“Mike.” Abi had turned and pulled her headset off her ear. “You’d better come over here.”
“Uh-oh. That can’t be good.” Mike walked over to Abi.
He sat down at the next chair and put on his own headset. After a few seconds she could hear him speak into his microphone
“Negative Sierra two, Kilo two-six is compromised. Standby. Over.” After which he turned to Abi. She was communicating on her own radio and writing something down at the same time.
Tammy watched all this from her kneeled position. It was just then that she noticed her own discomfort, and she winced as she shifted.
Dan saw this and walked over quickly. He extended his hand.
“Here, Tammy. Let me help you up.” She gratefully took his hand. She could see the bandage on her arm as she got lifted to her feet. It still held, and only the smallest droplet of blood was visible. Tammy felt self-conscious and embarrassed. She smiled at Dan.
“Thanks, Dan. I’m all right.” He shrugged off her thanks with a small smile and stepped up to the other woman, who had finally recovered from her run.
“Would you like a hand up as well?” He asked and extended his hand.
“No. I want to be carried around, baby style.” She quipped. Then, seeing the confused look on the soldier’s face she changed her answer.
“Sure. Thanks.” Dan helped her to her feet.
“Running. It’s not my thing.” She said, then looked around. “What is this place?”
Dan beamed at her. “Welcome to Kilo Two-Six Com HQ!” He said with a flourish at their surroundings. He received only blank stares in return. Slightly embarrassed, he explained. “This camp’s code name is K-26. And this is the communication headquarters...”
“We are the resident Communication Corps. Well, more like a squad really.”
The stares were still rather blank, but unperturbed, Dan continued.
“Mike over there is our C.O. That’s short for Commissioned Officer. He’s a Lieutenant and leads this team. He’s been doing this for a long time, as you can tell from his advanced age. He used to be a combat signalman – that means he saw actual combat – He’d be the first one to tell you!”
Dan chucked at his own humor, then continued quickly as he was met with confused stares.
“Sorry. We’re a pretty close-knit group. We’re always bantering with each other. You know, we’ve been operating communications gear in chicken coops like this” –he waved his arm around him– “for as long as I’ve been with them. That’s well over a year now. And I’m the new guy! The rest of the team have been together for many years!”
“Ahem ... anyway, Mike’s our boss. Abi and Willy are the primary radiomen. They pretty much spell each other off on the radio – they’ve been doing it for ten days straight! I only get on the radio once in a while, and mostly run around to support the rest of the team.”
Tammy interrupted at this point. “Willy? Who is that?”
“Oh sorry, I should have said BB His real name is Willy Boyne. Willy – Billy ... Billy Boyne ... B.B.” He explained.
Tammy hardly listening anymore though. She was distracted by Abi and Mike on the radios. Mike was communicating to one person or group, while Abi was communicating with another. Every few seconds they relayed information between the two of them through hastily scratched notes. Tammy took a step closer so she could hear.
Tammy could overhear Mike as he finished off his radio communication.
“Copy that Sierra two. Stay frosty out there. Whiskey Alpha Romeo out.” He said. He took off his headset and looked poignantly at the radio in front of him for a moment.
“Godspeed to those guys.”
Tammy left the radio operators and sat down at the bench near the back of the room.
ODDLY, THINGS QUIETED down for the next hour or so. They heard the occasional gunshots, but none of those came from anywhere nearby.
Tammy was sitting around a small table with Breanne. The woman had finally come to her senses enough to introduce herself. She seemed well-composed despite the horrors that had occurred. Breanne was a single woman. No parents or siblings or any other people that she really cared about. She did care about her cats, but they had died a week ago.
“I got picked up yesterday, after being stuck in my place for almost a week.” She said.
“I’m no good at being cooped up.” She continued. “Come to think of it, I guess I did what my cats would do. I slept a lot. I cleaned myself often. ... Also, once in a while I ran around the apartment like a maniac, screaming my lungs out.” Tammy guffawed at the joke.
The boy introduced himself as ‘Steve’. He didn’t say much more than that. He refused to answer when Tammy asked if he knew where his parents were. Tammy didn’t press the matter.
Tammy did notice something conspicuous after a while. It was Dan. The man was grabbing at his belly every minute or so. Tammy feared that he was infected with the syndrome.
Willy, or BB, on the other hand, actually seemed fine. Tammy got a good look at him when he spelled Abi off the radio. He was just a gaunt, skinny guy.
The group ate a late afternoon meal consisting of crackers, cheese strings and chocolate bars.
“Courtesy of our resident junk food junkie; Private Dan McKenzie.” Mike said with a grin on his face. The junk food was oddly tasteless and stale, but it was something at least. Dan was conspicuous in his lack of appetite, and his sense of humor seemed to have disappeared.
Shortly after their meal, BB received information from the main field headquarters. The news was grim. Everybody could tell that the news wasn’t good by the look on his face.
“Sorry folks. They’re not coming to get us. ‘’No assets available’ is what they’re telling me.”
“Oh no... What are we going to do? How are we going to get out of here?” Steve started working himself up. Mike walked over
