Zombie Theorem (Book 1): The Culling (23 page)

I almost jumped out of my skin when a hand rests on my shoulder. I look up to find the hand belongs to Kuppers, his eyes are as hard as rocks and have no kindness in them. “People like her are sheep son, they will never understand, or do what has to happen. Why don’t you go outside and take a breather, I’ll back up Vic and take care of her” I nodded in agreement and stepped outside.

I bent down and used the concrete to pop the locks on my batons and collapse them back to their normal size. As I was about to holster them I noticed the blood on them. I head to the dock with my head down, trying to not make eye contact with anyone. I sat down and washed the blood off of the batons, and holster them. I raised my head after a moment and watched as Brian walked Douglas up toward the guard house. I sighed, and cracked my back to release some of the tension and jogged off to catch up to Brian as he took Douglas inside. I slid in and shadowed them over to Vic, Kuppers, the Guard from upstairs and the trussed up Charlotte on the floor.

“What is going on. Why is Charlotte being detained?” Douglas inquired, quietly since Brian’s hand was resting on the nape of his neck reminding him that he better be calm. 

“This fine young man from the Guard here has requested she be detained till she can be tried in a military court for allowing a National Guardsmen to lose his life due to her negligence. She was trying to release these infected people, some of them re-animated into zombies and killed the others along with the Guard.” I examined Charlotte and noticed someone had stuck tape over her mouth. “Son, the question is, are you gonna hitch your cart to hers and go down with her? Or do you want to work with the fine men of the National Guard and help protect these poor people on your island?” Kuppers asked in a quiet yet demanding voice. Since meeting Kuppers, I finally figured out who he reminded me of. He looks and sounds to me a lot like Colonel Miles Quaritch, from the movie Avatar. He can scare and inspire people at the same time, so it was no surprise when Douglas opened his mouth.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked down at Charlotte then back up at Kuppers. “I had no idea what she was doing. I am more than happy to help the National Guard and protect these people.”

Kuppers smiled and handed Charlotte’s key chain to him. “You might want to give these to the Guard in charge outside on the dock. Also someone needs to get in the cell house and help people get settled in.”

“Yes sir I will.” Brian removed his meaty paw off of the kid’s shoulders freeing him. “Oh by the way until we are ready to deal with her, there is a cell, I can lock her in.”

“Excellent I will follow your lead sir.” Kuppers reached down and lifted Charlotte to her feet. “You need to hop or I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you outta here missy. Up to you.” Charlotte screamed from behind the tape and shakes her head. Kuppers rolled his eyes, picked her up and threw her over his left shoulder. “Have it your way sweetie. Lead on son.” They left the guardhouse, leaving the rest of us standing around.

“I guess we should clean up these bodies, should we toss them into the bay?” Brian asked.

I shrugged and asked the guard and Vic. “What do you guys suggest?”

“I’ll get a detail once the traffic outside has thinned and take care of these bodies. Thanks for your help guys.” The Guardsman, Schillinger his name tag said, answered.

Brian, Vic and I turned to leave when suddenly I remembered I had the dead Guard’s M4. I took it off my shoulder and handed it over to Schillinger. “Here, this belongs to you guys, I took it from him.” I indicated the dead man on the floor.

“Thank you, but I am sure we will have a lot more then we can use soon. Why don’t you keep it?” He handed it back to me.

I nodded my thanks and strapped it back on my shoulder, where it started banging into the shotgun already perched there. Brian, Vic and I make our way back to the barge where I secure the M4 into a rack in the Beast. I’m really going to have to learn how to use these damn things soon.

A whumping sound rips the air apart causing me to look up, just as my ear piece crackles to life with Senshi’s voice, at least I guess it’s him, I’ve only heard his voice twice before. “Three choppers coming in from the south. Two are carrying slung pallets under them. Looks like the one with nothing slung is heading to the north eastern side and the other two right up here on the exercise concrete pad.” Then his voice was gone.

Brian tapped my shoulder to gain my attention, pointed up the hill and took off at a jog. I on the other hand had to sprint to catch up to his long legs. I finally caught up to him at the top of the hill at the flat concrete area, just as one of the helicopters released the pallet’s canvas sling. I had to bend over to catch my breath, while doing so I watched three Guardsmen struggle to move two pallets out of the open area, to give a clear landing space for the helicopters to land.

Brian didn’t waste a second, he ran over, dropped his shoulder and hit one of the pallets, he grunted, pushed, and roared out loud. Slowly the pallet moved, the faster as he gained his footing and, moved it all by himself to the side of the hill. The other Guardsmen had stopped in their tracks, out of his way and watched his massive feat of strength in awe. The guardsmen then looked to me for guidance. I shrugged and pointed to the other one. We ran over together and started shoving it back away from the landing zone. Once far enough away the two helicopters set down and the men within disembarked. Once they were out, the two helicopters took off staggered so they wouldn’t hit one another.

A man wearing what looked like some kind of officer rank on his collar walked over examining my uniform and gear. “You don’t look like you’re in the guard”

“Nope, I am with the SFPD SWAT, name is Dan Welko” I held my hand out to him, he stared at it for a minute then shook it with a strong grip.

“Dan, that there is a Captain in the Air Guard, 129
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out of Moffett, unless my guess is wrong.” Brian said walking up to us.

“When did SWAT start hiring Bigfoot?” The Captain laughed. “I am Captain Phillips from the 129
th
. We brought some supplies and have more on the way. What the hell is the situation here?”

“My commander, John Kuppers is on his way down sir. He will brief you in on the situation sir.” Brian answered. Just then Doc, Kuppers and another Guard came trotting down from a walkway winding up to the cell house.     

Kuppers walked right up to the Captain and punched him on the should hard enough to make the Captain hiss in pain, “Well if it aint Captain Phillips, gee it’s been what five years since we got to practice SAR up in the Sierras?” I found out later from Brian that SAR meant Search and Rescue.

The Captains eyes went wide, as his smile deepened and he punched Kuppers’ shoulder back. “Ironman! Holy shit good to see you alive. So give me a no shitter, what’s going on here?”

Kuppers took the Captain’s arm and moved him away, out of ear shot of the rest of us. Doc and the Guardsman Franklin, his name tag said, started opening pallets. Doc’s eyes grew in size, like a little girl getting a pony for Christmas, at what he discovered. A couple of 129
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Air guys gave Doc a detailed inventory of their contents. I watched as Doc read through the inventory reports, his smile just kept growing and growing till I thought his face was going to split in half. He craned his neck looking around then headed over when he found Kuppers. He waited for a short time before breaking in on the conversation. Doc showed Kuppers the inventory and babbled on a bit till Senshi’s voice broke over our radio. “We got another three copters coming in, same heading same set up.”

Doc’s attention was torn away from his discussion with Kuppers as he looked up searching for the helicopters. As before they drop their pallets and we all work at moving them over before they touch down to disembark their men. I noticed that this group had more army instead of Air Guard guys. They disembarked with rifles in hand and marched straight up to the guardsmen standing with Doc. They saluted and started in on the conversations going on. Brian and I looked at each other and shrugged, we felt a little left out of the going ons.

As if reading our minds, Kuppers, the Captain, along with the new Army National Guard arrivals made their way to where Brian and I waited patiently. “More of the same coming.” Senshi reported over the radio.

Kuppers stopped at a pathway nearby and motioned for Brian and I to meet with them. The Captain spoke up first when we entered the group. “Kuppers just sang your praises Dan. Good work on the Transamerica building, you too Brian.” He shook our hands again but this time with more warmth.

One of the Army Guardsman introduced himself and his command group. “I am Captain Scott, and this is First Sergeant Hinton and Banks. We are with the 49th MP Brigade you already have here. Sounds like we owe you guys some ammo and supplies we had to borrow from you earlier. By the way, before we go any further I am in debt to you and your team for saving my men and getting this place under control. Your man Doc here was just telling me what we owe and that shouldn’t be a problem; we brought more than enough. I’ll get a detail together and have them take it down to your barge. I take it you guys are not sticking around?”

“Thank you for the supplies. That young man, Dan, is the one who rescued your men.” Kuppers motioned to me.

The Army Captain turned and held his hand out to me, I took it and shook his hand. “No problems we were at the right place at the right time to help. I’m just sorry we couldn’t save everyone.”

“We can’t be everywhere at once; they did their job.”

“So Ironman, tell us why are you guys running out on us? Do you know something we don’t?” enquired Captain Phillips.

“We have our own mission to complete. I won’t bore you with the details. But give me your frequency and codes so if we find any information we can share I’ll call you. Or who knows we may need an air taxi.” Kuppers laughed out loud.

I took that moment and left the group, making my way out to the landing area and watched as more helicopters came in. How do they find this much supplies and get them out over here so quickly? I thought. Suddenly the sun was snuffed out and a large arm plummeted down on my shoulders, almost buckling me to my knees. I moved my head to the side and had to look as Brian leaned a little on me and laughed at my discomfort.

“Hey Brian, what do you think, about all this?” I asked.

“It would’ve been nice to have these resources when we were in the tower. A lot would be different right now.” He sighed.

We trotted over to the side of the hill and stood out of the way, watching as Doc ran to each box and pointed to items within. The Guards followed him, reached in and removed the items he had indicated, then took them over to an empty pallet with a box on it.

Kuppers caught my eye, and trotted over. “Ok, it’s getting late; I suggest we bring everyone to the barge except Senshi. We’ll keep him on his high station as over watch. Doc has most of his supplies figured out and they are going to use the next chopper to transfer them to the barge.” He started down the hill and we followed as he expected we would.

He called over the radio informing everyone to get off the barge except Cupcake, so the NG could deliver our supply pallet. We arrived to find Apache, Angel, and Vic standing on the dock waiting for us. I wondered when Doc would show up to help. 

I heard and felt the thumping from the helicopter blades as it approached. I scanned the sky looking for the helicopter and was taken back by the site. Doc was standing on the pallet, waving, and shaking his hips dancing while holding on to the straps securing the pallet. He was laughing like a child, enjoying his ride.

“Damn idiot.” Kuppers grumbled.

I watched as Cupcake climbed onto the top of his loving beast, he used hand signals to direct the pilots to land the pallet on the barge as close to the beast as he could. Once down Doc reached up, hit a lever and signaled to the pilot he was clear and to move on. The pilot waved back and gained altitude then banked to the south and flew off. I was awed at the site and feat of the pilot, that man had to have nerves of steels to do what he did.

Kuppers jumped on the barge and pointed at Doc. “What kind of toys did you bring us?”

Doc sat on a big box and beamed with pride, a giant grin that stretched from ear to ear was plastered on his face. “Well, we have 20 cans of 5.56 ammo, each can, carries about 800 rounds, so about 16,000 rounds. We also have 50 preloaded M4 magazines, so that is another 1,500, twenty boxes with 12 MREs in them, so we have about 240, and twenty, 15 gallon tanks of diesel. We also got in the deal five, 2 man tents along with sleeping bags and toilet paper. They also provided us with 25 gallons of water. I found some other toys that the Army didn’t know they were carrying.” Doc reached back opened a box and took out 2 round items and tossed them to Kuppers.

“Why are they carrying frag and white phosphorous grenades on a rescue mission?” Kuppers asked.

“I have no idea, but somehow I became an owner of 30 each. Did I do a good job sir?”

“Very good son, now get everything packed up and onto the Beast. We leave tomorrow at first light. We can take shifts sleeping inside the Beast tonight. Senshi will stay on over watch till we leave. Vic, figure it all out and get everyone fed and then it’s bed. I got some shit to take care of with the Guard.” With that Kuppers headed back up the hill toward the supply helicopters.

“All right everyone, grab an MRE, and eat up. Doc, I want you and Cupcake to pack up this gear and get it on top of the beast and secured. Brian, Dan, Angel and Apache you will take first shift of sleep. Doc, Cupcake, Kuppers and I will take second shift for sleep. I’ll run an MRE up to Senshi. I expect you four to have eaten and prepared to sack out when I come back.” He looked around one last time, grabbed an MRE and headed up the hill.

Doc threw some big plastic packages at us. Apache opened one for Angel, using her knife. I watched her close then pulled my Kabar and mimicked her ways of opening the MRE. Apache sat down with her back to the Beast and patted the ground next to hear motioning Angel to sit down next to her. Brian winked at me and padded the area near him. I threw him the bird and sat down Indian style in front of them. I dug out the contents of my MRE, and removed the contents, putting them in order in front of me.  I had never eaten one of these and had no idea what to expect. I stared at the bigger pouch took out my Kabar and cut off the top. I stared at the contents and took a sniff. It smelled bland, so I dip a finger in, scooping some of the sauce out. I sucked my finger and even though not impressed, I give into my stomach and look around for a way to eat it.  

“I got chili and beans, what did you guys get?”

“Looks like spaghetti I think.” I said while looking for a fork.

“Raviolis, yummy, but do I need to eat it cold?” This came from Angel.

“Give it to me sweetie.” Brian took her pouch and used the cardboard sleeve and some other thing and gave it back to her. “Give it a couple of seconds, but be careful it will be hot.” Angel sat down and stared at the cardboard waiting for it to heat up.

I find a spork in one of the little packets from the main pack, I stare at it and the main food packet and try to figure out how to eat it with this little spork cleanly. Finally, after getting pissed off and frustrated, I dropped the spork and slowly started squeezing out the contents directly into my mouth, I chewed the food and tried to enjoy the blandness.

Brian bent over laughing. “Wow took me a month to start eating these things like that. Every meal, I ended up using half my water ration for the day to clean my arms.” He also turned his food package upside down and squeezed the food into his mouth.

I watched as Apache magically pulled a plate out and dumped her warm food onto it. She then produced another one and dumped Angel’s food onto it and handed it to her. She smiled at us, and they started eating like civilized people. “Sure if I had known we had plates I would’ve done that too.” I stuck my tongue out at Apache. 

The two girls ignored my childish humor, they sat there and ate their food in silence, while Sasquatch and I worked on ours like the Neanderthals we are. When done we volunteered to help Doc with the packing and securing. He was happy to put us to work. We took the boxes he handed us and tied them onto the roof of the Beast. Something came to me so I vocalized it to my companions. “If we tie everything to the roof and we come under fire or something happens, wont we lose most of our supplies?”

Doc stuffed more gum into his mouth and twisted the ends of his mustache as he stared at me. “Good thinking Dan, but I already thought about that.” He reached down and picked up one of the big black backpacks at his feet and pointed at it. “Meet your new best friend. I loaded yours with 10 MRE packs, and since you are rucking around that shotgun I added some ammo for it and just in case five magazines for that M4 you got from your new NG buddy. You also have some toilet paper, some other little things I thought you might need, along with a sleeping bag, a small med kit, and even though I don’t want you to touch them, I added a couple of the frag grenades in there. I call these our Zomgo bags. If everything goes tits up, you grab your pack and go, go, go.” He threw my bag at me and I found out very quickly that it must’ve weighed close to 50 pounds, as it almost pushed me back onto my ass.

He pointed to the boxes we were tying up. “Those boxes have some supplies it would be nice to have but not essential, like the rest of the food and stuff. The important things like ammo and some of the fuel are going into the beast. Some of us like Sasquatch there, will be carrying double if not triple the ammo load out everyone else is carrying in their packs.”