He waved at Jimmy to slow his truck to a stop and park behind the F750. Dane leaned around Jimmy’s truck. He saw David pulling up the rear of the convoy.
“We’re here,” Dane informed Jimmy. “Let’s go over this with David one more time before we drive down there and get shot at.”
Jimmy followed Dane to David’s window. They had to lean close to David to hear him over the growls and moans coming from trucks. The thought of being stuck inside with them sent scared him. He noticed himself swallowing repeatedly.
“They must be restless creatures,” David smiled, listening to their growls “I hope they’re more aggressive than the last batch we unloaded.”
“Anything change since this morning? The place looks the same as a few days ago,” Dane asked leaning against David’s truck.
“Everything’s the same. You two back the trucks up, ram the gate, and open the rear doors,” David replied. “Simple.”
“Sounds good,” Jimmy smiled.
“Hightail it away from there. They might shoot ya’. We’ll hurry down and pick you up. When we get there, you guys jump in back of the truck, and we’ll speed away. We’ll return and watch the carnage unfold from here,” David grinned.
Dane slapped his hand on David’s door, “No problem! Let’s get going,” Dane stated, his voice cracked.
“You okay, Dane?” David asked.
Dane looked at his feet. “Yeah, I guess. Who wouldn’t be a little scared?” Dane forced a smile.
“Good.”
David watched them drive the box trucks away from the comfort of his truck. He tightened his gip around steering wheel when the trucks approached the warehouse entrance. He scanned the area around the warehouse, looking for activity.
“Looks quiet,” Montgomery said.
“Maybe they left?” Patricia suggested.
“It is quiet. Hope they’re still here,” David said.
“What is that coming up from the road?” Patricia asked pointing.
“What is it?” David asked, leaning forward.
“It’s coming from the other way. It’s on the other side of the trucks,” Patricia replied.
David looked out the window, trying to see around the box trucks. His eyes widened when he caught a glimpse of a white truck driving toward Dane and Jimmy from the opposite direction.
“I don’t know,” David replied. He didn’t like it, but the plan was in motion. It was too late to cancel. “It doesn’t matter. They’re not going to stop us. Poor bastards don’t know what’s about to hit ‘em.”
Patricia looked at David. He was her brother-in-law, but he wasn’t the man she once knew. She wanted to slap the evil grin he wore.
“There they go!” Allen announced, watching the box trucks starting to back down the entrance to the warehouse.
Dane’s F750 started to back down the entrance toward the gate first. Jimmy followed along side of him. They drove in reverse toward the gate in unison. David licked his lips waiting for them to release the creatures. “This is going to be great,” David grinned.
David’s mouth widened when both trucks erupted in a fiery ball.
“What the hell happened?” David screamed.
“Dane!” Patricia yelled.
David stared at the burning inferno in disbelief. “Mont! What happened?”
“I…I don’t know.”
David slammed his fist on the steering wheel cussing.
“That was my husband, David! You told me it wouldn’t be dangerous! You stupid fat bastard!” Patricia screamed as she started to punch him.
“Allen, get her off of me!” David asked trying to block against her punches.
Allen jumped from his seat and grabbed her, pinning her arms at her side, “He’s gone! We will be too, if we don’t get out of here!”
“Can someone tell me what the hell happened?” David yelled again.
“Um, that white truck is still coming this way,” Montgomery pointed.
“They must have laid a landmine or something. How did this happen?” David theorized.
David’s eyes flickered when the twisted metal of the trucks erupted in a second explosion.
“Dane! Oh, my God,” Patricia cried.
“David! We got to go!” Montgomery wailed shaking David’s shoulder.
“It…It was a simple plan. Why? Why didn’t it work?” David mumbled.
“Holy crap!” Allen exclaimed pointing at the line of infected behind the approaching white truck. “There must be hundreds of them!”
“Go! Go! Go!” Montgomery commanded. “We need to get out of here, David! Right now!
Allen shook David, “David! We have to go!”
CHAPTER FORTY NINE
“It worked!” Cliff cheered. “Remind me to pat Jethro on the back for rigging up the claymores and finishing the trucks off with the rocket launcher.
“Now, let’s go finish it,” Jennifer stated.
It was now up to him and Poncho to put an end to this nightmare. Jennifer and Jake were right, he began to see. He had to admit, the warehouse was the best place to stay. It was worth the risk. It wasn’t until after Jake told him about Poncho’s plan that he began to listen.
Cliff, Jake, Galvin, and Jennifer rode in the Ford truck, each carrying an M4 rifle as they drove toward the maroon truck on the hill. He begged Jennifer to stay behind, but she insisted on coming with him. She told him she wanted to see them bleed for what they did to her.
Cliff looked in the rearview mirror; Poncho and Brian were following close behind in the Jeep. The maroon truck was three hundred yards ahead, driving in reverse. Cliff looked further down the road. The ice cream truck was crossing the warehouse entrance. He had time. He felt his heart race; his pupils expanded in preparation for the danger that waited.
“Be ready for anything! These guys won’t pull any punches!” Cliff announced from the side of his mouth.
Cliff slowed when the driver of the maroon truck spun around in the middle of the road. The truck switched gears and started to drive toward them. He let off the gas and began to slow.
Cliff waited until Poncho backed from him as he slowed the truck. When he felt comfortable with the speed of the truck, he spun the wheel to the right and slammed on the brakes. He parked the truck across the road, blocking the marauders escape; he had them cornered. They could fight through him or face their own medicine coming up the road.
Poncho parked the Jeep parallel to Cliff’s truck.
“Everyone out!” Cliff commanded. “Get to the other side of the truck!”
Cliff ran to the passenger side of the truck between the two vehicles. Brian came around the Jeep carrying the M240 machine gun.
“Get that beast to the side of my truck! Rest it on the bed rail. Be ready to open that baby up!” Cliff commanded, then followed behind Brian.
Cliff propped himself against his truck and peered down the rifle. The fast approaching truck was in his sight picture. Few more seconds. He wanted the marauders to grow nearer before opening fire.
Brian didn’t share Cliff’s notion to wait; he opened fire on the truck with the machine gun. He watched the front end of the approaching truck splinter and break apart when hundreds of bullets struck its grill. In a matter of seconds, the engine of the truck began to smoke and the tires blew.
The rear tires of the maroon truck screeched across the asphalt. Cliff could see four people inside the truck. He tightened his grip on the rifle. He didn’t know what to expect in the next few seconds.
“Get ready!” Cliff announced.
The fast approaching truck slid across the surface as its wheels locked up.
“Move!” Cliff yelled pushing Jake to the far side of the Jeep seconds before the crash.
Patricia screamed, and Montgomery was instructing David to drive off the road. David cussed when the barrage of bullets struck the front of his truck.
“We’ll roll if we go that way! The incline will flip us!” David yelled.
Patricia turned
her attention to David again before the front tires were shot out. She cussed him and threatened to kill him if they didn’t kill him first. She was close to pointing her pistol at him when Allen slapped the gun out of her hand.
“Get out and start shooting these bastards!” David yelled. “Kill them all!”
Allen and Montgomery readied their rifles and braced themselves for impact. Patricia was bent over looking for the pistol on the floor board when they slammed into the Ford. She hit her head against the door. All she could make sense of was the cracked windshield and smoke. She felt her forehead. It was wet to the touch. She looked at her finger tips and saw blood.
“What happened?” she asked holding her head when gunfire erupted.
She looked to her left to see David exiting the truck with a rifle in hand. Blood was rolling down his right arm. The scene of Dane dying in an explosion flashed across her mind. She tried the door handle, but it didn’t open. She slammed her shoulder against it. On her second push, it broke free.
She stepped from the truck. Her right leg buckled, but she caught herself on the door. She heard loud pops to her left and in front of her. She looked back to David. He was shooting at the truck in front of him. Everyone moved in slow-motion to her. He was yelling commands as he pulled the trigger.
Dane! It was David’s fault.
She saw the pistol on the floorboard and picked it up. She sucked air through her teeth as she watched David hide behind the truck door.
You killed my husband!
She raised her pistol and aimed it at David. Her vision was blurry; she saw two David’s. She wiped the wetness from her eyes and leaned against the truck to steady her aim. She pulled the trigger.
She dropped the pistol to the ground and stumbled to the rear of the truck. Patricia felt pain on her left side. She looked down to see her shirt was soaked in blood. She saw an ice cream truck coming toward her and smiled. She thought ice cream would be a nice treat.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Cliff watched two men stepping from the right side of the truck with rifles drawn. He raised his rifle and took aimed at the driver. Before he could squeeze the trigger, a bullet struck his rifle, knocking it from his hands. Cliff spun around and saw a man with a rifle at the rear of the truck taking aim at him. He ducked behind the Jeep and cocked the Colt pistol. Peaking around the tail light for a better view, Cliff spotted woman casually walking away as if she was ignoring the exchange of gunfire.
Cliff ducked when the rear glass of the Jeep shattered from a volley of bullets.
“These guys are serious, aren’t they?” Jake yelled covering his head as glass showered around him.
“Keep her safe!” Cliff pointed at Jennifer who was on cupping her ears.
Jennifer’s unfocused gazed met his. “Wish you stayed back?” Cliff asked.
She didn’t move a muscle.
At the front bumper of the Jeep, Poncho and Galvin were leaning on the hood, shooting at the marauders. He shook his head at Galvin, who was saying “Pow. Pow,” each time he pulled the trigger. “Get some!” Galvin screamed. Cliff rolled his eyes and smiled.
“At least he’s in good spirits … crazy dude,” Cliff mumbled to himself.
He watched Poncho fire her rifle twice, then slide behind the front wheel for protection. She ejected an empty magazine and slammed a new one in with her palm. She crouched and was about to turn to take aim when she caught Cliff eyeing her. She winked and smiled.
“I’ll cover—,” Galvin began before his head snapped back then collapsed.
“Galvin!” Poncho screamed. She knelt beside him and held his head examining his wound.
“He hit?” Cliff yelled over the gunfire.
Poncho looked up at him and shook her head. “He’s knocked out! Looks like the bullet grazed his head but it doesn’t look like it penetrated!”
“Can’t do anything until this is over!” Cliff stated.
Poncho nodded, jumped up, and returned fire from the hood of the Jeep.
Cliff looked around the corner of the Jeep to see the gunman behind the rear of the maroon truck taking aim him. The bullet ricocheted off the rear tail lamp. Cliff dropped to his belly and planted his elbows on the asphalt. He looked underneath the vehicles and found the man’s feet in the distance. He braced the Colt in his hand, took aimed and squeezed the trigger. His shot ran true. The gunman collapsed to the ground, yelling in agony, holding his foot.
Cliff gritted his teeth and cussed when he saw Brian’s lifeless eyes were staring back at him from the other side of the Jeep; he’d been shot in the chest. Cliff clenched his eyes hard and pounded his fist on the asphalt. Only the dead see the end of war.
“How many are there?” Poncho yelled over the gunfire.
“Four…I think!” Cliff answered. “And, Brian’s dead!”
He looked under the vehicles and counted. He saw the man at the rear of the truck wallowing on the ground in pain holding his foot. He looked to the driver’s door of the marauder’s truck and saw two pairs of feet rustling back and forth. Where’s the fourth person? He looked past the truck to see the fourth pair of feet walking away.
“Four!” Cliff yelled back. “It looks one of them is running away, though!”
“Well, I need some help since two are over here by me!”
Cliff rechecked his pistol and stood. He leaned against the rear of the Jeep and peeked around its corner. He saw the fourth person walking toward the approaching ice cream truck. He hoped Chris knew how to operate it after the five-minute instructions Brian gave him. He looked at the approaching horde; it was going to be close. Too close for his comfort.
“We got to go! Those creatures will be here any minute!”
“I know, but it’s that or be shot!” Poncho returned.
“Enough of this horse manure!” Cliff cursed. He ran to the side of his truck and stopped. His heart was racing. His breathing was labored with the acrid smoke cloud blanketing the three vehicles.
He poked his head around the broken tail light and observed the two gunmen busy shooting at Poncho. Taking the opportunity, he sprinted to the rear of the maroon truck where the man he shot in the foot lying on the ground holding his foot.
“You bastard! You shot my foot!” the man yelled.
Cliff stepped over him with pistol in hand and took aim at the man’s face. The man gritted his teeth and sucked in air when he saw the end of Cliff’s pistol.
“I don’t know who you guys are, or who you think you are, but you’re not welcomed here,” Cliff said before pulling the trigger.
Cliff looked up at the approaching horde; they were less than a hundred yards away. He stood in horror as he watched the woman from the truck walk into the sea of infected with no protest, her palms open toward the sky. He clamped his eyes closed as six infected creatures devoured her.
“Jesus!” Cliff said in astonishment.
He crouched to the left tail light of the maroon truck and peeked around. He saw two men behind taking turns shooting at Poncho. He recognized one of the men from the house that held Jennifer. Cliff returned behind the truck, holding his head below the tailgate. He half-cocked the Colt revolver and rotated the cylinder. He checked it twice and cussed himself; he had one unfired cartridge left. He patted his pockets and cussed again.
He looked at the dead man sprawled out on the asphalt. There was a lever-action rifle by his side. Cliff shuffled his feet and picked it up. He racked the lever forward. Looking into the breech, he saw a round feed into the barrel and a second cartridge in the magazine. Satisfied, he returned to the corner of the truck and saw the men were still in the same position. One was cowered behind the rear passenger door and the other behind the driver’s door. The man behind the driver’s door was bleeding at his side.
He looked back at the approaching horde. The sight of their decaying flesh hanging from various parts of their bodies and the smell hit him; it was more potent than the acrid gun smoke lingering around the vehicles. They were fifty yar
ds away and approaching fast.
He slid the Colt revolver into his front hip pocket and rounded the end of the truck with the rifle to his shoulder. The rifle was just like what he grew up with when hunting deer. It felt at home in his hand. He walked briskly to the first gunman and pulled the trigger, striking the man in the back of his head. The man dropped to the ground.
The driver of the truck was occupied with shooting at the Jeep; he didn’t hear Cliff firing a shot. He sized the man up; it was the same man he knocked out when he rescued Jennifer. Cliff lowered the rifle and held it in his left hand. He studied the man. His right arm was in a blood-soaked sling. The right side of his shirt, below his arm, was soaked in blood from a gunshot wound. The heavy set man couldn’t outrun the approaching horde. Cliff knew there was no escape for him. The rest of his life was measured in minutes. Cliff grinned and locked eyes with Poncho.
Cliff tapped the man on the shoulder. The man shrugged him off.
“Dammit, Allen! Not yet!” the man grunted as he took aim with his rifle.
“Hey!” Cliff called and tapped the man’s shoulder again.
The man turned. His eyes widened and mouth opened when he discovered it was not Allen but Cliff. The man’s eyes shifted to see his brother lying dead on the ground then back at Cliff.
“You son of a—“
Cliff reared his fist and punched the man with all his strength. His fist struck the man in the right eye socket, slamming him into the truck’s open door. The man yelped in pain then slid down the truck’s door.
Cliff looked at the nearing horde. Seeing the guy was unconscious, he dropped the rifle on the man’s lap and kneed him in the chin. He looked again at the approaching ice cream truck, it had stopped twenty yards away. The horde of infected turned their attention to Cliff.
“Let’s go, Cliff!” Poncho yelled.
“Coming!”
He rounded the driver’s door and climbed into the Jeep; the keys were in the ignition. He turned the key; the engine protested. He cussed and turned the key while pumping the gas pedal. The engine coughed to life when Jennifer jumped in the rear seat behind Cliff.
Infected Chaos Page 25