Chapter 29. The briefing

My rifles were loaded into the trunk of my Cobra in their respective cases, as was my Spas, as my supercharged car roared down the highway. Why was I driving my Cobra you ask? There were 15 of us now, and our SUVs would have been cramped as hell if we all tried to load up in them, and with the amount of firepower we were packing, you could forget about carpooling. A couple other members of the team had followed my lead, my two brothers among them. Conner in his '73 Charger, Farid in his 'Cuda, and Pat in his '70 Torino. We were all heading to a meat up in New York state's capital city. Earl had ordered every Hunter team from MHI across the country to meet there. Apparently someone up the U.S. Armed Forces chain of command also heard what was going on, as there was a convoy of military vehicles heading down the highway heading straight towards Albany. The sound of helicopter rotors passed overhead, and star spangled Little Bird armed to the teeth flew overhead. I smiled at Ardeth's choice of paint for the Little Bird, as it passed overhead and I saw Kai Leng and James wave from where they sat on either side of the chopper, their feet resting on the top of the landing strut.

Three Black Hawks I recognised as the Nighthawks flew overhead a few seconds behind Ardeth's Little Bird. Glancing at the long line of military Humvees, I was surprised to find Captain Stone at the wheel of the Humvee to my right. He gave me a 'see you there' wave which I returned once he recognised my armor. I put my foot down to the floor, and my Cobra rocketed forward followed by my brother's Cobra, and Connor, Farid's, and Pat's muscle cars. While I love my car, I knew that the only reason I was ahead of the classic muscle cars, was because I had hit the gas earlier and I was in the left lane exit lane while the military convoy was on the right.

It was a half hour later when we made it to Albany's airport. Well it's old airport to be more precise. It was in mid renovation when it shut down, and the airfield was moved to Albany's south end, and this particular airfield was soon to be scheduled for demolition. For now it served as the Armed Forces, MCB and MHI's meeting ground. There were hundreds of vehicles in the parking lot, mostly MHI and MCB vehicles, but I saw a few that undoubtedly belonged to a Hunter. Several more helicopters flew overhead, and Earl Harbinger's Hind attack chopper touched down just behind the main building. I killed the engine of my Cobra, and headed towards the main building where I saw Earl's Hind touch down. The inside of the main building was pretty bare, and a lot of the walls were covered in plastic, not to mention packed wall to wall with people, Feds, Hunters, and Soldiers. There was a makeshift podium, and Earl along with his team was standing on it along with Agent's Locke and Franks. I overheard several Hunters talking about how deadly the gorilla of a man was. I'd only worked with Franks once, and he hadn't seemed that bad, but given the circumstances of what was happening in New York City, I had a feeling that I would get to see just why a lot of Hunters were made uneasy by his very presence.

"Damn who is that guy?" I heard Thom say as he stood on my left.

"That's Agent Franks." I replied.

"Guy makes Owen look like tiny." I agreed wholeheartedly. Hell Owen had even said he tried to go toe to toe with Franks a couple of times. And had gotten his ass gloriously handed to him.

It was several more minutes, with more Hunters pouring in every second. Finally when it seemed like we were all packed in like sardines, Agent Locke stepped up to the center of the podium to the microphone that had been placed in the center. He sighed softly as if expecting resistance from the crowd before speaking. "If I can have everyone's attention please." Conversations continued for a few seconds before coming to a stop. "Thank you everyone. Now for those of you who don't know me, I am James Locke now acting Director of the Monster Control Bureau. Many of you are well aware of the situation happening in New York City, so I will try to make this quick. I just said it a second ago, but New York City is under siege by the largest Zombie outbreak we have seen. Even larger than the one that happened in Philadelphia two years ago. What most of you don't know is that the outbreak has now spread past New York and into northern New Jersey."

There were a few comments of 'let them have Jersey.' It caused Locke to smile wryly before he gestured to the large monitor that was behind the podium. A large map of both New York and New Jersey came into view. A second later the large map was engulfed in in red. "As you can see, New York is, well in some deep shit." there were a few small laughs from the crowd comprised mostly of Hunters. "We are going to send in advance teams by air, to clear northern New Jersey, MetLife Stadium, and the Lincoln Tunnel which is the most important, as that will allow ground teams to push into the city. We will also be inserting several other teams into Yankee stadium, to have a better advantage when the ground teams make their push. Now there will be air support, in the forms of my Agencies Blackhawk and Huey gunships, as well as MHI's several warbirds. There will also be an AC130 Specter gunship providing overwatch and calling out targets. Now let me make this clear, that gunship will NOT be authorised to use its 105 cannon. Now your team leaders should have your assignments for you. Find them and find out where you're going. Good luck everyone, and the first round is on me when this is all over."

I nodded in approval when I heard Locke say that, and went to find Pat. Didn't have to look very far, he was about 50 feet away reading something on his cell phone. Our team crowded around him, before he put his phone away. "We're going by air, but we're not going to MetLife. We're going straight into the heart of the action. Straight into Yankee Stadium."