…”

“I’ll explain everything if you’ll just follow me.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Gunnery Sergeant, u
nless it’s to see the colonel.” He appeared adamant and crossed his arms across his massive chest as if to punctuate his statement.

Mark stopped and shook his head. “Don’t make me write you up, Mr. DeGiacomo.”

Dom snorted derisively. “You can’t do shit, Gunny. You ain’t even in the Corps no more. You’re just a spotter for the squads.”

Mark raised an eyebrow and shot Dom a hard look. “For your information, I’m your new Executive Officer. Now get your oversized ass in that golf cart before I kick it up between your shoulder blades,” Mark said quietly but forcefully.

Dom’s jaw went slack and he stared at Tufo. “Are you shitting me? What happened to Laura? I mean…Ms. Youngblood? Is she okay? Did she get hurt? Is she—”

“Get in the fucking golf cart, soldier! NOW!” Mark used his best drill instructor voice.

Dom jumped and double timed it to the golf cart. The springs actually groaned and the cart leaned as he stuffed himself into it. Mark got in behind the wheel and started across the campus for the infirmary. “Now, to catch you up on what’s happened since you’ve been out…”

He told Dom about how he forced his way back into the teams and how Laura had been expressing interest in leaving. He explained that Jack came up with the idea of him taking her place and Mitchell begrudgingly went with it. He went on to e
xplain that the team knew about the upcoming attack from the Sicarii thanks to Jack’s contacts and they also had recruited the greater elves to fight. He explained that Jack’s grandfather in law was some big-wig werewolf and had the power to call all the wolves to him and recruit them to fight on their side. He did the best he could at giving Dom the ‘big picture’ over view as he could and the two sat outside the infirmary and talked while the sun continued to rise. All around them, the base slowly came to life and people assumed their daily duties as Dominic and Mark sat in the golf cart and got Dominic caught up as quickly as they could.

Once Mark felt that Dom was sufficiently informed, and Dom stopped asking questions, he escorted him into the clinic for a quick checkup. Of course, Dom balked, but he explained that Mitchell was dead serious about the check up and he wanted to make sure that Dom was caught up on his ‘medicine’. The full moon was coming up soon and he didn’t want to have to worry about any of his squad members shifting unexpectedly.

Dom grumbled, but complied. He got checked out as quickly as he could and Mark was waiting to escort him to Mitchell’s office. As he stepped out of the infirmary, he shook Mark’s hand. “Thanks for waiting for me. I’d never find where I was needing to go here.”

“No problem, buddy. It was the least I could do after what you did for me and my family.”

“So…hey…I was wondering something. Until Laura actually leaves, what do I call you? I mean, you aren’t officially the XO yet, and…I mean, well, what’s proper?”

“You can call me Mark, you can call me Gunny, or Tufo, or Asshole…or whatever you feel like. Just don’t call me late for supper.”

“Yeah, right. Somehow calling you asshole seems like a good way to get my butt handed to me.”

“Naw. My bark’s worse than my bite,” Mark admitted. “I’m not augmented like you fellas are.”

Dom shot him a puzzled look. “I thought you said you used to be with the teams?”

“That was
before
they came up with the augmentation.”

Dom nodded. “Wait…and you came back and still hung with First Squad? With Jack?”

“Yeah, why?”

Dom clapped him on the back. “Augmented or not. That’s doing something, buddy.”

“If you say so.”

“I do,” Dom replied. “You don’t get it, do you?” Tufo shook his head. “Dude, First Squad of Team Four? That’s like the
elite
of the
ELITE
. It don’t get any better than that. Why do you think they made Jack the team leader?”

“I figured it was because he was so damned ugly,” Mark joked.

“Yeah. Ugly is one way to put how he fights.” Dom raised a brow. “If you hung with them, you’re more than okay in my book.”

Mark stopped the cart in front of the Headquarters Building. “Mitchell’s office is in there. On your right. You can’t miss it.”

Dom looked up the stairs at the building. “Thanks, Mark. I really appreciate you catching me up on shit.”

“It was the least I could do.” He nodded. “Listen, we’re about to go back to Tinker and sift through a bunch of shit we left. Anything there you need?”

Dom feigned thinking hard. “Umm,
everything
?”

Mark chuckled and patted his shoulder. “This isn’t our last trip back, just a quickie trip to get some stuff we could use. Tell you what, make me a list of things you know you’ll need and get it to me within the next couple of hours and I’ll be sure we get it for you, okay?”

“Thanks, brother.”

“Just have Matt or Laura shoot it to my PDA.” Mark gave a mock salute as he pulled away.

Dom watched him scoot off in the little golf cart and shook his head. His eyes scanned the new base with its barren, industrial appearance and he sighed. He had only been here a short while and already he missed seeing grass. He missed the smells of Tinker, the jet fuel, the unmistakable smell of cattle and oil and
people
. He missed the whiffs of the Burger King that the wind would waft toward their little hangar when the wind was from the north. With a shrug of his shoulders and less spring in his step he climbed up to the front of the building and entered.

He worked his way to Colonel Mitchell’s office and knocked.

“Enter,” Matt barked. Dom smiled to himself upon hearing that familiar voice.

“What’s a guy got to do to get a welcome home drink around here?”

Matt looked up from his desk and smiled. “About damned time you got here, soldier. I thought I was going to have to report you AWOL.” He got up and embraced him. “How you doing, Dom?” He looked him in the eye, searching for signs of a shattered person. “You didn’t sound well on the phone.”

“When we talked, I wasn’t doing well at all,” Dom admitted quietly. “Fucker got in my head, sir.”

Mitchell studied him intently. “And now?”

“Now?” Dom smiled. “Now I’ve turned the tables on him, sir. He shot my head full of…well, everything.” Matt gave him a quizzical look. “He injected me with his memories. I mean
all
of them. I know who he is, where he came from, what he’s done…everything.” Dom tapped the side of his head.

“Oh, my God…”

“Yeah, it was hell,” Dom reflected. “I thought I was going to lose it. But during the time in the hospital, I went on a journey.”

Matt sat down and motioned for Dom to join him. “A jou
rney? You mean when you worked your way to Aviano?”

“No sir.” Dom wasn’t quite sure how to explain what he meant. “I mean…a journey in my head. While I was in the coma. I know I can’t explain it to where you’d understand, but it helped me figure out something that the bloodsucker stuck in there that I don’t think he meant to.”

Matt shook his head. “What are you saying?”

“When he put his memories in my head, he put them
all
in there, Colonel. Even some I don’t think he meant for me to have.” Dom leaned forward, trying to emphasize the importance of what he was saying. “I don’t know if he wasn’t thinking, or if he didn’t think I could figure it out, or pick them out of the mess or if he didn’t think it would really matter, or…what?”

“Okay.” Matt waved him on. “So what did you find?”

“The dirt!” Dom said excitedly.

Matt’s face went blank. “What dirt?”

“When I escaped from them, I took a van. In the van was a long crate. Like a coffin, but…not really. And in that box was
dirt
! But not just
any
dirt, sir. It was dirt from his homeland.”

Matt shook his head. “I’m still not following you, son.”

“Colonel! He has to have that dirt with him! He can’t be away from it. I don’t know why he has to, but he does. He can’t sleep without it. He can’t be far from it or it weakens him…a LOT.” Dom said excitedly.

“Come again?” Matt’s eyes were squinted as he tried to comprehend. “How does this dirt help us? I mean, he could just scatter a little wherever he went, couldn’t he?”

“No, sir. I don’t think he can. He has to have it. He sleeps on it, he needs it to be close to him and I haven’t figured out the
why
just yet, I just know that he does.”

Matt nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Dom asked. “That’s it? Just okay? Sir, this could be the key to stopping him. If we figure out where he’s hiding his dirt when he comes here, and then destroy it, then we could…”

“Son, we need more information.” Matt held his hands up. “We don’t want to go off applying resources to something that may or may not be a viable avenue of attack without more bac
kground information.”

“But, Colonel, I’m positive that—”

“I’m sure that you are.” Matt stopped him. “But first, we don’t know
why
he needs the dirt. Second, we don’t know
where
he may be hiding it. Thirdly, we don’t know the proper way to dispose of it. Fourthly, do we need to destroy it or can we simply
taint
it with something like silver or iron or—”

“Okay.” Dom cut him off. “I get your point, sir.” Matt could tell he had knocked the wind from his sails.

“Look, I’m not discounting what you’ve brought us. We’re definitely going to look into this. And we have a couple of vampires right here on the base who might can help us out with this little problem.”

Dom looked up from the floor. “You mean Evan, sir? He’s never used any kind of dirt before that I’m aware of.”

“He’s not the only vampire that’s helping us these days,” Matt informed him.