by J. W. Vohs
He felt as if he was watching the scene from far away, or perhaps on a distant television screen, as a ladder with three people on it was slowly pulled backward by the monsters trying to climb after them, dropping the doomed humans into the gnashing teeth of the creatures awaiting their fall. On the shore, less than twenty feet away, he saw one of the islanders whose name he couldn’t recall screaming in agony as he struggled to pull himself into the water despite the fact that two hunters were hungrily tearing strips of flesh from his exposed legs. The thought passed through David’s mind that he should try to shoot the poor man in the head but he couldn’t remember where his pistol was. Suddenly someone fell across his legs and he looked down in horror to see Christy on her back, struggling to push two child-hunters off of her while a third, larger creature grabbed her helmet and pulled so hard David was afraid her neck was about to snap. Still he couldn’t breathe, and even as his arm began to reach for Christy in slow motion he knew his wife was about to die. Panic flooded his brain, but he still could do nothing to help her.
Then, even above the nearly deafening din of the battle raging all about them, David heard a roar of defiance and stared dumfounded as the head of the large hunter pulling on Christy’s helmet simply disappeared in a spray of grey, red, and black. A split second later the two child-hunters were brutally kicked off of the dock and a gore-spattered warrior grabbed Christy with one hand and tossed her behind David screaming, “Get up and get on a boat!”
David realized that Luke had arrived, and even through the fog of oxygen deprivation he felt a flicker of hope stir in his heart. Christy wasted no time climbing to her feet, and using a burst of remaining strength, she somehow pulled David up and gasped, “C,mon, you son-of-a-bitch, you’ve gotta help me here!”
Now that he was standing upright, a breath suddenly flooded painfully into his lungs. He realized that sitting in the position he was in on the dock must have been compressing his damaged ribs in a way that wouldn’t allow him to breathe properly. Now that he was on his feet, in spite of what felt like a hot knife-blade ripping into his side, he found himself able to stumble along with one arm slung across Christy’s shoulders. They moved down the dock as quickly as they could, but soon began to realize that all of the yachts were backing water before the hunters could reach them. There was no way David could swim, or even jump into the water in his condition. Suddenly, three berths ahead of them, one of the boats came drifting back toward the dock. Standing at the bow was Gracie, with a shotgun in her hands.
“Get on here, dammit,” she shouted. “And where’s Luke?”
Christy tried to reach out and stop Gracie as the girl flew by the two wounded fighters as they were stepping gingerly onto the boat, but even at full strength she doubted that she could have held the determined teen. Gracie ran down the dock toward the furious struggle taking place at the shoreline. Another flare had burst above them and she could see Luke’s distinctive helmet, which had a white cross painted on the back with “Jerry” scrawled below it. Even as Gracie watched, one of the five soldiers fighting to hold back the hunters went down hard and was quickly pulled away into the mob of flesh-eaters. She could see Luke’s axe whirling as he tried to kill all of the monsters grabbing at the fallen soldier, but as she finally arrived at the fighting line she saw that the man was gone. She yelled over the howls and snarls, “I’m here, and I’m not leaving till you do!”
Luke had no time to indulge the feeling of disappointment that shot through his heart when he heard Gracie’s voice and realized that she was once again in danger. He was completely exhausted, and used the few seconds of respite gained by the nearest hunters trying to grab a piece of flesh from the fallen soldier to stick the axe back into his weapons belt and pick up an abandoned halberd lying at his feet. Marcus and Bobby stood with him, as well as the lieutenant who’d been with the two Rangers all night. The four men were using pikes and halberds to keep the ferocious hunter attack at bay, but they couldn’t retreat while in direct contact with so many of the flesh-eaters and they couldn’t kill all of the monsters either. In effect, their warrior spirits compelled them to delay the inevitable as long as they could still wield their weapons, and to send as many of the monsters to hell as possible before they fell to the beasts. Then, like an angel descending from heaven, Gracie gave them a chance to escape the trap.
Trusting that the veteran fighters would take advantage of what she was about to do, Gracie stepped up at the far right of the line and quickly fired eight rounds of double-ought buckshot into the pressing horde of hunters at point blank range. More than a dozen of the creatures were blasted back into their pack-mates with such force that the momentum of the horde’s assault was momentarily halted. Luke wasted no time in dropping the halberd and grabbing Gracie by the shoulder, both teens turning to run as quickly as they could in their depleted condition. Marcus and Bobby also immediately realized that this was their only chance for survival and were running down the dock right behind their comrades. The lieutenant was at the far left of the defensive line they’d been holding and was a second slow in recognizing the opportunity he’d just been given, but when he saw a hunter with a horrifically shredded face pull itself from the jumble of corpses and limp toward him he quickly realized that he needed to follow the others.
As the exhausted soldiers trotted down the dock, they steadily lost ground to the hunters who never seemed to tire unless you cut off one of their legs or killed them outright. The yacht pilot, whom Gracie had ordered at gunpoint to take her back to the dock, was now backing water again but keeping the vessel close enough to give the retreating fighters a chance to make it to the deck before it was too late. Christy had organized several of the other soldiers and refugees at the front of the ship, and they now stood waiting with pikes to fight off any hunters who tried to follow her friends aboard.
Gracie and Luke jumped together, easily crossing the five feet of water below. Then came Marcus, followed a second later by Bobby. The brave lieutenant, who had helped set off the diversion with the Rangers to begin the night’s attack, was now the last soldier to leave the battlefield. Just as he leapt from the dock two small, naked hunters jumped on his back and they all fell into the deep, cold water of Lake Erie. Luke, who had turned to help keep the hunters from the deck immediately after safely reaching the yacht, stood disbelieving as the gallant young soldier who’d fought so ferociously instantly sank under the weight of his attackers and all of his protective gear.
For the briefest of moments Luke felt a wave of despair roaring toward his brain, but before it slammed into him he grabbed the end of a rope and dove into the water after the young man who’d earned everyone’s respect and admiration during a night of horror and heart-rending loss. Luke didn’t need to do anything but sink in all of the gear he was wearing. He felt his ears pop from the pressure and looked around for the lieutenant as he rapidly descended into the murky depths. He saw one of the hunters wildly swinging his arms about in an effort to make it back to the surface, and then, out of nowhere he felt a vise-like grip wrap around his ankle.
Now he wondered why he had jumped into the lake without a weapon, waiting for the creature to bite into his calf and hoping the tough boots he was wearing would stop the monster’s teeth. Then, miraculously, he felt what could only be a helmet bounce off of his knee. The lieutenant had found Luke. He quickly pulled the soldier up with one arm and then wrapped the rope around both of them with a final burst of energy before his feet and hands flailed wildly for the surface and his consciousness faded to nothingness.
When she’d seen what Luke was about to do Gracie had screamed, “No!” and ineffectually grabbed for one of his arms as he jumped. Her first instinct was to go in after him, but out of the corner of her eye she had seen him grab the rope and quickly realized what he was trying to do. She looked over at Christie, who had tossed down her halberd and dashed to her young friend’s side when she heard the scream. Gracie was fumbling with the rope and shouting for help, and
Christie grabbed it too without completely understanding what was going on.
“It’s Luke!” Gracie yelled as she began pulling on the heavy rope. “He went down after the lieutenant, and there’s no way they can make it back up with all of their gear on.”
Christie didn’t hesitate to begin pulling with all of her might, but she also had the presence of mind to shout for Marcus, Bobby, or anyone else who had even an ounce of strength left, to help pull the two unbelievably heavy soldiers from the dark water. Both of the Rangers were at her side in a matter of seconds, and the four of them could tell by the weight they were struggling with that at least one of their comrades was on the other end of the line. The progress seemed agonizingly slow, though in reality the helmets of the two, unmoving soldiers broke the surface less than a minute after Gracie and the others had started pulling on the rope.
Marcus and Bobby flopped down on the deck, and each of them grabbed one of the motionless bodies, heaving them up onto the ship in spite of the weight of their water-logged gear. Gracie and the two Rangers knew CPR, and they ripped the helmets off of their friends and went to work. Luke almost immediately spit up a bunch of water and began choking. They rolled him onto his side and let him continue to cough the rest of the water out of his lungs. The lieutenant wasn’t responding as well, but he still had a faint pulse, and within one minute he too was sputtering and painfully drawing breath into his aching lungs.
Gracie hadn’t cried since the day her father died, but now she sat weeping with Luke’s head in her lap, stroking his wet hair as he shivered and hacked up water. Christie quickly organized a space in the cabin for both of the recovering soldiers, stripping their wet gear off and covering them with some blankets she’d found in one of the small closets. Gracie still held Luke as color slowly returned to his face, while Marcus and Bobby sat with the young officer who’d fought heroically at their sides in the most horrific and dangerous battle of their lives. Finally, after about ten minutes, Luke whispered, “Did we save the lieutenant?”
Gracie smiled through her quiet sobs, and replied, “Yeah, baby, we pulled both of you out and you’re both gonna make it.”
Luke gave the slightest of nods before closing his eyes and falling into a deep sleep. Gracie looked over at the Rangers, and Bobby gave her a thumbs-up as he remarked, “You’re one hell of a soldier, kid.”
Chapter 14
The train bearing Carter’s force and the expedition from Utah was halfway across Illinois when the sun rose, saving fuel and taking it easy on the locomotive by maintaining a steady speed of twenty miles per hour. Ted Simmons and his crew were working with the Utah engineers, dividing the entire group into two teams. One of them was operating the locomotive in the front of the train, and the other maintained a presence in the rear engine in case the lead machine experienced any mechanical problems.
Most of the troops were still sleeping in the boxcars when one of the soldiers who’d been keeping watch shook Carter awake and breathlessly explained, “We just saw two more helicopters on the horizon!”
Carter worked to shake the cobwebs from his brain and finally asked, “How far out?”
“Bill estimated about four miles,” the man answered, “and they seemed to be circling the track ahead of us.”
Carter rose to his feet, “C’mon, show me these choppers.”
By the time Carter made his way to one of the viewing ports the helicopters were two black dots on the horizon, rapidly fading from the view of the binoculars as they flew away to the east. When they finally disappeared from view, Carter shimmied down the short ladder to inform the Utah commander of what they’d seen. Just as his foot touched the bottom rung, one of the soldiers still keeping watch shouted down the hatch, “Sir, you’ve gotta see this!”
Quickly climbing back up to his previous position, Carter was left breathless by what he saw less than a mile ahead as the locomotive pulled the train down a gentle decline toward a long, flat stretch of land covered with trampled soybean fields. Thousands of infected were gathered together in a seething horde that extended to the horizon in a rectangular formation along the tracks. The engineer must have seen them too, because the train began to noticeably slow as the brake was applied. For a long moment Carter just stared in wonder as the distance between him and the army of infected quickly decreased, then he suddenly dropped down the hatch and started shouting orders in the boxcars as he rushed to the front of the train. This was no time to be slowing down.
“Fightin’ positions! Everybody up, we’re bein’ attacked!”
Many of the soldiers were already awake and brewing coffee as they prepared their breakfasts, but few of them were geared up. After the initial surprise over their commander’s frantic orders everyone began rushing about gathering gear and preparing for combat. Carter shouted for Hyrum Anderson to follow him as he ran through the Utah boxcars on his way to the locomotive, also yelling the warning that they we’re about to be in a fight.
He finally reached the engineer, who had slowed the train to a crawl as they were now only about four hundred meters from the waiting creatures.
“Dammit, man, you’ve gotta plow through these bastards! We need speed!”
The engineer was one of the Utah men, and he looked briefly at his own commander before complying with the order. Anderson, who could now see what was in front of them, firmly declared, “Give us speed, now!”
The brakes were released and the locomotive began to slowly regain some momentum, but Carter strongly suspected that they weren’t going to be able to plow through all of the monsters in their path. As they closed to within a hundred meters of the massive phalanx of infected he looked over at the Utah commander, “Get to yer men. Stay with the cars and keep quiet. If they don’t know there’s humans in here they’ll eventually leave.”
Anderson nodded once and both men rushed from the locomotive to issue orders to their troops. Carter was just stepping into the first of the two boxcars holding the Indiana soldiers when he could feel the train slowing, and when he stopped for a moment he could hear the screams and howls of the creatures being crushed by the locomotive. Incredibly, the infected were using their own flesh to stop the massive engine, and even as Carter began to hiss orders to squad leaders for everyone to keep quiet and stay out of sight he heard shots erupt from several locations along the train. Then he noticed that they weren’t moving anymore.
Everyone should have understood the need to avoid detection by the infected, but Carter would never find out if it was his people or the Utah soldiers who started the fight with the horde of monsters gathered along the tracks. Even as the shooting intensified from the front boxcars Carter cursed himself for not having examined the Utah defensive preparations; he had no idea how they had modified the troop carriers or what their fighting plan was. Now they were in the process of being swarmed by thousands of hunters and the fates of both groups were intertwined.
Carter had been involved in many battles during and after his time in the Army; he thought he might die in this fight, but he wouldn’t panic. With all possibility of remaining hidden from the hunters now gone, he began to calmly issue orders to his gathered squad leaders. “Make sure every escape hatch and side door is firmly locked and guarded. Everybody else needs to be on top of the cars usin’ pikes fer now. With this many infected, we’ll probably see piles of corpses build up till the hunters can climb up to the roofs. Make sure everyone has their swords and maces on their belts. John, Tina, yer in charge of car one. Stanley, car two. I’m gonna stay in touch with the Utah folks and make sure we’re all doin’ the same things. All right, get movin’!”
As Carter opened the door that led from his car to the last of the Utah troop carriers, he saw that the infected on both sides of the tracks quickly noticed him stepping into the open and rushed toward the first human they’d had a complete view of since the fight began. Carter made it into the Utah boxcar before any of the creatures reached him, locking the steel door as he went looking for Hyru
m Anderson. The great majority of the Utah fighters had swung open long, slender hatches that allowed them to shoot at the attackers while standing on the floor of the car. A few viewing ports had been constructed on the roofs, but the western soldiers hadn’t built any fighting positions on the tops of the box cars and that was going to be a big problem for all of them if new tactics weren’t quickly adapted.
Carter finally found Anderson at the front of the car, thankful that he didn’t have to risk showing himself on top of the couplings again by searching further along the train. He grabbed the man by the shoulder and quickly explained his concerns. “There’s no way yer folks have enough ammo to kill all these creatures.”
Anderson nodded, “No, the fight in Cheyenne didn’t leave us with much.”
“But you have enough pikes and spears fer everyone?” Carter shouted over the gunfire roaring out in every direction.
Anderson yelled back, “Sure. Everyone has a long weapon and some sort of blade or club on their belt.”
“Good,” Carter loudly responded, “ya need to get your men on top of these boxcars using their pikes and spears. The infected can’t reach up there right now.”
“What do you mean by right now?” Anderson wanted to know.
Carter frowned as he explained, “I’ve been in a fight like this before. The infected will just keep chargin’ ‘til they can climb the bodies of their dead to reach us. Ya’ll will hafta bring your men in before that happens since ya only have two hatches into the car. If we reach that point we’ll have to reevaluate our options, but fer now that’s how we gotta fight ‘em.”
