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Georgia In My MInd	By : TheByronicMan Category: M through R > Newsflesh (trilogy) > Newsflesh (trilogy) Views: 2033 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Newsflesh Trilogy or any of the related works published by its creator. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
After minute or so, Rob broke the silence. “Okay, we have proof. Do we go to the police?”
“Right. Someone who entered this country illegally with the help of a wanted fugitive insists that the voices in his head told him where his missing fellow illegal immigrant is being held hostage. In support of that, we committed a cybernetic crime and got something that for all most people could tell might be somebody's old bondage porn stash. What part of that is going to convince the police?”
“Good point, Shaun.”
Voices? There's only room for one voice in here, and that's me.
I couldn't help smiling at that. “Okay, any way to spoof the cameras or shut them off?”
Ice looked frustrated. “That building isn't just pre-Rising, it's pre-digital. Everything is on analog circuits. The only reason I can tap the cameras at all is because they're being recorded to a hard drive. Hell, the feeds were probably taped on VHS when the cameras were first installed.”
“Could you shut off the power?”
“Not from the inside. I can...” Ice stopped, muttering something about “...fucking slippery slope.” “I can hack into the power distribution network and cut them off at the meter.”
Jenny was intently peering at the screen. “Can you zoom in on the rear door?” Obediently, the picture enlarged. “I recognize the model number, the same doors Dad got for the house.”
“Is that going to be problem?” I asked.
“There are eight rods that slide six inches into the frame to lock it. Keypad on the outside takes a six-digit code.”
“That sounds familiar.” Ice typed on his laptop some more. “Right, I found the door codes.”
Rob said, “The thing is, the keypad goes dead if the power is out. It would take explosives to open it from the outside.”
“What about from the inside?”
“Battery backup with enough juice to maybe open it twice, if it's been maintained. There's also a manual release, if they haven't removed the lever.”
“So the power has to stay on until we're inside,” I said. “Have to hope your diversion is distracting enough to keep them from watching the cameras.”
The planning session went on for hours after that, and everyone looked to me to solve the difficult problems. It wasn't that they took my word as gospel, there were frequent discussions and arguments, but they usually ended up agreeing with me. For the first time in months I felt like I was in control of my own destiny, and it was a bit scary. But it also felt right.
At one point, Big George came in to report that three of the respirator masks were in good enough shape to seal properly and six of the air bottles would hold pressure. Karl took a phone call, learning that Sarah had been released without charges, but Anna was still being held in custody. Then Rob's phone rang.
He looked at the screen and stood up. “Dan, I need you to come with me and make doctor-type noises.” He hurried out of the room with Dan following.
He returned about ten minutes later. “That was our kidnapper. We convinced him that I'm getting urgent medical attention and can't deliver Shaun until tonight. We're supposed to make the exchange at midnight at Calaveras Lake.”
“Where is that?” I asked.
Rob said, “Southeast of town. Nothing out there but the power plant. Not too far from their hideout, and the roads serving the outlying farms give them a choice of routes.”
Ice put a map up on the screen, highlighting our location and the other two relevant spots. I looked it over for a moment before speaking. “If we head out after dark, we should be able to get to the hideout before they take Bobbie to make the exchange. If they bother to take her.”
“The problem is,” Rob said, “can we get out of here without attracting official attention?”
Karl looked over at Ice. “Since you're controlling the visuals, can you bring up the feeds from cameras one, seventeen, and twenty-four?”
A flurry of keystrokes and a few mouse-clicks later, three video images appeared on the map. Each one showed a black SUV in the field of view.
Rob sighed. “They've got all three gates covered. Maybe we can distract them somehow.”
I suppressed a laugh. If Rob had a weakness, it was that he was too much of a law and order, 'color inside the lines' kind of guy. Sure, he'd bend a law if he thought it was stupid and he wasn't harming anyone, but being a fugitive from justice had him so far outside his comfort zone that he couldn't see the obvious solution. I turned to Karl, catching his eye.
Karl grinned back at me. “Okay, pick a spot.”
“I think the southeast corner would be best,” I said.
“Right, I'll get Big George and Frannie headed out that way.” He got up and left the room.
Rob looked confused. “What was that all about?”
“There's more ways to get through a fence than using the gate.”
Rob's face lit up with a look of comprehension, which quickly turned to chagrin. To be fair, he probably would have come up with an effective plan to get us out through a gate. Having accepted my simpler, more devious ploy, he quickly got with the program. “That gets us off the ranch. But are they only watching the gates, or do they have people covering the roads?”
“Depends on whether they believe that you're here or they're just covering any place where you might go to ground. I've seen enough of your reports to know that the latter is a pretty long list, so in that case they've got to be spread thin.”
“Let me check on that.” Rob started typing on his pocket computer.
Jenny said, “My car won't make it cross country. Guess we'll have to squeeze into the Dilemma.”
Dan didn't look happy with that idea. “If anyone gets injured, I'll need room to work.”
“Right.” Jenny leaned back in her chair. “I know! I'll have Riki meet us on the way in the RV.”
“Do you really want to get her involved in this?”
“She can park at one of the truck stops down on the interstate. She won't get within miles of the place unless we need to call her in. I'll get her to bring the quads so we can use them to sneak up to the back of the building.”
“I guess that will do.”
I sat there wondering who Ricky was, but figured I'd find out later. Jenny stepped out to make a phone call, and Karl returned to report that his people where on their way to open a hole in the fence for us.
Rob looked up from his computer. “Seems like just about everyone in the area who has ever appeared in one of my reports says they've been questioned by the feds and are currently under surveillance.”
“That still leaves the San Antonio police to worry about,” I said.
“We can circle around and avoid crossing the county line until we have to. There's enough back roads on that side of the city that maybe we can slip in.”
Jenny had returned by then and I asked her, “Think you can get your friend the cop to help us pick a route?”
“Maybe, but I'll owe him more than just a date for that kind of favor.”
I grimaced at that. Jenny reached out and patted my hand, grinning. “Getting a little jealous?”
“No, it's just....”
“Ah, don't worry about it. One night with Sergeant Fellers is no hardship. I'd been planning on it anyway, just wanted to make him chase me a while longer.”
With all the major issues settled, it was time to plan the minute details. That consumed most of the remaining daylight. Eventually we were just rehashing things and Rob went to go help Marie cook. I headed up to the bunkhouse to retrieve my gear and go over it. I got back just as dinner was served, and we all ate out on the patio. We finished as the sun was setting, so it was time to move out.
We changed into field gear and gathered outside where Rob's LAV was parked under a massive oak tree. Since we where going up against people who might shoot back, I was wearing Kevlar. Rob had gotten back into his alligator jacket with my help, while Jenny and Dan were wearing smooth-textured gray outfits that almost disappeared in the twilight gloom. Only Ice was still dressed in street clothes.
Jenny walked up to him. “When we meet up with Riki, you could borrow Gil's armor. It might be a little loose on you, though.”
Looking at Ice's impressive physique, I made a vow to never get this Gil person mad at me, if I ever met him.
“No thanks, I plan on staying behind steel.” Ice rapped on the hull of the Dilemma.
Karl carried over the air masks and bottles. “Good luck.”
I grinned. “Just be sure to set a couple of extra places for breakfast.”
“Ah, the ineffable optimism of youth.”
“Nothing is ineffable when humans are involved. We can be guaranteed to eff up anything.”
There were a few moments of stunned silence at that, then Rob, Karl, and Dan broke into applause while everyone else groaned.
And on that note we all piled into the LAV, with Ice claiming the computer chair. No one was inclined to argue with him, so the rest of us sat on the cot with Jenny in the middle. Ice hooked his laptop up to Rob's computer, immediately typing on the keyboard and frowning.
“Dammit Rob, don't you ever defrag this thing? Working through your system is like swimming in molasses.”
“Sorry, Ice. I have us looking like one of Karl's trucks right now, in case they have a drone watching the house. That takes all the processing power I have, plus any more that it can grab.”
“Ah, that explains why it keeps trying to seize control of my laptop.”
We started moving, and after just a few minutes the ride got bumpy. Jenny almost tumbled off of the cot, and when I tried to help her I discovered her jacket was so smooth it was almost impossible to get a grip. That suggested she had a habit of getting up close and personal with zombies. If I had trouble grabbing her, they wouldn't stand a chance.
We skirted the edge of the alligator pond and moved onto smoother terrain. Soon, we arrived at the spot where a couple of Karl's people had peeled back a section of fence and we drove through. As soon as we were on the road they started repairing the hole behind us. Dan leaned back and took a nap, while Ice continued muttering obscenities at his computer. I passed the time trying to make conversation with Jenny.
“So, what's it like being a zombie tracker?”
“It's a lot different from what you guys do. Y'all are all about making a big splash, we're more into speed and stealth. We try to sneak in, get our target, and slip away unnoticed.”
“How often does that work?”
“The next time will be the first. But we usually manage to get into the right area and set up our base without any problems. It's when we go out actively searching that we find trouble.”
“It sounds like a fascinating career.”
She placed a hand on my knee. “Looking for a new job, maybe? I have an opening for an ex-Irwin. I can offer some great fringe benefits.”
Dan said, “Funny how I never got in on that benefits package.”
“Sorry, you remind me too much of my brother. Besides, I understand you find plenty of 'dates' on Backpage.”
“God no. I go to a reputable house of ill-repute.”
“See, that's just what I mean. Rob would have phrased it the same way.”
“That's because he has a sense of humor. You kids born since the Rising are so damned serious all the time.”
Dan lapsed back into silence, and I prodded Jenny to tell me about some of her more interesting case. I repaid her with tales about my funnier adventures in poking zombies with sticks. In the meantime, we made several turns onto increasingly bad roads, when suddenly the ride abruptly smoothed out. I looked out through one of the vision blocks and saw a high, well-maintained fence bordering the road. The road itself looked recently resurfaced.
“Who maintains a road way out here?”
Rob answered, “A cement company. They have a huge limestone quarry here. It's always been San Antonio's main heavy industry, the more so for the last couple of decades.”
That made sense. After the Rising, people felt a lot less secure in wood frame houses. Combine that with the disruption in international trade, and the domestic concrete industry became a major growth sector in the economy. Unfortunately the smooth ride ended a few turns later. We returned to bouncing across the countryside while Jenny and I swapped stories. After about half an hour we came to a halt, and I followed Jenny and Dan outside.
We were on a deserted stretch of road, parked behind a large RV that I recognized. George and I had been talking about scraping together the down payment for one just like it when our parents gifted us with our news van. Designed as a command post for sweeper teams, it had a decon shower and storage for a quick set-up electric fence. The manufacturer sold a dozen or so civilian models every year. Attached to it was a trailer bearing a pair of four-wheel ATVs. As we approached it a petite, middle-aged Japanese woman stepped out. Apparently this was Ricky, or rather, Riki.
She handed Jenny a thick manila folder, which Jenny in turn passed to me. “Here's the contract. Why don't you fill it out while we get the rest of our gear ready?”
I accepted the stack of forms. “Hard copy? How quaint.”
“You can't hack paper. We don't store anything we don't have to in electronic form until after a case is closed.”
I found a quiet spot in the glow of the RV's headlights to sit and sign my name in the dozens of indicated spaces in the contract, grateful for the opportunity to be alone with my thoughts. Well, not exactly my thoughts. “You've been strangely silent this evening.”
This is your area of expertise. I don't have much to contribute.
“I would have expected Jenny to get you stirred up.”
She doesn't stand a chance so long as we get George back alive. I wonder if she realizes that by helping you she's shooting her romantic aspirations in the foot? The inner voice paused for a moment. Anyway, if a woman is forward enough that it actually penetrates your thick skull that she's coming on to you, it means she's too aggressive for your tastes.
“True. One thing I never understood; why weren't you jealous of Becks?”
I was, a little, but you were still so hung up on George that I didn't think it would lead to anything. Besides, I was more than a little curious about how it felt from a guy's perspective. I wasn't really worried until I saw how good you were together, so I called her by the wrong name while you drifted off to sleep.
“I didn't think you could do that unless I was completely out.”
You were on the verge of saying it anyway, I was just barely able to give it the last little nudge.
So I had been very nearly as stupid as I'd thought.
Of course, once a woman has won your heart, aggressive and controlling isn't so bad, is it?
At that point I was sure I had a silly grin plastered on my face. “Not at all. In fact, it's wonderful.”
Yeah, your sex life is going to suck without George, so go get her!
“Yes ma'am.”
Good boy.
Disturbingly, that sent a shiver of, something, up and down my spine. I shrugged it off, scrawled the last required signature, and returned to the group. They had gotten the ATVs unloaded and ready to go. Riki was now dressed identically to Jenny and Dan. I was surprised for a moment, but hell, Mom was about the same age and still did field work. The three were carrying slung rifles that looked to be pistol-caliber carbines.
As I reached them, Jenny was asking, “Hey, Rob. Can I borrow the Thompson?”
“Might as well, I'm not in any shape to use it and Ice isn't a shooter.”
Riki said, “Got any goodies I could borrow?”
“We won't be calling for the RV if there is still shooting going on,” Jenny said.
“Well, Ashley kind of stowed away as I was leaving. She's hiding in the back so you don't get mad. She can handle the RV, but I figure Rob could use some fire support.”
Rob asked, “Know your way around a UMP25?”
“Sure, they were standard issue for motor pool personnel the last couple of years I was in the service.”
“Okay, I've got Anna's in the gun locker, help yourself. In fact, grab the grenade launcher and be ready to lay down some smoke.”
“You got it.”
Riki followed Rob into the Dilemma, and returned moments later to hand what looked to be genuine gangster-style Tommy gun with a large drum magazine to Jenny. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a modern replica, styled to resemble the original as closely as possible.
While Jenny was settling her new toy into place, Dan handed me a radio headset. I accepted it and looked it over. “Any way to set this to receive only? No telling what kind of detection gear they have.”
Jenny looked up. “Good point. We'll have to send a short signal when we're in position, but other than that we'll stick with radio silence as long as possible.”
I put on the headset and then collected my weapons and a small pack from the Dilemma. Once I was done, Rob closed up the LAV and drove off. The RV moved out without me having met the person driving it. Jenny and Dan mounted the ATVs and waited for me join them.
“Hey, Shaun,” Jenny said. “You can ride bitch behind me.”
Georgia snorted in the back of my head. I wasn't sure if I cared for the phrasing myself, but it would be more pleasant than riding pressed up against Dan. And Jenny was easier to see over and around. I followed her suggestion and we were soon moving off in a different direction. A few minutes later we were stopped in front of a gated community. Jenny checked the time, and then turned on to the perimeter road outside the fence. Luckily the patrol schedule was publicly available, so Ice didn't have to compromise his ethics any further to allow us to avoid security.
The road took us to within a couple of hundred yards of the rear of the building where George and Bobbie were held captive. The residents behind the wall were probably the ones who had protested the loudest about the idea of having the CDC for neighbors. We had just gone off the road and hidden the ATVs in some bushes when Rob's voice came over the headsets.
“George is on the move. Ice says a couple of guards woke her up and escorted her to an office at the front of the building. There are no cameras inside that room. But it did allow him to pinpoint where Bobbie is being held, the room will be on your left, seventh door from the loading dock.”
I tried to suppress my worries as we made our way across an open field. We could see our destination. Pairs of guards made frequent circuits around the building, forcing us to duck down out of sight. There was a shed of some kind just inside the fence, and we were heading for the back of it. The camera views didn't extend much beyond the fence line, so we just had to stay out of sight of the guards. Still, it took a good fifteen minutes to cover the distance without being spotted. When we reached the fence, Dan took out a small pocket volt meter. From the design, I didn't think the fence could be electrified or alarmed, but since I was going to be cutting through it I had no objections to being absolutely certain.
The meter read zero on both the AC and DC settings, so Dan put it away. I readied the wire cutters while Jenny switched her headset to 'Send' just long enough to make three clicking noises with her tongue. A few minutes later I heard the roar of a big diesel engine approaching, accompanied by four faint hollow sounds. I didn't recognize them, but Jenny and Dan visibly cringed at each one. Then they both broke into grins when the loudspeakers on the Dilemma started blaring music.
'tis old Stonewall the rebel that leans on his sword,

and while we are mounting prays low to the Lord.

Now each cavalier that loves honor and right,

let him follow the feather of Stuart tonight.
Not exactly my kind of music, being Californian and all, but it would certainly attract attention. I cut a gap in the fence just wide enough for us to pass through, and we all slipped inside. Standing behind the shed was the last place we could be sure of being unobserved, so we took the opportunity to put on our masks and start the air flowing. We were in the midst of that when we heard Ice's voice over the headsets.
“I've cut Rob out of the circuit because he doesn't need to hear this right now. Bobbie is loose. The same goons went back and woke her up with rape in mind. She laid them out and found her way to the same office where they took Shaun's sister. In other news, there were at least a dozen more goons sleeping in a couple of other rooms. They are now up and milling around, but none have headed to your end of the building yet. The roving patrols both ran up to the front and are pointing guns at us.”
That put a new wrinkle on things. We checked to make sure the coast was clear, saw that there was no one in sight and the front half of the building was shrouded in smoke, then galloped to the rear door. Not a word I would normally have used for running, but it was repeated a number of times in the song lyrics. I hadn't ever done a rescue with a soundtrack before. Jenny keyed in the entry code and cautiously pushed the door open. Right on cue, Ice cut the power and all the exterior lights went out. As we carefully eased inside, we found the interior almost as dark. There were some emergency lights but they must have been of the same vintage as the building, with batteries that held considerably less than full charge.
There was just barely enough light to avoid tripping over things. There were no guards in sight. The door was at one corner of the loading dock, offset from the center hallway, so we couldn't see much farther into the building. We started to move along one wall of the room when Jenny bumped into me, hard.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “I normally take point, but this is your show.”
She dropped back to my left flank, with Dan taking the right. We had crept up to the front wall and were moving along it to the hallway when I heard a hissing noise from overhead. I checked to make sure my mask was sealed properly and glanced up. The vents we'd noticed on the building plans were now spewing a reddish mist.
“That doesn't look any knockout gas I've ever seen before,” I said.
Dan grunted. “It looks all too familiar to me.” Slinging his rifle, he grabbed a broom that was leaning against the wall and held it up in front of the vents. The billowing mist clung wetly to it and he pulled it back down. He took a small red bottle from his pocket, unscrewing the cap to reveal an eyedropper. He squeezed out one drop of clear fluid, which hit the red stain on the broom and briefly turned bright yellow before changing to black.
“Yep, blood. And with a high concentration of live state KA.”
“How high?”
“A lot higher than this test can show.”
“Good thing we brought our own air supply,” Jenny said.
We had just started moving when we heard a gunshot, followed about ten seconds later by another. We gave up on stealth and charged towards the hallway to discover Ice had been wrong, there were a lot more than just a dozen guards. The good news was that they weren't shooting at us. The bad news was that they no longer had enough brain power to remember how to use their guns. They must have inhaled the viral mist as soon as it started pumping and converted in a matter of minutes. Their collective moan echoed off the walls as they rushed us.
We opened fire, but few of them fell. They were wearing body armor and helmets, reducing the kill zone to a thin triangle from their eyebrows to the hollow of their throats. We retreated, shooting into the mass. Jenny was having the most success, firing three round bursts into their faces and usually having at least one bullet go through the brain or the spine. But they weren't going down fast enough, and we were running out of room. Jenny squatted down and emptied the rest of the drum magazine in a long burst at knee height, intending to cripple and slow them down. She dropped the Thompson and flicked out her left hand, causing an collapsible steel baton to extend from her fist. With her right hand, she unholstered her pistol. My own handgun was empty so I discarded it, drawing my chainsaw and cattle prod.
Most of the zombies were down with shattered legs, still trying to crawl towards us. None of them had their chin straps buckled, so they lost their helmets when they fell. Jenny and Dan picked them off with single shots while I dealt with the few still walking. An electric jolt to the lower body sent them crashing to the floor, exposing the backs of their necks to my saw. The footing favored us, the former guards had trouble stepping over the bodies of their comrades, and in a few minutes all were still. Jenny and Dan took the opportunity to reload. A good thing, because that was when the second wave hit.
The room and hall had grown dimmer, as the ancient batteries in the emergency lighting fixtures used up what little charge they had. Between the fading visibility, the bloody mist collecting on our air masks, and our distraction with the infected close at hand, the new zombies were on us before we spotted them. And they were silent, not a single moan to announce their presence. I've had zombies stalk me, surround me, even set ambushes, but it was the first time they'd ever held back a reserve. It made me wonder if the abnormally high viral concentration made this bunch smarter than usual for a pack of the same size.
The first of the fresh zombies lunged out of the darkness and bit down on Jenny's right hand, causing her to drop her gun. The back of her glove was just as smooth and slick as the rest of her outfit, and with a twist she pulled her hand from its mouth. She swept its legs out from under it with a spinning kick, and Dan put a bullet in its skull. The next ran face-first into my cattle prod and dropped to the floor as the electricity scrambled its brains.
Dan backed up and hopped off the end of the loading dock, taking partial cover behind the van parked near the big roll-up door, turning on the tactical flashlight mounted on his carbine. That gave us a little more light to work by, and it had a red filter on the lens so that it wouldn't kill our night vision. Jenny and I moved to the sides, splitting the pack and drawing most of the zombies after us, leaving Dan a clear field of fire at the few that headed his way. I found myself fighting for my life. I managed to keep the zombies at bay with short jolts from my cattle prod, while gradually taking them down one at a time with my chainsaw. Contrary to what you see in TV shows and movies, chopping off heads is neither quick nor easy, except under ideal conditions. Not even if you're using power tools. With this crowd coming after me, I had to settle for slashing through their leg muscles to drop them to the ground and keep them from getting back to their feet.
Across the room from me, Jenny was doing much the same with much more grace and style. Lacking any sort of cutting weapon, she was attacking their kneecaps and lower legs with her baton and her boots. Even the few glimpses I caught were amazing to watch. She would spin out of reach of a lunge, a foot would come out with the full momentum of her rotation behind it, and with a crunching of bone a zombie would keel over. I had seen Rob pull the same maneuvers, but Jenny was more fluid even if she lacked the sheer muscle power. She also used her pistol from time to time, when she had a clear shot that allowed her to fire away from me and Dan.
Dan, meanwhile, had taken out the few infected that had rushed him, and was methodically finishing off the ones that Jenny and I knocked down. Shortly thereafter, all of Jenny's opponents had been reduced to crawling and she was able to join in with grace shots. Soon, I had crippled the last one coming after me and was able to retrieve and reload my handgun. We quickly picked off the few that were left.
By that time the bloody mist had stopped spewing from the vents, though some was still settling to the floor. I attempted to scrub the accumulation from my mask, only achieving a uniform bloody smear, but at least I could see through it better. Jenny had picked up the empty Thompson and slung it across her back, and was holding her carbine at the ready. This time, we finally made it to the hallway and advanced down it, checking every door. The room that had imprisoned George and Bobbie now only held a couple more infected guards. Jenny tossed a grenade into the room and slammed the door. There was a heavy barrel bolt on the outside, and I slid it home just in case. As we approached the offices one of the doors swung open, revealing a room more brightly lit than the rest of the building, and we heard the sounds of movement from inside. We leveled our weapons and waited to see what happened next.

Our forensic accounting team has turned up something new. It seems the initial funding for Project Lazarus did not come from the CDC budget or any other government source. The money originated from an off-shore account held by a defunct medical research fund-raising organization. Three decades ago, that same account had been used to channel donations supporting the early Marburg-Amberlee trials. They have been unable to determine who made the transfer of funds to the CDC, or even identify anyone with the authority to do so.
- memo from Dr. Danika Kimberley to the Office of the Director, EIS
  
  July 30, 2042
Song: Riding a Raid (Traditional)
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Georgia In My MInd