Day One (Book 2): Choices (5 page)

“Stay here, baby. Daddy has to go and get a few things,” I said to Kember who ignored me as she continued to play with her toys and drink her juice.

I crossed the base with a confidence in my step, a single thought burning in my mind, and the courage to undertake and face whatever lay in wait for me on the other side of those fences. I had to be, my son was depending upon me to find and bring him back to where it was safe. That’s what a parent does.

“Captain Andrews told me to stop by the armory and pick up the gear I’d need to help defend this place,” I told the military guy sitting behind a small desk. He looked up at me with an expression upon his face that told me he didn’t believe a single word I had just said. “Call him and ask him, he’ll tell you,” I added.

The guy picked up a small phone, wound it up and waited for someone to answer on the other end. “Yeah, this is Davidson over here at the armory. I gotta guy standing in front of me that said Captain Andrews sent him over to gear up,” he stated and listened to the voice on the other end give him instructions. After a few harrowing moments in which I did slightly feel the need to just take off running, the man placed the phone back into the cradle and stood up. “Come with me and I’ll get you geared up.”

The weight of a million tons crumbled from my shoulders and I wiped the sweat from my brow.

“You alright?” Davidson asked.

“Yeah, just a little hot out there,” I replied, realizing it wasn’t even hot enough to make a person sweat without physical activity yet.

“Wait around, it’ll get hotter,” Davidson replied.

I followed him into another mobile unit that had a small tent affixed to the rear of it. Through a single door my eyes popped open at the sight of military weapons of all sizes and shapes mounted to the walls, fore wall and in the middle of the unit. He looked at me to see the SBR on my shoulder and quickly grabbed a MK 18, which was simply the same weapon I had but it had a fourteen and a half inch barrel, a different stock, and an infrared laser attached to the top rail near the front sight. This was used in conjunction with NVG’s or night vision goggles to better aim the weapon in extreme low light conditions, as well as to mark targets for passing aircraft.

“This thing’s full auto,” he said, holding it out to me.

“So is this, and it’s easier to move with,” I replied.

He replaced the weapon and continued forward. Several large ammo cans were placed in front of me.

“That’s a thousand rounds of five, five, six. Nasty rounds those are, they’ll pop through body armor like it’s not even there,” he stated and continued to grab other things. He handed me a far better chest rig than I had gotten from the Young Woman, as it was fitted with armor plates front and rear, heavier than shit, but offering extreme protection if anyone was to shoot back. “AR five hundred armor, best there is. Will stop three oh eight rounds whether you’re running towards or away from an attacker.”

We stopped at a small wall locker and he unlocked and opened the doors for me to see several different handguns sitting there. “You got a sidearm?”

“I have a Beretta,” I told him.

He smiled. “Good choice,” he said and handed me a drop leg holster. “This attaches to your chest rig and you can adjust it to ride low or high on your leg. It has a retention fit, which means the weapon will remain secure if you are running, jumping, or falling until you reach and pull it free.”

He grabbed what looked to me was an old Pro Tech skateboard helmet and handed to me. In the front, just above the brim was a quick detach point where NVG’s could be placed if needed.

“What do I need a skateboard helmet for?” I asked.

He laughed at my lack of knowledge. “Gotta protect that coconut,” he said and hammered it with his fist. “This thing is as durable as they come. It won’t however stop a bullet, but if you fall or get attacked from behind, it will keep you conscious and able to fight.”

From there we moved to the far wall where the long barreled rifles were kept. “You need something that can reach out and touch someone at say, six or eight hundred yards?”

“I can’t even see that far, so if I cannot see them, then they can’t see me,” I stated. “I’ll keep my trusty room clearing rifle for now.”

“Whatever you want, man,” he said and began packing all of my equipment into a large duffle bag. When everything was loaded, he hauled it back out into the balmy day light and dropped it at my feet. “There are twenty pre-loaded mags for your rifle in there, along with a few hundred loose rounds of nine mil, so you should be good to go.”

I thanked him and then undertook the very arduous task of hauling my newfound toys back to the small room to go through and get things ready. On my way carrying what felt like nine hundred pounds of equipment that was probably going to weigh me down and get me killed, the faint thump of something in the sky called my attention. I looked, expecting to see another of the pencil shaped skyscrapers falling to earth in a cloud of dusty debris, but instead my eyes caught something much smaller growing closer.

The air seemed to cower under the constant barrage of the approaching object, and within a few seconds I could see that it was a smaller helicopter than the one that currently sat on the flight line. It was shiny black with a bulbous nose, steep skids on either side and stubby tail with twin fins near the tail rotor.

It approached and began to sink in altitude, as it slowed for landing. It swung sideways at the final moments, giving me a perfect picture of how big the aircraft was and sat down smoothly a hundred feet from the Huey. The rotors continued to turn, the turbine engine continued to bellow a rhythmic whine as hot exhaust fumes were forced out of the turbine nozzle just behind the main rotor blades. It was beautiful and I found myself, even under the strain from all my new gear, smiling at the sight before me.

“That one, right there,” a voice stated to me and I turned my head from the helicopter to see Johnny standing a few feet away.

“Come again,” I said.

“That’s the one we’ll barrow,” he told me.

“I thought you decided against the plan?” I asked snidely, although I was excited underneath that he had changed his mind.

“I had issues with the Huey, and then when you told me Andrews was on to us, everything else just seemed to fall apart,” he told me as he watched the MD500D begin to wind down.

“Issues with the Huey?” I asked.

He nodded. “It takes two people to fly that damn thing, and with you having no flight experience, that would add to my tasks. But that bird right there can be flown easily by one person and is large enough for our stuff, us, and your son.”

Chapter Three.

The day wound out slowly. I went through the gear I had been issued and made sure I knew how to put everything on and made some small alterations. The last thing I needed was to be in a bad situation and have my gear betray me. We would already be risking so much just getting away from the base in one piece, so if we even managed that, I needed to ensure that there were no more hiccups to slow us down or even kill us.

“I’ve gone over the layout of this place several hundreds of times and the only real threats I see to us when we take off, is in two separate locations,” Johnny said.

“What threats are those?” I asked, looking up from trying to get the drop leg holster exactly where I wanted it to be.

“Near the flight line there’s a machine gun nest with a fifty. If that thing comes up on us when we are taking off or already airborne… we’re toast,” he stated.

“Then we’ll have to see to it that it doesn’t come up on us,” I replied. “What amount of flight training do you have exactly?”

Johnny looked at me and smiled. “I use to test those things as they came off the production line in Texas. So, I’m more than familiar with their operation and what they are capable of doing, if we need to get that crazy.” He took a deep breath of the fresh air and looked toward the flight line. We had chosen to go through the gear outside and away from the security camera is our room. This way we could speak freely and not have to worry about someone watching us and hearing what we had decided to go through with.

“My turn,” Johnny stated. “You are aware that if that fifty comes up on us, we are dead, right? There’s no going back, no asking for a second chance. They will throw everything they have at us in order to stop us… you need to know that.”

“I’m aware of the risks,” I told him. “I would say that I even have more to lose than you, but that would be a lie. This is my son we are going after and I’m asking you to risk your life for him, which is why I would understand if you said no. I wouldn’t like it very much, but I’d respect your choice to stay alive and keep fighting… maybe one day soon all of this will be a distant memory and the world will return to normal.”

“I’m aware of the risks as well and I see a brave father doing everything he can to protect his daughter and go get his son. I admire that… and besides, I really don’t have shit else to do, now do I?”

We both smiled at the comment. The possibility of death greeting us in a few hours weighed heavily on our shoulders, yet we kept it far from the surface. We had to focus in order to keep things together and escape in one piece. The fear of the unknown was something that wasn’t at all an easy thing to get over or even look away from. It was very real and could take place not long from now, and with my Daughter going along with us, I could be responsible for her untimely death as well. That’s what bothered me the most. It ate at me like a cancer – timelessly devouring me from within, and I had no way to stop it.

At one point I excused myself to the mess hall and downed a bottle of orange juice and a painkiller, hoping that it would calm me or at least give me that extra kick of pretend courage I needed just to make it until we were ready to go.

Every detail had been planned down to the last second. We put in alternate routes in case something went wrong and we even cut a small hole in the fence, covering it with limbs, in case everything got shot to hell and we’d have to leave in a hurry and on foot. I had stuck to my guns about no one being killed, although Johnny wasn’t very happy with that idea, he did understand the root of what I was trying to avoid.

We weren’t at war with the living. It was the dead that had caused all of this and if we needed to kill anyone, then it should be them, not the living. These were young men just following orders. Sons with fathers and mothers.

The sun slowly made its way across the blue cloudless sky. Johnny and I quietly ran through what would be expected of us soon, over and over in our minds until it came without thought. We would have only one shot at this and the more we practiced the better our chances of getting it right the first time.

Kember had slept the afternoon away and with her still asleep; I found my way to the fence and lit a cigarette. I walked along its edge enjoying the smoke as my mind raced over the things I needed to do once we arrived… and that’s even if we managed to make it off the ground without becoming a raging fireball within seconds of taking off. I’d never had to prepare for something that could cost me my life before, so I was at a loss for words, even my thoughts of what I should be going through were vacant.

Kember was going with me, so if things went wrong she’d die with me and not be left alone in this new deranged world. Did I feel good about that? Of course I didn’t, yet at the same time it beat just leaving her here in the middle of the night and her waking the following morning to find out that her daddy was dead. She was two, so she wouldn’t understand, but one day she would and the thought that I had left her alone would probably haunt her forever.

Then again, maybe it wouldn’t.

All I could think about was the things my son had gone through over the past week. The things he may have seen, been forced to endure, lived through, and watched in horror. The mind of a nine year old was very impressionable, which made him all that more vulnerable. I wondered if he hated me for not coming to save him. I wondered if he thought I was dead and that was the reason I had not come and gotten him.

I didn’t want to think about the obvious other possibilities and it took a lot of strength to keep my mind from heading in that direction. If grown adults could not survive, whatever this was, then who’s to say a nine year old could fair any better?

“It doesn’t matter… I’m going no matter what,” I said to quell the negative thoughts that were starting to creep into my head. I took a drag of the cigarette and heard a pair of footsteps moving up from behind. I turned to see a tall black man in a fresh pressed uniform approaching me. His eyes were locked on me, as though he had been looking for me everywhere and had finally found me. His arms were behind his back and he stepped with confidence.

“You must be Brandon Ellis?” He asked.

I nodded my head to him and held out my hand. “Yes, sir I am.” He looked out my out stretched hand as if I had a contagious disease and he would suddenly die if he touched me. He kept his hands behind his back as he continued to eye me closely. I didn’t like the way he was looking at me, as I could tell he wasn’t very happy that Andrews had brought us on to a military base. I saw his insignia, but wasn’t sure if he outranked Andrews or if it was the other way around.