by David Peters
He scanned the beach again and lingered on a large rock at the waterline. A lone Hunter stood on the top of the rock and appeared to be staring directly at him. The beast let out a long, angry scream and several of those gathered around the bottom joined in.
“Find Neil. I want to know that he is ready to start the show. We need to get the ball rolling on our new found friends.”
He smiled as he thought about what they had in store for them.
Chapter 5
“That is a hell of a lot of Corrupted, Dylan. Even by our standards.”
Dylan nodded silently as he scanned the crowd with his binoculars. Even through the screams, clawed sand and endless shifting, the Corrupted were waiting patiently.
“I hope whatever surprise they have can clean house. I don’t see any guns on that ship, I hope they know what they are doing.”
Niccole asked, “Do you think they have any planes tucked away?”
Caperson shook his head, “No way. The entire deck was turned into a patchwork of pipes and shacks.”
“And a lot of mud,” Travis added.
A mile below them on the sandy beach more and more Corrupted were arriving from the south.
Jokester was laying on his belly with his sniper rifle aimed toward the crowd, “I’ve got Stripes in my sights.”
Niccole flashed back to her time in the Sumter hive. It was the first time they had seen leadership in the Corrupted. A larger than average Hunter with red strips on his thigh had given rise to the name Stripes.
Niccole added, “They must have a hive in Newport. I don’t see anything coming from the north. All of these guys have come up from the south on the beach and I can’t imagine Stripes heading too far away from his home hive.”
Caperson was looking further down the beach, “Large group of Guards coming in.”
At a least a dozen of the massive, muscular Guards were lumbering down the beach surrounded by a small horde of Sappers. The Sappers were both automated explosives and, as they had learned in Paradise Falls, ammunition that the Guards could throw more than one hundred meters.
Caperson scanned back toward the main group of Hunters, “I think they emptied that hive. How many do you think are down there now?”
“You’re better with that than I am but if I had to guess I’d say a stadium’s worth.”
“Yeah, that’s probably right. Must be ten or fifteen-thousand down there just standing and watching. I’ve never seen the battle from this side. Stripes seems to be directing the troops into a certain orientation. Notice how the Sappers are grouped up?”
“Yeah, groups of eight with three Hunters each. Not so obvious near the middle but at the edges it seems pretty evident.”
“Look toward the rear of their formation, the Hunters are facing away from the beach. Very organized.”
“This is creepy as hell.”
The Guards lumbered onto the battlefield and drew into a line nearest the water’s edge. Sappers milled around their legs in tightly packed groups that would allow the larger Corrupted to grab them without having to move very far. Fifty feet behind them the rest of the horde. As more and more of the sailors became visible on the elevator platforms, their agitation grew. With the binoculars, Dylan could make out Stripes clearly on the top of his large rock. He screamed out with a long cry as he flexed the massive talons on his hands.
“I hope they know what they are doing. Those ‘Rupts are ready to kill.”
~1~
Charles stood on the bridge and watched the beach, “We need to get them grouped up a little better. You almost ready to start this off, Neil? I don’t want to be moving people at night and we only have five and half hours of daylight.”
Neil smiled, “Yes, sir. Everything is set up and we did a quick system test. Green across the board. You give the go ahead and we will start the best fireworks show you have ever seen.”
“Get it going. Good luck.”
Neil made his way down to the elevator. The large slab of deck that used to move airplanes from the hangar below to the flight deck. The platform was currently down at its lowest point. The water was another five feet below and growing closer as the ship slowly sank down in the mud and sand.
“James, fire up phase one. Let’s clear ourselves a beachhead.”
James smiled as he flipped the switches on a large radio control device. Below them, one of the covered lifeboats came to life and slowly started motoring toward the shore with the high-pitched whine of an electric motor. He moved the rudder left and right with the controller as he tried to get the Corrupted’s attention, cruising back and forth in front of the shoreline. He smiled when he heard the rising screams of anger from the growing crowd. One of the Guards lobbed a Sapper in frustration but merely created a floating pool of fire several dozen meters short of the boat.
Neil smiled, “Works exactly like we had hoped.”
~2~
“They’re sending someone to shore? Are they insane?” Dylan asked no one in particular. “That’s suicidal!”
Travis was watching through the field binoculars, “I think it’s radio controlled. I can see a guy on that platform with some box that has a crazy big antenna and I can see a whip antenna on the back of that boat. That and the fact that the cover is still on the boat. If there is anyone in there, they can’t see squat. Heck, they probably couldn’t breathe.”
“Are they driving a bomb onto the beach?” Niccole asked.
Caperson grimaced, “Could be. It will take out some but I can’t see it clearing all of them out unless it’s a nuke. I think they would warn us about that, we are kind of close for large gauge ordinance.”
“I need to meet the guy that put this together, I like him already,” Travis said with a smile. “He thinks like I do. Is my stuff this exciting to watch the first time?”
“No!” they answered back in unison.
Travis winced, “Ouch. You remember that next time you need something blown up.”
“We’ll remember it when something gets blown up that we used to like.”
“Name one thing I blew up that anyone misses!” Travis said defensively.
“The north outhouse would be a good start,” Dylan answered.
“Oh, yeah. That,” he said back quietly. “I’ll get that waste burning generator working someday.”
~3~
As the boat started to reach the line of surf, James turned it parallel to the shore. The boat rode the waves up and down the shore. From the ship, it looked as if they were only feet off the beach but experience told him otherwise. He knew there was at least one-hundred meters to the sand.
“Starting phase two,” he said as he flipped one of the switches on his controller.
From nearly a quarter mile away, rising above the sound of the wind and surf, a familiar guitar riff began to blast from under the canvas cover. It built until a steady drum beat joined in. The cover began to vibrate to the beat as the song reached the end of the first refrain and the singer’s voice started the first verse.
“You sure that will work?” Charles asked.
“See for yourself.”
On the beach the Hunters started to scream in anticipation while Guards began to pound the beach angrily with their massive fists.
“Oh yeah, they’re pissed. Is that as loud as it will go?”
Neil was bobbing his head to the music as he smiled toward James.
James moved one of the sliders and the music became noticeably louder, “Now it is, sir.”
~4~
Travis rocked his head back and forth to the beat, “I haven’t heard these guys in at least five years. Forgot how much I missed this stuff.”
Dylan grimaced, “This is the kind of music you listen to?”
“Oh, hell yeah. If all my tunes weren’t locked on a laptop that won’t turn on, I still would. Now I really have to meet this guy. Good gadgets and damn good music. This is my kind of people.”
Caperson shook his head, “I can’t tell who like
s the music less, Dylan or the ‘Rupts.”
“That is not music,” Dylan said under his breath. “That is nothing but noise,”
Travis smiled, “Would it be better with a fiddle?”
“What’s wrong with the fiddle?” Dylan snapped back with a hint of anger.
“Uh, nothing,” Travis answered quietly as he continued to tap his fingers to the beat.
“This is not music.”
“Would it help if he was singing about his old dog and a pickup truck?”
Dylan rolled his eyes but didn’t rise to the bait.
~5~
“Give them another five minutes of back and forth then make your way toward the beach. Aim at the rock with that bag-ass Hunter on it.”
“He does look kind of leader-like, don’t he?”
Charles spoke into a handheld radio, “Five minutes, then it’s your show, Knox.”
“Ready and waiting, sir.”
“Remember we have friendlies on the hillside.”
“Not a problem, sir. We have excluded their location from the attack grid.”
The small white boat made one more long lazy loop up and down the shore before turning in toward the beach. The music system was well into the sixth song on the heavy metal album when it rode up the light surf and continued onto the sandy beach. James added another few knots of speed using the small, electric drive motor and aimed straight for the enemy’s center mass. The Corrupted packed in tight to get at the boat the instant it made land fall. They danced and jumped as they tried to stay out of the surf as the waves rolled up the beach. Many simply tore up clumps of sand with their talons as their frustration grew.
Once the boat made it through the surf, James pushed the throttle to the stopper and the engine launched the boat toward the sand. It skidded across the surf and came to a sliding stop several meters out of the water. Hunter screams flowed across the shore as the mass of Corrupted surged forward.
Charles clicked his radio, “Now, Mr. Knox. Show them this old girl still has some teeth.”
~6~
“Holy crap!” Caperson yelled as he reflexively ducked lower behind the massive cedar log.
Two small white domes, one at the bow and one at the stern of the ship began to spew glowing streams of light. They watched in disbelief as orange-white lines of light reached out from the heavily listing carrier and moved back and forth through the crowd. It took eight seconds for the long drawn out sound of chainsaw like gunfire to reach the top of the bluff. The guns were designed to protect the carrier from the missiles that leaked through the outer defense shield of aircraft and ships. Pill-bottle sized explosive-tipped bullets firing thirty-three rounds per second would tear enemy missiles to nothing but shreds of metal. They also seemed to work well against Corrupted.
The twenty-millimeter point defense round were fused to detonate above the crowds of Corrupted. Back and forth the streams of firehose-like light waved across the crowds leaving trails of devastation in their wake. Thousands of the rounds continued to grind the beach into nothing but shattered bodies and death. Flaming pools of Sappers continued to detonate as the streams of light walked back and forth. The final stream of light left the aft mounted gun and silence returned to the beach.
Dylan looked at Caperson with raised eyebrows, “Um, wow.”
“Not what those guns were designed for, but hell, they worked. I’d forgotten the ship even had them.”
Travis nearly exploded, “I have got to get me one of those!”
Dylan and Caperson answered in unison, “No!”
“You guys are no fun,” then he smiled, “Mom would let me have one.”
Dylan chuckled, “Sorry, kid, but your mom isn’t here.”
“And I would overrule her,” Niccole added.
“You old dudes are total downers,” Travis said with a smile.
Another long burst from the front cannon ripped through a small group of guards that had been late to the battle. A quick five-seconds of orange-white light left nothing but smoldering flame and smoke.
“Stennis calling Paradise Falls.”
“This is Niccole. Nice show guys.”
“Show isn’t over. Keep your heads down for the grand finale. It gets better.”
Niccole turned to the others on the bluff, “You heard the man, get your heads down.”
From below them the same music from before began to blare the song that had started at the beginning of the boat’s run. A few Hunter cries could be heard from several spots on the beach. Dylan took a quick look over the top of the log they were hiding behind and saw several Hunters and a few Guards making their way through the carnage to the music thumping from the lifeboat. Several were wounded but dragged themselves through the sand to get to the man-made sound. Their talons digging into the wet sand to pull their shattered bodies forward.
“Doesn’t look like a lot of them survived but they really want a piece of that boat and whatever is in it,” Dylan observed.
~7~
The radio Charles was holding crackled to life, “Both guns are burned out. Burned through almost all the twenty mike-mike so it’s all good. All you, sir.”
Charles nodded his approval, “You heard him, James. It’s all you now.”
James smiled as he watched through the binoculars. He kept his thumb over a covered switch. As the first Hunter got closer to the boat he flipped the clear plastic cover, exposing the red switch underneath. He waited several more moments before flipping the switch with a large smile on his face.
The music was abruptly replaced by the growing shock-wave created by nearly one hundred pounds of plastic explosive. The surviving Corrupted were shredded as the blast blew a thirty-meter wide crater in the beach. Buckets of sheet metal scraps and broken tools spread out at speeds in excess of twenty-thousand feet per second. Corrupted within four-hundred meters of the vaporized boat simply turned into a mist while the few stragglers further away simply fell where they were standing as bits of steel and wood passed through their bodies while barely slowing down.
~8~
Caperson willed himself lower into the dirt as the sounds of shrapnel tore through the trees over their heads. Several large pieces struck the log in front of them, sending a shudder through the large, rotten tree.
Dylan flexed his jaw as he tried to clear the ringing from his ears. Smaller pieces of shrapnel continued to fall from the trees but the larger, more dangerous steel rain had passed through the forest.
Caperson looked over the log and saw remnants from the battle still falling from the massive rolling cloud of sand and water.
The radio in front of Niccole crackled to life, “Stennis calling Paradise Falls.”
“You are going to need to speak up, Stennis. We’re all deaf and still making sure all of our relevant pieces are still attached.”
“Sorry about the lack of warning. Neil might have gone a little heavy with the explosives.”
Travis smiled, “Neil sounds like my kind of guy.”
Niccole frowned at Travis before clicking the microphone, “What’s the next move, Stennis?”
“We are sending the boats now. First load will be armed personnel to hold the beachhead. I expect the noise will bring reinforcements from the south. We have a few heavy weapons that will allow us to build a beachhead perimeter. If you wouldn’t mind holding the position until we can get in place, that would be great.”
“We’ll be ready. See you on the beach, Charles.”
“Looking forward to it.”
The radio went dead and they made their way back to the wagon team at the bottom of the bluff behind them.
“Wagon Lead, this is Dylan.”
“Wagon Lead here. Sounds like you had quite a show, a few bits of it made it into the trees over here.”
“Affirmative, I’ll pass along the same apology they gave us.”
“No injuries so no worries.”
“Apparently they have their own Travis.”
Travis looked up fr
om his backpack, “Hey!”
“That explains everything, Niccole.”
She smiled at Travis and clicked the microphone, “Giving you a heads up. We’re waiting for them to establish a beachhead, you will be clear to leave the highway and make your way down to the beach shortly.”
“Roger that. We’re ready now and will wait for your word. See you folks in a few.”
Caperson watched through the binoculars as they loaded two, large wooden boats, “Lot of guys with guns heading to the beach. I see some heavier crew weapons in the mix too.”
~9~
The road winding its way to the beach was well paved and made for easy access. The large, wide parking lot at the end of the road was free of obstacles and allowed them to turn the wagons in wide, sweeping arcs.
“Let’s keep them on the pavement,” Dylan instructed as the first wagon wound its way to the end of the parking lot, “these narrow wheels are going to plow into the sand and once we get them loaded we’ll never get them back out.”
“Not a problem, Dylan.” Dean said. He turned to the young man sitting on the bench next to him, “Hop off and make sure everyone follows me around the horn. We will load up each wagon and move back up the road. I want to make sure everyone is where we can see them.”
“Sure,” he said as he jumped down and waved the next wagon forward.
Dylan watched the boats continue to motor slowly toward the shore. There were hundreds of the bright orange rafts, overloaded with people and supplies powering toward a beach. A beach that less than an hour ago had been teaming with angry mobs of Hunters, Sappers and Guards but was now a crater pocked landscape of wrecked Corrupted bodies.
Soldiers still walked among the dead and broken bodies of Corrupted looking for signs of life. Occasionally, there would be the loud pop of a firearm as a survivor was located and dispatched.
The first boats to make land fall spilled their contents of heavily armed soldiers onto the beach. Several made their way toward the wagon train while others ran a short distance down the beach and set up a small mortar and several large-caliber machine guns. The beach commander climbed onto the same rock Stripes had been standing on when they had launched their initial assault. He began shouting out instructions for fields of fire.
