ASYLUM: Chapter 29

   The next day at Morning Formation, I thought Julia Ortiz was going to faint when Packer announced she was being advanced to the rank of Militia Lieutenant and would be assuming command of the Intelligence Office while I was in Denver. He promoted several other individuals and then announced first Debra, and then Danni would be assigned the ranks of Captain and why this was so. The final announcement was my own promotion and again, why it was being done.

   Later in the day, the girls, myself and our closest friends gathered in the small chapel located in the Workers’ Barracks and after a short history lesson concerning the Council of Nicaea, and why a man, or even a woman, might have multiple spouses, she performed a very nice ceremony and pronounced us married. We hadn’t really told anyone the situation before, but everyone already knew something of the like was coming; they just hadn’t figured out what it would look like. Every one of our friends were happy for us. Dak made a general announcement that he had always known I was crazy; why else would I be willing to accept having two wives and Felicia once again punched him in the arm. The man must have a perpetual bruise from the pounding he takes. Like I said, Gilly put together a very nice ceremony and it went smoothly, heck, I didn’t even screw up my vows this time. I guess practice makes perfect.

   The next day, Danni and I left with the replacement platoons going to Denver after a tearful leave-taking with Debra and Danni Lynn. God, it was hard to once again be separated and I began to think Danni wasn’t going to give Danni Lynn back to Debra so we could leave; she cried so hard, and then wept off and on for at least a hundred miles.

   There was a total of seven trucks in our convoy. Ten passengers in six of them with two drivers each and then the seventh with two drivers and Danni and I. We squeezed in with all of the main Rucks that the members of the two platoons were bringing with them. As we were passing the railyard in Denver, Danni raised up and turned so she could study it as we passed. I did also and said, “Let’s get settled in, and then we’ll put together a team and go search for Dan and the others, okay?”

   She nodded as she turned around and resumed her seat, “Please, they all deserve to be brought home and given the proper honors they deserve.”

 

   The Denver Enclave is huge, as in, huge. I always thought Asylum was large because it’s so big and underground, but Denver just keeps on going and going. There are literally miles of tunnels that have been converted to resident and storage areas. I firmly believe the entire current population of the city of Denver could be kept inside for shelter if needed. I was talking to the Facilities people and they told me some interesting information about DIA, or Denver International Airport.

   First is power, and I wished Nadia could have been with us to soak it in. They have very large areas above ground dedicated to photovoltaic panels that generate a great amount of power, and below ground they have huge battery banks that store the collected power. Even with all the power they generate from the sun, it is nowhere near what is required to power the entire complex. Occasionally, during peak hours of consumption, several small nuclear reactors, similar to what is installed on naval vessels, supplies what is needed. At Asylum, we constantly worry about allowing our diesel fuel levels to get low. All of our power is generated by diesel powered Generators and someday they are going to wear out. Solar power generation might be the way to go for critical infrastructure. A nuclear plant like Denver’s might be even better, but what about disposing of the spent fuel in a safe manner? I asked the electricians how an airport could get permission to have their own nuclear plant and they said the people that built a lot of the facility didn’t ask permission, they just did it and no one was the wiser. I guess, from talking to them, that seemed to happen a lot when the airport was under construction. I remember reading that the whole project ran billions of dollars over budget and after seeing what I’ve seen, I can believe it. There are literally miles of drivable tunnels, some so large, two tractor trailer rigs could pass by each other.

   Jet fuel storage; once constructed, the amount of fuel available was far more than could be used under normal operations, but very nice if you were planning the end of the world as we know it. Some of the workers at DIA said they never could figure out why so many strange things happened during construction, like the building of entire multi-story buildings incorrectly and instead of fixing the mistakes, they were buried. Well, now you know why. The ZPGers used the people’s readiness to believe people screw up, to cover up the hidden things they were doing right under everyone’s noses. Much like they had covered up things at Asylum.   All-in-all, the first day was fascinating. The second day was taken up with preliminary meetings with different people on different topics. I didn’t see Danni from early morning until late in the evening and she was exhausted to boot.

   I informed Lt. Colonel Rickett that I, and Danni, were going to lead a recovery party to find the remains of the people we had lost earlier in Denver and he said it was a waste of time. He wasn’t very forthcoming until I informed him that, number one, we at Asylum were reluctant to leave our dead unburied and un-honored. Second, one of the men out there was my wife’s deceased husband and the rest had been our friends. We were not going to leave them there. He got a little miffed, but agreed to it.

   Danni led the squad that left to search for the remains, and I of course, accompanied her. Surprisingly, Lieutenant Taylor also came with several of his own men. I kept a close eye on him when he was near Danni at first, until I decided he had no attraction to her scent nor any ill will from their previous interactions. I was right about the ill will, but not so much about the scent.

   We had already arrived at the rail yard and more than once I had reminded Danni to slow down and not run. She was slightly ahead of Taylor and I, and I was about to tell her once again to slow down when Taylor said, “How do you do it?”

   “Danni! Slow down.” I turned to him and said, “Do what?”

   “Ignore her scent. I never noticed it before, maybe because Lieutenant Tarn’s was so strong.” He looked at me quickly and said, “I don’t mean any disrespect, I promise you that. It’s just,” he hesitated and then said, “Stella, she tries to please me with perfumes, but it’s just not the same, you know?”

   “You can smell Danni’s scent?”

   “Yes,” then he glanced at me and added, “Can’t you?”

   “Yes, I can, but the scent is a more recent development. She smelled normal until, well until she committed to me and then I was almost killed. When I came out of the coma, her scent had changed to what it is now and I could detect it.”

   “Has she been tested for exposure to the contaminate?”

   “Yes, a long time ago, and she was negative.”

   “Then how? How can you smell her scent? I thought both parties had to be exposed for it to happen.”

   “Another of those strange things that happen, I guess. We’ve established there seems to be an emotional connection in addition to being contaminated. Debra and I were already in love when we were exposed and it seemed to heighten our response to one another. Danni was our very good friend when her husband was killed here and she moved in with us for an extended period of time after his death. Things happened and here we are.”

   “Lieutenants Tarn and Monroe, I’m sorry, Captains Tarn and Monroe seem to be very self-assured, confident, capable and independent, how did you convince your wife to, uh…”

   I shrugged and said, “I didn’t, it was Debra’s idea from the start. She convinced the two of us, but to be honest, it was… a bad time for me.”

   Danni slowed ahead of us and looked back over her shoulder before giving me a weak smile and then continued forward. Taylor was quiet and finally said in a low tone, “Can she hear us?” Danni stopped and allowed us to join her before walking with us.

   “Yes, Lieutenant, I could hear you.”

   “My apologies, Captain, as I told your husband, I assure you I meant no disrespect.” Taylor was very fair skinned and his ears and cheeks were turning a fiery red.

   “Relax, Lieutenant, let me satisfy your curiosity.”

   She took a deep breath and exhaled, but before she could start, I said, “I’m going to take point for a few minutes, Honey, take a breather.” She nodded and turned back to Taylor as I jogged ahead and down between the railroad cars we were passing thru. She hadn’t noticed, but there was what appeared to be a bundle of rags lying partially under one of the boxcars ahead. I wanted to get there before she did. The closer I got, the surer I was of what, no, who it might be.

   OCP cammies, Marine RAT boots. One of the arms was gone at the elbow, the other was completely gone. Both legs had been gnawed on and the head was gone, just gone. On the front of his tactical combat shirt was a Velcro patch that clearly read SMITH. I stripped it off and put it in my pocket. I stood up and looked back at the rest of the group as James Carly joined me.

   “Damn, are you going to let Danni see this?”

   “I’d rather not, I want to be positive first anyway.”

   Carly pointed down and said, “There’s a dog tag threaded into the boot laces on the right foot.”

   Using my Air Crewman’s Knife, I sliced through the lace and pulled off the tag, Smith, Daniel, ect. I didn’t read any further, “Do you have a body bag?”

   “Yes, Sir.” He turned his back to me and I could see it beneath the flap of his ALICE Pack. I pulled it free and handed it to him.

   “Open it up and we’ll get him inside.”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   There was one last way to be absolutely sure it was Dan. I rolled the desiccated body over and used my knife to cut open his shirt and expose the back. The skin was discolored, dried and shrunken, but I could still make out the large tattoo, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” There was no doubt, what-so-ever, it was Dan. I looked back at them again in time to see Taylor step away from Danni and to her right, making her turn to continue talking to him. He had seen what we were doing and was giving us time to finish. Carly had the bag unzipped and we quickly slid the remains in and rezipped it.

   “Sir? There’s another body just the other side of the boxcar behind you.”

   I turned around and looked, hoping it was another of ours. The ragged looking clothing was a solid OD green, “Not one of us, and it appears all the gear and weapons are gone,” I said.

   “Yes, Sir, but see the gunny sack?”

   I looked where he pointed and yes, there was a sack. “Can you get it and check it? I need to go talk to my wife.”

   “Yes, Sir, of course.”

   I walked back and as I neared, I said to the other members of the recovery team, “Guys, go down there and give Carly a hand.”

   Danni turned around and looked, saw the body bag and started to walk around me, “No, Honey, we’ve already taken care of his remains.”

   “I need to make sure it’s him.”

   “I held out the name tag and placed it in her hand and then the dog tag as I said, “Threaded into the laces of the right boot.”

   She nodded and then said, “One last way to be sure, on his back…”

   “I checked; the tattoo is there.” I pulled her to me and she sighed as she let me hold her for a moment and then she straightened up.

   “There’s still two more of us out here, and then three at the rally point, let’s go find them.”

   She walked away as Taylor stepped forward and said, “That’s a strong woman.”

   “No,” I said. “That’s a Ranger.”

   He nodded and we followed her.

   It was a long day, but when we finished, we had six body bags to return to Asylum for burial. The gunnysack that Carly noticed contained Dan’s personal gear, including his Glock 17. There was no sign of his Carbine; it was simply gone.

   That evening we sat at the table in the suite we were assigned and went through the burlap bag his gear had been found in. Danni cleaned and oiled the Glock, then stripped the magazines of ammo and cleaned and oiled them as well. She reloaded the mags with fresh ammo, but put what she had removed in a bag so we could use it for practice later. “It would have been nice if we could have found his Carbine,” she said. “There’s been times at the end of a long day’s ruck that I wished my rifle weighed six pounds instead of eleven.”

   “Maybe, but I can’t see you switching to a poodle round this late in the game.”

   She looked up at me and gave me genuine smile; the first of the day. The comment had been something she and Dan had bantered back and forth about for as long as I knew them. He preferred 5-5-6 and she liked 7-6-2. She always said he’s carbine was only good for shooting poodles. She knew the 5-5-6 was effective, she just liked teasing him about it. She continued going through his equipment and finally, late in the evening, we went to bed. We didn’t make love the way we normally would have and that was okay, I think it may have been a form of grieving for his loss.

   I woke early in the morning and glanced at the clock on the wall of the suite; 3:35 am and Danni wasn’t in bed beside me. I kicked off the covers and dressed in a bathrobe as I went looking for her. The bathroom door was closed and I could hear an intermittent brushing sound coming from within. Turning the knob, I discovered it wasn’t locked and pushed the door open. Inside, I could see Danni kneeling beside and over the bathtub as she vigorously scrubbed at something.

   “Danni? What are you doing?”

   She jumped as if she had been caught doing something wrong, but then returned to the scrubbing motion, “I need to clean this, Dan would have wanted you to have it. He always told me that if anything happened to him, he wanted you to have his gear.”

   “Hon, it’s 3:30 in the morning and you need to rest; if it needs to be cleaned, we’ll send it out to the facility cleaners, come on, let’s go back to bed.”

   “No! I need to do this!” She stopped and took a breath, and said softer, “It’s for me to do, for him, now for you.” She held up what she was scrubbing so I could see it; it was Dan’s minimalist plate carrier. I had always admired its simplicity and I also knew it had been stained with his blood. She was using a bottle of shampoo and a toothbrush to try and remove the stain.

   I left the bathroom and entered the kitchenette. Under the sink I had seen a larger nylon brush earlier and I carried it back to the bathroom where I kneeled down next to Danni and said, “Here, let me give it a go.” Seeing the larger brush, she snatched it from my hand and began to scrub with a vengeance. “Danni, please let me help? He was more than a friend; he was my brother too.”

   She sighed heavily and then said to me, “I know, Daniel, but this is for me to do; I have to do it, please let me?”

   I pulled her head to me and kissed her ear before saying, “Okay, but there’s plenty of time to get it done. You can work on it this afternoon after we’re done with our meetings, Okay?”

   She shook her head and said, “No, you need it. These people, Daniel, so many of them hate you. They hide it from you, but I can see it in their eyes after you walk by. I want you to wear it every time you leave here, even if it’s for a meeting with someone you trust, understand?”

   “What do you mean?” I asked.

   “They don’t see me; they only see you because of how much they hate you. I have seen the way they look at you when they think no one notices, so I’m cleaning this for you to wear, no matter where you go, okay? Promise me, Daniel.”

   “Okay, Hon, I promise.” She worked diligently at it and I sat beside her the whole time. When she finally was satisfied with the result, she held it up for me to exam and frankly, the blood stains were faded, but still there faintly, otherwise, it looked almost new. “Well done, Honey, you did a good job on it.”

   “Try it on,” she said. “I bet we won’t even have to adjust it; you two were so close to the same size.” I put it on over the bathrobe and Danni chuckled, laughed, and then said, “Well, I guess it wasn’t intended to be worn over a bathrobe.”

   “Should I take it off? The bathrobe, I mean?” And then I wiggled my eyebrows at her.

   “As tempting as that sounds, I can only imagine what the mag pouches would do to my boobs. Nope, take it off and then we’ll go take care of each other, okay?”

   “Deal.”

  

   The next morning, we went down to their cafeteria, had breakfast and we were still eating when Major Higgins walked in and then joined us. He had a cup of tea and was eating a scone. I’ve had them before and consider them a waste of time. I suppose if you’re raised with them though, they’re probably okay.

   “Major, Captain, after we’re done here, we have some arrangements to make,” he said.

    “I was heading over to the Intelligence Office and Captain Monroe was going to go over a few things with your Education Committee.”

   “That can wait, we have more important things to take care of,” he answered. I thought of how the Colonel had said Higgins liked to steamroll people and started to object, but he added, “I have ordered six aluminum caskets for your deceased to be transported in and I located six American flags to cover them. Being British, I’m not very sure of your procedures and I want your input on how to proceed.”

   Danni nodded and said, “I can help you there, Major, on one of my deployments I had to wait things out in Bahgram and I was assigned to the detail that shipped bodies home. I know how we do it, Sir.”

   “Good, I didn’t want to appear disrespectful of your ways.”

   “Thank you, as soon as we finish here, I’ll go with you to organize things.” She looked at me and said, “You’re eager to get back to the Intelligence Office, so I’ll meet you here for supper at say, six o’clock?”

   “Sounds good, Danni, I’ll see you then.” I gave her a quick kiss and walked quickly away as they resumed their discussion. As I walked through the doors of the cafeteria, I was joined by two of Higgins’ men.

   “Major Tarn, we’ve been assigned to escort you to Intel.” The man who spoke was obviously American.

   I slowed, but kept walking, “Why?” I asked.

   “Let’s wait until it’s a little less crowded, Sir, and we’ll explain.” I have to admit, they did a good job of parting the crowded corridors leading to the cafeteria.

   “I don’t know,” I said. “But it seems to me they need a couple more mess halls around here.”

   “Yes, Sir,” the first man to speak said. “There’s two more in addition to this one, plus another that’s strictly for the former upper crust of the facility.”

   “Aw, so the egalitarian leadership got just a little better equal access than the normal folks, right?”

   He smiled and said, “Yes, Sir, but the service there isn’t quite as professional as it once was.”

   We walked a little farther along and finally I said, “Going to keep me hanging, huh?”

   “Sorry, I was checking out the girl in the tight jeans and red blouse.”

   “Oh? I missed her. Was she hot?”

   “That wasn’t the reason I was checking her out, Sir, she was definitely checking you out and I don’t think she cares much for you either.”

   “Oh.” We walked on and I noticed he kept looking into the convex mirrors at each intersection. They were normally used to safeguard people, or vehicles, from colliding into each other as they showed what was coming in the cross traffic. They could also indicate who was following. “Okay, I see her, about twenty yards back.”

   “Yes, Sir. I don’t think we need to worry about her too much, but she obviously wants to keep track of where you are going.”

   “Concealed weapon maybe?” I asked as I glanced down at the plate carrier Danni insisted, I wear.

   “Her clothing is too tight.”

   “Of course,” I responded. We made a right-hand turn and started down another tunnel.

   He glanced back and then started watching the next mirror coming up, “Yeah, she continued on straight.” But he continued watching the upcoming mirror and then said, “There you are! Yeah, she handed us off to someone else.”

   “Really?” I asked.

   “They’re getting better at this, but we’re getting better at their better.”

   I laughed, I was starting to really like the guy, “Where are you from?”

   “Minnesota, it took me years to lose the accent. California, right?”

   “Born and raised,” I said.

   “Yeah, that nonregional accent will set you off every time.” He took my elbow and guided me around a corner, “Let’s go this way, it will totally fuck with him.”

   “You’re talking about the guy in the facilities coveralls, right?”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   “I thought so.” I allowed him to direct me while asking, “What about your friend? Where’s he from?”

   “Arizona, but you’d think he was from Texas the way he talks.” He opened a door, escorted me in and then shut it.

   “What branches of the service were the two of you in?”

   The talkative one said, “Seals.” The other guy said, “Rangers.”

   “Rangers? You’d get along pretty good with our Colonel.” I waited, but he didn’t reply.

   “Okay,” the Seal said. “Let’s go,” as he opened the door.

   I spent the rest of the day in their Intelligence Office, well what would someday be their Intel Office, and we made some headway. One of the things I learned was they had greater problems with the ZPGers than we did at Asylum. There was significantly more of them and they were a constant threat. The African Special Deployment Detachment officially changed their name while we were there; they are now called the Colorado Rangers and the Colorado Militia was fast being organized. They’ve decided to organize themselves much the way we have in Asylum. The Denver Enclave has an exemplary communications network and they are doing the same as us also; everything gets entered into a data base and then they will be sharing info with us, and Holloman, as we will with them.

   For me, what was supposed to be the last three days were spent wandering the facility with one of the maintenance guys for a guide. I checked out the nuke plants, their battery banks, inverters, and charge controllers for the solar arrays; Nadia would have been in hog heaven. We were scheduled for another two platoons to arrive from Asylum to replace the two that were being sent home, at which time we would load up a shit load of ammo and weapons we were being given for payment for our services. Packer was going to get some of the PKM machineguns he wanted to have. Me, last day, so I wanted to tour the water storage tanks for the Fire Sprinkler systems.

   My escort’s name was Frank Genova and that’s about as far as I got to know him. He was driving us down a long ass tunnel when in the headlights of the cart we were in, we saw a group of workers coming our way and shining lights in our eyes. “What the hell are these yahoos do…” That was as far as he got before he was hit in the face by at least one bullet. When I saw him hit, I immediately bailed from the cart as it began to coast to a stop. I rolled up against a good old concrete wall, then jumped up and ran quickly around a corner and out of the direct line of fire. I had my bullpup with me, so that was good, but I only had a total of five 30 round mags for it. Once out of the line of fire, I stuck the barrel of the bullpup around the corner and blindly dumped half a magazine in the General direction of the those who had ambushed us. I think I may have hit one or two from the screams I heard, but they probably weren’t serious. I clicked on my strobe light and started aiming for headlamps. Denver doesn’t keep all the lights on everywhere because if they did, they would run out of power rather quickly, so most workers keep headlamps or flashlights with them all the time. Without the flash lights, it gets really dark in those long corridors really quick.

   There were seven men in the team sent to kill me and none of them really understood how to accomplish their task and like I said, those headlamps were perfect aiming points. Add in the effects of the strobe and it wasn’t much of a fight. When the last one was down, I turned on my own headlamp and checked out my escort, he was dead. Then I looked over the men sent to kill me. Every single one was equipped with a Glock nine-millimeter hand gun, but several were also supplied with stocks for the Glocks like the one Debra had for hers. I picked up two of the handguns and all four of the stocks. The men equipped with the stocks also had over-the-shoulder bandoleers that held three of the thirty-three round Glock stick mags plus one in their weapons, I gathered those also. Then every loose or inserted 17 round mag the others had. I dropped all of it in a five-gallon bucket, placed the body of Frank in the rear seat and headed back to the main area of DIA in the electric cart.

   There was a full-blown insurrection in process.

   I spent a good deal of time searching for Danni. The Denver Rangers didn’t know where she was and the Asylum Rangers didn’t either. The rooms the Education Committee occupied were officially behind “enemy lines” and that was where Danni was supposed to be have been when everything went down, so several of our Rangers went with me on more than one occasion to try and reach her. We kept being turned back.

   It was bad the first day, but by evening things were looking up. The men under Rickett’s command, were spread through the facility and it took time to draw them together and then begin taking back areas the ZPG revolutionaries had taken. Once again, red armbands dictated who was shot and who was allowed to pass back into the areas controlled by our people. The Ranger Company from Asylum played a major role in consolidating and helping to bring Rickett’s people back together and when our two replacement platoons arrived, they provided the force to turn the tide.

   When the two platoons of Asylum Rangers arrived, they were immediately pressed into the effort and we began to push the red armbands into areas that continued getting smaller through the day and into the night. As they had at Asylum, the socialist/progressivist/communist, whatever they called themselves, were long on fervor, but not so much on ability. They suffered tremendous losses and we, in exchange, suffered few. They really did not know how to play soldier and they were facing one force that were all top tier operators and another that was about as well trained as humanly possible. On more than one occasion, I’ve heard combat veterans of the Asylum Rangers state unequivocally that our Rangers and Militia were some of the best troops they ever served with.

   When we finally broke through to the area where the Education Committee Office was; we found a body outside the door. We had to force the door open and I was the first person through into the office as I searched for my wife. She wasn’t there, but most of her gear and rifle were. There were three dead bodies in the room and more blood splattered about than I wanted to see, but like I said, no Danni. I started to panic; Danni would be a major coup if she was a prisoner, and as one of the hated Asylum Inmates, as we were referred to, her capture could be considered a propaganda victory and her death by execution an even greater coup.

   Turning to one of Rickett’s men, I said, “Get someone down here from Facilities and make sure they bring master keys with them!”

   “The door to the office is already open, what good is a master key going to be now?”

   With exasperation, I said, “So we don’t have to pry any more doors open, damn it!” I pointed to the man lying in the middle of a large pool of blood, “See that! He bled out from a slashed femoral artery! My wife, Captain Monroe, teaches that technique! This woman,” I said, “Two stabs in the left armpit, but that’s not what killed her, see the wound next to her neck in her right shoulder and the amount of blood? Subclavian artery!” I crouched next to the last body in the room and pulled his upper lip up and exposed the broken upper front teeth, “See that?” I rolled him on his side and indicated what appeared to be a knife wound in the center of his neck and the base of his skull, “That was caused by a long blade shoved through his mouth and out the back of his neck that severed the spinal column; he was dead before he hit the floor. Again, another of the techniques my wife teaches!” I started walking back to the front door and through it where I started studying the concrete floor and the final body; his throat had been viciously slashed. “She caught him here, tackled him from behind and cut his throat. She was alive when she left here and we need to find where she is!”

   I started walking slowly down the tunnel while a couple of my guys from Asylum started the other way, “Major! Over here!” I turned back and looked at what he was pointing to, a bloody boot print. “Sir?”

   I walked back to the body outside the door, stepped in the thick coagulating blood, and then returned and stepped next to the exposed boot print. Though smaller, the lug pattern was the same as mine, “Marine Corps RAT boots. It’s the preferred boot of my wife and the reason I wear them.” I pointed down the tunnel and said, “She went that way.” Turning to one of the men, I said, “Get Danni’s rifle and plate carrier for me, please?”

   “Yes, Sir.” He hurried back into the office.

   “Sir? We have a significant trail of blood droplets.”

   I rushed forward and checked, it didn’t seem to be from a dangerous wound, but more than I wanted to see. We started following and at the next side tunnel, there was a small bloody hand print on the concrete wall. The blood droplets turned and followed the new tunnel and of all the times for it to happen, the fricking lights went out! I felt the front of Dan’s plate carrier until I found the grenade pouch that held my headlamp. Reversing my cap, I placed the light over it and switched it on. Adjusting the beam and centering it better, I started following the droplets again.

   I came to a set of stairs next to the trail she was leaving and pointed up it, “Someone check for a blood trail on the steps.” I continued forward as one of the men pointed down.

   Beneath the stairs there was an electrical transformer, “Sir, I think she took a break here, or hid here. There’s blood smudges on the wall and on the top and side of the transformer.”

   I looked past and could see the blood trail continuing. Like I said, it wasn’t a lot of blood we were seeing, but enough to start becoming concerning if we didn’t find her soon. “Let’s keep going.”

   We passed several doors that she had obviously tried to open and left bloody smudges on, but were locked when we tried them ourselves. We kept going and finally the man in front of me walked past a door and stopped, “No more blood, Sir, nothing going on from here.”

   I tried the door knob and it turned. Looking at the signage it read, “Electrical Utility Room”. I gently pulled the door open and as I shined my headlamp in, I saw the feet, legs and then torso of a man’s body crumpled against a row of electrical conduits rising up and into panels. He was wearing a red armband and had a bandoleer of magazines slung over one shoulder. But no weapon. I leaned in slightly and continued looking past him to the end of the room, nothing. Then I repeated what I had done, but in the opposite direction. She was sitting on the floor in a corner, her back against the wall and leaning on the wall to her right. Her eyes were closed and the center of her face looked like she was wearing a mask of dried blood. Some sort of AK was lying across her thighs and was grasped loosely by both hands.

   I didn’t say anything, I dimmed my headlamp and then quickly walked to her, and knelt by her legs as I reached out and flipped the safety lever to safe. I removed the weapon from her loose grip and held it out behind me, one of the men took it. “Danni? Hon, can you hear me?” No response. “Honey, come on, open your eyes.” Again, nothing. I pressed my fingers into the side of her neck and found her pulse. Turning to the guys with me, I said, “Can you raise anyone on your radios?”

   One of the men stepped outside and I could hear him making the call. I heard him give the number of the room and then he stepped back inside, “Crash cart on the way, Major.”

   I lifted the sling of my bull pup off and handed it to the same man I had the AK and then scooped her up as I said, “Let’s take her outside.” Outside of the room, I laid her down and then removed the insert from my IFAK. The wound on her forehead didn’t look good, in fact it looked nasty. The cut spanned both eyebrows and was badly swollen causing the edges of the wound to gape open. I squeezed Triple Antibiotic gel into the open wound and then covered it with a pad of gauze. I used more gauze to wrap around her head to hold the pad in place.

   When I was finished, I slid my hand under the back of her head and said, “Danni? Can you hear me? Honey, I’ve got you, we found you and you’re going to be okay. We have you and you’re safe.” There was still no response and I continued to worry.

 

   She was unconscious for thirty-six hours and they kept her in an infirmary dedicated to the use of the Rangers of Asylum and Denver. I was really tired and was resting my head on the edge of her bed and I guess I finally fell asleep. I woke to whispering voices around me.

   “Here’s the Tylenol you asked for and another cup of ice chips. There’s water in the pitcher and if you need anything else, just press the call button.”

   I jerked awake and said, “What? Excuse me?”

   I heard Danni say, “Well, I guess we don’t have to whisper any longer.”

   “Danni! You’re awake!” I stood up and leaned over the bed to look at her. Both of her eyes were almost solid black and her forehead was still swollen, but not as much. “Are you okay? Do you need anything? Are you hurting anywhere? Just tell me what you need and I’ll get it or do it.”

   “Yes, no, and yes.”

   “Huh?”

   “Yes, I’m okay, sort of. No, I don’t need anything, but something to eat wouldn’t be a bad thing, and Yes, my forehead still hurts, but not as bad as before.”

   I rubbed at my eyes and tried to come fully awake, “Uh, okay, I guess you’re not suffering any brain trauma.” She laughed and then grimaced. “You must have a headache though.”

   “Yeah, a really good one, but it’s not as bad as it was. The nurse told me you’ve been here the whole time and just fell asleep a short time ago. Why didn’t you go to our room and get some sleep?”

   “Because I wanted to be here when you woke up! Hon, I was scared shitless…”

   “That you would have to explain to Debra how you allowed me to get hurt?”

   “What? No, because I was worried about you and…well, maybe a little.”

   She smiled and reaching up, she caressed my face, “And you think that somehow you should have been more on your toes and you failed at protecting me, right?”

   I leaned down and rubbed the side of my face gently against hers, “Yes, I should have…”

   “Stop it, now you sound like me and Debra.”

   “I’m used to you guys standing by my bed, not me standing by yours; I don’t like it.”

   “Sucks, doesn’t it.”

    I choked up and my voice broke, “Yeah, it does.”

   She reached up and held my face to hers, “Don’t feel bad, when I woke up and saw you there, it meant everything to me. It’s all I needed, honestly. You love me.”

   I nodded, “I know, it’s how I feel when I wake up to yours or Debra’s face.” I straightened up and sat back down, “Okay, so what happened? Why didn’t you shoot those assholes instead of using your K-Bar?”

   “I remember walking into the conference room and they had some papers spread out on the table, oh, have you seen Stella?”

   “No, did she have something to do with this?” I started getting pissed, very pissed.

   “No, I don’t think so, in fact, I think they expected her to be there so they could get their hands on both of us.” Danni started looking around the bed, moving and lifting the sheets. “Where’s that damn controller for the bed?”

   I reached out and picked it up after she exposed it, “Here.”

   She raised her upper torso to a more upright position and sighed, “Okay, so they asked me to look over their new outline and the next thing I know, I’m waking up sort of face down on the floor. My ears were ringing really loud, my forehead was hurting and I was looking into a puddle of blood. My right arm was pinned under me and I guess I must have groaned because I heard the bitch say, she’s waking up. I heard a guy say, good, I want her squirming while we fuck her, and the woman said something about him being a pig. I felt someone grab my ankles and start dragging me clear of the wall and that’s when I was able to get my hand on my K-Bar’s hilt. When he turned me over, I shoved the blade straight into his grinning mouth.” She laughed and added, “The look on his face was priceless.” I realized there was definitely different facets to Danni’s personality. “I shoved him off of me, got up and grabbed the bitch as she tried to run, I stabbed her twice in the left armpit and then in the side of her neck and shoulder. Then, a guy grabbed me from behind and was telling the fourth person to shoot me, but that guy was headed for the door. I twisted in his grip and dropped to one knee as I shoved my knife into his inner thigh, twisted it and ripped it out. I was going to try and slash it, but when I pulled out the blade blood started spurting out, so I knew he was going to be dead in no time at all. I reached for my sidearm, but the holster was empty, so I went over the table and caught the last guy as he was going out the door and took him down from behind. I put my knee in his back, reached over his head and sank my fingers into his eye sockets then jerked his head back while I cut his throat. I rolled off of him and laid there for a minute trying to keep from throwing up. When I finally started feeling better, I took his sidearm and realized it was actually mine that he had. I holstered it and tried to go back in the office and get my plate carrier and rifle, but the god damned door had shut and locked. I couldn’t get in and I could hear a shitload of shooting going on somewhere. I figured it might be smart to find someplace to hide until I started feeling better and that’s what I did.”

   “There was another guy in the electrical room with you.”

   “Oh, yeah, I guess he saw me go in and figured he’d take me out. What a dumbass. I put two in his chest and one in his head as he stepped in and then took his weapon. Then, I woke up here with you by my side and decided I really love having you around.”

   “I love being around.”

   “So, seeing as how you are here and the nurse says you’ve been here the whole time, I guess we have a handle on the revolt, or whatever it’s being called?”

   “Pretty much, but there’s still some holdouts here and there. They’ve been broadcasting on an internal radio system and inciting people to take up the cause for liberation, as they call it.”

   “You know, eventually we’re going to have to put our foot down on this bull shit. These people are going to keep at it until they get their way.”

   “Or dead,” I said.

   “There is that,” She replied.

   “Kind of a simple answer to a complex question; I shouldn’t go there, but after a while, it does get old.”

   “Debbie explained your Occam’s Razor to me; the simplest answer is usually the correct one? These are not good people who have been led astray with lofty ideals. They’re mass murderers who would do it again in a heartbeat. Fuck ‘em.”

   I nodded in agreement, “Yeah, but if you get right down to it, we’re good people and good people don’t do that shit.”

   “Really?” She asked. “When I see a rattlesnake it the woods? I walk on by and leave it alone. When I see one in the main tunnel back home? He’s on my turf and the son-of-a-bitch dies, why wait until it bites someone?”

   “I feel where you’re are coming from, Hon, but I’m not sure others will see it the way we do.” I started to continue, but there was a knock at the open door.

   Danni said, “Come in,” and Lieutenant Colonel Rickett appeared. “Colonel Rickett?”

   He nodded and smiled, “It pleases me no end to see you awake, Captain Monroe. How are you feeling?”

   “Not really on top of things, Colonel, but I will be.”

   “Good, good, I came to speak with your husband, Captain, but I think you can be helpful in this also. I need some advice.”

   She nodded, as I said, “Sir.”

   “This latest unpleasantness, we need to find a way to deal with it and effectively end it.”

   Danni said, “You can’t deal with a problem until you recognize the problem.”

   “I’m sorry, Captain, perhaps I’m missing your meaning due an American figure of speech that I do not understand. Perhaps you could rephrase and elaborate?”

   She sighed and then said, “Colonel, your problem is twofold. First, what happened here the last two…?” She glanced at me with a questioning expression.

   “You were unconscious for thirty-six hours, so yeah, close enough.”

   She smiled at the Colonel and continued, “What has been happening here, Colonel Ricketts, is not, an unpleasantness, it was a full-bore attempt at mass murder; the murder of you, me, my husband, and anyone who disagrees with their vision of the future. That, quite frankly is not what I would refer to as unpleasant.”

   He nodded and said, “A simple cultural use of semantics, I assure you.”

   “Okay,” Danni said, “I’ll give you that for the moment, so let me ask you this, in the United Kingdom, what would you call a group of people, directly responsible for an attack that kills billions, not hundreds, not thousands, not tens of thousands, not even tens of millions, but billions of innocent people?”

   “We call them genocidal. Captain, the same as you.”

   “And their punishment should be?”

   “They would be arrested, tried, and if found guilty sentenced to prison.”

   “I see, and what prison would you send these people to, Colonel?”

   “I’m sure we can arrange something, somewhere.”

   “Do you have enough people left to act as security guards at this something, somewhere?”

   He stood there staring at Danni until he broke eye contact, “Capital punishment is out of the question.”

   “Our crime, Colonel, was simply living, and they murdered billions of us. What crime could they commit in your eyes, that would rationalize their executions?”

   “If we kill them, are we then better than them? Or the same as them?”

   “Better, Lieutenant Colonel Ricketts, we didn’t destroy the people of the world, they did. How many years in prison for the deaths of a million people? One year? Two years? Do we reduce the value of a single innocent child to microseconds of punishment?”

   “Captain, that’s an unfair representation of my belief system in regards to capital punishment.”

   “I disagree, I think it’s completely representative of your belief system. Until you stop them, they will keep coming back at you. Look, so you don’t want to be the bad guy and do what needs doing? Then offer them the same thing we did, tell them they can leave, in mass. You’ll provide them with food, water, and transportation to go where they will and live their lives as they will. But, also tell them if they stay, they will be tried for crimes against Humanity. That’s what we did, and they still came back and tried to retake Asylum by force. A lot of good people, our friends and neighbors, died because we did the right thing.  We held the moral high ground, yes, but our friends were still dead. Save yourself that pain, Colonel, just fucking shoot them.”

   He shook his head and looked at me, “Major Tarn, can I look to you as a person of reason and morality?”

   “Absolutely, Colonel.”

   “Thank god, will you support my view when you return to Asylum?”

   “Of course not. I agree with my wife one hundred percent. You will have to keep repeating the last two days over and over, until you stop being foolish, or they win, and if they do? They won’t give you a second chance, Sir, because you, your followers, and all you believe in, will be dead, an insignificant footnote in their version of history.”

   “I see, well, I’m disappointed with how this discussion has progressed and I see no reason to continue. The two of you will remain here until Captain Monroe is healthy enough to return to Asylum. I am not going to allow you to communicate with Asylum, or Holloman until you leave. I am going to retain the six platoons of Asylum Rangers until Denver has sufficient forces to guarantee our operations and then consider allowing them to return, minus arms and ammunition to ensure they are not properly equipped to be used in an attack on this facility. Good day, and I hope you will come to better sense in the future.” He spun on his heel and left the room.

   I looked at Danni and said, “Wow, I wonder if this is some kind of ploy? Or if he’s serious.”

   Danni looked up at me and said, “I’m going with serious. I think we need to contact Banner and start making plans to bug out.” She sat up straight and swung her legs over the side of the bed before almost falling forward as she raised her hands to her head. “Ow.” She blinked her eyes in an effort to focus and then said, “Get my clothes and let’s get gone.”

   “You, are in no shape to…”

   “Daniel! The faster we move, the harder for them to catch up with us; get my clothes!”

   I opened a cabinet and removed her clothing from where the nurses had put them. “Honey, we may be over-reacting, he’s probably…”

   “Daniel, never ignore a threat.” She reached for her clothes and took them from my hands as two of Ricketts’ men entered the room and blocked the doorway.

   “Major Tarn?” This one was wearing Sargent’s chevrons. “Lieutenant Colonel Rickett has ordered us to relieve you of your weapons and then ensure your safety while you continue to stay here in the infirmary.” They were both well-armed and I was not going to argue with them.

   I removed my duty belt and handed it to the one who spoke as I pointed to the rest of our gear and weapons stacked in a corner. He pulled my Ruger from its holster and laid it on the foot of the bed with the spare mags from the pouches on the belt. He handed my gear and bullpup to the second man and he walked away with it. He then gathered Danni’s weapons and gear, he drew her Glock and two magazines which he also laid on the foot of the bed. He handed her rifle and gear to the second man and again he left the room. He gathered the two sidearms and magazines and placed them inside the cabinet I had taken Danni’s clothes from and then held his hands out to Danni, “Captain, would you allow me to secure your clothing until you need them?” She handed him the uniform and he placed them on top of our pistols and then closed the cabinet.

   “Sir, follow me.” I did, but he stopped at the door to Danni’s room, and pointed across the hall to the second man who was standing in another open door, “As you can see, Sir, your weapons and gear are now secured as per the Lieutenant Colonel’s orders.” The second man pointed within and I could see our rifles and gear leaning against the back wall. He closed and then locked the door with a key which he then handed to me. “With our compliments, Major. There will be an armed guard at the front entrance as long as you are here, but unfortunately, we don’t have the manpower to guard the rear. Good day, Sir.”

   They walked away and I returned to Danni’s bedside, “Daniel, what just happened?”

   “I guess there’s some subterfuge going on?”

   “I don’t like not understanding what’s happening.”

   “Neither do I, but let’s see what’s going on before we jump the gun, speaking of which,” I opened the cabinet and handed the Glock to her and she placed it under her pillow before sitting back. My P-89, I slipped into the back of my pants and covered the grip with my shirt. “Let’s kick back and see what develops.”

  

   Several hours passed as we waited patiently to see what developed and a meal was brought for Danni, but nothing for me. When Danni asked why no food was provided for me, the person who brought the tray just stared at her blankly and then said, “He’s not a patient, I guess?” Then walked away. Danni tried to share it with me, but I refused and reminded her she hadn’t eaten in almost forty hours. She finally relented, but insisted I at least eat the crackers provided with the soup and sandwich she received.

   About two in the afternoon, Sara Banner arrived to pay a visit to Danni, not realizing I was there also. “Daniel? I thought you were returning to Asylum?”

   I frowned and asked, “Why would you think that? Do you really think I would leave while Danni was hospitalized?”

   She seemed confused, but said, “Well, no, I didn’t and neither did Theodore, but a messenger from Lt. Col. Rickett told us you were gone.”

   Danni quickly said, “That’s not good, it sounds to me like someone wants to disappear you.”

   Sara looked back and forth between us and asked, “What do you mean?”

   Danni asked her, “You didn’t know Rickett has ordered us held here until further notice?”

   “What!?”

   “We’re not sure what’s happening or even who is on whose side of what. Ricket ordered his men to disarm us and place a guard on the exit so we couldn’t leave, but the men charged with the duty, left us our sidearms, spare magazines, and the rest of our weapons and gear locked in a room across the hall, which they gave us a key to. They then told us they only had enough manpower to guard the front entrance, but not the rear.”

   Sara glanced out the door and then said, “Theodore needs to know this. I’m going to go tell him now because he was in a meeting with Major Higgins when I left. Is there anything else you need me to tell him?”

   “Rickett,” I said. “Told us he was not going to allow the Asylum troops to leave until he had control of the situation here, but when he did allow them to leave, they wouldn’t be leaving with their weapons or gear.”

   “Uh, oh, Theodore and his officers are not going to like the sound of that. Alright, I’ll be back later, okay?”

   “Thanks, Sara,” I said as she turned and hurried away.

   “Daniel?” Danni actually looked frightened, “I don’t like this at all. I think you should get our weapons and gear and keep them in here with us. God, I don’t know, maybe we should just get our shit and bail out of here now.”

   “Alright, I’m going to bring our stuff in here, why don’t you get dressed and when you’re ready, we’ll head out the back way and then work our way over to where the Rangers are quartered?”

   She nodded and leaned forward to swing her feet over the edge of the bed as I walked across the hall and unlocked the door. Inside, I gathered our weapons and gear and then returned to find Danni on her hands and knees beside the bed, “Danni! What’s wrong?”

   She pushed herself backwards until she settled her ass on her heels and mumbled, “Vertigo, as soon as I stood up.”

   “Shit, do you think you can make it with my help?”

   She shook her head and said, “No, but you should go, I bet they’re more interested in you, than me. Once you’re clear come back for me with help.”

   “No, absolutely not! We go together, or not at all.”

   “Babe, it will be okay, but only if one of us is out of here and gathering help.”

   “I said no, and I meant no!” I helped her up and steadied her as she leaned back against the bed again.

   “Babe, Daniel, try to reason it out. You can’t help me if you trap yourself in here with me. Give yourself some options by getting the hell out of here while you can; do it for me, please.”

   I stared at her and then said, “Relax for a minute and I’ll be back.” I quickly exited the room and walked down the hall to the Nurse’s Station and in a nonchalant manner asked, “Hey, my wife is looking to use the bathroom and she’s a bit unsteady on her feet, do you guys have a wheelchair she can use?”

   The woman behind the desk said, “Yes, we do, give us a minute and we’ll bring you one, okay?”

   I said thanks, and then returned to Danni, “I asked for a wheelchair, so I can take you to the Ladies Room.”

   “I don’t have to…”

   “Yes, you do.”

   “Oh!” She smiled and said, “Yep, I definitely need the Ladies Room.”

   “While we’re waiting for the chair, I’m going to the Men’s Room, I’ll be right back.” I left, took a leak, and then returned as one of the nurses was leaving the room. When I stepped back inside, Danni was already sitting with her feet dangling off the side of the bed.

   “Get my clothes for me?”

   “Not yet, I’m actually going to take you to the Ladies Room and I want you to try and empty your bladder. We may be deprived of the luxury later.”

   “But, okay, but it won’t do any good if…” I gave her a look and she said, “Okay, okay, I’ll try.”

   I helped her into the wheelchair and then pushed her to the rest room. Once inside, I closed the door, helped her to the toilet, and then stood with my back to the door. She frowned and said, “What are you doing?”

   “Waiting for you to finish so…”

   “Out!”

   “What? Why?”

   “Because you’re staring at me and I can’t pee while you’re staring at me!”

   “Danni,” I sighed. “Come on, what if you couldn’t even get out of bed? Who do you think would…”

   “Not you! There’s no way,” she stopped and looked at me before she said, “Well, maybe if I couldn’t get up, but I can, so you will, step outside.”

   “Oh, for god’s sake, Danni!”

   “Who made Debbie stand outside while he went to the bathroom in the Clinic?”

   I looked at her for a moment and then relented, “Okay, have it your way; how will I know when you’re finished?”

   “How do you think you’ll know? You’ll hear the toilet flush.”

   I shook my head, but stepped outside, closed the door, and then stood there waiting. One of the nurses at the station was watching me and finally asked with a smile, “I guess the two of you haven’t been married very long?”

   “No, Ma’am, we haven’t.”

   “I thought so, my husband and I were married for six years and never shared the bathroom; we figured the day we did; the romance would be over.”

   “So, you’re not married any longer?”

   “He died in the Second Wave.”

   “Oh, I’m sorry for your loss.”

   She nodded and returned to writing on a form she was filling out while I continued to wait, finally I started to reopen the door when I heard the toilet flush. I opened it and Danni was already in the wheel chair. “I was going to help you getting in. What took so long?”

   She gave me a playful slap and said, “Knowing you were right outside the door and listening didn’t help very much. Next time, can we not discuss it?”

   “Yeah, I thought about it and it seems to me if we start pissing together, all the romance will be gone and I would rather it last a very long time.” I didn’t bother telling her I got the idea from the nurse; I just stole it and ran with it.

   “Aw, Babe, that’s so sweet. Wait till I tell Debbie.” She reached up and pulled me down to kiss her even though she grimaced.

   “Those Tylenol haven’t helped?”

   “Not really, at least I don’t think so.”

   I grabbed the handles of the wheelchair and returned to her room where she started dressing while still sitting on the chair. It was a struggle, but we made it happen. When she was fully dressed, boots and all, I stepped to the doorway and glanced both ways before crossing the hall, unlocking the door, and getting our equipment and weapons. Back in the room, I helped her put on her plate carrier and hung her rifle over the back of the chair and then removed her Glock from under her pillow and placed it in her holster. There was a small water pitcher on a side table, so I poured it into my hydration bladder, which was almost empty. I then kitted myself up and with a final look down the hall, I pushed her through the doorway, up the hall, and out the rear doors.

   The bad thing is, I’m really not familiar with the underground of the Denver Enclave. I started pushing Danni down the corridor we were in with no idea where it would lead us and I could see water quickly becoming a problem. Danni had been at a meeting and hadn’t brought water with her because they always had bottled water available. I had my hydration bladder on my back, but there wasn’t much left in it, even after adding the contents of the pitcher; I told Danni to keep an eye out for some sort of water source and kept pushing.

   “Babe, do you have any idea where we’re going?”

   “Not a clue, I can tell directions at Asylum, but I’m totally turned around here. What about you?”

   “I think we’re going South, but I don’t know if I can trust my internal compass with my head hurting the way it is.”

   I slowed to a stop and knelt beside her, “Thomas says both you and Debra have well-developed senses of direction, and I’m not ashamed to admit I don’t. Do you want me to turn around and head back the other way?”

   “No, but I wouldn’t mind if we found somewhere to hole up for a bit, I’m getting nauseated.”

   “Because of your injury?”

   “Probably.”

   “Okay, new priority, somewhere to hide out and then water. Got it. Do I turn around?”

   “Next side corridor, turn right, go at least two corridors and turn right again; that should put us well away from the Infirmary as we head back.”

   “Okay,” we proceeded, found a corridor and turned right, and then Danni hit the brakes on the chair and brought us to an abrupt halt. “Danni?”

   She leaned to the side and vomited her meal. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hold it any longer.”

   “It’s alright, just let me know if you need to stop again.” I opened my possibles pouch and dug through it until I found a small packet of wet wipes. “Here,” I handed it to her, she tore the packet open and shook out the wipe before cleaning her face.

   “Water?” She asked.

   I pulled the hose for my bladder loose and she sipped at it sparingly. “Ready?” I asked.

   She nodded and I looked closely at her to judge for myself, then she said, “I look like shit.”

   “Not really.”

   “Daniel, there was a mirror in the Ladies room; I look like shit.”

   “You’re a beautiful, sexy woman that’s having a bad day, and if you didn’t feel so bad, that place to hole up for a while would be a good place to make love for a while.”

   “You’re weird.”

   “I know.”

   “I kind of like your weirdness though.”

   “I know.” I continued pushing and finally I said, “Right turn coming up, do you want to stop for a moment?”

   “Please.”

   I allowed the chair to slow to a stop and then knelt down next to her again, “Water?”

   “Yeah.” I didn’t put the mouthpiece to her lips though, I removed the hydration pack and hung it from the frame of the chair and then placed the tube up and over her left shoulder where I clipped it off so it would reach her lips.

   “Now you can draw on it without us stopping, okay?”

   “Thank you, but my stomach seems to settle a little when we stop moving.” She sipped from the bladder and I could tell she wanted more than a sip.

   “Drink what you need to Hon, don’t worry about saving some for me; I’m good to go.”

   She nodded and said, “If I start needing to stop…”

   “Don’t tell me when you need to stop, tell me when you want to stop. There’s no sense in constantly being sick when stopping helps, okay?”

   “Babe, you’re the best.”

   “Finally coming to terms with my greatness?”

   “Don’t push it.”

   “Gotcha, are you ready?”

   She nodded and I started pushing her around the corner and straight into a group of six red arm bands. I think the whole situation caught all of us by surprise. Danni was the first to react, she pulled her side arm and fired as I was swinging my bullpup up and I know she got at least two before I fired a shot, but then we both finished them off. After we stopped firing, I just stood there and looked at them as I kept my weapon aimed at them. Six men dead in seconds because they thought they could take on trained troops. They thought all they needed were guns and red arm bands and they were good to go. They weren’t. They had their weapons slung over their backs and never even got them pulled around to fire at us.

   “Daniel?”

   For some reason, I was feeling incredibly sad, “Yes?”

   “Babe, check their sling bags, maybe they have water.”

   “Yeah, I imagine they do.” I walked forward and opened one of the bags, three sixteen-ounce bottles and one partial of water. There were also two MRE sandwiches, several packets of crackers and two foil packets; one tuna and one spam. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but serviceable none-the-less. I pulled the bag off the body and went to the next. Pretty much the same though with minor differences in food stuffs. I pulled off another bag and sorted the items between the two; water in one, food in the other. I came away with two bags of water bottles and one of food. The water I started pouring into my hydration bladder for Danni, but I gave her a full bottle as well. I figured we’d keep the bladder full for an emergency in case we had to abandon the wheel chair. I dropped two bottles into my cargo pockets along with a couple of MRE sandwiches that sounded promising, Pepperoni with cheese and Barbequed Beef. Danni chose two that were labeled Egg and Cheese and put those in her cargo pockets as I had.

   “Babe, we shouldn’t leave the weapons and spare mags for their friends.”

   “I know, but they’re too much to take with us.” I glanced around and saw a set of stairs going up to the top of a line of rooms, “Up there maybe?”

   “Yeah, I’ll stand watch while you take them up.” I reached behind the chair where her rifle was secured and then handed it to her. Their weapons were once again some variety of AKs and each of the men had two spare mags tucked in their rear, or front, pant pockets. I used another bag to gather the mags and then carried them to the stairs and to the top where I left them and the AKs. When I reached Danni, she was actually eating one of the sandwiches.

   “Feeling better?” I asked.

   “Not really, but I’m hoping some food might help.”

   “Okay, ready to go?”

   “You should eat, you haven’t had anything all day; did you eat yesterday?”

   “I was too busy,” I said as I started pushing the chair towards the direction the red arm bands had come from.

   “I thought you were by my bedside yesterday? What could be so busy about that?”

   “I was busy worrying about my wife.”

   “Oh, okay then, but you should still eat.”

   “Later, I’m kind of wound up pretty tight right now.”

   I was sad, and I was pissed, the ZPGers kept sending young men without training to die for them. It just didn’t seem right. Danni went quiet and after a few minutes, she said, “That shit back there, that’s not on you, Babe, it’s on their leadership for sending them out without the things they need. All this would end if they would just…stop.”

   “I know, we have to kill them or they’ll kill us, I know that.”

   “Do you want me to shut up?”

   “Never, besides, what you’re saying is validating what I’m thinking. If we want to end this shit, we need to put a done sign around the necks of their leadership cast.”

   “With people like Rickett running things, that’s not going to happen.”

   “Again, I know.”

   We both became silent until she said, “Daniel, we’re going the direction those guys came from.”

   I stopped, “Yeah, we are. I wonder if there’s more back that way?”

   “My best guess? Probably a lot more.”

   “Damn it!” I started turning the chair around.

   “Babe, wait a minute, maybe we should recon that way and…”

   For some reason, what she was about to say pissed me off, “Recon, you want to recon, from a fucking wheel chair? You’re in a wheel chair, Danni! Give me a break!” As I continued turning the chair, I added, “You and Debra are mirror images of each other, ‘Hey, let’s go fuck some shit up! Sounds like a lot of fun, woohoo!’ In a fucking wheel chair?!”

   I started walking at an increased rate in the opposite direction, “Recon,” I muttered. “She wants to recon.”

      She was unusually quiet for a few minutes and finally said, “You’re right, that does kind of sound like Debbie and I, doesn’t it?”

   I didn’t say anything, I just kept pushing.

   “And we cause you to worry, a lot.”

   I sighed and stopped, “Yeah, I do worry a lot, but I love you two and that’s who you are, so, but recon from a wheelchair? Come on, Danni!” We arrived at the place where we killed the six men and I stopped long enough to write down the intersection number and the direction a recon team would need to go. After I did so, I pushed on.

   After less than ten minutes, I thought I could hear an electric cart approaching, so I pushed Danni to the side of the corridor and then I went to the opposite side hoping I could draw gunfire to me and not her. As I pressed against the wall, a cart pulled to a stop at the next intersection, a good hundred feet away, and the two men inside studied a large rolled up sheet of paper, I realized they were wearing the MTP camo the Denver Rangers all wore. Stepping away from the wall, I whistled loudly and then waved as they both looked in our direction. They seemed to discuss the situation and then they turned and started driving the cart in our direction.

   When they arrived, the driver said, “You’re Major Tarn, right?”

   “Yeah, listen, my wife and I had a run in with a small group of red armbanders and we’re trying to get to where our people are billeted, can we get a ride?”

   He looked at Danni and I followed his gaze; I hoped she was trying to look weak and wore out to encourage his sympathy, rather than actually feeling the way she looked. “Yes, Sir, of course. We are supposed to be doing a sort of reconnaissance, but we haven’t seen anything yet.”

   “I can give you the intersection number where we fought the red armband guys and the direction they were coming from.”

   “That would certainately help, Sir, we’ll take a look and come back this way for the two of you.”

   “You won’t consider taking my wife first?”

   “We have our orders, Sir.”

   “Alright, how about this, we’ll ride with you to where we contacted the red armbanders, one of you drive my wife to the Asylum billet and I’ll go with the other to do the recon.”

   “No,” Danni said. “If you go, I go.”

   I looked at her and then back to the one I figured was in charge, “Deal?”

   The two men glanced at each other and the quiet one shrugged before the talker said, “Sounds like the best way to achieve both tasks, Sir. Your wife isn’t going to give us problems while we transport her, is she?”

   I stared at Danni and said, “No, she’s not, are you, Honey?” It wasn’t really a question, more of a strong suggestion.

   “Daniel,” She shifted in the chair and finally shook her head. “Agreed, but if you get hurt again…”

   I immediately started transferring what was attached to the wheel chair to the cart and then helped her to sit in the front seat. It took me a moment to figure out how to collapse the chair, but then I loaded it also. When we were done, I climbed in the rear seat and told the driver to continue driving the way we had come from. In the cart, it didn’t take anywhere near as long as it did me on foot pushing Danni. Myself and the second man got out and prepared ourselves. I took my hydration pack, and slung it over my back and then made sure Danni had the sling bag we put bottles of water in previously.

   The driver backed into the side tunnel and then turned and drove away. I looked at the Denver man and said, “Major Tarn and you are?”

   “Lance Corporal Devin Lucian, Special Detachment…Uh, Denver Rangers, Sir.” He wasn’t British, I knew that.

   “Where you from Lucian?”

   “Louisville, Kentucky.”

   “I knew a guy from Kentucky once and it took forever until I could start understanding anything he said.”

   “Both my mother and father were teachers, Sir, and insisted I learn to speak minus the accent.”

   “Okay,” I said. “We need to go that way,” I pointed the way the red armbands had been coming from. “Oh,” and I pointed up the stairs where I had left the recovered AKs. “There’s six AK variants up there.”

   “Thank you, Sir, I’ll remember that.”

   We started walking and I asked, “I hear Lieutenant Colonel Rickett is not going to hold any of these people responsible for the shit they’re throwing around?”

   “I’m not at liberty to discuss…”

   “Bull shit, tell me you guys are good with his letting this happen over and over.”

   “Well, no, Sir, but it’s taken a while for the powers-that-be to exercise common sense. Major Higgins sent my partner and I, along with six other teams to see if we can locate any large concentrations of enemy personnel. If we can, he wants to contain them and then neutralize the threat.”

   “By taking them prisoner, or something else?”

   “In the past, Rickett would parole anyone who surrendered. He said it was standard policy dating back to the end of World War Two to leave enemy bureaucrats running things so there could be an easier transition.”

   “He’s right about leaving the Nazis in charge, but like a lot of people, he leaves out the distasteful parts. Whenever one of the lower-level Nazis left in charge thought about restarting the party, all they had to do was watch the Nuremberg Trials and the outcomes. We hung all the leaders.”

   “Yes, Sir, I’m a bit of a history buff myself.”

   “Good for you, okay, we’re coming up on the spot where my wife and I turned around, so let’s act like we know what we’re doing.”

   “Sir.” He moved to walk along one wall and I moved to the other. Once he was in position and looking at me, I pointed down the corridor and silently motioned him forward as I moved out also. For the next ten minutes, we communicated entirely with hand signals until we reached another intersection and stopped as he held up his closed fist, then pointed down a corridor to our right and cupped his hand around his ear. I was on the right, so I approached the corner, dropped down prone and eased my head out until I could see what he was apparently hearing. There was a small group of armed men in civilian clothing clustered outside of a set of double doors that were open. Once around the corner, I could hear a low murmuring sound and pulled back out of sight.

   I wiggled backwards and then sat up to find him almost on top of me. “How many?” He asked.

   “Six, no, seven, loitering around a set of open double doors.” I whispered as I pointed back the way we had come, “Stairs, let’s take ourselves up there and see if we can get closer.”

   He nodded, rose to his feet and began jogging ahead of me. At the stairs, he took them two at a time and I followed on his heels. Then we cut back and dropped to our bellies as we approached where we thought the group of men would be below us. The description of our movement sounds like we simply ran across an open area, but in reality, above the rooms was a maze of ducting, conduit, and piping.

   Crawling to the edge, we looked down and saw the same seven men. They were armed and equipped the same as the men Danni and I had taken out, but more important were the sounds coming from within the double doors. It sounded as though scores of men were inside. I scooted back and then waved him back as well. Putting my mouth next to his ear, I asked, “You have a radio, will it work down here?”

   He waved me farther from the edge and whispered, “I’ve been doing radio checks while we walked here; no reception, but I have an interphone like the ones maintenance uses. All we need is a phone jack, there’s one at the beginning of each block.”

   I crawled back and wrote down the room number, then rejoined Lucian and we worked our way back to the stairs and down. We quickly trotted away until he stopped at a yellow metal box attached to a wall. Lucian opened the box, then from one of his pouches, he removed what appeared to be a normal, old-style hand held phone with a coiled wire attached, and inserted the plug into the jack. While he began making his report, I stood watch in case anyone started in our direction. Eventually, he unplugged and returned the phone to the pouch he kept it in.

   “Sir, I’ve notified HQ and they want us to hang loose and report any changes. They’re putting together a reaction team as we speak.”

   “Good, let’s get back up there and make sure these asshats don’t decide to bail out for some reason.”

   We did, and we positioned ourselves in a manner that would allow us to fire on the open doors if needed. Then we waited, and then we waited some more. Finally, I noticed an increase in the noise levels coming from the room and worked closer to the edge so I could see what was going on. There was a stream of armed men beginning to exit the room. Lucian looked at me with an alarmed expression and I sighed before raising up and opening fire with the hope it might drive them back inside. Lucian did the same and it had the desired effect, most, but not all of the men wearing red armbands ducked back into the room.

   The men in the room began to blindly fire their weapons out the doorways and down the corridors in a poor example of covering fire as several ran out in both directions. I shot the ones going towards us, and Lucian shot the ones running from where we were. One man managed to reach the nearest intersection and disappear from sight. I re-aimed at the doors and shot a man who leaned out to see, what he could see and then it became quiet. I took advantage and quickly changed out the magazine in my bullpup for a fresh one.

   “What do you think?” Lucian asked.

   “I think whoever is in there is looking for another exit. If there is one, we may find ourselves getting flanked, or attacked from our rear before help arrives.”

   “I have a bad feeling they received a warning from someone.”

   “Yeah, so watch your six.”

   “If you can handle this, I’ll move back and watch the stairs, what do you think?”

   In the distance, from somewhere close-by, I heard a rapid rate of gunfire and raised up with my weapon again pointed at the doors. “Our help may have just arrived,” I said.

   A crowd of armed men rushed out the double doors and began to again run down the two directions of the corridor and I opened fire again. The noise was deafening and I quickly realized more men were being hit and falling than Lucian and I could be responsible for. I wriggled to the edge, looked down the concrete hall and saw a group of Rangers advancing behind men with ballistic shields held in front of them. I had the impression of an advancing Roman Legion. Some of the men with red armbands began throwing down their weapons and putting their hands on their heads, but the incoming fire didn’t slacken; weapon, or not, everyone was being shot. I started targeting the ones who kept firing at the advancing wall of shields, but in moments, everyone outside the room was either dead, or dying. The shield wall kept coming and the troops waded over the bodies until they reached the open doors and then they formed a line and entered the room, firing as they went. A second line from the opposite direction arrived and added their numbers to those going in. Eventually, the gunfire died out and it became quiet except for orders that were being shouted out.

   I moved back from the edge and said, “Brutal, but efficient.”

   “If we would have done this before, we wouldn’t need to do it now,” Lucian said.

   I looked at him and I could tell, he was just as disturbed by the slaughter as I was. “I couldn’t shoot the ones who dropped their weapons,” I said. It was what I had advocated to Rickett, put a permanent end to the ones who kept coming back after being paroled, but saying it is one thing, doing it is another. It was like when we hanged Mary Stevens and Carol Parker, easy to say, harder to do. “Come on, let’s get down there.”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   We walked down together and by the time we reached the doors, Major Higgins was there and staring at what we had wrought. “Major Higgins,” I said.

   He looked at me and then nodded to Lucian, “It was the two of you that had them pinned in there?”

   Lucian answered, “Yes, Sir. They tried to run just before you arrived and we forced them back inside. I know at least one escaped.”

   “He didn’t, he ran into us down there,” he pointed with his chin. “He’s dead.”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   “Major Higgins,” I said. “Have you heard anything about my wife, Captain Monroe?”

   “She’s good, Daniel. She’s in our infirmary and doing better. If you would have stayed where you were, we could have got her to safety sooner. The men Rickett sent to arrest you were supposed to protect you until one of our teams got there.”

   “We weren’t sure what was going on, only that the Colonel wanted us out of the picture.”

   “Yes, he did. We’ve been telling him appeasement hasn’t worked and wasn’t going to work, but he kept doing the same thing over and over and expecting the results he wanted instead of what we got.”

   “The definition of insanity,” I said.

   He nodded and said, “Well, he’s no longer in command, so you can relax when it comes to him.”

   “What will happen to him?”

   “I’m going to offer to allow him to stay, but my guess? He’ll move on to greener pastures.” He sighed and added, “He was a good man, a good leader, but he just couldn’t accept what was happening.”

   “Can any of us truly accept what’s happening?” I asked. “I still think of all the people dead and gone, nations reduced to fiefdoms, how long it’s going to take us to rebuild, and I wonder, for what?”

   “Well, we do what we can wherever we are and hope it’s enough.” He said. “I think I’m going to throw myself in with you lot. I can’t think of a better place to start than here. Hell, there may not be any other place worth starting from.” He looked around and then said, “Well, I have a job to do. Lucian, there’s carts down around the corner, take Major Tarn to the Asylum billet and get him back with his wife.”

   “Sir.”

   “Major,” Higgins added, “This was a job well done and I’ll be sure to tell your Colonel when I communicate with him.”

   “Thank you, Major Higgins, let me know if there’s anything Captain Monroe, or I, can do to assist.”