Old School Time 2

It really was not that hard to predict the old man.  He has been doing this his whole life and everyone in the company knows how he is.  His nephew was the first one to tell us what was going to be coming, but we already knew.  I like Robert, a clean and simple name for the nephew of the most powerful man on the East coast.  He is a very straight forward person.  Sure, he would kill you, but he would do it to your face, like a man.

Robert liked his uncle but was no idiot.  He knew his uncle disliked him and did not think much of him.  No matter what Robert did, his uncle would promote others over him and give Robert the most base of tasks in the company.  Robert always played along and I am sure this was seen by his uncle as weakness, but Robert did not see it that way.  Robert thought he was learning the ropes and becoming an expert on the interworking of every aspect of the company.  No matter the job, Robert would work and not complain.  He would show up every day and do the job and make friends with all the employees, then move on once he was established.  Robert was sure the old man was doing it to make sure Robert would be ready to take over the company someday.  I do not think the old man felt the same way.  That was my key to the situation, the dynamic between the old man and his nephew.  Robert needed a way to look into his uncle’s soul and see the Truth.

Old School Time:

There is a family secret I share with my brother.  We always thought it was more of a family embarrassment, but these days I think of it more a family pride.  We are descendants of Gottfried Leibniz.  A little study of Gottfried will show you the kind of man he was.  Gottfried never married but he did like to have fun with a maid or two in his day and was a rich man of his time.  That was our genetic connection.  At his best he was a pure genius that was vilified by Newtonian supporters.  At the worse he was a brilliant, but manipulative genius willing to bend the rules to meet his needs.  I tend to think the latter and being a bastard descendant myself I consider it 300 years of old school family retribution time.  No family money or name, but we certainly have the family DNA.  He never should have crossed us.  I saw it coming, but it is still a shock when someone goes so dark for no reason.  We never did a thing but our jobs and do them well.  And then he goes all bad ass mobster on us.  Old School time indeed, we can handle that.

Things have gone dark 9

Sam said, “How can we tell your guys from the others?”

“Because we look and act like we should not be screwed with.  If Brian could tell that he would still be alive and not a pile of sludge, I think you are a lot smarter and can tell the difference, Sam.”  Sam did not flinch at my use of his name.

“I get that you have plenty of technology and weaponry and can hear what we are saying and even see us through the trees, but that is not everything.  We are still alive and able to cause plenty of trouble.  Especially since we know you are coming back and with valuable cargo.”  Sam stated, clearly and confidently.

“I was right; you are a smart one Sam.  And you know that I could bring in a troop of bad asses and kill all of you.  You can’t hide from the technology for long.  This is not a game and I have the resources to win.  Ask Brian if you doubt me.  But I am not a killer for no good reason and I am not trying to piss off good people looking to survive.  I can arrange for my competitors to drop right in your hands with all the things you need.  If you are willing to work, I can even arrange for farming supplies to end up in your hands so you can build a society and become independent and get out of this highway robbing business altogether.  In a planting season or two you will have a stockpile of food and shelter to make a real go out here away from the worse of the undead problems.  I can even tell you ways to deal with them and use them as labor instead of running scared and wasting ammunition.”

Sam nodded and walked back into the woods.  I could hear his conversation with the others and he was clearly in charge now.  I had empowered him and scared them at the same time.  After forcing a general buy in from everyone Sam turned to my direction and whispered, “Dave you have a deal.”

I drove back to the city; the next step will be the hard one.

Things have gone dark 8

I could see heads nodding on the imager and could hear them trying to pick someone to send out to talk.  I could tell who it was going to be before they could.  They there was a shape moving toward the group from my 6 0’clock.  I didn’t see him before but it was easy spotting him now that everyone else had stopped moving.  He stepped into the clearing with the others and everyone jumped.  That was going to be my guy.

Eventually they sent Sam out to talk.  I heard the whole thing and could have talked to him from where he was standing, but it was a good idea to let him get out in front of the others and take charge.  I was going to need someone to take charge so I could keep the people in line and on my side, eventually.

“Here is the deal.  There is no need to us to be enemies, I am trying to work with you and I think it is to the benefit of everyone.”

“Wants the deal Oz?”

“My name is not really Oz, you can call me Dave and the deal is real simple.  Leave my guys and trucks alone and I’ll make sure you have plenty of others to prey on.”

Things have gone dark 7

Everyone around him was motionless after seeing bits of him spraying in all directions.  It must have been an impressive sight to have been there and seen it first hand, because it was disturbing on the Thermal Imager and I still shudder when I remember it on my little screen.  I immediately got back on the PA speaker and asked if anyone else wanted to leave nasty signs and get blown to bits.  Just point a weapon in my direction and I’ll give you what Brian got.  I could tell that using his name was a good idea.  The people near the pile of body sludge formerly known as Brian turned their heads and dropped their guns.  I was the all-powerful Oz and I said so over the PA.

“Would anyone like to talk like civilized people, just raise your hand.”  I said on the PA.  I could see them confused and wondering how I could see them if they did raise their hands wondering if they would end up like Brian.

“It is cool, I am not going to kill anyone and I would not have killed Brian if he was not such a prick!”

Things have gone dark 6

That is when I took a little small arms fire from the south, north and west.  It was obvious that I was being herded to the east.  Not that I cared.  I remotely let air out of the front tires with the central tire inflation system in the truck to make it look like I was hit.  I just put the truck in park a waited for the next escalation, and it did not take long.

Maybe the twin 50 cals on the roof was a little bit of a deterrent and they stayed back in the tree line.  Not a problem.  I swung the 50s around and turned the microphone all the way up listening for voices as I slowly rotated the system.  They really did not know what I would not take the bait and go east.  Sure it looked like my tires were low, but not so low that I could not move or take off.  I am sure it was a confusing site.  Confusing the troops requires a leader to step in and make a decision.  That is what I was listening for, a leader.

I do have to say I had this all planned out, and was fully prepared to take care of business.  If they shot first, it is only right to shoot back, right?  At about 3 o’clock I found what I was looking for.  Several voices where asking what Brian wanted them to do and soon Brian showed up to give orders.  These were not an organized groups of military, just a tug names Brian telling people what to do because he could talk the loudest and thought that he was a badass.  Kindness and good judgment make a true badass and he didn’t have either so I put a burst of 50 cal in his body and head aiming with the Thermal Imager I had set under the speaker.  He was the only one standing and I could easily tell his gestures on the imager to his voice on the parabolic microphone.

Things have gone dark 5

We ran our most dangerous miles when the roads were cool.  This got rid of most of the issues with Zombies.  The living was a different story; they can really get in the way and cause problems.  I understand that people want to live and I completely support that point of view, but I have a job to do and am not in the charity business.  Even with that I didn’t see a need to fight, if it could be avoided.

The first way to avoid a fight is to setup communication and intimidation.  I learned this from my brother in the club.  Always stay in control and always let them know that you are willing to take it to the next level.  Of course I was able to take it ten levels ahead if necessary, but they didn’t need to completely know all the tricks I had available.

I armored a hummer with the same basic setup we had used on the trucks.  In addition I put a nice pretty set of twin 50 cal BMGs with remote control on the top.  Between the machine guns was a speaker and parabolic microphone so I could hear and talk to anyone in the area.  I ran the route with the most “people” problems and put a recording on the PA that I would be back in 6 hours to talk to anyone that wanted to make a profit and live.  Sure enough when I came back 6 hours later there was a sign on the road.  It was not a nice sign or anatomically possible, but the message was clear.  This was going to get ugly before it got better.  So be it.

Things have gone dark 4

My brother used his contacts to have the big rigs reinforced to handle the problem on the road.  Roaming bands of Zombies was the obvious problem, but not the real problem.  The real problem was the bands of people that needed resources and did not care to kill to get them.  If you stopped you were dead.  He setup the trucks with cattle guards on the front to push through the living and undead that might block the roads.  They should know better than to get in front of a truck and it was for the greater good to think out the dumbasses.

The fuel tanks were replaced with fuel cells and stayed with truck bed liner material.  The entire undercarriage was reinforced with Kevlar plate and sprayed as well.  We added some weight to the trucks, but we dramatically improved the aerodynamics so it was not that bad.  We even sprayed the trucks down with lecithin.  That is the ingredient in spray cooking oils that make them so slick.  It spreads out on the surface and is a super slippery lubricant.  I wanted to make sure that there was nothing to hold on to and that anything that was hit, would not leave much of a mark and was easy to clean.  See running a restaurant gives you certain skills in life.

Things have gone dark 3

I was getting plenty tired of the suites running my business and setting up all the franchises and apparently they were plenty tired of me trying to stick to standards of quality control and customer service.  I had made a little bit of money and was getting bored of dealing with the suites, so it was time to leave anyway.  This was about the same time Joe had done a great job with the Zombie Security Company and was looking to start covering security for over the road trucking.  He knew I had worked for a logistics company when I was younger and wanted me to be part of his new business.  I was cool with the idea and we started designing route optimization and mileage estimates in preparation for a contract to handle the Logistics and security of shipment.  At first they only wanted to talk about security, but we convinced the suppliers that no security company could protect shipments unless they also controlled the routes and made sure the trucks ran at the correct time of day and routes to avoid problems.

This turned out wonderfully.  Logistics is a low profit high volume business and all the volume had gone away.  The big logistics companies had gone out of business doing over the road trucking because the roads were so dangerous and they had lost so many people and shipments.  No one would insure them anymore.  Joe and I knew the behavior of the Zombies and how to control and work with them; even the nasty ones that were out beyond the walls.  Since there was no competition we could make our own rules, it was time to rewrite the book.