Bootstrap Colony (46 page)

"Light!" the first medic said,
yelling. "Someone get the ambulance over here stat!" he said. Tater
wrinkled his nose, raised his potato gun and shot out the skylight. They winced
as glass and plastic mixed with crap rained down. "Don't anyone get that
shit on you, or let the glass cut you. Instant infection," the medic said,
hooking up an IV. He handed the bag to Bobby. "Hold this up and
squeeze."

"Roger," he said doing so.

"Who did the tourniquet?" the
medic asked. He snorted at the sight of the tampon field dressings. He'd seen
more and more of them over the past couple of months.

"I did, it’s okay right?"
Bobby asked, sounding concerned. He absently wiped his bloody hands on his
pants.

"Next time use a piece of rubber or
a belt," the medic said hands flashing as he tried to save Chuck's life.

"Will I keep the arm doc?"
Chuck asked weakly. He coughed.

"I dunno son, right now we're
trying to keep you from bleeding out. Do me a favor and stay awake. I haven't
lost anyone in six days and I'm shooting for the record."

"You're all heart," Frank said
shaking his head. He winced as Tater shot out another skylight in a bathroom.
"I think I'll go help, you know smash some windows. I need to go break
something."

"Mind the glass," the medic
said not bothering to look up. He used a clamp to clamp a spurting blood vessel
when he uncovered the tampon. He reached over and pulled another one off his
sleeve to clamp another wound.

"Frank, Bert, guys, watch out for
creeplings," Shane said. Frank nodded. Jody warily looked at the scene
around Chuck and shook her head. Warily she checked the fridge, and then
slammed the door shut after a quick peek. Nothing worth it in there after
months without power. She moved on to other areas.

"Think there is more?"

"Where there is a Gremlin there is
a harem of creeplings," Shane said.

Bobby spat out something and wiped his
mouth with the back of his arm. He looked around. "I uh, gotta um..."

"Got to get back to work, I
know," Shane said. "Jack in the box. Nasty," he said, adrenaline
ebbing as his military training kicked in. It would be time for the shakes
later. He looked in the pantry. "Hell of a way to do our food
shopping," he said shaking his head as Bobby checked the closet warily and
then started pulling boxes of hamburger helper and pasta out and bagging it.
His hand brushed clotted blood on the boxes and against the door, he ignored
it. He brushed aside the remains of a cat and kept working.

"You know it," Bobby said
shaking. "Welcome to the world we live in." He looked up as they
heard a thunderous roar down the Street and then the pock pock of weapons
firing.

"Great," Shane said.
"Hellcat, just what we
don't
need."

"Or a pack of them boss,"
Frank said coming up behind him. Apparently he was finished with the glass.
"Want us to back them up?"

"We're not finished here, and they
didn't call for back up," Shane said shaking his head. "I want the
creeplings found and put out of our misery.
Now
."

"Yeah boss," Frank said as the
medics lifted Chuck up onto a stretcher and strapped him down. He waved to the
door warden. "Block the door open and get the hell out of their way.
MOVE!"

"Hell of a thing," Shane said
shaking his head. He nodded to Frank and the others milling about. "Get a
scope. Find these damn things and kill them."

"You got it boss," Frank said
moving off. He knew Hadji's team was going to catch hell over this. Jack in the
box. Casualty. Definitely. He set his jaw and then refocused on the now.
Typical rookie mistake, one that only a few survived and learned from.

"Welcome to the world we live
in," Shane said softly as the medics pushed Chuck's gurney out the door.
He gave the poor rookie less than a ten percent chance of survival, and less
than a one percent of keeping the arm. The medics would do what they could but
it was a long trip to the mall.

The radio squawked, interrupting his
ruminations. "Hellcat pack, one down, two WIA, one KIA. Six confirmed, two
probable. Send back up." There was another roar, followed by more gun
shots and a scream.

"Right away," Shane said with
a nod. "Time to get back to work," he said, catching a couple tampons
Frank tossed him and then snagging a chocolate nut frosting container from the
open pantry. There was another roar, followed by a second and then a third. He
scowled. From the sound they were big ones. Not good.

"What's the take today?" Bobby
asked wearily as he exited the truck. He looked around; most of the gear they
had gathered was already being processed. Hadji was over on the left talking
with Liam, the load super this shift.

"No idea man," Jody said
shaking her head. She rubbed at her shoulder. She'd had a close call when a
jack had popped out on her. Fortunately nothing was broken, just bruised.
"Any word on Chuckles?"

Bobby frowned and then blinked.
"You mean Charles?"

"Yeah. Mister Chew toy."

"Funny," Bobby said looking
over to Hadji who was coming over. "Any word on Charles?"

Hadji nodded, nodding to Jody and the
crew behind them. Bobby looked over his shoulder to them and then back.
"Word is he's out of surgery. Lost the arm, no surprise there."

"Figures," Jody muttered.

"But he's alive. Whether he'll pull
through without getting infection..." Hadji shrugged.

"What's the take?" Tater
asked, hefting his potato gun on one shoulder.

"Will you go put that damn thing
away?" Jody asked testily.

"What this little thing?"
Tater asked grinning as he moved the gun to port arms. "Not a chance, I
managed to bean a creepling today. Didn't kill it, but it damn well knew it was
kissed. I want to trade up though." He missed his air mortar. A valve had
cracked on it so it was in the shop. That sucked.

"Yeah well..." Jody looked at
him scowling then shook her head at his innocent expression. She turned on
Hadji. Wasted effort arguing with Tater anyway. He'd just grin and do his own
thing anyway.

Hadji cleared his throat and nodded.
"Not a bad haul. New neighborhood, no surprise there. Couple good caches.
Enough for a couple hundred people easy."

"Hell of a way to get food,"
Jody muttered, rubbing at one arm.

"Talk about costing an arm and a
leg. Or at least an arm," Tater said with a shrug.

Jody and the others turned on him. He
gave a serendipitous smile and shrug. "Just sayin, is all."

"Yeah well, still sucks,"
Bobby muttered, trying to think of what to say to the boss. Hell to the man's
family.

"His fault. You told him and told
him not to open shit in the safety brief man," Jody said nodding and
patting his shoulder. "Listen, look, poke at a distance, make sure it’s
clear before you open up anything."

"Yeah man, it’s on him," Tater
said shrugging. "Guy was a waste anyway; he was on to me about the black
market. Like we've got time for that shit."

"Some do unfortunately," Hadji
said as they started to move with the crowd to the doors. The sun would be down
soon. "Showers?" he asked.

"Hell yeah," Bobby said,
nodding. He felt all itchy despite the cold.

"You need it," Jody said with
a sniff of disdain. Tater had drippings all over him.

"We picked up a cache of weapons
and ammo. Two of them actually," a guy said nearby, they looked his way as
they walked, slowing instinctively. "Anything on that guy who got
chewed?"

"He's alive. Lost the arm,"
Jody said, raising her voice. The other group looked her way.

"Not that guy, the other guy. The
one who got ankle bit."

"Dunno," Jody said shaking her
head. She looked at Tater who was about to open his mouth. "Don't say
it," she said in exasperation.

He paused, frowned, cocked his head as
he looked at her and then shrugged. Bobby snorted softly. "Come on, shit
shower and shave. Tomorrow is another day."

"Throw in a steak and a beer and
I'm all for that," Tater said moving faster.

"Can't do that, but there might be
pizza or burgers. Dunno," Hadji said.

"Yippy," Jody said in disgust,
head down, shaking her head. She preferred salads and subs. Both were in short
supply these days. Hell, so were burgers and pizza. Everything was.

"Yeah come on, before they are all
out," Tater said moving faster. Jody snorted but fell into the big guy's
wake with the others.

The doctor sighed wearily as he toweled
off. Another day of meatball surgery. It was getting routine now, and he wasn't
sure he liked the implications. Ten people maimed for what? He turned to a see
Shane there leaning tiredly against the door frame.

"How are they doing doc?"

"The guy who lost his arm is in
ICU. I'm not sure we got all the sepsis, we'll see if he pulls through the
night. The abdominal wounds were mostly superficial luckily."

Shane nodded. "What about the
others?"

"A few broken bones, a couple
scrapes and bruises. For what?" The doctor demanded, tossing his towel
into the hamper. "A couple cases of ramen?" Shane followed him a bit
then stopped near a counter.

"A bit more than that actually
doc," Shane said, leaning back against the counter behind him and crossing
his arms. "Food, weapons, material, water, and ammo."

"Which we..." the doc paused
and shrugged. "I heard we got some stuff from the government? FEMA?"

Shane nodded reluctantly. Yes they'd
gotten that one delivery. Fifteen loads of food, weapons, ammo, and other
stuff. Everyone had been happy about it, morale had skyrocketed that there were
still people out there looking after them. It had been hard getting people back
into the grind of going out and trying to keep things moving. The fact that
there wasn't a follow up flight a week later had helped, but they'd gone
through some grumbling until that fact had sunken in. That and the fact that
all the air drops had managed to give them was a couple of days of food for
their entire population. "Some doc. But we do this for three reasons. No
four." Shane frowned.

The doctor looked up at him and cocked
his head in inquiry. "And they are?" he asked, pretty sure he knew
some of the answers.

Shane cocked his own head in thought.
After a moment he blew his cheeks out and nodded. "Well first, this stuff
isn't going to be good forever. Some of it has a short shelf life. Which is why
we're doing this."

"I thought you said there were four
reasons."

"There are," Shane said with a
nod as he watched the doctor go to get dressed. He turned to look politely
away. "Second, the stuff we get from the government is a
bonus
.
Something we can't count on as a regular thing. We can't become dependent on
it. I don't want to get shortened. We need a safety net, at least a three month
supply."

The doctor paused with his shirt half on
and looked at him. Shane shrugged. "All good things come to an end
eventually doc," he said.

"Okay, I'll buy that...."

"The third is training. We need to
get our people out there, handling the situation. Training on the weapons, the
situation, and learning about the aliens as much as possible. Hell, more than
four. Just thought of other reasons."

"Really?"

"Well, another, killing the damn
aliens now during the day before they get big."

The doctor reluctantly nodded.
"Seems like we're losing as much as we're gaining."

"It seems that way sometimes doc,
but we're killing ten times as many as we lose." Shane admitted to himself
that the way the aliens breed it was still a losing proposition. Hell, losing
experienced people was a losing proposition. Sometimes though, you had to be
the cold bastard and risk your people to get somewhere.

"Still not enough," the doctor
growled pulling his pants up.

"It never is doc, it never
is," Shane sighed, shaking his head. He rubbed at his brow.

"Another reason?"

"You really want to go out there or
send people out there to scavenge for food a year from now? Six months even?”
he shook his head again. “Now is as good as we're going to get. It'll go
downhill from here if we bunker up doc. Trust me on this. The aliens get
bigger. I'd rather we kill them and keep the food for us." He grunted.
“Hell if I'll let them eat it and use it against us,” he muttered.

"How bad are we on the supplies? I
thought we had enough?"

"Never enough doc," Shane said
as the doctor put his shoes on. "Never enough. I think we keep hovering
around a two month supply." The doctor looked up at that. "That's
with what we bring in, which is about a days’ supply for the entire group. That
doesn't include the extra mouths we pick up daily."

"So we're getting what we're
eating?"