You could hear the deep roar echo off down the lake in both directions. Before the echo had stopped, I was already scanning along the edge of the boat, searching the surrounding water. After a moment of searching, I found what had hit us. The dark water was illuminated by my flashlight. In the murky water below, I could see the shapes of the dead moving around. The water was deep enough that they couldn't reach us, but the occasional Stalker would jump and try. One of them must have gotten close.
They were too deep for me to try to shoot. I might have tried it if I had a spear, but I doubted the bullets would go through that much water. I didn't have time to ponder it for long, though. Behind me, the big outboard engine sputtered and then came to life. Snake had done the trick.
"Bingo," he said, crawling out from under the console. "We're in business."
Throttling up the big engine, Snake spun the wheel and we angled out across the lake on a direct course for the far side of the dam. We were cruising along at a good rate of speed when a second distress flare rocketed into the night sky. It came from the same spot on the far side of the dam. Now I had the location firmly established in my mind.
"Wilder to Grant," said Spec-4's voice from my radio holder.
I yanked the radio out and keyed up.
"Grant, here," I replied.
"We're following you across the lake," she said. "We're planning on staying away from the shore but nearby, in case you need an extraction."
"Copy that," I replied. "Good plan. We'll yell if we need you."
"Copy," she replied. "Out."
I could see the two pontoon boats matching our speed and staying about forty yards on our port side. It was too dark to see anyone's faces, but I knew they were there. Even though they couldn't see me, I still waved at them and smiled. It was good to know they would be close if we ran into too much trouble.
"E.T.A. less than two minutes," called Snake, bringing me back to the moment.
"There are Stalkers in the fucking water," I called out over the roar of the motor. "We're going to have to go in hot."
"Fine," he replied. "You take point."
I dropped my magazine and replaced my expended ammo. Then I took out two of my extra magazines for the M-4 and loaded them with ammo for the Beowulf. It wasn't a lot, but it did give me another twenty rounds of firepower to rely on. With a quick prayer to the Gods, I gave my Thor's Hammer a quick squeeze and let it fall to lay on the outside of my armor.
As we approached the edge of the lake, I clicked my light on and swept the shoreline. We were clear, at least for the moment. Snake kept the engine running hard right up until the last second, then cut the power and brought the motor up out of the water. I heard a couple scrapes before we hit the shore, then we slid up onto the bank. We stopped with the entire boat out of the water. I just hoped we hadn't punctured the hull.
I was out of the boat just as it came to rest, sweeping my weapon to the left. Snake was on my heels, sweeping to the right. The hillside was clear as far as I could see, but the tall grass kept me from having a clear view. The dead avoided steep hills unless they were chasing something. They didn't have the dexterity to walk up or down steep inclines. We could use that to our advantage.
"Let's go, little brother," said Snake. "You take the lead, I'll be right behind you."
Without answering, I brought my weapon around and advanced on the hillside. It was a steep climb, but I felt better about it than I did the last time. At least I was armed and had back-up for this trip. The moon was bright in the night sky, so I clicked off the tactical light. There was plenty of light to see by.
We emerged onto the top of the dam and crouched at the edge of the road. I could see the dead moving around on the dam, but they seemed to be attracted to the spot where the flares had appeared. Even the noise of the boat hadn't attracted them away from the glowing light in the sky. As if on cue, another one leapt into the air, streaming smoke behind it.
Keeping low, I ran for the far side of the road and crouched down behind a guardrail. Seconds later, Snake crouched down beside me. He either didn't really understand how much trouble we were in or he was enjoying every second of it. I had the distinct feeling that it was the latter. The grin on his face was like a kid opening presents. It was the dream of a true warrior to die in battle. He might just get his wish before we got out of here.
I leaned out and glanced down the hill that led to the bottom of the dam. It was steeper on this side than on the other. Climbing down was going to be treacherous. At least any of the dead that tried to follow us would just tumble down and get broken to pieces by the rocks on the way. I just hoped that it didn't happen to us, too.
"This isn't going to be easy," I whispered, pointing down the hill.
"If it was easy," he replied, grinning, "then the dead could follow us."
"Good point," I admitted.
I took a deep breath, then started down the incline. I had to let my weapon dangle around my neck so that I could use my hands to keep from falling. It wasn't a sheer drop, but it was damned close to one. We fought our way through underbrush and rocks the size of beer kegs. As we got closer to the bottom, I could see the parking lot was almost deserted. There were only two cars in the entire lot.
One was an older station wagon and the other was a large four wheel drive Chevy Suburban. The suburban must have belonged to a hunter. It was painted flat black with reinforced bumpers, a brush guard, oversized mud tires and what looked like fog lights mounted to the top. It looked like it could cross almost any terrain that you wanted to throw at it.
"We're coming back in that," I said, pointing at the suburban. "Think you can hotwire it?"
"No problem," he said, grinning. "Why?"
"Because I ain't climbing that fucking hill in the dark," I replied.
Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the launch of another flare. This time, I saw exactly where it was shot from. I could see two people on top of one of the power stations that ran along the back of the dam. One was standing and the other was sitting in a chair. At first, I thought it was a lawn chair or something similar until he started moving in it. It wasn't a lawn chair. It was a wheelchair.
"Well," I said, pointing, "this rescue just got a little more difficult."
"We could just leave," said Snake.
"No," I replied. "We already came all this way. Besides that, I won't leave anyone behind. Not if I can help it."
Snake just shrugged and continued down the hill. When we emerged onto level ground, we were near the edge of a parking lot and close to the door to the offices of the dam power plant. We cut around a small building and headed for the front of the main one. There were four of the dead beating on the door. I drew one of my silenced Keltec PMR-30's and brought it up in a two handed grip.
Four quick shots of the deadly .22 Magnum hollow points put all of them down with little noise. The bodies hitting the ground were louder than the shots. I kept the weapon up as we headed for the door. I looked up and the two people that had fired the flares were watching us from a catwalk about twenty feet above us.
"You call for a ride?" I asked, trying to sound friendly.
"Who are you?" asked the one standing.
I could tell by the voice that it was a woman. She was wearing jeans and a ball cap which concealed her appearance. The one in the chair was definitely male. I could see his face in the moonlight. Unless women at the lake grew beards, that one was a guy.
"Wylie Grant," I replied, holding up my badge. "Sheriff's department!"
"We'll be right down," replied the man.
Seconds later, they disappeared into the dam. We put our backs to the door and kept our weapons up, in case any more of the dead were planning to drop by unannounced. We waited a very tense couple of minutes before we could hear the door behind us being cleared. It sounded like they had barricaded it from the inside. We kept our weapons pointed out and away from the door. No sense making the wrong impression when they opened the door.
<
br /> Despite me having the good manners not to have guns pointing in their faces when the doors opened, they had no such compulsions. When I turned around, I was staring into the barrels of an automatic handgun and 12 gauge shotgun. The man had the pistol and the woman had the shotgun. Neither looked like they had any problems using them.
"Easy, there," I said, raising one hand. "We're not here for trouble. We came to answer your distress flares."
"How do we know you're not just here to rob us?" demanded the woman.
"You don't," I replied, honestly. "But let's look at this realistically, shall we. We have better gear than you do. One shotgun and a pistol is hardly worth the trip down here."
"We might have other supplies," she said, defensively.
"Do you?" I asked, trying to force a smile in spite of the gun in my face.
They glanced nervously at one another before the woman shrugged.
"Not really," said the man. "We don't have much left."
"We've got food and shelter," I said, "if you want to come with us."
"How do we know we can trust you?" asked the woman.
"I guess, you don't," I replied. "It's up to you. If you don't want to go with us, we'll leave. Plain and simple."
"We don't have much choice," said the man, glancing at her and shaking her head. "We can't stay here."
"Do you have any food?" I asked, concerned.
"We're low," he replied, "but that's not the problem. There was a big explosion yesterday. The dam's cracked in several places. It won't take much to breach the spillway. When it goes, I don't know what that will do for the integrity of the entire dam."
"Shit!" said Snake, impressed. "When you do something, you do it right."
"That was you!" snapped the woman.
"Hang on," I said, turning to her. "First off, I had no way of knowing that anyone was in there. Two, I was saving my own life. If I hadn't set those fires, the dead would have gotten me."
She looked like she wanted to say something else, but thought better of it. I had the distinct feeling that we weren't going to get along very well.
"It doesn't matter, now," said the man. "The damage is done. We either leave or we die here when the food goes. That's what we have to deal with. We can argue and point fingers, later."
"How much time do we have before the spillway goes?" I asked, turning to the man.
"Not long, I would guess," he replied, frowning. "Could be hours. Could be days. Hell, it might shock us and hold for years. I'm not a structural engineer."
"Then we should err on the side of caution," I said, nodding at Snake. "We'd better get the hell out of here."
"I'll get the truck," said Snake. "Do either of you have the keys to that suburban?"
"I do," said the woman, reaching into her pocket.
"I didn't expect that," I muttered while she dug out her keys.
"Why?" she snapped. "Because I'm a woman?"
"No," I replied, starting to lose my patience. "Because it's high enough off the ground that I would have trouble climbing in."
"Oh," she muttered. "It was my husband's truck."
"Where is he, now?" I asked, not sure if I really wanted to ask that question.
"He was on deployment when all of this started," she explained. "Last I knew, he was in Afghanistan. Now, who knows? I drove it to work when things got bad. I wanted to be able to get off the roads, if I needed to."
"Good plan," I said, nodding. "How did you get stuck here?"
"I wasn't going to leave Mike behind," she explained. "Besides, from what I could tell from the radio, there really wasn't anyplace safe to go to."
"Fair enough," I said, nodding.
Snake took the keys and headed off towards the parking lot. I wanted to try to ease the tension a bit, so I decided to change the subject and my tone.
"This hasn't been easy for any of us," I said. "I'm sorry. My name is Wylie Grant. You can just call me Wylie. The big guy getting in the suburban is Janos. Just call him Snake."
"I'm Mike Leary," said the man, "and this is Heather Monroe."
"Nice to meet you, both," I said, smiling. "How did you get stuck inside the dam?"
"I'm an electrical engineer," said Mike. "Heather is a mechanical engineer. We both work…uh…worked here."
"Engineers?" I said, surprised. "We could use both of you. We're trying to build a safe zone for our group. You'll both make excellent additions, if you want to stay."
"It's not like we have a lot of options," replied Heather, sarcastically.
"Let's get out of here," I said. "We can decide what to do, later. If you want to stay, you're welcome to."
Snake pulled up in the big suburban and stopped a few feet away. He kept the headlights off, but the engine idled like a beast.
"Do you need to grab anything before we leave?" I asked.
"Just our packs," said Mike. "We were packed and ready, just in case."
"I'll grab them," said Heather, and ducked back inside the dam.
Seconds later, she emerged carrying two backpacks. They were both sporting brands, not military grade. One was blue and the other was a bright orange. I took them from her and tossed them into the back of the suburban. Next, I helped Mike into the backseat. Then I folded the wheelchair and put it in the back, as well. Heather climbed into the back with Mike, so I took shotgun.
"Let's roll," said Snake, putting the transmission back into gear.
Easing off the clutch, we took off down the parking lot towards the road. It curved around the bluff and came back to the main road just above where we beached the boat. From the upper end, we could drive down almost to where the boat was at if we were careful. I really hated to leave the suburban behind, but it couldn't go where we needed to go.
The suburban had good clearance and the windows were high enough that the dead shouldn't be able to reach them. The Stalkers could climb, but I was really hoping that we wouldn't run into any of them. We drove hard, screeching the tires on almost every curve. Twice, we ran over Shamblers that got in our way. Between the high clearance and the brush guard, it didn't seem to even slow the thing down.
When we skidded out onto the road, there were cars still blocking part of it. We had enough room to get around them, but it was close. By the time the parking area that led to the shoreline came into view, I could see a large number of the dead on the dam. Many of them started coming our way when they saw our headlights. We weren't going to have much time to pull this off.
Quickly, I rolled my window down and brought the Beowulf up to my shoulder. We were bouncing around too much for me to get a clear shot. We were still too far away for me to pick individual targets, anyway. It was best to conserve my ammo. Once it was gone, I wasn't sure where we'd get more to fit the Beowulf. However, I was definitely going to be looking for more.
We slid to a stop, less than thirty yards from the boat. The timing was going to be tight. We were going to be cutting it close to the arrival of the dead. It was better to not hesitate. Snake, Heather and I climbed out and started grabbing gear. Heather took the two packs while Snake grabbed the wheelchair and a fuel can that was in the back. I grabbed Mike and drew him across my shoulders in a fireman's carry.
"Sorry, Mike," I said. "We've got to move."
"I never wanted to have someone carry me," he said, his face darkening. "Especially now, I feel like more of a liability than an asset."
"Mike, there comes a time in every man's life when someone will have to carry him," I said, gently. "It is my honor to carry you. Before this is over, you will be worth five of me. I'm a warrior. It's the thinkers that will rebuild this world. People like you."
"Thank you," he said, smiling. "I'm more than willing to help."
"You are most welcome," I replied. "Do you know how to shoot?"
"I should hope so," he said, chuckling. "I was a combat engineer in the Army. That's how I paid for college. It's also how I ended up in the chair. My Humvee hit an I.E.D., just outside of Kandahar."
Without another word, I handed him one of the PMR-30's. He checked the load and nodded.
"Got it," he said.
"It's hot," I replied. "Loaded with hollow points. Should be thirty rounds in it."
"That should do the trick," he replied.
Heather and Snake beat me to the boat. Snake casually tossed his load in and grabbed the front end. With a heave, he started shoving the boat back out into the water. I could see some of the zombies were trying to come down the hill to get to us. They weren't making it too well. They just fell down the hill and bounced all the way down. As I sat Mike in the boat, he raised the pistol and took four rapid shots.
I turned around to see two of the dead stumble and fall, less than ten yards away from us. That was too close for comfort. More of them were reaching the bottom of the hill and starting to get back to their feet. Some of them were only Crawlers now, but they were still moving. It was time to leave.
"Everyone get in the boat!" I called, turning around and bringing the Beowulf to my shoulder.
Snake jumped behind the controls and started trying starting the motor. We had to have the motor because we were too close to the spillways to risk drifting out into the deeper water. We'd be drawn by the current and over the spillways. To me, that didn't sound like much fun. I stood my ground on the shore, knowing full-well I had to buy him the time to get that motor started.
The dead were closing in on us, less than twenty yards away. There were more of them by the minute. Behind me, I heard the muted cough of the suppressed M-4 as it came to life. One by one, the dead began to fall. I glanced back, expecting to see Mike taking careful shots at the dead. It wasn't Mike at all. It was Heather.
I turned back and started carefully lining up my shots. The sheer power of the Beowulf was enough to get more than one target with the amount of penetration the rounds would have. My first round took out three. The second got two. I was lining up my next shot, when other weapons joined in the fray. I turned my head to see that Spec-4 and Elliott had brought their boats in close. They were engaging targets of their own.
I turned back around and took three shots in rapid succession. The damage the Beowulf did to a body was impressive. Limbs, heads and torsos simply came apart from the massive trauma. I was about to think that we were home free when I heard Snake's voice.
Ragnarok Rising: The Crossing (The Ragnarok Rising Saga) Page 20