Dead Mech (21 page)

“Good. What do I do?”

“Third button from the left, center
tablet.”

***

The moment the Sergeant Major stopped
convulsing Harlow took aim and put three bullets in his brain,
putting him out of his soon to be undead misery. “Fuck! There goes
our shot at intel!”

“Jethro!” Rachel cried, activating her com.
“Papa Bear! We just had to put the Sergeant Major down. Is
Jethro…?”

“He’s fine,” Capeze responded. “Well as fine
as can be expected. You and Harlow okay?”

“Yeah. We’ll need a decon hose down, but we
weren’t exposed as far as we can tell.”

“Good. Bisby just walked in. I’ll have him
suit up and get you cleaned up.”

***

Olivia helped June through the door into her
shack. An older woman was busy packing belongings into sealed
shipping containers. June couldn’t help but notice the UDC stamp on
the containers.

“We salvage what we can,” Olivia offered,
following June’s gaze. “This is my partner, Rebecca. Rebecca, this
is Rachel. She’ll be staying with us for the evening.”

Rebecca sorted out a couple of garments from
the pile she was holding and tossed them to June. “You’ll need a
little more than just that blanket, dear.”

June dropped the blanket and, with Olivia’s
assistance, began carefully to dress herself. “Thanks.”

***

Bisby, in full decontamination suit, aimed
the water hose at Rachel and Harlow. “Drop drawers, ladies. The
sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can go back to being
fucked and confused.”

Both mech pilots peeled their gore stained
uniforms off and tossed them in a bin marked “Incineration”. They
removed their boxers and bras, tossing them in the same bin.

“You’re lovin’ this, huh?” Harlow joked,
preparing herself for the blast of cold water.

“Yep,” Bisby smirked turning the hose on the
two women.

“Fucking fuck shit!” Rachel screamed.

Harlow and Rachel braced themselves,
enduring the pain.

***

“Alright. Let’s get you up and out of here.
Can you stand?” Themopolous asked. Jethro tried to adjust his
position in order to sit up. He gave it several attempts and
slumped back to the ground.

“We’ve got a problem, Doc,” Jethro
grunted.

“Weakness is to be expected, Jethro. I
couldn’t stand very well either.”

“Um, yeah, standing isn’t the problem.” He
looked from the Doctor to Commander Capreze. “The fact I can’t feel
my legs at all, is.”

“We’re going to need a wheelchair from
storage. I assume everything in the infirmary is contaminated?”

Capreze nodded. “I’m on it.”

***

“Everything is secure. We should get below,”
Rebecca said.

“Below?” June asked.

Olivia and Rebecca each took hold of their
bed and pushed, revealing a small trap door underneath.

“Each shack has a small storm cellar. It’ll
be cramped with the three of us, but it’s better than up here with
sand and grit coming through every crack.”

June’s eyes went wide. “We have to go down
there?”

“You’ve never been caught in a waste storm,
have you?” Rebecca asked.

“Not without 50 tons of metal around
me.”

“With what?” Olivia asked.

“Never mind,” June answered. “So who goes
first?”

***

“Let’s hope the rear door gives first,” the
Rookie said. “Smaller numbers. If we can take them out, we may be
able to clear a path that way.”

“I thought Legit said there wasn’t a back
way out,” Masters said.

“Not officially, no,” the Rookie smiled.

Jay’s shoulders slumped. “I guess there is
one way out.”

“What the hell are the two of you talking…?
Oh. We’re going to have to crawl out the shitter, aren’t we?”

“If we live long enough, yes,” the Rookie
answered.

“Great! Nothing like the reward of crawling
through shit to keep a person motivated.”

***

“Bisby? What’s your location?” Capreze asked
over the com.

“Just about done hosing down the ladies,”
Bisby responded, grinning.

“You don’t have to be so fucking happy about
it!” Harlow butted in. “When this is over, I swear…!”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatcha need Commander?”

“Jethro’s hurt and I don’t know when he’ll
be able to focus on getting our tech secured. Until then we need to
consider evacuation. I want you to get all the mechs prepped and
ready in case we have to bug out ASAP.”

“Will do.”

“That goes for all of you.”

“Yes, sir,” Rachel responded, teeth
chattering.

***

“Shit! Front door is going to give out!” Jay
yelled, readying the flame thrower.

“Figures. I get a chance to escape through
the sewage system and a city/state full of deaders has to go and
ruin it,” Masters quipped.

Jay and the Rookie both busted out laughing
and Master joined right in. All three doubled over, holding their
stomachs, tears falling from their cheeks. The front door groaned
and began to fall from its hinges and instantly the three men were
at the ready, armaments leveled and set to destroy anything and
everything that came through.

And everything came through.

***

Bisby passed a wand around Rachel’s dripping
body. It turned green and beeped shrilly. “You’re clean. Get
dressed and meet in the hangar ASAP.”

Rachel hurried to the barracks as Harlow
stepped up. Bisby passed the wand around her also, smiling.

“Keep your eyes on the wand, Pilot,” Harlow
warned.

“Oh, give it up tough girl. I’ve seen your
tits flopping around this base a hundred times.”

“Flopping? My tits don’t flop, asshole.”

The wand turned green and beeped for Harlow
also.

“Clean. Go get…”

“Dressed and meet you in the hangar. Yeah,
my tits heard you the first time.”

***

Mathew yawned and stretched, glancing at his
display. “Okay, it’s time to call it a night.”

He focused his sensors, looking for a spot
he could hole up in and get a couple hours of sleep. It took him a
few minutes, but he was able to find a crack in a cliff face he
could fit his mech into, keeping it semi-hidden if anyone passed by
while he tried to rest.

He glanced at his sensors again, trying to
find the blank space anomaly, but it seemed to have gone.

“I have a feeling you’ll be back,” Mathew
muttered.

***

Capreze rolled the wheelchair into the
control room. “How’s he doing, Doctor?”

“He’ll be fine,” Themopolous answered, but
the look on her face said otherwise. “He just needs some rest and
time.”

“Well, I can’t guarantee either,” Capreze
said. “I have Bisby readying all mechs for immediate evac if
needed. I can take you two in one of the transports. Can we move
him quickly if we have to?”

“No problem. He’s stable and in fine health,
except for, well, you know…”

“You two realize it’s my legs that aren’t
working, right? My ears are just fine,” Jethro said, grimacing.

***

Olivia lit a small oil lamp and set it upon
a hook in the cellar. June glanced about and except for a small cot
in the corner, the earthen room was bare. Rebecca tossed a bag of
supplies onto the cot and began to lay out blankets on the dirt
floor.

“Cozy,” June joked.

“Safe,” Rebecca retorted.

“Of course. Sorry.”

“No apologies, dear,” Olivia said, latching
the trap door behind them. June wrinkled her brow, puzzled. Olivia
caught the look. “Some like to take the chaos of storms as an
opportunity to indulge their, well, urges. Better safe than
sorry.”

***

Shiner transferred the data from One. He
calculated the speed and direction that Mathew was moving and
concluded the pilot was heading for Windy City.

This was a mistake. Nothing waited for the
living mech in Windy City. Shiner had watched that place fall;
watched the UDC troops lay waste to the city/state then, after the
troops had left, he watched the dead mechs descend upon the
city/state, devouring any and all that may have survived.

For a living mech and pilot, Windy City was
sure death.

Shiner gave One several commands and sent
the mini-mech back into the waste.

***

Mathew backed his mech into the tight crack
in the cliff. Crouching down he wrapped his mech’s arms about its
legs, creating a defensive shield with only a small portion of the
cockpit exposed.

He longed to activate his com and speak to
Rachel. It wasn’t the separation that was killing him, it was the
uncertainty. As far as he knew everything had gone wrong and he was
the only mech pilot left alive. Except for Masters, Jay and the
Rookie, but who knew what had become of them.

Mathew pushed his sensors to full and tried
to get comfortable.

***

“Is that comfortable?” Themopolous asked
Jethro, positioning the wheelchair in front of his control
console.

“I feel like I’ve had the living shit kicked
out of me, but yes, it’s comfortable,” Jethro answered, immediately
setting to work on repairing the com breach.

“Good. I have a few autopsies to perform,
but I’ll have my com ready the whole time. Call me if you notice
any change, positive or negative.”

“Will do, Doc. Let me know if you need any
help analyzing the findings. I know we didn’t get a chance to study
the nanotech inoculations before everything went to shit.”

***

Blood, entrails, limbs, shell casings,
clothing, glass, metal, plastic. The air filled with bits of
zombies and debris, as Jay, Masters and the Rookie never let their
trigger fingers rest.

The press to get through the front door, and
at the tasty meat morsels holed up in the fight cage, was so great
that it actually prevented the zombie mob from rushing in. The
three men watched as the undead wedged themselves in the doorway
creating the proverbial fish in a barrel scenario.

Before the back door finally gave way, all
three actually thought they might make it out alive.

***

Mathew had just drifted off to sleep when a
buzzing sounded in his cockpit. It wasn’t a proximity alarm, just a
sensor reading demanding attention.

Groggily, Mathew checked the reading and
cursed.

“Great, just what I fucking need. A waste
storm,” he grumbled to himself.

He set about prepping his systems for full
lockdown, making sure his environmental processors were going to be
up to the task. The amount of dust and sand a waste storm could
produce could easily overwhelm his mech if he wasn’t careful.

Satisfied he would be safe when the storm
hit, Mathew closed his eyes.

***

June wrapped herself in a blanket and
listened to the whistle of the wind above them. “When will the
storm be here?” she asked.

“Hard to say,” Rebecca answered. “Could be
an hour or more.”

Olivia handed June a wet rag. “Keep that
near you, just in case.”

“In case of what?” June asked.

“You really don’t know shit,” Rebecca said,
in a tone that put June on her guard.

“In case too much dust gets down here. Just
put the rag over your mouth and nose and you should be able to
breathe just fine.”

“Oh. Okay, thank you.”

***

Jethro’s head killed him. The pain was
nearly blinding, but he pushed on. He glanced briefly at an
external vid feed and groaned. What should have been the beginnings
of a wasteland sunrise was now the murky tell-tale signs of a waste
storm on the horizon.

“Commander?” Jethro called over his com.

“Yes, Jethro? You holding up?”

“Yes, sir. I think we may need to batten
down. Looks like a storm is about a half-day off.”

“Thanks. I’ll get the others on it. Hang in
there.”

“Yes, sir,” Jethro signed off, not noticing
the blood slowly trickling from his nose.

“Can you two hold the front?” the Rookie
yelled.

“Yeah. The way they’re wedged in there we
can do this all day,” Masters responded.

“Or until we run out of ammo!” Jay
added.

“Great, how about we avoid both of those
scenarios?” the Rookie joked, kneeling and taking careful aim. He
pulled the trigger methodically, placing a bullet between the eyes
of each zombie he aimed for coming through the back door. Within
less than three minutes not a body was twitching behind them.
“Clear back here!”

Masters glanced over his shoulder at the
Rookie’s handy work. “Holy fuck! Un-fucking-believable!”

***

Themopolous set the slice of the Sergeant
Major’s brain upon the slide and the slide upon the scanner. She
stripped the bloody gloves from her hands and tossed them into the
incinerator bin.

She sat down in a nearby chair, the only
chair in the autopsy room, and tapped at her tablet until she got
the readings she wanted.

“That can’t be right,” she said to herself,
double checking the readings. “Please, God, that can’t be
possible.”

She grabbed a fresh pair of gloves, picked
up her bone saw and started to remove the rest of the Sergeant
Major’s skull.

***

Seated at his desk, Commander Capreze rested
his head against his palm, studying what little data Jethro was
able to retrieve from the UDC security personnel’s tablets.

“Sir?’ Bisby asked from the doorway.

“Yes, Biz?”

“All mechs and the main transport are
prepped, loaded and ready for immediate evac if needed.”

“Thanks, Biz,” Capreze sighed.

Themopolous chimed in on the com.
“Commander?”

“Yes, Doctor?”

“Where are the bodies right now?”

“Harlow and Rachel are taking them out to
the pyre,” Bisby answered.

“Shit! Get them on the com now! The nanotech
repairs the zombie brains! They aren’t completely dead yet!”