"God damn it." A voice said softly from where Bill's rock had hit.
Bill fell back as a figure shimmered into view. Draper pulled the hood of the garment he was wearing back, revealing his broad smile and too white teeth.
"I knew these things wouldn't work very well in the rain. And what's with the staring act Sergeant Ostling? If you saw me you could have just said something."
Ruben continued to stare, "Well, I was wondering what it would take for you to break your silence. How did you find us?"
Draper held up a familiar brick sized chunk of material, "Funny thing, all that shit in the pack wasn't exactly inert. What's this look like to you?"
"A goddamned brick someone stuffed into our bomb sack to make it feel heavier than it really was. Thanks for the beer." Ruben said.
Draper nodded, "Well to you old school 'before high tech' soldiers this is a brick." Draper threw the brick to the ground, bouncing it off of a piece of twisted metal. When it came to a landing the brick split, revealing a thin casing which surrounded what looked like a battery.
"A bug." Ruben said, "I should have known that you didn't want to lose us."
"A bug." Draper agreed, "And a fine bug it was, it led us to an alley behind a diner about two miles away. I'm glad you sweat a lot old man, or we never could have tracked you back here. Not that this was where we wanted to be, but what choice did we have. We couldn't figure out where you'd gone after you left the alley. I figured you got into a car, was I right?"
Ruben pointed back to the car he and Bill had driven up in, "Yes."
"Valencia, you owe me five buck!" Draper barked.
"Valencia's dead, sir." called out an unseen voice from nearby.
Bill looked around and slowly counted off the people around them. It looked like there were over a dozen.
"Shit. That's right. Whatever you did towards the coast, sure stirred up a bunch of the super zombies, they were running like crazy people to get away from there. We had a few dustups and not everyone lived through them. Did you know some of those bastards can see right through these things?" Draper pulled at his hood. "That was a surprise to us, I can tell you that. Thankfully most of them are just as blind to us as you are. Were."
"What are you doing here Colonel?" asked Bill.
"He is here for us." Ruben said, "Ain't that right, Colonel?"
"We finished our mission, caught a ride from our friends off the coast and came down to lend a hand. Or recover the bomb, as the case may be. So was your mission a success?"
"Was yours?" asked Bill.
Draper stared at Bill for a moment; finally he broke into another of his grins and shook his head. "No. We found a lot of dead people. And hordes more of the undead variety. We blew the safe house with one of our bombs and blew the ultra-secret safe house we weren't supposed to know about with the other. We even went by the old Greenbrier, just to see if anyone had made it there. Nothing good. We found a few very bad ass type people and I supposed you could say we rescued them, but we didn't find what we were looking for. Did you?"
"We found him. Sentry is dead. Max made sure of that." Ruben said.
"And you Lieutenant? What did you see?"
"Ruben's ass. I got shot, he carried me to safety. Max told him to and I was out of it."
"You're looking pretty good for a man who got shot." Draper's gun came around until the barrel was pointed at Bill's stomach. "Sanchez! Get a heat reading on this guy!"
"Just above norm, Colonel, he checks out. He ain't a zed."
"Is that how you can tell now?" asked Bill.
"It's quick and dirty, but they run cooler than we do, a good ten degrees. To someone like Sanchez the zeds show up like a beacon."
"And you couldn't share that tech with us?" Ruben asked.
"You had Max, what would you need with our toys?"
Ruben snorted, "Now what?"
"Well, we should go and check on your target, just to be sure. Then I think we will head south. The anchor-clankers can get us back on board, something is brewing with Cuba and I'm hearing a show of force is necessary to get them to back off."
"What?" asked Bill, "I thought we'd be going back home?"
"Relax, there shouldn't be any fighting. We'll sail around Florida and check out the base at Pensacola and then head towards Corpus Christi. I hear there is a Naval Air station there that is still functioning. We'll get you two on a plane back home in no time."
"Three." Ruben corrected, "Javier will recover, we've seen it before."
Draper raised an eyebrow to this, but didn't say anything.
"How long?" Bill's voice came out in a whisper.
"Well, we have to debrief you and the trip may take a little time. I won't shit you Bill, we have half a dozen things to check into already, a couple cruise ships, a lost destroyer, the Cuban's. And these are just what I know about. I hope to have you home by Christmas, but I can't guarantee that your country won't need you for something else. I know one thing though, the country, what's left of it. Needs a hero, one that can unite everyone and show them we can beat these things. They won't want you killed."
"It's just longer than I expected."
"So, shot you say? It looks like there won't be a lack of stories on out travels, will there?" Draper smiled again and nodded, "So let's get started. Ostling why don't you ride with me in that, whatever you call it, that you drove up here and take me to ground zero. Bill you'll have to make do with the vehicles the boys have scrounged up."
It would take Bill six months to finally get home and by the time he arrived every survivor there knew his name.
Epilogue
"Am I dead?" asked Katie.
"I like to think of it as 'body impaired'." Randy replied.
The explosion was frozen, with its heart only a short distance from where they were standing now. The initial blast had destroyed their physical forms, but all of the key players were still here and still struggling on a spirit level. Aubrey, Max and Stewart clung to a fighting Sentry as the slow wave of energy dissolved everything as it crept along.
"So we can leave?" Katie asked. The balance of power had shifted when their bodies were destroyed. Although Sentry was still strong and struggling the three on top of him were able to hold him in place. It would all be over in a few minutes. 'Although it's not really minutes. More like billionths of a second in normal time.' Katie thought.
Randy nodded in answer to her question, "And we should leave too." He was looking into the heart of the storm, which was an all devouring storm, obliterating anything it came into contact with.
"What about them, Randy?"
"They get to die heroes."
"I thought that was our job?"
Randy laughed. Although Katie could hear him, she couldn't hear the others, they were animated, but quiet. The whole world was quiet, a noiseless shadow of itself.
"Randy, I don't think I want to go."
Randy took her hand and looked into Katie's eyes.
"I don't think I can take anymore right now. I think…I think I am going to stay." Katie stepped towards Sentry.
Shrugging, Randy mirrored her movement. "I understand. I'm a little tired too."
Katie embraced him, he returned her affection and they both turned back to the spirit bodies on the floor. Examining them Katie said, "I think I can get in on his legs. Can you help out on his head?"
"I love you Kim Tonya Tucker."
"I love you Randal Justin Stevens."
When they latched onto Sentry's form, the yelling of the four people became a torrent of sound.
Stewart's voice rose above that of the others, "…throw this fucking asshole into that goddamn hole!"