building.
'Anyway I see Ted over there and I am like, 'Ted? Man what is going on?', all he said was he was sorry, then he pull a loop of rope up off the roof and wraps it around his neck and jumps off the fucking building! Right in front of me! I ran to the edge and tried to pull him up.' Jack gestured to the edge of the roof, Juan and Charlie peered over cautiously, Charlie pulled back quickly, Juan just stood there leaned over the edge of the building looking down, he stood that way for probably thirty seconds, looking at the three bodies that dangled about ten feet from the top of the roof, none of them were moving, all of them looked like they had long necks, obscenely long, boneless necks. One of them, Sanchez? His tongue was protruding, dark purple and glistening wet from between his lips, all of the corpse's eyes were open.
'Juan?' Jack called, pulling him by the shoulders, back from the edge. Juan looked blank for a second then turned to Nanci and held her tight for a quick hug.
'Let me finish, here, before we decide what to do. I saw Ted do this and was trying to pull him up when the radio came back on, some guy on the other end, asking for Ted, I grabbed it, said, 'Ted is dead'. The voice swore, then came back on and said there was a bomb on the way, thanks to the relay booster Ted had set up, there was little immediate danger in my area, but I shouldn't look north for about a minute, in fact, I might want to get under cover. I asked where? Where was the bomb going to impact at? Thinking of the Mike's Club store, he just came back and said, the radio station, then, impact in twelve seconds. That's when I came over and started shouting for you.'
'Shit.' shaking his head Charlie continued, 'These guys relayed the coordinates for the drop! These guys nuked us!'
Nodding, Jack said, 'Looks that way. I wonder how much of what they told us was true? Probably it was a mix, huh? I just don't get why they would kill themselves.'
Juan pointed to the satellite disk, 'That still work?'
Shrugging Charlie said, 'Don't know. I doubt it, ain't there supposed to be an emp wave or something that kills all batteries and radios when it goes off?'
'It won't hurt to try.' Juan went over and clicked on the rather old fashion microphone, 'Hello?'
Immediately a voice came back, 'Who is this?'
'This is Juan Bustillo, who is this?'
'Juan this is Ed Stanson of the 19th Special Forces Group, currently stationed out of Fort Carson. Where are you Juan? Has there been an explosion nearby?'
Laughing quietly, Juan replied, 'An explosion? Yeah, there was a bomb dropped up here.'
'Okay how safe is your position? Were you close to the explosion, did you feel a heat wave or have any debris or dust fallen near you?'
'No, no we are far away. The bomb fell over by the airport, I think, we are on the south side of Denver, probably twenty miles away.'
'Good! Juan that is good! Are you further to the west than the explosion? Further west of it?'
'Yeah, yeah we are, why?'
'The winds, they will carry the dust from the bomb and the dust will be radioactive. I think you are out of harms way. Do you know the address of where you are at? Do you see any street signs?'
'Ah, no, no address, I know where I am, you aren't going to bomb us are you?'
'What? No, no, what are you talking about? We want to rescue you, send people to come and get you.'
Chapter 25
Dave was crouched down behind the broken glass of the store front, he was looking out at the group edging towards his motorcycle, there were eight of them. A stranger group he could not have imagined. Just kids, older kids, they had weapons, not just bats or pieces of pipe, but what looked like actual swords, one of them had an ax, some of them were wearing what looked like armor, chain links woven together in an integrated pattern. Pretty really. And pretty stupid, Dave thought, bullets were not stopped by the stuff they were wearing and he doubted the large shields three of them were toting would do much to deflect a thirty eight caliber piece of lead either. Dave loved stupidity. The kids had a couple of little ones with them too, a boy and a girl.
'So.' he whispered to his boy, 'You want a boy for a friend or a girlfriend?' The boy, who Dave had named, 'Nuke', was much better than he had been at six this morning. Thanks in large part to a man who had fell for the old, 'gun on the seat' thing around seven thirty. The guy was massive, three hundred pounds if he was a hundred and he was slow, which was awesome. Dave just waited for the fat slob to approach the gun then he and the kid stepped out of the store and got his attention. The man, almost to the gun, was already sweating beads in the cool morning air and he did not stop to look at Dave or the kid, he knew he had to get the gun and when he did, he whipped it around and pointed it at Dave. Dave had kept coming closer, in a slow walk, not even bothering to take his own pistol out of his holster. He had kept the gun loaded, but not with a bullet in the chamber, the fat guy surprised Dave by knowing how to chamber a round, but when the gun simply clicked, the guy had deflated, he had looked noticeably smaller and pale. Dave kind of wanted to drag it out, play with the dude a little, however the man was so pathetic looking that he opted for a quick pistol whip upside the head, while the guy was down Nuke jumped on his leg and started feasting, the fat guy was not out though, after being bitten and pistol whipped he still swung around and punched Nuke a good blow to the head. It never ceased to amaze Dave how people fought for their lost causes. He had to hit the guy three more times before he went down and then they both enjoyed a good breakfast. Dave had been taking a lot of hits lately and the extra charge he had gotten from fatty seemed just the thing to push him back up to full strength.
Nuke seemed to benefit far more from his meal than Dave, the pure amounts that he consumed amazed Dave and by the time he was done eating he could not only talk coherently, but his little belly was so distended that Dave was tempted to call him 'Ethiopia', instead of 'Nuke'. That was a couple hours ago and Nuke had vomited a vile ichor and shat more of it out, once in his pants, which disgusted Dave so much that he beat the boy and had made him go naked until he was sure he was not going to go any more. Now Nuke had on some loose sweat pants, easy to get down in emergencies, plus a pair of Nike's which seemed to fit him well enough, on top was Rockies t-shirt two sizes too big.
Answering his question, Nuke said, 'Boy, no girls.'
Dave smiled cruelly and said, 'Shows what you know stupid. The girl can open doors your wanker never will. Adults go ape shit for girls in distress. I'll take them both. No, you'll take them both and if either of them winds up dead, so will you. I got no use for people who don't do as I say. Got it?'
Nuke nodded and they continued to watch as the group outside had a discussion, about eighty feet away at the end of the block. One of the girls had a bow, a goddamn bow and arrow. Dave smiled. 'Christ, girlfriend, this isn't some sort of stupid game.' Still it would pay to be prudent, what if she knew how to use it. Shoot her first, or at least at her, then take out the bigger boys. Six shots for six people, and Dave knew he would miss. At least once, probably; he would be lucky to hit three of them, they were not slow zombies he could throw rocks at. Yeah figure on getting three of them down, then either re-load and shoot the rest of them or just go mano-a-mano, there was no way in hell they could win, Dave was feeling very, very strong right now.
Turning to Nuke Dave said, 'Get the kids knocked out or break a leg or something, so they can't go fast, then make sure any of them I shoot stay down, then jump anyone I am fighting from behind. You are not to run away, you die out there to keep me from dying, got it?' Dave put an extra mental push into his words, it gave him a feeling that Nuke could not disobey him, he was not sure if it would, time would tell.
Ah good, the group was making a decision, the right decision, to investigate the motorcycle and gun. The group came forward warily, at about forty feet from the motorcycle two of the heavily armored guys and the boy came forward, the rest of the took up a holding position. The third guy with a shield and the ax had a revolver, he took it out and held it down along his body. He looked inexperienced holding it, funny really he looked more
