by Gary Hickman
The team opened up, trying to eliminate the threat, sending rounds into the car, through the windshield and into the engine block. Neville took one more aim with the sniper rifle at the driver. The car had steadied some as the infected aimed the car right at them and toward the sitting truck. Bang! The driver’s head exploded, and he slumped over, although the car didn’t slow down much.
“Move!” Webb yelled. Everyone jumped out of the way as the police car slammed into the pickup. The police car wedged underneath the truck and with the momentum caused it to flip over and roll down into the ditch. The truck finally ended up on its roof.
“Mother fucker!” Webb screamed. “I am really tiring of this shit! Everyone okay?” The Team took a few minutes to take stock of their sanity and their equipment and weapons. They stared at the wrecked truck lying in the ditch. With their mode of transportation now inoperable, their inability to get around made things much more dangerous.
Webb stood up and stretched his back. “Well, shit,” he said.
Neville looked at him, “You sound like Shaw.” Webb smirked.
Shin looked at the wreck. “The journey of 1000 miles begins with one step.”
“The trip to an ass whopping begins with one punch,” Neville responded.
Shin looked confused, “That is not Confucius, I do not think.”
Webb spoke up, “We need to assess what is going on. Is all of Campbell lost or are some of our elements still intact? None of that will happen without transportation, so the first order of business is to find some wheels.”
After 20 minutes of walking, the Team came across a golf course. Neville and the Doctor stayed back out of sight while Webb and Shin scoped out the course. There were several vehicles in the parking lot and they tried each one. Shin checked the fourth one in line and it was open with the keys were in it. He motioned Webb over to join him. A couple minutes later, Neville and the doctor came out from hiding as Webb and Shin drove up in the vehicle.
Neville just stared at Webb and Shin sitting in a light blue minivan. “C’est tout? That’s all you could find?”
Webb looked offended, “What? You don’t like it?” He turned to Shin, “I knew we should have taken that armored Hummer instead. I just thought the minivan would serve us better as a disguise,” Webb said sarcastically.
Neville should his head, “Ok, Laissez les bon temps rouler.”
They entered the base with caution, driving toward their division HQ. They passed by multiple fires and various scenes of destruction as they made their way toward their unit. Some were because of car wrecks and some because of buildings that were on fire.
It was getting dark, and the fires were casting eerie shadows across the road and on the sides of buildings. It made this trip unnerving as shadows produced an atmosphere of trepidation. In highly stressful situations, your mind can deceive you and trick your eyes into seeing things that aren’t really there. Combine that with the shadows created by the flickering glow, and you have a recipe for extreme paranoia.
“Do you guys see things moving around out there?” Shin was shifting his gaze from shadow to shadow.
“Nah, it’s just the light from the fires,” Neville explained. Immediately a figure slammed against Neville’s window, screaming and trying to bite through the glass. “Bordel de merde,” he shouted, and the whole car jumped in surprise.
“Go, go,” Webb prodded. “Should have shot the fuck, but we don’t need the added attention.” They turned on the road leading up to their HQ’s and when they got within 200 yards, were forced to stop. They erected a roadblock across their path. “Shin, check it out.”
“Copy.” Shin got out with Webb and Neville, covering him out their windows. Shin approached the road block cautiously, climbed over the barrier and disappeared from sight. Seconds later, he came running back, hurdled the barrier and then stopped, bent over with his hands on his knees. He puked all over the ground in front of him. Everyone ran up to him as he tried to articulate what he saw, “Must have been large battle…. worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Doctor, stay here, please. Neville, with me.” Webb and Neville made their way over the barrier and through a mass of military vehicles. As they came out on the other side, their breath caught in their throats.
CHAPTER 19
Shaw was like a kid in a candy store. “Damn, if we had one of these on the farm.” He was in love with their newly gained transportation, a brand-new E-One 4X4 AFPP vehicle. A massive tire truck that was built like a tank.
They were rolling down Rt 69 and approaching Indianapolis, as they had planned to say out of downtown and take the beltway around. They had had no communication in the last 24 hours, either with their team or command. Stopping just outside of the city limits to top off with fuel.
“Ok Shaw, take it easy. We have to navigate some of these roads, as we enter populated areas, potential road blocks from abandoned cars are likely.” The route around Indianapolis was uneventful. There were a few cars piled-up they had to navigate, multiple sightings of infected who were a little distance away but posed no threat.
They made the decision that Franklin, Indiana, would be a fit place to refuel. The truck wasn’t the most fuel efficient, but it made up for that in utility. Two traffic pile-ups they encountered required them to detour off-road, which wasn’t a problem. The huge 5-foot tires, the 4-wheel drive and the weight of the vehicle enabled it to run right through the ditches and mud. Priest had to admit he was impressed with the vehicle, and Tug had an enormous grin on his face during the sloppy detours.
As they came down Rt. 65, they could see a roadblock ahead. Shaw spit a glob of tobacco juice out the window, “You see that, Sarge?”
“Yeah, hold on.” Priest gets his bino’s and looked. “Well, it looks like a bunch of rednecks have blocked the road. I don’t know what their intentions are, but be ready in case they get stupid. They could take advantage of the evacuation and trying to rob everyone coming through here, or they could be legitimately trying to steer people away from harm. Seeing how we don’t know what is going on further south, these guys might offer us some decent information. Proceed slowly and we’ll see how they react, but be on your toes.” Doc and Tug checked their weapons, with Shaw and Priest doing the same. They were approximately a half mile away and Priest trained his binoculars back on them.
“They don’t appear infected, but they can’t seem to stand still. The boys are looking a little fidgety.” As the team grew closer, the men at the roadblock leveled all their rifles at them.
Priest looked back, “Allison, get on the floor just in case the shit hits the fan.” The vehicle had a loudspeaker, so Priest keyed it, ”We are with the US Army Special Operations on our way to Fort Campbell. Please lower your weapons and we will pass through nice and easy.”
Priest lifted the binoculars back up to his face and gave the Team a play-by-play. “Ok, they are looking at each other a little confused and seem to argue about what to do. Looking at the surrounding area, I see some stuff thrown around the area like bags, suitcases, clothes and such. I don’t think all that shit is theirs, so we could be heading into a shakedown roadblock. They haven’t lowered their weapons either.”
Priest keyed the loudspeaker again, “Please lower your weapons and allow us to through and we will be out of your hair in no time.” One man took a shot, and it ricocheted off the metal frame on the front of the vehicle. “Well, that was rude. Shaw, my good man, would you be so kind as to ram through that mother fucker? We really don’t have time for this shit.”
With a huge shit-eating grin on his face, Shaw sped up and got the truck up to speed.
Priest turned back, “Get ready for impact and stay down as much as possible.” Priest took one more look through t
he binoculars.
The men took up their positions behind their truck. “Horrible place to stand,” Priest thought. Shots peppered the vehicle, but none of the shots seem to be very accurate.
Shaw started giggling like a maniac, which made Priest take a quick look at him just to make sure he wasn’t infected.
“Ramming speed!” Shaw yelled. It took the men at the roadblock too long to realize that the vehicle approaching them would not stop. They tried to jump out of the way or run down the ditches on each side of the road, but most were a day late and a dollar short as the old saying goes.
Shaw plowed through the middle of the two pickups they had blocked the road with, causing them to spin out of the way and the one on the right to flip over. Two men got dragged underneath the spinning pickups and the front of the truck struck another man trying to run. The crumpled front launched the man into the air and into the ditch, while another man became wedged underneath as the front tire slid across his body. The tire flayed him open, taking half his skin with it. His entrails spilled out as it pressed him into two separate pieces.
One truck flipped and landed on top of one of the fleeing men. The side of the truck ground his body and face into the ground, decapitating him. Another other man was pinned under the truck when it stopped rolling.
Shaw stopped the truck and Priest walked over to the pinned man, screaming in pain. “Give me a perimeter while I talk to this gentleman, “All right, all right, calm down.”
“You almost cut me in half, you fuck!”
“Well, I tried to be nice before and you shitheads got stupid. So, what is going on in this area as far as the infected?” The man just kept screaming and cussing them. Priest stood up, shook his head and pulled his Walther PPQ. “This guy is worthless.” Finger, trigger, bam. The screaming finally stopped, and he walked over to verify the rest of the men were dead. The last man on the right side, launched by one of the spinning trucks was still moving, so Priest walked over to him.
“My back is broke and I can’t move. Help me.” Priest kneeled down to get closer to the man.
“How would you like me to do that?”
“Kill me.”
“Well, no problem there, but I will need something from you first.”
The man groaned, “What?”. Still in excruciating pain.
“What is the infected situation farther south?”
“We-we are from Columbus, that’s a-about 20 miles south of here.” Distant pounding and muffled voices yelling for help interrupted their conversation.
Priest turned his head to the direction of the noise, “Shaw, Doc, go check that out.”
The two listened to see where the noise was coming from and followed it to a batch of trees a hundred yards from the highway. Parked in a clump of trees was a white box truck, and the pounding seemed to come from the back. The truck was strategically placed as to not be viewed from the highway.
“Could be an ambush, so let’s go nice and easy,” Shaw said. They scanned around for any potential hiding spots, but came up empty. Doc creeped up to the back of the truck and saw there was a combination lock on it.
Doc looked at Shaw, “We will have to blow it off.”
Shaw nodded and then banged on the side of the truck. “You inside, back away from the back door, we are blowing the lock off.” They met his command with a couple screams from inside. Doc leveled his M4, shot the lock off and lifted the roll-up door. A powerful smell of urine and feces smell came wafting out to accost their noses. They could see movement coming toward the opened end of the truck box.
“Come on out with your hands up,” Shaw yelled. They heard some shuffling coming toward them and slowly, three females staggered toward the open door. They had one hand shielding their eyes from the daylight.
The girl in the front spoke in a whispered tone, “P-p-please don’t hurt us, we just want to go home. Let us go, please. There were tears streaming down all three of their faces.
Shaw reached out his hand to them, “US Army Ma’am, we will not hurt you. We’re here to get you out of there, you are safe now.” The girls broke into wailing and repeated thank you’s. Doc and Shaw helped them down off the truck and the girls hugged each of them as they continued to cry.
The three girls looked like college students, based on the sweat shirts they were wearing. All three were dirty and looked like they hadn’t had a shower in a week. They were trembling with wide eyes, and they huddled together for comfort.
“What happened here?” Doc asked.
One girl who introduced herself as Kim, who was the first one to speak while on the truck. She told the story, “We were heading to Louisville to visit my friend Dana’s parents. With all the craziness going on, we figured they were the closest to us and the best place to go. We came up to this roadblock and stopped because the men had guns. They asked for money to allow us through their roadblock, but we didn’t have much. They changed their mind and didn’t want the money anymore.” She stopped and her body started to shake and tears were streaming down her face. “T-T-They took other things instead.” She started sobbing and Doc gave her a hug, which she held onto to him for some time.
“Mother fuckers!” Shaw spat.
Kim composed herself and thanked Doc.
“How long have you been in that truck?” Doc asked.
“I don’t know, but it has to be three or four days, maybe.”
“Ok, let’s get you guys out of here.” They trudged out of the woods and onto the highway.
Doc led them to their truck, but Kim stopped, “We have some suitcases somewhere around here and would like to get out of these nasty clothes. Could we please change?”
“Sure,” Doc said. By this time, Allison and Doug saw the girls and climbed out of the truck. They ran down to offer help.
“We’ll take care of them,” Allison told Doc.
“Ok, the truck has water in its tanks if they want to wash off. We all have soap in our rucks so just grab anyone’s.” Allison nodded her head and looked at Shaw. He gave her a sympathetic look, and she went with them to find their clothes.
Doc and Shaw formed up as Shaw whispered in Priest’s ear about what they found out.
“Son of a bitch,” Priest yelled. He looked at Shaw. “You’re not serious?”
“Yeah Sarge, we are.” Rage boiled up in Priest and he knew he would blow. He turned back to the man lying on the ground, “You fucking little piece of shit! All this fucking shit going on and you cock suckers are preying on innocent girls? What the hell is wrong with you fucking scum bags.”
The man was squirming some, “It wasn’t my idea. I swear.”
“Well, did you stop it?”
“It was one against four. What was I supposed to do?”
“Yeah, you are such an innocent. How about we go ask the girls how you were involved.”
“No-no, they will say anything. They want to get back at all of us.”
Priest walked over and kicked him in his teeth, knocking out two them. “Can’t feel your legs, but I bet you felt that shit,” Priest spat.
Doc walked over to where the women were on the other side of the truck, but Doug stopped him and called for Allison. She came over, “They are taking showers over there and trying to wash away the filth. I’m not talking about dirt either.”
Doc looked at her, “Oh, sorry.” He stopped, “Washing away filth, all three of them?” Allison nodded. “Shit, could you ask them if it involved a guy with a buzz cut and a neck tattoo of a spider?” Doc asked.
Allison disappeared behind the truck and came back a couple minutes later, “Yes, he was the leader of these assholes and apparently liked it roug
h. All the girls have bruises all over their bodies.” Doc just shook his head. He walked back over to Priest and relayed the information.
Priest was hot, and this was definitely something he didn’t like dealing with. He turned to the piece of shit on the ground. “What’s your fucking name?”
“Randy.”
“Well, Randy. It seems we have a problem; well, you have a problem. You mind explaining to me how those women got all those bruises.”
“I don’t know, maybe they’re clumsy.”
Priest waked over and stomped Randy’s wrist as a loud crack echoed amongst the team. Randy screamed in pain and started sobbing, “I told you my fucking back is broke and I can’t move, just fucking kill me already.”
“In due time, Randy, in due time. Now, what does Louisville look like as far as the infected. What have you heard?” Between the sobs and pleading, Randy tells them that Louisville is lost and the infected are all over the city. “If that is the case, then why are you morons out here bullshitting around? What if the infected found their way here?”
“I dunno, we didn’t think about that.”
“You fuckheads only thought about violating girls!” Priest saw movement out his peripheral vision and turned his head to see the three young women walk around the AVFF truck. They were all still scared and standing there with wet hair. Two of them had a black eye and one with a split lip and cuts on her cheek. “Wow, Randy. You like to soften them up first, don’t you?” Randy said nothing, just laid there blubbering.
Priest walked over to join the girls and the rest of the Team. He looked at them, studying the girls’ faces. This was when his steely blue eyes showed compassion. “I am sorry this happened to you girls and I wish we would have gotten here sooner.” The girl with the shorter brown hair named Dana ran over and hugged him with tears in her eyes.
He didn’t know if it was the shock wearing off or if it was because she might need reassurance from a father figure. Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. It was what she needed at the time, and he would not deny her that. She held on for quite a while, sobbing, and then finally let go. She apologized, but Priest waved it off and told her it was perfectly all right.