Read Online Left With the Dead by Stephen Knight - Free Book Online Page A

wondering if there’s any thing next door.”
    “The Skinners are gone. I told you that.” Jolie looked down at the stained wood floor.
    “Where’s Jaden?”
    “Taking a nap. He didn’t sleep well last night.”
    Gartrell nodded, and then checked his watch. “Okay, I’ve got to get in touch with Big Army. I’ll do it in the back bedroom. Maybe they’ll have an update for us.”
    That perked her up. “Good.”
    Gartrell already wore his headset, so he walked into the back bedroom. Jolie followed him and stood in the doorway as he perched himself on the edge of the bed.
    “Do you want me to leave you alone?” she asked.
    He shook his head. “Not necessary. This isn’t going to be a very intimate conversation.” He brought the boom microphone closer to his lips and pressed the TRANSMIT button. “Falcon Four, this is Terminator Five, over.” He repeated the call three times before he got a response.
    “Terminator Five, this is Falcon Four.” Falcon sounded a bit rushed. “Listen, we don’t have any aviation assets available to us yet. Are you still at the same location? Over.”
    “Roger Falcon, Terminator’s still at the same pos. Street address is one five four zero Second Avenue, apartment four bravo. Fourth floor residence, over.”
    “Roger that Terminator, good copy. I see it here on the map. Our closest ground units are about thirty blocks north of you, over.”
    “Roger, Falcon. Any ETA on the aviation units? Over.”
    “Terminator, this is Falcon. Units are en route from Pennsylvania, and it’s about a hundred and fifty mile trip, so they won’t arrive for another hour. After that, refuel, preflight, and then whatever’s on the air tasking order. You’re on the list, but I don’t know where you fall in order of importance, sorry. Over.”
    “Roger, Falcon. It would be advisable to try and extract us during daylight if possible. Like I said, I have a special needs child with me, and he’s going to get super-stressed with things in daylight, much less at night. Over.”
    “Terminator, Falcon—roger all.”
    “Falcon, this is Terminator. Can you give me a rundown on current events, please? What’s the troop disposition? Over.”
    “Very quickly, Terminator. We have units who made it into the subway system, as you recommended. Radio contact with them is extremely sporadic, and it seems they can only make contact when they’re at a station…I guess because that’s where the ground is broken by the entrances to the stations or something like that. Contact with zed has been minimal, and so far, ninety-five percent of all the engagements have gone our way. Zed is definitely in the subway system, but not in great numbers, and like you said they’re not that great at nocturnal operations. Over.”
    “Falcon, Terminator. Glad to be of help. What else do you have for me? Over.”
    “Terminator, Falcon…not much else right now. We’ll talk again in sixty minutes, over.”
    Gartrell sighed. “Roger, Falcon. I’ll be back with you in sixty minutes. Terminator, out.”
    “What did they say?” Jolie asked.
    Gartrell pulled his headset off his ears and let it hang around the back of his neck. He reached for one of the plastic bottles of water on the small bureau and took a long pull from it before answering.
    “Helicopters haven’t arrived yet. Some light infantry units are pushing into the city through the subway tunnels, but there’s no way they can move any heavy equipment through the streets—everything’s blocked, by abandoned vehicles if not the stenches themselves.”
    “The ones coming through the subway tunnels…will they—”
    “I get the idea they’re on zed hunts. The Army probably wants to close down the tunnels as an escape point for the zombies. I doubt they’ll come up to the surface streets. And if they do, they won’t be doing it for us, it’ll be because they got chased out of the tunnels by a couple of thousand zeds. And then they’ll be in pretty much