The Dying of the Light (Book 1): End (24 page)

Please don’t let one of them be Kim
, I thought.
I can’t do that again.

Dalton was the first to fire as the group of zombies came around the corner. “It looks like Charlie squad from second team!” he said as he chambered another round into his Barrett sniper rifle. Weighing over thirty pounds, the gun was so heavy that Dalton was the only one in the squad that could hump it and all its ammo; it didn’t hurt that he was now the best shot in the team, either.

“Alpha Six, Alpha Five. We are engaged. Make it seven –” the loud
crack
of the sniper rifle was audible even through my ear protection — “correction, six walkers. They appear to be Charlie squad, or at least some of them.”

“Roger, do you require backup?”

“No, ma’am, not at this time,” I replied as the rifle and machine guns made short work of the rest. “Standby.”

I turned to Rachel who, along with Reynolds, was covering our flanks. “Confirm all targets down.”

She scooted over to the open hatch of the Stryker, which by now had ceased firing. A moment later she looked back out at me. “Confirmed, sir. No movement.”

“Alpha Six, Alpha Five. Confirm targets down.”

“Good work. Tag ’em and bag ’em.”

“Yes, ma’am. Alpha squad, tag and bag!” I said.

Reynolds, Martinez and Gaines moved over to the now quiescent bodies of the walkers, and began a swift and thorough check for those that had been incapacitated but not destroyed, their pistols out and double-tap shots ringing out around them. Eaton was halfway across the grassy space when she suddenly yelled. “Walkers, nine o’clock!” Dropping into a crouch, she began firing in quick, controlled bursts as the guns on the big ICVs swung around and began firing as well.

Apparently, the destruction of 2
^nd
Team’s Charlie squad had drawn interest. “Alpha Six, Alpha Five. Multiple walkers spotted.”

“Roger. Can you confirm numbers?”

“Rough guess, I’d say thirty to forty, ma’am.”

“On our way. We’ll come in on your seven o’clock.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, taking out a walker on the far side of the school’s football field as it came around the side of a small outbuilding, heading straight for Reynolds and Gaines and Martinez, who were slowly retreating toward the Strykers while firing.

I glanced to one side, looking for Major Carver, and saw him crouching against the Stryker, muttering to himself and rocking back and forth.

“Major Carver! Sir, we could really use a hand here!” He flinched violently away. “Sir! Those were your men out there! We need help!” I couldn’t believe he would actually crawl under the ICV, but he did.

Well, this is going to get messy,
I thought.

“Alpha, form on the Stryker!” I switched to single-fire and began sighting carefully as the shambling mass approached. As many as the Stryker’s gun was chewing into bloody pulp, there seemed to be more behind them; unfortunately the gun wasn’t exactly a precision instrument, and couldn’t be counted on for consistent head shots. .
Maybe thirty or forty was a bit on the low side
. The walker ranks seemed to thin out a bit as I felt, more than saw, my squadmates take their positions on either side of me at the end of the Stryker’s open hatch.
This is going to be close.

Off to the right, across the field, another group of walkers came out of the dark. Only these weren’t just walking… they were running.

“Holy shit,” I yelled. “Runners, 4 o’clock!”

“Shit!” Rachel turned with me and we began firing as fast as we could, trying to hit the speeding monsters coming our way. “They’re just kids, sir!”

I looked more closely, and she was right. The oldest of these had to have been no more than 15 or 16 when he was turned.

And this is a high school. Fuck me running.

“I know. Take them down,” I yelled, toggling my mike. “Alpha Six, we have
runners
, repeat
runners
in sight. Be advised, they are teenagers, probably students. They’re fast, and coming at us.”

“Roger, we’ve seen the same. Standby.”

Suddenly I saw a line of white smoke and a massive explosion threw dirt, rock, and pieces of walker high into the air as it impacted the group of children running at us. The Stryker stopped firing, its sensors confused by the sudden increase in movement, and our sporadic fire at the targets gradually slowed as the rest of 1
^st
Team arrived from behind to assist us. Shortly, nothing more remained, and it was time for cleaning up.

Kim approached, waving away a stray cloud of smoke. “So much for Gardner’s RPG idea. I think we’ll leave them at home next time. All that did was spread bits around. Everyone ok?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, saluting.

“Very well, begin clean-up.”

I shook my head. “Sorry, ma’am, I have something I have to do first.” The surprise on her face was plain as I turned and walked to the front of the Stryker and crouched down. Sure enough, there he was. I couldn’t quite reach him, though.

That’s probably a good thing, I thought. I’d like to tear him to pieces with my bare hands.

“Gaines, come over here a minute.” He pounded over, and I pointed beneath the ICV. “There’s a rat I need you to get for me under there, Gunny; I can’t reach him.”

He crouched down and looked under the vehicle, then back at me with a grin. “Yes, sir.”

The rest of the team gathered around as Dalton pulled the squirming Major Carver from beneath the Stryker. He fought like a cornered badger, which affected the massive gunnery sergeant not in the slightest. Hands like iron vises clamped down on the man’s shoulders; he was going nowhere.

“Get away, just get away!” He shouted, voice rising till it was almost a shriek.

I slapped the major, hard. “Get control of yourself, man! You’re a soldier, for fuck’s sake!” His head rocked back from the force of the blow, and as his eyes cleared, he glared at me. “I’ll have your ass for that!”

I looked back at him coldly, uncaring. Hell, I would’ve done just about anything for anyone at that moment if it meant this ball-less wonder never commanded troops in the field again.

“No, you won’t,” said Kim’s voice, over my shoulder, and she came to stand next to me, along with the rest of my squad. I glanced at Kim, and she nodded.

“AEGIS Actual, Alpha Five.”

There was a pause, and then the colonel was on the line. Carver’s eyes widened at my temerity. It wasn’t every soldier that could just summon the colonel. “Go ahead.”

“Sir, I’m reporting an Article 99.”

“I see. On whom?”

“Major Carver, Second Team, sir.”

“What happened?”

“Sir, Major Carver crawled under the ICV while we were engaged, and refused a direct request for assistance. We barely fought them off, sir.”

“Corroborating witness?”

“Yes, sir. Sergeant Rachel Eaton, 1
^st
Team, sir. I saw it.” Before the colonel could respond, the others of my squad also joined in.

“Gunnery Sergeant Dalton Gaines, 1
^st
Team, sir. I saw what happened.”

“Captain Thomas Reynolds, 1
^st
Team, sir. I saw it, too.”

“Yes, yes. Very good.” Maxwell paused, and his voice took on a tone of command I’d only heard him use a few times since I’d been a member of AEGIS. “Major Carver, do you read?”

The major looked sick, having gone pale at the conversation going on around him. He seemed to muster whatever self-esteem he might still have had, and raised his chin as Kim obligingly activated his radio. “Yes, sir. Carver here.”

“Very well. Major Carver, you are hereby relieved of your command pending a full investigation. Your XO is Captain Ramos if I remember correctly,” Maxwell said, his voice as cold and robotic as I’d ever heard it. “Ramos, come in.”

A new voice came on the line, one I didn’t recognize. He too was cold and emotionless. “This is Lieutenant Greer, sir. Captain Ramos didn’t make it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. You are next up, are you not?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very well. Captain, you are now in command of Second Team, effective immediately.”

“Yes, sir,” James answered. “It’s lieutenant, sir.”

“Not anymore.”

“Yes, sir. What’s left of my men and I will assist with cleanup, sir.”

“Very well. Barnes?”

“Here, sir,” said Kimberly, unconsciously straightening without actually coming to attention.

“Major Barnes, take Carver into custody until such time as he can be delivered to base MPs at Fort Carson.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied. “Barnes clear.”

I’d seen fury before, but the tight control that Major Carver showed amazed me. I don’t know how he kept such anger in check, but it was pointless to wonder. Kim jerked her head toward the Stryker.

“Major Carver, this way please.” I motioned to the back of the Stryker, and holding his head high, the major entered the vehicle. The vehicle commander gave me a questioning look.

“Article 99, sir,” I said. “Would you happen to have restraints, sir?”

“99?” said the captain; Graves, according to his ACU. “That serious?”

“Sir, you must’ve been otherwise occupied, sir. He crawled under the Stryker and refused to fire on the enemy, sir.”

Graves turned to face the major, a look in his eye that I was sure he reserved for things he wanted to scrape off the bottom of his boot. I’m fairly certain my own expression wasn’t much different.

“Well, that
is
serious, isn’t it? And stupid, to boot. If we’d needed to maneuver this tub, you would’ve been grape jelly. Regardless, you realize that an Article 99 is punishable either by death,” he paused as Carver cringed. “Or such punishment as a court-martial may direct, sir?”

When Carver didn’t respond, Captain Graves smiled down at Carver from his raised seat. “I see. Well, all we have are some tow chains, son, but you’re welcome to them.” He gestured to a panel inset into the floor.

“Thank you, sir.”

Five minutes later, Carver was trussed like a Thanksgiving turkey, chained to one of the bulkheads. A truly screwed-up turkey, but a turkey nonetheless.

“We’ll keep an eye on him,” said Captain Graves, shaking his head at Carver’s predicament. “Not like he’s going to go very far, anyway.” He glanced back up at his monitors. “Looks like your squad could use a hand.”

I looked around and noticed that Kim had started the team policing the area as I was dealing with Carver. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

I left the Stryker, jogging over to where Reynolds struggled with one of the bodies from Charlie squad, and pulled on the nitrile biohazard gloves we all carried for such tasks, as well as my respirator mask. No sense taking chances. Reynolds smiled at me thankfully, and then reached down to turn off the poor dead soldier’s REAPR unit.

“Bastards must’ve surprised them, sir. I think this is nearly the whole squad.”

“I think it’s more than that, captain. Take a look.” I said, pointing at one of the other bodies. It was a teenage boy, no more than thirteen or fourteen. Or it had been, once. He grimaced and spat to one side. “Easy. It’s the price we pay. You know that.”

“Knowing doesn’t make it any easier, sir.” He held up a hand to forestall my comment. “I know, I know. Still… sometimes I wish we could just push a button and wipe all of them off the planet.”

I couldn’t help but think of Rebecca and Eric, and sighed as I hefted the other end of the body bag I’d put the first corpse in, and sighed. “You and me both, Tom. You and me both.”

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Damn him,
she thought, pulling the news van into the television station’s parking lot.
First, that bastard colonel stonewalls me until he leaves, and then his “support staff” isn’t allowed to talk to me at all. Support staff, my ass. They were the cleaners, making sure nothing and no one that I could use slipped through the cracks.

“Hi, Ms. Poole,” said the smiling young security guard behind the glass of the lot’s security booth. “Find anything interesting out there?”

“No, I didn’t,” she said harshly. “Open the damn gate already!”

The guard’s smile faded, and he pushed a button. “Right away, ma’am.” The gate raised and she drove off.
Bitch.

Rick met her as she entered the building, carrying the few disks she’d managed to get out of the damned Army.

“So, Doris… Tell me you got something,” he said, dry-washing his hands in expectation, looking her up and down in the process.

Ugh, how much creepier can this asshole get?
she thought, and then sighed.
It’s my fault, I suppose. I never should’ve slept with him.

“Nothing, Rick, okay? Not a damn thing. That jackass colonel gave me nothing but the same old crap, and then he wouldn’t let us go into town, and the people he left to clean up the mess are even less helpful. They wouldn’t talk to us at all.”