“What’s that?” Connor said.
James looked ahead to where his brother was pointing and noticed a pile of cars across the interstate.
“Ah, sh—” James started to say but cut himself off, glancing back at Olive.
The truck rolled to a stop and he pulled his binoculars off the dash. The interstate was at a slight incline and ahead there was a gentle right turn. Before the turn, about two hundred yards away, was a bunch of abandoned vehicles stretching across both lanes of the interstate. It didn’t look like it’d been a wreck and there were no other vehicles in sight. They’d have to go around.
“Does this smell fishy to you?” James asked.
“Could be a trap,” Connor said. “We should check it out.”
“Agreed,” James said.
“Should I stay here?” Olive asked.
“Yes,” James said as he picked up the radio and spoke, turning it to channel seven. “Emmett, you copy?”
“Roger,” he said. “What do you have?”
“A roadblock. Might be a trap. We’re gonna check it out. Would you come up and drive? That way, if need be you can hightail it outta here.”
“I’ll be up,” Emmett said.
“Be safe,” Olive said as James opened the door.
He smiled back at her. “We will.”
James climbed out of the truck, outfitted in his tactical vest and AR in his hands. Similarly armed, Connor walked around the front to join him as Emmett walked from the back of the caravan. He had his M4 in his hands.
“That could definitely be a barricade,” Emmett said, eyeing it.
“That’s what we thought. Won’t hurt to go take a look,” James said.
“We’ll stay back and wait for your signal. If we have to take off, we’ll go around to the west on US-87. Meet us there.”
“Sounds good,” James said.
The brothers walked up to the collection of vehicles, scanning all around them. There was a hill to the east of the barricade that would make a good place to stage an ambush. They paid special attention to that. As they approached the barricade, they noticed three vehicles in a line, looking like they’d been heading north. They didn’t seem to be a part of the barricade. Reaching the first vehicle in the back—a tan minivan—they saw the first zombie. It was inside the minivan, smacking on the glass to get out. They left it, continuing on.
“Bro,” James said, “Look at that!”
In line with the three cars and against the barricade was a semi-truck, but with a few modifications. James quickly walked up, checking it out. The front end of the semi had two large pieces of thick metal attached that looked like a giant plow. There was a metal guard over the windshield and extra plating on the sides. It looked like a fortress. A zombie crawled out from under the semi and James jumped back, quickly drawing his tomahawk. In a swift move, he drove the spike into its brain and pulled it out. Another zombie was walking around the end of the barricade and Connor calmly walked over to it with his tomahawk out.
“This is what cleared the path,” James said as Connor rejoined him, wiping blood off his tomahawk before sheathing it.
“That’d be my guess.”
“I wonder if this was the caravan Tank was with.”
“I don’t see his truck.”
“Me neither. They probably just went around.”
James walked over to the right end of the barricade to make sure it was clear enough to get through. The ground was relatively flat and would be easy for the trucks to drive over. They’d have to watch the buses so they didn’t get high-centered on the shoulder of the road, but they should be able to pass on this side.
He’d been about to turn around when something caught his eye. Walking over, he bent down to examine it. A spike strip like law enforcement officers used was hidden in the grass, and he wondered what it was doing there. He looked around, noticing there were a couple more hidden in the grass between the interstate and the side of the hill. Anyone trying to go around the right side of the interstate would be screwed.
“Bro, you might want to come look at this,” Connor said from over by one of the three vehicles they’d guessed were part of a caravan.
James walked over, already dreading what he knew they’d find. The entire right side and front of the Toyota 4Runner was peppered with bullet holes. Glancing back at the other two vehicles in the caravan, they saw the same, including the minivan. They hadn’t noticed it before since they’d approached on the left side of the vehicles, but now it was blatantly obvious.
“It was an ambush,” James said, looking at his brother.
10
Ambush
“We need to get back, now!” James said.
They moved into action, turning around and heading for the buses. James stopped short when he noticed someone standing on the hilltop to the west of where the buses were parked. The man raised an RPG over his shoulder. James took a knee and aimed through his scope, finding the man. In a hurry to get the man down, he fired, but his shot went wide. His brother fired behind him at the same time as the man fired and James watched in horror as the rocket flew into the side of the second bus. The bus exploded, flames reaching into the sky as screams split the air.
James watched as Emmett stepped on the gas and James’s truck lurched forward. The remaining bus followed Emmett, and Alexis pulled around the flaming bus in her dad’s truck. The man on the hill was down from Connor’s shot, but more were now on top, firing at the vehicles below with assault rifles. He wanted to run to those in the flaming bus, but one look at it told him it wouldn’t do any good.
James took his time finding his target on the hilltop and fired. The 5.56 bullet flew through the air two hundred and fifty-six yards to punch clean through the man’s chest, exiting out his back in a spray of blood. Another man dropped from Connor’s shot. Half of the group on the hilltop shifted their aim from the vehicles to the brothers kneeling next to the minivan. Bullets rained down around them as James and Connor dove behind cover. Emmett raced toward them. It looked like he was going to go around the barricade on the right side. Pulling the radio out of his vest, James quickly turned it on.
“Don’t go to the right!” he yelled into the radio. “Go around on the left!”
“What about you?” Emmett asked.
James could hear glass shattering through the radio. He watched as Emmett raced toward them. They’re getting shot up! Looking at his brother, he knew Connor was thinking along the same lines.
“Get the hell out of here!” James yelled into the radio.
There was a pause. “Roger that. Meet at the rendezvous.”
James watched as Emmett veered to the left and the bus followed, along with the black Ford.
“Let’s give them some cover fire!” Connor yelled.
James peeked around the back of the minivan and fired, taking down another shooter. He found his next target as he noticed a man aiming at them. The man dropped and James moved on. A bullet slammed into the minivan next to his face. He ducked behind cover as Emmett went around the left side of the barricade, followed by the bus. The bus went over the shoulder and looked like it might tip, but Greg was able to right it and they drove on. James stuck his head back behind cover and looked at his brother.
“We need to make a run for the other side of the barricade before they’re fully focused on us,” James said.
“I’ll cover you,” Connor said.
Connor leaned on the minivan's hood and fired rapidly as James took off. He ran straight for the next vehicle in line and stopped, turning around to fire wildly at the group as Connor ran to him. Connor paused for a second and then took off to the next rig while James covered him. Connor made it. James dropped out his empty magazine, replacing it with a full one. Connor began to fire and James ran to the next vehicle and past him to the decked-out semi. He opened fire and Connor ran to him.
“Let’s go around the side of the barricade,” James yelled as bullets slammed into the semi, the grou
nd, and the other vehicles around them.
“They have a lot of fire focused on us!” Connor yelled.
“If we get stuck here, we’re screwed!”
“You lead!”
Lord, protect us!
James ran from behind the semi as Connor began to fire at the hilltop. He ran around the back of a compact car, bullets hitting all around him. Diving over the car, he landed hard on the ground but instantly got up and moved to the next vehicle behind the barricade that offered more cover. He leaned over the hood and found one of the men in his scope and shot him. Picking another one off, he began to fire quicker as the men noticed him and fired on his position. Connor landed next to him with a curse and crawled over to him. James watched as Emmett’s black truck turned the corner on the interstate and they were gone.
“Now what?” Connor asked, a hail of bullets descending all around them.
“Let’s spread out,” James said “Shoot once or twice, then move. They’ll have a hard time pinning us down if we’re on the move and staying low. Let’s use their damn barricade against them.”
Connor crawled farther along the line of vehicles, two or three wide in places, and James moved back to the car he first dove over. Lying on his belly, he crawled partway underneath the rear end so he could barely see the hill. There were nine men still on top. Five had left and another ten lay dead. His first shot took one of the men with a high-powered rifle in the chest. The other men looked for him but didn’t see him at first as he lay hidden under the car. He fired again, taking down another. Then he crawled back behind cover and moved to another spot along the barricade.
James watched Connor shoot twice through the shattered window of a truck. James moved to another spot and leaned between a gap in two vehicles. The five remaining men on top lay prone and were a lot harder to hit now. He aimed at one and fired, hitting the man. A bullet whizzed through the air next to his head as his ear exploded with pain. He fell back behind cover, cursing. Bringing his hand up to his left ear, he felt that most of it was still intact, but a small chunk had been taken off the top.
That was close, James thought.
His brother cursed and dove to the ground.
“You hit?” James asked, crawling over to him.
“Yeah, but not bad,” Connor said, looking at his right shoulder. James saw where a bullet had grazed him, cutting a groove in his flesh.
“You’ll be fine,” James said.
“I couldn’t even get a shot off. Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah. Just missing a piece of my ear.” He could feel the blood running down the side of his face and neck.
“You’ll be fine,” Connor said with a smile.
James chuckled. “Touché. We need to come up with a plan. There’s only four left.”
“We need to do some Enemy at the Gates shooting.”
“You know, that’s not a bad idea,” James said, looking at an RV.
It was parked on the other side of the barricade, but if they crawled under a truck they could get to the driver’s door. It looked like all the curtains were down, and once inside they should be able to take out the rest.
“The RV,” James said.
Connor looked at it. “Good plan.”
James led the way, crawling under the truck. He peeked out from the other side and couldn’t see the hilltop. It was hidden behind the RV. He stayed low and made his way to the driver’s door, slowly opening it. A zombie pushed the door the rest of the way open and fell onto him. He was completely taken off guard as he fell onto his back, the zombie’s mouth reaching for his neck. The spike of his brother’s tomahawk took it in the side of the head and Connor rolled it off of him.
“Thanks, bro,” James said as Connor helped him to a kneeling position.
“Pay attention,” Connor growled.
“I know,” James said. He moved back to the open door of the RV and looked inside.
There were blankets over the passenger window and windshield, and all the curtains were down. Perfect, James thought, slowly getting inside. Moving further in, he had his tomahawk ready just in case. The RV was empty and he moved to the back room, noticing glass all over the floor. The windows had been shattered. Just what he wanted. He looked to see Connor climbing into the loft above the windshield and lay down with a small window in front of him. James crawled behind the bed in the back and watched as a light breeze blew the curtains. He got a good look at the hilltop when the curtains moved. Grabbing the pillows, he rested his AR on the bed and covered it with them, except the end of the scope and barrel.
The curtains fluttered and he found the hilltop, but they moved back into place before he could get a shot. He didn’t move. Aiming at the spot where he’d seen the hilltop, he waited. The curtains fluttered again and his view cleared. He found one of the men and fired. James couldn’t tell if he’d hit the man he was aiming at or not. His brother fired twice right after him. The wind blew the curtains back open. The man James had shot at before was still lying there, very much alive. Damn, I missed, he thought as he shot him in the head—not missing this time. The last man stood up and began to run to the other side of the hill. Connor shot and the man dropped to the ground as the curtain moved back in front of the window.
Cautiously, James went to the window and gently pulled aside the curtain to get a look. All the men on the hilltop were dead, and if he’d counted right, they’d gotten them all. He watched the hilltop for another minute until he was satisfied.
“I think we got ‘em,” James said, moving over to his brother, who was climbing out of the loft.
“I think you’re right,” Connor said. “Let’s get one of these vehicles running and catch up with Emmett.”
“Sounds like a plan,” James said, getting out of the RV.
Smoke rose in the distance from the fire that still consumed the entire school bus that’d been full of people just minutes before. Now, it was a burning husk of death. He knew no one would’ve been able to survive that. He was relieved that Olive was in his truck or she could’ve been on that bus. Not that his truck was much safer. She still could’ve been hit with a bullet and died in the backseat, but he pushed the thought from his mind. Until he knew for sure, he wouldn’t dwell on it. It wouldn’t do any good. There would’ve been at least thirty people on that bus. Even though it wasn’t directly his fault, he still felt responsible for all their deaths. He’d missed the shot and they’d paid the price.
“Brother, it’s not your fault,” Connor said, getting out behind him and resting a hand on his shoulder. “They would’ve all been dead if we hadn’t rescued them from the school. That horde would’ve eventually gotten inside the gym and it would’ve been a mass slaughter. Even the ones who’ve died were able to enjoy life that much longer.”
“I know, but I wanted to save them, not just prolong their lives.”
“You don’t have that kind of power. You can do your best to help and protect them, but in the end it’s not contingent on anything you do. It’s out of your hands, James.”
James took a deep breath and let it out. “You’re right.” Even though he said it and knew it to be true, he’d carry the weight of their deaths to his grave.
“Good, now we need to worry about getting out of here so we can join up with Emmett.”
“Let’s find a ride.”
Bullet holes decorated most of the vehicles, and their options didn’t look good. James moved to the west side of the barricade and looked at a promising Subaru. Checking it for dead things, he climbed inside and looked around for the keys. Not finding any, he looked under the dash for wires he could cut and touch together to start it. He quickly discovered that despite how easy the movies made it look, he had no idea how to hot-wire a car. Climbing out, he looked off to the side of the road where two vehicles were crashed into each other. He stopped dead in his tracks, not believing what he saw.
“Connor, you need to see this!”
Connor came running over, AR ready, and looked whe
re James was pointing.
“I’ll be damned,” Connor said, looking at the maroon Avalanche crashed into the side of a Ranger.
They approached the two vehicles, cautious and dreading what they might find. Walking up, James noticed a zombie in the backseat of the Avalanche, arms stretched toward them. He pulled out his tomahawk and drove the spike into its eye. It sagged in the seat. Looking in the truck, he found no other bodies, much to his relief.
“I don’t see him,” James said.
Connor looked around, noticing something past the truck, and walked over to it while James checked the truck one more time. There was blood in the backseat but nothing in the front. He hadn’t died there. Moving around, he opened the tailgate and removed the bed cover. There were a few bags, mostly filled with clothes, but one backpack had some food, water, and survival items. Connor walked back over as James climbed out of the truck bed.
“There was another one over there,” Connor said, pointing to the west. “Shot in the back and paralyzed.”
“He left in a hurry,” James said, showing him the black backpack.
“That’s definitely his,” Connor said, taking it. “What do you think?”
“I think he tried to get away when the shooting started and that Ranger drove in front. Then they bailed out, heading west. Most of the fire was on the east side of the vehicles.”
“And there’s a gradual decline over there, perfect if you were trying to escape gunfire.”
“So he went west.”
“Then that’s the way we go,” Connor said, throwing the backpack over his shoulders.
“You didn’t see anything useful at the barricade, did you? Like guns?”
“Nope, they cleaned it out.”
“That’s what I thought,” James said, looking to the Bighorn Mountains in the distance.
He’d always loved this stretch of the road when he went to Fort Collins to visit Tank. Thinking back to those times, he shook his head. It felt like a lifetime ago, and it was unreal to think that it hadn’t even been a full week yet. Not even a week into the apocalypse and they’d lost so much. It didn’t bode well. How were they going to survive or ever get to Alaska when they couldn’t even go half a day without something tragic happening? Here they were again at the receiving end of their new life, which was going to hell in a hand basket. It left them with only two options—either they stood up, brushed themselves off and moved forward, or they sat down and died. It was an easy choice. They weren’t about to do any sitting anytime soon.
The Brother's Creed (Book 2): Battleborn Page 12