by J. W. Vohs
Luke went into the bathroom and told Zach to assist Maddy; then he made sure there were no windows before closing the door and turning on his flashlight again. He propped the device between two shampoo bottles so that the beam was reflecting from the mirror over the vanity, a trick that lit the entire room well enough to clearly see the prisoners huddled near the toilet. Two of the cowboys appeared to be about his age, and the third looked even younger. Luke crouched down on his heels and explained the situation to his captives.
“Me and my friends specialize in killing the infected, not humans. We don’t like to kill people, but Larry looked like the kind of guy who wouldn’t have surrendered without a fight so I felt like I had to take him out.”
The three frightened young men nodded their understanding as Luke continued, “We’re General Barnes’ enemies, and you’re herding the cattle that feed his monsters.”
The prisoners hesitated for a moment before finally nodding their agreement with what seemed to be a sense of shame. Luke filed that information away before going forward with the interrogation.
He looked at the youngest cowboy and gently explained, “I’m gonna remove the tape from your mouth so you can talk to me. If you shout, or make any loud noise, I will kill you instantly.” He pulled his dagger for effect, looking carefully into the kid’s eyes to make sure he understood the consequences. The boy looked scared but nodded his agreement, so Luke slowly pulled the strip from the prisoner’s mouth and waited a moment to see what he would do now that he could speak.
“Mister, please just listen to me for a minute. None of us likes General Barnes or approves of what he’s doin’ to the country.”
Even though the young man sounded sincere, Luke tried to look skeptical. “Okay, go on,” he prompted.
“Me and my granny were livin’ with a purty big group of survivors down on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. A soldier showed up in a helicopter and called us rebels, said if we didn’t surrender they’d attack us. Next day they sent thousands of infected against our fort, the fast, strong ones. We killed a bunch of ‘em, but more just kept comin’ till they got over our walls. It was a slaughter. Maybe half of us escaped on boats and started headin’ downstream. Granny was sick, so I stayed with her when we came to the small settlement these fellas and their families was livin’ in. The rest of the folks from our group kept movin’ down the river. After hearin’ our story these people decided to surrender when the same soldier showed up at their place a few weeks later.
“The soldiers under General Barnes’ command forced us to start workin’ the fields, threatenin’ to feed family members to the infected if we didn’t do what they said. When some officer came through a few weeks later and asked for volunteers to herd cattle I joined up, same with these two guys. My granny died ‘cause they wouldn’t feed her when she couldn’t work the fields. I ain’t got anyone back there, but these fellas was told that their families would be hurt if they ran away or anything.”
The young man finally stopped talking so Luke asked, “Where were you taking these cattle?”
“I ain’t a hundred percent sure, but the word goin’ around was that we were drivin’ ‘em up into Indiana.”
“Why would you be doing that?”
“Larry said that Barnes uses the cattle to keep his monsters fed when he’s movin’ ‘em around the country.”
“And you obviously know that he’s using those monsters to kill or enslave other groups of survivors?” Luke accused.
The young man looked miserable, “ I know you got no reason to believe me, mister, but as soon as we got to the Ohio River I was gonna find me a boat and go lookin’ for my people. My friends here can’t run away, or their families will get hurt. Larry was an asshole, but we were just doin’ what we were told till we could come up with a better plan; none of us wanted to be General Barnes’ slaves the rest of our lives. Hell, if I track down my old group, and Barnes’ people find us again, I’ll die fightin’ next time. I got some scores to settle for my granny.”
“Well,” Luke wondered, “what do you suggest that I do with you?”
“If you’re headin’ north, take me with you. We gotta string of good horses tied outside. Get me to the river and you can keep ‘em. These fellas can say I shot Larry and ran away.”
The other two prisoners nodded their agreement with the plan and Luke realized that the youngster was no dummy; he had made a sound proposal. Whatever they were going to do needed to be done in a hurry; there were still a lot of cowboys rummaging through the neighborhood. He decided to trust his instincts, which told him that the kid was telling the truth.
“Maddy, Zach,” he quietly called, “come in here.”
Luke quickly told his partners what he had learned, and what he’d decided to do. They trusted their friend’s intuition and readily agreed with the plan. The two other prisoners handed over their coats, and the dead man lying in the kitchen was stripped of his as well. The three scouts were going to take the young captive with them, tying his horse to Maddy’s since she was the best rider of the three. Luke clearly explained that the teen prisoner’s hands would be tied in front, and if he tried to escape or call out he was to be shot immediately. Of course, they were all betting their lives that the kid wouldn’t do that.
Before they gathered in the kitchen for last-second planning, Luke decided to leave the other two young men only loosely tied up in the bathroom where they would quickly be able to free themselves.
“Listen carefully to me, guys,” Luke addressed the prisoners. “You can wiggle out of those zip ties in a few minutes, but wait until you hear explosions before you leave this house. Zach here is gonna wait outside until we come back for him, and if you try to leave early he’ll have to shoot you. We don’t want to do it, but a lot of folks are counting on us back home. I just can’t risk the possibility of one of you trying to warn the others.”
“My cousin is out there somewhere,” one of the captives whispered. “Are you planning on killin’ anybody else?”
Luke shook his head, “I promise you that I’ll do my best to not hurt any other cowboys. Can you two promise me you’ll stay in here so I don’t have more blood on my hands.”
With huge, frightened eyes, both of the prisoners nodded with sincerity. Then they wished Jared good luck before Luke gently placed the duct tape back over their mouths.
As they closed the bathroom door and walked toward the kitchen Zach quietly asked, “You really leaving me here to shoot those guys?”
Luke snorted, “Hell no; I just wanted to scare them into staying in the house till we get the stampede started.”
“So now you’re a liar and a killer,” Maddy prodded. “Wait till I see Gracie again.”
“He’ll probably just lie about where he hid your body,” Zach offered.
“Judge not, lest ye be judged jerks. Now focus on the mission.”
With a rough map of the area imprinted in his mind, Luke quickly explained to Zach and Maddy what he wanted to see happen to the cattle herd. The ground north of Rineyville was open and clear for more than a mile, where a small stream called Otter Creek ran east to west through the countryside. Luke wanted to try to stampede the cattle toward the waterway, hoping that many of the animals would be injured as they tumbled into the creek bed in the dark. He hated the thought of deliberately hurting the livestock, but they were doomed anyway.
When Luke asked for ideas, their young prisoner spoke up, “With this many cattle you can’t really control the direction they’ll stampede in. You can probably eliminate one direction though, which is the place you’re scarin’ ‘em from.”
Zach agreed, “Let’s set some of these houses on fire and toss that dynamite you brought into the herd. That should get ‘em moving.”
“There’s cowboys in a lot of these houses now,” their captive explained, “but most of the garages probably still have cars in ‘em. We set those on fire and they’ll eventually blow up, I think, and that’ll give the men inside a
chance to escape without gettin’ killed.”
Luke liked that idea. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Jared Ferriss, sir.”
Luke snorted, “Don’t call me sir; you’re not that much younger than me.” Jared nodded, and though the boy was doing a good job of hiding his fear, Luke could see it in his eyes. Luke softened his voice and tried to reassure the young captive. “All right Jared, if you help us stampede these cattle we’ll get you to the river as soon as possible.”
The boy smiled for the first time as he nodded his acceptance of the offer, “Mister, you gotta deal!”
Luke returned the smile, “But don’t call me ‘mister’ either. My name’s Luke.”
Wearing the hats and coats they had taken from Larry and the two cowboys left behind, Luke, Maddy, and Zach led Jared out a side door in the garage to find eight horses tied to a couple of small trees. Four of the animals were still saddled and ready to ride.
“Each of us rode with a back-up mount at all times,” Jared quietly explained. “If we don’t take ‘em along, we might draw attention we don’t want.”
Luke shrugged before whispering, “Fine, everybody lead two for now. We’re gonna walk through the streets like we own this place.”
The four teens were quickly moving toward the row of houses nearest the herd, never even challenged by the few cowboys they encountered along the way. Finding a small copse of trees near the targeted homes, the group slipped into the modest cover and finalized their plan of attack. Luke briefly rummaged through his pack before producing three sticks of dynamite.
“Everybody bring their lighters?” he asked with a grin.
“Do you actually know how to use that stuff?” Zach sounded skeptical.
“I hope so. These are one-minute fuses; well, at least that’s what I was told by one of Greenburg’s men back at the bridge.”
“What do you want us to do with it?” Maddy asked.
Luke smiled, “All of these houses have side doors leading into the garages. One of you will stay here with the horses and our new friend, and two of us will break into those garages and put a stick of dynamite in the gas tanks of the vehicles.”
Zach and Maddy immediately began to argue about who would go with Luke, until Jared interrupted them.
“Uh, your plan will work good enough, but I just realized somethin’ that might do better at spookin’ them cattle.”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Well, all these houses have propane tanks.”
Luke quickly turned to look at the homes and immediately saw that the closest two did indeed have fuel tanks outside. He shook his head and sighed, “You’re starting to make me feel like an idiot, Jared.”
“Naw, I just know Kentucky better’n y’all do.”
Maddy sounded disgusted with herself as she explained, “I know we used propane back home, but I didn’t even think of using it here.”
“It’s a great idea,” Zach added. “Those tanks will make really big explosions, especially with dynamite attached. You have any more duct tape, Luke?”
“Of course.” Luke scanned the horizon before issuing his orders. “Maddy, you’re with me. Zach, we’ll only be outta sight for a few minutes while we locate and rig up the third tank. You’ll be able to see us working on these other two. When we have the sticks taped up I’ll send Maddy back here and you all get mounted up and meet me over by the closest tank. Then we ride like hell to the south.”
Zach scratched his head. “South? I thought we’d be heading back to the bridge once we stampeded the cattle . . .”
“We are going back to the bridge,” Luke explained. “But as I understand a stampede, the safest place to be is on the opposite side of whatever scares the cattle.”
As Jared nodded his agreement, Luke declared, “Let’s blow some stuff up.”
After living through the hours of tension as the horde of infected passed by the house they’d been hiding in, immediately followed by the cattle herd and the cowboys with it, the setting of explosives seemed very anti-climactic. Three propane tanks were ready to blow in less than five minutes. As soon as the dynamite was in place, Luke was able to light all three fuses in less than thirty seconds. The group galloped several hundred yards away before the first explosion rocked the ground beneath their feet.
The horses jumped with fright as the next two tanks blew up into huge, orange fireballs. Luke quickly jumped from his mount to avoid being tossed. The others managed to stay in their saddles, and within a matter of seconds the horses calmed down enough for Luke to remount and everyone to set off toward the south at a quick trot. Behind them they could hear the cries of thousands of panicked cattle, as well as occasional human screams and shouts.
After putting several miles between themselves and the conflagration they’d left behind, the group slowed their horses to a walk as they continued their course to the south.
Maddy spoke first, “Good Lord! I had no idea it would be that loud.”
Even Luke seemed more amazed than horrified at the damage they’d wrought. “I’ve never seen explosions like that in my entire life.”
“We definitely need to remember the propane tanks all over the countryside,” Zach added. “The military used up all their bombs trying to stop the outbreak, but we can make our own with those tanks.”
“I want to be farther away the next time we blow one of those things up,” Maddy stated decisively as the first rays of light began to creep over the eastern horizon.
“Well, I don’t think you’ll get an argument from any of us.” Luke agreed. He squinted at the sky. “Let’s stop for a minute so I can radio our guys, and then we’ll head directly west.”
They gathered together beside a group of pines nestled between a dying oak and a broken down fence. As they hopped down from their saddles, Jared asked, “So did I help y’all out back there?”
Luke whipped out a knife in response, quickly cutting through the teen’s bonds before handing him the blade. “We kill the infected. We’re part of a settlement in Indiana with hundreds of survivors. You can follow us or head out on your own, but if you go with us you’ll have to follow my orders until we reach the Ohio.”
“I’d follow you folks anywhere.” Jared sounded a bit awestruck, “Y’all really know how to raise hell with those bastards.”
CHAPTER 10
Jack and Chad were both riveted as they listened to their relay team report in at noon. The soldiers had actually seen the explosions and subsequent fires in Rineyville before dawn, and not long after the sun came up they had witnessed hundreds of cattle wandering throughout the countryside. Some of the animals were limping badly or showed other signs of trauma, and the scouts even saw one poor cow being eaten by two scrawny-looking infected that they assumed hadn’t been able to keep pace with the previous day’s round-up. They had yet to see a single cowboy on the horizon, and were fairly certain that Barnes’ food-on-the-hoof had been thoroughly scattered in the stampede. Jack and Chad agreed with the assessment that the general would need to spend at least several days reforming the herd before he could be certain of his food supply. The relay team also reported that Luke and his group were on their way back to rejoin the forces at the bridge.
The time that Jack’s forces had gained since capturing the bridge had been put to good use. Now there were three walls on the bridge, each about fifty meters away from one another. The concept of layered defense was ancient, but many soldiers trained in the asymmetrical combat tactics being employed in the War on Terror thought Jack’s ideas were new and brilliant. The former history professor smiled to himself as he thought about any soldier from World War I walking up on the scene and offering his perspective on the bridge’s defenses.
“Decent enough job, Yank,” he imagined one of the famed Tommies from the British Army declaring, “but you better scoop a few trenches on both sides of the span.”
Of course, machine gun emplacements and pre-targeted artillery would have been
next on the soldier’s list, both of which Jack wouldn’t have minded appropriating for the coming fight. But in many aspects the tools of war mankind had available a hundred years after the slaughter on the Western Front had regressed more than half a millennia. Any walls protecting an important bridge in fifteenth century Europe would have bristled with cannon capable of cutting a deadly swath through the massed-infantry formations employed by Barnes. Now, Jack and his soldiers were reduced to using small-arms with a precious, limited supply of ammunition, and the stabbing, slashing, and crushing weapons that hadn’t decided the course of a western battle since the English longbow-men dominated the combat of the Hundred Year’s War.
Jack’s musing had been interrupted when Chad came to get him for the scheduled radio report from the soldiers manning the relay station. The scouts had explained that at last word, which had come just before sunrise, Luke and his team were on horseback and working their way back to the bridge. The only bad news of the day was that Jack had sent a long-range patrol upriver toward Louisville a few hours before dawn and had yet to hear a word from any of the men. They were supposed to go ashore every few miles as they approached the city to look for signs of Barnes’ main force, and the continued radio-silence wasn’t a positive sign regarding their well-being. With the Louisville bridges destroyed, Jack expected Barnes to move toward Brandenburg, and he didn’t want to get caught by surprise.
After ordering the two scouts to return to camp as quickly and safely as possible, Jack turned to Chad. “The fiasco with the herd will only be an uncomfortable distraction for Barnes.”
Greenburg nodded, “Yep. Those hunters can go a damn long time without food. May not be operating at peak efficiency without regular protein, but still deadly all the same.”