Sabre Dancing with the Dead Ch 27
Tokonosu, April 22 20xx
Day 12.
0545
The day promised to be a fine one, as the hatch slid back on a 30 foot sailboat, and a young man and woman climbed out into the cockpit. The temperature was warming up enough for shirtsleeves, though perhaps a very light jacket might be handy. The sun was not yet up over the horizon, as people started moving about. On other boats, various members of the rescue team got ready to head out on their mission. The people they hoped to find were family. That was all the reason they needed to take the risk.
At the clubhouse cooking area, people had gotten up even earlier and were working on breakfast for the rescue team and a second later round for the people living here, but first they put together some field rations for those about to embark on the rescue. These were packed into plastic coolers taken from various boats. There was no ice, so the coolers just acted as a carryall. They thought the food might last for a couple of days before turning inedible.
The leader of the expedition turned and locked the hatch to his boat and then jumped down on the dock. His boat was very close to the ramp leading up to the breakwater, and he saw the others heading towards the ramp, so he waited. Takashi and Saeko came up and said good morning. Saya and Kohta were next, Kohta following the young woman like a dog waiting for a kind word or a pat on the head. Last but not least, Rei appeared, carrying her toad sticker. They traded the usual morning pleasantries as Shinji looked around and saw others making their way to the breakwater in dinghies or along the docks. Seeing them all moving towards the clubhouse, he said "Let's go," and led the way up the ramp and over to the cooking area. Very few others were up besides the kitchen crew and his people. Breakfast was a simple meal, with tea. He looked around, saw that the people for this jaunt were finished eating quickly, and figured what the hell. It was just about 0630. Start early, get done sooner, so he asked them all if they were ready and got an enthusiastic yes from the kids at least. The others, meh. Need more tea.
"OK, let's get a move on. Takashi, Kohta, you and Tamichi can take the coolers over to the gate and then come to the arsenal. The rest of you, follow me."
The three of them picked up the coolers, carted them to the gate, and turned to the arsenal. By the time they got there Shinji had passed out rifles and side arms to about half of the team. They got theirs along with ammo, and they were ready to go. Closing the arsenal, he led them over to the gate.
"I'm going to split you into two groups. As I said yesterday, I'll be in command and I am giving the second group to Kohta. He has proven himself to an excellent shot, and has a good grasp of the hand signs. After speaking with him over the last couple of days, I believe he will do well. So, time to toss him into the deep end…blub, blub, blub". He grinned as he said the last part.
Kohta grinned, as his friends gave him a clap on the back.
"Now, the next thing is drivers. I will take Rei as my driver, and Saya will be the driver for Kohta's unit. Takashi and Saeko will ride with him. Now the rest of you pick a vehicle and let's get going. We are wasting daylight. 6 of you with me, the other 4 with Kohta's group. Clear?"
"Yeah."
"Yokai."
"Sure."
The volunteers split up, Tamichi and three others going with Takashi. The other six joined with Shinji. They have been out on other missions and were confident they could do this one as easily. They had all had a hand in working out the doctrine for missions, so they were good to go.
Shinji looked up at the watchers up on the wall, who scanned one more time and gave him the OK. The gate handlers manhandled the gate open a couple of feet, and the two groups moved out, Shinji's heading to the lead APC. Everyone got their gear aboard and boarded quietly. Rei and Saya dropped down into the driver's compartment and made ready to start the engine. Shinji sat on the coaming of his hatch, and whirled his finger over his head in the "wind 'em up" signal. Kohta spoke into his mike and passed the word to Saya. Both APCs fired up, and idled while the gauges settled into their proper readings.
After 5 minutes, the gauges were all in the green, and Kohta gave Shinji thumbs up. The Sergeant spoke for a second on the intercom and his APC slowly started up the road, and turned left right away, along the road fronting the sea wall. It was just after 0715. This was not new territory; they had been this way before on missions to the JSDF base and other places. Shinji intended to follow the same route Wolf and Kat had taken on their way down to the club. He expected it to be relatively clear at least as far as the bottom of the hills that Fujimi High was located on.
Both the East Police station and the school Takashi's mother worked at were at the base of the hills, and about 3 and 5 kilometers north from Fujimi. They were both more or less in suburban areas, and on this side of the river that split off the southern part of Tokonosu from the major part and the down town area. They were thankful for this, as they doubted they'd be able to pass across any of the bridges. Wolf and Kat's description of the chaos at the bridges they had passed put paid to that idea.
When they reached the main road leading east towards the hills, they turned onto it. As they slowly progressed towards the hills, the small businesses and warehouses gave way to a park and then to masses of small well kept houses. The streets were relatively clear now, as they had passed the "pig piles" that Wolf had mentioned having to bulldoze his way through. There were cars and small delivery vehicles along the roadside but they were able to continue with no problems.
The two APCs maintained a steady 30kmph eastward. They arrived at the bottom of the long drive leading up to Fujimi. At this point, they had to turn north to get the East Police Station and the school. Shinji and Kohta kept an eye on their followers. They had picked up a continuous short term tail as critters heard them coming and moved out on the street. Some of them ended up going under the heavy vehicles, others lunged against the sides and either bounced off or went under the wheels. Those too slow trailed them 'til the noise died out and then wandered off.
Looking at the map on the deck in front of him, the Sergeant signaled a turn to the left, along a road heading northward into more housing. Most of the kids lived in this area, although Saya's home was on the other side of the river, in a wooded area to the east of the nearest subdivision. They had planned on driving past each of the kids homes, just to check for any signs of life. None of them had any siblings but there was always a chance the parents had made it home, hoping to meet up with their children, so they would check just to be sure.
Rei's house was the first they passed, but it was deserted. The sound of the two APCs would have brought anyone to the windows; certainly, it did attract a couple of deaders who had made it into her yard. No joy here, so they moved on. Kohta's home was next in line, but they moved past it, as both of his parents had been overseas, as had Saeko's father. Saeko's mother has passed a couple of years before so there would be no one there anyway.
Takashi's home was next on the route. He hoped there would be a sign that his parents had made it home, but the house was silent. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that his mother would have stayed and taken care of the kids at her school, so he was not really expecting to find her at home. He had not said anything to anyone, but he'd also resigned himself to never seeing his father again. His father worked out at the island airport. From what Wally had gathered from his JSDF contact, not many people there had survived.
The APCs moved farther north, passing into an area of shops, offices and other commercial units. This was where the East Police station was located, a bit further north. Kohta looked behind and noted that the tail was still there, only changing in number and composition. He wasn't worried. Even if they piled up 10 or 20 deep around the Type 96, it would hardly shimmy as it turned them into jam. He tapped the throat mike, and called Saya. "How you doing down there?"
She looked up at him and gave him the thumbs up. "Everything is in the green, and this tank treats critters like eggs to be broken."
"Good. Are you getting a good feel for how this thing handles? Are you ready to get up close to a telephone pole when you need to? We want to be close enough so we can hang the nixies on one and pay out the cable."
Again, Saya grimaced as she looked up. "What the hell is a nixie?"
"Oh, sorry, that's what I call the noise makers. It comes from the US navy name for a dragged noisemaker to spoof acoustic torpedoes."
"Spoken like a true Otaku. I shouldn't have any problem. I can drive up alongside the pole or back up to one. I'll be ready when you need me to do it. How are we doing so far?"
Kohta looked down at the map, and clicked the mike again. "We should see the police station in about 5-10 minutes. When we get there, Shinji will pass it by and move out a 100 yards to plant the nixies. We will stop about 100 yards before the station and plant ours."
Saya continued "and then we pay out the cable, stop as close to the building as we can and shut down. We start the "music" and wait 'til all the little deaders wander away."
Kohta grinned down at her. "Pretty much."
As those two conversed, Shinji watched from the lead as the East Police Station came into view as they rounded a curve in the street. It was a good kilometer away, but he signaled a halt, and had a good look with binoculars. Behind them, Kohta eased to a stop as well.
Shinji climbed out of the hatch and stood on the deck. He brought the binoculars to his face, and had a good look at the station and the immediate area. The building was three stories tall, with a mess of radio antenna on the roof, along with a parabolic dish for satellite communications. The drive leading into the parking lot was on their side, and the gate was closed. It was surrounded by a fence of heavy iron bars and as far as he could tell, the lot looked clear. The entrance to the building was a whole other story. Here there were at least a dozen critters wandering round, stumbling against each other. It appeared that the main door was open and the number of critters he saw changed without any new ones coming up from the street. Not a good sign. It looked like they had breached the ground floor. He also saw no signs of life, either behind the windows on the upper floors or the rooftop.
Shinji called Kohta on the radio, getting his take on the situation. In the end, all they could really do was to approach. They would stick to the plan, his APC would move pasted the building and Kohta would stop 100 yards before it. He looked down at the milling mob of dead around the two APCs and signaled "move out". Half a dozen went down beneath the bow of his APC, and as Kohta came up behind him more went under.
Kohta moved forward 900 meters, and Saya snuggled up to a lamp pole while Shinji moved on to the other side of the station. One of the guys in the back opened the hatch above them and handed out the "nixie", some heavy duty wire ties and the spool of comm cable. He climbed out, and taking the nixie secured it to the pole a good 11-12 feet above the ground. As he did so, he looked down to see the mass of critters mobbing the vehicle. Nixie mounted, he advised Kohta that they were free to move towards the building. The driver slowly advanced, as the cable spooled out. At the next lamp pole, the cable was secured, but this time with flimsy string. On their return they could pull the cable free easily and not have to stop to futz with it.
The two personnel carriers moved towards each other a pole at a time, and arrived directly in front of the station. Each of the APCs had a nice crowd of deaders round it. Shinji motioned to cut the engines and they settled in to wait for the crowd of deaders to lose interest and wander off. After they'd dispersed some, the nixies were turned on and started blaring. Instantly the horde of animated corpses shuffled off in either direction. Meanwhile Shinji and Kohta kept a close eye on the front door, the windows and the roofline. Neither of them saw any sign of life.
They switched off the nixies when the dead were crowded under them, and discussed what to do now. Kohta was of a mind that since there were no longer any deaders coming out the front door, perhaps they might go have a look. The immediate area was now clear of deaders and entry would not be a problem. Shinji wasn't so sure, but figured he'd at least have to make an attempt to find out what had happened, if for no other reason than to give Rei closure. After kicking it around for a few minutes, they decided to send one squad into the building. As Kohta gave the orders to his squad, they heard 3 shots ring out from somewhere on the roof. 3 rapid shots. Someone was alive up there.
As soon as the shots rang out, the deaders on either side of them turned and shuffled back towards the station. Shinji had the nixies switched on again, and they withdrew. Kohta's squad dismounted, and with him in the lead, they entered the station slowly and quietly. The main floor was deserted; trash everywhere and the furniture knocked over in places. Blood spattered areas and there were a few deaders, too mangled to move, which the squad dispatched with baseball bats or clubs. They split up into two groups and entered the stairwells. Here they heard shuffling and groans, so they hollered to get the buggers moving down, and retreated into the main office area.
Here the crossbows came into play and as each deader came out of the stair well, they were allowed to move into the center of the office, and taken out with a bolt to the head. Well, some of them were. Takashi and Saeko decided to take a few out their way, with bat and katana. The others in the squad just looked at each other and scratched their heads. Why get up close and personal if you could do them from 20 feet away? They didn't notice the gleam in the eyes of the two students.
With both stairwells cleared, the team proceeded to the next floor and cleared it as well. Here there were fewer critters, and the clearing went fast. Make a little noise and a bolt to the head. Takashi and Saeko headed on up to Three by themselves and finished that floor by the time their mates made it up to meet them. Finally, they faced the door onto the roof. It wasn't locked but had been barricaded. Crap. It was a steel fire door, and was going to be a bitch to open.
Over on the other side of the building, Kohta and his bunch faced the same problem. They could not get enough umpf up against the door to shift whatever was holding the door closed. They hollered at the door, hoping whoever was up there could hear them. As they tried to figure out how to manage the door, they heard the faint sound of someone moving on the other side and the crash of things being knocked over. Between them shoving and the actions of whoever was on the other side, they managed to get the door open enough to squeeze through.