SURVIVE: Part 6

Part 6

A New Plan

5/12/2015, 1530 hours, Vardak Province, Afghanistan

            Upon returning to the building, the group decided to open some MREs and have lunch. What remained of Raptor 2-2, exhausted from their firefight ate the most while Mule attended to Clinton’s wounds with a snakebite kit. T-rex wasn’t doing well, and the venom had begun to spread to his body. He probably wouldn’t survive the night. The group sat in solemn silence for what seemed like hours before Thumper broke the silence.

            “God dammit. I can’t take sitting around here any longer. Sir, what’s the plan?”

            “Well, where should we start? In case you haven’t noticed, there’s kind of a lot going on!” snapped Krieger.

“Sir, what’re we going to do with Kareem?” Hugo asked, trying to calm Krieger down.

            “More like what’s left of him,” said Thumper, gesturing to the massacre outside of the building.

            “Thompson, shut the hell up,” said Reeder. “But seriously though, it wouldn’t be right to just leave him here and let those monsters eat him,” he said to Krieger.

            The others slowly nodded in agreement.

            “We could give him a burial. Nothing too fancy, just bury him, say some prayers, that sort of thing,” offered Padilla.

            Krieger thought over it. It was the most respectable option they had, but it would take time, something they had only in limited amounts. “That might take too long. It would be faster to cremate him. We could get all the people in the mosque too.”

            Carmine spoke up. “We could burn them, but if anyone finds out, well, I seriously doubt it’d end well. The Quran forbids its followers from being cremated. We have to bury him.”

            Crap, thought Krieger. He remembered Kareem saying he wanted to be buried no matter what. They might be able to bury him, but everyone else in the mosque? They simply didn’t have enough time. “So, what should we do?”

            “Well, we have to bury him. Leaving the bodies in the mosque might work, but we’d have to lie about finding them to avoid outrage. Burning any of them is strictly off limits, and will certainly inspire riots,” said Carmine.

“I propose we go to the foothills on the outskirts of the town. We’re fighting dinosaurs, and the open ground will force them to come out of cover to get to us. If we stay in the city, they can ambush us. We can take Kareem with us and bury him when we set up camp.” Said Hugo

“Well, I guess that’s the best we can do. I hate lying about the people though,” said Krieger. “What if we leave a beacon here and have a larger force come in to properly bury them? Could that work?”

“I suppose so.”

“Well then, let’s get going. Someone help me with Clinton. Two others, get Kareem. And don’t be squeamish about it.”

The squad, now united, set off at a brisk pace from the village, leaving a beacon at the mosque as they went left for the foothills. The hot, desert sun was shining on their backs, warming them. It was going to be an uncomfortable trip.