Dead and Dead Again: Kansas City Quarantine (56 page)

“Awesome,” Calvin replied deadpan,
still sitting up the street and watching everything from a distance.

He and Athena were now the only two
from the dealership in a working vehicle. Even Gus’ Denali had finally given up
the ghost on his third ram into the building. But now they had at least finished
off most of the remaining dead surrounding the group of soldiers. This was the
first time Calvin had the luxury of watching everyone fight. And he did not
want to admit it to Athena, but his chest was killing him. It was too bad the
soldiers would most likely be leaving right away and trying to get the doc out
of town, because they could use a half-dozen more shield arms. However, on
further inspection, he noted only a few surviving members of the elite military
unit.

“I see some of the soldiers managed
to stick it out,” he commented flippantly just like he did when they were all
playing a co-op game.

“Looks like Captain Buttmunch,
Sergeant Do Good and privates GI Jane and Gimp Bait,” Athena reported to the
others.

“Is this really a time for
name-calling?” Tripper panted in reply.

“Hey, you were the first one to
call her Buttmunch,” she argued.

“Oh, right. Never mind.”

Calvin slowly pulled up to the
others as the Joel, Lucy and Scaggs finished the last few dozen shufflers with
the Needlers.

Captain Buttmunch shouldered her
rifle and stumbled over, looking haggard, but thankful for their rescue.

“Captain Batmouche’,” Calvin held
out his hand to the very weary red-head.

The captain’s short red hair was
matted with brain goo from the slaughtered dead, and all of the soldiers were
powdered white from the clouds of masonry the assaulting vehicles had stirred
up. They all, however, had the unmistakable air of gratefulness written across
every tired feature of their careworn faces. The sergeant and two privates
saluted Calvin. It seemed for a moment as if the captain was considering it, but
she instead reached out a grimy, but appreciative hand and shook his firmly.

“Mr. Hobbes. Thank you for coming
to our rescue, though I know you didn’t know we were here and might not have
chosen to help if you did know.”

“We didn’t, but we were about to
look for you anyway, to assist if you were still alive. That was the agreement,
wasn’t it?”

“I…yes, I suppose it was. I wonder
if I could entreat you to…assist us further in our mission?” she was tired, but
not so fatigued that she had lost her pride. Some of it had been picked away by
gnashing teeth and clawing fingers just as her soldiers had been taken from her
protection one-by-one, but that pride was welded into her core and would remain
until those creatures were feasting on her heart. Next to losing soldiers on
orders she had given herself, asking for help from this civilian who had just
saved her was going to be one of the hardest things she had ever done.

Calvin sensed her internal struggle
and despite how he and the others had acted earlier, he had a great respect for
the military and all that they stood for. “Let me stop you before you can do
something you don’t want to do, Captain. My group will be leaving Kansas City and heading west in a few days. I’ll get you to a radio and you can call your
situation in. If they send someone, you can stay with us until they arrive. If
they don’t, you can ride out with us. But we have to have an understanding…”

“Go ahead.”

“I’m in charge of this wagon train,”
Calvin stated firmly, holding up a hand to forestall an argument. “I will make
your
mission
our
top mission. Hell, it’s probably the only thing that really
matters from here on out until that case is safe. But you won’t be
appropriating anything from anyone or using your authority as a government
representative unless it serves my purposes for you to do so, or if you can get
us out of trouble that I can’t. You and your people will be free to walk about
unless we see any conspiring. We’re all Americans, and we’re all fish out of
water right now, but we’re all also paranoid and living what amounts to some
shitty sci-fi movie plot. Trust will take some time to earn, but we’re in this
together. We’ll restock your ammunition from our stores and see if we can find
you all some armor to wear.”

“Our uniforms will be fine,” the
captain countered.

“You’ll wear the armor.” Calvin
held up his right forefinger again. “You’ve seen how effective my friends are
as
mere
civilians? Trust me, you’ll be better off. I don’t have any
hidden agendas or ulterior motives that are going to be popping out and I don’t
expect for you to have any from this point onward. We’ll treat you all like
part of our group as much as we can, but you have to agree that my orders
supersede any other orders you have until we reach the wall and drop off the Doc.”

“You know we cannot do that,” the
captain said angrily. “You are just making it impossible for us to agree.”

“No, I’m not. You have individual executive
authority over your mission, right?”

“Yes, of course. Within certain
parameters…”

“Well. I imagine you were told to
do anything within your power to bring the package back to where it’s supposed
to go, right?”

“Yes, of course,” the captain
admitted easily.

“I think this falls under the
‘within your power’ range of the parameters, don’t you? We can get you there
and we’re willing to do it, but only if it’s not always going to be military
against civilians. We’re in this together and I generally hate to rub things
in, but I think I need to point out that we mere civilians just saved your military
ass. But God knows we simply have more experience on
this
battlefield. I
have no doubt that we will need your military knowledge and training in the
future.”

“There is no way she’s going to
accept this, Scoot,” Tripper whispered.

“It’s her only option,” Athena
argued quietly. “She’s not stupid. She has to know we’re their best chance and
we’ll welcome their help.”

“Ma’am,” the sergeant cleared his
throat. “If you please,” he motioned her back into the bloodied street away
from Calvin’s people as well as the two privates.

Tripper and the others came over to
join Calvin, watching and waiting. No one had yet put a safety back on their
weapon, not because of the soldiers, but because they were standing in the
middle of zombie central and they could already sense hordes being drawn to
this spot. The two soldiers whispered for a few minutes, the captain waving her
arms around and the sergeant seeming to calm her. In the end, she nodded and
her broad shoulders, slumped from fatigue and defeat.  The two warriors turned
back and approached Calvin again. “Your terms are acceptable. No double-talk or
secrets. We will be part of your team, provided I don’t think you’re trying to
get us all killed,” she added. “Well, the Privates, maybe, and the Sergeant if
you must, but definitely not me,” she smiled weakly.

Calvin laughed. “I can’t promise
that, Hell, I’ve almost gotten us all killed at least a dozen times already.”

“I mean, of course, intentionally
trying to get us killed,” she amended still with the barest trace of a smile at
one corner of her mouth, but it was quickly wiped away.

“I’m sorry. I am very fatigued. None
of us had the keys to the vehicles. I hate to leave them here. But it may take
hours to search through the dead to find my men. I can’t see even one set of body-armor
out there.”

“If they were Infected we might
have led them a few miles up the interstate,” Tripper grimaced.

“Get what you need from the
vehicles and load it in the Paddy Wagon there,” Calvin pointed to Quinn’s
ambulance.

“Remember to lock the Hummers,”
Athena suggested. “Hef and Quinn might be able to find a way for us to return
and get them started later.”

“If those masses of dead haven’t
returned by then,” Scaggs said dryly as they all closed ranks to help transfer
the military equipment between vehicles.

“If we lock them, we will have to
look for the keys later,” the Sergeant realized.

“Oh, right.”

“And we haven’t seen any zombies
that can open doors,” Scaggs shared.

“But people can, and now that this
area is open, some might come through and they might know how to actually hot
wire a car.”

“Good point. We should take the
batteries and coils,” the Captain suggested.

“Excellent idea, Captain,” Calvin
agreed. “You want to radio your people before we go?” Calvin asked.

“No, I…I need to compose myself
first. If it is ok we will use the radio you have at your base.”

“Fortress,” Tripper corrected her.

“Fortress, yes. This radio is
time-locked and encoded so we can only check in at certain times. In case we
were captured or killed, the enemy can’t use our radios. Although I have
alternate codes for communicating in other situations, this could put certain
subsequent plans into action.”

“Like a firebombing of the entire
city?” Tripper asked.

“If we use yours, things will be
sped up quite a bit,” the captain continued, ignoring Tripper’s question,
thereby affirming it in his mind.

“No problem,” Calvin agreed. “You
are most welcome to use our radio.”

“But no destroying it after you use
it or some chiz like that,” Scaggs added. “All the military guys in the movies
try that at some point.”

Caught off guard, Batmouche’ could
do nothing but laugh, genuinely and with authority. If the other soldiers
hadn’t joined in she would have felt the fool, but they did.

“Nice,” Tripper high-fived Skaggs.

“Agreed,” the captain exclaimed. “First
we need to find the
Package.
”

“We already have it and the doctor
in custody,” Calvin updated her. “If you’re ready to leave, we can go now.”

He looked away as she tried to hide
the buildup of tears rimming her eyes, turning away respectfully to walk for
the Hedgehog. But Athena pulled up in the Tesla and raised her eyebrows at him.
“My turn to drive now, Scooter,” she cooed.

“Fair enough,” he agreed.

“We’ll be right behind you guys,”
he said, but when the group pulled out, the Tesla was pointed the other
direction.

“See you back at the Fortress!”
Athena yelled, and with the sound of screeching tires echoing through the corpse-filled
deserted valley they were a tiny spec before anyone could respond.

“I should have saved the BMW ‘til
later,” Tripper grumbled in disappointment as the crimson Tesla shrank into the
distance.

“You got some action when we were
coming back here,” Sarah reminded him.

“Yeah, but we could have raced back.
How awesome would that have been?”

“Yeah, that would have been
awesome. Maybe when they make a movie of this you can change the script.”

“You think?” he asked hopefully.

“Absolutely.” She replied in a
voice laden with sarcasm.

Captain Batmouche’ simply sighed in
annoyance and shook her head, listening to the chatter coming out of a small
black speaker over their heads. Sergeant Doogard squinted a ‘take it easy’ look
at her and smiled. As the vehicles drove off, the surviving soldiers sat in the
back of the Paddy Wagon watching the Tesla fade into the distance.

“And that’s what we’re fighting
for, people,” Doogard told the two privates. “We fight to defend this country
so a young couple at the end of all creation can say ‘fuck it all’ and drive a
sports car really fast through the streets of the dead.”

“That doesn’t really even make any
sense, Sarge.”

“Shut up, Baldwin,” Private Erica
Henson snapped at her friend. “What Sarge means is the world we’ve been out
there protecting is what produces people who can kill a few hundred zombies at
the gates of hell, and maybe have no hope for the future, but still find the
passion to go for a joyride like teenagers just because the chance is there.
That’s what we’ve been protecting.”

“Oh,” Private Baldwin muttered
lamely.

“Outstanding, Henson,” the Sergeant
crowed. “I think I see Corporal in your very near future. If this was a
battlefield, you’d already have been field-commissioned.”

“Thanks, Sarge,” the young Latina beamed at her superior, but a cold look from the steel blue eyes of the captain
washed it quickly from her features.

“That’s because both of our former
corporals are dead,” the tall red-head reminded them in an icy hiss. “Along
with most of the Platoon. That was stupid warfare out there. They were brainless
zombies, but that didn’t mean we were prepared to kill them. How many shots did
we waste in their bodies? How many times did those people tell us that? We
marched in where we should have taken time…made a better plan…”

“And that’s mostly your fault,
ma’am,” the sergeant said flatly. She stared at him coldly. He wasn’t telling
her anything of which she wasn’t fully damn aware. “But it’s over and done, Captain.
Four of us are still alive. The rest of the Company is safe on the other side
of the wall. We were all volunteers here, ma’am. And the mission is still a go.
We all thought we were going to die in here anyway. Hell, we still might. But,
as I said, the mission is still on.”

“The mission is a disaster,” she
spat quietly, leaning in so Calvin’s crew couldn’t hear. “We don’t have control
over the doctor
or
the package. I’ve gotten most of my team killed on a
failed attack. We’ve lost our vehicles. We’re out of ammo. And we are now
taking orders from a civilian.”

“We’re alright, ma’am. That Calvin
is good people. We got a good group around us. They might not be military
trained, but they still get the job done. They saw what was happening and acted
fast. That’s just the kind of people the military trains. Can we hold it
against them just because they didn’t learn it from us? And they’re not crazy
militia members or anti-social survivalists, just folks. Think of them as
resistance fighters. They certainly know how to fight, and they’re defending
their city.”