Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (37 page)

“Sergeant O’toole checked in yesterday.
He said he was awaiting a rescue on the roof of a jewelry store at Battlefield and US 65.”

“Did he have anyone else with him?”

“No, I believe he said he was alone,” replied the L.T.

“Wasn’t he assigned with six other officers and some National Guardsmen to close US 65 at US 60?”

“Yes, I believe that was his assignment,” said the L.T. “He was in charge of that detail.”

“Why doesn’t it surprise me at all that he got his entire team wiped out?” I said, acidly.
“O’toole is the perfect name for that jackass. He’s a
tool
, alright. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that he survived and no one else did.”

The Lieutenant didn’t comment on that.
He didn’t have to. O’toole was a joke. No one in the department respected him, as far as I knew. But that was ok.
The Tool
loved himself more than enough for anyone. I
really
didn’t want to rescue him. I would, but I didn’t want to. I’m sure he’d have a grand story on how his team was wiped out, yet he managed to fight his way clear with nothing but a combat knife and a hub-cap, or some-such nonsense. I’m sure the truth was far more likely that he ran as soon as they got hit. He probably even used his team as a distraction to get away.

“I’ll file that one away,” I said. “Anyone else?”

“Four officers were at the Airport, helping to cover the Evac-center,” said the L.T.

I figured that they were all dead.
I knew what the Army had done to the people at the Evac-center. I’m sure that the officers weren’t spared. I decided that I’d better tell the L.T. that story.

“Sir,” I said. “You might want to sit down for this.”

I spent the next several minutes telling the L.T. about the Colonel at the Catholic Church. He took the news of the
containment
with grim stoicism. When I finished telling my story, he sat back in his chair and stared into his coffee cup. I could tell by the look on his face that it had a profound effect on him. We’d spent years dealing with inmates who had killed people, but this Colonel had killed hundreds. Murdered them, really. That was something more heinous than any of our experiences had prepared us for. After a long moment, he spoke up.

“You’re sure of this?” he said, at last.

“Yeah, I am. I mean, he didn’t outright admit it, but he didn’t deny it. All he said was that this was a Containment zone.”

“I see,” said the L.T.
“Then I think we can safely assume that the officers at the Evac-site have either been conscripted back into the military or are dead.”

“You’re probably right, sir.”

“But, that still leaves several other officers trapped and unable to communicate. Or they’ve been overrun.”

“Who’s the closest?”

“That would be Kubichek and Sullivan,” he said. “They’re in a lawyer’s office on Glenstone. I believe they said it was at Elm and Glenstone.”

I knew both of them.
They were both on C-shift. Kubichek was an average looking guy, about medium height and medium weight. But he was a fourth degree black belt in Jujitsu. Sullivan was very pretty, but tall for a woman. She stood almost six feet two inches tall. She also grew up hunting deer and turkey with her four brothers. She was an excellent shot with pretty much any firearm you wanted to give her. We needed both of them.

“I know the place.
I’ve seen it a few times, driving by,” I said. “So long as the place isn’t crawling with zombies, I should be able to get to them with the Humvee.

“I’m sure they’d appreciate that.
The last time we managed to raise them on the radio, they said that they were secure but had nothing to eat.”

“Did they have any ammo?”

“Not much,” he replied, “but they did say that the place was secure. Assuming nothing catastrophic happened; we should be able to get to them.”

“That’s good,” I said.
“Is there anyone else close to them?”

“We heard from an SPD officer who was trapped inside a Motorcycle store on Glenstone.
He gave the address, but it’s on the notepad in my office. “

“I know the place he’s talking about,” I said.
“I bought a helmet there. We might be able to get both of them in one shot. If we take a Humvee, it might be a little cramped, but it’s completely doable.”

“Shouldn’t you take both of the Humvees?” asked the L.T.

“That’s not a bad idea,” I said. “If we can find a c-store that’s not overran, we can fill up all of the tanks and the extra cans.”

“How’re you going to do that with the power out?”

“Good question.” I said. “I didn’t even think of that.”

“I’m pretty sure the entire city is without power, now,” said the L.T.

“It probably is,” I agreed. “I’ll just have to improvise. Maybe I can find a hardware store. If I can find a manual pump, I can drop a hose into the ground tank and pump out whatever I need. It’ll be slow, but it’ll work.”

“You’ve got quite the list of places to stop,” said the L.T.

“It’ll be worth it if I can make a pump for the gas.”

“Well, it looks like you have your next run planned,” he said.
“Do you know where the nearest hardware store is?”

“There’s one on Glenstone, down past Commercial,” I said.
“I should be able to get to it if the roads aren’t blocked.”

“Get your people together.
I’m sure you already know who you want to take with you.”

“I’ll grab m
y usual crew of eight-balls,” I said, smiling. “Wilder, Southard and Sanders.”

My coffee was cold, but I finished it in a
single gulp anyway. I was going to need the caffeine. I snagged a second cup on my way out of Master Control and headed back down to Classification. Spec-4 was already geared up and ready.

“Where to, now?” she asked, smiling.

“First thing, we have to wake up the kids,” I said, gesturing to the other office.

“They’re already up,” she said.
“They headed off through the sliders mumbling something about breakfast.”

“That’s not a bad idea.
Let’s grab a bite to eat and I’ll bring you all up to speed on what’s on the agenda.”

I grabbed my gear bag and we headed through the sliders together.
I could smell the food as we rounded the corner and headed for the break room. Whatever it was, it smelled good. My stomach had stopped heaving and was starting to rumble. I was pretty much over the headache now and wanted food. I was hungry enough to eat the tail end of a dead rhino.

Happily, that wasn’t on the menu.
It was biscuits and gravy, and that suited me fine. I ate enough to satisfy my hunger, but not enough to make me full. If I was going out again, I didn’t want the lethargic feeling you get when you eat too much. I had to be on top of my game. We were all going to have to be at the top of our games if we were going to pull this off.

I quickly sketched out the plan to my cohorts.
Sanders and Southard would take one Humvee while Spec-4 and I took the other one. We’d stay together, for safety. First stop was going to be the hardware store. Assuming I found the pump and hose I was looking for, the second stop would be any number of Stop ‘n’ Robs all along the route to Kubichek and Sullivan. From there, the SPD officer and the bike shop. Piece of cake, I told them.

But we all knew damned good and well, nothing was simple when dealing with zombies.
In small numbers, they were manageable. In large numbers however, they could overwhelm you in seconds. Even in an armored Humvee, enough of them could block you in place and keep you from getting away. Then it was just a matter of time. You would either starve or die of thirst inside. That, or try and fight your way out of the crowd. However you looked at it, you were as good as dead if the crowd was that big.

Plus, any number of things could go wrong all along the route.
I didn’t like to think of the worst case scenario. I just planned for the worst and hoped for the best. If things looked too hot, we’d abort. I hated the idea of doing that to another officer, but I couldn’t help them if I was a zombie. Even worse, I couldn’t help my family. I really wanted to finish with the rescues today, if at all possible. I was anxious to get to my family. The Army’s idea of containment really worried me. So did the fact that I hadn’t been able to reach them on the phone.

If the Army
did it here, they would do it in other places too. Call me jaded, but I just didn’t trust the Army to do what was best for the people. They would follow orders from the politicians. The same ones who probably only saw zombies on the TV screen, having been whisked away to secure facilities the moment trouble started. Continuity of Government is what they call it. Basically, it’s the government’s way of protecting themselves over the rest of us. What they failed to realize is that people could survive without them…but what is a government without people to govern?

I was already considering the possibility that I would have to run a blockade to get to my family.
If I did, so be it. I’d fight my way through to them, if I had to. No one was going to stop me. Not the Army, not zombies and most definitely not a
Containment Zone.
I’d walk all the way to the lake, if I had to. I really hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but I’d do it. Driving would be much better, though. I needed to factor roadblocks into my plans, though. Just in case.

After we finished eating, everyone headed back through the sliders.
We all grabbed our gear and headed out of Release to check out the Humvees prior to our trip. We did a quick once over to make sure the tanks were full, no tires were flat and they were running well enough to drive. No one wanted to be stranded out there in the Necropolis that was once Springfield, Missouri.

We filled both gas tanks, but it took all of the fuel in the cans on both vehicles.
We would definitely have to make my pump idea work if I was going to go to the lake. Humvees aren’t known for their fuel efficiency, so the more I had on hand the better. I could easily get to the lake on one tank of gas. I knew there would be gas stations all along the route. What condition they were in and how many zombies there would be was anyone’s guess. The only way to know would be to find out on the way. There was no communication with anyone outside our area, at this point.

I was also worried about having to fight our way out through the line of containment.
If the Army had sealed us off, they would be doing everything in their power to make sure no one got in or out. I’m pretty sure a few M-16’s and a couple up-armored Humvees wouldn’t be much of a match for what they would have at the edge of the containment zone. They’d probably have missiles, heavy weapons and air support. They’d probably even mined the exits. If that was the case, then getting out was going to be tricky.

Fortunately, I knew the back-roads of
Nathanael County about as well as anyone. I’m certain that they’d have all the major roads blocked and probably most of the secondary roads, as well. But I doubt that they would know all of the gravel roads. Heck, I could even go over-land if I absolutely had to. If the Humvees were up to the task, I could drive down the river-bottoms. Air support might make that a bit tricky, though. Depending on what kind of helicopters they had.

For now, I had to concentrate on the task at hand.
I had to find a way to manually transfer fuel into the tanks or we’d be dead in the water. I also had to rescue those other officers, if they were still alive. I figured that the
Spud
officer was going to be easy. I knew that area pretty well. It was mostly businesses, but not high traffic ones like a mall or Bass Pro. The odds were pretty good that there wouldn’t be all that many zombies in that area. At least I hoped so.

Once we finished the PMCS’s of the Humvees, we loaded up extra ammo and a few extra weapons.
Sanders walked over and handed two duffle bags to Spec-4. One had extra loaded magazines for our weapons and the other held grenades. He had two identical bags for his Humvee, as well. That would give us some much needed firepower.

“Gee, Sanders,” said Spec-4
, smiling. “You know just what to give a girl to make her happy.”

Cal
grinned like a school kid and headed towards the second Humvee. While he was securing the other two bags inside his vehicle, Southard came over to me.

“Wylie, got a sec?”

“Sure, Chuck. What’s on your mind?”

“I just wanted to say thanks.”

“For what?”

“For helping me keep it together,” he said
, looking down. “Especially last night.”

“Don’t sweat it, Chuck.
You’d have done the same for me.”

“Anyway,” he said, softly.
“I’m back in this. I mean, you can count on me to do my part.”

“I never doubted that.”

“I did,” he replied, sadly. “I keep telling myself that they weren’t at the Evac-center, but deep down I know they were.”

“Chuck, we might still find them when this is all over.
They could be waiting for you in Texas or Kansas or wherever the secure site is. You won’t have to do this alone. Cal and I won’t let you, anyway. Don’t try and shut us out, either. I’ll sick Cal on you and I’m pretty sure he can take us both.”