Crawlerz: Book 3: The Mountains Are Calling

by R. S. Merritt

  The man had a crawler lying on top of him. That explained why he was waving his pistol around taking random shots. Another set of feet were disappearing rapidly into the open passenger door of the other Humvee. A third crawler was poised to jump in the Humvee in hot pursuit. O’Donnell ripped his pistol out of the holster and aimed it at his own open passenger door. In front of him the sniper was slammed to the hood. Two crawlerz were trying to bite him anywhere he wasn’t covered in Kevlar.

  Another crawler appeared in the open passenger door. O’Donnell drilled a hole through its head and screamed for the soldier in the back to get the door shut. The man was going for the door when another crawler appeared. The Delta operator and the crawler tussled for a second before the crawler’s neck was opened up. A pint of steaming hot blood making a watery path from the passenger seat down to the snowy ground. The Delta dropped his combat knife into the front passenger seat and grabbed the door. He tried to whip it closed but the bottom of the door got stuck on the body of the crawler he’d just killed.

  O’Donnell was covering his man as the desperate soldier struggled to clear the doorway. The two crawlerz who’d attacked the sniper on the hood of the car had disappeared. The Delta they’d tackled was no longer visible either. The unfortunate sniper was either dead or turned. O’Donnell sensed where those crawlerz probably were going and shouted out a warning. The soldier in the passenger seat was pulling out his pistol when the crawlerz crowded in on him. He killed them both but took a few bites in the process. With a large bleeding gash on his cheek, he stepped out of the car. He calmly pulled the dead bodies out of the way that‘d been blocking the door. He leaned in to ask the captain to tell his wife and kids he loved them. That last request filed he slammed the door shut and began shooting at the other crawlerz in the area.

  Just like that it was only O’Donnell and Jeff left in the vehicle. O’Donnell knew his higher priority mission took precedence at this point. He ignored Jeff begging him to tell him what was happening and did a quick three-point turn. As he was ready to leave the man who’d been in the backseat slammed his face into the windshield. The newly turned surger clawed at the smooth glass trying desperately to get in. With a heavy heart O’Donnell drove past his former report and continued back the way they’d come from. Jeff sank back into his seat. His wrist securely fastened to a bracket in the armrest.

  Completely ignorant of what’d just happened in the swirling snow behind them Gus and Mikey kept driving much faster than was safe into the howling storm. The men in back began spotting the first crawlerz scrambling through the snow trying to catch them. On the radio they requested permission to shut the doors. In the cabs they knew if the crawlerz started hitting the cages they were doomed. Permission was given to shut the doors. Mikey took the lead and Gus fell in behind him. The road had gotten too dark and slippery for them ride in parallel any longer.

  With Delta behind them and crawlerz starting to come out of the woodwork their only choice was to drive fast and kill anything that moved. Out here in the middle of nowhere lost in a blizzard they might survive. As long as the cages held, and the Delta killers didn’t catch up to them anyway. Eyes glued to the road Mikey made a beeline for the mountains. No way would anyone be stupid enough to follow them where they were going. It was basically suicide in this weather.

  Chapter 17: Pass the Mac

  “The sun’s up.” LeBron nudged Yue awake. She’d passed out at some point during the endless night. LeBron hadn’t noticed exactly when. He’d been pretty occupied with watching out for crawlerz. He’d shot three of them off the cage. Gus had rolled down his window to shoot two of them as well. They were both stoked they hadn’t needed to shoot through the windshield. They’d heard Mikey and Drew gripe enough about their missing windshield to make them very protective of theirs.

  Mikey put the big rig in park and made sure the brakes were applied. Truck safely parked they climbed down to take a look around and stretch their legs. After taking turns making yellow snow they headed for the back of the trailer. Walking slowly with eyes wide open for any strange mounds of snow or movement underneath the trailer they made their way to the back. They banged on the door to let the people inside know they’d made it back there without any issues. There were a couple of loud screeches as the metallic poles locking the doors from the inside were pulled up.

  The men who opened the door looked exhausted. They were a lot better off than the dead body they’d duct taped into a blanket though. Knowing anything he said would come out as cavalier and uncaring Drew kept his mouth shut. The corpse in the blanket was the man who’d thrown a grenade on the count of six. It could’ve just been a defective frag grenade but Drew kind of doubted it based on having talked to the man before. He hadn’t struck him as the sharpest knife in the drawer. He’d thought the man could at least master counting to three though.

  On top of getting himself killed with his horrible counting skills the moron had also fragged everyone near the back of both trailers. The grenade exploded in the air right between them sending a cloud of shiny metal death bits into both. No one else had suffered any life-threatening injuries. Multiple people did now have interesting scars though.

  Tom reiterated that after throwing the blankets at the Humvee he hadn’t seen any additional sign of their pursuers. They’d only had the doors open another five minutes or so before the road had started filling up with crawlerz though. At the first sign of those things, they’d shut and secured the rear doors. With Jeff no longer around the first chance someone got to hit up a hardware store for the right drill bit there were going to be peep holes all over the place. Riding blind in the back was a horrifying experience. Almost as bad as having to open the doors in the morning without knowing if there was something standing out there waiting to rip your head off.

  LeBron and Gus joined them on the snow-covered highway. Tom was making the rounds checking in on everyone who’d been hit by the shrapnel. He gave them pain pills or antibiotics or both depending on what he thought they needed. He had a whole pack full of different drugs he thought may come in handy. He’d already fended off Mikey inquiring what he had from an OxyContin type persuasion. Too many people had already killed themselves trying to shield their minds from the horrors of this new normal.

  Tom would freely provide antidepressants to people who needed them. He’d be the first one to tell you that he was nowhere close to a licensed psychiatrist. When the person asking for help was a mother who’d shot two of her own children to save a third it didn’t take a fancy college degree to figure out that she was dealing with some serious mental issues. Anything he could do to help he did. As a pharmacist he’d seen the ravages of opioid addiction firsthand long before the apocalypse came along. Due to that experience, he kept an eye on his people to make sure they didn’t overdo it.

  “It’s freezing out here.” LeBron said. Gus gave him a horrified look. Too late LeBron realized what he’d just said. Now they were going to have to hear the whole sob story about Mikey and Drew driving around windowless all night long.

  They were saved by Tom asking them to help get the body of the world’s worst grenadier out of the truck. Handling that gruesome task sidetracked them for a good ten minutes. Once they had the body sitting beside the road there was a brief discussion of what to do with it. Normally they’d have poured some diesel over the corpse and burned it. In addition to Mikey and Drew being pretty greedy with the diesel they were also worried about sending a big cloud of black smoke into the air. Might as well put a red dot on a map and write ‘we are here’ right next to it.

  Sadly enough no one had any real attachment to the dead guy. The man had joined up with them by himself. No one had bothered digging too much into his past. He did what he was asked to do and didn’t break any of the group’s rules. That was good enough for most of them. Good enough to earn him a spot at the table but not good enough for anyone to care how he was buried. Drew walked around in the woods until he stumbled across what was left of
a rock fence half buried by the snow. Rather than attempt to dig a grave in the frozen rocky soil they piled rocks over the corpse. Without any additional ceremony they left him to spend eternity duct taped inside an itchy wool blanket. Not that the corpse cared. Funerals are for the living.

  “Now what?” Drew asked after they’d finished the burial detail. Tom had made a halfhearted effort to say a few words over the pile of rocks. The people standing around hadn’t really cared too much. That might have had something to do with half of them having been maimed in some way by the failed grenade toss.

  “I’m hoping we can avoid burying anybody else for a few days at least.” Tom said walking over to where the four of them were standing.

  “I wonder how come the Delta dudes haven’t caught up to us yet? This snow shouldn’t have been a big deal for them. They had our tracks to follow plus they’re riding on the most expensive all weather tires it’s possible to buy.” Gus said. He wasn’t disappointed in the least bit that those killers hadn’t caught up to them yet. He knew they were insanely lucky that all of them weren’t stacked in a big pile with rocks being piled on top of their dead bodies.

  “Maybe they turned around?” LeBron said wishfully.

  “Yeah. They didn’t want to risk having any more blankets thrown at them. Maybe they figured if they left us alone, we’d just blow ourselves up with grenades anyway.” Drew said. He looked around at the small group staring at him. He’d said it kind of loud.

  “Too soon?” Drew asked with his hands spread apart. Everyone went back to doing what they were doing.

  “You’re an idiot.” Yue said walking up. She’d woken up to the smell of Jim’s feet. She’d decided on the way out of the truck that if the man was well enough to get his shoes and socks off without help then he was well enough to be shoved into the trailer. She had no desire to be out of bed right now. Between the smell and seeing the brain trust below working on a plan she’d felt like she had no choice. LeBron was the only one she trusted to make a good decision. The problem with him was that he wouldn’t necessarily voice his opinion. He’d roll right along with an idea he knew was horrible to avoid confrontation.

  “Hey! Good to see you up and only semi-wobbly! How’s the head?” Drew asked.

  Everyone took a turn asking if she felt ok. Tom took it a step further and stared into her eyes for a few seconds before admitting he hadn’t done any physical exams like that since college. Having dispensed with the pleasantries they got down to business. The first thing they needed to decide is where exactly they were going. After five minutes of talk not getting them anywhere Yue asked LeBron to lay out their alternatives for them. She knew he’d have already parsed all the data and come up with some semblance of a plan. She needed to give him a forum to share it with the group before the group decided to do something stupid.

  LeBron walked them through their present state to get them all on the same page. They were parked in the middle of a snow-covered mountain road. Up ahead were the mountains where they’d probably end up stuck and either freeze or starve to death. Somewhere behind them were two Humvees loaded down with deadly warriors who wanted to kill them. They didn’t know why the Delta team hadn’t already caught and killed them. LeBron was theorizing that the Deltas must’ve either been swarmed by crawlerz or turned back so as not to risk losing Jeff. Jeff being their high value objective.

  “Are you saying we should turn around and go back the way we came?” Tom asked. His face was still an angry shade of purplish yellow from where Jeff had manhandled him the day before. Looking back on it he saw where he deserved it and didn’t harbor any hard feelings towards Jeff’s companions. At least not as related to that incident.

  “He’s saying we can either risk freezing to death or getting shot. Getting shot seems less likely since those guys should’ve caught and killed us by now. Something must’ve happened to spin them around or something.” Mikey said. LeBron nodded fervently along with Mikey’s summarization of what he’d outlined.

  “We’ve got a ton of diesel, snow chains and enough mac and cheese to last a month without even rationing it. Can we at least think about the whole driving forward plan? We could always hole up somewhere and eat bowls of Kraft until the snow melted.” Gus said.

  “Do we have bowls?” Drew asked.

  “Let’s say we get past the lack of glassware. I don’t know if the snow melts at the top of those passes or not. We’d have to worry about avalanches to. All of that aside there’s a few addresses in Jeff’s notes for bases in Tennessee. Those could be deserted holes in the ground full of crawlerz and food like the one we just left. Or they could be active bases that the Delta team could’ve reached out to. We might make it all the way across the mountains and then get blown away by some guy with an RPG and orders to shoot on sight.” LeBron said. Those were all good points. That was the reason Yue had gotten out of the truck to make sure they gave LeBron plenty of stage time. There was also the issue with Jim’s feet needing to be condemned. They were really bad.

  “Do we flip around now, or should we wait? Even if they left to make sure they got Jeff wherever he needed to be they might have left the other guys to make sure we didn’t double back.” Mikey said thoughtfully.

  The discussion continued until they decided to find a place to park that gave them some cover in case the Delta guys showed up. They’d give it a full day then head back the way they’d come from. They all felt like that was the right window of time to wait. Too short and the guard left behind may still be sitting there. Too long and the President may dispatch someone else to look for them. At the end of the long conversation Yue felt like it’d been productive. She was exhausted from the effort of standing up in the cold air for so long. LeBron and Gus helped her back up into the sleeper where she passed back out regardless of the stench wafting off of Jim’s sewer feet.

  The rest of them got in the trucks and drove another mile until they came to an exit with a small gas station outside a large plaza. There wasn’t much else in sight, so they parked by the station and setup for the day. The propane heaters were used to melt snow in large pots to make the mac and cheese. A few cans of vegetables and some other random food were circulated as well. Everyone kept their conversations to a minimum to avoid attracting any unwanted guests. Looking around at the dilapidated buildings with the shattered storefronts told them all they wouldn’t find anything but death inside these stores.

  The refugees all accepted this pitstop as natural. The Marines, Drew and LeBron were a bit weirded out to not have anything pressing to do. Sitting around eating noodles covered in powdered cheese sauce while a bunch of kids silently played games in the back of the trailer was surreal to them. Normally they were going a million miles per hour with their hair on fire. Sitting around in the middle of the day with nothing to do just felt wrong.

  To give themselves something to do they setup a watch schedule that had people wrapping themselves in blankets and sitting on the roof of the trailer for two hours apiece. With that bit of activity knocked out they decided to clear the gas station and see if there was anything useful in there. They’d thought about clearing the entire plaza but didn’t want to get too far from the trucks in case some threat showed up where they were needed. Ensuring they had fully loaded magazines Gus and Mikey grabbed Drew and headed for the station.

  Up in the cab of the truck LeBron saw the trio headed for the station and instantly intuited what they were doing. What he couldn’t figure out was why they were doing it. They had plenty of supplies in the back. They had plenty of diesel. You could never have enough ammunition, but it wasn’t like they were going to find anymore inside the gas station. They were basically risking their lives for the hell of it. They were also putting everyone else’s lives in in danger. If they fired their weapons it could attract surgers now and would ensure they were surrounded by crawlerz later. If the morons got themselves killed no one else knew how to drive the trucks. A seriously wound-up LeBron worked his way down out of the w
arm cab. He’d miss the warmth, but he could definitely stand getting away from Jim’s foot foulness for a few minutes.

  Gus, Mikey, and Drew stared through the shattered front windows of the service station. The only thing visible inside was a pile of metal shelves haphazardly knocked around. The smell that invaded their nostrils from the inside was of vaguely spoiled meat and vomit. Seeing nothing of real value they walked along the storefront to see if maybe there was something they could see from a different angle. They were mostly just killing time.

  “Hey! You guys know taking risks like this puts everybody in danger, right?” LeBron hissed at them. The three of them spun around startled then looked guiltily at LeBron. All of them absolutely knew better. They just didn’t care.

  “What do you think’s going to happen exactly? We’re just looking at a building we’re parked next to. Someone has to scout it out and make sure it’s safe.” Drew said in their defense.

  The pile of metal shelves inside the store exploded with a loud squeal. Two shadowy forms hurled themselves at the group of people they’d heard right outside the window. The three men had all turned around to address LeBron when he showed up. One of the shadows collided with a jagged piece of metal sticking out of a window frame. The crawler slashed its arm from wrist to armpit. It fell across the windowsill. Rather than lay draped across the concrete opening it continued to crawl forward as its lifeblood was pumped onto the dirty concrete walkway.