These Dead Lands: Immolation (32 page)

“Gentlemen, subject to
your questions, that concludes my briefing,” Hastings said, concluding his hour-long briefing for Colonels Victor and Jarmusch, along with Senator Cornell. He had recounted the actions taken during the mission to the rail yard to secure the needed shipping containers that would be used to fortify Indiantown Gap’s defenses. Hastings had been a little surprised to find Cornell in the meeting.

After the introductions, Cornell had said, “Still climbing to glory, Captain?”

Hastings had responded, “It’s better than falling down the slope, sir,” and Cornell had nodded and smiled.

Colonel Victor cleared his throat. “Captain Hastings, are you sure you don’t want to send a reconnaissance team to the rail yard prior to launching the main body?”

Hastings shook his head. “No, sir. The Shadow will be on station prior to the main body’s kickoff, and we’ll have live video feed of the objective before we leave the wire. My fear is that if we drop a team in the yard prior to the main effort, the noise from the aircraft would attract unwanted attention and start the reekers moving in before the main body was even en route. Sending in a team via ground movement would have the same effect—we’d attract attention along the main route we’ve identified as the most suitable for ground infil. In my opinion, a coordinated ground and air movement to the objective, as I briefed, offers us the most options if Murphy shows up at any point in the operation. Having rotary wing assets in the air during all phases of the operation gives us additional firepower, as well as the means to get people out of a tight situation quickly if the need arises.”

“What if the ground force is unable to get to the rail yard?” Jarmusch asked.

“Sir, we’ll have enough security on the infil aircraft for the key personnel to bring the train engines online, and once we’re on the ground, the Chinooks will be on station and on call to provide weapons fire for the main effort if needed. In the event the trains can’t be started, or if the reekers mass on the objective once we land, the Chinooks will be called back in to extract the main effort.”

“The rail yard… do you expect heavy opposition there?” Senator Cornell asked.

“Sir, the Shadow feed we’ve been observing for the last forty-eight hours has shown minimal reeker activity in and around the rail yard. That by itself is disconcerting, as given the population of the town, we had expected to see more activity at some point. The concern is that there may be a large number of reekers inside the surrounding buildings, and they may come out when they hear the aircraft land on the objective. The ground force will be providing outer cordon security in the event the reekers do begin pouring out in large numbers from those buildings, and they should be able to buy the main effort more time on the objective to accomplish their mission.”

The two colonels glanced at each other then swiveled their gazes toward Cornell. The senator stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment then nodded.

“Captain Hastings, we’re all in agreement,” Victor said. “Your mission is a go. If you require anything in the interim, let the staff know. I’ll brief them to support you in whatever you may need.”

“Thank you, sir. As soon as we complete pre-combat inspections, we’ll launch the ground force and begin movement to the objective.” Hastings hadn’t really paid much attention to Victor’s statements of support. He knew the mission had to go on, and he was already thinking ten moves ahead, going over his mental checklist of things he needed to ensure were done before they called kickoff and people began rolling out of the wire.

Senator Cornell clasped his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Captain? Got a second before you take off?”

“Sure, sir,” Hastings said, even though all he wanted to do was be quit of the jawboning and get down to brass tacks.

Cornell must’ve caught the vibe because he smiled broadly. “I know you need to jump out, but I just want to go over some things with you first. As you’re likely aware, the COG initiative is a priority of mine, and this mission directly impacts my desire to meet that end state. We’ve already begun discussing contingency plans in the event we have to leave this location for another or to join with others within the government if contact with Site Nine or Mount Weather is made. Until then, fortifying this position to allow us to do that is our top priority, and we feel your plan is the best course of action to achieve that.” He leaned forward. “You were in New York and saw the devastation. If the reekers are migrating from New York, will we be able to hold this location? I’m asking for your informed opinion here.”

“Well, sir, New York is classified as a Mega City, meaning there is a population of ten million or more people. What my unit saw happen in New York is really…” Hastings grappled for words for a moment then gave up with a shrug. “Well, it’s beyond description. The disease spread so quickly that, in a couple of weeks, the infected outnumbered those who hadn’t already been evacuated. What that means is that, realistically, there are roughly ten million plus reekers from the New York City metropolitan area that could show up at our gates. I think our current course of action is the smart thing to do, but if even half of those reekers show up here en masse, we won’t be able to hold up, even with our fortifications in place. We’ll
have
to leave.” Hastings stared at Cornell and the two colonels. “And in my opinion, it’s not
if
they get here, but
when
.”

Senator Cornell kept a good poker face, but Hastings could see Victor and Jarmusch weren’t thrilled with the prospect of ten million carnivorous corpses walking up to Fort Indiantown Gap as if it was their next dining facility.

“Thank you for your frank input, Captain Hastings,” Cornell said. “I think I can safely say that all of us here were thinking along those lines already, but hearing it come from you has solidified what our options are from here on out. Once this mission is over, we’ll need your input in the working group to help us plan our future COAs.”

Hastings almost smiled at the senator’s use of of the acronym for Course of Action. He liked it that the politician could speak his language. “Sir, if there is anything I can do, I’ll be glad to help out.”

Cornell turned to Victor and Jarmusch. “Gentlemen, do you have anything else you’d like to add?”

Both shook their heads, seemingly already deep in thought on things besides Hastings’s upcoming mission, which didn’t exactly thrill him. They were field grade officers—they should have been looking down the road for some time already. Hastings wondered what kind of vacuum they had been living in, given that he wasn’t the first soldier to come in from the field. Was New York really so much worse than everywhere else? Victor’s units had been forced to abandon Philadelphia. The colonel must’ve seen what Hastings was talking about, though perhaps on a smaller scale.

“Okay then, Captain Hastings,” Cornell said. “Please proceed with your mission.”

They all stood up and moved toward the conference room door. Hastings knew each man felt as if he were carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

*

“Kay, listen to
me. I don’t want to fight over this.” Ballantine hated the pleading quality he heard in his own voice. “I was in a hurry. I had to go, and you knew what was happening.”

“It’s not
what
you said but the
way
you said it.” Even though she barely spoke above a whisper, her voice was hard and brittle. They had pushed two of the bunk units together, and they were sitting on the bottom one. It was getting dark, and soon, the boys would need to go to sleep in the beds above them.

“What do you mean? I told you how to use the radio in case you needed to.”

“I don’t know about those things, Carl. I might be an Army wife and know some of the lingo, but that doesn’t mean I know how to do all that stuff. You have to explain these things to me.”

“Babe, I didn’t have time. We were under attack!”

“Then you need to show me and the boys how to do these things when you
do
have time, in advance. You just can’t yell at us and expect us to know what to do.”

“Yell?” Ballantine squinted at her. “I didn’t yell. I was talking fast, and I might have been loud, but shit was happening.”

“Whatever you want to call it—I don’t like it when you talk to me like that, especially in front of the boys and everyone else.”

Ballantine realized he had fallen into the typical mantrap all men find themselves in at some point when dealing with women. He wasn’t going to do himself any favors if he continued with his logical explanation. To him and every other man still alive on the planet, he hadn’t done anything wrong, but Kay saw it otherwise. He knew logic wasn’t involved in her mind at this point; she felt he had yelled at her in front of the others and that was all that mattered to her. It was the classic
Kobayashi Maru
scenario, and only one course of action would de-escalate the situation.

“You’re right, Kay. I apologize for the way I spoke. I’ll make sure I sit down with you and the boys and go over how to do these things. I need to know that you can take care of yourselves when I’m not around.”

“That would be a
great
idea. The boys miss your attention. I think showing them things like that would really make their day. Not to mention, give them some time with their father.”

“You’re right. It’ll be good for everyone.” Ballantine raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of attention, when can I get some from you?”

He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her toward him. It had been a while since they had been intimate, and being so close to her only served to make him painfully aware of the fact.

“Carl, stop it. Not in front of everyone!”

Kay smiled, and looking into her eyes, he knew she wanted him, too. She gave him a quick kiss then broke free of his grasp. She turned and walked back toward the boys, who were playing on the other side of the room.

Fuck me. Like I don’t have enough to deal with, now I have to figure out how to find someplace to have sex with my own wife.
Ballantine realized that probably wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. As he watched his wife round up Curtis and Joshua and urge them to get ready for bed, he knew that a lot of things weren’t going to happen anytime soon. A Thanksgiving dinner at home. Taking the boys to their first drive-in, maybe to watch a revival of
Planet of the Apes
or something like that. Hunting turkeys on the grounds of Fort Drum. Kicking back on a Sunday afternoon and watching football, during which, Kay would ultimately root for every team he hated, like the accursed Dallas Cowboys.

Maybe one day, he’d be able to do all those things, but in the meantime, he had to get his shit squared away, keep his eye on the ball, and do his small part to save the nation from drowning beneath an ocean of walking dead bodies that ate live folks.

He wondered where Hastings was. He hadn’t seen the captain much since they’d gotten back to the fort. Chances were good he was briefing higher-ups, a mission that Ballantine was happy didn’t include him. He’d never been one to ingratiate himself with the echelons above reality, so if he could find a way to pass that shit on to Hastings, Ballantine was going to make it happen. Hastings would have a list of stuff that would need to get done when he made his cameo appearance in the barracks. With that thought in mind, Ballantine set out to find the rest of his men and check up on them.

*

Diana had been
watching the exchange between Carl and Kay Ballantine. She couldn’t hear everything, but she could tell what was happening from their body language. Kay was displaying full Irate Woman stance, and her husband had the typical look of a guy getting verbally beaten without having a clue as to why he was getting bitched out.

Her time as a stripper had given the ability to read people and their body language pretty quickly. The need to learn that had been driven by simple economics. She had needed to be able tell the big spenders from the cheapskates. Looks alone didn’t mean anything. Younger guys might’ve looked great, but a girl could spend an entire night grinding her ass on one who would only tip a buck. The guys who looked to be wrapped too tight were the freest with their cash, and it didn’t matter if they wore a Brooks Brothers suit or jeans and a work shirt. Diana had learned quickly.