Zombie Theorem (Book 1): The Culling (19 page)
Finally, I thought, time to move, no more wasting precious time. I thanked God, which I rarely did, for the warriors surrounding me, for giving me the chance to go to Julie, to give me the second chance I did not deserve. I made a promise right then that I would never give up, I would not die, and I would do everything possible to find Julie and to never let harm come to her.
Apache looked over at me then placed a helmet on my head and strapped it down. “Don’t want to scramble your brains Danny boy.” Her smile, seemed like it was etched on her face.
I examined our enclave and noticed everyone else was wearing a helmet. Brian’s looked like it was a tight fit but he had it on and that was important. He winked and threw a smile my way. He looked like he belonged with these people. It brought out the real him.
We rumbled out of the garage and turned right on Jones street and then right on Turk Street. Cupcake was running the sirens and was driving very offensively almost pushing cars out of his way if they didn’t move quickly enough for him. We made another right onto Franklin and were stopped dead in traffic. Cupcake laid on the horn and whooping the siren trying to get people out of the way. “No good Vic these must be people trying to escape the riots. They have the same idea as us. Which way now?”
Vic looked back at me. “If this is that bad, I promise you the bridge is probably packed too. Any ideas Dan?”
“Anybody got a cell phone?” Apache handed me her IPhone and unlocked it. I opened her GPS program and was terrified to see the traffic in the city. “Everything to the bridges is gridlocked. We aren’t going anywhere.”
“The Ferry” announced Little Jonny. “We used them once to go to Napa that one time we worked with DHS. If we can commandeer one, we can make it across the bay to Sausalito, disembark and head inland or at least over land in this beast.”
“Don’t call my girl a beast. Unless its, sexy beast.” Cupcake admonished. Everyone ignored him. Seemed like a normal thing for them.
“Ok let’s get to Market and take that to the Embarcadero. The ferries are south a little bit. But we are going to be close to that riot.” I answered.
“Okie dokie, my man.” Cupcake threw the APC to the right, blew over a sidewalk and skidding onto Eddy Street.
He continued and I lost track of the turns. I had turned inside myself, I felt like I was missing something. Every time I thought I was going to be able to catch the thought it would float away.
I was pulled out of my private thoughts by Brian as he tapped my knee with one big finger. “Boss, you ok man? You seem a little distracted.” I could see concern etched onto his normally smiling face.
“Yeah I’m good brother, something is just nibbling at the edge of my thoughts. But I can’t seem to focus in on it.” I answered shaking my head to clear it.
“Ok people we’ve decided to bypass Market Street; it seems to also be out of control.” Vic recited.
“We are going to get stuck in more and more traffic, human and vehicle, the closer we get to Folsom. I say go north over to California and then west to the Embarcadero. We should be able to ride on the fringes of all the chaos. Then with our sirens and some sidewalk driving we should be able to get their faster. Just my opinion, but risk assessment is what I do best.” This came from Brian.
“You heard the Sasquatch, back north to California. Do some of that crazy driving shit you do, Cupcake and get us where we need to go!” ordered Vic.
The APC rocked on its suspension as Cupcake made a fast left and somehow pulled out a U-turn in the beast, without flipping it over and killing all of us. Apache saw the fear on my face and laughed. “Don’t worry Dan, Cupcake drove bigger APCs in the Army, I trust his driving and he knows this thing like the back of his hand. Or in his case inside of his right masturbating hand.” Apache made the hand job motion using her right hand and giggled. Humor seemed to be her natural disposition.
“Hey I heard that. I’m primarily a lefty, when it comes to satisfying myself. The right is for pulling the trigger on my trusty M4. Now hold on guys, and by guys I mean Apache, we going air born.” I grabbed onto my seatbelt and closed my eyes as somehow the crazy bastard actually got the APC to leave the ground, if even for just two seconds. I felt my stomach trying to go out through my mouth and clamped my jaw down tight.
“Ok, I’ll swing right onto California, I see an opening so I’m gonna get the girl up to sixty, so hold on tight.” Cupcake shouted back to us.
While cupcake pushed his rig up to a wild and crazy speed of sixty, Vic looked back to us. “Ok we just passed Montgomery, so we will be slowing down to take a left on Market. Prepare to get out and protect the truck, if we get overwhelmed. Dan you stay in the vehicle at all times and hold on. Let the professionals do their job. Apache will stick by your side, got it?”
I nodded agreement and Vic turned around to watch us swing on to Market through two cars. I could hear the wrenching of metal as Cupcake may have scratched some paint off of them. I had a feeling there was no damage to the Beast as I decided to name it. Almost immediately we braked hard to a jolting stop.
“We got a problem Kuppers!” Vic shouted back.
Kuppers hit the door release button, opened the back door, and stepped out to survey the situation. The man never seemed to just stand in one place, it’s like he planted himself to a spot and dared anyone to knock him down. He closed the door and I couldn’t see him anymore till he walked to the front of the Beast. I witnessed out the front windshield a blockade of emergency vehicles standing in our way. Vic popped open his door and last I saw him he was jogging toward the ferry’s dock.
Kuppers swaggered his way to the front and started shouting orders to the officers manning their stations. I could see them wilter from this one-man storm. They started moving vehicles, Cupcake drove the Beast through the opening, out to the rear taking up station near the Ferry building. The rest of the men in back disembarked from the rear door and took up defensive positions nearby. Apache, Cupcake and I stayed where we were.
Vic came back and sidled up the rear of the Beast so everyone could hear him. “Ok, here’s the situation. The ferry that can handle our rig is not here and won’t be back for a long time. But they do have a flat barge with a crane that can lift the APC onto it. They are going to pull it into position in 20 minutes.” He stepped back and Kuppers marched up.
“We can’t move on yet guys.” I noticed Apache never batted an eye, I guess she felt like one of the guys so had no problem not being singled out as the woman of the group. “These poor bastards are ordered to hold the line and there is only ten of them. A lot of overflow, from the riot, is on its way we probably have about five minutes till it gets here.”
“What can we do to hold people who are just trying to get out of here too? We can’t shoot everyone that’s not human.” I said.
“I have an idea, but it may not make a dent in the crowd coming.” Vic said covering his eyes from the sun, while looking out to the ferry building. “There are three ferries sitting at the dock right now. Each one can carry about 450 people. I bet if they squeezed them in they can carry close to 600. Maybe get them to the old alameda air station, then come back for more. Let’s operate on that idea, I’ll go talk to the captains of the boats and make them see the light.” Vic grabbed a radio from the back of the Beast and put it into his tac vest, and took off toward the ferry’s docks again.
Doc grabbed radios and started handing them out to everyone. Apache grabbed a second one and put it into a special pouch on my vest and threaded an ear piece up through the vest and rested it into my ear. “Dan if you want to talk just push this button here, it’ll open the channel and transmit whatever you say to the squad. Thumbs up if you understand.” I gave her a thumbs up and stayed seated where I was.
I could hear the crowd coming down the street. At first a roar but soon I was able to pick up individual voices.
Then Kuppers’ voice came over a loud speaker. “I am Lieutenant John Kuppers of the Tenderloin Department of the San Francisco Police. Please calm down and stay civil, we are working on ways to help you. First we need to know which of you is sick, injured, and who is healthy. We will move the non-infected to the Alameda air station using ferries. We cannot handle everyone in one shot, so be patient, be orderly and we will get you out of the city.”
“The NG are here guys.” Little Jonny announced. Later Apache informed me that NG meant National Guard.
The radio in my ear clicked open and a voice came over. “This is Vic; I have all Captains in agreement to ferry people out of here, but they will not take anyone infected or that look unhealthy. I think we can accommodate them on this matter. The Barge is here, Cupcake we can start moving the APC over, and get her loaded and secured. Dan stay with Apache and the rest of the group. Over.”
I got out with Apache and she made sure I stuck to her side. Cupcake got the Beast started and moved off in the direction of the ferry building. I looked around and saw five large trucks pulling up and dispersing military personnel. Kuppers left the officers at the barricade and approached what I figured was the leadership of the National Guard contingent.
Apache and I moved closer so we could back up Kuppers and listen in on the conversation. “I am Lieutenant Kuppers of the SFPD, who are you guys?” Kuppers seemed to always be so gruff. I was amazed when they answered him, deferring to his position.
“49th MP Brigade out of Fairfield. I am second Lieutenant Rodriguez and this is Master Sergeant Janikowski. Nice to meet you sir, are you in command of this area?” The short Latino, held his hand out.
Kuppers took it and shook it once and nodded at the Master Sergeant. I am the highest ranking official here from the SFPD so I guess I am in charge. How many men do you have? And how in hell did you get here from Fairfield so fast?”
“Actually we were working at the old armory on the west side. We were called up by the Governor about three hours ago and we fought our way through horrendous traffic here. I have one platoon consisting of Military Police, so guess it at 100 men, primarily armed with lethal weapons only, no non-lethals available for us to use.” The Master Sergeant answered.
“The San Francisco armory hasn’t been used in a long time. What were you doing there?” Asked Apache.
“This is Sergeant Lozen.” Kuppers introduced her but left me out of the conversation. Which was fine by me.
“We were over there moving some old files and helping out with a movie shoot.” The second Lieutenant explained. “I do have one favor to ask sir. We were sent over here from the shoot but we have no ammo. Mind letting us borrow some?” The young soldier looked down and kicked at a small pebble.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Kuppers shakes his head and mumbles quietly “Of course it’s the fucking military.” Then louder to the men around. “We have a small pallet worth, I’ll have it pulled out and you can help yourselves but you will owe me boys.” He clicks on his radio. “Doc bring that mini pallet of 5.56 out here, seems our NG buddies have dry weapons. Yes, I know that’s all we have. Stop your bitching and do as your told.”
“So where do you want us Lieutenant Kuppers?” The Master Sergeant asked.
Kuppers stared at him for a while. “Once we get you ammo the plan is to separate the sick and injured from the healthy civilians. We secured transport for the healthy to go on the ferries to just across the way to Alameda air station. We want to get them out of the city so we can deal with anything else that pops up.” Kuppers instructed. He then turned his attention on the Second Lieutenant. “Are you in contact with the Red Cross? Also you wouldn’t have any medics would you?”
“Yes on both fronts. I will also see if I can get in touch with the Red Cross group over in Oakland and get them to meet the ferries.” He saluted Kuppers and walked away.
“That kid must be out of his comfort zone, no need to salute me I’m not in his command structure. Oh well, he seems competent enough. Apache take Dan away from the action, and send over that Sasquatch with the rest of the team that’s not already busy.” Kuppers turned and walked away, back toward the barricade. In the distance I can see Doc is pulling on the mini pallet of 5.56 ammo dragging it over toward the NG.
Apache steered me over to the guys. “Alright boy’s, Dad says he wants you with him, even you Sasquatch.” Apache punched Brian on the arm and I actually saw him wince. Wow she must be one tough chick. They trotted away and we headed back to a safe area, where we could watch the action but still get away quickly.
I could see the crowd growing in size. The NG troops formed up and broke off into smaller groups and assigned different areas in front of the barricade. “Looks like we are going to sit here for a while. Tell me how you joined SWAT if you don’t mind.”
Apache looked at me with a weird look then gave me a big smile. “I got bored with the Army but missed the guns and fun stuff. So I started looking around the country for the best team and decided on these guys. A friend of mine knew Kuppers from their days in the force and said I would fit in good with him. So I showed up and he took me to the range and handed me a bunch of guns. He wouldn’t interview or really talk to me till I shot. So I set a new record on all weapons at the range and he comes up shakes my hand and says congrats you’re hired. He gave me one week to move here and settle before he introduced me to the team. Each guy on the team is handpicked by Kuppers, even Vic.”
