“Let’s talk about this,” Will said.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” the soldier said. “This is our facility. No one’s taking it away from us.”
“No one’s taking anything away. But this place is big enough for six more people.”
“We have limited resources.”
“We have our own supplies. And like I said, we’ll work for our keep. We’ll go out and scavenge in the day, eat only what we bring back if that’s how you want it.”
“We don’t know you. We can’t trust people we don’t know.”
“It’s not like you have a choice here, bub,” Danny said.
“I beg to differ,” the soldier said. “Three against two.”
“One against two,” Will said. “In our favor.”
“How you figure?”
“This guy to my right has four tours of duty in Afghanistan. I have four myself. That gives us eight. We’ve also spent the last three years in SWAT breaking down doors and shooting people for a living.”
The teenager’s face paled. The one with the beard might have groaned, but Will couldn’t be sure.
“On the other hand,” Will continued, “I’m guessing you’re the only one who has ever fired a G36 before. These other two? I don’t think they’re ready for the kickback. I think if bullets start flying, Danny and I are going to take you out with a chest round and then take our chances with those two being unable to hit the broad side of a barn. What do you think? Sound plan?”
Will caught the soldier shooting a quick glance at the other two. It was a subtle move, barely noticeable unless you were waiting for it.
Will had been waiting for it.
“Hell, I don’t think the kid will even be standing when he pulls that trigger,” Will continued. “I think the G36 is going to knock him on his ass and he’s going to be sending half of his magazine into the ceiling. After that happens, we’ll be forced to put a bullet in his head. Which we will. We don’t want to, mind you, but there won’t be any choice, and we’re going to sleep perfectly fine afterwards.”
“Like a big fat baby with his tummy full of Jell-O,” Danny added.
The kid looked nervously at the big assault weapon in his hands, as if he weren’t sure how it had gotten there. The older man with the beard looked equally unsure of himself.
Will almost felt sorry for them.
The soldier remained hardened. “They know where the trigger is and how to pull it. That’s all that matters.”
“Bullshit,” Will said. “You know as well as I do shooting someone from ten meters away is more than just pulling a trigger. I’m guessing they have those rifles on semi-automatic. I’m pretty sure we can take you down then take them down afterwards before either one of them can manage a second shot. What do you think, Danny?”
“It’s almost unfair,” Danny said.
“Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. Where did you serve?”
“None of your fucking business,” the soldier grunted back.
“Fair enough.”
I’m going to have to kill this man, but I don’t want to.
There’s only one way around that…
“Here,” Will said, “I’ll make it easy for you.”
He relaxed and came out of his shooting stance. He was careful not to move too fast, and he could almost feel the soldier’s finger tightening around the G36’s trigger. Will held the M4A1 in front of him by the barrel, the stock of the weapon pointed down at the floor.
The three men tensed up, and the soldier looked confused for a split second before regaining his composure. The teen looked almost relieved, though the older man didn’t know whether to shoot or throw down his own weapon.
“My name’s Will. Seventy-fifth Ranger Regiment, Third Battalion out of Fort Benning. The man next to me is Danny. Also Seventy-fifth Ranger Regiment, Third Battalion out of Fort Benning. We’re at your mercy, soldier. What say you?”
He sensed the soldier softening — just a bit — but not enough to take his eye out from behind the G36’s rear iron sights. “What’s to stop me from putting one between your eyes now?”
“Nothing,” Will said. “But you do that, and Danny here is going to shoot you. That’s not a threat, that’s just how this guy operates.”
“God knows this guy next to me’s annoying,” Danny said. “I’ll concede that point to ya. And he’s a terrible tipper to boot. But you shoot him, and I’m obligated to shoot you back still.”
“But it doesn’t have to be that way,” Will said. “Like I said before — this isn’t a zero sum game. One of us doesn’t have to lose for the other to win. Give us a chance to prove ourselves. That’s all we ask.”
The soldier didn’t reply.
Long seconds went by.
Five seconds. Then ten.
Then twenty…
The soldier suddenly came out of his shooting stance and let the G36 fall to his side. “Ben,” he said. “Of the Seventy-fifth Ranger Regiment, Second Battalion out of Fort Lewis. You boys are a long way from Georgia.”
Danny grinned and lowered his weapon. The kid and the bearded man did the same, both breathing huge sighs of relief.
“You’re a long way from Washington,” Will said.
“I guess we’re all a long way from where we started,” Ben said. “Tell your friends to come down.” He glanced at his watch. “Three more hours until sundown. The night isn’t our friend anymore, but you probably already know that.”
Everyone had bits and pieces of what happened on the night of The Purge, and once Will added in Ben’s, he learned that Starch wasn’t taken until the night after Houston fell. The ghouls had overwhelmed the big cities first, the major population clusters, before spreading out into the smaller, surrounding areas. Starch, like most small cities, felt rather than knew what was happening in places like Houston and Dallas. All communications were severed by the morning after The Purge, leaving the rural areas to wonder what was happening.
They got their answer on the second night.
As for the rest of the country, things were murky. Like Will, Ben hadn’t been able to make contact with anyone beyond his immediate group of survivors, and by the third night, it was clear they were on their own.
The part of Will that was able to appreciate the insurgents’ tactics in Afghanistan, the guerrilla attacks and roadside bombs that took countless lives, admired the ghouls for what they had accomplished.
The enemy had won the war in a single night.
It was hard to fathom, but it was the reality, and the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.
Once the cities fell, it was essentially over. States were run in big cities, not in small rural communities. Besides increasing the size of their army using the cities’ population, the ghouls also stripped the smaller areas of resources and, probably most crucial of all, help.
It was elegant and brilliant, and the logistics and size of the operation were mind-boggling.
We never stood a chance…
Without guns pointing at him, Will was able to get a better look at the Door, the only entrance in and out of Harold Campbell’s facility. He quickly realized how wrong he had been about blowing it up. Besides the thick slab of concrete, there was a five-inch titanium steel plate at the bottom. It was those heavy plates that needed the powerful gears to open and close them. Even if they had blown up the concrete block on top, the C4 wouldn’t have made a dent in the titanium underneath.
Ben, like Will and Danny, was an enlisted man who joined the Rangers out of Fort Lewis in Washington state. He served in Iraq, then did a couple of tours in Afghanistan when the war moved over there following Saddam Hussein’s fall from grace. He left the Army as a sergeant, forced out by a bad knee, the gift of roadside bomb shrapnel that made him walk with a noticeable limp. He wore a knee brace hidden underneath cargo khakis, but there was nothing wrong with his hands or his aim. If bullets had been fired in that hallway, Will was sure either he or Danny would be dead.