Tooth and Nail Read Online Free PDF Page B

to have to get yourself squared away on this.”
    McGraw chews on his mustache and mutters, “Yes, sir.”
    “Well, this makes sense,” Ruiz says. “We’ve been turning away a lot of people who caught the bug, but also a lot of people asking for help controlling a Mad Dog, or saying a neighbor’s gone Mad Dog and attacking people. More than we should be hearing about.”
    “What do you say to them?” Sergeant Lewis asks. He is a giant of a man, nearly six feet and four inches tall, and was once considered the unit’s finest athlete. Back then, the soldiers called him Achilles behind his back, with admiration, but not anymore, not for some time. After his son was born and he quit smoking, he got a little soft and put on some weight. It did not dampen his natural aggression, though. If anything, he has only grown more aggressive over time. He adds, “What do you tell them to do?”
    Ruiz shrugs. “To go back home and call the cops.”
    “And is that all right for them?”
    “They, um, say the cops aren’t answering the phone.”
    Lewis gestures with his large hands and says, “We got to get out there and start helping these people.”
    “Negative,” says the LT, shaking his head for emphasis.
    “It’s why we’re here, ain’t it, sir?”
    “It’s a no go. It’s not our mission. The Army is a weapon of last resort in civil disturbance situations. We’re not cops. We trained with the non-lethals but we don’t have any. We go out there, and we’ll end up in situations like today where civilians get killed.”
    “Sounds like people are getting killed all over, and we’re sitting with our asses in the wind,” Lewis says bitterly. “What’s the Army for if not protecting the people here?”
    “I don’t have the answers you’d like me to have,” Bowman tells him.
    “What matters is our position here. Our orders are the same. Keep this facility safe. Out there, we’d only do more harm than good.”
    Kemper nods. It makes sense. You can’t kill a fly with a hammer.
    Bowman clears his throat and adds carefully: “I should add, however, that in light of recent events, the rules of engagement have changed.”
    The NCOs begin swearing.

If you’re AWOL for more than thirty days, you are technically a deserter
    PFC Richard Boyd follows the girl down the street, both of them sticking to the shadows to avoid being seen. He had no idea things have gotten this bad out here. The streets are alive with packs of healthy and infected hunting each other in the dark.
    The girl’s name is Susan. He guesses her to be about nineteen, his own age. Pretty face. Nice body, slim and athletic. A girl next door type who seems out of place in New York. Being in a Muslim country for the past ten months made Boyd forget how much skin comes out in the West when the air is warm and muggy like tonight. She is wearing a tank top and cutoff jeans and the humidity is making her sweat. He pictures droplets of sweat trickling between her breasts and feels the pull of arousal. Maybe she will kiss him for helping her out. Maybe she’ll do more than that.
    Susan disappears into the doorway of a jewelry store and he follows.
    “What is it?” he whispers near her ear.
    They are standing close and he wonders if he should try to kiss her.
    After a few moments, she says, “Nothing. They’re gone.”
    She showed up at the post just after midnight, while Sergeant Ruiz was in the hospital with the LT, and asked for help. Williams said she had a junkie look and suggested some sort of quid pro quo if he could get her something tasty out of the hospital pharmacy, which got the guys excited and joking. They stopped laughing when she told them her story: Her father was sick and went Mad Dog and starting beating the crap out of her mother. Mom hid in a closet in their apartment and Dad was tearing the place apart. She called the cops but kept getting a recorded message saying all circuits are busy. That’s when Corporal Hicks showed up and