Recovery: V Plague Book 8 (18 page)

The bass
vibration of the approaching rotor quickly grew in volume.  I wasn’t certain
but believed I was only hearing one of the helicopters.  When it passed
overhead, low and slow, the building shook and I could tell it was only one of
the two.  And it was very low.

So low that
the rotor wash whipped the trees in front of the building and swirled dead
leaves and trash up into the air as the machine passed.  OK, so here was one. 
Where was the other?  Had they split up when they couldn’t find me, one of them
returning to town as the other continued on course?  Or were they both making
long, slow passes over different areas of the city, searching for any sign of
me?

The HIND
moved on for a minute, then I heard the pitch of the rotor change as the pilot
circled and started another pass.  This one wasn’t directly over my location
and I realized it was following the grid of the streets to search the downtown
area.

As I sat
there thinking about it, listening to the Russian helicopter, I kicked myself
for not having gone to a residential area to hide.  I could have put the
Charger in a garage and Katie and I could have settled in.  Probably in
separate houses for the same reason we weren’t together now, but the suburbs
might have been a better choice.

Dismissing regrets
that I couldn’t do anything about, I kept my eyes trained on the street and
tracked their progress with my ears.  The helo was on its third pass, now two
blocks away, when I saw the first Russian.  He was moving down the street,
rifle tight across his chest as he scanned continually.  He was the point man.

Behind him,
well spaced, followed seven more Spetsnaz.  They moved in a coordinated
formation that kept them close to the center of the pavement with a nice buffer
zone around them.  All of them were very alert, moving slowly and inspecting
every vehicle and the front of every building they passed.

It made
sense.  They were doing exactly what I would have done in their situation. 
They had been dropped at the edge of downtown, the helo searching from the air
and ready to provide support if needed as they walked the grid.  Classic small
unit tactics don’t change much from country to country.  Some shit just works.

And I hadn’t
thought far enough ahead.  Hadn’t put us into as good of a hiding place as I
could have.  I would have searched the downtown area first as well.  Checking
all the houses spreading out from the city center would be a logistical and
tactical impossibility without a lot more boots on the ground, and they probably
wouldn’t even bother with their limited resources.

I leaned
sideways in the chair to keep the point man in sight, catching my breath when
he obviously spotted the black and white State Police car I’d tried to hide
against the bus.  He signed to his team and they spread, entering and clearing
the bus before approaching the Dodge.

The man
eased up to it, rifle pointed at the interior until he could see it was empty. 
He stepped back and signaled to his team.  They moved into a large, loose
circle and began scanning all of the buildings in the immediate area.  Well,
shit.  That’s what I get for not thinking.

Slipping out
of the chair I stayed low and moved to the rear door that let out into the
alley.  I looked through the peephole before unbolting its lock and opening it
an inch to peer out and see if it was clear.  Nothing in sight, I kept pushing
it open until I could stick my head out and look in the opposite direction. 
All clear.

Raising the
dog whistle to my mouth I took a deep breath and blew hard until my lungs were
empty.  I did this two more times then pulled the door shut and relocked it.  I
moved carefully back to the front room, staying to the shadows with my rifle
up.

The Russians
were still standing in the middle of the street but two of them had moved
together and were gesturing at the surrounding area as they talked.  It was
obvious they were deciding who was going to search which building.  I cringed
when one of them pointed in the direction of the department store.

Repositioning
at the gate that opened into the lobby, I prepared for what I was going to do
if they started to enter the building where Katie and Dog were hiding.  A burst
through the plate glass window would get their attention, and if I was really
lucky might even hit one of them.

As soon as I
fired I would turn and sprint for the back door, taking to the alley.  There
weren’t a lot of places to hide and with the HIND hanging around overhead I
didn’t doubt they’d be on me in nothing flat.  But finding me and taking me
were two different things.

Maybe they’d
be satisfied with just hosing me down with one of the helo’s machine guns or
firing a rocket up my ass, but I was willing to bet their orders were to take
me alive.  That gave me an advantage.  Where they would hesitate to shoot, I
wouldn’t be so restrained.

After
another few moments one of the men stepped away and waved at another to follow
him.  They headed for an insurance office on the side street.  The rest of the
squad turned and spread out as they approached the six-story bank building.  I
breathed a sigh of relief, though I knew it wouldn’t be long before they made
it to the department store.

Watching
them, I quickly ran over the options in my mind.  I had thought there was a
chance that the infected females I’d seen would hear the dog whistle and come
running, hopefully bringing a bunch of their sisters to the party.  But it had
been a bit and none had shown up.  Guess it was up to me.  Time to thin the
herd.

Running to
the back door I carefully cracked it open, checking for infected before pushing
out into the alley.  Quietly closing the door behind me I ran to the far side
of the building so I would be out of sight of the insurance office.  Moving
forward I kept a sharp ear out for the HIND.

I could
still hear the beast, continuing its search grid, but it was several streets
away and flying too low for the flight crew to be able to spot me.  At the
front corner of the office building I’d hidden in I paused, checking the
street.  For the moment it was clear, no Russians or infected visible. 

Running
hard, I crossed the street and continued on down the side of the department
store opposite where the two Spetsnaz were checking the building.  Entering the
alley to the rear, I turned and trotted towards their location, hugging the
back wall of the building Katie and Dog were hiding in.

Passing the
department store the alley turned to remain behind the buildings on the cross
street and I followed it to the back door of the building the Russians were
searching.  I had wanted to arrive before they opened the door to check the
back but as I approached it cracked open a couple of inches and stopped.

I was fast
approaching from the blind side and threw myself forward as I drew the Kukri
when the door moved.  Running on the balls of my feet they didn’t hear me
coming and pushed the door farther open, one of them beginning to step through
to look around in my direction.  I was close now and lunged as the man’s upper
body came into view.

There were
two of them and I couldn’t get caught up fighting with the first and give the
second guy time to shoot me.  Barely slowing, I slashed with the Kukri, the
Russian spotting me as I started my attack.  His eyes widened, then I arrived,
the razor sharp edge of my blade slicing into his throat.

Twisting, I
slammed into his body, knocking him back through the opening and following him
through.  His comrade was a few feet behind him and was already backpedaling
when I suddenly burst into the room.  His AKMS rifle was up and pointed in my
direction, but I had a fistful of his teammates vest and was using him as a
combination shield and battering ram.

Keeping the
momentum up I bulled ahead, the second man’s rifle discharging as I shoved the
corpse into him.  The body muffled the sound of the shot but didn’t stop the
bullet.  AKMS rifles fire a 7.62 mm round, which is considerably larger and
more powerful than the US military’s 5.56. 

The bullet
punched through my human shield and I felt a burning sensation along my left
side as it carved into my flesh.  I had no idea if I’d just received a mortal
wound, or only been grazed, but I wasn’t about to stop and find out.

As the body
of the man I’d killed crashed into the other his rifle was knocked off target
and he staggered back from the impact.  Leaping over the corpse I raised the
Kukri and savagely slashed at my opponents head.  Ducking, he lifted his rifle
to absorb the impact, the blade deflecting off the steel barrel.

He was
pushed farther back by the force of my blow, trying to get the rifle back in
front of him.  If I let that happen I was dead.  Pressing the attack I lunged
in again, trying to slash the blade across his legs.  He managed to parry my
attack with the AKMS barrel and lashed out with a left hook that I didn’t see
coming.

The blow
caught me squarely on the right side of my face, staggering me slightly.  He
had dropped his rifle, useless in a toe to toe battle, and threw a vicious
right as he pulled a thin blade that was longer than my Kukri’s twelve inches. 
I blocked the blow with my arm, the impact of his fist nearly making me drop my
weapon.

Pushing
forward, I slashed again, steel ringing loudly as he blocked my strike at the
last second.  If it had connected he would have been disemboweled.  Then I had
to defend against a flurry of attacks as he feinted with his fist and stabbed
forward with his knife.  After the third lunge I felt I had his rhythm and
timed a slash with the Kukri to arrive as his arm was extended.

My blade
whistled through the air, making solid contact with his forearm and biting
deeply into the muscle and sticking in the bone.  He grunted in pain, dropping
his knife and I kicked his right knee out from under him.  As he crashed to the
floor, my blade still lodged in his arm, I drew my Ka-Bar knife and fell on
him, ramming the steel into his throat.

He lay under
me, twitching with frothy blood gurgling out of his mouth as he died.  His eyes
stared up at me, accusingly.  The eyes are always the worst part of taking
another man’s life.  In those last few moments they express so much that unless
you’re a true sociopath you can’t help but feel the impact of what you’ve
done. 

Not regret,
especially when you’re fighting for your life or the life of someone you care
about.  But unless you’re putting a monster like Wazi down, dying eyes have a
way of putting a little black stain on your soul.  I wanted to look away, but
didn’t.  When I was a young pup of a soldier, still wet behind the ears and
thinking I knew everything, I’d had a war weary Master Sergeant named James
Bost that was within a few months of mandatory retirement take me under his
wing.

He had
fought through the entire Korean War and also pulled four tours in Vietnam with
the 1
^st
Special Forces.  He was one tough son of a bitch that had
truly been there and done that, and for as stupid as I was at the time at least
I’d had enough sense to listen to the lessons he tried to teach me.

One of them
was respect for your enemy.  Not sympathy or compassion, there’s no room for
that on the battlefield, but respect.  And part of that respect is treating a
fallen enemy who is about to die like a man, not some insect you just crushed
under your boot.  So I looked into the man’s eyes for the few seconds it took him
to pass. 

Master
Sergeant Bost had taught me a lot of other lessons before retiring.  Without
him I’m not sure I’d have become the warrior I did.  All of this ran through my
head in the few seconds it took the Russian to die.  Climbing to my feet I
stepped on his arm and yanked the Kukri free, cleaning it on his uniform before
re-sheathing it at the small of my back.

Stepping to
the other man I’d killed I reached down and grabbed the RG-6 grenade launcher
that was strapped across his body.  I worked the sling free and hefted the
weapon before taking the bandolier of spare grenades he had on his body. 

The RG-6 is
a Russian made weapon that fires forty mm, caseless grenades.  It has a big
cylinder that rotates as you fire and looks like a supersized revolver.  Just
like most revolvers, it holds six rounds. 

The grenades
I’d taken off the body were a mix of fragmentation for anti-personnel use and
high explosive for use against unarmored vehicles and structures.  Neither
would put much of a dent in the flying tank the Russians used as a helicopter
unless I could land a round on a rotor, but it would go a long way towards
evening up the odds with the remaining Spetsnaz.

I was still
standing there checking over the grenade launcher when I heard the door to the
alley bump open.  Spinning, I got the weapon up just in time to smash it into
the face of a leaping female.  We tumbled backwards, falling onto the body of one
of the Russian soldiers I’d just killed.

The female
was small, a girl somewhere in her early teens actually, and while she was fast
and ferocious she just didn’t have enough mass to be very strong.  Holding her
snapping teeth at bay with the RG-6, I freed a hand that had been tangled in
its sling and grabbed a fistful of her long hair.

Yanking hard
and to the side I pulled her off of me and rolled with her, letting my new toy
clatter across the floor.  Her head controlled by my handful of hair, she began
trying to claw at me but my arms were longer than hers.  The heavy canvas shirt
I wore protected my skin and I was able to reach my Ka-Bar and end her struggles
with a swift thrust to her throat.

Leaping to
my feet, I dashed for the door when I heard the slap of running feet.  As
quietly as I could I pushed the door closed, carefully locking the deadbolt.  I
must have succeeded in securing the entry without the infected noticing me
because there wasn’t an immediate pounding on the door from them trying to
break in.

Had the dog
whistle actually worked?  It was pretty fucking slim evidence but it was a
younger infected that had found me.  Moving through the dark office I grabbed
the grenade launcher off the floor and, avoiding the bodies, headed for the
front of the building to get a view of the street.

As I watched
I took a moment to check my injuries.  The side of my shirt was soaked with
blood as well as a growing area of my jeans.  Pulling the shirt open I twisted
to get a look, grimacing at the burning pain from the bullet wound.  Getting a
better look I was relieved to find that I had indeed only been grazed.  A
shallow furrow was carved in the side of my abdomen, right where a love handle
would be if I hadn’t run it off crossing most of the fucking state of Oklahoma
on foot.

There was a
small restroom in between the front and back rooms where I grabbed a wad of
paper towels and pressed them against the wound.  It hurt like hell but I left
them in place and buttoned my shirt.  Nothing vital had been hit, and though the
wound was bleeding freely it wouldn’t lose enough blood to cause me any
problems.  I hoped.

Turning my
attention back to the street I saw a sizable group of females were already on
the asphalt in front, dashing around as they checked the area.  More poured in
from adjacent alleys as I watched.  There were a few young ones but most were
adults.  I had no idea if my theory still held any water or not.  Maybe adult
infected could hear better than an uninfected adult.  Maybe not.  I wasn’t
about to blow the whistle again to find out.

The number
of females in the street quickly swelled until there were at least two hundred
of them milling about.  They would stalk up to the front of a building and push
on a door.  If the door opened, several of them would continue on inside.  If
it didn’t push open they would move on without trying to pull. 

I tried to
remember how the doors on the front of the department store worked.  Did they
just swing out, or would they move in either direction?  I couldn’t remember,
just knew that they were unlocked and I was around the corner and couldn’t see
the front of that building.

But I could
see the bank building, and its doors apparently swung in.  A handful of females
slipped inside and less than a minute later I heard the chatter of an AKMS
firing on full auto.  Every head in the street snapped in that direction,
screams erupting from dozens of throats as the females charged.

Blinds were ripped
off a window on the third floor as one of the Russian soldiers looked down into
the street.  He disappeared quickly as the infected began flooding through the
entrance into the building.  I must admit I had a big smile on my face as I
watched.

Moments
later more rifles started up and soon it sounded like a war zone.  I could hear
four distinct weapons and I tried to picture in my mind what they were doing. 
Coming down wouldn’t be an option.  There were just too many females, and more
were arriving as I continued watching.  Males were also starting to stumble
into the area, running into cars and tripping over curbs to fall flat on their
faces before getting back to their feet and resuming their movement towards the
noise.

I kept
listening, suspecting the Spetsnaz were heading for the roof.  There was very
likely an open staircase in the middle of the building with no way to block it
off.  Two of them would hold position, firing into the raging mass of infected
while the other four moved.  Then they would pause and two of the ones that had
moved would provide covering fire for the first two to join them.

The building
was old and the stairwell was probably tight, not allowing more than two
shooters to engage the females at a time.  I was expecting to hear the hard
crump of grenades at any moment, then remembered that normal Russian doctrine
was that if there was a grenadier with the unit the rest of the men didn’t
carry hand held grenades.  And their grenadier was lying dead in the back of
the building I was standing in.

After a
couple of minutes of battle I heard the HIND approaching.  They must have made
a call for assistance over the radio.  The massive helicopter came into a hover
over the center of the street, the bellow of its engines and fierce down draft
from its rotor shaking the building hard enough that I was concerned the plate
glass window in front of me would shatter.

I took a
step back to avoid any potential falling shards as I saw figures appear on the
roof of the bank.  They’d made it to the top.  The helo chose that moment to
open up on the street with its rotary canon, shredding infected as well as
asphalt and vehicles.  I couldn’t see the Dodge from where I was hiding but
hoped I was due for some luck and it hadn’t just been turned into a big hunk of
scrap metal.

The HIND
stopped firing and slipped sideways until it was over the roof of the bank.  A
door to the troop compartment opened as it slowly dropped down to pick up the
soldiers.  The helicopter was no more than a hundred yards away, stationary as
the men ran for the safety of the open door.  The heavily armored open door
that allowed access to the interior of the big aircraft.

I knew the
range of the RG-6 was close to four hundred yards, and the one in my hands was
loaded with high explosive grenades.  I should be able to put two of them
through that opening without too much difficulty.  Stepping forward I grasped
the front door knob, ready to yank it open, raise the launcher and fire.

As my hand
wrapped around the knob, I stopped.  Sure, I had a big, fat, juicy target just
hanging in the air waiting for me to swat it.  But if I did there was another
HIND somewhere in the area that carried enough ammo, rockets and missiles to
effectively destroy every building in the downtown area.  They might have
orders to capture me but I didn’t doubt they would start scorching the Earth if
one of their helicopters was blown out of the sky.

At the
moment they weren’t sure I was here.  Yes, they’d seen the police car, but it
was hardly the only black and white in America.  Besides, I didn’t think the
fact that it said Oklahoma State Police on the side and we were in Kansas would
mean anything to the Russians.  Better to keep my head down and let the
infected run them off.

Retreating
back into the darker recesses of the building I watched as the soldiers quickly
scrambled aboard their ride.  Standing there thinking I was satisfied with the outcome
after all.  They hadn’t found Katie, or me, and enough infected had shown up to
send them back to the safety of the aircraft.

If they passed
off the two missing men that I had killed as having fallen victim to the
infected, maybe I was in the clear for the moment.  Would they chalk this up as
just having missed me and return to base?  I wasn’t willing to bet either way,
or even make a guess.  Without knowing how emphatic their orders to find me had
been I had nothing to base an assumption on.  Or would they assume I was
responsible for their missing comrades, get pissed off and come after me with a
vengeance?

Infected
continued to arrive in the area, though in smaller numbers.  The HIND began a
slow orbit, almost certainly looking for the missing soldiers as well as a
clear area so the six remaining troops could disembark.  The females kept watch
on the helicopter, following it through the streets as it moved over the
downtown area.  They were doing a great job of making sure it didn’t land and
put boots back on the ground.

  Realizing
part of what these guys were doing I went into the back room and waited for the
HIND to move away.  When I heard it circling several streets away I looked
through the peephole then cracked the back door open and peeked out.  The alley
was clear and I quickly dragged the two bodies through the opening.  I wanted
the Russians to find them, to be able to recover their men so there was one
less reason for them to stay in the area.

But the two
men had obviously been killed with an edged weapon.  That wouldn’t do for their
comrades to find.  They’d never leave until they found me and exacted their
revenge. 

Knowing how to
get around that, I lifted one of the soldier’s rifles and fired a long, full
auto burst into the air.  I held the trigger down until the bolt locked open on
an empty magazine.  I knew there was no way the men in the helicopter could
hear the gunfire over the noise of their machine.  Dashing back into the
building I slammed the door and flipped the lever to lock it.

I pressed my
eye to the spy-hole, watching the alley.  It didn’t take long for the first
females to show up, and they did exactly as I hoped they would.  They fell on
the bodies with screams of delight and began feasting.  In minutes their teeth
and nails had obliterated the evidence of how the men had really been killed. 

Of course an
autopsy would show the truth.  There would be damage to bones caused by the
Kukri that couldn’t have possibly been made by the infected.  But there
wouldn’t be an autopsy.  Why would there?  And even if there was, it would be
hours or days before it could take place and I planned to be long gone by then.

The HIND
passed over the front of the building several times then finally the pilot
widened his pattern enough to see down into the alley.  The helicopter went
into a hover directly overhead and I could imagine the discussion that was
taking place.  They were determined to recover their teammates’ bodies, but as
I could see through the peephole there wasn’t much left of them by now.

They would
have liked to use the helo’s cannon to clear the alley of infected, but if they
did that they’d chew up the bodies they wanted to retrieve.  That only left
them with two options.  Fly away and leave them behind, or come down and get
them the hard way.

I well
understood their dilemma of conscience.  When I’d been in the Army I’d never
left a fallen brother behind.  But then there’d always been somewhere to take a
body so it could be laid to rest and the family could get some closure. 

Since the
attacks, well, I’d left a lot of bodies where they’d fallen.  Most recently my
good friend, Gunny Zemeck.  I’d had to leave him for the scavengers in the
middle of a field in Oklahoma because there was nowhere to take him and no way
to bury him.  But it was harder for the Russians.

If they
recovered the bodies they could be taken back to McConnell Air Force Base,
which they were occupying.  From there a flight home to mother Russia and a
military funeral.  No, they weren’t leaving without their brothers.

Eventually
they did pretty much what I would have done.  As the HIND hovered they opened
the troop compartment doors and the Spetsnaz began picking off the infected
with their rifles.  One at a time.  It took them a while but they eventually
thinned the number of females in the alley to a manageable number.

Watching
through the door I saw four ropes hit the ground, a moment later four figures
sliding down and bringing their weapons up the instant their boots hit the
pavement.  As they fired and kept the infected back, two more slid down and
quickly scooped what was left of their brothers into two body bags, which were
clipped onto a thin cable. 

The remains
were winched up.  A few moments later the six Russian soldiers stepped into
loops on the end of each rope, two of the lines with dual passengers.  I saw
one of them twirl his hand in the air before grabbing the rope then they were
lifted straight up.  The helicopter would fly a short distance to a safe
location where it could set them down then land so they could climb aboard.

I listened
as it moved slowly away, relocating to the front room when I realized they were
heading for the bank building.  It took them less than a minute to complete the
maneuver, the last man climbing aboard and turning to look back out at the
street below.

At first it
seemed as if he was looking through the glass front of the building, directly
at me.  But I knew that he couldn’t see through the reflective film attached to
the inside surface of the window.  He sat that way for a few long seconds
before closing the armored door.  The rotor noise changed and the HIND quickly
gained altitude and disappeared over the rooftops to the east.