Zombie Crusade: Evolution

by J. W. Vohs

  Simmons and his men would be visible for over a hundred yards in every direction when they went out to work on the switch in the morning, but so would any hunters that decided to try to make a meal out of them. Carter would have his best snipers posted on top of the cars, while the rest of the soldiers would form a rough circle around the railroad men as they worked. He expected to see fighting here, but he also knew his people would be at their deadliest in the open area they would be defending. Ultimately satisfied that he had a sound mental picture of the next morning’s battleground, Carter headed down into the crowded car to try to grab a few hours’ sleep.

  He felt as if he’d just closed his eyes when he awoke to John shaking him. “Hey, Sarge, half-hour to daylight.”

  Carter set up and rubbed his eyes, looking around to see that everyone was pulling on boots, checking loads and weapons, and trying to scrounge up a quick breakfast. He shook himself and rose to do all of the same activities before moving off to find his squad leaders and Simmons. After explaining the plan he asked if anyone had any suggestions on how to improve upon it. Stanley Rickers said that it sounded good, and everyone else echoed their approval before moving off to brief their men.

  After climbing up for another look around the area in the daylight and finding no hunters visible, Carter joined Simmons and his men in the rear of the locomotive just in time to see Ted Simmons lowering a set of binoculars as the other four rail-men smiled and shared quiet high-fives. “What y’all so happy ‘bout?

  Ted’s face was beaming as he explained, “This switch is already in place! We can move on toward the Union Pacific line anytime you’re ready to roll.”

  Carter was confused, “Say again?”

  “Well, I knew there was a chance the switch would already be in position, but I didn’t want anyone to be disappointed if we had to fight our way through a pack of hunters to do it ourselves, so I waited till first light to look her over.”

  “So yer sayin’ we don’t have to do nothin’, the line’s ready to take us straight through?”

  Simmons nodded as he continued to smile and look relieved at the same time, “And the next one should be set too. Looks like we finally caught a break.”

  Carter shook his head incredulously and gave the order, “Fire that engine up and get us outta here, Ted. I’ll let our troops know ‘bout our good luck and change in plans.”

  By noon the train was rolling across the Illinois countryside to the west of Chicago on the lines of the legendary Union Pacific railroad. The small towns and farms they were passing through were dead except for hunters, packs of which seemed to be all over the area in numbers that concerned Carter and his crew. So far the most any of the creatures had done was to lope alongside the train for a few miles trying to figure out what the noisy, rolling machine was before losing interest once convinced there was no food about. Carter had given strict orders for everyone to stay completely out of sight as they moved along, and so far they hadn’t drawn any determined attention from the infected they’d encountered.

  Just as he was opening an expired MRE Carter was told that Jack was on the radio in the second troop car, so he rushed back there to see what news his closest friend had to share.

  Carter grabbed the transmitter from Zach and nearly shouted, “How ya doin’ ol’ buddy?”

  Jack chuckled over the radio, “Yeah, Zach told me about your run of luck over there. The Utah train entered Iowa this morning, and apparently everything has gone well since they had to move a locomotive onto a siding near Cheyenne and got into a fight with about a thousand hunters.”

  “Yer exaggeratin’ on that number.”

  “I wish I was, Carter, but our new allies lost eighteen soldiers cutting their way loose from what they say was an ambush.”

  “Ambush? Who’s in charge of that mission?”

  “I know it sounds crazy,” Jack admitted, “but they didn’t see a thing until they were off the cars and trying to get that locomotive out of the way. When they were at their most vulnerable the largest group of hunters they’d ever encountered hit them at a full run.”

  Carter was silent for a long moment, “Ya seriously think the hunters are startin’ to plan their attacks?”

  “I don’t know, just keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary as you travel along, and be aware that at least in Wyoming, the hunters are forming into massive groups that just might be capable of organizing and planning coordinated action.”

  Carter let out a frustrated sigh, “You know these critters as well as I do, Jack, and you know they ain’t capable of that sort of thinkin’. And even if they are, how’re they communicatin’ complex plans to hundreds of others? A thousand hunters! They’d hafta be spread out over hundreds of meters, and that means a command structure with relayed orders. Sorry, buddy, somethin’ just don’t seem right about this.”

  Jack’s voice took on a note of frustration as he retorted, “When did any of this make sense, Carter? I’m just passing along the information from their report. Now, unless something stops their train or yours, you guys should be in radio range in about six hours or so. Then you should be able to arrange a meeting place somewhere in eastern Iowa. You copy all that?”

  “Yeah, Jack, I got it. We’ll keep a sharp eye for anythin’ strange here in Illinois. Carter out.”

  After frowning at the now silent radio for half a minute, Carter asked Zach and Maddy to gather the squad leaders and bring them to him without sharing a word of the news from Jack with anyone else on the train. Once everyone was gathered together, Carter briefly summarized the report he’d received and ordered multiple lookouts on the train. The observers weren’t to be given any of the new information from Jack just yet.

  Stanley Rickers asked, “Why don’t you want us to tell our people what to keep an eye out for?”

  Carter shrugged, “We’re all keepin’ our eyes out fer packs of hunters. If some are bigger than others, well, it ain’t gonna go unnoticed. Maybe them Wyoming zombies got some way to organize themselves into coordinated masses, but I don’t see no reason to get ourselves worryin’ ‘bout somethin’ we ain’t seen any sign of in our neck of the woods. So just advise your folks to watch fer any groups of hunters.”

  The squad leaders did as they were told, and Carter took his field glasses up to one of the firing ports to conduct his own observations. For nearly two hours he saw no groups of hunters larger than a dozen, and then unexpected movement up above the ridgeline stopped him cold. It took him a minute to process what now seemed like an alien event as a helicopter popped up above the distant trees before speeding away to the west.

  Carter rubbed his eyes and glanced over at one of John’s men who’d been staring in the same direction. “What the hell?” Carter shouted to the young soldier. “Did you see that that?”

  With a look of confusion on his face, the soldier called back, “If you mean the chopper, yes, sir, I did.”

  Carter nodded before motioning for the young man to turn around and keep his eyes on the area where they’d seen the aircraft, then he sprinted off to get Jack on the radio.

  CHAPTER 10

  The train passed through an old cut through the ridge line before rolling out onto a bridge overlooking a deep ravine stretching toward the north. The bottom of the hollow was heavily wooded near the bridge, but as the ground widened in the distance farm fields began to dot the landscape. There, in what was essentially a sheltered valley, roamed hundreds of hunters stretching nearly as far as the eye could see. Some of the creatures were sitting on the ground while others shuffled around, aimlessly following a handful of pack leaders who seemed to be heading in no particular direction.

  Carter had joined the lookout crew at the back of the locomotive for some quiet time to help clear his head after updating Jack about the helicopter; now he couldn’t feel his feet or tell if he was breathing as he took in the sight rolling by below him. As the train entered the next cut, obscuring the view of hunters gathered together in the valley,
all of the observers looking to the north silently waited until the flesh eaters were completely out of sight before turning to one another and confirming that they had witnessed the same phenomena. After discussing what they had just seen and coming to a general consensus regarding the number of creatures currently massed in the valley, Carter headed back to the radio, this time to inform Jack of the massive gathering of hunters they’d just passed.

  “I’m tellin’ ya, Jack, there were over a thousand of ‘em. If we get hit by a group like that I don’t think we stand a snowball’s chance in hell of survivin’ an attack.”

  Jack’s sigh crackled over the radio. “It’d be nice to think that we could count on whoever’s running those helicopters for a little back-up, but then I’d expect them to target the hunters when they’re gathered in such a large group.”

  “Well, I’m bettin’ they’re purely surveillance. It ain’t like we’ve seen a bunch of ‘em, and to be honest, dependin’ on whose flyin’ ‘em, they could be more trouble then they’re worth.”

  “Just keep your head down and keep me informed,” Jack replied. “And you can stop trying to be the center of attention with your thousands of zombies massing together and helicopters flying around—lay off on the drama and just get your butt home safely. Jack out.”

  Carter spent the next half hour discussing everything he knew about the helicopters and hunter gatherings with all of his squad leaders, who in turn passed the information on to the rest of the soldiers and the railroad-men. For the rest of the day, a few individuals reported uncorroborated sightings of helicopters several times an hour, but no one witnessed any large groups of hunters. After about an hour of travel time from the location of the original sighting, they began to see small packs of infected engaged in their normal activities, but the surrounding territory had been empty for nearly twenty miles after they’d passed the massive gathering.

  Carter managed to down a quick meal in spite of the worry that gnawed at him over the things he had seen and heard concerning hunter behavior and the presence of helicopters during the past twelve hours. In spite of the merciless teasing he endured at Jack’s hands concerning the purposeful maintenance of his linguistic heritage, Carter was an extremely intelligent problem solver, and his brain was running overtime to try to figure out what this new information meant in their war against the infected.

  The first thing he did was toss aside the possibility that the presence of helicopters near the large groups of hunters was simply a coincidence. He knew that when the infection had rapidly spread out of control in the early days of the outbreak, the US military had sent everything it had, short of nukes, into the battles against the millions of zombies pouring out of the nation’s cities. Most units had fought until they ran out of ammo and were overrun, and until the networks went silent, he had watched the same result unfold everywhere the troops made a stand against the infected. Two decade-long wars in the Middle East had already left the military short of all types of ordnance, and Carter now assumed that even machine gun ammo was tough to find. He finally decided that elements of the federal government had gone into hiding somewhere until the initial crisis had passed, and now they were surveying the land to see what, and who, had managed to survive the initial onslaught of the virus. It was entirely possible that the helicopter pilots had nothing more than side-arms for personal protection and could do nothing to impact the large gatherings of hunters that they could see forming in the Midwestern fields from miles away as they flew hundreds of feet above the ground.

  As for the gatherings of hunters, since The Castle’s soldiers had destroyed most of their surrounding area’s zombie population before the creatures had the opportunity to evolve, Carter accepted the possibility that this type of behavior had been going on for a while now, and they just hadn’t been around enough of the creatures to witness the phenomena first-hand. David’s group had stayed below the high banks of the Maumee on their way to The Castle, but had reported thousands of hunters passing their hiding places while still in the Cleveland area. Carter finally just shook his head in amazement, whispering a brief prayer of thanks that nobody in their resistance group had stumbled onto groups as large as the one he’d seen, or that which attacked the force from Utah. Apparently, the rules of the war had changed again.

  Carter jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder, blinking furiously at the early evening sunlight slanting through openings in the freight car’s walls and roof and shining directly into his eyes.

  Maddy shook him as she explained in a loud whisper, “Carter? Carter, wake up; the Utah people are on the radio and want to talk to you.”

  Carter shakily climbed to his feet and followed the young soldier to the radio area. A quick glance at his watch told him that he’d been asleep for almost two hours. He decided that he’d needed the rest as he sat down before the transmitter and called out, “Carter Wilson here.”

  A booming voice replied, “Hello, Carter, this is Hyrum Anderson from Utah calling; nice to hear a friendly voice out there!”

  Carter smiled to himself as he replied, “How’s everythin’ on yer end?”

  “Smooth ride once we escaped Cheyenne last night; how are you and your people?”

  “Well, we had a purty bad fight of our own in the Chicago rail yards, but everyone’s fed and had a chance to rest. I guess we’re doin’ fine.”

  Hyrum hesitated for a moment before replying, “Yeah, Jack told us that you had some losses up there. Believe me, I know how you feel, and you have my condolences.”

  Carter was caught a bit off-guard by the sympathy. “Well, thank you, Hyrum. Heard y’all lost people too, and we’re sorry to hear ‘bout that.”

  “Thanks, but you folks are helping us out without even knowing us, while we’re trying to find grain for the winter. We fight our way through or starve, while you and your people could be safe back home. Believe me, Carter, Utah won’t forget what your people are risking and sacrificing on our behalf.”

  Carter was a soldier, not a diplomat, but he realized he needed to acknowledge the gratitude he was hearing. “Me and Jack, and plenty of our other folks, were soldiers in the old world. That oath we took to protect Americans was fer life. Yer people are my people, Mr. Anderson, and from here on out we’ll stand or fall together as Americans.”

  A long silence from the Utah train finally ended as Hyrum declared in a voice husky with emotion, “Well said, Brother, well said. But we’ve seen our share of folks only worried about themselves back home, and what you’re doing for us will never be forgotten. I know right now you’re doing most of the giving and we’re doing most of the taking, but when the day comes that you need us we’ll remember.

  After another short silence Hyrum continued, “Where are you located at this time?”

  Carter had no idea, but when he looked up to yell for someone to ask Simmons where they were he saw Maddy rushing over from the front of the car with a note from the locomotive which he read over the radio, “We’re fifty miles inside of Iowa.”

  “Excellent,” Hyrum responded. “We passed Des Moines a little over two hours ago, so I suggest you ask your engineer to pull off onto the next siding he passes. Call and let us know where you are, and we’ll head your way as fast as we can.”

  “Sounds good,” Carter replied. “We’ll give ya a call when we’re off

  the track. Carter out.”

  Just as he stood up he recognized the young doctor from David’s group standing at the door. “Can I help ya with something’?” he asked, doing his best to sound friendly even though he was tired and preoccupied with thoughts about the upcoming rendezvous with Hyrum’s people.

  Vickie ducked in the door. “Sergeant Wilson, may I speak to you for a moment?”

  “Only if ya call me Carter, Doc. I’d like an update on our injured folks while we’re at it.”

  Vickie smiled weakly. “Nothing too serious, though that’s hard to believe. Both of our concussions are insisting that they’re fine and ready for
duty, but I told them they were stuck with me for a while yet since double-vision tends to hinder a soldier’s aim. Bullets are too precious to waste these days.”

  “I can’t disagree there.” Carter sat back down, and motioned for Vickie to take a seat across from him. “So ya needed to talk to me?”

  Vickie took a couple steps forward but remained standing. “Jack had us give a supply list to the Utah people before we left. I was wondering what they were able to get for us. Dr. Redders and I basically asked for everything we could think of—medicines, equipment, you name it and we probably asked for it. I guess I’m anxious to know what they were able to put together for us. Have they mentioned the medical supplies?”

  Carter shook his head. “Naw, but I haven’t brought it up. Why don’t ya call ‘em and ask ‘em? Maddie is good with this radio contraption—she’ll show ya what to do. I’m gonna go check with our boys up-top and see if they’ve got anythin’ interestin’ to report. I’m hopin’ they don’t.”

  A half-hour later Simmons had the train pulled off onto a siding and the Utah force was an hour away. Once they made contact the plan was to have the Utah train, which was longer and better-powered, pull past the siding so the Indiana cars could reverse power onto the main track and hook up to the rear where they could be pulled back home.

  Finally, as the last of the day’s light was fading into dusk, Hyrum waved from the locomotive as he and his westerners slowly rolled past Simmons’ tiny train. Just moments later, Indiana and Utah soldiers shook hands after they hopped down from their cars and joined one another to guard the men connecting the cars together. The job took only a few minutes to complete with just one small pack of hunters making contact before being quietly exterminated; then the new allies boarded the train and began rolling slowly eastward toward what they all prayed would be a long and fruitful alliance.