Romero, Egypt

Here's a more entertaining story on one of the Romero eradication missions. I think it was 2006. Probably. Pretty sure. I don't have the records here to double check. We were near the upper Nile in Egypt. Pretty sandy, pretty remote. We thought there would be a lot more but apparently there was only one Zed. Seems like a lot of resources wasted for one Shamblor, but better safe than sorry. And like I said, there were indicators there were more, and if that one had infected others. the whole thing can snowball, as you can imagine.

Well it took FOREVER to find this one. We had a HUGE rainstorm, probably the first precipitation in 30 years there, and that made it sloppy, and it made it harder to pick up the track of the Zachary Tango (Romero speak for Zombie Target. Sometime Zebra Tango.) Re-acquiring took forever. Once they found it it should have been a can o' corn, but the sun baked the ground up pretty quick, so now the dust was solidified and hardened and the track faded again. We ended up in a long line with all assets combing the area like we were looking for a cub scout, lost in the woods. We had orders NOT to engage if we reacquired, but to fall back a good ways and wait for the teams to re-assemble near that position. Too many solo Romeros and Flatulents before them met a bad end doing a 'lone' zombie and letting their guard down. Besides, he wasn't going anywhere.

If we had found him. This search went for days. We were re-routing satellites and such all over the place trying to find it. Slippery little bastage managed to get behind us, TWICE, somehow.

When we did find them, assembled, and took care of it (even then it was in a weird place, not what we expected at all. He was on the entire opposite flank than the satellites said he'd be.) The guy next to me said the funniest thing I have ever heard in my life. This was the one time I actually peed my pants laughing when he said: "Well, the blood hound may have burned his nose and ears off in the barbecue pit, but at least we don't have to eat it."

Heh. It still tickles my funny bone. Like the Family Guy Ipecac scene.





I know, I know, no one else thinks it's that funny reading it. But the timing of the moment, the delivery, our fatigue, the buddy that said it was all perfect at that time. You really had to be there to appreciate the genius.

Tally this trip, 1 zombie retired. Truth effectively suppressed in the middle of the middle of nowhere. No injuries to Romero team. Cover story back home: I used the 'Great Uncle Died Out in Oregon, Funeral Tomorrow' one. You're welcome...