Yet Harris insisted. He positioned a defensive cordon, then called Staff Sergeant Riley over. Ben was close enough to overhear the conversation.
“Riley, I need to take these three men back. I’m taking a squad to protect the wounded.”
Riley looked confused. Ben could see the wheels turning for the man. Ben could also see the look on Harris’ face.
The man was scared. He’d lost his nerve.
There are unspoken axioms in the military. One of them is that nothing is worse than incompetent or panicked leadership. It’s true. It tends to get people killed.
There had been cases where soldiers had covertly taken out bad leaders, for the greater good.
Riley must have realized that Harris was flustered.
“Of course, sir.” He replied.
Harris flinched slightly, having expected more resistance. A volley of gunfire made him flinch a second time.
“Um ... Yeah, very well. Good. ... I’ll ask Matheson for reinforcements when we get back. We will come after you.” The lie would have been apparent to a four-year old.
The platoon concentrated their fire to the north, clearing a gap in the direction of fire team two, and Harris was off with six men and the wounded, shearing off a third of their manpower.
From that moment, Riley split the remaining men into squads and started exercising ‘Bounding Overwatch’.
This meant that the squads moved in a leapfrog type maneuver. One squad covering while another moved. It worked smoothly until the fence they were following cut inwards towards a set of hangars and buildings.
The team had to change tactics at that point and prepare for close combat once more. Riley called the men in.
“Sing, take point. You, you three, and you – form a staggered line behind Sing. Garcia you got rear guard – pick five men. The rest of you with me. Stay frosty – we’re almost there.”
They were getting close to the other fire team. Just a few hundred yards past these buildings and up the main airport road remained between them and their objective.
It might as well have been on the moon...
As soon as the team entered the accessway between two hangers, the men on point started engaging the enemy. Within twenty yards, their rear guard also started engaging. They made it past the first buildings with no serious incident but frayed nerves. Riley swapped out the men on rearguard and point, and the team moved forward again.
Things went wrong as they progressed past a large hangar. Ben was positioned with the rear guard but suddenly heard yelling and screaming up front. He turned and saw that the guys on point had been overwhelmed. They had been engaged with what was in front of them when they moved past the open hangar door and got flanked by a large group of undead that had somehow ended up in the hangar.
Zombies rushed the men as they passed the opening. Ben saw a zombie leap, taking two men down. Others similarly tackled their prey by lunging, while most simply stumbled into the soldiers.
Riley’s men rushed forward to help. A couple of them ran up to try to pull their men to safety, and several others raised their weapons but were finding it hard to find a clean shot.
The zombies were ferocious. Ben could see them dog-pile on top of his struggling comrades. He could see the rising and dropping of fists as they were being slammed into victims and co-aggressors. He saw a zombie dart in with his mouth wide open, ready to bite down on a victim.
The next thing Ben knew, he had left his position at the rear guard, pulled out his side arm, and sprinted to the battle. He slipped past his own men and waded into the battle.
He shot a zombie point blank when it lunged at him. He dodged the falling body and stepped over to the first pile. He pulled a head back by the hair and shot it through the temple, aiming sideways so that he wouldn’t hit his own man. He kicked another zombie off the pile and shot it. He felt a hand on his leg, spun away and shot the face of the zombie that tried to bite him.
Without hesitation, he pulled another zombie off a soldier with a vicious yank on to the collar of its jacket, raised his gun to shoot another zombie that was about to lunge at him, and in one motion lower the gun to shoot the one at his feet.
He then moved on to the next pile.
The soldiers around him saw what he was doing and took the same approach. Within a minute the immediate area was clear of zombies.
Riley ordered all the men into the now empty hangar. He set up a few men to guard at the door and had the rest of his men assess the wounded. Only one man was dead, but eight more were wounded – two of which seriously.
Riley was considering how to proceed. He called Garcia and Sing over to discuss options.
“Sorry to tell you sir but this is serious Charlie Foxtrot.” Garcia offered.
“I need something constructive, soldier. Stop dicking around!” Riley snarled. Garcia had the good grace to look embarrassed.
Riley showed no hesitation in delivering fang. Ben had to respect that.
“We got eight men injured sir.” Sing spoke up. “One is expectant...” He continued in a lower voice, indicating one man was not expected to live. “Four of the other seven are broke dick.”
Riley thought for a moment. He looked around the hangar. Then he saw the metal staircase leading up to what looked like an office and nodded.
“Ok. Here’s what we do.” He turned to Sing. “Sing, go secure that office up there. Looks like that door is the only access, so we should be able to defend it easily.”
Sing swung the M4 off his shoulder and advanced on the office. He signalled the all clear to Riley when he stepped back out. Riley waited for Sing to return before speaking again.
“So, option one is we stick
