Again, John shook his head. “No time. But that should be enough firepower, providing most of us can shoot. Thanks, Bill.”
Bill nodded. “I’ll go prep the guns.”
“Hey, John...”
It was Ben. John frowned at the soldier, not quite ready to accept his presence, much less let him speak. He clenched his jaw shut, though, and did not object to him continuing.
“That sea can outside... I overheard Matheson’s men saying there are more weapons and ammo in there.”
“Hmm.” John had totally forgotten about the shipping container sitting in the parking lot. “Right. Mike, Em, Keith — you guys come with me.”
He looked at the group of people. They all looked back at him expectantly.
Huh, now I know how Craig felt.
“BB, Abi — you guys go help Bill get all the guns ready.” He stopped talking in order to think.
“John, if I may...” It was Ern.
John was grateful for somebody else to think along.
“I think you’re right,” Ern said. “We should not try to run. But we should think about where we can make a last stand if they get to the school.”
Several people looked scared at the proposition. Others nodded in agreement.
The answer came to John immediately. “The roof. Can you get some emergency supplies ready? Maybe some people can help?”
Half a dozen people shot into action, moving towards Ern.
John found Mike, Emily, and Keith by his side, ready to move. “All right, let’s go.”
“WEIRD THAT WE NEVER took a moment to check this thing out,” John said as they approached the sea can.
He rotated and lifted the latch, pulling the handles up and towards himself. Next, he opened one side of the door. His eyes lit up as he saw what was inside. Mike reached in and opened the other half of the door.
They stood in silence for a few seconds.
“We hit the bloody jackpot,” Emily said.
Mike laughed, and John smiled. Keith just looked back and forth from the crates and boxes to his companions, confused.
John grinned at the confused man. “Keith, what we have here”—John indicated the three crates on one side of the container—“are SAW M249s. SAW stands for Squad Automatic Weapon.”
Keith looked impressed but no less confused.
John grinned. “They’re game changers,” he stated with a friendly smack to Mike’s shoulder.
Mike stepped into the container and started going through the boxes.
“We got some ammo here, chief,” he said. He rummaged around some more. “Oh!” He exclaimed. He turned back to John. “You’re going to want to have a look at this.” A small smile cracked through his deadpan expression.
John stepped into the container and looked over Mike’s shoulder as he moved a box onto another stack.
He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “There’s got to be a way to use those...”
TEN MINUTES LATER AND key contents of the container had been emptied out. Some of the boxes were placed inside the school, but a couple of them stood beside the vehicles. Several people were helping load up the Humvees with ammunition, while BB and Bill worked on getting the SAWs mounted.
They had come up with a plan.
Of sorts.
John was worried that the fencing around the school would collapse as soon as the first few dozen undead pressed upon it, so the plan was to take the battle to the enemy and draw them away. The two Humvees would act as the rabbits. They would entice the horde of zombies to follow them, even as their mounted automatic weapons thinned the herd.
This was Plan A.
The first vehicle would be manned by Mike, Abi, and John. Mike would drive, Abi would man the radio, and John would take on the role of gunner. BB would drive the second vehicle and Bill would be the gunner. Surprisingly, Breanne volunteered to operate the radio.
“I can’t shoot a weapon. Might as well make myself useful,” she said with false bravado.
John could tell that the woman was nervous. She was shaking like a leaf. He walked up to her and put his good hand on her shoulder.
“Welcome to the army, soldier,” he said with a grin, intending to hearten the woman.
She looked up at him thoughtfully before replying, “Sure! Right... It will be just like Call of Duty, I bet.”
“Call of what?” John replied. “Never heard of it!” The grin gave him away, though.
“Oooh! We’ve got a comedian here!” she said, rubbing her hands before turning away.
Now that the crews of the Humvees were sorted, John started figuring out what else they needed.
Jack and Ethan offered to man the radio and run messages. Emily would not be on the radio, as she had a more important job to do.
That job was part of Plan B.
John didn’t want to leave the school unprotected, so had a few surprises installed outside. Inside the school, they also had some decent defenses set up.
“Why don’t we place people outside?” Joe had asked. “We might have enough shooters to keep them clear from the fence.” His own argument didn’t seem to convince him.
“Let’s not take the chance.” John said. “As a matter of fact, I’d prefer it if the rest of y’all stayed hunkered down in the school. Maybe you can stay undetected that way.”
They landed on a compromise.
They had taken the third SAW and set it up on the roof of the school.
