AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) (10 page)

The next
morning, a large woman in scrubs and a soldier in camouflage reported to Lord
Dameon’s office.

“Sir, we have
found two perfect young recruits for our unique mission, and our brother here
has completed the small explosive vests,” the woman said.

“The explosives
will not be large but will take out anyone within ten feet,” the man added.

“Good work.
This will destroy their morale and show them our resolve!” Lord Dameon said as
he stood. “Do the children understand what they are going to do?”

“Yes sir. And
they are eager to give their lives for the cause.”

“Excellent. If
you are ready, send one to the south gate and one to the north gate. Time it so
they both approach at the same time. Let’s say seven, just as the sun is
setting. That way, it will have maximum effect and they won’t be expecting two
attacks.”

“Yes sir. For
the glory of the cause!”

Both of them
left the room so Lord Dameon could plan the next phase of the attack.

Blake walked
into the office for his pre-morning briefing. The senior staff started to talk
about how it had been unusually quiet for the last twenty-four hours. They
hadn’t gone long before a call came in over the radio from the guard tower at
the south gate.

 
“This is south gate tower; we have movement on
the outer perimeter, over.”

The base
commander quickly reached for the mic. “Can you make out if it is an AB or
not?”

“I can’t tell,
sir – they have sunglasses on. And it appears to be a child… They are
approaching the gate.”

“We haven’t
seen any children make it to the clean zone in the last couple of days. Open
the gate and let them in, but keep a gun on them just in case.”

Blake quickly
grabbed some binoculars off the shelf and looked out the window of the office
towards the south gate.

The gate opened,
and the soldiers kept their weapons aimed at the little girl. It only took the
young girl a couple minutes to make it to the gate.

The soldier on
the ground had keyed his mic on so that the command office could hear what was
happening. “Come here, child. It’s dangerous out there.”

The little girl
approached the last few steps, and the sergeant started to examine her. Blake
could tell the soldier had a puzzled look on his face.

“Let me take a
look at you.”

As he reached out
to pull down the glasses of the little girl, there was a sound of an explosion
at the north gate.

The sound
startled Blake, and he could see the soldier with the little girl seemed dumbfounded,
as he stared at the little girl’s bright yellow eyes. Her lips curled into a
smile, and he jumped back. Before the he could take cover on the ground, she
had reached into the pocket of her pink dress and pressed the plunger on the
detonator.

As Blake
watched and heard all this unfold he froze for a second, and the only thought
that came to his head was, “Oh shit!”

“Get out there
and gather your soldiers and take your defensive positions! This might be a
prelude to an all-out attack.”

The orders
barked by the commander brought Blake out of his shock, and they ran out of the
building.

Blake knew the
smell of explosives well. Soldiers ran in every direction, and Blake noticed a
medic running past him. He reached out and grabbed the medic’s arm.

“Are we under
attack?” he yelled through the chaos.

“I’m not sure.
I just know we have men down at the north and south gates,” the medic said as
he pulled his arm out of Blake’s grasp.

“Captain
Reynolds, you and your men make a quick perimeter sweep to the south and see if
the two attacks are just the beginning of a much larger one or if this is a
well-coordinated, isolated incident,” Major Williams commanded. “Munns, you lead
a patrol to the east. I will take some men to the north and west. Now move
out!”

Blake saluted
and then yelled commands at his men who had been gathering to him. They raced
to the southern area of the clean zone, and Blake peered through his binoculars.
In the center of the street, he could see a Jeep speeding away towards the
direction of the white church.

It didn’t take
long for Blake’s patrols to report back that there was no enemy activity to be
reported. He ordered them to stay behind and guard the gates while he reported
back to Major Williams.

Blake entered
the office and noticed that Major Williams seemed concerned. He stood at
attention with the other men and saluted.

Major Williams
saluted back. “At ease. As you know, an hour ago the enemy launched their first
attack. Now I don’t know if you would call it lucky, but only one soldier was
killed and three were wounded. One of the wounded is in critical condition and
might not make it, and the other two should be OK. You might have heard that
the enemy recruited small AB children to strap suicide vests to their bodies
and detonate them when they were in close proximity of our guards at the north
and south gates. Our humanity is what got these soldiers killed and injured. From
now on, we can’t afford to let our humanity get in the way of preserving our
species.

“From the
preliminary reports that I have received from around the country, we’re
experiencing something completely different than everywhere else. Most places
report constant skirmishes between military and civilian forces and the ABs. There
are damn few civilians still alive who aren’t armed. In some cases, we are
holding our own or even entirely clearing out some areas of the ABs, but in a
lot of places there are no uninfected humans left.”

Blake glanced
at the other patrol leaders nervously. “Why is he telling us this?” he thought.

“I’m telling
you all this because I want to know what is different here. Why are we seeing
so little resistance? Captain Reynolds, starting at 0600 I want you to send out
round-the-clock patrols that penetrate deeper into town to find out what is
going on out there. Take as many men as you need. If we have to, we will put
camp defense in the hands of the civilians. Dismissed.”

Blake stood
saluted and walked outside with the other men. He gave orders to relieve the
men patrolling the perimeter so they could get some sleep.

The sky was
dark and cloudy by the time he reached his family’s tent. Kaya had been asleep
for an hour already, but Tara was still waiting for him. As Blake unzipped the
tent, Tara rushed over and wrapped him in her arms.

“How is it
going out there?” she asked after she kissed him.

“Things are pretty
strange. We found out that in most parts of the country, the fighting is pretty
intense. But around here, with the exception of the explosions this morning, it
has been relatively quiet.”

Tara nodded. “Rumors
have been flying around camp here. It’s getting a little scary. I even heard someone
say that starting tomorrow they are going to start to arm the civilians.”

Blake sighed. “That
one is true. I haven’t heard the time frame for that yet, though. But if anyone
can handle a gun, it’s you.”

Tara looked Blake
in the eyes and returned an uncertain smile.

When the men
reported for patrol duty at 0600, Blake reduced the patrols down to three. He
knew there wasn’t too much habitation northeast of the school, which meant no
people or ABs nearby. This also gave each of the other three patrols an extra
two men. The major told Blake that he could have all the men he wanted, but
from his previous experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blake knew that larger
patrols slowed things down.

Blake quickly
gathered the other two patrol leaders. “This is a fact-finding mission only. You
are not to engage the enemy unless it is necessary. This time, Munns, scout northwest.
Collins, take your platoon to the southeast, and I am headed southwest towards
the church.”

Blake knew he
would most likely have the highest chance of encountering the enemy, and he
wanted to be in the middle of the other two groups just in case they needed his
help.

The three
patrol leaders shook hands, and the platoons embarked on foot. Once Blake and
his platoon were out of sight of the others, he pulled his men together for a
short briefing of their mission.

“Men, we are
going to scout south towards the old white church. There is something going on
there, and it seems to be the center of a lot of activity. We should avoid
contact as much as possible, and at no time should we engage the enemy unless
we are fired upon. Is everyone clear?”

“Yes sir!” the
men said in unison.

Blade nodded,
and they started walking. In the first few miles, they didn’t run into any ABs.
But as they made it closer to the church, they saw a few small AB groups. They
noticed that some were loading bodies into the backs of a truck and hauling
them to their compound, and others were going house to house to gather food
supplies. Blake noted that there were remarkably few armed groups patrolling
the area. At first he was relieved, but then he was worried. “Why aren’t they
guarding themselves?” he thought.

They watched
one of the trucks that carried the dead. It drove about a mile down the road
and stopped at a small warehouse. Since there was little activity in that
direction, Blake ordered his platoon to make their way to the warehouse and see
what was happening there.

Once they were
within a couple hundred yards, the familiar stench of rotten flesh filled the
air. One of the privates started to heave up his breakfast, and one of the
other men pulled his bandanna over his face in hopes of reducing the smell. Blake
and two of his men quietly made their way to the back of the building while the
others stayed behind to provided cover fire if needed. Slowly, the three men
crept up to the windows in the back of the building and peered inside.

It took their
eyes some time to adjust to the dim light inside, but once they could see, each
man gasped in horror. The warehouse had been set up as some kind of meat-processing
plant, but instead of animals, the ABs were processing humans for meat.

Bodies were
placed on hooks then pushed down the track in line. First, the bodies were
stripped of all clothing, disemboweled, and washed. Once cleaned, the flesh was
stripped, and the meat was removed from the bone. Finally, the skeleton was
removed from the hook and thrown into a dumpster by the loading bay doors.

Blake could
only stand the horror inside the building for a minute before he led the three
men back to the rest of the platoon. Once they were reunited, the three were
speechless. The others stared at them nervously.

After a brief
explanation, Blake ordered the patrol to remain hidden in the foothills,
observing the ABs. Each AB seemed to be performing some kind of task, gathering
food, hauling bodies to the processing plant, and cleaning up debris.

As they made
their way to the church, they occasionally came across patrols armed with some
weapons, but mostly sticks or shovels. The patrol stopped for a break on the
top of a small hill. Through his binoculars, in the distance, Blake could see
more and more ABs walking north along I-5 in the direction of the old white
church.

The patrol ran
from tree to tree and building to building until they got within a couple of
miles of the church before they ran into too many AB patrols.

Blake climbed
the tallest tree in the park and placed the binoculars to his eyes. In the
distance, he could see the old white church. The warehouse was closer, so he
could see it better. He noticed that it was heavily guarded and had a lot of
activity going on inside.

On top of the warehouse
there were ABs installing a large satellite dish. Blake could see cables strung
all over the place and he could hear the distinct sound of generators. He saw
the flash of welders inside the open doors of the warehouse.

”How do I get
in there and find out what they are building. I wonder if I should go off
mission and capture one of the ABs to get more information. But I have my
orders,” Blake thought to himself.

The patrol traveled
as far south as the main city golf course. The orders Blake had been given earlier
in the day finally took over his reasoning, and he gathered his platoon.

“We need to
head back to base and let command know what we have discovered. Hernandez, you
take point. Take out any ABs that you come across. We need to run silent, so
keep your noise suppresser on your gun. We don’t want to alert the enemy that
we are here.”

The platoon started
heading north, running from one cover position to the next. Hernandez on point
let loose with a short burst as he rounded a corner of the building they were taking
cover behind. Blake quickly ran up to his position. Hernandez signaled him that
there were two more ABs approaching from the west. Blake signaled two of his
men on the west flanking position that there were two enemies approaching. It
was only seconds before the two soldiers let loose and the ABs hit the ground
with their blood turning the pavement red. This went on for a nearly an hour. The
further away they got, the fewer ABs they came across.

One of the
young privates approached Blake.

“Sir, they
aren’t even fighting back. It doesn’t seem right that we are killing so many of
them.”

“Private, I
hear what you are saying. Let’s see what the others think.”

Within seconds
the platoon had gathered inside an abandoned convenience store.

“Soldiers, I
don’t know how you feel about killing all of these AB drones but I am getting
tired of killing what used to be our friends and neighbors, so from here on out
you are not to fire unless fired upon. Anybody have a problem with that?”

Blake quickly
scanned the group and could see everybody nodding.

“OK then, let’s
move out. From what we have seen, most of the infected should just ignore us.”

As they moved
north, most of the wandering ABs acted like they didn’t notice the patrol, but
at the last minute a few would look up from the ground, point at them, and
start squealing like a pig. They were killed immediately by the point man with
the silencer.

The weary
patrol walked through the gates of the base just after sunset. Blake dismissed
the men and headed to base headquarters.

Blake knocked
on the commander’s door, and he waved him in. Blake walked to the nearest chair
and plopped into it almost completely exhausted.

Munns was
sitting in the chair next to him and looked at him. “You’re getting old?” He
smiled.

Blake was too
tired to respond; he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The commander
stood and looked at both his patrol leaders. “I have just received word that the
last patrol has just entered through the north gate. Their leader will be here
momentarily.”

With his eyes
still closed, Blake mumbled, “That will be just fine with me.”

“On second hand,
let’s meet at 0800,” the commander said with a slight grin.