Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Fighting
General Isaac Stapleton got his site picture, and expended another round into the head of an oncoming zombie. This one falling flat like the others had in a big semi-circle around the General and the Admiral. He checked his ammo, and saw that he was running low on the last magazine for the P-90. Admiral Antonelli already had his pistol out, he was holding it, opposite of the good General, looking into the big warehouse like opening. The two had killed maybe one hundred zombies so far.
Antonelli thought to himself that it was alot like Doom, that game his son had been playing. But he quickly tried to get his head back in the task at hand. He had no idea how his son was doing. Or even if he was still alive. Dominick Antonelli would either have been in school, or in their Annapolis, Maryland home when this all happened. And while the household had several weapons in it, there wasn't that much ammunition in it.
"Gio, I'm almost out of ammo for the P90. You have any idea where they might have a weapons' locker here?" asked Antonelli.
"Nope. But, well, you see over there, that's some kind of control room in the far edge of the room over there. You wanna check?" asked Antonelli.
The two men moved deliberately with a jogging pace, getting over the bodies, until they made it to the room Antonelli had been talking about.
They got into the room, and saw the eviscerated body of a butter bar lietenant with the US Navy. He had a key ring,
and about 7 keys on him still though. "Okay. We ought to check everything in here," said Antonelli, "You still okay. Your wound?"
"Yeah, I am, I'll need to get a bandage, and get myseld fixed up, but yeah." said Stapleton looking around.
Antonelli began looking through the keys, trying to find the correct one. Meanwhile, Stapleton looked on and saw a locker with a key card on it. He walked over to it, and opened it with his card. Opening the door, he saw a weapon's locker with an M-4, a couple of Mossberg 12 gauges with US Navy written on them, and five Beretta M9 pistols. "We solved our problem," he said, pulling the M-4 out, and throwing a 12 gauge over to Antonelli. "Let's grab all the ammo we can."
They grabbed 12 gauge buckshot, and Stapleton began to load his magazines with a battlepack marked 5.56 NATO/Lake City. The bullets all had a green tip, and the boxes had "62 grain" marked on them along with a NATO cross symbol. "Okay, now, I found a map," said Antonelli. "The place I'd bet everyone is in is here," he said, pointing to a room marked "Primary Communication and Conference Room."
Isaac and Giovanni moved out, walking down the hall towards the room. The Admiral looked in front and saw a zombie male, a suit and tie on, face covered in streaks of dried blood begin to run at him. He aimed the shotgun, and fired, the blast of the 12 gauge "00" buckshot tearing into the abdomen of the zombie, and putting him on the floor. Antonelli loaded another shell into the weapon, and pumped, firing another round into it's head, streaming chunks of skull around the hall.
Isaac moved up to the corpse, and bent on his knees, looking through the formely undead's clothes for his wallet. Pulling out the zombie's wallet, he looked at it to see a card, the same kind of card that Giovanni Antonelli had. The same kind that Isaac Stapleton had. It was an access card to the bunker. And this man had it.
"Giovanni, do you know who this was?"
"Who?"
"This was Peter Welsh, the CEO of General Weapons' Research. But, only governmental officials and their families are supposed to be allowed in here. This doesn't make any sense."
"He is the leader of one of the biggest weapons' contractors, might not be right, but it doesn't surprise me."
"Let's move," said Stapleton.
The two walked down the hall and another zombie came at them, this one a bald man with a suit on as well. This time Stapleton shot first, the 5.56 NATO rounds tearing into the zombie's flesh. The rounds nearly tearing the flesh off of it's arms, and blowing chunks of it's chest away before Antonelli's Mossberg blew it's head off, with only a chunk of jaw left.
"Who's this one?" asked Antonelli running over to the body.
Stapleton pulled out the corpse's card and saw that his name had been Edward Schwartzmann. "This is Edward Schwartzmann. The CEO of Bank of North America. One of the richest men on the planet, and the owner of what is thought to be a bank on the Federal Reserve."
"Whoa, Isaac, how do you know this?"
"Because, for the past few months, I've been researching this stuff. And after the Congressman died, well, I studied who he'd been investigating."
"Explain this to me, Isaac. Whats all this about?"
Isaac Stapleton grabbed a cigarette from the dead man's coat pocket, and lit it up. "Do you know anything about how the money in the United States works? Like how the monetary system works specifically?"
"No," said Antonelli, as the men began to move again.
"Well, our money is printed up based upon a few different considerations. For one, how much do the bankers think we as a society will need to pay our debts, taxes, for a coke at the store. Next, how many outstanding debts does the government have. that's probably the most important consideration. Finally, thye have to print money in a certain ammount simply to maintain a certain stability in the world's currency system. Atleast that's the simplified version."
"Every year the government issues bonds, and the banks that make up the federal reserve print up, either on paper or in computer files make that money."
"Wait, you said the banks that make up the Federal Reserve?"
"Yeah," said Isaac.
"That's not like a federal government thing?"
"No. The whole thing is regulated federally, but, well, the Federal Reserve is actually a cartel. A legally sanctioned cartel run with government approval."
"Recently, in fact, for the past few years, the Federal Reserve has been printing up alot more money than normal. In fact, well all the while this has been going on, those loans we pulled with the Chinese to pay for Iraq? Well, that money is getting pumped back into the U.S. The Chinese have been dumping it back."
"That doesn't make any sense. If there's alot of money out there without more stuff, wouldn't there be an increase in the price of stuff?"
"Yeah. But haven't you noticed?"
"Well, there has been. I mean gas has been going up, but it always does. And everything else. But if you listen to the news it would just say, well that the inflation is about higher gas prices. Of course, this is the media we're talking about," said Antonelli smirking.
"Well, now we've seen a couple of big wigs with major corporations here that have heavy government connections. Something doesn't smell right here," said Stapleton.
They walked further down the hall, turned a corner, and saw a couple of military uniformed zombies, both in Army BDUs. Stapleton opened fire blowing a hole in the middle of one's forehead, the red dot attached to the M4 doing it's job. He turned to the other and saw it's head get blown apart like a watermelon by Antonelli's shotgun.
The two kept up until they got to the room. Stapleton looked at it, and pulled out his keycard. "Okay Gio, I'm gonna open the door, and you run in."
Antonelli nodded, and when Stapleton opened the door, Gio ran in, and looked ahead to see a Marine Colonel, and another man in a suit.
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" screamed the Marine Colonel. He looked to see his superior officer, and layed his Beretta M9 on the desk. Behind the Colonel, the man in the suit sat down at the desk and lit up a Marlboro Light, taking the smoke in, and rolling it around in his lungs. Stapleton sat down
at the desk, and layed the M4 there, pulling out another cigarette. Antonelli stayed standing though, and kept the shotgun at the ready. The Marine Colonel looked across at Stapleton, and said, "General, could I ask, where is everyone else?"
"Dead." he said, taking a drag.
"Dammit." said the Colonel.
"So, Mr. Braff, what are you doing here," asked Stapleton to the dark haired man in the suit.
"Well, I'm with the government, and-"
"No, you are not, you are the head of the Federal Reserve, you aren't with the government. How'd you get a pass here to a top secret government bunker?" asked Stapleton.
"Sir, what are you doing, this man is-"
"This man is not suppossed to be here," said Stapleton. "Or, everyone in the country should be allowed here. But not both. Anyway, this is-"
"General, what are you saying?" asked Benjamin Braff, stubbing his cigarette out, and standing up.
"Sit down, Mr. Braff."
"You can't-"
"Sit the F*&k down! Now!" screamed Stapleton. "I want answers, and I want them now!"
The Federal Reserve Chairman looked at Stapleton who had his hand on the M4. He eyed the Beretta next to the Colonel. Just then, Braff reached for the Beretta, and Stapleton pulled up the M4. But Braff was alot faster than Stapleton thought he would be, and Braff had the drop on Stapleton.
"Put your weapon down," said Braff, pointing the pistol at Stapleton's head.
"No, assmonkey, put your pistol down," said Antonelli, holding the barrel of the 12 gauge to Braff's neck.
Braff looked back to see an angry middle aged man pointing a Mossberg at the point between his head and his neck. He looked forward, and saw he still had Stapleton in his sites. It was a Mexican standoff. And Braff had never handled a gun in
his life. Braff looked around, and thought about taking the weapon when Stapleton lept forward to grab the pistol. He pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. It was right then that Stapleton grabbed his hand, and bent his wrist upwards, nearly
snapping it in a deceitfully strong grip. The pistol was now in Stapleton's hands, and Braff was laying on the ground clutching his hand in pain.
"Mr. Braff, you don't know the M9 Beretta very well I can see. The decocker was totally down. The weapon was on safe."
Braff looked up with anger in his eyes. It was the look of a man who is not often talked down to. Then, Antonelli looked over at Stapleton, "Assmonkey?"
"What did you expect? That I ask him to stop the ballyhoo and shananigans?"
Antonelli began to laugh, bursting out in laughter. As did Stapleton. And suddenly up came Braff, and Stapleton kicked him hard in the crotch sending him tumbling downwards again.
"What are you doing?" asked the Colonel.
"Look, this man is a traitor." said Stapleton. "I'm virtually certain he had something to do with the death of a U.S. Congressman, and I'm gonna prove it."
