Walkerz Iraq
(Week 10)
Eric LaBelle and Ross Thompson drove northeast, crossing through the Arid lands of the Iraqi desert. It was a long, dull and generally safe trip. The villages were spread out enough to provide minimal contact with the infected and enough of the small cities were easily avoided by simply going around them.
Eric was riding up in the machine gun mount, enjoying the breeze, when he spotting a sign calling for the Turkish border several kilometers ahead. The truck was already slowing as Eric called down, “What do you think Ross, is it still manned?”
Shouting back up, Ross explained, “Crossing the border as a armed Americans would have constituted war just a few short weeks ago. I don’t know what we’ll come across now. We’ll ease up slowly and then use the binoculars to scout the crossing.”
Eric double checked that the .50 cal was loaded with a fresh belt of ammunition. He also made sure his personal weapon was loaded and charged as well. They stopped about 300 meters away from the check point and scanned it. With the binoculars they couldn’t see anybody manning the border crossing. The gates were closed and there was an abandoned car parked in front of it. The doors of the car were all open. There were some building near the check point that also appeared to be abandoned.
They began making their way forward again and rolled the truck all the way up to the gate itself before stopping. Eric shouted back down to Ross, “I’ll cover you while you get that unlocked.”
Ross set the truck in idle and set the parking brake before jumping down to clear the gate. The gate itself appeared to be substantial enough to stop their truck, made out of thick steel and concrete. Ross doubted they could go around very easily either. The border fence that extended as far as he could see was composed of concrete barricades and concertina wire. He wouldn’t be surprised if there were land mines interspersed along the way. Coming back to the gate, Ross found that it was locked to prevent it’s being opened and that the lock was heavy duty and shielded behind a thick steel armor.
To the side of the gate sat a small gate-house. Ross ready his rifle as he ducked under the gate and crossed to the gate-house. There were electric controls to lift and lower the bar, but it was obviously turned off, an ignition switch set to off and the key removed.
Ross ran back to the truck and shouted up, “I’m going to have to find some keys, cover me as best you can. Eric gave him the thumbs up and shouted down, “Will do, you be careful.”
Ross turned away from the truck, ducked under the gate, and headed for the nearby buildings. Approaching carefully, he noted that they were single story barracks. There were three of them, though the nearest one seemed to have more administrative function than the other two. All of the doors were open, but Ross could only see blackness in the interior.
About thirty feet from the nearest building he called out, “Hello!” Immediately her heard a clatter and commotion from the interior. A person stepped into the doorway of the nearest building and screamed. The hideous scream of the infected. They swarmed out of the building. Ross turned and ran.
Eric had been following Ross with the .50 cal while Ross scouted for keys to unlock the gate. He couldn’t hear him shout “Hello!”, but he saw the swarms that poured from the shade of the barracks. Ross blocked his aim of the nearest building, but Eric was able to pour heavy machine gun fire into both of the side buildings and their swarms of infected.
It was quick work destroying the infected in the side buildings, but at least ten were surging after Ross. Eric couldn’t get a clear shot with the .50 cal and picked up his M16 instead. Quickly he began picking off the frayed edge of the small group the swarmed after Ross. The infected were down to three when Ross ran past the front of the truck. Eric quickly switch his weapon to burst and blasted out the last of this magazine, terminating their pursuit of Ross who had swung into a defensive position behind the abandoned car.
Eric reloaded his M16, dropped down through the hatch and exited the truck. He put one more bullet into the heads of the infected as he walked over to Ross. “Dude, how you doing,” asked Eric? “Dude,” was all Ross could reply. Smiling, Eric said “Let’s go find those keys and check this place out.” Ross followed him as he walked toward the buildings.
As Eric approached the buildings, he checked the infected for keys. After putting another bullet into the them, of course. The dead appeared to be mostly soldiers, with about 3 civilians mixed into their ranks. All were filthy with body fluid and dried blood. The farthest two buildings seem well ventilated with .50 cal holes and appeared to be just barracks. The nearest building would probably hold the gate keys and maybe some good supplies.
Inside they found more carnage. There were bodies littering the floor, beginning from the entrance in which they stood and continuing all the way to a door located at the far side of the room. At the far door were two bodies dressed in Arab robes, AK-47 rifles dropped at their sides. There bodies were horribly mutilated, consumed by the infected. In fact, all of the bodies in the room were in partial states of consumption. The smell of death was nearly overwhelming.
Walking to the far door, Eric said, “I’m gonna crack the door, be ready. And DON’T take off this time!” Ross tightened his M-16 against his shoulder and replied, “Gotcha, go ahead.”
Eric tried the door and found it locked. Adjusting his stance, Eric brought his foot up, kicked into the door and then rotated out of the way, giving Ross a clear shot at the door. The wood splintered at the hasp and the door swung open. Inside it looked to be a simple store room.
Nothing happened after the door was kicked in. None of the infected were hiding inside. Cautiously they made their way into the room and realized that they had no idea what was in the boxes. None of the printing was in English.
They noticed a lot of food wrappers strewn about and a stinking bucket of human waste in the corner. When Ross saw the bucket, he called out again, “Hello. Is there anyone here.” From behind a substantial pile of boxes they heard, “Hello.” Squeezed as far away as he could get, was a small child. He saw Eric and Ross peaking into his sanctuary and said again, “Hello, Hi. Hello You American Pig. Hi”
The boy began making his way out from behind the boxes. Eric and Ross grinned and waited. Ross offered him one of the less than tasty candy bars that was included with his MRE’s and a bottle of water. The book accepted them, “Howdy Partner.” He looked to be about 7 years old, scared, but glad to see them.
Ross pointed to himself and said “Ross,” then pointed at Eric and did the same. The boy pointed to himself and said, “Rashid.” Ross looked to Eric and said, “I’m gonna get him out of here and into the truck, I think it’s clear. You wanna see what we got here?” Eric nodded yeah.
Ross offered his hand to little Rashid, which he took. They walked past the two corpses at the door, and Rashid looked away. The other bodies he stayed clear of, but look at with anger. He said something that Ross didn’t understand.
They arrived back at the truck. Ross helped Rashid up and started cleaning up the dirt and grime that accumulates on a 7 year old. On a whim, he jumped down from the truck and headed over to the car. Rashid closed the truck door immediately and looked fearfully from the truck window. Ross began searching the car. He found some ammo, water and food , but more importantly, he found a bag of children’s clothing. He brought the bag back to the truck and offered some clean clothes to Rashid. He waited outside while Rashid put on some fresh clothes.
Eric came back, “We’ve got some extra food, several AK’s with lot’s of ammo, several heavy and light machine guns with more ammo, some RPGs, water and fuel.”
“OK, let’s get it loaded up and we’ll move down the road several miles to a clear spot for the night.” With that, Eric and Ross loaded up supplies from the border crossing, opened the gate, and moved out for the night.
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