Even with the gear they carried, the run to the bridge took less than ten minutes. Each step she took added weight to the worry she carried. Any failure or any moment of inattention would be death for all of them. Yes, Gwen competed in archery competitions most of her life, but hay bales never shot back at you or tried to eat you. To lose a competition meant going home without a trophy, not death or dismemberment.
When they reached the overlook for the bridge, Gwen couldn’t believe what she saw. Five armed men held a man and woman at gunpoint who stood in front of their vehicle. It was the large SUV which flew passed them while they readied themselves to move to the bridge. Part of her wanted to turn tail and run to save herself, but she knew Donald wouldn’t run, so she stuck by his side. Some men run from danger, and some run toward it. Donald ran straight into danger when lives were on the line.
Donald developed a plan to confuse the armed men on the bridge. Gwen’s nerves were steeled when she watched the man rip the shirt off the helpless woman. The fat man protested, and they rewarded him with a pistol whipping. What an odd couple? They couldn’t have been together before this mess because the woman was younger and attractive.
Gwen ran off to the position Donald specified as she prepared for their attack. He told her to wait until he fired at the first target and then she would put down ten rounds of cover fire. Move to a new position a third of the way back toward Donald and repeat with ten more shots. Repeat this one more time, reload and return to their original location. Then empty the extra magazine toward the men on the bridge as fast as she could. Don’t worry about aiming, just try to not hit the two prisoners in front of the SUV. If they could save the two captives great, but don’t endanger themselves doing so.
Gwen didn’t want to miss her mark to start shooting, but she didn’t want to fire too early and give away her position. As she steadied her weapon, the pickup truck on the bridge erupted into a bright orange fireball. How the hell did Donald do that? The remaining people on the bridge scattered in different directions. Gwen had remained focused and determined not to fail on this critical mission, so she executed Donald’s plan to the best of her abilities.
By the time she returned to their original position, the five-armed men were no more. In all the excitement, Gwen didn’t know who killed them.
“How did you blow the truck up?”
“It wasn’t me,” Donald said.
“Who was it then?”
Donald scanned the matching overlook on the far side of the bridge with the scope on his rifle. “Shit! We need to get out of here. Now!”
“Why, what’s happening?”
“I see Amy on the other side of the bridge and I assume she had some part in what happened down there since we didn’t bring a grenade launcher to this fight. Her stupid brothers can’t be far behind and they are all dangerous.”
They grabbed their gear and raced back down the path. Gwen felt like another fight brewed, and she didn’t want to see a repeat of the campground massacre.
CHAPTER 16 - BETTY BOWMAN
BETTY HADN’T BEEN able to do anything to save her mother from a certain death, but she defended her friends from their surprise zombie attack at the thrift store. She proved she wasn't only a teenage girl but a tough youthful woman who could handle herself and come out on top in any dangerous situation. Betty fired a gun better than most adults, so why did they leave her behind with Helen and Matthew? She didn’t need Helen or anyone else to babysit her.
"They should have taken me with them.”
"Betty, they needed me to be to drive the truck, and your gun skills to protect us."
"I saved your ass back there at the store!"
"Yes girl, you did, and I'm very grateful to still be alive. Now keep your eyes open for when they return, or if you see any other threats."
Betty sat and bit her nails while she continued to stew over why they left her behind. She wanted to be where the action happened rather than sitting on her ass and hiding. She spent her entire life watching other people survive the apocalypse on TV and the movie screen, and now it had become Betty’s turn to thrive. But they had relegated her to babysitting duty instead. It should be her out there putting those zombies down. She possessed the knowledge and the skills to rid the world of the risen dead menace.
"They've been gone a long time."
"Betty, it has been less than five minutes. They have to run the half mile to the bridge and then determine if it’s safe. They'll radio us when it’s time to meet them."
"I should be part of the action."
"You are by making sure Matthew and I are safe along with the truck."
"It feels like babysitting to me.”
"I don't need a babysitter," Matthew said.
"I didn't mean you, Matthew. Oh, never mind." Betty threw her hands in the air and turned away from the two of them to stare out the window. She didn’t want to look either of them in the eyes because she was afraid of saying something she would later regret.
They continued to sit in silence for what felt like hours. How long does it take to run half a mile? No news on the radio either. Betty tried to stay alert, but she got bored sitting around in the truck and doing nothing. She tapped her foot against the floorboard of the truck and then got out of the truck and walk around. It had gotten stuffy as they waited inside, and she needed some type of action. Her focus waned while doing nothing.
As she finished those thoughts, the ground shook, and an explosion shattered the midday silence. Then the sounds of gunfire rang out from the direction of the bridge. Betty heard multiple types of weapons being fired at the same time.
"Helen, we need to get this truck moving, now! We have to get to the bridge and help them!"
"I don't know, Donald said we should wait here."
"He also said this was a recon mission and he would radio back their status. The radio has been silent, and you can hear the gunfire. They need our help!"
Helen didn't respond. Instead, she sat with a grimace on her face while she stoked her chin. "If you don't get this truck moving, I will get out and go help them myself."
“No Betty, don’t leave us,” Matthew said as tears flowed down his face.
After another moment of hesitation, Helen started the engine and put the truck in drive. They cover the half mile to the bridge faster than Mario Andretti. All the gunfire had ceased before they reached their destination. Dead bodies laid in the road, and a group of destroyed vehicles smoldered. The amount of destruction Donald and Gwen brought down on the bridge with only their assault rifles amazed Betty.
Movement on the bridge captured her attention, so Betty took aim with her pistol. She had been ready to defend their group against any threat. An older fat man and a topless, attractive, red-headed woman were the only targets she found before her. Odd combination, she concluded. As she paused to decide on the threat level these two possessed, Donald’s voice commanded, "Stand down Betty!"
Betty lowered her weapon at Donald’s command. The fat guy started to rant as soon as she lowered her weapon. "Do you know who I am? What is the matter with you people? You could have killed us? You are a bunch of maniacs!"
Gwen interrupted the fat man’s loud rant. "Hey, dumb ass, try saying thank you. We just saved your life in case you didn’t notice!" She then turned to the topless woman, and she said, "Put a shirt on!"
"There is no time for bickering. Get into your vehicle and get moving. You're welcome to follow us or go off on your own. Your choice, but there is someone in the woods worse than the guys who stopped you." With those words, Donald jumped into the driver’s seat of the truck, and they speed off across the bridge.
"Who did you see in the woods?" Betty asked as they sped away from the wreckage.
"Amy was there with a grenade launcher. She blew up the truck on the bridge. I'm sure it wasn’t charity and I'm sure her brothers are nearby waiting to ambush us."
Donald drove for the next 45 minutes faster than he had since they left Boston.
Betty thought they would crash if they continued to race along while they towed a trailer. Donald feared nothing. Then she remembered Matthew's mom. Betty thought, he isn't afraid of fighting, but he feared the possibility of losing any more of us.
Donald stopped the rig in the parking lot of a super warehouse store. It seemed strange for this large of a building to be out in the middle of nowhere, but she guessed people everywhere had to get their stuff. The Mercedes SUV still followed along behind them as they pulled into the parking lot.
"We’re far enough away from any threats from Amy and her brothers, so we’ll stop here. We need to figure out if those two following us are friend or foe. Plus, we can gather some more supplies. Be alert."
After he spoke, Donald climbed out of the truck and pointed his shotgun at the windshield of the SUV.
"I don't want to hurt you, but I don't know you or what your intentions are. Get out of your vehicle slowly with your hands in plain sight, and then we can talk."
"Look, buddy, my name is Dr. Taylor, and this is my wife, Natasha. We’re trying to get away from the chaos at the hospital in the city, and we aren't looking for trouble. I am a trained trauma surgeon and can be a valuable addition to your group."
"You can understand why I'm not too trusting after the incident on the bridge."
"OK friend, I have my hospital ID, and there is a compact pistol in the glove box. We don't have any other weapons. Come check for yourself. Plus, if you don't have room for both of us, I'm a valuable doctor so you can take me."
The woman glared at him as he spoke these last words about casting her aside. What kind of man would sacrifice his wife to survive? Gwen and Betty held the two of them at gunpoint while Donald checked their SUV and the man's ID. Everything must have checked out because Donald visibly relaxed.
"OK, if you want to be a part of this team, now is the time you earn your keep. We are going inside to gather supplies and when I say we it includes you, doctor."
"But I'm a valuable doctor.” He spoke these words with a tremor in his voice.
"That's exactly why you’re going inside. This place has a pharmacy, and we need your expertise to get the medical supplies we’ll need."
The fat doctor’s face had a strange look to it. Betty assumed it could be fear, indignation, or constipation? He along with everyone else listened to Donald's plan. Now the time came for them to execute it while they avoided any potential trouble locked inside the store.
CHAPTER 17 - AMY
“SHIT!” “HOW COULD you two morons mess this up so badly!” She intended the message for her brothers, but she spoke it out loud to no one but herself because she found herself alone.
Amy’s plan had been perfect (at least in her mind). If only her brothers weren’t complete idiots, they would have their own camping rig now and possess all the supplies they needed.
They had stolen the van. It proved to be a crime of opportunity rather than some master plan. You can’t premeditate a heist when you have no way of knowing the opportunity would present itself. They thought the van held a group of teenagers, but it turned out to be a group of college students headed back to Boston after their term as camp counselors. Amy wanted to dump them all at the rendezvous spot, but the idiots wanted to take apocalypse brides for themselves. So, the morons picked the two women they liked best to accompany them on their journey.
After they dumped the rest of the passengers on the side of the road, they traveled on to Amy’s survival camp. They found everything gone except for a few scraps of supplies and a group of the walking dead. No sanctuary would be found there. They took anything useful, and then Amy hatched another plan.
Mr. Hero tried to get his crew into Maine, so Amy and her brothers would get ahead of them and ambush them at the bridge. All their supplies, the trailer, and the RV would belong to Amy. They would leave the group of idiots for dead with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Besides, the gas had gotten low in the stolen van, so they needed to do something fast to assure their continued survival.
Upon reaching the bridge, they discovered a group of stupid rednecks had beaten them there and had set up their own ambush. How had these fools executed her plan first? The group of hicks blocked the bridge with a bunch of junk cars and an older pickup truck. All five men carried pistols and or rifles and waited for prey to enter their web. Amy didn’t expect to run into any complications. She should have thought ahead and prepared better.
As Amy planned on how to deal with the bumpkins, an SUV sped straight for the blockaded bridge. The armed hillbillies stopped the vehicle, and a short dumpy loud mouth stumbled out of the driver’s side of the truck. From Amy’s vantage point, the voices weren’t clear, but she heard the blowhard say something like, “Do you know who I am?” Yep, he’s another moron about to die a painful death.
Great, another complication she hadn’t planned for. They would let the scene play out while they watched. No need to interfere and save them, since the entire lot of them deserved to die. Plus, now there’s the potential to gather even more supplies from the two idiots in the SUV.
Amy watched the incident play out on the bridge below when a flash of light caught her attention from the tree line on the opposite side of the bridge. Now what? It turned out to be golden boy and the lanky bitch as they prepared to play hero again. Perfect, all the players she hoped for together in one spot. Time for her to strike a blow for the siblings.
Her plan needed to change on the fly, so Amy sent her brothers off on their own separate mission. The camper trailer and RV weren’t here, so they had parked them somewhere down the road. Who would they have left behind to guard the vehicles? Maybe the old fart and the little brats? Or the college kids from the van? All of them had proved themselves to be useless, so it wouldn’t be much of a fight. Even for her idiot brothers.
Amy spoke to her brothers as her plan became clear. “Find out where they parked. Kill anyone you find and come back here with their stuff. I’ll keep them busy with the distraction of their lives.”
Dumb and dumber left to complete their mission while Amy readied herself for the fun at the bridge. It didn’t matter to her if the people on the bridge lived or died. In her opinion, it would be better if they all died. Amy wanted the two heroes in the woods to survive. The ultimate revenge would leave them both alive to face the loss of both their travel companions and their supplies. It would be priceless. Amy’s victory would be their humbling defeat.
The timing needed to be perfect for Amy’s distraction to have its maximum effect. She knew they would plan their own attack since those two couldn’t help being the knights in shining armor. Heroes to the end. Amy’s attack had to happen first, but not too early. Through her binoculars, she watched the hero lining up his first kill shot. Now would be her time to act, to assure her victory.
Amy took aim with the grenade launcher she recovered from the survival camp and let one fly. Boom! The noise shattered the silence and the shock wave shook the ground.
A direct hit. The pickup truck must have had a full tank of gas because it lit up like a bonfire from her single grenade. She couldn’t have planned it better. Not being able to resist, Amy picked up her sniper rifle to pick off those still alive down on the bridge. Enough fun for now. Time for her to pack it in and get back to her idiot brothers and take possession of their new camping rigs. She needed to avoid being spotted by the two heroes on the other side of the bridge. The element of surprise would be the key to her clean escape.
They parked the van out of sight at the end of a wooded path at the base of the hill they had climbed to overlook the bridge. Amy would drive the van back to meet up with her brothers and claim their prize. No one from the road or the bridge could see the van’s secluded parking spot. They had left her brothers’ apocalypse brides tied up in the back of the truck. There they would remain bound, out of the way, and unable to escape. Maybe she would put bullets in their heads and leave the two of them behind too? No more dead weight. A pleasant thoug
ht on a day of victory.
As Amy approached the end of the path, she discovered the van missing. What the hell! What had her idiot brothers done? Amy needed to remain out of sight, since they left her with no transportation. She traveled the path parallel to the road under the cover of the woods. Neither the rifle nor the grenade launcher would be an effective weapon for close quarters fighting, and both slowed her down. Amy left the grenade launcher behind and continued to run with only the rifle. These were her only weapons because they had left all the rest of their meager supplies inside the van. Now everything disappeared.
Amy ran on while she contemplated how to kill her brothers and anyone else responsible for her downfall once she found them. No one left her behind with nothing but the clothes on her back and got to live. They better have some serious excuse for why they took the van and left her stranded at the bridge.
As she ran on through the woods, Amy heard a vehicle race down the road. She rushed to the edge of the tree line, and Amy made out the taillights on the Airstream as it raced away from her. Where are her idiot brothers going now? Did they leave without her? They should have control of the camper by now and be they should have raced away together the opposite way.
Since Amy had run through the woods, she’d lost track of how far she had actually traveled from the bridge. She turned and sprinted up the road. Her original plan didn’t include them driving the camper back to the bridge. The original plan had her drive the van and meet them a couple of miles down the road in New Hampshire. They would condense the supplies between the three vehicles and then depart. Hero boy and his lanky bitch were supposed to be the ones without supplies and a ride, not her.
Operation Z | Book 1 | Uprising Page 11