The Last Blade Of Grass (30 page)

“Okay, let’s get everyone in place. I’ll contact these bastards in ten minutes for a face to face. I want Samantha and one other person in fatigues to come with me.”

*

I key the radio and start the deception that will hopefully save our lives and those of the captives inside. “This is Colonel Keeper speaking to the men holding prisoners in Wal-Mart. I want to speak with Stockton.”

Only a second passes before we hear, “This is Stockton. What do you want?”

Yes. I’ve got him
, I think to myself.
He was hanging on to the radio waiting for my call
. “Stockton, I want to speak with you directly and make you and your men an offer you won’t want to refuse.”

“That’s fine by me, Colonel. You come on in and we can discuss it.”

“I will not be adding myself to the prisoners you currently have. You come out the front with two men, I will approach with two of my people, and I will lay out the offer. We will leave the radio keyed on while I give you the details so all of your men inside can listen in as well.”

“I’m thinking I like it in the store. I don’t see a reason to come out and talk.”

“I was informed that you were the man that made the decisions for your group. If you aren’t, then send out someone who is. I don’t care. I have a deal to offer you and your men, and you will accept it or you can stay and burn with the store once we set it ablaze.”

After ten seconds, he comes back saying, “You wouldn’t burn down the store with all of these supplies and people in it.”

“I have already done it twice, Stockton. We have encountered groups like yours before when we weren’t as interested in saving the uninfected as we are now. We don’t need the supplies, and while untrained civilians are a burden to deal with, things have changed requiring us to consider not only the lives of your prisoners, but your own as well. If you are unwilling to come out and talk, then for the purpose of protecting the lives of my trained soldiers, I will classify all of your prisoners as dead, and will torch the building. You have two minutes to come out for discussion. If it makes you feel more confident of your position, you can come out armed.”

I turn to Arthur, Samantha, and Timothy. “Okay, Arthur, you’re obviously still in charge if we get killed. Just do whatever you think will save the most people. Samantha and Tim, you’ll come with me, and whatever you do, just stick with the military theme.”

“They’re coming out Eddie,” Arthur says.

“Right. Let’s get those people freed,” I say and start walking to the store with Samantha and Timothy falling in a few steps behind and to either side of me.

We approach the three men from the store. They are standing about 25 yards away from the entrance, and all three look like regular people. Not the leather clad and mustache wearing violent looking sort I was expecting. “Which one of you is Stockton?”

“I am.”

For some reason I thought he would be some huge bully looking fellow that is used to pushing people around with his size. This guy must keep his people together some other way, maybe simple manipulation, maybe cold and calculating fear. Good. This is another bit of luck. A thinking thug will give my offer real consideration and understand the consequences beyond simple aggression and force.

I walk right up to him, and say, “Is your radio on so your men can hear what we say?”

“No, not yet,” he says as he reaches back to one of his men for his handset.

“Hang on a minute, Stockton. Before we talk, I don’t want the people in your holding areas hearing what we discuss. I want you to have your men turn on the stereos in the store that you use to keep the prisoners from hearing each other.”

He gives me a look of curiosity, and then makes the call to his men to turn on the music by the cages. “It seems you know more about us than I thought. Why do you want the radios turned on by the cages?”

I reply in a curt tone, “Very simple, the people that you have locked up can’t hear the arrangement we are making. If they get wind of it at any point then no deal. Once you hear the offer you’ll probably understand the reason for the secrecy.”

A man calls back on the radio saying the music is on and no one in the holding areas can hear what is going over the radios.

“Good. Now make sure your men are listening in and we can begin.”

Stockton shrugs his shoulders and has a
Get on with it I’m bored
look on his face. “Let’s just hear this amazing deal you think you have for us.”

I pause for a second, and turn to Timothy, “Captain Weyland, make sure our people are listening in to this conversation as well.”

“My fellow soldiers on the perimeter, our orders have changed. Our entire situation has changed. For the men of Wal-Mart, I will get to your deal shortly, but I must inform my men of the situation in order to ease the tension of retribution toward you that I am sure they are all feeling. Some of the details will only make sense to my men.

“As you know, your original orders had this incursion as a fire mission to wipe out the criminal gang controlling this area. The companies of my battalion were ordered to sweep through Grants Pass to clear out the remaining infected and continue with our cleansing of the Northwest Territory. These orders have ended. General Sessions is no longer in command. We are now under the command of Admiral Tucker of the U.S. Naval forces. General Sessions and the entire Eastern Division have been destroyed by what was initially considered a nuclear attack by some remaining enemy state or rogue nation, but has since been determined to be an unfortunate and ill-timed accident due to a severe loss of properly trained personnel.

“Along with fourteen thousand three hundred eighty-six of our fellow soldiers, the One hundred and two thousand civilians we had in the Southern rebuilding zone also perished. The Pacific Northwest is now our last chance. This is our last remaining opportunity as a species to regain a foothold on this planet. It is our final moment to show that we will survive anything and everything that can be thrown at us.

“To do this rebuilding we need bodies. We need uninfected survivors to not only help rebuild, but re-populate this new world. As little as some of us may like it, we need all of the people that are in this Wal-Mart to survive. Not just the prisoners but their captor’s as well.

“That is why the mission has changed. The largest organized outpost of humanity left in the world has just been destroyed, and the people in this region are all that are left. We can no longer lay waste to the criminal gangs we encounter as we were ordered to and as we have wanted too up to this point. I will not lie to you, I took great satisfaction in killing the vermin that controlled South Medford and watching these types of cowardly motherfuckers burn when we cleared the north, but that will change now. We are ordered to make it change now.

“I have been instructed to offer these people an opportunity to survive if they choose, and that offer is coming now. You men that are currently controlling Wal-Mart and holding prisoners inside, today is your final day here. Captain Langford was in charge of a company of one hundred eighty-four men and women that had your area surrounded. I have since taken command of this small battalion force and have three hundred and sixty-four armed and trained soldiers with me.”

“Bullshit!” Stockton yells. “You may have some people here but my men haven’t seen anything. By our count, you only have ten people. You didn’t even come up here with a show of force, just two people. I think you’re bluffing.”

I raise my left hand, and say, “Sniper team one, light ’em up.” I show a self-satisfied smile to Stockton, as he and his two companions have laser dots appear all over their bodies.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! All right, all right, I get it.” Stockton and his two men are wide-eyed with their hands in the air and turning in all directions.

“I would appreciate no more interruptions until you and your men hear what my final offer is. But since we have a radio audience, tell your men what is going on.”

One of Stockton’s men replies shakily, “W…we have dots all over us. Lasers.”

“Stockton, tell your men how many lasers are pointed at you.”

“I don’t know. It’s too many to count.”

“Good,” I say and lower my hand. “Sniper team one, lights off.”

Stockton and his men start to relax a little as the lights start clicking off.

“You and your men can put your hands down now. And for the record, I have five dedicated sniper teams in this battalion. As I’m sure you know in your own experience with our infected attackers, having good long range snipers is the best way to survive in this new landscape of ours.

“Now, you also understand why I am comfortable approaching you with just two other officers. I am in little danger here, not from you, or your rooftop shooters. I am here speaking with you specifically because of my orders and don’t personally think you should be getting this offer. I was honestly hoping that you wouldn’t be the silent thoughtful type that you have been up until now, and we could just clear you out with lead and flame.” I say finally as sternly as I can, “Should I continue?”

“Yes.”

“Yes what?” I yell.

“Yes, Sir,” is his stammering reply, signifying that I won this alpha dog contest.

“Right, I have three hundred sixty-four people currently under my command. Another six hundred and twenty-eight will arrive this afternoon so we can begin our sweep to clear this city and find any other survivors. You and your men will be relocated to a safe area in Idaho where you are to establish a new township. If you accept the offer, you will be in control of your own territory, where you along with other men and women will have to defend your territory against the occasional infected person. We will put no military personnel in to support you.

“Do not get the impression that it will be a cake walk. The men and women we plan on sending there that you will be working with to survive are largely of the former incarcerated types such as yourselves, but yours will be the first group to arrive, and will therefore have a chance to establish your own hierarchy.

“You will be given varying degrees of survival support depending upon your varying degrees of cooperation with military and civilian persons you come into contact with. In other words, this is your opportunity for a clean slate. A true re-start of your lives and records. What was done in the past will stay in the past and only the actions of your future will determine if or for how long you survive.

“Remember that this is a numbers game, and I’m talking overall human population. If you take this offer and head to the new Idaho territory, your group and everyone in that area may still be wiped out. If it is determined by your future actions that you pose a threat to the continued existence of humanity, you will be erased. Are there any questions so far?”

“Yeah. What’s the catch?” Stockton says in a slow and derogatory way. I guess he is trying to make up for his calling me sir. “I mean you’ve laid out quite a honey trail for us to follow, and I’m wondering where the teeth are and how much they’ll hurt when the trap slams shut.”

“Smart. I see why you’re in charge. There’s always a catch and here it is. I told you to make sure your prisoners couldn’t hear this discussion because they can’t know about it. If you accept the offer, you will all be tied up and secured, and your prisoners will believe that you will be punished for your crimes against them. Each of your prisoners that are able to, will write down what each of you did to them, and in some cases, yell and cry to your faces. While you are secured and your former prisoners are being debriefed, you will not harass or taunt them in any way. If any one of you lets them know that you are getting your own territory or going free, you will all die. If any of your prisoners from this point on are killed by you or your men, the deal is off, and you will die.

“If you accept this offer then you should leave the store unarmed, walk twenty-five yards into the parking lot, and sit down with your hands on your lap. Everyone must be completely unarmed. No guns, no knives, nothing that can be viewed as a weapon. Some of my men will approach you with zip ties to secure your arms. They will be accompanied by armed guards who will shoot anyone found to have a weapon on their person. And the sniper teams will be ready to kill everyone if your men attempt to overpower my men. I don’t want to have to shoot my own men, but I will. So don’t try and overpower them.” I give him a hard look to make sure he sees that I mean what I say.

“Once all of your men are secured, my men will enter the store, and check if it is clear. If any of your men stay in the store for an ambush, the deal is off and all of you will die, so make sure everyone exits together. That is all. That is your choice.”

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” Stockton asks. “What’s to keep you and your men from gunning us down once we’re out here? Or some of your people like that lady behind you from taking pot shots at us?”

“All you have is my word as an Officer of the United States Military that you will get the deal that I have been ordered to give you. You have to decide if my word is worth more than that of the people you are used to dealing with. As for my people, they are listening in as well, and if any of my soldiers or officers break or attempt to break this deal, then they will be sent to Idaho with you to help you establish your town. You can do what you want with them at that point.”