“Security condition, over.”
“Mixed,” Faith replied, frowning thoughtfully. “Since the encounter at the road in, it’s died down. Frequent close-quarters attacks with low numbers. Probability of…break…Probability of incidental infection reduced with vehicles. Given current time, recommend rapid sweep of additional…stand by.”
She drew her .45 and fired twice, dropping the infected that had tried to sneak up on Sergeant Weisskopf. “Recommend rapid sweep by small teams using vehicles of additional heavily inhabited areas, then fall back to pick-up, over.”
“How close is the contact, over?”
“Running out of Marinespeak, break,” Faith said. “There’s just a lot of these buggers and there’s lots of concealment. They keep popping up like jack-in-the-boxes at really short ranges. That was the ‘stand by.’ One popped up ten meters away. I think we can maybe sweep the other areas with vehicles. Good news is more survivors than normal. Bad news is more leakers than normal. Over.”
There was a long pause.
“Two vehicles together at all times. If the road is blocked, they do not proceed. Keep back a reaction force. Repeat back.”
“Two vehicles together, aye. Blocked road, do not proceed, aye. Reaction force, aye. Over.”
“We are doing a thorough clear on Sint Eustatius, break. Recommend to the locals a change of scenery. Over.”
“Haven’t gotten to discussing that,” Faith said. “Was next on my list, over.”
“Roger. Keep me apprised. Kodiak, out.”
“I know how to use a gun,” Jennifer Toplitz said, raising her hand. “I don’t really like them, but I know how to use one.”
After their first visit to Saba, Jennifer and her husband Tom had given up the life of corporate ladder climbing managers, bought a small bungalow and moved there to live out the rest of their lives.
The bungalow had, fortunately, been walled. And she had managed to push Tom off a balcony when he turned. Between a small garden, a mango tree and hurricane supplies, she had survived. Stay? That was another matter. A zombie apocalypse had caused the allure of unspoiled Saba to pall.
“Why?” Faith said. “I mean, if you don’t like them…”
“I’m from Texas,” Jennifer said. “Not particularly proud of it, but I am. I grew up with guns and hunting. My dad made me. I’ve never shot a machine gun before, though.”
“This isn’t a machine gun,” Faith said, unclipping her M4, dropping the mag and jacking out the round in the chamber. “It’s an assault carbine. Here’s the mag. Think you can load it?”
“Like I said, I don’t know these,” Jennifer said, looking at the magazine. Faith had deliberately handed it to her upside down and backwards. Toplitz managed to turn it right way around and even could figure out how to jack the bolt. “At that point, there’s a safety and a trigger, right?”
“Right,” Faith said, holding out her hand for the weapon. “We’ve got some more of these on the ship. We’re doing a strong clearance on Sint Eustatius and leaving a security detachment to secure the oil point. Think you could train a local militia for defense?”
“No,” Jennifer said. “I really don’t.”
“I was in the Dutch Army for a while,” a heavyset man said. “I think between us we could organize something. I do know machine guns. I did not use the M4, though.”
“We’re already crowded with refugees from St. Barts,” Faith said. “And we don’t really want to pick up everybody from all the islands. If someone doesn’t want to go to Sint Eustatius and can handle the fact that there may still be a few infected, we sort of need them to stay. And pretty much everybody is getting off at Sint Eustatius. This isn’t a pleasure cruise.”
There was a flurry of shots from outside the emergency center and the crowd stirred.
“Is it safe, mon?” one of the men asked.
“Takes at least five rounds from one of these to put down an infected,” Faith said, touching the M4. “Generally. We train that everyone who has an infected in their sector opens fire and fires at least three rounds. That was three Marines firing five rounds each. Tango down. That, in fact, is how you’re supposed to do it. Trust me, you’ll fire a lot more. Only Imperial Storm Troopers are that precise.”
“How many infected are there left on this island?” Toplitz asked.
“We really don’t know,” Faith said. “We’ve got about five hundred stepped on, most of them up the road to the harbor. You really can’t know how many you’ve got but I’d say at least two hundred more scattered around the island. And if you get generators going and put on lights, especially at night, they’ll cluster down to wherever you’re gathered. Good news is you can whack them easier. Bad news is, if you’re staying you’ll need to do something with the bodies. We generally just make them and go.”
“Oh, great,” Jennifer said. “Is it going to be like that in Sint Eustatius as well?”
“Probably.”
“So now we’re supposed to clean up the bodies, too?”
“No,” Faith said, slowly. “You clean up the ones near where you’re at and let the bugs, birds, dogs and pigs do the rest. These kind of temps, they’ll be down to bones in a week or so. Cluster up somewhere with supplies, keep the windows closed for a week or two and you’re good. We’re looking at an estimate of one percent total survival, world-wide, ma’am. That is the definition of ‘not enough left to bury the dead.’ Then clean up the bones if it matters to you. If you’ve got a backhoe and someone who knows how to use it it helps.”
“How old are you, Lieutenant?” Toplitz said, frowning. She clearly didn’t think much of those suggestions.
“Thirteen, ma’am,” Faith said.
“Th-th-th—”
“I’d just finished seventh grade if that’s what you’re asking, ma’am,” Faith said evenly. “Since the Fall, I don’t know how many infected I’ve killed but this is pushing my eight thousandth hour in combat conditions. Thousands is the easiest way to say it, ma’am. I’ve cleared ten liners and fought my way out of Washington Square Park. I’m starting to get carpal tunnel in my trigger finger. And I’d be very proud to have been raised in the great state of Texas, ma’am. I had to settle for Virginia.”
“When do we leave?” Toplitz asked.
CHAPTER 27
“Stockholm har fortfarande manga smittade men omradena utanfor tullarna verkar rensade. Vi samlas pa Tranholmen. Isen haller for overfart fran Stocksund. Lidingo ar ocksa rensad och en grupp ansamlas dar. Om ni finner nagon mat, ammunition eller vapen, var vanlig ta med….”
“Well, as I live and breathe,” Sergeant Major Barney said. “It’s bloody Cloggies.”
Some of Sint Eustatius’ history had been well known to Colonel Hamilton. During the American Revolutionary War it was held by the Dutch, who were generally contemptuous of Continental customs enforcement. So it was the primary weapons supply point of the American Revolution. A certain British lord had claimed in Parliament that if Sint Eustatius had only sunk into the waves, “George Washington would have been dealt with years ago.” It was also the place that American forces were awarded their first recognition as a new country when Fort Oranje rendered a salute to an American man-o-war.