The Salvation Plague | Book 6 | Monstrum, page 6
part #6 of The Salvation Plague Series
“Our people,” he said, flashing her a quick grin.
“Our people,” she agreed.
“Let’s head out. We’ve got a town patrol,’ he said, standing and adjusting his weapons.
They had an uneventful patrol and Storm didn’t say much more to her throughout it all…but he didn’t need to. She understood what he had said, and what he hadn’t said. He was giving her the benefit of the doubt for what she had done for Bradley, Stew, and Fletch, and he was accepting her and her people as his own.
It was a major step toward integrating their groups, though she knew it would still take time for them all to learn the others’ strengths and weaknesses and how to use them effectively.
But it was a good start.
◆◆◆
Anna woke later in the morning to Jared loudly eating from a plate of crackers and a small wheel of gouda. She sat up and saw another wedge of cheese that she had missed from her vantage point on the bed.
“Is that Manchego?”
“Who?” Jared asked, sliding another piece of cheese between crackers that looked homemade and very good.
“Is that Manchego cheese?” she asked, pulling her coat on and getting back under the covers.
“How should I know? I just found it downstairs.”
He was taking it all, and she grabbed some quickly. The Gouda was smoked and tasted divine. The crackers were full of buttery, garlicky goodness and she closed her eyes as she savored the taste. “Remind me to kiss whoever found these.”
“I told you, I found them sitting in the lobby on a little table. Someone left them there, along with a stack of clean towels.”
She stopped chewing and opened her eyes. “What? Jared, please tell me that you’re joking. You just picked up a random plate of food and brought it upstairs for us to eat?” she spit the rest of the food into a trashcan in the corner and wiped her mouth. “Are you insane?”
“I can’t believe you did that. The food is fine! I’ve been eating it and I’m alright,” he said. “Not even one stomach cramp.”
“Nobody saw where it came from? It had to be one of the others.”
She rinsed her mouth with water and spit it in the sink in the small bathroom.
Jared shook his head. “I asked everyone. Nobody put it there. It just appeared sometime this morning after the sun came up, between Kate and Young’s guard shifts. There was enough for everyone. This was our share.”
“I’m leaving. This is weird,” she said, grabbing her stuff and packing it up. Jared finished off the food and stuffed a clean towel into his bag. She started downstairs and he met up with her in the hallway.
Sten and Tor were eating at a small table downstairs.
“You guys too?!” she shouted.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Sten said. “Storm didn’t want his. If you want more.” He pointed to another plate on the counter.
“I don’t want to stay here anymore,” she told them.
“What do you mean you don’t want to stay here?” Jared asked incredulously. “Dude leaves us crackers and artisanal cheeses like some post-apocalyptic Paula Deen.”
“That’s exactly what I mean. Doesn’t that freak you out?” Anna asked, crossing her arms and looking out the front window where the thick curtains blocked a lot of the light.
Did that one just move?
“The. Dude. Leaves. Us. Fine. Foods. And. Clean. Towels,” he punctuated.
Anna raised her eyebrows. “How do you know it’s a guy?”
“Every unknown entity is a guy. It’s practically a rule of the English language.”
She stared at him wondering where he would take it next.
“It’s not like he’s some creepy, murderous gold miner’s spirit. Calm your tots, babe.”
Sten and Tor finished their questionable meal and sat back watching their conversation. The others were finishing up their morning tasks and preparing.
“Calm your tots?” she asked, hiding a smirk.
“What? I’m trying to be more female-friendly. Stew said you would appreciate it and perhaps, in return, you would be inclined to be demonstrably appreciat—ouch!”
She grinned as she grabbed his ears and pulled him down for a kiss. “You know, J-Dog, every day you get weirder and weirder. I am honestly scared for the future of your sanity and stability, but I love you anyway.”
Tor nodded vehemently.
“Thanks. I love you too, even though you won’t give me ten strapping sons right now.”
“Whatever happened to seven strong sons? Ten seems a little excessive, and I never said that I wouldn’t. I just don’t want to do it right now. We aren’t exactly safe or, you know, living a stable life,” she said, looking at the patrolling guards passing in the street.
“I guess I agree, but the minute we get home and build a huge wall, all bets are off. We’re repopulating the state.”
“Deal…I think.”
“Y'all are crazy,” Sten said.
Storm walked inside and gave them a serious look. “I didn’t see any signs of life. No tracks. Nothing. I don’t know who our visitor was, but they keep themselves well-hidden.”
“I don’t like it,” Tor said.
“I don’t either. We’re going to have to be vigilant. We can’t let our guard down just because they brought food. Speaking of which, eating it was stupid and it could have cost you your lives.”
“Stew smelled it and said it was fine,” Sten said.
“Regardless, I think you should be more careful in the future,” Storm said.
“Does that mean I can have yours?” Jared asked, picking up the extra plate. Anna rolled her eyes as Storm stared at him.
Chapter Six
Leaving Town
Kate
Kate was oddly calm about leaving the base behind.
There were times when she reflected on the series of events that had led her to this place and this moment in time. She had begun this shitty journey that first day in the hole-in-the-wall coffee shop with a shard of glass for a weapon.
She felt like she had been born that day.
Paula Green. Paula the Cannibal, she had called her. She knew better now, of course. They weren’t really cannibals. They were just monsters. Freaks of nature, except nature didn’t create them. She would never forget that first day and all the things that she had killed. She would never forget anything that had happened before the arena and likely would forget very little of what happened afterward.
She met Storm. She met Red. She found people and lost people. She saw more of the country by car—well, Humvee— than she had before the plague had wiped out vast amounts of the population. She had killed freaks and people with a variety of weapons and without caring much either way, which is something that she hadn’t expected.
It took the apocalypse to find out that she was a semi-sociopath, or perhaps the apocalypse had made her one.
She looked around at the others and smirked. Most of them had similar tendencies…except Anna…and she wondered if that was a pre-requisite for survival now—be a complete cold-blooded killer.
Check.
She studied Anna, sitting on Jared’s knee in the recliner, while they waited for the others to gather up their gear and say their goodbyes to Sten’s strange and massive contingent of strange and massive men. Jared’s alliance with them was another unexpected effect of the plague.
One person didn’t quite seem the same as the rest of them though, and that person stumped her.
On the surface, Anna seemed easily readable and perhaps a little weak. Kate couldn’t figure her out. She had been an office worker, and though she was in excellent shape and a good fighter—if the stories were true, and she trusted Storm and Red’s judgment— but Kate had never seen evidence of it. She was pretty mousy most of the time and she just couldn’t visualize Anna getting her hands dirty.
She gave back to Jared when he teased her, but she didn’t mouth off to anyone else. She wasn’t impulsive. Kate was big enough to admit to herself that was probably a good thing. Kate tended to be impulsive and it landed her in hot water plenty of times.
She was good on patrols, but could she hold her own in a firefight? Would she have the courage to throw herself into danger for one of them the way they did for each other?
Kate turned that question around on herself. Would she take a bullet or a bite for Anna?
The answer was…she didn’t know, and she didn’t like that at all.
Their time at COP Victory had been a learning experience. She’d run patrols with Sten and Tor, who she found that she admired, even if she didn’t understand some of the things they had said. They spoke highly of her brother, in between insults, and she understood that though he annoyed the shit out of them, they also thought he was a good man and a good leader. Jared had kept them all together throughout the journey, and they’d been through some pretty horrendous crap, according to them both.
Her house clearing operation with Stew and the Gundersons was also quite interesting. They were close-mouthed, brash, and large and had very definite ideas about how to kill their enemies. They were glad to be relying on bladed weapons more, and once they’d gotten used to her, they were not shy about voicing their opinions on anything and everything she mentioned. It wasn’t all that different from being with her guys, except for the swords and the strange clothing.
“Everyone have your rations? Water? I want two gallons in your rucks, and a full bottle of purification tablets besides. We’ll go light on MREs and scavenge where we can, but water is the priority.”
“And ammo,” Red hollered.
“And ammo,” Storm agreed. “I want everyone carrying a full combat load. We’ll be taking along extra in the chopper, but by now we all know the importance of self-sufficiency.”
“Even Jared,” Kate joked.
“Especially Jared,” Jared retorted. “You guys can’t imagine how many times we got split up.”
Anna nodded and clutched him more tightly. Storm gave Anna a strange, sympathetic look, then checked his watch and called out the time. Everyone made sure theirs were accurate. She did too, but she was more focused on that look. What had it meant?
She intended to find out.
He clapped his hands. “The CH-47 is ready for us. Grab your gear and load up!” Storm called.
They filed out through the hall, and she heard Anna speak, trudging under the weight of her gear. “It’s going to be strange going out without Fletcher.”
“I know, babe. We all miss him,” Jared murmured behind her. “We’ll have to kick extra ass just for him.”
She didn’t turn around.
“It’ll be really strange without the Halvorstedians backing us up,” Bradley added.
“We’ll have the Gundersons,” Sten commented. “And that is almost the same.”
Kate looked back and Tor grinned at her. She still wasn’t sure exactly how she felt about the men who charged the freak hybrids with swords. They were either extremely brave or extremely stupid and she wouldn’t know until they’d seen more action together.
She wouldn’t be saying that to their faces though.
Storm motioned them on through the doorway, and as she hustled through he slapped her on the ass with a cool glare and only the barest hint of teasing in his eyes.
He was lucky that she loved him, or he’d be sporting a stump instead of a hand.
The trip to the tarmac was practically over before it had begun, and although she looked as calm as ever, she was a bit nervous about the chopper ride. It may be old news for Storm and his guys, but she’d never been on one.
She eyed the seats, the webbing, the round windows, and decided that the chopper was a lot bigger inside than it looked from the outside. She took a seat on one side of the aisle and watched the others do the same. Storm took a box of earplugs from a helmeted man in a flight suit and passed them around to everyone. They had all brought along their Kevlar helmets, but the Gundersons weren’t fans of protective equipment. They said the freaks out here wouldn’t be shooting at them, and so the helmets were unnecessary and cumbersome.
She thought they had a point. They were smarter than they looked.
Storm forced her to wear hers anyway, saying he’d like her head to remain undamaged if the chopper went down.
He also had a point…but she was ditching it as soon as they arrived at their destination.
“We’ll be doing a refuel at RIW in Wyoming. The LZ is protected by fencing, but as we know, the freaks don’t follow the rules. We can’t do a hot refuel. I’ll need a perimeter established, a driver to bring up the fuel truck, and a fireguard. Any volunteers?” Storm asked after consulting with the mysterious man that was bustling around checking various gadgets and speaking into his headset.
“I’ll bring up the rig,” Red said to Storm.
“Good. Young can take fireguard duties and the rest of us will provide security and assist as needed.”
“How long will we be on the ground?” Sten asked.
“Twenty to thirty minutes, most likely. I’m not a 92 Foxtrot,” Storm joked, then looked at her. “When we land for refueling and I give the order, take Bravo team and secure the starboard side of the aircraft. Red and I will take Alpha team to bring the fuel truck,” he instructed as the others listened.
“Jared. Send your teams to secure the port side,” Storm said, motioning to the left. “Watch the rotors. We don’t need any decapitations.”
“I don’t know. We could use another Stew,” Jared quipped with a grin at Stewart, who blatantly ignored him and looked bizarre in his helmet. Hugh looked put out at the intended barb but sat glumly next to Jared anyway, a silent doppelganger of his slightly chattier clone.
He’d been ordered to follow Jared around and she realized that Stewart had never revoked it. She wondered if it was to help Jared or to annoy him. She’d heard stories of a third Stewart replicant, but he’d long since disappeared.
The idea that they could regenerate themselves still freaked her the hell out, and she patted her chest pocket where she had stowed a fistful of lighters just in case.
Anna elbowed Jared for his rude comment, and he rubbed his ribs and glared back at her. Kate may not like her much, but she did have to admit that she and Jared gelled well together. She couldn’t imagine many people that would put up with his level of…special.
“I can fix many things, but I cannot fix decapitations,” Santiago reminded. There wasn’t even a hint of amusement on his face, and she stifled her snort as she realized he was serious.
“Then let’s make sure it doesn’t happen,” Storm barked.
The man in the flight suit came by yelling. “Everyone buckle in!” She snapped her seatbelt and checked the straps.
After the hullaballoo with Harley’s arm, Santiago had volunteered to apprentice with the remaining physicians on base. He’d gained a lot of knowledge and a little confidence, but she hoped they didn’t need his new medical expertise.
“Feels weird sitting here without our ‘chutes,” Red said, patting his chest.
“That it does,” Young called over, grinning. “Remember that time Mullins pulled his reserve out on the drop zone after he landed? Got dragged halfway across the state.”
Reed and the others from Storm’s unit laughed. Bradley nudged Stew. “That was the same day your risers got twisted,” he said, shaking his head. “You didn’t kick out of it until the last possible second. We thought you were done.”
“Fucking T-10s,” Stew grumbled. “That was the day Feckley was serving as the jumpmaster. I thought his ugly face would be the last thing I saw.”
The guys all shouted over each other and for a moment, they were back in the old days. The smiles, the camaraderie, the trust…
Kate could tell by the looks on their faces when reality hit again, and they went carefully blank. It was hard to see that happiness fade and she swore she saw more than one of them tear up remembering friends they had lost.
She swallowed and looked away before their nostalgic sadness infected her.
The Gundersons flouted convention and did not wear the helmets, but they did take the ear protection Storm forced onto them, a little less reluctantly after he described the hearing damage they would receive if they didn’t. Jared, now hearing-impaired from the earplugs, shouted Storm’s earlier instructions at them with exaggerated hand gestures and Kate knew when he got to the part about the rotors because they all looked up in unison. It was almost comical.
The pilot and co-pilot were busy up at the front of the chopper, but aside from them and the random guy that yelled at them to buckle up, they were alone.
She was pretty sure there was supposed to be some kind of crew along—another couple of people at least.
“Where is the crew?” she asked.
“Clausen only had two flight engineers. We got one and the other was killed. He’s got one less experienced man back at the base, but he’s training up more personnel.” Storm shrugged. “We’re all operating with the bare minimum and sometimes not even then. The days of full capacity and support are long gone, at least for now. Besides, these guys are Night Stalkers. They know what they’re doing,” he finished with a small, rare grin. “They have what they need.”
He was enjoying this.
Men. She shook her head and braced herself as she felt something change. The ear protection and helmets muffled a bit of the noise, but the high-pitched scream and the chopping still bounced around the cabin and straight through her body.
The ramp closed and after a few moments they lifted off. She held her breath, but the ascent was fairly undramatic…until they gained some elevation. The chopper banked right, and the swaying and jolting became a constant threat to her stomach.
She swallowed thickly and breathed through her nose and out through her mouth. There was no way that she was going to embarrass herself in front of everyone. Red grinned at her from across the aisle and she flipped him off. Storm patted her knee.
Kate tilted her head back as far as she could, which was still pretty much just sitting straight up, and leaned against Storm. Anna was white-faced and clutching Jared’s arm, while he beamed like an idiot and tried to look at everything at once. Others nearby were looking at their notes, maps, or trying to catch some rest. She decided to do the same. She closed her eyes, which seemed to help her stomach.
