Hank and Juan's Story

When the helicopter landed there were a dozen people on the roof to meet them. It was a small helicopter, it only had 3 people inside and looked like it might carry six at the most. Hank and the group from the Mike's Club were not at the hospital yet, they were well on their way and reporting very little early morning activity, loading the bus had taken longer than everyone had thought, then there were a few unhappy people at the club who disagreed with who got to go on the bus and in the caravan that went along with it. Juan shrugged his shoulders, the quasi authority they had was just that, they didn't have a way to force people to do anything. His fantasies about building a better society with the survivors had taken a few hits recently, none were worse a worse blow than the near riot that Hank had to deal with just to get to the hospital. In the end Hank calmed the crowd down by assuring them they should all be moved by the end of the day to the new facility except for a core group of volunteers who were going to be left in charge of defending the club and it's vast array of useful food and materials for the good of the group.

The helicopter wound down and as the blades slowly stopped the man in back opened his door and hopped out. He was Hispanic, which Juan had not suspected over the radio, plus what Hispanic parents name their kid 'Ed'? He approached Juan confidently and put out his hand.

“So are you the leader of this group then?”

“Ah, no, not really, I mean THIS group at the hospital, sure, but we got another guy really in charge, he is on his way, coming over from the club.”, Juan answered.

“In a bus?”, seeing Juan's nod, he continued, “Okay good then, we saw a bus with some other vehicles coming this way from the air, the only vehicles moving, couldn't miss them. Shall we go inside?”

The pilot and co-pilot were getting out of the helicopter, Ed turned towards the dozen or so people and said in a raised voice, “Okay people I am going to talk with Juan and we are going to wait for the guy you chose as a leader to get here to decide what we are going to do. We saw his bus from the air and he should be here soon. I gave my assistant”, he pointed at the man whom Juan had assumed was the co-pilot, “the information we have to share with you, so he should be able to answer all your questions. No holding back on anything either, ask and if we know, we will answer. Right now I am going to steal Juan away from you so we can talk before the other guy gets here.”

Lowering his voice he said to Juan, looking at Nanci, “Your wife?” Juan nodded, “She is not excluded, but I feel we need to show leadership here to get organized, we can't do that by committee. There has got to be a room we can use to meet right?”

“Oh yes the doctors had plenty of conference rooms, we have on set up, and there is a small auditorium we can use if we need to meet with everyone. We have coffee and food, if you or your men are hungry?”, said Nanci

“Sounds good, coffee is always welcome. Shall we?”

Juan led Ed and Nanci through the doors down to the conference room on the second floor. They spoke for about fifteen minutes before Hank showed up. Hank arrived with some hubbub, he was surrounded by people as he came up to the conference room door and he was having some difficulty getting into the room, not so much because the crowd was mobbing him, but because he was trying to get everyone's version of the last day's events at once. Finally Hank held up his hands and said, “Okay, okay, this is not working, I have to go talk to the General or whoever he sent to speak with us. I will catch up with you people later. The bus is going back for a second run, we need to get some of you clearing out the rest of the hospital to make more room, most of the wounded are already here with this last load, I am sure could use more help taking care of them too. I will try and speak to all of you if I can when you are working, if you don't know what you can do to help, just talk to Jack or Charlie, I am sure they can find something to keep you busy.”

After saying that Hank pushed the rest of the way into the conference room and closed the door behind him. Looking around in surprise he said, “Oh. For some reason I thought there would be more people here, just the chiefs then, eh?”

Ed Stanson had stood up when the door opened, with Juan and Nanci mimicking his action. Approaching Hank Ed put out his hand and said, “You must be Hank, I am Ed Stanson, of the 19th Special Forces Group.”, shaking Hank's hand he continued, “I am very pleased to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all my, er, General? Mr. Stanson.”

“Major, sir.”, Ed replied.

Turning from Major Stanson Hank shook Juan's hand, then half embraced him before turning and hugging Nanci and saying, “Keeping him out of trouble Nanci?”

“Si Hank, mostly, you hungry? The cooks made muffins, and we have coffee?”

Hank nodded to both and Nanci went and got him a plate, loading it up with two muffins and making him coffee from long practice the way he liked it. After all four of them had all the muffins and coffee laid out before them and were sitting down in the plush conference room there was an awkward silence. Finally they all started to ask questions at once, then broke into nervous laughter, the Major gestured for Hank to go first.

“Okay then, well what can you tell me about what is going on Ed? Or should I say Major?”

“Ed is fine, I probably have more information about the overall situation in the region than you do, but so far as what is happening over all I am not sure you won't know as much as I do.”

Juan chimed in, “Is there still a US? Is help on the way out here?”

Ed looked at them and said, “Of course there is a US, as for help, we might be a bit lacking. The bomb this morning was supposed to get rid of the major problems in the area, we are, in a military sense, behind the front lines. Even given that most modern warfare philosophies would discount the term 'front line', that does best describe the situation. There were outbreaks of the enemy in Denver, LA, Seattle, Chicago, Austin, New York, and Miami. And that is just in the US, our data on the rest of the world is limited, it seems that every major land mass has had an outbreak, but not as many cities were hit as in the US, which points to us as the origins of the problem. The current thinking is the whole mess started somewhere in Florida, with hurricane Melony just easing up off the coast the area is a mess and communications are very bad.”

Hank said, “Okay so you say we are behind the lines, are the zombies that organized?”

“Zombies, right now we just refer to them as 'the enemy', yes, they do have the characteristics of a horror film zombie. Hm, are we behind the organized lines? I would have to say yes and no. There does seem to be some organization at some level, something or some one is directing attacks, like the one on the radio station, we have reports of what we have termed 'Super Enemy', er 'Super Zombies' that seem to be the leaders and can control other less able members of the enemy, sometimes some of them even seem to have regained some of their memories and abilities to think. There are other reports as well, of almost, well, lets just say unexplained abilities.”

Juan nodded, so did Hank, the Major looked at them and went on, “I see you might be able to confirm a few stories I have heard too. I have to tell you I have not been out yet, this is my first foray into the field to meet you guys. I have been sending out troops on reconnaissance patrols and to keep down any zombies that get close to the base. I have not seen any combat with these things, you guys have me beat there, I would bet, and any information you could give me would help. So far what I know is not good.”

“Yeah, okay, we can help with that, some of your boys had to get back from the radio station right? I mean the guys that came in here said some made it back or were headed back?”, asked Hank.

Shaking his head Ed said, “Not as many as you might think, that was a clusterf..”, Looking at Nanci, he amended himself, “a...mistake from the get go. We deal in wounds, a normal enemy is bogged down, demoralized and defeated when he sees the wounded pouring in and hears of the dead left on the field, these things are not affected by wounding, our technological edge is not completely negated by their durability, but it is hampered. We were ordered to secure the radio station and tried to do just that in a conventional way, with only the most base of information, it was not enough and we did not know who we were fighting. I have some video of the confrontation and we are learning from it, most of those men died., the few who made it back are more than half crazy and are getting the rest of my guys, who are reduced to a small fraction of the overall total, worked up. No one likes to play soldier when their wives, girlfriends, parents and children are in immediate harm's way. Most of those at the base were reserve units, the special forces I am in command of were already serving overseas, I am, was, just a paper pusher left on this side of the Pacific to oversee the operations of my unit in a strategic way, not to mention training the new recruits.”

Juan eyed him, “So, what, who you have, are mostly new guys and reserves?”

“Oh it is not like that, you don't get recruited into the special forces off the street, I have a lot of well trained infantrymen under my command, with a core of instructors who are literally the best at what they do in the world, most of the new recruits are veterans of the war too, they have been around the block a few times, I have too for that matter, I didn't walk into a rear echelon job, I was assigned to it when I was recovering from an IED that hit my command vehicle. We have combat experience. Plus the reserves have already done one tour overseas too. The United States Army is the most highly trained armed force in the world and the men I now find myself in command of are good representatives of that training.”

Hank snorted a bit, “You sound like a recruiter Ed. So the base is mostly empty? Is it more secure than this place?”

“I couldn't make the numbers to be a recruiter, they have a tough job these days, who wants to die in desert half the world away? The base is more secure, but not much more, it is not a fortress, just chain link fences with a guard house at the front to keep the riff-raff out. I have the troops putting up guard towers today, right now we can see things pretty good with our helicopters, but we don't have unlimited fuel and the way things are I think we can safely say we are not going to be getting any more for months, if not years.”

“'The way things are', how are 'things'? Do you know?”, Hank asked.

Ed looked a bit worried, his clean shaven face frowned at them and again he shook his head, “Not good. Between the edges of Colorado up to the Mississippi there are few reports of enemy activity, the area is mostly secure, but that is a LOT of territory, Chicago is a nightmare, it would be worse than Denver, but lets face it, Denver is gone, there is almost no one left here, the enemy moved up into the mountain towards the smaller towns pursuing anyone who got out or they flooded the plains heading towards North Platte and Kansas City. Further south Pueblo is still fighting and they are holding better than Colorado Springs did, New Mexico is still mostly untouched, though there are reports of enemy actions in Santa Fe. Wyoming? Pretty clear right now. The Dakotas are clear and Canada, internal Canada is still clear too, the coasts of the entire continent are dealing with enemy incursions. A bright spot is Mexico City, no reports of enemy activity, over a million God damned people and nothing going on there at all. Yet. Hell I read a report before I left and I could spend half the morning relying the information to you guys, do you have any specific areas you want to know about?”

“Well, we could head north? Try to get to Wyoming or north east to the Dakotas? How is Boulder? Or Fort Collins?”, asked Hank.

“Boulder is like Denver, a lot of stragglers, a few humans moving around or trying to contact us with cell phones or radios, Fort Collins is the Pueblo of the north, they didn't get hit so hard, but they have less people to help fight the enemy off, it would be tough to break out with the number of people we have, especially the non-fighters.”

“You got a plan, you must right? If we can't leave then we stay here, right? Bunker down and wait the zombies out or for something else to change?”

“Yeah Hank, that is what I was thinking, we still have a bunch of, well not even second line machines now, but the older vehicles and civilian vehicles will work to forage food, gather survivors and keep us alive. There is still food and fuel here and in the Springs to keep us well fed and comfortable for years if the number of survivors we estimate we have to care for is even close to accurate. And if the number of enemy left is right, hopefully we got most of the enemy leaders with the nuke this morning, they could be a real problem.”

“I don't know, I am not so sure staying would be a good idea, the food will run out, the fuel will go, what will we do if the numbers you have are off, or if the zombies come back? You can defend us with the guys you have, right?”, asked Hank.

“If the enemy came back we could not stand against them.”, Ed let them digest that for a moment before continuing, “It is a numbers game, the base IS a fort, we have ammo and guns, we have mines, bombs, grenades and a few people who know a whole lot of dirty tricks. All those pluses are wiped out by the sheer number of enemy personnel that we could be dealing with. I have already said the base is nothing more than chain link fence, heck in some areas it is only a normal barbed wire fence. That means we would be using the guard towers, makeshift right now, and building as firing positions, and they were not designed for that. We don't have a bullet for every man woman and child in the front range, let alone the state of Colorado. When you factor in that each of the enemy must have their brain destroyed, not their hearts or legs or guts...”, Major Stanson shrugged his shoulders, “This isn't a Rambo movie, my guys are good shots, but a head shot every time? Against a moving target, hundreds, thousands, even millions of targets, it is just not possible.”

“So you are banking on them not coming back?”, put in Nanci.

“No, not really, for the short term yes, long term, maybe even sooner, they will get back, when the, uh, food supply runs out. We can prepare for them as best we can, we have the whole of Denver to draw on for resources, three or four of my guys come from combat engineer units, and they know what they are doing, we can pour cement, we can build a fortification, a keep at first then expand the walls and reclaim more territory. We can build silos to store food and water in, we can farm land, raise livestock, prepare and prepare and prepare. This is the worst case. I don't count the United States out yet, we will get a handle on this thing, however until then it seems prudent to prepare.”

This little speech had a slow reaction on Hank, Juan and Nanci, they thought it over for a few minutes then Juan leaned over and looked Hank in the eyes and said, “What do we do?”

Hank looked at Juan and Nanci then back to the Major, “This is like a what do you call it, a feudal state, practically, is that right?”

The Major hesitated, then nodded slightly, “Not that far, no Lords and Ladies, we maintain the democratic process, however some things could not be debated, within each position of power people are going to have to be able to make choices and enforce the laws of the community. I am not going to create a government from scratch, that will be your job. I will submit the military to whomever the civilians elect as there proper leader. This is similar to how the national guard operate now, the governor of each state has control over how they are used. This is a good system, as it will not circumvent anything we have in place, if the Feds need us, we will still have a chain of command we are used to. We'll still need 'state' level support, representatives, judges, hell even lawyers, sooner or later people are going to commit crimes against the community.”

Hank blanched a bit at that.

“What? Don't tell me there is already a problem? Rape?”

“No, no, last night some ya-hoo on guard duty shot another one of our guys. The shooter was a stupid braggart and that didn't help things. They kid didn't die, but he is mad and everyone was ready to tear this guys head off, I have him isolated for now.”

Sighing heavily the Major responded, “We have a brig at the base, it is yours if you need to use it, it might be a good idea to get the guy away from everyone else before mob justice takes over.”

“I'll have to get the board together and decide that, it is too big for me to just do on my own. I see what you are saying though, no chance we could break out north or south though?” Hank asked.

Shaking his head Ed said, “I would recommend against it, right now the enemy, the zombies, have their backs pointed at us, why fight through them to put ourselves in front of them again?”

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This section was last updated on 30 Jul 2008

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