James took Alexis by the hand and they started walking down North Avenue, heading towards the west where he’d set up the bench for their first date. With everything going on, he’d forgotten to take it back, so they might as well use it again.
“How are you doing?” James asked.
“Honestly, I’m doing well,” Alexis said. “I was finally able to get some answers. It feels good knowing it’s just a conspiracy.”
James chuckled. “Yeah, just a conspiracy. No big deal.”
“It could be worse. A psychotic priest could be sacrificing people to the infected.”
“Good point. This is a little better than that. But you ever think about what happens when Vindex figures out that you know?”
“Once they find out, they’ll know I’ve told people and won’t kill us all.”
“I hope not, but you never know with these kinds of people.”
“So how was your day?”
“Pretty bad.”
James told her about the run to the colony and then the bomb.
“I knew about the bomb, but I didn’t realize it was where you guys had been. How are you holding up?”
“A lot better now. Jesus and I finally had a good heart-to-heart.”
“I was wondering when that was going to happen.”
“It was a long time comin’,” James said.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the quiet of the small rural town. James looked over at Alexis. The overcast sky made it hard to see as there was no moonlight, but he could make out her features in one of the porch lights a block to the south. She had her hair up in a ponytail, which she usually did when she was working, and her eyes glistened in the light as she turned to look at him. A phrase started to rise in this throat and he almost blurted it out before he could stop himself.
Get ahold of yourself, he chastised himself. It’s only been a few days. You can’t say that yet!
She smiled at him, and it melted his heart. He had leaned in for a kiss when something sounded in the night. At first it was just once, but a second later more joined the first—gunshots.
~~~
Tank was lying in bed, enjoying the warmth of Chloe’s body. After their little emotionally intimate moment, they’d enjoyed another kind of intimate moment, which was honestly the best he’d ever had. Maybe that had something to do with them opening up to each other. If it always felt that good, maybe he should open up more often. He smiled at the thought, yawning. Chloe was already asleep and had been for thirty minutes or so. His mind wouldn’t let him sleep yet, but he just about had it convinced. That’d always been a problem of his—he was a night owl. His eyelids began to droop and he closed them.
He bolted awake, sitting up. How long had he been out?
Chloe stirred next to him.
“What is it?” she asked, sleepily.
“Shhhh,” Tank said, shushing her.
There it was again. It sounded like fireworks going off, and it took a second for it to register. Those were gunshots!
Tank cursed loudly, jumping out of bed.
“What?” Chloe asked again, still groggy but more awake this time.
“Gunshots,” Tank said.
“So? They might just be taking down some of the undead,” Chloe said.
“They don’t shoot them,” Tank said, slipping his underwear on and then his pants.
There was more gunfire now, and it was coming from multiple locations.
“Stay inside,” Tank said, leaning over and giving Chloe a quick kiss.
“I will,” she said. “Be careful out there.”
“Will do,” Tank said, slipping his shoes on and not wasting time with his shirt. “Love ya, babe.”
He was out the door of her bedroom and almost to the front door when it registered what he’d just said.
Ah, hell. I really just said that.
The thought was pushed from his mind when he exited the house, the warm summer night air embracing him. The gunfire was even louder outside, and it was coming from the east. He ran south, and once on North Avenue, he looked to the east. He could see the muzzle flashes outside the fence and soldiers and Marines on the inside, firing back. More men ran from the barracks to the north and south towards the eastern fence where the gunfire was concentrated.
They were under attack.
~~~
Connor climbed into Scourge, decked out in his full kit, with James and Tank’s gear in the back seat. He cursed himself for not asking where James was going. His brother could be anywhere out there, and he had no way to find him. The gunfire was coming from the east, so if he went in that direction, hopefully, he’d run into them. It wasn’t like his brother or Tank to run from a fight. He started the vehicle and pulled out, speeding down the street.
It was a good thing Tank didn’t have his shirt on or Connor might not have seen him and he might have ended up a bloody smear in the middle of the road.
Tank ran around to the passenger side and hopped in.
“Your gear’s in the back,” Connor said. “Why were you in the middle of the damn street?”
“I was lookin’ at the gunfire,” Tank said, slipping his plate carrier over his torso. “I’m glad you didn’t kill me with my own baby.”
“Me too,” Connor said, slowing as they approached the other side of town. “You see James?”
“No,” Tank said. “Not back at our place?”
“No, he’s out with Alexis.”
“He have anythin’?”
“Just his handgun.”
“That’ll have to do. Your ARs are still at the house, if he needs them.”
Connor nodded, looking at the scene before them.
It looked like the gunfire was mainly coming from the train tracks southeast of their location. There were train cars that their assailants were using for cover. He pulled Scourge down an alley, shut it off, and hopped out. Grabbing his helmet from his pack, he attached his night-vision goggles to the top. Tank did the same and they slipped their helmets on, heading down the alley. He approached the open street, noticing the soldiers who had taken cover against the solid part of the fencing around town and against the nearest buildings.
Connor took a knee, using the corner of the building he was next to as cover, and scanned the train cars. The people attacking them were skilled, and they didn’t show themselves long enough for him to get off a shot. How he wished the goggles had thermal as well.
An explosion rocked the night back to the west. A second later another one sounded more to the north, then one to the south.
“What the hell was that?” Tank asked.
~~~
Emmett crouched behind the cover of an LAPV in the parking lot above HQ. Saul came running out of the building, bringing him an M4. He tossed it to Emmett who caught it. Rising up onto the hood of the vehicle, he aimed to the northeast where the gunfire was coming from and waited. One of their attackers’ muzzles flashed in the darkness. Emmett immediately acquired his target and fired a barrage around that location. He wasn’t sure if he’d hit the man, but it would have been close if he hadn’t. Another muzzle flashed in the night and Saul sent a volley at that one as Emmett waited for the first attacker to shoot again. There were more men further up the train cars, but he couldn’t get an angle on them from his position.
Who would be attacking them? Would the Reclaimers be this bold? They had to know they couldn’t take on a fully armed town with military support. Then again, they were led by a bloodthirsty psychopath.
“Just like old times,” Saul said, smiling next to him. “It’s been too long since I’ve been able to hold one of these.”
“You’ve probably lost your touch,” Emmett said, firing at a muzzle flash in the night.
“Not a chance,” Saul said.
“What the hell is going on?” Clover said, jogging over to them from down the street.
“What the hell do you thi
nk?” Saul said. “We’re under attack.”
Emmett watched the red-bearded man coming towards them. He didn’t really like the man, but he could tell that he was former military and respected him for that, even though he was now working for a less than honorable company. Clover suddenly jerked, blood spraying out his back as he collapsed to the ground. The shot had come from the south, and he hadn’t even heard it.
“Sniper to the south!” Emmett yelled, running for the fallen man.
“Covering fire!” Saul yelled, shooting towards where the round had come from.
A round slammed into the ground where Emmett had just been. He didn’t slow as he grabbed hold of Clover’s plate carrier by the shoulder straps and hauled him behind the nearest vehicle. The shooter had gotten him in the shoulder, but the wound wouldn’t be fatal.
“Thanks,” Clover said as Emmett propped him up against the side of the truck.
“No problem,” Emmett said. “Tell your men there’s a sniper to the south.”
“Roger,” Clover said.
“Saul,” Emmett called out. “You have a radio to talk to your men?”
Emmett scanned the darkness to the south, looking for a muzzle flash, but he couldn’t find anything. Either the man was reacquiring another target or relocating.
“Saul!” Emmett called out louder. “You have a radio?”
Still no answer, so Emmett looked around the edge of the truck. Over by the LAPV they’d been using for cover, Saul lay with blood leaking around his chest. Emmett ran for his friend, grabbing ahold of him and dragging him around the side of the rig. A bullet slammed into his shoulder and he almost lost his grip on Saul, but he held on, grunting through the pain and making it around the LAPV. Kneeling down, he felt for a pulse. There wasn’t one. Sitting back on his heels, he grabbed at his shoulder, putting pressure on the wound while looking down at the bullet hole in Saul’s chest.
Three explosions rocked the night.
36
Attack
James was crouched behind the bench, about to take off towards the gunfire to the east when a grunt sounded behind him. He turned around and looked into the night, trying to identify what had made the noise.
“What is it?” Alexis asked from behind the bench they’d been sitting on.
“I’m not sure,” James said, ducking down. “I heard something over by the fence.”
“Let’s check it out,” Alexis said.
“All the gunfire is over there. We need to go help out.”
“Maybe the gunfire is to draw people’s attention from something else.”
She had a good point. “Okay, let’s go, but be careful, and stick to cover.”
He cursed himself for not having a rifle with him. With the 1911 handgun in his hands, he ran for a line of brush on the side of someone’s yard. Once there, he aimed towards the fence where he’d heard the noise as Alexis came up behind him. They moved from the brush to a shed next to where a dirt road was cut off by the fence. Setting his shoulder against the shed, he poked his head out. Was that a body lying just inside the fence?
He crouched and came around the side of the shed in a run as Alexis made it to him. A head popped up over the other side of the solid base of the fence and James raised his handgun, firing as he ran. The man shouldered his rifle and let loose a fully automatic barrage at him. James dove for the dirt, landing hard. He crawled into the ditch on the side of the road, which didn’t offer him a lot of cover but was better than nothing. The man stopped firing so James aimed in his general direction and let off a few rounds. He needed to be careful since he only had two extra magazines with him. At that moment, he wished he had a 9mm Glock with double-stacked magazines that held seventeen rounds each.
The man behind the fence fired back at him, and James covered his head as bullets slammed into the dirt all around him. None hit him, which was a first. Usually, he was a bullet magnet. Maybe he shouldn’t return fire since that seemed to make the bad guy shoot at him, but if the guy didn’t want to kill him, what was he doing? He got his answer a second later when an explosion blew up the fence twenty yards in front of him.
Instantly, his ears started ringing and a bright light dominated his vision. James lay there, completely disoriented as someone came over and grabbed him. He weakly fought back, not understanding what was going on, but he stopped struggling when he realized it was Alexis dragging him back to the cover of the shed. Smoke and dust filled the air as debris rained down around them. Finally, he gained his feet and she helped him to the shed where he slammed against the wall, slumping down.
“Are you okay?” Alexis yelled, but James barely heard her.
He shook his head, his senses slowly returning. He’d been a dozen yards away from that explosion, but it still rocked his world. Standing up, he checked his holster. His handgun wasn’t there. It’d been in his hands when the explosion went off. He glanced out and saw it lying in the middle of the road only a few feet away.
“Cover me,” James said to Alexis.
Not waiting, he ran out and scooped up his handgun, then ran back to cover. The man hadn’t even shot at him. That was weird.
“What’s that?” Alexis asked, cocking her head.
It took James a moment to realize she’d heard something.
“I can’t hear,” James said. “What is it?’
“Sounds like a big engine,” Alexis said, looking worried. “It’s coming this way.”
James glanced out from the side of the shed and saw something glinting in the darkness a few hundred yards out. He could hear it now as the ringing in his ears began to abate somewhat.
“We need to get back to that house we passed. We’re too exposed out here,” James said. “You go first and I’ll cover you.”
“Okay,” Alexis said, taking off at a run.
James leaned out from behind the shed and emptied his magazine in the man’s direction. No one shot back. After Alexis had made it to the house, he ran after her, reloading once he was there. Going around to the front of the house, James glanced at where the explosion had gone off. There was a large gap in the fence, and out of the darkness, a shape materialized. A semi-trailer was backing up through it. Once the entire rig was inside the fence, two men jumped out. They ran to the back of the trailer, one covering the other while he began to open the large door.
“I go high, you go low,” James said.
Alexis nodded and he took a deep breath.
James swung around the corner at the same time Alexis did, but she was on her knees. He fired at the man opening the door to the trailer, thirty-some yards away. Alexis must have been aiming at him as well, because bullets thumped into the door around him and a couple tore through his body. He fell to the ground and the second man opened fire at them with a combat rifle. Bullets slammed into the side of the house, throwing up splinters of wood. James ducked back behind cover and checked his magazine. He only had three more rounds, plus the one in the gun. Slamming it back in, he looked down at Alexis.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Alexis said. “Ready?”
He nodded and they leaned around the corner, opening fire again. The man who’d been shooting at them had the door ajar and used it for cover as it swung open. Zombies began to pour out of the back of the trailer. James’s magazine ran dry and he swung back behind the house. He ejected the spent magazine and slapped in a new one. By the time he was aiming again, the man was gone and the zombies, drawn to their gunfire, were stumbling towards them. There were dozens of them and still more piled out, falling the few feet to the ground.
“We need to get to my place,” James said, slipping back around the corner.
“Wouldn’t that take us right past them?” Alexis asked while reloading.
“Yeah, but we can cut through the field and keep a good distance,” James said. “We just need to go now.”
“Lead on,” Alexis said, determination in her eyes.
> Damn, I love this woman, James thought.
“Keep up,” he said, smiling as he burst around the corner of the house, heading towards his place.
The zombies had swarmed the road around the semi, and all of them—around fifty—were either coming at them or heading straight into town, drawn by the gunfire to the east. The ones that weren’t coming at them were more of a problem since they were blocking the path to James’s place and his rifle that waited inside. Those zombies soon adjusted their paths when they caught sight of the two of them running from the house. Even though the things were usually slow, they were in a frenzy at this point and had picked up a little speed. Given their numbers, James and Alexis wouldn’t make it to his place before they were swarmed.
“Change of plans,” James said to Alexis, who was beside him. “Cut across the field into town. We’ll take the long way around.”
Alexis nodded as they adjusted their course, running across the grassy field. A Marine came from the south along the fence. He opened fire, picking off a few of the zombies and causing more to veer for him. Another Marine soon joined the first, and James was grateful for the help. But from the darkness beyond the fence, a muzzle flashed in rapid succession and the Marines fell.
“Get down,” James said, grabbing Alexis and falling to the ground as bullets flew over their heads.
James landed first with Alexis on top of him, driving the air from his lungs. He gasped as she rolled off, staying low to the ground. She began to crawl through the knee-high grass towards the backyards on the other side of the field. He rolled over and followed her, his ribs aching. The zombies were still coming after them, and they were closing fast. They wouldn’t be able to out-crawl them.
“You stay down and keep going,” James said. “I’ll give us some space.”
“Got it,” Alexis said, continuing to crawl.
James rose to his knees and sighted on the nearest zombie, only three feet away. He squeezed the trigger and its head exploded in a spray of bone fragments and blood. Aiming at the next one only a foot behind the last, he fired again. It dropped, then another, followed by another. Soon his slide locked open. He was out of ammunition and there were still two dozen zombies only a few feet away.
Bad Company Page 24