by TW Gallier
"Kneel."
I fell to my knees, hands still up and his fist still twisted in my shirt. The look in his eyes chilled me to the bones. My belly tightened.
I saw lust.
"I'm a mother. My children are inside the bus," I whispered.
Two more soldiers rushed up. My arms were pulled back and secured with a zip-tie. A second later my captor started dragging me by my shirt into the darkness, while a line of soldiers rushed up into the bus amid terrified screams.
Chapter 42
I looked up at the Blackhawk streaking by overhead, its chain-fed guns roaring down upon us. The gas station half a block behind me exploded. My Humvee and radio were both dead. Vince had bailed to the left with his personal weapon. All I could think to do was keep firing my .50 cal.
At least three vehicles were on fire atop the overpass. I had no idea if I killed anyone in the dark, but the amount of return fire hadn't decreased at all. In fact, I was pretty sure there were even more soldiers firing down upon us.
And then my .50 cal jammed.
"Fuck it," I growled, ducked inside and tore off my CVC helmet. I needed to hear more than I needed its small bit of protection. "Vince! Fall back!"
I looped two bandoliers of 40mm grenades over my shoulders, and then scrambled out of the Humvee. I had a full combat load of ammo for the M-4, but that would go fast. I hated leaving behind all of that ammo for those rogue troops.
Maybe I don't have to.
I low-crawled about twenty yards to the south of my abandoned vehicle. Vince was waiting there and providing covering fire. I loaded a grenade, took aim on my Humvee, and fired. It blew up spectacularly.
"No ammo for you, bastards," I whispered. "Come on, Vince. Follow me and do what I do."
I worried about the non-vets. They were actually doing pretty good. Much better than I expected. Vince was a big guy, but a professional nurse and kind of a pacifist before the shit hit the fan and the zombies kind of took over. The circumstances brought him around to a more realistic mindset.
Neither of us thought to bring the SAW, so we were both armed with M-4/M203s. I gave him one of my bandoliers.
"Helicopters," Vince said.
I heard the thump-thump-thump at that time. More explosions rocked the ground. I saw an Apache pass overhead, flying straight down the middle of the road and firing missiles. It couldn't have been more than fifty feet above us. I shot a grenade at it, but missed by a mile. Vince opened up full auto on him. The Apache veered away a moment later, but I doubted it was anything we did.
I could still hear three .50 cals spitting out death. Not counting the .50 cals deployed by the enemy. More explosions filled the air. I heard shouting from our side of the fight, so turned in that direction. Without radios I wasn't sure we could find each other. Hell, I wasn't sure any of us would survive the night.
Using ground cover as much as possible, we worked our way back to the south and east. The bus initially turned north, but just before abandoning my vehicle I saw it heading east on our road. I could only pray they were heading for the last rally point marked on the maps.
I, of course, forgot to bring my map.
"What now?" Vince asked as he hid inside an open garage.
The rest of the house was burnt to the ground. It was small, wooded neighborhood. There was retail to our east, along the road. I quickly reviewed the route we took to get there, and remembered the last rally point. It was all the way back on Maher Road.
"We have to go back to the last rally point," I said.
"Is that where the bus went?" he asked. "Didn't they head north?"
Of course that would be his first thought. His wife was on that bus. My wife was on it, too, so I understood his concerns.
"Jenny is pretty level-headed, so I'm sure she is heading for the last rally point," I said. "I saw them heading east a few minutes ago, so they were heading in the right direction."
I heard helicopters taking off east of us. After ensuring there were none around us, I led Vince out of the garage and headed eastwardly towards the retail. I spotted them through a gap in the trees. Both Blackhawks and Hueys were taking off less than a mile away. I counted six helicopters leave. Did they take soldiers away? Or did they drop them off?
"Son of a bitch," Vince hissed, lifted his rifle and started shooting.
I spotted the zombies coming toward us. That was the last thing we needed. I lifted my rifle and started shooting, even as I moved forward. The soldiers would quickly zero in on us if we remained there to fight the zombies. It became even more imperative to move quickly and as far away as possible.
More small arms fire echoed through the night air east of us. Soldiers? Or the other men in our group? I couldn't imagine any of them were still in their vehicles. Apache gunships would have a field day on any vehicles. Which made me worry about the bus. Surely the helicopters wouldn't fire on a bus.
I forced that thought out of my head. Thinking about that would drive me mad. My only goal right then was to reach the last rally point. Everything would work itself out after that.
We avoided engaging the zombies whenever possible. Even then I insisted we use machetes whenever possible.
"It's going to take us all night to reach the rally spot," Vince said. "Do you remember where it is?"
"Yes," I said, stopping to watch more helicopters take off. I couldn't stop worrying about the bus with all of those helicopters flying around. "Just keep moving."
Chapter 43
Jake rolled out of his door, so I grabbed the SAW and pushed myself up and out of the gunner's turret. I slipped off the back of the Humvee as bullets ripped through from door gunner on a Huey. Hitting the ground, I rolled to one knee and opened fire on that Huey.
The gunfire ceased a few seconds later and the helicopter banked right and was gone.
"Gotcha, you murderous bastard," I growled.
"I'm all right, Sean. I'm all right," Jake was saying.
Yeah, I knew right then he wasn't all right. Rushing over to him, I checked him for wounds. There was a lot of blood on his face, and he was kind of freaking out. I yanked off his CVC helmet, seeing a bullet hole in it and dreading what I would find.
"Okay, it's just a shallow wound," I said, feeling so much relief. He was just a kid, for Christ's sake. "Scalp wounds bleed a lot. Nothing to worry about."
It wasn't bleeding too badly, so I was confident he wouldn't bleed to death. We didn't have any first aid supplies on us. I cut off a piece of my shirt and wadded it up, before pressing it to the wound. I had him hold it in place with his left hand to apply pressure to the wound.
"Keep pressure on it until it stops bleeding," I said. "But we have to get moving before those troops overrun us."
Jake nodded, looking so grim. Yet, he also looked determined. He was a good kid.
We were behind a gas station, and a missile or something must've hit the wrong spot. The front of that station exploded. We might've been killed if we weren't behind the heavy cinderblock structure.
Slapping Jake on the shoulder to get his attention, I took off running. Thank God for one-point straps, or we'd both be unarmed at the moment. I had the drivers all keep their M-4s attached just in case. So glad I did that.
"Go, go, go," I called as I ran, hearing helicopters all around us.
I glanced across the street at the Sunoco station, and spotted Terrel and Brett running across a vacant lot and toward a bank. I wasn't sure Roger and Vince were even alive. They hadn't been on the radio for a while. I also had no idea where Charlie and Fred were, or Mike and Larry. I did see the bus return to our street and turn east. All I could hope and pray for was Jenny and Kate had the presence of mind to head for the last rally point. I was confident Roger, Terrel, Mike, and Charlie would. Non-vets, I had my doubts.
Helicopters began to land to our east. That couldn't be good. I paused next to a large sporting goods store and watched for a second. There were both Hueys and Blackhawks coming and going. I didn't think the 1
01st Airborne would land troops like that. I always envisioned air assault repelling out of their helicopters. Maybe they were picking men up.
"Dammit, I don't want to, Jake," I said. "But I think we need to know what they are doing."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Sorry. If you want I can leave you in a safe place."
"Hell no! I'm going where you go."
He looked strong, and determined. I gave him a nod and took off running toward the helicopters. We used a medical clinic, and then a barbeque place as cover, before skirting a pond and entering a residential subdivision. Actually, it was a trailer park. Mobil homes filled the lots amid very nice trees. As mobile home parks went, it was nice. There were many tree-lined streets, which we moved up quickly and cautiously. Until we finally reached the back of an automotive repair shop.
"Wow. There's a bunch of them," Jake said.
We knelt in the night shadows and surveyed the field in front of us. They were loading crates and other stuff into helicopters. We couldn't see the road from our position, so moved across the street to a private home, and then snuck around to the back.
I spotted our bus stopped in the street, surrounded my soldiers unloading it. My heart froze. We lost all of the women and children! Our sole purpose in life was safeguarding them and getting them to safety in Canada.
We failed. I never felt so much shame in my life.
And then I saw her. Jenny was fighting off a soldier across the street. She was putting up a pretty good fight, too. Other soldiers were standing around and watching, but no one was helping her.
I didn't even think. I lifted my weapon, took aim, and… Jake fired. I glanced at him. Tears were running down his face, but he fired a second time, before open up full auto. I looked back, and saw Jenny scrambling away as the man assaulting her lay dead, and other soldiers dropped around him.
I had just enough time to see a pair of soldiers cut Jenny off, and drag her to a helicopter. We started taking fire at that time, so ducked and ran for our lives. I led Jake back through the mobile home park, and then turned southward.
As we passed out of that subdivision, and into another mobile home park, I heard the helicopters taking off. I looked up and saw them leaving, and then turn to the northeast. Back toward that airport Roger told us about.
At least we know where they are being taken.
Chapter 44
The sky was just starting to brighten in the east when I spotted our rally point. It was an old barn east of the railroad tracks and behind a rock and gravel business on Dixie. It was barely visible from the Dixie Highway, belonging to a property off Maher.
"Go slow," I said. "I don't see the bus anywhere."
There was a large pond between Maher and the barn. I suspected Jenny stashed the bus a mile or two away and walked over. That's what I would've done, though I never really discussed it with her. An oversight on my part.
"We don't want to make it this far only to be shot by one of our own," I whispered.
The trip over didn't take as long as I expected. We passed through alternating subdivisions of regular brick homes and mobile homes. I didn't know so many people still lived in mobile home communities like that. I always thought of mobile homes as more of a rural thing, with only a few trailer parks in the cities for the very poor. I didn't really get the impression of dirt poor from the communities we passed through.
Unfortunately, we were forced to hole up for hours at a time in three different homes. It wasn't the zombies, but helicopters. There were more than a few mounted patrols in Humvees and armored vehicles going up and down Dixie, too.
"You don't think we're the only ones to make it, do you?" Vince asked.
"No. I saw the bus escaping." I looked back toward the north. Someone was coming down Dixie. I pulled him down behind cover and waited. Two Humvees and three M113 Armored Personnel Carriers passed by heading south a moment later. "Those bastards don't give up easily."
I led the way across the railroad tracks. Power lines crossed the tracks, so all of the trees and underbrush was cleared out. We made it to the field without trouble and dropped to one knee to study the barn some more. I didn’t see any sign of life, but it would be bad if I did. To our south was a patch of trees that I watched warily a long moment. I'd put a guard over there too if I had enough men.
"We'll check the barn first," I whispered. "If we're the first to get here, then we'll check out those trees and the little steel barn by the road."
The smaller barn next to the house, and right off Maher Road was the original rally point, but Sean changed it when he saw the bigger barn in back. It was barely visible from the road in daylight, so it was pretty impressive he saw it in the dark.
I wasn't sure the smaller steel building was large enough to hold the bus. It would be a tight fit if Jenny and Kate managed it. They might not feel safe enough to move over to the other barn, what with all of the patrols driving by, so that structure would have to be checked out.
The barn before us looked old and spooky. It was constructed of wood, with an old tin roof. I positioned Vince in a good spot to provide cover, and slowly crept up on its missing doors. Holding my breath, I listened for several minutes. Nothing.
So I said in a loud whisper, "Hey. It's Roger."
Still no response. After a last glance at Vince, I moved up to the door and peered inside. It was pitch black.
"It's Roger. Is anyone here?"
Silence. Damn. Where's Jenny?
Vince was suddenly behind me, pushing me inside. "Zombies."
We pulled our machetes and hid to either side of the door. My heart thundered in my chest, drowning out most sound, but I heard them approaching. Some zombies had a distinct shuffling sound. One of them sounded like he was dragging one foot.
My hand tightened, I slowly lifted the machete, as I watched a shadowy figure stop just inside the door and look around. The moonlight showed a matted mess of medium length red hair. It was a woman, a little heavyset, and swaying as she looked around. A white-haired man with one arm hanging limply staggered in next to her, dragging his left leg. A second later the stench of carrion washed over me. I heard Vince gag.
Both zombies turned toward him.
I launched myself at them. Vince charged in from the other side. I cut the old man zombie down, while Vince chopped the head clean off of the redhead. Five more came charging at us. We backed deeper into the barn, and then split up to melt into the pitch blackness. The zombies staggered to a halt a few feet in, looking around with some confusion.
At least they can't see any better in the dark than us.
One of them took a step, and then another. I tightened my grip on the machete, struggling to keep my breathing steady and quiet. I heard Vince bump into something across the barn. They all turned toward that sound.
Four men came running in. I saw their machetes a second later, as they came down upon the zombies. I rushed forward and chopped off the leg of another zombie, before one of the newcomers half-chopped off his head. In a matter of seconds all of the zombies were dead.
"Who's that?" I asked. "I'm Roger."
"Charlie here," his familiar voice said. "I have Fred, Terrel, and Brett with me. Where's everyone else?"
"Just me and Vince," I said, giving him a hug. It felt great to find my friend alive and well. I was starting to worry. "I want to check the steel building up next to the road for Jenny and the others."
"We already checked it," Brett said. "And most of the trees around here."
"Yeah," Terrel said. "We watched you and Vince as you approached the barn. We would've showed ourselves, but we saw the zombies coming, too."
It worked out, so I was cool with them holding back. Still, I heard very little after he said Jenny and the bus wasn't in the steel building. Did they freak out and go somewhere else? Were they captured by the soldiers? Were they killed by the soldiers?
"Did you see what happened to the bus? Where did they go?" I asked, trying to keep the desperatio
n out of my voice.
"I saw them heading east on that road," Charlie said. "We came under intense fire, so we headed north, and then circled around well past Dixie Road. I assumed they took Dixie down here."
"We kept Dixie in sight as we came down," I said. "We didn't see the bus stopped, or even any sign or sound there was a fight on that road."
Maybe they sped past Dixie in their haste. God only knew where they could be now. I tried to remember where that road went, but I didn't really pay attention to it on the map. I was concentrating on our route. It probably led back into the country.
"I'm sure Jenny and the boys are all right," Charlie said.
"I hope so," I said. "If not…"
I couldn't finish it. Life without them wasn't an option. I just couldn't envision it. My brain refused to accept it. It just could not be. Period.
We posted guard at all four corners, and then posted two guards outside in the trees to give them an overlook of the barn. All we could do was pray and wait. And pray I did.
After the sun rose, I could see the barn was quite decrepit. I didn't think anyone had used in it years. What looked like the foundation of a long gone house was just to the north of it, next to some trees.
About an hour after my arrival, Mike came creeping in. He'd come down through the same residential area Vince and I passed through. He was bleeding from a scalp wound, as well as bleeding from the ears. Mike had a limp, but swore he was fine.
"What happened to Larry?" I asked.
"Killed," Mike said. "My fault. I should've… I mean, I thought we could…"
"It's okay," I said. "I know you did your best, man."
My thoughts went to his wife and daughter. Larry and Selma had already lost a teenage son and preteen daughter. Now Selma and Haley just lost a husband and father. For a second grief consumed me. Everyone was suffering so terribly.
It was another two hours before Sean and Jake made it. Vince spotted them while on guard next to the house ruins. He led them to the barn, and I called in all of the guards to hear their story.