“Okay, I understand biting off more than I can chew now,” Lance mumbled, slamming in a new magazine.
Like the right, Ian saw the left side was bunching up. Feeling his bolt lock back, Ian dropped down to grab magazines from the bag while glancing behind them and saw the slope still clear. When he saw Dino sitting behind them, Ian felt better. Picking up four mags, Ian pulled his hand out and this time, he felt the bottom of the bag. Slapping one in, he handed two off to Lance.
The smoke pouring off his barrel was rolling under his NVG and burning his eyes. Slapping in a new magazine, Lance continued firing. In twenty seconds, he dropped down to eject his magazine and grabbed four more magazines. Shoving one in, he passed off two and felt Ian grab them. “Bag’s getting low,” he called out, then started engaging.
Shoving in a new magazine, Ian gave a startle while scanning his area. There were a bunch of stinkers trying to get back up, but none were actually standing. “You need help?” Ian asked, popping those trying to stand back up.
“No, but check how many magazines we have because we aren’t changing from the plan. We empty the bag, we are leaving,” Lance said, ejecting the empty and slapping in a new one.
Dropping down, Ian opened the bag before slapping in a new magazine, “Eight,” he said, standing back up and passing Lance magazines.
Finishing off his two magazines, Ian turned and saw some still standing, trying to walk over the bodies on the right. Letting Lance handle those, Ian started on the ones that had tripped on his side.
Two minutes later with smoke boiling off their barrels and suppressors, they both lowered their rifles. Their throats were burning from the cordite and their noses from the stinker stench. “Holy shit, I really didn’t think there were that many,” Lance admitted. “If this house hadn’t been in a draw, I’m sorry, but we would’ve left them to their fate.”
“You got that shit right,” Ian said, racking his bolt back and locking it open.
Locking his bolt back, Lance looked at the four gaping faces in the window. “You need to go to the front and climb down. We aren’t clearing the house, and don’t go near the piles because there are a bunch just playing dead!” he called out, and the faces vanished.
Holding out their rifles as they bent down, each started picking up empty magazines. When Ian picked up a partial magazine, he tossed it down the slope. “Fucker double fed on me,” he grumbled.
“And the girls wonder why we still practice gun drills twice a week,” Lance said, tossing in the last empty magazine. He saw a few in the mass of bodies trying to stand, but wasn’t in the mood and his gun was smoking hard. Hearing a window open on the left side, they moved along the slope and saw something unravel from the window to the ground.
“These motherfuckers just keep amazing me,” Ian huffed with a grin.
Lance looked at the rope ladder made from bedsheets and boards. “Yes, most dumbasses would just throw a sheet out the window,” he grinned.
Hearing thumping in the downstairs, they both looked in the windows and could still see dozens inside trying to get out. “All right, I like it when the stinkers stay dumb,” Lance confessed, turning back to the window.
A short person wearing a pack scampered down the rope ladder and then held the ladder tight as the next one came out the window. Ian and Lance watched in awe as the group worked as a team, and all four were on the ground in less than sixty seconds. The four looked around and then ran up the slope, angling toward the boys. They could see one man and a woman were carrying rifles across their backs, and the other man and woman had pistols on their hips.
Having seen that before, “Yeah, this isn’t the world where you want to run out of bullets,” Ian sighed.
The four reached them, skidding to a halt and staring at the shadows with gray skull faces. One moved to speak and Lance held up his hand. “Follow or don’t because we’ve used enough ammo here, and those inside will get out soon. And there are still those playing dead in the pile. Glad we could help, but we are gone,” Lance told them, and left with Dino leading the way and Ian following.
Watching the two walk away, the group looked at each other and one of the women just started off after Lance and Ian. When they reached the buggy, Lance and Ian grabbed an ammo can and the group moved over as the two started reloading magazines.
“Thank you,” one of the women told them.
“Welcome,” Lance nodded. “How many bullets you have left?”
The man standing by the woman who’d spoken, pulled out a Berretta and ejected the magazine. “We only had four left, and they aren’t for stinkers,” he said bluntly. Lance and Ian looked up chuckling and then realized the man was a young man in his late teens and the woman beside him looked in her early twenties. In the view of the NVGs, that’s all they could tell.
“Yeah, I really like ‘em,” Lance said, then reached in the back of the buggy and tossed a box to the young man. “Always save those four, but here’s some extra.”
Ian leaned over, looking at the rifles the two had on their backs. “We don’t have any hunting rounds. That a 300 win mag and a thirty-thirty?” Ian asked.
The other two gave a small groan and the man nodded. “We’re just grateful you came along. We were trying to lay low and let them clear out, but they wouldn’t.”
Seeing the other man and woman with the rifles standing intimately close, Ian was guessing they were in their early twenties like the other woman. It didn’t take a genius to realize they were a couple. “How long they had you trapped?” Ian asked as he and Lance never paused, using stripper clips to reload the magazines in the tote bag.
“Thirteen days,” the man said. “Name’s Alvin, and this is my fiancée Julie.”
“You did good then, Alvin, most would’ve died in three days,” Lance said as the other woman stepped up.
“Hi, and thank you for saving us and for the bullets, I’m Gail and this is my little brother Percy,” she said.
“You people think and that’s rare. We offered what we could, but I’m sure we’ll hear about it later,” Ian said, and Lance gave a grunt.
The four stared at the two, thinking they sounded young but damn sure didn’t move like they were young. “Where you headed?” Lance asked, tossing his last magazine that needed reloading in the tote bag.
“Any place we can hold up and not get eaten, shot, raped, or all of the above,” Gail sighed out, throwing up her arms.
When Ian tossed his last one in, the two just stared at each other. After a few minutes, the others started getting nervous. “I agree,” Ian finally said, and Lance turned to the four.
“Name’s Lance,” he said, holding out his hand. One by one, the four grabbed his gloved hand to shake it. “My partner there is Ian.”
They moved over and shook Ian’s hand as he moved to the back of the buggy, putting the tote bag back. “We are part of a group, but would have to talk to them,” Lance said and the four leaned toward him. “We can’t take you back now because we are going to teach some assholes that fly a pirate flag a lesson.”
“Those assholes are the reason we got surrounded,” Gail snapped.
Lance squared off with Gail and she shrank back from the menacing skull. “Sorry, they belong to us and we called dibs. They are going to get killed by us very painfully, and by us alone. I will kill any that try to kill them before we do,” Lance informed her. “Like I said, we called dibs on making the shit wads pay.”
Shaking her head and holding up her hands, “You two can have them,” Gail smiled weakly, and the others nodded.
“Don’t go south on the road,” Lance started.
“There is a robot down there that eats stinkers,” Julie gasped. “It’s the coolest shit ever!”
“Thank you, that’s why the pirate assholes are going to die with much pain. They killed our battle bot,” Lance grumbled, and the four took a small step back. He knew they’d only seen one, so that meant the group had spotted the original battle bot before the pirates ki
lled it. “But, we’ve replaced it and added more shit. If you walk south you will die, and it won’t be from a stinker. Now, if you are smart and can follow directions, I’ll send someone to collect you in the morning. If the group agrees, then you can stay, but you have to pitch in.”
The four looked at him with hope and Alvin finally spoke. “What are the directions?”
“Cross over Highway 11 and you’ll see a road heading east. Follow it until it runs into a slope and turns south, but you go up the slope and over the ridge into a small valley. You will see a small road down the valley. Get on the road heading south until you come to a brick house. You can’t miss it because there is a Toyota Prius that is torn to shit in the driveway,” Lance stopped as Ian huffed.
“I didn’t tear it to shit,” Ian snapped.
“That was one of the first ones you went after for the batteries. Mr. Toyota himself couldn’t put the damn thing back together,” Lance replied, cutting his eyes over at Ian.
“I got the batteries, charger, and control board, not damaging any,” Ian pointed out.
“Brah, I knew when you pulled out an electric saw, you wouldn’t hurt the crap you were after,” Lance chuckled.
Appeased by Lance’s response, Ian let Lance continue. “So,” Lance said, turning back to the four. “At this red brick house, you will find the keys in the mailbox beside the door. Go inside and there is bottled water in the back bedroom closet. There are a few cans of food, but not much. Wait there and don’t even think of going further south because you will get killed, if you’re lucky. Chewed up by a robot if you’re not.”
Clearly excited, “Are you coming in the morning?” Gail asked.
“We might, but have too much shit to do. But we’ll send someone,” Lance answered.
“And the one you send will know where to take us without getting killed?”
Really loving the intelligent questions, “Yeah,” Lance chuckled. This group just kept impressing him.
Gail looked at the others and they all nodded. “We’ll meet whoever you send in the morning if you don’t come,” Gail said.
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll see you tomorrow, just not in the morning,” Lance said as Ian pulled an M4 from the back of the buggy. “For some reason, I’m sure my woman is going to ream my ass for taking on over a thousand stinkers.”
Alvin held up his hands. “I’d try to intercede, but I’m not getting in between a man and woman.”
“Yeah, they are smart,” Ian laughed, walking up. “Any of you know how to use an M4?”
“I’ve shot a few with my buddies several times,” Percy said, holding up his hand. “I know how it works, but you have to give me some time to break it down.”
“It’s suppressed and here are six loaded magazines,” Ian told him, handing Percy a messenger bag. “Don’t think this will get you through the south because it won’t.”
“Um,” Julie cleared her throat. “Which way do we run if a mob of stinkers show up?”
“If you want my opinion, don’t run. Stay hunkered down till morning, but if you can’t, fire one of those unsuppressed weapons in the air. Wait till one of the groups shows up to kill everything and then very carefully get their attention, and tell them Lance and Ian told you to stay in the house,” Ian told her.
“We’ll wait,” Alvin nodded with a smile.
“Wise choice,” Lance nodded, climbing up on the roof of the buggy.
“Um, I meant to tell each of you, your bolts are open on your rifles,” Percy said, cradling the rifle they gave him.
“Yep, we just dumped a ton of ammo and they are hot. Leaving the bolt open lets air circulate through the barrel to cool them down faster, but thanks,” Lance told Percy as he dropped his feet in and stood up out of the roof.
“See you tomorrow,” Ian said, holding the door open and letting Dino in.
The four stood watching Ian drive off heading north. When the buggy was out of sight, Gail turned to her brother. “How old were they?”
Shrugging, “I don’t know, but I’m betting close to twenty,” Percy guessed.
“About what I thought,” Alvin nodded.
“Their voices didn’t sound that deep,” Gail pointed out. “But they moved with confidence and a bad ass attitude.”
Laughing, Julie walked past Gail and patted her cheek. “Let’s find this house and hunker down till morning. The thought of killer robots moving about with the dead walking for some reason scares the living shit out of me more,” Julie admitted.
“Amen,” the other three chimed in, following Julie through the trees.
Chapter Twenty-Six
West of Halfway, Kentucky
Watching the sun go down, Sandy and Mary sat in the folding chairs sipping coffee as Ian and Lance, less than a hundred and fifty miles away, left the cabin to investigate the pirates. “There’s still a lot of people left,” Mary mumbled.
Throwing up her right hand, “Yes, but how? There had to be hundreds of thousands of stinkers on I65 heading to Bowling Green. Why, I don’t know, but they were heading north,” Sandy cried out in a low voice. “I heard three cars, and you heard four moving around us. How can they do that with so many stinkers that close?”
“We aren’t asking,” Mary grunted.
Lifting her cup up, Sandy took a sip as she nodded. “I don’t care what they are selling.”
“You listen to the scanner?” Mary asked.
Nodding, “And the radio we got off those two,” Sandy answered. “On the scanner, I heard lots of voices on the CB frequencies, and on one channel of the radio we took off those two I shot, I swear it was two Army people talking. They kept talking about lines of travel and available assets.”
“I never listened to that radio,” Mary said, looking at the radio strapped on the back of the left shoulder of her vest. “So, we leave them off, right?”
“Johnathan said unless you talk, they can’t track you,” Sandy answered. “You hear any on the scanner give locations?”
Shaking her head, “No, but from the needle on the scanner pegging out, I’m thinking some were close,” Mary offered.
Wishing they knew more, Sandy could only shrug as she finished her coffee off. “I think we need to play it safe and head to the first camp site,” Sandy said, feeling sick for even saying it.
“Yeah, we’ve put up with too much to run into trouble now,” Mary sighed. “I vote to let Tyler and Chris continue to use the thermals like they did last night. It will hit our batteries hard, but they don’t let anything get close.”
Tilting her in agreement, “Tyler knew he was looking at people and not stinkers when that group came out of the trees,” Sandy said. “Let’s do it again tonight, and if they continue to do like they have been, we just sacrifice the batteries.”
“Yeah,” Mary nodded. “Feels weird to not be reciting the line of travel,” she grinned. “Because we are on it.”
A smile spread across Sandy’s face. “You realize we are only thirty-eight miles from our neighborhood?”
“Yeah, but I don’t need to swing by the house and grab anything,” Mary chuckled.
Getting up, Sandy held out a hand to help Mary up. Grabbing Sandy’s hand, Mary pulled her body from the chair and then drained her cup. “You wake the kids and I’ll start packing.”
“Okay,” Sandy said, moving over to the boys curled up together on her bedroll. She and Mary just traded out when the other was on guard duty. Shaking the boys gently, Sandy got ready to catch them if they jumped up ready to run.
Somewhat surprised, Sandy watched both sit up while rubbing their eyes. “Afternoon,” she smiled at them. “Food’s ready, so you two need to eat and then we can leave.”
Hearing food, the two finally jumped up and Sandy noticed both still winced in pain from the cuts on their feet. The cuts were healing nice, but their feet were very swollen. The boys put the socks on and hobbled over to the chairs as Sandy handed them the bowl of oatmeal.
Grabbing the spoons, the boys sta
rted eating and looking around. “Until the stinkers came, we never slept outside,” Chris told her.
“Not a good time to learn, but you two adapted really good,” Sandy replied, ruffling each one’s hair.
Looking up confused, “Adapted?” Chris asked.
Smiling, Sandy reached over to ruffle his hair again. “Adjusting to new conditions,” Sandy explained. “The world changed and you two changed with it, figuring out how to stay alive.”
“How far are we going tonight?” Tyler asked with a mouthful.
“Thirty miles if we can, but I think we’ll stop at twenty-two,” Sandy answered as a chorus of gunshots sounded off to the south. Even the dogs and horses turned toward the gunshots. After a few minutes, the gunfire stopped just as suddenly as it had started.
Swallowing his food, “I wish we could go further,” Tyler whispered.
“Me too, but there are too many people and stinkers around here moving in big groups. We have to move slowly, so we don’t run into trouble. We won’t be moving in daylight unless we can’t help it. There are too many threats around, and we need to be under cover before the sun rises.”
“If we make thirty miles each night, how long till we get home?” Tyler asked for the hundredth time.
Letting out a sigh as she smiled, “If,” she stressed again, “we can keep that up, we will be there in seven days by going thirty miles a day.”
Looking up from the pot of oatmeal, “But it’s not that far. If we travel thirty miles a day for seven days…” Chris paused, trying to work out the problem in his mind. Staring at Chris, Sandy was expecting smoke to erupt from his ears at any moment.
“What is seven times three?” Sandy asked. Chris squinted his eye, actually straining very hard and trying to figure it out. With his face turning red and veins standing out on his forehead, Sandy snapped, “Chris!” Startled, he opened his eyes to look at her. “Stop before you hurt something,” Sandy told him, picking up a stick and drew the problem in the dirt.
“Seven times three is twenty-one, and you just bring the zero down. Seven times thirty is two hundred and ten miles,” Sandy said, working the problem in the dirt. When she looked up, both boys were looking at her like she was a savant.
Forsaken World (Book 5): Homecoming Page 31