- Ernest Hemmingway
Early the next morning, we gathered at the stable to begin saddling the horses. It was still more than an hour before sunrise and we wanted to be ready to go at first light. Everyone was packing all their heavy weapons and putting extra ammo in their packs. We each packed a few days worth of rations, but to be honest I doubted that we were going to need them.
Bowman and Corporal Winston were joining us for the trip out. We would take the horses all the way to Strafford and go on foot from there. Granted, Strafford was still close to ten miles from Springfield, but I didn’t want to take the chance of anyone hearing our approach. The horses were great, but they were far from quiet. It would be safer to go in slowly and silently, and that meant going in on foot.
I had already met with Thrym, the night before. I told him that I suspected that Pensmore was a reference to a Jacob Pensmore who was a reclusive millionaire who had a private compound outside of Joplin. I told him that Pensmore also owned a big chunk of land near Stockton Lake.
I could see the look of excitement in his eyes, despite the fact that he tried to keep from showing it. I wasn't at all surprised when he volunteered to have his people check it out. I told him that was fine since I wanted to get a closer look at Springfield and try to figure out why there wasn't any snow there. It wasn't a complete lie. I really was taking my people to Springfield. I just wanted to make sure that Thrym and his people were at least fifty miles away when we did.
With that information in hand, he was planning on heading out with his people at the same time that we were leaving with ours. With any luck, they would be miles away before they figured out that they had been duped. I knew that a fight with Thrym was practically a certainty, but this way allowed me to deal with the Eldjötnar without having to fight him right afterwards.
As we began leading our horses up the ramp that led to the surface, Karen came out to see me off. I put my arms around her and held her for a long moment, taking in the scent of her hair and the feel of her against me. For some reason, I was hesitant to let her go. She seemed to sense my reluctance and gave me a look that said she was feeling the same way. We both had a bad feeling about this mission.
“I love you, babe,” I whispered, kissing her gently.
“I love you, too,” she said softly, as our lips parted.
My sons were there to see me off, as well. It was strange that we all seemed to feel the same sense of urgency when saying our farewells. Despite the fact that I have always refused to say goodbye, I felt those words escaping my lips. I hadn't said goodbye to someone since I lost my mother when I was twelve. Those were the last words I had said to her, before I left for school that morning.
So when I realized what I had said, I almost froze in place. I felt a sudden sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Even Karen and the boys looked shocked. They knew I wouldn't say it, either. Then the massive doors sealed behind us, and they were out of sight. I couldn't take it back. I just hoped it wasn't an omen of things to come.
I didn't have time to ponder it for long, though. Thrym was waiting for us as we emerged from the facility. I could see his massive Vargr was waiting for him about twenty yards away, far enough not to panic our horses. Now I really didn't have time to go back inside to speak to my wife and sons again.
“Good hunting,” said Thrym, nodding at our group.
“And to you,” I said. “You have one of our radios. If you find him, give us a call and let us know. We'll let you know if we find any sign of the Eldjötnar.”
“Agreed,” he said. “Will your radios transmit that far?”
“No problem,” I said, nodding. “We should be able to hear you clearly from Joplin.”
“Then I shall, as you say, keep you posted,” he said, turning to head back to his Vargr.
“Remember,” I called after him. “Don't use the radios unless absolutely necessary. We can't be sure that someone isn't listening in. We call it Op/Sec. It stands for Operational Security.”
“I understand,” he replied, continuing on.
We all climbed onto our horses as he climbed onto his Vargr and trotted off. Once everyone was secure in the saddle, I gave Ebon a little kick and we all headed off towards the gate. There was already a crew in place to let us out and seal it behind us. I had to force myself to not look back as we rode away. If I had, I was certain that I would have gone back to my family just to see them one more time.
The sun wasn't up yet, but the sky was already a lighter shade of grey and I knew that it wasn't far off. Although the sunrise wouldn't give us a great deal of light, it was certainly enough to travel by. We had a long ride ahead of us and the heavy snowfall wasn't going to make it any easier.
Once the gate rumbled shut behind us, my mind snapped back to the task at hand. I no longer had the luxury of worrying about the comforts of home. It was time to be focused and ready for battle. In the semi-darkness of predawn, we could run into Frostbiters, Vargr, or even the Eldjötnar. I needed to concentrate on the danger ahead of us, if we had any chance of making it back here.
Once we were well clear of the gate, Spec-4 rode up beside me and tapped me on the leg to get my attention. I turned to glance at her and saw that she was leaning closer to keep her voice down.
“Why did you tell Thrym that the handsets could reach all the way from Joplin?” she asked, keeping her voice low. “Those things might reach five miles on a good day.”
“I didn't want him to know the real range,” I replied. “This way, if he contacts us over the radio we know he's close.”
“That's good thinking,” she replied with a wink. “Do you think that they'll be following us?”
“I think that I'd be an idiot to assume that they're not,” I said, shrugging.
“Then why even bother with the story to get them to go a different direction?” she asked.
“Honestly, I hoped that he would take the bait and be long gone when we fight the Eldjötnar,” I said with a sigh. “Barring that, at least this way we don't have to ride with them.”
“Fair enough,” she said. “Do you really think that you will have to fight Thrym?” she said, glancing around like she was afraid that they were listening to us.
“I'd say that it's a foregone conclusion,” I said. “One way or the other, Thrym and I will have to settle this. I doubt that he would have it any other way.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because if he can stop us,” I replied, “then they win. They have a lot riding on us failing to prevent Ragnarok from running its course.”
“Can we really stop it?”
“I don't know,” I said, shaking my head. “They seem to think so and that's good enough for me. If they are afraid that we will, then there must be a way to do it. Otherwise, they wouldn't even consider us a threat.”
“So, now we have to fight Thrym, the Eldjötnar and Loki,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. “Just great.”
“Yeah,” I said, chuckling. “Our dance card's full.”
“Do you take any of this seriously?” she said, chuckling.
“Happy, sad, angry or ambivalent,” I said, turning back to face her, “it doesn't really matter. It's going to happen, regardless. Might as well face it in my usual smart-assed way.”
“Well, it's worked so far,” she said, laughing.
“Let's hope it keeps working,” I replied. “Too much is riding on us to fail.”
By the time the sky had lightened up enough to see clearly by, we had already covered a considerable distance. I estimated that if we continued at that pace, we would reach Strafford by early the next morning. Unless we planned to push on through the night, we would have to find shelter that was big enough to house us all.
Despite the fact that I really wanted to get there as fast as possible, I knew that the risk of running into something in the dark was too much to take a chance on. We could ride right into an overwhelming force of the dead or of the Eldjötnar, and we'd never know it until it
was too late. No, it was definitely better to find a place to shelter and wait for daybreak. The problem was, finding a place that was big enough for all of us and the horses.
By mid-day, we had gone far enough away from our camp to make our radios useless except amongst ourselves. All of the junk in the atmosphere had severely screwed up radio transmissions. Before this started, the SINCGARs sets could reach twenty miles, without a problem. Now, five was really pushing it. Just one more thing to add to the trouble brought on by the apocalypse.
We stopped to rest the horses and to eat a quick bite in the shelter of an old barn. It was big enough that we could all get inside out of the wind and have the horses inside with us. There was even quite a bit of hay left in the loft, so we took the opportunity to let the horses eat. I didn't want to think about what had happened to the animals that had been housed here when the dead returned. Probably not all that much different from what happened to most of the living.
We ate in silence, listening to the sound of the wind and for any sign of danger. I especially listened to the wind for anything that even remotely sounded like a Vargr. Although they were much more adept at travelling through the snow than our horses were, they couldn't seem to keep quiet except when they were stalking prey. I just hoped that they weren't stalking us.
By the time I had finished my MRE, I was noticing a shift in the wind. It was starting to create an audible howl. It seemed that our luck was running true to form. A storm was blowing in to make our progress even slower. It really was beginning to feel like everything was turning against us. Even the weather seemed to be fighting us every step of the way.
“Do we push on or wait out the storm?” asked Marko.
“Good question,” I said, heading for the door to get a firsthand look at the sky.
Just as I reached the door, something stopped me. I'm not sure what it was, beyond a feeling at the back of my skull. For some reason, I had the distinct feeling that I shouldn't open that door. I froze with my hand against the door latch, and turned to look at Marko.
“What's wrong?” he whispered, sensing trouble.
“I don't know,” I replied. “I think there's something out there.”
Leaning close to the door, I peered out through the cracks in the boards. All that I could see was snow and trees. Nothing was moving other than the wind. I could hear the ice-covered branches of the trees creaking as they moved with the wind, but nothing else seemed to be stirring. It was eerily quiet.
“Don't open this door,” I said, reaching for my M-4.
I noticed that all around the barn, everyone was reacting to me. They were all bringing up their weapons and glancing around nervously. I backed slowly away from the door and began turning in a circle. I could see light streaming in through the cracks in the boards on every wall, but there were no openings large enough to get an unobstructed view.
As I turned, I tried to get a feel for which direction the threat was coming from. I could sense whatever it was towards the front of the barn and the back. Exactly the directions where there were doors. Both exits were covered. Now I knew that it was more than just a gut feeling. Someone or something was watching us and waiting for us to try to leave.
“Bolt the doors,” I said, motioning at Snake and Marko.
Marko checked the latch on the front door while Snake headed for the back. While they were busy double checking the doors, I began studying the barn for other exits. Although I didn't see any other way out that would be big enough to take the horses through, I did notice the ladder that led to the loft. If I could sneak up there and peer out through the loft door where they loaded hay, I might be able to get a look at whoever was watching us. The trick was to do it without being seen.
Motioning for everyone to stay down and keep quiet, I began moving towards the ladder. Spec-4 followed me and stayed right on my heels. We climbed the wooden ladder as quietly as we possibly could and immediately lay down in the hay. I waited for her to lay down beside me before I risked speaking.
“Stay low and follow me,” I whispered. “I'm going to try to get close to the door and see what's out there.”
Spec-4 said nothing, but crouched low into the hay. We began low-crawling towards the door, staying behind hay bales as much as possible. By the time that I reached the loft door, the wind outside had increased considerably. In between the gaps in the boards, I could see the large snowflakes drifting through the air. Although it wasn't coming down hard enough to be considered a storm, it might be enough to make us stop for the night.
Slowly, I made my way to the small door and moved enough of the hay that I could cradle my M-4 without giving away my position. Luckily, the door was open a few inches and gave me enough room to take a look around. Bringing the ACOG up to my eye, I began scanning the tree line, slowly and meticulously. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but I figured I would know it when I saw it.
At first, there was nothing. Only the ice-encrusted trees and snow that covered every surface. The ACOG wasn't the best optic for this kind of work, but I didn't have any of the advanced optics that Sergeant McDonald used on his sniper weapons. The ACOG was going to have to suffice. Although it lacked the power of the bigger scopes that McDonald used, the 6X power of the ACOG was strong enough for the range I was operating at.
My first pass of the trees yielded nothing significant, but I decided to do it again. After all, anything worth doing was worth doing right. If there wasn't anything there, then all I was out was a little extra time. I was beginning to doubt my feeling, when something caught my attention. Although it was just a patch of ice, it's not normal for them to move. That caused me to focus my attention on the spot that moved and begin sweeping that area thoroughly.
The short hairs on the back of my neck were beginning to stand up. I knew I was onto something, but I just wasn't sure what. The possibilities were already running through my mind, but nothing really prepared me for what I saw. If it hadn't shifted its weight from one foot to the other, I might have mistaken it for just another frozen tree. What I had initially taken for a knothole in the side of a tree, turned out to be the darkened, frozen eye of a Frostbiter.
“Oh, fuck,” I hissed.
“What?” asked Spec-4, trying to keep her voice low.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” I breathed, ignoring her question. “Let there be only one of them.”
“One of what?” she gasped, grabbing me by the back of the leg.
“Frostbiters,” I muttered. “One, so far.”
I kept sweeping the trees, looking for more. My persistence paid off when I saw more movement in the darkness of the woods. It took a moment for my eye to adjust, but when it did I wanted to start shooting instantly. What I saw made my blood boil and my control nearly slip. I knew that the Hrimthurssar were treacherous and I needed to watch them, but I didn't realize that their treachery would go this far.
Crouching inside the trees was a person whose face I recognized instantly. It was Skrymir and he wasn't alone. If there were Frostbiters with him, then they had lied when they said that they couldn't control any of the undead anymore. Unfortunately, it wasn't the undead that nearly made me lose my control. It wasn't even Skrymir that pushed me almost to the breaking point. It was the person who was with them.
Crouching low behind a tree and holding an M-4 was someone from my own camp. Not only was it a human that was working with the Hrimthurssar, it was someone I knew personally. Undoubtedly, he had helped them track us and led the undead right to where we had taken shelter from the storm. What I couldn't understand, was why? I was looking right into the face of John Banner.
“That motherfucker,” I muttered.
“Who?” demanded Spec-4. “What are you talking about?”
“It looks like they had help tracking us,” I said, still not taking my eye off of him. “I'd know that face anywhere. That's John Banner.”
“Banner?” she repeated, incredulously. “Why would he help them?”
“I don't know
,” I replied. “It doesn't make any sense. Why would he sell out his own people?”
“We'll just have to ask him,” said Spec-4. “Once we take them down.”
“You're assuming I don't just put a fucking bullet in his head,” I said, moving the crosshairs to the spot right above his eyebrows.
“You can't,” she cautioned. “At least, not yet. If you shoot him now, you'll let them know we know they are there. We need to tell the others and plan our attack first.”
“You go tell them what's out there,” I said. “I'll stay here and keep an eye on them.”
“If you see anything,” she said, “don't use the radios. They could be listening in.”
“Good point,” I replied. “What do you suggest?”
“Knock on the boards,” she said, after a moment. “One knock if anything changes. I'll knock when we're ready to move. If nothing has changed by the time I knock, we're a go. If you want us to wait, knock twice.”
“Easy enough,” I said.
I could hear her moving off through the hay, but I kept my sights on Banner. I had to fight down the constant urge to squeeze the trigger and blow his traitorous head apart. Then I thought about the others. My rage was putting them all at risk, so I bit down on my anger and put it aside. At least, for now. With a sigh, I began sweeping the area again.
By the time I finished my sweep, I had counted six of the Frostbiters. That had to mean that there were at least that many behind the barn, blocking our path of escape. We were heavily outnumbered, but the advantage could still be with us if we played our cards right. For one, they had already lost the element of surprise. Secondly, the Frostbiters were faster than I had expected them to be, but they were still too slow to be a major threat to this group. We were the Einherjar and no group of frozen dead-sickles was going to take us down.
Backing slowly away from the window, I slipped over to the edge of the loft so I could look down where the others were assembling. When I stuck my head out where they could see me, Spec-4 noticed me and pointed up at me. When the others had turned to look up at me, I whispered loud enough for them to hear me, but hopefully not loud enough to be heard outside the barn.
Ragnarok Rising: Desolation: Book Five of the Ragnarok Rising Saga Page 20
