Read Left With the Dead for Free Online

it by mass of bodies alone. This is a no-shit assessment from a guy who’s been there, done that. Over.”
    “Roger Terminator, I get that. I’ll—I’ll advise Six of that as soon as I can. He’s a little busy right now, over.”
    “Falcon, Terminator. He’s busy getting his guys killed. You’d better grow a pair and tap that guy on the shoulder right now, otherwise the only thing that’ll be left of his battalion is the headquarters company. You read me? Over.”
    “I read you, Terminator.” Falcon didn’t seem to grasp the urgency of the situation, which left Gartrell incensed. If the entire 10th Mountain Division was fed to the zeds, then there wasn’t going to be anyone left to help him out.
    “Falcon, Terminator. What’s your position in the Two-Eight-Seven, over?”
    “Terminator, Falcon…say again? Over.”
    “Falcon. This is Terminator.” Gartrell had a tough time keeping the frustration out of his voice. “I asked what your duty station was. Are you with the S-Three shop? S-Two? What?”
    “Terminator, this is Falcon. I’m…I’m with the battalion S-Five, over.”
    Gartrell was dumbfounded. “Falcon…you’re with the battalion’s public relations shop?”
    “Uh…roger that, Terminator. Like I said, we’re a bit pressed for resources right at the moment—”
    “Falcon, this is Terminator. Stay on this frequency. I’ll come back to you in one second.” Gartrell flipped back to the 2/87th’s common net, and found it was saturated with radio traffic from infantry units that were in contact with the legion of the dead. It was horrifying to listen to, but Gartrell had unfortunately heard it all before.
    “Summit Six, this is Terminator Five! Pull your troops back, don’t push them into the zeds! Pull your troops back, or they’re gone, over!”
    A half-dozen transmissions stomped on his as he tried to speak. He repeated the transmission several times, but he wasn’t getting through. The net was jammed. He was about to roll back to the frequency Falcon was waiting on, but a voice caught his attention.
    “Terminator! Terminator, this is Yankee Five-Five-Six! We’re pinned down at the intersections of First Avenue and One Twenty-Seventh, you have anything you can help us with? The fucking zeds, they’re all over the place! Over!”
    “Yankee Five-Five-Six, Terminator’s got nothing for you. You need to fall back or fortify your position, over.” Again, Gartrell’s transmission was stomped on mercilessly. He didn’t know New York City very well, but the Yankee unit’s position put it on the Harlem side of the East River—or was it called the Harlem River up there? Whichever, it didn’t matter. What it did mean is that the stenches had rolled all the way through Manhattan and Harlem throughout the night, which meant the Bronx would be the next borough to go. And as tough as he’d heard folks were in the South Bronx, he was pretty sure they wouldn’t hold up for very long against thousands of walking, flesh-eating corpses.
    He repeated the advice to Yankee 556 twice more, but he heard nothing further from the unit. He caught snatches of conversation between other units and their commanders on the frequency, and the overall impression he got while listening to their fragmented reports was essentially grim. The lightfighters weren’t just getting their asses kicked, they were getting them bitten off. With a sigh, he rolled back to the frequency Falcon waited on.
    “Falcon, Terminator. Give me a read on your side, over.”
    “Terminator, this is Summit Six. I told you stay on this channel!”
    Gartrell was surprised to hear the infantry commander’s voice on the radio. “Sorry Six, I could have sworn when I’d left there was just a PAO weenie on this frequency. If I’d known you were coming over, I wouldn’t have switched back to try and get you on the command net. Over.”
    “Terminator, I don’t have a lot of time. My troops are getting slaughtered over there, and