Bones Omnibus by Mark Wheaton

Author:Mark Wheaton [Wheaton, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-05-10T04:00:00+00:00

VII

It took some convincing of the Special Forces response team, specifically a Captain Willingham, for Bones not to be left behind to fend for himself in Gainey or, worse, shot. But after Ryan showed them Bones’s collar and explained that he was a trained Pittsburgh police K-9 who now had more experience sniffing out and fighting against the flesh-eaters than any dogs they might have brought with them, the captain realized how valuable such an asset might be.

“All right, kid,” Captain Willingham had said. “We’ll treat you like a matched set.”

After a visit to the company medic, who patched them up as best he could in the field, Bones and Ryan were loaded onto an Army CH-47 transport helicopter and whisked out of the combat zone. As soon as the helicopter was aloft, Bones fell asleep. He may have still been hungry but only accepted a quick drink from a soldier’s canteen before closing his eyes.

The longer they’d stayed on the ground, though, the more antsy Ryan had become. His debriefing by the captain, who wanted to know in detail where he’d been and what he’d experienced, had repeatedly been punctuated by machine gun fire from both the Apache’s forward cannon as well as troops on the ground exterminating flesh-eaters both near and far. So, when the helicopter was finally airborne and putting serious miles between himself and Bones and the scene of so much death that morning, Ryan was finally able to relax. His first reaction had been to break down and cry, but he was too dehydrated, and no tears came. Instead, his body merely racked with sobs as he tried to hide the fact from the soldiers in the chopper.

“We didn’t know how wide it had spread until we started rising above the action,” a Sergeant Lopez told Ryan, handing him a pair of headphones, figuring conversation might help the troubled kid. “It seems to have started around Duncan but quickly spread to Gainey, past Scottsburg, and into Hammond, Warsaw, and Belton. They’d turned the city into Fortress Pittsburgh, thinking that was the next place they’d go, but then nada. They’d all changed direction and started heading back out to the north.”

Though he had winced at the mention of his town, “Duncan,” Ryan liked that the man didn’t talk down to him, and when he said as much, Lopez smiled.

“Judging from what you told the captain, you’ve had a lot more experience fighting these things than anybody else in my unit. You and your pal there have earned the respect of a lot of American servicemen today.”

Ryan liked how that sounded. He glanced over at Bones, who was tethered to one of the seats of the helicopter by a nylon web belt a soldier had attached to his collar. The shepherd looked half-dead, so exhausted was he.

“What were those things that attacked us?” Ryan asked Sergeant Lopez. Sgt. Lopez sighed, as if Ryan was bringing up the one sore subject on the day.

“That’s just it – we have no idea,” he replied.

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