That would change as soon as possible. Tomorrow morning. As long as Amos Benson was just harassing and using shock and awe to get his way, or just being an asshole.
As we neared the Alpha wall, we could see the damage on the left side by Pamlico sound. The rig must have been going fast, two of the tour buses had shifted and pushed inward on that side. The car that was placed on top of the tour bus had slid off and fell to the ground, another on the other bus was shoved partway out. The engineers who thought of this as a defense had done a great job. A small plume of smoke rose from behind the damaged area, but it was fading. The layers of sheet metal making up that side of the wall were bent inward and twisted, scorched with smoke. The walkway scaffolding was damaged and broken halfway across, but the two tractor rigs bracing the door stood strong. Randy already had people climbing back up the right side. Randy informed us two speed boats out at sea were taking position as spotters and a third was racing up the coast, north, in the direction of the escaped vehicle.
Why, Amos, why? Why do this when there weren’t many Unchanged humans left? Why not go form your own community and clear it out? Why crap on others who haven’t done you wrong? The insanity of some people just drives me crazy.
Randy waved at us as we approached to indicate where the wounded were. We pulled up alongside Julie’s green monster and got out.
“You got ‘em?” I yelled at Janessa while waving at Patty.
“I’ve got ‘em.” She directed her nurses to different people as she scrubbed at her regrown short hair, a recent affectation when she thought and processed what she would do.
“Everyone else, get to the wall, help put out the fire!” I shouted.
“The fire’s burned itself out!” Randy yelled in the chaos, “Get to the wall in case more are coming!”
We hurried to the barrier, the Atkin sisters running between the bulldozed dunes toward the side nearest the ocean with Julie and Diego following them. Survivors had already returned to their positions on the wall and checked the safety of the walkways as they did. Cheyenne ran ahead of me with King between us, tossing me Janessa’s bolt action Remington 700 rifle in the process.
We clambered up the ladder, found a position at the top walkway over the entrance and looked down. King waited at the bottom, sitting at attention, watching Cheyenne.
On the other side of the wall, a red rig was blackened by fire and smoke and embedded into the left section near the Pamlico sound side. Some took position on the sections that appeared the least undamaged. There weren’t many. We kept most people away from the damaged section of the walkway, so that section was undermanned if the Constitutional Defender idiots did storm the wall, the CDs would have a way to climb up if they successfully repelled us.
They would not be successful.
Others took their places on the second platform below us, peeking out gun slots. Randy and others were already inspecting the damage and making sure the big rig was fully extinguished, visually inspecting it over the barrier.
We waited and waited but no more cars attempted another breach. We opened the gates and attached the bulldozer to the red, burned rig and dragged it back by the demolished building. The bulldozer tipped it over on its side near the pile of decomposing Changed so it couldn’t be used as a climbing point, the engine was ruined and unusable.
Janessa, Patty, and Janessa’s nurses were able to get a pickup to take the two most seriously wounded back to the rec center and they left us guarding the wall.
We had triple the number of people manning this wall, so we sent some of them to the Beta wall just as a precaution. Diego went with them, radioing his new students to come meet him there from town. He told me he would get some of them to protect there or come to us if needed. Julie came wandering over, popping her bubble gum repeatedly.
Cheyenne grinned as she moved between us.
“Well, that was an exciting afternoon huh?” Julie smiled.
The sunset filled the clear sky with colors, the heat remained, the dryness continued, water was passed around. The sheet metal gave off waves of dissipating heat and radiated that heat around us. Hot, stinking misery was our companion today.
“Yeah, I just can’t figure people out.” I shook my head.
Julie shrugged, “Humans. Pfft. Orcs are better.” She grinned.
“Yep. Better off without them. Start clean.” I agreed.
“And here’s what we get.” She waved her arms across the landscape. “Anyway.” She slapped me on the back. What’s your command, oh, great and wonderful Oz?”
“Rebuild. Reinforce. Restock. Prepare.” I smiled.
She nodded, deepening her voice, “Smart, what you say is. Do we will.”
I grinned. “Your sentence is illogical, but your human emotions are easily understood and will assist you in living longer.”
We grinned at each other and each held up a Vulcan hand acknowledgement.
“You two were separated at birth,” Cheyenne smirked. “Caroline isn’t your sister. Julie’s gotta be.”
“Yep. The resemblance is uncanny.” Julie agreed, fluffing up her fauxhawk and posing beside me in her new black and neon blue yoga gear. “I just got all the style.”
She kissed me on the cheek and then Cheyenne as she headed back toward the sisters.
“Don’t look,” Cheyenne warned. “She’ll know you’ll look.”
“I’m not looking.” I said, “Don’t you look.”
“I’m not looking.” She chuckled.
I was watching the road when a slap and Julie’s laughter echoed back to us.
“You looked, didn’t you?” I grinned.
Cheyenne laughed. “Yeah, and she caught me. She does have a great butt, you have to give her that.”
“Not as great as yours.” I disagreed.
“Kiss ass.” She said but leaned over to kiss me anyway.
Just as her lips touched mine, an explosion erupted in the distance.
“Another explosion?” Cheyenne asked, “What’s on fire?”
I shrugged. “It must be a gas main leak somewhere. Gas grills are all over the Outer Banks. Then there’s a lot of restaurants. I’m sure we’ll have a lot of them going off.”
She tilted her head in thought, “Yeah, but that previous one was in Rodanthe. That was too loud to be there. That had to be in Avon.”
I shrugged again, “People in the Carolinas like grilling out.”
There was another explosion.
I chuckled. “Looks like we’re going to have fireworks tonight.”
“Whee.” Cheyenne’s sarcasm was apparent.
Two more explosions went off.
We looked at each other. “It must be an apartment area,” I said.
Another went off.
The defenders on the wall started exchanging glances.
I leaned back, motioning at Julie, then pointed at my eyes and pointed back out toward Avon. She spoke to Mia while Mia looked through her binoculars, turned back to me and shrugged. Mia hadn’t seen anything. Avon was too far away from our position. Lexi found a pair of binoculars too and was searching also.
Without the racket of technology constantly humming around you, sound carried far. Even over the breeze from the ocean and from waves slapping the shore.
More explosions went off.
Okay, that’s getting weird now.
Someone made a shrill whistle, making us look back at Julie as she lowered her fingers from her mouth.
“Mia says she thinks she sees fireworks!” she yelled.
“Who would be setting off fireworks?” Cheyenne asked, “Benson? To kill off the Changed?”
I shrugged.
“Hey. Do you guys hear a siren?” Asked a tall man in swim trunks and a tank top beside me.
We strained our ears but didn’t hear anything. I was probably deaf anyway from all the gunfire over the last week.
Cheyenne turned her head to listen and another, closer, explosion went off.
“Everybody be qu
iet!” Cheyenne yelled.
Randy joined us between Cheyenne and Julie in the middle of the defenders with a shotgun. He shushed people along the line.
“You can just make it out.” The man beside me said, cupping his ear.
Everyone along the line imitated him, cupping our best ear to listen.
In between explosions you could just make out a siren between the rising, blowing, wind from the sea.
“Yeah, I hear it,” Cheyenne whispered, “It sounds like it’s coming this way.”
In the growing twilight, toward Avon, we watched fireworks soar into the air. Their color was dim, but the explosive concussion was loud, even at our distance.
I glanced back at Julie, she mouthed “See?”
The wall was quiet. We listened to the explosions and watched as firework after firework erupted over Cape Hatteras road in Avon’s direction.
Randy leaned back and called to me, “Hey, wouldn’t that attract Changed? All those fireworks? And noise?”
Cheyenne and I nodded. Someone was an idiot to make all that racket. Even if Benson was corralling the Changed into one area, he ran the risk of getting too large of a group and not being able to run from them if he lost control.
“Fireworks and smoke on the road!” Julie yelled.
We looked back at the road and watched as fireworks, multicolored sparklers, and whizbangs sparked on either side of the highway and the only way into or out of Avon.
“Cars! We got cars!” Julie yelled, relaying Mia’s message via Lexi.
The siren we heard was getting louder. As the siren became clearer, we heard loud music accompanying it. Strange puffs of colored smoke began growing on the dune side of Highway 12.
“Look! Out in the sound!” Someone shouted to our left.
A speedboat was racing toward us from Avon. Cheyenne sighted it with her Winchester but said she couldn’t get a clear shot if she needed to. The speed boat cut its engines and stopped. Its own wake overtaking it.
“Watch it!” I yelled. “They could have boats coming down the sound. Randy? Ask the spotters out at sea what they can see.”
Randy called over the radio to our sea spotters. We needed to increase the number of boats traveling through the sound. It was a weak area. The two sea spotters nearest the wall said they could only see the fireworks and smoke along the road. They confirmed the fireworks and smoke were igniting as they came closer toward our wall. The third spotter was further up the coast and on the way back.
“It’s a police car and a Mustang!” Julie yelled, “They’re lighting fireworks along the road! And it looks like they’re throwing smoke bombs out on the road. I think those are the smoke bombs we planted! At least some of them. We didn’t have that many. They must have planted those boxes.”
No way. No way. Absolutely no way. They wouldn’t.
The third speed boat spotter shouted over Randy’s radio.
“Monsters! I can see them in a break in the dunes! They’re leading an army of monsters right to you! Get out of there! Get the hell out of there!”
A tremor of fear and terror vibrated down the line of survivors.
Chapter 21
Panic grew. You could feel it. Survivor’s heads turned to me for leadership.
What should we do?
What to do? What to do? What do we do? How many? What type? What do we do? Any Tanks? I . . . I . . . I . . .
Cheyenne took my hand, “Goals. Taylor. We need a goal.”
Thanks, beautiful.
I looked left then right.
“Get more people on the left!” I shouted, “Mia! Lexi! Come over here! Julie call for help from the Beta wall! Tell them what’s coming! We need volunteers to pass out ammunition! Someone run to my Jeep and grab ammo from the rear! Fill your pockets!” I yelled down to people on the ground below. “Everyone down there! Turn the vehicles around! Leave them running with their doors open! We may have to fall back, and we don’t want to waste time starting them up! Then get a weapon! We’ll keep them off up here, but if they get past us, it’s your responsibility to take care of them down there!”
Some young kids jumped in a car and took off toward the Beta wall, a few others panicked and started running down the road searching for the car they came in, others just ran down the road in panic without a car. Just running for their lives.
“Stop! You can’t run!” I shouted down at the ones who weren’t sure if they were going to run or not. “If you leave us, they’ll get through! Then they’ll get to the Beta wall! Then on to town! We’ve got to stay! We have to stay until we can’t hold the wall any longer, but until then, we hold the line!”
The siren and music increased in volume as the two vehicles drove closer.
Amos Benson and all you CDs? I hope you rot in hell.
Lexi and Mia ran to us with Julie. Both were visibly shaking. Sweat cascaded down the brown skin of their faces and arms. They clung to each other as they looked out at the fleeing people, but paid attention to those who chose to remain.
I couldn’t make them stay.
“Never mind,” I smiled at them, “You two and the youngest defending the wall need to go back to town.”
Lexi and Mia exchanged glances, “But you need us here. So we can see what’s coming.” Lexi said as Mia nodded.
I put a hand on each of their trembling shoulders, “No. We got this. Go to the Beta wall and wait for us. Find someone to drive you back with the other young people.”
They exchanged another glance, signed to each other for a few minutes and nodded to each other. Their trembling subsided.
They glanced at Julie, Cheyenne, Me, Randy, and the survivors around us.
“No, we’ll stay. We’re safe here until you tell us to go.” Lexi confirmed, looking at her sister for mutual agreement. “We’re scared but we’ll stay. We can tell you how many are coming.” Lexi patted her Desert Eagle in a clip-on holster on her hip that they she found days ago. “We can help a little bit if we need to.”
I nodded, “Okay, stay. But as soon as you can give us a good number, like it or not, you get down to the ground and head for a car, got it?”
Julie nodded, “You heard him, you head for the green monster. Warm up the seats for me.” She popped a bubble.
They nodded, then turned their attention to the oncoming mutant army.
Searching the faces of the wall defenders, both here, below us looking up, and on the ground, I was proud to see resolution and determination to remain, etched in their faces.
I’ll write about this one day.
“Last stand at Minas Tirith,” Julie whispered to me. “The Orcs are coming, and we don’t have any beacons to light for help.”
“I prefer to think of it as the Battle of Little Big Horn.” I grinned. “We’ll get through this.”
Julie spit her gum over the wall and unwrapped a new piece and started chomping on it. “Hey, Cheyenne come here.”
Cheyenne turned around and joined us.
Julie took our hands. “We’re gonna get through this. But in case we don’t.” She kissed us each on the cheek. “I love you guys. My girlfriend, Connie, would have loved you too, and I want to thank you for being there for me-”
A roar echoed in the distance over the approaching siren and blaring music.
Julie continued, “Thank you for comforting me about Connie. It means a lot.” She hugged us in a group hug; she smelled like bubble gum and mousse. “That’s for Janessa, just in case. The kisses are from me.” She dropped our hands and wiped her eyes. “Me and my team will be on the ground, we work better there.” She hugged the sisters and Randy, telling him Patty wanted him back at the Center when he’s done.
“Oh, yeah,” she grinned, turning back, her face filled with mischief. “Taylor, I have four Tootsie Rolls in my glove compartment. They’re yours once we get back to your house after this is done.”
“You hoarder!” I laughed, that was just evil!
“Anyway!” She smiled and ran toward the ladder
s. “Gotta love me!”
Mia grabbed my shirt and pointed.
The Mustang and police car stopped just out of accurate rifle range and parked on either side of the road. The drivers got out, put two boxes down on the ground on the far side of the vehicles, and a second later, whiz bangs and roman candles started shooting into the sky.
Cheyenne took a shot and cursed. They were too far away.
The speedboat on the left of the road in the Pamlico sound waters, headed toward shore as the two men started throwing objects toward the wall, the dunes, and the sound’s shoreline. Smoke, gray, blue, and red, began to obscure Highway 12. They must have tossed ten or fifteen of the grenades before the speedboat took them away from the shore and back the way they came. The siren and music continued from the abandoned vehicles.
“Mia can’t see anything,” Lexi informed us.
The wind from the sea had died down and the smoke lingered directly over the road and even crept toward the wall.
“Okay,” Cheyenne said, “You two need to get down below then. Out, go get in the green monster.”
Cheyenne’s tone accepted no rejections and the sisters obediently complied, giving hugs to us and others they’d spent the last few days with surviving the open road.
Randy held up his radio and spoke quietly to us, “The sea spotters say there’s hundreds coming. At least three Tanks and the giant snapping turtle thing from Avon. We’ll see them in three minutes.”
I pointed at the two boats waiting offshore, “Tell them to spot for the Beta wall and convey messages to them and pass on information to the town. Tell them to keep away from the shore and Fish men.”
“Got it.” He relayed the orders.
“Lock and load!” Cheyenne yelled.
Radio chatter began up and down the line as the danger messages hit town. We had left our radio in the Jeep. I set my Remington on the top of the sheet metal beside Cheyenne.
She glanced at me. “Randy can send a message to Caroline.” She whispered.
I stared at her for a second. “No. No message. We’ve said what we’ve needed to say to each other. My sister knows I love her and little Bass. I don’t want her to hear me scared. She doesn’t need that.”
The Unchanged (Book 3): Safe Harbor Page 17