Zombie Theorem: The End Game (27 page)

Brian poked his head in, took in the situation, and threw me a thumbs up to make sure we were ok. I threw one back at him and he nodded his understanding, disappearing back into the hallway.

“Vic, you ok?” I enquired.

“Yeah, I’m ok, thank God for helmets. I think they just fired the first shots of this battle,” he answered.

“Grab the map and all the files and move downstairs to the radio room. I am going to quarterback this up here for a little longer.”

He nodded his understanding grabbed the items I’d suggested, and bolted from the room. I tightened my helmet on my head and checked my new battle rifle, which I still had not been trained on. I found the magazine release button and pushed it, dropping the magazine out of its well and checked to make sure it was full. I slapped it back in, found the charging handle and pulled it back, putting a round into the chamber and flicked the safety off, making my way into the front of the facility. I found Brian and Kuppers making marks on a map, that they had taped to a wall. I studied it and had to grab the wall when the building shook again, and this time, the blasts starting coming right after another. 

“What are they hitting us with? Do we have an update on damage?” I shouted over the blasts.  

Kuppers turned to me. “They have set up some mortars over near the back of the convoy. They are hitting the mountain side that we sit up against. I have no idea why, maybe they think the facility is dug into the mountain, instead of below it. No damager yet, but I had Delta move so they wouldn’t get decimated.”

“Brian, how about our ATM teams? How are they fairing?” I had to stay next to the wall or risk falling to the floor.

Without turning from the map he reported, “Standing by and keeping their heads down.”

I had to think quickly. “Ok, I want to send Hunter, Harry, and Howser out to put eyes on the mortars. Give them orders to fire on the mortars if they shift fire onto this facility, and then be ready to move downstairs if we get hit.” The radioman transmitted my orders to Delta.

“Kuppers, any news on those Ridder guys who came on the choppers?” I asked.

“They were sitting still, last we checked,” he reported.

“I have a feeling they won’t for long. What do we do if they move in on us?”

“If I was the guy in charge of the enemy force, I would lay down smoke and send my men in close to the building. That would allow them to blow the door and enter the facility,” he answered.

I stepped away from the door and realized the reason that I could was because the building was not shaking anymore. At the same time, I came to that conclusion that Brian and Kuppers had realized the same thing and were raising their rifles toward the front door. I dropped to my knee and raised my own.

I pointed at the radioman. “Go downstairs and send up two squads. Keep the rest down there and be ready, if they get past us. Go!” He nodded and took off down the hallway.

Brian came over next to me and pushed over the table we had used to plan our defenses. All three of us rested our barrels on it and waited for the men outside to make their move. We didn’t have to wait long, we heard thumps on the door. Brian grabbed me and pushed me to the floor, then covered my body with his. Just as he did that, the door exploded inwards, sending shards of metal and wood over the table and into the walls behind us. The sound was like a physical punch as it hit the table, pushing it against us. In a second Brian popped up to his knees and pulled on my vest bringing me up. I was slightly woozy, but shook it off and quickly brought my rifle up and put it against my shoulder, aiming toward the door. A head popped around the door, and without a thought, I put two rounds into it. I didn’t take the time to admire my handiwork. Instead I went back to watching the door. Kuppers came to his feet and threw a small ball out of the door. I recognized it as a grenade and dropped back down behind the table again.

The explosion happened just outside the door frame and mimicked the size of the one which blown the door in. But this time, it killed whoever had been stacked up just outside the door. Brian vaulted over the table and up to the door, threw his head around the door fast, then pulled it back in fast. “Not good, Boss. Call up the team and have them station in the hallway in two ranks. One behind the other, we are going to have a lot of company soon. At least forty and they look a little unhappy. And they have some heavier weapons than we do.”

I turned on my heel and ran as fast as I could to the head of the stairs. Just as I got there the troops had arrived up top. I relayed the orders and apprised them of the situation. The oldest guy met my gaze. “Yes, Major, I got this.” He turned and addressed his men and women. “Alright mutts, you heard the Major, Reyes, you and your troops have the front ranks, down on your knees. The rest of you will line up behind them, now move it!” They took their cues and ran down the hall. I turned and followed them, skidding to a stop when Brian and Kuppers appeared. They motioned for everyone to take their positions.

“We have company. They’ll be entering any minute. Be prepared for grenades and possibly flash bangs. No firing till I give the order.” Brian shouted in his best drill instructor voice, which the troops immediately followed.

I had a quick inner fight with myself. Do I stay behind and let these men sacrifice themselves? Or do I nut up and take a position on the line? I of course, took a position, I tapped one of the men on the front line and ordered him to take the rear. I hunkered down, slid my battle rifle to my back and brought my shotgun around and chambered a round. I waited and prepared myself to fire when it was called for.

I watched the front door as bodies started coming through, firing in all directions. Most were not coming down the hallway just yet. They must have figured that we would be manning the room they came into and hadn’t seen us yet. I waited an extra second and then started firing at the figures ahead of me. As if I had opened a spigot, the rest of the squad around me opened up, pouring round after round into the room.

When no more targets appeared Brian’s voice came across over our firing. “Cease-fire!”

I took my finger off of the trigger and waited for more to appear through the door. If I’d had a chance, I could have taken my Kabar out and cut through the tension in the air with it. Instead, I tried in vain to calm my breathing and get my heart to calm down before it beat itself out of my chest. I could hear the men and women around me trying to do the same.

Chapter 6

The following is not entirely from me. I compiled a lot of different stories to create an after action report, so I could get all the details about what happened during the multi-staged attack. I tend to write this from my view, the following will be from many different views. So I will tell it as a third person narrator. Hope I don’t lose you.

At the same time that Dan and his squad were protecting the facility at the front entrance, Ridder hit from multiple directions. Hunter, Harry and Howser followed the mountain ridge they had climbed up to so they could flank the mortars. They’d left their heavy packs with the rest of Delta and only took weapons and plenty of ammo. With only half the weight they were used to carrying they could have moved faster, but they found the going slowed as they hunched down, not wanting to skyline themselves and give away their intentions to the Ridder forces below in the valley. Once in position, they radioed Hase and then tried to contact Dan, but could not get through. Howser climbed to the highest point he could and saw why. White thick smoke covered the ground up to the facility, he saw a flash at the entrance and knew they were attempting entry.

“Harry, our boys are extremely busy dealing with an armed entry. Why don’t we get into this fight and take these mortars out?” Howser spoke quietly to the man lying on his stomach to his right.

“I am always in for a fight. I’ll crawl back to Hunter and let him know what we are planning. He brought the SAW with him and has been wanting to use it. Hase won’t let him, since it is so loud and useless against the dead fucks. Let’s position him over there by that rock out-crop. He can cover that area over there to the west and hit Ridder’s rear. I’ll move over another fifty yards from our current position and hit the front. You can stay here and hit those two officers, then decimate those three positions there.” He looked down at his watch and made a sour-looking expression. “Let’s boogie and do this before we are too late to be of any good use. Once we are done, let’s move back off of this peak and move toward that command vehicle over there. Then, we can practice those guerilla tactics we learned when we were in Columbia.” He held out his fist and Howser bumped it with his.

Five minutes passed as Howser laid there, sighting in on the targets and preparing himself to hit them fast and in an order he’d created in importance of rank. He gave a wry smile and put the reticle on the Captain’s forward head and waited for the SAW to open up. That was to be their signal. He had already scoped out both positions of his fellow Delta brothers and knew they were in position. The whoomps of the mortars firing were interrupted with a staccato of rounds being fired off to his right. This was the signal he’d been waiting for. He let out half of the breath he had been holding, just like his daddy had taught him when he was eight and then was reinforced by the Master Sergeant who had refined his technique when he was just nineteen. He squeezed his trigger and watched the man’s head blast apart throwing brains, tissue, and bits of bone in the air. Before the man could fall to the ground Howser had already moved on to his next target.

When Harry heard the SAW fire, he had also scoped his targets and had also ordered them in importance. He used the same method that Howser had learned and fired at almost the same time as Howser’s first shot. Instead of taking a head shot though, he went for his target’s chest, knowing that the 7.62 round he was using could defeat almost all forms of personal armor, and watched as the man’s heart exploded out of his back. He didn’t wait to watch the rest of the man’s dying moments and instead, moved on to his next targets.

Hunter, loved his SAW and had been humping it with him since day one that had signaled the beginning of the end as the dead rose and set upon devouring the living. He had endured as Hase and the rest of the guys had poked fun at him for having such a useless weapon against the dead. But he knew someday it would be needed, and he wanted to make sure he had it when that time came. This gun was not very accurate, but that was not what it was designed for. It was made to pour out as many rounds as possible at an enemy’s position, and put the fear of God into them. In most men’s hands, the gun would be used for suppressive fire, but in Hunter’s hands, it became a weapon of mass death. He prided himself with the ability to hit his targets and leave devastation in his wake. He had sighted in on the team just off to his left who were in the action of reloading. They never had the chance to finish though, as the steel jacket rounds blew their bodies apart and kicked up puffs of dirt as they continued into the ground after exiting the men. Hunter smiled over his first hits, shifted his aim, and opened hell on any man in his sight. He was so good with the SAW that he was hitting his targets and was still able to create havoc among the Ridder forces at the rear of the convoy. Once his area was cleared of targets, he crawled out of his position and moved quickly to the rallying point, Harry had discussed with him. He felt assured that the enemy would think he was still in his position and would waste time trying to pin him down, as he relocated and hit them from another direction. This was why he’d joined Delta, to do what no other man or woman could do. To rain down death and fight for his country and brothers.

Howser, had just fired his last shot when the SAW went quiet. He watched his target collapse onto the dirt and then shifted his sights over to Hunter’s positon, just in time to watch him extricate, and start moving to the rally point. Howser dropped his head down and belly crawled backwards and down into a small ditch before sliding his MK16 Mod 0 SCAR light sniper rifle behind him, onto his back and brought his trusty HK 416 battle rifle around to his front, so he could use it on any targets of opportunity. He knew for a fact Harry would be doing the same thing, since they were the designated snipers of their team. They had done this sort of thing many times together and could read each other’s minds at will. Howser moved quickly along the ridge of the mountain, making sure to keep himself just on the other side of the slope to keep from being seen and shot at it. Another thing his daddy, who had been a Marine sniper during Vietnam, had taught him. Before he’d even joined the Army Howser had already been better than the majority of snipers employed by the military in many of their elite forces. Howser was tough, a great shot, but most importantly, he was smart beyond belief. His dad wouldn’t let him shoot until he finished all of his school work and had studied the advanced math that his dad showed him and military history. His dad was fond of always saying “Boy, who cares if you can shoot a flea’s balls off at five hundred yards, if you don’t know where his friends are or what tactics they would use to kill you? Learn what other men have had to learn on the battle-field, embrace it, and use it to kill the enemy, and come home alive.” Howser, during his career could be found listening to the veterans and senior men, hanging on to every word and absorbing their lessons. It was why he made an excellent teacher and leader, he was always ready with an exact plan and knew what the enemy would do before they did it.

Hunter caught up to Howser and they covered each other as they came around to the other side of the mountain and found Harry setting up his position already. They moved past and took up new positions far away from each other so as not to give the enemy a chance to take them all out at the same time. It took them no time at all to set up and sight in on their new targets. Hunter again started off the action by firing first. This time, he concentrated his firing on the antennas of the lead command APC. Harry and Howser concentrated on the officers and other Ridder soldiers as they scurried around, trying to find positions to fight back from.