Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 03 (8 page)

"Do you expect me to believe that?" Commander Travis said, barely controlling his anger. Alex shrugged again.
 

"It really doesn't matter one way or the other to me. I'm just following orders. Same as you." Alex had hit the button he was looking for, and the commander exploded.
 

"How dare you, you insolent little peon!" he shouted, pounding his fist on his desk. "You are nothing more than a worthless grunt. Someone to be used and tossed aside. Following orders? That's a cop out! You're up to something you shouldn't be. I can feel it." Commander Travis stopped his rant too late, suddenly realizing that he had lost his control. Alex stood still and silent and waited for the commander to speak.
 

"Here," Commander Travis said skidding the papers across the desk. Alex reached out and caught them just as they slid off the edge. "You and your men on the Alpha teams for this outing?" he asked trying in vain to compose himself. Alex nodded as he rearranged the papers into an orderly pile. A wicked sneer crept across the commander's face. "Then maybe this is the last time I will see you." He let the words hang in the air, now trying to make Alex uncomfortable.
 

"Maybe," Alex responded and snapped a quick salute. "Permission to be dismissed, sir?"
 

"I'll find out what you're up to, lieutenant. And when I do, you'll wish the deaders got you." Alex finished his salute and without another word, turned and walked out of the tent.
 

-----

Alex forced himself to remain calm until he had put considerable distance between himself and Commander Travis' tent. Turning a corner so as not to be in direct line of sight, Alex paused to take some deep breaths and slow his racing heart. "Holy shit," he muttered under his breath.
 

"What's wrong?" The question startled Alex and set his heart racing again.
 

"Jesus Christ!" Alex shouted, clutching at this chest to hold in his pounding heart. Liam stood there, arms raised in defense.
 

"Sorry, man. Didn't mean to startle you. What's with all the drama?"

Alex held a hand out to his friend, begging a moment to collect himself. With a great sigh he straightened himself and began explaining what had just happened. "We're screwed, Liam. Commander Travis is on to us." Alex showed him the open envelope.
 

"Is that more stuff from the informant?"

"Yes. And Travis opened it." The color drained from Liam's face.
 

"What...what did he say?"

Alex shook his head and began skimming through the documents. "He knows we're up to something, he just doesn't know what. But he'll find out, Liam. We need a brilliant idea if we are going to get out of this one." Liam shook his head and scratched at the stubble on his chin; his brow furrowed in deep thought.
 

"We're not screwed, Alex. We're fucked."

Alex snorted. "Words of a poet, my friend."

Liam clapped Alex on the shoulder and pushed him in the direction of the staging area. "Maybe we'll get lucky and be eaten by a deader," he said. Alex didn't laugh. As the two men made their way back to the waiting helicopters, Alex relayed the events that took place just moments ago in Commander Travis' tent.

"Do you think he knows? Knows who we really are?" Liam asked after hearing Alex's account. Alex shook his head while leafing through the papers in his hands.

"No. I just think he's suspicious of something, but I don't think he know what those suspicions are. But I do think that our time here is quickly coming to an end. If the commander starts snooping around..." Alex paused a moment to let the idea sink in. "I don't think that our cover stories are as concrete as we would want them to be." Alex stopped walking and looked at his friend. "Liam, we need to start thinking about an exit strategy."

Someone calling their name drew the two men's attention away from their conversation. Donovan rushed towards them. "Choppers are loaded, gear is secured. We're ready to head out."

Alex nodded. "Hopefully we'll have some time to talk about all this in the next couple of days. Let's get out of here." The three men turned and hurried towards the waiting helicopters. Their rotor blades spun slowly in anticipation of transporting the Alpha teams to their new location. Alex stopped short to verify his equipment list and loadout with the quarter master while the rest of his Stryker team boarded the chopper.

As Alex made his way to the transport, his gaze fell on the airman standing in the doorway of the helicopter. Their eyes met briefly, and in that time Alex saw confusion and something close to fear. The airman broke eye contact and Alex saw him turn white as a sheet. Alex wrote the encounter off as coincidence, as the nervous jitters of a young recruit probably heading out for the first time. Alex climbed into the helicopter as the blades spun up.

-----

Alex sat on the hard floor of the helicopter, his back pressed up against the bulkhead behind him. He tried to continue scanning the documents, but the buffeting winds inside the transport was too much, and he carefully folded the papers and tucked them away inside his vest. Leaning his head back, Alex sneaked a look at the airman who had been dogging him with his eyes earlier. The airman continued stealing quick glances in his direction, turning his eyes away when he caught Alex looking at him.
 

"It's going to be a long flight, airman," Alex called over the noise of the rotor blades outside. "You mind explaining why I have the sneaking suspicion you are watching me?" The airman just stared at Alex without answering. "Well?" Still nothing. "Have it your way, airman. But stop giving me the evil eye. It's a long way to Wellington, and I don't want to feel creeped out the entire way."

The airman froze for a moment and seemed to regain a little color in his face. "We're not going to Wellington, lieutenant."

Alex lifted his head. "So just where are we going, airman?"

"Terrell, TX, Lieutenant Kemp."
 

Alex's head snapped around to look at Liam, trying to confirm if he had just heard their destination correctly. He leaned closer and asked, "Isn't that near New Hope?" Liam nodded his head slightly, never taking his eyes off the airman at the door. He nudged his head in the airman's direction for Alex to look. Alex did, and the smile spreading across the airman's face made Alex's blood run cold.
 

"What's so funny?" Alex asked the airman. Anger was creeping into his voice and Liam put a hand on his arm to reign him back in. The airman simply shook his head.

"Nothing, Lieutenant Kemp." This time Alex caught the name he used. His name, and Alex's eyes went wide.

"What did you say?" Alex said, barely controlling the anger and fear rising in him. "What did you call me?"

"Nothing, Lieutenant. Just letting you know the change in orders. We are going to Terrell, TX. Not Wellington." The smile never left the airman's face as he leaned back against the chopper door. Alex turned again to Liam.
 

"Did I just hear that right? Did he just call me Kemp?" Liam's eyes never left the airman, even as he leaned forward to answer.

"I heard it too," Liam said in Alex's ear. "I think we just got popped." Again, Liam nodded his head in the direction of the airman. Alex turned to see the airman watching the two men, speaking into his headset with one hand covering his mouth.
 

"We're screwed," Alex said, turning back. Liam shook his head.

"Nope. We're fucked."

-----

Alex watched as the helicopter sped away from Terrrell Memorial Stadium and their new home for the next few days. Liam walked up behind Alex and waited until the helicopter faded out of site.

"We're not going to see them again, are we?" Liam asked.

"I doubt it, Liam. We just got found out, I think. I don't know how, but..." he looked at Liam and shook his head. "I have a really bad feeling about all of this."
 

Liam slapped Alex's shoulder. "Can't worry about that now. We aren't in the greatest of positions here. There's a lot of work to do if we even want to think about getting out of here alive."

"Agreed," Alex said.

Both men set to work blocking entrances to the field and bleachers while others of the Stryker team worked to clear any possible infestations in the immediate area. The field house at the top of the stadium was in surprisingly good condition, offering the team good shelter and an elevated platform from which to survey the surrounding area. A second team of shooters was placed across the field to increase the field of fire and surveillance area.
 

"Area secured," Donovan announced as he and his team returned. "Everything looks good. Not many deaders around and most of those were in terrible shape. We were able to take them out without a sound."
 

"Good," Alex said putting the finishing touches on the last barricade between the ground and field house. "You and the others get some rest. Liam, Doc and I are on first watch." Just as in times past, each man on the survey team immediately headed to their respective areas to rest and get refreshments. Donovan hung back.
 

"So what's going on with you and Liam?" Donovan asked.
 

"We're screwed," Alex answered. "Liam and I are pretty sure that we've been found out. Just before we left the staging area, I got called to Commander Travis'. We had another package from our informant. Only trouble is, Commander Travis had opened it."

"Shit," Donovan cursed. "What did he say."

"He knows something is up, but he doesn't know just what."

"And you think he'll find out?"

Alex nodded. "If he does any digging, I'm pretty sure he'll find out just about anything he wants. And to make things worse, I have a feeling that one of the airmen on that helicopter knows us."

"What makes you think that?" Donovan asked.
 

"I don't know," Alex said. He shook his head and stared into the distance. "There was something that he said and the way he said it. I think he referred to me as Lieutenant Kemp, and when he informed us we were changing extermination zones, well," Alex looked at Donovan with confusion across his face, "he seemed happy."

Donovan looked at Alex with a puzzled expression. "I'm not sure that proves anything, Alex."

"But you weren't there, Donovan. Something wasn't right."

A silence set in for a moment before Donovan spoke again. "It's too bad you weren't able to get a look at those papers..."

"Oh I got those," Alex interrupted and he removed the documents from his vest pocket. Donovan looked shock.
 

"You looked at them yet?" Donovan asked. Alex shook his head. "Why don't Hayden and I take a look at then while we wait for our watch. We'll see if we can find anything useful."

"Appreciate it. Come find me if you find anything, and try to get some rest."

-----

Four hours into the first watch a number of survivors had been located by Alex and his team. Few zombies had been seen in the area and none had been heard in the distance. So far, Terrell, TX was shaping up to be a cake walk. Alex pulled himself away from his binoculars when he heard someone approaching from behind. Donovan and Hayden didn't look happy.

"We've found a few things," Donovan started. "There are some interesting stuff in here."
 

"Like what?" Alex asked, pushing himself up from his position.
 

Donovan and Hayden knelt down next to Alex and passed him the papers. "By themselves, not too much," Donovan said. "But considering everything else we've been talking about? I think Theresa might actually be onto something. See anyone you know?" he asked pointing at the top document.
 

"Jonathan Hill," Alex said to himself.
 

"General Jonathan Hill," Hayden corrected. "Looks like our friend here got himself promoted after the massacre of New Hope."

Donovan nodded. "And to make things way more interesting," he pointed down the paper to the bottom signature. "That's the signature of the second in command of the United States. Vice President Jackson Champion."

"'I wake up a Champion every day....' I remember the campaign slogans. And why is that significant?" asked Alex.

"He survived," Hayden snipped. "And he promotes Hill six months after the virus outbreak."

"Okay, but that doesn't mean anything. Lots of people were lost after the initial outbreak, many of them military. It would only make sense that the acting President would promote people to fill any positions left vacant." Alex studied the document, trying to put together the pieces.

"Agreed," Donovan said. "But there are other things that make it a little more interesting. Apparently General Hill was Vice President Champion's security chief while in their safe zones."

"So, what? Hill and Champion are in cahoots?" Alex asked.

Donovan shrugged his shoulders. "It wouldn't be too much of a stretch, Alex. And look here," Donovan shuffled the papers until he found the one he was looking for. "Here. Remember those vaccines Dr. Cahn was talking about? Here's the executive order. Look who's signature is on it."

Alex picked up the paper and studied it closely. "Vice President Champion," he said under his breath. "So wait, what exactly are we talking about here?
Are
we talking about conspiracy?"

"The bastards did it," Hayden said, a little more forcefully than he expected. "Vice President Champion signed the papers to put the vaccines in place and some of those were designed to compromise specific secure locations so that he could assume command once the President was dead. Hill was his trigger man."

Alex stared at Hayden for a moment trying to sort him out. "Yeah, but all of that is pretty thin evidence."

"Not when you consider the Congressmen who were targeted and eliminated." The voice startled everyone present. Dr. Cahn had snuck up on their conversation. Apparently he had heard quite a bit.

"I've been thinking about the map we put together back in Tulsa, and all of the Congressmen who were compromised in the outbreak. Alex, as far as I can remember, most, if not all of those Congressmen, stood against the President and his administration for their policies and politics. It's very possible that this," and here Dr. Cahn spread his arms wide to encompass the entire area around them, "all of this, is nothing more than an attempt to gain power and eliminate one's opposition."