Dead States | Year Zero | Nebraska Read online

  “Umm, we've been holding lunch for your return. Why don't we head on in, everyone is anxious to greet you.”, Crystal offered.

  Crystal held back as they filtered in waiting for Tobin to get out, nervously biting at her lip. Tobin was one of the last to hop out and smiled sheepishly at Crystal when he saw her.

  “I'm back”, Tobin said with a shrug.

  Crystal walked up to him and hugged him quickly, “When Corporal Byrne came in yesterday, with Lou and said that one of the young men from my hometown had been killed … I was so worried it was you.”

  Tobin slipped off the shell casing she had given him before he left, “I have my own now. Having this really helped. It gave me a reason to get back here.”

  Crystal smiled,“Well come on in, I'll be setting a bad example if I linger out here.”

  By the time Crystal and Tobin entered, the council had moved to the side of the room and seemed to all be talking at once. Mick gestured outside and a couple of times Crystal caught a finger pointed in her direction. As quickly as they came together they separated and Mac again addressed the crowd.

  “I am deeply sorry for the loss of Myles Cavendish. Cynthia, Amelia I assure you his sacrifice and his dedication to our community will not be forgotten.” Mac paused for a moment and bowed his head.

  “You can see from the heavily loaded trucks out there that our run was successful. That success came with a price we've lost young Ed Smith and Lou Miller, who thanks to the quick action of Corporal Byrne may be the first person to survive a bite. We have a few hours of daylight left, eat up, then lets see if we can get those fence posts set and the supplies unloaded.”

  Mac caught a signal from Ivy, “Cynthia would you be willing to over see unloading of the clothes and personal items.”

  Cynthia nodded and smiled for the first time in days. Pleased for the respect that responsibility showed her and glad to have something to keep her occupied.

  Just before dark the last fence post was placed and by morning the concrete would set allowing them to begin stringing the fence.

  Mac found Crystal with Percy,“Crystal I'd like to make this official and make you captain of the militia. Everyone I've spoken to had nothing but good things to say as to how quickly you took charge of the situation. I'm pretty sure it will be a formality, but tomorrow morning I'll ask if anyone will stand for the position and I hope you will.”

  Percy beamed at Crystal, “Don't vorry you are a natural at this and I vill help you.”

  Crystal was a little to wound up to sleep and Tobin found her seated on one of the coaches in a corner of the lobby. Tobin sat next to her and she leaned her head on his shoulder. After a few minutes he put his arm around her shoulders then cradled the back of Crystals head and pulled her into a passionate kiss.

  After a moment Crystal broke the kiss off, “I'm sorry, I'm just not ready for this.”

  Tobin looked at her not with anger, but with an intensity she hadn't seen before, “Crystal, Ed was pretty much an idiot, but I did learn something from him. Any of us can be dead tomorrow and I am done pretending that I don't care for you. I am also pretty sure you care about me. When you figure it out I'm here.”

  Chapter 4 – Security

  The next morning, at breakfast Mac laid out the work plan, then dropped a bombshell, “Folks whether you were aware or not, Sgt. Andrews and his people have only been on loan to us. They have their own families to try and get back to. Once we have this place buttoned up they will be leaving us.”

  The room erupted in a buzz of concern and Mac raised his hands to ask for quiet, “I know its a shock people, but we need to let these brave men and women look to their own. Look at what you all have accomplished. On the run to Lexington we outnumbered the soldiers five to one. When the dead came calling here, Gunny Braun's militia and Miss Innes answered that call. The sergeant and his people will make sure we are ready before they leave. To start with I am looking for the person who will stand as captain of the militia.”

  Before she lost her nerve Crystal wrapped her hand around the shell casing Slinger had given her and stood up, “If you all will have me, I'll stand for the job.”

  Just as Crystal sat back down Bill Parsons, urged on by his wife stood up,“I'm up to the challenge, back in the world I was a security guard and had some police training.”

  When there were no others Mac said, “When you can, speak with Bill and Crystal. We will take a vote after supper to see who gets the job.”

  With all hands on deck the work on the fence proceeded very quickly. By the end of the day they had a ten foot high chain link fence completely around the site. Even extending about 20 yards into the lake. In addition they had setup a second perimeter of barbed wire about twenty five yards out from the chain link fence. They still needed to wire in some motion detectors and lights and back brace the fence, but for the first time in two weeks they could be outside without an armed escort dogging their every step.

  Crystal had enough folks come up to her during the day, letting her know that she had their vote that a couple of hours before supper she rounded up Amy and Percy.

  “Tobin told me that Sgt. Andrews was concerned that a large herd of dead could descend on us.”, Crystal began.

  “I was only in the thick of this a few days, but if the herd is big enough. The fences won't be enough.”, stated Amy.

  Percy's assessment was even bleaker, “From a tactical standpoint tings are not ideal. To start vith ve are at the bottom of a bowl, ve need eyes out there. Alzo, vhile ve are vell stocked mit ammo and supplies, ve have no vay to resupply and no reinforcements.”

  Crystal chuckled ruefully, “You know I came to you two hoping we could work up a plan. Not be told are ass is toast.”

  “See that kid your officer material already. Percy and me we're grunts, we deal with whats in front of us. The fence will definitely buy us some time and we are fortifying the buildings too so we have a fall back.”, Amy pointed out.

  “If the herd is not to large, ve have enough guns and bullets and the fence should give us the time to deal with the threat.”, Percy added.

  Crystal began nodding her head, “Okay, oookay this we can deal with. We need a signal to get the militia to drop everything and assemble, while everyone else heads into the buildings. I'll talk to Mac and ask him to have the council work on an evacuation plan, maybe we could think about stockpiling some supply caches.”

  Amy laughed, “Look at our girl Percy, she's delegating already.”

  Crystal smiled, “If Bill takes the vote tonight, I'll tell him what we talked about. Otherwise, we'll find some time tomorrow to work out the details.”

  At dinner that night Hester had set up a simple voting booth. Everyone over 17 was given a poker chip and during the course of dinner they each took a turn in the voting booth. In the booth was a box for Crystal and a box for Bill, whichever box held the most chips at the end won the election. After dinner while waiting for Hester and Lois to count the votes Sgt. Andrews addressed the room.

  “Its been my honor to be on this journey with you people these past several days. I must say I am damn impressed with every one of you. Two of my best, Corporal Landers and Corporal Byrne, will be staying on here. They have both agreed to assist whomever wins the election this evening. The rest of us hope to find family at the White Sands base.”

  Hester then came out to announce the results of the vote, By a count of 139 to 41 our new Captain is Crystal Innes.”

  Crystal used their lunch break the next day to share the plans to date, “If you could just bear with me a minute or two, I have just a couple of quick updates. First off I want to express my thanks to Sergeant Andrews for extending his departure for a couple of days. The extra help in training the militia is really appreciated.”

  The room erupted in applause and Crystal waited a minute to continue you on, “I'm sure you've seen some of the drills the militia has been running all morning. You folks have a part to play in those drills to.”


  At that Bill radioed Mick who briefly sounded the resorts alarm.

  “When you hear that horn it means there is trouble coming. Drop whatever you are doing and get back here. Mick assures me that horn can be heard as far out as the shooting range. One last thing, if you have a security emergency, the security headquarters is getting setup in the staff building. You can always find someone there.”, Crystal finished.

  As Crystal finished, Mac stepped up to make his announcements, “Thank you Captain. As Captain Innes stated we have the sergeant and his people here for a few days. That gives us time to give them a proper send off. We are still putting together the details, but I promise it will be a hell of a lot more fun than planting potatoes and stringing fence.”

  Despite Percy continually advising against it Crystal joined Hannah and Justin on a sweep of the woods before allowing the woodcutting crews out. Crystal needed these people to follow her. The only way she could think of to do that was to show them she was willing to take the same risks she was asking them to do.

  “Okay let's head back in we're clear here. Hannah don't let the wood crews spread out to much.”, Crystal warned.

  Heading in to the, now security headquarters Crystal found Blade and Amy. Technically they were hers to command, but Crystal couldn't help but feel a little inferior, “I'm nervous about all the noise of the saws. Take the jeep out to the main road and keep watch until the crews are done for the morning.”

  “Right away Captain.”, Amy replied instinctively snapping to attention.

  A couple of hours later and Mick was preparing to take Mac and Tobin out in hopes of taking some free range cattle. Crystal would have preferred it if they would have waited a couple of days when all of the logs were dragged in behind the fences, but with all the mouths they had to feed adding to their food stores was imperative.

  Crystal gave a word of warning to her patrol leader taking the group out, “Justin, make sure they don't push you around out there. Your in charge of security on this jaunt and I expect you to bring them home safe.”

  Justin looked at the three men he was charged with protecting, “Yes Ma'am not a hair will be harmed.”

  Crystal nodded in approval and went to say good bye to Tobin, “Toby, this is starting to be a habit, me saying good bye to you.”

  “I'm coming back. You never will be rid of me for long.”, Tobin smiled.

  Before Crystal could speak to Mac her radioed crackled and Amy's voice came on, “Cap we got dead on the march here. They'll be knocking on our gates in twenty.”

  “How many.”, Crystal asked hoping her voice didn't show her concern.

  “I dunno a lot. We can only see so far, but I would guess a thousand or more.”, Amy answered back.

  “Appreciate the heads up. Haul ass back here, we'll be ready for them.”, Crystal replied trying hard to show confidence.

  “Alright then, we practiced for this. Mick sound the alarm. Mac get everybody inside and that means you too.”, Crystal directed.

  Five minutes later Percy had the militia lined up along the fence. Sgt. Andrews took a detail of the best riflemen and went to place them on the roof's of the two buildings nearest the oncoming herd. Another five minutes and Blade and Amy pulled in through the gate, followed by a truck carrying in the wood crews and their guards. Bill began checking to make sure everyone had returned inside the fence.

  “Captain we got one group still out there.”, Bill called out.

  “Grab Justin, meet me at the jeep.”, Crystal answered back.

  Crystal raced the jeep towards the droning sound of the saw, skidded to a stop and raced ahead of Bill and Justin. When Crystal got closer she saw Doug Myers attempting to hold off several of the dead with his chainsaw, the two militia assigned to watch him were nowhere to be seen. Doug had already hacked off the outstretched hand of many of them, as he backed away.

  Crystal began firing at the advancing dead, but too late caught sight of a Dee, Doug had cut in half. Its intestines had caught up on the brush, but pulling itself forward with its arms it ripped out its own entrails. It crawled up to Doug and took a bite out of his calf. Kicking the creature away from Doug, Crystal shot it. Bill and Justin arrived, giving Crystal the opportunity to care for Doug.

  Crystal thinking quickly had Doug give her his belt and sit down, “I'm sorry I got to take the leg.”

  “I know”, Doug answered gritting his teeth.

  Crystal fixed the belt as a tourniquet and propped Doug's leg on the log he had been cutting. Then she ran the chainsaw into the log to clean off bits of the dead before severing Doug's leg just below the knee. Doug's screams of pain were drowned out by the roar of the chainsaw until he lost consciousness. Having nothing to bandage the stump Crystal peeled off her T-shirt and used it to staunch the bleeding.

  Seeing that Bill and Justin had cleared the immediate threat Crystal ordered, “You two get him to the Doc now. I'll cover you. Don't wait for me.”

  Bill stared at the near topless Crystal not liking the idea of leaving her behind, causing Crystal to insist, “Listen I'm not as strong as you two. I can't carry Doug, but I can cover you. NOW MOVE.”

  Bill put a fresh magazine in his pistol and handed it to Crystal. Crystal slipped the pistol into her belt, reloaded her own pistol and began covering Bill and Justin's escape. The running saw continued to draw the dead towards Crystal's position as did her steady stream of fire. Once she saw the jeep pull off, she holstered her pistol and made a bee line towards the fence.

  Crystal quickly outpaced the dead and being a farm girl she easily hopped the barbwire fence. However, she still had over 200 yards to go before she reached the gate and the dead were quickly advancing on the outer fence. For her safety, Percy had ordered the line of riflemen to hold their fire until Crystal was in. As she streaked past the line of young men, Crystal forgot about the dead a few yards away, all she could think about was that she was relieved to be wearing a sports bra today. The last thing the men in her command needed was to be watching her tits flop up and down.

  With about 50 yards yet to go Crystal saw a thin Dee crawl under the lowest strand of barbwire. It was wearing what appeared to be pajamas and pantsed itself as it came under. Seeing the nude dead one wander about, would have been comical, if it weren't for the added danger it put Crystal under. Crystal considered her options, she could stop and take a shot, which would allow more time for the dead to reach her. She could try to shoot it as she ran, but she would have to get closer to it than she wanted. She could try to run through it, but she was no running back. Her best choice was to veer away and squeeze through the narrowing gap.

  To Crystal's relief a shot from one of the rooftop snipers rang out and dropped the Dee. Crystal literally skidded to a stop at the gate. The rooftop snipers were now keeping up a steady rate of fire. As the gate closed behind her an out of breath Crystal could hear Percy giving the order to fire, but they were all frozen. Crystal pulled the rifle out of the hands of the young man nearest her and began shooting breaking the ice.

  Percy paced up and down, “Take your time. Don't vaste your ammo. Aim at the head.”

  Once the magazine was empty Crystal handed the rifle back, “Reload.”

  From behind Crystal heard a small voice, “Captain”.

  Turning she saw Cassie Brenner and her brother Travis, “Captain Mr. Parsons said to bring you a new shirt.”

  As Cassie handed Crystal the T shirt, Travis asked, “What else do you need us to do?”

  “I need you to be inside with the others” Crystal replied.

  “Don't be that way, you know Cass and I can out shoot any ten of these others, we want to help.”, Travis stated in a matter of fact way.

  Crystal handed a rifle to each of the twins and slung a third over her shoulder. Motioning to the children to follow her, she directed them to the far side of the compound near the woods. They had barely gotten into position when Hannah, one of the guards assigned to Doug, emerged from the woods. Hannah's clothes we
re soaked in blood from multiple bites and her pistol still dangled from her dead hand.

  Crystal sent a bullet to end Hannah's existence with a remorseful, “I'm sorry”

  Quicker than it began it was over. With over 60 rifles in place just 20 to 30 rounds apiece adds up quick. Crystal and the Brenner twins went back over to Percy. Percy had assigned a detail to collect the spent casings, to be reloaded, while the rest stayed ready in case another wave came through.

  “Gunny I need to go let our people know the status and figure out what we do about this mess.”, Crystal said with a nod towards the bodies piled up outside their fence.

  “Very good Captain.”, Percy replied, hiding his pride in the young woman who had come so far.

  “What's the good word Captain?”, Mac asked anxiously.

  “The fences have held and the immediate threat has been taken care of.”, Crystal answered loudly so the room could hear.