The Dying of the Light (Book 3): Beginning (12 page)

“—make sure the vehicles are secured,” the governor finished. “Don’t you agree, Colonel?”

Shaw realized he was now part of the conversation and nodded. “Absolutely,” he replied. He focused on their conversation, putting his problems with Rachel out of his mind as much as possible. He got up to get some more coffee.

It was going to be a long day.

Headquarters
First Church of the Divine Judgment
West Lafayette, Indiana

Reverend Sebastian Wright put down the radio he’d been holding after one final “Over and out, my brother.” He looked around at the carefully selected members of his inner cadre and smiled. It was not a pleasant smile, and none of his so-called advisors were fooled. Wright knew they were just hoping his divine wrath wasn’t going to come down on them.

“That was the longest game of telephone I’ve ever even heard of,” Harper Grey said, standing off to one side. He’d just entered the room, and he’d caught only the tail end of the radio conversation. He had several inches on the six-foot-three reverend and nearly a foot in width at the shoulder besides. He rarely spoke, and when such a big man did, people tended to listen. Even the reverend.

Which was, of course, why he’d hired him. Every leader needed someone to keep themselves in check, on the right path. Marcus Aurelius had the slave who followed him around whispering, “Remember, thou are mortal,” and the reverend had Harper Grey.

It was still infuriating how often the man was right.

“When you get the actual telephone systems up and running, Harper, you can tell me how to conduct our operations. Our radios only work for about five hundred miles, so we relay. Do you have an alternative?”

Harper just sipped his coffee and stared at the reverend.

“I thought not. Now, we have verification that the rumors are true. AEGIS has a treatment for the divine plague sent to cleanse the Earth of the sinful and the nonbelievers. We must destroy it. We cannot allow such an abomination to exist. They must be purged in the fires of their own creation, damned to walk the Earth as God has judged until they rot!”

Harper crooked an eyebrow at the reverend as he started to rant, and the other man subsided as he realized he’d gone a bit off-track.

“Ahem. You are my advisers. How do you suggest we proceed?”

The men around the table looked at each other, each waiting for the others to speak first. Inner cadre they may be, but Wright had a nasty habit of changing the members of that group if he didn’t like their advice. Anyone who got replaced left just one way, feet first.

“Well, sir, we could—”one man ventured.

Harper coughed. When the man glared at him, Harper just stared him down until the man looked away. “There’s only one way to do it, boss,” he said. “Attack them en route. How good is our source on this, anyway?”

It annoyed Wright that Harper had seen fit to make his own plan the only plan. The man was growing more infuriating by the day, but the utility of his ruthlessness couldn’t be denied. “His information is unimpeachable,” Wright answered. “He was stationed at one of the bases, posing as a volunteer. The man saw the shipment firsthand.”

“Hmmm, okay. That one, obviously, we can’t intercept, but the others… Does he know when they’re shipping out?”

“He overheard some of the soldiers talking to the medics who came with the treatment. Bunker One was the first to receive the shipment. The others are leaving either through truck or plane in the next week, bound for the other bunkers.”

“Good.” Grey said with a smile. “That gives us some lead time. We can hit the ones on the ground easily enough. We have people in the right places or can get them. But the planes are going to take more work and preparation. I have an idea.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Staging Area
ExForce Expedition One
Outside Eatonville, Washington

“I can’t hear you,” Angela Gates said, waving in the general direction of the roar from the engines of the Strykers parked nearby. With the noise from the teams unloading equipment in the cleared parking lot and the other vehicles idling, they were all going to have hearing damage, she was sure.

Major Reynolds nodded, and they walked farther from the vehicles until they could speak. Gates watched as their escorts fanned out around them in a loose circle, ever watchful for walkers or runners. Or another Driebach.

“I said we’re about ready to move out, Governor. Is there anything you need from us before we leave?” Reynolds wore his full tactical gear in expectation of trouble. Covered with weapons and equipment, he looked like a one-man army even to her experienced eye.

She shook her head. “No, Major, we’ll be fine. Even if it takes you a couple days. I can always send someone to the bunker if need be, anyway. You concentrate on clearing our new home for us,” she said with a smile.

Reynolds didn’t smile back, just nodded again. “Yes, ma’am.”

“And Major…”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“It’s just Angela now. Not Governor. And you know this mayor thing is only temporary, right? I didn’t want to do this at all.”

Reynolds looked sheepish for a moment. “Yes, ma— uh, Angela. And I’m sure the colonel will find someone to take over for you soon. I’ll let you know when we’re clear. I’m leaving a squad of Hunters with you, and the Humvee with that .50-cal.” He nodded toward the vehicles. “As long as your people stay inside the perimeter, you should be safe, but don’t hesitate to call us if you need to.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine, Major. Besides,” she said, eying her husband, who was walking up behind Reynolds, “I have Daniel.”

Reynolds sighed and rolled his eyes. “He’s right behind me, isn’t he?” He didn’t wait for her answer but turned to find the second sneakiest man he’d ever met looking him in the eye. “Morning, Daniel.”

“Good morning, Major. All set?”

“Yeah, we’re headed out now. Unless you need anything?”

Daniel shook his head. “Not a thing. Ms. Blake and her Hunters will be enough for our protection, I believe.”

Reynolds glanced over at the young girl standing guard on the perimeter, perched on the hood of a rusted pickup truck of some sort. He hoped it had been the right call bringing her along. Not that Colonel Gaines had left him much choice.

Reynolds toggled his shoulder radio. “All units, prepare to move out.” He turned back to the former governor and her husband, shaking their hands. “Good luck, Angela, Daniel.”

“And to you, Tom,” Angela said.

Reynolds climbed into the back of one of the Strykers with a final wave.

She waved back, and the sadness and fear she felt must’ve shown on her face, because Daniel noticed. He always noticed.

“He’ll be fine. Look at what he went through all those years ago just to make it to the bunker.”

“I can’t help but think about it, Daniel. He’s one of the best men I’ve ever known, and I want him to make it back. I have a feeling that clearing Eatonville isn’t going to be as easy as everyone seems to think it will be. There’s a reason I insisted that we wait at the staging area.”

Daniel took her hand and said nothing more. She knew that he, too, worried for his friend and wanted nothing more than to see him return safe. They both watched until the convoy of heavy equipment and vehicles was out of sight.

Eatonville, Washington

Tom Reynolds had been here a long, long time ago. Even back then, the town had never been all that large. With a population of less than three thousand at its peak, there were good schools and lots of single-family homes. A couple of industrial companies and a few small businesses. One or two tourist attractions had brought visitors to the town, including one of the most popular in the area, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. It had been a popular rest stop for those heading up to Mount Rainier, and he’d bought some trinkets here a couple times. The quintessential small mountain town was everything visitors expected.

Of course, that was twenty-five years ago. Now, everyone but the undead had abandoned the town, just like its sister city to the northwest, Tacoma. Although in the case of Eatonville, raging fires hadn’t turned it into a blackened ruin, which was, of course, one of the things that made it such a prime location for the first Free Zone in the Pacific Northwest.

The Strykers and Humvees rolled at a crawl through the streets of the town, heading for the most central location. From there, the soldiers would spread out and secure buildings as they went. It had been quiet so far, with no walkers spotted on the wide streets. It was eerie and reminded Reynolds of other battles against other walkers and of some of the friends he’d lost. Things were always quiet… until you heard the dead moaning as they came for you.

Reynolds was beginning to wonder if there were any walkers left when he heard the crack of a rifle. It brought him out of his musings, and he searched the monitors in the Stryker for a sign of walkers even as his earpiece came to life.

“Echo Four, walker down.”

“Acknowledged, Echo Four,” said his XO and husband, Adrian Masters, who rode in the second Stryker. “Eyes up, weapons hot, everybody.”

Reynolds was impressed. Echo team was currently in one of the Humvees, meaning Echo Four had not only hit his target but taken it out with a single shot. Headshots weren’t easy at the best of times, much less from a moving, bouncing vehicle. Joshua Barrents hadn’t lost any of his skill over the years.

“Sir,” Reynold’s crew chief said. “We’re here.” The Stryker slowed and then came to a stop diagonally across the main road. The second Stryker took up a similar position thirty yards farther down the street with the Humvees between for now. They were for fast-response units, with the Strykers held back for more heavy-duty security.

“How do we look, XO?” Reynolds asked.

Masters replied over comms. “Multiple targets inbound on our position. Estimate total count at twelve to fifteen.”

Reynolds turned to his crew chief. “Deploy the REAPRs and let me take a look at them.”

“Yes, sir.”

They’d had the REAPRs—Real-time Enemy Assessors and Physiology Readers—for more than twenty years, now, and the twin .50-caliber cannons had taken out many, many zombies while leaving their own AEGIS soldiers untouched. The armbands and recent upgrades to the system had only made them more effective over the years.

Reynolds heard the big cannon on top of the Stryker begin to rotate, calibrating itself and warming up. He turned to the monitor along the front wall. It displayed a view from the periscope camera attached on top of the vehicle’s hull. At first, Reynolds didn’t see any walkers, but as he rotated the view, several of them came into sight. The walkers’ condition surprised Reynolds. They looked… rotten. “XO, you seeing this?”

“Yes, sir. It appears time has not been kind to our friends.”

Exposure over the course of more than twenty years had dried out and desiccated the walkers. Though they lasted much longer than normal dead bodies, even walkers had to succumb to time’s cruelties at some point.

“Set fire zones to auto, Chief, but make sure to mark the Hummers as friendly.”

“All set, sir.”

“On my mark, let ‘em rip, then.” He triggered his mic. “All teams, fire on my mark. Mark!” There was a cacophony of small- and large-caliber weapons fire from the Humvees and the Strykers. Reynolds watched as the more rotted walkers disintegrated before his eyes under the withering hail of the REAPR cannons’ .50-caliber shells.

He and the rest of the first AEGIS teams had helped to design and test the REAPR system just before Z-Day all those years ago. It was an automatic defense mechanism, one that would target walkers. Soldiers wore a simple transceiver that sent their vital signs to the Stryker. The onboard computer then compared them to man-sized movements tracked in the area. Whatever didn’t have a pulse got blown away.

They’d only lost one test vehicle before realizing they needed a marking system for friendlies. It did no good to send a bullet tearing through a walker if it took out a friendly on the other side. Still, given the height of the Stryker’s top-mounted cannons and the downward angle, there usually wasn’t much to worry about.

The area became a killing field as they destroyed walker after walker. Reynolds glanced back at the extra ammo they were carrying on racks in the vehicle and hoped they wouldn’t need it.

“Runners inbound!” the crew chief shouted.

“Well, well, well, it seems we’ve attracted some young friends,” Reynolds said. “Bravo and Delta teams, move to kite mode.” The Humvees and the soldiers inside were vulnerable to this deadlier class of zombie. The runners could close the distance much faster, so in training they’d developed what Masters had dubbed “kite mode.”

The Humvees drove around in circles, with the runners following them like the tail of a kite. With high-accuracy mounts and computer-aided targeting, the Strykers picked the monsters off as they straggled after the Humvees. Reynolds had once asked his husband what had inspired the name of the tactic. He’d lost interest as Masters had explained the MMORPGs he’d played as a young man.

“You know, back when there was still an internet,” Masters had said with a sigh.

“Targets eliminated, sir. Nothing else showing on our monitors.”

“Thank you, Chief. All teams, double-check your REAPR modules and dismount. Bravo team, secure a perimeter. Charlie and Delta, take the north and south sides of the street and begin sweep and clear. Echo is designated fast-response for this op. Pick up the secondary REAPR sensors from Stryker One.”

Echo’s soldiers would remain in their vehicles to respond faster to emergencies. The rest of the soldiers exited the vehicles and took up their assigned positions. Three six-man teams dispersed across the street. There was an occasional rifle shot as they made sure all the walkers and runners were down.

His XO walked across the street, not bothering to look at the re-deceased. Reynolds marveled again, as always, at the absolute and well-deserved confidence his husband had to handle anything that came his way. It was one of the most attractive things about him.