Zombie Theorem: The End Game (3 page)

Julie slid over the wheel-chair and I was about to protest when she stomped her foot and gave me a wicked look. I relented and figured I would never be able to walk all the way to my office. She wheeled me through a small house, and stopped at a bedroom door. She knocked and the door opened quickly. Brian stood there, dressed in his standard BDUs that he loved so much. Behind him, my Dad was in his favorite cowboy clothes. He waved at me and came to the door, but he had to wait till Brian moved, since he took up the entire doorway. “Son you think you could ask your pet Sasquatch to get out of my way before I cut his legs off and beat him with them?”

Brian snorted but moved into the hallway, allowing Dad to come up and give me a small hug. “I took a job helping in the motor pool, so I’d better get going. Have a fun day, Son, and don’t take shit from anyone.” He walked past me, and out the door he went. Brian collected his weapons from his room and followed Julie and I out the door, and outside to a sun just coming over the top of the east mountains.

“So, what job did you get Brian?” I enquired.

He took over the pushing duties of my chair from Julie. “Personal body-guard of a pompous ass Major, named Dan.”

I laughed and doubled over from the pain. “Oh my God, that hurts when I laugh. I order you to stop being a wise-ass, joke-cracking Sasquatch.”

“Sure, the minute you can get up and kick my ass, I will stop. Plus, I like seeing you in pain.” He chortled and kept pushing my chair down a serene, tree lined street. Life almost felt normal, no immediate danger of zombies or of Ridder trying to kill me.

“What about you hun? What are you doing?”

“I’m the aid to the same pompous ass that Brian is tasked to guard.” she quipped.

I tried my best Rodney Dangerfield voice. “I tell you, I get no respect.”

“That was a terrible impersonation of Robin Williams.” Brian said.

“That’s because it was Rodney Dangerfield.”

“Like I said, that was a terrible Robin Williams.”

I said nothing else as we came to a large two story, brick structure. So this is where I start my new job, a round of emotions took their turns, working their way through me. It started with panic, went to anger, then finally muted to excitement. I know that sounds weird for me to go from panic then anger, only to end in excitement, but you have to remember, I love working. I love being busy, I cannot be the guy who sits around and do nothing. I like being productive, and a part of the solutions. Brian pushed me up the ramp and we entered the lobby. Kuppers stood there dressed in new camouflaged BDUs. I felt set up, wearing these formal clothes. He had a small army of men and women standing behind him. As I entered, the staff came to attention and saluted. I moved my feet to the ground, gripped the arms of the wheel-chair, and pushed myself up. Brian and Julie tried to reach out and grab me to help, but I pushed them away. I stood as straight as I could and saluted back.

Kuppers cracked a smile as if to say, good job son. I dropped my salute and the staff surrounding Kuppers stepped forward to shake my hand. I eased myself back into the chair, hissing quietly to hide the pain it took to do that. I tried to remember names and titles as they gave them to me, but shortly, I became overwhelmed. I kept a smile though and shook everybody’s hands. 

“Alright, that’s enough, everyone back to work. Major, follow me.” Kuppers swung on his heels and walked away. Expecting that I would follow.

Brian took the chair and pushed me quickly to catch up. We entered a large auditorium room, and Kuppers led us to a bank of computer stations. “You and your staff will work from here. If you need something, let me know. I have already uploaded all of the intel reports we have gathered. I need you to go through it, and give me an operational view of what’s going on. Oh, before I forget, we somehow wrested control of two satellites from Ridder. Alright I will leave you to it.” Kuppers patted my shoulder and headed down the stairs to the front of the room and sat at what I guessed was his station. Once he’d settled, a line of people appeared in front of him, with items that needed his attention.

I grabbed the desk and pulled my chair up to one of the work stations, locked my wheels, stretched, and opened a file on the desktop. One hundred and forty-five PDFs appeared. Brian took the station to my right and Julie, the station to my left. “Alright, this is how I want to do this. Let’s break down these reports into categories then rank them by priority and actionable content. We will need a couple of other analysts to help out. Julie, can you take control of getting the staff we need? Brian, we need lots of coffee and if you can take control of compiling data?”

“Boss, it’s so nice to see you get back to work.”

“Oh, and get me some different clothes. I can’t work dressed like this, I feel out of place without BDUs and my side arm.”

Brian stood from his chair and threw a salute. “Sir, yes sir!” Then walked from the room laughing.

“You’re a giant pain in the ass, you shaved Sasquatch!” I yelled at his retreating backside.

Julie turned her chair to me and reached out. She turned my head to her and gave me a quick kiss. “I don’t know if I can handle being bossed around by you.” She laughed, stood, and walked away to handle what I’d asked her to do.

I turned my attention back to my work station and started opening and skimming the reports to get a gist of what they said. I created new files on the desktop and got to work categorizing. Some of the things I read, did not make me feel too happy. It was a plethora of Ridder movements, Zombie attacks, supplies, rescue reports, and a hundred other topics. I hadn’t noticed when Brian and Julie had come back. I’d picked up and started drinking a hot cup of coffee and was halfway through it, when I finally stopped to wonder when it was given to me. My brain was starting to get foggy and the pain had made a roaring come back. I drained the coffee tilted my head back and closed my eyes, letting a moan escape my lips.

A giant hand rested on my right shoulder. “I think we should get you some food and some pain medicine. Then back to the house so you can get some rest.”

I opened one eye and looked at Brian. “Buddy, I have so much work to do. I agree with a break for food but then I want to come back here. No medicine, that will just make it harder to concentrate on the work, that needs to be done.”

“You will have to rest at some point.” came Julie’s voice from my left. “You won’t get better if you don’t. Oh, and there is the fact that I need some alone time with you.” I swiveled my head quickly over to her and opened both eyes. She looked deep into my eyes and then slowly bit her bottom lip.

“I think we are done for today. Let’s hit the chow line to get some food and head back home, post haste.” For the first time I realized three new analysts were sitting next to Julie. Two women and one man, and they looked as tired as I felt. Julie turned in her seat to look at what I was staring at.

She laughed and punched me lightly in the arm. “You don’t remember meeting them do you?” She rolled her eyes at me and turned to face the new staff. “Looks like our illustrious leader was so busy earlier that he doesn’t remember meeting you. Dan, sitting next to me is Staff Sargent Ashley Redhill, next to him is Corporal Jeanette Lau, and last but not least, is Lieutenant Amanda Hammermeister of the Royal Canadian Air Force. She was a liaison at NORAD as a satellite reconnaissance analyst. She happened to be on vacation out on the west coast, when all the shit went down. The General met her at one of the refugee camps and tasked her out here with us. She is the one who got us access to those two satellites.

I unlocked the wheels from my chair and rolled myself over to where they sat. I shook each person’s hand and thanked them for joining our little ragtag group. I told them to call it a day and invited them to dinner with us. Only Amanda accepted, the other two had additional duties to perform for Kuppers. Julie took over the pushing duties from Brian and we made our way over to the cafeteria. I hated the looks that people gave me as Julie pushed me in. I felt like they had pity for me, which pissed me off to no ends. Julie left me at a table alone while she, Brian and Amanda went off to fetch food. I took out my trusty notebook and started to flip through it, reading over the check list for the next day’s goals. A shadow appeared over my shoulder and onto my notebook. I raised my head and looked over. Two men on crutches and a woman in a wheel-chair were lined up, looking at me.

I opened my mouth to say something when the woman, cut me off and started to speak. “We would like to introduce ourselves, sir.” I unlocked my wheels and backed up from under the table and turned to face them fully. “I am Marine, Master Sergeant Maria Cruz, the young man behind me is Sergeant Tony Torrez, and the grizzly-looking old guy at the end is Gunny Sergeant Neal Mauseth. We were attached to a Marine platoon that was hit and decimated by a combined Ridder and Army company. We have been on this base for almost a week and have no duty. Marines do not do well sitting around doing nothing, we would like to volunteer to work for you, sir. We are very adept at gathering and assimilating intel.”

I sat quietly, looking each of them in the eye. I smiled when Brian walked up behind them. “I have a soft spot for Marines. This is Brian Leeder; you will work for him.” I pointed at the new recruits and smiled at Brian. “Brian, these are some of your kind and they want to work with us, so they are yours, since I do not speak Marine.”

Brian put the two trays of food down on the table and held out his massive hand. He shook their hands in turn and wrote their names down on a notebook he’d started carrying. “I was a first Sergeant with the 26
th
Marine Expeditionary Unit. Now I do something harder, I work for this moron. Grab your chow, let’s get these tables put together and join us for a meal.”

All three moved off to gather their food and, then watched as the Sasquatch picked up a table by himself and put it down against ours. He pointed to the chairs and told them to park it. They did as were told and we sat around enjoying our warm food and chatting. I explained what their jobs would entail and that it was not going to be easy. I asked Julie to pass it by Kuppers that we’d brought on these three. She wrote it down in her notebook and ate some of the mashed potatoes on her tray. I looked over the food on my tray, and felt my stomach start doing back-flips.

Julie watched me out of her peripheral vision, and tried to hide a smile. She then turned toward me and produced a bowl of soup that she had been hiding. “Something made me think that you wouldn’t be able to handle regular food yet, so I got you some crackers and soup just in case.”

I gave her a thankful smile and took a cracker and popped it into my mouth. I chewed it slowly breaking it down and savoring the salt. “Thank you, sweetie.” I then took a bite of the vegetable soup she had put in front of me. The warmth of the soup helped lift some of the exhaustion off my shoulders that had been threatening to knock me out. I ate slowly, blocking out everything around me, I took the small Styrofoam cup and sipped at the hot coffee remembering how a couple of weeks ago in the Tower, I would’ve killed to have my coffee hot. That brought a sad smile to my lips, as I remembered draining many cold cups of coffee.

I was pulled out of my dream world by Brian patting my shoulder. “Hey, Boss, I think it’s time to go home. Let’s go.”

I looked up, a little surprised at how I kept losing time. I thanked the new group of Marines that had joined our team and Brian pushed me out of the cafeteria into the cooling air outside. Julie came up beside me and took my hand. I twirled her around and pulled her down on my lap. She let out a little squeak and Brian, standing behind us let out his hearty belly laugh. “Can my driver and I offer you a ride back to your castle, my lady?” I said in a nice little British accent.

“Why yes, kind sir, I’m sure my father the King would pay you generously for bringing me home safe and unmolested. He may even offer the barn, and feed for your pet Sasquatch.” she giggled out.

“Ooh clean straw! So much nicer than what he makes me sleep on.”

“Enough, Sasquatch” I jokingly berated Brian. I then turned my attention to Julie sliding my hands over her body. “I never promised I’d bring you home unmolested. Just safe.” I waggled my eyebrows at her, and smoothed and twisted my non-existent mustache.

Brian moaned at my lame attempt at being funny and pushed us through the streets back to our house. When we arrived he helped me stand and let me walk around the house, staying close just in case I needed him. I was in pain but my muscles were finally starting to feel better and I was able to walk without aid. Brian bid us goodnight and headed to his bedroom, Julie helped me undress, looked over my bandages and then gave me a very welcomed sponge bath. I’d like to say I hated it, but I would be lying. She changed out my bandages for clean ones, and then disappeared to take a shower.

I eased myself off of the bed and onto the floor resting my back against the bed frame and stretched my back and legs the best I could. When she emerged from the bathroom she was surprised to see me missing. “I could’ve sworn I left my gimpy man around here somewhere.”

“Hey, I resemble that remark. I’m over here on the floor stretching. But now I need help getting back on the bed, please.” I raised my head over the bed and waved to get her attention.

“There you are.” She came around the bed and stood over me looking down and smiling. She bent over and took me under the arms and pulled. I knew I was too heavy for her so I got my legs underneath me and pushed with my feet to help make it easier on her. She got me back on the bed and then stepped back. She untucked her towel letting it fall to the floor, unveiling her enticing curves and silky smooth skin. “I’m not happy about it being the end of the world, but I got to admit, the apocalypse diet is doing me some good. Those hard pounds I always tried to lose at the gym have finally melted away.” She pulled her long light brown hair back into a pony tail and struck a pose with her fists resting on her hips and pushing out her wondrous chest. “What do you think? Like what you see?”