Escape The 1st Omnibus: WTF Books 1-3 by W.J. Lundy Read Free Book Online Page B

inside. Brad looked the men over; they were solid but not large. Both had overgrown beards and they wore an arrangement of camouflage. Instead of issue boots, they were wearing civilian-style hiking shoes.
    Both men carried huge packs and an assortment of weapons. The chatty man carried a large scoped rifle and had a suppressed MP5 strapped to the top of his pack. His partner carried a scoped M14 as well as a silenced MP5, and they both had large handguns at their hips. They wore dark-patterned cargo pants and large, dark-and-tan-splattered hooded jackets—they definitely blended into the terrain here in northern Afghanistan. The man saw the pot and asked if they had any more.
    “Tastes like shit,” answered Brad, “but suit yourself.”
    Méndez smiled, reached over to stir the coals on the fire, and started to open a couple of cans of the Afghan slop.
    “So you care to make a proper introduction now?” Brad asked.
    “Yeah, sorry about that,” the man laughed. “I’m Chief Sean Rogers. This is my partner Petty Officer Brooks. We really are SEALs,” he smiled, “but we sure as hell ain’t in any condition to get you all out.”
    “How did you get here? What are you doing all the way up here?” Eric asked.
    The chief began to speak. “Well, we’ve been up here for a week now. We started about a hundred miles from here; been in the city for three days now. You guys were smart to hole up here. There ain’t shit but bad news out on those streets. We saw your Army brothers last night making all that noise. It was real John Wayne of them picking that fight, but also really fucking stupid. We’ve been watching you guys, trying to make sure you weren’t fucking stupid too. We don’t like to make camp with stupid people.”
    Sean paused to open the can of energy drink and he gulped it down, spilling some on his beard. “That shit done yet?” he asked, digging a canteen cup out of his pack and handing it to Méndez. Brooks dug out a similar cup and handed it over; Méndez poured the contents of the pot between the two cups and handed them back.
    “Damn, you weren’t lying! This does taste like shit,” Brooks said, and all the men laughed.
    “So Chief, you were saying how you got here,” Brad said.
    “Oh yeah. Well, we were a ways north of here in Teremez doing a little recon and trying to close out some leads, when we were told our pickup was going to be delayed. Later we were told it was canceled and we should try and make our way to the base at Hairatan. And yeah, that’s pretty much when the world went to shit,” Sean answered.
    “Wait a minute,” Brad asked. “Teremez? You were operating in Uzbekistan? And what do you mean the world went to shit? This thing is everywhere?”
    “Well Sergeant, I guess I can’t say for certain, but we know for a fact that things are bad out there.”
    “Fuck yeah they are!” Brad yelled, “I lost my entire company yesterday, so will you stop fucking around and tell us what’s going on?!”
    “Stand down Sergeant! You think you’re the only one that has lost people this week? I went to Teremez with six men; Brooks is all that I have left. If you’ll sit back down, I’ll try to explain.” Sean scooped up a mouthful of the slop, swallowed, then continued. “About two months ago we lost an embassy in Yemen, you may have heard about it.”
    “Oh yeah, that was fucked up! They got rushed by protestors; the ambassador was killed. Al Qaeda, right?” Eric added.
    “Well, something like that,” Sean answered. “What the people don’t know is that we had four former SEALs and a contingent of Marine guards assigned to protect that ambassador. Now what sort of protestors can take down that kind of muscle?”
    “What are you getting at, Chief?” Brad asked.
    “Well Sergeant, we now believe that was a test shot. We think the crowd in Yemen was infected. They tore through the embassy residence, walked through a wall of gunfire, and took everything out. The reason