The Retreat #5: Crucible
Page 22
The battalion linked up with Muldoon’s element, which was now commanded by SFC McAllister. They fell into the column as it continued hammering down Georgia State Route 119. Abandoned cars and trucks were on the shoulder of the road, and there was no shortage of signs that great violence had wended its way through this part of the state. Bodies hung from poles and trees, and great mounds of corpses lay stacked on top of each other where they had been burned. Lee didn’t know what to make of that. Without stopping to investigate, he couldn’t figure out the rationale behind those great piles.
“They’re klowns,” Foster said as he drove.
“What?”
“They’re klowns, sir. The locals, looks like they gave ’em what-for and burned the corpses. Probably afraid the bug could spread from the decomposing flesh.”
Lee grunted. It made sense. He wondered what had happened to the people who had managed to kill so many infected and then burn them down. Chances were they’d gone over the fence and were now lunatics, though he hoped they’d managed to find some safe haven somewhere. Maybe they’d even made it to Florida.
“Hey, guys! Guys!” Murphy called from the cupola. “Check it out!”
“Check out what?” Sienkiewicz asked.
“Look up in the sky, you freaking retard!”
Lee leaned forward. Overhead—far, far overhead—he saw a series of white contrails streaking across the sky. At first, he thought it was a flight of jets heading to Florida. Then he heard a voice over the radio, distant and distorted by static.
“All commands, Stormbringer is broken arrow. All birds have flown. Stormbringer is broken arrow. All birds have—”
A ripple of laughter cut through the static right then, and the transmission stopped.
“Stormbringer?” Foster asked.
“The MLRS battery from Stewart,” Lee said. “They were dispersed when the klowns started overrunning the post. They had targets on the Florida state line. I guess they were out of time, so they opened fire.”
“Gee, are they sure they were shooting the enemy?”
Lee considered that as he looked out the grimy, chipped windscreen before him. “We’ll find out in about six or seven hours firsthand,” he said. “I’m sure someone in Jacksonville will know.”
“What if there are only klowns there, sir?” Sienkiewicz asked. It was a fair question.
“We’ll do what we’ve been doing, Witch. We’ll kill them all.”
“Tall order, sir,” Foster said.
Lee considered that. “We have Moreau, and her blood can serve as a vaccine if nothing else. We might be turning the corner here, guys. All we have to do is get to Florida, cross the line, and hand her over.” He looked at Foster, then back at Sienkiewicz.
“Bound forward, guys. It’s what we do.”
“Hooah, sir,” both men replied.
The Humvee continued on. Florida awaited, and the First Battalion, Fifty-Fifth Infantry Regiment was still on the road.
WANT MORE?
Thank you for reading The Retreat, Episode Five: Crucible! If you enjoyed the read, please review the book on Amazon. Also be sure to catch the next book in the series coming out in early 2019.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Knight is the author of the bestselling zombie apocalypse tale The Gathering Dead and the follow-on works Left with the Dead, The Rising Horde: Volumes 1 and 2, and The Last Town: A Novel of the Zombie Apocalypse . He also wrote the horror thriller City of the Damned, the post-apocalypse thrillers Earthfall and Charges, and the action-adventure novella Hackett’s War. Together with Derek Paterson, he wrote the erotic thriller White Tiger, and with Scott Wolf has co-written These Dead Lands: Immolation, the first book of a projected five book series. Knight lives in the New York City area, and he can be found at https://knightslanding.wordpress.com/.
OTHER SERIES AUTHORS
Craig DiLouie is an author of popular thriller, apocalyptic/horror, and sci-fi/fantasy fiction.
In hundreds of reviews, Craig’s novels have been praised for their strong characters, action, and gritty realism. Each book promises an exciting experience with people you’ll care about in a world that feels real.
These works have been nominated for major literary awards such as the Bram Stoker Award and Audie Award, translated into multiple languages, and optioned for film. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association, International Thriller Writers, and Imaginative Fiction Writers Association.
Learn more about Craig’s writing at www.CraigDiLouie.com. Sign up for Craig’s mailing list to be the first to learn about his new releases here.
Joe McKinney has his feet in several different worlds. In his day job, he has worked as a patrol officer for the San Antonio Police Department, a DWI Enforcement officer, a disaster mitigation specialist, a homicide detective, the director of the City of San Antonio's 911 Call Center, and a patrol supervisor. He played college baseball for Trinity University, where he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in American History, and went on to earn a Master's Degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He was the manager of a Barnes & Noble for a while, where he indulged a lifelong obsession with books.
He published his first novel, Dead City, in 2006, a book that has since been recognized as a seminal work in the zombie genre. Since then, he has gone on to win two Bram Stoker Awards and expanded his oeuvre to cover everything from true crime and writings on police procedure to science fiction to cooking to Texas history. The author of more than twenty books, he is a frequent guest at horror and mystery conventions. Joe and his wife Tina have two lovely daughters and make their home in a little town just outside of San Antonio, where he pursues his passion for cooking and makes what some consider to be the finest batch of chili in Texas. You can keep up with all of Joe's latest releases by friending him on Facebook.