The Broken and the Dead

The Humvee bounced and jerked its way upon to the service road and proceeded to head to the overpass, Lt. Klein, the SSgt and Old Man Tucker had laid out a search pattern on a map, jumping in roughly concentric circles with the lodge at the center. Staff Sergeant Barnes was driving, Janey in the passenger seat and OMT in the second row. He was pressing up between them, showing Janey the map and the plan.

“There is something else Janey, something we talked about but didn’t share with the others.”

“Oh really” she said with a very teenage like voice of condescension.

“Hey, this is your deal Tucker.” joked the Staff Sergeant.

“Right, well, if we get the opportunity we are going to attack and try to take out at least one of their 4 Z search teams. Janey’s brow raised a bit, apparently this had not been the announcement she was expecting.

“Are you two telling me that you are actually LOOKING for the Zs? That you actually want to find them?” she was aghast at the prospect.

OMT said “The Lieutenant and Staff Sergeant Barnes brought a couple of surprises with them in their MRAPs.”

She looked suspiciously at them and Staff Sergeant Barnes chuckled,

“Yeah, we have some claymore mines, they can do a number on the Zs even the up-armored ones.”

OMT interjected “If we can get them in the kill zone that is.”

“And just what is the kill zone for this thing?” she asked.

OMT answered,

“Well, the mine has about 700 balls in it, each one is about 1/8” in diameter, they shoot out in a fan, about like this.” and he held his hands out at about 60 degrees. “They will go about 100 yards, more or less but we really want them about 50 yards out, that’s best.”

“And just how are you going to get them into this kill zone?” she asked.

“Ok, here is the plan...” OMT began.

“Kinda stupid plan”, Barnes slipped into the conversation.

“Shut up” OMT said then continued “We set the mine up somewhere on the edge of an open field. All pre-aimed you see, all set up, then I come out and give the Z’s the finger or something, they chase me, I run right across the front of the mine and when I’m clear and they aren’t: BANG. We take them out.”

“See? Stupid plan, I should be the one running.” Barnes said.

“Hey, my plan, I run, when it’s your plan you get to run.” OMT countered.

Janey rolled her eyes

“I agree with the Staff Sergeant.” she said.

“What?” OMT blurted as Sergeant Barnes voiced a solid

“YEAH.” Janey withstood OMTs ire for a moment before she continued

“With one minor modification, I do the running.”

“NO WAY” the sergeant said.

OMT added his “Out of the question.”

“You guys are silly, look, I’m younger and faster than both of you, you are wearing all this crap.” she said pulling at staff sergeant’s body armor; “and you Mr. Tucker, you couldn’t out run a turtle with a head start.”

She laughed as she reached over and shook his belly.

“Hey, I’m dangerous over short distances.” he said in melancholy voice.

“I LOVE that movie!” Sergeant Barnes said as he broke into a reasonable facsimile of the theme to “Lord of the Rings”.

OMT looked at him like he was crazy.

“Fellows, look, you are both better shots than I am, this way we get the fastest guy, or girl in this case, with the two best shots watching my back!”

They sat in silence for a bit then the younger man said

“She has a point Tucker.”

“I know she does, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.” OMT said in a serious, quiet tone.

The trio made their way through 2 small towns, both of which were devoid of life, excepting the birds that seemed to recognize the abundance of carrion. Occasionally they found a Z corpse, but disappointingly few.

“They are sure getting harder to kill” the Staff Sergeant observed.

The other two said nothing, OMT because he didn’t feel like restating the obvious and Janey because she hadn’t seen this scale of death before. They found one gas station that was pretty much intact and they closed it up, circled on their map. If they could they would come back this way and raid it, otherwise at least its location was noted. That night they parked under an old trestle bridge, taking turns keeping watch.

As the evening set in back at the lodge the kitchen crew had made remarkable progress and while there were still canning to do, it was satisfying to see the rows of brightly colored jars. Mrs. Driscol had announced after dinner that since it was Saturday, everyone had to bathe. Everyone without exception she reiterated; at which time Lucy made a bolt for it, Ronald Bear in tow; alas for poor Lucy, Mrs. Driscol was expecting such a maneuver and was able to intercept her in her escape attempt. The day had been bright and warm and they had not used the lights at all, even then they had candles burning, this saved the solar charged batteries which were now being used to heat our water supply. It was great having well water to drink, especially on a hot day, but bathing in 56 degree water is not an enjoyable experience, hence the solar panels were employed to this end. The baths were taken in reverse order of age with the exception of Deputy Weir who had the first roof top watch and Mrs. Franks who was sleeping soundly so they decided her bath could wait. It felt great to be completely clean, we had all been doing ‘sponge baths’ but soaking in a tube was a wonderful experience, even if the amount of water and the duration of the soak were limited.

I went to sleep easily that night and didn’t think about Janey more than twice, okay maybe three times tops, there wasn’t anything I could do for her; I just hoped that she would survive where so many others around OMT did not.