by Vohs, J. W.
“It was really important,” Luke protested, “but the English Civil Wars aren’t really taught in American schools these days.”
“Well, I’m sure you’re going to tell me all about it, Luke Seifert Smith.”
“Of course I am.” Luke liked being compared to his biological father, even when the reference suggested he was being a know-it-all. “The fight happened in late March in Britain; spring should have been well underway. Instead, the armies of the Yorkists and Lancastrians met in the middle of a blizzard. The English archers had dominated during the recently ended Hundred Years’ War, slaughtering the knights of France with near impunity during most of the key battles. Then, they turned on each other at Towton. The Duke of York’s army had the wind at their backs during the storm, so their arrows could reach the ranks of Lancaster’s troops without having to worry about return-fire. When York’s archers slowly advanced, they picked up thousands of enemy arrows that had fallen short against the wind and shot them back at the Lancastrians. Over twenty-five thousand Englishmen died that day, maybe more than their combined dead in a hundred years of conflict with the French.”
Gracie honestly sounded impressed when she commented, “You really are full of surprises, babe. So that blizzard really screwed the Duke of Lancaster, huh?”
“Yeah, it did. The weather’s affecting this war too. I’d hoped that the infected would be slowed, or maybe even killed off, by freezing weather, but the hunters just started growing coats of hair and seem to be relatively immune to temperature extremes.”
“I’ve been wondering what we’d do if the river froze over,” Gracie confessed. “I’ve been seeing a lot of ice in shallow areas and pools.”
Luke pondered the ramifications of local waterways freezing over. He could imagine the havoc if the flesh-eaters were able to cross the rivers and lakes being used as impassable obstacles by settlers along the Red. Suddenly, Luke was very worried about ice. He pulled away from Gracie and shouted, “Maddy!”
Maddy heard the call and came trotting over to see what all the fuss was about. “Whatcha yelling for, trying to bring down hunters on the camp before we’re ready?”
Luke was impatient. “No, listen, didn’t one of your guys break his arm in the fight at the store today?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I need you to pick somebody you can live without for a while, and send that person downstream with your wounded soldier.”
“We can cover him until he’s healed up,” Maddy protested.
“Maddy,” Luke interrupted her, “I need a message taken back to all of the settlements we’ve left behind.”
“OK,” Maddy sounded impatient, “and what message is that?”
“Gracie just reminded me that, sooner or later, the ice we’ve seen forming over the past week or so is gonna be thick enough for the hunters to cross without falling in. We can’t assume that the people in those settlements are going to consider the ice-problem until it’s too late. We need to send back a warning, and your wounded man is a good choice for messenger since he won’t be able to fight for a while. I figure you’ve got at least one soldier who isn’t panning out as well as we’d hoped who can escort him downriver.”
Maddy thought for a moment before deciding on the escort. “I can get your message downriver, but what’s gonna save us if the river freezes over to the west?”
“I’m praying that we’ll have enough open water to get to Lake Texoma. After that, maybe it won’t matter as much.”
Maddy decided to save the mystery for later. “Yeah, well, one of the girls in second platoon found out she was pregnant two days ago. She’s only a few months along, but I wouldn’t mind seeing her somewhere safe for the next year or two; the human race needs to make more babies.”
“Definitely,” Luke agreed as he glanced at Gracie. “Can you get the two ready to hit the river at dawn?”
“Don’t worry; I’ve got it covered.” She gave Luke a mock salute and then slowly bowed while backing away.
He ignored the gesture. “And tell Zach to round up the platoon commanders and get over here ASAP.”
CHAPTER 12
Large, pretty snowflakes were zipping by on the growing wind as Zach explained his idea about how the weather could work to their benefit. He wanted to modify the trailer-roofs. “This could give us even more of an advantage. We need to get up on top of those trailers and make sure we rough up their surfaces. We do that, and we’ll have better footing than the infected in addition to holding the high ground.”
Luke thought he knew where Zach was going, but he needed more details. “How do you recommend we do that?”
Before Zach had a chance to answer, one of his platoon commanders, a tough Arkansan everyone called “Digger,” offered a suggestion. “Use somethin’ sharp and pointed, like the backside of yer trench axe, and punch it through the top of the trailer. Then push the tool down so one of the edges of the hole pops up and the other slopes down. That’ll allow the snow to drain as it melts, and the raised metal will bite into the bottoms of our boots.”
A small smile slowly crept across Luke’s face as he envisioned the idea. “I love it, but there’s no way we have enough time to prepare the entire trailer surface before fighting these hunters; we’ve wasted too much time as it is.”
Digger scratched his chin as he pondered whether or not to question his young commanding officer. “Pardon me askin’, but are we rushin’ this fight fer a reason?”
“Yeah, we are.” That was enough of an answer to satisfy any of his troops, but Luke chose to offer an explanation. “Between the weather, which isn’t going to get better any time soon, and where I need us to be in a few weeks, we need to take care of business here and be on our way as soon as possible.”
Digger nodded. “Well, sir, do we have enough time fer each firin’ crew to prepare their own positions tonight? I mean, most of us would gladly give up some shut-eye if it improved our chances in tomorrow’s fight.”
Luke appreciated the initiative. “All right, Digger, you and the rest of the platoon leaders order your troops to prepare crossbow positions on top of the trailers. The pike-men who’ll be covering the archers should try to at least rough up the edges while you guys are working up there; they need good footing too.”
Gracie knew that Luke was led by instinct, and she understood that they needed to stay on the schedule he carried about in his mind. But as she considered their current dilemma, a new possibility occurred to her. “I realize that we need to get this over with tomorrow, but does anyone know how hard it is to cut through the sides of the trailers?”
Maddy, the truck driver’s daughter, offered her opinion. “My brother accidently shot my dad’s trailer with his .22 rifle one time; made a nice little hole in the metal. I can’t remember if it went through the other side too.”
“This may be a stupid question,” Gracie admitted, “but could we make murder holes for our spearmen? I’m thinking of an opening that would give our fighters plenty of room to use their weapons, but narrow enough that the hunters couldn’t climb through. We’d be at far less risk than standing on top of snow-covered trailers.”
Everyone looked at each other, wondering why nobody had thought of the idea before now. Maddy was the first to speak. “I’m not sure exactly how hard it would be, but it wouldn’t be some sort of monumental challenge or anything.”
“So, axes and halberds could cut through?” Gracie wondered.
“Oh yeah,” Maddy confirmed, “but I’m not risking my halberd on those trailers: use the axes.”
Luke scanned the faces of the assembled leaders. “Can anybody tell me why this wouldn’t work?” he asked.
Zach halfheartedly argued, “We might pile corpses so high that the murder-holes would be blocked; it’s happened before.”
Luke looked at Gracie. “What does the math say about Zach’s concern?”
She lifted one shoulder a few inches. “That could happen in some places, but I can’t imagine that there’re enough infe
cted around here to completely fill up our kill-zone that high. I mean, our folks would be able to stab hunters from ground-level to almost thirteen feet in the air; corpses shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Okay.” Luke looked around the group. “Anybody else?”
When nobody could offer anything other than shrugs, he announced, “All right, let’s get to it,” and everyone quickly dispersed to get started on their tasks.
As work progressed and snow continued to fall, Luke grew increasingly concerned about the initial phase of the plan. He didn’t trust motorcycles on snow-covered surfaces; the roads had been cleared of any obstacles that would block a one-way trip in a semi-trailer, but plenty of debris still littered the asphalt. Even if a motorcycle could be kept upright in the snow, something Luke strongly doubted, drifts would conceal a thousand objects that could drop the bike or send it flipping end over end. A snowmobile would have been ideal, but he doubted they could find one this far south in what had been the United States. He finally decided on a new role for himself in the coming operation: he would accompany the “bait” that would draw the hunters to the ambush site, but he needed a better plan than motorcycles on icy roads. He decided to seek Zach’s opinion.
He found the burly veteran warming his hands over a large fire, chatting amiably with a handful of his soldiers as they sipped hot coffee before returning to work on the trailers. Luke asked Zach to walk with him for a few minutes, and as soon as he was certain that they were out of earshot of the troops gathered at the fire, he explained his concerns. Zach smiled at his buddy before sarcastically offering, “Gee, I don’t know amigo, what would Texans use instead of snowmobiles?”
The answer suddenly hit Luke. “ATVs, yeah, I’m an idiot.”
Zach laughed. “We probably passed a hundred of ‘em today while getting the semis out here; I’ll send a squad out to grab a couple.”
“Thanks, and I’ll appreciate you not mentioning my lack of imagination to my wife.”
“That’ll cost you,” Zach cracked good-naturedly. “So, we send out a couple guys with air horns on an ATV or two to lure the hunters here instead of using motorcycles? You do realize that ATVs can get stuck in deep snow?”
“Getting stuck is bad, but I’m worried that motorcycles will get somebody killed,” Luke replied. “Driving an ATV in this weather will be tricky enough—and I doubt our Southern friends have much experience with icy roads.”
“So you got anybody in mind to send out?”
The answer was clear from the expression on Luke’s face. Zach shook his head. “Dude, Gracie’s gonna kick you in the balls!”
“She’ll have to catch me first.”
“I know you don’t sleep much, but you still share a tent. She can just pretend that everything’s cool, then nail you while you’re asleep.”
“I don’t think she’ll risk our future babies.”
“No, but she might bruise up that pretty zombie-face of yours.” Zach paused for half a beat. “I was gonna say she could give you a black eye, but that would be redundant.”
Luke groaned. “You guys are so funny with this zombie-eyes stuff.” He leaned close to Zach and hoarsely whispered, “Maybe one of these days I’ll take a nibble out of one of you.”
Zach stepped back. “That really isn’t funny.”
Luke smirked. “It’s funny to me.”
“I think I liked you better when you didn’t really have a sense of humor. Wait, you still don’t.” Zach sat down on the hard ground and appeared to study his boots while he was lost in thought. Finally, he reluctantly agreed to Luke’s plan. “You are the best guy for the job, and you have to close the trap anyway.”
“And it’s not like the hunters are chomping at the bit to attack me these days,” Luke added.
“Yeah, but you never know—that might change,” Zach warned.
Luke shrugged. “I honestly doubt it will change; blood is blood.”
Zach frowned when he considered the ramifications of what Luke was saying. “Dude, that’s kind of disturbing when you think about it. Besides, family members kill each other all the time.”
Luke held out his hand to help Zach up. “You’re talking about humans, and I bet most of those are jealous spouses.”
Zach allowed Luke to lift him to his feet. “So why do you really think the hunters don’t attack you anymore?”
“I guess they just see me as a fellow hunter, so I’m not particularly appealing to them.” Luke thought back to the creatures who had seemed interested in him, even curious about him. He shook off the memories. “Why do you think I’m so serious all the time? You try living as a zombie-human and see how you like it.”
“Is it really all that bad? I mean, you’re actually pretty kick-ass these days.” Zach hastily added, “Not that you weren’t before.”
“I wouldn’t change anything, buddy,” Luke replied, “except maybe all the worry you guys had to endure after I was bitten.”
Zach grinned as a thought occurred to him. “The hunters communicate like animals in a pack, right? Why don’t you just talk to ‘em and tell ‘em to stop trying to eat us?”
A smart retort died on Luke’s lips as he seriously contemplated the possibility. Zach finally punched him in the arm and explained, “I was kidding, you know.”
Luke slowly shook his head. “It’s all right, man, I was just thinking about those ATVs. Send your squad out to get the machines, and I’ll check in with Gracie and Maddy.”
The hunter stopped for a long drink. He’d passed the place where the remains of his pack had provided a tasty feast for a group of over-sized black vultures after the fight with the strange alpha. There were no answers to be found there, so he’d continued west until hunger and thirst demanded his attention. He drank slowly, the icy water numbing his throat, as he scanned the area for a potential meal. The surface of the river shimmered, and in the hunter’s mind, flashing lights blinked red and white. “Hey, Will, you okay?”
The hunter threw back his head and roared in frustration, not caring that he would scare off any prey in the area. “Hey, Will, you okay?” The hunter put his hands over his ears, but he couldn’t muffle the voice in his head. “Hey, Will, you okay?” He roared again and collapsed to the ground. He hated the memories now; he hated the images, but he especially hated the words. The words broke through some invisible barrier and created thoughts beyond his experiences as a hunter. At first the words were exhilarating, creating labels and order and opening up a whole new understanding of the world. Now that understanding was inescapably painful. “Hey, Will, you okay?”
He slowly rocked back and forth on his knees, the excruciating pain of the memories cradled by the words leading him to whimper, a pleading cry that he knew nobody could comfort. The frozen riverbank bit into his kneecaps, and his hunger was a constant, nagging discomfort, but more than anything, he craved the uncomplicated, ordered simplicity of pack life. He longed to revert to the existence he had known before he’d encountered the Strong One, before his mind was flooded with memories and so many questions. And a few answers.
A familiar sound cut through the memories. The hunter stood and cocked his head. In the distance, he heard a response to his roar. It sounded as if a small pack was alerting him of their presence. At that moment, he yearned for their companionship; he simply had to be with others of his own kind. As he set off to locate his brothers and sisters, one thought kept repeating itself in his mind. I am Will.
The new plan fell easily upon Luke’s shoulders. Contrary to Zach’s worries, Gracie immediately accepted the pragmatism behind Luke’s suggestion. He was going to command the unit tasked with closing the kill-zone, so he wouldn’t be needed at the edge of the bridge until the fight was well underway. Maddy was the first to point out what she thought was a flaw in the plan. “You’ll need a human with you.”
Luke had heard enough for today. “I am a human, Maddy. But I was planning on seeing if Terry wants to ride along.”
“I’m sure Terr
y would love to go with you,” Gracie offered. “Two of you can ride the ATV, or you can even be on foot while he rides if you can stay close.”
Maddy nodded. “That’ll work; he won’t lose his nerve.”
Gracie smiled as she remembered the teenager in the tree, determined to go down fighting against the largest, most ferocious pack she’d ever encountered. “Take care of that kid, Luke. He’s a good one.”
“I’ll get him back here,” Luke promised.
“Preferably alive,” Maddy advised. “He’s one of the best fighters in my company. And where will Courtney be when the fighting starts?”
“She’ll be inside the blocking trailer with the field hospital,” Gracie answered.
“Sounds like a plan we all agree on,” Luke observed as he extended a fist to Maddy that she dutifully pounded. “And Maddy gets an added bonus; there’ll probably be a few extra hunters to kill with Terry out playing in the snow with me.”
The work continued until after midnight, even as the snowfall intensified and began accumulating. By the time the soldiers were finished with their modifications to the trailers, there were fighting positions for everyone. Thirty-two of the best crossbowmen would be posted atop the trailers, each with three extra bows and three loaders who could pick up pikes if needed. Nearly a hundred men would be armed with spears, fighting from inside the trailers. Their murder holes were roughly ten inches wide, running from waist-height to a few feet from the roof. Rough-hewn boxes could be quickly moved into place if the warriors needed higher fighting-positions. Finally, the rest of the troops would be divided into two groups; one contingent would fight from the top of the blocking trailer, while the other would try to prevent any monsters from escaping the kill-zone once inside. That group would hide under the bridge until most of the pursuing hunters had entered the trap. Command was divided between Maddy and Zach on the flanks, with Gracie holding overall authority from the blocking trailer.
