Day 12
#14 of Days
I woke to the sound of conversations around me.
"How the hell can he just sleep like that, its almost unnatural." One male voice decried.
"Yeah, shit we're air-born rangers and none of us could get half the sleep he did." Another supported him.
Then Karen's voice explained, "Well, he has had a lot of practice sleeping on aircraft lately, not to mention he slept though an apocalypse. Damned if he was sleeping better than the cats on the last flight."
There was some laughs at this.
"Ha bleeding ha!" I interrupted. "I was promised, promised mind you, a good nights sleep in a bed after the last flight and where am I forced to sleep again? And would you look at these seats, is this business class or what? And where is the stewardess?"
"She's busy, all you have is me." Sergeant Thallin put in, getting further laughs.
Quick as I could, I reached up and put my leg beside hers, tripping her and turning her onto her back in my lap. "Well, I guess I can make do..."
Karen, much to my delight, thumped me on the head with the paperwork she was going over, "Hands off, you are spoken for foxy."
Letting the soldier regain her feet I replied, "Yes'm". Our little performance leaving every soldier in hysterics.
"Ok, knock it off." The Sergeant told them, working hard not to giggle herself. "We touch down in twenty minutes, I want to see your gear ready in ten. MOVE IT!"
"Need a hand with anything love?" I asked Karen, and when her head snapped up with a very big grin on it, I realised that was the first time I had used the L word with her.
"Say it again." Was all she said.
"Can I do anything for you? Lover." I replied, much emphasis on the 'anything'.
She shuddered a bit, I would have to remember that line. "Actually, yes!" She recovered quickly.
We spent the next ten minutes making sure the four hazmat suits and the duffels of sample equipment were ready to be moved from the plane quickly, got ourselves ready and strapped back in.
"Ok, we are are dirt-side in five minutes." Thallin said, "David, you sure you don't want another nap? I could persuade the pilot to circle the airport a few times?"
"Nah, I am good thanks Sergeant, although..."
"Too bad, we are coming down now, ready for anything. Young, Philips, you have point after we land, I want A and B squad to secure the landing area, everyone else is to move material from the planes. Doctor, I expect your team to be assembled and ready to move when we are."
Karen just nodded to her.
Shortly we were on the ground.
"Looks dead."
"Smells dead" Some of the soldiers were talking back and forth.
"Better to smell nasty than to smell clean, we had that problem in Japan. Means there's no large scavengers around." I cut in.
"What do you mean, large?" One of the soldiers asked back.
"Largest wild predator or scavenger in most cities is dogs, with no humans around to keep them under control, it could get pretty nasty." I answered.
The soldiers gulp was a good sign that they would pay more attention to their surroundings.
"Ok, move this gear to the trucks. I want an APC up front and one behind. Harris, you got that UAV in the air yet?" The Sergeant asked.
"Yeah, spotter bird is up, launching the predators next." A guy fiddling with computer gear said. "Your heads-up should be tied into the spotter. The boys back home will be piloting the predators, they will be on station by the time you reach the target location."
"Good work, see that they are." She commended.
"Sergeant, I trust everything is proceeding as planned?" The Captain had left the radio gear of the plane, obviously he had some last minute calls to make.
"Sir, like clockwork sir!" Thallin reported.
"Good, continue with that."
"Sir!" Turning she started yelling orders at triple the rate she had been, incised to maintain the schedule.
"Doctor, I believe your riding in the second truck?" Captain Hastings asked, knowing it was the case.
"Yes Captain, our gear is already aboard and we are waiting for the order to mount up." Karen returned.
"Good. Its a fresh change to be working with professionals." Hastings said, sounding a bit peeved about something.
"Had some, uh, less than helpful civvies before Sir?" Harry asked him companionably as we walked toward the readying trucks.
"Yeah, last mission, was supposed to be doing a routine patrol and some political wet-back got included as an 'observer'. Needless to say I am very wary of any non-military personnel on my missions any more." He replied, careful not to spill any sensitive information about said mission, "Aww hell, I don't suppose it matters who knows what now, I don't think there's even a politician higher than county level left." He chuckled.
"I guess even armageddon has its high points." I piped up.
"It does at that." He said, parting to move to the lead APC while we climbed into the back of the truck.
The truck rumbled along the roads of Rome, until it finally pulled up. I could hear soldiers rushing around outside and the Sergeants voice barking commands.
The two soldiers who had been assigned as our 'keepers' handed us an earpiece each, "The Captain will be in contact with us on these." One of the men explained.
I put mine in, having to work a little to get it to stay in my very non-human ear.
".. they have them in? Good. Welcome to the fight. Doctor, you will be exactly two feet from the back of Private Carson here." The private in question nodded. "Your team will move in when the situation is under control and you can do your work, if this starts to go pear shaped for any reason, you will follow the Private's commands and do exactly what he says, is that clear?"
Carson had a mic on his apparently, "Sir, the Doctor is nodding Sir."
"Good, then we can proceed. The first team is breaching the building now, you will move in with the second and do what ever the Doctor says in regards to bodies, computers, notes or chemicals." The Captain ordered.
"Sir. Yes Sir." The soldier replied back.
He then turned to us, "Ok, the Captain is a bit of a hard arse, but he is a good hard arse, and he is a hard arse in charge, so we do it his way. You got me?" At our nods he continued, "Good, then follow me out and get your gear you will need, we will move in soon."
We grabbed a hazmat suit, a roll of duct tape and two of the cases of equipment Karen wanted, shared them out between the three of us and let the soldiers know we were set.
The second soldier, Hendrickson by his name on his gear, asked us, "What's the tape for?"
Karen grinned, "Two things, one, if we find anything alive in there, we can use it to seal the hazmat suit around them, and second, how many times have you ever been doing something and just needed duct tape?"
He laughed, "Point taken."
"Ok." Carson said, "We have been given the green light, lets go. If the shit hits the fan, drop low and move when we tell you to."
We left the rear of the truck and advanced down the road toward where the two APCs were parked, out the front of what looked like a small old brick church.
Reaching the building we saw some loudspeakers attached to the eves of the building, the front of the place was covered in graffiti. "When we first got here, there was catholic slogans blasting from the speakers, and claims that they had started the plague." Carson explained, "The first team cut the speakers inside."
"Seems some people took their claim to heart." I said, looking at the words painted all over the building.
'Anti people, you've gone to far.'
'The white horse has come'
Were two of the more choice slogans, among the 'Die scum' 'Burn' and others.
"Well. That I know from a song." Said Hendrickson said, "But what's the thing about 'white horse' mean?"
"Well whoever wrote the horse one is full of shit, the horsemen are conquest, war, famine and death. Its only popular culture that makes conquest into 'plague' or 'pestilence'. Uh, conquest is the one who rides a white horse." I replied.
"How do you know that?" Harry asked.
"Raised catholic, left it behind though. Books still an interesting read though." I said.
We advanced into the building, and the smell hit us immediately, "There's a situation here, a survivor in the back is screaming for 'demons to be gone', he doesn't look armed. You can proceed back there and make an assessment." The Captains voice came over the radio.
There was much yelling in Italian going on, the subject was obviously not coping well with being found.
He was a middle aged man, about five foot three, he looked dishevelled and apparently wouldn't shut up. Also he was very human still.
Harry started to yell something in Italian back at him and he went quiet for a moment before his yells returned louder and sounding a lot more preachy.
"What did you say?" Carson asked, struggling to be heard over the man.
"Told him to shut up, the army is here." Harry replied.
I noticed a soldier raising an odd looking rifle to his shoulder, "Dart gun." Hendrickson supplied.
Then everything went to hell at once, the guy raised his arm, in his hand was a grenade, the pin dropping slowly to the ground, his hand clutched around the safety lever.
The soldiers all fell back a step, yelling at the man. One soldier at least, jumped the gun.
A staccato of fully automatic fire heralded the mans death, and the release of the grenade.
Everyone dived back, I, however was stunned by the sight. The small avoid bomb bounced to the floor and a fizzing pop sounded before a loud bang.
One wall was damaged but it seemed the explosive had been a dud. Dud or not though, it still tore a sizable hole in what was left of the man.
"Fuck, that thing was ancient, Serge, what the fuck was that antique?" One of the soldiers called.
"Looked like an old mark two, they haven't been in service for a long time." She replied, "Jennings, get your arse over here with that blast shield and get what's left of that ordinance dealt with!"
At which a soldier waddled up to the body with a large riot shield in front of them and used a little mechanical arm to put a heavy led cover over the remains of the grenade before returning to us.
"Ok, everyone back!" Thallin shouted, then, "Fire in the hole!"
The lead cover bounced up about four inches and white hot flame poured out from under it before it settled again, leaving a strong burning smell in the air.
"Ok, from the look of it, he barricaded himself in here with a supply of the drug, didn't want to go peacefully like all his friends out in the church proper. No one has reported any evidence here Doc, looks like the work for the bug was done elsewhere." The Sergeant told us. "We are all going to be out of here in four minutes, at which time we will set off the thermate charges our engineers have set around the building. Make sure your out of here in two."
"Will do Sergeant. Come on boys, lets head back to the truck." Karen said to us.
We had gotten all our gear settled on the plane and were first climbing back to our seats when I heard a 'mrow'. "What the fuck..." I said as Star and her two kittens climbed out of a locker they had apparently been hiding in since we left.
"Oh shit, what are you lot doing here? Captains going to blow his top." Karen said, shooing them back into the cabinet, at least trying to, it was more like trying to herd chickens.
"Yes, the Captain will blow his top, although not as much as if I had known you smuggled them aboard. At ease, I won't bite. You did good out there today, exactly as I asked, I can overlook this..." And he gestured to the cats, "transport oversight." And he smiled, walking forward and patting Starlight on the head. He crouched down and looked her in the eyes, "Just don't do it again missy, you understand?"
She looked back into his eyes and 'mrow'ed appropriately.
"Good, see? We have an understanding." He wandered back to yelling at someone outside the plane.
We took off and were well over the Atlantic when the captain came back from the cockpit swearing. "Well ladies and gentlemen, we have a snafu, about two minutes ago the other plane had a major malfunction and ditched in the ocean, now our pilot is reporting there is damage to the main systems that control the wings. We will be going down, the pilot is working his arse off to get us to some land but its not looking good."
Harry immediately got up and told the officer he was a pilot, "What training?" The Soldier asked.
"I flew combat and cargo planes for the UN before being transferred to WHO."
"Good enough for me, get up there and see if you can assist." He told the wolf. "And just so you know, once is an accident, twice is enemy action. Keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary."
The flight crew managed to keep the bird up and flying till we hit the east coast of the US, but told us they weren't going to risk it any further and they were going to try and set down on the first bit of highway they could see.
The first thump as we hit the ground felt about normal, but then a tearing sound heralded the removal of at least some of our landing gear, the landing became more of a controlled crash after that. The last I remembered was a helmet flying toward me just before the lights turned off.
Pain, lots of pain.
I woke to feel teeth gripping the back of my neck, dragging me along the ground. I noted it was Star doing the dragging, and managed to assure her I could take over, stumbling to my knees I saw Karen on the ground a little further in front of me with the two kittens beside her, nosing her. Star turned to go back ot the plane, I tried to get to my feet to go help her when heat poured over me, I felt my back blister as I dived onto the big cat, trying to shield her.
When I looked back, there was only burning wreckage.
'Mrow?'