by JT Sawyer
She went back inside the house and quickly grabbed some canned goods and replenished her drinking water. Carlie looked at a framed photo on the kitchen wall, taking in the small family who were gathered under a spacious oak tree. She moved the man and woman beside each other into the center of the living room, brushing the woman’s hair back off her cheeks and placing a cowboy hat over the man’s face. Then she covered each with a blanket before closing the front door behind her. She hopped into the jeep, her heart racing with the need to alert the others as the farmhouse retreated from her rearview mirror.
Chapter 31
Duncan was standing over the western edge of the Grand Coulee Dam with his binoculars, scanning the areas below. It had been a wet winter and the water level on the retaining side of the reservoir was a hundred feet deep. On the spillway before him, the water dropped off considerably as it swept through the river and disappeared into the lowlands in the distance. Situated on either side of the concrete structure were the three generating plants. Two were built on higher ground while the third and oldest structure was situated on flatter terrain. Their safety concerned Duncan the most as their protection required his forces to be spread thin along the upper wall of the dam. Coming to the valley on either side of the dam were the four central access roads. He had hoped to have these lined with claymores but given their compressed timelime they barely had the hours necessary to secure the immediate grounds. They obviously want the dam intact or they would’ve just focused on severing power lines and stations between here and Lewis. That means they will have to enter this meadow.
Duncan looked along the curved ramparts of the dam, checking to make sure the machine-gun placements were ready. Situated along each end of the dam were several sniper teams. Down below, the last of the troops were filing back into the facility after having locked the flimsy perimeter fences near the main road.
He met with a group of his garrison commanders one more time to discuss their plans for the defense. His troops consisted of close to a hundred personnel at the dam and then two hundred more spread around the roads to the front and rear of their location. Duncan had no indication of the numbers of enemy human combatants and knew they would be severely outnumbered with the undead. This was starting to feel like the medieval castle sieges he had studied in the past. Those never ended well—the invaders either starving out the occupants or breaching the walls with their superior numbers. If he had had more air transport, they could have brought additional manpower to the dam and surrounding areas but their warfighting capabilities had been reduced to World War II standards and many of their helo crews were still on missions along the west coast. He had had better odds in battles overseas in recent military campaigns where he had the comfort of knowing they could call in for air support or be extracted from a hot-spot. Now, they were alone and dependent on footpower, small-unit tactics, and their hastily fortified position. There were no other forces to call upon that could swoop in and boost their firepower; no reliable satellite support to confirm precise enemy numbers and locations; and no mobile scouting units to provide real-world information on the ground beyond their present location. Tactics and brutality, akin to trench warfare, were the norm they had returned to and he dreaded the slaughter that was about to unfold.
The virus laid humanity low but now we are about to help further the effort through our own savagery and inhumanity against our own kind. My God, how did it come to this?
Kulovitz came up alongside him, a radio in his left hand. “The second convoy that split off is heading up Highway 155 from the south—twenty semi-trucks and six passenger vehicles. The other group split off to the east.”
Duncan rested his hands on the metal railing before him and peered at the horizon. “Matias’s team is the closest to that region. Instruct them to blow the bridge on Highway 155 and take out as many of the hostiles in the explosion as possible. Then dispatch the rest from a distance with RPGs.”
“What about the second convoy?”
“We’ll have to head them off ourselves down below. There’s no time to take out the roads along that route and they’ll be on our doorstep within the hour.” Duncan stepped a few feet over towards the stairwell that led down to the spillway. “Meet me below with a group of twenty men. I’ve got something in mind that may turn the tide in our favor.”
Chapter 32
Carlie wove the jeep along the narrow muddy roads for several miles until she made it back to a two-lane highway. Heading north, she floored it along the leaf-littered blacktop. Occasionally she would reach a high point in the road and see the looming snow-capped peak of Mount Hood near Fort Lewis in the distance but realized she still had three hours more to cover, if the roads were still accessible.
As she crested a ridge and descended, she saw a man walking with two small children a few miles up near an abandoned propane truck. Upon rounding the next bend they were gone. Carlie slowed the vehicle as she neared the derelict truck, searching the treeline for the three wanderers, but didn’t see any movement. She searched the ground instead for tracks. A set of bootprints accompanied by two sets of smaller tracks veered off into the woods to her right. She thought about driving on but the sight of the small children concerned her.
It was too risky to get out and try and find them and she had to get to Lewis. As she was about to step on the accelerator, she saw a young man emerge from behind a massive tree stump at her three o’clock. Beside him were two identical girls with long blonde hair, their faces streaked with dirt. The man held a Winchester rifle low at his side and then raised up one hand as he moved cautiously onto the road with the girls velcroed to his legs.
Carlie quickly scanned the woods to her left and the rearview mirror for any movement then stepped out of the jeep, her hand on her pistol. The two girls were shivering and the man looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
“I’m Jake,” he said, slinging his rifle. “And this is Anna and Arial. We could sure use some help, ma’am. Our ranch got attacked a few days ago and we’ve been on the run ever since.”
“Carlie—out of Fort Lewis.” She nodded over her shoulder. “You mean the place along the creek about twenty miles southwest of here?”
“Yes, ma’am. That was my grandparents’ home.”
“Sure sorry to hear about your loss. I just came from there after clearing out some rodents posing as men.”
She took off her jacket and handed it to Arial, who reluctantly stretched out her dainty hand but then quickly bundled up in it. Carlie walked back to the vehicle and grabbed a blanket for Anna. As Jake swaddled her in it, everyone stopped and tilted their heads to the left. The noise was faint but emanating from the horizon.
For Carlie, it was an all too familiar sound and one she hoped held promise. The low humming sound increased and she trained her eyes along the treetops to the east, searching for what had to be one of their helicopters.
She rushed back to the jeep and removed the binoculars from her pack. As the object came into view, its form glinting in the morning sun, she read the numbers off the side, confirming that it was one of their birds from Lewis. A huge smile beamed across her face. Then she realized that they were just a speck on the ground. The skies were too overcast to use the signal mirror from her survival kit. She glanced back at the capsized truck and then at the jeep.
“Alright, we don’t have a lot of time. I need you all to hop in the vehicle. I’ve got to draw them to us before they’re out of range.”
“What makes you think they’ll stop?” said Jake as he helped each girl crawl into the back seats.
“Oh, they better—no one likes to be on the receiving end of my wrath,” she said with a smile as she removed the spare gas tank from the rear. “Or so I’m told.” Carlie removed the spout and splashed fluid around the old truck. Then she hopped into the vehicle next to Jake and took off. The Blackhawk was nearly out of sight.
Coming to a screeching halt two hundred yards away, she leapt out with her M4. Kneeling, she res
ted the scoped rifle on the rear bumper and took aim at the bulbous tanker on the back of the truck. Hope there’s a trickle of propane left in there still. Unconsciously she steadied her breathing and squeezed the trigger. The tanker ignited as a small mushroom cloud of orange roiled skyward.
Chapter 33
“Over there.” Jared pointed to a flaming sliver that had shot up through the forest three miles distant. The snakelike tongue of orange disappeared as quickly as it emerged.
Shane tapped the helo pilot on the shoulder and pointed to the location. In seconds they moved along the forest until they saw the slice of road below and a flaming vehicle.
A short distance away was a green jeep with two occupants waving their arms and jumping. “Take us down,” yelled Shane, straining to make out the form of the woman on the left.
The pilot swung hard to the right and zoomed in towards a dip in the highway that was free of trees, fifty yards to the other side of the jeep. As they flew over, Shane saw Carlie below and felt his heart punching through his chest.
“Let’s go—let’s go, set it down,” he yelled at the pilot above the rotor wash. He was out the door just before touchdown.
Chapter 34
With guidance from Darcy and a few of her group, Eliza, Matias, and their team were inserted via helicopter on a ridgeline two hundred yards away from Highway 155. They trotted down to a low outcropping of boulders and set up their spotting equipment along with unloading a crate of RPG-7 rocket launchers and several Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles. The highway below passed through a narrow valley before crossing over the two-thousand-foot-long section of road that went over Osborn Bay Lake.
Matias lay down on the snow-encrusted ground and adjusted the sights on the spotting scope. Eliza squatted next to him, preparing an RPG.
“I’d say that taking out the cluster of boulders above the road where it meets land would effectively seal off their passage but it would be even better if we can take them out at the center point of the road before that,” he said.
“Doesn’t look like we’re gonna have much time to decide on an alternate plan,” Eliza said, pointing to the approaching convoy coming from her left, six miles distant.
“Alright, here are my thoughts,” he said. “We take out a few of the lead and also rear trucks once they get onto the narrow portion of the highway over the water. That should bring them to a standstill. Then our snipers start dispatching any stragglers. We’ll save the chokepoint by the boulders as a secondary location in case Plan A doesn’t work out. Once they’re past the chokepoint, they’re out of our reach so let’s make this work the first time around.”
He sat up on one knee and reached for an RPG. He positioned himself several feet away from Eliza while two more of their men gathered on her left in a similar placement with their rocket launchers poised. The remaining members of their team had set up with the Barretts.
“Wait for my signal,” said Matias. “I’ll take the lead truck.” He squinted through his sights to line up the crosshairs on a chipped segment of the highway then he peered back to his left to check on the progress of the convoy that was fast approaching.
As the first semi-truck rolled along the highway over the lake, Matias held his finger steady on the trigger. “Wait for it.” With sixteen of the twenty-three trucks now on the two-lane road, he squinted and took aim on the engine block of the lead semi. “Now!” In unison the rockets roared from their chambers and sped like yellow meteors over the low scrub then along the water’s surface, impacting their targets in a fiery explosion. All four trucks were engulfed, their occupants incinerated instantly while the cargo sections at the rear buckled and gave way. In minutes hundreds of undead began pouring out of the sides towards the other vehicles whose frantic occupants were scrambling to drive out in reverse or plow past the flaming wreckages. The snipers beside Eliza went to work, their powerful .50 caliber barrels cracking the crisp air as drivers were dispatched. The remaining vehicles saw convicts bursting from the doors and diving into the frigid waters or running along the highway from the direction they had come.
Eliza dropped her spent rocket launcher and retrieved a sniper rifle, methodically removing lone convicts staggering along the road.
Darcy moved beside her and knelt down, her face taut. “Those men are on the run—they’ve given up the fight. It’s over.”
“Anyone aligned with the prison and with Mitchell is inhuman—far worse than the flesh-eaters. They have no place in our world as far as I’m concerned,” said Eliza.
“You can’t just massacre those guys,” murmured a young man from the rear of Darcy’s group.
“Look, these convicts are like roaches, scattering when you put the kitchen lights on in some abandoned house. They’ll just rear their heads again when they butcher and rape others. That’s not a price anyone should have to pay for our lack of follow-through in this moment.”
Darcy and the others stared at Eliza for a moment, realizing she was right but not wanting to follow through on such outright slaughter of their own kind. They had survived in their isolated encampment largely through avoidance with the outside world and trying to erase the horrors of the early days of the pandemic.
Eliza leaned back and clutched the older woman’s wrist. “These men will stumble across you and your group one day—maybe not at your camp but on a run to town for supplies or on a hunting trip. And then all you’ve struggled for will be lost. Now is the time to end this.” Eliza’s face was resolute and her eyes unwavering. From Carlie and her other mentors she had learned to be a skilled fighter but her past experiences surviving in this new world had taught her to be a ruthless killer when the situation demanded it. Eliza realized in that moment that she could never be content residing in Darcy’s encampment however idyllic her memories had become of the place. It seemed like life would always involve fighting to protect what was yours and making the hard decisions while being willing to pull up others along the way who didn’t want to bare their own claws. She returned her attention to her scope and began firing off timely rounds into the panicked thugs below, executing her actions without hesitation or remorse.
Chapter 35
Carlie saw the helo fly overhead and set down out of sight in front of them. She was certain she had seen Shane lurching over the side. She floored the jeep and sped up the road to the Blackhawk. Upon jumping out of the vehicle, she ran to the side of the helo, the sound of rotor wash fading away in her ears as her heart pushed all of her senses into a narrow beam directed at Shane. The only eyes she noticed were his. She could’ve thrown her arms around his neck and kissed him. Amid the frightful reality they were all facing on this day of battle and the constant danger, she could have. The gray world around her washed away briefly and it was him—only Shane before her.
“I thought I lost you,” he said, hugging her as he pulled Carlie into his arms, oblivious of the others, and pressed his lips against hers.
She grabbed his jacket, returning the gesture, her heart racing and her face flushing red. “I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered in between kisses then pulled back as if to make sure he was really there. She brushed the back of her hand across his cheek.
He smiled and pulled her back into his embrace. “I don’t think I’m gonna let you out of my sight ever again. I’m going to see to it that you get switched over to my team.”
She held her head up and grinned. “Bullshit—you’re getting re-assigned to mine.” They both laughed and lowered their arms, cognizant of the beaming faces from the rest of the group hanging out of the cabin door.
Jared clapped his hands together one time to get their attention then pointed to the north. “Epic battle at the dam, remember.”
Carlie looked at him then at Shane as her mind refocused. “We can’t go to the dam—we need to head to Lewis instead. There’s a group of Mitchell’s troops headed there. He’s got some op involving the mutants.” She grabbed his hand and motioned to Jake and the twins to get on board while
doing a hasty introduction of the new members. “Let’s head straight back to base,” Carlie said. “We can compare notes on the way. We’ve also got a convoy of semi-trucks to intercept that are loaded with Mitchell’s troops.”
Chapter 36
The east exit gate at Fort Lewis slid back on its bearings as the fuel truck, ambulance, and two more trucks moved into the central compound, heading to the delivery bay near A-Wing. Mitchell watched their entrance on the laptop and waited for the trucks to come to a halt under the massive Quonset hut.
He waited a few minutes for the drivers to disperse and then motioned his men to open the hatch while he moved up alongside the mutants. The drugs in Mitchell’s system were already stoking his heartrate and he felt his hands trembling from the combination of stimulants and the excitement of what was about to unfold. He activated the shock collars on each mutant and then shoved their inert bodies to the hatch where his men retrieved them, lowering the glistening figures onto the pavement below. When the fuel tank was empty of creatures, Mitchell withdrew and squatted down beside the cluster of twitchy figures. He reached into his pack and pulled out a dozen Epinephrine pens and then stabbed each mutant with a large dose in the side of their quadriceps. He scurried back and flipped on the remote control device, his fingers ready to depress the shock button. Almost on cue, each mutant’s milky eyes fully sprung open and they began rising, their limbs pulsing with the adrenaline bursting through their systems.
As they started to move towards his men, Mitchell depressed the remote control, providing a slight shock to keep their rage contained. Their hissing and violent muscle spasms from the drug were barely kept beneath the surface and he knew they had to initiate their plan now. Mitchell removed the AK-47 from his back and racked the slide then grabbed Deacon by the collar and pulled him close. “You take this tanker and ram it right into the helo bay. That will draw everyone out of the buildings. After you jump out before impact, rejoin my team in A-Wing—that’s where Lavine and the communications center are located.”
