Hell Patrol (pt. 4) (155 hits)
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Submitted by X54 (View user info) at 2008-05-09 00:06:40 EDT
Pt. 1: (http://www.ubersite.com/m/116469) In which Major Winstead, an American military advisor in South America, observes unsettling behavior among the men of Captain Masmela's infantry company during a raid on a rebel position.
Pt. 2: (http://www.ubersite.com/m/116485) Flash back two days to Major Winstead's first meeting with Gail Gertrude, an observer from the pharmaceutical consortium working with the Pentagon to develop combat performance enhancing drugs.
Pt. 3: (http://www.ubersite.com/m/116512) The patrol moves through the jungle to the objective. The men take the combat performance enhancing drug.
All right, it was a mistake to have screwed around with the chronological sequence of events in this story. I see that now. Thanks to everyone who pointed it out.
To clear up the confusion, the actual sequence of events is as follows:
First, part 2: Gertie arrives.
Then, part 3: movement phase of the patrol.
Then, part 1: actions on the objective.
Finally, parts 4 and 5: further actions on the objective and conclusion.
Today's installment, part 4, picks up where part 1 left off.
Hell Patrol (pt. 4 of 5)
It was fully light, though overcast, by the time the rebel bunker blew up and released the cloud of toxic gas. The support team leader, a lieutenant, had finally prevailed upon his machine-gunners to halt their slaughter of the livestock above the village. All that Major Winstead could hear was the ringing in his ears. Corpses littered the rebel camp and the tiny village below it. The only sign of life in the valley came from the surviving men of the assault team, who appeared to be eating the dead.
An argument broke out among the machine-gunners of the support team. The plan called for half of them to remain in position to provide cover while the others moved down to the objective. But they had seen what was happening down there. The ones who were supposed to move down refused to budge. Captain Masmela intervened, trying to restore calm. The gunners only became angrier.
"Major," said Gertie. "We have to get down there ASAP. Something is definitely wrong."
The machine-gunners pointed their guns at each other, and at the lieutenant and the captain.
"Get down!" whispered Winstead to Gertie.
"Major..."
Winstead grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her back. "Get down!" he hissed.
Falling, she hit the ground hard. Her cry of pain drew the gunners' attention. The lieutenant drew his pistol, but one of the gunners saw him and fired a long, deafening burst. The lieutenant twisted and crumpled as the stream of bullets stitched his upper body.
Winstead tackled the captain from behind and dragged him to cover as the other gunners opened up. The machine-guns hammered away as he pressed himself into the muddy ground. At last the firing stopped and he looked up. The lieutenant was dead and the machine-gunners were all dead or dying. The captain cried out in Spanish.
Gertie limped up and stared at the carnage.
"This is your fault!" cried Masmela. "You and your pills!"
"That's impossible," she said. "They were tested and approved."
One of the dying machine-gunners coughed, retching up a bloody wad. Winstead thought of Gertie's chewing tobacco back at the cantina. "You said the drug hasn't been tested for combination effects," he said to Gertie. "What about nicotine? Or caffeine, for that matter?"
"What good would a drug for combat troops be if it couldn't be taken with cigarettes and coffee? Of course they tested it for those." She knelt beside the now dead machine-gunner and picked with her knife at the wad he'd spit out. "What the hell was he chewing?"
Winstead turned to the coca fields. "What about cocaine?" he asked.
"Were your men chewing coca leaves, Captain?" said Gertie.
"So what?" retorted Masmela. "It's common here. Like your tobacco leaves. Only you Americans have a problem with coca." He took off down the hill toward the objective.
"It's not my fault his men are a bunch of coke-fiends," said Gertie. "No wonder they freaked out."
They followed Masmela, Gertie limping badly. Winstead hung back with her, anxious to see what kind of reception Masmela got.
"What happened to your leg?" he asked.
"You did a number on my knee back there."
Captain Masmela, unable to locate his lieutenants, began rounding up the men himself. They hesitated at first, then congregated around him. He berated them for leaving their rifles and equipment on the ground, but they ignored him. At last he gave up and coaxed them down the valley toward the village.
"He's got more balls than sense," said Gertie.
"He's devoted to his men," replied Winstead.
They nearly stumbled over a man squatting beside a dead lieutenant. He looked up with bared teeth, his chin covered in blood. Dark circles surrounded his deep-sunk eyes. He held the lieutenant's left wrist in his hands, the finger-bones gnawed clean. Winstead jumped back. The man growled and spit out a gold wedding band.
The clouds had lowered and a light rain began to fall. They passed a cluster of dead chickens. Winstead kicked one. "The gas killed everything in its path except Masmela's men," he said. "They all survived."
"Not all of them," replied Gertie. "Remember the lieutenant back there? None of the officers took the Combehance."
Masmela was rounding up the men in the village. He pulled them, one by one, from their gruesome breakfasts and pushed them toward the group of men from the bunker, who were beginning to drift off. He herded them back together, then ran off for more.
"Major Winstead!" he called. "Help me collect the men!"
That the men heeded Masmela at all seemed incredible. Winstead called back, "There's no point, Captain. They should be preparing for a counterattack."
He walked up to one of the men. Had the Combehance really saved him from the gas? "You there, Private!" He waved his hand in the man's face.
The man looked at him, squinting his sunken eyes and drooling from his gaping mouth. "Argh!" he said.
Winstead gave a nervous laugh and clapped him on the shoulder. "Okay, buddy. You're all right. Take it easy."
The man grabbed Winstead's right wrist with a cold hand. Winstead tried to pull away, but the man, who was small compared to Winstead, had surprising strength. Winstead hit him in the face with his free palm. "Let go, you son-of-a-bitch!"
The man snarled and lunged, driving Winstead backward into the mud. He strained at Winstead's throat with his teeth. His breath smelled like a sewer. Green saliva sprayed from his rotten mouth. Winstead grabbed him by the neck with his left hand, holding him at bay just inches above him. He drove his knee hard into the man's groin repeatedly, but without effect. Rolling over, he pinned the man underneath him, finally freeing his right hand. The man clawed at his eyes. Winstead tried to break away, but the man wrapped his legs around his waist, holding him fast.
"Major," called Gertie, drawing her pistol. "You'd better hurry up."
Winstead looked up. Half a dozen more men were shuffling over. They all had the same sunken, unblinking eyes and gaping, bloody mouths.
He drew his pistol and fired three shots point blank into the man's forehead beneath him. Blood and gray matter splattered back in his face. The man stopped struggling but didn't relax his leg-grip.
The advancing men growled and gnashed their teeth. The first one was nearly upon him. Winstead emptied his magazine into the man's chest. He stopped but remained standing. The others bumped him from behind and he half fell, half dove at Winstead.
Still held fast by the first man's legs, Winstead fell back under the bullet-riddled man. "Jesus Christ!" he shouted at Gertie. "Don't just stand there!"
Suddenly Masmela ran up, shouting at his men, pushing them back toward their formation. He tugged at the bullet-riddled man who was straining to bite Winstead's neck. The man at last relented and allowed himself to be led away. He stood in formation with the others, fingering his bullet holes and licking his fingertips clean.
User Reviews
Submitted by X54 (user info) at 2008-05-11 22:20:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2008-05-09 02:02:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Huh, interesting. They kind of follow Masmela's instructions. I'm curious to see how your zombies differ from traditional zombies...well I can see some ways that they already do. I guess I'm curious to see if there are any other ways.
It might just be me, but I had trouble keeping the different groups of soldiers straight.
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They follow Masmela's instructions--sort of--because he was so important to them during life that they still respond to him. I'm not sure if that came through. There's precedent for this, in Dawn of the Dead, when all the zombies were drawn to the shopping mall, which had been an important part of their lives.
You mean the men of the assault team and the men of the support team? The assault team assaults the objective. The support team supports them with heavy weapons from a covered firing point overlooking the objective. Once the objective is secure, the support team moves onto the objective to help defend against a possible counterattack. But of course, how could the average reader be expected to know that? Good point.
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Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2008-05-09 02:05:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
And I just realized what it was about your story that was nagging at me. It's the reaction that the main characters have to the zombies. They don't have a ho-hum attitude or anything, but they're not as shaken by it as I think they should be. Most people, when confronted by sudden mass acts of cannibalism, become quite upset.
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Yeah, they did take the decision to move down to the objective rather lightly. They should probably spend a little more time considering this, given the sitiation.
Thanks!
Submitted by messmind (user info) at 2008-05-11 05:34:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2008-05-11 03:43:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
This deserves more attention.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2008-05-11 03:43:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
This deserves more attention.
Submitted by Captain_Ambivalent (user info) at 2008-05-09 06:23:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
you seemed to put a lot of effort into this post for that im giving you +2 even though i think you were one of the ones that was mean to me
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2008-05-09 02:05:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
And I just realized what it was about your story that was nagging at me. It's the reaction that the main characters have to the zombies. They don't have a ho-hum attitude or anything, but they're not as shaken by it as I think they should be. Most people, when confronted by sudden mass acts of cannibalism, become quite upset.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2008-05-09 02:02:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Huh, interesting. They kind of follow Masmela's instructions. I'm curious to see how your zombies differ from traditional zombies...well I can see some ways that they already do. I guess I'm curious to see if there are any other ways.
It might just be me, but I had trouble keeping the different groups of soldiers straight.
Submitted by Wildman (user info) at 2008-05-09 01:06:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
ok ok 1 review
you'll learn soon enough anyway