Read THEM (Season 1): Episode 4 for Free Online Page A

over I’d noted animal life in the brush and trees around us that would have easily escaped my attention just a few short days ago. It was a little unnerving, but it sure made it a hell of a lot easier to evade the guards inside the compound as I closed in on the Colonel’s quarters.
    My mocs made moving silently a breeze, and I snuck into the quarters without anyone raising an alarm. I drew my kukri and stalked over to his bunk, placing my hand over his mouth and nose and sticking the point of the kukri under his left eye.
    He came to in a confused, panicked state. I whispered a warning. “Don’t make a single sound, or I’ll take the top of your head off before anyone can hear you scream. Do you understand?”
    He nodded, and a tear fell from the corner of his eye. Whether from fear or his old injury, I couldn’t be certain, but I smelled piss on him as I pulled my hand away from his mouth.
    “Let me see your hands.” He complied, so I zip-tied his hands together and then to the metal bunk frame. I duct taped his mouth shut, and tied his feet up with paracord, securing them to the bunk as well. Finally I pulled the female deader’s head from the burlap sack, and left it in the bed next to him.
    “Something to keep you company, Colonel, at least until your men find you in the morning.” He visibly cringed away from the severed head, obviously fearful of being infected. I doubted that he’d ever had to kill a deader up close. Shocker.
    I crouched down next to his bunk, and he turned his head to look at me in the dark. I knew he couldn’t see me, but I could clearly see the fear in his eyes and could smell it seeping from his pores. “Now, Leakey, I don’t think I need to tell you that you have some good men and women under your command. I’d hate to have to kill any of them just because of your stupid half-cocked mission to blow up the Corridor. And I think you know now that I can get to you, anytime I want.
    “My strong suggestion to you is to deliver command over to someone who has an IQ over seventy and let them figure out how this unit can do some good in the post-War world. That’s option one. I’d prefer for you to take that option, but I know what a stupid and arrogant piece of shit you are, and I personally doubt that you have the moral aptitude to redeem yourself with such an act.
    “Now, option two is for you to recognize that everything north of State Highway 90 on the west side of San Antonio and Interstate 10 on the east side is mine. I want you to move out of here ASAFP, head south, and don’t let me see your sad sorry face north of that line again. If I do, I’ll kill you and that shitbag Marsh on sight. Am I clear?”
    The Colonel nodded his head with a defeated look in his eye. I drew my sidearm and tapped him between the eyes with the barrel as I stood up, eliciting a noticeable wince. “Then don’t forget it. Because I certainly won’t.”
    I turned and grabbed my battlehawk from his desk, and rustled around the room until I located my Glocks and my Bowie knife from his footlocker. I’d figured he’d kept my sidearms for personal use and my tomahawk as a trophy. Even so, I’d chalked up my rifle as a loss, knowing that it probably went straight into the armory as soon as they had dumped me into the pit. Despite the loss of the rifle, finding the Bowie was a nice unexpected surprise.
    I attached all the gear to my MOLLE harness and ensured that it wouldn’t make any noise during my escape. I left the Colonel in a puddle of his own piss and sweat and headed out to fetch Bobby before someone figured out what had happened to the wall sentry.
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    On the way out, we tossed the trussed up wall sentry on top of the wall. Just in case a deader happened by, I didn’t want him to end up on the menu. Bobby discarded the BDU hat and jacket he’d borrowed as we entered the tree line, and after signaling Gabby to follow we headed back to the Facility, using blacktop roads so we