The crawlerz were relentless in their silent attack. They continued to pummel the cage bars with their mostly frozen flesh. Occasionally a moan or a screech would escape them but for the most part they tried to beat their way through the hardened steel barricade in eerie silence. Everyone in the cab was temporarily deaf anyway. The constant volleys of gunfire were taking their toll. There was no lull in the combat. As soon as one crawler fell another appeared to take it’s place.
Their windows were gone. Just shattered remnants of cracked safety glass jutting out here and there. One of the windshield wipers dangled uselessly in the air. It kept getting in the way until Gus reached up and twisted it off. The heavy smell of gunpowder permeated the now open cab. They’d jacked up the heater at some point, so the cold wasn’t really getting to them. The heater was melting the snow as soon as it drifted in. That was starting to create puddles in the truck. The fear of catching the sniffles was heavily outweighed by the need to slaughter the insane cannibals with super strength doing their best to get in the cab and eat them.
“Turn on your high beams!” The words were shouted multiple times by Drew over the radio before Jeff finally heard him. He looked up the road and saw the glow of the bright lights from the front of the truck Drew was in. He waited for Gus to empty his latest magazine and grabbed him by the shoulder. Gus nodded at the light idea and flicked them on. The trucks had some pretty heavy-duty high beams that included a row of lights along the top. They were intended to be used in places where the power may have been blown away by natural disasters, so they were pretty powerful lights.
Other than creating a bunch of demonic shadow puppets across the field of snow in front of them the lights didn’t help a lot at first glance. LeBron wondered why Drew had felt compelled to offer them the advice. He wouldn’t have taken time away from trying to kill those things if it wasn’t something that he thought was a good idea. Drew and Mikey didn’t have two people spread out in the sleeper section busily reloading their weapons for them. Every second he spent with the radio in his hand was a second he wasn’t reloading or shooting.
Watching the crawlerz coming at them she finally saw what Drew must’ve noticed earlier. It clicked for her when LeBron pointed at the new ones showing up. His analytical mind having already deduced what the advantage of the lights was. If they weren’t all practically deaf from the repetitive noise of the guns going off right next to them, she was sure she’d be getting treated to a lecture from LeBron right about now. She smiled thinking of what their dad would’ve had to say about them not wearing hearing protection. He’d been a major stickler about it every time they went to the range.
The bright lights made the newcomers hesitate. Before they’d flicked on the high beams the crawlerz had just been rushing right in once they arrived. Now they were slowing down at the edge of the light. It didn’t send them scurrying into hiding like the sun would, but it unquestionably slowed them down. For a few of them the bright light appeared to throw them off their game. Yue saw one crawler standing back in the woods in a trance staring at the bright lights. With its long hair it looked like a tripping hippie from the seventies staring at a sparkler.
On top of the other tactical advantages the lights were providing they also gave them the ability to see what they were shooting at. Yue wondered if Drew had really just meant for them to turn on the lights so they could see. Drew may have just thought they were idiots. He may have been sitting in his truck wondering what the hell they were doing with their lights off. Yue didn’t know either. Right before all the slipping and sliding Gus had been talking about how you didn’t turn the lights on in snow or fog for some weird reason. Yue vaguely remembered something about that from driver’s ed. It hadn’t made much sense then either.
The snow was really pouring down on them. The later it got the deeper the snow drifts got. Whether that was the reason the river of crawlerz slowed to a trickle or not Yue was just happy the onslaught seemed to be ebbing. The rest of the night was spent in a daze. There were spans of time when they weren’t being attacked. These intervals of solitude grew longer and longer as the night wore on. The cold and the exhaustion warring with their ability to maintain the vigilance needed to survive until dawn.
An hour before dawn when the world was starting to become a little less dark a gigantic crawler came hurdling out of nowhere. The beast of a man slammed into the side of the cage directly next to Jeff. Bolts popped and stressed metal bent under the vicious assault. Jeff popped off several shots into the mass of flesh heaving at the metal bars beside him. The sumo sized crawler finally went down. It took a large section of the bars making up the cage with it.
They rearranged inside the cab of the truck to compensate for their new weak spot. Jeff slid over to sit up on the console. He angled himself so that he could aim a rifle out the open window. They’d decided a rifle was a better idea than a pistol in the event of another sumo sized crawler trying to come through. Now that the cage wasn’t going to stop them anymore, they may need to put up a wall of bullets instead. Jeff waited with the M-16 flipped to full auto mode. LeBron was ready to hand him a fresh rifle as soon as the one he was firing went dry. Gus focused on covering the other sections of the cage and hoped nothing got past Jeff to rip into him from the side.
A very slight hint of movement outside was all it took for Jeff to empty almost his entire magazine through the window. The bullets ripped hunks of the scalp off a tween crawler trying to come in low. She stood straight up outside on the running boards after being shot. The bloody lines through her scalp looking like the slasher movie version of a truly hideous combover. Jeff punched the rest of the bullets in the magazine straight into the psychotic monster’s face. As she fell out of the window frame Jeff and LeBron juggled rifles around to make sure Jeff was immediately ready to shoot again.
Breathing raggedly Jeff slammed the butt of the rifle into this shoulder and waited for the next target. It never came. An hour or so later the sun came up revealing the blizzard was taking a smoke break. It was gray and dreary outside but there was now enough light to keep the crawlerz at bay. Surgers could still be a problem. It’d be odd if there weren’t at least a few of the recently infected stomping their way through the snow to investigate all the ruckus. The other scary issue was going to be walking through the deep snow.
The snow looked like someone had drizzled bright red Kool-Aid on white tile then sprinkled a layer of flour over it all to cover it up around the truck. The blood-stained snow was still very visible in places. The odd lumps surrounding the truck had been formed by what looked like at least fifty dead crawlerz. It may be three times that amount for all any of them knew. It wasn’t like they’d been using a clicker to keep count of the infected foot traffic to their location.
“Convoy actual this is convoy two. What’s your situation over?” Drew asked over the radio.
“Convoy two this is convoy actual. We’re five by five down here. We’re evaluating how we’re going to get out of the ditch and up to the road. We’re worried there could be crawler land mines in the snow.” Jeff responded. The crawlerz would have no problem digging into the snow to spend the day. Assuming they didn’t freeze to death they’d be happy to take a bite out of any feet placed conveniently near them.
“Yeah, a new and even more exciting thing to be horrified of. Digging in hides them from the sun and keeps them warm. As long as they can still breathe, they’re way better off under the snow than on top of it.” Drew said. He’d opted to say to hell with radio etiquette. Yue for one was right there with him. She only knew what ‘five-by-five’ meant because she’d heard it on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Half of the other stuff they said over the radio made exactly zero sense to her.
They tossed some ideas back and forth for how they could safely traverse the snow. Short of wasting all their ammunition and making a ton of noise by shooting a path through it they had nothing. Poking a stick into the snow ahead of them as they walked seemed like a good w
ay to let a crawler know a snack was on the way. Sledding up the incline wasn’t going to work even if they could figure out something to use for a sled. Snowshoes seemed like a great idea, but Amazon Prime wasn’t going to be dropping off a pair anytime soon.
Drew and Mikey dropped out of the conversation as the people in the cab debated the best way to get out and up. They were still debating when Drew’s voice shot out of the radio telling them to hold their fire. They looked around wondering what they weren’t supposed to shoot. Drew took the final couple of steps and climbed up through the missing section of cage to say hi. Even with his warning about holding their fire he still almost got shot. He just hadn’t been able to resist seeing their faces.
The reason he didn’t get shot was because Jeff had stuck his rifle slightly out the window when told to hold his fire. He’d gradually leaned out even further looking for the reason not to shoot. When Drew popped up out of nowhere, he whipped his rifle around to aim at the assumed threat. The barrel of his rifle whacked Drew hard on the side of the head knocking him off balance. Drew wobbled but didn’t fall off the running board. He just stood there smiling and simultaneously rubbing the side of his head. Jeff immediately began cussing him out.
Once Jeff ran out of creative ways to call Drew an idiot, he asked him how he’d managed to get safely through the deep snow. With a straight face Drew had answered back that he’d walked. Jeff’s facial expression clearly showed that he thought these must be the kind of zombies who were after brains. That was the easiest explanation for why Drew had been able to safely stroll on over. No one else in the cab disagreed. Sticking his head up in the window like that was a pretty good way to get it shot off.
“You guys were going to talk about how to walk through this death drift for the next three hours. We’ve got stuff to do. I poked around in front of me with my rifle and nothing tried to attack me. Grab your gear and we can walk back up the same way I walked down. Just don’t trip.” Drew said.
“Where’s Mikey?” Yue asked.
“He got the rough job. He’s digging through what’s left of the men from convoy three to try to find the keys for that truck.” Drew answered. That sobered them all back up pretty quickly. It could just have easily been them turned into a lumpy pile of shredded pork sitting in the middle of this god forsaken country road.
“There should be a spare in the glove box. There were extra ones added in case the person with the key got attacked. I doubt he’s spending a ton of time digging through dead bodies. Especially since the guy with the keys may have turned and took off into the woods or whatever.” Gus said.
“Another thing to add to the why Mikey’s an asshole list.” Drew muttered shaking his head with respect.
One by one they climbed out of the truck into the ditch. The ground felt odd at first until they realized they were walking across the backs of the crawlerz they’d killed the night before. They each kept their weapons aimed low ready to blast away if the snow shifted or they felt something odd. Yue was positive she was going to feel a frozen hand clasp onto her ankle before she made it out of the ditch.
LeBron attempted to kill a rabbit that freaked him out by appearing out of nowhere. The fluffy white bunny hopped right through the middle of their stretched-out conga line. LeBron hosed down the snow around the panic-stricken hare with half a magazine before he got control of himself. He looked up to see everyone staring at him. Gus had been in front of him in line. He didn’t look happy at all. Probably because of the bullet holes in the snow all around him.
“I already got shot yesterday alright?” Gus said. He meant it as a joke to lighten the mood, but it just reminded everyone they’d shot and killed Harley’s girl the day before. The sight of those two blood covered kids trying to wake their mommy up still seared into their collective memories. They all watched as the badly traumatized rabbit hopped it’s bunny tail into the forest at light speed. Following that moment of reflection, they resumed their trek up the incline in silence.
”That was the longest thirty feet ever.” Gus commented while helping LeBron up onto the road. LeBron nodded distractedly. He’d already moved past the accidental discharge and was busy thinking through their next moves.
“How badly do you think being down a truck is going to impact us getting those supplies back to the central warehouse? Are you thinking we can get another truck out of the base if we take it over? It wouldn’t surprise me if those Seabees had been able to get a few more fixed up with the cages. How much stuff are we actually supposed to transport to this other place?” LeBron asked. He had about a thousand other logistical questions he’d been mulling over, but he felt like those were a good start.
“We’ll be fine with just the two trucks. I have no intention of following our orders.” Jeff said. He didn’t scream it out loud or anything, but the words resonated strongly with everyone. Jeff found himself in the center of a circle of people staring at him questioningly. All except for Yue who already knew what he was planning to do. They’d really spent almost the entire night in his bed back at the dam working on this plan. She was looking at him expectantly now. This wasn’t the way they’d hoped to tell everyone, but it was pretty much out in the open now.
“Long story short. The President’s only interested in protecting himself and his cronies. He wants to take all the supplies from all the depots and make sure they’re secured in locations only he has control over. He has zero interest in distributing them to groups of survivors. He expects us and others to help him secure all those supplies for him. If we do that it means we’re killing anybody who would’ve been able to survive had they been given access to the supplies that were originally intended for them anyway.” Jeff was looking in each person’s eyes as he related the repercussions of following their orders. He’d been disappointed but not surprised up in that communications shack when the President had asked to speak to him privately. He wanted this tight knit team here to understand the consequences of blindly following the orders they’d been given.
“You want us to go rogue and get the supplies in the hands of groups of regular survivors instead of hoarding them for the President?” LeBron summed up where Jeff was going with all of this.
“Pretty much.” Jeff answered.
“Works for me.” LeBron said after hesitating for a second. The much easier path would’ve been just doing what they’d been ordered to do. That would’ve meant blindly following the orders of the President. The coward who’d left his brother and sister to die along with hundreds of sailors on a carrier. Screw the President.
“I’m in.” Drew said yawning really big.
“So much for all that commander in chief stuff.” Mikey sighed.
“We’re probably going to die either way. Might as well do the right thing.” Gus said.
“I’m obviously in.” Yue said when it came around to her.
“So, are we like a rebellion or more of a Robin Hood thing?” Drew asked.
Chapter 10: Silent Night
“How are the six of us supposed to steal supplies that you need dozens of people and trucks to load and unload?” LeBron asked.
“How come you guys get the truck that still has windows?” Drew asked back.
They were standing in the middle of the road in between the two remaining trucks. They’d just finished offloading the supplies they wanted to take from the truck that was stuck in the ditch. Despite the cold they were all sweating. Yue had been the one to insist they dig around in the jumbled contents of the tilted trailer to find the box full of medicine and first aid supplies each truck carried. Considering the weather that they were hanging out in the Dayquil tablets were probably going to come in handy.
“Because Jeff’s in charge and the leader gets the better truck.” Yue answered shivering. She’d made sure everyone understood that the chain of command in their little group remained the same. Even while they were actively planning outright treason.
“Maybe the leader should get a better driver?” Mikey
joked.
“Hey that crawler came out of nowhere. Anybody would’ve wrecked.” Gus said looking hurt. His breath clearly visible in the air in front of him.
The plan was to backtrack to pick up Harley’s people at the crypt. Once they had them on board they’d go back to the warehouse for more diesel. Then if they were able to make it over the mountains, Jeff knew where some high-ranking members of the government were hiding out. Assuming they were still alive they might make some great allies. Not because they liked him but because they’d despised the Vice President. He was hoping they were chafing under his leadership.
No one really liked the plan. It’d sounded good to Yue while cuddling with Jeff and whispering in each other’s ears back at the dam. Spoken out loud in the light of day in front of a very skeptical group of people it sounded more like the first draft of a Tom Clancy novel. Looking at the snow around her she thought they’d be lucky to make it out of the mountains. Forget about trying to come back and go over them. When they’d come up with the original plan, they also hadn’t killed Harley’s girl yet either. The people they were planning on rescuing had no way of knowing that, but it was one more added complication. They’d have to build their rebellion on a foundation of lies.
Crawlerz: Book 3: The Mountains Are Calling Page 8