Hank and Juan's Story

They were lucky they were so close when Dave jumped them, otherwise maybe more than one of the kids would have died. That's what Hank thought anyway. Still, he reflected, the kids were all lucky any of them had made it. He was surprised to see any of them alive and knew they would have a story to tell, he would get the rest of it after he finally figured out what the hell was going on at the Sky Ridge facility. The electronics all worked, which surprised Hank, he thought they would have been destroyed by the nuclear bomb, he seemed to recall that nuke's messed up electronic devices, destroyed batteries, that sort of thing. When the power went off, shortly after the bomb had burst, he was sure there would be no more television, cell phones, cars, anything. Doc said something about the EMP, electromagnetic pulse, only knocking out electronics close to ground zero. Doc also conjectured that the bomb had been a tactical nuclear bomb, designed to take out a small, compact force, not rain down destruction over a broad area. Doc seemed to know more about it than Hank, all Hank really cared about was the radiation, were they all going to die? Did they need to move? He was in the middle of these questions when Michael and his group trickled in and Doc had been called away to try and save them.

The answers Doc gave were heartening, no they probably were not going to die of radiation, Doc thought the zombies were far more likely to overwhelm them, as he doubted the bomb had got them all, and they made more where ever they went. Doc also said 'No' to moving too, at least until some one who knew about the weather patterns could them which way the winds blew, he thought they blew kind of south easterly, which should mean not directly at the club. The one thing Doc was really concerned with was radiated zombies, if some of them were exposed they could spread the contamination to whomever they contacted. This was something Hank was not going to worry too much about, if a zombie got close enough to give you radiation poisoning you probably had other, more important, things to be worrying about.

Picking up the phone the other board members had given him, Hank put call through to Juan. The phone rang a few times, then it clicked as someone picked up, “Amigo?” Hank asked, “You there Juan?”

“Si.”

Ah just like old times, Hank thought, “ How're things going? Ya'll see the blast this morning? Well of course you did, everybody okay?”

“Si, well sort of Hank. Don't know 'bout Maria here. She's is mostly okay, Charlie ain't letting visitors in though, he seems worried. You okay at the Club?”

“Er, yeah mostly. Say Juan you remember those kids at the clinic right? The ones with the swords and the ax and stuff? All dressed up like knights? They said they would hook up with us here after checking on their parents?”

“Yeah, yeah, oh yeah! They come in?”, asked Juan excitedly.

“Well yeah, but Juan, ah, they ran into Dave before they got here.”

“Mother Mary! That guy almost killed you and you are the toughest guy I know, the stupidest, but pretty tough. What happened Hank? You said some of them made it, right?”

“Yeah most of them made it, you ain't gonna believe this amigo”, pausing for a moment, Hank continued, “They got him Juan.”

Silence on the other end of the line, then, tentatively, “They got him? They got Dave?”

“They seem to think so, Whitney split his head open with that ax Michael had. Everyone was hurt pretty bad, the least of 'em were bruised up, one kid looks to have a godamned broken testicle, Doc says they will pull through, they got an ass kicking they will never, ever, forget. You know how you said you felt all weird after killing that guy at the hospital?”

Warily, Juan answered, “Si.”

“Whitney and you, you two are gonna have to have a little talk when you get the chance, she says, and her friends say, something happened to her too.”

Juan was quiet for a moment, then said, “Okay, we will talk, maybe all three of us, anyone who killed a zombie up close and personal. Hank, we had something happen here too, you know? I gotta talk at you about it, try and get my head around it.”, said Juan.

“Shoot partner.”

Juan proceeded to catch Hank up with the guardsmen, telling him as much as he knew, with help from a nearby Nanci, about how they had, Juan thought, been a spotter or something to guide the bomb towards its eventual detonation. He went on to say that he was in contact with the infantry and they wanted to send troop carriers up to get people from the hospital and the Mike's Club.

“Well, what do you think?”, Juan asked after giving Hank a few minutes to digest the information.

“You talked to 'em, what do you think?”, countered Hank.

“I don't think they mean any harm, I think they want to help. I say we meet with them and figure out how we are going to do things.”

“So that is what we do then Juan, call 'em back up and tell 'em we'll see them later this morning if they can get up there to Sky Ridge, and I will get down there too, we'll get this shin dig going and see if we can actually get a good night's sleep for a change. Ask them about fallout and if it is safe for us to be outside and stuff, Doc was worried.”

“Si, I will, probably I would worry about the zombies more than the radiation though, the zombie will get you first, huh?”

Chuckling ruefully Hank answered, “Exactly what I thought Juan.”

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This section was last updated on 30 Jul 2008

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