The general had six soldiers escort us to a holding cell, which was a huge disappointment. It wasn’t even in the cavern, it was inside one of the out buildings just a gray room that had two rooms separated by bars. I was underwhelmed, to say the least.

Lena was in the cell next to me she was… annoyed. She’d been telling me for the last 10 minutes exactly how NOT excited she was.

“I can’t believe you just let them take us what the hell man.” I’m sure the look she was giving me was supposed to be scary but it just made me want to smack her in the face.

“We need these people on our side we’re going to need to deal with them for a very long time. A little bit of goodwill’s gonna go along way for us.” I couldn’t believe it myself normal people like the general pissed me off, but we have to deal with them.

“We are going to be here long time and honestly I don’t like it either but this is just the way it is so we’ll live with it.”

“I really hope you’re not going to rollover like this every time somebody threatens us.” Lena said with a dirty look.

She’s really starting to piss me off, I mean, I was already pissed off but holy fuck.

“Look I get it, you don’t like this. I don’t like this, it’s a shitty situation. Neither of us want to be here so how about you shut the fuck up and let me do what I do.” She gave me a dirty look but she did shut her mouth and sit down.

I’m sure I will have to deal with that later. Oh well I guess, it really couldn’t be helped. Now I gotta figure out what we’re going to do next, hopefully someone will come soon have a talk with us with any luck that won’t involve torture.

On the upside it gave me a break. I could just sit here for little while not having to think or do anything. I feel like I’ve been running myself ragged the last few weeks, just going full tilt. While the break is nice, it’s kind of stressful waiting here for possible torture. Sure, they won’t actually torture us, I mean they’re just Air Force.

“Are we just gonna sit here and wait?” Lena huffed.

“Unless you have another plan waiting is all we got.” I said to her, angrily. I don’t know what the fuck she expected me to do, were in the same boat.

Me and Lena sat there for about three hours before anybody showed up. All he did was slide food under the grate and walk out without saying a word. Every once in while me and Lena were trying have small talk we are both just too annoyed to deal with each other.

The next time somebody came and it was a fully armed guard, he came in and pointed the gun directly at me. The general walked in behind him sat on the bench across from my cell, “I’ve been asking around, and all the SF guys say that you help them out, and some of the people that were at the main squadron building confirm that you were there in a firefight against the attacking forces. Now, I’m a big enough man to admit when I’m wrong. I still don’t trust you, your timing is just to convenient.”

“I don’t know what to tell you sir, I showed up when I did I gave all the information I had, and helped where I could.” Opening my hands, and shrugging I said, “I don’t know what more I can do to make you trust me, I’d rather work with you than fight you, I don’t see the point in fighting each other when everything else wants to kill us.”

The general stared at me for a few minutes, “I’ll tell you what. I need recon done, I’ll send you some of the S.O.F. guys and if you come back, and they say your solid, will try and work things out.”

“Yeah, I’m good with that. Are you going to send me out with Patch and his boys? I’m willing to go out either way, but I know those guys so might be easier.” It’s probably not what he planned to do, since Patch is already on my side, but I figure it couldn’t hurt to ask.

“I’m going to send you out with Patch’s boys. They’ve already given you an endorsement, and they are willing to risk their lives on it.” He didn’t look angry, just annoyed. “You’re going to be staying here until then. I’d rather not cause a panic at the way you look.”

“That’s fine, when do we go?” I’d rather not be sitting in the cell to the next few days while he decides.

Glancing down he looks at his watch, “In about five hours you guys would be moving out. We want to send the infill out before daybreak.” Without any preamble he gets up and walks out of the room.

“Well, at least he’s not sending us out to just kill us.” Lena said without looking at me. She was still laying down with her hands in a lace behind her head, she hadn’t even gotten up or opened her eyes when the general came in.

“I’d half expected him to send us out with his base team, and have them take care of us away from probing eyes.” It really was unexpected, I didn’t think he would be so open to sending us out so soon without talking is to us or knowing more about us.

“Well, I guess there’s isn’t much for us to do except to sit and wait.”

Taking a note from Lena’s page, I laid back and laced my fingers behind my head. With nothing else to do but think, it was going to be a long night. It might be the recent adrenaline, or the fact that were in it now, but I couldn’t help but think about all the things I didn’t know about the system. Why is the system the way this, who runs it? Why do they run it? I’d gotten the simple answer from Ianata back in Valhalla, but I feel like I’ve been pushing so hard lately, trying to ignore all the things that have happened to me, that I have missed some big answers that I should be looking for.

At some point in my contemplation I must’ve fallen asleep. I was awoken to the sounds of the key unlocking my cell door, “rise and shine beautiful, it’s time to get the work.” Looking over I see Mills at the door, and can’t help but smile. It’s going to be a good day.

“Hey man, how’s it been? I’m glad to go with you guys, and not some NORAD kill team with orders to take us out.” He just shakes his head at me

“How do you know I don’t have orders to take you out?” It’s a fair question, I guess.

“Because you know better.” I say with a wolfish smile.

Putting his hand out gives me shake, “Ready when you are boss.”

We follow Miller out the same door we came in, coming at the front door and seeing his team arrayed around us. All on foot wearing backpacks. The only reason I could see them as is the light from the roof shining down, casting a yellowish haze on them.

“All right guys easy day, get into the suburbs, see what we can find. Assess the situation, get out. All without being seen, preferably.” Miller said to his team.

I spent the next few minutes shaking hands with Miller’s team, I couldn’t help but notice Jacks and Lena spent a little bit more time reuniting than the rest.

Without any preamble, the teams are to move towards the gate following Miller as he went. We spent a few minutes checking over gear once we got to the gate.

-WEAPON-

-Rhino AR style modular Rifle 5.56 > LVL. 5

>Damage > 80 (Per Shot)

-Effective range > 500

-Quality > Above average.

-Weight > 2 (Lbs.)

-DESCRIPTION-

-The Rhino AR style lower receiver accepts compatible upper receivers without physical modifications.

(This is a combined upper and lower receiver rifle.)

– Attached –

> Titan mid-range mana optic

It wasn’t the sexiest rifle in the world, just like your standard M4 carbine. It was flat dark earth instead of black, carrying handle, the mana optic that sat on top was 4X multiplication. Fore grip was the clip in type, not the floating. I’d have to change that eventually probably give me more range. I had Hels gift attached in a sheath on my waist, behind my back. Digging into my inventory I pulled out my helmet, and reluctantly sat on my head.

Lena was all decked out her gear, the only real difference was that she had a .300 blackout upper instead of the .556 I had. Her dark fatigues were battered and dust stained. She didn’t say anything else just getting me a thumb up letting me know she was ready, “Alright Mills, me and Lena are good to go whenever you guys are.”

“All right then everybody roll out, our first objective is to recon the immediate area namely all the Richy rich houses just to the east of here.” Putting his hand up next was head and waving it back and forth a knife-like motion, has been formed up in a line and we start moving.

There wasn’t anything else said, these guys didn’t need to, they’d been working together so long it was just second nature.

They fell into a line, jacks upfront ahead of a couple of the guys I didn’t know, Miller in the center than a few other guys I also really didn’t know. I probably should have taken some time to get and know. There was a good chance that the general would be putting us with them far more often.

It didn’t take us long to get to the subdivision area, there were a lot of nice houses most of them two and three stories with garages. None that really stood out above the rest. I really wasn’t clear on what Miller wanted us to do, I didn’t know if we were going to be clearing house to house, or if we were just reconing the area to see if anyone was making enough noise for us to hear.

Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of places around the suburbs to move without being seen, fortunately though, we didn’t run into any trouble while walking through the suburbs. If we heard people inside we would knock on doors inform them there was a military sanctuary up at the Cheyenne mountain Air Force station and then move on.

This is what we ended up doing for the next three days without finishing the entire suburb, I don’t know if there were any other teams up doing something we were, or if they were somewhere else but it was a nice change of pace helping people instead of shooting bullets.

We spent the better part of most days shuttling people back and forth from where we found them, or trying to convince them we weren’t monsters.

It was on the fourth day when we were out on the far side of the suburb scanning at the country club before anything exciting happened.

We had reached as far northeast as we could go through the suburbs. At the edge of the crevasse created by the meteors. As far as we knew the furthest anyone had gone yet. Most teams were going either west or southeast further to look for survivors and collect supplies.

We had just cleared the house at the end of a cul-de-sac and a few of us were sitting on the back porch on the second floor looking out. It was incredibly surreal.

There was this house, then the backyard, halfway through the backyard the ground just ended dug down and destroyed by the meteor furrowing through.

“Man, this is fucked up. I wonder if there were people here when the meteor came down?” Miller asked.

“I don’t think so. We haven’t found any blood in any of these houses. Plus, there’s not even a car in the driveway.” It was almost eerie how many places didn’t have blood, or signs of distress. The weirdest thing is the impact didn’t cause any shockwaves. Something that big hitting the ground behind the house should destroyed everything within a very large radius. If nothing else the resulting displaced dirt should’ve crushed some houses.

“If you ladies are done discussing landscaping, there’s one more house we gotta get to before we head back to base.” Lena says through the door behind us.

All through this Lena seemed indifferent. I guess she did go through a lot of the stuff in Hels realm, or something like it. The way she describes her world is very feudalistic, it sounded rough but they had somehow managed to advance in technology despite that in most of the leadership in the world were on good enough terms not to need war. Trying to pull solid details of how things were there was worse than pulling teeth. It’d gotten to the point that I’d stopped asking.

“yeah, I guess we can go if you’re ready Miller.” I’m still looking at the crater, but I see him shrug his shoulders and turn to leave.

I stood for a moment longer, looking at the massive trench, lost in thought over the absence of secondary damage when the sound of gunfire and explosions comes from far off to our Southwest. Closer than I’d have liked, but far enough away that it’s not an immediate concern.

“MILLER!” I yell turning and running into the house, “It sounds like contact Southwest. We should investigate.”

“I think it’s a base, the radio went nuts a couple of seconds before the explosion started. I’m not completely sure but it sounded like it was an attack from a large force of something,” we’ve all moved to the front door where the team is in a protective perimeter outside. He’s holding his hand up listening to the headset with his eyes closed.

“Information coming through is a very large force of zombies hit the front road and steamrolled through the cordon. The command and most of the civilians are falling back into the bunker. Sounds like it’s just the Marines and a few other combat elements locked outside.” I walk outside behind is guys watching in the direction of base, and hear him talking with someone on the radio. I’m not sure who, I don’t have any comms, but it sounds like they want us back there quickly.

He finally finishes his transmission, “The Marines and the Air Force security forces held at the bunker gate and there isn’t a much left to do but we’re headed back. We’ll cut west and come direct South Overland see if we can’t do some recon. Let’s go.” Over the last couple of days, I found out this is how to know when he is stressed. Most of the time he asked for opinions and what the men thought might be the best way to go about things. The only time he doesn’t is when he’s too stressed and he doesn’t want to lay the decisions out in a way that somebody else would have to carry them.

Seeing that he’s in a mood I decide it just roll with it. Moving back to the end of the column with Lena we roll out. Thinking that I will to talk to her for a couple of minutes while we move, maybe get her thoughts on what’s happening.

That doesn’t happen, the pace Miller sets is quick, almost brutal.

Or would have been before the drop. At this point are all capable of moving at a speed between a jog and run without getting winded. I’m not sure what level Miller and his men are at this point but they’ve got to be getting close to three or four. While I’m fine with the pace, the unfortunate side effect is that I cannot talk with Lena while we move.

We quickly make it into the woods west of the suburbs and to a little dirt road that connects with NORAD. Once inside the wood line Miller has us slowdown to a combat speed.

“Guns up, eyes open.” Is all Miller says as we move into the wood line.

Once we’ve slowed down enough I decide I might try and get some info from miller, so I move up to his position.

“Hey man, can you give me a bit more information I don’t have the headset like you guys.” I’m hoping that explaining the situation to me will shake him out of whatever he’s in, plus give me something to go on. The more information I have better I’ll know how to react.

“From what is coming over the radio on command channel it sounds like the Marines and the airmen cleaned out the horde, but the general is refusing to open the door. There’s not enough open space for me to get word in, but it sounds like the general plans on holing up.” An annoyed look comes over his face “I don’t think he’s going to let us in.”

“Fuck.” Well, aint that a bitch. Over the last couple of days, I get to know the general a little better he seemed a bit skittish, but not like a bad guy. He’s a guy who got thrust into a situation and is in over his head.

“Campo wants to leave. We’re not getting any information from high command. We lost contact with the element at Specker last night and we’ve lost three teams here so far. We told the general this is a bad spot and we need to move, but he’s stuck on how heavily fortified the bunker is. He doesn’t realize that eventually the foods gonna run out. And if we get hemmed in there is only a few exits. Other than the main ones there’s no way for more than 3 to 4 people to get out of the time. It’s a death trap in there.” I can hear the frustration Miller’s voice.

I haven’t been privy to anything the command has done. When I get back I’m allowed to get food and then go back to my cell, and that’s all Lena and I have been doing. I didn’t want to make any waves because I need to build trust. I needed that general willing to go with me when the time came.

“It didn’t matter What Campo or I Said. Hours of meetings and all the Air Force command wants the hold in position. It’s stocked up with food, water, and other provisions. Enough for a couple hundred people to hold out for about six months. Me, him, and Patch talked to some people about rallying together and heading out like you wanted to. I talked to my guys about already and they said they’d all come. Campo and all his Marines are also in, there’s a few of the others and some of the pilots who said they want out. We hadn’t mentioned it to the general because he’s completely sure the infrastructure isn’t wrecked, that somebody’s coming.” Miller didn’t sound like he believed that at all.

“I’ll be honest with you Miller, I wanted to start moving the day after we got here. Pretty much two minutes after I found out we were going to NORAD. The problem with all of us leaving is that we leave these people defenseless, we need to get inside and give them the option. We get as many as we can and we go. If it’s not too many we can take that Chinook, if it is too many we’ll take a Chinook and some other birds to...” And then hard truth hit me. I don’t actually know where hep is.

I got the feeling we had been somewhere on the eastern coast, but that’s a big chance to take in heading that direction, and it is more than a few of us here. Getting all these people there’s going to be a huge problem. I doubt a large group really make it that far safely.

Getting to hep isn’t something that I have to do, it’s something I want to do. The fact of the matter, is that what we need is a haven with enough distance from a city to not be inside any large mobs hunting grounds, and the ability to send raids if necessary. Somewhere with sustainability, access to food water and shelter. Unfortunately, this is Colorado next to the Rockies; not known as farmer friendly.

“I’m guessing you guys are going either way?” I figure Patch’s soldiers, and the marines were done with the bullshit. They had been carrying the weight of guarding the base, and going on patrols almost constantly.

Don’t get me wrong the air force security forces were working, but the general was putting them in much safer positions, less risky. It’s not the move I would have made in his position.

In a world where the common tongue is violence, everyone needed to become fluent.

“We were trying to find a good time to bring it up to you, Patch and Costa have already been moving around asking discreetly, I’m not sure what the final tally is, but they were only asking those they thought would be interested, or those who they trusted.” Would have been useful information a couple of days ago, but they probably hadn’t gotten that far yet.

“You know I’m in. Any idea’s where we are going? We don’t exactly have great range, and we won’t know where is safe.” I’ll follow them wherever they want to go, and have a few suggestions, I really don’t want them to start seeing me as someone in charge though.

“yes. One of the pilots has family up in Kremmling, it’s close enough that all the birds we have could make it in one jump. Add on that there is an airport, and a small town. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best of the suggestions we have. If you have anything you want to weigh in on I’m sure Patch would listen.” While we’d been talking we’d come back into the base area and up to the giant entrance to NORAD.

Patch and Campo were standing outside the door looking annoyed. Campo had a large radio in his hand yelling about they should open the doors that it’s clear, and how unreasonable someone was being. I had a feeling it was the general, he’d probably reached his breaking point for weird.

“You’re not going to get through to him like that Campo. He’s gone into fear mode.” I say.

“I’m open to ideas Gnome. We’ve been here for almost twenty minutes, the general just won’t open the doors. Keeps saying he can’t know if we were bitten or somehow infiltrated.” The man sounded like he was two breaths from trying to kick the bunker door down.

“How about this, set the mic down for a minute, let’s talk about this exfil plan.” When I say that both him and patch’s head point directly at me.

“How do you feel about it?” they’re both watching me for a reaction.

“I think we should try and contact anyone who hasn’t been asked and see if they want to come. I’ve been saying this is a bad spot since the day we got here. As long as everyone gets the option, and we’re going somewhere away from large towns I’m in.” Campo’s face visibly relaxes, and Patch’s shoulders untense.

“That’s exactly what we were thinking. Altogether we had about twenty who are solid yes’s, and another fourteen thinking about it. If it comes to that we’re going to need more than one bird, but I don’t foresee any problems with it.” It’s more than I thought. People tend to stay where they perceive as safe, even if it clearly isn’t.

“So, bypass the source. Go wideband, there’s an emergency broadcast port somewhere up here right? I remember him saying something about the intercom speakers reaching everybody in the bunker. Just tell them that we’re leaving in six hours, if they’re in they need to get out here. It sucks to leave them, but we can always come back and check later. Mills says the flight isn’t that far; forty minutes at most. It’s not like the option goes off the table.” His eyes open a little bit, and I realize in their frustration they hadn’t thought about doing that.

Neither one says anything, just walking off towards the out building next to the entrance. I hadn’t seen Campo very much the last few days.

He seemed like a good guy, he was part of the force recon unit training joint ops with 10’th SFG when shit went south. He was quieter than most marines I used to know. Not really a big guy, on the underside of 5’9, but jacked. He looked like he was of some Hispanic descent, and his head looked like he normally kept his hair shaved to the skull.

After they have been messing with the phone on the wall for a few minutes patch says into the speakerphone.

“THIS IS THE GROUND FORCES ON THE SURFACE. THE GENERAL REFUSES TO OPEN THE DOOR TO LET US IN. WE WILL BE TAKING MOST OF THOSE LEFT ON THE SURFACE AND LEAVING IN SIX HOURS, ANYONE WHO WANTS TO COME WITH US NEEDS TO COME OUTSIDE BEFORE THEN OR BE LEFT BEHIND.” Patch’s low timbre voice sliding over the door face sounds like the reverberations of a bell.

I don’t think the general will block anyone trying to come out with us, but he’s made more than a few bad decisions so far. If he does I guess it’s something we’ll have to deal with if… when we make it back.