Outbreak Chapter 23

Griffin was the only one of the three not in some sort of military uniform. Instead he wore a pair a khaki pants similar to what Brendon had seen civilian contractors wearing in Iraq when on missions and a tight fitting black shirt. For a tactical rig he wore a plate carrier that looked to still have both the front and back SAPI plates in it. The rig had molle straps on the front and back and Griffin had enough pouches to house more than a full combat load of mags for the AR-15 hanging by it’s single point sling on his right side. There were also three more pouches on his left chest that housed magazines for his full sized 9mm Springfield XD.
“These things can’t even figure out how to use a doorknob, are you expecting to get shot by one,” Brendon said poking at the SAPI plate on Griffin’s chest.
“Yeah yeah, laugh all you want,” Griffin grumbled when both Brendon and Wiggins started laughing at his expense. “We’ll see who is laughing when you get shot by some trigger happy civilian or nervous cop and you don’t have any armor.”
Brendon was about to give Griffin more crap when he heard a somewhat panicky female voice come from the balcony door. “Brendon, where is our daughter?” He looked up to see Leslie standing in the doorway with a worried look on her face.
“Don’t worry she’s fine,” Brendon said trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “She spent the night at my parent’s house so she’s nowhere near the city, she's in good hands."
"You're sure she's fine?" Leslie asked looking skeptical. Brendon nodded back and Leslie seemed to calm down some. "Thanks for sending them to get me," she said after a small pause, "I didn't think anybody was going to be coming for me."
"No problem," he replied. "I couldn't just leave you to get hurt by these people now could I?"
Leslie nodded looking a little happier and headed back into the apartment. Brendon didn't want to ask her about her family, the fact that he hadn't seen them here either meant something bad had happened or more likely she hadn't been able to get a hold of them. Reminding her of it would probably only depress her, the same as it would any of the rest of them. He was at least hopeful since his immediate family lived outside of the city but he still had aunts and uncles, cousins and his grandparents from his mothers side of the family living in the city and he had no idea what had happened to any of them. As far as he could tell nobody else at Wiggins' apartment had been able to get a hold of their families either so everybody had loved ones they were worrying about and it would do no good to remind them of it.
"Thanks Griff," Brendon said putting a hand on his friends shoulder. "It means a lot to me, did you guys run into any trouble getting her?"
"No problem man," Griffin said. We met some resistance getting to her, there are a lot of them up north. We found her alone in her apartment with zombie trying to get inside, she seemed pretty shaken up but was otherwise ok. James, Megan and I got her out of there without too much trouble."
James had been another of the people laying down fire to cover them while they came up the ladder. Brendon turned over to him and shook his hand, "Thanks to you too." James was the tallest of the group, Brendon guessed that he had to of been around six feet three inches. He was wearing just a simple set of blue jeans and a jacket and t-shirt. On his chest was a woodland cammo chest rig that Brendon had seen before and knew belonged to Griffin. The rig housed a number of magazines for the AK-47 that James had slung across his chest. Brendon recognized the rifle and knew it was the one that Wiggins had purchased at a gun show they had gone to together their freshman year of college. It was a Romanian model and had not undergone any modifications so it looked just like the millions of other AK-47s across the globe with it's wooden stock and handguards. Wiggins had a good assortment of both thirty and forty round magazines and Brendon could see that James had found space in the chest rig to fit all of the magazines.
"So who is this Megan girl you mentioned?" Brendon asked turning back to Griffin.
"Oh just some girl that has been staying with me," Griffin responded letting a little bit of a grin creep onto his face.
"Oh come on man," Brendon said. "You get a new lady friend and you don't even tell me? Well at least being cooped up here won't be so bad for you"
"No it should actually be a pretty good time so long as we manage to get a little bit of privacy every now and then," Griffin said with an even bigger grin on his face.
They heard a ghastly moan nearby and for the first time since setting foot on the balcony Brendon noticed the group of undead that was building up below them. Most of the zombies seemed to have no idea how to get up to them about a couple had started pounding on the doors of ground level apartments trying to get inside.
"We probably should get inside before we attract too big of a crowd down there," Wiggins said to the others. Everyone voiced their agreement and everyone on the balcony headed inside.