Zombie Warriors; Part 3

ZOMBIE WARRIORS1

By G.D. Lindenmier2

Part III3

Fire Base Sparta:4

Across the river, everyone could hear the gunfire and something that could have been an animal’s screams and shouting. Sgt. Brice and Jon Jepsen exited the command building as the radio operator attempted to make contact with the team. Jepsen ran over to the Humvee and spoke to his driver, gunner and two soldiers. Sgt. Brice yelled for the squad of troopers to be ready. “Look for a group of operators to be coming back across the bridge.” Sgt. Brice stated loud enough for the whole squad to hear. “Looks like they maybe bringing company on their heels, if that’s the case, let’s give em some cover fire!”5

Jon Jepsen gathered his soldiers at the Humvee, “Gunner, you keep your eyes across the river, look for our team and lay fire on anyone that follows them to the bridge…got it?!” A young PFC named Troy Camp from Washington State, nodded to Jepsen, “Yes sir!” he then checked his 40mm grenade gun and looked through his weapons mounted starlight scope for any sign of the team. 6

Jepsen then turned to his two escort soldiers, Sergeant Don Taggert a five year army vet and precision rifleman and his spotter, Specialist Billy Flynn. Jepsen pointed to the roof of the firebase command hut, “Sergeant, you and your spotter take the high ground and anyone besides our guys are to be considered hostile, proceed without prejudice!” Jepsen then pointed his finger at Taggert, “You best cover my teams ass, cause I have a feeling that they’ll be comin’ in hot!” Taggert nodded, “Roger that, HOOAH.” He and Flynn removed their satchels from inside of the humvee then proceeded to climb a homemade ladder that led to the roof of the hooch. Here they found a small sandbagged emplacement, with just enough cover to be a dangerous place during the day. 7

Jepsen then informed the driver of the humvee to drive forward and use the vehicle to block the bridge. The driver, Spec. Karl Stevens, nodded, started the Humvee, tapped Camps left leg, commenting; “ready to roll!” 8

The QALAT Fort:9

Back at the top floor of the house, Henry was still fighting off his attacker. The man-creature was strong as hell and Henry noticed that his defensive strikes and moves were showing minimal response from his attacker. Henry used several strikes to the head by using his helmet, elbows and fists. Henry then included knee strikes to the groin area and kicks to its legs and knees. A swift downward thrust with his boot to the man-creatures left leg produced a “snap” of its knee cap. The creature dipped down and then popped back up to continue the attack. It didn’t acknowledge any sign of pain and it never loosened its grip as its attack continued. At one point Henry and the man-creature passed in front of the open window, its blanket had been torn down during the struggle. Henry was being pinned to the wall; he was losing strength and shouted out for help. 10

With one final rush of adrenaline, Henry attempted to head butt and shove off the attacker. In doing this the impact of Henrys helmet rolled off its head to the left, Henry was slow to retract and it tasted Henry’s neck flesh. Just as the creature began to penetrate Henrys neck, he felt the creature go limp. Brain matter and flesh flew off to his left, painting the room as the creature loosened its grip and crumble to the ground. As he examined the dead attacker, Henry noticed the distinct impact hole in the back of its head from a 7.62 caliber rifle. The team across the river had taken the shot. It was several seconds later, as Henry was catching his breath, when he realized that he was bleeding. 11

Down in the front room of the house, the battle continued, the creature that had attacked Schmidt was now mounted onto Carpenter chest, biting into his face. Carpenter staggered back, falling onto the floor near the wall. Schmidt, got to his feet, limped over to where the creature was on top of Carpenter and placed two rounds from his H&K USP, 9mm pistol into the rear of the creatures head. Both the creature and Chief Carpenter were now dead.12

Gruber and Whitley entered the front room, Gruber stopped, kneeled and checked Carpenter for a pulse, there was none. He then began to assist Schmidt with his wounded foot. Whitley continued to the ladder, climbing up to help Henry.13

Whitley exited the ladder cautiously, scanned the areas for threats and looked for Henry. He saw him, sitting on a small crate in an adjacent room, holding his right hand to his neck. Upon reaching Henry, Whitley assisted him with securing a field dressing over the bite wound. Henry; “Whit, what the hell happened here man?” as he grimaced slightly from the pain of the bite. Whitley; “I would say the Taliban got a bad crop of opium and used it.” They both laughed.14

In the front room Gruber, who was now the team leader, spoke with Jepsen on the radio, he explained their situation and agreed to take photos and depart the area by the bridge to the fire base across the river. Gruber and Schmidt prepared Chief Carpenters remains for transport.15

Henry and Whitley came down from upstairs to join them. “They got Chief?” Henry said. 16

“Yea; and Schmidt’s been shot.” replied Whitley. “Fritz!” Henry spoke, getting Gruber’s attention. “Let the boss know that we confirmed location on Al Kattar.” Gruber asked; “Confirmed?” Henry replied; “Affirmative, even after a 7.62 lobotomy, I recognized his face while we were dancing. I also took some documents off his person.” Gruber passed on the information to Jepsen, then hooked his radio handset to his IBA Vest before training his attention on the team. “Bird Dog says they cannot send a transport to this side of the river, but they can meet us on the bridge. Also, we need to transport two bodies back, so let’s get Chief and Al Kattar ready and roll out of this place!” It was then that the team heard a strange sound coming from the compound. It sounded like several persons whining or in pain. They each looked at one another. 17

The mud house had no window slits down stairs so the team would need to open the door or go back upstairs to investigate. The safest and smartest thing to do was to not be blindsided and the team had already had enough surprises. Whitley took the ladder without being directed or anyone saying a word. Within a minute they received a reply from Whitley through his throat mike. 18

Whitley; “Fritz, we did find everyone in the yard D.R.T. (Dead Right There) correct?” The rest of the team looked at each other puzzled at the bazaar statement. Gruber relied; “Affirmative!” The next transmission by Whitley was blood chilling to the team. “They’re all up and moving around now.” Gruber responded; “Whisky, you see more contacts in the yard?” “Negative, these are the same Hajjis we found coming in; I recognize several that we checked!” Whitley replied. 19

Fire Base Sparta:20

“Bird Dog Kilo, this is Foxtrot Romeo…Over.” Corporal Thomas passed the hand set to Jepsen. “Foxtrot, go for actual.” Jepsen replied. The radio crackled with Gruber’s voice. “Team status changed, request evac…Over.” Jepsen looked at Brice, “Something’s got my guys spooked, you have a team ready?” Brice knew that Jepsen has the authority to order him to assist, but to enter another country, he wasn’t sure. “Jon, what do you need from my squad?” Jepsen stopped and was thinking, he turned towards the map on the table and almost pulled the radio onto the floor in doing so. Jepsen then replied to Gruber; “Foxtrot, are you secure?” Meaning, are they safe helps determine how soon the team will need help getting out. Gruber’s reply was puzzling. “Pinned but secure.” This meant the team was safe but could not move from their position without being seen or attacked.21

Brice directed Corporal Thomas to check with the squad for any new hostiles in the area and to find out why he was not informed. Jepsen looked at the map, drawing up a plan in his head. While doing this, he activated his throat mike and spoke to the team on the roof. 22

The sniper team reported that they had seen no new contacts other than the one shot they had taken earlier. Jepsen then informed Sergeant Brice his plan to get his team back across the river into Afghanistan. 23

Jepsen, pointing to the area map where the fort was; “The team needs to get out of the compound undetected, I‘m going to have them go out a side window from upstairs, move along the wall and back to the bridge. I need a fire team set up at the East side of the bridge. I also need to call in a bird to keep watch and to record the extraction.” Brice nodded and agreed to the plan. He then walked over to the radio and called the area command to request a Predator for support. The UAV, (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) would cover the team with missile capability, record the event and be stealthy to sight and sound by anyone in the area. Without hesitation, to Brice’s surprise a reply by command was immediate. Brice was informed that a predator was already on station in the area, awaiting the extraction of friendlies. 24

When Corporal Thomas returned he reported to Sgt. Brice that no other contacts were seen approaching the fort. Brice and Jepsen left the building to get a team together and put their plan in motion. A fire team of four soldiers consisting of private King, specialist Woods, specialist Marks and Private Newman would accompany Sgt. Brice and Jepsen across the bridge. They would stage and provide cover during the extraction. When the fire team was in position, Jepsen would contact Gruber and the spook team would execute their escape. When both teams were safely away from the fort and hopefully across the bridge, the predator would place several missiles into the fort to destroy the weapons cachet and any hostiles.25

Sgt. Brice had originally taken four soldiers from their fighting positions to conduct the mission. When they reached the check point private King and specialist Woods had requested to join the team. Brice then replaced both King and Woods with two original soldiers. Not just because Woods and King had volunteered, but because they were the only ones who seemed eager to help. All of the team members were carrying M4 rifles except specialist Marks who was armed with a M249, known as a SAW, (Squad Automatic Weapon). This light machine gun fires the same ammunition, a 5.56mm round, as the soldier’s rifles and could even use the same magazines in an emergency.26

The bridge was too narrow to take the humvee for support so it would have to remain on the West side of the river and PFC Camp would need to give fire support as accurately as he could with his grenade launcher. The humvee was turned around and backed into position at the bridge. The check point would give direct fire support with the machine gun and the sniper team on the roof was tasked with scanning the area for any additional hostiles from the village.27

When the fire team reached their position Sgt. Brice positioned Private Newman to cover the road from the village. The other three soldiers trained their weapons towards the side of the walled fort where the doorway was located. Sgt. Brice maintained contact with Cpl. Thomas by hand held radio while Jepsen made contact by a secured net radio with the team inside the fort. He informed the team that he was in position and to execute their escape. “Sergeant, I’m moving forward to those ruins.” Jepsen informed Brice. Between the fort and the bridge were remains of a mud walled building. Approximately two feet in height and 60 feet long. Sgt. Brice looked at his troops; he knew the UAV was sending back video of the event to headquarters. Brice directed Marks and Newman to stand fast. Brice, King and Woods then moved forward to Jepsens position for cover and to assist the team when they reached the ruins. Brice and half of his fire team had technically invaded Pakistan. 28