get to. Les and Marla said good-bye and flew off. The planes turned and made one last pass overhead, each dipping their wings in a final wave, then headed south.
“Are we going to stay here for a while?” Rick asked.
“No, we need to make up some miles today.” I replied.
“The we'd better get going.” He said. “There's a bunch of zombies headed our way.”
I looked down the road and saw the group of zombies headed our way. Two were running full out and six more were stumbling along behind the runners. Al pulled his pistol out, nonchalantly shot the two runners, and turned to walk to the truck.
“Cindy, are you coming?” He asked.
Chapter 10
Day 4
Sergeant Adams came running into my tent a few seconds later shouting that there were zombies in the barracks with the people from the Pentagon.
“During the night, a convoy of vehicles from Fredericksburg was let into the fenced area up the road. There was about sixty people in all. No one bothered to check the refugees when they came in and I'm guessing that somebody in the group was infected.”
“Get the men together and let's get over there. Make sure everyone brings their rifles. From now on we stay armed at all times.”
My tent wasn't far from the road leading to the barracks so I grabbed my assault rifle and ran over. The guards at the gates were staring down the road leading to the barracks. It was only a quarter of a mile away and they looked nervous like they were expecting trouble at any moment.
“Open the gate. We need to get over there.”
“Sir, my orders are to not open this gate for anyone.” One of the guards said.
“I'm changing those orders.”
“Sir, you can't override Colonel Bradley's orders.”
About this time the rest of my unit arrived. There were thirty men in all. They looked tired and frightened.
“Corporal, I need you to get Colonel Bradley on the phone. Right now.”
“Yes sir.”
By then the rest of the men and women that had been left behind to guard the airfield started arriving. I looked around and realized I was the ranking officer on sight. It would be up to me to get something done. To tell the truth, I had no idea how to run a combat command. Up until two days ago all I'd done was sit at a desk. Everyone was looking to me for instruction. I couldn't help but be nervous. I needed to be sure of myself. To gain the trust of these men, I'd need to act swiftly and with confidence in my decisions.
“Sergeant Adams I want you to gather our unit. As soon as I can get this gate open we're going over. Get them ready. Who's in charge of getting the towers manned?”
A sergeant I hadn't seen before stepped up. “I am sir.”
“How many men have we got here?”
“There's one hundred and seventy five of us sir.”
“How many trained on the machine guns?”
“I have forty five qualified on the 50 caliber.”
“Pick twenty, two for each tower, and get them ready. As soon as I get this gate open, I want them up there as fast as possible. The rest I want between the two lines of fencing spaced evenly along the perimeter. When the zombie hordes get here, I'm going to have the electrical fence powered down. You men will use your fire power to support