Tales of the Forgotten (11 page)

He
sat in the back seat and positioned all of his extra magazines in the pocket
attached to the seat in front of him; after that he made sure the twelve
magazines in his vest were secure. Brad checked the slide on his M9 to verify a
round was chambered; then he pulled the Sigma pistol from his pack and eased it
into a strap on his protective vest. Lastly, Brad removed the suppressor from
his M4 and placed it in his day bag before putting in his ear plugs. He had a
feeling things were going to get noisy.

Brad
looked to his left and saw that Hasan had made many of the same preparations.
Hasan looked nervous, which made Brad smile. Brad was sure he looked just as
bad; he looked at his outstretched, gloved hand and could see it shaking.
Brooks took notice of what Brad was doing and grinned at him.

“Hey
don’t worry about the shakes, bro, that’s just your body getting loaded full of
adrenaline,” Brooks said. “Worry when they
don’t
shake before a fight
anymore.”

Brooks
pulled the Defender to the center of the road looking down into the city. He
paused there for a moment and looked at Sean.

“Is
everyone ready for this?” Sean asked.

Brad
gave a reluctant thumbs up, and Brooks revved the engine. Sean gave Brooks a
nod, and the Defender leapt forward and down the hill toward the city.

They
were making good speed when the first of the primals came into view: a skinny
man dressed all in white. It was standing just on the corner of the road as if
it was waiting for a bus. When the primal saw the speeding vehicle, it put back
its head and let out the moan. At first nothing happened, but after a few long
seconds, Brad watched in horror as all down the street primals ran from
doorways and out of hidden alleys.

“Remember
gentlemen, head shots will kill them, but any hit that fucks them up counts.
Just keep them off of our vehicle,” Sean shouted over the roar of the engine.

They
were beginning to form a mob, but were not very well organized. Instead of
running into the street to block the vehicle’s path, they ran directly at the
Defender. This was an advantage to the team. Because of the speed at which
Brooks was driving, they were able to get past many of them. Brad watched
several run from a side street and he raised his rifle. It was next to
impossible to get good shots through his optics, so he reverted to his iron
sights and attempted to put lead on the target.

He
fired as fast as he could, watching rounds hit them in the chest and sides.
Some were knocked down but others kept running. He dropped his empty mag and
loaded a fresh one. He saw a group of them just clearing a wall. They were
moving fast and on an angle that would meet with the Defender. Brad focused on
the lead runner and fired two quick shots. He watched the runner’s neck snap to
the side as it veered off the path, tumbling and rolling into others. Brad took
sight of another and put on heavy fire, missing several times. He saw the thing
stretch out its arms to grab him. Brad flinched back in his seat as the primal
flew by and crashed into the rear side of the vehicle.

Brooks
drove on. Keeping a straight track, his speed was approaching fifty miles an
hour but he didn’t take it above that; Brad knew he didn’t want to hit a primal
at terminal speed and destroy the vehicle. Sean had dropped his heavy rifle,
had his MP5 shouldered, and was laying controlled shots into the faces of the
advancing crazies. Meticulously, he pulled the trigger and they went down,
tripping up others behind them.

Now
they were pouring from the streets like bees from a hive.

“We
have a problem,” Brooks shouted over the barrage. Brad looked up and saw the
street ahead was beginning to fill up with the things.

“Cut
right at the next street. We can find a way around,” Sean ordered.

“Hold
on!” Brooks yelled as he hit the brakes and turned the wheel hard to point the
Defender down a side street. He hit the gas and plowed through two primals that
were able to get in front of the vehicle. Brad was rocked forward into his seat
and turned to the side just as one of them crashed into his side of the
Defender. He saw the arm of the primal reach past his face, grabbing at
anything within reach. Brad pulled back his rifle and pointed at the sternum of
the creature. He shoved the rifle forward, listened to the hot barrel sizzle on
its naked chest, and fired twice at point blank, knocking the primal back.

Three
more fell in front of the vehicle as Brooks cut the wheel hard to the left and
into a southbound street. Brad looked left past Hasan and saw the passing
alleys were filled with the creatures that were now changing direction to get
back at the team. Brooks drove fast, outrunning several of them. More than once
he had to brake hard just as he hit one and launched it out of the way. Brad’s
M4 barrel was cherry red from the speed with which he had been firing, and he
was down to the last spare magazines that he’d put in the seat pocket.

“There!
That’s the road that leads out of the valley,” Sean pointed. Brooks put the
pedal down and aimed for the side street. As he made the turn, he hit the brake
hard and slammed the Defender into reverse. Brad bounced off the seat in front
of him and quickly determined the reason for Brook’s hasty maneuver. The street
was filled with them. Brad looked behind and saw that they were quickly
becoming surrounded.

Brooks
raced the vehicle in reverse up a side street and cut down another to try to
stay ahead of the mob.

“Hold
on everyone, this is going to get ugly,” he said as he pulled the emergency
brake and cut the vehicle hard, spinning them in the opposite direction. Brooks
pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor. The Defender roared again and
picked up speed as it crashed through waves of primals.

“We’re
not going to make it out,” Sean yelled. “Brooks! Look for a place to hold up.”

Brad
tried to pretend he hadn’t heard the exchange and concentrated on firing out of
the jumping, rolling vehicle. He knew his fire wasn’t very effective so he
slowed his breathing and tried to aim before taking every shot.

“Duck!”
Brooks screamed just as he cut the wheel hard to the right and crashed the
Defender through the front of an open shop. The vehicle exploded through the
block-and-glass storefront, coming to a rest against a lunch counter with the
ass end of the vehicle sticking through the wall.

The
room was filled with smoke and dust. Brooks and Sean were already out, putting
lethal fire on the mob trying to squeeze past the sides of the vehicle. Brad
tried to open his door but it was pinched shut. He couldn’t reach the buckle of
his seat belt, so he pulled his karambit and cut himself free, then dove
through the window. Brad hit the floor hard, head first, and he tried to right
his body. The firing was loud and Brad could barely hear Sean and Brooks
calling out targets to each other.

Brad,
back on his feet, reached through the vehicle, grabbed Hasan’s arm and dragged
him across the seat. Hasan realized what he was doing, turned and rolled
through the open window. Brad looked around the room and saw an open stairway
leading to the roof. He pointed Hasan in its direction, then went to the base
of the stairs and fired over the top of the Defender and into the crowd. Hasan
ran past him and called from the top that the roof was clear.

Sean
looked back, nodded, and as he pulled the pins on two grenades, yelled, “Fall
back to the roof, frags out!” He tossed the grenades and Brad saw Brooks throw
two more. Both men peeled away from the entrance and charged up the stairs to
the roof, pushing Brad in front of them.

They
reached the top just as the four grenades exploded in rapid succession. The
blast threw a cloud of dust across the street in front of the store. Brad
looked over to see Brooks slapping a small, shaped demo charge at the top of
the stairs. “Fire in the hole!” Brooks yelled.

Brad
lifted himself up and ran for the far corner of the roof. Just as he reached it
and ducked his head, the loud
THUMP!
and concussion rolled him over and
into the wall that lined the roof.

He
must have been knocked unconscious because he found himself laying on his back
looking into the sky. His ears were muffled through the ear plugs, but he could
still hear the frenzied moans and screaming of the primals. He rolled to his
belly, lifted himself to a knee and looked around. There was a large hole in
the roof where the stairs had been. Brad resisted the urge to look over the
wall, knowing he would find the screaming mass below him. He dropped to his ass
and leaned against the wall. Hasan was farther down, sitting in the same
position with his rifle across his lap. Sean and Brooks were standing and
looking into the hole.

“Good,
you’re awake. Are you hurt?” Sean called out to him.

“Fuck
if I know, I can’t feel shit right now,” Brad yelled back at him.

“That’s
called shock, bro, embrace it, ‘cause when it wears off you’re really going to
feel like shit,” Brooks said.

“What’s
going on?” Brad asked.

“Well,
current situation is F.U.B.A.R. (fucked up beyond all recognition). The demo
charge on the stairs has stopped them. Unless they learn to fly or make a
fifteen-foot primal pyramid, I think we’re safe for the time being. But we
ain’t getting off the roof,” Sean said.

“I’m
going to choke the shit out of the colonel, if I ever meet him, for sending us
through the city,” Brad said.

16.

The
battered team sat and listened to the primals below. The creatures’ strategy
hadn’t changed; they would just pound against the walls of the building and
moan. They paced below like dogs that had treed a scared animal, looking up and
howling in frustration at the men they knew were on the roof. The team avoided
looking over the edge; if the primals saw them they would become frenzied and
more would be drawn in. When they did risk a peek, they found the tops of
hundreds of heads pressed against the rear of the Defender, waiting for a turn
to squeeze into the broken storefront.

The
hole in the roof was nearly fifteen feet to the floor, and the stairs had been
blown clean away. Nothing would be walking up them today. Structurally, the
roof was hurting from all of the abuse thrown at it. It creaked and groaned
when they walked, but it was still standing and that was all that mattered. The
outside walls were made of stone and block, and they were high, too high for
the primals to climb and too strong for them to push down. They were secure in
their hide as long as the building stood.

Brad
reached in his pack, pulled a bottle of water and took a small sip. He didn’t
have a lot and didn’t know how long this would have to last him. He didn’t even
want to think about food, knowing all of it was in the vehicle below. He looked
at his watch; it was approaching time for the colonel’s call. Brad was pissed at
the man and was certain he’d intentionally led them into the dangers of the
city. With all of his technology he had to have known the city would be
infested.

The
phone buzzed. Sean reached over and pressed the speaker button before sitting
it on the roof. The men adjusted their positions to gather around it.

“Good
afternoon gentlemen. From the satellite images and the location of your phone,
I can tell that your travels have not gone well,” Cloud said.

“No
disrespect, Colonel, but go fuck yourself!” Sean shouted at the phone.

“Excuse
me Chief, but before we get into formalities, could you please give me your
status?” Cloud replied.

“Roger
that SIR! We are four souls, ammo black, food black, water red, transportation
fucked,” Sean said sarcastically.

“I
see, and thermals show you are pretty well surrounded. We must have
underestimated their numbers. Could you verify that, Chief?”

“Oh
yes SIR! We are positively surrounded. Thank you for the help with that by the
way.”

“Okay
Chief, I need you to calm down and listen. In approximately two hours we will
have air assets on station. They will be delivering a large number of
two-thousand pound bombs to the city in front of you,” said Cloud. “These drops
will be danger close and you will need to take cover as best you can.”

“What
the hell! You’re going to blow the shit out of us, Colonel!” Brad exclaimed.

“This
is our best and only option. The lab folks tell me the blast and shockwave
should kill, or at least temporarily immobilize, any primals in your immediate area,”
Cloud said. “As soon as possible after the last bomb detonates, you will need
to beat feet, by vehicle is best. Either way, you need to be gone before the
primals rebound. Do you understand?”

“Hold
up, Colonel, thanks for the help and all, but are you telling me you’re pulling
air assets away from the States just for us?” Sean said.

“Don’t
flatter yourself, Chief. Unfortunately, we have a high value individual in
country that requires your talents, and you are the only ground assets within a
thousand miles. We are assisting you, so that you may later assist us. Be
prepared for the bomb strike, gentlemen, next contact will be in twelve hours,”
Cloud said, disconnecting the call.

“What
the fuck was that?” Brooks said.

“Assist
them? This guy is tasking us! Doesn’t he realize we’re all messed up and
stranded on a roof?” Brad said. “I really hate that guy.”

“Okay
fellas, let’s calm down for a minute. All good shit, but let’s worry about that
stuff when we’re far gone from here,” Sean said.

Brad
stood and walked to the edge of the roof. It was a little more than a thousand
yards from the building to the river, and maybe a mile to the road that left
the valley. “Where are they going to squeeze two-thousand pound bombs into
here? This entire place is danger close!” he said, looking at the surroundings.

They
were stuck on a strip of the city about three miles long by half a mile wide.
It was tucked in between the mountains and the river, the majority of which was
on the far side of the river.

“I
don’t know, Brad, but two or three of them would be enough to incinerate this
place. I think we need to start making plans for our egress,” Sean answered.

“I
shut off the Defender when I left it, so the engine was running after the
impact with the building. No guarantees it will start though, and I don’t know
if I can back it out,” Brooks added.

“From
this location, it is less than four kilometers to the pass. If we make it to
the opening, we can head into the mountains. There is a mountain trail that
bypasses the highway. I think it best to stay off the roads now,” Hasan said.

“I’m
with Hasan, traveling by vehicle is turning out not to be much fun. I know it’s
slower but maybe we would be better in the mountains. Even the colonel said
they don’t like traveling uphill,” Brad said.

“Okay,
let’s wait till the drop before we finalize plans; we have options and that’s
enough for now. We need to fortify something and build a bunker with whatever
we’ve got. We’ll take cover in the back corner of the roof, face down. As soon
as the bomb run ends, be prepared to drop in and clear the building. If we can
make use of the Defender we will. If not, we will have sixty seconds to grab
bags and haul ass,” Sean said. “Break down, clean, and inventory your gear. I
want an accurate count of what you got and what you need from the Defender. If
Cloud is on time, we can expect drops in the next sixty minutes.”

Brad
leaned back against the wall and slowly started placing his gear on the roof in
front of him. He still had all of his M4 and M9 magazines minus the ones he’d
had in the seat pocket. The Sigma was still stuffed tightly into his body
armor. He was carrying no food, and his camel back was almost dry. It would be
a long night if he had to move out on what he was carrying. Brad compared notes
and the rest of the team was in similar circumstances. They made a list of
necessities they would pull from the Defender in case it was immobile. The list
was broken down by location. Brad and Hasan would take the grunt work of
pulling and carrying gear from the vehicle. Sean and Brooks would be on
security and trying to make the Defender roadworthy.

Brad
looked over and saw that Brooks had finished his inventory and was starting to
pile the broken pieces of concrete into a shelter against the far corner of the
roof wall. Hasan had gotten to his feet and was helping Brooks construct the
makeshift bunker.

Brooks,
peering through the hole, said it was a clean drop to the floor and he could
see the primals in the store were anxious to get at them on the roof. Brad
could hear them fighting with each other as rival packs joined together in the
cramped space of the store—screaming and clawing, the ripping of clothing and
the snapping of jaws—humanity had really been brought to the level of ravenous
animals. It had been over forty minutes since the phone call with the colonel,
and the primals were still frenzied below them, not giving up easily on their
trapped prey.

Brad
finally spoke up. “Sean, what do you think of this high value person the
colonel talked about?”

“Your
guess is as good as mine, but they must be pretty desperate to put us on the
mission,” Sean answered. “We are pretty well trashed as it is here. For now, I
say we take Cloud’s help, then when we are clear of this mess we will look at
our options.”

Brooks
was sitting in the corner cleaning his weapon; he looked up and nodded his
approval. “I really would like to know who we are dealing with. I have never
heard of this Colonel Cloud, and we work in a very small community.”

“I
know what you’re saying, Brooks, I’ve had some of the same concerns about him.
But for now, all we got is him and his bombs so let’s keep rolling with it,”
Sean said.

He
was intently studying his map and comparing it to what he saw on the ground in
front of him. Brad watched Sean stuff everything in his pack and look at his
watch. “Okay boys, less than ten mikes; let’s dig in and wait for the rain,”
Sean said.

The
men sat huddled in the hastily-made bunker and waited. It had begun to grow
quiet as they lay motionless and out of sight of the primals. The sun was still
high in the sky and the temperatures still sat close to a hundred degrees. Brad
cautiously peeked out over the walls and saw the swarms of primals moving about
in tightly packed clusters. Occasionally two groups would merge, but for the
most part they stayed independent and fought with each other when the fringes
of a group would meet. Brad wondered if the groups had dominant leaders; they
would be interesting to study if they weren’t always trying to kill him.

His
thoughts were interrupted by the sudden buzzing of the phone. “Chief here,”
Sean answered as he put the phone on speaker.

“Roger
Chief, this is Thunder Turkey, flight commander for today’s mud mission. This
is your brief—you will be getting three total passes: one to mark and draw
targets; two with lethal drops. We know where you are based on briefed imagery.
Please mark your location with an IR strobe if available. These drops will be
danger close. We will try and keep you out of the blast zone and the drops as
close to the river as possible, but you know how these things work. Keep your
heads down; it’s going to get loud for you. These are two thousand pounders. I
recommend you keep your mouth open, breathe shallow, and cover your ears.
Gentlemen, do you have any questions?” the voice asked.

 “Uhh
… I guess not. Just don’t kill us. Strobes are lit,” Sean answered.

“Very
well then. Good luck gentlemen, you have four birds less than ten minutes out.
I recommend you get moving right after the second lethal drop. From experience,
these bombings stun the primals but not for very long. Thunder Turkey
out,” said the voice as the call ended.

“Well
you heard the man, let’s tighten up,” Sean said.

Brad
was pressed against the back wall of the makeshift bunker watching the sky when
he saw the first jet screaming in slow and low; it looked like it was floating
in the clouds. “Guess there’s no reason for them to make high fast drops on
these guys, not like they can shoot back,” he said.

They
heard the thunder and watched the jet fly a tight line along the team’s side of
the riverbank as it started launching flares and metallic decoys that burned a
bright white and made a whistling sound as they flew.

“Never
seen those before,” Brad said.

“Me
either, but looks like they seem to be doing the whole ‘mark and draw’ trick
the pilot talked about,” Brooks replied.

Brad
watched as the primals lost focus on the store; they started walking at first,
then running toward the noise near the river’s bank. The jet finished its run
and peeled away, banking high into the sky. Brad watched as three more jets
dropped in slow over the mountain. They were a lot higher but still gave the
impression of floating. He watched them line up with the river, then their
ordnance began to drop and scream in. Brad tucked his chin and covered his
ears; he left nothing but the heels of his boots facing the river.

Brad
felt the ground thrust under him as the first bombs hit. The blast wave seemed
to levitate him off the surface of the roof. Then the shockwave hit the
building with a force that rattled everything and dumped pieces of the
makeshift bunker on top of the team’s flattened bodies. The low wall that
surrounded the building’s roof held, and helped to somewhat direct the blast up
and away from the men. The thunder was horrific, and the dark mushroom clouds
blocked out the sun. Brad heard the debris rain down all around him. This
wasn’t the first time he had seen a bomb run, but it was the first time he had
been this close.

Brad’s
teeth were still rattling in his mouth when he heard the scream of the jets
lining up for their next run. Again he tucked his chin, covered his ears, and
tried to make himself one with the surface of the roof as the next round of
bombs hit. Again the roof shook underneath him and the blast wave pounded and
heaved at the sides of the building, knocking the air out of him. Brad froze
himself in place until he heard the debris stop raining down, then he slowly
got to his knee. The air was filled with dark black smoke. Brooks and Sean were
already up, rigging a rope to the roof, and preparing to drop into the
building.

Brad
saw that Hasan was still curled in a ball next to him; he reached out and
slapped his hip. Hasan slowly rolled to his back and asked him if it was over.
Brad nodded and extended a hand to help Hasan to his feet, then they made their
way to the hole’s edge. Brooks had already dropped in and cleared the room.