AZU-1: Lifehack Read online

  She had seen them interviewed on the news, they were heroes. That was what the public saw. Heroes doing their best to make things right in Autar.

  The reality was a little different however. These missions were now regarded by superior officers to be token gestures. “We’re doing something, we’re fighting hard!” When Alisia joined, it was a whole four person team fighting hard.

  Sometimes not so hard. She had suspected that less dedicated members had given up. The density of zombies never seemed to change, the city always supplying a consistent supply of resistance.

  Disheartened members of the team would sometimes squeeze off more rounds then needed. When their ammo ran low it was easy to say “Well, that’s today’s work done. Let’s go back.”

  On the other hand, distracted members tended to die. A cautious, well armed, well trained soldier had little to fear scavenging easy kills in the outer areas, but getting sloppy still ran you the risk of getting killed.

  A member would die, get a medal, a burial, and an honourable mention on the news. The burial would sometimes be a coffin of bricks if the claimed soldier wandered into a mob of his new allies.

  Alisia’s mother would call her and fret for a while. A new member would be assigned to the team. The gung-ho ones burned out quicker than the sloppy ones. Some requested to be transferred out. This didn’t get you a medal or a mention on the news, but no one seemed to mind.

  Alisia survived by not being sloppy; by not being gung-ho. She survived by being professional, and not thinking of her missions as token gestures.

  But the replacements gradually stopped coming. The team, which had become her team, seemed to be no one’s priority anymore. The gunner guard kept the public safe, and that was enough for the brass. Quietly, her team became a team of one. One pretty redhead to show up on the news now and then wearing the Autar guard’s blue camouflage, to be the token hero. Not that she liked it that way.

  With or without faith from the brass, she intended to make her futile missions count. Every round fired from her rifle flew with the purpose to make the dead stay dead.

  Today, a token of faith arrived.

  “Major?” Alisia asked, coming to a halt before the Major’s desk. The Major was a weathered man with a trim, peppered beard. His desk was a cluttered but organized array of papers threatening to overtake his keyboard. Alisia noticed a younger woman to the side of the room in a textbook attention stance. She was in the blue uniform. Her big blue eyes and chin-length, light brown hair reminded Alisia of a mouse.

  “Yeah, Terone. I finally got around to arranging replacements for your team.” The Major earmarked a spot in his paperwork, and turned his attention to the matter at hand. “Captain Terone, meet Private Tracy Kensington.”

  “Sir!” Private Kensington chirped.

  Alisia glared at Private Kensington for a moment then slowly slid her stare towards the Major. “One Private? Please don’t tell me that’s it.”

  “For now it is,” the Major calmly replied.

  Alisia sighed. “I’ve been trying to expand the team for ... ever, and now I’m down to me and a little bitty Private? They’re gonna chew her up in no time flat.” Alisia’s assessment made Private Tracy Kensington shift uncomfortably, but no one was paying attention to her to notice.

  “Well, it’s your job as her commanding officer to make sure that doesn’t happen.” The Major’s tone had a distinct “That’s the way it is” ring to it. Alisia stormed out down the hall, and before disappearing around a corner she turned back with a bark. “Private Kensington! Are you coming or not?!”

  Tracy Kensington jumped in shock, darting her eyes between the Major and the Captain.

  “I think you’d best get going, Private.” the Major sighed.

  Tracy caught up to Alisia around the corner, finding her leaning with her back against the wall, looking angry but calm. Tracy faced Alisia, and snapped to attention.

  Alisia sighed. “Ooh-kay, kid. Rule number one. Relax.” She looked up at Tracy, still at attention. “Relax was an order. At ease, and stay there.” Tracy tried very hard to relax.

  “Rule number two. I don’t know if you were calling me or the Major ‘Sir’, but don’t do it to me. Captain will do. Got it?”

  “Yes Captain!”

  Alisia sighed. “If that’s out of the way, I wanna apologize about what I said in there. I’m not going to let you get chomped. I have had people die under my command, but in most cases it was because of excessive stupidity on their parts. Not to speak ill of the dead, but it’s true. With only two of us, we’re not about to split up so you’d have to be acting really stupid to get killed with me watching your back. Are you stupid?”

  “Uh, no, Sir.” Tracy stammered.

  Alisia smiled to herself “You might be. You just called me ‘Sir’ again, after I told you not to.” Tracy stood silent.

  “Oh, lighten up a bit.” Alisia revealed her smile much to the relief of the Private. “Alright. See me in my office tomorrow morning, and I’ll brief you. Dismissed.”

  “Oh-six-hundred hours, Captain?”

  “Holy shit no, Private! What do you think this is? The army?”

  “Uh, yes.. Captain...?”

  “We make our own hours, kiddo. We don’t get no respect, but we get quite a bit of freedom. Now scram, will ya?”

  “Uh, yes, Captain!” And with that, the bewildered Private wandered off.

  Alisia breezed into her office fashionably late to find Tracy sitting in perfect posture, waiting patiently.

  “Hey Kensington. That sounds kinda odd- can I call you Kenny?” Alisia sat at her seat, and threw her feet onto the desk.

  “Uh- that’s a boy’s name..”

  “Aw c’mon, all the cool kids have a nickname.” Alisia teased.

  “Wha... what’s yours, Sir? Tracy cautiously inquired.

  “Arg! It sure as hell isn’t ‘Sir’! My nickname? You’re not high enough rank to know that. So? Kenny?”

  “Uh, alright Captain, if you say so.” It beat the nicknames they handed out in basic training. Thus did Tracy Kensington come to be known as Kenny. It was something she regretted almost instantly.

  “Alright Kenny, down to business. Fighting zombies. What do you know?”

  “Well,” Tracy started, “Hollow point rounds are generally used, but no grenades.” She paused. “But I don’t know why.”

  “Well,” Alisia explained,”normal bullets make a hole and if you’re lucky, an exit wound. Zombies don’t generally give a rat’s ass about that kind of injury, because for whatever reason, zombies don’t need to rely on their organs to live. A hollow point reliably causes a big enough mess to actually break apart chunks of the target, removing their ability to move, or at least move effectively. A lost leg will take them out of immediate hazard, unless they’re close enough to crawl and grab. Arms are good to take off, too. A walking torso with a mouth is pretty easy to avoid, but it’s never bad to get the head too. Basically, you just need to disassemble them until they stop coming. Simple headshots used to work pretty good, but I’ve been having less and less luck with that.”

  Tracy took a moment to absorb the new tactics, and tried hard not to visualize it too vividly. “And grenades? Wouldn’t that be ideal?”

  “Yeah, they would, but for some reason they’re totally off limits. I don’t know why.” This had been a standing order since the outbreak. “Ok, we have the basics of offense covered. Now for defense. If you go into hostile territory, how do you protect yourself, Kenny?”

  Tracy responded seamlessly. “Avoid open spaces, stick to smaller areas when you can, use the environment for cover to be unseen, and become less of a target.”

  “Correct,” Alisia chirped, “Now forget that entirely. Zombies don’t use guns and they don’t train snipers. The only risk to open areas is being seen. When you are seen, you want some space between you and the zombie. They’re slow, but they’re strong. You must debilitate incoming zombies before they get to you. Hand to han
d is not impossible against a zombie, but just trust me that you’d rather not risk it. Their strength is also part of why you don’t go into tight spaces. I’ve seen stronger ones break through some pretty thick walls to get at a person, even when a door was just a meter away. Oh yeah, most of em are dumb. So keep in the open and just keep your eyes peeled. Infra red won’t help you because they don’t give off any body heat.”

  Tracy studiously crammed the new information into her head. “Oh! What about infection?”

  “Yeah, don’t get bit. You get zombie slobber in your blood, and at best, we’ll have to toss you into observation. Been there, done that.”

  “You’ve been infected?”

  “Yeah, well-“ Alisia was interrupted by her comm. She tapped the little device that cuddled her ear. “Captain Terone here.”

  “Captain, we have an interesting anomaly on the top deck.” It was the Major.

  “Oh?” Alisia put the comm on the table and turned it up so Tracy could hear.

  “About fifteen minutes ago, random VTags have been springing up in a concentrated area.”

  “So? A zombie probably found some discarded goggles, and has been playing with the buttons.” Alisia spoke of the hypothetical zombie as if it were a toddler.

  “That was the first hunch of the snipers, but when they tried to track it down, they spotted a moving IR signature.”

  “I see. A zombie playing with a car maybe?” Alisia was stretching it.

  “Well, possible, but not very likely. VTags or a moving IR signature are interesting enough, but both...?”

  “Alright Major, we’ll suit up ASAP, and go hunting.”

  “Very good, Captain.”

  Alisia tapped the comm off, put it back in her ear, and shot a sheepish smile at Tracy. “Giddyup!”

  ~~~~~

  Chapter 16: Warm Welcome

  ~~~~~

  The south doors lurched open slowly, spreading the visage of the city to Tracy Kensington for the first time. It didn’t look this big from on top of the wall. Even from this distance the cornerstone buildings and their bridges seemed to reach towards you ominously. With ‘boots on the ground’, it was suddenly a lot less hypothetical. She was going in today.

  Alisia stepped forward and made one last equipment check on the two of them.

  P90s, chosen for the sheer volume of hollow points they could pump quickly, and the availability of salvageable ammo in the city. It also made a good smashing weapon in a pinch.

  Custom Magnum Desert Eagles, donated by Magum Research after Alisia made a comment on the news that she was a fan of their pistols.

  Good basic combat knives that didn’t see much action, but were handy in a utilitarian way.

  The most interesting toy was Alisia’s one of a kind ‘Bad Mojo’. It was a fairly bulky experimental weapon. Alisia wasn’t quite sure how her team ended up with it, but she didn’t complain when she inherited it from a retiring comrade. It definitely looked more like an experiment than a mass-produced weapon. It took two hands to aim its heft, and lacked any proper grip on the front end.

  Using magnetic rails, the Bad Mojo hurtled a single projectile that shatters into an immense number of fragments. Technically it wasn’t a grenade launcher, so it snuck by the ‘no explosives’ rule. The ammo was hard to requisition, so Alisia didn’t use it often, but it was invaluable to break up a mob when she got cut off.

  Satisfied that the rookie hadn’t forgotten anything, Alisia turned to face Autar once again. To Alisia, it was a very familiar sight, even though she had never been in very deep. In an average mission, Alisia would go in far enough to find a few mobs of zombies and use up most of her ammo, then leave.

  Today was different however. There was a much more specific objective, and it meant going deep. Corporal Parker, manning a tower zipper, was assigned to assist Alisia and Kensington; to keep an eye on them as much as he could and to assist with tracking.

  Alisia started walking towards the city fringes, and Tracy followed. “Parker. You with us?”

  “Yes Sir, ma’am. I see ya. You’re still really close, and this scope zooms great. I can damn near see down your shirt.”

  Alisia discreetly flipped the bird over her shoulder.

  “Anytime, Sir.” Parker replied.

  “In your dreams, Corporal.”

  “Aw, can’t a guy dream, Captain? Hey Kensington, you’re a Private, wanna fraternize later?”

  Tracy turned around sharply, and made the rudest face she could think of, which in all reality just came out ‘cute’. Parker remained silent, and smiled softly to himself. It might be worth making a point to talk to her later.

  When Tracy turned around again, the city seemed suddenly closer. The sky seemed darker. It was not long before they reached the first of the buildings, which were in various states of disrepair. On the outskirts it was mostly factories, warehouses, and things of that nature. Instinctively, Tracy walked closer to the nearest building to not be out in the open.

  Alisia continued down the middle of the street and noticed Tracy. Alisia whistled as if to call a dog, and pointed at the ground near her. Tracy understood and got back into formation.

  “Hey Parker.” Alisia asked, fiddling with her visor. “You still see that heat signature moving? My IR at this angle isn’t really much help.” While she did see many heat signatures, they all seemed still. Machinery and such still gave off heat, many still running on their own after all this time.

  “No Captain. It’s either gotten under some cover, stopped moving, or cooled off.” Parker replied. “Most of the boys have their eyes peeled, so we’ll probably see it if it pops up again.”

  “I hope we’re not going in here for nuthin’. Hey, where’s the nearest mystery VTag? Maybe if I looked around, I could get a clue..”

  Parker was quiet for a moment before Alisia’s visor showed a new VTag, flashing to draw her attention. “Over there,” Parker’s voice said. Right next to Parker’s new VTag was one of the unknown ones. It was labeled simply “FW”.

  “Hey, Parker. Make things simple for me. Let me see just the unknown VTags, and the IR signature’s last position.”

  “Right. Jussec.” Soon, all the other VTags that the zipper snipers had marked disappeared from Alisia’s view. There were about a dozen of the unknown tags. Most were labeled either ‘FW’ or ‘GA’.

  “Somehow they don’t seem very random.” Alisia observed.

  “Captain!” Tracy called out.

  “What?”

  “I see dead people!” Indeed, Tracy had spotted a small grouping of zombies coming out from a hole in the wall of a nearby building. They were still fairly far off, so Alisia told Tracy to calm down. Tracy had heard that the zombies of Autar had a strange sense of style, and here was the proof. One sported bermuda shorts with black socks pulled up high by those little sock garters. His abdomen was nearly all gone, and as Tracy looked on, a small rodent poked its head up from inside and ran out, down the zombie’s leg, and scurried off.

  One zombie wore a bowler hat with a dead rose sticking out of the top. Another sported fashionable football padding.

  All in all, once the group had cleared the hole there were six of them, one of which was swinging his detached arm in his other hand as a club.

  “A nice warm-up for ya, Kensinton,” Alisia said, “Go ahead, hose em.”

  Tracy aimed her P90 and let out a couple controlled bursts at them. Three of the zombies took chest wounds and staggered, but kept coming.

  “C’mon. I thought I told you about this. Chest wounds don’t matter to them. Try legs.”

  Tracy lowered her aim, and blew off a few legs. Soon enough all of the zombies were on the ground, crawling towards them.

  “Nice shootin’. Normally I don’t worry about ammo conservation, but today we might need it. We can leave em like this. They won’t be a threat to us.”

  “But... Captain, they’re in pain. Shouldn’t we finish them?”

  “Pain? I don’t think they kno
w what that is. Besides, look at em. If they were in pain, would they still be so eager to get at us?”

  Alisia walked up to the nearest debilitated zombie, and kicked its head off with a hollow crunch. Its arms groped about blindly.

  “Besides, I don’t know if they ever truly die. They just stop moving and then rot.”

  Tracy looked down at the writhing mob of bones and flesh with pity, but she understood. “It’s... like killing robots.”

  “Exactly,” Alisia said, glancing back again as she moved on, “No soul, no feelings, no guilt, no problem. Some say that you’re freeing their souls by ‘killing’ them. But who knows if there’s anything to that.”

  Tracy seemed to like that idea so she ran up and cautiously kicked the head off one before catching up to Alisia.

  Alisia smirked at the warrior mouse Tracy. “Don’t get overconfident on me now. I have lots of experience at this. I can afford to be a bit cocky.”

  Amused mumblings from Corporal Parker could be heard through the comm.

  “Pervert.” Tracy said with a smile.

  The two continued on into denser groupings of buildings. Tracy felt the streets were a little narrower. She looked around, and spotted several small lights, here and there. Was it was getting dark early?

  “Captain, why is the power still going?” Tracy asked, “Why wasn’t it cut off?”

  “Autar’s power comes from a generator plant somewhere inside the city. When humans evacuated, no one shut it down, and I guess the zombies haven’t bothered to damage it.”

  “What kind of generator is it?”

  Alisia shrugged “I don’t know.”

  “There’s no river for a dam and no windmills or solar cells. Is it nuke? They wouldn’t build a city around a nuclear plant, would they?”

  “I don’t know. I asked, but it’s classified for whatever reason. It would go a long way to explaining why we’re not allowed to use explosives in here, but it doesn’t entirely add up.”

  “How’s that?” Tracy’s interest was really piqued now.