“We’ve gone up against worst,” Jennifer replied. “Besides, only eight of them are on this side.”
“How do we know if the busses have come or not?” Cassie asked.
“We don’t,” Spill said. “Our best estimate is that they’ll arrive sometime within the next twenty-four hours.”
Leo passed the binoculars down the line, letting everyone get a chance to look through them. Before leaving Pole Mountain, he’d ripped the necessary page out of the Anarchist’s Cookbook. It was folded into a neat square and sealed inside a Ziploc. It was in his back pocket with his wallet, wrinkled from the journey, but at least it was dry.
He spread out the page from the Anarchist’s Cookbook on a rock. Cassie leaned in beside him to study it.
“‘The truss bridge is one of the strongest in the world,’ ” Cassie read, “‘and offers many problems for the sabateur. Be very careful when planning a sabotage of this type.’ ”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Spill muttered.
“No kidding,” Jennifer said.
“We have to blow the main cantilever on either side of the central foundation pier.” Cassie chewed her bottom lip. “We’re going to have to get to the middle of the bridge and climb up trusses to place the explosives. If we don’t destroy trusses on either side of the central pier, the Russians will be able to repair any damage we make.”
A beat passed. No one said a word as they took in the enormous bridge before them. It was several miles long. Climbing up the trusses would be no easy feat. It didn’t help that it was hundreds of feet above the water and they had no safety cables or nets. Leo had once seen a documentary on the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. A handful of men had died building that bridge when they slipped and fell into the water.
“I can do it,” Jennifer said. “I can climb it.”
Leo didn’t like it, but what choice did they have? Someone had to climb the trusses. Jennifer was the best suited for the job.
“Spill, you have a remote detonator for the C-4 bombs?” Leo asked.
“Yeah.”
“We wait until nightfall,” Leo said. “Jennifer and Spill, you’re one team. You’ll head back the way we came and hike through the woods to the main road. That will take you straight to the bridge. Do you think you can sneak onto the bridge without being seen?”
Jennifer took the binoculars and studied the entrance to the bridge. “It will be tricky, but not impossible in the dark. We’ll have to sneak off the road and slip through the brush. So long as we’re quiet and they’re not paying too much attention, we should be able to get past them and climb onto the bridge behind them.”
“Good,” Leo said. “You’ll climb the trusses and place the bombs. Spill, you take the C-4 and cover her from the ground. The rest of us will cover you from up here. It’s imperative you get on and off the bridge without being seen. We don’t want to blow the bridge until the busses arrive. The Russians can’t suspect we’re setting a trap.”
“We can do it,” Spill said. “We just need the rest of you to cover our asses in case anything goes sideways. Once the bombs are set, we can blow them anytime we want with the detonator.”
“Leo is a great shot. He’ll cover us …” Jennifer’s voice trailed off, her brow puckering as she continued to look through the binoculars. “Did you guys get a good look at those soldiers? There’s something weird about them.”
“Let me see.” Leo took the binoculars and homed in on the soldiers. He immediately saw what Jennifer meant. “There’s something wrong with their skin. They have dark gray patches on their necks and faces.”
“All of them?” Cassie took the binoculars for a look. “They look sick. They’re sweating, too. One of the guys just sat down.”
“Maybe they caught the measles or chicken pox,” Bruce said. “Just because they’re immune to the zombie virus doesn’t mean they can’t get other kinds of sicknesses.”
“Maybe it’s polio and they’ll all be paralyzed,” Jennifer said. “It would serve them right.”
Leo didn’t think it was any of those things. He didn’t know what was wrong with those men, but he didn’t like the looks of them.
One soldier staggered to the side of the road and vomited. Uneasiness crawled across Leo’s shoulders. All his instincts said to get the hell away from here.
“Cassie, what do you think?”
She studied the scene below them. He could tell by the dent above her left eyebrow that she was working through plays in her head.
“We exploit their weakness,” she said at last. “That’s what I would do if this was a chessboard. The Soviets are sick and distracted. We take advantage of that and push for checkmate by having Jennifer and Spill infiltrate the bridge.”
“My sister has spoken,” Jennifer said. “You guys cover us from up here. Leave the rest to Spill and me. Right, Spill?”
“In and out,” Spill agreed. “They’ll never know we were there.”
42
Asters
They had a few hours before nightfall. Cassie and the others returned to the beat-up old jeep to get some food and rest before their nighttime attack. Leo drew Cassie aside, pulling her into a clump of trees. She was happy for a few private moments with him.
She leaned into him as he pulled her into a hug, nestling her forehead against his neck. His back was supported by a tall tree.
“I have something for you.” Leo held up a small sprig of wild flowers. They were small purple blossoms that resembled daisies.
“Asters.” Cassie leaned her nose into the petals and inhaled the soft scent. “They’re so pretty. Thank you.”
“They’re the best I could do out here.” Leo tucked the sprig into the front pocket of her flannel shirt. “How are you holding up? You look worried.” He smoothed his hands down her back.
“There’s a lot of things to worry about.” She let out a long sigh, deciding to be brutally honest with him. “I knew what I was signing up for, but losing Griggs made it all the more real, you know? Almost losing you made it real.” She rested her hand lightly over his knife wound. “I’m scared, Leo.”
He kissed the base of her throat, lips lingering just above her black knight. His fingers fiddled with the pendant as he leaned back to look at her.
“I’m scared too, Cas. I probably shouldn’t tell you that. I should probably tell you that everything will be fine. That’s what a real leader would do, right?”
“I’d know you were lying.” She tightened her arms around him. “How does your side feel?”
“It’s fine.”
She poked him in the chest. “Liar.”
He smiled. “It hurts a little. I’ll take another Tylenol before tonight.”
They held each other, softly exchanging kisses. Cassie almost melted when his hand slipped under her shirt and caressed her stomach.
She’d been doing a lot of thinking on the drive here. Too much thinking, probably. Jennifer always said she had a tendency to overthink things. But Cassie had come to several conclusions.
a) There was a high probability none of them would make it back to the Cecchino family cabin. Between Russians, mutant zombies, and their mission to sabotage the Luma Bridge, the odds of survival were stacked against them.
b) If her time on earth was limited, she wanted to make the best of every second she had left.
c) She’d fought in battles and killed enemy soldiers, but was still a virgin.
d) There were lots of way to lose one’s virginity. She suspected some of those dead girls back in the Bohemian Grove had been virgins.
e) Sometime in the last two hours, Cassie had decided she did not want to be a virgin anymore. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t figured this out sooner. There were plenty of things to cling to in war. Hope. Friendships. Memories. Virginity didn’t make the list, not by a long shot.
f) She wanted Leo.
Her mind raced as she tried to find the right way to broach the topic with him. She wasn’t like Jen
nifer. She didn’t have guys falling at her feet. Hell, she wouldn’t even be with Leo now if he hadn’t made his feelings clear. She might be a whiz on a chessboard, but she had zero strategy when it came to guys. On top of that, Leo was wounded. Was it even right to ask this of him when he had a knife wound?
“What’s wrong, Cassie?” Leo cupped her face in his hands, thumbs stroking her cheekbones. “I know something’s bothering you. It’s more than just being scared. Tell me what it is.” A wry chuckle shook his chest. “I’m not sure I can fix whatever is wrong, but I want to try.”
She decided just to say it. “I don’t want to die a virgin.”
“Wh—what?” He couldn’t have looked more shocked if she’d slapped him.
Her heart beat erratically in her chest, but she was too far in to stop now. “I don’t want to die—”
“You’re not going to die.”
“You don’t know that. We could all die tonight.”
“We could all survive and make it home,” he countered, frowning at her. “I don’t want you to sleep with me just because you’re afraid you’re going to die.”
It had all come out wrong. She tried again. Her heart was beating so fast it was hard to breathe. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just mean …” Cassie struggled to find the words. “I want to take advantage of every moment I have left. That might be eight hours. It might be eight years, or eighty years. I have no idea. That’s the point, Leo. I want to live every moment of my life to the fullest. To me, that means being with you right now.”
His eyes intensified as she spoke. She felt him harden against her hip. He kept his hands locked around her face, thumbs still tracing the lines of her cheekbones.
“I want you, too,” he said. “But … do you really want your first time to be out here in the woods? It should be some place nice. You know, with a bed. And privacy.”
“It’s beautiful out here,” she countered. “It’s not the beach, but it’s pretty darn close. At least we can hear the ocean.” She was running out of ammunition, but she wasn’t giving up. “Also, we both swam in the river. When is the next time we’ll be this clean?” She frowned at him. She was starting to feel like an idiot. “Are you really going to make me beg? I didn’t think it wasn’t supposed to be this hard to get a guy to take a girl’s clothes off.”
He chuckled, crushing her against him. “I’m not trying to make you beg, Cas. I just want to make sure it’s what you really want. You can’t take back this sort of thing. I don’t want you to look back and regret it.”
She wrinkled her brow at him. “How could I ever regret being with you?”
He pressed his forehead against hers. “I feel the same way about you.”
“What about your knife wound?” She ran a hand gently over his side. “Will it be okay—”
“It will be fine.” He kissed her so hard she couldn’t breathe. It felt so good to lose herself in his arms.
She finally came up for breath as he shifted his attention away from her mouth and down to her neck. Something Jennifer had said rattled loose in her brain. “Do you have protection?”
“I do.” His attention strayed to her ear. She closed her eyes as he bit down on her lobe. “Dad always told us to keep a few in our wallets at all times.” She felt him smile against her neck. “He stashed a box in the barn for me, Anton, and Dal. He refilled it, no questions asked. Dad made us swear never to tell Mom.”
“You have your wallet?” For some reason, this surprised her.
“I’ve had on the same jeans since the invasion began.” He voice was wry. “I never thought to take it out.”
“Well, that’s good.” Her voice hitched as he sucked again on her neck. “Jennifer would kill me if I got pregnant.”
“Not before she killed me. Can we stop talking about your sister?”
That was fine by her. She was tired of talking altogether. It was a hard thing to do when she could barely get oxygen into her lungs. The way he kissed her neck made her weak.
She didn’t want to be the only weak-kneed. She wanted to touch him as much as she wanted to be touched. Her hand closed around the front of his jeans and squeezed.
He groaned softly into her ear and pressed himself into her grip. This time, when his hands went under her clothes, they didn’t stop at her stomach.
43
Infected
When Leo and Cassie went back to the jeep a while later, Leo did his best to play it cool. When the others looked up at their return, he knew he’d failed. Big time.
Jennifer, Bruce, and Spill were sitting on the hood of the jeep, watching the sunset. At the sight of Leo and Cassie, Spill cocked an amused eyebrow and smothered a laugh. Bruce actually pumped his fist in the air a few times. Jennifer’s smile was smug as she and Cassie exchanged knowing looks.
Leo held Cassie tightly to his side and ignored them all, focusing instead on pulling food out from one of the packs. He dropped open the back of the jeep and sat with Cassie. They ate bread and jerky in silence, leaning against one another.
He decided to take a page out of Cassie’s book and enjoy this moment to its fullest. He was with the girl of his dreams, at the coast, having dinner. Just because they were preparing for a mission against Soviets didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy this time with her. He let himself dwell on the tenderness they shared under the trees, of the feel of her skin against his.
When it was dusk, he mentally shifted gears. It was time to return to war. He gave Cassie one last kiss before sliding to the ground. He met the rest of the group at the front end of the jeep.
“Time to get into position. Jennifer and Spill, when you get close to the bridge, find a place to stay out of sight. At 1am, sneak around the soldiers and onto the bridge. The rest of us will cover you from the overlook.”
Jennifer and Cassie hugged one another goodbye. Leo saw the worry in Cassie’s eyes. He hoped this goddamn war would be over soon, if only so he would not have to see fear etched in every line of her body.
Jennifer and Spill headed out, both armed with Soviet machine guns. Spill carried the pack of C-4 bombs with the remote detonator.
“See you soon,” Jennifer called, just as she and Spill disappeared into the trees.
Leo, Bruce, and Cassie climbed back up to the overlook. They waited until it was full dark before taking up position on the ridge line. As soon as they were in place, Leo took out the binoculars.
“How do the soldiers look?” Cassie whispered.
“They’re definitely still sick.” It was too dark for Leo to get a good look at their skin, but two of them were leaning up against a jeep. Another was flat in the back of a jeep, tossing on and turning.
“Do you think they’ll radio for replacements?” Bruce asked.
“No way to know for sure,” Leo said. “But I think if replacements were coming, they would have been here before dark.”
“Their forces might be stretched too thin to send replacements,” Cassie said.
“They also know the American military has their hands full with the zombies,” Leo replied. “They’re not really expecting an attack on Luma Bridge.”
In the grand scope of things, Luma Bridge wasn’t even a part of any major strategy—at least, not in terms of the welfare of their country. But it was a strategic place for the survivors in West County. Disabling the bridge was the single best thing they could do to protect their home.
Leo kept an eye on the Soviets while they waited for Spill and Jennifer. He glanced at his watch. They still had hours.
“You two should try and get a little sleep,” he said. “I’ll wake you when it’s time.” He couldn’t sleep even if he tried.
Bruce and Cassie didn’t argue. Bruce leaned up against a rock and closed his eyes. Cassie curled up on her side, her back against Leo’s ribcage.
It was a long, cold wait. It was always chilly near the ocean. He was grateful for Griggs’s shirt, though he wouldn’t have minded his down hunting jacket.
To occupy
himself, he watched the Soviets through the binoculars. The bastards appeared to be getting sicker. Several of them made trips to the bushes to throw up. He hoped Jennifer and Spill gave them a wide berth. The last thing they needed was to crawl into pile of Soviet vomit and get infected from it.
He glanced at his watch. It was barely eleven o’clock. With a soft sigh, he resumed his watch.
It was just past one in the morning when he finally spotted Jennifer and Spill. They had made it past the Soviets to the slope below the bridge. Jennifer jumped, grabbed the side of the bridge, and climbed up under the railing. Spill was right behind her.
“Cassie.” Leo nudged her.
She sat up immediately, flipping around onto her stomach. “Did they make it to the bridge? What time is it?”
“They’re on the bridge. It’s one-oh-seven. Wake Bruce up, will you?”
The three of them lined up on the ridge. Cassie and Bruce had their machine guns propped on the ground, but Leo had his hunting rifle. This was the gun he’d grown up with. He knew it like the back of his hand. If he had to make a shot, he wanted the gun he trusted most.
Cassie raised the binos to her eyes. “The Russians look even worse than they did earlier. Two of them passed out on the hood of the jeeps.”
“That’s good for us,” Bruce said. “Maybe they’ll just die and make this easy for us.”
They could use a stroke of luck like that, but Leo wasn’t going to count on it.
Spill and Jennifer had disappeared down the bridge. Long minutes passed before Leo saw a dark shape inching up one of the trusses. Jennifer. Seeing her suspended far above the ocean made him uneasy. He reminded himself she’d been great on the parallel bars. She didn’t mind heights and she was nimble. If anyone could make the climb, it was Jennifer. He was glad it wasn’t too windy tonight.
“First bomb is in place.” Cassie lowered the binoculars just long enough to give Leo a triumphant grin. “She did it.”
Zommunist Invasion Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 47